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sustainable-business/women-central-economic-value-business | How can we make women central to economic value creation? | Of those working in the Bangladeshi clothing industry, 80% are women. This year $500m worth of exports for that country came from the manufacture of football shirts for the World Cup, most of which would have been made by a female workforce that receives little recognition. This is the story of inequality that surrounds the economic activity of women, and how it fails to feature in either their rights or their workplace progression. The reason these women are employed in the first place is that they are considered "cheap and flexible" labour, which is industrial code for "easy to treat badly". It is difficult to unionise when you are thought of as dispensable: so there is very little bottom-up pressure to improve wages and conditions. A global business purchasing textiles from a developed nation must think of workers as parties to their contract, and not just adjuncts of the factory owner with whom they've made a deal. From here, it will be natural to include unions in business discussions, and consider workplace rights in the establishment of a fair price. Worker safety, career progression, living wages and fair terms and conditions are all necessary for women to have a stake in the industry that they're already de facto running and all spring from a shared understanding that profit has to be distributed. To try and achieve improvements while expressly excluding unions – as The Bangladesh Alliance for Worker Safety, featuring brands like Walmart, has done - is not going to work. The problem is not just a question of justice, so much as one of bargaining power; women with economic agency are at the cornerstone of social progress. It is already well-established that both economic and social growth are driven by educating girls, but it's worth dwelling on the reasons for this. It's partly, of course, that you waste half the brains of your population when you don't educate girls. But it's also the fact that women who can earn their own money have more power in the household. They have more agency in the face of domestic violence; they have lower rates of HIV infection because they can refuse sex. They are able to insist that their daughters go to school, because they can pay for it. Micro-financing programmes have had some impact on rural life for women without land. Some large companies have launched entrepreneurial saleswoman programmes, which aim to open up marketing opportunities while simultaneously combatting poverty. The Jita project, also in Bangladesh, funds women as travelling salespeople, opening up a market for small scale entrepreneurialism with seed funding and goods to sell. It's jointly funded by Danone and Care International, and has had an impact on rural poverty. But at the same time, are these products servicing real needs, or is this just a new market being manufactured for Unilever? One of the products they sell is Fair'n'Lovely, a skin-lightening cream. Is this social enterprise or a Trojan Horse for things people don't need and can't really afford? I've seen first hand what large corporations do to ambitious women, fighting unequal conditions in developing markets. I went to Indonesia, and saw locally trained midwives, funded by formula companies in sly and opaque ways to boost their midwifery practises in return for persuading mothers not to breastfeed. In the same way that companies have developed policies around sustainability, they now need open and binding strategies around their female employees. Just as you wouldn't have a strategy for renewables that involved huge environmental degradation, you can't have a strategy for seed-funding some women that involves exploiting other women. It's a tightrope, of course: social enterprise needs the flexibility. The aim is to light the touchpaper of female entrepreneurship, then leave them to it, not monitor every project to its dying embers. But if, as a business, you can't launch a small-scale saleswoman without creating victims among those she sells to, maybe it's time to think about your product. But I think the first thing for businesses to consider is how wasteful it is, to have a two-tier workforce. Like any systematised prejudice, from slavery to the caste system, it wastes so much talent. Once you accept that, the rest is just problem solving. Get involved We'd like to know your thoughts on this topic. Why are women so often overlooked despite being at the heart of economic value creation in developing countries? And what must change within business to make sure women are recognised for, and have a fair share in, the wealth they create? Share your thoughts below in the comments section or tweet us @GuardianSustBiz. The sustainable living hub is funded by Unilever. 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/series/sustainable-living', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/blog', 'sustainable-business/series/talk-point', 'world/gender', 'business/business', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'global-development/global-development', 'type/article', 'profile/zoewilliams'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-10T16:36:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2013/feb/28/wild-bees-pollinators-crop-yields | Loss of wild pollinators serious threat to crop yields, study finds | The decline of wild bees and other pollinators may be an even more alarming threat to crop yields than the loss of honeybees, a worldwide study suggests, revealing the irreplaceable contribution of wild insects to global food production. Scientists studied the pollination of more than 40 crops in 600 fields across every populated continent and found wild pollinators were twice as effective as honeybees in producing seeds and fruit on crops including oilseed rape, coffee, onions, almonds, tomatoes and strawberries. Furthermore, trucking in managed honeybee hives did not replace wild pollination when that was lost, but only added to the pollination that took place. "It was astonishing; the result was so consistent and clear," said Lucas Garibaldi, at the National University in Río Negro, Argentina, who led the 46-strong scientific team. "We know wild insects are declining so we need to start focusing on them. Without such changes, the ongoing loss is destined to compromise agricultural yields worldwide." Pollination is needed for about three-quarters of global food crops. The decline of honeybee colonies due to disease and pesticides has prompted serious concern. Jason Tylianakis, at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, described them as "the species charged with protecting global food security". The new research shows for the first time the huge contribution of wild insects and shows honeybees cannot replace the wild insects lost as their habitat is destroyed. Garibaldi said relying on honeybees was a "highly risky strategy" because disease can sweep through single species, as has been seen with the varroa mite, and single species cannot adapt to environmental changes nearly as well as a group of wild pollinators. "The studies show conclusively that biodiversity has a direct measurable value for food production and that a few managed species cannot compensate for the biodiversity on which we depend," said Tylianakis, who was not part of the research team. Garibaldi's team, whose work was published in the journal Science on Thursday, warn: "Global degradation of natural services can undermine the ability of agriculture to meet the demands of the growing, increasingly affluent, human population." Garibaldi said: "Without wild pollination, you will not get the best yields and the best agricultural land already farmed, so it is very important to get the maximum yield." He added that, across the world, the yields of crops that needed pollination were rising significantly more slowly than crops that did not. Wild pollinators perform better than honeybees because they deploy a wider range of pollinating techniques, such as "buzz" pollination. They also visit more plants, meaning much more effective cross-pollination than honeybees, which tend to carry pollen from one flower to another on the same plant. A second new study published in Science on Thursday showed more than half the wild bee species were lost in the 20th century in the US. It made use of a remarkable record made of plants and pollinators at Carlinville, Illinois between 1888 and 1891 by entomologist Charles Robertson. Scientists combined that with data from 1971-72 and new data from 2009-10 to discover the changes in pollination seen over the century as widespread forest was reduced to the fragments that remain today. They found that half of the 109 bee species recorded by Robertson had been lost and there had been a serious degradation of the pollination provided by the remaining wild insects, with their ability to pollinate specific plants falling by more than half. There was an increasing mismatch between when plants flowered and when bees were active, a finding consistent with climate change, according to the researchers. Laura Burkle, at Washington University in Montana, who led the work, said: "There are two sides to this coin. These pollination systems are incredibly robust to environmental change, it is almost miraculous that they continue to pollinate given the land use changes. But the system is also incredibly compromised and further degradation will have serious impacts." | ['environment/insects', 'environment/bees', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/agriculture', 'science/science', 'environment/farming', 'environment/food', 'environment/conservation', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-02-28T18:59:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2023/dec/20/rite-aid-shoplifting-facial-recognition-ftc-settlement | Rite Aid facial recognition misidentified Black, Latino and Asian people as ‘likely’ shoplifters | Rite Aid used facial recognition systems to identify shoppers that were previously deemed “likely to engage” in shoplifting without customer consent and misidentified people – particularly women and Black, Latino or Asian people – on “numerous” occasions, according to a new settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. As part of the settlement, Rite Aid has been forbidden from deploying facial recognition technology in its stores for five years. The FTC said in a federal court complaint that Rite Aid used facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores from October 2012 to July 2020 to identify shoppers “it had previously deemed likely to engage in shoplifting or other criminal behavior”. The technology sent alerts to Rite Aid employees either by email or phone when it identified people entering the store on its watchlist. The FTC said in its complaint that store employees would then put those people under increased surveillance, ban them from making purchases or accuse them in front of friends, family and other customers of previously committing crimes. The facial recognition system was largely used in New York City; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Detroit; Atlantic City; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Wilmington, Delaware and Sacramento, California, according to the settlement. The settlement addresses charges that the struggling drugstore chain did not do enough to prevent harm to its customers and implement “reasonable procedures”, the government agency said. Rite Aid said late on Tuesday that it disagreed with the allegations, but that it was glad it had reached an agreement to resolve the issue. As part of its contract with two private, unnamed vendors, Rite Aid created or directed the companies to create a database of “persons of interest” that included images of the people and other personally identifying information. Those images were often low quality and were captured through Rite Aid’s CCTV cameras, the facial recognition cameras or on the mobile phones of employees, according to the settlement. Security workers were trained to “push for as many enrollments as possible” and the company “enrolled at least tens of thousands of individuals in its database”, according to FTC documents. The federal complaint also said there were “numerous instances” in which the technology incorrectly identified someone who entered the store and Rite Aid failed to test its accuracy before using it. For instance, Rite Aid did not ask one of the two private vendors it worked with whether its technology had been tested for accuracy, according to the settlement. In fact, the vendor explicitly states in its contract that it “makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy and reliability” of its facial recognition system. The FTC also said the company “failed to take reasonable steps to train and oversee the employees charged with operating the technology in Rite Aid stores”. Civil liberty and digital rights group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic), said that facial recognition can be harmful in any context but that Rite Aid failed to take even the most basic precautions. “The result was sadly predictable: thousands of misidentifications that disproportionately affected Black Asian, and Latino customers, some of which led to humiliating searches and store ejections,” said John Davisson, Epic’s director of litigation. Rite Aid says the allegations center on a pilot program it used in a limited number of stores and it stopped using this technology more than three years ago. “We respect the FTC’s inquiry and are aligned with the agency’s mission to protect consumer privacy, the company said in a statement posted on its website. “However, we fundamentally disagree with the facial recognition allegations in the agency’s complaint.” Studies have shown facial recognition systems have been found to routinely misidentify Black and brown people. In the last few years in the US, there have been six known cases of Black people being falsely arrested due to facial recognition. “This is a groundbreaking case, a major stride for privacy and civil rights, and hopefully just the beginning of a trend,” Davisson said. “But it’s important to note that Rite Aid isn’t alone. Businesses routinely use unproven algorithms and snake oil surveillance tools to screen consumers, often in secret. The FTC is right to crack down on these practices, and businesses would be wise to take note. Algorithmic lawlessness is not an option any more.” Rite Aid also noted in a prepared statement that any agreement would have to be approved in US bankruptcy court. The company announced last fall that it was closing more than 150 stores as it makes its way through a voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy process. The company has struggled financially for years and also faces financial risk from lawsuits over opioid prescriptions like its bigger rivals, CVS and Walgreens. This article was amended on 21 December 2023 to correct a misspelling of John Davisson’s name. | ['technology/facial-recognition', 'technology/technology', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/race', 'campaign/email/us-morning-newsletter', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/johana-bhuiyan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-12-20T19:29:52Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2021/apr/09/canada-logging-old-growth-trees-vancouver-island | ‘War in the woods’: activists blockade Vancouver Island in bid to save ancient trees | Hundreds of activists are digging in at logging road blockades across a swath of southern Vancouver Island, vowing to stay as long as it takes to pressure the provincial government to immediately halt cutting of what they say is the last 3% of giant old growth trees left in the province. The situation echoes the 1993 “war in the woods” in nearby Clayoquot Sound, which saw nearly 1,000 people arrested at similar logging blockades in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Tensions are rising. Just this weekend, the activists stopped a team of old growth tree cutters – called fallers – from entering a logging area in the Caycuse watershed. “You know this is illegal?” said Trevor Simpson, a logger, who told the Guardian he’s been a faller contractor for 29 years and relies on cutting old-growth trees. “This is my livelihood at stake. A blockader named Owen, one of about two dozen on the scene, told the loggers through the window of their pickup truck: “The fact is, if we want our planet to be sustainable, we have to protect these ecosystems.” Another logger said: “We have to work. Are they [the blockaders] going to pay our wages today? If we don’t work, we don’t get paid.” The blockaders refused to let Simpson’s team pass, and eventually the frustrated crew left. They returned on Tuesday to hand-deliver a court injunction ordering the blockades taken down and setting the stage for arrests. Similar scenes are playing out at strategic blockades across the area. After the loggers left the Caycuse blockade, activists went to work building fortifications, a giant kitchen tent, and even an outhouse made entirely of discarded old-growth cedar. The movement started more than eight months ago, when an impromptu blockade of 12 people sprang up to stop road building into the headwaters of the Fairy Creek watershed, one of the last untouched watersheds in the region. But what started as a campaign to stop logging in a single watershed has grown thanks to widespread frustration with the British Columbia government’s broader approach to old-growth logging. Activists and forestry experts say a tiny fraction of the province’s giant old-growth trees are left standing, and an immediate moratorium on cutting them is needed. Meanwhile, forestry companies and the government say the cut must continue in order to protect jobs in an industry that has experienced steep job losses and mill closures in recent years. The logging company Teal Jones Group says its plans for cutting in Fairy Creek have been mischaracterized, and the trees it wants to cut are critical for supporting hundreds of jobs. “Most of Fairy Creek is a protected forest reserve or unstable terrain and not available for harvesting,” said Gerrie Kotze, the company’s vice-president. Kotze said Teal Jones’ planned cut was a small area at the head of the watershed. The company would harvest the trees with care “and mill every log we cut right here in BC,” he said. The government is caught between its election promises to protect old-growth forests and what it says is an undue risk to jobs in the forestry industry. “We want to make sure people can appreciate old-growth trees for years to come, while supporting a sustainable forest sector for workers and communities,” said the forestry minister, Katrine Conroy, in a statement. In September, the government released a long-awaited old growth strategic review. Citing the “high risk to loss of biodiversity” and “widespread lack of confidence in the system of managing forests”, the report’s authors made 14 recommendations, including immediately deferring all old-growth logging in at-risk ecosystems, all of which were accepted by government. But critics say after more than six months, the government is not moving fast enough while chainsaws continue to snarl and ancient trees continue to fall. Rachel Holt, an independent ecologist, argues that the government is drastically overstating how much giant old growth still exists. The latest government reports say just over 13m hectares of total primary forest considered very old, or ancient, is still standing. Holt and her colleagues agree. “But the vast majority of that – about 80% – consists of small or very small trees,” Holt said. Giant, ancient trees are the bones of coastal temperate rainforests. Whole ecosystems can reside within their vast, moss-covered branches. To think of them as just pretty things to look at missed the point, Holt said. The new blockades are international. On his computer in Washington state, 17-year-old Joshua Wright has followed the developments closely. Despite working remotely, the young film-maker is a key organizer with the movement, which calls itself the Rainforest Flying Squad. Wright, who spent time on Vancouver Island as a child, said it took seeing the situation in the US to realize how rare British Columbia’s remaining old growth was. “If we don’t stop logging now, in three to five years there’s not going to be any old growth left,” said Wright. | ['environment/series/this-land-is-your-land', 'world/canada', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jesse-winter', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-04-09T09:00:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2021/jul/21/new-zealand-falls-for-stranded-baby-orca-but-dilemma-looms-over-life-support | New Zealand falls for stranded baby orca, but dilemma looms over ‘life support’ | When Toa, the orphaned baby orca, sees food coming he sticks his large pink tongue out of his wide gummy mouth in happy anticipation. He gurgles and belches as he hungrily tugs at the specially designed latex teat. Four volunteers in wetsuits and beanies cradle him and coo that he is “a good boy” as he feeds. When he is done, he rolls over, revealing his cream white skin, and nudges a volunteer for a belly rub. If they dare stop, he nudges them again. When he is excited he zooms about his holding pool, playing with the volunteers, and when a large tentacle-like piece of kelp is heaved into the water, he snuggles under it, as though it were a blanket, or the protective weight of his missing mother. The young calf, thought to be between two and six months old, became stranded in the rocks near Plimmerton, north of Wellington 10 days ago with minor injuries. Since then, a cast of hundreds, including the Department of Conservation (DOC), whale rescue teams and the local iwi (tribe) Ngāti Toa Rangatira, along with a revolving door of volunteers, have been caring for Toa, which means brave or strong in Maori, while the nationwide search for his pod continues. Volunteer and Plimmerton local, Brianna Norris, 21, is into her eighth day volunteering. She, and her 17-year-old brother Ben, who found Toa on the rocks, have formed a special relationship with the calf. “He is really affectionate and really gentle. It’s super special, but we are just desperate for him to get back to his family. One day with him would have been plenty.” The collective efforts have been considerable but fraught with difficulties. Last week, a once-in-a-decade storm ripped through the Wellington region, bringing winds up to 140km/h, four-metre swells and flooding. The teams were forced to move Toa out of the sea-pen they had created in the harbour, into a 32,000-litre seawater holding pool set-up in the carpark of the Plimmerton boating club. Keeping him in the ocean could have caused injury to both whale and staff during the wild weather. Toa remains there still. Flooding from the storm put pressure on the wastewater pipes, causing sewage to spill out into the harbour and rendering it a health and safety hazard for staff. With another storm forecast in the coming days, rescuers have decided it is better to limit the number of times Toa is moved between sites. His life may have become reduced to a small pool while the search for his family endures, but the story of his plight has captured the nation’s imagination, with hundreds of volunteers scouring the shorelines hoping to spot his missing pod. There have been a number of unverified sightings and some that are credible, but the storm prevented rescuers from investigating further. For the most part, Toa’s health is good, aside from some stomach upsets, while the vets try to find the right balance for his milk formula, DOC said. So far, the rescue operation has cost the taxpayer NZ$10,000 but other expenses are being paid for by the Orca Research Trust, and countless hours of volunteer time. It is an exercise in devotion, but some scientists are questioning whether keeping an infant whale on a type of human life-support for this long is ethical. Dr Karen Stockin, a marine biologist, said internationally recognised practice for separated cetaceans this young is either lifelong human care or euthanasia. “New Zealand has no captive or rehabilitation facility that could support Toa. Of course, we all crave a Disney happy ending, but what matters most here is not our understandable human sentiment and emotion, but notably the viability and welfare of Toa.” Annie Potts, a professor in human-animal studies at the University of Canterbury, highlighted the incongruence between how humans treat a whale calf compared with, say, the farming of bobby calves for veal. “We reserve our love, compassion and empathy for ‘extraordinary species’ like whales which we can celebrate ‘saving’.” Dr Ingrid Visser has been at the site, coordinating care for Toa, since the beginning. She is rugged up in layers of warm clothing with a hot water bottle held close to her chest. Despite her intermittent sleep, she is constantly alert to what is happening in Toa’s pool, and gently offers volunteers directions over what to do with him. Visser is the only person in the country with a Phd in New Zealand Orca and is frequently called upon to offer expert advice internationally. She is using her own network of international orca and stranding experts to assist her in Toa’s care. She said there is no doubt that DOC will take into account perspectives from other scientists, but that her focus is not on “the naysayers, but doing what is right for Toa”. DOC’s marine species manager Ian Angus said while the rescue operation is entering into a delicate stage, the focus remains on reuniting Toa with his pod. The team has at least a few more days up their sleeves to attempt this, Angus said. “We are optimistic that we may find the pod, and the orca’s health is still stable, but we are also being realistic as we consider the ongoing welfare of this animal – that has to be our number one concern.” | ['world/newzealand', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/whales', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/eva-corlett', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/new-zealand'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-07-21T03:35:27Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
film/2016/mar/29/leonardo-dicaprio-sumatra-rainforest-conservation | Leonardo DiCaprio travels to Sumatra to support rainforest conservation efforts | Fresh off a best actor win at the 2016 Oscars during which he made a speech that touched on the consequences of climate change, Leonardo DiCaprio paid a visit to Mount Leuser national park in Sumatra, Indonesia, to lend support to local groups working to preserve the area’s ecosystem. DiCaprio posted a photo from his journey on Instagram, writing that the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is “supporting local partners to establish a mega-fauna sanctuary” in the Leuser ecosystem, a landscape endangered by palm oil plantations, mining, logging and other development threats. Writing on Instagram, under a photo of the actor standing with Indonesian conservationists and two endangered elephants, DiCaprio said the rainforests in the ecosystem are “considered one of the world’s best remaining habitat for the critically endangered Sumatran #elephant. In these forests, ancient elephant migratory paths are still used by some of the last #wild herds of Sumatran elephants. “But the expansion of Palm Oil plantations is fragmenting the #forest and cutting off key elephant migratory corridors, making it more difficult for elephant families to find adequate sources of food and water,” DiCaprio continued. According to a statement from HAkA, an NGO based in Aceh, a region of Indonesia, the ecosystem “plays a critical role in helping regulate the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon pollution and storing massive amounts of carbon in its lowland rainforests and peatlands. “Millions of local people depend directly on the Leuser Ecosystem for their livelihoods and as the central source of their clean water supply,” the statement said. “Its forested watersheds also minimise the number and severity of environmental disasters in the region, which already kill many and cost millions of dollars each year.” DiCaprio’s foundation, established in 1998, will partner with Acehnese conservationist Rudi Putra to build a wildlife sanctuary in the ecosystem, constructing barriers, training wildlife patrols and rangers and reporting habitat destruction. | ['film/leonardodicaprio', 'world/indonesia', 'film/film', 'environment/environment', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/mahita-gajanan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-03-29T17:12:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/us-news-blog/2012/oct/30/sandy-reliable-information-aftermath-recovery | Where to go for reliable information on Sandy's aftermath and recovery efforts | Superstorm Sandy combined with social media has incited hasty and occasionally inaccurate information sharing on the web. For the most up-to-date information on forecasts, relief and power outage maps it can be best to go straight to the source. Here we've compiled a growing list of some of the best resources for getting information on Sandy. Feel free to suggest any other reliable sites in the comments. General storm information • Google crisis map • National hurricane center • National oceanic and atmospheric administration • Fema disaster assistance site • Nasa maps New York electricity • Con Edison most recent news releases here • New York Times aggregated power outage data • ConEd power outage map • Orange and Rockland counties • Long Island power outage map • Upstate New York outages map from NYSEG and RG&E. New York transit • WNYC has put together a transit tracker for the most up-to-date news on all New York transportation. • Check the verified MTA Twitter feed for updates on public transport. They provide the most accurate updates, quickly. • MTA's site is not operating well, but the homepage has a statement from chairman Joe Lhota. New York flooding • WNYC's flood tracker is updated every two minutes and works best in Chrome. New York City local reporting • WNYC has been doing some of the most reliable local reporting of anyone and is doing continued radio broadcasts on the storm here. • The Daily News has reporters and photographers everywhere, and updates more frequently than anybody. Mostly original content, so unlikely to be false, especially their photos. New York state and city agencies • New York governor's site has all breaking news on homepage • Releases, executive orders & videos here. • Governor Cuomo's Twitter • City schools State agencies Maryland • Emergency management • Estimated power outages, updated every 30 minutes New Jersey • Emergency management • Traffic map • Transit alerts Pennslyania • Emergency management Virginia • Emergency management Vermont • State government Connecticut • State government Delaware • Disaster relief • Hurricane Sandy hotline: (800) 464-4357 Massachusetts • Governor alerts West Virginia • Governor site Maine • Emergency management North Carolina • Public safety New Hampshire • emergency management: http://www.nh.gov/readynh/ | ['us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/news-blog', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/vermont', 'us-news/new-jersey', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/amanda-holpuch'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-10-30T18:29:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2024/jan/04/is-2024-going-to-be-the-first-full-year-to-breach-15c-of-warming | Is 2024 going to be the first full year to breach 1.5C of warming? | The year 2023 has been confirmed as the warmest in recorded history, with average global temperatures topping 1.5C of heating above preindustrial levels for more than one third of the year. It continues the rapid warming trend, with the 10 warmest years in human history all having occurred since 2010. So what could 2024 hold? Forecasts suggest the year ahead is likely to be another record breaker, with a strong possibility that this could be the first full year to go beyond 1.5C of warming. The ongoing El Niño event, which brings warmer waters to the tropical Pacific Ocean, is helping to push global temperatures up, but UK Met Office scientists say the main driver of the record-breaking temperatures is human-induced warming. Their global outlook for 2024 suggests we will end the year with average global temperatures somewhere between 1.34C and 1.58C above preindustrial levels. Overshooting 1.5C would be an unwelcome milestone but it would not mean we have breached the Paris agreement. Curiously, the 2015 climate accord did not define how we would recognise that the 1.5C target had been surpassed, but it is widely accepted to mean a longer-term average over 20 years or so. Rather than waiting decades for data to roll in, recent research published in Nature suggests using a blend of observations and model projections to test when 1.5C has been passed. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-01-04T06:00:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2022/jul/09/weedkiller-glyphosate-cdc-study-urine-samples | ‘Disturbing’: weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples | More than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a US health study contained a weedkilling chemical linked to cancer, a finding scientists have called “disturbing” and “concerning”. The report by a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that out of 2,310 urine samples, taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the US population, 1,885 were laced with detectable traces of glyphosate. This is the active ingredient in herbicides sold around the world, including the widely used Roundup brand. Almost a third of the participants were children ranging from six to 18. Academics and private researchers have been noting high levels of the herbicide glyphosate in analyses of human urine samples for years, but the CDC has only recently started examining the extent of human exposure to glyphosate in the US. The health impacts of glyphosate are disputed and the CDC report makes no observation about what the detected levels mean in terms of human health outcomes. However, its work comes at a time of mounting concerns and controversy over how pesticides in food and water impact human and environmental health. “I expect that the realization that most of us have glyphosate in our urine will be disturbing to many people,” said Lianne Sheppard, professor at the University of Washington’s department of environmental and occupational health sciences. Thanks to the new research, “we know that a large fraction of the population has it in urine. Many people will be thinking about whether that includes them.” Sheppard co-authored a 2019 analysis of people highly exposed to glyphosate, which concluded there was a “compelling link” between glyphosate and an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and also co-authored a 2019 scientific paper that reviewed 19 studies documenting glyphosate in human urine. Both the amount and prevalence of glyphosate found in human urine has been rising steadily since the 1990s when Monsanto Co. introduced genetically engineered crops designed to be sprayed directly with Roundup, according to research published in 2017 by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers. Paul Mills, the lead researcher of that study, said at the time there was “an urgent need” for a thorough examination of the impact on human health from glyphosate in foods people commonly consume. More than 200 million pounds of glyphosate are used annually by US farmers on their fields. The weedkiller is sprayed directly over genetically engineered crops such as corn and soybeans, and also over non-genetically engineered crops such as wheat and oats as a desiccant to dry crops out prior to harvest. Many farmers also use it on fields before the growing season, including spinach growers and almond producers. It is considered the most widely used herbicide in history. Residues of glyphosate have been documented in an array of popular foods made with crops sprayed with glyphosate, including baby food. The primary route of exposure for children is through the diet. Monsanto and the company that bought it in 2018, Bayer, have maintained that glyphosate and Roundup products are safe, and that residues in food and in human urine are not a health risk. They are at odds with many researchers and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a unit of the World Health Organization, which classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen in 2015. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken the opposite stance, classifying glyphosate as not likely to be carcinogenic. But last month a federal appeals court issued an opinion vacating the agency’s safety determination and ordering the agency to give “further consideration” to evidence of glyphosate risks. “People of all ages should be concerned, but I’m particularly concerned for children,” said Phil Landrigan, who worked for years at the CDC and the EPA and now directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. “Children are more heavily exposed to pesticides than adults because pound-for-pound they drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air,” Landrigan said. “Also, children have many years of future life when they can develop diseases with long incubation periods such as cancer. This is particularly a concern with the herbicide, glyphosate.” The new CDC data was released as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), research that is typically highly valued by scientists. Cynthia Curl, Boise State University assistant professor of community and environmental health, said it was “obviously concerning” that a large percentage of the US population is exposed to glyphosate, but said it is still unclear how that translates to human health. • This story is co-published with The New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group. Carey Gillam is managing editor of the New Lede and the author of two books addressing glyphosate: Whitewash (2017); and The Monsanto Papers (2021). • This article was amended on 29 July 2022 to clarify that the 2019 meta-analysis looked for the existence of a link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma by studying the most highly exposed individuals. Reference to the CDC urine analysis drawing no conclusion about health impacts was also added. | ['us-news/series/americas-dirty-divide', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/carey-gillam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-07-09T09:30:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
tv-and-radio/2016/aug/10/ryan-murphy-people-vs-oj-simpson-hurricane-katrina | Ryan Murphy's People vs OJ Simpson follow-up centers on Hurricane Katrina | Hot off of earning 22 Emmy nominations and a boatload of critical acclaim for its dramatisation of the trial of OJ Simpson, anticipation is high for the next season of Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series American Crime Story. As previously announced, the second season will offer an in-depth examination of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Like The People vs OJ, the second season will “turn the lens on America”, according to the show’s producer Brad Simpson, but it will be “tonally and thematically incredibly different”. Speaking on Tuesday at FX’s Television Critics Association panel in Los Angeles, Simpson confirmed that a batch of writers are already working on the Katrina storyline. “It’s going to be about the intensity of what it was like to be there on the ground – and also the bigger crime, that Katrina was something that was predictable.” In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Murphy added that writers are using Douglas Brinkley’s best-selling book The Great Deluge as the chief source material, while stressing that a lot of the series will focus on “amazing stories of [people] coming together. “We’re laying into what do you do when you’re in a city and your government has abandoned you?” said Murphy. “You get out by climbing up and pulling up people with you, and to a large degree that’s what the miniseries is about. It’s not just what happened but heroic stories about people surviving – or in some cases, dying helping others.” Because of the subject matter’s sprawling nature, Murphy anticipated that the second season will boast three to five more episodes than The People vs OJ Simpson, which ran for 10. “You’re following a cast of characters from before the storm hits to its aftermath, and that’s a big story,” explained Murphy. As for the cast, no one has been confirmed as of yet – although both Murphy and Simpson did intimate that some of the actors from The People vs OJ Simpson would be returning, as well as some “famous people”. Among the key roles that have to be cast are George W Bush, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco. The People vs OJ Simpson featured, most notably, John Travolta, Cuba Gooding Jr, David Schwimmer and frequent Murphy collaborator Sarah Paulson. Murphy also revealed that he and his producers are already sifting through stories for future seasons. Regarding Murphy’s other hit anthology series for FX, American Horror Story, FX CEO John Landgraf said the theme for the sixth season won’t emerge until the show is brought back in September. Lady Gaga, Angela Bassett and Cheyenne Jackson are officially confirmed to return. Season two of American Crime Story is slated to return to FX in 2017. | ['culture/television', 'tv-and-radio/television-critics-association', 'culture/culture', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'us-news/simpson', 'tv-and-radio/emmys-2016', 'tv-and-radio/emmys', 'culture/awards-and-prizes', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/new-orleans', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tv-and-radio/ryan-murphy', 'profile/nigel-m-smith', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-arts-and-culture'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-08-10T16:13:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/may/19/thorp-nuclear-plant-white-elephant | Thorp nuclear plant may close for years | The company that runs the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant admitted that it may have to close for a number of years owing to a series of technical problems. The huge £1.8bn plant at Sellafield imports spent nuclear fuel from around the world and returns it to countries as new reactor fuel. But a series of catastrophic technical failures with associated equipment means Thorp could be mothballed at a cost of millions of pounds. Under strict orders from the government's safety watchdog, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the plant's operators, Sellafield Ltd, is expected to have little option but to mothball the reprocessing plant for at least four years. Closure of Thorp for any length of time could cost the company and government hundreds of millions of pounds and embarrass the resurgent nuclear industry, which is embarking on an ambitious programme of new reactors for Britain. Thorp is contracted to reprocess more than 700 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, most of it for Germany, which could sue if Sellafield does not return it on time. A Sellafield Ltd spokesman said that a technical inquiry had been launched into options for the complex. He said: "Thorp is working well but one of the downstream plants that supplies Thorp has problems. At this stage we do not know what impact it will have. It is being assessed now. [It may mean] Sellafield does not have the normal capacity to deal with a high-level nuclear waste stream. Even if we do have the capacity, then Thorp may have to be closed down." Yesterday nuclear critics urged Sellafield Ltd to close Thorp immediately. Martin Forwood, spokesman for Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core), said: "The crisis … can only be bad news for Thorp, which already has a dreadful operational record. It would make sense to put this white elephant out of its misery permanently. The plug should be pulled on Thorp, preferably for good but at least for four or five years." The problem involves three evaporator plants that serve Thorp. The two oldest have been running intermittently following repeated breakdowns, and the third has been closed after a rise in radioactivity levels was discovered. Work has started on a new £100m evaporator, but it is believed to be two years behind schedule and unlikely to open before 2013. The latest technical hitches are embarrassing for the government, which hopes to use Sellafield as the centre of a huge British nuclear industry, with the Cumbrian coast expected to host a new enormous waste depository as well as possibly two new nuclear power stations. Closure could also slow the decommissioning of other nuclear reactors in Britain. Revenue from Thorp was expected to provide much of the £70bn conservatively estimated to be needed to decommission Britain's reactors and clean up the environment after 50 years of nuclear power. Most first-generation UK reactors are expected to have closed within 10 years. Evidence that drastic action may have to be taken on Thorp has been mounting for months. Recent reviews by Sellafield Ltd have assessed alternative options for the plant's future, including a moratorium on reprocessing and, as a second option, operating it for only part of the year. Sellafield's problems have been compounded since the Nuclear Inspectorate put a legal limit on the amounts of highly radioactive liquid that can be stored at Sellafield. Yesterday, Sellafield Ltd said that stocks of high-level liquid waste had fallen "significantly" in recent months. Construction of Thorp began in the 1970s and was completed in 1994. The £1.8bn plant went into operation in 1997 with the assurance from its then owners, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, that it would reprocess 7,000 tonnes of spent fuel in its first 10 years of operation, two-thirds of the business coming from abroad. To date, Thorp has completed about 6,000 tonnes of its initial order book and is now, largely as a result of the broken evaporators, limited to processing 200 tonnes a year – about a sixth of its original design capacity. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-05-18T23:05:08Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2024/sep/26/hurricane-helene-callout | Tell us: how have you been affected by Hurricane Helene? | More than 120 people have died across several states in the south-east of the US following the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. More than 1 million Americans were still without power in the Carolinas and Georgia as of Monday morning, with recovery efforts continuing to provide supplies to affected areas. Though we’d like to hear from you, your safety and security are most important. When recording, or sharing your content with us, please put your welfare and the welfare of others first. Extreme weather events can be very unpredictable and carry very real risks. This Community callout closed on 31 December 2024. • You can contribute to open Community callouts here or Share a story here. | ['us-news/hurricane-helene', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'world/hurricanes', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-community-team', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | us-news/hurricane-helene | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-09-26T17:22:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/jun/06/ben-fogle-i-climbed-everest-expecting-a-rubbish-dump-but-what-i-found-surprised-me | I climbed Everest expecting a rubbish dump but what I found surprised me | Ben Fogle | Just over two weeks ago I was standing on the roof of the world, both figuratively and literally. I was 8,848 metres up on the summit of Mount Everest. It was the culmination of many years’ hard work, and the realisation of a childhood dream. I have been overwhelmed by the tide of goodwill and support but one thing has become increasingly apparent. In many people’s minds, Everest has lost her crown. She has become a mountain synonymous with death, exploitation and pollution. The most common question I get asked is: “Is it covered in rubbish?” As United Nations patron of the wilderness, one of my roles is to report back from the Earth’s remaining wildernesses and to act as a voice for the wild. One reason I wanted to climb Everest was to see for myself if it is indeed, as is often reported, “the world’s highest garbage dump”. I also wanted to ensure I undertook an ethical climb in which I minimised my environmental footprint while maximising the ethics of working with the Sherpas. I had heard tales of a mountain of litter, discarded bottles, human excrement. I prepared myself for the worst. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee estimates that 100,000 people, mainly trekkers, visit the region each year making the route to base camp one of the busiest and most popular trails in the world. Add to this the thousand people who descend on to Everest base camp for their summit attempts each year and you can see how it might get its reputation, but here’s the thing: I hardly saw any litter, from the airport at Lukla to the summit. The Nepalese have taken on some huge clean-up campaigns in recent years, perhaps to improve their reputation, but also in response to some tragic natural disasters. The 2015 earthquake wiped out the Nepalese base camp, not only with a terrible loss of life but also an environmental disaster after all the equipment from rescued climbers was abandoned. The government implemented a number of requirements including that each climber removes an additional 8kg of litter (not including their own) and incentives for Sherpas of $2 per kilo of rubbish removed. They imposed “litter fines” at base camp and tried to address the problem of human faeces by encouraging people to take bags with them to carry their own poo off the mountain (the same applies in Antarctica). The results have been stunning. The country lanes of Great Britain have more rubbish than the trail to base camp; despite the 100,000 footfall I saw one of the cleanest, tidiest wilderness trials I have encountered. One of the most common questions is whether the mountain is littered with oxygen bottles. While I’m sure this has been a problem in the past, it certainly isn’t today. Each bottle is worth up to $500, and in a country where that is approximately the average annual income, no bottle is ever discarded. I saw Sherpas climb the entire mountain to collect a used bottle. I did pass plenty of bottles during my climb but these had been cached by expeditions for their climb and are all removed from the mountain. Base camp, too, was litter-free with all waste being carefully sorted and carried down the mountain by yak. Camp 2 has been the focus of much attention but even here, above the Khumbu icefall, I saw teams of people carefully gathering rubbish before descending back through the notorious danger spot. Once past Camp 2, I only saw a pristine mountain. Climbers were largely respectful, and even carried their own poo off the mountain. The biggest problem is Camp 4, or the South Col. A wretched place, it is littered with stripped tents and poles that have been trashed by the 100mph winds that regularly beat the world’s highest camp ground. The ground is strewn with abandoned expedition gear that has become frozen into the snow and ice. It would be almost impossible to remove it. It’s not ideal, but in some ways Camp 4 is a frozen time capsule of mankind’s relationship with Everest. Thousands have climbed her slopes in the pursuit of their own dreams and aspirations. It is like a slightly rougher version of Scott or Shackleton’s huts in Antarctica; a reminder, however unsightly, of our relationship with the wilderness. I have spent time in many of the world’s popular wilderness locations and I would say Nepal should be proud. It is an example of man repairing the damage he has done. As our focus turns to the oceans and the seemingly impossible task of repairing our marine habitat, we could look at Everest as a fine example of turning back the clock. • Ben Fogle is UN Environment patron of the wilderness. The film on his Everest climb will be on CNN on 30 June. | ['environment/mountains', 'environment/pollution', 'world/everest', 'travel/climbing-holidays', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/ben-fogle', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-06-06T06:00:07Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2024/oct/02/hurricane-helene-clean-water-supply | Hurricane Helene leaves thousands without clean water in its wake | Hurricane Helene left a path of devastation behind, with storm-ravaged areas struggling to access safe water for days because flooding damaged sewage systems, wastewater treatment plants and pipes that deliver drinking water to residents in the affected areas. Boiling water advisories and water conservation orders are in place in counties in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. More than 160 boil water advisories were in effect in North Carolina as of Tuesday. On Sunday, officials in Asheville said that nearly 100,000 residents may not get access to water for weeks. “Extensive repairs are required to treatment facilities, underground and aboveground water pipes, and to roads that have washed away which are preventing water personnel from accessing parts of the system,” the city’s press release read. Some residents have resorted to bathing in creeks, and relying on water from streams to flush toilets, according to the Washington Post. Sydney Evans, senior science analyst at Environmental Working Group, said that “after catastrophic storms like Hurricane Helene, many water systems and private wells are compromised by dangerous contamination like bacteria and other pathogens, industrial pollutants and animal waste that pose an immediate threat to people’s health”. Many in the affected areas, particularly in the Appalachian region, rely on wells that require electricity to access drinking water. But in the aftermath of Helene, which made landfall last Thursday, more than 1 million people remain without power. “Now there are so many additional potential contaminants that may be present in water sources, especially water systems that use surface water,” Elin Betanzo, drinking water expert and president of Safe Water Engineering, said. “Boiling water is effective for addressing acute microbial contaminants, but this might be very difficult with the lack of power in many locations.” Betanzo added that camping drinking water filters and treatments may be another option in the short term. | ['us-news/hurricane-helene', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aliya-uteuova', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-02T16:19:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
books/2014/apr/18/shackleton-s-journey-william-grill-review | Shackleton's Journey review – a stylish graphic novel about polar exploration | This account of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the South Pole is aimed at children, but its clever, evocative pages will suck in many an adult, too. The cover – adorned with whales, boats and vignettes of the explorers and their dogs – gives a clue as to its ingenious storytelling and attention to detail. Inside, William Grill eschews panels for wonderfully immersive spreads. The neat, unsentimental writing partners maps, cheerful and colourful pencil sketches and meticulous illustrations that capture the day-to-day life of the expedition. Grill shows the dog races Shackleton used to keep spirits up, the lines on which clothes were hung, the jobs of individual men and the vast array of supplies the team took – you wouldn't think great pyramids of barrels, an assortment of canoes, ropes, skis, spades and a bicycle would be compelling, but his enthusiasm is infectious. Jubilant crowds, vast waves, the stark geometry of South Georgia and flapping whale tails jostle for the reader's attention in a book that captures the rewards and trials of polar exploration in great style. | ['books/comics', 'books/booksforchildrenandteenagers', 'books/paperbacks', 'books/history', 'environment/poles', 'environment/environment', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/jamessmart', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/guardianreview', 'theguardian/guardianreview/saturdayreviewsfeatres'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-04-18T16:54:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2017/jul/11/coca-cola-to-radically-increase-amount-of-recycled-plastic-in-its-bottles | Coca-Cola to increase amount of recycled plastic in its bottles | Coca-Cola is to increase the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles to 50% amid pressure from environmentalists over runaway use of the containers. The world’s biggest drinks brand says it will hit its new UK recycling target - up from a previous goal of 40% - by 2020. The company described the proposal as ambitious but environmentalists said they did not go far enough. John Sauven, head of Greenpeace UK, said smaller drinks companies were already going much further. “Other companies are already at 50% and are aiming to be at 100% by 2020. Coca Cola is huge in scale and this is not an ambitious target.” Coca-Cola’s UK and Europe arm currently has a target to increase the amount of recycled plastic or RPET in its bottles to 40% by 2020. It has already performed a U-turn over bottle deposit schemes following pressure from Greenpeace. In evidence to MPs before the UK election was called, the company said it now supported a deposit scheme. It had previously said it was opposed to such an idea. Figures obtained by the Guardian this month revealed that across the globe one million plastic bottles are bought by consumers every minute – roughly 20,000 a second. The number will jump another 20% by 2021, with annual sales rising to more than half a trillion a year, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change. More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold across the world in 2016, up from about 300bn a decade ago. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report. Coca-Cola said it would hit its 50% target by investing millions of pounds in “Europe’s largest and most advanced plastic bottle recycling facility” based in Lincolnshire. Jon Woods, general manager of Coca Cola Britain said today’s announcement was the start of an effort to ensure all of its packaging was “recovered and recycled.” “Doubling the amount of recycled material in all of our plastic bottles is a significant investment and sends a clear signal we want to play a positive role in supporting the circular economy here in Great Britain.” Sources within the recycling industry said Coca-Cola was competing with other brands to be first to announce that it was making dramatic changes to its packaging to use more recycled plastic and recycle more of its bottles. One source said: “This is because of a combination of consumer pressure and pressure from environmental groups. There is a feeling that no one wants to be the brand which is littering beaches with plastic and there is something of a race among brands to get their green message out first.” Louise Edge, senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “People expect companies like Coca-Cola to make their bottles out of 100% recycled content, not virgin plastic. But the bigger question is how Coca-Cola will reduce the sheer scale of plastic it’s pumping out. “Producing over 100 billion single-use plastic bottles every year, Coke’s plastic footprint has been stomped into our planet’s environment. What’s their plan to stop all that plastic ending up in our oceans, streets and beaches?” There has been growing concern about the impact of plastics pollution in oceans around the world. Last month scientists found nearly 18 tonnes of plastic on one of the world’s most remote islands, an uninhabited coral atoll in the South Pacific. Globally Coca-Cola has repeatedly refused to release data to Greenpeace about its global plastic usage. The environmental campaign group estimates that Coca-Cola produces more than 100bn plastic bottles every year – or 3,400 a second. The top six drinks companies in the world use a combined average of just 6.6% of recycled plastic (PET) in their products, according to Greenpeace. A third have no targets to increase their use of recycled plastic and none are aiming to use 100% across their global production. Plastic drinking bottles could be made out of 100% recycled plastic, known as RPET – and campaigners are pressing big drinks companies to radically increase the amount of recycled plastic in their bottles. But brands have been hostile to using more RPET for cosmetic reasons. But the recycling source told the Guardian: “Consumer pressure and the image of plastic littering our beaches is making them think again.” | ['business/cocacola', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/plastic', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/waste', 'world/world', 'environment/series/bottling-it', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'business/packaging', 'profile/sandralaville', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-07-11T21:09:29Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/dec/05/the-struggle-for-sitkas-herring-photo-essay-alaska | The Sitka tribe's struggle to save Alaskan herring – photo essay | Every spring, the herring arrive in the cold Alaskan waters of Sitka Sound to spawn. But as those waters have warmed, their numbers have fallen drastically. Tribal leaders in Sitka have long called for better protection of herring, a fish that holds cultural as well as economic significance for the people here. To demand protection of the sac roe herring fishery on which their way of life depends, they are taking the Alaskan government to court. For the subsistence harvesters of sac roe herring in the sound, this decline has been accelerated by what they see as the failure of the government to manage the herring fishery properly. Since 2002, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) has been appealing to the board of fisheries with proposals to protect the herring population. The scale of the decline was underlined in April, with the cancellation of an annual derby that usually sees hundreds of boats from the North Pacific gather in Sitka before setting sail for two to three days’ fishing. This year, not a single ship left the port and not a single herring was caught. The Sitka tribe, of more than 4,000 people, welcomed cancellation of the derby by Alaska’s department of food and game. But the move doesn’t reverse a decade of decline. While in 2009 the derby had celebrated a record fishing season, by 2018 the Sitka sac roe herring fishery was forced to close early because the herring were too scarce and too small. It was the fourth time in eight years that the herring fishery had shut down early without meeting the quota, following early closures in 2012, 2013 and 2016. In 2018 the department had expected a catch of more than 11,000 tonnes of sac roe herring, but not even 3,000 tonnes were produced, according to its own report. While the commercial industry harvests the eggs from inside the fish once caught, subsistence harvesters set out hemlock branches after the fleet leaves, where herring spawn and lay their eggs. Native Alaskans have been harvesting herring in this way for centuries but, in recent years, they have been pulling up branches bare. They say herring spawn now only cover a fraction of the coastline, and fear is mounting within the Sitka tribe that local stocks are on the verge of collapse. At the heart of the dispute with Alaska’s authorities is the question of whether the herring – which feeds on zooplankton and phytoplankton and is a key food for salmon, seabirds and marine mammals – is designated a forage fish. The STA wants the species to be included on a forage fish management plan, acknowledging its importance in the Alaskan food web. The Sitka tribe also want Alaskan authorities to decrease the size of the herring that can be taken to market in order to protect the species, but say their requests have fallen on deaf ears. Herring return to spawn for up to seven years, each year growing larger depending on conditions in the ocean. It takes a fish at least five years to reach the size and roe maturity that processors want. In 2018, the fisheries board turned down a proposal to reduce the level of the commercial catch, and last December STA launched legal action in the superior court to demand a new management plan for the fishery. The Sitka tribe also want the court to find the actions of the fisheries board department of food and game illegal. A spokesperson for the STA explained the action, saying: “The time is now to ensure that our people have the chance to fulfil their cultural responsibilities, which have been interwoven with the herring since time immemorial, and to fill their freezers. We cannot sit by while the state of Alaska shirks its statutory and constitutional duties to citizens. We demand action by the state.” The trial – the culmination of more than two decades of concern over declining herring for the Sitka tribe – has been set for January. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/fishing', 'global-development/global-development', 'us-news/alaska', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/food', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'artanddesign/series/guardian-picture-essay', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jo-griffin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-05T11:08:40Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2020/sep/18/us-cities-plot-green-recovery-after-pandemic | Why some US cities are plotting a ‘green recovery’ after the pandemic | The cars that typically throng the huge highways weaving through Los Angeles are such an established part of the city’s fabric that when the coronavirus pandemic hit, their sudden absence felt bizarre to locals even eerie. But many Angelenos have now discovered a new sort of relationship with their streets. “People have felt they own their neighborhood again, they feel connected to it again,” Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles’s mayor, told the Guardian in reference to streets that have reduced traffic, or even had it closed off, as offices, retailers and restaurants shut down. Garcetti added: “People started walking in their neighborhood, biking, rollerskating. I think out of this pandemic you will see dozens of streets keeping it this way.” Los Angeles is just one of a number of US cities now plotting a comeback from the pain of the pandemic by tackling another, but longer-term, emergency – the climate crisis. By extending measures to turn streets over to pedestrians and cyclists, bolstering jobs in clean energy or building of new defenses to risks such as flooding, some US cities are attempting a “green recovery” to Covid-19. The look and feel of these urban areas is set to change. Seattle has announced 20 miles of streets will be permanently closed to cars, New Orleans is planning to pedestrianize a slice of its famous French Quarter and New Yorkers are spreading out into its streets in a wave of socially distanced alfresco dining and drinking. Garcetti conceded there had been some grumbles from Los Angeles residents over the idea of fewer car journeys but that the virus had underscored the need for pre-pandemic plans to roll out miles of new bike lanes and rail lines. “You can only have a stimulus where you champion mass transit and clean energy, not just for a strong economy but a more livable city where you walk more and aren’t stuck in traffic,” he said. “What you’ll see [after the pandemic] is a city that will surprise you. You will still be able to drive a convertible up the coast, still go up Mulholland Drive with the lights laid out like a bed of jewels. But you’ll also realize that transit can get you there too, that you can work, eat and play without getting into a car.” The concept of a green recovery has been embraced by several European countries as they look to extricate themselves from a pandemic that has caused more than 900,000 deaths globally and paralyzed economies as governments curtailed public gatherings in order to slow the virus’s spread. In the UK, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, has vowed to “build back better and bolder”, promising several billion pounds for energy efficiency upgrades in homes and public buildings, as well as technology to suck planet-heating emissions from the air. France, facing its deepest recession since second world war , has pledged about €30bn for green energy initiatives while Germany is spending billions more on transitioning away from fossil fuels and subsidizing electric vehicles. There has been less enthusiasm for a green recovery within the US government, with just a small fraction of the $2tn pandemic stimulus, passed in March, aimed at addressing the climate crisis. Last week, congressional Democrats put forward proposals to use federal funds to boost renewable energy, retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient and to safeguard communities of color from air and water pollution. Republicans, who control the Senate, are expected to block the move. “The leadership will have to come from cities because it’s certainly not coming from the federal level, quite the opposite,” said Brent Toderian, a Vancouver-based urban planner and consultant. Some US cities are exemplars – Toderian said that Oakland in California had become an international “folk hero” for its move to banish cars from 74 miles, or around 10%, of its streets – but progress had been patchy. “Most of the conversations have been around temporary changes that some cities have already started to undo,” Toderian said. “European cities have realized that they need to address pre-existing conditions like air pollution to come out of this pandemic. American cities are barely reacting to their pre-existing conditions, such as racial inequity and unrest, public health crises, homelessness and how cities are built in a sprawling way.” Many US cities are heavily dependent upon cars, lack adequate green space for residents and are precariously vulnerable to the heatwaves and floodwaters spurred by the climate crisis. Even New York City, considered highly progressive on climate change, is reluctant to undergo transformation. In July, Mayor Bill de Blasio demurred when asked if America’s largest urban area would become like Paris, where bicycles, rather than cars, now circle the Champs-Élysées. “New York City is just a different place,” de Blasio said. “We’re going to make the decisions based on our own reality.” That angers some. “New York should be showing other cities what is possible,” said Toderian. “It’s bizarre for the mayor to say that, it was shocking. It’s not New York exceptionalism, it’s New York excuse.” Other cities see the situation as more urgent as they grapple with the need to kickstart a wave of new jobs while fending off the looming threat of the climate crisis. New Orleans is pushing ahead with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects to help protect it from the rising seas and storms, as well as rolling out more electric vehicle charging stations and a plan to make solar panels more easily available for households. “We need to pivot to a green economy,” said LaToya Cantrell, New Orleans’ mayor. “Our people are vulnerable to climate change – we are sinking as a city. We don’t have a choice.” | ['world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/los-angeles', 'us-news/new-orleans', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/seattle', 'us-news/series/climate-countdown', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | us-news/series/climate-countdown | GLOBAL_CRISIS | 2020-09-18T09:30:00Z | true | GLOBAL_CRISIS |
technology/2022/mar/09/catastrophic-cyber-war-ukraine-russia-hasnt-happened-yet-experts-say | ‘Catastrophic’ cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia hasn’t happened (yet), experts say | As military conflict has mounted between Ukraine and Russia, so have fears of unprecedented cyberwar. Experts are monitoring both countries closely, fearing a volatile crisis involving one of the world’s leading hacking super powers could lead to a huge conflict playing out online – one that could outlast the physical battles. Joe Biden pre-emptively warned Russia that the US is “prepared to respond” to any attacks on critical infrastructure, and others have warned for years of a “Cyber Pearl Harbor”. But thus far, experts say, it has been relatively quiet on the cyber warfront. “Though it would be foolhardy to rule it out in the future, we have not yet seen the completely destructive attacks on Ukraine infrastructure some anticipated,” said Glenn S Gerstell, former general counsel of the National Security Agency and Central Security Service. Fears of cyber warfare are stoked by a long history of international attacks coordinated out of Russia. The country was behind a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 in coordination with its annexation of Crimea. In 2017, Moscow unleashed on to Ukraine the data-wiping NotPetya virus, a destructive malware that ultimately spread globally. In addition, non-government Russian hackers have been linked to several brazen hacking schemes in past years, including the debilitating 2021 ransomware hack of the Colonial pipeline in the US. Coinciding with its invasion of Ukraine, Russia unleashed a number of smaller hacks – starting in January when more than 70 Ukrainian websites were defaced and separate cyber-attacks knocked out government websites including the ministry of foreign affairs and the education ministry. While these attacks have been “significant and unprecedented”, according to Aaron Turner of California cybersecurity firm Vectra, they have “not yet been catastrophic”. That is largely because no international power yet wants to be the one to cast the first stone in a cyber third world war, he said. “We have most likely reached a sort of detente, where both sides understand that catastrophic cyber-attacks will most likely result in mutually assured destruction of systems,” he added. National powers are also now better prepared to stave off attacks than they were previously, so it is possible some larger hacks have been quietly thwarted, experts said. The US has invested billions in cyber defense resources – both from private and public sources. Ukraine spent the past seven years in the wake of its power grid attack in 2015 steeling its infrastructure. “There has been a lot of thought and hard work put into preparing for an all-out assault on the cyber domain,” said Theresa Payton, cybersecurity expert and former White House chief information officer. “If we were to experience a hit to critical infrastructure, there are many playbooks in place to avoid sustained outages. Russia also seems to be investing more resources in coordinated disinformation campaigns than overt hacking operations, said Payton. Several US tech firms have been forced to take measures after Ukrainian officials pleaded with them to address the stream of Russian disinformation that has exploded on their platforms. Disinformation experts have reported Russia is leading a coordinated campaign to push false narratives around the invasion of Ukraine, including doctored videos and disinformation. Russian officials have blocked access to social media in the country to prevent the spread of information that does not fit its narrative. Gerstell, the former NSA general counsel, said it was not unexpected for Putin to preference a disinformation-heavy strategy over destructive hacks. An attack on infrastructure would be treated as “equivalent to a physical attack by a bomb or missile”, he said, while propaganda falls into a gray area. “These are all acts that fall below the threshold of an act of war, but are very malicious and damaging nonetheless,” he said. Payton also noted that just because there have not yet been major attacks does not mean that there will not be in the future – or that there are not others in progress now. Many covert operations, especially those on a large scale, take time to unfurl, she said. In the case of the Solarwinds hack, for example, Russia’s massive breach of US organizations started in March 2020 was not revealed until December 2020. “There could be incidents already under way that we are not yet aware of,” she said. “With Russia, I always say that if you have not seen anything yet, just stay tuned.” | ['technology/cyberwar', 'technology/hacking', 'world/ukraine', 'world/russia', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'technology/cybercrime', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kari-paul', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-03-09T16:17:12Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2013/oct/21/nuclear-power-deal-george-osborne | Nuclear power deal shows Osborne's lack of faith in UK competence | George Osborne used a trip to China last week to berate Britain for losing its entrepreneurial confidence and allowing a local nuclear industry to wither. Yet his own decision to subsidise state-owned Chinese and French companies to build and operate Hinkley Point C shows a huge lack of belief in UK competence, and arguably its private sector too. If the chancellor believes that offering a generating strike price at double the current cost of wholesale energy is a good deal all round then why not invest himself? Why did he not use a properly constituted new Green Investment Bank rooted in Britain and our publicly owned bailed-out banks to raise funds for new nuclear? The British state masterminded the building and operation of a highly successful Olympics. What better legacy than starting to secure something as vital nationally as our energy infrastructure? After all, the UK government presided over the birth of the atomic civil power programme with the opening of Calder Hall in Cumbria almost 57 years ago to the day. But a succession of ministers lost their faith in nuclear and presided over the privatisation – and largely sale abroad – of assets belonging to British Energy, British Nuclear Fuels and the atomic engineering group Westinghouse. The industry was not allowed to wither so much as flogged off while ministers dithered over whether to resurrect nuclear in an attempt to boost low-carbon power as well as energy security. The answer to why Osborne has not invested himself, of course, is that he believes with fervour that the state should not be involved – or not the British state anyway. The reality is that most nuclear players in the world are directly or indirectly state-backed. EDF, 85% owned by the French government, and the Chinese (100% answerable to the Beijing politburo) are prepared to build in Britain as a high-profile European shop window for their wares as well as to turn a nice buck. And they will want to do so by using as much of their own technology and supply chain as they can. Ed Davey, the secretary of state for energy, says Britain will provide 57% of the value at Hinkley Point. Yet EDF itself has admitted to being sceptical, saying: "There are a lot of critical components where quite frankly the UK has lost its capability." It has been the same in the offshore wind business where the foreign investors and operators of schemes such as the London Array windfarm put 90% of the contracts abroad. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, was there on the ground floor of the deal with EDF to build Hinkley Point C but backed away. The company then spent £500m instead buying back its own shares before raising its power prices by 10% last week. The private sector is primarily beholden to investors and not the public good, as the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welbeck, should know. A former energy industrialist himself, he suggested at the weekend that power companies should show some "social conscience". RWE, another of the big six energy companies, raised its household bills on Monday by roughly the same amount, to considerable outrage. Yet the public will be rightly confused about energy prices given the EDF deal shows the government is convinced that electricity prices are going to double in future. That being so, there needs to be thought about how those and other future rises will be met. The burden cannot all fall on the head of energy users at a time of rising fuel poverty. Some of it needs to be born directly by the taxpayer and by the state. VAT, for instance, could be lifted immediately. No one can predict for certain where power prices will go but the subsidy – which still needs to be given the green light by Brussels – ensures that EDF and the Chinese will get their 10% return on capital regardless. The consumers, who are meant to pay for all this, will only know if they have been sold a bad deal later down the track. And there is a lot of detail in the EDF deal that is undisclosed, not least references to the strike price being shifted around under certain circumstances. Another interesting feature is that the developers have promised only to have the new Somerset reactors operating from 2023. That gives them enormous leeway for time overruns of the kind seen on the Flamanville plant being built by EDF in France. But what happens if EDF builds it earlier than expected? What is the impact on the strike price then? For all of these questions and concerns – and there others over safety – one can at least welcome the fact that ministers have finally taken a decision to move forward on an energy project of great national significance. It will certainly embolden other potential UK nuclear investors, as Hitachi of Japan made clear. But where is Osborne's boost to British self-belief? | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/georgeosborne', 'politics/politics', 'tone/analysis', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-10-21T16:49:46Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2020/may/06/weatherwatch-ecuador-climate-varies-despite-its-size | Weatherwatch: Ecuador's climate varies despite its size | The only country named after a line of latitude, Ecuador is indeed situated on the equator – stretching from one degree north to five degrees south. The country may be relatively small by South American standards – only a little larger than the United Kingdom – but it makes up for this with a very varied series of climatic zones. These stretch inland from the Pacific Ocean in the west, via the high sierra in the middle, to the Amazon basin in the east. Like all low-lying regions along the equator, the coast of Ecuador has a very warm, humid climate all year round, with temperatures hardly varying from one month to the next, at roughly 30C. Rainfall does vary, though: the vast majority falling in the first four months of the year. In complete contrast, the capital, Quito, has a far more equable climate, which has been described as “perpetual spring”, with warm days and cool nights. That’s because Quito is, after Bolivia’s La Paz, the second highest capital city on the world: 2,880 metres (9,450 feet) above sea level. Further east, the Oriente region has a different climate again, with warm and wet conditions prevailing, as they do throughout the vast Amazonian region that stretches east into Colombia and Brazil, covering an area of 5.5m sq km (over 2.1m sq miles). | ['world/ecuador', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-05-06T20:30:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2022/feb/06/wanted-virile-but-gentle-mate-for-the-worlds-first-cloned-black-footed-ferret | Wanted: virile but gentle mate for the world’s first cloned black-footed ferret | Elizabeth Ann is poised to make history. The world’s first cloned black-footed ferret has just celebrated her first birthday and has reached an age when she can start to breed. And, if she is successful and produces healthy kits, the little predator will give a precious boost to attempts to save her seriously endangered species. However, scientists acknowledge that they will have to be extremely careful in screening possible mates for Elizabeth Ann, who is being kept at a conservation centre near Fort Collins, Colorado. In particular, the male they eventually select will have to display one key quality, they say: he will have to be gentle. The black-footed ferret (Mustella nigripes) is not known for its sweet temper. Elizabeth Ann snarls at keepers who get too close, for example. However, the species is desperately in need of an injection of fresh genes and Elizabeth Ann can provide those, – as long as she survives the breeding encounter, say scientists. “When it comes to black-footed ferrets, the mating scenario can get a little rough and we don’t want Elizabeth Ann to be injured. She is precious,” Oliver Ryder, director of genetics conservation at San Diego Zoo, told the Observer. “So we need an experienced male who has already produced offspring and who is therefore not going to be infertile – a problem that affects many black-footed ferret males today. In addition, we will select him for his gentleness,” added Ryder who said that the choice of a partner for Elizabeth Ann was now “imminent”. The black-footed ferret is a slender, 60cm-long, grumpy predator with black marks on its face, feet and tail. It once inhabited huge swathes of the Great Plains of the United States, living off a menu that was made up mainly of prairie dogs, which are a type of ground squirrel. However, it was wiped out as farming spread across the central United States and, by the 1970s, it was thought to be extinct. Then one night in 1981, John Hogg, a Wyoming rancher, heard strange noises on his land and he uncovered a colony of black-footed ferrets. Wildlife biologists flocked to the ranch and have since used its animals to establish a ferret-breeding programme with the aim of re-establishing colonies in the US. However, only seven of the ferrets found on Hogg Ranch were able to breed. As a result, the black-foot population is heavily inbred, with each animal having a kinship with the others that falls between that of a sibling and a first cousin. Damaging mutations are now affecting the breeding population. An injection of fresh ferret genes is badly needed, and they can be provided by Elizabeth Ann. She is the product of tissue that had been taken from a female black-footed ferret called Willa decades ago. Her cells were preserved at San Diego’s Frozen Zoo, a storage facility where genetic materials – DNA, sperm, eggs, embryos and live tissue – from endangered animals is stored in liquid nitrogen. A few years ago, it was decided to use the same technology that was employed in Scotland to create Dolly the Sheep in 1996 to produce a clone of Willa. Her cells were used to generate embryos that were implanted into three domestic female ferrets. Two of the pregnancies failed, while the third surrogate mother had one stillborn offspring … and Elizabeth Ann, who is now thriving on a diet of hamsters at her Colorado home. Crucially, her DNA contains different versions of the genes that predominate in the breeding programme’s inbred ferrets, and this has raised hope that her offspring could significantly improve the genetic viability of black-footed ferrets. As Ryder puts it: “Elizabeth Ann is a treasure trove of genetic diversity as far as we are concerned.” In addition, plans are under way to create another batch of cloned black-footed ferrets – with the same aim: to boost the genetic diversity of the species and to halt its reproductive decline. “That’s the crux of the effort here,” said Ryder. “Can Elizabeth Ann pass along her genes to descendant generations of black-footed ferrets?” The story of Elizabeth Ann has important implications for all endangered species, added Ryder. “We should be banking cells now from all sorts of endangered animals because we are losing biodiversity, and gene pools of wild animals are shrinking. At least, if we have the cells, we could, in future, do for other species what we are hoping to do for the black-footed ferret with Elizabeth Ann.” | ['science/cloning', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'science/genetics', 'science/agriculture', 'science/science', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-06T08:00:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/mar/29/labor-vows-full-scientific-assessment-of-logging-agreements | Labor vows 'full scientific assessment' of logging agreements | Federal Labor is promising to revisit and fix any logging agreements with state governments that are not based on “proper, independent and full scientific assessments”. In a pledge that could have implications for the rollover of nine agreements due to expire in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia over the next three years, the shadow minister for agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon, and shadow minister for environment and water, Tony Burke said; “Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA [regional forestry agreement] outcomes as part of the agreed framework. “This includes all relevant science, including climate science and impacts on threatened species,” the ministers said in a joint statement. It comes after Guardian Australia revealed federal and state ministers had discussed legal concerns that extensions to logging agreements might be invalid when based on old scientific assessments. NSW Labor has accused the state and federal governments of “unnecessary rush” in rolling over three RFAs in NSW based on “out-of-date science”. The RFAs were negotiated by the commonwealth and states in the 1990s to better protect forest biodiversity and expand national parks and other protected areas, while at the same time providing “long-term stability” to forest industries by guaranteeing timber supply. The documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that the environmental and scientific reviews conducted 20 years ago for each RFA region will not be revisited, in part for cost reasons. The Victorian Labor government is arguing with Canberra about the need for new scientific assesments of five Victorian RFAs which are due to expire in March 2020, after short-term rollovers this week. The assistant agriculture minister, Anne Ruston, has refused a Victorian request for $23m to fund new “studies, data collection and assessment activities” before the RFAs are extended on a long-term basis. In recent email responses to constituents writing with concerns about the rollover of the RFAs, Burke said: “Labor has supported regional forest agreements [RFAs] as a way to manage forests. If RFAs are not delivering, this is something Labor will address in government. “Labor will also look closely at the Turnbull government’s proposed national forestry plan. It is disappointing that, since taking office in 2013, the Coalition government still lacks a viable, definitive plan to truly deliver the important protections Australia’s native forests need”. The NSW minister for lands and forestry, Paul Toole, said in a statement: “A scientific assessment of all relevant matters is being undertaken jointly by the NSW and the commonwealth, and will take into account all new knowledge and contemporary issues that have emerged since the RFAs were originally established. “NSW has already committed resources to this process. A robust assessment will be completed in time to inform development of new RFAs”. The Victorian minister for energy environment and climate change, Lily D’Ambrosio, said:“We stand with federal Labor in supporting the need for the modernisation of regional forestry agreements. “Our government is leading the way in ensuring RFAs are brought up-to-date to reflect modern forest science, climate change and the needs of local communities”. The WA environment minister, Stephen Dawson, said in a statement: “The matter of WA’s RFA is currently being considered by the WA government.” In a statement supplied to the Guardian on Wednesday, Joel Fitzgibbon and Tony Burke said: “Labor takes evidence-based science seriously, as we do the benefits and jobs that a sustainable forestry industry brings.” “That is why Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA outcomes as part of the agreed framework. This includes all relevant science, including climate science and impacts on threatened species.” | ['environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/tony-burke', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gregg-borschmann', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-03-29T00:26:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2009/mar/10/make-your-own-garden-pots | Make your own garden pots from tin cans | It's that time of the year when it's no longer dark when you wake up, it's warm enough to go for a walk on a Sunday morning, and you've resolved to plant something in your garden. Again. And this year you really are going to do it. But if, like me, you only have a small outdoor area - in my case a roof terrace - then you need something to grow your plants in. And if you have been to your local garden centre or DIY store of late, then you will know that most containers don't come cheap. And, to be honest, most of them are pretty ugly as well. So why not get creative? When I was sorting out my recycling, I found that I didn't want to throw out an empty tin of olive oil I'd bought when visiting a friend in Spain. It had everything I was looking for in a plant container - inexpensive but with a bit of character. Here's how you can transform a similar container into a rustic plant pot. What you need Tin can (can be any shape or size - use your imagination) Tin opener Kitchen roll Washing-up liquid Hammer and nail Soil Plant/flowers/herbs, or whatever takes your fancy How long will it take? 20 minutes What to do 1 Collect some old tin cans. If you don't have any of your own, go to a local restaurant - they will have loads waiting to be recycled. Use a tin opener if the lids haven't been removed already. 2 Clean out the cans. For ones that held oil, wipe out the grease before you wash them. You can either remove labels from the outside or leave them on to weather down. 3 Use a hammer and nail to make drainage holes in the bottom of the tin. 4 Fill the tin with soil and plant your flowers (or equivalent). Choose a shape, size and colour of tin that complements the plant. Your pot may rust over time, but this is all part of its charm. What else can be recycled to make a useful garden container? Or is there no place for rubbish in your garden - do you stick to traditional wooden planters and terracotta pots? Let us know in the comments section below | ['lifeandstyle/series/making-time', 'lifeandstyle/craft', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'lifeandstyle/gardening-blog', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'money/saving-money', 'money/money', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/sallycamerongriffiths'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-03-10T10:57:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/feb/03/milkman-milkround-doorstep-delivery | Deliverance: out on a milk round | "You do see how the other half live," says 38-year-old milkman Lee Cordrey, who has been dashing up to people's doorways with bottles in his hand for half his life. Lee is one of the chirpiest fellows you could wish to meet – a state of mind he attributes to his occupation: "I couldn't be happier. I enjoy the job very much, apart from the early mornings, obviously. But you get over that eventually. "Once you get moving the time goes pretty quick. You can work your life around it. You get an early finish, and get jobs done in the afternoon after you've had a few hours' sleep." He's clearly enthralled by the social aspect of the job. He refers to the traditions of the occupation and how he loves chatting to the older, lonelier people on his round. Lee is one of Dairy Crest's 2,600 milkmen – roughly half of whom are employed as franchisees. All the company's milk is British, and 2.4bn litres of it is delivered to supermarkets and homes every year. Milk for delivery in the London area is processed and bottled in a giant dairy in Chadwell Heath, Dagenham, Essex, which processes approximately 400m litres a year. Dairy Crest says that 30 years ago 85% of milk was sold on the doorstep – now it is just 8%, as supermarkets have muscled in. According to Lee, the convenience of ordering online, means that milkmen are fighting back and while he used to be slowly ticking off customers from his rounds, he's now adding them – younger people and families are returning to his mornings. "I was a bit concerned last year with the economic climate. I was worried the first thing people would cancel would be their milkman, but it didn't seem to turn out that way. It just goes to show people like to keep the traditions. And long may it continue. I hope there'll be milkmen on the streets for many more years yet, now we've brought the job into the 21st century." Milkmen are often hailed as the pioneers of recycling and green living. Think about it: constantly reused and recycled bottles, electric cars, one vehicle delivering to a street rather than everyone on the street driving to the shops. Figures from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) suggest that Britain's milk industry - three-quarters of whose sales are now made in supermarkets - is responsible for 130,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year. A proportion of this will be recycled, but this takes considerable energy in itself. Glass bottles from the milkman, by comparison, recycle simply, and they're used and washed about 20 times before they even reach that stage. Even before bottles, milkmen were environmentally friendly. They used to turn up at the doorstep with their churns and fill jugs that people brought to them. By 1880, bottles were being delivered by horse-drawn carts several times a day. These first bottles used a porcelain stopper top held on by wire (think of a bottle of Grolsch). When the pasteurisation process for milk was developed in 1894, the milk could then be sterilised and safely stored for longer periods, allowing for a once-daily delivery. If you feel a milk bottle fetish coming on, don't be alarmed, it seems to be a fairly common condition. You can satisfy your creamy urges with the Milk Bottle of the Week website or have a look at what collector's items are going for a song on eBay. Apparently some especially old and rare bottles can go for hundreds of pounds. However, it was getting a ride in a float that I was really looking forward to. Though some of his colleagues have switched to diesel vans as their rounds have got bigger and less dense, thankfully, Lee had a lovely new electric one – "I've had it up to 20mph. Downhill." – and we had a good 20-minute drive to where his round actually begun, at the foot of Forest Hill. This is where he provided most of the audio for the slideshow, soundtracked by the laboured whines of his electric motor. Though milkmen and women have had to move with the times somewhat, the basic job remains the same. The biggest difference is that customers can now change their orders until 9pm the night before. And of course, in this online age, there are more than 150 products, including dog food and compost, to supplement your milk, bread and cheese. It's a far cry from my earliest memories of our family milkman, from Shone's dairy in Cheshire. Until the age of about 11 it was always silver-top in our kitchen. And the occasional bright orange bottles of juice. I remember the routine of giving the bottle one tip upside down, then poking my finger in the foil to open it. Unscrewing a plastic top just seems, well, less romantic. In my memory our family switch to semi-skimmed happened simultaneously with the arrival of the now ubiquitous plastic bottles, as mum switched her loyalties to the local Safeway. "It was just easier to pick up a big bottle every time I went shopping – and they fit in the fridge better," she says. What are your memories of your family milkman? Were they as chirpy as Lee? And what do you think milkmen need to do or sell to win people back? | ['lifeandstyle/wordofmouth', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'business/dairycrestgroup', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/food', 'business/business', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/marksmith'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2010-02-03T10:00:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2014/mar/20/carbon-tax-repeal-voted-down-by-senate | Carbon tax repeal voted down by Senate | The government’s carbon tax repeal laws have been voted down by the Senate, leaving the fate of Australia’s carbon pricing scheme up to the new Senate that sits from July. It appears very likely the carbon price will then be repealed – and the government says its repeal laws will make the end date of the tax retrospective to 1 July, 2014 – even if they have not passed the parliament by then. The Coalition linked the vote, which had been expected next week, to next weekend’s West Australian election campaign, claiming Labor was voting to keep the carbon tax while “deceiving” voters in Western Australia by saying they would terminate it. Labor’s lead West Australian Senate candidate has said Labor was “scrapping the carbon tax” – distinguishing between the tax, or fixed price, and the floating price which Labor wants to bring forward. Prime minister Tony Abbott said this was “a deception” of West Australian voters. Labor and the Greens will continue to oppose the repeal of the scheme they created when Julia Gillard was prime minister, but from July the government will have the support of the Liberal Democratic party’s David Leyonhjelm, who after the election told Guardian Australia he was “agnostic” about the science of global warming but “even if it is eventually confirmed, government spending in Australia will not make the slightest bit of difference”. He said he would vote for the carbon tax repeal. So would Family First’s Bob Day. Continuing senators – independent Nick Xenophon and the DLP’s John Madigan – also support repeal. The repeal is also likely to be supported by the two Palmer United party senators, Glenn Lazarus and Jacqui Lambie, and the Motoring Enthusiast Ricky Muir, who has entered a voting alliance with PUP. But there is some uncertainty surrounding the PUP position. Palmer has been boasting, ahead of the 5 April Senate poll, that “only the Palmer United party can remove the carbon and mining taxes”. But he told Guardian Australia he had not changed his view that the carbon tax repeal needed to be retrospective, instead of taking effect from July. “We’ll make up our mind how we will vote when our senators take their seats,” he said. Labor’s climate change spokesman said the party could not support the abolition of existing clean energy policies without a “credible alternative”. “Along with the rest of the world, Labor knows the best alternative is an ETS [emission trading scheme],” Mark Butler said. In an interview with Guardian Australia last week opposition leader Bill Shorten said Labor would take a “market-based system” to reduce greenhouse emissions to the 2016 election. Greens leader Christine Milne said the Senate had rejected “Tony Abbott’s do-nothing approach on global warming”. “No one should give up on the current law. It has the support of leading economists like Ken Henry, Ross Garnaut and Bernie Fraser whilst Tony Abbott’s phoney alternative is friendless,” the greens leader said. “Momentum for emissions trading is building around the world ahead of the 2015 global climate negotiations. If Australia is left behind it will be our jobs, industry and innovation that will suffer.” Before the election Abbott promised to call a double-dissolution election to achieve the repeal of the carbon tax. But to achieve the trigger for a double dissolution under section 57 of the constitution, a bill must be blocked twice, with three months in between. That would require a second rejection just a few weeks before the new Senate is due to sit anyway. And should the new Senate not pass the repeal, the government would probably have to start the whole double-dissolution procedure again. Constitutional law expert George Williams told Guardian Australia there was “no clear answer” as to whether a trigger could be formed through one rejection from the existing Senate and one from the new Senate. “A trigger formed that way would almost certainly be challenged in the High Court and for that reason alone I think a government would be unlikely to try it,” he said. But the government is on track to get its first double-dissolution trigger through separate legislation to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The Senate rejected the CEFC abolition bill for the first time on 10 December last year, meaning the requisite three months have passed for a second rejection to create a double-dissolution election trigger. The bill is listed to be reintroduced into the House of Representatives again on Thursday. The $10bn so-called green bank was set up as part of Labor’s carbon price package to support renewable energy projects through loans, guarantees and equity investments. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/carbon-tax', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'environment/emissionstrading', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-03-20T05:12:32Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2023/may/03/recycle-disposable-vape-single-use-e-cigarettes-lithium | I tried to properly recycle a disposable vape. It did not go well | Emma Snaith | Take a walk down any busy street, and you’re bound to find dozens of candy-coloured plastic cylinders littering the ground. Millions of these disposable vapes are now thrown away every month in the UK. And hidden inside each one is a lithium battery – made of a material crucial for the transition to renewables. Last month, I found myself buying an Elf Bar disposable vape on a night out. I try not to make a habit of vaping, but it feels far too easy to pick one up when they’re eyecatchingly displayed right next to the chewing gum in every corner shop. For weeks, the vape lay next to my bin. I knew I had to recycle it, but how do you actually go about doing that? I soon found myself falling down a blueberry smoke-filled rabbit hole. There was no clue on the packaging of the vape about how to properly dispose of it. A tiny white symbol of a crossed-out bin is the only indication that the device shouldn’t just be placed with the rest of your rubbish. So perhaps it’s not surprising that more than half of disposable vapes bought in the UK are simply thrown away, according to research by recycling non-profit Material Focus. A Google search brought me to the Recycle your Electricals campaign website, which advises either removing the battery from your vape (if you can) and recycling the parts separately, or returning the whole device to a retailer or a local authority recycling point. Easy, I thought. But at a local supermarket none of the staff were aware of a take-back scheme for recycling vapes, even though retailers selling £100,000 worth are obliged to provide this service. Instead, I was pointed towards the battery recycling bin in the corner of the shop. Back at home and armed with two pairs of scissors and questionable advice from YouTube, I eventually managed to prise the bottom off the vape and pull out the battery. In hindsight this wasn’t the best idea as, if accidentally punctured, lithium batteries can cause fires. (I later found out that groups like Material Focus do not advise dismantling single-use vapes yourself.) When I finally returned to the supermarket, I found the battery recycling bin full of whole intact vapes. Clearly there is a lot of confusion about how to properly dispose of these devices. I wished I’d avoided the faff of removing the batteries and just walked half an hour to the nearest small electrical recycling centre. But realistically how many people are going to make the same trip for something advertised as “disposable”? Currently 1.3m single-use vapes are thrown away every week in the UK, according to recycling group Material Focus. When littered, they can leach dangerous metals, battery acid, and nicotine into the environment. Plus, each vape contains on average 0.15g of lithium, which equates to 10 tonnes thrown away over a year in the UK – enough to make around 1,200 electric car batteries. Producing this metal is an environmentally costly process that uses huge amounts of energy and water. At a time when we are relying on lithium and the batteries it powers to fuel the transition to clean energy, it seems ludicrous to be casually throwing tonnes of it away with single-use vapes. So what should be done? Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, says that all retailers that sell vapes should have drop-off points in stores (as per existing regulations) and is calling for collection points in public areas near parks, nightclubs and bars too. He adds that “the industry should stop calling them disposables – all vapes can be recycled if collected”. But I’m inclined to agree with campaigners who believe an outright ban is the only real solution. Laura Young, a PhD student and climate activist, collected a vape a minute during a walk through her home city of Dundee and warns that we already have a “failed record” of recycling basic products like bottles and cans. So what chance do we have with fiddly items such as vapes? She points out that a ban would still allow for people to use more cost-effective reusable vapes. Momentum is certainly growing on this issue. Earlier this year, the Conservative MP Caroline Johnson introduced a private member’s bill to prohibit the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes. Meanwhile, the Scottish government has commissioned an urgent review into the environmental impact of disposable vapes and 10 councils have agreed to write to Holyrood in support of a ban. Could the UK follow Australia, which this week announced plans to ban all disposable vapes as part of a major crackdown? In the meantime, two disposable vapes are being thrown away every second in the UK. My frustrating mission to try and recycle one has certainly put me off buying another. But how many others actually realise what they’re throwing away? Emma Snaith is deputy audience editor at the Guardian. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'society/e-cigarettes', 'society/smoking', 'society/society', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/emma-snaith', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-05-03T11:00:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/mar/20/nasa-urged-to-extend-life-of-key-climate-sensor-that-maps-worlds-forests-gedi-aoe | Extend life of key climate sensor that maps world’s forests, Nasa told | Forest experts and scientists are asking Nasa to extend the life of a “key” climate and biodiversity sensor due to be destroyed in the Earth’s atmosphere early next year. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (Gedi) mission – pronounced like Jedi in Star Wars – was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2018, and has provided the first 3D map of the world’s forests. Data from the Nasa mission, which has used billions of laser beam signals to measure the height, shape and health of the Earth’s trees since April 2019, has been helping scientists answer questions about land-use change, a key driver of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, including how much carbon trees store and the effect of forest fires on the atmosphere. The $150m project is scheduled to be “de-orbited” from the ISS early next year and the sensor – roughly the size of a fridge – will be incinerated in the Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers overseeing the project, based at the University of Maryland, have asked for an extension to allow Gedi to finish its work and calibrate the results with other satellites due to launch this decade that will monitor the planet’s ecosystems. Early results from the project indicate there could be much more carbon stored on land than previously thought. While they acknowledge Gedi’s lifetime has already been extended once, in March 2021, the researchers say extensions on the ISS are common and the tool is providing crucial data, including helping to monitor the Cop26 commitment from 142 countries to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. “The biggest uncertainty we have in terms of atmospheric CO2 concentrations driving climate change is the balance between deforestation and subsequent regrowth. Gedi is helping us address that,” said Prof Ralph Dubayah, principal investigator on the mission. “If you want to plant a trillion trees, go ahead. But you have to know what you’re starting with to know what kind of impact that’s going to have.” Leading forest experts have backed calls for a stay of execution. They called the sensor a “key tool” for understanding global heating and described its pending destruction as a waste of money. When contacted by the Guardian, Nasa said Gedi has already been extended beyond its prime mission to allow for additional data collection and is scheduled to be replaced by another sensor early next year. Although scientists know the planet’s trees are an enormous carbon store holding the equivalent of nearly a century’s worth of annual fossil fuel emissions at the current rate, basic questions about the size and structure of forests remain unanswered. The uncertainty poses difficulties for researchers tracking emissions from land-use change. “Considering that we have to accelerate climate action, and forests are something we can use for mitigation, it is critical that Gedi meets its scientific goals,” said Laura Duncanson, a research scientist on the Gedi team. Inge Jonckheere, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) author and head of remote sensing and climate change at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said: “Every country can come up with its own definition of a forest. Countries can just fill in numbers and then everybody has to take them as the truth. But with satellites, we can check them,” said Jonckheere. Fred Stolle, deputy director of the forest programme at the World Resource Institute, said his organisation was adding Gedi data to its Global Forest Watch platform, one of the primary free sources of reliable information about the world’s forests. “Currently, our main tool is tree cover from the Landsat programme. But now we are shifting to tree height because it is a better indicator of forest health using Gedi,” he said. “The data allows us to find important areas of forest and say: do not touch this.” Diego Saez Gil, head of Pachama, a carbon offsetting firm that uses AI and remote sensing to verify and monitor carbon capture by forests, said Gedi provided “the best available data to estimate the carbon stored in forests”. “The longer Gedi stays in orbit, the more spatial coverage we can get, improving the quality of biomass estimates. If Gedi were to remain in orbit, we could have long-term continuous records of biomass.” Matthew Hansen, a remote sensing scientist whose data is used as the scientific standard in deforestation research, said the combination of GEDI and other Nasa land monitoring enabled researchers to “assess deforestation and associated emissions, as well as restoration efforts”. 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', 'science/nasa', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'science/space', 'science/science', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/forests', 'science/international-space-station', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-03-20T15:00:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/poverty-matters/2013/dec/13/undp-climate-change-peru-poverty-reduction | Why climate change threatens Peru's poverty reduction mission | Dan Collyns | The Peruvian Amazon became a net emitter of carbon dioxide rather than oxygen for the first time in 2012, according to the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) latest human development country report. The reversal of the rainforest's usual role as a carbon sink is a direct result of the droughts in the western Amazon in 2005 and 2010 – and a stark reminder, say scientists, that this mega-biodiverse country is highly vulnerable to climate change. Peru, which has four of the five geographical areas most vulnerable to climate change – ranging from fragile mountain ecosystems to low-lying coastal areas – will host the 20th UN climate change conference in 2014. The 2013 UNDP report warned that Peru's climate change vulnerability could undo the advances it has made in channelling economic growth into sustained poverty reduction. Peru's poverty rates have been more than halved over the past decade, dropping from 48.5% of the population in 2004 to 25.8% in 2012, according to the World Bank. "If we disregard [environmental] sustainability, whatever progress we have made in poverty reduction or improvement of human development will just be erased due to climate change," cautioned Maria Eugenia Mujica, one of the UNDP report's authors. Peru has already lost 39% of its tropical glaciers due to a 0.7C temperature rise in the Andes between 1939 and 2006. But, the report noted, with a predicted temperature rise of up to 6C in many parts of the Andes by the end of this century, there will be "harmful impacts on human development". Peru, which contributes just 0.4% of the world's greenhouse gases, was ranked third after Bangladesh and Honduras, in climate hazards risks by the UK's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. What could be pushing Peru to the brink, researchers warned, is that its economic boom is inextricably linked to activities that damage the environment and contribute to climate change. Illicit activities such as illegal gold mining and logging, and the cocaine trade – all of which are environmentally destructive but lucrative – are economic drivers in many regions of the country, boosting incomes and, ironically, human development. A marked increase in the human development ranking in Peru's Amazon region – measured in increased income – was largely linked to environmentally destructive and illegal coca growing and gold mining, the latter of which also damages human health. "The growth does not come from education or health, but from predatory activities, like [resource] extraction and mining," said Francisco Santa Cruz, another of the report's authors. As a result of high global gold prices combined with the widespread nature of the informal economy, illegal and artisanal mining now occurs in 21 of Peru's 25 regions. In Madre de Dios, the Amazon region where illegal gold mining has had most impact, the rate of forest loss has tripled since the 2008 economic crisis, when gold prices began to soar. Significantly, the rise in income has not been accompanied by an improvement in health and education, the two other key indicators in measuring human development. Consequently, Peru's 28% human development growth between 1980 and 2012 is more lopsided than it might appear. "Despite stellar economic growth, the fact that human development is falling or stalled in one of every 10 districts shows the need for Peru to promote inclusive growth and rights," said the UK-based Peru Support Group. "A key step in this direction would be to ensure that the millions of indigenous peoples have a say on how extractive projects should go ahead, by implementing their right to prior consultation, so they aren't forced to accept projects that are harmful to their interests but that ministers want to go ahead." In recognition of Peru's status as a signatory to the International Labour Organisation's Convention 169, the law is designed to give indigenous communities the right to an opinion on development projects in or around their territories. As Peru announces plans to invest $6bn in renewable energy projects, experts predict climate change could cost between 8% and 34% of its GDP. The Latin American and Caribbean region will face annual damages in the order of $100bn by 2050, according to an Inter-American Development Bank report. "Environmentally damaging activities in Peru mean there are ecosystems which can no longer respond to climate change," said James Leslie, technical advisor on ecosystems and climate change for the UNDP. "Peru needs to bring in mechanisms so that public finance takes into account climate risks." Peru has called its hosting of next year's COP summit an opportunity to change the world. Its heightened sensitivity to climate change makes it, perhaps, the perfect location for a summit on which rest the hopes of so many nations. | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'world/peru', 'world/world', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/dan-collyns'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-12-13T12:07:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2017/oct/24/queensland-tourism-award-winner-rejects-adani-sponsored-prize | Tourism award winner in Queensland rejects Adani-sponsored prize | The winner of a Queensland tourism award has rejected its prize because it was sponsored by the mining giant Adani. Another winner in the 2017 Whitsundays Tourism awards, held last month at Hamilton Island with Adani as a silver sponsor, threatened to quit the organisation unless it cut ties with the miner. The Guardian understands the north Queensland tourism body, after a board meeting last week, has effectively ruled out future involvement with the proponent of Australia’s largest coalmine. Lindsay Simpson, whose Providence Sailing business won a tour and transport operators’ prize, said it was an “appalling” decision to enlist Adani, whose backing of reef tourism awards was “just laughable”. “We’d been overseas in Europe and we actually had our skipper go and collect the award as our representative, in good faith,” she told the Guardian. “We heard then that Adani was sponsoring it, so we did some serious thinking. We came to the decision that we don’t want their award, if that’s who they’ve got sponsoring it. “We thought, if we don’t say something, it’s going to be accepted that someone who’s singlehandedly destroying everything that we stand for is going to be backing tourism awards, which is just laughable.” Many Whitsundays reef tour operators were outraged by Adani’s now-abandoned plans to dump dredged seabed in reef waters while expanding its Abbot Point coal terminal, just 100km north of Airlie Beach. In 2014 the plans were changed so that the spoil would be dumped in wetlands in the Caley Valley. Margaret Lawson, a public relations expert who acts for resource companies, said the awards debacle was “not a good look” for Adani, and could set a precedent for other community organisations to spurn financial backing from the controversial company. Adani paid a modest $2,000 to be a second tier sponsor at the awards night on 30 September. Simpson said she had great respect for the tourism peak body but Adani was “buying their reputation”. In a letter formally rejecting the award last week, Simpson told the body that “we cannot, in all fairness, accept an award sponsored by a Adani, a company whose modus operandi is completely counter-productive to all that we stand for as tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef”. Another gold medal award-winning operator told Tourism Whitsundays it would quit if Adani was again named as a sponsor. A third award-winning operator, who asked not to be named, said there were “a lot of other people” shocked about Adani’s role when it was read out at as a sponsor towards the end of the event. “There was definitely a bit of a gasp when Adani’s name was said,” she said. “I personally was taken aback and there were definitely a lot of people around us who felt the same thing.” Lawson, a prominent Brisbane public relations firm owner, said Adani would have a “stakeholder engagement plan” from “top tier sponsorships right down to local sporting teams” but evidently suffered from a “reputation problem”. “The rationale of sponsoring something like a tourism awards event is to demonstrate your corporate social responsibility credentials,” Lawson said. “When people don’t even want to take your money for worthy causes, that indicates a PR problem. “And given the protest action that took place that a couple of weekends ago around the country, it will be interesting to see if that non-acceptance of Adani dollars cascades right down to those small local community organisations. “If you see a big event like the tourism awards set a precedent by saying they won’t accept Adani dollars, that could be creating a landslide of organisations that say they won’t accept money from Adani. “That could provide them with a lot of problems in trying to execute their community engagement strategy.” Simpson conceded she might be precisely the wrong person to be given an award at an event with Adani backing. She travelled to India in March with the chairman of Australian Conservation Foundation, Geoff Cousins, in a delegation that delivered a letter of protest to Adani and confronted the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, over her public support for the Carmichael mine. The chief executive of Tourism Whitsundays, Craig Turner, did not return calls. An Adani spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'business/adani-group', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-10-24T00:03:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2018/apr/17/san-francisco-electric-scooter-schemes-backlash-cease-desist | San Francisco's scooter war: city hits back as 'unlawful' schemes flood streets | Some people are tossing the scooters into trash cans and lakes. Others are tripping over them on the sidewalk, complaining of broken toes and dangerous collisions. The San Francisco war over electric scooters – which several startups have dumped on to sidewalks in a competitive rush to launch unregulated rental programs – dramatically escalated on Monday when the city attorney sent cease-and-desist letters, warning that authorities would “impound” the motorized devices to stop the “dangerous” and “unlawful operation”. The battle has made international headlines and sparked hyperbolic statements from the companies, some implying that the regulatory efforts ran counter to a democratic process. In San Francisco, the scooters have become the latest target in debates over public space, inequality and tech-induced gentrification. The makers of the stand-up scooters say they are providing a transportation alternative that is vital to combating climate change. However, critics have slammed the un-permitted rollout as yet another brazen maneuver from startups breaking the law and snubbing regulators under the guise of “innovation”. “They are just coming off as a bunch of spoiled brats,” said Aaron Peskin, a San Francisco supervisor who pushed legislation on Tuesday to create a regulatory permitting program for scooters. “They have harkened back to the bad old days of tech arrogance … of petulant children who think they can have whatever they want without any government oversight.” The scooters of companies like LimeBike, Bird and Spin are dockless and available for rent through an app, resembling popular bike-share initiatives, allowing users to do short trips. And similar to the cycling programs, the shiny, colorful scooters have for some become symbols of the inequitable tech economy – products designed to attract wealthier newcomers to neighborhoods that were once working class. Roberto Hernandez, a lifelong resident of the Mission, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, said he was surprised to see the scooters appear one day and that he had since seen children bump into them and a woman in a wheelchair struggle to maneuver around them. “This is for white techies,” added Hernandez, co-founder of a group called Our Mission No Eviction. “I don’t know one Latino that knows anything about this.” The backlash is reminiscent of the fight over robots in San Francisco, where lawmakers have cracked down on the automated delivery machines that have increasingly roamed the sidewalks. Companies have marketed the technology as a futuristic and efficient system, but pedestrian groups and disability rights advocates have resisted, some lambasting the robots as “aggressively entrepreneurial wet dreams”. The scooter firms also appear to be borrowing from the playbook of some of the most powerful “sharing economy” firms, such as Airbnb and Uber, which have repeatedly clashed with cities like San Francisco by ignoring traditional regulations and claiming “disruption”. Rebecca Kaplan, a councilmember in Oakland, where the new scooters have also faced criticisms and vandalism, compared the current debate to California’s historical battles over marijuana legislation. The city is believed to be the first in the country to have licensed medical pot dispensaries – and Kaplan said she was pushing a similar approach with scooters. “The answer isn’t to ban them, but to regulate them and have them be responsible.” Opponents of the regulatory efforts have argued that new laws could stifle an important mode of transportation in a region that is supposed to be dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on cars. But Jane Kim, a San Francisco supervisor co-sponsoring the regulatory proposal, said she was not opposed to the overall concept: “Honestly, it looks fun. I don’t have any problems with alternative forms of transportation … I don’t see what the issue is with having rules.” Kim said her office had fielded repeated complaints about tipped-over scooters blocking sidewalks. Another major complaint is that users are frequently riding on the sidewalk, which is illegal and dangerous, said Cathy DeLuca, a policy and program director with Walk SF, a not-for-profit organization. “People who live here and who struggle to live here are tired of being used as a testing ground without regard for the consequences on everyday folks who are just trying to get around the city.” A spokesperson for Bird, Kenneth Baer, said in a statement that since the company’s San Francisco launch a few weeks ago, users had logged more than 90,000 miles, “which shows that there is great demand for new, environmentally friendly ways to get around this great city”. Bird is also taking action to suspend or deactivate users who violate rules and pledged to give $1 per vehicle per day to support bike lanes, street work and “safe riding”. A Spin spokesperson said the company proactively reached out to city officials before deploying and said it supports the legislation. LimeBike did not respond to a request for comment. | ['technology/gadgets', 'us-news/san-francisco', 'technology/technology', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/silicon-valley', 'business/entrepreneurs', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sam-levin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-17T23:25:17Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2018/sep/25/georgetown-south-carolina-flooding-hurricane-florence | A South Carolina town braces for Florence's last act: record flooding | In a late act of drenching the Carolina coast, flood waters from Hurricane Florence are set to pour into Georgetown, South Carolina. Although the community of 9,000 avoided the eye of the storm and much of the rain in the days after the hurricane hit, flooding is now unavoidable as water flowing from far inland hits the coast. Local officials said they expect the rivers near Georgetown to crest early on Thursday at record levels. The community is doing everything it can to keep the historic town above water as the town expects anywhere from 5 to 10ft of water on the streets. Some 26,000 sandbags were passed out since the weekend, said Randy Akers, the deputy public information officer for the Georgetown county emergency operations center. City offices and schools will be closed until further notice. Shelters are ready to take in families and pets. The national guard is in place to assist with water rescues. As of Tuesday night, the town was still under voluntary evacuation, the Georgetown mayor, Brendon Barber, said. “The town is not shut down, but we’ve put aqua dams over between the bridges on [the highway],” Barber added. The South Carolina Department of Transportation barricaded the bridge connecting Georgetown to the rest of the state with 3ft plastic dams. That will only hold off the water for some time and is simply a measure to keep the bridge and road open as long as possible, Akers explained. The highway will eventually flood, he added. The Winyah Bay area, where Georgetown sits, is a convergence of every major river in this part of the state, Akers explained. “It’s basically like a five- or six-lane highway all coming down to one lane at the same point,” he said. Already, water has seeped up onto historic Front Street, Barber said. The owner of Barber’s favorite restaurant, Old Fish House AKA Big Tuna, sits on the harborwalk off the Great Pee Dee River on Front Street. The patio faces the river where boats are tied to the pier. Bucky Watkins, 68, said he closed down Tuesday. “We’ve taken everything out of the restaurant: all the kitchen equipment, everything. [We’re] pretty much standing around seeing how high the water is going to come up. It’s like a record tide. They say we’re supposed to get about 5-8[ft] and so that’s going to be inside my restaurant,” he said. Last week, the water came up 2ft in the river and dropped immediately after Florence passed by farther north. Even with current predictions of major flooding many locals are not evacuating. “Nothing has happened seriously yet and I trust and pray nothing don’t,” said Laura Herriott, one of the 50 remaining Gullah descendent residents of Sandy Island, which sits a short ferry ride from Georgetown. Nobody else from the small community is evacuating, she said, adding: “We’ve been checking up on each other.” Herriott’s home is tucked between two rivers. Where she parks her car, water is already touching the tires. Officials warned that riding out the flood might be a bad idea. “It does concern me to hear that people are going to stay where they are and hope it doesn’t impact them, especially on Sandy Island right there on the river,” Akers said. To hammer the sense of urgency into the community, over 150 law enforcement officers from around the state have converged onto Georgetown county to drive around town with screeching sirens, urging people to consider evacuating. Nearly 8,000 households across the county could be affected, Akers added. | ['world/hurricane-florence', 'us-news/south-carolina', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/khushbu-shah', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricane-florence | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-26T05:00:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/jun/03/climate-crisis-rich-countries-falling-short-on-vow-to-help-poorer-ones | Climate crisis: rich countries falling short on vow to help poorer ones | Rich countries are falling behind on their pledges to help the poor world tackle the climate crisis, new research has shown, on the eve of a meeting of the finance ministers of the G7 industrialised economies. The UK and the US are the only two G7 countries to have set out proposals to increase climate finance in recent months, according to a report by Care Denmark, a member of the international NGO network. Climate finance is used by poor countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, for instance through investment in clean energy generation, and to adapt to the impacts of extreme weather such as floods and droughts. Care found, in a report called Hollow Commitments: An analysis of developed countries’ climate finance plans, that most G7 countries have still made no new commitments on climate finance, despite a pledge by the developed world made in 2009 to provide $100bn (£70bn) a year to developing countries by 2020, which has not been met. Finance ministers of the G7 will discuss the climate crisis, alongside US proposals for a global minimum tax on business, and ways to give poor countries access to Covid-19 vaccines, at a meeting on Friday hosted by the UK, which holds this year’s revolving G7 presidency. The main G7 summit will take place next week in Cornwall, from 11 to 13t June. Campaigners have warned that if the G7 does not increase climate finance, poor countries will be left vulnerable to disaster as extreme weather takes hold, and dependent on investments in fossil fuels offered by countries including Russia, China and oil-rich nations. They are also concerned that much current climate finance is in the form of loans on which interest must be paid, and said increasing climate finance was a key condition of success for this year’s Cop26 UN climate talks, scheduled for Glasgow in November. Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns for ActionAid USA, called on the world’s biggest economy to provide more finance. Donald Trump cancelled most of the US’s climate finance commitments when he was president, but his successor, Joe Biden, in April announced a doubling of climate finance from its pre-Trump levels, to $5.7bn by 2024. Wu called for much more. “The climate finance plans and budget requests that we have seen from the [Biden] administration to date fall far short of what is needed,” he said. “Many US groups and members of Congress are calling for an $800bn commitment through 2030 as a down payment on the US fair share of climate finance. This is the scale we need to be talking about to have any chance of avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis.” Jan Kowalzig, senior policy adviser on climate change at Oxfam Germany, urged the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to set an example. “The G7 summit is Merkel’s last chance to double German annual climate finance between now and 2025, allocating 50% to adaptation. Otherwise, Germany must shoulder the collective failure of developed countries to deliver on the $100bn.” The UK government has also faced sharp criticism for the decision by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak – who will host Friday’s G7 finance ministers meeting – to slash overseas development aid from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP. Catherine Pettengell, interim director of Climate Action Network UK, called on the government to change its stance on aid cuts. “As host of G7 and Cop26, the UK has the responsibility to ensure the G7 delivers urgent, fair and just action on climate finance for countries least responsible for causing the climate emergency,” she said. “This must mean a collective agreement by G7 countries to increase climate finance, especially grant-based finance for adaptation. “To have credibility in calling on others to increase climate finance, the UK must urgently reverse its devastating aid budget cuts and instead champion a scale-up of support for those who need it most.” A Cop26 spokesperson said: “As president of both the G7 and Cop26, the UK will use this month’s G7 summit to urge countries to set out how they will increase their climate finance and show that we are all acting to meet the vital $100bn-a-year goal. “In particular we want to see increased finance for nature and solutions to help developing countries adapt to climate change. “The UK has already shown leadership by doubling its international climate finance to £11.6bn over the period 2021 to 2025 to help developing nations.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-aid', 'world/g7', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-06-03T05:00:01Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sport/2010/feb/23/wales-2013-world-cup | Wales confident of making impact at 2013 World Cup | Mike Nicholas, the Welsh Rugby League president, believes his country will be well placed to compete strongly in the newly expanded 2013 World Cup, if, as expected, they are included in the competition automatically. Wales failed to qualify for the 2008 tournament, but their progression since then should see them included among 12 teams that will go straight into the event in three years' time, alongside two further qualifiers. The Rugby League International Federation confirmed the expansion to 14 teams on Tuesday, despite initially opposing the Rugby Football League's proposal. Details of the qualifying system will be revealed later this year but Wales look certain to join the 10 teams who took part in 2008, with Lebanon also hopeful of securing the other automatic spot. "It was a shock not to compete the last time, but as a country we were in a transitional phase," Nicholas said. "Historically we have played in two World Cup semi-finals, and we now have three more years to bring Welsh youngsters through. "We now have two professional teams, with the likes of Elliott Kear and Lloyd White playing in Super League for the Crusaders, and a host of youngsters playing at South Wales Scorpions this year. We're also hopeful that the likes of the Evans brothers at Warrington [Ben and Rhys] will come through, and with Iestyn [Harris] at the helm as coach we are very confident that we can have a strong team in 2013." The Catalans Dragons captain, Olivier Elima, will miss Friday night's trip to Wigan after being handed a one-match suspension following his dismissal against St Helens. Elima was found guilty of a careless tackle on Jonny Lomax and also fined £300. The Salford centre Stuart Littler escaped suspension for the same offence against Leeds due to his previous good record. | ['sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/sport', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/garethwalker'] | sport/wales-rugby-league-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-02-23T17:41:24Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2015/mar/06/nsw-government-suggests-entire-village-be-relocated-for-rio-tinto-coalmine | NSW government suggests entire village be relocated for Rio Tinto coalmine | The relocation of the entire village of Bulga due to the expansion of a nearby coalmine should be given “serious consideration”, according to a New South Wales government review. The NSW Planning Assessment Commission, an independent statutory body, recommended on Thursday that Rio Tinto’s controversial Mount Thorley-Warkworth mine extension should go ahead. The PAC’s report, however, found that the expansion would have a “range of adverse impacts” upon the nearby village of Bulga, home to around 350 people. The enlarged mine would come within 3km of Bulga. To mitigate this, the report recommends residents should be compensated if they wish to sell their properties or, more radically, that Bulga be completely moved to an unspecified location to escape the dust and noise of the mine. “Such relocations are undertaken already in dam approvals,” the report states. “Any relocation decision and associated planning would, of course, need to involve the residents of Bulga. “It is recognised that this option is not an approach that would generally be considered, however the commission believes that in this instance there are a unique and unusual set of circumstances that make it worthy of serious consideration.” The report concedes that the relocation idea, which would be funded by taxpayers and Rio Tinto, has not been canvassed with residents during the five years of often bitter debate over the viability of the mine extension. Opponents of the mine have won two court cases, in the Land and Environment court and a supreme court appeal, against the mine’s expansion. Despite this, the approval of the mine development is still under consideration by the NSW government. Paul Harris, a 54 year-old miner who has worked at the Warkworth mine for 30 years while also living in Bulga, said the relocation suggestion is “plain stupidity.” “I think the PAC is really out of touch, this village is a sprawl, I’m not sure how you’d relocate everyone,” he told Guardian Australia. “I’ve been in Bulga all my life, I haven’t bloody blown in for bloody work. We used to use small gear and noise would never be a problem but now we’ve got to endure dust and noise every day for years, apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day. “I can’t sit out in my back yard and enjoy a beer because of the noise. The dust is a shocker, I can’t filter it out of my pool. Yesterday, we couldn’t even see the hills because of the dust. “If this process gets the green light, we are resigned to moving. I love my place here, I built it to stay here for the next generations but it’s being destroyed. When they blow the rocks up, the ground movement is like living in bloody Christchurch or something.” Harris’s neighbour, 70-year-old local historian Stewart Mitchell, has also lived in Bulga all his life. “The idea of relocating has not been discussed in the past, it has come out of the blue,” Mitchell told Guardian Australia. “They talk about relocating the village but there’s no mention of the neighbouring properties. How do you relocate a 180-acre property? “The first response here was it was some sort of joke. It’s ludicrous that taxpayer money could be used for this. People don’t want to move and it’s been very stressful over the past five years because of the devaluation of properties. “It’s important that the report concedes that we can’t coexist with the mine, though. If it goes ahead, Bulga will be destroyed, as it’ll just be a stone’s throw away.” The expansion of the mine will involve the digging up of a further 230m tonnes of coal over a 21-year period, at a rate of 18m tonnes a year, which would account for 10% of NSW’s total volume of export coal. This enlargement will swallow up an extra 698 hectares, including 459 hectares of endangered ecological habitat. The PAC report states the expansion would safeguard 1,187 jobs over the next 14 years, provide $567m in royalties and there would be “substantial adverse economic impacts” to the towns of Singleton and Cessnock if the project doesn’t go ahead. A Rio Tinto spokesman told Guardian Australia that it would await the NSW government’s response to the report before commenting on the viability of moving Bulga. “We have followed due process at all times,” the spokesman said. “We are committed to working with the people of Bulga and believe the village has a strong future.” Rio Tinto said there were more than 2,000 submissions from locals and businesses in favour of the mine extension and pointed out that it would provide more than 1,800 hectares of land towards a national park in the Upper Hunter region as part of biodiversity “offsets”. A spokesman for the NSW department of planning and environment said: “The department of planning and environment will consider the PAC’s review as its assessment is finalised. “Once the final assessment is complete, the independent PAC will make the final determination.” | ['environment/mining', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/coal', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-03-06T02:57:48Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2020/aug/02/close-encounter-mother-and-calf-humpback-whales-stun-surfers-at-sydneys-manly-beach | Close encounter: mother and calf whales stun surfers at Sydney's Manly beach | A whale calf, closely followed by its mother, came within metres of surfers and swimmers at Manly beach, in Sydney’s north, on Sunday afternoon. The pair were initially identified as humpbacks by onlookers, but marine wildlife experts later said they were most likely southern rights, which also migrate north to calve, then return to colder waters for the southern summer. One boardrider, Josh, told Guardian Australia he had never seen a whale, particularly a calf, come so close to the beach at Manly. “There was a bit of pointing going on and I looked round and the little one was just there,” Josh said. “Then mum came in pretty quick smart, I think when she realised how close people were. “You often see [whales] further out the back but this one just came right up to where people were hanging on their boards.” Images show dozens of surfers watching from about 10m from the whales. Initially there was some concern that one of the whales had been caught in a shark net, but surfers said that was not the case. “I think everyone was just paddling up to get a good look. It’s the sort of thing you won’t forget seeing.” Last week researchers from the University of NSW found that while whale-watching season in Australia is often a tourism drawcard, many were not in optimum health during the return leg of the migration. The researchers collected and analysed samples of whale blow – similar to mucus from a human nose – from humpbacks and found “significantly less” microbial diversity and richness on journey south. Their paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, said this indicated the whales were likely in poorer health than when their journey began. “People enjoy whale-watching season, but with it comes reports of whales becoming stranded,” said the study’s lead author, science researcher Catharina Vendl. “Although humpback whale stranding events occur naturally and regularly to injured and young whales, it is crucial to monitor the population health of this iconic species to ensure its long-term survival. “Humpback whales do not only play an essential role in their marine ecosystem but also represent an important economic resource because whale-watching is a booming industry in many Australian cities and around the world.” • This article was amended on 3 August 2020 to correct the identification of the species. It originally said the whales were humpbacks, but marine wildlife experts contacted by Guardian Australia subsequently identified them as more likely to be southern right whales. | ['australia-news/sydney', 'environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-08-03T03:02:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2022/nov/16/klimt-climate-activists-crisis-petrol-picasso | What next, petrol on a Picasso? Threatening art is no answer to the climate crisis | Jonathan Jones | Another day, another gallery: the attacks on art in the name of climate action have become a headline-hogging obsession with a hideous escalating logic. The nastier the treatment a famous masterpiece gets, the bigger the media coverage. Now, members of Letzte Generation Österreich (Last Generation Austria) have smeared “non-toxic fake oil” all over the glass covering of Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life, a colouristic vision of pink and gold intertwined human bodies menaced by the grim reaper. Not that you can see much of that in the disturbing images of the attack at the Leopold Museum in Vienna: a black and purple stain all but obscures the delicate picture. The aggression of the attack takes this wave of action a step further than tomato soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and mashed potato on a Monet. But a step further to where? There’s no chance of governments changing their policies because of these protests. There’s every chance, however, that a great work of art will eventually be destroyed. The action in Vienna makes that horribly obvious. This is iconoclasm. There’s a deliberate flirtation with destroying art, an implicit threat to go all the way, which expresses contempt for art and the museums that try to conserve and protect it. I can’t pretend to respect this form of protest. It makes no sense and possesses no moral coherence. It is arrogant to go into a museum and assume everyone around you is some kind of complacent aesthete who doesn’t care about the environment. “What is worth more? Art or life?” asked the Just Stop Oil activists who threw the tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. What a ridiculously false debate. Loving art does not devalue life – on the contrary, it helps us value and see nature. All the art in the National Gallery in London, where the soup attack happened, from Giotto to Van Gogh, is based on looking hard at life. It praises our planet. John Constable’s The Haywain got papered over in one of the first attacks by Just Stop Oil this summer, yet Constable was a critic of the industrial revolution. He painted chimneys darkening the sky with carbon in his canvas, The Opening of Waterloo Bridge. The same romantic love of nature that breathes in his paintings inspired the 19th-century art critic John Ruskin to champion the natural world as well as social justice. But the art attackers don’t appear to display any interest in the content or purpose of the masterpieces they bully. Instead, they seem entirely alien from the art itself. Attacking “iconic” art gets attention and purportedly causes a debate. Yet, the only debate here is one about protest. I am yet to see evidence of renewed thought or sensitivity about the climate crisis. Instead, they spawn articles like this about the rights and wrongs of the act. Dramatic gestures in museums do not express and heal the pain of the planet, collective action does. That has to be based on democratic agreement, not coercion by a man with a petrol bomb standing by Picasso’s Guernica. Which is where we appear to be heading. Do we really want to go any further into a realm where any work of art is fair game in the name of a higher cause? The Leopold Museum got sponsorship from an oil and gas company for free entry on the day of the attack. The relationship between the art world and the oil industry is one that must be addressed. However, this is not the fault of Klimt. He worked for largely Jewish clients at the start of the 20th century, painting sensual visions of strong women and celebrating love. He was not known in his creative and passionate life as a champion of big oil, nor did he contribute in any great way to the climate emergency. There is no reason on earth to single out his art for a climate protest. The climate protesters should know that there is an unfortunate precedent for the sabotage of Klimt’s loving, tender paintings. In 1945, in the wake of Hitler’s death, an SS unit set fire to a castle in the south of Austria containing some of his greatest works and destroyed them for ever. Death and Life, the Klimt painting is called. Those who attacked it think they are fighting for the latter, but they could well be fighting for the death of art itself. Jonathan Jones writes on art for the Guardian | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/protest', 'artanddesign/art', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/jonathanjones', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/just-stop-oil | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-11-16T14:24:50Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
us-news/2016/aug/16/louisiana-flood-damage-recovery | Louisiana left stunned by damage from '1,000-year' flood: 'It just kept coming' | An enormous and slow-moving rainstorm has laid waste to much of southern Louisiana, which the National Weather Service has called a “1,000-year” disaster. By Monday afternoon, more than 20,000 residents had been rescued from the historic floodwaters, and as many as seven had died. People here stay prepared for hurricanes, and all the cataclysm they bring. But this storm did not arrive with noise and velocity; instead it unfolded over several days, sneaking up almost without notice. Then the rivers topped their banks. In Tangipahoa parish, Louisiana, Donnie Prince woke up Thursday morning to the sound of police on a bullhorn. “Evacuate immediately,” the voice said from outside his home. It was 7am and there had been no water on the ground an hour earlier when Prince’s father-in-law, Raymond Fitzmorris, had woken up. Now Prince looked outside and saw 2ft of water everywhere, and rising fast. Prince, 33, sat on a chair on Monday afternoon at a Red Cross shelter in Hammond, stunned by the scope of the flooding. In some communities – Denham Springs, for instance – 90% of houses flooded, leaving their owners homeless. “We didn’t even have time to grab anything,” Prince said. He, his wife and his father-in-law scrambled to gather up the couple’s five children, aged three to 12, and make an escape to passing National Guard vehicles. They now have nothing. Prince and 500 other rescued people landed at the Red Cross center in Hammond, one of dozens across the region that sprang up in response to the high water. On Monday afternoon at the shelter, housed in a gym, those people sat or lay on cots and stared into rafters overhead. They traded juice boxes and survival stories. One man had just had surgery, and needed a nurse. A woman had given birth to her baby three days before. Another man and his family had climbed into the attic of a two-storey home to escape the floodwaters, and could hear a helicopter circling overhead but could not signal it. So he dove into the water and swam down through their floating belongings, out a door and up to the surface, where the helicopter spotted him. Marshall Ray Hayes, 69, lives in an apartment complex and was safe from the water until Thursday afternoon – “it just kept coming,” he said. His distress was acute; he uses a wheelchair, and needed it to make an escape from his home, rolling out through the flood. Monday he reached down and patted the wheel of the chair like the flank of a horse. “I wouldn’t have made it out without my chair,” he said. The storm was born in the corner of Florida’s gulf coast in the first week of August, when the National Hurricane Center warned it could swerve into the gulf and pick up the tell-tale spin and speed of a tropical cyclone. Instead it poked westward along the gulf coast, finally settling over southern Louisiana, where it shed up to 3in of rain an hour. The governor, John Bel Edwards, appealed to the federal government for help. The US government declared several parishes – East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Tangipahoa and St Helena so far – a major disaster area, which frees up resources for relief. The scale of the flooding was beyond the reach of any government agency, though. So from the bayous and swamps emerged something locals are calling the “Cajun navy”. Thousands of hunters and fishermen from throughout the region arrived in boats and organized themselves into search-and-rescue parties. Brittany Cuccia, a college student from Thibodeaux, joined one 10-boat fleet Monday as it moved from house to underwater house. “I’d say we’ve pulled out 50 people at least,” she said. Residents who needed help were stuck in homes with no power, she said. They had no way to call for help, and so they retreated higher and higher into their homes, praying for rescue. Businesses, too, were destroyed. Liz Bemtivegna, of Tickfaw, said her antiques-restoration shop was wiped out. “But we will salvage what we can when the water goes down,” she said. On Sunday when she realized her business was lost, she stopped by a local Red Cross-run shelter to see if anyone needed bottled water or other groceries. Instead she was pressed into service as a volunteer and by Monday wore a Red Cross vest and handed out essentials kits – soap, water, toilet paper – to shocked residents as the National Guard dropped them off at the door. The flood was a nightmare, she said, but within it she had seen the incredible generosity of her neighbors. “We’ve got so many supplies,” she said, sweeping an arm to indicate an impromptu store room, “we’ve had to turn some things away.” Louisiana being Louisiana, she said, even in disaster the residents are well. “We’ve got jambalaya,” she said. “We’re going to be OK.” | ['us-news/louisiana', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthew-teague', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-08-16T12:55:57Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2017/may/11/36m-year-old-fossil-discovery-is-missing-link-in-whale-evolution-say-researchers-mystacodon-selenensis | 36m-year-old fossil discovery is missing link in whale evolution, say researchers | Fossil hunters say they have unearthed a missing link in the evolution of baleen whales after digging up the remains of a creature thought to have lived more than 36 million years ago. The whales, known as mysticeti, sport a bristling collection of sieve-like plates known as baleen that they use to filter water for food. Species include the enormous blue whale, the gray whale and the humpback whale. But while baleen whales are known to have shared a common ancestor with toothed whales, which are the other major group of modern whales, the path by which the creatures emerged has been somewhat hazily understood. Now researchers say they have discovered the oldest known cousin of modern baleen whales, offering unprecedented insights into their evolution. “This [split in the family tree] has been dated to about 38 or 39m years ago,” said Olivier Lambert, co-author of the research from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. “The whale we discovered here has been dated to 36.4 [million years ago], so it is only two to three million years younger than this presumed origin.” Unearthed at a site known as Playa Media Luna on the southern coast of Peru, the newly discovered creature has been named Mystacodon selenensis – a portmanteau of the Greek for “moustache” and “tooth”, together with a nod to the Greek goddess of the moon. The animal would have been just under four metres in length but, rather than boasting baleen, it had a mouthful of teeth and apparently vestigial hind limbs. From an analysis of the skull, jaw and teeth, Lambert says that the newly unearthed animal likely hoovered up other marine creatures by suction feeding, moving its tongue to lower the pressure inside its mouth and draw its prey in, before expelling the water. “If it was indeed using suction to catch its prey, it means that the prey items could not be too large, because the whole animal was swallowed in a single gulp – so medium sized fish, maybe small squid, could have been a good type of prey for such an animal,” he said. By contrast, the ancestors of both baleen and toothed whales are thought to have captured prey by grabbing it with their teeth, a method also used by many modern toothed whales. The feeding method and body form of the new creature, added Lambert, backs up previous predictions of the features expected for an animal near the bottom of the baleen branch of the whale family tree. “Sometimes it is good to see that predictions were precise enough, and well documented, in a way that new fossils really fit the story,” he said. What’s more, said Lambert, the find ties in well with the recent discovery of “Alfred”, a much younger, toothed fossil whale dating from 25m years ago that is also thought to have been a suction feeder and falls on the baleen branch of the whale family tree. But the new find has also thrown up surprises, not least that the creature was found to have tiny, probably useless, hind limbs sticking out from its body. That, says Lambert, was a shock. The absence of hind limbs in all modern whales, together with evidence of apparently vestigial limbs in fossils dating to before the split in the whale family tree, had previously led scientists to believe the appendages had been lost in a common ancestor of toothed and baleen whales. But the new finding, published in the journal Current Biology, suggests that both branches of the whale family tree lost the hind limbs independently. Emily Rayfield, professor of palaeobiology at the University of Bristol who was not involved in the research, welcomed the findings, adding that the suggestion that the creature was a suction feeder ties into recent theories about how terrestrial animals returned to the water and evolved into the whales we see today. “I think it is an interesting new fossil from an exciting part of the world that shows how new information can enrich and development our understanding of the evolution of groups, including their feeding strategies,” she said. | ['science/fossils', 'science/biology', 'science/evolution', 'science/science', 'environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/nicola-davis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-science'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-05-11T16:03:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2022/sep/24/hurricane-fiona-puerto-rico-fema | ‘How are we not included?’: rural Puerto Ricans struggle to get help after hurricane | Six days after Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico, Alexiz and Roberto Núñez still don’t know where their next meal is coming from. The couple, whose home in Arecibo flooded during the storm, is relying on a neighbor’s cooking and some canned goods delivered by the government to get by. Núñez woke up to a flooded house the day of the storm, and she stood up only to find the water reaching her waist. She and her husband saw rescuers from afar and screamed until they were saved. They were later taken to a shelter, and then stayed with their daughter for two days, where the power and water still hasn’t come back. “I’m just grateful I’m alive,” said Alexiz. “My throat hurt a lot from all the screaming.” Uncertainty over food, drinking water and restoring power is most severe in the areas far from the capital of the island, San Juan. Residents in the southern and western part of the island of 3.3 million are complaining of feeling ignored in the efforts to bring utilities back to their homes. Roughly 63% of 1.47 million customers remained without power Friday, while more than 358,000 clients remained without water. US president Joe Biden approved on Wednesday a disaster declaration for Puerto Rico, granting access to emergency individual funds and public assistance for residents affected by the hurricane. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) makes individual assistance available to only 55 of the 78 municipalities. Cabo Rojo, a municipality in southern Puerto Rico that was strongly affected by the storm, was not included in the list. On top of the hurricane, the south-western coast of the island is still suffering the damage caused by major earthquakes in 2020. Aid disbursement was delayed after the pandemic began shortly after. Guánica, Lajas and Arecibo, where the Núñezes are from, were also excluded from the list. Loíza, a town in the island’s north-east that also suffered major flooding, was not included among the towns where individual emergency funding could be granted. Julia Nazario Fuentes expressed her frustration on social media, and reminded people some communities are still under water. “There are still people that can’t leave their houses,” said Nazario Fuentes in a tweet on Thursday. “On top of that, they’re leaving out municipalities that suffered damages. Unacceptable!” Satellite images from space released on Thursday show the metropolitan area in Puerto Rico with the lights on, while much of the island is without power. Some people on social media are calling the efforts to restore power as “metrocentrist”. According to a report published this week by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, after Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico in 2017, Fema discriminated against disabled people, those with low income and those who did not speak English. The document states that after the category 5 hurricane battered the island, Fema received more than 1.1m applications for housing assistance in Puerto Rico, but rejected 60% due to problems with the title documentation. The commission emphasized that there are no laws in Puerto Rico that require owners to register their properties. Five years later, some of the same problems the US territory faced in the aftermath of Hurricane María are reverberating after the category 1 Hurricane Fiona battered the island last Sunday. People are dying the aftermath of the latest storm. A 70-year-old man in Arecibo died after his emergency generator exploded on Monday. A woman in San Sebastían was burned to death on Tuesday after a lit candle caused a fire in her home. Diesel, which runs many generators, including in supermarkets, is also hard to come by, and businesses are scrambling to operate amid the long lines at the gasoline stations and low supply. A fuel terminal in Yabucoa that supplies gasoline and other fuels throughout Puerto Rico had power restored Thursday, and the government expects fuel distribution to normalize. “We have food and water for now, but the situation could worsen if the power doesn’t come back soon or if we don’t get diesel,” said Manuel Reyes Alfonso, executive vice-president of the Puerto Rico chamber for the marketing and distribution of the food industry, on Friday. The couple in Arecibo said they weren’t even going to try to go to the supermarket, expecting long lines and limited supplies. They lost their refrigerator during the flood, and find it almost useless to buy any products if they can’t keep them refrigerated. The Núñezes have removed all the debris from their house, and slept on the floor on Thursday night. Because of the flooding, a representative of the Department of Housing told the couple their house doesn’t pass inspection and they should start looking for a new home. They were hoping to get assistance from Fema, but they found out on Thursday that Arecibo residents are not included among those entitled to individual assistance, they said. “As a person that lost everything, affected by the hurricane, how is it possible we’re not included?” said Alexiz. “A lot of people in Arecibo lost everything – I’m not the only one.” | ['us-news/puerto-rico', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/americas', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural--disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/coral-murphy-marcos', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-09-24T10:00:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2012/aug/23/arctic-sea-ice-record-low | Arctic sea ice levels to reach record low within days | Arctic sea ice is set to reach its lowest ever recorded extent as early as this weekend, in "dramatic changes" signalling that man-made global warming is having a major impact on the polar region. With the melt happening at an unprecedented rate of more than 100,000 sq km a day, and at least a week of further melt expected before ice begins to reform ahead of the northern winter, satellites are expected to confirm the record – currently set in 2007 – within days. "Unless something really unusual happens we will see the record broken in the next few days. It might happen this weekend, almost certainly next week," Julienne Stroeve, a scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, told the Guardian. "In the last few days it has been losing 100,000 sq km a day, a record in itself for August. A storm has spread the ice pack out, opening up water, bringing up warmer water. Things are definitely changing quickly." Because ice thickness, volume, extent and area are all measured differently, it may be a week before there is unanimous agreement among the world's cryologists (ice experts) that 2012 is a record year. Four out of the nine daily sea ice extent and area graphs kept by scientists in the US, Europe and Asia suggest that records have already been broken. "The whole energy balance of the Arctic is changing. There's more heat up there. There's been a change of climate and we are losing more seasonal ice. The rate of ice loss is faster than the models can capture [but] we can expect the Arctic to be ice-free in summer by 2050," said Stroeve. "Only 15 years ago I didn't expect to see such dramatic changes – no one did. The ice-free season is far longer now. Twenty years ago it was about a month. Now it's three months. Temperatures last week in the Arctic were 14C, which is pretty warm." Scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute, the Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System in Norway and others in Japan have said the ice is very close to its minimum recorded in 2007. The University of Bremen, whose data does not take into account ice along a 30km coastal zone, says it sees ice extent below the all-time record low of 4.33m sq km recorded in September 2007. Ice volume in the Arctic has declined dramatically over the past decade. The 2011 minimum was more than 50% below that of 2005. According to the Polar Science Centre at the University of Washington it now stands at around 5,770 cubic kilometres, compared with 12,433 cu km during the 2000s and 6,494 cu km in 2011. The ice volume for 31 July 2012 was roughly 10% below the value for the same day in 2011. A new study by UK scientists suggests that 900 cu km of summer sea ice has disappeared from the Arctic ocean over the past year. The consequences of losing the Arctic's ice coverage for the summer months are expected to be immense. If the white sea ice no longer reflects sunlight back into space, the region can be expected to heat up even more than at present. This could lead to an increase in ocean temperatures with unknown effects on weather systems in northern latitudes. In a statement, a Greenpeace spokesman said: "The disappearing Arctic still serves as a stark warning to us all. Data shows us that the frozen north is teetering on the brink. The level of ice 'has remained far below average' and appears to be getting thinner, leaving it more vulnerable to future melting. The consequences of further rapid ice loss at the top of the world are of profound importance to the whole planet. This is not a warning we can afford to ignore." Longer ice-free summers are expected to open up the Arctic ocean to oil and mining as well as to more trade. This year at least 20 vessels are expected to travel north of Russia between northern Europe and the Bering straits. Last week a Chinese icebreaker made the first voyage in the opposite direction. "Every one of the 56,000 Inuits in Greenland have had to adapt to the retreat of the ice," said Carl-Christian Olsen, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Nuuk, Greenland. "The permafrost is melting and this is jeopardising roads and buildings. The coastline is changing, there is more erosion and storms, and there are fewer mammals like polar bears. It means there can be more mining, which is good for the economy, but it will have unpredictable effects on social change". Research published in Nature today said that warming in the Antarctic peninsula, where temperatures have risen about 1.5C over the past 50 years, is "unusual" but not unprecedented relative to natural variation. The research by Robert Mulvaney of the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, based on an ice-core record, showed that the warming of the north-eastern Antarctic peninsula began about 600 years ago. Temperature increases were said to be within the bounds of natural climate variability. The difference between the rate of warming at the two poles is attributed to geographical differences. "Antarctica is a continent surrounded by water, while the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land. Wind and ocean currents around Antarctica isolate the continent from global weather patterns, keeping it cold. In contrast, the Arctic Ocean is intimately linked with the climate systems around it, making it more sensitive to changes in climate," said a spokesman for the NSIDC. • This article was amended on 24 August 2012 to restore to the start of the penultimate paragraph the words "Research published in Nature today", which had been lost in the editing process, and to clarify that the research was about temperatures in the Antarctic peninsula. | ['environment/sea-ice', 'world/arctic', 'world/world', 'environment/poles', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-08-23T13:11:39Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2022/sep/16/libyan-militia-detains-hundreds-of-chadians-after-poachers-arrested | Libyan militia detains hundreds of Chadians after poachers arrested | Hundreds of Chadians are being rounded up and detained on the streets of a Libyan town for a ninth day in retaliation for the Chad government’s arrest of four Libyan men on suspicion of poaching endangered animals. At least 400 people have now been arrested in the city of Ajdabiya by a militia linked to the warlord Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army. Earlier this month the Chadian authorities arrested four men from Ajdabiya for entering the country illegally and poaching a rare species of antelope. It is understood that the Libyans are part of a network that has been poaching in the north-east of Chad for years. A security source in Libya told the Guardian that at least 400 Chadians had since been arrested by the Ajdabiya brigade, led by Ayoub Issa al-Ferjani, Khalifa Haftar’s son-in-law. “The campaign is still going on,” the source said. “It can reach a point where ties with Chad will be cut if anything happens to the four Libyans.” The source claimed: “Many of these Chadians are sick with infectious diseases. We are planning to send them back to Chad as many of them do not have the right papers to stay in Libya.” Photographs of the detainees sitting on the ground surrounded by soldiers have been circulating on social media pages linked to the brigade. Chad’s environment minister, Mahamat Ahmat Lazina, told reporters that five vehicles entered Chad from Libya near Murdi town and were pursued by Chadian security forces. Three of the vehicles escaped back over the border. The four men could face up to five years in prison if they are convicted Lazina said poaching was a huge “international embarrassment” in a country committed to protecting its wildlife. Poachers in north-east Chad target Barbary sheep (known in Chad as Mouflon à manchettes), birds of prey and the endangered Dama gazelle, which is the largest gazelle species in the world and prized for its skin. Chad has been struggling with Sudanese and Libyan poachers, who between 2002 and 2010 killed about 4,000 elephants, according to the UN. Mansour Attie, an activist from Ajdabiya, said: “It’s inhumane that they arrest all those poor workers who came to this country to improve their lives, in retaliation for four people who went there for poaching.” There are an estimated 50,000 Chadian workers in Libya, mostly working in goldmining and agriculture. Libya’s foreign ministry said they had started negotiations with Chad to release the four, whom they considered to have entered Chad “mistakenly”. The Chadian authorities declined to comment. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/libya', 'world/chad', 'world/africa', 'world/middleeast', 'world/world', 'environment/hunting', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'global-development/migration', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/zeinab-mohammed-salih', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-09-16T16:36:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/nov/13/climate-change-made-2018-queensland-bushfires-four-times-more-likely | Climate change made extreme heat before 2018 Queensland bushfires 'four times more likely' | Extreme temperatures that helped drive historic 2018 bushfires in north Queensland were four times more likely to have happened because of human-caused climate change, according to a study to be published next month. Scorching conditions in November 2018 sparked Queensland’s biggest ever firefighting response as 1,250 fires torched 1.4 million hectares, destroying nine homes and causing widespread impacts across multiple farming industries. The peer-reviewed study, led by University of New South Wales climate scientist Dr Sophie Lewis, is one of the first in Australia to demonstrate the influence of extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere on a single bushfire event. To be published in a major US journal next month, the study examined the conditions leading up to the fires and, using models, tested whether those conditions were more likely under the enhanced greenhouse conditions that now exist in the atmosphere. “We tried to pull apart the key ingredients in those conditions and then see if they were influenced by climate change,” Lewis said. “In that one bushfire event, there were so many people affected and it has had huge negative outcomes on their lives. We are finding that some of the elements that contributed to the fires are being influenced by anthropogenic factors.” Fire authorities and governments use the forest fire danger index (FFDI) to understand bushfire risk. The index combines heat, rainfall, humidity and wind to deliver a score where above 75 means the risk is “extreme” and above 100 means conditions are “catastrophic”. The study looked at the components of the index, as well as examining the background weather conditions. According to Lewis’s findings, the number of days of very high FFDI ratings in the fire region was unprecedented in data going back to 1950. Lewis said: “Temperature is a very important aspect in the forest fire danger index and we really do think that the enhanced temperatures is what differentiated that 2018 event from previous years.” The study found that the November temperatures in the Queensland region affected by the fire were more than four times more likely to occur because of human-caused climate change. The study co-authors included scientists from the Bureau of Meteorology and the University of Melbourne. The study says: “The 2018 conditioning heatwave event was more severe and persistent than previous analogues, with no event of this scale previously occurring at such northerly locations. “Events that are unprecedented in a given region, such as the 2018 event, reveal that firefighting preparation and training cannot rely on previous events as guidance for the most dangerous conditions they can expect in the current and future climate where large-scale fires occur more regularly.” Lewis said the study found that human-caused climate change had probably also influenced the drier spring conditions in the area affected by the fires, but this link was much less pronounced. The Queensland government responded with a recovery plan after the fires, using $30m from a joint commonwealth and state funded disaster recovery scheme. Some 4,202 fire personnel, including more than 100 from interstate, responded to the fires at their peak – the largest firefighting response in Queensland’s history. More than 14,000 people were asked to evacuate. In October, the National Environmental Science Programme released new scientific guidance on bushfires, stating that human-caused climate change had “already resulted in more dangerous weather conditions for bushfires in recent decades for many regions of Australia”. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions would further accelerate the trends towards more dangerous conditions, the guidance said. Two studies published in recent months – one in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and another in Scientific Reports – have found that climate change will increase the risk of the most extreme bushfires. These pyrocumulonimbus fires – named after the clouds they create – can push hot air many kilometres up, creating their own unpredictable winds, storms and lightning, presenting a dangerous challenge for firefighters. | ['environment/series/environmental-investigations', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-11-13T01:20:36Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2017/oct/01/carmen-yulin-cruz-mayor-puerto-rico-donald-trump | Carmen Yulín Cruz: San Juan's outspoken mayor in Donald Trump's crosshairs | With her city in near ruins, and facing the most profound crisis of her political career, San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz made it clear she had no patience for, or interest in, a personal row with Donald Trump. “I have no time for distractions. All I have is time for people to move forward,” she told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Saturday morning. “This isn’t about me, this isn’t about anyone. This is about lives that are being lost. This is a time where everyone shows her true colors.” Trump showed his the next day, referring in a tweet to “politically motivated ingrates” who have criticised his response in Puerto Rico’s hour of need. According to those who know her, Cruz certainly seems to be showing hers: as a no-nonsense leader with a talent for empathy to match. “She goes head first, chest first. She’s not going to let anybody do what she’s not willing to do,” said Luis Vega, a legislator in the US territory’s house of representatives. “She has no patience for red tape and that’s what we need right now,” Vega added. Now the two-term mayor has become perhaps the most visible communicator of the commonwealth’s challenges in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island leaving virtually all of its residents without electricity and access to drinkable water and food. “What we are going to see is something close to a genocide,” Cruz said of what many have decried as a delayed and inadequate response to the urgent humanitarian needs of the island. “Mr Trump, I am begging you to take charge and save lives,” she added, pleading for a more robust federal response. Trump, as he has tended to during his brief political career, took Cruz’s comments personally and on Saturday morning responded via Twitter, decrying Cruz’s “poor leadership” and accusing her of being “nasty to Trump”. “I was asking for help. I wasn’t saying anything nasty about the president,” Cruz retorted. Cruz was a late, surprise candidate in the 2012 election but won handily, defeating a three-term incumbent to become San Juan’s third female mayor. The mainland political action group Our Revolution described her election as “the result of a grassroots effort which united in an unprecedented alliance groups which have traditionally been excluded from the democratic process”. Born in San Juan in 1963, Cruz has been a leader and a competitor since childhood. President of her high school student council, Cruz set track and field records as a teen before she went to the mainland US for college in the 1980s. In 2012, Cruz ran on a platform that emphasized progressive change on issues of gender equality, LGBT and disabled rights, and a municipal plan for universal healthcare. Citizen participation has been at the core of her administration, and the city has begun trialling a participatory budgeting process since she’s been in office. Cruz is a member of the centrist/centre-left Popular Democratic party, which favors Puerto Rico retaining that relationship with the mainland US, as opposed to full independence or statehood as other political parties advocate. In 2016 she dedicated her election win to Oscar López Rivera, a controversial figure in Puerto Rican politics, and a former member of a radical Puerto Rican independence group that committed several terrorist attacks on the mainland during the 1970s. “She’s a feisty one. I’m her friend and her ally and I’ve also fought with her because we’re both very opinionated,” Vega said. “I’ve never ever been prouder of her.” She was no stranger to the mayor’s office when she was elected in 2012. Cruz spent 20 years in Puerto Rican politics before her run, starting off with a stint as an adviser to Mayor Héctor Luis Acevedo in 1992. Before that Cruz spent 12 years on the mainland, much of that time at Boston University and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. There she was the first student to win the “spirit award” now presented annually to “the student with the greatest positive impact on the quality of life of their peers”. “She is a force of nature,” Jon Nehlsen, an associate dean at the school told the Pittsburgh Gazette. “She’s probably not 5ft 2in, but she’s this ball of energy, very charismatic. You can just tell she exudes leadership qualities.” A bit of that was on display at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, which is being used as a staging ground for relief efforts, on Friday. With tears in her eyes, Cruz greeted a stream of residents warmly, but was also candid about her frustrations with how the recovery efforts had been going so far. She hadn’t eaten lunch until 3.30pm, just before she delivered the speech that ultimately drew Trump’s ire. But there’s little reason to believe that Cruz will adjust her tack in light of Trump’s tweets. “I am done being polite,” she said on Friday. “I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell, so I am asking the members of the press to send a mayday call all over the world.” | ['us-news/puerto-rico', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/hurricane-maria', 'world/hurricane-jose', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/profiles', 'tone/news', 'profile/jamiles-lartey', 'profile/amanda-holpuch', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-10-01T14:31:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
lifeandstyle/2016/jan/06/tom-daley-frying-pan-master-pan | Kitchen gadgets review: the Master Pan – Tom Daley can’t be wrong | What? The Master Pan, Lakeland, £59.99 is a segmented cast-aluminium pan with heavy-gauge baseplate. Regulated heat distribution cooks multiple foods simultaneously. Why? A breakfast fit for kings requires a pan fit for champions. Well? Give us this day our Daley bread, four sausages, bacon and eggs. Olympic diver Tom Daley made history this week by Instagramming a picture of himself cooking a full English breakfast in a single, compartmentalised pan. People went nuts. The picture of the buff baby-man pointing at bacon was liked more than 47,000 times. (Think about that. If the spirit of Gaia came to you in a dream and revealed how to reverse climate change, as well as seven amazing tips to get rid of belly fat, you would probably get less than 10 likes for it.) Personally, I’m not sure this maverick breakfast paddle is worth a hill o’ beans – so I am recreating the photographed breakfast to find out. The Master Pan is certainly striking. Its grid looks like a food sudoku, which Daley has effed up by putting eggs in twice. And that’s not counting the ones in the pot. Scrambled and boiled eggs for breakfast? Way to make your arteries say “Oeuf!” (Is that gag borne out by dietary evidence? Omelette you decide!) Rather than straddling two hobs, the pan uses a central baseplate to conduct thermal energy. The griddle in the middle has the heat for the meat, while, er, the outside trays have less. Or none at all; debate raged online about the pan’s inefficiency. The glory of Twitter is that if enough people grill a celebrity about cookware, eventually they have to respond. “It cooks everything at different heats, so it all finishes,” was Daley’s optimistic reply to the suggestion that cooking at different heats would give him a parasite infection. In my test, residual heat from cooking the sausages properly scrambled the eggs too quickly. Other problems included bean splash on my bacon. Frankly, the end product looks like a prison meal, waiting to be slid through a hatch. But damn it, I can’t look at Daley, his face like an angelic marmoset, and judge the pan poorly. Maybe the makers are relying on that? Perhaps this pic – as adorable as it is viral – is all part of their Master Plan? Any downside? A problem, shared with skinny jeans, is lack of space to stir my beans. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? Cupboard. It may be a Daley treat but don’t go overboard. 2/5 | ['food/breakfast', 'technology/gadgets', 'lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/technology', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-01-06T12:38:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
uk-news/2016/mar/17/french-government-edf-united-front-hinkley-point-money-nuclear-plant-union | France agrees bailout for EDF to proceed with Hinkley Point C | The French government has promised a financial bailout for cash-strapped energy group EDF so that it can proceed with the £18bn plan to build the first nuclear reactors in Britain for 20 years. France’s economics minister, Emmanuel Macron, said it would be a mistake for the 85% state-owned company not to build a new Hinkley Point C power plant in Somerset and he would ensure it happened. “If there is a need to recapitalise (EDF), we will,” he said during a visit to a nuclear power station at Civaux in midwestern France. “If there needs to be a further waiver of dividends (from EDF to government), we will.” Flanked by Jean-Bernard Lévy, the EDF chief executive under fire from French unions and his own former finance director, Macron added: “If you believe in nuclear, you cannot say that you will not participate in the biggest nuclear project in the world. Not doing Hinkley Point would be a mistake.” The promise of aid will infuriate British anti-nuclear campaigners but bring relief to the British government, which has billed Hinkley as a vital part of its move to a lower-carbon and secure energy system. Lévy raised the pressure on the French government last week by writing to EDF staff promising not to build the reactors in Britain unless he received more state help to ease the group’s creaking balance sheet. The government had already promised to take more shares in EDF, rather than cash payments, for a short time but is now indicating it could stretch this out further as Lévy wants. There is also speculation the government is willing to use the state bank CDC as a buyer for a half share in EDF’s power transmission operation, another way of helping the energy group. The minister’s public support for EDF came as the French CGT union repeated its calls for him to shelve the £18bn Somerset scheme, which it fears will lead to more job losses in France. “It will jeopardise the company. We are not saying don’t do it but it must be delayed. It’s too premature,” a spokesman for the union, Sébastien Menesplier, told Reuters as CGT members jeered Macron at Civaux. The union, which has seats on the EDF board, has said for some time that the energy group cannot afford to proceed with the plants in Britain until EDF finances are strengthened. The CGT’s hand was bolstered by the resignation last week of EDF’s finance director, Thomas Piquemal, who had put similar arguments to Lévy. Macron and the French government have always been supportive of EDF’s Hinkley plans. They see the project as an important opportunity to market the country’s new European pressurised reactor (EPR) design and support local engineering jobs. There have also been reports that state-owned bank CDC might even be asked to take a minority stake in Hinkley. The project is meant to be financed two-thirds by EDF and one-third by Chinese partners. The scheme is ultimately to be funded by British energy consumers under a controversial and generous subsidy arrangement agreed with the Treasury. Many in the City have said the scheme does not make financial sense for Britain – or for EDF. One analyst last week called the plan “insane”. Hinkley will rise to the top of the British political agenda next week with confirmation that Vincent de Rivaz, boss of EDF’s UK arm, will be forced to answer critics of the nuclear project at a parliamentary committee meeting. The energy and climate change committee has called EDF, and other energy companies planning to build reactors in the UK, to give evidence on the future of the nuclear industry on Wednesday. Angus MacNeil MP, who chairs the committee, said: “The government is counting on new nuclear to supply a significant proportion of the UK’s demand for low-carbon baseload power in future. “The focus right now is on Hinkley Point C but there are other important projects in the pipeline. Serious questions are being raised about the cost and viability of the Hinkley project and the value for money for taxpayers.” There has been widespread criticism of the generous subsidy arrangement agreed between the Treasury and EDF. Some analysts in the City of London have criticised the Hinkley project because the company has been promised a subsidy level – ultimately paid for through bills to energy consumers – that is double the current cost of wholesale electricity. The government insists it is a good deal because the future price of power will rise and many existing coal, nuclear and even gas plants are closing down. | ['uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'business/edf', 'business/energy-industry', 'uk/uk', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'world/france', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-03-17T19:26:54Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2010/mar/18/viacom-youtube-documents | Viacom courted YouTube before launching $1bn piracy lawsuit | American media conglomerate Viacom considered buying YouTube just months before it launched a $1bn (£655m) piracy lawsuit against the video sharing site, according to court documents. Files released today by a US court suggest that the television giant - which owns channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central - had considered purchasing YouTube in 2006 in what executives said could prove a "transformative acquisition". That deal was scotched when YouTube was bought later that year by internet leviathan Google for $1.65bn - shortly before Viacom launched its billion-dollar lawsuit accusing YouTube of "massive intentional copyright infringement". The claims have come to light after the US court hearing the case unsealed hundreds of documents as it prepares to make a ruling on Viacom's claims. Lawyers have been arguing the case, which experts say could redefine the relationship between media and internet companies, behind closed doors since 2007 - but the court's move has made the astonishing revelations from both sides public for the first time. Viacom's case hinges around the accusation that the video sharing site's founders - Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim - knew that copyright infringement was taking place, deliberately encouraged it and then failed to act properly when asked by rights holders. In one filing, Viacom quotes an email from Chen who tells his colleagues to "concentrate all our efforts in building up our numbers as aggressively as we can through whatever tactics, however evil". The company also submitted evidence showing that Karim was among those who had submitted videos that infringed on the copyright of its owners - and that his colleagues were aware of the situation. YouTube has consistently rejected the accusations, however, suggesting that it does not encourage illegal activity and that US copyright law means that it does have to police every uploaded to its servers. It says that Viacom's evidence is largely used out of context - and that the entire court case could even be an outbreak of sour grapes. One filing by YouTube suggests that Viacom had seriously entertained the possibility of buying the website in 2006, referring to an internal Viacom presentation which said that "we believe YouTube would make a transformative acquisition for MTV Networks/Viacom that would immediately make us the leading deliverer of video online, globally". It is not clear how serious this proposal was at the time. In addition, YouTube argues that not only did Viacom "routinely" take the step of deliberately leaving pirated clips from ordinary users on the site because of their promotional value, but that it actually put up videos on YouTube - often surreptitiously. "For years Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there," said Zahavah Levine, YouTube's chief counsel, in a blog post published today. "It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately 'roughed up' the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses." Faced with underground marketing efforts which had the stated aim of making video "look hijacked" in order to make sure it would "leak on YouTube", the site argues that it could never have been expected to accurately gauge whether or not had permission to post videos online. Under American copyright law, internet service providers and websites are not directly responsible for the actions of their users and it is the duty of copyright holders to request that pirated versions of their be taken offline. However, the situation has become more complex in recent years with the advent of widespread file sharing and systems that make it easier to share copyrighted content without permission. In the seminal Betamax case of 1984, a judge found that home video taping was legal because the technology could be used for legal purposes and not just piracy. But in 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled against file sharing site Grokster - whose lawyers had argued their case on the same basis - because it found that the company had deliberately encouraged users to infringe copyright. Since launching in 2005, YouTube has become the world's most popular video website - garning hundreds of millions of users worldwide and having 20 hours of video uploaded to its system every minute. A final ruling from US district court judge Louis Stanton, who is hearing the case, is not expected for several months. | ['technology/youtube', 'media/media', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/piracy', 'film/piracy', 'media/television', 'tone/news', 'law/law', 'technology/technology', 'media/viacom', 'type/article', 'profile/bobbiejohnson'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-03-18T19:23:49Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/jul/03/nuclear-energy-wind-power-poll | Nuclear more popular than gas but wind blows both away | Damian Carrington | Decision time is fast approaching for the UK's big energy and climate change choices, from how the government can keep companies interested in building new nuclear power stations to how quickly subsidies for new renewable technologies should taper down. So it's good to get a reminder of what the British people actually want, courtesy of a YouGov opinion poll, paid for by EDF. EDF, of course, is the nuclear giant 83% owned by the French state and just about the only serious nuclear power player left in the UK. But most of the questions asked were straight, although there were no questions on cost or energy efficiency. What the polling shows is that while nuclear power has survived a small dip in popularity following the Fukushima disaster, it remains short of an absolute majority. Wind power, in contrast, does. Those polled were asked "how favourable or unfavourable are your overall opinions or impressions of the following energy sources for producing electricity currently?" In June 2012, 40% were very or mainly favourable about nuclear power, compared to 36% shortly after Fukushima and 43% in 2008. Those expressing very or mainly unfavourable opinions on nuclear made up 27% of the poll in June, down from 34% after the Japanese catastrophe, and almost the same as the 28% in 2008. These results echo previous polls that showed the "Fukushima effect" was far more toxic in boardrooms - with companies such as RWE, E.on and Siemens pulling out of nuclear - than in people's living rooms. EDF's poll only asked about one renewable technology, wind power, but found it far more favourably regarded than nuclear, gas or coal. Favourable opinions were given by 58% of people in June, compared to 18% giving unfavourable opinions. But more striking is the drop in support for wind - it was 75% favourable in 2008 - and the polarisation of opinion - unfavourable opinion was 9% in 2008. Again, this is backed up by other recent polling, such as the Guardian/ICM poll in March. (I have blamed the lack of community ownership for drop in support). EDF then decides to probe the "disadvantages" that "all methods of electricity generation have." It is noticeable that nuclear is not seen as the best option in dealing with any of the eight disadvantages mentioned. Price volatility is seen as a problem for gas (65%) but less so for nuclear (22%) and wind (15%). Nuclear predictably scores worst for safety, waste disposal and vulnerability to terrorist attack, with about 75% of people identifying these as disadvantages. Wind does worst on "spoils the landscape" and "does not work continously all the time". As regular readers will know, I think the first is an honest objection which also requires an honest acceptance to pay more for alternatives to onshore wind turbines. The intermittency issue is easily dealt with as, for example, demonstrated by Denmark. The disadvantage of "dangerous pollution" is an interesting one: 52% of people identify this as a problem for nuclear, clearly thinking of radioactive leaks rather the more important lack of carbon emissions. A smaller number, 43%, labelled gas as having the disadvantage of "dangerous pollution", despite its relatively high output of climate-warming carbon dioxide. The last findings I will highlight are, firstly, that 60% of people say they are aware that the closure of dirty and ageing coal and nuclear plants means the UK needs to fill an energy gap later this decade. Again people prefer wind over nuclear and both over gas. Secondly, 6% of people say they "have heard about the government's energy reform plans and and understand them well", while 33% say they have heard of them but don't really understand them. The rest, 61%, haven't heard of them at all. So what does all of the above add up to? For me, it is that people clearly understand the benefits of renewable energy and the problems of nuclear and fossil fuel power. Yet the government's current track, with its "dash for gas", desire for nuclear at apparently any price and lack of focus on cutting energy demand, seems significantly out of line with the electorate. Note: The polling was performed for EDF by YouGov. The total sample size was 4,009 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken 15-18 June 2012. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults aged 18+. I will link to the full data once is it posted online. | ['environment/damian-carrington-blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2012-07-03T09:40:25Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2014/may/31/californian-fire-fighters-braced-for-long-hot-busy-summer | California's fire fighters are braced for a long, hot - and busy - summer | Fire Helicopter One skimmed over the roofs of Fullerton, rotors whumping, and banked east, crossing the 91 freeway into a national park which from a distance appeared lush and green. Scudding between two canyons, however, you could see it was brown scrub – a desolate vista of parched grass and stunted vegetation covering steep slopes. "In a normal year these hills would be covered with brilliant yellow and purple wildflowers," said David Lopez, pointing out of the cockpit window. "But because of the drought it's completely dry." He shook his head. "It wouldn't take much for this place to go up." Lopez, a fire captain with more than 20 years' experience combating blazes in southern California, is bracing for a long, hot summer. A three-year drought has created tinderbox conditions across much of the American west. "I've seen flames move faster than a truck. Embers can fly across a highway and ignite the other side. In one hour a fire can go from one acre to a thousand." A fire torched thousands of acres in Arizona last week days after about a dozen wildfires fuelled by strong winds and record temperatures flared across southern California. Cooler temperatures, when they come, may bring limited respite: climate change has altered seasonal rhythms so that wildfires can, and do, erupt in winter. California's fire season was now two months longer than a decade ago, requiring thousands of additional firefighters and year-round mobilisation, governor Jerry Brown said last week. Humanity was on a collision course with nature and California was in the frontline despite state efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he warned. "In the meantime, all we can do is fight all these damn fires." Lopez, 51, and his team of pilots at the Orange County fire authority base in Fullerton, like other helicopter units around the country, are often the first to reach blazes in remote, rugged terrain. On a good day, they extinguish a fire before it spreads. On a bad day all they can do is try to steer it. "We want to get out there real quickly and keep it small by attacking it with overwhelming force," he said. "If it's too late for that we try to drive it in the direction we want it to go. It's kind of like herding cattle." Being buffeted by heat, smoke and wind as you hover 50ft over a conflagration, waiting for just the right moment and angle to unleash 360 gallons of water, and then returning to do it again and again, affords a unique perspective on wildfires. "It's a lot like war. The theories come from war fighting: massing of forces, anchoring and flanking, attacking when the enemy is weak," said Lopez, as the helicopter overflew ridges ravaged by fire last December, in the depth of supposed winter. Jim Davidson, 67, seated at the controls of the Bell 412 twin-engine, nodded. He flew Hueys for the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. "Same principle. You're moving people, assets. The conditions are extreme. You're trying to defeat the enemy." Twice Davidson has helped save imperilled ground crews. "They were going to be hot dogs in a bun," he said, recalling a crew surrounded by the 2007 Santiago fire. The flames had cut their hose, leaving them without water and means of escape. A 19-strong elite "Hotshot" crew battling the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona last June was not so lucky. All died, making it the deadliest day for any US fire department since 9/11. The federal forest service and the state service, Cal Fire, have fleets of planes and helicopters, but counties such as Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern keep their own fleets. Often they are called out to rescue hikers or mountain bikers – or horses, in a recent rescue conducted by Lopez's team – but their main task is quenching fires. Two of Orange County's four helicopters are souped-up ex-army Hueys from Vietnam; the others are more modern Bells. Each has a 360-gallon water tank. A hose known as a snorkel enables them to refill in just 40 seconds – often from reservoirs or golf course lakes. Night vision goggles let the Orange County pilots operate at night, a novelty, and iPads with mapping software let them send photographs and coordinates from the air to ground colleagues. Power lines pose a grave danger, especially when obscured by smoke. "I hate them. They're my worst enemy," said Davidson. Another risk is collision from other aircraft clustered around a fire zone, requiring what commanders call "ballet in the air". A long-term hazard, in addition to a heating planet, is economic development. Criss-cross the county at 1,000ft and it is striking how many bulldozers are carving out foundations for roads and houses in previously uninhabited wilderness areas – multiplying the lives and property to be defended. Lopez pointed out homes in remote beauty spots – many of them mansions with swimming pools – beside trees. Lovely for shade and a leafy view but a disaster waiting to happen, said the fire captain. "We just look at that as fuel." Laguna Beach, a wealthy area which lost 400 homes in a 1993 fire, has adapted: few of the rebuilt homes abut trees, and herds of goats curb hillside vegetation. "Some people have learned the lesson," said Davidson, looking down. "Some have not." | ['world/wildfires', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'weather/usa', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-05-31T11:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
weather/2009/mar/31/weatherwatch-weather | Weatherwatch: Australia, Madagascar, Mozambique and the Arabian peninsula | Tropical cyclone Jasper developed in the Coral Sea north-east of Australia early last week, producing heavy rain in New Caledonia on Tuesday. Nouméa, the capital city, was deluged with 139mm, exacerbating floods provoked by downpours through the previous weekend. Southern Madagascar felt the ferocity of tropical cyclone Izilda, a slow-moving storm that peaked last Thursday while churning westwards across the Mozambique Channel. Steady winds of 63mph were recorded, with much higher gusts and torrential rain. Izilda weakened as it approached Mozambique but Niassa province in the north-west of the country has still been deluged by the downpours that affected much of southern Africa. Zambia and Namibia continue to experience their worst flooding for about 40 years as rains swell the Zambezi river to record levels. Since Wednesday the northern and eastern Arabian peninsula has also seen bursts of heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms and squally winds. A weak cold front settled across the eastern Gulf, given a new lease of life by the energy from hot southerly winds across the United Arab Emirates and Oman. This produced some fierce thunderstorms, large hail, flash floods and violent squalls on Thursday, tearing up trees and damaging homes. During the weekend low pressure settled over Iraq, sparking off storms around the Gulf and across Iran and Iraq, and by Monday 12 people had been killed in the UAE. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-03-30T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2009/dec/14/eu-carbon-trading-fraud | European taxpayers lose €5bn in carbon trading fraud | The European Union has probably lost at least €5bn (£4.5bn) to VAT fraud related to carbon trading and there is a risk that the criminals will now shift their attention to Europe's electricity and gas markets, according to Europol. The news will cause further embarrassment for European governments negotiating at the Copenhagen climate summit and trying to persuade other parts of the world to sign up to carbon trading as a way of reducing emissions. The Guardian recently revealed that the Danish government had been forced, on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, to rush through an emergency law making it impossible for criminal gangs to reclaim huge amounts of VAT on fraudulent trades they were making on Europe's various carbon exchanges. At the time, the Danes refused to estimate how much money the fraud cost them but now Europol, the EU's law enforcement operation, has estimated an approximate cost of the fraud on carbon trading. This was mainly carried out over the summer before Britain, France and the Netherlands – home to big exchanges – changed their VAT rules to stop criminal activity. Europol has now set up a specific project to collect and analyse information to identify and disrupt the organised criminal structures behind these fraud schemes. Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol, says "These criminal activities endanger the credibility of the European Union Emission Trading System and lead to the loss of significant tax revenue for governments. Europol is using its expertise and information capabilities to help target the organised crime groups involved". "There are reasons to believe that fraudsters might soon migrate towards the gas and electricity branches of the energy sector," said Europol. A spokesman added that the organisation had no specific evidence that Europe's huge markets for electricity and gas have yet been targeted, but said the markets were so similar to that for carbon that the link in the criminals' minds would be obvious. The fraud involves a criminal registering to be able to trade carbon permits in the ETS. Most of these registrations have taken place in Denmark where the rules are slackest. The criminal then starts buying carbon permits in one EU country from another, free of VAT, then sells them on with the VAT added. But instead of passing the VAT on to the relevant tax authority, he disappears without trace, hence the name "missing trader" fraud. In its more sophisticated form, groups of fraudsters in different countries will send carbon permits round a circuit between various countries, reclaiming VAT repeatedly before the ruse is discovered, by which time they are long gone. This led to a big spike in trading volume last summer, particularly on exchanges in the UK, France and Netherlands, which subsequently moved to change their VAT laws so VAT was not payable along with the trading charge. Trading volumes have since fallen dramatically. The French authorities last week arrested four people suspected of engaging in a €156m carbon carousel fraud on France's Bluenext exchange. | ['environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'business/utilities', 'world/denmark', 'tone/news', 'world/europe-news', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/ashleyseager', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2009-12-14T17:06:50Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2017/jan/19/melbourne-trams-to-be-solar-powered-under-andrews-government-proposal | Melbourne trams to be solar-powered under Andrews government proposal | Melbourne’s tram network will become entirely solar-powered under a proposal by the Andrews government to build large-scale solar farms in northern Victoria. The proposal, announced on Thursday, is part of a plan to reduce Victoria’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Tenders to build and operate 75MW of new solar farms will be released in early 2017 and the first solar power plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The environment and energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said 35MW of the generating power of the new solar plants would be dedicated to running Melbourne’s tram network, which would reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80,000 tonnes a year. “We will use our purchasing power as a large energy consumer to boost investment in renewables and create new jobs for Victorians,” D’Ambrosio said. “We’re positioning Victoria as a leader in climate change, by reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts.” D’Ambrosio said the project would deliver $150m in capital expenditure to regional Victoria and create 300 jobs. The Greens welcomed the move to solar-powered trams, saying it matched a Greens policy announced in 2015, but said it was hypocritical of the Andrews government to promote large-scale solar while cutting solar feed-in tariffs. The minimum solar feed-in tariff was reduced from 6.2 cents a kilowatt hour to five cents a kilowatt hour on 1 January. “It’s some pretty mixed messages that we’re seeing from the Andrews government when it comes renewables, including the fact that we’re supposed to have a plan on what to do with the coal industry by the end of last year and that hasn’t materialised,” the Greens MP Ellen Sandell said. D’Ambrosio said the reduction was a hangover from the previous Coalition government, and the feed-in tariff would increase by up to 20% on the current rate from 1 July. Environment Victoria’s chief executive, Mark Wakefield, said there was symbolic power in having the tram network, which is one of the most recognisable features of Melbourne, powered by renewable energy. “I would love to see the train network also powered by renewable energy,” he said. It comes six months after the Andrews government approved the construction of two windfarms in north-west Victoria, the 30MW Kiata windfarm, 50km north-west of Horsham, and the 66MW Mt Gellibrand windfarm, 17km west of Winchelsea. The proposal follows the announcement in November that the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in Gippsland, which had produced up to 25% of Victoria’s electricity, would close. The owners of that plant, Engie, are also investigating the possible sale of Loy Yang B coal fire power station in the Latrobe valley, which produces 17% of Victoria’s power. According to a 2015 government report on Victoria’s renewable energy targets, just 12% of Victoria’s electricity supply in 2014 was renewable, while 84% came from coal. | ['australia-news/melbourne', 'australia-news/victorian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'politics/transport', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-01-19T06:47:40Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2009/mar/13/indian-premier-league-security-clearance-denied | Cricket: India's home ministry has withheld security clearance for the Indian Premier League | India's home ministry has withheld security clearance for the IPL (Indian Premier League) despite the tournament's organisers submitting a revised schedule that took into account increased security fears after the recent terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team. The home ministry told IPL officials it "may not be feasible to play matches as per the submitted schedule" due to a shortage of central security forces, which would be busy with the country's general elections at the same time. The IPL is scheduled to be held from 10 April to 24 May, while the elections for the Indian parliament's lower house will take place across the country in five different phases between 16 April and 13 May. The tournament organisers had altered their original match schedule after the federal interior minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, cited security problems due to the clash between the elections and the IPL. Even the revised match schedule, which sought to keep matches away from a city or state on the polling dates there, did not secure the home ministry's approval. After a video conference involving the interior ministry and senior police officials of seven states that are scheduled to host matches, the home ministry asked IPL officials to again redraw the schedule. "IPL organisers have been advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw up a revised schedule and submit the same to the home ministry," a statement of the interior ministry said. The IPL commissioner, Lalit Modi, said he was prepared to adjust the schedule so it satisfied all security agencies. "We'll announce a new schedule soon," said Modi, whose team of officials is now expected to meet top security officials to sort out the problems. IPL officials are keen to stick to the same timeframe as it might not be possible to find another slot for the six-week event in the crowded international calendar. | ['sport/ipl', 'sport/cricket', 'world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/sport', 'tone/news', 'type/article'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-13T13:03:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2023/aug/24/solar-and-windfarm-investment-is-drying-up-and-australia-needs-a-wake-up-call-on-the-future-of-the-electricity-grid | Solar and windfarm investment is drying up – and Australia needs a wake-up call on the future of the electricity grid | Adam Morton | This week should be a wake-up call on the future of the electricity grid, but we seem in danger of collectively drawing the wrong conclusions about which way to go. The main problem is straightforward – investment in large-scale solar and windfarms has dried up to next-to-nothing just as it is supposed to be moving into overdrive. According to a report by the Clean Energy Council on Wednesday, in the three months to the end of June investors made financial commitments on only four renewable energy projects. And these projects are not particularly big, adding up to just 348 megawatts of new capacity – a fraction of one coal power plant. This is not a one-off. The first three months of the year were even worse. It’s the slowest start to a year since the council started recording this data in 2017. This has obvious ramifications, including putting targets for renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction in doubt, if not out of reach. It also increases the risk of the electricity grid failing unless decisive steps are taken to address the slump. At the moment, there is little sign that is happening. If anything, the focus is in the opposite direction. In New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that a “reality check” commissioned by the Minns Labor government advised it to negotiate with the owner of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal plant, to extend its life beyond its planned closure date in two years. By any measure, this is a ridiculous situation for the state to find itself in. Eraring is 40 years old, ready for decommissioning, and it is expected it will cost hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to prop it up a little longer. A broadly similar scenario is playing out in Victoria. In 2021, the Andrews government made a deal to keep the Yallourn brown coal generator open until 2028. This week it announced an agreement to ensure another plant, Loy Yang A, remains available until mid-2035. These deals will cost taxpayers an undisclosed, but presumably substantial, sum. There is an argument that these decisions are now unavoidable. We obviously can’t shut coal plants before replacement generation is ready, and it’s possible some generators should be kept on the books to be switched on only if needed. In Victoria’s case, it’s at least tied to a goal of 95% renewable energy – and, therefore, no coal – by 2035. But it’s notable how much political and media discussion is focused on the risks of moving past coal, and not the solutions that can speed up an inevitable transformation needed to address the climate crisis. The idea that renewable energy is not up to doing the job persists no matter what the evidence says, or how often it’s presented. No one is building new coal power plants in Australia, and most recent problems in the grid were caused by outages at old coal units, not solar or windfarms. The risk of that repeating grows the longer they run. As challenging as the rollout is, we have the technology to replace them more rapidly. The move to clean energy is faltering due to governments and public agencies, not because the machinery can’t do the job. The biggest government failure has been well documented. For nearly a decade, the federal Coalition tried to slow or block the shift away from fossil fuels, and made any serious climate policy political poison. It deserves much of the blame for the disorderly transition happening now. But there are other deeply ingrained problems. They include the idea that the market will drive the shift to a renewables-dominated system just because solar and wind energy generation is cheaper than fossil fuels. Labor came to power attached to this thinking. It was backed by a report by the consultants RepuTex that suggested the country would reach 82% renewable energy by 2030 if the government offered $20bn in low-cost finance for the private sector to build electricity transmission lines. We now have evidence that this isn’t going to be enough. The scale of what’s being attempted is massive – a near complete rebuild of the power grid. Just as the existing grid was mostly built and managed by governments before being privatised, the rebuild will need clearer direction from the top to succeed. The only credible option that can rapidly cut emissions is a system that runs on solar and wind plus back-up – batteries, inter-regional transmission, pumped hydro and, initially at least, some fast-start gas plants. Despite what the Coalition and its backers claim, there is plenty of evidence this mix can provide what is needed, and there are no available or affordable alternatives. The Albanese government and most states have started down the renewables-plus-firming path to varying degrees, but it’s a messy picture. What’s missing is a policy that acknowledges that the energy transition is a race – to meet science-based climate targets and ensure there is enough new generation to replace coal plants ASAP, but also to win an increasingly competitive battle for global clean industry investment. Last year’s US Inflation Reduction Act kicked that into overdrive. What’s needed, badly, is something that drags large-scale renewable energy into the system faster. Options could include a revamped renewable energy target, an expanded safeguard mechanism that effectively puts a carbon price on coal energy, and a front-loaded underwriting program. It would need to run alongside a plan to streamline the construction of transmissions links, including an evolving assessment of where they should and shouldn’t be built, factoring in cost blowouts and local concerns. A more concerted effort to improve energy efficiency to cut how much grid electricity we use and limit power bill increases wouldn’t hurt, either. The climate and economic benefits would be significant. They could include avoiding having to spend wads of cash propping up a dying, polluting industry – a step that, presumably, everyone can get behind. • Adam Morton is Guardian Australia’s climate and environment editor | ['environment/series/clear-air', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'tone/comment', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-08-23T23:31:17Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2015/sep/24/global-goals-climate-change-2c-development-finance-emissions-trading | Global goals can deliver on 2C and new development finance – here's how | Owen Barder, Alex Evans and Alice Lépissier | What if there were an affordable programme to prevent catastrophic climate change and provide the finance that developing countries need to end poverty by 2030? With summits this week on the sustainable development goals and in December on climate change, this year marks the most significant push on the world’s biggest challenges since 2005, the year of the G8 meeting at Gleneagles and the UN world summit. It’s sobering to compare then with now. A decade ago, big ideas were on the table: timetables for donors to reach 0.7% of national income on overseas development assistance (ODA); cancellation of all debt to the World Bank and IMF; a development trade round. Today, by contrast, it’s like watching tumbleweed roll across the desert. The Addis Ababa finance for development summit agreed on next to nothing to deliver the SDGs; tomorrow’s gathering in New York is unlikely to do much better. On climate, meanwhile, no one (including Christiana Figueres, the head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) believes a 2C deal is in prospect. But what if there were a big idea that could achieve both? Our starting point is to recognise that we won’t stabilise the climate until we base global climate policy on a binding, global “emissions budget”, which covers all countries and declines over time to keep the world on course for warming of less than two degrees’ celsius. Since long before the Copenhagen summit in 2009, climate negotiators have fought shy of recognising the need to do this – based on the belief that it would be politically and economically impossible. We weren’t so sure. We built an economic model – “SkyShares” – to tell us what the cost implications of a safe global emissions budget would be for every country, in every year, for the next two centuries (the first time, as far as we know, that this work has been done). Although SkyShares will give you costings for any set of assumptions you wish to set, we chose some sensible starting points for our reference scenario. First, we assumed that permits would be shared out on the basis of equal per capita entitlements, with countries able to emit in proportion to their population (the “contraction and convergence” approach first proposed by the Global Commons Institute). Our reasoning here was that we couldn’t imagine how else to share out the most basic common property resource there is: the sky. Nor could we imagine most countries agreeing to anything other than equal shares. Second, we assumed that countries could use emissions trading. Recent experiments in this area, such as the EU emissions trading scheme or the clean development mechanism, have got a bad name, and rightly so given how full of loopholes they’ve been. But if emissions trading were to take place within a safe emissions budget – as it would under our approach – then this problemwouldn’t arise. (We also assumed that countries only make use of emissions trading when it makes economic sense to do so.) We were pleasantly surprised by what SkyShares found, for two reasons. First, because it turns out to be far more affordable for high emitters than we dared hope: under our reference scenario, high-income countries would face net costs of just 0.56% of gross domestic product a year in 2025 and 1.45% in 2030. True, these costs are substantial. But we are, after all, talking about the price tag for the biggest economic transition since the industrial revolution, with numerous high emitting assets being retired early. What’s more, having a liquid global emissions trading market makes the transition cheaper for all countries – far more so than if they all met their emissions targets solely through decarbonisation at home. Economists across the board agree we need to put a price on carbon. An emissions trading scheme that sits within a safe global emissions budget not only achieves that, but by design ensures that the world stabilises greenhouse gas concentrations in the air at a safe level. Our second key finding was that emissions trading becomes a new source of development finance. As soon as 2025, low- and lower-middle income countries could make $416bn (£273bn) a year from emissions trading – more than three times as much as total current aid spending. What’s more, these flows would have an inbuilt prioritisation towards least developed countries – the ones with least access to alternative sources of development finance like FDI, remittances, or tax revenue – for the simple reason that they are invariably the lowest per capita emitters and hence those who would have the most spare emission permits to sell. We take policymakers at their word when they say they want to end poverty by 2030 at the same time as stabilising the climate through an economic transformation of unprecedented scale and speed. It can be done, but only if we’re willing to think about truly big ideas. This is one of them. Alice Lépissier is a former research associate at the Center for Global Development, where she developed the SkyShares climate change tool for policymakers | ['global-development/sustainable-development-summit-2015', 'global-development/sustainable-development-goals', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/series/financing-for-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/emissionstrading', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/owen-barder', 'profile/alexevans'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-09-24T12:46:32Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
money/blog/2012/feb/03/feed-in-tariffs-solar-power | Solar panel sharks in tariff frenzy | Patrick Collinson | Is the roof-top solar panel industry nice, green and eco-cuddly – or no better than a bunch of double-glazing sales sharks? This week a colleague received a call from a solar panel company promising that after the industry's court victory against the government, she could now pick up the juicy 43.3p per kWh feed-in tariff for generating electricity. She was told it made installing a system on her south-facing roof a no-brainer, it was money for old rope. New adverts all over Google say much the same. "The government has lost!" the ads scream. The 43.3p rate is back, and if you rush in now, you can beat the 3 March deadline and earn a guaranteed 43.3p a unit on your surplus electricity for the next 25 years. If that were true it would indeed be a no-brainer. The price of panels has fallen dramatically, and you don't have to be a bright spark to work out that 43.3p a unit makes a lot of financial sense if you have the right sort of roof. Trouble is, the high court "victory" does not guarantee that someone signing up now (and spending upwards of £10,000) will ever see 43.3p a unit for the electricity they generate. Chris Huhne, energy minister at the time, said the government will appeal to the supreme court. All we know is that someone rushing through an installation now may pick up 43.3p a unit. Or they may not. The only guarantee is that you'll pick up 21p a unit between 3 and 31 March. After that nothing is certain. Cathy Debenham, who runs the independent YouGen website on which consumers post their experience of installers, says the companies telling consumers they are guaranteed a 43.3p rate are "despicable". The adverts are inaccurate and irresponsible and full of "false facts", she says. At least she's doing something about it; she has persuaded the biggest online sites in the industry to blacklist the cowboy solar companies that are exploiting confusion. "We know there are lots of excellent solar PV installers giving realistic information, and we want to make sure that it is their voices that are heard during this period of uncertainty, not the cowboys'," she says. Count yourself lucky if you got the 43.3p. By the time the government slashed them, the feed-in tariffs were excessively generous. In effect, the subsidy came from ordinary households passed on to well-off homeowners with nice large roofs. That's partly because the cost of panels dropped faster than expected. The government had every duty to act, even if it went about it in a clunky way. Does a tariff of 21p kill the industry stone dead? Not really. Debenham sees a future for the industry serving motivated individuals with a long-term view, and who are rather less greedy than the fly-by-night installers demanding super-returns. "I actually think it's a good thing that it's not silly money anymore," she says. Some subsidy was necessary to the industry in its early stages, but tapering it is also essential. Guardian Money was at the forefront in telling readers just how financially attractive the feed-in tariffs were. When the fog clears, and we have a better understanding of future tariffs, we will run our analysis again. But one thing is certain – the days of easy money are over. | ['money/energy', 'environment/feed-in-tariffs', 'money/blog', 'money/household-bills', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/patrickcollinson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/money', 'theguardian/money/money'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2012-02-03T22:58:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/jul/13/global-warming-implicated-in-dinosaur-extinction | Global warming implicated in dinosaur extinction | Howard Lee | In a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, scientists from the University of Michigan and the University of Florida show that there were big jumps in climate warming when the dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. This brings the end-Cretaceous mass extinction in line with the other mass extinction events, which occurred at times of abrupt and sometimes extreme climate change (including the end-Permian, the end-Triassic, the Toarcian, and others). By employing a relatively new ancient-temperature-measuring technique called “carbonate clumped isotope paleothermometry,” scientists have uncovered an 8ºC jump in seawater temperatures that unfolded rapidly, at the same time as massive CO2 emissions from the Indian Deccan Traps eruptions (“rapidly” here means anything less than about 30,000 years, possibly centuries; such are the limits of time resolution). They also found a second, smaller spike in warming about 150,000 years later, at around the same time as the asteroid impact at Chicxulub in Mexico. Each climate warming spike correlates with an episode of extinction identified in an earlier study led by Professor Tom Tobin of the University of Alabama. “Our findings support the ‘press-pulse’ extinction mechanism,” said Doctor Sierra Petersen, referring to the theory that long-term environmental stress made life on Earth vulnerable to the shock of the asteroid impact. “The volcanism caused significant climate change, and the environmental stress from this climate change likely led to enhanced overall extinction.” Petersen’s paper appears to contradict one published just a couple of weeks ago by James Witts of the University of Leeds and colleagues, who found there was one single, “sudden” (meaning within 30,000 to 70,000 years) extinction correlated with the asteroid impact, using fossils from the same place as Petersen gathered her specimens from – Seymour Island on the Antarctic Peninsula. Petersen points out that Witts’ paper does show a small extinction episode correlating to the first temperature spike, whereas earlier studies found that the two extinction pulses were of roughly equal severity. Unfortunately, the Witts paper only came out after our paper was already in production, so we could not add this discussion into our paper. It’s curious that Petersen and her colleagues found a warming spike associated with the asteroid impact, when you might expect an asteroid impact to generate a cooling spike from the “impact winter” triggered by all the sulfur and dust kicked up into Earth’s atmosphere. Indeed, Doctor Johan Vellekoop of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues have just published a paper claiming to have found “evidence of impact-provoked, severe climatic cooling immediately following the K-Pg impact” in sediments offshore New Jersey. [Our] study does not have the resolution to observe the impact winter, which would only have lasted a few years at the most. Such a transient cold snap would be hard-pressed to be recorded in ocean sediments at all, because of the huge thermal inertia of the world’s oceans, unless climate feedbacks amplified and sustained cooling for centuries. Very close to the [end-Cretaceous] boundary we have some samples that are quite warm, nearly reaching the peak temperatures from the first warming spike. Other samples are colder, but all are taken from within 1 meter of the boundary and we cannot resolve their relative timing. Clearly climate was highly variable around this time. Recent rock-dating work has suggested that the vast majority of the Indian lava (and by implication CO2 emissions) erupted as a consequence of the asteroid impact shaking up the magma plumbing beneath India. Petersen’s paper ties the first warming spike and extinction to the beginning of the Indian Deccan eruptions, with massive CO2 emissions concentrated in a timeframe of less than 200,000 years, before the asteroid impact. The second warming spike, occurring around the time of the asteroid impact, was less pronounced because CO2 levels were already high (temperature rises scale with doubling of CO2 concentrations), and because the emissions were probably spread out over a longer timeframe. Around the time of the impact, volcanism was still ongoing and CO2 was continuing to be emitted, so that could have caused the warming we observe. As scientists tease apart the fine threads of the events in the final few millennia of the Cretaceous, they are working at the blurry limits of time resolution, even if their temperature measuring resolution has become sharper. But even if the detailed sequence still needs disentangling, it is clear that large and rapid swings in climate played an important role in this major mass extinction, as it did in the others. Howard Lee is a geologist and science writer who focuses on past climate changes. | ['environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/series/guardian-environment-blogs', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/dinosaurs', 'science/science', 'science/fossils', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-07-13T10:00:06Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2016/apr/08/solar-installation-in-british-homes-falls-by-three-quarters-after-subsidy-cuts | UK solar power installations plummet after government cuts | The amount of household solar power capacity installed in the past two months has plummeted by three quarters following the government’s cuts to subsidies, according to new figures. A fall in solar power was expected following a 65% reduction in government incentives paid to householders, but the size of the drop-off will dismay green campaigners who want take up on clean energy sources to accelerate. Data published by the energy regulator this week shows there was 21 megawatts (MW) of small solar installed in February and March this year, after a new, lower incentive rate came into effect. By contrast, energy department figures show that for the same period in 2015, 81MW was installed. The cuts were announced just days after energy secretary Amber Rudd helped agree the historic Paris climate deal, and have bankrupted several solar companies. The government says the changes were necessary to protect bill payers, as the solar incentives are levied on household energy bills. But Lisa Nandy, shadow energy and climate secretary, said: “The chancellor ignored the warnings and slashed support for this important industry in the clear knowledge it would cause job losses and deter investment. These figures show the damage his decision is causing.” Industry said it was going through a difficult time but there were grounds for optimism. “The market is going through a very difficult time with deployment down considerably compared to this time last year. This is of course because of the cliff-edge cut to the feed-in tariff [the incentive scheme], and has caused a handful of businesses to close shop over the last few weeks,” said David Pickup, business analyst at the Solar Trade Association. “However we are confident that solar can still provide an attractive investment in certain circumstances and that the market will recalibrate by selling solar as a package with other smart cutting edge technology to increase self-consumption of the solar electricity.” The feed-in tariff data for solar schemes under 10kW, considered largely household installs, is slightly skewed because there was a surge in March 2015 as people rushed to meet a deadline for an attractive rate, and because the scheme was closed for the first week of February this year. However, observers said it was clear the bulk of the fall was down to the cuts. Greenpeace UK energy campaigner Diana Vogtel said: “The UK government is going against both public opinion and economic sense by cutting support for this booming technology. If lowering bills for hard-working families is indeed a priority for the government energy policy, why are ministers backing astronomically expensive new nuclear whilst ditching much cheaper energy sources?” A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “It’s only fair that the costs on people’s energy bills to support solar projects should come down as the industry establishes itself and costs fall. Ultimately, we want a low carbon energy sector that can stand on its own two feet rather than relying on subsidies.” This week the IPPR thinktank called on the next mayor of London to make the capital a ‘global green city’ by increasing solar investment. A recycling and waste company said it had installed the capital’s biggest solar photovoltaic scheme in Bow, at 1MW, and a bus shelter made with transparent solar panels was unveiled at Canary Wharf. The industry also received some sunnier news, in the shape of the European commission’s action plan on VAT, which suggested that Europe will allow ministers’ plans to keep VAT rates at 5%. | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/feed-in-tariffs', 'money/energy', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2016-04-08T16:01:17Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/aug/07/california-wildfires-megafires-future-climate-change | The era of megafires: the crisis facing California and what will happen next | California is no stranger to fire. The temperate winters and reliably dry summers that make the Golden state such an attractive place to live are the same conditions that make this region among the most flammable places on Earth. But even for a region accustomed to fire, the continuing wildfire siege has proven unprecedented. Although it is only early August, numerous very large, fast-moving, and exceptionally intense fires have already burned vast swaths of land throughout the state – consuming hundreds of thousands of acres and thousands of homes and claiming at least nine lives, including four firefighters. State and national firefighting resources are stretched to their limits; choking smoke inundated the state capital of Sacramento; and much of Yosemite national park is closed indefinitely. California’s governor, Jerry Brown, has characterized these devastating wildfires as California’s “new normal”. But it would be a mistake to assume that the region has reached any semblance of a stable plateau. Instead, the likelihood of large, fast-moving, and dangerous wildfires will continue to increase in the coming decades – and it will combine with other demographic and ecological shifts to produce a large increase in the risk of megafires that threaten both human lives and the ecosystems we depend upon. Fueling the fires Immediately on the heels of California’s deadliest and most destructive fire season, just a year ago, the early ferocity of 2018 has unnerved even veteran firefighters. While the number of fires in California to date is unremarkable, the total area burned is extraordinary: five times the five-year average, in a decade that has already been characterized by fire activity well above historical levels. The causes are complex, and people are part of the problem. In 1980, 24 million people lived in California; today there are nearly 40 million. Much of this population growth has occurred outside of the dense urban core of cities, resulting in rapid expansion of housing in suburban and semi-rural areas adjacent to wildlands. Of the tens of thousands of homes burned by wildfires in California in recent decades, nearly all were located in this suburban-rural borderland. With housing shortages and high prices plaguing cities throughout the state, it is unsurprising that residents build on the fringes, places often replete with natural beauty. Yet residents are often unaware of the risks inherent in living there, and the need to mitigate those risks accordingly – their lives may depend upon it. Another exacerbating problem: the way we historically managed our forests. Demand for timber in the early 20th century ushered in a new era of federally mandated fire suppression. This national policy has been highly successful at achieving its intended goal: historically, 98% of new fires are extinguished before reaching the relatively modest size of 300 acres. But while this well-intentioned policy of “total suppression” certainly reduced the amount of land burned in wildfires, it also had an unintended side effect: a deficit of low-intensity and forest-regenerating natural fires. This deficit has allowed for an accumulation of wildfire “fuel” in the form of more densely spaced trees and thicker undergrowth in areas that had previously experienced frequent fire. Forests and wildlands are increasingly “primed to burn” under hot and dry conditions. Enter climate change, wildfire “threat multiplier”. While record-breaking heatwaves grab headlines, some of the most consequential warming in California (from a wildfire perspective) is more subtle. Nights have warmed nearly three times as fast as days during fire season – lowering night-time humidity and supporting unprecedented nocturnal fire behavior. Declining spring snowpack and increased evaporation have reduced the moisture available to plants later in summer and autumn. The fire season itself is lengthening: not only have autumn and spring temperatures risen, but there are signs that California’s already short rainy season is becoming further compressed into the winter months. We are truly burning the candle at both ends. Despite this confluence of factors, the total number of fires in California has not increased in recent decades. Instead, climate change appears to be manifesting itself primarily through changes in the character (rather than frequency) of wildfire. Flames are spreading more rapidly and with greater intensity. Around half of the increase in area burned during western forest fires in recent decades can be attributed to the long-term warming trend. In California, not all wildfires are forest fires – some of the state’s deadliest and fastest-moving fires have burned primarily in shrubs and oak woodlands. With climate change tipping the scales in favor of hotter temperatures and drier conditions across the entire landscape, vegetation of all types is becoming more flammable. Facing the megafires to come Just as Californians have found strategies to cope with the ever-present risk of earthquakes and other natural hazards, resilience in a dawning “era of megafires” will require Californians to proactively adapt to the wildfires of the future. California already has the largest dedicated wildland firefighting agency in the country by far – a veritable army comprised of thousands of firefighters and an enviable fleet of vehicles, aircraft, and helicopters. And some California communities have already made considerable progress in enacting building and landscaping codes to reduce fire ignition potential in urban areas, encouraging and facilitating “defensible space”, and developing emergency evacuation plans to limit risks to citizens and firefighters alike. But given the inevitability of wildfire, thousands of other vulnerable communities will need to follow this lead or face a repeat of tragedies on the scale experienced in Santa Rosa, Ventura, and Redding over the past year. In the era of megafires, our choice is clear: find new solutions or face even greater disasters. Dr Daniel Swain is a climate scientist in the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr Crystal Kolden is an associate professor of fire science at the University of Idaho. Dr John Abatzoglou is an associate professor of climatology at the University of Idaho | ['environment/series/this-land-is-your-land', 'us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-08-08T05:00:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2017/sep/07/where-is-hurricane-irma-heading-mapping-the-path-of-destruction | Where is Hurricane Irma heading? Mapping the path of destruction | Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, has made landfall in Florida after raking across the northern Caribbean, leaving a trail of devastation in its path and at least 25 dead. After hitting smaller islands such as Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday and Wednesday, the storm hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, the Bahamas on Friday and Cuba on Saturday. The category 4 storm made landfall at Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles east of Key West, at 9.10am local time (1400 BST), according to the National Weather Service. In Miami, the winds were picking up and downing trees, street signs and power lines, leaving more than 1 million homes without electricity. The strength of a hurricane is marked by its category on what is known as the Saffir-Simpson scale, which reflects the wind speeds – and hence the level of damage expected once the cyclone strikes land. While category 1 hurricanes are serious, expected to damage rooftops and bring down trees with wind speeds between 74 and 95mph, Hurricane Irma was initially at the top end of the scale, meeting criteria for a category 5 hurricane: winds of 157mph or more, catastrophic damage, power outages that could last for many weeks, and areas of land rendered uninhabitable for months. Latest satellite imagery shows Irma crossing the Caribbean islands and heading towards the US mainland Historically, more storms hit Florida than any other US state With wind speeds at 185mph, Irma is feared to be worse than Andrew, a category 5 hurricane that struck Florida in 1992. The strongest hurricane to hit the US after Andrew was Charley, which made landfall in south-western Florida more than a decade later. Some of the countries in Irma’s path are among the world’s most vulnerable to natural disasters Irma’s impact will depend on how hard it hits the most populated areas in its path to the mainland, and how well prepared they are to deal with its effects. According to a UN World Risk Report, the Caribbean countries differ starkly in their readiness. Although the United States and Cuba have relatively good infrastructure and plentiful medical professionals, the Dominican Republic is less ready, and Haiti is among the worst-prepared countries in the world to withstand a natural disaster. Initial reports suggest that its path to the north of Haiti spared the country the worst. | ['world/hurricane-irma', 'world/world', 'world/cuba', 'world/haiti', 'world/dominicanrepublic', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'world/americas', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/josh-holder', 'profile/monica-ulmanu', 'profile/niko-kommenda', 'profile/seanclarke', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-visuals'] | world/hurricane-irma | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-10T14:13:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2012/jun/18/nuclear-negotiations-iran-major-powers | Nuclear negotiations fail to close gap between Iran and major powers | Iranian negotiators have used a PowerPoint presentation to spell out their position at "intense and tough" nuclear talks with major powers in Moscow, but the new techniques could not disguise the wide gap between Iran's aspirations and the international community's demands for them to curb their steadily growing nuclear programme. During a full day of talks in a Moscow hotel, the chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, repeatedly called for relief from international sanctions and international recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium. He also rejected a multilateral confidence-building proposal for Iran to suspend the production of 20%-enriched uranium – widely viewed as a significant proliferation risk – shut the underground plant where much of it is made, and export its stockpile of the material. In return for these demands – which a senior western diplomat summarised as "stop, shut and ship" – the six-nation group negotiating with Iran, comprising the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia and China, offered to provide fuel for a medical research reactor, as well as help on civilian nuclear safety and parts for civilian airliners. Jalili rejected this offer. He called for sanctions relief in return for co-operating with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, and international acceptance of Iran's right to enrich uranium, something the west is refusing to grant without far greater Iranian transparency on its programme. "We had an intense and tough exchange of views," Michael Mann, an EU spokesman speaking on behalf of all six countries, said. "They responded to our package of proposals from Baghdad but, in doing so, brought up lots of questions and well-known positions, including past grievances." "We agreed to reflect overnight on each others' positions," Mann added. Speaking on Iran's behalf, the deputy negotiator Ali Bagheri described the talks as "serious and constructive", and said Iran expected a response to its own demands on Tuesday. Jalili was due to have dinner on Monday night with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's security council, who was head of the FSB, the successor body to the KGB, for nine years. Several diplomats at the talks said that private encounter, involving a top official from the country with the closest relations with Tehran, could represent the best hope of progress in Moscow, where the talks are due to continue on Tuesday. Asked whether the talks represented the beginning of serious bargaining, a senior western diplomat balked, saying: "No, but there was a serious exchange of positions." "If Iranians take concrete steps we will reciprocate, but we are waiting for the concrete steps," the diplomat added. | ['world/iran', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'world/iaea', 'world/russia', 'environment/energy', 'world/middleeast', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/julianborger', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2012-06-18T17:40:51Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/dec/10/world-bank-urged-to-rethink-investment-in-one-of-brazils-big-beef-companies | World Bank urged to rethink investment in one of Brazil's big beef companies | The World Bank should reconsider its investment in one of Brazil’s biggest beef producers because of the industry’s links to deforestation and the climate crisis, according to two UN-appointed experts. Minerva is Brazil’s second largest beef exporter, and some of its product is supplied, both directly and indirectly, by cattle farmers based in the Amazon rainforest. However, although it has been able to certify 100% of its direct suppliers as zero-deforestation, it is currently – like the other large Brazilian beef companies - unable to monitor indirect suppliers. The World Bank’s investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) holds a significant stake in Minerva. “In light of the global climate crisis, the World Bank should ensure that all of its investments are climate-friendly and respect human rights and divest from businesses that fail to meet these criteria,” David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. His predecessor in the post, the international law professor John Knox, said the IFC and other finance houses should ensure they were not contributing to industries fuelling the climate crisis, “including by ending their support for massive industrial beef operations that depend on deforestation”. He added: “International funding that contributes to the ongoing climate breakdown, either by supporting fossil fuel projects or by supporting deforestation, is completely inexcusable.” The IFC told the Bureau it acknowledged the crisis in the world’s largest rainforest. “The integrity of the Amazon continues to be threatened by deforestation and degradation, with serious implications for the regional and global climate,” it said. “IFC invested in Minerva to promote sustainable growth, including helping the company improve its environmental and social performance with the goal of creating a more sustainable beef industry … Minerva has taken a number of steps, with IFC’s help, to improve the traceability in its supply chain with its direct suppliers, and today 100% of its direct purchases come from zero-deforestation areas.” However, the organisation admitted that no Brazilian beef company can be sure there is no deforestation in its supply chain, because there is no mechanism for monitoring indirect suppliers — the farms that breed or rear the cattle before the final ranch that sends them to the slaughterhouse. The Brazilian government does not publish the animal transit data in a format that would facilitate this monitoring. “As of today, none of the players in the industry are able to reliably trace indirect suppliers at scale, and this includes Minerva,” said the IFC. “We believe that further progress against deforestation in Brazil depends on expanded government regulation, market demand for higher standards and, importantly, law enforcement at federal and state levels.” Marfrig, another of the large cattle companies, recently told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that more than half of the cattle it slaughters originate from these indirect suppliers. And research from the University of Wisconsin suggests that may also be be true for other members of the beef industry in the Brazilian Amazon. In recent years there has been growing global awareness of the role of the beef industry in deforestation, as ranchers supplying vast meat businesses – either directly or indirectly – clear land to graze animals. One estimate, by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, suggested the cattle sector is responsible for 80% of deforestation in every country covered by the Amazon. Minerva’s head of sustainability, Taciano Custódio, told the Bureau: “[The] IFC’s investment has helped Minerva with the enhancement of key performance indicators on environmental and social governance.” He echoed the IFC’s claim that all of Minerva’s direct purchases come from zero-deforestation areas in the Amazon biome. Custódio said more regulation was needed to address the inability to track suppliers further up the supply chain. “Monitoring indirect suppliers is, as correctly pointed out, not done today and very challenging. As of today, none of the players in the industry are able to trace indirect suppliers and for that to be done, law enforcement is required for all actors in the value chain.” However, he also made a case for deforestation, saying: “South American countries still have a great percentage of forest and uncleared lands that can be legally and sustainably explored. Some countries rely on the necessity to expand their production territory in order to develop and invest in public health, public education and infrastructure.” Research published this year suggests the beef industry is responsible for 5,800 sq km of deforestation every year in Brazil. The research by the sustainability project Trase mapped supply chains for Brazilian beef back through customs and slaughterhouses to the municipalities where cattle were raised, using customs, agricultural, and sanitary inspection data. Having traced the cattle back to their original municipalities, Trase cross-referenced government figures on cattle numbers with deforestation data and official data on new pastures to calculate a deforestation “risk” – presented as an area in square km – associated with companies and specific international markets. The risk calculation, which for the first time took indirect suppliers into account, linked the export supply chains of Minerva to more than 100 sq km of deforestation every year. Custódio disputed the Trase research and told the Bureau that land speculation was the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon. He said banks should be blamed for offering credit to those who were clearing the forests. “While open and cleared lands continue to be treated as best for financial subsidies, people will continue to convert native vegetation into productive lands to access more credit,” he said. | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'type/article', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/brazil', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/americas', 'environment/meat-industry', 'environment/farming', 'food/beef', 'environment/food', 'society/series/guardian-and-observer-charity-appeal-2019', 'tone/news', 'profile/andrew-wasley', 'profile/alexandra-heal', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-10T08:00:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2018/may/06/fatbergs-are-the-true-time-capsules-of-all-wed-like-to-forget | Fatbergs are the true time capsules of all we’d like to forget | Eva Wiseman | When we weren’t concentrating, Britain’s fatbergs became international celebrities. And that’s on us, that’s something we’re going to have to deal with – we created our own Kardashian clan, and a special house for them in the sewer under KFC Aldgate East. We Frankensteined this thing, this beast, out of sanitary towels and chip fat, and then some condoms, and then the guilt that came with the condom night, that oily shame, and then some small plastic pens, of the sort you get in betting shops. Every sin we’ve ever committed, shoved into a small hole and covered with hot grease. The fatberg is the portrait Britain hides in its attic, a true representation of everything we really are, all the things that come out of us. And while we went on working, flirting, dousing ourselves in duty free Chanel and glitter gel to look pretty for the builders, down there, in our private parts beneath the pavement, the bits we wanted to hide were growing. I lived in Whitechapel in east London for 10 years, above the notorious “Whitechapel monster”, a fatberg the weight of 11 double-decker buses. It makes sense that after years of blockages across the world, it was this one, under a site so associated with nightmarish murders and Victorian ruin, that pushed its way into our imaginations and on to the A-list. And while I am certain I never flushed moisturising toilet wipes down the loo, there is surely a part of me and my awfulness compressed in that pumice-like mass, a beast that inspires as many metaphors as it does reflexive gags. I am fatberg. While whole thinktanks had been set up to document the state of the UK, collecting the diverse ephemera of our time to bury in time capsules beneath churchyards, nobody guessed that the UK was already hard at work on its own. A time capsule containing everything we wanted to forget – the time capsule behind the time capsule. No delightful drawings by four-year-olds, no bottles of wine or photographs of smiling teams shaking hands – instead, the night-time nappies of those four-year-olds, the sticky vomit induced by wine, the hand sanitising wipes used by the smiling team after they realised Pippa had the norovirus. Nappies! Some of us have been throwing nappies down the toilet! Which, Lord, would take some serious effort, no? These people must have really wanted to get those nappies down those toilets, must have got the toilet brush out of its little germ bath and really shoved it down there, flushing, flushing as they pushed. “Back to your family, sweet child, go home,” flush. But good. It’s good they flushed nappies down the loo. Because it’s exposed the real face of Britain – the mucky dum-dum plonker behind our mask of grown-up serenity has been revealed. What did we think toilets were? Private shredders? Ceramic mouths ready to chew up anything we wanted to forget? Plumbed-in pervert Cookie Monsters? Not so. It turns out toilets are artists that have been filing away all our disasters in order to create a portrait that reveals more about British people than any census, any referendum. One of those photographic mosaics that at first glance appears to be a picture of us, all of us, grinning and weary, but on closer inspection is a montage of hundreds and thousands of images of the things we’ve flushed away. In 2005, it was decided that adults couldn’t wipe their bums properly, so “moistened adult wipes” arrived (“flushable”, in that anything you can fit down a toilet is flushable) becoming a £12.4bn business. And while we could have guessed that these would be down there – the packaging practically begs us to toss them down the loo; there are theses to be written about the word “disposable” – the most surprising thing we’ve learned about ourselves by dissecting the fatberg is the breadth of our vanity. Twenty years ago perhaps, the powder we’d have predicted to have found washing through our sewers might have been cocaine. But that moneyed hedonism has dissolved to make way for a more complicated kind of ambition, an aimless body building that leads some to illegal muscle-enhancing drugs, gallons of which now wash through Britain’s pipes. The disappointment of finding out not just that we’re disgusting, but that we’re arrogant, too. We get the celebrities we deserve and we have truly earned the fatberg, today’s antihero, profiled across the globe with glowing write-ups in the New Yorker along with its own Made in Chelsea-style reality show on Channel 4. Those of us still searching for meaning, still on a mission to find ourselves, could do worse than look down, then peel through the candle-like mass for the real me’s inside, the maggots, the chicken grease, the needles, the Lion Bar wrappers, the plate scrapings and oil, the rat king of wet wipes, the condoms, the paracetamol, the mangled plastic cups, yellow cotton buds and fat. This is us – try not to breathe in. One more thing… Taryn Simon’s An Occupation of Loss, an Artangel performance where professional mourners from across the world wailed and sang for the dead. When I emerged to street level, I felt a sort of tragedy – not simply thinking about loss, but because it became clear how lacking our British ceremonies around death are – subdued and stilted, rather than the visceral outpouring witnessed here. There is something to be said about going beyond words. My favourite story this week came in the form of a Twitter thread by 22-year-old Tia Freeman, who had tried to ignore her pregnancy before going into labour on a plane, and delivered her baby alone in a Turkish hotel room using YouTube tutorials. My new absolute hero. I love @awardsforgoodboys on Instagram: medals for men who do the absolute minimum. Email Eva at e.wiseman@observer.co.ukor follow her on Twitter @EvaWiseman | ['lifeandstyle/series/up-front', 'tone/comment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/evawiseman', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/life-and-style', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-magazine'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-05-06T05:00:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2012/jul/16/falkland-islands-borders-southern-abandons-well | Falkland Islands explorer Borders & Southern abandons well | Falkland Islands explorer Borders & Southern has been forced to abandon its biggest prospect off the south coast of the islands because it could not drill deep enough, sending shares plunging 70%. It is the latest setback to hit exploration firms off the coast of the disputed islands and, with further failures, could ease pressure on British and Argentinian politicians who have continued to argue over its sovereignty. The failure of Borders & Southern's Stebbing well means that rival Rockhopper is still the only company to have found viable amounts of oil in the region. Borders & Southern revealed it had found good quality gas but could not drill deep enough without risking a collapse of the well due to high pressure. It said: "It is very disappointing not to have reached all the potential reservoir targets in this well." Shares closed down 44.3p at 18.3p, as the four other London-listed firms – Rockhopper, Desire Petroleum, Argos Resources and Falkland Oil and Gas – also fell. The drop comes despite Premier Oil entering the area by revealing it plans to spend $1bn (£646m) to help Rockhopper with its Sea Lion prospect. The well is expected to yield 320m barrels of oil. Premier last week paid the company $231m upfront for a 60% stake and will take over the drilling of the well, which it hopes to start in 2016. But Rockhopper has proved the exception in the area that has been big on words but small on delivery. The most notorious announcement from the region took place in 2010 when Desire said it had hit oil, only to change its mind 48 hours later and reveal it had only found water. Shares dropped 50% and never fully recovered. Analyst Dougie Youngson at Seymour Pierce explained that more money was needed for further discoveries in exploration that is at an early stage. He said: "It really has been a case of mixed fortunes depending where you look. Rockhopper and Desire have had success in the north, and with Premier coming on board prospects are looking positive. "But in the south of the island … things are at a much earlier stage with only one discovery so far." Falkland Oil and Gas will report from its southern prospects later this year and both the City and politicians will be watching its announcement closely. Political tensions have heated up in the past year over the islands' sovereignty – especially around the 30-year anniversary of the war between Britain and Argentina. Last month at a G20 summit David Cameron clashed with Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner when she tried to hand him papers detailing her country's claim to the island. However, all five companies have continually refused to be drawn on the political problems facing the area. Meanwhile, Shell has walked away from its bid to buy London-listed oil and gas explorer Cove Energy, leaving Thailand's state-owned oil company PTT the only bidder. The ongoing battle for Cove, which has a stake in a Mozambique gas field considered one of the biggest in the world, started in February and has seen a fierce bidding war between the two. But in a statement, Shell said: "Shell Bidco has decided not to revise its offer of 220p in cash for each share of Cove, and not take part in the auction procedure for Cove." Thai firm PTT Exploration and Production now have a clear run, after it offered 240p a share, or £1.22bn, 48 hours after Shell's final offer of £1.12bn in May was recommended by the board and six hours before the deadline for offers. As a result, Cove closed down 37.5p, 13.6%, at 273p. It had been trading higher because many shareholders thought a bigger bid was due. The Thai firm is keen to get a foothold into the booming gas exploration market in east Africa but the deal must first be confirmed by Mozambique's government, which owns a 15% stake in the Rovuma basin. It is thought about 70% of Cove shares are held by risk-arbitrage hedge funds, whose strategy is to squeeze every penny out of a potential takeover. | ['business/oil', 'uk/falklands', 'business/business', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/commodities', 'environment/oil', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/simon-neville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2012-07-16T18:10:22Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/feb/16/constituents-set-up-steve-baker-watch-over-mps-climate-stance | Constituents set up ‘Steve Baker Watch’ over MP’s climate stance | Constituents of Steve Baker MP who are concerned about his environmental position have set up a “Steve Baker Watch” group and are launching a crowdfunding page to raise money. The constituents in Baker’s constituency of Wycombe in the rolling Chiltern Hills believe that Baker is trying to “wreck the government plans to improve the environment”. Baker, who as chair of the European Research Group was instrumental in pressing for a hard Brexit, helped set up the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG), which has close links to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a lobbyist group that has been accused of denying climate science. Last week the Guardian reported on fears that the group was trying to derail the government’s green agenda, linking it to the cost-of-living crisis and leading to fears of a “culture war” campaign around net zero. The campaigners told the Guardian: “Steve’s Net Zero Watch campaign will make people’s lives in Wycombe miserable. He wants to stop us getting cheaper clean energy, insulating our homes and creating a better future for our children. We’ve had enough!” They plan to “educate” local people about their MP’s views on climate action, including doing leaflet drops, holding vigils outside his office and setting up a website. Baker told the Guardian: “I see the people associated with this campaign come from opposition parties in the constituency. I am thankful for everything they are doing to highlight that the voters of Wycombe will be poorer and colder unless we change course as I am setting out. “We all care for the planet but our current net zero strategy only works for those who can afford much higher bills. If this is what local Lib Dems and Labour want then I’m happy to explain that to voters.” The group, however, says it does not represent any political faction. It said: “We’re a group of concerned citizens who care about climate change and the lives of ordinary people. We don’t represent any political party.” The NZSG group, which has gained widespread media coverage in the past month despite being small in number, says it does not dispute climate science or the need to decarbonise. It has called for cuts to green taxes and an increase in fossil fuel production to address the energy crisis, and recently pushed for fracking in the UK. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-02-16T16:15:25Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/blog/2013/oct/10/low-carbon-world-sceptics-climate-change | Memo to sceptics of a low-carbon world – 'It's happening' | This year, the US is on track to install one solar energy system every four minutes. Not bad you might think, especially in a country where powerful oil and gas interests are keen to block progress on clean energy. But there is a country that knocks the baseballing nation for a cricketing six – Bangladesh. Late last year, the award-winning renewable energy scheme Grameen Shakti celebrated the installation of its 1 millionth home solar energy system – and that in one of the world's poorest counties. That's one every 90 seconds. Individual examples of this sort of practical, grassroots climate action are impressive and inspiring, but rarely reported. So this year, we're publishing our second annual "it's happening" gallery designed to inspire, excite and counter the insidious narrative from the climate sceptics and go-slowers, that the UK is engaged in some kind of unique and isolated climate folly. It's not an exhaustive survey of global climate action, we make no claims for its comprehensiveness. It is a ticker tape of examples from around the world of individuals, communities, businesses and yes even other countries putting in place the building blocks of a low-carbon world. Some are on a grand scale – such as Spain's concentrated solar power stations which, by super-heating molten salts that hold their heat for many hours, can generate clean power from the sun at night. In France, the next generation of the TGV will use 20% less energy and carry 25% more passengers. Some examples are simply charming: the rhinos at Whipsnade zoo now wallow in a renewably heated pool. Of course these collectively are nowhere near the carbon cuts we need. While some are significant, others are pinpricks. The point here though is not the combined clean kilowatt hours generated or the total CO2 saved. There are plenty of sobering presentations by eminent academics which will show you the forbidding scale of the cuts we must make. Alongside this sort of serious assessment of the task at hand, and the recent sobering IPCC report, we need a positive vision of what a low-carbon world might look like. Campaigners are great at policy roadmaps for the low-carbon transitions of this or that sector (I've written a few myself). This is not one of those. Instead it offers a glimpse of the world as it can be, showing that those mountainous IPCC graphs can be climbed and that people are setting off on their own journey to scale them. They are not waiting for Nigel Lawson and Peter Lilley to see scientific sense or for the Treasury to decide it's cost effective. Humanity has the ability to tackle climate change – it just lacks the inclination. Alongside a fear of the consequences of inaction must come an optimistic sense that "doing it low-carbon" is not just possible but often better; and far from treading a lonely path, we are part of a global community taking practical action. Climate sceptics seek not only to cast doubt on the science but also to convince us we are alone in our endeavour. These examples show communities taking action to tackle climate change whether or not the world's governments get their act together and come up with a global agreement (though it would make things easier if they did). Perhaps we could call this climate optimism – a full appreciation of the gravity of the science, combined with faith in the ability of humanity to come up with a solution, and a willingness to get stuck in to make it happen. A few years ago the only signs that we were moving to a low-carbon future were compact florescent lightbulbs and the odd hydrid car. Now the world around us is (all too slowly) learning how to go low-carbon. From the transformation of much loved icons of the community – Middlesbrough FC will soon be powered by wind – to other invisible but no less important changes, such as Bath converting its streetlights to highly efficient LEDs. Or Chicago, which is doing the same to its traffic lights. Then there's Portugal, which now gets 70% of its power from renewable sources. And 10:10's own Solar Schools programme is making a difference too. "It's happening" is nothing more or less than a collection of carbon cutting actions that get us out of bed in the morning, or that we email round the office. They are collected together so that carbon cutters everywhere can share their favourites with friends, colleagues and family. • Dave Timms is acting executive director of 10:10 | ['environment/blog', 'environment/10-10', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'type/article'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2013-10-10T10:48:29Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2009/jan/06/brazil-rio-slum-barrier | Rio slum barrier plans spark outcry | Plans to surround a Rio de Janeiro slum with a 650-metre-long concrete barrier have come under fire from environmentalists and human rights activists. Authorities say the R$1m (£300,000) "eco-barrier", which will encircle part of the famous Dona Marta slum in southern part of the city, is intended to protect the nearby Atlantic rainforest from illegal occupation as well as improve security and living conditions for slum residents. As tenders for construction of the 3-metre-high (10ft) wall opened yesterday, critics claimed the project was a form of "social apartheid", comparing it to Israel's security barrier. "This is something that is very similar to what Israel does to the Palestinians and to what happened in South Africa," said Mauricio Campos, from the Rio human rights group Network of Communities Against Violence. He said a wall would serve only to "segregate" slum residents from the rest of society. The wall is expected to be completed by the end of this year and, according to reports in the local press, may be followed by similar barriers around Rio's other slums, know as favelas. In a statement, the state governor, Sergio Cabral, who ordered the "eco-limit" fence to be built, said it was part of moves by his administration to improve living standards and protect slum residents from the armed gangs that control many of Rio's 600 or so slums. "What has happened in Rio de Janeiro over the last two decades has been the passivity of authorities in relation to the uncontrolled growth of the slums," he said. Such walls would, Cabral said, help the city deal with "drug trafficking and vigilantes, [by] putting limits on uncontrolled growth". Dona Marta is home to an estimated 7,500 people. The favela was the setting for an award-winning documentary about cocaine by the British film-maker Angus Macqueen, as well as a 1996 Michael Jackson music video directed by Spike Lee. Jackson's producers were forced to negotiate access with the local drug traffickers. Since last November, however, the shantytown has been under 24-hour police occupation as part of a state government initiative to make Dona Marta a "model favela". In December, Rio's security secretary boasted that the slum was "free from the law of the rifle". The pilot project aims to rid the favelas of traffickers using a mixture of military force and "hearts and minds" community policing. A football pitch was recently opened in Dona Marta as part of a R$40m redevelopment programme, which includes building new houses and installing wireless internet, as well as the controversial wall. Rio's environmentalists have given a frosty reception to the plans, arguing that unless low-cost housing options are given to the poor, they will continue to encroach on the hillsides of the city and into the surrounding rainforest. "It is hypocrisy to talk about protecting the Atlantic rainforest without considering the issues of housing and transport to take the pressure off the forest," Sergio Ricardo, a leading environmental campaigner in Rio, told the Jornal do Brasil newspaper. Cabral said the redevelopment plans showed the city government was investing in Rio "like never before". Plans to erect walls around Rio's sprawling slums first surfaced in 2004, but were abandoned after a public outcry. | ['world/brazil', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/tomphillips'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-01-06T12:12:57Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2007/dec/13/greenpolitics.bali | In praise of...political singing | "I don't plan to sing," said Hilary Benn yesterday when the environment secretary was invited to add his voice to a song against climate change, performed by Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, at the Bali summit. This may have come as a blow to the president, whose dreams of soft-rock stardom took a step forward recently when he released his first album, My Longing For You, a collection of love ballads. It was also a small rebuff to the cause of political music, which once gave encouragement to all sorts of campaigns, many of them involving Mr Benn's father Tony, who spent much of the 1970s belting out The Red Flag with the likes of Barbara Castle. The professionalisation of politics has brought a sad decline, with communal chanting giving way to borrowed pop songs and rock stars with causes - what Naomi Klein recently attacked as the "Bono-isation of protest". A new political generation needs new music. This year's best British political song was Dad's Gonna Kill Me, Richard Thompson's angry response to Iraq, but that hardly invited mass involvement. Gordon Brown (who certainly knows the words to The Red Flag) stuck to the 60s when choosing his Desert Island Discs. David Cameron's study at Eton echoed to the Smiths. But from We Shall Overcome to This Land is Your Land, the radical causes of the past all had their music. If Hilary Benn won't join in President Yudhoyono's chorus against climate change (and his hesitation is understandable) then perhaps he should write his own. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/politics', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/bali', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/editorials', 'politics/hilarybenn', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-12-13T00:17:34Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
lifeandstyle/2017/aug/30/kitchen-gadgets-frywall-pan-wearing-anti-scratch-collar | Kitchen gadgets review: the Frywall – it looks like my pan is wearing an anti-scratch collar | What? The Frywall ($21.95, frywall.com) is a rubber, high-sided collar that slots along the inner circumference of stovetop cookware, limiting spurts of hot oil and sauce. Why? Cheap, fire-resistant, and easier to erect than lath and plaster. Oh no, that’s drywall. Well? “Continuous protection, continuous access, easy to clean silicone.” While it sounds like a mail order item from a reassuringly specialist magazine, this gadget is far less thrilling. In fact, it is meant to protect you from sauces and cooking oils getting out of hand. I run into early problems when I realise that the 12in model I have ordered is too large for my modest 10in pan. I have to gather the excess and sort of … tuck it in. However, that’s my fault, not the makers’, and I won’t hold it against them. Like my pan, the idea isn’t hard to grasp: this ludicrous flap of rubber is meant to sit inside your saucepan, extending its sides and trapping splatters. It is cumbersome, to say the least. Once fitted, it looks like my pan is wearing the kind of vet’s bonnet you put around a dog’s head to stop it chewing out stitches. This design might be a perfect fit if you happen to live in a rescue kennel, but most of the people that do are covered in fur, and hate greens. Speaking of which, greens are the second best use I find for Frywall: tall sides mean that I can tumble a whole pack of kale into my pan, and it would be great for spinach. (The best use, however, is as a megaphone, announcing its ugliness.) As for protection against sauce flecks, I would rather live with the flecks, or use a screen guard. This thing offers sizzle without splatter, yes, but it’s also a styleless pile-up. Besides, you could just use a wok, the sides of which get hot, which is generally considered quite good for cooking. Frywall’s hideous silicone, heat-resistant to 450F/232C, cannot boast the same. A wok on the mild side, you might say. Get out! Redeeming features? Gil Scott-Heron was the voice of that You’ve Been Tangoed ad, a fact even more depressing than Frywall’s existence. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? Mexican border. Hopefully they’re paying for it, too. 1/5 | ['lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-08-30T11:52:27Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2019/jul/09/marriott-fined-over-gdpr-breach-ico | Marriott to be fined nearly £100m over GDPR breach | The international hotel group Marriott is to be fined almost £100m by the Information Commissioner’s Office after hackers stole the records of 339 million guests. In November, Marriott International, the parent company of hotel chains including W, Westin, Le Méridien and Sheraton, admitted that personal data including credit card details, passport numbers and dates of birth had been stolen in a colossal global hack of guest records. It is the second time in two days the ICO has flexed its muscle to impose huge fines using extensive powers relating to breaches under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). On Monday, British Airways received a £183m fine after a hack involving personal data of half a million of the airline’s customers, the ICO’s first GDPR fine. The ICO, which is proposing a £99.2m fine for Marriott, said that about 30 million of the hacked guest records related to residents of 31 countries in the European Economic Area. Seven million related to UK residents. Marriott said it would appeal against the fine. After an investigation the ICO said the issue appeared to begin when the systems of the Starwood hotels group were compromised in 2014. Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016, although the theft of customer information was not discovered until last year. The ICO said Marriott had failed to undertake sufficient due diligence when it acquired Starwood and should have done more to make sure its IT systems were secure. “The GDPR makes it clear that organisations must be accountable for the personal data they hold,” said Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner. “This can include carrying out proper due diligence when making a corporate acquisition, and putting in place proper accountability measures to assess not only what personal data has been acquired, but how it is protected.” In a statement the company said it intended to respond and vigorously defend its position. “We are disappointed with this notice of intent from the ICO, which we will contest,” said Arne Sorenson, the president and chief executive of Marriott International. “We deeply regret this incident happened. We take the privacy and security of guest information very seriously and continue to work hard to meet the standard of excellence that our guests expect from Marriott.” Marriott said the Starwood guest reservation database that was the subject of the hack was no longer used for business operations. The ICO can seek a fine of up to 4% of a company’s global annual revenue for a breach under the GDPR. This is a significant increase on the maximum fine of up to £500,000 it could levy under the UK’s previous data protection regime. | ['business/travelleisure', 'technology/gdpr', 'travel/hotels', 'news/information-commissioner', 'technology/hacking', 'business/business', 'technology/data-protection', 'technology/technology', 'travel/travel', 'us-news/us-news', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/marksweney', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-07-09T15:10:58Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2021/nov/19/azeem-rafiq-given-unreserved-apology-after-racism-crisis-talks | English cricket offers Azeem Rafiq apology and promises action on racism | English cricket has issued an unreserved apology to Azeem Rafiq, saying the racism he experienced is a blight on the game, before promising to take swift measures to restore trust. The apology, which came after crisis talks at the Oval between the ECB, first-class counties and the sport’s other key stakeholders, praised the former Yorkshire player for “shining a light on our game that has shocked, shamed and saddened us all” and committed to publishing a 12-point action plan on Wednesday. “Racism and discrimination is a blight on our game,” the joint statement said. “To Azeem and all those who have experienced any form of discrimination, we are truly sorry. Our sport did not welcome you, our game did not accept you as we should have done. We apologise unreservedly for your suffering.” Meanwhile, the ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison, whose job was thought to be under threat after a faltering performance in front of MPs on Tuesday, emerged from the meeting saying that he retained the backing of the game – and was now determined to enact change. “I received the backing of the game today, absolutely,” he said. “And I’m determined to lead this change through cricket. I feel passionately about this issue. It’s something I feel to my core. I’ve been trying to drive an inclusive and diverse sport from the moment I arrived as chief executive in 2015. I feel very motivated and very supported to make sure that change happens in the game. “What are the reasons we are experiencing cultural difficulties in the dressing room? What are the reasons this abhorrent behaviour of racism in our game has attacked the high performance space? These are the kind of areas we will take a much closer look at, which we will be publishing on Wednesday.” Harrison’s comments were largely long on platitudes and short on specifics. However, he did admit: “What we need to do is make sure we’re listening to victims of racism. The ECB has those processes in place, I think in future it’s more than likely the ECB would step in immediately to take steps to understand and investigate fully.” “We have had a focus on action today,” he added. “Speaking to cricket fans who will be looking very hard at the wider game for tangible action, that’s what we will be delivering. Whether it’s about cultural change in the dressing room, standards for recruitment of staff through the game, a range of different points over 12 areas. We will look for tangible action to make sure we are impacting on the ground.” The talks came at the end of another torrid week for the sport, which began with Rafiq’s shocking revelations of institutional racism in cricket in front of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee. Since then another cricketer, Alex Hales, has apologised after a photograph of him emerged in blackface in 2009 while Rafiq has also apologised for antisemitic comments he made when he was 19. On Thursday the sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, had warned cricket that the government would be prepared to take the “nuclear option” of imposing a regulator and looking at how the sport was funded if it did not enact significant change within weeks or months. And cricket officials appear to be heeding that warning as they promised further talks and an action plan next week. “We stand together against discrimination in all its forms, and are united as a sport to act,” they added in a statement. “We will continue to listen, and make swift, positive changes to the culture of the game. We will embrace and celebrate differences everywhere, knowing that with diversity, we are stronger. “As a game, we discussed a series of tangible commitments to make cricket a sport where everyone feels safe, and everyone feels included. We will now finalise the detail and publish these actions next week. Our game must win back your trust.” | ['sport/azeem-rafiq', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/yorkshire', 'world/race', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'sport/sport-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/seaningle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-11-19T18:44:24Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/feb/28/fish-stocks-continuing-to-fall-as-oceans-warm-study-finds | Fish stocks continuing to fall as oceans warm, study finds | Fish catches have declined markedly and are likely to fall further, a study has found, with warming oceans to blame. Around the world, fish populations have fallen over the past 80 years, although some species have shown greater resilience than others. Overall, catches of commercially important fish have fallen by just over 4%, but in some regions catches have plunged by about a third since early in the last century. The findings come from a study that has used “hindcasting” methods to reconstruct the effects of global warming, overfishing and other impacts on fisheries over the 80-year period from 1930 to 2010. The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Science, examined fish populations in 38 regions, studying 235 fish populations made up of 124 species, which represented about a third of the global fishing catch over the period studied. Changes in temperature were found to have an important effect, along with other problems such as overfishing and ocean acidification. They used data on catch sizes, fish populations and temperatures to build a picture of how fishing, sea temperature increases and other factors had an effect on fish populations over the period studied. Christopher Free, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who led the research, said the overall picture was one of losses to fish populations, even though some species, such as black sea bass in the Atlantic, showed gains as sea temperatures rose. Olaf Jensen, associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a co-author, warned that species that had benefited from warming were “likely to start declining as temperatures continue to rise”. The greatest losses found in the study were of fish in the North Sea near the UK, the sea of Japan, around the Iberian coast and the Celtic-Biscay shelf. There were gains among fish populations in the Labrador-Newfoundland region, the Baltic Sea, the Indian Ocean and the north-east US shelf. Historical data on many tropical regions is limited, leaving the researchers unable to form a clear picture in such areas. | ['environment/oceans', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/food', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-02-28T19:00:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2005/jan/06/tsunami2004.features11 | 'I feel like the luckiest man in the world' | As the train pulled out of Ambalangoda station, the last stop before my destination, I was already getting my stuff together. I was looking forward to reaching Hikkaduwa. It was a Poya Day - a Buddhist bank holiday - and the train was bursting with people. We stopped before the train had reached the next station and I heard screaming. I looked out of the window and saw women running from the sea. A wave of water flooded our carriage, with a force strong enough to sever us from the rest of the train, carrying the carriage away from the tracks and tilting it at an angle. My first thoughts were a bomb or a mine in the water. That doesn't seem rational now. The idea of a tsunami didn't even cross my mind. I was one of the first to climb up on to the roof of the carriage. I still didn't know what was going on, I just wanted to get out of there. Pretty soon everybody from our carriage had followed suit, and after I had helped people clamber up, I got talking to a Swedish couple - Carina and Neil. Neil encouraged me to take these pictures - he's a professional photographer. I guess we all thought what we had witnessed was a freak wave. It looked like we had taken the brunt of it: the rest of the train was still on the track and the people inside seemed fine. They were seated and calmly waiting for help to arrive. I thought to myself, most of them probably haven't even got wet. If I had been in those carriages, the odds are that I would have been sitting down too, waiting for help to arrive. Nobody knew this was a disaster that had hit the whole of Asia, and that help would be a long time coming. At the time I thought I had been the unlucky one, sitting in the only carriage that had been shunted off the tracks. It took half an hour for the second wave to come. I had been using a house in the distance to assess the water levels. Now I saw the water receding fast. When the second wave came, the horizon changed. All I could see was one enormous cliff face of water charging towards me. I was frozen with fear, but I can remember my thoughts pretty clearly. It wasn't a prayer that came into my head. All I thought was, "Shit," and then, sarcastically, "Cheers." I pretty much knew that this second wave was going to toss me off the train and into the water. But instead, miraculously, it neatly pushed the carriage towards a house behind us. So I thought, right, in a couple more seconds, I'll jump on to the house. A child was hanging on to me. We jumped and climbed on to the roof. I looked back and saw the carriage that had been next to ours floating in the water. It had been shunted off the tracks this time and had swivelled around 90 degrees. The water was choppy and the carriage was being tossed around. I saw a large woman in a pink sari inside the carriage. She was moving back and forth with the momentum of the train. Then I realised that it was a dead body, that the woman was dead. It is only now that the scale of the death is hitting me. At the time, even when I was wading through dead bodies, literally moving them out of my path, after Carina and I had decided to scramble for land (we only found Neil later), all I could focus on was my own survival. Now I'm home, with the death toll rising by the hour, I realise how much the odds were stacked against me. When I was 18 I was in a near- fatal car crash. My family are Hindu and believe in karma. Although my father was happy to see me when we were finally reunited in Colombo, I could tell his joy was tempered by something. I don't think he thinks that I'm cursed, but maybe he wonders if there are cosmic forces acting against me. I see things completely differently. I was lucky - I feel like the luckiest man in the world. Although my survival instinct had a small part to play in what is now my second escape from death, I know it was luck that got me out. And I don't believe that things come in threes, although, when my flight home went through turbulence, I did catch myself gripping the armrests, looking out of the window, and assessing the odds. | ['world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-06T00:03:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2024/apr/07/cicada-geddon-brood-season-midwest-eastern | US braces for cicadas by the trillion as two broods of periodic insects coincide | They look a little like cockroaches and have bulging orange eyes, and trillions of them are about to erupt from the earth in much of the midwestern and eastern United States. The emergence of two groups of cicadas will assemble a chorus of the insects not seen in several hundred years, experts say. The simultaneous appearance of the two cicada broods – known as Brood XIX and Brood XIII – is a rare event, not having occurred since 1803, a year when Thomas Jefferson was US president. “It’s really exciting. I’ve been looking forward to this for many years,” said Catherine Dana, an entomologist who specializes in cicadas at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “For the public, it’s going to be a really special experience.” There are thousands of species of cicadas around the world but only 10 are considered periodical – having a life cycle that involves the juvenile cicadas living underground and feeding on plant sap for years before emerging en masse to the surface. This year will see Brood XIX, the largest of all periodical cicada groups, emerge after a 13-year dormancy underground at the same time as Brood XIII, a smaller group that appears every 17 years. The emergence will occur in spring, as early as this month in some places, and will see trillions of cicadas pop up in as many as 16 states, from Maryland to Oklahoma and from Illinois to Alabama. This phenomenon, which has been dubbed “cicada-geddon” or “cicada-palooza”, will see huge clumps of cicadas across urban and rural areas, where the insects will make quite a noise – their songs collectively can be louder than a revving motorbike. After a frenzy of calling and mating and being devoured by predators, the cicadas will begin the cycle all over again in July. The two broods may only overlap slightly in a small area of central Illinois, meaning there mostly won’t be a larger-than-normal boom in numbers in any one place, but researchers have said the emergence of all seven periodical species found in the US will be noticeable in many places and provide a rare glimpse of a grand ecological spectacle. “I like to remind people that this is a natural wonder of the world. You just don’t see this biomass of terrestrial life anywhere else,” said Dana. There are several theories as to why cicadas do this, among the most popular being that an overwhelming surge of the creatures ensures that a good number will survive predators to spawn the next generation. Some Americans are planning trips in order to see hotspots of cicadas, with other, more insect-phobic people wondering whether they should flee the onslaught. Cicadas aren’t harmful to people or pets in any way, though, with the insects having a straw-like mouth rather than any sort of biting parts. Some cicadas have been found to expel jets of urine when threatened, however. As with most interactions between humans and the natural world, humans pose the bigger threat. Cicadas choose to burst aboveground when the soil temperature hits a certain point – usually around 64F (17C) – and global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is potentially scrambling this natural process. “This could mess with their phenology. If they come out earlier than usual, that can be problematic for them,” said Dana. For now, onlookers can still enjoy this rare burst of nature in their gardens and public spaces. “Sit back and be in awe at the spectacle,” advised John Cooley, a cicada expert at the University of Connecticut who tracks the emergences. “It will be over soon enough. Then think about where you will be in 13 or 17 years. It’s a time for introspection.” This article was amended on 8 April 2024 to correct the name of Brood XIII. It was formerly written as Brood XII. | ['environment/insects', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-07T10:00:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2024/sep/23/heather-knight-apologises-for-historical-blackface-photo-posted-on-social-media-cricket | Heather Knight apologises for historical blackface photo posted on social media | The England women’s captain, Heather Knight, has apologised after she was reprimanded and given a suspended £1,000 fine for attending a fancy dress party in blackface in 2012. Pictures of Knight at the party, an end-of-season event at a Kent cricket club with a “sports stars” theme, emerged recently on Facebook, leading to her being charged last month by the Cricket Regulator with bringing the game into disrepute. Knight, now 33 but 21 at the time the photographs were taken, admitted the charge but was able to demonstrate that – in the words of the interim director of the Cricket Regulator, Dave Lewis – “there was no racist intent in her conduct”. She also provided the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) with references which were “strongly supportive of [her] positive influence on players from different ethnicities and backgrounds”. The CDC’s adjudicator, the solicitor and former professional cricketer Tim O’Gorman, decided that details of the case should be published “so as to emphasise that such inappropriate behaviour, however historical, is not acceptable and will not be tolerated”. Knight will continue to lead the England side, including at the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates next month. “I’m truly sorry for the mistake I made in 2012,” Knight said. “It was wrong, and I have long regretted it. Back then, I simply was not as educated as to the implications and consequences of my actions as I have become since. There was no ill-intent meant. “Whilst I can’t change the past, I am passionate and committed to using my platform to promote inclusivity across the game ensuring underrepresented groups are afforded the same opportunities and fulfilment within the game as I have.” Richard Gould, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, said: “Heather recognises this was a serious error of judgment which took place more than 10 years ago and has rightly apologised. As a public figure and leader, Heather has worked tirelessly to foster a more inclusive and equitable future for cricket. She has championed initiatives to promote diversity and strongly advocated for marginalised communities. She has shown herself to be a positive role model. While we cannot change the past, we can certainly learn from it. This incident serves as a reminder of the ongoing work to combat racism and discrimination. We remain committed to fostering a culture of respect, inclusivity, and belonging for all.” | ['sport/england-women-cricket-team', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/cricket', 'campaign/email/the-spin', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/simonburnton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-09-23T16:47:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2023/jun/06/concussion-grassroots-sport-tracked-uk-government-sportsmart-app | Concussion in grassroots sport to be tracked by UK government | The UK government is to conduct a two-year programme of research into concussion in grassroots sport, using an app to track the symptoms of injury and their treatment. With the potential to provide unprecedented insight into the prevalence of head injuries within amateur sport, the trial will be open to any grassroots organisation. Data will ultimately be used to assess the effectiveness of the Concussion Guidelines for Grassroots Sport, new rules announced this year by the government and the Sports and Recreation Alliance. The sports minister, Stuart Andrew, encouraged grassroots teams and clubs to take part in the trial. “Sport is vital to our physical and mental wellbeing so it is crucial that we do all we can to prioritise safety for all involved,” he said. “Alongside our guidance, technology has an important role to play in tracking and measuring the incidence of concussion at a grassroots level.” The free app to be used in the study is SportSmart. Described by its creators, the sports injury charity Podium Analytics, as a digital platform that “enables risk management and injury prevention” at school and sports clubs, the app has 165,000 users in the UK. One of its central functions is a “concussion recognition and symptom severity tool”, which operates alongside a traffic light system to notify coaches or teachers of a suspected concussion. Andy Hunt, the chief executive of Podium Analytics, said the app had been built with the intention of filling a void in the reporting of head injuries at grassroots level. “Only 2% of UK schools and grassroots sports clubs have a system for recording and managing sport-related concussion,” he said. “For organisations to successfully implement the new government concussion guidelines, a centralised digital system to record and manage head injury incidences is needed.” In April the government published its first guidance on the treatment of concussion in grassroots sport. Applying the general rule of “if in doubt, sit it out”, the guidance urged coaches, teachers and referees to immediately remove anyone with a suspected concussion from the field of play and to have players assessed by a healthcare professional. According to the guidelines, anyone who sustains a concussion should not play contact sport for 21 days and should not return to any form of training for 14 days. Among the signs and symptoms of concussion listed by the guidance include: disorientation, dizziness, mental clouding, visual problems, “pressure in head” and sensitivity to light and sound. The guidelines state: “Spotting head impacts and visible clues of concussion can be difficult in fast moving sports. It is the responsibility of everyone – players, coaches, teachers, referees, spectators, and families – to watch out for individuals with suspected concussion and ensure that they are immediately removed from play.” | ['sport/concussion-in-sport', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-recap', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paulmacinnes', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-06-06T00:00:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2018/apr/06/phone-camera-microphone-spying | Are your phone camera and microphone spying on you? | Dylan Curran | Here is what the former FBI director James Comey said when he was asked back in September 2016 if he covered his laptop’s webcam with tape. “Heck yeah, heck yeah. Also, I get mocked for a lot of things, and I am much mocked for that, but I hope people lock their cars … lock your doors at night. I have an alarm system, if you have an alarm system you should use it, I use mine.” If he does, we all should. Who could be accessing your camera and microphone? Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Viber Felix Krause described in 2017 that when a user grants an app access to their camera and microphone, the app could do the following: Access both the front and the back camera. Record you at any time the app is in the foreground. Take pictures and videos without telling you. Upload the pictures and videos without telling you. Upload the pictures/videos it takes immediately. Run real-time face recognition to detect facial features or expressions. Livestream the camera on to the internet. Detect if the user is on their phone alone, or watching together with a second person. Upload random frames of the video stream to your web service and run a proper face recognition software which can find existing photos of you on the internet and create a 3D model based on your face. For instance, here’s a Find my Phone application which a documentary maker installed on a phone, then let someone steal it. After the person stole it, the original owner spied on every moment of the thief’s life through the phone’s camera and microphone. The documentary tracks every move of this person, from brushing their teeth to going to work. To grabbing a bite to eat with their co-worker to intimate moments with a loved one. This is the power of apps that have access to your camera and microphone. The government Edward Snowden revealed an NSA program called Optic Nerves. The operation was a bulk surveillance program under which they captured webcam images every five minutes from Yahoo users’ video chats and then stored them for future use. It is estimated that between 3% and 11% of the images captured contained “undesirable nudity”. Government security agencies like the NSA can also have access to your devices through in-built backdoors. This means that these security agencies can tune in to your phone calls, read your messages, capture pictures of you, stream videos of you, read your emails, steal your files … at any moment they please. Hackers Hackers can also gain access to your device with extraordinary ease via apps, PDF files, multimedia messages and even emojis. An application called Metasploit on the ethical hacking platform Kali uses an Adobe Reader 9 (which over 60% of users still use) exploit to open a listener (rootkit) on the user’s computer. You alter the PDF with the program, send the user the malicious file, they open it, and hey presto – you have total control over their device remotely. Once a user opens this PDF file, the hacker can then: Install whatever software/app they like on the user’s device. Use a keylogger to grab all of their passwords. Steal all documents from the device. Take pictures and stream videos from their camera. Capture past or live audio from the microphone. Upload incriminating images/documents to their PC, and notify the police. And, if it’s not enough that your phone is tracking you – surveillance cameras in shops and streets are tracking you, too You might even be on this website, InSeCam, which allows ordinary people online to watch surveillance cameras free of charge. It even allows you to search cameras by location, city, time zone, device manufacturer, and specify whether you want to see a kitchen, bar, restaurant or bedroom. How would we feel if someone were standing outside our bedroom window, staring in through the curtains. The most common response would be to call the police. However, what do we do when everyone is being monitored? We shake our head, and try to forget it’s happening. Try to go on with our lives and ignore the constant nag that we’re being watched. If this article achieves anything, I hope it teaches you digital mindfulness. This is the act of being careful on the internet and taking precautionary measures to save yourself pain and potential ruin in the future, all because you didn’t install an antivirus or put a little bit of tape over your camera. A good first step to counteracting these issues is study what permissions an app asks for. Does an app like LinkedIn really require camera access? Does an app like Twitter really require microphone access? Before you download an app, check out the reviews and search for any negative information about it to prevent yourself future harm. Always make sure to cover your webcam with tape, and plug out your microphones when you’re done using them. You never know who’s watching, or what’s happening in the background on your device. It’s only paranoia until it’s too late. Dylan Curran is a data consultant and web developer who does extensive research into spreading technical awareness and improving digital etiquette | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/internet', 'media/social-media', 'technology/hacking', 'media/digital-media', 'technology/technology', 'technology/smartphones', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/dylan-curran', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-06T13:11:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2009/oct/11/council-tax-spending-rubbish | £1 in every £3 of council tax in England and Wales spent on rubbish | English district councils spend £1 in every £3 of council tax revenue on gathering and disposing of household rubbish, figures obtained by the Guardian show. Anti-waste campaigners have condemned the cost as too high and criticised local government for not doing enough to cut waste. According to the figures, councils in England and Wales spent £4.5bn in 2007-08 dealing with refuse, including collection, landfill and recycling. Overall, local government spends 18% of council tax revenue on dealing with rubbish, but that masks a lot of variation between regions and councils. The English district councils spend 32% of their council tax take on waste, while Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire spends 36%, Cambridge City Council 43% and Berwick-on-Tweed 37%. By comparison, the amount spent by councils on minimising waste, for example on working with businesses to produce less, is tiny – just £43m in 2007-08, or less than 1%. The London boroughs collectively spent just £1m on minimising rubbish compared with an annual budget of £774m on waste. The data was provided by the Welsh Assembly and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. "We still have a lot of valuable materials that are going into landfill," said Dr Michael Warhurst, Friends of the Earth's senior waste campaigner. "We should be putting more resources into waste prevention. Education of the public is one part of it," he added. The UK currently landfills 57% of its waste, recycles 34% and incinerates the rest. Landfill is expensive, almost full and contributes to climate change. The landfill tax paid by councils to central government is currently £40 per tonne of waste, rising to £48 in 2010, and the methane emissions from organic waste breaking down in landfill account for 3% of the total UK greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Audit Commission's Well Disposed report, published in September 2008, if our current bin addiction continues, the UK's landfill sites will be full in just six years. The same report said that few councils expect waste minimisation efforts to have much impact on the total volume of rubbish that households produce. But Gary Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association's environment board, said that councils were doing their best to reduce waste. "Councils are working tirelessly to boost recycling rates so less money is paid to the government in landfill tax and council taxpayers get an ever better deal. "Emptying the bins is one of the most important services a council provides and they will not apologise for spending the money needed to get the job done … Councils regularly give advice to residents about how they can cut waste and they are campaigning hard to make the producers of waste, for example supermarkets, pay more towards its disposal." But according to the Audit Commission, 75% of councils do not encourage the use of mail preference services to cut down junk mail, 62% do not work with the private sector to reduce waste, 30% provided no waste reduction education for their public and 30% failed to promote re-use services. A spokesperson for the LGA added that councils would prefer to keep the money they pay to the Treasury in landfill tax and spend it on better recycling services. He pointed out that local councils do not just get their funding from council tax. Government grants and other funding top the pot up to around £107bn, but of that total three-quarters is taken up by education, social care and police. Warhurst was critical of expensive public-private partnerships to build waste incinerators, which he called a "key cost" in councils' spending on waste. "These often involve secretive multibillion-pound contracts that can last 20 years or more. They also could provide a perverse incentive for councils not to reduce the amount of waste produced by their constituents. Usually [the contract stipulates] either guaranteed minimum amounts of waste that will be supplied or minimum payments whatever the volume of waste," he said. Last week, the French company Veolia Environmental Services lost a high court battle to keep the details of its £850m waste management contract with Nottinghamshire county council secret after a campaign by local resident and waste campaigner Shlomo Dowen, of People Against Incineration. "This decision, which is clearly the right one, strengthens our right to see how public money is spent buying public services from large corporations," said Dowen. "I am not convinced that Nottinghamshire council is getting best value for our money – now I will be in a better position to investigate those suspicions." Linda Crichton, from the government's Waste and Resources Action Programme's (Wrap) local government services team, said: "We are getting very high levels of interest in support for waste prevention from local authorities and it is moving to the top of their agendas. By next year, we need to have reduced the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 75% of the level it was in 1995 and targets get tougher in subsequent years, so it has never been more important for local authorities and householders to make the best use of the resources we have." | ['environment/waste', 'money/counciltax', 'environment/environment', 'society/localgovernment', 'tone/news', 'society/society', 'money/money', 'uk/uk', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/recycling', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesranderson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-10-11T22:56:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
society/2019/dec/22/readers-donate-more-guardian-telethon-charities-climate-crisis | Readers donate more than £42,000 during Guardian telethon | Generous Guardian and Observer readers donated over £42,000 to the climate emergency charity appeal during the papers’ annual charity telethon on Saturday, pushing the overall total to more than £400,000. A team of journalists and editors, including the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, George Monbiot, Owen Jones, Gary Younge, John Crace and Marina Hyde took hundreds of calls from readers as the Guardian newsroom turned into a pop-up call centre between 10am and 6pm. The appeal, which runs throughout the festive period, is supporting four charities that promote environmental and social justice through natural climate solutions, from safeguarding the Amazon rainforest to rewilding parts of the Scottish Highlands to planting trees in Britain’s towns, cities and countryside. The charities are Woodland Trust, Trees for Life, Trees for Cities and Global Greengrants Fund UK. Introducing the appeal earlier this month, Viner, said although the onus was on governments and corporations to take major steps to avoid global climate catastrophe, this year’s charity appeal “highlights ways we as citizens can support practical, natural solutions to climate change”. Responding to the news, Eve Rehse, the executive director of Global Greengrants UK, said: “On behalf of indigenous communities protecting the Amazon rainforest from destruction, we would like to thank the public for your incredible generosity and solidarity. “It shows that there is hope for natural solutions to the climate emergency, and that we can all work together to look after our planet and safeguard future generations. With the funds raised, Global Greengrants Fund UK will enable hundreds of initiatives that are conserving and restoring the Earth’s lungs – the Amazon.” Readers have left scores of email messages through the online donation page outlining why they gave. Many said they believed climate emergency was the most important issue affecting the planet. Others said there was an urgent need to protect their family and community’s future, and had little confidence the government would take bold enough steps to tackle the crisis. Many said they loved trees, nature and wildlife and wanted to protect natural habitats. One reader wrote: “At a time that feels very bleak, these projects not only offer some comfort, but powerful examples of how we can overcome our individual despair and seek to build a better future together.” The appeal continues until midnight on Sunday 5 January. Readers can donate online here or send a cheque (payable to the Guardian and Observer charity appeal 2019) to: The Guardian and Observer charity appeal 2019, Charities Trust, Suite 20-22, Century Building, Tower Street, Liverpool, L3 4BJ. | ['society/series/guardian-and-observer-charity-appeal-2019', 'society/society', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrickbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-22T14:48:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2020/feb/01/britain-beauty-test-cities-countryside-planners | Britain has failed the beauty test: in our cities and countryside, planners run amok | Simon Jenkins | Seldom does a philosopher get to rule. Now one does – if, sadly, posthumously. The late Roger Scruton’s government-backed report on “building better, building beautiful” is political philosophy in the raw. It comes hot on the heels of the government’s agriculture bill proposing a complete shift in farm support away from food and into “public money for public goods”. If adopted, these twin pillars of rural and urban environment could see the greatest reordering of Britain’s public face in the 75 years since the war. They are both about that most elusive concept, beauty. The farm bill remains opaque. The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which separated towns from countryside as an inherent “good”, all but collapsed under David Cameron’s developer-driven government. It delivered sheds, hypermarkets and housing estates sprawling unplanned round almost every town in southern England. It turned communities into raging nimbys, and planning decisions into court cases. Rules on everything from tower blocks to expanded villages were made so uncertain that planning defaulted to anyone who could afford a lawyer. Post-Brexit, farm subsidies will now go to “land management”. This is ill-defined but rumoured to embrace soil quality, woodland and wildlife protection, rewilding and public access. There is no sign as yet that ministers will decide how much of Britain’s countryside the public will be allowed to treat as beautiful. But that surely is a “public good”. We now need only an Aristotle to stride the land. As for buildings, we now have an Aristotle. Scruton is not afraid to summon the names of Kant and Stendhal to his cause. No, he says, beauty is not “subjective”. We can tell it from ugliness because we can debate and agree or disagree about it. This is not a matter of free markets but of market regulation. As Scruton says, we are democrats, local as well as national. We have a duty to one another and our children to protect and promote public beauty. That this should come from a philosopher of the right is the more welcome. Scruton’s report is co-authored by Nicholas Boys Smith of the consultancy Create Streets. It opens with a devastating critique of the Cameron government’s 2012 planning framework. It left a landscape “littered with debris”, a planning regime “biased towards ugliness” and a public that has “lost confidence in developers and their regulators”. The report cites a planning inspector allowing windowless flats in Watford, knowing they would be instant slums, because he “lacked grounds for their refusal”. This is planning in a state of collapse. For the moment, development is driven by the same absurd machismo typified by HS2, a belief that prosperity lies in centralism, bigness, disruption and public extravagance. Small and local is for wimps. Beauty is for herbivores. The so-called national infrastructure commission is not a regulator but a lobby for the “big eight” building contractors and their grand projects. As Scruton and Boys Smith point out, this approach to planning is deeply un-green. It favours the destruction of old buildings with tax reliefs and starter subsidies. It imposes 20% VAT on conserving the “embedded energy” of existing buildings, but subsidises the carbon release of new ones. In addition, identikit estates have densities so low as to require a car journey for every need. This is global warming “planned in” to the system. It is refreshing to read a Whitehall report that gets the message of America’s Ed Glaeser and others, that “green means urban”. Happiness lies not in anonymous sprawl but in the adaption and intensification of existing city buildings. New York has the lowest per-capita carbon footprint in the US. The report advocates the “gentle densification” of Britain’s underoccupied cities. West Yorkshire has 2,400 mills lying vacant, offering 52,000 new homes. Britain’s low property taxes effectively subsidise emptiness, which in London – with one of Europe’s lowest densities – conceals potential homes for “millions more households”. There is no mystery about what people find beautiful. A Mori survey for the report found they wanted “vernacular and human scale”. They hated towers, though they did not mind high density. Indeed, the highest London densities are not in tower block estates but in Victorian street terraces. The most popular urban neighbourhoods are in tightly packed old parts of towns, in London’s Soho and Shoreditch, in Manchester’s northern quarter and Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, in Hebden Bridge and Halifax. Here are buildings designed to last. As the report says: “The beautiful building is one that outlives its original use.” The report is not anti-development. It rather demands that promoting beauty be explicit in planning control – and ugliness explicit in refusing consent. It proposes meticulous and specific changes in regulations. Communities should be empowered to vote down ugliness. Builders should know what is allowed and not allowed, to speed up their work. They should be steered towards popular urban forms, such as streets, squares, shops, trees and water, to the “fine-grained city”. There is even a suggestion of a fruit tree for every house and bricks for birds and bees. Scruton does twee. We have yet to see what “public goods” are envisaged for Britain’s farmland and countryside. But for towns and cities, Scruton and Boys Smith have demanded a total reversal of policy. A blueprint of passionate intensity, for a dignified and democratic planning regime. The opposition will be fierce. As the urban and rural landscape already demonstrates, builders have grown used to getting their way. A measure of the task can be seen this week in Norwich. Here an inquiry is sitting into the crudest imaginable 20-storey tower block, planned to rise over the city centre and leer at its ancient cathedral. There is not another city in Europe that would even think of permitting such an outrage. That is the challenge Scruton bequeaths us. • Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/planning', 'culture/scruton-roger', 'environment/farming', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'environment/environment', 'culture/culture', 'politics/politics', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/simonjenkins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-02-01T07:00:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2013/apr/19/national-trust-renewables-windfarms | Why is the National Trust investing in renewables while fighting a windfarm? | Chris Goodall | All praise to the National Trust for announcing on Thursday it would increase the use of renewable energies at its properties. The promise to produce more than half of its power and heat from heat pumps, wood, solar and hydroelectric power by 2020 is a model for all organisations. But at the same time as cutting its use of fossil fuels it is actively opposing others who want to do the same on land adjacent to its own. As the largest environmental organisation in the UK, with 4 million members, its overall influence on the development of renewable energy is not benign. The trust is fighting against 25 windfarm proposals it says are within sight of its houses or landholdings. Its determined and (so far) successful opposition to four wind turbines within sight of the majestic Lyveden New Bield ruin in Northamptonshire is a good example. The four proposed wind turbines would be easily visible from the property. To many, this is reason enough for the National Trust to lead the opponents of the scheme in court battles. The problem is that the annual electricity output of this small windfarm would be similar to the National Trust's total renewable energy production in 2020. In other words, all its heavily publicised efforts to improve its own energy performance are outweighed by its block on just one commercial windfarm. Overall, the wind projects opposed by the trust – some of which are large farms substantial distance offshore – offer the prospect of several hundred times as much energy as it could conceivably generate from other technologies on its own land. The National Trust owns 250,000 hectares, about 1% of the total area of the UK. A large fraction of this land is in windy coastland areas suitable for the development of wind energy. By its almost blanket opposition to the development of turbines, onshore or offshore, within sight of its landholdings, the trust is slowing the growth of the UK's lowest cost form of renewable electricity generation. It reserves the right to comment on proposed wind turbines that are up to 15km from the nearest National Trust property implying, one suspects, most the western coastline of the UK is within its purview. In fact, it goes further: the trust's list of windfarms that it is "keeping an eye on and/or opposing" includes the offshore Celtic Array, which will be at least 19km from the nearest part of Anglesey. It may have a point at Lyveden New Bield but does it really have to worry about turbines quite so far from land? The number of days each year when this windfarm will be actually visible from rainy west Wales will be few. Nevertheless Simon Jenkins, the chair of the National Trust, has asserted an unqualified and almost feudal right to complain about prospective wind turbines that "blot the landscape when seen from our territory". In contrast, the trust itself regularly comments on the need to reduce the UK's emissions. It recognises that climate change is likely to have more effect on its historic houses than other buildings, commenting: "The National Trust is already experiencing the impacts of climate change at many properties, such as flooding, storm damage, rainwater incursion, vegetation change and habitat changes." So I asked the trust why it rarely, if ever, actually supported wind development anywhere in the UK. It responded by providing details of just three applications that it had backed. The first was a Devon windfarm that was, in the trust's own words, hardly within sight of its land: "open visibility", it said, "is largely restricted to the very southern end of the park". The others were similarly only just within view of the trust's properties. More generally, the trust told me that it did not have the resources to actively back wind developments. Like others, perhaps, I found this a strange comment from an organisation with an income of £400m a year, 4 million members and a clear awareness of the threats from climate change. It is prepared to throw huge sums at resisting windfarms it doesn't like but won't write a letter to support even the most inoffensive developments. No one should doubt the trust's own commitment to increasing the use of small-scale renewables at its own properties. But therein lies the problem. Small-scale renewables will never provide the amount of low-carbon electricity that the UK is committed to generating by 2020. Wind power, particularly onshore, is quick to develop and relatively low cost. And it is effective: turbines provided 15% of the UK's electricity during last Sunday and new output records are being set by the week. We urgently need the Trust to move away from its unthinking opposition to commercial wind power. Its moral influence in the UK is unmatched and a more rational view of the importance of wind is long overdue. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'uk/national-trust', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/chrisgoodall'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2013-04-19T11:25:09Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2022/jul/15/lytton-british-columbia-wildfire-threatened | Canadian village destroyed by wildfire in 2021 evacuated due to wildfire | The British Columbia village that was nearly fully destroyed by wildfire in 2021 is now under evacuation orders as a quickly growing wildfire once again threatens the area. Lytton made international headlines last year when a fire engulfed the town, destroying most of the houses and businesses. The fire came days after the village posted record-breaking summer temperatures of 49.6C. In the months that followed, some residents on the outskirts of the community returned and began the slow process of rebuilding. On Friday morning, however, the British Columbia Wildfire service said the Nohomin Creek fire is out of control and has doubled in size since Thursday evening, growing to 500 hectares. At least 50 residents in the Lytton area have been ordered to evacuate, as have several reserves within the Lytton First Nation. “We are prepped just in case the unthinkable happens again,” Tricia Thorpe, a Lytton resident, posted on Facebook. She and her husband rebuilt their house after it was destroyed in last year’s fire. They intend to stay, having installed a sprinkler system meant to protect houses from wildfire and confident the fire won’t jump the Fraser River. The fire is burning on the west bank of the river, across from Lytton. Houses on the west shore of the river, part of the Lytton First Nation Reserve, were largely untouched by the 2021 fire. “We have three elders that are in the direct line of this fire and we’re working to make sure that they’re safe and that we can get the fire out as soon as possible,” John Haugen, deputy chief of the Lytton First Nation told reporters. “We are experiencing another fire … in the Hell’s Gate area. We have to be prepared for many things on really short notice.” “The events of 2021 and the impacts to the village of Lytton and the Lytton First Nation are forefront in our minds,” Rob Schweitzer, director of fire centre operations in Kamloops, told reporters. Helicopters and 60 more firefighters are expected to arrive in the area Friday. | ['world/canada', 'world/wildfires', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/drought', 'world/canada-wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-07-15T17:17:33Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2016/oct/03/how-is-hurricane-matthew-affecting-you-share-your-experiences | How is Hurricane Matthew affecting you? Share your experiences | The number of people killed in Haiti by the devastating effects of Hurricane Matthew rose above 330 on Thursday night as rescue workers and aid agencies battled to reach remote areas of the country, assess the damage and deliver relief. The hurricane, which hit Haiti on Tuesday, brought 145mph winds and torrential rains that destroyed more than 3,200 homes, displaced 15,000 people, ruined plantations and drowned animals. The toll leapt on Thursday night as receding waters revealed more bodies. By Friday morning Matthew was battering Florida, becoming the first major hurricane threatening a direct hit on the United States in more than 10 years. The state’s governor, Rick Scott, warned that lives would be lost and neighbourhoods could be wiped out by one of the most powerful storms in living memory. If you’re in the region, we’d like you to share your experiences of what it’s like where you are. Share your thoughts, experiences and photographs using the form below and we’ll use a selection in our reporting. Please only contribute if it is safe to do so. You can share your experiences with us via Whatsapp: +447867825056. Please include the words ‘for publish’. Terms and conditions here. You can also share your photographs by clicking on the blue ‘Contribute’ button on this article. You can also use the Guardian app and search for ‘GuardianWitness assignments’ – and if you add it to the homepage – you can keep up with all our assignments. GuardianWitness is the home of readers’ content on the Guardian. Contribute your video, pictures and stories, and browse news, reviews and creations submitted by others. | ['world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'world/haiti', 'world/jamaica', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricane-matthew', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-readers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | world/hurricane-matthew | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-10-03T15:11:04Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/feb/07/plastic-waste-uk-should-not-pass-buck-to-worlds-poorest-say-mps | Plastic waste: UK should not pass buck to world's poorest, say MPs | A cross-party group of MPs is calling for a ban on the export of plastic waste over concerns the UK is passing the buck to the world’s poorest people to clean up its rubbish. MPs have tabled an early day motion to highlight growing concerns first raised by the National Audit Office that millions of tonnes of plastic waste sent abroad for recycling may be being dumped in landfill. The EDM is sponsored by the Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, Green party MP Caroline Lucas, Labour MPs Geraint Davies and Mike Hill, Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake, and Kelvin Hopkins, an independent MP. The plastic recycling system in the UK has been in the spotlight since China banned imports of plastic and other waste from the west over concerns about the quality of the material. It was followed by Malaysia – which imported 105,000 tonnes of plastic for processing last year – imposing restrictions, and then Thailand and Vietnam, leaving the plastic recycling export market in crisis. Two-thirds of UK plastic waste is exported for recycling in an industry worth £50m last year, rather than being processed and used in the UK. The Guardian revealed recently that the export market was under investigation over suspected abuses. The MPs said many of the countries in the global south receiving the UK’s rubbish had high levels of plastic waste mismanagement and they were extremely concerned that the sight of piles of plastic rubbish generated in the UK was increasingly common across the global south. “This house … strongly condemns the practice of leaving some of the world’s poorest people to deal with the UK’s plastic waste … The government should not pass the buck to the global south on plastic, instead dealing with our own waste on UK soil,” the motion read. The MPs said they were backing a campaign by A Plastic Planet for a complete ban on plastic waste exports to the developing world. Businesses in the UK have long complained that they are disadvantaged when it comes to processing plastic waste in the UK. They have called for more investment into processing plants in the UK and an end to the incentives to export plastic to be recycled. But Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, warned that banning exports could backfire. He said it would mean more plastic ending up in landfill in the UK. “Most of our plastic exports take place in a compliant manner,” said Ellin. “If we were to ban the legitimate trade in recycled plastics, then it will decimate our industry, prices will crash and material will end up in landfill … We should definitely look to invest in our own plastic reprocessing infrastructure in the UK, but exports should have their place too as part of a global economy.” | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/internationaltrade', 'business/business', 'business/global-economy', 'business/economics', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-02-07T15:30:54Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2010/oct/05/pope-uk-environment-department-costs | Pope's UK trip hands embattled environment departments £3.7m bill | The £10m bill for the Pope's visit to the UK last month was split between six government departments, with £3.7m of costs coming from environment and energy budgets, documents show. The way in which the costs of the controversial visit were divided across government has angered some environmentalists at a time when spending on carbon reduction is under threat and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) is fighting for its independence. The information was revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request filed to the Treasury via the website whatdotheyknow.com. The Treasury said the total budget for the four-day visit, excluding policing, was £10m. These costs were administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which paid the first £750,000. The remaining £9.25m was split equally between the five departments deemed by the Treasury as having policy objectives aligned with the government's aims for the Pope's visit. The departments for environment, farming and rural affairs; communities and local government; education and international development also contributed. In a statement regarding Decc's contribution the Foreign Office said the Vatican had "a proactive stance" on the environment the Pope's visit would "reposition the issue of climate change not just as a matter of economics and energy security, but also one of social justice, stewardship of the natural world and of fundamental import to the peaceful coexistence of man". During the visit, the climate and energy secretary, Chris Huhne, met with Cardinal Turkson, the Vatican lead on climate change. However no announcements have been made about what was discussed. Speaking to MPs, peers and religious leaders gathered at Westminster hall, Pope Benedict XVI made a brief mention of the environment. He said: "The Holy See also looks forward to exploring with the United Kingdom new ways to promote environmental responsibility, to the benefit of all." Leader of the Green party, Caroline Lucas, said the Pope was not known for his achievements in addressing climate change. She said: "At a time of severe financial cuts when Decc itself is fighting for survival it seems quite extraordinary that these departments should have been asked to contribute to the Pope's visit which it seems has little or nothing to do with advancing aims on climate change." Jonathan Porritt, the former chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, which was axed in July as part of cost-cutting measures, said: "My comment on this to the secretary of state for Decc and Defra is 'say 10 Hail Marys and rethink your priorities.' " Grace Bennett, policy manager at the Micropower Council a trade body for companies specialising in small-scale renewable energy, said: "This type of expenditure seems absurd at a time when policies crucial to our transition to a genuine low-carbon economy such as the renewable heat incentive and the feed-in tariff are at risk." The Vatican has taken steps to green its energy supply. The roof of the Paul VI auditorium carries 2,700 solar panels - a gift worth $1.5m (£940,000) from the German company Solar World. Another wealthy donor paid for trees to be planted in a Hungarian national park to offset all of the Vatican's carbon emissions. In 2014 the Vatican will open its €500m 100-megawatt solar power plant. This will make Vatican City, the world's smallest country, the first in the world to be powered solely by renewables. Excess solar electricity will be exported across its borders into Italy, where it will be used to power 40,000 homes. Based on the current feed-in tariff, electricity produced by the plant could earn the Vatican €57m (£49m) a year, according to estimates by the UK firm Solar Century. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-economy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/politics', 'world/pope-benedict-xvi', 'world/catholicism', 'world/christianity', 'world/religion', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/the-papacy', 'type/article', 'profile/frederika-whitehead', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2010-10-05T09:36:04Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2017/oct/09/indias-supreme-court-bans-diwali-fireworks-in-delhi-to-tackle-pollution | India's supreme court bans Diwali fireworks in Delhi to tackle pollution | India’s supreme court has banned the sale of fireworks in Delhi during the upcoming Diwali festival, hoping to prevent the usual spike in toxic air pollution levels that accompany the holiday. Last year’s Hindu festival of lights, in which tens of thousands of firecrackers are burst in Delhi over several days, left the city sheeted in toxic smog that forced the closure of schools, power stations and construction sites. The increase in airborne pollution to levels up to 29 times higher than World Health Organisation standards led the supreme court in November to ban the sale of fireworks in the Indian capital. The ban was overturned after a challenge by fireworks manufacturers, but India’s highest court said on Monday it would remain in place until November to monitor whether air pollution levels would be substantially affected. “Let’s try out at least one Diwali without firecrackers,” one judge said on Monday, according to The Hindu. The court was hearing a public interest lawsuit brought in the name of three toddlers, asking for judicial intervention to force the state to boost vehicle emissions standards and control dust, among other measures to clear the air. Studies have attributed Delhi’s extremely poor air quality to factors including construction activity, road dust and vehicle emissions, all of which worsen in winter when slower winds and colder temperatures trap more pollution in the city. Autumn is also when farmers across Punjab, Haryana and other states surrounding Delhi burn the crop waste on their properties, sending plumes of dark, foul smoke billowing across the Ganges plain. Adding to this cocktail each Diwali is the bursting of tens of thousands of cheap firecrackers, sometimes manufactured using toxic chemicals such as mercury and arsenic, turning Delhi into what its chief minister last year called a “gas chamber”. High levels of toxic pollutants in the air have been linked to increases in respiratory diseases, heart attacks and strokes. A 2015 study found about half of Delhi’s 4.4 million schoolchildren had compromised lung capacity and would never totally recover. On 15 October the Delhi government will implement a new scaled action plan that restricts polluting industries and traffic as the air quality worsens. Diesel generators will be stopped, parking fees will rise and public transport services will increase when the air is classed as “very poor”. At emergency levels, trucks will be prevented from entering the city, construction will halt and traffic will be restricted to number plates ending in odd numbers one day and even numbers the next. Despite an official ban on setting fire to crop waste, pollution control officials have reportedly warned that even greater amounts are likely to be burned this year than in the past. Firecracker manufacturers argue that their product only causes a temporary jump in pollution levels and that state efforts should be directed at the year-round contributors to Delhi’s dirty air. Nights of bursting colour in the sky have become a fixture of the festival in the city and many Delhi residents are likely to bristle at the ban. One popular Mumbai-based author, Chetan Bhagat, compared the ruling to “banning Christmas trees on Christmas”. How strongly the sale ban will be enforced remains to be seen, though one seller, Anwar Ali, said he would grudgingly comply with the order. “It’s a headache that isn’t going away,” he said of the decision, from his fireworks store in south Delhi. “They say the firecrackers increase the pollution but I don’t believe that. All they do is kill mosquitoes.” He said uncertainty over the legal status of fireworks had left the business he ran with his brothers 2.5m rupees (£30,000) in debt and he was struggling to pay his children’s school fees. Hundreds of people in his village, Swarupnagar, just outside Delhi were involved in manufacturing or selling firecrackers and would suffer without the traditional surge in Diwali sales, he added. “The whole village survives on these firecrackers.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'world/india', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/diwali', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-safi', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-10-09T13:57:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2023/jan/13/tornadoes-georgia-alabama-south-death-toll | Deaths from US tornadoes rise to nine as crews search for trapped survivors | The death toll from tornadoes that tore through parts of Georgia and Alabama rose to at least nine on Friday afternoon as rescue crews continued to search for trapped survivors and additional victims. Authorities were beginning to get a better picture of the damage caused by a twister that wrecked buildings and tossed cars in the streets of historic downtown Selma, Alabama, late on Thursday. Houses were torn off their foundations and property was smashed up and flattened by flying debris and ripped up trees. Searchers in Autauga county, Alabama, found a body after daybreak near a home that had been badly damaged, authorities said. That death brought the toll to at least seven in the same county, about 40 miles northeast of Selma. At least 12 people were taken to hospitals, Ernie Baggett, Autauga county’s emergency management director, said as crews cut through downed trees looking for survivors. About 40 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged, including several mobile homes that were launched into the air. Buster Barber, the Autanga coroner, told Reuters: “We are finding more bodies as we speak,” and that he expected the number of people killed to rise further. Two other victims were confirmed in Georgia, including a five-year-old child riding in a vehicle struck by a falling tree in central Butts county, and a state transportation department worker killed while responding to storm damage. At least 35 possible tornado touchdowns were reported across several states, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), while the National Weather Service (NWS) said suspected tornado damage was reported in at least 14 counties in Alabama and five in Georgia. Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina and North Carolina all saw tornado warnings for a time. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses were still without power in Georgia and Alabama on Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. In Selma, a city etched in the history of the civil rights movement, the city council used lights from cellphones as they held a meeting on the sidewalk to declare a state of emergency. The tornado cut a wide path through the downtown area, where brick buildings collapsed, oak trees were uprooted, cars were on their side and power lines were left dangling. Plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city from a fire burning. It wasn’t immediately known whether the storm caused the blaze. Selma’s mayor, James Perkins, said no fatalities had been reported, but several people were seriously injured. “We have a lot of downed power lines,” he said. “There is a lot of danger on the streets.” Malesha McVay took video of the giant twister, which would turn black as it swept away home after home. “It would hit a house, and black smoke would swirl up,” she said. “It was very terrifying.” Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, posted on Twitter: “I am sad to have learned that six Alabamians were lost to the storms that ravaged across our state. My prayers are with their loved ones and communities. We are far too familiar with devastating weather, but our people are resilient. We will get through it and be stronger for it.” Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, surveyed some of the worst storm damage on Friday by helicopter. In some areas, he said, rescue teams had to dig into collapsed homes to free trapped survivors. Officials in Griffin, south of Atlanta, told local news outlets that multiple people had been trapped inside an apartment complex after trees fell on it. One store in the city partially lost its roof, while elsewhere in town firefighters cut a man loose who had been pinned for hours under a tree that fell on his house. The city imposed a curfew from 10pm Thursday to 6am Friday. School systems in at least six Georgia counties canceled classes for almost 100,000 children on Friday. In Kentucky, the National Weather Service in Louisville confirmed that a tornado struck Mercer county and said crews were surveying damage in a handful of other counties. Three factors – a natural La Niña weather cycle, warming of the Gulf of Mexico probably related to the climate crisis and a decades-long shift of tornadoes from the west to east – came together to make Thursday’s tornado outbreak unusual and damaging, said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University who studies tornado trends. La Niña, a cooling of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide, was a factor in making a wavy jet stream that brought a cold front through, Gensini said. But that’s not enough for a tornado outbreak. What’s needed is moisture. Normally the air in the south-east is fairly dry at this time of year but the dew point was twice what is normal, probably because of unusually warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, which is probably influenced by climate change. That moisture hit the cold front and everything was in place, Gensini said. Meanwhile, California can expect another clobbering from the ongoing series of severe storms, driven by yet another so-called atmospheric river weather event arriving to drench the state and dump up to six feet of snow at altitude between Friday and Tuesday. | ['us-news/state-of-georgia', 'us-news/alabama', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/tornadoes', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-01-13T19:57:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/dec/16/renton-righelato-obiutary | Renton Righelato obituary | My father, Renton Righelato, who has died aged 79, was a microbiologist and conservationist who worked to protect threatened environments around the world. Born in Mitcham, London, to shopkeepers, Lilian (nee Beard) and Enzo Righelato, Renton attended a local grammar school, and went on to study microbiology at Bristol University. He excelled in his field and, in the mid 1970s, became head of research and development at Tate & Lyle, where he worked on food preservation and freshness. Renton met Nancy Scott when they were both 17, and they married in 1965. His job took them to the Lake District, where their children – my brother, Jason, and I – were born, and then to Reading. Renton and Nancy divorced in 1978, and he married Pat Cotton in the same year. A passionate conservationist, after taking early retirement in the early 1990s Renton devoted his time to environmental causes, serving as a trustee of the World Land Trust for more than a decade, helping to safeguard and restore tracts of some of the world’s most threatened habitats, particularly in Ecuador. He fought to change attitudes to deforestation, lobbying in magazines, scientific journals and newspapers for recognition of the long-term benefits of maintaining existing forests and regenerating forests on arable land. Renton also championed his local wildlife, and was instrumental in the founding of the Lea Farm nature reserve in the Loddon valley. A lifelong ornithologist, he served as honorary secretary, chair and president of the Berkshire Ornithological Club. He also worked with Berkshire Bird Atlas Group on the publication of The Birds of Berkshire, and took great pleasure in working with Jason on developing a digital bird atlas app. Earlier this year he published Berkshire’s Birdscapes, a review of the changes to the county’s bird fauna over the last 75 years. Renton’s brother Keith has fond memories of exploring the wilds of Mitcham Common with him in the early 1950s, arguing over the identification of a moorhen, or possibly a coot. A couple of years later, Renton’s birdwatching took him to St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly, and his heart remained there for the rest of his life. He first visited the island as a 15-year-old, with a local bird ringing group, to establish a bird observatory, and would return every year, sometimes two or three times a year. Renton is survived by Pat; by Keith and their sister, Marian; and by Jason and me, two stepdaughters, Sarah and Rachel, and six grandchildren. | ['environment/birds', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'science/microbiology', 'environment/deforestation', 'type/article', 'tone/obituaries', 'profile/rowan-righelato', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-12-16T16:59:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2018/jun/04/weatherwatch-lightning-and-telephone-calls-can-be-a-shocking-combination | Weatherwatch: lightning and telephone calls can be a shocking combination | Making phone calls during thunderstorms can be shocking. During the big thunderstorms over the bank holiday weekend, lightning struck a telephone pole and set fire to a phone box in Dawlish, Devon. Luckily, no one was using the phone at the time, but people making phone calls indoors have been hit from lightning strikes outside. On 14 July 1995, a woman working in a shop at Glasgow Zoo was on the phone when lightning sent a surge of electrical current through the phone. It flew from her hand and she described a feeling like being hit by a sledgehammer. That same day, the telephone exchange in Kirkcaldy, Scotland was also hit and several of the phone operators working there sustained electric shocks. Lightning strikes down phone lines have knocked others unconscious, and delivered burns or temporary hearingloss. Even a phone not in use can be blown up by a lightning strike. Mobile phones are much safer. It’s a myth that mobiles attract lightning, but if someone is struck by lightning and happens to be using a mobile phone, they can get burns around the ear and cheek. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'technology/telecoms', 'uk/uk', 'environment/spring', 'technology/mobilephones', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-06-04T20:30:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
lifeandstyle/2016/feb/24/kitchen-gadgets-review-vinnebago-corkcicle-flask-rhik-samadder | Kitchen gadgets review: Vinnebago – a cocktail shaker wearing a tuxedo | What? Vinnebago by Corkcicle (£30, selfridges.com) is a treble-walled, vacuum-insulated cask. Reduced heat transfer allows liquids to maintain their temperature over time. Why? It’s hard to stay cool for 25 hours. Even Lou Reed took his sunglasses off sometimes. Well? This has a clear design: to sex up the humble Thermos. (Sorry, I mean vacuum flask, for legal reasons.) It looks like a cocktail shaker wearing a tuxedo. The silver lettering on matt black is italicised to suggest speed and modernity. One problem: Corkcicle is a brand name about as edgy as a satsuma. They may as well have called it Vanderlust by Winnie the Pooh. Still, they’re gunning for an upmarket crowd. The list of suggested drinks includes vodka, fresh pressed juice, “cellar-temp red wine”, hot toddy and mocha. (How do you get an invite to that picnic?) Oh, and “soup”. If I had any cellar-temp red wine I wouldn’t drink it out of a flask previously containing mulligatawny. This product is aimed at fantasists who think an insulated beverage container will somehow open doors for them – “Excuse me, sir, liquids are not allowed on the aeropl- oh, you have a Vinnebago by Corkcicle? Let me upgrade you immediately, and here’s my number if you need anything. Anything at all.” I suspect I am that fantasist. So let’s put this vacuum flask to the test. It is technically a vacuums flask. Instead of a standard double wall separated by vacuum, the bottle’s interior contains three walls separated by two vacuums. The added insulation keeps drinks “hot for 12 hours, and cold for 25, wherever you go”. I didn’t go anywhere. But I did I put boiling water in it at 10pm. At 11am (13 hours later), it was a respectable 65C, warm enough to burn my lips. Ice water went from 1C to 2.2C in 25 hours, cold enough to burn my throat. I’m highly impressed, and burned. Let’s be honest, vacuum flasks – totem of railway enthusiasts, daytrippers and wet weekends – will never be sexy, hot to trot or dangerous like Dirty Harry. The only way to make a Thermos cool is put it inside a bigger Thermos. You need to flask yourself one question – do you feel like a hot cocoa, punk? If yes, this is your lucky day. Any downside? Sounds like a Transylvanian camper van. Has no inbuilt cup. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? Flask master. 4/5 | ['lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'lifeandstyle/homes', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-02-24T08:45:35Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2022/aug/23/water-sewage-britain-shores-politicians-ceos | Roll up, roll up and meet the watery overlords pumping sewage on to our shores this summer | Marina Hyde | I have an idea in the public policy/apocalyptic light entertainment space. No water company boss should be allowed to collect their salary or bonus unless they take a long and exhaustively reported dip in the waters of one of the beaches they’ve pumped sewage into that same morning. Just think of it. The first wild swimming article you’d genuinely want to read. In the meantime, the water firms keep on doing it, with one of the hottest summers on record punctuated by daily reports of both drought and sewage discharge. Environment Agency data suggests the amount of raw sewage pumped into seas and rivers by the water companies has increased 2,553% in the past five years. To Jonathan Swift, scatological humour seemed the rational satirical response to the state of early 18th-century politics. To us, it’s simply the factual state of affairs. There’s no real need to write a metaphorical poem about parliamentarians dabbling in their dung, since any MP who has holidayed on these shores this summer has literally done it. In England, the water firms have paid £72bn in shareholder dividends since privatisation, and are somehow still whining about the difficulty of finding money to invest in infrastructure (privatisation was, strangely, always cited as the best way of boosting said infrastructure). So you have to ask: what was it that first attracted water company CEOs to a poorly regulated monopoly from which they have collectively siphoned out a combined £58m in salaries and bonuses since 2017, and where average boss bonuses have increased 20% in the past year of corporate failure alone? I guess you’d have to go with: love of water. Just a deep and abiding fascination with the famous clear liquid, the old H2O, and any other aquatic synonymisation that will ideally secure me a place in Second Mentions. I keep trying to picture that bit of the job interview where the would-be water CEOs explain that they are ultimately just passionate about water, and are in no way corporate sharks who just need something or other to swim through on the way to their economic prey. Naturally, there’s been a renewed focus on the politicians who got us here. Yesterday the Guardian revealed that sewage discharge doubled after a huge “efficiency” cut to the Environment Agency in 2015, ordered by then environment secretary Liz Truss. Truss … of course, of course. Special mention must also be made of all the Conservative MPs who – on the very eve of Boris Johnson’s Cop26 climate conference last year – opted to vote against stopping sewage being dumped in rivers, without requiring firms by law to make the urgent investments needed to stop it happening for millions of hours, year after year. Once again, you really do have to marvel at the cheapness and beaten-ness of the UK. At least in the US, it costs lobbyists untold millions to get individual politicians to sell their soul, and do grotesque things to benefit the industries they represent. Yet every time you see footage of raw sewage power-hosing out on to a UK beach in the constituency of someone who voted for it to be allowed, do reflect on the fact that it probably only cost some public affairs wanker a couple of Champions League tickets. So that’s the politicians. Yet what of the firms themselves, and the so-called “regulator”, Ofwat? So few of us know our watery overlords. Way back when I worked on this newspaper’s Diary column, we’d occasionally announce new featured characters culled from whatever were the enraging news stories of the time. These selections of horrors and irritants were unveiled seasonally, with fanfares such as “Announcing our Spring Collection” and “We are pleased to confirm the following lines will be carried in our Summer Collection …”. Given the state of this utility alone – more on the others later this week – I very much feel a new collection needs to be hastened out. It does seem rather unfair that the attention lingers only on the politicians, when the water company CEOs are themselves doing so much to delight us, yet somehow fly under the household-name radar. Let’s immediately add them to the Autumn Collection. A sarcastically warm welcome to public life, then, to Sarah Bentley, boss of Thames Water. Come on out, Sarah! Joining her are CEO of Anglian Water, Peter Simpson, and Yorkshire Water’s Nicola Shaw. Don’t be shy, guys. A slow clap too for Wessex Water’s Colin Skellett, Steve Mogford of United Utilities, South West Water’s Susan Davy, Southern Water’s Lawrence Gosden, Severn Trent’s Liv Garfield and Northumbrian Water’s Heidi Mottram. Welcome, all! We do hope to be spraying much, much more unsolicited content about you across the pages and airwaves over the coming months, the better to showcase your very British success stories. And don’t let’s forget David Black, chief exec of Ofwat, which – despite the increasingly deafening public outcry – can’t even be bothered using its full range of powers to sanction water company directors via their remuneration packages. What are you waiting for, David?! Then again what is anyone waiting for, as the public realm plunges deeper into chaos and dysfunction, other than Liz Truss to make landfall? As for the type of place she’s going to blow into, that has passed beyond the realm of metaphor and become all too grimly literal. Yup, welcome to Shit Creek. Population: us. Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist What Just Happened?! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber, £18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at the Guardian Bookshop. Delivery charges may apply Marina Hyde will be in conversation with Richard Osman at a Guardian Live event in London on 11 October. Join them in person or via the livestream – book tickets via the Guardian Live website | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'business/utilities', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'environment/pollution', 'politics/liz-truss', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/marinahyde', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-08-23T13:05:47Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
housing-network/2015/dec/11/cumbria-george-osborne-build-homes-floods | As Cumbria struggles, Osborne plots to build homes on floodplains | Not everyone is equal in their capacity to recover from flooding. Tenure, for example, is a particular problem: people who rent privately and struggle to get their landlords to fix even minor problems in their homes may be up against significant challenges in the face of natural disaster. Meanwhile housing associations and councils, already blasted by cuts, are likely to struggle to repair homes quickly with dwindling funds and mass staff layoffs. Many socially deprived areas are also in high-risk flood areas: charting the Indices of Multiple Deprivation against maps of flood risk shows a high correlation between poorer areas and those vulnerable to flooding, especially as a result of rainwater flooding. Currently national policy frameworks for flooding fail to take into account socio-economic vulnerabilities in planning for climate change and flooding, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warns. The scenes from Cumbria’s flooded villages were harrowing enough. The mental toll of having your home flooded is huge, but even more so for those with existing mental health problems, disabilities and older members of the communities hit. So what is the government planning to do to mitigate the effects of increased flooding risk? Make sure you’re sitting down for this part. Almost half of the areas fast-tracked for new housing development by George Osborne are on floodplains, a Greenpeace investigation has shown. Meanwhile the number of staff in the flood and coastal erosion risk management section of the Environment Agency, which advises councils on flood risk, fell by 230 in the past three years. The government response to floods and climate change is completely shambolic. After cutting flood defence and Environment Agency funding, failing to stop rural policies that sharply increase flood risk and deciding to build homes to temper the housing crisis in areas at high risk of flooding, is not so much ignoring the problem as inflaming it. Cuts have consequences, as food banks and homelessness rates show, and cuts that ignore climate change are a deliberate social injustice to the poorest and most vulnerable tenants and homeowners. To add insult to injury, Flood Re, the government scheme designed to mitigate high insurance costs for tenants and homeowners at risk of flooding, has been described as needlessly expensive and inadequate by policy experts working in climate change and social policy. Often a million pound farmhouse in the top band of council tax will benefit, while a flat above or adjoining a commercial property will not, as the lease is purchased for the whole building. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of household budgets will tell you that someone who can afford a five-bedroom home will be far more financially resilient in an emergency than someone renting a two-bed flat for them and their children. The scheme, repeatedly delayed and now to be launched in April 2016, is likely to be lucrative for insurers, but still costly for those hit. A householder in the cheapest two bands of council tax will pay no more than £210 for the flood aspect of their buildings insurance, and the government hopes the scheme will keep down reportedly large excesses – as high as £20,000 for some – but there’s nothing in writing to guarantee this. Even more worrying is the fact Flood Re is likely to only apply to the 1-2% of properties most at risk of flooding: climate change and increased risk of flooding nationwide means far more people are now vulnerable. The sight of David Cameron in wellies and a hard hat will have done little to cheer up Lancaster’s flood stricken residents (haven’t they suffered enough?) but it may be a sight we’ll have to get used to, thanks to idiotic fiscal policy decisions. Sign up for your free Guardian Housing network newsletter with news and analysis sent direct to you every Friday. Follow us: @GuardianHousing | ['housing-network/housing-network', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/uk', 'housing-network/tenants', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'society/housing', 'society/communities', 'society/society', 'politics/georgeosborne', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/dawn-foster'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-11T07:25:12Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/commentisfree/2024/mar/18/peter-dutton-nuclear-energy-ban-removal-support | Peter Dutton wanted a plebiscite on marriage equality. Why not hold another on his nuclear fantasy? | Paul Karp | When the Coalition was paralysed by whether or not to legislate marriage equality, it turned to the wisdom of the people. The plebiscite was divisive, an obstacle to marriage equality which could have been dealt with by a free parliamentary vote, and which many queer people felt was a referendum on their dignity. One of its proponents, the now opposition leader, Peter Dutton, concluded that the postal survey had worked, was appropriate for a “fundamental change” to society, but should not be repeated. I think a popular vote on what was a human rights question – equality before the law – was a very bad idea. But more participatory democracy in general is a good idea. A plebiscite should be held on election day 2025, on nuclear energy. This too is a contentious public policy issue, requiring legislative change for a new industry, which the Coalition concedes will require a social licence. What better way to test whether the Australian people are up for nuclear than by asking them? The Albanese government should propose a plebiscite with two questions: first, do you support removing Australia’s ban on civilian nuclear energy? Second, would you support a nuclear generator in your local area? Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The energy minister, Chris Bowen, is adamant: nuclear energy is too expensive, estimated to cost $387bn, and is not technologically feasible, as small modular reactors are not commercially available. Nuclear power in Australia is so far off in the future it will require coal power plants to have their life extended, exacerbating global heating. The shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, admitted as much last week when he said the Coalition did not want coal plants retired “prematurely”. So far the Albanese government is united, but there are some cracks such as the Labor-affiliated Australian Workers’ Union calling to lift the ban. While most in Labor are institutionally, instinctively anti-nuclear, there is also some frustration that by refusing to even consider the ban, Labor might be allowing Dutton to pretend that government is the obstacle to nuclear power, rather than its exorbitant cost and investors’ appetite for the renewable alternative. Putting it to the people clears that argument away. The arguments against nuclear – cost unfeasibility, and worsening the climate crisis in the near term – are excellent. I expect they’d carry the day. As the voice referendum showed, even if there is some support for change, fear of the unknown is always the easier case. If, somehow, the Albanese government managed to lose the first question, I doubt many people would be putting their hand up for a nuclear reactor in their back yard. Already the Coalition is mooting the possibility of “incentives” for communities that host them, some sugar to help the radioactive medicine go down, precisely because it knows it would be too unpopular otherwise. Risk-averse governments tend to be a bit like barristers abiding by the rule don’t ask a question you don’t know the answer to. Or, in the popular vote context: don’t offer people a choice if you don’t really want to carry out their orders. Ask David Cameron, a Remainer who promised a referendum on leaving the EU, only to watch on horrified as team Brexit carried the day. He lost the referendum and his prime ministership, because it wasn’t credible for him to implement the people’s decision, which he didn’t agree with. But, if re-elected, an Albanese government would be in no such bind. Even if the Coalition were able to persuade people to agree to lift the ban, and some communities didn’t object to a nuclear plant, all Labor would be committed to is lifting the ban, not actually delivering nuclear energy. Lift the ban, and wait for the nuclear industry to spring up. It won’t – because nuclear energy is prohibitively expensive, and would require taxpayer support to get off the ground. Or a carbon price, which is what the Australian Nuclear Association has said would be required. I’m sure the next election will be about many things. Labor will want to run on its record, its cost-of-living relief and the macroeconomics if it slays the inflation dragon. The Greens want to run on housing affordability. But Dutton’s commitment to an expensive and distant prospect in order to deflect from his party’s lack of action on climate change will be a major issue. Far from indulging the nuclear fantasy, a plebiscite is the best way to make people wake up to it. | ['australia-news/series/the-agenda', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/peter-dutton', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2024-03-17T14:00:38Z | true | ENERGY |
news/2016/feb/19/waetherwatch-hambling-washington-airport-us-snowboard-measure-snowfall | Jumping off your snowboard into a stew | Last month’s snowstorm in Washington DC failed to break records, in spite of the volume of snow that fell. There was a problem with the measurements at Reagan national airport where meteorologists had not used the approved measuring aid, the snowboard. Snowboards are white to minimise snow melting on them, and they must be cleared at intervals to prevent packing or settling affecting the calculation. Snow measured as it piles up on the ground can give a distorted idea of the accumulation; the snowfall reading can give a lower amount than the correct figure. That is what seems to have happened last month at Washington. But this is not the first time an instrument malfunction has affected extreme weather measurement. El Azizia, in Libya, held the record for hottest place on Earth for 90 years, after a blistering 58C (136.4F) was measured in 1922. But a 2012 investigation from the World Meteorological Organisation ruled that “problematical instrumentation”, in the form of a potentially flawed thermometer, made the record invalid. The problem is not always solved by better instruments. The traditional spinning anemometer measures wind speed at a single point; the highest speed ever measured with one was 253mph. By contrast, Doppler radar can pick up the highest wind speed over a wide area. The highest radar windspeed is over 300 mph. But is it fair to compare this with earlier anemometer records? Still, at least with the missing US snowboard the Washington meteorologists had a good excuse: they lost it in a snowdrift. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/snow', 'science/science', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-02-19T11:39:26Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2020/dec/04/california-powerful-winds-ease-extreme-fire-danger-remains-dry-conditions | California: powerful winds ease but extreme fire danger remains due to dry conditions | Powerful winds that pushed wildfires through southern California, burning several homes and injuring two firefighters, began easing but forecasters warned that the fire danger remained on Friday. Fierce Santa Ana winds hit 50mph (80.5km/h) to 85mph (137km/h) at times throughout the region beginning Wednesday night, and were one reason that the National Weather Service issued red flag warnings of extreme fire danger into the weekend. The weather service said winds would be decreasing through Friday, down to 25mph to 45 mph into Friday morning. However, the red flag warnings remained up because of low humidity and tinder-dry brush. Firefighters were still busy battling a number of blazes. The biggest began late on Wednesday as a house fire in Orange county’s Silverado Canyon. Winds pushed the flames through the canyon. Some 25,000 people were ordered to flee their homes, although some evacuation orders were later lifted. “When crews arrived it was a fully engulfed house and the winds were extremely strong and they pushed flames into the vegetation,” said Colleen Windsor, a spokeswoman for the county’s fire authority. The fire grew to 10 sq miles (26 sq km) and blanketed a wide area with smoke and ash. It was 10% contained as calming winds helped hundreds of firefighters who fought the flames on the ground and by air. Two firefighters were hurt battling the fire but there was no immediate word on their conditions, fire officials said. Some residents said they did not receive evacuation alerts because Southern California Edison had shut off power as a precaution before the blaze erupted, leaving them without cellphone service. “I heard screams, like, ‘fire, fire, it’s right here so we have to leave right now,”’ resident Jerry van Wolfgang told KCBS-TV. “I looked out the window and it was already so big.” The fire was not far from the site of October’s Silverado fire, which also forced thousands from their homes and left two firefighters critically burned. To the south, a small blaze in San Diego county that threatened about 200 homes was fully contained on Thursday after destroying one home and damaging six others in a neighborhood near El Cajon. Numerous studies have linked bigger wildfires in America to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists have said climate change has made California hotter and drier, making trees and other plants more flammable. The fires erupted as southern California utilities cut the power to more than 100,000 customers to avoid the threat of winds knocking down or fouling power lines and causing wildfires. Southern California Edison cut power to nearly 50,000 homes and businesses but as winds eased the utility began restoring electricity. By late Thursday night, fewer than 20,000 customers were without power. San Diego Gas & Electric’s precautionary blackouts affected around 73,000 customers at the peak but the figure was down to around 40,000 by Thursday night. “Inspections of power lines will resume promptly after sunrise [Friday] morning with the focus of trying to safely restore as many customers as possible,” the utility said on its website. California already has experienced its worst-ever year for wildfires. The fire season started early in mid-August, when a freak lightning storm ignited hundreds of blazes across the state. Since then, more than 6,500 sq miles (16,835 sq km) have been scorched. At least 31 people have been killed and 10,500 homes and other structures damaged or destroyed. The latest fire threat comes as much of California plunges deeper into drought. Virtually all of northern California is in severe or extreme drought while nearly all of southern California is abnormally dry or worse. | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-12-04T16:05:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/jun/14/recycled-plastic-could-supply-three-quarters-of-uk-demand-report-finds | Recycled plastic could supply three-quarters of UK demand, report finds | Plastic recycled in the UK could supply nearly three-quarters of domestic demand for products and packaging if the government took action to build the industry, a new report said on Thursday. The UK consumes 3.3m tonnes of plastic annually, the report says, but exports two-thirds to be recycled. It is only able to recycle 9% domestically. Measures including increased taxes on products made with virgin plastic, and mandatory targets for using recycled plastic in packaging, could encourage an additional 2m tonnes of plastic to be recycled in the UK, the report from Green Alliance said. The analysis said simply collecting plastic and sending it abroad for recycling does not solve the problem of the global scourge of plastic pollution. “The UK does not have an adequate system to capture, recycle and re-use plastic materials,” the report said. It recommends three new measures to ensure more plastic is recovered in the UK and used as raw material in manufacturing. These are: Mandatory recycled content requirements for all plastic products and packaging; Short-term support to kickstart the plastic reprocessing market; and a fund to stabilise the market for companies investing in recycling plastic domestically. Green Alliance produced the report for a group of businesses that have formed a circular economy taskforce. Peter Maddox, director of Wrap UK, said the UK had to take more responsibility for its own waste. “Our mission is to create a world where resources are used sustainably. To make this happen in the UK, we need to design circular systems for plastics and other materials that are sustainable both economically and environmentally. This will require some fundamental changes from all of us.” The report said government action is necessary to create and support a secondary plastic market in the UK. “The government is uniquely placed to address the market failures that have led to unnecessary reliance on virgin materials to the detriment of the environment, industry and the economy.” UK businesses including supermarkets recently signed up to a pact to cut plastic. But voluntary pacts were not enough, the report said, and government action was needed. “A secondary plastic market ... could recycle an additional 2m tonnes in the UK and fulfil 71% of UK manufacturing’s raw material demand ... Voluntary initiatives like the UK plastic pact ... only thrive when supported by a credible prospect of government regulation if industry does not deliver.” | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-06-14T05:01:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/nov/25/pebble-mine-alaska-permit-denied-salmon | Government blocks proposed mine that threatened Alaska salmon fishery | The Trump administration on Wednesday denied a permit for a controversial gold and copper mine near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in south-west Alaska. The army corps of engineers said in a statement that the permit application to build the Pebble Mine was denied under both the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. The corps said the discharge plan from the Pebble Limited Partnership, the mine’s backers, did not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines. The agency “concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest”, according to the statement from Col Damon Delarosa, commander of the corps’ Alaska district. The Pebble partnership CEO, John Shively, said he was dismayed, especially after the corps had indicated in an environmental impact statement in July that the mine and fishery could coexist. “One of the real tragedies of this decision is the loss of economic opportunities for people living in the area,“ Shively said in a statement. The environmental review “clearly describes those benefits, and now a politically driven decision has taken away the hope that many had for a better life. This is also a lost opportunity for the state’s future economy.” But environmental and indigenous rights activists saw the decision as good news. Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League advocacy group, said the decision would be met with a “sigh of relief” from tribal people, fishers and local communities. “The credit for this victory belongs not to any politician but to Alaskans and Bristol Bay’s indigenous peoples, as well as to hunters, anglers and wildlife enthusiasts from all across the country who spoke out in opposition to this dangerous and ill-conceived project,” Kolton said. He added: “We can be thankful that their voices were heard, that science counted and that people prevailed over short-term profiteering.” Marc Fink, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the mine would have caused “irreparable damage” to the Bristol Bay area. “The corps’ decision is a huge victory for wild salmon, the Iliamna lake seal and other imperiled wildlife that call this spectacular place home,” he said. The corps of engineers in July released an environmental review that the mine developer saw as laying the groundwork for key federal approvals. The review said that under normal operations, Pebble Mine, proposed for south-west Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, “would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers and result in long-term changes to the health of the commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay”. However, in August, the corps said it had determined that discharges at the mine site would cause “unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources” and laid out required efforts to reduce those effects. That prompted Alaska’s Republican US senators to oppose the project. Senator Dan Sullivan, who won re-election in November, went so far as to declare the project “dead”. Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd, which owns the Pebble Limited Partnership, said it had submitted a mitigation plan on 16 November. If the project were to have secured approval from the corps, there was still no guarantee it would have been built. It would have needed state approval. Joe Biden, the president-elect, has expressed opposition to the project. Last year, the US Environmental Protection Agency withdrew restrictions on development that were proposed – but never finalized – under the Obama administration and said it planned to work with the corps to address concerns. Critics of the project saw Pebble as getting a lifeline under the Trump administration. However, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, was among those who voiced opposition earlier this year. The president said in August he would “listen to both sides” on the issue. The Pebble partnership had praised the corps’ environmental review, while critics of the project said it lacked scientific rigor. | ['environment/series/this-land-is-your-land', 'us-news/alaska', 'environment/mining', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/public-lands', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2020-11-25T20:34:18Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2012/may/01/water-companies-hose-drought-april | Water companies turn hose on drought naysayers | Water companies reached for words like "irony" today to explain to 20 million customers why they should save water even as rivers overflowed, gardens were swamped and fields became lakes after a further inch of rain fell in some regions in the space of 12 hours, and 36 flood warnings remained in place. "Be proud to be dirty," said a message on the Thames' water website urging vigilance in the drought that officially covers most of England and Wales. "A dirty car shows you are doing your bit to save water. Installing a water butt ... will help new plants survive without using precious tap water." But it added that anyone needing sandbags should ask their local authority. With April declared officially the wettest since records began in 1912 and farmers complaining that they need flood-tolerant crops this month after drought-tolerant ones last month, Thames tried to be understanding: "We are well aware of the irony that heavy rain set in after the hosepipe ban was announced. In fact, it hasn't really stopped raining since we and six other companies imposed hosepipe bans on 5 April ," said Richard Aylard, director of sustainability. "The irony of talking about a drought at the end of the wettest April on record is not lost on us," said Anglian Water spokesman Ciaran Nelson. "We just hope that people can cast their minds back to the two dry winters just gone and the summer we experienced last year, and all those things which add up to the situation we are in now". "You could not make this up," said Haylie Read, an Environment Agency spokeswoman who said it would take more than a week or two of heavy rain to undo the effects of nearly two years of well-below average rainfall. "The drought still stands. We're seeing lots of water on the surface but it needs to get down to the ground water. It's having some beneficial effects. It's good for farmers and gardeners, and the cool temperatures will ease the pressure on fish and wildlife in rivers. After two years of exceptionally dry weather, the continuous rain in April has started to restore water levels below ground, but it will take much more time and more rain to undo the effects of two dry winters on groundwater stores." According to the agency, what were exceptionally dry soils are now soaking up much of the rain, but where the soil has been compacted the water is rushing off into rivers which cannot cope, and are overflowing. "But it is not reaching down far enough to top up groundwater supplies, which is what we really need," she said. What makes it worse, say hydrologists, is that late April and May is the height of the growing season and trees and plants are taking up much of the moisture, so less is getting underground. "This is ridiculous, we are seeing monsoon weather even as 17 counties have water restrictions. This is Britain's weather at its most capricious," said Barnaby Smith, spokesman for the centre for Hydrology and Ecology , Britain's leading water research centre. "The contrast between March (the driest month in 59 years) and April (the wettest in 101) is quite extraordinary but this has just bought us some time. Soil moisture deficits have decreased massively in the last three weeks, but the deep-seated ground water aquifers [on which much of Britain's water supplies depend] have not recovered. "Some of the shallower wells are recharging but not the deep ones. This [rain] is not the solution for the deep aquifers which have been at some of the lowest levels ever recorded. We are still looking at next winter rainfall to recharge these. We have had below average rainfall for 22 out of the last 24 months." The only compensation is that the cold weather is not evaporating the rain quite as it might be expected to do in May. "If it carries on like this for another few months things may improve [from a hydrological point of view]. But by then we will all be totally fed up," said Smith. | ['environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-05-01T15:23:47Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2023/mar/02/sewage-bacteria-e-coli-ocean-spray | Not a breath of fresh air: study finds sewage bacteria in ocean spray | After a rainstorm passes, the air coming off the ocean just feels different – cleaner and fresher. But a first of its kind study shows how bacteria from sewage in the ocean can get whipped up in salt spray and blow into coastal communities miles away, a phenomenon exacerbated by storm runoff. The study, released on Thursday by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, looked at an area south of San Diego near the US-Mexico border, where a Mexican wastewater treatment plant often becomes overwhelmed and spews sewage into the Tijuana River. That river then flows north into Imperial Beach on the northern side of the border. The beach there was closed 249 days last year due to high levels of pathogens like E coli, norovirus and salmonella – but until now, little was known about what happened when crashing waves sent salt spray into the air. A team of researchers sampled coastal aerosols at Imperial Beach and water from the Tijuana River for 26 days between January and May 2019, focusing on times after storms. They used DNA sequencing to match bacteria and chemical compounds in coastal aerosols back to the sewage-polluted Tijuana River flowing into the ocean. They found that three-quarters of the bacteria in the air came directly from the sewage in the surf zone. It’s not yet clear whether these bacteria can make people sick, and experts are exploring the possible harms. “Are they potentially infectious? Some are pathogens and some are not. That’s something we’re working on now,” says Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at Scripps who led the work, which was published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. While the degree of risks remain unknown, the study is significant because it is the first time scientists have linked such pollution to coastal sea spray. It’s also the first time scientists have been able to quantify how much of the microbes in the air are traceable back to microbes in the sewage contaminated water, says Rob Knight, a researcher at San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering, who worked on the study. “Now we know this is a real phenomenon, we need to figure out the impacts for human health,” he says. Prather adds that these pathogens are typically thought of as food borne or waterborne. “There has been a huge focus on them being in the water, and not so much in the air,” she says. “We really don’t have any studies that say what would happen if you inhale these, this is a different exposure pathway than we have thought about, that anybody has thought about, before.” The team found the pathogens present a mile or two inland – and there is evidence that coastal salt spray can be blown hundreds of miles inland, but particles get more dispersed as they move away from the coast, Prather says. “We don’t know what the effect is yet of inhaling this cocktail that comes out of the ocean – it’s something we are trying to understand.” They are currently in the process of starting another study in the area that would spend 40 straight days sampling the air for bacteria, viruses and chemicals stemming from water pollution. Aerosols have been a hot topic in recent years, because of the nature of Covid-19 – but environmental scientists have been studying aerosols like wildfire smoke or sea spray for decades. When waves break, about 20% of the bacteria present break off easily from the water and bubble up into the air. Prather describes the process as a “hydrophobic goo that doesn’t like water, so it will almost float like oil on the surface of the ocean”. When waves crash and bubbles burst, that material launches into the air. Storms also release a huge amount of raw sewage into our waterways – from pet waste on streets to treatment plants that can flood like the one in Mexico. If the surf is high and there’s a lot of white foam, the conditions are primed for bacteria to be sent spewing into the air, says Prather. In just the past few weeks alone, during a series of brutal rainstorms in California that began on 28 December, an estimated 13bn gallons of raw sewage have been released into the waters around San Diego. “So there’s a lot more microbes in the water right now – more than maybe ever before.” Matthew Pendergraft, a recent graduate from Scripps Oceanography who obtained his doctorate under the guidance of Prather, says that rain should clean out any air pollution, but it comes down to an infrastructure problem that’s causing the polluted water. “This research demonstrates that people in coastal communities like Imperial Beach are exposed to coastal water pollution even without entering that water. Basic aerosol science states that these aerosols will travel further downwind than just on the beach.” After storms, bacterial levels can remain elevated for three days or more, according to the LA county department of public health. Prather says she thinks about air quality every time a beach is closed due to high levels of bacteria in the water, and she could see a future where warning signs are posted about breathing salty air on those days. “The dream would be to determine certain conditions where it’s bad to breathe the air,” she says. “We’d be able to do warnings for the public – just alerts like we do for high pollution days, where people who have sensitive lungs or young kids should be more cautious.” | ['us-news/us-news', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-gammon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-03-02T15:00:05Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2009/feb/25/ecstasy-cambodia | Cambodian 'ecstasy oil' factories destroyed by international environmental agency | Illegal factories hidden in the Cambodian rainforest that were producing a raw ingredient for the drug ecstasy have been tracked down and destroyed by investigators from an international environmental agency, working with the Cambodian authorities. In a month-long investigation the team from Fauna and Flora International (FFI) uncovered the illegal distilleries deep in the forest of the Cardamom mountains in south-west Cambodia. The two new facilities were intended to make sassafras oil from the roots of the extremely rare Mreah Prew Phnom tree for export to neighbouring countries. Sassafras oil is used to make cosmetics, but it can also be used as a precursor chemical to make methylenedioxymethamphetamine, more commonly known as the recreational drug ecstasy. FFI was alarmed that the rate of the illegal production of the "ecstasy oil" could have wiped out the Mreah Prew Phnom tree within five years. The trees are felled and the excavated roots mechanically shredded and boiled in a cauldron during a process that takes about 12 hours to produce 30 litres of oil. Surrounding trees are also felled to fuel fires for the distillation, threatening one of the last great rainforests in south-east Asia. Rivers are polluted by the effluent from the oil production. The two factories were discovered last month during the investigation by FFI staff working with Cambodia's environment ministry, which called in the army. The factories run by Vietnamese syndicates in the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary were destroyed and two people arrested. Sassafras oil production is illegal in Cambodia. Last year 33 tonnes of sassafras oil that FFI helped to seize was destroyed by the Cambodian government and the Australian police, who claimed it could have been used to produce 245m ecstasy tablets with a street value of £4.82bn. The environmental group first became involved in efforts to crack down on sassafras oil production in 2004 because of the alarming levels of deforestation. In the Phnom Samkos sanctuary FFI now supports 49 Cambodian environment ministry rangers who have closed dozens of factories. FFI staff estimate there were 75 sassafras oil distilleries operating in the sanctuary at the industry's height in 2006. The number has plummeted, but tight monitoring is vital to prevent a fresh upsurge. "The re-emergence of the sassafras factories in Phnom Samkos wildlife sanctuary is of enormous concern to us," said FFI field coordinator, Tim Wood. "Recent law enforcement operations clearly show that this threat still persists and that we must remain very vigilant in our effort to suppress this and other forest crimes. But the policing of the illegal trade is under threat from funding cuts and FFI is calling on the Cambodian government and international donors to support the work of the rangers in combating the production. | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/cambodia', 'society/society', 'environment/forests', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'society/drugs', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/ianmackinnon'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-02-25T15:57:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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