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environment/2022/sep/28/secret-negotiator-cop15-talks-optimism-bolsonaro-brazil-aoe | Cause for optimism at Cop15 – but could Bolsonaro scupper the deal for nature? | We are at the beginning of a busy end to the year. The summer holidays are over in the northern hemisphere, the world economy is creaking into recession, war is raging in Ukraine and there is the small matter of the most important biodiversity conference in more than a decade: Cop15. Money will ultimately decide the fate of the summit and the ambition of the final text in Montreal this December, as will the mood after the climate Cop27, which ends two weeks earlier. So far, negotiations have been slow and painful. Covid has delayed Cop15 several times and it has been moved from China to Canada, although Beijing will retain the presidency. In Geneva and Nairobi earlier this year, the size and complexity of 20 or so targets on how humanity will halt the destruction of the natural world grew and grew. Much of the draft agreement is in brackets, reflecting disagreement in the UN process as countries have added suggestion upon suggestion on how the final set of targets should look. An informal meeting in Montreal this week will try to cut it down to size. The text is a mess, but I do not share the pessimism of leading NGOs who have warned the talks are in crisis, blaming lack of attention from world leaders. I believe countries are taking Cop15 seriously and we could end up with a substantive agreement. Whether it will be nature’s “Paris moment” remains uncertain, because biodiversity is far more complex than the climate crisis. Major divisions between developed and developing countries remain on money and flashy targets such as protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030. European and North American leaders are happy to talk about the need to protect ecosystems in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but that costs money and must contend with local ambitions for economic development. Even so, there are several bright spots to focus on as we head into a busy autumn, and division at this stage of a UN negotiation is normal. At the UN general assembly in New York last week, world leaders dedicated substantial attention to nature. Earlier this month, African environment ministers met in Dakar, Senegal, agreeing a joint text on biodiversity, wildlife and desertification that will form the basis of their negotiating position at Cop15. The EU will soon release its negotiating position. Cop15 is not being ignored. One country that does worry me is Brazil. It is home to the largest chunk of the Amazon and was once a defender of the environment on the world stage. Agriculture now trumps conservation in Brazil’s domestic politics and, as the presidential elections approach, Jair Bolsonaro could have a major impact on the agreement we reach at Cop15, regardless of whether he wins or loses. If Bolsonaro wins, Brazil may curtail an ambitious final text. If his main rival, the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, wins – and Bolsonaro accepts it – he could still instruct his negotiating team to cause problems, if only to embarrass his successor. Meanwhile, Africa’s demand that the global framework must include sharing the benefits of using genetic information in electronic format, also known as Digital Sequence Information or DSI, was confirmed in Dakar and could yet turn out to be the deal breaker – or maker. There is everything to play for. In a series of dispatches ahead of the Cop15 UN biodiversity conference in Montreal in December, we will be hearing from a secret negotiator who is from a developing country involved in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework negotiations. | ['environment/series/the-cop15-secret-negotiator', 'environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/series/the-road-to-kunming', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/brazil', 'world/africa', 'world/canada', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'environment/cop15', 'profile/the-secret-negotiator', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-09-28T05:30:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2006/aug/30/hurricanekatrina.usnews | Katrina's aftermath whips up war between phone companies | As the United States marks the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a squabble has broken out between leading phone companies over who should get priority in emergency recovery. Mobile phone companies have told the federal communications commission that in the aftermath of disasters their networks should be given fast-track treatment in power reconnection along with water firms, hospitals and government agencies because their services are essential for survivors and recovery workers. But one of America's top landline suppliers, AT&T, has accused its wireless counterparts of a blatant attempt to "muscle their way to the head of the line". The disagreement is disclosed in responses to consultation on improving communications in disaster-stricken areas. There was consternation at the degree to which phones were rendered useless in New Orleans last year. T-Mobile told the inquiry: "People use wireless services to call for help, receive news and emergency information, and communicate with loved ones. Similarly, public safety officials and first responders rely heavily on wireless services to communicate with each other and to protect and save lives." The CTIA, an international organisation representing wireless operators, said more than 25,000 handsets were handed out to those affected by Katrina, but lack of power to base stations remained a problem, with 24 mobile sites still running on backup generators months later. "Wireless services are the primary method of communication during disasters and should be given appropriate priority for restoration of electricity and access to landline infrastructure," the association said. AT&T accused mobile operators of trying to make a quick buck: "A few of the commentators have put forward proposals that appear more calculated to advance their own business interests than to assure greater reliability and expeditious recovery of the communications infrastructure." | ['business/business', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/mobilephones', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewclark'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-08-30T14:16:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
film/2011/nov/24/disney-youtube-rent-films | Disney and YouTube strike reel deal | YouTube is to make Disney's library of films available on its new movie rental site for the first time as part of the Google-owned website's ongoing bid to present itself as the No 1 destination for video on demand in a rapidly developing marketplace. The deal means films from Disney, its wholly-owned subsidiary Pixar, and other studios such as DreamWorks (which distribute via the Mouse House) will be available to stream online. Titles initially available will include films such as Cars 2, Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. YouTube marketing executive Minjae Ormes said newer titles would be joined over time by classic movies from the Disney back catalogue. "Check back in because even more of the great Disney classics and new releases will be added in weeks to come, including our YouTube Movie Extras with behind-the-scenes clips, interviews and more," he wrote on the YouTube movies blog. YouTube launched its movie rental site in May as it seeks to reposition itself as a one-stop shop for on-demand video. The site is also launching a co-branded channel with Disney with a reported budget of between $10m and $15m, one of more than 100 it plans to unleash, all based on original programming. The channel will be available on both Disney.com and YouTube, launching in early 2012. "Disney Interactive will produce and programme the co-branded video destinations for both Disney.com and YouTube, providing a family-friendly experience for viewers across both platforms," Disney and YouTube said in a statement earlier this month. YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65bn in 2006, and the investment reflects the company's view that the internet is the next phase in the television business. In the UK, YouTube has moved into a soon-to-be crowded video-on-demand marketplace that already includes Amazon-owned LoveFilm's movie streaming service and will see US giant Netflix enter the fray in early 2012. The latter announced last month that it is making its first venture into Europe by launching in the UK and Ireland next year. LoveFilm announced its own deal to show Disney films in April. The service also has agreements with film studios such as MGM, Momentum and Warner Bros. Netflix has more than 25 million users in the US, Canada and Latin America, while LoveFilm has more than 1.6 million subscribers in the UK and Europe. YouTube remains the top hosting destination for amateur video with more than 3bn views per day, and boasts that more footage is uploaded to the site in one month than the three major US networks have created in 60 years. However, it has yet to prove itself as the No 1 destination for paidfor video on demand in the face of increasing competition from Apple's iTunes, Hulu and Netflix, among others. | ['film/film', 'film/pixar', 'film/animation', 'culture/culture', 'media/disney-channel', 'media/television', 'media/ustelevision', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'technology/youtube', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/technology', 'film/film-industry', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/benchild', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-11-24T17:16:29Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2020/aug/15/uk-firms-solar-power-breakthrough-could-make-worlds-most-efficient-panels-by-2021 | UK firm's solar power breakthrough could make world's most efficient panels by 2021 | British rooftops could be hosting a breakthrough in new solar power technology by next summer, using a crystal first discovered more than 200 years ago to help harness more of the sun’s power. An Oxford-based solar technology firm hopes by the end of the year to begin manufacturing the world’s most efficient solar panels, and become the first to sell them to the public within the next year. Oxford PV claims that the next-generation solar panels will be able to generate almost a third more electricity than traditional silicon-based solar panels by coating the panels with a thin layer of a crystal material called perovskite. The breakthrough would offer the first major step-change in solar power generation since the technology emerged in the 1950s, and could play a major role in helping to tackle the climate crisis by increasing clean energy. By coating a traditional solar power cell with perovskite a solar panel can increase its power generation, and lower the overall costs of the clean electricity, because the crystal is able to absorb different parts of the solar spectrum than traditional silicon. Typically a silicon solar cell is able to convert up to about 22% of the available solar energy into electricity. But in June 2018, Oxford PV’s perovskite-on-silicon solar cell surpassed the best performing silicon-only solar cell by reaching a new world record of 27.3%. The perovskite-coated panels will appear different too. Instead of the blue tint usually associated with traditional silicon panels, Oxford PV’s panels will appear black and blend in better with rooftop slates. The mineral perovskite, also known as the crystal calcium titanate, was first discovered by a Russian mineralogist in the Ural mountains in 1839. In the last 10 years, scientists around the world have been locked in a race to engineer chemical compounds based upon the perovskite crystal structure but that are able to generate more renewable electricity at a lower cost. Dr Chris Case, the chief technology officer at Oxford PV, said using perovskite represents “a true change” for solar technology, which has remained relatively unchanged since the silicon-based panels developed in the 1950s. “Silicon has reached its culmination of capability,” he said. “There are residual improvements to be made, and cost of production opportunities, but from a performance standpoint it is at its efficiency limit. The perovskite material is something totally innovative for solar.” The company won £100,000 of funding from the UK government in 2010, before attracting equity investment from Norwegian oil giant Equinor, Legal & General Capital and the Chinese renewables giant Goldwind. Frank Averdung, Oxford PV’s chief executive, said the company will be able to steal a march on the first commercially available solar panels which use perovskite to improve solar generation against the company’s rivals. “There are other companies working on perovskite, of course, and these other companies will eventually have a commercial focus, but none of these companies has the same focus on the combination of silicon and perovskite which we do,” he said. • This article was amended on 19 August 2020 to better describe perovskite. | ['business/manufacturing-sector', 'environment/solarpower', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'uk/oxford', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2020-08-14T23:00:26Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2019/jul/29/the-fairtrade-mark-is-still-trustworthy | The Fairtrade mark is still trustworthy | Letter | As committed and hardworking supporters of fair trade for almost 30 years, we feel your correspondents (Letters, 27 July) missed the point of “The death of fair trade?” (The long read, 23 July) which showed how large corporations are trying to circumvent fair trade and undermine the highly successful Fairtrade mark with their own “fairly traded” and the like. Rest assured, the Fairtrade mark remains an absolutely trustworthy guarantee of internationally agreed standards. Tim Gossling blames the EU for “not allowing” the production of Divine chocolate in Ghana. This is not true. The EU is primarily a trading bloc, it imposes tariffs on products from outside that bloc. That’s what trading blocs do. It benefits UK manufacturers and farmers, too. No wonder the TUC, CBI and NFU are all appalled at the thought of similar tariffs being slapped on our products after Brexit. As for the importance to producers, we refer you to “No guns, no drugs, no atrocities, no rape. No murder. Just bananas…” (The Observer, 25 February 2018), which shows how incredibly important farmers and communities in Colombia know fair trade to be. And we can buy their Fairtrade-certified bananas at the Co-op, our corner shop in the heart of this small South Yorkshire town. Joy and Richard Webb Fairtrade in Penistone, Penistone, 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 | ['global-development/fair-trade', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'world/ghana', 'food/chocolate', 'business/co-operative-group', 'business/business', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'world/colombia', 'world/americas', 'politics/tradeunions', 'uk/uk', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-07-29T16:54:41Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/jul/22/sussex-farmers-plan-to-create-wildlife-rich-green-corridor-to-the-sea | How Sussex farmers plan to rewild a nature-rich green corridor to the sea | When farmer James Baird read of Isabella Tree’s vision for rewilded land stretching from her Sussex estate all the way to the sea at Shoreham, he phoned up Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, and told them: “You’re going to the wrong bit of coast – I’ve got the last bit.” Now Baird, a self-described “hard-nosed arable farmer” who owns virtually the last slice of undeveloped West Sussex coast at Climping Gap, the other side of Worthing to Shoreham, is the driving force behind the creation of a wildlife-rich green corridor linking the rewilded Knepp estate to the sea. The Weald to Waves project aims to create at least 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of nature-friendly land in corridors running from the rolling hills of the Weald down the valleys of the Rivers Arun and Adur to boost biodiversity on land and in the sea. The ambitious nature restoration plan is set to receive a big boost this summer with the government’s announcement of a multimillion-pound “landscape recovery” pilot, one of the new environmental land management schemes (Elms). “Nature recovery is not a fashion, it’s essential,” said Baird, who grows peas for Birds Eye and wheat for Hovis on 530 hectares. “If we don’t make space for nature, who is going to pollinate the crops in the future? We can’t sustain our soils unless we rewild them.” Baird is among eight major landowners who have signed a memorandum of understanding to create a wildlife-rich corridor from Knepp to the sea. Almost 50 other farmers have joined them in bids for “landscape recovery” funding in the Arun and Adur valleys. If one or both of these bids is successful, it will turbo-charge the Weald to Waves project. Baird said more and more farmers were signing up, often for pragmatic reasons as they seek more sustainable ways of producing food and sources of funding amid spiralling fertiliser prices. Parish councils are also joining the project alongside charities including Sussex Wildlife Trust and the conservators of Ashdown Forest. Farming the river valleys in more nature-friendly ways will reduce sediment washing into the sea and boost the health of the Sussex kelp beds, which are being restored after a fisher-led trawling ban last year protected 117 square miles of coastal waters. The Weald to Waves project marks an extraordinary transformation in landowner and farmer attitudes towards the rewilding at Knepp in the 22 years since it began. In the early years, the 1,400-hectare former dairy farm was a pariah among its neighbours, blamed as a source of supposedly noxious “weeds” such as ragwort. For more than a decade, no other large farms in England followed Knepp’s pioneering wilding. Tree said: “Suddenly we are seeing people wanting to be part of it. I don’t think that could have happened even 10 years ago. We’ve got policymakers shaking up farm subsidies and farmers getting pressure from the younger generation. “Extraordinary things are happening at Knepp with the return of nightingales, turtle doves and purple emperor butterflies. But we’re very aware that on our own we are just a bubble. Lots of species can’t travel as easily across the land as birds and butterflies. “We’re not talking about rewilding everywhere but it’s very important that we have biodiversity hotspots overspilling into the landscape and that the rest of the landscape is permeable to allow these populations to meet each other again.” Tony Whitbread, the president of Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: “It’s not a bunch of weirdo conservationists like me trying to persuade people any more – the landowners and farmers are leading and we are following.” The project began when Baird secretly visited Knepp during the pandemic to inspect its rewilded pastures grazed by free-roaming livestock before offering to team up with the estate. “He wanted to make sure that our cattle were in as good a condition as I said they were in my book,” said Tree. “Thankfully our cattle passed muster.” Baird first decided to change his intensive farm – moving to a regenerative system – when he witnessed the destruction of forests for palm oil plantations in Borneo. Then he read Tree’s book Wilding. “For me it was an awakening that our own food production systems here have got a lot to answer for. Who are we to tell the Indonesians and Malaysians to manage their habitats when ours are in such a degraded state?” Baird said the ultimate sign that the balance between food production and nature was “completely broken” was how we used farmland to grow seed to feed wild birds because so many can no longer thrive in the farmed countryside. But he said the argument that nature-friendly farming or rewilding is an indulgence during a cost of living crisis was wrong, and cited the recent National Food Strategy, which showed that the world produces 1.7 times more food a person than it did in 1960. “We’ve got sufficient space within that buffer to revive nature on marginal land,” he said. “There’s plenty of food in the world, it just happens to be in the wrong place or it gets dropped in the bin or it gets wasted in the fields. It’s a misnomer that we can’t revert some land to nature because people will starve elsewhere in the world.” He added: “It’s an exciting time. The era when nature has been disregarded and degraded is coming to an end and we are about to see a sea change in the way that the countryside is financed. Farmers who are unwilling to change are going to find it very difficult to continue as they were.” | ['environment/rewilding', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-07-22T13:00:09Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2013/nov/08/tony-abbott-flicks-switch-vaudeville-to-mogadon | Tony Abbott flicks the switch from vaudeville to Mogadon | That messy business of governing has started to crowd out Tony Abbott's lines. Soundgrabs that worked so well from the observer status of opposition are challenged by the difficult business of implementation and drowned out by all the things that clog up the prime ministerial in-tray. With parliament resuming next week and the carbon tax repeal bills the first item of business, Abbott's "line" at a Friday afternoon press conference was an oldie but a goodie, "The best Christmas present that Bill Shorten could give the families of Australia is to stand aside and let the new government repeal the carbon tax." But it had already been somewhat diluted by warnings from electricity providers, manufacturers and the grocery sector that price reductions might not be immediate, nor as big as people had been led to believe. The secondary line was about the axing of 21 non-statutory bodies – most of them organisations voters would never have heard of – but, as a job lot, evidence that the new government was "cleaning up" the mess it had inherited. But the assembled journalists were much more interested in other things – like the press conference the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, had just given at which he refused to answer most questions about the high seas standoff between Australia and Indonesia over a stricken asylum boat. Not a sign of a bilateral relationship soured over asylum policy and spying revelations, Abbott insisted. In fact it was all "good and getting better". And Morrison's refusal to provide basic information about what was going on was a means justified by the end goal of "stopping the boats", he said, something that must have seemed so much easier when it was still just a slogan. In fact Abbott claimed giving journalists answers could actually help people smugglers and endanger the lives of their passengers. "I think the important thing is to stop the boats, none of you would want to jeopardise our operations, surely, since we have seen such an absolutely tragic loss of life at sea." And as for the spying – he was sure Indonesians were "realists" who understood that countries collect information from "a variety of sources". Abbott – who as opposition leader said manufacturing was the "heart of the country" and that "we must be a country that continues to make things" – now presides over a cabinet struggling to decide whether it is prepared to pay the necessary cost of continuing to subsidise the car industry. Even as he uttered his answer on that one; "in the end the best way the government can help the car industry is to ensure that it is operating in a low tax, less over-regulated environment", he must have known it didn't wash. Nor did his insistence that the clear divisions within his government over the proposed sale of GrainCorp to Archer Daniels Midland would be happily dealt with through the "proper process". Paul Keating used to talk about "flicking the switch to vaudeville". Tony Abbott started his term in office with the deliberate strategy of flicking the switch to Mogadon. Having done so much to create a sense of chaos and calamity during the Labor years (helped along by Labor's own mistakes and interminable leadership fighting) with daily warnings of toxic taxes and budget crises, he has – on almost all of his infrequent public outings since his 7 September election – talked about how calm and reassuringly methodical everything would now be. Turns out in government rhetoric can quickly be overtaken by reality. | ['australia-news/tony-abbott', 'tone/blog', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australian-immigration-and-asylum', 'environment/carbon-tax', 'world/indonesia', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/series/lenore-taylor-on-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-11-08T07:00:58Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2017/jun/20/nationals-push-for-coal-fired-power-leaves-voters-cold-in-guardian-essential-poll | Nationals' push for coal-fired power leaves voters cold in Guardian Essential poll | A concerted push by federal Nationals to build more coal-fired power plants as part of the Turnbull government’s energy policy overhaul has been given the thumbs down by voters, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. The survey of 1,790 voters found that 64% would prefer new investment in renewable energy sources to meet Australia’s future energy supply needs, while only 18% would prefer new coal-fired power plants. The survey, taken in the middle of the Coalition’s internal debate over the Finkel review of the national electricity market, also found that a clear majority of voters, 75%, would support a clean energy target if it didn’t increase power prices. Forty-one per cent would support the reform if the price rise was limited to 5%. But underscoring consumer sensitivity over expensive power bills, a majority of the survey would oppose a clean energy target which resulted in any greater increase in energy prices than 5%. Younger people were more likely than voters aged over 65 to accept higher power prices courtesy of a clean energy target. Thirty-eight per cent of 18-24 year olds supported a clean energy target that raised prices by 10%, and 28% opposed it. With the over 65s – 36% supported a clean energy target that raised energy prices by 5%, and 44% opposed it. With the government battling internal divisions over energy policy and schools funding, which are expected to feature in Tuesday’s regular Coalition partyroom meeting, the latest survey has Labor retaining an election-winning position over the Coalition. Labor is ahead 52% on the two-party preferred measure, with the Coalition on 48%. That result has been stable over the past three weeks. The latest Newspoll has the Coalition behind Labor on 53% to 47%. The government would have hoped for a budget boost to its political fortunes, but there is no sign of any solid bounce. In this week’s Guardian Essential survey, voters were asked whether the annual economic statement had improved or worsened their perceptions of the government. Seventeen per cent said the budget had improved their overall perception of the government, and 30% said it had worsened their perception. People most likely to say the budget had improved perceptions were Liberal/National voters (29%), 18-34 year olds (22%), and those earning over $104,000 per year (22%). Voters most likely to say the budget had worsened their perception of the government were other party/independent voters (51%), 45-54 year olds (41%), and Labor voters (39%). Voters were also asked whether they approved or disapproved of the performance of the major party leaders. Thirty-six per cent approved of the job Malcolm Turnbull is doing as prime minister (down 1% from last month), and 45% disapproved (down 3% from last month). Thirty-four per cent approved of the job Bill Shorten is doing as the federal opposition leader (no change from last month), and 43% disapproved (down 2%). Turnbull will doubtless take comfort from the fact Shorten has endured a five-point drop in the preferred prime minister rating in a month. Asked to nominate the person they felt would make a better prime minister, 39% said Turnbull – which is unchanged from last month) – and 26% thought Shorten would be better (down 5%). There was also a four-point increase in voters saying they didn’t know who would be the better prime minister. The results were split by party, with 73% of Liberal-National voters saying Turnbull would be a better prime minister, and 55% of ALP voters saying Shorten would. Greens voters narrowly preferred Shorten (35%) to Turnbull (31%). With the coal and renewable energy questions, groups most likely to prefer investment in renewable energy sources were Greens voters, voters between 18 and 24 and Labor voters. A majority of all demographic groups preferred more investment in renewable energy sources to coal. But voters most likely to favour the construction of new coal plants were voters over 65, other party/independent voters and Coalition voters. | ['australia-news/essential-poll', 'australia-news/series/the-guardian-essential-report', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'australia-news/bill-shorten', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-06-19T19:00:44Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2010/aug/30/cbi-climate-change-debate-king | CBI to host climate change 'clash of the titans' debate | The most prominent climate sceptic and the most vocal advocate of the cause in the UK are to take part in their first public debate on the subject. The "clash of the titans" will be between Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former Conservative chancellor and chairman of the sceptical Global Warming Policy Foundation, and Sir David King, a former government chief scientist who once warned that climate change was "more serious even than the threat of terrorism". The CBI will host the event at its annual climate change conference in November, and it is likely to inject renewed vigour into a deadlocked debate between two camps that seldom meet face to face and appear to be increasingly entrenched in their positions. King, head of the Smith school of enterprise and the environment at Oxford University, told the Guardian he had accepted the challenge because he was concerned about a rise in public scepticism about climate change since the affair of the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia last year. These appeared to show that scientists had manipulated data and abused the academic review process, though they were later cleared of these charges. "It is important to deal with the climate sceptics' arguments and deal with them fairly robustly," said King. "I usually avoid the climate sceptics because I seem to be giving them airtime. [But] Lawson is a well-known speaker, so it is not as though I'm taking somebody lightweight on." In a written statement, Lawson said: "I have agreed to do this because this is clearly an important issue which needs to be properly debated, and those who promote the conventional wisdom on the issue are usually reluctant to engage in rational debate. "The cause of reasoned debate on this issue in the UK is not helped, of course, by the fact that there is no difference between the policies of the three political parties so far as global warming is concerned." Lawson has previously written that he accepts that global warming is happening, although he has also described climate science as "particularly uncertain". In a recent article, he repeated the sceptics' argument: "So far this century there has been no recorded warming at all." Lawson also claims the impacts on humans have been exaggerated and is critical of current policies to tackle the problem by cutting carbon emissions, writing that the international political pledge to limit warming to 2C above the average before the industrial revolution is "devoid of either scientific basis or the slightest operational significance", and advocating mass spending on adapting to the changes instead. King said that with 2010 projected to be the hottest year on record, it was a good time publicly to counter the claim that temperatures are not rising: although most years since 1998 had been cooler than that record hot year, they were still among the hottest years on record and above the long-term average. Emma Wild, the CBI's principal policy adviser for climate change, said: "Both are high-profile figures and passionate advocates for their views. We expect a frank and engaging debate." Juliette Jowit | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'business/cbi', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'education/universityofeastanglia', 'education/higher-education', 'education/education', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'type/article', 'profile/juliettejowit', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2010-08-30T21:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
business/2009/nov/27/nuclear-reactors-contain-safety-flaws | Nuclear reactors contain safety flaws, watchdog reveals | In the race to provide energy for the nation's future, two multinational companies have led the way with designs for reactors that promised clean, green electricity with unprecedented safety. But detailed reviews by the Health and Safety Executive highlight a series of shortcomings in security and safety systems in both reactors that must be fixed or redesigned before the power plants can be approved for construction. Safety officials reviewed plans from the European companies, Areva and EDF, which make the EPR reactor, and similar documents for the AP1000 reactor built by the American multinational power company, Westinghouse, and ruled that both need to improve the safety of their power plants before they can be approved for construction. British Ministers are thought to favour the European reactor design, two of which are under construction in Finland and France. The review identified a flaw that involved a protection system being wired up the wrong way. The safety of the reactor relies on an electronic protection system that should be independent of the power station's computerised control circuit. In the case of an accident, the protection system takes over and brings the plant under control. The initial designs for the plant showed the two systems were interconnected, raising fears that a fault on one could disable the other. Kevin Allars, head of the assessment team at the HSE's nuclear directorate said: "You could have the same fault occurring on both, so your protection system won't do what it's supposed to do. The company has proposed a way to fix the problem, but has yet to provide details." The HSE's assessment of the reactor was delayed for months because staff with the correct security clearance were not on hand to exchange sensitive security documents on making the reactors strong enough to withstand a direct hit from an aeroplane. The reactors are required to be resilient to aircraft strikes, instrument failures and natural hazards, such as floods, fires, extreme winds and earthquakes. The review was further hampered because the reactor was designed to French or European safety codes, which differ from those used by the Health and Safety Executive. More problems were raised over the double steel-lined concrete shells that encase the nuclear reactor and prevent radioactive material escaping if the reactor core goes into meltdown. In all other British nuclear power stations, the concrete is strengthened by steel cables that can be inspected and removed as the reactor ages, but in the European design, the cables are grouted over, making maintenance checks impossible. Other criticisms included problems with the positioning and operation of fire doors and alarms, and unsubstantiated claims that components are unlikely to break while the reactor is running. The issues will have to be addressed before the executive will approve the reactor, Allars said. The report adds: "We have yet to see the design modifications details and so it is not yet possible for us to conclude on the acceptability of them. For the other issues we have raised, it is too early to say whether they can be resolved solely with additional safety case changes or whether they may result in design modifications being necessary." The review of the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor is more damning, concluding that Westinghouse needs to complete "significant additional work" to prove its reactor is safe across "the majority of the technical topic areas". The HSE said its officials have been unable to complete their review of the reactor because Westinghouse failed to provide details of the power plant's ability to withstand environmental hazards and potential terrorist attacks. The company's assertions that workers and others could not put the reactor at risk were also poorly documented, according to the executive, which has asked Westinghouse for more information. A major criticism of the US design concerns a new type of valve that has yet to be developed, but plays a critical role in cooling the core of the reactor if it runs out of control. The report said that despite it raising the issue with Westinghouse, the company has made "minimal progress in addressing our concerns". It adds: "There is a significant risk that the depth of the issue and the resources and effort that are needed to address it have been underestimated." The HSE review questions the design standards used to plan the reactor and the durability of individual components, which Westinghouse claims are so unlikely to fail the possibility can be discounted. It adds that Westinghouse may still be able to satisfy the HSE's concerns, but needs to make major progress if the reactor review is to be completed by 2011. | ['business/utilities', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/energy', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-11-27T00:05:05Z | true | ENERGY |
stage/2018/jul/09/timber-festival-review-fenedock-national-forest-all-the-woods-a-stage | Timber review – all the wood's a stage for spectacular forest festival | Stand on a hillock in Feanedock and you are met with a panoramic vista of trees for miles beyond. Squint and you spot an installation of a giant illuminated moon that hangs in the foliage, rumbling strange lunar sounds. Copses are theatrical stage sets. Storytellers sit in logged clearings around campfires. Authors discuss the fearsome mythology of the woodlands. Sound artists mimic the sound of birch and beech trees. This is Timber, an inaugural arts festival in the Midlands that puts the significance – and magnificence – of trees at its heart. The grounds on which it is staged are central to its focus: 25 years ago, the 70-acre site lay derelict and pockmarked with decommissioned coal and clay pits. Since then, the National Forest Company has planted 8.5m trees to regenerate its landscape. “Trees are a metaphor for transformation,” says John Everitt, chief executive of the charity. This concept runs through the programme, incorporating 200 acts from spoken word to theatre, music and wellbeing workshops, never losing sight of the ecological messageat its core. Jony Easterby’s Tree and Wood is a spectacle to behold. Easterby worked with lumberjacks to create a clearing and the space is transformed into a series of stage sets that take the audience from opulent visions of a pre-lapsarian Arcadia (fruit, plants, vegetation) to industry, conflict, the colonisation of Native American land and, finally, a message of peace: “Still the trees they grow,” sings Easterby. Multilayered sound mixes human yelps with electronic beats and the hammer and tongs of industry, while a two-man saw is played with a bow to eerie effect. The lights drop in the final scene like a curtain falling on the forest, before the back of the copse blazes up to signify nature’s resilience. It is a breathtaking sight and an extraordinary achievement of sound technology within the natural elements. Seek, Find, Speak; A Conjuring Told in Gold is an interactive adaptation of The Lost Words, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris’s illustrated book about words that have disappeared from the Children’s English Dictionary. It takes the audience into the thick of the woods with actors performing poems. Its high point is a dance sequence performed by eight-year-old Gabriel Payne and the Nigerian dancer Edenamiuki Aiguobasinmwin, who slip, slide and entwine limbs to conjure the silky effect of an otter moving in water. Other spoken-word sessions range from a talk by Macfarlane to a specially commissioned poem by Karen McCarthy Woolf. Author Jonathan Drori takes his audience on a tour of the world’s most majestic trees while the radical arts and environmental charity Common Ground discusses how the regrowth of woodlands can enhance local communities. “A culture is no better than its woods,” says Woolf, quoting WH Auden, in a panel discussion on literary forests. Woolf remembers being “comforted by the natural elements” while grieving a stillbirth, which became the subject of her poetry collection An Aviary of Small Birds, and the oral storyteller Ian Douglas reflects on the lessons learned from trees when he was made homeless. He found refuge in the woods, he says, but the experience of living there also sparked a fear first conjured in childhood stories: “The only way I coped was to go deeper into the trees until my fear disappeared.” For those seeking to go into the woodland themselves, there are workshops teaching everything from practical crafts (straw-bale building, using a chain saw, whittling) to the whimsical (laughing yoga, tree climbing and an exhilarating session with sound artist and beat boxer Jason Singh, in which 150 people walk through the woods to listen to – and then mimic – the sounds of nature). Equally quirky is a session on “thinking like a tree”, with Sarah Spencer, who applies the principles of permaculture to the human psyche. “The idea is that nature has been getting it right for billions of years and we can learn from trees – their resilience and connectivity, how they use their energy to best effect, the way they help other species survive – to use our own edge, get outside our comfort zones and to be happier and healthier.” More about Timber festival | ['stage/stage', 'stage/theatre', 'culture/culture', 'culture/festivals', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'books/robert-macfarlane', 'books/books', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/arifa-akbar', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-07-09T13:52:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/blog/2009/apr/06/post-rubber-band-litter | Rubber banned: Keep Britain Tidy wages war on Royal Mail elastic bands | A mini war was declared today against the scourge of the pavement. No, not cigarette butts, dog muck or non-degradable chewing gum stains – but the red plastic bands discarded by postal workers. Dickie Felton, of Keep Britain Tidy, told the Telegraph that surveys showed at least 6% of the nation's streets are littered by rubber bands. Why so many of the bands used to hold together bunches of envelopes are being thrown on the floor is not known, although postal workers recently complained they were being "bullied" into working too fast. Felton proposed "shaming Royal Mail" into action, and giving postal workers an on-the-spot fine of £80 for dropping litter, with the penalty rising to £2,500 if the case goes to court. "Royal Mail staff who drop elastic bands could potentially face prosecution for littering. Is it really too much to ask them to put the rubber bands in their pocket as they do their daily rounds?" He added: "Elastic bands may not be as visually offensive as dog dirt or half-eaten pizza, but they are most definitely litter." But are they? Surely pavements are a useful source of free elastic bands? Kids can play with them. Adults can make big rubber band balls for their office desks. There are all sorts of things you can use them for. And more. | ['news/blog', 'uk/post', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'tone/blog', 'environment/waste', 'business/royal-mail', 'type/article', 'profile/paullewis'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-04-06T12:59:30Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/oct/28/toughen-environmental-laws-to-stem-extinction-crisis-scientists-tell-morrison | Letter by 240 leading scientists calls on Scott Morrison to stem extinction crisis | More than 240 conservation scientists have called on Scott Morrison to drop his opposition to stronger environment laws and seize a “once-in-a-decade opportunity” to fix a system that is failing to stem a worsening extinction crisis. With the federal government due to this week announce a 10-yearly legislated review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, the scientists have signed an open letter to the prime minister urging him to increase spending and back laws to help protect the natural world from further destruction. The letter says three native species have become extinct in the past decade and another 17 could follow in the next 20 years. More than 1,800 Australian plants and animals are formally listed as threatened with extinction, but the scientists say this is an underestimate. “Our current laws are failing because they are too weak, have inadequate review and approval processes, and are not overseen by an effective compliance regime,” the scientists say. “Since they were established (in 1999), 7.7m hectares of threatened species habitat has been destroyed. That’s an area larger than Tasmania. Meanwhile, the number of extinctions continue to climb, while new threats emerge and spread unchecked.” Environmental law was a point of difference at this year’s election, with Morrison pledging to limit “green tape” that he said cost jobs while Labor promised a new environment act and a federal environment protection authority. Lesley Hughes, a distinguished professor of biology at Macquarie University, member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a signatory to the letter, said environmental protections had been consistently wound back over the past decade, most often by conservative governments. She said it was having a significant impact, pointing to the 2016 state-of-the-environment report that found Australia was facing multiple environment changes and lacked a national policy that established a clear vision for the protection and sustainable management of the country’s natural heritage. She also cited a WWF assessment that ranked eastern Australia as one of the world’s top 11 deforestation hotspots. Australia was the only developed country on the list. “It’s a very grim picture,” Hughes said. “This letter is a pre-emptive strike to say this is an opportunity to do it better, this is not an opportunity to weaken and dilute the existing weak laws.” Morrison’s pledge not to increase environmental laws came as a United Nations global assessment found biodiversity was declining at an unprecedented rate, with one million species across the globe at risk of extinction and human populations in jeopardy if the trajectory was not reversed. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the review of the EPBC Act was an independent process that would encourage submissions from a wide variety of perspectives. She said the government was investing significantly in environmental restoration and land care programs to promote biodiversity and safe havens for native species. She announced the Indigenous protected area network, areas of land and sea owned or managed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, would be expanded by 28% to more than 100m hectares, an area similar to the size of South Australia. A Guardian investigation last year found most campaigners and political veterans believed environmental protection was now harder to win in Australia than at any time since before the wave of landmark 1980s decisions to save Tasmania’s Franklin River, recognise the Daintree rainforest and Kakadu national park and to block mining in Antarctica. Less than 40% of nationally-listed threatened species had recovery plans in place to secure their long-term survival. The federal environment department admitted earlier this year it did not know whether the recovery plans that were in place were being implemented. Conservation groups found spending on the environment department has been cut by nearly 40% since the Coalition was elected in 2013. The review of the EPBC Act will be held against a backdrop of escalating land-clearing, particularly in Queensland and New South Wales. Business groups have regularly called for the environmental approval process to be simplified to stop delays to major projects. The scientists’ letter was organised by the Australian Conservation Foundation and is backed by the the Places You Love Alliance, a collection of 57 organisations including BirdLife Australia, Humane Society International and WWF Australia. The letter calls for laws that “safeguard our intact ecosystems and protect the critical areas people and wildlife need to survive”. Suzanne Milthorpe, nature campaign manager with the Wilderness Society, urged the government to use the review to upgrade the EPBC Act from a piece of legislation that catalogued the loss of nature into one that helps prevent it. “Extinction is a choice,” she said. | ['environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/conservation', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/wildlife', 'law/law-australia', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-10-27T17:00:24Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/dec/19/michael-gove-haunted-by-plastic-pollution-seen-in-blue-planet-ii | Michael Gove ‘haunted’ by plastic pollution seen in Blue Planet II | Cutting plastic pollution is the focus of a series of proposals being considered by the UK environment secretary, Michael Gove, who has said he was “haunted” by images of the damage done to the world’s oceans shown in David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II TV series. The government is due to announce a 25-year plan to improve the UK’s environmental record in the new year. Gove is understood to be planning to introduce refundable deposits on plastic drinks bottles, alongside other measures. The environment secretary is also understood to be considering a proposal to encourage retailers to use fewer types of plastic, as well as another to move councils towards a standardised recycling policy. The current patchwork of regimes means many types of plastic are not collected from households, depending on where in the country those households are. Together, the two measures will seek to ensure that a greater proportion of the packaging used in the UK can be recycled. Gove wants an improvement in the rate of recycling, which has reportedly been slipping recently. “The secretary of state wants to make recycling as easy as possible for households. That is why we will look to accelerate making local authority recycling schemes as consistent as possible through the resources and waste strategy,” a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. The department indicated Gove was planning to overhaul the system of recycling targets to focus more on environmental impact than on the weight of material collected. And the drinks bottle deposit scheme would form part of an expected attack on single-use plastics, such as straws and coffee cups, which will seek to reduce the overall amount of plastic being used. The news came as a coalition of animal welfare and environmental charities warned that more than 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging would be thrown away and not recycled this Christmas. The charities, which include Friends of the Earth, the RSPCA, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts, estimated that the UK would use 300,000 tonnes of card packaging. Gove has told journalists he was moved by the scenes in Blue Planet II, which featured marine life struggling to cope with the amount of plastic litter pumped into the seas and oceans by humans. According to the Times, he is planning to shift the focus of recycling targets towards materials such as plastic and aluminium by moving away from the weight-based measurements favoured by the EU. Those have led to some councils showing more willingness to collect heavier – though not necessarily as environmentally damaging – materials, such as grass clippings. Gove reportedly hopes that, by shifting the focus on to environmental impact, he can convince councils to concentrate on collecting the other materials. Moreover, he plans to encourage councils to standardise what they do and do not collect from households, to end the regional disparities across the UK that are believed to be caused by differing contracts between local authorities and waste firms. The environmental campaign group Greenpeace welcomed the proposals, which are due to be formally set out next year. Its spokeswoman, Louise Edge, said: “It’s a good sign that Michael Gove is thinking about a multi-pronged approach which includes cutting disposable plastic at the source while also making it easier for people to collect and reuse it.” Martin Tett, from the Local Government Association, told BBC News the standardised recycling regulations would not work on their own. “What we need is packaging that is easily recyclable – this would not only make waste disposal easier for our residents, but save considerable amounts of money and energy, while protecting our environment,” he said. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/michaelgove', 'politics/politics', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/oceans', 'media/bbc', 'media/media', 'tv-and-radio/documentary', 'tv-and-radio/factual-tv', 'culture/television', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'tv-and-radio/educational-tv', 'culture/culture', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kevin-rawlinson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-12-19T09:57:50Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2023/mar/29/un-nuclear-watchdog-says-fighting-near-ukraine-power-plant-is-intensifying | UN nuclear watchdog says fighting near Ukraine power plant is ‘intensifying’ | The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has made a second visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine amid an escalation in the fighting around it. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA director general, was shown around the plant by Russian occupying forces and officials, telling reporters: “It is obvious that military activity is increasing in this whole region, so every possible measure and precautions should be taken so that the plant is not attacked. “I think it’s no secret that there is a significant increase in the number of troops in the region, and there is open talk about offensive and counter offensives,” he added. The plant is on the south bank of the Dnieper river, which forms the frontline at a time when Russian forces have attempted to conduct a series of offensives and Ukraine is widely expected to launch a counter-offensive in the coming months. Grossi was accompanying three IAEA inspectors who will replace an outgoing monitoring team and are due to stay at the site for the next two months, the seventh team to take up the rotating role since the agency’s presence was accepted by Kyiv and Moscow. The director general is also in Zaporizhzhia to continue efforts to negotiate protections for the plant, which would require the agreement of Ukrainian and Russian forces not to fire in or out of the area. “There have been different concepts that we have been working on. Initially we were focusing on the possibility of the establishment of a well-determined zone around the plant. Now the concept is evolving and refocusing more on the protection itself and the things that should be avoided,” he said on Wednesday. “It is a work in progress.” The negotiations have so far stalled on Russian refusal to withdraw its armed forces from the plant, a Ukrainian precondition for agreement. Grossi has repeatedly warned that a direct hit or a breakdown in safety systems could cause a catastrophe. “What we need is to protect the nuclear power plant, because if we don’t do that, there is a high risk of a major nuclear accident which is going to spare no one, Ukrainians or Russians,” Grossi told reporters on a visit to Washington earlier this month. He said that while he was trying to negotiate a protection zone, it would not try to attribute daily responsibility for the shelling. “I’m still engaged in the effort, so you may understand that it wouldn’t be very wise for me to start saying who is to blame. It’s a process. It is a complex negotiation,” he said. “So this is why we avoid getting into apportioning blame because it will be a never ending story. What we need is an agreement, a solid political commitment, not to do this.” “There is a quite obvious increase in the number of troops on both sides and military equipment,” he told the New York Times this week. “Our teams are also observing and hearing and seeing more military activity, including detonations, regular, almost permanent.” Zaporizhzhia is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe, but all six of its reactors have been shut down. Two of them are in “hot shutdown”, meaning they continue to give up a limited amount of energy to power safety and heating systems. It is however a difficult state to maintain, and the 3,000 remaining Ukrainian workers there, a quarter of the normal staff, are facing constant stress and exhaustion. “Things continue but the situation is not sustainable,” Grossi said. | ['world/ukraine', 'world/russia', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/julianborger', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2023-03-29T17:18:08Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/feb/15/pollutionwatch-ice-resurfacing-machines-can-cause-poisoning | Pollutionwatch: ice resurfacing machines can cause poisoning | Watch the live streams from the Winter Olympics and you will see the ice rink resurfacing machines that ensure smooth ice for the athletes. Running any engine indoors is a bad idea, especially in a room full of thousands of spectators and heavily breathing ice-hockey players or skaters. The first case of air pollution problems from ice resurfacers was reported in 1975 when 15 children became ill from carbon monoxide poisoning at a Seattle rink. Nitrogen dioxide was added to the list of concerns when concentrations in the average Finnish rink were found to be more than three times World Health Organisation guidelines. Practical solutions include exhaust clean-up equipment, better ventilation, warming up the resurfacing machine outside and opening the ice rink doors to get faster air changes. Even so, accidents can and do happen. In 2011 two ice hockey players were hospitalised after training in a rink where the ventilation system had failed. A yellow haze had been seen in the cold air that settled over the ice. Thirty one people became ill, some of whom began to cough up blood several days later. The advent of new electric-powered machines offers the best long-term solution to this problem. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/environment', 'sport/ice-hockey', 'sport/figure-skating', 'sport/sport', 'sport/winter-olympics', 'sport/winter-olympics-2018', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-02-15T21:30:26Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/us-embassy-cables-documents/234731 | US embassy cables: US presses Japan to transform International Whaling Commission | C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 117709 NOFORN SIPDIS C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/12/2019 TAGS: EFIS, PREL, SENV, KSCA, IWC-1, JA SUBJECT: WHALING: REQUEST FOR POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT STATE 00117709 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: DAS David A. Balton, reasons 1.4(b) and (d) Summary: 1. (C/NF) This is an action request. See paragraph 3. Post is requested to discuss with State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Tetsuro Fukuyama the potential for reaching a political agreement regarding Japan's whaling practices. Background: 2. (C) Department of Commerce Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere Monica Medina traveled to Tokyo to meet with GOJ officials November 3-5. At a private meeting with State Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama, Ms. Medina requested political commitment from the new leadership in Japan to work with the United States to transform the International Whaling Commission so that it can better accomplish its objectives to conserve whales and manage whale stocks. In particular, the Governments of Japan and the United States would work towards reaching an understanding regarding a way forward for the International Whaling Commission that would include a meaningful reduction in Japan's current whaling levels and U.S. support for international approval of sustainable small-type coastal whaling activities off the coast of Japan. In addition, the GOJ would no longer hunt fin or humpback whales in the Southern Ocean, and the United States would uphold domestic and international laws to ensure safety at sea and encourage other governments to do the same. Ms. Medina provided a draft statement outlining these objectives to Post. Action Request: 3. (U) Post, at the highest possible level, is requested to discuss reform of the IWC with State Secretary Fukuyama and other political appointees within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in a position to influence the GOJ's actions on this topic. Post may draw upon the following talking points during these discussions: - The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has not functioned effectively for many years due to the polarized views of its members. Previous efforts to resolve conflicts within the organization have not succeeded. - The conflicts have at times become an irritant in the relations among the nations concerned, including the United States and Japan. They have also undermined whale conservation and management by the IWC. - The new administrations in Japan and the United States have a unique opportunity to chart a different course for the IWC, and resolve our long-standing disagreements through fundamental reform of the IWC. This is a small issue but it is important to the Obama Administration that it be resolved quickly. - Most recently, a small Support Group of IWC member nations, including Japan and the United States, met in October 2009 in Santiago, Chile. The United States is pleased by the significant progress made toward a possible interim agreement that would set overall whale catches at a reduced level while longer term negotiations continue. We nevertheless recognize that work needs to be done to bridge remaining differences on a key issue. - Although all IWC members will ultimately share responsibility for the success or failure of this process, the approach taken by Japan in the immediate future will have a major impact on the likelihood of success. - The United States strongly urges Japan to join with other IWC members who have shown willingness to compromise in the short term in order to reach the long-term goal of a normalized IWC. STATE 00117709 002.2 OF 002 - We fully appreciate that, for these negotiations to be concluded successfully, all participants will need to show maximum flexibility. If agreement on some reduction in Japan's catch levels can be reached, the United States believes that an overall interim agreement would be within reach. - The United States stands ready to work with Japan and all other IWC members toward such an interim agreement. We understand that there is an important related issue regarding safety at sea of the Japanese research vessels that must also be addressed. 4. (U) The Department thanks Embassy Tokyo in advance for its cooperation on this matter. Additionally, the Department wishes to thank Embassy Tokyo for the assistance and time provided to Ms. Medina during her recent visit to Tokyo, particularly in light of the upcoming Presidential visit. The Department's point of contact on this matter is Ms. Elizabeth Phelps, reachable at 202-647-0241 or via email at phelpse@state.gov. CLINTON | ['environment/whaling', 'world/japan', 'us-news/series/us-embassy-cables-the-documents', 'us-news/the-us-embassy-cables', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/whales', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-01-06T15:54:23Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2014/mar/01/smart-watch-toothbrush-werables-mwc | 2014 is the year of the smart watch - and the toothbrush | A new smart toothbrush unveiled this week could monitor how well you brush your teeth, and could one day be used to send data back to your dentist. Oral B’s Smartseries toothbrush, which launched in the UK in June priced at £199, sends data back to a smartphone app recording how many brushstrokes are used, targeting problem areas and following personalised brushing routines. This vision of the internet-connected future was just one of the gadgets unveiled this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which kicked off with a keynote from an exuberant Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Explaining the company’s $19bn acquisition of the messaging app WhatsApp, MWC’s 75,000-strong audience was abuzz with what the deal would mean for mobile networks, and whether WhatsApp’s latest move into voice technology would threaten traditional mobile businesses. For Facebook, expansion depends on gaining users in developing markets, where the mobile phone is king and mobile broadband outstrips traditional internet three to one, according to data from the International Telecommunication Union. But it was the internet of things - connecting physical devices to the internet - preoccupying the discussions of mobile phone networks. The potential is vast, and operators are excited by potential expansion of providing data services to everything from toothbrushes and fridges to cars and washing machines. “We currently have 13m devices connected to our network, of which 1.6m of those connections are machine-to-machine,” said Olaf Swantee, chief executive of EE talking to the Guardian. “We are working to grow those connections up to 32m and M2M connections are going to play a very big part in that.” The goal is to turn everything into a smart, data-driven device. Cars could talk to the road about black ice, fridges could order food automatically when it runs out, or you could ask your washing machine “how are you getting on?” and the washing machine could reply “almost there sir, just on the spin cycle, I’ll be done in 15 minutes”. These machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are expected to number 250m globally by the end of 2014, according to data from the GSMA. To support the vast number of devices networks are working on capacity and speed, so there were plenty of companies keen to show off hardware that enables super fast connectivity. In another corner of the trade show South Korean Telecom demonstrated its next generation 4G mobile data network, which is capable of delivering speeds of up to 450 megabits per second – over three times as fast as the fastest standard UK home broadband. Nokia Solutions & Networks claimed to be the ultimate king of speed, supplying data at 2.6Gbps or 2,600Mbps. At that speed, a very large 4K ultra high definition film could be downloaded in seconds. For the high street, however, the first wave of a more connected world will be yet more devices to track health and fitness. South Korean giant Samsung launched three new smartwatches, the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit, each with a built in heart-rate monitor. Signalling an increasingly intense battle between the mobile phone makers, Huawei also launched a fitness tracker for the wrist but that can convert to a headset to take phone calls. Sony already has a smartwatch and a fitness band, while both Motorola and HTC are working on a smart wearable. Mobile World Congress 2014 may not have been the year that internet connected devices became mainstream, but it will certainly be remembered as the year of the smartwatch. • Five quirky connected gadgets, from basketballs to water bottles • Oral B’s smart toothbrush lets dentists spy on your brushing | ['technology/mobile-world-congress', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/technology', 'technology/internet', 'technology/facebook', 'technology/mark-zuckerberg', 'technology/samsung', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/smartwatches', 'technology/4g', 'technology/broadband', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-03-01T08:00:05Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/shortcuts/2016/mar/21/from-bell-end-boaty-mcboatface-trouble-letting-public-name-things | From the Bell End to Boaty McBoatface: the trouble with letting the public name things | Never trust the public. Just look at the governments they elect. The clamour to name the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)’s new polar research vessel Boaty McBoatface in an online poll has been so great the website has sunk with all hands. When last seen, it was ahead of the second-most-popular name, Henry Worsley, by several leagues – and increasing its lead at a rate of knots. There are two standard responses to this collective silliness: delight at the British people’s Pythonesque mocking of authority; and despair at our refusal to take anything seriously. In truth, social media’s in-built anarchism means it is now almost impossible to hold any sort of online vote without it hitting an internet iceberg. In 2012, soft drinks brand Mountain Dew organised an online poll to name a new apple-flavoured drink. The message board 4chan hijacked the poll, and, at the time the “Dub the Dew” campaign was abandoned, “Hitler did nothing wrong” was leading. Similar online votes elected to send Taylor Swift to play a charity concert at a school for the deaf and Justin Bieber to tour North Korea – both declined. There is also the salutary warning of Manchester City’s online poll in 2003 to name a stand at its new ground after one of the club’s legends. Colin Bell, seen by many as the greatest player in City’s history, won the vote, but the club plumped for former manager Joe Mercer instead to avoid the stand being dubbed the Bell End. The club blamed Manchester United fans for disrupting the poll, but Bell and his supporters were furious. City were forced into another U-turn and the Colin Bell stand was born – at the side of the ground, rather than the end. Involving the public in naming decisions is a recipe for disaster – unless, of course, it is a PR double-bluff and the intention is to maximise publicity. The NERC says the names it receives are suggestions, and that it reserves the right to have the final say. Boaty McBoatface may yet end up as Scott of the Antarctic. This is essentially what happened when an online poll to determine the name of a new wing on the international space station was won by US comedian Stephen Colbert, admittedly after a campaign conducted on his TV show. (Colbert had form for this kind of thing.) Nasa rejected the poll – an affront to democracy, according to one congressman, who said the people’s will should be respected just as much in space as on earth – and called it Tranquility instead. They did, though, name a treadmill in the new wing after the comedian, saying Colbert stood for combined operational load-bearing external resistance treadmill. Maybe the bridge on the new polar research ship could be called Boaty McBoatface. Just an idea. | ['environment/poles', 'football/manchestercity', 'tv-and-radio/stephen-colbert', 'tone/features', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/stephenmoss', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-03-21T17:07:16Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2019/jul/14/at-least-people-killed-in-nepal-floods-monsoon | At least 50 people dead and 1 million affected by floods in south Asia | Dozens of people have died in Nepal and a million have been affected in north-east India following heavy rains that triggered landslides and flooding across parts of south Asia. More than 50 people have been confirmed dead and 30 more remain missing in Nepal, where rescue efforts have been hampered by continued bad weather, which has blocked key highways and destroyed phone lines. Heavy monsoon rains also caused devastation in north-east India. In Assam state, officials said at least 14 people were killed and more than a million people had been affected by rising flood waters. Hundreds of villages in Assam have been affected, with some low-lying areas submerged in up to 2.2 metres of water, said Ravindranath, founder of the Rural Volunteers Centre and NGO. “It might get worse, it all depends on the precipitation model. The rain model is changing because of climate issues,” he said. “We can’t assume anything now.” Floods and mudslides have also hit other northern and eastern Indian states, including Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram and Bihar. In Mizoram, floods have submerged about 400 homes in the small town of Tlabung, police said. In Nepal, where more than 10,000 people are thought to have been displaced from their homes, further flooding is expected across southern regions near main rivers. The country’s department of hydrology and meteorology urged people to monitor rising water levels and move to higher ground when needed. Gopal Adhikari, chief district officer of Siraha, one of the most affected southern areas, said most areas were still submerged. “Affected people have been moved to nearby schools and houses,” said Adhikari. The exact numbers who had been forced to leave their homes was not known, he added. Ajay Shah Shiwali, a resident of Janakpur, in southern Nepal, said rain had stopped for the moment and rescue efforts were under way. “The water level has subsided in Janakpur city but the level is pretty high in rural areas. We have been seeing helicopters rescuing people and they have been rehabilitated to two centres in Janakpur city.” More than 1,100 people have been rescued from flooded areas in Nepal. In Bangladesh, at least a dozen people, mostly farmers in rural areas, have reportedly been killed by lightning since Saturday, according to Associated Press. A Water Development Board official, Rabiul Islam, said about 40,000 people had been affected, with many of their homes submerged. Aid agencies have warned of severe conditions facing the 900,000 Rohingya refugees who are living in camps in Cox’s Bazar, in southern Bangladesh. At least 10 people have died and thousands of shanty homes have been destroyed since April by monsoon rains, officials said. Thousands were displaced from the camps as a result of unrelenting monsoon rains and wind last week. | ['world/natural-disasters', 'world/nepal', 'world/india', 'environment/flooding', 'world/bangladesh', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebecca-ratcliffe', 'profile/arun-budhathoki', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-07-14T15:26:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2024/oct/24/country-diary-three-crab-apple-trees-steeped-in-their-own-mythology | Country diary: Three crab apple trees, steeped in their own mythology | Paul Evans | To walk into the green folds of hill country north of Llanfyllin is a kind of time travel. It’s not to return to the past, it’s to wander into a time that belongs so intimately to others, to trespass into a country of countless generations of people and trees within this tangle of road bends and stream banks, through secretive valleys in the reach of hills. The outsider’s gaze flickers across the scene in rapid eye movements, so the mind can translate dreamlike strangeness into familiar forms. Often this process of assimilation fails, and what may appear familiar only heightens the enchanting weird. Across a cattle grid, along a track through an open pasture of watchful sheep, with old oaks and woods below Grave Hill, something appears that holds that intimate time of place in itself. It arrests and draws the senses to reveal itself slowly, becoming a recognisable thing, yet concealing mysteries of what it might also be. On a rise above the track is a group of trees together on an outcrop of rock. Its boughs from craggy trunks dome above roots that have prised a slab of stone from the earth. This is a tableau of three crab apple trees. It looks as though there may have been one central tree that decayed, leaving outer trees to grow into the space, with a couple of outliers that will do the same in the future. Crab apples are often claimed to live for 100 years, but this one must be many times older. In Celtic culture, crab apples are second only to oaks in mythological significance. But that cannot be captured in a few often repeated lines about fertility rites from fragments of translated narrative, and it does not acknowledge the culture of living timbers with rot holes full of the stories of beetles and fungi. Serpentine roots fit the legend that the crab apple is protected by a guardian worm. Leaves falling gold on the ground hide the last of the treasure, a small, cidery-coloured moon of an apple. In the peel and pulp of this sour, wild fruit lie the healing, bioactive compounds of apple vinegar; the rolling scrumpy intoxicating ancient people, badgers and butterflies; and the exploding pips that reveal the lover’s name when thrown into ritual fires of crab apple wood. • Country diary is on Twitter/X at @gdncountrydiary • Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'culture/folklore-and-mythology', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulevans', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-10-24T04:30:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/apr/20/chernobyl-disaster-30-years-on-what-do-you-remember | Chernobyl disaster 30 years on: what do you remember? | On 26 April 1986 one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. It was the biggest accident of its kind in history – a human and environmental disaster that triggered a political storm that has lasted for decades. Acute radiation sickness killed 31 people in the first three months, but the leak was blamed for thousands of cancer cases that developed across swathes of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, with figures on predicted deaths ranging from 4,000 to half a million. Tens of thousands of residents were forced to flee towns such as Pripyat, two miles from the plant, never to return, as the impact of the disaster ricocheted across the continent. Farms across Europe, as far west as Wales, faced restrictions for decades due to worries that their livestock might be contaminated. And charities still invite children who live in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone to parts of Europe for rest, recuperation and clean air. What do you remember? As the anniversary approaches we’d like to hear your memories of what happened when the disaster hit – and the fallout that ensued. If you live in the region, or other affected parts of Europe, we want hear from you. What do you remember about the disaster? If you were in the region at the time were you forced to flee? Or stay indoors for weeks on end? How did the disaster change your country in the 30 years that followed? Perhaps you were one of the many thousands of people who left to relocate to other parts of Europe? If you lived in western Europe can you remember the mood on the streets and how it was reported in the media? Share your story Share your story and help contribute to our coverage marking 30 years since the biggest nuclear catastrophe in history. | ['environment/chernobyl-nuclear-disaster', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/ukraine', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'world/russia', 'world/belarus', 'world/series/new-east-network', 'world/series/guardian-world-networks', 'type/article', 'profile/matthew-holmes', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-04-20T11:00:28Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2020/dec/03/gamil-means-no-dont-be-quiet-while-mining-threatens-our-collective-future | Gamil means no: don't be quiet while mining threatens our collective future | Jared Field | There is a tree on my country that is sacred. Of course, there are many sacred trees there – it is sacred ground, after all – but the tree I am thinking of is sacred to me. It is large. Very, very large, with a section cut out where an ancestor of mine had made a shield or a small canoe. But the wound – for it was cut with care – has long since healed over. Now, owing to the sheer size of the tree, the wound more resembles a door; sometimes I wonder if the canoe is on the other side, river and all. The tree is large in other ways too; it has big spirit, or energy. Big dhui. This is something that cannot be explained, not really. It can only be felt. My ancestors felt this. This tree was my pop’s tree, and his pop before him. They cared for it, protected it and were protected by it. In this way, this tree and my connection to it are pre-colonial. I often wonder what other things this tree has witnessed and people it has met. What about my poppy’s poppy’s poppy’s pop? Or how about when the banks of our rivers flowed with life? I wonder when it first heard English? If trees could speak, I wonder if it is like my grandparents in their love of Gamilaraay; English, for them, was a language spoken only begrudgingly. Which is to say, they spoke it only because they had to. But this is all just fantasy, of course. I lied: there is no tree like this on my country. There is no tree because in 2015, for the expansion of the Whitehaven coal mine, it was cut down. I have cried many times for this loss but I have also laughed. The irony is just too rich: a living tree was felled so that long-dead and compressed trees, which is to say coal, could be dug up and burnt. And why? So you have power to run air-con in the sweltering summer that is getting hotter because you need coal dug up for your air-con for the sweltering summer. Clearly, I am bitter. But you must understand why: unlike the wound on my tree, the one you have inflicted will not heal. But do not be mistaken: I have not given this story in order to organise my very own pity party. If that is why you’re reading, then it’s time to take your drinks and get gone. The story of the felling of my tree was shared instead with purpose – now, with Santos and its gas project on our doorstep, we have more pressing issues. Now, we need to protect an entire forest. But here lies the puzzle: in a 2018 study led by Dr Sven Teske, it was found that on 4% of the land, more electricity may be produced, creating three times as many long-term jobs with zero water usage, if instead wind and solar are pursued. Which is to say, we shouldn’t have to protect the Pilliga, a vital habitat for threatened species, even on long-term economic grounds. Teske, a renewables expert, went so far as to say: “I have modelled renewable energy scenarios all around the world and the potential in Narrabri is exciting. Renewable energy markets are leaping ahead. If this district chooses to use its natural advantages, it could generate 500 permanent skilled local jobs by 2030, on a fraction of the land area that the proposed coal seam gas field would occupy.” So why did the Santos Coal Seam Gas project get the go-ahead? The answer is simple: wind and solar will require larger short-term investments. But the advantages of these investments, according to the same 2018 study, will outweigh the costs. Which is to say, we find ourselves needing to protect this forest and the vast amounts of water beneath, simply because of sheer short-sightedness; the same short-sightedness that threatens every generation to come. The bushfires of last summer are, to my mind, all the warning we need. I do not, I’m afraid, have a solution to all this. Indeed, because of it, many nights I have lost sleep. I do, however, have one small gift: gamil. It is the word, as in many east coast First Nations, that my mob take our namesake from: gamil means no. Otherwise put, the word we use to describe ourselves – Gamilaraay – teaches others how we decline to give consent. It also, to my mind, teaches others how to do the same: you too can say gamil. So the next time our land, our waters and therefore our collective future is threatened, please do not be quiet. Instead, with your words and your actions, accept this gift. Instead, firmly and with certainty say gamil. Gamil means no. Show your strength; Time to take a stand. Make the violent miner feel Your violent Love of land. Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Time is Running Out, 1966 • Jared Field is a Gomeroi man from Moree way but grew up on Darug land, and is a McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. @JM_Field5 @GamilaraayNG | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'environment/gas', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/jared-field', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2020-12-03T05:46:11Z | true | EMISSIONS |
sport/blog/2020/oct/22/cricket-england-central-contracts-covid | It is still a golden age to play cricket despite England stars' financial hit | Vic Marks | The gravy train has slipped into reverse for the first time in 20 years. Old cricketers are often asked when has been the best time to play the game. The stock answer is: “I’m glad I played in my era,” and the explanation generally includes: “More characters, more camaraderie, more beer, more fun … no bleep tests, no all-seeing mobile phones, no social media … and admittedly not much money.” My response, however, has generally been that this is the best time to be a professional cricketer – at least until 2019. This cannot entirely be put down to my being a money-grabbing old curmudgeon, though there is no doubt that the modern professional cricketer at county as well as international level has been much better rewarded than those of three or four decades ago. Moreover the advent of central contracts in 2000 enabled our best cricketers to have a bit of security and, more significantly, a bit of respite in between their international commitments. It now seems positively neanderthal that Ian Botham in 1981 – when he was quite busy with England – played nine County Championship matches for Somerset and 18 one-day games. The central contract system enabled the best players to be better prepared to play for England and as my colleague, Ali Martin, has outlined, better paid. Now the bubble, if not burst, has been punctured by the pandemic. The players, it seems, have responded in an appropriate manner to the cuts. They are a tight-knit group and they recognise they are living in extraordinary times. Sacrifices are required yet those sacrifices are pinpricks compared to those experienced not only by lesser professionals, who may be losing their county contracts, but also to the many millions in the “real” world beyond. No one likes a pay cut but our top cricketers appear to be mature enough to accept this is the best and inevitable way forward. There is another significant difference for modern cricketers of quality compared to their predecessors, which brings opportunity alongside the need for some tricky decision-making. In the late 20th century the pathway for a top cricketer was straightforward. With the Kerry Packer circus and the lure of rebel tours to South Africa no longer options, the goal was international cricket, which would enhance earnings from fees and sponsorship – as well as fulfilling a life’s ambition. There was no other road to take. Overseas cricketers might eye county cricket as another source of income though it was not for the work-shy. Beyond the boundary there might be a career behind a microphone, and the odd Christmas pantomime for players such as Botham, even though his contribution to the arts was peculiarly overlooked when he was elevated to the Lords. Now options abound and the agents are busy. A cricketer is no longer a chattel of his employer. There are a lot of potential employers out there from Chittagong to Chennai, Bridgetown to Brisbane – not to mention the possibility of a deal with the Trent Rockets in the Hundred. Players now have the freedom to chart their own careers; they can forsake the red-ball game as Alex Hales and, sporadically, Adil Rashid have chosen to; they may withdraw from the grind of Test cricket to play in the T20 leagues around the world. Increasingly the boards of all the cricketing nations accept this is the way it has to be. Even in England players are now permitted – and even encouraged – to take up contracts in the Indian Premier League, potentially the most lucrative cricket gig in the world. So the top players do not warrant too much sympathy even if they are enduring pay cuts. It is tougher for those on the edge of the central contract system. However the best do have to learn to balance their workloads carefully, especially during a global pandemic. The uncertainty drives their eagerness to play. How can they be sure how much cricket will be possible in the months or years ahead? They soon recognise that a sportsman’s career is brief. So the temptation is to say yes to every offer. By the same token they have to try to stay sane and fresh. Recently Eoin Morgan has spoken eloquently about potential health issues for cricketers who lurch from bubble to bubble. We should expect – even encourage – some players to miss tours. There are some tough balancing acts ahead. We may also expect some to take career decisions unthinkable three decades ago. For example there may come a time when Mark Wood, an ardent lover of Test cricket with a strong mind but a fragile body, decides to focus on white-ball cricket if only to prolong his career; Jonny Bairstow, now an IPL star, could head in the same direction. Of course they may prefer to hang on for one more tilt at the Ashes. We discover this is “tier one” territory; Australia are the only one of England’s opponents in that category. The rewards for winning against them are greater. India’s Virat Kohli may be puzzled and a bit miffed by that. However, most of us brought up here understand. | ['sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'sport/blog', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/vicmarks', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-10-22T20:30:35Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/jul/18/pollutionwatch-soot-study-shows-harm-from-open-waste-burning | Pollutionwatch: soot study shows harm from open waste burning | The focus on plastics in our oceans has highlighted the global problem of waste disposal. Household bin collection and the recycling, composting, burying or incinerating of our rubbish are key functions of a modern city. But in low-income countries about 90% of waste ends up in open dumps or is burned in the open air. Obviously, burning waste creates carbon dioxide and the smoke contains health-harmful particles, but it also contains tiny black particles of soot which have a huge short-term climate impact. Researchers from London’s King’s and Imperial colleges burned small samples of rubbish and measured the smoke. Soot amounts were greatest when the rubbish contained two plastics: polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate (more commonly abbreviated to PET and often used to make drinks bottles). Burning waste containing textiles, many of these being plastic, also contributed to high soot releases. Using data on the contents of rubbish from around the world, the researchers estimated that the soot from open waste burning had a global warming impact equivalent to between 2% and 10% of the global emissions of carbon dioxide. Unless addressed, this problem is set to worsen as the amount that we throw away is expected to increase by 70% by 2050. | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-07-18T20:30:36Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2005/oct/04/business.oilandpetrol | BP puts hurricane bill at $700m | The British oil giant BP today put the bill for Hurricanes Rita and Katrina at over $700m (£398m) and said it would miss its production target for 2005. BP, which announced first-half profits of £6bn in July, said trading conditions for the three months to the end of September were significantly affected by the hurricanes and their aftermath. In a trading update, the world's second largest oil firm warned it was now unlikely to meet its 2005 production goal of between the equivalent of 4.1 million and 4.2 million barrels of oil per day. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina cost BP the equivalent of 145,000 barrels of oil per day in the quarter, it said. "Additional costs were incurred due to facilities damage, clean up and repairs. Although it is not yet possible to exactly quantify these impacts, BP currently estimates that the impact of these factors on third quarter replacement cost profit before interest and tax will be in excess of $700m," BP said. BP put the cost of securing and repairing its massive Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which was badly damaged by another storm, Hurricane Dennis, at $100m alone. BP's loss eclipses the 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day third-quarter production loss disclosed yesterday by the US oil firm ConocoPhillips, the only other major US producer to report on the impact of the hurricanes so far. The company said that third-quarter oil and gas output averaged the equivalent of 3.8 million barrels of oil per day, compared with 4.1 million in the second quarter and 3.9 million in the third quarter of 2004. In other disruptions to BP's US operations, activity was down at its Texas City refinery, where an explosion in March killed 15 workers. BP has set aside $700m to compensate the families of those who died, as well as some 170 people who were injured. Earlier this month, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) called for an independent review of BP's safety management following the incident, as well as two other subsequent accidents at the site. | ['environment/environment', 'business/business', 'business/oil', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'money/money', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/bp', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'profile/marktran'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-10-04T09:33:16Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2005/sep/29/hurricanes2005.climatechange | Are the hurricanes down to global warming? | The terrible twins, Katrina and Rita, have caused more damage than any previous hurricanes in American history. Together, they may well have cost over $150bn in property losses, equivalent to 1.25% of what everyone in the US will earn this year. Adjusted for inflation, this is more than three times the damage done by hurricane Andrew in 1992, the previous champion in this macabre league table. President Bush is compensating for his initial lackadaisical reaction to Katrina by throwing over $100bn of federal money at the reconstruction effort - equivalent to half the amount he has so far spent on Iraq, and double the amount the rich world has pledged to forgive half a century's worth of African debt. Political face is obviously an expensive commodity. But what could be expensive for Bush's long-term reputation would be an established link between rising hurricane activity in the US and global warming. The National Hurricane Centre in Florida has rejected such a link but recent scientific evidence seems to be running against them. Tropical storms stem partly from rising sea temperature. Few now dispute that global warming has raised the temperature of the Atlantic by more than 0.6C in recent decades, with the Mexican Gulf recording a greater increase. Rational folk like Sir David King, the UK's chief scientific adviser, believe this explains why the number of Atlantic hurricanes has reached unprecedented levels since 1995. This year's hurricane season seems certain to be the most severe on record. But the naysayers make two counterpoints. First, they say that much of the rise in temperature is due to natural cycles. The current upcycle may have another 20 years to run, but will then subside. Second, though they concede that the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin has risen in the past 10 years, there has been no uptrend in the world as a whole, and so common global factors cannot be responsible. Why should we not believe them? On sea temperature, figures are already much higher than they were during the last upcycle, so there seems to be an underlying adverse long-term trend. On frequency, while the crude number of hurricanes has not risen on a global basis, new evidence has established that the intensity of an average storm has risen sharply in all regions. The odds that all regions would experience increased storm intensity without a common cause are around 1 in 1,000. This is worrying, since the damage done by hurricanes rises not just in line with their wind speed, but with their wind speed squared or cubed. So the damage done by a category-4 hurricane like Katrina is likely to be 250 times the damage done by the more frequent category 1 events. Only a few hurricanes would need to be shifted to higher categories for the destruction to multiply many times over. Unlike Bush, Tony Blair has (until recently) had a good record on global warming. He should renew the pressure on his friend. No two events can ever be decisive in the debate on global warming. But Katrina and Rita are two very large straws in a very strong wind. | ['environment/environment', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'world/natural-disasters', 'profile/gavyndavies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-29T01:47:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2020/jan/09/austria-greens-right-peoples-party-anti-immigration | Austria’s Green party will pay a high price for its dangerous alliance with the right | Benjamin Opratko | Since Tuesday Austria has been ruled, for the first time in its history, by a coalition government between the conservative People’s party (ÖVP) and the Greens. It is an unlikely partnership, not least because the ÖVP is one of the most rightwing of Europe’s conservative parties. Since taking control of the party in 2017, Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, has transformed it into a hard-right, anti-immigrant outfit, successfully cannibalising the voter base of the populist far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), his coalition partner from 2017 until May last year. The previous government ended with a bang, when then-FPÖ leader and vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache had to resign over a corruption scandal. The Greens have spent the last two years vigorously attacking Kurz as a “Strache in disguise”, for lending a respectable face to inhumane policies against migrants, asylum seekers and minorities. During the recent election campaign, when asked how likely it was that his party would join a coalition government with the ÖVP, Green party leader Werner Kogler answered swiftly: “Zero per cent.” Last week, he stood next to Kurz, presenting their common coalition programme – in which a proposal to make Austria carbon-neutral by 2040 sits alongside plans to ban the Islamic veil for schoolchildren up to the age of 14 and introduce highly controversial preventive detention measures for asylum seekers. There are two ways of looking at this seemingly awkward partnership. One is to see it as a makeshift arrangement born of necessity, the freak outcome of a political crisis triggered by the far right’s corruption scandal. The other is to look at it as a model for political realignments internationally, a sign of a new political conjuncture to come. Both perspectives have some truth to them – and both are wrong in significant respects. It is true that the election result made it difficult to imagine any other coalition. Kurz was the jubilant winner, with the Freedom party sunk in a corruption quagmire and the Social Democrats in deep crisis after failing to profit from the far right’s demise: they came second with 21% of the vote, the lowest share in their history. The Greens, having re-entered parliament on the back of a wave of climate protests with an unprecedented 14% of the vote, found themselves in an uneasy position. They would either have to govern with Kurz – or give him the pretext to continue the far-right coalition. The Green party faced enormous pressure, not least from its own voter base and allies. For women’s, LGBTQ and migrants’ organisations, preventing the FPÖ from re-entering the government was and remains a vital concern. Even more pressingly, environmental NGOs and the Fridays for Future student movement urged the Greens to deliver on their climate promises. Many members and supporters felt like they had no choice but to enter negotiations with the Conservatives. At the same time, this is more than just a marriage of convenience. It represents both a reaction to the growing popular awareness of the climate crisis, and an attempt to dissolve the climate movement’s demands in a greenwashed rightwing project. For all the ambition of the 2040 target, which goes far beyond anything any previous Austrian government has dared to do, only a few concrete measures, such as subsidies for public transportation and the phasing out of gas, oil and coal for heating have been proposed. There will, encouragingly, be a new, powerful ministry of the environment, energy and infrastructure, presided over by Leonore Gewessler, former head of one of Austria’s largest environmental NGOs – but the ÖVP-controlled treasury will probably put the brakes on more ambitious projects. The Green party, whose members take great pride in its anti-racist identity, is willing to pay a high price for all this. None of the economic reforms introduced by the previous, staunchly pro-capital government – such as the expansion of the legal working day to 12 hours and the working week to 60 hours – will be up for revision. The new coalition programme includes tax reductions for big corporations and a commitment to neoliberal trade agreements. And Kurz will not even have to adjust his image as an anti-immigrant hardliner. In his own carefully crafted words, the new government aims to “protect both the climate and the borders”. Some international commentators have welcomed the unusual pairing as a new middle ground, offering stability and a way out of Europe’s political stalemate. Others look at it anxiously as a potential route for rightwing parties to reinvent themselves as “eco-fascists”. In fact, it signals an acceptance from parts of the conservative and liberal elites – forced on them by global social movements – that the climate crisis is a real and pressing issue and an attempt to act without harming the interests of big business. Here, Kurz and his new Green vice-chancellor Kogler are in agreement: they see climate change as an opportunity for innovation and investment in the private sector, with no intention of taking on the vested interests of the fossil, steel and automotive industries. Where they differ is in their vision for dealing with the already unavoidable global consequences of the climate crisis. The Greens say that they remain committed to international human rights. But in the reality of a coalition government their words will have few practical consequences, as Kurz has made it very clear from the beginning that he will not change his tough anti-immigrant stance. Kurz plans to prop up domestic support by vilifying Muslims and further fortifying both the EU and the nation-state against current and future migration movements. If other countries follow his example, it is a strategy for what the UN special rapporteur Philip Alston calls “climate apartheid”. Far from representing a new middle ground, Kurz belongs to the global breed of politicians building walls. That is not the model Europe needs. • Benjamin Opratko is a political scientist at the University of Vienna, and an editor of the monthly magazine Das Tagebuch and of mosaik-blog.at | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/austria', 'tone/comment', 'world/islamic-veil', 'world/migration', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/far-right', 'type/article', 'world/sebastian-kurz', 'profile/benjamin-opratko', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-01-09T12:02:23Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2010/dec/08/global-investment-renewables | Global investment in renewables to total $1.7 trillion by 2020 | Current policies among the world's richest 20 nations will result in $546bn (£348bn) less being invested in clean energy by 2020 than is needed to prevent dangerous climate change, according to a new report. The report also predicts that the UK will become a much more significant investor in green technology globally, increasing its spending by 260% over the next decade. But despite this boost to renewable energy and other green industries, the authors believe that India will nudge ahead of the UK into third place by 2020. On a business-as-usual basis, $1.7 trillion (£1.08tn) would be invested globally in renewables like solar and wind, biomass and other low-carbon forms of electricity generation over the next decade. According to a report carried out by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for Pew Charitable Trusts, this would still be $546bn short of the investment which more proactive government policies on climate change by the G20 countries would bring about globally. "Enhanced" policies such as fixing a price on carbon and tough restrictions on power stations' emissions are seen as key to restricting a rise in temperatures to no more than 2C. The report shows how much money Asian countries – particularly China and India – are expected to pour into clean energy regardless of what policies are adopted. Under the "enhanced policy scenario", China, which last year became the world's biggest investor in clean energy, is expected to triple spending over the next decade to over $90bn (£57bn) per year by 2020, with more than half going on wind power. Chinese spending is forecast to be almost twice that of the second biggest spender, the US. Mature markets where renewables have enjoyed significant investment for some time, such as Germany, are expected to see investment levels decline over the decade. The UK is set to keep up with soaring investment, having traditionally lagged its continental counterparts despite its ample wind and marine energy potential. Stronger government support has belatedly kick-started investment in green technology, catapulting the UK to the world's third biggest spender on renewable energy last year thanks to a surge in financing for North Sea offshore windfarms. Under the enhanced policy scenario, annual investment could grow by 260% by 2020 according to the report, with a total of $134bn being spent over the decade and $22bn in the year 2020. Even so, the UK will be overtaken by India by 2020, which was ranked 10th last year but is forecast to rise to third by the end of the decade, behind China and the US, making it the world's faster growing spender. The UK would be pushed back to fourth place in all three scenarios – based on existing policies, implementing pledges committed to at the Copenhagen summit last year and enhanced policies. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/wave-tidal-hydropower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'technology/energy', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'business/energy-industry', 'world/world', 'world/china', 'world/india', 'uk/uk', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/timwebb', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2010-12-08T07:55:34Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2009/feb/12/australia-naturaldisasters | Australia announces day of mourning over bushfires | Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, today announced a national day of mourning after the deadliest bushfires in the nation's history, as police confirmed a "serial arsonist" was being investigated over one of the fires, in which 21 people died. Simon Overland, Victoria's deputy police commissioner, said police were close to releasing a photo of the suspect in relation to the Gippsland fire. "There has been a serial arsonist in this area for some period of time and we have been working on that," he said. "It's too early to say whether it was that person that was responsible for the fire that happened on Saturday, but that's obviously something we will follow through." Earlier today, two men were arrested after reports of suspicious behaviour but were cleared of any wrongdoing and released, he said. As Australia's largest arson investigation continued, Rudd told federal parliament there would be a national service to remember the victims. The official death toll remains at 181, but Christine Nixon, Victoria's police commissioner, warned it could rise significantly as authorities finally gained access to the fire-ravaged town of Marysville. "I'm not prepared to say 300 [victims] but the people from the coroner's office have prepared for that many," she said. Rudd and other members of parliament wore yellow ribbons, a symbol of strength and comfort, when they entered the House of Representatives this afternoon. John Brumby, the premier of Victoria, said today there were indications a fire at Mansfield, which started yesterday, had been deliberately lit. "There would seem to be no doubt at all that that fire's been deliberately lit. It's devastating," he told the Herald Sun at the Healesville Memorial Hall east of Melbourne, which has become the town's emergency relief centre. "Again, what do you say about this except that we have a huge police team which is out there trying to track down any of these people responsible." About 4,000 firefighters are trying to contain 31 bushfires in Victoria ahead of further extreme weather conditions forecast for next week. Two bushfires burning in Victoria's north and east are at risk of merging to create a 500,000-hectare inferno, authorities said. They said a forecast wind change on Saturday could cause major threats to property. Milder conditions today saw all urgent fire threats downgraded, but 45 communities have been told to remain on alert due to the erratic and fast-changing weather conditions. More than 400,000 hectares have so far been razed in fires across the state, destroying at least 1,033 properties. An expert in fire ecology said the heat expelled in the deadly fires "equalled about 500 atomic bombs landing on Hiroshima". Kevin Tolhurst, of the University of Melbourne, told the Herald Sun that drought, hurricane-force winds and extremely high temperatures after a record heatwave combined to create the world's worst conditions for a deadly firestorm. Yesterday, for the first time, disaster victim identification officers gained access to Marysville, which was described as looking "like a bomb" had hit it. Once considered "God's own garden" it has become a wasteland of death and destruction. Just five buildings remain standing. Fifteen people are officially confirmed dead in the town but Brumby said up to 100 of the 500-strong population were unaccounted for. "There's just nothing left of the town," he told ABC Radio. "It's so eerie – there's no sound, there's nothing. There's no activity, there's no people, there's no buildings, there's no birds, there's no animals, everything's just gone." Some victims may never be identified, and it could be weeks before residents are allowed to return. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/drought', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'type/article', 'profile/ellen-connolly'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-02-12T07:30:52Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2014/jul/17/tony-abbott-hails-demise-of-useless-destructive-carbon-tax | Tony Abbott hails demise of 'useless, destructive' carbon tax | Australia’s carbon price has been repealed, leaving the nation with no legislated policy to achieve even the minimum 5% greenhouse emissions reduction target it has inscribed in international agreements. Tony Abbott told “the Australian people” via a media conference: “You voted to scrap the tax and today the parliament finally listened.” The government said it would now achieve the 5% target through its as-yet-unlegislated Direct Action competitive grants policy, which the environment minister, Greg Hunt, insisted was a “policy for the long term”. While the prime minister hailed the demise of the “useless, destructive [carbon] tax” and promised that the Coalition would “never do anything that damages the economy”, he repeatedly refused to rule out ever introducing a carbon price in the future. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Labor’s climate policy for the next election would include an emissions trading scheme and accused Abbott of “sleepwalking Australia towards an environmental and economic disaster”. Setting up renewed bitter debate over climate policy, Shorten said the Labor party would not support Direct Action, which was a “boondoggle” constructed for “internet trolls … and right-wing shock jocks”. Abbott said if the public ever elected Shorten they would know that “the carbon tax comes back”. The leader of government business in the house, Christopher Pyne, vowed that the Coalition would “hang this around [Shorten’s] neck until election day … he has given the Coalition a whole new lease of life.” Complicating the picture is the Palmer United party (PUP), which has said it would vote for legislation setting up Direct Action only if the government accepted its plan for a “dormant” emissions trading scheme. The government has already appropriated the funding for Direct Action and has previously said it would enact some parts of its policy without legislation. Hunt refused to “contemplate” that scenario on Thursday, saying he was intent on getting the scheme through the upper house. After eight years of bitter political debate, during which climate policy dominated three election campaigns and contributed to the demise of two prime ministers, then last week’s Senate drama in which the repeal was again defeated and this week’s lengthy last-gasp debate, the Senate voted on Thursday morning to make good Abbott’s “pledge in blood” to “axe the tax”. The government was backed by seven of the new crossbench senators, including the three PUP senators, Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm, Family First senator Bob Day, Motoring Enthusiast senator Ricky Muir and the DLP senator John Madigan. The independent senator Nick Xenophon was unwell and absent from the chamber. Only Labor and the Greens voted against repealing the carbon pricing scheme they introduced, which came into effect two years ago. | ['environment/carbon-tax', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-17T05:40:15Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2004/apr/08/brazil.conservationandendangeredspecies | Amazon hit by increase in felling | The rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rose by 2.1% last year as farmers encroached on the world's largest jungle, the government said yesterday. Figures from Brazil's environment ministry showed deforestation in the Amazon jumped to 9,170 square miles in 2003, from 8,983 square miles in 2002. The 2002 data was recalculated, it said. The highest level of destruction was in 1995, when 11,229 square miles were destroyed. Brazil last month unveiled plans to halt the destruction, amid criticism that the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had failed to move quickly enough. Environmentalists fear the destruction of the Amazon, an area of continuous tropical forest larger than western Europe, since it is home to up to 30% of the planet's species and is a source of medicines. "The government needs to immediately create conservation programmes tripling the area protected," said Denis Hamu, secretary general of the World Wildlife Foundation, in Brazil. | ['environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2004-04-08T01:13:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/2015/jun/04/sprint-telecom-sustainable-paper-production | Sprint to switch to wheat straw paper in two-month sustainability trial | In August, millions of Sprint customers will receive letters from the telecom giant that will look like ordinary pieces of white paper, but will be made from fibers from wheat fields instead of forests. Sprint is launching a two-month pilot project to test run printing papers made primarily of wheat straw, an agricultural waste that is typically burned. The project is part of the company’s search for an alternative to using paper made of wood, which is the main source of paper material today. Doing so reduces the need for cutting down trees, an important carbon emission absorber, while cutting pollution from burning wheat straw. “Wheat straw is ready for prime time,” Keanon Swan, manager of strategic partner relationships and postal alliance at Sprint, said during the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego this week. “Hopefully we will pave the way for creating national demand.” The US is the number one producer and consumer of wood pulp, and the number two producer and consumer of papers and paper products, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization. The pulp and paper industry uses 40% of the trees cut for industrial uses worldwide. The US, China, Japan and Canada are home to over half of the world’s pulp and paper production, collectively churning out 400m tons per year, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which equate the weight to 80 million elephants. While companies are seeing an increasing number of their customer base opting for paperless bills and notices, they still rely heavily on paper to communicate with consumers. In fact, for many companies, paper mailers are more effective at attracting and retaining customers than their online counterparts. Overall, 60% of the paper used by Sprint is for marketing materials, while about 35% is used for bills and notices for its 55 million customers, said Darren Beck, Sprint’s director of environmental initiatives. The remaining paper is for printers and other office use, he added. Sprint is buying 20 rolls of papers through Prairie Papers, made of 80% wheat straw and 20% wood fiber for its pilot project, which will see it send out about 2.5m notices over August and September, Swan said. In 2011, Sprint set goals to be met by 2017 for printing paper use, including buying paper with 25% recycled content, reducing paper use by 40% (compared with 2007) and using paper made only from forests that receive sustainable certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. By the end of 2014, 95% of the printing papers used by Sprint came from certified forests and 21% came from recycled sources. These figures exceeded the overall paper reduction goal by reaching 83% by the end of last year, Beck said. Sprint hopes to receive no customer complaints during the wheat straw trial, such as illegible print or crumbling paper. The wheat straw paper shown by Swan at the conference felt slightly stiffer than conventional paper. The company will decide later which version to continue using. The project will use wheat straws and paper made in India, but Sprint wants to buy the products from within the US, Swan said. Buying local will reduce the cost and the carbon footprint of shipping paper from the other side of the world. It also will help to recycle agricultural waste from the world’s third largest wheat producing country. Finding domestic sources could be a challenge, however. Currently there isn’t a pulp mill in the US that process wheat straw for making printing and writing papers, said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canada-based Canopy, which is advocating for using alternative, non-wood pulp materials for paper production. Much of the wheat straw pulping and paper production today takes place in China and India. Dell uses boxes made with 15% wheat straw from a plant in China, for example. “We are hoping to kickstart domestic production to avoid the carbon impact of importing pulp and to protect domestic forests,” Rycroft said. Other types of paper products also are made from wheat straw. Kimberly-Clark runs a mill in Alabama that processes wheat straw into pulp for paper towels and toilet paper that will contain 20% wheat straw. The company announced a new line of wheat straw products in April this year, and will initially sell to business customers rather than consumers. A new pulp plant, set to break ground this summer in Washington State, will process alternative materials including bamboo, miscanthus and wheat straw, for sale to paper-product makers. The Columbia Pulp plant will be able to produce 400 tons per day, a small volume compared to conventional pulp mills, said Mark Lewis, the company’s chief technology officer. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'sustainable-business/climate-change', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop-20-un-climate-change-conference-lima', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ucilia-wang'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-06-04T21:28:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2009/jul/29/corby-steelworks-children-pregnancy | 'I can't do some of the things other kids are doing. I can't run' | Susan McIntyre's son Connor, 12, was born with no fingers on his left hand. He has had six major operations on his hands and about 20 corrective surgeries Doctors removed two of his toes and attempted to graft them on to his hands as substitute fingers, but the operation failed when his body rejected them. "We nearly lost him twice when his temperature went so high," she said. When he was younger, Connor was not embarrassed by his hand, but now he was getting older he sometimes tried to hide it, she said. But he had refused to be held back by his condition, she added. "He does street dancing – nothing stops him," she said. "But it has had a lot of effect on his life. Things that are difficult for Connor are laces and buttons – things you need two hands for." The family still live in Corby and Connor's mother was horrified by the council's announcement that the ruling will mean an increase in council taxes. "This is all due to what the council have done – they shouldn't be putting the blame on us. "No amount of money is going to give Connor his hand back. They should have dealt with the waste properly and none of this would have happened. "This is only the start of it – I really don't know what will happen but I know the council has said it will appeal." Darren and Joy Shatford's son Daniel, 12, was also born with no fingers on his left hand. Mr Shatford said: "It is so satisfying that at last there's a result and the negligence is proven" He added: "Daniel has had to go through the trauma of years of operations in hospital and we have had to sit and watch him. That will go on for the rest of his life. Even when he is an adult he will struggle." Mrs Shatford described the air being full of fumes when council workers began opening the toxic pits around Corby. At the time they lived five miles away in Rothwell, but she used to drive her husband into the town each day to his job at a bank. "The sites were all terribly mismanaged and there was a gassy, sour, unhealthy smell that made your nose feel twitchy," she said. "The lorries had stuff falling out the back." The family now live in Desborough, Northamptonshire. Teenager Dylan South was given medical treatment every day for the first five years of his life The 13-year-old was born with a deformed right foot and still suffers severe pain. He cannot run for long distances and sometimes struggles to walk. Dylan, a student at Uppingham community college, said: "I can't do some things that other kids are doing. I can't run." His mother, Audrey Barfield, 34, discovered her son had a deformity when she had her 18-week scan while pregnant. She said: "I found out that his foot was all bent over. He had two operations, and it wasn't until he was older that we realised that his leg was already a lot shorter, but we didn't realise the effect it was going to have on his whole leg." Until the age of five, Dylan had to have daily physiotherapy and wear special shoes. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'society/localgovernment', 'society/health', 'society/children', 'world/disability', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/helencarter', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-07-29T18:24:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/feb/20/winter-storms-at-sea-evoke-memories-of-daunt-rock-rescue | Winter storms at sea evoke memories of Daunt Rock rescue | Watching giant waves crash over a harbour wall during a February storm is a reminder of the best human qualities. Imagine launching a boat into such seas to rescue the crew of a stricken ship. When the villagers of Ballycotton in County Cork watched their lifeboat, Mary Stanford, do just that in hurricane-force winds 85 years ago to try to reach the crew of a drifting lightship at the aptly named Daunt Rock, they turned and walked to the church to pray for their survival. Despite being repeatedly knocked off their feet by the waves and blinded by spray, the seven-member crew reached the lightship, Cornet. At first the eight seamen refused to abandon their vessel because it would be a hazard to other shipping. However, repeated attempts to tow the Cornet to safety failed because steel cables were snapped in two like string. The lifeboat crew was forced to take refuge in nearby Cobh harbour to rest and refuel before returning. They found the light vessel was close to disaster. As a last resort the lifeboat repeatedly passed close to the Cornet. Six seamen jumped into the lifeboat. The final two, injured and unable to leap, were snatched from the sinking ship’s rail by the lifeboat crew. All 15 survived. | ['environment/environment', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/ireland', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-02-20T06:00:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2012/may/11/weatherwatch-drought-australia-floods | Weatherwatch: Australia's 'big drought' officially over after a decade | The last remaining areas of New South Wales have been declared free from drought, officially ending Australia's "Big Dry" after almost a decade. But the problems may only be starting. Droughts have always been a feature of Australian life: on average, at least one region experiences severe drought every 18 years. Major droughts have also affected most of the country before, including the Federation Drought of 1895-1902 which wiped out half the sheep population, and the World War II droughts of 1937-45. In recent years weather in Australia has lurched between drought and flooding. These variations have coincided with the El Niño and La Niña oscillations in the Pacific, and a current known as the Indian Ocean Dipole. This normally drives moist air towards south-east Australia but sometimes reverses, decreasing rainfall. The Big Dry caused bush fires and dust storms and drove many farmers out of business, despite some £2.9bn spent on special assistance. Many Australian states have introduced new "drought-proofing" measures for the future. These include enhancing irrigation systems, recycling greywater from washing and bathing, subsidising domestic rainwater storage tanks, and building giant desalination plants. Meteorologists warn that Australia is likely to suffer more frequent and more severe droughts in future. Agriculture minister Tony Burke described predictions in a report by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as "more like a disaster novel than a scientific report". | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'weather/index/australasia', 'environment/drought', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-05-11T21:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/2006/dec/12/marketingandpr | More fallout from Fifa-Visa deal | Fifa has parted company four employees accused of "repeated dishonesty" involved in its £150m World Cup sponsorship deal with Visa. Fifa said in a statement that it was "parting company" with Jerome Valcke, the director of its marketing and television division, and three of his colleagues: Tom Houseman, Robert Lampman and Stefan Schuster. MasterCard won a court case last week arguing that the Visa deal, for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups should be annulled because, as an existing sponsor, MasterCard had first refusal. "Even though the judgment has proved to be very biased in favour of MasterCard, the fact cannot be overlooked that Fifa's negotiations breached its business principles," football's governing body said in a statement. "Fifa cannot possibly accept such conduct among its own employees." A US federal court declared the Visa sponsorship invalid and ordered Fifa to implement the contract it had negotiated but not concluded with MasterCard. "The Fifa employees who had conducted negotiations with Visa and MasterCard were accused of repeated dishonesty during negotiations and of giving false information to the Fifa deciding bodies in question," said Fifa Fifa is considering lodging an appeal against the judgment. Visa swooped in early April to sign a shock sponsorship deal with Fifa for the next two World Cups, estimated at £150m, that broke the football body's long-standing relationship with Mastercard. The eight-year deal was for a top-tier partner sponsorship under Fifa's revised structure that slimmed the number of primary sponsors from 15 to six, but charged each brand significantly more than under previous deals. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/marketingandpr', 'media/media', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'football/fifa', 'type/article'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2006-12-12T11:19:46Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2013/apr/18/uk-must-act-corporate-responsibility | Letters: UK must act on corporate responsibility | The AGM of mining corporation Anglo American takes place today as its Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia underlines the need for stricter regulation of UK-based mining companies. Cerrejón is jointly owned by Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Xstrata, three of the biggest mining companies in the world. Like other mining giants, they are listed on the London Stock Exchange. At the meeting, community representative Julio Gomez will make the point that displaced communities still lack adequate compensation and just relocation arrangements, in spite of years of community resistance, international solidarity and protests demanding improved behaviour by Cerrejón's mine bosses and its multinational owners. When the financial services bill was debated in 2012, the government blocked amendments that would have placed responsibility on UK regulators to foster ethical corporate behaviour, including respect for human rights. The new Financial Conduct Authority, responsible for overseeing UK company listings, thus lacks the power to discipline and delist companies that continue to operate to inadequate standards.The Cerrejón example shows yet again that mining companies listed here are allowed to get away with environmental destruction and ride roughshod over local communities' rights. Richard Solly London Mining Network Glory Saavedra Sussex Colombia Solidarity Sue Williams Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors Graciela Romero War on Want Hannah Griffiths World Development Movement Asad Rehman Friends of The Earth • We welcome the government's commitment to clamp down on tax evasion and avoidance. But the UK cannot credibly do so without taking steps to ensure British-linked havens can never again harbour tax evaders, criminals and money launderers (Letters, 17 April). As one in eight people continue to suffer from hunger and 2 million children die from malnutrition every year, it's a scandal that tax havens are allowed to syphon money from the poorest countries that could be invested to help feed the hungry. We encourage the UK to host a tax haven summit, to ensure these jurisdictions implement a public register disclosing who really owns the companies registered on their shores, and provide other countries with automatic access to information about the wealth and assets their taxpayers have placed in these havens. Melanie Ward Head of advocacy, ActionAid UK Sol Oyuela Interim head of advocacy, Christian Aid Gavin Hayman Director of campaigns, Global Witness Kathleen Spencer Chapman Acting head of advocacy, Oxfam GB Brendan Cox Director of policy and advocacy, Save the Children UK | ['environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'business/corporate-governance', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'business/mining', 'business/anglo-american', 'business/xstrata', 'business/bhpbilliton', 'business/taxavoidance', 'business/financial-conduct-authority', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-04-18T20:00:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
news/datablog/2012/oct/31/twitter-sandy-flooding | What can Twitter tell us about Hurricane Sandy flooding? Visualised | My colleagues Adham Tamer, Ning Wang, Scott Hale and I have been collecting Tweets containing the terms "flood" and "flooding" in order to examine how Twitter usage in the context of Hurricane Sandy might reflect lived experiences. In other words, we are examining the human and social data shadows of an innately physical/material event in order to see what it is that they tell us. Our initial intent was also to map references to flooding in both English and Spanish in order to explore whether we see significant geographic and linguistic differences in social media reactions to the hurricane. With the rise of crisis mapping and Twitter analysis, we reasoned that it would be important to note any potential differences between English and Spanish speakers (Spanish being a native language to millions of people on the US East Cost). Second, we see that these data become less useful if we want to draw insights at a finer scale than the county. The data are good at reflecting the broad trajectory of the hurricane, but perhaps less useful for more detailed insights. For instance, it is unclear whether the large number of Tweets that we pick up in New York City, as compared to other places, reflects the scale of devastation to the city or just means that New Yorkers are more apt to Tweet about such an event. Even more importantly, we only picked up five Spanish-language Tweets over the same period! In other words, it is the absences on this map that are almost more interesting than the mapped results. The lack of published content in Spanish means that we are necessarily only including published content from English speakers in these representations. The absences in the rest of the country are also revealing. Why exactly are so few people in Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin etc. Tweeting about East Coast flooding? Is it because the act of Tweeting about such an event is only really likely to be performed by people in situ, experiencing the storm? Are people outside of the hurricane path simply not that interested in the event? Or should we simply avoid trying to make inferences from Twitter data other than recognising the broad patterns that large events leave on the digital landscape? Mark Graham's research focuses on Internet and information geographies at the Oxford Internet Institute, and the overlaps between ICTs and economic development. He is also one of the creators of the Floating Sheep blog More data More 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 | ['news/datablog', 'data/series/show-and-tell', 'tone/blog', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'world/hurricanes', 'technology/twitter', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'tone/graphics', 'type/graphic', 'type/article', 'profile/mark-graham'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-10-31T07:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/sep/14/leaked-eu-anti-deforestation-law-omits-fragile-grasslands-and-wetlands | Leaked EU anti-deforestation law omits fragile grasslands and wetlands | The fragile Cerrado grasslands and the Pantanal wetlands, both under threat from soy and beef exploitation, have been excluded from a European Union draft anti-deforestation law, campaigners have said, and there are many other concerning loopholes. The European Commission has pledged to introduce a law aimed at preventing beef, palm oil and other products linked to deforestation from being sold in the EU single market of 450 million consumers. But campaigners said a leaked impact assessment reveals “significant omissions” in the plans, including the exclusion of endangered grasslands and wetlands, as well as products that raise environmental concerns, such as rubber and maize. The long-awaited draft regulation, expected to be published in December, will be limited to controlling EU imports of beef, palm oil, soy, wood, cocoa and coffee, according to a report seen by the Guardian. Under the plans, countries that sell these commodities into the EU, such as Russia, Brazil and the United States, would be classed as high, standard and low-risk, with controls on relevant exports depending on their status. According to the 182-page document, these measures would “decisively contribute to saving biodiversity” and prevent 71,920 hectares of forests being chopped down each year by 2030 – an area roughly half the size of Greater London. Campaigners said the EU risks getting it wrong. They criticised the exclusion from the proposals of rubber, leather, maize and other kinds of meat, linking pigs and chickens to “embedded deforestation” through the use of soy as animal feed. EU officials concluded that maize and rubber only account for a small fraction of deforestation, while overall trade in these goods is large, meaning that “a very large effort” will generate “little return in terms of curbing deforestation driven by EU consumption”. But a 2019 EU paper cited maize and rubber as part of the problem, while the latest leaked document acknowledges concern about deforestation being caused by demand for animal feed. The document also reveals a rebuff to calls to include grasslands, wetlands and other ecosystems under the protection of the upcoming law. Last year, a coalition of 160 nongovernmental organisations, including Greenpeace and WWF, organised nearly 1.2 million people to take part in an EU consultation on the proposals. The Together4Forests campaign called for the regulation to ensure protection for all kinds of ecosystems, not only forests. It was one of the biggest public responses to an EU consultation, second only to the outpouring of views on proposals to scrap daylight saving time. According to the current document, the regulation will be limited to forests and will exclude wooded grasslands, such as Brazil’s vast Cerrado region, the largest savannah in South America and home to 10,000 species of plants, half of which are found nowhere else in the world. Other ecosystems will be excluded, even though the EU document concedes that stricter rules to protect the Amazon rainforest “have already been shown to accelerate conversion of Cerrado savannah and Pantanal wetlands for agricultural production”. It also notes that the Cerrado is “a critical region for storing carbon”, a source of water, vegetation and abundant plant life, but concludes that including such ecosystems would make it more difficult to monitor forests. The Pantanal conservation zone in west-central Braziland spilling over into Bolivia and Paraguay, is one of the world’s largest freshwater wetlands and home to endangered species such as the giant armadillo and giant otter. “The ecosystem destruction that the EU is complicit in is not confined to deforestation alone,” said Sini Eräjää, EU agriculture and forest campaigner at Greenpeace. “If this law does not extend its protection to wetlands, savannahs, peatlands and others, then consumption in Europe will continue to devastate natural areas that provide livelihoods for indigenous people, homes for countless species and essential defence against climate breakdown.” The document also reveals that the law “will not specifically target the financial sector”, a blow to campaigners who argued that European banks play a role in fuelling deforestation through their lending. While the EU agreed a plan to tackle illegal logging in 2003, the bloc has been slower to try to prevent deforestation caused by legal trade. As Europe plants more trees at home, politicians have come under increasing pressure to tackle how the EU’s appetite for beef, cocoa, coffee and palm oil drives deforestation beyond its borders. EU consumption of such commodities is behind 10% of global deforestation, according to the commission. The European Commission, which does not usually comment on leaked documents, did not respond to a request for comment. The draft regulation will have to be agreed by MEPs and environment ministers before it becomes law. | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'world/european-commission', 'world/eu', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jennifer-rankin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-09-14T06:01:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2009/apr/21/prince-charles-harmony-book | Prince Charles to publish attack on big business in eco book and film | The Prince of Wales is to make a scathing attack on big business' environmental impact with the launch of a new book and documentary film. The book, called Harmony, is due to be published in 2010 by HarperCollins and the prince is reportedly waiving his author's fee, although royalties will go to his charitable foundation, The Prince's Trust. In an echo of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, which evolved from a slideshow presentation into a hit eco documentary, the prince's film is currently being shot in the US. Based on an exploration of the need for people to live in harmony with nature, the documentary is being produced by Balcony Films, whose previous credits include feature films such as The Fabulous Baker Boys and GI Jane, and documentaries including Four Conversations with Conservatives about One Thing. "I believe that true 'sustainability' depends fundamentally upon us shifting our perception and widening our focus, so that we understand, again, that we have a sacred duty of stewardship of the natural order of things," said the prince in a statement yesterday. "In some of our actions we now behave as if we were 'masters of nature' and, in others, as mere bystanders. If we could rediscover that sense of harmony; that sense of being a part of, rather than apart from nature, we would perhaps be less likely to see the world as some sort of gigantic production system, capable of ever-increasing outputs for our benefit – at no cost." The prince is working on the book with co-authors Ian Skelly and ex-Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper. Juniper said he was delighted to be helping the prince on such an important project: "I hope his ideas will take the debate – about balancing the needs of the economy with those of ecology – on to a new stage. The prince believes the real crisis is one of perception, of how important ecology is." Jonathan Burnham, the publisher at HarperCollins who negotiated the book deal, described the book as "revealing his [the prince's] most recent observations and practices advancing ecological and economic sustainability, with a deeply inspiring vision encompassing the connection and consequences of our actions to the very survival of our planet." A HarperCollins spokesperson said that although there was no official publication date for the book, they expected it to be public by 2010. The separate approaches from publishers and film-makers were inspired by a 2007 speech made by the prince, in which he said: "We need to consider anew the timeless principles which underpinned so much of civilisation before industrialisation took such a comprehensive hold on the world." It's not yet clear if the prince himself will appear in the film. His documentary follows a slew of "green films" including Leonardo DiCaprio's 11th Hour, The Day After Tomorrow, A Crude Awakening and, most recently, The Age of Stupid, which took £100,000 in its opening weekend. The genre is also set to swell this summer with the openings of overfishing documentary End of the Line and Werner Herzog's Antarctica-set film Encounters at the End of the World. | ['environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'uk/prince-charles', 'books/books', 'film/film', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-04-21T14:14:58Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2019/mar/10/forget-night-footy-michael-mccormack-warns-against-labors-renewables-target | 'Forget night footy': Michael McCormack warns against Labor's renewables target | The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, has suggested renewable energy will eliminate night sport in Australia, declaring voters can “forget night footy” and “forget night cricket” if Labor wins the election and legislates a 45% emissions reduction target, or if Australia moves in the direction of an electricity grid powered by renewables. McCormack, who heads a demoralised party room, and has had the former party leader Barnaby Joyce signalling in recent days he wants to return to the top job, claimed on Sunday it was “nonsense claptrap”, “rubbish” and “absolute garbage” that Australia could provide its energy needs from 100% renewables. The Nationals leader then said contradictory things. He said first it was “not possible” to increase Australia’s emissions reduction target to 45%, and then said “I mean sure, go down that path but forget night footy forget, night cricket, and you’ll have pensioners turning off their power because they won’t be able to afford it, and they will be shivering all winter, and they’ll be melting all summer”. McCormack is under internal pressure about his performance as leader, and specifically on energy, after Queensland Nationals George Christensen, Michelle Landry, Ken O’Dowd, Keith Pitt, Llew O’Brien and Barry O’Sullivan wrote to him last week, demanding, in essence, that he muscle up to the Liberals, and insist that action is taken before the election. In the letter, the Queensland rebels demanded immediate action to “legislate the big stick bill in the next parliamentary sitting and to underwrite new generating capacity (power station) construction for regional Queensland”. McCormack was asked on Sunday whether he wanted taxpayers to underwrite new coal generation in Queensland, which is what his Queensland colleagues want. The Nationals leader gave a hedged answer. “I’m not against coal-fired power stations. I’m not.” He said the Nationals stood for affordable power, and if the “future means building another coal-fired power station, or building one indeed in north Queensland, then we’ll certainly look at it if the business case stacks up”. Pressed about whether he was on the same page as the Queenslanders, McCormack repeated his qualified answer. “Well if it meets the business case and it’s going to provide more energy in the system and it’s going to bring prices down, of course I am in favour of that. Of course I am.” Taxpayer underwriting of coal-fired power has become a fraught issue for the Morrison government, with MPs in different parts of the country wanting different things. Under pressure from voters concerned about the government’s record on climate change, Liberals in urban electorates lobbied the leadership – a push that resulted in Morrison attempting to boost the government’s standing by reviving Tony Abbott’s emissions reduction fund and pledging support for two major hydro projects. But central Queenslanders are still on the warpath, wanting taxpayers to underwrite new coal plants, even though that will create a political backlash in other parts of the country. The resources minister and Queensland National Matt Canavan, after noting recently the government was currently considering around 10 coal proposals for underwriting, declared last week: “I think perhaps the best time to start building a coal-fired power station was 10 years ago, and the second best time is now.” While the Queenslanders are flexing their muscle, Scott Morrison has rebuffed the push to bring forward the “big stick” package which creates a divestiture power breaking up energy companies that engage in price gouging. Morrison insisted his pre-election priorities, given the parliament is only likely to sit for another three days before Australians go to the polls, were securing passage of budget bills and helping north Queensland recover from the recent floods. The government pulled the “big stick” package after it became clear the Greens and Labor had the numbers in the House to add an amendment prohibiting taxpayer support for new coal developments, and crossbench senators have also flagged amendments extending the divestiture power to make it an economy-wide trigger, rather than a power restricted to the energy sector. McCormack said on Sunday the government’s energy policy needed to be about “balance”. “That’s why I was delighted Scott Morrison turned first sod for the Snowy Hydro 2.0 just the other day – this is an exciting announcement of renewable energy that’s going to provide storage, going to provide power for 500,000 – half a million – homes and businesses, particularly in NSW and right up the eastern seaboard,” the Nationals leader said. “We will continue to work with those sorts of projects and continue to deliver for the environment – but at the same time we don’t want to deindustrialise Australia”. “At the same time we don’t want to make it absolutely impossible for our manufacturing industries to be able to operate. When people turn the switch they need to be able to have affordable power.” | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/michael-mccormack', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/national-party', 'australia-news/liberal-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-03-10T07:40:22Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/aug/17/nsw-flood-inquiry-report-released-premier-dominic-perrottet | NSW flood inquiry report recommends rescue training for residents and land buybacks for Lismore | The New South Wales government will introduce land swaps and buybacks for flood-prone communities, reform its disaster agencies and provide training for community members to perform rescues in response to this year’s catastrophic floods. Floodplain use will be another key theme of the response, with the premier, Dominic Perrottet, insisting no future development should occur on flood-prone land. Speaking in Lismore on Wednesday, Perrottet said he could not provide details of the future buybacks scheme, and acknowledged that would be “frustrating” for those wanting them. He said the government aimed to have expressions of interest open for the scheme before September and a plan in place before Christmas. It came as the government released the report of the independent inquiry into the disaster across the northern rivers and Hawkesbury-Nepean regions this year. The colossal report included 28 recommendations – of which the government supported six fully and the rest in principal. Flanked by the report’s authors – former chief scientist Mary O’Kane and former police chief Mick Fuller – Perrottet said there was a lot to be done and acknowledged the failures outlined by the inquiry. “The power of nature to swamp the beautiful northern rivers was devastating, and that will be matched by our commitment and dedication to rebuild and retrain our communities for the future,” he said. “This is a long journey in front of us, and we need to make sure we rebuild in a resilient way.” As part of the sweeping changes to the state’s emergency responses, Resilience NSW will become Recovery NSW – a “leaner, nimble agency” focused on the first 100 days after a disaster. This follows criticism of Resilience NSW in the wake of the floods. A NSW Reconstruction Authority – modelled on a Queensland body formed after the deadly 2010/11 floods – will also be created to become the state’s lead agency responsible for disaster prevention. It will also collect and distribute reconstruction funding from governments and charities to ensure it is done evenly and efficiently. The State Emergency Service (SES) and the Rural Fire Service (RFS) will also be partially merged. The inquiry outlined several failures during this year’s floods, saying rescues were not conducted in line with the current policies and the SES failed to use available resources, while calls to triple 0 went unanswered during the height of the disaster. Perrottet insisted the SES “brand” and “front of house” would be protected, and while training, planning and administration would largely be run by the far larger RFS. In recognition of the critical role played by unofficial volunteers who saved people from their roofs in Lismore, residents in flood-prone areas will be offered training on conducting rescues using private boats. O’Kane stressed the importance of climate change in the report and said there needed to be better community awareness of weather patterns and the risks they posed, as well as better warning systems. “We emphasise the importance of community being prepared, community knowing what to look for, that we need better warning of things like flash flooding,” O’Kane said Wednesday. She also recommended changes to laws governing building on flood plains, proposing they come back under public ownership and leased out for uses such as parks and energy creation. “The floodplain should be recognised as assets, but not assets that we live on [but] assets that we use for a variety of things, whether it be renewable energy, whether it be parks, whether it be biodiversity offsets,” she said. O’Kane said there needed to be improvements to infrastructure as part of the rebuild and beyond, including critical pieces not being built on floodplains and the assured use of roads for evacuations during emergencies. Perrottet also said development in high-risk areas needed to stop. “We can’t keep developing, we can’t make the problem worse,” he said. “The first thing is to stop; stop developing in areas that are subject to substantial flooding because then we’re not making any progress at all. We’re going backwards.” | ['australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'environment/flooding', 'society/emergency-services', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'australia-news/dominic-perrottet', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tamsin-rose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-17T05:21:42Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/datablog/2012/apr/13/mapping-colours-open-journalism-storify | How can we get our map colours right? How open journalism helped us get better | How can you get the colour scales right on maps? It's something we spend a lot of time thinking about here on the Datablog - and you may notice a huge variety of ones we try out. This isn't just design semantics - using the wrong colours can mean your maps are completely inaccessible to people with colour blindness, for instance and actually obscure what you're trying to do. It's distinct to problems expertly faced by the Guardian graphics team - who have a lot of experience of making maps just right. But on the blog, making a Google Fusion map in a hurry, do we get it right? It came up this week with this map on poverty and deprivation in London, part of our London: the data series. Recently we've been using the colour scale on the map below, which is a variation on the famous traffic light collection of colours - for the Guardian, this tends to go from green, meaning good, or low - up to red, meaning bad or high. It's used by map makers and newspaper designers all the time. But is it any good? This sparked a debate on Twitter, with Gregor Aisch of Driven by Data weighing in on the weaknesses of the colours we chose. It led to a big conversation - and a mutual editing of the map's colours. Below is a Storify showing how the conversation evolved - to create a better map. But, is it good enough - did we get it right? You tell us in the comments field below - and share your perfect colour schemes too. 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 | ['news/datablog', 'technology/data-visualisation', 'media/open-journalism', 'technology/mapping-technologies', 'tone/blog', 'culture/maps', 'type/article', 'profile/simonrogers'] | technology/data-visualisation | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2012-04-13T06:30:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2011/dec/23/farming-food | Traditional farming can save threatened species, study finds | Traditional farming methods are crucial for protecting a number of threatened bird species in the developing world, including bustards, cranes, ibises and vultures, a study has found. Livestock grazing and features associated with arable farming – such as hedgerows – create environmental conditions that certain birds currently depend on for food, shelter and breeding, the authors report. But as industrial farming methods eliminate these habitats, these species are threatened with extinction, said Hugh Wright, a researcher in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, and lead author of the study, published in Conservation Letters earlier this month. "There really is no hope for these species if industrial farming continues unchecked," he told SciDev.Net. Although reintroducing or mimicking traditional farming techniques has had success in conserving wildlife in Europe, "conservation in the developing world has always focused on pristine forest ecosystems and has paid little attention to where farming might be beneficial," Wright said. The study found 29 bird species threatened by the decline of traditional agriculture in developing countries. This number could be much higher if all organisms, rather than just birds, are considered, as evidence from Europe suggests that traditional farming also benefits reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and even plants, Wright said. Farmers can benefit too from protecting biodiversity since it helps to justify traditional agriculture and could prevent big agri-businesses from forcing farmers off their land, he added. Also, by offering farmers economic incentives to continue these beneficial practices, governments can ensure that conservation and development move forward together. Tim Benton, professor of population ecology at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, agreed that traditional agricultural methods are a valuable conservation tool, but said that adopting techniques aimed at saving a few iconic species can disadvantage farmers. "Applying low-intensity farming instead of industrial methods often pits livelihoods against conservation, and can impose limits on a region's development," he said. Instead, he said that "land sparing" — where some areas are intensively farmed while others are left primarily for conservation — can lead to more wildlife and better crop yields. There is no one strategy, but a "middle ground" that combines land sparing and traditional farming methods to suit local conditions could be the best conservation strategy, he added. Wright agreed that a mixed approach can maximise biodiversity. "You need to assess which species you have, how feasible it is to protect them, what it will cost and social issues as well before coming up with a conservation strategy for an area," he said. Link to abstract in Conservation Letters | ['environment/series/guardian-environment-network', 'environment/farming', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'tone/news', 'type/article'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-12-23T16:32:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2021/jan/25/national-grid-electricity-ofgem-energy-networks | National Grid should lose role as electricity system operator, says Ofgem | National Grid could lose its role of keeping Britain’s lights on after the energy regulator called for a new and independent electricity system operator to help steer the UK towards its climate targets. Ofgem has called for National Grid to be stripped of its role after 30 years balancing the electricity grid because the energy company also owns energy networks. The regulator warned this could create a conflict of interest in the future as the UK’s networks play a larger role in helping to keep the lights on. National Grid has already legally separated the electricity system operator business from the FTSE 100 group but Ofgem’s proposal would lead to all ties being severed and a new independent system operator put in its place. Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, said: “The energy system needs to go undergo the biggest transformation in over a century to meet Britain’s ambitious climate goals.” “Imagine you have 10m electric cars on the system, and lots of renewable energy. You could manage this in two ways. One way is to build a much bigger and higher capacity network. Equally you could have a smarter and more efficient system that begins to shift the times that those different cars charge, which could be a lot cheaper overall for customers. Asking a company which builds networks to make that kind of trade-off is the sort of thing we’re concerned about in the future,” he said. “Ofgem is recommending the creation of an independent body to help deliver the fundamental changes in how we use energy,” Brearley said. The new operator could provide independent recommendations to the government and Ofgem on gas and electricity network investment proposals to help move the UK towards a net zero carbon electricity grid at the lowest possible cost, according to the regulator. This could help to save consumers between £400m and £4.8bn between 2022 and 2050. An independent operator could also take on wider planning responsibilities for new infrastructure, for example the design and construction of an offshore grid connecting offshore windfarms to the UK, Ofgem added. Alistair Cromwell, the acting chief executive of Citizens Advice, said a separate body to run the electricity and gas systems “should give consumers more confidence that the advice given, and decisions taken, will be in their interests”. “This should lead to lower bills and an efficient transition to net zero. But the new independent system operator - as advocated by Ofgem - needs to have the right structure, responsibilities and capabilities to enable it to make the best decisions for all of us,” Cromwell said. The structure and ownership of an independent system operator would be decided by the government in consultation with National Grid. The FTSE 100 energy company would be entitled to some financial compensation if it is stripped of the business, which is considered a very small part of the group. Equity analysts at Barclays have estimated the value of the National Grid electricity system operator at £300m, or less than 1% of the group’s market value. Ofgem believes the cost of compensating National Grid for the business would be outweighed by the long-term financial benefit to energy bill payers. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business and energy secretary, said the government welcomed Ofgem’s contribution to the debate over the future of the energy system and would “consider its recommendations thoroughly”. National Grid said in a statement that it was working closely with the government, regulator and the industry to explore the future of the energy system operator, and added that a “potential divestment” of its role was “an important part of that discussion”. “Significant further work is needed to determine the detail of that structure,” the company said. | ['business/nationalgrid', 'business/ofgem', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/utilities', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-01-25T17:41:50Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2015/aug/21/conservation-group-in-adani-challenge-had-funding-doubled-by-lnp | Conservation group in Adani challenge had funding doubled by LNP | The conservation group attacked by the Abbott government after its legal challenge to Australia’s largest proposed coalmine had its taxpayer funding more than doubled by the former Queensland Liberal National party government. Mackay Conservation Group, whose federal court action led to the commonwealth conceding its approval of Adani’s Carmichael mine was invalid owing to lack of regard for vulnerable snake and skink species, received $150,000 funding over the life of the Newman government between 2012 and 2015, according to figures seen by Guardian Australia. The group, which the treasurer, Joe Hockey, has criticised for taking legal action despite being based hundreds of kilometres from the proposed mine, received just $70,000 in the previous three years from the then Labor government. Its funding boost was in stark contrast to the Newman government’s treatment of higher-profile conservation groups – including the Australian Marine Conservation Society, the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland and the Wilderness Society, which all had their funding cut to zero. Mackay Conservation Group went on to mount a federal court case that prompted the Abbott government’s move to change environmental approval laws in an attempt to end what the attorney general, George Brandis, has branded “vigilante litigaton” by green groups trying to stymie mining projects. Adani is to face another federal court challenge to its mine next month from the traditional landowners of its Galilee basin site, the Wangan and Jagalingou people. This comes amid revelations the former Newman government spent $1.6m on a public relations campaign to lift its poor image on protection of the Great Barrier Reef in the wake of moves by Adani to expand its Abbot Point coalport. The Queensland minister for the environment and the reef, Steven Miles, said the use of taxpayer funds for this was “unethical” and “one of the most cynical, politically motivated acts I’ve seen”. The Newman government mounted the campaign last year after research by the firm TNS for the environment department found there was “an issue of trust” with its management of the reef, with half of Queensland residents believing it favoured economic interests over the long-term health of the natural treasure. The research revealed the government had established its website Reef Facts in an attempt to counter public concern triggered by commonwealth approval of Adani’s plan to expand its Abbot Point port and to dump seabed waste from dredging in the reef marine park. Reef Facts was intended to address what some environment department officials felt was “misinformation” from conservation groups leading up to a decision by Unesco on whether to list the reef as “in danger”. The research showed environmental group websites ranked alongside the government’s own sites as the most trusted sources of information on the reef. But the PR firm Rowland found a further campaign was needed to “reset the language and style” of government messages on the reef, suggesting the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, and his then state counterpart, Andrew Powell, sign public “pledges” promising reef protection. Rowland also suggested the state government write directly to investment bank chief executives last August to reassure them that “Australia’s commitment to reef protection and management ensures the reef is a safe long-term investment for industry and business”. The Newman government flagged spending $2.4m on the campaign but only spent $1.6m – including $647,000 on media advertising. It cut the PR offensive after the G20 summit in Brisbane last November, when a speech by the US president, Barack Obama, about conserving the reef angered the Abbott and Newman governments. Miles said he was “appalled that instead of trying to fix the reef, the LNP government tried to fix their reputation – using government resources to splash out on TV ads and social media gurus”. “The idea that the LNP would rather spend money on spinning a story about the health of the reef instead of actually doing something to find a solution is one of the most cynical, politically motivated acts I’ve seen.” The former Newman LNP government introduced its own laws to stop so-called “third party” legal challenges to mines but lost office before they took effect. The Palaszczuk Labor government has since struck out the laws. But the LNP lifted funding for Mackay Conservation Group upon taking office in 2012, which the group’s spokeswoman Christine Carlisle said it was “of course pleased” about but was never told why. Carlisle said the state government funding, which came in three-year cycles, could only pay for the organisation’s rent, research and some coordinated activities. The federal court challenge to Carmichael was funded by more than 15,000 donations – the bulk of them ranging from $10 to $50 – through a campaign by activist group GetUp, said a fellow group campaigner, Ellen Roberts. Queensland’s shadow environment minister, Stephen Bennett said the former government had made clear to Mackay Conservation Group and others that their funding “had to be project based and not a skerrick could go towards court action”. Bennett said conservation groups “need to decide” about their core business. “If it’s local, conservation-based efforts that inspire future generations to care about the environment then that’s fine. If their intent is to run campaigns designed to frustrate genuine economic growth that meets high environmental standards I think they need to question (whether they should) continue to receive government funding.” | ['australia-news/queensland-politics', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'business/adani-group', 'type/article', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-08-21T04:39:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/sep/26/global-warming-climate-change-targets-un-report | World 'nowhere near on track' to avoid warming beyond 1.5C target | The world’s governments are “nowhere near on track” to meet their commitment to avoid global warming of more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial period, according to an author of a key UN report that will outline the dangers of breaching this limit. A massive, immediate transformation in the way the world’s population generates energy, uses transportation and grows food will be required to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C and the forthcoming analysis is set to lay bare how remote this possibility is. “It’s extraordinarily challenging to get to the 1.5C target and we are nowhere near on track to doing that,” said Drew Shindell, a Duke University climate scientist and a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which will be unveiled in South Korea next month. “While it’s technically possible, it’s extremely improbable, absent a real sea change in the way we evaluate risk. We are nowhere near that.” In the 2015 Paris climate pact, international leaders agreed to curb the global temperature rise to 2C above the era prior to mass industrialization, with an aspiration to limit this to 1.5C. The world has already warmed by around 1C over the past century, fueling sea level rises, heatwaves, storms and the decline of vulnerable ecosystems such as coral reefs. Shindell would not share exact details of the IPCC report, but he said that the more ambitious 1.5C goal would require a precipitous drop in greenhouse emissions triggered by a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels, particularly coal, mass deployment of solar and wind energy and the eradication of emissions from cars, trucks and airplanes. Even then, emerging technology will be required on a global scale to capture emissions at the source and bury them in the ground or remove carbon directly from the air. “The penetration rate of new technology historically takes a long time,” Shindell said. “It’s not simple to change these things. There aren’t good examples in history of such rapid, far-reaching transitions.” The fading prospect of keeping the global temperature rise to below 1.5C has provoked alarm among leaders of low-lying island nations that risk being inundated should the world warm beyond this point. “Every country must increase the ambition of their existing targets,” said Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands, which announced a plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 at the UN general assembly in New York this week. “If we can do it, so can everyone else.” The UN general assembly has again pitted the world’s countries against Donald Trump when it comes to climate change, with the US president using his keynote speech to praise “clean coal”. Trump has vowed to exit the Paris accord, a stance that Emmanuel Macron, the French president, told the UN should be met with consequences such as a refusal by countries to enter into trade deals with the US. “It’s a lot more difficult without the US as a leader in climate change negotiations,” Ola Elvestuen, Norway’s environment minister, told the Guardian. “We have to find solutions even though the US isn’t there.” Elvestuen said countries, including Norway, which is one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, need to transition away from fossil fuels, embrace electric cars and halt deforestation. He admitted these changes had not happened quickly enough since the Paris deal. Last year, global greenhouse gas emissions rose slightly again after a short period of stasis. “We are moving way too slowly,” Elvestuen said. “We have to do more of everything, faster. We need to deliver on policies at every level. Governments normally move slowly but we don’t have the time.” “The 1.5C target is difficult, but it’s possible. The next four to 12 years are crucial ones, where we will set the path to how the world will develop in the decades ahead. The responsibility in doing this is impossible to overestimate. To reach the goals of the Paris agreement we need large structural changes.” A difference of 0.5C in temperature may appear small but the IPCC report, which is a summary of leading climate science, is expected to warn there will be major impacts if warming reaches 2C. “Even 1.5C is no picnic, really,” said Dr Tabea Lissner, head of adaptation and vulnerability at Climate Analytics. Lissner said a world beyond 1.5C warming meant the Arctic would be ice-free in summer, around half of land-based creatures would be severely affected and deadly heatwaves would become far more common. “0.5C makes quite a big difference,” she said. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/ipcc', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2018-09-27T05:00:11Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2021/jan/25/global-ice-loss-accelerating-at-record-rate-study-finds | Global ice loss accelerating at record rate, study finds | The melting of ice across the planet is accelerating at a record rate, with the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets speeding up the fastest, research has found. The rate of loss is now in line with the worst-case scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on the climate, according to a paper published on Monday in the journal The Cryosphere. Thomas Slater, lead author and research fellow at the centre for polar observation and modelling at the University of Leeds, warned that the consequences would be felt around the world. “Sea level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century,” he said. About 28tn tonnes of ice was lost between 1994 and 2017, which the authors of the paper calculate would be enough to put an ice sheet 100 metres thick across the UK. About two thirds of the ice loss was caused by the warming of the atmosphere, with about a third caused by the warming of the seas. Over the period studied, the rate of ice loss accelerated by 57%, the paper found, from 0.8tn tonnes a year in the 1990s to 1.2tn tonnes a year by 2017. About half of all the ice lost was from land, which contributes directly to global sea level rises. The ice loss over the study period, from 1994 to 2017, is estimated to have raised sea levels by 35 millimetres. The greatest quantities of ice were lost from floating ice in the polar regions, raising the risk of a feedback mechanism known as albedo loss. White ice reflects solar radiation back into space – the albedo effect – but when floating sea ice melts it uncovers dark water which absorbs more heat, speeding up the warming further in a feedback loop. Glaciers showed the next biggest loss of ice volume, with more than 6tn tonnes lost between 1994 and 2017, about a quarter of global ice loss over the period. The shrinking of glaciers threatens to cause both flooding and water shortages in some regions, because as large volumes melt they can overwhelm downstream areas, then shrunken glaciers produce less of the steady water flow needed for agriculture. Inès Otosaka, report co-author and a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds centre for polar observation and modelling, said: “As well as contributing to global mean sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities. The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of crucial importance, at both local and global scales.” The study, titled Earth’s Ice Imbalance, used satellite observations over the 23-year period to assess ice all over the globe. Previous studies have examined parts of the world rather than making a comprehensive assessment of the data. The research team included the University of Edinburgh, University College London and Earthwave, a data science organisation, and was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/sea-level', 'environment/sea-ice', 'environment/glaciers', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/poles', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-01-25T09:00:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2008/jun/12/nuclearpower.nuclear | Stephen Thomas: This nuclear agenda is losing power | On Wednesday, the business secretary, John Hutton, made a statement saying the government would not allow a monopoly over new nuclear generation. This serves only as a further demonstration that the commitment not to subsidise nuclear power is weak. Hutton's statement follows the failure of the government to adhere to the pledge made by the energy minister Malcolm Wicks in 2006, when he told a select committee: "No cheques will be written, there will be no sweetheart deals." In fact, under the proposed new policy on waste, companies building nuclear power plants will be given a guaranteed fixed price for disposal of the waste they produce when they start construction. Claims by the government's adviser Tim Stone that this fixed price was "absolutely not a subsidy" are not credible: it certainly is a subsidy. And from past experience of the accuracy of nuclear cost estimates, it is one that could prove costly to taxpayers more than 100 years into the future when this waste is actually being disposed of. But this first chink in the no-subsidies armour is probably not top of the subsidies wishlist for companies wanting to build nuclear plants. A liability that does not arise for 100 years does not concern them: it is the costs they will incur in the next decade, especially construction expenses, that will be at the forefront of their minds. A decade ago, the nuclear industry forecast that a new generation of nuclear plants would cost $1000/kW. The French-German European pressurised reactor (EPR) Britain might build (1.6 million kW) would thus cost $1.6bn or about £800m at the current exchange rate. The latest estimates from companies that want to build such plants are that they will cost about £5bn, a six-fold increase in a decade, which is of especial significance when construction on the first EPR to be built is running two years late, and is 50% over budget. The plant vendor offered a fixed price contract so the cost overrun will be borne by them – not a risk any vendor will lightly take again. No company exposed to a competitive electricity market could afford to take these risks. Subsidies and guarantees required to allow them to build a nuclear plant would probably include: a guarantee from either the vendor or the government that the cost they pay will be the contract price, so that if the costs do overrun, they do not pay; loan guarantees so that if the companies go bankrupt the banks lending the money are still repaid (in order to ensure affordable interest rates on the loans); and some guarantee on the price paid for the power produced so that if the electricity wholesale price collapses, as it did in 2002, the company is protected. All this prompts the question of why Hutton maintains that the government will not allow a monopoly. If nuclear power is going to survive in the electricity market without subsidies and guarantees, market forces should prevent a nuclear operator exploiting its position. If there is a need to have competing nuclear companies, it can only be because nuclear will be protected from the wholesale electricity market by consumer or government subsidies and having two companies will therefore offer some level of discipline. On any realistic schedule, the first nuclear order is still five years away and companies like EDF cannot be held to promises made now that they can build plants without subsidy. The fear must be that if companies insist they will not proceed unless subsidies are offered, even after five years of the government pursuing what Hutton calls "a strong nuclear agenda", the government will be prompted to drop its refusal to give subsidies before abandoning its nuclear ambitions. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/stephenthomas'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2008-06-12T18:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/sep/16/aural-tattoos-sperm-whales-sounds-social-identity-symbolic-marking | ‘Aural tattoos’: sperm whales use sounds to signal social identity, say scientists | Sperm whales are among the deepest divers on the planet. They are natural submarines, spending 70% of their time foraging for squid in the dark ocean for up to 80 minutes at a time. When they break through what Herman Melville called “the ocean’s skin”, they socialise, twisting and turning their grey bodies around one another in a sensual, enigmatic choreography. They measure up to 18 metres long and have the biggest brains on Earth. For at least 200 years, scientists have wondered what these mammals do with those brains. Now, evidence has emerged that may revolutionise the way we think about whales. The authors of a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal have presented evidence that sperm whales’ culture is characterised by “symbolic marking”. In humans, symbolic marking such as clothing choice, hairstyle or tattoos shows “who one is inside on the outside”. It is implicit in what we wear, how we look, how we speak. Sperm whales, to express their culture, emit loud staccato clicks from their head, scientists have found. Otherwise used to echolocate prey, these sounds can take the form of emitted morse code-like sequences that the scientists call “identity codas”. When different clans of whales come together, they appear to use these codas to identify themselves. They are saying: this is us. The paper’s authors believe this is a social exchange, like a human conversation. “The signal can either be received by, or directed at, members of the same group (us) or members of different groups (them), or both,” Hal Whitehead, one of the authors, told the Guardian. Whitehead said the new data suggested “the presence of other groups (clans) affects the symbols” – an audible demonstration of ethnic diversity in another species, and proof that social marking is not unique to humans. The paper identifies seven whale clans in the Pacific Ocean whose discrete identity codas “serve functions within the umbrella of social bonding, similar to human music”. Their clicks represent whale taste, as much as human taste is expressed in fashion, hairstyles or piercings that advertise what group we identify with. The whales are not only identifying themselves to their own clan, but also are signalling their clanship to others in aural tattoos. Dr Taylor Hersh, the paper’s primary author, said the work showed “compelling, quantitative evidence” that identity codas were used in this way by whales. “A clear human analogy,” she said, “is that if you see someone wearing a necklace with a cross on it or a star of David, you know just from looking at that symbol something about a group the person considers themselves to be a member of.” Perhaps the most important conclusion is that these interactions have a defining, evolutionary aspect. “In humans, as cultural groups overlap more and more, we see more and more emphasis on these symbols. The same seems to be happening with the sperm whales,” said Hersh. As to what those clicks might mean – well, we may be about to find out. In his new book, How to Speak Whale, published this week, the film-maker Tom Mustill discusses new advances that indicate we might, in the near future, be able to “translate” whale communication, using a complex series of underwater listening systems to concentrate on a specific sperm whale pod and determine exactly how they react, audibly, to different situations, such as changes in weather, food sources, and social behaviour of their pod members. By linking the sounds that the whales are making with what they are doing at the time, Mustill says, the newly founded Cetacean Translation Initiative (Ceti) hopes to provide a comprehensive set of data, from which AI analysis can establish the meaning of the clicks. Ceti will then use whale “chatbots” to predict what the animals will say in certain situations and, in a science-fiction leap, attempt “bidirectional communication” – that is, talk back to the whales. It’s a scenario out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, only with the alien whine of a black monolith replaced by the sonar click of a grey leviathan. In 1970, recordings of humpback whale song proved to be the trigger that led to the successful Save the Whales campaigns of the 70s and 80s. Whale song opened our ears to the presence of a culture other than ours. Now, these revelations about the aural culture of whales may be another gamechanger in our relationship with the rest of the natural world. It’s our Doctor Dolittle moment. We may be about to converse with whales. But the big question is: what are they going to say? Did you know …? Sperm whales are named after the semi-liquid waxy substance in their heads called spermaceti, which is part of the process that makes their clicking sounds. It is so named because early biologists mistakenly assumed the substance was the whales’ semen. They are usually found in deep open waters. Females tend to remain between 40 degrees south and 40 degrees north, while males venture into latitudes as high as the 70s in both north and south. Their ranges are expanding as the world’s oceans heat up. They can compress their ribcages and collapse their lungs in order to withstand the pressure while feeding, often at depths of about 800m. To defend themselves from attack, they have been known to use a formation called the marguerite, in which they form a wagon wheel shape with their heads in the middle. They then use their tails to swipe at their attackers. Through their history, sperm whales have been heavily hunted for substances including ambergris, a waxy substance that forms around squid beaks in the whales’ digestive systems and is widely used in perfumes. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/whales', 'science/animalbehaviour', 'environment/mammals', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/oceans', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philip-hoare', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-09-16T11:59:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2021/oct/28/windermere-ferry-halted-after-excessive-rainfall-in-lake-district | Homes flooded in Cumbria and agency issues multiple warnings for region | About 40 homes have been flooded after more than a foot of rain fell over parts of Cumbria in 24 hours. Eleven flood warnings are in place across the county, meaning flooding is expected imminently. The areas covered include Cockermouth, Workington and Egremont, where river levels remain very high. A further 16 flood alerts were issued throughout the region, meaning a deluge remains likely, as the Environment Agency warned of continued risk into the weekend. Ben Lukey, the flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said: “Our thoughts are with local residents in Cumbria, who have sadly experienced the effects of the heavy and persistent we have seen. We are urging people to remain vigilant as surface water and river flooding could still bring disruption to further communities in parts of Cumbria.” The operators of the Windermere ferry, which shuttles between Nab End and Bowness, have apologised for being unable to run the service with the lake being too full. “Due to excessive rainfall overnight the lake levels have risen to an extent whereby we cannot land safely and must suspend services till levels drop,” they tweeted. The Original Mountain Marathon, due to take place in the Langdales over two days from 30 October, has also been cancelled, for only the third time in its 53-year history because of the downpour. The event’s organisers said conditions made it impossible to set up the necessary infrastructure along the 52-mile (85km) course to ensure the safety of the 2,000 participants. The Environment Agency issued warnings for areas of Keswick by Derwent Water, saying water levels remained high after heavy rainfall. “Avoid using low-lying footpaths and any bridges near local watercourses, do not attempt to walk or drive through flood water,” the agency said. Sections of Lake District rivers including the Cocker, Kent, Greta and Rothay are also at risk of flooding. The A591, which was badly damaged during Storm Desmond in 2015, was currently impassable between Rydal and Grasmere, Cumbria constabulary said. Drivers were urged not to take unnecessary risks and only travel if necessary. Train passengers have been advised to avoid travelling on the west coast mainline between north-west England and Scotland until Friday; the operator Avanti warned of severe disruption north of Preston. Stewart Mounsey, the Environment Agency’s flood risk manager in Cumbria, said: “We’ve had over 12 inches of rain in the central Lake District in the last 24 hours and the rivers have responded.” In a video on Twitter on Thursday morning Mounsey said: “The rain is set to continue today but ease later on this afternoon, but we would urge people to be prepared and ready to act.” Firefighters were called to Duddon Bridge on Wednesday night after several vehicles were stranded in flood water. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/lake-district', 'environment/environment-agency', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenpidd', 'profile/euan-o-byrne-mulligan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-10-28T10:37:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2018/oct/16/amazon-launches-new-thinner-lighter-water-resistant-kindle-paperwhite-bluetooth-audiobook | Amazon launches water-resistant Kindle Paperwhite | Amazon has launched a new version of its popular Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, which is thinner, lighter and now finally water resistant. The new 2018 Kindle Paperwhite is the second Amazon e-ink device to be given the water resistance treatment following the launch of the Rolls Royce of e-readers, the £230 Oasis, in 2017. The new Paperwhite costs just over half as much as the Oasis, at £120, offering the same protection for up to 2m depth for up to 30 minutes. Eric Saarnio, head of Amazon Devices for Europe, said: “Customers love the Kindle Paperwhite, and we’re excited to bring premium features — like a thinner and lighter flush-front design, additional storage, waterproofing and Audible — to our most popular Kindle.” The new Paperwhite is 8.18mm thick and weighs 182g, making it just under 1mm thinner and 23g lighter than the older model, which was released in 2015. The 6in e-ink screen is now flush with the front of the device, similar to the Kindle Oasis, with the same 300ppi resolution and front-lighting for reading in the dark. The new Paperwhite also now has Bluetooth for connecting wireless headphones or speakers, and built-in Audible support for Amazon’s audiobook store, including the company’s syncing service that matches pages in an ebook to time points in an audiobook. The new Paperwhite also starts with twice the storage of the old model, available with 8GB costing £129 or 32GB costing £150. The latter is also available with 3G for £219. All models are available for pre-order today, with the cheapest 8GB model shipping on 7 November along with a collection of cases and accessories. The 32GB models will ship at a later date. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2015 review: the sharpest and best yet Amazon Kindle Oasis 2017 review: the Rolls-Royce of e-readers | ['technology/amazon', 'technology/ereaders', 'technology/kindle', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'technology/internet', 'technology/efinance', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/consumer-tech--commissioning-'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-10-16T13:00:14Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
food/2022/nov/28/lab-grown-food-is-no-way-to-nourish-the-planet | Lab-grown food is no way to nourish the planet | Letters | I agree with George Monbiot that it is essential we curb the relentless expansion of industrial agriculture into precious ecosystems if Earth’s life-support systems are to survive. What concerns me is Monbiot’s solution (Embrace what may be the most important green technology ever. It could save us all, 24 November). Close to despair at the failure of the world to take effective measures to curb this destruction, Monbiot is turning to technical fixes, such as precision fermentation, which can produce food without photosynthesis, practically from thin air. This means that 1,700 times less land is required to produce protein than in the world’s most efficient agricultural system. But this hi-tech solution presents dangers. Even though Monbiot says that he would like poor countries all over the world to install fermentation tanks under local control, this seems unlikely. The technology, developed under corporate control, has been patented. Corporations driven by profits are unlikely to democratise control, and the technology is likely to be used by them to extend their reach over the natural world. The only real hope comes from creating a massive global movement of climate activists, youth movements, traditional peasant movements, Indigenous activists and others. They have shown that it is possible to build resilient local food systems while protecting the ecosystem. A sudden transition to the large-scale global production of cheap food by a tech fix could threaten the livelihoods of traditional communities when their knowledge is needed more than ever. While precision fermentation may have a supplementary role to play, it must be monitored and placed under public control. If not, it could do more harm than good. Sue Branford Clun, Shropshire • Every time we have tried to simplify and rationalise the process of producing food, it has led to unforeseen and damaging consequences. Synthetic fertilisers, chemical pesticides, crop and grass monocultures, intensive livestock farming, herbicide-ready crops, reliance on antibiotics: the list is long. The George Monbiot who has long argued passionately for the protection of the full complexity of the web of life knows all this. But here is another George Monbiot who seems to think we can solve all our problems simply by messing about with a few chemicals in a lab. George mark one – Eco George – has often argued strongly in favour of the precautionary principle. Perhaps he should have a word with the mark two version – Tech Bro George. Richard Middleton Crossmichael, Dumfries and Galloway • George Monbiot’s brave new world of precision fermentation evokes a dystopian future of mega factories churning out 1,001 varieties of artificial food. The fundamental problem with this technology is that, given a choice, few people would choose it. The future of food production will involve major changes to protect the environment. However, abolishing farmed and fished foods, and replacing them with factory-made substitutes could not work, at least in countries where people are free to choose what they eat. The kind of extremist solutions proposed by Monbiot would require either nightmare, Elon Musk-style capitalism or Chinese-style state control. Please at least leave us some choice in what and how we eat. Ian Healey Worthing, West Sussex • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. | ['food/food', 'environment/farming', 'technology/technology', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'global-development/food-security', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-11-28T17:40:58Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2023/mar/09/australia-invests-429bn-in-renewable-energy-in-december-quarter-10-times-the-previous-three-months | Australia invests $4.29bn in renewable energy in December quarter, 10 times the previous three months | Investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage accelerated in the final three months of 2022, creating the largest quarterly investments for more than four years, but the pace remains inadequate, the Clean Energy Council says. Developers made financial commitments to renewables and storage totalling $4.29bn in the December quarter, a 10-fold increase on the previous three months. The year-end spurt lifted investment commitments to $6.2bn for 2022, a 17% increase on the previous year. “While the uptick is encouraging, one quarter doesn’t mean a trend,” said the council’s chief executive, Kane Thornton. “Australia is deploying new large-scale generation – wind and solar farms – more slowly than needed to reach the 82% target for renewable energy on the National Electricity Market” by 2030. “The fact remains that the rolling quarterly average investment over 12 months has not risen above $2bn since the second quarter of 2019,” Thornton said. The investment details come a fortnight after the Australian Energy Market Operator warned of potential “reliability gaps” in the national power grid without “urgent” action in coming years to encourage more clean energy capacity and storage. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup An indication of how pressure on the grid can spike came on Monday when the first major heatwave for eastern New South Wales for more than a year broke electricity demand records for March by almost a 1,000 megawatts, Aemo said. Thornton said the jump in investment was a response to the “more positive political and policy environment” and greater coordination by governments. Still, much of the expansion in commitments was the result of the financial signoff for the 756MW stage one of the Golden Plains windfarm, north-west of Geelong. That first stage alone was worth $2bn, the council said. The project also accounted for more than a third of 1923MW of new installed capacity that reached financial close during the quarter. The tally was up about four-fold from the previous quarter, lifting the rolling 12-month average to its highest level in five quarters. The industry is relying on fewer but larger projects, if the latest trends are a guide. Last year 15 generation projects for a total of 3.57 gigawatts of installed capacity secured financial approval. In 2021 the tally was 23 projects for 3.06GW, the council said. NSW led with its five projects accounting for 1,559MW in 2022. Victoria claimed second spot with its four new projects adding 945MW of new capacity, ahead of Queensland’s three projects with 495MW. On the storage front, South Australia’s 800MW-hour Blyth battery was the largest single project reaching financial close in the December quarter. For the year as a whole, investors signed off on 12 projects for a total of 7,374MWh of storage, more than double the 2,900MWh – also for 12 projects – in 2021, the council said. Delays of at least a year in Snowy Hydro’s giant 2.0 pumped hydro scheme and its gas- and hydrogen-powered Kurri Kurri plant have lately added to worries about power supplies, particularly as ageing coal-fired power plants close. AGL Energy’s Liddell coal plant in the Hunter Valley – now operating just three of its four units – will be the next to shut down, with the remaining 1,260MW scheduled to be switched off on 28 April. Thornton called for the renewable energy target to be increased and extended beyond its 2030 deadline to support the sector. “We know that to truly have an effect on long-term energy prices, Australia needs the security provided by low-cost electricity direct from solar and wind and reduce our reliance on increasingly expensive gas and unreliable coal generation,” he said. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energy-storage', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-03-08T14:00:42Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/commentisfree/2022/dec/13/a-stingray-do-they-get-a-little-light-headed-as-they-feel-the-electricity-brighten-speed-up-then-die | A stingray: do they get a little light-headed as they feel the electricity brighten, speed up, then die? | Helen Sullivan | Where do you begin with an animal whose mouth looks like a face, whose face is split into two – half at the top, and half the bottom; who can breathe with either part – from spiracles behind the eyes, or gills behind the mouth; whose teeth are scales; whose scales are teeth-like (denticles)? When stingrays hunt, they lose sight of their prey – their eyes are bad, and their prey is often underneath them. To find and feel clams, mussels, crabs and fish, the rays rely on electroreceptors in their skin, or, as National Geographic puts it, “special gel-filled pits”. They literally inhale their food, gulping down the electric signal. As they do this, they breathe through the spiracles behind their eyes, which work less efficiently than their gills. Do they get a little light-headed, breathing as if through a towel, feeling the electricity brighten, speed up, then die? “Maybe it’s like feeling the presence of someone hiding in a dark room,” says the narrator of a YouTube video explaining how this electric sense works. “Every time a fish opens its mouth to breathe, it exposes its mucous membranes to the salty water, creating a tiny voltage that disappears every time the mouth closes.” In this way (that fish mouth movement is called, grossly, “buccal pumping”) each fish produces an electric frequency of two hertz: the same as the number of breaths. The pores on the stingray’s face are called “ampullae of Lorenzini”. They’re dark, and give the ray the appearance of a five o’clock shadow’s worth of stubble. The gel in the pores is highly conductive. It carries the particular signal to cells that read it, and tell the ray what it is: prey just big enough, and alive enough, to swallow whole. Like a fish mouth, a clam, too, opens and closes; a crab draws saltwater over the gills on its carapace. Stingrays are venomous. Most venomous creatures store their poison in a gland. Not the stingray, whose venom is in its very tissue. It has no bones. Poisonous tissue, electric senses: where do you begin? At Heron Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, I saw young stingrays. They were very pale gold, the same colour as the sand. They shuffled in groups of four, or seven, or 12, where the almost waveless ocean met the flat beach. Seen through the impossibly clear water, they seemed almost transparent, figures of clear metal bumping up against the water’s edge, like ghosts trying to cross into the living world. • Helen Sullivan’s first book, Calcium-Magnesium, will be published in Australia in 2023 | ['environment/series/the-nature-of', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/helen-sullivan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-12-12T14:00:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2017/aug/29/scientists-devise-early-thunderstorm-alerts-for-fishermen-in-africa | Scientists devise early thunderstorm alerts for fishermen in Africa | Every year thousands of fishermen in east Africa are killed in boating accidents due to intense night-time thunderstorms that whip up unexpectedly on Lake Victoria. Now a new satellite-based forecast system may help to provide early warnings of the storms. Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, is the perfect setting for brewing thunderstorms. During the day hot air rises over the land surrounding the lake (in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya) creating onshore breezes. At night-time the opposite occurs, with air rising over the now warmer lake, pulling air offshore from the cooling land. “As the lake is shaped like a circle, these land breezes from all directions converge above the lake. Add evaporation to this cocktail and you get a lot of storms, rain, wind, and waves,” explains Wim Thiery, a climate scientist from ETH Zürich. About 200,000 people fish in the productive waters of the lake and International Red Cross estimates suggest that every year between 3,000 and 5,000 fishermen die because of the violent storms. Using regular satellite observations taken over the lake, Thiery and his colleagues spotted a strong statistical relationship between certain weather conditions and the probability of a storm. In particular the presence of “overshooting tops” – dome-like protrusions atop cumulonimbus anvil clouds – was associated with intense updrafts. Writing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, Thiery and colleagues describe the model they have developed. It uses satellite observations to generate storm warnings several hours in advance, and the predictions are publicly available. Now the team is developing an automatic storm warning system, which will be published on Twitter and freely available to all. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/africa', 'environment/fishing', 'science/satellites', 'environment/water', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-08-29T20:30:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/jun/17/uk-refuses-to-commit-to-reduction-of-legal-air-pollution-levels | UK refuses to commit to immediate lowering of air pollution limits | The government has refused to commit to an immediate lowering of legal levels of air pollution as a result of the death of a nine-year-old child from toxic air. Ella Kissi-Debrah was the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of their death in a historic ruling by a coroner earlier this year. The schoolgirl died after an asthma attack following multiple seizures and hospital admissions. Her death sparked calls for the immediate lowering of legal air pollution levels to bring them in line with those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO says particulate pollution from fine particulate matter PM2.5 should not exceed an annual mean of 10 μg/m3. For PM10 the limit is 20 µg/m3 annual mean. But the UK currently has higher limits for fine particulate matter: 40 µg/m3 annual mean for PM10 and 25 µg/m3 for PM2.5. In his findings, Philip Barlow, the coroner for inner south London, said that during her life Ella was exposed to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM) pollution in excess of WHO guidelines, the principal source of which were traffic emissions. Failure to reduce pollution levels to legal limits possibly contributed to her death, as did the failure to provide her mother with information about the potential for air pollution to exacerbate asthma, he found. The coroner called for legally binding levels of particulate pollution to be lowered as a result of Ella’s death, to meet the WHO limits. “The national limits for particulate matter are set at a level far higher than the WHO guidelines,” he said. “The evidence at the inquest was that there is no safe level for particulate matter and that the WHO guidelines should be seen as minimum requirements. Legally binding targets based on WHO guidelines would reduce the number of deaths from air pollution in the UK.” In its response to the coroner’s findings released on Thursday the government said it would put the issue out to public consultation next January, with a view to setting new air pollution targets in October 2022. In a statement Defra said: “The government has used the World Health Organization guidelines on PM2.5 to inform its ambitions in shaping these targets. “Further to this, the new Office for Health Promotion will consider as a priority how public health benefits can be achieved through reductions in population exposure to PM2.5, taking into account the particular circumstances experienced in London and the south-east.” The government also promised an extra £6m for local authorities to help fund improved public awareness about risks of air pollution, to develop what it called a “more sophisticated population exposure reduction target” to drive reductions of air pollution in all areas and significantly increase the monitoring network, and that NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) would continue work to identify environmental triggers for asthma and more personalised care. Sarah Woolnough, the chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said the government’s plans just scratched the surface of the health impacts of toxic air. “Air pollution causes new lung conditions and worsens existing ones. It can even trigger life-threatening asthma attacks and COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] flare-ups … We need ambitious new laws that tackle the cause of the problem, with targets that meet the coroner’s recommendation to adopt World Health Organization guidelines. “Without bold action, tens of thousands of people will continue to die early from air pollution each year.” Jocelyn Cockburn, the lawyer representing Ella’s mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, said: “The ongoing failure to address toxic levels of emissions and to bring them to within legal limits means that air pollution continues to blight the lives of children like Ella. “The global debate around air quality has now become an urgent priority … We expect a robust and coordinated plan from the UK government for bringing levels of key pollutants down in line with WHO recommendations and for initiating a strong public awareness campaign which will safeguard generations of children to come. Anything less will be a disgraceful response to an issue which has dominated headlines, particularly during the pandemic.” Katie Nield, a lawyer at the environmental law charity ClientEarth, said: “The coroner couldn’t have been clearer on the need to align UK law with the World Health Organization guidelines on PM2.5. He said it would save lives. Yet the government has totally disregarded this. “What they are announcing today to deal with this lethal pollutant is nothing but old commitments repackaged. This is a disgrace given what happened to Ella and what continues to happen to children and adults across the country because of toxic air. “If the prime minister really wants to make the environment bill a lodestar, his government has to massively step up.” The environment secretary, George Eustice, said: “Ella’s death was a tragedy and I would like to pay tribute to her family and friends who have campaigned so tirelessly on this issue, and continue to do so. “Today’s response is part of a much wider cross-government effort to drive forward tangible and long-lasting changes to improve the air we breathe, as well as doing more to inform the public about the risks. “We know that there is more to do, which is why we are setting new legally binding targets on particulate matter pollution and building on our clean air strategy to accelerate action to clean up our air.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'society/asthma', 'uk/london', 'society/health', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-06-17T13:31:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2023/mar/09/australia-invests-429bn-in-renewable-energy-in-december-quarter-10-times-the-previous-three-months | Australia invests $4.29bn in renewable energy in December quarter, 10 times the previous three months | Investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage accelerated in the final three months of 2022, creating the largest quarterly investments for more than four years, but the pace remains inadequate, the Clean Energy Council says. Developers made financial commitments to renewables and storage totalling $4.29bn in the December quarter, a 10-fold increase on the previous three months. The year-end spurt lifted investment commitments to $6.2bn for 2022, a 17% increase on the previous year. “While the uptick is encouraging, one quarter doesn’t mean a trend,” said the council’s chief executive, Kane Thornton. “Australia is deploying new large-scale generation – wind and solar farms – more slowly than needed to reach the 82% target for renewable energy on the National Electricity Market” by 2030. “The fact remains that the rolling quarterly average investment over 12 months has not risen above $2bn since the second quarter of 2019,” Thornton said. The investment details come a fortnight after the Australian Energy Market Operator warned of potential “reliability gaps” in the national power grid without “urgent” action in coming years to encourage more clean energy capacity and storage. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup An indication of how pressure on the grid can spike came on Monday when the first major heatwave for eastern New South Wales for more than a year broke electricity demand records for March by almost a 1,000 megawatts, Aemo said. Thornton said the jump in investment was a response to the “more positive political and policy environment” and greater coordination by governments. Still, much of the expansion in commitments was the result of the financial signoff for the 756MW stage one of the Golden Plains windfarm, north-west of Geelong. That first stage alone was worth $2bn, the council said. The project also accounted for more than a third of 1923MW of new installed capacity that reached financial close during the quarter. The tally was up about four-fold from the previous quarter, lifting the rolling 12-month average to its highest level in five quarters. The industry is relying on fewer but larger projects, if the latest trends are a guide. Last year 15 generation projects for a total of 3.57 gigawatts of installed capacity secured financial approval. In 2021 the tally was 23 projects for 3.06GW, the council said. NSW led with its five projects accounting for 1,559MW in 2022. Victoria claimed second spot with its four new projects adding 945MW of new capacity, ahead of Queensland’s three projects with 495MW. On the storage front, South Australia’s 800MW-hour Blyth battery was the largest single project reaching financial close in the December quarter. For the year as a whole, investors signed off on 12 projects for a total of 7,374MWh of storage, more than double the 2,900MWh – also for 12 projects – in 2021, the council said. Delays of at least a year in Snowy Hydro’s giant 2.0 pumped hydro scheme and its gas- and hydrogen-powered Kurri Kurri plant have lately added to worries about power supplies, particularly as ageing coal-fired power plants close. AGL Energy’s Liddell coal plant in the Hunter Valley – now operating just three of its four units – will be the next to shut down, with the remaining 1,260MW scheduled to be switched off on 28 April. Thornton called for the renewable energy target to be increased and extended beyond its 2030 deadline to support the sector. “We know that to truly have an effect on long-term energy prices, Australia needs the security provided by low-cost electricity direct from solar and wind and reduce our reliance on increasingly expensive gas and unreliable coal generation,” he said. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energy-storage', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2023-03-08T14:00:42Z | true | ENERGY |
education/2020/jan/14/air-filters-test-scores-gas-leak-aliso-canyon | Can air purifiers improve students' academic performance? | A 2015 gas leak that belched toxic chemicals into the air and spread panic may have indirectly led to higher student test scores. In the days after a gas leak was discovered in Aliso Canyon, 30 miles north of Los Angeles, thousands of residents were evacuated from the area, many of whom reported headaches, nausea, stomach aches, dizziness or breathing problems. Students from two nearby schools were relocated and 18 other schools were impacted. The gas field owner, Southern California Gas Company, responded to the backlash and installed air purifiers in every classroom and office within a five-mile radius of the leak. The air purifiers appear to have been installed in an abundance of caution. By the time SoCalGas installed them months after the gas leak, testing showed air at those schools had levels of pollutants within the normal range. Regardless, the circumstances created an unlikely laboratory to study air quality and its impact on learning. A working paper from the New York University researcher Michael Gilraine found that students who breathed purified air saw gains on math and English tests greater than those who attended schools outside of the boundary. There’s some dispute over the significance of those gains (an increase of .2 standard deviations in math and 0.18 in English). Vox compares the effect to what’s been seen in classrooms that have fewer students, and suggests schools can boost student performance simply by installing simple air purifiers. Mother Jones is skeptical about how impressive those gains are and whether they would justify costs of $1,000 a classroom. But the study adds to the mounting body of research to what we intuitively know is true: polluted air is bad for brains and bodies. Research has shown that those living close to refineries, plants and interstates see higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, strokes and deficits in lung function that can lead to a lifetime of health problems. Despite the fact a state law passed in 2003 prohibits school districts from building new schools within 500ft of a freeway, tens of thousands of students in Los Angeles still attend schools within that distance. A Los Angeles Unified school district spokesperson said officials have taken a number of steps to protect air quality: the use of pesticides and harmful chemicals is limited or prohibited at schools; the district communicates with outside agencies to monitor air pollution; and all schools have air conditioner systems with filters. (The schools near Aliso Canyon got purifiers, not just filters, so students were essentially breathing extra-filtered air.) In California, as is true elsewhere, people of color and those living in poor neighborhoods breathe more polluted air. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found alarming disparities: Hispanic people were 6.2 times more likely than whites to live in the zip codes that saw the worst pollution; African Americans were 5.8 times more likely. Native Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and multiracial individuals were all worse off than white people. The problem was most pronounced in the San Joaquin Valley and near Los Angeles, data showed. In the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural center, nearly one-quarter of the population suffers from asthma. Most of those affected are poor and not white. In Boyle Heights, an east Los Angeles community where more than 90% of residents are Hispanic, children grow up around a tangle of freeways, four rail yards emitting diesel exhaust, body shops and chrome-platers. Experts say that air filters can help clean the air, but can’t filter out all particles and caution against looking to them as fix, the Los Angeles Times reported. Addressing the problem more holistically might involve increasing the housing stock so developers don’t have to build homes and schools so close to freeways. Similarly, while filtered air is no panacea for schools, studying its impact is part of a growing awareness that myriad factors outside of school affect learning, and an example of willingness to look to unlikely places to address problems – whether that means providing free breakfasts, adding washing machines, or installing air purifiers. | ['education/education-us', 'environment/pollution', 'us-news/los-angeles', 'us-news/california', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/mario-koran', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-01-14T11:00:32Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk-news/2020/feb/19/immigration-firms-will-need-to-train-more-uk-workers-says-priti-patel | Immigration: firms will need to train more UK workers, says Priti Patel | Companies will need to train more British workers to fill vacancies when the new immigration system kicks in requiring foreign workers to have qualifications and the ability to speak English, Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said. In a round of television and radio interviews, she said 8 million people between the ages of 16 and 64 were “economically inactive” and could be given the skills to do jobs in sectors where there were shortages as a result of the new points-based system. Business groups from the CBI to the bodies representing the farming, hospitality and care work sectors have all raised the alarm about the new system, saying it will cause labour shortages. But Patel insisted it would be necessary for businesses to look more to potential British workers, helping them to “up their skills and make their skills relevant” to the job market. She was pressed by BBC Radio 5 live about the feasibility of training the 8 million people she cited when that is made up mostly of students, the long-term unemployed, the retired and those with caring responsibilities, with Britain almost at full employment. But Patel insisted that 20% of available working age people were inactive and could be encouraged into work. She said the government was “no longer going to have a route for low-skilled workers to come to the UK” but denied this would be the end of Polish builders arriving in Britain as they could get jobs with construction companies rather than being self-employed. Patel also denied that she was closing the door behind her on immigrants after her parents came to the UK from east Africa to run a shop, saying they would have qualified under refugee route because of their persecution. Following the publication, industry leaders immediately accused the government of an assault on the economy warning of “disastrous” consequences with job losses and closures in factories and the high street. A 10-page briefing document outlining the new immigration policy states: • UK borders will be closed to non-skilled workers – and all migrants will have to speak English. • Anyone wanting to come to the UK to work must have a job offer with a salary threshold of £25,600 – though a salary “floor” of £20,480 will be acceptable in special cases where there might be a shortage, such as in nursing. • There will be no route for self-employed people coming into the UK, spelling the end of, for example, Polish plumbers or Romanian builders arriving without a job. • Border control will no longer accept ID cards from countries such as France and Italy. This, it is understood, is an attempt to clamp down on non-EU workers beating the system with forged or stolen ID cards. • The skills threshold for foreign nationals wanting to work in the UK will be lowered from degree level to A-levels or their equivalent. The cap on the numbers of skilled workers is being scrapped – and a small number of highly skilled workers will be allowed to come in without a job. Industry leaders warned the changes would have a huge impact on food processing factories that rely heavily on EU workers to keep the supermarket shelves full with pre-packed chicken, beef and pork cuts. Tom Hadley, director of policy at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said: “Jobs the government considers ‘low-skilled’ are vital to wellbeing and business growth. The announcement threatens to shut out the people we need to provide services the public rely on. “We need access to workers that can help us look after the elderly, build homes and keep the economy strong.” The UKHospitality chief executive, Kate Nicholls, said “ruling out a temporary, low-skilled route for migration in just 10 months’ time would be disastrous for the hospitality sector and the British people” and deter investment in the high street. The Confederation of British Industry director general, Carolyn Fairbairn, said the removal of the cap on the number of skilled workers was welcome, but she warned that in “some sectors, firms would be left wondering how they would recruit the people needed to run their businesses. “With already low unemployment, firms in care, construction, hospitality, food and drink could be most affected,” she said. The hospitality sector will also be hit with no “barista visa” for coffee shops, despite warnings from Pret A Manger two years ago that only one in 50 job applicants were British. The government said it was removing waiters, waitresses, and “elementary” jobs in agriculture and fishing from the skilled list and added them to the unskilled list in line with the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations. | ['uk/immigration', 'uk/uk', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'politics/priti-patel', 'politics/politics', 'business/business', 'business/construction', 'business/retail', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rowena-mason', 'profile/lisaocarroll', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-02-19T09:20:40Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2019/feb/17/joy-growing-extinct-plants | The joy of growing extinct plants | There is something fascinatingly weird about us gardeners. For as much as horticulture is all about the therapeutic art of nurturing and caring for plants, it is also often just as much about the feverish need to amass collections of them. From the 19th-century oligarchs who would send teams of plant hunters to scour the earth for the undiscovered to 21st-century urban flat dwellers like me who will spend hours (and far too much money) on internet auction sites and rare plant markets to track down elusive varieties, this pursuit of rarity seems for many an intrinsic part of what it is to be a gardener. All too often, however, this desire can put pressure on wild populations, as plants are over-collected to fuel this insatiable demand. There is a solution. If you have this hunger for growing the weird and wonderful, look to plants that are so rare they are actually extinct in the wild. For those with only a windowsill, things don’t get much better than the Hawaiian palm Brighamia insignis. Its stout, fleshy, silvery sheened trunk is topped with a lush crown of lobed, apple-green leaves, making it look like something out of a sci-fi film. In early summer, mature plants throw out a spray of elegant white, star-shaped flowers with funnel-like throats. Sadly it is this elegance that was part of their undoing. With such long throats to their flowers, they could only be pollinated by a moth that evolved alongside them. When that became extinct, it doomed the plants to relying on humans to propagate them. Fortunately hand-pollinated plants are now sold widely in the houseplant trade, with a percentage of funds going to conserve its native habitat. For those with a sunny conservatory, angel’s trumpet, or brugmansia, is a dramatic shrub from the high Andes, sending out dozens of sweetly scented hanging trumpets in a range of pastels. All seven species in this genus are thought to be functionally extinct in the wild, as although they are capable of setting viable fruit, the seeds within remain trapped inside a tough husk and undispersed. It is thought this vital ecological service was once carried out by giant sloths, hunted to extinction millennia ago. Fortunately, indigenous people prize these species for religious and ritual use, which has helped keep them going. Finally, for those with garden space, my pick is a ginkgo. Despite being one of the world’s most ancient plants, predating dinosaurs, they are believed to be totally extinct in the wild. The last remaining forest stand of them in their native east Asia, was recently found to not be wild at all, but an ancient plantation tended to by monks. With beautiful fish-tail leaves that turn butter yellow in the autumn, wonderful architectural structure and potential medicinal value (the leaves are used to make a tea believed to enhance memory), you can’t ask for much more. If you don’t have much space, ginkgos make good candidates for pots, which dramatically restrict their growth rate. Horticulture is the only thing keeping many of these species alive, so by choosing to grow these plants you are playing a direct part in their conservation. It is how to get some of the rarest plants on earth in your collection, in a sustainable way. Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@Botanygeek | ['lifeandstyle/series/james-wong-on-gardens', 'lifeandstyle/gardeningadvice', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/plants', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/james-wong', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/life-and-style', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-magazine'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-02-17T11:00:40Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2023/mar/09/australia-invests-429bn-in-renewable-energy-in-december-quarter-10-times-the-previous-three-months | Australia invests $4.29bn in renewable energy in December quarter, 10 times the previous three months | Investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage accelerated in the final three months of 2022, creating the largest quarterly investments for more than four years, but the pace remains inadequate, the Clean Energy Council says. Developers made financial commitments to renewables and storage totalling $4.29bn in the December quarter, a 10-fold increase on the previous three months. The year-end spurt lifted investment commitments to $6.2bn for 2022, a 17% increase on the previous year. “While the uptick is encouraging, one quarter doesn’t mean a trend,” said the council’s chief executive, Kane Thornton. “Australia is deploying new large-scale generation – wind and solar farms – more slowly than needed to reach the 82% target for renewable energy on the National Electricity Market” by 2030. “The fact remains that the rolling quarterly average investment over 12 months has not risen above $2bn since the second quarter of 2019,” Thornton said. The investment details come a fortnight after the Australian Energy Market Operator warned of potential “reliability gaps” in the national power grid without “urgent” action in coming years to encourage more clean energy capacity and storage. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup An indication of how pressure on the grid can spike came on Monday when the first major heatwave for eastern New South Wales for more than a year broke electricity demand records for March by almost a 1,000 megawatts, Aemo said. Thornton said the jump in investment was a response to the “more positive political and policy environment” and greater coordination by governments. Still, much of the expansion in commitments was the result of the financial signoff for the 756MW stage one of the Golden Plains windfarm, north-west of Geelong. That first stage alone was worth $2bn, the council said. The project also accounted for more than a third of 1923MW of new installed capacity that reached financial close during the quarter. The tally was up about four-fold from the previous quarter, lifting the rolling 12-month average to its highest level in five quarters. The industry is relying on fewer but larger projects, if the latest trends are a guide. Last year 15 generation projects for a total of 3.57 gigawatts of installed capacity secured financial approval. In 2021 the tally was 23 projects for 3.06GW, the council said. NSW led with its five projects accounting for 1,559MW in 2022. Victoria claimed second spot with its four new projects adding 945MW of new capacity, ahead of Queensland’s three projects with 495MW. On the storage front, South Australia’s 800MW-hour Blyth battery was the largest single project reaching financial close in the December quarter. For the year as a whole, investors signed off on 12 projects for a total of 7,374MWh of storage, more than double the 2,900MWh – also for 12 projects – in 2021, the council said. Delays of at least a year in Snowy Hydro’s giant 2.0 pumped hydro scheme and its gas- and hydrogen-powered Kurri Kurri plant have lately added to worries about power supplies, particularly as ageing coal-fired power plants close. AGL Energy’s Liddell coal plant in the Hunter Valley – now operating just three of its four units – will be the next to shut down, with the remaining 1,260MW scheduled to be switched off on 28 April. Thornton called for the renewable energy target to be increased and extended beyond its 2030 deadline to support the sector. “We know that to truly have an effect on long-term energy prices, Australia needs the security provided by low-cost electricity direct from solar and wind and reduce our reliance on increasingly expensive gas and unreliable coal generation,” he said. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energy-storage', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2023-03-08T14:00:42Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/jun/04/global-warming-hasnt-paused-study-finds | Global warming 'pause' didn't happen, study finds | Global warming has not undergone a ‘pause’ or ‘hiatus’, according to US government research that undermines one of the key arguments used by sceptics to question climate science. The new study reassessed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (Noaa) temperature record to account for changing methods of measuring the global surface temperature over the past century. The adjustments to the data were slight, but removed a flattening of the graph this century that has led climate sceptics to claim the rise in global temperatures had stopped. “There is no slowdown in warming, there is no hiatus,” said lead author Dr Tom Karl, who is the director of Noaa’s National Climatic Data Centre. Dr Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said: “The fact that such small changes to the analysis make the difference between a hiatus or not merely underlines how fragile a concept it was in the first place.” The results, published on Thursday in the journal Science, showed the rate of warming over the past 15 years (0.116C per decade) was almost exactly the same, in fact slightly higher, as the past five decades (0.113C per decade). In 2013, the UN’s most comprehensive report on climate science made a tentative observation that the years since 1998 had seen a “much smaller increasing trend” than the preceding half century. The results highlighted the inadequacy of using the global mean surface temperature as the primary yardstick for climate change. Karl said: “There’s been a lot of work done trying to understand the so-called hiatus and understand where is this missing heat.” A series of studies have since identified a number of factors, including heat transferred into deep oceans and small volcanic eruptions, that affected the temperature at the surface of the Earth. “Those studies are all quite valid and what they suggest is had those factors not occurred the warming rate would even be greater than what we report,” said Karl. Dr Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the UK’s Met Office, said Noaa’s research was “robust” and mirrored an analysis the British team is conducting on its own surface temperature record. “Their work is consistent with independent work that we’ve done. It’s within our uncertainties. Part of the robustness and reliability of these records is that there are different groups around the world doing this work,” he said. But Stott argued that the term slowdown remained valid because the past 15 years might have been still hotter were it not for natural variations. In the coming years the world is expected to move out of a period in which the gradient of warming has not slowed even though the temperature has been moderated. This means “we could have 10 or 15 years of very rapid rates of warming,” he said. “Even though the observed estimate is increased, over and above that there is plenty of evidence that the rate of warming is still being depressed,” he said. “The caution is around saying that that is our underlying warming rate, because the climate models are predicting substantially higher rates than that.” Noaa’s historical observations were thrown out by unaccounted-for differences between the measurements taken by ships using buckets and ships using thermometers in their engine in-takes, the increased use of ocean buoys and a large increase in the number of land-based monitoring stations. “Science can only progress based on as much information as we have and what you see today is the most comprehensive assessment we can do based on all the information that’s been collected,” said Karl. Schmidt called the new observations “state of the art” and said Nasa had been in discussions with Noaa about how to incorporate the findings into their own global temperature record. Prof Michael Mann, whose analysis of the global temperature in the 1990s revolutionised the field, said the work underlined the conclusions of his own recent research. “They’ve sort of just confirmed what we already knew, there is no true ‘pause’ or ‘hiatus’ in warming,” he said. “To the extent that the study further drives home the fact ... that global warming continues unabated as we continue to burn fossil fuels and warm the planet, it is nonetheless a useful contribution to the literature.” Bob Ward, policy and communications director at London’s Grantham Research Institute, said the news that warming had been greater than previously thought should cause governments currently meeting in Bonn to act with renewed urgency and lay foundations for a strong agreement at the pivotal climate conference in Paris this December. “The myth of the global warming pause has been heavily promoted by climate change sceptics seeking to undermine the case for strong and urgent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ward. Since scientists began to report a slower than expected rate of warming during the last decade, climate sceptics have latched on to the apparent dip in order to question the validity of climate models. Last February, US Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told CNN: “The last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming. Contrary to all the theories that – that they are expounding, there should have been warming over the last 15 years. It hasn’t happened.” Cruz’s rival for the Republican nomination, Jeb Bush, was using the pause to argue for inaction as early as 2009. The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK thinktank set up by Nigel Lawson to lobby against action on climate change and which hosts a flat-lining temperature graph on the masthead of its website, was dismissive of the study. Dr David Whitehouse, an astrophysicist and science editor for the GWPF, said: “This is a highly speculative and slight paper that produces a statistically marginal result by cherry-picking time intervals.” He claimed the temperature graph was at odds with those of the Met Office and Nasa, despite both organisations saying the new study’s results were consistent with their data. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karl-mathiesen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2015-06-04T18:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2018/aug/13/tax-havens-shielding-companies-deforestation-overfishing | Tax havens shielding companies responsible for deforestation and overfishing | Money channelled through secretive tax havens has been used to fuel deforestation in the Amazon and illegal fishing around the world, racking up a heavy environmental toll but leaving few ways for businesses to be held to account. Billions of pounds worth of finance has travelled through countries internationally recognised as tax havens, and has been traced by researchers to activities that contribute to environmental destruction, such as growing soy and beef in deforested areas of the Amazon, and expanding a network of largely unregulated fishing vessels operating under “flags of convenience”. The amounts traced are likely to be just a fraction of the total amount channelled through tax havens that ends up funding environmentally destructive behaviour, according to Beatrice Crona, co-author of a report published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Victor Galaz, of the Stockholm Resilence Centre at Stockholm University and lead author of the study, added: “The use of tax havens is not only a sociopolitical and economic challenge, but also an environmental one. While the use of tax haven jurisdictions is not illegal, financial secrecy hampers the ability to analyse how financial flows affect economic activities on the ground, and their environmental impacts.” The study found that more than two thirds of foreign capital directed to Brazil’s soy and beef sectors between 2000 and 2011, as recorded by the Central Bank of Brazil, was channelled through tax havens. Soy and beef farming have been associated with deforestation in the Amazon. During the period studied, almost $27bn of foreign capital was transferred to key companies within these sectors, and of this about $18.4bn came through tax havens, with the Cayman Islands most commonly used. Crona, executive director of the Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere programme at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said the availability of the data from Brazil’s central bank for the period in question was unusual, and shone a brief light into what is likely to be a much greater global business. Green campaigners called on governments to make finance flows more transparent. “This is dirty money, used for fuelling illegal activities that are driving the global environmental crisis,” said Elaine Gilligan, international campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “Aggressive tax evasion deprives communities of funds needed for a range of measures, among them environmental protections that play a part in fighting climate chaos.” Action was overdue, she said. “It’s clear the UK government can do a lot to fix this. For a start they should support international efforts to end tax havens and follow through their commitment to greater transparency in British overseas territories.” Andrea Marandino, sustainable finance manager at WWF, added that companies could also play a role. “Nature is facing unprecedented threats as we continue to take more resources from the world’s richest natural areas. Tax havens make it very difficult to track international flows of capital and that means there is no accountability,” she said. “If we are to secure a future for areas like the Amazon, we need to see greater corporate transparency and traceability of flows of capital around the world that fund the destruction of nature.” On the oceans, about 70% of vessels that have been implicated in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing were registered in tax havens, according to the study’s findings. The ownership of fishing vessels has long been of interest to campaigners, because of the vast differences that exist in the monitoring and regulation of fishing in various jurisdictions. Complex webs of ownership allow catches to be traded, landed and in some cases disposed of outside the regulations that are supposed to prevent overfishing. Tony Long, chief executive of Global Fishing Watch, said: “[The paper] adds to the growing evidence illustrating the criminal and shady practices providing cover for illegal, unreported and unregulated [IUU] fishing. An international focus on flags of convenience and their insufficient diligence in monitoring their flagged vessels is long overdue.” Vessel owners can use “flags of convenience” to disguise their activities or make them harder to track, by registering their vessel under a jurisdiction that has lax regulation on shipping. The massive overlap between vessels known to be operating in IUU fishing and flying flags of convenience from acknowledged tax havens shows the extent of the problem, the authors of the Nature study said. Long called for transparency in vessel movements, licensing, catch documentation and the disclosure of the true owners of all fishing vessels. “Without this, these unscrupulous operators will extract everything they can from our ocean, to line their own pockets with money at the expense of sustainable ocean resources,” he said. The secrecy that companies enjoy from their business in tax havens is used primarily for reducing their tax payments, by transferring money among jurisdictions to take advantage of low tax rates. Some of the methods used and companies involved have been highlighted in recent years by revelations in the so-called Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, covered extensively by the Guardian. But the lack of transparency also enables those wishing to do so to hide their environmentally destructive activities, said the researchers in the Nature study. They called for the UN to examine how such money funds environmental harm. Opening up tax havens to scrutiny by regulators and the public would be unpopular with the thousands of companies, many of them household names, that take advantage of their existence and lax regulation. Many companies pride themselves on their high environmental standards, but still channel funds through tax havens to reduce their tax payments, which is estimated to cost governments $200bn a year in lost tax revenues. Once money has passed into tax havens, there is little way of finding out how and where it has been used. The Nature paper does not name individual companies, though some were questioned as part of the research. | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/fishing', 'world/tax-havens', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-08-13T15:00:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2011/nov/28/royal-bank-scotland-climate-sponsorship | Royal Bank of Scotland cancels climate change campaign sponsorship | Protesters have claimed a victory after the Royal Bank of Scotland pulled out of a major sponsorship deal with the UK's largest campaign to combat climate change. RBS will not be sponsoring Climate Week in March 2012, a government and industry-backed effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bank's high-profile support for the event this year was dogged by accusations of "corporate greenwash" because of its multibillion-pound financial aid for polluting industries such as oil and tar sands. "With RBS being the UK bank most heavily involved in financing fossil fuels, it was clear that their sponsorship of Climate Week in 2011 was a case of greenwash," said Liz Murray, from the World Development Movement, which campaigns against poverty. "We're pleased that they heeded our criticisms and decided to step down from sponsoring the event in 2012. Now they need to move beyond greenwash and look at their core business." It was revealed in 2010 that RBS, which is majority-owned by UK taxpayers, had put £13bn into polluting industries over the previous two years. Among the 66 oil and gas companies backed by RBS were BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Tullow Oil, Trafigura and Cairn Energy. Mel Evans, from Platform, one of the groups that campaigned against the RBS sponsorship, accused the bank of having "no clue" what stopping climate change meant. "We don't know who dumped whom, but it was a poor match from the first date," she said. "This is a real boost for the thousands of people across the UK who have been calling for an end to fossil fuel finance by RBS. Organisers for events like Climate Week shouldn't choose sponsors that undermine others' efforts on the same issue." RBS confirmed that it had decided not to renew its sponsorship of Climate Week, but suggested that this was to save money rather than to avoid protests. "We remain committed to supporting an open and frank debate around the transition to a low carbon economy, as evidenced by our ongoing sponsorship of the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference," said an RBS spokeswoman. In the first half of 2011, RBS said it lent more in support of renewable energy than any other bank. It stressed that the shift to a low-carbon economy could not happen overnight. Maria Lam, a spokeswoman for Climate Week, declined to say why RBS was no longer a sponsor. "Discussions that we have with our sponsors are private," she said. "It would be unprofessional of us to make public comments about them." This year's Climate Week had half a million people attending 3,000 events and was "the biggest environmental occasion ever run in Britain", she added. "We are planning to make Climate Week 2012 even more impactful." | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'business/royalbankofscotlandgroup', 'business/banking', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rob-edwards', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-11-28T08:28:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk-news/2016/mar/31/uk-us-simulate-cyber-attack-nuclear-plants-test-resilience | UK and US to simulate cyber-attack on nuclear plants to test resilience | Britain and the US will stage a war-game later this year, simulating a cyber attack on a nuclear power plant, to test the readiness of the government and utility firms. As David Cameron prepares to fly to Washington to attend a nuclear security summit, convened by Barack Obama, government sources said the two countries plan to cooperate on exploring the resilience of nuclear infrastructure to a terrorist attack. Government sources said the exercise was not triggered by any credible intelligence about the threat of such an attack, but that it was “prudent planning,” adding: “It gives us the ability to test these systems, and make sure that we learn any lessons.” The approach will echo a similar exercise last year, which tested how the major banks could withstand a cyber-security attack. Separately, Cameron is also set to announce an exchange deal with the US, which will see the UK ship 700kg (110st) of nuclear waste, most of it currently stored at Dounreay, in Scotland, to be processed in America. In return, the US will send supplies of a different type of uranium to Euratom, the European nuclear agency, to be turned into medical isotopes, that can then be used in diagnosing and treating cancer across Europe. Government sources described the swap as a “landmark deal,” adding: “it’s a win-win: we get rid of waste, and we get back something that helps us to fight cancer”. They said by working together in this way, Washington, London and Brussels hope to set an example to other states of the innovative measures that may need to be taken to deal with nuclear waste products in future. “It’s an opportunity for the UK, the US and Europe who show how countries can work together to deal with nuclear waste. It’s an opportunity for us to show some leadership to the rest of the world”, the source said. The nuclear security summit, the fourth and final one held during Obama’s presidency, is aimed at enhancing the safety of domestic nuclear systems — something the US president first discussed in a speech in Prague in 2009, and which he sees as part of his legacy. Since the first summit in Washington in 2010, the states attending have agreed to reduce their stockpiles of potentially dangerous highly enriched uranium – the by-product of nuclear power generation – and strengthened the role of watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Over that time, 14 countries have committed to removing nuclear materials from their territory altogether, and many others have pledged to step up security and tackle nuclear smuggling, by stepping up checks at ports, for example. But in a statement setting out its hopes for this week’s meeting, the White House said there was more to do. “We all need to do more together to enhance nuclear security performance, to dissuade and apprehend nuclear traffickers, to eliminate excess nuclear weapons and material, to avoid production of materials we cannot use, to make sure our facilities can repel the full range of threats we have already seen in our neighbourhoods, to share experiences and best practices, and to do so in ways that are visible to friends, neighbours, and rivals – and thereby provide assurance that we are effectively executing our sovereign responsibility,” it said. During the summit, the UK will offer to share its expertise on tackling cyber-crime with other countries. Japan, Korea, Turkey and Argentina have already said they would like to cooperate with the UK on this. Cameron will also commit to spend £10bn this year to fund the world of agencies including the IAEA, on improving the security of civil nuclear infrastructure worldwide. Over lunch on Friday, the world leaders will discuss “scenario-planning” for protecting their nuclear facilities, and preventing volatile nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands. While the main focus is civil security, he will also receive an update on progress in implementing the Iran nuclear deal, which was signed in January, and aimed at preventing Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons, in exchange for the lifting of punitive sanctions. While in Washington, Cameron will also hold a series of bilateral meetings with other world leaders. However, the government sources said he would not be meeting with potential candidates for the US presidency. | ['uk/uksecurity', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'politics/defence', 'politics/politics', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/heatherstewart', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-03-30T23:01:37Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2007/apr/23/musicnews.music | Sheryl Crow's view on toilet paper: one sheet a visit | "All I wanna do is have some fun," sang Sheryl Crow once, but it appears her desires have since changed. Now all she wants to do is limit the use of toilet paper to one sheet per visit. The singer made her declaration in an article for the Huffington Post to help promote her Stop Global Warming College Tour, an 11-date tour explaining the perils of global warming to Americans. Accompanied by Laurie David, activist and wife of comedian Larry David, the pair have been criss-crossing the country in a biodiesel-powered bus spreading the word on the bathroom hygiene of the future. According to Crow's new strictures, the average person should use "only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required". Further details were not offered as to the precise nature of these "pesky occasions", though "we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work", she insists. Awareness of climate change has been growing steadily in the US since Vice President Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, began to generate publicity for the subject. Crow and David showed clips from Gore's documentary on their tour. The last stop on the tour, at George Washington University in Washington on Sunday, featured a performance by Crow with country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, as well as Carole King. Crow's environmental opinions are not limited to toilet paper. She also believes paper napkins "represent the height of wastefulness", while she has designed a clothing line which features a detachable "dining sleeve" that wearers can use to wipe their mouth while eating. | ['environment/environment', 'music/music', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/paulmacinnes'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-04-22T23:05:34Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk-news/2016/dec/11/burst-pipe-leaves-150-north-london-homes-under-water | Stoke Newington flood: 150 north London homes under water | A burst water main has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes in north London. About 350 people from 150 properties had to flee after a 30-inch pipe burst in Northwold Road, Stoke Newington, on Sunday, leaving nearby streets under 3ft (1 metre) of water. Thames Water said it had begun a full investigation into the incident, which followed similar instances of mains bursting in Blackheath in south-east London, on Saturday, and in Islington, north London, last Monday. Bob Collington, director of Thames Water, said it had been an “extremely difficult week”. He added: “I am personally devastated for those customers who have suffered flooding so close to Christmas. We are doing everything we can to help them and will make sure they are not left out of pocket for what has happened. “The bursts are a clear reminder that we need to keep investing in our ageing and sometimes fragile network, with many pipes in London well over 100 years old.” London fire brigade station manager Nicol McCallum, who was at the scene, said: “Crews used specialist inflatable boats to evacuate the most vulnerable residents and help others recover valuables. Firefighters laid down sandbags to try and minimise the water damage.” Six fire engines and two fire and rescue units from stations including Stoke Newington, Homerton, Tottenham and Bethnal Green. The brigade said several basements were left under water by the flooding. Hackney council said Stoke Newington town hall had been made available for emergency accommodation for anyone forced out of their homes. Some residents expressed their anger about the situation on Twitter. Thames Water said it was sending as many loss adjustors as possible to help customers. The burst main should not affect water supplies in the area, the firm added. The average UK household paid £396 for water and sewerage in 2014-15, according to the regulator Ofwat. This represents a 40% increase in real terms since privatisation, though most of this rise took place in the first five-year period between 1990 and 1995. The regulator has been criticised by MPs on the public accounts committee for allowing bills to rise too much. In September Ofwat said consumers would be able to choose their water supplier for the first time under proposals that it claimed would cut bills and improve services by introducing competition. However, the proposed overhaul would only save households about £8 a year on their water bill, the industry watchdog said. | ['uk/london', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/uk', 'money/water-bills', 'environment/water', 'money/household-bills', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/chris-johnston', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-12-12T07:10:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2019/jan/09/london-underground-air-pollution-report-concerns-northern-line-particulates | Report sparks concerns over poor air quality on London Underground | Fresh concerns over air quality on the London Underground have been raised after researchers found that the concentration of particulate pollution in tube stations was up to 30 times higher than beside busy roads in the capital. Air pollution experts have called for more analysis of the possible harmful effects of the underground’s particulates. In a report, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) warned Transport for London (TfL): “Given that there is strong evidence that both long- and short-term exposure to particle pollutants in ambient air are harmful to health, it is likely that there is some health risk.” Tests found that the Northern Line had the highest concentration of PM2.5 (tiny particles linked to health problems) with the air on platforms at Hampstead station – the deepest on the tube network at 60 metres (200ft) below ground level – recording an average 492 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3) of air, compared with an annual average of 16 μg/m3 from a roadside monitoring site in the capital. The hitherto unpublished findings from air quality experts at King’s College London were included in the report from COMEAP, commissioned by TfL. It said the London Underground was affected more than any other subway system due to its age and the depths of its tunnels. Passengers are exposed to the same concentration of particulates in an hour on the tube as they are during a full day above ground in ambient London air, the committee found. For road users, it estimated that an equivalent bus journey, typically taking two and a half times as long, would expose a passenger to a third of the pollution. The committee said further investigation was required into the toxicity of the dust breathed in by tube passengers, which is heavier and more metal-based than the smaller, carbon-based particles in the air above ground. However, Prof Frank Kelly, chair of COMEAP, said people should continue to use the tube given the relatively short time spent underground and lack of evidence of harmful effects. He said: “We’ve got all this information about the health impacts of the particles above the surface. Below ground, we know we have a higher mass but of a different type – we don’t yet have the research into the level of the toxicity, and hence the heath risk. “You’re down there for a short period of time – passengers should just use the tube as usual until we have better understanding of the risks.” TfL has accepted the recommendations in the report and will carry out further monitoring and testing of dust samples. While the tube operates well within the Health and Safety Executive specified limits, it has set an “informal target” to limit exposure to dust. It expanded its cleaning regime in 2017 with “magnetic wands” to reduce dust at 46 stations, but a specialist tunnel-cleaning train was scrapped as unviable in 2014. Peter McNaught, director of asset operations at TfL, said: “We are committed to maintaining the cleanest air possible for our staff and customers when using the tube.” Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly transport committee, said more monitoring of dust and air pollution was vital: “We need to fully understand the health risk facing passengers and staff from being exposed to high levels of particulate matter.” | ['uk/london-underground', 'environment/air-pollution', 'uk/tfl', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'uk/rail-transport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-01-09T19:36:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2021/jan/02/dogger-banks-giant-turbines-herald-a-wind-of-change-in-uk-industry | Dogger Bank's giant turbines herald a wind of change in UK industry | Beyond the horizon off the coast of North Yorkshire, a quiet revolution is emerging from the waves of the North Sea. More than 80 miles from land, hundreds of the world’s most powerful wind turbines have begun reaching into the air as construction progresses on the biggest windfarm ever built. Almost 200 turbines, each almost as tall as the Eiffel tower, will soon rise above the submerged Doggerland to populate an expanse of sea as large as North Yorkshire itself. The Dogger Bank windfarm is an engineering feat that marks a step change in the growth of renewable energy. Each steel structure, weighing 2,800 tonnes, has been designed to soar more than 250 metres from where their heels are buried in the seabed to the top of each 107-metre blade. The staggering scale of the turbines means that each one can generate enough electricity to power 16,000 homes, at less than the average price of electricity in the wholesale energy market. This offshore windfarm, and others like it, promises to power a surge in clean electricity – which will soon be needed in vast volumes to charge cars, heat homes and produce green hydrogen gas for factories and transport. It is a central part of the government’s plan to make the UK carbon neutral by 2050, and to reimagine Britain’s global role in what will be an industrial revolution for the low-carbon age. And it is already playing a significant role: on Boxing Day, Storm Bella ensured that more than half of Britain’s daily electricity came from wind turbines for the first time. The construction of the Dogger Bank farm will fall to one of the UK’s few major renewable energy companies, SSE. Built on the legacy of some of Britain’s earliest renewable energy projects – its roots are in Scotland’s hydro-electricity board – SSE will construct the windfarm in three phases through the 2020s. Each phase represents a multimillion-pound investment, hundreds of jobs in the north-east of England, and enough clean electricity to power millions of homes. Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE’s chief executive, announced a £6bn financing deal – involving 29 banks and advisers – last month to support the cost of building the first two phases, and the third deal could be announced by this time next year. “For SSE, and for all our staff, there’s definitely nothing that we could be more proud of at the moment than reaching financial close on what will ultimately be a £9bn project,” he said. “It will be the world’s biggest, most innovative offshore windfarm. It will generate more energy per turn of those rotors than any other project, enough to power a house for two days. But the amazing thing is, we’re going to do more. We’re going to see more and more [offshore wind] on the back of the prime minister’s 10-point plan.” Boris Johnson’s plan for a green industrial revolution relies heavily on offshore wind power, which he hopes to increase threefold to 40GW by 2030. This is important for two reasons. The first is the rapid expansion of the renewable energy industry to help generate enough clean electricity to displace fossil fuels in the energy system, as the UK works to create a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050. The second reason is to spur a supply-chain boom that can help to drive the UK’s green economic growth and create substantial numbers of “green-collar” jobs. On a grey December day in Northumberland, Phillips-Davies led the prime minister on a tour of a wind turbine testing facility in Blyth – just one example of the industrial innovation mushrooming in several of Britain’s embattled coastal towns thanks to the burgeoning offshore wind boom. The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult centre employs 200 people tasked with testing the equipment used to build offshore windfarms, including the world-beating turbines at Dogger Bank. In a heavily fortified state-of-the-art testing hangar, each 100-metre-long rotor blade is put through its paces to make sure that it can withstand the harsh conditions of the North Sea. This involves specially designed equipment which can “waggle” the blade through a 25-metre range, 24 hours a day, for four to six months. “We can build world-beating, world-class wind turbines, and have them tested here,” said Phillips-Davies. “But we want to get more UK content involved in our projects. We’re hoping to encourage more supply-chain companies to come to the UK so we can increase the UK-made content in our windfarms to well beyond 60%.” Today, blades for the Dogger Bank farm are manufactured overseas and shipped to Port of Tyne before being brought to the testing facility on giant barges along the river. Soon, though, the US industrial giant GE may begin building the huge turbine – known as the Haliade-X – at a factory in the UK, providing much-needed jobs for Britain’s struggling manufacturing sector. The Dogger Bank windfarm, to date, has supported more than 300 jobs in the coastal communities of Hartlepool and Port of Tyne, which are set to reap economic benefits from the project. Employment is expected to climb into the thousands as construction on the second and third phases begins. SSE’s earlier offshore windfarms have also created new renewable energy centres along the east coast of Britain from Wick and Dundee in Scotland to the Norfolk coast. Offshore windfarms built by Danish power company Ørsted and ScottishPower Renewables have supported thousands of jobs and supply-chain hubs across the east coast of the UK too. In total, the offshore wind industry expects to create 27,000 new jobs by 2030. “A lot of these offshore facilities are in less well-known places. They’re all around the edges of the UK, in places that probably need investment and more jobs. So it’s a fantastic opportunity,” Phillips-Davies said. “I think we’re at over 1,000 green jobs created so far, and close to £10bn-worth of projects done. So we feel like we’re in a really strong place, and I hope we can go forward strongly from here over the next decade.” | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/business', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-01-02T16:00:42Z | true | ENERGY |
uk/2012/jan/30/northern-ireland-5p-plastic-bag-tax | Northern Ireland to bring in 5p plastic bag tax from 2013 | A 5p plastic bag tax will be imposed throughout Northern Ireland from next year. Alex Attwood, environment minister in the Northern Ireland executive, said on Monday that the 5p levy would rise to 10p by April 2014. But the SDLP minister stressed there would be no charge for multi-use bags in 2013, although they will cost 10p the following year. "We want to demonstrate that the Northern Ireland government is dedicated to the clean and green agenda," Attwood said. "One way to do that is to reduce the 160m plastic bags that are used in Northern Ireland every year." He added: "There is no doubt that carrier bags are a scourge on the environment. "Evidence from other countries demonstrates that a bag levy is a simple and effective means to reduce substantially the negative environmental impact of carrier bag consumption. "However, I recognise that consumers will need time to change their behaviour and adjust to bringing their own bags when they shop. "I therefore propose to discount the charge to 5p in the first year. This will ensure a phased approach to charging." A charge for plastic bags was first introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2002. The charge currently stands at 22 cents (18p) per bag. Following the introduction of the charge, consumption of plastic bags in the Republic fell by 90% – from an initial consumption of 1.2bn bags per year, or about 306 per person. The charge has also raised over €173m for Ireland's exchequer. | ['uk/northernireland', 'uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'politics/northernireland', 'politics/politics', 'money/tax', 'money/money', 'world/ireland', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/henrymcdonald', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2012-01-30T14:13:50Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2005/sep/11/hurricanekatrina.usa1 | Beleaguered Bush tries to evoke spirit of 9/11 | Stung by criticism of his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, President George Bush has been using today's fourth anniversary of the 11 September attacks to try to shore up his crumbling public support. In his weekly radio address, Bush compared the aftermath of the storm to the US-led war on terror. 'America is confronting another disaster that has caused destruction and loss of life,' he said. 'America will overcome this ordeal, and we will be stronger for it.' A poll released yesterday put the President's approval rating below 40 per cent for the first time. On Friday, Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), was recalled by Bush to Washington. Brown had been a lightning rod for anger over the government's perceived botched response. It was not the sacking his political opponents had demanded, but it was an unusual step for the President, who rarely fires or demotes anyone he considers loyal. Bush also won congressional backing for more federal funds for the victims of the catastrophe, lifting the government's aid package to $61 billion (£33bn), with the promise of more to come. As the rescue operation gradually gave way to longer-term recovery and rebuilding efforts, concern switched last night to the south-eastern US coast as another hurricane, Ophelia, threatened Georgia and South Carolina. A wind of at least 74 mph was possible by tonight, the National Hurricane Centre said. A decision was yet to be made over whether evacuations would be ordered. In New Orleans, with most of those who were trapped in the floodwaters now released, there are hopes that the final body count will be far lower than first feared. Colonel Terry Ebbert, the city's head of homeland security, said: 'Numbers [dead] so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire projections of 10,000.' The official death toll is 118, but will climb significantly once rescuers finish evacuating the city and turn their attentions to removing bodies. But Fema is unlikely to need most of the 25,000 body bags it ordered last week. Meanwhile, officials knew months before the catastrophe in New Orleans that Louisiana would be unable to cope with the aftermath of a storm similar to Katrina, The Observer has learnt. State representatives and Fema executives, including Brown, attended a series of emergency planning workshops over the past year in which it became evident that there was insufficient temporary housing and medical services to cope with the effect of a big storm hitting the region. The workshops used scientific modelling and drew on expert testimony to predict what would happen if a category three hurricane hit the city. Fema was so concerned about a catastrophic storm scenario that it asked IEM, a company that won a $500,000 contract to develop the workshops, for a preliminary report within two months. In later meetings, it became clear that there were shortfalls in the state's emergency response plan. The lack of emergency housing was seen as so acute that it was the sole subject of a workshop two months ago. | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'profile/jamiedoward', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-10T23:43:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2022/aug/02/peter-dutton-rejects-push-by-moderate-liberals-to-change-position-on-climate-legislation | Peter Dutton rejects push by moderate Liberals to change position on climate legislation | Peter Dutton has rebuffed moderates wanting a change to the opposition’s plan to vote against Labor’s climate change legislation at a meeting of shadow cabinet on Monday night. Guardian Australia understands that the former finance minister and now shadow foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, advocated an alternative approach to voting against the government’s legislation, suggesting the opposition should either vote for the bill or not oppose it. This would allow the legislation to pass through the House of Representatives on the voices, without the need for a division. Sources said Birmingham advocated that the opposition put forward a further amendment that would require publication of energy price projections and energy security alongside reporting of how Australia was tracking to meet its emissions targets. This would keep parliament informed of the impact the emissions reduction target was having across the economy. Dutton’s rejection of the moderates comes as the Greens are yet to land a final position on Labor’s climate bill. The Greens party room met in Canberra on Tuesday morning and will meet again in the evening to try to reach consensus. The deputy leader of the Liberals, Sussan Ley, backed Dutton’s position, but on Monday night repeated a view she has expressed publicly that there would be an opportunity over this parliamentary term for the Coalition to develop a new climate policy to put to voters at the next federal election. Guardian Australia understands while Ley favours opposing Labor’s legislation now, she told colleagues on Monday night the Coalition should not get bogged down blasting Labor’s policy while considering what the future policy stance should be. In a subsequent party room meeting on Tuesday, moderates James Stevens, Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer spoke on the need for the opposition to increase its ambition on its medium term targets, with concerns raised that voting against Labor’s bill would give the impression that the Liberals and Nationals did not support action on climate change. Archer is understood to have spoken most strongly against the position presented to MPs by the shadow climate change minister, Ted O’Brien, after previously telling Guardian Australia she was prepared to cross the floor to support Labor’s bill. She told her colleagues that voting against the legislation would appear to her constituents that she was voting against action on climate change. Stevens is understood to have expressed the view that he was prepared to support the position based on the proviso that a more ambitious medium-term target was taken to the next election, and expressed the importance of the Coalition remaining united on the issue. Stevens came close to losing his suburban Adelaide-based seat of Sturt at the May election, suffering a 7% swing against him, which was mostly gained by the Greens. Bragg reminded MPs that the federal director, Andrew Hirst, had indicated that the party’s position on climate change had been a factor in losing metropolitan seats to teal independents, Labor and the Greens, and more ambition was needed. Dutton has given MPs an undertaking that the opposition will take time to develop new and “credible” medium-term emissions reduction targets, that will also consider how nuclear energy could be included into the mix. He assured MPs that he understood there was a broad range of views within the party room, and opposing the legislation did not mean it opposed targets. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Sources said there was a “respectful” discussion about the opposition’s position at Monday’s shadow cabinet meeting, with most members speaking on the legislation, and overwhelming support for Dutton’s already stated view to oppose legislating the 43% emissions reduction target, if not the target itself. There was a general consensus that the opposition would reserve its position on a new medium-term target until closer to the next election, in the same way that Labor had done in opposition. Labor has the numbers to pass the legislation in the lower house, although it may accept amendments moved during the chamber debate. But the government will need the support of the Greens and one other crossbencher in the Senate to pass the legislation. Some Liberals believe Dutton has refused to pass the target legislation in order to force Labor into a position of having to do a deal with the Greens to pass the legislation. The Greens have been concerned that Labor’s 43% emissions reduction target isn’t ambitious enough, and the party has been lobbying for a moratorium on oil and gas developments. Labor has made it clear it will not support a moratorium, but it has left open the prospect of elevating the importance of climate change in future environmental assessments. In an effort to respond to specific concerns from the Greens and the crossbench, the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has made it clear the 43% is a floor not a ceiling, and he has been more explicit about the role the Climate Change Authority will play in advising the government and how he will respond to that advice. The Greens are yet to consider the threshold question about whether or not the bill should pass or be rejected. There has been a diversity of views expressed about the specific propositions the Greens party room has considered to strengthen the bill. The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, was given additional propositions by the party room to put to Bowen on Tuesday morning. If the Greens fail to reach consensus at Tuesday night’s meeting, the party rules allow for issues to be put to a vote. The majority position will then determine the landing point the party reaches. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australian-greens', 'australia-news/peter-dutton', 'australia-news/sussan-ley', 'australia-news/adam-bandt', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarah-martin', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-08-02T04:53:29Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2020/aug/04/tropical-storm-isaias-us-east-coast-tornadoes-floods | At least four dead as Tropical Storm Isaias lashes US east coast | At least four people were killed as Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain Tuesday along the US east coast after making landfall as a hurricane in North Carolina, where it caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people. Two people died when Isaias spun off a tornado that struck a North Carolina mobile home park. Authorities said two others were killed by falling trees toppled by the storm in Maryland and New York City. More than 15 hours after coming ashore, Isaias still had sustained top winds of 65mph. Mid-Tuesday afternoon, the storm’s center was about 65 miles west of New York City, where winds forced the Staten Island ferry and outdoor subway lines to shut down. Forecasters said it would continue to inflict damage while moving into New England by late Tuesday. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio issued a tornado watch through 4pm after the hurricane center reported numerous storms throughout the mid-Atlantic region, and by 1pm strong winds and rain were lashing New York. Social media images showed tornadoes in Cape May, Marmora and Long Beach Island along New Jersey’s southern shore, as well as tornado damage in Dover, Delaware. A tropical storm warning remained in effect from North Carolina to Maine. Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina spoke of “double trouble” on ABC on Tuesday morning as he described the state trying to evacuate and rescue people as the hurricane hit while also trying to minimize the risk of spreading coronavirus. The state had to provide more shelters, at least two dozen opening, so those having to leave their homes because of flooding or fire caused by power outages, could try to keep socially distant, while having temperature checks and wearing masks. Cooper urged those evacuating to turn to shelters as a last resort, citing coronavirus risks and the need to operate shelters at reduced capacity to allow for social distancing. “Whether it’s labeled a tropical storm or a hurricane, you should take this storm seriously, and make sure your family is ready,” he said. “All in all this storm got in and got out pretty quickly,” he told ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday. He added: “We are saddened by the one fatality we know we have.” The death occurred at a mobile home park, where structures were torn apart and cars blown on top of each other, and there were several people still missing on Tuesday afternoon. At least three states are under a federal emergency declaration. “We don’t think there is going to be a whole lot of weakening, we still think there’s going to be very strong and gusty winds that will affect much of the mid-Atlantic and the north-east over the next day or two,” said Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters had warned tornadoes were possible, and two were later confirmed, near Kilmarnock, Virginia, and Vienna, Maryland. More than 600,000 customers lost electricity, most of them in North Carolina and Virginia, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks utility reports. In Suffolk, Virginia, near the coast, multiple homes were damaged by falling trees, and city officials received reports of a possible tornado. A fire station downtown sustained damage including broken windows. A photo posted by city officials showed a pile of bricks lying next to a damaged business. The storm set off flooding and sparked five home fires in Ocean Isle Beach, Mayor Debbie Smith told WECT-TV. The town’s firefighters were battling the blaze with help from Horry county firefighters in South Carolina, Tony Casey, a spokesperson for Horry County Fire Rescue, told the Associated Press. About 80 miles north of Ocean Isle Beach, about 30 people were displaced due to a fire at a condominium complex in Surf City, news outlets reported. It is not clear if the fires were connected to the storm. No injuries have been reported. Isaias toggled between tropical storm and hurricane strength throughout its path to the US coast, killing two people in the Caribbean and trashing the Bahamas before brushing past Florida. Coastal shops and restaurants had closed early in the Carolinas, where power began to flicker at oceanfront hotels and even the most adventurous of beachgoers abandoned the sand on Monday night. The National Hurricane Center warned oceanside home dwellers to brace for storm surge up to 5ft (1.5 meters) and up to 8in (20cm) of rain in spots. As the storm neared the shore, a gauge on a pier in Myrtle Beach recorded its third-highest water level since it was set up in 1976. Only Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 pushed more salt water inland. | ['world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'us-news/virginia', 'us-news/maryland', 'us-news/south-carolina', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-08-04T20:19:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2021/jun/22/the-government-wants-to-avoid-an-in-danger-listing-for-the-great-barrier-reef-at-all-costs | The Australian government wants to avoid the Great Barrier Reef being listed as ‘in danger’ at all costs| Imogen Zethoven | This year is the 40th anniversary of the Great Barrier Reef being on the world heritage list. It should be a time to celebrate. Yet Unesco has released a draft report recommending the reef be put on a list of world heritage sites that are “in danger”. Unesco has absolutely made the right decision. The reef is in danger. It is time for the Australian government to take ambitious climate action for the reef. This is first time a world heritage site has been proposed for in-danger listing as a result of climate change impacts, although it is important to recognise that agricultural runoff is also a very high threat to inshore reefs and an issue that Unesco and International Union for Conservation of Nature are very concerned about. The Australian government has announced it will fight the draft decision. This is not a wise move. The world heritage convention is a legal document. As a signatory, Australia has a legal obligation to protect, conserve and transmit to future generations the outstanding universal value of the Great Barrier Reef. By not doing its utmost to tackle the biggest threat to the reef, Australia is not meeting its legal obligations. China is the chair of the committee but the draft report and decision are produced by Unesco’s World Heritage Centre and IUCN only. The Australian government has claimed political involvement in the draft decision but produced no evidence for this. If the world heritage committee endorses the decision next month, Australia will have to come up with corrective measures to tackle climate change compatible with a 1.5C pathway – a critical threshold for coral reefs. Unesco and IUCN would send a reactive monitoring mission to Australia to help design the corrective measures. This would likely occur in the lead-up to a federal election. That’s why the government wants to avoid this listing at all costs, but the Great Barrier Reef needs this to survive. But how did it come to this? For years, the Great Barrier Reef has been under the scrutiny of the world heritage committee. The committee’s role is to add eligible sites to the world heritage list and to ensure that their outstanding universal value to all humankind is protected and passed on to future generations. It is a noble and inspiring role. The committee first warned it would consider placing the reef on the list of world heritage in danger in 2012 if Australia didn’t develop a long-term plan to protect the reef. This decision was repeated in 2013 and 2014 until finally in 2015 the Australian government produced the Reef 2050 plan. The plan contained targets to reduce agricultural runoff, strengthen land-clearing laws and stop greenfield coal port developments. It did not contain any direct commitments to tackle climate change. An “in danger” listing was averted and the world heritage committee congratulated Australia for the plan. However, there was a sting in the tail. The committee agreed it would come back in 2020 to review the state of conservation of the reef and how well Australia was protecting it. Nine months after the high point of the 2015 decision, nearly a third of all the corals in the world heritage area died in an intense marine heatwave driven by global heating. It was shocking, and painful and deeply saddening. A year later, another marine heatwave killed off more corals in an unprecedented back-to-back bleaching event. Many were in disbelief that such a devastating event could happen again so quickly. The Australian government responded not by introducing measures to drastically reduce carbon emissions but by bringing forward a review of the Reef 2050 plan. The review did not result in any new climate policies. Then in 2019, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority downgraded the outlook of the reef from “poor” to “very poor”. Incredibly, in 2020, another severe heatwave hit the reef, killing more corals. The government again reviewed the Reef 2050 plan. The final plan has not been released but the latest draft still does not contain any measures to drastically reduce carbon emissions. IUCN’s report found that 19 world heritage sites had a critical outlook. All but two of these are already on the in-danger list. The two that aren’t are the Great Barrier Reef and a site in Cameroon that was recommended for in-danger listing in 2019. Given all that, it should come as no surprise to the Australian government that Unesco and IUCN have recommended the Great Barrier Reef be added to the in danger list. Imogen Zethoven is an environmental consultant to the Australian Marine Conservation Society on world heritage | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/coral', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unesco', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-06-22T06:19:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2024/nov/29/iran-in-nuclear-talks-with-europeans-as-trump-presidency-approaches | Iran and Europe seek to break nuclear impasse before return of Trump | Iran and the so-called E3 grouping of the UK, France and Germany have agreed to continue holding talks in the near future in an attempt to find a way out of an impasse over Tehran’s nuclear programme, in what may be the last chance of a breakthrough before Donald Trump takes up the US presidency again. Trump, who pursued a policy of “maximum economic pressure” against Iran during his first term, returns to the White House on 20 January. The decision to hold a further round of talks following a meeting in Geneva on Friday suggests the two sides believe there is still diplomatic space for an agreement whereby Iran would be more transparent about its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. But the chances of even an outline agreement before Trump returns to power seems remote. Iran is under pressure regionally after setbacks for the forces it has supported in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian deputy foreign minister, said there would be more talks in the near future without going into further details. His tone was markedly more restrained than before the talks, when he said the EU “should abandon its self-centred and irresponsible behaviour” on a range of issues including the war in Ukraine and the Iranian nuclear issue. Europeans have become increasingly frustrated with Iran’s approach, including its provision of arms for Russia’s war in Ukraine and its lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Some Europeans fear that Iran’s growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium reveals it is on a covert path to building a nuclear bomb. Iran believes Europe rebuffed a clear signal of willingness to negotiate when Tehran offered to cap its uranium enrichment programme at 60% and to allow experienced IAEA nuclear inspectors back into the country. The aim of the Geneva meeting was to see if there was a basis for the Iranian offer to be developed, as well as to seek limits to Iranian-Russian military cooperation. In return, the EU could try to lift some economic sanctions, but the timetable is short before Trump takes power. Iran insists it has not provided any ballistic missiles to Russia, an assurance that the US does not accept. Speaking in Paris on Friday alongside his British counterpart, Richard Moore, the French foreign intelligence chief, Nicolas Lerner, said the risk of an Iranian nuclear proliferation was expected to be the most “critical threat” in the coming months. Moore said the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions “continue to threaten all of us” despite the series of blows dealt in recent months to Tehran’s allied militias across the Middle East. In a pre-meeting between Gharibabadi and the EU’s chief negotiator, Enrique Mora, little common ground was found, judging by the accounts of the exchanges issued by both sides. Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, wrote on X: “Europe should not project its own problems and mistakes onto others, including with regard to the conflict in Ukraine … With regard to the nuclear issue of Iran, Europe has failed to be a serious player due to lack of self-confidence and responsibility.” Mora issued a shorter statement on social media, saying the two sides had frank exchanges. He added: “Iran’s military support to Russia that has to stop, the nuclear issue that needs a diplomatic solution, regional tensions (important to avoid further escalation from all sides) and human rights.” The distrust between the two sides was made evident when the E3 countries on 21 November pushed ahead with a motion ordering the nuclear inspectorate to prepare a “comprehensive” report on Iran’s nuclear activities – the stepping stone necessary for European countries next autumn to snap back the UN sanctions that were imposed on Iran before it signed the 2015 nuclear deal. The UN nuclear agency has confirmed that Iran plans to install about 6,000 new centrifuges to enrich uranium, according to a report seen by AFP on Friday. “Iran informed the agency that it intended to feed” about 6,000 centrifuges at its sites in Fordo and Natanz to enrich uranium to up to 5%, higher than the 3.67% limit Tehran had agreed to in 2015. Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said this week that the aim of the meeting was to find out whether the EU wanted cooperation or confrontation. He said that any snapback of UN sanctions was likely to lead to a change in the debate inside Iran about its possession of nuclear weapons. Iran has a fatwa in place opposing its possession of nuclear weapons, and the country insists its nuclear programme is only for civil purposes. Araghchi felt frustrated that Europe did not take a clearer independent approach after Trump pulled the US out of the nuclear deal in 2018, undercutting reformists inside Iran who said cooperation with the west over its nuclear programme would lead to a lifting of economic sanctions. Araghchi said Europe had done little to seek compromise since the election in the summer of the reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who is committed to lifting sanctions by offering a more balanced policy between east and west. | ['world/iran', 'world/europe-news', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/world', 'world/middleeast', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'world/iaea', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrickwintour', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2024-11-29T15:20:21Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/jun/20/brazil-amazon-forest-degradation-map | New 'disturbance map' shows damaging effects of forest loss in Brazilian Amazon | As Brazil’s government steps back from Amazon conservation, the urgent need for stronger protection has been made more apparent by a new data map that highlights the knock-on effect of the forest’s capacity to absorb carbon, regulate temperatures and sustain life. Launched on Tuesday, the Silent Forest project assesses the extent and impact of forest degradation – a largely man-made phenomenon that is less well-known than land clearance, but is seen by scientists as potentially more of a problem for the climate and biodiversity. Forest degradation is the thinning of tree density and the culling of biodiversity below an apparently protected canopy – usually as a result of logging, fire, drought and hunting. It is more difficult for satellites to monitor than deforestation (the total clearance of foliage) because the canopy – when viewed from above – appears uninterrupted, even when many of the plants underneath have been cut down or destroyed and the habitat of many species has disappeared. As a result, it is harder to tackle and has long been overlooked by policymakers, even though scientists warn it may have a bigger impact on biodiversity loss and carbon emissions. To draw attention to the trends and the risks, the Silent Forest “disturbance map” highlights the black spots of forest degradation (particularly prominent near Santarem, Sinop and on the border of Pará and Maranhão states), as well as areas affected by roads, logging and forest fires, which tend to cluster together as a result of (often illegal) human activity. During the 2015-16 El Niño, fires affected 38,000 sq km of Brazilian Amazon – more than five times the area classified as deforested. On other land, loggers cut deep under the canopy to remove the most valuable timber and swaths were bisected or fragmented by roads. This creates a vicious circle because degraded land is drier and results in lower rainfall in surrounding areas, which increases the vulnerability to arson and accidental fire. “It is terrifying to see the Amazon degraded to this extent,” said Jos Barlow, a scientist at Lancaster University and one of the authors of a key study being used for the data visualisation. “Every time we go to field, we measure plots and find the situation is far far worse than before but nothing is being done about it.” He and the other scientists behind the data visualisation hope the new tool will guide policymakers to tackle the multiple causes of forest degradation. Thiago Medaglia, coordinator of the Silent Forest platform, said: “The data visualization from scientific studies is an important step in the struggle for forest conservation. Now, it is possible not only to visualize the impacts of deforestation in the Amazon, but also those of degradation.” They have also added information on biodiversity loss to widen the potential audience. Bird lovers, for example, will be alarmed to discover that some of the worst wildfires last year occurred in the habitat of the highly endangered black winged trumpeter on eastern Amazon. The species – which numbered only 100 or 200 individuals – is now considered the most likely to go extinct in the near future. Last year, an international team of researchers found that areas in Pará state with the highest levels of protection still lost between 46% and 61% of their conservation value as a result of degradation. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/conservation', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-06-20T14:00:48Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2017/nov/22/uber-scrutiny-data-breach-hacking | Uber faces slew of investigations in wake of 'outrageous' data hack cover-up | Uber is facing government scrutiny around the world in the wake of its admission it concealed a massive data breach affecting 57 million drivers and passengers. The $68bn ride-hailing company acknowledged Tuesday that hackers had stolen the personal information in October 2016, and that Uber had paid them $100,000 to destroy the information and keep the breach quiet. The global nature of the breach exposes Uber to potential liability in numerous jurisdictions. Many countries and US states have laws requiring companies to inform individuals if their personal information has been compromised. “Uber has made Equifax’s response to the data breach look very good, which is really saying something,” said Gus Hurwitz, co-director of the University of Nebraska college of law’s space, cyber and telecom law program. He was referring to a breach this year of the credit monitoring agency Equifax in which the social security numbers of 143 million Americans were exposed. Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and the Philippines said on Wednesday they were launching investigations. “Uber’s announcement about a concealed data breach last October raises huge concerns around its data protection policies and ethics,” James Dipple-Johnstone of the UK’s information commissioner’s office, said in a statement. “Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies.” Raymund Enriquez Liboro, the privacy commissioner of the Philippines, said in a statement that the commission had “summoned” Uber to a meeting on 23 November to “shed more light about the incident” and to comply with its data privacy laws. A spokesperson for the US federal trade commission [FTC], which has broad authority to take action against companies engaging in deceptive or unfair practices, said the commission was “closely evaluating the serious issues raised” by the breach and Uber’s failure to disclose it. Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal called for the FTC to “take swift enforcement action and impose significant penalties” on Uber in a series of tweets. Blumenthal also called for a Senate hearing “to demand Uber explain their outrageous breach – and inexplicable delay in informing its consumers and drivers”. Uber reached a settlement with the FTC over privacy and data security issues in August. Hurwitz said that the FTC will likely now investigate both the 2016 breach itself and whether Uber violated its consent decree or withheld information from the FTC – which could result in fines. State attorneys general in New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts confirmed that they were launching investigations. Forty-eight US states have some version of laws requiring companies to notify individuals of security breaches. “Failure to notify can subject Uber to substantial monetary damages, especially if it was intentional,” said Hurwitz. “Generally, it’s a fine per record. You can see how those numbers get very large very quickly.” “We’ve been in touch with several state attorney general ffices and the FTC to discuss this issue, and we stand ready to cooperate with them,” an Uber spokesperson said. Uber has not responded to numerous queries from the Guardian seeking information on the number of countries whose residents were affected by the hack. This latest scandal caps – unless something else arises before 31 Decemeber – a troubled year for Uber; 2017 started with the viral #deleteuber movement and continued apace with the Greyball revelation, Susan Fowler’s sexual harassment memo, and Travis Kalanick’s ousting from the company he built. Uber fired chief security officer Joe Sullivan and one of his deputies over their handling of the breach. Sullivan is a former federal prosecutor who joined Uber after serving as chief security officer for Facebook. Hurwitz and other legal experts warned that Sullivan might face ethical inquiries from whichever state bars he belongs to. Sullivan could not immediately be reached for comment. “None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement Tuesday. The company will also likely face lawsuits by customers and drivers whose personal information was compromised by the breach. A class action complaint was filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Tuesday, within hours of the breach’s disclosures. US courts are divided over how to handle class action suits involving data breach suits. Some courts allow any individual whose personal information was leaked to join suits, while others require plaintiffs to show that they actually suffered harm from the breach. Either way, Hurwitz said, “You can be certain that litigation is coming.” | ['technology/uber', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/julia-carrie-wong', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-11-22T21:40:55Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2013/oct/20/nuclear-power-station-hinkley-edf | Hinkley nuclear power station gets go-ahead as coalition signs off EDF deal | Britain is to embark on building its first nuclear power station for two decades on Monday as the coalition hands a multibillion subsidy to France's EDF with help from a state-owned Chinese firm. The two planned pressurised water reactors at Hinkley Point C, Somerset, are the first to start construction in Europe since Japan's Fukushima disaster and the first in the UK since the Sizewell B power station came online in 1995. The new reactors, which will cost £14bn, are due to start operating in 2023 if constructed on time and will run for 35 years. They will be capable of producing 7% of the UK's electricity – equivalent to the amount used by 5m homes. After months of delay, the news came as the coalition has come under intense pressure over rising electricity bills. British Gas and SSE have both announced price rises for customers of close to 10% and Ed Miliband's promise to freeze energy bills has struck a chord with voters. There are expected to be further rises announced by the big six energy companies this week. Over the weekend the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, waded into the row over energy prices, warning that the latest wave of hikes looks inexplicable. Welby, a former oil executive, insisted the big six energy companies had an obligation to behave morally rather than just maximising profit. "They have control because they sell something everyone has to buy. We have no choice about buying it," he told the Mail on Sunday. "With that amount of power comes huge responsibility to serve society." The guaranteed subsidies promised by the government for Hinkley Point C will lead to accusations that ministers are loading a further cost on spiralling energy prices by again requiring British taxpayers to subsidise nuclear power. The coalition counters that similar subsidies are going to other carbon-free industries such as renewables and that the country needs the energy security and steady base load that nuclear provides. Gas prices, although relatively low, are predicted to rise. Britain is taking a sharply different route to Germany, which has decided to phase out nuclear power, and Italy, which has scrapped a planned nuclear programme. France, traditionally the nuclear enthusiast, has pledged to cut atomic power to 50% of its electricity mix from 75% today. The strike price – the guaranteed rate to be paid for electricity produced at the Somerset site – will be announced as £92.50 per megawatt hour on Monday, following two years of complex negotiations. That is nearly twice the market price of energy. The price is guaranteed for 35 years and will rise in line with inflation. EDF was thought to have started negotiations demanding a figure of £100, with the Treasury's gambit being £80. The price will fall to £89.50 if EDF presses ahead with a second plant at Sizewell, Suffolk. Chancellor George Osborne removed another obstacle last week when he announced that Chinese firms would be allowed to invest in civil nuclear projects in the UK. Ministers will come under twin attack from green groups, both for endangering safety and providing subsidy, as well as from enthusiasts for shale gas for failing to put their faith in cheap gas, currently nearly half the cost of nuclear. The energy secretary, Ed Davey, is preparing to counter green groups by arguing that onshore or offshore wind could not fill the energy gap created by the decommissioning of the first wave of power stations. By some estimates, Hinkley Point C will generate the equivalent output of 6,000 onshore wind turbines. EDF's longtime partner, China General Nuclear Power Group, possibly in combination with China National Nuclear Corporation, is expected to have a 30% to 40% stake in the consortium, with Areva taking another 10%, according to French weekend newspaper reports. The deal is thought to provide a 10% return on EDF's investment. The coalition policy is being led by the Liberal Democrats – the party that had, in principle, opposed nuclear power right up until its party conference in September. The deal is a huge gamble for both the government and EDF, since projecting the state of the electricity market and wholesale prices 35 years ahead is fraught with risk. Michael Fallon, the Conservative energy minister, signalled another review of the green subsidies imposed on energy firms, but Davey said: "It only takes a GCSE in maths to recognise that green subsidies are not pushing up prices. It is a fact that 47 % of energy prices come from wholesale prices and they have risen 50% in five years." • This article was amended on 21 October 2013. An earlier version said that 7% of the UK's electricity was enough to power 7m homes. The correct figure is 5m. It was further amended on 22 October 2013 to clarify that the strike price of £92.50 is per megawatt hour. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'business/edf', 'world/france', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'world/china', 'business/business', 'money/household-bills', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'money/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'profile/patrickwintour', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-10-21T07:32:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/apr/26/uk-retailers-will-not-suffer-financial-losses-from-bottle-deposit-scheme | UK retailers 'will not suffer financial losses' from bottle deposit scheme | Retailers will not suffer financial losses from the introduction of a plastic bottle deposit return scheme (DRS) in the UK, according to an analysis of a similar system in Norway. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has announced plans to launch a deposit system for bottles and cans in the UK, and MPs are due to debate the subject in parliament today. At present just 43% of the 13bn plastic bottles sold each year in the UK are recycled, and 700,000 are littered every day. In Germany, a DRS was introduced in 2003 and 99% of plastic bottles are recycled. The exact details of how the scheme will work will be announced after a consultation and the government has said it “will only take forward options from the consultation which demonstrate that they offer clear benefits and are resistant to fraud, and costs on businesses, consumers and the taxpayer are proportionate”. Analysis of the DRS in Norway by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) - which has lobbied for a deposit scheme for a decade - found that businesses will not suffer losses from such a system run in the UK. Consumers will only suffer a financial loss if they fail to return the bottle or can, encouraging strong take-up of the system. Samantha Harding, litter programme director at the CPRE, said: “This analysis of the deposit return system cycle should dispel any misconceptions that retailers or consumers may have about how the system will work, and more importantly how it is funded. No one will be out of pocket, so long as the bottles and cans are returned.” CPRE said in order for a DRS to enjoy high return rates - in Norway the return rate is 95% - it has to collect all materials of all sizes. “Introducing a system that only collected half of what it could would be a costly mistake,” she said. “We need the maximum number of retail-based return points. And it should be mandatory, as a voluntary system simply wouldn’t work.” MPs are due to debate plastic bottle return schemes as part of measures to reduce plastic waste. The environment audit committee recommended a DRS after its investigation into plastic waste last year. It also recommended a levy be placed on takeaway coffee cups to cut their use and reduce littering. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-04-26T05:00:10Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
money/2008/mar/16/homeimprovements.householdbills | Home is where the heat is: why old can be good as new | Many housebuilders claim that newly built, well-insulated homes are between four and eight times more energy-efficient than older properties - but new research to be published tomorrow reveals that the construction of new homes emits nearly three times more carbon dioxide than previously estimated. The government's Code for Sustainable Homes demands that all new homes in Britain will have to be zero-carbon in emissions terms by 2016, but the new study, carried out by the Empty Homes Agency charity, suggests that developers have overestimated the amount of overall CO2 saved by building energy-efficient homes. Its report, titled 'New Tricks With Old Bricks', says reusing and refurbishing existing and empty properties could actually save more carbon dioxide than constructing new ones. 'The government advocates the building of new homes as a means of creating properties which cut carbon emissions, but the initial construction process alone accounts for a very large proportion of carbon emitted over a building's lifetime,' says Henry Oliver, policy adviser at the Empty Homes Agency. 'We're not suggesting that developers shouldn't build new houses. But we're saying that the refurbishment of existing properties could be a better way of reducing long-term CO2 emissions.' The Empty Homes Agency compared three new-build homes with three refurbished ones and found very little difference between them in the amount of CO2 given off in normal day-to-day energy use. But while the construction of a newbuild home gives off 50 tonnes of CO2, the refurbishment process of an existing one emits just 15 tonnes of CO2 The agency says it is concerned that some developers and regeneration planners use 'assertions of superior environmental performance' to justify demolishing existing older properties and replacing them with new homes. The government's Housing Market Renewal Initiative includes a 15-year programme that aims to renew housing stock and improve poor-quality homes in certain areas across the country, such as Lancashire, Yorkshire and Liverpool. In these projects, known as 'Pathfinders', the initiative paves the way for the demolition of existing empty (and in some cases occupied) properties to make way for newer homes intended to draw buyers back into neglected and unpopular neighbourhoods. According to the Empty Homes Agency, there are 288,000 homes in England that have been empty for more than six months. 'As a country, we ought to be focusing on making full use of refurbishing existing properties, rather than demolishing them to make way for new developments in order to reduce our overall carbon footprint,' says Oliver. 'If we were to make use of these homes, rather than knock them down and build new ones instead, we could seriously dent our CO2 emissions.' The New Heartlands Pathfinder, which is responsible for renewing residential areas in Liverpool, the Wirral and Sefton, has set up an 'empty homes team' on the Wirral. The team has contacted absentee landlords of empty properties and offered to refurbish them on their behalf, as well as organising repair schemes for older properties. 'Refurbishing properties really gives something back to the community, as they can see that the whole area is benefiting from improvements,' says Peter Flynn of the New Heartlands Pathfinder. Since new homes are well insulated, they can eventually make up for the large amount of emissions released during their initial construction because of their overall lower energy costs. But it can take several decades - in most cases, more than 50 years - for the figures to eventually balance out. Oliver says that although new-builds can last for more than 50 years, their quality can 'sometimes be poor' and that it is likely that a new-build house will need refurbishing once it gets to that age. 'If you are buying a flat made from chip-foam panelled walls as a low-cost housing solution, then yes, it might not last forever,' says Bill Dunster, architect and director of Zedfactory, the firm that designed the largest carbon-neutral eco-development in the country, BedZed in Surrey. 'We do have to stop this "dash for trash" and stop people building homes which look good but will become unlivable. We have to go back to quality.' The government's code for sustainable living outlines six different levels of energy efficiency for homes, with number six being zero-carbon. Along with a consortium of other architects, Dunster has designed 'RuralZed', the country's only zero-carbon self-build home to meet level six of the code. The houses come in self-build kits that take professional builders about two weeks to construct. | ['environment/greenbuilding', 'money/homeimprovements', 'money/household-bills', 'money/property', 'money/money', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'profile/humaqureshi', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/businessandmedia', 'theobserver/businessandmedia/cash'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2008-03-16T10:18:32Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2014/jul/29/ipcc-climate-change-reports-findings-must-be-accepted-mps-say | IPCC climate change report's findings must be accepted, MPs say | The world’s most comprehensive report yet on the science of climate change has been strongly endorsed by an influential group of MPs. The Energy and Climate Change Committee found that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's processes were “robust” and their conclusions should be accepted by policymakers. The IPCC, a grouping of hundreds of scientists convened by the UN, published its mammoth report in three parts from last September to this spring, its first such update in seven years. It concluded that climate change is almost certainly manmade, that a large proportion of fossil fuel reserves will have to stay in the ground to avoid dangerous warming of 5C or more, and that global warming is being felt "on all continents and across the oceans". It also concluded that the transition to clean energy to avoid the worst impacts of climate change was eminently affordable. But climate sceptics including Lord Lawson of the Global Warming Policy Foundation have said the IPCC's processes and the conclusions were flawed, and sceptics have seized on mistakes in the organisation's 2007 report. Tim Yeo, the former Conservative minister who chairs the committee, said: “The importance of the conclusions of IPCC reports in terms of their policy implications understandably places the IPCC under a lot of scrutiny. Some of the criticism directed toward the IPCC has been from people who for various political or economic reasons do not like its conclusions, but we decided to take a closer look at whether the scientists involved in the IPCC could be doing more to address genuine concerns.” The committee's MPs examined the IPCC processes and gave them a clean bill of health. This will reinforce the argument that the IPCC’s findings must play a major role in the future of the UK’s and Europe’s climate and energy policies. That could prove crucial in the coming years, as there is a growing movement - particularly among sections of the Tory party and UKIP - to turn climate change and environmental issues into a politically divisive issue. Owen Paterson, the sacked environment secretary, was reported by the Daily Mail to have boasted to David Cameron that he had “reversed a 25-year consensus” on the environment among the UK’s three main parties. There are fears that this tendency could grow in the run-up to the election or after it, depending on the outcome. The next year is a crucial one in climate change negotiations, because governments around the world have committed to forging a global agreement in Paris late next year that would commit countries to steep cuts in emissions. In previous rounds of the UN talks, the UK has played a key role in paving the way for such a historic agreement. An early commitment by the government to abide by the IPCC’s advice, and to set out strong targets, will be essential, according to Yeo, one of the few remaining longstanding “green Tories”, who was de-selected by his constituency party early this year. He said: “Policymakers in the UK and around the world must now act on the IPCC’s warning and work to agree a binding global climate deal in 2015 to ensure temperature rises do not exceed a point that could dangerously destabilise the climate.” The committee decided that the IPCC had addressed key criticisms and tightened its review processes for the fifth assessment report, known as AR5. But they also suggested the panel recruit a small team of non-climate scientsts to observe the review processes and the meeting at which the summary of the report for policymakers is agreed. Yeo said: “What is starkly clear from the evidence we heard however is that there is no reason to doubt the credibility of the science or the integrity of the scientists involved. Policymakers in the UK and around the world must now act on the IPCC’s warning and work to agree a binding global climate deal in 2015 to ensure temperature rises do not exceed a point that could dangerously destabilise the climate.” The committee includes his fellow former Tory minister Peter Lilley, a climate sceptic who voted against the UK’s Climate Change Act. In a nod to the Climate Change Act, Yeo said there was no scientific basis for reducing the UK’s carbon budgets, which some in industry have urged the government to do. | ['environment/ipcc', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-29T04:00:08Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/blog/2012/feb/29/nuclear-power-energy-protest-hinkley | The abuse of political power is as dangerous as nuclear power itself | John Vidal | It's been a busy week for the bailiffs. Even as one group was carting people off from the steps of St Paul's in London on Monday night to remove Occupy protesters, so another was storming a Somerset farmhouse early on Wednesday to snuff out a small protest against the proposed two new Hinkley C nuclear power stations. End of story? Not at all. Occupy will be back and anger in Someset is growing at the way that the nuclear steamroller is gearing up to build its stations. EDF, who went to the high court in London rather than Bristol, tried to get a blanket injunction on anyone going near the site but was thwarted by the court which could see no justification in granting anything so wideranging. The Somerset protests are against nuclear power itself but also at the way the company appears to be flouting democracy and the new planning laws even before it starts building. EDF has permission to spend £100m preparing the site for the two power stations on the basis that they will return many millions tonnes of earth and restore the land to exactly how it was, should a public inspector decline to give them planning permsssion in 2013. This is clearly impossible, so the EDF must be 100% certain that it will get permission to build. In which case, say the protesters, the whole consultation exercise and planning process is a sham - a situation that looks likely to be subject to further court cases. Half of all local residents are against the power station but everyone in the area is united in believing that the planning system has been corrupted by cash handouts and pressure from central government. It suggests that from now on that any company will be allowed to start work on any giant project and be allowed to trash any piece of land without any demcoratic accountability in the name of national interest, climate change or anything else that the government decrees. Yet again, nuclear power is cast as a corporate bully working as an accomplice of government. What makes it worse, is that I am informed that some pro-nuclear greens have written to the protesters in Somerset urging them not to protest against EDF. If this is the case, then those pro-nuclear greens should be invited to write to the 3,000 "misguided" Indian protesters of the People's Movement against Nuclear Energy who have been on hunger strike in Tamil Nadu in protest against two nuclear power stations being built there, as well as the many thousands of Chinese who are protesting nuclear plants in Anhui province. Both these nascent anti-nuclear protests are in the forefront of much wider democracy movements, demanding corporate and government accountability. The point is that right across the world it is not just the nuclear technology which is so offensive to people, but the arrogance, callousness and ruthless steamrollering of any opposition that invariably accompanies nuclear projects. What the pro-nuclear folk here do not seem to understand is that the abuse of political power is as dangerous as the power source itself. • This article was amended to change 'flaunting' to 'flouting' | ['environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2012-02-29T15:48:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/sep/12/worms-fail-to-thrive-in-soil-containing-microplastics-study | Worms fail to thrive in soil containing microplastics – study | Worms fail to thrive in earth containing microplastics, new research has shown, adding to the growing body of evidence of impacts from the increasingly widespread contaminants on the natural world. The rosy-tipped earthworm, Aporrectodea rosea, is one of the most common found in farmland in temperate regions. Scientists found that worms placed in soil loaded with high density polyethylene (HDPE) – a common plastic used for bags and bottles – for 30 days lost about 3% of their body weight, compared with a control sample of similar worms placed in similar soil without HDPE, which put on 5% in body weight over the same period. Bas Boots, lecturer in biology at Anglia Ruskin University, and lead author of the study, said the specific reasons for the observed weight loss were not yet clear, but could be owing to the effects of microplastics on the worms’ digestion. “These effects include the obstruction and irritation of the digestive tract, limiting the absorption of nutrients and reducing growth,” he said. If the presence of microplastics inhibits earthworm growth on a wide scale, it could have implications for soil health and farming, as worms are vital part of the farmland soil ecosystem. The research, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, adds to a growing number of studies examining the effects of microscopic particles of plastics on invertebrates and fish. While it is too soon to draw conclusions about the effects on human health, studies have found harm to aquatic lugworms as well as possible effects on fish and molluscs. Microplastics have now been found in tapwater, the seas around the world, human stools, in the air and a wide variety of other environments. Soils in many places are likely to harbour large numbers of microplastics, deposited there from their presence in sewage, in water and in the air. However, the extent of contamination is largely unknown, though there are European studies reporting anything between 700 and 4,000 plastic particles per kilogram of soil in some agricultural land. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/soil', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-09-11T23:01:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2019/jul/23/new-uk-nuclear-plants-government-cost | New UK nuclear plants could be paid for upfront by consumers | The government has confirmed plans for consumers to begin paying for new nuclear reactors before they are built, and for taxpayers to pay a share of any cost overruns or construction delays. In a consultation document launched on Monday night, officials said the model is “essential” to attract private investors to back the UK’s new nuclear ambitions at a price that is affordable for bill payers. The public purse would also compensate nuclear investors if the project was scrapped. The new funding structure could be used to prop up EDF Energy’s £16bn plans for a new nuclear reactor at Sizewell B in Suffolk, which was left in doubt after fierce criticism of the costs surrounding the Hinkley Point C project in Somerset. It could also resurrect the dormant plans for a £16bn new nuclear reactor at the Wylfa project in North Wales, which fell apart last year due to the high costs of nuclear construction. The so-called “regulated asset base”, or RAB model, helps to make major infrastructure projects cheaper by shifting the risk of spiralling costs from the developer to the taxpayer. It is the same model used to fund London’s £4.2bn super-sewer project, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which has drawn criticism for raising water bills while investors reap financial rewards. An EDF Energy spokesman said the model will lower the cost of financing nuclear plants, which will benefit consumers through their bills. The company added that Sizewell C will be cheaper to finance and build than Hinkley Point C because it is “a near replica” of its forerunner which is already being constructed on time and to budget. “It will benefit from the experience of Hinkley Point C’s engineers, contractors and suppliers and lessons from other nuclear projects, including operational EPR plants,” EDF Energy said. “It can also repeat the huge boost for industry, jobs and skills already happening due to Hinkley Point C’s construction, which is on schedule.” The energy industry will have until mid-October to respond to the plans before a final decision is made by ministers. Dr Doug Parr, the chief scientist at Greenpeace, said: “The nuclear industry has gone in just 10 years from saying they need no subsidies to asking bill payers to fork out for expensive power plants that don’t even exist yet and may never.” “This ‘nuclear tax’ won’t lower energy bills – it will simply shift the liability for something going wrong from nuclear firms to consumers,” he added. Last summer, when the plans first emerged, the economist Dieter Helm, an influential government adviser, backed the RAB model as a better deal than the contract handed to EDF Energy to build the Hinkley Point project. But he added that it is “neither necessary or desirable to meet the twin objectives of security of supply and decarbonisation”. “No smart contracting and regulating framework can magic away the deep challenges that nuclear faces, notably: the possibility that in the next 60 years much cheaper new low carbon technologies may become available, possibly including new nuclear ones too; the very large upfront and sunk costs; the risk and the safety regulation; and the challenges of getting rid of the waste,” he said. Tom Greatrex, head of the Nuclear Industry Association, said the plans are fundamental to the UK’s climate targets because they will help to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while maintaining a secure, reliable system of power generation. “This approach is already well established with investors in large infrastructure projects, and will reduce the cost to consumers as we replace our ageing fleet. Doing so is fundamental to meeting net zero, and we need to get on with it now,” he said. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2019-07-23T09:13:05Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/sep/25/renewables-rebound-after-slump-but-must-speed-up-to-hit-labors-2030-energy-goals | Renewables rebound after slump but must speed up to hit Labor’s 2030 energy goals | Large-scale renewable energy investment and construction in Australia is rebounding this year after a slump, but will need to accelerate to reach the pace needed to meet the Albanese government’s goal for 2030. The country could add more than 7 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity this year, up from 5.3 GW last year, according to data released by the Clean Energy Regulator. Dylan McConnell, an energy systems researcher at the University of New South Wales, said: “There is this narrative that has developed that the transition has stalled and that’s demonstrably not true. It is happening, it just needs to speed up.” The new capacity is split roughly equally between household rooftop solar systems, which continue to be installed at what has been a world-leading pace, and large-scale renewable energy developments. Industry group the Clean Energy Council said the country was likely to have more than 25GW of rooftop solar by the end of the year, surpassing the total 21.3GW capacity of the national coal-fired power fleet. More than 3.7m homes and small businesses have systems. But the bigger change has been in construction of large-scale solar and wind farms, which fell in 2023, but has increased beyond expectations this year. The regulator said it was expected between 3GW and 4GW would be added. The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the data showed the national grid supplying the five eastern states was expected to run on 42% renewable energy this year. The regulator said final investment decisions were made on 1.8GW of new large renewable developments in the first half of the year. This surpassed 1.6GW in total commitments in 2023. Investment in grid-scale renewable energy fell last year after a long-standing legislated federal renewable energy target was reached and as investors faced uncertainty over when coal-fired power plants would close. The Albanese government chose not to expand the legislated target, but has promised to underwrite 25GW of new large-scale solar and wind as they aim to have 82% of Australia’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The Australian Energy Market Operator has declared the national grid would remain reliable as it shifted from running on mostly coal to mostly renewables, but would require planned investments in new generation to be delivered “on time and in full”. Bowen said the latest data showed the government’s renewables plan was “on track and building momentum”. He repeated his argument that the Coalition’s proposal to limit investment in large-scale renewables and eventually build nuclear plants would put the country at risk of supply shortages and blackouts. “[Opposition leader] Peter Dutton wants to stop renewable investment, tear up contracts for new renewable and transmission projects and deliver expensive nuclear reactors in two decades’ time,” he said. Dutton gave a speech on nuclear energy on Monday, but did not release new information about what the Coalition planned. He promised those details – including the expected cost for households and businesses and how the Coalition planned to prevent blackouts as ageing coal plants reached the end of their scheduled lives – before the next election. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'campaign/email/breaking-news-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-09-25T01:04:22Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2016/mar/10/could-a-new-plastic-eating-bacteria-help-combat-this-pollution-scourge | Could a new plastic-eating bacteria help combat this pollution scourge? | Nature has begun to fight back against the vast piles of filth dumped into its soils, rivers and oceans by evolving a plastic-eating bacteria – the first known to science. In a report published in the journal Science, a team of Japanese researchers described a species of bacteria that can break the molecular bonds of one of the world’s most-used plastics - polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET or polyester. The Japanese research team sifted through hundreds of samples of PET pollution before finding a colony of organisms using the plastic as a food source. Further tests found the bacteria almost completely degraded low-quality plastic within six weeks. This was voracious when compared to other biological agents; including a related bacteria, leaf compost and a fungus enzyme recently found to have an appetite for PET. “This is the first rigorous study – it appears to be very carefully done – that I have seen that shows plastic being hydrolyzed [broken down] by bacteria,” said Dr Tracy Mincer, a researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The molecules that form PET are bonded very strongly, said Prof Uwe Bornscheuer in an accompanying comment piece in Science. “Until recently, no organisms were known to be able to decompose it.” In a Gaian twist, initial genetic examination revealed the bacteria, named Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, may have evolved enzymes specifically capable of breaking down PET in response to the accumulation of the plastic in the environment in the past 70 years. Such rapid evolution was possible, said Enzo Palombo, a professor of microbiology at Swinburne University, given that microbes have an extraordinary ability to adapt to their surroundings. “If you put a bacteria in a situation where they’ve only got one food source to consume, over time they will adapt to do that,” he said. “I think we are seeing how nature can surprise us and in the end the resiliency of nature itself,” added Mincer. The bacteria took longer to eat away highly crystallised PET, which is used in plastic bottles. That means the enzymes and processes would need refinement before they could be useful for industrial recycling or pollution clean-up. “It’s difficult to break down highly crystallised PET,” said Prof Kenji Miyamoto from Keio University, one of the authors of the study. “Our research results are just the initiation for the application. We have to work on so many issues needed for various applications. It takes a long time,” he said. A third of all plastics end up in the environment and 8m tonnes end up in the ocean every year, creating vast accumulations of life-choking rubbish. PET makes up almost one-sixth of the world’s annual plastic production of 311m tons. Despite PET being one of the more commonly recycled plastics, the World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that only just over half is ever collected for recycling and far less actually ends up being reused. Advances in biodegradable plastics and recycling offer hope for the future, said Bornscheuer, “but [this] does not help to get rid of the plastics already in the environment”. However the potential applications of the discovery remain unclear. The most obvious use would be as a biological agent in nature, said Palombo. Bacteria could be sprayed on the huge floating trash heaps building up in the oceans. This method is most notably employed to combat oil spills. This particular bacteria would not be useful for this process as it only consumes PET, which is too dense to float on water. But Bornscheuer said the discovery could open the door to the discovery or manufacture of biological agents able to break down other plastics. Palombo said the discovery suggested that other bacteria may have already evolved to do this job and simply needed to be found. “I would not be surprised if samples of ocean plastics contained microbes that are happily growing on this material and could be isolated in the same manner,” he said. But Mincer said breaking down ocean rubbish came with dangers of its own. Plastics often contain additives that can be toxic when released. WEF estimates that the 150m tonnes of plastic currently in the ocean contain roughly 23m tonnes of additives. “Plastic debris may have been less toxic in the whole unhydrolyzed form where it would ultimately have been buried in the sediments on a geological timescale,” said Mincer. Beyond dealing with the plastic already fouling up the environment, the bacteria could potentially be used in industrial recycling processes. “Certainly, the use of these microbes or enzymes could play a role in remediation of plastic in a controlled reactor,” said Mincer. Miyamoto’s team suggested that the environmentally-benign constituents left behind by the bacteria could be the same ones from which the plastic is formed. If this were true and a process could be developed to isolate them, Bornscheuer said: “This could provide huge savings in the production of new polymer without the need for petrol-based starting materials.” According to the WEF, 6% of global oil production is devoted to the production of plastics. But the plastics industry said the potential for a new biological process to replace or augment the current mechanical recycling process was very small. “PET is 100% recyclable,” said Mike Neal, the chairman of the Committee of PET Manufacturers in Europe. “I expect that a biodegradation system would require a similar engineering process to chemical depolymerisation and as such is unlikely to be economically viable,” he said. | ['environment/series/eco-audit', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karl-mathiesen'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-03-10T19:00:11Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2015/jun/12/liberal-senator-wants-windfarm-inquiry-to-recognise-adverse-health-effects | Liberal senator wants windfarm inquiry to recognise 'adverse health effects' | A new federal inquiry could call for commonwealth oversight of windfarm regulations and demand recognition of the alleged health impacts of turbines on people living near them, according to Coalition senators. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, dismayed the wind industry on Thursday when he told Sydney radio announcer Alan Jones that he wished the government had been able to reduce the number of new windfarms more than was possible in a recent renewable energy deal with Labor, and agreed windfarms had “potential health impacts”. The government had previously claimed it was demanding a reduction in the renewable energy target because the industry would be unable to meet it. West Australian Liberal backbencher Chris Back, who sits on the new senate select inquiry into windfarms, said it was looking at “what role the federal Clean Energy Regulator [CER] should have in checking that wind farms are compliant with state laws and guidelines.” Back said he believed the CER should check whether windfarms are complying with the law, and could do so without contravening the state’s constitutional powers to make decisions about land use. And the major outcome he was hoping for from the committee – chaired by independent senator John Madigan and set up with Coalition support – was “a recognition that there are adverse health effects on people living in the vicinity of industrial wind turbines ... that it honours the concerns and experiences of all the witness that are clearly affected.” Back also said he also wanted assurances that new independent research on the health effects of windfarms – for which the Coalition promised $2.5m at the last election – will be “truly independent.” In a report released in February, the National Health and Medical Research Council concluded that “there is currently no consistent evidence that windfarms cause adverse health effects in humans”. The NHMRC is also responsible for implementing the Coalition’s election pledge and is offering grants worth $500,000 for five years for more research on windfarms and human health. Back says he is “extremely dissatisfied” with the NHMRC’s previous literature reviews and studies, which he believes “lacked balance”. Queensland Liberal National Party senator Matthew Canavan agreed the CER “could be given powers to penalise windfarms if they are in breach of their approval conditions.” Canavan said he thought the grants should possibly be distributed by an independent panel because “people feel their concerns have already been dismissed by the statement the NHMRC made at the outset.” A Sydney University review of 25 studies into the possible health effects of wind turbines found none had produced evidence they were detrimental to human health and in 2014 the Australian Medical Association issued a statement saying the available evidence did not support the idea that windfarm noise harmed human health. Back said that like the prime minister he would like to see fewer wind turbines and more encouragement for other kinds of renewable energy, such as large scale solar, or upgrades for existing hydro projects. Speaking on Thursday to the Sydney radio host Alan Jones – a long-term windfarm critic – the prime minister said: “I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things … when I’ve been up close to these windfarms not only are they visually awful but they make a lot of noise. “What we did recently in the Senate was to reduce, Alan, capital R-E-D-U-C-E, the number of these things that we are going to get in the future … I frankly would have likely to have reduced the number a lot more but we got the best deal we could out of the Senate and if we hadn’t had a deal, Alan, we would have been stuck with even more of these things … “What we are managing to do through this admittedly imperfect deal with the Senate is to reduce the growth rate of this particular sector as much as the current Senate would allow us to do.” He said the RET had been “put in place in the late days of the Howard government” and “knowing what we know now I don’t think we would have done things this way, but at the time we thought it was the right way forward”. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the comments would create investor uncertainty. “There’s Tony Abbott at it again,” he said. “Now he’s anti-windmills. “Renewable energy is part of Australia’s current energy mix … When you’re the leader of Australia you don’t always have the chance to, I think, just have thought bubbles. You’ve got to create investment certainty. What will the renewable energy investors in wind power now think, knowing Australia is run by a bloke who says he doesn’t like windmills?” | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/liberal-party', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2015-06-11T21:33:47Z | true | ENERGY |
weather/2009/apr/14/weatherwatch-madagascar | Robert Hutchinson, MeteoGroup: Weatherwatch | Madagascar was struck by tropical cyclone Jade early last week, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. The cyclone made landfall in north-eastern Madagascar on Monday, and moved southwards down much of the eastern side of the country before heading back out into the Indian Ocean. The winds brought down buildings and power lines, while the rain caused landslides and flooding. At least nine people were reported to have been killed, with tens of thousands made homeless. This has worsened an already dire situation in Madagascar, which is still struggling to recover from two cyclones which struck the country in January. Meanwhile, large parts of southern Africa continued to experience the region's worst flooding in 50 years. An area from Namibia in the west to Mozambique in the east is affected, with heavy rains continuing to swell many rivers, particularly the Zambezi. Over 100,000 people are thought to have been made homeless by the flooding, with more than 100 killed. Flood waters could take several weeks to recede. Stormy weather swept across the southern and mid-western United States on Thursday and Friday, with tornadoes hitting Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Mena, Arkansas, killing five people. Wildfires also broke out and were fanned by the strong winds accompanying the storms. The fires destroyed more than 100 homes in Oklahoma, and a further three people lost their lives. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/madagascar', 'tone/news', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-04-13T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2017/jan/19/melbourne-trams-to-be-solar-powered-under-andrews-government-proposal | Melbourne trams to be solar-powered under Andrews government proposal | Melbourne’s tram network will become entirely solar-powered under a proposal by the Andrews government to build large-scale solar farms in northern Victoria. The proposal, announced on Thursday, is part of a plan to reduce Victoria’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Tenders to build and operate 75MW of new solar farms will be released in early 2017 and the first solar power plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. The environment and energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said 35MW of the generating power of the new solar plants would be dedicated to running Melbourne’s tram network, which would reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80,000 tonnes a year. “We will use our purchasing power as a large energy consumer to boost investment in renewables and create new jobs for Victorians,” D’Ambrosio said. “We’re positioning Victoria as a leader in climate change, by reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts.” D’Ambrosio said the project would deliver $150m in capital expenditure to regional Victoria and create 300 jobs. The Greens welcomed the move to solar-powered trams, saying it matched a Greens policy announced in 2015, but said it was hypocritical of the Andrews government to promote large-scale solar while cutting solar feed-in tariffs. The minimum solar feed-in tariff was reduced from 6.2 cents a kilowatt hour to five cents a kilowatt hour on 1 January. “It’s some pretty mixed messages that we’re seeing from the Andrews government when it comes renewables, including the fact that we’re supposed to have a plan on what to do with the coal industry by the end of last year and that hasn’t materialised,” the Greens MP Ellen Sandell said. D’Ambrosio said the reduction was a hangover from the previous Coalition government, and the feed-in tariff would increase by up to 20% on the current rate from 1 July. Environment Victoria’s chief executive, Mark Wakefield, said there was symbolic power in having the tram network, which is one of the most recognisable features of Melbourne, powered by renewable energy. “I would love to see the train network also powered by renewable energy,” he said. It comes six months after the Andrews government approved the construction of two windfarms in north-west Victoria, the 30MW Kiata windfarm, 50km north-west of Horsham, and the 66MW Mt Gellibrand windfarm, 17km west of Winchelsea. The proposal follows the announcement in November that the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in Gippsland, which had produced up to 25% of Victoria’s electricity, would close. The owners of that plant, Engie, are also investigating the possible sale of Loy Yang B coal fire power station in the Latrobe valley, which produces 17% of Victoria’s power. According to a 2015 government report on Victoria’s renewable energy targets, just 12% of Victoria’s electricity supply in 2014 was renewable, while 84% came from coal. | ['australia-news/melbourne', 'australia-news/victorian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'politics/transport', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2017-01-19T06:47:40Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/blog/2009/dec/07/send-us-your-photos-copenhagen | Copenhagen climate change conference: Send us your photos | Whether you're a Copenhagen resident or you're among the thousands of people who've travelled to Denmark for the UN's climate talks, we want to see your photos of the city over the next fortnight. We're looking for a wide variety of shots that show your experience of the conference: good places to stay and eat, colourful protests, alternative events such as the Klimaforum, and leaders and officials travelling to the Bella conference centre in limos and electric vehicles. Just add your photos to our Copenhagen Flickr group and we'll showcase some of the best here on environmentguardian.co.uk, and maybe in the newspaper version of the Guardian too. If you're more of a film-making bent, you could send a video message to the officials and world leaders meeting in Copenhagen. We'll be editing together the best and present them here on environmentguardian.co.uk. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/blog', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-12-07T13:28:30Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
education/2020/may/09/uk-councils-to-enforce-temporary-road-closures-for-safer-school-runs | UK councils to enforce temporary road closures for safer school runs | Roads are to be temporarily closed near schools when parents drop off and pick up their children, in order to deter people from driving on the school run – and to encourage more walking, cycling and scooting. The plans to shut off roads at school rush hours, using barriers, cones and other measures, are already far advanced in London and Manchester and are expected to be followed in other cities and towns. Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, told the Observer: “It will mean timed restrictions on traffic around schools to allow people to safely walk to school, cycle to school, scoot to school. I don’t mind if they are on space hoppers as long as it’s not by car. You need to reduce the amount of traffic to allow pupils and parents to walk safely.” Norman said there would be an added danger to parents and children who would have to keep two metres apart if the roads were busy near schools. “The last thing we want is kids and their parents stepping into a busy road or to see increasing air quality problems around schools. “So that [temporary closure of roads twice a day] is going to have to be something that schools and local authorities plan for and I want all schools and councils to be looking at this urgently.” Transport planners are worried that if more people opt to use their cars after the lockdown ends, to get children to and from school, there will be gridlock in urban areas. They also warn that there will be a rapid rise in pollution levels around schools that will be bad for pupils’ and teachers’ health. Yesterday [SAT] the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a £2 billion package “to put cycling and walking at the heart of our transport policy”. He said that even if the transport network was running at full capacity, the two metre social distancing rule would mean only one in 10 passengers could travel. A national cycling plan will be published in early June to help double cycling and increase walking by 2025, he said. Measures will include pop-up bike lanes and wider pavements as well as cycle and bus-only streets. Trials of e-scooters will also be fast-tracked in a bid to get rental schemes up and running in cities as fast as possible. The length of time that temporary road closures around schools would last, and precisely how they work, will be left up to local councils. But both London mayor Sadiq Khan and the mayor of Greater Manchester, have made clear money will be available and emergency powers can be used to allow them to do so. They say the closures would also make it safer for people to walk or cycle at safe distances from each other en route to and from schools, and help buses carrying children avoid running into heavy congestion. Chris Boardman, the former Olympic cycling gold medallist, who is now cycling and walking commissioner for Greater Manchester, said the current crisis had created a unique opportunity to try out ideas that people might find they want to adopt permanently. In Manchester, councils had been given £5m to help develop such schemes and had emergency powers to close or adapt roads. “They [councils] could say, right we need to make a lot more space around these schools so people will stay apart. They could say we will do it with cones, with planters, we will temporarily close roads, we will make it one way so we can use one lane. All of these measures can be adopted … quickly.” Every year more than 200 million car journeys of less than 1km are made, many of these being on school runs. Graham Stapleton, the CEO of retail chain Halfords, said he supported calls by Boardman for trials on e-scooters. “We welcome reports of a forthcoming government announcement on fast tracking e-scooter trials and think if this is true, it will go some way to setting a legal and regulatory framework that means they can be lawfully used on our roads. There is overwhelming public support for trials.” Khan said: “To help mitigate the impact of a greatly reduced capacity on public transport, due to social distancing, we will need millions of journeys a day to be made by other means. If people switch only a fraction of these journeys to cars, London risks grinding to a halt, air quality will worsen, and road danger will increase. “Modelling has shown that there is potential for a tenfold increase in kilometres cycled and up to five times the amount of walking. Our Streetspace plan will act as a catalyst for this change, fast-tracking schemes that will enable many more people to take to two wheels or travel on foot. This includes repurposing traffic lanes on main roads for temporary cycle lanes, widening footways so that people can safely socially distance, looking at where we need to restrict roads to buses and bikes only at certain times of the day, and reducing traffic on residential streets.” | ['education/schools', 'world/road-safety', 'environment/air-pollution', 'lifeandstyle/cycling', 'society/health', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/andyburnham', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tobyhelm', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-05-09T18:40:52Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2015/jan/29/city-of-melbourne-prepares-to-see-some-emails-lovely-as-its-trees | Melbourne's trees bombarded with emailed love letters | If you’ve ever pondered what trees think about life’s major issues, the city of Melbourne has come up with an elegant solution – you can email them and find out. The city council has devised an interactive urban forest map that provides individual data on each of the 70,000 trees that line the streets and parks of central Melbourne. Each tree is assigned an identification number, which allows you to email it. Ostensibly this is to report damaged branches, but emailed expressions of tree devotion have been received from admirers. Alas, the trees haven’t been tapping away at laptops with their twigs, asking email pests to leaf them alone. Instead a team at the city of Melbourne has branched out from other duties to field the emails. “Some said we were wasting money, but the trees were always going to have individual ID numbers anyway,” said the appropriately named Arron Wood, a Melbourne city councillor. “So it was only logical we’d assign the ID numbers to an email which connects these trees to the community. “An unintended but positive consequence was that instead of reporting problems with trees, people began writing letters about how much they love individual trees in the city. “The email interactions reveal the love Melburnians have for our trees. For example, one email came from workers who watered a tree outside the State Library so that the tree survived the drought. “The emails show Melburnians know and respect the importance of trees in reducing heat in our city and increasing Melbourne’s liveability.” One tree fan emailed their favourite golden elm telling it to keep up the good work, while a London plane tree was complimented on its beauty. A green leaf elm was urged to stay in good shape by a wellwisher moving abroad. Melbourne’s urban forest strategy was initiated in 2007 in response to a 10-year drought that gripped much of southern Australia. The city aims to double the area covered by tree canopies by 2040 to soak up more carbon dioxide and reduce the “heat island” effect common in cities. Eucalypts are the most common trees found in Melbourne, followed by plantanus and ulmus. Other species include ficus and acacia trees. It is expected that Melbourne will lose more than four in 10 of its trees over the next 20 years due to old age. About 3,000 trees will need to be planted until 2040 to replace those trees and increase canopy cover. Guardian Australia emailed a ginkgo maidenhair tree in Fitzroy Gardens, a park near Melbourne’s city centre, which responded: “Dear Oliver, Thank you for your lovely words. I am very well. Enjoy your day. Yours sincerely, Tree 1441724.” A nearby ficus was also contacted for comment on the scheme but has yet to reply. | ['environment/forests', 'australia-news/melbourne', 'australia-news/victoria', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-01-29T03:27:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
media/greenslade/2011/mar/21/dailytelegraph-whales | Stranded whales and shapely legs - how not to use news sources | I commend Ben Goldacre's column in Saturday's Guardian to journalism students. It's about the need to link to primary sources, and then to use those sources fairly and accurately. He points to examples in newspapers where journalists failed to follow that golden rule: Daily Telegraph: Wind farms blamed for stranding of whales. It has been taken down from the paper's website because it wasn't true. Daily Mail: Stilettos give women shapelier legs than flats; Daily Express: Stilettos tone up your legs; and Telegraph again: Why stilettos are the secret to shapely legs These stories were based on a paper by Professor Anna Ahn that suggested people with shorter heels have larger calves. There was no mention of shoes - and the participants in her research, into anatomical heel length, were barefoot. And the Mail again: Swimming too often in chlorinated water 'could increase risk of developing bladder cancer', claim scientists. That's "a simple distortion", wrote Goldacre. (Incidentally, I see that the Mail ran a chlorine scare story in January 2007: Chlorine in the bathwater is linked to cancer). Goldacre concluded: "I've detected myself using a new rule of thumb: if you don't link to primary sources, I just don't trust you." Source: The Guardian | ['media/greenslade', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'tone/comment', 'media/dailytelegraph', 'environment/whales', 'media/dailymail', 'society/health', 'media/dailyexpress', 'media/national-newspapers', 'media/newspapers', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/roygreenslade'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-03-21T07:54:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2018/feb/26/vodafone-to-track-users-in-ghana-to-halt-spread-of-epidemics-ebola | Vodafone to track users in Ghana to halt spread of epidemics | Vodafone is partnering with the government of Ghana to share the movements of its customers to help track and contain the spread of epidemics such as the Ebola virus. The charitable arm of the mobile phone company said it would provide real-time tracking data from its 8.7 million customers in Ghana, which could provide invaluable information on population movements during an outbreak. The level of activity at each mobile phone mast can provide a “heat map” of where people are and how far they are moving. This information, which Vodafone says will be “aggregated and anonymised” so individuals will not be identified, could also be used by the Ghanaian government to make crucial decisions in areas such as transportation and agriculture. The Vodafone Foundation said analysis of such data could provide potentially life-saving insights during an epidemic, such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak across west Africa. “As we can now measure human mobility it is possible to model how infections spread,” said Joakim Reiter, the Vodafone external affairs director. “Mobile technology can enable access to ... data about human behaviour and the ability to examine the mobility of an entire population. This has the potential to save thousands of lives.” Vodafone, which said the programme was one of the first of its kind, will provide information to the Ghana statistical service which will then be shared with other government departments to allow them to “allocate resources more efficiently and identify the areas at increased risk of new outbreaks”. A data privacy expert warned that although using large-scale, anonymised information may appear to protect individuals from identification, Vodafone will still have to be very careful not to breach people’s rights. “In order to create big data, you have to gather little data – information about specific individuals – in this case tracking people’s movements,” said Robert Lands, a partner at the law firm Howard Kennedy. “That’s where data protection law comes in, as you would have to make sure that the tracking is compliant.” He added that some organisations dealing with big data can “get it wrong” by not completely anonymising data, even though they believe they have. Vodafone said data being gathered would not breach any privacy or data protection laws. “The Vodafone Foundation programme will work in line with Vodafone’s global privacy principles, GSMA data protection guidelines and Ghanaian data protection regulations,” said a spokeswoman for Vodafone. | ['world/epidemics', 'world/ebola', 'world/ghana', 'world/africa', 'business/vodafonegroup', 'business/telecoms', 'world/world', 'world/privacy', 'technology/big-data', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/marksweney', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-02-26T13:41:33Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2017/nov/17/maybe-the-smog-can-bring-us-together-toxic-air-chokes-pakistan-and-india | 'Maybe the smog can bring us together': toxic air chokes Pakistan and India | Parts of Pakistan have been enveloped by deadly smog in recent weeks, with the city of Lahore suffering almost as badly as the Indian capital Delhi. Pictures and video that show Lahore looking like an apocalyptic landscape have left people in shock. Some residents have said they can’t see beyond their outstretched arm. According to the app Airvisual and a Twitter user going by the handle @Lahoresmog, the air quality index, which measures the level of PM 2.5 pollutants in the air, has been set at “hazardous” over the past week, making a modest improvement in recent days. Flights have been cancelled, schools have shut and major traffic jams and accidents have gridlocked the streets. At its peak, Lahore’s levels of PM 2.5, the particles most damaging to health, were more than 30 times the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) safe limit. Environmentalists say air pollution is getting worse every year. According to WHO figures, in Pakistan during 2012, nearly 60,000 people died because of PM2.5 particles in the atmosphere. The causes of the air pollution are a combination of vehicle and industrial emissions, construction, seasonal dust, and crop burning. Analysts say because the causes and consequences of air pollution are not limited to a single nation state, it is time for cooperation between India and Pakistan to address the issue. Shafqat Kakakhel, a former ambassador and deputy executive director of the UN Environment Programme, agrees. “Both countries are now using wood for fuel and there is also bad quality of fuel in vehicles. The situation in India is definitely different because industrialisation in Punjab and Haryana is heavier than it is on our side. Their emissions come from the use of coal, we use gas – so basically the scale of pollution is much worse there.” Abid Suleri, executive director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, reiterated that the smog problem should be viewed as a cross-regional challenge. “This year [the smog] started a bit early, which shows the intensity of the problem. It is getting policymakers’ attention, but they seem clueless on how to handle it. “Smog is a symptom. We need to introduce clean fuel, and renew efforts of reforestation: not only planting but taking care of saplings too. Also, by enforcing existing laws to control vehicular and industrial emissions.” He added that authorities need to look at banning the burning of crop residue and solid waste, “but then there must be an alternative to dispose of solid waste. Countries in the region should talk to each other to learn what worked and what did not work in controlling the smog.” One doctor in Delhi said pollution there was worse than smoking 50 cigarettes a day. But joint action would be difficult given the volatile political relationship between India and Pakistan. “There is no forum that can be taken with India. Bilateral talks have stalled, but the fact is that we have so many transboundary environmental issues,” said Kakakhel. Kakakhel believes this is an imperative issue that will deteriorate over the years if it is not taken seriously by both countries. “It is going to be worse next year. There will be more vehicles, wood and cow dung will be burned. “Political leadership needs to wake up to this. Maybe the smog can bring us together.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'world/pakistan', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-11-17T05:00:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2020/dec/17/the-guardian-view-on-air-pollution-risks-make-ellas-experience-count | The Guardian view on air pollution risks: make Ella’s experience count | Editorial | Air pollution in British cities must urgently be reduced. The public, and particularly people who have asthma – or other conditions that place them at increased risk from breathing particulate matter or gases including nitrogen dioxide – must be much better informed about the threat to their health. These are the only rational and humane conclusions to be drawn from dramatic events at a London coroner’s court this week, where it was recorded that exposure to air pollution was among the causes of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah’s death from asthma in February 2013 – a finding that has never before been recorded by a coroner with regard to the death of an individual. The verdict is a victory for Ella’s mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, who, with the support of lawyers and medical reports, pushed hard for an earlier inquest verdict to be quashed. In the years leading up to her daughter’s death, Ms Kissi-Debrah lived with Ella and her siblings in Lewisham, within 30 metres of the South Circular road, where nitrogen dioxide emissions regularly exceeded national and EU legal limits. Ella was hospitalised 27 times in the three years before she died. Yet her mother was not warned by doctors, nor by any more general public health messaging, about the elevated risk to her asthmatic daughter from air pollution, the vast majority of it produced by traffic fumes. Public understanding of the dangers has moved on as the issue of air pollution has risen up the political and environmental agenda; so have the government’s ambitions. In 2018 Michael Gove, who was then environment secretary, produced a clean air strategy that promised “comprehensive action”, after the government’s air pollution policy was ruled illegal for the third time, in a series of cases brought by the activist organisation ClientEarth. But ministers’ words, in this case, spoke louder than actions. Responsibility for new clean air zones was delegated to cash-strapped councils, which have deferred implementation. Deaths linked to air pollution in the UK are estimated to be as high as 36,000 a year, while current limits for particulate matter are two and a half times higher than the World Health Organization recommends. And while the greenhouse gases produced by air traffic have a much more diffuse environmental impact than the localised effects of road traffic, the government’s anti-pollution credentials are diminished by their refusal – so far – to rule out either a third runway at Heathrow (whose backers this week won a victory at the supreme court) or numerous regional airport expansion plans. Last month’s announcement that the government will bring forward a ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2030 was a big step forward. So is the recent stronger emphasis on policies to promote cycling and walking. The unusual opportunity to experience quieter, cleaner cities was among the handful of positives to be salvaged from this difficult year of immobility and separation. To their credit, ministers have supported efforts to prolong the effects with the roll-out of low traffic neighbourhoods. The government must now go further. Supporting schemes to make the roads outside schools car-free is one thing; confronting the motor industry and getting serious about the kinds of shifts in behaviour, culture and technology that are needed to substantially reduce congestion and pollution is another. Increasing the cost of driving relative to other forms of transport, and giving more space to people on foot and on bicycles, is not universally popular. But, as the photographs shared by Ella Kissi-Debrah’s family of their smiling, bright-eyed girl remind us, air pollution kills. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/air-pollution', 'uk/london', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-12-17T19:12:25Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2016/aug/15/pilanguru-people-fight-uranium-mine-approval-vimy-resources-mulga-rock-western-australia | Pilanguru people to fight on as uranium mine gets environmental approval | Traditional owners have vowed to fight a proposed uranium mine at Mulga Rock, about 240km west of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, which was given conditional environmental approval on Monday. The Environmental Protection Authority of WA recommended the Barnett government approve construction of the open-pit mine and uranium processing plant, operated by Perth-based Vimy Resources Limited, after a three-month public environmental review. The proposed project would mine 4.5m tonnes of ore a year, processed down to 1,360 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate, which would be trucked to Port Adelaide in sealed steel drums. It would require the clearing of 3,787ha of native vegetation, the preferred habitat of the endangered sandhill dunnart, which the proposal says would be rehabilitated at the end of the mine’s 16-year life. Tailings from the uranium processing would be stored in above-ground storage facilities for the first 18 months before being moved into in-ground tailings pits that would be capped and covered once the site was decommissioned. Bruce Hogan, the chair of the Pilanguru Native Title Group, said he and other traditional owners planned to fight the proposal and claimed the company had not adequately consulted the Aboriginal community. The area was subject to a native title claim by the Wongatha people but that was rejected by the federal court in 2007. There are four registered Aboriginal heritage sites within the 9,998ha property, containing scattered artefacts including stone flakes and tools which, according to a 2010 heritage survey, represented short-term occupation by Aboriginal peoples following ephemeral water sources. Two of the sites are in areas slated for development and at least one is expected to be affected by land clearing and excavation. “We use to go out there with our elders,” Hogan said. “We can’t see how this mine could go ahead. “The seven sisters’ tjukupa [Dreaming] goes through there and the two wadis [lore men] went through that area too. The elders use to take us there for cultural practice, they would leave us there for a few days and then come back to pick us up. “We don’t want that mine to go ahead. We will fight against that mine at Mulga Rock.” Indigenous people living in the area have a bad history with uranium developments. It’s a few hundred kilometres from Cundalee, the mission where Spinifex people from the Great Victoria Desert were placed after being pushed off their traditional lands by the British government’s nuclear testing program in Maralinga, South Australia, in the 1950s and 60s. “It is an emotive issue because of that history,” Fiona Pemberton, general manager of the Paupiyala Tjarutja Aboriginal Corporation, told Guardian Australia. Most of those displaced people now live at Tjuntjuntjara near the South Australian border but one woman remains at Coonana, a remote Aboriginal community near Cundalee. The closest house to the planned uranium mine is at Pinjin station, 105km away. The EPA report said the impact of radiation from the mine on human health would be negligible. “Worst-case scenario” testing, based on hypothetical homes within 9km of the boundary, projected an exposure of about 0.04 millisieverts per year, compared with the normal radiation exposure in Australia of 1.5 to 2mSv/yr. It said exposure along the transport route would be negligible: 0.0006mSv/yr for a car stuck behind the uranium truck for the full six-hour journey, or 0.004mSv/yr for a person who spent a year standing beside the trucking route. The estimated exposure for workers, who will be housed in on-site accommodation, was 3mSv/year, compared with the regulatory dose limit of 20mSv/yr for uranium mine workers. Mia Pepper, an anti-nuclear campaigner at the Conservation Council, said a bigger concern was that radiation from the tailing pits could leach into the water table and impact the Great Victoria Springs, a class A nature reserve about 30km to the south. The Conservation Council said it was concerned about Vimy’s ability to successfully remediate the site. She said the EPA was too ready to accept the mitigation practices proposed by Vimy and the Conservation Council would lodge an appeal. “The difference with uranium is the risks are very, very high and when things go wrong, they go very wrong,” she said. | ['environment/mining', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/mining', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-08-15T08:01:04Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/nov/10/rudd-issues-transport-challenge-to-meet-uk-renewables-target | UK doesn't have right policies to meet renewable energy target, admits Amber Rudd | Amber Rudd has admitted the UK does not have the right policies in place to meet its EU target of sourcing 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020, and challenged transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin to help make up the shortfall. The energy secretary told MPs on Tuesday that meeting the target would be challenging, and admitted that the UK could end up having to buy renewable energy from its European neighbours if it fell short. Rudd said that the prospect of the UK getting just 11.5% of energy from renewables by 2020 without further action, first revealed in a leaked letter on Monday, was accurate. The gap would have to be addressed by the Department for Transport and by her department doing more on heat, she said. “It’s my aim we should meet the 2020 target. I recognise we don’t have the right policies, particularly in transport and heat, but we have four to five years and I remain committed to making the target,” she told the energy and climate change committee. “I am concerned about the work that is being done on transport and on heat to meet the additional targets, that is why I have been writing to ministers in other departments, particularly in transport,” she said. But making up the shortfall by increasing the amount of renewable electricity from sources such as windfarms, which the Tory party has hit with subsidy cuts, was not an option, she said. “I think it would be a mistake to abandon heat and transport, they need to make their contribution on the renewable targets.” Buying renewable energy from other European countries was on the table as an option, she said, but would not be desirable. “The desirable option is to deliver it ourselves,” she said, while declining to name which countries the UK would consider buying green energy from. She also rejected claims that the government’s subsidy cuts to renewable electricity over the summer had harmed the UK’s ability to meet the EU target. On heat, the energy secretary said she was lobbying the Treasury to continue subsidies for renewable heating ahead of the autumn statement. The domestic renewable heat incentive (RHI), which householders can use to get subsidies for technologies such as biomass boilers and groundsource heat pumps, launched in 2014 and is currently due to expire in 2017. Polling by the government, published on Tuesday, found that just one in ten people had heard of the RHI. Rudd also defended the government’s deal with EDF to build new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset. “We needed to have nuclear, we hadn’t done nuclear in 25 years. I think this was the right price to pay,” she told MPs if the government’s agreement to pay EDF twice the current wholesale price of electricity for 35 years. The government has admitted Hinkley will cost electricity customers at least £4.4bn. She also said that she would like to see Chinese-designed reactors up and running Bradwell, Essex, by the late 2020s, as well an EDF-designed reactor at Sizewell in Suffolk. Stephen Lovegrove, permanent secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change also told MPs that the department was shedding 200 of its 1,600 staff as part of the comprehensive spending review. The Green party MP, Caroline Lucas MP, said that the government’s credibility on climate change was “in tatters”. “To create jobs and tackle climate change, the UK should be leading the way on clean home-grown energy. Ministers must get a grip and urgently act to ensure we meet all of our renewable energy targets,” she said. | ['environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2015-11-10T14:07:51Z | true | ENERGY |
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