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uk/2012/jun/12/flash-flood-warnings-southern-england | Flash flood warnings for southern England | Householders and business owners are being warned about flash flooding in someparts of England as hundreds of people continued to mop up following the recent deluge. The number of flood warnings, which signal that flooding is expected and ordering people to take immediate action, rose to five overnight. All of the warnings concernedriverside areas in south-east England, including the River Ouzel in Bedfordshire. More than 40 flood alerts – which mean that flooding is possible – were issued by the Environment Agency, again mainly for the south-east but also for East Anglia, the Midlands, the north-east and south-west. Up to 65mm of rain has fallen within 24 hours, more than southern England's average rainfall for the whole of June, flooding homes and businesses, closing schools and disrupting transport. On Tuesday morning, four schools in West Sussex, which bore the brunt of the bad weather in England, were closed. A number of A-roads were closed and two lanes of the M3 were shut. A severe weather warning issued by the Met Office for London, the south-east, east and south-west of England and Wales remained in force.There is no end in sight to the bad weather in some parts of the country, with another area of low pressure bringing in more rainclouds expected later in the week. Though forecasters were not expecting torrential rain immediately, the fear is that even light rain on saturated ground could cause problems. The clear-up continued in areas such as Littlehampton, on the Sussex coast, where about 40 properties, including holiday B&Bs, were under as much as 1.2 metres (4ft) of water. Emergency services warned people to stay away from floodwater and not to attempt to drive through it. Health officials said people who swallowed floodwater should seek medical help if they felt ill. One other side-effect of the weather has been an increase in the number of rats leaving flooded sewers. In Wales, scientists are investigating if the flooding has washed downstream potentially harmful metals such as zinc and lead. More than 1,500 people were evacuated and 150 rescued after water gushed through homes and businesses in Ceredigion, Powys and Gwynedd, where as much as 150mm of water fell within 24 hours – twice the average for the whole of June. Ceredigion county council leader, Ellen ap Gwynn, said many people who had lost everything were not insured. She said: "It has been a once-in-a-100-year event. I think now the full scale of the damage and loss is beginning to sink in." The council is setting up a disaster fund for those not insured. "I would urge the public to donate everything they can to help those who have lost everything," she said. The Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, said the government was spending £40m on bolstering flood defences and tackling coastal erosion over the next 12 months. "The reality is you can't prevent flooding at all times, especially when you get very unusual weather patterns such as we've seen over the last few days in this part of Wales," he said. "The situation will be examined; we'll talk to the Environment Agency about what could be done to help boost flood defences in the future." The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies, said lessons had to be learned. "While we all hope this will be a once in a lifetime event for these particular communities, similar disasters have become increasingly common and it is incumbent upon the government to take steps to alleviate the causes. "It is also timely for ministers to look very closely at development on land prone to flooding and consider the introduction of policy to put an end to this practice." Despite the heavy rain, the Environment Agency confirmed areas of southern England still remained in drought, although it said the crisis was easing. A spokesman said: "The rain we have had since the start of April following the driest March for 70 years has led to a huge improvement in water resources. Water companies have seen reservoir levels rise, river levels are mostly back to normal and many wildlife habitats that were suffering due to a lack of water have recovered." | ['uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/wales', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-06-12T17:48:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/jun/17/climate-crisis-alarm-at-record-breaking-heatwave-in-siberia | Climate crisis: alarm at record-breaking heatwave in Siberia | A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths. On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Temperatures in the polar regions are rising fastest because ocean currents carry heat towards the poles and reflective ice and snow is melting away. Russian towns in the Arctic circle have recorded extraordinary temperatures, with Nizhnyaya Pesha hitting 30C on 9 June and Khatanga, which usually has daytime temperatures of around 0C at this time of year, hitting 25C on 22 May. The previous record was 12C. In May, surface temperatures in parts of Siberia were up to 10C above average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Martin Stendel, of the Danish Meteorological Institute, said the abnormal May temperatures seen in north-west Siberia would be likely to happen just once in 100,000 years without human-caused global heating. Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist at C3S, said: “It is undoubtedly an alarming sign, but not only May was unusually warm in Siberia. The whole of winter and spring had repeated periods of higher-than-average surface air temperatures. “Although the planet as a whole is warming, this isn’t happening evenly. Western Siberia stands out as a region that shows more of a warming trend with higher variations in temperature. So to some extent large temperature anomalies are not unexpected. However, what is unusual is how long the warmer-than-average anomalies have persisted for.” Marina Makarova, the chief meteorologist at Russia’s Rosgidromet weather service, said: “This winter was the hottest in Siberia since records began 130 years ago. Average temperatures were up to 6C higher than the seasonal norms.” Robert Rohde, the lead scientist at the Berkeley Earth project, said Russia as a whole had experienced record high temperatures in 2020, with the average from January to May 5.3C above the 1951-1980 average. “[This is a] new record by a massive 1.9C,” he said. In December, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, commented on the unusual heat: “Some of our cities were built north of the Arctic Circle, on the permafrost. If it begins to thaw, you can imagine what consequences it would have. It’s very serious.” Thawing permafrost was at least partly to blame for a spill of diesel fuel in Siberia this month that led Putin to declare a state of emergency. The supports of the storage tank suddenly sank, according to its operators; green groups said ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure was also to blame. Wildfires have raged across hundreds of thousands of hectares of Siberia’s forests. Farmers often light fires in the spring to clear vegetation, and a combination of high temperatures and strong winds has caused some fires to burn out of control. Swarms of the Siberian silk moth, whose larvae eat at conifer trees, have grown rapidly in the rising temperatures. “In all my long career, I’ve never seen moths so huge and growing so quickly,” Vladimir Soldatov, a moth expert, told AFP. He warned of “tragic consequences” for forests, with the larvae stripping trees of their needles and making them more susceptible to fires. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/poles', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/russia', 'world/arctic', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-06-17T15:49:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2008/jul/02/pollution.france | Ship breakers win permission to dismantle French aircraft carrier | A French aircraft carrier which was too toxic to break up in India will be taken apart in Britain, a controversial dismantling firm announced. The 32,700-tonne Clemenceau, once the pride of the French navy, has spent the past five years being moved around as officials tried to find a final resting place for the vessel, which contains 700 tonnes of asbestos. President Jacques Chirac had to call the ship back from India two years ago after the furious Socialist opposition embarrassed him over the decision to send France's waste abroad while "lecturing the world on the environment". Instead it will be broken up by Able UK, which caused an outcry when it brought four rusting US "ghost ships" to its dock in Hartlepool in 2003. Campaigners against the arrival of the "ghost ships" claimed the firm was making the country a dumping ground for foreign waste. After years of legal wrangling, Able has won planning permission and a waste management licence to allow it to break up ships - and bring jobs to Teesside. Able now has the world's largest dry dock and is aiming to win work dismantling oil rigs as well as ships. It has convinced the Health and Safety Executive it has the expertise to carry out the dangerous work, albeit with stringent conditions attached. Importing asbestos into the UK is illegal and requires special exemption from the HSE which it announced last week. "HSE has imposed strict conditions governing the removal of asbestos from the vessel. The exemption does not come into force until the company has been granted a waste management licence by the Environment Agency for the site," it said in a statement. An Environment Agency spokeswoman confirmed that a waste management licence had been granted to Able UK. She said the licence would allow the ship to be brought on to the site and dismantled within 12 months, but other regulatory requirements have not yet been met. The company now needs to apply to the agency for a "transfrontier shipment" permit which would allow the ship to be brought from France to Teesside. "Able UK has planning permission and an environmental licence but there are a few pieces of the jigsaw left to put in place," she said. The 51-year-old, 780ft (238m) Clemenceau, now known as hull Q790, could be towed from the port of Brest to Able's Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre (TERRC) later this summer. The ship saw active service in the Gulf and was decommissioned in 1997 after sailing more than one million nautical miles. Able chairman Peter Stephenson said he believed his firm could become a world leader. He said: "We have always argued that, given the opportunity, TERRC would lead the way in recycling ships to the highest possible environmental standards. "This has been underlined with the decision by the French authorities that we should undertake the work on the Clemenceau, which will be the biggest ship recycling project so far handled by any European yard." | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'world/france', 'world/india', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-07-02T09:05:31Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2015/dec/01/barack-obama-paris-climate-talks-republicans | 'Meteorologist-in-chief': Republicans mock Obama's Paris climate speech | Republican presidential candidates have poured scorn on Barack Obama for his comments at the Paris climate talks, with Mike Huckabee mocking him as the “meteorologist-in-chief” and Ted Cruz claiming Obama thinks “having an SUV in your driveway” is more dangerous than Isis. In a speech to more than 130 world leaders and other delegates at the key UN summit on Monday, the US president quoted Martin Luther King by saying “there is such a thing as being too late”. “And when it comes to climate change, that hour is almost upon us,” the US president said. “But if we act here, if we act now, if we place our own short-term interests behind the air that our young people will breathe, and the food that they will eat, and the water that they will drink, and the hopes and dreams that sustain their lives, then we won’t be too late for them.” The threat of climate change “could define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other”, he added. The president’s remarks were derided by Republicans, who accused him of failing to adequately recognise what they saw as the greater threat posed by Islamic militants. Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner in polls, said Obama’s speech was “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen, or perhaps most naive”. “I think one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard in politics, in the history of politics as I know it, which is pretty good, was Obama’s statement that our No 1 problem is global warming,” Trump, who disputes the mainstream scientific understanding that human activity is warming the planet, told CNN. Other Republicans vying for the party’s presidential nomination weighed in, with Texas senator Cruz telling a gathering in Iowa that Obama “apparently thinks having an SUV in your driveway is more dangerous than a bunch of terrorists trying to blow up the world”. Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, tweeted along similar lines, calling Obama “clueless” and mocking him as “meteorologist-in-chief”. Mitch McConnell, the US Senate majority leader, told the Senate that international leaders should be aware that there was more than one base of political power in the US and that Congress opposed Obama’s “regressive and likely illegal” regulations on power plants designed to slash their greenhouse gas emissions. “He’s currently trying to sell that power plan to world leaders in Paris as proof of the American government’s commitment to his energy priorities,” McConnell said. “But with all due respect to the president as our commander-in-chief, governments currently engaged in this round of climate talks will want to know that there is more than just an executive branch in our system of government.” McConnell raised the possibility of a Republican successor to Obama tearing up the power plant plan, claiming that the regulations “could result in the elimination of as many as a quarter of a million US jobs” without any significant impact upon world temperatures. As expected, Congress approved two motions on Tuesday to overturn Obama’s centrepiece emissions reduction policy, which uses the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The move is expected to be symbolic as Obama has promised to veto the bills. The votes went largely along party lines, although 10 Republicans sided with Democrats to oppose a motion that blocked emissions limits on new power plants. Steve Scalise, Republican majority whip, said Obama’s plan means “unelected bureaucrats at the EPA will bring forth regulations that will kill jobs in the US and increase energy and other costs on hardworking taxpayers.” The staunch opposition of Republicans is in contrast to the urgency expressed by a succession of international leaders over the need to tackle climate change. Pope Francis added his voice to the political leaders on Monday, warning that the world was “at the limits of suicide” if nations did not ramp up efforts to reduce emissions. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme warned that unchecked climate change, linked to extreme weather and prolonged droughts, risked leaving millions of people without reliable access to food. Obama had a working dinner with the French president, François Hollande, on Monday before meeting with leaders from small island nations on Tuesday morning. The US president announced a $30m package to help the island nations, which are particularly vulnerable to sea level rises and extreme weather, improve their climate resilience. | ['environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris', 'us-news/republicans', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-elections-2016', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/ted-cruz', 'us-news/mikehuckabee', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-12-01T17:14:15Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2014/feb/11/wenlock-edge-river-severn | Country diary: Wenlock Edge: The Severn takes its old lands back | Through the night the Severn took its old lands back. Its claim is stronger than ours, its transformative power beautiful and frightening. The morning began with a crackle of ice and a double rainbow. The Bifröst connecting Earth to Asgard; the bridge between worlds; the symbol of the Great Flood – in many cultures this refraction of light through raindrops twice, where the outer bow has the colours reversed, symbolises transformation. Given the epic weirdness of the weather and news reports of the floods, this rainbow seems doubly ominous. A dark thing heads towards the bridge over the Severn at Cressage on a bend in the river, with Wenlock Edge to the south and The Wrekin to the north. It's hard to tell what the thing is: a canoe, a body? As it gets closer, it looks more like a little submarine passing the almost submerged pillboxes left from the second world war. It moves quickly in the deeper flow surrounded by miles of flooded fields and copses with only a couple of swans and a few gulls in the distance. The road is a causeway to the bridge and it's a matter of hours, maybe less, before it disappears underwater. From the bridge, the dark thing turns into a log. It spins through the roiling, roaring eddies under the stone arch. The sound has a disturbing depth of pitch, giving a feeling of both threat and excitement. This is picked up by a few blackbirds and great tits agitating in brambles under trees next to the bridge. The 10ft log must have come from a farm in Wales, picked up by a torrent and thrown into the river like a stick for a dog. Upstream a mile or so, where the flood covers ploughed-up water meadows, it will have passed a place where swans and greylag geese gather for their own upping, as they do every year. The birds have a renewed grace that fits the flow of wild riverlands returned. The log speeds off around the bend towards the meanders at Buildwas, where huge oaks are brooding in the flood, a stillness before the tumult of the mill race through the Ironbridge Gorge, and then south, bringing beauty and fear. Twitter: @DrPaulEvans1 | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulevans', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-11T21:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2008/aug/21/carbonoffsetprojects | Carbon offsetting seems out of date | This is kind: Expedia, that well-known bunch of environmental do-gooders (occasionally also known as a large travel agency who would like more people to fly), have done a survey on carbon offsetting. Apparently 63% of their respondents say that basically they don't really understand it. The mystery to me is that it's only 63%, but then I suppose you have to count in the men who always claim to understand everything, and the die-hard greenies who will, given half a chance, fill you in on an IPCC report on the subject. Carbon offsetting is one of those ideas which appears simple on the surface: "I know, whenever we're using up carbon in one place, we'll get someone else not to use it somewhere else!" "Wow, Skippy, you're the best!" But it immediately turns murky and tendrily when you begin to stir it about. Which emissions do you want to cut? How do you set about it? Do you pay someone who has already cut his emissions, so you can prove it's really happened? But then you can argue that he would have done it anyway – in fact he has done it already. So you have to pay someone to cut emissions he would emit in the future... but everyone knows that trying to count things that might happen in the future is how you start off thinking that Wembley stadium will cost £326m and end up paying £798m. The problems become even more gruesome when you look at it on a macro scale, in the form of the clean development mechanism, the system which allows the Kyoto agreement signatories to offset their emissions by buying, say, dam projects or wind turbines, or paying factories for changing fuels. If you want to take a plunge into a world where Kafka and Alice in Wonderland might be found taking acid and screaming it's all too much man, just read up about the CDM. Pay particular attention to the idea of additionality – which is basically, how do you prove that the event which you are going to make happen wouldn't have happened anyway? It's a parallel-worlds-meets-Kafka approach to climate change, basically, nice in theory but perhaps less than ideal for averting a massive catastrophe for the human race? So back to Expedia's helpful role in finding out how people feel about the issue. Well, here we have a travel agency alerting us to the fact that people just aren't getting their head round carbon offsetting in the way they should. We are, of course, convinced that their helpfulness springs entirely from altruism, and is nothing to do with the fact that airline passenger numbers seem to be falling and that the aviation industry is staring into a future of rising fuel prices, rising airport charges and ecoheads who prefer to take the train. Is the aviation industry panicking as one airline company after another clears its desks and takes the pot plant home? We imagine they are: just like everyone else they are having to face the fact that after decades of cheap energy we are now being presented with a big fat bill. The reality, I think, is that as we get more serious about climate change and as governments start to take serious action – taxing upstream for example, by forcing power companies to take responsibility for their own emissions – the aviation industry will look back on the millennium as its golden age. Flying is never going to be so cheap and popular again, and that's just a fact. Voluntary programmes like offsetting for individuals will float away into the past. The future is getting here fast, and offsetting already seems old-fashioned to me. | ['environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/bibivanderzee'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2008-08-21T10:38:50Z | true | EMISSIONS |
society/2022/apr/17/plants-hold-key-to-developing-future-cancer-treatments | Plants hold key to developing future cancer treatments | Cancer care relies on complex therapies involving radioactive materials and sophisticated drugs and has come far from past remedies based on plants and herbs. However, scientists warn there is still a need to understand the botanical roots of tumour treatments – to maintain new sources of drugs and to ensure plant resources are not overexploited. The natural world still has a lot to teach us about tackling disease. An example is provided by Melanie-Jayne Howes, a researcher based at Kew Gardens in London. “An effective anti-cancer drug called paclitaxel was developed from the Pacific yew tree. However, it was based on a chemical that exists in very low yields,” said Howes. “Hundreds of trees had to be cut down to develop the drug. As a result, the tree is now classified as near threatened.” However, a solution has been provided – by botanists. Howes said: “A similar drug has since been found in higher concentrations in the common yew and this is now used, with much less ecological harm, to make paclitaxel, a treatment for ovarian and breast cancers. Basic research and understanding of plant biology has had a key impact on cancer treatment.” This point was reiterated by Prof Susan Short of Leeds University. “There are lots of different tumour types and tumour subtypes that are being discovered all the time so we still need new ideas and new drugs,” she said. Short is leading an extensive UK trial, funded by Cancer Research UK, of the cannabis-based medicine Sativex in order to treat patients with recurrent glioblastomas, an aggressive form of brain tumour. The trial will assess the impact of the drug – which is also used to treat multiple sclerosis and is delivered as an oral spray – on people undergoing standard chemotherapy. “We will be treating patients whose primary brain tumours have grown back after standard treatments, to see if adding this plant-based drug to subsequent chemotherapy helps to keep them alive for longer and to see if it improves their quality of life,” added Short. Plant-based treatments clearly have a vital role to play in cancer therapies, a point emphasised by Howes. “Even today, scientists have not been able to synthesise some drugs because they are so complex so we still rely on plants for key cancer drugs,” said Howes, whose work involves examining the plants and seeds found at Kew in order to pinpoint new drugs and medicines. As examples of past successes, she pointed to vinblastine and vincristine, two critically important drugs that are used to treat Hodgkin’s lymphoma, melanoma and several other cancers. The only source of these medicines is from extracts of the rose periwinkle, which is native to Madagascar but grown across the world as an ornamental plant. “The periwinkle was used originally as a traditional treatment for diabetes but subsequent research showed it had potential anti-cancer properties,” said Howes. However the efficacy of plant extracts is not restricted to the creation of cancer drugs. Medicines for many other conditions are still isolated from plants and used today. Galantamine, an extract of snowdrops, is used to treat dementia, while artemisinin, an extract of the plant sweet wormwood – a herb used in Chinese traditional medicine – was shown by the chemist Tu Youyou to be effective in treating malaria, a discovery that won her a share of the 2015 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. The emphasis on the power of plants to help people survive disease for longer and have better quality of life has important consequences outside the treatment of their conditions, added Howes. “If we can show how we can source new medicines from nature by unlocking the useful properties of plants, then we help treat disease, but we also demonstrate the value of biodiversity and provide an incentive for people to protect it.” • This article was amended on 22 April 2022 to include reference to Cancer Research UK funding the trial led by Prof Susan Short. | ['society/cancer', 'science/cancer', 'society/health', 'science/medical-research', 'science/science', 'society/society', 'science/kew-gardens', 'science/drugs', 'environment/plants', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-04-17T07:30:22Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
social-enterprise-network/2014/apr/14/indigenous-communities-social-enterprise | Indigenous leaders empowering communities through social enterprise | In the late 1960s, Tashka Yawanawá's father, from the Yawanawá Amazonian indigenous group, was in the first generation of his people to make contact with the outside world. They wanted to assert their rights to their land, prevent deforestation, and continue living ecologically. "Twenty years later my dad taught me English and sent me to university in America, so that I could be part of the next generation empowered to protect the forests," says Tashka. "We have now grown in number and have a variety of income streams which help to protect ourselves and the land." The indigenous chief spoke at the Skoll World Forum earlier this week, along with other indigenous leaders from Brazil, about their social entrepreneurship. His entrepreneurial spirit saw him link with natural toiletries company Aveda while in the US at university. The company still uses a natural dye from the forest in their products and buys rights to use the Yawanawá's image, providing a valuable income. A healing centre created in the forest for global visitors and other initiatives also provide a good income for the group of 800 people. There are more than 200 indigenous groups living in the Amazon forests, dealing with regular threats from companies trying to encroach. "We work with 25 indigenous groups, and some are very entrepreneurial and achieving a good income while preventing deforestation. We would like to see more companies working with them," says Vasco van Roosmalen, director of support organisation Equipe de Conservação da Amazônia, speaking at Skoll. Rosi Karirir, a teacher and film-maker from the Araujo tribe, told a small group at the event how she campaigned through education and political ranks to reach the education minister of Brazil and gained recognition for her group as indigenous so that they had some protection and rights. She also got officials to build a school and pay for teachers. "When the community saw we had the power to change and influence, it had an immediate effect on land rights, women's rights and children's rights," says Karirir, who studies at São Paulo university. "People have continued to organise, five women are going to university, and others are studying to be doctors or doing work in film and art." She tells how the area had been taken over by sugarcane farms for many years to produce gin and biodiesel, with an enormous negative social impact. "But, being organised, we managed to convince several farmers to donate land back." Chief Almir Surui, of the PaiterSurui people, has fought against illegal logging in his area since the mid-eighties, when he was just 10. Van Roosmalen told how the chief had been on a long journey to develop income sources that are both independent of charities and don't require destruction of trees. The group is now expected to bring in millions of dollars through selling carbon offsetting credits to natural toiletries company Natura, the second largest cosmetics company in Brazil. The money gained is for protecting land from logging and replanting trees under a new initiative created by Almir called the REDD+. It will be used for education and to continue protecting the forests. The initiative is an advance on the REDD that adds in a "plus sustainable forest management" clause into the "Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation" requirements. Van Roosemalen and others will now continue to work with indigenous people who want to act within the REDD+ scheme or bring in other initiatives to ensure they continue to have the power to protect and manage their own land through socially entrepreneurial spirit, he says. For more on the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, have a read of our live blog. For more news, opinions and ideas about the social enterprise sector, join our community | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'society/society', 'society/socialenterprises', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'sustainable-business/social-enterprise', 'sustainable-business/social-enterprise-blog', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/international', 'profile/claudia-cahalane'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-04-14T07:54:52Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
politics/2020/mar/12/policy-of-building-homes-on-flood-plains-to-be-reviewed | Policy of building homes on flood plains to be reviewed | The government has announced a review into the building of thousands of homes on land at the highest risk of flooding following the worst winter storms in years. The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, told MPs on Thursday that officials would review the policy of building homes on high-risk flood plains and bring forward changes “in the coming months”. The announcement, made at the end of a wide-ranging speech on the future of planning, will have significant implications for the government’s aim to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s to ease the chronic housing shortage. It comes after the Guardian revealed that one in 10 of all new homes in England since 2013 have been built on land the government considers at the highest risk of flooding, with more than 11,000 planned for high-risk flood zones in the counties battered by storms in November and February. Building on land prone to flooding is a risk to new homeowners and compounds the danger for surrounding areas, experts have said, as flood water that could otherwise be soaked up by green space instead runs quickly off concrete and into rivers. Jenrick told MPs: “We should seize this opportunity to consider how the built and natural environments can work together more harmoniously, and in that spirit, I will be reviewing our policy to prevent building in areas of high flood risk. “Given the recent devastation suffered by so many of our communities, we are putting an extra £5.2bn into flood defences.” Jenrick said the review would prioritise steering new developments “away from needless urban sprawl and the ruination of the countryside” and away from areas at the highest risk of flooding, which is about 10% of land in England. He added: “I hope more broadly that the announcement I have made today of a review of how the planning system interacts with flood plains and the increased risk of flooding that we are seeing in many parts of the country will be good news to those parts of the country that have seen floods in the last few weeks, and that we can bring forward changes in the coming months.” A joint investigation by the Guardian and Greenpeace’s Unearthed news unit last month found that of the 11,410 new homes planned across seven flood-stricken English authorities, 1,479 are in four of the areas hit hardest by Storms Ciara and Dennis: Calderdale, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcester. Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s chief scientist, said “The government has provided no details on this, but it seems as if ministers may have finally realised that building new homes in areas with high flood risk and inadequate defences is a recipe for continual disaster. “This is one of many examples where for far too long, the government has talked about the climate emergency without treating it as if it was real. The widespread damage and human suffering from the recent flooding have shown just how real it is. “The government should work up a more sensible policy that empowers local councils and the environmental watchdog to stand up to pressure from developers who are putting profits before people’s safety.” | ['politics/planning', 'society/housing', 'environment/flooding', 'politics/robert-jenrick', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'society/communities', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-03-12T17:12:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
books/2018/apr/24/michael-morpurgo-quentin-blake-and-jacqueline-wilson-join-authors4oceans | Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake and Jacqueline Wilson join Authors4Oceans | Fifty children’s authors, including Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake and Jacqueline Wilson, have come together to call on the book trade to ditch plastic and help save the oceans. The Authors4Oceans campaign wascreated by the award-winning novelist Lauren St John, whose children’s books include the eco-adventure Dolphin Song and the forthcoming seaside mystery Kat Wolfe Investigates. St John devised the project, which is asking publishers, booksellers and young readers to help halt the amount of plastic being dumped in our oceans, after she ordered a drink in a bookshop, and found it came with a plastic straw. “There are hundreds of bookshops across the UK, many of which hand out plastic bags, straws and bottles daily,” said St John, who is joined in her crusade by names including Morpurgo, Blake, Wilson, Katherine Rundell and Chris Riddell. “It occurred to me that an alliance of children’s authors, particularly those who write about nature and are passionate about the environment, might have a voice together. And if publishers, literary festivals and some of our young readers joined us, well – together – we could make a real difference.” Morpurgo, whose novels include Why the Whales Came and War Horse, added: “The greatest weakness we have, the greatest mistake we make is to take the world about us for granted. We use up the Earth we live in at our peril. It is a finite source and we have to remember that. Destroy it, and we destroy ourselves. It is that simple.” Publishers including Head of Zeus and Knights of have already signed up to the campaign, as has the independent bookseller Octavia’s Bookshop. Pledges for businesses include ending the use of disposable coffee cups and water bottles, and using reusable bags. The campaign is also launching a new competition, Oceans are Not Rubbish, which is calling on children to design and build models of endangered sea creatures out of plastic rubbish, and will be running beach-cleans and festival events to raise awareness of plastic pollution. Rundell, whose Amazon jungle-set novel The Explorer won the Costa children’s book prize earlier this year, said: “As children’s writers we aim to offer young people a sense of the vast wonder of the world. That world is under threat as never before, and with this campaign we’re saying: we can still save the oceans, if we act now. Not soon, but now.” The campaign’s supporters also include Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, whose book The Lost Words celebrates the nature words which are disappearing from our vocabularies, as well as bestselling writers Philip Ardagh, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, SF Said and Annabel Pitcher. | ['books/books', 'culture/culture', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'books/michaelmorpurgo', 'books/jacquelinewilson', 'books/quentin-blake', 'books/katherine-rundell', 'books/chris-riddell', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-04-23T23:01:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
stage/theatreblog/2009/nov/10/architecting-barbican-theatre | Can theatre be too clever for its own good? | Matt Trueman | Right, embarrassing confession time. To my shame, before Friday night I hadn't realised that Gone With the Wind was a novel. In fact, not having seen the film, the sum total of my knowledge consisted of Vivien Leigh and "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn". Beyond that, I could recognise the poster at 100 paces, given that it hung pretentiously on the wall of my student bedsit for three years in a bid to project a sense of cultured cool. Hardly the stuff of a Mastermind champion, I think you'll agree. But I never felt guilty about it. After all, I'm only 24, and there are an awful lot of books I'm yet to read and films to see. However, watching Architecting at the Barbican last Friday, it felt like a deficiency. No matter how much foreknowledge you bring to the play, it remains a tricky, highly intellectual piece. It is woven around both Margaret Mitchell's novel and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, examining the latter from a number of different perspectives: the author's voice, a cinematic remake (possibly starring P Diddy), several Scarlett O'Hara obsessives and the recreation of scenes from the novel. The company behind Architecting, the TEAM (Theatre of the Emerging American Moment, to give them their full title), perform on the American psyche what medical students do on cadavers. Even as I felt adrift in the piece, I was aware of the scalpel's presence, dissecting American history, culture and politics and holding up the innards for scrutiny. I knew it was saying something intelligent, but I couldn't find an entry point. It was like reading a doctoral thesis in a subject I stopped studying at 13: frustrating, baffling and, eventually, isolating. My incomprehension led me to question how much theatre can expect of us, its audience. Ought it to presume nothing and explain everything? Should it treat us like idiots by playing to the lowest common denominator? Of course not. To insist on such mollycoddling would be to outlaw anything that does more than scratch the surface. However, theatre has a responsibility to be accessible. It is, after all, as much about the communication of ideas as it is about the ideas themselves. The best theatre allows us to share in the artist's unusual perspective and see the world differently. I can't help but think it comes down to permission. Obviously, each audience member arrives at a work from a different perspective, formed out of their beliefs, knowledge and experience. It's self-evident that people will see different things in a performance. When theatremakers accept and embrace this principle, building it into their work, they allow us to make our own connections and pilot our own course through. Rather than saying something singular, as Architecting seems to do, such work becomes a proposition, permitting and provoking many possible responses. | ['stage/theatreblog', 'stage/theatre', 'stage/stage', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'culture/culture', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/matt-trueman'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-11-11T11:26:51Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2011/dec/11/weatherwatch-wild-swimming-outdoors | Weatherwatch: The feel good factor of wild swimming | Wild swimming, whatever the weather, is undergoing a revival in Britain.† With the water temperature around the coast still a balmy 10C because of the warm autumn, enthusiasts say the physical and mental benefits are enormous, and the endorphin rush is addictive. But many outdoor swimmers prefer rivers and lakes, which are even colder. This last weekend a party took to the Thames as part of their campaign to cover the whole length of the river in a series of communal swims. Ignoring the weather and even breaking the ice is said to be part of the attraction. When you get out there is an added feel good factor. Organisations like the Environment Agency and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution were initially hostile to the resurgence of wild swimming on health and safety grounds. The Outdoor Swimming Society, only five years old but already with more than 11,000 members has won them over. This is because of the society's emphasis on safety first, and campaigns for clean, safe waterways to swim in.† Some hardened wild swimmers prefer being on their own but many events at this time of year are communal for safety reasons. Cold water shock causing a gasping reaction, increase in blood pressure and heart rate is a concern in winter so beginners are advised to go with a party and be ready to shout for help if necessary.† There are now more than 300 wild swimming sites both coastal and inland recommended by the society. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'lifeandstyle/swimming', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-12-11T22:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/jun/13/nsw-plan-to-ban-single-use-plastics-from-next-year-a-win-for-the-environment-advocates-say | NSW and WA in ‘race to the top’ to ban single-use plastics from next year | Lightweight plastic bags, disposable plastic straws and cutlery, plastic cotton buds and microbeads will be banned in New South Wales from next year, as part of a state government push to reduce plastic litter by 30% by 2025. Reducing plastic waste is part of a wider $356m five-year plan from the NSW government that will also see a new “green” bin for food and organic waste rolled out to homes across the state by 2030 – something the state’s environment minister Matt Kean says will help reduce emissions in landfill and allow greater extraction of biogas from waste. Hours after NSW unveiled its plan, it was upstaged by the Western Australian government, which announced plans to phase out many of the plastic items faster than NSW. WA premier Mark McGowan said the state would fast track its original plan by four years to achieve its goals – some of which NSW is not due to meet until 2025. Both NSW and WA’s plastics reduction plans have been praised by the World Wildlife Fund Australia as “race to the top” in waste measures and “a terrific outcome for the environment”. However the group wants to see NSW’s phase out dates set for some categories of plastics brought forward, noting its newly announced targets mostly bring NSW into line with targets already announced by other states. NSW’s phasing out of “problematic” single use plastics will largely be split into two waves. Plastic straws, stirrers and cutlery, polystyrene cups, takeaway containers, cotton buds with plastic sticks and microbeads in personal and cosmetic products, will be phased out within 12 months of when the waste plan is legislated – something the government hopes to do “in the coming months”. Lightweight plastic shopping bags will be phased out within six months of the legislation passing. However, longer term targets have been set for a range of other single use plastic products. Within three years, the government will review a plan to phase out heavyweight bags like those available for purchase at supermarkets, plastic cups and bowls including lids and fruit stickers. Kean said exemptions will be available for people with disabilities or health needs that mean they rely on particular single-use plastics. He said that without action, we are on track to see more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. “The single-use items we are phasing out will stop an estimated 2.7bn items of plastic litter from ending up in our environment and waterways over the next 20 years,” Kean said. Meanwhile, WA’s fast tracked plastics phase out will see single-use plastic bowls, cups, plates, cutlery, straws, stirrers, polystyrene food containers, thick plastic bags and helium balloon releases banished by 31 December this year – four years earlier than its initial 2025 target. Takeaway coffee cups and lids, microbeads and plastic cotton buds will be phased out in WA by the end of 2022. WA environment minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said that for most people, plastics bans “will only involve making small changes to our behaviour”, and that a Plastic Straws Working Group had been formed to ensure ongoing single use supplies for disability and aged care sectors. Kate Noble, WWF Australia’s plastics policy manager, said both states’ announcements meant “Australia should be playing a leadership role” in curbing global plastics waste. Noble said NSW’s announcement “is a really comprehensive plan”, but that in “a national context, NSW is very much catching up with other states”. “This puts NSW in a really good position, it’s dealing with some of the most problematic plastics quickly,” Noble said. However she stressed she would like to see the timelines to review the phase out of some plastics within three years to be brought forward, saying “there’s no reason why this can’t all be quite harmonised now that these targets have been agreed” – referencing the National Plastics Plan agreed to in April. Research commissioned by the WWF found that 130,000 tonnes of plastic flows into Australia’s environment, including the ocean, each year. The same research found that 8bn cigarette butts – a third of the 24bn smoked each year in Australia – leak into Australia’s environment including oceans each year. As part of its waste plan, the NSW government will investigate ways to reduce this cigarette butt waste, including greater responsibility for tobacco companies – something Noble said other states should look to follow NSW’s lead on. The other key element of NSW’s waste plan, announced before the state’s budget later this month, is a campaign to minimise food scrap waste. By 2030, councils across the state will have to provide a separate bin for food scraps to stop things such as leftover foods from entering general waste red bins headed for landfill. Some councils in the state, including Inner West and Randwick, have already introduced food waste bins. When organic waste decomposes without oxygen in landfill, it generates methane, which has a significantly worse impact in the atmosphere than carbon emissions. Supermarkets and hospitality businesses with the highest volumes of food waste will have to separate their organic waste by 2025. An education campaign will be rolled out to provide households with information about how to properly dispose of their food and organic waste. “We can’t keep sending our scraps to languish in landfill when there are huge opportunities to turn our trash into treasure,” Kean said. “This will not only deliver on our commitment to achieve zero emissions from organics in landfill by 2030, but will also grow our economy by extracting more resources like biogas from our waste.” NSW’s plastics plan follows a national meeting of environment ministers in April that agreed to phase out a range of single-use plastics by 2025. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/elias-visontay', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-06-13T05:33:53Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2018/oct/22/recycling-fuels-consumption-plastic | Are the days of recycling with a clear conscience over? | Sharon George | Is recycling supporting unsustainable consumerism? There is a recycling crisis and we may have only just noticed. For years we have been recycling, dispelling the guilt generated by our high-consumption lifestyles, as if our actions are somehow good for the environment. Recycling is the “green” thing to do. But is our whole recycling culture a shameful illusion that has been masking a growing problem of unsustainable manufacturing and consumerism? We are discovering that our recycling systems might not be fit for purpose. Retailers and companies producing waste are required to meet obligations according to how much waste they generate. They meet this obligation by buying packaging recovery notes (PRNs) or packaging export recovery notes (Perns). These PRNs are generated every time a tonne of waste is recycled – or so we thought. Exporters of waste are under scrutiny after some have been found sending out shipments of worthless contaminated or mixed waste and claiming the notes fraudulently. The National Audit Office found that about half of the UK’s plastic recycling is sent abroad but there is little assurance of what actually happens to it. Many countries in the developing world routinely dump waste into rivers and oceans. About 90% of ocean plastic started out inland and made its way to the ocean through just 10 rivers. The biggest contributor, the Yangtze in China, discharges a staggering 1.5m tonnes of plastic into the ocean every year. And it’s not just plastics. We export a number of other commonly recycled materials, including paper, glass and electronic waste, with faith that it is being dealt with in a sustainable manner. So what does happen to it? We might imagine our hi-tech devices undergo hi-tech reprocessing, but the reality is far from ideal. Just like plastics, most of our “e-waste” has been shipped to China. The city of Guiyu was a major hub for recycling international e-waste, with terrible consequences for the local environment: poisoned water and land, and high levels of lead in the blood samples of 80% of local children. This route was cut off in January 2018, when China decided that the environmental costs of accepting the world’s waste was not worth the profit, especially as it has its own growing stream of toxic e-waste to deal with. But this has not stopped us producing e-waste: in 2018 it is estimated that we will produce 50m tonnes globally. We have simply found new routes to dispose of the stuff. After China’s ban on importing recyclable materials, a huge wave of US and European e-waste found its way to Thailand, where hundreds of facilities have been set up to operate crude, low-cost recycling processes. These include recovering copper and other metals from cables and circuit boards by burning the plastics away, producing highly toxic fumes of dioxins and furans and heavy metals. Acid baths that strip out metals expose workers to acrid and toxic fumes. Thailand is now taking rapid steps to close its borders too. With more routes for our waste closed, we need to consider more sustainable solutions closer to home. The truth is, if we dealt with our waste on our own soil it would cost more. Recycling abroad, in countries with inexpensive labour and less regulation, is cheaper. This has become the norm, giving us a route to jettison our waste plastic, electronic goods, metals, paper and glass under the banner of recycling with a clear conscience. Meanwhile, we shop for cheap replacement goods. The illusion that we can recycle so easily has enabled us to continue to consume and as we see more countries refusing our waste, the problems are stacking up – literally. One way to reduce waste is to stem the flow of mass-produced cheap products, at least until we have a solution. Prices should reflect life-cycle costs. Higher prices would mean we buy less, but value those goods more. We would hang on to things. Disposable items such as single-use plastics would be uneconomical and we would reuse more. This also cuts across those business models that rely on fast product turnover, especially in electronics (the fastest growing source of waste). This might create some economic disruption in the short term, but would open up new business opportunities around reusing, repairing and locally recycling goods. It would certainly stem the rising tide of unsustainable “recycling”. • Sharon George is a researcher and lecturer in environmental sustainability and green technology at Keele University | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/recycling', 'tone/comment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'profile/sharon-george', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-10-22T14:14:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2018/apr/13/weatherwatch-europe-has-a-history-of-fatal-tornadoes | Weatherwatch: Europe's fatal tornadoes | For most of us the word “tornado” conjures up images of vast “twisters”, like the one that ripped through the US state of Kansas and whisked away Dorothy and her dog Toto in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. But “Tornado Alley” is not the only place where tornadoes occur. They are also common across Europe, and although not as large as their American cousins, they are still dangerous and damaging. During the last 200 years Europe has suffered three tornadoes with death tolls of over 50 people: Ivanovo in Russia in June 1984 (69 fatalities), Oria in Italy in September 1897 (55 fatalities) and Montville in France in August 1845 (at least 70 fatalities). Meanwhile, in June 1967, six tornadoes spun their way across France, Belgium and the Netherlands, resulting in 232 injuries, 15 deaths and serious damage or destruction of just under 1,000 houses. So what would happen if this outbreak occurred today? New research published in the journal Weather, Climate and Society, reveals that we could expect as many as 170 fatalities, up to 2,500 injuries, and serious damage to 25,000 buildings. Although not common, scientists warn that an outbreak like this should be expected somewhere in Europe within the next 50 years. •Kate Ravilious will be one of the panel of Weatherwatch contributors taking part in Freak Weather in History at the British Library on Wednesday 2 May, at 7pm | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/tornadoes', 'science/meteorology', 'world/netherlands', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-04-13T20:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2009/sep/07/green-recycled-racing-car | Racing green: Recycled car to debut at Brands Hatch | A racing car built from recycled drinks bottles, old aircraft panels and carrot tops will line up for its first competitive race next month. The Formula Three car, which runs on fuel derived from chocolate waste and wine dregs, will take part in a race at the iconic Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. Engineers at Warwick University built the vehicle as part of a project designed to push green technology to its limits. The £500,000 car has a top speed of 170mph and can accelerate faster than a conventional Formula Three car, reaching 60mph from a standing start in around 2.5 seconds. "We want to show that green can be fun, that it can be sexy," said Kerry Kirwan, project leader at the Warwick Manufacturing Group. The car's chasis was salvaged from a scrapped vehicle, as was the two litre BMW diesel engine. More than half of the body panels are from materials destined for landfill, such as old carbon fibre aircraft panels. With a driver, the car weighs 550kg and produces 230 brake horsepower. The car's steering wheel was produced by a Scottish company that turns fibres from carrot waste into fishing rods and other products. "For some reason the steering wheel came out purple. We think some beetroot might have got into it," said Kirwan. To comply with race regulations, the wheels, tires and cockpit are built to standard Formula Three specifications. Kirwan said the technology being developed for the car should in time be picked up by road car manufacturers. Much of the panelling used in the car is categorised as waste that manufacturers pay to dispose of. "We're not saying that this is the answer to the world's environmental problems, but it's a step in the right direction," Kirwan said. "We believe it's the greenest car in its class." In test drives, the car has already reached a top speed of 135mph. At Brands Hatch, the engineers hope to achieve 150mph. At race speed, the car manages a fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon. The driver, 20-year-old Aaron Steele, will race the car at Brands Hatch on 17th October. "We're now happy that the car's ready to go in [for the race] and not come last," said Kirwan. The car was completed three months ago and has undergone trials at the Goodwood racing course in West Sussex. | ['science/british-science-festival-2009', 'science/science', 'science/energy', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/waste', 'food/chocolate', 'science/british-science-festival', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-09-07T14:26:32Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2005/mar/29/tsunami2004.naturaldisasters | Blackout, fear, confusion; it was a very close call | At first, I was just annoyed. The earthquake woke me soon after 11pm and, having experienced dozens of aftershocks following the huge Boxing Day tremor, I thought this was another one - a jolt to the system but not much more. So, exhausted after a long day, I didn't move from my bed - even when the electricity went off. But then the swaying of the building intensified significantly into full-blown shaking. The doors of the wardrobes banged open and the other people in the house where I was renting a room started screaming and panicking. As the chorus of fear rose on the street outside, I headed for the door. But I couldn't reach it as my knees started to buckle under the force of the quake. I eventually got to the door and opened it to find Ari, one of the three other people in the house, struggling up the stairs to rouse me, flicking a cigarette lighter which refused to catch. We headed down the stairs together, holding on to the walls for support and out of the front door. Taufik and Ati, the other residents of the house, were already outside as were all the neighbours, bracing themselves against the earthquake that was still rumbling on. "We've got to get the car out of the garage," said Taufik. "Should we flee to the hills?" wondered Ati. "This area suffered some flooding last time around." The neighbours were having similar thoughts as they fumbled with torches and matches to see their way around. Before Taufik could get the car out, the earth finally stopped shaking. A few of the neighbours had already fled but as there was no damage to the buildings most people decided to wait where they were. Sitting on the porch, Ari nervously lit a cigarette. "I need this so badly," he said. "I don't think I can go inside. I'm still so traumatised after the tsunami. I don't want to die." Forty minutes later, after deciding that a tsunami was not on its way and having received no reports of any damage, I went back upstairs to bed. Then my mobile phone bleeped. A text message from a friend in Bangkok: "URGENT: 8.5 Richter earthquake in Sumatra 11pm th time, govt of indo advise evacuation." Shit, I thought. But after discussing it with the others and seeing the power come back on, we decided to sit tight. But it was a close call and not one that I would like to experience again. | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/indonesia', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/banda-aceh', 'type/article', 'profile/johnaglionby'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-03-28T23:01:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2021/feb/04/brazil-mining-collapse-vale-agrees-compensation | Brazil mining giant agrees to pay $7bn for collapse that killed 272 people | The Brazilian mining giant Vale has agreed to pay $7bn compensation for a deadly dam collapse that killed 272 people. The Brumadinho disaster, on 25 January 2019, is considered one of worst environmental tragedies in Brazilian history. At just after noon that day the tailing dam’s sudden collapse caused a toxic torrent of mining waste to sweep across a rural pocket of Minas Gerais state at speeds of up to 80km/h, swallowing everything in its path. Many of the dead were Vale employees and 11 victims were never found. On Thursday, just over two years later, Minas Gerais’s governor, Romeu Zema, announced Vale had agreed to pay the state R$37.68bn (£5bn/$7bn) in what he claimed was “Latin America’s biggest reparation package”. “We did it!” Zema tweeted, adding that the multibillion-dollar settlement would not affect criminal or civil claims relating to the collapse’s human and environmental cost. “We can’t change the past but we can improve the future,” Zema added, according to the newspaper Estado de São Paulo. In a statement Vale’s chief executive, Eduardo Bartolomeo, said: “Vale is committed to fully repair and compensate the damage caused by the tragedy in Brumadinho and to increasingly contribute to the improvement and development of the communities in which we operate. “We know that we have work to do and we remain firm in that purpose,” Bartolomeo added. The deal was reportedly less than the R$54bn Minas Gerais had been demanding from Vale over the disaster in Brumadinho, a town of about 40,000 inhabitants just southwest of the state capital Belo Horizonte. But Zema claimed the funds would help repair the local economy and environment, both battered by the mining disaster. Civil society groups and the families of some victims were less convinced, pointing out that a large chunk of the settlement would be used to finance infrastructure projects in other parts of the state. “It was an agreement made behind closed doors, without the participation of those affected,” Joceli Andrioli from the Movement of People Affected by Dams group told the Associated Press. Marconi Machado, whose nephew, Wanderson da Silva, was killed in the disaster, said he feared the money “would probably end up in the hands of people who have nothing to do with the tragedy”. Last month Machado said grieving relatives had erected a billboard to remember the life of Wanderson, with whom he had played in a local band that played Beatles and Deep Purple covers. “That’s all over – it’s all gone,” Machado said. “My sister will never recover from this. What bothers me is that Vale doesn’t want to know about the feelings of those left behind and all the plans and the dreams we had with those who departed.” “So many dreams went up in smoke,” Machado said. “So many dreams.” | ['world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'environment/mining', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2021-02-04T17:28:37Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2022/jun/23/sunak-urges-banks-to-keep-funding-oil-and-gas-firms-after-windfall-tax | Sunak urges banks to keep funding oil and gas firms after windfall tax | Rishi Sunak has asked Britain’s biggest banks to keep the money taps flowing to the oil and gas sector after slapping it with a windfall tax. In a bruising meeting in Aberdeen on Thursday, the chancellor told oil and gas executives he is trying to ensure investment in their businesses is not curtailed. Sunak visited the Scottish oil industry hub to discuss Britain’s energy security and the energy profits levy. The tax on excess North Sea profits was introduced last month in an attempt to raise £5bn to cut household bills. But oil and gas companies including BP and Shell have warned the levy could hit investment into renewable energy. Sources who attended the meeting at the Net Zero Technology Centre said Sunak told those assembled he asked lenders to ensure oil and gas companies had access to capital. It is understood participants, who included executives from BP, Shell, Harbour Energy and Ithaca Energy, raised a string of concerns over the tax during the hour-long meeting. An Ithaca Energy executive told the chancellor that the windfall tax had made its planned investments into the Cambo, Rosebank and Marigold fields more complex. One attendee said: “He arrived at the meeting bright eyed and bushy tailed and left with his tail between his legs. It would have been a chastening experience.” The windfall tax was only implemented after a U-turn by Sunak and Boris Johnson, who had argued it would hit investment. It is understood Sunak told executives he did not see the levy as a “permanent fixture”. The tax is expected to be in place until normal market conditions return to the oil and gas sector or by the end of 2025. The Guardian revealed this week Harbour has lobbied the government to bring this date forward by two years. Executives want the government to commit to a timetable to review market conditions and for an investment allowance included within the levy to be backdated to cover projects that have already been invested in but are yet to produce oil and gas. They also want decommissioning costs to be included within the allowance. After meeting executives, Sunak later addressed younger members of the industry in a Treasury Connect event, discussing jobs and the future prospects while holding a mug adorned with the Scotland flag. Separately on Thursday, the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, laid out his plans to ensure Britain has enough domestic energy for this winter. In a speech at the Chatham House Second Century London Conference, he said talks were under way to keep coal plants in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire open for longer. European countries are scrambling to replace Russian gas as Vladimir Putin turns the screw on foreign energy supplies. Kwarteng said: “We cannot – and will not – be blackmailed by dictators with their hands on the gas taps.” The Treasury declined to comment. | ['business/oilandgascompanies', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'business/banking', 'uk/uk', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'business/energy-industry', 'uk/aberdeen', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-06-23T17:30:04Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2016/aug/16/budget-cuts-threaten-to-weaken-powers-of-englands-nature-watchdog | Budget cuts threaten to weaken powers of England's nature watchdog | England’s nature watchdog is planning to use its legal powers less and risks becoming a weak regulator forced to raise funding from the private companies it is meant to keep in check, leaked documents and sources reveal. Natural England is duty-bound to defend rare species and protected areas including national parks and England’s 4,000 sites of special scientific interest from potentially environmentally damaging developments. But the regulator faces a budget cut of 27% and a reduction in headcount of 20% by 2020 due to cuts to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). This means it will have a “significantly reduced national capacity”, it admits. A internal document from June, seen by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian, says the agency will “make more proportionate use of our regulatory powers” and “retain our regulatory powers but will use them more proportionately and more efficiently, while increasingly operating through advice and partnership.” Internal sources say this amounts to using its powers less and to agreements that “compromise wildlife”. A source at the regulator told the Guardian: “Stepping back and not using regulation so often is basically saying: we won’t regulate if people break the law, or persecute a species or destroy habitats, we will never take them to court. “If people see us as a weak regulator, then they will take advantage of that. We’ve already been like that in the last few years. We’re much, much less likely to go to court than we were five years ago.” Conservation organisations say they have already seen Natural England stepping back or not engaging in cases at a local level. The Wildlife Trusts cited Natural England failing to stop the ploughing of a wildflower meadow in Coventry, and the watchdog withdrawing an objection related to a housing development in Chudleigh, Devon, that the trust claimed threatened greater horseshoe bats in a protected area. The RSPB pointed to the case of Walshaw Moor, a shooting estate in the Pennines where Natural England dropped an inquiry into peat-bog burning. It believes the regulator is in breach of its duties under European habitats and birds directives. Martin Harper, the RSPB’s conservation director, said: “Nature is in trouble – and so it is vital that we have a strong and effective statutory nature conservation agency able to do whatever nature needs. “Natural England has already been subject to huge reductions in its capacity to do its vital job, and the current political context means that it has increasingly moved away from using the full range of tools available to protect and restore nature.” Stephen Trotter, the director of the Wildlife Trusts, a network of 47 local groups, said: “We have for some time seen evidence across the trusts of less engagement with planning issues by Natural England than would have been the case previously. We find that particularly around non-designated but local wildlife sites, it has a reluctance to get involved in defending those sites.” Other changes to the way the agency operates include providing “advice to government that is politically aware”. The regulator is meant to provide science-based and independent advice. A source at Natural England said the idea was “ridiculous” as its advice was meant to be “based on the science, not on anything else”. The watchdog’s ecologists will also get out less to see the wildlife and habitats they are meant to protect and understand. “Fewer ad hoc site visits will be necessary because more information, data and evidence about sites and the local area will be captured remotely and by others,” says the document. Conservationists warned earlier this year that Natural England risked losing its “eyes and ears” after it cut funding for local environmental record centres. In order to raise more money as its budget is cut £30m by the end of 2020 on 2015-16 levels, the agency also plans to raise more money by charging the private sector, such as water companies, housebuilders and windfarm developers, for its services. It raised £1.43m in 2015-16 by charging £110 an hour for such services, and hopes to increase this to £12m a year by 2020. “It’s blurring the vision of what we do,” a source at Natural England said. “It’s commercialising something that’s very hard to commercialise. People find it quite a conflict in what they do. Previously we would prioritise what is important in terms of biodiversity rather than profit, so it’s quite a different mindset.” The agency tried to allay such fears in another document shared with staff. “There were some concerns that a move towards charging might be perceived as a shift towards ‘supporting development’, with us working for, rather than with, our customers. Thankfully, that criticism has rarely been directed at us,” it said. Hannah Martin of the Greenpeace Brexit response team said: “First, we had the environment minister calling EU environmental protections ‘spirit-crushing’ during the referendum campaign. Now we learn that Defra’s nature watchdog is being forced to get more of its funding from the very companies it’s meant to keep in check. “A picture is emerging of a government out of step with the British people’s love for the countryside and the wildlife that lives there.” A Natural England spokeswoman said: “There has been absolutely no change in Natural England’s statutory role or driving mission to protect and enhance the country’s nature, habitats and landscapes as laid out under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. “However, we are improving the way we operate through implementing recommendations that were made in Sir John Lawton’s independent Making Space for Nature report (2010) and welcomed by government and NGOs alike. “Working with communities and stakeholders ever more efficiently, we will assess challenges and implement solutions on a ‘landscape scale’, always focussing on the ultimate outcome: an improved environment for all of us.” | ['environment/natural-england', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'uk/uk', 'politics/planning', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-08-16T05:00:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/oct/21/send-our-expert-panel-your-questions-about-cop26 | Send our expert panel your questions about Cop26 | In a few days time Cop26, the largest diplomatic event to take place in Britain since the second world war, will be kicking off in Glasgow. This international climate summit will be attended by negotiators and political leaders from around the world, seeking to make progress on our global attempts to reduce carbon emissions. So what will actually happen, and what can we expect? We’ve put together an expert panel to answer your questions: Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment correspondent Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor Professor Saleemul Huq, director of International Center for Climate Change and Development and senior associate International Institute for Environment & Development Lucy Siegle, environmental expert and author of several books including, most recently, Turning the tide on plastic Hannah Martin, co-executive director of Green New Deal UK, and organiser with Green New Deal Rising Professor Mary Gagen, climate scientist, Swansea University They’ll be online on Monday between 1-2pm, so send us your questions and they’ll get cracking on them. Share your questions You can get in touch by filling in the form below. Your responses are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. If you’re having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here. | ['environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-community-team', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-21T14:33:39Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
news/datablog/2012/mar/29/show-tell-data-visualisation | Introducing Show and Tell: data visualisations from around the web | In case you hadn't noticed, there's an infographic boom going on out there on the web. Just a glance at our data blogosphere will show you how infographics are becoming the language of the internet - and it's a language being spoken by developers, statisticians, scientists and everyone. Infographics are no longer the preserve of designers, it seems. We all have access to free tools that can help us create complex data visualisations simply and easily for ourselves. Get a list of some of the ones we use here. But some go even further, developing new techniques of seeing the world. Take this Norwegian animation of how people move around the country, based on tax records. You may love some of the infographics we showcase - you may hate them. You probably won't be able to ignore them. And maybe you can do better? Post your visualisations on our Flickr group and let us know about them. • Google have paid to sponsor this page but all editorial is overseen and controlled by the Guardian Datastore team. For editorial guidelines visit: guardian.co.uk/sponsored-content NEW! Buy our book • Facts are Sacred: the power of data (on Kindle) More open data Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Development and aid data • Search the world's global development data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? • Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group • Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter • Like us on Facebook | ['data/series/show-and-tell', 'news/datablog', 'tone/blog', 'technology/data-visualisation', 'artanddesign/design', 'tone/graphics', 'type/graphic', 'type/article', 'profile/simonrogers'] | technology/data-visualisation | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2012-03-29T11:01:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2011/nov/07/shoppers-food-waste | British shoppers bin nearly 10% of weekly shop, figures show | The average British shopper estimates that they bin almost 10% of the food bought in their weekly shop, while 8% admit to throwing away as much as a quarter of their food on a regular basis, according to new research on Monday. Households could save £50 a month, or £12bn a year across the UK, by taking steps to tackle the growing problem of food waste. Yet nearly half (46%) admit that they do not know the correct way to store it safely. More than two-thirds (67%) of consumers claim they do not always plan their shopping trips by making a list or meal planning, but spontaneously decide what to buy in the store. The research, which saw 2009 adults surveyed, was carried out by Sainsbury's – in conjunction with the government's waste adviser, Wrap. It found two main reasons for people throwing food out: either too much is cooked or prepared, or food is left to go off, completely untouched or opened but not finished. But supermarkets have also come under fire from environmental groups for throwing away large quantities of food that is still safe to eat. Jack Cunningham, Sainsbury's head of climate change and environment, said: "No one wants to waste food, but unpredictable lifestyles and hectic schedules mean many think it is unavoidable." Emma Marsh, head of Love Food Hate Waste campaign at Wrap, said: "The industry has a huge role to play in helping reduce the amount of food we waste and we are working together to achieve solid results. Our research shows, for example, that Brits throw away around 37m slices of bread a day in the UK and we have a long way to go to prevent this. We hope that by working with Sainsbury's, we will help individuals enjoy their food more by learning to love their leftovers, which will help the environment and save money." Environment, food and rural affairs minister Lord Taylor said: "Too much food gets wasted, which is not only bad for the household budget, but also bad for businesses' bottom line. Since publishing the Waste review we've introduced new guidance on food date labelling to help clear up confusion for customers and stop good food going to waste. We have also set up responsibility deals with the food industry to tackle waste in the supply chain and help them to save money." | ['environment/waste', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'environment/ethical-living', 'uk/uk', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'profile/rebeccasmithers'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2011-11-07T15:28:45Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/blog/2012/dec/06/doha-climate-conference-diary-lord-monckton-camel | Doha climate conference diary: Monckton v camel | Camel gets hump with Monckton Climate panto villain Lord Monckton has arrived at the talks even as folk here were fearing that the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and other regular denialists and sceptics had given up. But instead of dropping in by parachute, as he appeared to do at Durban last year, he came as "Monckton of Arabia" in full regalia but without the camel. Qatari security and onlookers at the convention centre said they did not know whether to laugh or cry but allowed him to regale Canadian youth and anyone who could not avoid him. Here is Monckton on his blog, recounting what happened when he tried earlier this week to ride a camel into the conference: I addressed Aziz [the camel] with an elegant quatrain from [Edward] Fitzgerald's perfect translation of the world's most charming drinking song, the Rubaiyat of Umar Khayyam: "Awake! for Morning in the bowl of Night / Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight – / And lo, the Hunter of the East has caught / The Sultan's turret in a noose of light" It seems that Aziz was a very intelligent camel. He listened to Monckton and promptly chucked him headfirst into a sand dune. Farewell to Obama's enforcer? Could this be the last COP [conference of the parties] for Jonathan Pershing, the US chief negotiator and hard man of the talks? Many NGOs who were overly excited by Obama's election in 2008 but were disappointed by his lack of climate leadership in Copenhagen in 2009 continued to give him the benefit of the doubt. Now their patience with the US negotiators has run out. Here is Kumi Naidoo, head of Greenpeace International, in an open letter to Obama published on Wednesday: "Although the special envoy for climate change Todd Stern and deputy special envoy Jonathan Pershing say the US has a "strong and solid" position, they have consistently delivered the opposite ... Frankly, their tone has undermined US credibility. In recent weeks, the World Bank and the CIA have each warned about the consequences of unchecked climate change. In this context, your negotiators claiming that the US is making 'enormous efforts', rather than accepting the need for enforceable pollution reductions backed by a consensus of the world's scientists, threatens to sabotage these climate negotiations." And here is Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth US: "Frankly, as an American, I find the behaviour and positions taken by Obama's representatives in Doha embarrassing and, in light of the tremendous threat climate change poses to the life systems of our planet, deeply disturbing." The completely unsubstantiated rumour is that Obama's new administration will seek changes in his second term and that Pershing will leave. The hot bet is he will return to the World Resources Institute in Washington where he was director of the climate, energy and pollution programme until plucked by President Clinton. All he would tell the Guardian was: "I serve at the President's pleasure." The welcome warmth of Babaji The hours tick by, the pressure for a breakthrough in the diplomatic deadlock builds, so where better to get a fresh perspective and succour than from divine mystic, Himalayan cave dweller and philosopher, his holiness Shri Shri 1008 Soham Baba, founder of the United Green Care international forum bases in the Netherlands? "Babaji" is here in flowing traditional robes and, unlike Mr Monckton, radiating warmth and bonhomie and offering "selfless service to the humanity", especially to environment ministers and negotiators at global climate talks. He tells Australian blog The Verb: Twenty years ago, I noticed the Himalayan glacial ice was melting … we have the sacred technologies to empower the latent heat within the body, so we need the cold climate to enhance our organic system. Away from the international conferences, Babaji also offers $400 "journey to the soul" packages. Might suit Ed Davey after a long night of Doha negotiations. Office politics With just a few hours left before the traditional Friday night political showdown that has to come before an agreement, the stresses and strains of being cooped up in airless, windowless rooms is getting to ministers. Climate minister Greg Barker tells the Guardian that he was getting hungry to the point of hallucinating after some particularly long sessions earlier this week. "I saw these lanterns and I thought it was a Chinese takeaway. But it was the Chinese delegation offices." (Interesting to see how different countries brand themselves in their offices. The Chinese have decorated theirs with kites and calming pictures of mountains, the Australians have a monster kangaroo on the door, while the Brits have a big union flag with "Team Britain" plastered across it.) Legislation across the nations And lastly, some good news. Preliminary results from Globe International, a body of international MPs, show 32 of 33 major economies have now put in place national laws to reduce emissions. The study, undertaken with the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, will be published next month in London, and finds much of the current legislative activity on climate change now taking place in developing countries, including China. Overall it's not enough to keep emissions below 2C, but at least countries are putting in place the necessary mechanisms to measure, report and verify emissions – a pre-requisite for a credible international treaty, Globe says. This is all very good news for UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, who says: The clean revolution we need is being carried forward by legislation. Domestic legislation is critical because it is the linchpin between action on the ground and the international agreement. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/cop18-doha-climate-change-conference', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-12-06T12:54:32Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2024/oct/29/investors-need-clarity-on-bp-policy-not-bosss-weak-promises | Investors need clarity on BP policy not boss’s weak promises | There goes another of BP’s shiny targets-cum-ambitions. This one is not related to the pace of energy transition but is purely financial. Soon after getting the top job permanently at the start of the year, the chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, said BP planned to spend $14bn (£10.7bn) buying back shares over the course of 2024 and 2025. Now he’s not so sure about the second lap of the track. The $14bn figure is described as “currently unchanged”, meaning the $1.75bn a quarter pace can be maintained for the rest of the year, but a warning has been attached thereafter. Next February, BP will “review elements of our financial guidance, including our expectations for 2025 share buybacks”, said Tuesday’s third-quarter report. In other words, this was pre-guidance guidance that BP expects to change. It is the sort of laborious preamble that is becoming a BP hallmark. Shareholders still do not know, officially, if Auchincloss will jettison the ambition to cut oil and gas production by 25% by the end of decade against 2019 levels, which was itself a reduction from the 40% target set by his predecessor, Bernard Looney, in 2020. It’s just assumed he will ditch the goal because he is overusing the phrase “value over volume”, talking about the need for pragmatism and supporting major oil expansion in the Gulf of Mexico. In BP’s imagination, these soft-shoe shuffles can be reconciled under Auchincloss’s other refrain of making BP “simpler, more focused and higher value”. To the outside world, however, it just looks confused. Beyond the soundbites, where is BP heading? One can grant that the original share buyback promise was always “subject to market conditions” and that the market has thrown up a lower oil price and thinner profit margins on refining, the main reasons why the latest quarterly profits were the weakest for four years. But it is also true that BP’s financial framework is more fragile than its rivals’ because borrowings ($24.3bn) are proportionally higher. In that case, why bother promising $14bn of buybacks in two years if that is predicated on the price of a barrel of Brent staying in the low $80s rather than, as now, slipping to the low $70s? The answer, of course, is that BP is desperate for love from a suspicious stock market. The financial commitments were designed to keep shareholders vaguely supportive while they wait to see if the transition side – mainly solar, biofuels, offshore wind and electric charging points – can earn similar returns to fossil fuels. But we are now at a point where BP is failing to satisfy any of the constituencies in its shareholder base. The camp that would prefer BP to ditch its renewables adventures and be more like Exxon and Chevron clearly is not going to get what it wants – that would be a U-turn too far for a board still led by a chair, Helge Lund, who backed Looney’s original, greener vision. But the part that still believes in the virtue of setting goals to reduce oil and gas output will not be happy with the obfuscation on that front. Meanwhile, the glue of buybacks is coming unstuck. BP’s shares shed another 5% on Tuesday, continuing the underperformance against the company’s peers. Auchincloss can shuffle his way to next February and the next big unveil, but that is the moment when he must offer clarity. At the moment, an investment in BP resembles a mystery tour. | ['business/nils-pratley-on-finance', 'business/bp', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/oil', 'business/commodities', 'business/business', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/nilspratley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2024-10-29T17:48:38Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/mar/23/beard-environment-consumption-waste-carbon-frugal-money-saving | Ed Gillespie on why growing a beard is good for the environment and your wallet | He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. So said Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and, as a long-term sporter of a full chin's worth of facial fluff (and occasional wearer of a highly dubious "mo" for for charity), I can but agree. According to social psychologists, beards also convey a sense of authority, masculinity, strength and sincerity and once the Romans started shaving them off they quickly became associated with non-conformity. So is it any wonder that growing one might be considered the height of Frucool – that is being both frugal and cool? Now I know what you're thinking. In following my previous foray extolling the virtues of local beer with a missive about beards, this whole Frucool blog series is merely a ploy to make hairy real ale fans trendy. What next you ask? The Frucool socks and sandals combo? But when you look at what we spend each year on removing the follicular sproutings from our faces – £320m a year in the UK on razors alone – you start to realise there's a Frucool rationale for nursing a jaw warmer into life. Beards have swung wildly in and out of fashion over the years. Ancient Greeks were nothing without their whiskers (eight out of 10 Ionians said their cats preferred them), and the Spartans actually used to punish criminals by shaving off parts of their beards. This was probably to make them look ridiculous or more effeminate. Or like Noel Edmonds. Which would be punishment enough for all but the most heinous crimes. Conversely, Tsar Peter the Great introduced a beard tax in 1705 in an attempt to encourage Russian men to smarten up and move with the rest of Europe from fuzzy-framed chops towards a fleshier faced freedom. But the real death knell for the popular beard was the unholy alliance between the mass marketing manipulators of the advertising industry and the razor blade manufacturers. Ever since planting the first seeds of insecure doubt around the effect your bushy bristles might have on the opposite sex, the sharp practices of the Mad Men have been seducing us with ever closer shaves. These must by now be removing thin slivers of our faces in the process. Following the Mach 3 (three times closer!), Quattro (four blades!) and now Fusion (five blades! Missed opportunity here for use of the name "Quintessence"), we must be approaching the limit of how many cutting surfaces you can jam on to the head of a disposable plastic razor. Apart from the expensive throwaway cutting equipment though, shaving also involves a panoply of lotions, ointments, foams and gels for before, during and after you've taken the blade to your skin. Apart from the economic and environmental cost of all the aerosols and packaging involved, the irony is that softening your stubble with warm water and then lubricating your skin with a little olive oil is probably just as effective as all the pricey potions they splurge so much marketing budget on convincing us to buy (one leading company in the UK plans to spend £35m over the next four years alone). Shaving foam is arguably more useful as a visual guide to which bits of your face you've already scraped, rather than for any friction reducing properties it might provide. Admittedly, current high-profile public beards in the media don't necessarily convey a particularly Frucool image. The bewildering blundering of both Joaquin Phoenix and David Bellamy, in their services to rap music and climate change activism respectively, aren't exactly role model material. But that shouldn't stop us at least considering abandoning the expense and environmental impact of shaving for a bit and indulging ourselves in a bit of ruminative furry chin-stroking. I'll leave the final words on Frucool facial hair to the psychologist Robert Pellegrini. His investigations into public perceptions of hirsute men found that the male beard communicates an heroic image of the independent, sturdy, and resourceful pioneer, ready, willing and able to do manly things. In conclusion, it may very well be true that inside every clean-shaven man there is a beard screaming to be let out. If so, the results [of this work] provide a strong rationale for indulging that demand. • Ed Gillespie is a director at communications agency Futerra and has travelled the world without planes for his Slow Traveller series | ['environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'money/saving-money', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'money/money', 'weather/wealden', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'fashion/mens-fashion', 'fashion/fashion', 'fashion/beauty', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'fashion/facial-hair', 'type/article', 'profile/ed-gillespie'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-03-23T11:51:39Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2020/oct/02/nationals-mp-hails-narrabri-gas-project-as-win-for-community-despite-vocal-opposition | Nationals MP hails Narrabri gas project as win for community despite vocal opposition | The Nationals frontbencher Mark Coulton has declared the controversial Narrabri gas project is a winner for his community, despite continuing opposition from landholders, environmentalists and Indigenous traditional owners. With coal seam gas development a divisive issue in regional Australia, the National Farmers Federation last week warned the Morrison government to tread carefully with its much-vaunted “gas-led recovery” after the coronavirus pandemic. NFF affiliate NSW Farmers has voiced its opposition to the Narrabri gas project. Despite vocal objections from the National party’s core constituency, Coulton, who is the minister for regional health, regional communications and local government, and the member for Parkes – the electorate where the coal seam gas proposal is located – insisted the Santos project would “be beneficial for not just Narrabri, but the entire country”. “This approval is good news for the local Narrabri community, which will benefit from the job opportunities the project will create,” he told Guardian Australia. Coulton said the gas project, in conjunction with the “transformational inland rail” would give Narrabri the potential to be “one of our significant manufacturing hubs”. He said he expected the proponents to “adhere to the conditions of approval, which have been informed by extensive consultation and thorough input from scientific experts” but he suggested farmers were wrong to push back. “It is my belief that the project can co-exist with agriculture in the north-west [of NSW] while providing the local economy a vital boost.” Coulton’s stout defence of the Narrabri project came as the prime minister on Thursday stepped around a question about how much the “gas-led recovery” would cost taxpayers, and whether the government had modelled the impact of a significant gas expansion on his government’s climate change policy commitments. Speaking at the National Press Club, Morrison said the government has set a “clear direction” – there needed to be more gas extracted and made available as a transitional fuel in the energy market and as a feedstock for manufacturing. He said the government had already outlined some costs in terms of taxpayer investments and was still waiting to see what the private sector would do. Despite pressuring Labor in the past to calculate the costs of its climate and energy policies, the prime minister appeared to suggest that the degree of uncertainty about what might be required made it difficult to quantify the costs of his own energy policy undertaking. “There will be plenty of models that make all sorts of punts,” Morrison said. “Those models I think will struggle in the current environment to make a lot of sense.” With the budget due next week, the government has been talking up the importance of gas for Australia’s economic recovery from the coronavirus. While the gas push was crafted in part by the Coalition’s business advisers, and business has largely welcomed the government’s signalling about increasing the supply of gas for domestic use, the politically influential NFF will lobby the government to make sure the plan does not involve a significant expansion of coal seam gas projects. The Narrabri project was ticked this week, with the NSW Independent Planning Commission giving what it described as “phased approval” of the $3.6bn development. But the project remains highly contentious with local farmers, conservationists and Indigenous traditional owners. The NFF’s chief executive, Tony Mahar, told Guardian Australia last week that “farmers should have a choice in determining his or her own priority with how private land is used through a respectful and transparent process”. “Farmers have and will continue to advocate that any extractive development must not impede on quality of agricultural resource, whether land or water,” Mahar said. The need for new gas fields is contested. Morrison has quoted a gas industry estimate that 225,000 manufacturing jobs are in industries that used a lot of gas and need a cheap, reliable supply. But an upcoming report by the Grattan Institute challenges this, finding there were only between 4,000 and 5,000 manufacturing jobs heavily reliant on gas on the east coast. The NSW energy and environment minister, Matt Kean, this week told the Coalition for Conservation that the business case for gas was “on the clock”, and that while it may be useful in the short term, the economics were questionable because gas was a “hugely expensive” way of generating electricity. He said it would be sensible to move towards cheaper ways of delivering energy. His comments drew a rebuke from the prime minister. While gas is said to have about half the emissions of coal, studies have suggested its impact may be greater due to leakage of methane, which is a particularly potent greenhouse gas. Activist shareholder group the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility urged investors in Santos to intervene to halt the development before an investment decision was due late next year. It said Narrabri would put Australia’s commitment to the Paris agreement at risk, and the high cost of production at the site was likely to lead to the development becoming a stranded asset as the world increasingly valued zero emissions goods. In April, 43% of Santos shareholders backed a motion calling on the company to support climate targets in line with the goals agreed in Paris in 2015. Dan Gocher, the centre’s director of climate and environment, said: “Climate-aware investors now have a role to play in ensuring shareholders’ money is not spent on activities that go against the interests of local communities and a safe climate.” | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/gas', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'australia-news/national-party', 'business/australia-economy', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2020-10-01T17:30:01Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2021/apr/28/clive-palmer-coalmine-next-to-great-barrier-reef-rejected-by-queensland-government | Clive Palmer coalmine next to Great Barrier Reef rejected by Queensland government | Clive Palmer’s plan to build an open-cut coalmine 10km from the coast of the Great Barrier Reef has been deemed “not suitable” by the Queensland government with its assessment now being sent to the federal environment minister. Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal project, which wants to mine up to 18m tonnes of coal a year from two pits near Rockhampton, posed “a number of unacceptable risks”, the Queensland Department of Environment and Science has decided. Conservationists who had called on the state government to block the proposal said the federal minister, Sussan Ley, should now follow Queensland’s lead and reject the mine. The state government’s final assessment report, released on Wednesday, says the project presented significant risks to the Great Barrier Reef, as well as wetlands, fish habitat, waterways and ecosystems that depended on underground water. According to the report, the project would “significantly contribute” to the region and the state’s economy. Palmer’s project had made a significant number of changes to the mining project to try and reduce the impacts and some issues could be managed, the assessment found. The proposed project covered 2,661 hectares at a site north of Rockhampton and included two open-cut pits, two waste rock piles, as well as dams and coal handling plants. Royalties to be paid to the government from the mine were estimated between $703m and $766m. But the report said, on balance, the project presented “a number of unacceptable risks that cannot be adequately managed or avoided, due primarily to the location of the project, but also in part to the lack of effective mitigation measures proposed” in the company’s environmental impact statement. A December report from the national Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC) had raised “extreme concern” about the potential for ecological damage from the project in particular the release of “mine-affected water”. A Queensland government spokesperson said the report would be sent to Ley who would have 30 business days to make a decision unless further information was needed. The head of oceans at WWF-Australia, Richard Leck, called on Ley to accept the state government’s recommendation and rule out approving the mine. “The impact of the mine would have been highly detrimental to the health of the Great Barrier Reef,” he said. Lock the Gate Alliance Queensland’s Ellie Smith thanked the department for following the scientific advice. “It was frankly difficult to believe a company could even think such a mine so close to the reef would ever be accepted by the Queensland public,” she said. The Australian Marine Conservation Society’s great barrier reef campaigner, David Cazzulino, said hundreds had attended rallies in Mackay, Yeppoon and Brisbane to protest the mine. Building an open-cut coal mine would cause “serious and irreversible damage to a variety of important habitats, including important turtle and dugong strongholds” and was too close to the reef, he said. Guardian Australia approached Palmer for comment. His Central Queensland Coal has previously rejected the IESC’s criticisms and rejected concerns there would be any significant environmental impacts from the project. A spokesperson for Ley said that “unless the project is withdrawn” there was a requirement for the federal department to consider it under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. “In doing so, the state assessment report and the IESC advice, which are statutory requirements for our process, must be considered.” | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/clive-palmer', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-04-28T08:24:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/article/2024/jul/17/nsw-government-says-states-biodiversity-in-crisis-as-it-pledges-first-steps-to-reverse-decline | NSW government says state’s biodiversity ‘in crisis’ as it pledges first steps to reverse decline | The New South Wales government says the state’s biodiversity is in crisis and must be put on a path to recovery to reverse the decline of beloved species and ecosystems. The environment minister, Penny Sharpe, has released the government’s “first steps” in responding to a major review of the state’s nature laws, saying: “We cannot ignore the truth: biodiversity in NSW is in crisis.” The Minns government is proposing to develop a new nature strategy that would be enshrined in law and set targets for conservation and restoration, including landscape restoration, species recovery and addressing threats to nature. Sharpe said the government would also amend state laws by the end of this year to fulfil its promise to reform NSW’s biodiversity offsets scheme after a 2021 Guardian Australia investigation uncovered serious problems that triggered several inquiries. “Our goal must be to leave nature better off than we have found it.” Sharpe said the response, which fully or partially accepts 49 out of 58 recommendations from the 2023 review led by the former treasury secretary Ken Henry, set out immediate priorities and “is the start of concerted action, reform, investment”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Henry’s review found the state’s environment laws would not succeed without substantial changes and warned that half of the species under threat in NSW were on course to become extinct within the next 100 years. After the review was released last year, he called for the natural environment to be made the top priority in government policy and legislation. Henry told Guardian Australia on Tuesday that the government’s response was a “serious attempt” to tackle the problems identified in his review and demonstrated it understood the scale of the nature crisis. But he said many of the government’s proposed actions would take a long time to deliver and they stopped short of putting laws that protected and enhanced nature ahead of other land management concerns. “They’re not giving it statutory primacy,” he said. “They seem to want to tackle it in a different way.” The Minns government’s response proposes several measures to be implemented over time, including: Introducing legislation next year to enshrine a new state nature strategy with conservation and restoration targets; Amending laws this year to reform the state’s offsets scheme; Developing maps that identify current and future areas of high biodiversity value to give “clear guidance” on where environmental impacts should be avoided; Reviewing other pieces of legislation that affect biodiversity to improve outcomes for the environment. Among the proposed measures intended to fix the state’s environmental offsets scheme, the government is proposing that the current standard that calls for “no net loss” to the environment be transitioned to a requirement that the scheme delivers a “net positive”. The government said it was “committed to offsets being a genuine last resort” and it would introduce a new statutory standard requiring developers to demonstrate how they had genuinely avoided and minimised impacts to biodiversity, particularly for species and ecosystems at risk of irreversible impacts. The steps developers had taken to avoid and minimise impacts would be made public on a new register. The government is proposing to act on recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry by removing the ability for mining companies to count future rehabilitation of mine sites towards their offset requirements. It is also proposing to limit the circumstances in which developers can pay into a fund to transfer their offsetting obligations to the Biodiversity Conservation Trust. The report does not set out the specific steps the government will take to stop the state’s high rates of land clearing. Before the 2023 state election, Sharpe said NSW’s system of environment protections needed more “red lines” to protect ecosystems that were suffering. The government’s response does not identify any proposed “no-go zones” for development but Sharpe said proposed new biodiversity maps were intended to give clear guidance on where areas of high environmental value were located and where impacts should be avoided. She said the government’s proposal to enshrine targets for nature conservation was a similar approach to the one it had taken with recent climate change legislation. “In my view, this leads to the biodiversity crisis being treated as a similar crisis to climate change,” Sharpe said. In response to a separate review of the native vegetation provisions of the Local Land Services Act, the government is proposing to strengthen some environmental protections and oversight. But it is proposing a larger independent review of biodiversity protections on rural land in response to high rates of land clearing. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-07-16T17:30:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/the-earths-climate-is-paying-for-our-addiction-to-plastic | The climate costs of a plastic planet | Carroll Muffett | Plastics are among the most ubiquitous materials in our economy, our lives, and our environment. They are also among the most pervasive and persistent pollutants on Earth. In recent years, stark images of beaches, waterways and wildlife filled with plastic have spurred demands for action to address plastic pollution. These calls are coupled with growing concern that plastic and its toxic additives pose serious risks to human health at every stage of the plastic lifecycle. Far less attention has been paid to the impacts of this same lifecycle on the Earth’s climate. This is a dangerous oversight. From catastrophic wildfires in California to searing heatwaves and record drought in India, the scale and growing severity of the climate crisis are undeniable. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that humanity must limit warming below 1.5C or face far greater and potentially irreversible climate chaos. To achieve this, we must cut global emissions 45% by 2030 and reach zero net emissions by 2050. A recent report by the Center for International Environmental Law and partners shows that plastic’s rapidly rising emissions put these critical goals at risk. In 2019, plastic production and incineration will add over 850m metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere – equivalent to the emissions from 189 coal-fired power plants. By 2050, these emissions could rise to 2.8bn metric tons, equivalent to 615 new coal plants. Why are these emissions growing so rapidly? Because plastics are made almost entirely from fossil fuels. Natural gas, oil and coal account for 99% of what goes into plastic. Thus, plastic’s climate impacts begin not in the oceans, but at the wellheads and drillpads where plastic is born. Moreover, refining those raw materials into plastic is among the most energy- and carbon-intensive of all industrial processes. In 2015, just 24 ethylene facilities in the United States emitted as much carbon dioxide as 3.8m passenger vehicles. Globally fracking to produce ethylene produced as many emissions as 45m passenger vehicles. The North American fracking boom is poised to make this situation much worse. Fueled by cheap fracked gas, Exxon, Shell and other petrochemical producers are massively expanding the infrastructure for making plastic. The American Chemistry Council projects that the industry will invest over $200bn in more than 330 new or expanded facilities by 2025. Just one of these facilities, a massive ethane cracker being built by Shell in Pennsylvania, could emit up to 2.25m tons of CO2 yearly. Nor do emissions end once plastic’s useful life is over. While the carbon emissions associated with recycling are minimal, less than 9% of plastic is recycled annually. Effective recycling rates are lower still. As indicated by China’s recent ban on plastic waste imports, much of the plastic waste that has been sent to Asia for recycling has no economic value. It was and always has been just trash. In the face of China’s import ban, communities are increasingly turning to incineration as the way to deal with that trash. This incineration alone could add 4bn metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere by 2050. If growth continues on its present trajectory, plastic production, use and disposal could create 56bn metric tons in cumulative greenhouse emissions by 2050 – consuming a staggering 13% of the Earth’s entire remaining carbon budget. The climate impact of plastic that escapes into the environment is harder to quantify, but may be even more significant. Research demonstrates that the 57tn microplastic particles at the ocean’s surface continually release small amounts of greenhouse gases – and will continue doing so indefinitely. The climate impacts of this are difficult to quantify because those surface particles represent only a fraction of 1% of plastic in the ocean. Nor do they include the massive amounts of plastic on beaches, riverbanks and farmlands worldwide that are releasing greenhouse gases even faster. More troublingly, scientists have found that microplastics are interacting with and often negatively affecting plankton in ocean basins worldwide. These microscopic plants and animals form the foundation of ocean ecosystems and also create the biological carbon pump that makes the oceanic carbon sink function. This raises the currently unquantifiable but deeply troubling prospect that rising plastic pollution could disrupt the Earth’s largest natural carbon sink, further accelerating the climate crisis. Whether measured by its impacts on the climate, environment, or human health, the rising flood of disposable plastic creates risks humanity can no longer accept. Just as the roots of the climate and plastic crises are interlinked, so too are their solutions. Simply put, it’s time to break free from plastic. We must end the production of single-use, disposable plastic, stop the development of new oil, gas and petrochemical infrastructure, and accelerate the transition to sustainable, circular economies and zero-waste communities. Carroll Muffett is the president of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) | ['us-news/series/united-states-of-plastic', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-06-25T06:00:36Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2009/nov/25/barack-obama-copenhagen | Barack Obama to attend Copenhagen climate summit | President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen next month for the United Nations climate summit with a new offer to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 17% on 2005 figures by 2020. But critics said the long-awaited White House initiative would do little to ensure a successful outcome to the talks, and that it came at the wrong time in the negotiations. Obama will travel to Copenhagen on 10 December, on his way to collect the Nobel peace prize in Oslo the next day. But the White House gave no indication that the president was prepared to return to the city when Gordon Brown and 60 or more world leaders fly in to add impetus to the final deal one week later on 18 December - the last day of the talks. The Observer revealed this week that the US administration was poised to announce a specific figure for cuts ahead of the Copenhagen talks. Obama's commitment to attend the talks was welcomed by the UN and many environment groups but dismissed by others as a photo opportunity designed to upstage the other 60 world leaders. "I think it's critical that President Obama attend the climate change summit in Copenhagen. We have figures from all industrialised countries, with the exception of the United States. This is the first thing we need, and this is critical," said Yvo de Boer, the UN climate chief. Lord Stern, the former head of the UK Government Economic Service and author of the influential Stern review on the economics of climate change, said: "It is important that President Obama and all the leaders of the major nations attend the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen next month. Only leaders can take the decisions on the broad range of issues, such as finance, technology and trade, that are necessary to reach a strong framework agreement on climate change. Strong action and inspirational leadership will be required in Copenhagen." But others dismissed Obama's appearance. "The Copenhagen climate summit is not about a photo opportunity, it's about getting a global agreement to stop climate chaos," said a Greenpeace international spokesperson. "President Obama needs to be there at the same time as all the other world leaders. This is when he is needed to get the right agreement. It's the right city, but the wrong date. It seems that he's just not taking this issue seriously." "The new US offer to cut emissions 17% on 2005 figures equates to 6% at 1990 levels and will not help the climate summit reach a strong deal to stop climate chaos," Greenpeace added. The 17% figure is the same as the emission cut in energy legislation passed by the US House of Representatives earlier this year. By comparison, the EU has pledged to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020 on 1990 levels – or 30% if there is a global deal. The White House also laid out possible future emissions cuts: 30% by 2025, 42% by 2030 and 83% by 2050, but these are all on 2005 levels. The figures are drawn from pledges in existing planned US domestic cap and trade legislation. Observers close to the negotiations questioned whether the US target for 2020 would be enough to draw large developing nations such as China into a global deal. The US may have to promise massive financial assistance as a sweetener, they said. The White House statement did not mention finance. The US move comescomes ahead of a press conference scheduled for tomorrow morning in Beijing, where Chinese officials are expected to announce China's planned target to reduce the energy intensity of its economy by 2020, perhaps by 40-45%. Hu Jintao, president of China, had been expected to announce the figure at a high-level summit in New York in September, but instead pledged only a cut by a "notable margin". US officials have been anxious about the timing of the Chinese announcement, which follows significant pledges to reduce emissions from nations such as Brazil, Russia and South Korea in recent weeks. Obama had previously said he would only attend the conference if negotiators were "on the brink of a meaningful agreement and my presence in Copenhagen will make a difference in tipping us over the edge". Others urged Obama to prepare to return to Copenhagen. "If his presence during the latter days of the meeting becomes necessary to secure the right commitments, we hope the president will be willing to return to Copenhagen with the rest of the world's leaders during the final stages of the negotiations," said WWF-US climate programme director, Keya Chatterjee. De Boer acknowledged, however, that industrialised countries' emission cut pledges, estimated to total between 16 and 23%, fall far short of what scientists say is needed to head off serious impacts from global warming. Scientists say that reductions of between 25-40% are necessary compared with a 1990 baseline. The UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, confirmed he would be at the Copenhagen talks earlier this month, along with other world leaders including the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd. • For news and analysis of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen sign up for the Guardian's environment email newsletter Greenlight | ['environment/copenhagen', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'profile/davidadam'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-11-25T18:38:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2023/mar/16/oyster-mushrooms-expected-to-break-down-toxins-and-microplastics-in-cigarette-butts-in-australian-trial | Oyster mushrooms expected to break down toxins and microplastics in cigarette butts in Australian trial | Up to 1.2m cigarette butts could be consumed by oyster mushrooms that break down toxins and microplastics as part of a trial funded by the Victorian government. Up to 9bn plastic cigarette butts are discarded in Australia each year, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, seeping harmful microplastics and chemicals such as arsenic into waterways and soil. Sustainability Victoria will fund a program that diverts butts from landfill to a laboratory, where fungi will consume the plastic and chemicals. Studies will then determine if the byproduct produced can be transformed into a polystyrene replacement. The program will be run by Melbourne-based Fungi Solutions, which has spent years training mushrooms to consume cigarette butts, mimicking a process that occurs naturally in the wild. “Mushrooms have an incredibly adaptive digestive system and they use a lot of different things for food sources,” said Amanda Morgan, the chief executive and head of research at Fungi Solutions. “This particular material is quite toxic so it takes a while to encourage them in that direction, but we now have a strain of fungi that is going just exclusively on cigarette butts alone.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Morgan said most of the butts were consumed within seven days and mushrooms can be quickly cultivated to consume large amounts of plastic if required. Cigarette butts would otherwise take 15 years to break down in landfill. “[Cigarette butts] are a really challenging pollutant so anything we can do with them is good news for the environment,” Morgan said. “We think it’s the start of a really interesting conversation about how to recycle our materials responsibly and establish a circular economy.” The program is also led by the environmental group No More Butts, which hopes to expand the scheme if successful. Its founder, Shannon Mead, said removing 1.2m butts from landfill was a realistic target for the trial. “We looked at what was feasible to collect from 80 businesses across Melbourne in just under one year as well as the funding available from Sustainability Victoria,” Mead said. “We’re aiming to go even higher if funds are available, and if that happens it could be the only commercially scalable recycling opportunity for cigarette butts in Australia.” Wollongong city council launched a two-year trial with Fungi Solutions in 2021, which indicated mushrooms can remove most of the toxins. But Morgan said more testing was required before the mushroom byproduct can be recycled. “We still need to be doing a fair bit of lab testing to have a look at the toxicity breakdown before and after remediation, but we are hoping that we can develop a nice clean material byproduct from this process,” Morgan said. About one-third of the nearly 100 chemicals inside cigarette butts are “acutely or chronically toxic” to sea life, according to Clean Up Australia. Butts have been found in the stomachs of birds, turtles, whales and fish. Last month Guardian Australia revealed that a taskforce to reduce cigarette butt pollution promised by the former Coalition government two years ago was never established. | ['environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'australia-news/victoria', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/henry-belot', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-03-15T14:00:11Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2015/dec/29/when-a-bushfire-destroyed-our-home-we-had-moments-to-react-but-needed-years-to-recover | When a bushfire destroyed our home we had moments to react but needed years to recover | Ashleigh Davis | Over the last few days as I watched the fires in Victoria, memories I’ve tried to block out return vividly. Panicked voices on the two-way radio. Pets locked in the bathroom. Woollen jumpers pulled on in a hurry. Blinking back tears as I packed childhood treasures, joining Mum’s wedding albums in the car. Powerful winds. Smoky air, suffocatingly thick, breathed through a damp towel. And the roar overhead when it finally came, spot fires fluttering down from the sky, an eerie calm descending in its wake. There’s a roadhouse on Albany Highway, 328km south of Perth. It’s fairly nondescript, the kind of place you’d blink and miss as you drove past. Less than a kilometre inland is Tenterden – a handful of houses, a tennis club, church and a town hall. The day after Boxing Day 2003 was hot, heat like the inside of an oven. Families were home waiting out a harvest ban. I was 15, on school holidays with my sisters. At about 1pm power lines near the highway clashed, igniting crop stubble below. A fire burnt ferociously through the dry paddocks across 15,000 hectares, killing two women on a neighbouring farm and severely burning another man. Our farm was one of the worst affected. We lost 1,300 ha, 3,850 sheep, 90km of fencing, three sheds and an old house. Our house survived but the hardest part was watching Dad. Everything he’d worked for was gone. It was a surreal and sickening experience. Afterwards I remember sobbing quietly as I drove with Mum and my grandpa, inspecting damage and putting out small fires. Dad was further away volunteering as a firefighter. I didn’t realise, but Mum was unsure he’d return. Later, he told us he drove across paddocks using wire cutters to get through fences. At one point he jumped into a dam as the fire went overhead. Later that night I stood looking at the Stirling Ranges and they were lit up, as if aglow with the lights of a distant city. The days and weeks that followed saw endless sandwiches and dinners arrive at our house. The front garden was packed with utes and cars. That’s country people for you, they have an innate ability to support those in need. We got through it with family, friends, psychologists and each other, but for years afterwards I struggled to talk about it. I acted out at school. Eventually I went to a psychologist. It’s important to talk about these things. Ultimately it was time that healed the wounds. I never imagined I’d survive a bushfire. When you see it happening to others you’re so removed from it, the situation seems impossible. The most frightening part about fires is how unpredictable they can be. Have a plan and make a decision early, to stay and defend your house like we did, or go. My parents had mowed the grass, planted deciduous trees around our house, had firefighting units and soaked the garden and wooden fences with sprinklers and hoses. Small things, but it’s ultimately these that saved us. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/comment'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-28T23:58:16Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/aug/18/clearly-wrong-labor-says-new-documents-show-coalitions-reef-grant-failure | 'Clearly wrong': Labor says new documents show Coalition's reef grant failure | The Labor party says the government’s claims that it conducted extensive due diligence for a $443.8 m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation are “clearly wrong”, following revelations the department of environment and energy warned there were “significant” risks the grant would delay on-the ground projects. Documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws showed no mention by the environment and energy department of the record grant until 12 April, three days after a meeting between the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, and the foundation’s chairman, John Schubert. Correspondence between the department and Frydenberg’s office in the week before the 9 April meeting show them discussing a $5m “reef islands” partnership with the foundation that was jointly funded with the Queensland government and Lend Lease, and announced in early April. A set of preliminary “collaboration principles” for the $443.8 m grant sent by Frydenberg to Schubert on 22 April shows the minister was aware of the risks associated with awarding such a large grant to the small foundation. “The rapid increase in operational scale for the foundation poses significant capacity, governance and capability challenges,” it states. It also says there was risk that the need for the foundation to expand its operations “could potentially delay delivery of on-ground projects, leading to loss of local capacity and momentum”. Labor’s environment spokesman, Tony Burke, said the documents raised fresh questions about what happened in the weeks and days leading up the 9 April meeting. “So the department recommends $5m and the government gives them half a billion dollars,” he said. “The claims of ‘extensive due diligence’ are clearly wrong. The fact the department realised the foundation didn’t have the capacity to handle the grant reveals a massive failure lacking policy, process and probity.” The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, who is heading a Senate inquiry into the process behind the grant, said the government had “undermined” work already being done by groups and individuals to try to save the reef. “If they truly wanted to put the reef first, they wouldn’t ignore such important advice and put the pre-existing on-ground projects at risk,” he said. “It’s an insult to everyone already working their arse off to save the reef.” On Saturday, the Guardian put questions to Frydenberg’s office and was directed to the minister’s comments in parliament this week. Frydenberg told parliament he took two submissions to the expenditure review committee of the cabinet in March, including one with “a proposal to establish a partnership with a non-government organisation, which was the Great Barrier Reef Foundation”. The Guardian had sought access to all correspondence between the department and the minister or his office relating to the grant for the foundation. The department released seven documents in full and 35 documents in part. Access was refused to 96 others. “If those 96 documents helped their case, they’d release them in a flash,” Burke said. “Mr Frydenberg boasts that the agreement runs for nearly 100 pages. But for every page of the agreement, there’s another document the government wants to hide.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/josh-frydenberg', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'type/article', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-08-18T05:32:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2022/oct/02/hurricane-ian-risks-rebuilding-vulnerable-areas | Hurricane Ian: Americans urged to weigh risks of rebuilding in vulnerable areas | The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) administrator, Deanne Criswell, asked Americans on Sunday “to make informed decisions” about rebuilding in vulnerable areas hit by natural disasters intensified by the climate crisis. “People need to understand what their potential risk my be whether it’s along the coast, inland along a riverbed or in tornado alley,” Criswell told CNN’s Face the Nation. “People need to make informed decisions about what their risk is and if they choose to rebuild there they do so in a way that’s going to reduce their threat.” Criswell’s comments came four days after Hurricane Ian devastated barrier islands and coastal communities around Fort Myers Beach, Florida, with estimates for rebuilding running into the tens of billions. The state’s medical examiners commission has confirmed that the storm resulted in at least 44 deaths, most of them due to drowning. Other estimates say the toll was already at 72 – and that is expected to rise. Of those dead, half were found in Lee county, which includes Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Cape Coral. Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard said Sunday it had suspended the search for 16 people who went missing off the coast of Boca Chica, Florida, on 28 September because of Ian. About 70% of the county is without power. Across the state, about 837,000 businesses and homes remained without power on Sunday. The Associated Press reported that water was still rising in central Florida, with officials warning that flooding could continue for days, particularly in areas around the St Johns River and its tributaries, which were left swollen by the powerful storm. The latest natural disaster to hit the US comes after a series of floods, tornadoes, fires and hurricanes, has laid bare the rising costs of devastation associated with a warming climate. It has been widely reported that only about 18% of Fort Myers residents had purchased flood insurance. “If you live near water or where it rains it can certainly flood, and we have seen that in multiple storms this year,” Criswell said. “If you live near water – anywhere near water – you should certainly purchase flood insurance.” Insurers say they are anticipating between $28bn and $47bn in claims from what could amount to the costliest Florida storm since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Criswell’s comments came as officials and political figures have deflected accusations that evacuation orders for residents of Fort Myers came too late for many to leave. The Fema administrator defended that decision on ABC’s This Week: “The storm itself was fairly unpredictable in the days leading up to landfall,” Criswell said. “Just 72 hours before landfall, the Fort Myers and Lee county area were not even in the cone of the hurricane.” Criswell continued: “As [the cone of uncertainty] continued to move south, the local officials immediately – as soon as they knew that they were in that threat zone, made the decisions to evacuate and get people to safety.” State senator and a former governor Charlie Crist told CNN that the timing of the warnings out were “something we’ll have to look at”. “When you do issue an evacuation notice, assuming everybody is going to do it, you have to think how fast can you get them out?” he added. The Lee Ccounty Ssheriff, Carmine Marceno, said on Sunday he wouldn’t change anything about how the evacuation plan was carried out. “Everyone wants to focus on a plan that might have been done differently,” Marceno said. “Well I’m going to tell you, I stand 100% with my county commissioners, my county manager. We did what we had to do at the exact same time. I wouldn’t have changed anything.” Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, are set to visit the devastation in Florida on Wednesday, two days after the president is supposed to take a trip to Puerto Rico, where thousands of people are still without power two weeks on from Hurricane Fiona’s hitting the island. “This is not just a crisis in Florida. Or in South Carolina. Or in Puerto Rico,” the president tweeted Sunday. “It’s a United States crisis. “We’ll do everything we can to get these communities back on their feet.” In Florida, satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show how storm surge demolished structures on the shores of Sanibel Island. In addition the roadway linking the island to the mainland has been severed in several places and could be structurally unsound in others. Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, told ABC that it was likely that Fort Myers will recover but would not be the same. “They’re going to be rebuilt, but they won’t look the same, because you can’t rebuild old Florida,” Rubio said. “Some of those places that had been there for so long are just gone.” The Republican senator predicted that it would take at least a couple of years for the causeway to Sanibel island to be rebuilt. “I think our priority now is to identify the people that remain on Sanibel who wanted to stay there, but eventually have to come off because there’s no way to continue their life there,” Rubio said. “There’s no way to restore the power. There’s no economy there. At some point, they’ll have to be moved.” Additionally, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, directed state transportation officials to restore bridge and road access to Pine Island in Lee county by 8 October. Fema’s Criswell warned that “this is going to be a long road to recovery”. The administrator signaled that any lessons to be learned from the disaster would come after federal and state agencies had discharged their initial responsibilities. “We’re still actively in the search and rescue phase trying to make sure that we are accounting for everybody that was in the storm’s path and that we go through every home to make sure that we don’t leave anybody behind,” Criswell said. | ['us-news/hurricane-ian', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/edwardhelmore', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | us-news/hurricane-ian | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-10-02T16:25:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2023/nov/15/virgin-airlines-australia-emissions-greener-fuel-overseas-carriers | Virgin says Australian airlines should reduce emissions by buying greener fuel for overseas carriers | Virgin Australia wants emissions reductions laws changed so Australian carriers can buy greener fuel to power other airlines’ planes overseas but be recognised as if it had used the fuel on its domestic flights. At the Australian Airports Association (AAA) national conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, aviation leaders acknowledged sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) was the only currently feasible path for airlines to reach climate commitments without decreasing their operations. While airlines struggle with the prohibitive price – on average 2.5 times more than existing jetfuel – and scarce availability globally, Australia’s aviation industry experiences these barriers more acutely, as there is no SAF currently produced at commercial quantities in Australia. The Australian government’s Jet Zero Council remains in its infancy, having met just once since its formation earlier this year. With private-sector initiatives years away, Australian airlines must import the fuel source to meet their obligations under the safeguard mechanism, which requires the country’s largest polluters to reduce emissions intensity by 4.9% each year to 2030. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup For companies that do not reduce their emissions intensity enough, they must buy carbon offset credits from companies who cut pollution beyond what is required. However, Virgin Australia’s chief sustainability officer, Christian Bennett, suggested that Australian airlines should be able to buy more readily available SAF to reduce foreign airlines’ emissions and for this to be recognised as having a net benefit under the safeguard mechanism, instead of requiring Australian carriers to import SAF – and burn fuel in the process – or pay for credits under the scheme. “If we wanted to buy SAF in this country right now we can’t,” Bennett told the AAA conference. “It’s not produced, it’s not commercially affordable and so I think there’s a very delicate policy discussion to be had, because it’s important to distinguish between actually having physical access to SAF and having access to the environmental benefits of SAF. “Arguably if we’re not going to be able to access SAF physically in Australia for the next decade … we’re going to need to think about innovative mechanisms like booking claim and how we leverage partnerships with countries like the United States to see whether there’s a way that we can actually access the environmental benefits of SAF well before we’ve got the ability to actually physically inject it in our airplanes at Australian airports. “That’s going to require a delicate policy dance because we would argue that therefore we need to adjust the safeguard mechanism to reflect those credits or else we won’t do it, it doesn’t make financial sense.” Bennett said emissions reductions commitments could otherwise lead to higher air fares for Australians. “Ultimately, at the end of the day, we need to make sure that aviation remains affordable for all Australians,” he said. “It would be terrible if we ever got to the stage where ... aviation and travel around Australia became a luxury. We’ve got to avoid that so we need to find the right policy environment.” Meanwhile, commodity trader Graincorp and IFM Investors – a global investment firm whose portfolio includes major Australian airports – have announced they will conduct feasibility studies into building a series of SAF production plants along Australia’s east coast, exploring the use of waste and residues, crop-based oils and bio-organics. The initiative will aim for its first plant to produce about 8% of Australia’s annual jetfuel requirement by 2030, the IFM head of asset management, Danny Elia, said. The GrainCorp chief executive, Robert Spurway, said: “This is an opportunity to help build a valuable new domestic market for Australian farmers and feedstock producers.” Earlier this year, Qantas announced a plan with the Queensland government and Jet Zero Australia (a private company unrelated to the government’s council) to convert byproducts from north Queensland sugar cane into SAF. While domestic aviation targets fall under Australia’s own emissions reductions scheme, emissions related to international flights are considered under the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation. Commercial aircraft are already using SAF – Airbus says all of its aircraft are capable of flying with an SAF blend of up to 50%. Aviation accounts for slightly more than 2% of global CO2 emissions. | ['business/virgin-australia', 'environment/airline-emissions', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/elias-visontay', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-11-14T14:00:41Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2020/aug/12/hsbc-sounds-alarm-over-investment-in-meat-giant-jbs-due-to-deforestation-inaction | HSBC sounds alarm over investment in meat giant due to deforestation inaction | Analysts at global banking giant HSBC have sounded the alarm over the potential risks of investing in JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, after a string of investigations raising concerns about Amazon deforestation issues in its beef supply chain. The meat giant “has no vision, action plan, timeline, technology or solution” for monitoring whether the cattle it buys originate from farms involved in rainforest destruction, according to analysis by the bank, which has substantial investments in the troubled meat packing firm. In a recent financial report on JBS – obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism – HSBC analysts said they had asked the company “multiple times” about its plan to address deforestation but appeared to be unsatisfied, leading them to conclude that “the pressure is on JBS”. The analysts expressed disquiet that in their view the company had allowed a smaller competitor to take on the mantle of addressing forest destruction, after Marfrig – another Brazilian beef exporter – committed to full traceability of its Amazon cattle by 2025. “We have never seen a major industry leader default an industry matter this serious to a smaller participant,” the report said. “It is the major risk on JBS that worries us because it speaks to seriousness of purpose on ESG [environmental and social governance] matters for a company that in our view, has something to prove.” It adds: “There is a valuation benefit that goes with being the largest solution provider to deforestation in Brazil and unfortunately, we don’t see JBS inclined to lead and own that title.” JBS, which has annual revenues of $50bn (£38bn) and slaughters almost 35,000 cattle a day in Brazil, is coming under increasing pressure from investors over its environmental record. The investment arm of northern Europe’s largest financial services group last month dropped the company from its portfolio. JBS is now excluded from assets sold by Nordea Asset Management, which controls a €230bn (£210bn) fund. The HSBC report cites a recent investigation by the Bureau, the Guardian and Repórter Brasil revealing that JBS’s trucks had moved cattle from a ranch marked by government data as being under sanction due to illegal deforestation to a “clean” farm, which in turn sold cattle onto JBS abattoirs. JBS disputed the findings, but did not give a clear explanation of exactly where their trucks had been collecting cattle from. The investigation prompted calls for supermarkets and fast food chains to immediately cease trading with JBS. HSBC analysts discussed JBS’s recent attempt to split the Brazilian part of its business from its global operations, in order to float the international arm on the New York Stock Exchange with no Amazon risk for investors. The report also refers to other historical issues. “After its legacy of governance and corruption problems, JBS’s board and senior leadership are in need of proof points that the firm has indeed turned over a new leaf on ESG responsibility matters.” Despite expressing concerns, the HSBC report does still recommend buying JBS stock. “We like JBS for its debt reduction story, diverse portfolio of proteins, geographic footprint, leadership in the industry and scale. Its proposed [New York] listing would likely improve governance if done correctly, reduce cost of capital and strategically position the company for new growth opportunities.” HSBC holds JBS shares and bonds worth some $9 million, according to recent research by the NGO Feedback. HSBC told the Bureau that those holdings were usually held on behalf of other parties and that in such cases the bank had no part in the decision to invest in specific companies. The bank’s report comes amid global outrage over the fate of the world’s biggest rainforest. The Amazon is a crucial buffer in stabilising the regional and global climate. Experts say its preservation is essential to tackling the climate emergency. Last year, a study by supply-chain initiative Trase concluded that JBS’s global beef exports were linked to up to 300 sq km of deforestation per year in Brazil. JBS told the Bureau and the Guardian: “As we are due to report results to our investors and stakeholders later this week, we believe it is good practice to avoid further comments at this time. Thank you as always for your interest in our company.” Sign up for the Animals farmed monthly update to get a roundup of the best farming and food stories across the world and keep up with our investigations. You can send us your stories and thoughts at animalsfarmed@theguardian.com | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'world/brazil', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/americas', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/meat-industry', 'environment/food', 'environment/farming', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/andrew-wasley', 'profile/alexandra-heal', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-08-12T08:00:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/mar/23/european-clean-tech-industry-falls-into-rapid-decline | European clean tech industry falls into rapid decline | Europe’s once world-beating clean technology industry has fallen into a rapid decline, with investment in low-carbon energy last year plummeting to its lowest level in a decade. The plunge in European fortunes comes as renewable energy is burgeoning around the world, with China in particular investing heavily. As recently as 2010, Europe made up 45% of global clean energy investment, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which examines the sector. But after peaking at $132bn in 2011, investment in the EU plunged by more than half, to 18% of the global total, or $58bn, in 2015. Michael Liebreich, chairman of the BNEF board, said the global financial crisis and its aftermath were to blame only in part. “Europe’s failure to respond [to the crisis was a factor and] global investors, scared about the survival of the euro, had plenty of reason to hesitate about putting money into euro-dominated clean energy projects,” he said. But he also pointed to mistakes made by policymakers in member states, which he said had created a “boom-bust” cycle by initially showing strong support for renewables then rapidly rowing back as they feared the expense of successful subsidies. Europe’s manufacturers have also suffered in the rapid fall. From being a world leader in solar panel manufacturing in the early and mid 2000s, the EU no longer has any companies in the global top 10. Last year, the Chinese company Goldwind took the crown as the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, leaving European companies in the shade. Jobs are being lost as a result. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, employment in solar photovoltaics in Europe fell by more than a third to 165,000 jobs in 2013, the last year for which it has yet collated figures. Jobs in wind energy rose slightly, by more than 5% in 2013, to nearly 320,000 across the bloc, with more than half of these in Germany. Investment is not uniform across the clean technology sector. Despite the poor showing overall, Europe’s wind generation industry had a bumper year in 2015, with €26.4bn invested. But this is not likely to last. Oliver Joy, spokesman for the European Wind Energy Association, told the Guardian: “The outlook for 2016 is not as rosy and we’re likely to see a dip in installations this year. Beyond this, the future for onshore wind is not clear as an uncoordinated patchwork of policies across Europe continues to stifle progress, not least in the UK and Spain. We need to see more political appetite at European and national level, which means putting in place a vision for renewables into the next decade.” Prospects for the struggling EU clean energy industry look poor overall, said analysts. The best hope of a revival is likely to be a return of political commitment to the sector, but that looks unlikely in the short term, even in the wake of the landmark climate change agreement signed in Paris last December. A major European commission announcement on the future of the bloc’s energy, published last month, was criticised by green groups for focusing on gas, rather than renewables or efficiency. Commission leaders and some member states are thought to take the view that as Europe is struggling with recession, unemployment and immigration, emphasising the security of gas supplies - despite the need to import the fuel expensively from outside the bloc, including from countries such as Russia with which Europe has a troubled relationship - is more reassuring to business. In a further blow, the looming UK referendum on EU membership is creating uncertainty for investors, while the Tory government has reined back sharply on support for renewables such as onshore wind and solar power, claiming cost reasons. Liebreich attacked this argument: “The tragedy is that Europe lost its renewable energy mojo just as costs were plummeting to the point where green power is fully competitive without subsidies in more and more parts of the world.” He pointed to costs of wind energy generation of $0.04 per kilowatt hour in the US, and said this should be possible in the UK, with the right support from government. “[Politicians and opponents of wind] have failed to grasp that one of the reasons why costs are higher in the UK is because of the policy uncertainty they helped to create.” As the EU has declined, clean energy in China is forging ahead. Last year, according to a new report from the climate change thinktank E3G, the Chinese invested two and a half times as much as the EU in clean tech. The irony is that investment in the EU has made the Asian clean powerhouse possible, as initial subsidised forays into clean technology have borne fruit in the form of slicker manufacturing processes and vastly reduced costs. On current showings, China is now poised to reap the economic benefits of Europe’s historic investments. Nick Mabey, chief executive of E3G, said: “Twenty years ago, Europeans were still teaching China how to draft environmental laws. Ten years ago, Europe saw China just as a market for its green exports. Today, China is on the verge of dominating the global clean energy economy. The EU must act decisively to stay in the race.” This article was amended to change the amount invested in wind power from €24.6bn to €26.4bn. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-03-23T15:48:12Z | true | ENERGY |
politics/2024/feb/08/how-labour-ditched-flagship-28bn-green-investment-pledge | How Labour ditched its flagship £28bn green investment pledge | Labour has ditched its pledge to spend £28bn a year on green investment, blaming the Conservatives for “crashing the economy”. The policy, the main component of Labour’s green prosperity plan, has been at the centre of a public and private struggle since it was announced, with factions inside the party arguing against moves to water it down. The plan has now been drastically scaled back to under £15bn a year, only a third of which – just over £4.7bn a year – would be new money. Below are some of the key moments leading up to this point. 27 September 2021 Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, pledges to become the UK’s first “green chancellor” and invest £28bn a year for the rest of the decade, in front of cheering Labour members at the party’s conference in Brighton. 23 September 2022 Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget leads to what is later estimated to be a £30bn fiscal black hole, setting the scene for a recalibration of Labour’s own spending plans and pledges. 9 June 2023 Labour scales back plans to borrow £28bn a year to invest in green jobs and industry. Citing the poor economic backdrop and interest rate rises since the Truss mini-budget, Reeves delays plans for a green prosperity fund to start in the first year of a Labour government. December Discussions within Labour about scaling back the £28bn plans increase amid fears the Conservatives will use the policy as a central line of attack in the general election campaign. But sources also express concern about how a Labour government would improve economic growth without the green plan, and whether it could leave Keir Starmer open to charges of “flip-flopping” by the Tories. 31 January 2024 A pushback against plans to water down the pledge gathers pace among leading economists and business experts. Jürgen Maier, the former UK head of Siemens and a figure advising Labour on transport and infrastructure, describes £28bn a year as an “absolute minimum”. 1 February 2024 The Guardian reveals that the £28bn a year pledge is to be ditched. Asked 10 times on Sky News if she backed the target, Reeves refuses to use the number at all, saying instead: “The importance of economic and fiscal stability … will always come first.” Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, says the figure remains an ambition but it is unclear “if we can get there”. Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, all but confirms a day later that the commitment is going. 6 February Starmer says in a Times Radio interview that the pledge to spend £28bn a year is “desperately needed”, as he reopens the issue and supporters view his comments as a recommitment. The Labour frontbencher Chris Bryant says a day later: “On the £28bn, we are not scaling back. We intend to deliver that.” 7 February Bryant, the shadow culture minister, says in a morning interview that Labour will spend £28bn. Hours later, after prime minister’s questions in parliament, a Labour spokesperson tells reporters the party is committed to “£28bn, subject to the fiscal rules and subject to what the government leave on the table”. 8 February Labour confirms the party does not now believe it will be able to meet the commitment of £28bn a year in its green prosperity plan, blaming the Conservatives for “crashing” the economy, and what it described as the government’s plan to “max out the country’s credit card”. Instead, Labour “reconfirms” its commitment to policies under the plan to create jobs and cut bills. It says the policies would represent £23.7bn of investment over the course of the next parliament, funded in large part by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, with the remainder coming through borrowing within its fiscal rules. | ['politics/labour', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/rachel-reeves', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'tone/news', 'profile/benquinn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2024-02-08T19:36:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2022/oct/05/the-guardian-view-on-cop27-climate-justice-must-take-centre-stage | The Guardian view on Cop27: climate justice must take centre stage | Editorial | Speaking to the Guardian last month, Belize’s representative to the UN vividly described the havoc wreaked on his country by global heating. “Loss and damage is already occurring,” said Carlos Fuller. “Severe erosion is altering communities; drought and floods [are] affecting farmers and causing infrastructure damage; [there is] coral bleaching; salt water intrusion is affecting the water supply.” From the catastrophic recent floods in Pakistan to the ongoing drought emergency in Kenya, similarly disastrous impacts are blighting developing nations across the globe. Many lack the economic resources to cope with new climate threats, which are overwhelmingly the consequence of historic carbon emissions by the world’s richest countries. As the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, stated this week, ahead of November’s Cop27 summit in Egypt, properly addressing this dimension of the climate crisis – the damage already being done – is a “moral imperative that can no longer be ignored”. In Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries pledged to deliver $100bn a year to vulnerable states hit by severe climate-linked impacts. That promise, originally to be met by 2020, has still not been kept and there is little clarity on when it might be. The manner in which available climate finance has been distributed has also been deeply flawed. Far too much assistance has come in the form of loans rather than grants, and been directed at middle-income countries rather than the poorest nations. Private finance and institutions such as the World Bank have funnelled money to projects designed to reduce emissions – where profit streams are more readily available – but neglected the need for poorer countries to deal with climate challenges that are overwhelming fragile economies. Belatedly, there are signs that the rich world is waking up to its responsibilities to the global south. Last month, Denmark became the first party to the Cop negotiations to offer funding related to “loss and damage” – defined as the destruction caused by climate-related disasters so extreme that no protection is possible against them. The $13m pledged by Copenhagen to the Sahel region in north-west Africa must act as a catalyst for other developed nations to step up to the plate. Britain, which by cutting its overseas development aid contribution has scandalously moved in the opposite direction, could and should follow suit. As governments focus on spiralling energy costs, soaring inflation and the geopolitical fallout of the war in Ukraine, the climate emergency is in danger of being relegated to the back burner of policymaking. With only a month to go to Cop27, there has been a global failure to follow through on commitments made last year in Glasgow – where countries pledged to provide more ambitious strategies to limit warming to the 1.5C goal. This month, climate justice demonstrations have taken place across Africa, and resentment is building in countries suffering ever more severe impacts as a result of past inaction. Mr Guterres is right to identify Cop27 as a “litmus test” of how seriously developed nations are willing to take the growing toll on vulnerable nations. Announcing Denmark’s loss and damage pledge, the development minister, Flemming Møller Mortensen, said: “It is grossly unfair that the world’s poorest should suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, to which they have contributed the least.” The forthcoming gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh must be the forum at which this injustice is not only recognised but acted upon. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop27', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'inequality/inequality', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/cop27 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2022-10-05T17:41:31Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2021/oct/15/nuclear-submarines-uncertain-delivery-date-means-ageing-collins-class-could-be-in-use-until-2050 | Nuclear submarines’ uncertain delivery date means ageing Collins class could be in use until 2050 | Australia’s navy chief has left the door open to keeping some of the existing Collins-class submarines in the water until 2050, amid uncertainty about the exact schedule for acquiring new nuclear-propelled submarines. The government is already planning to extend the life of the six Collins class submarines by 10 years, with the extensive refitting work set to cost between $3.5bn and $6bn. But the navy chief, V-Adm Michael Noonan, indicated on Friday that a “potential” option was to refit them a second time to further extend their life. Given the first Collins-class submarines were commissioned in the late 1990s, that option could see them used until they are about 50 years old. Australia is planning to acquire at least eight nuclear-propelled submarines under the Aukus partnership announced last month, but the first of these are not likely to be in the water until the late 2030s. The South Australian senator Rex Patrick accused the government of being “extremely reckless” with national security amid the latest revelations. He suggested Australia faced a worse outlook than 2009 when a decision was made to increase submarine numbers from six to 12 because of rising regional concerns. “We now have an even worse geostrategic situation and yet the plan on record will see at least one of our six Collins class submarines retiring before a first nuclear submarine has arrived.” At a shipbuilding committee hearing on Friday – the first since the $90bn French deal was dumped – senators explored concerns about Australia facing a “capability gap” while it waited for the new submarines to be ready. Noonan played down that concern. He said the Collins class submarines would each undertake a life-of-type extension (LOTE). Each extension would take two years to complete, and would “essentially give 10 years’ life to that submarine”. The first submarine would begin to be upgraded between 2026 and 2028, giving it a capability to 2038. “And then we will see the second one, with an extended life as well,” Noonan told the Senate’s economics references committee. “And I don’t write off the opportunity for us to further upgrade these submarines beyond that period of LOTE.” Labor senator Kimberley Kitching asked: “So we’re going to have Collins class in the waters until 2040, 2050?” Noonan replied: “Potentially, yes, Senator.” The inquiry heard that the first submarine under the now defunct French deal would have been expected to be operational about 2034 or 2035. Labor – which has backed the Aukus plan – said the evidence raised many questions for the government, including whether the Collins class submarines would be able to withstand multiple upgrades of this type. Labor’s defence spokesperson, Brendan O’Connor, asked: “If enhanced submarine capability is critical to our national security, why would we still have 50-year-old Collins Class vessels in 2050?” Later in the hearing, however, Noonan expressed some caution about the use of the Collins class submarines into the 2040s and beyond. “My assessment is we will be able to continue to operate the Collins class submarines very successfully through the 2020s, through the 2030s,” he said. “But as we get into the 2040s and beyond, the areas of operation that we seek to operate in … will make any conventionally powered submarine at a higher risk of detection due to its requirement to surface and snort in order to charge its batteries.” The Australian government has set up a taskforce, with 89 members and growing, whose job over the next year and a half is to work with the US and the UK on “identifying the optimal pathway to deliver at least eight nuclear-powered submarines for Australia”. Noonan accepted that this “means that there is not yet a follow-on capability under contract”. It remains unclear precisely how much the Australian government will have to pay to settle contracts with France’s Naval Group and another defence contractor, Lockheed Martin. Greg Sammut, the general manager of submarines at the defence department, said there was “no break fee” but “there will be costs associated with termination”, which may not be known until early to mid next year. Sammut defended the department’s handling of talks with Naval Group, after the scrapping of the French contract triggered an extraordinary diplomatic rift that saw France temporarily recall its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington in protest. Sammut said his team had been made aware on the afternoon of 15 September that an announcement was to be made the following day in relation to the submarine program – but had not been aware of the content of the announcement. He said his team had been aware that contingency planning was under way – but not the specific deliberations. “We were kept separate from that. We continued to work with Naval Group in good faith on the program of record that remained in place,” Sammut said. In a letter dated 15 September – and obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws – Royal Australian Navy Commodore Craig Bourke cautioned Naval Group that its achievement of a key contractual milestone did “not provide any authorisation to continue work”. Asked why that line was added to the letter, Sammut said: “We wanted to be very clear that that was subject to government approval … We were very clear that the decision to enter the next design phase rested with government.” The also inquiry heard the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation was consulted in March about a plan to buy nuclear-powered submarines, about six months ahead of the surprise announcement. Ansto’s chief executive officer, Shaun Jenkinson, said he was asked about the organisation’s ability to support the endeavour. “Initial conversations started in March and we had a number of consultations between then and the announcement,” he told the inquiry. At the same hearing, the chief executive of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, Carl-Magnus Larsson, said his agency was briefed on the plan at the end of June or beginning of July. | ['world/aukus', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/daniel-hurst', 'profile/tory-shepherd', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2021-10-15T09:15:39Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2017/apr/08/three-toiletries-akamai-beauty-products-consumption-soap-toothpaste-shampoo | Could you live with just three toiletries? | Imagine clearing out that bathroom cupboard bursting with bottles and tubes and replacing them with just three products. That’s what US-based personal care startup Akamai is trying to persuade people to do, in an unusual business move – asking customers to buy less. The company, which started trading earlier this year, sells three products which it claims can meet all personal care needs: toothpaste; a soap bar for the face, body and hair; and oil spray for fragrance and moisturising the hair and body. It is also encouraging customers to wash less often. Co-founder Vincent Cobb, who previously set up an online store selling reusable bags and homeware, says the concept is a reaction against an industry set up to drive over-consumption. “Typical personal care product companies want you to consume more of their products, so they say wash your hair and body every day,” says Cobb. “We have been led into this false sense of what is required to have healthy skin, teeth and hair.” Steady expansion In the UK, the beauty and personal care industry is worth £17bn, according to research company Mintel. Apart from the luxury end of the market, most of its products fall into the “fast moving consumer goods” category, meaning manufacturers and retailers rely on selling high quantities of them. The rise of e-commerce, beauty blogging and selfie culture have also encouraged steady expansion of product lines, enabling the industry to grow even in periods of economic uncertainty, according to market research group Euromonitor. That growth comes at an environmental cost. More beauty products mean more chemicals and water used in manufacturing, and more plastic packaging. Much of that ends up in landfill, since the containers used are often hard to wash out, or to recycle, says Dustin Benton, acting policy director at environmental charity Green Alliance. So much scrubbing and dousing is not good for our bodies either, says Cobb. He believes that people who rinse often but avoid frequent use of soap and other products, smell less as their bodies self-regulate – even those who sweat or exercise a lot. It’s a stance shared by the growing no shower movement. Rejection of modern hygiene assumptions also has historical grounding, says Katherine Ashenburg, author of Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing. “It is all pretty recent that we have to be so clean and worry about smelling,” she says. “We are not working up that much of a sweat compared to people in the past, yet we are using more and more products.” But convincing people that less is more when it comes to beauty and personal care is no easy task, says Ashenburg. “That sense of insecurity, especially among women, that I might not be smelling perfectly is deep within our culture – and advertising makes enormous use of that insecurity.” Even companies focused on ethical consumption stock vast product ranges. Lush, for example, which has built a reputation for using natural ingredients, sells more than 100 different products. As campaigners against cotton buds have found, consumer habits can be hard to change. Despite being an environmental menace and serving no clear purpose (medical professionals strongly advise against using them to clean ears), they remain a bathroom staple. The consumption conundrum Assessing the impact of those habits is also complex says Kate Sandle, community manager at B Lab, the charity arm of sustainable certification organisation B Corp. “It’s not necessarily consumption that’s the problem, but how you consume and what you consume.” A company’s product range will only tell you so much, she adds. For a fuller picture consumers need to look at the whole business practice. The example of palm oil (used in Akamai’s products) is an illustration of this complexity. The controversial ingredient is linked to deforestation. But there is a wide gulf between the practices of different businesses when it comes to sourcing it, according to Greenpeace. Akamai is not the first company to engage with problems associated with consumerism. Clothing company Patagonia, for example, famously ran a Don’t buy this jacket ad in 2011, and encourages customers to repair garments rather than throw them away. Such companies face the question of whether calling for reduced consumption while actively marketing their products is really a viable fix for consumerism. Patagonia’s sales, for example, went up following its campaign. Cobb argues that companies can use their products to change consumption habits for the better, however. People are always going to buy stuff to clean their teeth, skin and hair, he says, but they can be encouraged to buy less of it. Sign up to be a Guardian Sustainable Business member and get more stories like this direct to your inbox every week. You can also follow us on Twitter. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'fashion/beauty', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/overconsumption', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/sarah-shearman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-04-08T07:00:32Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/jan/19/put-the-needs-of-the-planet-before-flybe | Put the needs of the planet before Flybe | Letters | In his discussion of Flybe and HS2 (Growth versus green? The short-term view always prevails, Journal, 16 January), Larry Elliott seems to be tying himself in knots. On the one hand, he rightly claims that it is the better-off who fly intercity in the UK, while on the other hand he suggests that allowing Flybe to go under would hack off a lot of voters, many of whom voted Tory for the first time in December. Frankly, I think it is more likely than not that intercity fliers and the reluctant Tories of the now-collapsed red wall form two mutually exclusive groups. The bottom line is that both bailing out Flybe and pushing through HS2 are appalling options from an environmental perspective. The green way forward is simple and straightforward. Leave Flybe to sink or swim, keep air passenger duty as it is (or preferably hike it further), and scrap HS2. The £100bn or so saved should be diverted to developing railways – and reopening some of those lost to Beeching’s axe – in those parts of the country where improved transport links are needed most. Bill McGuire Emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards, University College London • Larry Elliott’s article is a worrying warning that politicians are very unlikely to do anything to head off the developing climate catastrophe. Perhaps it is time to ditch the facile terminology – green initiatives, wildlife protection, special scientific interest – which give the impression that these considerations are somehow external to our own interests. Perhaps if we started talking about the biosphere of which we are all a part as “the life support system” and the choices politicians make as being between the protection of life and the destruction of life, then the consequences of these choices might be easier for us to grasp. Isabella Stone Sheffield • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'business/flybe', 'uk/hs2', 'uk/rail-transport', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'business/business', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'politics/politics', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-01-19T17:00:56Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2022/jul/07/australian-fossil-fuel-megaprojects-at-risk-from-record-high-global-gas-prices | Australian fossil fuel megaprojects at risk from record high global gas prices | High global gas prices may threaten Australian fossil fuel megaprojects as growth forecasts for the industry are reduced by as much as a third. The International Energy Agency (IEA) significantly revised down its forecast for global gas demand until 2024 by almost two-thirds on Tuesday after prices rose to record levels thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Global gas consumption is forecast to contract slightly in 2022, with limited growth over the next three years, resulting in a total increase of about 140 bcm [billion cubic metres] between 2021 and 2025,” the report said. “That is less than half the 370 bcm increase seen in the previous five years and well short of the exceptional jump in demand of close to 175 bcm seen in 2021.” Asia is expected to account for 60% of new consumption but the IEA warned that even this growth was at risk as high prices pushed countries to seek alternative fuels. Australia vies with Qatar as the world’s largest gas exporter and has several large new developments planned, including Woodside’s $16.5bn Scarborough gas project and Santos’s $4.7bn Barossa project. Gas exports are estimated to double in value to $70bn over the next year as Australia fills the gap left by Russian supply. Government planning has relied on strong growth in the sector driving production until 2040 but Bruce Robertson, an LNG energy finance analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said new projects were now at risk from “permanent demand destruction”. Permanent demand destruction occurs when the price of a commodity is so high it becomes unaffordable for too many consumers. “It simply makes gas an unaffordable fuel. And that’s what has occurred. We’ve seen major falls in gas demand,” Robertson said. “The pressure on the gas industry is all one way.” Robertson said this was also true for the Australian domestic market, where the price of gas in New South Wales hit $45 a petajoule this week, and was capped at $40 a petajoule in Victoria. He said these prices would result in a permanent loss of demand. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The oil and gas industry is aware of the risks. The chief executive of Santos, Kevin Gallagher, told The Australian in March that persistent high gas prices threatened the industry. “I don’t like when oil prices go too high, it concerns me, because you get supply and demand destruction,” Gallagher said. “We’ve seen gas prices that have spiked at levels that are even more unprecedented than the oil prices,” the Woodside CEO, Meg O’Neill, was quoted as saying. However, the IEA warned in its report that the situation did not automatically guarantee a shift to renewable energy and the government still needed to drive the transition. Tim Buckley, the director of Clean Energy Finance, said conditions were ideal for governments to drive a structural shift to renewables and other technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels like gas. “In just one year, two-thirds of the growth in gas demand globally has been taken off the table by the IEA,” Buckley said. “Hyperinflation in fossil fuels is forcing a rethink strategically. Absolutely.” Buckley said there would be “no going back” to gas. One of the industries poised to benefit is photovolatic (PV) solar. Jenny Chase, the head of solar analysis at BloombergNEF, said that despite PV solar having experienced price rises due to supply chain issues, “the cost of fossil fuels have gone up more”. “The only limit [for solar] is polysilicon production and local bottlenecks like installation labour in Germany,” Chase said. BloombergNEF’s benchmark price for fixed axis solar is currently US$45/MWh, but drops as low as $35MWh in sunny countries such as Australia. This compares with more than $107/MWh for coal. Chase said 241GW of new PV solar was expected to be built globally in 2022, and 274GW in 2023, up from 182GW in 2021. A study published in Nature in May found existing oil and gas projects worth US$1.4tn would lose their value if the world moved decisively to cut carbon emissions and limit global heating to 2C. The bulk of these assets were owned by pension and superannuation funds in developed countries. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'business/gas', 'business/australia-economy', 'business/series/observer-business-agenda', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/royce-kurmelovs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-07-07T04:20:52Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/feb/10/gas-fired-power-falls-to-lowest-level-since-2005-as-coalition-pushes-ahead-with-its-gas-fired-recovery | Gas-fired power falls to lowest level since 2005 as Coalition pushes ahead with its ‘gas-fired recovery’ | The sharp rise of renewable energy led to it providing more than 30% of Australia’s electricity in 2021, while gas-fired power fell to its lowest level in 16 years. Data collected by OpenNEM, an open source platform, shows renewable energy provided 31.4% of electricity within the national market covering the eastern states and South Australia last year. It was 32.2% in the separate West Australian grid. The national figure has quickly surged beyond the national renewable energy target, which required electricity retailers to sell about 23% of generation from solar, wind and hydro plants by 2020. Gas-fired power – which is being backed by the Morrison government through hundreds of millions of dollars in funding as part of what it calls a “gas-fired recovery” from the pandemic – has fallen to its lowest level of generation since 2005. It now provides just 5.7% of the total. Its decline from a high of 12.8% seven years ago is largely attributed to its relatively high cost and the sharp increase in the amount of cheaper solar and wind energy available. Coal-fired power provides 62.8% of electricity, its lowest level in both proportion and total amount since the interconnected national market began in 1999. Back then, it was 95.4% of grid generation. Tim Baxter, a senior researcher with the Climate Council, said renewable energy had increased dramatically since 2018, when it was about 20% of the total share. The surge had initially been largely driven by a rush to fill the national renewable energy target, which the Morrison government did not extend or replace. It had continued due to the plunging cost of solar and wind, state-based renewables schemes and corporates increasingly promising support for zero-emissions energy. “Electricity is now the cheapest it has been in almost a decade, and we have solar and wind to thank for that,” Baxter said. The most significant rise has been in household solar systems. More than 3m homes have photovoltaic panels, including at least 360,000 systems installed last year, according to the Clean Energy Regulator. Regulators say that has created some new grid management challenges as solar energy floods into the system and makes other forms of generation uncompetitive when the sun is high in the middle of the day. Solar energy provided 12.3% of electricity generated in the national market. Nearly two-thirds of that came from rooftops, the rest from large-scale farms. Wind contributed 11.3% of electricity and hydro power 7.8%. Gas-fired fall In contrast, gas-fired power had declined due to it being the most expensive electricity fuel available. Baxter said while there may be some year-to-year variation, the fall in its use for power was expected to continue as other “dispatchable” sources that could be called on when required became available. They included pumped hydro, batteries, virtual power plants and demand response programs. Baxter said it made the government’s support for gas power – including $600m for a new gas-fired generator at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley and another four listed for potential public underwriting – look “increasingly irresponsible and economically reckless”. “Let’s be clear, this record [of solar and wind lowering electricity prices] has nothing to do with the federal government, which has been missing in action and leaving all the heavy lifting to the states and territories,” he said. The Kurri Kurri gas plant, to be built by the public owned Snowy Hydro company, has been criticised as unnecessary to ensure a secure electricity supply is maintained once the nearby Liddell coal plant shuts next year. Kerry Schott, the former head of the Energy Security Board, was among those who said a new gas plant in the Hunter did not make commercial sense given there were cheaper and cleaner alternatives, but the head of Snowy Hydro, Paul Broad, this week predicted the country would continue to build “a lot more” gas-fired stations. Federal Labor last week said if it won the upcoming federal election it would require the Kurri Kurri station to run on 30% green hydrogen made with renewable energy when it opened next year, and 100% green hydrogen as soon as possible. Chris Bowen, the opposition energy and climate spokesman, said this could cost up to another $700m, inflating the potential total to $1.3bn. Green hydrogen has been widely backed as a significant future energy source as the world cuts greenhouse gas emissions, but some experts have ranked electricity generation near the bottom of its likely commercially viable uses. It is seen as important in creating “green” steel, aluminium and ammonia, among other products. Labor has also promised a $20 billion off-budget “rewiring the nation corporation” to accelerate the construction of planned electricity grid links. Modelling for the opposition by the firm RepuTex suggested it could lead to renewable energy providing 82% of electricity by 2030, compared with 68% on the current trajectory under the federal Coalition. The Greens say the country should be aiming for 100%. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-02-09T16:30:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/jun/02/winners-of-1m-prize-for-sustainable-city-transport-announced | Winners of $1m prize for sustainable city transport announced | The winning entries include everything from traditional bike lanes to innovative walk-to-school programmes. Plans were submitted by hundreds of cities across five continents for a new prize that aims to promote sustainable travel – and it seems the appetite for active transport has truly gone global. Ten months after cities around the world were offered the chance to bid for up to $1m (£800,000) to build or expand new cycling and walking schemes, the money has been awarded to designs in Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, New Zealand and Albania, among others. The money was put up by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic arm of the media conglomerate set up by Michael Bloomberg, during whose terms as mayor of New York the city sprouted a rapidly expanding network of cycle lanes. Bids were assessed in conjunction with Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), an urban design NGO founded by Janette Sadik-Khan, who was New York’s traffic commissioner under Bloomberg. As well as the money – $1m for the winner and $400,000 apiece for the other nine cities – GDCI will help the cities with things such as design and local engagement. The top prize went to a plan to build more than 110 miles of protected cycle routes in Fortaleza, a city in Brazil’s tropical north-east, with a focus on helping children and older people use bikes, and promoting cargo bike delivery. Other bike lane-focused winners included Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, which is aiming to build Africa’s largest network of urban cycling routes; Mombasa in Kenya; the Albanian capital, Tirana; Pimpri-Chinchwad in Maharashtra state, western India; and Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Quelimane, a major seaport in Mozambique, won funding for a plan that covers bike lanes and pedestrian spaces, but also proposals for parking and loading zones for the city’s ubiquitous bicycle taxis, as a way to reduce congestion. Two of the winners are especially focused on active travel for school pupils. Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, aims to connect 20,000 students to schools with protected bike lanes, while Milan in Italy submitted a proposal to connect 40 schools with a radial network of bike routes. The plan for Bogotá is specifically aimed at the mobility of children in a low-income part of the Colombian capital, based around a programme known as a ciempiés, or centipedes – organised walking caravans that help students get to and from school safely. James Anderson leads the government innovation programme at Bloomberg Philanthropies. He said the prize received entries from 275 cities across 66 countries, arguing this was a sign of the global interest in active travel. “Demand and interest in urban cycling is skyrocketing,” he said. “The need to offer residents more sustainable mobility options is also urgent and critical. But we all know that city infrastructure has not kept pace. “We haven’t seen the level of innovation, we haven’t seen the level of ambition that the moment demands.” The judges, he said, were not just looking for plans with coherent networks, but ideas that engaged with local communities, particularly ones seen as traditionally hard to reach for active travel schemes, such as Wellington’s focus on the city’s Māori population. “There’s a recognition now in city halls everywhere that expertise comes from lots of places, and a lot of it comes from the community,” he said. “If you want people in communities that have not typically participated in some of the sustainable mobility options, you need to go there and you need to work with them, need to get their thoughts on how to make cycling infrastructure useful in their day-to-day lives.” | ['environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'news/cycling', 'politics/transport', 'media/bloomberg', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/peterwalker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-06-02T07:00:08Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2009/apr/09/easter-eggs-packaging-reduced | Lighter, thinner – Easter egg packaging goes on a diet | Max the Bunny has lost weight. Last year M&S's best-selling chocolate animal inhabited a 2ft-high plastic circular drum made up of three pieces of rigid polymer and cardboard. This year the Easter rabbit with the ghastly rictus grin comes in a simple lightweight vacuum bag made of thin film that can be recycled. Max's "burrow" now weighs just a 10th what it did. The M&S bunny is not alone. The wrapping and packaging for the majority of the 100m Easter rabbits, chicks, lambs and eggs, which are expected to be bought and eaten this year in Britain, have all been slimmed down as chocolate makers have cut their packaging. Cadbury claims to have reduced packaging by 25%, Marks & Spencer by almost 30%, Green and Black's by more than 60% and Thorntons by 22%. Nestlé said it had saved 700 tonnes of packaging by swapping plastic for cardboard. Mars claimed to have saved 108 tonnes of wrapping materials. Easter eggs have been synonymous with extreme packaging, and in the past chocolatiers have competed with each other to produce bigger and glitzier covers for quite modest eggs. But public disquiet and more austere and environmentally aware times have forced a small revolution on the high street, according to the government's recycling advisers Wrap. "It's very exciting. There has been huge frustration among consumers over excess packaging of Easter eggs and it looks like the industry is taking note. On average, the confectionary industry is using 25% less packaging by weight this year," said Liz Goodwin, chief executive of Wrap. Out have gone many of the giant clear plastic boxes, vacuum-formed moulds, carton board, corrugated cardboard, ribbons, bows and silver foil. In have come lighter, recyclable plastics and laminates, cardboard, thin films, and redesigned, stronger eggs. Last year, UK consumers chucked away nearly 3,500 tonnes of packaging at Easter, but that could be down by 25% this year. Green and Black's, which makes about 1.3m Easter eggs, claimed to have reduced Easter egg packaging by 62% and saved 70 tonnes of materials by avoiding unnecessary plastic. "We have removed 37 tonnes of plastic from our Easter range as well as 33 tonnes of cardboard. Our eggs are now packed only in cardboard. It needed a complete redesign. We had to make the eggs thicker," said Dominic Lowe, managing director of Green and Black's. "Ten years ago, people would pay £2 or £3 for an egg, and the packaging had to look really good. An Easter egg was a special gift to children, so families would buy perhaps two. But now people buy as many as 10 eggs. Easter eggs have moved from being a special thing to being commercialised. "The difficulty we have is that if it's a gift it must look special. We are caught between the norms of [giving presents] and the needs of the environment. But everyone is now saying enough is enough. We all agree it has gone too far. Initially there was some resistance but a genuine change is taking place." Easter eggs are symbolic of what is happening to packaging everywhere else, with an annual growth of 3-4% in packaging waste halting for the first time. New figures published today by the Environment Agency show that two thirds of total packaging waste in 2008 was recycled, keeping 6.6m tonnes of packaging out of landfill and saving approximately 8.9m tonnes of CO2. "We would expect an extra 70-170,000 tonnes of packaging a year but this has stopped. Companies are beginning to reduce the weight of glass wine and beer bottles, they are using thinner films and taking plastic sleeves off goods," said Goodwin. "Coca-Cola have reduced the weight of many of their plastic bottles, and Innocent drinks and others are using recycled plastic. The public may not notice it but a real change is taking place." She warned, however, that new shopping habits were changing the nature of packaging. Internet shopping required many more goods to be transported long distances. Books in particular needed a huge amount of packaging, she said. Many things now were dispatched in padded bags. "So far it has been quite easy. The next step is to convince the consumer that less packaging is better. We need to get people to use refillable containers," said Goodwin. Last month, in a trial to determine custpomer opinion, Tesco announced it was encouraging customers to leave excessive packaging near the tills. The supermarket chain had already cut back on what it regarded as "wasteful" packaging, such as bulky dog-food bags and plastic wrapping on food. Top five ethical Easter egg brands 1. Divine 2. Montezuma 3. Dubble 4. Hotel Chocolat 5. Thorntons As rated by Ethical Consumer magazine Top five tastiest eggs 1. Paul A Young half caramelised milk chocolate egg and dark chocolate peppermint egg 2. Godiva Nougatine egg 3. Waitrose White chocolate egg 4. Green & Black's dark chocolate egg 5. Divine dark chocolate egg As rated by Guardian readers • Share your photos of Easter egg packaging, good and bad | ['environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'business/cadburyschweppes', 'business/business', 'business/marksspencer', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-04-09T12:41:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/audio/2011/jan/12/business-podcast-bankers-bonuses-bp-oil | The Business podcast: Bankers' bonuses and the legacy of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill | Despite the political flak flying and plenty of tough talking from the government - not least Vince Cable - bankers will get their bonuses. And with an estimated £7bn to share around, it looks to be a bumper year for some in the City. We hear from the Guardian's banking expert Jill Treanor on how the most hated industry in Britain is still one of the most powerful. And as anger levels rise against the banks, things got hot-tempered in the Treasury select committee room this week as Barclays boss Bob Diamond came under pressure to show gratitude to the British taxpayer for saving the banking system. Also this week, the US government report on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was published. It concluded that "better management by BP, Halliburton and Transocean would almost certainly have prevented the blowout." So has the industry learnt from the disaster which killed 11 men and caused untold damage to the environment? And what is the future of offshore drilling? We hear from the Observer's business editor Andrew Clark, the Guardian's energy editor Terry Macalister and Bloomberg's Stanley Reed whose new book on the disaster, In Too Deep, has just been published. Leave your thoughts below. | ['business/series/the-business-podcast', 'business/business', 'money/banks', 'business/executive-pay-bonuses', 'politics/economy', 'business/barclay', 'business/bob-diamond', 'politics/georgeosborne', 'politics/conservatives', 'business/bp', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'business/tony-hayward', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'environment/oil-spills', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2011-01-12T15:44:26Z | true | ENERGY |
cities/2019/sep/10/barcelonas-car-free-superblocks-could-save-hundreds-of-lives | Barcelona's car-free 'superblocks' could save hundreds of lives | Barcelona could save hundreds of lives and cut air pollution by a quarter if it fully implements its radical superblocks scheme to reduce traffic, a new report claims. A study carried out by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health calculates that the city could prevent 667 premature deaths every year if it created all 503 superblocks envisaged in its initial plan – up from the current six schemes. The superblocks are groups of streets where traffic is reduced to close to zero, with the space formerly occupied by cars given over to pedestrians and play areas. The concept is the brainchild of BCNecologia, an agency led by Salvador Rueda. The six schemes introduced so far have been generally welcomed by residents of a city whose air quality regularly exceeds the World Health Organization’s legal limits for pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The report claims that creating all 503 superblocks would reduce ambient levels of NO2 by 24%, from the current level of 47 micrograms per cubic metre to 36 micrograms per cubic metre. A decrease on that scale would bring Barcelona’s NO2 levels into line with the WHO recommendation of a maximum of 40 micrograms per cubic metre. The life expectancy of the average Barcelona resident could increase by almost 200 days, the report adds, saving the city €1.7bn (£1.52bn) a year. The most notable health benefits would come from reductions in air pollution (preventing 291 premature deaths a year), followed by reduced traffic noise and heat island effects (preventing 163 and 117 premature deaths respectively). The study also estimates that the total of 1.19m journeys in private vehicles would fall by 230,000 a week as people switched to public transport or making journeys on foot or by bicycle. The plan would also increase the number of green spaces in what is a densely populated city with few public parks. In the Eixample district alone, researchers calculate that the increase in vegetation resulting from the plan would prevent 60 premature deaths a year. “It is important to remember that the data we present are estimates and that the methodology used has certain limitations,” said Natalie Mueller, lead author of the study. “This means that our findings must be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, irrespective of the specific figures, what this study shows is that urban planning and transport interventions like the superblocks have significant implications for public health.” Mueller said Barcelona needs not just superblocks but other complementary strategies designed to improve air quality, promote physical activity and tackle climate change. “We urgently need a paradigm shift away from the car-centred urban planning model and towards a people-centred approach,” she said. When the first superblock was introduced in 2017 in Poblenou, in the north of the city, it was met with opposition by car owners and also those who claimed it would be ruinous to local business. However, opposition has faded as residents have begun to enjoy the benefits of a traffic-free neighbourhood. There are also 30% more local businesses than previously and the area has seen a significant increase in the numbers of people making journeys on foot or cycling. The superblocks model has attracted attention from other cities, and in Seattle in the US there is a proposal to introduce something akin to the Barcelona scheme in a six-block area in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood. The north-west US city has already experimented with something similar with its Home Zones project, in which residents are offered grants to introduce traffic-calming schemes. Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter | ['cities/cities', 'world/spain', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/barcelona', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stephen-burgen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/cities'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-09-10T10:15:24Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/nov/08/gardens-of-eden-the-church-forests-of-ethiopia-aoe | Gardens of Eden: the church forests of Ethiopia – a photo essay | South of the Sahara, and just north of the Great Rift Valley in landlocked Ethiopia, the Blue Nile flows from Lake Tana, the largest lake in the country. Radiating out from the sacred source is a scattering of forest islands, strewn across the dry highlands like a handful of emeralds. At the heart of each circle of forest, hunkered down under the ancient canopy and wrapped in lush vegetation, are saucer-shaped churches – otherworldly structures that almost seem to emit a life force. And in a sense they do. Ethiopia is one of the fastest expanding economies in the world today and the second most populous country in Africa. The vast majority of people live in rural areas, where the expansion of settlements and agriculture is slowly thinning the forest edge by cattle and plough. Over the past century, 90% of Ethiopia’s forests have been lost. In Amhara province, the only remaining native forests are those that surround the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church buildings. Preserved as an act of faith for centuries, these forests are proof of the power of spiritual ideas to create sustainable landscapes. Seen from above, the forests are demarcated by the stark boundary between sacred and secular, church and field, work and rest. They are places detached from everyday life yet central to it, informing human work and relationships within society. Like other objects within Orthodox traditions, the forests direct the worshipper to look beyond what is visible. Entering them, the arid silence of subsistence farmland gives way to the forest’s cool, fragrant air, filled with a cacophony of living song. The sounds of insects, birds and monkeys rise with human voices into the canopy and up to the heavens. Generations come and go under the same ancient trees as their ancestors. The symbol of the tree is at the heart of the Christian story, from the tree of life standing in the Garden of Eden in Genesis to its redemptive role in Revelation, bridging the river of life and bearing fruit for the healing of nations. The story of Eden has been shared in Ethiopia for millennia – well before the Aksumite kingdom adopted Christianity around 325AD, and even before a tree came to symbolise the global faith. Today, in Ethiopia, each church forest is seen by its guardians as a miniature Garden of Eden. The religious significance of the forest is equalled by the importance of its ecological function. These sacred oases raise water tables, lower temperatures, block destructive winds and are home to yield-boosting pollinators essential to surrounding agriculture. The forests are, therefore, genetic repositories vital for the future survival of human life in Ethiopia. Priests who do not protect these natural resources are deemed to have failed in their mission, and since understanding the global importance of the forests they care for, the priests have become even more committed to the cause. The vast church forest network, covering an area the size of England and Wales, has the potential to offer a significant barrier to desertification in this region. For now the task is to strengthen what remains by the simplest solution possible: building conservation walls around the forests that keep grazing cattle out and allow vegetation to regrow. Only 20 churches, all supported by church forest experts Dr Meg Lowman and Dr Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, have walls, and only a few hundred out of the many thousands are viable habitats. All need protecting. Yet, as unique as they are, these forest churches are not merely a localised cultural novelty: Ethiopia’s grassroots and spiritually motivated conservation efforts sit within a global context of efforts to resolve our ecological crises. In the secular west, we can easily overlook spiritual viewpoints as we seek ways to restore and protect the environment, despite the roots of the modern environmental movement being spiritual. As these photographs show, spiritual beliefs still have the power to conserve and heal. The Church Forests of Ethiopia, by Kieran Dodds, is available from 15 November. | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'artanddesign/series/guardian-picture-essay', 'world/ethiopia', 'world/religion', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-pictures-guardian-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-11-08T07:00:24Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
society/2017/sep/05/under-occupation-plays-a-key-role-in-the-housing-crisis | Under-occupation plays a key role in the housing crisis | Letters | Your letter writers on the housing shortage (5 September) neglect a key point – under-occupation of the existing stock. I sympathise with the nimbys’ desire to keep the green belt from urban sprawl, but this can only be done if they are prepared to occupy less space when occasion demands (ie in later life). Only a reset of the council tax bands, punitively progressive at the top end to discourage oligarchs and investment buyers, will have the desired effect, along with stronger compulsory purchase order powers for councils. David Redshaw Gravesend, Kent • It will take years to heal the personal losses sustained in the Grenfell tragedy (Report, 4 September). There are many tower blocks clad in combustible materials, which will need to be replaced. Solartricity is installing solar panels on social housing and other blocks to save tenants about £250 a year on their power bills. Perhaps Grenfell and other tower blocks could be reclad with solar PV panels to help offset the cost of rectification, and bring permanent benefits to residents? Professor LJS Lesley Liverpool • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['society/housing', 'society/communities', 'tone/letters', 'uk-news/grenfell-tower-fire', 'uk/uk', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'money/counciltax', 'inequality/generational-inequality', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-09-05T16:51:32Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2009/apr/09/easter-eggs-packaging-reduced | Lighter, thinner – Easter egg packaging goes on a diet | Max the Bunny has lost weight. Last year M&S's best-selling chocolate animal inhabited a 2ft-high plastic circular drum made up of three pieces of rigid polymer and cardboard. This year the Easter rabbit with the ghastly rictus grin comes in a simple lightweight vacuum bag made of thin film that can be recycled. Max's "burrow" now weighs just a 10th what it did. The M&S bunny is not alone. The wrapping and packaging for the majority of the 100m Easter rabbits, chicks, lambs and eggs, which are expected to be bought and eaten this year in Britain, have all been slimmed down as chocolate makers have cut their packaging. Cadbury claims to have reduced packaging by 25%, Marks & Spencer by almost 30%, Green and Black's by more than 60% and Thorntons by 22%. Nestlé said it had saved 700 tonnes of packaging by swapping plastic for cardboard. Mars claimed to have saved 108 tonnes of wrapping materials. Easter eggs have been synonymous with extreme packaging, and in the past chocolatiers have competed with each other to produce bigger and glitzier covers for quite modest eggs. But public disquiet and more austere and environmentally aware times have forced a small revolution on the high street, according to the government's recycling advisers Wrap. "It's very exciting. There has been huge frustration among consumers over excess packaging of Easter eggs and it looks like the industry is taking note. On average, the confectionary industry is using 25% less packaging by weight this year," said Liz Goodwin, chief executive of Wrap. Out have gone many of the giant clear plastic boxes, vacuum-formed moulds, carton board, corrugated cardboard, ribbons, bows and silver foil. In have come lighter, recyclable plastics and laminates, cardboard, thin films, and redesigned, stronger eggs. Last year, UK consumers chucked away nearly 3,500 tonnes of packaging at Easter, but that could be down by 25% this year. Green and Black's, which makes about 1.3m Easter eggs, claimed to have reduced Easter egg packaging by 62% and saved 70 tonnes of materials by avoiding unnecessary plastic. "We have removed 37 tonnes of plastic from our Easter range as well as 33 tonnes of cardboard. Our eggs are now packed only in cardboard. It needed a complete redesign. We had to make the eggs thicker," said Dominic Lowe, managing director of Green and Black's. "Ten years ago, people would pay £2 or £3 for an egg, and the packaging had to look really good. An Easter egg was a special gift to children, so families would buy perhaps two. But now people buy as many as 10 eggs. Easter eggs have moved from being a special thing to being commercialised. "The difficulty we have is that if it's a gift it must look special. We are caught between the norms of [giving presents] and the needs of the environment. But everyone is now saying enough is enough. We all agree it has gone too far. Initially there was some resistance but a genuine change is taking place." Easter eggs are symbolic of what is happening to packaging everywhere else, with an annual growth of 3-4% in packaging waste halting for the first time. New figures published today by the Environment Agency show that two thirds of total packaging waste in 2008 was recycled, keeping 6.6m tonnes of packaging out of landfill and saving approximately 8.9m tonnes of CO2. "We would expect an extra 70-170,000 tonnes of packaging a year but this has stopped. Companies are beginning to reduce the weight of glass wine and beer bottles, they are using thinner films and taking plastic sleeves off goods," said Goodwin. "Coca-Cola have reduced the weight of many of their plastic bottles, and Innocent drinks and others are using recycled plastic. The public may not notice it but a real change is taking place." She warned, however, that new shopping habits were changing the nature of packaging. Internet shopping required many more goods to be transported long distances. Books in particular needed a huge amount of packaging, she said. Many things now were dispatched in padded bags. "So far it has been quite easy. The next step is to convince the consumer that less packaging is better. We need to get people to use refillable containers," said Goodwin. Last month, in a trial to determine custpomer opinion, Tesco announced it was encouraging customers to leave excessive packaging near the tills. The supermarket chain had already cut back on what it regarded as "wasteful" packaging, such as bulky dog-food bags and plastic wrapping on food. Top five ethical Easter egg brands 1. Divine 2. Montezuma 3. Dubble 4. Hotel Chocolat 5. Thorntons As rated by Ethical Consumer magazine Top five tastiest eggs 1. Paul A Young half caramelised milk chocolate egg and dark chocolate peppermint egg 2. Godiva Nougatine egg 3. Waitrose White chocolate egg 4. Green & Black's dark chocolate egg 5. Divine dark chocolate egg As rated by Guardian readers • Share your photos of Easter egg packaging, good and bad | ['environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'business/cadburyschweppes', 'business/business', 'business/marksspencer', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-04-09T12:41:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2020/jul/20/weatherwatch-ef-benson-crimson-sunset-drive-london-mapp-lucia-a-reaping | Weatherwatch: EF Benson marvels at crimson sunset on drive to London | One summer night, the novelist EF Benson motors lyrically to London. “When we started, the crimson of the sunset was still aflame in the west, but gradually the colour was withdrawn, as if some unseen hand was pulling out scarlet threads that ran through some exquisite fabric of dainty embroidery, leaving there only the soft transparent ground of it. Then more gradually, so that the eye could not trace the appearance of each, but only knew that the number was being multiplied, behind the dark velvet of the sky were lit the myriad suns that make a flame of space, and sing in their orbits,” he writes in A Reaping (1909). “The roads were empty of traffic, and though July was here, still from dark coppice and leafy screen there sounded the one eternal song, the rapture of nightingales. Often it seemed to me as if we were standing still, while the world in its revolution span by us,” continues the creator of the Mapp and Lucia novels. “It seemed in the darkness that time had ceased, and that from its own impetus this globe and the thousand globes above were circling still. Then in front there began to shine, like the reflected light of some comet coming nearer, the huge glow-worm of London.” | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/uk', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'books/fiction', 'environment/environment', 'environment/summer', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/timradford', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-07-20T20:30:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/nov/01/pacific-islanders-call-for-australia-not-to-fund-adani-coalmine | Pacific Islanders call for Australia not to fund Adani coalmine | Pacific Islanders whose homes face eradication by rising sea levels have called on Australia to not fund the Adani Carmichael coalmine, as a new report reveals the worsening impact of climate change across Oceania. Residents of the endangered islands have described their forced displacement as like “having your heart ripped out of your chest” as they called on the Australian government to do more to combat climate change. A report released by international aid group Caritas on Wednesday found that thousands of Pacific people across the region faced “threats to their wellbeing, livelihoods and, in some places, their very existence” due to rising sea levels, king tides and natural disasters brought about by climate change. In Papua New Guinea, 2,000 households across 35 coastal communities were displaced by coastal erosion over the past year. In Samoa, 60% of the village of Solosolo was relocated to higher ground. In the Torres Strait, 15 island communities were identified as at risk over the next 50 years. The mayor of the Torres Straight Island regional council, Fred Gela, described the forcible removals as like having your heart ripped out “because you are told you’re not able to live on your land”. Erietera Aram, a resident of Kiribati who works for the Department of Fisheries, said he decided to visit Australia to ask its government to take action. “We talk about the Adani coalmine,” he said. “That’s a new one. I think it’s not a good idea – it makes the world worse for all of us. It is inconsiderate of other humans on this planet. “We didn’t think of Australia as a country that would do that. We looked at it as our bigger brother. Proceeding with that new mine is a sad move. We live together in the environment but it’s like they are ignoring us. “We’re two metres above sea level. With the sea level rise, most of our lands have been taken by coastal erosion. We love our country and we want our children to live there as well, hopefully forever. It’s hard to talk about leaving the place where you belong.” According to the report’s authors, the impact of coastal erosion and flooding reached “severe” levels in 2016, upgraded from “high” the year before. Climate change also made it “increasingly difficult to maintain the health and integrity” of food and water sources. Water scarcity was deemed a “serious slow-onset problem throughout Oceania”. In terms of natural disasters, a month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours in New Caledonia in November 2016, killing nine people, while flash flooding in Fiji after Cyclone Winston forced 3,000 people into evacuation centres in December 2016. In Fiji, the report found that certain types of fish were becoming poisonous, potentially as a result of farming contamination or seabed mining operations. “Earlier this year four people died in the island of Gau from fish poisoning,” said Leo Nainoka from the country’s social empowerment education program. Global sea levels are expected to rise 30cm by 2050 compared with a 20cm average rise over the 100 years before 2000. But in certain areas of the tropical western Pacific, sea level rise has been four times the global average due to El Nino and associated weather effects. “Australia needs to make a stronger contribution to fight climate change and its impacts,” the report says. “To reach our emissions reductions targets, Australian policies need to rule out any major new fossil fuel projects or the expansion of existing ones, as this would be inherently incompatible with meeting our global climate commitments.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'business/adani-group', 'environment/coal', 'business/mining', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/naaman-zhou', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2017-10-31T17:00:01Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2022/feb/27/tesco-to-stop-selling-baby-wipes-that-contain-plastic-uk | Tesco to stop selling baby wipes that contain plastic in first for UK supermarkets | Tesco is to become the first of the main UK retailers to stop selling baby wipes containing plastic, which cause environmental damage as they block sewers and waterways after being flushed by consumers. The supermarket said it was stopping sales of branded baby wipes containing plastic from 14 March, about two years after it ceased using plastic in its own-brand products. The UK’s largest grocer is also the country’s biggest seller of baby wipes. Its customers purchase 75m packs of baby wipes every year, amounting to 4.8bn individual wipes. Tesco said it had been working to reformulate some of the other own-label and branded wipes its sells to remove plastic, including cleaning wipes and moist toilet tissue. It said its only kind of wipe that still contained plastic – designed to be used for pets – would also be plastic-free by the end of the year. Tesco began to remove plastic from its own-brand wet wipes in 2020, when it switched to biodegradable viscose, which it says breaks down far more quickly. Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s group quality director, said: “We have worked hard to remove plastic from our wipes as we know how long they take to break down.” Tesco is not the first retailer to remove wipes from sale on environmental grounds. Health food chain Holland and Barrett said it was the first high-street retailer to ban the sale of all wet-wipe products from its 800 UK and Ireland stores in September 2019, replacing the entire range with reusable alternatives. The Body Shop beauty chain has also phased out all face wipes from its shops. It is estimated that as many as 11bn wet wipes are used in the UK each year, with the majority containing some form of plastic, many of which are flushed down the toilet, causing growing problems for the environment. Last November, MPs heard how wet wipes are forming islands, causing rivers to change shape as the products pile up on their banks, while marine animals are dying after ingesting microplastics. They are also a significant component of the fatbergs that form in sewers, leading to blockages that require complex interventions to remove. Tesco said any wipes it sold that could not be flushed down the toilet were clearly labelled “do not flush”. Nevertheless, environmental campaigners and MPs have long called on retailers to do more to remove plastics from their products and packaging. The supermarket said it was trying to tackle the impact of plastic waste as part of its “4Rs” packaging strategy, which involves it removes plastic waste where possible, or reducing it, while looking at ways to reuse more and recycle. The chain said it had opened soft plastic collection points in more than 900 stores, and had launched a reusable packaging trial with shopping service Loop, which delivers food, drink and household products to consumers in refillable containers. | ['business/tesco', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'business/business', 'business/retail', 'business/supermarkets', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joanna-partridge', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-02-27T16:11:56Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/jan/31/global-count-estimates-earth-has-73000-tree-species-bletchley-park-good-turing-frequency-estimation | Global count estimates Earth has 73,000 tree species – 14% more than reported | There are an estimated 73,300 species of tree on Earth, 9,000 of which have yet to be discovered, according to a global count of tree species by thousands of researchers who used second world war codebreaking techniques created at Bletchley Park to evaluate the number of unknown species. Researchers working on the ground in 90 countries collected information on 38 million trees, sometimes walking for days and camping in remote places to reach them. The study found there are about 14% more tree species than previously reported and that a third of undiscovered tree species are rare, meaning they could be vulnerable to extinction by human-driven changes in land use and the climate crisis. “It is a massive effort for the whole world to document our forests,” said Jingjing Liang, a lead author of the paper and professor of quantitative forest ecology at Purdue University in Indiana, US. “Counting the number of tree species worldwide is like a puzzle with pieces spreading all over the world. We solved it together as a team, each sharing our own piece.” Despite being among the largest and most widespread organisms, there are still thousands of trees to be discovered, with 40% of unknown species believed to be in South America, according to the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Some of these undocumented species would probably have been known to indigenous communities but some, in the most inaccessible regions, may have never been found before. The Amazon basin appears to have the highest diversity of tree species at local level, with 200 tree species a hectare. Researchers believe this could be because it is a warm, wet environment suited to supporting a wider range of species. To estimate the number of unknown species, scientists used the Good-Turing frequency estimation, which was created by the codebreaker Alan Turing and his assistant Irving Good when trying to crack German codes for the Enigma machine during the second world war. The theory, which was developed by the Taiwanese statistician Anne Chao to be applied to the study of undetected species, helped researchers work out the occurrence of rare events – in this case unknown species of trees – using data on observed rare species. Essentially, the code uses information on species that are only detected once or twice in data to estimate the number of undetected species. The idea to do an inventory of the planet’s trees came 10 years ago when Liang found data on Alaska’s trees sitting in a drawer. He was impressed by the findings and made it his personal mission to get the data online. He then wrote a proposal to do an inventory of the whole world. “People initially laughed at me,” he said. There is no data on how the number of tree species may have changed over time, although many species are thought to be threatened with extinction due to deforestation and the climate crisis. Scientists are worried many will disappear before they have been documented. Liang said: “We hope this paper will provide us with benchmark data so that we can know if the total number of tree species in the world has been declining, especially during our mass extinction event. “We need to look at the forest as not just a carbon reservoir, or a resource for extraction; we should look at our forests as a habitat that contains tens of thousands of species of trees, and even a much higher number of flora and fauna – we need to pay attention to this biodiversity.” Dr Ruth Mitchell, a plant-soil ecologist at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, who was not involved in the research, said it showed that even for organisms as large as trees, new species were still being discovered. “It is very exciting, yet at the same time concerning that we are losing so much biodiversity so rapidly that we don’t even know about,” she said. “This study highlights the incredible diversity within our forests, much of which is still out there waiting for us to discover.” Martin Lukac, professor of ecosystem science at Reading University, who was also not involved in the paper, said: “The paper shows that almost half of the world’s tree species are in South America – this is a diamond-hard proof that we must not destroy the tropical forests there. “The tree-species diversity took billions of years to accumulate in the Amazon,” he said. “It would be beyond reckless to destroy it inside a century.” 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', 'environment/forests', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phoebe-weston', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-01-31T20:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/mar/29/average-westerners-eating-habits-lead-to-loss-of-four-trees-every-year | Average westerner's eating habits lead to loss of four trees every year | The average western consumer of coffee, chocolate, beef, palm oil and other commodities is responsible for the felling of four trees every year, many in wildlife-rich tropical forests, research has calculated. Destruction of forests is a major cause of both the climate crisis and plunging wildlife populations, as natural ecosystems are razed for farming. The study is the first to fully link high-resolution maps of global deforestation to the wide range of commodities imported by each country across the world. The research lays bare the direct links between consumers and the loss of forests across the planet. Chocolate consumption in the UK and Germany is an important driver of deforestation in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the scientists found, while beef and soy demand in the US, European Union and China results in forest destruction in Brazil. Coffee drinkers in the US, Germany and Italy are a significant cause of deforestation in central Vietnam, the research shows, while timber demand in China, South Korea and Japan results in tree loss in northern Vietnam. As a wealthy, populous country, the US has a particularly large deforestation footprint, being the main importer of a wide variety of commodities from tropical countries, including fruits and nuts from Guatemala, rubber from Liberia and timber from Cambodia. China bears the biggest responsibility for deforestation in Malaysia, resulting from imports of palm oil and other farm produce. Consumption in G7 states accounts for an average loss of four trees a year per person, the research says; the US is above average with five trees being lost per capita. In five G7 countries – the UK, Japan, Germany, France, and Italy – more than 90% of their deforestation footprint was in foreign countries and half of this was in tropical nations. Dr Nguyen Hoang, at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, in Kyoto, Japan, led the research and said the detailed maps could help target action to halt deforestation. He added: “Policymakers and companies can get an idea of which supply chains are causing deforestation. If they know that, they can focus on those supply chains to find the specific problems and solutions.” Dr Chris West, at the University of York, UK, who was not part of the research team, said: “Consumption can have large effects overseas, given our dependence on international supply chains. While policy at government level is often focused on domestic concerns, the fact is that if we don’t also tackle this international footprint we will continue to drive devastating environmental impacts globally. “This can’t be tackled by single nations alone and is also not just a western issue,” he said. “The rise of the deforestation footprint of China is particularly striking, and speaks to the need for multilateral action.” The research, published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal, combined high-resolution data on forest loss and its drivers with a global database of international trade relationships between 15,000 industry sectors from 2001 to 2015. This enabled the researchers to quantify each country’s deforestation footprint based on its population’s consumption. The research scientists said: “Despite the growing recognition of the seriousness of deforestation in developing countries, deforestation footprints [in rich nations] have remained largely unchanged [since 2000].” China, India and the G7 countries have increased forest cover in their own countries, but have also increased their deforestation footprints outside their borders. One limitation of the study, acknowledged by the researchers, is that lack of data meant it was unable to clearly link consumption to specific areas within countries. “We need finer-scale analysis where this is possible,” West said. The Trase project he works on does allow closer linkages for some landscapes, and importantly, the identification of the actors involved in the deforestation. The data was also unable to separate natural forests from cultivated ones – the latter are important in countries such as Canada. Paul Morozzo, a campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “The report shines a light on overconsumption and shows that individual choices – to reduce meat and dairy for example – are important. But companies are failing to be honest. They are not taking responsibility for the environmental impact of their products and this has to change.” Reversing forest loss should be a priority for the upcoming G7 summit, being hosted by the UK, he added. The idea that western consumers might plant four trees to compensate for their deforestation footprint was unfortunately flawed, said West. “Cutting down a tropical rainforest cannot be compensated by planting a pine tree.” | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'food/food', 'environment/food', 'world/world', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/farming', 'food/chocolate', 'food/coffee', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-03-29T15:00:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2021/mar/19/activist-on-hunger-strike-calls-on-canadian-government-to-halt-logging | Activist on hunger strike in Canada calls on government to halt logging | A man in the second week of a hunger strike is calling on a provincial government in Canada to halt logging, amid growing fears that clearcutting the country’s eastern forests could prove devastating for endangered species. Jacob Fillmore, a 25-year-old activist in the province of Nova Scotia, has survived on broth and water for 12 days, camping outside the province’s legislative assembly to raise awareness over the destruction of old-growth forest. “I recognise that a hunger strike is quite an extreme measure to take to get my message heard, but I think it’s time for extreme measures,” Fillmore told the Guardian. “We really don’t have any time to lose.” Early in the week, protesters joined Fillmore in Halifax, the province’s capital, blocking roads and demanding the government halt the controversial logging practice of clearcutting, which they fear is pushing ecosystems to the brink. Support for Fillmore’s protest also speaks to a broader frustration across Canada over the continued harvest of old-growth forests – despite warnings from ecologists that the ageing trees represent a valuable tool in the fight against climate change. For more than three centuries Nova Scotia’s forests have been harvested for valuable timber exports. But generations of relentless extraction have left the province with few remaining stands of Acadian old-growth, a mix of hardwood and softwood trees that once blanketed much of the Maritime province. “Our forests used to be enormous,” said Bob Bancroft, a wildlife biologist and head of Nature Nova Scotia, a collection of environmental advocacy groups. “I’ve seen elm trees where four of us could barely get our arms around to touch fingers. And I’ve seen yellow birch that measured over 13ft in circumference. But there’s hardly any of that left now.” Bancroft estimates that half of the province’s forests have been logged over the last 35 years. For residents, the rapid disappearance of the mainland moose – whose numbers have collapsed in recent years – has become emblematic of the unfolding ecological disaster. With its shelter and food sources disappearing, the endangered moose population is increasingly being pushed to fewer and fewer forested areas. “It’s a bit like somebody knocking on your door and saying, ‘Excuse me, I’ve lost my home, I want to live in your house,’” said Bancroft. “They’re being pushed back to the last bastions of wildness that they can find because there’s nowhere else to go.” WestFor, the main harvester in the region, did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. The company recently released a video defending its logging practices, telling a report that it believes “a responsible forest industry can be balanced with the need to protect our natural environment, including endangered species such as the mainland moose”. The Nova Scotia government also did not respond to a request for comment. In addition to habitat degradation, a recent push by the Nova Scotia government to use harvested wood for electricity generation has prompted concern among campaigners. “We can’t consider our forests as a resource to be burned,” said Gretchen Fitzgerald, a national programme director at the Sierra Club of Canada. “And we know that old-growth forests are especially critical for drawing down carbon to confront the climate emergency.” Activists are growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as a lack of meaningful action, despite promises from successive provincial governments to reform forestry management practices. In 2019 a provincial court found that the government had failed to meaningfully protect the moose under its endangered species laws. In October 2020 members of Extinction Rebellion set up two blockades on logging roads in south-western Nova Scotia, where one of the few stands of old-growth forest remains. “Forests of mature evergreens are exactly the kind of habitat that the moose needed – and it’s exactly the kind of habitat that the forestry industry wants to get its hands on,” said Nina Newington, one of the activists who spent eight weeks at the blockade site. In December, police arrested nine of the protesters, including Newington, as they enforced a court injunction in favour of WestFor. And it was in December that Fillmore began camping out in front of government buildings, refusing to leave until the government implements a moratorium on logging in ecologically sensitive areas. His refusal to eat until the government agrees to a temporary ban, an escalation of his previous protests, has raised concern from fellow protesters. “It scares and saddens me that a 25-year-old guy is doing this to his body,” said Newington. “But I also admire him enormously for it.” The newly appointed premier, Iain Rankin, has pledged to implement recommendations from the recent forestry report, as well as prioritising action on climate change – a move welcomed by activists. But Rankin, who previously ran the government’s department of lands and forests, has warned that any changes will probably come at the end of the year. The premier’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Fillmore’s calls for a moratorium. Fillmore, who has grown increasingly lethargic without food, says his fight reflects his desperation over the loss of forests. “Without substantial action on climate change, food security is going to be a real issue for people, as it already is for many species on the planet,” he said. “My sense of urgency comes from a fact to that I’m scared for my future.” | ['world/canada', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/conservation', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-03-19T08:00:03Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/03/evo-morales-indigenous-people-protest | Evo Morales's defence of Mother Earth rings hollow in Bolivia | Mike Gonzalez | In August 2,000 men, women and children, members of the 64 indigenous communities living in the Isiboro Sécure National Park, in eastern Bolivia, set out for La Paz. Their aim was to present to President Evo Morales their protest at the proposed 400km highway that would cut through their territory, an area of extraordinary environmental importance. Forty days later, they were attacked by police, teargassed and beaten at Yucumo. On the following day, the Bolivian government minister Sacha Llorenti appeared before TV cameras to defend the brutal police assault. Shortly afterwards, Llorenti resigned, while Morales himself then issued an abject apology, claiming that he had not ordered the attack and suspended the road-building programme. Others said that he was responsible; as president he is also commander of both the armed forces and the national police. Defence minister Cecilia Chacon had already resigned in protest, claiming that this was not what the government of president Evo Morales was elected for. Evo Morales was the beneficiary of a wave of mass popular protests that began with the "water war" in Cochabamba in 2000 and was followed by similar mobilisations over water and more generally over control of the nation's oil and gas wealth. At the heart of the movement was the long struggle of the country's indigenous populations – more than 50% of the population – for social justice and the recognition of their communal rights. For them, Morales's election to the presidency in 2006 was a collective victory. When the powerful, predominantly white, state leaderships of Bolivia's eastern provinces tried to break away from the rest of the country in 2008, the resistance mounted by the local indigenous populations in co-ordination with their allies in the high mountains of the west, effectively saved Morales's government. And the constitution of 2009 seemed to justify their confidence. It established the "plurinational state of Bolivia" and contained an explicit defence of the communal rights of the Indian communities over their traditional lands – though their own term was "territory" because it embraced not only the physical land but their cultures and traditions too. Having nationalised gas and oil and introduced some immediate measures of social welfare, it seemed that the government of Morales would indeed, as he movingly declared at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, give priority to the protection of "Pachamama" (Mother Earth) and the long neglected rights of Bolivia's first nations. The march from the national park – or to give it its full name the Indigenous Territory of the Isiboro Sécure National Park (Tipnis) – was intended to insist on those constitutional rights. The marchers and their organisations were arguing that the chosen route of the new highway would cause maximum environmental damage and disrupt and eventually destroy the local communities – and that its real purpose was to give easy access to multinational oil and gas companies. Morales angrily denied this, denouncing the marchers as manipulated by foreign interests. He has used the charge on previous occasions – in December 2010, for example, when his powerful vice-president, Alvaro Garcia Linera, announced an 83% rise in petrol prices and backed down only when mass protests brought the country to a standstill. The attack on the Tipnis marchers will serve only to fuel a growing disillusionment. The guarantee of prior consultation in the constitution was ignored over petrol price rises, and again over road-building projects like this one. And the defence of Mother Earth rings hollow when it is clear that the economic strategy the Morales government has adopted seems to rely on new contracts with a range of multinational companies to develop oil, gas, lithium and uranium reserves – in other words, the very extractive industries that had gutted Bolivia's subsoil at the expense of a population 69% of whom were living in poverty when Morales came to power. Morales has argued that the integration of a hitherto fragmented country was his first priority – and he has justified the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos highway through Tipnis as part of that process. Yet it was originally conceived as part of an IMF-designated "transoceanic corridor" which would open the Amazon regions to global trade – and in particular to Brazilian multinationals like Petrobras, which is aggressively present throughout the region. When Morales described the marchers as tourists he was ignoring an uncomfortable fact; that they were marching to defend a model of development that could offer an alternative to a destructive global capitalism, a model based on collective aspirations and respect for the natural world and the human beings who shared it. It was his own words they were bringing back to him, before they were stopped at Yucumo. | ['world/bolivia', 'world/evo-morales', 'world/world', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'tone/comment', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/mike-gonzalez'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-10-03T10:42:20Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sustainable-business/2014/nov/13/religious-festivals-sustainable-kumbh-mela-hajj-christmas | Religious festivals: how sustainable is Kumbh Mela, Hajj and Christmas? | Religious festivals play an intrinsic part in people’s lives the world over, but their environmental impacts can be far from ethereal. We look at what actions are being taken to green some of the biggest events in the world’s religious calendar. Hajj: tread kindly Nearly three million Muslims head to Mecca in Saudi Arabia every year to complete the Hajj pilgrimage. However, the event’s spiritual benefits come at an environmental cost, with litter and transport-related emissions high on the list of impacts. Muslim pilgrims can now obtain advice on how to reduce their environmental footprint in the Green Guide for Hajj. The guide is available in English, Arabic, Hausa, Bengali, and Bahasa Indonesian. Published by the UK-based Alliance of Religions and Conservation, the booklet encourages pilgrims to take jute or cloth bags and prayer mats to Hajj and to use reusable drinking bottles instead of plastic equivalents. They are also advised to select travel agents based on their sustainability credentials and to purchase only eco-friendly products in preparation. When visiting the holy sites of Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat, pilgrims should ideally ditch their cars and travel by the Mecca metro rail service instead. Mecca is one of 30 or so pilgrimage destinations participating in the Green Pilgrimage Network. The network recently established an alliance with the R20 Regions of Climate Change initiative, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two groups hope that the region might feature in its list of model green pilgrim cities, to be published at next year’s UN climate change summit. Kumbh Mela: river clean-up From July to September 2015, an estimated ten million or so Hindus are expected to descend on Nashik, a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Their purpose will be to bathe in the sacred Godavari River as part of the festival of Kumbh Mela. Local environmental groups are already raising concerns about pollution levels in the river, however. Following a public interest case brought by a local NGO, a Bombay court has ordered the city’s municipal authorities to undertake a clean-up operation. Efforts to green the Kumbh Mela form a key part of the city’s proposed plan. Among the ambitious goals recently unveiled by the city government is the elimination of plastic-based products during the festival. Pledges have also been made to deploy extra police on the Godavari’s banks in order to prevent people from throwing ritual offerings and material waste into the river. Nets will be fixed to pedestrian bridges with a similar pollution-prevention aim in mind. In addition, the municipal authority says it will take steps to stop people washing clothes, animals and cars in the river. As part of the ‘Green Kumbh’, a major public awareness campaign about water pollution will run before and during the event too. Initial outreach in schools and colleges is already under way. Christmas: recycling The tinsel is up in shop windows. That means three things are in the offing: Christmas Day, piles of presents and, come Boxing Day, mountains of rubbish. But do Christmas festivities lead to an overloading the UK’s landfill sites? Not if we get recycling, green groups say. E-cards are a simple alternative to paper cards, and recycled cards such as those sold by Nigel’s Eco Store, are also better for the environment. Also, consumers can take their cards down to a local Marks & Spencer store to be recycled. Through a partnership with the Woodland Trust, the UK retailer promises to plant a tree for every 1,000 cards handed in during January. Recycling schemes exist for other Christmas-specific paraphernalia too. Many local councils, for example, arrange specific collection services for real Christmas trees. The trees are usually shredded into chippings, which are then used locally in parks or woodland areas. The anti-waste campaign group Love Food Hate Waste, provides numerous recipe ideas for any uneaten turkey and other yuletide leftovers. Composting wreaths and paper chains is another recommendation from the government-backed initiative, Recycle Now. As for the tinsel? It’s not recyclable, so bin it or – better still – try to live without it. Shmita: give consumerism a rest Most religions have something of the counter-cultural about them, so reclaiming religious festivals from the clutches of mass consumerism is perhaps apt. It’s an approach much on the mind of some Jewish organisations in this Shmita (sabbatical) year, which began on 25 September. In response, Jewish Social Action Forum is launching the ‘Give It A Rest’ campaign. As part of the initiative, the group is calling on the Jewish community to give to food banks during Mitzvah Day on 16 November. The move builds on previous efforts to use events in the Jewish religious calendar to raise awareness around sustainability issues. In 2014, the Canary Wharf Group held a tree-planting ceremony to mark Tu B’Shvat, while in the previous two years the non-profit Big Green Jewish Organisation ran the Year of the Bagel (2012) and the Year of the Bike (2013) to highlight issues relating to sustainable food and green transport. This year it is encouraging the Jewish community to ditch fast fashion in favour of sustainable clothing alternatives as part of its Shmita Fashion Campaign. Read more stories like this: Eco laundry habits are about more than sustainable washing machines Why rivals like PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Unilever and P&G are joining forces Advertisement feature: Unilever seeks innovative startups for sustainable living hack 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', 'business/business', 'world/religion', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'lifeandstyle/christmas', 'sustainable-business/behaviour', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/oliver-balch'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-11-13T07:00:11Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2012/dec/20/canada-first-nations-new-alliance | Canada's First Nations protest heralds a new alliance | Martin Lukacs | Canada's placid winter surface has been broken by unprecedented protests by its aboriginal peoples. In just a few weeks, a small campaign launched against the Conservative government's budget bill by four aboriginal women has expanded and transformed into a season of discontent: a cultural and political resurgence. It has seen rallies in dozens of cities, a disruption of legislature, blockades of major highways, drumming flash mobs in malls, a flurry of Twitter activity under the hashtag #IdleNoMore and a hunger strike by Chief Theresa Spence, in a tepee minutes from Ottawa's parliament. Into her tenth day, Spence says she is "willing to die for her people" to get the prime minister, chiefs and Queen to discuss respect for historical treaties. The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs John Duncan has dismissed the escalating protest movement, saying "that's social media, so we'll just have to see where that goes." He told international media that relations with First Nations are "very good". If only that were the truth. What remains unspeakable in mainstream politics in Canada was recently uttered, in a moment of rare candour, by former Prime Minister Paul Martin: "We have never admitted to ourselves that we were, and still are, a colonial power." The evidence – and source of the current anger and unrest – is hard to dispute. While Canada has the world's largest supply of fresh water, more than 100 aboriginal communities have tapwater so foul they are under continual boil alert (pdf). Aboriginal peoples constitute 3% of Canada's population; they make up 20% of its prisons' inmates. In the far north, the rate of tuberculosis is a stunning 137 times that of the rest of the country. And the suicide rate capital of the world? A small reserve in Ontario, where a group of school-age girls once signed a pact to collectively take their lives. Such realities have not stopped politicians and pundits from prattling on about the sums supposedly lavished on aboriginal peoples. The myth that aboriginals freeload off the state serves to conceal the real scandal: that most money pays for a sprawling government bureaucracy that keeps aboriginals poor, second-class, and dependent. The widespread notion that First Nations mismanage and squander what funds they do receive is simple prejudice: government reports acknowledge that communities are buried under a mountain of strict accounting; they are no more corrupt than non-native municipalities. Billions have indeed been spent – not on fixing housing, building schools or ending the country's two-tiered child aid services, but on a legal war against aboriginal communities. Every year, the government pours more than $100m into court battles to curtail aboriginal rights – and that figure alone went to defeating a single lawsuit launched by two Alberta First Nations trying to recover oil royalties essentially stolen by bureaucrats. Despite such odds, the highest courts of the land have ruled time and again in favour of aboriginal peoples. Over the last three decades, they have recognized that aboriginal nations have hunting, fishing and land rights, in some cases even outright ownership, over vast areas of unceded territory in British Columbia and elsewhere. And that the treaties Chief Spence is starving herself to see upheld – signed by the British Crown in the 1700 and 1800s, and the Canadian government until the early 1900s – mean the land's wealth should be shared, not pillaged. Federal and provincial governments have tried to claw back these rights using every means at their disposal: unilateral legislation and one-sided negotiations, spying on and demonizing aboriginal activists, and, when all else fails, shuttling troublesome leaders to jail. Parliament will soon debate a bill that would break up reserves – still, mostly, collectively held – into individual private property that can be purchased by non-native speculators. The undeclared agenda of government policy is the same as it was a century ago: a grab for resource-rich lands, and the assimilation of aboriginal nations. Canadians have often turned a blind eye, having been taught to see the rights of aboriginal peoples as a threat to their interests. Dare to restore sovereignty to the original inhabitants, the story goes, and Canadians will be hustled out of their jobs and off the land. Or more absurdly, onto the first ships back to Europe. But here's the good news. Amidst a hugely popular national movement against tar sands tankers and pipelines that would cross aboriginal territories, Canadians are starting a different narrative: allying with First Nations that have strong legal rights, and a fierce attachment to their lands and waters, may, in fact, offer the surest chance of protecting the environment and climate. Get behind aboriginal communities that have vetoes over unwanted development, and everyone wins. First Nations aren't about to push anyone off the land; they simply want to steward it responsibly. Think of this as a sign of things to come: an image of Vancouver's mayor, flanked by aboriginal chiefs, speaking out together against a destructive pipeline project. After all, who would Canadians rather control enormous swathes of rural, often pristine land : foreign corporations who see in it only dollar signs over the next financial quarter, or aboriginal communities whose commitment to its sustainability is multigenerational? The importance of #IdleNoMore cannot be overstated. Grassroots movements are what have ensured the survival of aboriginal culture, and what remains of an aboriginal land base. If it grows in energy and coordinates in a network of activism like Defenders of the Land, it could be a powerful force to reset aboriginal-state relations. It will not only ensure Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally takes the short drive from his office to visit an ailing Theresa Spence. It may also inspire non-native Canada itself, idle for too long, to reckon with the past and envision a very different future. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/canada', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oil-sands', 'world/protest', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/martin-lukacs'] | environment/oil-sands | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2012-12-20T18:24:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2015/mar/27/asus-zenwatch-review-a-sophisticated-looking-android-smartwatch | Asus ZenWatch review: a sophisticated-looking Android smartwatch | The ZenWatch is one of the most attractive square Android Wear watches on the market. The OLED screen is gently curved with a polished stainless steel body inlaid with a rose gold-coloured inset. A traditional brown leather strap with a locking clasp completes the look. The classic styling may not suit everyone, but at 75g in weight and 9.4mm thick, the watch is comfortable to wear, does not feel chunky and the 1.63-inch Gorilla Glass 3-covered screen is bright and relatively crisp. It is also water resistant to IP55 standards, which means no swimming, but rain is not a problem. The smartwatch has a built-in heart rate sensor, but instead of being an optical sensor it uses a capacitive one. Two fingers need to be placed on the metal frame of the watch to complete a circuit and measure the wearer’s pulse. I found it as accurate as the optical heart rate sensors, but it takes slightly longer to get a measurement. But because there is nothing that needs pressing against the wrist the watch does not have to be as tight as those with optical sensors, which makes it more comfortable to wear – a bonus considering how rarely I actually use the heart rate functions on any of these watches. Android Wear Every Android Wear watch operates like pretty much any other. It connects to an Android smartphone via Bluetooth. Users swipe and tap to navigate the interface, talk to it to input text and conduct searches and receive vibrating notifications on the wrist. On the ZenWatch it is all very fluid and works well. Android Wear review: Google looks to dominate wearables The ZenWatch differentiates itself with 14 custom watch faces in addition to the built-in Wear ones. These include attractive and useful analogue faces, digital ones with more information such as steps and other time zones, and faces that combine both. A ZenWatch Manager application on the phone helps customise the watch faces and provides options for muting the phone, finding the watch and setting an alert if the watch and phone are separated. One of the most useful additions is a smart unlock setting that keeps the smartphone unlocked if the watch is connected. The feature was added into the latest version of Android 5 Lollipop, but for smartphones still on KitKat or lower it’s a great asset. Asus’s Wellness fitness tracking app works well enough for heart rate monitoring – fortunately, as it cannot be uninstalled. Up by Jawbone comes pre-installed for tracking steps, but can be disabled. Battery The ZenWatch lasted just under two days on average during my testing. It could just about last two days on some occasions, but on others barely a day and half. I suspect that if you could fully disable the bundled apps and relied solely on the built-in Google apps including Fit for heart rate tracking it would consistently last two days, but I have no way to test that. Most Android Wear watches last about a day and a half per charge, with the exception of the Sony Smartwatch 3 that lasts about three. The watch slots into a grey plastic charging cradle with a microUSB port, which works well enough, while a small button on the underside of the watch turns it on. Price The Asus ZenWatch costs £200, which makes it one of the more expensive Android Wear watches, matching the Motorola Moto 360, but is £25 cheaper than the LG G Watch R and £10 more than the Sony Smartwatch 3. Verdict The Asus ZenWatch is a surprise. It is comfortable, looks great and works well. The heart rate monitor is well suited to infrequent checks, and the screen is bright and can be clearly read in sunlight. Having to charge it at least every two days is a drag, but almost every other smartwatch short of the Pebble suffers from the same drawback. The always-on ambient display mode using the OLED screen makes it a very good watch for actually telling the time, which others have neglected. Overall, the ZenWatch is easily one of the best Android Wear watches available and a solid contender for the incoming Apple Watch. Pros: comfortable, attractive, normal/replaceable watch strap, heart rate monitor, curved glass Cons: less than two-day battery life, bundled apps cannot be removed, another charging cradle to lose Other reviews • Sony Smartwatch 3 review: great design, good screen and decent battery • LG G Watch R review: chunky, masculine, and fast • Samsung Gear S review: can a smartwatch with a phone built-in replace a smartphone? | ['technology/smartwatches', 'technology/asus', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/android', 'technology/google', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-03-27T07:00:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2019/apr/04/bavarian-save-the-bees-success-raises-green-hopes-in-germany | Bavarian 'save the bees' success raises green hopes in Germany | Environmentalists in Germany are celebrating a decision by Bavaria to adopt a series of measures to “save the bees” that may revolutionise farming practice across the country. “This is a milestone for nature protection and a fine hour for citizen law-making in Bavaria,” said Ludwig Hartmann, of the Green party, one of the initiators of a petition that prompted the move. “This is a reason to be joyful, but also an incentive to jointly advance further important projects for the protection of our environment and the climate.” The petition’s adoption into law won praise from campaigners across Europe who said they aimed to copy it. The petition received support from 1.75 million Bavarians – more than a fifth of the state electorate – and was thought to be the biggest ever of its kind. The state government had a deadline within which to enact the petition’s demands or start negotiating with its organisers to come up with mutually acceptable alternatives that could have been put to voters in a follow-up referendum. Bavaria’s premier, Markus Söder, said he would adopt the measures in full, tweaking only a few aspects as recommended by the petition’s authors. Other German states are now planning to hold their own public votes, including Brandenburg and North Rhine Westphalia, the country’s most populous state. The petition called for 20% of agricultural land in Bavaria to meet organic standards by 2025, and 30% by 2030, for 10% of green spaces to be turned into wildflower meadows, and for land and streams to be more stringently protected from pesticides and fertilisers. Bavaria has the most farmed land of any German state. Söder has stressed the need to bring Bavarians together after protests from farmers, many of whom said they were being unfairly painted as indifferent to environmental concerns. The farmers’ main criticism related to calls for a ban on ploughing green spaces from the middle of March, which was widely said to be unrealistic because parts of Bavaria often are still covered in snow at this time. Söder’s Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of Angela Merkel’s CDU, has been accused by some of its supporters of being too passive in its adoption of the law. The Greens hope to make hay in the European parliament elections in May and have been polling at about 20% for months. The EU’s agricultural policy faces reform and the Greens hope to expand their influence to promote ecological measures. A German study published in 2017 found the abundance of flying insects had fallen by three-quarters in 25 years. A separate study published in February concluded that the world’s insects were on a path to extinction within a few decades. Germany’s environmental ministry is taking the subject seriously, working on its own programme for insect protection, due to be completed by the summer. It will include nationwide targets to reduce light pollution as well as initiatives to increase the number of protected areas. Fridays for Future rallies, spearheaded by the Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, have been particularly popular in Germany, even receiving the cautious backing of Merkel. A rally on 21 June is expected to attract record numbers. | ['world/germany', 'environment/farming', 'environment/conservation', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kateconnolly', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-04-04T14:26:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/aug/02/world-championship-triathletes-cannot-train-in-sea-due-to-pollution | Britain’s world championship triathletes cannot train in Irish Sea due to pollution | British triathletes preparing for next month’s world championships have been forced to abandon open water swim training because of sewage in the sea off the coast of Lancashire. Adam Diver, along with his teammates Richard Addison and Paul Bamber, will represent Great Britain at the World Triathlon Championship finals in Pontevedra, Spain, on 22-24 September. Diver said of the pollution: “It is horrible and it is upsetting. You can smell it as well, especially on hot days, you can smell the sewage.” While other teams will probably be preparing by swimming in open water, Diver and his teammates, who are all from Fleetwood, Lancashire, have to use an indoor pool. Not being able to train in the sea is “massive”, said Diver, a former Army captain who recently became the first person on record to swim from England to the Isle of Man. He explained: “You need to replicate what you will experience in the competition, you need to get muscle memory, you need to understand the dynamics of open water swimming. It’s a different sort of swimming so you’ve got to have a different technique, you’ve got to train differently. It is going to impact on us massively.” Diver said that the pollution is not just affecting his team’s training. There was a bigger picture, he said, with tourism and the whole community affected by not being able to swim in the sea. After Diver’s remarkable Isle of Man achievement, he had been planning another marathon challenge by swimming the length of the River Wyre in Lancashire. But he said: “We’ve had to postpone it because it is too dangerous. I’ve been advised I would be risking my health if I swam in it.” Diver is involved in planning a national day of protest over sewage in Britain’s seas and rivers on 14 October. He said the problem urgently needs addressing. “There are a couple of fishermen who’ve been out and told us it looks like it is getting worse,” he said. “I’ve just been on the app now and there are sewage alerts for the whole Lancashire coast. This is a daily occurrence now. It is getting to the point where it is just the norm now.” The sewage problems are largely the result of treatment plants struggling to cope with heavy rainfall. When rainfall reaches a certain level, water companies are allowed to discharge sewage overflow into rivers and seas. A spokesperson for the north-west England water company United Utilities said: “Met Office figures show that this July has been the wettest on record in Lancashire. “Over the last 30 years, we have made major investment along the Fylde coast to provide high-quality sewage treatment and to reduce the impact of storm overflows during heavy rain, bringing huge improvements to bathing waters. We plan to build on this with further investment across the north-west to meet the new requirements of the Environment Act.” The Environment Agency said it was working hard to protect and improve bathing waters by regulating and holding polluters to account. A spokesperson said: “We are absolutely clear that polluting our seas and rivers is unacceptable and we will take tough action against companies which break the rules.” | ['environment/pollution', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'sport/swimming', 'type/article', 'profile/markbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-08-02T14:39:05Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2019/jul/24/boris-johnsons-first-day-office-protests-london | Boris Johnson's first day in office met with protests in London | Environmental protesters blocked the path of Boris Johnson’s car on Wednesday as he made his way to Buckingham Palace to officially become Britain’s new prime minister. The protesters said they were aiming to highlight the need to tackle the climate emergency. The Greenpeace activists joined hands across the Mall as Johnson was making his way to meet the Queen. The protest, in which the activists had planned to hand a letter to Johnson that detailed how to end the climate crisis, was quickly broken up by police. The former Green party leader Natalie Bennett said on Twitter that the event was “a reminder for Boris Johnson, in case the air-conditioning was making him forget”. She added that the climate emergency “should be at the top of his in-tray”. The protest came just before the Queen asked Johnson to form a government, after Theresa May’s resignation as prime minister and his victory in the Conservative leadership contest on Tuesday. On Wednesday evening, hundreds of people gathered in Russell Square in London to protest against Johnson’s ascension and the government. The demo, dubbed “fck govt fck boris” after a lyric from Stormzy’s Vossi Bop and billed as a street festival, featured a bus with the words emblazoned on it as a nod to Johnson’s “£350m for the NHS” promise on the side of the Vote Leave campaign bus. The Labour leftwing grassroots movement Momentum, the Women’s Strike Assembly and Guardian columnist Owen Jones were among the event’s organisers. After a DJ set and performances from musicians, the demonstrators began marching through central London towards Trafalgar Square. Later, a group of protesters, more than 10,000 according to organisers’ estimates, marched south to the gates of Downing Street, many of them chanting: “Boris Johnson, fuck off back to Eton.” Downing Street was put into lockdown as the gates were blockaded by about 100 officers and a dozen riot vans, and no one was allowed in and out of that entrance. Meanwhile, the anti-Johnson campaigners set off purple and pink flares as they danced to booming music. Just before 8pm, MP Grant Shapps turned up at the Downing Street gates, where he was promptly turned away by an armed officer on duty. On the other side of the gates, and away from the demonstration, a string of tight-lipped Tory MPs made their way out of No 10 as further appointments were announced. They each walked straight from No 10 to a private exit which took them towards the Foreign Office buildings or a back exit. Shapps eventually used a different route to No 10, where he learned that he had been made transport secretary. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, earlier gave a speech in Russell Square in which he described Johnson as a “racist” and “a liar”. He also warned onlookers not to “fall for his buffoonery”. Lois Ward-Marvin, 23, a tattoo artist, was among the demonstrators. She said: “I don’t want Boris Johnson to be prime minister – the people that did vote for him were all white men. He’s racist, sexist, homophobic, and I don’t think he really wants to bring change for good.” However, Ward-Marvin added that she did not know who in politics would be a better fit for the post. “I’m Jewish, so the antisemitism row has pushed me away from Labour,” she said. Also in the crowd was lecturer Kevin Logan, 54. He said he was protesting against Johnson’s “incompetence”. He added: “He’s going to be awful and I’m really scared of what’s going to happen with Brexit with him in power.” Speaking close to Downing Street, Jay Crosbie said he was at the protest because he believed Johnson’s time in government would be “detrimental” to the country. “I’m here as a queer person – we know we’re the people he doesn’t care about,” he said. Instead of a banner, Crosbie carried a rainbow fan with the words “bum boys” written between the folds as a nod to an infamous comment by Johnson. Crosbie was not only worried that things such as the controversial Gender Recognition Act “won’t be on the table” under Johnson’s premiership, but also that he would not be able to resolve the current Brexit chaos. “The enormity of this just seems lost on Boris Johnson – it’s like a pantomime, like Punch and Judy,” he added. Despite the anger at the new prime minister, the demonstration appeared overall to be peaceful and there were no arrests. A second protest is planned for 20 September. Earlier in the day, campaigners from People’s Vote UK held banners outside Parliament Square and Buckingham Palace to urge the government to give the public a vote on the final Brexit deal. | ['politics/boris-johnson', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amy-walker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-07-25T07:26:34Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2019/aug/01/pollutionwatch-james-lovelock-still-right-summer-smog-uk-air-pollution | Pollutionwatch: James Lovelock still right on summer smog | July’s record-breaking temperatures brought summertime smog to most of the UK. Worst affected was eastern England, from Kent to Yorkshire, where air pollution reached seven on the government’s10-point scale. The heatwave occurred just before the 100th birthday of the scientist James Lovelock. Best known for his Gaia theory, which hypothesises that life on Earth acts as a self-regulating system, Lovelock was also an atmospheric scientist. In 1973 he was part of a team investigating summertime smog in the UK and Ireland. Up until then the idea that the UK, with its damp grey summers, could experience smog like Los Angeles was thought so improbable that no one had made measurements to check. Lovelock and team set up a line of measurement sites from a water tower in Sibton, Suffolk, to Adrigole, near Cork. Not only was there enough smog in the UK to breach US health limits but it was taking days to form in the air, sometimes from sources up to 620 miles (1,000km) away in continental Europe. They concluded that controlling our summertime air pollution needed European-wide cooperation. This is still valid today. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-08-01T20:31:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2022/oct/08/hurricane-fiona-hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-population-drain | ‘We would go back’: will Hurricane Fiona worsen Puerto Rico’s population drain? | Bad Bunny blasted from the jukebox, filling the air at the Caribbean Social Club in Brooklyn, a bar Puerto Ricans have been coming to since the 1970s. After Hurricane Maria hit and devastated the US territory in September 2017, reggaeton artists gradually trumped decades-old salsa favorites, as more new and young New Yorkers such as Paula Colón and Roberto Cruz began frequenting the bar. Colón and Cruz moved to New York City after the category 5 Maria decimated the island and left them without a jobs. Colón, 40, worked at the Saks Fifth Avenue in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, but the storm ruined it and it closed. She asked to be transferred to another store, and received an offer in New York – making considerably more money than on the island. So two months after that storm, she packed her bags, moved to New York, and waited for her husband and children to follow after her kids finished the school year. “Those were dark and difficult days for me because I had to be apart from my husband and children,” Colón said. “I look back and I have no idea how I did that.” Later, Cruz, too, lost his job in a lending company in Puerto Rico amid a sharp decline in loan applications after the hurricane, as recovery faltered. The couple are typical examples of a stark reality many Puerto Ricans face on the island that’s contributing to a steady exodus of youth and talent that only accelerates every time another catastrophe strikes and batters the essentially bankrupt economy. Hurricanes in 2017, earthquakes and a pandemic in 2020 – all during the Trump administration – now another hurricane, against a backdrop of the climate crisis and federal neglect. Puerto Rico hadn’t recovered from Maria, let alone the other problems, when Hurricane Fiona hit last month, causing power cuts across a faulty grid, more broken infrastructure, chaos, hunger and death, with Joe Biden admitting a history of inadequate assistance and local government once again turning to austerity measures. The island’s population declined almost 12% between 2010 and 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, and a third of that drop occurred the year after Hurricane Maria. Maria, also, came just two weeks after category 5 Hurricane Irma, exacerbating the havoc. Many now wonder whether Fiona will drive yet another wave of Puerto Ricans to the US mainland, perhaps to join the almost three-quarters of million of their fellows living in New York, including Colón and Cruz. Thousands died after Hurricane Maria and thousands were still living under tarps five years later. Category 1 Fiona was less deadly and damaging but still grim, especially for poorer areas. Too many are still without power and water and the southern municipalities of Puerto Rico were hit the hardest. For some it’s likely to be the last straw. “Every time there’s a natural disaster, there’s going to be displacement,” said Hernando Mattei, a demography professor at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) school of medicine. “How big it will be [this time] is uncertain.” On top of jobs being lost, the same year Maria hit, the island’s government ordered about 180 schools to shutter. For a family like Colón and Cruz, with two children still in school, the options for a better education in Puerto Rico became slimmer. Many families moving to places with vibrant Puerto Rican communities, such as the Orlando area, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, leave behind for sale signs on their homes. “This really spiked after Hurricane Maria,” said Raúl Santiago-Bartolomei, an assistant professor at the graduate school of planning at UPR. “Immediately after the hurricane, property prices decreased because there wasn’t any power or water, there were severe impacts and homes were damaged.” It created a fertile market for investors snapping up bargain houses and establishing real estate businesses offering short-term rentals or individuals buying second homes to make the most of the paradise island, but popping back to their mainland homes every time a hurricane bears down. Many more outside investors now live on the island and take advantage of generous tax breaks, fueling soaring property prices. In a classic case of gentrification, such arrivals have been displacing local Puerto Ricans who can’t afford the price hikes. Some locals have had to move out of their communities after investors buy the buildings. Santiago-Bartolomei said that this recent history could repeat itself after Hurricane Fiona, prompting investors to eye properties in damaged areas. “It wouldn’t surprise me if prices drop in certain attractive areas,” he said. “It all depends on how the recovery and reconstruction process takes place.” Puerto Rico is an example of the migration of workers from rural regions like most of the island to metropolitan centers. Puerto Ricans can move easily from the island to the rest of the US because they were granted US citizenship more than a century ago after its invasion during the Spanish-American war. However, the territory isn’t a state and its residents enjoy fewer federal benefits. A huge migration wave of Puerto Ricans to the rest of the US occurred in the 1950s as the island’s economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and tourism. Today, Puerto Ricans are contending with a different type of economic shift. The Obama administration signed a bill in 2016 known as Promesa, a law to help Puerto Rico exit its colossal economic crisis. But the move led to a series of austerity measures and budget cuts to public services that has left the island bereft of talent, with many young professionals such as doctors and teachers seeking better-paying jobs abroad. For many Puerto Ricans who leave the island, however, the question is not whether, but when they plan to return to the island. Colón and Cruz visit family there every year. “If we could be economically stable there, we would go back,” said Colón. “I love Puerto Rico. It’s our home.” | ['us-news/puerto-rico', 'world/americas', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/new-york', 'world/hurricane-fiona', 'world/hurricane-maria', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/coral-murphy-marcos', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricane-fiona | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-10-08T10:00:27Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/oct/06/country-diary-building-walls-the-exmoor-way | Country diary: Building walls, the Exmoor way | On the edge of the moor above Porlock, overlooking the mercurial grey tides of the Bristol Channel, lie a few remote farmsteads. Their fields are laced into the precipitous hillsides, with earthen banks faced with stone and topped with dense hedges. For centuries, these walls have been the traditional Exmoor way of providing a two-in-one stock-proof fence and shelter belt – much needed in a place often pummelled by gales, heavy rain and snow. Exmoor walls are made by digging down to hard ground and laying two parallel lines of rocks. The wall is built up from these foundations using smaller “litter stone” collected loose from the land. Stones are usually laid flat so that the narrower side forms the outer wall. Each row is backfilled with soil beaten solid with a sledgehammer. The finished product is about 5ft 6in high and more than 3ft thick. Almost all the structures along this coastal edge were built by generations of the Richards family. Their land includes Ash Farm, where it is thought Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his strange, incantatory poem Kubla Khan, and Yarner Farm next door. Yarner belongs to John Richards, who has more than 12 miles of wall to maintain. Occasionally he plants a holly, but his hedges are otherwise a self-seeded mix of blackthorn, elder, bramble, ash and willow. Every 15 years or so, when they get too high, he cuts and lays them flat. This is because full-grown trees would sway too much in the wind, eventually shaking out soil and rocks and undermining the bank. Most of John’s walls are hundreds of years old, but one was made more recently, in the mid-1990s. His grandfather was halfway through building it when he died at the age of 79. John inherited the farm and pledged to finish the job as a tribute. It took 40 days of hard, muscle-wrenching work over six months. Every stone had to be carried by hand down the steep slope and wrestled into position. “I was in my prime then,” John says ruefully. A quarter of a century later, the wall is just coming to maturity, lounging along the hill contours in a splendid pelt of grasses. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/farming', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/farm-animals', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/sara-hudston', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-10-06T04:30:27Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2005/sep/06/hurricanekatrina.usa8 | America needs change not charity | Why is the world rushing to help America cope with Hurricane Katrina? From the UK to Cuba, Russia to Japan and more than 50 other countries, including beleaguered Afghanistan, offers of money, food, medicine, relief staff and more worth hundreds of millions of dollars have poured into Washington, which at first seemed rightfully leery of accepting poorer nations' charity. The US should not need help: Katrina happened in a corner of the richest country on earth with one of the world's largest standing armies. The $40bn (£21.7bn) budget of the Department of Homeland Security includes more than $5bn for the Federal Emergency Management Authority (Fema). Thousands of charities, churches and community groups are already hard at work. True, in the rich US, the hurricane acted like almost all disasters in targeting the most vulnerable - poor and black, sick and old - who had no choice but to defend in person what little they possessed, lacking the money or means to evacuate, or insurance to cover anything left behind. But beyond the emotional draw of a televised catastrophe and the personal sense of our common humanity impelling us to respond rightly to those in desperate need, let's take a hard look at American disaster planning before rushing to generosity and letting President Bush's administration off a hook of its own making. Take the racially fractured, poverty-infested, gun-toting society American politics and economics has created, which rewards the few and puts many more at risk. Then there is its shift of political imperative and financial investment from disasters to homeland security after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, so that much of Fema's budget now focuses on terrorism. Budget cuts since 2003 in disaster prevention in the hurricane region, and limited funding for the corps of engineers were among the reasons flood levees failed and the emergency services could not cope. While poor families in the hurricane-affected states provided Bush with units of the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama national guard now dying in Iraq, at home that absence of thousands of armed and disciplined troops on the spot with local knowledge hampered relief efforts, exacerbated lawlessness and contributed to the death toll. American policy has far worse effects on a global scale. One example is the US hostility to action on climate change despite global warming threatening ever increasing weather extremes worldwide, including from Katrina's brothers and sisters. When it comes to helping others, American aid is mean and hugely politicised. G8 talks about Africa or debt relief cannot disguise the fact that, with international aid a mere 0.16% of its economic might last year, the US has long been the least generous nation, while its trade regime impoverishes millions worldwide. Katrina is "our tsunami", one US official claimed. Wrong; unless New Orleans finds hundreds of thousands dead, the Asian disaster was far more serious in human terms. But some comparisons are instructive: for Katrina, $10bn was allocated immediately, with two or three times that expected to come; yet after the tsunami Washington first tried to undermine UN coordination efforts and then contributed $850m to the disaster. The impact of this on Muslim public opinion was carefully noted. If we do give for Katrina, let's react as America would to any developing country which fails to prepare for disaster and allows its people to die, such as Zimbabwe or North Korea: set conditions for aid use, channel it away from the government to trusted charities, and insist on intensive scrutiny of the results. Of course, the humanitarian imperative means that many people in the UK and around the world will rightly want to help those who lost what little they had in Katrina. The emotion is laudable, but the action is unnecessary since the US can easily afford to help all those affected. And giving will be counter-productive if it in any way reduces the US public and media pressure on the Bush administration to do a better job. If America learned anything from being the recipient of others' charity, it would be worth every penny. But on aid, disasters, climate, poverty, race, religion and more, its failure to listen does great damage to its own vulnerable people and those around the world gripped by poverty, hunger or disease. After 9/11, the world sent millions of dollars to benefit mainly better-off Americans. Our charity was not necessary then; it is not necessary now. · Nick Cater is a consultant and writer | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'world/natural-disasters'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-06T13:09:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/mar/11/pollutionwatch-toxic-air-shortens-lives-by-20-months | Pollutionwatch: toxic air shortens lives by 20 months | Children will have their lives shortened by an average of a year and eight months from breathing polluted air, according to two new reports from the State of Global Air initiative. In some of the worst-affected countries, babies born today will, on average, lose more than three years of life unless air pollution improves. Air pollution was the fourth leading cause of death around the globe in 2019, at about 7 million early deaths. This is more than those from more well-known risks including smoking, malaria and poor hygiene. The worst-affected countries face the double challenge of poor outdoor air pollution and breathing smoke from household cooking and heating. India dominates the list of cities that have particle pollution more than 20 times the new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Rawalpindi in Pakistan also features, along with Cairo in Egypt and Kampala in Uganda. Data on Africa is sparse and the picture is incomplete. Dr Maria Neira, the WHO director for public health, environmental and social determinants of health, said: “These horrible numbers call for an ambitious, quick and bold action. The burning of fossil fuels is killing us, causing millions of premature deaths every year through air pollutants, costing the global economy billions of dollars annually, and fuelling the climate crisis. “Let’s fuel a healthy and green recovery instead by committing to 100% green stimulus spending and an end to all fossil fuel subsidies, while also ensuring energy access for all. In cities we need less cars and congestion, and more public transport powered by sustainable, clean energy. And very important, governments need to commit to the WHO’s new air quality guidelines.” Is this modern-day air pollution the worst that humanity has experienced? Although air pollution measurements only began about 100 years ago, we can estimate air pollution from early measurements of electrical properties of the atmosphere. Data from near Hyde Park from about 1790 suggests London’s particle pollution then was about half that in the most polluted cities in today’s India. By the late 1800s air pollution at the Kew Observatory on the edge of London was similar to the worst Indian cities today, though pollution in Paris was less than half this value. But even the worst cities in India today cannot match the UK’s air pollution in the 1920s when first routine measurements of particle pollution began. Central London was twice as polluted as contemporary Indian cities, and industrial Stoke-on-Trent was more than four times worse. At this time the UK was home to 44 million people. Today about 400 million people are exposed to the poor air in north India’s Ganges basin, making it a far larger air pollution crisis. | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-03-11T06:00:24Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2021/sep/03/climate-crisis-joe-biden-floods-wildfires-storms | ‘Climate crisis is here’ says Biden in week of storms, floods and wildfires | The widespread destruction caused by extreme weather coast to coast, with Hurricane Ida spreading devastation from Louisiana to New York while record wildfires scorch California, prompted Joe Biden to level with America this week, saying it was “yet another reminder that … the climate crisis is here”. “We need to be much better prepared. We need to act,” Biden said in a speech on Thursday at the White House. Hurricane Ida come ashore from the Gulf of Mexico as the fifth largest hurricane on record to hit the US. The massive storms spawned in its aftermath battered states on the Gulf coast and all the way up into the north-east, killing at least 48 so far in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut after historic flooding. Officials admitted they were surprised by the tempest’s suddenness and ferocity. In Louisiana, many fewer were killed, just over a dozen at the most recent count, but almost a million people have been left without electricity, some indefinitely, because of the storm. Meanwhile, the Caldor wildfire in California has burned over 200,000 acres and is threatening more than 35,000 structures, edging close to the Lake Tahoe area and becoming one of few wildfires to rage from one side of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the other. While the US president first laid out details of emergency relief efforts being deployed around the country, he ended his speech by talking about how the natural disasters will continue to happen, more often and with greater intensity, because of the climate crisis. “This isn’t about politics. Hurricane Ida didn’t care if you were a Democrat or Republican, rural or urban,” he said. “It’s destruction everywhere. It’s a matter of life and death, and we’re all in this together,” he said, a day before he planned to fly to Louisiana to view the damage, returning via Philadelphia, which was flooded by the same vast storm system. Biden’s remarks were a notable departure from what Americans had become accustomed to hearing about the climate crisis under Donald Trump, who as recently as last year denied that natural disasters in the US were increasingly related to human-caused climate change. When pressed to consider the climate crisis as a main cause of the California wildfires last year, Trump responded: “I don’t think science knows.” He fluctuated between calling the phenomenon a hoax, making jokes about it and then sowing ambiguity and doubt throughout his election campaign and one-term presidency. “It’ll start getting cooler,” he said after the deadly wildfires. “You watch.” In contrast, Biden this summer released the most ambitious clean energy and environmental justice plans yet seen from the White House through his flagship “build back better” infrastructure and budget proposals. Last month, the Senate passed a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill that includes investments in improving roads, bridges, the electric grid and public transit, among other things, to make them more energy efficient, sustainable and resistant to extreme weather. The bill still has to pass the House of Representatives and after good progress faces further contentious arguments on its details later this month. A related, massive $3.5tn budget bill that promises a 10-year cascade of federal resources for family support, health and education programs and an aggressive drive to heal the climate, can be passed without Republican support but needs every Democratic senator to vote for it and is currently in jeopardy. Biden on Thursday said that when Congress goes back into session this month, he plans to push the build ack better plan. “That’s going to make historic investments in electrical infrastructure, modernizing our roads, bridges, our water systems, sewer and draining systems, electric grids and transmission lines and make them more resilient to these superstorms, wildfires and floods that are going to happen with increasing frequency and ferocity,” he said. Despite his advocacy for his infrastructure bill, Biden has been coming under criticism after the White House announced this week that it will open tens of millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration. Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government for the leases. “How does this align with [the] Biden Administration’s commitment to take ‘bold steps’ to combat the climate crisis?” tweeted environmental group Ocean Conservancy on Wednesday. | ['us-news/joebiden', 'us-news/biden-administration', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/hurricanes', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lauren-aratani', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-09-03T17:28:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/jan/02/insulate-britain-and-just-stop-oil-vow-to-continue-disruptive-action | Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil vow to continue disruptive action | Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil have doubled down on their commitment to disruptive climate “civil resistance” after Extinction Rebellion announced new tactics prioritising “relationships over roadblocks”. “It’s 2023 and XR has quit,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement. “But it’s 2023, and we are barrelling down the highway to the loss of ordered civil society, as extreme weather impacts tens of millions, as our country becomes unrecognisable … there is now a need to face reality. “We must move from disobedience into civil resistance – this is what the nurses and paramedics are doing. They are on the frontline of the harm being wreaked on us and have said no more.” Insulate Britain said its supporters remained prepared to go to prison. “Insulate Britain supporters remain committed to civil resistance as the only appropriate and effective response to the reality of our situation in 2023,” its statement said. “In the UK right now, nurses, ambulance drivers and railway workers are on strike because they understand that public disruption is vital to demand changes that governments are not willing or are too scared to address.” In recent years, XR has led its supporters into blockading London streets and bridges for days, smashing bank headquarters’ windows and spraying fake blood on the Treasury. But on Sunday, the group announced “we quit” in a new year resolution to “prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks”. Since its radical start, XR has become comparatively more moderate. It has called for 100,000 people to take to the streets of Westminster in April, but cancelled its last series of protests in London after the queen’s death. Recent demonstrations at private airfields led to no arrests. Trials continue of XR supporters involved in direct actions over previous years. On the other hand, over the past year, supporters of the Just Stop Oil campaign have smashed petrol pumps, blockaded oil terminals, glued themselves to the streets of London, zip-tied their necks to goalposts at Premier League football matches and thrown tomato soup over one of the world’s most famous oil paintings. More than 2,000 arrests were made during JSO actions, and 138 of its activists have been held behind bars either awaiting trial or while serving a sentence this year. According to the group, 12 are currently in jail. In a column for the anarchist news website Freedom, Jan Goodey, a university lecturer serving a six-month sentence for climbing a gantry over the M25, said the household energy crisis had vindicated Insulate Britain’s use of disruptive tactics to demand home insulation. “Words of hope and encouragement are ineffective and irrelevant; it is action, resistance, and solidarity that work,” he wrote. One activist who has campaigned with both XR and Just Stop Oil said he was conflicted about XR’s announcement, which may attract more supporters but at the risk of effectiveness. “My concern is our lack of time,” he said. “If we don’t actively, noisily push for change now, later may prove way too late to save anything. Another said it appeared XR was repositioning itself as a more moderate group, as flank groups such as Just Stop Oil monopolised and radicalised more extreme direct actions. James Ozden, the director of Social Change Lab, said XR’s repositioning could allow it to take advantage of awareness raised by radical protests, without being implicated in their unpopularity. “As Just Stop Oil continues to organise more disruptive protests, it’s likely we’ll see a radical flank effect, whereby radical tactics increase support for more moderate groups, such as Extinction Rebellion. “This synergistic relationship is likely to benefit the overall climate movement, as people can join groups that appeal most to them.” | ['environment/just-stop-oil', 'environment/insulate-britain', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2023-01-02T17:23:25Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global-development/2012/jun/15/rio20-bulubandi-village-uganda | Rio+20: A voice from Bulubandi village, Uganda | My understanding of sustainable development is that it is all about access to basics needs. If I am able to have a daily income to enable me to get basic needs for my family, then to me, sustainable development has been attained. This is possible as long as there is good infrastructure to facilitate my business. As a dealer in agricultural produce such as beans, maize and rice there is nothing more important than being able to transport my produce to the market. I buy produce from the villages and sell it at a slightly higher price at urban centres. In the past 20 years, my country has been able to register tremendous changes both positively and negatively. From political instability, poor health service delivery, high inflation to stability, and improved communication technologies. I have also seen my life change. After dropping out of high school because I was unable to pay the fees, given the poverty levels in my family, I managed to work hard until I raised money that enabled me return to school, where I have been able to attain a diploma in business management. It is because of education that I am able to run my business. I have also been able to enjoy the benefits of new technology. My only worry lies in the delay in discovering an HIV/Aids cure. I am tempted to think that the western world seems to be benefiting from the scourge. My message to the Rio+20 summit is that they focus on devising strategies to eradicate diseases, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on improving health, and addressing issues such as malaria and HIV/Aids, poverty levels could tremendously drop. | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'tone/interview', 'global-development/series/global-development-voices', 'type/article'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-06-15T09:40:13Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
fashion/2024/jan/05/how-digitally-tracking-clothes-fashion-consumption-taking-off-online | How digitally tracking clothes consumption is taking off online | We have become accustomed to tracking our daily step count, sleep cycles and how much time we spend glued to our phone screens. Now the totting-up trend is coming for our wardrobes, too. On social media, fashion fans are championing the idea of digitally tracking what they wear every day for the next 12 months to discover how much they wear every piece of clothing they own and in turn slow down consumption and save money. Some are uploading daily mirror selfies to social media and listing each item they are wearing. Others are carrying out wardrobe inventories, creating detailed spreadsheets that break items down into cost per wear. Apps that let users create their own virtual wardrobe by uploading photos of their existing clothing and accessories are also seeing a rise in use. A spokesperson for Whering says there has been a 34% year-on-year increase in uploads from users with more than 600,000 items submitted in the first four days of January alone. The wardrobe-tracking trend is being led by sustainability advocates such as the writer Aja Barber. “It inspires me to wear my whole wardrobe,” she says. “It encourages me to try new ensembles and catalogue the journey and it also tells me how much I’m wearing certain items.” Last week, Laura Reilly, the founder of the shopping newsletter Magasin, released a list of everything she bought in 2023 with an accompanying cost-per-use analysis. A Bottega Veneta bag originally bought for more than £1,000 worked out at about £14 a use while a black tank top from Gap averages at about 14p a wear. On TikTok, a challenge called the “75-day hard style challenge” has gone viral with the hashtag amassing more than 390,000 views in its first five days. Coined by Mandy Lee, a New York-based fashion analyst, it’s a fashion twist on a popular fitness challenge. However, instead of working out for 75 consecutive days, Lee has asked participants to document their look each day and not buy anything new. These types of tracking trends mark a shift in consumer behaviour as many cohorts, including those aged 12 to 27, look for an alternative to fast fashion. These habits include shopping mindfully from secondhand shops rather than, say, showcasing shopping hauls from retailers such as Shein, which on average uploads a whopping 10,000 items to its site each day. Instead, the tracking trend incorporates other sustainability challenges such as “no buy January” and “30 wears”, which suggests wearing a piece of clothing at least 30 times in order to justify its environmental impact. For Hannah Rochell, the founder of slowette.com, a sustainable style website, who previously took part in a year-long shopping ban, daily tracking is a way of ensuring old habits don’t re-emerge. “It’s helping me understand the type of clothes I wear. I’m using it as a way to reset and remind myself that I already have enough clothes.” Participants in Lee’s challenge range from teenagers to pensioners. “You can’t buy your way into style,” Lee says. “For many people tapping ‘add to cart’ has become a habit while scrolling. This challenge helps to break that cycle and instead focus and appreciate what you already have.” | ['fashion/fashion', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'technology/tiktok', 'business/retail', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/chloe-mac-donnell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-fashion'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-01-05T15:00:25Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/apr/08/extinction-rebellion-fossil-fuels-protest-grind-london-halt | Extinction Rebellion vows fossil fuels protest will ‘grind London to a halt’ | Extinction Rebellion has said it will conduct its most disruptive protest yet on the streets of London over the coming week, calling for an end to the fossil fuel economy. The environmental activist group, which encourages supporters to cause disruption through non-violent civil disobedience, will return to the city from Saturday with new tactics it claims will “create the most roadblocks we ever have”. It has told supporters to book the week off work and meet in Hyde Park on Saturday morning, promising them “a simple unstoppable rebellion design” that will “facilitate a mass flood of people to grind the capital to a halt”. Some actions have already begun. At 7am on Friday, activists blocked Tower Bridge, with two people hanging from the bridge by suspension cords and others hanging a huge banner over its side demanding “End fossil fuels now”. XR said in a statement: “The action has taken place at the gateway to the City of London – the root source of fossil fuel funding in the UK – and on the eve of the April rebellion which begins tomorrow at 10am in Hyde Park.” Since 1 April, XR activists have been staging blockades at an Esso distribution terminal in west London as part of the Just Stop Oil campaign. XR described those actions as “a preface” to mass protests it has planned over this weekend and next week. “We will return to the streets day after day until our immediate demand – for the UK government to immediately end all new fossil fuel investments – is met,” the group said in a recent statement. It has called on supporters to make sure they are free until 17 April, making this “rebellion” shorter than the previous fortnights of protest the group has staged, but organisers say they hope to return to the streets on subsequent weekends. Since 2018, XR has staged four extended campaigns of disruptive protest on the streets of London, calling for the government to take action on the climate and biodiversity crises. The group has enjoyed successes in inspiring a range of spin-off movements and in raising awareness of and concern about environmental issues among the general public to hitherto unseen levels. But each time protesters have returned to the streets en masse the impact of their actions has diminished, as police have learned to suppress their blockades of bridges and key junctions. And, as with many social movements, the long interregnum of the Covid pandemic and its curbs on social interaction hampered XR’s ability to organise. XR organisers are hoping a new strategy will enable them to evade police and again cause major disruption in London. Attempts to take and hold road junctions with large pieces of protest infrastructure, which police had learned to quickly isolate and remove, will be swapped for more mobile and adaptable blockades. “We are not going to be coming in with huge objects necessarily, but the plan is to get lots of people to hold areas using their bodies, staying in roads and holding spaces,” said an XR source. “We are going to try to be really mobile as well.” There would be “people moving around and trying to hold the space, holding spaces that are particularly disruptive and doing direct actions … We want to be movable so we can go to different areas if we want to. We want to be super-mobile and hard to pin down, but we also want it to be really inclusive, easy to find and get involved.” Breaking the law and being arrested is likely to remain a core tactic. In posts on the messaging app Telegram to supporters, XR says to bring burner phones and bustcards with solicitors’ telephone numbers, and to leave ID at home. As well as the oil terminal actions, groups affiliated to XR have begun campaigns this week. On Wednesday scientists and academics with Scientists Rebellion threw fake oil at the London headquarters of Shell, while on Thursday Doctors for XR blocked the road outside HM Treasury in Westminster. On Thursday morning Juliette Brown, a 51-year-old psychiatrist from London who was sat in the road by St James’s Park outside the government department, said: “We know that the climate and ecological crisis is a health crisis. Global warming [and] air pollution are largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels. “The government declared a climate emergency, yet they are still considering licensing new oil and gas fields [and] financing fossil fuels through tax breaks despite the clear evidence and advice from experts that we need to end all new fossil fuel investment immediately.” | ['environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/activism', 'uk/london', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-04-08T09:53:28Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sustainable-business/2015/feb/03/what-you-should-know-about-fintech-positive-powers-banking | What you should know about fintech and its positive powers | First things first, what is fintech? Simply put, it’s “the application of technology in financial services to create disruptive business models and inclusive products,” says EY’s Imran Gulamhuseinwala. One example is M-Pesa, a mobile-phone based payments network serving millions of ‘unbanked’ in Kenya. Why are we talking about fintech now? Because it feels a bit like the late 1990s dotcom boom again, says Lu Zurawski, ACI Worldwide. Financial technology startups in the UK and Ireland raised more than £461.3m from investors between 2008 and 2013, while Q4 of 2014 was the most active quarter in fintech history. Eric Van der Kleij, Level39 puts this is down to the alignment of a few stars: The financial crisis meant that a few financial services giants stopped investing in R&D. This, coupled with new regulatory requirements imposed on the banks and the need to drive costs out of financial services, meant that opportunity was ripe ... The other star that aligned was that the financial crisis created a large talent pool of people that used to work in financial services. These people had ideas about how to either improve elements of banking – like the way things like Know Your Customer (KYC) or Anti-Money Laundering (AML) were done – or were keen to try to directly compete. In the UK we are also lucky to have a much improved policy environment that directly favours startups. Will fintech render traditional banking redundant? Innovation in any sector creates winners and losers, and fintech will be no different, says Gerald Brady, Silicon Valley Bank. Some banks will thrive and others will find it hard to adapt. While fintech is undoubtedly disruptive, Van der Kleij warns against underestimating the capabilities of big banks. “They can afford to try many different innovations – either by acquiring fintech innovators, partnering with them to help give them scale to exciting products or services, or commissioning disruptive products that could cannibalise/replace their own businesses.” Rather than render traditional banking redundant, Gulamhuseinwala adds that the majority of fintechs are actually piggy backing existing infrastructure and complementing it. What’s the connection between fintech and social good? There are lots of examples, but we’ll focus on three. First, there’s tackling financial exclusion. In Bangladesh for example, where an estimated 70% of the population live in rural areas and fewer than 15% are connected to the formal banking sector, bKash allows Bengalis to send and receive money safely via mobile phones. (And financial exclusion isn’t limited to developing markets – according to the Resolution Foundation, 4% of UK households don’t have bank accounts.) Second, companies like Azimo and Transferwise are bringing a new level of price transparency to remittances (sending money overseas), which has typically been associated with high fees. Third, crowdfunding and microfinance platforms give entrepreneurs, small businesses and individuals access to funds where traditional banking might not. Tracey Horner, head of Lendwithcare, says that since its launch five years ago, 21,000 lenders have loaned almost £6m to around 17,000 entrepreneurs in developing countries. Dan Sutch, Nominet Trust points to Modest Needs, which empowers the general public to make small ($10-15) emergency grants to low-income workers in the US. In the UK, Pennies allows customers to round up their purchase price and donate to charity electronically at point of sale. “It’s not a breathtaking fintech IT innovation, but it’s a genius, simple bit of social innovation,” says Zurawski. How do we encourage even more socially-oriented fintech? Currently there isn’t enough of a link between impact capital, risk capital and grant funding, but if these three types of investment were aligned effectively it could create a pipeline of support for socially-driven tech innovators, says Sutch. What can we learn from mobile banking companies in Africa? For Van der Kleij, mobile banking in Africa has been a lesson in imagination and possibilities. For Alick Varma, founder of Osper, one interesting lesson has been the importance of basic convenience. He explains that prior to M-Pesa people were taking a 24 hour bus ride to give money to their families in rural Kenya. “The benefits of sending money home through a single text message were obvious. What was equally interesting was that the service was launched and is owned by a mobile operator – not a bank. The operator had access to 10,000 ‘branches’ relative to around 500 branches for the biggest bank!” Is social media getting in on the act? It is. WeChat, the mobile text and voice messaging app developed in China, has recently created a money-gifting scheme that sends gifts in a digital version of the traditional ‘cash in the red envelope’. According to Van der Kleij, WeChat is looking at utilising the scale and breadth of its social media capabilities as operating systems for new models of finance. What should we pay attention to? It’s worth keeping your eye on bitcoin and alternative digital currencies, says Sutch. He explains: “The social value is far from being understood, but the potential for alternative digital currencies to shift our relationship with finance (and trusted intermediaries) is apparent.” Platforms like Ethereum, Ripple, Blockstream/Blockchain are also ones to look out for, says Van der Kleij, who explains that their ability to enable everything from smart contracts to banking means they’ve caught the attention of innovators big and small. The finance hub is funded by EY. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. 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/finance', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'business/financial-sector', 'technology/technology', 'technology/bitcoin', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'money/money', 'technology/cryptocurrencies', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/hannah-gould'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-02-03T17:59:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2018/apr/18/deep-sea-mining-possibly-as-damaging-as-land-mining-lawyers-say | Deep-sea mining possibly as damaging as land mining, lawyers say | The “new global gold rush” over deep-sea mining holds the same potential pitfalls as previous resource scrambles, with environmental and social impacts ignored and the rights of Indigenous people marginalised, a paper in the Harvard Environmental Law Review has warned. A framework for deep-sea mining – where polymetallic nodules or hydrothermal vents are mined by machine – was first articulated in the 1960s, on an idea that the seabed floor beyond national jurisdiction was a “common heritage of mankind”. But exploration has gathered momentum in the past three years, with licences granted off Papua New Guinea’s coastlines, and successful mining off Japan late last year. The International Seabed Authority, which is drawing up a draft mining code, has issued 29 exploration contracts for undersea mining in international waters beyond any national jurisdiction. Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Proponents argue deep-sea mining could yield far superior ore to land mining – in silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt and zinc – with little, if any, waste product. Different methods exist, but most involve using some form of converted machinery previously used in terrestrial mining to excavate materials from the sea floor, at depths of up to 6,000 metres, then drawing a seawater slurry to ships on the surface. The slurry is then “de-watered” and transferred to another vessel for shipping. Extracted seawater is pumped back down and discharged close to the sea floor. But environmental and legal groups have urged caution, arguing there are potentially massive – and unknown – ramifications for the environment and for nearby communities, and that the global regulatory framework is not yet drafted, and currently deficient. “Despite arising in the last half century, the ‘new global gold rush’ of deep-sea mining shares many features with past resource scrambles – including a general disregard for environmental and social impacts, and the marginalisation of Indigenous peoples and their rights,” the paper, written by Julie Hunter and Julian Aguon, from Blue Ocean Law, and Pradeep Singh, from the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Bremen, argues. The authors say that knowledge of the deep seabed remains extremely limited. “The surface of the moon, Mars and even Venus have all been mapped and studied in much greater detail, leading marine scientists to commonly remark that, with respect to the deep sea, ‘We don’t yet know what we need to know.’ ” Scientific research – including a recent paper in Marine Policy journal – has suggested the deep seabed, and hydrothermal vents in particular, have crucial impacts upon biodiversity and global climate regulations. Hydrothermal vents act as a sink, sequestering carbon and methane. The mineral-rich vents and their surrounds are also home to animals and organisms including crustaceans, tubeworms, clams, slugs, anemones and fish. “It is becoming increasingly clear that deep-sea mining poses a grave threat to these vital seabed functions,” the paper says. “Extraction methods would involve the operation of large, remote vehicles on the seafloor to chemically leach or physically cut crust from substrate and/or use highly pressurised water to strip the crust. “All of these methods would produce large sediment plumes and involve the discharge of waste and tailings back into the ocean, significantly disturbing seafloor environments.” The Harvard Environmental Law Review article says the exploratory phase of deep-sea mining has already adversely affected Indigenous people in the Pacific. In Tonga, large mining prospecting vessels have disturbed traditional fishing grounds, and in PNG villagers bordering the exploration site in the Bismarck sea have reported high incidence of dead fish washed ashore. The paper argues for governments globally to reform the international seabed regime to reflect modern developments in law and science, and to protect potentially vulnerable communities. “They should recognise the risks of operating in an unknown environment, fully embrace the precautionary approach, and protect and conserve the ocean for the benefit of current and future generations,” it says. | ['environment/mining', 'environment/oceans', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/papua-new-guinea', 'world/japan', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/deep-sea-mining', 'profile/ben-doherty', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2018-04-18T03:02:28Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2018/jan/10/building-boom-in-chinas-tropics-as-beijings-smog-refugees-flee-toxic-air | Building boom in China's tropics as Beijing's 'smog refugees' flee toxic air | It was on 3 January last year, days after Beijing’s last major airpocalypse, that Ji Feng began to put into action his plan to escape one of the world’s most polluted cities. After more than two decades as a resident of China’s smog-choked capital, he boarded a flight for Jinghong, an azure-skied river town in Yunnan province, close to China’s borders with Myanmar and Laos. There, more than 1,600 miles from Beijing’s toxic climes, Ji coughed up 460,000 yuan (£52,000) for a two-bedroom flat in a palm-dotted condominium near the Mekong river. Two months later he returned with his wife, Liu Bing, to start afresh. The couple placed a doormat at the entrance to their pollution-free abode that read: “Natural life.” “I don’t miss the urban life,” he said. “And now we’ve moved here, the chances of us going back are slim. For me, life’s better here.” Ji and Liu, 40 and 32, are part of a small but telling band of jaded Chinese urbanites seeking to outrun the hustle and bustle of their country’s big smoke. Some are permanently moving to China’s comparatively peaceful and preserved periphery, putting down roots in places such as Yunnan or Hainan, a tropical outpost in the South China Sea. “Stocks and futures!” Ji chuckled when asked how he made a living in his new home. Others are seasonal migrants – so-called “smog refugees” or elderly “migratory birds” – who take extended annual breaks to avoid the worst of the winter weather. President Xi Jinping recently launched his second term with a pledge to make China’s skies blue again and experts say he is making progress: in November Beijing’s air quality was better than any previous winter month on record, according to Greenpeace. But many cities still endure hazardous smog episodes that are blamed for up to a million premature deaths each year. Hotels catering to such urban fugitives have sprung up across Jinghong, the capital of Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna prefecture. At one, a check-in brochure promises guests an “untainted” stay. “Don’t worry: you won’t get intoxicated with the fresh air,” it says. Property developers are also cashing in, throwing up gîtes and apartments partly geared towards China’s “clean lung” market. At Jinghong’s airport, posters announce one gated community called Viva Villa with the slogan “Fresh air!”. “The weather’s really good; there are no chemical factories and we have tropical forest,” boasted Li Rongrong, a sales agent, as she showed off mansions in a soon-to-open compound called Rivulet Villas. Li Yanjun, a budding estate agent, said green living was a key part of his sales pitch to northerners. “The only time we talk about PM2.5 here is when we’re trying to sell a property to someone from Beijing,” the 35-year-old joked, referring to the minuscule particulates that strike fear into the hearts – and lungs – of Beijingers. Xishuangbanna’s renown as an oasis of fresh air and forests has made it one of China’s premier domestic clean lung destinations. But some locals fear that very reputation is now robbing the region of some of its natural charms. The stampede of tourists and developers has transformed Jinghong’s skyline over the past decade. Gargantuan luxury hotels now rise from patches of forest – half fortresses, half multistorey car parks. Look in one direction and you see yellow cranes erecting Nine Towers, Twelve Villages, a garish riverside resort of high-rises and shopping malls built on the site of a recently bulldozed village that was inhabited by members of the Dai ethnic minority. Look the other way and you see part of the construction site for a high-speed rail line that will link Yunnan’s capital, Kunming – as well as Jinghong – with the Laotian capital, Vientiane, and, possibly one day, Singapore. “All the major developers are now coming,” said Li. “The city is booming.” Smog is not the only factor driving migration to Xishuangbanna. Ji, who used to work for the state-run China Development Bank, said he was also tired of human beings. “Beijing has too many people, it’s too big, and has too many tall buildings. I don’t like it.” Jin Di, a Beijinger who runs Jinghong’s first craft brewery, Big Black Dog, said he came chasing opportunity; others were attracted by property prices: “You can sell one house in Beijing and buy 10 here.” But Jin, 37, said he regularly hosted northern guests who had received medical orders to quit the capital. “Last year a lot of my friends came here because their children were always coughing – very serious coughs – and the doctor advised them to change place … because if your children stay in Beijing they will not [get better].” During 2016’s airpocalypse, “a lot of people came here to buy houses”, he said. Li, the estate agent, 35, said he had mixed feelings about the changes. As the first member of a family of rubber tappers to go to university, he had benefited directly from two decades of development. But such growth was “a double-edged sword”: cement factories on the outskirts of town meant Jinghong was no longer completely smog-free. Ji and Liu, who hope to start a family in their new home, said they were also wary of unbridled growth and the pollution from the growing numbers of cars and construction sites. Still, having spent more than half his life in mega-cities, including a year in São Paulo, Brazil (population 20 million), Ji said he was happy with life in Jinghong, which has only about 530,000 residents. “The air is good. The weather is good. If we want to climb mountains, all we have to do is drive for a few minutes … In every respect, things are better here.” How long would they stay? “I don’t know – maybe forever,” he replied, before correcting himself: “Probably.” Additional reporting by Wang Zhen | ['world/china', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'cities/cities', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/tomphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-01-10T05:00:39Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2022/aug/01/australia-facing-alarming-gas-shortfall-in-2023-as-accc-urges-producers-to-keep-supplies-onshore | Australia facing ‘alarming’ gas shortfall in 2023 as ACCC urges producers to keep supplies onshore | Businesses could be forced to close and households could be left without enough gas next year unless the big three exporters keep some of their uncontracted liquefied natural gas for the domestic market, the competition watchdog has warned. In its gas inquiry 2017-2025 interim report released on Monday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the east coast gas market is facing a gas shortfall of 56 petajoules in 2023. This gap is about 10% of annual domestic demand, “signifying a substantial risk to Australia’s energy security”, the report says. The potential shortage marked “a significant deterioration” compared with the ACCC’s 2022 forecast and “could place further upward pressure on prices and result in some manufacturers closing their businesses, and some market exit has already occurred”, the report said. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said conditions in the east coast gas market were “alarming”, and the government would “shortly” respond to the ACCC’s recommendations. “The findings are deeply concerning and I urge gas producers to do the right thing by Australians,” Chalmers said in a statement. “It’s critical that our domestic gas supply is secure and competitively priced, particularly when households and businesses are under extreme pressure.” The Australia Energy Market Operator (Aemo) last week said wholesale gas and electricity prices tripled in the June quarter from the previous quarter. Rising gas prices, caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions, affect power prices as the fuel often sets the market price. The ACCC’s warning also comes as the resources minister, Madeleine King, reviews the suitability of the Australian domestic gas security mechanism – dubbed the “gas trigger” – to ensure sufficient gas at affordable prices is retained for domestic users. The results of that review will be released soon, the Guardian understands. Western Australia, which reserves 15% of gas demand for domestic use, does not face the same challenges. Power prices there have also not risen as rapidly as in the east. The watchdog notes that just three big LNG exporters – Australia Pacific LNG, Gladstone LNG and the Queensland Curtis LNG project – and their “associates had influence” over about 90% of east coast Australia’s proven and probable reserves of the fossil fuel. This highlights their “dominant position and the effective control”, the report said.. All but 2 petajoules of the projected shortfall is in the southern states, with Queensland supply and demand close to matched. Unless resolved, the southern region’s 54 petajoules gap – about a 10-fold increase on shortfall projections for 2022 - some demand may have to be “curtailed”, the gas equivalent of a blackout for electricity. The ACCC “strongly” encouraged the exporters “to act immediately to increase their supply”. Those exporters, though, have already told the ACCC that they expect to ship overseas “the vast majority” of the gas they can access and is in excess of long-term contracts – as they did in 2021. The report, unlike some previous ones, did not mention the need to develop new gas fields, such Santos’s controversial Narrabri coal-seam gas project in northern New South Wales. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The ACCC noted that Aemo had introduced price caps of $40 per gigajoule in Sydney and Brisbane after retailer Weston Energy dropped out of the market in May. With a similar intervention in Victoria, the spot price would have risen to $800 a gigajoule, or about 100 times more than prices prior to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The watchdog was “very concerned” that commercial gas users were still facing offers as high as $21.20 a gigajoule that may flow through to long-term contract prices. “Concerns about supplier behaviour reported in the January 2022 interim report have intensified,” it said. The watchdog also said it was worried about the amount of competition in the market, particularly as joint ventures spread. “Information provided by producers suggests most have ring-fencing arrangements in place, but some do not appear to be very robust,” it said, adding that some of the joint marketing was “without authorisation”. The ACCC will provide its next interim gas report in January. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/gas', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/jim-chalmers--australian-politician-', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'type/article', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-07-31T17:30:02Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2009/dec/10/clipper-windpower-united-technology-britannia-turbine | United Technologies Corporation flies to the rescue of Clipper Windpower | United Technologies Corporation, the maker of Sikorsky helicopters, has come to the rescue of Clipper Windpower and secured the future of the huge Britannia offshore turbine being developed in the north-east of England. UTC, which also makes Pratt & Whitney aero engines, has spent £126m buying a 49.5% stake in loss-making Clipper, which is listed on London's junior Aim market but has most of its sales in the US. Clipper recently won a grant from energy secretary Ed Miliband to build a factory to construct the Britannia's 70m (230ft) blades for use in the North Sea wind power sector, but, like Vestas and other turbine manufacturers, has been struggling with cash shortages. Clipper more than doubled its sales but made a net loss of $120.2m (£75m) in the first six months of the year. Management has made clear in recent months it is searching for a new backer to secure the company's long-term future. Shares in Clipper soared 19.86% to 175p amid relief and excitement about the investment by UTC, seen by many as the strongest possible partner given its $64bn (£39.3bn) capitalisation. UTC, based in Hartford, Connecticut, has a fuel-cell business but no other real investment or track record in wind or other renewable energy. Douglas Pertz, Clipper's chief executive, described the UTC investment as "transformational" and said it would give a platform for expansion. "Our relationship with UTC will enable Clipper to access UTC's support and expertise in areas of manufacturing, product quality and other industrial processes, while providing Clipper with equity financing to deliver our longer-term strategic goals," he said. "Following this transaction, we believe there is a tremendous opportunity for Clipper to grow its market share and take its world-class technology to new markets." But not everyone is convinced the future is bright enough yet for Clipper. Analysts at investment bank Piper Jaffray warned: "Today's placing clearly gives the company a cash buffer given that it remains loss-making – the company had a $103m cash burn in the first half of this year. However, technology issues remain and reliance on customer pre- payments remains a key risk to the business model." | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2009-12-10T12:36:09Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/apr/25/brian-haywood-obituary | Brian Haywood obituary | My grandfather, Brian Haywood, who has died aged 91, spent his career working as a nuclear physicist, mainly at the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell in Oxfordshire. He was born in Birmingham to Vi and Hal, who ran a haberdashery shop. An only child, Brian lived through much of the blitz and spent the evenings in an air-raid shelter. He attended Bearwood Road school, then obtained a scholarship to King Edward VI Five Ways grammar school, and in his first year was evacuated to Monmouth with his classmates. He stayed here for a year. After returning to Birmingham, Brian took an undergraduate degree and then a PhD in physics at Birmingham University. He also met my grandmother, Anne James, who worked in the department. The couple married in 1956, and when he got his first job, at Harwell, they moved to Wantage. In 1960 the young couple moved to Deep River, Ontario, after Brian was offered a job at Chalk River laboratories, a nuclear research facility. They had a daughter (my mother) and took road trip adventures through Canada and the US with baby in tow, before returning to the UK in 1963. They went on to have a second daughter and the family moved to Abingdon, Oxfordshire. For the rest of his career Brian continued his nuclear research at Harwell, particularly, in the 1960s and 70s, in neutron scattering. Later he moved to the material physics and metallurgy division, where his work included research on gas pipes for British Gas contracts. In 1993, Brian and Anne moved to Christchurch, Dorset. Brian was passionate about learning and could speak French, German and Russian, and dabbled in Spanish and Welsh. In his retirement, he attended French conversation classes, volunteered at the Red House Museum in the town and was treasurer of his local branch of Probus, the club for retired people. He enjoyed a daily walk to the sea and spending time with his family. Despite bowel cancer, a triple heart bypass and a stroke, Brian lived independently with Anne until last year. His love of learning stayed with him even when he developed dementia, but he struggled after his stroke in 2017 deprived him of one of his greatest joys: reading. He is survived by his daughters, Helen and Elizabeth, and his grandchildren, Tom and me. Anne died two weeks after him. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'science/physics', 'science/science', 'science/materials-science', 'uk/birmingham', 'world/canada', 'type/article', 'tone/obituaries', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2024-04-25T17:35:52Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2021/mar/04/new-zealand-tsunami-warning-after-69-magnitude-earthquake | Thousands of New Zealanders allowed to return home after tsunami alert | Thousands of people have been told they can return home after being evacuated from coastal areas of New Zealand’s North Island in the wake of a powerful 8.1-magnitude earthquake and tsunami warning. The New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) issued a national warning on Friday morning, saying people in many coastal areas of the North Island “must move immediately to the nearest high ground, out of all tsunami evacuation zones, or as far inland as possible. Do not stay at home”. The US Geological Survey said the larger quake, which followed two smaller ones, was located near the remote Kermadec Islands at a depth of 12 miles (19km). The US tsunami warning system also said the quake could cause waves reaching between 1m (3ft) and 3m (10ft) in height in French Polynesia, and waves of up to 1m in Niue, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands. However, Nema announced at around 1pm local time that the government’s science agency had informed it that the largest waves had passed and people were allowed to return to their homes with the proviso that they avoid the ocean and beaches. “GNS Science has advised that the largest waves have now passed, and therefore the threat level is now downgraded to a beach and marine threat for all areas which were previously under land and marine threat,” Nema said. “All people who evacuated can now return. The advice remains, for all areas under beach and marine threat, to stay off beach and shore areas.” The area under threat was further downgraded at around 3pm to the North Cape from Ahipara to the Bay of Islands, the east coast of the North Island from Cape Runaway to Tolaga Bay, and Great Barrier Island, and the Chatham Islands. There is no tsunami threat in all other areas. The original evacuation warning came after the third and largest quake of the day hit New Zealand. A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit the country in the early hours of the morning, which was followed by a magnitude 7.4 quake in the Pacific. The closest large town to the epicentre was Gisborne, with a population of about 35,500. “Hope everyone is OK out there – especially on the east coast, who would have felt the full force of that earthquake,” the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, posted on Instagram. Speaking to media later, she said she “absolutely” felt the first earthquake. Her first thought was “Bugger it”, she said. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties, but Nema had earlier told people near the west coast of the North Island from Cape Reinga to Ahipara and on the east coast from Cape Reinga to Whangarei and from Matata to Tolaga Bay to move as far inland as possible. Radio New Zealand reported that Tolaga Bay, north-east of Gisborne, was a “ghost town” as residents headed for higher ground. It was a long day for residents, who had been asked to evacuate earlier then had that warning cancelled, before another warning followed at 8.45am. At a midday briefing, the civil defence minister, Kiri Allen, said it had been “an extraordinary morning for many New Zealanders up and down the country” and praised the speed with which people had responded to the calls to evacuate. A “relatively extensive” area of the country could be subjected to unusual activity, civil defence controller Roger Ball said. “We are advising to play it safe... people do need to stay off the beach and off the water.” That included not going out in boats, he said. The threat of tsunamis was ongoing he said, adding “the first wave may not be the largest”. There was also the risk of strong and unusual currents. Traffic jams were reported as residents hurried to evacuate, though people were remaining calm. Ruakākā resident Rhys Owen told Stuff he received an emergency alert on his phone and later heard sirens sounding. “We are feeling OK, no sign of panic yet. As long as we can get to higher ground, we’ll be fine.” He said there were a few trees along the road, so “if we have to get out and clamber up we will”. In Whangārei, north of Auckland, witnesses said the tide was going out when it was supposed to becoming in. “We are now seeing sandbanks [exposed when they shouldn’t be] and some brown dirty water coming in,” MP Shane Reti told Stuff. And on Twitter, residents posted video of a tsunami wave rolling into Tokomaru Bay north of Gisborne. More than 60,000 people left reports on GeoNet’s website, saying they had felt the quake; 282 people described the shaking as “severe” and 75 said it was “extreme”. Most others described it as light. Aftershocks were still being recorded in the area. The US Geological Survey initially recorded the quake at 7.3, then revised it down to 6.9. It said the quake occurred at a depth of about six miles (10km). In 2011 a 6.3-magnitude quake hit the city of Christchurch, killing 185 people and destroying much of the city centre. | ['world/newzealand', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/tsunamis', 'world/world', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/new-zealand', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-03-05T00:47:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2018/oct/11/hurricane-michael-explained-biggest-florida-storm-all-you-need-to-know-extreme-weather | Hurricane Michael: everything you need to know on the record-breaking storm | Hurricane Michael lashed the Carolinas on Thursday after it claimed at least six lives and tore a trail of carnage through Florida and Georgia. Here is what you need to know about one of the strongest storms ever to strike the United States. It broke records Michael, with sustained winds of 155mph (135 knots), is the first category 4 hurricane to make landfall on Florida’s Panhandle and the fourth strongest storm ever to strike the United States. Only three category 5 storms have made a US landfall: the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 (160 kts), Hurricane Camille (1969: 152 kts) and Hurricane Andrew (1992: 145 kts). It came from nowhere As recently as Sunday morning, Michael was a badly organised system of rain clouds “meandering off the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula”, according to the National Hurricane Centre. It powered up quickly into a tropical storm by Sunday night then sprinted north across the Gulf of Mexico, leaping from a category 2 to 4 hurricane in just hours on Tuesday night, a record-setting pace. It was a late arrival While cyclones can and do form any time during the six-month Atlantic hurricane season that runs from 1 June to 30 November, it is unusual for a late-season hurricane to pack such power, and even rarer for one to make landfall. Historically, the strongest storms have formed during the season’s peak summer months of August and September when ocean temperatures are warmer. It was predicted Michael is the 12th named storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season (storms are traditionally allocated a name when they reach the status of a tropical storm). Although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced in August it was lowering its expectation to a “below normal” season, it still predicted nine to 13 named storms, up to two of them category 3 or higher, by season’s end. It’s going to cost Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Harvey (2017) share top billing as the most costly US storms, both weighing in at $125bn, the NHC says. It’s too soon to calculate Michael’s economic impact but the scale of devastation makes it certain to challenge for a top-five place, perhaps above Hurricane Sandy (2012: $65bn). AccuWeather predicts losses will exceed $30bn. It’s heading for retirement There will never be another Hurricane Michael. The National Hurricane Centre rotates storm names annually and adopts a boy-girl-boy-girl list of consecutive storm names in any given year. At the end of each season it removes and replaces the names of any particularly deadly or costly storms. Michael, and last month’s Florence, will be retired this year in the same way as Harvey, Irma and Maria were in 2017. | ['us-news/hurricane-michael', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | us-news/hurricane-michael | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-10-11T20:33:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2011/feb/03/somalia-faces-malnutrition-emergency | Somalia faces malnutrition crisis | Severe drought in Somalia has left nearly one in three children acutely malnourished in some areas – double the normal emergency threshold – and caused a sharp rise in food prices. An estimated 2.4 million people – about a third of Somalia's population – require humanitarian aid after the failure of recent rains, according to the UN. This figure is up from 2 million six months ago. Though fighting continues in many areas of the country, drought has overtaken insecurity as the main reason for people being displaced. In the most striking sign of the emerging crisis, the exodus from conflict-racked Mogadishu in recent years has reversed, with thousands of people leaving the countryside for the capital in search of food and water over the past two months. With widespread livestock deaths reported, other families are selling their remaining possessions to raise money to travel to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. "It's a very worrying situation, and there may still be worse to come," Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, has said during a visit to the country. "The high malnutrition rates among children mean that there will be deaths due to the drought." While the emergency is at an early stage, the UN and aid groups are raising the alarm because of the lack of access to many of the worst-affected areas. The al-Shabaab Islamist group, which controls much of south and central Somalia, has an ideology of self-sufficiency and rejects outside aid. As a result, the World Food Programme has suspended distributions in many areas since last January, including the central Hiraan region, where 70% of the population are "in crisis", according the UN. With cereal crops failing because of the drought, and little food aid available outside Mogadishu, prices have shot up. In the Juba region maize prices increased by about 80% in November and December, according to the UN's Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), which published its latest report detailing the "severe water shortage" in Somalia last week. Juba has the greatest proportion of acutely malnourished children – at 30% probably the highest rate anywhere in the world. This is due mainly to a lack of clean water, leading to diarrhoea, and reduced access to milk, as families move their livestock ever further away in search of pasture. Across southern Somalia, one in four children is acutely malnourished. Grainne Moloney, the FSNAU's chief technical adviser, expressed "great concern" about the situation in Afgoye, outside Mogadishu, where about 360,000 displaced people are living under al-Shabaab control. The number of acutely malnourished children there has risen from 15% in July last year to 21%. The drought has forced some families to move hundreds of miles in search of assistance. Halimo Ugas, a 30-year-old from Idale, an al-Shabaab-controlled area in southern Somalia, arrived in Garowe, in the northern state of Puntland, 10 days ago with her husband and five children. They live with some 180 families on a patch of rubbish-strewn scrubland dotted with tiny igloo-shaped structures made of sticks and covered with flattened cardboard boxes, hessian sacks and scraps of material. "We used to own 30 cows. All died except one, but we could not even cook it because there was no water to prepare it," Ugas said. "We had no choice but to move." Another woman, Asha Mohamed, said she had arrived three days ago on foot from a village about 45 miles (70km) away. She had lost five camels and numerous goats to the drought, she said. Further south in Galkayo, a town split between two rival clans, the president of Galmudug state, Mohamed Ahmed Alin, appealed for urgent international help. He said cattle losses were growing, while the UN said the price of the staple sorghum had doubled there between November and December. The scale of the problem has caught many in the aid community off guard. Until 2010, there had been seven consecutive seasons of rain failure in Somalia. But last year the rains were good, resulting in the best harvest for 15 years. The fact that the country has slipped so quickly back into a food crisis shows how vulnerable its people are – a result of two decades without an effective government. It has also raised questions about how the grain gathered last year has disappeared quickly, with suspicion falling on farmers and traders who may be seeking to profit from the food shortages. "It's surprising that the malnutrition rates are so high so soon after a good harvest," said Bowden. "We think there must be food hoarding taking place in some areas." Food prices in Mogadishu, where the weak Somali government exercises some control, are lower than elsewhere due to the availability of food aid and the proximity to the port.Britain's international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has announced the UK will provide £10.5m of emergency assistance to Somalia through the UN. Aid would more than triple from £26m in 2010/11 to £80m in 2013/14, he said. | ['world/somalia', 'environment/drought', 'global-development/aid', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'global-development/global-development', 'tone/news', 'environment/food', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'profile/xanrice', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-02-03T13:58:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
travel/2015/oct/24/kerala-india-river-cruise-houseboat-mussel-farming | Slow houseboat to Kerala | Sunrays danced on the mud-green river, peeping through a veil of lingering mist. The water was still but for the soft splash of a fisherman’s oar. I was aboard the Honey Dew houseboat, chugging through the sleepy Valiyaparamba backwaters, which snake through Kasaragod, Kerala’s northernmost region. The newly launched Honey Dew Backwater Cruises offers a cruising experience unlike tourist-thronged Alleppey, where roughly 1,500 kettuvallams (converted rice barges) depart daily in high season. The number of other houseboats I saw on our two-day tour of the 30km waterway could be counted on one hand. The first morning, I struggled to relax. My busy mind was trying to adjust to doing, well, nothing. But as I gazed at the shoreline I slowly unwound. A kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttered (there are over 300 species in Kerala) and palm trees leaned at lazy angles. My photographer friend, John, had a camera glued to his eye. We were lost in the scene and talking stopped. Children waved, calling “hi!”, while running up to the edge of Valiyaparamba, the largest of the seven backwater islands. Stopping off to explore their villages is a fascinating part of the journey. Brahminy kites glided in a cloud-streaked sky and a zigzagging ferry was taking islanders to work and school on the mainland. Hundreds of bamboo mussel farms pepper the waterways, arranged in square formations. Some 6,000 farmers work them, 75% of whom are women, previously employed in poorly paid paddy fields and the declining beedi industry (sales of the “poor man’s cigarette” have fallen across India). Mussel farming has given them a lifeline. The Honey Dew is a partnership between local businessman Kader Porot, who built the bamboo-roof kettuvallam (houseboat), and Gul Mohammed, the social entrepreneur who introduced green-mussel cultivation to the area in 1996. Seeking a way to improve the livelihoods of Keralan coastal communities, his project grew to become India’s largest marine farming co-operative, producing 70% of India’s backwater mussels. Gul handed farm ownership directly to the workers. “The crop flourished and, because the farmers own it, they keep all the profits,” he had told me earlier. Their harvest sells for 100 rupees (£1) per kg in local markets. Gul also runs the Oyster Opera resort, which opened in 2007, a cluster of nine basic cottages and a restaurant, on Thekkekadu, a backwater island. His vision was to show guests the area’s unique farming culture while creating jobs. The addition of the houseboat enhances the experience. The boat is comfortable, with an en suite bedroom, and an open-air deck with an eating area, benches for day-trippers and space for extra beds. Mod cons, like a TV and sound system, seemed unnecessary distractions from the natural surroundings. “Most of our guests are locals cruising for the day; we don’t get many foreigners yet,” explained Pavithran, our chef. Captain Janardhanan brought us to dock at Monkey island, where farming families were gathered. They spoke Malayalam and no English, but two women showed me how to separate the clumps of mud-soaked mussels. Women then carried them away in sacks on their heads. Back on board, the sunset turned the sky pink and a plaintive call to prayer sang out above the palms. A spicy scent permeated the deck and the wicker dining table filled up with fiery, small plates for dinner: karimeen and ayakura river fish, sea crab, calamari and prawns, fresh mussels were shelled and fried – spicy and succulent, unlike any I’d ever tasted. In the morning, we meandered to the waterway’s northerly tip, at the mouth of the Arabian Sea. Disembarking at Valiyaparamba island, I expected a restaurant or cafe, but there were only a couple of homestays, including Kavvayi Beach House, catering to tourists. Three coconut pickers were working in the searing midday heat. Dressed in knee-length lungis, the traditional male sarong, they deftly climbed trees using coir disks as grips and hacked off fruits which thudded to the ground. The coconut husk is turned into coir fibre which can made into everything from matting to brushes to ropes for mussel farming. At sunset, we sat on the island’s beach, its sand scattered with plastic, glass bottles and abandoned shoes. Villagers paddled in the shallows, teenage boys raced and girls asked us for selfies. We joined in for a while, before retreating back onboard. The last morning we cruised to the backwaters’ southerly end. It was the prettiest stretch, dotted with uninhabited islets and mangrove patches. The trip ended at Oyster Opera resort. We ventured into the nearby village, home to a Hindu temple and small coir factory, where communist flags flew proudly. Women gathered on porches and invited us for tea, while farmers ploughing the land stopped to talk. Throughout our stay, no one asked for money or tried any hard-sell tourist techniques. Partly, it’s because this area is off the beaten tourist track. It is also a fairly prosperous pocket of India, bolstered not just by abundant crops like mussels and coconuts, but also by wages sent home from Keralites working in the Gulf states. Tourism will expand with the arrival of a new international airport at nearby Kannur in mid-2016. But for now, at least, farming and fishing drive the economy and it remains a place serene enough to quiet the busiest of minds – even mine. • The trip was provided by Incredible India, (incredibleindia.org). Air India (airindia.in) flies from Heathrow to Mangalore, via Delhi, from about £500 return. The Honey Dew houseboat (+91 96 33416633, honeydewcruises.com) costs £120 for two for a day-and-night cruise, including meals and soft drinks | ['travel/kerala', 'travel/india', 'travel/asia', 'travel/sailing-holidays', 'travel/green', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'travel/travel', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/travel', 'theguardian/travel/travel'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-10-24T06:00:12Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2021/aug/09/uk-to-relax-covid-19-restrictions-for-cop26-climate-conference | UK to relax Covid-19 restrictions for Cop26 climate conference | The government is planning to relax key Covid-19 restrictions for delegates to the UN Cop26 climate conference to be held in Glasgow for two weeks this November. Delegates from 196 countries are expected to attend the talks, viewed as one of the last chances for the world to agree limits on greenhouse gas emissions that would avoid the worst ravages of climate breakdown. The government has offered vaccines to countries coming to the talks, to enable all delegates to be fully vaccinated before the event. However, officials were unable to say how many had taken up the offer. Those who are fully vaccinated and from red list countries will have to self-isolate for five days in hotels on arrival, and for 10 days if they are unvaccinated. Most attendees are expected to arrive through London. All vaccines – most of which require two doses to give full protection – will be recognised by the government for the purposes of the event. Attendees will also be tested frequently throughout the event, but additional booster vaccines will not be required. There will be no requirement for Cop26 attendees coming from amber or green list countries to self-isolate on arrival in the UK whether vaccinated or not, officials said. As many as 30,000 were originally expected at the talks, which were set to take place last November, but had to be postponed by a year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only about 20,000 are now expected at what will be the biggest diplomatic meeting on UK soil since the second world war, and the biggest UK-hosted public event since the 2012 Olympics. Scientists warned on Monday, in a landmark report, that extreme weather caused by human actions was now widespread across the world and would get much worse unless countries take drastic action to cut emissions now. At Cop26, regarded as the most important climate talks since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, countries will be asked to come forward with new commitments to reduce their carbon output in line with scientific advice. The government has been determined to ensure a physical event rather than a virtual one, a stance praised by veterans of the UN talks, who said forging an international deal would be impossible without face-to-face negotiations. Alok Sharma, the UK minister in charge of the talks, was heavily criticised in the Daily Mail and other media last Friday for flying round the world to meet other governments, racking up air miles and visiting red list countries without quarantine on his return, under exemptions approved by the government. However, Cop26 experts and green campaigners defended his actions, saying the trips were necessary to gain the trust and forge the relationships necessary for a successful outcome to the crucial talks. Some of the preliminary negotiations for Cop26 have taken place online, but many countries were reluctant to commit to formal decisions without in-person talks. Cop26 will open officially on Sunday 31 October, a day earlier than first planned, though world leaders will not arrive until Monday and Tuesday. The conference will continue for two weeks of intense negotiations, ending officially at 6pm on Friday 12 November, although based on previous years it is likely the talks will overrun by a day or more. Many developing countries are likely to send only small delegations of a few people, but for larger countries such as the US, China and Europe, the delegations could run to more than 100 people. As well as the country delegates, representatives from business, the media, and civil society organisations around the world will be expected to take part. In previous years, a few developing countries have registered large numbers of delegates who played no role in the proceedings. It is understood the UN will oversee the process to try to ensure there is no abuse, and any delegates found not to be involved will be judged to have invalidated their visas. | ['environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'society/vaccines', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-08-09T18:37:16Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2014/feb/13/after-the-uk-floods-where-do-our-politicians-stand-on-climate-change | After the UK floods, where do our politicians stand on climate change? | As the extreme weather continues across the UK, British politicians have taken the time to remind us where they stand on man-made climate change. First Tory grandee Nigel Lawson - a noted climate sceptic - dubbed the Met Office’s linking of climate change and the recent floods “absurd,” and Energy Secretary Ed Davey has warned Britain’s climate change policy is threatened by a “diabolical cocktail” of nimbyism and populist anti-EU scepticism. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good time to remind you who stands where on climate change among UK politicians. David Cameron The Conservative leader announced his intention to lead the “greenest government ever” back in 2010, and his early days saw a visit to the arctic with the WWF to see the effects of climate change and - according to some - to detoxify the Tory brand by hugging a husky. But it did seem this was a new type of Conservative leader, who recognised the need for a “political consensus” on climate change and his role as leader of the opposition helped the passing of the 2008 Climate Change Act. More recently, there has been a melting of the message, the infamous ‘get rid of the green crap’ order attributed to Cameron last November, as energy prices came to dominate the news agenda. WWF wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister the same month, urging the PM to get climate change back up his list of priorities, and the floods have seen him re-iterate his suspicion that the recent weather and climate change are related issues. His environment secretary, Owen Paterson, is widely regarded as a climate change sceptic. Ed Miliband He may have faced hostile questioning by some locals on his visit to Wraybury earlier this week, but the Labour leader has been consistent on the issue, and was climate change secretary during the last Labour government. In 2010, he warned against “siren voices” distorting the debate on climate change in an interview with the Observer. His stance has not changed since, though he has not made climate change a central part of his appeal to voters since becoming leader, preferring to concentrate on his ‘squeezed middle’ narrative. Nick Clegg The Liberal Democrat leader is convinced of the science, and has written of his frustrations of pushing forward green policies while in a coalition government alongside some avowed climate deniers. It has also been used by Clegg to remind voters of the differences between the two coalition partners: in November he warned that David Cameron’s scepticism on renewable energy was “economic myopia of the worst kind”. George Osborne George Osborne is seen by many as being behind the Conservative party’s cooling on green policies, with the holder of the treasury’s purse-strings criticised by green campaigners for not taking the issue seriously enough. In his autumn statement he announced a rolling back of green levies, while introducing measures to encourage fracking. He is yet to speak out on the recent flooding. Nigel Farage Tucked into his practical waders, the UKIP leader said the floods were “just the weather” while touring the town of Barrowbridge in Somerset. The anti-Europe party are on-record climate change sceptics, with their 2010 manifesto calling for a Repeal of the Climate Change Act, though their leader moved quickly against suggestions by one UKIP councellor that the bad weather was divine retribution for gay marriage. Caroline Lucas The Green party’s former leader and sole MP is, as you would expect, an outspoken critic of the coalition’s green policies. The current party leader, Natalie Bennett, wrote a prescient blog post for the Guardian last July, explicitly linking the increased flooding to climate change, and calling for more action: The scientists are telling us with increasing stridency that, with climate change, we can only expect this to become more common – affecting people who never thought they were at risk. More than 1 million people are now in the target group for the government’s direct flood warning service. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'politics/ukip', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/edmiliband', 'politics/davidcameron', 'politics/nigel-farage', 'politics/labour', 'politics/liberaldemocrats', 'politics/nickclegg', 'politics/green-party', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/james-walsh'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-13T15:16:34Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2008/mar/14/digitalvideo.television | Letters: Rights and wrongs of the BBC iPlayer | That the BBC iPlayer has been "hacked" is unremarkable (Report, March 13). But most people won't have the wherewithal, or time and energy, to take advantage of such a hack. Part of the design of a digital rights management system is to make circumventing it sufficiently difficult that a sufficient number are discouraged, such that the business model remains viable. Apple and others have demonstrated that when you properly design an entire service experience - for instance music finding, acquisition, listening, management and sharing - around the people who will use it, and reflect accepted patterns of sharing, people will gravitate towards it. The challenge is to create new forms of distribution that are rooted in the medium, rather than continually peddling old forms. Neither the music and broadcast industries nor the "media should be free" crowd has seriously addressed this. Nico Macdonald London The Open Source Consortium continues to press the BBC to produce a version of the downloadable iPlayer which can be used by anyone using any computer. Your article identifies the paucity of the BBC's reasons for not doing so - lack of DRM on non-Microsoft systems and that the majority on broadband use Windows XP PCs. None of this reasoning stands up in the light of the decision to provide the downloadable iPlayer for Apple's iPhone. We still wonder why the BBC won't provide a downloadable iPlayer for Linux-based computers, particularly given the opportunities identified by many, including Glyn Moody (Technology, March 6) only last week. Mark Taylor President, Open Source Consortium | ['technology/digitalvideo', 'media/television', 'technology/internet', 'technology/drm', 'media/digital-media', 'media/bbc', 'technology/technology', 'media/media', 'tone/letters', 'media/iplayer', 'media/online-tv', 'media/video-on-demand', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-03-14T00:04:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
uk-news/2014/jan/15/morgan-parry-obituary | Morgan Parry obituary | Morgan Parry, who has died of lymphatic cancer aged 56, was a leading figure in the environmental movement in Wales. As founder and head of WWF Cymru, chair of the Countryside Council for Wales, and latterly a member of the board of the newly formed Natural Resources Wales, he played a key role in shaping the commitment to sustainable development that has been at the heart of the Welsh devolution process. He supported and challenged successive administrations in the application of this duty as set out in the Government of Wales Act 1998, most notably through his influence on the current Sustainable Development scheme, One Wales One Planet. This is based on the premise he pioneered, that Wales should reduce its ecological footprint from more than three planets to one over a generation. He led by example, calculating his personal footprint to be 1.84, compared with the Welsh average of 3.14. He abandoned his car and took to public transport – quite hard when his home was in north Wales, with his work largely based in the south. Yet, as he said: "Driving the kids to school would take three minutes whereas walking them takes 20 – that's more time that I get to spend with them." Morgan was born in Liverpool to Welsh parents and went to both school and university in the city before spending the rest of his life in Wales. He was an ardent supporter of the Welsh culture, language and heritage as well as the natural environment. After a postgraduate course in countryside management at Bangor University, he worked as warden at Parc Padarn, a nature reserve in Snowdonia, and later at Parc Glynllifon near Caernarfon, where he established the present-day site. He was director of the North Wales Wildlife Trust before becoming the first director of WWF in Wales in 2000. In this role he also chaired Cynnal Cymru, the Wales sustainable development forum. He was actively involved in CND and Friends of the Earth Cymru and in 1987 raised funds for the Greenham Common protest with a sponsored bike ride around Wales. Morgan was unusual in being able to connect the worlds of political protest and government. He saw himself as a "critical friend" of Welsh ministers struggling against the odds to implement environmental change in a country beset by the legacy of heavy industry. As he said in a 2009 lecture that imagined Wales as it might be in 2050: "It was easy to get long-term targets in government plans, but much harder to get them and us to act in a way that would secure our future survival." He is survived by his wife, Wendi, and their two children, Math and Martha. | ['uk/wales', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'tone/obituaries', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/obituaries'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-01-15T17:48:11Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2019/jun/25/france-loses-landmark-court-case-over-air-pollution | France loses landmark court case over air pollution | The French state has failed to do enough to limit air pollution around Paris, according to a landmark court ruling delivered after a woman and daughter with respiratory problems sued the nation. In the first case of its kind, Farida, 52, and her 16-year-old daughter, whose full names were not released by the court, sued the French state over the impact of living near Paris’s traffic-choked ringroad in Saint-Ouen. She had told an association fighting for clean air: “For years I had respiratory infections.” What began as nasal and throat infections got gradually worse. “I repeatedly had bronchitis. Doctors gave me antibiotics but it wasn’t helping,” she said. “Three years ago I was sent to a lung specialist who said my problems were linked to air pollution. He advised me to move. My daughter had had bronchitis as a baby then asthma while growing up.” The woman and her daughter eventually moved to Orléans and the symptoms cleared up. The case, before the administrative court in Montreuil outside Paris, was the first brought by individuals against the French state over health problems caused by air pollution. It was backed by several environmental groups. The court said in its written verdict: “The state committed a fault by taking insufficient measures concerning the quality of air.” It said that between 2012 and 2016 the state failed to take measures needed to reduce concentrations of certain polluting gases exceeding the limits. “For victims of pollution, this is a first,” said the women’s lawyer, Francois Lafforgue. “From now, the state will have to take effective measures in the fight against pollution.” But the court rejected the women’s demand for €160,000 (£143,000) in damages, saying it could not find a direct link between their health problems and the state’s failings. The court ruling said the state had failed to fulfil its air protection plan intended to counter pollution. Nadir Saïfi, the vice-president of the organisation Ecology without Borders, told Le Monde: “This is a historic judgment for the 67,000 French people who die prematurely each year due to air pollution. Today victims of pollution, like victims of pesticide, should not be afraid to go to court to defend their health.” | ['world/paris', 'world/france', 'environment/air-pollution', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angeliquechrisafis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-06-25T14:37:21Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/sep/04/country-diary-only-a-hare-where-once-there-was-great-activity | Country diary: Only a hare where once there was great activity | John Gilbey | The mature copper beech by St Mary’s church is dark and heavy with foliage, moving gently in the warm morning breeze and casting welcome shade. Turf paths between the gravestones have been neatly mown, and many of the kempt memorials are marked with fresh flowers. Between the rows, a large hare slowly moves away from me, not panicked but just ensuring its escape route to the lane is unimpeded. It settles, watching me while soaking up the sun, its rump against a gravestone. Small and stone-built, the church of St Mary sits in a broad valley, on a lane that branches from a minor road, a few yards from the still youthful Afon Teifi. The site is remote, the lane eventually losing itself in the hills, yet this was once a place of significant activity – the southern boundary is shared with the Cistercian abbey of Strata Florida, or what remains of it. Founded around 1164, the abbey was the core of an important community for several hundred years, eventually falling foul of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, although its glory was long past by then. Only the Romanesque western arch of the abbey remains intact, but tiled floors and chapels give some idea of the scale, power and influence that it once had. The churchyard of St Mary’s is old, large and irregular, but still the chosen resting place for many local people, and those who have wished to be returned here. It is perhaps significant that – while the Cistercians, with their enabling infrastructure of farming, forestry and stone-working, have long departed – the community purpose of this quiet corner still remains after a thousand years. Looking past the ancient yew tree, which might mark the grave of the – sometimes lewd – medieval poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, the sharply ridged hills above the Teifi Pools stand out against the sky. To north and south, wooded slopes wrap the valley floor, giving a degree of shelter that will be welcome when the winter storms arrive. The hare has gone, leaving quietly and unobserved. For now, it is time for me to do the same. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'culture/heritage', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'uk/wales', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/john-gilbey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-09-04T04:30:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2017/jul/25/roomba-maker-could-share-maps-users-homes-google-amazon-apple-irobot-robot-vacuum | Roomba maker may share maps of users' homes with Google, Amazon or Apple | The maker of the Roomba robotic vacuum, iRobot, has found itself embroiled in a privacy row after its chief executive suggested it may begin selling floor plans of customers’ homes, derived from the movement data of their autonomous servants. “There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” said Colin Angle, iRobot’s boss. That possibility has led to a shift in direction from the company technologically. While all of the housecleaning robots in its range are capable of navigating around a room, only the most advanced machines it makes do so by creating a mental map of the space; its dumber bots simply move almost randomly until they’re pretty sure they’ve covered the whole area. Angle told Reuters that iRobot, which made Roomba compatible with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in March, could reach a deal to sell its maps to one or more of the Big Three – Amazon, Apple and Google’s Alphabet – in the next couple of years. None of the three commented on this story. The plans have been received positively by investors, sending iRobot’s stock soaring to $102 in mid-June from $35 a year ago and giving it a market value of nearly $2.5bn on 2016 revenue of $660m. All of iRobot’s Roombas use short-range infrared or laser sensors to detect and avoid obstacles, but in 2015 iRobot added a camera, new sensors and software to its flagship 900-series Roomba that gave it the ability to build a map while keeping track of their own location within it. So-called simultaneous localisation and mapping (Slam) technology enables Roomba, and other higher-end ”robo-vacs” made by Dyson and other rivals, to do things like stop vacuuming, head back to its dock to recharge and then return to the same spot to finish the job. The company’s smart home vision has helped bring around some former critics. Willem Mesdag, managing partner of hedge fund Red Mountain Capital – who led an unsuccessful proxy fight against Angle last year and wound up selling his iRobot shares – is now largely supportive of the company’s direction. “I think they have a tremendous first-mover advantage,” said Mesdag, who thinks iRobot would be a great acquisition for one of the big three. “The competition is focused on making cleaning products, not a mapping robot.” But consumer advocates have been more concerned by the proposal. Selling data about users’ homes raises clear privacy issues, said Ben Rose, an analyst who covers iRobot for Battle Road Research. Customers could find it “sort of a scary thing,” he said. Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, concurred, saying: “This is a particularly creepy example of how our privacy can be undermined by companies that want to profit from the information that smart devices can generate about our homes and lives. “Smart household products may enable companies to obtain information that we consider to be private, such as floor plans of where we live. However, this is not necessarily personal data as protected under data protection law. “Companies should treat data collected in people’s homes as if it is personal data and ensure that explicit consent is sought to gather and share this information. Taking an ethical approach, rather than complying with minimal legal requirements, would build trust with customers.” Angle said iRobot would not sell data without its customers’ permission, but he expressed confidence most would give their consent in order to access the smart home functions. The company’s terms of service appear to give the company the right to sell such data already, however. When signing up for the company’s Home app, which connects to its smart robots, customers have to agree to a privacy policy that states that it can share personal information with subsidiaries, third party vendors, and the government, as well as in connection with “any company transaction” such as a merger or external investment. “Maybe that doesn’t unnerve you, but it probably should,” says Rhett Jones of technology site Gizmodo. “This is all part of the larger quest for a few major companies to hoover up every bit of data about you that they can. Now, they want to know all about your living space. “Going through the iRobot terms of service, you can see just how much data is already being collected on a daily basis just by clicking like on a Facebook page or visiting a corporate website,” Jones adds. “And that data will likely be just as insecure tomorrow as it is today.” At the opposite end of the market, iRobot faces competition from companies not caring at all about smart mapping technology, who are driving down the cost at the entry level. A rising group of mostly cheaper competitors – such as the well-reviewed £229 Eufy RoboVac 11 that’s more than £100 cheaper than the comparable Roomba 650 - which are threatening to turn a once-futuristic product into a commoditised home appliance. An iRobot spokesperson said: “iRobot does not sell data customer data. Our customers always come first. We will never violate our customer’s trust by selling or misusing customer-related data, including data collected by our connected products. Right now, the data Roomba collects enables it to effectively clean the home and provides customers with information about cleaning performance. iRobot believes that in the future, this information could provide even more value for our customers by enabling the smart home and the devices within it to work better, but always with their explicit consent.” This piece was amended on 1 August to add a statement from iRobot Roomba creator responds to reports of ‘poopocalypse’: ‘We see this a lot’ | ['technology/robots', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/amazon', 'technology/apple', 'technology/google', 'technology/smart-homes', 'technology/internet-of-things', 'technology/alphabet', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-07-25T10:47:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
lifeandstyle/she-said/2014/apr/16/children-easter-eggs-plastic-wrapping | I won't be buying Easter eggs for my children this year | "This year, we'll be having homemade chocolates for Easter." No doubt there are some households where this statement would be greeted with clasped hands and shining eyes. But in mine it prompts a longsuffering groan that rattles the windows and startles the cat. The reason for such antipathy is that we are in the middle of a self-imposed 60-day ban on plastic wrapping – a move that has brought about the absence of shop-bought sweets, crisps, biscuits and now Easter as we know it. For when it comes to superfluous plastic packaging, Easter eggs take the proverbial chocolate fondant filling. I have some sympathy for the manufacturers. Easter eggs are, by definition, uniformly oval and chocolate coloured. Since you can't reinvent the egg, although goodness knows some confectioners appear to be trying, the packaging becomes its unique selling point. And that has meant embracing plastic in a big way - a problem that remains despite manufacturers moving to reduce packaging in 2009. While some of the packaging may be recyclable, that doesn't absolve it much. Remaking plastic into something else is all very laudable, but both making and recycling it take energy - something we should be saving. Maybe the answer is to not produce so much of it in the first place. Furthermore, many councils limit the type of plastic they collect from the door, making a trip to the tip necessary for the committed recycler. Not everyone falls into that category, and even if they do, may not have the time or means to find their way to out-of-town recycling facilities. Much of the packaging from the 80m Easter eggs that are sold in the UK will therefore end up in the bin destined for landfill – and that's, well, rubbish. According to the government, we produce around 177m tonnes of waste every year - 3,000 tonnes of it from Easter eggs, according to its advisory body, Wrap. The government's website states it is aiming 'to move towards a zero waste economy'. It was the concept of zero waste that prompted my plastic packaging ban, when in an unusually piercing moment of clarity it occurred to me that throwing stuff away should simply be unacceptable. I thought it would be interesting to see how far I could shop plastic free for a family of five in a way that is affordable and mainstream. In other words no expensive veg boxes or fancy butchers. In banning plastic I have come to realise how pervasive it is. I recently went into a supermarket with a long list and left clutching a lone stalk of broccoli. The number of things we are having to do without is growing by the day: double cream, yoghurt and kitchen towels to name a few - and Easter eggs. In fairness, there are some that proclaim they are plastic-free and others that seem to be purely box and egg – but the irony is that the absence of clear plastic means I can't tell for sure. And it is possible to buy loose ones wrapped only in foil. Just don't tell the kids. Karen's blog: http://charwoodfarm.blogspot.co.uk/ | ['lifeandstyle/easter', 'food/series/easter-egg-taste-test', 'environment/recycling', 'theobserver/she-said', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-04-16T10:27:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk/2012/nov/28/flooding-clearup-whitby-homes-demolition | Flooding clearup continues as Whitby homes face demolition | A terrace of five Victorian houses is to be demolished on Thursday in the North Yorkshire port of Whitby after a landslip of saturated ground threatened its foundations. Engineers will gingerly build a temporary road to get heavy plant to the 150-year-old homes which were built for workers involved in mining jet, the rare black mineral used for fashionable 19th-century jewellery. Scarborough council said leaving the houses standing could cause a domino-effect down the steep slope above the picturesque harbour where the explorer Captain James Cook lodged and learned his seafaring skills. Several of the properties are let as holiday cottages, including one belonging to former resident Alan Tomlinson, who said: "It's heartbreaking to see it just like this." Residents have previously been involved in negotiations with Yorkshire Water over alleged draining deficiencies in the area. The week of the floods have caused serious damage to more than 1,200 homes throughout the UK. A small risk of flooding remains in the lower reaches of several slow-moving, major rivers where water from upstream will not finish moving down to estuaries until late on Thursday. There were still 141 flood warnings and 145 of the lower-level flood alerts in place on Wednesday afternoon. A major clearup continues in the Welsh city of St Asaph where an elderly woman was found dead in her flooded house – the fourth death in the past week's flooding – and more than 500 properties were damaged when a wall of water spilled from the broken banks of the river Elwy. Drier and colder weather has established a hold over most of the country, with only scattered showers. Gritters were out in many parts as temperatures were forecast to drop below freezing. Forecasters are also predicting the colder spell will stay for the rest of the week. With widespread standing water on the roads, the likelihood of ice forming is high. Meanwhile, the Commons environment committee has written to Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, to ask what progress he has made on getting insurance companies to agree to a new rules for covering high-risk properties after 2013. | ['uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/martinwainwright', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-11-28T18:58:43Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2013/apr/21/weatherwatch-wind-clouds-pennines-cumbria | Weatherwatch: The rolling clouds of the wind that shook the Normans | Local winds in different parts of the world often have names, such as the Mistral of France and Santa Ana in California. But only one wind in Britain has its own name – the Helm Wind of Cumbria, and this is the time of year when it blows strongest. The Helm Wind blasts down the steep slopes of Cross Fell, the highest peak of the Pennines, sometimes for days on end. Its powerful gusts can knock over walkers and legend says it even brought down a Norman army in the days of William the Conqueror, when it threw the French cavalry off their horses and handed the local Anglo-Saxons a surprise victory. The wind also has its own personal flag, a telltale bank of clouds that appears over the hills like a helmet, hence the name "Helm Wind". And several miles away in the valley below, a long roll of cloud called the "Helm Bar" can also appear, gently spinning like a rolling pin. What creates the Helm and its magnificent clouds was a mystery until 1937, when meteorologist Gordon Manley locked himself away in a shed on the Fell. He discovered that the wind rushed down like water pouring over a waterfall, before the air bobbed up and down in the valley like a stationary wave, which was later confirmed by a glider in 1939 who used the uplift in the standing wave to reach 11,140 feet, a British altitude gliding record at that time. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-04-21T20:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2005/oct/06/hurricanes2005.weather | Penniless New Orleans fires 3,000 | With their lives thrown into turmoil by Hurricane Katrina, the news has got worse for 3,000 New Orleans employees, who were fired after the city's government said it was no longer able to pay them. The job losses are a further blow to a city struggling since the hurricane five weeks ago. The mayor, Ray Nagin, who announced the cuts on Tuesday, warned that there could be more losses to come: "I wish I didn't have to do this; I wish we had the money, the resources to keep these people. We have no revenue stream and the prospect of getting revenue ... is pretty dicey." Mr Nagin said cutting the workforce would save up to $8m (£4.5m) of the city's $20m monthly payroll. No police officers, firefighters, or emergency medical workers would be fired, the mayor said, but "non-essential" support workers in those departments would lose their jobs. Asked if it was difficult to tell people -many of whom have also probably lost their homes - that they no longer had jobs, Mr Nagin said: "It's really tough." Many fear the job cuts will further delay the city's revival, and are asking why the federal government has not bailed out the city. "We've had Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita and now Hurricane Layoffs," Oliver Thomas, the city council president, told the Washington Post. "When will some relief come for the people of this region? We're dying down here." There was some good news, however, with the number of dead proving substantially lower than feared. In Louisiana, the door-to-door search for bodies has ended, and the death toll stands at 972, while the number in neighbouring Mississippi stands at 221. In the days after the storm Mr Nagin estimated the death toll in New Orleans alone could reach 10,000. Meanwhile, more than 40,000 left homeless will remain in hotel rooms beyond yesterday's deadline set for their relocation, after the failure of efforts to rehouse evacuees in mobile homes, cruise ships or flats. The hotels, costing an estimated $8.3m a day, were supposed to be a temporary measure. | ['world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiewilson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international1'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-10-05T23:02:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
film/2020/may/21/the-county-review-grimur-hakonarson-arndis-hronn-egilsdottir | The County review – fearless farmer fights for justice | Peter Bradshaw's film of the week | The spirit of Elia Kazan lives on in this tough community drama from Icelandic film-maker Grímur Hákonarson, who won golden plaudits for his 2015 picture Rams, about two sheep-farming brothers, which struck a clever tonal balance between comedy and tragedy. The County is dourer than that, though from the same world of self-reliant and pugnacious souls who have made their way in life against tough odds, thriving in solitude and hardship amid a vast, remote, beautiful landscape. The action centres on farmers: Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) who is married to moody, careworn Reynir (Hinrik Ólafsson). Their life is hard. They are fighting against mounting debts and must work harder and harder to stay afloat. Hákonarson shrewdly begins with a classic farming scene, which for Britons is like something from James Herriot: a calving that Inga handles herself without any outside help, using chains attached to the hooves, steadily, competently pulling. It’s a scene that crystallises her approach to work: calm, professional and with an uncorroded sense that focused effort will be rewarded. Reynir’s worldview is bleaker. Like his wife, he has become embittered by his farm’s relationship with the all-powerful local co-operative and its political adjunct, the Agrarian party. They’re signed up to the co-op, like all the farmers thereabouts, and this body gives them a safe captive market for their milk and meat, a discount store and loans. But in return the farmers have to buy everything from the co-op itself, at inflated prices. The co-op has become an exploitative racket, a Carnegie-style company store, led by its sinister, desiccated chairman, Eyjólfur (Sigurður Sigurjónsson), who runs a menacing, Stasi-mafia organisation against any farmer who dares go outside the union – using a key informant who betrays his neighbours. This is a film about the clash of old and new. Inga takes on the co-op, armed with her personal rage and her conviction that the times are a-changing. Farmers don’t need the co-op, she thinks – and she believes that the big international corporations can help her. She can buy materials from Amazon and sell her milk direct to the public via the internet, and she uses Facebook to publicise her campaign against the co-op’s restraint of trade. Whatever objections everyone else might have to Facebook, Inga is glad of it. Other farmers are fainthearted about standing up to the co-op, but Facebook’s got her back. The mainstream media also take an interest in this maverick woman, and the menfolk are deeply irritated by her. Her fightback involves a moment weirdly like the climax of Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, and there is less political irony in the comparison than first appears. There’s something else, too. Egilsdóttir’s excellent performance as Inga shows us that, as the gruelling action continues, she looks younger and younger, just when you might expect her to become grizzled and aged by this nasty battle against a local bigwig. It is as if this struggle has given her a new vitality, which wasn’t provided by back-breaking 24/7 work to pay off a crippling mortgage. Her enemies threaten her with bankruptcy. But this threat, so far from scaring her, does the opposite. Egilsdóttir portrays a woman who is thrilled, not just by the principled confrontation with these local bullies but the prospect of just being rid of everything. So she goes bust – and loses everything – so what? Watching this film, we can see how her farm and all its cumbersome expensive equipment and outbuildings are just a burden to her, and work itself (that sacred shrine to which she was otherwise loyally ready to sacrifice her entire life) is a meaningless treadmill that she has found a heroic and spectacular way to jettison. The climactic scene at a town-hall gathering is maybe a little contrived, yet Egilsdóttir carries the drama, and her overwhelming feeling of relief makes sense of that gigantic landscape. At last, it is a world to be free in. • The County is on Curzon Home Cinema from 22 May. | ['film/drama', 'film/series/peter-bradshaw-film-of-the-week', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'film/world-cinema', 'world/iceland', 'environment/farming', 'film/comedy', 'culture/comedy', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/peterbradshaw', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/film', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-21T06:00:48Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
education/2013/sep/04/ronald-coase | Ronald Coase obituary | Ronald Coase, who has died aged 102, won the Nobel prize for economic sciences in 1991 for his work in discovering and clarifying the importance of transaction costs in the functioning of the economy. His substantial contribution to economics spanned eight decades. Coase challenged the idea that "externality problems" – in which the costs of an action are felt by those who are not party to it – necessitated government intervention in the form of taxes or regulation. Well-defined property rights and low transaction costs could allow individuals to resolve problems themselves through voluntary exchange in a free market. If you do not like the fact that your neighbour plays his music too loudly, or allows his dogs to roam around your garden, perhaps you should pay him to stop. Or, if your neighbour strongly desires to continue to act in this way, perhaps he should pay you to allow him to do so. State intervention to solve these disputes – in the form of taxes, regulations and prohibitions – should not be wholly ruled out, but neither should they be considered the constant default option. Coase was born in Willesden, northwest London. His father worked for the post office, as had his mother before their marriage. After attending Kilburn grammar school on a scholarship, he studied at the London School of Economics, receiving a bachelor of commerce degree and joining its staff in 1935. In 1937, he married Marion Hartung, from Chicago. In the same year, Coase published his influential essay The Nature of the Firm. Coase understood that the institutional and legal framework of a society was vital to appreciating how economic activity would be conducted. In the entirely theoretical world of a perfectly functioning market, with no transaction costs and everyone in possession of correct information, we would all be self-employed and continually entering into new contracts with one another, seeing our salaries fall and rise with every passing minute depending on our productivity. In the real world, of course, companies face the prohibitive costs of continually working out with whom to do business and which goods and services they need to obtain (transaction costs). Coase posited the theory that the amount businesses could grow by depended on how they coped with internalising these costs and how they minimised entrepreneurial errors. He correctly predicted that tech nological developments, including cheaper, faster transport and more cost-effective communication, would lead to companies expanding in size. After moving to the US in 1951, Coase worked at the University of Buffalo and the University of Virginia. In 1964 he took a position at the University of Chicago, where he became editor of the Journal of Law and Economics. It was in this publication in 1960 that Coase published his most famous piece of work, The Problem of Social Cost, which gave rise to the "Coase theorem", as his friend and colleague George Stigler dubbed it. He used the example of two farmers facing a situation in which one man's cattle strays on to his neighbour's field of crops. If the cost of restraining the cattle, ie the rancher paying to erect a fence, is less than the cost of the damage to the crops, this will be achieved irrespective of whether this is paid for by the arable farmer or the cattle rancher. Who picks up the bill will simply be determined by the allocation of property rights. The Coase theorem had practical applicability in the debate about the rights over the radio spectrum in 1960s America. His work in this area continues to have relevance today. In the debate over climate change, Coase's work provides the intellectual basis for favouring a trading scheme of carbon credits, rather than the state imposition of anti-emissions regulations. Similarly, his work informs the approach to auctioning the airwaves for mobile telecommunications – just as it did for radio half a century ago. Throughout his career, Coase believed that economists were too prone to theorising about what might occur in an abstract and imaginary world. Indeed, he worried about the practical application of the Coase theorem itself. He is rightly considered to be the father of institutional economics, and the academic field of "law and economics" would not exist without him. In the last years of his life, Coase turned his attention to the emergence of capitalism in China. His final great work in 2012, co-authored with Ning Wang, was How China Became Capitalist. Asked by a friend and colleague whether he thought the Chinese would be particularly receptive to his economic ideas, Coase quipped: "Not necessarily, but there are a lot of them." Coase and Wang argued that China's move towards capitalism had essentially been an accidental byproduct of an attempt to bring about perfect socialism and sounded a warning that a continuing desire for economic and political control on the part of the Chinese authorities could derail the country's long-term potential for growth. Considered by his friends to be a generous and modest man despite his enormous academic achievements, Coase conceded that he had originally expected it to take a century or more for China to become capitalist. Asked why an economic legend such as himself could be so wrong about a matter of such global significance, Coase replied: "I've been wrong so often, I don't find it extraordinary at all." He will, however, be remembered across a wide range of academic disciplines as a brilliantly insightful man who managed to get so many things right and who could explain real world economic behaviour with incision and clarity. Marion died in 2012. • Ronald Harry Coase, economist, born 29 December 1910; died 2 September 2013 | ['education/economics', 'education/londonschoolofeconomics', 'business/economics', 'business/business', 'tone/obituaries', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/chicago', 'world/china', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/marklittlewood', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/obituaries'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2013-09-04T16:52:06Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2013/nov/07/philippines-super-typhoon-haiyan-hurricane-katrina | Philippines waits for Super Typhoon Haiyan to hit – harder than Katrina | Super Typhoon Haiyan is bearing down on the Central Philippines. You don't need to be a meteorologist to understand that you don't want to be anywhere near this thing. Just look at that satellite photo. It looks just like Hurricane Katrina. By the time it hits the Eastern Visayas, Haiyan will have maximum sustained winds of 149mph. How fast is that? Well, 149mph is 24mph faster than Hurricane Katrina was when it made landfall. It would be an incredibly strong hurricane – four on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. There is no difference between a hurricane and a typhoon, except for the region in which they originate. Only a few hurricanes in United States history had stronger winds at landfall: Andrew, Camille and Charley come to mind immediately. All of these were devastating to the areas affected. The winds reflect the strength of a storm that is rarely seen. It's central pressure is somewhere south of 900mb at the current time. There are only four other storms over the past 20 years in the western Pacific with a lower pressure. Though we don't have the tools to measure the exact pressure of storms in the western Pacific, Haiyan is at least within the top 20 of all time. Katrina had a pressure of 902mb, which is the all-time record for a US hurricane. Yet it's not just the pressure or the wind. We will be looking at somewhere between eight and 12 inches of rain, across a wide area. That would be well within the top echelon for hurricanes in the United States. Flood warnings are regularly issued for rain amounts an eighth to a twelfth as much. With additional rain from other storm systems, multiple mudslides are a good possibility. Haiyan is going to be historic in many ways. The winds, which will likely drop by landfall, are now 195mph. This may be the strongest such winds since we started using satellites to measure storm strength. Nate Cohn of the New Republic said he has never seen anything like Haiyan. Of course, it's easy to get lost in the meteorology of the storm. What this storm is about, at the end of the day, is how many people will be affected. Indeed, it is the wide area of the storm that makes one most worried. The storm is 500 miles wide. That's wider than Katrina was at its peak. It's affecting more than 25 million people. That's more people than live in the New York City metropolitan area, which was affected by Hurricane Sandy last year. This storm is incredibly dangerous. We can only hope the storm turns out to be less severe than forecasted. Otherwise, I fear the news from the Central Philippines in the days ahead. | ['world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/philippines', 'environment/flooding', 'world/landslides', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/harry-j-enten'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-11-07T23:41:47Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2023/may/01/virginia-beach-tornado-state-of-emergency | Virginia Beach declares state of emergency after tornado | A popular coastal US tourist destination has declared a state of emergency after a tornado moved through the area on Sunday and damaged dozens of homes, downed trees and caused gas leaks. Officials in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said it was unclear how many homes had been damaged but they estimated between 50 and 100, after the tornado touched down just after 6pm, WTKR-TV reported. There had been about 500 confirmed tornadoes in the US so far this year as the end of April approached, which is an above-average pace, according to the website DisasterPhilathrophy.org. Among them were an outbreak of tornadoes across the southern and midwestern US that killed more than 30 people at the beginning of April as well as a twister that killed more than 20 in Mississippi a week earlier. Such devastating tornadoes could become more common because of changes spurred on by global heating, scientists have warned. Virginia Beach’s city manager, Patrick Duhaney, declared a state of emergency on Sunday night. And as a result of the severe weather, Virginia Beach’s Something in the Water festival announced that all events for Sunday, its third day, were canceled. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The utility Virginia Natural Gas responded to several homes with gas leaks, and Dominion Energy was reporting just under 1,000 outages early Monday. Some roads in the area that was most affected would be closed as emergency and debris management crews worked there in the aftermath of the tornado, according to the city. Crews were planning to be out at 8am on Monday to begin cleaning up streets. Meanwhile, on Saturday, a tornado in North Palm Beach, Florida, left at least one apartment building uninhabitable and injured two people when their car was hit by winds from the twister. That tornado packed winds of up to 130 mph, and forecasters classified it as a 2 on the 0 to 5 EF intensity scale, according to the Palm Beach Post. The Associated Press contributed reporting | ['us-news/virginia', 'weather/virginiabeach', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-05-01T12:30:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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