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sustainable-business/2017/feb/28/coca-cola-u-turn-can-and-bottle-recycling-europe | Coca-Cola U-turn could help UK catch up on can and bottle recycling | More firms are expected to announce bottle deposit return services after Coca-Cola unexpectedly came out in favour of the idea. Pepsi, Nestlé, Unilever and M&S have already committed to producing more eco-friendly bottles by using plant-based materials or less plastic, and an uptick in that trend could now be on the cards. “We expect that any beverage company announcing or taking steps would serve to encourage other companies to follow suit,” said a spokesperson for the UN Environment Programme. Piotr Barczak of the European Environmental Bureau said: “If Coca-Cola are serious about this then we can expect other companies – particularly smaller competitors – to follow suit.” Rauno Raal, the CEO of the organisation that runs Estonia’s deposit return system said: “Consumers have a fast growing environmental awareness, which means that business is not any more just about revenue and profit, but also social responsibility and impact. Now that a market leader such as Coca-Cola has come to this understanding, others will follow.” Coca-Cola’s announcement surprised many, coming after reports that the company was trying to fight proposals for a recycling trial in Scotland. But the firm could be responding to public feeling on the issue, and continental trends. Estonia’s recycling success European countries like Estonia – which started a bottle deposit scheme in 2005 – have reported dramatic results. The Baltic state has a population of only 1.3 million people but collected and recycled 3.2bn “deposit packages” in the last 12 years. Last year, the return rate was 75% for cans, and 87% for both PET bottles and one-way glass. “There is significant gap between green thinking and acting,” Raal said. “The deposit system’s monetary incentive is the key to decreasing that gap.” Estonian shops sell colas, beers and water for a product price plus deposit, which can be retrieved when the empty bottles or cans are returned in the form of a discount on the next purchase. “In a way it works like a car rental,” Raal said. “When you rent, you leave your credit card number and when you return the car safe and sound, the reserved money is returned to you fully.” Which recycling model is best? There are three models for deposit return schemes in Europe. Refilling systems leave the smallest environmental footprint, allowing shoppers to return robust bottles and cans to the manufacturer, usually for a deposit, so that each can be cleaned, refilled and reused up to 50 times. One-way deposit schemes are similar but target single-use drinks containers, which the manufacturer can process, recycle and resell as new bottles, albeit after an energy intensive production process. Some initiatives use no deposit and operate on a voluntary basis only, but experts say they offer little incentive for recycling. “With so little environmental impact, reuse is definitely the best bet,” Barczak said. “It keeps bottles and cans out of tips and incinerators, saving energy and valuable resources.” After Germany introduced a deposit return scheme in 2003, the rate of single-use bottle returns rose to 98.5%, the highest in the world. In Sweden too, around 90% of the 1bn cans sold annually are handed in for recycling. In the UK, the figure reached 57% in 2015, but according to leaked government documents obtained by Greenpeace the target fell to 49% in 2016, and is due to increase by 2% a year. The waste problem David Palmer-Jones, CEO of the waste and recycling company Suez, said that businesses were increasingly filling the void left by “an absence of government direction at a UK national level”. Norway, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands have all rolled out highly effective deposit return schemes, while states in the US and Australia report positive results, with expansions planned. But Coca-Cola’s announced support for trials of a bottle deposit return service in Scotland has shone a spotlight back on the private sector.Costa Coffee also recently launched a takeaway coffee cup recycling scheme, encouraging drinkers to hand in their cups for polymer-stripping, paper pulping and recycling. At present only one in 400 takeaway coffee cups in the UK are recycled. Proposals currently winding their way through the EU’s law-making process would force all EU countries to increase their recycling of packaging waste to 75% by 2030. Plastic makes up about 80% of all litter in the world’s oceans, with more than 8m tonnes of the substance dumped in waterways each year. Without drastic action, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050 by some estimates, and an estimated 99% of seabirds will have ingested plastics. Sign up to be a Guardian Sustainable Business member and get more stories like this direct to your inbox every week. You can also follow us on Twitter. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'business/cocacola', 'business/business', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/arthurneslen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-02-28T06:00:20Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2024/sep/13/more-than-80-of-eu-marine-protected-areas-are-ineffective-study-shows | More than 80% of EU marine protected areas are ineffective, study shows | Most of Europe’s marine protected areas, set up to safeguard species and habitats, will not meet conservation targets as they provide only “marginal” protection against industrial activities such as dredging, mining and bottom trawling, a study has revealed. Low levels of protection in 86% of marine protected areas (MPAs) have left the EU far from reaching its 2030 biodiversity targets, which are designed to reduce the risk of species’ extinction, researchers said in a paper published in the One Earth journal. The EU aims to protect 30% of its seas by 2030, with 10% “strictly” protected from damaging activities. “It is the first assessment of where we are in terms of protection,” said Juliette Aminian-Biquet, the paper’s lead author, a researcher at the University of Algarve, Portugal’s centre for marine sciences. “This shows that we are at the very beginning of protecting our oceans.” The paper concluded that reaching the EU’s 10% strict protection target will require “radical changes” to the regulation of activities in its marine sanctuaries. The highest coverage of marine sanctuaries in the EU was in Germany (45% of national waters), with France and Belgium not far behind. The highest levels of “strong protection”, also defined as highly or fully protected areas, for instance sanctuaries that allow no extractive activities or infrequent fishing, were found in the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. The European country that performs best at keeping destructive activity at bay in its protected areas is Slovenia, although the overall number of MPAs it has in its waters is relatively low compared to other countries, said the report. The low levels of protection in most MPAs are a result of the “flexible” nature of EU directives, researchers found. “For MPAs to provide the expected social and ecological benefits, their role in regulating human activities to limit their negative impacts should be questioned,” the authors said. “Getting the EU to do anything on this topic is extremely difficult, as regulation would need to be legally binding,” said Aminian-Biquet. “It is going to be up to individual states or regional authorities to take action to meet these targets.” A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “The commission takes note of the very recent publication and its key summary findings”, and said it had called on member states to manage all MPAs in line with relevant directives and EU commitments to protect 30% of marine and coastal areas by 2030. They added that the 2023 EU marine action plan recommended member states phase out bottom trawling in MPAs by 2030. The phase-out was rejected by the European parliament in January and most EU states have not yet set out measures on bottom trawling, with the exception of Greece, which became the first country to ban bottom trawling in MPAs earlier this year, and Sweden. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/marine-life', 'world/eu', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/fishing', 'world/world', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-09-13T06:00:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2020/may/27/blackrock-to-flag-climate-concerns-at-exxonmobil-agm | BlackRock to flag climate concerns at ExxonMobil AGM | BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, will lodge multiple votes against ExxonMobil at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday as it flags concern over the oil company’s failure to make progress on its climate change targets. BlackRock will vote against the re-election of two directors and in favour of a shareholder motion that proposes splitting the role of chief executive and chairman. The US investment firm is ExxonMobil’s second largest shareholder, with a stake of almost 5% in the company. It will not back the re-election of Angela Braly, the chair of Exxon’s public issues and contributions committee, nor that of Kenneth Frazier, the board’s lead independent director. The shareholder motion it will back proposes creating separate chief executive and chairman roles once the incumbent, Darren Woods, steps down. Two US shareholder advisory firms have recommended to investors that they back the proposal, arguing that having a CEO who also leads the board can create a potential conflict of interest and lack of independence among a company’s directors. BlackRock declined to comment. In April the Church of England’s investment arm, the Church Commissioners, and the New York State Common Retirement Fund wrote a joint letter to fellow ExxonMobil investors asking them to vote against the re-election of the company’s entire board. “As the world, ExxonMobil’s peers and investors confront the climate emergency, ExxonMobil is carrying on as if nothing has changed,” the letter said. “It is crystal clear to us that ExxonMobil’s inadequate response to climate change constitutes a broad failure of corporate governance and a specific failure of independent directors to oversee management.” BlackRock manages assets worth $6.9tn (£5.3tn), including large holdings in oil producers such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil. It announced at the start of the year that it would divest from holdings related to thermal coal and would focus on sustainability when making investment decisions. The firm has joined Climate Action 100+, an influential pressure group calling for the biggest polluters to reduce their emissions. BlackRock’s chief executive, Larry Fink, wrote in his annual letter to chief executives in January that financial markets had been slower to reflect the threat to economic growth posed by the climate crisis, and added that the firm would vote against companies that were not making progress. “Where we feel companies and boards are not producing effective sustainability disclosures or implementing frameworks for managing these issues, we will hold board members accountable,” Fink wrote. Environmental campaigners have previously accused BlackRock of hypocrisy for routinely voting against shareholder motions directing boards to take action on the climate crisis. Fink wrote in his letter that the firm preferred to vote against individual directors at annual shareholder meetings, a strategy it is pursuing at ExxonMobil’s AGM. “Last year BlackRock voted against or withheld votes from 4,800 directors at 2,700 different companies,” Fink wrote. A blogpost written by ExxonMobil’s vice-president of investor relations, Stephen Littleton, and published on the company’s website this month called the statements from the Church of England and the New York State Common Retirement Fund “misleading”. The oil firm said it had been expanding its shareholder engagement, and it directed investors to a report on “how we are working to reduce emissions in our operations through efficiency gains and new technologies”. ExxonMobil, like other oil firms, has had a tumultuous few months, seeing a slump in its share price and recording a $610m (£495m) loss in the first quarter of the year after demand for oil slid to the lowest level in 25 years. | ['business/exxonmobil', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/commodities', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/oil', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joanna-partridge', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2020-05-27T13:01:15Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2019/jun/22/uk-gardeners-given-tips-to-avoid-wildfires-as-climate-crisis-raises-risk | UK gardeners given tips to avoid wildfires as climate crisis raises risk | Plant aspen trees, avoid eucalyptus, and have a word with your lazy neighbour if you want to protect your property against wildfires, gardeners have been warned, as the UK faces an increasing risk of blazes from global heating. This year has already been the worst for wildfires in the country in the last decade, perhaps longer, and comes on top of a significant rise in the number and extent of fires during last summer’s record-breaking drought and heatwave. So far this year, there have been 134 wildfires in the UK, burning more than 29,000ha of land. This is substantially more than the 18,000ha burned in 79 incidents in 2018, when blazes on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester and Winter Hill in Lancashire, as well as dozens of smaller fires across the country, caused devastation. Few people in the UK are at risk of being caught up in a wildfire; those at the greatest risk are people living near the edges of moors, grassland, heathland and some types of forest. In the worst recent incident in Britain or Ireland two houses burn down in Ulster, County Donegal. However, the risk can be reduced by taking some simple measures. For instance, property owners are advised to ensure that any nearby trees do not overhang buildings, to clean their gutters regularly to prevent the build up of dry leaves and other flammable material, and to take care of their vegetation. Aspen is a species that is notably resistant to fire, and is sometimes used to create firebreaks, while eucalyptus trees are notoriously flammable. Property owners in the US, Australia and other areas prone to wildfires are often advised to leave spaces clear of trees for about 30 metres (100ft) around their houses, but in the UK ensuring that dead and dried vegetation is regularly cleared is likely to be enough. People who fail to look after their properties and allow gardens to become overgrown are a fire hazard to their neighbours, experts warned on Friday, and any sensible fire strategy must cover whole neighbourhoods. “It’s like vaccination,” explained Cathelijne Stoof, an assistant professor of soil geography and landscape at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “You have to have a certain number of people vaccinated for it to work. If a small proportion of the population do not do it, it is to the detriment of the rest.” Portable barbecues were described as a “perfect ignition source” by Guillermo Rein, a professor of fire science at Imperial College London. One possible alternative was for councils to build communal barbecues which people could share safely in summer, instead of using their own dangerous sources of fire. Wildfires tend to be associated with hot summers, but spring is also a dangerous time as trees and plants are still not in the growing stage and hot, dry conditions can create a hazard. The hottest winter day on record was experienced on 26 February this year, when temperatures topped 21C, Saddleworth Moor again sprang into flames, and there were fires in Edinburgh, Salisbury and elsewhere. Much of the increase in wildfires this year has been the result of a single large fire near Moray in the north of Scotland, which has raised relatively little concern as few people live or farm nearby. Vegetation across much of the country is still vulnerable because of last year’s drought, but recent rain over many areas has dampened the immediate risk. In the longer term, however, the UK was likely to be in for more wildfires because of the climate crisis, experts said. “The UK does not have the right ecosystems [for large wildfires as seen in regions such as California and Australia] and we do not have the same continuous wilderness – we have fires, but there are natural breaks in the landscape,” said Rory Hadden, a senior lecturer in fire investigation at Edinburgh University. “But we will probably see more fires and they may be slightly more intense.” Thomas Smith, an assistant professor of environmental geography at the London School of Economics, said: “Climate change is increasing the abundance of fuel and the likelihood of ignitions.” . Of the last 11 years, only 2011 showed a similar pattern as the last two years, with 44 fires burning 17,000ha. Smith said judging the number and extent of UK wildfires is hard, because a clear and consistent satellite record is only available for the last decade, and previous records were patchy and inconsistent. In four of the years since 2008, there had been no fires big or intense enough to appear on the satellite record. The experts agreed that human actions were a key cause of fires, through careless or deliberate behaviour, such as using barbecues dangerously or tossing away cigarettes in dry conditions. They said there was much more to do in educating people against such behaviour. Wildfires can cause sudden spikes in air pollution from particulate matter, presenting a serious health hazard many miles away from the fires. | ['world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-06-22T05:00:08Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2021/nov/16/how-wind-direction-changed-the-course-of-english-history-in-1688 | How wind direction changed the course of English history in 1688 | A change of wind direction altered the course of English history on 16 November 1688. It enabled the Protestant William of Orange to “invade” England and oust James II, who had become unpopular trying to reintroduce the Roman Catholic faith. Although William had been invited by the Protestant English nobility to land in England, the “Popish” westerly wind had kept his force of hundreds of ships and 28,000 troops pinned on the Dutch coast during October. On 10 November, after much Protestant praying, the wind changed to east and William’s fleet was seen in the strait of Dover. The British navy, still loyal to James II, was unable to engage the enemy because the easterly wind was pinning them in the Thames estuary. Despite this piece of good fortune, William nearly came to grief. Partly because of a navigational mistake and the continuing Protestant wind his fleet was being driven into the Atlantic. Fortunately for him, and the “glorious revolution”, the Popish wind returned and he was able to make a swift about-turn and head for Tor Bay in Devon. William landed unopposed and set off with his soldiers to march the 166 miles to London. James had the sense to realise the game was up and abdicated, thus avoiding any bloodshed. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'education/historyandhistoryofart', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-11-16T06:00:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2013/sep/19/russia-un-climate-report-geoengineering | Russia urges UN climate report to include geoengineering | Russia is pushing for next week's landmark UN climate science report to include support for controversial technologies to geoengineer the planet's climate, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. As climate scientists prepare to gather for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Stockholm to present the most authoritative state of climate science to date, it has emerged the Russian government is asking for "planet hacking" to be included in the report. The IPCC has not included geoengineering in its major assessments before. The documents seen by the Guardian show Russia is asking for a conclusion of the report to say that a "possible solution of this [climate change] problem can be found in using of [sic] geoengineering methods to stabilise current climate." Russia also highlighted that its scientists are developing geoengineering technologies. Geoengineering aims to cool the Earth by methods including spraying sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight, or fertilising the oceans with iron to create carbon-capturing algal blooms. Such ideas are increasingly being discussed by western scientists and governments as a plan B for addressing climate change, with the new astronomer royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, calling last week for such methods to buy time to develop sources of clean energy. But the techniques have been criticised as a way for powerful, industrialised nations to dodge their commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Some modelling has shown geoengineering could be effective at reducing the Earth's temperature, but manipulation of sensitive planetary systems in one area of the world could also result in drastic unintended consequences globally, such as radically disrupted rainfall. Responding to efforts to discredit the climate science with a spoiler campaign in advance of the report, the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra K Pachauri, said he was confident the high standards of the science in the report would make the case for climate action. He said: "There will be enough information provided so that rational people across the globe will see that action is needed on climate change." The Russian scientist Yuri Izrael, who has participated in IPCC geoengineering expert groups and was an adviser to the former Russian president Vladimir Putin, conducted an experiment in 2009 that sprayed particles from a helicopter to assess how much sunlight was blocked by the aerosol plume. A planned test in Britain that would have used a balloon attached to a 1km hose to develop equipment for spraying was prevented after a public outcry. Observers have suggested that Russia's admission that it is developing geoengineering may put it in violation of the UN moratorium on geoengineering projects established at the Biodiversity Convention in 2010 and should be discussed on an emergency basis when the convention's scientific subcommittee meets in Montreal in October. Civil society organisations have previously raised concerns that expert groups writing geoengineering sections of the IPCC report were dominated by US, UK and Canadian geoengineering advocates who have called for public funding of large-scale experiments or who have taken out commercial patents on geoenginering technologies. One scientist who served as a group co-chair, David Keith of Harvard University, runs a private geoengineering company, has planned tests in New Mexico, and is publicising a new book called The Case for Climate Engineering. Nearly 160 civil society, indigenous and environmental organisations signed a letter in 2011 urging caution and calling on the IPCC not to legitimise geoengineering. Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America director of the technology watchdog ETC Group, said: "We have been warning that a few geoengineering advocates have been trying to hijack the IPCC for their agenda. We are now seeing a deliberate attempt to exploit the high profile and credibility of this body in order to create more mainstream support for extreme climate engineering. The public and policymakers need to be on guard against being steamrollered into accepting dangerous and immoral interventions with our planet, which are a false solution to climate change. Geoengineering should be banned by the UN general assembly." Matthew Watson, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol's Earth sciences department and one of the team behind the cancelled balloon project, said: "In general ought the IPCC to be thinking about geoengineering? Yes. But do I want to see unilateralism or regionalism affect the debate? Certainly not. The people who don't like geoengineering will suggest the IPCC is a method for normalising it." He added: "The IPCC has to be very careful about how it handles this [geoengineering] because it is clearly a very significant output that people are very mindful of." While the IPCC is intended to be a scientific advisory panel, government delegates have been reviewing the summary report and make final decisions about it in Stockholm at the end of the month. Sweden, Norway and Germany expressed more scepticism about geoengineering and asked that the report underline its potential dangers. "The information on geoengineering options is too optimistic as it does not appropriately reflect the current lack of knowledge or the high risks associated with such methods," noted the German government. Geoengineering is expected to play a much larger role in the next IPCC reports coming out in 2014. Observers were surprised that it had turned up in this first major report – meant to assess physical science rather than mitigation strategies. Russia's climate negotiators did not respond to a request for comment. | ['environment/geoengineering', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ipcc', 'world/world', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'world/russia', 'world/europe-news', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/martin-lukacs', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-09-19T16:00:40Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2005/dec/23/frontpagenews.climatechange | Tree-planting projects may not be so green | Brides and grooms do it. Transatlantic travellers do it. And you might even be getting it for Christmas. Neutralising your carbon emissions is becoming the must-do activity for the eco-conscious citizen. But now an international team of scientists has raised an unexpected objection: some tree-planting projects may, they suggest, be doing more harm than good. Carbon offsetting allows people to pay someone else to atone for their climate sins by soaking up the CO2 that they produce. And with the consequences of global warming becoming more apparent, more Britons are opting to undo their personal share of the damage. Last year companies and individuals in the UK spent around £4m offsetting carbon emissions. The Kyoto protocol allows member countries to do the same through carbon trading. But it seems the guilt-free option is not as simple as writing a cheque and leaving it to someone else to sort out. Researchers have found that planting trees to soak up carbon can have detrimental knock on effects. "I believe we haven't thought through the consequences of this," says team-member Robert Jackson at Duke University in North Carolina, "I think the policy could backfire on us, but it will take decades to play out." His team pooled more than 500 separate yearly observations from studies from five continents which compared planted areas with plots nearby that did not have trees. They report in Science that the plantations had a drastic effect on stream flow. By sucking water out of the ground and evaporating it from their leaves the trees reduced flow by half. And 13% of streams dried up for at least a year. This would have effects downstream where less water would be available for plants and animals. The team found that nutrients in the soil were also affected by tree planting. Calcium, magnesium and potassium were all depleted while sodium was enriched, meaning that plantation soil was more salty on average. All of these changes would affect the range of plant species. Dr Jackson says the two most common plantation species are pines and eucalyptus trees. These fast-growing species rapidly suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, but they result in monoculture forests which support a meagre range of biodiversity. Dr Jackson stresses that planting trees is not a bad thing per se, but schemes that are not well thought through can be environmentally harmful. Tree-planting has always been a controversial method of soaking up CO2 because it is little more than a short term fix. Once the trees die they rot, releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere. "We are buying a few decades to transform our economies," says Dr Jackson. Chris Field, an ecologist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California, agrees. "It is not a slam dunk in terms of providing the kind of carbon benefit we would like to have," he says, "In the long run, solving the carbon problem is going to be more about reducing emissions rather than storage." So where does this leave the eco-minded citizen who wants to tread a lighter carbon footprint? "Start by doing what you can yourself," says Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, a government funded company that is charged with helping UK businesses reduce their carbon emissions. "Most of the actions you can take will save you money as well as have a climate benefit." So installing energy saving light bulbs, insulating the loft or using the car less is a good start. When it comes to buying a carbon offset, things get more tricky. "It's something of a wild west at the moment," says Bill Sneyd, operations direction of The Carbon Neutral Company (formerly known as Future Forests), the UK's largest company selling carbon offsets. This year it planted just under 300 hectares (750 acres) of new forest. Their plantations are planted with 90% native species, but he says the range of tree-planting options on offer vary widely in their knock-on effects on environment. Tom Morton, director of Climate Care, a not-for-profit organisation based in Oxford, says tree planting is often the form of carbon offset that is most recognisable with the public. "These are often the easiest projects for people to understand." But he believes the biggest gains will come through new technologies. Four fifths of Climate Care's funding goes into supporting energy efficient or low-carbon technologies, for example training people in Madagascar to use energy efficient cooking stoves. Conscience money How to ease your climate conscience and neutralise your carbon emissions · If you want to support forestry make sure the plantation will use native species/promote biodiversity · Make sure it is protected from future logging or fire · When donating to a company offering carbon offset projects check the cash is actually needed to get the project off the ground · Check the project has the support of local people · Ensure it represents a cost effective way of reducing carbon - has a responsible company or not-for-profit organisation audited the project? · Consider supporting other carbon reduction options, such as funding energy efficient equipment or businesses selling low carbon technology | ['environment/environment', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesranderson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2005-12-23T00:03:45Z | true | EMISSIONS |
us-news/2015/feb/26/senate-james-inhofe-snowball-climate-change | Republican Senate environment chief uses snowball as prop in climate rant | James Inhofe, the US senator who famously claimed that global warming was “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”, attempted to underscore his climate denial on the Senate floor Thursday by brandishing a snowball. “I ask the chair: do you know what this is? It’s a snowball,” said Inhofe, hefting the icy globe in his right hand, before tossing it at a Senate page. The snowball stunt was part of a rambling speech to America’s most august deliberative body in which, among other points, Inhofe took aim at evidence by scientists that 2014 was the warmest year on record due to climate change. (According to detailed research Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two of the top bodies of government scientists, it was.) In 2010, during another record-breaking snowstorm, Inhofe and his grandchildren built an igloo near the Capitol building in Washington, affixing signs to it that said “Al Gore’s New Home” and “Honk If You Love Global Warming”. Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, is chair of the Senate environment committee. “I think it’s lovely that Senator Inhofe enjoys the winter weather so much,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist and director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “I’m a winter sports fan myself. But there’s a big difference between people playing with the snow, and global climate change.” Schmidt told the Guardian that, despite Senator Inhofe’s views, 2014 had indisputably been the warmest year on record, and January 2015 had been one of the warmest Januaries on record. “Europe was toasty warm. Alaska was toasty warm. Australia was toasty warm. All these things cancel out the fact that it happens to be cold in Washington DC this week,” he said. Inhofe’s office could not be reached for comment. | ['us-news/us-senate', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-politics', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/republicans', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/nicky-woolf'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2015-02-26T22:08:13Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
australia-news/2022/jul/28/secret-dealings-state-owned-queensland-water-company-refuses-to-outline-adani-relationship | Secret dealings: state-owned Queensland water company refuses to outline Adani relationship | A Queensland government-owned water corporation is holding back 96 documents detailing its business dealings with Adani, refusing to answer questions or release any information about the nature of agreements it says are commercial in confidence. The source of the billions of litres of water Adani needs every year for its Carmichael coalmine in central Queensland has been shrouded in secrecy since its bid to pipe from the Suttor River was overturned by the federal court. But a right-to-information request to Sunwater dated in June this year, seen by the Guardian, reveals the government-owned corporation has had business dealings with Adani. The RTI was submitted by climate advocates The Sunrise Project and requested all correspondence between Sunwater and Adani between June 2021 and February 2022. In response, Sunwater identified 96 separate documents captured by the scope of the request, but refused to disclose any of those documents, arguing that they were exempt from disclosure as this would breach contractual obligations of confidentiality. The Sunrise Project has requested an external review of Sunwater’s refusal to disclose the documents. Sunwater responded to questions from Guardian Australia by saying the supply of raw water to mining customers was part of its business. “As a water service provider, Sunwater supports all industrial, irrigation and urban customers through access to a commercial water supply,” a spokesperson said. “All Sunwater’s dealings with customers are commercial-in-confidence. On this basis, Sunwater has declined to release any further information.” Adani, which has rebranded itself as Bravus Mining, responded to questions by saying the Carmichael mine had “the requisite water licences and access agreements in place for operations”. “Like other industrial users we pay for the water we use, and like for other businesses, these arrangements are commercial-in-confidence,” a spokesperson said. In the aftermath of last year’s federal court ruling, Adani said the decision would not delay the mine’s progress because it had “secured” other sources of water, of which it said the regulator – the Queensland Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water – was aware. The department last year said Adani’s only relevant licence was an “associated water licence” that would allow it to extract groundwater as necessary from coal deposits. A Guardian Australia investigation last June revealed that the company’s executives adopted a deliberate press strategy to obscure details about its plans to source water for the Carmichael coalmine. In the absence of the documents and with both parties citing commercial confidentiality, the volume of water – if any – that Sunwater is supplying to Adani, its source and the price of any arrangement remains unknown. The Greens MP Michael Berkman raised questions on the issues at budget estimates on Wednesday night, and referred to a separate RTI request by the Australian Conservation Foundation that found Sunwater had a contract to supply water to Adani through to 31 August 2020. Given these prior dealings, Berkman asked Sunwater’s chief executive, Glenn Stockton, if it had any current contracts with the mining company. Stockton declined to answer, citing commercial-in-confidence reasons. Asked about the source of any water that Sunwater was providing to Adani, Stockton said its customers in the Bowen Basin received it from two key sources: via pipelines from the Burdekin River and the Eungella Dam. Berkman told Guardian Australia that the company needed to come clean about its dealings with Adani. “Sunwater is a public company and the government knows a big section of the public would be pissed off if they knew about this,” Berkman said. “That is exactly why they hide behind commercial in confidence as an excuse.” The Maiwar MP said Adani had been “incredibly secretive” about how it would source the “many thousands of megalitres of water it needs to run its mine”. “Publicly owned companies shouldn’t be propping up new thermal coalmines,” he said. Berkman also raised concerns over “very large but unknown” amounts of water drawn near the site, which had raised fears about the drainage of the nearby Doongmabulla Springs. | ['australia-news/queensland-politics', 'business/adani-group', 'environment/water', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joe-hinchliffe', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2022-07-27T17:30:25Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/aug/24/beaches-on-nsw-mid-north-coast-open-again-after-shark-attack | Beaches on NSW mid-north coast open again after shark attack | Beaches have reopened on NSW’s mid-north coast after a shark mauled a bodyboarder. Dale Carr, 38, is recovering in hospital after suffering leg, back and stomach injuries in the attack at Lighthouse beach on Saturday afternoon. The Port Macquarie-Hastings Council says beaches reopened at 6am on Monday after extensive air patrols. The council says it will continue to work closely with Surf Life Saving NSW to identify any public safety threats. Carr was attacked by a suspected three-metre bull shark while body boarding with a friend. Police officers said Carr was about 400m away from the Lighthouse beach clubhouse when he was attacked. On Wednesday scientists and authorities will begin tagging the seven large sharks spotted in the area. Further north at Ballina surfers and fishermen have pushed for a cull after 22 sightings of large sharks and three serious attacks, one of which killed Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara. “These sharks are coming in waist-deep water sometimes, it’s a bit scary,” Ballina Mayor David Wright said. “You can virtually see them in the breakers. It’s totally unprecedented.” | ['environment/sharks', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-08-23T21:32:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/feb/18/pms-refusal-to-call-cobra-meeting-hampering-storm-recovery | PM's refusal to call Cobra meeting 'hampering' storm recovery | Boris Johnson has been accused of hampering the recovery effort from the worst winter storms in a generation as flooded towns were evacuated and parts of Wales were braced for more downpours. MPs and council leaders in flood-stricken areas said the government’s refusal to call an emergency Cobra meeting had obstructed the response in some towns and delayed the release of vital funds to recover from Storms Ciara and Dennis. Holly Lynch, the Labour MP for Halifax, said that more than 1,000 homes, businesses and schools had been damaged by the hurricane-force winds and flooding last week yet there had been no support from government beyond the Bellwin scheme, which reimburses some of the costs faced by local authorities. She said the lack of action from Johnson’s government was in contrast to the funds made available immediately after the Christmas 2015 floods, which prompted a Cobra meeting within 24 hours. “A lot of that funding [in 2015] was unlocked so quickly because there was a Cobra meeting, which pulled all the different government departments together. This time, none of that support at all has been forthcoming,” she said. “His refusal to call a Cobra meeting has really hampered the recovery of lots of different communities up and down the country, not least of all mine.” As Downing Street came under pressure to act, the government announced measures late on Tuesday to help flood victims. They included an invitation to apply for up to £500 in “financial hardship payments”, council tax and business rates relief and access to funds of up to £2,500 to cover some uninsurable losses. Ministers also said flood-hit homes and businesses would be able to apply for up to £5,000 to “help make them more resilient to future flooding”, while a cross-Whitehall flood recovery taskforce was due to begin meeting this week. More than 300 flood warnings and alerts remain in place across Britain, including eight warning of danger to life in England and south Wales, as Johnson faced a second day of political pressure over his response to the storms. Evacuations were under way along the River Severn in Shropshire and 33 people were rescued from a care home in Herefordshire as rainfall from Storm Dennis continued to cause widespread damage and disruption. One of the severe flood warnings centred on the historic town of Ironbridge, near Telford in Shropshire, where residents were being evacuated over concerns that the swollen river would soon top a 6.8-metre temporary flood barrier on Tuesday night. Shaun Davies, the Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin council, said his local authority was having to carry out tasks usually organised by the Environment Agency – such as distributing sandbags and erecting flood barriers – because the agency was so stretched. He said: “What would be really helpful is if government were able to show some national leadership on this issue. What we need from the centre is some very practical support. It sounds very basic but sandbags and access to sand – there’s been no central resource that we have been made aware of so we are securing that but at a great premium.” Six people are thought to have died in the flooding. The sixth was named on Monday night as Yvonne Booth, 55, from Birmingham, who was swept into flood water near Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire on Sunday. Her family said they were devastated and appreciated the continued support from the emergency services. Downing Street said on Monday that Johnson had no plans to visit any of the areas affected by flooding from Storm Dennis, and would instead spend the day working from a country house in Kent. A No 10 spokesman said he was being kept updated from Chevening, a government-owned historic property near Sevenoaks being used while work is continuing at Chequers, the official prime ministerial country retreat. The new environment secretary, George Eustice, has defended the government’s response to the storms, insisting it has a “firm grip” and that flood defences were “working as intended”. In the past year, he said, new flood-response infrastructure had protected more than 200,000 properties, with a further 100,000 due to be protected. The government had also pledged an extra £4bn in funding for flood defences over the next five years, said Eustice. Thirty-three people were evacuated from a care home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, as the River Wye reached its highest level since 1795, according to the county council leader, David Hitchiner. The council’s Conservative group leader, Jonathan Lester, said he did not believe sending ministers to flood-stricken areas was particularly important but said central government could do more to direct a “joined-up” approach between the various agencies on the ground. “I think after the floods have subsided and the lessons have been learned, more needs to be done in having this strategic approach and direction as to how best local authorities and agencies cope with this situation going forward,” he said. “I would welcome a strategy from government.” | ['environment/flooding', 'uk/uk', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'society/emergencyplanning', 'society/localgovernment', 'uk/weather', 'world/natural-disasters', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'profile/lucy-campbell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-02-18T16:53:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
fashion/2014/oct/01/seven-fashion-trends-festival-thrift | From edicures to utilitarian up-dos: seven fashion trends from the Festival of Thrift | I’ve got a spring in my step today. I’m energised. I’m fresh back from the Festival of Thrift at Lingfield Point: a free, slightly anarchic weekend that gives you licence to unleash your inner Scrooge – as long as you show some flair while you’re doing it. All weekend there have been workshops on everything from “pimping your pumps” to getting the most out of canned fish (seriously), with fashion shows compered by peerless music-hall star turned hip-hop artist Ida Barr. The weekend raised all sorts of questions, such as: what is thrift about? Saving money or individuality, vintage style or sustainability? In any case, being surrounded by makers and menders is wonderful for your wardrobe. It breaks the chain between fashion and turbocharged capitalism, so you can get excited by other stuff: sewing skills, materials, human ingenuity … canned fish. Next year, go there. For now, thrift is a cultural force with staying power. That means it has its own trends. Here are a few I spotted this weekend. 1. Edicures I have long banged on about the toxicity of nail polish. I tried an eco version once but –apologies for lowering the tone – it looked like dried wee. I therefore loved Festival of Thrift’s edible nail-manicures. Ilana Mitchell of wunderber.org.uk grafted pieces of striped boiled sweets on to talons. A festival hit. 2. Discothrift In the recent past, customised thrift has been a bit daytime thing, more geared towards a tea party than a night out. That’s gone. As a sign of a new burst of confidence I spotted glitzier elements of customisation. See as evidence these thrifted shoes, upcycled with bits of mirror. Disco upcycling should only be encouraged. As should Carboot Disco Bingo, a popular FoT pastime. 3. Vintage dresses for modern bodies Wartime austerity created thrift as a design for life in the early 50s and it’s not surprising that many thrifters love the look. But a recurring frustration if you’ve got swimmer’s shoulders and contemporary proportions is that real vintage is so blooming tiny. To go the DIY route, Burda Style has reissued loads of brilliant dress patterns in modern sizes. 4. Intergenerational fashion packs We know that moving as a carefully coordinated unit = fashion power, but this is magnified when your mum and gran are similarly dressed to the nines in thrift chic. There were lots of family style outings at FoT, but my favourite was this trio representing a lesson in graduated tones. They never buy new. “It all starts with our glamourpuss grandmother,” says Kimberley Knowles. 5. The utilitarian up-do Not to be confused with wedding hair or going-out hair, the utilitarian up-do means business. It attracts thrifters because it goes up with the help of cheap-as-chips bobby pins (though you mustn’t scrimp on these) and you can even build a bun around an old pair of tights (clean of course). If you spray enough and sleep carefully, it can last a few days. 6. Matching your hair to your hat Frou-frou textured 60s hats, some with stitched-on fabric fruit, were around everywhere at the festival, and are yet to attract a “vintage” price tag (possibly because they are numerous and a bit quirky). My favourite modern twist was camouflaging retro hat to match pink hair. I’m calling it Barbarella Plus. 7. Waterthrift Saving water is ecologically important and necessary but usually doesn’t float as a trend. It did at FoT! There was Amy Sharrocks’s charming Museum of Water to set the tone: she has collected different water receptacles from all over the world and presents them in cabinets. Then I found adorable Libby McTimoney dressed as a tap. Elsewhere there were a lot of very nice-looking vintage taps for sale. | ['fashion/fashion', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'type/article', 'profile/lucysiegle'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-10-01T11:35:51Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2009/nov/16/un-chief-copenhagen-climate-talks | UN environment chief Achim Steiner warns of high cost of climate delays | The likely delays in sealing a global deal to fight climate change would have a "human cost", and increase the risks of great harm to the planet and the economic costs of dealing with it, the head of the UN environment programme said today. Achim Steiner also said there was an "extremely high" risk that the UN-hosted talks would drift into deadlock if the summit in Copenhagen next month failed to deliver a meaningful agreement. "The world has been focused on this moment for years," he told the Guardian. "There have been hundreds of meetings and summits and workshops. If you then take that momentum out you run the risk of entering into an open-ended process and before you know if it you are in the same situation as the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation talks. "There is a moral hazard in any attempt to further delay action on climate change," he added. "Political leaders in Copenhagen will have to explain in a credible way to the 2bn-3bn people who are living on the frontline of climate change why they could not reach a deal." Steiner added: "I believe that a deal [in Copenhagen] is still do-able. But any delay has real cost implications in economic, social and human terms and those implications must be at the forefront of the people's minds as they go to Copenhagen." On Sunday the US president, Barack Obama, acknowledged that a legally binding deal was impossible in Copenhagen. He needs a reluctant Senate to pass domestic laws to cut greenhouse emissions before being able to agree to an international deal, a requirement that has stalled the talks. Obama gave his support to a Danish plan to delay any deal to mid-2010. His comments were widely received as a blow to hopes of a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen, but senior figures said today a deal was still possible. Ed Miliband, the UK climate change secretary, said Copenhagen could still deliver a "comprehensive" and "ambitious" agreement and lead quickly to a legally binding treaty. He spoke to the Guardian at international talks in the Danish capital aimed at increasing political momentum prior to the full UN meeting next month. "An ambitious deal is still possible," he said. "It has to include all the major issues: targets for carbon emissions, including mid-term targets, finance, technology, forestry, and crucially, a very clear and short track to a legally binding treaty." Sources within the British delegation characterised yesterday's negotiations as "anxious" and "urgent" and earlier cited "a large amount of mistrust" from some developing countries. Despite pessimism about whether the US would be able to make commitments at December's summit, they remained optimistic about the US proposing bigger cuts in emissions in future. In response to claims that the Danish plan threatened to turn the Copenhagen summit into a mere "photo opportunity", Denmark's climate and energy minister, Connie Hedegaard said her resolve to get a legally binding deal was intact. "I believe it is important that Copenhagen sets a deadline," she said. "We have to do that, so we do not end up with something that goes on for years and years and years." In the US key negotiators warned that President Obama must deliver on his environmental agenda by early 2010 if there is to be a chance of a global treaty. In London the foreign secretary, David Miliband, also said there were grounds for hope: "I don't accept we should write off Copenhagen at all," Miliband said. "It shouldn't be just another summit that produces a string of warm words." Additional reporting: Julian Borger • For updates on the Copenhagen climate negotiations in the run up to and during the summit sign up for the Guardian's environment email newsletter. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/unitednations', 'world/denmark', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'politics/edmiliband', 'politics/davidmiliband', 'politics/politics', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'profile/johnharris', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-11-16T20:09:56Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2011/mar/23/france-doubt-nuclear-power | Is the French public beginning to doubt nuclear power? | The presence of the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France is unmissable for miles around, where dozens of lines of enormous pylons march six abreast across the landscape, each hung with heavy cables that carry 7% of France's electricity across the country. Gravelines, on the French coast between Calais and Dunkirk, about 30 miles from Dover, is the fifth biggest nuclear reactor in the world, and one of the hardest working – last year, it became the first to produce more than one terawatt-hour of electricity. Its six reactors cover 150 hectares (370 acres) and are tended by nearly 2,000 people. It is also on Greenpeace's list of "reactors of particular concern", because of its age. Work began on the plant in 1970, with the first reactors entering service in 1980, and the rest following in 1981 and 1985, the year before the Chernobyl disaster. But for the people of Gravelines, a small village dwarfed by the hulking presence of the nearby plant, the power station is simply a fact of life. "It has always been there," says an unconcerned Debbie Bourdelle, in the local hairdressers, Coiffure A Petit Prix. "We don't think about it." "Why would we think about it?" asks Michel Rodriguez. "It's just there, and there is so much security – and we have confidence in the engineers." France's relationship with nuclear power is rivalled only by Japan. The country embarked on a massive building programme in the 1950s and 60s as a nationalist effort to be independent of energy imports, and France now generates more than 70% of its electricity from its 58 reactors, of which several are on the north coast with others on the borders with Belgium and Germany, and a string in the south. Virtually every French region has one. The nuclear industry in France is closely bound up with the government – ministers strongly support the industry, and the national electricity company, EDF, receives high approval ratings. Areva, the nuclear technology company whose headquarters tower over Paris's business district, is defended as a "national champion". "People just took nuclear for granted," says Sophia Majmoni of Greenpeace France. "They preferred not to have to think about where their energy came from. Even with Chernobyl, they said that couldn't happen here, we are safe." However, that cosy relationship with atomic power may be unravelling. Even before the near-meltdowns at Fukushima, there was a small but growing current of unease, particularly among younger people, who have tended to be more environmentally aware than their parents. Since the Japanese incidents, a few politicians on the left of the French political spectrum have begun to question the country's reliance on a single source of energy. "This is a big change for France," says Majmoni. "People are starting to ask questions. We have an election coming up and the Green party is campaigning on the issue, and [if they do a deal post-election] they will make this the main point. But changing people's minds might take a long time." Just how long is evident at Gravelines. "What happened in Japan does not mean there is any more of a risk here," says Bourdelle, while her fellow worker nods. "It's not the same." This is despite reports of several "level one" incidents in the past five years at the plant, including an emergency evacuation in 2009 when a fuel rod being cleared out of number one reactor got stuck. Much of the local economy, as in towns and villages around France, depends on the enormous power station. Virginie Daubercourt, a receptionist at the Hostellerie du Beffroi hotel, says: "We have people stay here, people from Areva and EDF. People locally have confidence in the way the plant is run." "Everyone knows somebody who works there – a brother, a sister, a partner who works there," says Joseph Capelle in the Queen Mary cafe on Gravelines' main square. "Because we know people who work there, we aren't worried – we know it is well-controlled, super-controlled in fact." He demonstrated against the plant when it was first being built in 1970. "The ecologists persuaded us that we should, we were manipulated by them. I was young then, I thought it was dangerous. I don't now." "I'd rather live here than near a coal-fired power station – there's no pollution here," says Joseph Meuquelan, a former ferry worker. Only a few people are willing to admit to any anxiety about the plant, even in the wake of the Japanese incidents. "I wouldn't work at the nuclear plant," says Philippe Cozette, whose claim to fame locally is that he was the first worker to break through to the English side of the channel tunnel. "People are worried, I think, they are concerned about their children. They are nervous." "Some people may ask questions, after Japan," says Maurice Boansville, a bus driver. "They may start to look at it again in a different way." • The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Friday 1 April 2011. This piece about the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France said it had become the first in the world to produce more than one terawatt-hour of electricity. That should have been one petawatt-hour, equal to 1,000bn kWh. A petawatt is 1,000 terawatts. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/france', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'world/series/new-europe-france', 'world/series/new-europe', 'tone/features', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/article', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-03-23T12:09:55Z | true | ENERGY |
news/2014/apr/07/weatherwatch-fishing-hurricanes | Weatherwatch: Fishing for hurricanes | Fish are being recruited to help forecast hurricanes thanks to a remarkable piece of serendipity. Tarpon, blue marlin and tiger sharks are all fish that enjoy swimming in seas of 26C – and by sheer chance this is the minimum sea temperature also needed to fuel hurricanes. The deeper the warm waters go below the sea surface, the more intense the hurricanes can grow – when Hurricane Katrina passed over waters that were 26C some 100ft below the surface, the storm rapidly grew from a Category 1 to Category 5 hurricane before devastating the Louisiana coastline. Because sport fishing for tarpon, blue marlon and tiger sharks is big business in Florida, marine biologists have been following the movements of the fish by tagging them with satellite tracking devices with temperature, depth, salinity and GPS sensors. These showed that the fish closely followed the seasonal progression of the 26C seas during their migrations through the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Atlantic. But computer weather models have trouble picking out the boundaries of these 26C waters, so when meteorologists learned about the fish tracking study they jumped at the chance to use the satellite survey. The only alternative way of measuring the temperature of the sea depths is to use underwater robots, but these are expensive and have problems coping with the strong currents in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the fish are much faster and the satellite tags are relatively cheap. Although on the downside, fish can get caught. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/hurricanes', 'science/meteorology', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-04-07T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2010/jan/11/nuclear-power-radiation | Nuclear radiation risk: The current consensus | How is radiation harmful? Ionising radiation, which includes the type emitted in nuclear power plants and in radiotherapy or medical diagnostics, can damage the DNA in the nucleus of a cell. Unless the cell's repair machinery can fix the breaks, or else the cell itself is killed, it has a higher chance of becoming cancerous. What is a safe dose? A single dose below 100 millisieverts (mSv) is usually considered safe and a CT scan exposes a patient to about 5 mSv. Background radiation in the environment depends on where you live but, on average, it is the equivalent of around 0.2 mSv a month. Environmental regulations recommend a person's annual dose to remain in line with background, which comes to around 2.5 mSv a year. Is there a threshold below which radiation does no damage? The levels of safe radiation are calculated by extrapolating backwards from observations of damage to cells at high radiation doses. Much of that comes from survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No one is certain whether the extrapolations about low doses are correct but the scientific consensus is that the relationship between dose and damage is linear and that there is no dosage that doesn't have a risk of causing lasting damage, even if the risk is tiny. Wade Allison, professor of physics at Oxford University, disputes this, arguing that there is a threshold of about 200 mSv, below which the body can repair all DNA damage caused and, therefore, which is safe. Does public fear of radiation make nuclear power more expensive? Allison argues that because of his safe threshold, the regulations set up to prevent people being exposed to low doses of radiation are unnecessary and make nuclear power more expensive. These rules all require large amounts of shielding for the nuclear reactor, push up the price of waste disposal and place limits on how long technicians can work in certain high-risk areas. Revising some of these regulations, says Allison, might bring down the costs of nuclear power and make it an even more economical way to tackle climate change. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'science/science', 'science/medical-research', 'science/energy', 'science/cancer', 'tone/resource', 'society/cancer', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-01-11T11:43:45Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2015/sep/15/general-grant-tree-worlds-second-largest-california-wildfires | General Grant tree, world's second-largest, is safe from California wildfires | While 3,741 firefighters continue to ensure the safety of California residents by keeping in check the Rough fire – one of California’s 12 currently burning wildfires – firefighters for the US Park Service have been tasked with keeping something else safe: the world’s second-largest tree. The General Grant tree, as it’s known to its many admirers, is the only living thing Congress has named as a national shrine, according to the National Parks website. It is a memorial to American men and women who have given their lives while serving. It is named for Ulysses S Grant, the union army general and president of the United States. The tree can be found in General Grant Grove, a section of the Kings Canyon national park. And it’s surrounded by other giant sequoia trees, some of which are 3,000 years old. Millions of people visit the General Grant tree and those surrounding it, according to Mike Theune, Kings Canyon national park fire information and education specialist. “It’s really important for us to make sure that those values are protected,” Theune said. “They mean so many things to so many people worldwide. We have visitors that come to us that show us pictures of their parents visiting the tree and want to have that same experience.” Now, the nearby Rough fire has threatened not just the General Grant tree but other important sites, including the Wilsonia historic district (a neighborhood of historic cabins), a fallen sequoia tree called the Fallen Monarch, and the sixth-largest Sequoia tree in the world, the Boole tree. The Rough fire began on 31 July at approximately 7pm because of lightning. It has spread to 139,133 acres and 40% of its perimeter has been contained. As of Tuesday it has injured seven firefighters and destroyed three structures. Also as of Tuesday, the fire has begun moving away from the Sierra Nevada’s giant sequoia trees, according to the AP. Thus far, the firefighters of Engine 51 have ensured the safety of the sequoia trees. They “patrol that area”, look out for any burning embers from the nearby fire, and “ensure that nothing happens to that tree or the surrounding trees”. “They’re the local crew, so this is their backyard,” Theune said. Theune credits some of their success to their “active field management program”, which they work on year round in order to ensure the safety of the trees. They remove underbrush “using hands and good old-fashioned hard work” and “fight fire with fire” by setting prescribed burns. They also have sprinklers set up around some of the trees, including the Boole tree. | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'global/us-national-and-state-parks', 'travel/usa', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ellen-brait'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-09-15T20:12:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/sep/17/tasmanias-1bn-salmon-industry-to-undergo-reset-under-10-year-plan | Tasmania’s ‘reset’ plan for salmon industry criticised as ‘greenwashing’ | Environmental groups have accused the Tasmanian government of “greenwashing” over plans for a “reset” of the state’s embattled fish farming sector, while industry groups say they need more detail. Under the plan announced on Thursday, a 10-year roadmap for the industry will be drawn up with the long-term goal of moving it on-land. The transition would promote the use of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) to allow the fish to spend more of their lifespan on land before being moved to ocean pens to be “finished” A moratorium would be imposed on fish farmers setting up on new leases over the next twelve months while the plan is drawn up with details on how this would be achieved. Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein told reporters on Friday that the plan offered a “pathway to sustainability over the longer-term” and while there were two exploration permits “The future of salmon is on land and in deep water but obviously with managing the current leases,” Gutwein said. The industry greeted the news with a mixed response, with the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association initially saying it would seek “robust” consultation with government. Speaking on Friday, the organisation’s spokesperson Julian Amos described the announcement as a “plan to have a plan”. “There’s nothing in the announcement as to what is actually going to be in the plan,” Amos said. Environmental groups, however, say any ban will still allow fish farmers to increase the intensity in pens they already operate or simply shift their operations between existing leases. Peter George from the Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection (TAMP) said the proposal provided cover for the industry to continue “business as usual”. “The government and fish farmers will be able to claim there are no net increases in leased areas, or areas of sea where they can farm salmon, but it doesn’t stop them from closing down areas they have already trashed and moving to new areas,” George said. Jilly Middleton from Environment Tasmania said that based on past experience there was little faith in the community that the government may actually follow through in a meaningful way. “The big picture is that it’s greenwashing,” she said. “This isn’t the first time they’ve done it,” Middleton said. “In 2017 the government made a similar announcement to appease the public – announcing ‘no-grow zones’ that appeared to surround the state.” At that time the Tasmanian state government published a draft 19-page document that promised the “most environmentally sustainable salmon industry in the world”. The plan was criticised for proposing to ban fin fish farming on the east coat while allowing the industry to operate in Okehampton Bay, which is on the east coast of the island. “It wasn’t locked into legislation and they later reviewed their zoning to allow expansion into new areas,” she said. “The community has lost trust in the Tasmanian government to regulate this industry.” Guy Barnett, Minister for Primary Industries and Water rejected criticisms from environmental groups that the industry will still be allowed to expand under the proposal saying the plan is being developed to “secure its future”. “There will be no increases in net lease area in State waters for the next 12 months, allowing existing exploration permits to be considered in the context of the 10-year plan,” Barnett said. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning | ['environment/environment', 'australia-news/tasmania', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/farming', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/royce-kurmelovs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-09-17T03:44:47Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2018/mar/19/weatherwatch-sudden-stratospheric-warming-beast-from-the-east | Weatherwatch: sudden stratospheric warming and the Beast from the East | The historic disruptive cold spell at the turn of the month and the brief intense wintry spell last weekend were caused by a record-breaking sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event that began on 11 February. The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere, sat above the troposphere. During the autumn and winter, the polar stratosphere gets intensely cold because of the absence of solar radiation. This allows a large vortex – a zone of low pressure – to dominate the polar region in the upper troposphere and stratosphere. This polar vortex often lasts the entire winter without being disturbed. However, in some years, zones of much warmer stratospheric air can surge northwards out of the tropics and be strong enough to smash apart the polar vortex. In extreme cases, temperatures can rise as much as 40C in only a few days. Even though the vortex split takes place high up in the stratosphere, about 18 miles (30km) above the north pole, the consequences slowly spread into the troposphere then away from the pole in the subsequent two or three weeks. This greatly influences our weather, often weakening the jet stream, allowing high pressure to build across Scandinavia and sending frigid polar air plunging southwards into Western Europe. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/weather', 'world/snow', 'world/arctic', 'environment/winter', 'environment/spring', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-03-19T21:30:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/sep/26/greens-moral-superiority-german-vice-chancellor-robert-habeck-climate | Greens must shed ‘moral superiority’ image, says German vice-chancellor | Germany’s vice-chancellor has called on supporters of environmental reforms to shed their reputation for “moral superiority” and focus on having “the better arguments” amid a backlash against climate policies across Europe. Robert Habeck, the minister for economic affairs and climate action and a leading Green politician, said environmental parties had to push back against their instincts if they wanted their climate agenda to succeed in the long run. Historically, he said, the Greens’ problem was “the allegation – and with every allegation that sticks there is a grain of truth – of moral superiority, of always knowing it best”. “That’s something that dates to the green movement’s origins. To survive as a grassroots movement you have to claim to have access to some higher form of truth that others don’t. But as we Greens are transitioning to something with a broader political appeal, we are working to reduce that claim to truth and have the better arguments instead.” Habeck’s struggles mirror similar developments in the Netherlands, where anger at plans to cut nitrogen pollution led to a shock poll win for a new farmers’ protest party, and Britain, where the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, last week announced a U-turn on some of the government’s climate commitments. Habeck proved his ability and popularity in managing the 2022 energy crisis, but has recently struggled in his effort to overhaul Germany’s fossil fuel-reliant heating sector. A proposed ban on the installation of conventional new gas or oil heating systems from 2024, drawn up by Habeck’s ministry, came under fire this year and was only approved earlier this month after a protracted period of government infighting. In a wide-ranging interview, Habeck also defended the decision to pay the energy-intensive German industrial sector large subsidies to smooth its transition to green technologies. “Our economy is changing,” Habeck said. “But it doesn’t mean we should willingly accept the loss of our old strengths, namely energy-intensive industries like steel or the chemical industry.” In July, the EU gave Germany the green light to pay steel giant Thyssenkrupp €2bn (£1.7bn) of state subsidies for its proposed climate-neutral plant in Duisburg. “If we want economic security, we need those industries,” said Habeck, a former Green party leader, who has governed in a three-party coalition with Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and the liberal FDP since December 2021. Even though Germany fell into a recession last winter, and its economy has stagnated since, Habeck insisted that the country would regain its status as the EU’s economic powerhouse. “It won’t be an industrial nation like in the 1960s, when you couldn’t hang out your washing in the Ruhr valley because the soot turned everything black. But yes, we will have a highly productive, digital, renewable economy,” he said. “Other regions are powering on too, but we will have many leading businesses and Germany will have renewed its prosperity.” | ['environment/green-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/philip-oltermann', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-09-26T04:00:25Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2015/dec/29/uk-floods-environment-agency-chief-caribbean-trip | Environment Agency chief under pressure amid reports of Caribbean trip | The head of the Environment Agency is under pressure to defend his handling of Britain’s worst flooding crisis for years amid reports that he has left the country to spend time at his luxury Caribbean home. The Environment Agency refused on Tuesday to comment on Philip Dilley’s whereabouts, other than to say he was “at home with his family over Christmas”. It added: “He is keeping in regular touch with the Environment Agency on its response to the current flooding, and available to participate in any necessary discussions.” The agency went on to say that Dilley had “visited the north of England recently”, when he visited Cumbria on 14 December. Dilley’s predecessor as chair of the Environment Agency, Chris Smith, faced severe criticism during flooding last year when he was accused of failing to visit flood-hit Somerset soon enough. The agency’s current chair, whose previous roles include being executive chairman of engineering consultancy Arup, took the post in September last year. He earns £100,000 a year and spends two to three days a week in his role. Shortly after becoming chair, Dilley made a promise to visit the scene of any serious flooding in the UK while he was at the helm, saying he had learned from the misfortune of Smith. “I chair the board of the agency and I agree there is a sort of figurehead position that is crucial for perception,” he said in his first interview after taking the job. The Labour MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk, was among those voicing criticism this week. “I think it’s fair to ask why he has not visited the north of England over the past few days to explain what the agency is doing,” he told the Telegraph. “We should draw a comparison with the previous chairman, who did try to explain what the Environment Agency does.” | ['environment/flooding', 'environment/environment-agency', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/benquinn'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-29T10:46:59Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/jan/26/city-of-london-launches-challenge-to-boost-coffee-cup-recycling | City of London launches challenge to boost coffee cup recycling | A scheme to boost disposable coffee cup recycling has been launched in the City of London in an attempt to prevent 5m cups a year from the Square Mile ending up in landfill. The City of London Corporation, in conjunction with Network Rail, coffee chains and some employers, are introducing dedicated coffee cup recycling facilities in offices, shops and streets. Wendy Mead, chair of the corporation’s environment committee, said the aim of the Square Mile challenge was to recycle half a million cups in April, adding that the City “will be the first area in the UK to undertake such a significant commitment” to recycling. Every day in the UK, up to 7m coffee cups are thrown away, with less than 1% of these cups (only 1 in 400 coffee cups) thought to be recycled. The main challenge to date has been the plastic film lining the paper cups, which means they are rarely recyclable. Previous cup recycling schemes have been conducted on a much smaller scale. Gavin Ellis, co-founder of environmental charity Hubbub, said the scheme built on a much smaller pilot in Manchester, where 20,000 cups had been recycled from one street over three months: “We hope to reach a point where recycling levels for coffee cups are on a par with those for drinks cans and bottles.” The first 30 businesses with more than 500 employees to sign up to the Square Mile challenge will receive a year’s free membership to collection services provided by Simply Cups, while all other businesses involved can access discounted rates for collections. The coffee cups collected can be remade into a range of items, from pencils to park benches, which will be donated to local community projects and schools. Insurance broker Lloyd’s has signed up. Simply Cups is currently working with Costa, Pret a Manger and McDonald’s, collecting cups from a few of their stores on a trial basis. Last month, Costa announced it was expanding its coffee cup recycling trial scheme, collecting used cups in its 2,000 stores, which are picked up by waste management company Veolia to be recycled in a specialist plant. Meanwhile, Starbucks is trialling a fully recyclable coffee cup – the Frugalpac – which could eventually divert huge numbers of cups away from landfill. Ministers have rejected campaigners’ calls for a charge on the 2.5bn disposable coffee cups thrown away each year because they believe coffee shop chains are already taking enough action to cut down waste. Environment minister Thérèse Coffey told the Liberal Democrats, who have urged the government to impose a 5p charge similar to that levied on plastic bags, that industry and chains were already doing enough voluntarily. Peter Goodwin, director of Simply Cups, said: “It’s fantastic that big businesses are supporting the Square Mile challenge. Large numbers of coffee cups are binned in offices as people arrive at work or pop out for coffees throughout the day. We’d like to see responsible disposal of these become as commonplace as paper recycling schemes in offices and we hope that seeing the products that can be produced from their recycled cups will help motivate city workers to support the recycling effort.” Can coffee cups be recycled? Yes, but not with standard household recycling or paper recycling. Confusingly the cardboard sleeve that insulates your coffee cups and stops your hand getting burned can be recycled, and as the cardboard sleeve provided with your coffee cup often shows the recycling symbol it looks as though the coffee cup can be recycled too, but this is not the case. Why can’t they be treated as cardboard? Because the cups are made from both paper and a plastic film that ensures the cup is waterproof. Standard recycling processes can’t separate these materials. How can they be recycled, then? There are two different recycling processes that can work with coffee cups, and although currently small in scale they’re working to increase their capacity at the moment. The first shreds the whole coffee cup, processing it into a resin. This resin is mixed with recycled plastic to create a new plastic material which can be manufactured into a range of new products, from pens to park benches. The second pulps the coffee cup and separates out the paper and plastic. The recovered paper fibres are then used to make tubes and cores for products such as gravy granules. How can I recycle my coffee cups? Coffee shops are beginning to introduce dedicated recycling schemes within their stores, with Costa and McDonalds already offering this and others set to follow suit. Ask the coffee shop where you buy coffee what they can offer, as consumer pressure will drive uptake of recycling services by retailers. Do I have to use a paper cup? No. You could switch to a reusable cup. Many retailers offer a discount for bringing in your own cup so you can save money with this approach, too. | ['environment/recycling', 'food/coffee', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'uk/london', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'food/food', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-01-26T00:01:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/30/hurricane-irene-misogynistic-attitudes-scarier | Hurricane Irene or Britain adopting misogynistic attitudes: I know which I find scarier | Hadley Freeman | It is, I guess, because I am not religious that I am so covetous, particularly, of religious people. The neighbour's ass I can just about do without, but I do have religious envy. Just think of the mental energy you would save by being religious. Aside from no longer having to justify celebrating Christmas with tedious excuses of the "it's actually a pagan winter holiday, you know" variety, there would be no more angst about what's right and what's wrong, and all backed up by the delicious glow of sanctimony on which religion acts like oxygen on fire. What one saves in mental energy, one makes up for in creative theories of causation and human behaviour. This brings us to Michele Bachmann and Nadine Dorries, two women separated by an ocean, but currently the darlings of the Christian right in their respective countries. Bachmann has something of a head start on Dorries because the Christian right defines the current Republican party to the point that virulent homophobia is seen as a political qualification by the majority of its presidential candidates. These folk have had much to say about the Biblical weather inflicted upon America's elitist east coast in recent days: earthquakes, a hurricane, hair-destroying humidity – oh God, why hast thou forsaken us? Michele Bachmann knows the answer! "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said: 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' ... We've got to rein in the spending," she bellowed. Which was interesting because I thought the earthquake – which occurred hours after all charges were dropped against Dominique Strauss-Kahn – was God trying to shake some sense into New York. But that's the funny thing about religion – for all of its hardline rules, you can make it mean pretty much whatever you like. Which explains how a religion that advocates compassion can, by some of its followers, be seen as advocating hate towards those of a different sexual inclination. Bachmann has now joined the noble ranks of Messiah-based meteorologists, the chief of whom is evangelical Christian Pat Robertson, a man who sees God where others see natural disasters. He famously claimed the terrible earthquake in Haiti last year was a punishment on the people from God and he inevitably saw something religious in last week's earthquake, saying that the crack it caused in the Washington monument "means that we're closer to the coming of the Lord". And there I was thinking it was just God making a giant metaphor about how the American political system is bust. Weather issues aside, one doesn't need to be Richard Dawkins to find the application of religious beliefs to public policy abhorrent, and in this respect I have long envied my British friends. They, surely, live in a far too sceptical country to see that happen in the 21st century, a country in which 76% of the population is pro-choice, unlike in America where only 49% is. And then, along came Nadine. Nadine Dorries has been much in the news of late. This self-described pro-choice politician has been attempting to set back women's reproductive rights by at least 20 years. Proving that one can make things mean whatever you want them to, Dorries claims this is about women's rights, when it seems precisely about taking them away. She has claimed that women are often "traumatised" by abortions, but doesn't explain how traumatising it is to go through with an unwanted pregnancy. Nor does she explain how pregnancy-counselling centres run by faith-based and anti-abortion organisations are more independent of an agenda than the abortion providers themselves. According to a recent undercover investigation by a pro-choice charity, the counselling in some of these centres ranges from the scaremongering to downright inaccurate. One only need look at the Christian right's campaign against Planned Parenthood in America to see the old cliche about America sneezing and Britain's ensuing sinus problems proven. To see British politicians adopting the Christian right's misogynistic and anti-sex attitudes is frankly terrifying; a lot scarier – funnily enough – than the thought of an earthquake sent from God. Whose problem is it anyway? Guardian readers, I bring you grave news. Your advice is officially feebler than – oh cruel, cruel world! – that of the Daily Mail. And unlike Nadine Dorries, I can proffer hard evidence. We turn to the Daily Mail's advice column, MC'd by Bel Mooney, who proves her impeccable credentials for advising readers about their lives by that time-honoured method of advice columnists: holding her finger against her ear in her byline photo. Like Frasier Crane, Bel is listening. This week's correspondent was Ellie, 21, and her concerns were that she had recently become obsessed with a man online and that she was currently sleeping with her brother's friend, who is 29, whom she didn't much fancy. Hmm, I mused, tapping my finger to my ear, how oddly familiar this sounded. And then I realised why: a few weeks ago a letter appeared in this paper's Private Lives column from a woman who was obsessed with a man online and was simultaneously sleeping with her brother's friend, 29, for whom she doesn't care. Guardian readers, as they are wont to do, proffered plenty of advice online. Now, one could argue that perhaps Ellie did a mass mailout to begin with, spreading her bets. But the time gap between the two columns makes it more likely that she rejected the Guardian readers' tips and went for the Daily Mail big guns. Really, it's enough to make one turn to a newspaper columnist for life guidance. | ['us-news/hurricane-irene', 'us-news/michele-bachmann', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'world/abortion', 'us-news/us-politics', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/religion', 'commentisfree/belief', 'world/christianity', 'type/article', 'profile/hadleyfreeman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | us-news/hurricane-irene | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-08-30T19:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/apr/28/dirty-air-affects-97-of-uk-homes-data-shows | Dirty air affects 97% of UK homes, data shows | Virtually every home in the UK is subjected to air pollution above World Health Organization guidelines, according to the most detailed map of dirty air to date. More than 97% of addresses exceed WHO limits for at least one of three key pollutants, while 70% of addresses breach WHO limits for all three. The map, produced by the non-profit group the Central Office of Public Interest (Copi) and Imperial College London, combined 20,000 measurements with computer modelling to produce pollution estimates every 20 metres across the country. People can check their address at the website addresspollution.org for free. The website also ranks each address against national pollution levels. For example, Buckingham Palace in London is in the 98th percentile, with highly polluted air, while Balmoral Castle in Scotland is in the zero percentile, with the cleanest air. The towns and cities with the highest proportion of homes in the top 10% most polluted nationally are Slough in Berkshire, with 90%, followed by London, with 66%. Others in the worst 10 include Portsmouth, Leeds, Manchester and Reading. Copi is calling for a legal requirement for air pollution data to be disclosed to home buyers and renters, as is already the case with asbestos, for example. “Air pollution affects all of us. With this new accurate data now publicly available, it would be shameful for the property industry to not start acting transparently – lives depend on it,” said Humphrey Milles, the founder of Copi, which promotes public awareness campaigns on issues it says are being neglected by government. The WHO sharply reduced its guideline limits for air pollution in September, to reflect the increasing scientific evidence of the harm to health caused by toxic air. A 2019 review concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ in the body, causing at least 7 million early deaths a year worldwide and about 40,000 in the UK. The WHO says air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to human health and is a public health emergency. The UK’s legal limit for nitrogen dioxide is four times higher than the new WHO limit, but is still not met in most urban areas. The country’s legal limit for tiny particles less than 2.5 microns in size (PM2.5) is five times higher than the WHO limit, while the UK limit for PM10 is 2.7 times higher. The air pollution campaigner Rosamund Kissi-Debrah said: “This new data shows yet again that the government is failing the British public. Now people can really see the filthy air they’re breathing at their home, school or work address. Everyone needs to know what they’re breathing, and now with this new public service they can.” Kissi-Debrah’s nine-year old daughter Ella died in 2013, and a landmark coroner’s ruling later cited air pollution as a cause of death. The coroner then issued an official “report to prevent future deaths” in April 2021, which said: “Greater awareness [of air pollution] would help individuals reduce their personal exposure to air pollution. Publicising this information is an issue that needs to be addressed by national as well as local government.” Prof Sir Stephen Holgate, a special adviser on air pollution to the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Air pollution is an invisible killer, and it’s easy for people to forget and ignore. It’s essential that the public are given air pollution data for where they are thinking of buying or renting. In many cases like that of little Ella, it can be a matter of life or death.” Rebecca Marsh, the UK’s property ombudsman, said: “Air pollution is information all consumers should be aware of before they make a decision on a specific property. Arguably, this is material information that all sellers or landlords should be providing.” The map shows annual average pollution levels for 2019, the last year that was unaffected by Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions. Even using the previous higher WHO guidelines, 55% of UK addresses would still breach the limit for at least one of the three pollutants. Sean Beevers, a researcher at Imperial College, said: “It is not just a London problem, so people should be thinking about air pollution more. What had previously been seen as reasonable levels have now been thrown out the window.” Beevers said, however, that the models were not perfect and cautioned against seeing places with slightly higher estimates of air pollution as necessarily worse than nearby places with slightly lower pollution. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'uk-news/portsmouth', 'uk-news/reading', 'uk/salford', 'uk/leeds', 'uk/manchester', 'uk/stockport', 'uk-news/southampton', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-04-28T19:00:19Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2014/dec/08/indigenous-groups-land-rights-deforestation-lima-climate-talks | Forest groups want climate schemes that violate rights to be suspended | Human rights are being systematically violated in the world’s tropical forests as conservationists, big business and governments ignore indigenous people and scramble for land in advance of a global climate deal. As politicians from 190 countries arrived in Lima, Peru, for the second week of the UN climate summit, forest communities from nine countries said they faced rising infringements of their rights as agribusiness, mining industries, hydro schemes and conservation groups exploited forests for their own purposes. The groups – from Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malaysia and Latin America – were critical of pledges made by governments and conservationists to stop deforestation, because their commitments largely ignored the 400 million people estimated to live in forests and depend on them. “We urgently need to overcome the contradiction between government initiatives that seek to exploit the forest and take land from communities, and conservation initiatives. Both are seeking land and forest but continually exclude local communities,” said Norhadi Karben from Mantangai, Kapuas, in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Indigenous groups have been increasingly at odds with governments and conservationists who stand to profit from UN climate schemes that reduce deforestation. “A huge disconnect [exists] between policies on biodiversity and forest conservation, on the one hand, and prevailing unsustainable development models and practices, on the other,” said a recent report by the Forest Peoples Programme. The groups called on governments to suspend permits allocated to developments that violate the rights of communities. “Only by protecting rights, and recognising that communities manage forests, can deforestation be curbed,” said Franky Samperante from the Pusaka organisation in Indonesia. A separate, peer-reviewed study conducted by US researchers working with indigenous groups from countries that share the Amazon rainforest has calculated that if all the plans for economic development in the region are implemented, it would become a giant savannah, with only small islands of forest remaining. “A vast proportion of indigenous territories and protected areas are increasingly at risk, with potentially disastrous consequences, including 40% of the indigenous territories, 30% of the protected areas and 24% of the area that pertains to both,” said Beto Ricardo of the Instituto Socioambiental of Brazil. The authors say the stability of the global atmosphere now depends on whether governments in the region choose to adopt policies that ensure the ecological integrity of indigenous territories and protected areas. “Continued destruction of these carbon-rich ecosystems will gradually diminish their ability to function properly, resulting in a potentially irreversible impact on the atmosphere and the planet,” said the report. Steve Schwartzman, director of tropical forest policy at Environmental Defense Fund, said: “The solution is to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples to territories that have not yet been officially recognised, and resolve territorial conflicts that pit protected areas against private interests.” “We have never been under so much pressure,” said Edwin Vásquez, a co-author and head of Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica, which represents indigenous groups in the Amazon basin. “We now have evidence that where there are strong rights, there are standing forests. Knowing that we have more than half of the region’s carbon on indigenous and protected lands, we can tell our leaders so they can strengthen the role and the rights of indigenous forest peoples.” The paper was the result of a novel collaboration among scientists, Amazonian indigenous and NGO networks, and US environmental policy experts who combined satellite measurements of carbon density, field data and boundary records of indigenous territories and protected areas. | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/land-rights', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-12-08T14:13:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/aug/30/only-10-of-sugarcane-growers-in-reef-catchment-properly-managing-runoff | Only 10% of sugarcane growers in reef catchment properly managing runoff | Less than 10% of sugarcane growers in Great Barrier Reef catchments are using appropriate land management practices for reef health, according to a major report that underlines the need for new regulations proposed by the Queensland government. The federal and Queensland governments’ water quality report card for 2017-2018 says the condition of inshore reefs on the Great Barrier Reef has deteriorated to an overall grade of “D” – which means “poor”. The report card was one of two major reports on the Great Barrier Reef published Friday. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s five-yearly outlook report was also released and found the reef’s outlook had declined from poor to very poor and would remain so without urgent action to address the climate crisis. Poor land management practices, which contribute to degradation on the reef due to sediment and nutrient run-off, are highlighted in the report. It also looks at the condition of inshore corals, water quality and seagrasses and the adoption rates of improved agricultural practices. In addition to an overall rating of D, the report showed worsening water quality in five out of six inshore regions. The report card shows extremely low take-up rates of farming methods considered best practice for reef health across almost every area of the agriculture industry in reef regions of Queensland. The sugarcane sector was graded an “E” – or “very poor” - overall with an adoption rate of improved farming practices of just 9.8%. The target for 2025 is 90%. The grazing, grains and horticulture sectors were each graded a “D” overall, while the banana industry was graded a “C” with an adoption rate of 64.7%. Queensland’s environment minister, Leeanne Enoch, said the report showed legislation the government had introduced that will tighten regulations on agricultural run-off that flows into reef catchments was necessary. “Right now, having seen these two reports, anybody who stands up and opposes the responsible reef regulations that the Palaszczuk government has brought before the parliament (is) simply dismissing the science that backs in these reports,” she said. Enoch said while the report showed some improvements, it “simply wasn’t enough”. While many farmers were doing good work, she said the uptake wasn’t fast enough. “There are also a lot of scores that are poor, or very poor,” she said. “All of these results show why the Palaszczuk government’s proposed reef regulations are needed.” There has been a campaign by some farmers in Queensland against the tougher regulations that will be debated by the Queensland parliament later this year. Richard Leck, a campaigner with WWF Australia, said the data in the report card “is the strongest argument” for why new regulations were needed “both in terms of the impact that poor water quality is having and the adoption rates from some sections of the cane-growing industry”. Imogen Zethoven, the campaign director for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the rate of progress was “glacial”. She said the adoption of best practice land management by some farmers was welcome but it hadn’t occurred at the rate necessary to prevent further deterioration of inshore reef ecosystems that are habitat for many reef species. “This report makes it absolutely clear that regulations are needed to give the reef a fighting chance in the face of all the threats it is dealing with,” she said. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/farming', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-30T08:08:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2011/jan/11/policing-protest-editorial | Policing protest: When the line is crossed | Editorial | In a society under the rule of law, few things matter more than upholding the proper line between legitimate and illegitimate action. Two high-profile public order cases this week exemplify the sensitivity of this truth in powerfully contrasting ways, from opposite sides of the barricades. In the first, due in Southwark crown court today, an A-level student is charged with throwing a fire extinguisher from the roof of Conservative party headquarters during the tuition fee protests. Here, the dividing line is between the citizen's right to demonstrate and the crime of violent disorder, for which Edward Woollard, who has pleaded guilty, now faces a long prison sentence. In the second case, which collapsed in Nottingham crown court yesterday, six green activists went free when revelations about the undercover role of PC Mark Kennedy destroyed the reliability of a conspiracy case against them. This time the dividing line was between the proper police role of preventing crime – an alleged attempt to shut the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station – and the improper one of potential entrapment of peaceful protesters, a possibility which raises many serious questions about public order policing today. The green campaigners' solicitor yesterday highlighted some of these: the questionable legitimacy of mass pre-emptive arrests of more than 100 people; the imposition of controversial pre-charge bail conditions on them; the allegedly arbitrary winnowing of the initial numbers arrested down to those who were finally charged, and the restrictive disclosure rules under which the defendants were not permitted to learn about PC Kennedy's role or his evidence, which might have contributed to an acquittal. These are all serious questions about policing methods, which require official responses and further inquiry, perhaps by the home affairs select committee. Yet they are overshadowed by the wider implications of the dramatic revelations about the role of PC Kennedy, who is said to have been an undercover agent since 2000, and who since 2003 has infiltrated a variety of environmental, anti-racism and anarchist groups – and who is now reported to have thought better of this long-term role and to have become a sympathiser with the protesters. Crime prevention – an aspect of being tough on the causes of crime – is every bit as important a police responsibility as crime solving. It follows that undercover operations to prevent crime can have a legitimate place in police work, just as they do in protecting national security. Yet to infiltrate an undercover officer into any undertaking is an expensive and risky business. The officer has to live under a new identity, in a specially obtained home, with a credible back story, for a prolonged period of time. Such an operation has to be justifiable in terms of the police's role of protecting the public, proportionate to the harm it is designed to prevent, and must be properly supervised to ensure that the boundaries – between intelligence and evidence of crime, and between evidence collection and entrapment – are rigorously upheld. These boundaries have been properly upheld in the past in the policing of football hooligans. But they are not always easy to maintain, as the collapse of a major customs and excise fraud case in 2004 underlined, and as FBI over-exuberance has also illustrated. The infiltration of direct action protest groups – whether green, student or anti-cuts groups – is one of the most sensitive examples imaginable. Civil libertarian instinct revolts against it. The risk to public confidence from badly run operations is great. That is not a reason for proscribing undercover policing altogether. Yet every effort should always be made to use open negotiation and good public order policing to prevent potentially violent protest from crossing the line into the criminal law. Few would say we have got that balance quite right at the moment. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'tone/editorials', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'law/law', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-11T00:05:20Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
business/2023/sep/07/offshore-wind-expecting-to-lose-out-in-auction-for-uk-financial-help | Offshore wind expecting to lose out in auction for UK financial help | Britain’s offshore wind industry is expecting to lose out on financial help for projects toward meeting the UK’s climate goals, because soaring inflation means developers are not able to compete for crucial government support. Ministers are expected to announce the results of the latest auction for financial support contracts this Friday, but energy industry insiders suggest it could be a damp squib in a potential blow to the UK’s climate goals. Sources fear that most offshore wind developers were forced to sit out of the bidding, which took place last month, because the government “ignored” warnings about surging costs in the sector. One said it was possible that only one or two projects had submitted bids, which would jeopardise the government’s target of reaching 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. It may be that no offshore wind developers took part, the source added, which would scupper plans to provide cheap power to consumers and to increase the UK’s energy security. Renewable-energy developers were required to submit sealed bids in the auction in the first half of August, before officials ranked the most competitive proposals over the second half of the month. Only the projects offering the lowest cost to energy-bill payers secure contracts. The government set a maximum price of £44 per MW hour for the auction, a similar level to the previous round. But offshore wind developers are facing soaring construction costs, owing to rising inflation and higher borrowing costs. Earlier this summer such inflationary pressures caused work on a large-scale offshore windfarm off the Norfolk coast to stop. The Swedish energy firm Vattenfall said it would cease working on the multibillion-pound Norfolk Boreas windfarm, designed to power the equivalent of 1.5m British homes, because its costs had increased by more than 40%, so it was no longer profitable. At the time, industry experts told ministers that unless the government’s financing approach was changed to take into account the steep increase in costs, developers would be forced to scrap or delay their plans. Ana Musat, RenewableUK’s executive director, said the “perfectly avoidable” financial dilemma facing the British wind industry risked removing the UK’s global lead in offshore wind at a time of increased competition from the US, Europe and parts of Asia. “We can’t have a ‘boom and bust’ cycle and expect to maintain investor confidence in the UK and grow our supply chains,” Musat said. “It’s such a shame – we’ve been world-leading in this. But we do need to evolve the tools which brought us here.” The industry group has consistently called on the government to adapt the auction by taking into account the higher costs in the economy. Sam Richards, the founder and campaign director for Britain Remade, which promotes economic growth in the UK, said the offshore wind industry had reduced costs at each consecutive auction over the past decade, to the point that offshore windfarms were nine times cheaper than new gas plants. However, the impact of inflation meant the auction was now “at a level that made it impossible for investors to meet their costs”. “Offshore wind has been a huge success for Britain – we have led the world in deploying offshore turbines, with the four biggest offshore windfarms in the world all off the UK coast,” he said. “Sadly, ministers have ignored warnings from industry that would mean, for a short time, the cost of offshore wind rising – while still likely being significantly cheaper than new gas plants.” Ashutosh Padelkar, a senior research associate at Aurora Energy Research, said the “unprecedented cost pressures” could cause developers to enter only part of their offshore windfarms into the auction while relying on bilateral deals with energy-intensive companies to guarantee the rest of their income from the project. This “hybrid financing” model is relatively unusual in the UK energy market, but the approach could help developers to fix a guaranteed price for their electricity, “increasing the likelihood that a project will reach financial close and, eventually, come online”, Padelkar said. He added that solar developers could “dominate this auction” because their projects were cheaper and less exposed to the increasing costs in the offshore wind supply chain. The blow to offshore wind is expected to be revealed days after the government left onshore wind developers disappointed by changes to the planning laws, which have acted as a de facto ban on onshore wind in England. While the tweaks will make it easier for onshore wind developers to apply for planning permission, they will still be at disadvantage compared with any other infrastructure project. Campaigners say developers may still be wary of investing in windfarms in England because they face greater hurdles compared with other infrastructure applications, or with windfarms in other countries. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-09-07T05:00:18Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2012/may/24/solar-power-subsidy-cut | UK solar subsidy to be cut | Payments for home owners using solar panels to generate electricity are to be cut further, the government said on Thursday, which is set to be the hottest day of the year with widespread sunshine in the UK. The feed-in tariff for solar photovoltaic panels fitted to existing homes will be cut by about a quarter, from 21p per kWh to 16p, and the length of payments reduced from 25 to 20 years. However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said financial returns would still be around 6% for homeowners, down from the 7-10% when the scheme launched in 2010, as panel costs have fallen. The changes take effect on 1 August, one month later than planned, after the government missed a legal deadline for making the changes on 1 July. Future tariff rates will also be assessed every three months and automatically cut or held depending on the number of panels installed in the last quarter, the government said. The climate minister, Greg Barker, said: "The sector has been through a difficult time, adjusting to the reality of sharply falling costs, but the reforms we are introducing today provide a strong, sustainable foundation for growth for the solar sector. We can now look with confidence to a future for solar which will see it go from a small cottage industry, anticipated under the previous scheme, to playing a significant part in Britain's clean energy economy." The fall in the incentives, which was expected, comes after a tumultuous six months for the solar power industry. The government lost three court cases after solar companies and Friends of the Earth challenged its rushed halving of the Fit payments late last year. New rules have also been brought in that mean homes must meet energy efficiency standards before becoming eligible for the scheme, and recent data shows installations fell 90% after the most recent subsidy cut. But solar industry, consumer groups, and green campaigners welcomed the new changes for bringing clarity. Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at Consumer Focus, said: "Consumers need certainty on the returns they will receive, if they are to have the confidence to invest in this technology. So it is good news that the government has now shed the light on the final subsidy." Jeremy Leggett, chairman at Solarcentury, said: "Though investor confidence will remain uncertain given the proposed three-monthly digressions, the majority of the government's policies may herald a new seriousness of intent on solar, and indicate that a meaningful solar industrial policy is now a real prospect for the UK." | ['environment/feed-in-tariffs', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'money/money', 'money/energy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2012-05-24T14:55:36Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/oct/08/cooperation-vital-hit-who-new-air-pollution-guidelines | Cooperation is vital to meet WHO’s new air pollution guidelines | New guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) have reset the yardsticks for acceptable air pollution. The guideline for nitrogen dioxide has been reduced by 75% and that for particle pollution (PM2.5) has been halved. It is now up to governments, industry and communities to meet the challenge. It would be easy to focus on the most polluted places in the world and think that clean air is unachievable. But the WHO guidelines are based on air pollution conditions that already exist. For example, the levels of particle pollution in many towns across North America and Scandinavia already meet the new guidelines. Many major cities including Vancouver, Honolulu and Stockholm also have very low particle pollution. One thing they have in common is their remoteness. Particle pollution can stay in the air for a week or more, meaning air pollution from one city affects its neighbours. This is a challenge for the densely populated UK and western Europe. The pollution breathed in Cardiff today may have been produced yesterday in London or Paris and tomorrow it could be in Newcastle or Amsterdam. Cities will need to take responsibility for their downwind pollution. They need to work together, and work with the rural areas around them, in the same way that river pollution needs to be managed from source to sea. It is also clear that we cannot meet the guidelines by focusing on transport and industry alone. As Prof Stefan Reis from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology explained, meeting the UK guidance “will require action across Europe to reduce emissions. Addressing emissions from agriculture and residential burning will be vital, in addition to reducing traffic emissions further.” This was echoed by Prof Ally Lewis from the University of York. “Central and south-east of England, and our near neighbours in Europe, are densely populated and particle pollution flows across borders with ease, meaning international cooperation is vital. However, we are some way from hitting the buffers on improving air quality, and there are some relatively easy targets to improve public health. “It is indefensible that as a society we still chose to inefficiently burn solid fuel, meaning wood or coal, in homes in cities, mainly because it just looks nice. And whilst vehicle pollution is reducing over time, we’ll be living with the internal combustion engine for decades. Getting older and more polluting vehicles off the road is an obvious and guaranteed win for air quality.” | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/world-health-organization', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'society/health', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/special-supplement', 'theguardian/special-supplement/special-supplement', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-10-08T05:00:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/nov/02/country-diary-another-fallen-tree-another-slow-feast-for-the-woodland-floor | Country diary: Another fallen tree, another slow feast for the woodland floor | There’s a carpenter’s-workshop fragrance of freshly splintered timber in the air. Last night the first high winds of autumn brought down an ash tree, now lying across the footpath. The Weardale Way is narrow here, between woodland and river, so we are forced to skirt around the obstacle by climbing the steep escarpment. The ground underfoot is soft, cushioned by decades of ankle-deep leaf mould releasing its rich aroma of fungal decay. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, goes the old saying, never more apt than when applied to fallen timber that’s left to rot, to be colonised by host of opportunist organisms. The newly stricken ash is about to begin its afterlife, in a cycle of decay as a succession of fungi moves in, secreting enzymes, softening, digesting. An old section of fallen trunk that carried a crop of stump puffballs last year is now covered with serried ranks of sheath woodtuft, taking their turn to feed on the fallen. Some casualties from previous gales are so old and rotten that they are merely cylindrical, moss-carpeted hummocks that crumble to the touch. The narrow band of living sapwood between bark and heartwood quickly succumbs to fungi, leaving a gap that becomes home to a host of woodland invertebrates. When I lift a section of loosened bark on an ash that toppled a decade ago, dozens of woodlice scurry away as daylight floods into their home. A rolled-up pill millipede, clad like a medieval knight in overlapping plates of black armour, uncoils slowly and glides away on a magic carpet of 18 pairs of legs. Last to leave is a tiny spindle-shaped door snail, a denizen of ancient woodland that probably spent last night grazing algae from tree trunks before seeking sanctuary here at dawn. A pair of wary eyes on long antennae appear from beneath its finely grooved spiral shell, then it extends a muscular foot that flows over the rough bark at a leisurely pace. Life lived in the slow lane, in harmony with a woodland cycle of growth and decay. A decade hence, descendants of all of them may find shelter under the fungus-loosened bark of today’s fallen ash. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'travel/county-durham', 'travel/england', 'environment/invertebrates', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/fungi', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-11-02T05:30:52Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/jun/23/country-diary-when-is-a-jellyfish-not-a-jellyfish | Country diary: When is a jellyfish not a jellyfish? | Claire Stares | For the past few weeks, social media has been awash with photos of jellyfish, the heatwave drawing swarms of the UK’s five most common species – moon, compass, barrel, lion’s mane and blue – inshore in search of plankton blooms. With images of pulsating, tentacle-trailing behemoths fresh in my mind, it was disconcerting to plunge into the sea and feel the sensation of something brushing against my bare arms and face. I paused mid-stroke, waiting for the prickling, itching or burning pain that would indicate a sting, but none came so I carried on swimming. Then something bumped against my left shin. Taking a breath, I ducked beneath the surface and peered around. The water was cloudy with silt but I could just make out small, shadowy orbs drifting across my field of vision like eye floaters. As I surfaced, my friend called out that there was something squishy in one of her aqua shoes. Treading water, she managed to pull it off and I poked around inside, stringy tentacles clinging to my fingers as I flushed out the invader. It was a sea gooseberry (Pleurobrachia pileus), a species of comb jelly. These gelatinous creatures are often assumed to be jellyfish. In fact, they comprise a unique phylum known as Ctenophora, whereas jellyfish are members of the phylum Cnidaria. While jellyfish paralyse their prey by injecting venom from barbed stinging cells, comb jellies are equipped with adhesive cells, called colloblasts, that release a sticky, mucus-like substance to entrap plankton. Their two feathery tentacles can be up to 20 times the length of their 2.5cm spherical bodies, and it was these trailing fishing lines that had been harmlessly snagging our skin. We swam in to find that the receding tide had left hundreds of glistening sea gooseberries strewn across the sand. Up close, we could see that their translucent bodies were ribbed like pumpkins, with eight equally spaced longitudinal comb rows. These paddle-like structures consist of successive plates of large, fused cilia (hair-like projections) known as ctenes. These ctenes beat to propel the jellies through the water. In the bright sunshine, they also refracted the light, sending rainbow-like waves of colour rippling along the creatures’ bodies. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/coastlines', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/claire-stares', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-23T04:30:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/dec/10/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-seven-times-faster-than-in-1990s | Greenland's ice sheet melting seven times faster than in 1990s | Greenland’s ice sheet is melting much faster than previously thought, threatening hundreds of millions of people with inundation and bringing some of the irreversible impacts of the climate emergency much closer. Ice is being lost from Greenland seven times faster than it was in the 1990s, and the scale and speed of ice loss is much higher than was predicted in the comprehensive studies of global climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to data. That means sea level rises are likely to reach 67cm by 2100, about 7cm more than the IPCC’s main prediction. Such a rate of rise will put 400 million people at risk of flooding every year, instead of the 360 million predicted by the IPCC, by the end of the century. Sea level rises also add to the risk of storm surges, when the fiercer storms made more likely by global heating batter coastal regions. These impacts are likely to strike coastal areas all around the world. “These are not unlikely events or small impacts,” said Andrew Shepherd, professor of earth observation at the University of Leeds, one of the lead authors of the study. “[These impacts] are happening and will be devastating for coastal communities.” Greenland has lost 3.8tn tonnes of ice since 1992, and the rate of ice loss has risen from 33bn tonnes a year in the 1990s to 254bn tonnes a year in the past decade. Greenland’s ice contributes directly to sea level rises as it melts because it rests on a large land mass, unlike the floating sea ice that makes up much of the rest of the Arctic ice cap. About half of the ice loss from Greenland was from melting driven by air surface temperatures, which have risen much faster in the Arctic than the global average, and the rest was from the speeding up of the flow of ice into the sea from glaciers, driven by the warming ocean. Oceans have absorbed most of the excess heat arising from our disruption of the climate to date, and much of the carbon dioxide, but they are reaching the limits of their capacity to do so. Sea level rises are driven not only by melting ice but by the thermal expansion of the seas as they warm. The scale and speed of the ice loss surprised the team of 96 polar scientists behind the findings, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature. The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise comprised 26 separate surveys of Greenland from 1992 to 2018, with data from 11 different satellites and comparisons of volume, flow and gravity compiled by experts from the UK, Nasa in the US, and the European Space Agency. Erik Ivins, of the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, stressed that the findings – the most comprehensive survey yet of the ice sheet over the past few decades – were based on observations, rather than computer modelling. “While computer simulation allows us to make projections from climate change scenarios, the satellite measurements provide prima facie evidence,” he said. The peak year for ice loss, according to the observations, was 2011 when 335bn tonnes of ice were lost. Since then, the average rate has slowed to 238bn tonnes a year from 2013, but this does not include the most recent observations from this summer, which showed even more widespread melting. Governments are meeting in Madrid for the second week of crucial UN talks on the global response to the climate emergency. Campaigners have been frustrated by the slow pace of the negotiations, despite growing public clamour, including a 500,000-strong march through the centre of the Spanish capital led by the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Rachel Kennerley, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “We’re in a climate emergency – the impacts are coming thicker and faster every day. This latest research is yet more in an ever-growing pile of evidence which shows we need real action, not warm words. Governments need to stop dragging their feet and deliver real emissions cuts and real support for vulnerable people already experiencing the devastating effects of climate breakdown.” The IPCC is the gold standard for climate science, but some experts are concerned that its findings do not take into account the potential for “tipping points”, thresholds beyond which climate breakdown accelerates and becomes catastrophic and irreversible. Louise Sime, a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, said of the new paper: “This finding should be of huge concern for all those who will be affected by sea level rise. If this very high rate of ice loss continues, it is possible that new tipping points may be breached sooner than we previously thought.” | ['environment/cop-25-un-climate-change-conference', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/greenland', 'environment/poles', 'environment/glaciers', 'environment/sea-level', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-12-10T16:00:12Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2014/jul/29/fracking-future-energy-sources | Fracking and future energy sources | @guardianletters | Your editorial (29 July) says “there are serious reasons why fracking is likely to be part of Britain’s future” but misses many reasons why it shouldn’t be. Fracking in the UK will just add to a stock of fossil fuels we cannot afford to burn if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Shale gas won’t magically replace coal: the government’s chief scientist has said that without a global climate deal, new fossil fuel exploitation is likely to increase the risk of climate change. The government’s headlong rush to frack is predicated on the process being safe. But many of the UK’s regulations are inadequate. Fracking is banned in France and a more precautionary approach is being taken in Germany on environmental grounds. Fracking is not the answer to the energy problems of cost and security. The first focus of UK energy policy needs to be an aggressive push on energy efficiency. Then decarbonising electricity, through a rapid expansion of renewable power. Gas is a transition fuel through the 2020s, but shale gas is not needed for this purpose. Tony Bosworth Energy campaigner, Friends of the Earth • So Eric Pickles will have the last say in deciding whether to drill in protected areas (New strings attached to fracking push, 28 July). Luckily, the Unite trade union, organising over 1.3m workers, voted overwhelmingly this year to protest against fracking. It will support local protests against fracking and campaign for sustainable green jobs, not the slash-and-burn, short-term profit, long-term devastation of increased carbon emissions. Tony Staunton Unite Plymouth local government branch • Power companies will only invest where the prospects of profit are excellent, so why not nationalise this new power source from the very beginning? We have surrendered our coal, water, gas and electricity industries to foreign companies and the process is, apparently, irreversible. Why doesn’t Ed Milliband say that all shale exploration will be done at the taxpayers’ expense – with the taxpayer becoming the beneficiary? Barry Langley London • In your article (New strings attached to fracking push, 28 July) there was no mention of the huge amounts of water needed in the process for fracking shale gas and oil. This has produced well publicised disputes in the US, where underground supplies have been severely depleted by fracking companies, causing problems for farmers and other users. Chris Roome Staplehurst, Kent • So, drilling rigs are acceptable, but wind turbines, which produce benign energy, are not. The community-owned, renewable sector is the way forward – benign energy production with no legacy problems, community involvement and ownership, great returns on investment, and a percentage of profits going to the local area. We have been part owners of Baywind Energy Cooperative for many years, with average returns of 6.37% - the return in 2012 was 10.4%. Go to energy4all.co.uk to see the portfolio of community-owned schemes across the UK. Lorrie Marchington High Peak, Derbyshire • Methane gas from fracking is not one of the “cleaner hydrocarbons” as your leader claims. Its global warming potential is 70 times that of carbon dioxide. Evidence from the US shows shale gas electricity has a higher carbon footprint than coal burning, even when methane leakage is low. Electricity from waste is often cheaper than that from natural gas and avoids the release of methane were the waste left to rot. Instead of paying farmers to accept fracking, they should be well rewarded for sending animal and crop waste for anaerobic digestion. And fracking companies could follow Greenfield Energy, now drilling below the carparks of a leading supermarket chain for geothermal heat. Most scientists agree we cannot burn more than one-third of the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves if we are to slow global warming. Why exploit new, unproven gas resources of uncertain yield? At far shallower depths there is sufficient geothermal energy to heat and cool buildings. Keith Barnham London • We need to reduce the amount of fossil fuel we burn. The promise of cheap energy for the next 40 years, realistic or not, will lull the public into ignoring the uncomfortable but imperative need to reduce emissions. It will also blind most people to the impact of any environmental damage resulting from fracking. Lynda Newbery Bristol • I have chosen the place in countryside specially dear to me where I shall set up my anti-fracking camp. I am prepared to sleep in a tent. What holds me back is the thought that to be completely honest about what I’m doing I must give up using a private car for the rest of my life. Richard Wilson Oxford | ['environment/gas', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'tone/letters', 'environment/energy', 'uk-news/unite', 'environment/water', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/geothermal', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2014-07-29T20:00:09Z | true | ENERGY |
money/2005/sep/12/business.hurricanekatrina | Regulator questions insurers over Katrina's ongoing impact | The Financial Services Authority is asking insurers for information about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on their business amid mounting uncertainty about the size of the bill faced by the industry to clean up the devastation. Estimates for total insured losses range from $25bn (£13.5bn) to $60bn, making it the costliest insured natural disaster in history. But assessing the financial damage caused by the violent storm two weeks ago is proving difficult and provoking some concern among the ratings agencies which provide crucial assessments of insurers' credit-worthiness. Lloyd's of London, the City's major insurance market, was warned over the weekend by ratings agency Standard & Poor's that it risked a downgrade to its credit-worthiness because the potential losses of the 62 syndicates which make up its market are unknown. Lloyd's has demanded that the syndicates - which sell insurance for losses caused by the hurricane for things such as damage to oil rigs, ships, property and business disruption - make estimates of their exposure to Katrina's devastation by today. Lloyd's is not expecting to be able to give a first estimate for some time. The FSA admitted it had been in touch with the insurance industry as part of its normal supervisory work. As well as the financial regulator, insurers pay particular attention to the demands of the rating agencies whose measures of their credit-worthiness are crucial to their ability to win business. Lloyd's was one of 10 major insurers affected by the decision by S&P to react to the uncertainty about the scale of the industry's losses. Insurers are finding it difficult to make accurate projections as they have not been able to send loss adjusters to the region because of the disaster's ongoing scale. In addition, the amount of water that flooded New Orleans and the surrounding area is unusual. "This is a loss that is still ongoing. That is unusual for a hurricane. Usually you get short, sharp damage," said Julian James, head of worldwide markets at Lloyd's of London. "I can't over-state the uncertainty and complexity about this loss. We have never seen a hurricane loss that involves this extended amount of human suffering," Mr James said. S&P warned Lloyd's of a possible downgrade because of the "uncertainty of the scale of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Lloyd's, the specialisations of which include the insurance and reinsurance of offshore energy installations, property damage and business interruption". However, S&P has made it clear to Lloyd's that it does not have concerns about the underlying solvency of the market. Any downgrade to its A rating is likely to be only one notch - the smallest increment possible. Lloyd's pointed out that S&P had to place it on negative creditwatch - the rating agency's possible precursor to a downgrade - because it was not in a position to update the agency on the financial impact on the market. That will only happen when it has time to assess the projections it receives from the syndicates by the end of today. But Lloyd's is confident S&P will not proceed with any downgrade. "Lloyd's models this type of catastrophe to ensure the market can withstand it, and is well-equipped to handle this type of event," a spokeswoman for Lloyd's said. Fresh estimates about the potential losses caused by Hurricane Katrina may emerge in the coming days from Monte Carlo where the world's major insurers and reinsurers, which provide insurance to the insurers, are getting together for their annual meeting. The threat of downgrades - and actual downgrades - by rating agencies as a result of Katrina has already had an impact. Alea is trying to find a buyer after the rating on its debt was downgraded while Lloyd's insurer Goshawk was warned that one of its subsidiaries risked being downgraded because of its exposure to Katrina losses. Goshawk said it was considering fresh capital to maintain the rating. | ['money/money', 'business/business', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/jilltreanor'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-11T23:02:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2023/may/05/macquarie-southern-water-owner-australian-finance-giant-posts-record-profits | Banking firm that owns Southern Water posts record profits | The Australian banking group that controls Southern Water, the utility company criticised for discharging sewage into the sea, has posted record profits after a boom in its commodities trading division. Macquarie, which owns a string of UK infrastructure assets, recorded an annual net profit of A$5.18bn (£2.8bn), up 10% on the previous year. The profits outstripped analysts’ expectations of A$4.96bn for the 12 months to 31 March 2023. A rise in profits in its commodities business – which trades oil, gas and electricity, largely in North America – handed its top commodity trader, Nick O’Kane, A$58m through a profit-share agreement, up from A$36m the year before. The payout meant O’Kane earned far more than the group’s chief executive, Shemara Wikramanayake, who still landed A$33m – itself a payout putting her ahead of some of Wall Street’s best-paid bankers. Macquarie owns a diverse collection of assets, including retail and investment banking activities, and is one of the world’s largest infrastructure owners. In the UK its interests include Southern Water, the gas network Cadent, Southampton and Glasgow airports, and several windfarm projects along the east and north-west coasts of England. Southern Water, which handles water supplies across the south-east of England, has been among the companies criticised for regularly discharging raw sewage into the sea. Campaigners accused it of “environmental vandalism” last year when data showed that Southern discharged raw sewage for more than 3,700 hours at 83 bathing water beaches during the first eight days of November alone. Macquarie also faced political scrutiny during its ownership of Thames Water between 2006 and 2017 as it extracted billions in dividends while Thames’s debt soared. It controversially returned to the industry when taking control of Southern Water in 2021. The group said the value of its assets under management had increased by 10% since the end of March 2022 to A$870.8bn. The group said 71% of its profits had come from outside Australia during the year, with 51% of its overall profit derived from its commodities business. The oil and gas companies BP and Shell this week reported healthy profits, helped in part by improvements in their trading divisions that have benefited from volatile energy markets. Wikramanayake said: “Against a less certain market and economic backdrop, the diversity of Macquarie’s activities and the expertise of our teams ensured we maintained strong performance during the year.” | ['business/utilities', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/banking', 'business/banking', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-05-05T13:50:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2004/dec/31/tsunami2004 | Devastated Tamil Tigers accept aid offer | Sri Lanka The aftermath has raised some hopes of a new era of peace between Tamil Tiger rebels and the government. Just weeks after the Tigers threatened to resume a two-decade war for self-rule, the leader of the political wing SP Thamilselvan accepted a government offer of aid and vowed to work with officials to get supplies to survivors. "This new tragic situation has laid the foundation for both parties to come together and work towards closing the division between the two parties," he said after meeting aid workers and Norwegian peace envoys in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi. The conciliatory tone followed an unprecedented statement by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who sent condolences to the southern Sinhalese he has warred against for 20 years at a cost of over 64,000 lives. The tsunami that flooded Sri Lanka's famed, palm-fringed shores has killed more than 27,000 and that figure is likely to rise. The Tigers say almost half of the dead come from their northern and eastern strongholds and thousands have been buried in mass graves. Somalia Although the death toll is relatively small at 114, hundreds more are missing and entire villages swamped in what some aid workers call a forgotten corner of the tsunami disaster. Fishermen took the brunt of the huge waves and a 400-mile stretch of Somali shoreline, from the northern island of Hafun to the village of Garacad further south, turned into a disaster zone with upturned boats and partially submerged villages. The state of Puntland reported 40 fishermen dead and 60 missing. Some 100 boats disappeared. UN relief workers expected the toll to climb into hundreds. The World Food Programme reported severe transport problems through the chaotic, war-ravaged country. "Initial estimates suggest that 30,000 to 50,000 people are affected and in need of immediate relief," the agency said in a statement. Malaysia The bodies of 66 people have been recovered and the search continues for up to 100 people - mostly fishermen. More than 7,000 have been evacuated from seaside districts hit by flash floods in the states of Penang, Kedah and Perak, police said. The government is reported to have calculated that €20m (£14m) worth of property had been destroyed. Maldives Visitors are back in the water and hotel rooms are reopening as the tourism business rebounds from the disaster which killed at least 69 with 75 missing. Only 19 of the 87 resorts have closed and more than 8,500 tourists were in the country as of yesterday. | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/tamil-tigers', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-12-31T00:02:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2022/jan/23/uks-biggest-private-pension-fund-to-shift-5bn-away-from-polluters | UK’s biggest private pension fund to shift £5bn away from polluters | The UK’s biggest private pension fund will shift £5bn of its investment in equities to an index avoiding the worst polluters, in a move that will immediately reduce the carbon emissions associated with the shareholdings by 30%. The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which manages the pensions of British academics, will introduce a climate “tilt” to the money, shifting it to companies that are making efforts to cut emissions. USS owns assets worth £82bn on behalf of 470,000 members from 330 of the UK’s higher education institutions, of which 40% is held in equities. It is facing pressure from members to decarbonise, as well as a separate dispute over proposals to cut pension benefits that could lead to strike action. The £5bn stake will move to Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which will invest it according to a climate transition index developed by Solactive, a German company. The passively held investments have previously been managed by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to reflect indices by MSCI. The move will also cut management costs. As well as the initial 30% fall in emissions associated with the investment, Solactive will ensure that portfolio carbon emissions fall by 7% every year thereafter. Crucially, this calculation will take into account emissions associated with companies’ products, such as oil or gas sold by fossil fuel producers. “We think this is a significant first step,” said Simon Pilcher, the chief executive of USS Investment Management, which manages the pension scheme’s money. “We are committed to the ultimate decarbonisation of the total assets. “Our conviction though is that for that total decarbonisation to happen, it is the underlying companies and the way in which the world operates that have to change. So we are not going to exclude our way to net zero. We have to help the businesses in which we invest.” Although the move affects just part of the scheme’s shareholdings, a spokesperson said more of the portfolio was expected to be moved to climate-aware indices in future. The Church of England’s pensions managers last week showed how a similar approach could work in practice, announcing they would sell some shares in 28 fossil fuel producers that had not shown clear evidence of plans to reduce emissions. USS has faced persistent criticism from some of its members for holding large stakes in major carbon emitters, including oil companies such as Shell and other companies that are dependent on burning fossil fuels, such as Heathrow airport. The campaign group Divest USS argues that the scheme has not done enough to vote in favour of climate-focused shareholder resolutions. Paul Kinnersley, an emeritus professor at Cardiff University and a coordinator of the group, highlighted the fact that USS members included large numbers of climate scientists and other academics who would probably favour rapid divestment. “Any shift by USS to decarbonise or clean up their investments is obviously a step in the right direction,” he said, “but they’ve been slow about changing and they’ve been slow about sharing detail on the target of net zero by 2050. We’re welcoming it, but there’s a long way for them to go.” The move could be seen as a blow to BlackRock as it pushes climate-friendly policies, although Pilcher said BlackRock would continue to manage some USS assets. Neither will it make much of a dent in BlackRock’s total assets under management, which rose above $10tn (£7.4tn) at the end of 2021 – the first time any investor has reached that size. In relation to the dispute over pension contributions, the University and College Union said on Friday that it would set dates for members to strike in the coming days unless USS and employers back down on proposals to cut guaranteed benefits and increase member contributions. The union argues it would be unaffordable for members. | ['business/pensions-industry', 'environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'money/pensions', 'education/universities', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'money/money', 'uk/uk', 'education/higher-education', 'education/education', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-01-23T16:23:54Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2014/nov/14/sack-scientist-opinions-anne-glover-greenpeace | It’s wrong to sack a scientist for her opinions | Andrew Brown | It’s not technically true that Anne Glover, the chief scientific officer to the European Union, has been sacked for her support of GM crops. The post has been shot out from under her, as Greenpeace and other opponents of GM have been urging. It is, in any case, wrong that this should have happened. Scientists should not be punished for their professional opinions. That is true whether or not these are convenient to the powerful. To sack a scientist for her opinions about GM crops is every bit as wrong as it would be to sack one for their opinions about climate change or – as with David Nutt – about drug liberalisation. This isn’t to say that scientists are always right, or that their opinions should decide policy. Outside their areas of expertise ,scientists can be quite as wrong as anyone else – often more wrong, because they believe they are right. Even within their area of expertise, scientists can be wrong – in fact they are certain to be wrong about some things. The trouble is that neither we nor they can know precisely what they’re wrong about, and how. It is a bit like the advertising man who complained that he knew half his money was wasted – he just didn’t know which half. Unlike advertising, science does make useful progress, but this does not diminish the area of uncertainty so much as move it to new questions. Nor is there a clear scientific procedure for determining how much of what we think we reliably know is, in fact, reliable. To know that requires judgment, which is a quality that can’t be quantified reliably. So the chief qualification of a chief scientific officer is not scientific excellence in a particular field – although that’s also necessary so that they can understand those who excel in other fields – but judgment. And once you have chosen someone for their judgment, you must trust it. If the job of a scientific adviser were only to give advice on questions where the science was settled beyond reasonable doubt, we would not need to have one at all. That’s why the Greenpeace assault really worries me. For the organisation claims – disingenuously, I suspect – that the problem lies not with the advice given by Anne Glover but with the existence of a post in which any scientist gets to exercise their judgment in such an unfettered manner. Instead they want the post replaced by a greater diversity of opinions. This is bravely contrarian even for Greenpeace: it’s hard to think of any other body that feels that what the EU needs for better decision-making is another committee that can be stuffed with special interests. Neither scientists nor politicians are infallible. And in a democracy we trust politicians rather than scientists to make decisions partly because we have a means for discovering and punishing their mistakes by voting them out of office. That kind of punishment for unpopularity should not be applied to scientists, whose work should be judged on quite different criteria. In the end, the sacking of Anne Glover undermines respect for both science and democracy. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'science/science', 'science/science-scepticism', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewbrown'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-11-14T17:43:05Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2020/oct/23/your-polyester-sweater-is-destroying-the-environment-heres-why | Your polyester sweater is destroying the environment. Here's why | Adrienne Matei | Last week, an exclusive Guardian report revealed that a mind-boggling 13.3 quadrillion microfibers (infinitesimal strands of fabric) were released into the California environment in 2019. All fabrics release microfibers, whether they are organic, like hemp and wool, or synthetic, like polyester and acrylic. Since their discovery in 2011 by ecologist Mark Browne, much of the conversation surrounding microfibers has focused on synthetic fibers in particular. That’s because, as a product of the petrochemical industry, synthetic fabric is essentially plastic, making the microfibers it releases a form of microplastic pollution. As the California study suggests, plastic microfibers are a disturbingly abundant foreign substance in the Earth’s ecosystem – they make up 90% of the microplastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean, and are easily ingested by the tiny fish and plankton that support the entire marine ecosystem. While larger pieces of plastic garbage in the ocean are largely attributed to poor waste management in rapidly developing economies, microfiber pollution is predominantly linked to wastewater from developed nations, according to an article recently published by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. Clothing releases the most microfibers while being machine-washed, and many of those fibers elude filtration in treatment centers, ultimately ending up in waterways and oceans. One study from 2017 even found that 83% of global tap water samples contained microfibers. So, is the solution to stop buying synthetic clothing? “Shifting away from synthetic fabrics is one way to reduce microplastics in the ocean,” says Dr Brian Hunt, a biological oceanographer at the University of British Columbia. “Decreasing the demand for synthetics would decrease production.” Recently, some retailers have marketed “anti-microbial” or “anti-odor” clothing they claim requires only infrequent washing; Hunt considers such initiatives, as well as a movement among eco-conscious consumers to buy more organic, natural fabrics, generally encouraging. “But still,” he says, “there’s the question of: what happens with these new approaches? Everything we do has some kind of effect. Even with natural clothing, depending on how it’s treated, there might be some contributions to pollution in the ocean.” Wool and cotton may be chemically processed; they also require much water and energy to produce. Buying lots of fancy new environmentally friendly gear is still less sustainable than sticking with what you already have. In the same sense, boycotting polyester is good, but let’s not forget the problem of microfibers is amplified by the amount of clothing we’re producing and buying on a macro level. The emergence of fast fashion in the early 2000s introduced consumers to cheaply made, often synthetic clothing on a massive scale. A growing middle class has helped clothing production double in the last 15 years, according to the Ellen McArthur Foundation, an environmental charity; the global clothing industry is estimated to grow from $1.9tn in 2019 to over $3tn by 2030. Textile production is the world’s second-most polluting industry, behind only oil – and every year we prematurely discard $400bn worth of clothing. Fashion corporations must be held accountable for implementing sustainable practices across their supply chains, including developing and using sustainable fabrics that do not emit microplastics. On a consumer level, we need to ensure the trend of resale continues its encouraging trajectory by shopping thrift and vintage, renting trendy and special occasion-wear, and consigning or donating our used clothing. We can also wash our clothing less frequently and in cold, quick cycles - this reduces microfiber shedding, and helps retain the clothes’ quality, too. Did you know that you can often recycle old clothing almost the same way you recycle bottles and cans? In many places you can bring old clothes to specific textile recycling depots or sign up for a free recycling program. In 2018, a Hong Kong textile mill even pioneered a technology which recycles waste textiles into new yarn on an unprecedented scale. The technology caught the interest of fast-fashion giants like H&M. With effort and innovation, microfiber pollution – among the other environmental ills caused by the fashion industry at large – can be reduced. As for the quadrillions of fibers the fabrics all around you are shedding: think of them the next time you catch yourself impulse shopping for a new outfit, and perhaps take a minute to reflect on whether you have enough, already. This article was amended on 23 October 2020 to reflect Dr Brian Hunt’s correct name. An earlier version incorrectly stated his name Legendary Watergate reporter Bob Woodward will discuss the Trump presidency at a Guardian Live online event on Tuesday 27 October, 7pm GMT. Book tickets here | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/plastic', 'business/retail', 'fashion/fashion-industry', 'fashion/fashion', 'type/article', 'profile/adrienne-matei', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-10-23T10:22:07Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-report-ipcc-chief | Climate change report 'should jolt people into action' says IPCC chief | The head of the United Nations climate panel said he hoped its report on the rising threat of climate change would “jolt people into action”. The report, released on Monday, is a 2,600-page catalogue of the risks to life and livelihood from climate change – now and in the future. Rajendra Pachauri, who has headed the IPCC for 12 years, said he hoped it would push government leaders to deal with climate change before it is too late. “I hope these facts will - for want of a better word - jolt people into action,” he said. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, took a similar line. “Read this report and you can't deny the reality: Unless we act dramatically and quickly, science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy,” Kerry said in a statement. "Let's make our political system wake up and let's make the world respond." The report was built on the work of more than 300 scientists drawing from 12,000 scholarly articles to produce the most comprehensive picture of climate risks to date. Pachauri said the report provided all that governments could need for coming up with a strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting populations from climate change. The volume of scientific literature on the effects of climate change has doubled since the last report in 2007, and the findings make an increasingly detailed picture of how climate change – in tandem with existing fault lines such as poverty and inequality – poses a much more direct threat to life and livelihoods. This was reflected in the language. The summary mentioned the word “risk” more than 230 times, compared to just over 40 mentions seven years ago, according to a count by the Red Cross. “On the basis of this report they should be able to formulate a very clear plan of action,” Pachauri said. The report found the strongest evidence of climate change in the thawing permafrost in the Arctic and in the destruction of coral reefs. It found many freshwater and marine species had shifted their geographical range due to climate change. But the report said climate change was growing more evident in human systems as well, where it posed a series of risks. Climate change was already beginning to affect crop yields, especially for wheat and maize, and the report says that yields could decline sharply towards the middle of the century. The scientists found climate change was a driver of violent conflicts and migration, and was exacerbating inequality, making it harder for people to claw their way out of poverty. Climate change was also a factor in the rise of mega-disasters. The report said climate change was driving recent heatwaves and droughts, and was a risk factor for wildfires. At the forefront of those risks was the potential for humanitarian crisis. The report catalogued some of the disasters that have been visited around the planet since 2000: killer heat waves in Europe, wildfires in Australia, and deadly floods in Pakistan. “We are now in an era where climate change isn't some kind of future hypothetical,” said the leading author of the report, Chris Field of Stanford University. “We live in an area where impacts from climate change are already widespread and consequential.” Within the United Nations, the report is seen as leverage for a high-level climate summit hosted by the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, at the United Nations in September. Ban has said he hopes to use the event to build momentum for negotiations for a climate deal in Paris next year. | ['environment/ipcc', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'world/world', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-03-31T11:04:32Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2016/jul/30/england-plastic-bag-usage-drops-85-per-cent-since-5p-charged-introduced | England's plastic bag usage drops 85% since 5p charge introduced | The number of single-use plastic bags used by shoppers in England has plummeted by more than 85% after the introduction of a 5p charge last October, early figures suggest. More than 7bn bags were handed out by seven main supermarkets in the year before the charge, but this figure plummeted to slightly more than 500m in the first six months after the charge was introduced, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. The data is the government’s first official assessment of the impact of the charge, which was introduced to help reduce litter and protect wildlife - and the expected full-year drop of 6bn bags was hailed by ministers as a sign that it is working. The charge has also triggered donations of more than £29m from retailers towards good causes including charities and community groups, according to Defra. England was the last part of the UK to adopt the 5p levy, after successful schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Retailers with 250 or more full-time equivalent employees have to charge a minimum of 5p for the bags they provide for shopping in stores and for deliveries, but smaller shops and paper bags are not included. There are also exemptions for some goods, such as raw meat and fish, prescription medicines, seeds and flowers and live fish. Around 8m tonnes of plastic makes its way into the world’s oceans each year, posing a serious threat to the marine environment. Experts estimate that plastic is eaten by 31 species of marine mammals and more than 100 species of sea birds. The environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, said: “Taking 6bn plastic bags out of circulation is fantastic news for all of us,. It will mean our precious marine life is safer, our communities are cleaner and future generations won’t be saddled with mountains of plastic taking hundreds of years to breakdown in landfill sites. “It shows small actions can make the biggest difference, but we must not be complacent, as there is always more we can all do to reduce waste and recycle what we use.” The charge was introduced to try to influence consumer behaviour after the number of carriers bags given out by seven major supermarkets in England rose by 200min 2014 to exceed 7.6bn - the equivalent of 140 per person and amounting to a total of 61,000 tonnes of plastic. Matt Davies, chief executive of the UK’s largest retailer Tesco said: “The government’s bag charge has helped our customers [in England] reduce the number of bags they use by 30m each week, which is great news for the environment.” Tesco expects its Bags of Help scheme to provide more than £20m in the first year to local environmental projects. Plastic bags can take hundreds of years to break down, but plastic drinks bottles and disposable coffee cups are now being seen as a huge challenge in protecting the environment. The results of the Marine Conservation Society’s annual beach cleanup in 2015 showed that the amount of rubbish dumped on UK beaches rose by a third compared with the previous year. The number of plastic drinks bottles found were up 43% on 2014 levels. “There is always more that we can do,” said Dr Sue Kinsey, a technical specialist for waste at the Marine Conservation Society. “We encourage everyone to join in on our Great British Beach Clean this September to help keep our coastlines clean.” Andrew Pendleton, of Friends of the Earth, said: “The plummeting plastic bag use demonstrates the huge benefits just a small change in our everyday habits can make. It means less damaging plastic finding its inevitable way into our waterways and countryside. This is a massive boon for nature and wildlife.” He added: “With attention now turning to the millions of non-recyclable coffee cups that go to landfill and to oversized boxes and excess packaging as a by-product of online shopping, the government and forward-thinking businesses have a golden chance to cut waste and reduce resource use in a sensible way that consumers welcome.” At the time of the launch, the government forecast that the charge would reduce use of single-use carrier bags by up to 80% in supermarkets and 50% on the high street. It is also expected to save £60m in litter cleanup costs. Plastic facts 6bn single use plastic bags would cover an area of about 900,000,000m2, over three times the area of Birmingham. 6bn bags laid end-to-end it would stretch about 3m km, or 75 times around the world. 6bn bags are approximately equivalent to the weight of 300 blue whales, 300,000 sea turtles or 3m pelicans. | ['environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-07-29T23:01:17Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/article/2024/jul/12/weather-tracker-hurricane-beryl-causes-further-havoc-across-texas | Weather tracker: Hurricane Beryl causes further havoc across Texas | At the start of this week, Hurricane Beryl crashed on to the shore of the Texas coastline. Sweeping across the coast, Beryl brought sustained winds of 80mph to coastal settlements in Texas, creating a deadly storm surge reaching 4-7ft (1.2m to 2.1m) in places and wreaking havoc in local areas, before moving inland towards Houston and other big cities. Heavy rainfall was also recorded across some of the upper Texas coast and eastern Texas, with locally close to 15 inches (380mm) recorded in places. At least eight people have died in Texas and Louisiana, which followed at least 10 deaths across the Caribbean. In its path of destruction, Beryl cut off electricity supplies to large swathes of Texas and nearly 3 million people were without power earlier this week. An estimated 1.7 million of them still have not been reconnected. After Beryl’s destruction, tornadoes have been developing throughout the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and beyond. From Sunday 7 July to Wednesday 10 July, the National Weather Service issued 186 tornado warnings as Beryl, then a post-tropical storm, moved inland. Extreme heatwaves are also hitting several locations around the world. Las Vegas in Nevada recorded 48.8C (120F) on Sunday – an all-time record. The heat has been persistent too, and Las Vegas also recorded four consecutive days with temperatures about 46.1C (115F). Videos on social media show packets of crayons melting in the sun and marshmallows toasting in the conditions. Other countries including Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Greece have all experienced extreme heat. In Greece, maximum temperatures have been reaching 38-40C, about 6-8C above the seasonal average. This, paired with some strong winds, has led to a very high risks of wildfires which are already spreading across several regions of Greece, notably in Attica. Heat has begun to spread across to other nations in south-eastern Europe, including Romania, Serbia and Hungary, bringing temperatures of near 40C in places, and creating tropical nights with minimum temperatures of 20C. This heat has lasted throughout this week, and could continue into next week as well. | ['environment/series/weather-tracker', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/texas', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-07-12T05:00:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2022/jun/09/poverty-drought-impending-famine-now-pneumonia-takes-its-cruel-toll-on-honduran-children-acc | Fears for Honduran children as poverty worsens pneumonia’s toll | The last time Guadalupe Castellano, a health volunteer, saw Michael Padilla alive was in February, when he was two months old. His mother had brought him to her house in the village of Apausupo, in southern Honduras, to be weighed. Castellano looked at the baby and saw immediately that something was wrong. “He was underweight and pale. He wasn’t moving or even crying,” she says. “I asked what was wrong and [the mother] said he wasn’t breastfeeding, and he was ill. “I told her to take him to the health centre to see the doctor. I knew the mother wasn’t eating enough. They are very poor.” Four days later, mother and baby left the village to visit family. The boy was not seen by the doctor, and he died in March of pneumonia in hospital in the city of Choluteca. There are fears that the threat posed by pneumonia – already one of the leading causes of child death in Honduras – is growing. Child deaths caused by the disease are strongly linked to malnutrition, lack of safe water and sanitation, and inadequate access to healthcare. In the south of Honduras, damage to crops from unpredictable weather, the Covid pandemic, and now the war in Ukraine have created a worsening poverty crisis that provides a perfect setting for the disease to thrive. Honduras was already vulnerable. According to the World Bank, the Central American country is one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Data for the latest available year (2019) – before the double impact of Covid and hurricanes Eta and Iota – shows that 4.8 million people, almost half the population, live on less than $5.50 (£4.40) a day, the second-highest poverty rate in the region after Haiti. Levels of hunger are rapidly getting worse. According to the Central American Integration System (SICA), a regional intergovernmental body, 2.6 million Hondurans will experience crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity between now and August, up from 2.2 million at the beginning of the year. In the south, which lies within the “dry corridor” of Central America – through parts of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica – experts predict famine within months. Ramón Turcios, southern regional director for the Honduran agriculture ministry, says: “Hunger is definitely going to get worse. We can’t give a good prognosis. “In the south, there is a good chance there will be a famine, possibly in September,” he says. “I am very worried.” Turcios blames the change in government, which has temporarily halted any progress being made, as well as the climate crisis for the worsening drought and inconsistent rains that are wreaking havoc on the region and people’s lives. The south of Honduras is a mountainous area where many communities have no safe drinking water or opportunities for work. People here grow maize and beans to survive. Due to the weather, crops have been ruined year after year. Apausupo, where Padilla was born, has no water supply and lies five miles away from the nearest health service, in the town of Vado Ancho – a three-hour walk on an unpaved track in poor condition. According to Nahun García, mayor of Vado Ancho, which counts Apausupo within its borders, the number of families living in extreme poverty has tripled in the last five years. “We have 300 families who can’t afford to feed themselves. They are living on less than one dollar a day,” he says. “We need food. This is primordial.” In Vado Ancho, the World Food Programme is providing supplementary nutrition for children under two. Dr Jorge Medina, who works at the local health centre, says this has helped, but the outlook remains bleak. “I’m scared that, as a result of the drought, the situation will get worse and there will be more cases of pneumonia, especially in children under five,” he says. “We have a lot of problems with nutrition in some areas.” In Apausupo, Omar García, the uncle of baby Michael, who died at three months old, stands outside his house. His brother, who lives next door, has left the village to join his wife. “Neither me nor my brother has anything,” says Garcia. “We don’t have land to grow food, and work has dried up because there’s been no rain. This house is all I have. No one has anything round here. There are people dying of hunger.” The health volunteer, Castellano, who lives nearby, says: “If I could go back, I would follow up and make sure the mother took the baby to see a doctor. It pains me to see a child in this situation but I had nothing to offer. “I can’t see a way out of this poverty. I want everyone to have enough, but that’s not how it is.” Sign up for a different view with our Global Dispatch newsletter – a roundup of our top stories from around the world, recommended reads, and thoughts from our team on key development and human rights issues, delivered to your inbox every two weeks: | ['global-development/global-development', 'global-development/series/a-common-condition', 'society/children', 'society/poverty', 'world/honduras', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'global-development/malnutrition', 'global-development/food-security', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'environment/water', 'society/socialexclusion', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/sarah-johnson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-06-09T05:30:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2020/may/11/wifes-tights-dont-mark-the-bark | Wife’s tights don’t mark the bark | Brief letters | Thanks for featuring the cherry tree as the Tree of the week (11 May). The local farmer who advised us on the planting insisted that we tie the sapling to a stake using my wife’s tights rather than rope – as the tights would not mark the bark. Ten years after planting, the tights finally rotted away – and the bark of the tree is unmarked to this day. Ron Jeffries Ilford, London • How about a shout out for Sunday mornings on Radio 6 Music (Letters, 7 May): three hours of the irrepressible Radcliffe and Maconie (including the zany “crisps on the radio” some weeks) followed by three hours of the wonderful Cerys Matthews and her eclectic music mix. Brings a smile to the face in these difficult times. Ruth Lister Labour, House of Lords • The Norfolk Wildlife Trust may see in a robin’s song: “tone of introspection and understated tragedy” (Editorial, 8 May) – other interpretations are available. I was once walking up a lane in north Wales with my grandson when a robin began to sing. Three-year-old Joseph halted briefly, and with a puzzled smile, inquired of me: “What’s that dripping noise?” Peter Betts Liverpool • Quite a few words with double Us come to mind (Letters, 6 and 7 May). From the more familiar (continuum, vacuum) to the less so (menstruum, triduum, residuum, (caput) mortuum, Carduus) to the barely believable winner with two double-U pairs (muu-muu). There may be yet more. Jonathan Crowther Oxford • How many letters about double Us will it take to form a continuum? Ian Barker Caton, Lancashire | ['commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'environment/forests', 'environment/birds', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'media/bbc', 'music/cerys-matthews', 'culture/radio', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-11T17:05:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2010/sep/15/bradley-manning-campaign-michael-moore | Michael Moore campaigns to free Bradley Manning in war logs case | The Vietnam war whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and the film-maker Michael Moore have launched an international campaign to demand the release of Bradley Manning, the American soldier charged with passing classified material to WikiLeaks. Demonstrations are planned in the US, Canada and Australia over the next three days in support of Manning, an army intelligence analyst who is being held at a military prison in Virginia. The leaks include a cache of documents – published in the Guardian as the Afghan war logs – drawn from 76,000 pages of military records made public by WikiLeaks to challenge the US government's assertion that the fight against the Taliban is being won. WikiLeaks says it will release thousands more pages of similar documents soon. Manning, 23, is also accused of involvement in WikiLeaks' exposure of a video of a US helicopter attack on apparently unarmed Iraqis in a Baghdad street. Two Reuters employees were among those killed. Manning was arrested in May after apparently boasting in instant messages and emails to a high-profile former hacker, Adrian Lamo, that he passed on the video and documents. Lamo said he turned in the soldier out of concern for national security. Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon papers to the New York Times that laid bare the extent of US government duplicity in its claims to be winning the Vietnam war, said Manning was defending the constitution in revealing the truth about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Soldiers' sworn oath is to defend and support the constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our constitution," he said. Moore plans to broadcast the main protest event live on his website. He said the US military was being hypocritical in its attempts to discredit Manning and accuse WikiLeaks by asserting that making the secret documents public endangered the lives of Afghans collaborating with coalition forces. "To suggest that lives were put in danger by the release of the WikiLeaks documents is the most cynical of statements," Moore said. "Lives were put in danger the night we invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, an act that had nothing to do with what the Bradley Mannings of this country signed up for: to defend our people from attack. It was a war based on a complete lie and lives were not only put in danger, hundreds of thousands of them were exterminated. "For those who organised this massacre to point a finger at Bradley Manning is the ultimate example of Orwellian hypocrisy." Among others who have thrown their weight behind the campaign are a retired army colonel, Ann Wright, and a retired CIA analyst, Ray McGovern, who is described as having regularly prepared daily security briefings for former presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. The US protests are being held in 18 cities. The primary event, in California, is organised by Courage to Refuse, which describes itself as a coalition of soldiers and civilians who encourage resistance by members of the forces to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US defence department has established a team of intelligence analysts, FBI agents and others to combat WikiLeaks' threat to release tens of thousands more pages of documents. The Daily Beast has reported that the operation, known formally as the Information Review Task Force, is being run by Brigadier General Robert Carr of the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's equivalent of the CIA. Carr's principal assignment is to attempt to establish which documents WikiLeaks has and to limit the damage in Afghanistan as well as diplomatically. The Daily Beast says the team is also gathering evidence that might be used to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, on espionage or other charges. | ['us-news/chelsea-manning', 'world/the-war-logs', 'world/world', 'world/afghanistan', 'media/wikileaks', 'media/media', 'us-news/us-military', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/war-logs', 'type/article', 'profile/chrismcgreal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-09-15T11:38:16Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/belief/2011/feb/11/astrologers-david-mccandless-word-cloud-horoscope | Astrologers should look to the cloud, not the stars | Wendy M Grossman | In the first Foundation novel, the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov imagined an expert whose particular skill was applying symbolic logic to human speech and documents in order to boil their statements down to the barest and clearest essentials. Five days' worth of discussions with a particularly clever politician were, by this method, boiled down to absolutely nothing: everything he said cancelled itself out. Without, it has to be said, anyone's noticing in real time. Asimov was writing in 1951. Sixty years later we have a cruder, but simpler, automated method of achieving more or less the same thing, called the "word cloud". Essentially, a bit of software goes through any type of electronic text and creates a statistical analysis of the words that appear in it. The software then creates a visual display using font sizes and colours to show at a glance which words appear most frequently. Geeks love this kind of thing, not least because word clouds sometimes show us obsessions we didn't know we had. David McCandless, who specialises in visualising data, decided to apply this technique to the sun-sign horoscopes that appear on Yahoo! He and his team painstakingly scraped more than 22,000 horoscopes off the site, eliminated those targeted at specific groups (for example, teens) or types of questions (for example, career advice). The result, Horoscoped, is a set of word clouds for each of the 12 traditional star signs. The bottom line: note how, sign after sign, the same words dominate the landscape. Feel. Sure. Keep. Love. Of course, sceptics have long maintained that your average mass-media sun-sign horoscope is a collection of meaningless banalities, an assessment with which many "serious" astrologers – that is, astrologers who do personal charts incorporating planetary movements – say they agree. Basically, mass-media sun-sign astrology is to pop psychology what Muzak is to easy listening. What McCandless shows here is that it isn't just prejudice to characterise these horoscopes as a triumph of the blandly reassuring. Various experiments have shown this over the years. In one experiment, people were asked to pick their horoscope out of a basket of sun-sign predictions and failed. In another, the experimenters supplied birth data to several astrologers and sent the resulting horoscopes to subjects who supplied their own birth data – and who rated the accuracy of those horoscopes quite highly. In fact, of course, the birth information originally supplied to the astrologers was that of a notorious mass murderer. And so on. My favourite was the experiment in which three groups of people were told variously that they were reading: 1) a personality description generally true of most people; 2) the horoscope for their sun sign; 3) a personal horoscope drawn up just for them by an astrologer based on their birth date, time and place. The bottom line: the more personal people believed the passage to be, the more highly they rated its accuracy. In all cases they were given the same passage to read. But, of course, that only works as long as the horoscope contains nothing that might alienate the subject – which means that blandness and universal applicability are the keys to success. You win readers/subjects by giving them a sufficiently blank description that they can project themselves into it. And as long as you don't lose them by showing them anything they wouldn't like to think about themselves, you're golden. What McCandless has achieved is to winkle out the precise formula for becoming a successful astrologer. Feel. Love. Keep. Sure. | ['commentisfree/belief', 'technology/technology', 'technology/computing', 'artanddesign/design', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'technology/data-visualisation', 'type/article', 'profile/wendy-m-grossman'] | technology/data-visualisation | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-02-11T12:00:01Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2021/dec/15/australian-beef-linked-deforestation-post-brexit-trade-deal | Australian beef linked to deforestation could end up part of post-Brexit trade deal | UK consumers could be eating Australian beef linked to deforestation on the back of a new post-Brexit free trade deal signed in the summer, an investigation has found. Satellite analysis has identified an area of deforestation over the past three years that is more than twice the size of Manhattan across farms in Queensland, the largest beef-producing state in Australia. The deforestation includes the habitats of threatened species such as koalas, flying foxes, quolls, and several endangered species of bird and frog. “Millions of native animals, including Australia’s iconic koala are killed or left homeless when bulldozes destroy their habitat,” said Gemma Plesman, Queensland campaign manager for the Wilderness Society, who carried out the satellite analysis with Unearthed, the investigative arm of Greenpeace. . Australia is the only country in the developed world in WWF’s list of global deforestation hotspots. About 3% of the forest area in eastern Australia, which includes Queensland, was lost between 2004 and 2017. Under the terms of the trade deal signed this year, Australia’s beef producers will be given tariff-free access to the UK market. But campaigners argue that beef is the number one driver of the country’s deforestation crisis, and particularly in Queensland. The Queensland government introduced new laws aimed at curbing deforestation in 2018, yet the analysis says loopholes are allowing clearing to continue. The analysis found more than 13,500 hectares (33,359 acres) of deforestation across 57 properties, with more than half of the cleared area (56%) across 54 beef properties categorised as where habitats for threatened species are “likely to occur”. The loophole identified by Unearthed exempts vast tracts of hectares of forests that have previously been cleared even if they are over 15 years old and supposed to be classified as “high-value regrowth”. More than two-thirds of the deforestation identified in the analysis is forest or woodland mapped as exempt from all clearing restrictions despite being over 15 years old and having grown back to maturity. Regrowth forests can often be vital habitats for threatened species. A Queensland civil servant who has worked on the subject, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they “can represent a significant fraction of the remaining extent of endangered ecosystems”. Dr April Reside, a lecturer in wildlife science at the University of Queensland, said the level of clearing identified by the study was “really substantial”, adding that deforestation risked fragmenting and degrading species habitats, leaving them exposed to invasive species. Among the 82 species found to be losing habitat was the Southern black-throated finch, an endangered bird which was found to be losing 364 ha. Reside said: “That’s definitely something to be concerned about … they’ve already lost 88% of their original extent. So they’ve got a very small proportion of habitat left, and what they do have left is highly degraded and is not about finch conservation. And it’s still being cleared.” “There are ways of growing beef that don’t destroy the environment. Broad-scale land clearing is just lazy … you don’t have to clear habitats and drive species to extinction in order to get your food,” said Prof Brendan Wintle, a conservation ecologist at the University of Melbourne. The environment bill which became law last month tackles only deforestation in the supply chain that is illegal under local laws. “Nobody wants to be responsible for deforestation,” said Dustin Benton, policy director for thinktank Green Alliance. “If the rules can’t guarantee that, or we can’t even get a rider in the UK-Australia trade deal, then they simply don’t work.” The National Farmers’ Union said: “The NFU has been clear about its concerns over the agreement in principle with Australia, which could see increased imports of Australian goods, produced at much lower costs and at vast scales of production. There has also been no clarity about how the deal works in tandem with the UK’s environmental and climate ambitions. “We believe that the UK’s trade policy should champion the climate-friendly food we produce in this country, where we make the most of our maritime climate. Food produced in this way is a far cry from food produced in areas of deforestation or suffering from extreme drought.” A spokesperson for the Queensland Department of Resources said the 2018 laws provided greater protection to high-value remnant and regrowth vegetation and important habitats, including essential habitat for near-threatened wildlife. “Our responsible vegetation management laws continue protect our valuable environment, habitats and the Great Barrier Reef while allowing landholders to manage and grow farm operations that are fundamental to jobs and our economic recovery post-Covid.” Australia’s Red Meat Advisory Council, the Cattle Council of Australia, AgForce Queensland were all approached for comment. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “With our world-leading Environment Act now law, the UK is committed to go further than ever before to clamp down on illegal deforestation and protect forests. Following the COP26 summit, we will maintain the trajectory set by the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration and the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade Dialogue on halting and reversing forest loss and greening global supply chains.” | ['environment/deforestation', 'food/beef', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'uk/uk', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'food/food', 'world/world', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/farming', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'politics/politics', 'world/eu', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tom-levitt', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-12-15T07:00:09Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2007/oct/23/naturaldisasters.usa | California wildfires trigger state of emergency | Hundreds of thousands of people in California have fled their homes as fierce brush fires burn out of control and were predicted to worsen today. The California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency and said it was a "tragic time" for the state. At least 300,000 people had been told to leave San Diego county, where hundreds of homes have been destroyed. The state of emergency opens the way for federal government assistance. The US president, George Bush, today authorised the Federal Emergency Management Agency - the body heavily criticised for its response to Hurricane Katrina - to coordinate disaster relief in the seven worst affected counties. One firefighter described the scene as looking like a "nuclear winter". Conditions were expected to get worse, with temperatures of up to 38C expected in parts of southern California and desert winds of up to 70mph fanning the flames across the tinder-dry region. At least 1,000 homes have so far been destroyed and thousands more are under threat from the 14 major fires burning across the state. Neighbouring states including Nevada and Arizona are contributing crews and equipment, and the Pentagon is sending six water-dropping planes to help with the effort. At least one person has been killed in the fires. He was named by the Associated Press news agency as Thomas Varshock, 52, of Tecate, a town on the Mexican border south-east of San Diego. "Lifesaving is our priority. Getting people out from in front of the fire - those have been our priorities," Captain Don Camp, from the California department of forestry and fire protection, said. A pair of wildfires consumed 128 homes in the mountain resort area of Lake Arrowhead, in the San Bernardino national forest east of Los Angeles. "We're stretched very thin and we can't get any planes up," John Miller, a forest spokesman, said. State officials called in the National Guard. Air quality plummeted as winds of up to 90mph deposited ash and soot across the area. Low brown clouds darkened the skies on what would have been a clear, sunny day. Power lines brought down by the high winds were thought to be responsible for sparking the fires at the weekend, although fire officials blamed arsonists for some of the fiercest blazes, in Orange county, south of Los Angeles. Local television stations turned their schedules over to cover the fires, with helicopter shots showing lines of fire snaking across the canyons that reach inland from the Pacific Ocean. The flames stretched from the Mexican border to Santa Barbara county, almost 200 miles to the north. Some 16,200 hectares (40,000 acres) had been burned by yesterday morning, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and the closure of schools in several areas. In Malibu, where 1,500 residents were evacuated, a church was destroyed by fire - as was a mock turreted "Scottish" castle, an ornate local landmark that was on the market for $17m (£8.3m). The building's owner, Lilly Lawrence, the daughter of a former Iranian oil minister, took mementoes, including Elvis Presley's army fatigues, to safety. "My parents taught me not to allow my possessions to possess me," she told local TV. "So, that's the story. The house is a house." News pictures showed some of the rich and famous of Malibu, including the film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, dousing their homes with fire retardant. The fierce winds, which calmed overnight on Sunday but picked up yesterday morning, carried burning embers across the Pacific Coast highway towards the exclusive beachfront properties. "We're at the mercy of the wind," Malibu's mayor, Pamela Conley Ulich, told reporters on Sunday night. Firefighters yesterday estimated that the blaze was only 10% contained. The brush fires, fuelled by the Santa Ana desert winds, are an annual event in southern California. The Santa Anas carry warm air from the desert to the coast, drying out the land as they pass and spreading the fires. Despite recent rains, southern California, like all the western US, is experiencing a severe drought. "This was a conflagration that we knew was coming at some point," the Los Angeles county supervisor, Zev Yaroslavsky, told reporters. | ['world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'profile/danglaister', 'profile/fredattewill'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2007-10-23T16:49:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2021/oct/11/russia-and-nearby-states-are-origin-of-most-ransomware-says-uk-cyber-chief | Russia and neighbours are source of most ransomware, says UK cyber chief | Cybercriminals from Russia and neighbouring states are behind the majority of online extortion conducted against businesses and other organisations in Britain, according to the chief of the UK’s cybersecurity agency. Lindy Cameron, the chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said ransomware “presents the most immediate danger” of all cyber threats faced by the UK, in a speech to the Chatham House thinktank. “We – along with the NCA [National Crime Agency] – assess that cybercriminals based in Russia and neighbouring countries are responsible for most of the devastating ransomware attacks against UK targets,” Cameron said. Her remarks represent one of the firmest attempts yet by a British intelligence chief to pin the epidemic of internet extortion on Russia, which is accused of sheltering criminal hackers who seek to extract millions by seizing corporate data. In May this year the then foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, used more nuanced language when he said states like Russia ccould not “wave their hands” and say ransomware gangs operating from their territory had nothing to do with them. Since then the west has sought to ramp up the pressure on the Kremlin. Joe Biden twice raised the issue with Vladimir Putin over the summer and he hinted that the US would be prepared to attack computer servers belonging to the gangs if nothing was done. Hackney council in London was hit by a serious ransomware attack last October, affecting housing benefit and other council systems for months. The council is believed to have refused to pay the hacker’s ransom demands, but fixing systems could cost up to £10m. Cameron said ransomware was the most important immediate cyber risk to the UK, encompassing organisations “from FTSE 100 companies to schools; from critical national infrastructure to local councils,” and she warned that many still “have no incident response plans or ever test their cyber defences” against the threat. Hackers typically infiltrate key systems to encrypt or otherwise take control of critical data, and demand cash to restore full access. Cameron said their techniques were evolving. “In addition to shutting down an organisation’s ability to function, many now also threaten to publish exfiltrated data on the dark web.” Many business do pay ransoms, partly because they are covered by insurance. Travelex, a UK provider of foreign exchange services, paid $2.3m last year after hackers shut down its networks, although the company subsequently fell into administration. Cameron said paying ransoms “emboldens these criminal groups”, but it is not illegal to do so because many of the criminal gangs are not designated as proscribed groups. Britain’s extortion laws only prohibit the payment of ransoms to terrorists, and were drawn up largely in response to the threat of kidnapping. Experts say Russia, along with other former Soviet states outside the Baltic region, have chosen to turn a blind eye to the gangs’ activities as long as their efforts are aimed abroad – although one notorious gang called REvil did go offline in July after Biden’s complaints. Other groups are thought to have generated vast sums: one study estimated that the Wizard Spider or RYUK gang had made $150m. Russia remains the most serious cybersecurity threat, Cameron said, but China also presents significant issues. She said Beijing was a highly sophisticated actor and had shown “a proven interest in our commercial secrets” – having been previously accused of trying to steal vaccine research secrets, a claim it denies. But she said it was not certain what would happen next. “How China evolves in the next decade will probably be the biggest single driver of our future cybersecurity,” she said, arguing that the UK needed to “protect ourselves against Chinese practices that have an adverse effect on our own prosperity and security”. | ['technology/cybercrime', 'world/russia', 'technology/hacking', 'uk-news/national-crime-agency', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-sabbagh', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-10-11T16:28:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2022/jul/18/country-diary-the-simple-pleasures-of-picking-bilberries | Country diary: The simple pleasures of picking bilberries | I find there’s a trade to be had in picking bilberries. You can go for tall bushy stands, where the fruits are bigger and possibly sweeter, while your back is less strained by the labour. But finding all those glistening beads buried deep in the tea-like foliage (which was once, incidentally, plucked and dried to make a substitute beverage in the Hebrides) is very slow work. Another option is to go for scantier, low-standing shrubs where the fruits are more visible and abundant, but often of lower quality. Either way, bilberry picking seldom entails rapid progress. Another issue is the fruit itself. The tiny bell-like quality of each is strangely similar to the shape of the flowers appearing in April and May. One can seldom manipulate these near-weightless, 1cm spheres into your palm and then deposit them by the handful, as you can with blackberries. Nor can you position the bag and rake out with partly opened fingers the dangling clusters, as you can with blackcurrants. Bilberries are a delicate harvest. There are compensations. One is the lovely misty sheen on each one, which somehow makes the softer Scottish word – blaeberry – seem more appropriate. Another is the calls of birds as you work: meadow pipit families piping into the breeze, or that single bagpipe-like note of parent golden plovers, which is possibly the saddest small sound in all of Eurasia’s summer. A third pleasure is the purple stain spreading on your fingers, itself a kind of cartography of other fruit-picking memories. The occasions, 50 years ago, when we went bilberry picking with our mother, or when we picked Norfolk blackberries with our girls. But behind it all is that wonderful realisation that you are engaged with the true heavyweights of our world. I’m thinking of the insects and flower-bearing plants that make up most of the biomass and genetic diversity on Earth. Both are always implied in the business of fruit-making. Most satisfying is the reflection that for every one of the thousands of berries picked and the millions left behind, there was a contract between a bee and a bloom – and an indisputable exchange of life. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'food/fruit', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/summer', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'food/food', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/markcocker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-07-18T04:30:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2020/jul/10/nsw-government-says-renewable-energy-zone-in-new-england-could-power-35m-homes | NSW government says renewable energy zone in New England could power 3.5m homes | The New South Wales government aims to back renewable energy plants in the New England region with the capacity to power 3.5m homes, with the state’s environment minister saying enough will be built to replace most of the state’s coal-fired power stations earlier than scheduled. Matt Kean, the minister for energy and the environment, will on Friday announce a second renewable energy zone for the state, following a previously planned designated area in the state’s central west. He said the latest announcement – that the government would look to attract investors to build 8,000 megawatts of wind and solar in the New England region in the state’s north – was effectively “a huge, modern-day power station”. “This is a huge stimulus package. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for the environment and – guess what – we have to replace our existing generators anyway,” Kean told Guardian Australia. “By bringing that forward there are enormous economic benefits, enormous benefits for families because it will help lower electricity prices, and enormous benefits for the environment because it’s clean electricity.” The new renewable energy zone is more than double the size of the first zone announced in the state’s central west, which attracted interest from renewable energy investors with a combined capacity of 27 gigawatts and valued at $38bn – nine times the available capacity. Kean said the new zone would put the state on course for decarbonisation. The government has joined other states in setting a target for the state to reach net zero emissions by 2050 – consistent with what scientists say is necessary, but at odds with the Morrison government, which has resisted calls to adopt the goal. The government will promise $79m to be spent on planning and coordination of projects, transmission and storage. It said that was expected to generate $12.7bn in investment that would create 2,000 jobs in the construction phase and 1,300 ongoing positions. Kean said much of it would be in regional communities that were feeling the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The capacity we’re building in this renewable energy zone is enough to replace the majority of our remaining coal-fired power stations,” he said. “We know that our existing sources of electricity, existing generators, are coming to the end of their useful lives. The beauty of this project is it will have a huge stimulus impact on the economy ... Better still, it’s clean energy going into the system.” Reserve Bank research found commitments on new large-scale renewable energy projects fell about 50% last year after the national renewable energy target was filled and not replaced. It followed record levels of investment in 2017 and 2018. Investment in rooftop solar panels has continued to increase. Green Energy Markets, a consultancy and research firm, found Australia added a record 1,357MW of new rooftop solar photovoltaics in the first half of 2020, 40% higher than the same period in 2019. But spending on large-scale plants has increasingly been driven by state government policy. Kean said “what would be ideal is that we’d have a national approach to this”. But he said state governments had demonstrated they could design energy policy that met a state’s specific needs. For NSW, he said that was not about renewables alone, but building transmission and storage into the system before old facilities expired. The federal government last year also committed $1bn to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for transmission upgrades and energy storage projects. The NSW government also recently released a statement on coal exploration and mining that said the industry would generate regional jobs and royalties for decades to come, and supported the approval of Santos’ controversial $3.6bn Narrabri coal-seam gas development. But Kean said he was confident the state would surpass its target of a 35% cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 2005 levels by 2030, and could build a competitive advantage in a global, low-carbon economy. “Come 2030, when we will be living in a low-carbon economy, we will be well placed to be an energy and economic superpower,” he said. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'australia-news/series/the-green-recovery', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-07-09T17:30:18Z | true | ENERGY |
fashion/2023/apr/24/fashion-greenwashing-glossary-part-two-what-do-biodegradable-closed-loop-and-degrowth-really-mean | Fashion greenwashing glossary part two: what do ‘biodegradable’, ‘closed loop’ and ‘degrowth’ really mean? | The list of misleading environmental and sustainable descriptors used to market shirts, dresses, pants and T-shirts is unfortunately very long. Last week, experts decoded terms such as carbon neutral, circular, organic, regenerative, sustainable and zero waste. For the next instalment of our fashion greenwashing glossary, we examine some of the more technical terms used by the industry and what they actually mean in practice. Biodegradable The term “biodegradable” is often used to suggest a product will disintegrate into smaller pieces at the end of its life instead of clogging up landfills. While there have been some innovations around biodegradable synthetic fibres, generally speaking materials like polyester and nylon will take hundreds of years to break down. Meanwhile natural fibres such as cotton, linen, silk and hemp should decompose much faster, but the reality is not quite so simple. “While natural fibres in their raw unprocessed state will biodegrade, once they’ve been dyed and treated, blended with other fibres and manufactured into finished goods, that’s most often no longer the case,” the senior director of sustainability at Moose Knuckles, Tara St James, says. Additionally, natural fibres require certain conditions to biodegrade that might not exist in every landfill. According to the European sustainability editor for British Vogue, Dana Thomas, who also hosts The Green Dream podcast, “sometimes super high temperatures or moisture are needed to make something biodegrade”. And depending on what the fibres have been treated or dyed with, they might leave behind a toxic residue. Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Although there are tests that show how quickly natural fibres will break down when buried in the soil, Thomas says the term “biodegradable” is used too liberally. “For the moment, there are no requirements (except in France) on how long an item will take to disintegrate in order to label it biodegradable,” says Thomas. A better term to look out for is “compostable”, which is a much higher bar. When something can be composted it leaves behind nutrient-rich organic material that is good for the soil. “If it’s not made of 100% organic matter and hasn’t been certified by the Compostable Manufacturers Alliance or the Biodegradable Products Institute, it’s not compostable. And that’s that,” says Thomas. In good news, there is an Australian standard for compostable textiles in the works. Bioplastic This term is particularly confusing because it is used to describe two different things. Sometimes “bioplastics” describes plastics made with bio-based materials like corn starch and sugarcane (as opposed to fossil fuels). Sometimes it is also used to describe biodegradable plastics. But not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable and not all biodegradable plastics are bio-based. The founder of Sustainabelle Advisory Services, Christine Goulay, says the vague way the term is applied causes several problems. “Some products marketed as ‘bioplastics’ might only contain a partial or even small percentage of renewable inputs while the rest are still fossil fuel based,” she says. “So consumers mistakenly think that they are getting a non-plastic plastic, but they are actually not.” Another issue is that since renewable inputs do not equate to biodegradability, “that bioplastic could still be on your beach for thousands of years”. St James says these descriptions give consumers false hope that “they can throw the product in the trash and it will decompose” or that it is recyclable like PET, “which again isn’t always the case”. To make matters worse, “adding bioplastics to a recycling bin can taint the recycling stream”. Closed loop Like bioplastic, there are two ways “closed loop” is used in fashion. One refers to how chemicals are managed during manufacturing. The other refers to a circular system where garments and other materials are designed so they can be worn, repaired and recycled in a loop. When the term “closed loop” is used in relation to chemicals, “it refers to processes within the supply chain, and more specifically to the processing of materials where the chemicals are reclaimed for use … mostly this applies to viscose,” says St James. So rather than harmful chemicals being disposed in waterways, they are captured and injected back into the manufacturing process. Goulay says this narrow application of closed loop “kind of misses the point”. The shift to a circular or closed loop fashion industry needs a broader outlook that respects three core principles: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate materials and regenerate nature. She says it’s important that products marketed as closed loop are the result of systems that respect all three of these principles, not just the second one. Degrowth The term “degrowth” has been circulating recently in the fashion industry. Says Goulay: “It is focused on the idea that global economic growth as it currently exists in terms of resource extraction and use is incompatible with sustainable development.” Since it is being applied in a variety of contexts, it can be difficult to know what the word means in practice. Goulay says some brands use it “in a more limited way” to explain how they will continue to make more money without using more virgin resources. Or to describe other efforts that might be considered “responsible growth” like limiting overproduction. “Degrowth is an important topic for society to debate at a global level,” she says. “[But] more work needs to be done to clarify how people and entities are using this term.” | ['fashion/fashion', 'lifeandstyle/series/closet-clinic', 'lifeandstyle/australian-lifestyle', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'fashion/australia-fashion', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/lucianne-tonti', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-lifestyle'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-04-24T15:00:11Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/2016/may/09/solar-power-batteries-the-energy-transition-could-be-profound-and-theres-a-lot-to-lose-for-those-who-cant-keep-up | The energy transition could be profound – and there's a lot to lose for those who can't keep up | Change is coming to the energy landscape. A transition to a new energy economy is happening. In a country like Australia – awash with energy both under and above the ground – this transition could be rapid and profound. There is a lot to lose for those who can’t keep pace. Last month the government committed $1bn to the Clean Energy Innovation Fund. The fund will have “the primary purpose of earning income or a profitable return” on debt and equity extended to renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-emissions technologies. While many will argue the right way for that money to be used, investment like this is well timed. There are a number of converging technologies driving the transition. Their interaction will affect how we travel, how we live, the way our cities and houses are designed, our fuel supply and attitude to energy efficiency, and even how we interact. One of the maturing technologies is solar. Over the past five years, solar has become a big part of our energy world. The Australian energy market operator estimated last year that by 2023/24 the state of South Australia may, at times, have its entire electricity needs met by solar systems on mostly urban rooftops, without the aid of coal, gas or oil. Together with other renewables, photovoltaics are becoming increasingly competitive. Factoring in the cost of delivering energy through the grid, photovoltaic technology is probably the cheapest electricity supply option at the point of use right now. And it will continue to get cheaper. Another is energy storage. Improvements in battery technology and cost will help overcome the intermittency of renewable energy. Tesla’s push into the consumer mass market is just the beginning of a decade in which electric cars will become significantly more common and at the heart of each electric vehicle is a battery that can store enough electricity to serve the average Australian home for days. Our cars will act as mobile batteries that “plug in” to the home, allowing their energy to be used for household purposes. Batteries will also be installed in our homes, complementing our rooftop solar. Utilities will use them to optimise their grids. This new energy landscape will be more complex, requiring interaction between energy providers and users like never before. Controlling this will be the energy “internet”, a vast array of interconnected devices that will produce, store or use energy. These devices will communicate their energy deficits and surpluses and transport energy to where it is needed most, as well as allowing consumers to remotely control their devices to optimise energy usage. This capability will allow a range of new energy technologies and business models to emerge. Consumers will have more say in what energy they use and how, and by digitally understanding those needs suppliers will be able to optimise their services to align. Another technology reaching maturity is the “smart” energy grid. Despite the self-sufficiency potential of renewable energy, the grid will not become obsolete. Pole and wire infrastructure will allow users to upload and download energy to maximise cost effectiveness and reliability – like off-peak hot water is used now but much more complex. As energy utilisation is automised, unintentional consumption will fall. As with any fundamental disruption, there will be winners and losers. Foreseeing and harnessing the potential of the convergence won’t be easy for incumbents or new entrants. Significant investment will be required to develop and commercialise businesses and technology capable of harnessing the possibilities of convergence. But the potential pay-off for businesses that get it right will be huge. There will be other benefits as well. Until now, I have barely mentioned emissions. The energy transition is happening without reference to its environmental value. And yet, there are environment-related drivers. The final, published agreement from COP21, the climate change-related Conference of Parties 21 held in Paris last December, aims for essentially zero net emissions by 2050, the world over. Why are governments the world over suddenly willing to agree to such ambitious targets? The scientific consensus to act on climate has strengthened, for one. But pragmatic governments may also be seeing signs of tangible, real solutions emerging in energy markets. The timetable outlined in Paris for emissions reductions appears to align well with the published convergence of technologies – very roughly in the next 10 or so years. This, of course, could just be a coincidence but, if so, it is well timed. Decarbonisation of the global economy now has a route that is starting to make commercial sense. Coal, oil and gas will continue as primary energy supplies for some time and simply being more efficient with our energy use is the first way to reduce emissions. As technology converges, we won’t need to be convinced that we should consider the environment: we will be too busy focusing on the economic benefits. Paul Ebert is the global director, new energy at Advisian and co-author of The New Energy Future: the global transition | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/innovations-in-renewables', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-gsb'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2016-05-09T02:11:35Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2011/apr/04/open-door-explaining-fukushima-crisis | Open door: Explaining the Fukushima crisis | The still-unfolding tragedy of Japan may be told simply through the statistics of death and destruction. However, the scientific complexity underlying the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is much harder to report. There are many kinds of radiation and more than one view as to the short- and long-term effects of exposure. Trying to explain in a clear, accurate fashion what is happening to the plant's damaged reactors and the workers struggling to bring the plant under control is not helped by occasionally contradictory pronouncements from the management of Tepco, which operates Fukushima (at one point Tepco officials said radioactivity levels in one part of the plant were "10 million times higher than normal", then retracted this statement within 24 hours). One of the key issues confusing some readers is the way levels of radiation were compared. Early on in the crisis we compared a rate of dose as being "equivalent" to an amount of dose, which one reader said was not a like-for-like comparison and therefore meaningless. It was the subject of a long clarification on 31 March. Another problem area for the use of the word "equivalent" is in saying such-and-such a dose of radiation in an hour is "equivalent" to, for instance, twice the natural background radiation in a year. It is accurate to talk about equivalent amounts of radiation, but journalists are on dangerous ground if we make out they have equivalent health risks. The Guardian's science correspondent puts the point this way: "You can think of it like exposure to the sun's rays. I could move somewhere and get twice as much sunshine in a year, but if I received all that sun in one hour, I would be toast. Because one hour in very intense sunlight will do me more harm than the same amount of sunlight evened out over the year." A useful briefing note for journalists has been produced by the Science Media Centre of Canada. The biological effect of radiation in the human body, called the dose equivalent, is measured in a unit called a sievert (Sv): "The basic idea of this unit is to approximate the degree of damage to the cells of our bodies, proportional to the number of ionising particles that pass through them. The nuclear incidents in Japan are reporting dosages using sieverts as the unit. Most doses that humans are exposed to are smaller than one sievert – they are in the range of millisieverts (thousandths (0.001) of a sievert, or mSv), or even microsieverts (thousandths of a millisievert, or 0.000001 Sv). "Often, exposures are described by millisieverts per year, as that's the scale of background exposures … According to the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the average person receives about 2.4 mSv (0.0024 Sv) of radiation a year through background sources such as cosmic rays, soils, and food. In addition, the average person receives about 1 mSv/year from medical X-rays. This can vary widely depending on where you live." One reader wrote to point out that one article published on 29 March states that "One of the plant's three reactors contains plutonium in its fuel mix", while in fact, due to the nature of fission reactors, all of the reactors contain some plutonium. Of the three damaged reactors at Fukushima, only reactor three has plutonium in its fresh fuel, but the reader is right in the general sense. According to our science correspondent: Plutonium-239 cannot be made from the fissioning, or splitting, of uranium-235. In the Fukushima reactors, plutonium-239 is a by-product of nuclear fission, and occurs when uranium-238 in the fuel absorbs neutrons. This means that all three reactors then contain plutonium at small levels. All of the spent fuel rods kept in the storage pools at each reactor will also contain some plutonium[see footnote]. Another reader pointed out – correctly – that a reference in a story published on 27 March to iodine-134, which has a half life of 53 minutes, must be wrong: "A fission product with a half-life of less than an hour couldn't still be around over two weeks after the reactor was shut down. That's 400 half-lives, meaning that every single atom of it should have decayed by now." The Fukushima crisis means that for months to come the Guardian will be reporting on the nuclear debate in even more detail than hitherto. The challenge will be one of explanation as much as disclosure. • This article was amended on 4 April 2011. The original said that "some of the uranium in the fuel rods will fission into plutonium". This has been corrected. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'commentisfree/series/open-door', 'media/theguardian', 'media/national-newspapers', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'media/newspapers', 'media/media', 'tone/comment', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/japan', 'world/world', 'science/science', 'science/physics', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/article', 'profile/chris-elliott', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-04-04T07:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/mar/24/blossom-falls-80-of-small-orchards-in-england-and-wales-lost-since-1900 | Blossom falls: 80% of small orchards in England and Wales lost since 1900 | A century ago, small orchards were the glory not only of the countryside but of towns and cities across the UK, buzzing with life during the summer and, at this time of year, rich with the sight and scent of blossom. But research released as this spring’s blossom sweeps across the UK has found there are 80% fewer small “traditional” orchards, which are regarded as particularly important for flora and fauna, in England and Wales compared with in 1900. Even taking into account large commercial concerns, which are not as ecologically rich, the two countries have lost more than half of all orchard space since then. According to a report from the National Trust, the south-west of England is one of the regions hardest hit, with the area of orchards that have vanished equating to almost twice the size of the city of Bristol. There have been dramatic losses in the north of England, where declines of about 80% have been found. As cities and towns have expanded, they have lost most of their orchards, with London having only 3% left and Cheltenham in Gloucestershire 1%. In urban areas, orchards have mostly been lost to housing and other types of development, while in the countryside they have been uprooted to create more farmland, the report says. Kent is the English county that has the highest total coverage today but this is because of the number of large commercial orchards rather than the speckling of traditional, more nature-filled ones. The decline along the English and Welsh border has been less steep than in other regions. Tom Dommett, the head of historic environment at the National Trust, said that for centuries orchards were a defining feature of neighbourhoods, part of the fabric of everyday life. He said: “Their loss affects local culture, how we all experience landscapes, and it means fewer opportunities for people to enjoy the beauty and spectacle of blossom.” Traditional orchards are defined as sites with at least five trees managed in a low-intensity way, the floor grazed or mowed with little or no chemical input. Dommett continued: “The loss of traditional orchards is also nature’s loss; these orchards can be great places for wildlife like flies and bees, with the gnarled trunks and branches creating the perfect home for rare species.” The first Covid lockdown two years ago prompted the conservation charity to launch its first “blossom watch” campaign, encouraging people to look out for and share images of blossom. It is stepping up its drive this year, trying to inspire a British version of the Japanese blossom celebration, hanami. But it has also undertaken in-depth research to find out how many orchards are left. The trust used a firm specialising in artificial intelligence to compare orchards in England and Wales marked on Ordnance Survey maps from the turn of the 20th century with modern OS maps, data from People’s Trust for Endangered Species and Natural England. The National Trust has committed to planting 4m blossom trees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2030 and to set up more traditional orchards on its land. John Deakin, the head of trees and woodland at the trust, said: “Traditional orchards and the blossom they bring creates valuable early nectar sources for insects which are often foraging for scarce resources in the early spring. “These native, historic varieties, together with other trees like blackthorn and hawthorn which also have amazing spring blossom, mature at a faster rate than other larger native species such as oak. They provide an important bridge for insects that rely on their particular ecosystems which is one of the reasons why planting more blossom trees is such a vital part of our ambitions.” One of the projects being launched this year is a scheme to bring more orchard trees into Birmingham, once known as a city “ringed with blossom”. In Birmingham in 1900 there were 186 hectares (460 acres) of orchards, compared with 29 today. As part of the Birmingham 2022 festival, a six-month celebration of creativity around the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the trust is creating two pop-up blossom gardens in the city centre and is to recreate a symbolic ring of new trees around Birmingham planted on the 27-mile No 11 outer circle bus route. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/forests', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'environment/insects', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-03-24T06:00:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2018/jan/31/world-weatherwatch-paris-floods-east-asia-snow-winter | World weatherwatch: Paris hit by floods and east Asia by snow | Flooding has struck the City of Light, Paris, for the second time in two years as the Seine burst its banks. The floods follow the weeks of heavy and frequent rainfall that have affected much of France, prompting river levels to reach approximately 6m (19ft 8in), against a normal level of 2m (6ft 6in). Subway stations, as well as the Louvre’s lower level, have all been closed. Extremely cold conditions have been affecting eastern parts of Asia in the past few days, especially China, South Korea and Japan. Temperatures in Japan dropped by more than 10 degrees below the average for this time of year in places, reaching -4C (24.8F) in Tokyo on Thursday 25 January, which is the coldest temperature recorded in the past 48 years. The cold, with heavy snowstorms, caused disruptions for both trains and flights. Following rain and high levels of dust due to strong southerly winds last week, the island of Cyprus has been treated to a taste of winter. Cold north-easterly winds on 25 January brought heavy snow over the mountains, where up to 16in (40cm) was reported. This led to some roads being closed to traffic. | ['news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/world', 'environment/flooding', 'world/snow', 'weather/paris', 'world/paris', 'weather/southkorea', 'weather/japan', 'weather/cyprus', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-01-31T21:30:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2014/feb/06/eric-pickles-uk-flood-crisis | Eric Pickles steps forward to turn the tide on UK's flood crisis | There came a time – and it was not the first – that in the grip of despair the British people looked for a leader. He could not be one of the normal leaders, for they had been found wanting. It would need to be one who stood firm and stood alone. On Thursday, thrust into that position, the communities secretary Eric Pickles stepped forward to take charge of Britain's effort to beat back the floods and recover from the onslaught. Churchill in sou'wester and knee-high wellingtons. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It was as though destiny had decreed it. Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, had been marshalling the forces, but there is more or less consensus that the task has been beyond him. He might have been relieved of his starring role, but nature took a hand and he entered hospital with a detached retina. The government had to think of something else. David Cameron said he was taking the reins, but with Cobra meeting endlessly someone was needed for day-to-day responsibility. That someone is Pickles. The call found him ready to serve. He told the house that things had been bad – the "wettest January since George III was on the throne" – but that they would get better, starting next week. He spoke slowly, heaping gravitas on an already grave situation. We learned great truths. "One of the defining characteristics of Britain is weather," said the secretary of state. He praised the "brave resilience" of communities and the emergency services, "literally going through hell and high water". And he promised that the government would help them. Another £30m for emergency repairs and maintenance and more help for local councils under the Bellwin scheme. Severe in black suit, dark tie florally patterned in the style of a cinema carpet, Pickles sometimes hesitated. Sometimes he seemed about to lose his thread. Sometimes he brought to mind Gore Vidal's description of George Bush reading keynote speeches with "a wonderful sense of surprise". But he did exude a certain authority. And he was Pickles as we know him: relentlessly partisan, always crossing the road to join the fisticuffs. To howls of protest, he blamed Labour for running down flood defences. They jeered and accused him of fiddling figures and he complained to deputy speaker Doug Hoyle that he was being "bullied". Hoyle seemed marginally concerned. Unduly so, said Pickles. "For the avoidance of doubt, I was using the term ironically," he said. Indeed he was, for suddenly there was menace. "When the dark skies clear, there will be lessons to be learned," growled Pickles. For councils and for quangos. Quangos know what that means. "We can't control the weather," he said. "But we can and will provide the security that hardworking families deserve to get on with their daily lives." As for the shirkers? Iain Duncan Smith can point them out. One assumes they'll be left to drown. While creditably alive to the suffering of storm-lashed communities, MPs also grappled with problems closer to home. What to do about the mice? They seem to have the run of the place in Norman Shaw South. Parliament will not be bowed. We are sealing gaps and fitting rodent repelling "bristle straps" to office doors, said John Thurso – 3rd Viscount Thurso – spokesman for the Commons commission. But ask not what the House can do for you; ask what you can do for the House. Don't leave sandwiches on your desks. Labour's Diana Johnson thought this laissez-faire; for extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions. With "mutant super rats" taking over the Commons and preventative measures costing £6,000 a month, "surely the traditional use of cats would be more effective and cheaper". Thurso, as whiskery and wise a mouser as ever there was, agreed. He has a "perfectly vicious cat keeping the rat population down" in Caithness. But what of those members with allergies? Anne McIntosh urged deployment of a "rescue cat" from a shelter. Poor Anne; everyone feels for her following that brutal deselection by Tories in Thirsk and Malton. "I fear I might be allergic to mice and rats of the two and four-legged variety," she said. And a sympathetic House understood. | ['politics/series/the-politics-sketch', 'politics/eric-pickles', 'politics/politics', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'politics/owen-paterson', 'politics/houseofcommons', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/hughmuir', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-06T19:29:58Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2022/dec/23/max-porter-2000-year-old-small-leaved-lime-coppice-peace-sacred | In an ancient forest, I look for peace – but instead I find Happy the puppy | Max Porter | This is me trying to have a sacred encounter with the 2,000-year-old small-leaved lime coppice at Westonbirt Arboretum. Because of my terrible hunched posture I’m always looking for an opportunity to lie down and alleviate the pain in my back. Because of my great love of trees I am always looking for an opportunity to lie down in a woodland. And because we lost a beloved cousin tragically young this summer, I was also looking for opportunities to be quiet and think of him and have a little cry. This was my moment. We recently welcomed a puppy to our family, and he has taken a special liking to me because I’m the person who walks him and feeds him; I’m not really a dog person, so he’s made it his personal mission to convert me. I guess it’s working, I love him in a sort of gently revelatory, deeply trying, must-learn-to-be-patient way. He joined me in the ancient green cavern, whining. I don’t like to have my face licked when I’m having a reflective moment. His name is Happy, so if you were passing the lime coppice you would have heard me saying, “No Happy. Fuck’s sake, Happy. Happy, please leave me alone for two seconds.” This photograph shows the moment my youngest son came into the coppice to try to coax him out. Happy is so baffled. I suppose he’s wondering why I’m on the ground. I am wearing Vivobarefoot shoes and white socks, a deadly sexy look I think you’ll agree, and my wife and other sons are calling, “HAPPY, HAPPY” and one of them is reading me the sign about the 20-year coppicing cycle and the blend of traditional and modern forestry techniques, and one of them is asking when precisely I pre-ordered Fifa 23 and when might it arrive, and I can feel that the water bottle is leaking in my rucksack so my makeshift pillow is becoming wet and the light is so extraordinarily beautiful coming through the neon green of the lime leaves. It is pretty humbling that this same thing has been living here in this spot for two millennia and humans have collaborated with it to help it adapt and survive, so I get my phone out to take a picture, but my phone is full of thousands of pictures of trees, and the better photo is my son, patiently imploring Happy to leave me alone, leave me be, let me have my two minutes alone, so I take this photo and then another son comes in and asks me to join in the argument about whether they can have fizzy drinks at the cafe, and I like the idea that this tree has overheard 2,000 years of very mundane human chat and it reminds me of Amitav Ghosh’s observation that “on a different timescale it might appear evident that trees are gardening humans”. Then the dog and a child help me up, and on we go. Max Porter’s new novel, Shy, is out next year | ['commentisfree/series/snapshot-of-2022', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'society/mental-health', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/max-porter', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-12-23T12:00:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/green-living-blog/2010/nov/12/carbon-footprint-spending-pound | What's the carbon footprint of ... spending a pound? | The carbon footprint of spending a pound: –330kg CO2e on a well executed rainforest preservation project –3kg CO2e on solar panels 160g CO2e on financial, legal or professional advice 720g CO2e on a new car 930g CO2e on a typical supermarket trolley of food 1.7kg CO2e on petrol for your car 4.6kg CO2e on flights 6kg CO2e on your electricity bill 10kg CO2e (or more) on budget flights Unless you deliberately invest in something that reduces emissions elsewhere, it is just about impossible to spend money without increasing your carbon footprint. Every transaction causes ripples of economic activity and emissions – though depending on how you spend you cash, the impact will vary widely. With wealth, therefore, comes carbon responsibility. If most your money goes on travel or home energy, that puts you at the most carbon-intensive end of the scale. If you invest your cash it in forests and windfarms you are at the opposite extreme, using your wealth to bring about a lower-carbon world. If you stick it under the mattress, it is doing neither harm nor good. Seen in this way, luxury items can sometimes look greener than lower-quality versions – not just because they're likely to last longer, but because they will typically have a lower carbon footprint relative to their price. Buying a designer shirt, for example, may not seem like a particularly green thing to do. But if you have a limited amount of money to spend, buying one high-quality shirt is likely to generate less carbon than buying three budget shirts. On the other hand, the more profit being made on the thing you're buying, the more you are simply "passing on" your carbon responsibility to the person or company you are buying from. At the extreme end of the scale, buying a painting from an artist for £10m is an extremely low-carbon way to spend money – until you ask what the artist in turn will do with that fortune. Of the specific examples given above, flying is a super-high-impact way of spending cash for two reasons. First, the aviation industry can buy its fuel for around 30p per litre. Second, it then burns it at an altitude where it has, as a best estimate, nearly twice the climate change impact that it would have at ground level. So spending money on jet engine fuel is six times as carbon intensive as spending the same money on petrol and putting a match to it. Leaving the lights on is another of the cheapest ways of trashing the planet, suggesting that for all the talk of higher fuel prices we are a long way from establishing a serious financial incentive to go green. The petrol figure is based on a true cost of 40p per mile for an average petrol car and takes account of the extraction, shipping and refining of the fuel (but not the depreciation or maintenance of the car, as you pay for that separately). At the top of the list are two of the fairly limited number of options for actually doing carbon-friendly things with money. As the figures show, these options range enormously in their effectiveness – which is something not all policy makers seem to have fully grasped. See more carbon footprints. • This article draws on text from How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee | ['environment/series/the-carbon-footprint-of-everything', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/blog', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'profile/mike-berners-lee', 'profile/duncanclark'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2010-11-12T15:11:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2023/sep/21/europes-politicians-have-moral-responsibility-to-tackle-air-pollution-says-who-environment-director | Europe’s politicians have moral responsibility to tackle air pollution, says WHO environment director | Politicians across Europe have a moral responsibility to urgently tackle the continent’s dangerously polluted air, according to Maria Neira, the director of the World Health Organization’s department of environment, climate change and health. On Wednesday a Guardian investigation revealed that Europe is facing a severe public health crisis, with almost everyone on the continent living in areas with dangerous levels of air pollution. It found that 98% of people live in areas that exceed WHO guidelines for PM2.5 – tiny particulates that are linked to 400,000 deaths a year. Almost two-thirds of people live with pollution that is twice the WHO standard. Neira said politicians must act swiftly to reduce the scale and severity of pollution. “As a medical doctor, I cannot resist the temptation to remind people that this is about strokes, this is about heart disease, this is about asthma, this is about lung cancer, diabetes, low birth weight, preterm births, cognitive decline,” she said. “We need to remind people that any time you breathe, you are breathing something toxic into your body which is having a devastating impact.” She said it would not be acceptable for 98% of Europeans to be supplied with dangerously polluted water, and the same should be true for the air they breathe. “People say our guidelines are very strict and very ambitious. But I don’t see ambition in proposing something that will make so many people less sick … Having the knowledge we have [on the health impacts of air pollution] I think there is a clear and absolute moral responsibility.” Last week the European parliament voted to adopt the WHO guidelines on PM2.5, but not until 2035. Neira welcomed the vote, but added: “We strongly urge countries to act swiftly, recognising that any shift in air quality levels will have a direct impact on public health, climate and the environment. Delaying these crucial measures will have severe and immediate consequences for people’s wellbeing and the planet.” The Guardian investigation found that the worst-hit country in Europe is North Macedonia, where almost two-thirds of people live in areas with more than four times the WHO guideline levels of PM2.5. Eastern Europe is significantly worse than western Europe, apart from Italy, where more than a third of people living in the Po valley and surrounding areas breathe air that is four times more polluted than the WHO guideline levels. Javi López, a Spanish MEP with the centre-left group that led a recent push in the European parliament to adopt the WHO guidelines, said the Guardian investigation was “proof that pollution is a visible pandemic in Europe”. He said: “A discussion about not only health, but a discussion about inequalities across Europe – between member states, but also social discussion between areas and classes – should be a top priority for administrations.” In the UK, three-quarters of the population live in areas where exposure to PM2.5 is between one and two times the WHO guidance. On Wednesday the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced he was watering down a swathe of environmental protections, including a plan to ban petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has overseen the expansion of an ultra-low emission zone to cover the entire capital in an effort to improve air quality, said it was exactly the wrong time to row back on climate policies. “We are in a climate emergency, and this important investigation starkly highlights the scale and severity of air pollution across Europe,” he said. “Toxic air is linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths a year, which is why I am rolling out some of the most ambitious policies of any city in the world to clean up London’s air and tackle climate change.” He said the deadly impacts of pollution and climate change were becoming more and more apparent. “That is why we must act urgently, and why the government’s moves to row back on environment measures flies in the face of common sense and shows they are climate delayers,” Khan said. | ['world/europe-news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world-health-organization', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'profile/pamela-duncan', 'profile/ajit-niranjan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-data'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-09-21T09:00:46Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk-news/2020/feb/18/wales-braced-for-more-heavy-rain-after-devastating-floods-storm-ellen | Wales braces for more heavy rain after devastating floods | Parts of Wales that have been hit by the worst floods in a generation are preparing for further rain in the next 48 hours, as more than 450 flood warnings and alerts remain in place across the UK. Heavy rain is forecast in parts of north and south Wales from Wednesday evening, hampering the round-the-clock cleanup operation launched after Storm Dennis. Alex Davies-Jones, the Welsh Labour MP for Pontypridd, said stricken communities were refilling sandbags and repairing flood gates in anticipation of Storm Ellen. “Homes have been completely destroyed, even those with flood gates,” she said, adding that 600 people had been forced to evacuate their homes and more than 1,000 properties were badly damaged. “It’s absolutely tragic. Heartbreaking.” Nine severe flood warnings – meaning a danger to life – remained in place in England (seven) and Wales (two) on Tuesday morning, along with more than 450 warnings and alerts stretching vast areas of the UK. Six people are thought to have died in the flooding. The sixth was named on Monday night as Yvonne Booth, 55, from Birmingham, who was swept into flood water near Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire on Sunday. Her family said they were “devastated” and “appreciate the continued support from the emergency services”. Residents of Uckinghall and Upton upon Severn, in Worcestershire, were being advised to evacuate on Monday night as water levels were expected to rise. Towns including Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, Bewdley, in Worcestershire and Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire, were identified as being the government’s greatest concern after the River Severn burst its banks. “Our absolute priority is keeping people safe and as such we are asking the community in the affected areas to make alternative arrangements to stay with family and friends or to head to the rescue centre, where provisions are in place,” said Ch Supt Tom Harding, of West Mercia police. More torrential rain of the sort that had swelled rivers to “exceptional” levels was forecast to fall in the north of England later this week, the Environment Agency said. David Throup, the EA’s West Midlands environment manager, said water levels in the town of Hereford, where residents were evacuated by boat, were “truly exceptional”. “They are the highest levels we’ve ever recorded on the River Wye and those records go back 200 years,” he told Sky News. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/wales', 'uk/uk', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'campaign/callout/callout-flooding-aftermath', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-02-18T08:47:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2017/nov/24/further-work-agreed-on-energy-guarantee-despite-resistant-states | South Australia and ACT outvoted on national energy guarantee | The government has secured agreement for further work to be carried out on the national energy guarantee despite resistance from South Australia and the ACT. As flagged by Guardian Australia on Thursday, some of the Labor states wanted a detailed comparison with alternatives such as the chief scientist’s clean energy target and an emissions intensity trading scheme. But at a meeting of energy ministers in Hobart on Friday the commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania said further work should be undertaken without the side-by-side comparisons. Jay Weatherill’s South Australian government and the ACT wanted the direct comparisons, but were outvoted. Queensland was not present at Friday’s meeting because the state is in caretaker mode ahead of Saturday’s state election. Western Australia and the Northern Territory were not represented as they are not part of the national electricity market. The Turnbull government’s proposed national energy guarantee, unveiled last month, would impose new reliability and emissions reduction guarantees on energy retailers and large energy users from 2020. A review of the national electricity market by Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, recommended a clean energy target for the electricity sector – but that recommendation was dumped by the government largely because of opposition within the Coalition. Friday’s meeting agreed that the Energy Security Board would undertake work on the national energy guarantee only as directed by the energy ministers’ council within the Council of Australian Governments, with the detail of the scheme to be considered next April. The meeting considering the nuts and bolts of the guarantee will therefore happen after the state election in South Australia, which is due in March. The Weatherill government has led the resistance to the guarantee on the basis the policy is not sufficiently friendly to renewables. After Friday’s meeting, the South Australian energy minister, Tom Koutsantonis, told reporters that he and the ACT’s energy minister, Shane Rattenbury, had simply sought proof the national energy guarantee was the best policy option. “We sought proof ... and they refused,” Koutsantonis said. He said the government’s refusal to benchmark the policy against viable alternatives indicated there was something to hide. “Why are we choosing the third best option?” Koutsantonis said South Australia and the ACT would proceed with their own modelling providing the direct comparison sought at the meeting. Rattenbury said he was frustrated by the commonwealth’s position. “It is clear that the jurisdictions are lining up to push the national energy guarantee through, and we will need to work hard to make sure that the rules are designed in a way that does not freeze out renewables, and does not lock in coal. “We need to make sure that does not happen.” Koutsantonis said there was a schism in the energy council between coal states and states that wanted “to move forward with a real solution”. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'global/council-of-australian-governments', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/south-australia', 'travel/australian-capital-territory', 'australia-news/jay-weatherill', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-11-24T02:12:35Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/poverty-matters/2011/may/11/curbing-proliferation-of-ngos-in-crisis | How can we curb the proliferation of NGOs in a crisis? | Madeleine Bunting | Imagine there is a disaster in a developing country. Communications are down, food is running out, there is no clean water, millions are homeless and hungry. And the planes that do get through are full of well-meaning NGOs with their pockets full of cash. The UN agencies struggle to cope, and spend as much time sorting out the hundreds – even thousands – of NGOs as they do trying to help the disaster stricken. Of course this is not an imaginary scenario, it is precisely what happened after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and in Haiti in 2010. On Tuesday, government ministers, NGOs and journalists sat down at the House of Commons to discuss what can be done about that during an event arranged by the Ditchley Foundation. The conversation was triggered by Ed Stourton's excellent Radio 4 programme in January, Haiti and the truth about NGOs, which questioned what had happened there and talked of an identity crisis in aid agencies over their roles and effectiveness. Stourton's programme prompted a thoughtful conversation on the blogosphere and I blogged briefly on it. Oxfam's executive director, Barbara Stocking, offered a passionate defence at the time and again yesterday. But even she admitted that something had to be done to curb the proliferation of NGOs. The proposal on the table is a certification system. But would this just be a club for the big NGOs to squeeze out the small, local or most innovative? Who gets to check the certification process – that in the midst of a disaster, "is your paperwork in order"? Who inspects to make sure that the NGO is delivering what it claims it does. The problems are legion, as everyone in the room agreed. Alan Duncan, the minister at the Department for International Development, was pretty clear that it was up to the NGOs to work out how such a certification system should work. As one speaker pointed out, after every disaster there is a renewed attempt to sort out the chaos of the burgeoning international NGO sector. DIY aid is a huge trend created by the massive media engagement in a disaster; everyone watches the pictures on television and the global good will pours out – incoherent, passionate and convinced it can make a difference. After the 2004 tsunami, the "cluster system" was born in which NGOs worked together, chaired by the UN, on particular problems such as water or education. But another speaker pointed out that the cluster system becomes unwieldy: 200 people in a shack at the airport who can't speak the same language and then it starts raining so they can't even hear each other. Chaos. The central issue is that it's the state structure of a stricken country that has to regulate NGO activity, and the whole point about a disaster is that it often overwhelms the capacities of states in poor countries. Haiti was a terrible example of a weak state that was itself smashed in the earthquake. A more positive example, said Stocking, was Bangladesh where a strong network of community organisations has grasped disaster preparedness, and put in place measures that have hugely reduced the loss of life from cyclones since the 1990s. The model has been copied in many other countries prone to flooding, providing a low-cost, community-owned template of what Lord Ashdown's recent report on humanitarian emergency aid called "resilience". Stocking talks of building up local NGOs as the front line in a disaster; in Aceh, Indonesia, Oxfam works entirely through such local groups. There were plenty of interesting and useful ideas at the table, but many people were aware that they were unlikely entirely to solve the problem. Disasters prompt an intensification of the close symbiotic relationship between the media and NGOs. The media pour in to cover the disaster and that brings the money the NGOs want. And it brings many more NGOs. The NGOs want the media and the media rely heavily on the NGOs to get the stories. Often this relationship can dangerously distort the relief effort, as Linda Polman has described in her book War Games. Stourton's programme was unusual in lifting the lid on this closeness, and he ended his comments yesterday by saying that everything that had been so criticised in his programme is routinely discussed in the "staff canteens of most NGOs". But they don't like the issues aired in public for fear that it would tarnish their public image. There's an odd paradox of NGOs as a very self-critical, yet thin-skinned, industry. Meanwhile, there is a strange lack of curiosity among journalists and their publics in the kinds of compromises that NGOs have to make; it's as if the public wants/needs goodies. While domestic politics is an endless diet of scandal and ineptitude, what's wanted from aid agencies is a very simple Comic Relief account of the good their donations do abroad. I often wonder how long this kind of NGO brand magic can last – when might the worm turn? And if NGOs were put under a rigorous spotlight, how well they would fare? | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'tone/blog', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/haiti', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'global-development/aid', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/madeleinebunting'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-05-11T16:00:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2013/sep/29/sunpower-programme-climate-change | British plan to avert climate disaster using sun power | Two of Britain's leading scientists have urged the setting up of a world Sunpower Programme to deliver solar electricity that is cheaper than fossil fuel power by 2025. All countries should be invited to participate, says Sir David King, a former government chief scientific adviser, and the economist Lord Richard Layard in an article in the Observer. The programme's target would be the development of techniques that see solar electricity generate at least 10% of the world's total energy supply by 2025, and 25% by 2030. King and Layard's proposal has been put forward in the wake of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on the likely impact of climate change, triggered by rising carbon emissions. The world desperately needs to wean itself off its fossil fuel habits and find fresh, renewable methods for generating electricity. Nuclear power and wind energy have potential but face political problems. By contrast, solar energy holds vast promise, they say. "The sun sends energy to the earth equal to about 5,000 times our total energy needs. It is inconceivable that we cannot collect enough of this energy for our needs, at a reasonable cost." They acknowledge that a number of scientific breakthroughs will be needed to make cheap solar energy a global prospect. In particular, scientists will have to find ways to reduce the cost of transmitting electricity from areas of high luminosity and low land value to the major population centres of the world. This will require new materials that are much better at conducting electricity, without loss of power, than present methods. This would be a major aim of the new solar energy programme. The proposal to set up the Sunpower Programme comes as campaigners, politicians and business leaders have called for "immediate action" on climate change after the starkest warning yet that manmade global warming is leading to catastrophic and irreversible consequences. Leading scientists at the IPCC meeting in Stockholm last week said they were "95% certain" that climate change was occurring and caused by human actions. IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri said: "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s many of the observed changes are unprecedented. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased." Connie Hedegaard, the EU's commissioner for climate action, said: "What would you do if your doctor was 95% sure you had a serious illness? Whose side are you on? Those who want to act on 95% certainty or those who gamble on the remaining 5%?" The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, invited world leaders to a summit next year to formulate a plan. "We must act now," he urged. The IPCC reported that the world was on course for a rise in temperatures of more than 2C by the end of the century, causing heatwaves, droughts, sea level rises and extreme rainfall. Nations have set their own targets for curbing greenhouse gases but experts say these are inadequate to meet the reductions required. Samantha Smith of the World Wildlife Fund said: "We must act or face frightening new impacts. We know that most of the pollution that causes climate change comes from burning fossil fuels. WWF calls on governments and investors to stop investing in dirty energy and start an immediate and just transition by investing in renewables." Mindy Lubber, who heads a US coalition of financial investors committed to tackling climate change, said: "The IPCC's conclusion is unequivocal – climate change is happening" Nick Robins, head of HSBC's climate change centre of excellence, warned: "We are putting the weather on steroids. We know that temperatures continue to warm and that impacts are fully in line with what we would expect from a warming world, including rising sea levels and melting glaciers. And this is affecting economies today. Our research shows that India, China, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil are the G20 nations that are most vulnerable to climate risks." | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/robinmckie', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-09-28T23:06:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2014/jun/16/domestic-extremist-metropolitan-police-spying-elected-politician | The Met turned me into a domestic extremist – with tweets and trivia | Jenny Jones | I would describe myself as many things, but domestic extremist is not one of them. In the eyes of the Metropolitan police, however, that is what I am; and that's why my name is on a file in their secret database of "domestic extremists". In June 2013, after having paid £10 and filled out a very long form, a copy of my police file arrived in the post. I don't know what I expected to find, but the three pages can only be described as pathetic. Quite honestly, I want my money back. The supposed point of this database, which is managed by the Met, is to gather intelligence from police forces, counter terrorism units, industry and open sources about domestic extremism threats, of which I am apparently one. Flicking through the file I was able to read copies of tweets I had made, a note that I was speaking at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square – even something saying I was the Green party mayoral candidate for London and was worried that I might be kettled on a protest. Most of the information came from public sources. How could it in any way be seen as useful intelligence? This was a complete waste of police time and resources. As an elected politician who has never been arrested, I was naturally surprised to find I even had a file on this database. But I am not alone. There is a Green party councillor in Kent who was spied on for two years for peacefully and legally protesting about live animal exports. His file even included details of organising a public meeting in support of equal marriage. There is also John Catt, an 89-year-old from Brighton who campaigns for peace and human rights. He found he had a file on this database which even included descriptions of his appearance ("clean shaven") and his habit of sketching demos. He has since launched legal action against the Met, winning a decision at the court of appeal to have information held on him deleted. A police appeal is due before the supreme court soon. At first I found it amusing that the information held on me was so pointless. However, my file and this database should be seen in the wider context of police surveillance against activists. At one end of the spectrum is the collection of publicly available trivia about an elected representative; at the other are the undercover police being sent to spy on a grieving family, and into the homes, lives and beds of women. The exceptionally broad definition of domestic extremist has provided cover for the police to intrude into the lives of innocent people; it means cyclists blocking a road to stage a die-in about road casualties could all be considered domestic extremists. The Met may have updated this definition – tightening it so that it focuses on serious criminality rather than "criminal acts of direct action" – but I am sceptical that it will curb the growing surveillance culture within the police that squanders time and resources that would be better used on improving relations with communities. When the police's work on domestic extremism involves spying on elected politicians and artistic pensioners, they have lost sight of what they are there to do. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/surveillance', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'uk/police', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'uk/london', 'world/protest', 'world/espionage', 'law/law', 'law/criminal-justice', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'politics/green-party', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'profile/jennyjones', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-06-16T08:30:23Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2019/jan/22/jair-bolsonaro-alarms-environmental-activists-with-pro-business-speech | Jair Bolsonaro alarms climate activists with pro-business speech | Brazil’s new rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro has prompted fresh alarm among environmentalists after stressing that protecting his country’s unique ecosystem has to be consistent with growing the economy. In remarks that did little to assuage fears of the risks that a go-for-growth strategy would pose to the Amazon region, Bolsonaro used his first overseas trip since taking control at the start of the year to outline a strongly pro-business agenda. Brazil’s new president brief speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos outlined a tax-cutting, privatisation agenda designed to reduce the size of the state and encourage entrepreneurialism. “It is now our mission to make progress in harmonising environmental preservation and biodiversity with the much-needed economic development,” he said. One of Bolsonaro’s first acts was to transfer control of the regulation and creation of indigenous reserves to the agriculture ministry, which is controlled by Brazil’s agribusiness lobby. That move was widely criticised by environmental groups, but Bolsonaro told his audience of business leaders that protecting nature was consistent with economic development. “Agriculture makes up no more than 9% of our territory and has grown thanks to technology and the hard work of farmers,” he said. “No other country in the world has as many forests as we do.” The economy and the environment were interdependent and inseparable, the president added. José Gregorio Mirabal, the general coordinator of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), said: “The world’s economic and political elite in Davos today should not be distracted by Bolsonaro’s efforts to calm investors interested in investing in Brazil. Bolsonaro’s attack on the peoples and forests of his country threatens all the peoples and forests of the Amazon, and puts at risk global efforts to address climate change.” Jennifer Morgan, the executive director for Greenpeace International, said Bolsonaro’s attitude to the Amazon was one of the biggest threats to the environment. “We’re working with allies, and we’ll work to defend everything that we can because the Amazon isn’t just an amazing forest, it’s the lungs of the earth and it plays an incredibly important role in climate,” she said. Bolsonaro, whose son Flavio is being investigated for alleged financial irregularities, said his ministers were committed to cracking down on corruption and money laundering. “I took office amid a great ethical, moral and economic crisis. I am committed to changing our history,” he said. | ['world/brazil', 'business/davos', 'business/davos-2019', 'world/americas', 'business/business', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/larryelliott', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-01-22T17:42:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2018/oct/18/typhoons-trick-japans-cherry-trees-into-blooming-months-early | Typhoons 'trick' Japan's cherry trees into blooming months early | The arrival of Japan’s famed cherry blossoms is the cue for groups of office workers to eat and drink, cast off their inhibitions and ponder the transient nature of life against a backdrop of pale pink petals falling to the ground. But the nationally observed rite of spring has come early, with reports from hundreds of locations that the country’s beloved sakura are blooming several months ahead of schedule. The Weathernews website said it had received more than 350 reports of premature blossoms, starting on the south-western island of Kyushu and continuing across the archipelago as far north as Hokkaido. Experts said the flowers’ surprise appearance was probably linked to extreme weather events in Japan in recent weeks, including two particularly powerful typhoons. Hiroyuki Wada, a tree doctor at the Flower Association of Japan, said the violent storms had stripped many trees of their leaves. One purpose of the leaves is to release hormones that prevent buds from flowering ahead of time. Wada told the public broadcaster NHK that the unusually warm weather that followed the typhoons may have also “tricked” the buds trees into flowering. “This has happened in the past, but I don’t remember seeing anything on this scale,” he said. Wada reassured cherry blossom lovers that there was no reason to cancel plans for hanami picnics when the regular viewing season comes around next spring. While the affected trees would not bloom a second time, the vast majority of Japan’s blossoms would flower as usual next March and April. “The buds that opened now won’t blossom in the coming spring,” he said. “But only a small number of them are being observed. I don’t think it will affect cherry blossom viewing next year.” Agence France-Presse contributed to this report. | ['world/japan', 'environment/forests', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-10-18T03:49:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
books/2011/mar/15/authors-for-japan-auction | Authors launch literary auction for Japan | A group of authors, led by the writer Keris Stainton, has joined together to create an auction of 150 literary lots designed to raise money for Japan in the wake of last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Bidding opened this morning on www.authorsforjapan.wordpress.com, the Authors for Japan website, which Stainton set up for the auction at lightning speed, and her peers have volunteered support en masse. Lots on offer include the chance to have a character named after you in the next Adele Parks novel, a dedication on the flyleaf of the new Jill Mansell story, or the opportunity to have your own opening chapter critiqued by a published author. There are also signed books aplenty up for grabs. Philip Reeve will do a drawing on the title page of his first-edition hardback of Scrivener's Moon for the highest bidder, while Julian Stockwin is offering copies of his latest two Thomas Kydd historical warfare novels with the added extra of a boxed musket ball. Miranda Dickinson, author of Fairytale of New York, will write a new short story starring the winning bidder. There are offers to create a book-themed blog or website, or draw a bespoke children's illustration. Among many submissions of coaching sessions, that of Betty Herbert, author of The 52 Seductions, stands out. "Even the most confident author can stall when it comes to writing the juicy bits," she reminds us, offering mentoring for authors anxious about writing sex scenes. Stainton said the idea was inspired by the success of the Authors for Queensland auction, set up to raise money for victims of the Queensland floods earlier this year. "The response has been fantastic, amazing, and we've got more lots to go up this evening," she promised. Bidding stays open until 8pm on Sunday (20 March) and all proceeds will go to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. | ['books/books', 'culture/culture', 'global-development/aid', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'tone/news', 'world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'profile/benedicte-page'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-03-15T17:41:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2024/nov/15/country-diary-the-last-leaves-are-giving-way-to-the-first-catkins | Country diary: The last leaves are giving way to the first catkins | Phil Gates | Old single-species hedges are usually hawthorn or blackthorn: prickly, dense, stockproof. This one, beside the footpath, is almost pure hazel, planted along a 200‑yard boundary embankment of rocks cleared from the field, long ago. More than a hundred multi‑stemmed trees, regularly spaced with gaps wide enough for a flock of sheep to wander through. A ribbon of lemon yellow and gold autumn foliage, flickering in the late afternoon sunlight. When I reach the end of the pasture, I turn uphill, then down, under a tunnel of overhanging branches, into the shelter of a sunken lane that I haven’t explored before; a holloway worn by centuries of scuffing boots, hooves and cartwheels. The air, heavy with the sweet aroma of fungal decay, is still chilled from last night’s frost. It’s quiet, peaceful, just the distant “chacking” of a flock of jackdaws, the rustle of falling leaves, rippling water over the ford at the bottom of the hill. No human noise. Timeless. It feels like a portal into the past. Ahead, across Waskerley Beck, I can see mellow stone walls of Low Doctor Pasture Farm catching the last rays of the setting sun, and wonder about the lives of the family who built the farmhouse, 300 years ago. Dusk is closing in: about now, they would have lit candles and oil lamps, banked up the fire with logs for another long, cold night ahead. Winter must have seemed daunting. The day is fading fast as I retrace my steps, pausing to look at the hazel hedge in a new light. The trees are old coppiced stools that would have been a living, renewable fuel source for the long months. Hazel had countless uses around the farm, but it also burns well. In 1664, John Evelyn in his Sylva, a landmark treatise on forestry, extolled the virtues of its coppiced timber for “poles, spars, hoops, forks, angling‑rods, faggots, cudgels, coals, and springs to catch birds”. Cold wind tugs at the last leaves on the hazel twigs, where catkins are already forming. Spring seems a distant prospect in these shortening days. Shivering, shoulders hunched, quickening my pace, I head for home, where warmth comes at the flick of a switch. • 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', 'environment/plants', 'environment/autumn', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/walking', 'lifeandstyle/hobbies', 'uk-news/county-durham', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-11-15T05:30:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
politics/2010/jul/19/business-quangos-scrapped-coalition-cuts | Business quangos scrapped in coalition cuts | The government is to axe four business quangos, which cost more than £8.6m a year to run, as part of its post-election cull of the public sector. Business secretary Vince Cable said the work of these publicly funded non-governmental bodies would be taken over by government departments, making them more accountable and reducing administrative costs. However, the independent thinktank the Institute for Government warned last week that "cutting the number of arm's-length bodies will not necessarily lead to savings". The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP), Simplifying International Trade (SITPRO) and the WEEE Advisory Body (WAB) will all close within the next year, and the British Shipbuilders Corporation will be abolished in 2011. The functions of SABIP will pass to the Intellectual Property Office, and the work carried out by the remaining organisations will be taken on by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The number of quangos that will be abolished, merged or receive no more funding has now increased to 17. Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy SABIP was established by the Labour government in 2008 with a remit to "provide strategic, independent and evidence-based advice to government on intellectual property policy, covering all types of intellectual property rights". Some see SABIP's abolition as further evidence that the coalition government does not believe intellectual property is that important. In May, the position of minister for higher education and intellectual property was abolished. Last year, David Lammy, the then IP minister, announced the launch of a research programme designed to explore the economic benefits IP brings. There are now question marks over a range of studies that were to be co-ordinated by SABIP and the IPO. Simplifying International Trade The UK's trade facilitation body is dedicated to simplifying the international trading process by cutting red tape. For the past four decades, it has engaged in activities ranging from "grassroots" problem-solving on behalf of UK businesses to advising the government. On its website SITPRO provides advice to companies of all sizes, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, that are venturing abroad – from drawing up an export strategy to how to deal with the required documents and procedures. WEEE Advisory Body The WAB was set up to review the collection, treatment and recycling facilities for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and to improve the effectiveness of the WEEE regulations to ensure the UK is seen as a leader in this field in Europe. The Department for Business website says the disposal of small household WEEE remains a prevalent issue. WAB was scheduled to undertake a study of individual producer responsibility – under which the makers of electrical equipment are supposed to be involved in its proper disposal and recycling – this year. British Shipbuilders Corporation In 1983 the public corporation that owned and managed all the shipbuilders that were nationalised by the 1977 Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act was privatised. It sold off its various divisions but continues to exist in statute in order to be accountable for any liabilities. | ['politics/quangos', 'society/public-sector-cuts', 'business/business', 'environment/recycling', 'politics/vincentcable', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'society/public-finance', 'type/article', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2010-07-19T13:03:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2016/oct/24/fin-whales-sometimes-seen-in-north-sea | Fin whales sometimes seen in North Sea | Brief letters | In the report on the stranding of a fin whale on Holkham Beach (Rare fin whale washed up on Norfolk beach, 22 October), Dr Ben Garrod of Anglia Ruskin University states that “you never get [fin whales] in the North Sea”. I certainly saw one six miles off Hartlepool in about 1978. There was flat calm and hot sun, and there were great rafts of seabirds. The whale jumped clear of the water six or seven times, mostly through the rafts of birds. I estimated the whale to be as long as our 12 metre yacht. Later I mentioned this to a fisherman at Hartlepool, who told me that this only happened on days like I described. He was obviously familiar with the sight. John Lart Great Smeaton, North Yorkshire • Hawaiian Airways’ plan to weigh their passengers (Report, 24 October) is a good idea. Skybus planes from Cornwall to the Scilly Isles have always done so. As you board the eight-seater Islander, they tell each passenger (by name) where to sit so the weight is evenly distributed. The process is very discreet; the check-in desk incorporates scales. On one occasion, our combined weight was so great that the luggage had to travel separately on the next flight. They never divulged who had caused the overload, but we knew! Melanie White Reading, Berkshire • Whenever I hear anyone complain about being “stuck in traffic” (Opinion, 20 October), I remind them, gently, that they were the traffic. Annette Millward London • Three pages on the benefits of sitting in silence (The cult of quiet, G2, 24 October) and no mention of Quakers, who have experienced the benefits since the 1660s. Jon and Carolyn Haines Bacup, Lancashire • As a woman who can neither ride a bicycle nor drive a car, I am not “in many ways helpless”, but am very happy to have something in common with the amazing Angela Carter (Review, 22 October). Wendy Bispham London • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | ['environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'world/air-transport', 'world/world', 'society/obesity', 'society/society', 'technology/motoring', 'world/religion', 'books/angelacarter', 'books/books', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-10-24T16:53:33Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2011/jun/24/weatherwatch-dardanelles-lightning-storm | Weatherwatch: Storm in the Dardanelles | Robert Curzon is in the Dardanelles, anxious to sail to Lemnos, and deep in the poems of Sir Walter Scott, when there is a roar of thunder and "such quick bright flashes of sharp lightning that the mountains seemed on fire. Down came the rain in waterfalls, and in went Walter Scott and all his chivalry into the first safe hiding place I could find. The crew had got under a projecting rock, and I had the boat to myself; this rain did not come in much, and the rattle of the thunder by degrees died away among the surrounding hills. The rain continued to pour down steadily, and the fire on the beach went out; but my berth was snug enough, and the dull monotonous sound of the splashing rain, and the dashing of the breakers on the shore, soon lulled me to sleep," he reports in Visits to the Monasteries in the Levant (1849). Next morning the rain has gone, the sun is out. "We were in a sheltered place, so we felt no wind; but on the other side of a rocky headland we could see the sea running like a cataract towards the south, although it was as smooth as glass in our bay." Eventually, they set off round the rocky headland. "Then all at once we drifted into the race, and began dancing, and leaping, and staggering before the breeze in a way I never saw before or since. Like the goats, from whom this sea is said to have been named, we leaped from the summit of one wave to that of the next, and hardly seemed to touch the water." Tim Radford | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'profile/timradford', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-06-24T22:04:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/datablog/2012/nov/14/think-like-data-journalist | Think like a data journalist | While prepping for my Strata keynote with Simon Rogers, editor at the Guardian Datablog, I had the amazing and unique opportunity to sit with his team for a week and experience first hand how they do their work. Their work is so important, I wanted to share with you what I learned and show you how you can apply some of their data analysis techniques to your own work. What does a data journalist do? You might read the Guardian Datablog day to day, but not really realize what the editor and writers really do. Before explaining what a data journalist does, Simon likes to explain what a journalist does: •Investigates a story •Researches the facts •Writes and reports the story •Engages with the public •Reveals and exposes the truth Now how about a data journalist? What does a data journalist do? •Investigates a story •Researches the facts •Writes and reports the story •Engages with the public •Reveals and exposes the truth You're not missing anything: these lists are identical! The difference lies in the methods and tools that a data journalist uses in their day to day activity. A day in the life of the Datablog Let's first take a look at a normal day working at the Guardian Datablog. The day starts by getting in early and grabbing a cuppa. A morning conference keeps all Guardian teams aware of the current news. After the meeting, it's off to to the races. The fast-paced environment is evident: data for a story might come in at 1pm and the accompanying blog post needs to be out by 4pm. Work can continue even throughout the lunch hour with a sandwich being casually consumed in front of the computer. Stories are published before 5pm, with work then starting on the next day's posts. What can you learn? The fast-paced environment means data analysis tools that are quick and easy to use reign supreme. There are really three major steps of the Guardian Datablog's process that drive the tools and resources they use: •Getting the data •Telling the story •Sharing the data Getting the data After recognizing the important stories, the Guardian Datablog team searches for supporting data. Data is abundantly available online. Popular data sources used by the Guardian include the Office for National Statistics and the World Bank. The data often can not be used as it is. Entities within the dataset might be named differently (think "City of Bristol" and "Bristol, City of"). These inconsistencies can make the data analysis process impossible! Luckily, there are a couple of handy tools that can help you clean up the data: Google Refine and DataWrangler. Telling the story A major part of telling the story includes data analysis. This can be anything from finding a single number to producing a highly complex visualization. The results of the analysis help the community understand the story and the data. What tools does the Guardian use to analyze their data? For map visualizations, the Guardian likes to use Google Fusion Tables, Google Maps API, and CartoDB. Each tools makes it easy to display custom, styled maps that can be embedded on your website. For chart visualizations, the Guardian likes to use Google Spreadsheets, DataWrapper, and Tableau. Similar to the map tools, these tools make it easy to display custom, embeddable maps. Sharing the data Finally, the Guardian Datablog adds one last important piece to their blog posts: a link to download the raw data. This allows the community to explore the data and find their own stories! It also helps the Guardian Datablog identify errors in the data, as the community comments on the story and notes any possible issues. The team listens to the community and improves the stories. To share the raw data, the Guardian Datablog often uploads the data to a Google Spreadsheet. With a Google Spreadsheet, the data is hosted in the Google Cloud. No need to upload a CSV to your website. Now you can think like a data journalist Armed with these tools, you can now perform the same level of expert data journalism as done at the Guardian. Want to learn more? Watch Simon's and my keynote at Strata London 2012. • Kathryn Hurley is a developer programs engineer at Google for Compute Engine. Kathryn spent a week (24th-28th September 2012) observing the workings of the Guardian Datablog prior to her keynote at the London Strata conference on the 1st October 2012. 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', 'tone/blog', 'technology/data-visualisation', 'technology/google', 'type/data', 'type/article'] | technology/data-visualisation | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2012-11-14T16:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/article/2024/aug/24/australia-recycling-guidelines-rules-rubbish-bins | How to be an expert tosser: know when to recycle and when to chuck it out | Recycling can feel daunting. Even for those of us passionate about making sure household items go into the correct bin, wrapping your head around all the little “rules” can be intimidating. There’s the worry that if you get it wrong the entire batch will be thrown out, and there can be doubts over what to do with things such as aluminium foil or bottle caps. But now there’s hope the recent reemergence of soft plastic recycling in Australia will spark more people to dispose of recyclables correctly. For those who feel time-poor, confused about what is recyclable or wish others would recycle better, I’ve gathered some expert tools and tips designed to improve the chances that plastics, cans, bottles and other items don’t wind up in a landfill. What’s recyclable and what’s not? The Australasian Recycling Label on the back of a product usually confirms whether it’s recyclable yet doubts often persist about some items. Lottie Dalziel, a sustainability expert and founder of the social enterprise Banish, has devoted her life to helping people become better at recycling. She urges people to consider the “credit card rule” when unsure or dealing with mixed materials: items made of recyclable materials (eg hard plastic, non-lined cardboard) are recyclable if they are larger than a credit card. If they are any smaller they can contaminate a batch during processing. (You can roll foil into a ball until it’s large enough.) “My biggest piece of advice for people is ‘if in doubt throw it out’,” says Dalziel. “You actually do more harm than good putting something you’re not entirely sure of in your recycling bin.” Banish also has a recycling and disposal program called Brad for those random household items you aren’t sure about (plastic bread bag closures, bottle top lids, toothpaste tubes) and they will upcycle them into useful (and cute) objects such as colourful pens or bowls. Tips for the time-poor Sustainability requires time, but there are ways to improve efficiency around recycling. RecycleSmart is a company offering two options to help time-poor people deal with recyclables. Their app offers a guide to the best disposal method for each item while their Power Pickup service (which operates in most capital cities) takes it one step further: you can book online in advance for RecycleSmart to collect items right from your doorstep. You don’t even need to be home on pickup day. Overcoming lack of motivation “Recycling doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make an impact.” Have you had these thoughts or come across these excuses before? The environmental organisation Clean Up Australia focuses on the positive impact recycling can have. “If we get it right at the kerbside bin and put the right things in and keep unrecyclable items out, they do get recycled,” says the organisation’s chair, Pip Kiernan. They recommend the Recycle Mate app, which “allows you to scan any item using your phone camera and advises you what to do with it, based on where you are located and the rules for that area”, Kiernan says. The Recycle Mate app is particularly useful “for those more confusing items like sports shoes, blister packs, paint, electronics etc”, she says. Kiernan is also a fan of the Greenius website tool, which tells you what can go in the recycling bin depending on where you live. Greenius also offers games and activities for kids to make recycling fun. And there’s one other place recycling can make an impact: your wallet. “Every state and territory in Australia with the exception of Tassie, which is due to launch later this year, has its own Container Deposit Scheme where you can exchange containers for a 10c refund,” Kiernan says. Getting friends, neighbours or colleagues on board You’re having coffee at a friend’s house and they casually toss a recyclable milk container into their rubbish bin. You would never have guessed this person doesn’t recycle. What do you say without offending? According to Dalziel, “One of the most important things is to create a supportive environment. You don’t want to scare your friends into inaction.” With a recycling-hesitant housemate, Dalziel found it worked to have a “?” box. “If I wasn’t around they’d put items into the box and I would sort it out myself.” If she ran into the housemate later, they could have a chat about it – but a friendly one. “It’s not about pointing out everything that someone is doing wrong but it’s about providing small and simple tips on how to recycle better,” adds Dalziel. If your workplace is tossing recyclables, perhaps they would be interested in EcoBins – attractive, colour-coded recycling bins made from recycled polypropylene for workplaces, specifically designed to help busy people figure out what goes where. Kiernan echoes the importance of sharing advice in a non-aggressive way: “We know from research that over 90% of Australians believe recycling is important,” she says. “Most people are receptive to making changes to ensure more of their waste gets recycled. Share your simple tips, reassure them that recycling is happening and that we can all help boost recycling and give materials a second life, rather than ending up in landfill.” Rachel Signer is a writer originally from the US, now based in South Australia. She is author of the memoir You Had Me At Pét-Nat, and publisher and founder of Pipette Magazine | ['australia-news/series/change-by-degrees', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/rachel-signer', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-08-23T15:00:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/davehillblog/2011/jun/20/capital-and-counties-confirm-despire-to-demolish-earls-court-council-estates | Earls Court project: a 'national test case for localism'? | The property giant Capital and Counties (CapCo) has confirmed that it will go ahead with an application to Conservative-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council to demolish the 750 homes of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green housing estates as part of its proposals for the redevelopment of the Earls Court area, despite a residents' campaign to save the estates using "localist" powers to be made available by the Conservative-led government. A spokesman for CapCo said that their first applications will be submitted "in the coming weeks," and added that "the potential inclusion" of the two estates is a decision for the council, though in claiming that there is "considerable evidence of support for the redevelopment proposals from estates residents," it echoed the council's recent assertions on the subject. The council has promised every resident a new home in the development area and that those for tenants' would be at a social rent, but the anti-demolition campaigners counter nonetheless that there is "incontrovertible evidence of residents' overwhelming opposition to demolition," in the form of two-thirds of them signing up to join a planned resident-controlled housing association which could take over the ownership and management of the estates (the figure is confirmed by the campaigners' solicitor, the housing specialist Keith Jenkins). The residents' campaign claims that the Earls Court project has now become a "national test case for localism," and the political significance of the scheme does seem to be intensifying. Capco's decision to retain bulldozing the estates in its proposals for the 77 acre site has been taken despite considerable political support for the residents' campaign. Ken Livingstone, who last year pledged to do "far more to support mutual and co-operative models" of tenant control, has given his "full backing" to the residents' campaign. Hammersmith's Labour MP Andy Slaughter wrote to CapCo's investment director Gary Yardley last week, arguing that including the two estates in its application made no sense, "morally, logically or commercially," in view of residents' wishes. "In twenty five years I have never seen a developer act so at odds with the interests of the people whose lives they claim to be improving," he wrote. Green Party mayoral candidate Jenny Jones AM is visiting the estates this morning to meet residents and campaigners. Mike Tuffrey AM, a keen advocate of neighbourhood self-organisation and widely tipped to become the Liberal Democrats' candidate, has taken an interest in the issue. Both Jones and Tuffrey are members of the London Assembly's planning and housing committee (Jones is currenly its chair). CapCo and the Council enjoy the broad approval of Boris Johnson, who is an ally of Hammersmith and Fulham's leader Stephen Greenhalgh, has intervened to help his regeneration ambitions in the past, and effectively launched his re-election campaign in the borough. Boris said at a Mayor's Question Time last year that he would be prepared to take part in any act of demolition that led to improvements. Boris, who is able to block or require changes to major development projects, has designated the site an "opportunity area" in his draft replacement London Plan, which is expected to be published next month. However, an exchange of correspondence between Hammersmith and Fulham leader Stephen Greenhalgh and Conservative decentralisation minister Greg Clark in March suggested that when the new powers the residents' campaigners intend to use - to be conferred under Section 34A of the Housing Act (1985) - come into effect they will be able to prevent demolition by means of a "stock transfer" of the homes from the Council's ownership to their own, despite Greenhalgh's lobbying for a "wider benefits test" to be applied in opportunity areas. The necessary regulations were scheduled to be published for consultation in February, though the Department for Communities and Local Government has assured me they will appear in due course. CapCo's statement asserts, in line with the Council's view, that "the Earls Court masterplan will deliver enormous benefits, both for the local community and for London as a whole representing a much needed multi-billion pound investment from the private sector into the economy." There are, though, counter-arguments that London would benefit far more from such investment being made in the east of the city, where the economic need and growth potential is greater, than in a largely affluent west-central area. Some believe that the planned leveling of the Earls Court exhibition and conference centre would be positively harmful to the capital's economy. There are also at least some residents of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates who are more receptive to the Council's vision than others. I'll be covering all these angles on the Earls Court project later this week. | ['politics/politics', 'politics/london', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/green-party', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'society/society', 'society/housing', 'society/localgovernment', 'uk/london', 'politics/localgovernment', 'uk/davehillblog', 'tone/blog', 'society/communities', 'society/social-housing', 'uk-news/earls-court-project', 'type/article', 'profile/davehill'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-06-20T10:44:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2021/nov/02/gaia-message-must-be-heard-by-cop26-delegates | Gaia message must be heard by Cop26 delegates | Letter | Thank you for publishing James Lovelock’s article (Beware: Gaia may destroy humans before we destroy the Earth, 2 November). It explains the climate crisis so clearly that we feel it should be compulsory reading for all delegates to Cop26. We have an extra frisson of interest, as Lovelock’s 1975 New Scientist article, “The quest for Gaia”, was co-authored by Sidney Epton, our father. Dad, who died in 2007, would have been delighted to see that an article written almost 50 years ago is relevant today. Nicola Campbell and Robert Epton Macclesfield, Cheshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-11-02T18:06:56Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
money/2014/aug/27/tree-loses-battle-with-aldi-ecology | Tree loses out in battle between Aldi and Ecology | A month long battle by staff and customers of the Ecology building society to save a magnificent 100 foot high lime tree that has stood for 250 years in Silsden, West Yorkshire and overhangs the society’s own grounds ended on Tuesday after the tree was unceremoniously felled in just five minutes – to make way for an Aldi supermarket. Contractors with chainsaws moved in yesterday after a tree preservation order was revoked and Bradford council gave the go-ahead to the supermarket giant to destroy the tree, half of whose branches reach into land occupied by the Ecology. The contractors even asked Ecology for access to their grounds to help chop the tree down – which Ecology flatly refused. “It was completely needlessly chopped down,” says the society’s ethics manager, Anna Laycock, who refused to budge from under the branches when contractors for Aldi arrived earlier this month, and claims the supermarket simply refused to engage with its neighbour over the issue. But the David and Goliath battle – which pitched Ecology, with one office and 23 staff against Aldi, with 10,000 stores and €50bn-plus revenues – ended with victory for Goliath and what Laycock says will be “just another generic Aldi store”. A Facebook and Twitter campaign to save the tree, which attracted hundreds of messages of support, failed to change Aldi’s plans. “We are working to the sound of chainsaws and chippers. A very sad day in the office,” one Twitter posting said. “It was horrible to watch it come down,” says Laycock, who said the society tried to engage with Aldi to find a design for the new supermarket that enabled the tree to survive, but were rebuffed. “The noise it made was incredible. The staff here were very, very upset and so were people in the local community. It is a beautiful semi-rural area and we do not believe that removing the tree was the only option. “Such an important ecological and historical asset should belong to the local community, not to a global supermarket chain. We are equally frustrated with Aldi’s attitude to its neighbours and the local community, the lack of transparency in the process, and their refusal to reply meaningfully to hundreds of messages of protest.” The Ecology has posted a video of the tree felling on its Facebook page. Aldi’s corporate responsibility page on its website says the supermarket group is “committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business” including “reducing our carbon footprint” and “meeting leading global standards for green buildings.” Giles Hurley, joint managing director of corporate buying at Aldi, said, “We understand the concerns of the community regarding the removal of the lime tree in Silsden. This was reviewed and discussed at great length with planning officers, and in line with current environmental standards, we reluctantly had to propose the removal of the tree. The development follows the approved plans which will include a significant replanting scheme within the site.” Ecology claims that when local residents found out about Aldi’s plans to destroy the tree, many were horrified. “We feel that Aldi has stuck to the letter of the law around planning permissions, but not the spirit. We want Aldi to learn from this experience for future stores. We hope that community consultation and preservation of important natural features will be a higher priority in future.” | ['money/consumer-affairs', 'money/consumer-rights-money', 'money/banks', 'money/money', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/patrickcollinson'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-08-27T13:38:56Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/aug/27/uk-summer-wind-drought-puts-green-revolution-into-reverse | UK summer 'wind drought' puts green revolution into reverse | Britain’s long heatwave threw the country’s green energy revolution into reverse and pushed up carbon emissions this summer, leading experts to stress the need for a diverse energy mix. The summer of 2017 was lauded as the “greenest ever” for electricity generation, thanks to a growing number of windfarms and solar installations edging out coal and gas power stations. But this year has seen a comparatively dirty summer for power generation, due to the weather’s impact on renewables. The Met Office said the high pressure that caused much of the country to bask under sunny skies had suppressed windy conditions. The weather proved a boon for staycations, garden centres and solar panel owners, but windfarms suffered. They usually provide four times as much power as solar each year. The wind drought meant that at times turbine blades sat idle for days. Windfarm capacity is up by more than 10% since a year ago, but the share of electricity they supplied dropped from 12.9% last year to 10.4% this summer, figures from National Grid show. Although record-breaking solar output helped fill some of the gap and nuclear plants provided a bedrock of supply, gas power stations were fired up to meet demand. The key measure of how green the power grid is – carbon intensity, measured in grammes of CO2 per kilowatt hour – was up by 8% on average over the past three months. Duncan Burt, director of operations at National Grid, said: “We have seen a slight decrease in wind over the summer linked to the unusually warm weather, which demonstrates why it is important for us to have a diverse energy mix to ensure we can continue to manage supply and demand.” He welcomed the growth in wind and solar over the past year, and said both were playing an increasingly important role in the energy system. While this summer showed an uptick in carbon emissions, it is the second greenest ever. And looking beyond the summer, carbon intensity for the year fell to a record low in the first eight months. National Grid said the carbon intensity of electricity generation was down 3% to 252g CO2 per kWh between January and August, compared with the same period last year. Windy conditions and new windfarms boosted wind energy during the winter, and coal use has fallen to new lows despite a brief resurgence during the “beast from the east”. In June, the UK went 12 days without coal, which supplied less than 1% of electricity that month. RenewableUK, the wind power industry body, said wind had “become a mainstream power source”. A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We’re investing up to £2.5bn in low-carbon innovation and are already seeing the results.” Analysts have told renewable energy investors not to be alarmed about the lack of wind this summer. After examining 17 years of monthly wind speeds in the UK, Bernstein bank concluded: “We do not find any evidence of a structural trend in wind speed over time.” Experts also said that the way solar highs coincided with wind lows showed that both technologies were needed in the switch to green energy. Wind power generation is well ahead of solar in Europe. Pascal Storck, director of renewable energy at environmental measurement firm Vaisala, said: “Often wind and solar technologies are played against each other, but the reality is that a diverse portfolio … will be the solution to long-term variability of this nature.” Q&A How much renewable energy does the UK have? Renewables – counting wind, solar, hydro and biomass – provided 29.3% of electricity last year, up from 24.5% in 2016. Exactly half of that came from wind power, and most of that it is still onshore despite the huge expansion of offshore windfarms in recent years. Solar provided just over 10% of renewable electricity supply. Can batteries plug the gap when it’s not windy or sunny? Not yet. Utility-scale batteries have been installed around the UK’s electricity grid, and more are being built now. But these are mostly used for last-minute adjustments to keep power supply and demand in balance, in order to keep the frequency of electricity at 50Hz. For the most part, economics and technology mean it does not yet make sense to store surplus green energy from one day to use on another. Will climate change make wind droughts a regular occurrence? The jury is out. One recent study predicted that if the world warms by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – and it almost certainly will, as temperatures have already climbed 1C – UK wind speeds would increase. Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey said that could boost UK onshore windfarm output by 10%, or enough to power an extra 700,000 homes a year based on current installations. However, a peer-reviewed paper last year said global warming would hit UK wind power generation. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2018-08-27T12:09:07Z | true | ENERGY |
science/2017/jun/27/hot-weather-proves-a-problem-for-pilots | Hot weather proves a problem for pilots | Much of Arizona rarely sees a cloud, and it usually offers great weather for flying. Phoenix is one of the top four US locations for number of flying days per year. But last week more than 50 flights were cancelled, not because the weather was bad but because it was too hot. Hot air is less dense that cold. The wings of an aircraft generate lift by effectively pushing down on the air, and less dense air provides less lift. An aircraft needs a certain amount of lift to take off and gain altitude. The hotter the weather, the less dense the air and the less lift the wings produce. As the heatwave affecting the south-western US took hold, temperatures in Phoenix rose to a scorching 48C, making it too hot for some aircraft to fly – or at least that was how media reported it. This may be slightly misleading. The cancelled flights were on Bombardier CRJ regional jets, small short-haul airliners. It was not that the Bombardiers could not physically get off the ground in the heat, but that they lack safety certification to fly in temperatures above 48C. Airbus and Boeing airliners do not necessarily produce more lift, but they have been certified for 52C or more, and so were not affected. Testing aircraft in extreme conditions is expensive, and Bombardier probably assumed that such temperatures would be too rare to affect operations. A few more heatwaves may make high-temperature certification more of a priority. | ['science/aeronautics', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/summer', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-06-27T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2008/oct/05/water.climatechange | Britain's rivers could run dry | Britain's rivers could nearly run dry because long hot summers caused by climate change will not be sufficiently compensated by wetter winters, researchers predict. It is a scenario that would endanger wildlife and send household water bills soaring. Flows in the Mersey and Severn are likely to be reduced in summer by up to 80 per cent by 2050, according to a study by the Environment Agency. The Thames's flow is likely to decline by up to 50 per cent during the same period. It had been hoped that, as global warming leads to more extreme seasons, summer droughts would be offset by an increase in winter rainfall. However, while wetter winters are expected, they will not be damp enough to make up for the lack of rain during the hotter summers. The news might come as a surprise to people in towns such as Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, who have suffered flooding due to extraordinary downpours during the past two summers. But the agency claims that, while such extremes are a hallmark of climate change and wet summers will still occur, the overall average trend is towards drastically reduced river flows across the country. Ian Barker, head of water resources at the Environment Agency, said yesterday: 'For a long time, we've known climate change would result in wetter winters, which would increase winter flows in rivers, and that it would also result in drier summers. 'The received wisdom was that the two would balance each other out and overall we'd end up with the same amount of water, just distributed differently throughout the year. 'But we wanted to understand how much extra rainfall we might get in winter, and how much less rainfall we might get in summer. The net effect is that overall, although winter rainfall might increase by 10 per cent, the period of higher river flows is reduced, so it's perhaps only December, January, February, maybe into March. The period when you'd see lower river flows because the rainfall is significantly less would extend from April right through to November in some parts of the country.' Barker warned: 'Overall, it means that, by the 2050s, there's a net reduction in the amount of water resources available for water companies to pump out of rivers, farmers to use for irrigation and also to support wildlife in rivers. 'If you get reduced flows, in summer the temperature of the water will increase, there's less water to dilute pollution, and that will also affect what is in our rivers.' The research used climate projections from the UK Climate Impacts Programme and shows that by 2050 river flows in winter may rise by 10 to 15 per cent in England and Wales. But river flows in late summer and early autumn could fall by as much as 80 per cent in some places. These patterns would result in a drop in total annual river flow of up to 15 per cent. But Professor Stuart Lane, executive director of the Institute of Hazard and Risk Research at Durham University, issued two caveats. 'First, something that's quite clear in the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report issued last year is that our ability to forecast rainfall precipitation is particularly poor when compared with our ability to predict temperature,' he said. 'Second, these kind of average figures often overlook what most people will experience - indeed, a lot of people find it very difficult to relate to predictions like these because we will always have both wet summers and dry summers, and wet summers are actually quite normal. 'What that means is these are average changes and it's quite possible that the kind of drought scenarios that are being talked about here could be much worse or not as bad on a year-to-year basis.' | ['environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/davidsmith', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2008-10-04T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/dec/08/weather-tracker-low-mississippi-river-levels-farmers-grain | Weather tracker: Low Mississippi River levels take toll on farmers | Extreme drought and a warm autumn have left water levels on the Mississippi exceptionally low for the time of year. This is causing problems for farmers who rely on the river as a travel route for the crops: 60% of US grain exports use the waterway to reach the Gulf coasts. The total economic loss is estimated to be about $20bn and, despite attempts to dredge the river, it remains worryingly low as the country enters an important month for grain transport. Meanwhile, this week, a depression in the Bay of Bengal, off the Indian coast, deepened into Tropical Cyclone Michuang, resulting in 19 deaths. The weather system brought heavy rain and strong winds to the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu on Monday, with the latter two also experiencing powerful storm surgesBefore Michuang made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, had recorded about 240mm (9.4in) of rain, which was classified as an extremely heavy rainfall event by India’s meteorological department. After that, the disastrous combination of storm surges and high rainfall led to significant flooding, with the cost of disruption valued at 50.6bn rupees (£478m) by the country’s chief minister. The devastation also drew attention to the difficulties India’s largest cities could face dealing with the effects of “significant” weather amid widespread unchecked construction and poor urban planning. Areas of Chennai were, for example, built on swampy catchment areas of lakes, which considerably increased the risk of flooding. Significant flooding also occurred in Tanzania last weekend after the town of Katesh was hit by torrential rain on Saturday, killing 69 people. Many more sustained serious injuries after the heavy downpours triggered landslides that damaged homes, infrastructure and farmland. Other east African countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, have also been hit by widespread flooding recently, after the combined effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon and the changing climate have exacerbated flooding in the region this year. | ['environment/series/weather-tracker', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/mississippi', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/rivers', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/india', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/danielharris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-12-08T07:50:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
food/2018/dec/01/how-to-turn-pineapple-skin-into-a-refreshing-drink | How to make booze from pineapple skin | Waste Not with Tom Hunt | Whenever I discover a wonderful new ingredient or dish, I feel giddy with excitement. I jump up and down, flap my hands and talk really fast, while enthusiastically promoting my new find to anyone who’ll listen. Tepache is one such discovery. I came across it at Sanchez, a taco bar in Copenhagen run by former Noma chef Rosio Sanchez. It’s a fermented pineapple drink with a long history dating back to pre-Columbian Mexico, and it’s made thriftily from the pineapple skin, top and core. It’s similar to kefir or kombucha, but easier to make. Being fermented, tepache is a probiotic, gut-friendly refreshment that is sweet, sour, effervescent and mildly boozy. It’s delicious served cold on ice, and spiked with a dash of beer or lime. Rosio says to make good tepache you must use the sweetest pineapple, and that if you agitate the mix by stirring it and incorporating oxygen, it will speed up the process. When you peel a pineapple, you end up carving off quite a lot of flesh. This, along with the core (which can be too fibrous to consume raw), is a valuable part of the fruit and too much of an opportunity to waste. Tepache, or fermented pineapple juice This probiotic gut-friendly refreshment is sweet, sour and lightly effervescent. It is delicious as it is or spiked with a little beer and/or lime juice. Peel, top and core from 1 pineapple, organic ideally 250g raw cane sugar (piloncillo, jaggery, rapadura or muscovado) 1 stick cinnamon (optional) Before peeling the pineapple, wash the skin well in fresh water. Put all the ingredients in a sterilised three- or four-litre glass or ceramic jar and cover with three litres of water (or more, if necessary). Weight down the skins with a clean bowl, then cover the top with a cloth held on with a rubber band. Leave to ferment at room temperature for three to five days, or until the mixture becomes cloudy and effervescent. If any white mould occurs on the surface, remove with a clean spoon. When the mixture is ready, blend, chill and serve on ice. Store bottled in the fridge for up to a month. | ['food/series/waste-not', 'food/food', 'tone/recipes', 'tone/features', 'environment/food-waste', 'environment/environment', 'food/vegetables', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'food/fruit', 'food/softdrinks', 'food/mexican', 'type/article', 'profile/tom-hunt', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/feast', 'theguardian/feast/feast', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/feast'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-12-01T06:00:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk/2011/jan/24/scotland-yard-blockade-spies-sex | Activists plan Scotland Yard blockade to expose spies who used sexual tactics | Women activists are to blockade Scotland Yard today, intending to demand to know the identity of any undercover police who have infiltrated their organisations. As evidence continued to emerge of police officers having had sexual relations with people they were monitoring, the women said they wanted to know if they had been "abused" by police. Though senior police insisted that sleeping with activists during such operations was banned, a former agent claimed such "promiscuity" routinely had the blessing of commanders. The activists' concerns follow the revelation that the undercover PC Mark Kennedy had sexual relationships with several women during the seven years he spent infiltrating environmental activists' groups. Last week the Guardian identified more officers who had sex with the protesters they were sent to spy on. One officer, Jim Boyling, married an activist and had two children with her. Rebecca Quinn, an environmental activist from Oxford, said: "This is about people from different groups and networks who share concerns about this type of policing and how it affects women. We are still at the stage where we are trying to piece together the extent to which these operations have reached. "There may be dozens of other women who might be affected by this, who have [unknowingly] had relationships with other undercover officers. It is unacceptable. A picture is starting to emerge of state-endorsed sexual manipulation." The issue is expected to be raised by MPs tomorrow, when the acting Metropolitan police commissioner, Tim Godwin, appears before the Commons home affairs select committee. | ['uk/police', 'world/surveillance', 'uk/mark-kennedy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'tone/news', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesmeikle'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-24T06:01:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/keep-it-in-the-ground-blog/2015/apr/24/columbia-university-faculty-members-call-for-divestment-from-fossil-fuels | Columbia University faculty members call for divestment from fossil fuels | More than 300 faculty members and officers at Columbia University in New York have thrown their weight behind a campaign calling on the institution to move its $9.2bn (£6bn) endowment out of fossil fuels. In an open letter to the university’s president and board of trustees, they write: “Our sense of urgency in signing this letter cannot be overstated. We believe that in the long run, these holdings of fossil fuel companies do not serve the university well, either morally or financially.” Among the 314 signatories to the letter are the Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Weiner, historian Eric Foner and Lisa Goddard, director of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. They highlight Columbia’s role in the anti-apartheid movement, when it was one of the first universities to divest from “racist South Africa”. They write: “slavery was once an investment issue, as were apartheid and the harm caused by smoking. Columbia’s leadership made the global campaign against apartheid far more effective, with large numbers of universities and colleges following Columbia’s example.” More than 1,000 students joined the Columbia Divest for Climate Justice campaign which began three years ago. The letter follows a similar move by 95 faculty members at Georgetown University in Washington DC who recently backed the divestment campaign on campus, in advance of an expected vote on the issue in June. In case you missed it... Elsewhere this week, editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger has been hitting international headlines, with interviews in the french national Le Monde and the Australian current affairs programme Lateline. Human rights advocate and former actress Bianca Jagger wrote a comment piece, explaining that she backs Keep it in the ground because “the fossil fuel industry is condemning us to climate disaster”. Don’t forget you can hear the inside story on Keep it in the ground by downloading our podcast, the biggest story in the world. In the latest episode, we tackle what might be the most complex question of all: what would happen to the global economy if we moved out of fossil fuels? Director of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, responded again to the campaign. In an open letter published by the foundation, he pledged to listen to “the full spectrum of views” on the issue. Get involved Our readers have been true to Farrar’s word. Last weekend we asked if some of you would be able to spare 15 minutes to write a letter to one of the members of the Wellcome Trust board. The response was amazing: inspirational and thought-provoking letters came from all around the world – from a university in China to a coal mining town in Russia. Today we publish them them in an online interactive and as a supplement in tomorrow’s paper in the UK. Scientists: we need you. If you’re part of the scientific community, we believe that you could play an important role in persuading both the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust to move their money out of fossil fuels. Tell us here about the science that is important to you and what you think about this issue. While some readers have been writing letters, Mark Brillig decided to explain why he thinks we should keep fossil fuels in the ground with his own music video – a parody of “Threw it on the Ground” by the Lonely Island. Have you got something to share with us? Get in touch with the Keep it in the ground team at keep.it@theguardian.com. | ['environment/keep-it-in-the-ground-blog', 'environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-universities', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/new-york', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/emma-e-howard'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-04-24T13:47:26Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
politics/2019/aug/25/boris-johnson-burnish-green-credentials-g7-biodiversity-plea-amazon-fires | Johnson to burnish green credentials with G7 biodiversity plea | Boris Johnson will call on his G7 colleagues to do more to combat mass extinctions as he seeks to strengthen his environmental credentials. Speaking in Biarritz, as discussion turns to the Amazon rainforest fires, the prime minister will call for more ambitious targets on biodiversity alongside measures to tackle the climate crisis, and reinforce the UK’s bid to host the COP26 climate change summit, due to be held next year. “In a week where we have all watched, horrified, as the Amazon rainforest burns before our eyes, we cannot escape the reality of the damage we are inflicting on the natural world,” he will say. Johnson will also announce that the UK will set aside an extra £10m of aid money to fund anti-deforestation projects in Brazil. Labour accused Johnson of a “PR stunt”. The shadow trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, said: “The truth is that £10m is an embarrassingly tiny contribution to deal with the situation in the Amazon, which is part of the sustained anti-environment campaign being waged by a rightwing Brazilian government. “Boris Johnson’s government has pointedly refused to ensure that UK companies are not aiding and abetting the destruction of the Amazon by ruling out from any trade deal beef raised on rainforest land burnt out by ranchers.” G7 leaders will discuss the crisis in the Amazon, alongside other environmental issues, on Monday. France and Ireland have said they will not sign the EU-Mercosur deal while the Amazon is burning. Asked en route to Biarritz whether he would echo their approach, Johnson said: “I think I would be reluctant to do anything at this very difficult time for global free trade, to cancel another trade deal.” Theresa May made measures on global heating one of the themes of the final few weeks of her premiership, legislating for a new target of achieving zero net emissions by 2050. But the issue of protecting biodiversity has also become increasingly salient in recent months, aided by the Extinction Rebellion campaign. Johnson will say the climate crisis and biodiversity are “two sides of the same coin”. “The current global biodiversity targets have failed to stop the catastrophic decline in species. As the world’s largest economies we owe it to all nations and to future generations to do better,” he will say. “We cannot sit back as animals and plants are wiped off the face of the planet by mankind’s recklessness. If we do not act now our children and grandchildren will never know a world with the Great Barrier Reef, the Sumatran tiger or the black rhino. Johnson will also underline the UK’s calls for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected by 2030. However, the government’s commitment to the environment was questioned after weekend reports that No 10 was drawing up plans to cut fuel duty. The manifesto-friendly measure would be aimed at winning over motorists, and has long been advocated by campaigning MPs, including the Tory Robert Halfon. But green groups cautioned that encouraging car use would be a backward step. Aaron Kiely, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “It doesn’t add up for the government to commit to global biodiversity and pay the usual lip-service to the climate emergency while cutting fuel duty at home. Nothing short of radical changes are needed right now and getting off our oil addiction is long overdue. All the more reason why effectively encouraging more driving – probably to keep a segment of voters happy – shows a fundamental lack of seriousness. “Funding to protect the Amazon is not to be sniffed at but better yet, we could listen to the indigenous people who live there and know perfectly well what is needed to prevent a worsening crisis: leave their land alone. Climate change is a problem everywhere and cohesive policy that applies at home as well as elsewhere is needed from this government.” The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, also appeared wary of the idea of a fuel duty cut when asked about the policy on Sky News on Sunday. He said it was a matter for the chancellor, Sajid Javid, before talking up plans to increase the use of electric cars. | ['politics/boris-johnson', 'world/g7', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'global-development/aid', 'environment/deforestation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/heatherstewart', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-25T21:30:20Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2023/nov/13/ofgem-rules-zombie-projects-grid-wind-solar | Ofgem plans to cut wind and solar delays by stripping out ‘zombie’ projects | The energy regulator is to introduce rules designed to kick out “zombie” wind and solar farms from the lengthy queue to connect to Great Britain’s electricity grid. Ofgem hopes to speed up the process of hooking up new energy projects to the electricity network in the face of a backlog that is deterring investment and Britain’s attempts to switch to clean energy. At the moment, projects are connected to the grid on a first come, first served basis – leaving some developers waiting up to 15 years to produce power for the country’s homes and businesses. In certain cases, developers have been granted a contract allowing them a grid connection for a location, but have not progressed the project, possibly with the aim of selling the connection on at a later date. The projects include onshore and offshore wind, solar farms and battery storage businesses, and the first terminations are expected next year. The regulator said on Monday it would hand National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO), which controls the process, the power to terminate projects that were not progressing against their specific milestones, including proof of funding or planning permission. It will apply to all projects with a connection date after November 2025. The ESO has said that between 60% and 70% of projects in the queue “ultimately fail to materialise or connect”. The number of projects waiting in line rose from 600 in May to 1,000 by September. The average time between requesting a connection and being offered one has increased from 18 months in 2019-20 to five years in 2023. Ofgem said that, if the current projects in the queue were all developed, it would generate 400 gigawatts (GW) of power, far outstripping the UK’s existing power capacity of about 65GW. However, more than 40% of that is in held-up contracts with connection dates of 2030 or later; some are as late as 2037. Eleanor Warburton, an Ofgem director, said: “The transition to net zero demands urgent changes to the electricity connections system – or we cannot unlock investment, speed up network build and accelerate new technology. “This is a big step towards phasing out the first come, first served queueing system. We want new power on the grid as quickly as possible, so if you’re ready, you can connect sooner. “If you’re not ready and are blocking the progress of others, you’ll be removed – you can’t sit on the queue with no consequences.” Julian Leslie, the chief engineer and head of networks at the ESO, said: “We warmly welcome these new rules approved by Ofgem enabling us to proactively terminate zombie projects in the connections queue.” Earlier this year, National Grid offered an “amnesty” to developers to allow them to get out of the queue for a grid connection with no financial penalty. Its chief executive, John Pettigrew, said last week that this had cut 5GW from the backlog. The government is stepping up efforts to encourage green developers after its most recent clean energy auction proved a flop, with no offshore windfarms taking part. It is now expected to offer higher subsidies to the companies, which have faced rising costs. A package of measures to speed up grid connections is expected to be announced in the chancellor’s autumn statement on 22 November. Separately, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said on Monday that the oil market remained “healthy”, despite a weakening in prices to $82 (£67) a barrel for Brent crude from highs of nearly $98 in late September. The group of oil-producing nations said strong Chinese imports and “robust” trading were supporting the market despite concern about economic growth and demand. Oil prices have also been in focus amid the Israel-Hamas war. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/ofgem', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-11-13T15:34:45Z | true | ENERGY |
housing-network/2014/jun/03/10-lessons-europe-energy-efficiency | The 10 things we can learn from Europe about energy efficiency | Across Europe a green building revolution is under way. Germany and Austria, the home of the Passive House standards, may be leading the charge but there is a reassuringly pan-European feel to Powerhouse Europe challenge – a project that aims to boost the number of "nearly zero energy" homes across the continent by sharing ideas and expertise between social housing professionals. Run by Cecodhas-Housing Europe, with partners including the National Housing Federation, the project is at the halfway stage. It's a good time to take stock and understand what our neighbours can teach us about boosting energy efficiency in our own housing stock. Here are the 10 lessons we've learned so far: 1. Housing associations can retrofit at scale With 70% of Europe's 2050 housing stock already built, any attempt to deliver energy efficiency must look at retrofit. However, individual homeowners do not represent a large enough market to develop retrofit technology at scale. Housing associations with their large stock portfolios, either individually or in partnership with other, are best placed to make retrofit happen. 2. We can now retrofit off-site Off-site manufacturing has long been used to build new homes, while retrofit has focused more on incremental improvement to existing properties. The Dutch Energiesprong (literally, energy jump) system changes this by delivering retrofit in one off-site manufactured package. It recognises that, from a property management perspective, you want to refurbish a building only once every three decades rather than in small steps over many years. As the retrofit principally adds a new building envelope to the existing structure it can take place in a week, and without residents needing to leave their home. 3. Funding matters The lack of available finance for new development or refurbishment is the biggest barrier to implementation of nearly zero energy housing. Funding models identified in a recent Powerhouse and National Housing Federation report included loans, pay-as-you-save schemes, guarantee programmes and energy service companies established to find finance. Energiesprong, for example, utilises fixed energy allowances (as opposed to often meaningless energy performance labels) with 10-year performance guarantees from contractors and their suppliers which allow the creation of tradable, structured finance products to reduce the risk of investment in housing. 4. Economic fragility need not hold us back The Brussels L'Espoir project created a community land trust to house 14 low-income families in energy efficient houses built using wood and other ecological materials, on a plot of land in one of the city's most disadvantaged areas. Thermal solar panels, an extensive green roof, a rainwater cistern, as well as climbing plants are all part of the ecological arsenal of the building. 5. Think outside the building From shading in summer to grey water recycling, integrated landscaping plays an important role in energy efficiency. If you only look at the building you're failing to capitalise on all your assets. Hammarby Sjöstad, a 10,000 home eco-friendly town extension to Stockholm, is thought to be the most sustainable urban development in the world. Better land use was prioritised as one of six goals for the development. Similarly, Ackermannbogen in Munich used landscape to decrease the urban heat island effect and integrated renewable energy sources into the surrounding area. 6. There is a market – and it's growing We need to talk about energy prices. There is some good news: UK energy prices are low compared with mainland Europe. But the bad news is that prices are predicted to rise substantially in the next 20 years. Nevertheless, low energy building materials and micro-generation technologies are continuing to decrease in cost. For far-sighted organisations, developing the skills and understanding required to make use of these emerging technologies now could pay dividends in the future. 7. Energy consumption might actually go up Too often, citizens across Europe are forced to choose between rent, food and heating. By reducing the cost of energy, nearly zero energy housing can help take the pressure off household bills. However, even the 15-50 kWh/m2/year required for passive housing is higher than not turning on the heating at all. This leads to a rebound effect: where residents have previously made ends meet by not using heating or electricity, there can actually be a rise in energy use as it becomes more affordable. 8. Train your contractors in new tech Training and certification of building professionals is essential to deliver at anything beyond demonstration scale. "Nearly zero" is an innovation technology and as such requires the right skills to guarantee its delivery. 9. Train your residents in how to save energy "I sometimes have the impression that low energy housing engineers feel that people should stay outside, so that they do not interfere with the perfect energy-efficient house they have created," says Ralf Protz of Kompetenzzentrum in Berlin. Housing should be people led. Residents must be able to understand the technology used in their home and feel comfortable making decisions about the house. The new-build Lodenareal estate in Innsbruck offered resident training not just at the point of moving in but six months later to account for seasonal variations in climate and energy needs. 10. We're on a common journey – but we're travelling at different speeds It's important to remember that progress towards energy efficiency is moving at different speeds and subject to very different political, fiscal, sociological and geographic conditions across countries. Projects such as the Powerhouse challenge provide a great opportunity for housing providers across Europe to share learning, gather accurate performance data and make progress on energy efficiency throughout Europe. Steve Cole is a project coordinator at the National Housing Federation. • Want your say? Email housingnetwork@theguardian.com to suggest contributions to the network. Interested in housing? Join the housing network for more news, analysis and comment direct to you. | ['housing-network/housing-network', 'housing-network/sustainable-housing', 'housing-network/housing-network-blog', 'housing-network/case-studies', 'tone/blog', 'society/social-housing', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'society-professionals/society-professionals', 'type/article'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-06-03T09:50:18Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2024/may/01/protect-river-wye-pollution-swimming-catch-22 | All we wanted was to protect the River Wye from pollution. Now we’re stuck in a catch-22 | Oliver Bullough | The state of Britain’s rivers is incredibly depressing: the water companies dump too much sewage, the farmers dump too much muck, and the regulators are too cowed and underfunded to do their job and stop them. It wasn’t always this way. As a child I used to swim in the River Wye and I remember the clouds of mayflies in the summer, as well as huge leaping salmon. It was thanks to this wealth of wildlife that the Wye was classified as a special area of conservation along its whole length. Sadly, however, thanks to the failure of the Welsh and British governments to protect the river, much of this abundance is gone, and the Wye’s official status is now “unfavourable – declining”, thanks to pollution from manure and sewage. This deterioration has not gone unnoticed by the rivers’ visitors: swimmers regularly complain about getting upset stomachs after they venture into the water. My kids still swim in the Wye, but many of their friends’ parents are too concerned about them getting sick to allow them in. It feels as though our river is being taken away from us. Fortunately, we citizens have a tool we can use to oblige politicians to take notice and force regulators to do their job. By law, the water quality of any stretch of river that is officially designated as having “bathing status” must be checked, and if it’s deemed to be poor, the government must take steps to improve it. And what are the grounds for designation? “Large numbers of bathers at sites during the period 15 May to 30 September,” according to the Welsh government’s guidance. All you need to do is gather evidence that people swim somewhere and then apply for status; so we at Friends of the River Wye, a group set up by local people to monitor the river’s health, decided to do just that. Over the summer of 2022, our volunteers regularly visited the Warren, a popular bathing spot just upstream of Hay-on-Wye, and recorded how many people were swimming, fishing, using the beach and canoeing. We consulted local businesses and residents, environmental groups, the town council, everyone we could think of. A year ago, we submitted the application. We were confident that we would gain designation. On just one day in July, we recorded 150 people on the beach, 32 people swimming, eight people canoeing and six people paddling, which was definitely enough to count as a “large number”. Even in May and September, we had recorded people in the water. We had support from local members of the Senedd and from the House of Commons; from local canoeing companies, campsites, the Wildlife Trust and more. The Welsh government, which makes a lot of its supposed commitment to “future generations”, claims that improving water quality is a key priority, so we would presumably be pushing at an open door. If we were to achieve designation, the implications would be enormous. The Warren is only a few hundred metres from the border of Wales and England, but the Wye drains much of mid-Wales. By forcing the government to improve water quality there, we would be forcing it to improve the entire Welsh catchment of the Wye. Politicians in Cardiff would actually have to do something to protect this special area of conservation. But last week they turned us down, on grounds that made the frustration even worse. The Welsh government is apparently concerned that having bathers in the river will harm the environment, considering its protected status and the Warren’s position as a site of special scientific interest. “While there is appropriate evidence on the number of bathers at the Warren,” the government said in its letter to us, “there are significant concerns regarding the environmental impacts on the site should it be designated as a bathing water.” This is an absurd, catch-22 situation. The only way to protect the river is to prove people swim in it – but to have people actually in the water, according to the Welsh government, is to environmentally endanger it. The truth is that the Warren is already a popular spot to swim – bathing status or not. The stretch of river is famous, having been recommended as a bathing site in guidebooks for decades, and in publications ranging from the Daily Mail to Condé Nast Traveller. In the summer, dozens of people swim there every day, tourists as well as us locals cooling off after work. Dozens more people canoe past on their way downstream. The only real impact of granting bathing status to the stretch of river would be to force the government to protect the health of the people who use it by improving the quality of the water. That would also give the Wye’s birds, mammals, fish, plants and insects a chance to thrive in a river that’s not being used as a waste-disposal chute. Earlier this month, the Conservative government in London published an “action plan” to improve the Wye that didn’t even mention the need to enforce the environmental rules that are supposed to protect the river. Now, by refusing our bathing water request, the Labour government in Cardiff is using environmental safeguards it is failing to enforce as an excuse not to protect the river. It is infuriating, but we must use their intransigence as a spur to action. If apathy about this environmental emergency is shared by both main parties, we citizens need to become ever more ready to force politicians to do what is needed to protect our rivers. Oliver Bullough is the author of Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/wales', 'uk-news/england', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/oliverbullough', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-05-01T09:00:54Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
cleantechrevolution2009/introduction | Introduction | The main growth areas for jobs and industry, both within the UK and for export, come from expertise in low- carbon technologies. But how can Britain use its unparalleled inventive skills to lead the world in this sector? Seven years ago saw the launch of the Carbon Trust, a government-backed company set up to utilise Britain's low-carbon skills by fostering ideas and inventions from their infancy, enabling already existing technologies to find backing, and putting together teams of people with the necessary skills to make, finance and market low-carbon products. The key aim is to turn good ideas into financial successes. Work is progressing but the trust is looking at a 50-year time frame - the period within which the world's carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by 80% to prevent dangerous climate change. So how will this all be delivered and who is already doing it? In this supplement we look at examples of green technology companies that the trust has helped get off the ground, whether in terms of product development or business sense and see the difference it has made to the people involved. For those inventors with an idea, a product in development or an efficient, functioning, new technology, the Carbon Trust Innovation awards (page 2) offer the chance to gain recognition and the invaluable boost that a win would mean for their project. We look at the ideas of the three main political parties - with comments from Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - on how to tackle climate while helping British companies emerge stronger from the recession. And we pick the brains of two leading experts. In the past, the UK has been notorious for having ideas without successfully making money from them - probably a hangover from when making money somehow felt wrong for academics and researchers. All too frequently, it was left to companies overseas to cash in on British inventiveness. Serial entrepreneur and inventor James Dyson explains how to turn invention into opportunity, while Dr Neil Bentley, the CBI's director of business environment, explains why the UK must take the lead in this area. | ['cleantechrevolution2009/launch-supplement', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/carbon-challenge', 'theguardian/carbon-challenge/carbon-challenge'] | theguardian/carbon-challenge | EMISSIONS | 2009-07-08T23:01:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
money/2019/apr/20/whats-the-best-thing-to-do-with-an-old-diesel-car | What's the best thing to do with an old diesel car? | Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper. I have a 15-year-old diesel car in south London. I live in the new ultra-low emission zone, which from 2021 will mean I have to pay £12.50 a day. I could sell it, but it’s probably worth less than £1,000. Will it be worthless by 2021? I could pass it to my 22-year-old son, in Shropshire, but I suppose that’s just exporting the pollution. What’s the best thing to do with an old diesel car? Do you have a problem readers could solve? Email your suggestions to money@theguardian.com or write to us at Money, the Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. | ['money/series/youre-the-expert', 'money/motoring', 'money/money', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-04-20T06:00:18Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2015/oct/04/south-carolina-flood-governor-nikki-haley-deaths-thousand-year | Eight dead as South Carolina hit by 'once in a millennium' floods | A “once-in-a-millennium” downpour has flooded large parts of South Carolina, causing at least seven deaths. The storm had dumped more than 18 inches (45 cm) of rain in parts of central South Carolina by early Sunday. The state climatologist forecast another 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 cm) through Monday as the rainfall began to slacken. The state’s governor, Nikki Haley, said parts of the state were hit with rainfall that would be expected to occur once in 1,000 years, with the Congaree river running at its highest level since 1936. “This is the worst flooding in the low country [the region around the South Carolina coast] for a thousand years, that’s how big this is,” Haley told a news conference. “That’s what South Carolina is dealing with right now. “Our goal is all hands on deck. If you are in your house, stay in your house,” Haley told a news conference. “This is not something to be out taking pictures of.” Six weather-related deaths were reported in South Carolina, three of them from traffic accidents. Officials reported another two deaths in North Carolina. Though hurricane Joaquin did not hit the Carolinas and the rest of the southern US east coast as expected, instead passing out to sea over the Atlantic after battering the Bahamas, thousands in the state were still left without power by the rain. Officials in the state capital, Columbia, said 100 people had been rescued by mid-morning Sunday from vehicles after trying to cross flooded roads. Police said another 200 rescue calls were pending and state officials reported a total of 200 swift-water rescues around South Carolina. Haley said all interstate highways in and around Columbia would be closed, as 600 national guardsmen were deployed to help with rescues and evacuations. On Saturday, president Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for South Carolina, freeing up federal funds to be used to tackle the floods. On Sunday the state’s the emergency management spokesman, Eric Rousey, told CNN South Carolina was dealing with “a historic flood the likes of which we haven’t seen”. High winds toppled a tree that hit a vehicle and killed a passenger on Thursday near Fayetteville in North Carolina. Three people died in weather-related traffic accidents in South Carolina on Friday and Saturday, the state highway patrol said, and a drowning in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was also linked to the storm. On Sunday most rescue efforts were centered on Dorchester and Charleston. The city of Georgetown was also heavily affected. Amidst record rainfall across the state, Charleston mayor Joe Riley told the Associated Press it appeared the torrential rain has passed but moderate rain could continue for 24 hours, and said he had never seen such flooding in his 40 years as mayor. The rainfall in Charleston on Saturday was measured at 11.5in, a record. “This was a record storm,” Riley said. “I feel very fortunate that we were able to get through this as well as we have.” Haley’s reference to the flooding being the “worst in a thousand years” did not mean that South Carolina, which became a colony in 1663 and a state in 1788, had not seen such flooding since 1015 AD. The reference was to the expectation among forecasters that in any given 1,000 years, such flooding could reasonably be expected to occur only once. | ['us-news/south-carolina', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-weather', 'type/article', 'profile/martin-pengelly'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-10-05T01:15:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/animal-magic/2017/jun/08/vaquita-porpoises-are-fast-dying-out-can-a-radical-rescue-plan-save-them | #WorldOceansDay: vaquita porpoises are fast dying out - can a radical rescue plan save them? | In a few months, conservationists will converge on the Gulf of California in a last-ditch effort to save the vaquita from extinction, a species of tiny porpoise. The scientists face an unprecedented challenge: to bring as many vaquita into captivity as possible. When the Vaquita CPR rescue plan was announced back in April, I interviewed several scientists for Nature News. At that point, the best estimate was that there were just 30 vaquita left. It now looks like there are fewer than this. At the end of April, members of the Comité Internacional para la Recuperación de la Vaquita (CIRVA) met in La Jolla, California to review the latest data. Between 6 March and 17 April this year, acoustic monitors set in the Gulf of California recorded the vocalisations of just two vaquita, “far fewer than expected based on detection levels in 2016.” A further two individuals were sighted on 1 May. But, according to the report from the CIRVA meeting published last month, “these observations indicate that the extremely small vaquita population has been further reduced in size in the past few months.” Indeed, between 2015 and 2016, the population halved from 60 to 30 and “this trend appears to be continuing in 2017.” That would mean that there could just be 15 left by the end of the year. The porpoise decline is mainly because they are being caught and drowned in gillnets set in the in the Gulf for huge bass-like fish called the totoaba. In 2015, the Mexican government imposed a two-year ban on this fishery. “Thanks to the two-year ban we still have vaquita,” Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho of the Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climatico in Ensenada, Mexico and chair of the Comité Internacional para la Recuperación de la Vaquita (CIRVA) told me back in April. “Without it we wouldn’t have anything by now.” But as the totoaba’s swim bladder can fetch tens of thousands of dollars on the black market in China, there are plenty of fisherman prepared to flout the ban. “There’s so much money in the black market for the totoaba’s swim bladder. Nobody has been able to control illegal fishing 100%.” With gillnets still in place and the vaquita population in freefall, there is a real urgency. The first step of the rescue plan will be to catch as many of the remaining vaquita as possible. This will take place in October when the Gulf is relatively calm and sightings are easier to make. The idea is to transfer any captured vaquita by vessel small pens set in the Gulf until the immediate danger posed by gillnets has been removed. The project will involve many firsts. Nobody has ever attempted to catch a vaquita alive. Nobody has ever transported a live vaquita. Nobody has ever kept a vaquita in captivity. And nobody, therefore, has ever overseen captive breeding in this species. But with Mexico’s Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) committing $3 million to the rescue operation in April and the The Association of Zoos and Aquariums raising an additional $1 million, there are funds in place. Scientists and conservationists from all round the world are also bringing a wide range of expertise to the project. “If this works it’s because we have the best minds and the most committed people, many working pro bono,” said Rojas-Bracho. “If something fails that we didn’t forsee, it will be hard to imagine any other group guessing this was going to happen.” For more information on the Vaquita CPR initiative and to make a donation, visit the National Marine Mammal Foundation. To petition Mexico’s president Peña Nieto in an effort to strengthen enforcement of the gillnet ban, there are petitions at both AVAAZ and change.org. | ['science/animal-magic', 'science/series/science-blog-network', 'environment/porpoises', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/marine-life', 'science/science', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'tone/news', 'profile/henry-nicholls', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-science'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-06-08T12:39:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2019/aug/11/travel-trains-winds-floods-chaos | Winds and floods cause travel disruption for second day | Rail passengers have endured a second day of disruption, this time caused by severe winds and flooding rather than power outages. After travellers recovered from delays of up to 12 hours on Friday following the National Grid failure, weather caused chaos in the national rail network, ports and roads. The most high-profile victim was the west coast mainline between Scotland and England, closed after a foot of water submerged tracks between Carlisle and Lockerbie. Earlier, Network Rail imposed speed restrictions on many routes, particularly in coastal areas, where winds reached 60mph and several uprooted trees blocked lines. Passengers trying to cross the English Channel were delayed by up to five hours by the high winds. Ferries queued outside the port of Dover until tug boats could guide them in. In central London, gusts felled a massive tree in Russell Square, blocking a road and diverting bus routes. Weather warnings were issued for much of the UK with forecasts of thunderstorms in Scotland and Northern Ireland and strong winds across Wales and most of England. As the latest disruption unfolded, travellers stranded in trains outside London on Friday for more than eight hours spoke of their frustration. At King’s Cross station, closed on Friday evening to avoid overcrowding, passengers exchanged horror stories from the day before. Joshua Carr, a stage manager, told the Observer he had been trapped on a train from Edinburgh to King’s Cross for nine “painful” hours. “We didn’t move for three hours and didn’t arrive until 1:45am,” he said. A freelance journalist travelling to London from Scotland described being stuck for more than 12 hours after the train left Edinburgh. Dayna McAlpine said her London North Eastern Railway train, stationary for hours outside King’s Cross, quickly ran out of provisions: “We ran out of food around 7pm – parents were going up and down the train carriages looking for food for their children.” As rail bosses struggled to get the network running, a watchdog urged rail passengers to claim compensation. David Sidebottom, director of independent transport user group Transport Focus, said: “Passengers who heeded advice not to travel should claim delay-repay compensation to get their money back, including those using a season ticket.” Across most of the country, the weather is likely to be more settled today with showers and some patches of sunshine breaking through. | ['uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'uk/rail-transport', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'profile/marktownsend', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-08-11T08:00:42Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2016/apr/21/innovation-is-in-our-blood-how-south-australia-leads-the-way-on-renewables | 'Innovation is in our blood': how South Australia leads the way on renewables | Kathy Marks | The sunbaked streets of Snowtown were deserted when I drove up from Adelaide in late 2000, 18 months after the dismembered remains of eight people were found in barrels of acid in a disused bank vault. The gruesome discovery brought the glare of publicity to the little country town in South Australia’s mid north, and – although no one from Snowtown was among the murderers or victims – the unwelcome attention persisted for years, as the protracted trials were followed by a film and four books. Talk to any local, though, and they will tell you that even before those tragic events, the place, like many rural communities, was in decline. And they will also tell you that Snowtown, if not exactly booming, is nowadays much rejuvenated, in large part due to the gales that howl across the nearby Barunga and Hummock Ranges. In a state that leads the country – in fact, much of the world – in producing electricity from renewable sources, Snowtown is wind central. The first stage of a $660m, 270-megawatt farm, with 47 turbines, opened in 2008, 5km west of the town; the second, adding another 90 turbines, came on stream in 2014. Developed by New Zealand’s Trustpower, South Australia’s biggest wind facility – and Australia’s second biggest – created hundreds of construction jobs and 21 permanent positions. “They’ve taken people off the farms and out of the unemployment queues. They’re investing in Snowtown’s schools and sporting clubs,” says Ian Hunter, the state’s ebullient climate change minister. “They’re underpinning the economy of a place that was really doing it tough.” Altogether, South Australia has 16 wind farms, which generated just over a third of the state’s electricity in 2014–15; solar provided another 7%. The combined figure is set to climb past half this year, well ahead of the government’s 2025 target date. “If South Australia was a nation,” observes Alicia Webb, policy manager for the Clean Energy Council, the industry’s peak body, “it would be second only to Denmark.” Progressive policies have placed the state in the vanguard of change for much of its history, notes Hunter. “We don’t have the natural environmental advantages of the eastern states, the big water catchments and all the arable land,” he says. “So we’ve always had to be incredibly innovative. Innovation is in our blood.” Holden’s Elizabeth plant will close next year, and South Australia’s two remaining coal-fired power stations, at Port Augusta, are also due to shut imminently, with the Leigh Creek mine which supplies them already shuttered since November. The withering of these traditional industries, in a state with Australia’s highest unemployment rate (7.2%), has given extra impetus to the move to a modern, low-carbon economy. Political leaders, though, recognised the opportunities, as well as the challenges, long ago. In 2007, Mike Rann’s SA Labor government was the first in Australia to legislate emissions reduction and renewable energy targets. It was also the first to establish a feed-in tariff for rooftop solar (now installed on 28% of homes), and dedicated planning guidelines for wind farms: part of a policy and regulatory framework which has helped the state attract $6.6bn of clean-energy investment, 40% of it into regional areas. The government of Jay Weatherill, Rann’s equally zealous successor, has two new goals: $10bn of clean-tech investment by 2025 and zero net emissions by 2050. Such explicit objectives appeal to investors, “sending a strong signal that that’s the direction we’re heading in”, says Frank Jotzo, director of the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at the Australian National University, and one of three experts who advised the state on its new climate change strategy. As a pioneer, South Australia is being closely observed, and not always with benevolent intent. An incident last year in which the state was cut off from the grid, causing widespread blackouts and sky-high electricity spot prices, was seized on by critics of renewable energy as evidence of its unreliability. Although a piece of hardware linking the state’s grid with Victoria’s was to blame, the episode underlined South Australia’s dependence, on windless days, on “dirty” electricity from its eastern neighbour. “If Victoria then got rid of all its coal-fired power stations, you start looking a bit shaky,” suggests Tony Wood, director of the Grattan Institute’s energy program. Technical problems, such as voltage and frequency fluctuations, can occur when high levels of “intermittent” wind and solar enter the grid. Research and experience have demonstrated, however, that Australia’s network can accommodate far more variability than was previously thought, and grid stability will be vastly improved by battery storage, which enables energy to be stockpiled, then dispatched when needed. Multiple studies have also refuted the claim that renewables are incapable of supplying baseload power, the minimum required around the clock. South Australia’s achievements owe much to political continuity, with Labor in government since 2002. Nonetheless, says Richard Denniss, the Australia Institute’s chief economist, “they are hugely significant, because so much of the political influence of the polluter lobby stems from the argument that you can’t run a modern economy on renewable energy. Sub-national governments like South Australia are showing us that you obviously can.” This is an extract from Kathy Marks’s report New Power, New Realities published in Griffith Review 52: Imagining the Future edited by Julianne Schultz and Brendan Gleeson of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. Available from 27 April. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/south-australia', 'australia-news/south-australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/kathy-marks', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-04-21T05:22:10Z | true | ENERGY |
media-network/2015/jan/21/challenges-opportunities-change-uk-media | Rapid change brings challenges and opportunities for UK media | Everyone’s talking about the speed of change. Then again, I guess they always do. As the Advertising Association says, “we’re in the midst of a huge shift,” and the pressure this places on all of us is very apparent. Getting to grips with the fast-changing media environment, tackling issues of data transparency, working and viewable media, data protection and privacy are just a few things that might keep you awake at night. Navigating our way through all this requires a concerted and methodical approach if we’re to keep on top of these challenges and ensure our processes and policies are fit for purpose. That’s why I believe the Advertising Association plays an increasingly important role in representing the combined and varied interests of the advertising, marketing and creative industries. They’ve substantiated the benefits, financial and otherwise, that advertising brings to the UK economy, while persuasively putting its case and enabling us to discuss many of the issues and hot topics that exist. I’m a supporter because in this day and age, we just can’t operate separately and expect any degree of success. We need to stand united, share our opinions, demonstrate our support, and work together to ensure we continue to build what is undeniably an amazing UK success story. It’s not easy of course, and at BT we’re very aware of the challenges we face. Indeed, this year looks set to be particularly challenging for agencies, advertisers and media owners alike. BT operates in a highly competitive and regulated market, so we’re very conscious of the importance of walking that fine line of trust in the way we behave and do business. I’m a strong believer in the need to balance commercial freedoms with responsibility, so whilst self-regulation is obviously important and beneficial, it also brings with it possible dangers; appearing reactive, defensive, out of touch, and even plain irresponsible. With a general election just around the corner, we have to take this very seriously if we don’t want to find the decisions that matter being taken out of our hands. For instance, diversity is obviously a vital part of the Advertsiing Association remit, and rightly so. As an industry we can’t afford to get this wrong; we have a responsibility to ensure that everything we do is representative if we want to be viewed as a positive force in society and avoid the obvious and justifiable criticism that we’ll face otherwise. I was proud to be chosen in Marketing Magazine’s Power 100, one of 30 women. While better than many, as an industry we should also ensure we are ourselves fairly representative. There are certainly challenging times ahead. But as one of the UK’s larger advertisers we face this with relish; BT is itself becoming something of a challenger brand through TV and sport, global business networks, and soon in mobile. The speed of change certainly does throw up challenges, but as a company, and as an industry, we must see these as opportunities if we are to compete, succeed, and continue to build this world-beating industry as something the country can be rightly proud of. Suzi Williams is director of group marketing and brand at BT | ['media-network/media-network', 'media/media', 'business/btgroup', 'business/business', 'business/telecoms', 'technology/big-data', 'technology/mobilephones', 'type/article'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-01-21T07:20:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global/2008/sep/16/wildlife | Prehistoric ant discovered alive in Amazon rainforest | An ancient ancestor of ants has been discovered living in the soils of the Amazon rainforest. The species, named Martialis heureka, or "ant from Mars", because of its unusual features, is a pale-bodied, blind predator that uses oversized jaws to capture prey. Ants evolved 120m years ago from wasp-like ancestors and rapidly adapted to living in soil, trees and leaf litter. Genetic tests on the 3mm-long species show it emerged at the very earliest stages of ant evolution, said Christian Rabeling at the University of Texas at Austin. His study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. | ['environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/science', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/zoology', 'science/biology', 'environment/insects', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-09-16T08:09:56Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/dec/28/from-scotland-to-madagascar-with-love-safe-havens-for-worlds-rarest-duck | From Scotland to Madagascar with love: safe havens for world's rarest duck | Two floating cages from Scottish salmon farms have been transformed into a safe haven for the world’s rarest duck, which was driven to the brink of extinction by fish farming. Twenty-one Madagascar pochards, an unobtrusive brown duck that for 15 years was believed to be extinct, have been released on to a lake in northern Madagascar. The captive-bred ducks spent a week in the custom-made aviaries on Lake Sofia to encourage them to become accustomed to their new surroundings and make it their home. The ducks, which dive to find food, have also been trained to feed from submerged, floating feeding stations that only they can access. The pioneering reintroduction by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Peregrine Fund and the Madagascan government comes 12 years after the apparently extinct species was rediscovered by chance. Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, the local director of the Peregrine Fund, was working on the conservation of another rare bird, the Madagascar harrier, when he spotted the duck on a remote crater lake high in the mountains. Tropical ducks are far less colourful than their northern counterparts because unpredictable weather means they need to be able to breed all year round and so the males do not acquire colourful feathers for annual mating rituals. Ornithologists soon realised that the last surviving 25 or so ducks were breeding successfully, but their ducklings were never reaching maturity because the lake was too deep and cold for the young birds to survive and find food. In 2009, Durrell, WWT and partners took one-day-old chicks from the lake to rear in captivity at a nearby breeding centre. The captive population has been painstakingly increased to 114 live birds today. According to Glyn Young, Durrell’s head of birds, the pochard declined to the brink of extinction because non-native fish species were introduced to Madagascar wetlands for fish farming. “It looks as though introduced fish across Madagascar are largely responsible for the decline of the duck,” he said. Carp released into the wetlands stirred up the water so the diving ducks could not find food so easily, and herbivorous fish such as tilapia stripped crucial vegetation from the lakes. In 2017, Scottish salmon farming cages were converted into the world’s first floating pre-release aviaries and shipped from the UK to Madagascar, where they were assembled on Lake Sofia this spring. The first ducklings were transferred to shore-based aviaries in October, and moved into the floating aviaries in early December. They are now swimming freely on the lake. It is hoped that the floating aviary and feeding stations will encourage the ducks to remain on Lake Sofia and breed. Conservationists have been working to ensure the habitat is more suitable than other lakes badly degraded by fish farming. Conservationists said the support of the local community living around the lake – who depend on it for fish – had been vital to the project. WWT’s head of conservation breeding, Nigel Jarrett, said: “Working with local communities to solve the issues which were driving this bird to extinction has been essential to giving the pochard a chance of survival. “If we can make this work, it will provide a powerful example not just of how to save the planet’s most threatened species, but how communities can manage an ecosystem to benefit people and wildlife, especially in areas of significant poverty.” Young added: “The restoration programme at Lake Sofia will encourage others in Madagascar to no longer look at the island’s wetlands as lost causes. They may once again be centres of biodiversity while continuing to support communities of people who have also come to depend on them.” | ['environment/birds', 'world/madagascar', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/food', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/africa', 'uk/scotland', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-12-28T12:32:41Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/mar/22/climate-change-warnings-coral-reef-great-barrier-reef-experts-projections-scientists | Climate change warnings for coral reef may have come to pass, scientists say | After almost two years of coral bleaching, with some reefs bleaching twice and possibly three times since 2014, scientists have said that dire predictions of global coral decline made almost two decades ago may now be manifest. The rolling underwater heatwave has now arrived upon the Great Barrier Reef, with mass die-offs expected along the northern quarter of the world’s preeminent coral ecosystem. Professor Nick Graham of Lancaster University said the devastation worldwide was probably now on the same scale as the worst ever bleaching on record, which occurred during 1997-98 and wiped out 16% of the world’s reefs in a single year. “This is the big one that we’ve been waiting for. This is the 1997-98 equivalent, which we’ve been anticipating for a long time,” said the coral scientist. The full impact could not be known until the event had finally ended, added Graham. Models predict it will now head west into the Indian Ocean and could continue in the Pacific until early 2017. Dr Mark Eakin, the head of the US government’s Coral Reef Watch programme, said this year’s massive bleach conformed with a prediction made by Australian scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg in the wake of the 1998 event. Back then, Hoegh-Guldberg predicted coral reefs would catastrophically decline by the middle to end of this century as oceans warmed and bleaching events became an annual occurrence on most reefs. “What we’re seeing now is unfortunately saying that Ove’s paper was not alarmist,” said Eakin. “This year is especially telling. In the past, big bleaching events happened pretty much during the course of a year. This current bleaching event started in mid-2014.” Eakin said many scientist had predicted two or three-year-long events would not begin occurring until the 2020s: “Yet here we are now with back-to-back to sometimes-back-again bleaching.” Coral bleaching occurs when the ocean temperature surpasses a natural threshold causing the tiny animals, called zooxanthellae, that give coral its brilliance to desert their polyp homes – leaving them bone white. Recovery tends to be patchy and slow. The concern that coral scientists hold for the future is that bleaching events will pile one atop the other, giving reefs no time to rebuild. But Graham held out some hope for the resilience of the reefs. He said that despite smaller bleaching events occurring throughout the past two decades, the next really massive event hadn’t come “as soon as Ove feared it would”. This had allowed some reefs time to bounce back. “After 1998 we were worried that they were going to become frequent quite quickly,” he said. “It’s been 18 years until this event which has been a blessing.” Robbed of the zooxanthellae that clear the corals of intrusive plants, some of the reefs bleached in the past two years will be taken over by weeds and algae, strangling any hope they can return. “But others will [recover],” said Graham. “Then the real question mark is how frequent these events are going to be. If it’s another 18 to 20 years until we get the next one, then a lot of reefs will have time to bounce back.” Both the 1998 event and this year have been related to very strong El Niño patterns – which wash warm water across the Pacific Ocean and trigger increased heat around the world. El Niño cycles are fickle, but turn roughly every two to seven years. But the last huge one was in 1998. “If these super El Niños occur on timescales shorter than a decade then I think that’s when we’re really going to start seeing the ratcheting down of a lot more reefs,” said Graham. Great uncertainty exists around the effect climate change will have on El Niño. Mat Collins, joint chair in climate change at the UK’s Met Office, said current models showed no consensus over whether the frequency or intensity of the cycle would increase, decrease or remain the same. However, predicting the behaviour of El Niño was incredibly complex and “we might see differences in future climate models as they improve”. Even so, El Niño is no longer the only cause of bleaching. In 2005 and 2010, large coral bleaching events occurred independently of the Pacific warming cycle. “As the temperature is creeping upwards [because of climate change], it takes less of an El Niño ... to cause a lot of bleaching,” said Eakin. “What we would have considered stressful temperatures back in the 1980s have become relatively normal summer temperatures now. That doesn’t mean the corals don’t mind it because a lot of them in fact are bleaching repeatedly.” The threat of an increasingly hot world has driven some adaptation among coral species and communities. Counterintuitively, being exposed to bleaching has actually made some reefs more resilient. This is because in some circumstances, the most fragile species of coral are killed off and stronger ones take over. “But in the process, you’re losing biodiversity, which is a big problem,” said Eakin. “The whole question is: are temperatures rising faster than corals are able to adapt? And the answer so far seems to be ‘yes’.” Ultimately, he said, the determining factor for reefs would be human efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If the world could limit warming to 1.5C above normal, the toughest target outlined by the recent Paris climate agreement, then reefs could stand a chance. “Even at 2C [which governments have agreed to hold temperatures to] we are going to be seeing the loss of a lot of coral reefs around the world,” he said. | ['environment/series/eco-audit', 'environment/coral', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/world', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/karl-mathiesen'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-03-22T11:40:44Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
politics/2009/jan/28/andrew-slaughter-resignation | Government aide quits to join rebels on eve of Commons vote on Heathrow expansion | A government aide has resigned in protest at the decision to expand Heathrow. In an interview with the Guardian, Andrew Slaughter, parliamentary private secretary to the Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown, said he had resigned to be able to vote with the Conservatives in the Commons today against plans to go ahead with the £9bn expansion, which will see the number of flights increase from 480,000 to about 605,000 a year. The government would not give the Commons a vote on the issue, but the Tories have used parliamentary privilege to table an opposition day debate today. Yesterday Labour and Conservative sources indicated that they did not expect the government to be defeated. However, the resignation of Slaughter - whose west London constituency will be irrevocably changed by the Heathrow expansion - and the likely scale of any rebellion will illustrate the fragile nature of the support for the policy. Former minister Lord Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, who is known to oppose the third runway on environmental grounds, said yesterday that he believed the coalition of Tory, Liberal Democrat and environmentalists' opposition meant there was a "very big chance" the third runway at Heathrow would never go ahead. The government approved the project despite deep unhappiness at cabinet level and on its own backbenches, and despite the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats positioning themselves against the policy. Though today's vote is non-binding, it is the first opportunity for those opposed to the move to register the scale of dissent. Government sources have said that the unlikely prospect of its being defeated in any opposition day debate had played a part in the decision to expand Heathrow, with government whips visibly canvassing Labour backbench voting intentions during the statement made by the transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, on 15 January. Explaining his decision to step down from the PPS position he has held since Gordon Brown became prime minister in June 2007, Slaughter, MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, told the Guardian: "It's a quality of life issue - they are effectively building a new airport with its flight path over my constituents in west London, who are currently not troubled by aircraft noise. There are other issues, both local and national. For one, I doubt the surface transport network will cope." Slaughter had been due to resign at the time the government announced its intention to push ahead with the third runway, but was persuaded not to by the prime minister, who personally assured him he would supply the MP with further information on behalf of his constituents. Ministers concerned about the effect that expansion could have on environmental targets squeezed concessions from the government, with the eventual package including an initial cap on additional flights from the new runway at 125,000 a year and a pledge that any new slots after that point would be "green slots", allocated only to airlines which use the newest, least-polluting aircraft. There would also be a new target that aircraft emissions would be lower in 2050 than in 2005. Yesterday, Labour rebels and Conservatives accepted that the government was unlikely to be defeated. Some Labour MPs once opposed to the expansion have been won round by the government's eventual package and by personal conversations with the prime minister and cabinet ministers. One rebel said: "I would be disappointed if we didn't get 30 and pleased if we got 40. Three to four Tories will vote against their party but the Ulster Unionists won't bother, so the government will not be defeated." Tories David Wilshire and Ian Taylor are likely to vote against their party and with the government. In a reflection of the cross-department tension, Hoon will open proceedings for the government today but climate change secretary Ed Miliband will wrap up the debate. A number of MPs yesterday complained to the Commons authorities about the "email bombing" of MPs by Greenpeace. The Labour MP David Taylor protested and the Speaker, Michael Martin, called it a "serious matter". One Labour rebel said: "Greenpeace hasn't helped swell our ranks. Now a couple of people are using it as an excuse." | ['politics/transport', 'politics/planning', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/houseofcommons', 'politics/politics', 'environment/heathrow-third-runway', 'environment/environment', 'travel/heathrow', 'travel/travel', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/transport', 'world/air-transport', 'type/article', 'profile/allegrastratton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-01-28T00:01:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
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