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us-news/2024/dec/10/malibu-franklin-wildfire-pepperdine-evacuation | As a wildfire erupted, Malibu was told to evacuate. Why were students at Pepperdine told to stay put? | As thousands of residents fled a roaring wildfire ripping through Malibu’s mountainsides on Monday, Pepperdine University students stayed put. Howling winds spit embers into the trees of the Christian college’s picturesque campus and the skies cast an ominous orange-and-red haze as students gathered in two buildings in the center of campus. It’s a strategy that has long served the college, which is nestled into a fire-prone area in the foothills overlooking the Pacific. For years, administrators have instructed students not to leave the sprawling 830-acre school, even when mandatory evacuation orders are issued for the surrounding community. “The plans we have in place are based on a lot of experience in this area,” Pepperdine spokesperson Micheal Friel told KTLA, a local news station, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Friel explained that students were hunkered down in two buildings at the center of campus while LA county fire department engines stationed at the school battled the encroaching flames. Aircraft also dipped into a lake on the grounds to fight the fire from above. “We are protecting our students – that’s first and foremost our top priority.” Escape routes from the school would require quick navigation of winding canyon roads that can become chaotic and congested during evacuations. In previous fires, traffic jams slowed egress to a crawl, and some spent hours trying to leave the area. Instead, the school has invested in fire-proofing its buildings and landscaping rather than encouraging the roughly 7,600 students, many without vehicles, to enter the fray. “Pepperdine University’s Malibu campus is designed with fire safety in mind, including defensible space and fire-resistant materials,” Gash added. “Regular drills and active communication channels ensure the safety of the community during emergencies.” Inhalers and N95 masks are on hand in campus medical centers, and an administrative building is equipped with generators and emergency communications equipment. Steel-framed structures are decorated in glass and ceramic or covered in stucco and shaped to limit embers from reaching into eaves. The school also boasts annual brush clearing of at least 200ft (61 metres) from campus buildings and extending firebreaks, and collaborates with the Los Angeles county fire department to ensure plans are safe. That’s why, school officials claim, they maintain “a strong presence on campus during a fire”. The strategy hasn’t always gone without criticism, including in the aftermath of the devastating Woolsey blaze in 2018. During the fire – which left more than 1,600 structures destroyed and three people dead – there was confusion among emergency officials about whether students should ignore the mandatory evacuation orders issued for others living in the area. Nearby residents accused the school of using the policy to keep county firefighting resources close. Daryl Osby, then the LA county fire chief, said at the time there had been “some failures of communication”. Ultimately, though, he agreed that sheltering in place had been the right plan for Pepperdine. School officials have strongly disputed the accusations of residents, arguing that the tactic is what best serves their student community. So far, it’s worked well. “There has been little damage to campus structures and no reports of injuries among students, faculty, or staff,” Pepperdine’s president and CEO Jim Gash said in a written statement issued by the school on Tuesday. Asked to comment on the shelter-in-place policy on Tuesday, school officials pointed to an official statement emphasizing Pepperdine’s fire-safety design, which relies on defensible space and building with fire-resistant materials, and regular drills that keep the campus safe. Pepperdine is no stranger to fire dangers, grappling with incidents at least five times in the last three decades, and at this point the plan is well-practiced. When the Franklin fire ignited just before 11pm local time on Monday night, Pepperdine initiated a command center on campus and called its emergency operations committee, according to Gash. Students and school residents were called on to gather at the Payson library and Tyler campus center. Videos and photos show the windows of the library shrouded in smoke with flames that can be seen licking the surrounding slopes. “It’s scary being this close to a wildfire, especially with the high winds we are experiencing – you know it can change at any minute,” Pepperdine University journalism student Gabrielle Salgado said during a local news report from inside the library at about 1am. The fire, which had raced across more than 2,200 acres (890 hectares) by Tuesday morning, would claim nearby homes but an official tally of the destruction has not yet been released. The school, meanwhile, lifted its shelter-in-place order. Just hours after the sun rose, the danger, officials said, had passed. Classes were canceled and finals postponed, as Gash emphasized that the school continues to focus on student well-being. “The safety and security of our students, faculty and staff remain our highest priorities,” he said. “We will do everything in our power to continue to support them in the days ahead.” | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-universities', 'us-news/los-angeles', 'weather/losangeles', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/west-coast', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'us-news/us-wildfires', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | us-news/us-wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-12-10T23:50:52Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2016/apr/17/wangan-and-jagalingou-indigenous-group-approves-adani-carmichael-mine | Acrimony and legal threat as Indigenous group approves Adani mine | Traditional land owners have voted in favour of allowing a coalmine to be opened by Adani in central Queensland, but some from the Indigenous group have labelled the vote a sham. More than 300 people attended the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) meeting on Saturday where Adani said members “voted overwhelmingly” to authorise an Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) with the miners for the construction and operation of the Carmichael mine, west of Mackay. “The company has worked positively and constructively with elected leaders within W&J over several years to ensure that the company’s mine at Carmichael not only proceeds, but proceeds with the benefits of the mine being realised by traditional owners at every stage of the project,” the mining company said in a statement. But there are competing interests in the W&J claim group, which acts similarly to an electorate made up of 12 families, which have complicated the company’s ability to secure an ILUA. On Saturday an investigation by Guardian Australia revealed details of the payments and other financial dealings by Adani and its advocates in the W&J in their bid to overcome four years of resistance to the Carmichael mine. The payments had not been not detailed to the broader W&J group, despite rules set down last year by that any “monetary benefits” be reported and held in trust. They have become a flashpoint in a dispute over who legitimately speaks for traditional owners who had repeatedly rejected the mine. Adani has denied any wrongdoing. It is understood that the seven applicants who supported Adani have been paid collectively at least $10,500, on top of travel and accommodation costs, to attend meetings with the company this year. They are Irene White, Patrick Malone, Les Tilley, Norman Johnson Jr, Craig Dallen, Priscilla Gyemore and Gwendoline Fisher. Malone and Gallen confirmed to Guardian Australia that they had received sitting fee payments. After the five anti-Adani applicants complained about the undisclosed payments, the seven paid by Adani reported the payments to to the group’s native title lawyers, who were satisfied with the disclosure. Adani formally gained the support of a majority of the 12-person W&J native title applicant group for the first time in January. It said Saturday’s vote to endorse an Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) by the broader W&J group was properly convened and independently chaired in accordance with statutory process. However the anti-Adani group, Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council, has released a statement describing it as a “sham meeting which has engineered a sham outcome”. Spokesman Adrian Burragubba said the council would challenge “Adani’s phoney land use deal” in the federal court. “Just last month the W&J claim group met of our own accord and said ‘no’ to Adani,” he said. “We made it clear that Saturday’s meeting is not a legitimate meeting of the claim group and the resolution to approve Adani’s deal is not legitimate either.” The council has also accused the Indian mining giant of bankrolling a “bogus” land use agreement. Australian Associated Press contributed to this report | ['australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/mining', 'business/mining', 'business/adani-group', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2016-04-17T02:12:02Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2010/aug/09/floods-mudslides-drought-extreme-weather | Floods and mudslides on three continents, as drought hits Africa | Regions across the world have been buffeted by extremes of weather, drought and floods. Sometimes an area is hit by one extreme, followed soon after by another, Niger being a case in point. In the case of floods in Pakistan, the Met Office says high pressure over Russia has forced the jet stream much further south than usual this year and this pattern has remained almost stationary over recent weeks. Therefore low pressure has been sitting over Pakistan longer than normal, intensifying the monsoon rains. "The extremes of rainfall are getting heavier and are entirely consistent with climate change predictions," said Helen Chivers, a spokeswoman with the Met Office. Asia In China rescuers used shovels and bare hands as they struggled today to save survivors of a major mudslide in the north-west, where blocked roads hindered vehicles trying to reach the disaster scene. At least 337 people were killed and 90 injured when landslides and flood waters engulfed Zhouqu county in Gansu province late on Saturday night. But with more than 1,100 people still missing, the death toll is likely to grow. Flooding across many provinces has killed more than 1,450 people this year and forced 12 million to flee their homes, but the Zhouqu landslide is the worst single incident. Experts had warned of the dangers of soil erosion in the area, known to be prone to mudslides. In spring south-western China was hit by drought, described as the worst in a century. In June south-east China, which had also endured drought, was hit by devastating floods. Southern China experiences flooding almost every summer, but the Beijing climate centre says extreme weather events have increased in recent years, with longer droughts and rain falling in more intense and damaging bursts. Pakistan's floods were caused by monsoon rains, described as the worst since 1929. The Pakistan meteorological department said that at one point 12 inches (300mm) of rain fell over a 36-hour period. Water levels in the river Indus, which cuts down the middle of Pakistan and has most of the population huddled around it, are said to be the highest in 110 years. The torrents, having ravaged the north-west, are now gushing deeper into Pakistan. The authorities have evacuated people living alongside expanding rivers as forecasts predicted further heavy rain that could worsen the country's flood crisis. The UN has raised its forecast of the number of people affected to six million and said the scale of the crisis was similar to the 2005 earthquake that hit northern Pakistan. About 1,600 people have died in the floods. Africa A severe drought is causing increasing hunger across the Eastern Sahel in west Africa, affecting 10 million people in four countries. In Niger, the worst-affected country, 7.1 million are hungry, with nearly half considered highly food insecure because of the loss of livestock and crops coupled with a surge in prices. Last year exceptionally heavy rainfall destroyed crops and devastated this year's harvest in the region. The resulting fall in production in staples like maize, millet and sorghum has affected much of West Africa's Sahel – fragile in the best of times – including neighbouring Chad and northern Nigeria. Latin America In April floods and mudslides struck the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after the heaviest downpours in four decades, leaving at least 212 people dead. The favelas, the shanty towns built on the hillsides of the city of Rio de Janeiro, were badly hit. Floods struck again in June, this time in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, over 1,200 miles north-east of Rio de Janeiro. At least 1,000 people were unaccounted for. Europe Southern Poland suffered its worst flooding in decades in May after heavy rains engorged rivers sending torrents of water through Bogatynia in south-west Poland and Görlitz in eastern Germany. The UK experienced the driest first six months of the year since 1929, which led to the imposition of a hosepipe ban covering 6.5 million people in north-west England. Russia experienced generally dry and hot weather starting around late May. Temperatures of 35C (95F) first occurred after 12 June, which alone was abnormal for the country, as average mid-June temperatures seldom rise above 30C ). Moscow and St Petersburg both recorded temperatures as high as 42C on 3, 4 and 5 July. Average temperatures in the region increased to over 35C. In early August, President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions as firefighters struggled to contain about 600 blazes covering an estimated 309,000 acres (125,000 hectares). | ['world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'world/wildfires', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/marktran', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-08-09T22:21:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
society/2018/jun/08/not-feeling-quite-so-blue-peter-val-et-al | Not feeling quite so blue, Peter, Val et al | Brief letters | In her list of causes or triggers for depression, Juliette Jowit (The briefing, 4 June) mentions “taking drugs including cannabis, ecstasy and heroin”. Alcohol should be added to this list. RF Gunstone Rugby, Warwickshire • Richard Willmott (Letters, 7 June) thinks that there could have been a connection between Wilson’s resignation and the Thorpe case. Those who were my A-level students at the time could easily refute this. A close friend of Harold’s told me in September 1975 that Harold would retire on 16 March 1976. I passed this on to my students and when the resignation was announced my reputation as a teacher was enlarged. No surprise resignation, and no connection with Thorpe. Harry Galbraith Peel, Isle of Man • Plastic debris would be a surer sign of “intelligent” life on Mars than complex organic matter (Mars rover finds sign of life … from 3bn years ago, 8 June). Harold Mozley York • We don’t know how old David Palmer’s car is (Letters, 7 June) but could the extreme rake of modern windscreens have the effect of reducing the insect strike? Peter Wood Kendal, Cumbria • So they can’t find Henry I’s remains in Reading Abbey (Reading Abbey reopens, but there’s still no sign of Henry I, 8 June). Have they tried looking in the car park? John Gill Park West, Wirral • Just as I was feeling downhearted, you publish the glorious picture of former Blue Peter presenters (7 June). Thank you. Jean Jackson Seer Green, Buckinghamshire | ['society/drugs', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'society/society', 'society/alcohol', 'politics/harold-wilson', 'politics/politics', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'uk/monarchy', 'uk/uk', 'tv-and-radio/childrens-tv', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-06-08T15:34:30Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2014/jul/15/plastic-bag-use-rises-for-fourth-year | Plastic bag use rises for fourth year | The number of plastic bags given out in UK supermarkets has risen for the fourth year running, to 8.3bn bags a year, official figures show. The rising consumption comes ahead of a 5p charge in England that will be introduced in 2015 after the general election, and a 5p charge in Scotland due to come into force this autumn. Retailers in Wales reported reductions in such "single use" bags of up to 96% following the successful implementation of a 5p charge there in 2011 that goes to charities including Keep Wales Tidy and the RSPB. Data published on Tuesday by the government's waste programme, Wrap, shows an increase of 3% in the number of bags given away at supermarkets between 2012 and 2013. Dr Sue Kinsey, a spokeswoman for the Break the Bag Habit campaign, whose members include Keep Britain Tidy, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and the Marine Conservation Society, said: "The 8.3bn figure is boggling. But much worse is realising that it only reflects the bags given out at some supermarkets – the real figure on bag usage will be much higher. This is why an effective charging system is so important and why the government needs to ensure that small retailers and paper bags are included within the [bag charge] scheme in England." The association that represents most of the big retailers, the British Retail Consortium, described the increase as small and said that the "way we shop, more frequently topping up our shopping to add to our larger weekly shops means more shopping trips and more bags." But 8.3bn bags still marks a significant reduction from the more than 12bn used in 2006. The number of bags given away fell for several years in a row after 2006 following a voluntary agreement by retailers to cut their use, media campaigns against plastic bags and a popular movement that saw some towns, such as Modbury in Devon, go plastic bag-free. The bag charge due to come into force in England next year has been criticised by MPs for an exemption that means small shops will not have to apply the 5p charge. Alice Ellison, the BRC's environment policy adviser, said: “The reductions in Wales and Northern Ireland indicate that legislation can trigger significant reductions in carrier bag use. However, the proposed regulations in England are unnecessarily complex and offer too many exemptions. As drafted they will not deliver the same environmental impact as the rest of the UK and need the government to accept that the best way is a simple scheme which is consistent and easily understood by everyone." Jim Griffiths, minister for natural resources in Wales, said: “People in Wales have adapted extremely well to our 5p carrier bag charge which was introduced in October 2011 and supermarkets across Wales are full of people reusing shopping bags. These latest figures show that consumption of carrier bag use in Wales has reduced by 79% since 2010, and this really is an excellent result, however there is no room for complacency." | ['environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-07-15T09:01:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2019/jun/19/hmrc-targets-fraudsters-taking-billions-in-renewable-energy-vat-certificates | HMRC cracks down on gangs over renewable energy VAT fraud | Criminal gangs are targeting the renewable energy industry in the latest wave of VAT fraud that has been blamed for draining billions of euros from the EU every year. HM Revenue & Customs said it had cracked down on the trading of renewable energy certificates “with immediate effect” to counter “a serious and credible threat to the VAT system”. The emergency action came into force last week, without notice, to avoid tipping off the criminal gangs and prevent substantial VAT losses for the UK, it added. The fraudsters are understood to be charging VAT on the sale of renewable energy “certificates of origin”, which they siphon off rather than pass on to HMRC. The certificates are typically issued by renewable energy developers to energy suppliers as a guarantee that the electricity has come from a specific project. However, they are also bought and sold by traders as a commodity, which, said HMRC, opens up an “opportunity for fraud”. According to Richard Asquith of the tax expert Avalara, HMRC may have had inside information on recent fraud in the sector before taking action without a consultation, which he said was usual practice in urgent cases. Asquith said the so-called “missing trader” fraud has been rampant in the UK in recent years. The fraud is is estimated to cost EU states a total of €150bn (£133bn) a year in lost VAT revenue. In the past, criminal gangs have targeted computer chips, mobile phones and precious metals. Fraudsters have also infiltrated the UK’s carbon credit market and the wholesale electricity trading. HMRC described the scam as “a highly sophisticated and well-organised criminal attack on the VAT system”, adding that it will force all trading of renewable energy certificates to use a “reverse charge”, which means the buyer is liable to account for the VAT rather than the seller. “This removes the opportunity for the VAT to be stolen,” HMRC said. It is the third time VAT fraudsters have targeted “green trading” in recent years after a €5bn EU-wide carbon trading fraud in 2009. The scam re-emerged in 2014, targeting gas and electricity wholesale traders. Three Britons, two Germans and a French national were given prison terms of three to seven years for their role in a €3m carbon credit VAT scam. The fraud occurs when carbon credits are bought and imported tax-free from other EU countries, then sold to domestic buyers, who are charged VAT. Once the transactions are complete, the sellers “disappear” without paying the VAT to HMRC. One of those convicted, Mohsin Salya, from Preston, is understood to have used a Dubai-based company to carry out the fraud. He also owns a string of luxury flats in the United Arab Emirates which many believe has replaced the “Costa del Crime” in Spain as the place criminals conceal and invest the proceeds of carousel fraud. The Observer reported last year that fraudsters involved in scams costing the Treasury almost £100m had bought a string of luxury flats in Dubai. The carbon fraud convictions followed the sentencing of 15 people in 2014 for one of the most complex mobile phone tax frauds uncovered. The scam sought to reclaim £176m in VAT from HMRC. HMRC’s most recent move to halt VAT fraud by bringing in reverse charges was in 2016 to guard against fraudsters making use of telecoms services. | ['politics/hmrc', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'politics/taxandspending', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-06-19T19:12:26Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/aug/02/heatwaves-amplify-near-record-levels-of-ice-melt-in-northern-hemisphere | Heatwaves amplify near-record levels of ice melt in northern hemisphere | The frozen extremities of the northern hemisphere are melting at a near-record rate as heatwaves buffet the Arctic, forest fires tear through Siberia and glaciers retreat on Greenland fjords and Alpine peaks. Unusually high temperatures are eating into ice sheets that used to be solid throughout the year, according to glaciologists, who warn this is both an amplifying cause and effect of man-made climate disruption across the globe. Greenland – which is home to the world’s second biggest ice sheet – is likely to have shrunk more in the past month than the average for a whole year between 2002 and now, according to provisional estimates from satellite data. Surface ice declined in July by 197 gigatonnes, equivalent to about 80m Olympic swimming pools, according to Ruth Mottram of the Danish Meteorological Institute. An additional third of that amount is likely to have been lost from glaciers and icebergs. The trend is accelerating. Wednesday was by far the biggest single-day melt-off of the year. “This was one of the highest ever and it is possible today [Thursday] will be even bigger because the heatwave is continuing,” said Mottram. With more than a month of the melt season to go, 2019 is already one of the top 10 years for ice loss in Greenland. The extent is thought unlikely to beat the record in 2012, but Luke Trusel, an assistant professor of geography at Penn State university, said the strength of the melt was greater. Temperatures have been 10C or more above normal this week. Even at the summit of the ice sheet – which is 3,200 metres above sea level – there were 10 hours at or above freezing temperatures yesterday, which is extremely rare, he said. More broadly, ice core analysis has shown that the runoff is at levels expected only once every century, possibly even every millennium. “What was highly unusual in the recent past is becoming the new normal. The Arctic is far more sensitive to warming now than even a few decades ago,” Trusel said. The impact on sea level has not yet been calculated, but the high temperatures are likely to accelerate the calving of the giant Petermann glacier, where at least two huge cracks have been identified in recent years. Giant chunks of ice – each several kilometres in length – are expected to collapse into the ocean in the next few years. The Russian government has belatedly declared a state of emergency in four Siberian regions and reportedly sent troops to help extinguish forest fires that have ripped across an area the size of Belgium. This follows record-high temperatures in several locations. Last weekend, Norway registered its joint hottest day ever. More than 20 areas in the north of the country have recently experienced “tropical nights”, with temperatures above 20C from dusk until dawn. In the Canadian Arctic, which is warming two times faster than the global average, locals have suffered record wildfires, and permafrost is melting decades ahead of predictions. Last month, the far northern community of Alert, Nunavut, registered a record-high of 21C, which a local meteorologist said it had never been seen that close to the pole. European mountains have been affected too. Authorities have warned that the slopes below the Matterhorn’s 4,480-metre peak are increasingly prone to avalanches and landslides because the ice-core is warming. High-altitude lakes of meltwater have also been reported in the Mont Blanc mountain range in France. In Switzerland, the threat to alpine glaciers has been so alarming that more regions are using giant fleece blankets to try to insulate the ice from the hot air. Even so, the country’s glaciers lost about 0.8bn tons of snow and ice during the two recent heatwaves, according to glaciologist Matthias Huss. “Absolutely exceptional for a period of only 14 days in total!” Huss said on Twitter. “And the summer is not yet over.” | ['environment/glaciers', 'world/greenland', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/russia', 'world/switzerland', 'environment/poles', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-08-02T06:00:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
lifeandstyle/2018/jun/27/manchester-makes-a-beeline-for-new-dutch-style-cycling-network | Manchester makes a Beeline for new Dutch-style cycling network | A thousand miles of safe cycling and walking routes are to be created in Greater Manchester after an Olympic gold medallist persuaded town hall bosses to spend as much on cyclists and pedestrians as Amsterdam and other cycling nirvanas. The network – named Beelines, in homage to Manchester’s civic symbol of the worker bee – includes 75 miles of Dutch-style segregated lanes and will be the largest joined-up network in the UK. The plans, published on Wednesday, have a combined cost of around £500m and represent a first step in £1.5bn planned investment. Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester’s mayor, has allocated £160m of the government’s Transforming Cities fund to the project’s first four years, bringing the total spend on cycling and walking in Greater Manchester to around £15 per head. This funding is at the levels seen in cycling Meccas such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam and higher than in any other UK city, according to Chris Boardman, the region’s walking and cycling commissioner. Boardman, who won gold at the 1992 Olympics and wore the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France, is also lobbying the government to allow him to change traffic lights to give cyclists and pedestrians more time and priority to cross busy junctions safely. He said he was “absolutely unapologetic” that his plans would take space away from cars and could make motor journeys slower in what is already a traffic-snarled region. “If you want to make people change their habits you’ve got to give them a viable alternative and in some cases that’s reprioritising streets and that’s what we are doing,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “We’ve given way too much priority to the vociferous minority,” said Boardman, referencing motorists. “We’ve wrongly prioritised road space.” Studies in New York found that 80% of people on roads were pedestrians on the pavement, which “gave engineers the courage to change street design” he said. Once built, the Beeline network will better connect every community in Greater Manchester, opening up almost 90% of the city-region, said Boardman. He said a Beeline sign would indicate that “a competent 12-year-old”, the proxy he uses to indicate a vulnerable road user, would be safe. “You’ll feel comfortable if you follow this sign. If it’s on a major road it will be segregated, if it’s on a minor road it won’t be,” he said. Since his appointment last year, Boardman and his team have worked with each of Greater Manchester’s 10 combined authorities on the plans. Each borough has been allowed to choose one key route where segregated lanes will appear over the next six years, with most opting for a busy road into Manchester itself. The proposals, which are subject to formal approval by Greater Manchester combined authority on Friday, also includes plans for 1,400 safe crossings that will facilitate the majority of routes and 25 “filtered neighbourhoods”, where the priority is given to the movement of people and where spaces to sit, play and socialise are created. Around 250 million car journeys of less than 1km (0.6 miles) are made per year in Greater Manchester; the equivalent of a 15-minute walk or a five-minute bike ride. A large proportion of those trips are school runs. In the Netherlands, 50% of children bike to school every day. In Greater Manchester the proportion is less than 2%. A study earlier this month found that dangerous levels of air pollution costs Greater Manchester £1bn every year. Burnham, said: “Greater Manchester has a long history of doing innovative things and our approach to Beelines is no different. This proposal is bold and I make no apology for that. If we are to cut congestion and clean up our air, decisive action is needed. I want to make Greater Manchester one of the top 10 places in the world to live and it is action of this sort which will help to deliver that promise.” | ['lifeandstyle/cycling', 'uk/manchester', 'environment/pollution', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'uk/uk', 'uk/greater-manchester', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenpidd', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-06-26T23:01:23Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2017/aug/23/samsung-launches-galaxy-note-8-fires-note-7-dual-cameras-infinity-screen-gif | Samsung launches Galaxy Note 8 hoping to extinguish Note 7 memories | The new Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the most important big smartphone in the company’s history, is launching in New York today, hoping to right the wrongs of last year’s “exploding” Note 7 and tempt people away from rivals with a new dual-camera system and massive “infinity display”. The Note 8 looks to rekindle Samsung’s dominance of the so-called “phablet” category, which the company invented with 2011’s original Galaxy Note, featuring the same winning formula that made its predecessors a success until the Note 7 debacle: big screen, big specs, long battery life and an advanced stylus to “get things done”. The Note 8 runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat, has a 6.3in quad HD+ infinity display with a similar minimal-bezel design to that of the Galaxy S8+, dual 12-megapixel cameras on the back and plenty of biometric security options to choose from, including a fingerprint scanner, iris scanner and facial recognition. DJ Koh, president of Samsung mobile, said: “We appreciate the relentless passion of the Note community. They’ve been a constant inspiration to us and we designed the new Note for them. From the Infinity Display to the smarter S Pen and the most powerful Dual Camera, the Galaxy Note 8 lets people do things they never thought were possible.” But the Note 8’s biggest challenge is to displace the memories of the Note 7 that ended in a wholesale recall, leaving fans disappointed and would-be buyers wary of a repeat performance. Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, said: “It’s a testament to Samsung’s stubbornness and determination that the launch of the Note 8 cements its position as the leading Android smartphone maker, drawing a clear line under the Note 7 problems.” Samsung had a similar problem with the well-received Galaxy S8 line of devices, which were the first top-end devices to be launched by the company after the Note 7’s failure. At the time it trumpeted a new eight-point battery safety check and a recommitment to extensive quality control to try and help alleviate buyers’ worries. With the Note 8, Samsung is pushing independent safety testing firm UL International as its quality assurance step. Sajeev Jesudas, president of UL International, said that the Note 8 passed a “rigorous series of device and battery safety compatibility test protocols”. The Note 8 has a display that is 0.1in bigger than the already large-screened Galaxy S8+, but also has a slightly less rounded profile, which makes using the stylus easier on the curved edges of the screen. The stylus slots in the bottom when not in use and features a collection of productivity tools that launch when pulled out, from drawing on the screen and instant translation to animated gif and emoji creation. The Note 8 also supports the company’s DeX accessory that turns the smartphone into a computer with monitor, keyboard and mouse support, and multi-tasking using two apps side-by-side on the smartphone. Two is better than one Arguably more important for Samsung is the company’s introduction of its first dual-camera system on the Note 8. Where rivals such as LG, Huawei and recently Apple, have equipped various smartphones with two cameras on the back that work in conjunction to produce better photos, Samsung has stuck to a single camera solution until now. The Note 8 has two 12-megapixel cameras on the back, one with a telephoto-like two-times zoom and the other with a more traditional wide-angle lens. Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus uses a similar system, but Samsung’s dual camera system is the first to use optical image stabilisation for both cameras on the back, which is designed to remove blur and camera shake. Wood said: “Having image stabilisation on both lenses takes Samsung one step ahead of Apple, but at present there don’t appear to be any plans to support augmented reality features – something we expect to feature prominently on the next iPhone.” It is Apple’s anticipated new iPhone, expected in September, that will be Samsung’s biggest challenge. The two companies have been fighting over the “floating voter” of smartphone buyers - the roughly 20% of owners who would ever consider switching platforms from Android to iOS and visa versa. Wood said: “By launching the Note 8 now, Samsung gets the oxygen of publicity ahead of Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone 8. Samsung will be hoping that a trio of competitive high-end products – the Note 8, S8 and S8+ – will appeal to anyone looking for a new Android phone. Furthermore, these devices are certainly good enough to turn the heads of a few iPhone owners who fancy a trying a different device.” The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will come have 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage with a microSD card slot for adding more, Bluetooth 5.0 and will come in black and gold in the UK, with grey and blue colour variants in other regions. It will cost £869 and is available for pre-order from today, shipping on 15 September. Samsung Galaxy S8 review: the future of smartphones Samsung’s ‘exploding’ Note 7 repackaged as Galaxy Note Fan Edition | ['technology/samsung', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/galaxy-note-7', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/technology', 'technology/android', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-08-23T15:00:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2012/may/23/tea-targeted-new-compost-scheme | Teabags targeted for new compost scheme | The UK consumes an astonishing 165 million cups of tea every day, but most of the teabags that go to making the nation's favourite hot drink still end up unnecessarily in landfill. Now manufacturing giant Unilever has teamed up with two Essex councils, Brentwood and Chelmsford, together with Wrap the government's advisory body on waste, to encourage people to compost their teabags with their food waste. Unilever UK is the manufacturer of tea brand PG Tips, while the group is the largest tea buyer in the world, buying about 12% of the world's tea supply of black tea. The pilot scheme is fronted by posters featuring Monkey, the mascot for PG tips, and aims to promote wider use of the councils' food waste recycling services while encouraging households to change their behaviour for the better. The campaign marks the first time that any of the parties have worked specifically to promote teabag recycling. Reducing waste is a key part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which includes a commitment to reduce the amount of waste the company sends to landfill by 50% within the next eight years. According to Wrap, tea is by far the largest element of unavoidable food waste produced in the UK, above items such as fruit peel and onion skins, accounting for around 370,000 tonnes of waste every year. Wrap also advises people to compost teabags even when they contain polypropylene – the heat-resistant sealant that is not fully bio-degradable. According to the UK Tea Council 66% of the British population drink tea every day, but most teabags are still disposed of in landfill bin. Nationally, Wrap says just over half of local authorities now offer food waste collections, while the UK now processes one million tonnes a year of food waste via anaerobic digestion. Weekly food waste collections were introduced by Chelmsford and Brentwood Councils in December 2011 in an effort to curb the amount of waste being sent to landfill, which costs authorities £64 per tonne in landfill tax. In Chelmsford, the council saved over £166,000 last year by reducing the amount of black bin waste by 2,600 tonnes compared to the previous year. Between December 2011 and March 2012, the new collection had already diverted 1,500 tonnes of food waste from landfill, with the amount being collected and recycled increasing month on month. Paul Sherratt, the global packaging and sustainability director at Unilever said: "To achieve our ambitious targets, we need to collaborate with organisations such as Wrap and forward-thinking councils such as Chelmsford and Brentwood in order to encourage consumers to recycle wherever they can. Only through such partnerships can we really begin to tackle such challenges." He added: "Unilever's teabags are mainly made from organic material so we believe that putting them in with the rest of the household food waste will be a small habit change that everyone can adopt." | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'business/unilever', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'environment/food', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/compost', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'type/article', 'profile/rebeccasmithers'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2012-05-23T13:59:27Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2021/jun/04/western-sydney-recycling-plant-smell-stench-eastern-creek-minchinbury-mt-druitt | Calls to close recycling plant as ‘repulsive smell’ pervades Sydney homes | A pervasive stench, likened to the smell of rotten eggs, is gripping suburbs across western Sydney, as local politicians call for the closure of a local recycling plant. More than 600 complaints have been made to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) from residents in Minchinbury, Mount Druitt, St Clair, Erskine Park, Horsley Park and Eastern Creek about the smell. The EPA traced the smell to a Bingo Industries recycling plant in Eastern Creek, and issued a clean-up notice on 23 April, after finding the gas hydrogen sulphide – known as “rotten egg gas”– was forming in the landfill. Locals have flooded the Bingo Industries Facebook page with comments complaining of the smell and the way it has affected their lives. “Close down your eastern creek sight [sic], the people of Minchinbury cannot stand it anymore,” Taner Kucuk wrote, “You are impacting people’s health and lifestyle. People are waking up with headaches, asthma issues and sore eyes because the toxic smell/particles released in the air from your Eastern Creek site.” “Repulsive smell in Minchinbury every single evening due to proven investigation has named Bingo Industries as the source. Just rectify the problem as it is impacting a lot of people in the area for a very long time.” Vesna Kutnjak also commented. Labor MP for Mount Druitt, Edmond Atalla said the stench had been “on and off” for the past year, and that it was affecting residents health and wellbeing. “The smell is inside their house, they can’t run anywhere, they can’t open windows to let it out, it’s everywhere. I’ve had residents saying that the smell is inside their house and wakes them up at 2am, and they can’t go back to sleep. It’s disrupted all their lives.” “If someone is standing next to you and releases some gas that has a bad smell, you’d run away. But they can’t run away inside their house, or go outside, the smell is everywhere.” “People are telling me their property has become devalued, no one wants to buy their properties because Michinbury has been tainted as an area with a bad odour.” “These people are trapped with that odour.” Atalla is calling for the facility to be shut down, and for the EPA to step in with regulatory action. “I’m disappointed in the EPA, for some unknown reason they are not taking any compliance action against Bingo.” “We are calling on the EPA to shut Bingo down, it’s the only way we’ll get some action. If you take the hard action and shut them down, it’s only then that they will be taking serious action and dealing with the issue.” Chris Gordon, the general manager of Bingo Industries, said Bingo had identified two potential sources of odour in the landfill – the leachate riser and vent pipe. He said the once-in-century rain event in March had increased “the potential for the production of odour”. “Bingo is acutely aware of the impact odour can have on local residents and industry, and we have apologised for any discomfort and inconvenience that may have been caused for local residents from odour emissions emanating from our Eastern Creek landfill facility in recent weeks.” “Most importantly, however, we have installed a gas collection and management system to manage the issue for the long-term.” “The system has already resulted in a significant improvement in odour emissions currently emanating from the site. These systems are routinely used on landfills throughout Australia and across the world for treatment of odour arising from landfill gas emissions.” Gordon said the company had “acted promptly” and spent in excess of $1.5m to address the issue. He argues that the measures taken were working, and the odour had been reduced. “Odour surveys throughout the local area continue to indicate minimal odour readings, indicating that Bingo’s gas management system is working as anticipated. Complaints have tapered significantly since the installation of our gas collection and management system.” A spokesperson for the EPA said it was treating the issue as a “top priority”. “EPA teams are conducting regular and unannounced odour patrols around the landfill and the local community at various times of the day and night. In excess of 30 odour surveys have been conducted.” The spokesperson said Bingo had installed a “gas extraction and flare system” in mid-May, which has allegedly reduced the smell. “Based on community reports and the EPA’s patrols, these measures are already providing some relief to residents. We will continue with our frequent odour patrols to check on the effectiveness of the measures taken to date and identify if further action is required.” The EPA had initially ordered the company to add 30cm of soil across the entire landfill, put new limits on the waste they accept, as well as charging them $577 for having to issue the notice. It also said Bingo was still under investigation. “The EPA is investigating potential breaches of legislation and licence requirements with a view to taking regulatory action as appropriate. Taking regulatory action, including issuing fines, requires the collection of evidence that may need to be presented to a court, so this process takes time.” | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/sydney', 'environment/environment', 'environment/landfill', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/mostafa-rachwani-', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-06-04T04:15:44Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2016/mar/07/finally-someone-at-edf-sees-the-18bn-farce-that-is-hinkley-point | Finally, someone at EDF sees the £18bn farce that is Hinkley Point | Hallelujah, at last somebody close to Hinkley Point farce can see that the £18bn nuclear adventure makes no sense. EDF’s finance director has quit rather than be associated with a project that – we must assume – he judges so financially risky that it could sink the French energy firm. Last week, the official line from the Anglo-French summit maintained that “major progress” was being made in getting Hinkley towards sign-off. The reality, we can now see, is that there has been a major row and EDF remains mired in confusion. The good news is that Thomas Piquemal’s resignation should oblige the governments of France and the UK to acknowledge the uncomfortable fact about Hinkley that, until now, they have preferred to brush away. It’s simple: EDF’s nuclear technology for Hinkley hasn’t been proven to work. Until it can be shown to be reliable, there will always be a material risk that the Somerset project becomes a disaster for both buyer and supplier. EDF is building two other reactors in Europe to the same European pressurised reactor (EPR) design and, instead of low-carbon nuclear power, both have produced only massive cost overruns. The plant in Finland is nine years late and the one in Flamanville in Normandy is four years behind schedule. EDF’s crisis flows from those flops and Piquemal’s analysis that the company can’t afford to double-down on its EPR bet is surely correct. As it is, the debt-laden firm’s share price has fallen 90% over the past decade and there are other calls on its capital and resources, not least France’s nuclear power stations, which require an expensive upgrade. The now ex-finance director wanted the investment decision on Hinkley to be delayed by three years, which would be wise from EDF’s point of view. The trouble is, the UK cannot afford yet more delays. Our crisis in energy generation will arrive in the mid-2020s and Hinkley, according to the official script, was supposed to do much more than merely produce 7% of the UK’s energy. The plant was also intended to help develop the infrastructure to support other companies’ new nuclear plants. If Hinkley were to be delayed by three years, the UK hasn’t got an energy policy worthy of the name. The latest saga should lead to a simple conclusion in Downing Street: EDF and its unreliable EPRs were always the wrong choice for the UK. Consider how many subsidies have already been promised to compensate for EDF’s weaknesses and the unproven nature of its EPR. EDF was given 10 years to build Hinkley and the UK guaranteed to buy its output at twice the current wholesale price for 35 years in an inflation-linked contract. This was almost case of pricing in the cost over-runs and delays before they had even happened, with UK consumers footing the bill. The best approach now would be to call the whole thing off. EDF chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy may continue to whistle cheerfully about Hinkley but his company looks to be only one more resignation away from capitulation. Abandonment would be politically embarrassing for chancellor George Osborne (remember last year’s grovel for Chinese cash to shore up the financing) but it would be far worse to let this show drag on. If the UK’s future is nuclear, there are alternative suppliers – from Japan, the US, and China – who have smaller models that can be built more quickly, but their willingness to commit capital won’t be encouraged by the sight of the current Hinkley shambles. If the future is non-nuclear, then get on with the job of making hard choices about the best infrastructure. Either way, the important thing for the UK is to have an energy policy that doesn’t rely on paying top-dollar to an over-stretched supplier that hasn’t been able to get its new kit to work. Banking reforms look set to disappoint The Competition and Markets Authority’s final report into the banking industry, due in May, will now appear in the dog days of August. This is not because the contents will be so frightening that leading bankers will need to lie down on the nearest beach. We already know the CMA has rejected structural reforms, such as a break-up of the big banks, in favour of technocratic fiddles, such as setting up a comparison website to encourage punters to shop around. Such a remedy was damned as feeble by most observers when it was announced at the interim stage last October. That, presumably, is why the CMA has given itself an extension to come up with something that sounds more chunky. Caps on overdraft charges and grace periods for customers to avoid the same charges may improve the lot of a few. But none of these late additions by the CMA will deliver a shot in the arm for competition in the banking industry. Blame Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank has turned the process of separating 300 Williams & Glyn branches into something resembling the labours of Hercules, thereby killing all appetite for further structural reform. Thus the “striking” stability in market shares identified by the CMA is virtually guaranteed to be striking in another decade’s time. The interim report felt like a missed opportunity; prepare to be disappointed again. SNP donor in tax pickle Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish first minister and leader of Scottish National party, is a fierce opponent of the artificial tax tactics of some major companies. So, here you would think, is an open goal – a court defeat for a Scottish company that used a complex scheme to wipe £11m off its tax bill. The company is Stagecoach, whose chairman, Sir Brian Souter, happens to have been a major donor to the SNP. Sturgeon’s condemnation, one trusts, will be forthcoming anyway. | ['business/nils-pratley-on-finance', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/energy-industry', 'uk/uk', 'business/banking', 'business/banking-reform', 'business/stagecoachgroup', 'world/france', 'business/financial-sector', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/nilspratley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-03-07T19:35:00Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/blog/2009/aug/06/breakfast-briefing | Breakfast briefing: Google's double whammy and Murdoch's sucker punch | • Google made waves by announcing the $106m deal to buy video technology company On2 (owners of codecs such as V6) - although it kept another piece of news down the agenda. Interesting analysis from GigaOm ("pay special attention to what Google does with On2 on Android") and Dan Rayburn of The Business of Video (who debunks a number of bits of speculation about the deal). That news helped the company squash the rather less positive announcement that it was finally offloading its radio business - which was heralded as the future back in 2006 after a deal potentially worth $1.2bn (although almost certainly significantly less than that, given Google Radio's failure to live up to its targets). • Rupert Murdoch put the cat among the pigeons too, by announcing that all of the news websites in his vast empire would start charging for access soon. Reaction? Predictably astonished: our own Jeff Jarvis says it merely opens the doors for free competitors. • Thursday heralds another edition of the print version of Technology Guardian, in which we explore. On the cover, we interview Andrew Stott, the man behind those much-discussed Twitter rules for Whitehall. Elsewhere, we hear about Microsoft's plans for mobile, look at the future for online mapping, and pull back the curtain on what took place at the Guardian's hack day. There's more besides - just 90p from your newsagent, or online here. You can follow our links and commentary each day through Twitter (@guardiantech, or our personal accounts) or by watching our Delicious feed. | ['technology/blog', 'technology/google', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'media/rupert-murdoch', 'technology/internet', 'media/digital-media', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/bobbiejohnson'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-08-06T05:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/2022/aug/18/from-resilience-nsw-to-recovery-and-reconstruction-whats-happening-to-disaster-agencies | From Resilience NSW to recovery and reconstruction: what’s happening to disaster agencies? | The New South Wales government will overhaul some of its key disaster agencies in response to the independent flood inquiry’s report. The two-year-old Resilience NSW will be renamed Recovery NSW and stripped of most of its responsibilities. It will instead be in charge of the first 100 days following natural disasters. A NSW Reconstruction Authority will also be created to become the state’s lead agency responsible for disaster prevention. We’ve taken a look at the difference between these agencies. What exactly was Resilience NSW? Resilience NSW was created by former premier Gladys Berejiklian in the wake of the black summer bushfires that devastated parts of the state in 2019 and 2020. It is led by former Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons and was given a wide remit to deal with disaster preparedness, response, recovery and rebuild. It was tasked with overseeing and coordinating all emergency efforts across NSW and faced significant challenges in responding to the floods. Why is it being scrapped? The inquiry by former chief scientist Mary O’Kane and former police chief Mick Fuller found the agency did not meet its goals. “[It] was built with good intentions … it just didn’t deliver,” Fuller said on Wednesday. “There was enormous confusion about what their role was. What we need is a much smaller, robust, flexible recovery unit.” The inquiry found underperformance of the agency was caused in part due to its size and the extent of its remit. It found the agency caused confusion about who was responsible for what. “Resilience NSW’s approach to recovery centres was slow and often inconsistent. Among other things, there was a delay in establishing mobile recovery centres, which were crucial for smaller communities,” the report said. The agency’s budget and employee-related expenses, which totalled more than $38m for 245 staff, have been heavily criticised. What will Recovery NSW do? The rebranded and “streamlined” agency will focus on the first 100 days after a disaster. Fuller said the smaller team would take charge of the “all important” initial response – getting people back into their homes or into accommodation in the immediate aftermath. What will the new organisation, the NSW Reconstruction Authority, do? The government will move to legislate the new body before the end of the year and will model it on Queensland’s Reconstruction Authority, which was created after the 2010-11 floods. It will lead the state’s emergency response, focusing on longer term recovery and rebuilding. Fuller said it would cut through the red tape that hampered recovery. “We’ll be pushing [money] out to make sure that local governments can do everything they can to mitigate against, not just floods, but any emergency.” It would take on a portion of what the dissolved agency had been tasked to do, but not all of it. “Resilience [NSW] had an enormous remit, a very challenging one,” Fuller said. “We’ve tried to break that up into smaller pieces that are achievable by agencies that will have the ability to break through the red tape to break through all of those barriers that are in place.” What does this mean for Fitzsimmons? Questions remain over the future of the Fitzsimmons in disaster management in the state. Perrottet said he had spoken with the leader about the role he would play “in respect of a transition to a new agency” but would not confirm if he would still have a job and if so, what it would be. “Shane Fitzsimmons has been a great stalwart for our state. He has served our community incredibly, particularly during the bushfires,” Perrottet said Wednesday. “I don’t make decisions based on people’s personalities. I make decisions based on what is right in the best interest of the people of the state.” Just hours earlier, Fitzsimmons sent an all-staff email expressing disappointment in the process and the report. “Many details concerning the performance of Resilience NSW are, frankly, disappointing,” he wrote. “A great deal of the report’s findings in relation to Resilience NSW are seemingly based on inaccurate or incorrect information and assumptions.” | ['australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'environment/flooding', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/tamsin-rose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-17T17:30:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2017/jun/29/the-guardian-view-on-tackling-our-plastics-problem-dont-bottle-it | The Guardian view on tackling our plastics problem: don’t bottle it | Editorial | Invention is the mother of necessity, warned Thorstein Veblen. So packaged water is now seen as essential by many, and a million plastic bottles are produced every minute worldwide, as the Guardian series Bottling it has revealed. In the UK, consumers pay up to 1,000 times more than they do for tap water for a potentially less safe product. But the true cost is not to our pockets. Most of these bottles are not recycled; instead we waste energy, choke landfill sites and contaminate our seas. By 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic than fish, research suggests. Marine life is suffering, and perhaps human health too as minute pieces of plastic end up on our plates. This is a global problem and the answers will vary accordingly. But the essentials are: using fewer bottles, recycling those that are consumed, and ensuring new bottles contain more recycled material. Clean and readily available tap water is needed – particularly important in Asia, which is leading the surge in use – and pressure on producers. Consumers, as well as government and business, have their part to play. Simple measures can have a striking impact: the UK’s 5p tax on plastic bags has led to an estimated 80% fall in use. No great inventiveness is needed. And tackling our plastic addiction is unquestionably necessary. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/water', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-06-29T19:20:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2017/feb/16/coalition-gives-54m-from-cefc-to-large-scale-solar-and-renews-pumped-hydro-push | Coalition gives $54m from CEFC to large-scale solar and renews pumped hydro push | The Turnbull government has given a $54m loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to a large-scale solar development which it says has the potential for pumped hydro storage. Malcolm Turnbull and the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, have announced the government had directed the CEFC and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) to fund large-scale storage and other flexible capacity projects including pumped hydro. The solar development will take place at Genex Power’s Kidston renewable energy hub, 270km north-west of Townsville. Arena has provided $4m to study the next phase, a 250 MW pumped hydro-storage project. If a large-scale pumped hydro project is eventually built, it will be the first time such a form of storage has been co-located with a large-scale solar farm. Turnbull and Frydenberg said the project demonstrated the government’s “strong commitment to energy security”. “Developing storage technology for renewables is important for stabilising the grid as electricity can still be used when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. “Now, more than ever, we have to ensure that renewable energy is being properly integrated into the grid following a series of blackouts in South Australia.” Renewable energy policy and energy security have become a key political battleground since parliament returned last week. The Coalition has targeted Labor for its policy aspiration of achieving 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030, a policy Bill Shorten struggled to explain on Wednesday. Although Turnbull has been at pains to stress a “technology neutral” approach to energy, several ministers have spruiked the benefits of ultra-super critical coal power plants. The treasurer, Scott Morrison, brought a lump of coal to question time, while the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, and northern Australia minister, Matt Canavan, are open to subsidies for new coal plants. Turnbull has walked a fine line, calling for an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy policy and saying the renewable energy target will not last forever. He has been forced to defend comments in September following the South Australian blackout which acknowledged it was caused by transmission towers being blown over but nevertheless saying the storm was a “wake-up” call on reliance on renewable energy. In evidence to a parliamentary committee on Friday, the CEFC warned against investment in so-called “clean coal” power plants. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-02-15T21:55:26Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/credit-climate-sustainable-finance-system | Credit, climate and the road to a sustainable financial system | Credit markets are central to the global financial system. Valued at over $100tn they provide an essential way for governments, corporations and municipalities to raise bonds for public infrastructure and long-term development. Credit markets are also pivotal for the transition to a green economy – and are already being impacted by the disruptive effects of climate change. The credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor's (S&P) has recently issued a wide-ranging set of research reports on the implications of climate change for the bonds issued by both countries and corporations. S&P's president, Neeraj Sahai, serves on the International Advisory Council of the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, which aims to identify policy options to deliver a step-change in capital mobilisation for a green and inclusive economy. S&P recently co-hosted an event with the Inquiry (disclaimer: I am a co-director of UNEP Inquiry) in New York to examine the strategic agenda linking bonds, climate change and the financial system. The event brought together leading banks, investors, public bodies and civil society organisations working to promote market and policy innovations that align finance with the green economy. The findings of S&P's research highlight the growing materiality of climate for credit markets. According to S&P, climate change will put downward pressure on sovereign credit ratings through the 21st century, with the poorest countries bearing the brunt: all the top 20 most vulnerable nations are emerging markets. Economic output, fiscal strength and trade performance will all be hit. Corporate bonds are also being affected by extreme events and carbon risk – with the first credit downgrade for climate policy reasons occurring back in 2009. So far, climate has had limited impacts on the bonds issued by insurance companies, but this could change if the severity and frequency of extreme events intensifies. On the upside, the bond market is also becoming a growing source of capital for the green economy – with a 50% increase in 'green bond' issuance in 2013 to $11bn, and expectations of $40-50bn in 2014. To help build integrity into this burgeoning market, a set of Green Bond Principles was issued by a coalition of 25 banks in January. Discussions at the event highlighted that three critical issues look set to shape the way climate and other sustainability issues build tomorrow's financial system. Climate change is a long-term risk Climate change is a structural, long-term threat to the global economy, and one of the challenges facing both the analysts who rate the bonds and the institutional investors who buy them is how to factor in impacts outside the conventional five year window for credit ratings. Extending time horizons is central to a financial system geared to sustainability. More information is needed Credit markets also need deeper and more quantifiable information on climate and environmental risks more broadly. Some securities regulators have started to require corporate disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, but a more strategic response is required, and in the case of climate change, focusing on the twin risks of extreme events and stranded assets. Embed sustainability - the right way The risks revealed by the latest credit research point to the broader need for policymakers to embed sustainability factors in ways that ensure the fundamental stability of both financial institutions and financial markets. For example, climate change clearly impinges on the core task of insurance regulators to ensure that insurers are 'safe and sound'. Likewise, the rising burden of extreme events will profoundly shape the management of systemic risk, particularly in vulnerable developing countries. In the last year, the green economy agenda has taken off in the world of credit, highlighting how quickly market forces of supply and demand can change. Yet this is only the beginning, with key steps still needed to make long-term environmental sustainability a routine part of global bond markets. But the momentum is set to grow – not least with the prospect of the UN Climate Summit in September and the finalisation of climate talks in Paris 2015. Nick Robins is co-director of UNEP Inquiry The finance hub is funded by EY. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/climate-change', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/bonds', 'business/rating-agencies', 'business/business', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/banking', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/finance'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-06-06T11:43:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2007/sep/03/weather.marktran | Hurricane Felix advances on Central America | The "potentially catastrophic" Hurricane Felix was today moving west over the Caribbean Sea towards Central America. The US national hurricane centre in Miami said a hurricane watch was in place in Honduras, meaning the hurricane could hit the country within the next 36 hours. With winds of 165mph, Felix has been designated a maximum-level category five storm. As of early this morning, Felix was 295 miles south-east of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 555 miles east of the Nicaragua-Honduras border. But along the northern coastline of Honduras yesterday, tourists were still relaxing by hotel pools and enjoying the sun. The Foreign Office today urged Britons to avoid all but essential travel in the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and Belize. In Belize, residents were stocking up on water and food, and nailing boards over windows to protect against strong winds. Many people who lived in low-lying areas were moving to higher ground. The hurricane toppled trees and flooded some homes on the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in the southern Caribbean. Heavy rains and winds caused scattered power outages and forced thousands of tourists to take refuge in hotels, but it inflicted far less damage than feared as the storm's outer bands skimmed the tiny islands. Felix is the second Atlantic hurricane of the season after last month's Hurricane Dean, which killed at least 20 in the Caribbean and caused destruction from St Lucia to Mexico. On Saturday, Felix brought heavy rains and strong winds to Grenada as a tropical storm, ripping the roofs off at least two homes and destroying a popular concert venue. No injuries were reported. Tropical storm watches were issued for Grand Cayman and Jamaica, which was hit by Dean last month. "Remember that Hurricanes Mitch, Wilma and Michelle passed far from the island yet tropical storm force winds, waves and storm surge damaged coastal areas," Barbara Carby, the director of the Cayman hazard management office, told the Associated Press. Off the Pacific coast of Mexico, meanwhile, forecasters said Tropical Storm Henriette could today strengthen to a hurricane. Officials issued a hurricane watch for Baja California peninsula, a resort popular with Hollywood stars and sea fishing enthusiasts. Henriette dumped heavy rain on western Mexico. In the resort city of Acapulco, three people were killed when a giant boulder fell on their home, and three more died when a landslide hit their house. Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist with the hurricane centre, warned that both Felix and Henriette could shift course and said people in the general areas should remain alert, even if they were not in the direct paths of the storms. | ['world/honduras', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/americas', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/marktran'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2007-09-03T14:45:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/jun/04/count-international-flights-from-uk-in-emissions-targets-urges-thinktank | Count international flights from UK in emissions targets, urges thinktank | International flights taking off from the UK must be taken into account in the government’s calculations on reaching net zero emissions as part of a “green” recovery for the airline industry, a transport thinktank has urged. The government has given loan bailouts to airlines totalling £1.5bn since the coronavirus outbreak, with no environmental conditions attached. Ryanair is the latest company to secure a £600m loan from the scheme, despite its chief executive, Michael O’Leary’s outspoken condemnation of such bailouts across Europe as uncompetitive state aid. British Airways secured a £300m loan and EasyJet received £600m. The thinktank Transport and Environment calculates that more than £30bn has been promised or given in bailouts to airlines across Europe due to Covid-19, and it said the recovery of the industry must be sustainable and tied to policies to cut carbon emissions. Among these, it said international aviation emissions must be included in the government targets to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. The Committee on Climate Change has recommended that emissions from international flights should be included in net zero calculations – at present they are not counted at all – but the government has yet to respond to the committee’s letter. “The government should ensure international aviation and shipping emissions are including within the net zero target,” said Greg Archer, the UK director of Transport and Environment. “The aviation industry is currently relying on buying cheap, unreliable offsets for its emissions. This is no solution to avoiding a climate catastrophe.” He said the recovery of the industry had to have conditions attached, including new aviation taxes to manage growth, a moratorium on new runways and terminals and a mandate on airlines to buy sustainable aviation fuels. “The tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic provides an opportunity to reset the aviation industry’s insatiable demand for fossil fuels and to place it on a sustainable future pathway,” Archer said. “Rather than a return to business as usual, aviation must now ‘build back better’ and initiate a green recovery. Aviation bailouts must be exclusively focused on ensuring a green recovery and supporting employees.” UK aviation emissions are estimated to be 13-15% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. These include from international flights departing from the UK, and non-CO2 emissions associated with these flights. By 2050, if demand is unchecked, passenger numbers are predicted to rise by 70% and aviation will become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. International aviation emissions could be calculated by including emissions of planes that take off from the UK. Archer said the UK could be a global leader and take responsibility for its share of international aviation emissions. “It is now clear the coronavirus pandemic is transforming the way we travel,” he said. “The pandemic similarly creates an opportunity for a reset in aviation and there should not be a return to business as usual but to create a recovery towards sustainable aviation.” | ['environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'politics/thinktanks', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'uk/transport', 'politics/transport', 'world/air-transport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-06-04T09:22:49Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2021/may/17/greenland-ice-sheet-on-brink-of-major-tipping-point-says-study | Greenland ice sheet on brink of major tipping point, says study | A significant part of the Greenland ice sheet is on the brink of a tipping point, after which accelerated melting would become inevitable even if global heating was halted, according to new research. Rising temperatures caused by the climate crisis have already seen trillions of tonnes of Greenland’s ice pour into the ocean. Melting its ice sheet completely would eventually raise global sea level by 7 metres. The new analysis detected the warning signals of a tipping point in a 140-year record of ice-sheet height and melting rates in the Jakobshavn basin, one of the five biggest basins in Greenland and the fastest-melting. The prime suspect for a surge in melting is a vicious circle in which melting reduces the height of the ice sheet, exposing it to the warmer air found at lower altitudes, which causes further melting. The study shows destabilisation of this ice sheet is under way. Uncertainties in the research meant it might already be at the point of no return, or be about to cross it in the coming decades, the scientists said. However, even if the tipping point was crossed, it did not mean that the entire ice sheet was doomed, they said, because there might be a stable state for a smaller ice sheet. “We’re at the brink, and every year with CO2 emissions continuing as usual exponentially increases the probability of crossing the tipping point,” said Niklas Boers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, who conducted the research with Martin Rypdal from the Arctic University of Norway. “It might have passed [the tipping point], but it’s not clear. However, our results suggest there will be substantially enhanced melting in the near future, which is worrying.” Boers said ice equivalent to 1-2 metres of sea level rise was probably already doomed to melt, though this would take centuries and melting the whole ice sheet would take a millennium. “We would probably have to drive temperatures back below pre-industrial levels to get back to the original height of the Greenland ice sheet,” he said. “The current and near-future ice loss will be largely irreversible,” he said. “That’s why it is high time we rapidly and substantially reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels and restabilise the ice sheet and our climate.” The new research examined just one part of Greenland, but Boers said there was no reason in principle that it should be different from other parts of the giant ice sheet: “We might be seeing something that is happening in many parts of Greenland, but we just don’t know for sure, because we don’t have the high-quality data for other parts.” Media reports in August 2020 suggested the Greenland ice sheet had already passed the point of no return, but scientists said this was a misinterpretation of research. In 2019, scientists warned that the world might already have crossed a series of climate tipping points. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, used temperature records, ice cores, and modelling to reconstruct the ice sheet’s elevation and melting rates since 1880. Careful examination of the size and duration of changes during this time series revealed the warning signals of an imminent tipping point, by showing that the ice sheet’s ability to recover from melting is diminishing fast. The feedback loop caused by falling ice-sheet height appears to be the largest factor, but other feedbacks may play a role in destabilising it. These include the thinning of coastal glaciers, allowing more ice to slip into the sea, and reduced falls of fresh white snow exposing the darker surface of the ice sheet, which then absorbs more heat from the sun. But warmer temperatures may also result in damper air and more snowfall, counteracting some ice losses. Boers said the dynamics of the Greenland ice sheet were very complex, and that using today’s incomplete knowledge to estimate a precise date when a tipping point is passed would give a false sense of certainty. The scientists said better monitoring of the Greenland ice sheet is needed. “We urgently need to better understand the interplay of the different positive and negative feedback mechanisms that determine the current stability and the future evolution of the ice sheet,” said Boers. Large-scale melting of the Greenland ice sheet would have long-term global consequences, beyond rising sea levels. It could halt the Gulf Stream ocean current, with potential knock-on effects on the Amazon rainforest and tropical monsoons. “It’s great that we have satellites to track the pulse of our planet and models to perform a health check, but the diagnosis is shockingly clear: our climate is sick and needs urgent care,” said Prof Andrew Shepherd, at the University of Leeds, UK, who was not involved in the new study. “Although we see the effects of climate heating around the planet, often the changes of greatest concern are those that will alter landscapes forever,” he said. “If Greenland has shifted into a new unstable state of heightened melting, then that’s big news.” But uncertainties remained, Shepherd said, with some evidence that the heightened melting may have stabilised, which would be at odds with the idea that the ice sheet has entered an unstable state. | ['environment/glaciers', 'environment/poles', 'environment/sea-level', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oceans', 'science/science', 'world/greenland', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-05-17T19:00:31Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2014/jan/08/flooding-flood-defence-government-spending | Flooding: holding back the tide | Editorial | The impact of government spending decisions can take years to become apparent. Often the transmission link between cash and results can be uncertain. It is, for example, possible to say confidently that higher spending produces better outcomes in the NHS, but harder to say exactly which part of the spending and where. It is equally hard to track precisely the effect of investing in school buildings or paying teachers more. But spending less on building new flood defences and maintaining existing ones has direct and measurable consequences; and they have been spread over the front pages of national newspapers for much of the last three weeks. Back in the Commons on Monday after the Christmas break, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, a man who is sceptical about both the human impact on climate change and the merits of public spending, dismissed opposition criticism of his funding decisions as blather and chuntering. For the residents of the Somerset Levels, some of whom have been cut off by floodwater for a fortnight, the shortage of cash which has halted the dredging of the rivers Parrett, Brue and Axe and the clearance of the smaller rhynes that play a vital role in carrying excess water away will have felt more like blunder than blather. Their experience has been repeated in Kent, in north Wales and last month in both north-west and north-east England, where since the new year residents have endured anxious days and nights as hasty repairs made after damage in earlier storms were tested to destruction. Mr Paterson denies that cuts have affected the capacity of the arm's-length Environment Agency to carry out flood protection work, and it's true that the decision to stop clearing the waterways on the Somerset Levels was taken by a previous government. But the department's own figures show that spending on flood defence maintenance is projected to fall by £65m in real terms between 2009-10 and 2015-16, and spending on capital projects by £35m. Like this government, which has revised spending sharply upwards in the next spending round, the previous government had to perform a sharp about-turn after the catastrophic 2007 floods. They prompted the Pitt review, surveying the impact of the flooding first of South Yorkshire and then Gloucestershire, which were described cumulatively as the worst national emergency since the second world war. The review was strongly critical not only of the historic level of funding but of the seriousness with which government treated flooding. The last government took the advice to heart: spending was increased steeply, a cabinet committee was set up, and it has been clear in the past month how much more effective the Met Office and Environment Agency have become in anticipating and preparing for floods. But many of the Pitt recommendations are now on the back burner, or gone altogether. Most importantly, there is no committee at the heart of government responsible either for building resilience or planning for flooding. The Environment Agency has lost more than 1,100 jobs since 2009 and will lose another 1,700 by October this year. More than 300 flood defence schemes that were ready to go have been halted by spending cuts, despite the government's own scientists warning that flooding was the worst climate change threat faced by the country. And in its annual report on the department, the cross-party environment committee of backbench MPs warned that "massive" cuts were endangering its capacity to respond to floods. These last few weeks of intense storms are not some new and unexpected development. Extreme weather is beginning to be a normal event. Even if it were nothing to do with climate change (and most scientists believe a link is at least likely), the way we live – from hard standing in front gardens to intensive farming to building on flood plains – raises the risk of flooding. This is where we are. Governments cannot continue to regard flood defence as discretionary spending. It has become essential. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment-agency', 'politics/owen-paterson', 'politics/taxandspending', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-01-08T00:16:52Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2021/mar/26/tornadoes-us-south-east-alabama-deaths | Multiple tornadoes tear across US south-east causing deaths and wreckage | Blaring tornado sirens and howling winds roared across parts of western Georgia early on Friday as severe storms pounded southern states. In Alabama at least five people died, and at least one person has died in Georgia, in twisters that wrecked homes, splintered trees and crumpled businesses. Almost two dozen tornadoes whipped across the US south-east late on Thursday and into the early hours of Friday, including 17 in Alabama alone. More severe weather is forecast for the region and up into Tennessee over the weekend. The multiple twisters sprang from a so-called “super cell” of storms that later moved into Georgia, said John De Block, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Birmingham. A large, dangerous tornado swept through Georgia’s Atlanta-area Coweta county just after midnight on Friday, sparking a tornado emergency for the city of Newnan and surrounding communities. There were several reports of downed trees and power lines. Newnan police asked residents to “get off the roads” in a Facebook post, explaining that emergency officials were surveying the area. Newnan Utilities said the storm knocked out its phone and internet services. Hours later, general manager Dennis McEntire said the phone lines returned. He urged residents to follow the utility on social media for any updates. McEntire said the damage from the storm was severe and it will “take several days, with the help from outside crews, to put the system together again”. Keith Brady, Newnan’s mayor, said no fatalities were immediately reported. Many had to be rescued as the winds ripped roofs off houses and caused many homes simply to collapse. Mary Rose and Larry DeArman were trapped under wreckage and were taken to hospital after they struggled out from their flattened home. “When that happened it was just like a roaring, there was no train … it was a roaring,” she said, adding that the “house started shaking and then everything caved in on us”. The couple returned later and neighbors helped salvage some items from the home, with Mary Rose saying she was only bothered about “necessities”. Then her handbag was found. “That’s it, that’s the purse,” she told ABC’s Good Morning America as a small blue bag was handed to her while she stood under an umbrella, with a face mask, shaken but safe. The strong storm followed a series of tornadoes that ripped through Alabama on Thursday, including one that authorities said traveled roughly 100 miles across the state. In east Alabama, the Calhoun county sheriff, Matthew Wade, said five people died in a twister that cut a diagonal path across the county, striking mostly rural areas – something that probably kept the death toll from being higher. “Our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers go to the families, and we are going to do our best to let them know we love them,” Wade said at an evening briefing. Schools in several districts were closed or openings delayed on Friday due to the damage. Vast areas of Shelby county near Birmingham were badly damaged. The Meanwhile, well-known TV weatherman James Spann in Birmingham learned on air that the tornado was heading directly for his home and his family. He stepped off screen briefly, then came back live within 15 minutes to report: “We had major damage at my house. I had to be sure, my wife is OK, but the tornado came right through there and it’s not good. It’s bad. It’s bad.” In the city of Pelham, James Dunaway said he initially ignored the tornado warning when it came over his phone. But then he heard the twister approaching, left the upstairs bedroom where he had been watching television and entered a hallway, just before the storm blew off the roof and sides of his house. His bedroom was left fully exposed. “I’m very lucky to be alive,” Dunaway, 75, told Al.com. Earlier, Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, issued an emergency declaration for 46 counties, and officials opened shelters in and around Birmingham. | ['us-news/state-of-georgia', 'us-news/alabama', 'us-news/us-weather', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-03-26T15:03:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
fashion/2018/aug/03/take-this-suckers-fashion-cashes-in-on-plastic-straws-demise | Take this, suckers: fashion cashes in on plastic straw's demise | Fashion has never been afraid to capitalise on a cause in order to sell products. So news that designers are jumping on the anti-plastic straw bandwagon by creating sustainable, fashionable alternatives in the run-up to 2019’s proposed ban will come as no surprise. From a Vogue-endorsed hand-blown Murano glass straw by creative design pair Duncan Campbell and Charlotte Rey, which costs £50 for six, to a £145 sterling silver creation by jeweller Stephen Webster, straws are set to become the latest way for consumers to telegraph their awareness. Naturally, some have taken issue with the trend, particularly the price tag. Orsola de Castro, co-founder of Fashion Revolution, the largest fashion activism movement in the world, told the Guardian: “There are the ways that the fashion industry can comment and act on the issue – but making a silver straw is neither a comment nor an action.” Webster’s silver straw is called The Last Straw and aims at “taking a stand for social responsibility”. The Murano glass straw is described both as “sustainable” and a “must-have” accessory. De Castro added: “Capitalising to create business is normal. But to pretend you are part of a bigger conversation is risible.” It is estimated that there are 150m tonnes of plastic in the world’s oceans. Already, a a plethora of reusable alternatives to plastic straws in materials such as bamboo, silicone, glass and metal are on the rise. Fashion’s attempt to raise awareness or bring about political change via products is nothing new. The recent red carpet blackout in the wake of the Weinstein allegations was one of the biggest talking points of 2017. On the same note, a Dior T-shirt sporting the legend: “We Should All Be Feminists,” a quote taken from the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie became the most Instagrammed T-shirt of the season. If 2017 was about broadcasting gender politics, sustainability as a selling point is 2018’s equivalent. The trend is also in keeping with the current vogue for non-essential luxury items. Often referred to as “gateway drugs” in fashion because they are cheaper than clothes – items such as belts and lighters drive revenue more than garments. Dune Ives, executive director of Lonely Whale, a nonprofit aimed at protecting marine life, described straws as “a gateway plastic”. De Castro concedes that raising awareness is a move in the right direction, and thinks paper straws are a good alternative, although a complete ban would be better still. “There’s nothing wrong with using our lips instead. It’s worked for millennia,” she said. | ['fashion/fashion', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/morwennaferrier', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-08-03T11:40:18Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/article/2024/may/10/mod-contractor-hacked-china-failed-report-breach-months | MoD contractor hacked by China failed to report breach for months | The IT company targeted in a Chinese hack that accessed the data of hundreds of thousands of Ministry of Defence staff failed to report the breach for months, the Guardian can reveal. The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, told MPs on Tuesday that Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL) had been breached by a malign actor and “state involvement” could not be ruled out. Shapps said the payroll records of about 270,000 current and former military personnel, including their home addresses, had been accessed. China has not been openly named by the government as the culprit. The MoD was told of the hack in recent days but a number of sources said SSCL, an arm of the French tech company Sopra Steria, became aware of the breach in February. Sopra Steria did not respond to requests for comment. One Whitehall insider did not comment on the timeframe but said that concern about SSCL being “slow to respond” was one of the issues being examined in an official inquiry into the hack. It can also be revealed that SSCL was awarded a contract worth more than £500,000 in April to monitor the MoD’s own cybersecurity – several weeks after it was hacked. Officials now believe this contract could be revoked. The payroll data that was hacked reflects only a fraction of the work SSCL does for the government. Sopra Steria and SSCL are understood to have other undisclosed government cybersecurity contracts, according to Whitehall sources. However, these are deemed so sensitive that they have never been publicly disclosed. The Cabinet Office declined to comment on the detail of contracts, citing security restrictions. The cybersecurity arm of the UK’s intelligence services, the National Cyber Security Centre, has warned of a growing threat to the country’s businesses and critical national infrastructure from hostile states. Chinese and Russian state-sponsored actors were highlighted among attackers using a range of routes to try to hide malicious activity on networks containing sensitive information. Whitehall worries over a lack of transparency by SSCL have raised concerns that there could be a wider compromise of its systems. Sopra Steria is one of a handful of strategic suppliers to the government, with work ranging from administering pensions to wider payments systems for government departments and agencies. Shapps told parliament that the government had “not only ordered a full review of its [SSCL’s] work within the MoD, but gone further and requested from the Cabinet Office a full review of its work across government, and that is under way”. He added that specialists had been brought in to carry out a “forensic investigation” of how the breach happened. Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: “An independently audited, comprehensive security review of the contractor’s operations is under way and appropriate steps will be taken based on its findings.” SSCL was part-owned by the government until October last year when it sold its 25% stake to Sopra Steria for £82m. SSCL was aware of being a “magnet” for cyber-attacks, sources said. A public warning about identity theft has been on the website of its parent company, Sopra Steria, for at least three years, according to an examination of the page’s history. The hack was first internally detected in February, sources said, with concerns about potentially successful phishing attacks on the company dating back to December 2019. SSCL and its parent company hold a total of £1.6bn in government contracts. These include a range of highly sensitive functions such as Home Office recruitment and online testing for officers, according to information from contracts gathered by the data company Tussell. The Chinese embassy has said China was not responsible for the hack. A spokesperson said: “We urge the relevant parties in the UK to stop spreading false information, stop fabricating so-called China threat narratives, and stop their anti-China political farce.” | ['technology/hacking', 'uk/ministry-of-defence', 'technology/data-computer-security', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'technology/cybercrime', 'technology/cyberwar', 'world/espionage', 'technology/internet', 'world/world', 'campaign/email/morning-briefing', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-sabbagh', 'profile/anna-isaac', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-05-10T15:00:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/jun/01/dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-last-images-recovered-phone | Last images of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira found on recovered phone | Some of the last images of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have been found after Indigenous activists recovered a mobile phone Pereira was carrying when the two men were killed in the Brazilian Amazon last year. The phone was found last October when activists from Univaja, the Indigenous association where Pereira worked, returned to a stretch of flooded forest along the Itaquaí River where the men’s bodies were taken after they were shot dead on their boat on the morning of 5 June 2022. With the help of a metal detector, the group found several items belonging to the victims, including Phillips’s UK press card, two spiral notebooks the journalist and longtime Guardian contributor had taken on the four-day reporting trip into the Javari valley region, and one of two phones Pereira was carrying. Indigenous activists and police found other items belonging to the men in the same location during last year’s 10-day search for their bodies. After months underwater, Phillips’s notebooks were illegible. But federal police forensic teams were able to recover several images from the handset, according to the Brazilian broadcaster Globoplay, which was with the Indigenous activists when they made the discovery. They include one photograph, taken on the afternoon of Friday 3 June, that shows the British journalist chatting to a local man in Ladário, the riverside village where one of his alleged killers, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, grew up. The man Phillips is talking to is Oliveira’s brother-in-law, Laurindo Alves. Another photograph, taken shortly after 7am on Sunday 5 June, shows Phillips sitting in a boat near São Rafael, another fishing village on the Itaquaí. Minutes later, after casting off from that community, Phillips and Pereira came under attack. Da Costa de Oliveira and another local fisher, Jefferson da Silva Lima, last year confessed to the crime, telling police they were moved by anger over Pereira’s “persecution” of fishers the activist accused of illegal poaching in Indigenous lands. However, when they appeared before a federal judge earlier this month the two men offered a dramatically different version, claiming Pereira had attacked them and they had shot back in self-defence. The victims’ families and friends dismissed those claims as having no basis in reality. The recovered phone also contained two short videos which appear to support descriptions of the events in the days leading up to last year’s killings. Those videos, shot at just before 8am on 4 June 2022, show Oliveira travelling down the Itaquaí River past the shack where Phillips and Pereira were staying in a riverside community called Lago do Jaburu, just a few hundred metres from the entrance to the Javari valley Indigenous territory. Earlier that morning, members of EVU, the Indigenous patrol team Pereira helped create, spotted Oliveira travelling in the other direction, towards the protection base at the entrance to the Indigenous enclave. Indigenous patrollers say Oliveira threatened them by raising his gun into the air when he was challenged. The owner of the house where Phillips and Pereira were staying, a local fisher called Raimundo Bento da Costa, remembered the British journalist photographing Oliveira at the Indigenous expert’s request as he returned along the Itaquaí. “Bruno told [Dom] to take a photo and he took one … and showed it to us afterwards. [Oliveira] had loads of cartridges, red ones, [on his belt],” said Costa, who is Oliveira’s uncle. Twenty-four hours after those images were taken, according to their confessions, Oliveira and Jefferson da Silva Lima ambushed and killed Phillips and Pereira as they came down the same river on their way to the town of Atalaia do Norte. The phone also contained a selfie Pereira had taken during another mission in the Javari valley in May last year, as well as two aerial videos from a flyover during which illegal mining dredges were spotted along the region’s Jaquirana River. | ['environment/series/the-bruno-and-dom-project', 'world/brazil', 'world/dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-01T12:00:33Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2009/oct/21/iran-nuclear-deal | Hopes rise of end to impasse as Iran gets two days to back nuclear deal | Iran has been given two days to approve a uranium deal that the United Nations says could defuse the long-running crisis over the country's nuclear programme. The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog organisation, Mohamed ElBaradei, said the draft agreement to ship out 75% of Iran's enriched uranium for processing abroad "could open the way for a complete normalisation of relations between Iran and the international community". The Iranian delegation to the talks in Vienna cautiously welcomed the deal as being "on the right track", but said it would be up to Tehran to approve the deal. Under the draft agreement ElBaradei put forward during two and a half days of negotiations, 1,200kg of Iranian low enriched uranium (LEU) would be sent to Russia before the end of the year for further enrichment and then to France for fabrication into fuel for use in Tehran's research reactor, which makes medical isotopes. The process would take about a year, during which time the Iranian stockpile of enriched uranium – seen as a potential weapons threat by the west and Israel – would be significantly reduced. The deal would represent the most significant progress since 2003 in the impasse over Iran's nuclear programme. ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), described the proposal as "a very important confidence-building measure that can defuse a crisis that has been going on for a number of years and open space for negotiation". He set a deadline of Friday for official ratification. However, it does not address Iran's continued enrichment of uranium, in defiance of UN security council resolutions. That is due to be negotiated separately at the end of the month. With its enrichment plant operating at the current rate, Iran could replenish its stockpile in less than a year. However, ElBaradei said the proposal represented a "balance approach" and he hoped that the governments involved would "see the big picture" and approve it. "I cross my fingers that by Friday we have an OK by all the parties concerned," he said. The deadline applies to all the parties involved in the talks – Iran, Russia, France and the US – but diplomats at the negotiations said the only signature seriously in doubt was that of Iran. "Iran has a pretty clear decision to make. It couldn't be a clearer test of Iran's intentions," one diplomat said after the talks. Jacques Audibert, the political director of France's foreign ministry, said: "This is a proposal that suits France and all our partners. Now we have to wait and see if Iran will accept it. They have two days to let us know if it suits them." The west believes that Iran's stockpile of uranium is ultimately intended not for power stations, as Tehran insists, but for the construction of nuclear warheads. The removal of three-quarters of that stockpile would reduce tensions and probably push back the threat of Israeli military action aimed at preventing Iran from developing a weapon. Tehran had sent a relatively low-ranking delegation, led by its ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Soltanieh said: "We have to thoroughly study this text and … come back and reflect our opinion and suggestions or comments in order to have an amicable solution at the end of the day." Western diplomats saw his comments as a possible threat that Iran would try to extend negotiations beyond Friday, and said that they would resist any such attempt. The four signatories to the draft agreement are Iran, France, Russia and the IAEA. The US took part in the Vienna talks but is not a formal party to the deal. However, the US and Iran struck a provisional bilateral agreement, also brokered by the IAEA, in which Washington would supply safety equipment for the Tehran reactor. That deal is contingent on agreement over the shipping of Iran's uranium, but if signed, it would represent the most significant business transaction between the two countries since Iran's Islamic revolution 30 years ago. "If Iran is serious about taking practical steps to address the international community's deep concerns about its nuclear programme, we will continue to engage, both multilaterally and bilaterally, to discuss the full range of issues that have divided Iran and the United States for too long," the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said. "The door is open to a better future for Iran, but the process of engagement cannot be open-ended. We are not prepared to talk just for the sake of talking." | ['world/iran', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/julianborger', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-10-21T18:37:50Z | true | ENERGY |
weather/2009/may/08/weatherwatch-weather-younger-dryas | Weatherwatch | Carpets of microscopic diamonds discovered strewn across North America have given a clue to what caused the last blast of the ice age 13,000 years ago. When the world rapidly warmed around 14,500 years ago, the vast glaciers of the ice age began to retreat and forests and animals returned. But the Earth suddenly plunged back into a brutal new freeze 1,500 years later. In only a decade, or possibly less, the icesheets began to return, destroying the new forests. They appear to have wiped out huge animals from North America such as the giant ground sloth, giant beaver, mammoths, as well as the prehistoric Clovis people. This extraordinary event, known as the Younger Dryas, ended almost as suddenly as it began after about 1,300 years. So why did the ice return? One idea is that the retreating North American icesheets left a gigantic lake of meltwater that suddenly burst into the Atlantic, disrupting ocean currents and sending the climate into a tailspin. But a new study in the journal Science blames an extraterrestrial smash-up. Sediments in North America that mark the beginning of the Younger Dryas have revealed masses of nano-sized diamonds, a few billionths of a metre across - classic signs of enormous heat and pressure from a comet or meteorite slamming into the Earth's surface. The blast would have spread wildfires across the continent, and kicked up masses of debris that sent the climate into mayhem, triggering global cooling. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-05-07T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/nov/12/canada-clearwater-seafoods-mikmaq-first-nation-fishing | 'We won': Indigenous group in Canada scoops up billion dollar seafood firm | For generations, Indigenous peoples in Canada have watched, often in frustration, as commercial industries profit from the land and waters their ancestors once harvested. This week, however, excitement replaced irritation as a group of First Nations announced plans to scoop up one of the largest seafood companies in North America. Early this week, leaders of the Membertou and Miawpukek First Nations, both of which are Mi’kmaq communities, reached an agreement to buy Nova Scotia-based Clearwater Seafoods in a deal worth C$1bn (£580m). Heralded as the “single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada”, the landmark deal comes at a critical moment for Indigenous communities in the region, as tensions remain high over their treatied fishing rights. “For 13,000 years, the Mi’kmaq have sustainably fished the waters of Atlantic Canada, and today, on this truly transformational day, we are owners of a global leader in the fishery,” Chief Terrence Paul of the Membertou wrote in a letter to community members, announcing the purchase. “For so many years, our communities were not welcome to participate in big industry. Today, on our own terms we are 50% commercial owners.” Partnering with Vancouver-based Premium Brands Holdings Corporation, a number of Mi’kmaq communities will put up C$250m (£145m) for their share of the purchase. The Mi’kmaq will have full ownership of Clearwater’s coveted offshore fishing licences, which allow the harvest of lobster, scallop, crab and clams in a massive tract of ocean known as LFA 41. They also plan to bring more Indigenous peoples into the company’s ranks. For decades, Clearwater has been a giant in the industry, with a monopoly on offshore fishing licences, which allow for year-round lobster harvest. But as of last year, amid lagging performance, the company signalled it was looking for a buyer. The Membertou First Nation, based in the Cape Breton region, had previously shown an interest in expanding its reach into the commercial industry, when it paid Clearwater C$25m (£14.5m) for two of the company’s eight licences in September. “In order to be in business, you first have to play the game,” Paul told CBC News after the purchase was announced. “You have to play to win, and we won.” In addition to Membertou and Miawpukek supporting the deal, a number of other groups in the region, including the Paqtnkek, Pictou Landing, Potlotek, Sipekne’katik and We’koqma’q First Nations, have also expressed an interest in acquiring a stake in Clearwater. The purchase comes at a critical moment for the Mi’kmaq people, who have been at the centre of a tense and at times violent battle over their right to harvest lobster. In early September, members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation in Nova Scotia launched their own self-regulated inshore lobster fishery as an exercise of their treaty rights, setting traps during a period in which the season is closed. Commercial fisherman in the area responded aggressively, harassing the Indigenous boats, cutting their traps and destroying their catch. In late October, a lobster pound rented by the Sipekne’katik was set on fire. At issue for both sides is the interpretation of a 1999 supreme court ruling, which came after a Mi’kmaq activist, Donald Marshall Jr, was barred from harvesting eel out of season, despite claiming a treaty right to fish. The country’s highest court determined Indigenous peoples had a right to fish their ancestral waters in the pursuit of a “moderate livelihood”. But the court also issued a clarifying decision, which determined that the federal government has the authority to regulate fisheries in the public interest and for conservation. For two decades, the federal government has failed to clearly define the scope of a “moderate livelihood” fishery and how it would apply to Indigenous peoples. “We need to sit down with First Nations and do what we should’ve done 250 years ago. We need to review fishery plans and implement them together,” fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan told reporters in October, calling the violence “disgusting”. The purchase of Clearwater, while it marks a tectonic shift in the industry, doesn’t resolve the ongoing issues over the “moderate livelihood” fishery. Instead, because of the fractious relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishermen, the deal could further inflame tensions. “Now that Clearwater is perceived to be a First Nations-owned company, that adds to the mistrust about the expansion of Indigenous fisheries,” Rick Williams, research director for the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters, told the Canadian press. “It will add to fears that a large company can buy up lobster licences through First Nations that they weren’t able to buy as a company.” Among non-Indigenous fishermen, reactions to the sale were mixed. In Facebook groups dedicated to lobster harvesting, a number of users deployed racist slurs and stereotypes, pledging not to sell their lobster catch to Clearwater’s new owners. Others, however, praised the move as a shrewd business decision. Paul has said the purchase of Clearwater is a purely commercial venture and that he and others remain committed to establishing a moderate livelihood fishery, guaranteed by their treaty rights. But he also acknowledged the Clearwater deal was the result of years of fighting for a seat at the table. “Today, we are keeping our hero, Donald Marshall Jr, in our hearts,” Paul told community members. “It’s a moment we know he would look on with great pride.” | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/environment', 'environment/fishing', 'business/fishing-industry', 'world/canada', 'environment/marine-life', 'business/business', 'world/americas', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/food', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-11-12T13:08:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2010/nov/02/give-up-washing-showering | Could you give up washing? | If you are reading this article over breakfast, the chances are you have recently stepped into the shower, lathered up your hair and torso, rinsed off, towelled and blow-dried, before dousing your armpits with deodorant, and wafting on a fog of perfume or aftershave. Then again, maybe not. The New York Times has just reported on a new trend towards what's sometimes known as soap-dodging. Among those who have cut down on daily showers, baths or hair-washing were a woman who swipes a sliced lemon under her armpits instead of deodorant, another who uses baby wipes to freshen up after her lunchtime runs, and a salesman who shampoos only once a month and gave up anti-perspirant for three years. Think this is only happening in the US? Think again. There are plenty of signs that this carefree attitude to cleanliness is popular in the UK too – and in some cases growing. Last year, a poll for tissue manufacturer SCA found that 41% of British men and 33% of women don't shower every day, with 12% of people only having a proper wash once or twice a week. (These figures place us behind Australia, Mexico and France in the personal hygiene stakes.) Around the same time, research by Mintel found that more than half of British teenagers don't wash every day – with many opting for a quick spray of deodorant to mask any stink. Over the last few years there have been regular suggestions that daily hair-washing, or even any hair-washing at all, is quite unnecessary, with the commentator Matthew Parris admitting he hadn't shampooed his hair for a decade, and broadcaster Andrew Marr reporting himself perfectly happy with the results when he followed suit for a short while. Many people clearly agree that a regular hair-wash is a hassle. In 2008, Boots reported a 45% rise in sales of dry shampoo ( a product that can be sprayed on hair between showers), while the Batiste brand has recently seen its sales double. There are, of course, environmental benefits. In a bid to reduce his carbon footprint to the absolute minimum, environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy, 51, limits his showers to about twice a week. "The rest of the time I have a sink wash," he says. "I believe that I'm as clean as everyone else." It has helped him to get his water consumption down to around 20 litres a day – well below the 100 to 150 average in the UK. As McCarthy points out, it's only recently that we have expected people to bathe or shower every day. "When I was a kid," he says, "the normal thing was to bathe once a week." Head much further back into history, and we find Elizabeth I bathing once a month, and James I apparently only ever washing his fingers. In 1951, almost two-fifths of UK homes were without a bath, and in 1965, only half of British women wore deodorant. Now we have begun to fetishise extreme cleanliness, to create the kind of culture where, as McCarthy says, it's not entirely unusual for people staying in hotels to churn through 1,000 litres of water a day – showering in the morning, after a sauna, after the swimming pool, before dinner, before bed. The international market for soaps of all kinds is now $24bn a year. And some dermatologists fear that this intense, regular washing is stripping our skin of germs that could actually be beneficial to us, that help our skin stay healthy, balanced and fresh. It might be worth us all occasionally missing a shower or two, then, so long as we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. While being environmentally friendly is good, smelling like a bin is not. | ['environment/ethical-living', 'tone/features', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'environment/water', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'type/article', 'profile/kiracochrane', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2010-11-02T09:30:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2020/nov/02/lack-of-climate-action-over-50-years-will-cost-the-economy-34tn-and-880000-jobs-report | Lack of climate action over 50 years will cost Australian economy $3.4tn and 880,000 jobs – report | Australia’s economy will be 6% smaller, there will be 880,000 fewer jobs and $3.4tn in economic opportunities will be lost if the climate crisis goes unchecked for the next 50 years, a report says. On the other hand, the analysis by consultancy Deloitte Access Economics found policies consistent with a target of net zero emissions by 2050 and keeping global warming to 1.5C could expand the economy by 2.6%, or $680bn to the economy, and create 250,000 jobs. Deloitte focused on what it said was a fundamental flaw in how climate change is publicly considered – the idea that the costs of acting are weighed against an assumption the economy will keep growing if there are unconstrained emissions. Meanwhile, it said, the benefits of steps to tackle the issue were regularly downplayed. The report suggested Australia would experience an economic hit on par with Covid-19 every year by 2050 if the climate crisis was not addressed. It estimated more than 30% of employed Australians and 30% of national income were exposed to economic disruption and risk due to the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, and would suffer in an unplanned economic transition. “While this is a significant number of jobs and growth at risk – enough to drive recessions – it is not all doom and gloom,” it said. “The good news is that the remaining 70% of the workforce and Australia’s GDP is able to help create the change and a new economic trajectory for Australia in a post-Covid world.” Chris Richardson, Deloitte Australia’s chief economist, said the experience of Covid showed the cost of overlooking “catastrophic risks”. “It’s an urgent wake-up call for us to get ahead of that other big risk: climate change,” he said. “Australians need policy and regulatory reform that modernises our economy and unleashes business investment. The benefits of acting are huge, but we are fast running out of opportunity.” Richardson said the best way to tackle the climate crisis was through “market mechanisms”. The report recommended chasing “high-growth industries” such as mining new minerals for new technologies, supporting innovation in advanced manufacturing and investing in upgrading and replacing infrastructure. It was the latest in a growing push from across the political spectrum, including significant parts of the business sector and the community, for the government to do far more to back a green recovery to set the economy up for an inevitable shift to zero emissions. Modelling from different sources has routinely found the cost of waiting would be greater than acting now. That finding has become more pronounced as the cost of renewable energy reduced substantially in recent years. Last month the International Energy Agency said solar was the cheapest form of energy in human history. Pradeep Philip, the report’s lead author, said reaching net zero emissions by 2050 – a target the Morrison government has rejected but that is backed by the European Union, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Canada and US presidential candidate Joe Biden – to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and certainly no greater than 2C, was an “economic necessity”. “Whatever Australia does or doesn’t do, the global warming which has already taken place will hurt our lives and livelihoods. This cost is locked in – it is the cost of delay,” he said. “There isn’t a ‘no-cost’ option, so if we could take action today to prevent the next great recession from climate change, why wouldn’t we?” Philip said there would be costs and some losers in a transition to net zero emissions, “but we’ll all be losers if we fail to act”. The report estimated reaching net zero emissions would reduce GDP by $90bn by 2050. It said about a quarter of this – $23bn – is unavoidable due to locked-in impacts of climate change, and the remaining $67bn is a small price to pay relative to the size of the economy. “For comparison, the current jobjeeper program is costing the federal budget just over $65bn this year alone – and this is the necessary price Australia is paying to minimise the worst economic consequences of Covid,” it said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found emissions would need to reach net zero by about 2050 to limit global heating to 1.5C, considered necessary to limit the effects of climate change. But it said it would also require rapid action over the next decade: a 45% cut in global emissions compared with 2010 levels by 2030. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'politics/economy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-11-01T16:30:25Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2023/dec/16/paris-us-size-cars-europe-emissions-suvs-france | Paris is saying ‘non’ to a US-style hellscape of supersized cars – and so should the rest of Europe | Alexander Hurst | The United States is in the midst of a full-blown size crisis. No, I’m not talking about the mad rush for Wegovy, which is selling so swiftly that Denmark has to remove data relating to manufacturers Novo Nordisk to measure (the rest of) its economy properly. And no, I’m not talking about … something else. I’m talking about the enormous monstrosities filling up its roads. (Yeah, I see you on the streets of downtown Cleveland alone in your $85,000, 7,000lb Dodge Ram and I can tell you’re not a farmer … maybe that actually says something about the “something else”.) There are lots of trends, ideas, music and films that cross the Atlantic. Some of them are good. This is not one of them. Neither are the 500 Krispy Kreme “points of access” the American chain is planning to open across France over the next year. (One, OK, fine, for the novelty, but 500 in the next year? In a country that exists in a completely different universe when it comes to pastries?) Whether France is chauvinist enough on its own to resist an invasion of American doughnuts remains to be seen. When it comes to oversized passenger cars, though, Europe as a whole should be doing more to make sure that they remain confined to the other side of the Atlantic. This year, the average weight of a new car in the US was more than 4,300lb (2,000kg) – a full 1,000lb (450kg) more than in 1980. It’s not just that people are opting to drive larger models; the same models themselves have expanded. You can see the evolution most clearly with pickup trucks. Take, for example, the iconic Ford F-150, as Axios does in this comparative graphic. Since 1970, the truck has become progressively larger, even as its bed – the fundamental point of owning a pickup truck, one would think – has become smaller. It should be obvious that bigger, heavier cars are an ecological disaster. Without the trend towards bigger and bigger SUVs, global emissions from the motor industry would have fallen by 30% between 2010 and 2022. And even though a heavier electric vehicle (EV) is still preferable, emissions-wise, to a lighter petrol-engine vehicle, a lighter EV is obviously more efficient than a weightier one. The heavier the vehicle, the larger the battery it requires – and with it, more critical metals, and more electricity required for each charge. The arms race in vehicle size is also a safety disaster, for other drivers and certainly for pedestrians. The individual logic makes sense: would you want to drive on the same highway as Mr Tinydick’s 7,000lb (3,175kg) Dodge Ram if you’re in a Mini? Of course not – in a collision, the Ram would probably just drive straight over you, like a monster truck rally malfunction. And the driver of a similarly sized vehicle wouldn’t even see a small child in front at close distance. The macro-level effects are deadly. In the US, deaths in car crashes rose by 33% between 2011 and 2021, while pedestrian deaths have risen by 77% since 2010. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has now proposed tripling parking rates for SUVs in central Paris to €18 an hour, and €12 an hour for the rest of the city. The measure, which would include hybrids and electric vehicles over a certain weight limit – though with an exemption for Paris resident parking – would affect roughly 10% of the cars in the city. And beyond Paris, Tesla’s 6,800lb (3,080kg) Cybertruck probably won’t be coming to Europe at all, because at that weight, it requires a trucking licence to drive (I write this with a sigh of relief). Hidalgo’s administration has pitched the increased parking fee as a form of social justice (taxing the owners of expensive cars) as well as a way to encourage use of public transport. It’s a good start, but we need bolder regulation to redirect the automobile industry towards smaller instead of bigger, the same way Europe gave industry clear incentives to move away from plastics: a progressive tax on vehicle weight. Some EU countries already do this, such as France, which applies a €10/kg tax above 1.8 tonnes. I’m not sure this is sufficient to head off the upsizing trend when it comes to luxury vehicles. And at the moment, the weight tax exempts EVs, which is good in theory, because ideally EVs should always be more economical than internal combustion engines across every vehicle class. But EVs aren’t inherently exempt from size inflation, and so a progressive weight tax on EVs – just staggered lower than the tax on internal combustion engine cars – seems like a logical thing to do. The next time I go back to the US, I wouldn’t be surprised to find someone driving an actual tank down the street, probably on their way to Krispy Kreme. Please let that be a novelty combination I’ll never see in Europe. Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/france', 'business/automotive-industry', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'environment/electric-cars', 'environment/automotive-emissions', 'world/paris', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/alexander-hurst', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-europe-project', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-12-16T07:50:35Z | true | EMISSIONS |
business/article/2024/aug/29/drax-fine-ofgem-data | Drax to pay £25m after regulator finds wood pellet reporting failures | The power generator Drax has agreed to pay £25m after the energy industry regulator found it had submitted inaccurate data on the sourcing of wood pellets used at its massive plant in North Yorkshire. An investigation by Ofgem, which was launched last year, concluded that there was “an absence of adequate data governance and controls in place” when it came to profiling the sources of wood used by Drax from Canada between April 2021 and the end of March 2022. This kind of profiling data is used to determine, for example, whether wood pellets had come from sawmills or forests. About 80% of the wood pellets used at the company’s biomass plants are sourced from forests in the US and Canada. Ofgem said there was no evidence to suggest that the breach was deliberate, and said instead that it was “technical in nature”. It also found no evidence that the biomass sourced for the power plant was unsustainable or that Drax had wrongly laid claim to millions in renewable energy subsidies. The regulator’s findings could help the company to secure an extension to its existing subsidy scheme, which is scheduled to end in 2027. Drax has lobbied the government for its continuation until 2030, when the company expects to be eligible for a fresh stream of subsidies for its plan to fit carbon capture technology to the plant. Drax received more than £500m in subsidies in the last financial year. It has claimed more than £7bn in bill-payer-backed subsidies since it began work to convert the former coal plant to run on biomass in 2012. The sums have provoked outrage from green campaigners who have questioned the claims that biomass is a sustainable source of renewable energy. Drax insists that its biomass generation is “carbon neutral” because the emissions produced from its chimney stacks are offset by the emissions absorbed by the trees that are grown to produce the pellets. But some scientists have said it would take decades for trees to absorb enough carbon dioxide to offset the emissions produced immediately as pellets are burned. This week more than 40 green groups – including from Canada – called on the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, to scrap plans to pay subsidies to “the most polluting power plant in the UK” to keep burning wood pellets imported from overseas forests. Drax’s chief executive, Will Gardiner, said: “It is welcome that Ofgem has found no evidence that our biomass failed to meet the sustainability criteria of the renewables obligation [certificate] (ROC) scheme, nor that the ROCs we received for the renewable power we produced had been provided incorrectly. “Although Ofgem has noted there is no evidence to suggest Drax deliberately misreported its profiling data, we recognise the importance of maintaining a strong evidence base and are continuing to invest to improve confidence in our future reporting.” Drax has agreed to pay £25m towards a voluntary redress scheme – which is used to fund support for vulnerable customers – to settle the matter, and resubmit its profiling data for Canadian-sourced wood pellets. It will also hire an independent auditor to produce data for its annual biomass report for the year to March. The US-based Natural Resources Defense Council said the payment was a “drop in the ocean”. Matt Williams, a senior advocate for the environmental group, said: “This ruling shows how difficult it is to prove that burning wood from forests is good for the environment. There’s one simple reason for that – it isn’t. “The £25m fine Drax have volunteered to pay is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions they’re asking for in new subsidies. The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, must see it’s not worth paying even more of the public’s money to a company that can’t play by the rules.” | ['business/draxgroup', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/ofgem', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'environment/forests', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kalyeena-makortoff', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-08-29T10:02:20Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/nov/23/a-poor-choice-of-words-to-describe-rich-people | A poor choice of words to describe rich people | Brief letters | If we are not recycling all our plastic waste, largely because many councils cannot deal with all the variations (Just a third of plastic is recycled, survey shows, 22 November), why are the major supermarkets allowed to keep inventing new wrappings consisting of mixed materials and marked “Not currently recyclable”? Jean Wood Hythe, Kent • In 1970, it wasn’t the work, it was the prospect of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll and escaping from home that was the lure (Our friends from the north, G2, 22 November). Now I crave to return to Liverpool, but London-born husband refuses to go somewhere that’s wetter and colder. Jennifer Henley London • Lewis Carroll’s expression “jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today” (Letters, 22 November) is a pun on Latin grammar regarding the usage of iam (then) – which can be used for future or past events, but not in the present tense, when nunc (now) should be used. Andy Smith Kingston upon Thames • Please don’t refer to rich people as “ultra-high-net-worth individuals” (Report, 23 November). These people are of no more or less worth than anyone else, they just have more money. Mark Walford London • Re Crimea, is it “the first time Europe’s borders have been changed by force since 1945” (Donald and Vladimir, G2, 21 November)? What about Yugoslavia? Myra Gartshore Dumbarton • I beg to differ (Letters, 22 November). The humanities encourage me to think that the universe revolves around us. The sciences remind me that it doesn’t. David William Evans Leeds • Was your long read on Danish culture (The hygge conspiracy, 22 November) actually written by Charlotte Hyggens? Derrick Cameron Stoke-on-Trent • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'books/lewiscarroll', 'books/books', 'business/rich-lists', 'business/business', 'world/crimea', 'world/ukraine', 'world/europe-news', 'education/humanities', 'education/science', 'education/education', 'world/denmark', 'world/world', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-11-23T18:29:32Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2020/jan/03/three-energy-firms-to-pay-for-failings-over-august-blackout | Three energy firms to pay £10.5m for failings over August blackout | Three energy companies will pay a combined £10.5m for failing to prevent a power cut after a lightning strike last summer that left more than 1 million customers in the dark and led to travel problems across large parts of the UK. The energy regulator, Ofgem, said Hornsea One, a windfarm company part-owned by Ørsted, and RWE, the owner of a gas power station, had each agreed to pay £4.5m for not remaining connected after the lightning strike. UK Power Networks, a Hong Kong-owned company that runs distribution networks in the east of England, south-east England and London, will pay £1.5m for not following correct procedures. The money will go into Ofgem’s consumer redress fund. Large parts of England and Wales were affected by the power cut on the evening of 9 August, which caused massive disruption during rush hour as railway stations fell into darkness and traffic lights turned off. A lightning strike on that Friday evening caused the Hornsea windfarm off the coast of Yorkshire and RWE’s Little Barford gas power station in Bedfordshire to stop generating electricity because of “unforeseen technical issues”. The strike also put offline about 150MW of smaller generation, known as distributed generation. National Grid electricity system operator (ESO), which manages the distribution of power in the UK, activated backups but there was not enough available, meaning local network operators were forced to cut off customers. Power was restored within 45 minutes but the disruption on the railway network lasted well into 11 August. The Office of Rail and Road, a separate government regulator, found train operating companies had also contributed to the disruption, which resulted in King’s Cross and Euston stations in London being closed. Software flaws on some trains caused extended delays for many commuters. ORR’s report criticised Govia Thameslink Railway and the train manufacturer Siemens, but said there was no breach of regulations that would warrant a fine. Twenty-two GTR trains required technicians to restart them after shutting down automatically when the power failed. There were too few technicians on standby to handle the number of stranded trains, while Siemens admitted the software on the trains was flawed. Ofgem also said it would review the structure and governance of National Grid ESO after raising concerns about its response. A National Grid ESO spokesman said the report confirmed there was “no link between our actions and the power cut of 9 August”, and said many of Ofgem’s recommendations were contained in its own review. However, Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem’s executive director for systems and networks, said the investigation had “raised important questions” about National Grid ESO. He added that it was right the energy companies had paid up because of the “disruption and distress” the power cut had caused. The government-backed energy emergencies executive committee also published plans on Friday to reduce the chances of similar blackouts happening again. The business secretary, Andrea Leadsom, confirmed its action plan would be implemented in full and described the power cut as “unacceptable”. Plans include reviewing the benefits and drawbacks of requiring National Grid ESO to hold additional backup generation, and supporting essential service owners and operators to put in place more robust business continuity plans. Ørsted, RWE and UK Power Networks said they had all taken steps to rectify the problems. Steve White, the chief operating officer of GTR, said: “Passengers are now protected from this rare but disruptive event because, following a full review with GTR, Siemens Mobility has modified all the trains so that none of them now need a technician to restart.” | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/ofgem', 'business/nationalgrid', 'business/rwe-npower', 'business/utilities', 'environment/windpower', 'business/regulators', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2020-01-03T11:07:25Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2010/jul/10/bp-gulf-oil-spill-new-cap | BP attempts to place new cap over Gulf of Mexico oil rupture | BP engineers will spend the weekend trying to arrest the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico by lowering a replacement cap over the ruptured well. If successful, the scheme could stem the spill in time for David Cameron's first visit to Washington, which is expected to be dominated by discussion of the environmental disaster. The cap currently on the well collects only a fraction of the estimated 35,000-60,000 barrels of oil per day spewing out of the failed blowout preventer on the sea bed. Installation work on the new cap should start today, and while it is still only a temporary measure it should be able to siphon off far more oil. The spill is only likely to be fully curtailed by the relief wells BP is currently drilling more than 5km below sea level. A new cap would, however, give BP chief executive Tony Hayward something tangible to present to politicians and investors when BP announces second-quarter results on 27 July and should be in place by 20 July when Cameron is due to arrive in the US. The capping procedure, which could take up to 10 days, means that the existing "top hat" on the well would have to be removed, allowing oil to flow freely into the sea again. But the plan was approved on Friday by national incident commander Thad Allen and energy secretary Steven Chu. In an email to staff outlining the plan, Hayward struck an optimistic note, saying the oil group would emerge from the disaster, caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on 20 April, "as a stronger and safer company in the months and years to come". BP's clean-up costs to date amount to some $3.12bn (£2bn), including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. To recoup some of those losses, in June BP sent out demands for almost $400m to its partners in the well – Houston-based Anadarko and Japan's Mitsui Oil Exploration Company. Anadarko owns 25% of the well and Mitsui has 10%. Anadarko, however, has flatly refused to pay up. The latest attempt to halt the spill comes after a week of shuttle diplomacy by Hayward, who is searching for a friendly investor to see off a potential hostile takeover from a rival such as Total, Shell or ExxonMobil. After talks with an existing shareholder, the Kuwait Investment Office, about taking a larger stake in the business, the BP boss is understood to have met the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) last week. The Libyan Investment Authority was also advised to invest in BP shares by Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's national oil company. | ['environment/bp-oil-spill', 'business/bp', 'business/tony-hayward', 'environment/oil-spills', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/richardwray', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/business'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-07-10T12:25:24Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2011/jul/28/china-fast-train-to-disaster | China is on the fast train to disaster | Isabel Hilton | China's high-speed rail network seemed to symbolise the nation's unstoppable rise: since the first line opened in 2007, it has built more than 6,000 miles of track and seemed poised to spread the magic into overseas markets, bidding aggressively against established international players. Yet this week, families were mourning the 39 dead and tending the 200 injured in Saturday's crash, the latest and worst episode in the high-speed rail fiasco. A project said to show China was poised for leadership in advanced technologies is collapsing in death, anger and embarrassment. How it went so badly wrong carries some dark lessons for China. It's a story of corruption and corner-cutting and of responsibility passed around an opaque and untouchable bureaucracy. It is also a lesson in a nationalistic habit of "digesting" foreign technology, as one railway official put it, then changing it, so as to claim the result as a Chinese invention. The lines have been plagued by breakdowns; the track, according to foreign experts, is substandard and likely to crack. The railway minister has been sacked and is under investigation for corruption, and costs have tripled. Bloggers claim the government is more intent on a cover up than an investigation. These are not the only chickens coming home to roost. A series of scandals has wiped millions off the share price of several Chinese companies. Revelations of fraudulent accounting in China have shattered investor confidence. As with the rail, this has raised questions: without more accountability and transparency, is China really ready to take the next, difficult steps? How can a system that allows so little objective analysis ever achieve that accountability? These are questions that matter as much to China's partners as they do to the government. Corruption has destroyed confidence in China's prestige projects. Corruption also kills: it killed children in Sichuan in 2008 when their schools collapsed, and migrant workers in Shanghai last year when their apartment building became a deadly inferno; it killed babies who were given poisoned milk, drivers on collapsing bridges and thousands each year with vegetables irrigated with contaminated water. Corruption was a prominent theme in President Hu Jintao's speech to the Communist party's recent 90th birthday celebrations, as it has been in almost every leader's speech for decades. Yet the conditions that make such corruption endemic remain untouched: the monopoly of power in the hands of an untouchable institution. The prosecution of individuals, however high-profile the trials, has done nothing to change that. China's 30-year economic rise has been impressive, but suspicion over basic data makes it all but impossible to determine how sustainable it is. The boastful speed of railway construction recalls the Great Leap Forward in the late 50s, when officials were set absurd targets for food production and duly reported them met. Some 30 million people starved to death. The leadership's response to each of these disasters has been the same: to suppress discussion, silence the victims and paint itself as the solution, not the problem. Last week, when local witnesses protested that railway officials had hastily buried wrecked carriages, there was indignation but little surprise. China Digital Times reported that the central propaganda department had instructed the media that they "must speedily report whatever information is released by the Railway Ministry". Unless systemic lessons are learned, there is more to fear. China is embarking on the world's biggest and fastest expansion of nuclear power. The world must pray the industry will somehow prove immune to the curse of corner cutting, secrecy and corruption – or the potential consequences are chilling. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/china', 'world/world', 'world/rail-transport', 'world/china-earthquake', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/isabelhilton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-07-28T21:00:04Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2013/may/02/california-wildfires-firefighters-battle-blaze | California wildfires: Firefighters prepare for 'worst-case scenario' | Firefighters are battling to control a brush fire which has scorched homes, vehicles and thousands of acres of wilderness near Los Angeles, prompting evacuations and warnings of worse to come. Authorities were preparing for a "worst-case scenario" on Thursday as a blaze dubbed the "Springs fire" menaced the 101 freeway along Camarillo, a city in Ventura County, and raced towards the coast. Smaller fires blazed elsewhere. The Red Cross set up evacuation centres and about 500 firefighters tried to protect hundreds of homes from the flames. Officials made contingency plans to shut the Pacific Coast Highway and ordered people to leave Dos Vientos and California State University Channel Islands. "We advise anybody in the area to be prepared. Wildfires are very unpredictable – we don't know what direction it's going to go," Ventura County fire department spokesman Bill Nash told reporters. "We really want people to be prepared. It's better to do it now before a sheriff's deputy is knocking on your door." The Camarillo fire started around 6.30am and rapidly spread, consuming 2000 acres of wilderness, its progress reported on the Twitter hashtag #SpringsFire. "Winds are swirling and twisting, and we don't know what way it's going to turn. We're kind of at Mother Nature's mercy at this point," said Tom Kruschke, another fire department spokesman. A smaller fire in Jurupa valley destroyed seven buildings, 10 vehicles and a boat but by midday was said to be 50% under control. Another fire in Riverside County has burnt about 3,000 acres since Wednesday. Two firefighters were injured battling it. Strong, dry winds and hot temperatures, following southern California's driest winter in years, have turned swathes of wilderness into a tinderbox. The National Weather Service issued a red-flag "extremely high fire danger" warning for LA and Ventura counties. "The red flag conditions will continue through Friday afternoon since humidities are expected to remain extremely low with little or no overnight recoveries and daytime temperatures ranging from 90 to 100 degrees." | ['world/wildfires', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rorycarroll'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-05-02T20:49:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/oct/27/nestle-mars-and-hershey-breaking-promises-over-palm-oil-use-say-campaigners | Nestlé, Hershey and Mars 'breaking promises over palm oil use' | Nestlé, Mars and Hershey have been accused of breaking pledges to stop using “conflict palm oil” from deforested Indonesian jungles, just days before the annual Halloween confectionery frenzy. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says consumers have been “deceived” by promises from the brands to clean up their supply chains which were subsequently delayed, revised or watered down. Laurel Sutherlin, a spokesman for the group, told the Guardian: “For too many years, Nestlé, Mars and Hershey have cherry-picked their [palm oil] targets and then moved the goalposts when they don’t achieve them. There’s just no further room for error to prevent the extinction of tigers, orangutans and elephants.” The last parcel of Sumatran rainforest in which these three species all roam – along with rhinos, clouded leopards and sun bears – is vanishing at a dramatic pace as lucrative palm oil plantations illegally eat into tropical forestland. The brands source palm oil from this 2.6m hectare Leuser region, via complex supply chains, some involving traders linked to suppliers illegally logging in the region. Nestlé promised to end deforestation in its supply chain by 2015 in response to Greenpeace’s KitKat campaign of 2010. After Ran’s “Snack food 20” report, this was upgraded to a pledge of “no sourcing from areas converted from natural forests after 1 February 2013”. The target was missed. “Four years later we can now trace over 90% of our palm oil back to the mill of origin and almost two thirds back to the plantation level,” said Nestlé spokeswoman Peggy Diby. “Our ambition is to raise this figure to 100% by 2020, back to plantation.” In July, Nestlé told the Guardian it could only source 47% of its palm oil to plantations, suggesting a big improvement in the last three months. Hershey’s said in 2014 that it would source all of its palm oil back to the mill level by 2015, and to plantations by 2016. But its plantation level sourcing actually fell in 2016 from 27% to 14%, and the commitment has been deferred until 2020. Jeff Beckman, Hershey’s communications director said: “While we remain deeply committed to pushing all stakeholders to accelerate traceability and bring full transparency to this supply chain along with our supplier partners, we realised it would take more time to achieve this goal than originally anticipated.” Mars had promised to cut conflict palm oil out of its supply chain by 2015. A spokesperson said: “Our traceability levels remain high. In the year to date, 97% of our palm oil is traceable to mill level and 40% traceable to the plantation. The evidence of the challenge in Leuser is clear, and we are already taking steps toward action.” Gemma Tillack, Ran’s campaign director said: “It is our view that the brands have deceived consumers by continually claiming to be tackling deforestation when they have not executed the actions required to achieve a moratorium on the forest frontlines of their global supply chains.” • This article was amended on 30 October 2017 to include a response from Mars, which was supplied after publication. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/palm-oil', 'business/business', 'business/nestle', 'world/indonesia', 'environment/deforestation', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/arthurneslen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-10-28T09:10:52Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/apr/25/extinction-rebellion-holds-hyde-park-rally-to-mark-pause-in-protests | Extinction Rebellion holds Hyde Park rally to mark 'pause' in protests | Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists have gathered at Hyde Park Corner in London to mark a pause in the protests that have gripped London for more than a week and are preparing to take the fight back to local communities. Climate protesters targeted the city’s financial hub on Thursday to highlight the role the sector plays in climate change. The environmental group said it was the last day of action before it would stop this stage of its campaign of peaceful mass civil disobedience, following protests in which hundreds of people were arrested and thousands of police officers deployed to sites occupied by the group. The closing ceremony started with emotional speeches to congratulate protesters for bringing the issue of climate change back on to the political agenda. Skeena Rathor, a Labour councillor from Stroud, Gloucestershire, told the crowd: “This is our pause ceremony. Welcome to the beginning of our pause. We invite all you wonderful people to rest, to rejuvenate … and reflect on all you’ve achieved.” A group of protesters, dressed in red robes and with their faces painted white, circled the crowd. There was music and poetry, with one group of performers calling on the crowd to “honour the Mother Earth”. Sinoed Eirian, a 21-year-old student, said she was moved by what she had seen during the week, adding: “[This is] not the ending, but the beginning.” Alan Woodward, a 45-year-old gardener, said he had been working eight to 10 hours a day and joining the protest in the evenings for the past week. “I’m not so fearful of standing up for what I believe in any more,” he said. The final day of action kicked off early, with protesters glueing themselves on to the front and back entrances of the London Stock Exchange at 6.40am. Activists were wearing LED signs saying “Climate emergency”, “Tell the truth” and “You can’t eat money”. An hour later, five demonstrators in east London climbed on top of a train at Canary Wharf holding signs including “business as usual = death” and “don’t jail the canaries”, in what the group said was a reference to “the financial sector’s role in our collective suicide”. Among them was Phil Kingston, 83, who had previously chained himself to a pipe in Oxford Circus. “Like all parents and grandparents, I want a future,” he said. He expressed his concern over the impact of climate change on the poorest people, arguing they would be most affected by ecological collapse. “Everything is going to have to shift,” he said. The protest resulted in minor delays on the DLR. Officers from British Transport Police used ropes and ladders to remove the protesters. Kingston, who added it was his birthday, was arrested alongside four other demonstrators. The protest followed similar action on Wednesday last week in which Cathy Eastburn, 51, from south London, Mark Ovland, 35, from Somerton in Somerset, and Luke Watson, 29, from Manuden in Essex, were remanded in custody until their trial in May, after they were charged with obstructing trains or carriages on the railway by an unlawful act, contrary to section 36 of the Malicious Damage Act 1861. Savannah, 20, a student said: “After the last DLR action the state used its power to put people in prison on remand and in response we have to escalate – not back down.” More than 300 demonstrators then split into groups of 10 to stop traffic in moving protests across the City of London to highlight the role of the finance industry in fuelling climate change. The road blockades were brief until a group obstructed the road outside Goldman Sachs and refused to move, bringing traffic on Fleet Street to a standstill for several hours. A dozen protesters lay on the floor and connected their arms with tubes, blocking up to 30 buses and several cars. As activists were arrested and taken away one by one, they were serenaded by a samba band. One of its members – Brooke Tate, 25, a painter and musician – said Extinction Rebellion had created a warm, inclusive community. “You never feel alone, you feel part of a community. If this carried on, eventually all of London will join in.” The protest was then taken to the Treasury where seven activists glued themselves to each other in front of the entrance. Among them was 17-year-old Belle Lewis, a sixth-form student who has been on several student strikes this year. She said: “I just don’t think the government have realised the urgency of the situation … I don’t understand why it’s not the most important issue. We are facing a sixth mass extinction.” She said she was drawn to the protest for a simple reason. “I’m here out of love. I love people as I love the world and I want it to prosper.” | ['environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'uk/uk', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/ukcrime', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aamna-mohdin', 'profile/molly-blackall', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-25T18:49:58Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2021/mar/24/disease-outbreaks-more-likely-in-deforestation-areas-study-finds | Disease outbreaks more likely in deforestation areas, study finds | Outbreaks of infectious diseases are more likely in areas of deforestation and monoculture plantations, according to a study that suggests epidemics are likely to increase as biodiversity declines. Land use change is a significant factor in the emergence of zoonotic viruses such as Covid-19 and vector-borne ailments such as malaria, says the paper, published on Wednesday in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. Even tree-planting can increase health risks to local human populations if it focuses too narrowly on a small number of species, as is often the case in commercial forests, the research found. The authors said this was because diseases are filtered and blocked by a range of predators and habitats in a healthy, biodiverse forest. When this is replaced by a palm oil plantation, soy fields or blocks of eucalyptus, the specialist species die off, leaving generalists such as rats and mosquitoes to thrive and spread pathogens across human and non-human habitats. The net result is a loss of natural disease regulation. “I was surprised by how clear the pattern was,” said one of the authors, Serge Morand, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. “We must give more consideration to the role of the forest in human health, animal health and environmental health. The message from this study is ‘don’t forget the forest’.” The researchers examined the correlation between trends for forest cover, plantations, population and disease around the globe using statistics from international institutions such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the Gideon epidemic database. Over the period of study from 1990 to 2016, this covered 3,884 outbreaks of 116 zoonotic diseases that crossed the species barrier and 1,996 outbreaks of 69 vector-borne infectious diseases, mostly carried by mosquitoes, ticks or flies. The paper shows outbreaks increased over time, while plantations expanded rapidly and overall forest cover declined gradually. By itself, a correlation is not proof of causality because other factors may be involved, such as climate disruption. The authors bolster their argument with multiple references to individual case studies that highlight the links between epidemics and land use change. In Brazil, scientists have demonstrated that deforestation increases the risks of outbreaks of malaria. In south-east Asia, studies have shown how forest clearing favours the mosquito Anopheles darlingi, which is a vector for several diseases. Loss of primary forests has also been identified as a factor in the emergence of Ebola in west Africa and the re-emergence of arthropod-borne leishmaniasis. The new study adds to a growing body of evidence that viruses are more likely to transfer to humans or animals if they live in or near human-disturbed ecosystems, such as recently cleared forests or swamps drained for farmland, mining projects or residential projects. This is shaped by trade patterns and consumer behaviour. A quarter of global forest loss is driven by the production of commodities such as beef, soy, palm oil and wood fibre. Mining adds to this problem by contaminating rivers and streams that are vital for a resilient ecosystem, carbon sequestration and soil quality. Morand said his study showed that disease risks needs to be added to risk-benefit analysis of new projects. “We should take the costs of public health into account when considering new plantations or mines. The risks are first to local people, but then worldwide because we have seen with Covid how quickly diseases can spread.” He is particularly concerned about the deteriorating environmental health of the Amazon rainforest. Under the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, deforestation has surged to levels not seen in more than a decade and public health systems have been so mismanaged that the country now has the worst Covid death rate in the world. “Everyone in the field of planetary health is worried about what is happening to biodiversity, climate and public health in Brazil,” Morand said. “The stress there is growing. The Amazon is near a tipping point due to climate change, which is not good at all for the world ecosystem. If we reach the tipping point, the outcomes will be very bad in terms of drought, fires and for sure in terms of disease.” Other areas of concern include the rainforests of the Congo basin and south-east Asia, and monoculture afforestation projects in China, Europe and the US. “Our results clearly suggest that it is not only forest clearance that is responsible for outbreaks of infectious diseases, but also reforestation or afforestation, particularly in countries outside the tropical zone,” the paper notes. Morand is now working on a more detailed study that will use satellite analysis of forest cover to examine links with disease. With more information, he believes it may be possible to predict future outbreaks and to work with local communities to build ecologically diverse and economically productive landscapes that reduce the risks. As the author of a 2016 book called The Next Plague, he says it is only a matter of time until the next pandemic. “The risks are very high. It’s just a case of when and where. We need to prepare.” | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/special-supplement', 'theguardian/special-supplement/special-supplement', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-03-24T05:00:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2019/aug/27/justin-welby-investors-must-pressure-firms-act-climate-crisis | Justin Welby: investors must pressure firms to act on climate crisis | The archbishop of Canterbury has criticised the investment industry for inaction over the climate crisis and called on fund managers to push companies to reduce their impact on the environment. Justin Welby said fund managers had “not sufficiently stepped up to the plate” to use their ownership of companies to press for change. He said investors should tell firms to help meet targets set by the Paris climate agreement. Welby said: “The situation we find ourselves in has rightly been called a climate emergency. We know it’s unquestionable that investors acting together can influence outcomes on everything, including climate change. “It is in investors’ power to help avert the disastrous consequences – ethical and financial – of failing to achieve the Paris goals.” Welby’s words are his most direct criticism of the fund management industry over the climate emergency. He has argued before that concern over global heating would shake up investment and has encouraged investors to drive change. He made his latest comments in support of a Global Ethical Finance Initiative summit next month in Edinburgh on how to make finance work better for people and the planet. Welby said: “Money is not morally neutral – it can do harm and it can do good. At the very least it is the responsibility of investors to take account of environmental, social and governance factors in their investment decisions and in their stewardship of their assets.” Oil companies, miners, airlines and carmakers are among companies facing increasing criticism over their responsibility for carbon emissions that contribute to global heating. The biggest companies in the US recently conceded they should take responsibility for the environment, worker welfare and ethical dealing as well as making money. The archbishop said funds that track indexes such as the FTSE 100 rather than picking individual shares needed to exert more pressure on companies over the climate crisis. Welby said: “Passive investment … may be the right investment solution for many, but passive stewardship is the answer for no one. All investors can make a difference by engaging and voting determinably in support of the Paris agreement.” BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset management company, has defended its lack of action on the climate emergency by saying most of its funds invest in indexes. BlackRock has lost an estimated $90bn (£73bn) over the past decade by ignoring the financial risk of investing in fossil fuel companies, a report said last month. The archbishop, a former oil industry executive, has said the Church of England was late in switching its own investments away from companies that damage the climate. In its latest move the church voted last year to withdraw investment from companies that do not meet the terms of the Paris agreement by 2023. | ['uk/justin-welby', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/ethical-living', 'money/investmentfunds', 'money/moneyinvestments', 'money/money', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sean-farrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2019-08-27T21:00:23Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2008/jun/25/climatechange.fishing | The question: Will jellyfish rule the world? | Well, in terms of a straight head count against humans, they already do. There are about six and a half billion of us on this planet, whereas a fluther of jellyfish (collective-noun aficionados also accept a "smack") measuring just 10 square miles to a depth of 11 metres that wiped out a Northern Ireland salmon farm last year was said by marine scientists to have contained "billions" of mauve stinger jellyfish. Worse, this menacing mass of scyphozoans looks set to swell further: this is the eighth summer in a row that the Mediterranean coastline has been plagued by them. Traditionally, jellyfish plagues have only been a concern once every decade or so. Many are now blaming their increasing frequency on climate change. They are also not the only species likely to thrive as our climate changes. Coccolithophores are said to be booming as carbon dioxide levels increase and ocean temperatures rise. These single-celled algae and phytoplankton sit at the bottom of the marine food chain and have, as a result, helped other species to multiply. An expedition of marine ecologists to Antarctica last year reported that higher-than-average concentrations of phytoplankton and krill had encouraged more shrimp and fish, which, in turn, had encouraged minke whales and seabirds. Back on shore, rats, slugs and snails, foxes, mosquitoes, wasps, cockroaches, rabbits and pigeons are already enjoying our warming climate. Shrewsbury and Atcham borough council said last year that complaints about rats had doubled in just 12 months and its chief rat catcher said climate change was partly to blame. Here's some good news, though: nature spotters have been reporting a rise in sightings of rare "foreign" species such as the long-tailed blue butterfly and Cetti's warbler in the UK. Alas, neither feed on jellyfish. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/biology', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-06-24T23:01:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2016/sep/15/hinkley-point-chinese-firm-to-submit-essex-nuclear-plant-plans | China plans central role in UK nuclear industry after Hinkley Point approval | China is set for a central role in Britain’s nuclear industry after the government gave the go-ahead for a new power station at Hinkley Point. The Chinese company involved in the £18bn project plans to submit a design for a nuclear power station in Essex within weeks. China General Nuclear agreed to take a 33% stake in Hinkley Point C in Somerset, alongside the French energy group EDF, in return for leading the project at Bradwell, Essex. CGN said it was “delighted” that Theresa May’s government had approved the power station at Hinkley Point. Hinkley Point C will be the first nuclear power plant in Britain since 1995 and eventually provide 7% of the country’s electricity. However, it has been dogged by concerns about its cost and safety. The plant could eventually cost British taxpayers almost £30bn in subsidies to EDF and its Chinese backer. The government provoked uncertainty about the future of the nuclear industry after it delayed giving final approval for Hinkley Point C in July. May was said to have had concerns about Chinese involvement in such a sensitive project. However, it is understood that as part of the government approving Hinkley Point C it has assured CGN that its plans for Bradwell are still welcome. Sources close to the Chinese state-backed company said it intended to formally submit plans to the regulator to build its own nuclear reactor at Bradwell soon, potentially within weeks and almost certainly this autumn. CGN is understood to be confident about winning approval for its plans for Bradwell, although the review process for proposed power stations can take years. It is also ready to press ahead with proposals for another power station at Sizewell in Suffolk. If approved, the plants would give CGN a pivotal role in providing Britain with energy for the next generation. This is despite May insisting on a “revised agreement” for Hinkley Point C and the government pledging to take a special share in future nuclear projects to protect national security. CGN said: “We are delighted that the British government has decided to proceed with the first new nuclear power station for a generation. We are now able to move forward and deliver much-needed nuclear capacity at Hinkley Point, Sizewell and Bradwell with our strategic partners, EDF, and provide the UK with safe, reliable and sustainable low-carbon energy. “CGN and EDF have worked together in close cooperation for decades and this has laid a solid foundation for these three new nuclear projects. CGN looks forward to leveraging its 30 years’ experience in nuclear construction and operation and playing an important role in meeting the UK’s future energy needs.” Jean-Bernard Lévy, chief executive of EDF, said the government’s decision “marks the relaunch of nuclear in Europe”. CGN’s role in Bradwell B and Sizewell C were agreed with EDF in return for investing in Hinkley Point C. While EDF owns two-thirds of Hinkley Point C and CGN owns a third, this is likely to be reversed for Bradwell. It is intended that EDF will have an 80% share in Sizewell, with CGN holding the rest. China’s investment in nuclear power stations has attracted a mixed response. Justin Bowden, GMB national secretary, said the funding of new power stations should be separated from the design. He said: “With Hinkley now confirmed, attention must rightly shift to the other new nuclear power stations – including Bradwell in Essex and Sizewell in Suffolk – which we badly need across the country. The solution, however, is not to hand over the replacement of vital UK infrastructure lock, stock and barrel to China. “GMB strongly cautions that the funding of nuclear developments should always be kept totally separate from the regulation of the design and construction of new nuclear facilities and the transport and safeguarding of nuclear and radioactive materials. Chinese pop-up power stations are not a solution on their own.” However, business leaders welcomed the investment in Britain’s infrastructure and the introduction of a special share to protect national security. The changes to the Hinkley Point C deal mean the government will be able to block EDF selling its controlling stake in the project and have more influence over future developments. Terry Scuoler, chief executive of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said: “The government is right to grasp the nettle to remove the potential for uncertainty surrounding a future sale by seeking a ‘golden share’ in critical infrastructure projects. “This is a well-considered approach to balance foreign investment, which the UK needs, against an uncertain future. This is an important dynamic to consider, especially in the context of critical infrastructure projects where decisions on ownership could have direct implications for businesses being able to operate.” A so-called golden share in Hinkley Point C was first muted by the Liberal Democrats when they were in government. However, George Osborne, then the chancellor, is understood to have opposed it. EDF has previously signalled that it could reduce its stake in the project to 50% by bringing in other investors. CGN could also include fellow Chinese-stated backed energy company CNNC. However, Nick Timothy, May’s joint chief of staff, pointed out in an article for ConservativeHome last year that CNNC stated on its website that it was responsible not just for “increasing the value of state assets and developing the society” but the “building of national defence”. Timothy claimed security experts were worried the Chinese could build weaknesses into computer systems that would allow them to “shut down Britain’s energy production at will” and argued against giving a “hostile state” access to the UK’s critical infrastructure. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'uk/essex', 'world/china', 'environment/energy', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-ruddick', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-09-15T16:07:02Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2009/mar/05/cricket-sri-lanka-pakistan-attack-lahore | Cricket: Sri Lanka's players complain security in Lahore slackened after the one-day series | Back in August 2006, when a bomb outside a shopping centre less than a mile from their Colombo hotel prompted the South Africans to abandon a tri-series and head home, a Sri Lankan newspaper called them chickens, a point it emphasised with a cartoon that depicted one or two of the older players with wings. But there were no caricatures this morning, as a shell-shocked Sri Lanka team arrived at Bandaranaike International airport on a chartered flight from Abu Dhabi. Instead, there were only fervent hugs from teary relatives and an ambulance for Thilan Samaraweera, who took a bullet in the leg during the Lahore terror attack that has turned the cricket world upside down. In an article for the Cricinfo website that he dictated while in transit, Kumar Sangakkara spoke of how the 12 gunmen had shattered one of the subcontinent's few remaining illusions – the idea that cricket, followed with such fervour from Lahore to Colombo, from Mumbai to Dhaka, would never be a target of terror. "We had always felt pretty safe in Pakistan, to be honest," he said. "It shows how naive we were. We realise now that sports people and cricketers are not above being attacked. All the talk that 'no one would target cricketers' seems so hollow now. Far from being untouchable, we are now prize targets for extremists. That's an uncomfortable reality we have to come to terms with." Extremism and terror are no strangers to the average Sri Lankan. The Ranasinghe Premadasa Stadium, the biggest in the land, is named after the president who was killed by a suicide bomber on a bicycle during a May Day rally in 1993. Six years earlier, New Zealand's three-Test tour of the island had been cut to one after a car bomb planted by the Tamil Tigers killed more than 100 people at a bus station. "We have been brought up in a background of terrorist activities," said Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain who had hoped to end his reign with victory at the Gaddafi Stadium. "We are used to hearing, seeing these things – firing, bombings. So we ducked under our seats when the firing began. It was like a natural instinct." While the Pakistan Cricket Board has defended the security arrangements, some of the Sri Lankan players said that they had been slacker compared to the one-day series they played in January. "I think that security for the Test tour was relatively relaxed when compared to the three-match ODI series," said Tillekeratne Dilshan, who had scored a brilliant century on Monday. "There was massive security cover for the ODIs, but I think they would have never expected such attacks on cricketers." Dilshan spoke in graphic detail about the moments when time appeared to stand still on the big roundabout near the Liberty Market. "The driver, in a state of shock, stopped the bus for a couple of minutes as the bullets started hitting the windscreen a few inches above his head," he said. "I shouted 'drive fast, drive fast' as the gunmen started spraying bullets. If not for the heroic deeds of the driver, things would have been totally different." Sri Lanka now have no assignments until the Twenty20 World Cup in England this June, and Jayawardene admitted it would take time for the players and coaching staff to get over the ordeal. "There were no life-threatening injuries to any of our players, but they have been psychologically hit," he said. "Hopefully, reuniting with their family members would heal them faster. "For about 20 minutes, I thought I would never be able to return to Sri Lanka alive. We were helpless and just hiding behind the seats even as the bullets were being fired and players getting injured. I am a Buddhist by religion and I think we have done some merit in our previous births to have escaped with minor injuries. We want some time now to be with our families to get rid of this nightmare." While Sangakkara felt for the people of Pakistan, who will now be deprived of cricket on home soil for the foreseeable future, he admitted that going back there would be a very tough decision. "Pakistan is a great country with a strong cricket tradition and very hospitable people," he wrote. "We like playing cricket here, but the presence of a small minority pursuing their own agendas at any cost will surely prevent tours for the foreseeable future. I sincerely hope that a solution can be found with time but assume Pakistan will first need a neutral-venue solution for their home games. "Will I go back? When you have been through what we have experienced, when you have been targeted by terrorists yourself and been so fortunate to escape, it changes your thinking. It is a big question which cannot be answered now. "I suspect, too, for us it can only be answered as an individual. Our families will never feel the same about us leaving to play in Pakistan. That is sad – for Pakistan and world cricket." | ['world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/sri-lanka-cricket-team', 'sport/pakistancricketteam', 'world/world', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'tone/news', 'type/article'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-05T00:05:26Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
media/2014/jun/23/felix-dennis-poet-pioneer-oz-publisher | Felix Dennis: poet, pioneer, party planner and prolific planter | A poem with the enigmatic title Sign to Be Erected at the Gate to Argyle Wood sums up in many ways the character of Felix Dennis, the publisher, wide-boy and latter-day poet who has died of cancer at the age of 67. It was Judge Michael Argyle who, at the Old Bailey in 1971, jailed Dennis along with his two fellow editors of the underground magazine Oz. Argyle famously gave Dennis the shortest sentence because he was "the least intelligent", but his hopelessly flawed summing-up led to a successful appeal and subsequent ridicule. In the poem, which Dennis wrote decades later at his home on the island of Mustique – did the judge ever dream that the long-haired defendant would become a multimillionaire with his own Caribbean retreat? – he forgave Argyle and portrayed him as just another victim of the establishment: "Now rest, you daft old fool." Dennis, who probably planted more trees in Britain than any other individual in his lifetime, dedicated a wood to Argyle, "a bad judge, but not a bad man". It was in the wake of the eventual demise of Oz that Dennis embarked on his extraordinary career, founding Dennis Publishing. His remarkable ability to spot a wave just before it crested was first demonstrated by Kung-Fu Monthly, which capitalised on the cult following of the martial artist Bruce Lee. Former Oz contributors, writing under assumed names, padded out what was essentially a monthly poster of Lee. It was reprinted in 11 languages and made Dennis his first fortune. An eclectic mix of publications followed, catering to anyone interested in, say, skateboards, science fiction or motorcycles. A volume called Man-Eating Sharks, cashing in on the Jaws phenomenon, was written by a trio of hacks, each given a handful of library books and a 10-day deadline. There was a prescient breakthrough into computer magazines and the world of IT (no longer confused with the grandfather of Britain's underground mags of the same name). While Dennis thrived, despite some wild addictions, not all of his underground contemporaries did. But when money had to found for a lawyer in a drugs trial, a bill paid for rehab, or a wake organised, Dennis and his team were usually first on the scene. His parties – notably one on the Derry and Toms Roof Gardens in Kensington to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Oz trial – were spectacular. Where else would you encounter flamingoes, George Melly and Andy Fairweather Low singing Wide Eyed and Legless? Roger Hutchinson, who co-edited Oz in its later stages, remembers his early days there: "I would dutifully get in around 10am. If Felix appeared, it was sometime after 4pm. I thought he was testing my initiative. He wasn't. He was living the life he wanted to lead, on his own terms, and that never changed." Richard Adams, the designer who worked alongside Dennis for many years, recalls meeting him "wearing a muddy brown, pinstriped and double-breasted suit by Cecil Gee, kipper tie, crocodile boots and carrying a smart tan leather Samsonite briefcase". He remembers Dennis's "ability to create something from bugger all … More than his generosity, he will be remembered for his unquestioning friendship – whether you were up and sky-high, or down and out, he could always be counted upon to give you a hand up". Could Argyle have imagined that the unrepentant young hippie would one day be described by Tom Wolfe as a "21st-century Kipling"? His late career as a best-selling, hall-filling poet was puzzling to many, but it was not only the titles of his poetry tours – Did I Mention the Free Wine? – that led to his success. Over the years, Dennis commissioned dozens of bronze statues on his Warwickshire estate to celebrate his heroes, including – along with Kipling and Darwin – Chuck Berry, Stephen Hawking, Woody Guthrie, the Few, Brunel, Billie Holiday and the Owl and the Pussycat. A collection as wild and eccentric as the life. | ['media/felix-dennis', 'uk/uk', 'books/poetry', 'environment/forests', 'books/publishing', 'media/media', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/duncancampbell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-06-23T19:16:52Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/poverty-matters/2013/aug/21/india-dongria-kondh-vedanta-resources-mining | Vedanta's India mining scheme thwarted by local objections | KumKum Dasgupta | The result of India's first environment referendum is known. A dozen Dongria Kondh village councils in the eastern state of Odisha have rejected proposals by Vedanta Resources, the London Stock Exchange-listed mining company, to quarry the bauxite-rich Niyamgiri hills. The councils, or gram sabhas, cite gross violation of their religious and cultural rights. The tussle over the Niyamgiri hills between Vedanta, an $11.4bn multinational, and the 8,000-strong Dongria Kondh community has spanned a decade. The Kondhs, who live in the forests, believe the mountain range is sacred and that their god, Niyam Raja, provides them with food, water and a way of life. "We get almost everything from the mountain," says Kutia Majhi, president of the resistance group Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (the Save Niyamgiri Foundation). "All we need from the government is salt, kerosene. The government should spare our culture." On 18 April, India's supreme Court asked the Odisha government to garner opinion from villages potentially impacted by Vedanta's plans. In its order, the court interpreted the rights and power of tribal peoples and forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act of 2006, the constitutional provisions specific to them, holding that their religious and cultural rights must be protected. Vedanta is involved in a joint venture with the Odisha Mining Corporation Ltd (OMCL), a state-owned company, to develop a bauxite mine in the Niyamgiri hills and supply material to Vedanta's nearby alumina refinery. The OMCL, in consultation with Vedanta, chose the 12 villages in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts for the referendum process. Vedanta is keen to mine Niyamgiri and refine the bauxite locally because that will make it one of the most economical operations in the global aluminium industry. Odisha has rich bauxite deposits: an estimated 2,000m tonnes, two-thirds of India's total deposit. Vast tracts of India's mineral wealth lie in tribal areas, but indigeneous people complain they rarely reap any benefit. Odisha will now submit the the village council resolutions to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF); the fate of the project will be clear by mid-October. Analysts say the ministry may seek legal opinion from the ministry of tribal affairs, which felt all 100 villages affected by the project should have been consulted rather than just a dozen. Officials fear the 12 villages could be influenced later by Vedanta and the Odisha government. Meanwhile, Odisha officials are devising a strategy to supply bauxite to Vedanta from the OMCL reserve. Pinaki Misra, an MP for the BJD, the ruling party in Odisha, told the TV channel NDTV that his party is committed to providing Vedanta with bauxite. "The referendum is a positive move and follows the United Nations principle of free, prior and informed consent," says Ravi Rebbapragada, secretary general of Mines, Minerals and People, an alliance of individuals, institutions and communities concerned about, and affected by, mining. "India is a democracy, and so we demand that such referendums should also be held in other mining-affected areas of the country." "India has an unsustainable density of NGOs and the movement is instigated by them. These NGOs are stalling the country's development," says RK Sharma, secretary general of Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), who believes political competition for the tribal vote is also partly to blame for the Vedanta controversy. Sharma has questioned the desire of western countries that support NGOs working in India to support the growth of India's aluminium industry. In February 2000, the Union government approved 100% foreign direct investment in the mining sector, but investments have been negligible. "This is because of the NGOs as well as inactivity on the part of the states," says Sharma. According to FIMI, there are 64,565 applications pending with state governments for prospecting licences and mining leases. The Vedanta case has attracted international attention. After the 12-0 verdict, Survival International, which campaigns for the rights of tribal people, said: "Vedanta's experience should serve as an important lesson for companies intent on extracting resources from tribal peoples' lands: they must seek the communities' free, prior and informed consent and not proceed without it." At a public meeting held in New Delhi on 31 July, social activists, including writer Arundhati Roy, demanded that Vedanta demolish its refineries near the Niyamgiri hills and compensate local people. In 2010, the Church of England sold its Vedanta shares on ethical grounds, while in 2009 the FTSE 100 company was rebuked by the British government for failing to respect the human rights of the tribe. It has been suggested that the Na'vi, the indigenous race whose land is threatened by the activities of a powerful mining organisation in James Cameron's movie Avatar, were based on the Kondhs. After the referendum verdict, an ecstatic Lodu Sikaka, Dongria leader, said: "Our god lives in open space, you keep your God locked up with a key. We won't leave Niyamgiri. If the government and politicians ask for it, we will fight." | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'world/india', 'world/world', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'business/mining', 'business/business', 'business/vedantaresources', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/kumkum-dasgupta'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2013-08-21T13:45:10Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2015/mar/08/guardian-view-climate-change-social-disruption | The Guardian view on climate change and social disruption: how one form of chaos breeds another | Editorial | In 2014, around 3,500 boat people died trying to cross the Mediterranean to enter Europe. They risked their lives and lost. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees around 218,000 people got to Europe “by irregular means” last year. They took a chance and survived. Among them were those fleeing the violence in Syria, and of these, a proportion must be counted as climate refugees. Possibly because of global warming, the years 2007 to 2010 saw the most sustained drought on record in the Fertile Crescent. Agriculture collapsed, and around 1.5 million people abandoned failing farms in the countryside for Damascus and other cities. That is, they became climate refugees. Livestock was obliterated, cereal prices doubled, and children started to sicken with nutrition-related illnesses. The 2011 Syrian uprising against the Assad regime began in the crowded settlements of climate refugees. That label is a new one, but the idea is not just old, but prehistoric. The animating concern of the Guardian’s Keep it in the Ground series is that burning existing stocks of oil, gas and coal could, as Naomi Klein has written, result in cities drowning, citizens fleeing storms and droughts, and whole cultures being swallowed by the sea. Don’t dismiss this as wild speculation: anthropology and archeology are demonstrating how climate chaos has produced exactly such effects in the past. The first migration into Europe and Asia by homo sapiens out of Africa has been linked to the intermittent greening and parching of what’s now Saudi Arabia, in line with the ups and down of various ice ages. Rapid climate change obliterated one culture in Inner Mongolia more than 4,000 years ago, when it appears some of the displaced may have moved south and helped found what became China. Climate scientists have recently linked the collapse of the Mediterranean civilisation of the late bronze age to water shortages and hunger. Similarly, the failures of the Harappan civilisation in the Indus valley, and the Pueblo culture of the American southwest have been linked to drought. The Assyrian empire centred on Nineveh – remnants of which are now being demolished by Islamic State – fell in the 7th century BC, a time of climate stress. So the phenomenon of the climate refugee is not new. What is new is that, this time, the problem is of human making. Families are being driven from their land and livelihoods by changes effectively engineered by human action: the profligate burning within the last two centuries, of fossil fuels buried in the 60m years of the carboniferous period. Governments have repeatedly been warned that this is a problem that can only get worse, that drastic and concerted action is needed, and that by 2050 up to 150 million people could be displaced. In 2010 alone, according to UN International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction figures, 150 million were affected by floods. Flood refugees get the chance to go home when the waters recede. But in the decades to come, as rainfall patterns shift and the seas rise, some people – in Bangladesh, in Florida, in the Nile delta – will see their homes submerged forever. Islanders will find their coral atolls untenable. California is now in the grip of catastrophic drought linked to climate change and – remember John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath – California is now the most populous US state, thanks at least in part to settlers who walked off dusty Oklahoma farms eight decades ago. If California’s vineyards and orchards continue to desiccate, then some could start to consider the return journey, for the same reason that Syrian and Libyan families take to the perilous seas: because there is no choice. There are many reasons for civil war and social conflict, but extremes of temperature and drought often seem to be at play. The message from the packed, unseaworthy boats bobbing on the Mediterranean is that people are prepared to die to get to Europe, and Europeans are not prepared to kill to stop them. There is more to come. If the climate modellers are correct, then in a few decades, the climate refugees won’t only be outsiders, trying to get in. As temperatures soar and southern Europe dries up, people could one day start to abandon their farms and orchards and move north to seek sustenance and water. We really are all in this together. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'world/migration', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-03-08T18:48:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/2008/sep/11/advertising.marketingandpr | MTV ad attacks 'greenwash' firms | MTV is launching a global marketing push to tackle climate change that includes a TV ad attacking businesses guilty of "greenwash" - deliberately misleading consumers about their eco-credentials. The Viacom-owned global music TV broadcaster is launching a series of four promotional clips and five short films that urge corporations to make their lifestyle greener by "speaking to young people in their own language". One TV ad, created by ad agency 180 Amsterdam, features an animated character singing a "green song". In the tongue-in-cheek video clip the character sings about how to identify "false greens" by talking about businesses and politicians who choose to "paint" their policies green. The character tells viewers not to be drawn into a false sense of security but instead to take action in their daily lives. "There are so many fake greens out there it is criminal," said the 180 Amsterdam creative director, Sean Thompson. "The MTV Green Song simply asks you to do your bit for the environment by switching off your lights, computers and TV sets," Thompson added. This Green Song clip, one of four created by agencies including Selmore and Cake, is part of youth-targeted climate change initiative MTV Switch. "MTV Switch was created to provoke, entertain and encourage change among young people," said John Jackson, the director of social responsibility at MTV International. The public service announcements and short films, made by production company Element, will be available across MTV's global network of 165 local TV channels in 162 countries. MTV's campaign targets 15- to 25-year-olds, pushing the message that small actions taken by huge numbers of individuals can make a difference. Other promotional clips push messages such as saving energy by spending more time outside and switching off gadgets, and showing that everything from ice caps to gas prices is connected. The series of five short films follow the efforts of five young people who are each trying to tackle global warming issues in different ways. · To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/advertising', 'environment/environment', 'media/marketingandpr', 'media/media', 'environment/series/greenwash', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/news', 'media/mtv', 'type/article', 'profile/marksweney'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2008-09-11T13:55:09Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
technology/2015/jan/06/from-coffee-makers-to-cameras-six-gadgets-to-simplify-your-life | From coffee-makers to cameras: six gadgets to simplify your life | 1. Coffee If you’re a coffee lover, you’ve probably found yourself yearning for a fancy espresso machine at some point in your life, whether that’s a £1,400 Rocket Espresso, a somewhat simpler £150 Delonghi, or even just a cheap-n-cheerful Nespresso pod-based system. But here’s the secret: you can get coffee that is just as good from a £20 coffee gadget called an AeroPress. Sure, if you dedicate months of practice and the price of a second-hand family car, you could pull a better espresso from the pro-level machines. But who wants that fuss? The AeroPress, which produces coffee somewhere between a cafetiere and espresso machine, lets me use whatever coffee I want and make a damned good cup with just the addition of boiling water. I keep one on my desk. It doesn’t even need electricity, provided you have some other way of boiling the water. 2. Cameras Digital cameras are the latest devices to fall prey to feature-creep. With the bottom end of the market being consistently eaten away by smartphones, manufacturers are under increasing pressure to offer us some reason to buy an expensive, bulky, standalone device rather than just use the camera we have on us 24/7. But too often, those reasons are yet more complicated features, from GPS chips which tag photos with your location, through facial recognition which lets the camera zoom focus on people, all the way to HD video. None of those will help you take better photos. Instead, go simple – but good. The Leica M-E is the stripped-down version of the classic Leica M, perhaps the most loved individual camera ever. It’s not cheap (£4,200 for the entry-level model), and you emphatically don’t get any features for your money, but take the time to learn how to use it and maybe you will be the next Henri Cartier-Bresson. 3. Laptops The top end of laptops is a world of brushed aluminium and fancy features. The bottom end is a world of crappy plastic and shovelware, with computers shipped full of borderline spyware in order to pad out the minuscule margins earned by their manufacturers. And all of that for a device which is, for most people, vastly overpowered. If you surf the web, answer emails, and write documents, you don’t need a £400 graphics card. You barely need a screen. Google set out to fix that, with the Chromebook. It got off to a rocky start, but the latest generations of the laptops largely deliver on that promise. In essence, it’s a laptop stripped of everything but the web browser. You can use Gmail for emails, Google Docs as a word processor, and Picasa for your photos, as well as Google Play Music for your tunes and Google Calendar for your diary. Just try not to be somewhere you don’t have internet access. 4. Books I’ve seen it happen. You think: “I’d quite like to read ebooks”, because they’re great: they don’t take up space on shelves, you can shove them in a bag, and read them in the dark. But then the creep begins. First you worry about the lack of colour, because once you read a book with some nice pictures. Then you think that if you’re going to get a colour ereader, you may as well get a full-blown tablet, because some of those apps look good, and it would be nice to share photos. And then you go for a good screen, and before you know it, you’ve talked your way into a full-size iPad. Stop. You were right the first time. If you want to read books, get a Kindle. They’re simple, they work, they’re light, they’re cheap, and they’re pretty hardy. 5. Watches Did you know advertisers are salivating at the launch of the Apple Watch? Mobile ad exchange TapSense has already announced the launch of the first ad platform for the device, months before it even arrives. “Hyper-local advertising” is coming to your wrist. That’s terrible. Don’t do that. Get a Casio like me. My F91W (named back in the days when incomprehensible product designations were all the rage) has an alarm and a stopwatch, just like the Apple Watch does. Unlike the Apple Watch, it’s also waterproof, has a battery life measured in years not hours and only costs £20 rather than £250. In fact it’s so simple that terrorists have disassembled it to use as a bomb timer – Guantanamo analysts have described it as “the sign of al-Qaida”. 6. Text editors When feature-creep is mentioned, though, there’s only ever one winner: the venerable Microsoft Word, which began as a simple text editor and grew into something used to lay out entire books by professionals who should know better. If all you want to do is write, don’t open Word. Just use Text Edit, or, failing that, a prettier version of the same idea like IA Writer, TextMate or BBEdit. Words are words, and you want to get them out of you and into the computer as quickly as possible. That way, you won’t find yourself worrying over which font to use, whether to bold the headline or simply italicise it, and how to use links (should you put them in brackets or simply embed them?). Those things come after you start writing, not before. And the easiest way to do that is not even open the program that asks. | ['technology/gadgets', 'tone/features', 'technology/technology', 'food/coffee', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/photography', 'technology/laptops', 'technology/computing', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'books/ebooks', 'technology/tablet-computer', 'lifeandstyle/watches', 'technology/apple-watch', 'technology/apple', 'type/article', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-01-06T18:53:53Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2015/mar/22/solar-sails-set-course-for-a-new-journey-into-renewable-energy | Solar sails set course for a new journey into renewable energy | It was as the moon hit the sails of his yacht in the Atlantic Ocean that the thought struck Perry Carroll. “You’ve got a sail and you have got some sun, you must be able to find a way to put those solar sails on that fabric,” he said. Little over a decade later and that idea – which first hit Carroll during a 635–mile race between Rhode Island and Bermuda – has developed into a business aiming to generate solar energy from awnings over car parks and on the tops of buildings where conventional rigid panels cannot go. Carroll’s Cambridge-based Solar Cloth Company makes lightweight, flexible solar panels which can be rolled and fitted onto curved and flexible structures such as domes or coverings for agricultural land, as well as on the roofs of buildings unable to sustain the weight of glass panels. “Solar is moving from being a hard, inflexible and one-colour product to being soft lightweight, flexible, and maybe even multicoloured,” he said. “In solar everybody only knows those glass panels going on roofs and on farmland, fields, solar farms. Why can’t solar be everywhere in all different types of aspects? Why can’t it be so that when you pull your car into your driveway that there is a canopy that charges the thing?” Carroll has been developing the panels since that lightbulb moment on the water, eventually bringing him to the bespoke products his company produces today. The company uses thin film photovoltaics (TFPV), which are viewed as the second generation of solar technology. TFPV is light enough to be placed on plastics and weighs substantially less than conventional glass panels. Carroll claims his panels are about 20% the weight of standard panels. There are drawbacks, however: they produce 15% less power than the current generation of panels and they cost twice as much. But the company hopes to open up new markets by emphasising the weight difference and the flexibility of the plastic roll, which open up new possibilities for siting solar cells. For instance, the cells can be bonded onto structural fabrics of buildings – which would make potential sites of the dome of the O2 arena in London or the Bird’s Nest National Stadium in Beijing. “I didn’t invent solar, I didn’t invent fabric but I found a way to put them together. That is what we are, we are integrators. We are the only people in the world who can successfully do that on a commercial level,” said Carroll. The rolls of TFPV can be fitted on top of a building over a few days, allowing for millions of square metres of space on structures to be converted to solar, said Carroll. In the UK, factories account for 13% of the UK’s energy consumption and most of them are potential sites for solar rolls, he said. The company also intends to concentrate on fitting the panels on awnings in car parks, where the energy can then be fed directly into an electric car parked underneath. “The government, the local authority, the general populace, the press, they all don’t want us to build [solar] in our countryside … so we have to use areas that we have,” said Carroll. “We have got millions and millions of car parking spaces in Great Britain. According to the DVLA [Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency], there are 30m cars on the road.” Carroll believes those car parking spaces – outside shopping centres, office complexes and airports – are a massive potential market for his awnings. Outside the Cambridge offices of the Solar Cloth Company is a vision of what the firm wants the future of solar to look like – 15 car parking spaces with canopies fitted with their solar panels. The power which is generated from the panels is fed into the adjoining building while there is also a plug to connect to an electric car. Each of the car parking space awnings cost £12,500 to build, according to Carroll. Another Solar Cloth Company product is the “solar sail” – a conventional sail covered with cloth panels – aimed at getting rid of the need for diesel generators on board yachts and powering the signage on petrol station forecourts. When Carroll went to banks and angel investors looking for funding to advance into new markets, he was met with a blank wall, due to what he describes as a lack of enthusiasm for the the technology. The company turned to crowdfunding, which brought in over £1m. So far the company has received £700,000 worth of orders for their products. The funding round gave the company a valuation of £7.5m, with Carroll remaining as the majority shareholder. The Solar Cloth Company hopes the price of its products will fall as they become more popular – a general rule for any manufacturer – but it believes more money should be poured into researching solar energy. “Solar in Great Britain and in general is the poor relation in R&D. We have a video games industry in Great Britain which spends hundreds of millions of pounds on developing games,” said Carroll. “You can’t play a video game without power. If you haven’t got any power, you can’t do anything, so can we not get the power right? It is like choosing the curtains for the new house before you have built it or decided where you are going to put the plot. And that is the focus that we have got to change. People are quite happy to buy a TV for £2,000 and change it in 10 minutes’ time for another one because it has got a bendy screen. But they are not prepared to pay for guaranteed energy? It [solar] has got to stop being sold like a cheap commodity, it has got to be sold as a solution to what your lifestyle gives you.” | ['business/series/the-innovators', 'business/business', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'sport/sailing', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/shane-hickey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2015-03-22T12:29:31Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2012/oct/30/atlantic-city-damage-storm-sandy | Sandy aftermath: Atlantic City counts the cost | The city that gave the world its culture of beauty pageants was stripped of its most famous adornment, after hurricane Sandy tore off a quarter-mile stretch of the legendary boardwalk leaving in its place a yawning expanse of empty concrete piers and debris. For a city that brands itself as the "fun" gambling destination, Atlantic City was a sad and lonely place on Tuesday. The grand casinos, though closed for business, still towered above the ocean front. But they too were scuffed up, with the Tropicana missing its last red illuminated "A" even several storeys up. Upwards of 10,000 people were left without electricity on Tuesday, and scores of homes were flooded or damaged by flying debris. One homeowner woke up to find an unknown houseboat in his front yard, there were even accounts of a shark washing ashore. The streets were largely deserted, in part because of New Jersey's emergency declaration which has restricted car traffic. But a few hardy people walked around town, hunching their shoulders against the strong winds. The signs of Sandy's fury were still apparent on the main strip of Atlantic Avenue – lamp posts and parking meters flung around as if they were toothpicks, slabs of metal from shopfronts on the pavement, uprooted trees and streaks of mud and garbage everywhere. But the most shocking sight for those who weathered the storm in Atlantic City was the loss of the northern end of the boardwalk, now reduced to piles of timber flung randomly around town. "I was devastated. I couldn't believe it," said Brenda Ford, who works as a server at one of the casinos. "I spend my whole summer here, every day. During the summer you have to step over bodies just to get through. It's just devastating to see this." There were heaps of timber on the beach as well as up Atlantic Avenue several blocks from the shore, and about 20 assorted planks stacked up in front of Zelphia Connor's wrecked garage. Connor expected damage after listening to the roaring winds and ocean of the storm from her house. At high tide, the water covered the fire hydrant just outside her lot. "But I never expected in a million years to see the boardwalk washed out," she said. The lumber sailed through her metal garage door, crushing bicycles, patio furniture and depositing a variety of items Connor had never seen before. "There is a refrigerator that landed here from somewhere, and a whole lot of memorabilia," she said. Her own belongings were just as scattered; her photo album turned up three streets away. A few blocks away, John Susavage watched the destruction of the boardwalk from the kitchen of his 100-year-old red brick mansion. "It was just piece by piece as the waves hit," he said. "The waves just came right up and washed right over it." Some of those waves crashed through five windows on his lower floor. At the storm's height, the water was chest-height in his basement and Susavage swears he could feel fish swimming around his legs. He awoke on Tuesday morning to new surprises. His black Lincoln Continental, parked inside a brick retaining wall, had washed up on his neighbour's property. A lamp post from the boardwalk had landed perilously close to the window frame. "Another 2.5 inches, and that wall would have been gone,": he said measuring the distance. Atlantic City was arguably the worst hit of the string of resort towns that took the brunt of Hurricane Sandy. At high tide, when the storm made landfall on Monday night, the waves were up to 30ft and the surge brought sea water, mud and debris several blocks inland. "This is like ground zero," said a police woman holding sightseers back from the ocean front. She scuffed at the sand beneath her feet. "This isn't supposed to be beach, you know. This is all paved." Scenes of severe flooding on Monday night set off an angry political exchange, with New Jersey's governor Chris Christie accusing the city's mayor Lorenzo Longford of discouraging people from evacuating. But Connor, like the others who stayed through the storm, said she never imagined it would get so bad. "I heard the mayor say we should get out but in my mind I never ever thought it was going to be that bad," she said. "But it absolutely was." | ['us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'society/gambling', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-10-30T23:09:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2019/jan/04/weatherwatch-snow-penitents-sun-mountain-snowfields | Weatherwatch: penitential figures formed by the sun on mountain snowfields | Not all snowmen are made by human hands. The Nieves Penitentes or “snow penitents” are formations eerily like rows of hooded human figures, some standing more than two metres high. They have long been familiar to inhabitants of the high Andes and were described by Charles Darwin in 1839. Their name comes from a resemblance to Holy Week penitents who wear tall, pointed headgear. These spiky figures are formed by a process called differential ablation. When the sun shines on a field of snow and the air is dry, the snow will sublimate, turning directly into water vapour rather than melting. This occurs unevenly, forming hollows or sun cups in the snow which catch the light and sublimate faster. The hollows grow and deepen until only rows of stalagmite-like spikes are left between them. These spikes point towards the sun, their almost vertical sides catching little of the light. The penitent remains intact once all the surrounding snow has gone. There may even be snowmen on other worlds. Earlier this year scientists discovered that Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, may be covered in sixteen-metre alien snowmen. Rows of giant icy figures would certainly make for some striking pictures when the first probe touches down. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/snow', 'environment/mountains', 'weather/index/southamerica', 'science/jupiter', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-01-04T21:30:12Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2009/apr/15/bp-centenary | BP boss bans razzmatazz from centenary celebrations | Tony Hayward, the BP chief executive, has demanded a low-key approach to the company's 100th birthday celebrationstomorrow as part of an austerity drive and an attempt to distinguish his reign from that of his flamboyant predecessor, Lord Browne, who was dubbed the Sun King. The annual general meeting in London is billed as a centenary event but there will be little razzmatazz from Britain's biggest firm, which annually spends hundreds of millions marketing itself worldwide. Hayward, who took over as chief executive following Browne's troubled departure two years ago, delivered a short and modest message to staff this week as he marked the 10 decades since BP's forerunner, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, was incorporated to develop the Masjid-i-Suleiman field in Iran, the first commercial oil discovery in the Middle East. "A hundred years in business is a significant achievement," said Hayward. "Over those years, BP has been, and remains, an organisation with pioneering spirit. Our technology and capability allow us to take on challenges that others are either unwilling or unable to address. "We have a legacy of great assets; our job today is to realise their full potential. We have a lot of momentum – and that gives me great confidence for the future, so thank you for the part you continue to play in that," he said. BP has commissioned a short documentary film for its centenary and a book of photographs, but says most of the celebrations will be "internally focused". A company spokesman said it was Hayward's style to keep things low-key, but the difficult economic environment also made such an approach desirable. He added: "It would seem a little excessive to celebrate the 100th [year] too much." Critics believe that BP wants to keep celebrations subdued because it is cutting 5,000 jobs worldwide and has been through a turbulent time in recent years. It was hit by a fire at its Texas City refinery in 2005, propane trading irregularities and a massive Alaskan pipeline spill in 2006. These events undermined the reputation of Browne, who left the company after being accused of lying in the high court about his personal life. The financial and operational performance of the company has improved since Hayward took over, but the AGM could still be a volatile affair, with environmentalists criticising BP for its move into exploiting Canadian tar sands and for dropping plans to pursue renewable power in Britain. The corporate governance lobby group Pirc has already called on shareholders to oppose the reappointment of Sir Peter Sutherland as chairman because of his links to Royal Bank of Scotland. Pirc has drawn attention to Sutherland's role on RBS's remuneration committee, which approved the controversial £703,000-a-year pension for Sir Fred Goodwin, its former chief executive. BP's century In 1908 George Reynolds discovered oil in Persia and within a year the Anglo-Persian Oil Company had been set up. In 1914, the UK government became a major shareholder, rescuing the company from the brink of bankruptcy. The British Petroleum brand was acquired from a German firm in 1917. By the 1950s Iran was unhappy with the company's presence; oil operations were nationalised and Anglo-Iranian was forced out. The company was renamed The British Petroleum Company in 1954. During the 1970s, countries in the Middle East began nationalising oil supplies and BP shifted attention to the North Sea and Alaska. In 1987, it was fully privatised. In recent years, the group has been involved in environmental battles, including being sued by the US government over oil spills in Prudhoe Bay. Lauren Goodchild | ['business/bp', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil-spills', 'business/sir-fred-goodwin', 'business/royalbankofscotlandgroup', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2009-04-15T16:50:49Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/shortcuts/2015/apr/22/fatbergs-is-there-one-lurking-in-a-sewer-near-you | A 40-metre fatberg? That’s not even London’s worst …
| You can run but you can’t hide … or flush your toilet. Yep, it’s the return of the fatberg, a monstrous blob of congealed fat, waste, and wet wipes coming soon to asewer near you. Especially if you happen to live in west London. This week’s culprit is a 40-metre bruiser removed from under the leafy streets of Chelsea and weighing as much as five Porsches. The latest fatberg was so big-boned it broke a 70-year-old sewer pipe, leaving Thames Water with a £400,000 repair bill. It wasn’t even the area’s worst. In 2013, “Britain’s biggest berg”, weighing 15 tonnes and as long as a double-decker bus, was found in Kingston upon Thames, and last year a fatberg the size of a Boeing 747 was discovered under the streets of Shepherd’s Bush. It’s only a matter of time before a fatberg as mighty as the Titanic herself bursts out of the manholes on High Street Ken and starts ransacking the place, Slimer-from-Ghostbusters style. “It’s definitely getting worse,” says Craig Rance, a campaigns executive at Thames Water. “We’re seeing a rise in the number of wipes being flushed down the toilet as people move away from toilet paper. And only one in 10 know how their drains work. People think the toilet is some magic portal that makes everything disappear, but it all has to go somewhere.” And why west London? “There is a high density of people, a lot of food outlets, and [it’s] a place where just getting rid of the rubbish is the main issue,” is his rather diplomatic answer. A fatberg, he notes, “smells like the worst wet dog you’ve ever encountered” and the bigger the sewer, the bigger the hound. “The sewer from Leicester Square through Whitehall is about two metres high and several metres wide and it can become completely clogged with fatbergs,” he says. “Three years ago our guys spent three weeks digging out one fatberg that was threatening to flood the whole of Leicester Square.” There doesn’t seem to be a city in the western world without its very own plague, however. Earlier this year a three-foot wide mass, largely constructed out of takeaway grease, was found under one of Cardiff’s busiest streets, and in Scotland it’s thought fatbergs are to blame for more than 40,000 blockages. Clearing “backups” caused by grease in New York City cost an estimated $4.65m (£3.1m) in 2013, though the Washington Post points out only London has thought to give the phenomenon “such a dubiously affectionate name”. And in Melbourne last year a buildup “of epic proportions” was found in the sewage system, prompting a Yarra Valley Water spokesman to warn its citizens: “We all know where number ones and number twos should go, but there is no such thing as a number three, so please do not put anything else down the drain.” If only someone would tell west Londoners. | ['environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/blog', 'tone/features', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/chitra-ramaswamy', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-04-22T17:31:36Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2022/dec/27/the-best-of-the-long-read-in-2022 | The best of the long read in 2022 | Super-prime mover: Britain’s most successful estate agent – Sophie Elmhirst Gary Hersham has been selling houses to the very rich for decades. At first, £1m was a big deal. Now he sells for £50m, £100m, even £200m. What does it take to stay on top in this cut-throat business? ‘In our teens, we dreamed of making peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Then my friend was shot’ – Roy Cohen At a summer camp for kids from conflict zones, I met my brave, funny friend Aseel. He was Palestinian. I was Israeli. When he was killed by police, my hope for our future died with him ‘A deranged pyroscape’: how fires across the world have grown weirder – Daniel Immerwahr Despite the rise of headline-grabbing megafires, fewer fires are burning worldwide now than at any time since antiquity. But this isn’t good news – in banishing fire from sight, we have made its dangers stranger and less predictable Was it inevitable? A short history of Russia’s war on Ukraine – Keith Gessen To understand the tragedy of this war, it is worth going back beyond the last few months, and even beyond Vladimir Putin The queen of crime-solving – Imogen West-Knights Forensic scientist Angela Gallop has helped to crack many of the UK’s most notorious murder cases. But today she fears the whole field – and justice itself – is at risk ‘Infertility stung me’: Black motherhood and me – Edna Bonhomme I assumed I would be part of the first generation to have full agency over my reproduction – but I was wrong A day in the life of (almost) every vending machine in the world – Tom Lamont What’s behind the indestructible appeal of the robotic snack? The lost Jews of Nigeria – Samanth Subramanian Until the 1990s, there were almost no Jews in Nigeria. Now thousands have enthusiastically taken up the faith. Why? ‘If you decide to cut staff, people die’: how Nottingham prison descended into chaos – Isobel Thompson As violence, drug use and suicide at HMP Nottingham reached shocking new levels, the prison became a symbol of a system crumbling into crisis Do we need a new theory of evolution? – Stephen Buranyi A new wave of scientists argues that mainstream evolutionary theory needs an urgent overhaul. Their opponents have dismissed them as misguided careerists – and the conflict may determine the future of biology Seven stowaways and a hijacked oil tanker: the strange case of the Nave Andromeda – Samira Shackle In October 2020 an emergency call was received from a ship in British waters. After a full-scale commando raid, seven Nigerians were taken off in handcuffs – but no one was ever charged. What really happened on board? Sewage sleuths: the men who revealed the slow, dirty death of Welsh and English rivers – Oliver Bullough A tide of effluent, broken laws and ruthless cuts is devastating the nations’ waterways. An academic and a detective have dredged up the truth of how it was allowed to happen – but will anything be done? ‘Parents are frightened for themselves and for their children’: an inspirational school in impossible times – Aida Edemariam Austerity, the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis have left many schools in a parlous state. How hard do staff have to work to give kids the chances they deserve? Divine comedy: the standup double act who turned to the priesthood – Lamorna Ash Josh and Jack used to interrogate life via absurdist jokes and sketches. But the questions they had just kept getting bigger – and led them both to embark upon a profound transformation The Blackstone rebellion: how one country took on the world’s biggest commercial landlord – Hettie O’Brien The giant asset management firm used to target places where people worked and shopped. Then it started buying up people’s homes. In one country, the backlash was ferocious The sludge king: how one man turned an industrial wasteland into his own El Dorado – Alexander Clapp When a Romanian businessman returned to his hometown and found a city blighted by mining waste, he hatched a plan to restore it to its former glory. He became a local hero, but now prosecutors accuse of him a running a multimillion-dollar fraud The cartel, the journalist and the gangland killings that rocked the Netherlands – Jessica Loudis In a country known for its liberal drugs policies, organised crime operated for years under the public’s nose – until a series of shocking killings revealed how deep the problem went The amazing true(ish) story of the ‘Honduran Maradona’ – Kieran Morris For one of our many adolescent pranks, my friend and I planted tips about an obscure young footballer. Then he suddenly started going places. What had we done? ‘Who remembers proper binmen?’ The nostalgia memes that help explain Britain today – Dan Hancox Idealising the past is nothing new, but there is something peculiarly revealing about the way a certain generation of Facebook users look back fondly on tougher times ‘They want toys to get their children into Harvard’: have we been getting playthings all wrong? – Alex Blasdel For decades we’ve been using toys to cram learning into playtime – and toys have been marketed as tools to turn children into prosperous, high-achieving adults. Is it time for a rethink? And finally: In case you’re curious, these were our Top 10 most read pieces of 2022 and these were the 10 most read pieces from our archive. • Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, sign up to the long read weekly email here, and find our podcasts here • Show your support for the Guardian’s open, independent journalism in 2022 and beyond, including the long read | ['news/series/the-long-read', 'world/world', 'world/israel', 'world/palestinian-territories', 'business/realestate', 'world/wildfires', 'environment/environment', 'world/russia', 'world/ukraine', 'technology/technology', 'society/prisons-and-probation', 'world/romania', 'environment/water', 'environment/rivers', 'education/schools', 'education/education', 'football/football', 'technology/internet', 'media/social-media', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/long-read'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-12-27T12:00:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
money/2021/dec/11/homeowner-told-to-remove-solar-panels-but-next-door-has-had-them-for-decade | Homeowner told to remove solar panels – but next door has had them for decade | A south London man has described his incredulity after Merton council ordered him to remove his solar panels – flying in the face of attempts to tackle the climate crisis and in spite of the fact his neighbour has had some on their roof for more than 10 years. In 2019, Merton council declared a climate emergency and said the borough would become net zero by 2050. But that hasn’t stopped council officials ordering Syd Reid, who lives in Wimbledon, remove his panels because his property is in a conservation area. A year ago he put up photovoltaic panels on his south-facing roof at the front of his home in an effort to reduce the property’s carbon footprint without realising he needed planning permission to do so. He had been assured, wrongly, by the installer that he didn’t. “I did a cursory investigation but somehow missed the conservation area rules,” he said. “The main reason I thought I would be fine was that our immediate neighbour has had almost identical south-facing solar panels on their roof for more than 10 years. “What’s happened since has been something out of the dark ages. Someone has complained and the council has ordered them to be taken down. It’s as if the climate crisis isn’t happening.” In 2008, the government removed the need for most people to get planning permission to install photovoltaic solar energy systems but the requirement for permission was retained in conservation areas and for all listed buildings. After Reid received an order from Merton’s planning department instructing him to take the panels down, he submitted an application for retrospective planning, only for this to be rejected. He said he appealed against that decision but this, too, has been turned down. He said the decision is all the more baffling given that the road that he lives on features a mixture of house styles and roof types. Not even the road’s greatest fan would describe it in any way as architecturally extraordinary, or important. “While the panels have been up I have reduced my carbon emissions by over 400kg,” he said. “The whole thing is madness – a combination of nimbyism and inconsistent, out-of-date planning bureaucracy that is failing to recognise the state [in which] we are leaving the planet. This has to be changed. “Our neighbour’s panels have been producing electricity for 10 years without upsetting anyone but mine have to come down. If I wish to maintain my level of carbon emissions reduction I have been advised that the only course of action left is to take my case to the high court.” A spokesperson for Merton council told Guardian Money that while installing solar panels is “generally to be applauded”, the council also has a duty to protect the “character” of the local area. “The standards of design that have to be met will always be higher in conservation areas,” he said. He said two other houses in the road have approved solar panels but on north-facing roofs, rather missing the point that they will produce significantly less power than they would on a south-facing roof. “We don’t want to put residents off installing carbon saving measures,” the spokesperson said. “Our planning officers are here to work with them to achieve developments that are compliant with our planning policy. There are other options which might have less of a visual impact, such as low-profile PVs or the use of solar tiles.” Meanwhile, it now looks likely that Reid’s neighbour could be forced to remove their panels, too. “We have not looked into this yet as no formal complaint was raised. However, our officers will now look to inspect and regularise those solar panels,” the Merton spokesperson said. | ['money/energy', 'money/household-bills', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/milesbrignall', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/money', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2021-12-11T08:00:05Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2014/oct/30/microsoft-fitness-band-health-software | Microsoft leaks its own new fitness band and health software | Microsoft has officially unveiled a new fitness smartwatch and Health service after accidentally leaking it through smartphone app stores hours earlier. The band was first revealed by mistake through Microsoft’s supporting apps for the iPhone, Android and Mac computers, which allow the Microsoft Band to connect to smartphones, tablets and computers beyond Windows. The new fitness gadget is a Bluetooth band that records the number of steps the wearer takes in a day, the intensity of her sleep, exercise performance and calories burned. It also tracks heart rate, location via GPS, skin temperature, perspiration and UV exposure making it one of the most complete fitness trackers available. It will last around two days on a charge with 24-hour heart rate monitoring, although use of the GPS during runs will reduce the battery life, according to Microsoft. ‘Combine health and fitness data to create powerful insights’ Four years in the making, the Band also has a microphone and connects to a smartphone to display notifications and activate voice assistants such as Windows Phone’s Cortana, in a similar fashion to Google’s Android Wear smartwatches. The Band will connect to Windows Phones, iPhones, Android devices and Windows and Mac computers to sync data. Fitness tracking is powered by Microsoft’s new Health service, which like Google’s Fit and Apple’s Health aims to collate fitness and health data from third-party apps and services as well as the Microsoft Band. “The Microsoft Health platform includes a cloud service for consumers and the industry to store and combine health and fitness data to create powerful insights,” said Todd Holmdahl, corporate vice president at Microsoft in a blog post. Microsoft’s “Intelligence Engine” will process data from different sources combining fitness information with data from a user’s calendar, email and location to build a more detailed picture of their health. “Nobody else has the big data or machine learning to attack fitness and productivity challenges in this way,” said Zulfi Alam, Microsoft’s general manager of personal devices. The company said that the data would be securely stored in its cloud service, and that users will be able to actively share that data with medical providers using Microsoft’s HealthVault. Jawbone, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper will be some of the first apps to connect to the new health platform, with more added later. Lucrative health market Microsoft is the last of the big three traditional technology companies to enter the medical market with a new health service. Apple released its Health app and service with the iPhone 6 and iOS 8.1 while Google released Fit Wednesday – each of these apps and services are designed to both monitor fitness directly and the allow third-party apps and service to connect and share data. Many in the technology sector are vying for a slice of the healthcare industry, which is a potentially lucrative market worth about 10% of the economy of developed nations. In Britain, more than £100bn a year is spent on the NHS, according to the Department of Health. Fitness trackers and the “quantified self” movement represent a small proportion of that market. But the personal data trackers offer potential for setting baseline measurements against which changes caused by disease could be measured providing better, more personalised diagnoses from medical professionals. The explosion in the market has been fuelled by the intersection of biometric sensor cost and capability, which has made devices such as heart rate monitors a viable addition to consumer gadgets costing under £200. A similar revolution is underway in the medical field, where new sensors and ways of detecting disease away from laborious and time-consuming diagnostics are proving effective for certain diseases such as HIV. The Microsoft Band is available exclusively in the US for $199. • Google launches Fit app to take on Apple’s Heath and Samsung’s S Health • WWDC 2014: Apple reveals ‘Health’, its new app for tracking fitness and wellbeing • Nike and Apple working on ‘stylish’ new wearable technology • Misfit Shine fitness tracker review: small and perfectly formed • Motorola Moto 360 review: beautiful smartwatch spoiled by average battery life • Google smartwatches review: LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live and Android Wear • Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Fit review: smartwatches on the up | ['technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'lifeandstyle/fitness', 'technology/computing', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-10-30T12:18:38Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2014/jun/12/observer-ethical-awards-2014-winners-anne-power | Observer Ethical Awards 2014 winners: Anne Power | Retired teacher Anne Power is as formidable as her name suggests, having become a figurehead for the anti- fracking protest camp at Barton Moss, Salford. Power travelled six miles to the camp most days through winter, with the help of her walking stick, to help set up blockades, provide food and counselling, and raise awareness. Her commitment is driven by anger, particularly at the police. "They beat people up, and are very invasive when they deal with women. I didn't understand why the younger generation hate them so much until I was on the frontline." Assisting lock-ons (protesters who chain themselves to dangerous machinery to impede their operation) has put Power at physical risk. She has also been instrumental in the legal overturning of arrests made at the site. "I stand as witness in court looking like a respectable citizen, which helps the judge decide they're not dealing with morons, layabouts and hippies, but clever, dedicated people, giving up their lives to a cause." At the age of 82, wouldn't she rather be at home with a cup of tea and Corrie? "I don't drink tea and can't bear Coronation Street!" she laughs. Besides which, she's still got energy to burn. "I've got 4,000 emails to deal with every day, plus Facebook. It's about hearing where the next danger point is, deciding a good strategy. Someone this morning said why don't we cover ourselves in lard and run naked? They'll have a job to catch us! That was a funny one." Runners-up: Barton Moss Community Protection camp, Georgina Downs, John Herbert, Pushpanath Krishnamurthy | ['environment/environment', 'tone/features', 'tone/interview', 'world/protest', 'environment/fracking', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/features2'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2014-06-11T23:04:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2007/jul/15/homesandgardens.ethicalliving | Lucy Siegle: I live in a flat. What can I do with food waste? | A lot of old pigswill is talked about food waste. This is fitting given that in the days before heightened concern about pathogens in the food chain, this is where food scraps went. Now 6.7 million tonnes of it sit in domestic bins (half of this, according to www.wrap.org.uk, is probably fairly edible, suggesting your first goal should be to throw less in the bin). Meanwhile, food-waste caddies and collections are treated with intense suspicion, beset by rumours of toxic waste, fly tipping between neighbours and rats in composting systems. So the first thing to remember is to keep your head. Fruit flies aren't killer bees. But one person's unspeakable mound of putrescibles (waste able to be broken down via bacterial action) is another's black gold. After all, collecting food waste gives you the chance to give something back as nutrients and much-need soil structure. The use of composts also displaces the need for non-renewable oil-based fertilisers, and whereas rotting waste in landfill emits methane, turning food waste into compost can actually help sequester carbon. But despite its nutritionally high-achieving status, compost will never have a market in the manner of aluminium, which can fetch £800 a tonne. Yet the latest technology that anaerobically digests domestic food waste can actually capture energy from your rotting leftovers. This energy spin-off means that 110,000 tonnes of food waste per year could translate into 17,000 KWhours of electricity - enough to power 1,700 homes. You'd think we'd be frantically scooping up food waste, but still just 15 local authorities have separate collections, and flats are often left out. Not that everyone is so easily deterred. The East London Community Recycling Partnership (www.elcrp-recycling.com) is a great source of inspiration, and workshops have turned the sprawling Nightingale estate in Hackney into a paragon of food-waste utilisation. If your flats have a bit of communal land and some willing participants, the Green Johanna 'Hot' composter for cooked and uncooked waste is the successor to the Green Cone (www.greencone.com). A low-tech solution is the bokashi bin (www.wigglywigglers.co.uk), offered free to residents by Doncaster council - it sits unobtrusively in the corner of the kitchen and merely requires you to throw in a bit of EM (effective micro-organism) bran solution occasionally. If your bin issues are truly insurmountable, the unlikely hero of the hour is the food waste-disposal unit. Like baseball, it still seems too American to be at home in the UK, but the latest models (www.insinkerator.co.uk) are reasonably efficient: one unit of energy will get rid of 22kg of rubbish, while water use is apparently less than the single flush of a toilet. Once washed down the sink, the waste is ground into a fine substance and can eventually be recovered as soil conditioner. Not exactly the pioneer spirit, but there will be no fruit flies. lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk | ['environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/food', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'lifeandstyle/compost', 'type/article', 'environment/series/ask-leo-lucy', 'profile/lucysiegle', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-07-15T16:30:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/aug/30/extinction-rebellion-protesters-block-deansgate-central-manchester | Extinction Rebellion protesters block street in central Manchester | Extinction Rebellion protesters have begun blocking Manchester’s Deansgate in protest at the “huge contradictions” of a city region that has declared a climate emergency planning to massively expand its airport. A yellow boat bearing the words “Planet Before Profit” was parked at the John Dalton Street junction and a tipper truck arrived packed with straw bales. Soon, guerrilla gardeners had set up a nursery of plants on what is one of Manchester’s most polluted streets, and a camp kitchen began to be erected. As the demonstration got under way, Richard Katsouris was ready. His deli, Katsouris, is famed across Greater Manchester for its sausage paella and huge hot roast meat baps, carved as customers wait. He had tweaked the menu to capitalise on the four-day environmental takeover of the road outside. “We’ve ordered in loads of vegan sausages for a vegan paella, we’ve made sure we’ve got a vegan soup option and we’re experimenting with falafel too,” he said. Staff were dancing behind the counter as they served up breakfast barms at 8.30am. They appeared to be enjoying the drummers who were banging away outside as dozens of Extinction Rebellion protesters worked to block all access routes on to a key section of Deansgate, one of Manchester’s busiest shopping and eating streets. Securing the southern picket was 19-year-old Jessica Agar, who is awaiting trial after being arrested in April on Waterloo Bridge in London. She was one of more than 1,000 people detained during Extinction Rebellion’s mass action in the capital, and said she was charged with a public order offence “after sitting on the bridge and singing protest songs when the police had asked us to leave”. She admitted she was concerned about getting arrested again, but deemed the risk to be worth it. “Of course it worries me. I was 18 when I was arrested, I’m 19 now and it’s not what I want to be doing. I worry about how it’s going to affect my future job opportunities. But it worries me more that we are facing nothing less than the extinction of humankind if governments do not act fast, so I am willing to make sacrifices in order to make change.” Extinction Rebellion had announced plans to shut Deansgate from John Dalton Street to St Ann’s Street from 10am on Friday but activists arrived early, just after 8am. Many of the businesses on Deansgate affected by the closure seemed cheerful about the occupation. Chris Seville, of Forsyth’s music shop, said they would just get their deliveries round the back – “and maybe we will sell a few more drums this week”. Like Lee Scholes, the manager of the Sofa Workshop next door, he said he supported the aims of the protesters. Seville was worried about the Amazon rainforest, while Scholes said he would get behind “anything that is about reducing carbon emissions”. But not everyone was happy. Joe Connor, a self-employed tiler working on a refit of a shop just off Deansgate, found his deliveries stuck on the wrong side of the cordon. “We’ve got 50 boxes of tiles over there and a whole pallet of adhesives. We’re self-employed and if we can’t work we don’t get paid. These protesters can’t put working people’s lives on the line like this,” he said. He said he didn’t necessarily believe the warnings from the United Nations and others that there are only 12 years left to limit global warming to 1.5C to avoid a climate emergency. “I don’t think it’s a proven fact to be honest. Yes we have had a rainy summer but I used to live in Los Angeles, where we would have big downpours in the summer too, and that was years ago.” He was not comforted by the pink leaflets being handed out by protesters apologising for the disruption. “We’re sorry,” they said, explaining that the inconvenience was necessary because “for the human race to survive, we need big changes fast. There are solutions that are economically and culturally possible in a short space of time. But we need the government to make changes now, and they are not listening.” Greater Manchester police said their aim was to “facilitate the protest, whilst trying to minimise disruption to all those who work, live or who will be visiting Manchester over this period”. | ['environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/activism', 'uk/manchester', 'uk/greater-manchester', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenpidd', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-08-30T10:40:25Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2021/dec/14/mps-call-for-halt-to-britains-incinerator-expansion-plans | MPs call for halt to Britain’s incinerator expansion plans | MPs are calling for a moratorium on the expansion of new waste incineration plants just days before councils in London vote on awarding a contract to build a huge new plant in Edmonton. A report by the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution says expansions should be halted immediately to protect human health and cut carbon emissions. The report concludes that ultrafine particles released by incineration at scale constitute a significant health hazard. Geraint Davies, Labour MP and chair of the group, said the expansion of the Edmonton incinerator and others should be stopped. “Air pollution already kills 64,000 people across the UK each year, so government planning that will double incineration capacity by allowing the construction of 50 new waste incinerators by 2030 … should be immediately halted as it will give rise to a significant growth in ultrafine particulates, which are the most dangerous to human health,” he said. “Of critical importance is that it is the number of particulates, as opposed to their combined mass, that is the key determinant for human ill health. The smallest particulates act like a gas and penetrate seamlessly into the blood stream and organs, creating damage to the hearts, brains, and lungs of victims.” There are at least 90 incinerators in the UK and 50 more proposed or in development, according to government data and data collected by the anti incineration group United Kingdom Without Incineration Network. The group of MPs heard evidence from Ruggero Ridolfi, an oncologist with more than 40 years of clinical experience, who found heavy metals in the toenails of children living near incinerators and highlighted the link with acute childhood leukemia. Research by Kirsten Bouman, of ToxicoWatch, an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of toxic hazards, found dioxins in chicken eggs up to 10km from incinerators that emit them. The report was published days before seven councils in north London will be asked to vote for a contract to be awarded to rebuild and expand the capacity of the Edmonton incinerator, run by the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), by 200,000 tonnes. Protests against the Edmonton incinerator include demonstrations by doctors in the area who are calling on council leaders to support cleaner, alternative ways of dealing with local waste. Recycling rates in north London are just 30% and more than half of the incinerated waste is readily recyclable, according to Defra. Dr Ed Tranah, medical registrar at North Middlesex hospital, said: “If this goes ahead you are looking at 35-50 years of continued incineration of waste, much of which does not need to be incinerated and is recyclable. “We are burning all sorts of materials and we don’t even have a study into how the fumes are affecting people working and living in the area.” Haringey council recently called for the expansion to be paused citing concerns over air pollution. A recent report from the National Infrastructure committee warned rising greenhouse gas emissions from waste incineration would prevent the UK meeting its net zero targets by 2050. Highlighting the carbon impact of waste incineration, the APPG report called for tax measures to be introduced to restrict incinerator expansion. Dr Dominic Hogg, who founded the environmental consultancy Eunomia, told the MPs a 700,000-tonne incinerator pumps out about 700 tonnes of NOx (nitrogen oxides) a year. He said incineration – like landfill – should be taxed in relation to the carbon content of the feedstock and the emissions of NOx, SOx (sulfur oxides), particulate matter and other pollutants. They should also be part of the emissions trading scheme. Davies said poorer communities already suffered worse health outcomes from disproportionately higher levels of air pollution and inequality. Recent research by Greenpeace showed poorer communities were three times more likely to have an incinerator in their area than more affluent areas. He said: “Plans to increase incineration in London and elsewhere should be put on hold to prevent excess capacity driving the burning of recyclable waste. “The protection and improvement of air quality must become a central strategy to combat climate change and to improve human health nationally and globally. “We must apply the precautionary principle to new waste incineration in urban locations so that the cumulative health risks of ultrafine particulates to dense populations do not materialise.” Clyde Loakes, chair of NLWA, said: “We’re absolutely clear that our facility will be the safest and cleanest in the country, using state-of-the-art technology to protect residents’ health and eliminate pollution to effectively zero. “An incineration tax and inclusion within an Emissions Trading Scheme, this would just hit cash-strapped local councils and not tackle the root cause of the problem. “The key target has to be all the rubbish that’s produced in the first place. That’s why we’re investing in state of the art of recycling infrastructure, the biggest investment into such infrastructure in London for decades. But what we really need is systemic change: for businesses to stop churning out single-use plastics, and for [the] government to stop years of dithering and get on with urgent reforms we’ve been calling on for years. This means compulsory recycling now and a deposit return scheme now.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/incineration', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'society/childrens-health', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-12-14T06:00:42Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/jul/29/beware-china-role-in-uk-nuclear-industry | Beware China’s role in UK nuclear industry | Letters | While we need to be concerned about China’s growing presence in Britain’s electricity generation (Nuclear power: China’s move into UK hints at scale of its wider ambitions, July 27), we should be asking searching questions of our government. They seem not to understand (or don’t care about) the nature of the companies they are dealing with. Chinese state-owned enterprises are not like EDF or the German, Dutch and French state-owned firms that run our railways. They are dramatically different because China is governed by a Leninist state. Consequently, Chinese state firms are ultimately controlled not by the State Council’s State Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, but by the Communist party. Furthermore, one of the two Chinese companies initially involved in the Hinkley Point plant, China National Nuclear (CNNC), while having a civil division, is mainly involved in the production of the country’s nuclear weapons. Consequently, it is almost certainly controlled by the Chinese military: the People’s Liberation Army. With Chinese companies set to take the lead role at Bradwell and Sizewell (including building the reactors and running the stations) and, given EDF’s financial problems, a controlling stake in up to five other nuclear power plants, the British government is setting us up for a situation where the Chinese Communist party – and, assuming CNNC participation, the Chinese military – will have a decisive role in one of our most strategically important industries. To allow this borders on insanity and clearly has to be stopped. Jeffrey Henderson Professor of international development, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with other Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we will publish the best submissions in the letters spread in the Guardian’s print edition | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'uk/uk', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2018-07-29T16:50:36Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/nov/21/cop29-climate-finance-deal-setback-draft-text-global-goal | Cop29 climate finance deal hits fresh setback as deadline looms | Hopes of a breakthrough at the deadlocked UN climate talks have been dashed after a new draft of a possible deal was condemned by rich and poor countries. Faith in the ability of the Azerbaijan presidency to produce a deal ebbed on Thursday morning, as the draft texts were criticised as inadequate and providing no “landing ground” for a compromise. Instead of setting a global goal for at least $1tn in new funds for developing countries to tackle the climate crisis, the text contained only an “X” where numbers should have been. Oscar Soria, a director at the Common Initiative thinktank, said: “The negotiating placeholder ‘X’ for climate finance is a testament of the ineptitude from rich nations and emerging economies that are failing to find a workable solution for everyone. “This is a dangerous ambiguity: inaction risks turning ‘X’ into the symbol of extinction for the world’s most vulnerable. Without firm, ambitious commitments, this vagueness betrays the Paris agreement’s promise and leaves developing nations unarmed in their fight against climate chaos.” The governments of almost 200 countries are meeting in Azerbaijan to thrash out a new global settlement on climate finance, to channel funds to developing countries to help them shift to low-carbon economies and cope with the impact of extreme weather. Ministers and high-ranking officials have embarked on intense shuttle diplomacy as the two weeks of fraught talks enter their final days. The Cop29 summit is scheduled to end on Friday night, but on Thursday morning the various positions of developed and developing countries looked as far apart as ever. The long-awaited draft texts, published shortly after 7am local time, covered all the main aspects of a possible deal at Cop29. Chief among them was a text on the “new collective quantified goal”, which should set out the amount of money developing countries can expect in climate finance, and the proportion of that which should come directly from rich world governments. Developing countries want at least $1tn a year in climate finance, a large proportion of which should come directly from the rich in the form of grants, with some loans and potentially some private sector finance making up the remainder. But instead of clear numbers, the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) text contained two options that were described by insiders as “extreme positions” with little compromise. Some countries privately say that Saudi Arabia and the two blocs through which it acts at Cops – the Arab Group and the Like-Minded Developing Countries – are trying to wreck prospects of a deal. One of the texts published on Thursday covers “mitigation”, which in UN parlance always means curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, at the Cop28 summit in Dubai, countries passed a resolution to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the first time in 30 years of talks that such a commitment had been made. That was opposed by Saudi Arabia, which has since attempted to unpick the commitment, alleging it was “an option” rather than a goal. Last week, in the early stages of this “conference of the parties” (Cop), Saudi Arabia and its allies tried to sideline a planned reaffirmation of this commitment, in a fight over what should be on the agenda for the meeting. In the “mitigation” text, the “transition away from fossil fuels” is absent. This is unacceptable to many developed and developing countries, which want to build on the hard-won progress made last year rather than have it reversed. Questions are being asked inside the negotiating halls over whether Azerbaijan is exerting enough control over the negotiations, or leaning too far towards the countries that do not want a robust deal. Many civil society groups laid the blame on developed countries. Joseph Sikulu, the Pacific director of 350.org, said: “We hoped to see a draft text today that would show rich nations putting their money where their mouth is and responding to the demands from the global south. “What we got is a text with no clear grant-based core money. Nothing less than $1tn in grants per year will be enough to see those most impacted by climate change on a just transition towards a safe, equitable future. Rich countries must stop dithering, and start delivering – this is not charity, it’s time for them to pay their debt.” Developed countries are likely to offer a much lower amount in direct financial assistance, probably about $200bn to $300bn, with the remainder of the $1tn to be made up of new forms of funding, such as fossil fuel taxes and private sector investment. They are also insisting that countries such as China, with a robust economy and large greenhouse gas emissions, and petro-states, such as Saudi, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, should contribute to the financial assistance for poorer countries. Those countries are still classed as developing under the Paris agreement, based on divisions set out in its parent treaty, the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, meaning they are eligible to receive climate finance funds, with no obligation to contribute towards them. The EU climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, said the draft text was “clearly unacceptable as it stands”. | ['environment/cop29', 'global-development/climate-finance', 'world/azerbaijan', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'global-development/global-development', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/oil', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'business/business', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'world/saudiarabia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'profile/dharna-noor', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-11-21T08:54:19Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2008/jun/16/digforthrifty | Dig for thrifty | Many on allotment waiting lists have cited rising food prices as a reason to get their own patch. Photograph: Martin Jones/Corbis "Buy land. They're not making any more of it." I've been thinking about this Mark Twain quote a lot in recent months amid all the talk about rising food prices. The price of good farm land has rocketed over the past few years as the price of wheat, corn and other staples have risen and, quite naturally, the price of land - the ultimate finite resource - has increased accordingly. There has been a parallel rise in demand for allotments. But, to date, this has been largely driven by the voguish trend for growing your own fruit and vegetables. Young urbanites have been the principal force behind this fashion - it would probably require another blog to discuss the reasons why - but a story in a local newspaper this week made me wonder whether the profile of the average allotment holder might now be set to change once again. Residents in the Cornish town of Lostwithiel have started to voice their frustrations over the fact that, despite a long waiting list, some allotment holders in the town are neglecting their plots. Those on the waiting list say that this is a waste of a precious resource and they should be given a chance to tend the plots instead. (It's probably not a coincidence that Lostwithiel is a Transition Town.) There's nothing new in people waiting a long time - sometime many years - for an allotment to become available. Nor is there anything new in people becoming irritated at the way some allotment holders let their plot "return to the wild" through neglect. But what caught my eye about this story is the fact that those on the waiting list said they were desperate to get their hands on an allotment because of rising food prices. "It is a ridiculous situation," said Jeff Penrose, a 55-year-old local mechanic, to the Cornish Guardian. "There is a huge demand for these plots as it is just getting too expensive to carry on relying on the supermarkets. Some of the plots are very overgrown and nothing is planted in them for long periods of time. They are stopping other people getting on with it." An Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs select committee report in 2005 said that, of the 250,000 allotment holders in England and Wales, fewer than 20% used their allotment because it saved them money. I think we can assume that, three years on, this figure must now be significantly higher. If this trend continues, it will surely raise some important questions about how allotments are allocated. For example, will those on the waiting list need to means tested to establish who really "needs" an allotment? Will there be much less tolerance for those who don't manage their plots to acceptable standards? What will those "acceptable standards" be, and who will be making and policing the rules? It's hard not to draw parallels with the Dig for Victory campaign during the second world war, when public land was given over to communities to grow their own food. With growing talk about how nations need to be much more self-sufficient in food, and therefore less vulnerable to the vagaries of global food prices, are we now re-entering an age when land once again becomes a highly prized - and much-needed - resource for all members of the community? And for those lucky enough to have an allotment, what tips would you give for getting the most from your land? If you only have limited space, what are the best crops to grow to help you save money? | ['environment/ethical-living', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/allotments', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2008-06-16T10:52:27Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2021/jun/03/western-australia-gas-project-would-create-more-emissions-than-adani-and-damage-indigenous-rock-art | Western Australia gas project ‘would create more emissions than Adani and damage Indigenous rock art’ | A proposed gas export development in northern Western Australia could result in more than 1.6bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions across its lifetime and damage Indigenous rock art, environment and climate campaigners say. A report by two groups – the Conservation Council of Western Australia and the Australia Institute – said the Scarborough to Pluto liquified natural gas (LNG) development appeared on the cusp of being approved without a full environmental impact assessment from state or federal authorities. Released on Thursday, the report suggested the development could lead to lifetime emissions equivalent to that released by 15 coal-fired power plants. The project includes the development of a new gas field more than 400km off the coast, piping infrastructure and an expanded processing facility in the Pilbara. In annual terms, it found the project would release about 4.4m tonnes within Australia – adding the equivalent of nearly 1% to national emissions. The vast bulk of the emissions would occur in the countries that bought and burned the gas. It would increase WA’s annual emissions by about 5% as the McGowan Labor government says it plans to help transition the state economy to reach net zero emissions by 2050. WA is the only state to have increased its emissions since 2005, largely due to the booming LNG industry. Piers Verstegen, the conservation council’s director, said if fully realised the Scarborough project would be responsible for more emissions than the Adani coalmine in Queensland. “It is an international outrage that any government would support a project which would result in over a billion tonnes of carbon pollution and cause irreversible impacts on Aboriginal heritage,” he said. The project’s major proponent, Woodside, said there had been many opportunities for interested parties to comment on the proposal over the past two-and-a-half years. Through a spokesperson, the company said the development had been referred separately to state and commonwealth authorities as required. The federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment found in August 2019 the pipeline works did not have to be assessed under national conservation laws, and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority had approved the development of the gasfield in April 2020. At a state level, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) last year approved the pipeline construction in WA waters near the shore and found the expansion of the processing facility was only a minor change to previous approval decisions and did not require a full assessment. The spokesperson said Woodside was awaiting final approval from the WA environment and climate action minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson. If approved, a final investment decision on the $11bn development is expected later this year. Woodside announced on Wednesday that the former WA Labor treasurer, Ben Wyatt, who retired from politics at the March state election, had been appointed a non-executive director of the company. Verstegen said the piecemeal nature of the assessment meant there had been no consideration of whether the project was consistent with the latest climate science and the Paris agreement, or to properly consider the potential damage to Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula. He said the EPA should be asked to carry out a full independent assessment of the entire project. He said not to do so would be “reckless in the extreme”, citing a recent major report by the International Energy Agency that found all fossil fuel expansion should end now if the planet is to meet the goals agreed in Paris. The conservation council’s president, former Labor premier Carmen Lawrence, said many of the circumstances that led to Rio Tinto destroying an Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge applied to the Scarborough development. “It is now clear that pollution from gas processing on the Burrup is having a significant effect on the Murujuga rock art,” she said. “Allowing further expansion of gas processing on this site will increase both the duration and severity of these impacts and this must be assessed carefully before any further decisions are made, not as an afterthought. The conservation council has launched a supreme court challenge to the processing of gas from Scarborough at an expanded Pluto processing facility, and appealed the approval of the nearshore pipe development. On the former, the EPA supported a Woodside submission that this could be approved through a change in wording to a previous approval decision in 2007. The council has argued it should receive a full, new assessment on the grounds the ramifications of the change were significant. A state government spokesperson said the EPA’s recommendations were based “on the best available evidence and scientific advice”. “There are a range of processes under the act to ensure good environmental outcomes. The minister for environment makes decisions on these matters after considering the advice and recommendations of the EPA,” they said. Mark Ogge from the Australia Institute said the Scarborough project and Pluto expansion were “completely contrary” to global efforts to limit global heating to 1.5C. LNG developments in WA have driven an increase in national industrial emissions since mid last decade. “This is throwing fuel on the fire,” Ogge said. The Woodside spokesperson said Scarborough contained less CO2 than other oil and gas reservoirs, and would deliver “one of the lowest carbon LNG sources in Australia”. They said the company was aiming to be “net zero in our direct emissions by 2050 or sooner”. It has not set a target for its “scope 3” emissions – those from its products after they are sold. BHP, a partner in the project, referred a request for comment to Woodside. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'environment/gas', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/western-australian-politics', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'artanddesign/indigenous-art', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/woodside', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2021-06-02T23:03:14Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2016/jan/06/corbyn-cabinet-reshuffle-labour | Labour’s reshuffle kerfuffle is over – Corbyn must get on with the real work | Anne Perkins | Jeremy Corbyn, the Arsène Wenger of politics (copyright J McDonnell), completed his shadow cabinet reshuffle in the early hours with the appointment of his north London neighbour Emily Thornberry, a sceptic about Trident, to shadow defence secretary. Maria Eagle, not a sceptic about Trident, is moved to culture. She replaces Michael Dugher, the sacking of whom had happened more than 12 hours earlier. Pat McFadden’s removal as shadow Europe minister, was the only other significant change in a reshuffle more remarkable for what didn’t happen – Hilary Benn is still shadow foreign secretary this morning – than what did. It will go down in history more for the time it took than the impact it had. It’s over now – or at least it is for the moment (Twitter is already awash with rumours of resignations from the defence team). Corbyn grew up while Harold Wilson was Labour leader. It was probably one of the defining experiences of his politics, for within a couple of years of Labour’s famous victory in the mid-60s, its leader was vilified by the left as a miserable example of failure and betrayal. History is already a little kinder. And failure always has its lessons. The point that Corbyn should remember about Wilson is that he was an instinctive leftwinger obliged by circumstance to make serial compromises with powerful voices on the right. He soon realised that the only way to keep everyone on the party bus was to drive with as much speed as it could bear and make sure no one could get off. He did, as he often pointed out, win four elections. So where to, guv? There are multiple destinations, but some are easier than others. Start at home. Flooding: this should be a perfect storm for the government. Labour could make it so. Irrational austerity has curbed critical infrastructure spending. That meant some flood defences failed and others were inadequately constructed. Add in, as the rainfall in parts of Scotland is already breaking records for the whole month, a cynical and sometimes downright destructive approach to greening the economy, and Lisa Nandy should make hay with her debate which is scheduled for the Commons this evening. For his part, Corbyn should make sure the country notices it by taking on David Cameron about his spending decisions at prime minister’s questions this afternoon. Housing, the intergenerational crisis: Conservative policy is made by the volume house builders. They only want greenfield sites where they can construct large, high-end homes that will be too expensive for the people who most need somewhere to live. Expose the myth of the so called starter-homes, over-priced and under-specced (inadequate insulation, for example). Lead the charge on the housing bill: remember, the government majority is wafer thin. Go for it ruthlessly. The health service. Here’s the moment for some new politics. You can’t take a national health service out of politics, but surely you can take it out of the political fray. Three former health ministers – Alan Milburn, the Tory Stephen Dorrell and the Lib Dem Norman Baker – have today launched a campaign for a cross-party commission on the future of the NHS. Back that call. Spending on health should be, as it briefly was with great success in the Blair years, at the EU average. Yes it’s a lot of money, much more than now, when we are spending only about 8% of GDP against an EU average of around 11%. But it’s what it takes. Don’t weaponise the NHS, de-weaponise it, by working to get acceptance of a global figure for spending as a share of GDP – and the NHS will be as secure as … Trident? Ah, Trident. Not now. It doesn’t have to be yet. Making it happen would be a revolution in British foreign policy. That is one reason why it is so appealing, but it is also why it is so fraught. Win over the unions. Educate public opinion. Meanwhile remember that sometimes, principles are best served by a fudge. Wilson wasn’t always wrong. | ['commentisfree/series/first-thoughts', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/labour', 'tone/comment', 'politics/politics', 'politics/jeremy-corbyn', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'society/nhs', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'society/housing', 'uk/trident', 'politics/defence', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/anneperkins'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-01-06T11:42:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2008/apr/21/ice.hockey | Netbytes: Get your National Hockey League fix here | One of the world's most exciting sporting events is now taking place in North America: the Stanley Cup finals of the National Hockey League. Ice hockey fans from all around the world are hitting NHL.com for scores, hourly news updates, radio commentaries, game highlights and clips of the best goals. Ice hockey is a fast sport – the Nashville Predators just went from losing 2-1 to winning 3-2 in a record nine seconds – but the Stanley Cup is not known for quick knockouts, unless they're right hooks. Each match is decided over a best-of-seven series, so even a wipeout takes at least four games. Just the first round, which reduces 16 play-off teams to eight, could take more than 50 games. The scale of the event helps explain why the Stanley Cup does not get a lot of terrestrial TV coverage outside North America: it's not like devoting one evening to the Super Bowl. This lack of coverage drives overseas fans to NHL.com for news, though it must be admitted, there aren't too many of them. According to Alexa.com, 82% of NHL.com's visitors come from the US and Canada, with third-place Russia bringing in 3%. After that the numbers fall off dramatically. Scandinavia has plenty of ice hockey fans, but not many other countries like their sport on ice. Home or away Still, NHL.com shows what a minority sport can do for its audience. For example, all the play-off games are streamed on NHL Game Radio, and you can choose whether to listen to the home or the away team's station. Sometimes there are three streams: you can listen to the Montreal Canadiens' games in French. Alternatively, you can follow games via summaries of the goals and penalties and an updated stats page, or a cryptic play-by-play account. However, casual visitors may not get much of a thrill from entries such as "MISS WSH #91 FEDOROV, Backhand, Wide of Net, Off. Zone, 21 ft." There's also a paid-for service, NHL Center Ice Online, which allows subscribers to watch up to four games at once. I assume this is the same as the cable TV offering. Fortunately there's also the free NHL Network (NHL.tv), which offers a wide range of videos in Adobe Flash format. The options include The Hockey Show, game highlight packages, Studio 11 programmes and podcasts, plus archived NHL Radio and XM satellite broadcasts. There's also a huge player database, a comprehensive set of historical match reports, and tons of stats. Celebrity bloggers NHL.com is moving with the times, so there are a few celebrity bloggers in the fan section. These include film directors Kevin Smith (Mallrats etc) – he's a New Jersey Devils fan – and Vancouver Canucks supporter Jason Reitman (Juno). Sexy model, actress and singer Willa Ford is also blogging and is married to Dallas Stars forward Mike Modano, the top points-scoring US-born player. Fortunately, this doesn't mark a descent into Posh & Becks-syle marketing. NHL.com is still a site for real fans. It's preaching to the converted, but it's doing it well. | ['technology/internet', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/technology', 'sport/sport', 'media/digital-media', 'technology/series/netbytes', 'type/article', 'profile/jackschofield'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-04-21T11:05:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
uk-news/2019/nov/16/mark-ibbertson-teacher-who-came-to-flooded-doncaster-rescue | 'We had to do something': teacher who came to flooded Doncaster's rescue | When the floodwaters rose in Bentley in Doncaster on Friday last week, Mark Ibbertson and his teenage son Logan ventured out with their summer holiday dinghy and began to rescue people from their homes. By the end of the day they had taken to safety more than 20 people, including babies and older people, and even a hedgehog. Ibbertson, a local teacher, described the experience as surreal and said that when he started he did not anticipate being thrust into the role of chief rescuer. The night before, some residents received an alert from the council saying they were at risk of flooding. On Friday morning after dropping his daughter off at school, Ibbertson went to check local river levels. He realised that Bentley would flood and headed there from his village ofSprotbrough. Ibbertson had seen first-hand the devastation and subsequent lack of support offered to the community after floods in 2007, and he said he could not let that happen again. “I knew what happened there in 2007 and I couldn’t just leave them,” he said. “They suffered so much and had very little support and we had to do something.” When he arrived in Bentley he found people in desperate need of help. “There was some police here but everyone was just in a flap. I explained to the police officer that I was a kayak instructor and that I had a boat and they allowed me to help. There were people hanging out of their windows shouting for me to come and get them out. Everybody was just in shock – it was awful.” He added: “We turned up first thing on Friday and we literally didn’t stop for a moment until around 4pm. We were both so cold, frozen, and our hands and feet had started to cramp, but we couldn’t stop. We just had to get people to safety and somewhere warm. “A lot of them didn’t have any good footwear and would have got seriously ill if we hadn’t been there. There were disabled people, some with dementia, children, babies and lots of elderly people, some who were very fragile. I was having to carry people on my back – it was the only way we could get them out – and we just had to crack on and not stop until we had helped everyone we could.” Photographs of Ibbertson and his son rescuing residents were splashed across the national press and locals have called for the 49-year-old to be recognised for heroism. “That is really lovely to hear and I do dread to think what would have happened if I had not been there,” he said. “It could have gone very wrong, especially for the older people. I’m just so relieved that I decided to go and have a look.” But Ibbertson said he had already received his prize in the form of acclaim from pupils at his school, Netherwood Academy in Barnsley. “It was unbelievable when I walked in. There were cheers and I can’t walk down the corridor without high fives. I’ve had Heroes boxes of chocolates. It’s so nice because a lot of the kids sometimes don’t realise that you are more than just their boring teacher. For many it’s been quite an eye-opener.” | ['uk/doncaster', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/nazia-parveen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-11-16T07:00:30Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
childrens-books-site/2014/jun/16/book-doctor-childrens-best-nature-spotting-books | What are the best books for nature spotting? | My grandson is nearly four years old, and we look after him quite often, we love to take him on nature walks and trails around Cardiff (taff trail/cefn onn/castel coch) all beautiful wooded areas. We encourage him to look at all kinds of trees and plants and wild-life which he really enjoys, but to be quite honest, we are unsure of half of what we see ourselves and as he is so interested, we do not want him to be told incorrectly. I do not really want to purchase online, so would you be able to help us locate a good shop within 10 miles of Cardiff? At any time of year, and especially in the beautiful weather of the summer, it is lovely to think of you and your grandson exploring together. Equipping yourself with a book to provide extra information and to encourage him to look more closely is an excellent idea. Finding a good local bookshop will give you a chance to browse through a number of books which will help you to find the one with the approach and level of content that is right for you. There would also be a well-informed bookseller to help you find other books which might be good for you. The Booksellers Association website homepage will tell you where you can find your closest bookshop. Some books that might you might find and enjoy include the Usborne Nature Trails series. Titles cover a single topic in some depth such as Insects or Trees. Each title is not only fact-filled but also has activities and games and links to useful internet sites so that you can do further research if you want to find out more. The general approach is based on the idea that the best way to find out about nature is to see it as following a detective trail. This encourages children to look closely for clues and to understand that what happens in the living world is a sequence of linked events which they can follow. There is also practical advice, such as a section on how to raise caterpillars in Insects. The RSPB First Book of Minibeasts by Anita Ganeri is an excellent first introduction to the small creatures that are all around us. Each minibeast is introduced in a full page illustration supported by a host of the most important facts about it. The attractive pictures make even the creepiest of crawlies look attractive and non-threatening. Other titles in the series include the RSPB First Book of Birds also by Anita Ganeri and the RSPB First Book of Trees by Derek Niemann. Each title has a "spotters' guide" which encourages children to look closely and to record what they have seen. For a more teacherly approach Jenny Vaughan's Minibeasts in the Little Science Stars series is packed with facts and also includes a glossary to explain some of the less familiar terms. Still drawing on the engaging principle of encouraging children to "spot" and to record what they see, the much-loved I-Spy titles have been given a fresh look with titles such as I-Spy Nature and I-Spy Wild Flowers and I-Spy Creepy Crawlies http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9782067151307. The Let's Look in series with titles including Let's Look in Ponds & Rivers and Let's Look in Woods & Forests has less information but is also good for encouraging careful looking. In addition to encouraging outdoor looking it includes attractive stickers and a habitat spread to stick them onto if it is too wet to be outdoors! | ['childrens-books-site/childrens-books-site', 'books/booksforchildrenandteenagers', 'books/series/children-s-book-doctor', 'environment/forests', 'books/childrens-books-7-and-under', 'childrens-books-site/series/the-book-doctor', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'profile/juliaeccleshare'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-06-16T09:53:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/jun/14/air-pollution-got-worse-during-lockdown-in-many-countries-study-finds | Air pollution got worse during lockdown in many countries, study finds | Lockdowns imposed to stop the spread of Covid led to “virtually no change” in global average particulate pollution levels during 2020, and in some of the most populous countries pollution increased, according to a study. Analysis of revised satellite-derived data on PM2.5 levels, which measure minuscule and dangerous airborne particles, suggests that the economic lockdowns imposed across many parts of the world brought clear skies to some areas only temporarily. According to the research by the Air Quality Life Index, based at the University of Chicago, the global population weighted-average PM2.5 level declined from 27.7 to just 27.5 μg/m3 between 2019 and 2020, remaining more than five times the WHO’s guideline, which was revised last year to 5 μg/m 3. Pollution levels increased across south Asia – the world’s most polluted region, where residents are predicted to lose about five years off their life expectancy if conditions are not improved. Increases were also recorded in parts of south-east Asia, where pollution levels rose by as much as 25% in some areas. Christa Hasenkopf, AQLI’s director, said the brief “blue skies” periods during lockdowns gave a glimpse of what the air could look like, but added: “Their relatively minor effects on the long-term quality of the air we breathe underscores that pollution is a stubborn problem.” Some countries did register large decreases in pollution in 2020, including Indonesia where year-on-year particulate pollution levels declined more than 20% because of a reduction in fire-related haze. Pollution also decreased significantly in Russia, China, Germany, and Japan in 2020 relative to 2019. Variations were also observed within countries, said Hasenkopf: “While India’s year-on-year average particulate pollution levels increased by 2.9%, Delhi experienced a roughly 6% decrease in particulate pollution from 2019 to 2020.” Other populous countries where the levels of pollution worsened included Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan and the US. The revision of the WHO’s guidelines on what level of particulate pollution can be breathed by people means 97.3% of the world’s population now live in areas where PM2.5 levels are unsafe, the report said. According to AQLI analysis, permanently reducing global air pollution to meet the WHO guideline of 5 μg/m3 would add 2.2 years to average life expectancy, from roughly 72 to 74.2 years. The research did not address the reasons why some areas saw rises and falls in pollution, Hasenkopf said, but she cited possible causes: “We know that in some places, economies were playing catch-up after lockdown periods and in others, 2020 was a bad year for wildfires.” Haze caused by thousands of fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and Borneo had a drastic impact on air quality in 2019. In 2020, pollution in Singapore and Indonesia fell 38.3 and 20.3%, respectively. Elsewhere in south-east Asia, however, PM2.5 increased, including in Cambodia (25.9%) and Thailand (10.8%), with researchers pointing to biomass, forest and peatland fires, lax fuel emissions standards, and coal-fired power plants as key drivers of pollution. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebecca-ratcliffe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-06-14T14:20:56Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2011/oct/13/solar-heating-household-hot-water | Solar heating 'can provide over half of households' hot water' | Solar heating systems can provide over half of households' hot water needs, according to the largest ever field trial of the green energy devices. But the year-long study, undertaken at 88 homes by the Energy Saving Trust, also reveals that the solar water heating systems will save most owners just £55 a year despite costing between £3,000-5,000, prompting calls from green campaigners for clarity on government subsidies for them. Residential payment levels under the government's £860m renewable heat incentive (RHI) scheme, announced in March, are not due to be announced until 2012. But if on a par with those for large-scale solar heating systems, householders could expect payments of around £96 annually. The true figure is likely to be higher because smaller installations will probably attract bigger subsidies. The trust also revealed that, between 1 August and 9 October this year, 707 people took out new £300 grants for solar thermal systems. The government has put aside £15m for the renewable heat premium payment (RHPP) scheme, which runs until March 2012 offering grants for a range of green heating technologies including groundsource heat pumps and biomass boilers. The separate RHI payments, similar to those made to owners of solar panels and wind turbines under the feed-in tariffs for green electricity generation, will launch after the RHPP. Solar water heating systems work by using the sun's energy to heat water or anti-freeze in collectors on the roof of a building. The heated water or anti-freeze is then usually pumped to a hot-water cylinder to be stored until the hot water is needed. Overall, the trust said it was impressed by how well solar heating systems were working in the UK. The field study found the systems provided a median of 39% of households' hot water needs, rising to 60% for the best and plummeting to 9% for the worst-installed one. The trust had previously believed around 35-40% would be a typical figure, based on laboratory tests. Jaryn Bradford, senior technical manager for the Energy Saving Trust, and author of the report, said: "This is a technology that works, and works well in the UK." He said the main impact on a system's performance was how well insulated the home's hot water tank and pipes were. The study also showed the pumps powering the systems used between 1 and 23% of the energy generated, though would cost just £8 in electricity annually for a typical system. Some systems had pumps powered by free electricity using solar photovoltaic panels. The market for solar water heating in the UK has continued to grow despite the economic climate – up 18.1% in 2010, compared with 13.1% for Europe overall, though the trust said that was largely because the UK was starting from such a low baseline. There are an estimated 140,000 homes with solar water heating in the UK. Founder and CEO of Good Energy, Juliet Davenport, said: "This pioneering research demonstrates that households with solar hot water generators really can benefit, provided their generator has been correctly installed and they understand how to make the most of it. Solar thermal panels are a fantastic, cost effective way for the UK to reduce our demand on imported energy whilst cutting our bills and also our carbon emissions." Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner, Tony Bosworth, said: "Unless we end the nation's dependency on increasingly expensive fossil fuels, homes and businesses will continue to pay the price through soaring power bills. The government's renewable heat incentive can't be delayed any longer – ministers must provide households with real cash incentives to help families switch to clean energy to heat their homes." The field study follows similar trials by the trust of micro wind power and heat-pumps, both of which performed poorer than had been expected. | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'money/money', 'money/energy', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2011-10-13T08:03:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/jun/20/what-it-felt-like-to-seal-historic-cop15-biodiversity-deal-aoe | ‘I still can’t get over the fact we did it’: what it felt like to seal historic Cop15 deal | Six months ago, nearly every government in the world came together to agree this decade’s global biodiversity targets. They include goals to protect 30% of the planet for nature by 2030, reform $500bn (£395bn) of environmentally damaging subsidies, and restore 30% of the planet’s degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems. During the once-a-decade summit in Montreal, it seemed as if the process might fall apart amid walkouts over money, geopolitical tensions and mistrust between the global north and south stemming from last November’s Cop27 climate talks in Egypt. In the end, participants reached an agreement in the early hours of 20 December. The Guardian has spoken with some of the key figures about how they felt when the deal was sealed and what needs to happen now. Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s environment minister “I suspect that Cop15 will be a high point in my professional and personal life,” says Guilbeault who, alongside the summit president, China’s environment minister, Huang Runqiu, helped to guide negotiations. “To be able to play the role I was playing in Montreal, working with the international community, working very closely with China – a country with whom we’ve had challenging diplomatic relations, to say the least – and to be able to do this on my home turf, was an incredible experience.” Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU environment commissioner “It was a true win for multilateralism, at a time when we need it the most, and a historic outcome for nature and people,” says Sinkevičius, who was the EU’s representative at the summit. “When I look back, I’m truly proud of what we have achieved in Montreal. We now have the targets and timetables we need to pull nature back from the brink, and to help keep the 1.5C goal alive. But we have to be brutally realistic. Success is not guaranteed by an international agreement.” Leonardo Cleaver de Athayde, head of the Brazilian delegation Just hours after the deal had formally passed, it came close to falling apart. Ève Bazaiba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s environment minister, threatened to throw the integrity of the agreement into doubt after China’s summit president appeared to ignore DRC’s objections to the text and forced it through. But the international debut of the negotiating coalition between Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC – the “Opec of rainforests” – helped to avert disaster hours later, with De Athayde helping coordinate a symbolic handshake between Bazaiba and Huang Runqiu. For many, this was the moment the agreement was truly struck. “There had been disappointment within the developing-country community about the outcome on money. Some were still reluctant to agree to the package. We were happy to be able to help,” says De Athayde, recalling the moment when the DRC dropped its opposition, to the applause of the negotiating hall. “[The handshake] felt very good. In the end, our delegation was both happy to have contributed to a deal and also very relieved that Cop was over.” Basile van Havre, co-chair of the negotiations The path to Cop15 was heavily disrupted by the pandemic. At points, it looked like it would never happen. The summit was meant to take place in October 2020 but was repeatedly pushed back and eventually moved to Montreal from Kunming due to China’s Covid rules. Van Havre, who co-chaired the process with Francis Ogwal, oversaw days of slow talks from 2020 to 2022 and tried to keep momentum in the process over Zoom calls, with some negotiators having to get up in the early hours to participate. “I still can’t get over the fact we did it,” he says. “My wife was reminding me that she came to see me for a few days in Montreal. One night, I was crawling into bed around 3.30am and she asked how it’s going. I said: ‘Not well.’ Which is very unusual for me. I really thought we were not going to get there. And in the end we did and it was an incredible, incredible accomplishment.” Li Shuo, Greenpeace policy expert Now, there is the difficult task of implementing the goals. Governments have never met a single target they have set for themselves on avoiding biodiversity loss. Changing that has to be the focus, according toLi. “The success of Cop15 is defined by what happens afterwards. It is not just what governments say that matters, but what they will do to implement the global biodiversity framework. Six months after the monumental nature summit in Montreal, much remains to be done to sustain the momentum.” David Cooper, acting UN biodiversity chief Cooper, who says Cop15 was an “all-consuming” experience, is hopeful that this decade will mark a change in how governments approach nature. “I don’t have to explain what the agreement means, even with the business community. There’s an interest by all of these constituencies to be part of it. “The biggest thing we need now is courageous governance. The actions that are needed will impact all sectors. Of course, we believe that they’ll benefit them all in the medium to longer term. But in the short term, there’s going to be cost and there’s going to be vested interest fighting back. So this will only succeed with leadership.” Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/cop15', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/canada', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-20T11:00:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/2022/nov/01/uk-criticised-for-failing-to-pay-300m-in-promised-climate-funds-ahead-of-cop27 | UK criticised for failing to pay $300m in promised climate funds ahead of Cop27 | The British government has come under fire for sending a “strong negative signal” ahead of the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, by failing to make $300m (£260m) of promised climate finance payments. The UK has already caused upset among developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis, after a statement from Downing Street that Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, would not attend Cop27 due to his focus on domestic issues. Britain is the current holder of the Cop presidency and will hand over to Egypt in November. The UK missed its September deadline to provide $288m to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) dedicated to helping developing countries adapt and mitigate climate effects, Politico reported. A separate $20.6m pledge the UK made to the adaptation fund has also yet to be paid. Both funds support projects in the developing world, where people are suffering the most from a climate crisis they did least to cause. At a meeting of the GCF board last month in South Korea, developing countries expressed concern over the effect of the UK’s failure to fulfil its promises, according to observers. Board notes of the October meeting showed that three projects approved by the fund would now be put on hold due to a “lower volume of contributions from contributors than was anticipated”. Clare Shakya, director of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said the failure to deliver was “very, very poor timing”. “This is in the context when Cop26 was all about rebuilding trust. The UK has pushed every other country to up what they are doing to increase climate and adaptation funding. “And now, even before Cop27, the engineers of the trust-building exercise are reneging on their own promises. It’s such a strong negative signal to developing countries that they should not trust rich nations,” she said. Shakya predicted “absolute chaos” at Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, where the summit will be held from 6-18 November. “Everyone will be looking for strong statements and increased accountability for rich countries to deliver their promises.” Erika Lennon, who represented the civil society organisations for developed countries at the GCF meeting in October, said: “It’s worrisome any time a country doesn’t meet its commitments. Developing countries urgently need this funding, as we have seen by the climate impacts all over the world.” It was of “grave concern” that three projects had to be put on hold due to the cash shortfall, said Lennon, who is a senior attorney at the Centre for International Environment Law. “The funding proposals have already gone though a lengthy process of development. They have been identified as urgent and beneficial to a country or several countries in terms of priority for mitigation or adaptation to climate change. A number of countries have expressed concern over this.” The annual UN climate summits are designed to help governments agree steps to limit global temperature rises. The Egypt conference will focus on three key areas: reducing emissions, helping countries prepare for and deal with climate breakdown and securing technical support for developing countries. Last week, the UK’s humanitarian chief questioned where the promised $100bn (£87bn) a year to fight the impact of global heating in poorer countries had gone, and called for greater transparency around climate finance. “The truth of the matter is that we are scrambling to try to understand where the climate money is that was promised a decade ago,” said Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. “Where is it? Who’s holding it and who is not delivering it to places like Somalia?” said Griffiths. The UK has cut its overseas aid budget from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%, with reports last weekend pointing to how a large proportion of the aid budget for poor countries is being spent inside the UK, much of it on housing refugees from Ukraine. The Foreign Office declined to comment on its climate finance commitments but is expected to update the GCF board on its payment schedule soon. | ['global-development/global-development', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'global-development/climate-finance', 'environment/environment', 'environment/cop27', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'campaign/email/global-dispatch', 'environment/climate-aid', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/climate-aid | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2022-11-01T11:31:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2019/feb/26/country-diary-alders-dangle-the-prospect-of-spring-fineshade-northamptonshire | Country diary: alders dangle the prospect of spring before us | Dark grey clouds roll overhead in the broken sky; the low sun penetrates beneath them, accenting the texture of a wrinkled landscape where arboreal amour is commencing with the flowering of hazels and alders, a mark of the retreat of winter. We are just to the west of the popular Fineshade Woods, in the gap between that and Wakerley Woods, two fragments of the old Rockingham Forest. Today, the A43 connecting Stamford and Northampton bisects the thick east-west band of woodland; the gap’s significance as a highway in the mid-1100s, and an adjacent stream, would have surely figured in the decision to build a controlling castle here, as the two rivals for the English crown, Matilda and Stephen, fought for control of the country. Within a hundred years the castle had been replaced by an Augustinian priory, but that came to a sticky end in 1536 with Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. Alders sprout from the banks of the small stream. Alnus glutinosa is a wetland specialist, thriving where its roots are saturated, proliferating deep green shiny summer foliage and, in the autumn, bearing little oval cones packed with small floaty seeds. Now though, the alder is perhaps at its finest: the empty cones, still hanging from the branches, are outshone by masses of dangling maroon catkins, gleaming in the low light, waiting pensively to open and release their contents. The hazels in Wakerley Woods are also bedecked with loosely hanging catkins. Corylus avellana is the first of Britain’s native trees to flower and the yellow “lamb’s tails” are already shedding pollen. Several types of trees have catkins; they vary from the fluffy bunny-tail catkins of sallow to the long knotted tassels of the oak. Alders, hazel and birches are closely related and have similar reproductive strategies. These trees are both male and female, the pollen-bearing catkin being the male flower, and the tiny buds topped with a tuft of minute magenta hairs being the female flowers. They are pollinated by the wind, each catkin containing 4m-5m grains of pollen, released on the breezes to find their improbable way to little magenta flowers where an embryonic seed waits to be fertilised. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/spring', 'environment/winter', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk-news/northampton', 'type/article', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'tone/features', 'profile/matt-shardlow', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-02-26T05:30:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2020/sep/14/weatherwatch-israels-surprisingly-diverse-climate | Weatherwatch: Israel's surprisingly diverse climate | It covers an area of just 8,019 sq miles (20,770 sq km) – the same size as Wales – yet Israel has a surprisingly wide range of climatic zones. The north, which includes the city of Tel Aviv as well as the biblical region of Galilee, has a Mediterranean climate with warm, sunny summers and mild, wet winters, giving the landscape a lush green appearance. Typical temperatures here range from the low 30Cs in summer to the high teens in winter. In the extreme north of the country, on the borders with Lebanon and Syria, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Mount Hermon have a much cooler climate with enough snow in the winter months for a thriving ski resort. Roughly in the centre, Jerusalem is also very warm and dry in summer, but much cooler and wetter in winter. In the far south, on the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea, lies the holiday resort of Eilat. Here it is dry, sunny and warm all year round, with very hot summers and virtually no rain. If rain falls at all, it does so between December and March. Eilat lies at the southern end of the Negev desert, which covers more than half of the country’s land area, and is also very dry. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'weather/israel', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-09-14T20:30:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/aug/06/government-department-with-climate-remit-took-612-domestic-flights-since-2019 | UK ministry with climate remit took 612 domestic flights since 2019 | Employees at the government department responsible for tackling climate change have taken 612 domestic flights since June 2019, when the UK signed the net zero emissions target into law, figures show. Of the total flights taken – which are single journeys and do not include travel to Northern Ireland – by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), 34 of them were by government ministers. The BEIS figures come from a freedom of information request by the office of Kerry McCarthy, the Labour MP for Bristol East and shadow minister for green transport. They show that in the six months after the 2050 net zero target was signed into law on 27 June 2019, the department took 395 domestic flights, while in 2020 the figure was 210. So far this year, the department has taken seven domestic flights. In the six months before the law was signed, in the first two quarters of 2019, there were 779 domestic flights taken by the department. It comes after the Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, was accused by opposition parties of undermining environmental efforts and failing to set an example after reports he had flown to 30 countries in the past seven months. Downing Street said that in order to “cut emissions and secure ambitious action ahead of the Cop26 summit” face-to-face talks were essential. They insisted Sharma had secured “ambitious action as a result of the discussions he has had”. The UK is preparing to host vital UN climate talks in Glasgow in October and November, when for the first time since the 2015 Paris climate change conference countries will set new targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. McCarthy said as mainland UK journeys, the flights could have been replaced by train journeys. “The government’s hypocrisy on climate change is breathtaking. Since the UK’s net zero emissions target became law, the very department responsible for climate change has taken hundreds of polluting domestic flights that could have been taken by train,” she said. “To make things worse, this government has already hiked rail fares and is planning to slash taxes on domestic flights. We desperately need to see climate leadership ahead of Cop26. But if the government isn’t prepared to go green, how is it going to persuade anyone to do so?” In March, the government proposed to cut air passenger duty tax on domestic flights, while increasing rail fares by 2.6%, higher than the rate of inflation. A recent survey by the consumer group Which? found train fares on popular UK routes are 50% more expensive than plane fares – even though trains cause 80% less carbon dioxide emissions. Of the government departments that responded to the FoI request, BEIS’s domestic flights figures for 2019 and 2020 were the highest. So far this year, when numbers were significantly lower, it came in below only the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which recorded eight domestic flights. Among the next highest departments for domestic flights since the net zero target was signed were the Department for Education, which took 289 domestic flights in the period, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which took 104, DHSC, which took 62, and the Treasury, which took 46. A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to getting value for money for the taxpayer by minimising costs and ensuring we use the greenest means of travel wherever possible – and recent figures show that the number of flights taken across government has reduced by 28% since 2010. “However, ministers and civil servants are often required to travel for government business and while the majority of journeys are by train, flights are sometimes necessary. “For example, for the case of BEIS, travel will include to offices in Aberdeen and to key parts of the energy sector in Scotland – much of which cannot be travelled to and from in a day.” | ['environment/green-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/politics', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'world/air-transport', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-08-06T17:30:29Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
weather/2020/dec/08/venice-floods-as-forecasts-fail-to-predict-extent-of-high-tide | Venice floods as forecasts fail to predict extent of high tide | Venice has been hit by high tides of up to 1.5 metres (5ft) after its flood barrier system was not activated as a result of mistaken forecasts. Weather bulletins had predicted high tide, or acqua alta, rising to 1.2 metres – lower than the 1.3 metres level at which the 78 mobile barriers of the defensive system, called Mose, would usually be activated. By the time the water had entered the lagoon on Tuesday morning, completely flooding the narthex of St Mark’s Basilica, it was too late for the system to take effect. Tides were expected to reach 1.45 metres at about 16.40 local time, although residents estimate the water level to be as high as 1.5 metres. “The situation is really bad as we weren’t expecting it,” said Matteo Secchi, who leads the activist group Venessia.com. “It’s frustrating as we thought that with Mose this kind of thing wouldn’t happen any more, but instead we’re back to square one. It’s the same old problem.” Carlo Alberto Tesserin, the head procurator of St Mark’s Basilica, told the Italian media: “The situation is terrible, we’re under water in a dramatic way.” He said the narthex of the 1,000-year-old cathedral was completely flooded and if the water rises any higher “the internal chapels will also go under”. Secchi said that bars, restaurants and shops had been affected but the extent of the damage is not yet known. The long-awaited Mose system, which was given its first full test in July, was praised for saving Venice from recent high tides. In early October, Mose’s huge yellow floodgates, which rise to separate the Venetian lagoon from the sea, succeeded in shielding the city during its first real-time test when the high tide rose to 1.2 metres. The system again functioned successfully a few weeks later in preventing water of up to 1.35 metres from entering the lagoon. The Mose dams were designed in 1984 and were supposed to come into service in 2011, but progress was blighted by a corruption scandal and cost overruns. The Italian government came under pressure to finally finish the €6bn (£5.4bn) project, which is designed to protect Venice from tides of up to three metres, after the city experienced its worst flood since 1966 in November last year. The flood killed two people and caused an estimated €1bn worth of damage to monuments, businesses and homes. | ['weather/venice', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'weather/italy', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angela-giuffrida', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-12-08T18:49:16Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2023/oct/12/are-labours-policies-green-enough-to-swing-the-next-election | Are Labour’s policies green enough to swing the next election? | Letters | As a long-term climate protester, I have appreciated Dale Vince’s financial, practical and visible support for Just Stop Oil (I helped fund Just Stop Oil, but no more. The ballot box will be more powerful than disruption, 6 October). I understand his reasoning about the Tories’ cynical strategy of using protest as a divisive vote winner. I understand why he’s prioritising climate over economic issues (though the two are of course deeply interrelated). This is indeed a highly important election. Its outcome will contribute significantly to whether humans, and many other species, will survive beyond the next few decades. Politics doesn’t get any more epic than that. However, Vince doesn’t apply the same logic in his statement that “a vote for anyone other than Labour, or no vote at all, is a vote for another Tory government”. Such a suggestion is worse than incorrect, it’s dangerously counterproductive. A Labour vote in constituencies where another progressive candidate has the most support will help the Conservative candidate win. Vince might do well to look at what South Devon Primary group is doing: engaging in a process to ensure the most popular progressive candidate is identified to reduce the risk of wasted votes and ensure the incumbent Tory loses their seat. The more constituencies that adopt a similar approach, the fewer seats the Tories will win. Fund the Labour party if you like, Dale, but South Devon Primary’s intelligent, pragmatic and democratic approach is more worthy, and needing, of your unequivocal endorsement. Gill Coombs Melksham, Wiltshire • I am delighted to hear that Dale Vince is withdrawing support from Just Stop Oil. As a rational person I am in 100% agreement with the group’s aims, but its methods are actively counterproductive. You win an argument by making friends, not with aggression. And contrary to its claims, I would say that kettling people indiscriminately in their cars on a motorway, for example, is not a peaceful act. Mr Vince now realises what was always true: antagonising random members of the public is not going to change any government policy, but will make people angry and, for some, that anger will be directed against your aims as well as your movement. A voting drive to get Labour into power on a green mandate is a more positive strategy, and I wish him every success. Jake Prime Dartford, Kent • I wholeheartedly agree with Dale Vince’s decision to concentrate his efforts on supporting Labour to end this destructive period of Conservative rule. I still count myself as a climate campaigner and activist, but unfortunately protest, especially by Just Stop Oil, has got us nowhere. In fact, it has sadly fuelled the Tories’ narrative of irresponsible anti-British “woke” people (us) and responsible, patriotic, upright citizens (them). The Just Vote campaign is definitely the way ahead for a constructive vital future free of “business as usual”. Emily Thwaite Redmarley, Gloucestershire • Can I be the 94th person to point out Dale Vince’s political naivety? To state “Labour is green” is seriously wishful thinking, and in some constituencies like ours, a vote for Labour would mean the Tories would definitely get in. Vote for Labour by all means when it will work, but in the meantime vote tactically to get the Tories out. Nick Francis Bath • 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. | ['politics/labour-conference-2023', 'politics/labour', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'business/dale-vince', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'uk/uk', 'politics/green-party', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/just-stop-oil | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2023-10-12T15:41:45Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2023/jun/22/the-guardian-view-on-macrons-green-finance-deal-save-lives-not-profits | The Guardian view on Macron’s green finance deal: save lives, not profits | Editorial | The International Energy Agency in 2021 had an unambiguous message: developing new fossil fuel resources is incompatible with restricting global heating to below 1.5C, a threshold beyond which the most disastrous climate impacts lie. Yet the oil and gas industry isn’t listening. Last year it committed half a trillion dollars for new capital expenditure on future drilling and extraction, while making outrageous profits of $4tn. Business as usual will destroy life as we know it. Energy is fundamental for development and meeting basic needs. But producing it from coal, oil and gas is simultaneously the cause of the climate emergency. Clearly the issues of climate, energy and development must be addressed in an interconnected way. This is very difficult against a post-Covid backdrop when poor nations have record levels of debt. In the wake of the Ukraine invasion, rising interest rates have caused the dollar to surge – raising the cost of meeting loan repayments which are often denominated in the US currency. African nations spend up to five times their health budgets on debt obligations. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, should be congratulated for hosting a summit to reimagine financial solutions to the interlinked global goals of tackling poverty, curbing planet-destroying emissions and protecting nature. But there is still a long way to go. The announcement by the International Monetary Fund that rich countries had met a target, set in 2019, of a $100bn climate fund for poor countries is probably less than meets the eye. The contrast with the trillions of dollars mobilised in an instant, to bail out finance houses in 2008, is stark. It is inexcusable that funds to address global heating cannot be found. “For us it is about saving lives, for others, it is about saving profits,” said Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, chiding the rich world for inaction during a “polycrisis moment”. Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, called for a global financial transaction tax. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, came to Paris after endorsing a report, “Just Transition”, which pointed to Africa’s potential for harnessing renewable energy far outstripping any projected needs. Yet the continent has been barely able to industralise at all, let alone tap its vast green power potential. Leaders in North America and Europe are intent on reshaping their energy systems, but the key materials required are found in the developing world. Even China, which dominates critical rare earth elements and their processing, lacks vital metals. This should allow for a grand bargain, where poorer countries are given policy space to address the three structural deficiencies that hinder their development – a lack of food sovereignty, a lack of energy sovereignty, and low value-added manufacturing – in return for sharing their minerals. Otherwise, parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia risk becoming targets of a new scramble for resources – with clean energy firms behaving as destructively as fossil fuel companies: buying off politicians, wrecking ecosystems and lobbying against environmental regulations. The cash, debt relief and access to western markets needed by developing nations should not feed the engines of extractive capitalism. Mr Ruto said the three weeks taken to create the current “Bretton Woods” financial institutions should be enough to design their replacement. This might sound ambitious but it was Martin Luther King who warned against the “tranquillising drug of gradualism”. This sense of urgency is needed now to stop an environmental disaster. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'food/food', 'business/global-economy', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-06-22T18:13:24Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2016/aug/16/hornsea-project-two-windfarm-second-phase-grimsby | Second phase of world's biggest offshore windfarm gets go-ahead | Plans for the world’s biggest offshore windfarm off the Yorkshire coast are to be expanded to an area five times the size of Hull after being approved by ministers. The multibillion-pound Hornsea Project Two would see 300 turbines – each taller than the Gherkin – span more than 480 sq km in the North Sea. Fifty-five miles off the coast of Grimsby, the project by Denmark’s Dong Energy is expected to deliver 1,800MW of low-CO2 electricity to 1.8m UK homes. The development would represent a large boost to the UK’s wind energy industry, with Dong Energy pledging to invest £6bn in the UK and create more than 2,500 jobs. However, the company has yet to make a final investment decision on Hornsea Project Two and a spokesman said it could be two years before it is signed off. Greg Clark, the business and energy secretary, said: “The UK’s offshore wind industry has grown at an extraordinary rate over the last few years, and is a fundamental part of our plans to build a clean, affordable, secure energy system. Britain is a global leader in offshore wind, and we are determined to be one of the leading destinations for investment in renewable energy, which means jobs and economic growth right across the country.” Ministers said the windfarm would create 1,960 construction jobs and 580 operational and maintenance jobs. Brent Cheshire, Dong Energy’s UK chairman, said: “Development consent for Hornsea Project Two is very welcome. We have already invested £6bn in the UK, and Hornsea Project Two provides us with another exciting development opportunity in offshore wind. Hornsea Project Two is a huge potential infrastructure project which could provide enough green energy to power 1.6m UK homes. A project of this size will help in our efforts to continue reducing the cost of electricity from offshore wind and shows our commitment to investing in the UK.” The government approval comes amid uncertainty over the future of the Hinkley Point C nuclear project after Theresa May delayed signing off the new £18bn power plant last month. The crown estate – still legally owned by the Queen – said this weekend that offshore windfarms will be on course to meet 10% of the UK’s electricity by 2020. Hinkley Point C, the organisation pointed out, was not expected to be constructed until the mid-2020s and even then would produce only 7% of the country’s power. Huub den Rooijen, director of energy, minerals and infrastructure at the crown estate, said: “Offshore wind is already on course to meet 10% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2020. Major developments of Hornsea Project Two’s scale will pave the way for its continued growth alongside driving down costs, creating high-value jobs, and supporting the UK’s transition to a low-carbon energy supply.” The Hornsea decision was due to be announced two months ago but was delayed amid fears the noise of building the massive windfarm would disturb porpoises. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs proposed designating a vast, 36,000 sq km (14,000 sq mile) tranche of the North Sea – including the entire 300 sq km area of the proposed wind farm – as a special area of conservation for the harbour porpoise. A habitats regulations assessment was carried out to look at “the likely significant effects of the project, both alone and in combination with other plans and projects” on the porpoise protection zone. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'world/denmark', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2016-08-16T12:46:01Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/dec/28/country-diary-a-downed-pheasant-draws-quite-the-scavenging-party | Country diary: A downed pheasant draws quite the scavenging party | Derek Niemann | An unequal dogfight is taking place over open country at the foot of the ridge. In these midair tussles between a red kite and a carrion crow, the heavyweight never wins. The kite offers no defence against its light, agile opponent, behaving as if it were an unresisting pin cushion. The twisting crow harries the kite persistently, jabbing at wings, back and tail. Eventually, the battered bird tires of its beating and turns with the wind in its wings to be borne well away. And then it comes back. The grass track we follow is on a gentle curve, so there comes a reveal when a kite appears on the path ahead, stood in the middle with its back to me, leaning forward. A crow flies down, dive-bombing, trying to dislodge it. This is not the same kite as before – now hanging low immediately over us – nor is it the same crow. What is the attraction that has drawn four intelligent and highly observant birds to prize this spot? All kites and crows have cleared away by the time we catch up with a halo of body feathers in cinnamon, chestnut and black. A cock pheasant lying in the centre of this feather drift looks immaculate, but for the fact that his breast has been plucked and pulled open, showing bright, pig-pink flesh. Over the last few weeks, we have seen dead swans and geese strewn around the local lakes and rivers, all most likely victims of bird flu. Has this bird succumbed too, or was it shot? We continue our there-and-back walk. By the time we return about 20 minutes later, others have joined the scavenging party. A buzzard affects a low glide, before settling in a tree to weigh up its chances. A magpie crosses the path right to left, left to right. When we draw close, the birds scatter. The downed pheasant now looks like the Christmas turkey after Boxing Day, ribs prised apart and a flat plate of bone, its keeled sternum, completely stripped of meat. Past the carcass we go, leaving the watchful birds behind us to fight it out. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/birds', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/derek-niemann', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-12-28T05:30:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/sep/28/new-super-enzyme-eats-plastic-bottles-six-times-faster | New super-enzyme eats plastic bottles six times faster | A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two. The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated. Plastic pollution has contaminated the whole planet, from the Arctic to the deepest oceans, and people are now known to consume and breathe microplastic particles. It is currently very difficult to break down plastic bottles into their chemical constituents in order to make new ones from old, meaning more new plastic is being created from oil each year. The super-enzyme was engineered by linking two separate enzymes, both of which were found in the plastic-eating bug discovered at a Japanese waste site in 2016. The researchers revealed an engineered version of the first enzyme in 2018, which started breaking down the plastic in a few days. But the super-enzyme gets to work six times faster. “When we linked the enzymes, rather unexpectedly, we got a dramatic increase in activity,“ said Prof John McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth, UK. “This is a trajectory towards trying to make faster enzymes that are more industrially relevant. But it’s also one of those stories about learning from nature, and then bringing it into the lab.” French company Carbios revealed a different enzyme in April, originally discovered in a compost heap of leaves, that degrades 90% of plastic bottles within 10 hours, but requires heating above 70C. The new super-enzyme works at room temperature, and McGeehan said combining different approaches could speed progress towards commercial use: “If we can make better, faster enzymes by linking them together and provide them to companies like Carbios, and work in partnership, we could start doing this within the next year or two.” The 2018 work had determined that the structure of one enzyme, called PETase, can attack the hard, crystalline surface of plastic bottles. They found, by accident, that one mutant version worked 20% faster. The new study analysed a second enzyme also found in the Japanese bacteria that doubles the speed of the breakdown of the chemical groups liberated by the first enzyme. Bacteria that break down natural polymers like cellulose have evolved this twin approach over millions of years. The scientists thought by connecting the two enzymes together, it might increase the speed of degradation, and enable them to work more closely together. The linked super-enzyme would be impossible for a bacterium to create, as the molecule would be too large. So the scientists connected the two enzymes in the laboratory and saw a further tripling of the speed. The new research by scientists at the University of Portsmouth and four US institutions is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team is now examining how the enzymes can be tweaked to make them work even faster still. “There’s huge potential,” said McGeehan. “We’ve got several hundred in the lab that we’re currently sticking together.” A £1m testing centre is now being built in Portsmouth and Carbios is currently building a plant in Lyon. Combining the plastic-eating enzymes with existing ones that break down natural fibres could allow mixed materials to be fully recycled, McGeehan said. “Mixed fabrics [of polyester and cotton] are really tricky to recycle. We’ve been speaking to some of the big fashion companies that produce these textiles, because they’re really struggling at the moment.” Campaigners say reducing the use of plastic is key. Those working on recycling say that strong, lightweight materials like plastic are very useful and that true recycling is part of the solution to the pollution problem. Researchers have also been successful in finding bugs that eat other plastics such as polyurethane, which is widely used but rarely recycled. When polyurethane breaks down it can release toxic chemicals that would kill most bacteria, but the bug identified actually uses the material as food to power the process. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/special-supplement', 'theguardian/special-supplement/special-supplement', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-09-28T19:38:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/feb/10/fish-oil-and-fishmeal-industry-harming-food-security-in-west-africa-warns-un | Fish oil and fishmeal industry harming food security in west Africa, warns UN | The UN’s food agency has warned that the “overexploitation” of fish in west Africa by the growing global fishmeal and fish oil industry is having a “considerably negative impact” on food security, undermining the ability of local communities to feed themselves. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report said that in Senegal, where three more huge fishmeal factories opened between 2015 and 2019, the industry was “likely increasing the risk” of overexploitation of sardinella and bonga, two pelagic fish on which communities depend. In Uganda, where the factories rely mainly on fish species eaten by poorer communities, the industry competes directly with the “poorest consumers”, it said, making the price of fish unaffordable. The FAO has previously called for catches of sardinella species to be halved as a matter of urgency. Dr Aliou Ba, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said: “We are heading for disaster and here is the proof. People here are facing rocketing food prices and devastating unemployment. “West African governments have created an economic model that benefits the wealthy in developing economies rather than our own people,” he said. “West African states should get rid of these destructive industries and take their responsibilities in order to preserve food security, jobs and the wellbeing of populations.” Last October, Greenpeace activists intercepted a 96-metre tanker in the Channel carrying fish oil from west Africa to Europe, to highlight the threat the industry poses to food security and to livelihoods in the region. The FAO report focused on nine countries, concluding that while the sector offered some economic opportunities, its “social benefits remain limited”. In Senegal, the gap between supply and demand for fish is forecast to hit 150,000 tonnes a year this decade, sending prices rocketing . The industry creates employment in the factories and mills. However, many of the jobs are insecure, temporary and do not always employ local people – in Mauritania, for example, employees in the industry were mostly from China and Senegal. In Senegal, fish oil and fish meal factories employed 129 permanent and 264 temporary staff in 2018 – compared with 600,000 workers in the artisanal fishing sector. Almost all the fish-derived ingredient (FDI) produced in Congo, the Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal is exported to China and Turkey, where the owners and investors in the west African factories and industrial fishing fleets mainly come from, the report found. Globally, 69% of fishmeal and 75% of fish oil is used to feed farmed fish such as salmon and trout. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'news/fish-oil', 'business/fishing-industry', 'environment/food', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/senegal', 'world/mauritania', 'world/china', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-10T06:15:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2020/jul/21/more-government-action-needed-on-cyberattacks-against-australia-including-penalties | More government action needed on cyberattacks against Australia, including penalties | Countries which launch cyberattacks against Australia should be named and face serious consequences, an industry panel advising the federal government on cybersecurity has said. The advisory panel’s report, released on Tuesday, comes ahead of the government’s widely-anticipated 2020 cybersecurity strategy, which is due to be made public in the coming months. The previous strategy expired in April. The panel is chaired by the Telstra chief executive, Andy Penn, with members including the former US secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Vocus chair, Robert Mansfield, and the Tesla chair, Robyn Denholm. Among 60 recommendations made in Tuesday’s report, the panel called on Canberra to increase transparency around the cybersecurity threats facing Australia, including increased attribution where appropriate and when the source of the cyberattack was known. “A key priority is increasing transparency on government investigative activity with more frequent attribution and consequences applied where appropriate,” the panel stated. Tuesday’s report called on the federal government to adopt a more “forward-leaning posture” on the attribution of attacks, and deterrence, including using industry-provided information in order to alert the public of cybersecurity incidents. “This should all occur against a backdrop of promoting and adhering to international law, building on the existing work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Australia’s ambassador for cyber affairs.” The prime minister, Scott Morrison, in June declined to name the state actor behind an increasing number of attacks on Australia in recent months – widely believed to be from China. Experts said it was likely Australia would wait and join other countries in calling out the activity in a joint statement in the future, as has previously occurred. In a conference call when launching the report, Nielsen said deciding when to attribute an attack to another country was “very complex” due to the nature of international relations. “There is a right time, the right way in which to do it,” she said. “I think the [panel] discussions, in the end, were more about using attribution as a form of deterrence, along with economic sanctions, diplomatic sanctions, other authorities, and resources that are available to government to deter the behaviour.” Penn said ultimately it was a decision for government. “The point we were making is that attribution is a very important deterrent and so it should be looked at in that light but, ultimately, it’s really a matter for the government.” Despite the lack of attribution, Penn said the prime minister’s comments in June were helpful in raising awareness about the ongoing attacks. “They were incredibly helpful. When the prime minister says something you take notice.” The panel was critical of the government’s current approach to communication about cybersecurity, noting it was coming from several different departments, and a minister, with no consistent message. “The government needs to be very careful about coordinating and make it as powerful as possible with the ultimate one being the prime minister, with a coordinated approach on whatever they’re going to say on cybersecurity so that it really has the power behind it,” Mansfield said. “If it’s all over the place, people are going to shake their head and say ‘If the government can’t get it right, how can we get it right?’” The panel has called for legislative protection for companies like Telstra to block malicious websites and other sources of attacks on Australian internet users, and for safe harbour protections for companies to share information - even classified information - with governments on cybersecurity threats. Penn said companies would also need protection when they were under attack and the government had to step in and act. “If we were subject to a very significant attack, then those operators with those systems in critical infrastructure need some protection for the consequences for that,” he said. “If you’re a telecommunications operator … and there’s some sort of massive cyberattack and the government needs to become involved in the defence of that, which requires some intervention in your operations and your systems, we as an operator have legal obligations to customers.” Following the UK going a step further than Australia and requiring its telecommunications companies to remove Huawei from existing network infrastructure, Penn noted Telstra was the only company in Australia not using technology from a Chinese manufacturer in its networks. The panel suggested increasing supply chain diversification, as well as increased local research and development, as a way of ensuring critical infrastructure companies were not reliant on a small pool of suppliers when one was deemed a cybersecurity risk or banned like Huawei. | ['technology/cybercrime', 'australia-news/australian-security-and-counter-terrorism', 'technology/cyberwar', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'technology/hacking', 'world/espionage', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-taylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-07-21T07:06:28Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2021/dec/29/maine-renewable-energy-hydropower-new-england | How New England bungled its plan to transition to renewable energy | Earlier this year, Massachusetts passed a landmark law as part of a push towards decarbonization that requires the state to cut emissions in half by 2030. But the state’s plan to meet this ambitious goal hit a snag this fall, when residents in Maine voted down a regional clean energy project, arguing it would irreversibly damage their own natural resources in order to deliver hydropower somewhere else. “This project was poorly designed from the beginning,” said Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). “The developer failed almost every step of the way to involve the public and to provide Maine with meaningful benefits.” Proposed in 2017, the New England Clean Energy Connect project intended to transport 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower through western Maine. But in a 60% to 40% referendum split this November, Maine residents voted to reject the transmission line. Environmentalist groups in Maine – as well as Indigenous groups in Canada – argued the plan would put New England on a path to decarbonization that omits voices of the most affected communities. Initially, the project proposed running the utility through New Hampshire. When that failed, an above-ground route through Maine was chosen as an alternative to Vermont’s buried power lines. “It is undeniably one of the shortest routes,” said Greg Cunningham of the Conservation Law Foundation, noting that the lower cost of the route through Maine appealed to developers. “If a project developer is pursuing a project on the cheap, it ought to be a red flag.” Under this plan, environmental groups like Sierra Club, NRCM and Conservation Law Foundation expressed concern about the power lines cutting through Maine’s North Woods. “The fact that the biggest utility in the state of Maine proposes to stretch transmission lines over an iconic natural resource like the Kennebec gorge, and in doing so, permanently damage both the visual and ecological attributes of the gorge is just foolish and avoidable,” Cunningham said. While running the transmission line over the Kennebec gorge was initially considered and later scrapped, the project’s updated approach is to bury a portion of transmission lines by drilling under the river instead. Estimated at about $1bn, the project is funded by the Canadian utility company Hydro-Quebec and Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of energy company Avangrid, which services 3.3 million customers across New England and New York. A coalition of First Nation tribes in Quebec filed a lawsuit to stop construction of the hydropower line from the Quebec side. “The truth is that most of the power generated by [Hydro-Quebec] is generated and transmitted on our ancestral land without consent or compensation,” wrote Lucien Wabanonik, a spokesperson for the coalition and a member of the Anishnabeg tribe. A spokesperson from Clean Energy Matters, a political action committee funded by Avangrid, disputed the claim that the public input was not sought out by developers. “There was a tremendous amount of public input in the regulatory approval process,” said Chris Glynn. Although the construction is suspended, it’s not necessarily the end for the transmission line. Roughly 40% of the work has been completed already, with 124 miles (200km) of right-of-way trees and vegetation cut and transmission structures erected along the project route. Avangrid has maintained that the NECEC will bring cleaner air and lower energy prices to New England. Earlier this month, a district judge denied Avangrid and its subsidiary CMP’s motion to delay the referendum decision. An appeal to the Maine supreme court is expected in the coming months. From the time the project was first introduced, both sides campaigned heavily for voter support. The initiative was endorsed by Maine and Massachusetts’ governors and their predecessors, and had appeal across party lines. The project is also seemingly welcomed by the federal government, with the energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, urging voters to support the transmission line. Certain environmental groups were less keen on downright opposing the project, seeing it as a crucial first step away from fossil fuels. “New England has a natural gas problem,” Jeff Marks, of the local non-profit Acadia Center, said. “Most of our electricity is still generated by fossil fuels, so getting clean energy from a variety of sources is certainly going to be a priority.” Both supporters and opponents of the transmission line flooded local radio with ads, spending more than $60m to sway voters, according to Maine Public Radio. Two Texas-based fossil fuel companies with operations in Maine were the largest donors to the opposition campaign. Having oil companies fighting the project has further complicated the question for the voters of Maine. Although Cunningham, from the Conservation Law Foundation, saw several flaws in the way the hydropower initiative was rolled out, he was not surprised by the way oil and gas companies funded the opposition. “The reality borne out by the NECEC project is that big oil and gas companies are doing anything and everything they can to hinder if not kill progress,” Cunningham said. “These companies feel an existential threat to their investments and we’re going to see that at every turn.” This article was updated on 29 December 2021 to include comment from Clean Energy Matters, a political action committee funded by Avangrid, and to add further clarification to the story. | ['us-news/series/americas-dirty-divide', 'environment/hydropower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/aliya-uteuova'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-12-29T11:00:19Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/jan/18/colin-ward-obituary | Colin Ward obituary | My father, Colin Ward, who has died aged 90, spent much of his working life as a herdsman on farms in the home counties and Norfolk, but also had a period as an unwitting ‘virgin soldier’ during a violent interlude in Singapore in the early 1950s. Colin was born, and grew up in, the village of Kimpton in Hertfordshire. His father, Tom, was a tailor and his mother, Drusilla (nee Kirby), a housewife. Colin left St Mary’s secondary modern school in Welwyn at 14 and worked as a clerk in the accounts department of the plastics division of ICI at Kimpton Hoo, until, aged 18, he was called up to do his national service. After basic training he embarked on a six-week journey to British Malaya, and then found himself based in Singapore in early 1950, from where he fought in the Malayan Emergency. Much later in life Colin told many stories of that time. He was on a bus one day which was attacked, and a woman sitting behind him was shot and killed. On another occasion his train was ambushed, and he recalled watching a line of dum-dum bullets making holes in the carriage above his head as he lay on the floor. The soldier sleeping in the bunk above him was hit and died instantly. The author Leslie Thomas did his national service at the same time and in the same field of conflict as Colin, and Thomas’s novel, The Virgin Soldiers, had many echoes of Colin’s own experiences, although he claimed not to recognise the more salacious aspects of the book. Colin was discharged in 1951, returning to the UK on the Empire Windrush. He briefly considered rejoining the army, for the camaraderie, but instead moved to his sister’s farm at Ashdon, Essex, where he worked as a herdsman. He met Anne Williamson, the daughter of the village shopkeeper, at his 21st birthday party, and they married in 1954. Thereafter Colin worked as a herdsman on various farms around the home counties until 1967, when he moved his young family to Norfolk to look after the cattle at Norfolk College of Agriculture (now Easton College) near Norwich and to give on-the-job training to a new generation of herdsmen and women. Colin left farming in the mid-1970s, needing a higher wage to support his growing family. He worked first as a machine setter, then as a process worker at May & Baker in Norwich, and finally as a landscape gardener until his retirement. Anne died in 2007. He is survived by their four children and five grandchildren. | ['environment/farming', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'world/singapore', 'world/malaysia', 'uk-news/norfolk', 'type/article', 'tone/obituaries', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-01-18T18:37:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2015/apr/12/observer-editorial-great-barrier-reef-destruction | The Observer view on the destruction of the world’s great coral reefs | Observer editorial | In a few weeks, members of Unesco’s world heritage committee will meet in Bonn to discuss a simple, but disturbing proposition: that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef system, be listed as being “in danger”. The reef, worth an estimated $Aus5bn (£2.6bn) a year in tourism to the nation, is a world heritage site and contains more than 400 types of coral and 1,500 species of fish. Set in turquoise waters off the coast of Queensland, the 1,400-mile reef is one of the planet’s greatest wonders, but is now being eroded at an alarming rate. Rising sea temperatures, increasing ocean acidification, swelling numbers of cyclones in recent years, pollution problems triggered by fertiliser and sewage run-offs from farms and cities, and damage caused by the development of ports on the east coast of Australia to help the country to supply China with coal have had a combined and devastating effect on the Great Barrier Reef. In the past 30 years, it has lost half its coral. Had the Taj Mahal, another world heritage site, lost half its structure, there would be no doubt that it would be deemed to be in danger. Hence the pressure from green groups to give the reef such a listing, a damning status that has so far been awarded to only 46 of Unesco’s total of 1,007 world heritage sites. The prospect has only recently produced a response from the Australian government. Its prime minister, Tony Abbott, has realised that the tainting of one of his country’s major attractions as being in danger – and, by inference, poorly managed – is not good for tourism and has hastily introduced measures to curtail pollution and given pledges to spend several billion dollars on reef relief work. It remains to be seen if these measures will be enough to halt the Great Barrier Reef’s decay or save it from an “in danger” listing by Unesco. There is, in fact, only a limited amount that Australia can do on its own to save the reef. Many factors lie beyond the nation’s immediate control. In particular, rising temperatures round the world and increased ocean acidification, both caused by soaring global emissions of carbon dioxide, are today destroying coral across the planet, while a third factor, over-fishing, has now brought the status of most reefs to crisis level. According to a report co-authored by British and Australian scientists and published last week, the planet’s already beleaguered coral reefs, which are some of Earth’s most important nurseries for marine life, are now being further assailed by industrial fishing fleets. The researchers examined more than 800 reefs in 64 locations around the world and found that 83% had lost more than half of their fish, most of these losses having occurred since the 1970s. Apart from the danger posed to many species of fish, the impact on reefs themselves is also alarming, the scientists warn. Rudderfish, parrotfish, damselfish and other reef denizens eat invertebrates and remove algae, which can smother and kill off coral. Take away these piscine predators and the reef starts to decay. And even when protective measures to control and limit fishing are imposed, it can take up to 60 years for a reef to recover. It is a gloomy vision, though the authors of the report also point out that they were encouraged to find that, when some form of management is imposed at a reef, substantial amounts of biomass, both fish and coral, can survive there. In other words, by managing fisheries, some coral reefs could be given a chance to thrive. In the long term, however, it is hard to be optimistic. Rising ocean acidification – “the evil twin of global warming” – will continue until fossil fuel burning and carbon dioxide emissions are curtailed by international agreement. Only then is there a chance that coral reef erosion will stop. We should be under no illusions about what is at risk. Coral reefs occupy less than 0.1% of the world’s ocean surface, but provide homes for around a quarter of all marine species. Their value to the planet was once summed by David Attenborough in an interview in the Observer. As he observed, if you want beauty and if you want to see wildlife, there is no better prospect than a visit to a coral reef. These places abound with brilliantly coloured fish and corals. As Attenborough put it, the sight is mind-blowing. The world therefore has a choice: curtail industrial fishing and limit carbon emissions – or risk losing these natural wonders forever. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'tone/editorials', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-04-11T23:05:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/aug/22/sydney-dam-storage-level-drops-below-50-for-first-time-since-2004 | Sydney dam storage level drops below 50% for first time since 2004 | Sydney’s dam storage levels have dropped below 50% for the first time in more than a decade. Storages dropped to 49.7% on Thursday, a 0.4% decline on the previous week. It is the first time since 2004 – which was during the millennium drought – that dam storage levels in Sydney have fallen below 50%. Sydney has been on stage one water restrictions since May, along with the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra region. Those restrictions target outdoor water use and include limiting the watering of lawns and gardens to early morning and late afternoon. At the time of their introduction, the state’s water minister, Melinda Pavey, said Sydney was experiencing some of the lowest inflows into its dams since the 1940s. While Sydney had good rainfall in June, both July and August have been below average and the Bureau of Meteorology’s long-term outlook for spring is for more dry conditions. Ilona Coote, a climatologist at the Bom, said the outlook for September, October and November was for lower than average rainfall right across the country, except for on the west coast. Under the metropolitan water plan, Sydney would move to level-two water restrictions when dam storage levels reach 40% but that requires a decision from the NSW government. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning A spokeswoman for Sydney Water said the existing restrictions were helping, with water use down 7% in the month of July. She said Sydney residents were using 100 megalitres less water a day than they were a decade ago. “It’s worth noting that 75% of residential water use happens indoors, so we’re calling on people to save water inside the home too,” she said. “Reducing showers by one minute saves on average nine litres of water. If everyone cut a minute off their shower, collectively Sydneysiders could save 45m litres of water every day.” She said Sydney Water and the government were still closely monitoring the drought and assessing ways to respond to it. Sydney’s desalination plant has been delivering water to the network since March and reached full capacity in July, a few months ahead of schedule. The plant is now supplying an average of 250m litres of water a day, which is equivalent to about 15% of Sydney’s water requirements. Pavey announced last week that work had started on preliminary plans to expand the plant “to ensure Sydney’s water supply is maintained”. | ['environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/sydney', 'weather/sydney', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-08-22T05:27:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2005/dec/18/tsunami2004.india | Grieving mothers risk surgery to give birth again | In the months after her daughters were swept away by the waves, Kumari Pavadai began to regret her decision to have her fallopian tubes cut 10 years ago. It had seemed a sensible move: she had a son as well as the two girls, and her fisherman husband's income would not stretch to more children. With the encouragement of health workers - with family planning targets to meet - she stayed on at the clinic after the birth of her third child and doctors performed a sterilisation. But losing her daughters in last year's tsunami left her doubly bereaved - by their loss and by her inability to replace them. No one told her the procedure could be reversed, so she was surprised to see the government announcing on television last February that state hospitals would perform 'recanalisation operations' free for women who had lost children. A few weeks later Kumari, 28, left her two-room bungalow on the tiny island of Sothikuppam, off India's east coast, to return to the mainland clinic where doctors reconnected her tubes. 'I was so happy when I heard that it was possible. We would like to have another girl', she said. Nine months later she is not pregnant, but she brings out ultrasound images of her womb and a note as evidence that the operation was a success. Just the possibility that she might have another child was helping her survive, she said. The wound to her abdomen is still painful and she spends most of the day in her home's hallway, beneath a shrine to her daughters Suganya, 11, and Suridha, nine - a collection of photographs, surrounded by their toys, which she and her husband have draped with green and red flashing Christmas lights and plastic flowers. For many of South India's bereaved mothers, the process of healing has been aided by the surgical procedure. Recanalistation has a modest success rate, somewhere between 40 and 70 per cent, but the hope it offers is therapeutic. Tamil Nadu, the Indian state worst affected by the tsunami, was one of India's most successful enforcers of sterilisation as birth control for women with two or more children; by 2002 about 44 per cent of the state's women had been sterilised by the age of 27. Sterilisation reversal is a delicate procedure, but more than 200 women have been operated on, for free in state hospitals or with a payment of 25,000 rupees (£310) in private clinics; so far only three babies have been conceived. 'This operation is good because so many of these women had suicidal tendencies after seeing their children washed away', the area's senior government official, Gagandeep Singh-Bedi said. 'The absence of a child is a great trauma. If there is a chance that there could be a new child, then the government should help them.' He has asked all women to let him know if they get pregnant so the happy news can be broadcast throughout the region. This island community of a few hundred houses lost 22 of its children on 26 December. As the sea level rose before the wave, mothers ushered all their infants on to a pier on the mainland side of the island, the furthest possible place from the nearing wave. This was a mistake. The water rushed around the island and swept them off the pier. Only the youngest died; the older ones were strong enough to cling on to the cashew nut trees. Just two adults died from the village. Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, believes more than a third of the 216,000 dead or missing in 12 Indian Ocean countries were children - too weak to run, swim or hang on. Charity officials predict a baby boom to replace lost children. Near Kumari's home, two neighbours also wait. Kennooral Selvathambi, 32, lost two of her three children - her 11-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter. She had run with them to the pier, but then someone told her that all the fishermen were dead, so she left her children and ran to the other side of the island to find her husband. He was safe, but when she returned her two older children were gone. Arun, six, was at Sunday school and survived. It took her three months to decide whether to have the operation; her earlier deliveries had been very difficult and she was scared of returning to hospital. But she had the surgery last April and is waiting now to conceive. Her friend, Shanti Kanjamalai, 25, followed her to the clinic, to try for a son to replace, Prithviraj, seven. She said that though her 10-year-old daughter survived 'it is important to have a son. We need the boy to become the fisherman', she said. 'But if God gives us a girl, what can we do?' Across the bay in the town of Cuddalore, Pushpalatha Renganathan is also hoping for a son, five months after recanalisation. 'If you lose your son, you have lost everything - even if you still have a daughter, boats, a house, a business.' She brought out a large laminated photo of her dead son, Ashok, who had been 19 when he died. They mortgaged everything to get him an education, paying a 75,000 rupees (£930) 'donation' to get him into engineering college. Despite the £2,500 government compensation, they owe money-lenders another £3,800. At 36, and with a difficult medical history, the chances of conceiving again are not high, but she is comforted by the possibility. 'The news that this operation was possible was like a God's gift', she said. 'I want to give birth to another Ashok. It would be like a rebirth of him; some compensation for what we have lost.' | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/india', 'type/article', 'profile/ameliagentleman', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-12-18T01:15:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/apr/07/stereotype-of-chelsea-tractor-reflects-reality-of-urban-suv-sales-says-report | Stereotype of ‘Chelsea tractor’ reflects reality of urban SUV sales, says report | The stereotype of the Chelsea tractor, the derogatory term used to describe the tendency of the London middle classes to use 4x4 vehicles for the school run, is based on reality, according to new figures. Promoted by carmakers and advertisers as a vehicle that takes you back to nature, new data shows that SUVs, which produce much greater CO2 emissions than most other cars, are most popular in affluent urban areas such as Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster. Three-quarters of the 360,000 SUVs sold in 2019 in the UK were bought by people living in towns and cities, the report from the New Weather Institute and climate action charity Possible shows. The royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea is in the top three districts for the sale of large SUVs, said the report. More Range Rovers were sold in Kensington and Chelsea than anywhere else; with one in 10 new cars registered in the borough belonging to the Land Rover brand of SUV. The report accuses advertisers and the car industry of using persuasive but dishonest messaging to push the sale of polluting vehicles that damage the environment. Because SUVs are bigger, heavier and less aerodynamic than other vehicles, they produce more CO2 than similar-sized cars – in 2019 average emissions of petrol SUVs were 134g/km compared to 121g/km of other petrol cars, according to the European Environment Agency. Advertising campaigns focus on a romantic image of the SUV as the car of the great outdoors. In July last year Land Rover pushed its vehicles as an antidote to the restrictions imposed by the Covid 19 pandemic in an ad campaign using the line “a love letter from the great outdoors”. But far from being a vehicle that takes the driver back to nature, SUVs are damaging the environment and the climate, the report said. Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute and report co-author, said: “It turns out that the home of the ‘Chelsea tractor’ really is Chelsea. “One of advertising’s biggest manipulations has persuaded urban families that it’s perfectly ‘normal’ to go shopping in a two-tonne truck. They’ve spun the Chelsea tractor factor into behaviour change, but the human health and climate damage done by SUVs is huge and needs to be undone.” Transport is the largest contributor to UK domestic greenhouse gas emissions. It contributed 28% of UK domestic emissions in 2018, 4% higher than in 2013. In Europe, sales of SUVs are being blamed for the failure of transport sector to meet emission reduction targets. The vehicles have increased from a 7% market share in 2009 to 36% in 2018 and are expected to reach nearly 40% by 2021, according to the NGO Transport and Environment. Robbie Gillett, campaigner at climate charity Possible and report co-author, said: “Car companies have promoted SUVs as a luxury status symbol for far too long. And now our city streets are full of them. Advertising agencies working on SUV ad campaigns need to end their role in promoting harmful and polluting products.” The report said the Advertising Standards Authority was failing in its mission to safeguard the public from misleading and harmful advertising and is too biased towards the car industry. It called on the ASA to be restructured and to be far more active in addressing climate change Greg Archer, of Transport and Environment, said that for years the promotion of SUVs had stalled progress to more efficient, lower CO2 cars. Now the new push by the industry was for uptake of SUV hybrids, which were not a responsible choice to reduce transport emissions. “These gas guzzlers are being sold as plug-in hybrids with a small battery only capable of powering these urban tanks on short trips,” said Archer. “A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle SUV is not a sustainable or responsible choice for any city driver.” The ASA declined to comment. Land Rover did not respond to a request for comment. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-04-07T05:00:35Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
money/2023/mar/06/leading-uk-ceos-attack-energy-support-policy-as-brake-on-investment | Labour proposes long-term tax breaks to increase UK investment and growth | Labour is considering bringing in long-term tax breaks to boost investment and raise the UK’s sluggish growth rate, adding to pressure on the chancellor from a swathe of industry leaders calling for pro-business measures in next week’s budget. The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will tell a conference organised by the MakeUK employer’s organisation on Tuesday that Britain needs a system of investment allowances lasting for the length of a parliament in order to provide companies with stability and certainty. Her comments come after the chief executives of three leading UK companies criticised the government’s energy policy, accusing it of failing to spur investment. Shell boss Wael Sawan, Miles Roberts, the chief executive of packaging company DS Smith, and Keith Anderson, the chief executive of ScottishPower, said investment in energy was being held back by uncertainty and planning difficulties. Industry groups have also voiced concerns about the dual impact of April’s increase in corporation tax rates from 19% to 25% and the end of the two-year super deduction investment tax break. The entrepreneur James Dyson wrote to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, pointing out that the pharmaceuticals firm AstraZeneca recently chose to build a $360m (£299m) advanced manufacturing factory in Ireland, not the UK, citing “discouraging” UK tax rates. He also criticised the UK for taking part in the minimum global tax plans being worked on jointly by members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in a letter to the chancellor shared with the Sun, saying: “The government has done nothing but pile tax upon tax on to British companies.” Hunt is thought to be considering a replacement for the super deduction tax break as part of his budget, but Reeves criticised what she called the government’s 11th-hour approach to business taxation. “In recent years, corporation tax has gone up and down like a yo-yo while the government has papered over the cracks with short-term fixes like the super-deduction,” the shadow chancellor is due to say on Tuesday. “So it’s no wonder businesses are unable to plan and our investment rates are cratering.” Reeves is opposed to unfunded tax giveaways and cuts in corporation tax, but instead believes the UK should follow the example of other G7 countries and use targeted capital allowances to stimulate investment. “Labour knows that there is a role for the tax system in supporting investment,” Reeves will say. “We will look closely at what the government proposes on capital allowances in that budget … If the government brings forward a genuine boost to investment and if it is affordable, we will back it to help get our economy growing again. But stop-go tax policy is only a sticking plaster. What businesses need are certainty, consistency and incentives for investment.” The comments from leading chief executives come amid scrutiny of the UK’s attractiveness for business compared with rivals such as the US, which is planning large subsidies particularly for green energy. The UK’s competitiveness has also been put in the spotlight after Shell reportedly considered moving its headquarters out of the UK and another FTSE 100 company, building materials supplier CRH, said it would move its primary stock market listing from London to New York. On Monday, the London-listed big data company WANdisco said it would also list its shares in the US. WANdisco, which has headquarters in Sheffield, England, and California, said it was “in the early stages of proactively exploring” the option of a dual listing, but that it was “committed” to keeping its listing on London’s Alternative Investment Market. Roberts said the government’s long-term energy plan was unclear, making it difficult for DS Smith, a large-scale energy user and a member of the FTSE 100, to commit to UK investments. “When we look at the UK we’re really saying to the government help us understand, ‘what are your short, medium, and long-term plans for energy, carbon zero?’ And then we can invest behind.” Sawan compared UK “volatility” with the “10-year clarity and tangible, fixed incentives that people know to bank on” introduced by the US government, notably under the $369bn (£307bn) Inflation Reduction Act package of subsidies for green energy. Anderson said there was a danger of the UK missing out on “an absolutely colossal opportunity” in offshore wind power because of the extended planning permission process. He said the delays meant energy companies were unable to roll out new investments quickly enough to address the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'money/energy', 'business/dssmith', 'business/scottish-power', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'uk-news/budget-2023', 'money/money', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/utilities', 'business/investing', 'business/financial-sector', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'business/productivity', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'technology/dyson-ltd', 'technology/james-dyson', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'uk/budget', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'profile/larryelliott', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-03-06T22:28:54Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/blog/framing-natural-capital-economy-ecology-not-competition | Framing natural capital: economy and ecology are not in competition | I very much agree with George Monbiot that nature is beautiful, full of wonders and must be protected for its own sake. This is the main reason I've spent the last 30 years making the case for the protection of rare birds, forests, oceans, wetlands and the rest of the amazing tapestry of life that sustains us. Considering that most people broadly agree with this basic proposition it is remarkable how we continue to tolerate widespread ecological degradation. This is not because most people are hostile to protecting nature, but more because we have fallen victim to a monumental misconception: one that is repeated regularly in politics and the media, and which is the subtext in most boardrooms. The heart of this misconception is the idea that protecting nature is too costly, an impediment to economic growth and a barrier to competitiveness. Nature is nice, but ultimately less important than material progress, and in order to promote development some sort of balance needs to be struck – or so its narrative goes. It is in this context of balancing economic growth and intrinsic value that the battle continues to be lost. Rampant deforestation, oceanic pollution and the mass extinction of animals and plants are among the consequences. On this much we agree. But I part company with George on how best to respond. He quite correctly points out the importance of framing but I fear that keeping nature out of the economic argument presents more dangers than benefits. Excluding nature from the mainstream economic discourse leaves the misconception intact, and perpetuates the battle that we have been losing for decades. I believe our best chance of breaking the problematic "balancing" frame is through showing that nature is not an impediment to economic success, but an essential prerequisite for it. This is not to say that nature's huge economic value should be seen as an alternative to its intrinsic worth, but rather as an additional to it. Like paintings by the old masters, nature is intrinsically priceless but also valuable, providing an extra reason why it is cherished. It is not "either or", but both. There are certainly big methodological challenges in assigning specific economic value to natural systems (paintings have market values of a kind that can rarely be calculated for nature), but to say that this is why no economic value should be assigned would perpetuate nature's economic invisibility, reinforcing the frame that prevents us progressing. I suggest the following framing logic: first emphasise nature's multiple values, not only intrinsic and economic, but also spiritual, aesthetic and scientific. All these can be shown and maintained using different tools. When it comes to intrinsic values, protected areas and species protection laws have been the main ones. The tools we have for protecting nature's economic value are newer but have already brought conservation gains. For example blanket bogs are being restored on Exmoor to reduce flood risk and maintain water quality. New flower-rich habitats are being established in the UK to encourage pollinators. Coastal wetlands are being recreated to protect against storms. At Lyme Bay the marine environment has been protected (pdf) and through encouraging wildlife, tourism is bringing more economic value than destructive bottom trawling. There are many more examples of projects that promote economic and environmental values. The second part of the frame is about not confusing valuation with 'putting a price on nature'. This is because there are tools that reflect and protect the economic value of natural systems. These include good old regulation, for instance using the law to stop damage, such as banning bee-killing pesticides. Another is to redirect incentives, including the billions we hand to farmers, to discourage the depletion of nature. We can also encourage different business models: for example restoring wetlands to purify water rather than building costly engineering solutions. Some tools that work in the economic frame are, as George points out, more about price – for example biodiversity offsets, that can be bought by developers in a market for conservation compensation. But even here I believe we should pause before casting out ideas that could be potentially useful. Like any tool, offsets can be used for constructive or destructive purposes. In the right hands a hammer can sculpt works of art, and in others destroy them. With the offset tool wielded by Owen Paterson I fear it will be closer to the latter, but still judge it best to argue for its good use, rather than discarding it altogether. This is why the third part of the framing is about being clear on what tools are doing what job and how, rather than being dogmatic about using them at all. In building a broader platform for conservation, one that incorporates a stronger sense of what nature does for us economically, there are risks. Every tool environmentalists have ever deployed has been imperfect and undermined by those who seek to get around them. That is not going to change, but so long as we perpetuate the myth that ecology and economy are in competition it is likely that those who are blind to nature's beauty will maintain the upper hand. Nature is not destroyed because it is not beautiful or wonderful to some people, but because many believe it must be sacrificed to achieve progress. Breaking that frame is at the top of the to-do list. Update: This article was amended on 24 April to reflect the reference to the use of environmentalists tools in the penultimate paragraph. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/blog', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/natural-capital', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/environment', 'business/economics', 'tone/blog', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/green-economy', 'type/article', 'profile/tonyjuniper'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-04-23T13:42:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2021/apr/29/rsted-says-offshore-uk-windfarms-need-urgent-repairs | Ørsted says offshore UK windfarms need urgent repairs | The Danish wind power firm Ørsted has warned that up to 10 of its giant offshore windfarms around the UK and Europe will need urgent repairs because their subsea cables have been eroded by rocks on the seabed. The renewables firm, which is behind plans to build one of the world’s largest offshore windfarms off the coast of Grimsby, told investors it might need to spend up to DKK3bn (£350m) over the next two years to repair the cables. Ørsted has found that the rocks placed at the base of the wind turbine foundations to prevent the erosion of the seabed were responsible for wearing down the cable protection system which, in a worst case scenario, could cause the cables to fail. The problem was first discovered earlier this year after its Race Bank offshore windfarm off the Norfolk coast, which can generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes, suffered an outage due to cable damage caused by the seabed rocks. The windfarm includes 91 turbines standing in ocean depths of between 19ft and 85ft. Marianne Wiinholt, Ørsted’s chief financial officer, said: “When we investigated the cause we found that more cables were damaged, and that the damage is caused by the fact that the cable protection system … is placed on top of rocks. With movement in the sea, these cable protection systems get damaged.” The company did not name the other windfarms that may need repairs, but the majority of its European projects are based in the UK. Ørsted’s 12 UK windfarms generate enough electricity to power 3.2m British homes a year, contributing a significant amount of the UK’s renewable electricity. Ørsted is considering a two-phase approach to the problem. In phase 1, the company plans to stabilise its cable protection systems to prevent further damage, which may include a low-cost plan to “dump more rocks” on top of the cables to keep them in place and prevent the movement that leads to erosion. In phase 2, the company will begin repairing or replacing cables that are already damaged, which is likely to be more expensive. John Musk, an analyst at RBC Capital, said the cable damage was “likely to cause concern for investors until the full cost implications are ironed out”, and might also raise concerns over whether other offshore wind developers would face similar issues. Offshore wind made up 13% of the UK’s total electricity generation last year, surpassing onshore wind for the first time. The government expects offshore wind to play a major role in the UK’s future electricity system, and aims to quadruple the UK’s offshore wind capacity to generate enough electricity to be able to power every home in the UK. • This article was amended on 30 April 2021. Ørsted plans to build a windfarm off the coast of Grimsby, not off the Yorkshire coast at Dogger Bank where a separate group has plans for a windfarm. Also, its Race Bank farm can generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes, not 3.2m as an earlier version said; 3.2m is the number of British homes for which all 12 of Ørsted’s UK windfarms can generate enough electricity each year, not 4.2m. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'world/denmark', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2021-04-29T16:38:26Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2021/jun/22/curbs-on-protests-in-policing-bill-breach-human-rights-laws-mps-and-peers-say | Curbs on protests in policing bill breach human rights laws, MPs and peers say | Restrictions on protests in the controversial new policing bill breach human rights laws and will increase the risk of peaceful demonstrators in England and Wales being criminalised, MPs and peers have warned. They say the police, crime, sentencing and courts (PCSC) bill, which has provoked widespread protests, contains provisions that are unnecessary and disproportionate and confer unacceptably wide and vague powers to curb demonstrations on the home secretary and police. Parliament’s joint committee on human rights (JCHR) says clauses which allow restrictions to be imposed on protests because of the noise they generate, create powers to limit one-person demonstrations and increase penalties on people who breach conditions placed on protests should all be scrapped. Harriet Harman, the committee’s chair, said: “One of our most fundamental rights is to protest. It is the essence of our democracy. To do that, we need to make ourselves heard. The government proposals to allow police to restrict ‘noisy’ protests are oppressive and wrong. “The government put forward new powers in areas where the police already have access to powers and offences which are perfectly adequate. The government has served up confusion where clarity and precision is essential.” The JCHR report published on Tuesday says increased police powers in the bill to restrict static protests, akin to those they hold with respect to marches, should be limited to amending the start and finish time of assemblies. Furthermore, its members describe the proposal to allow the home secretary, Priti Patel, to define “serious disruption” to communities and organisations, which police could then rely on to curb protests, as “unacceptable”. They say: “If there is a particular clarification of ‘serious disruption’ that the Home Office considers is currently needed, perhaps as a result of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests of 2019, it should be made clear now so that it can be considered while the bill is being scrutinised. If no need for particular clarification has yet been identified, then we struggle to see how the powers contained in the PCSC bill can be considered necessary.” Patel has previously criticised protests by XR as well as Black Lives Matter, and pledged to prevent the former bringing “anarchy on our streets”. The JCHR says “current rhetoric focuses on the inconvenience sometimes caused by protest rather than its value to society”, warning that any interference with non-violent protests risks rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, under article 10 and 11 respectively of the European convention on human rights. It says the bill should enshrine an explicit right to protest and set out the obligations of the state accordingly. The parliamentarians express “serious concerns” that a new public nuisance offence contained in the bill could be broader than the common law offence it seeks to replace and fails to give significant weight to the right to protest. They point out that existing laws already deal with public nuisance offences, such as obstructing the highway, and warn the new statutory definition risks deterring demonstrations and “criminalising a vast number of peaceful protesters”. Demonstrations against the bill have been held across England and Wales, including weeks of protests in Bristol where there were clashes between police and protesters who accused officers of being too aggressive. A Home Office spokesperson said the proposals were backed by the police, “are in line with human rights legislation and in no way impinge on the right to protest. “Public order legislation is out of date, and the use of disruptive and dangerous tactics – including obstructing emergency vehicles or blocking the free press - costs millions to the taxpayer and causes misery to businesses and local communities.” | ['uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'society/society', 'politics/priti-patel', 'world/protest', 'world/black-lives-matter-movement', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/haroonsiddique', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-06-22T04:57:45Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2023/sep/13/bp-needs-a-new-chief-executive-not-a-slower-strategy-towards-net-zero | BP needs a new chief executive not a slower strategy towards net zero | Nils Pratley | Bernard Looney, after four years talking about orderly transitions, has made a disorderly transition out of BP. Not being fully transparent with the board of directors – whether about past personal relationships with colleagues or anything else – usually has that outcome for a chief executive. On the company’s version of events, this was clearly a resigning matter. The immediate question is succession. BP is the type of company that likes to promote from within and, with the 53-year-old Looney at the helm, the board probably thought it had a few more years to observe the internal jostling for position. Murray Auchincloss, the chief financial officer, who has got the gig on an interim basis, is the leading contender, but energy companies usually prefer their permanent chief executives to have more frontline operational experience. City analysts speculated that the chair, Helge Lund, who was chief executive of BG Group until the gas firm was bought by Shell in 2016, would fit the bill. That feels unlikely. Lund presumably wouldn’t have opted for the non-executive life post-BG if he still wished to be a day-to-day boss. As importantly, the appointment process will reignite the debate about the pace of BP’s transition towards net zero by 2050 “or sooner”. Looney himself wobbled – or so it seemed – in February when he scrapped the target of reducing hydrocarbon output by 40% by 2030 and opted for 25%. On the other hand, he stuck to his original plan for BP to have 50 gigawatts of wind and solar generating capacity by 2030 while simultaneously revving up other “transition growth engines” such as biofuels, electric charging points and hydrogen. Even after the softening of hydrocarbon targets, BP is perceived within the big oil universe as a faster transitioner than Shell and positively speedy versus unashamedly oily US majors such as Chevron and ExxonMobil. But, in an age of sharply higher oil and gas prices, Exxon and Chevron shares have flown and BP’s haven’t. The stock market has rewarded purer fossil fuels producers over companies pushing into zero-carbon generation (albeit BP is still projected to have 75% of its earnings from fossil fuels in 2030). It doesn’t help that BP is perceived to have overpaid for wind leases in the UK in 2021 and Germany this year and that the shares prices of wind specialists such as Ørsted have slumped. So – in theory – if BP wished to slow its transition timetable, and be less windy and more gassy for a while, an unexpected opportunity has arisen. It is easier for a new leader to avoid the appearance of a screeching U-turn. No doubt a shift would be welcomed by a certain class of fund manager – those who aren’t convinced (whatever their ESG marketing brochures say) that renewables will earn the same long-term returns as oil and gas and would like bigger dividends now. Yet a new direction for BP would surely also be ridiculous in these circumstances. First, the current strategy was endorsed by the entire board, not just Looney. Second, the detour in February was meant to be a definitive adjustment to market conditions. Third, Joe Biden’s subsidy-heavy Inflation Reduction Act may eventually succeed in retipping the balance in favour of low-carbon investments. Lund reportedly told staff on Wednesday that BP would “hold the course” on its transition timetable, a message echoed by Auchincloss. One would expect nothing else on day one, but both men would be well advised to get out and argue their case in front of investors. BP doesn’t need to go any slower. | ['business/bp', 'business/business', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'business/nils-pratley-on-finance', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/commodities', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/nilspratley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2023-09-13T17:51:06Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2009/may/25/north-korea-arms-race | North Korea escalates the arms race | Robert Fox | The announcement of North Korea's major nuclear test today has caused outrage, but little surprise. Relations had been deteriorating since last month's launch of a communication satellite rocket – taken by some as an ill-disguised ballistic missile test – brought widespread international condemnation. Today Pyongyang said the improvement of its nuclear arsenal made the Korean peninsula a safer place. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea successful conducted one more underground nuclear test on May 25 as part of the measures to bolster up its nuclear deterrence for self-defence in every way as requested by its scientists and technicians." The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said he had been expecting the move for a some days now, particularly after North Korea said it wouldn't return to the six-power talks on nuclear disarmament last week. While the admiral said he didn't think armed conflict was imminent, it is evident that the Obama administration doesn't envisage a resumption of direct talks with Pyongyang soon. It may be a further symptom of the instability of Kim Jong-il's grasp on power in the reclusive neo-Stalinist state – as Simon Tisdall has written in Comment is free today. The beloved leader is clearly still in bad shape after his stroke last year, and the latest bout of erratic behaviour by Pyongyang may be an early showing of symptoms that the succession battle is already under way. Today's underground test has significance well beyond the domestic upheavals of North Korea. It is a bad day indeed for the attempt to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the run-up to the renewal, and possible replacement, of the current Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (1971) next year. North Korea seems to have been working for more than a year to improve its nuclear weapons capability both in the weapons themselves and their delivery systems. Today's statement says that the new test was carried out to "correct" the problems encountered with the first underground test of a nuclear device in 2006. Since then the North Korean military has tested several intermediate and intercontinental missiles and rockets, with mixed results. It looks very much as if we may be on the threshold of the biggest nuclear arms race so far. There are strong indications that Pakistan and Iran are expanding their nuclear capability, as well as North Korea – their historical partner in the exchange of military hardware and technology. If there is no effective international anti-proliferation control, we may well have between 20 and 30 declared and undeclared nuclear powers within 15 years – and several non-state organisations with nuclear technology at their fingertips. The device detonated today was modest by historical standards, the equivalent of 20 kilotons of TNT, causing the equivalent of an earthquake registering 4.5 on the Richter scale, roughly the same strength of the bombs that devastated the core of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The latest US assessment is that Pyongyang has created enough high-grade fissile material to make at least seven bombs of this capability. Last week the Pentagon assessed that Pakistan now had between 70 and 100 bombs or warheads of the same capacity, and this is being expanded. Asked at a congressional hearing last week if he thought Pakistan was boosting its nuclear weapons capability, Mullen replied with a terse "yes" and said he could not go into details for security reasons. As if today's news from North Korea wasn't bad enough, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has issued his note of defiance about his own nuclear programme. He flatly rejected the offer by the US and its allies to discuss a freeze on nuclear fuel enrichment in return for lifting sanctions. He rejected the terms, and said he did not plan to open any talks at all in the near future. With diplomacy failing to curb the ambitions and programmes of the trio of North Korea, Pakistan and Iran, it is going to be hard to dissuade the aspirants to the nuclear club. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Brazil are likely to be the first off the blocks, but candidates such as Hugo Chavez's Venezuela cannot be ruled out. This is likely to put pressure on Britain, too, with America pressing for the UK to update its Trident ballistic missile programme in about 2025. America will have to replace its current fleet of Ohio class ballistic missile submarines only 10 years later. The thinking is now that the US navy can only man and deploy between eight and 10 nuclear patrols at the maximum, and the British and French contributions will be vital to mounting their own deterrent activity, particularly round the coasts of Africa and the Gulf. The costs are likely to be far greater than the £20-25bn projected in the UK government's discussion document on Trident replacement of two years ago. Greenpeace countered that the programme over 50 years could reach £76bn at least. Already Royal Navy planners are looking at a "Trident Lite" concept whereby the new Trident missiles could be adapted to fit the new class of Astute nuclear submarine. But would Trident Lite deter a Dear Leader in Pyongyang or the successors of Ahmadinejad in Tehran from their ambitions to get their own nukes? | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/north-korea', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'science/weaponstechnology', 'world/pakistan', 'world/iran', 'tone/comment', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/robertfox'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-05-25T16:16:19Z | true | ENERGY |
weather/2009/may/28/weather-watch-fog | Weatherwatch | When fog descends, travelling becomes hazardous. Warning lights can be used at night, but in fog all visual signals are useless. This has always been a problem for seafarers, and since classical times ships and lighthouses have been equipped with warning bells or gongs. When gunpowder was invented, fog guns were introduced which could broadcast a warning over a greater distance, but these required continuous loading and firing. By the 19th century, scientific ingenuity was finding mechanical alternatives, such as Steven's Fog Bell Apparatus. This was a clockwork device to ring a bell up to 10,000 times at set intervals with a single winding. Steam power brought in whistles and fog horns. The distinctive low pitch of the fog horn was adopted after experiment showed that lower frequencies carried better in foggy conditions. The definitive fog horn was the 1894 Diaphone, invented by Robert Hope-Jones who adapted technology used in church organs. Replacing the organ-pipe's reed with a cork disc mounted on a spring gave the Diaphone a much louder note. An alternative solution was found on the railways. The Victorians introduced the detonator or torpedo: a small explosive charge which could be attached to the line in the path of oncoming trains. This would give a loud report when a train ran over it, warning the driver of danger hidden in the fog ahead. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-05-27T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2022/may/10/california-water-use-leaps-19-in-march-amid-one-of-the-driest-months-on-record | California water use leaps 19% in March, amid one of the driest months on record | California’s drought is worsening yet new figures show that in March, water usage jumped nearly 19% compared with 2020, during one of the driest months on record. The startling figures come despite pleas from the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and other authorities who have urged residents to curb their water usages. They also come the same day that the Los Angeles mayor ordered residents and businesses to restrict outdoor watering to just two days a week in an effort to conserve. Newsom last summer asked residents to voluntarily cut water use by 15% compared to 2020. He encouraged people to water their yards less often, run dishwashers less and install more efficient appliances. The state’s conservation rate gradually increased, aided by some intense fall and early winter storms that reduced water demand. But the first three months of 2022 have been some of the driest ever recorded. Water use increased slightly in January and February before exploding in March when compared to 2020 figures. Californians averaged 77 gallons (291 liters) a person a day in March, an 18.9% increase from March 2020. It’s the most water Californians have used in March since the middle of the previous drought in 2015. Last month was the most water Californians have used in March since the middle of the previous drought in 2015. Since July, the state has cut its overall water use by just 3.7%, woefully short of Newsom’s 15% goal. Newsom responded on Tuesday by pledging to spend $100m on a statewide advertising campaign to encourage water conservation. The campaign will include traditional radio and television spots while also paying people with large followings on social media to urge others to save water. He also promised to spend $211m to conserve more water in state government buildings by replacing plumbing fixtures and irrigation controls. “Conservation actions are most impactful when they account for the diversity of conditions and supply needs around the state,” Newsom’s office said in a statement. “We are hopeful these actions will significantly contribute to the state’s overall water reduction goals as outdoor watering is one of the biggest single users of water.” In southern California, officials are taking unprecedented steps to rein in personal water consumption. The announcement on Tuesday by the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, will reduce outdoor landscape watering from three days a week to two, in a city where irrigation makes up 35% of water use. The announcement followed earlier rules brought in by the Metropolitan water district of southern California, a large wholesaler that supplies water to local agencies across the region, that also took aim at outdoor watering by calling for one-day-a-week allotments. Faced with cutbacks from the State Water Project, a sprawling water system that sources water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and delivers water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland, Metropolitan’s limits will affect roughly 6 million people, including residents in Los Angeles. Metropolitan left the details and enforcement up to suppliers, and the latest restrictions from Los Angeles department of water and power (DWP) reflect the agency’s belief that, even allowing for an extra day – a total of two days a week – residents can keep their use below the allotment. The rules will also apply to all DWP’s customers, and not just those dependent on the State Water Project supplies. “We’ve elected to use the allotment number because we do still have our own aqueduct supplies, our own groundwater, and we have the ability to shift some of our demands on to the Colorado River where there’s not a restriction,” said Martin Adams, the DWP’s general manager and chief engineer to the Los Angeles Times. “We believe that going to two-day-a-week watering and getting people to really pay attention and ramp down their water use will keep us within the allotment that Met has offered us.” Residents will be assigned days based on their address and will only be allowed to water for eight minutes, or, for those with more efficient sprinkler systems, 15 minutes. Users who don’t comply may face fines, after an initial warning. Many remain concerned that the measures will not be enough to ensure that supply keeps pace with demand, as drought conditions in the west show little sign of receding. A series of April storms have improved things slightly since March. Still, most of the state’s reservoirs are well below their historic averages. Those reservoirs rely on melting snow to fill up for the dry summer months but the statewide snowpack was at just 27% of its historic average as of 1 April. “The reality is, this drought has left us without the water supply we need to meet normal demands in these areas,” said Adel Hagekhalil, Metropolitan general manager in a recent statement. | ['us-news/california', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'us-news/los-angeles', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-05-10T23:36:39Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2019/jan/20/observer-view-hitachi-fiasco-confirms-energy-policy-in-ruins | The Observer view: the Hitachi fiasco confirms that our energy policy is in ruins | Observer editorial | By any standards, last week’s decision by Hitachi to end construction of its £20bn nuclear power plant at Wylfa in Wales was a major blow to Britain’s prospects of creating an effective energy policy for the 21st century. The move follows a withdrawal by Toshiba from the construction of a similar project in Cumbria last year and leaves Britain struggling to find ways to generate electricity for a low-carbon future. Together, these nuclear plants would have generated 15% of Britain’s electricity – without emitting carbon dioxide. Now the government faces serious questions about how its electricity pricing policies scuppered these two key pieces of UK infrastructure. More importantly, the nation needs to know, very quickly, how ministers intend to make up for this lost capacity. Given the tepid nature of previous plans and continual changes made to energy policies, success is not guaranteed. Britain needs to cut its greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation to zero within the next couple of decades. Coal, gas and oil plants, which emit hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, have to be phased out and replaced by renewables and nuclear power plants, it has been decreed. This reduction would then be followed by a second tranche of cutbacks that would bring about the complete decarbonisation of all other parts of the economy, in particular transport, by 2050. However, the loss of the Hitachi and Toshiba plants undermines our chances of achieving this first goal of decarbonising our power production and, therefore, of succeeding in the ultimate goal of making Britain a completely carbon-free nation later this century. If so, we will have failed in our duty to help in the battle to avoid dangerous global warming of more than 1.5C this century. So how should the government respond? Nuclear power plants require massive investment and take decades to construct. Britain’s only new reactor, currently under construction at Hinkley Point, is eight years behind schedule and faces huge cost overruns. Its construction has proceeded only because the government agreed to pay vastly inflated prices for its electricity for a guaranteed 35 years. At the same time, prices of power from renewable energy sources continue to plunge. However, there is a limit to how much power can be generated from a source that operates only when it is breezy. As the nuclear expert Prof Sue Ion says: “It is a fallacy to think we can provide the UK’s energy with intermittent renewables alone.” This leaves ministers with a number of options that need to be tackled urgently. They need to reopen talks with Hitachi and Toshiba to hammer out a sensible electricity pricing mechanism for power from their plants and so allow building work to resume. Investments in other areas also need to be pursued more emphatically and imaginatively. As we report in New Review (“The northern powerhouse”), the development of new UK renewable energy sources, from tides and waves, is underfunded, while failures to promote wind energy technology 30 years ago let Germany and Denmark dominate the now lucrative wind turbine market. Such a mistake must not be repeated with tide or wave power. Stable funding should also be provided for carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that allows carbon dioxide to be extracted from fossil fuel power plants and buried deep underground, thus allowing coal, oil and gas power stations to continue operations but without the emission of carbon dioxide. However, CCS has also suffered from dithering by ministers who have promoted and then axed schemes with dismal frequency. For good measure, Britain needs a better electricity grid and improved transmission links with other nations so that power can be exchanged during differing weather conditions. In short, an entire set of measures needs to be consolidated in an over-arching policy that will ensure the UK has a co-ordinated approach to energy generation. At the moment, the government is obsessed by the prospect of a crippling UK exit from the EU. That distraction can no longer be tolerated. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'business/energy-industry', 'politics/industrial-policy', 'business/hitachi', 'uk/wales', 'environment/environment', 'tone/editorials', 'technology/energy', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'business/technology', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'profile/observer-editorials', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2019-01-20T06:00:11Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2024/oct/19/pesticide-neonicotinoids-brain-development | Most common US pesticide may affect brain development similarly to nicotine | Industry research reviewed by independent scientists show that exposure to the nation’s most common pesticides, neonicotinoids, may affect developing brains the same way as nicotine, including by significantly shrinking brain tissue and neuron loss. Exposure could be linked to long-term health effects like ADHD, slower auditory reflexes, reduced motor skills, behavioral problems and delayed sexual maturation in males, the new review found. The industry science will be used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set new regulations, but the independent scientists say they found pesticide makers withheld information or did not include required data, and allege the EPA has drawn industry friendly conclusions from the research. Neonicotinoid residue is common on produce, and the EPA seems poised to set limits that are especially dangerous for developing children. The health threat is “worrisome stuff”, said Nathan Donley, the paper’s co-author with the Center for Biological Diversity. “If you’re pregnant or hoping to get pregnant, I can say with certainty that the current level of human exposure deemed safe by the EPA is not protective of your future child, and it boils my blood,” Donley said. The Natural Resources Defense Council and Center For Food Safety also co-authored the paper. The EPA said in a statement that it had not yet reviewed the new study, but the industry research has been “independently reviewed by EPA and incorporated into the most current human health risk assessments for these neonicotinoid pesticides”. Neonicotinoids are a controversial class of chemicals used in insecticides spread on over 150m acres of US cropland to treat for pests, in addition to being used on lawns. The pesticides work by destroying an insect’s nerve synapse, causing uncontrollable shaking, paralysis and death – but a growing body of science has found it harms pollinators, decimates bee populations and kills other insects not targeted by the chemical. Neonicotinoids are similar in chemical structure to nicotine, and impact the same human neurotransmitters that are responsible for nervous system development and ongoing health. Though scientists long thought that neonicotinoids only impacted insects, they break down into smaller compounds that are as potent as nicotine in their effects on the human brain, Donley said. Recent research has found the chemicals in the bodies of over 95% of pregnant women, and in human blood and urine at alarming levels. While agricultural workers face the highest exposures, the chemicals are water soluble, easily leach into soils and streams, and are common in drinking water. Neonicotinoid residue is also regularly found on produce. The EPA is required by law to review pesticides for safety every 15 years, and the industry research reviewed by Donley’s team is part of that process. The low- to-mid level exposures in water and food are what concerns the paper’s authors. The pesticide industry did not submit data for these levels in many cases despite the EPA asking for it, Donley said. Still, the EPA seems poised to set new regulations without the data and has simply claimed that mid- to low-level exposures are safe, Donley added. But the available data points to health risks and research that supports the industry claim is missing. “The strategy by pesticide companies seems to be to ignore the EPA, and instead of receiving any consequence, the EPA just kind of shrugs its shoulders and gives it a rubber stamp,” Donley said. In another instance, EPA management overruled one of its own scientists that raised concern about neurotoxic effects, and instead adopted a statistical analysis that claimed lower doses do not have neurotoxic effects, Donley said. It is unclear why the EPA is not demanding more data. However, it is the latest in a long string of controversies surrounding the pesticides division largely stemming from its alleged ties to the pesticide makers, and its financial reliance on them. “It’s clear that industry is gaming the system and we don’t have anyone calling them out on it,” Donley said. • This article was amended on 21 October 2024 to clarify that the Center For Food Safety co-authored the paper. A previous version incorrectly stated it was Food & Water Watch. | ['us-news/us-news', 'environment/pesticides', 'society/health', 'environment/farming', 'campaign/email/today-us', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tom-perkins', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-10-19T14:00:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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