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global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jul/28/horn-africa-drought-warning | The Horn of Africa crisis is a warning to the world | Jeffrey Sachs | The crisis in the Horn of Africa is a profound human disaster in the making and a warning to the world. More than 11 million Africans, mainly pastoralists in the dry lands of Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and neighbouring countries, are at risk of starvation after two failed rainy seasons. They need urgent help to stay alive, and governments and NGOs are in place to deliver that help if the needed financing is confirmed immediately. An estimated $1bn is needed urgently, equal to $1 from each person in the high-income world. The warning is also clear. The Horn of Africa is the world's most vulnerable region, beset by extreme poverty, hunger and global climate change, notably a drying and warming of the climate during the past quarter century. These scourges are leading to the spread of violence and war, and war is contributing to global instability. Unless we confront the challenges of the Horn of Africa at their root causes – the poverty and vulnerability of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist populations – we will face burgeoning violence in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and beyond. The world would be gravely endangered and the trillions of dollars that would eventually be spent on military responses would prove useless to stem to unrest. Hunger cannot be overcome with violence. The west has contributed to the region's crisis through global climate change that victimises the lives and livelihoods of the people of the region. It is time that we act to help the region strengthen the pastoralist economies in the face of these environmental threats. We must not only provide emergency aid but move beyond it, to help these impoverished regions escape from extreme poverty and become more resilient to climate change. By supporting the sustainable development of pastoralism in the Horn of Africa we will not only save lives but help to end wars and the spread of global instability. The "traditional donors", including the US and the EU, have fallen far short of promises they made at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009 to assist smallholder farmers, including pastoralists. Both the US and the EU are in a deep political and financial crisis, meaning that neither is likely to step forward with the scale of emergency and long-term aid to the Horn of Africa that they should normally be expected to fulfill. In this situation, it is heartening that the Gulf countries, including members of the GCC, have demonstrated a readiness to step up their assistance to the Horn of Africa, just across the Red Sea. These countries are experiencing an impressive rise in export earnings this year, giving them the opportunity to scale up their regional and global leadership as well. The Islamic Development Bank, the leading financing institution of the 57 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), has also shown impressive and inspiring dynamism as well as a commitment to the countries in crisis in the Horn of Africa. New donors, in short, are stepping forward to help fill the urgent needs of the Horn of Africa. Time is extremely short and the needs are great. Generosity and speed are of the essence. | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/famine', 'global-development/malnutrition', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'global-development/aid', 'tone/blog', 'environment/drought', 'type/article', 'profile/jeffreysachs'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-07-28T11:44:34Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk/2013/jan/28/heavy-rain-winds-flood-warnings | Heavy rain and strong winds prompt UK flood warnings | Two spells of very heavy rain and winds of up to 80mph are expected to cause flooding and travel problems in some parts of the UK over the next few days. Up to 7.5cm (3in) of rain is due to drench areas of south-west England, where many rivers and streams are already full because of melting snow and the weeks of soggy weather before the cold snap. Staff at the Environment Agency are particularly concerned that by Tuesday there could be quite serious flooding in Devon, Somerset and parts of south-east Wales. The Met Office also has a severe weather warning in place for Scotland for later in the week, when very strong winds could cause structural damage. Householders and businesspeople were mopping up over the weekend after rain and snow melt combined to cause flooding in Wales, north-east England, the Midlands and the Anglican region. A canoeist died on Sunday after becoming tangled in debris on the swollen river Arkle in the Yorkshire Dales. Mountain rescue teams and ambulance paramedics helped get the man out but could not save him. There was a happier ending on the Somerset coast after a six-month-old baby boy was swept into Watchet harbour by strong winds. Dockmaster George Reeder, 63, dived in and pulled the pushchair and child to shore. The child was revived by a passerby, who administered CPR, and is understood to be doing well in hospital. The poor weather also caused problems on the roads. Sussex police reported there were 40 crashes in the early hours on Monday. More than 30 were the result of vehicles hitting black ice and sliding off the road. Eleven people were injured in a four-car crash on the M4 in south Wales on Sunday lunchtime. By Monday lunchtime the Environment Agency had more than 50 flood warnings – meaning flooding is expected – and more than 200 alerts (flooding is possible) in place. This was down on the number issued on Sunday but a spokeswoman said the combination of snow melt, further heavy rain and spring tides threatened to cause more intense flooding than over the weekend. Among rivers with multiple warnings on them were the river Soar in Leicestershire and the Dove in Derbyshire. There was also a warning in place for the Severn at Kempsey in Worcestershire, which flooded badly in November when defences failed, and for Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, a flooding hotspot. Further south and west warnings were issued for areas including the Somerset Levels, which have been hit by a string of floods over the past year, and Dorset. There was also anxiety in areas of Devon, where flooding on rail-lines at the end of last year caused days of misery for train travellers. The Met Office warned that more rain was approaching courtesy of a deep Atlantic depression. It has issued severe weather warnings for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday a weather system was moving quickly across the UK, bringing wet and windy conditions to most areas. Between 0.5cm and 1.5cm of rain was expected to fall widely, with 2.5cm expected on the south-west side of some hills. A very deep area of low pressure is to pass close to the north-west part of the UK on Tuesday bringing another spell of wet and windy weather. Up to 3cm of rain is predicted widely and up to 5cm on some hills and mountains, along with strong and possibly gale-force winds on exposed coasts, moors and hills. A severe weather warning was in place for much of the south-west of England and Wales. On Tuesday night and into Wednesday there are likely to be very strong winds and some severe gales in Scotland. Gusts of up to 70mph are predicted inland and up to 80mph on coasts. The Met Office said exposed bridges were expected to be subject to restrictions and travel could be disrupted. It may be cold comfort for those affected by flooding this week but local flood defence schemes across the south-west have received a boost of £721,000. The south-west regional flood and coastal committee, which is made up of local authorities from across the region, will announce the list of projects it will support next month. The committee chairman, James Morrish, said: "The increase is a clear statement of the determination to address the backlog of flood defence needs in Devon, Cornwall, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly, particularly following the repeated flooding throughout 2012 which saw over 1,000 properties flooded in 200 locations." By the end of the week – exactly 60 years on from the disastrous flood of 1953 that claimed hundreds of lives in the east of England – the Met Office believes the weather should have become calmer but it could be chilly again. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/stevenmorris'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-01-28T13:41:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2013/nov/09/gigha-watts-scottish-island-energy-wind-turbines | Gigha watts: Scottish island tests batteries for wind farms | The Scottish island of Gigha is to be the focus of a £2.5m experiment aimed at solving a major technological problem: how to store energy generated by wind, tide and wave power plants. The project, which will involve building giant batteries containing 75,000 litres of sulphuric acid mixed with vanadium pentoxide, is intended to allow power generated by the island's wind turbines to be stored for later use. At present, while Gigha's turbines are running, their power is used to run households on the island and excess is transmitted by cable to the mainland electricity grid. When winds are low, and Gigha's turbines do not turn, the grid feeds power to the island. But the cable link has an upper power limit. As a result, much of the island's excess power cannot be transmitted to the mainland and is wasted. The battery project, backed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, is intended to get round this problem. "It is not easy to store electricity on a large scale," said Sir John Samuel of REDT, the company awarded the battery contract. "Standard lead-acid batteries generally lose their charge relatively quickly. The battery system we are involved with does not suffer from this problem." Samuel said the batteries would be able to store enough power to provide the island with 100kW of electricity for 12 hours when winds were low. "The crucial point is that our batteries will be able to be used over and over again," he added. Scotland's islands and remote highland regions have immense potential for wind power – and, in future, wave and tide power – but suffer because their electricity-cable links are poor and would be immensely expensive to replace. Battery storage systems could therefore help Scotland to reach its goal of meeting all its electricity needs renewably by 2020. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/environment', 'technology/energy', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2013-11-09T20:54:18Z | true | ENERGY |
football/2023/feb/08/fa-to-push-fifa-again-for-temporary-concussion-substitute-trial | FA to push Fifa again for temporary concussion substitute trial | The Football Association is to make a second attempt to get approval from Fifa for trials of temporary concussion substitutes after proposals were rejected last month. English football’s governing body is expected to use the AGM of the law-making body Ifab on 4 March to restate its view that the Premier League, alongside MLS and Ligue 1, should be allowed to test an alternative method for dealing with head injuries. The push is likely to be met with resistance from Fifa, reinforcing the sense of a split at the top of the game over how best to treat a crucial issue. Fifa remains committed to trials of permanent concussion substitutes and cites research among participating club doctors showing a majority felt no changes to the trial protocols were necessary. The FA was once a proponent of permanent substitutes but the chief executive, Mark Bullingham, has changed his position and stands alongside players’ unions and brain injury charities in calling for temporary measures. The Premier League has also endorsed temporary substitutes, citing its survey of club doctors who wanted temporary substitutes to be used. When the proposal was submitted for the first time at Ifab’s annual business meeting last month, it failed to reach a vote after Fifa – which holds a casting vote at Ifab – stuck to its position. It believes permanently taking players off the pitch with suspected concussion is the best way to keep them safe. Ifab is comprised of Fifa and the four British football associations. Fifa says if the permanent substitute protocol is properly applied, using the credo ‘suspect and protect’, then decisions can be made quickly and effectively to protect players. It also aired concerns that temporary substitutes could be gamed by teams looking to obtain a competitive advantage. Proponents of temporary subs fear the risk of losing a player permanently puts extra pressure on club doctors and means players are more likely to insist on playing on. Last year the chief executive of Ifab, Lukas Brud, told the Guardian that the permanent protocols were not being properly applied by clubs taking part in the trials. “If you don’t take a player off, no protocol will help you,” he said. After last month’s meeting the international players’ union, Fifpro, in conjunction with the World Leagues Forum, said they were “greatly disappointed” with the decision and would “consider our options” in opposing the move. The head of brain health at the Professional Footballers’ Association, Dr Adam White, said: “We believe the introduction of temporary concussion substitutes is now increasingly seen as a commonsense measure to better protect players. Many will rightly ask: ‘If not now, when?’” | ['football/football', 'football/fa', 'football/fifa', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paulmacinnes', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-02-08T08:00:11Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2016/oct/07/north-sea-or-great-australian-bight-oil-drilling-is-always-a-risky-business | North Sea or Great Australian Bight, oil drilling is always a risky business | John Sauven | Monday’s news of an oil leak at a BP platform off the coast of Scotland could not have come at a worse time for the company. This latest stain on BP’s environmental record coincides not only with Hollywood reminding everyone of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, but with the company’s faltering efforts to secure Australian regulatory approval to open up the pristine Great Australian Bight for oil drilling. “Small spills” during oil operations are part and parcel of the business – even in the North Sea, where BP has decades of experience, and established infrastructure. BP’s response was predictably bland, keen to downplay any potential impacts. But the leak in the North Sea is a timely reminder that drilling for oil is a risky business and that BP’s track record is one of environmental disaster. As BP stumbles on with its Bight plans in the face of mounting controversy, investors and regulators should increase their scrutiny of the company’s proposals. The Scottish leak occurred less than a week after officials in Australia rejected – for the third time – BP’s application to drill in the Bight, delaying any approval by up to 60 days. This is a temporary reprieve for the Bight – an area of exceptional marine significance on the coastline of South and Western Australia, where 85% of the species in the shallows can be found nowhere else in the world. The region’s unique biodiversity means that the impact of a major oil spill would likely be particularly harmful with a nearly 100% chance of oil reaching the shore of the Bight national park, according to BP’s own modeling. Concerns are exacerbated by a lack of transparency. The regulator has declined to provide reasons for knocking back three versions of BP’s applications. The paltry documents which have been made available provide grossly inadequate information to assess spill response capability. Shareholders haunted by the lack of contractor oversight in Deepwater Horizon should be worried by recent revelations that Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, the BP drilling subcontractor for the Bight, has been linked to a problem with subsea bolts – resulting in equipment failures, notably in the Gulf of Mexico. The regulator in the US has asked for help from a number of agencies, including Nasa. Failures of these bolts could “result in an oil spill on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon disaster”. The ‘pass the buck’ nature of both BP’s and its contractor’s response to queries have been described by one of the world’s leading forensic engineers as “ very alarming” . At the 2015 AGM, CEO Bob Dudley said his company had 50 projects to choose from. Serious questions remain as to how the high-risk, high-cost, and controversial Bight has risen to the top of the list. More broadly, BP’s and its peers’ reliance on frontier oil projects signals structural problems for their business models. To satisfy shareholders, the company needs to find more oil to maintain its share price in increasingly risky, dangerous and remote places such as the Bight, the deep waters off Brazil and the tar sands of Canada. However, a low oil price, flattening demand, and global economic uncertainty make these projects financially unjustifiable in the short term. And increasingly ambitious action on climate change could choke off their future viability. BP’s inadequate response to an accident in the North Sea and its push to the Bight merely underline how poorly equipped they are to manage both an oil spill and the future energy needs of a world turning away from oil. | ['environment/oil-spills', 'environment/environment', 'business/bp', 'business/business', 'environment/oil', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'australia-news/south-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'environment/great-australian-bight', 'profile/johnsauven', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2016-10-07T10:32:38Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2014/jul/11/that-47in-iphone-6-screen-looks-like-sapphire-says-materials-expert-who-spoke-to-apple | iPhone 6 screen looks like sapphire, says expert who spoke to Apple | Apple discussed forming screens from super-hard “sapphire glass” 18 months ago with experts in the field, making a sapphire-fronted iPhone 6 highly likely, the Guardian has established. A video that apparently shows a 4.7in sapphire screen being bent under a foot and resisting attack from a knife and keys "could well be" legitimate, according to Professor Neil Alford of the department of materials at Imperial College, London. “I think Apple have been quite cunning,” Alford told the Guardian. “What I think they’ve done is make a screen out of sapphire, which is incredibly scratch resistant, incredibly hard and has a high elastic modulus – meaning it’s very stiff.” Apple already uses sapphire crystal for its camera lenses and the cover of the iPhone 5S's Touch ID fingerprint sensor, but the super-hard material - the third hardest known - could make excellent screens that are much more scratch resistant than traditional glass and potentially even Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which covers the majority of smartphone and tablet screens. But it would be a demanding move. A 4.7in screen like that shown in the video has an area of about 9.5 square inches. Apple sells tens of millions of phones every quarter - so that just 10m 4.7in sapphire-screened phones would require 6 hectares, or 61,290 square metres, of the glass. 'Apple folk coming to speak to me about 18 months ago' However Apple has a multi-year joint venture in the US with GT Advanced to build plants and furnaces able to produce sapphire in industrial quantities for a "critical component" that it said in trade documents would be shipped abroad for assembly. That could refer to the touch sensors - or to screens. Sapphire crystals are made from aluminium oxide powder, rather as standard glass is made from silicon dioxide. Once heated and cooled, it can be cut and formed into glass-like layers – known as sapphire glass. The optically transparent material has long been used for camera lenses as well as the screens of high-end watches because of its combination of scratch resistance and high transparency. “I remember the Apple folk coming to speak to me about 18 months ago to discuss sapphire screens,” remarked Alford. "They’ve obviously been busy since then, working with a sapphire manufacturer." Alford explained that sapphire has been used in large quantities in electronic components for years. 'Not surprising' “It’s not a surprising thing to do, but it’s quite a large area they’re producing and that’s really quite a challenge. I’m pretty impressed with that, actually,” said Alford. Alford was commenting on a video of a part claimed to be a sapphire screen for the expected iPhone 6 from a factory in China. The video shows Marques Brownlee stabbing the screen with a knife, bending it under a shoe and trying - and failing – to mark it with keys. Brownlee, who was sent the part by blogger Sonny Dickson, told the Guardian that he was sure the screen was “100% an Apple part”. Though he had his doubts at first - and wondered if the screen was just standard Gorilla Glass - after testing it, “I’m convinced the display is sapphire.” Alford concurs: “In my opinion the screen being shown off in the video could well be a sapphire screen. If you make sapphire thin enough, and it’s flaw free, you can bend it quite considerably because it has an enormous strength.” He added: “I think they will be doing some sort of a lamination – binding different crystal cuts of sapphire together – boosting the toughness of the material, while they may also have induced some sort of a strain in the surface of the glass – either compression or tension – which means that it has extra strength,” he said. 'Forced to use diamond slicers' Sapphire has many advantages over glass, but has been prohibitively expensive to produce in large areas despite abundant raw materials. Creating artificial sapphire is not a problem in smaller areas for electronics and other uses, much in the same way artificial diamonds are used in manufacturing. Alford explained that compared to glass, sapphire would be harder, tougher making it more resistant to cracking or shattering, and optically clear. “The big issue is how you slice it and polish it because of the hardness of sapphire crystals,” said Alford. “It’s quite problematic; they’ll be forced to use diamond slicers to cut the sapphire for instance.” “If they can manage the costs, I don’t think there are any downsides to using sapphire at all. It’s a great idea,” quipped Alford. Apple and its sapphire manufacturing partner are likely to have patented manufacturing processes for creating the sapphire screens meaning that other manufactures like Corning, producer of Gorilla Glass, might not be able to replicate the sapphire screens. • Sapphire crystal – why Apple's interested in a precious gem | ['technology/iphone', 'technology/apple', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/smartphones', 'science/materials-science', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-07-11T08:59:54Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/blog/2009/mar/25/john-prescott-brassed-off-coalfields | John Prescott reveals Pete Postlethwaite's role in policy-making | For anyone interested in how government actually works, John Prescott's got a nice tale on his Go Fourth blog. He says that when he was in government as environment secretary, he was inspired to launch a regeneration programme for coalfield communities after watching the film Brassed Off. I eventually saw the film in June 1997 and [a Pete Postlethwaite speech in the film] had a deep effect on me. These communities had their heart ripped out by successive Tory governments. 200,000 were thrown onto the dole and were just left to rot. That led to increasing rates of worklessness and despair. It made me so angry and I thought we must do something. I then realised I was the minister in charge! So I sat down with English Partnerships and ordered them to compile a programme targeted at regenerating these mining communities. I then went to the Durham Miners Rally in July 1997 and told them we were taking action. I'm not sure whether Brassed Off deserves all the credit. According to a recent Audit Commission report (pdf), the national coalfields programme that Prescott was referring to was actually established in 1996. But it certainly flourished under Prescott and, according to English Partnerships, has brought public-sector investment into the coalfield communities worth more than £400m. | ['politics/blog', 'politics/johnprescott', 'society/regeneration', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'politics/past', 'environment/coal', 'environment/the-age-of-stupid', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewsparrow'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2009-03-25T13:09:00Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2021/sep/03/head-injury-checks-for-womens-rugby-season-leading-up-to-world-cup | Head injury checks for women’s rugby season leading up to World Cup | England’s leading club women’s competition, the Allianz Premier 15s, kicks off at midday on Saturday with a west country encounter between Bristol Bears and Exeter Chiefs. There is a high level of expectation with many of the players hoping in 12 months’ time to be flying off to New Zealand for the World Cup and fans back in grounds closed to them during the pandemic. There have been some intriguing transfers in the summer, too, but arguably the most significant move in the competition this weekend will be off the pitch. In line with the men’s game, HIAs, head injury assessments with any players suspected of suffering concussion leaving the field to be examined by a doctor, will be used for the first time in the Allianz 15s. With this week’s publication by the University of South Wales into damage to the brain caused by collisions in professional rugby, the decision to monitor women is a welcome one. Conor O’Shea, the RFU performance director, said: “This is the biggest priority in bringing the women’s game in line with the men’s game. We have a duty of care to everyone who plays the game. Since the men’s game became more professional we have learned a lot of lessons and with the growth of the sport comes more challenges and more scrutiny. In England we’re ahead of the game when it comes to professionalism but there’s a long way to go.” Most of the women kicking off a fortnight before the start of the men’s Premiership are, of course, still amateurs with Harlequins and Saracens in the vanguard of the domestic game since the competition’s inception four years ago. Quins beat their big rivals 25-17 in a dramatic final in Gloucester last spring and both will be hard to beat again. The biggest challenges may come from Loughborough Lightning, the university-based side who include two of England’s biggest stars, Sarah Hunter and Emily Scarratt. Loughborough kick off their campaign on Sunday with a visit to champions Harlequins. Elsewhere, Bristol Bears are expected to make big strides under their new head coach Dave Ward. Ward, a former stalwart forward who made his name at Harlequins, turned to Quins for his biggest signing of the summer. It probably didn’t need too much persuading to convince the England lock, formerly known as Abbie Scott to head west. Ward and Scott, now Abbie Ward, married in the summer of 2020. “It’s going to be a massive season for us,” said Dave Ward. “Standards are rising in this league all the time and if there’s one thing I’ve learned since taking over here it’s that there’s nothing in the game that the women can’t do as well as the men. The semi-finals and final last season were some of the best games I’ve ever seen. This will be the most competitive season ever in the women’s game.” “As a new coach I’m much more nervous than I ever was as a player. I’ll be like a duck on water this weekend, serene on the face of things but kicking furiously out of sight.” Abbie Ward will pack down against the Chiefs but Ward will be without his injured England scrum Leanne Riley this weekend. Elsewhere Katy Daley-McLean, who retired from playing last winter, takes up her new role as a coach at Sale Sharks. England’s most-capped fly-half expects to play in the early games until some of a dozen new signings arrive or bed in. The Sharks’ new signings include three Americans while Daley-McLean has high hopes of her young No 10 Lizzie Duffy, a former rugby league player. Worcester Warriors, meanwhile, have looked to Japan for their new fly-half. Minori Yamamoto has joined the club from Nippon Sport Science. Another big summer move sees England prop Bryony Cleall leave Saracens for Wasps. She will have an early chance to face her sister, Red Roses No 8 Poppy Cleall, when the clubs meet at Twyford Avenue. | ['sport/womens-rugby-union', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/sport', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ianmalin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-09-03T13:40:35Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2021/aug/03/woman-killed-attack-black-bear-remote-alberta-forest | Woman killed in rare attack by black bear in remote Alberta forest | Police in Canada say a 26-year-old woman working as a helicopter engineer in Alberta was killed by a black bear on Saturday, in a rare attack by one of the country’s largest predators. The woman was mauled by what witnesses believe was an adult black bear in a remote area of north-west Alberta, said police. A co-worker who witnessed the attack helped scare off the bear before calling for help. “She was evacuated by her co-worker on a helicopter and brought back to the Swan Hills airport where they met up with an ambulance, emergency crews, and she was subsequently declared deceased at the airport,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl Troy Savinkoff told the Canadian Press. The victim’s family has asked that she not be identified. Tree planters hired by private companies to re-forest swaths of the taiga after logging operations are often sent to work in remote, rugged terrain. Working long hours in the boreal forest, they often encounter wild animals, including cougars, wolves and bears. Despite a large population of black bears and a growing number of encounters between humans and bears in urban and wild environments, fatal attacks remain extremely rare in the province. Since 1958, only five other fatal black bear attacks have been reported in Alberta. The only other documented instance of a tree planter dying in a black bear mauling dates back to 1985, when 24-year-old Gordon Ray was killed in the province of British Columbia. Wildlife officials in Alberta have set up trail cameras and traps to help locate the bear. Officials have also taken samples from the victim’s clothing for analysis to create a DNA profile of the bear. So far, three adult black bears have been located in the area and officials are awaiting DNA results to confirm if one of them is responsible for the attack. If confirmed, officials are likely to kill the animal unless they can determine the attack was defensive. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-08-03T16:36:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
guardian/2005/jun/22/guardianleaders.japan | Leader: Whaling in Japan | It's hard to imagine that there is any part of the Minke whale that is not intimately familiar to Japanese scientists. Yet such is Japan's commitment to the cause of marine biology that it is to double its "scientific catch" of Minke to around 900 a year. This is, of course, a thinly veiled means of exploiting loopholes in the international ban on the commercial hunting of whales - a ban that the head of the Japanese delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) yesterday called "a charade". Japan had just received a bloody nose from the commission's members, losing a battle on its proposals for what it called sustainable whaling. It was always likely Japan would not get its measure approved: a three-quarters majority was needed to overturn a ban that has been in force for 19 years. But Japan's efforts to win over such well-known whaling nations as Mongolia and Benin proved fruitless. Even its usual allies such as China and South Korea abstained. There is a danger that the force of Japan's rejection makes matters uncertain. Its delegation is now sounding its traditional threats to defy the commission and openly resume commercial whaling, as Norway has. Japan argues that whale meat is a delicacy that is part of its culture, and as such it should be allowed to exercise its rights in the same manner as indigenous peoples do under IWC regulations. The trouble is that Japan's appetite for whales would surely outstrip sustainable culling. Whatever the outcome, Japan, Norway and Iceland will continue to kill whales, whether cloaked in a "scientific" charade or otherwise. It is time that the rest of the world, especially those such as Britain that rightly oppose commercial whaling, responded more forcefully. The IWC has outlived its usefulness as an international regulator. Its role should be resolved to a stronger body, before it becomes irrelevant or a laughing stock. Japan's government should also be aware that its wish to play a larger role in the world - in forums such as the UN security council - could be jeopardised by its desire for a pound of whale flesh. | ['environment/environment', 'world/japan', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'environment/whaling', 'tone/editorials', 'environment/whales', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2005-06-22T22:43:22Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2017/jan/22/60mph-speed-limit-m1-to-combat-air-pollution-sheffield-smart-motorway | 60mph speed limit for M1 under consideration to combat air pollution | A proposal to impose Britain’s first pollution-linked speed limits in order to help ease smog over Sheffield is being considered by Highways England. A 60mph speed limit at rush-hour when vehicle numbers are highest where the M1 runs close to schools and homes in the city could help address air quality concerns, a report commissioned by the agency found. The mandatory speed limit, if approved, would be in place between 7am and 7pm seven days a week between junctions 32 and 35a. The suggested initiative follows a Nice study, published in December, which found that “driving smoothly” could ease air pollution. Accelerating or decelerating too rapidly leads to greater fuel consumption and means harmful emissions are being released into the environment unnecessarily, the study found. A 60mph speed limit could also help create a smoother journey as drivers would not be be accelerating and then decelerating at pinch points so often, a spokesperson for the AA said. The plan coincides with Department for Transport (DfT) plans for a £106m “smart motorway”, which is due to launch in March. The scheme is likely to add thousands of cars, vans and other vehicles to the roads, causing an increase in air pollution. Sheffield already misses EU air quality targets and was highlighted by the World Health Organisation for having dangerously high levels of air pollution. To mitigate the increased pollution caused by the smart motorway scheme, Highways England, which admits it is a “key challenge”, has been trialling a number of initiatives. Currently, an average of approximately 120,000 vehicles per weekday use the motorway in Sheffield, according to Mouchel, an engineering consultancy that put together the report. It estimates that the smart motorway scheme will add a further 5,000-10,000 vehicles a day by opening the hard shoulder to traffic. It stated: “Air quality assessment predicted that operating a [smart motorway] at 70mph, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, would result in significant adverse impacts on air quality.” The consultancy firm found that the best way to prevent an increase in illegal pollution would be to implement a speed limit. The AA spokesman said the proposal, if implemented, could provoke anger among road users, who will face fines if they exceed 60mph. He said: “Car users are always the easy hit when it comes to pollution when actually they are not one of the main contributors. There will be people raising their eyebrows about whether this is just an example of the authorities trying to look like they are doing something. “There will be a section of car users, who will see that this is not safety-related, and that they are being penalised for emissions that are likely to have come from other sources as well. That same section will say they pay billions of pounds in taxes … and if we’re contributing that amount of money why isn’t it being spent on the road network to deal with the issues?” He added: “There is a very good chance that the traffic is already moving at that speed during rush-hour.” Highways England stressed that the speed limit is just one of “a range of other mitigation options” being trialled, and that despite the scheme being due to launch at the end of March, “there is no suggestion of a delay to the scheme on the M1 and there will be mitigation in place for when the scheme opens”. Other options include painting barriers with “catalytic paints” designed to remove pollutants from the air and putting piles of “mineral polymer” – made from a secret compound that absorbs nitrogen dioxide – alongside the road. Clive Betts, MP for Sheffield South East, told the Sunday Times: “Sheffield has already had to close two schools by the M1 because the pollution was so bad, but there are still many residents breathing filthy air — and there will be far more if the motorway gets busier. “The government has known about this problem but has still expanded the motorway. Now it is trialling these Mickey Mouse schemes which are bound to fail.” A Highways England spokesperson said: “Smart motorways are central to the modernisation of England’s motorways, reducing congestion and improving journey time reliability by smoothing traffic flows. One of our key challenges in delivering the £15bn government investment in infrastructure is tackling the issue presented by air quality and in order to meet environmental targets we are investing in wider programme of air quality research to help address this.” A DfT spokesperson said: “We are firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions. That is why we have invested more than £2bn since 2011 to promote greener vehicles and support green transport schemes and have set out how we will improve air quality through a new programme of clean air zones.” The proposal comes as Sheffield’s Green party launch a campaign to tackle the city’s poor air quality. A statement said: “Air pollution continues to exceed legal limits in many areas, contributing to an estimated 500 premature deaths in Sheffield every year. “We call on Sheffield city council to take action to tackle this public health crisis by urgently agreeing and implementing a new action plan to clean up the city’s air and protect our health.” | ['world/road-transport', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/sheffield', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/nicola-slawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-01-22T13:22:10Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/2015/feb/05/plan-b-resource-scarcity-google-bp-exxon | Who will fund tomorrow’s big scientific breakthroughs? | Sir Richard Branson last month re-introduced what he calls Plan B, which is intended to be “a new blueprint for better business that prioritizes people and the planet alongside profit”. Branson deserves credit for holding businesses to a higher standard. Plan B, which includes business challenges such as “lead for the long run”, takes an important step towards ending what it calls “short-termism”. But it doesn’t go far enough. The plan also needs to push the business community to focus on the science needed to support people and the planet. Without more funding for long-term science and technology development for future sustainability solutions, we’ll all lose. There is so much emphasis today on building clever new apps that generate huge returns for the investors and inventors, but almost none on the science that will really enable us to meet the grand challenge of the 21st century: resource scarcity. If we don’t ensure that the world’s growing population has access to the energy, water, food and materials needed to sustain and improve their quality of life, Plan B won’t be enough to save us. And big, meaningful breakthroughs in these areas take time. Since the practical invention of silicon photovoltaic devices in the mid-1950s, for example, the industry has required years of advanced research (pdf) to drive the efficiency up and the cost down enough to support a true explosion in solar installations. Often, this research was funded through public and private support, without regard for this quarter’s bottom line. We’re benefiting from this foresight now. The question is, who will fund tomorrow’s big breakthroughs? How do we get beyond short-termism – the incremental, profit-driven view of corporate sustainability – and back to building a pipeline filled with long-term solutions? At the moment, very few companies are willing to take risks and support these efforts. Google, famously, has invested in internal research initiatives outside of its core business – ranging from self-driving cars to extending the length of human life. Even there, though, engineers who worked on Google’s now-defunct RE | ['sustainable-business/series/technology-and-innovation', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/technology', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'sustainable-business/business-case', 'science/science', 'technology/research', 'education/researchfunding', 'type/article', 'tone/comment'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-02-05T16:06:57Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2022/mar/29/northern-nsw-towns-under-evacuation-orders-as-heavy-rainfall-hits-flood-ravaged-regions | Northern NSW towns under evacuation orders as heavy rainfall hits flood-ravaged regions | Evacuation orders are in place for several northern New South Wales towns amid warnings of life-threatening flash floods, just four weeks after record floods forced thousands of people from their homes in the region. As of 8.30am Tuesday, the NSW State Emergency Service had issued six evacuation orders covering 6,600 people in the northern rivers region. There was also one evacuation warning for 7,800 people, including the Lismore central business district. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and damaging winds for a large region of eastern NSW, from near Port Macquarie north to the Queensland border. A region of Queensland was also covered by an alert after heavy rain dumped about 300mm over parts of the Gold Coast in less than a day. “A low pressure system will drift southwards across north-eastern NSW today, causing heavy rainfall in the region, and with locally intense falls within embedded thunderstorms,” the bureau warning said. “Heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding is forecast over the northern rivers district tonight, extending into the mid north coast and northern tablelands districts from Tuesday morning,” it said. “Locally intense rainfall leading to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is possible with thunderstorms with six-hourly rainfall totals in excess of 200mm, possibly reaching up to 300mm,” it said. The NSW State Emergency Service issued evacuation orders for parts of Lismore on Monday night, while those living in low-lying parts of Billinudgel from 5am local time, on Tuesday. Residents of low-lying parts of Mullumbimby and CBD were ordered to leave by 7am, with Tumbulgum later added to the evacuation list. The SES set up evacuation centres in about half a dozen centres, from Lismore to Kingscliff, Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby. In the past two days, SES crews attended 2,800 jobs in the NSW northern zone, including about 1,000 flood rescues, SES spokesperson Duyen Nguyen said. “Today’s going to be escalating” in threats, she said. For Lismore, the Wilsons River was again forecast to reach major flood levels, the bureau said. The river, which reached record levels of about 14.4 metres four weeks ago, may exceed the major flood level of 9.7m by 2pm Tuesday. It may exceed the 10.6m level of the town’s levee by the afternoon, with further rises possible. Elly Bird, a councillor in Lismore, told ABC’s RN Breakfast program, that the town had spent days clearing houses and city centre of flood-damaged debris, “questioning what’s next and is this going to happen to us again”. “Here we are 28 days later [our community] is just exhausted, worried and incredibly distressed about having to do this again so soon,” Bird said. Not many people had managed to move back to their “empty shells of houses” but some had, she said. The town was not expecting the river to reach the levels of the historic floods of earlier this month, Bird said, adding the emergency services including the Australian defence force personnel were in the area to help with preparations. Other rivers that could have major flooding include the Tweed, Bellinger and Orara rivers, the bureau said. In the Sydney region, Richmond collected more than 80mm of rain overnight, and there was a warning for minor to moderate flooding for the Hawkesbury-Nepean River that flows past the town. Observatory Hill, near Sydney’s CBD, had collected about 56mm in the 22 hours to 7am. The city could collect another 30mm-45mm on Tuesday, the bureau said. There was the chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe with heavy rain, which may lead to flash flooding, it said. | ['australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/flooding', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'weather/sydney', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-28T20:39:16Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2011/jan/11/plans-save-coral-extinction | Conservationists unveil plans to save coral from extinction | Conservationists have unveiled plans to preserve and protect the world's most important species of coral, in a response to increasing threats that they say will lead to "functional extinction" within decades. Led by scientists at the Zoological Society of London, the Edge Coral Reefs project has identified 10 coral species in most urgent risk of becoming extinct. The scientists say that reefs are under pressure from a variety of threats including rising sea temperatures due to climate change, increased acidity, overfishing and pollution. The Edge plan, which focuses on the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species will take a regional approach to conservation. This means focusing on the "coral triangle" around the Philippines, the west Indian ocean around the Mozambique channel, and in the Caribbean channel. "Coral reefs are threatened with functional extinction in the next 20-50 years, due predominantly to global climate change," said Catherine Head, co-ordinator of the reefs project. "In these regions, we'll be supporting and training in-country conservationists to carry out research and implement targeted conservation actions," she said. "Their projects will last initially for two years. We provide them with a whole host of tools to carry out their projects including funding and intensive training." Coral reefs are the planet's most diverse marine ecosystem – known as the rainforests of the oceans. Despite taking up under 0.2% of the ocean floor, they harbour up to a third of all marine life. Climate change, which leads to rising sea temperatures, causes corals to bleach. "Bleaching occurs when sea temperatures rise and this causes the coral tissue to expel their symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae – these are what give the coral their colour," said Head. "2010 seems set to have been one of the worst years for coral bleaching. There have been reports on the coast of Indonesia of up to 100% bleaching of many coral colonies. In 1998, 16% of the global coral reefs were killed through bleaching." While it is bleached, a coral cannot photosynthesise and it is in effect not feeding. There is a limited period of time, around a few months, where the coral needs to re-acquire zooxanthellae or else it will die. "2010 was an El Niño year so sea-surface temperatures were very high – but these hot years are coming with increasing frequency now," said Rachel Jones, a keeper at London zoo's aquarium. "Bleached reefs take several years to recover from that sort of insult. As bleaching events get closer together, the potential for mortality increases." Among the 10 species chosen to start the Edge project are the pearl bubble coral (Physogyra lichtensteini), a food source for the hawksbill turtle, and the Mushroom coral (Heliofungia actiniformis) – which supports at least 15 brightly coloured shrimp including the popcorn shrimp (Periclimenes kororensis). Part of the solution in the future will be to designate more of the ocean as marine protected areas, said the conservationists. Until then, the focus will remain on increasing the resilience of reefs to environmental change. "That means trying to reduce overfishing and pollution pressures," said Jones. "Where we see reefs that are in very good condition, such as the Chagos archipelago where the reef is in fantastic condition despite being hit by catastrophic bleaching in 1998, it recovered better and quicker than anywhere else in the Indian Ocean." She added: "The environment is changing faster now than it ever has done before. Corals have evolved to live within a very specific set of parameters. They're right at the interface between air and sea and it's a very difficult environment to live in. "But they've evolved to live there as long as those parameters are steady. At the moment those parameters ares shifting in a way that the corals just can't keep up with." Heather Koldewey, international marine and freshwater conservation programme manager for ZSL, said: "Corals are one of the most threatened groups of animals on our planet and iconic flagships of the marine environment. "Edge Coral Reefs will focus on improving the resilience of the world's most diverse coral species, ensuring our coral reefs flourish in the future." | ['environment/coral', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'science/zoology', 'science/biology', 'science/science', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-01-11T06:01:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/feb/07/uk-worst-offender-in-europe-for-electronic-waste-exports-report | UK worst offender in Europe for electronic waste exports – report | The UK is the worst offender in Europe for illegally exporting toxic electronic waste to developing countries, according to a two-year investigation that tracked shipments from 10 European countries. The investigation by the environmental watchdog the Basel Action Network (BAN) put GPS trackers on 314 units of computers, LCD monitors and printers placed in recycling facilities in 10 countries. Researchers mapped what they said was the export of 11 items to Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, Thailand and Ukraine. Electronic waste is deemed a hazardous waste by the EU due to toxic parts containing substances such as mercury, lead and flame retardants. Exports of this type of waste to non-OECD and non-EU countries are illegal under EU law. The UK was the top of the list of suspected illegal shipments. Five computers and LCD monitors were shipped to developing countries after they were tracked and placed in council recycling centres across England and Scotland. Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Germany also exported electronic waste to developing countries in what are suspected to be illegal shipments, the report said. By extrapolating the illegal exports with figures on electronic waste generation throughout Europe, the report estimated that 352,474 metric tonnes of electronic waste was being illegally shipped from the EU to developing countries each year. Jim Puckett, director of BAN, said the illegal shipments perpetuated an EU waste management regime “on the backs of the poor and vulnerable”. “We have discovered a very significant stream of illegal shipments of hazardous consumer electronic scrap to vulnerable populations,” he said. “This flies in the face of EU claims to make continuous efforts to implement a circular economy which can only responsibly exist by eliminating … leakage from the system.” The UK’s shipments went from council recycling facilities to Nigeria, Tanzania and Pakistan. Chris Smith, national intelligence manager for the UK Environment Agency, said: “The Environment Agency takes these matters very seriously with a proactive criminal intelligence led team in place that is dedicated to detecting and preventing illegal waste shipments from England. “However, our challenge is vast. Detecting illegal waste shipments is the ultimate hunt for the needle in a haystack, and this is where partnerships allow us to extend our reach and effectiveness. By providing the Environment Agency with an early insight into their tracker deployment, the Basel Action Network enabled us to quickly and efficiently close down four illegal waste operators who exported the electrical waste containing their trackers.” Africa was by far the region of the world most targeted by EU e-waste exporters. The continent received seven exported units (five to Nigeria, one to Ghana, and one to Tanzania) of tracked equipment – 64% of the shipments leaving the EU. The report said that due to the lack of proper waste management in the recipient developing countries, including open burning of e-waste, there was likely to be local contamination of crops and threats to humans from the illegal exports. Far more should be done, the study said, to prosecute the robust illegal trade, including working with target countries to stem the toxic tide. “The export rates identified in this study … remain far too high when one considers that we have only been able to put an eye on the tip of an iceberg of the vast quantities of toxic [e-waste] generated per annum in the EU,” said Puckett. “When extrapolated, as we have shown, the figures represent truly frightening amounts of EU leakage.” Puckett condemned lobbying by the electronics manufacturing industry, which is attempting to create a loophole in the Basel convention to allow broken, low value electronic scrap to flow from Europe on the grounds that it will be “repaired” in developing countries. He urged the EU not to agree to the loophole. “The answer to criminal activity is not legalising that activity but improving the enforcement to ensure the future health of Europe is not dependant on poisoning the rest of the world.” In the last two years the rest of the world has increasingly begun to act against imports of rubbish and waste from Europe. China banned the import of millions of tonnes of plastic waste last year. Thailand – one of the countries to which illegal shipments were found to have been made – acted in June 2018 to stem the flow of e-waste being imported after concerns it was becoming the dumping ground for the world. Other countries have also begun to restrict waste imports from European countries. The Guardian recently revealed concerns over illegality and fraud in the plastic recycling export industry in the UK as the impact of the import bans created a crisis in UK recycling. | ['environment/waste', 'environment/environment-agency', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'environment/recycling', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-02-07T06:00:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2023/jun/02/britibritish-energy-developers-projects-national-grid-solar-power | British energy developers to be told: speed up projects or leave queue for grid | Britain’s electricity system operator will tell energy developers to get on with their projects or get out of the queue for a grid connection as it struggles to manage the growing backlog of delayed green energy projects. The ultimatum is expected to help speed up the 10- to 15-year wait for a grid connection, which is holding back billions in green investment and threatens to derail the UK’s progress towards its climate targets. The electricity system operator, which is owned by the FTSE 100 energy firm National Grid, has faced fierce criticism for the green energy gridlock but has promised its new reforms could slash up to 10 years from the current waiting time. It said it would tell developers to “get on, get back or get out of the energy queue” to make way for projects that are ready to generate clean electricity for the grid. This means developers that have applied for a connection will need to prove that their schemes are making progress, or risk losing their place in the queue. The company has retained a legal firm to help move aside delayed developers to make way for viable projects. It is also working with the regulator to tweak existing rules that developers can build their own grid connections. The reforms come following growing criticism within the UK’s renewable energy industry over National Grid’s handling of its grid connection queue. MPs revealed last month that businesses in Great Britain were facing waits of up to 15 years to secure a connection to solar power installations, which could pull the plug on the government’s ambition to install 70GW of solar by 2035. The energy regulator Ofgem’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, last month described the delays as unacceptable and criticised a “legacy of stalled, unviable and often highly speculative ‘zombie’ projects blocking ready-to-go solar, wind and other renewable schemes stuck behind them”. There are about 220 projects waiting to be hooked up to the national transmission system before 2026 but only half of these projects have planning permission and some have pushed back their expected start date by up to 14 years, according to the system operator. Barnaby Wharton, a director at trade association Renewable UK, said: “Grid connection delays are holding back £15bn of investment in offshore wind alone over the course of this decade, at the very time when we need to boost our energy security as quickly as possible and provide cheap power for consumers to tackle the cost of living crisis.” The changes could help “unlock new clean energy capacity faster” by letting projects that are ready to connect to the grid move ahead of projects that “simply aren’t making progress”, Wharton added. In the past National Grid only had to set up connections to the occasional, usually large, power plant – but the green electricity boom has led to many more grid connection applications from hundreds of smaller renewable energy projects. The pace of the UK’s renewables rollout is expected to build to help meet an anticipated 50% rise in demand for electricity across the country by 2035. The government has set out plans to build enough offshore wind to power every home in the UK by 2030, and promised to lift an effective ban on onshore wind farms in England, too. The UK is also expecting to increase the number of subsea cables connecting the grid to neighbouring countries. Zoisa North-Bond, the chief executive of Octopus Energy Generation, a sister company to home energy supplier Octopus Energy, said the new grid reforms were “a positive step” but added that the “devil is in the detail”. “We’re past the point of polite processes. What we need is fresh thinking beyond the concept of ‘a queue’, like concrete dates to implement steps, a firmer stance on prioritising renewables over fossil fuels, and better use of data to show where projects can connect quicker. This will end the gridlock, unlock Britain’s colossal renewables potential and bring down bills for good,” she said. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/nationalgrid', 'business/utilities', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-06-02T14:31:47Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2006/aug/09/water.uknews | A third of people flouting hosepipe ban | Almost a third of people living in the drought-hit south-east of England have admitted deliberately breaking the hosepipe ban. A poll shows 29% of people questioned said they had flouted the restrictions to clean the car or water the garden. Almost a quarter had used their hosepipe in the night to avoid being caught. Seven water companies across the region have introduced the bans since April to tackle low rainfall and record temperatures. The poll, carried out by ICM for internet auction site eBay, showed that 35% of those who broke the ban did so to water their flowerbeds, while 27% refilled a paddling or swimming pool, 26% washed the car and 21% watered a vegetable patch. A fifth of people claimed they did not know a hosepipe ban was in place and 35% said they still washed their car at least once a month. Researchers interviewed 281 people in the south-east for the study. Water companies said the results did not reflect a significant drop in demand since the bans were imposed. Three Valleys Water said the ban had helped to reduce water use by 12%-15% compared with last year. Thames Water said demand in June had been down 7%. The survey said 22% of people in the region had witnessed a friend or neighbour break the ban, but some 54% said they would turn a blind eye. Thames Water said it had received about 4,000 tip-offs. It was difficult to build up a reliable picture across the region from the survey results, a spokesman said, because only a quarter of people in London own a hosepipe. | ['environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/drought', 'type/article', 'profile/davidadam', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews2'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-08-08T23:06:31Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2021/mar/23/weatherwatch-dark-curtains-rain-gk-chesterton | Weatherwatch: dark curtains of rain fall on GK Chesterton | Gilbert Keith Chesterton marches through the “ghostly and colourless” countryside around Oxford. “The fields that should have been green were as grey as the skies; the tree-tops that should have been green were as grey as the clouds and as cloudy,” he wrote in The Secret of a Train, for his Daily News column, collected in Tremendous Trifles (1909). “And when I had walked for some hours the evening was closing in. A sickly sunset clung weakly to the horizon, as if pale with reluctance to leave the world in the dark. And as it faded more and more the skies seemed to come closer and threaten. The clouds which had been merely sullen became swollen; and then they loosened and let down the dark curtains of the rain.” He seeks and finds a railway station. “I do not think I have ever seen such a type of time and sadness and scepticism and everything devilish as that station was: it looked as though it had always been raining there ever since the creation of the world. The water streamed from the soaking wood of it as if it were not water at all, but some loathsome liquid creation of the wood itself; as if the solid station were eternally falling to pieces and pouring away in filth.” | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'books/gk-chesterton', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/timradford', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-03-23T06:00:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2019/jul/28/europe-greens-on-fire-and-not-just-because-of-sweltering-heat | Europe’s Greens are on fire... and it’s not just because of the sweltering heat | James Dennison | As Europe suffers another summer of record-breaking heatwaves, it is worth reflecting on the group perhaps least happy to benefit from the soaring temperatures – Green parties across the continent, which are, however, in a better electoral position than ever. In May’s European parliament elections, the Greens won 22 more seats and 4.4% more of the vote than in 2014. Domestically, the German Greens participate in a majority of state governments and top national polling; the president of Austria is a Green-Independent and Greens have secured record vote shares in recent elections in Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands. They are also poised to pick up votes in forthcoming Swiss and Austrian elections. Although setbacks in Denmark and Sweden highlight the importance of national context, Greens have been gaining footholds outside their historical strongholds and are surging in polls in Ireland and the UK. The most obvious explanation is found in shifting attitudes to the environment and the climate crisis. Although Europeans lost some belief in the threat during the 2000s, by 2016 large majorities across the continent agreed that global heating was happening, that it was at least partially caused by humans and that its impact would be negative. It is this “salience” that activates emotions and changes voting behaviour. In 2016, only 6% of EU citizens listed the environment as one of the two most important issues affecting their country. Just two years later, this figure had risen to 14% and is still climbing. In the latest Eurobarometer – a survey which monitors public opinion in every member state – 22% of Germans, 41% of Dutch and 39% of Swedes ranked “the environment, climate and energy” as one of their country’s top two most important issues. By contrast, southern and eastern Europeans remain fairly uninterested – just 1% of Greeks picked the issue in 2018, the same as in 2005. The UK ranks somewhere in the middle, at 11%, though this summer has seen a sharp increase. Why is the salience of the environment soaring? Historically, some academics have played down the effects of “real-world” events or citizens’ abilities to deduce which issues matter, instead emphasising strategic manipulation of the agenda by the media and politicians. While these certainly count, the salience of the environment, like that of most other issues, ultimately does reflect real events. Evidence of soaring temperatures is becoming the lived reality of citizens, making scientific findings on the resultant collapse of ecosystems increasingly difficult to ignore. However, there is more to the current Green success than greater environmental concern. The geographical disparities can still be partially explained by the long-term emergence of “post-material values” in affluent western European societies in the 1970s. These saw individuals move beyond materialist, redistributive concerns to quality-of-life matters, including care for the environment. Moreover, the breakdown of postwar western European party systems and the accompanying decline in class voting mean that we are increasingly inclined to vote according to psychological predispositions and less because of social group. Without these social anchors in place, mainstream parties have become more vulnerable to “anti-incumbency” voting and single-issue voting, primarily to new parties. Centre-right parties have had to deal with challenger, anti-immigration parties, while the centre-left has suffered at the hands of, first, anti-austerity parties and, increasingly, environmentalist parties. Although vote switching and electoral volatility have increased in Europe in recent decades, this is almost entirely within ideological blocs. Voters with broadly leftwing or rightwing predispositions now have multiple choices – with similar ideologies but differing priorities – at the ballot box. All of these challenger parties, including the Greens, have displayed a remarkably more professional appearance to voters, mirrored by far more effective internal machinery, all of which has been aided by the arrival of the internet and social media. It is no coincidence that the Green party of England and Wales (GPEW) could maintain its membership and a role in the party system after its 2015 “green surge” receded, whereas it quickly faded into irrelevance after its far larger 1989 European election vote share. The case of the GPEW also highlights both how Green parties can take on different shapes according to national contexts, but also how long-term trends tend to see international party families converge ideologically in certain political conditions. Before 2016, the GPEW was a leftwing, anti-austerity protest party whose surge in many ways foreshadowed the rise of the old left of Jeremy Corbyn. But events since then have shaped it into a far more “European”, post-material Green party, swapping the previous flagship of anti-austerity for environmentalism and pro-Europeanism. This mirrors the previous convergence of far-right parties around their single policy flagship of opposition to immigration during the so-called refugee crisis, cleverly playing down any previous extremism or social authoritarianism. What does all of this mean for parliamentary politics? In particular, how should the major losers of the Greens’ ascent – social democrats – respond? Leftwing parties have been tempted to focus on regaining an often sentimentalised vision of the “white working class”, almost always on the issue of immigration. This is a mistake. Across western Europe, most far-right, working-class voters were usually previously centre-right voters and their conservative value orientations mean their chance of voting for the centre-left are tiny. Centre-left parties should focus on those who share their broad values, whether in terms of environmental quality, material opportunities or rights and freedoms. In the 1990s, social democrats were able to achieve electoral success after adopting the Greens’ environmental message en bloc, essentially halting the progress of Greens for two decades. Today, the demand for greater environmental action goes far beyond what centre-left parties are offering. If western European social democratic parties want to regain offices of state, I’d suggest they offer ambitious proposals on the environment. • James Dennison works at the European University Institute and is the author of The Greens in British Politics: Protest, Anti-Austerity and the Divided Left | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/green-politics', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/eu', 'politics/green-party', 'politics/politics', 'world/europe-news', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/james-dennison', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-07-28T06:00:08Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sport/2001/aug/01/rugbyleague.rugbyunion | Same old story for patched-up Wales | There is something about the Wales rugby league team that defies logic. In their last appearance, in a World Cup semi-final last autumn, they had taken a 22-14 lead against Australia before going down 46-22 and last night, in Wrexham, an even weaker Wales team - on paper, at least - led England 23-10 at half-time and gave them another almighty fright in the closing stages. England had improved sufficiently on a hapless first 40 minutes to take a 38-23 lead but then switched off again to allow Chris Morley and Paul Atcheson to bring Wales back within five points. A late Paul Wellens try finally killed them off but for the England coach David Waite, who must now find a Great Britain team to face his fellow Australians this autumn, this was not an encouraging night. Since the World Cup Clive Griffiths, Wales's long-serving coach, has moved on to union and Iestyn Harris, their captain, was also missing last night, one of six players forced to withdraw by injury leaving Griffiths's successor Neil Kelly scrambling around for a team. But there were still plenty of survivors from that memorable night at the McAlpine stadium - notably Keiron Cunningham, St Helens' indestructible hooker who took over as captain, and the Warrington stand-off Lee Briers. Briers was outstanding, setting up one try for Damian Gibson, scoring another after picking a pass off his ankles, striking two touchline conversions and ending the first half with a cheeky drop goal. There were also two tries for Jason Lee, a Halifax wing from Pontypridd who was the only Welsh-born player in the starting 13. England were embarrassingly poor other than individual tries from Jamie Peacock and Paul Sculthorpe. After the break tries from Andy Farrell, Lee Radford and Karl Pratt secured the lead for the first time by the 58th minute. Sculthorpe collected two more to complete his hat-trick but a Cunningham run set up Morley to give Wales impetus for one last fling. Wales: Lennon; Gibson, Pearson, Critchley, Lee; Briers, Eaton; Mason, Watson, Whittle, Morley, Busby, Cunningham (capt). Substitutes: Atcheson, Hughes, Dean, Price. England: Wellens; Pryce, Radlinski, Senior, Walker; Sculthorpe, Deacon; Anderson, Newton, McDermott, Peacock, Sinfield, Farrell (capt). Substitutes: Pratt, King, Sykes, Radford. Referee: T Alibert (France). | ['sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/sport', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'sport/england-rugby-league-team', 'type/article'] | sport/wales-rugby-league-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2001-08-01T10:20:58Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/jul/03/country-diary-a-hot-heathland-walk-in-need-of-a-thunderstorm | Country diary: A hot heathland walk in need of a thunderstorm | John Gilbey | The pool of open water that drains the mire reflects the deep blue of the sky and the patches of cloud that are bubbling up in the heat of the day. The surface is rippled in places where the warm breeze from the west sweeps across the low heathland, bringing the pungent, dusty scent of the summer New Forest. In the shelter of the gorse by the footbridge, electric blue damselflies cling to the tips of rushes, while occasional dragonflies – which I tentatively identify as emperors – cut abrupt, angular patterns over the water. Beyond the bridge, the path wanders upwards across the hillside, a bleached sand and flint trail bounded by stands of heather and tussock grasses. Over the 50 years I’ve walked here much has changed, but I’m pleased to see numbers of silver-studded blue butterflies still present. They are small, less than an inch across, but rimmed with white – making them easily visible as they tumble around the heather in the strengthening wind. Sadly, none of them settle close to the path, and to get a closer look would mean a risk to ground-nesting birds, so I watch their colourful antics from a distance. With the heat and humidity still rising, I climb the ridge to higher ground and the quiet shade of the trees. This ancient woodland of oak, birch and holly lies to the west of the broad valley mire, and I follow the path south towards the point where I can cross it again dry-shod. The route is complicated by the need to cross several side valleys, which seem oddly steeper and more numerous than when I was young. Pausing for a rest, I turn and catch a glimpse of a small sunlit clearing where a tree has fallen. Ferns grow in abundance, while saplings compete to reach the gap in the canopy, a dynamic system responding to a change of circumstances. I traverse a final deep valley and the trees change from broadleaved specimens to a mundane plantation of conifers. Sweating through the last mile in the hot resinous air, I wonder how long it will be before a thunderstorm restores some balance to the atmosphere. Much too long, as it turns out. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/insects', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/butterflies', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/john-gilbey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-03T04:30:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2024/sep/19/sweden-cuts-flying-tax-emissions | Sweden cuts tax on flying despite admitting it would increase emissions | Campaigners have accused the Swedish government of doing “everything in its power to stop climate action” after it cut a tax on flying, despite admitting that it would increase emissions. The flight tax, aimed at cutting pollution from aviation, was introduced in 2018, amid the rise of the “flight shame” (flygskam) movement popularised by Greta Thunberg. But in its budget for next year, presented on Thursday, the centre-right coalition, which depends on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, said that from 1 July 2025 the tax would no longer apply. The move is expected to cut ticket prices from Sweden by 80 SEK (£5.93) on European flights and 325 SEK (£24.09) on those outside Europe. Erika Bjureby, a programme manager at Greenpeace Sweden, said: “It feels like the government is trying to dismantle as many climate policies as possible and does everything in its power to stop climate action. “The government even states that a scrapped flight tax will increase flying, which undoubtedly will lead to increased emissions. On top of that, we have the current tax cut on fuels, while the public transport in Sweden is on its knees with several train connections being cancelled in the near future.” Although the move is likely to increase flying, and in turn lead to a rise in emissions, the government claims that overall its budget will cut emissions. It also announced a cut in taxes on wages, pensions, savings and petrol. Miljöpartiet, the Swedish Green party, accused the government of being in “number-crunching denial”. It said: “The government cannot cope with the climate and nature crisis: instead of a policy that lowers emissions, they subsidise both aviation and diesel. The Baltic Sea is dying, invasive species continue to spread and people cannot get out into the forest and land.” Maja Rosén, from campaign group Vi håller oss på jorden (We stay grounded), said the move was a “clear example of the huge gap between knowledge and action in the climate issue”. Rosén added: “The government knows that emissions must urgently be reduced and that the emissions from aviation are very high, yet they choose to drop the flight tax, which will inevitably lead to increased emissions.” The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said earlier this month that the flight tax had resulted in a “heavy competitive disadvantage for Swedish airports. Now it is abolished.” Meanwhile, Denmark has said it plans to implement a flight tax from 2025 to help fund the industry’s green transition. By 2030 the country plans to make all domestic flights powered by 100% sustainable fuels. | ['world/sweden', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'world/air-transport', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/miranda-bryant', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-09-19T13:30:09Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2005/sep/01/hurricanekatrina.usa | A symptom of lawlessness | The words "You loot ... I shoot", spray painted outside a New Orleans shop, have become one of the iconic images in news reports from the flooded Louisiana city. The storm surges have brought lawlessness as well as water. At first, police stood by as some of those left in New Orleans took food, water, jeans and guns. Their orders were to concentrate on the search and rescue operation. That changed late last night when the city mayor, Ray Nagin, told the 1,500 police officers in New Orleans to change tack and combat the looters. On the surface, that suggests the mayor values the preservation of television sets above the lives of citizens - but the two are connected. While looting is a symptom of lawlessness, it can also act as a spur to further disorder. The CEO of a private ambulance firm attempting to evacuate hospital patients from New Orleans told CNN it would no longer be safe to operate in the city if the US military was not sent in. He said an ambulance had been turned over, a generator had been stolen from a command station, and his staff had been victims of the mayhem. Just outside New Orleans, armed looters held up a lorry carrying food, water and medical supplies to a hospital. Soon afterwards, the hospital asked the US coastguard for help in evacuating it, claiming it could no longer guarantee the safety of the patients. Gunshots were reportedly ringing out and fires flaring around New Orleans last night as looters broke into stores, houses, hospitals and office buildings - some in search of food, others looking for anything of value. The last looting outbreak to capture international attention followed the fall of Baghdad to US troops in April 2003. The conditions were different, but there was a similar collapse in law and order. At first, the looters appeared to be releasing pent-up anger at the previous regime - as though the natural extension of tearing down posters of Saddam Hussein and hitting images of the face of the recently vanquished dictator with a sandal - an Arab insult - was to rob government offices of their furniture and air conditioning units. The jubilation faded and the lawlessness increased as looting spread from government buildings to hospitals, embassies and private business. Disorder stopped aid workers delivering medical supplies to hospitals, and the UN warned that the slide into violent anarchy would trigger a humanitarian disaster if coalition troops did not fill the power vacuum and quickly move to reassert order. The question of whether more action to combat civil disorder in the early days of the occupation - if only to retain some of the infrastructure - would have made the course of the last two years any smoother is one of the great what ifs of the US and British involvement in Iraq. As a consequence of, and spur to, further lawlessness, looting is not always rational. Looters take what they can, but not always what need or can sell. In New Orleans, a city without power that may not be habitable for months, there is little need for a television set. Still, for every claim that a shop is now "everybody's store" (in the widely-quoted words of one looter of jeans), there are others who say their attempts to take food and water are about nothing more than survival. For those left in New Orleans, the city of a likely thousand corpses, where reports circulate of sharks and alligators claiming the flooded streets for the sea and swamps, there must be little impulse to do anything other than look after themselves. Some stayed in the city out of choice, but the majority did so because they did not have the means to evacuate. It is likely that the greatest numbers of the dead will be concentrated in the poorest classes of New Orleans. The New York Times correspondent in the city suggested some of the ethical problems posed by the New Orleans looting, reporting that many of dozens of carjackings were attempts by survivors to flee. But the cars were not carrying nameless, faceless individuals. Those were also people who wanted to leave. It makes the situation more desperate. With the total evacuation of the city now ordered, the looting and lawlessness will eventually stop - either by force or the threat of it. However, the correct response to an individual essentially abandoned to ride out what appears to be the worst natural disaster to hit the US since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and who then steals jeans, will no doubt have to be proportionate to their circumstances and the wider situation. The bigger headache of where to settle the refugees until New Orleans is habitable again will then take over. | ['us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/simonjeffery'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-01T15:29:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2024/feb/16/bose-ultra-open-earbuds-review-unique-open-fit-and-great-sound | Bose Ultra Open earbuds review: unique open-fit and great sound | Bose’s latest earbuds are very different from its previous noise-cancelling champs, designed to let the sound of the outside in, rather than blocking it out and attaching to your ear, more like jewellery than gadgets. They are the latest evolution of Bose’s open audio tech that uses small speakers to play music into your ears without blocking them, last seen on the excellent Frames audio glasses that have been discontinued. The Ultra Open earbuds cost a hefty £300 (€349/$299) and join a small niche of open earbuds such as the £179 Shokz OpenFit or £149 Sony LinkBuds. But the Bose have two big advantages over their rivals: great, full sound and a novel fit that does not get in the way of glasses or other headwear. A battery cylinder sits behind the ear linked to the L-shaped plastic speaker arm via a flexible silicone spring, which together hold the earbuds in place around the side of your ear. The fit is very alien and takes a little practice to get right, but once hooked in place they are light and comfortable. I was certain they would fall off on a run yet they stayed locked on regardless of how sweaty I got or how hard I shook my head. The button on the top of the battery cylinder takes care of controls. Press once, twice and thrice for playback control or press and hold to activate your choice of shortcut, which cycles between modes by default. A double-press and hold manually adjusts the volume, which is awkward to make precise adjustments. Instead the earbuds have an auto-volume system that quickly turns the sound up and down to adjust to ambient noise levels. It works but is sometimes too sensitive, quickly ramping up when blowing your nose or rustling a packet of crisps for instance. I only turned it on when running. Specifications Water resistance: sweat resistant (IPX4) Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3 (SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive) Battery life: up to 7.5h (27h with case) Earbud weight: 6.4g each Earbud dimensions: 19 x 17 x 27mm Charging case weight: 44g Charging case dimensions: 42 x 65 x 26mm Case charging: USB-C Quality sound One of the best features is just how good they sound. They produce full range audio with solid bass and a quality typically associated with full earbuds, not open-fit types, which tend towards the tinny. They can’t quite hit the deepest of notes and are bettered by a good set of fully sealed earbuds, but they sound more than good enough to do justice to most genres for a nice, rounded and easy-listening sound. Because they do not block your ear canal, you have full awareness of your surroundings, which is ideal for running or simply walking about city streets. The speakers have a clever port system along the top that cancels out some of the sound that escapes from your ears. It works well enough that only those in very close proximity will be able to hear your earbuds and only when they are cranked up loud. The earbuds also have Bose’s immersive or spatial audio mode from its latest noise-cancelling models, which simulates a pair of speakers placed in front of you giving some tracks a much wider and less compressed sound. They support higher quality audio with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound certified devices, which include a small selection of Android phones. Otherwise they are standard Bluetooth 5.3 earbuds, each of which can be used on their own but can connect to only one device at a time. A Bluetooth multipoint update is in the pipeline. Call quality is good with both ends coming through clearly, but my voice sounded a bit distant compared with the best, such as the QC Ultra earbuds and Apple’s AirPods Pro. The battery lasts for seven hours of constant playback in my testing, which is pretty long for earbuds but just shy of Bose’s estimates. The case can charge the earbuds about 2.5 times, which adds up to more than 24 hours of total playback time. They also have a long 48-hour standby time, meaning you can wear them all day and use them for intermittent calls or audio without needing to recharge. Sustainability Bose estimates the batteries will last in excess of 500 full-charge cycles but they are not replaceable and the earbuds are not repairable, ultimately making them disposable. Some replacement parts will be made available. The earbuds do not contain recycled materials. Bose offers discounts for returning broken products. It does not publish individual product environmental impact reports but does publish annual sustainability reports. Price The Bose Ultra Open earbuds cost £299.95 (€349/$299) and are available in black or white. For comparison, the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds cost £270, the Sony LinkBuds cost £149, the Shokz OpenFit cost £179 and the Apple AirPods cost £169. Verdict The Bose Ultra Open offer a novel approach to open-ear listening that does not compromise on comfort or sound. The behind the back of the ear fit keeps them out of the way of glasses and other headwear, while being secure and light enough to forget they are there. They are the best-sounding open earbuds by some margin and do not bleed sound to people around you as much as most rivals. But they are also twice the price of some good competitors and, like most earbuds, the battery is irreplaceable ultimately making them disposable. They will not be for everyone, but for those that can afford them and want a set of earbuds they can wear all day while hearing still the outside world, the Bose Ultra Open are the best available. Pros: novel open fit, light and comfortable, excellent sound, long battery life, good case, sweat resistance, solid controls, AptX Adaptive/Snapdragon Sound but only for certain Androids. Cons: no sound isolation, very expensive, larger than traditional earbuds, unrepairable. | ['technology/headphones', 'technology/bluetooth', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/consumer-tech--commissioning-'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-02-16T07:00:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
news/2022/feb/26/weatherwatch-can-wind-pluck-chicken | Weatherwatch: can wind ever be strong enough to pluck a chicken? | In his novel The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje mentions “a violent and cold southwesterly known to Berbers as ‘that which plucks the fowls’”. Wind really can produce this effect, with 19th-century meteorologists recording several instances of chickens stripped of their feathers by tornadoes. Some thought the phenomenon might give valuable clues on the mystery of how fast winds moved inside a tornado. Prof Elias Loomis set out to investigate, armed with a cannon and a supply of freshly killed chickens. He found that firing birds at a muzzle velocity of 340mph stripped off their feathers, but also reduced the chickens to small fragments. Loomis suspected the gunpowder blast might have been a factor in the shredding, but concluded that the windspeed in a tornado was less than 340mph. The 20th-century invention of the wind tunnel offered a more scientific way to explore the phenomenon. The meteorologist Bernard Vonnegut – brother of the novelist Kurt – reviewed previous work and observed that it could be affected by “flight moult”, a reaction in which panicking birds shed feathers. This is assumed to be an evolutionary adaptation to ensure predators get only a mouthful of feathers. Flight moult means that feathers may come out at relatively low wind speeds, leading Vonnegut to conclude that “the plucking phenomenon … is not indicative of winds as intense as might be supposed”. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/birds', 'world/tornadoes', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-02-26T06:00:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2017/sep/05/angela-merkel-under-pressure-tackle-toxic-smog-air-pollution-german-election-nears | Merkel under pressure to tackle toxic smog as German election nears | With less than three weeks until the German elections, pressure is mounting on Angela Merkel to tackle the deadly smog in a large number of cities or face a court-enforced diesel ban and backlash from millions of motorists faced with plummeting resale values. More than 90 cities with excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution could potentially outlaw diesel cars from their centres when the country’s federal administrative court rules early next year. Addressing the Bundestag for the final time in the parliamentary term on Tuesday morning, the chancellor tried to reassure the owners of Germany’s approximately 15m diesel cars by promising to do “everything in our powers to make sure there won’t be such bans”. The chancellor, who on Monday had also doubled the funds set aside to help cities improve air quality by a further €500m (£460m), said her party would pursue alternatives. “We Christian Democrats don’t work with bans but try to allow a reasonable transition,” she told the chamber. Despite the potential scale of the damage to the German car industry, the diesel scandal had until this week played a relatively minor role in the election campaign. But amid looming judicial threats to ban cars from the most polluted city centres, such as Munich and Stuttgart, the government has been forced to demonstrate that it is taking concrete actions to avert a public relations disaster. But legal experts warned the chancellor will probably be forced into an embarrassing U-turn if, as expected, she is re-elected on 24 September. “The court cases are already in motion, and Merkel won’t be able to extricate herself from the process unless she takes drastic action,” said lawyer Remo Klinger, who is working with environmental group DUH to introduce the diesel ban. “Germany only has two options: a hardware update to make sure that diesel cars are fitted with functioning filters, or an outright ban,” he told the Guardian. “All other proposals are not worth taking seriously.” In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine over the weekend, Merkel ruled out a hardware update, arguing that it would “minimise the car industry’s financial scope for investing in modern technology”. Green party co-leader Cem Özdemir accused Merkel of “shedding crocodile tears for German carmakers”, saying “it is your own inaction that is about to introduce a diesel ban by force”. The Greens are pushing for a system of “blue plaques” for diesel cars with engines that meet EU emissions limits, which would amount to a ban on an estimated 30-40% of cars that do not. It could allow exceptions for workers who rely on diesel engines for their business. Environmental experts have also criticised Merkel for stating that the air pollution affecting a large number of German cities is only indirectly linked to the emission-cheating software installed by companies which displayed false nitrogen dioxide levels. Merkel was accused of playing down the emissions scandal by saying that cities would still suffer from excessive pollution levels, even if the cars were not producing such high amounts of poisonous gas. “Even if these cars pumped out emissions at approved levels, even if this break down of trust hadn’t taken place, we would still have the environmental problems we have,” Merkel said on Sunday during her televised duel against her Social Democrat rival, Martin Schulz. During the debate, Merkel said she was “really angry” with the car industry, describing the scandal as “quite a shambles” – but experts accused her of trying to lessen the blame on the car industry. “I have hardly ever heard such nonsense,” Axel Friedrich, an emissions expert at German Environment Aid, who previously worked for the government. He said Merkel was “out of touch” with the situation on German roads, saying he had tested cars that were pumping out up to 18 times the legal limit of nitrogen dioxide. Friedrich told the Süddeutsche Zeitung he was convinced air pollution levels would fall by more than 60% to acceptable levels if action was taken. “Seventy per cent of air pollution problems in cities are down to diesel emissions,” he said. The EU allows a maximum of 40 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre. In Stuttgart and Munich the figure is at least double that and in a further 51 cities the levels are above 40. Merkel’s pledge to set up the sustainability fund to allow local authorities to take measures to reduce diesel-related air pollution is her most decisive move so far. With immediate effect she has announced the establishment of a coordination team of government ministries, states and municipalities to advise on projects that can be put in place. But environmental groups and a number of mayors have been quick to criticise the plans as too little, too late and, apart from the sustainability fund, too vague. Fritz Kuhn, mayor of Stuttgart, the worst-affected German city with emission levels double the limit set by the EU, said the industry – which had been due to contribute €250m to the fund – should be obliged to work with municipalities to solve the problems. He said his city was keen to purchase electric buses “but, on the part of the car industry, no one has given us any offers”, he said. His only option was to refit old buses instead, he said. Mayors have pinpointed buses as a big polluter. Though they make up only 1% of vehicles on the roads, they produce 20% of emissions. The diesel car market has fallen significantly since the emission scandal erupted, and has been further affected by the threat of driving bans in cities. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'world/germany', 'world/angela-merkel', 'environment/pollution', 'business/automotive-industry', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'cities/cities', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/philip-oltermann', 'profile/kateconnolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-09-05T16:05:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/georgemonbiot/2010/jan/21/christopher-booker-prize-climate-change-scepticism | Winner of climate change denial's premier award revealed | George Monbiot | So now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for. I am about to unveil the winner of one of the 300 most prestigious awards in environmental journalism: the Christopher Booker prize, awarded for falsehoods about climate change. The winner will receive this stylish trophy, lovingly fashioned by master craftsmen in mid-Wales, which, believe it or not, is made entirely of recycled materials! Even more exciting is the super soaraway holiday of a lifetime (possibly the final holiday of a lifetime) which the winner will be encouraged to take, and which the Guardian is assisting with a fabulous THREE bars of Kendal mint cake. The intention is to help persuade the lucky recipient to take a one-way solo kayak trip to the north pole, to see for him or herself the full extent of the Arctic ice melt. The rules of the competition are simple: the award goes to whoever in my opinion — assisted by climate scientists and specialists — managed in the course of 2009 to cram as many misrepresentations, distortions and falsehoods into a single online article, statement, lecture, film or interview about climate change. The first contestant was the man after which this beautiful trophy was named, the famous strangler of facts, the Telegraph Terror, Christopher Booker. In just one short column in the Sunday Telegraph, he managed to drop six and a half clangers. I thought that would set a high bar for the other contestants. How wrong I was. From total obscurity a new challenger rode out. In his very first attempt John Tomlinson, a columnist for the Flint Journal in Michigan, almost tripled Booker's score: knocking out a fantastic 18 errors in an article of just 486 words. In doing so he set what might have been a world record hit rate: one misleading statement every 26 words. Not that it was to last for long. I cast around in vain for someone who could match the Michigan Mauler's extraordinary performance. But even the likes of Melanie Phillips, James Delingpole and George Will couldn't take him on. David Bellamy, the Bearded Bungler, soon weighed in, and for a while his challenge looked promising, as he knocked out eight barmy statements in the first two minutes and 20 seconds of a video interview with the Daily Express. But then the fight just seemed to go out of him, and he tailed off with some quite sensible statements about other forms of pollution. By now it seemed to me that only one contender could take on the Mauler: the Discount Viscount, Lord Monckton. In fact there's a fair chance that Viscount Monckhausen could have come out in front with one of his online lectures, which are riddled with crazy assertions and shocking misrepresentations, but the thought of spending a day inside his mind made me feel physically sick. Then Tomlinson, the Michigan Mauler, made what turned out to be a definitive move. In response to my exposure of his howlers, he wrote another column in which, amazingly, he more than doubled his previous score, with a stunning 38 howlers. He even beat his own putative world record for error-density, with a score of one per 21 words. No one now had a hope of beating him. Or, to be more accurate, I wasn't prepared to go through all that again. Recording and rebutting 38 falsehoods was so time-consuming and soul-destroying that I didn't want to find another challenger. I'd had no idea what I was letting myself in for. How did he manage it? By cobbling together just about every well-trodden climate change myth he could find on the web and compressing them into the smallest possible space; rather like those people who try to write a book on a postage stamp. So the winner, ladies and gentlemen, of the 2009 Christopher Booker prize is ………. John Tomlinson!!!! This week I will be sending him the stunning trophy and the three bars of Kendal mint cake which will hopefully encourage him to embark on the holiday of his lifetime. With the help of this amazing prize, a fabulous career of even greater obscurity awaits him. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that. There won't be a 2010 Christopher Booker prize, because I can't face the thought of wading through all that rubbish again. www.monbiot.com | ['environment/georgemonbiot', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/georgemonbiot'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2010-01-21T13:13:50Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
artanddesign/2019/sep/29/tom-piper-poppy-memorial-lisa-wright-thetford-forest-sculptures | Tower of London poppy memorial designer takes to the woods | The designer behind the popular poppy installation at the Tower of London for the first world war anniversary in 2014 is creating a new and startling public artwork to mark another centenary. Designer Tom Piper is to install a series of bright and mysterious figures in dramatic settings in Thetford Forest, on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, in a collaboration with the Forestry Commission and the acclaimed sculptural artist Lisa Wright. Future Forest, which is to be unveiled on 4 October and remain on view for eight months, is part of the commission’s centenary celebrations. It takes the form of a series of life-size models of characters drawn from classical literature and legend, including Daphne, Venus, Cupid and Hymen; each is intended to represent an enduring “custodian” of the forest landscape. The figures will be displayed in a series of structures designed by Piper, from a natural avenue and a clearing of dead trees to a viewpoint over open land, in a project aimed at underlining the importance of trees and woodland to human survival. “Each location has a very different feel but I hope as a whole they will create a coherent journey,” said Piper. “Sometimes they are quoting the more formal relationship of statuary seen at the end of long avenues, and at other moments allowing the surprise encounter at close quarters with a figure in a clearing.” Wright’s “custodians” are made from bio-resins, chosen by her above traditional plastics due to the lower level of toxic emissions created by their production. The artist, who is based in Cornwall, like Piper has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the installation they have created together is designed to have a theatrical impact. “This sculpture trail will stop visitors to Thetford Forest in their tracks, both for the beauty of the figures and the drama that the installations bring to the landscape,” said PK Khaira-Creswell, director of the Forestry Commission’s centenary programme. “Amid the climate crisis, England’s trees and woodlands have never been so important for people and nature. As our centenary year draws to a close, we want people to pause and consider their role as custodians of our forests, protecting and enhancing them for the next 100 years.” | ['artanddesign/sculpture', 'environment/forests', 'uk-news/norfolk', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/vanessathorpe', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-09-29T05:19:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2010/sep/22/pakistan-flood-aid-miltancy | Pakistan needs flood aid to prevent militancy | Saroop Ijaz | Pakistan has been hit by the worst floods in its history. An estimated 2,000 people have died so far with close to 1m homes badly damaged or destroyed. The United Nations estimates more than 20 million people are suffering, with over 160,000 sq km affected as a result of the flooding – exceeding the combined total affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The main flood areas are southern Punjab, interior Sindh and the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Two of these – Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and southern Punjab – are believed to be regional hubs of Islamic militancy. So far, neither the military nor the government has proven motivated or capable enough to ameliorate the situation. Foreign aid is slow and grossly inadequate. The geographical location of the areas and the presence of militants discourage both foreign and local donor agencies from sending ground teams. The lack of foreign and domestic aid is also being attributed to the credibility deficit of the inefficient and notoriously corrupt government. Together, these factors have created a vacuum in relief efforts, which can have potentially disastrous consequences in areas where fundamentalist parties and militant groups have strong grassroots organisational structures. The presence of these groups allowed them the fastest reaction time when calamity struck. Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the alleged humanitarian wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba (responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks) is out helping flood victims in southern Punjab. The Al-Khidmat Foundation, the welfare wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest and most influential rightwing religious party, claims to have mobilised 16,500 volunteers and provided food and medical care to tens of thousands of people all over the country. Another organisation, the Al-Rasheed Trust, which is banned by the US for helping the Taliban, has been very active in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The relief camps are often set in mosques and madrasas where the local imam is entrusted with disbursing aid. The presence of mosques and imams in every town provides the opportunity of an organised relief effort. The posters outside the relief camps and the messages on the food items are often Islamic, anti-government and anti-US. Many madrasas in southern Punjab fill the void created by the destruction of most public schools, while providing free religious education. The religious groups like the Al-Khidmat Foundation are increasingly recruiting volunteers from the flood-affected areas. The authorities' abysmal performance is strengthening the Islamic extremist view that the government is corrupt, incompetent and hopelessly dependent on unreliable foreign allies. Many of these criticisms of the government are justified, but excuses cannot be made to allow the militants to regroup – and to win public support. There are hundreds of thousands of young, impressionable and deeply vulnerable people in the flood-affected areas right now. Since the earliest response in many areas was from the religious organisations and militant groups, victims are beginning to reconsider their views of them. These groups are being so efficient, as for now they are acting as religious charities. They are winning the hearts and minds of people who feel abandoned by all other sources. I do not expect those affected by the floods to discriminate between sources of aid: in the flood areas it is a Hobbesian world where the self-preservation instinct prevails over everything else. I am not implying that militant idealogy is being overtly disseminated in the flood-affected areas yet, but that the calamity has provided a huge public relations opportunity for the militants. It is imperative that the world realises that it could undo a lot of what the global "war on terror" has achieved. The international community needs to grasp that this is not Pakistan's problem alone. The Pakistani government and the world need to act immediately, not on a military level but rather by outperforming the militant and religious groups in relief and rehabilitation. Huge financial resources are required; equally significantly, presence on the ground is required. The people affected need the reassurance that the world (and not only religious groups) cares for them. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/pakistan-flood', 'world/pakistan', 'global-development/aid', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/saroop-ijaz'] | world/pakistan-flood | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-09-22T19:30:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2019/dec/02/labor-warns-200m-drought-package-may-be-open-to-political-exploitation | Labor warns $200m drought package may be open to political exploitation | Labor has raised concerns that a new round of government drought grants could be politically exploited, as parliament’s audit committee agrees to examine the Coalition’s troubled regional jobs and investment scheme. On Monday, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit announced it had agreed to commence an inquiry into the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages (RJIP) program, along with the Australian Research Council’s administration of the national competitive grants program. Labor had written to the audit committee asking it to look into the program’s administration after the auditor general released a scathing report into the Coalition’s handling of the $220m regional jobs scheme. The shadow infrastructure minister, Catherine King, welcomed the committee’s inquiry, and warned against a repeat of the government’s failings with the administration of a new $200m special drought round to be awarded under the building better regions fund (BBRF). King said the criteria for the new funding round were “so loose he [regional development minister Michael McCormack] can decide eligibility based on his feelings”. “Rural and regional Australians living through this extended drought need support from the government, not uncertainty,” King said. “I don’t want to see councils and community organisations spending thousands of dollars and countless hours preparing an application only for the minister to arbitrarily rule them ineligible.” King said McCormack needed to urgently clarify the rainfall and socioeconomic benchmarks for grant funding, and reveal how he would deem a location as eligible. In November, the government announced it would direct $200m from the BBRF to create a special drought round for drought-affected councils, providing up to $10m per project in regional local government areas. According to the guidelines, a ministerial panel chaired by McCormack has been established to make funding decisions for the program, and applicants must provide evidence that they are in a drought-affected region. The guidelines say that “in addition to the assessed application and availability of grant funds, the ministerial panel, in consultation with cabinet, then decides which grants to approve”. King said the RJIP process had exposed shortcomings with how grant funds were awarded, with the ministerial panel approving funding for 17% of applications against advice from the department, while overturning 28% of the department’s recommendations. “Hard-working organisations missed out to companies that were trading while insolvent, under investigation from Asic and trying to raise matching funds with aqua tokens,” King said. She also criticised the government for refusing to comply with a senate order to produce documents relating to the ministerial panel’s decisions. On Monday, McCormack advised the Senate that he would not comply with the document order, claiming public interest immunity. “The documents requested if they were publicly released would damage commercial interests, including reputational damage to companies involved in open tender processes,” McCormack said. Guardian Australia has reported a series of projects that received funding under the RJIP scheme that have raised questions about the assessment process, including a $205,000 grant to a dog breeder to build an aquaculture project on the south coast, with the venture to be funded by raising $5m in “aqua token” cryptocurrency. A different project in the same electorate received $750,000 while possibly trading while insolvent, and in another instance, a grant in north Queensland was provided to a bus and ferry project that is losing money and is unlikely to happen for two more years. A former Nationals candidate was also a successful grant applicant, receiving $300,000 for a crocodile farm in the marginal seat of Capricornia, while in the Wide Bay Burnett area, the top eight projects recommended for funding based on the department’s merit assessment were all overlooked, while two known political donors to the LNP were successful. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/michael-mccormack', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarah-martin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-12-02T06:50:53Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
lifeandstyle/2014/may/08/sustainable-blog-of-the-week-plastic-is-rubbish | Sustainable blog of the week: Plastic is Rubbish | Why did you start writing Plastic is Rubbish? One day, I noticed a plastic bag in a tree outside my house. It was too high up, I couldn't get it down. So it was there forever, just looking worse and worse. From there, I just started to notice plastic waste more and more, and how it seems to be increasing so dramatically. What were once beautiful beaches now look like open landfill. That's the nature of the plastic problem, its just getting exponentially worse and worse. It was driving me nuts, especially that plastic bag. And then I thought: "Well, I'm as much as part of the problem as anyone or anything else," and wondered if I could try and live without plastic and stop adding to the this awful problem. I collected all my plastic rubbish over a week and thought: "How am I going to live without plastic? I'm either going to smell, or die of scurvy!" So I decided to source one plastic-free alternative each month and to keep me on the straight and narrow, I started blogging about it. The plastic bag is still there. Every winter is appears like some terrible crow. What have you learned while writing the blog? Well, I've learned a lot about plastic. I didn't realise how insidious it is and how much we use it in our everyday lives. It's really interesting. Plastic is a great product, and it has allowed us to make so many changes. But we abuse it when we use is as a disposable item. I learned to like plastic a lot more than I thought I would, and to treat it with respect. I've also learned about blogging, which is something I'd never done before. There's a definite community around the blog. It's allowed me to get in touch with great people and different projects. Especially if you're travelling, it's easy to lose touch with what's going on and to see that people are making huge changes. What's your motivation to continue living plastic-free and writing about it? When I started writing seven years ago I was probably one of the first bloggers talking about the issue. It was a really small issue and not many people were talking about it. I'm not saying that I'm a fire starter or anything but more and more people are aware of the problem. It is something that has to be tackled and people are doing things about it that are really empowering and really inspiring. And these things need to be supported so that's why I keep on blogging, to promote a plastic-free lifestyle and to promote tip and things. But people are becoming more aware and that's really encouraging. How much plastic would you say you use now, and what do you do with it? In terms of disposable packaging, one-use plastic, very very little, and only if we were absolutely stuck somewhere. For reusable plastics, things like my computer and my phone, I still use that quite a lot. When I first started, it was just about that plastic bag but now I'm aware of how much plastic we do use. It also depends on the product. If there is a biodegradable alternative available, then I will buy that, so I have things like natural brushes, metal buckets and cotton dishcloths. I try to buy recycled plastic that has a clear code as I want to know what's going to happen to the plastic after I've used it. I buy products that are, or can be, recycled. There are things people should be considering, like the fact that it's better to buy food unwrapped but it's different for those with busy lives. I'm lucky as I work from home and I have the time to go to the butcher's and the baker's, but it's different for the people who only have time to grab something on the way home from. Generally though, I think people are becoming more aware of the issue. What about the other members of your family? My husband is better at it than I am! He goes into shops with the tubs and everything but I'm very English about it. I don't like to ask people not to use the plastic wrapping and things. But he argues with them, saying: "Please use these re-useable bags," and everything. He's really on board. My mum's great, too, trotting around with her re-useable bag. I think people change their behaviour when I'm around in case I go through their bins and say: "There's plastic in there!" I don't know if I've influenced people but I think generally people are thinking more about what they do with plastic. Kate Armstrong writes the blog Plastic is Rubbish under the name Polytheen Pam, and tweets @PolytheenPam Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? Take a look at this month's Live Better Challenge here. The Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable living. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['lifeandstyle/live-better', 'lifeandstyle/series/sustainability-blog-of-the-week', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'profile/katherine-purvis'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-05-08T11:22:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/aug/26/action-demanded-mayors-save-uk-inner-city-poor-from-air-pollution | City mayors make joint call for urgent action to tackle UK air pollution | City leaders across England and Wales have teamed up to demand that Theresa May take immediate action to fight air pollution, which scientists say causes at least 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. A total of 17 mayors and civic leaders, representing 20 million people throughout the country, have signed a letter that calls for a national action plan to clean up the nation’s air to be implemented as a matter of urgency. They include the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, as well as mayors Andy Burnham (Greater Manchester), Steve Rotheram (Liverpool city region), and Dan Jarvis (Sheffield), along with leaders from authorities around the country including Cardiff, Leeds, Newcastle and Southampton. “Our country’s polluted air is shortening lives, damaging our children’s lungs, and severely impacting on the NHS as well as costing the economy in working days lost,” they say. “Crucially, these consequences ... disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable.” The group is demanding that the government: • Pass a stringent clean air act that will give local authorities powers to regulate emissions such as those produced by taxis and private hire services in cities. • Set up a targeted vehicle renewal scheme to replace older, more polluting cars, buses and lorries, but in a way that will protect local businesses. • Provide funds to support the establishment of clean air zones and provide investment in cleaner buses, taxis and other forms of transport. The letter, also sent to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, and the environment secretary, Michael Gove, was written in the wake of the national clean air summit in June when many civic leaders met to debate the air pollution crisis. The event was jointly hosted by the mayor of London, the UK100 cities network and the Institute for Public Policy Research. “Our most deprived communities, who already have to cope with multiple health problems, suffer most from the effects of polluted air,” said Rotheram. “In Liverpool we have areas where men have a life expectancy seven years lower than the national average. There is only so much that we can do as an individual area, which is why we need a national plan for clean air.” This view was backed by Bristol’s mayor, Marvin Rees. “It is unacceptable that lives are at risk,” he said. “We need the government to show leadership with a way to support low-income, vulnerable families and small businesses who rely on diesel vehicles to be able to shift to cleaner cars.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'cities/city-mayors', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'cities/cities', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/andyburnham', 'type/article', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-08-26T05:00:05Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
cities/2016/feb/08/next-tokyo-2045-japan-plans-mile-high-skyscraper-flood-defence | The next Tokyo? Plan for 'flood-defence city' boasts first mile-high skyscraper | This week’s collection of urban gems takes us all the way from Tokyo to Porto Alegre via Amsterdam and Copenhagen – and ends with a first-hand experience of commuting. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories, and any others you’ve read recently: share your thoughts in the comments below. Tokyo’s flood-defence city When cities are threatened by floods, the obvious response is to build a wall – while other solutions may include creating permeable waterfront parks or floodable public spaces. However, one proposal for Tokyo, a city particularly prone to the impact of rising tides and rainfall, takes flood defences to a whole new level. As CityMetric explains, the “Next Tokyo 2045” proposal – designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates with Leslie E Robertson Associates, and purely at concept stage – involves the creation of a whole new city, built on reclaimed islands in Tokyo Bay, to defend against floods. Arranged in a series of hexagons to form a barrier that minimises the impact of large ocean waves, the proposed “city” would include a mile-high skyscraper to house thousands of residents – which, as an excited Daily Mail and Metro point out, would become the world’s first mile-high tower, and twice the height of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Which again prompts the question: how much higher can skyscrapers go? Night mayors Should cities have dedicated 24-hour areas where the night-time economy can flourish without disturbing the majority of the city’s residents? That’s the opinion of Amsterdam’s very own “night mayor” and former club promoter, Mirik Milan. But as he explains, it’s not all about bars and clubs: “You could have working spaces there, and a library open 24 hours a day for students,” Mirin tells CityLab. The night mayor’s role in the Dutch capital, created in 2014, involves managing and improving relations between night businesses, residents and city government. Thus far it seems to have worked so well in Amsterdam that other European cities are following suit: Paris, Toulouse and Zurich now all have night mayors, while London and Berlin are considering introducing them. Greening Madrid Madrid’s walls, roofs and unused spaces are soon to be covered with greenery in a bid to improve the city’s climate resilience and help reduce the impact of extreme weather such as floods and heatwaves. As Fast Co Exist reports, 22 vacant lots in the Spanish city will be transformed into urban gardens, paved squares will become parks and river banks will be lined with trees. Roads may even be turned into linear parks as Madrid progresses with its city-centre ban on private cars. The series of green interventions are being undertaken by global engineering and design firm Arup. By creating green roofs and walls through extensive planting, buildings can save energy through insulation, air pollution can be mitigated and the carbon footprint of the city can be reduced. Shading from trees brings down local temperatures and the general increase in green coverage means water can be absorbed and stored after heavy rains, reducing the risk of flooding. It’s also hoped that a greener Madrid will improve wellbeing among its citizens. Copenhagen: perfect after all? Copenhagen is often celebrated as the model of sustainable urbanism that other cities should look to learn from. But, as Feargus O’Sullivan argues in Next City, even Copenhagen can make mistakes. “The urbanism movement’s model city is not immune to the challenges of growth, climate change and increasing economic disparity,” writes O’Sullivan, citing the fractures caused by Copenhagen’s plans for a new harbour tunnel and its housing strategy among other issues. If the new harbour tunnel is built, the city known for cycling and pedestrianisation could end up being “flooded” with cars. And as housing demand exceeds the rate of construction, costs of homes are skyrocketing – while some of Copenhagen’s key housing projects are targeted at the wealthy minority. Porto Alegre’s resilience roadmap Last week, Porto Alegre announced its – and Latin America’s – first resilience strategy, and committed 10% of the city’s budget towards “improving resilience”. Writing in Next City, Gregory Scruggs explains that the Brazilian city’s strategy involves working towards a “culture of peace”, regularising land tenure, improving urban mobility and creating a “dynamic innovation ecosystem”, focused on revitalising an area of industrial land near the city centre called the 4th District. To design the new strategy, the city used the networks established by its celebrated process of participatory budgeting. “The policy, whereby the city is divided into 17 regions and everyday citizens have a say in how municipal funds are allocated among them, put the city on the map in the 1990s,” writes Scruggs. “The project team made a conscious effort to solicit ideas directly from the participatory budgeting regions, rather than show up with their own preconceived plans.” On commuting And finally: the morning commute can induce an array of emotions and sensations: anxiety, exhaustion, claustrophobia, irritation, boredom ... But for the lucky few, it can also offer a peaceful moment of reflection. A chapter from the Book of Life captures one experience of commuting to London: The train moves off, resuming its rhythmical clicking along tracks laid down a century and a half ago, when the capital first began plucking workers from their beds in faraway villages. Familiar vignettes stream by outside: a power station, a patch of waste ground, a postal depot, a copse of ancient trees, a group of schoolgirls in grey-and-blue uniforms, a band of cumulus clouds spreading from the west, a shopping mall across a motorway, some underwear swaying on a line, and then gradually, the backs of suburban villas, heralding the train’s arrival into central London itself. Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion | ['cities/cities', 'cities/series/city-links', 'cities/series/resilient-cities', 'world/spain', 'environment/environment', 'environment/access-to-green-space', 'world/japan', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'cities/skyscrapers', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/francesca-perry'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-02-08T13:06:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
food/2019/oct/04/putting-an-end-to-cobnut-confusion | Putting an end to cobnut confusion | Letter | In your article and recipe for an English version of tarta de Santiago (Feast, 28 September), the writer is seemingly confused about hazelnuts and cobnuts. Cobnuts are actually cultivated hazelnuts. Just as there are many different kinds of cultivated apples, such as Cox and Braeburn, there are different kinds of cultivated hazelnuts too. The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, Kent, holds more than 50 varieties. Cultivated hazelnuts are all closely related to the wild hazel that grows in our woods and hedges. The best-known cobnuts are Kentish cobnuts (which include a number of varieties), but I have also seen Lincolnshire cobnuts and Exmoor cobnuts for sale. Gillian Jones Chair, Kentish Cobnuts Association • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['food/food', 'food/fruit', 'environment/forests', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-10-04T16:14:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2019/aug/19/national-trust-objects-to-plans-for-big-salmon-farm-off-hebridean-isle | Heritage body objects to plans for big salmon farm off Hebridean isle | The National Trust for Scotland has warned that a large salmon farm beside the Hebridean island of Canna could destroy the island’s culture and wildlife. The trust, Scotland’s largest heritage charity, said the proposed fish farm posed unacceptable risks to the sea and the birdlife around the tiny island, and would put its booming tourism economy under great strain. Mowi, the world’s largest aquaculture company, has tabled outline plans with Highland council to install eight super-sized fish pens close to Canna’s shoreline, to be stocked with 2,500 tonnes of organic salmon. The NTS, which was given the island by the Gaelic folklorist John Lorne Campbell in 1981, has tabled a formal objection to Mowi’s proposals, accusing it of submitting flawed, incomplete evidence about the site’s environmental and economic impact. It said the farm will sit in one of the UK’s most heavily protected marine areas, home to fragile sea life including the rare fan mussel and very close to seal “haul-outs”, where they haul themselves on to land, and vulnerable seabird populations. The farm could also affect wild salmon and trout migrating to and from Skye, less than 10 miles away, the NTS said. Mowi argues that an organic farm is more sustainable than a conventional salmon farm as it holds a third less fish. The NTS estimates it would still discharge as much organic waste each year – faeces, uneaten fishmeal and dead fish – as a town the size of Dumfries or Lichfield (population about 35,000). Stuart Brooks, the trust’s head of conservation and policy, said it had a duty to protect Canna’s cultural and natural heritage. The island and its surrounding seas are protected by six wildlife and geological designations, including a marine protected area, with six other protected areas nearby. “Based on the information provided by Mowi so far about their fish farm proposals, we have no confidence that their plans would not undermine, if not destroy, the very things that make Canna so important,” he said. “In all conscience, we cannot support Mowi’s proposals.” An island with a population of 18, Canna is famed for Lorne Campbell’s large Gaelic archive and for its archaeology and wildlife, which includes the rare Canna mouse, a subspecies of fieldmouse. The NTS and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland spent £600,000 eradicating brown rats from the island 10 years ago, in part to protect the Canna mouse but also to bring the island’s Manx shearwater population back from the brink of extinction. The trust warns there is a “serious risk” that rats will be brought back by Mowi’s service vessels. Mowi said it would strive to stop that happening and would pay for an eradication programme if its vessels were to blame. One of four inhabited islands known as the Small Isles, along with Eigg, Rum and Muck, Canna has suffered a long-term population decline and several failed attempts by the NTS to attract new residents. The trust handed control of its regeneration strategy to the islanders in 2017. Its economy is heavily dependent on summer tourism, subsistence farming and the NTS warden and archivists working at Canna House, the home shared by Lorne Campbell and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw, a musician and photographer. Mowi, a Norwegian-owned multinational, said the farm would need 10 staff and would boost Canna’s economy. Some will be based there part-time, but Mowi has offered some jobs to islanders, who are still mulling over the proposal. It already has two salmon farms off Rum and Muck that employ local people, but the NTS said the Canna site, which will cover 16,000 sq metres and sit close to the picturesque harbour, will deter tourists, cruise ships and yachts, reducing the island’s main source of income. Mowi said the Canna scheme would allow it to close down two sites on the Scottish mainland close to sensitive wild salmon habitats, including one at Loch Ewe blamed for devastating wild trout stocks at Loch Maree nearby. The company has promised all its Scottish sites will be accredited by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, which has tighter rules on chemical use and marine pollution, by 2020, in response to attacks from MSPs and environmentalists on the industry’s environmental record. Mowi argues an organic farm would have a lower impact, partly because the Canna site will be exposed to strong tides and open sea. NTS challenged that assertion, since the Soil Association, the organic accreditation and rule-making body, still allowed toxic chemicals to be used twice a year. Mowi said it was disappointed NTS had publicised its objections, adding: “Our science experts will continue to work with the Canna Development Trust to explore the potential for a sustainable aquaculture development, and look forward to discussing scientific evidence that is the basis for Canna’s decision whether to proceed.” | ['uk/scotland', 'uk/national-trust', 'environment/fish', 'environment/marine-life', 'business/fishing-industry', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-19T05:00:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2013/jul/22/single-portion-packs-green-consumer | When single-portion packs are the green consumer choice | Tim Sykes | Here's a counter-intuitive way in which packaging can help the environment: put more food in single-portion packs. Increase the proportion of packaging to product in the food we buy, and with it increase the amount of packaging waste we generate. We tend to become conscious of packaging when it is empty. As a result we think less about its whole, functional lifespan and more about the rubbish left behind. This is to overlook its role as the component of a product that prevents damage and loss during transportation, and prolongs the life of the contents. Packaging's primary purpose is to reduce product waste, and in doing so to avoid over-production. Since in most cases a great deal more energy is expended on manufacturing a product than its packaging, packaging is overall a net conserver of energy, water and other resources. So the argument goes that if insufficient packaging results in greater waste, perhaps we sometimes need more packaging. Single-serving packs, which undeniably use more material per gram of product, prevent us from discarding food or drink after opening a bottle or bag that contains more than we need at that moment. Perhaps it makes sense to buy pieces of fruit in single-serving packs instead of bringing home a bag of apples and letting the bacteria get to them before we do. This exercise in practical kitchen ethics touches on a profoundly important global problem. A third of the food produced on our planet is lost or wasted - amounting to 1.3bn tonnes every year. In regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where a great deal less packaging is used, the majority of waste occurs between harvesting, processing and distribution – far more than in Europe at the same stages of the supply chain. The inference is that packaging can play a role in easing pressure on food supply in the developing world. Globally, it can help feed us more resource-efficiently and support the overall sustainability of food production. In the west, meanwhile, innovation has lightened packaging's environmental footprint while increasing its effectiveness at cutting waste. Modified atmosphere technologies now widely used extend the shelf life of fresh produce. Breakthroughs in smart packaging raise the possibility of a future in which films, like a banana skin, change colour to inform us the food inside is turning. More packaging, less waste. Well, not quite. If in the poorer parts of the world waste is to a large degree a problem of insufficient packaging before it reaches the consumer, in the affluent regions over-consumption is the greatest driver of environmental damage. The British consumer wastes much, much more food than the average Nigerian who, despite the scarcity of packaged portions of salad leaves, discards very little. In the 20th century packaging emerged as the great facilitator and siren of consumerism. It is a devilishly effective advertising medium which makes products look desirable, feel good in our hands, and even appear virtuous – after all, the packaging is substantively greener than ever before. Evidently, even a small carton that informs us the product inside will give you cancer can be so potent a branding tool that the tobacco industry is lobbying hard to convince us that it isn't the packaging that kills you, just the cigarettes inside. Packaging tempts us to buy more than we can eat, delivers us fresh food from New Zealand – with little wastage – and makes it convenient to consume in contexts where we used to happily go without. So a single-portion pack may indeed often be the greener consumer choice – but only if we are really sure we need that stuff inside. • Tim Sykes is editor of Packaging Europe | ['environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/landfill', 'environment/food', 'tone/comment', 'type/article'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2013-07-22T10:07:50Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
science/2019/jul/22/peter-iredale-obituary | Peter Iredale obituary | My father, Peter Iredale, who has died aged 87, was the last director of the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire, a pioneering institute that housed Europe’s first nuclear reactor. Having joined Harwell in the late 1950s as a scientific officer, Peter progressed through various scientific and leadership positions there, with a focus that eventually expanded to embrace non-nuclear energy technologies such as wind and wave power. At one stage he led the marine and technology support unit at Harwell, and from 1979 to 1984 he chaired the UK wave energy steering committee. He was appointed deputy director at Harwell in 1986 and then director the following year. However, in 1990, following a ministerial decision – the implications of which were not known at the time of his appointment – drastic cuts in government funding led to a radical restructuring. It fell to Peter to preside over the ending of Harwell’s role as a homogenous research establishment. Before stepping down in 1992 he produced a plan to develop the campus as a centre for scientific innovation, and this came to fruition in the form of what is now the Harwell science and innovation campus. Born in Brownhills, near Walsall, to Annie (nee Kirby), a maid, and Henry, a grocer, Peter excelled academically at Lichfield grammar school and in 1949, aged 17, he went to Bristol University to study physics. There he met a fellow student, Judith Marshall, whom he married in 1957. After graduating, Peter undertook a PhD, supervised by the Nobel physics laureate Cecil “CF” Powell, before, in 1955, becoming a scientific officer at Harwell and working his way up within the organisation. After leaving Harwell, Peter sought another strategic role to satiate his intellectual restlessness, and found fulfilment as chair of Oxfordshire area health authority, a position he held from 1992 until 2001. In that role he managed several large NHS reorganisations, including the merger of all the main Oxfordshire hospitals into one trust; a process fraught with difficulty. Navigating these complexities while maintaining stability in the local health system required great fixity of purpose, clarity of strategic vision and an outstanding ability to persuade people to work together. In parallel, Peter recognised the importance of building a stronger relationship between the Oxfordshire health sector and the University of Oxford, and his work in that direction led to the creation of several world class clinical research institutes, including the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism and the Centre of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain. In his spare time he enjoyed gardening and operatic music. He is survived by Judith, their four children, me, Susan, Helen and Alison, and 13 grandchildren. | ['science/science', 'environment/energy', 'technology/technology', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'tone/obituaries', 'uk/oxford', 'education/oxforduniversity', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2019-07-22T14:02:20Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2021/dec/29/northvolt-rolls-out-europes-first-gigafactory-era-car-battery | Northvolt rolls out Europe’s first ‘gigafactory-era’ car battery | Electric cars have gone mainstream in Europe – they accounted for nearly a fifth of all car purchases in the UK last month. Yet one piece has been missing up to now: European batteries. That is now changing. On Tuesday night, Northvolt, a startup, produced its first lithium ion battery cell at a plant in northern Sweden. It is the first of a series of new factories that investors hope will allow Europe to carve out a big proportion of the electric vehicle market – and weaken the stranglehold built up by manufacturers in China, Japan and Korea. The Northvolt Ett site will be the first European-owned plant to produce at so-called gigafactory scale. Gigafactories are generally considered to be those capable of producing enough batteries each year to provide about 15 gigawatt hours (GWh) of cumulative storage. Only two large battery factories are operational in Europe, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI), a battery data company: a factory in Wrocław, Poland, run by Korea’s LG, and another owned by Korea’s Samsung near Budapest in Hungary. Yet there are 25 gigafactories planned for the continent by 2030, according to BMI, as the industry races to keep up with soaring demand for electric cars. Nine of those are owned by Asian manufacturers, which control most of the global supply. The UK is arguably further behind the rest of Europe, with plans for only two gigafactories. One will be a major expansion of a small battery plant in Sunderland by the Chinese company Envision, while the Glencore-backed startup Britishvolt is attempting to secure funding for a homegrown rival in nearby Blyth. Local authorities in Coventry are trying to find a manufacturer for a third site at the local airport, but nobody has yet stepped forward – a situation that has cast a shadow over the prospects of the UK automotive sector as it strives to replace the declining internal combustion engine industry. Simon Moores, BMI’s chief executive, hailed Northvolt’s first cell as “Europe’s first gigafactory-era lithium ion battery”. Despite its startup status, Northvolt has gained heavyweight financial backing from Volkswagen, the world’s biggest car producer, and the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Its $2.75bn (£2.1bn) funding round in June valued it at $12bn. Northvolt hopes to rapidly expand production at the plant at Skellefteå in northern Sweden to produce 60GWh a year – enough to supply batteries for a million electric cars. Commercial deliveries will start in the new year. The startup already boasts contracts worth $30bn with big European companies including the carmakers BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar, the truck manufacturer Scania, and the energy storage firm Fluence. Carmakers are belatedly ramping up electric vehicle production to meet tightening emissions targets as well as the challenge from their US rival, Tesla, which has built its own battery and car plant in Berlin. Peter Carlsson, Northvolt’s chief executive and co-founder, said the production of the lithium ion battery on Tuesday represented“a great milestone”. “Of course, this first cell is only the beginning,” he said. “Over the course of the coming years, we look forward to Northvolt Ett expanding its production capacity greatly to enable the European transition to clean energy.” | ['business/automotive-industry', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/business', 'environment/electric-cars', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/automotive-emissions', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-12-29T13:01:53Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2005/dec/27/tsunami2004.johnaglionby1 | Interview: Mohammed Dahlan | Mohammed Dahlan reckons it will be at least another two years before his life returns to normal. "[The aid agency] Care [International] has just started rebuilding houses in the village," the retired farmer said. "We're at the back of the queue because our house only needs repairs. They're going to rebuild the destroyed houses first and then work on rehabilitation." When Care gets round to helping Mr Dahlan, they might decide it's better to start from scratch because damp is steadily, noticeably and scarily rising up the walls and only three out of eight rooms remain. "It's true we've received a lot this year but we also lost a lot: animals, crops and many other things. There's no way we're better off now," he said. "For example we all still think constantly about the tsunami. We're still traumatised and have received no counselling other than a few chats with the imam." Life is very much still about survival; Mr Dahlan's eldest son, who works in the provincial government development office, has taken a job two nights a week as a security guard to pay for the younger son's school fees while Mr Dahlan cultivates various crops, both for the family and to sell. "Recovery is going to be slow and hard work," he said. Mohammed Dahlan in March 2005 | ['world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/johnaglionby'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-12-27T00:01:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/aug/28/cp-foods-reasserts-its-strong-commitment-to-human-rights-and-a-sustainable-supply-chain | CP Foods reasserts its strong commitment to human rights and a sustainable supply chain | Letter from Kosit Lohawatanakul | CP Foods condemns, in the strongest possible terms, all aspects of human trafficking and slavery, and we take this opportunity to reassert our strong commitment to human rights and a sustainable supply chain. In light of a recent lawsuit filed in California (Costco and CP Foods face lawsuit over alleged slavery in prawn supply chain, 19 August ), CP Foods would like to provide further detail on the actions we have been taking to ensure traceability and humane and sustainable practices throughout our shrimp (prawn) supply chain. We believe that the lawsuit is entirely without merit, and we have taken significant measures to ensure that the practices that it describes are not a part of our business. We also want to make clear the systems we have in place to ensure our current and continued compliance with international standards and the strength of our resolve to eradicate any such practices from the Thai fishing industry. We only have contact with the Thai fishing industry in a few small areas, as we do not own or operate any fishmeal plants or fishing vessels. The allegations relate to fishmeal – a small and diminishing ingredient of the feedstock that we feed to the shrimp at our farms. We are committed to and have implemented steps to allow us to trace the origin of the fishmeal that we buy back to individual fishing vessels. Currently, fishmeal makes up around 10% of our shrimp farm feedstock, and our goal is to reduce it to 5% over the next five years. It is important to note that fishmeal is entirely made from material that would otherwise go to waste. The by-product fishmeal (made from trimmings during the preparation of large fish for human consumption) is certified to the recognised international benchmark for the sustainable usage of fishmeal. The by-catch (ie uneconomic fish caught by fishermen alongside their intended catch) portion of our fishmeal usage is subject to a traceability system that extends back to the fishmeal plants and original fishing vessels. We have also vastly reduced the number of suppliers to help ensure full visibility and traceability on sustainability and social issues. This traceability system will soon undergo an audit by a highly reputable international third-party audit firm. Shrimp farming is an important source of sustainable seafood for a growing world population. As a founding member of the Shrimp Sustainable Supply Chain Task Force, alongside international customers, Thai seafood industry peers and international non-governmental organisations, CP Foods is committed to driving further improvements at every stage of the Thai shrimp supply chain. Our actions demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that our supply chain is free from environmental and labour issues, and reflect our fundamental commitment to human rights. Kosit Lohawatanakul Senior vice-president, Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, Bangkok, Thailand | ['environment/fishing', 'world/slavery', 'tone/letters', 'world/thailand', 'environment/marine-life', 'law/human-rights', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-08-28T15:09:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/nov/08/uk-forests-face-catastrophic-ecosystem-collapse-within-50-years-study-says-aoe | UK forests face catastrophic ecosystem collapse within 50 years, study says | UK forests are heading for “catastrophic ecosystem collapse” within the next 50 years due to multiple threats including disease, extreme weather and wildfires, researchers have warned, with trees dying on a large scale. The study, published in the journal Forestry, was put together by a panel of 42 researchers, with 1,200 experts consulted. Lead author, Dr Eleanor Tew, head of forest planning at Forestry England and visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, described the finding as “sobering and alarming”. Many of the threats warned of by researchers are already affecting forests and woodlands. The fungal disease ash dieback will kill up to eight out of 10 of the UK’s ash trees. In 2021, winter storms destroyed about 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of forest in Britain. Climate projections show storms, heatwaves, droughts and floods are likely to become more common and more severe. “The problem comes when you get all of those things happening at the same time as multiple, interrelated threats,” said Tew. “That just overwhelms the forest, and you basically get trees dying and the forest ecosystem collapsing … that has massive landscape impacts, and significant impacts for society.” Catastrophic ecosystem collapse is not inevitable, and is not yet occurring in the UK’s forests. “We do have time to make a difference, and there is a lot we can do to make our forests more resilient,” said Tew, who described the paper as a “call for action”. Solutions include increasing the diversity of tree species within a wood, planting trees of different ages, promoting natural regeneration and managing deer populations. People can help by using the online Tree Alert tool to report possible tree pests and diseases. Tew also said people should make sure their boots are clean before walking in a new woodland to avoid spreading disease. The long-term impacts of forest ecosystem collapse would include loss of timber, carbon sequestration, poorer air quality, water retention and human enjoyment. In some parts of Europe, there has already been ecosystem collapse within forests: storms, drought and bark beetle outbreaks in Germany have destroyed the equivalent of 250,000 football fields of forest. All this is often made worse by management strategies that create forests full of the same species and age of tree, making them more vulnerable. The forestry industry has to plan in advance, Tew said: an average conifer in a plantation can take up to 60 years to reach maturity, and a broadleaf up to 150 years. “Forestry has always been about planning for the long-term, and we’re at a time of huge change,” said Tew. The government plans to plant 30,000 hectares of forest every year by 2025, which is double current planting rates. The UK is one of the least forested European countries, with a total coverage of 13%. A 2021 report from the Woodland Trust found that just 7% of the UK’s native woodland was in good condition. Other challenges facing forests outlined in the paper include the use of water for trees coming into increased conflict with human needs for water for homes and farmland, particularly as droughts and floods become more frequent. Forest management is projected to become harder due to wetter winters and hot summers. The research said that protecting soil was also a priority, as well as preparing for the impacts of tree viruses. Dr Elena Cantarello from Bournemouth University, who was not involved in the study, said her own recent research in south-west England “comes to similar conclusions”. She added: “Catastrophic forest ecosystem collapse, identified in Tew’s [paper] as the most highly ranked issue, is something which was also identified in the majority of the ecosystem services and biodiversity variables we studied.” Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X (formerly known as Twitter) for all the latest news and features • This article was corrected on 8 November 2023 to clarify that ash dieback disease will kill up to 80% of British ash trees, but hasn’t already done so. | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phoebe-weston', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-11-08T06:30:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/article/2024/jul/08/labour-lifts-ban-onshore-windfarms-planning-policy | Labour lifts Tories’ ‘absurd’ ban on onshore windfarms | The de facto ban on new onshore windfarms has been dropped by the Labour government, to the delight of environmentalists and energy experts. The ban was caused by two footnotes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the rules that govern the building of homes and infrastructure. These footnotes applied only to onshore wind, and no other type of infrastructure, and required such strong proof that there was no opposition locally that they made building turbines impossible, given there is nearly always some local resistance to any building proposal. In Labour’s new draft NPPF, these footnotes have been deleted in their entirety, meaning onshore wind projects are now on an even footing with all other forms of infrastructure. The change, which comes into force immediately, will be confirmed to parliament on 18 July after the Commons resumes sitting. Labour also announced on Monday that it would go a step further and consult on whether to designate large windfarms as nationally significant infrastructure projects, meaning that the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, would sign them off and local councils would not have a say. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced in a speech on Monday that she would end the “absurd” restriction on new windfarms and said decisions should be taken nationally, not locally. In a policy statement, officials wrote: “Delivering our clean power mission will help boost Britain’s energy independence, save money on energy bills, support high-skilled jobs and tackle the climate crisis. “We are therefore committed to doubling onshore wind energy by 2030. That means immediately removing the de facto ban on onshore wind in England in place since 2015. We are revising planning policy to place onshore wind on the same footing as other energy development in the National Planning Policy Framework.” Last September Michael Gove, the then communities secretary, said the ban would be lifted. Rules put in place by David Cameron in 2015 had decreed that a single planning objection could scupper an onshore wind project. However, the offending paragraphs in the NPPF footnote remained, making building new projects almost impossible. Analysis of the government’s renewable energy planning database found that no applications for new onshore wind projects were submitted after Gove’s announcement. The end of the ban was promised in Labour’s election manifesto and trailed by Miliband when he was shadow energy secretary, but campaigners were surprised by the speed at which it has been implemented. Mike Childs, the head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said: “By ending the onshore wind ban in England, Labour is making an important stride towards delivering on our climate goals while also paving the way for lower bills, as renewables produce some of the cheapest and cleanest energy available. “In April, research by Friends of the Earth found that utilising less than 3% of land in England for onshore wind and solar could produce 13 times more clean energy that now generated – enough to power all households in England twice over. By harnessing the country’s vast renewable power potential, the new government is staking its claim as a global leader in the green energy transition.” Sam Richards, the chief executive of the pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade and a former environmental adviser to No 10, said: “The only way we are going to see the growth Britain desperately needs is if we make it significantly easier to build the homes and the new sources of clean energy needed to reach net zero. “During the election Labour promised to fix our outdated and sclerotic planning system to just that, and with this speech the new chancellor is hitting the ground running. Lifting the ban on new onshore windfarms in England is something Britain Remade has been campaigning for since we launched, so I am delighted Rachel Reeves has dropped the ban so soon after the election.” Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s chief scientist, said: “As the recent gas price crisis shows, this ban was self-defeating for energy security, costly, and lost opportunities to cut emissions. The end of the ban is well overdue.” | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'politics/labour', 'politics/rachel-reeves', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2024-07-08T11:14:54Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2021/apr/15/shareholders-pressure-woodside-over-carbon-emissions-and-scarborough-gas-project | Shareholders pressure Woodside over carbon emissions and Scarborough gas project | Directors of fossil fuel producer Woodside Petroleum have been peppered with questions about the company’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and its controversial Scarborough gas project during a meeting of shareholders in Perth. The company is due to make a final decision on whether to commit to Scarborough in the second half of the year but is also in the process of looking for a new chief executive to replace Peter Coleman – raising concerns among shareholders about the process for approving the project. Coleman is retiring in June after 10 years as CEO. In February, the company was forced to backpedal after he told website Energy News Bulletin that coup leaders in Myanmar, where Woodside was exploring for gas, felt “they weren’t being heard” and “were pushed up against a difficult decision point” before seizing power in a bloody coup that has so far cost more than 700 lives. Chair Richard Goyder told Thursday’s meeting one of Woodside’s large shareholders told him it was not happy with the company’s greenhouse gas targets, which exclude the “scope 3” emissions produced by its customers, and would as a result vote against the re-election of a director. The company says it is aiming for net zero emissions by 2050 and will have more to say about scope 3 emissions next year. “It’s up to shareholders if they want to divest at any time,” Goyder said. He said the company was committed to the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global heating to less than 1.5C and rejected a suggestion from Julien Vincent, the lead campaigner for shareholder activist group Market Forces, that Woodside’s internal projections were based on heating of 3c. “It’s kind of like saying you’re a Dockers fan and then getting a membership out for the Eagles,” Vincent told the meeting. Goyder said the Paris agreement contained a number of different scenarios. “The majority of scenarios see an increase in gas,” he said. In a report released this month, environmental group the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said the Scarborough project, which is 73.5% owned by Woodside and 26.5% by BHP, was high cost compared to competition in Qatar, and vulnerable to potential carbon tariffs under consideration by Europe and the US. Goyder said a new CEO would be appointed before the final decision on whether to invest in the project was made. “That will give an incoming CEO time to look at the proposal, because they are going to be living with it for a long time, but it will not slow down the process,” he said. He played down differences between forecasts made by the company’s chief economist and what a shareholder said were more optimistic projections made by Coleman. “Both the chief economist and Peter will be wrong,” he said. “The Woodside board takes into account a range of forecasts. “Scarborough is a robust project, under most circumstances.” Coleman tried to distinguish Scarborough from the James Price Point project, which was also controversial because of its potential effect on the environment. Woodside abandoned the project in 2013, saying it was not economically viable. “Scarborough is completely different,” Coleman said. | ['australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/woodside', 'profile/ben-butler', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2021-04-15T09:28:35Z | true | EMISSIONS |
technology/2018/apr/25/what-is-incel-movement-toronto-van-attack-suspect | Who are the 'incels' and how do they relate to Toronto van attack? | Hours before the Toronto van attack, a post on the Facebook profile of the chief suspect declared that “the incel rebellion has already begun, we will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys”. The message has brought new-found attention to the so-called incel movement, one of the stranger offshoots of the “alt right”, and led to calls for the attack to be recognised as an act of far-right terrorism. What is the incel movement? Incel is short for “involuntarily celibate”. The term rose to prominence because of its adoption by a subsection of the “manosphere”, a loose collection of movements united by misogyny that also includes some men’s rights activists, pick-up artists, and Mgtow/volcel – heterosexual men who refuse to have sex with women for political reasons. Men who identify as incel tend to congregate on a few forums, including the message board 4chan, the forum SlutHate and, until the community was banned from the site, the incel page on Reddit. They are united by the fact that women will not have sex with them, usually attributed to shallow obsessions with looks or superficial personality, and by their hatred of “Chads” and “Stacys”, the men and women who have sex. What is the link to Elliot Rodger? The Facebook message goes on to declare “all hail the supreme gentleman Elliot Rodger”. Rodger murdered six people in 2014 in Isla Vista, California, leaving behind a lengthy manifesto that described his frustration at his inability to find a girlfriend, his hatred of women and his resentment of people in couples, particularly interracial pairs. Rodger, who posted on SlutHate, which was then called PUAHate, was rapidly held up as a hero for the incel community, with the anniversary of the killings marked annually on the Incels subreddit, and people across the community expressing hope that someone else would follow in his footsteps. “I hope some brave incel surprises us before the end of the year,” one user on an Incel forum posted in January. Another replied: “Unless he can break the high score, it won’t be so much fun.” How serious are incel movement members? Like many movements, including the alt-right and the pizzagate conspiracy, which were born from the anonymous message board 4Chan, the incel movement is steeped in a form of irony that makes it difficult to pin down which beliefs are true, which are held ironically, and whether the distinction ultimately matters, as the effect is the same. The leaked style guide of the neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer, which takes a similar approach, made the strategy explicit: “The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not … This is obviously a ploy.” | ['technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'world/toronto-van-incident', 'type/article', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/men', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/alex-hern', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/toronto-van-incident | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-25T18:11:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2005/jan/04/tsunami2004.guardianletters | Letters: Aid pledges | Some of my responses were not quite reproduced correctly in your otherwise useful article ($2bn pledged, but will the world keep its promises?, January 3). Experience, indeed, suggests that large pledges for humanitarian action and reconstruction have tended to be a mix of old and new money, and that the eventual sum of specific project funding often amounts to less than the pledges. But in the recent crisis in Darfur and Chad, donors converted nearly all their pledges into specific commitments. We hope for a similar performance this time; and the forthcoming Flash Appeal by the UN, NGOs and other partners will be a way of informing donors how pledged funds will be used in a coordinated way. Robert Smith UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs While we must applaud public generosity, it is worth remembering that most surveys put Indonesia in the five most corrupt nations, and Thailand is not far behind. Having lived in Indonesia for 10 years and Thailand for four, my scepticism that even half the money donated will reach those who need it is well-founded. After the 1995 earthquake that struck Padang in west Sumatra, an Indonesian government inquiry revealed its own officials had siphoned off about 50% of the money earmarked for immediate relief. Thailand's culture of corruption from the top down is so entrenched it would be difficult to imagine a change of heart, even when faced with such human suffering. Robert Walker Little Houghton, Northants | ['world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'tone/letters', 'world/darfur', 'world/chad', 'world/africa', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-04T00:01:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/2008/dec/10/yahoo-microsoft | Yahoo investor Ivory Investment Management urges Microsoft talks | One of Yahoo's investors, hedge fund Ivory Investment Management, has urged the company to revive discussions with Microsoft in an attempt to sell its online search business. IIM, which owns 1.5% - 21.4m shares - in the Silicon Valley giant, wrote an open letter to the Yahoo board today saying the firm should not miss "another value maximisation opportunity". Microsoft would become the search provider for all Yahoo services if the proposal went ahead, though Yahoo would retain 80% of revenue generated by searches on its sites. "We envision a deal whereby Microsoft would acquire all of Yahoo's search assets and enter into a perpetual agreement for Microsoft to be the search provider for all Yahoo properties," said IIM managing partner Curtis Macnguyen in the letter, adding that both companies need to act fast or face losing more ground to Google. "We believe a search deal with Microsoft could deliver value to Yahoo shareholders of $24-$29 per share, or more than double yesterday's closing price of $12.19," Macnguyen added. "This deal would offer Microsoft the unique opportunity to immediately gain critical mass to better level the playing field with Google, while it would simultaneously allow Yahoo to both receive a sizeable up-front cash payment and increase its prospective cash flow." Ivory claimed the deal could be worth as much as $15bn to Microsoft, boost Yahoo earnings by as much as $500m a year and save both firms $800m by combining their search teams. Microsoft made an unsolicited, $44.6bn public offer to buy Yahoo on February 1 this year. However, negotiations collapsed in early May when Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang could not agree on a price. The deal was based on a valuation of $33 per Yahoo share, though the company's stock has subsequently slipped down to $12.67 per share. Yang faced intense criticism over the collapse of the Microsoft deal, which led to his resignation last month. Yahoo is expected to announce his successor shortly, with former Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin named a favourite for the role. Microsoft has repeatedly said it will not renew its offer, but has indicated it may consider a deal for Yahoo's search business. · To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/digital-media', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'media/media', 'technology/searchengines', 'technology/technology', 'technology/microsoft', 'type/article', 'profile/jemimakiss'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-12-10T17:22:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/nov/02/flash-droughts-increasing-climate-weather-wildfires | Flash droughts are likely to become increasingly common, say researchers | You’ve heard of flash floods but what about flash droughts? Droughts that intensify quickly used to be very rare but over the past 20 years they have become more frequent and intense. And because they come on suddenly, they are more difficult to prepare for. This year a flash drought dried out grasslands in Hawaii, intensifying the devastating wildfires that swept across the island of Maui. In 2012, at the peak of the corn growing season, a flash drought hit much of the US, resulting in significantly lower crop yields. Prof Emily Black, from the University of Reading, has been using meteorological data and climate models to better understand the conditions that help to bring about flash droughts, and the impact that the climate crisis will have on their likelihood. Her findings, which are published in the Advances in Atmospheric Sciences journal, show that flash droughts are usually driven by anomalously low relative humidity and rainfall. Curiously, she found that heatwaves do not cause flash droughts but flash droughts can trigger heatwaves. The results also show that the climate changes associated with global heating will increase the likelihood of flash droughts in the coming decades, with the most severe changes projected to occur in Europe, the continental US, eastern Brazil and southern Africa. | ['environment/drought', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'us-news/hawaii-fires', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-11-02T06:00:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2023/nov/24/co2-readings-from-mauna-loa-show-failure-to-combat-climate-change | CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate change | Just above this column on the weather page of the Guardian’s print edition is the daily atmospheric carbon dioxide readings from Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the acid test of how the world is succeeding in combating climate change. A week before the 28th annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention opens in oil-rich Dubai, it makes depressing reading. At the time of writing it is 422.36 parts per million. That is 5.06ppm more than the same day last year. That rise in 12 months is probably the largest ever recorded – more than double the last decade’s annual average. To give some perspective, exactly a decade ago the concentration was 395.64ppm. Then the scientific community worried about the effect on the weather if we were to pass the 400 mark. Now we know: the result is catastrophic heatwaves, storms, droughts, floods and rapidly increasing and unstoppable sea level rise. The figures underline the fact that after 27 annual meetings of the convention, all the efforts of nearly 200 member states to tackle the menace of the climate crisis have been a failure, so far. The situation continues to get worse ever more rapidly. There is no sign of carbon dioxide levels going down, let alone reaching the “safe” level of 350ppm. • The main picture of this article was replaced on 27 November 2023 to use one that was more relevant to the article itself. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/environment', 'uk/weather', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-11-24T06:00:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/mar/13/coal-baron-and-lnp-donor-blasts-rba-for-sounding-alarm-on-climate-change | Coal baron and LNP donor blasts RBA for sounding alarm on climate change | The coal baron and Liberal National party donor Trevor St Baker has blasted the Reserve Bank deputy governor, Guy Debelle, for sounding the alarm on climate change, branding a significant speech on Tuesday warning of risks to Australia’s financial stability “totally inappropriate”. The politically connected founder of the business electricity retailer ERM Power, who has approached the Morrison government to underwrite new coal developments in Victoria and New South Wales, including a high-efficiency plant on the site of the AGL-owned Liddell power station, told the ABC on Wednesday Debelle’s intervention was out of order. The RBA deputy governor on Tuesday noted businesses and policymakers needed to consider climate change as a trend and not a cyclical event, and said climate change-induced shocks to the economy would be “close to permanent” if droughts were more frequent and cyclones happened more often. St Baker responded by suggesting Debelle lacked technical understanding of how the electricity market worked. He said Australia was a world leader in the uptake of wind and solar, and declared “wind and solar cannot support an electricity supply system’s voltage and frequency”. “The Reserve Bank governor, the speeches they are making, are totally inappropriate,” he said. “The fact is in an island community, you must have at least 50% at any time of the electricity demand being supported by what we call synchronous generation, that is 24/7 power: nuclear, gas, coal-fired, or baseload hydro. “We don’t have any of those except coal as an economical source that we build a business on, and for the Reserve Bank governor to be entering the debate now, at a time when we have university students supporting, schoolchildren supporting, a strike to go 100% renewable in Australia by 2030 – it’s just part of the problem – especially at election time”. In a separate interview on the ABC, the resources minister Matt Canavan – who has been a forceful advocate inside the government for new coal developments – also defied recent comments from Scott Morrison, declaring there was a “clear need for additional power in north Queensland”. Morrison said earlier in the week the government was not contemplating coal plants in Queensland – which is what a number of Queensland Nationals, including Canavan, want – because a new plant would never be approved by the state government. Canavan told the ABC: “There is a clear need for additional power in north Queensland, multiple studies have shown that, and those studies come back always saying that a Hele [high efficiency plant] or a new coal-fired power station would make a lot of sense in north Queensland”. St Baker’s company signalled it was interested in buying the ageing Liddell plant in 2017 when the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull publicly castigated AGL, the plant’s owner, for wanting to close the facility in 2022 and replace it with a combination of renewables and gas. But despite the sustained political pressure, AGL has shown no interest in selling the asset. After growing frustration with energy companies, the government last year produced the so-called “big stick” package which created a power to break up energy companies if they engaged in price gouging, which some energy experts have long suspected was a mechanism to remove Liddell from AGL’s ownership. The government was forced to pull the package because it would have to cop a Greens/Labor amendment in the House that would prohibit taxpayer support for new coal-fired power. But rebel Queensland Nationals want it back on the agenda before parliament rises. While Liberals in city seats remain concerned that the government risks losing the coming election, at least in part, because of its record on climate change, Nationals are keeping up the pressure for new coal developments. The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has confirmed the Morrison government is continuing to assess new coal-generation projects despite pushback from moderate Liberals, but he says taxpayers will only support projects that are “viable”. St Baker told the ABC on Wednesday he had brought three potential projects to the government for taxpayer underwriting – a pumped storage project in South Australia, coal projects in Victoria, and a replacement power station on the Liddell site in New South Wales. St Baker said he believed replacing Liddell with a new high-efficiency plant “using all that infrastructure” was the “best solution” if Liddell had to close. He said the projects would be 70% debt financed and 30% equity. He said the government had indicated if projects could secure commercial and industrial customers on five-year contracts it would provide a taxpayer-backed guarantee for the project. Taylor told Guardian Australia on Wednesday the government would only back projects that were “viable”. Nationals have demanded the government support projects whether they have a compelling business case or not. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/reserve-bank-of-australia', 'australia-news/australian-political-donations', 'australia-news/liberal-national-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'business/agl', 'australia-news/national-party', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2019-03-13T00:24:50Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2018/feb/11/australias-solar-power-boom-could-almost-double-capacity-in-a-year-analysts-say | Australia's solar power boom could almost double capacity in a year, analysts say | A record-breaking month of rooftop installations and a flood of large-scale solar farms could almost double Australia’s solar power capacity in a single year, industry analysts say. A massive solar energy boom is being predicted for 2018, after an unprecedented number of industrial solar farms were approved by the New South Wales and Queensland governments last year. Last month also became the biggest January on record for rooftop installations, according to the renewables website RenewEconomy and industry analysts SunWiz. With 111MW of new panels, it saw a 69% rise compared with the same month last year and became one of the top five months ever – largely driven by low installation costs and a boost in commercial uptake. At the same time, nearly 30 new industrial solar farms are scheduled to come on line. NSW approved 10 solar farm projects last year – twice as many as the year before – and has approved another in 2018. Queensland currently has 18 large-scale projects under construction, which is the most in the country. The new farms could be operational within the year, according to John Grimes, the chief executive of the Smart Energy Council. “These solar farms can be built within a matter of weeks,” he said. “They’re really quick and simple.” Together, the new large-scale projects could add between 2.5GW and 3.5GW to the national grid and rooftop installations could add another 1.3GW, according to the Smart Energy Council’s estimates. This would nearly double the nation’s solar energy capacity, currently 7GW, in a single year. “The train tracks are about to converge,” Grimes said. “Rooftop installations and utilities are both booming and could turbo-boost the solar numbers overall.” In Queensland, residential solar panels are already the state’s largest source of energy, producing more combined than the 1.7GW Gladstone power station. Just under a third (30%) of residential homes in the state have solar installed – the most in the country. With the completion of the new solar farms, solar will provide 17% of the state’s energy. “We’ve turned the sunshine state into the solar state,” Queensland’s former energy minister Mark Bailey said in October. In New South Wales, the planning minister, Anthony Roberts, said the 10 new solar farms would generate 1.2GW of energy and reduce carbon emissions by more than 2.5m tonnes – the equivalent of taking about 800,000 cars off the road. In January this year, NSW announced another plant – the 170MW Finley plant in the Riverina – as did Queensland, the 120MW solar farm at Munna Creek. Grimes said the solar boom “was only going to grow” in future. “Solar is the cheapest way to generate electricity in the world – full stop,” he said. “It’s not unusual for grid pricing to be north of 20c per kilowatt hour in a majority of jurisdicitions. A solar array, at an average size for an average home, if you amortise the cost over 20 years, the effective rate is 5c per kilowatt hour. That’s called an economic no-brainer.” He said the rush to install rooftop panels could have been sparked by January’s warm weather and rising energy prices. “I think people are acutely aware of energy prices. People are running air conditioning and thinking, ‘hooley dooley I’m going to get a bill’.” 2017 saw a record 1.25GW of solar power added to the grid nationally, counting both large-scale solar farms and rooftop panels. The predicted rate of rooftop panels alone in 2018 is expected to be 1.3GW. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/naaman-zhou', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2018-02-11T17:00:10Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2021/apr/14/biden-set-to-sanction-russian-officials-over-massive-solarwinds-hack | Biden to unveil Russia sanctions over SolarWinds hack and election meddling | The US is set to announce new sanctions against Russia as soon as Thursday in retaliation for Moscow’s interference in elections, alleged bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, and cyber-espionage campaigns such as the SolarWinds hack, according to reports in US and international media. Ten Russian diplomatic officials are to be expelled from the US and up to 30 entities will be blacklisted, officials said, in the largest round of sanctions action against Russia of Joe Biden’s presidency. Additionally, the White House may issue an executive order barring US financial institutions from buying rouble bonds issued by Moscow, targeting Russia’s sovereign debt and its broader economy. That could begin as soon as June, according to some reports. Unnamed officials told the New York Times that the new sanctions were meant to cut deeper than previous attempts to punish Moscow for its attacks on US institutions and allies. Some Russian officials have laughed off being added to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions lists, comparing it to being elevated to an elite club. The threat of the ban on buying Russian debt has already depressed prices on the rouble and rouble-denominated OFZ treasury bonds. A Kremlin spokesperson has condemned the expected sanctions as “illegal” and suggested that Moscow will retaliate. The sanctions will add tension to an already strained relationship between Russia and the US. Since last month, Moscow has been engaged in the largest troop buildup on its border with Ukraine since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, provoking fears of an invasion. Biden called Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to urge him to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine and proposed a summit in a third country. The Kremlin gave a frosty account of the phone call, and did not say whether Putin had agreed to the meeting. Earlier this year, Biden agreed with a reporter when asked if Putin was “a killer”. Those remarks were replayed widely on Russian television. Putin responded by wryly wishing Biden “good health”, which was seen as a nod to Biden’s age. The US president’s tough approach differs considerably from that of the Trump administration, which largely sought to avoid confronting Russia over a CIA assessment that Moscow had offered and paid bounties for foreign fighters to kill US troops in Afghanistan. Trump said he doubted the evidence behind the reports, calling it a “hoax”. He similarly sided with Putin over an FBI assessment that Russia had interfered in the 2016 elections during a summit in Helsinki two years later. The planned sanctions are said to be retaliation for Russian interference in the 2020 elections, in which US intelligence agencies concluded that the Kremlin had backed Trump over Biden. The sanctions would also be a response to a sophisticated cybersecurity breach of SolarWinds Corp that affected software used by US government agencies. The US has blamed Russia for the attack. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said Russia would retaliate against the new sanctions. “The principle of reciprocity applies … to best ensure our own interests.” He declined to say whether Putin and Biden had discussed the sanctions during their phone call this week. He also said the summit between the two leaders would not take place in the next several weeks. The Biden administration announced sanctions last month over the poisoning and imprisonment of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The sanctions included visa restrictions, export restrictions on items that could be used to make chemical and biological weapons, and targeted action against seven senior members of the Russian government. The measures also entailed an expansion of sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act. | ['us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'us-news/biden-administration', 'world/russia', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/cyberwar', 'world/espionage', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'world/vladimir-putin', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/roth-andrew', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-04-15T10:33:33Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
technology/2020/oct/16/twitter-reverses-policy-on-hacking-after-backlash-over-block-on-new-york-post-story | Twitter softens policy on hacking after row over blocked New York Post story | Twitter has softened its policies against the sharing of hacked material after the backlash over its decision to block a New York Post story about Joe Biden’s son. Republican senators declared their intention to subpoena the Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey next week, forcing him to explain the decision, after he apologised for the lack of communication about the blocking. The story, supposedly based on materials stolen from Hunter Biden’s laptop by a computer repair shop, was blocked by Twitter on two grounds, the company said. First, it contained personal information such as private email addresses; and second, it contained hacked material, violating a policy instituted in 2018 to try to limit “hack-and-leak” information operations of the sort run by the Russian state in 2016. That latter policy had now been weakened, Twitter’s policy chief, Vijaya Gadde, said late on Thursday. “We will no longer remove hacked content unless it is directly shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them,” Gadde tweeted. “We will label tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter.” The policy against hacked materials had led to concern, going beyond Republican politicians and activists, that Twitter could penalise reporting related to hacks, limiting legitimate journalism, Gadde said. “We want to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation.” Experts who study information operations have long warned that hack-and-leak attacks can be extremely damaging, in part because of the tempting bounty they offer mainstream media organisations. Large quantities of hacked material can shift public discussion in their own right, but can become particularly dangerous when material is leaked selectively, or combined with forgeries. Thomas Rid, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies said: “Bottom line: every individual little fact – every email, every detail mentioned in an email – must be verified when data is surfaced in such a suspicious way, not just one piece of information, say a photo. “It appears that the New York Post did not do that here. “To journalists considering writing about this toxic story: don’t– – unless you can independently verify more details. And even if you can verify something, acknowledge the possibility of disinformation upfront, especially against the backdrop of 2016. Not doing so is bad practice.” The New York Post story was not the only blocking controversy on Twitter. The account of Donald Trump’s re-election campaign was also briefly restricted on Thursday, causing another outcry from Republican lawmakers who accused social media companies of acting like “speech police”. Twitter temporarily blocked the @TeamTrump account from sending tweets after it posted a video referring to the Post story. Trump said, when asked about the move by Twitter: “It’s going to all end up in a big lawsuit and there are things that can happen that are very severe that I’d rather not see happen, but it’s probably going to have to.” | ['technology/twitter', 'us-news/us-news', 'media/media', 'us-news/joebiden', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'technology/hacking', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/martinfarrer', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-10-16T10:35:26Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/article/2024/jul/06/us-weather-heatwave | ‘Potentially historic’ heatwave threatens more than 130 million people across US | A long-running heatwave that has already broken records, sparked dozens of wildfires and left about 130 million people under a high-temperature threat is about to intensify enough that the National Weather Service has deemed it “potentially historic”. The NWS on Saturday reported some type of extreme heat or advisory for nearly 133 million people across the nation – mostly in western states where the triple-digit heat, with temperatures 15F to 30F higher than average, is expected to last into next week. Oppressive heat and humidity could team up to spike temperatures above 100F (about 38C) in parts of the Pacific north-west, the mid-Atlantic and the north-east, said Jacob Asherman, a meteorologist with the NWS. Records were broken in at least four Oregon cities on Friday, the NWS reported. Medford, which had a high temperature of 102F set in 1926, saw temperatures soar to 109F. The biggest leap, however, was in North Bend, whose record of 74F set in 1913 was busted by a spike of 11 degrees when it hit 85F on Friday. “Certainly a pretty anomalous event that we’re expecting here, which looks like it will continue through at least midweek,” Asherman said. At the Waterfront blues festival in Portland, Oregon, music fans dealt with heat on Friday by drinking cold water, seeking refuge in the shade or freshening up under water misters. Angela Quiroz, 31, kept her scarf and hat wet and applied sunscreen to protect herself from the heat at the music festival. “Definitely a difference between the shade and the sun,” Quiroz said. “But when you’re in the sun, it feels like you’re cooking.” In sweltering Las Vegas, where the temperature had hit 100F (37.7C) by 10.30am, Marko Boscovich said the best way to beat the heat was in a seat at a slot machine with a cold beer inside an air-conditioned casino. “But you know, after it hits triple digits, it’s about all the same to me,” said Boscovich, who was visiting from Sparks, Nevada, to see a Dead & Company concert later Saturday night at the Sphere. “Maybe they’ll play one of my favorites: Cold Rain and Snow.” By midday Saturday, Las Vegas ended up tying its daily heat record of 115F, the NWS said, as it pleaded with people to be mindful of leaving children or pets inside vehicles in the extreme heat. On Friday, a new heat record for the day was set in California’s Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth. The previous high was shattered by 5F, with the mercury climbing to 127F (53C). The old mark of 122F was last tied in 2013. More extreme highs are in the near forecast, including 129F for Sunday at Furnace Creek in Death Valley national park, and then around 130F through Wednesday. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134F (57C) in Death Valley in July 1913, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130F recorded there in July 2021. Rare heat advisories were extended even in upper elevations, including around Lake Tahoe, with the National Weather Service in Reno warning of “major heat risk impacts, even in the mountains”. “How hot are we talking? Well, high temperatures across [western Nevada and north-eastern California] won’t get below 100 degrees [37.8C] until next weekend,” the service posted online. “And unfortunately, there won’t be much relief overnight either.” There was also a record high for the date of 118F in Phoenix, where highs of 115F or hotter were forecast through Wednesday. In Needles, California, where the NWS has records dating to 1888, the high of 122F edged the old mark of 121F set in 2007. It was 124F in Palm Springs, California. The intense heat – combined with winds and low humidity – means the potential for wildfires to spread is high. Red-flag warnings are in effect across much of California until Saturday evening, said the California department of forestry and fire protection, or Cal Fire. Officials urged people to stay vigilant and take extra precautions such as avoiding activities that can spark fires and following evacuation orders. California has more than two dozen wildfires burning across the state, with the two largest, in the central part of the state, burning more than 24,000 acres combined. The Thompson fire, in northern California’s Butte county, has devoured at least 3,700 acres since it was reported on 2 July. By Saturday, the blaze had forced thousands to evacuate and injured two firefighters. It was 71% contained. Cal Fire reported that 26 structures had been destroyed by the blaze. The French fire, which erupted on 4 July near Yosemite national park and quickly grew to more than 900 acres (364 hectares), has held steady after more than 1,000 personnel worked overnight to get it to 25% containment, according to Cal Fire. The eastern US also was bracing for more hot temperatures. Baltimore and other parts of Maryland were under an excessive heat warning, as heat index values could climb to 110F, forecasters said. “Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors,” said a National Weather Service advisory for the Baltimore area. “Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.” In Arizona’s Maricopa county, which encompasses Phoenix, there have been at least 13 confirmed heat-related deaths this year, along with more than 160 suspected heat deaths still under investigation, according to the county’s most recent report. That does not include the death of a 10-year-old boy earlier this week in Phoenix who suffered a “heat-related medical event” while hiking with family at South Mountain park and preserve, according to police. | ['us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/west-coast', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/climate-crisis-in-the-american-west', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | us-news/climate-crisis-in-the-american-west | GLOBAL_CRISIS | 2024-07-06T20:40:47Z | true | GLOBAL_CRISIS |
culture/2024/oct/11/music-project-sound-carbon-recording-durham-coalmine | Music project captures ‘sound of carbon’ by recording in Durham coalmine | “It was odd, but really fun,” said Adam Cooper about his time spent helping to record the sound of an empty coalmine. “To put it in one word, I’d say it sounds cavernous. But it also has its own complexities and depth to it.” Cooper and his colleagues spent time down an old drift mine to capture the “sound of carbon” for a new musical commission that will premiere this weekend. The piece includes the reverb of the mine as well as music played by colliery pit bands and interviews with former miners and their families. Titled Ancestral Reverb, it was commissioned by Durham Miners’ Association and will be heard for the first time at Durham book festival on Saturday. The recording, in a mine shaft at Beamish Museum, involved blasting out different sound waves into the space and recording what came back. “You subtract the original waveform from what comes back so you’re left with the sound of the space,” said Cooper. “But you need to blast out lots of different kinds of sounds to get the full effect.” Those sounds included white noise and jazz drumming. “It was a weird experience because you are standing there listening to the drip and the dredgey sounds of the mine and then you have a jazz standard blasting out.” Cooper, the director of a climate hope organisation called Threads in the Ground, said the interviews with retired miners had been a humbling experience. All the transcripts went to the poet Jacob Polley, who has written a spoken word piece that goes with the music. “There is a complexity because the stories are different depending on who you talk to,” said Cooper. “For some it is danger and the terribleness of the work and the lifestyle. Other people just tell stories about the lads they worked with – the solidarity and the pranks.” The work features, from 1903, some of the oldest known recordings of colliery pit bands combined with music played by the current Durham Miners’ Association brass band. They have been weaved into the piece by the musician, producer and DJ Bert Verso. “The composition is a bit like Moby meets Brassed Off,” said Cooper. After the premiere there are plans for an exhibition about the project as well as the release of a vinyl record, embedded with coal dust. Cooper is aware that the project comes in the same year that the last coal-powered power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, was closed and at the beginning of different energy policies from the new Labour government. “It feels like a flux moment, an inception moment. We’re marking that with this unique music that is drawing on more than a century of history. “I think a lot about the deep time nature of the work.” He is optimistic about the future and believes we are in a renaissance moment. “We are reinventing what it means to be human in this new climate reality. That’s why this piece is important, it’s giving people permission to exert their creativity in climate thinking and climate change work.” One copy of the vinyl release will go to the British Library, which means future generations – perhaps intrigued or horrified or both – will be able to hear for themselves what carbon sounds like. If there are people. “I believe there will be,” said Cooper. “You and I, our generation … the changes we set in motion by 2030 will shape the future that all humans inherit and inhabit. “There is an argument that we are the most powerful generation of humans that will ever exist which is this incredible privilege and power that we hold. “I genuinely believe future generations will look back on us and call us carbon reformers.” | ['culture/heritage', 'environment/mining', 'uk-news/county-durham', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'music/music', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/markbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2024-10-11T06:00:45Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2010/mar/12/community-cooperatives-energy-bills-labour | Love thy neighbour – pool your energy bills, says Labour | Home owners will be encouraged to club together to negotiate discounts from their energy bills under plans to be put forward in Labour's general election manifesto. Such community energy co-operatives could also be used to get good deals on insulatiing properties and renewable energy devices such as solar panels or wind turbines. Labour will not pledge money for the idea, but will offer to set up an advisory service to support groups. No target will be set, but a Labour source said there could eventually be "several thousand" such projects. In the US there are 900 similar schemes involving 42m people. Ed Miliband, the climate secretary, said: "One of the most exciting things happening in the energy field at the moment is the formation of energy co-ops – local people banding together to get cheaper energy bills by buying electricity in bulk and discounts on energy efficiency measures such as home insulation. "The government has already provided funding for some of these groups through our Low Carbon Communities Challenge Fund. But now I want Labour's manifesto to commit to establishing a support service so that more energy co-ops can be formed and more people can benefit from their services." Energy co-operatives already exist in the UK, though they are mostly organised to invest in renewable power or mass insulation and share the profits from selling the electricity or energy savings, rather than push for reduced bills. Labour's idea builds on a report from the Co-operative Party, published last year, which suggested more consumer groups could be set up to emulate the success of those in US and Europe. One scheme in Belgium has about 15,000 members. Based on overseas schemes, the report estimates consumers could save up to 10% – or about £100 a year – on their annual bills by using "collective power" to negotiate better deals with suppliers or direct with generators. Those groups could then club together to pay for insulation, and following that build combined heat and power units, for example burning biomass, or put up renewable energy such as solar panels on roofs or even commercial wind turbines. These could in turn provide clean energy and possible generate profit from selling surplus electricity back to the National Grid, said Michael Stephenson, the party's general secretary. "Firstly you can save even more money – the more control you have, obviously the more money you can save," said Stephenson. "If you're saving carbon, you're saving energy which means you're saving money off your bills. [But] a lot of reasons why local communities are working to get this off the ground is because they want to tackle climate change as well. "We can see this as a potentially massive player in the energy market." As well as the obvious appeal of lower energy bills – especially with Ofgem warning bills could rise 25% by 2020 – and pressure from most rival parties including the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to announce clear policies on the environment, Labour is understood to be attracted to the benefits of co-operatives in improving community links. However the lack of any new funds to support the scheme will raise concerns that many community groups will not be able to afford the up-front cost of investing in efficiency or renewable power. There will also be questions about whether power companies will pass on the price cuts to the new groups, in the form of higher bills to other customers. Stephenson said experience in the banking sector suggested they would not: in countries with a strong mutual (customer-owned) banking sector all banks tended to make lower profits out of their retail customers, said Stephenson. "It tends to have a civilizing influence on the market, rather than driving people the other way," he added. Simon Roberts of the Centre for Sustainable Energy charity, which oversees a network of community energy groups in Somerset, said co-operatives would need advice on which technology to use in their area, likely costs, procurement and how to develop the structure of the organisation, especially if they needed to employ staff later to manage projects. | ['environment/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'money/energy', 'money/money', 'politics/labour', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliettejowit'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2010-03-12T18:21:11Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/nov/22/new-nuclear-power-cannot-rival-windfarms-price-energy-boss-innogy | New nuclear power cannot rival windfarms on price, energy boss says | New nuclear power stations in the UK can no longer compete with windfarms on price, according to the boss of a German energy company’s green power arm. Hans Bunting, the chief operating officer of renewables at Innogy SE, part of the company that owns the UK energy supplier npower, said offshore windfarms had become mainstream and were destined to become even cheaper because of new, bigger turbines. Asked whether nuclear groups that want to build new reactors in the UK could compete with windfarms on cost, even when their intermittency was taken into account, Bunting replied: “Obviously they can’t.” His comments came after MPs criticised the £30bn cost to consumers for EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, and said ministers should revisit the case for new nuclear before proceeding with more projects. Innogy recently secured a subsidy of £74.75 per megawatt hour of power to build a windfarm off the Lincolnshire coast, which is £17.75 cheaper than Hinkley and should be completed about three years earlier. “What we see now [with prices] is with today’s technology. It’s not about tomorrow’s technology, which is about [to come in] 2025, 2027, when Hinkley will most likely come to the grid ... and then it [windfarms] will be even cheaper.” While the company is planning to use the most powerful turbines in the world today for the Lincolnshire windfarm, Bunting said even bigger ones in development would drive costs down further. “A few years ago everyone thought 10MW [turbines] was the maximum, now we’re talking about 15[MW]. It seems the sky is the limit,” he said. “[It] means less turbines for the same capacity, less steel in the ground, less cables, even bigger rotors catching more wind, so it will become cheaper.” However, EDF argued that nuclear was also on a path to lower costs. “Early offshore wind projects started at around £150 per MW/h and developers have shown they can offer lower prices by repeating projects with an established supply chain – the same is true for nuclear,” an EDF spokesman said. “EDF Energy’s follow-on nuclear projects at Sizewell and Bradwell will remain competitive with other low-carbon options and we are confident they can be developed at a significantly lower price than Hinkley Point C.” In an interview with the Guardian, Bunting said Innogy was strongly committed to the UK despite its subsidiary npower merging with the big-six supplier SSE. A third of the group’s renewables staff are based in the UK. “The npower and SSE merger does not for us mean we are going to leave the UK. No way. We’re going to stay here, and grow here,” he said. He argued the new supplier would be good for billpayers, contrary to consumer groups’ fears. “There is an industrial logic in it. I think at the end of the day it will help competition because then you have two large players on the market, and they will be more efficient.” Bunting said he would like to build onshore windfarms in the UK too, if the government rethought its ban on subsidies for them. He said the political argument against them – public opposition in Tory shires – no longer stood because potential windfarms in Scotland and Wales were more likely to win subsidies. “England shouldn’t worry because England doesn’t have such good wind conditions … in an auction [for subsidies] the English sites would anyway struggle to qualify against Welsh and Scottish sites.” Innogy would also take a close interest in building large solar power plants, if ministers reopened support for them, he added. Bunting rejected the idea that the subsidy costs of paying for clean power should be shifted off energy bills and into general taxation, as British Gas’s boss has argued for. Such a change would make the cost of clean power less transparent and deter households and businesses from taking steps to save energy, he said. “If part of the energy [costs] is tax-financed it will become completely intransparent,” he said. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We need a diverse energy mix to ensure that demand for energy can always be met, and both nuclear and renewables will play an important role in this for many years to come.” | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'money/energy', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/household-bills', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2017-11-22T15:37:07Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/feb/07/cavity-two-thirds-the-size-of-manhattan-discovered-under-antarctic-glacier | Cavity two-thirds the size of Manhattan discovered under Antarctic glacier | Scientists have discovered a giant cavity at the bottom of a disintegrating glacier in Antarctica, sparking concerns that the ice sheet is melting more rapidly than expected. Researchers working as part of a Nasa-led study found the cavern, which they said was 300 metres tall and two-thirds the size of Manhattan, at the bottom of the massive Thwaites glacier. The space is big enough to have contained 14bn tonnes of ice and most of that ice has melted during the past three years. In a paper published in Science Advances, the scientists said the rapid change in the ice was “unexpected” at some points on the glacier. The researchers found the cavity using Italian and German satellites and ice-penetrating radar from Nasa’s Operation IceBridge, which uses research aircraft to monitor changes in polar ice. “[The size of] a cavity under a glacier plays an important role in melting,” said the study’s lead author, Pietro Milillo, who is scientist at the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “As more heat and water get under the glacier, it melts faster.” But Milillo told the Guardian the size of the underwater cavity was not the main concern because the 14bn tonnes it released were already underwater and so would not contribute to sea level rise. The important aspect of the paper, he said, was what it revealed about the interaction between sea and ice. Jeremie Mouginot, a co-author of the paper and a research scientist at the Université Grenoble Alpes, said ocean water was filling a widening gap between the floating ice shelf and the bedrock. Thwaites, he said, was a 120km-wide “monster glacier” that is continuing its retreat with huge future implications, because it could potentially add 0.6 metres to rising seas. Thwaites also supports neighbouring glaciers that, if they melted, would increase sea levels by an additional 2.44 metres, threatening coastal communities worldwide. Mouginot said further studies would be needed on where and how Thwaites will decline. “The current question is not if the glaciers will retreat but at which pace.” There are already new investigations of Thwaites under way, including one by a UK team, as well as studies of other Antarctic regions. The hole is on the glacier’s western side and has been melting at a rate of about 0.6 to 0.8km a year since 1992, a rate that while stable was “extremely high”, Nasa said. Eric Rignot, a co-author of the study, said understanding how warming oceans were melting the glacier away was “essential to project its impact on sea level rise in the coming decades”. “We have suspected for years that Thwaites was not tightly attached to the bedrock beneath it,” he said. | ['environment/glaciers', 'environment/sea-level', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/nasa', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/antarctica', 'environment/poles', 'type/article', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-02-06T22:09:55Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2005/feb/02/tsunami2004 | Court to rule on fate of tsunami baby after nine women claim him | He is known as Baby 81, the 81st admission to Kalmunai base hospital in eastern Sri Lanka on December 26, plucked from the piles of bodies and debris left by the tsunami which slammed into the coastline. But the miracle of his survival soon turned to confusion as nine women claimed the boy as their own, triggering a custody battle that today moves to a Sri Lankan court. One couple have emerged as the presumed parents of Baby 81, and expectations were high that the judge would order a DNA test to confirm this. The couple hoped the court would simply hand the child over to them. "I believe in God, and I am sure my baby will be given to me," said Murugupillai Jeyarajah, 31, a barber. His wife, Jenita, 25, says the baby is her son Abilass, born on October 19. The Jeyarajahs are the only claimants who have filed a formal police report to retrieve the infant, a necessary legal step. On January 12 a court ordered the hospital to give the baby to the couple until his parentage could be determined. But doctors, who said they were concerned about the many rival claims, refused to comply, saying the child still needed medical attention, according to court documents seen by the Associated Press. "Maybe the couple is not lying, but the only way to make sure 100% is to have a DNA test," said K Muhunthan, a consultant obstetrician at the hospital. "We cannot give away orphans first-come, first-served. We must be neutral." No other claimants were expected to testify because no one else had filed the required report. But a court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that other claimants could attend. "I am praying that the baby goes to the correct parents," said a nurse, S Rajeswaran. "At the same time I don't want to let the baby go as I have become very attached to him. I will be very sad." Baby 81's plight has become emblematic of the tsunami disaster's effect on families. In Sri Lanka alone, the waves claimed the lives of about 12,000 children, who accounted for 40% of Sri Lanka's death toll of 31,000. "The situation of Baby 81 is tragic," said Geoffrey Keel, a spokesman for Unicef. "It shows how deep the trauma has been for families." One of those families was the Jeyarajahs. When the tsunami tore through her beachfront home, Mrs Jeyarajah grabbed her three-month-old son and her younger sister. But the force of the raging waters tore her son from her arms. Mrs Jeyarajah's sister survived, but the baby disappeared. The family says they no longer have the records proving the boy belongs to them. Like the rest of their belongings, family papers were destroyed. Baby 81 survived among dead bodies and rubble until he was found by rescuers at around 6pm, nine hours after the tsunami hit. His discovery brought a barrage of claims among parents frantically searching for missing children. Since his rescue, Baby 81 has been kept in a glass cubicle formerly used as a staffroom by the hospital nurses, and the door is locked when a nurse cannot sit with him. Doctors have allowed the Jeyarajahs to visit the boy twice a week on condition that they do not lift him from his cot. "It's like visiting a prisoner," Mrs Jeyarajah said recently. Mr Jeyarajah said the couple were desperate to retrieve their son: "If the judge does not give the baby to us we will both commit suicide." Ahead of the court session, many in the town were eager for the turmoil to be over with. "This baby has gone through enough trouble," said HMP Herath, a police inspector. "Time has now come for him to go home." | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-02-02T00:03:49Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2014/may/04/weatherwatch-nature-floods-rain-groundwater | Weatherwatch: Nature returns to normal | After the extremes of last winter's rainfall it is surprising how quickly the natural world reverts to normal. Some flood victims are still trying to dry and repair their homes, but rivers and streams are flowing gently and even the groundwater has receded. There were record groundwater levels in some parts of southern England in February and aquifers are still very high across the south including London and as far north as Cambridge. In these areas and in parts of the Scottish borders, including Cumbria and Dumfries, where rain was heavy and prolonged, there are valleys that were once water meadows where flooding is still visible. It is disappearing steadily, however, and remaining surface water will soon go. As often happens with British weather the long wet spell was followed by a dry period, particularly in the south and east, long enough for gardeners on higher ground with well-drained soils to start complaining about the drought. In some areas of the east the groundwater levels are officially "below normal" for the time of year. Generally though, the chalk streams of the south, which are spring-fed, have been revived by the winter deluge, and it bodes well for summer water supplies both for wildlife and people. However, now that spring is well advanced and everything is growing fast the amount of water being sucked out of the ground, particularly by big trees, means the groundwater will continuing receding until the autumn. It would take another deluge of biblical proportions to change that. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-05-04T20:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2015/sep/12/gadgets-tech-smartphone-dog-varibike-goggles-owatch | Five things we love: from a smartphone for dogs to goggles that guide you | Can’t be bothered with pedals when you cycle? Then the Kick Varibike is for you. You can push along as though you’re on a scooter or turn the cranks by the handlebars to increase upper-body strength on the move. It has a three-gear system and brakes on the front and rear. With a prototype recently on show at the Eurobike exhibition, commercial versions are expected to become available soon. But with an estimated RRP of €1,600 (£1,160) it’s wheely expensive. codingFarmers If you prefer a low-tech way of learning, here’s a board game that teaches children coding with nary a computer in sight. In codingFarmers, players have to move around the board using action cards that feature the instructions in Java code. There are optional longhand instructions to give you some back-up. With a retail price of $30, the game is set to launch on Amazon this November. The makers are going to reinvest their profits into teaching coding. OnCourse goggles It’s easy to veer off course when swimming in open water, but technology can help. OnCourse goggles let you lock on to a spot such as a buoy by pressing a button. If you deviate from your course, the goggles warn you by flashing an LED light on the side you’re straying towards, until you’re back on track. Pledging $149 on the Kickstarter campaign will get you the goggles, which are expected to ship in February. PetBot If you are lonely without your labrador, or just anxious about leaving your doggy companion behind at home, PetBot will let you keep tabs on your pooch at a distance. Marketed as the first “smartphone for pets”, it features a webcam, a treat dispenser and recordable audio – all controllable from your smartphone. It also boasts an automatic selfie-taking feature so you can record your dog’s antics. And with a rather unlikely sounding “bark recognition” feature to boot, this gadget certainly takes the (dog) biscuit. It is currently open for funding on Indigogo and pledging $149 will get you the basic model. O Watch Step aside Apple Watch, the O Watch can do more than boost your street cred. Designed by an eight-year-old called Omkar Govil-Nair, it’s an Arduino-based 3D printable watch that can be programmed to tell the time, play games and even measure temperature, pressure and humidity, thereby teaching wearers the basics of coding. You can even customise your own case to look extra stylish. Backing the O Watch on Kickstarter will set you back $85 for the base kit, and $109 with a sensor board included. | ['technology/series/five-things-we-love', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'lifeandstyle/dogs', 'lifeandstyle/cycling', 'type/article', 'profile/iona-twaddell', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly/observer-tech-monthly'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-09-12T09:01:10Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/may/24/climate-activism-is-doomed-to-fail | Climate activism is doomed to fail | Letter | Helena Echlin writes that sensible methods of climate activism didn’t work (Why I stopped arguing about the climate emergency and tried the silent treatment instead, 22 May), so she became a member of Red Rebel Brigade, a silent climate activist performance group, and now feels that she is doing something useful. But how does she know if she is? Ryanair has just reported that it’s heading for a bumper year of selling cheap flights. Is dressing up in red having any effect on those air passengers? Of course not. Little if anything works in the face of corporate greed, government inaction and material desires that drive rampant consumerism. In the UK we have been cushioned from massive environmental disasters. Even when one happens, I seriously wonder if the penny will drop. The realistic choices are to either join in the party before everything collapses or quietly live in line with one’s conscience in the knowledge that it will make no difference whatsoever. Patrick Cosgrove Bucknell, Shropshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'world/air-transport', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2023-05-24T15:36:20Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2015/apr/03/its-not-just-indigenous-australians-v-adani-over-a-coal-mine-we-should-all-join-this-fight | It's not just Indigenous Australians v. Adani over a coal mine. We should all join this fight | Blair Palese | The Wangan and Jagalingou people’s rejection of the Indigenous land use agreement with Adani for land designated for the Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin will put our national values to the test. The decision is simple – a choice between preserving our history, our land and our environment or giving in to the interests of big coal and gas. Although this is a major test case of Australia’s commitment to the principles set out in the Native Title legislation, it is definitely not the first instance of Indigenous communities fighting against the encroachment of fossil fuels on their culture and territories across the world. In saying no to Adani, the Wangan and Jagalingou have sewn their fight into the growing global tapestry of first nations people standing up to fossil fuel expansion. Like the Athabasca Chipewyan battling the tar sands of Alberta, the Achuar Indians fighting oil and gas in the Amazon and the Ogoni and Ijaw’s fight against Shell in the Niger Delta, they are going head to head with some of the world’s richest and most destructive companies, to defend their land, their cultures, and in turn the planet as we know it. Essentially, they are taking on a battle which we should all be involved in. Closer to home, we have seen the Gomeroi people of NSW stand side by side with farmers, celebrities and environmentalists to oppose the controversial Maules Creek mine which would destroy a number of their sacred sites. Similarly, in 2013, the Western Australian Goolarabooloo people fought off plans to build one of the largest gas plants in Australia at James Price Point. As this resistance movement grows, so too does its legal legitimacy. In 2007, the UN general assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, granting traditional owners legal recourse to contest their land being used without their “free, prior and informed consent” – a right that companies like Adani would rather ignore. Within days of the Wangan and Jagalingou rejecting Carmichael, Adani mounted a legal challenge to rid themselves of the obligation to secure traditional owner consent to mine their lands. This is a true vindication of the fossil fuel industry’s contempt for playing by the rules, let alone international human rights law. This fight is deeply personal, deeply place-based yet, at the same time, deeply global. It is about the protection of Indigenous people’s cultural landscapes – lands imbued with values and traditions built up over millennia. But it’s also about the right of companies to plunder the earth for a profit. Their fight is everyone’s fight. The climate impact of fossil fuel expansion is something I speak of regularly. Fossil fuel companies intend to burn five times more carbon than the planet can safely handle, condemning us all to a miserable future. But whilst we still have some (albeit diminishing) time to fight back the climate impacts, the impacts for traditional owners, upon whose land these extractive agendas are being inflicted, are far more immediate and tangible. No amount of compensation can replace the historic and cultural value of the lands and artefacts destroyed to make way for new coal mines. In the words of Adrian Burragubba, representative of the Wangan people: This is the starting point of life. We consider this as our place of where we come from, our dreaming. If this mine proceeds, it will destroy every connection there is with our ancestors and our laws and customs. Indigenous peoples should not have to fight this alone. It behoves non-Indigenous people everywhere to stand up and fight too – to be the allies that our ancestors weren’t, to recognise that the climate fight is ultimately a fight about justice and that neither can be won by ignoring either. “I never thought I would see the day that we would come together. Relationships are changing, stereotypes are disappearing, there’s more respect for one another,” said Geraldine Thomas-Flurer of the Yinka Dene Alliance fighting the Northern Gateway Pipeline in British Columbia. This fight for indigenous rights could just be the greatest line of defense we have in the battle for climate justice. This fight is everyone’s fight. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/mining', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/blair-palese'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-04-03T03:16:32Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2023/dec/20/amazon-community-creating-a-future-out-of-chocolate | ‘We make magic here’: the Amazon community creating a future out of chocolate | On the banks of the River Acará in the Brazilian Amazon, about 50km (31 miles) south of the city of Belém, the rich smell of melted chocolate wafts out from a boatyard turned small factory. “We make magic here,” says Diana Gemaque, 33, a member of the Cacao Guardians chocolate cooperative in the riverside community of Acará-Açu. In 2021, Gemaque and several other women from her community were invited to take part in a chocolate-making workshop organised by the Amazonian chocolatier César De Mendes. Inspired by the experience, eight of them got together to form the Cacao Guardians. What began as an experiment in someone’s kitchen is now a registered business with an artisanal factory that produces 130kg of chocolate a month. The women work with fermented cacao beans supplied by the business next door, run by Gemaque’s cousin Zeno, who buys the harvested fruit from communities up and down the river. Most of their production is bars of 100% cocoa made to order for a client in São Paulo; the rest is sold in shops in Belém and at chocolate fairs around Brazil as 20g bars, packaged in dried cacao leaves and named Acaráçu – a brand that now encompasses various local projects. “We realised [our chocolate] was more than just cacao, it’s our territory, our community, our potential,” says Luciene Gemaque, 34, another cousin. The Cacao Guardians’ work has led to a rethink of the community’s way of life and inspired the creation of other grassroots initiatives that seek to preserve the forest. These include a football club that takes saplings to its games to encourage its opponents to plant, and a group introducing an agroforestry system – the integration of native trees and shrubs with crops – on their smallholdings, which they are reforesting without pesticides. “I have banana, pineapple, yam, aría tubers, cashew, wild sweetsop, orange, cacao, soursop, wild apricot, guava, acerola, papaya, and I have açaí,” says Izabela Campos, as she walks through the wild garden surrounding her wooden house. The daughter of a Cacao Guardian, Campos is the driving force behind the agroforestry project, which involves nine families who each own four to five hectares of land. “I planted everything, except the açaí.” Like countless other riverside communities in the state of Pará, most of the 150 families in Acará-Açu grow açaí berries for a living. About 95% of Brazil’s açaí production comes from Pará. Touted for its health benefits, the purple berry has grown in popularity outside its native Amazon and, increasingly, beyond Brazil’s borders, where it is marketed as a superfood. This has led to an explosion in production, from about 120,000 tonnes in 2000 to nearly 1.7m tonnes last year. The açaí boom has produced economic benefits for poor rural communities, but the resultant “açaífication” of parts of the Amazon – a term coined by scientists – has also brought problems to the rainforest, notably a loss of biodiversity. Monocultures of açaí also end up reducing production of the fruit itself due to the loss of pollinators. “Our aim is to end the monoculture of açaí and achieve food sovereignty, to eat what we plant,” says Campos. The 26-year-old observes other adverse effects from an over-reliance on açaí, notably financial insecurity between the biannual harvests and a loss of wellbeing and traditional lifestyles. “Nowadays, a labourer is accustomed to selling what he plants and buying food at the supermarket. So, what’s on our table? Processed foods. We want to turn that around.” The agroforesters are growing saplings from seeds with the aim of reforesting all their land within three years so that they can harvest subsistence crops year-round alongside seasonal cash crops – which will include cacao as well as açaí. Wanor Elvis, 33, says he already feels the benefits of this new system. “This area is cooler,” he says, walking through a reforested section of his açaí plantation, where the presence of other species provides tree and ground cover. “We’d like everyone who lives here to adopt this [agroforestry] process.” The Cacao Guardians hope to expand, strengthening other communities while increasing production. Currently, the business makes just 7,000 reais (£1,164) a month on average, while the women are paid hourly and take home 300 to 500 reais monthly. This money is already making a difference to the women, who say they have also found companionship, empowerment and a purpose in their work. “If it weren’t for the Guardians, we’d be at home, resigned to our fate. Some women tell us they have to ask their husband for money even to buy menstrual products; we don’t go through that any more,” says Diana Gemaque, who as a housewife used to think she would have to move to the city to “become something”. “Now I will only leave if it’s to go and build another [Cacao Guardians] space, with women in another community, to empower them,” she says. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/constance-malleret', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-12-20T12:00:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2018/sep/18/scott-morrison-cancels-coag-premiers-meeting-amid-policy-upheaval | Scott Morrison cancels Coag premiers meeting amid policy upheaval | Scott Morrison has cancelled a Coag gathering with the premiers scheduled for October, with officials telling their state counterparts various reforms are not yet ready for detailed discussion. The prime minister has communicated that position to the premiers and officials conveyed the commonwealth’s decision to state counterparts in Sydney on Tuesday night. A meeting scheduled for December is expected to proceed. Guardian Australia understands a summit scheduled to run with the October Coag meeting focused on reducing violence against women will go ahead, with the minister for women, Kelly O’Dwyer, heading that two-day discussion. But senior officials confirmed the broader discussion would be deferred until the new government settled its revised position on health and education funding. The new federal education minister, Dan Tehan, is working up a political fix on Catholic schools. The new government also wants to do more work on a package of measures to reduce power prices, and on the closing the gap strategy on Indigenous disadvantage. It also wants the states to persist with implementing the reliability component of the now dumped national energy guarantee. Canberra has junked the emissions reduction component of the scheme. State energy ministers were also supposed to meet later this month. It is unclear whether or not that meeting will proceed. The October Coag meeting was originally supposed to consider drought, health funding and measures to reduce family violence – but the leadership change in Canberra has blown the schedule off course, and also affected normal parliamentary business, with the Senate this week on something of a go-slow. Morrison is enduring another difficult week attempting to stabilise his government after the leadership eruption, with another marginal seat-holder, Ann Sudmalis, confirming on Tuesday she will not stand at the next election. Sudmalis used parliamentary privilege to blast a state Liberal MP, Gareth Ward, accusing him of “bullying, betrayal and backstabbing” and flexing “his vengeance on strong Liberal women” – claims Ward denies. The prime minister used the regular party room meeting on Tuesday to encourage his MPs to settle, and to rally, telling them the government was everyone’s government – not his government, or new treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s government – “and we have to own it”. | ['global/council-of-australian-governments', 'australia-news/health', 'australia-news/australian-education', 'society/domestic-violence', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amy-remeikis', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-18T09:45:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/damian-carrington-blog/2013/jun/06/wind-farms-shale-gas-fracking-energy | Locals can now veto windfarms: so what about fracking? | Damian Carrington | Power to the people! That, say ministers, is what changes to windfarm rules announced on Thurday deliver. What they fail to say is it only applies to the minority of people who live in Conservative constituencies where the Tories feel compelled to out-loony the climate change deniers of UKIP. The majority of the British public who support renewable energy are left powerless. But giving local communities a veto on wind farms raises an intriguing question: will the same apply to those who oppose fracking? Chancellor George Osborne is determined to bet the UK's energy future on a shale gas boom. Yet giving communities in Sussex, Lancashire and beyond the same veto would kill the already tiny chance that the US fracking revolution can be repeated in the UK. You should be in no doubt that the roaring protests against fracking will make the opposition to wind farms look like a gentle breeze. Wind turbines are entirely harmless beyond changing the view: fracking, if done badly, risks polluting water and leaking methane. The signs are that it will be one rule for wind, another for shale gas. Osborne have already said he will ensure communities benefit from fracking, but there's been no mention of allowing them to benefit by choosing to not having any fracking at all. A Downing Street source, speaking for prime minister David Cameron, said: "If people don't want wind farms in their local areas they will be able to stop them." Can you see him saying: "If people don't want fracking in their local areas they will be able to stop them." Me neither. The infuriating truth is that there is a solution to the wind wars: community ownership and benefits. In Germany, where most renewables are locally owned, there is barely any opposition. Communities in the UK that are hosting wind farms have been very badly treated. When a faceless energy giant marches into your neighbourhood, erects wind turbines and marches off again with all the profit, it is hardly surprising that locals revolt. Energy secretary Ed Davey says he is determined to encourage community ownership. So determined in fact that he announced a consultation on that very issue today - the same day as communities were handed a veto that renders the consultation all but meaningless. There are glimmers of hope from small wind power developers, who have understood that it is essential to get buy-in from locals. But planning approvals for new wind farms have already plummeted from about 70% in 2008 to 35% in 2012. The five-fold increase in the cash to communities hosting wind farms touted by Davey is nothing more than a recommendation, while the veto is a concrete power. I fear the wind wars are lost. The consequence is simple: higher energy bills for everyone. Onshore wind farms are the cheapest source of the clean energy the government must deliver if legally binding climate change targets are to be met. Davey has lost his battle with Osborne and Cameron, as he did over the target to make electricity emissions-free by 2030. That loss will also put up energy bills, as investors have to price in greater political risk. The summary is stark. This would-be "greenest government ever" has chosen to push up energy bills, against the wishes of the majority of the electorate, in order to placate a noisy minority who don't like the look of wind turbines. | ['environment/damian-carrington-blog', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/energy', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/gas', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2013-06-06T10:12:06Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2020/mar/10/uk-lost-sea-meadows-to-be-resurrected-in-climate-emergency-fight | UK's lost sea meadows to be resurrected in climate fight | “We think this whole bay was once carpeted with seagrass,” says Evie Furness, waving across the sparkling, sunlit waters of Dale Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The underwater meadow is long gone though, a victim of past pollution and shipping. So from a boat half a mile from shore, Furness is feeding a long rope into the water, which carries a little hessian bag of seagrass seeds every metre. “We’ve passed the 800,000 seed mark now,” she says. The Seagrass Ocean Rescue project will ultimately place 20km of rope and a million seeds on the shallow seafloor, where they will sprout through the bags and restore the habitat. Seagrass meadows were once common around the UK coast, but more than 90% have been lost as a result of algae-boosting pollution, anchor damage and port and marina building. The meadows, however, store carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and harbour up to 40 times more marine life than seabeds without grass, facts that are driving the effort to bring them back. “We face a growing climate emergency and a biodiversity emergency, and we have to make rapid steps to fight those,” says Richard Unsworth at Swansea University and lead biologist on the £400,000 project, which is supported by WWF and Sky Ocean Rescue. Seagrass covers just 0.2% of the ocean but provides an estimated 10% of its carbon storage. It is in trouble around the world, and Unsworth hopes the first project of its kind in the UK may help boost take-up of this nature-based solution to the climate crisis. Seagrass can grow up to 1 metre long. Its flowers are pollinated by shrimps and other creatures, as well as water currents. The seeds are like small pine nuts and many have been placed in their growbags by volunteer schoolchildren. The first green shoots should appear by October. The huge past losses of seagrass means allowing nature to recolonise the bay in its own time is not an option. “It’s hard for people to understand how screwed the ocean is. It’s out of sight and out of mind,” says Unsworth. “The environment here has got stuck in an anoxic, algae-rich, muddy state. You have to intervene.” The project is the culmination of eight years of laboratory and sea trials and extensive discussions with the local community. “This is perfect habitat, really sheltered, and it’s all coming together here,” he says. The seeds were collected over 300 hours of diving at the few remaining seagrass meadows at theLlŷn peninsula in north Wales and on the coasts of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. “It’s like underwater blackberry picking,” says Unsworth, describing plucking the “spades” that contain the seeds. The seeds harvested at Llŷn were about 0.05% of the total, so the meadow there was not damaged. Seagrass has a high turnover of leaves and the dead ones fall into oxygen-poor sediments below where they trap carbon. The meadows also slow currents, allowing other organic material to drift down and be trapped, potentially for thousands of years. The meadows are also a rich habitat, providing shelter and food for juvenile cod, plaice and other species. The 20,000 square metres being restored in Dale Bay could also support cuttlefish, pipefish and seahorses, and 200 million invertebrates such as the snakelocks anemone, stalked jellyfish and colourful snails. Seagrass meadows around the world also provide nurseries for a fifth of the world’s biggest fishing species, including pollock, herring and whiting, meaning their restoration can improve catches. Unsworth says the process of gathering seeds and planting them could be made less expensive in future with mechanisation. A large restoration project in Chesapeake Bay in the US used underwater equipment akin to combine harvesters to collect seeds and where the currents were favourable, they were able to simply scatter the seeds. UK waters are cleaner now following EU water directives in recent decades, Unsworth says: “We want thousands of hectares of seagrass restored and the opportunity exists in this country now. The Stour, Orwell and Humber estuaries, for example. These places are ripe for it.” Next in the team’s sights are locations in North Wales, if funding can be obtained. Seagrass can store about half a tonne of carbon per hectare per year, and more when it is mature,” he says. “It could be part of nature-based solutions [to climate change], and a significant part of it.” Alec Taylor, WWF’s head of marine policy says: “Seagrass restoration ticks so many boxes: climate, fisheries, water quality, biodiversity. But we will only get the benefits if we act now and at scale.” We want the oceans to play a hero’s role” in the fight against global heating, he says. “And we want the UK government to play a hero’s role too.” The UK hosts a crucial UN climate summit in November. One government action would be to make it easier to get permits for restoration. “Officials say it’s a wonderful idea, but when you apply for licensing you are treated as the criminal until you are proven innocent,” says Unsworth. “It’s almost like we are a problem, rather than a solution” Looking across Dale Bay, Unsworth concludes: “As a scientist, and as a father, I could spend the next 20 years writing awesome academic papers about seagrass decline, or spend the 20 years doing something about it. We have a responsibility as scientists to act, as well as report.” | ['environment/marine-life', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-03-10T06:00:24Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2014/nov/03/weatherwatch-novembers | Weatherwatch: Blowing hot and cold | Christmas shoppers sweltered in the aisles, shirt-sleeved drinkers sat in pub gardens, while parts of Wales were warmer than Greece. But this was no summer heatwave. Rather it was an unexpected warm spell in the middle of November – just three years ago, in 2011. After two freezing winters in a row, this was very welcome. The fine weather continued more or less unabated until the end of the month, making November 2011 one of the sunniest and the second warmest on record – beaten only by November 1994. What a difference from the previous year. Then winter began in the last week of November 2010, with heavy snowfalls causing chaos across much of Britain. Since then, Novembers have been pretty close to normal. Last November was colder, drier and sunnier than usual, but not excessively so, thanks to high-pressure systems dominating the second half of the month. November 2012 was marginally cooler than the long-term average, though as always averages can hide major weather events. The last week of the month was one of the wettest ever in England, with very heavy rain causing major floods. Wales was also badly hit, with one location receiving more than 90mm (three-and-a-half inches) of rain in just 24 hours. Even that downpour pales into insignificance, though, compared with 2009. From 16 to 19 November, the highest ever two, three and four-day rainfall totals ever seen in the UK were recorded at Seathwaite in the Lake District, the four-day total being 495mm – which is almost 20 inches. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'tone/features', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-11-03T21:30:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/oct/16/weather-tracker-florida-struck-by-twin-tornadoes | Weather tracker: Florida struck by twin tornadoes | Two tornadoes swept across parts of Florida last Thursday, causing extensive damage to many homes and businesses in Crystal River and Clearwater. Trees and power lines were downed, with walls and roofs ripped from buildings. The tornadoes produced wind gusts of 115mph and 125mph respectively, according to the US National Weather Service, making them EF-2 tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale. This scale is used to classify a tornado based on the wind gusts measured over a 3-second period, with EF-0 being the lowest and EF-5 being the highest. An EF-0 tornado has wind gusts of 65-80mph, with wind gusts exceeding 200mph in an EF-5 tornado. No injuries were reported after the Florida EF-2s. Meanwhile, unusually windy conditions are forecast to develop across the North Sea later this week as areas of low pressure push northwards across France, through the Channel and towards the UK and Ireland. By Thursday and Friday, gusts of 70-80mph are possible in the North Sea bringing large waves and potential disruption. Wave heights of more than 7 metres are possible between Norway and Scotland. Strong winds are also likely to affect eastern Scotland and many eastern counties of England, with an increased risk of some damage to trees. The winds will be from an east to south-easterly direction as opposed to the usual south-westerly direction that prevails across north-west Europe. A blocking area of high pressure located across Scandinavia will be responsible for the development of these strong winds as areas of low pressure moving in from the Atlantic struggle to make progress eastwards. The low pressure systems will stall across the UK and Ireland helping to develop a strong east to south-easterly atmospheric flow. | ['environment/series/weather-tracker', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/florida', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-10-16T08:06:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2015/jan/29/plastic-industry-recycling-learn-from-steel-circular-economy | What plastic can learn from steel in a circular economy | The global plastics industry generates over 280m metric tons in waste every year (pdf). The majority ends up in landfills, incinerators or as marine and land litter. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 32m tons of plastics waste were generated in 2012, with only about 9% recovered for recycling (collected, sorted, baled and sold). Actual recycling rates are even lower because not everything in the bales is recycled. This is especially true with mixed plastic bales, which are mostly sent to developing countries for “low-cost” recycling. And this is not just an issue of waste or disposal. These environmental health and safety practices impact workers and local ecosystems. The by-products and waste from these processors are often disposed of in ways that would be considered illegal in the countries where the waste originated, including dumping into “self-cleaning” streams that eventually find their way into oceans. Following in the footsteps of steel Plastics are much more valuable by weight than steel, which has an extremely high recycling rate. Interestingly, virgin steel companies often said that steel recycling would never expand beyond “downcycling” – a method of recycling that involves breaking an item down into its component elements or materials – into applications like reinforcing bars. Today, however, the biggest steel companies in the US are based on mini-mills and recycled steel. According to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), “steel produced by predominantly scrap-fed electric-arc furnaces accounted for more than 60% of the total raw steel produced in the United States in 2013.” Plastics, an even more versatile material than steel, could follow the same trajectory and for the same reasons. Why don’t more US recycled material processors build the capacity to intercept this material and process it more responsibly in the US? One of the challenges is the lack of a large domestic market for buyers of scrap plastics who want supplies that are reliable and consistent in both volume and quality, and collectors, generators and recyclers who want a reliable market that can create sufficient value to cover their costs and provide an attractive return on their investment. In fact, while US material recovery facility operators demand long-term supply agreements often extending from 10 to 20 years from local municipalities before they make investments in their material recovery facility (MRF) operations, they remain reluctant to sign long-term supply agreements with their customers on the other side of their businesses, preferring to rely instead on a “trading to the highest bidder” model. This reluctance continues, even with the slowdown in export markets for mixed plastic waste and the fact that their trading models have recently turned against them. New economic opportunities So how do we change this situation? First, let’s get past the fear of raising our waste management costs. Responsible waste management and scrap export polices across Europe and other regions are creating jobs and promoting domestic economic development directly via their processing plants, and indirectly by providing sources of post-consumer recycled materials to domestic manufacturers. Some waste management companies suggest that increased recycling mandates will increase waste management costs. While such mandates might increase investment requirements, numerous studies have found that larger overall economic benefits can be realised by promoting recycling. After years of implementing and optimising very large recycling programs across Europe, the European Union has seen so many benefits that it is pushing even more aggressive recycling targets and promoting it as a critical part of its overall determination to develop a robust and more resilient circular economy. As You Sow estimates that over $11bn (£7bn) of recyclable materials are wasted annually in America alone, making opportunities in the US huge. The US Environmental Protection Agency, among other US organisations, has produced studies highlighting significant economic advantages to be realised from recycling materials from our waste streams compared to disposal, including Recycling is Working (pdf) and Recycling Means Business (pdf). Plastic recycling needs financing and assurance of supply Initiatives such as the Closed Loop Fund, which has brought key business leaders together in a commitment to increase recycling across America, have potential not only because they elevate industry-wide collaboration on a key infrastructural issue, but because they target a national issue from a market standpoint. By addressing the issue of access, the fund is creating a systemic change that can, if applied and invested in strategically, be relied on to replicate and scale effectively. The other critical factor required to encourage businesses to make substantial investments in domestic recycling infrastructure is feedstock security, and material recyclers need a similar assurance of supply required by waste management companies for the same reasons. Without availability of financing and assurance of supply (which helps make the financing more secure), we will continue to see many of our valuable resources buried, burned or shipped overseas for “low-cost” informal recycling. And we will fail to realise the full potential of the economic, environmental and societal benefits associated with moving to a more circular economy. The circular economy hub is funded by Philips. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'guardian-professional/sustainability', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-01-29T14:24:48Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2011/dec/07/bill-gates-china-nuclear-reactor | Bill Gates and China in discussions over new nuclear reactor | Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates confirmed on Wednesday he is in discussions with China to jointly develop a new kind of nuclear reactor. "The idea is to be very low-cost, very safe and generate very little waste," said Gates during a talk at China's Ministry of Science and Technology. Gates has largely funded a Washington state-based company, TerraPower, that is developing a Generation IV nuclear reactor, which can run on depleted uranium. The general manager of state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation, Sun Qin, was quoted in Chinese media last week saying Gates was working with it to research and develop a reactor. "TerraPower is having very good discussions with CNNC and various people in the Chinese government," said Gates, cautioning that they were at an early stage. Gates says perhaps as much as a billion dollars will be put into research and development over the next five years. TerraPower says its traveling wave reactor would run for decades on depleted uranium and produce significantly smaller amounts of nuclear waste than conventional reactors. "All these new designs are going to be incredibly safe," Gates told the audience. "They require no human action to remain safe at all times." He said they also benefit from an ability to simulate earthquake and tidal wave conditions. "It takes safety to a new level," he said. Since leaving Microsoft, Gates has concentrated on philanthropy and advocating on public health, education and clean energy issues. Gates was at the Ministry of Science and Technology to talk about a joint project between China and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support innovative research and development to help alleviate poverty. Gates said the ministry will help identify entrepreneurs and companies to manufacture new products in global health and agriculture to "change the lives of poor people", including new vaccines and diagnostics and genetically modified seeds. "China has a lot to contribute because it's solved many of the problems of poverty, not all of them but a lot of them, itself, and many Asian, south Asian and African countries are well behind, whether it's agriculture or health," said Gates. No concrete poverty alleviation projects were mentioned. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'us-news/bill-gates', 'technology/technology', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/computing', 'tone/news', 'world/depleted-uranium', 'type/article'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-12-07T15:52:46Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2020/sep/06/salute-blm-and-extinction-rebellion-when-they-protest-not-when-they-coerce | Persuasion, not coercion, should be the goal of BLM and Extinction Rebellion | Kenan Malik | “It is never OK to coerce people’s participation; that is just bullying.” So wrote Lauren Victor last week. Victor is a US Black Lives Matter supporter who has participated in many BLM protests. She is also the woman who, in a video that went viral, refused to raise her fist when a group of BLM supporters invaded a restaurant in Washington DC and demanded that all diners do so. Why did she not comply? “I wholeheartedly support the Black Lives Matter movement,” Victor wrote. “However, I also support an individual’s choice to participate in a protest or not.” It is a distinction that too many seem not to understand. There is a difference between protesting against injustice and coercing people to believe what you do or to act in the way you think they should. Take last week’s action by Extinction Rebellion activists, blockading access to three printing presses owned by Rupert Murdoch. “No Times today, and no Sun: no Murdoch trash. No Telegraph either; we blockaded them too, for their continuing lies & distortions on climate (and Covid),” tweeted XR spokesman Rupert Read. There is nothing wrong with protesting about the views of any newspaper, whether on climate change or Covid-19, or in challenging coverage of any issue. There is, however, something objectionable to take it upon oneself to decide what others should be able to read. Disruption to the papers may have been temporary, but the idea that one should censor unacceptable political opinions is a permanent problem. At the heart of any struggle for justice is the willingness to build a movement by persuading people of the righteousness of one’s cause, not by coercing them to change their views. “If you want my support,” as Victor put it, “ask it of me freely.” • Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/freedom-of-speech', 'world/protest', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'world/black-lives-matter-movement', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'media/newspapers', 'media/media', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/kenanmalik', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-09-06T05:45:16Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
news/2018/apr/13/weatherwatch-europe-has-a-history-of-fatal-tornadoes | Weatherwatch: Europe's fatal tornadoes | For most of us the word “tornado” conjures up images of vast “twisters”, like the one that ripped through the US state of Kansas and whisked away Dorothy and her dog Toto in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. But “Tornado Alley” is not the only place where tornadoes occur. They are also common across Europe, and although not as large as their American cousins, they are still dangerous and damaging. During the last 200 years Europe has suffered three tornadoes with death tolls of over 50 people: Ivanovo in Russia in June 1984 (69 fatalities), Oria in Italy in September 1897 (55 fatalities) and Montville in France in August 1845 (at least 70 fatalities). Meanwhile, in June 1967, six tornadoes spun their way across France, Belgium and the Netherlands, resulting in 232 injuries, 15 deaths and serious damage or destruction of just under 1,000 houses. So what would happen if this outbreak occurred today? New research published in the journal Weather, Climate and Society, reveals that we could expect as many as 170 fatalities, up to 2,500 injuries, and serious damage to 25,000 buildings. Although not common, scientists warn that an outbreak like this should be expected somewhere in Europe within the next 50 years. •Kate Ravilious will be one of the panel of Weatherwatch contributors taking part in Freak Weather in History at the British Library on Wednesday 2 May, at 7pm | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/tornadoes', 'science/meteorology', 'world/netherlands', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-04-13T20:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/apr/13/londons-plastic-water-bottle-waste-out-of-control-mayor-warned-deposit-return-scheme-recycling | London's plastic water bottle waste is out of control, mayor is told | The amount of waste from single-use plastic bottles in London has risen out of control, according to a report from the London assembly environment committee. It calls on the mayor to consider introducing a deposit return scheme and to provide free tap water as an alternative. The report, published on Thursday, finds that the London population consumes more plastic bottled water than anywhere else in England – 7.7bn a year – yet has the worst recycling rate in the UK – 32%, compared with a national average of 43%. Plastic bottles make up 10% of all litter found in the Thames, the Thames21 waterways group revealed recently. A separate study found three-quarters of the flounder swimming in the river had ingested plastic. Plastic bottles take 450 years to break down. The report urges the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to address the specific issue of plastic water bottle waste in his upcoming environment strategy. It recommends that he examines the feasibility and practicalities of a bottle deposit return scheme, which the government could later roll out nationwide. Such a scheme would offer an incentive to return plastic bottles by adding a reclaimable amount to the price of bottled drinks. To reduce Londoners’ thirst for bottled water, tap water should be more readily available from community refill facilities and at mainline rail and underground stations as well as bus stops, the report says. HydraChill water refilling stations have been trialled at Hammersmith bus station in west London and a number of piers along the Thames, which have proven popular with both commuters and staff. Apps could also be promoted to help consumers locate businesses willing to provide free water refills, the report suggests. “Plastic waste is out of control in London,” said Leonie Cooper, who chairs the environment committee. “It litters our parks, pollutes the Thames, harms marine life and adds waste to London’s landfill sites, which may be full by 2025. We have to turn the situation around. Firstly, Londoners need an alternative to buying bottles of water – this is a crucial part of the solution. Tap water needs to be more readily available. Secondly, we need to improve our recycling of plastic bottles. Currently, far too many end up in landfill or in the natural environment.” Cooper said voters had heard Khan’s pledge to be “the greenest mayor London has ever had”. “Now it’s time for him to fulfil that promise by addressing our thirst for plastic bottled water,” she said The mayor’s spokesperson said: “Sadiq is extremely supportive of initiatives to help boost access to tap water on the go, such as stores and restaurants providing free tap water, and, rather than just a London scheme, believes that government needs to consider a national deposit return scheme to encourage the re-use of plastic water bottles. “The mayor’s forthcoming environment strategy will include proposals aimed at reducing food and drink waste, including packaging, and increasing recycling rates.” The average UK household uses 480 plastic bottles a year, but recycles only 270 of them, according to Recycle Now, a campaign group funded by the government’s waste advisory group Wrap. In a significant policy U-turn this year, the soft drinks firm Coca-Cola threw its weight behind a deposit return scheme for drinks bottles in Scotland. It said 63% of consumers supported the introduction of such a system in the UK, and 51% said they would be more likely to recycle as a result. Coca-Cola had previously strongly opposed the idea, fearing it could negatively affect its business. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'uk/london', 'politics/london', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-04-12T23:01:10Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2023/oct/20/we-want-to-see-it-back-in-its-glory-can-the-kingston-harbour-cleanup-be-a-model-for-the-world | ‘We want to see it back in its glory’: can the Kingston Harbour cleanup be a model for the world? | Kingston, Jamaica, boasts the world’s seventh largest natural harbour, at nearly 10 miles long by two miles wide. Trade has thrived here for hundreds of years. In 1720, this was where British colonialists hung and gibbeted John “Calico Jack” Rackham, often cited as inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. In the 20th century, up until the late 1980s, it hosted an annual cross-harbour race. These days, however, swimming here is ill-advised. The city’s waste management systems struggle to cope with the volume of waste Kingston produces, with several gullies from communities around the city’s edge running directly into the harbour. When it rains, waste from communities and businesses as far inland as the foot of the Blue Mountains is pushed out into the harbour. That presents a massive pollution problem – a problem the Kingston Harbour Cleanup Project (KHCP) plans to tackle. Launched in 2021, it has now collected more than 1.3m kg of waste. But the KHCP is not typical of such projects: it is based on sustainable technology and incorporates barrier solutions pioneered in the Netherlands. More than this, it is all being done in close collaboration with the local community, private companies and nonprofit foundations. Clean Harbours Jamaica’s managing director, Michael McCarthy, describes the project as a shared vision. “We got in touch with the GraceKennedy Foundation [a Jamaican corporate body that gives grants for projects] two years before launch, and it was a no-brainer because our visions align. We both want a sustainable environment model for the harbour. We both want to see it back in its glory,” McCarthy says. The barrier systems have little impact on plastic already polluting the deep ocean, but the ones in Kingston Harbour are designed to intercept new waste from going into the ocean. An interceptor tender vessel cleans the collected trash from the barriers anchored at the mouth of the gullies of the almost landlocked harbour, and is crewed by local people who have learned their skills on fishing boats. Waste harvested from the barriers is then brought ashore and sorted. “Things that can be recycled are picked up by the Recycling Partners of Jamaica, and the Carib company [Caribbean Cement Company] re-uses those that cannot be recycled,” says the operations manager, Alecia Rose-Beaufort. Kingston Harbour is a case study in ocean pollution, with its complex system of gullies designed to act as outlets for storm waters. According to Rose-Beaufort, this has already inspired ingenuity in solutions. “So far, we have two types of solutions: the barriers meant for deep waters with larger surface area, and those meant for more shallow waters such as this gully beside our HQ.” The project currently covers five gullies, and there are plans to expand to other locations in Jamaica such as Montego Bay. “We’ve had an outpouring of requests, which shows that they need something like this. It’s scalable and sustainable locally and internationally,” says McCarthy. If this project shows it can work, he says, it has potential for other coastal cities around the Caribbean. A key part of the project has been the partnerships struck, including with the office of the prime minister, the Port Authority of Jamaica, the National Environment and Planning Agency and fishers from Rae Town and Port Royal. Schools bring their students for educational tours; community members are recruited as staff, but also taught new maritime skills and given the chance to formalise the ones they have. The programme is offering local people training on the importance of the environment and waste management, and encouraging them to sign up to become tour guides certified under Jamaica’s Tourism Enhancement Fund. “If community members don’t view it as their own initiative, success is much lower. We need them to care, protect and report on what’s going on, so we established the environmental warden programme,” says Caroline Mahfood, CEO of the GraceKennedy Foundation. The foundation has a history of charitable and environmental initiatives including a mangrove restoration project along the Barnes Gully communities. GraceKennedy, the consumer foods company that set up the foundation, wants to reduce waste and reinforce its ties to downtown communities. “The funding for this project isn’t about behavioural change – it’s about the technology. But we wanted to add more because we felt it would be critical to the success,” says Mahfood. The project in Kingston serves as a public and private sector pilot project that can be applied in other parts of the world. The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organisation based in the Netherlands and founded by Boyan Slat, a 29-year-old entrepreneur, needs good results, as some critics consider the initiative costly and misdirected. In Jamaica, McCarthy says that expansion of the project, with deployment of a new barrier, will happen in a matter of weeks. In times of climate crisis, he considers that developing new technologies is essential, especially given the risk of flash floods in the rainy seasons, when the volume of waste washed into the gullies is continually rising. Although the KHCP’s efficacy has yet to be proven, it has a full plate as it continues to expand, McCarthy says. Jamaica offers a unique terrain that can help solve a global problem, he says, giving Kingston Harbour a new chapter in its long and colourful history. • This article was amended on 23 October 2023 to reflect the facts that the cleanup project covers five gullies, not three, and the interceptor tender vessel is not solar-powered. | ['global-development/series/southern-frontlines', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/jamaica', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-10-20T09:00:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2014/oct/23/security-guard-sacked-over-anti-coal-dust-sticker-sues-her-employer | Security guard sacked over anti-coal dust sticker sues her employer | A waterfront security guard who was sacked for having an anti-coal dust sticker on her car is suing her employer under anti-discrimination laws. Former Port of Brisbane security officer Kym Garrick is seeking an apology and financial compensation for what her lawyers allege was a breach of her “right to have a political view”. Lawyers for Garrick filed the claim – who remains unemployed after her dismissal by port authorities and security contractor Corporate Protection Australia in August – in the Queensland anti-discrimination commission on Thursday. The sticker, displayed on the back window of Garrick’s private car while parked at work, read: “Coal dust free Brisbane”. Giri Sivaraman, a solicitor and principal with Maurice Blackburn, said it was clear Garrick “lost her job because her employers did not like her displaying political signage in her own car”. “Put simply, she was not given a fair go – she was discriminated against for exercising her right to have a political view,” he said. “Both Ms Garrick’s former employers made repeated, clear breaches of the Anti-Discrimination Act, including directing her to remove the signs from her car, banning her from Port of Brisbane sites because of the signs and then dismissing her from her job. “She was later advised she wouldn’t be provided with further employment unless she removed the signs from her car. “Not only were these actions discriminatory, they are also a disappointing and retrograde step – in 2014 employers need to be doing better than simply firing people for expressing a point of view.” The lawsuit does not specify a dollar figure for compensation, which would be the result of mediation overseen by the commission were the claim to proceed. Anti-discrimination laws protected workers from discrimination by bosses because of their political beliefs or actions, Sivaraman said. “The actions of the Port of Brisbane and CPA have come at a great cost to Ms Garrick – she loved her job and she’s had to endure the humiliation of being dismissed, despite the fact that it is not disputed she was good at her job.” Both the Port and CPA declined to comment. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/brisbane', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2014-10-23T02:18:05Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2016/aug/31/what-apples-tax-bill-tells-us-about-capitalism | What Apple’s tax bill tells us about capitalism | Letters | I am outraged that Apple is outraged by its tax bill (Apple rages at EU’s €13bn tax demand, 31 August). Apple has hundreds of stores in Europe to sell its products. The message to Apple is very simple: if any of your stores catch fire, don’t bother to call the fire service. If you are burgled, don’t call the police. If you want to deliver your products using public roads, you can’t. If someone falls off a ladder in one of your stores, don’t call the medical services. If you do not want to pay your taxes, fine. But do not expect to use the infrastructure paid for by our taxes. Neil Holmes Bromsgrove, Worcestershire • It is counterintuitive that Ireland should benefit from the €13bn tax, given that the Irish government knowingly set up the scheme to reduce the taxes paid to the rest of the EU. With the current solution, Ireland gets the historic benefits of employment and the unexpected future benefit of the tax. Sharing the €13bn across the countries where Apple products were sold and profits made would correct the wrong that is implied by the ruling. Paul Morrison London • The Irish government has been told to collect €13bn from Apple. But it is to appeal against the decision. Can someone please explain why? Ian Reissmann Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire • Even before the crash it was possible to see weaknesses in the Irish economy. Any economy that grows at the runaway rate that Ireland did for many years usually suffers a major damaging correction in due course. And when you have a freakishly high proportion of GDP being given to property speculation (higher even than the UK’s), you have a recipe for disaster. In addition the OECD points out that Ireland’s GDP (national output) is significantly greater than its GNP (national income) due to the repatriation of profits and royalties by multinational firms – to say nothing of the nameplate presences in Dublin, there merely for tax purposes and with a skeleton staff. Ireland may well have a skilled, hi-tech workforce, but this is no use if the country goes into boom and bust and you have paid for your workers’ training only to lose them abroad. What a pity that the country didn’t have some skilled economic advisers as well. They could have pointed out that copying the UK’s model merely leads to disaster and a race to the bottom. Forget the Apple tax squabble for the moment. Ireland might be advised to take an economic health check and ask whether the Anglo-Saxon model is the way to go. David Redshaw Gravesend, Kent • Had Apple not offshored and arranged a sweetheart deal with Ireland to avoid US and EU taxes, thus amassing a huge cash pile, it would not be in this situation. And had the US tax authorities chased it aggressively, we would all be much better off. Apple is very greedy. It makes 40% gross profit from overpricing its products, exploiting their designer-label status, and all on the backs of underpaid Chinese workers. This is the true face of neoliberal global capitalism. Michael Miller Sheffield • The story of Apple’s sweetheart Irish tax deals shows that something is deeply flawed in the way we currently do business. While we should not tar all multinationals with the same brush, we have undoubtedly seen a concentration of power and profit in fewer and fewer hands, allowing companies to set the rules and play the system. How the UK government acts now is crucial is establishing what kind of nation and economy we want to be. In the face of increasing pressure to turn the UK ever more into a tax haven, Theresa May needs to note that there are alternatives. The UK is home to about 70,000 social enterprises. They are growing faster than other businesses, reinvest profits to tackle social and environmental challenges, and contribute over £24bn to the economy. They are keeping money in local communities and creating employment opportunities. There is even a social enterprise alternative to the iPhone, the Fairphone. For every bad Apple there is a social enterprise showing how business can act responsibly. Peter Holbrook Chief executive, Social Enterprise UK • Of course Apple is protesting about having to pay proper tax. It is in the nature of large corporations to do so. But thank goodness it looks as though the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership may be ditched, with Germany, France and both US presidential candidates against it. If TTIP were in operation then Apple could take the EU to a court biased in favour of the corporation merely on the grounds that EU policy was reducing its profits. Michael McLoughlin Wallington, Surrey • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | ['technology/apple', 'technology/technology', 'technology/computing', 'business/ttip', 'business/business', 'business/corporate-governance', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'politics/taxandspending', 'politics/politics', 'world/tax-havens', 'world/world', 'world/ireland', 'world/europe-news', 'world/eu', 'tone/letters', 'business/economics', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-08-31T18:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
news/2021/sep/02/hurricanes-ida-and-nora-leave-their-mark-in-north-and-central-america | Hurricanes Ida and Nora leave their mark in North and Central America | The end of last week saw significant hurricane activity in North and Central America. Hurricane Ida swept through Cuba as a category 1 hurricane on Friday and then continued to gain in intensity as it tracked through the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, building up to a category 4 hurricane by Sunday morning. Sustained winds reached 150mph and all flights to and from New Orleans airport were cancelled. Significant damage occurred along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts including collapsing buildings and intense flooding from the storm surge. On the same day that Ida devastated Louisiana, along the west coast of Mexico Hurricane Nora made its way north towards the Gulf of California as a category 1 hurricane, bringing sustained winds of up to 75mph. This led to widespread damage including the collapse of a hotel building and the subsequent death of a teenager visiting from Spain. Tyndrum, in Scotland, had the UK’s highest temperature for August 2021, reaching an underwhelming 27.2C on the 25th. It is not often that the UK maximum temperature occurs outside of England. However, the high pressure that brought the UK maximum temperature to Scotland also brought unseasonably high temperatures to north-east Iceland. Hallormsstaður in eastern Iceland reached 29.4C, beating the previous August record. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/hurricanes', 'weather/usa', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-09-02T05:00:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2005/sep/07/hurricanekatrina.usa1 | Leader: Hands across the sea | Harrowing images from the disaster created by Hurricane Katrina along America's Gulf coast have been beamed round the world and generated offers of help from likely and more unlikely quarters. Nato and European allies have pitched in with medical teams, aircraft, tents, blankets, generators and cash. RAF planes are ferrying ready meals from Brize Norton. Germans who remember the 1948 Berlin airlift have been generous. Israel and Russia have promised aid, as have poor Bangladesh and Honduras. But the hand of friendship has also been extended by Iran, a star member of George Bush's "axis of evil". Even North Korea has expressed sympathy. Fidel Castro held a minute of silence to honour the victims and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez offered assistance and cheap oil - though he was rebuffed after calling the president "a cowboy". Suffering in New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama has moved many far and wide, even if common humanity and solidarity have mixed with political calculation. If some foreigners see the US as a friend in need, very many others, like many angry Americans, have focused on the ugly reality exposed by the hurricane: that its main victims are black and poor and have been left in conditions more familiar from the worst scenes of third world deprivation than from the richest country on earth. The slow and chaotic response to the emergency, accompanied by bitter recriminations, has highlighted the immense gap between what the French call American "hyperpower" and the government's ability to cope with this unprecedented catastrophe. Black looters being shot by white cops in Louisiana conjure up scenes from Baghdad. And from there it is only a short step to the thought that an administration that has spent billions on a disastrous war in Iraq seems utterly incapable of protecting its own most vulnerable citizens. It is not news that the US is unpopular, especially in the Muslim world, where some have crowed at its misfortune. Indeed, security experts fear that the mass destruction and the breakdown of law and order may encourage new terrorist attacks. Some conservatives detect schadenfreude from Europeans too - who are shown by a new poll to mistrust the US because of the Middle East, global warming and many other issues, despite Mr Bush's post-Iraq charm offensive. Others complain that aid has not been more forthcoming after a generous US response to the Asian tsunami. Sympathy for the plight of ordinary Americans is one thing. But their president and his policies are different matters. | ['us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/editorials', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-06T23:02:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2024/dec/10/thames-water-cash-emergency-funding-nationalisation | Thames Water will run out of cash by March without £3bn emergency funding | Thames Water has said it will run out of cash by next March if it fails to secure a £3bn financial lifeline, as it admitted its sewage spills had risen sharply. Britain’s biggest water supplier said on Tuesday that all of its funds may be “exhausted” if it failed to secure the emergency funding from its creditors, putting it at risk of temporary nationalisation. The heavily indebted company recorded a 40% increase in the number of pollution incidents in the six months to 30 September. Thames reported 359 category one to three pollution incidents in that period, blaming an especially wet spring and summer. The industry has faced public outcry over sewage spills into seas and waterways. The Thames Water chief executive, Chris Weston, said that after “record rainfall and groundwater levels in our region, pollution and spills are unfortunately up”. Thames faces two critical court dates, on 17 December and 20 January, in order to secure approval for the money – referred to as a “liquidity extension” – which some creditors have already agreed to lend. Weston sought to justify staff receiving bonuses of £770,000 despite criticism from regulators, rising consumer bills and problems with environmental performance. He said: “We need to attract talent to this company. We operate in a competitive market and if we don’t offer competitive packages people will not come and work at Thames and that will not solve the problem.” Weston took on the job in January and was awarded a £195,000 bonus for his first three months at the company. On Tuesday, Thames said net debts for its operating company had grown to £15.8bn during the half-year, from £14.7bn during the same period a year earlier. However, its overall debt is likely to be even greater – it has previously said its total debt was more than £19bn. The financial update comes at a critical time for the company, which supplies 16 million customers across London and the Thames Valley and needs billions of pounds to maintain its water and waste treatment services. If the court and its creditors approve, the proposed deal would give Thames enough funds to continue until October. Thames is also seeking to raise £3.25bn in new equity to fund investments up to 2030. Thames said it had “sufficient cash to meet [its] liabilities as they fall due until prior to the end of March 2025 and any delays to the implementation of the liquidity extension transaction could result in that cash being exhausted”. Giles Bristow, the chief executive of the pressure group Surfers Against Sewage, said: “Yet more excuses from Thames Water for yet another period of shocking sewage performance. What have their customers’ bills been going towards? This is a prime example of the urgent need for the government to radically reform England’s broken water sector.” Tim Farron, the environment spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said“This latest shocking rise in sewage spills must be the final straw for Thames Water. The government must put this broken firm into special administration to give customers the fair deal they deserve.” Weston and the chief financial officer, Alastair Cochran, said the efforts to turn around Thames Water’s financial position were bearing fruit. Weston said: “Today’s news demonstrates further progress to put Thames Water on to a more stable financial footing as we seek a long-term solution to our financial resilience … “We’ve reached key milestones in establishing a more stable financial platform, agreeing a liquidity extension transaction proposal and progressing our equity raise process.” Investors have expressed interest in taking a new stake in the business, which is needed to secure its finances in the longer term. However, they are still trying to find out what terms they might win from the company, the government and the water regulator, Ofwat, if they provide billions of new equity funding. Covalis Capital, a UK infrastructure investor, is reportedly interested in bidding for Thames, with advice from the French water contractor Suez. It has offered a £1bn upfront injection of cash with a further £4bn raised from breaking up and selling off parts of Thames before listing the remaining operation. Other potential bidders include the Hong Kong-based company CK Infrastructure Holdings, which already owns Northumbrian Water and Castle Water. Thames Water posted underlying first-half profits of £715m, up 14%. Ofwat is due to announce on 19 December how much water companies in England and Wales, including Thames, can charge customers through bills over the next five years. Thames wants to increase bills by 52%. | ['business/thames-water', 'business/utilities', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anna-isaac', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-12-10T11:39:46Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/jun/13/country-diary-the-air-is-filled-with-the-scent-of-an-intense-garden-bonfire | Country diary: The air is filled with the scent of an intense garden bonfire | Ed Douglas | At every step my boots kick up white puffs of ash or snap burnt twigs of heather underfoot. The smell is what you would imagine from several acres of burnt moorland, like an intense garden bonfire. In the dust I spot a small invertebrate curled up and toasted, and scoop it up in my palm. Yesterday I had woken to images of this hilltop ablaze against the night sky. The top of Burbage is visible from several Sheffield suburbs and folk had got their phones out. Roads were closed as firefighters and volunteers tackled the flames in shifts. Now the last of them are packing up to leave and I’m able to inspect the damage. This stretch of Burbage is old grouse moor in rehab. Much of it is leggy heather, but twigs of birch and rowan are poking out in places and there’s more bilberry than there used to be. Some brush has been cut back to reduce the fuel load. I find myself in a blackened drainage ditch, dug long ago to drain the moor and boost the heather. Now it’s plugged with loose stones to keep the ground wet. Alas, the dry weeks of May have left the peaty soil parched. A disposable barbecue has done the rest. Stepping off the burnt area, the contrast is startling and instructive. Deep in the heather I spot a heath moth, and while I’m down there I notice beetles and spiders prospecting in the cooling ash. Catastrophe can also be opportunity. High overhead, half a dozen swifts are jagging back and forth, while a pair of meadow pipits tumble around each other close to the ground. I hope their nest escaped. Heading home, I pass a trig point overlooking the burnt moor. A woman is painting it. I joke that the Ordnance Survey must have sent her. She laughs and explains that she’s painting out graffiti. “This place,” she says, as though speaking of a friend, “you know, if things aren’t right, you come here.” And I see her eyes have filled. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'world/wildfires', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'uk/sheffield', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/eddouglas', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-06-13T04:30:39Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/us-embassy-cables-documents/166298 | US embassy cables: Brazil considers US plan to block election of Iranian climate scientist | Friday, 15 August 2008, 21:37 UNCLAS BRASILIA 001112 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/EGC FOR DONNA LEE EO 12958 N/A TAGS KGHG, KSCA, SENV, AORC, BR SUBJECT: CLIMATE CHANGE: BRAZIL WILL CONSIDER USG NOMINATION FOR CO-CHAIR OF IPCC WORKING GROUP II REF: STATE 82703 1. (U) THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED AND NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 2. (SBU) Environment, Science and Technology Counselor met on August 15 with the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations (MRE) Director of the Division of Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development, Counselor Andre Odenbreit Carvalho, and with MRE's Special Ambassador for Climate Change Sergio Barbosa Serra to urge Brazil's support for Dr. Christopher Field to be Co-Chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II. Odenbreit and Serra appreciated receiving the information and they stated that the Brazilian government would give the nomination full and careful consideration. 3. (SBU) Odenbreit then pointed out that Brazil was nominating Dr. Susana Kahn, the Environment Ministry's Secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality, for the position of Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group III on Mitigation. Further, he noted that Brazil is supporting the re-election of Dr. Thelma Krug as a Co-Chair of an IPCC regional Working Group. He requested that the USG give these nominations due consideration. EST Counselor assured them that the USG would give the nominations careful consideration. SOBEL | ['environment/ipcc', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/series/us-embassy-cables-the-documents', 'us-news/the-us-embassy-cables', 'world/world', 'type/document', 'type/article'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2010-12-06T17:00:05Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2016/jun/01/coral-bleaching-spreads-to-maldives-devastating-spectacular-reefs | Coral bleaching spreads to Maldives, devastating spectacular reefs | The longest global coral bleaching event in history is now devastating reefs in the crystal clear waters of the Maldives, with images released exclusively to the Guardian powerfully illustrating the extent of the damage there. Photographed by the XL Catlin Seaview Survey, the images captured the event in May as it moved beyond the now devastated Great Barrier Reef and into waters further west. “The bleaching we just witnessed in the Maldives was truly haunting,” said Richard Vevers, founder of the Ocean Agency. “It’s rare to see reefs bleach quite so spectacularly. These were healthy reefs in crystal clear water at the height of an intense bleaching event. The flesh of the corals had turned clear and we were seeing the skeletons of the animals glowing white for as far as the eye could see – it was a beautiful, yet deeply disturbing sight.” The Maldives is series of coral atolls, built from the remains of coral. The livelihoods of people there depend on the reefs through tourism, fisheries and as a wave-break that helps prevent inundation on low-lying islands. The photographs were part of an ongoing project, in partnership with Google, the University of Queensland and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency to capture the global bleaching event as it moves around the world. “We’ve been following this third global bleaching event since the start nearly two years ago and just when you think you’ve seen the saddest sight you’ll ever see, you see something even worse,” Vevers said. The event started in mid 2014 in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii, which then got hit again in 2015. In early 2016 it spread to the Great Barrier Reef where 93% of its nearly 3,000 reefs were hit by bleaching. Western Australia’s reefs in the Indian Ocean have also experienced severe bleaching. When Noaa declared the event was a global bleaching event in October 2015, Mark Eakin, Noaa’s Coral Reef Watch coordinator, said it could last well into 2016. That prediction appears to be proving correct. “The current global bleaching event is already lasted longer than any previous bleaching event and is likely to last until at least the end of the year,” he said. The bleaching event started with an El Niño that appeared to be developing in Pacific Ocean, in 2014, warming the waters there, but which failed to eventuate. It was then combined with a large patch of unusually warm water, nicknamed “the blob”, that lurked around the Pacific, as well as an extreme El Niño that eventually did develop in 2015. Extreme El Niños, which spread warm water across the Pacific and warm the globe, were not seen before 1982 and have occurred three times since. Extreme El Niños are expected to increase in frequency as a result of climate change. Those El Niños were also occurring in an ocean where the surface has already warmed by 1C, putting corals near their thermal limits. When coral sits in water that is too warm for too long, it gets stressed and expels the algae that provides it with about 90% of its energy. If it stays stressed for more than a couple of weeks it starts to starve, become diseased, and dies. A new study has found the conditions that led to the devastating bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef were made 175 times more likely by climate change, and on the current trajectory, would become the average conditions by the 2030s. | ['environment/coral', 'world/maldives', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/elnino', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-06-01T05:19:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/aug/30/tourists-doubting-value-of-trip-to-great-barrier-reef-dive-operator-tells-inquiry | Tourists doubting value of trip to Great Barrier Reef, dive operator tells inquiry | Overseas tourists have begun to doubt the value of a trip to the ailing Great Barrier Reef and it is getting increasingly difficult to “show people what they expect to see”, a dive operator has told a federal Senate inquiry. A Port Douglas operator, John Edmondson, said “last-chance tourism” was spurring on other visitors but there had been a “weird” lull in bookings this year after back-to-back mass bleaching events made dead coral an unavoidable sight on reef visits. Edmondson told the environment and communications committee in Cairns on Tuesday that while experienced reef tourists still hailed the Great Barrier Reef as the world’s best coral expanse, it was “harder to get the coral and show people what they expect to see”. He said packages that cost the average family $800 for a day on the reef were becoming a harder sell, with “forward bookings definitely softer this year”. This was despite a favourable exchange rate and security concerns in other countries with reef destinations, he told the committee, which is running an inquiry into the impact of climate change on the marine environment. European reef visitors were routinely raising the issue of Australian government support for the Adani mine as a sign it was “going in the wrong direction” in its policy on climate change – the reef’s greatest threat, Edmondson said. The Queensland Liberal National senator Ian Macdonald asked Edmondson, who studied marine biology, whether he believed “like [former US president Barack] Obama” it was the last chance to see the reef. “It’s nearly the last chance,” Edmondson said. While visitors to the reef were still deeply impressed, “you’re getting a creeping increase of people that had a great day – but you can see there was a lot of dead coral”, he said. Asked by Macdonald if he deliberately took tourists to “dead coral places”, Edmondson said: “You can’t avoid dead coral. “I think what’s happening now is some people think it’s just not worth it because of what they’ve seen and read, and that’s offset by other people that know it’s only going to get worse, and see it now.” Edmondson’s business, Wavelength Reef Cruises, takes 22,000 people a year to see the reef, employs 20 people including marine biology graduates and takes $4.5m in revenue a year. It was “a fantastic business at the moment” but the “very poor trajectory” of the reef was a real concern and he had held back a $3m investment in a fourth boat, Edmondson said. “We’ve postponed our decision because with the current situation you just don’t want to be too exposed,” he said. Macdonald questioned why tourists were linking Adani to the state of the reef, saying: “I struggle to see the connection.” Edmondson said most travellers were “fairly wealthy, they’re mostly educated, they’re aware of what’s in the media” and those with knowledge of coral reefs understood the key threat to the reef was climate change. They saw support for the Adani mine as counter to moves towards a lower carbon economy, he said. “If you come from the UK or France or Holland, windmills are a more common thing, renewable energy, much more electric cars – are we deserving of their money as custodians of the reef?” Edmondson told Macdonald that “politically I’m basically a Liberal voter who gets frustrated that, [on] the right wing of the centre right of politics, basically environmental issues are pushed over to the other side”. The broader public did not know what to believe about the reef amid “sensationalist” media coverage of the bleaching and responses from an industry that had left “real gap in advocacy for the reef” on climate change, he said. Tropical Tourism North Queensland had sent an email urging its dive operator members by email to provide a “tsunami” of good news stories to counter bad publicity. “The reality is that there’s been a very dramatic change and a shifting in baseline in a lot of areas,” Edmondson said. “You can still go out and have a fantastic day and the reef is still probably the best-managed reef in the world. “But it’s an expensive day. It’s $250 [a person] for most boats to go out to the reef and people have got a very high expectation. “To give them their value for money and give them a good product is getting harder and harder because it’s harder to get the coral and show people what they expect to see.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/coral', 'environment/marine-life', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/adani-group', 'environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'type/article', 'profile/joshua-robertson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-08-29T23:09:38Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2017/aug/28/mystery-remains-over-chemical-haze-that-hit-east-sussex-coast | Mystery remains over chemical haze that hit East Sussex coast | The chemical cloud that left beachgoers on the East Sussex coastline with stinging eyes, sore throats and even vomiting on Sunday remains a mystery, with officials saying it is unclear what caused the haze or what it was composed of. Experts have put forward a number of possibilities, ranging from accidental discharges of chemicals at water treatment plants to toxins from algal blooms. David Slater of the school of engineering at Cardiff University, said the haze appeared to have come from a local source. “From my experience in regulating water companies, unplanned discharges are not uncommon,” he said. But a spokeswoman for Southern Water said there was no evidence that wastewater works were linked to the haze. “All our sites in the area are constantly monitored and everything is working normally,” she said, adding that chlorine gas was not used at the Eastbourne wastewater treatment works. East Sussex fire and rescue service have also said it was “extremely unlikely” the substance involved was chlorine, despite members of the public reporting a smell akin to a swimming pool. However, Alastair Hay, an emeritus professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said that because the cloud was close to the ground it suggested it was composed of a gas heavier than air, noting that chlorine meets the profile and is a known irritant. Others put forward alternative theories. Dr Simon Boxall, from the University of Southampton, said it was possible that the cloud was the result of an aerosol of toxins from an algal bloom, noting that the environmental conditions were suitable for such an event. “These cause respiratory problems and irritation, particularly in those with asthma,” he said. But he admitted the idea was “a long shot”. While the cloud has dissipated, quite who is leading the investigation also appears hazy: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency both said they were not involved in the incident, referring the Guardian to Sussex police and fire services – both of which declared they were no longer investigating the cloud. The police said efforts to investigate further were being led by the coastguard service, and that they thought the cloud had been produced by a vessel out at sea. However, a spokeswoman from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it had not been confirmed whether the cloud had come from a source on shore or off. She added that without knowing what the haze was composed of, it was difficult to investigate further, although generally with incidents of pollution experts look at which vessels might have been in the area. But she warned: “That can take quite a long time to follow up with.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'uk/uk', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/nicola-davis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-08-28T16:04:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2008/mar/06/whaling.japan | Japan accused of vote buying ahead of whaling meeting | Australia will today call on Japan to end its controversial whale hunts in the Antarctic at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in London, as condemnation mounts over Tokyo's attempts to build a pro-whaling majority ahead of the commission's main conference this summer. Japanese delegates, meanwhile, are expected to push for international action against conservation groups attempting to disrupt the annual culls. Japan was accused of vote buying after it hosted a seminar this week on the sustainable use of whales that was attended by 12 African and Asian countries - including landlocked Laos - that have recently joined the IWC or are considering doing so. By bringing in sympathetic new members, it hopes to challenge the 1986 ban on commercial whaling. Despite the ban, Japan continues to hunt whales every winter to collect scientific data it says is necessary to understand the mammals' migratory and other habits. This season the fleet had planned to slaughter a record 935 minke and 50 endangered fin whales, but the slaughter has been hampered by confrontations with activists Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace. Critics said Japan used the Tokyo seminar to offer aid packages to countries that had little or no history of whaling in return for their support. "Once again it demonstrates the clear link between fisheries aid and support for whaling - a policy which Japan has been following since 1994," Greenpeace said. The chances of overturning the moratorium in the near future are virtually nil, however. Anti-whaling member of the IWC, including Britain, outnumber Japan and its allies, and a three-quarters majority would be required to lift the ban. Though Japan denied vote buying, an insider told the Guardian that there was a "likelihood that in the near future, at least one of the countries taking part [in the seminar] could find itself in receipt of a quantity of cash." Japan wants discussions at today's meeting to focus on how to revive the IWC's original role of managing sustainable whaling. But Australia's environment minister, Peter Garrett, urged the commission to stop "individual countries unilaterally granting themselves permission to kill whales for science". Garret said the 78 members of the IWC should "take a more coordinated and strategic approach to research and introduce new collaborative non-lethal research programmes, beginning in the Southern Ocean". Japanese delegates were also expected to seek a condemnation of attacks on its whaling fleet by Sea Shepherd. The fisheries minister, Masatoshi Wakabayashi, said Japan would "take up the sabotage against our safe research operations" in London. "The international community should take a tough stand." Earlier this week Sea Shepherd activists threw containers of rancid butter and a slippery, non-toxic chemical onto the deck of the fleet's main ship, the Nisshin Maru, lightly injuring two crewmembers and a coast guard. In protest, Japan summoned the ambassadors of Australia, a leading opponent of Japan's scientific whaling programme, and the Netherlands, where the group's ship the Steve Irwin last docked. Sea Shepherd accused whaling officials of playing up the confrontation. "Every container of rotten butter acid that [we] threw onto the deck was filmed on impact and not one landed near a Japanese crewmember," the group's leader, Paul Watson, said. He said the "injuries" referred to crewmembers who complained of sore eyes caused by the fumes from butyric acid, a byproduct of rotten butter. "We only use organic, non-toxic materials designed to harass and obstruct illegal whaling operations." | ['environment/whaling', 'world/japan', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/world', 'environment/whales', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-03-06T10:54:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2022/jul/26/labour-cautious-public-ownership | Labour is being too cautious on public ownership - it’s pragmatic policy | Cat Hobbs | Yesterday morning, Rachel Reeves was drawn into stating on the Today programme that a Labour government would not bring rail, energy and water into public ownership. Then followed a number of tweets from Labour’s shadow transport ministers, reaffirming the party’s commitment to nationalising the railway. By the afternoon, Keir Starmer had confirmed that rail would indeed be brought into public ownership because this was “pragmatic”, but water and energy would not. While Starmer claims the pragmatism of the policy rests on the fact that some of the rail network is already in public hands, the more relevant issue is that Labour is terrified of buying back assets. Bringing contracts (like rail franchises) into public ownership when they come to an end is generally cost-free whereas buying back water and energy companies involves compensating shareholders – and Jeremy Corbyn was hammered for this in the 2019 election. Of course, if Labour brings the whole railway into public ownership and funds it properly, that will be a huge cause for celebration. Privatisation has utterly failed and wastes £1bn a year. The best railway in Europe is publicly owned, in Switzerland. It could go further. If Labour’s rule is that public ownership is fine if it’s cost-free, why not set up a publicly owned energy supply company to compete in the market and offer people a better deal on their energy bills (as French EDF is doing right now)? The government has propped up Bulb at great cost when it could instead have created a new public supplier and transferred its 1.7 million customers. When smaller suppliers failed, they could be absorbed into this company. It could go further still. Why not set up a publicly owned renewable generation company to drive forward water and wind energy, while creating jobs and boosting the economy? The Norwegian state owns Statkraft, the largest renewables generator in Europe and is considering setting up a state-owned hydrogen company. Denmark owns 50% of Ørsted (previously Dong Energy), the world’s largest developer of offshore wind power. Creating an energy supplier and a renewable generation company could be done at very little cost, and would be a pragmatic way to use public ownership to tackle the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis. But by awkwardly dodging discussion of buying back water and energy grids, when recent polling shows a majority of “red wall” voters believe they belong in public hands, Labour is missing an opportunity. The privatised English water monopolies are spewing sewage into our rivers and seas, killing fish and making children ill, and allowing 900 Olympic swimming pools worth of water a day to leak away because they’d rather not spend money on investing in infrastructure. Meanwhile, they return around £2bn a year to shareholders, pay their CEOs millions and rack up a debt mountain at our expense. Scottish Water has spent £72 a year extra per household on infrastructure because it’s in public ownership. The energy grid monopolies have extremely high profits, and have similarly been slow to invest in infrastructure. Bringing energy transmission and distribution into public hands would save about £3.7bn a year. It’s understandable that Labour is scared to talk about this. But bringing these assets into public hands would be a brilliant deal for the public purse. Every household in the country could benefit, and so would local economies. Parliament can judge what is in the public interest and decide how much compensation would be appropriate. It seems reasonable to compensate shareholders for the money they originally invested, rather than the current market value of shares. The policy would pay for itself in around seven years on that basis. Would this hurt our pensions? Absolutely not. Our water companies and energy networks are primarily owned by shareholders abroad. Wessex Water, for example, is owned by a Malaysian company, and Northumbrian Water is 80% owned by Li Ka Shing, a Hong Kong businessman. Only 8.5% of the water sector is owned by UK pensions. UK Power Networks, covering London, is also owned by Li Ka Shing. The US billionaire Warren Buffett owns Northern Powergrid, which provides electricity to north-east England. Only 2% of our energy is owned by UK pensions. How about really taking back control, having water and energy companies that work for the British public and protecting pensions as needed while we do it? England’s model of selling off water assets wholesale is unique and the UK is almost the only country in Europe to have a privatised energy grid. Reeves has already committed to £28bn of green investment a year. Bringing water and energy into public ownership would also be an investment, giving the government tools to cut bills, connect up community renewables to the grid, upgrade infrastructure to stop leaks and clean up rivers and seas. People want decent public transport. They also want affordable energy bills and rivers that aren’t filled with sewage. Taking back our national assets is not only pragmatic, it’s a vote winner. Cat Hobbs is the founder of We Own It, an organisation that campaigns for public ownership of public services Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/energy', 'money/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'money/water-bills', 'environment/water', 'politics/privatisation', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/cat-hobbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-07-26T16:00:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/jul/12/renewable-power-energy-costs-review-dieter-helm | Renewable power critic is chosen to head energy price review | An academic who is a vocal critic of the price of renewable power is the government’s preferred choice to head a review of the financial cost of energy in the UK. Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, has been chosen by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to carry out the review, the Guardian has learned. The Conservative manifesto promised that the resulting report would be the first step towards “competitive and affordable energy costs”. Theresa May is among those in the government taking an interest in the cost-of-energy review, which will examine how power prices can be kept down while meeting the UK’s carbon targets and keeping the lights on. But the choice of Helm, author of a new book on the slow demise of oil companies in the face of energy trends, will be controversial in some quarters because of his criticism of wind and solar power. While acknowledging that renewables are remaking the energy landscape, the professor of energy has criticised the cost of today’s windfarms and solar technology, calling them “expensive” and highlighting the “sheer cost” of electricity generated from renewable sources. Helm has also suggested the existing generation of green energy is not enough to significantly cut emissions. “Current renewables like wind turbines, rooftop solar and biomass stand no serious chance of making much difference to decarbonisation. It’s simply a matter of scale,” he wrote in the Spectator magazine. Instead, Helm believes funding should be directed at next generation renewable technologies, such as more efficient solar panels. He also backs emerging technologies such as smart grids and battery storage. Hannah Martin, head of energy at Greenpeace UK, said: “Dieter has a well-known preference for gas and has historically failed to grasp the full potential of renewables. “At a time when the costs of offshore wind and solar are plummeting this review needs somebody with the vision to grasp the opportunities offered by clean energy to provide jobs, lower bills and slash carbon pollution.” Other figures believed to have been in the frame for the job included Lord Turner, the former chair of a government advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change, who recently told the Guardian that Tory policy on onshore wind power was endangering cheap energy in the UK. However, concerns that the review might be tilted against renewables could be allayed by Helm’s choice of colleagues to work on the report. The Guardian understands that he will be aided by a former boss of the National Grid, Steve Holliday, who is a proponent of decentralised energy including batteries, and Richard Nourse of Greencoat Capital, an investment fund supporting clean energy. Rounding out the proposed team would be Jim Gao, an engineer at an artificial intelligence company, Deepmind, owned by Google, which has been an enthusiastic supporter of renewables. The review will look at all aspects of the energy industry and how they contribute to the cost of electricity, such as new technologies including the rollout of smart meters in millions of homes and the increasing number of electric cars drawing power from the grid. At the heart of the review will be the challenge of addressing the energy trilemma: balancing the UK’s binding carbon targets with affordability and security of supply. The Conservative manifesto said the review would “be asked to make recommendations as to how we can ensure UK energy costs are as low as possible, while ensuring a reliable supply and allowing us to meet our 2050 carbon reduction objective. Our ambition is that the UK should have the lowest energy costs in Europe, both for households and businesses.” The review is due to report its findings to the business secretary, Greg Clark, in the autumn, and is expected to inform the government’s long-term approach to power generation. Helm is also a strong critic of the cost of nuclear power, saying that just to get to the “starting line” of building a new atomic power station in the UK involves a “lengthy, complex and expensive process”. He has also questioned whether any more new nuclear power plants will be built in the UK after Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which the public spending watchdog recently described as a “risky and expensive project”. The new energy minister, Richard Harrington, has said the government is still committed to a new generation of nuclear power stations but Helm’s review could provide a justification for abandoning that ambition on cost grounds. If nuclear and renewables fell out of favour in future government policy, that would leave gas as the only large-scale option for new power, given ministers are committed to phasing out coal. Although Helm told the Guardian he had not been appointed to the role, it is understood he is the government’s preferred choice. While a round of price hikes by energy suppliers last winter led to calls for a cap on prices, the average household bill of £1,160 in 2016 was below 2008 levels because of energy efficiency measures and falling energy demand. The Committee on Climate Change also concluded this year that British households’ energy costs were not high compared with the rest of Europe. A BEIS spokesman said: “As committed to in the industrial strategy green paper, we will commission a review to ensure energy costs are as low as possible while meeting our climate change targets. No decision has been taken on who will undertake this review.” | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'profile/nickhopkins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-07-12T17:05:09Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2018/sep/26/world-weatherwatch-super-typhoon-trami-heads-for-japan-as-us-flooding-remains | World weatherwatch: Super Typhoon Trami heads for Japan as US flooding remains | Almost two weeks on from Hurricane Florence, flooding in the US has continued to affect the Carolinas, with some areas expected to remain under water for the rest of this week. Hurricane Florence is believed to have been the cause of at least 43 deaths since it made landfall in Wrightsville in North Carolina on 14 September. According to estimates it has been one of the top 10 most expensive US hurricanes, with close to $44bn (£33.4bn) in damage. So all of central and eastern areas of the US have had quite a bit of rain, including north-eastern states, and this will continue over the next few days. Most of the rain fell across Virginia and the Carolinas, although other eastern states saw plenty of rain too. The heaviest rain this week is coming to states further north and west that did not get the worst of the weather from Florence, although they are in the central and eastern regions. More heavy rain has also affected central and north-eastern parts of the US this week, on top of that brought by Florence. Flood watches have been in place for parts of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia, with more than 100mm (4in) falling in places. Some of this rain came from severe thunderstorms that caused flash flooding. Super Typhoon Trami is expected to make landfall in the Japanese island of Okinawa on Saturday. This is likely to bring 125-250mm (5-10in) of heavy rain as well as hurricane-force winds and storm surges. Having been a category 5 storm earlier in the week, it is expected to make landfall as a category 3 typhoon. Models then show the storm moving north-east towards the Japanese mainland on Sunday. | ['world/hurricane-florence', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'weather/usa', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'weather/index/northandcentralamerica', 'news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'weather/japan', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-26T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/jun/04/david-attenborough-netflix-documentary-australian-scientists-break-down-in-tears-over-climate-crisis | David Attenborough Netflix documentary: Australian scientists break down in tears over climate crisis | One of Australia’s leading coral reef scientists is seen breaking down in tears at the decline of the Great Barrier Reef during a new Sir David Attenborough documentary to be released globally on Friday evening. Prof Terry Hughes is recounting three coral bleaching monitoring missions in 2016, 2017 and 2020 when he says: “It’s a job I hoped I would never have to do because it’s actually very confronting …” before tears cut him short. The emotional scene comes during the new Netflix documentary, Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, and shows the toll the demise of the planet’s natural places is having on some of the people who study them. The film visits scientists working on melting ice, the degradation of the Amazon, and the loss of biodiversity, and looks at a 2019/2020 “summer from hell” for Australia that featured unprecedented bushfires and the most widespread bleaching of corals ever recorded on the Great Barrier reef. The 70-minute film features another Australian scientist, Dr Daniella Teixeira, walking through a blackened landscape where she was working to conserve endangered glossy black cockatoos. “There’s no sign of any wildlife at all,” says Teixeira, with footage of twisted and burnt animals and trees turned to charcoal. “There’s nothing left.” The documentary, fronted by Attenborough, is centred on the research of Swedish scientist Prof Johan Rockström, whose work looks at the concept of tipping points and boundaries in different systems around the planet, such as the polar regions, the Earth’s biodiversity and the climate. Netflix says the film documents “the most important scientific discovery of our time – that humanity has pushed Earth beyond the boundaries that have kept Earth stable for 10,000 years, since the dawn of civilisation.” Hughes has become a high-profile scientific figure in Australia for his research on the complex impacts of global heating on the world’s biggest reef system and his monitoring flights to document mass bleaching. “In big thermal extremes like we’ve been seeing during mass bleaching events in recent decades [corals] can actually die very very quickly. They cook,” he says in the documentary. Hughes told the Guardian that “if anything I think the emotional response has lessened over time” and that the 2016 bleaching event in the north of the reef “was the most confronting”. “But it’s still deeply saddening,” he said. He said Rockström’s research, which he has collaborated on, was “simple and powerful” and showed how the world was on a “trajectory that is not sustainable”. “You can easily transgress a tipping point and not notice it for a couple of decades,” he said, adding he thought the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere had probably reached a tipping point for coral reefs in the 1980s. Hughes, of James Cook University’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said the black summer bushfires and coral bleaching “points to Australia’s vulnerability”. In the documentary, Attenborough says: “We are heading for a future where the Great Barrier Reef is a coral graveyard.” He describes Australia’s 2019/20 summer as “a summer from hell, fuelled by record-breaking temperatures and drought”. Texeira, from the University of Queensland, is filmed in February 2020 returning to sites on Kangaroo Island off the South Australian coast where she was studying endangered glossy black cockatoos. She finds one of the nests erected to help the birds on a fallen tree with an iron plate around the trunk to stop possums climbing up and attacking the young. With the iron buckled from the heat and the nest melted, Texeira says: “They weren’t enough to save them.” She told the Guardian: “There are days when I still get overwhelmed. At the end of the day, we’re humans and we have emotions.” She had been visiting the island for four years and the fires had come just as she was completing her PhD. “I have come out the other side now but it has really made me more focused on the urgency of the problems and how we as scientists can make changes now.” Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet is available on Netflix on 4 June | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'tv-and-radio/david-attenborough', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'media/netflix', 'film/documentary', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-06-03T17:30:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/jul/07/its-absurd-to-fill-fields-with-solar-panels | It’s absurd to fill fields with solar panels | Brief letters | George Monbiot says that we should be growing food rather than using the land to produce biofuels (Why are we feeding crops to our cars when people are starving?, 30 June). Surely, then, it makes even less sense to put solar panels on land that could be used to grow food, when there are lots of roofs that can be used for them. Janet Poliakoff Nottingham • Mark Wilcox (Letters, 5 July) writes that he is not going to be voting Labour because of Keir Starmer’s speech on Brexit. If we all do that, there will another five years of Tory rule, which would mean 17 years of them running this country into the ground. Polly Toynbee’s advice still holds – hold your nose and vote Labour! John Richards Oxford • As an offender myself until recently in this regard, I suggest that when Martin Kettle referred to Sajid Javid’s “coruscating” speech (6 July), he meant “excoriating”. The speech may indeed have been sparkling, but that is not the same as scathing. Apologies for such a minuscule point in the face of a Shakespearean tragedy. Jan Arriens Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire • If you’re trying to stand on one leg with your eyes closed too, here’s a handy tip (Letters, 6 July). Hold one earlobe between your thumb and first finger while you do it. It really works – I’m 70 and I can balance for 20 seconds or so. Pam Fraser Cumnor, Oxfordshire • Surely it is now the moment for Murray Mound (formerly Henman Hill and also previously Rusedski Ridge) to be renamed Cameron Crest (Cameron Norrie digs deep to sink Goffin and set up Djokovic semi-final, 5 July)? Adrian Brodkin London • 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/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'sport/tennis', 'politics/sajid-javid', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-07-07T17:10:36Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/jun/11/anti-adani-protesters-target-construction-firm-wagners-over-30m-contract | Anti-Adani protesters target construction firm Wagners over $30m contract | Anti-Adani activists say they have launched an escalating disruption campaign against Queensland construction company Wagners, which is being targeted over a $30m contract to build an airstrip for the Carmichael coalmine. Members of the group Galilee Blockade entered a Wagners industrial site at Pinkenba near the Port of Brisbane on Sunday afternoon, dressed as superheroes, as a precursor to further protests. The company, which listed on the stock exchange in December, has previously said it would not be “intimidated” by activists if targeted for its role in the Adani Carmichael mine. Galilee Blockade has previously targeted contractors working with Adani on the project, and claims success for the decision by Downer EDI last year to back out of a $2.6bn construction deal. The fresh protest action marks the resumption of those tactics by the anti-Adani group, and comes after a quiet few months in which the Indian conglomerate has made few public statements while attempting to finance the project. There are increasing signs Adani is baulking at any further financial commitment to the project while it searches for an investor. Those signs include a recent decision by Townsville council to extend negotiations over a deal to part-fund the airport. The Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, said the deal would not be signed off until Adani “can guarantee the project will go ahead”. • Sign up to receive the top stories every morning Wagners has the contract to build the airport, in total worth about $30m. The activists say the financial cost of their disruption campaign would quickly cancel out any profit Wagners would make from the Adani contract. “Any large contractor willing to threaten our future by working with Adani is bound to be targeted by citizen activists,” Galilee Blockade spokesman Ben Pennings said. “Australians clearly don’t want the Adani mine and will act decisively when governments fail to.” “These citizens are not just disguised as superheroes, they are superheroes. Risking arrest for the wellbeing of your fellow citizens is both courageous and, seemingly, necessary.” “It’s not acceptable for any company to threaten massive environmental damage against the will of traditional owners and the Australian people. We will disrupt and blockade Wagners’ industrial sites till they get out of bed with Adani.” On Sunday the activists handed out flyers to Wagners staff asking for anonymous information about the Pinkenba site. Guardian Australia has contacted Wagners for comment. | ['environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/brisbane', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-06-10T18:00:10Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2017/mar/15/renewables-roadshow-community-owned-windfarm-daylesford-hepburn-australia | Renewables roadshow: how Daylesford's community-owned windfarm took back the power | From the fertile spud-growing country of Hepburn Shire, 90km northwest of Melbourne, has sprung what many hope will become a revolution in renewable energy in Australia. On Leonards Hill, just outside the town of Daylesford – famed for its natural springs – stand two wind turbines that not only power the local area, but have also added substantial power to the community-owned renewable energy movement in Australia. The turbines, cheesily called Gusto and Gale, constitute the very first community-owned windfarm in Australia. It borrows the idea from a long tradition of community-owned power that was forgotten in Australia, but lives on strongly in Denmark. “In Denmark there’s over 2,100 versions of this,” says Taryn Lane, the community manager for Hepburn Wind, the cooperative that owns and operates the windfarm. “Their model – this way of owning your own energy generator locally – emerged in the late 70s, so they have been doing it for decades.” . It was at a community meeting for a large corporate-owned windfarm, like the one near Hepburn, that the idea for Hepburn Wind emerged. Strong community opposition, often encouraged by the fossil fuel industry, has at times been a roadblock for large windfarms built by traditional energy companies. Lane says the Danish founder of Hepburn Wind, Per Bernard, attended the meeting with a few people from Daylesford, and they saw the community express a lot of opposition to one of those projects. “They were quite disappointed that that was our local area’s first response to large-scale renewables development in the area,” Lane says. Bernard figured that if they adopted the Danish model, where the windfarm was smaller, and the local community owned it, support for clean, clean wind energy would grow. The idea of communities owning their own power generators is not new in Australia, according to Lane, it’s just been forgotten. That was the way electricity was first introduced into much of the country, with smaller decentralised generators, owned by the local communities. The mayor of Hepburn Shire, Sebastian Klein agrees. “Hepburn actually used to own its own power generating sources. We used to have our own generator in the main street of Daylesford [and] we used to have our own hydro station down at the lake,” he says. “So for people it was quite an obvious step that we might be able to take back the power so to speak.” Lane says: “It’s ironic now that there is this broader push back to that more decentralised system.” And Bernard turned out to be right. Hepburn Wind began construction in 2010 and started selling power in 2011. And the group had overwhelming local support. “We are a cooperative of 2,007 members,” says Lane. “They’ve contributed just under $10m.” The majority of the investors are from the local region, something the cooperative has written into its rules. Paul Howden is one of them. As with most investors in community-owned renewable energy, his motivations were a mix of hard-nosed financial ones, and the desire to do a bit of good. “Partly, obviously because it’s a renewable energy project,” he says, explaining his investment. “But also because we thought it was a good and wise investment for our super fund. “This is a win-win for both the environment [and] the community.” One of the things that made him confident that the project was a good investment, he says, was the level of community support it received, and the passion of the people running it. But beyond the construction of the 4.1MW windfarm – enough to power about 2,300 households – Hepburn Wind pioneered the modern large-scale community-ownership model of renewable energy in Australia, which is now being replicated around the country. Simon Holmes à Court was the founding chairman of Hepburn Wind. And after spending years developing a model that worked, and navigating the various logistical potholes in getting it up and running, he set up Embark, a non-profit company dedicated to helping other community energy projects adopt the Hepburn model. Several projects around the country have received advice and support from Embark, including Pingala, which gathered locals in Sydney’s Newtown to build a solar array on the top of a brewery, and the Sydney Renewable Power Company, which recently built Australia’s largest CBD solar farm. But back in Hepburn shire, not satisfied with the windfarm, the residents are expanding the renewables in their area. By a picturesque lake in Daylesford, where locals go to swim and cool off, is an antique hydro generator, which used to power a few homes around the lake, and the lake’s lights. “It kept the lake area electrified,” says Lane. It was shut down in 1934, and has lain dormant ever since. But Hepburn Wind cooperative figured they could refurbish it, and pour even more clean energy into the grid. In February, that was made possible when the energy retailer that buys Hepburn Wind’s electricity – Powershop – announced it had crowdfunded more than $100,000 for community-owned renewable energy projects, and one project that would receive a slice of it was Hepburn Wind’s hydro project. “The original size was 13kWs or just under,” says Lane. “And we will look to somewhere between there and maybe up to 40kWs if we can put a side-by-side motor next to it.” She says that will be enough to power about eight to 12 houses – not a huge amount, but it’s an easy win. And with Hepburn shire adding its name to a growing list of councils shooting to reduce their emissions to zero, every bit counts. Says Lane: “At Hepburn Wind we really want to play our role in helping our community reach zero net emissions.” | ['environment/series/renewables-roadshow', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'technology/technology', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'weather/victoria', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/victorian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2017-03-15T00:58:13Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/jun/01/dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira-will-not-be-forgotten-vows-lula-brazil | Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira will not be forgotten, vows Brazil’s Lula | Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira will not be forgotten, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed, blaming their killings a year ago on the Amazonian “anarchy” unleashed under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Phillips, a British journalist, and Pereira, a Brazilian Indigenous expert, were shot dead by a group of illegal fishers on 5 June last year while travelling in the remote Javari valley near Brazil’s border with Colombia and Peru. To celebrate their lives and work, the Guardian is one of 16 media groups launching the Bruno and Dom project, a collaborative investigation coordinated by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories. In a statement to the Guardian marking the launch of the project on Thursday, Lula said the killings “were one of the results of the encouragement of anarchy and environment crime and illegal mining in the Amazon”. During Bolsonaro’s environmentally catastrophic 2019-23 far-right administration, illegal deforestation soared and invasions of protected Indigenous lands rose sharply as a result of his inflammatory rhetoric and the dismantling of Brazil’s environmental and Indigenous protection agencies, Ibama and Funai. Last month, federal police charged Bolsonaro’s former Funai chief Marcelo Xavier in connection with the deaths of Pereira and Phillips on the basis that he had been warned of possible bloodshed in the Javari valley and failed to act. Xavier has tweeted critically about the decision to charge. Since taking office in January, Lula has vowed to initiate a new era of Amazon protection, although the massive challenges he faces were exposed on Tuesday when conservative members of congress approved legislation that activists fear will strike a devastating blow to Indigenous communities and isolated tribes. The new government has deployed environmental special forces to the Yanomami Indigenous territory to expel tens of thousands of illegal gold and cassiterite miners, and sent federal police to Atalaia do Norte, the river town to which Phillips and Pereira were travelling when they were killed. “In the name of a sovereign Brazil, the planet, and the legacy and memory of Dom and Bruno, we are fighting to revive policies to protect Indigenous peoples and the Amazon rainforest, in the Javari valley where they died and in the whole region,” Lula’s statement said. “We will not abandon this struggle for the planet, nor will we forget Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira,” he said, promising an independent investigation into their killings “so that those responsible can be punished”. Three men are in detention awaiting a judge’s decision on whether they will face a jury trial, while a fourth has been named as the alleged mastermind. Lula criticised the way Bolsonaro’s “denialist” government responded to the killings, providing “neither safety, condolences, respect, nor the guarantee of an independent investigation into this terrible crime”. In the days after the two men disappeared on the Itaquaí River, Bolsonaro accused Pereira and Phillips of embarking on “an ill-advised adventure” into the rainforest. Members of Bolsonaro’s administration falsely accused the victims of entering Indigenous lands without permission. Indigenous leaders in the Javari say the new government’s efforts have brought a measure of safety to a remote region blighted by environmental crime, drug trafficking and piracy. Bushe Matis, the new president of Univaja, the Indigenous NGO that Pereira was working for when he was killed, said: “Lula’s election made us happy … We’re grateful the government has taken some action, but things are still not 100%.” Matis said illegal fishing, poaching and mining gangs continued to pillage the forests and rivers of the Javari valley Indigenous territory, the second largest in Brazil. While those invasions continued, Matis said the Indigenous patrol teams that Pereira helped to create would continue their work fighting environmental criminals. “This dream isn’t dead. [Bruno] has died but we will fight on,” Matis said. “His spirit remains here with us.” In a recent interview, Humberto Freire, the head of Lula’s newly created federal police department for the environment and the Amazon, called the killings “the tragic result of a process of weakening that took place in the last few years”. “And it is our responsibility to turn things around,” Freire added. “If the last few years saw a weakening [of environmental and Indigenous protections] that culminated in that tragedy, we now want to do the opposite and strengthen them, so that in the near future [deforestation] rates can be reduced.” Freire said federal police reinforcements had been sent to the Javari valley region as part of a long-term effort to control environmental and organised crime. “We are not going there temporarily,” he said. | ['world/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva', 'world/brazil', 'world/dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira', 'environment/series/the-bruno-and-dom-project', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-01T13:45:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2023/feb/21/majority-of-household-appliances-packaged-in-unsustainable-material-choice-says | Majority of household appliances packaged in unsustainable material, Choice says | The majority of the country’s most popular appliances are being packaged in unsustainable materials, a review by Choice has found, prompting the consumer rights group to call for an urgent overhaul of how brands box their products. Comparing the packaging of 38 kettles, air fryers and stick vacuums across different household brands Choice found while some manufacturers are using recyclable cardboard and fibre to package their products, others are using unstable materials such as landfill-bound polystyrene. The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation has set an ambitious goal to make all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Australia will fail to meet this if companies do not switch to sustainable alternatives soon and gaps in consumer understanding are not addressed, according to Choice. A Choice journalist, Andy Kollmorgen, said only half of the packaging (55%) was getting recycled or reused, with some manufacturers doing “markedly better” than others. “Some did better than others – Black+Decker, Anko and Philips are all pretty good. And then others did less well – Tefal, Sunbeam, Kambrook, Breville – all not great.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup None of the boxes in the evaluation were free of plastic packaging components – with 30 of the 38 products using soft plastics compatible with the REDcycle scheme, which is now on hold. The best products were the Black+Decker Power Series Extreme stick vacuum (which had 100% recycled packaging, including three REDcycle components), followed by the Beko PowerClean Pro stick vacuum (96%) and the Dyson V8 and V12 Detect Slim Absolute stick vacuums (both 95%). The worst products were reported to be the Dreame Cordless Vacuum T30 stick vacuum (30%), the Cuisinart Multi-temp cordless kettle (38%) and then the Shark Cordless Apex Pro Pet Vacuum (39%). “Businesses need to be doing everything they can to ensure their packaging is as sustainable as possible, including getting rid of non-recyclable foam materials such as polystyrene,” Kollmorgen said. “Unfortunately, our findings show that manufacturers need to be doing much more when it comes to eliminating non-recyclable packaging. Just one of the 38 products we analysed had fully recyclable packaging materials.” In nearly all cases, manufacturers are not doing a good job of making it clear to consumers in their package labelling which components are recyclable and what consumers should do with them, he said. “Manufacturers have made the effort to make things recycle but haven’t made the effort to inform consumers,” Kollmorgen said. “It’s left up to consumers to navigate a confusing array of recycling symbols and figure out if the packaging is recyclable or not, which only impedes the recycling efforts.” These brands still have plenty of work to do if the Apco packaging goal is to be reached, he said. “It’s looking like we’ll fall short. Manufacturers have to do better, there’s too much plastic and too many chunks of polystyrene which should just be moulded fibre and cardboard.” Guardian Australia contacted the relevant brands, with a spokesperson for Cuisinart saying the company was a member of Apco and was reviewing packaging across their brands to reduce waste. “The CPK-18XA kettle Choice reviewed has recyclable cardboard packaging (with an industry-standard recycle symbol on the base), a paper instruction/recipe book that can be recycled with paper waste (but we would expect customers to keep and refer to) and a paper warranty card,” the spokesperson said. “The kettle ( and most appliances) require packaging materials to protect it from damage or scratching during transit and to pass industry drop test standards. We are trialling a change from single-use plastic bags to protect the product from scratching/scuffing to paper wrapping.” A spokesperson for Breville said the company was “committed and moving towards” a more sustainable packaging model across its product portfolio. “Kambrook has been and will continue to be, a signatory of Apco since 2010. Agreeing to the 2025 targets of all packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable is mandatory to remain a signatory.” | ['environment/recycling', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/plastic', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/cait-kelly', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-02-21T14:53:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2019/nov/27/wildfires-in-australia-could-also-be-shaping-the-weather | Wildfires in Australia could also be shaping the weather | Parts of Australia have been suffering from wildfires recently due to long-term drought. Although you might think of dry, sunny conditions when you think of the factors that help wildfires to ignite and expand, they can actually create their own weather. Large, rapidly rising columns of air can create clouds as water vapour cools and condenses aloft. Strong updrafts can lead to clouds that look like large cumulus or cumulonimbus, the large cauliflower-like clouds often associated with thunderstorms. These clouds generated by wildfires are known as pyrocumulus or flammagenitus. Particularly vigorous updrafts can generate pyrocumulus clouds that produce lightning. Wildfires are not the only method by which these strong updrafts can be generated. Spectacular lightning displays have been observed from pyrocumulus generated by volcanic eruptions. Particles in the plume of smoke and ash act as condensation nuclei, particles upon which water vapour can condense and help create these clouds. The influence of condensation nuclei can sometimes be observed in the UK, but on a much smaller and far less dangerous scale. Under the right conditions, cloud can be seen billowing out of the chimneys of industrial plants. These clouds can merge with other more “traditional” clouds. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/environment', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-11-27T21:30:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2023/jun/23/bush-kinder-has-given-my-four-year-old-daughter-resilience-and-readiness-for-life | Bush kinder has given my four-year-old daughter resilience and readiness for life | Lucille Wong | The first time I dropped off my three-year-old at bush kinder, she was in a T-shirt and sandals. In hindsight, it was such a rookie error. Of course she needed long sleeves and closed shoes. The teacher explained that long sleeves provided better protection. If there were any cuts or nicks, a bit of coverage could make a difference. I never made that mistake again. There was a lot to learn at bush kinder, a kindergarten program held in the parklands of inner Melbourne. The theory behind it was great: nature play improves children’s wellbeing, social and emotional development, cognitive language and physical skills – a string of nice words that I definitely wanted for my daughter. But really I was mainly glad she was outside. No screens. No toys. No equipment. Just what she needed after two years of lockdowns. Three-year-old bush kinder was three hours every week. She went, armed with snacks, gumboots and rain pants. She wore a sticker with a phone number on her back in case she wandered off. (I was told this was a precaution and not something that was likely to happen.) She learned to use a camping toilet even though there was a toilet block with actual plumbing. And she went there rain, hail or shine, recording a new personal best for putting on a rain jacket (hood first, arms in, zip up) in every session. When the fundamentals were mastered, her group did trail walks, exploring the creek, looking at different animals, insects and plants, and observing how they change over the seasons. It was a big step-up the following year. Four-year-old bush kinder was seven and a half hours a week. Every session was an adventure. Angus got a bloody nose and Oscar was stung by a bee. Once Ranger Pete came to talk about fire safety. They built a campfire, learning to read the direction of the smoke before each child placed a stick on the fire. Her time outdoors has sparked a kind of curiosity, confidence and resilience that I had not expected. When she found a dead possum in our back yard, she hypothesised, as they did at bush kinder, what had happened. She was not perturbed by the discovery. Instead, she went looking for clues, concluding that it had been attacked by a naughty cat and not a watchful owl. She was certain that it was in fact a possum and not a rat or a mouse (because of its size). She said she would report it to Ranger Pete. Her confidence comes from being organised and prepared. The sticker on her back is a lesson in letting someone know where you are. When I forgot to put one on her she reminded me to do it. We checked the weather the night before every session and decided what to wear and pack together. On the eve of a 37C day, her dad and I weren’t sure if we should send her. She was only four. It wasn’t bootcamp. But we were assured by the teachers that the children learn to find shade and stay hydrated. We could call any time and parents whose child could benefit from an early pickup would be notified. So she went along with two frozen water bottles, watermelon and ice packs to keep her lunch cool. We got the call to pick her up an hour early. She had managed six hours. She didn’t love it. She was cross with me for taking so long to get her. But by the time bush kinder came around again, it was already forgotten. I feel incredibly lucky to have had this for her. Her program is considered and well planned. There are policies and controls covering emergency evacuation, dog awareness, snake awareness and more. I had not read any of them at the start but I have read them all now. She is kept safe while still being exposed to unpredictability. She starts school next year and there is a lot of talk of “school readiness”. Bush kinder hasn’t taught her numbers or letters but it has given her stories, experiences and life skills that will ground her for years to come. She is ready no matter what path she takes, whatever the weather may be. • Lucille Wong is a Melbourne writer and a mother of two | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'lifeandstyle/parents-and-parenting', 'society/children', 'lifeandstyle/family', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-education', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/health', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/australian-lifestyle', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/lucille-wong', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-22T15:00:13Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
education/2019/aug/10/learn-by-heart-why-your-passions-and-interests-should-decide-your-degree | Learn by heart: why your passions and interests should decide your degree | Alice Brazil-Burns studied theatre and performance at Warwick University because she was passionate about the stage. But after graduating, and working at a major film company, she decided to make a big change, and enrolled on a master’s in management at the London School of Economics. “I want to change the system in an organisation by working within it,” she says. “I don’t have the answers yet, and where I’m going to place myself, I’m not sure. But my theatre degree has given me all sorts of important skills: empathy, self-awareness, people skills, and studying how people think.” Like Brazil-Burns, the majority of graduates don’t necessarily go on to build a career within their degree subject. Prospect’s What do graduates do? report for 2018 uses Higher Education Statistics Agency data to give an insight into what graduates are doing six months after they leave uni. Unsurprisingly, the more vocational and specialist degrees lead to a narrower range of jobs – 74.8% of civil engineering graduates went into engineering and building roles, for example. But graduates in sciences and humanities courses took on a wider range of roles. Politics graduates, for example, took roles in business, finance and HR (22.8%), along with marketing, PR and sales (15.4%) and retail and catering (12.9%). Meanwhile, business, finance and HR was the third most popular choice for chemistry graduates (15.8%), after roles as science professionals (16.6%) and associate professionals and technicians (19.9%). So choose your degree by focusing on your passion, rather than worrying about your career, advises Chris Rea, a manager at graduate careers organisation Prospects. “Most degree courses nowadays are shot through with employability, whether you’re studying land management, history or chemistry. They do not exist in isolation,” he points out. “But degrees aren’t just about skills for the jobs market,” says Rea. “They’re about creating rounded people who lead fulfilling lives and who do productive work. A degree will equip you to be an adaptable, flexible worker who can take advantage of multiple opportunities.” There’s still a shortage of women in tech Shajida Akthar undertook a degree apprenticeship and gained her BSc in digital and technology solutions while at Accenture. She’s never felt any different from her male colleagues, she says. “If anything, I’ve felt empowered. I’ve never encountered any issues and I’ve made a success of my career in a male-dominated field.” But, despite the success of Akthar and her peers in the industry, there’s still a shortage of women in the tech sector. “Girls suggest that the male domination of the sector puts them off considering this as a career choice,” says Prof Jane Turner, a pro vice-chancellor for enterprise and business engagement at Teesside University, who also cites poor careers advice and a lack of female role models as deterrents. However, this shortage is also an opportunity for women to advance, sometimes more quickly, up the career ladder, she says. And the tech industry offers lots of interesting roles in areas such as artificial intelligence, information security, games development, network engineering and software programming. When it comes to courses, picking something you’re interested in is key, says Sue Black, professor of computer science at Durham University. “Think about what you like doing outside of tech. What are your hobbies? If you’re not sure, go for something more generic, like computer sciences.” Bootcamps and short training courses are also proving popular among young women who want to explore the tech world. Turner says that, although they have a role to play, they’re not a substitute for university. “A tech degree will build significant depth of knowledge, understanding and research capability that wouldn’t be achieved through an intensive boot camp, primarily focused upon developing coding or data science expertise.” This article was amended on 19 August 2019. An earlier version gave Professor Turner’s job title as ‘pro-vice chancellor for business’. | ['education/series/clearing-2019', 'money/graduates', 'education/careerseducation', 'education/engineeringgeneral', 'education/apprenticeships', 'education/series/degree-apprenticeships-in-focus', 'education/civilengineering', 'technology/engineering', 'education/mechanicalengineering', 'education/electronicsandelectricalengineering', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/lucy-jolin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-labs'] | education/series/degree-apprenticeships-in-focus | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-08-10T08:00:14Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2009/feb/06/alaska-arctic-commerical-fishing-bering | US regulators vote to ban commercial fishing in Arctic waters | Spurred by global warming concerns in the US Arctic, a federal fishery council yesterday established a moratorium on commercial seafood harvests in a vast zone off Alaska's northern coast. In a unanimous vote in Seattle, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council approved the plan in response to the dramatic retreat of summertime ice in Arctic waters. The plan covers a nearly 200,000-square-mile area stretching from the Bering Strait waters near Russia to the US maritime boundary with the Canadian Arctic. The plan will be forwarded to the US commerce department for final approval, and would be a boost to state department efforts to negotiate similar fishing closures off the Arctic coasts of Canada and the Russian Far East. There are currently no commercial harvests in the federal waters of the US Arctic, which stretch from 3 to as far as 200 miles offshore through the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. But many believe that pressures to fish those areas will increase in the years ahead if warming waters cause a migration there of pollock and other species that now sustain major harvests farther south in the Bering Sea. "The rate of change in the Arctic is fairly well understood," said David Benton, executive director of the Marine Conservation Alliance, which represents commercial fishing groups, processors and Alaska communities. "What is not understood is the way that it's going to affect the marine environment and the Arctic people." The council is a mix of federal, state and industry officials who help set the rules guiding north Pacific commercial harvests, which are the largest in North America. Their plan would not impose a permanent ban on commercial fishing. Fishing would be allowed only if additional surveys indicate harvests could be sustainable and not harm the broader marine ecosystem. "This is a precautionary approach," said Eric Olson, a native Alaskan who chairs the federal council. "It's protective. It lays out a framework for fisheries development in the Arctic." The summer ice pack retreated to its lowest level on record in 2007, and last summer marked the second-smallest ice pack. Climate scientists expect that global warming, caused by the buildup of greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere, will cause the melting of the summer ice pack in Arctic waters by about 2030. There have been relatively few surveys of fishery stocks in the US Arctic. The latest effort was last summer, when federal fisheries scientists in Seattle chartered a fishing vessel for a three-week cruise. The top species found in the survey included Arctic cod, a fish that is important for Arctic marine birds and mammals, and snow crab, according to Elizabeth Logerwell, the lead federal biologist. The survey nets also caught small amounts of pollock, Pacific cod and Bering flounder, three commercial fish Logerwell said were not noted in a 1977 survey. Small numbers of the species might have always inhabited the waters, or they may have migrated north in recent decades as summer ocean ice retreated. The plan's passage reflects an unusual consensus between the fishing industry and conservationists. Jim Ayers, vice president of the environmental group Oceana, called the plan a "model for management of the Arctic Ocean". He said he found common ground with industry officials in numerous late-night conversations fueled by coffee and whiskey shots. The plan also has garnered support from native Alaskans in the Arctic. They are wary of the impacts of a large-scale commercial harvest upon whales, seals and other marine life that support their subsistence harvests. But there is interest in the king crab that now congregate in federal waters off Kotzebue in north-west Alaska. If surveys indicate a sustainable harvest is possible, officials of the regional borough would like to leave that option open for a local fleet. State department officials say they already are discussing ocean conservation measures in other Arctic areas. | ['environment/fishing', 'world/arctic', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/news', 'us-news/alaska', 'type/article'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-02-06T16:27:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-11-14T17:43:05Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2019/dec/09/australia-risks-being-dumping-ground-for-cars-with-greenhouse-gas-1400-times-more-potent-than-co2 | Australia 'risks being dumping ground' for cars with greenhouse gas 1,400 times more potent than CO2 | Australia is at risk of becoming a dumping ground for cars pre-charged with a greenhouse gas 1,400 times more potent than carbon dioxide, industry groups warn. The culprit is refrigerant used in car air-conditioning systems known as HFC-134a, a gas first introduced to replace ozone-depleting gases that were phased out in the 90s. Since then, HFC-134a has been found to be a potent greenhouse gas, a discovery which has seen it banned in the EU and the US thanks the widespread availability of an alternative gas, HFO-1234yf. HFO-1234yf has no impact on the environment as a greenhouse gas, but is slightly more flammable under very specific circumstances. Though Australia was an early and enthusiastic adopter of international obligations such as the Montreal Protocol, which phased out ozone-depleting gases, it has yet to extend these regulations to include a ban on HFC-134a and similar gases with a high global warming potential. Instead the Australian government has maintained the status quo, relying on existing regulations under the Montreal Protocol to phase out the old stock of gas by the middle of next decade and the assumption that importing into the country new cars with the latest technology will naturally reduce use of the gas. As has been the case with CO2 emissions more broadly, this has not been borne out. A report released in September by the Department of the Environment said it would take until 2020 for HFC-134a to be phased out under existing arrangements, but also noted the expected transition to the cleaner gas has so far “not occurred”. The report especially noted that carmakers were using Australia as a dumping ground due to its lack of regulation. “Automakers appear content to continue to supply models with older generations of refrigerants to any markets that permit HFCs, while making HFO-charged models available where they are required to by law,” the report said. Last year Australia imported roughly 1.2m new cars, which added an additional 677 tonnes of HFC-134a to the country’s stocks, while another 707 tonnes was used to refill empty air-conditioning systems. These included cars such as the German-made Holden Commodore, and even electric vehicles from Tesla. Both companies were contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline. Last year, air-conditioning systems used in Australian cars released 1.34 megatonnes of CO2-equivalent last year into the atmosphere as they experienced general wear, road accidents or came to the end of their life. For a country that has seen CO2 emissions rise from its road transport fleet in recent years, banning the importation of cars charged with HFC-134a would be a quick – and cheap – way of dealing with the issue, but the environment minister, Sussan Ley, has so far remained non-committal on the issue. A ministerial spokesperson said use of HFC-134a is accounted for in the country of origin and, while the government is closely monitoring existing regulations to phase out HFC use over time, it will “consider other measures in industry sectors should the phase-down not proceed at the pace expected”. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “The Department of Environment and Energy will be meeting with motor vehicle manufacturers in the coming months to discuss their plans to move to low global warming potential refrigerants,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said the government intends to address the issue of HFC-134a use within electric vehicles as part of the electric vehicle strategy it is currently developing. While industry groups have welcomed the news, Ian Stangroome, president of the automotive air-conditioning technicians network Vasa, said Australia could do more to proactively expand its existing regulation to ban cars with HFC-134a. To do so would be a “free kick” for the government. These comments were echoed by the executive director of Refrigerants Australia, Greg Picker, who said the government needs to take “one more step”. “In automobile air-conditioning, the [current] strategy has not delivered,” Picker said. “We would like to see a limit – I see no reason to do anything different than the EU – of a global warming potential limit of 150 placed on car imports in the future.” “Existing legislation gives the Australian government capacity to put a limit in place. To use an analogy, we already have the tool, but the tool has not been taken out of the kit bag.” “You could knock 0.2 % off CO2 emissions and it’s basically free. You get 0.2% here, 0.2% there, that adds up to something.’ | ['environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'business/automotive-industry', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/royce-kurmelovs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2019-12-08T19:00:47Z | true | EMISSIONS |
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