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business/2023/jul/17/uk-investors-backtrack-support-climate-resolution-oil-firms-chevron-exxonmobil | UK investors backtrack on support for climate resolution at oil firms’ AGMs | Some of the UK’s largest investors have backtracked on their support for a shareholder resolution that would force the big oil companies to cut their carbon emissions, according to a campaign group. Asset managers at Legal & General, abrdn and Janus Henderson voted against the climate resolutions put forward by Follow This, a Dutch shareholder activist group, at the annual general meetings of the US oil companies Chevron and ExxonMobil this year, having voted in favour of them in previous years. Mark van Baal, the founder of Follow This, claimed that the investors had chosen to sacrifice climate action in favour of “short-term profits”, which have rocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Van Baal said: “This is a false dilemma: shareholders can enjoy dividends from oil and gas while oil majors invest these profits in renewables to drive down emissions at the same time. Taking short-term fossil fuel profits and addressing long-term climate risks are not mutually exclusive.” Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) said it rejected the claim that it had chosen short-term profits over its commitment to climate action. It said: “To the end of May 2023, LGIM had supported 70% of shareholder resolutions on climate, and will be voting against almost 300 company directors for not meeting our climate expectations. We are supportive of the basic principles of the Follow This proposal, but still have concerns about the text of the 2023 proposals.” A spokesperson for LGIM did not clarify the company’s specific concerns when approached. Follow This has targeted all leading oil and gas companies with a shareholder resolution calling on their boards to cut their emissions in line with the scale of reductions required by the Paris climate agreement. The 2015 accords call for all countries to limit their emissions in order to stop global temperatures rising by more than 1.5C above pre-industrialised levels by 2050. Many oil companies intend to increase the amount of oil and gas they produce until 2030. Andrew Mason, the head of active ownership at abrdn, said the investor had reservations about the implications of shareholder climate resolutions because they were raised separately from financial statements or annual report and accounts. Mason said: “This can sever the fundamental link between the climate and corporate strategy, risking a lack of robust governance procedures for all vital strategic decisions. Additionally, the full evaluation of climate strategies demands significant resource; over a short period, this could lead to asset managers outsourcing responsibilities for evaluation.” HSBC Asset Management was the only large UK investor to continue its backing of the Follow This resolution, Van Baal said. The asset manager voted in favour at the shareholder meetings for BP, Shell, France’s Total Energies, as well as Chevron and ExxonMobil. Van Baal said: “HSBC is the only true steward of the global economy in the UK top 10. Their peers enable most oil majors to continue to cause climate breakdown.” A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment. Janus Henderson did not respond to a request for comment. | ['business/financial-sector', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/oil', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2023-07-17T05:00:19Z | true | EMISSIONS |
uk/2012/sep/24/wet-weather-sweeps-across-uk | Wet weather sweeps across UK | Wild, wet weather has swept into the UK from the Atlantic bringing winds of up to 70mph and causing three deaths as roads turned treacherous and trees and branches were blown down. A woman from New Zealand was killed in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in south-west London on Sunday when 30mph gusts dislodged a large branch. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The other fatalities were at Crimpelsham in Norfolk where a woman and a toddler, both eastern European nationals living locally, died when the BMW in which they were passengers left the road and hit a tree. Warnings were issued of fiercer winds and the chance of flooding in 88 areas of the south-west, midlands and north-east. For once, the rough conditions have played the UK an even hand with miserable weather expected almost everywhere as at least four different fronts jostle their way across the country. The Meteorological Office's second most urgent warning level – amber for 'be prepared' – forms four lozenges on an overall pattern of yellow – 'be aware', which continues all day and into Tuesday. One front has moved from the south-west, which was given an "absolute deluge" overnight according to the Met Office, to Kent and Sussex where Liberal Democrat delegates at the party's conference are advised to use umbrellas – and the kind that won't be blown inside out. The other three 'be prepared' areas are moving from Wales into the Midlands, across the northern Pennines into North Yorkshire, Durham and Northumbria and from Northern Ireland across to Lancashire and Cumbria. Unsettled and often windy weather is expected to plague much of the country for the next fortnight before drier conditions return. Temperatures are predicted to be some consolation for all the wet, with little in the way of fierce cold and slightly warmer than average conditions expected by the second week in October. Tom Tobler, forecaster with MeteoGroup, predicted two-thirds of the average rainfall for the whole of September – 80mm (3.14ins) – could fall over southern Scotland and northern England on Monday and early on Tuesday, after an unusually dry month so far. He said: "It will be almost a month's rainfall in certain areas. It is certainly a lot of rain. There will be some flooding. I imagine the figure for total rainfall in the month will get up to the average tomorrow, if not above it." The Environment Agency's director of operations, David Jordan, said: "We are expecting flooding across the country into Monday and Tuesday. We strongly urge people to sign up to flood warnings, keep a close eye on local weather forecasts and be prepared for the possibility of flooding. We also ask that people stay safe, by staying away from swollen rivers and not attempting to drive through floodwater." Commuter rail services in the south-west have been disrupted with trains to London cancelled as sections of track were hit by flooding near Exeter and Tiverton in Devon. The main A30 and A390 roads have been badly affected by the sheer quantity of rain that swept tons of clay and soil from fields on to the A390 at St Ive. Train travellers were stranded for two hours in the Bristol area between the Severn Tunnel and Bristol Parkway station because of flooding in a tunnel. Flooding also rendered the line between Exeter St Davids and Taunton impassable. Bus services were laid on but struggled to get through flooded roads. Further north, there were rail delays between Rhyl and Chester. Rail services were also being badly affected between Chester and Crewe, Hereford and Shrewsbury and the Central Wales line from Swansea and Shropshire. Several schools were closed in Shropshire while in Herefordshire firefighters in boats had to rescue stranded motorists from their cars. By lunchtime Avon fire and rescue service had received more than 200 calls relating to flooding. Police forces urged motorists to take care. A spokesperson for the Avon and Somerset force said drivers should only venture out if they really had to: "We are warning motorists to take particular care as they travel today following heavy rainfall in the area," the spokesperson said. "There have been reports of spray and surface water across Avon and Somerset. Please allow extra time for your journey and consider if you really need to travel this morning. If you do, motorists are reminded to avoid going through deep water – a small number of motorists have already become stranded in their vehicles." Other areas particularly badly hit included the low-lying Somerset Levels, parts of Herefordshire and Dorset. Roads in parts of south Wales were also badly affected. Fire crews were called to help pump out flood water in Monmouth. A lifeboat from Rye in Sussex went to the aid of a fishing boat that was swamped shortly after leaving the harbour on Monday morning. Other fishing crews helped the rescue and the boat was secured with no injuries. . On the east Yorkshire coast a survey has shown that annual erosion of 1.7 metres (5.5ft) each year has increased in the last six months to almost 7 metres (22ft) in places, probably because of the level of rainfall destabilising the soil. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/met-office', 'type/article', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'profile/martinwainwright', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-09-24T13:20:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2023/sep/25/gareth-davies-hails-warren-gatland-for-bringing-feelgood-factor-back-to-wales | Gareth Davies hails Warren Gatland for bringing feelgood factor back to Wales | It is just four months since Wales lost 264 caps’ worth of Test experience in a single day and yet, somehow, they have overcome that disastrous preparation to become the first team to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Warren Gatland’s magic touch seemed absent on his return as Wales coach during a disastrous Six Nations campaign marred by strike threats, a record defeat by Scotland and a regional game on the brink of collapse. When Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric then retired on the same day midway through the World Cup buildup, it seemed that Welsh rugby was staring into the abyss. But Gatland has shown that when it comes to World Cups, no one is better at getting a team up to speed – not even Eddie Jones, whose Australia side Wales thumped 40-6 in Lyon to all but end the Wallabies’ hopes of reaching the quarter-finals. Despite the prospect of a first group stage exit for Australia, Jones maintains the backing of his players, but it is nothing compared to the unyielding loyalty shown to Gatland after another miraculous turnaround Gareth Davies, the scrum-half, is one of those who has been a beneficiary of the 60-year-old’s return, re-establishing himself as first choice in the No 9 jersey. He scored the opening try in Lyon after three minutes and after the game explained how Gatland has revitalised the side. “We had lots of changes, coaches, and that’s just made a difference. We are all back to where we want to be because of this management,” Davies said. “We are fighting for each other, playing for each other and the environment is good. We’re enjoying our time off the pitch, it’s a good bunch of boys here. It shows on the pitch. “Warren has just got his way and it works for me and it obviously works for everyone else in the squad.” It is not just the players who have appreciated Gatland’s return, with the forwards coach, Jonathan Humphreys, having worked under both the New Zealander and his predecessor Wayne Pivac. Humphreys said: “He’s just taken us back to the DNA of this team: be fit, work hard. That’s what everybody hangs their hat on; we believe that we work harder than anybody else and that’s a powerful tool. We’re becoming a very tough team to beat.” While Gatland’s Wales can now start to dream of a third semi-final in four World Cup campaigns, Australia and Eddie Jones are relying on a favour from both Georgia and Portugal if their own stay in France is to be extended. With a report that Jones had interviewed for the Japan national team job weeks before the World Cup appearing in the Sydney Morning Herald on the day of the crucial match against Wales, the heat is very much on the former England coach. But despite that, his players say Jones is still the man to lead the side over a crucial four-year period for Australian rugby, with a Lions tour in 2025 followed by hosting the World Cup two years later. Will Skelton, the Wallabies captain, has missed the last two games, losses to Fiji and Wales, through injury. But he says Jones has the vision to turn things around. “We have full trust in him. He’s got the full support of the group. I think his long-term vision and what he wants Australian rugby to be back to, I think that’s a positive. “The way he is around the group, you see in the media he has his persona but when you see him one-to-one, in front of the team, how he speaks, how he directs, the boys follow him, and I do as well. “He is a fantastic coach with a massive rugby IQ. We’re learning every day when we’re working with him. It’s one of those things, he simplifies the game for us.” At 31, Skelton is aware that he may not be back on this stage in four years’ time but, crucially, Jones has also received the support of some of the young core of the Wallabies squad, starting with standout loosehead prop Angus Bell, 22. “Eddie’s our coach, what he’s done with our team already has been awesome. This performance wasn’t good enough but that’s on the players, that’s on us.” Where Australia’s players were keen to share some of the responsibility for their meek displays in France, the overriding response from the Welsh contingent was to credit Gatland for Wales’s renaissance. Given their transformation, you can see why. | ['sport/rugby-world-cup-2023', 'sport/wales-rugby-union-team', 'sport/rugby-world-cup', 'sport/rugby-union', 'campaign/email/the-breakdown', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/wales-rugby-union-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-09-25T18:22:58Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/may/18/a-third-of-worlds-nature-reserves-severely-degraded-by-human-activity | A third of world's nature reserves severely degraded by human activity | A third of global protected areas such as national parks have been severely degraded by human activities in what researchers say is a stunning reality check of efforts by nations to stall biodiversity loss. A University of Queensland-led study, published on Friday in the prestigious academic journal Science, analysed human activity across 50,000 protected areas worldwide. Researchers found more than 90% of conservation sites, such as national parks and nature reserves, showed some signs of degradation from human activities including logging, mining, tourism and urbanisation and a third – or 6m square kilometres of protected land – had been severely modified. The worst damage was found in highly populated parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, but researchers said there was significant degradation in all nations, including wealthy and less-populated countries such as Australia. •Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning James Watson, the paper’s senior author and a conservation scientist at the University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the results were alarming and showed countries were failing to protect biodiversity even in places specifically identified for that purpose. “What we found was massive amounts of high-level human infrastructure, for example mining activity, industrial logging activity, industrial agriculture, townships, roads and energy,” he said. “These are the places that nations have said they are setting aside for nature’s needs not human needs. “So for us to find such a significant amount of human infrastructure in places governments have set aside for safe-guarding biodiversity is staggering.” He said there were some glaring examples in Australia, such as Barrow Island off the Western Australian coast, a nature reserve that is home to 13 mammal species and the Gorgon gas plant. “Some of these species are found nowhere else on the planet and yet we allow significant human infrastructure to occur inside these boundaries,” Watson said. “Australia should be setting the standard that other nations should look to and yet we are one of the worst behaved of the lot.” Martin Taylor, conservation scientist at WWF Australia, said the Turnbull government’s proposal to downgrade high-level protections in sensitive marine parks, including critical waters around the Great Barrier Reef, was another example of industry being given precedence over conservation. He said there was also a low level of public awareness of the extent to which a range of industries had been able to encroach on protected areas. “The public just aren’t aware that these kinds of things are going on and we hope this paper builds awareness of it,” he said. “The community expects a national park to be reserved for wildlife.” In Australia alone, more than 1,800 plants, animals and ecological communities are known to be at risk of extinction. Conservationists and scientists have described the situation confronting Australia’s vulnerable wildlife as a “national disgrace” and the systems that are supposed to protect it as broken. | ['environment/conservation', 'environment/national-parks', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-05-17T18:00:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/nov/14/plastic-substitute-made-of-fish-waste-hauls-in-uk-designer-dyson-award | Plastic substitute from fish waste hauls in Dyson award for UK designer | A bioplastic made of organic fish waste that would otherwise end up in landfill – with the potential to replace plastic in food and drink packaging – has landed its UK designer a prestigious international award and £30,000 prize. Lucy Hughes, 24, a graduate in product design from the University of Sussex, scooped the James Dyson award for her biodegradable and compostable material known as MarinaTex. Hughes sought to tackle the problems of environmentally harmful single-use plastics and inefficient waste streams by harnessing fish offcuts to create an eco-friendly plastic alternative. Global figures estimate that 40% of plastic produced for packaging is used once and discarded. Hughes’s entry had already clinched the top prize in the UK awards, but on Thursday it was announced that it had beaten 1,078 others from 28 different countries. The annual award scheme is run by the James Dyson Foundation, designer Sir James Dyson’s charitable trust. It challenges young people to “design something that solves a problem” and is open to students and recent graduates in product design, industrial design and engineering. Dyson said: “Young engineers have the passion, awareness and intelligence to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Ultimately, we decided to pick the idea the world could least do without. MarinaTex elegantly solves two problems: the ubiquity of single-use plastic and fish waste.” The winning product is translucent and strong, making it suitable for single-use packaging such as sandwich wrappers and bags, and will break down in home compost or food waste bins within four to six weeks. Hughes said: “Plastic is an amazing material and as a result, we have become too reliant on it. It makes no sense that we’re using plastic for products that have a life cycle of less than a day. I’m excited to have the chance to undertake further research and development to explore all possible uses.” Another UK entrant is one of the two runners-up: Anna Bernbaum, of the Dyson Engineering School, Imperial College, London, whose AI-enabled wearable device can help monitor asthmatic symptoms and predict triggers. Over time, the data harvested by her product Afflo can be reviewed by medical professionals remotely to refine treatment plans. The other runner-up is Ryan Tilley of RMIT University in Melbourne for his Gecko Traxx, a portable manual wheelchair accessory that gives users access to beaches by stopping wheels from sinking into the sand. The simple clip can be used by those with limited dexterity to help fit special tyres to their wheelchair without having to get out. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'technology/james-dyson', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-11-14T06:00:31Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/blog/2009/jul/22/message-copenhagen | Send a message to Copenhagen | Adam Vaughan | This December, governments meet in Copenhagen to thrash out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that will – hopefully – make a historic commitment to cut international greenhouse gas emissions. Governments have already started setting out their stalls. Environmental campaigners have called on world leaders to attend. But what about you? What message do you have for the environment ministers and officials deciding the world's fate this December? Get your voice heard and share your message by adding it to our new Flickr group, A Message to Copenhagen. We want to collect as many photos from Guardian readers and Flickr users as possible, to show governments how people feel about the Copenhagen talks and climate change. We'll feature the best here on guardian.co.uk and maybe in the print version of the Guardian too. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-07-22T12:17:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/cif-green/2010/jan/18/climate-change-himalayan-glaciers | A mistake over Himalayan glaciers should not melt our priorities | Bob Ward | Climate science has suffered another blow to its credibility after it was revealed that a claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that Himalayan glaciers will probably disappear altogether in the next 25 years was wrong. It is only a matter of time before the lobbyists who peddle climate change denial for their own political ends start to overstate the significance of this episode, and try to link it to the controversy surrounding the email messages hacked from the University of East Anglia. The environmental organisation WWF has admitted that a report on the impacts of climate change on glaciers in India, China and Nepal, which it published in 2005, included an erroneous reference to a report by the Working Group on Himalayan Glaciology of the International Commission for Snow and Ice, indicating that it stated "glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 is very high". In fact, nothing like this quote appears in the cited document, and the magazine 'New Scientist' has reported that one of its articles from 1999 was the source. The WWF has now issued a statement admitting that its report contained "erroneous information" and has apologised for causing confusion. Unfortunately, the error has been repeated by other authors and included in scientific papers. It was also referenced in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007: "Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate." What does this episode show? It is clear that WWF made a mistake which should have been picked up while its report was being prepared for publication. Subsequent authors should have checked the primary source and identified the error earlier. The IPCC in particular should have shown far more scepticism about the extraordinary suggestion that glaciers in the Himalayas, which currently cover more than 30,000 sq km, would probably disappear within three decades. The first volume of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, which reviewed the physical science basis for climate change, was much more cautious about the potential effects, noting only that "glaciers in the Asian high mountains have generally shrunk at varying rates". Perhaps the 2035 prediction would have been challenged sooner if it had been repeated in drafts of the more widely read Technical Summary, the Summary for Policymakers or the Synthesis Report, rather than appearing just once on page 493 of Chapter 10 (pdf) of the second lengthy volume on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. This is a regrettable mistake, revealing that there is room for improving the IPCC's review processes. But this does not change the strong evidence that many glaciers around the world, including in the Himalayas, are melting in response to the warming of the Earth. The likely fate of Himalayan glaciers is hugely important because they are the source for many major rivers in Asia. Yet the World Glacier Monitoring Service pointed out in a recent report that the Himalayas are "strongly underrepresented" among glacier measurements and records. Let us hope that this controversy leads to more and better research on understanding how climate change is affecting the world's highest mountain range and what potential consequences there are for the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people who depend on them. Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science. | ['environment/glaciers', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/mountains', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'tone/comment', 'environment/wwf', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'type/article', 'profile/bob-ward'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2010-01-18T17:25:23Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2019/aug/23/westminster-recycling-rates-and-reducing-waste | Westminster’s recycling rates and reducing waste | Letters | Your excellent article on recycling (Dirty little secret, Weekend, 17 August) rightly highlighted Westminster’s low recycling rates, an issue that gives my colleagues and me sleepless nights. With nearly a million people coming into our city on an average weekday, Westminster is confronted with unique challenges, but we cannot shirk our responsibility. As a city, we are addicted to plastic and, much like any addict, it can be hard to face up to the scale of a problem: 100m plastic bottles are discarded in Westminster each year, and while we sit towards the bottom of the recycling league table, our latest survey shows that 86% of our city’s residents say they recycle. That statistic is telling – revealing the gap between our perception and the reality. It is this gap that we must close if we are to significantly improve recycling rates and reduce waste. Sadly it’s true that much of our household rubbish is sent to energy from waste. However, I want to stress that all the waste collected in our green bins is sorted and recycled, and we need residents, businesses and visitors to help out by recycling. It just takes one or two of the wrong items to contaminate an entire bag of recycling – a message we desperately need to get across. We can and will do more to reduce waste – in particular providing clearer, better information – but we need everyone to do their bit, too. Cllr Tim Mitchell Westminster city council cabinet member for environment and city management • Rather than worrying about how to recycle Amazon’s new plastic envelopes (Outrage at Amazon’s unrecyclable plastic bags, 21 August), why not post them back to Amazon’s UK head office and make it their problem? Phil Gyford London • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'technology/amazon', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'uk/uk', 'tone/letters', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-08-23T15:40:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2013/oct/27/publishing-letters-climate-change-deniers | The readers' editor on… publishing letters from climate change deniers | Chris Elliott | Should news organisations give climate change deniers the opportunity to make the bald assertion in the letters pages and in comment threads that climate change is not caused by man? One major newspaper has come down very firmly on the side against publishing letters in that vein. The Los Angeles Times made the announcement on 5 October. Three days later Paul Thornton, the paper's letters editor, explained the background to the decision. He wrote that he gets many letters from those who deny global warming, and went on to explain that he was no expert, but had to rely on scientists who "have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change … said it was 95% certain that we fossil-fuel-burning humans are driving global warming. The debate right now isn't whether this evidence exists (clearly, it does) but what this evidence means for us. "Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published. Saying 'there's no sign humans have caused climate change' is not stating an opinion, it's asserting a factual inaccuracy." The letters editor of the Sydney Morning Herald has come to a similar conclusion. Where should the Guardian stand, knowing that any debate on its position will elicit, quite reasonably, someone quoting CP Scott stating that "the voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard"? Graham Readfearn, who writes a blog hosted by the Guardian about the environment, climate change, climate change deniers and lobbyists, believes that Scott was talking about the delivery of news rather than the publishing of people's opinions. He said: "I wonder how the paper would treat a letter from someone who wrote that there's no evidence that vaccinations are good for children's health, or that smoking might not cause cancer? These views are easily found on the web, but I suspect they'd go straight in the bin at the Guardian. "Saying that, I suppose this all depends on whether the paper sees the letters page as a place that should reflect the views of the readers at any given time, regardless of what they are, or whether there's an element of fact-checking woven into that." Guardian moderators say there are no rules against comments by climate change deniers as such but they take a very strict line when dealing with threads in the environment section as comments which deny climate change can be used to derail threads and cause discussions to go off topic. Sometimes the identity of a person expressing an opinion is as interesting as the thing being expressed. If a member of the royal family wrote a letter denying that climate change exists the Guardian would almost certainly run it. Nigel Willmott, the Guardian letters editor said: "We are the letters page, we're there to reflect our readers' views in all their diversity, so we consider every letter. But there are views that it's hard to think of any circumstance in which we would run them – from racist opinions and Holocaust deniers, to those claiming to have been implanted with listening devices by the secret services (more correspondents than you might think!). "We receive few, if any, letters denying outright that climate change is happening – occasionally someone pointing to recent years where the rate of increase has plateaued. "But there are some who accept human causes but question the anti-fossil fuel strategies linked to that. If you believe in a Popperian [after Sir Karl Popper] framework of science that sees all scientific truths as provisional but not arbitrary, then I think you should never absolutely rule out views heretical to the scientific orthodoxy, even if cautious to give them space. "So I would be unhappy about an absolute ban on those who might be grouped together as climate change deniers, but would need to see a strong case to run anything from them (and know something about what commercial interests they might be linked to)." I think that's a sound policy which reflects the accretion of evidence. | ['commentisfree/series/open-door', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'media/theguardian', 'media/national-newspapers', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'media/newspapers', 'media/media', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'profile/chris-elliott', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2013-10-27T19:00:06Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
technology/2020/nov/19/uk-unveils-national-cyber-force-of-hackers-to-target-foes-digitally | UK unveils National Cyber Force of hackers to target foes digitally | Britain has unveiled its new National Cyber Force, a unit of offensive hackers that can target hostile states such as China and Russia, terror groups and even paedophiles by disrupting their online communications. The NCF, controlled by the spy agency GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), has been secretly up and running since April with several hundred hackers based in Cheltenham and other military sites around the country. Little is known about the agency’s activities, but it is understood the bulk of its early operational work has been to disrupt the communications of those deemed to pose a threat to the UK, for example terrorists engaged in an attack plot. Boris Johnson told the Commons on Thursday that the NCF combines “our intelligence agencies and service personnel” and is “already operating in cyberspace against terrorism, organised crime and hostile state activity”. The idea is to bring together the scattered offensive hacking capabilities that the UK claims to have had for a decade – and rapidly increase the size of the operation. The NCF plans to increase its staffing around tenfold to 3,000 over the next decade. An estimated 60 countries have developed offensive hacking capabilities, with Iran and North Korea among the most advanced nations with a track record of targeting the UK, as well as state-sponsored hackers linked to intelligence agencies from Moscow and Beijing. Britain has rarely talked about its offensive hacking capability, and remains reluctant to do so despite the existence of the new unit. But in 2018, GCHQ said it had conducted “a major offensive cyber campaign” against Islamic State. At the time its director, Jeremy Fleming, said the operations had made “a significant contribution to coalition efforts to suppress Daesh [Isis] propaganda, hindered their ability to coordinate attacks, and protected coalition forces on the battlefield”. Other techniques used by the NCF include trying to change behaviour to make it impossible for threats to proceed or dissuading the person behind the threat from carrying their plan out – or simply degrading physical communications systems. Insiders prefer to focus on their work in countering Isis and other terror groups, but it is understood the NCF can work if necessary against Russia or China. It has also been busy disrupting online paedophile and other sexual abuse networks, regarded as being some of the most sophisticated cyber actors around. Cyber operations will have to be approved by a minister, typically either the foreign or defence secretary, depending on the nature of the target and the exact assets required. Insiders said it would operate within existing legal controls, and would be subject to oversight from parliament’s intelligence and security committee. But the intention is that it will operate largely in secret. Its first director, a man, has not been publicly named but it is understood he has been with GCHQ for more than 20 years, often working closely with the MoD. The NCF had been in the planning stage for a couple of years, struggling to get off the ground amid bureaucratic turf wars. Some Whitehall insiders have questioned whether GCHQ’s intelligence culture and the MoD’s more hierarchical military culture will work effectively together. | ['technology/cyberwar', 'politics/defence', 'politics/politics', 'uk/gchq', 'uk/ministry-of-defence', 'uk/uksecurity', 'world/espionage', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-sabbagh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-11-19T18:48:35Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/dec/12/peak-meat-climate-crisis-livestock-meat-dairy | Reach ‘peak meat’ by 2030 to tackle climate crisis, say scientists | Livestock production needs to reach its peak within the next decade in order to tackle the climate emergency, scientists have warned. They are calling for governments in all but the poorest countries to set a date for “peak meat” because animal agriculture is a significant and fast-growing source of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle and sheep emit large amounts of methane while forests are destroyed to create pasture and grow the grains that are fed to intensively reared animals. The world’s scientists agree that huge amounts of carbon dioxide will have to be removed from the atmosphere to limit global heating to 1.5C. More than 80% of farmland is used for livestock but it produces just 18% of food calories. Reducing meat and dairy, and eating plant-based diets instead, would free up land to be returned to natural forest. Researchers say that is the best option currently available for storing large amounts of carbon. The researchers emphasise that such changes to global agriculture are only one part of the urgent action needed to address the climate crisis. Slashing fossil fuel use is vital, as is action in other sectors, such as transport. In a letter to the Lancet Planetary Health journal, the researchers call on countries to “declare a timeframe for peak livestock”, after which production would not increase. Negotiators are at a UN climate summit in Madrid, hoping to make progress towards ambitious new climate pledges in 2020. “Countries should be looking for peak livestock within the next 10 years,” said Helen Harwatt, a fellow at Harvard Law School in the US and lead author of the letter. “This is because we need steep and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as we are reaching dangerous temperature tipping points.” The production of meat, milk and eggs has increased from 758m tonnes in 1990 to 1,247m tonnes in 2017, research shows. “Food demand is expected to increase massively as our population expands toward 10 billion,” said Prof Matthew Betts at Oregon State University, US, and another author of the letter. “Reducing human demand for resource-intensive animal protein would considerably slow the rate of global forest loss, with huge benefits for biodiversity and ecosystem services, in addition to carbon storage.” The letter is supported by more than 50 leading experts, including Prof Pete Smith, at the University of Aberdeen, UK, a senior author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on land use and climate change, published in August. “Ruminant meat is 10 to 100 times more damaging to the climate than plant-based food,” he said. “As a planet, we need to transition away from a dependence on livestock, just as we need to to transition away from fossil fuels, if we are to have any chance of hitting the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Livestock numbers need to peak very soon and thereafter decline substantially.” Smith said it was up to individual governments to set their own targets for peak livestock. “However, given the urgency of the climate emergency, this will need to be over the coming decade for sure,” he added. “But the transition will need to be managed fairly to allow citizens to change diets and for farmers, producers and agri-food chains to diversify. In poor countries, where over 800 million people are still undernourished, priorities obviously differ.” Other supporters of the letter include Prof Sir Ian Boyd, until recently the chief scientific adviser to the UK government on environment, food and farming, and Walter Willett at Harvard University, who led the work on the first science-based planetary health diet, published this year. Of the world’s mammals, 60% ,by weight, are livestock, 36% are humans and only 4% are wild mammals, according to 2018 research by Prof Ron Milo, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who also backed the letter. Harwatt said the changes needed to achieve peak meat were feasible, as farming could change faster than other sectors where infrastructure, such as power stations, had lifespans of decades. She recognised that much lower levels of meat consumption required significant changes in behaviour but said: “I see many more vegan options today [in the UK] that were not there even a year ago. “We’re fully aware that our call requires large-scale change across society and isn’t something that can be achieved overnight or without challenges.” Harwatt said climate change would have huge impacts on society, and passing peak meat would help limit the damage, as well as reduce ill-health and help wildlife. “This isn’t hardship,” she said. | ['environment/meat-industry', 'environment/farming', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/food', 'food/meat', 'food/food', 'business/fooddrinks', 'business/business', 'environment/farm-animals', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'lifeandstyle/vegetarianism', 'lifeandstyle/veganism', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'global-development/global-development', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-12T06:21:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2015/dec/16/kitchen-gadgets-review-oyster-shucker-lady-violet-crawley-utensils | Kitchen gadgets review: oyster shucker – the Lady Violet Crawley of utensils | What? The oyster shucker (£37, amazon.co.uk) is a steel spike attached to mounted fulcrum. An oyster positioned in the slotted baseplate may be wedged open by applying leveraged force. Why? Some people take ages to come out of their shell. Well? In marine cuisine, as in CIA interviews, brute violence is acknowledged as the only way a subject will open up. But choices, choices. Trying to split an oyster with a knife can be like jimmying the doors of the Pentagon with a library card, only more dangerous. Meet the oyster shucker. “Shucker” is a great, 1950s-sounding word. It calls to mind a flash delinquent grifting some square from Nowheresville before squealing off in a hot-rod. “I’m splittin, shucker!” Sadly, this doesn’t share that sense of fun. The picture on the box isn’t a glossy photo or gauche CGI, it’s a pen-and-ink sketch of the product. The snootiness jumps out at you, like a flasher in a vintage Burberry mac. The instructions on opening oysters are equally affected. “It is important to probe the three sides for the true dividing line,” it begins mystically, like an excerpt from the I Ching. “As soon as the shell halves shift ... insert a common screwdriver into the opening.” First off, “common screwdriver” delights me – we’re clearly dealing with the Lady Violet Crawley of kitchen gadgets. Secondly, oysters are luxurious. They’re famed aphrodisiacs, full of protein, and said to resemble a lady’s fandango, if your lady is a rock-like, calcified structure who may contain a pearl. (Gentlemen, they all contain pearls.) If you produce oysters, you’re going for a mood, one that will only be undermined by pulling out a screwdriver. Crowbarring a Philips into the mollusc of love is not a suave task. And there are other problems. I’ve got my hands on some gnarly, Jurassic-looking oysters, with no clear dividing line. The nook in the board leaves little manoeuverability to align the pike, so keeping my eye on the prise isn’t easy. Moreover, there’s a risk that splitting the bivalve on its side, as advised, will spill its precious juices. Eventually, I give up and ram the spike into the hinge of the oyster, and use my bare hands to crack it open, none of which is on the instructions. Here’s a pearl of wisdom: don’t be a shucker. Redeeming features? Looks like an artisanal trepanning machine. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? 20,000 leagues under the sea. 1/5 | ['lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget', 'food/oysters', 'food/seafood', 'food/shellfish', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-12-16T09:15:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
film/2009/aug/05/heath-ledger-music-video | Heath Ledger's anti-whaling music video released online | A music video directed by Heath Ledger, which illuminates the late actor's passion for animal rights and his close creative relationship with director Terry Gilliam, has been released online. Ledger was 28 when he died of an accidental drug overdose in January 2008. His last film, Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, will be released in the UK in October. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law stepped in to shoot the scenes Ledger did not complete. The video, for King Rat, a rare single by American indie band Modest Mouse, was also left unfinished and has been completed by Gilliam and a collective of directors and artists who call themselves the Masses. The six-minute animation imagines a world in which whales are the hunters, scouring the seas for human prey. Full of Gilliam-esque flourishes (there are even trumpets appearing from the clouds), the video started out as a collaboration between Ledger and Daniel Auber, a concept designer he met while working on another Gilliam film, 2005's The Brothers Grimm. The pair worked on the promo while Ledger was in London filming his acclaimed, Oscar-winning performance as the Joker in last year's The Dark Knight. "We had a lot of fun making this video, but obviously it is a serious video," Auber, who was primarily responsible for the animation, told the Times today. "Heath was very interested in defending the lives of whales and dolphins ... So it was very important for him to make a video that would make an impact. We needed to have the shock factor because if it wasn't dark it wouldn't be impressive, and if it wasn't impressive nobody would think about what we are doing to wildlife in the ocean." The video has now been made available for download through iTunes, with all proceeds in the first month going to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. | ['film/heathledger', 'film/terry-gilliam', 'music/modestmouse', 'film/film', 'music/music', 'environment/whaling', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/paulmacinnes'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-08-05T13:53:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2009/nov/13/stephen-fry-last-chance-to-see | Stephen Fry brings spit, wit and tweets to conservation group | The planet's most endangered wildlife and plants could be about to benefit from the Twitter effect that powered the Iranian oppositon and forced the Daily Mail to remove advertising from a controversial column. Yesterday Stephen Fry, the British actor, writer and tweeter with 1m followers, was elected vice-president to the conservation group Fauna and Flora International (FFI), which campaigns to protect threatened species and their habitats. Fry has tweeted previously about FFI's work and presented the BBC series Last Chance to See about endangered animals from mountain gorillas to komodo dragons. He was already an ambassador for FFI and is also president of The Great Fen Project to convert arable fields back to fenland in East Anglia "In the big sweet shop of conservation charities and NGOs, you're just drawn to the one that makes your salival juices go and FFI was the one for me," said Fry. "I just like their approach. It's about understanding the link between the people whose habitat is under review because that's where the animals and plants that need saving are. It's about understanding that if there is a future in conservation, it's very holistic." FFI chief executive officer Mark Rose said he was "overjoyed" to have Fry as a vice-president: "He truly is a national treasure and his support is invaluable for raising awareness of the importance of our conservation work." Fauna and Flora International's work involves conserving habitats for everything from animals such as Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys and cao vit gibbons to central Asian apples. The organisation's other vice-presidents include Sir David Attenborough, Charlotte Uhlenbroek and Lord Browne of Madingley. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'culture/stephen-fry', 'media/media', 'tone/news', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-11-13T13:12:52Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2016/jan/07/edf-selling-3bn-stake-uk-nuclear-business-reactors-hinkley-point-c | EDF considers selling €3bn stake in UK nuclear business to help fund reactors | EDF is considering the sale of a €3bn (£2.2bn) stake in its British nuclear business in a bid to raise cash for new Hinkley Point reactors. Possible buyers would be state-owned Chinese companies, who are already committed partners on the £18bn Somerset project. EDF could unveil details of a sell-off plan on 16 February, when it is scheduled to release annual financial figures and is expected to give a final investment decision on building Britain’s first new reactors for 20 years. The French daily, Les Echos, reported on Thursday that EDF may reduce its stake in the eight existing nuclear reactors it owns from 80% to 51% by bringing in a new investor as part of a wider €6bn disposal programme. Industry sources told the Guardian that the possible sell off was only one of a number of different options that were under consideration as the group looked at financing Hinkley Point C and other projects. They said it was still likely EDF would give the go ahead to Hinkley next month even though it did not have all the financing in place. The project is estimated to cost £18bn, according to EDF, though the European Union has warned it could go as high as £24bn. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, already has a 20% holding but has made clear in the past that it does not want a larger commitment to nuclear, and declined to participate in the Hinkley newbuild scheme. The entire existing nuclear fleet, made up of advanced gas reactors such as those at Hinkley Point B in Somerset and Dungeness B in Kent, have a book value of €9bn. Chinese firms have already agreed to take a one-third stake in the Hinkley project and are keen to build their own new reactors at Bradwell, another site currently used by EDF in Essex. EDF struggled to interest anyone else in the Hinkley scheme, which many in the City have deemed over-expensive, so the Chinese would seem first in line to buy into the rest of the EDF nuclear business if it comes up for grabs. EDF is also said by Les Echos to be considering disposing of a half stake in the Constellation Energy nuclear group in the US, plus a a similar option to ditch its 50% holding in power transmission business RTE. Over the last six months the company’s chief executive, Jean-Bernard Lévy, has made clear he is reviewing various parts of the business in a bid to pay for a range of new commitments and rising debt levels. EDF has been pressured by the government to buy a stake in its ailing engineering partner, Areva, and must set aside at least €55bn to upgrade its huge fleet of French reactors following safety concerns raised by the Fukushima accident in Japan. Environmentalists opposed to EDF’s new building plans in Britain believe the company may yet be forced to abandon Hinkley Point C because of a European legal challenge against the state aid promised by the UK. | ['business/edf', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/centrica', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/utilities', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/terrymacalister'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-01-07T18:48:27Z | true | ENERGY |
society/2005/jan/03/internationalaidanddevelopment.indianoceantsunamidecember20043 | Starving islanders kidnap officials | A desperate group of starving survivors in one of the tsunami-hit Nicobar islands kidnapped the island's top civilian official and its police chief in protest at the inadequate relief operation, it emerged yesterday. The survivors from Great Nicobar Island spent four days without food before trekking through the jungle to the wrecked headquarters settlement at Campbell Bay. When they arrived they discovered the island's assistant commissioner and deputy assistant of police eating a plate of biryani, witnesses said. The crowd of Punjabi settlers took the men hostage, demanding that they provide help to the hundreds of islanders who were starving in the jungle. "The assistant commissioner was eating biryani in his guesthouse," one witness, Lilly Ommen, said. "The men arrived and pointed out that they were starving. They also said there were people stuck in the forest with nothing, as well as many dead bodies." Mrs Ommen, who is now in a church-run refugee camp in the island's capital, Port Blair, said the group had survived after finding a sack of rice floating in the sea. They had made their way to Campbell Bay with a group of survivors by jumping over crocodile-infested canals. "I'm very angry," Suresh, 22, a welder from Great Nicobar Island, added. "We saw these people eating biryani. But we had nothing but rice soaked in saltwater." The assistant commissioner was released after promising to provide more food. The kidnapping came amid mounting criticism of the Indian relief operation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where as many as 20,000 people have died. According to aid agencies very little aid has reached the people who need it, with some island communities still waiting for help. Delhi has so far refused all offers of foreign assistance to the islands. A group of aid workers from Oxfam who managed to reach Little Andaman Island yesterday described conditions there as appalling. They also said the local administration in Port Blair had made it virtually impossible for them to join the relief effort. "The conditions are terrible. People are living in the open. They don't have a roof," Shaheen Nilofer, Oxfam's east India programme manager, said. "There are acute problems with water and sanitation. People have the right to receive humanitarian assistance. Who are they [the local administration] to decide we will take assistance from there and not from there? More people are going to die." The Indian government says its rescue operation across the 435-mile long archipelago has been hampered by the islands' remoteness, and by the fact that pontoons and jetties have been washed away. On Great Nicobar, the tsunami and subsequent landslides have destroyed the island's only road. "All the small boats have been destroyed. We urgently need boats with metal bottoms," Hoslo Jiwa, an aid worker, said, after touring Car Nicobar, the island worst affected by the disaster, on Saturday. "You really need teams to hack their way through the jungle or use these small boats. On the really remote islands, God knows what is happening. They have only made aerial surveys and dropped packages." The local administration in Port Blair puts the death toll across the 572-island archipelago at more than 3,000. But aid agencies say that figure is based on out-of-date voters' lists, and fails to take into account the thousands of illegal migrants living on the islands who are now missing. They say that on Car Nicobar Island alone, which was 80% destroyed, as many as 20,000 may have perished. From an unofficial population of 35,000, only 15,000 are still alive. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/lukeharding'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-03T01:33:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/aug/30/brazilian-court-blocks-abolition-of-vast-amazon-reserve | Brazilian court blocks abolition of vast Amazon reserve | A Brazilian court has blocked an attempt by the president, Michel Temer, to open up swaths of the Amazon forest to mining companies after an outcry by environmental campaigners and climate activists. The federal judge Rolando Valcir Spanholo said the president went beyond his authority in issuing a decree to abolish Renca, an area of 46,000 sq km (17,760 sq miles) that has been protected since 1984. Approving an injunction requested by public prosecutors, the judge said the dissolution of Renca (more formally known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates) could only be done by Congress. But this may be only a temporary reprieve for the area, which is thought to contain deposits of gold, copper, tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese. The attorney general has appealed. In several previous cases related to development of environmentally sensitive areas or indigenous territory, higher court judges have overturned rulings made by local courts. But the injunction buys a little time for opponents and adds to the pressure on Temer, who has repeatedly come under fire for putting economic interests ahead of the environment. The announcement of the abolition of Renca prompted a furious backlash last week. An opposition lawmaker called the move the “biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years”. The supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who has become a prominent advocate of forest protection, has accused the government of selling off the Amazon for private interests. Temer subsequently withdrew his initial decree, and re-issued it with a clarification on protections for indigenous territory and conservation areas. Environmental activists said the move was a marketing ploy, because 30% of the region would still be opened up to mining companies. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-08-30T18:35:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2007/jul/09/nuclearindustry.nuclearpower | BNG offers 'virtual reprocessing' to Germans | Ministers are planning to give permission to use British stockpiled plutonium as fuel for German nuclear reactors because of the two-year closure of the Thorp reprocessing plant - a move some industry experts believe is against the law. The government has been forced to consider what it describes as "virtual reprocessing" amid fears that without the use of the plutonium, German reactors would have to be closed down, leading to expensive legal claims against the British Nuclear Group because it cannot fulfil its contracts to supply fuel. The UK is supposed to reprocess German fuel to extract plutonium and uranium but, because of the disastrous leak discovered in April 2005, the Thorp reprocessing plant has closed. The closure is costing up to £500m a year in revenue from overseas customers - money that should have been spent by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) clearing up nuclear waste. To get round the problem officials at the Department of Trade and Industry have come up the notion of "virtual reprocessing" or what it describes in its consultation document as "advance allocation". The plan is to calculate how much plutonium would have been produced if the German fuel had been dissolved in the Thorp plant and recovered and then substituting the same quantity of stockpiled British plutonium and uranium. This would solve the contractual problems and avoid power shortages in Germany, but leaves British Nuclear Group with several hundred tonnes of German spent fuel in its Sellafield storage ponds. The DTI says that the plan for virtual reprocessing merely speeds up the return of plutonium, uranium and nuclear waste to Germany, Switzerland and Japan. The fuel would have been mixed with British fuel in the reprocessing plant and so when the nuclear materials were recovered it would not be possible to tell which came from which individual batch of fuel. British Nuclear Group said it hoped that the Thorp plant would soon be up and running again, and expected to put a batch of fuel through any day now to check all was in order. Martin Forwood, from Cumbrians Opposed to Radioactive Environment, one of the statutory consultees for the plan, said he thought it would lead to the closure of the plant. "If British materials can be sent abroad, pretending they are the product of reprocessed foreign fuel, there is absolutely no point in then going to the expensive business of restarting Thorp and putting this fuel through it." However, Mr Forwood doubted whether the substitution idea was legal. When the SMP plant started up in 2001 under international rules it had to have an economic case based on the fact that the benefit of the plant outweighed the environmental detriment it would cause. Since then the economic case has collapsed. Thorp is not reprocessing and many of the Mox contracts have not materialised. "In my view substituting plutonium and uranium requires a new economic case," said Mr Forwood, although the DTI denies this. | ['business/business', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'profile/terrymacalister'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2007-07-08T23:00:25Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/apr/05/asian-yellow-legged-hornet-invertebrate-symbol-of-our-dark-times | The voracious Asian hornet – the invertebrate symbol of our dark times | We live in dark times. Storm clouds gather over our nations, politics and planet. Let rip the end of days. We’re entering an era of suffering, tyranny and predatory, invasive wasps. So vote baddie. Vote end times. Vote for the Asian or yellow-legged hornet. Like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu and Lee Anderson, this mortal creature is both terrifying and weird in its implausible lust for power and domination. Native to south-east Asia, the yellow-legged hornet’s European conquest began in 2004 when a single mated queen stowed away in a container-load of pottery that arrived in the port of Bordeaux from China. Incredibly, it is believed that the entire rapidly spreading European population of yellow-legged hornets is derived from this one individual. This hornet is actually smaller than our native ginger-hued hornet, and rather neat-looking with its yellow stripes and black trim. But it has a voracious appetite for native bees and wasps, and honeybees, and its colonies rapidly expand in summertime when it builds nests the size of a large watermelon, often high in trees. Collectively, these colonies have a huge impact on flying insect populations. The hornets will hover outside beehives and jump on their prey, not just taking numerous bees but also creating a landscape of fear that sometimes paralyses a honeybee colony, preventing worker bees from foraging for food. French researchers estimate a single nest can consume 11.3kg of wild insects over its late summer lifetime. The hornet has rapidly spread through western Europe. In Portugal, beekeepers say honey production in the north and centre of the country has fallen by more than 35% because of the hornets. Hives that used to produce 12kg of honey each year now produce 4-5kg. The first yellow-legged hornet sighting in Britain was in 2016. The species is not thought capable of crossing the Channel under its own steam but hitches a ride on ships. British winters would once have been too cold for it, but global heating is changing that. In 2020, 2021 and 2022 there were only two or fewer confirmed sightings of the hornet on mainland Britain. But last year they properly invaded. The government recorded 78 sightings, mostly of entire nests – burgeoning colonies – which were destroyed. That is the tip of the coming iceberg. The island of Jersey has made a heroic attempt to eradicate the species (which flies there easily from the French mainland) but underwhelming British efforts will not keep this predator at bay. So vote yellow-legged or Asian hornet – the perfect invertebrate symbol of our times: aggressive, destructive, and given a whole new lease of life by us, careless colluders in the capitalist-democratic implosion that imperils the whole planet. Welcome to the Guardian’s UK invertebrate of the year competition. Every day between 2 April and 12 April we’ll be profiling one of the incredible invertebrates that live in and around the UK. Let us know which invertebrates you think we should be including here. And at midnight on Friday 12 April, voting will open to decide which is our favourite invertebrate – for now – with the winner to be announced on Monday 15 April. | ['environment/series/uk-invertebrate-of-the-year', 'environment/insects', 'environment/invasive-species', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-05T11:45:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2001/jul/31/rugbyleague.walesrugbyleagueteam | Wales captain Iestyn Harris pulls out of England clash | The credibility of international rugby league is set to receive a further blow tonight as Wales take on England in Wrexham. Playing the game in midweek, the only option after Super League announced a 28-round fixture programme, was asking for trouble, and inevitably yesterday saw a spate of withdrawals from both teams. They were headed by the Wales captain Iestyn Harris, who will have an exploratory operation on a wrist injury tomorrow and has therefore played his last league international, assuming he leaves Leeds for Cardiff at the end of the Super League season. Wales have also lost Leeds' Anthony Farrell, the St Helens wing Anthony Sullivan, Hull's Garreth Carvell and the Salford pair Kris Tassell and Paul Highton. Their coach Neil Kelly is looking for replacements. England have also lost three players - Hull's scrum-half Tony Smith, Bradford's prop Stuart Fielden and the Wigan centre Paul Johnson. But the coach David Waite was able to call up three strong replacements in the young Bradford forward Lee Radford, Halifax's full-back Daryl Cardiss and the Castleford prop Nathan Sykes. Warrington have cancelled a press conference due for tomorrow which was called to announce their new coach. Kelly had been lined up but he signed a new two-year deal for Widnes at the weekend. | ['sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/sport', 'sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'sport/england-rugby-league-team', 'type/article', 'profile/andywilson'] | sport/wales-rugby-league-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2001-07-31T02:13:59Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/may/16/wind-power-overtakes-nuclear-for-first-time-in-uk-across-a-quarter | Wind power overtakes nuclear for first time in UK across a quarter | Britain’s windfarms provided more electricity than its eight nuclear power stations in the first three months of 2018, marking the first time wind has overtaken nuclear across a quarter. The renewable energy industry hailed the milestone as a sign the UK was well on its way to an electricity system powered by cheap, domestic green energy. Across the first quarter, wind power produced 18.8% of electricity, second only to gas, said a report by researchers at Imperial College London. At one point overnight on 17 March, wind turbines briefly provided almost half of the UK’s electricity. Wind power helped during the cold snaps, too, supplying 12-43% of electricity during the six subzero days in the first three months of the year. Two nuclear plants were temporarily offline for routine maintenance, while another was shut because of seaweed in the cooling system. While wind together with solar supplied more power than nuclear in the final three months of 2017, thiswas the first time wind has managed the feat alone. Dr Rob Gross, one of the authors of the Drax Electric Insights report, said: “There’s no sign of a limit to what we’re able to do with wind in the near future.” The opening in December of a new power cable between Scotland and north Wales also helped unlock electricity from Scottish windfarms, some of which would normally be turned off to help National Grid cope. The Western Link connection has drastically cut the amount of money paid by National Grid to windfarm owners for that curtailment. The company paid £100m in 2017 for curtailment. This year payments are already down by two-thirds. Emma Pinchbeck, the executive director at industry group RenewableUK, said: “It is great news for everyone that rather than turning turbines off to manage our ageing grid, the new cable instead will make best use of wind energy.” News of the quarterly milestone came as MPs said UK emissions targets were threatened by government policy changes, which had caused a collapse in clean energy investment since 2015, including a 56% fall in 2017. Mary Creagh, Labour MP and chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “Billions of pounds of investment is needed in clean energy, transport, heating and industry to meet our carbon targets. But a dramatic fall in investment is threatening the government’s ability to meet legally binding climate change targets.” Separately, the spending watchdog concluded that £23bn spent on a government subsidy scheme for low-carbon heating had been poor value for money and did not deliver its aims. The public accounts committee said the renewable heat incentive had “wildly optimistic” goals and that the government failed to understand what consumers wanted. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2018-05-16T05:01:39Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2012/nov/08/new-york-ration-gas | New York to ration gas to reduce waiting lines for fuel | New York City will be subjected to enforced gas rationing from Friday after mayor Michael Bloomberg said the measure was necessary to reduce waiting times for fuel. The restrictions will come into force from 6am on Friday and are designed to cut long waiting lines at gas stations because of shortages caused by Hurricane Sandy. Car owners will be restricted to buying fuel every other day, depending on the final letter of their licence plate. A similar system will be imposed on Long Island, and has been in force in New Jersey for the past week. "This is designed to let everybody have a fair chance, so the lines aren't too oppressive and so everybody can get through this," Bloomberg told a press conference in on Thursday. Owners of vehicles with a license plate ending in an even number will be allowed to buy fuel on even-numbered dates, with the opposite applying for license plates ending in an odd number. New Jersey governor Chris Christie introduced the same measure in the Garden State on Saturday. The governor said on Thursday he would re-evaluate the scheme before the weekend. "It has worked well in New Jersey," Bloomberg said of the "odd-even" rationing scheme. The mayor said the measure reduced waiting times there from around two hours to 45 minutes. There have been long waits at gas stations across New York City since Sandy struck. The storm prevented tankers from accessing New York harbour, causing stations to run dry, which in turn led to more panic-buying from motorists concerned that they may run out of fuel. Bloomberg said on Thursday that only a quarter of the city's gas stations are open. "We believe it will help mitigate the worst of our problems," Bloomberg said. "I understand it's going to create inconveniences but I ask New Yorkers to be patient." Bloomberg warned motorists not to attempt to be "cute" by switching registration plates. He said police officers will be deployed at gas stations to observe lines and potentially check on vehicles' plates. The mayor would not say when the gas rationing would end, saying only that "we're keeping it for a while". He added: "If you think about it, it's not any great imposition once you get used to it." Bloomberg also said some 70,000 households remain without power in the city, approximately 10,000 of those because of the winter storm that blew through New York on Wednesday night. He said power had been restored to 82% of public housing buildings that lost electricity when Sandy hit, but that number was expected to rise. Earlier, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said that the total clean-up cost of Hurricane Sandy is now estimated to be $50bn, including $33bn in New York. The effort to return to normality was not helped by the winter storm that struck north-east America on Wednesday, leaving a foot of snow in some places and knocking out power to 300,000 homes and businesses. The State Department said that some 715,000 homes and businesses in the region were without power, a net increase of nearly 43,000 from Wednesday night after the nor'easter knocked it out to more customers following those who had lost it from Sandy, the US Energy Department said. Most of the 300,000 snowstorm power outages had been restored. Cuomo laid into the "bureacracy" of utilities on Wednesday as he criticised the progress in reconnecting homes and families. "This is a 1950s system with these utilities that are regulated by the state theoretically. But they are bureaucracies that are in many ways a monopoly," the governor said. "It is nameless, faceless bureaucracy that is a monopoly that operates with very little incentive or sanction …They have failed the consumers." The death toll from Sandy in the United States and Canada reached 121 on Wednesday after New York authorities reported another death linked to the storm in the Rockaways, in New York, an area severely affected by the storm. | ['us-news/new-york', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'us-news/michaelbloomberg', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-gabbatt'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-11-08T21:45:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2016/sep/15/nuclear-power-is-risky-and-expensive-heres-a-better-idea | Nuclear power is risky and expensive; here's a better idea | In the 21st century, the UK will have to supply itself with power that is affordable, reliable and clean. But in almost every way, the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station offers only expensive and risky solutions from the 20th century. A nuclear power station is about as useful in solving the dilemma as a 20th-century nuclear weapon is in ending a 21st-century guerilla insurgency, because a ground-level energy revolution is taking place. The old regime of large, centralised power plants is being replaced a smart, efficient and widely distributed network, powered by increasing amounts of renewable energy. If that sounds radical, it’s not – it’s just how the internet works to provide fast and reliable communications. If it sounds like a hippy dream, it’s not – New York State’s energy plan has embraced it in order to deliver 50% renewable electricity by 2030 and a 23% cut in energy use by buildings. In the UK, this government aims to improve the energy efficiency of just half the homes retrofitted by the last one. If you think New York State is alone in its thinking - it’s not. Bodies including the government’s own National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), the National Grid and industry group Energy UK all point to a smart system that is more secure, cheaper and faster to build and they all use the same word: “revolution”, while the International Energy Agency talks of a rapid “transition”. The momentum behind the revolution is straightforward: cost. While renewable energy and other energy technologies are plummeting in price, nuclear power continues its historical trend of getting ever more expensive. Even if the UK negotiates a sharp cut in the subsidies for Hinkley, it still could not be built before 2026 at the earliest. By then, a capacity crunch will have hit the UK as old power stations close. Hinkley puts a lot of generation capacity in one plan , which is very risky given the financial, legal and technical obstacles it faces. EDF, the French company leading the project, is taking on considerable financial risk, with Martin Young, an energy analyst at investment bank RBC Capital Markets, saying the project “verges on insanity”. Court challenges – including from EDF’s own trade unions – abound and the fiendishly complex project has been described by one nuclear engineer as unconstructable. Two attempts to build the same reactor in France and Finland are miles over budget and behind schedule. In contrast, energy efficiency could deliver six Hinkleys’ worth of electricity by 2030, according to the government’s own research. Four Hinkleys’ worth could be saved by increasing the ability to store electricity and making the grid smarter, with the latter alone likely to save billpayers £8bn a year. Capturing and storing carbon from fossil fuel plants is also vital, but has received scant attention from the government compared with Hinkley. It would halve the cost of beating global warming, according to government’s own official advisers, but in November ministers abruptly canned its plan. The government will not be able to get out of the Hinkley deal, however. Once signed, the deal with EDF contains a “poison pill” which could leave taxpayers with a £22bn bill if a future UK government shuts down the plant. The government has remained adamant that Hinkley, which could provide 7% of the UK’s electricity, is a vital part of a secure low-carbon future. But it is not just the idea of EDF’s partner, a Chinese state company, being involved that creates security fears. Nuclear power plants are prone to shutdowns, over safety concerns or even invasions of jellyfish into cooling waters as happened at Torness, in Scotland in 2011. Closing down such a giant plant at short notice immediately puts the security of the nation’s electricity supply at risk. One back-up option recently favoured by the government is to deploy farms of diesel generators, which emit large volumes of carbon dioxide, ready to start up when needed. Yet in a smart, distributed system, knocking out one wind turbine or solar panel is barely noticed by the grid. The risk with Hinkley is that will it bring about the mutually assured destruction of both EDF and UK energy policy, with an expensive, hard-to-build reactor, in which the taxpayer will end up footing the bill. | ['uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-09-15T05:00:33Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jun/01/remembering-the-battle-of-the-beanfield | Remember the Battle of the Beanfield | Andy Worthington | Exactly 24 years ago, in a field beside the A303 in Wiltshire, the might of Margaret Thatcher's militarised police descended on a convoy of new age travellers, green activists, anti-nuclear protestors and free festival-goers, who were en route to Stonehenge in an attempt to establish the 12th annual Stonehenge free festival in fields across the road from Britain's most famous ancient monument. That event has become known as the Battle of the Beanfield. In many ways the epitome of the free festival movement of the 1970s, the Stonehenge free festival – an annual anarchic jamboree that, in 1984, had attracted tens of thousands of visitors – had been an embarrassment to the authorities for many years, but its violent suppression, when police from six counties and the Ministry of Defence cornered the convoy of vehicles in a field and, after an uneasy stand-off, invaded the field on foot and in vehicles, subjecting men, women and children to a distressing show of physical force, was, like the Miners' strike the year before, and the suppression of the printers at Wapping the year after, a brutal display of state violence that signaled a major curtailment of civil liberties. In the context of political dissent at the time, the Stonehenge festival was a mere sideshow, but the government knew that its suppression would not cause offence to the general public, especially as most media outlets were prevailed upon to refrain from reporting on it (valiant exceptions were the Observer's Nick Davies and Kim Sabido for ITN). As a result, the government knew that it could disguise its other motives: the curtailment in general of the British public's right to gather freely without prior permission, and the suppression of a grassroots movement opposed to the installation of US cruise missiles on UK soil. The most celebrated opponents of nuclear weapons in the UK were the women of Greenham Common, but as it would have been a PR disaster to have had police truncheoning a group of women, the new age travellers, who had set up a peace camp at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire (the proposed second base for cruise missiles) were a more obvious target, and the Battle of the Beanfield took place just four months after 1,500 soldiers and police – in the largest peacetime mobilisation of its kind – were used to evict the camp. Above all, though, the major fallout from the Battle of the Beanfield was the government's manipulation of the manufactured hysteria about the travellers and protestors to introduce the 1986 Public Order Act, which enabled the police to evict two or more people for trespass, providing that "reasonable steps have been taken by or on behalf of the occupier to ask them to leave." The act also stipulated that six days' written notice had to be given to the police before most public processions, and allowed the police to impose unspecified "conditions" if they feared that a procession "may result in serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community." The Battle of the Beanfield was not the end of grassroots dissent in the UK – although it gutted the travellers' movement – as a new "threat" emerged just a few years later, when the acid house scene, with its giant warehouse raves and outdoor parties, once more threw the government – and the tabloids – into an authoritarian frenzy. As with Stonehenge, the catalyst for a further assault on civil liberties was another large free festival, at Castlemorton common in Gloucestershire, on the May bank holiday weekend in 1992. The legislation that followed – the 1994 Criminal Justice Act – not only repealed the 1968 Caravans Sites Act, criminalising the entire way of life of gypsies and travellers by removing the obligation on local authorities to provide sites for gypsies, but also amended the Public Order Act by introducing the concept of "trespassory assembly." This enabled the police to ban groups of 20 or more people meeting in a particular area if they feared "serious disruption to the life of the community," even if the meeting was non-obstructive and non-violent, and the act also introduced "aggravated trespass," which finally transformed trespass from a civil to a criminal concern. Both had disturbing ramifications for almost all kinds of protests and alternative gatherings, and were clearly ramped up after the government failed to secure convictions after the Battle of the Beanfield using an ancient charge of "unlawful assembly." Moreover, as protestors have been discovering in the years since the passing of the Criminal Justice Act, the groundwork laid by the Public Order Act and the Criminal Justice Act provided the Labour government, which has passed more legislation directed at civil liberties than any previous government, to start from a presumption that there were few, if any instances when a peaceful protest by just two people could not be suppressed. Back in 1997, some of us had a quaint notion that the government would repeal the excesses of the Criminal Justice Act; instead, we are living with three other changes enacted by the Act that still have resonance today: the police's right to take DNA samples from those arrested, increased "stop and search" powers, and amendments to the right to silence of an accused person, allowing inferences to be drawn from their silence. We have an exclusion zone around parliament, in which a single non-violent protestor can be arrested, anti-terror legislation used to stifle dissent, and, as we saw at the G20 protests in April, policemen once more hiding their identification numbers – as they did at the Battle of the Beanfield – to enable them to assault civilians (or worse) with impunity. | ['commentisfree/libertycentral', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'travel/stonehenge', 'uk/police', 'law/uk-civil-liberties', 'politics/margaretthatcher', 'politics/miners-strike-1984-85', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'uk-news/stonehenge', 'type/article', 'profile/andyworthington'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2009-06-01T15:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
film/filmblog/2013/jan/03/reel-history-the-impossible | The Impossible submerges the true impact of the tsunami | Director: JA Bayona Entertainment grade: B– History grade: B+ On 26 December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra. The resulting series of tsunamis killed an estimated 230,000 people, mostly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, and displaced almost 1.7 million. Nationality The Bennett family – Henry (Ewan McGregor), Maria (Naomi Watts), and their three sons – travel to Thailand for a Christmas holiday. The real family on whose experiences the film is based is Spanish. Maria Bennett's real-life counterpart, María Belón, has a story credit on this production. Her husband Enrique Alvárez and their children have appeared at the film's premieres. Director J A Bayona has said that he changed their nationality because it was easier to secure a substantial budget with international stars McGregor and Watts on board. "International" means English-speaking. Historians do like primary sources, though, so even with that change the film gets points for following Belón's first-hand account. Society In the opening scenes, The Impossible establishes the Bennetts as people of privilege. They fly business class, Maria gets snippy about having a sea view from her room, and husband and wife have an awkwardly scripted conversation about whether she should go back to her job as a doctor after taking several years off to have children. Meanwhile, their elegant beach resort is so jam-packed with rich white people that it could be mistaken for the Republican national convention. All this might look like it's setting up for a searing commentary on the disproportionate attention given to rich white people versus the mostly not so rich Asian people who were the overwhelming majority of victims of the tsunami. Unfortunately, it isn't. Quite the opposite. The film seems unaware of its own politics – though it certainly has some. Disaster On the day after Christmas, the tsunami hits. Here, The Impossible comes into its own: it is a masterpiece of disaster film-making. Bayona's recreation of the destructive power of the water and the debris is visceral and unflinching. The tsunami scenes are perfectly paced, sublimely acted by Watts and her screen son Lucas (Tom Holland), and so immersive that they may actually leave audiences feeling bruised. Belón has praised the film's accuracy, noting only one difference in the colour of one of her children's toys: "The ball was yellow and in the film it is red," she told the BBC. "The rest is exactly the same." Historians can probably let that one go. Race When the tsunami subsides, the film's dubious racial politics make an unwelcome reappearance. Maria is tended to by a villageful of kindly Thais, whose job seems to be rescuing white holidaymakers while not saying anything. They take her to a hospital. En route, there are lots more wounded white tourists lying around in the road, some being tended to by yet more kindly Thais not saying anything. Both at the beach and in the hospital, almost all the victims of this disaster appear to be white. The Alvárez-Belón family's story is moving, dramatic and true, and there's no reason it shouldn't be told; but it's a shame that that the film excludes any meaningful acknowledgment of the disaster's Asian victims while doing so. Fate Because the entire Alvárez-Belón family, looking healthy and happy, have joined in with the film's publicity, the ending of The Impossible isn't all that impossible to guess. Many of the details shown on screen match real-life reports, with one notable exception. According to Spanish newspaper Diario de Avisos, the family were reunited by an unnamed German tourist. If that is accurate, she has been left out of the film. Either way, prepare for an emotional climax built, like the rest of the film, around what happened to rich white people. Verdict The Impossible is an accomplished and effective movie, and accurate in the story it chooses to tell – but it is ungenerous in portraying a disaster which mainly affected south and south-east Asians from a totally European perspective. | ['film/series/reelhistory', 'film/filmblog', 'film/ewanmcgregor', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/tsunamis', 'world/world', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/alexvontunzelmann'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-01-03T10:53:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/blog/2009/mar/04/duncan-fletcher-sri-lanka-lahore-attack | Cricket: Former England coach Duncan Fletcher says a Lahore-style attack could be made just as easily in India | Less than four years ago I was part of the England tour party to Pakistan that came in for criticism from sections of the media for going overboard on security. But if yesterday's events in Lahore showed us anything, it's that you can never be too careful. The most ridiculous claim I heard back then was that terrorists would never attack cricketers because it was Pakistan's national game. But scruples don't come into it. In the world of the terrorist, everyone is a potential target: women, children and most definitely high-profile international sportsmen. If I were one of the England guys who signed up for the Indian Premier League, I would be concerned. And before you think I'm just lumping the subcontinental countries together, let me explain. There were times on that tour of Pakistan when the security was at a presidential level – with the exception of Karachi, they cleared roads for us on the way to stadiums and lined them with armed guards. Although you still felt nervous as you watched the world go by and kept an eye out for possible trouble, it provided some comfort at least. Nothing is 100%, but you sure as hell want that percentage to be as high as possible in your favour. India is different. The traffic is often so bad in the big cities where a lot of the cricket is played that the coach can move along only slowly at times, which turns it into a sitting duck for terrorists. There's nothing stopping a tuk-tuk pulling up alongside and detonating a bomb. I would be very nervous because that kind of attack is much easier to carry out in India – and these guys can attack when they like. I wrote in this column after the Mumbai atrocities in November that the immediate aftermath of an attack can be the safest time to travel, but the further away you get from the previous attack the more nervy things become. Security operations can also become more complacent. When we were in Pakistan, we began the tour by having three vehicles accompany us on our way to stadiums. But by the end, three had become one. It is vital for the continuation of cricket in parts of the subcontinent that serious investment is made into security. I don't want to sound too melodramatic but these terrorists operate as if they are in a war. They will have targets and plans and I wouldn't be surprised if the England team were mentioned in dispatches in 2005-06. I've sometimes wondered how lucky we were not to have been targeted. I even noticed on the news coverage yesterday that one of the terrorists in Lahore must have been carrying an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] launcher. I know from doing my military service in the former Rhodesian air force that one of those can take out anything in its path, including a coach. It seems the Sri Lankan bus actually took a different route to the Gaddafi Stadium yesterday morning because of information received. But all you can really do in those circumstances is give yourself the best chance, and that means as much security as possible. It's important to have your own security personnel to take charge out on the streets and organise strategy based on their previous experience in these situations, and it's crucial to have one of them sitting at the front of the team bus to react immediately and try to protect the driver. The guy driving the match officials in the bus behind the Sri Lankan team was killed yesterday and if that happens everyone else becomes extra vulnerable. From a purely cricketing point of view, what has happened is tragic for the people of Pakistan, because so many good players have emerged from that country, where the talent base is fantastic. This was their first Test series for 14 months but if sides were worried about touring Pakistan before those gunmen fired on the Sri Lankan team bus, they will be adamant now: cricket simply cannot take place there. In fact, it's hard to see how they can give it the all-clear in the future at all. Sure, security can be beefed up, but there are no guarantees at all. And even if players were assured of a safe passage on the roads, there are always two vulnerable parts to any journey: entering and leaving your hotel, and entering and leaving the ground. The attacks in Mumbai called into question even the safety of the best hotels. What cricketer is going to start thinking about runs and wickets when there are these more serious matters to consider? These are vulnerable times, and extremely sad ones too. | ['sport/blog', 'world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/englandinpakistan200506', 'world/pakistan', 'world/srilanka', 'sport/sri-lanka-cricket-team', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'tone/blog', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'type/article', 'profile/duncanfletcher', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-04T01:58:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/article/2024/aug/22/uk-ancient-oak-trees-woodland-trust-tree-of-the-year | ‘Ingrained in our heritage’: UK’s ancient oaks showcased in Tree of the Year contest | An oak tree shaped like an elephant and the oak with the widest girth in the UK have been shortlisted for the annual Tree of the Year competition. The Woodland Trust runs the annual competition to raise awareness of the UK’s ancient and at-risk trees. With its 2024 contest, the charity is campaigning to ensure more robust legal protection for the country’s most precious trees, and is showcasing ancient oaks as they are a beloved species and often live for more than 1,500 years. Oaks, the trust says, support 2,300 different species of wildlife, and the UK has more ancient oaks than the rest of western Europe combined. Last year, a 480-year-old sweet chestnut in Wrexham that has withstood storms, firewood collectors and, increasingly, parties and picnics beneath its boughs won the accolade. Sadly, some past winners have been destroyed: the Sycamore Gap tree (2016) beside Hadrian’s Wall was felled last year, and the Cubbington pear in Warwickshire (2015) was chopped down to make way for the HS2 railway line. This year’s list contains the Marton oak in Cheshire, which boasts a gigantic 14.02-metre girth, thought to be the widest in the UK. While 11 of the trees on the list were chosen by an expert panel, there is one public nomination: the Elephant oak at the Old Sloden inclosure in the New Forest. This tree takes its name from its unusual shape, and was nominated by a supporter, Claire Sheppard, who said: “This is my favourite oak tree to photograph at Old Sloden inclosure, New Forest. It’s a pollard oak known as the Elephant oak due to its massive trunk. I hike for around 5km from Abbotswell car park to get there and back, and this wood always gives me goose bumps. It’s not the easiest place to reach and hence it’s always very quiet; I get a real sense of peace and solitude here.” Dr Kate Lewthwaite, the citizen science manager at the Woodland Trust, said: “We chose the iconic oak because it captures people’s imaginations – from their leaves to their acorns, these trees are ingrained in our heritage – and the ancients are so impressive in terms of their sheer size and age. Some oaks that are alive today were already centuries old at the time of Queen Elizabeth I, or Charles Darwin. “It’s humbling to think how many events these trees have lived through, and that reaching full maturity they can stand for hundreds of years as ancient trees – all the while continuing to provide vital habitat as they hollow and produce dead wood. Each individual oak is like a unique, miniature nature reserve. There are so many species that live and rely on them, and have evolved alongside them, it is incredible.” Voting for the Woodland Trust’s 2024 Tree of the Year is open until 21 October via the Woodland Trust website, with a winner announced on 29 October. Take a bough: the tree shortlist Marton oak, Cheshire Sessile oak (quercus petraea) / Approximate age: 1,200 years / Girth: 14.02 metres. Bowthorpe oak, Lincolnshire English oak (quercus robur) / Estimated age: 1000 years / Girth: 13.38 metres. Gregynog oak, Powys Estimated age: 500 years / Girth: 9 metres. Queen Elizabeth oak, West Sussex Sessile oak (quercus petraea) / Estimated age: 800-1,000 years / Girth: 13.18 metres. Skipinnish oak, Lochaber, Scottish Highlands Sessile oak (quercus petraea) / Estimated age: unknown. The Michael, Midlothian Estimated age: 1,000+ years / Girth: 10.32 metres. Tea Party oak, Suffolk English oak (quercus robur) / Estimated age: unknown / Girth: 12.80 metres. King John oak, Somerset Estimated age: 1,000 years / Girth: 10.74 metres. Darwin oak, Shrewsbury, Shropshire Estimated age: 550 years / Girth: 7 metres. Capon tree, Scottish Borders English oak (quercus robur) / Estimated age: 700-1,000 years / Girth: 9.40 metres. Castle Archdale Oak, County Fermanagh Sessile oak (quercus petraea) / Estimated age: unknown / Girth: 7.68 metres. Public wildcard nomination: Elephant oak, Old Sloden inclosure, Hampshire Estimated age: unknown. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'uk-news/cheshire', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-08-21T23:01:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/nov/18/amazon-deforestation-at-highest-level-in-a-decade | Amazon deforestation 'at highest level in a decade' | Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has hit the highest annual level in a decade, according to new government data which highlights the impact the president, Jair Bolsonaro, has made on the world’s biggest rainforest. The new numbers, showing almost 10,000 sq kms were lost in the year to August, were released as emboldened farm owners scuffled with forest defenders in Altamira, the Amazonian city at the heart of the recent devastation. The assault on the planet’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink by land-grabbers, agribusiness, miners and loggers is accelerating. In the year until 30 July 2019, 9,762 sq kms were lost, an increase of 29.5% over the previous 12 months, the Brazilian space agency INPE said. The clearance rate – equivalent to about two football fields a minute – is the fastest since 2008, pushing Brazil far off course from reaching its Paris agreement goals to cut carbon emissions. The annual numbers are compiled with information from the Prodes satellite system, which is considered the most conservative measurement of deforestation. Although less steep than the rise suggested by monthly alerts from the Deter system, it confirms an upward trend that Bolsonaro and his ministers said was a “lie”, which the former head of the space agency was fired for repeating. Environmental groups blamed the government for “every inch of the increase because it weakened environmental protections, supported loggers and encouraged land-grabbing”. “It is no surprise this is happening because the president has defended environmental crime and promoted impunity,” said Adriana Ramos of the Socio-environmental Institute. The monitoring NGO, the Climate Observatory, said the rise was the third highest in history (after 1995 and 1998), and was likely to continue. “Proposals like legalising land-grabbing, mining and farming on indigenous lands, as well as reducing the licensing requirements for new infrastructure will show that the coming years will be even worse,” Carlos Rittl, its executive secretary, said. “The question is how long Brazil’s trading partners will trust its promises of sustainability and compliance with the Paris agreement, as forests fall, indigenous leaders are killed and environmental laws are shattered.” The increasingly confrontational tactics of rightwing ruralistas (farming, timber and mining interests) were evident at a civil society gathering in Altamira, in Pará state, on Monday morning. The meeting – titled Amazon: Centre of the World – brought together hundreds of forest guardians and their supporters, including indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, riverine communities, quilombolas, environmental activists, academics, artists, Catholic bishops, nuns and European visitors from Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future. They aim to draw up a forest manifesto that would put nature and the Amazon at the heart of the international debate about the climate and biodiversity crisis. Many powerful interests in this region do not want global attention on their activities. “I call upon landowners, loggers and businessmen to block this document,” said a rallying message from one of the organisers of a counter-demonstration. “This is very important for Brazil.” Dozens of farmers and landowners attempted to disrupt the opening by surging forward, waving Brazilian flags and chanting nationalist slogans. They were rebuffed by indigenous warriors in war paint and women’s groups who formed a human barrier between the speakers and the hecklers. Police intervened to calm the situation, but with the protesters hoping to boost their numbers later in the day, tensions continued. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/world', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-11-18T16:13:38Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2023/nov/08/extinction-rebellion-future-less-radical-unite-positive-action | Extinction Rebellion's future is far less radical than its past | Rupert Read | Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, has been found guilty of criminal damage, after she broke a window at the Department for Transport in an ecologically motivated protest against HS2 in 2019. The timing of Bradbrook’s verdict is almost exquisitely ironic. Five years ago last week, Extinction Rebellion was launched in Parliament Square. Back then, a principal term of criticism lobbied at XR was that it was “alarmist”. Five years on, it’s plainly visible that it was not. In the past few months the process of climatic decline has dramatically accelerated, and we are exceeding many of the supposed worst-case scenarios laid out in climate models. We are plainly hurtling towards 1.5C of global over-heat, long before most seemingly well-informed people thought we would. And yet despite this, our climate protest movement in the UK today is nowhere near strong enough to force a change of course. XR’s “scare-mongering” over the existential threat facing us may have been decisively vindicated, but it was never able to recover its reputation from the Canning Town incident in October 2019, when rebels inexplicably stopped underground trains running – to much public criticism. Since then, it has struggled to assert itself as a credible vehicle for truly mass mobilisation. Many significant organisations and movements have emerged in its wake. The most attention-grabbing have been from the recent, even more radical flank of the UK’s climate movement – first Insulate Britain and then Just Stop Oil – who have blocked the M25, stopped test matches and much more. To me, these activists are obviously on the right side of history. But at the same time, many in the broader climate movement now feel that action that disrupts the general public has become counterproductive – as XR came to learn. Citizens already feel the alarm has been raised. Right now, they don’t need further reminders: they need a journey into positive, effective action that they feel includes them. I moved on from XR in 2020, judging it likely that it had achieved most of what it was capable of achieving (a huge raising of climate consciousness – not to mention a parliamentary declaration of climate and environment emergency, a net zero law, and a parliament-backed citizens’ assembly on climate).But what is now plainly obvious is that the most important achievement of XR may turn out to be the space it opened up for a new, moderate flank in the climate movement to emerge. XR successfully dragged the whole eco-agenda into the light of day, and this has made it both necessary and possible for a wave of novel organisations and initiatives to fill the vacuum; groups such as Wild Card, Community Climate Action, Lawyers for Net Zero, Purpose Disruptors and Zero Hour. Indeed, many of the successes of historical movements that inspired XR (the Suffragettes, for instance) followed a similar pattern: an agenda-shift prompted by radical-flank initiatives paving the way for actual political success by more moderate agents of change. What has become abundantly clear since XR launched is that, in order to make any real impact on the desperate situation we are slipping into, movements must now unite people in campaigns that they can actually get on board with. That means acting with others where they live, or work or pray – and within the law. XR itself knows this is the way forward, and seems to have learned from past mistakes. As of 2023, it will no longer disrupt the public. XR’s new strategy, optimistically titled “Here comes everyone”, plans to build on the clearest success of the movement so far. In April, it mobilised about 60,000 people – considerably more than at any previous moment in its history – in a peaceful march on the climate crisis. But it will be a long road ahead for XR from here; it will be hard work to fully detoxify its brand. The best prospect for a huge XR resurgence lies in the possibility that the coming climate disasters may help to grow and rejuvenate its ranks. Those of us who stood up and were counted at the launch of XR can be justly proud. But of course, it’s not as if XR’s main objectives were actually achieved (XR’s second demand was for carbon net-zero by 2025). If there is to be any chance of achieving a transformative adaptation to the self-imposed threat of ecological collapse, it’s going to require not just a minority, but most of us, to step up. In decades to come, the only question our children will have any real interest in is: now that it’s becoming clearer what can effectively achieve change, how will you act? And once you knew, what did you do? Rupert Read is the author of Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside and Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'environment/insulate-britain', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/rupertread', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2023-11-08T08:00:05Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
science/2009/jan/29/nuclear-fusion-power-iter-funding | Flagship Iter fusion reactor could cost twice as much as budgeted | An experimental fusion reactor that will recreate the conditions at the heart of the sun to create cheap green power could cost twice as much as governments had planned for, the Guardian has learned. The flagship project, which absorbs almost half of Britain's energy research budget, will test complex machinery needed to make the world's first operational fusion power plants – a technology widely expected to transform energy generation by providing abundant power with no greenhouse gas emissions and only small amounts of radioactive waste. The Iter fusion reactor was originally costed at €10bn (£9bn), but the rising price of raw materials and changes to the initial design are likely to see that bill soar, officials confirmed today. The warning came as scientists gathered in Finland to unveil the first component of the reactor, which will effectively act as its exhaust pipe. The reactor is expected to take nearly 10 years to build and is scheduled to be switched on in 2018. It began as a US-Russian project in the 1980s, but has since grown to include the EU, China, India, Japan and South Korea. Britain currently pays around £20m into Iter each year. "There will be cost increases, that is for sure," said Octavio Quintana Trias, director of Euratom, the body that handles European funding for the project. "We have asked a group of experts to reassess the costs because those we have are based on an old design." Scientists involved in the project told the Guardian that the project costs would rise by at least a third and could double, a prospect Trias refused to rule out. Unlike traditional nuclear power stations that generate energy by splitting atoms in a process called fission, Iter will produce energy using fusion, the process that powers the sun. Fusion has the potential to liberate enormous amounts of energy from tiny quantities of fuel, making it a leading contender to provide clean energy to an ever more power-hungry world. Inside the reactor, heavy forms of hydrogen known as deuterium and tritium will be heated to 100 million C. At this temperature, the hydrogen nuclei fuse to produce helium, releasing neutrons and a huge amount of energy. The plasma is so hot that a powerful magnetic field is needed to stop it from touching the reactor's walls. The energy Iter could produce is vast. There is enough tritium in a lithium laptop battery and enough deuterium in half a bath of water to generate sufficient energy to last the average European 30 years. The first component, called a divertor, weighs 700 tonnes and draws helium and heat out of the plasma just as a car exhaust removes fumes from the engine, allowing it to run properly. "It's a significant step forward, it means we're getting started, but there's a lot of work to do," said Steven Cowley, director of the UK fusion programme at Jet, the world's largest experimental fusion reactor in Oxfordshire. "We need to get moving on fusion, we're behind the curve already. We need alternative sources of energy now and if we get a good outcome with Iter, we can go ahead and build a full-scale reactor." "One day fusion energy will be the primary energy source in the world. There's no better way to make energy than fusion. Its disadvantage is it's hard to do, but once you know how to do it, there's nothing better," Cowley added. After protracted political wrangling, the countries involved in the project agreed in 2005 that the reactor would be built in Cadarache in Provence, France. The choice of site means the buildings housing the reactor must be earthquake-proof, a contingency not included in the original designs. The reactor, which is now paid for by the taxes of half the world's population, is regarded by governments as so crucial to future energy production that the anticipated budget over-runs are likely to be paid for by making cuts to other fusion projects, including Jet. In 1991, scientists at Jet became the first in the world to produce energy from a deuterium/tritium plasma. While Jet generated 16MW of power, Iter is designed to produce some 500MW in 400-second bursts. The Iter project has already faced delays, during which scientists discovered flaws in the original design that unless corrected could jeopardise the reactor's chances of working. Although many of the changes increase the final price, they are necessary to ensure the project is not a failure, said Cowley. "If we build a machine that doesn't work, it will be a waste of time," he said. The reactor was originally called Iter as an acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, but concerns over the negative connotations of the word "thermonuclear" led officials to change the official provenance of the name, attributing it instead to the Latin word for "the way". | ['science/science', 'environment/energy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'science/particlephysics', 'science/physics', 'technology/energy', 'technology/technology', 'science/energy', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-01-29T18:42:00Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2011/mar/24/japan-nuclear-plant-workers-hospital | Japan nuclear plant workers in hospital after radiation exposure | The dangers facing workers battling to avert disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were underlined on Thursday when three men were exposed to high levels of radiation after stepping in contaminated water. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), admitted that the workers had not measured radioactivity levels before beginning work, and that two, who are being treated for radiation burns, were not wearing protective boots. The two more seriously injured men were diagnosed with possible beta ray burns and were due to be taken to a special unit at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan's nuclear safety agency said. The injuries are similar to regular burns, but can lead to serious complications over a period of several weeks. Tests on the workers, who are all in their 20s and 30s, showed they were exposed to between 170 millisieverts (mSv) and 180 mSv of radiation while laying cable in the basement of the No 3 reactor's turbine building. That is above the usual legal limit of 100 mSv per year for nuclear power workers in Japan, but below a new limit of 250 mSv, introduced soon after the nuclear crisis began to enable them to spend more time inside the crippled facility. The two hospitalised men, employees of a Tepco affiliate, were part of a team of six workers attempting to connect a water pump to the power supply and restart the supply of fresh water in an attempt to cool the reactor. Workers in the first and basement floors of the No 3 reactor's turbine building were ordered to evacuate the area after the accident. Japan's nuclear safety agency said water had probably seeped through their protective clothing, allowing radioactive materials to stick to their skin, as they stood in a 15cm-deep puddle. The two injured men were wearing shoes, while the third had boots on and so escaped serious injury. Radiation levels on the surface of the puddle were later measured at 400 mSv per hour, while the level in the air reached 200 mSv per hour. The source of the water was not immediately clear. Tepco said no puddle had been spotted in the turbine building the previous day. Fire trucks have been dousing the reactor in recent days in an attempt to cool a storage pool for spent fuel rods. The accident cast doubt on Tepco's ability to properly monitor radioactivity at the site. "This kind of exposure, from water, was unforeseen," the government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, told reporters. "Atmospheric radiation levels are monitored constantly, but in this case the workers stepped into water. We are trying to find out exactly what happened so we can ensure it doesn't happen again." Edano said the injuries were "very regrettable", but defended the health ministry's decision to raise the exposure limit for teams of workers soon after the start of the world's worst nuclear power emergency since Chernobyl. "The decision to increase permissible radiation exposure was taken on the advice of experts, who say that workers are able to withstand up to 250 mSv per year before radiation has an effect on their health," Edano said. He conceded that the emergency at Fukushima would lead to a review of Japan's heavy dependence on nuclear power. "It is certain that public confidence in nuclear power plants has greatly changed," Edano told Reuters. "In light of that, we must first end this situation and then study from a zero base." More than 20 workers have been injured at the Fukushima plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo, since it was badly damaged in the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. They include 11 who were hurt when the No 3 reactor building exploded. To date, 17 have been exposed to radiation exceeding 100 mSv at the plant, though none has been exposed to contamination exceeding the accumulative 250 mSv limit. The condition of the No 3 unit is of particular concern as it contains plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel and would release highly toxic plutonium in the event of a meltdown. On Wednesday afternoon, workers were temporarily evacuated from the plant after black smoke was seen rising from the same reactor. The smoke receded after an hour and radiation levels remained unchanged, the safety agency said. The release of radioactive substances from the plant continued to cause anxiety in Tokyo. Wednesday's warning that radioactive iodine levels in the capital's tap water had exceeded levels considered safe for babies prompted a rush of people buying bottled water. The warning was lifted on Thursday after iodine-131 dropped to safe levels, but they were still above the safe upper limit for infants in the neighbouring prefectures of Chiba and Saitama. In Tokyo, a city of 13 million people, supermarkets quickly ran out of bottled water; the metropolitan government said it would distribute an extra 240,000 bottles to families with infants. "Customers ask us for water, but there's nothing we can do," Masayoshi Kasahara, a supermarket worker, said. "We have asked for extra deliveries but we don't know when they will arrive." | ['world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/japan', 'world/world', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-03-25T00:42:00Z | true | ENERGY |
football/2021/jun/26/euro-2020-concussion-pavard-danilo-baumgartner | Pavard and Danilo incidents at Euro 2020 highlight concussion failings | Euro 2020’s concussion controversy started with Benjamin Pavard. The France full-back said he had been “a little knocked out” after a collision with Germany’s Robin Gosens, but he played the remaining half an hour of his team’s 1-0 victory. Six days later and it was Christoph Baumgartner of Austria who received a blow to the head, went back on the pitch, scored a goal and was then substituted, his coach admitting the 21-year-old had been experiencing dizziness. Then, on Wednesday, in the final round of group matches, came the third incident: the France goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, in effect threw a straight right hand at Danilo’s jaw in mid-air. The Portuguese midfielder collapsed to the ground, his eyes spinning in his head, but was cleared to play on. At half-time, he, too, was withdrawn. Just before the start of the tournament Uefa confirmed it would be applying a new focus on concussion. The protocol would insist on players being removed from the pitch if concussion was even suspected. It was, Uefa said: “A further step towards protecting the health of players.” You might be forgiven for asking quite what has happened to that approach. After Pavard’s injury, Uefa said it had consulted with France’s team doctor, who told them he “did not find any reason to suspect a concussion”. Uefa concluded, as a result, that the protocol had been followed. After the Baumgartner injury, Uefa said it had been in touch with the Austrian medical team and “received a satisfactory report … that there were [and still are] no signs of a concussion”. Following Danilo’s injury, Uefa told the Observer the player had suffered “a mild head trauma” and that the immediate assessment did not trigger red flags but that he suffered discomfort at half-time and was substituted as a precaution. George Chiampas is the chief medical officer at US Soccer and also sits on Fifa’s medical committee. He describes Pavard’s and Baumgartner’s injuries as “very clear and obvious” concussions. “From a Fifa perspective, we’re trying to provide the physicians, the referees and the staff with all the tools they need to be able to identify [concussion]. “We know that physicians on the bench may not have the ability to see everything, we have the responsibility to provide them with the information. [But] in these examples, where it’s clear and obvious that the two individuals were concussed, that’s where we have a big, big problem. We can’t miss those. We can’t make those sort of mistakes.” According to Luke Griggs, deputy chief executive at the brain injury charity Headway, the Euros have seen “a number of incidents that are at best questionable and at worst entirely inappropriate”. Headway is an outspoken critic of the way football deals with concussion and for Griggs the failings at the championship are representative of a broader problem. “Ultimately, we have a new concussion charter based on principles already enshrined in existing protocols,” he says. “They all clearly state that if a player is suspected of concussion they must be removed from the field of play. But team doctors are placed in an impossible position of being asked to make a concussion assessment in two-to-three minutes under the gaze of the players, the media and the watching fans. “You also see referees urging the medics to get off the pitch. You’re never going to get an accurate assessment over whether a concussion has actually occurred.” Griggs and Chiampas believe the way head injuries have been dealt with at the Euros highlight the need for broader cultural change. The first is about information, making it easier for a doctor to make as informed a decision as possible. An easy win in this field would be the addition of concussion spotters; people sitting in the stands watching only for head injuries and relaying what they have seen to the doctors. The knowledge for such a role is not highly specialised, a steward, say, could be trained into the role. Spotters are to appear at next year’s World Cup for the first time. The second change is about time, giving doctors the room to make proper decisions. That is harder. Chiampas and Griggs are advocates for temporary concussion substitutes. The change allows the game to continue while an assessment is made and the time provided takes the pressure out of it. An international body, the Concussion in Sport Group, says its test for concussion “cannot be performed correctly in less than 10 minutes”. The global game is taking a different path, however, and, under the auspices of the law-making International Football Association Board, permanent substitutes are being trialled. The FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, who has implemented the trial in the FA Cup, makes the same argument from the opposite point of view: that permanent substitutes cut out the false negatives from assessments conducted in a time-limited window. Chiampas says a reset of attitudes is needed, one that makes it acceptable to stop the game to perform the assessment, whether or not a substitution is made. He suggests this can be done with signals: the assistant referee should “drop an orange flag”, a sign that can be seen by everyone that says “an individual is concussed and we are making the decision to support the clinicians”. What the evidence of the Euros seems to show, however, is that, for whatever reasons, be it competitive instinct, professional obsession or maybe even commercial imperative, clinicians are not being supported in the way that they should. “Of fundamental concern,” says Griggs, “is this apparent message from Uefa, Fifa and Ifab that concussion is a minor irritation to be addressed by a few pieces of paper. But these pieces of paper are meaningless unless they are backed up by actions. Action that put players’ safety first and foremost.” | ['football/euro-2020', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'football/european-championship', 'football/football', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulmacinnes', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/sport', 'theobserver/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-06-26T11:59:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global-development/article/2024/may/17/honduran-citys-air-pollution-is-almost-50-times-higher-than-who-guidelines | Honduran city’s air pollution is almost 50 times higher than WHO guidelines | The air quality in San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, as been classified as the most polluted on the American continent due to forest fires and weather conditions aggravated by El Niño and the climate crisis. IQAir, a Swiss air-quality organisation that draws data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations around the world, said on Thursday that air quality in the city of about 1 million people has reached “dangerous” levels. IQAir found that levels of PM2.5 – dangerous air particulates of less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter – reached 249.1 mcg/m³ this week. World Health Organization guidelines state that annual mean concentrations should not exceed 5mcg/m³. Honduran authorities have raised the threat level to its highest in most of the country’s departments because of the public health risks, and advised people to close windows and stay indoors to avoid exposure to contaminated air. Education secretary Daniel Sponda said public and private schools were to be temporarily closed due to the “risk to the physical integrity of the educational community”. The health secretariat has registered an increase of 20% in patients with respiratory infections. “We have seen a steep increase in respiratory emergencies, especially within vulnerable populations, such as children and senior citizens,” said Dr Cristobal Bustamante, the national director of the emergency medical unit of the Honduran Permanent Contingency Commission, . “We have also recorded an increase in cardiac complications and exacerbated asthma.” Bustamante said high levels of air contamination can harm the airways, ranging from irritation and inflammation to cell damage and aggravation of existing respiratory diseases. The clouds of air pollution hanging over Honduran cities have been so thick that in the past two days, several planes due to land in San Pedro Sula were forced to divert to neighbouring countries because the pilots could not see the runways. A number of airports in Honduras have since had to close. “We have never had to shut down the airport due to the air quality, so it’s a first for us,” said Abraham Manun, the head of operations at the Ramón Villeda Morales international airport in San Pedro Sula. “It’s out of our hands and disrupts the entire flight commerce into and out of Honduras, which mainly flows through our airport. We had to cancel or reroute five international and 12 national flights. There is nothing we can do about it but wait.” The air contamination has been caused by aggressive temperature spikes during the El Niño phenomenon, which has affected “the dry corridor” that crosses through Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. El Niño increases temperatures and decreases rainfall, driving droughts, especially across the dry corridor. More than 3.4 million people in Central America depend on aid, and experts warn that El Niño will reach extreme levels this year, putting more people at risk than ever. Due to the dry climate and intense heat, Honduras is experiencing a sharp rise in wildfires. The Forest Conservation Institute of Honduras has documented 2,598 fires that have devastated 211,292 hectares (5.2m acres) across the country in 2024. At the end of March, La Tigra national park, known as “the lungs of Tegucigalpa”, was almost completely destroyed by fire, severely affecting the vulnerable ecosystem close to the city. “This contamination is linked to the gradual effects of climate change coupled with El Niño, which has caused the conditions for wildfires and droughts,” said Juan José Reyes, the head of Copeco’s early warning system. “The lack of wind allows the smog to hover over the cities, many of which are located in valleys.” Reyes added that if Honduras does not change its environmental policies, the phenomenon could become a regular occurrence and threaten millions across the Central American region. Nelson Aly, of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said climate-related disasters were happening across Central America. “Climate change has pushed us increasingly into these weather extremes,” he said. “We anticipate a sharp increase in climate-related catastrophes across Central America this year and in the future. “We are training our response units and bracing for floods like we have seen in Brazil this month.” | ['global-development/series/southern-frontlines', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/air-pollution', 'world/honduras', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fritz-pinnow', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-05-17T14:43:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/street-style-fashion-south-africa-entrepreneurs | Street style fashion offers opportunities for South Africa's entrepreneurs | Ask the average European what they brought home from their safari trip to South Africa and they're likely to show you a beaded cuff, a pair of salad tongs or an animal wood carving. Handicrafts, have for a long time been the extent of what African manufacturing and design has meant to most people. Babatunde is a label that's trying to change that while enabling young South Africans. Founder Gareth Cowden, a stylist by training, got the idea for the brand after a trip to Ghana in 2007, where he realised he'd never seen western style caps and headwear made from the colourful wax printed fabrics ubiquitous in the region. He started making the caps in 2009, which quickly gained a following among street style devotees in Johannesburg. The brand, which gets its name from the Yoruba (Nigerian) word meaning "the father returns", now manufactures everything from laptop cases and bow ties to umbrellas and clutch bags. The wares are produced with African fabrics sourced from Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Benin and Mozambique and manufactured in South Africa. Cowden's business model is a perfect reflection of the specific market in which he operates, governed less by conventional supply and demand and more by the rules of streetwear culture. At present, all of Babtunde's stockists approached Cowden wanting to sell his product, rather than the other way around. "The problem when you're starting out as a brand is that you can't afford your own store, and I'm still sceptical that I ever want to do a store," Cowden says. "Web shops are becoming very popular [in South Africa] so you get other individuals who are have started their own online shops and they offer to push [our product] themselves. They're focusing on the markets where they're living." That niche market focus suits young entrepreneurs such as Mpumelelo Mfula, one of the distributors of Babatunde. Mfula graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2012 and quickly realised that "looking for a job in South Africa was a job in itself". Two months after graduation, he started his online shop called rhtconline.com (RHTC is an acronym for Returning Home to Create) with just 3,000 rand (£170) left in the bank. Using a mixture of social media, on-the-ground selling and online orders, he targets customers in the trendy Johannesburg neighbourhood of Braamfontein as well as young buyers in Soweto and other surrounding townships. "At first with the web shop, it had to be very personal because the target market was unfamiliar with online shopping," Mfula says. "To really gain their confidence, they would place an order via email and then we'd meet up with them in person to give them the product." When it comes to running a business attuned to streetwear culture, Mfula says it's all about understanding the law of diminishing returns. For example, he wouldn't buy more than five hats of the same print from a supplier such as Babtunde, because once he's sold five of the same cap, demand within his given micro market will plummet. "If you're in your hood you want to be the first one to get it," Mfula says. "That's what our model and Joburg streetwear culture is fundamentally based on: individuality and exclusivity. Everyone seeks to be an influence of some sort within a geographic area or hood." Cowden is happy with empowering ambitious young entrepreneurs such as Mfula and would like to have more of them filling micro-markets in Johannesburg and elsewhere. The challenge, he says, is often finding trustworthy people to sell the product, as well as coming to grips with the scope of the need for employment. "I've had quite a few people approach me to sell my stuff at markets. A lot of times you want to give these guys a chance so you give them stock, but you never see them again." Cowden is currently looking into starting his own factory rather than working with existing African manufacturers, which can often be inconsistent. While this will offer more opportunities for employment, Cowden is realistic when he says he'd still be "going into communities, choosing five from 1,000 people who need jobs". Nevertheless, he realises it's an essential step to meet the quality standards of a global market, which he is intent on expanding into further. "Europeans do not shop like South Africans. South Africans look with their eyes, Europeans look with their fingers, they're going to turn up the seam, check the stitching see if its straight and well done," Cowden says. "There's an amazing market for us overseas if we get the quality right." Despite all the challenges, Cowden is clearly keen on doing more than just selling hats. He chose the name Babatunde as a way to urge the father-figures of Africa to return home and it seems that he wants the brand itself to serve as a global steward of the African continent's ingenuity. "Our goal is to grow as a quality African brand, where someone in Japan could say they know about the brand, know what quality they're getting," Cowden says. "We want to move away from African manufactured things being strictly crafts, like a beaded giraffe that's going to sit on a shelf and get dusted twice a year. It's about being a progressive African brand as opposed to an ethnic one." The fashion hub is funded by H&M. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog', 'sustainable-business/fashion', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'business/entrepreneurs', 'world/southafrica', 'fashion/fashion', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/sustainable-fashion', 'profile/rosie-spinks'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-05-21T14:30:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
media/pda/2008/nov/13/digitalvideo-digitalmedia | Puppy cam: the latest internet sensation | What time is it? It's Cute'O'Clock! Remember the alarm with which we met the launch of Justin.tv in March 2007, as Justin Kan broadcast his not-particularly-interesting life to the world, 24/7. Well, finally someone has discovered a use for life-casting technology, filming their six baby Shiba Inu puppies all day, every day for the past month. Much like Big Brother (but without the annoying people), the pups don't really do anything much apart from sleep, but there's always enough chewing, fighting, tickling, scratching and frolicking to keep viewers entertained. Puppy cam has notched up 2,464,939 views as I write this. But enjoy it while it lasts because Autumn, Ayumi, Amaya, Aki, Akoni and Ando reached their five-week birthday on Tuesday - and that means there's only three weeks before the puppies leave the nest. I recommend opening the stream in a second window so you can hide it from all your tough, mocking work colleagues when they glance at your screen... • Just to add: Sometimes the cam is switched off while the puppies go for their morning constitutional. There are some things we don't need to see. | ['media/pda', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/jemimakiss'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-11-13T10:26:43Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/jul/14/deep-sea-mining-causes-huge-decreases-in-sealife-across-wide-region-says-study | Deep-sea mining causes huge decreases in sealife across wide region, says study | Animal populations appear to decrease where the deep sea is being mined, and the impact on marine life of the controversial industry may involve a wider “footprint” than previously expected. According to analysis of seabed ecology undertaken after drilling tests in 2020 in Japan – the country’s first successful extraction of cobalt crusts from deep-sea mountains – there was a decrease in marine life such as fish and shrimp at the site a year later. The density had dropped even further in areas outside the impact zone, by more than half. Travis Washburn, an ecologist who works with the Geological Survey of Japan and was the lead author of the study, published in Current Biology, said the findings had “large implications” for decision-makers negotiating regulations on proposals for deep-sea mining. “We may need to broaden what we think of in terms of what deep-sea mining impacts are,” said Washburn, whose work focuses on the benthic zone – the lowest region of a body of water. “There are large implications if we are currently treating some sites as unimpacted or controls when they are in fact changing from indirect mining impacts.” The team of scientists analysed data from visits by Japanese mining engineers to the Takuyo-Daigo seamount. A year after the test extraction, researchers observed a 43% drop in fish and shrimp density in the “deposition” areas directly affected by sediment pollution, and a 56% drop in surrounding areas. “It is easy to assume that once you are outside the zone of deposition there will be no impacts from mining,” said Washburn. “However, if some animals leave the periphery of the deposition area, this would extend the total area of impact.” Washburn warned against the rush to mine the seabed, and said it could be decades before the full impact on marine life would be known. The International Seabed Authority and its 168 members have yet to agree regulations governing the industry. The 9 July deadline for the quasi-UN body to adopt regulations or consider applications for mining contracts under existing laws came and went last Sunday, meaning commercial deep-sea mining could proceed without new rules. Washburn urged decision-makers: “Use all the data we currently have out there. There is still so much we don’t know, but it will likely be decades to answer some of those questions.” | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/deep-sea-mining', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-14T15:00:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2008/dec/31/mexico-fairtrade | Rainforest's chewing gum tappers go organic to get out of a sticky situation | Porfirio Baños takes the measure of the chicozapote tree that he is about to tap for its resin. He winds a rope around himself and the tall, straight trunk that stretches towards a glimpse of sky through the foliage above. He starts to climb. "I started following my dad around the rainforest when I was 10 and working when I was 12," the 50-year-old says as he cuts through the bark with a razor-sharp machete. A bright white sap called chicle runs down the wound in the wood, prompting a smile. "I am a chiclero to my core." The location is remote, the practice old, the tools rudimentary, and the chances to chat with spider monkeys high. But this is no world apart. Men like Baños were at the root of one of the great consumer phenomena of our time: chewing gum. Produced only in the jungle that straddles the southern part of Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, northern Guatemala and Belize, chicle was the basis of chewing gum, from the little balls first sold in New York 140 years ago to the sticks included in GI rations during the second world war. Then in the 1950s came synthetic substitutes that shrank the industry to a shadow of its former self. Biodegradable But just as it was beginning to look as if the chicle industry would fade away altogether, Mexico's chicleros may be on the threshold of a comeback: they are about to launch their own brand of certified organic chewing gum, which is expected to go on sale shortly in Waitrose. A bonus of the new gum for Britain's local authorities is that it will be biodegradable and start to break down almost immediately after use, potentially saving councils millions in pavement cleaning bills. The epic tale of chicle goes back to 1869 when a Mexican general called Antonio López de Santa Anna was living in exile on Staten Island trying to raise money. He enlisted a local inventor called Thomas Adams to test out his idea that chicle, long chewed by Mexican soldiers in unprocessed form, could be transformed into a lucrative rubber substitute. When vulcanisation failed the general moved on, but Adams, left with a tonne of the stuff to shift, came up with what turned out to be a brilliant idea. He added sugar and flavouring, and chewing gum was born. Within a few decades the sap once used by the ancient Maya to clean their teeth had become a symbol of modernity. Michael Redclift, author of Chicle: Fortunes of Taste, calls it "the American product for the American century". Alfonso Valdez caught the tail end of the chicle fever that invaded the still largely virgin jungle during the boom years. "The chiclero camps were like small towns and there were dances every weekend," the 69-year-old says, reminiscing about the communities accessible only by small plane and lots of walking. "Nobody dared leave before the season was over, and if they tried to walk out alone we would find their torn-up clothes and assume they'd been eaten by a jaguar." Valdez now runs a much more modest camp at the end of a logging track on the edge of the Calakmul rainforest reserve where Baños and another nine veteran chicleros have lived since July and will stay until February. The job itself has changed little, with each chiclero fanning out into the forest at dawn alone and earning according to how much chicle they bring back to camp at night. The price for the raw material is too low to attract local youths who prefer to look for dishwashing jobs in Cancún or New York. These may be the last of the chicleros. The administrators of the chiclero co-operative developed Chicza Rainforest Gum as a last-ditch attempt to save the industry. They struck a deal with Waitrose last year, they say, after touting their product around European organic food fairs. They hope it will be in 100 stores early next year. Waitrose says it is excited about the product. "We are extremely interested in the Chicza chewing gum," said confectionery buyer Matthew Jones. "It is a great product that is organic and sustainable so we are very excited about its potential in our stores." Valdez, an ageing chain-smoking toothless charmer who says he has fathered 42 children, is optimistic despite the global recession: chewing gum was one of the few consumer goods to thrive in the Depression. There is the added incentive that it eventually turns to dust. The annual bill for cleaning pavements of gum in the UK is more than £150m. Chicza's packaging, meanwhile, pushes the new gum as a saviour of a rainforest in danger. The chicleros see preserving the forest as part of their job. "We don't kill the trees like farmers do when they clear land to grow corn or graze cattle," says Roberto Aguilar, 60. "We leave a wound, it's true, but eight years after it is healed and producing chicle again." Deadly fears But these workers of the jungle do harbour two fears, and harbour them deeply: the poisonous snakes whose bite kills in hours, and the slip of a machete that can cut the rope holding them above ground. All have lost friends and family to both. "He just said: 'I'm finished, look after yourselves'," Baños says, recalling his father's last words at the foot of the chicozapote tree he fell from six years ago. The hardened old chiclero allows himself a moment of pathos - but then he's off again, looking for another tree to climb. | ['world/mexico', 'global-development/fair-trade', 'world/world', 'environment/organics', 'environment/waste', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/jotuckman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-12-31T00:01:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/may/16/new-labelling-helps-uk-shoppers-avoid-plastic-packaging | New labelling helps UK shoppers avoid plastic packaging | A new plastic-free “trust mark” is being introduced today, allowing shoppers to see at a glance whether products use plastic in their packaging. The label will be prominently displayed on food and drink products, making it easier for consumers to choose greener alternatives. UK supermarket Iceland and Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza - which introduced plastic-free aisles earlier this year – will start using the new labelling, alongside Teapigs teabags, but campaigners hope others will follow suit. “Our trust mark cuts through the confusion of symbols and labels and tells you just one thing – this packaging is plastic-free and therefore guilt-free,” said Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, the campaign group behind the scheme. As well as items obviously wrapped in plastic, scores of everyday products – from tinned beans to tea bags – have some plastic in their packaging. Sutherland said she hoped the new labelling system would revolutionise the way people shop and lead to a radical reduction in plastic waste. “Finally shoppers can be part of the solution not the problem,” she added. There has been growing concern about the devastating impact of plastic on the oceans and wider environment. Plastic pollution is now so widespread that it has been found in tap water, fish and sea salt – with unknown consequences for human health. Iceland will begin to adopt the new labelling system on relevant own-label products this month, and roll it out across its range, which it has said will be free of single-use plastic packaging by 2023. Ekoplaza said it would be rolling out the trust mark in 74 outlets across the Netherlands. A Plastic Planet has been campaigning for supermarkets to introduce plastic-free aisles and there has been growing pressure on the major retailers to do more to tackle the problem. Earlier this year the Guardian revealed that supermarkets are responsible for 1m tonnes of plastic waste a year. Iceland managing director, Richard Walker, said: “With the grocery retail sector accounting for more than 40% of plastic packaging in the UK, it’s high time that Britain’s supermarkets came together to take a lead on this issue. “I’m proud to lead a supermarket that is working with A Plastic Planet to realise a plastic-free future for food and drink retail.” | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'business/supermarkets', 'world/iceland', 'world/europe-news', 'world/netherlands', 'world/world', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-05-16T09:17:56Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2007/jul/26/therearesomethingsthat | The problem with farmers' markets | Good for us ... farmers' markets are good, but they could be better. Photograph: David Sillitoe There are some things that really bug me about farmers' markets. (And ok let's get it out of the way at the beginning. I am a dedicated fan on the whole. I joined the campaign to open one in my area so I could buy fresh British food more easily. I cycle over and shop at it each week. I even rang the bell to open it when it was set up.) But I want them to survive and prosper. I want to use them to do my essential food shopping not just for entertainment. I want my market to serve the whole community, so, these are the questions I'd like answered: Why are all the broad beans and bits of rhubarb sold in prettily-bundled random bunches that look lovely enough for a Country Living magazine photo shoot but are impossible to compare for weight and price per kilo between producers? Why is the fantastic bread I buy there more expensive than exactly the same bread sold by the same people at their local shop? Do they think we are all suckers or are their overheads for turning up to market really larger than those for running a shop premises? Why does the industrial farmer, who got so fed up with being squeezed into the ground by the major retailers that he decided to deal with his public direct again, need to charge the punters more rather than less now he has cut out the rapacious middlemen? Why do all the stallholders dish out plastic bags? Why are there so many people in boat shoes pushing their children in off-road 4x4 buggies? Why can't I buy my bananas there? In fact, why can't we be more like the French? One answer of course is that the French have retained their local and wholesale distribution networks where ours have been destroyed by the supermarkets, forcing the new farmer's markets to artificially recreate them. At a French market, the majority of food would be local but I would be able to buy other things too. I live in a metropolis, after all. Whoever said we couldn't have trade? Yes I know, imposing a defined "local" area from which the produce at farmers' markets may come is one way they try to restore integrity to our much corrupted food. Yes, I know sometimes good food costs more than factory pap. But if they are really going to contribute to changing the whole system rather than just being fashionable playgrounds, farmers' markets need to get real. | ['environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'food/food', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/felicitylawrence'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2007-07-26T12:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2016/feb/02/germany-leads-europe-in-offshore-wind-energy-growth | Germany leads Europe in offshore wind energy growth | Germany has overtaken the UK in the rate at which it is installing wind turbines at sea, industry figures show. Globally, wind installations grew by 25% in 2014, reaching a landmark 62,000 MW of capacity, according to a separate report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). More than 3,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power was connected to the European grid last year – twice as much as in 2014 - with the vast majority coming from Germany. While Britain connected 556MW of offshore energy and the Netherlands 180MW, Germany added a massive 2,282MW. The UK still has the most installed offshore wind power in Europe, at 5,061MW to Germany’s total of 3,295MW. A spokesman for the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), which published the figures, said that the UK had attracted more investment than Germany last year, but installed less capacity, as Germany cleared a backlog that had built up in 2014. “Germany was the engine behind the record year in 2015 and we would expect it to continue its lead,” he told the Guardian. “Germany will be a big offshore story towards 2020 certainly.” The offshore wind industry is generally positive towards the subsidy regime promised by UK energy secretary, Amber Rudd, of three more “contracts for difference” auctions before 2020. But the spokesman said: “clarity on the arrangement of these auctions is essential.” Overall offshore wind investment in Europe doubled to €13.3bn last year, in a record year for the budding green tech sector. But a dip in grid connections is expected in 2016, with more capacity coming online towards the decade’s end. In a sign that the industry is fast developing, year-on-year wind turbine orders were up 75% last year. Offshore platforms were built further out to sea - 43km on average - and in deeper waters, typically around 27m. Europe’s three offshore leaders - Germany, the UK and the Netherlands - are still working on six offshore projects, whose grid connection should add another 15% of offshore capacity to Europe’s power system. “The financing is there, the order book is strong, now we need policymakers to come forward with a regulatory vision that will inspire confidence for investors and developers post-2020,” the EWEA spokesman said. E.ON was the industry’s largest developer in 2014, with 17% of connections, followed closely by RWE and EnBW. Offshore’s rapid growth was not confined to Europe, with the number of global platforms growing by a factor of four to provide 4,000 MW of grid-connected electricity, twice the previous record set in 2013, according to BNEF. China had the most eye-catching achievement, installing 29,000 MW, a 40% increase on its previous record and almost as much as the rest of the world combined. “2015 was a fantastic year for the wind industry.” said Amy Grace, head of Wind Insight for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “China was by far the biggest surprise. While it’s not atypical for China to lead in new energy installs, 29GW far exceeded our estimates.” | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/arthurneslen'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2016-02-02T05:00:09Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/jul/28/australian-wholesale-energy-prices-in-june-quarter-tripled-from-last-year-market-operator-says | Australian wholesale energy prices in June quarter tripled from last year, market operator says | Wholesale electricity and gas prices tripled in Australia’s main grid in the June quarter compared with a year ago, as failing coal-fired power plants and soaring global gas costs combined to create “unprecedented” market disruptions, the Australian Energy Market Operator said. Aemo’s quarterly market dynamics report found average spot prices for electricity in the national electricity market, which serves eastern Australia, averaged $264 per megawatt-hour across the quarter. That’s more than double the previous high of $130 in the first quarter of 2019 amid droughts and heatwaves, and a little more than three times the average price in the June quarter of 2021, which was $85. Gas prices averaged $28.40 per gigajoule in east coast markets, up 246% on 12 months ago, and almost triple the previous record of $10.74/GJ set in the September quarter last year. Violette Mouchaileh, executive general manager at Aemo, blamed the price surge on high global prices for fossil fuels, outages at coal-fired power plants, supply issues, and the deepest cold snap to start a winter “in decades”. “What’s clear is the urgent need to build out renewable energy with diversified firming generation – like batteries, hydro and gas – and transmission investment to provide homes and businesses with low-cost, reliable energy,” Mouchaileh said. The price rises may have been higher if not for the imposition of price caps during several weeks in the quarter, and the first suspension of trading in the national electricity market since its creation in 1998. The spike in prices has already partly been passed on to households and consumers through their retail bills, but more imposts are to come. The activation of a payment system to reward companies for reducing energy demand – known as the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader – cost about $86m. Compensation costs for losses incurred after authorities ordered power generators back into the market and during the market suspension in June “cannot yet be estimated as claims are still being received and assessed,” Aemo said. Another measure of the struggle to meet demand during the quarter was the record number of so-called “lack of reserve” conditions declared by Aemo. These rose to 406 separate events – or more than four on average a day – during the three-month period, compared with 36 in the first quarter of this year and 73 in the June quarter of 2021. Renewable energy continued to expand its share of the market. Output from grid-scale solar and wind rose by 664MW, or 21%, from a year earlier, Aemo said. Including rooftop solar panels, clean energy supplied 31.8% of the power in the national electricity market, up 3.7 percentage points on the same quarter a year ago. Output from black coal plants in Queensland and NSW, on the other hand, continued to shrink, dropping 4.8 percentage points to make up 43% of power supplies. Production from Victoria’s brown coal power stations eased back 0.9 percentage points to make up 15.6% of supply. Outages caused by failures at black and brown coal plants or because of Covid-related maintenance delays peaked at a record 4.6 gigawatts of capacity in June. “Outages, bidding changes and fuel supply constraints saw black coal generation’s average quarterly output down by 947MW or 8.5% from [the June quarter of 2021] to its lowest June quarter on record,” Aemo said. Interestingly, an abundance of water actually constrained the amount of hydro power that might otherwise have been generated. “Despite very high rainfall, hydro output was only up by 171 MW on average [to an 9.4% share of the market], as some generators in NSW were constrained by water release restrictions,” Aemo said. The reliance on high-cost gas to compensate for coal’s absence – as well as periods of low solar or wind generation – was the main reason for the jump in wholesale prices. During the quarter, an extra 10 petajoules of gas were used to generate electricity compared with the April-June period of 2021. Overall gas demand, though, edged up only 2 PJ, or 0.5%, as industrial and household users balked at the higher cost and a processing LNG plant outage in Gladstone, Queensland, cut exports. The strains on the electricity market came even though operational demand only grew 0.6% from a year earlier. The problems were short-term with the cold spell in late May and into early June driving half-hourly demand in Queensland to a record of 8255 MW. In Victoria, the state saw demand reach 8158MW, the highest during the June quarter since 2011. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Power prices across the states varied in part according to their reliance on black coal. Queensland saw average wholesale electricity prices soar to a record $323/MWh. Of note, Victoria – where curbs had to be introduced to ensure supplies – was a bigger net exporter of the fuel to other regions thanks to a 20% increase in gas production. “Coupled with production decreases at Moomba [in] South Australia and in Queensland, this saw Victorian gas supply to other states reach its highest level since Q4 2017,” Aemo said. Instead of net flows of 4PJ of gas from Queensland southwards as registered in the June quarter last year, a net 3PJ headed from Victoria northwards in the June quarter just passed. While future prices show some pullback, electricity prices for 2023 were averaging $168/MWh by the end of the June. That’s almost four times higher than the market was expecting in the second quarter of 2021 and well up from the $94 projected at the end of March. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-07-28T17:30:34Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2016/nov/18/africa-tired-being-in-dark-bank-chief-plans-boost-energy-akinwumi-adesina-cop22 | ‘Africa is tired of being in the dark’: bank chief on plans to boost energy | “We lose 5% of our potential GDP every year, and African industries cannot be competitive without access to electricity,” says Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank. “I believe that’s why we can’t break away from reliance on exporting our raw materials – new industries will only go to where there’s power.” He is speaking on the sidelines of the COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech, which ends on Friday. Adesina and colleagues from the bank have been using the conference to highlight its new initiatives on energy, including the New Deal on Energy for Africa, which will see $12bn (£9.7bn) invested in the sector over the next five years. “Africa is tired of being in the dark,” he says. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has also created the role of vice-president on power, and been a major player in setting up the African Renewable Energy Initiative, which aims to generate 10GW of power from renewable sources by 2020 and up to 300GW by 2030. “This initiative was the major outcome for Africa of the Paris COP21 meeting last year, where G7 countries contributed $10bn towards it,” says Adesina. Adesina says he is particularly impressed by the strides Morocco has taken to develop its capacity for solar energy. The AfDB was a major investor in the 160MW Noor solar plant at Ouarzazate, which was opened this year. The complex, which uses giant mirrors to reflect the sun’s heat on to liquid that then turns turbines, is being expanded to produce more than 500MW by 2018. Morocco has also recently signed a deal to build 1720MW in new wind farm capacity. “Africa should use what it has and not what it doesn’t have. We have limitless sunshine and great potential for wind, hydro and geothermal,” he says. However, he still believes there is a role for non-renewable sources of energy in Africa. “We need a balanced energy mix. Some African countries have gas and coal, which can be used in a clean way, and they should use it.” Another major challenge is to increase the amount of money spent on climate change adaptation – or helping countries to rebuild systems when they are destroyed by the impacts of climate change. In Africa, for example, governments are coping with floods, extreme temperatures and major droughts in east and southern Africa and the Sahel. Wealthy countries have committed $100bn towards helping poorer states cope with climate change, but one of the major topics on the agenda in Marrakech has been how that money should be divided between adaptation and mitigation. Until now, only 14% of climate funds have gone to adaptation, and Africa, the continent most deeply affected by climate change, has received only 4% of the total green climate funds. “We’ve been short-changed by climate change and we should not be short-changed in financing,” says Adesina. “South Africa has spent $700m this year dealing with the impacts of the drought last year; Mozambique $200m; Namibia $13m. These emergency costs are continuously displacing public expenditure which should be going to health, education and infrastructure development, and endangering macro-economic stability. My view is that we need to increase the amount to be spent on adaptation so that we can spend money on development.” The AfDB is trying to garner support for an African insurance fund. An initiative called the African Risk Capacity Insurance has been launched, but of 32 countries that signed up, only seven have been able to pay the premiums. Adesina says the idea for the insurance fund was welcomed on Wednesday at an African heads of state meeting chaired by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, and that one way in which climate finance can be better targeted to help African countries is for green climate funds such as the GEF (Global Environment Facility) to start paying the premiums for the African countries. He hopes that this could pave the way for action. “Whenever these drastic climate events like drought, flood or extreme temperature happen, the world has words of comfort for Africa,” says Adesina. “But words of comfort cannot pay the bills and rebuild when problems start.” | ['global-development/access-to-energy', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'global-development/governance-and-development', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/celeste-hicks', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-11-18T14:07:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2008/dec/06/waste-recycling | Eric Pickles: A Conservative government would bring back weekly bin collections | Labour has presided over the slow death of the weekly rubbish collection. Ministers and their quangos have successfully bullied 225 councils across the country into adopting fortnightly collections, with 20 million people in England alone now deprived of a basic weekly service. There is even serious talk by the government's bin quango, WRAP, of a move to monthly collections. What has become clear is that after more than a decade of Labour rule the voice of the people is being disregarded. Research by Ipsos-MORI has found that 73% of the public who currently have a weekly collection oppose the introduction of fortnightly rubbish collections, and only 14% support fortnightly collections. Yet the government still presses ahead with culling this vital service, without any proper debate. To add insult to injury these cutbacks have been against a backdrop of council taxes more than doubling in the last decade. So you pay more and get less under Gordon Brown. Labour ministers claim that this is a matter for "local discretion", yet Whitehall guidance recommends that the bins are emptied fortnightly, and councils are financially penalised if they keep weekly collections. The government's own waste prevention strategy explicitly advocates cutting the scope and frequency of bin collections. Government ministers have tried to peddle the myth that there is "no evidence in published studies" to indicate a link between cuts to weekly collections and increases in flies and vermin. Yet recent parliamentary questions have forced the government to admit it has undertaken detailed research into the health and environmental impacts of vermin and insects from waste by the Central Science Laboratory, an executive agency of the government. The government's own scientists state: "Regular weekly collections particularly during summer months will reduce [fly] infestation rates". Worryingly, Rentokil estimate that there are now 80 million rats on our streets - more than the population of Britain. It used to be the case that you were only ever six feet away from a rat. Now it appears that thanks to Labour, rodents are inching even closer. Labour's cutbacks have also fuelled a wave of fly-tipping, leaving indelible scars on the country's landscape. Official figures show that fly-tipping has soared, adding a massive £213m to council tax bills over that period and damaging to the environment. So what would a Conservative government do? We have set out fully funded proposals to help deliver weekly rubbish collections, ending Labour's unpopular cocktail of bin cuts, bin fines and bin taxes. There is another way: one that rewards recycling rather than penalising people, and which works with how people actually live rather than fining them into conformity. Experience has shown that if you treat the public with respect they will respond. A Conservative government would change Whitehall policy so that there is an expectation that councils should offer full weekly collections, reversing the Labour policy. Central funding will be offered for all councils to provide a weekly collection of organic waste, as well as comprehensive recycling collections. This will be provided by scrapping a series of unelected quangos and local government bureaucracy. Councils, subject to the ballot box, will still have the final decision on what services to offer, but they will no longer be forced and bullied into cutting services because of Whitehall diktats. We want to hand power back to local communities. Cutbacks and stealth taxes do not have to be inevitable. If the Conservatives win power, the needs of local people will not be sidelined: they will be at the forefront of everything we do. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'politics/localgovernment', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'politics/labour', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/eric-pickles'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-12-06T16:00:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/jun/20/nsw-waives-stamp-duty-on-evs-and-spends-171m-on-chargers-throughout-the-state | NSW waives stamp duty on EVs and spends $171m on chargers throughout the state | The New South Wales government will waive stamp duty on electric vehicle purchases and provide subsidies for 25,000 new purchases as part of a $490m strategy to drive uptake of EVs. Under the plan announced on Sunday, people buying battery and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles priced under $78,000 from 1 September will pay no stamp duty, and $3,000 rebates will be available on the same day for the first 25,000 private purchases of electric vehicles priced under $68,750. The Berejiklian government said it would delay a previously mooted road user tax for zero- and low-emissions cars for six years or until new EVs made up 30% of new car sales. The electric vehicle industry welcomed the subsidies and the delay of the road user charge. Behyad Jafari, the head of the Electric Vehicle Council, said NSW was the first state to treat EVs seriously as a globally necessary technology to combat the climate crisis. The government said it would spend $171m on new charging infrastructure, including $131m on ultra-fast vehicle chargers, $20m in grants for “destination chargers” in regional areas, and $20m for charging infrastructure at public transport hubs on land owned by Transport for NSW. It said it would aim to ensure households with limited off-street parking would be no more than 5km from a charger, and chargers would be installed at 100km intervals along major highways and at 5km intervals on major roads in Sydney. EV drivers will also be given access to T2 and T3 lanes for set times. The government said the road user charge of 2.5c a kilometre in today’s dollars (or 2c for plug-in hybrid EVs) would start from either 1 July 2027 or when EVs made up 30% of new car sales, whichever comes first. It would replace stamp duty and partially replace fuel excise. Energy and environment minister Matt Kean said the changes would make it easier for people to make their next new car an EV, and would help the state get to net zero emissions by 2050. “We know that with new cars staying on the road 15 years on average, the vast majority of new cars sold in NSW need to be EVs by 2035 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050,” he said. “Our aim is to increase EV sales to more than 50% of new cars sold in NSW by 2030 and for EVs to be the vast majority of new cars sold in the state by 2035.” The forecast would be for EV new car sales to hit 52% by 2030-31. The road charge is in line with that being brought in by Victoria, but Victoria’s charge starts from 1 July this year, leading to concerns it will hinder take-up of EVs, with environmental groups and car manufacturers stating it is the “worst electric vehicle policy in the world”. Subsequently the Victorian state government announced a similar $3,000 subsidy for EVs lower than $69,000 and a target of 50% of new car sales being zero- or low-emission vehicles by 2030 and promised to support more infrastructure. Beginning in May in the ACT, residents who buy an EV do not have to pay stamp duty, and get two years’ free registration. Just 0.75% of new cars bought in Australia in 2020 were EVs, compared with more than 4% globally, more than 10% in Britain and the European Union and nearly 75% in Norway. Jafari said the NSW position was “up there with globally best practice” and meant Australia was “finally starting to see a state that is walking the walk on EVs and not just tinkering around the edges”. He said the support for charging stations would help alleviate “range anxiety” – the concern an EV would run out of power – and introducing a road user tax to replace stamp duty once an industry was established was reasonable. “This now sets the benchmark for every other state,” Jafari said. The Morrison government has rejected calls to introduce incentives for people to drive clean cars, saying its role was just to ensure there was infrastructure so drivers had choice. Nationally, greenhouse gas emissions from transport had increased until they dipped due to Covid-19 last year. Official government projections released in December suggested they would rebound and not start reducing before 2030 this decade under current federal policies. | ['environment/electric-vehicles-australia', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/transport', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-taylor', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-06-19T20:00:03Z | true | ENERGY |
lifeandstyle/2017/nov/17/confessions-of-a-kitchen-hoarder | Confessions of a kitchen hoarder | Sue Quinn | It’s not that I’m blind to the seductive wink of kitchen equipment. As others desire the scarlet flash of Louboutin soles or the buttery kiss of a Balenciaga tote, I’m susceptible to culinary gadgets and utensils. Show me a cool square of mottled marble on which to roll out pastry, and I’m gone. You could see this for yourself if you managed to jemmy open my large kitchen drawer – one of several slotted pasta scoops is likely to have wedged it firmly shut. Inside is an archaeological assay of my kitchen past; a timeline of bits and bobs, some of which I use daily but most of which I have abandoned to the gods. A potato ricer, like a giant’s garlic press, I found among the housecoats and big knickers at an Italian market (used occasionally). A ridged plate for grating garlic, bought for an extortionate price at a ceramics shop in Cotignac, while channelling A Year in Provence like a fool (never used, ditto tiny brush that came with). A funnel plucked from the glorious chaos of a car boot in Dorset (used frequently). A farrago of measuring jugs, mixing bowls, pastry cutters, defunct meat probes, kitchen scales, sugar thermometers, a mandolin and its family of blades, sundry food processor attachments (functions unknown), piping bags and nozzles (used only in my nightmares), ceramic baking beads (deployed occasionally, but a joy to run my fingers through à la Amélie and her lentils). And that is an abridged exploration of just one drawer. And yet, the sensible part of my brain – the bit that writes about food for a living – knows this collection is madness. And I was reminded of this recently while working on a new cookbook in which every recipe had to be made in a single roasting tray. The truth is, very delicious things can be cooked with very little equipment – with no dispiriting piles of washing up to contend with afterwards. Elizabeth David was right. One of her most famous essays, Garlic Presses are Utterly Useless, begins as a cookbook review but spirals into a tirade against superfluous kitchen gadgetry. If you wish to crush a garlic clove, she argues in her fine and firm style, why not use the back of a heavy knife? “Quicker, surely, than getting the garlic press out of the drawer, let alone using it and cleaning it,” she asserts. More’s the pity that we will never know her views on today’s world of spiralisers, avocado huggers and strawberry hullers. So, how much of my kitchen equipment do I actually use? Not much. Despite a drawer overflowing with knives, I always reach for the same silver Füri; a wedding present 17 years ago, it’s so comfortable to hold that it now feels like an extension of my hand. A couple of 40-year-old Le Creuset pans passed on from my mother-in-law. The enamel is wearing away and the lids are cracked, but they’re reliable and speak of so many family meals – including those eaten by my husband as a kid – I can’t bear to cook in anything else. A couple of roasting trays, of course. A frying pan. A mortar and pestle. A food processor. Wooden spoons and spatulas. A chopping board. Maybe some tongs. Mostly utensils that have more than one use. I have taken a virtual peek into the kitchen drawers of other cooks, and it seems that less is more all round. Food writer Emiko Davies wrote her first cookbook Florentine: the True Cuisine of Florence (Hardie Grant) with an impressively modest clutch of kit. “I had a fork, lots of wooden spoons, a good knife, a rolling pin, a whisk, a food mill and a simple pair of electric beaters,” she tells me. Claire Thomson, chef, food writer and author of The Art of the Larder (Quadrille) agrees. “Seriously, a sharp knife and good hefty chopping board and you can prep just about anything,” she says. “Good, solid, heavy-bottomed pans that distribute heat evenly are definitely worth their price tag, but I’ve found countless ones in charity shops for a dime, as people tend to find them too heavy.” “I’m not big at all on equipment,” says Diana Henry, award-winning author of 10 cookbooks.” People try to persuade me to try out a Vitamix blender, but I know what would happen – it would sit on the floor of the larder and I would trip over it.” The only pieces of electrical equipment she values are beaters and a food processor. Henry’s other kitchen essentials are pretty basic: roasting tins, box grater, a few pots and pans (including a large one to make stock), sieve, colander, scales, chopping boards, tins, baking sheets and a pastry brush (if you bake), a measuring jug, good knives, a few mixing bowls, wooden spoons, a slotted spoon, rolling pin, spatula and pestle and mortar. So, if acclaimed cooks can achieve so much with so little, why do some of us hoard for doomsday when it comes to kitchenalia? Again, Elizabeth David’s wisdom is apposite. “I don’t a bit covet the exotic gear dangling from hooks, the riot of clanking ironmongery, the serried rank of sauté pans and all other carefully chosen symbols of culinary activity I see in so many photographs of chic kitchens,” she says in an essay in Is There a Nutmeg in the House? “Pseuds corners, I’m afraid, many of them.” In other words, any fool can collect kitchen equipment. It doesn’t mean they can cook a decent meal. Sue Quinn is a writer and editor specialising in food and cookery and blogs at penandspoon.com. Roasting Tray Magic by Sue Quinn (Quadrille) is out now. | ['food/food', 'tone/comment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/gadgets', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/sue-quinn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/cook', 'theguardian/cook/cook', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/cook'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-11-17T12:00:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
tv-and-radio/2019/nov/14/climategate-science-of-a-scandal-review-the-hack-that-cursed-our-planet | Climategate: Science of a Scandal review – the hack that cursed our planet | Is it pure arrogance that makes laypeople think they know better than scientists who have spent their lives painstakingly researching an issue? Or a desperate insecurity that makes them unable to stand the respect accorded to experts? These questions swirled round Climategate: Science of a Scandal (BBC Four) as it anatomised the events of 10 years ago, when an anonymous hacker stole and shared thousands of emails between scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. They were seized on by assorted sceptics and deniers and used to cast doubt on climate change and global warming, helped by an uncritical media that leaned into the storm. For fossil fuel companies and their ilk, the timing was propitious. The emails were released just as scientific consensus on the threat posed by global warming was filtering through to public consciousness and beginning to take root. The story began a few years before, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had – by collating historical and contemporary temperature data from around the globe – highlighted the iconic “hockey stick” graph. Its easily understandable depiction of 1,000 years of relatively stable temperatures (the long handle of the stick) veering sharply upwards from the industrial age onwards (the blade) did much to impress the threat of global warming on the collective mind. Then Steve McIntyre, who worked in the fossil fuel industry, decided the graph was suspect and asked Phil Jones, the director of the CRU – a key contributor to the hockey stick study – to provide him with the data behind it. Prof Jones initially agreed (“He gave me much more than I was expecting,” noted McIntyre here). But, as the requests became more frequent, he stopped handing over data, because it wasn’t truly the CRU’s to give and he feared antagonising its suppliers. A stream of freedom of information requests followed, and even more when McIntyre mobilised his blog followers to apply en masse. After that came the hack. By cherrypicking phrases from the e-mountain of correspondence, opponents undid much of the persuasive work that had been done. Amid the onslaught from sceptics and deniers, the scientists, wholly unused to such assaults, struggled to get their rebuttals across. One email from Jones caused the most excitement. The phrase “Use Mike’s nature trick to hide the decline” was heralded as proof of a conspiracy to deceive the world about global warming. In fact, his email was discussing how to exclude a well-known set of anomalous tree-ring results that, unlike all other data, purported to show a decline in temperature, so as not to distort the overall picture. “Trick” in statistician-speak basically means “neatest, best way to do something”. Deniers and the media went after Jones to the extent that he can still barely bring himself to talk about it. His former colleague Tim Osborn is likewise unable to suppress tears when he remembers the death threats and anonymous promises “to visit your wife and children”. It is a story we are now depressingly familiar with, and it induces the same incredulous rage. Beyond the trolls, who have their own revolting pathology, who are these people who feel justified to try to undo a life’s work? Who feel able to set themselves up in judgment? What have they added to the sum of human knowledge? The media’s role was examined, though not thoroughly enough. We saw multiple clips of incompetent spokespeople being presented as if they were of equal standing to the scientists under attack or their representatives, and forever whipping up the furore further rather than digging down into the facts. The question of what truly constitutes balance in programmes, of course, has become all the more pertinent in the years since, as our major broadcasters seem to have accepted that it equates to equal air time for all, however unqualified or small a group they represent. Two independent inquiries and a government select committee exonerated the CRU of all the accusations hurled at it. “There is no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice … The rigour and honesty of the scientists is not in doubt.” On the 10th anniversary of Climategate, it would have been nice to see the rigour and honesty of their accusers interrogated more closely, but at least the scientists finally got to tell their side of the story. The scandal almost certainly contributed to the lack of success of the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference that followed. Fossil fuel industry-funded researchers have since carried out their own studies on the hockey stick data. They yielded precisely the same results as the original. The injustice still burns, along with the world. | ['tv-and-radio/series/tv-review', 'culture/television', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'culture/culture', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/lucymangan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/tvandradio', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2019-11-14T22:00:01Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
sport/2019/feb/08/olympics-medals-recycled-gadgets-electronic-waste | Tokyo 2020 medals to be made from discarded smartphones and laptops | All medals at next summer’s Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo will be made from recycled electronic waste, including discarded smartphones, digital cameras and other handheld games and laptops, organizers revealed on Friday. Officials said they expect to collect enough obsolete electronic devices by the end of March to extract the amount of gold, silver and bronze that will be required to manufacture all the medals that will be awarded next year. The organizing committee said municipal authorities had already collected 47,488 tons of junked devices by November, roughly 19 months after the project was launched with targets of 30.3kg of gold, 4,100kg of silver and 2,700kg of bronze. The goal for bronze was reached in June, while more than 90% of the gold and 85% of the silver has been collected, officials said. “It is estimated that the remaining amounts of metal required to manufacture all Olympic and Paralympic medals can be extracted from the devices already donated,” the organizers said in a statement. The concept has been implemented in previous Olympics, most recently at Rio 2016, where an estimated 30% of the silver and bronze medals were wrought from recycled materials. But organizers noted the current project will mark the first time citizens have been proactively involved with the donation of consumer electronics. The designs for the Tokyo 2020 medals will be unveiled later this year. | ['sport/olympic-games-2020', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'sport/olympic-games', 'environment/waste', 'sport/sport', 'sport/us-sport', 'type/article', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-sport', 'profile/guardian-sport', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-sport'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-02-08T20:50:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/aug/31/recycling-rates-significantly-lower-england-poorest-areas-report | Recycling rates lower in England's poorest areas | Recycling rates for household waste are significantly lower in the most deprived areas of England, a Guardian analysis has found. A breakdown of data from 303 local authorities in England has found that for 2018-19 85% of local authorities that are among the top 20% most deprived have household recycling rates below the overall average of 42%. By contrast, just one in five of the 20% least deprived areashave a below-average recycling rate. Deprivation is calculated using the English indices of deprivation, which ranks local authorities from the most deprived to the least deprived. The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) publishes data on household recycling rates, which includes waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting. County councils were not included in the analysis to avoid overlap. In the borough of Newham in east London, just 16% of household waste falls into this category – the lowest proportion across all local authorities in England. The local authorities of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Barking and Dagenham are among the 10 local authorities with the lowest rates of household recycling, and are also among the six most deprived local authorities in England. By contrast, the local authorities of South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse, St Albans City and Surrey Heath are among the least deprived local authorities, and all have household recycling rates of more than 60%, putting them in the top six local authorities measured. Chaitanya Kumar, the head of environment and green transition at the New Economics Foundation, said the relationship between recycling rates and social deprivation was well established, but that the reasons were complex. He said: “Access to storage space for waste, high density housing, lack of clear and tailored communication, a more mobile population and the inability to prioritise recycling as a result of poverty are just a few of the structural reasons behind low recycling rates. “Improving economic wellbeing plus a more focused communications strategy is the way forward to improve recycling rates in underserved communities.” Cllr David Renard, the environment spokesman for the Local Government Association, said types of housing and whether the local authority was in the city or country had an impact on recycling rates. “Councils will consider a wide range of factors in determining the most effective type of service,” he said. “Councils should be free to decide how to deliver their waste services locally and we support the call by the housing, communities and local government committee for councils to have the flexibility and extra funding to ensure they meet the recycling challenges under the waste strategy.” A Defra spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring that we go further and faster to reduce, reuse and recycle more of our resources – and our landmark resources and waste strategy will ensure 65% of municipal waste is recycled by 2035. “We have published guidance to help local authorities boost recycling rates, especially for those who live in flats, and we encourage councils across the country to promote and maintain a consistent recycling service to all their residents.” Recycling rates have been falling for the past few years despite a longstanding EU target to reach 50% for household waste recycling by 2020, which the UK looks almost certain to have missed. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'uk/birmingham', 'uk/liverpool', 'society/localgovernment', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tobi-thomas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-08-31T09:53:23Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2017/nov/07/what-are-your-experiences-of-delhis-pollution-crisis | What are your experiences of Delhi's pollution crisis? | A public health emergency has been declared in Delhi as a choking blanket of smog descended on the world’s most polluted capital city. “We have declared a state of public health emergency in Delhi since pollution is at an alarming level,” Krishan Kumar Aggarwal, head of the Indian Medical Association, told AFP. If you live in Delhi, we’d like to hear your stories and see your photos of the situation in the city. Has the smog affected your daily life? How are you and your family coping with the conditions? If you live in another city in India that has problems with with air pollution, we’d like to hear from you too. How to contribute You can fill out the encrypted form below or contribute via GuardianWitness. Tell us what it’s like living in Delhi during heavy smog, and how pollution impacts life in the city. We’ll use some of your contributions in our reporting. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'world/delhi', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world', 'world/india', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-readers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-11-07T13:27:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2009/sep/04/greens-pfi-hospitals | Government should 'buy back' PFI hospitals, says Green party | The NHS could save hundreds of millions of pounds if the government were to "buy back" hospitals funded under the controversial private finance initiative pushed through by Gordon Brown, according to the Green party. Adrian Ramsay, the deputy leader of the Greens, will use his keynote speech to the party conference tomorrow to argue that ending costly PFI contracts could help the Treasury recoup millions. Ramsay's comments will form part of a wider attack against "creeping privatisation" as the Greens seek to spell out their commitment to public services. The deputy leader will accuse Labour of "betraying" the founding principles of the NHS through its "privatisation agenda", and round on the Tories following the "insulting remarks" expressed by Tory MEP Daniel Hannan about the NHS on US television. "We need to stand up for the NHS, and not just in debates about US healthcare," he is expected to say. "Greens will ensure that the NHS remains public, with good quality services available locally to all, and public money supporting public servants to provide a public service." | ['politics/green-party', 'environment/green-politics', 'society/nhs', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'politics/pfi', 'politics/politics', 'society/conferences', 'type/article', 'profile/helenemulholland'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-09-04T08:22:38Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2017/aug/28/climate-change-hurricane-harvey-more-deadly | It's a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly | Michael E Mann | What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding. Sea level rise attributable to climate change – some of which is due to coastal subsidence caused by human disturbance such as oil drilling – is more than half a foot (15cm) over the past few decades (see here for a decent discussion). That means the storm surge was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction. In addition to that, sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5C (close to 1F) over the past few decades from roughly 30C (86F) to 30.5C (87F), which contributed to the very warm sea surface temperatures (30.5-31C, or 87-88F). There is a simple thermodynamic relationship known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that tells us there is a roughly 3% increase in average atmospheric moisture content for each 0.5C of warming. Sea surface temperatures in the area where Harvey intensified were 0.5-1C warmer than current-day average temperatures, which translates to 1-1.5C warmer than “average” temperatures a few decades ago. That means 3-5% more moisture in the atmosphere. That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding. The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing. Not only are the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm right now, but there is a deep layer of warm water that Harvey was able to feed upon when it intensified at near record pace as it neared the coast. Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It’s creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere. Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge. (As an example of how this works, we have shown that climate change has led to a dramatic increase in storm surge risk in New York City, making devastating events like Hurricane Sandy more likely.) Finally, the more tenuous but potentially relevant climate factors: part of what has made Harvey such a devastating storm is the way it has stalled near the coast. It continues to pummel Houston and surrounding regions with a seemingly endless deluge, which will likely top out at nearly 4ft (1.22m) of rainfall over a days-long period before it is done. The stalling is due to very weak prevailing winds, which are failing to steer the storm off to sea, allowing it to spin around and wobble back and forth. This pattern, in turn, is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change. More tenuous, but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies (both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change. We recently published a paper in the academic journal Scientific Reports on this phenomenon. In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey (that is an ill-posed question), we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey. Michael E Mann is distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center and author of three books, including The Hockey Stick and The Climate Wars, Dire Predictions, and The Madhouse Effect. This article was amended on August 28 2017. Due to an editing error, a previous version of the article incorrectly stated that the author had published a paper on stationary summer weather patterns in Nature. It was actually published in Scientific Reports. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'us-news/hurricane-harvey', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/houston', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/sea-level', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'us-news/texas', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/michael-e-mann', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | us-news/hurricane-harvey | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-08-28T14:07:39Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2019/may/28/sydney-facing-first-water-restrictions-in-a-decade-as-drought-grips-new-south-wales | Sydney facing first water restrictions in a decade as drought grips New South Wales | Sydney is facing stage one water restrictions for the first time in a decade as dam levels drop faster than expected. From Saturday, all hoses must have trigger nozzles, watering lawns and gardens will be restricted to early morning and late afternoon, and there will be tough fines for those who flout the restrictions. The NSW government announced the restrictions, which apply to everyone in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra region, on Tuesday and said they were necessary because of the drought gripping the state. Melinda Pavey, the state minister for water, said Sydney was experiencing some of the lowest inflows into its dams since the 1940s. “It’s vital we take early and decisive action. The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest forecast is predicting below-average rainfall and higher temperatures for June to August, which are key drivers of stronger water demand. Water restrictions are an important drought response because they target the outdoor water use of all households. “Regional NSW has been experiencing a record drought. Water restrictions in Sydney mean that households across NSW are doing their bit to conserve water.” Sydney dam levels are at 53.5% across all 11 dams, with Warragamba dam at 54.8% and Woronora dam at 44.3%. Levels have fallen dramatically since April 2017 when they were at 96% combined capacity. At the same time last year, levels were at 73.4%. Regional areas are also at alarmingly low levels of 28% total capacity. NSW has been in drought since mid 2017, with dam levels have been falling at an average of 0.04% per week over the past two years. Restrictions are usually triggered once dam levels fall below 50% but this round has been activated because levels are falling so rapidly. In April, a survey commissioned by Sydney Water found that more than 60% of Sydney residents were unaware of the current drought. Sydneysiders use about 11bn litres of water a week. Sydney’s desalination plant at Kurnell was switched on January, when dam levels dropped below 60%. When it was restarted, chief executive officer Keith Davies predicted the plant would be producing water “within three or four months”. The plant is running ahead of schedule and has been supplying Sydney Water with drinking water for about 10 weeks, producing about 750ML to 850 ML of water a week. It is expected to reach full capacity by August 2019 , when it will produce 250 ML per day of water or around 15% of Sydney’s drinking water requirements The restrictions will be in place from Saturday. That means lawns and gardens can only be watered with a hose fitted with a trigger nozzle before 10 am and after 4 pm. Sprinklers and watering systems is not permitted, although drip irrigation systems or automated watering systems with adjustable controls can be used. Paths, driveways and other hard surfaces can only be spot cleaned in an emergency or for health and safety reasons, while vehicles, trailers, boats or buildings can only be washed using a bucket, high pressure cleaning equipment or a hose fitted with a trigger nozzle. Permits will be needed to fill a new or renovated pool greater than 10,000 litres. Those using recycled water, grey water, rainwater and bore water are among those exempt from the restrictions. Those found to have broken water restrictions face fines of up to $220 for individuals and $550 for companies. | ['australia-news/sydney', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'weather/sydney', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alexandra-spring', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-05-28T04:02:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2014/jan/17/victorian-bushfires-warnings-issued-as-fast-moving-fire-threatens-homes | Victorian bushfires: warnings issued as fast-moving fire threatens homes | Residents are being warned it is not safe to leave their homes in the west of Victoria as bushfires rage across the Australian state. Fires in the area around the Grampians are covering about 11,000 hectares, with firefighters saying at least two homes have been lost overnight. Warnings were issued on Friday morning telling residents in Brimpaen, Heathvale and Laharum, about 200km west of Ballarat, that a fast-moving fire had burned through the Wartook valley overnight. “You are in danger, act now to protect yourself,” the warning said. “It is too late to leave. The safest option is to take shelter indoors.” Locals were told to look out for spot fires and ember attack. Residents in Cherrypool, Glenisla and Glenisla Crossing in the Grampians are being told to leave immediately, with the fire expected to reach the Henty Highway by 9am – though it is already closed at Cavendish. “Leaving now is the safest option, before conditions become too dangerous,” the warning says. “Emergency services may not be able to help if you decide to stay.” People are being told to flee to the nearby town of Hamilton or to the homes of family and friends which are not in the warning area. Temperatures in the Grampians are expected to hit the mid-40s on Friday. A cool change is expected in the afternoon, bringing a wind change which could make conditions for fighting the fire worse. A north-westerly of about 45km/h is expected to change to a southerly at some point in the late afternoon or early evening. Residents are being told to close all windows and doors if inside, seek safety in the middle of a football field or body of water such as a dam if they are outside and not to drive in the area. Those trapped in their cars by the bushfire are being told to park behind a solid structure facing the fire, turn off the engine, close all windows and vents, and get down as low as they can with a blanket covering them. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'world/wildfires', 'weather/victoria', 'type/article', 'profile/bridie-jabour'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-01-16T22:23:33Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
cities/2015/aug/26/new-orleans-resilience-roadmap-climate-social-issues | New Orleans launches resilience roadmap to tackle climate and social challenges | In the week that marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans officials have launched a comprehensive “resilience strategy” aiming to secure the city’s future. As well as seeking ways for the city to both prevent and survive more climate-related catastrophes, it treats social challenges such as poverty, racial inequality and crime as disasters that must be addressed if New Orleans is to become truly “resilient”. In the strategy’s parlance, it tackles both “shocks” and “stresses”. Resilient New Orleans is a joint effort between the city and the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, which provides money and technical support for urban areas facing threats to their long-term prosperity. Conceived as a roadmap that highlights priority areas and seeks to close gaps in existing plans, the strategy proposes 41 actions designed to make the city more equitable, adaptable and prosperous, from promoting energy efficiency to enlarging the public transportation network to establishing personal emergency savings accounts to boosting resources to combat the erosion of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, which are a vital line of defence against severe weather. While numerous plans and ideas to improve conditions have been proposed in the wake of Katrina, which killed some 1,000 people in Louisiana and displaced hundreds of thousands when levees failed and flooded 80% of New Orleans, officials insisted that the wide-ranging blueprint has the means to succeed. “People in New Orleans are tired of planning and this strategy is a means to take action,” said Jeff Hebert, the city’s chief resilience officer, at the launch on Tuesday. A statement said that “partners in the private and philanthropic sector will provide greater than $1m in immediate tools and services” to begin implementing the strategy, and more funds will be sought from a variety of sources. “All of the actions have pretty clear ownership and there’s been a lot of work already to identify who the partners are who will support the actions,” said Michael Berkowitz, the 100 Resilient Cities president. “Cities that have that catalyst for change, the ones that have suffered through severe events or have really clear risk profiles, those cities sometimes do the most innovative work because the mayor doesn’t have to convince anyone that business as usual’s not going to work. Everybody in the city describes time as ‘before Katrina’ and ‘after Katrina’.” The mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, said the city is in negotiations with FEMA, the federal emergency management agency, about how to proceed with the reconstruction of its water and drainage system. In an example of how the project seeks to foster interconnectedness, Landrieu said he hoped the overhaul would provide employment and training opportunities for many of the city’s jobless. “Everything we do now has a resilience lens on it,” he said. The 90-page strategy (PDF) was developed over nine months and sought input from members of the local community. One, Jeffrey Schwartz, is the executive director of Broad Community Connections, an organisation aiming to revitalise one of the city’s most historic and busy thoroughfares. “New Orleans has horrible rates of obesity and diabetes; that is in part because we suffer from not having enough fresh food access and access to healthcare,” Schwartz said. He said that one of the group’s aims is to “overlay real-estate development with programming” - not installing business tenants who are able to pay the highest rents, but ones who best meet local needs. The strategy calls for leveraging resources for coastal projects – for example, by using money from the BP oil spill settlement – as well as an outreach campaign to improve public awareness of environmental issues. It also stresses the importance of implementing projects that will help urban areas live with stormwater, not simply keep it out. A microgrid project is planned that will enhance the city’s backup electricity generation and mitigate the effects of outages, which could be vital in keeping essential services running in the event of another hurricane. Another suggestion is to put solar panels on New Orleans’ city hall. “If you’re going to live in a coastal city, you have to speed up your ability to respond. It’s not just about building to prevent a disaster, it’s got to be about the response and the comeback after a disaster,” said David Muth, director of the Gulf Restoration Programme at the National Wildlife Federation. Muth said the rebuilt levees ($14.5bn has been spent on upgrades to the flood defence system since Katrina) plus a recent influx of new residents who were not in the city during the 2005 storm risked breeding a sense of complacency that is dangerous given the worsening effects of climate change on the region. On average, the Louisiana coast is losing wetlands at the rate of a football field every hour: “Deltas are not static … the sea has been winning for 300 years and that victory has accelerated over the past 100 years,” Muth said. “The cost of prevention is tiny compared to the cost of rebuilding and eventually having to move much of the city’s infrastructure because we can’t hang on to it where it is … We’ve had a series of storms that really bring home the message: ‘Guys, we’re way more vulnerable than we thought.’” As part of the strategy, a “resilience center” will open in New Orleans to serve as a resource and training facility for cities around the world, encouraging the sharing of ideas and best practices. “What makes [the strategy] so impressive is that it’s so fully integrated,” said Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. “It really is looking at the physical infrastructure, both natural and built, and linking it to economic and social resilience. For New Orleans to really recover and for most cities around the world to become truly resilient, the three domains – physical, economic and social – need to be tightly interwoven, and this really does do that.” Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion | ['cities/cities', 'cities/series/resilient-cities', 'us-news/series/hurricane-katrina-10-years-on', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'us-news/new-orleans', 'type/article', 'profile/tom-dart'] | us-news/series/hurricane-katrina-10-years-on | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-08-26T09:26:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/dec/02/great-barrier-reef-progress-report-we-have-to-do-better-on-water-quality-says-australia | Great Barrier Reef progress report: We have to do better on water quality, says Australia | Australia needs to work faster on lifting water quality to save the Great Barrier Reef, according to its first progress report to Unesco since the world heritage site was spared an “in-danger” listing. The report admitted that a key plank of Australia’s conservation plan – land-clearing reforms in Queensland to staunch water pollution – had failed. It also highlighted climate change, which is the biggest threat to the reef and led to the worst recorded coral bleaching in its history this year, but which the plan makes no attempt to address. But the Australian government reports “good progress” over the first 18 months of its Reef 2050 plan, citing limits on new port developments and a ban on dumping in reef waters the spoil from the dredging of shipping channels. Australia had clinched an “investment framework” that mapped out $1.28bn in spending over the next five years, with $716m from the federal government, $409m from the Queensland government and $161m from “other sources”. The report noted “no undertaking of comparable scope, complexity and financial commitment has been attempted in a marine environment or world heritage site”. While the priority was to lift the quality of water running into the reef and things were “steadily” improving, the update flagged the “need to accelerate our progress towards the ambitious targets that have been set”. The update pointed to the 2015 reef report card – written before bleaching this year wiped out about a quarter of all coral – which still gave the reef a “D” for its overall health for the fifth year in a row. Progress in cutting nitrogen pollution was “very poor” and improving farm practices “poor”, it said, with Queensland poised next year to bring in tougher laws governing use of fertiliser. On funding the water-quality targets, the report acknowledged a Queensland government study showing it would cost $8.2bn over 10 years. But it then indicated it wasn’t willing to invest the required amount. “The diminishing return on investment for the more expensive interventions makes these options impractical to implement at this time,” the update said. The Queensland environment minister, Steven Miles, said he was confident the report would be enough to avert fresh consideration of a Unesco “in-danger” listing as it “demonstrates that we’ve done everything we can to be on track” with conservation plans. Miles said a “lot of those big important things” such as the ban on dredge spoil dumping, limits on new ports and reef water-quality investment were under way. “However, given the bleaching event, given the failure of the Queensland parliament to pass the land-clearing laws, and also given the continuing slow progress towards the water-quality targets, there’s obviously some concerns out there,” he said. “If this goes to a debate about in-danger listing, the responsibility will rest at the feet of the [state Liberal National opposition] who, despite claiming credit for the plan, then refused to support a key element of the plan, land-clearing laws. “We know that land clearing is driving massive amounts of sediment out on to the reef and that is one of the biggest threats to the reef.” Miles said bleaching had increased the focus on the failure of the promised land-clearing reforms, which the Queensland Labor government vowed to push through if it won the next election. “Having said that there is a lot of progress and a lot of commitment particularly from the state and commonwealth governments and I think the global community is likely to see that for what it is and recognise we need more time to demonstrate we can get these things on track,” he said. The federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, said the report showed “significant progress” and that “the blueprint for a new era in reef protection has been established for ongoing cooperation and collaboration involving governments, science, industries and communities”. “The update highlights that of the 151 actions scheduled in the initial five years, 32 have been completed and another 103 are under way and on track.” Miles said Australia’s reef conservation plan mainly dealt with “localised” threats. A market-based mechanism for pricing carbon was needed to address the reef’s biggest threat of climate change, he said. “We’ve actually been damaging the reef for decades through what we’ve done up and down the coast. So we need to address those things if we’re going to give the reef any chance of surviving.” Miles said Queensland was poised to introduce tougher regulations about the use of fertiliser in early 2017, with the sugar cane industry in particular having “a long way to go” in cleaning up its act “enough to actually have an impact on water quality”. The report made frequent mention of the bleaching event that hit the reef this year but it didn’t earmark any further funding for conservation action in response. Ian Chubb, chair of the independent expert advisory committee and former Australian chief scientist, wrote an introductory note emphasising the dire threat climate change meant for the reef. Chubb said global action on climate change would be “paramount” but that it must be coupled with initiatives to reduce other pressures. Penelope Wensley, chair of reef 2050 advisory committee, said in an introductory note that the plan “represents the best possible chance for the reef” and “we cannot afford to fail”. Progress was pleasing, she said, but “we have to quicken the pace”. She said many committee members were “calling for stronger action and a greater investment of effort and resources to accelerate progress towards achieving the targets, objectives and outcomes of the reef 2050 plan”. Before seeing the update, the Greens senator Larissa Waters said the government risked “failing its homework” by underfunding the reef plan, delaying water quality targets, spruiking new coal and ignoring global warming. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/unesco', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'australia-news/josh-frydenberg', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/water', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/forests', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-12-01T13:01:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/blog/2009/dec/15/bbc-climate-change-justin-webb | BBC's climate change maverick Justin Webb strikes again on Radio 4 | Leo Hickman | Justin Webb has only been in his new job as a presenter of Radio 4's flagship Today programme for a few months and he's already building himself a reputation for being something of a climate change maverick. First came Webb's now-notorious interview with Ian Plimer last month in which he failed to adequately challenge any of the feted climate sceptic's claims. Had Webb just not done his homework, one wondered, or did he simply accept Plimer's now widely debunked views at face value? But this morning Webb moved it up a gear during his interview with Sir David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser who is currently the director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. King was on the programme arguing that a climate scientist should be given a seat on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC). King said he believes that the Bank of England and Treasury display "no or little attention on the business of lowering our carbon footprint", and that it's a "massive disappoint" that "very little" of the stimulus packages have been used to promote a low-carbon economy. And then Webb interjected… Webb: So, it's someone being there constantly lobbying? King: Well, it's rather like the fact that there is a labour market economist on the MPC itself designed to stop monetarists ridding roughshod over the jobless people. In other words, that person has a particular hat to wear and I'm saying what about putting somebody on there who understands energy, energy technology, low carbon moves, and wears that hat and can express it right there when policies are being decided on… Webb: …you look at the University of East Anglia emails, though, and you do wonder actually whether [laughs] putting someone there would make them a target, quite apart from anyone else, from their own colleagues. It's not settled enough, is it, to have someone doing the job and everyone accepting that they were doing the right job? King: Good heavens! What are you saying is not settled enough? The science of climate change? Webb: No, not the science, but the arguments, the flurries of discussion and dissent among the scientists themselves and to have someone there… King: …there is very little discussion and dissent among the scientists. That is a total misreading of the theft of the UEA emails. Webb: Well, you can see it in the emails, can't you? King: I'm sorry, that is an interpretation of the emails. The scientific community is at one voice on the issue. Is the planet warming up at the moment? That was the issue around the emails and our Met Office, not involved in the issue, has published its own set of data this week demonstrating that, of course, we know that icebergs are melting, we're losing ice around the planet. Every single piece of evidence from satellites, from temperature measurements is showing that the temperature has risen by 0.75C… Webb: OK, and you want that information to be there at the top table in the Treasury and the Bank of England. Sir David, thank you very much. (You can hear the whole interview on iPlayer. Go to 1:53.30.) It's a pity really that the Today Programme editors didn't get Justin Webb to interview Peter Hill, the editor of the Daily Express, this morning and ask him to explain the paper's frontpage story: Climate Change is Natural: 100 reasons why. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'tone/blog', 'media/bbc', 'media/radio4', 'media/radio', 'media/media', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2009-12-15T12:48:42Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2024/nov/23/young-country-diary-spotted-a-black-squirrel-outside-my-school-kitchen | Young country diary: Spotted! A black squirrel outside my school kitchen | Noah | It was a beautiful morning and as I was walking into school, I smelled our delicious food – apple crumble (my favourite pudding!) – being cooked. There was a chill in the air and the dew on the grass reflected the morning light. Then I noticed something scampering towards the kitchen – a black squirrel. It was holding something in its claws, probably a nut or a scrap of food from the kitchen. Its tail was twitching and its obsidian eyes were darting around looking for danger. Then it was gone. I was left wondering where it was going next and if it had a home with a family. Perhaps the squirrel was taking apple crumble for his family. After school, at home in a nearby town, I did some research on black squirrels, as I’ve never seen them here, only in Hitchin and Letchworth. I discovered that they are the same species as grey squirrels, but with a change to their fur colour. They have been in this county since 1912, and they are thought to have escaped from a menagerie of exotic animals. I thought I saw a black squirrel once when I was on holiday in France, but it was probably a dark coloured red squirrel, as black squirrels are only found in the UK, Canada and the US. Noah, 9 • Read today’s other YCD piece, by Betsy, 9: ‘Conkers on the ground, spiders in the boat’ • Young Country Diary is published every fourth Saturday of the month. The submission form is currently closed, but it will reopen on Friday 29 November, when we will be asking for winter pieces | ['environment/series/young-country-diary', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/mammals', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-11-23T11:01:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2012/oct/01/climate-change-campaigners-threshold-warning | Ignoring global warming is 'reckless' of the government, warn campaigners | The government's failure to tackle climate change is "reckless and short-sighted" with just 50 months remaining to prevent a critical threshold in the fight against global warming being breached, environmental campaigners warn today. In a letter to the Guardian and expanded on in an article in G2, they say global warming remains one of the greatest threats to human progress but condemn the fact it has dropped down the political agenda. The signatories, including senior figures at Greenpeace, Oxfam and the Women's Institute, as well as the designer Dame Vivienne Westwood and the environmental campaigner Bianca Jagger, warn there are just 50 months left before it will become unlikely that a 2C temperature rise can be prevented. The UK and the EU have set the 2C mark as a line the world should not cross. "There is so much to gain from investing with speed and scale in a modern, low-carbon economy, that the failure to do so appears both reckless and short-sighted," the letter says. "Some recent policies seem even to take us backwards. More of the same old economics will not work. To create jobs, more secure energy systems and less pollution, investing in a massive energy-efficiency drive, and a programme to expand renewable energy are just two of the more obvious steps that could benefit the economy and the environment." The campaigners say the lack of action comes against a backdrop, this year, of a record loss of sea ice, greenhouse gas concentrations above the Arctic at their highest point for possibly 800,000 years, and crop-wrecking droughts and record temperatures in the US mid-west. The signatories have outlined to the Guardian what they will do differently over the next 50 months to prevent the threshold being breached and challenge the government and opposition to do the same. Ruth Bond, chairwoman of the National Federation of Women's Institutes, will try to give every child practical skills such as cooking to tackle obesity and instil the value of food, and growing food, which gives them an appreciation of the natural environment. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace , has committed to more direct action to protect the Arctic from oil drilling, while Westwood said there was a need to inflame public opinion and blame politicians for the crisis. The letter urges politicians to say what they will do "to grab the opportunity of action and prevent catastrophic climate change". | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/economy', 'politics/politics', 'business/economics', 'business/business', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/haroonsiddique', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2012-09-30T23:05:01Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
us-news/2021/jun/21/big-sur-wildfire-willow-fire | Big Sur fire: hundreds of firefighters battle blaze raging in California | Firefighters are battling to contain a wildfire that erupted near Big Sur last week, as the flames continue to engulf the dry California landscape and threaten historical sites, cabins and ranches. The fire is one of dozens of wildfires burning in hot, dry conditions across the US west, including in Arizona and New Mexico. In Monterey county, the so-called Willow fire has burned more than 2,800 acres since it broke out on Thursday evening. More than 500 firefighters face the difficult task of trying to contain the large forest fire in the rugged coastal mountains south of Big Sur. The blaze forced the evacuation of a Buddhist monastery and nearby campground. The area is also home to endangered species and contains cultural sites that could be at risk if the fire continues to grow, and the Los Padres national forest resource advisers have brought in biologists, botanists and Chumash tribal members to aid in protecting sensitive areas. “We have to take our time accessing these areas because we can’t get the equipment in there,” said Amanda Munsey, a public information officer with California interagency incident management team 11. “Weather is also a big factor,” she adds, “and it has been very hot for a number of days – and very dry.” Hundreds have been ordered to evacuate the mountainous area, including most of those at the Tassajara Mountain Zen Center, a historic Zen Buddhist monastery. Some monks who are part of a trained fire crew stayed behind to assist in the firefight. “The ZMC fire crew will remain in order to run ‘Dharma Rain’ [Tassajara’s sprinkler system] and to prepare the monastery in case the fire reaches the valley,” the center posted on its website on Sunday. “Tassajara has been working on special fire prep projects during the pandemic shutdown and the fire crew has been in place and training for several months. Our water supplies are good and we are well prepared for this situation.” The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The latest wildfire comes as the American west is gripped by a historic drought, and as officials predict another record-breaking fire season. A heatwave has baked the region, intensifying drought conditions and ignition risks much earlier in the year than normal. Already this year, 33 large fires have burned more than 372,000 acres across 10 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. “Right now, in June, the dryness and the fuel conditions – it is what we would expect in August,” says Munsey. “It is alarming but it is beyond our control. So we have prepared as best as we can.” There’s hope that cooler weather, expected with higher humidity across the Bay Area in the coming days, will help slow the flames, but there are concerns that winds along the ridges will continue to drive the fire and complicate containment efforts. But with so many fires already burning across the west, resources have been strained. In Arizona, a blaze named the Backbone fire that has burned more than 32,750 acres after igniting last Wednesday from a lightning strike is also at 0% containment. Temperatures there have exceeded 100F and thousands of residents have been evacuated north-east of Phoenix, in the communities of Strawberry and Pine. “There are major fires around Arizona and Utah – all over the western United States,” Munsey says. “That becomes problematic when trying to get resources to whatever fire you are on because they are already stretched so thin.” Meanwhile, the mountainous city of Flagstaff was shrouded in smoke by another fire, dubbed the Rafael fire, on Monday. If the fire continues its north-eastern push, hundreds of people in the college city, which lies about two hours north of Phoenix, could be affected, officials say. The national forest surrounding Flagstaff announced a full closure set to begin later this week – the first time that has happened since 2006. It’s already been a tough fire season for Arizona, which has seen multiple blazes spark this summer. On Monday, two national forests in northern Arizona made rare announcements that they would close completely to visitors starting later this week, because of concerns they won’t have enough resources to respond to any future wildfires. In New Mexico, lightning-sparked blazes have been scorching the southern part of the state, where a large portion of the Gila wilderness remains closed, and fire officials are closely watching the Gila Cliff Dwellings national monument. Firefighters in Oregon were focused on two wildfires, one burning near the state’s highest peak and another in the southern part of the state that was threatening 125 structures. And in Utah, several wildfires were burning in bone-dry conditions. The largest near the small town of Enterprise in southern Utah forced evacuations over the weekend. The Associated Press contributed reporting | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/arizona', 'world/natural--disasters', 'environment/drought', 'us-news/california-drought', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-06-22T16:52:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2019/oct/24/ardern-tells-new-zealand-farmers-to-cut-carbon-emissions-or-face-penalties | Ardern tells New Zealand farmers to cut carbon emissions or face penalties | New Zealand farmers have five years to reduce their carbon emissions before the government introduces financial penalties, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. Ardern’s Labour coalition government has committed to making New Zealand carbon net-zero by 2050, with the PM likening the climate change battle to the previous generations’ struggle against the rise of nuclear power. If emissions are not adequately reduced, farmers could face additional taxes as early as 2022. There has been long-simmering hostility between the Labour government and farmers, especially in the dairy sector, with many saying the government’s sweeping plans to force them to be more environmentally sustainable are not economically viable and would cause some to walk off their properties. The climate emissions reform plan and cleaning up the waterways has caused stress for many, farmers say. But Ardern says she has listened to farmers and is willing to give them time to reform on a property-by-property basis. “For too long politicians have passed the buck and caused uncertainty for everyone while the need for climate action was clear,” Ardern said. “This plan provides the primary sector with certainty and puts us shoulder-to-shoulder on a path to reduce emissions, with ongoing support to help with the plan such as the $229m sustainable land use investment.” “This will reduce emissions by giving farmers the autonomy to plan to do so, and reward those who do,” she said. In the run-up to the 2017 general election, Ardern said farmers would be included in the emissions trading scheme (ETS) – a commitment she softened on Thursday, with critics accusing her of caving in to pressure from the powerful industry. The government has said if the primary sector takes enough proactive action to reduce emissions it would not be brought into the ETS. However there is a backstop. If the sector fails to innovate and manage emissions, it could be brought into the ETS as early as 2022. In a joint statement signed by the major industry leaders including DairyNZ, Federated Farmers and Beef and Lamb New Zealand, the sector welcomed the collaborative approach, and said it was “pleased” agriculture would not have its emissions taxed. “Achieving this programme of work will not be cheap, and it will not be easy … we welcome this pragmatic and sensible decision by the government to work in partnership with industry to achieve tangible on-farm change and hope that it might provide a blueprint for the way we work together to solve environmental challenges in the future.” The five-year action plan will include government incentives for early adopters, improved tools for estimating and benchmarking farm emissions, integrated farm plans that include a climate module, and recognition of on-farm climate mitigation efforts such as small plantings, riparian areas and natural cover. The opposition National party’s spokesman on climate change, Scott Simpson, said the ETS tax was hanging over farmers’ heads if they didn’t adapt quickly enough. Forcing farmers out of business would also raise global emissions, Simpson said, because New Zealand would be forced to import more food. “National has a clear criteria that would need to be met before we’re comfortable with agriculture entering the ETS or a similar pricing mechanism. There needs to be science-based mitigation options available for farmers that don’t lead to herd culling and decreased food production,” Simpson said. “New Zealand would have the only farmers in the world to be a part of an ETS. It’s important we are not put at a disadvantage to our international competitors or we risk losing our valuable market share to a less sustainable producer.” As well as government grants totalling more than NZ$200m, industry bodies said they would also commit at least NZ$25m a year to boost emissions-reduction efforts around the country. | ['world/newzealand', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'world/jacinda-ardern', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/eleanor-de-jong', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-10-24T03:32:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/aug/10/driving-out-invasive-species-on-islands-high-success-rate-big-benefits-aoe | Driving out invasive species on islands has high success rate and big benefits – study | Eradicating rats, goats and other invasive animals from islands is one of the most effective tools for protecting wildlife, resulting in dramatic transformations to degraded archipelagos and atolls, according to a new study. From the dodo to Daudin’s giant tortoise, island species have been disproportionately affected by extinctions, often caused by the arrival of alien species brought by colonisers that killed wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. Now a new study has given hope that biodiversity loss on islands can be halted and, in some cases, reversed by removing invasive species such as rabbits, cats, goats, mice and rats from these ecosystems to allow native fauna to recover. A review of 1,550 eradications on nearly 1,000 islands since 1872 found an 88% success rate using methods such as hunting, trapping and targeted poisoning to help restore the islands’ biodiversity, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Once an invasive species has been removed from an island, the recovery of nature can be dramatic. In 2011, rats were eradicated from Palmyra Atoll in the mid-Pacific; the germination of native plant seedlings increased by more than 5,000%, two previously undocumented crab species became abundant, and coral began to recover. On Redonda, a mile-long rock that is part of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, native vegetation, birds and reptiles burst back into life once invasive black rats and feral goats were removed in 2017, transforming the barren grey rock into a green island once again. The researchers said an ambitious target for removing invasive species from islands must be included in this decade’s UN agreement for protecting the natural world, which will be agreed at Cop15 in Montreal, Canada, in December. Although islands cover just 5% of the Earth’s land area, places like the Galápagos, Madagascar and Borneo are disproportionately important havens for biodiversity, and are home to two in five of globally threatened vertebrates. “This is one of the most effective conservation tools we have for protecting biodiversity,” said Piero Genovesi, a co-author of the study and chair of the IUCN invasive species specialist group. “We need to multiply our efforts. So far, we have only addressed a limited number of islands.” The majority of eradications took place in just eight countries – New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the US, France, Mexico, Ecuador and Seychelles – and nearly always involved removal of invasive mammals, the study found. Most efforts have targeted rats, while goats, donkeys and cats were all common. While the number of eradications has dipped in recent years, the size of islands targeted has increased, according to data stored on the Database of Island Invasive Species Eradications, which was used for the study’s findings. “Countries that have been restoring islands for decades were able to because of their investments in innovations and resources,” said David Will, co-author and head of innovation at Island Conservation. “They are now looking to larger, more challenging projects such as those with substantial human communities, and adding on restoration work like species translocation, which is made possible once the threat of invasive species is removed.” In New Zealand, scientists are about to attempt the biggest ever eradication of invasive species on an inhabited island. The project aims to remove predators including possums, rats, feral cats and hedgehogs from Rakiura/Stewart Island over the next four years. Invasive species are one of the five main drivers of biodiversity loss, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, along with land-use change, resource extraction, the climate crisis and pollution. A UN report about their global impact is expected in 2023. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/caribbean', 'world/world', 'world/antigua-and-barbuda', 'world/pacific-islands', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-10T13:13:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2022/mar/29/delhi-landfill-fire-toxic-fumes | Toxic fumes fill Delhi’s skies after vast landfill site catches fire | Parts of a fire that broke out on Monday at a gigantic landfill site on the outskirts of Delhi known as the “mountain of shame” were still smouldering 24 hours later, choking local residents who have complained of breathing in toxic fumes. Dozens of firefighters struggled to douse the flames at the landfill site in Ghazipur, due to its height and a lack of access roads. The precise cause of the fire has not been established but Monday was the hottest day in India’s capital so far this year and experts said the heat could have increased the amount of methane generated by decomposing waste. Once methane crosses a certain limit, a fire is ignited. “My son was the first to start itching his eyes and coughing,” said Shyam Biswas, who sells flowers in the local wholesale market. “Then my father began and when we went out on the balcony we saw the sky filled with black smoke.” As the landfill comes into view from the highway that passes through Ghazipur, it looks like an eerie mountain range with vultures circling above. Packed with the rubbish of Delhi’s 20 million residents, the site has grown since it was set up in 1994 to cover 80 acres and reach a height of 65 metres. It exceeded its capacity more than a decade ago but 2,500 tonnes of waste continue to be dumped on it every day. Like other Indian cities, Delhi has no system of waste disposal and treatment other than dumping it in landfills. A study in 2020 by the Centre for Science and Environment found more than 3,000 mountainous landfills across India containing 800m tonnes of rubbish. The country’s tallest mountain of rubbish – in Mumbai – is estimated to be 18 storeys high. The Ghazipur landfill is a constant health hazard. Last year, fires broke out four times. In 2017, a large part of it loosened and broke away, crashing on to the road and killing two people. For people living in the areas surrounding it, the air is always toxic. The decomposing waste releases noxious gases, exacerbating the already heavily polluted air. A World Air Quality report last week found that Delhi was the world’s most polluted capital city in 2021 for the fourth consecutive year. “The problem is that it is mixed waste that has not been segregated so the fire will have released all manner of toxins – sulphur dioxide, carbon soot, nitrogen, and particulate matter into the air, making the air far worse than usual,” said Richa Singh, from the Centre for Science and Environment. By noon on Tuesday, 24 hours later, the fire was still smouldering. The local government in Delhi is working on flattening the landfill, a sisyphean task given that rubbish continues to be dumped there every day. | ['world/india', 'world/world', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/delhi', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amrit-dhillon', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-03-29T10:02:27Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2023/aug/09/electoral-commission-and-psni-data-breaches-what-we-know-so-far | Electoral Commission and PSNI data breaches: what we know so far | The UK election watchdog and Northern Ireland’s police service both announced serious data breaches on Tuesday, in the latest example of the vulnerability of personal details to hacks and human error. The UK data regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), is looking at the incidents, which have raised immediate safety concerns over the consequences of leaking personal data. Here is what has happened and what we know so far. What happened at the Electoral Commission The commission, an independent body that oversees elections in the UK, said on Tuesday it had been the subject of a “complex cyber-attack” that resulted in hackers accessing reference copies of the electoral registers. These contained the name and address of anyone in the UK who was registered to vote between 2014 and 2022, as well as names of overseas voters. This equates to the data of 40 million people. The Electoral Commission said it did not know whether the data had been downloaded. The commission said it was “not able to know conclusively” what information had been accessed. It added that the personal data in the commission’s email system, which was also hacked, included email addresses of people who had contacted the commission; any personal images sent to the commission; and contact telephone numbers. Again, the electoral commission does not know whether any of the email data was taken. The commission said the attack was spotted in October 2022 but had in fact started in August 2021, indicating the sophistication of the assailants. What happened at the Police Service of Northern Ireland The PSNI incident is of a different nature to the Electoral Commission attack and appears to have been due to human error. A spreadsheet was mistakenly published online detailing the surname, initial, rank or grade, location and the department of all current PSNI officers and civilian staff members. Private addresses were not released. According to the PSNI, the data was released accidentally in response to a freedom of information request and was available to the public for up to three hours before the error was spotted. Should PSNI staff be concerned? The PSNI’s assistant chief constable Chris Todd said the data release was limited in nature but was still of “significant concern”. “It is limited to surname and initial only, so there’s no other personal identifiable information contained within the information that was published. “That will be still a significant concern to many of my colleagues, I know that, and we will ensure that we do everything we can to mitigate any security risks that are identified.” Who is responsible for the Electoral Commission hack? Experts say the sophistication and ambition of the attack points to a state-backed entity, with Russia top of the list for some observers. David Omand, a former director of the British spy agency GCHQ, told BBC Radio 4’s PM that Russia was “first on my list of suspects”, while Sir Richard Dearlove, a former head of MI6, told the Daily Telegraph that the Kremlin would “be at the top of the suspects list by a mile”. Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said Russia’s history of trying to interfere in elections – particularly the US presidential election in 2016 – made it an obvious candidate. “Russia has actively tried to interfere with our elections before so it is a prime candidate but it could be any of those countries seeking to undermine confidence in our democratic process. China, Iran, take your pick,” he said. Could elections be affected? The commission said it would be “very hard” to use a cyber-attack to influence the electoral process. According to Shaun McNally, the commission’s chief executive, the reliance on paper votes helps maintain the integrity of the system. “The UK’s democratic process is significantly dispersed and key aspects of it remain based on paper documentation and counting. This means it would be very hard to use a cyber-attack to influence the process,” he said on Tuesday. Nonetheless, the potential leak of millions of voters’ details could leave them exposed to manipulation before they make their paper vote. It could also leave them exposed to fraud attempts, which state-sponsored actors have been known to attempt as well as cybercriminals. The commission admitted on Tuesday that the information could be combined with other data, such as social media, to profile individuals. “It is possible however that this data could be combined with other data in the public domain, such as that which individuals choose to share themselves, to infer patterns of behaviour or to identify and profile individuals,” it said. Do the Electoral Commission and PSNI face fines? The ICO said last year that it was planning to “reduce the impact of fines on the public sector” for mishandling of data, as part of a new approach which would focus on warnings and enforcement notices. However, it said fines could still be issued in “the most serious cases”, which is undoubtedly the category for the electoral commission and PSNI incidents. In 2021, before this new approach was announced, the ICO fined the Cabinet Office £500,000 after the postal addresses of the 2020 new year honours recipients were disclosed online. At the time of the statement, in June 2022, the ICO said it would be “working more closely with the public sector to encourage compliance with data protection law and prevent harms before they happen”. There is clearly more work to be done. | ['politics/electoral-commission', 'technology/data-computer-security', 'technology/technology', 'technology/hacking', 'news/information-commissioner', 'uk/uk', 'uk/northernireland', 'uk/police', 'campaign/email/morning-briefing', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'tone/news', 'profile/danmilmo', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-08-09T10:08:59Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2017/jul/04/i-pick-up-plastic-waste-save-from-landfill-lonely-but-worth-it | I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It's lonely but worth it | Who’s that weirdo? Sadly, the answer is me. I can feel the question following me as I dive into the gutter or duck around the feet of my fellow Londoners to sweep up the bottles and cans and newspapers they have abandoned. The question hasn’t changed in the the decade or so that I’ve been waging what seems a lone fight against the plastic tide threatening to engulf us. And I doubt it will change now, even as the Guardian reports that a million plastic bottles around the world are bought every minute – that’s a staggering 20,000 every second. It’s deeply sad that nobody watches my recycling endeavours and thinks: “How weird it is that people casually toss away recyclable waste – indeed any waste – defiling our precious communal spaces with all this litter.” Nobody watches me and concludes: “Damn it, what an inspiringly sensible fellow. At virtually no cost to himself, sacrificing only a few seconds of the time he spends going from A to B, he makes sure that what other people regard as rubbish can be turned into something useful – at the same time relieving the burden on landfill sites and nurturing the public environment we all share.” But I’m sure a lot of onlookers observe scathingly: “What a tosser. What’s the point in filling up a few bags with rubbish when the world’s drowning in the stuff? It’s just a drop in the ocean.” Well, the ocean is where it all started for me. One of those beautiful stretches of surf on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales. My daughter’s first beach holiday. Her first opportunity to appreciate the wonders of nature, and learn lesson number one: leave the beach just as you find it. So when at the the end of the day we had to navigate between piles of detritus left by other holidaymakers, I had an epiphany: tut-tutting achieves nothing. Indeed, seeing a problem that you can fix and shrinking from doing so ranks you with the evildoers. So I said to my daughter: these wild places give so much to us, let’s give something back – only in this case, giving means taking something away. Ten minutes later we had a boot full of rubbish, and half an hour later we had got rid of it all at a recycling centre. Not much effort to make a contribution to the most important battle on the planet: the battle to save the planet I once tried to work out how many plastic and glass bottles and cans I have shifted since then. Obviously the mood varies: some days I’m a recycling superhero, on others the sheer scale of the task rips the spirit out of you. But one thing that never slackens is the supply of rubbish – I would say I rarely collect fewer than 50 items a day. Indeed, 50 is a piece of cake. Next time you plod to work from the station, or stroll to the shops, look down at the pavement and into the gutters, look up at the wall-tops. Every few paces, you will see another Evian bottle, energy drink, lager can, free paper. So a rough – and extremely conservative – calculation makes that 180,000 items over 10 years; 180,000 bottles and cans and papers saved from landfill and sent to recycling by me – one person acting all on his lonesome. And don’t forget, all those 180,000 times I’ve stooped to clear up the results of someone else’s thoughtlessness, I’ve never once let my halo slip. A futile gesture? Perhaps. But sometimes futile gestures are the only ones we have. And just imagine if even a small percentage of the millions of people in this country, the billions around the world, decided that other people thinking us weird was a small sacrifice to make when the world is facing the greatest peril in human history. Are we really too cool to make a stand against global warming? | ['environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/series/bottling-it', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'environment/environment', 'world/activism', 'tone/comment', 'profile/andrew-mayers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-07-04T10:59:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2009/jan/22/sea-level-rise-environment-usa | New US report details effects of rising sea levels | A new US report concludes that Florida and Louisiana are the states most vulnerable to sea-level rise, followed by North Carolina and Texas. The new report focuses on the coastal states from North Carolina to New York where the rates of sea-level rise are moderately high. The region has extensive coastal development, a high population and is likely to be at increased risk. "You're vulnerable," said Jim Titus, project manager for sea-level rise for the US Environmental Protection Agency and lead author of the report, Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region. "The people whose land could be permanently submerged aren't even flooded today." A rise in sea level increases the vulnerability of development in coastal floodplains and diminishes the rate at which low-lying areas drain. It will result in a loss of wetlands in the mid-Atlantic region. Rising temperatures cause ocean waters to warm and expand, like water heated in a tea kettle. In addition, rising temperatures near the poles cause massive ice sheets to melt, adding to the volume of water. The report predicts that coastal erosion will occur at higher rates as sea level rises. Particularly in the sandy shore of the mid-Atlantic coast, the report says, it is nearly certain that barrier islands, spits and coastal headlands will erode faster due to sea-level rise. The Outer Banks are particularly vulnerable. The report, produced by a collaboration among agencies including the US Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Transportation, offers three scenarios for sea-level rise by 2100: A rise of about 16 inches (40.6 centimetres), of about 2 feet, and of about 3 feet. In 2007, an international scientific panel projected that sea level would likely rise between 7 inches and 2 feet by 2100. Those estimates do not take into account any contribution from rapid changes in ice flow from Antarctica or Greenland. Rising sea levels might be especially disastrous to North Carolina, as some sections of the coast are slowly sinking, magnifying the effects of rising seas. Tide-gauge readings in the mid-Atlantic indicate that relative sea level rise (the combination of rising waters and sinking land) was generally higher - by about a foot - than the global average during the 20th century. If sea level should rise more than three feet during the 21st century, the report says, "it is likely that some barrier islands in this region will cross a threshold" destabilising and breaking apart. As sea level rises, the most basic decision that states and beach communities must wrestle with is whether to try to hold back the sea or let nature take its course. Both have costs. Replenishing sand on eroding beaches allows houses and businesses to remain in place for a period of time, but is expensive to maintain. Retreating from the rising sea avoids the costs but concedes a loss of land and, in a worse case, entire communities, the report notes. Greg Rudolph, shore protection officer for Carteret county, North Carolina, said people generally accept that sea level is rising. But planning for something that is occurring over decades is difficult. "Let's face it, we live on four-year cycles when people are elected," Rudolph said. "Not many people are going to plan out 14 years or 21 years in advance." | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'us-news/new-york', 'environment/sea-level', 'type/article'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-01-22T16:08:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/may/11/green-groups-welcome-amber-rudd-climate-secretary | Green groups welcome Amber Rudd's appointment as climate secretary | The promotion of the former climate change minister Amber Rudd to secretary of state for energy and climate change has been welcomed by green business groups and campaigners. David Cameron’s appointment of Rudd to the cabinet is seen as reaffirming the environmental credentials that many saw the prime minister as having abandoned. Greenpeace said it was hopeful about the appointment, while the Renewable Energy Association’s chief executive, Nina Skorupska, said: “Rudd has been a champion of renewables and the low-carbon economy in the past year and her appointment will do much to allay the fears some may have after the general election.” Rudd faces a daunting to-do list, not least helping to secure a strong deal on global warming at a UN summit in Paris in December. But having been climate change minister for most of the last year she will be able to hit the ground running. Rudd is “really green and no-nonsense” and can get things done, according to one government insider. Her past experience in investment banking, venture capital and business should be useful in delivering the huge investment needed in the UK’s energy sector, the source said. The key will be whether Rudd gets control of energy and climate change policy or is overruled by the Treasury. Rudd was first elected as an MP in 2010 and rose quickly, becoming a parliamentary private secretary to George Osborne and then assistant whip. Being relatively close to the chancellor will be vital for Rudd, though another former Decc minister – and windfarm opponent – Matt Hancock is closer to Osborne. Rudd, the MP for Hastings and Rye, frequently quotes Margaret Thatcher when asked about the Tory attitude to climate change. “The first world leader to speak about climate change at the UN was Margaret Thatcher and she of course was a scientist and the science is completely compelling,” she told Business Green in 2014. But her admiration of Thatcher may well prove more divisive in other areas. She is a strong believer in business and markets as drivers of change, rather than in the regulation and government intervention that some see as essential to tackling climate change. A looming issue is a much-delayed plan for a new nuclear power station that Rudd backs. Despite the promise of vast subsidies, the deal is still far from finalised. Rudd’s instincts will not be to throw even more billpayers’ money at the problem, but losing the station would leave a big hole in the UK’s energy plans. Rudd’s championing of the fast-growing green economy will be vital; it was barely spoken of by the Tory part of the coalition. But her commitment to protect the environment at the “lowest possible cost” is directly contradicted by the Conservatives’ own manifesto. It pledges to halt subsidies to new onshore wind farms, the cheapest renewable energy available. Rudd’s business-centred approach will also be challenged by the need to continue to increase the energy efficiency of the Britain’s cold and leaky homes. It is the cheapest way to cut carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty, but the coalition’s market-based approach, the Green Deal, was a flop. Most insulation was delivered by forcing the big energy companies to do it. A Tory aversion to more government red tape also rules out improving building regulations to provide warmer homes. However, sources have told the Guardian that Rudd does place a high priority on delivering energy efficiency. Nick Mohlo, executive director of the green business Aldresgate group, said: “Rudd is a great choice. She’s well placed to keep on building UK’s low-carbon economy and continue her work on innovation.” Rudd is the UK’s first female energy secretary, leading a department that has been headed by some famous political names including Tony Benn, Nigel Lawson and Ed Miliband. | ['environment/green-politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-05-11T12:48:11Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2020/dec/23/pollution-killed-nearly-17-million-people-in-india-in-2019-study | Pollution killed nearly 1.7m people in India in 2019 – study | Pollution accounted for nearly 1.7m premature deaths in India in 2019, or 18% of all deaths, according to a study that lays bare the human cost of the country’s toxic urban air. A report published by the Lancet says pollution in India has led to an increase in diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neonatal disorders and respiratory diseases, resulting in millions more deaths. The data shows that pollution-related deaths in India are on the rise, increasing from 1.24m in 2017 to 1.67m in 2019. India’s capital, Delhi, often becomes the most polluted city in the world during its winter, as the city is engulfed in a thick smog and toxic air particles rising to as much as 500% higher than the level the World Health Organization deems healthy. Though the issue resurfaces every year with increasing ferocity, India’s central and state governments have failed to introduce effective pollution controls. Six of India’s cities are among the top 10 most polluted in the world, according to a recent World Air Quality report. As noted in a 2019 Lancet article, pollution has become one of India’s greatest dividers between rich and poor, with affluent Indian residents able to offset the pollution with air purifiers in their cars and homes, while poorer people, who often live in unsealed homes, bear the brunt of the toxic air and its long-term health impacts. This year pollution in Delhi was connected to a rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths as the winter months set in, with the Indian Medical Association stating in November that 13% of the city’s recent Covid-19 cases may be linked to air pollution. This week’s Lancet report also sets out the economic cost of the contaminated air, saying pollution fatalities in 2019 led to a total loss of $36.8bn, or 1.36% of India’s gross domestic product, with the poor and populous states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar hit worst. “The high burden of death and disease due to air pollution and its associated substantial adverse economic impact from loss of output could impede India’s aspiration to be a $5tn economy by 2024,” the report says. | ['world/india', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/hannah-ellis-petersen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-12-23T13:40:25Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2016/aug/11/nuclear-consultant-accused-espionage-china-us-szuhsiung-allen-ho | Who is the US engineer accused of nuclear espionage? | Dr Szuhsiung “Allen” Ho is, according to a motion filed by his lawyer, a 66-year-old American citizen who was born in Taiwan, educated in the US and lives in Wilmington, Delaware. In character statements submitted to a court in Tennessee, friends and neighbours described him as an honest and law abiding member of the community who loved the US and would eventually be exonerated of charges of nuclear espionage brought against him by the US government. Ho came to the US in 1973 to attend the University of California and married his wife Anne a year later. He received a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois in 1980, and became a naturalised US citizen three years later. . The couple are childless, but Ho fathered a son outside the marriage in 2007. Neighbours said his wife had declared herself willing to help raise the child in the US. They are described as active members of the local Chinese American Community Centre in Wilmington, where Anne Ho is involved in running a women’s book club. The couple live in a large house in the town, which has sizeable Chinese community, but Ho spends much of his time in China working for his nuclear consulting business, Energy Technology International, which was set up in 1996. Prosecutors say he has two flats in China, one of his own and another for his son and the boy’s mother. Ho has worked as a consultant for China General Nuclear Power, which has a 33% stake in the UK’s £18bn Hinkley Point C project. Prosecutors allege that he enticed US nuclear experts at the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority energy corporation to pass sensitive information to Beijing by paying them bribes. They also allege that he failed to register with the Department of Justice as an agent of a foreign state and that he is paid by the Chinese government. Ho is charged with helping a foreign power produce nuclear material, a term that refers to enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear reactor fuel. His lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, said in court papers Ho had “no expertise or experience in the development or production of special nuclear material”. He said Ho was helping nuclear plants in China to run safely in order to avoid a Chernobyl-style disaster. Ho was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, in April and has been jailed pending trial. If found guilty he could face life in prison. Zeidenberg has requested bail, pointing out that Ho, 66, is “not a young man” and is “poorly equipped for dealing with the stress and potential dangers inherent in detention”. He said that at one facility where Ho was held, he had to be segregated from other inmates after they were heard discussing a plan to harm him. “It has been brutal for him in every way imaginable,” a friend of Ho’s said. Neighbours and family friends have provided statements praising his character, according to filings with the court intended to support his bail request, which will be heard on Tuesday. Gwen and David Chen, also of Wilmington, said Ho was a “bright, honest, warm, mild, likable [sic], and friendly man”, adding that the allegations “must be some misunderstanding”. Friend Amy Chien said he was a “man of filial piety” who always visited his family in Taiwan when he travelled to China and was “well liked and respected in his circle of friends”. Shirley and Evan Tseng said he spent a lot of time in China for work, but that he had “roots deeply planted in Delaware” and loved the US. “This is his home and his country, and he would never betray it,” they said. Ho’s sister-in-law, Donna En Ning Lee, said Ho “has not – nor will he ever – evade the law” and offered to put her house up as a bail bond. Zeidenberg said Ho was not a flight risk, had no criminal history or drug or alcohol problems, and was prepared to submit to house arrest with an ankle bracelet to monitor his movements. | ['business/business', 'world/china', 'world/taiwan', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/profiles', 'profile/rob-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-08-11T17:18:07Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2014/sep/08/zero-deforestation-poverty-jonathon-porritt-prince-charles | Why zero deforestation is compatible with a reduction in poverty | Jonathon Porritt, the environmentalist, last week attacked fellow Greens who back the ambition of “zero deforestation”’. He accused colleagues of “absolutism”, holding back development, perpetuating poverty and even colonialism. He suggested that the aim of stopping deforestation is simplistic and unrealistic. His comments help mark an important fork in the road in the 40-year battle to save the tropical rainforests and highlight the choice that companies and countries have as they approach the complex question of sustainability. That fork is seen in two distinct schools of thought: those who back the idea of eliminating forest loss from supply chains and development, and those who see no choice but to trade off environmental goals against development ones. This is not to say that those in the first camp never expect another tree to be cut or that those in the second say all the forests should be sacrificed for economic growth. The real question is about the overall end point and the strategy adopted to reach it. No serious environmentalist I know is blind to the dangers of environmental policies perpetuating poverty. They seek ways to achieve development while keeping key ecosystems intact. To this extent, zero deforestation is not anti-development but very much in the sprit of sustainable development. It’s a strategy increasingly embraced by some of the world’s largest companies, and especially those in the food and agriculture sectors. In 2010, the Consumer Goods Forum, a grouping of hundreds of the world’s largest brands, made a commitment to “mobilise resources … to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020”. Companies that have taken more explicit stances on this include global giants such as Nestlé, Danone, Unilever, Asia Pulp and Paper, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources. The latter two are major players in the palm oil industry and have adopted leadership positions that will hopefully soon be followed by others, such as Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby, a company advised by Porritt’s consultancy Forum for the Future. Sime has resisted calls to adopt a zero deforestation goal and is among those bankrolling a new study into the carbon emissions that result from forest loss. While such an investigation might be helpful in reminding us of the huge carbon emissions and economic damage caused by forests loss (never mind impacts on local livelihoods, disruption of water cycles and destruction of wildlife – which it apparently will not cover), it might be more productive for Sime to instead review existing studies that show how it is possible to reduce forest loss while increasing food output. Work looking at how to do that gives clear steers as to how best to proceed. The detail will vary from place to place but a combination of planting on restored degraded land, supporting smallholders to increase their productivity, and reducing waste between growers and the market are among the key strategies. Major companies say that such approaches can be combined to produce more food without further forest encroachment. That development can be achieved at the same time as reducing forest loss is not in doubt. Take the case of Costa Rica. During the mid 1980s the country was engaged in mass deforestation but then took the historic step of seeing its forests as worth more intact than when converted to cattle pasture. By seeing other values, including for water (which powers hydroelectric dams) and for tourism, the country invested in forest conservation and restoration while at the same time achieving economic growth. The result 30 years later was a doubling in forest cover while at the same time also doubling GDP. More recently, Brazil, the country with more tropical rainforest than any other, broke the historic link between high forest loss and growing agricultural output. There are about 20m hectares of degraded land in Brazil so the potential exists for producing still more food with zero forest loss, if only the emphasis is on improving soils rather than cutting trees. A range of policy tools could move food producers in that direction, so can international supply chains that demand zero deforestation. And then we should remember that the promise of development from deforestation has often not materialised, including in Liberia where Sime is seeking to expand its palm oil operations. Reports from groups working in that country say that plantations carved over recent years into natural forests have caused more conflict and destitution than prosperity. The fork in the road for the forests is based on a clear choice: go for the concept of zero deforestation through sustainable rural development and farming, or continue with the old fashioned narrative of “trade-offs”. Having spent many years at the frontline in the battle for the last rainforests, I’m very clear which path I’ll take. Read more stories like this: What’s the role of business in preventing deforestation? - live chat ConAgra’s palm oil commitment: saving forests and reducing greenhouse gases Advertisement Feature: Giving smallholders a seat at the table The supply chain hub is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'guardian-professional/sustainability', 'tone/comment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/palm-oil', 'uk/prince-charles', 'type/article', 'profile/tonyjuniper'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-09-08T06:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/jan/15/eu-glyphosate-approval-was-based-on-plagiarised-monsanto-text-report-finds | EU glyphosate approval was based on plagiarised Monsanto text, report finds | EU regulators based a decision to relicense the controversial weedkiller glyphosate on an assessment plagiarised from industry reports, according to a report for the European parliament. A crossparty group of MEPs commissioned an investigation into claims, revealed by the Guardian, that Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) copy-and-pasted tracts from Monsanto studies. The study’s findings have been released hours before a parliamentary vote on tightening independent scrutiny of the pesticides approvals process. The authors said they found “clear evidence of BfR’s deliberate pretence of an independent assessment, whereas in reality the authority was only echoing the industry applicants’ assessment.” Molly Scott Cato, a Green MEP, said the scale of alleged plagiarism by the BfR authors shown by the new paper was “extremely alarming”. “This helps explain why the World Health Organization assessment on glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen was so at odds with EU assessors, who awarded this toxic pesticide a clean bill of health, brushing off warnings of its dangers,” she said. The study found plagiarism in 50.1% of the chapters assessing published studies on health risks – including whole paragraphs and entire pages of text. The European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), based its recommendation that glyphosate was safe for public use on the BfR’s assessment. An Efsa spokesperson said: “The report does not provide any new scientific information that calls into question the assessment and conclusions of glyphosate. Efsa stands firmly behind the integrity of its risk assessment processes and its conclusions on glyphosate.” In a statement, the BfR rejected any notion of deliberate deception, saying that its authors had evaluated the relevant industry reports before selecting passages of text to “integrate”. “We often see that the complexity of the conventional procedure for the re-approval of the pesticidal active substances is not understood properly,” said the BfR professor, Dr Andreas Hensel. “The term ‘plagiarism’ is not relevant in this context.” A separate analysis of research methods used to evaluate glyphosate by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also raised questions about regulatory independence. It found that EPA regulators used unpublished industry reports in 63% of the studies they evaluated, whereas the IARC relied solely on publicly available literature. Almost three-quarters of the peer-reviewed papers looked at by IARC found evidence of genotoxicity in glyphosate, compared with just 1% of the industry analyses, according to the study published in Environmental Sciences Europe. Jo Lewis, the Soil Association’s policy director, said: “It is unacceptable that pesticide-industry studies receive greater recognition than scientific peer-reviewed open literature in regulatory decision-making. Whilst this paper focuses on the US EPA, similar criticisms have been made of EU decisions and we fear that outside the EU, pressure to approve pesticides will increase.” | ['environment/pesticides', 'business/monsanto', 'world/eu', 'business/regulators', 'environment/farming', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/arthurneslen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-01-15T17:06:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
politics/2015/dec/07/anti-eu-campaigners-aligning-with-climate-sceptics-says-ex-minister | Anti-EU campaigners aligning with climate sceptics, says ex-minister | Anti-EU campaigners appear to be aligning themselves with climate change sceptics who are on the wrong side of scientific evidence, the former energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey has said. In a letter to Matthew Elliott, the head of the Vote Leave campaign, Davey says the group will be guilty of attempting to take the UK “to the fringes of the international community” unless it distances itself from Ukip and the former chancellor Nigel Lawson. Davey highlights the group’s links with political figures who hold “extreme views” on global warming. Specifically he cites: Lord Lawson, founder of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, who has dismissed claims of a link between floods and global warming. “There’s been bad weather before,” Lawson said in 2014. “And anyhow, climate change is a global phenomenon, and you don’t attribute local things like this necessarily to some global picture.” Owen Paterson, a former environment secretary, who has described warnings about global warming as exaggerated. Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s sole MP, who has described the Climate Change Act as fatuous. Davey writes: “The campaign you lead, Vote Leave, seems ready to ally itself with climate change deniers who are on the wrong side of scientific evidence and international consensus ... If you will not unequivocally distance yourself from both Ukip and Nigel Lawson, it will be clear that your campaign wants not only to take Britain to the fringes of the international community but do so by holding fringe views.” He concludes his letter by saying Britain can best meet global challenges through co-ordinated action with its EU partners, a point previously made by Barack Obama and China’s Xi Jinping. The Liberal Democrat former cabinet minister writes: “Vote Leave now has an urgent duty to tell the British people whether is stands on the side of science and international cooperation, or whether it indulges extreme views that would not only isolate Britain from Europe but from the entire international community.” The letter is timed to coincide with the UN climate change talks under way in Paris. | ['politics/eu-referendum', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'politics/ed-davey', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/nicholaswatt'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2015-12-07T17:24:47Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/article/2024/jun/23/greece-thirteen-people-court-charges-hydra-forest-fire | Thirteen people appear in Greek court on charges of causing Hydra forest fire | Thirteen people were brought before a Greek public prosecutor on Sunday after being arrested in connection with a forest fire ignited on the island of Hydra by fireworks allegedly launched from the pleasure boat they were sailing on. Local media showed the 13 crew members and passengers arriving at the criminal court in Piraeus to answer charges of causing the blaze on Friday night. “The prosecutor has requested that the vessel in question be seized,” said the country’s minister of climate crisis and civil protection, Vasilis Kikilias. “It remains to be seen from [their] testimonies what they did, and didn’t, do.” The fire destroyed a large swath of the otherwise rocky Argo-Saronic isle’s only pine forest before it was extinguished by firefighters on Saturday. “Six airplanes and two teams of firefighters, who had to be absent from dealing with other fires and services, were required to put it out,” said Kikilias, estimating that about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of forest had been lost to the blaze. Media reports described the passengers as Kazakh citizens. The nationality of the crew members also onboard the Persefoni I – a 53-metre-long (176ft) luxury superyacht chartered for €299,000 (£253,000) a week in the high season – remained unclear. Greece has endured unusually hot weather, with a heatwave occurring before 15 June – the earliest on record – and temperatures exceeding 44C (111F) in some locations. After an excessively mild winter, much of the Mediterranean country has become a tinderbox. In recent days the extreme weather conditions have sparked fires across the country. On Friday, the civil protection service called for extreme vigilance because the risk of fires, often fanned by gale-force winds, was “very high”, particularly in the Attica region, the Peloponnese peninsula and central Greece. A popular island south of Athens, Hydra has become a favoured stopover for holidaymakers chartering yachts, a form of tourism that has increased along with the record numbers visiting the country. The island’s mayor, Giorgos Koukoudakis, said the municipality would be seeking compensation once the judicial process had run its course, if the accused were found guilty. “Depending on the outcome, our town hall will seek compensation,” he said. “What was destroyed was absolutely beautiful pine forest and on the night in question, because of the winds, fireworks were banned. To use them was utterly irresponsible.” The accused were granted 48 hours on Sunday to prepare defence statements, with the public prosecutor requesting they reappear in court next week. Penalties for arson and ecological destruction have been toughened in Greece, with the amended criminal code stipulating prison terms of up to 20 years and fines of up to €200,000 for those found guilty of such crimes. A Mediterranean hotspot, Greece is on the frontline of the climate emergency. Last year, an unprecedented two-week heatwave was followed by devastating wildfires that left 20 people dead. Since the onset of the season this year, eight tourists, including the well-known British TV presenter Michael Mosley, have died as a result of suspected heat exhaustion after embarking on island hikes during blistering temperatures. Post-Covid tourism is thriving, with more than 33 million arrivals expected this year in a country of fewer than 11 million people. | ['world/greece', 'world/europe-news', 'world/wildfires', 'world/world', 'campaign/email/headlines-europe', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenasmith', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-06-23T14:43:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/article/2024/may/04/bumblebees-overheating-threat-global-heating-temperatures-aoe | Bumblebee nests are overheating to fatal levels, study finds | Bumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earth’s critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found. Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines due to global heating, the research said. Bumblebee colonies are known for their ability to thermoregulate: in hot conditions, worker bees gather to beat their wings and fan the hive, cooling it down. But as the climate crisis pushes average temperatures up and generates heatwaves, bumblebees will struggle to keep their homes habitable. Most bumblebee broods would not survive at temperatures above 36C, the paper, published in Frontiers in Bee Science, concluded. The research team reviewed 180 years of literature, and found that for all bumblebee species studied the optimum temperature range for incubating nests was between 28C and 32C. Peter Kevan, the lead author of the study, told the Guardian: “If [bumblebees] can’t keep temperatures below what is probably a lethal limit of about 35C, when the brood may die, that could explain why we are losing so many bumblebees around the world, especially in North America and Europe.” Kevan, who is a professor emeritus at the University of Guelph’s School of Environmental Sciences in Canada, added that the research examined the often-overlooked role of the nest as a “superorganism”. “Researchers have been looking at foraging behaviour and fanning to keep the brood cool, but there are very few studies that look at the whole nest,” he said. The study argued that nests should be seen as a whole: while some individual bees may be able to cope with heat, if the nest becomes too hot to raise healthy larvae the whole colony will decline. Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, who was not involved in the research, said: “We have known for a long time that bumblebees are cool-climate specialists. Most insects are more abundant in the tropics, but bumblebees are weird in that they are at their most abundant in places like the Alps and Britain.” They are big and furry as an adaptation to living in cooler places, he said. “There are even some that live in the Arctic, the Bombus polaris. That means an obvious problem with climate change – they are vulnerable to warming.” When nests overheat, he added, bumblebees work to cool them by flapping their wings, “but if the air outside is too hot, that’s not going to help”. Goulson said there is already evidence that bumblebees have started to disappear from the warmer edges of their range. “There have been publications showing mountain bumblebees are moving higher as a way to combat warming, but obviously there is a limit to that.” The paper’s findings, said Goulson, who has spent 30 years studying bumblebees, are “really depressing”. “It is kind of heartbreaking to think that many may disappear.” Other studies, he said, suggest that the UK “might lose about half our bumblebee species in coming years, depending on the pace of climate change”. Their populations had been declining due to habitat loss, Goulson said. “Now, [with rising temperatures] we have a double whammy.” Richard Comont, the science manager at Britain’s Bumblebee Conservation Trust, also not part of the study, said he was glad to see the new research. “It’s something that there has been speculation about for a while,” he said. Bumblebees are important pollinators of wild flowers and crops including tomatoes, runner beans, apples, blueberries, blackcurrants and raspberries. For other pollinators, Goulson said, the outlook under a hotter climate is less clear. Some bee species can cope with warmer temperatures, and some species that now live farther south may move north as temperatures rise, making a new home in the UK. With other pollinators, he said, such as flies, wasps, butterflies, birds and bats, “it’s hard to generalise”. To stem declines, increasing habitats and decreasing pesticide use could help, Goulson said – but really, “we need to knuckle down” and make sure global temperatures “do not go past 2C” of heating. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/bees', 'environment/insects', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sophie-kevany', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-05-04T07:00:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2007/nov/16/switchingtoshowers | Tread lightly: Clean and green | Instead of a long soak in the tub, why not have a quick rinse instead? Photograph: Getty Our Tread lightly community has already saved more than eight tones of C02 by switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, and turning our appliances off at the mains, and has pledged to save more than two tonnes of CO2 by reducing the thermostat by 1C. This week's pledge is about changing your cleaning habits. Do you really need to wash in the bath? They use almost double the amount of energy and water than showers. So instead of a long soak in the tub, why not have a quick rinse instead. A five-minute shower uses around 15 litres of water compared to 130 litres in a full bath tub so cutting down on your weekly baths makes a difference. Make the shower less than five minutes - you don't need more than one minute under a shower to get properly clean - and you're saving a lot more. If you already take showers, there are other things you can think about. Do you use a power shower? In which case you're actually using more energy and water than a bath, so ditch it in favour of a water-saving shower head, called a low-flow, that uses much less water and energy than a conventional shower. This company claims to cut the water used by 50% with its showers, reducing energy bills and use. And another thing. Why not turn off the shower while you are soaping? And make sure your water is not too hot as that uses unnecessary energy. As for a dripping hot water tap, in one week it wastes enough hot water to fill half a bath, so fix leaking taps and make sure they're fully turned off. What else do you think we should we be doing to help make greater savings on this week's pledge? Post your suggestions now. | ['environment/series/tread-lightly', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/environmenteditor'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2007-11-16T09:04:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
sustainable-business/2016/jun/07/palm-oil-ioi-rspo-unilever-nestle-kelloggs-mars-deforestation-indonesia | Malaysian palm oil giant IOI drops lawsuit against green group | One of the world’s largest producers of palm oil has dropped a lawsuit against the sustainability body that revoked its accreditation. IOI Group was suspended from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scheme in April in the face of allegations it was not doing enough to prevent deforestation in Indonesia. Major buyers, including Unilever, Mars, Kelloggs and Nestlé, immediately moved to drop IOI as a supplier. The company subsequently sued the RSPO last month, claiming it had been “unfairly affected” by the decision. The lawsuit raised concerns that palm oil companies would be able to bully the RSPO, which is the major tool for cleaning up the notoriously environmentally damaging industry. On Monday, IOI announced it would be withdrawing the lawsuit. “Since the filing of the challenge proceeding, IOI has engaged with many of our stakeholders such as customers, NGOs and RSPO to resolve this matter,” said the group’s CEO, Dato’ Lee Yeow Chor. Chor said IOI had agreed to an “action plan” that would bring it into line with the RSPO’s highest level of accreditation – the Next certification system – by the end of 2016. The statement did not provide details about the plan. The RSPO said it would not comment on the announcement until the legal case had officially been dropped in a conciliatory hearing scheduled for June 14. The lawsuit was filed in a court in Zurich, where the Roundtable is headquartered. Eric Wakker, director of Aidenvironment Asia, the sustainability consultancy which filed an official complaint with the RSPO about land clearing at two IOI plantations in 2015, welcomed the withdrawal of the lawsuit but said much still needed to be done to resolve their original concerns. “Aidenvironment appreciates the work done by IOI staff over the past two months,” said Wakker in a statement. “However, it is too early to say that the requirements set by the RSPO Complaints Panel have been met.” Greenpeace has previously urged the RSPO to exclude IOI until it had “repaired the forests and peatlands it has destroyed”. | ['sustainable-business/series/palm-oil-debate', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/palm-oil', 'environment/environment', 'business/commodities', 'business/business', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/karl-mathiesen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-06-07T14:49:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2024/feb/28/turn-on-or-drop-out-new-rules-could-give-energy-consumers-more-power-on-the-home-front | Turn on or drop out: new rules could give energy consumers more power on the home front | Got an electric car, solar panels or even a pool pump? In the near future, you will be able to sign different deals for key appliances so that you can be paid for turning them off or even supplying power back to the grid at peak times. At least that’s the vision under draft rules aimed at changing how power companies and consumers interact. The new draft electricity and retail rules, released on Thursday by the Australian Energy Market Commission for public feedback, are aimed at opening the way for households and businesses to sign up services for different power uses. Competition would be expected to drive down power prices and foster innovation although more consumer protections would need to be in place before multiple suppliers could be tapped. The proposed rule change would unleash the potential for households with solar panels, batteries, EVs and other loads that can be used flexibly such as hot-water systems to capture the benefits these assets offer the grid, said commission chair Anna Collyer. “[If] your retailer offers you a really great deal for charging your electric car, you can separate that out, and just have your more traditional electricity deal for all of your other uses” such as fridges and lighting, Collyer told Guardian Australia. “We also think it’ll really encourage innovation by retailers to think cleverly about the way that could reward customers.” Policymakers increasingly talk about so-called customer energy resources (CER) as an array of new electrical devices enter the market, particularly involving storage. EVs, in particular, are expected to grow rapidly in popularity, with many of them likely to offer the capability of feeding power back into the grid if needed. An AEMC report, released on Thursday, states that there will be about 22m EVs in Australia by 2050. Their storage capacity would approach six times the planned 2200MW capacity of the giant Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro project now being built, Collyer said. The need to spread the power sector risks was underscored by storm damage to a transmission line and local poles and wires in Victoria earlier this month that cut power to half a million homes. A spike in temperatures on Thursday may also strain the power grid in New South Wales and Queensland. Collyer said Australia’s world-leading take-up of rooftop solar panels – with about 3.2m homes generating their own power – meant other nations were looking to Australia on how the grid can be shifted off fossil fuels. Along with opening the way for households to have multiple contracts, the commission’s proposed rules would also support large commercial energy users to follow suit. Even councils, which increasingly run street lights with their own types of electricity meters, could also benefit from the change. The commission would also be working to ensure compliance and enforcement standards are in place to ensure users’ safety, Collyer said. Smart meters would likely be needed for households taking part. Such devices were already standard in Victoria and 60% in Tasmania with the rollout in other states now about 45%. The proposed reform, though, should enable cheaper meters to be used, with some of them effectively embedded already in EVs and some other devices. Submissions on the proposed rule change close on 11 April, with a final determination set for July and implementation in early February 2026. The commission is likely to release a separate draft determination for smart meters next month, with rules to be finalised by mid-year and a start date set for July 2025. The aim is to have 100% of Australia’s homes hooked up to smart meters by 2030. Meanwhile the Clean Energy Regulator on Wednesday released greenhouse gas emissions data for the 2022-23 year. AGL Energy remained the nation’s largest emitter at 34.8m tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent although its pollution levels dropped about 12% from a year earlier after the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power plant. Queensland government-owned Stanwell Corp was the next largest single carbon emitter, at 18.4mtCO2-e, ahead of EnergyAustralia with 17.4mtCO2-e. The power sector remained the largest emitter, with carbon pollution falling 2.9% or 4.1mtCO2-e to 139.2mtCO2-e. Increased renewable energy generation was one factor for the drop. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/electric-vehicles-australia', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2024-02-28T14:00:17Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2023/jul/25/how-bad-are-wildfires-in-greece-what-caused-them-visual-guide-heatwave | How bad are the wildfires in Greece – and what caused them? A visual guide | How bad are the fires this year? Roaring fires have ripped through Greece, belching thick clouds of choking smoke and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. The area of the country burned by wildfires, as of 23 July, is well above the average for the last 16 years. The deadly heatwave baking Europe, stoked by carbon pollution, has made conditions ripe for fires to spread across the continent. How dangerous are wildfires? There are many ways fires can hurt you. The first is getting caught by the flames. With fast winds and dry plants, a fire can spread faster than you can run from it. Burns are the biggest killer. Heatstroke and dehydration pose a particular problem for firefighters. Wildfire survivors, some of whom go through the trauma of losing family, homes and businesses, show increased rates of depression. The effects can last decades and are strongest in children. But even people far from the flames can be harmed by the smoke. The wind carries tiny, toxic particles of burned matter that enter the lungs and pass into the bloodstream, where they wreak havoc on the cardio-vascular system. These wildfire-related PM2.5 – particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter – are associated with asthma, weak lungs and early death. In Greece, concentrations of these deadly particles are already well above average for the year. What caused the wildfires? Many things can spark a wildfire: campfires, cigarettes, lightning, even sunlight. But how far it spreads depends on the weather. By burning fossil fuels and destroying nature, people have heated the planet by 1.2C – and Europe by 2C – above pre-industrial levels, making the hot, dry conditions in which wildfires thrive more common across the continent. Scientists cannot know exactly how big a role the climate crisis has played in the Greek wildfires until they carry out an attribution study. But they expect fires in the region to grow stronger in the future. In its latest review of the science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that heat-induced fire weather in southern Europe will increase by 14% if the planet heats by 2.5C. Current policies put it on track for 2.7C. Who is affected? The destruction is worst on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia. There, residents and tourists have sought shelter as firefighters tackle the blazes, while emergency services ferried people away from danger. Many visitors from abroad have flown home. Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation agency, showed fire danger risk across most of Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey, as well as parts of north Africa and central Europe. How can people stay safe? By avoiding wildfires, if possible, and by protecting themselves from smoke – for instance by closing windows or staying indoors. The holes in regular Covid-19 masks are big enough to let in PM2.5 particles, but well-fitted N95 respirator masks offer some protection. The Red Cross tells people to be ready to evacuate quickly and to familiarise themselves with the community’s response plan. Governments can cut their carbon pollution to prevent hot weather getting worse, and fund firefighters, doctors and nurses to deal with its effects today. | ['world/wildfires', 'world/greece', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/ajit-niranjan', 'profile/lucy-swan', 'profile/maheen-sadiq', 'profile/chris-watson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-visuals'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-07-25T05:00:31Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/scotland-blog/2016/mar/30/edinburgh-university-breaks-new-ground-by-opposing-conflict-minerals | Edinburgh university breaks new ground by opposing conflict minerals | Edinburgh university is to cut the use of so-called conflict minerals in goods it buys, with a promise to search out alternatives if a product has raw materials directly linked to wars in the developing world. Under the policy - the first of its kind for a UK higher education institution - Edinburgh will require its suppliers to provide information on where they source metals such as tin, gold and tungsten in their products. Campaign groups have warned that the minerals, commonly used in computers, smartphones and electronic equipment, are often mined in dangerous conditions by low-paid workers and children, with their production funding armed groups guilty of human rights abuses in countries such as the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dave Gorman, the university’s director of social responsibility, said that the policy was intended to draw attention to an underrecognised issue. One of our main aims is to raise awareness among our staff and students. But over time we also want to think about how our academics can conduct research and shine a light on this issue. We’ll also be looking at what we can do with regard to our contracts and procurement. These minerals are widespread within things like PCs, laptops, mobile phones and tablet devices, and we’ll be asking our suppliers whether they can give us assurances about where they’re sourcing their materials from, and if not, what they’ll do to ensure that they can. Gorman added that while raising the profile of conflict minerals was part of the reason behind the policy, it could also have a more tangible effect, pushing manufacturers to address potential abuses in their supply chain. If you think of the scale of a university, Edinburgh’s annual turnover is around £850m. Our combined total of staff and students is approaching 50,000 people. In that sense we’re a large organisation with the opportunity to make quite a large impact. As a single buyer, it’s difficult to claim too much. But we’re hopeful that others will take up this issue and there’ll be a growing band of us. We’re currently the only institution with a policy on conflict minerals, but we’re not the only people who are worried about this issue. We want to work collaboratively with suppliers, and with other universities, and with the Scottish government to ask the right questions, find out where the problems are and make changes where they need to be made. Campaigners welcomed the university’s stance. Sophia Pickles, from the organisation Global Witness, which focuses on environmental and human rights abuses connected to natural resources, said customer activism could play a large part in improving conditions for communities supplying materials ultimately bound for the electronics industry. Behavioural change can certainly have a result. Everyone who’s buying these products has a responsibility to ask questions, and once you do that you can start to scrutinise trading norms and supply chains. Our investigations over a decade have found that natural resources fund some of the most egregious human rights abuses and conflicts in the world. There are armed groups and elements of national armies using these materials to fund their own fighting objectives rather than for the benefit of the people or the development of countries’ infrastructure. In the mines I’ve visited in eastern Congo you could have people going down shafts that were over 100m deep, often wearing just flip-flops and shorts. Sometimes they might have a hard hat. The mines operate 24 hours a day, and miners often work long shifts with very little to eat. Pickles added that groups controlling mines included the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), whose leading figures have been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in the DRC, and Taliban factions extracting semi-precious lapis lazuli in Afghanistan. But she cautioned against a complete withdrawal from affected countries. People working in these mines face extremely difficult working conditions, but for many people there’s no other option. The solution isn’t about avoiding countries like the DRC or the Central African Repulic, it’s about making sure that companies have the right checks in place to improve conditions. It’s about making sure they’ve undertaken a process of due dilligence and can spot the red flags that can indicate abuses. In 2015 the European parliament voted to enforce compulsory monitoring of minerals from conflict zones. The exact terms of the new regulations are still to be decided. | ['uk/scotland-blog', 'uk/scotland', 'tone/blog', 'global-development/conflict-and-development', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'politics/ethicalforeignpolicy', 'global-development/global-development', 'education/education', 'education/higher-education', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/owen-duffy'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-03-30T06:30:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
technology/2011/aug/17/chinese-youtube-to-make-nasdaq-debut | 'Chinese YouTube' to make Nasdaq debut | The Chinese video sharing website Tudou plans to raise $174m (£105m) at a valuation of $3.2bn when it becomes the latest internet company to make its Wall Street debut on Wednesday. Tudou, dubbed the Chinese YouTube, offered 6m shares priced at $29 each as it prepared to float on New York's Nasdaq stock exchange. The floatation marks a tentative reopening of the IPO market after financial markets plummeted last week. According to data from Bloomberg, 13 flotations were postponed last week as many newly-public tech companies, including LinkedIn and Yandex, fared worst in the market volatility. Similar to YouTube, Tudou shows user-generated videos as well as licensed and in-house content. Tudou's bigger rival, Youko, raised $203m when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in December. Shares in Youko rocketed more than 100% on its debut, to $42.70 apiece, but have since fallen back to $23.92. Similarly, the Chinese social networking site Renren has seen its stock fall 6.5% since going public in May. Stephanie Chang, an analyst at US-based IPO research firm Renaissance Capital, said: "Its competitor was successful on the first day but the environment has become more hostile, especially for Chinese companies, but [also] for all IPOs recently. It's a very positive sign the deal was completed." Tudou, which is based in Shanghai, has doubled its number of registered users in the past two years, to 90 million at the end of June. However, the six-year-old company's losses have widened. Its net loss in the three months to 31 March was $52m on revenues of $12.1m. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and Oppenheimer & Co were the underwriters on the Tudou IPO. | ['technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'technology/youtube', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/mergers-acquisitions', 'business/business', 'business/nasdaq', 'business/stock-markets', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/josh-halliday'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-08-17T09:32:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2022/aug/10/us-drc-democratic-republic-congo-protection-rainforest-peatlands-aoe | US and DRC to work together on protection of rainforest and peatlands | The US and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have agreed to form a working group to protect the enormous Congo basin rainforest and peatlands, which are threatened by oil and gas exploration. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, made the announcement in Kinshasa on Tuesday while expressing his concern over the sale of dozens of oil and gas permits in the DRC that included blocks in Virunga national park and the Cuvette Centrale tropical peatlands, part of an area described as “the worst place on the planet” to drill for oil and gas. Speaking alongside his DRC counterpart, Christophe Lutundula, after a meeting with the country’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, Blinken said Washington recognised the need for extra resources to protect the African country’s ecosystems, which he said were crucial for avoiding climate catastrophe. Blinken said the working group would focus on growing the DRC’s economy and financing to protect the rainforest and peatlands, adding that Kinshasa can help protect the Earth’s atmosphere by making sure that mining and fossil fuel extraction projects only take place after a rigorous environmental impact assessment. As part of a landmark $500m (£410m) forest protection deal signed with the DRC at Cop26 by Boris Johnson on behalf of a group of donor countries, Kinshasa has agreed to develop rules for environmental impact assessments for extractive projects by the end of 2023. It is hoped these assessments will rule out oil and gas exploration in the world’s only remaining large rainforest that absorbs more carbon than it emits, and the planet’s largest tropical peatlands, which store the equivalent of three years’ global emissions from fossil fuels. “On climate, the Democratic Republic of Congo is vital to the future of the planet. It’s as simple as that. The Congo basin rainforest absorbs more carbon than is emitted by the entire continent of Africa. It’s a place of tremendous biodiversity. Its rainfall helps sustain agriculture across the region,” said Blinken, who is on a tour of sub-Saharan Africa. “We agreed to work together to establish a formal working group to help Congolese achieve a balanced approach to responsible development of the country’s resources that contributes to Congo’s economic growth and to generating jobs. By conserving irreplaceable forests and other ecosystems and by undertaking development projects only after carrying out rigorous environmental impact assessments, the DRC can act on behalf of all the world’s people to protect our shared home,” he said. Lutundula said the DRC was committed to protecting his country’s ecosystems while solving Kinshasa’s “paradox” of being a wealthy country with a poor population. Rich in many of the natural resources needed for the low-carbon transition, the DRC has sought to position itself as a climate solutions country, but environmentalists have criticised the oil and gas permits auction. “The challenge is to find an equilibrium,” Lutundula said in the press conference with Blinken, by balancing the wellbeing of Congolese people and guaranteeing “a development framework”. The results of last month’s auction are expected to be announced by the DRC in the next few weeks. Even if no projects go ahead, environmentalists fear that the creation of new roads and infrastructure to explore for fossil fuels will enable more deforestation in a country second only to Brazil in primary forest loss in 2021. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'world/congo', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/africa', 'us-news/antony-blinken', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-10T13:58:22Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/feb/03/border-tensions-rumble-over-aging-belgian-nuclear-reactors | Border tensions rumble over ageing Belgian nuclear reactors | Belgium’s decision to restart two 40-year-old nuclear reactors is putting pressure on northern Europe’s political fault lines, with Germany announcing that it would send experts to inspect the plants. Concerns have been stoked by the discovery of thousands of defects in the reactors’ pressure vessels, a fire, and one unresolved sabotage incident at the plants, which also border Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In December, the Doel 3 reactor on the Dutch border had to be turned off just one week after it was switched back on, following repairs that lasted 21 months, due to a water leaking on a (non-nuclear) generator. Two nearby cities, Maastricht in the Netherlands and Aachen in Germany, are said to be considering legal action to force plant safety – or closure, and on Tuesday the German environment minister waded into the row. Barbara Hendricks said that she would accept the nuclear status quo “for now”, after Jan Jambon, the Belgian interior minister, refused her request for a joint environmental risk assessment at a meeting in Brussels. But she immediately took to twitter to express German frustrations. “A transboundary assessment of the environmental impact should not only be mandatory when it comes to new builds of plants but also when the lifetime of aging nuclear power plants is being extended,” Hendricks tweeted. A German press statement spoke of “significant deviations” from required safety procedures at the Tihange 2 plant on the Dutch border, and Doel 3, which is also close to Germany and Luxembourg. Belgium depends on seven nuclear reactors for around 60% of its electricity, although it says it will phase these out by 2025. After the Fukushima accident in Japan, Germany began mothballing its entire nuclear fleet, but some of its citizens fear they could still be at risk from nuclear accidents across the border with Belgium. One of them, Simon Sybertz, a student in Aachen, said that fears among local people in the city were growing. “People are starting to realise whats happening across the border,” he said. “They’re scared because nobody is really prepared for something happening in Tihange. We don’t even have iodine. I want the Belgian government to shut the reactor.” More than 825,000 people have signed an Avaaz petition calling for the two reactors to be mothballed. German government sources say that Hendricks told Jambon that if Brussels was serious about shutting its reactors, it should start now. “We didn’t get the impression that the Belgians really have a plan to phase out nuclear within a fixed time schedule,” one source at Tuesday’s meeting told the Guardian. European nuclear industry groups insist that plant safety is a strictly national affair under EU law, and say that EU stress tests of three Belgian nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster – as well as Belgium’s more recent examinations of its reactors – should give confidence in plant safety. Jean-Pol Poncelet, the director general of Foratom, Europe’s nuclear trade association, said that Belgian reactors were “considered safe not just by the Belgian authorities but by their partners in the EU”. “It is amazing to see that there are complaints from the Netherlands,” he said. “The Dutch are operating a reactor in Borssele which is expected to run longer than the Belgian ones – they recently received permission to operate for up to 60 years!” The Dutch environment minister, Melanie Schultz van Haegen, recently declared her “certainty” that the plant was now safe. One international expert who has advised the Austrian government on reactors situated across its borders, told the guardian that there was no question of an imminent reactor failure in Belgium. Equally though, the analysis that Ilse Tweer conducted for the Green party found claims by the Belgian authorities that reactor defects were created over 30 years ago, probably at the time of manufacture, not credible because sonic tests had not discovered them at the time. The attendant risks now were very real, she argued: “In a loss of coolant accident, cold water has to be injected as an emergency safety measure for core cooling. This cold water will induce thermal stresses in the vessel wall because of the extreme contrast in temperature and could trigger an uncontrolled growth of cracks inside the vessel wall. “That has to be excluded as otherwise you could have a meltdown and there are no systems that could manage that.” • This article was amended on 3 February 2016 to clarify a quote from Jean-Pol Poncelet about the Borssele reactor. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/germany', 'world/netherlands', 'world/belgium', 'world/luxembourg', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/arthurneslen'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-02-03T00:38:17Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/cif-green/2010/aug/23/deniers-climate-change-rightwing-handout | For deniers, politics beats the science. Handouts beat both | George Monbiot | It was Australia's second climate change election. Climate change deposed the former leaders of both main parties: Kevin Rudd (Labor) because his position was too weak, Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal) because his was too strong. When Julia Gillard, the new Labor leader, also flunked the issue, many of her supporters defected to the Greens. Labor's collapse began when the senate rejected Rudd's emissions trading scheme. Faced with a choice of dissolving parliament and calling an election or dropping the scheme, he chickened out and lost the confidence of the party. Gillard's support began to slide when she proposed to defer climate change policy to a citizen's assembly. Nearly 70% of the votes she lost went to the Greens. Turnbull, like Rudd, was ousted over the emissions scheme, but six months earlier. His support for it split the Liberal party, and just before the first senate vote last December he was overthrown by Tony Abbott, who had told his supporters that climate change "is absolute crap". If Abbott manages to form a government, he will reverse the result of the 2007 election, in which the Liberal party was defeated partly because it wouldn't act on climate change. It's not difficult to see why this is a hot issue in Australia. The country has been hammered by drought and bushfires. It has the highest carbon dioxide emissions per person of any major economy outside the Arabian peninsula. Australians pollute more than Americans, twice as much as people in the UK and four times more than the Chinese. Most Australians want to change this, but the coal industry keeps their politicians on a short leash. Like New Labour here, Rudd and Gillard's administration was a government of flinchers. It has been punished for appeasing industrial lobbyists and the rightwing press. Australia provides yet more evidence that climate science divides people on political lines. Abbott is no longer an outright denier, though he still insists, in the teeth of the facts, that the world has cooled since 1997. Some members of his party go further: Senator Nick Minchin maintains that "the whole climate change issue is a leftwing conspiracy to deindustrialise the western world". (He has also insisted that cigarettes are not addictive and the link between passive smoking and illness can't be demonstrated). A recent poll suggests that 38% of politicians in Abbott's coalition believe man-made global warming is taking place, in comparison with 89% of Labor's people. It's the same story everywhere. At a senatorial hustings in New Hampshire last week, all six Republican candidates denied that man-made climate change is taking place. Judging by its antics in the Senate and primary campaigns all over the US, the party appears to be heading for a unanimous rejection of the science. Václav Klaus, the ultra-neoliberal Czech president, asserts that "global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so". The hard-right UK Independence party may soon be led by Lord Monckton, the craziest man in British politics, who claims that action on climate change is a conspiracy to create a communist world government. The further to the right you travel, the more likely you are to insist that man-made climate change isn't happening. Denial has nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics. In the Telegraph, the Conservative Daniel Hannan tried to explain this association. "When presented with a new discovery, we automatically try to press it into our existing belief-system; if it doesn't fit, we question the discovery before the belief-system." He's right, we all do this. It is also true that in some respects an antagonism to climate science is consistent with rightwing – especially neoliberal – politics. The philosophy of the new right is summarised by this chilling statement from Václav Klaus. "Human wants are unlimited and should stay so." But rightwing denial leads to perverse outcomes. In a desperate attempt to appease deniers in his party, Turnbull proposed handing £70bn to industry to soften the impacts of acting on climate change. Rudd's scheme, by contrast, was more or less self-financing. Abbott intends to lavish subsidies on polluting companies without demanding any corresponding obligations. State handouts? Rights without responsibilities? When did these become conservative policies? Since way back. In the US Republicans also favour green incentives for industry, without caps or regulation. Worldwide, subsidies for fossil fuels are 12 times greater than subsidies for renewable energy. Many of the most generous handouts are awarded by rightwing governments (think of the money lavished on the oil industry under George Bush). Yes, climate change denial is about politics, but it's more pragmatic than ideological. The politics have been shaped around the demands of industrial lobby groups – which in many cases fund those who articulate them. Rightwingers are making monkeys of themselves not just because their beliefs take precedence over the evidence, but also because their interests often take precedence over their beliefs. A fully referenced version of this article can be found on George Monbiot's website | ['commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'politics/ukip', 'us-news/republicans', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'politics/politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'us-news/us-politics', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/georgemonbiot', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2010-08-23T19:20:06Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
global/2024/feb/10/the-native-australian-frog-call-quiz-is-it-a-frog-or-a-distant-motorbike-revving | The native Australian frog call quiz: is it a frog – or a distant motorbike revving? | Some sound like motorbikes and others are confused with distant barking dogs, hooting owls or even comedy fart noises. This is the weird, disorientating and occasionally comical world of the calls of native Aussie frogs. The Australian Museum’s citizen science project, Frog ID, allows the public to upload sounds they think are frogs and have them identified. The project has just identified its one-millionth frog call – a Spalding’s rocket frog that sounds like someone trying to start a high-pitched lawnmower. But Dr Jodi Rowley, the project’s chief scientist, says about one in every 20 submissions to Frog ID turn out not to be frogs at all. Several birds and insects sound like frogs, and several frogs sound like birds and insects and other weird things. “Most people, when they think of frog sounds, they think of a croak-croak or a ribbet-ribbet,” says Rowley. “But there’s a lot of frogs that are rarely seen that people hear but can’t associate them with anything.” Take our quiz that asks “Is that a frog, or not?” Grab some paper and pen and write “Frog” or “Not a frog” for each question. Hop to the bottom (sorry) for the answers. No cheating. Questions 1. It sounds like a classic Australian back-yard bug sound – some sort of insect, a cicada or a cricket maybe? Or is it a frog? 2. Most frogs have a vocal sack they inflate to push air along their vocal cords. Is that what you’re hearing here? Is it a frog, or not? 3. Is that your takeaway arriving on a scooter or a distant motorbike revving in a driveway? Or is it a frog? 4. Most Frog ID submissions that turn out not to be frogs are identified as insects. But some frogs do sound like insects. So is this a frog, or not? 5. The late comic actor Leslie Nielsen was famous for peppering interviews he gave with noises from his pocket fart machine. Is this sound a comedy fart, or is it a frog? 6. Some frogs sound like cicadas. And some cicadas sound like frogs. And some birds sound like cicadas. Confused? Is this a frog or not? 7. Australia is home to several owl species, including the powerful owl with its woo-hoo noise. But is this the sound of an owl, or a frog? 8. If you live in Queensland and parts of the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia, you’ve probably heard this call. But is it a native frog, or not? 9. It could be a cricket, or maybe a duck or another waterbird. Or is it a frog? 10. Is it a bunch of frogs chirping away in the damp? Or a raft of ducks quacking to each other? Answers 1. Frog. This is the common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera) and the most common frog sound submitted to Frog ID, but is easily confused with a cicada. Sound credit: Frog ID/Jodi Rowley. 2. Not a frog but the call of a tawny frogmouth bird which, a bit like frogs, can be devilish to spot even in broad daylight thanks to their camouflage. Sound credit: Mike FitzGerald. 3. Frog. That is the sound of Litoria moorei – also known as the motorbike frog, found in south-west Western Australia. Sound credit: Frog ID/Grant Webster. 4. Not a frog. This sound sent into Frog ID was tagged by Frog ID experts as an insect – likely a cricket. Sound credit: Frog ID. 5. Frog. The call of the southern sandhill frog (Arenophryne xiphorhyncha) was new to science when it was recorded in 2022. Some experts think it sounds like a squelchy fart. Sound credit: Frog ID/Sam Fischer. 6. Not a frog. This is the call of the male cicadabird, easily mistaken for either a frog or a cicada. Sound credit: Zebedee Muller. 7. Frog. The imaginatively titled hooting frog (Heleioporus barycragus) is another species only recorded in Frog ID from south-west WA. Sound credit: Frog ID/ Stephen and Michael Mahony. 8. Not a native frog but the call of a marauding invasive pest, the cane toad (Rhinella marina), that has been submitted 8,600 times to Frog ID, helping track its movements. Recent wet weather has been great for the toad. Sound credit: Frog ID/Paul Doughty. 9. Frog. This is the weird call of the robust whistling frog (Austrochaperina robusta), only recorded in a patch of the wet tropics region of Queensland, near Cairns. Sound credit: Frog ID/Braeden Middleton. 10. Frog. This is the quacking sound of several of the similarly imaginatively titled quacking frog (Crinia georgiana). Sound credit: Frog ID/Tracey Redwood. | ['environment/amphibians', 'tone/quizzes', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-02-09T14:00:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2014/jun/02/climate-change-campaign-trail-obama-epa-rules | It's OK to say 'climate change' on the campaign trail again | Suzanne Goldenberg | The last time Congress made a serious effort on climate change, Joe Manchin campaigned for a Senate seat in West Virginia by shooting a rifle at a cap-and-trade bill. And Manchin, who won, is a Democrat. Four years on, Republican candidates who deny the existence of climate change may be shooting themselves in the foot – and Democrats might even be able to say the words "global warming" out loud on the campaign trail between now and November. The rules being announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday represent a workaround – President Obama had to circumvent Congress and use his executive authority to enact the EPA's new regulations on power plants. But they also mark a sea change on sea-level rise: in a year when big money and big policy changes have made climate change a legitimate mid-term election issue, it's no longer political poison to talk about the threat to the planet. In 2014, it may even be a plus for some candidates trying to save it. As it turns out, the political climate is changing. Two-thirds of Americans supported strict carbon rules for power plants. Heat waves, Arctic winters, drought, wildfires, hurricanes, storm surges, even a rise in hay fever - these have made climate change personal to many Americans, and the conventional wisdom no longer holds. West Virginia is West Virginia – a coal state where guns and the pro-coal crowd tend to win, and talking green doesn't – but some strategists even see climate change as part of a winning Democratic brand headed all the way to 2016. "I think we own this," outgoing White House press secretary Jay Carney said of the sleeper issue of this election year. And like all election issues these days, somebody tries to help buy ownership. It's no coincidence that Senate majority leader Harry Reid's favorite targets are the conservative oil billionaire Koch brothers – all the better for attacking Republicans as anti-science, and beholden to industry and conservative groups. Others are also speaking up, too, encouraged by an infusion of $100m from the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer for pro-climate candidates in seven Senate and gubernatorial races. In Michigan, Steyer is supporting Democrat Gary Peters against Republican Terri Lynn Land, who says she does not agree with "radical liberals" about the causes of climate change, and that there should be a debate as to whether or not it is real. Peters warns the Great Lakes are in danger because of global warming, he has protested against pet coke dumps along the Detroit river, and he opposes the Keystone XL pipeline – a decision on which the administration has put off until after November, not that it's going anywhere as part of the conversation. Steyer is also supporting Jeanne Shaheen, who is trying to hold her New Hampshire Senate seat – and who argues Americans have a "moral obligation" to deal with climate change. Others are out in front on climate change, even without encouragement from billionaire campaign contributers. Don Beyer, a car dealer running for a House seat in northern Virginia, sent out direct mail and bought television ads calling for a carbon tax – a position that not too long ago would have been seen as political suicide. Of course, Democrats fighting in oil states like Alaska or Arkansas rarely, if ever, mention climate change or Keystone. Senator Mary Landrieu may actually be losing mega-donor support in her razor-close Louisiana re-election bid because of her pro-Keystone, anti-EPA positions. But there are growing signs that scientific truth may beat out political fear. Even in red-state Georgia, the Democratic Senate candidate, Michelle Nunn, has no time for climate deniers: "The science is clear," her campaign website says. And when the campaign chair for one of her potential opponents does something like go on Facebook during last winter's epic ice storm with a post beginning "Hey Atlanta! Quit whining...", Democrats start to realize it's just bad politics to ignore the environment when it affects so many people. A lot of this country is already moving away from coal - to natural gas, wind and solar. Iowa, where Tuesday's Senate primary is hinging on climate legislation, gets more than 25% of its electricity from wind power. Kansas gets about 20%. Texas, North Dakota and other states are profiting from the oil and natural gas boom. All of those states can come out winners with the EPA's new power plant rules. A poll for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund of nine battleground states – Arkansas, Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia – found 53% support for the carbon pollution controls, even among red-state Republicans. "Climate denial will not last," Heather Taylor-Miesle, who directs the NRDC action fund, said last week. And she might be right already. Climate deniers remain in the majority among Republicans in Congress, but even they're beginning to dial it down. Marco Rubio, whose home state of Florida will be swamped by sea-level rise, was forced last month to backpedal on his denial, and House speaker John Boehner said last week he is "not qualified" to debate climate science. If all unfolds according to Obama's plan, the EPA rules will be final by mid-2016, just in time for the next presidential election. By then, any Republican eyeing a run for the White House is going to have to face up to the facts, Taylor-Miesle insists. "I don't believe a person can win the White House in 2016 that is a climate denier," she said. "I just don't." | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/coal', 'environment/energy', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2014-06-02T11:56:33Z | true | ENERGY |
politics/2011/sep/15/greens-connect-with-political-mainstream | Letters: How greens can connect with the political mainstream | Damian Carrington (Comment, 14 September) rightly challenges the green movement to move beyond "guerrilla tactics" if we are to succeed in persuading the public. After 30 years campaigning, I believe the following are essential steps . First, dump the confusing language – biodiversity, globalisation, sustainability, localisation etc – which doesn't mean anything outside the tribe. Talk instead about the the richness of nature, the benefits for all of a stable, diverse and productive planet. Second, keep the doom and gloom scenarios in perspective. Bang on about the successes. Tell the stories of how environmental and social action by individuals, communities, companies large and small, and politicians has made life better, economies stronger, and society more prosperous. Third, stop the battle of the brands for membership and money. More vital is to unite with other movements – on poverty, development, human rights, democracy, animal welfare etc. Use your huge collective budgets, staff numbers and memberships to tackle the common economic and political causes of human, environmental and animal degradation – dictatorial, unrepresentative government, deregulated markets, unaccountable corporations, feral elites, and passive, bemused and unthinking citizens. Fourth, get out of your offices. Galvanise, organise and mobilise voters, consumers, taxpayers and shareholders to back companies and politicians who fuse positive environmental, economic and social priorities in their work. Fifth, move from the defensive on to the offensive. Fight to save threatened places or stop particular pollution problems. But collectively promote a compelling vision about what life can be like, with wealth created and shared, markets working for people and nature as well as profits, and communites empowered, before it really is too late. Charles Secrett Southall, Middlesex • Twenty years ago, the UN framework convention on climate change gave as its objective achieving a safe and stable greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere, and in 2004 the UNFCCC executive stated that that requires contraction and convergence of per capita greenhouse gas emissions internationally. The lack of success so far relates largely to the blame-based politics generated by some of the green organisations mentioned by Damian Carrington, who have, sadly, lacked focus and punch. The US has, in effect, walked out because of the divisive model on offer. Progress is still hostage to this unresolved row. The UK government attempted to break this deadlock at Copenhagen in 2009 with convergence to one tonne per person per annum by 2050. This was rejected by China, which emphasised the difference between actual emissions and tradable entitlements to emit. In reality this is the only substantive issue still to be negotiated. Aubrey Meyer Global Commons Institute • Guardian readers get a think piece on green politics, but coverage of the recent Green party conference was only conspicuous by its absence. Tony Goddard Sheffield | ['environment/green-politics', 'politics/politics', 'tone/letters', 'politics/green-party', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/environment', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-09-15T19:59:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2019/nov/06/nsw-government-removes-jock-laurie-from-drought-coordinator-role | NSW government removes Jock Laurie from drought coordinator role | In the midst of one of the worst droughts in history, the New South Wales government has jettisoned its drought co-ordinator, Jock Laurie, the former head of the National Farmers’ Federation, after less than a year in the role. Laurie, who was the land and water commissioner when he was appointed drought co-ordinator, was tasked with leading the second phase of the government’s emergency drought response. This has included working with regional councils to secure their water supplies in the face of a prolonged dry period. The deputy NSW premier, John Barilaro, said on Tuesday the government was establishing a dedicated office of drought response that would enable increased support for regional communities. That was why the position of drought co-ordinator would cease as of Friday, he said. “State drought co-ordinator Jock Laurie played an important role in helping to lead the immediate response to the drought on behalf of farmers,” Barilaro said. The decision comes as Barilaro has threatened to walk away from the Murray-Darling basin plan, and as the water minister, Melinda Pavey, has been highly critical of some towns and their response to the drought, notably Dubbo, which last week announced a relaxation of stringent water restrictions. It is understood Laurie had been warning for some weeks about the dire situation in the northern basin faced by farmers and towns on the Lower Darling River. But the government only introduced a temporary restriction on pumping in the Barwon-Darling on Monday. Without an embargo, irrigators who hold high security water rights can continue to extract water when flows occur. Laurie was appointed to the role by the former primary industries and water minister Niall Blair. Blair described him as a “true friend of our farmers” who would “oversee the implementation of the government’s drought relief measures to make sure the right assistance is reaching those most in need”. But relations with the new ministers, Pavey and the agriculture minister, Adam Marshall, were not nearly as cordial. Laurie stepped down as National Farmers’ Federation president in 2013 to run for the National party in the state seat of Northern Tablelands in 2013. He was pipped by Marshall in the preselection, who went on to win the seat after it was vacated by independent Richard Torbay. As agriculture minister, Marshall is now one of the ministers responsible for the NSW government’s drought response. Comment has been sought from both Marshall and Pavey. Laurie refused to comment to the Land, saying he still was employed by the government. The Guardian has also sought comment. | ['australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'australia-news/murray-darling-basin', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/water', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'type/article', 'profile/anne-davies', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-11-06T05:01:08Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2019/oct/10/the-guardian-view-on-the-extinction-rebellion-protests-of-course-theyre-an-inconvenience | The Guardian view on Extinction Rebellion protests: of course they’re an inconvenience | Editorial | The predictable complaints began as soon as Extinction Rebellion launched its fortnight of protest in London, part of an international campaign of civil disobedience in as many as 60 cities worldwide. Politicians have moaned that the police are being too passive, and Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, labelled the protesters – who include a former Metropolitan police detective – “uncooperative crusties”. In a characteristically bullying interview with one of the founders of XR, Piers Morgan repeatedly demanded an answer to the question: “Do you have a television?” The presenter’s insistence that a personal carbon footprint of close to zero should be a prerequisite for joining the protests is a little silly. Far-reaching structural solutions are required to limit global heating to the 1.5C threshold identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; it is not necessary to forgo Match of the Day or Strictly Come Dancing to have the right to call for them. More troubling is the strain of opinion that holds that, though sincere and well-intentioned, XR’s supporters fail to supply adequate or practical answers to a crisis they describe in hyperbolic terms. The protests, it is suggested, are self-indulgent theatre. Overstating the problem with banners stating “We’re f****d”, while failing to offer realistic solutions, may even harm the cause the protesters wish to promote. It is true that XR needs to think carefully about the level, frequency and targets of the chaos it imposes on the public. But a radical social movement pursuing a strategy of civil disobedience is not trying to be some kind of government-in-waiting. The job of a movement such as XR is to be well organised, innovative and eye-catching and keep the climate crisis looming large in the imagination of the public and politicians. On those criteria, it is succeeding. The carnivalesque quality of its activities – the performance art; the yoga on a London bridge; the raves and breastfeeding sit-ins – may be derided by some, but is part of the reason for its success. The movement’s three demands in these October protests are that the government does more to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis; that it legally commits to net zero carbon emissions by 2025; and that a citizens’ assembly be convened to oversee the changes. The last idea has already been adopted by President Emmanuel Macron in France and deserves serious consideration. XR claims, with justification, that the adversarial nature of parliamentary politics inhibits the radical risk-taking that the climate crisis requires. The damning failure to achieve cross-party reform of a social care system acknowledged to be broken proves the point. Zero emissions by 2025 is surely an unrealistic goal. So what? The aim is to provoke and chivvy politicians and businesses, in the hope that the previously inconceivable becomes the far horizon of the possible. It is more or less a year since Extinction Rebellion first hit the streets, blockading five London bridges last November, and Greta Thunberg began her school strike. Since then, Britain has declared a climate emergency and committed to a 2050 target for emissions. Last month, the Labour party conference adopted 2030 as the date to aim for. Ipsos Mori reports that its latest poll found that 78% of Britons believe the planet is “heading for disaster”, up from 59% in 2013. On Thursday British Airways announced it would offset emissions from domestic flights from next year. Some, at least, are finally treating the crisis as on a par with the economy in terms of importance. The frame of the debate has palpably shifted, as it must, and XR deserve much of the credit. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'world/activism', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'media/piersmorgan', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-10-10T17:30:26Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2010/apr/21/contract-belo-monte-dam | Awarding of Brazilian dam contract prompts warning of bloodshed | Indigenous leaders in Brazil are warning of imminent violence after a successful tender for the rights to construct a giant hydro-electric plant in the Brazilian Amazon which opponents claim will wreak havoc on the rainforest and its inhabitants. The tender for the Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu river in the state of Pará, was won by a consortium of Brazilian companies on Tuesday, taking the government one step closer towards the construction of the £7bn dam, which would reputedly be the third biggest of its kind, with the capacity to produce some 11,000MW of power. One Brazilian minister told reporters that the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was pleased with the result. But environmentalists, indigenous leaders and their supporters, including Avatar's director, James Cameron, who has made two recent visits to the region, have vowed to fight to prevent construction. The Kayapó leader Raoni Metuktire, who gained international exposure in the 1980s and 1990s touring the world with Sting, said indigenous men from the Xingu were preparing their bows and arrows in order to fight off the dam. "I think that today the war is about to start once more and the Indians will be forced to kill the white men again so they leave our lands alone," he said. "I think the white man wants too much, our water, our land. There will be a war so the white man cannot interfere in our lands again." Luis Xipaya, another of the region's indigenous leaders, told Reuters: "There will be bloodshed and the government will be responsible for that." Plans to build a towering hydro-electric dam on the Xingu were conceived in the 1970s but have repeatedly stalled, partly as a result of international pressure. However, renewed attempts to push ahead with the dam, part of a massive government drive to boost economic growth, have revived fears for thousands of indigenous people who live in the region. "I do not accept the Belo Monte dam," said the indigenous leader Mokuka Kayapó, who claimed the indigenous way of life would be destroyed. "The forest is our butcher. The river, with its fish, is our market. This is how we survive." Many residents of Altamira, a sleepy Amazonian city on the banks of the Xingu near the site of the planned dam, also fear social chaos with the influx of thousands of impoverished workers. Antonia Melo, a local human rights activist from the Xingu Para Sempre movement, described the dam as a human rights violation. "We will all be affected by over 100,000 people who will arrive in the region as a result of Belo Monte. There will be violence, a lack of food, of sewage, of health services," she warned. Local newspapers report that immigrants have already started arriving in the region from as far away as Rio de Janeiro and Brazil's deep south in search of business opportunities and work. Not all Brazilians oppose the dam. Many argue that Belo Monte will create jobs as well as electricity, while one major newspaper suggested that the plant would help attract foreign tourists to the region. "I'm in favour of it and if the government does what it promises, giving us new homes, people will have more opportunities. It will be good for us because the city will develop more," Claudionor Alves de Oliveira, an Altamira carpenter, told the G1 news site. On Tuesday activists from Greenpeace dumped several tonnes of manure outside the National Electric Energy Agency in Brasilia, where the bidding took place. Sheila Juruna, an indigenous activist leading the anti-Belo Monte campaign, contrasted Brazil's attempts to restore order in Haiti, through its UN stabilisation force, with its treatment of the country's indigenous peoples. "Our government is helping other countries where disasters are happening. But here in Brazil they are destroying us," she said. Speaking in Brazil last week, James Cameron called the dam an ecological disaster and said there were alternatives. | ['environment/land-rights', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/wave-tidal-hydropower', 'world/brazil', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/tomphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-04-21T16:01:58Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2022/oct/10/liz-truss-u-turn-conference-prime-minister | Liz Truss says she ‘gets it’ – but how many more U-turns can she stomach? | Simon Jenkins | There are two phases to any project, launch and relaunch. After the wreckage of her party conference last week, few relaunches are more urgent than that signalled by Liz Truss’s cry that she “gets it”. Forget any charm offensive. She must dismantle – call it redefine – her rejection of Boris Johnson’s moderate Toryism, approved by the electorate in 2019, and must do it fast. Truss has shown she can do it. A late-night Birmingham hotel meeting was enough to get her to ditch her controversial cut in the 45p top rate of tax. A similar crisis now looms over whether the upcoming increase in welfare benefits should be tied to inflation or earnings, that is, a 10% or 5% rise. Truss is tentatively committed to the latter. A U-turn in favour of inflation is estimated to cost roughly £5bn a year and would be expensive. Yet that just happens to be roughly the annual cost of phase one of HS2, a white elephant whose total costs are now estimated northwards of £100bn. The figure of £5bn is also not far off the cost of Boris Johnson’s as yet abortive, but desperately needed, social care reform. It may be worth asking which of these programmes the British public most favours. That would be merely the start of a Truss relaunch. Her vacuous conference slogan of “growth, growth, growth” seemed rooted in contempt for the social and external costs of such expansionism. She promised an emphatic end to previous EU regulations, most of which are directed at the environment, nature conservation, science and planning standards. She has halted “nudge” measures to aid energy saving. The so-called investment zones, unlimited in number and therefore in cost, seem to run roughshod over everything from parks and scenic beauty to zoning for height or density. Is this really to be the rebirth of Theresa May’s nasty party? In addition, Truss reportedly wants to recast agricultural support away from the post-Brexit grants for “public goods”, a Michael Gove scheme, and revert to subsidising acreage – otherwise known as cash for rich farmers. Her motive is baffling. Half the reason for Brexit seemed to be to free Britain from this discredited EU subsidy. The environmental land management scheme (Elms), aimed at a dramatic improvement in rural conservation, has been in the works for over five years. It is now declared anti-Tory. Truss’s government has no mandate for any of this. It was not supported by Rishi Sunak, the leadership candidate preferred by a majority of Tory MPs. Her conference speech and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget read like they were cobbled together in a corner of a students’ union bar, with the aid of nothing but a Laffer curve and a trickle-down textbook. Truss must repeat that she “gets it”, that modern economic growth sits in a wider social context. She needs a swift course correction in consultation with some at least of the leading figures on her backbenches, such as Sunak, Gove, Sajid Javid and Greg Clark. She must save money sensibly, champion fairness and see the cost of living as the ruling challenge of her term in office. All else is a mess. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/liz-truss', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'society/benefits', 'politics/welfare', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/simonjenkins', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-10-10T13:23:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2010/jun/18/sheffield-forgemasters-loan-new-nuclear | No Sheffield Forgemasters loan, no new nuclear by 2017 | Yesterday's decision by the UK government to withdraw its proposed loan of £80m to Sheffield Forgemasters is extraordinary. No other move could have had quite so much effect on the plans for nuclear power. Forgemasters wanted the money to buy a 15,000 tonne press, a necessary piece of equipment to make the pressure vessel at the centre of a power plant. Without the money, it says it will not proceed with its expansion into the nuclear market. The only other company currently making forgings of sufficient size for an international market, Japan Steel Works, has recently tripled its capacity to make 10 pressure vessels a year. But last year 11 new nuclear power stations were begun around the world and the pace is accelerating. 55 reactors were in full planning at the end of 2009 and in the US over 30 licence applications are under active discussion. Without the new investment by Sheffield Forgemasters, the waiting list for pressure vessels means that EDF's plan to build at least one nuclear power plant in the UK by 2017 will be unattainable. The waiting list for pressure vessels is too long. Korean and other companies, including two in China, intend to enter the business of making large forgings. But the work necessary to ensure the steel is made to the right quality is bound to take several years. Any failure of the reactor core would be catastrophic and customers will be wary about buying from a company without sufficient experience. Sheffield Forgemasters was one of the small number of businesses around the world that might have increased the speed of rollout of new nuclear. Forgemasters might have been the central company in a nuclear renaissance in the UK. What is the new government's logic? Does it really believe that Labour's proposed Forgemasters loan was a crude attempt to buy votes in Sheffield constituencies at the May election and therefore was commercially unjustified? Or does it think that the loan was incompatible with its stated commitment to making nuclear stand on its financial feet? In either event, with one move it has delayed any UK nuclear construction by at least two or three years. On the other hand, it may just have hoped that Westinghouse, the maker of the competitor to the Areva EPR power plant, would step up to replace the state loan with private money. Westinghouse buys some of its components from Forgemasters and desperately needs an alternative supply of reactor forgings to reduce its dependence on Japan Steel Works. This looks a risky gamble. EDF is furthest ahead with UK plans for new nuclear reactors but is committed to the Areva design for the UK, not the slightly smaller Westinghouse equivalent. The idea that EDF will commit to buying its pressure vessels from Forgemasters looks unlikely. Whether one wants nuclear power or not, this decision looks like ill thought through and dangerously destructive to the already weakening confidence in the prospects for construction in the UK. £80m is not a tiny amount, but in the context of the need to spend over £10bn a year for the next generation on new power stations it is small change. • This article was amended on 18 June 2010. The original stated that Westinghouse owns a stake in Forgemasters. This has been corrected. | ['environment/series/guardian-environment-network', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-06-18T09:35:23Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2011/sep/27/climbers-global-warming-mountain-ice | Climbers have a key role to play in highlighting global warming | Ed Douglas | Reports that global warming is changing the climbing route on Everest reawakened memories of Climategate. In late 2009, at the height of the so-called controversy, it emerged that two "papers" on the disappearance of mountain ice cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their 2007 report were nothing of the sort. One was a dissertation by a Swiss geography student and mountain guide. The other was an article in a US climbing magazine by mountaineer Mark Bowen. The sceptic community was gleeful. What could a bunch of self-absorbed adrenaline junkies contribute to climate science? Climbing conditions on Everest might be changing, but what does that prove? As a climber, I could see their point. Then again, I know Mark Bowen, not just as a climber but also as a scientist and the author of Thin Ice, an account of glaciologist Lonnie Thompson's work and how climate change is affecting the world's mountains. Over dinner one evening, Bowen and I shared our admiration for John Tyndall, the father of climate science, after whom the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change is named. Tyndall was a talented alpinist who first attempted the unclimbed Matterhorn in 1860, a year after he discovered the properties of carbon dioxide that make it a greenhouse gas. The curiosity that drove his science also drove his zeal for climbing. If only Tyndall could see how his beloved Alps have changed. The climbers that have followed in his boot-steps unwittingly documented this process. Photographs taken a few decades ago reveal the mind-boggling scale and rate of change. Whole glaciers are disappearing. Ice cliffs, called seracs, are changing position as the ice recedes, threatening previously safe climbs. Rocks once frozen in place are loosened as permafrost recedes. As a climber or off-piste skier, you must pay attention because these hazards can kill you. In the Alps, a new guidebook details changes to popular climbs affected by warming temperatures. Recently, a friend in Chamonix tweeted about a tarpaulin placed at the Col des Grands Montets. Its job was to reduce the melting of ice on one of the area's critical ski runs. Yet climbers also know mountains are always changing. It's in their nature. Glaciers in the Alps started retreating in the 19th century. Gigantic rock falls reported in recent years aren't new. Postcards from the 1930s of the Eiger's notorious North Face reveal that in some summers it looked as rocky and ice-free as it does now. Some of my more sceptical climbing friends say it's too easy to attach the phrase "climate change" to everything that happens in the entropic world of the high mountains. It's not possible to cling to that notion anymore. Studies in the Alps show ice loss accelerating, even in the short term. At least local people there can make their voices heard, and Alpine countries are wealthy enough to mitigate the dangers. That isn't the case in the world's poorer mountain regions. Although our knowledge of the Himalaya is far less comprehensive, it's clear major change is under way there too. Interacting with local people, as Suzanne Goldenberg did in her recent reports from Khumbu in Nepal, is part of the Himalayan mountaineering experience. The insights we gain as climbers can be instructive, even useful. Last year, I attempted an obscure unclimbed peak in Tibet's Trans-Himalaya, 200km north of the main Himalayan chain. One of our team had been this way a decade before, and was continually amazed at how much ice had gone. This region is near desert, with little precipitation, so meltwater from glaciated peaks is critical. Local nomads, living all their lives at 4,500 metres, complained that their grasslands were failing as nearby glaciers shrank. There had been nothing like it before, they said. Everest is famous enough to attract attention but these remote mountain communities have struggled to be heard. It took a determined effort by mountain geographers Bruno Messerli and others to ensure mountains made it onto the UN's agenda 21 in 1992. Climbers such as Ed Hillary and Doug Scott used the inspiration they found in the mountains to improve the livelihoods of the people they met there. The next generation of mountain lovers must do the same. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/mountains', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/mountaineering', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'world/unitednations', 'travel/alps', 'travel/travel', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/eddouglas', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2011-09-27T19:30:00Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/2020/nov/11/buddha-would-be-green-dalai-lama-calls-for-urgent-climate-action | 'Buddha would be green': Dalai Lama calls for urgent climate action | The Dalai Lama has appealed to world leaders to take urgent action against climate change, warning of ecological destruction affecting the lives of billions and ruining the planet, including his birth country, Tibet. As a call to action he has brought out a new book declaring that if Buddha returned to this world, “Buddha would be green”. In an interview for Channel 4 News and the Guardian, the Buddhist spiritual leader spoke from the Indian city of Dharamsala, where he has been exiled for six decades. He warned that “global warming may reach such a level that rivers will dry” and that “eventually Tibet will become like Afghanistan”, with terrible consequences for at least a billion people dependent on water from the plateau “at the roof of the world”. The 85-year-old Nobel peace laureate is considered by his followers to be the earthly manifestation of an enlightened one who has chosen rebirth in order to help liberate all living beings from suffering through compassion. Lhamo Thondup, as he was named at birth, was discovered as the latest incarnation of the Dalai Lama when he was just two years old. He uses Zoom to communicate with people around the globe these days, unable to travel or invite visitors because of the coronavirus pandemic. He insists, as he announced in 2011, that he is retired from politics and his leadership of the struggles for Tibetan freedom from China, and that ecology is now the thing that is “very, very important” to him. In the week the Cop26 UN climate conference was to have been held in Glasgow, he says has high expectations of world leaders, and wants them to act on the Paris climate agreement. “The United Nations should take a more active role in this field,” he says. Asked whether world leaders are failing, he says: “The big nations should pay more attention to ecology. I hope you see those big nations who spent a lot of money for weapons or war turn their resources to the preservation of the climate.” The Dalai Lama says that if he joined a political party now, “I would like to join the Green party. Their idea is very good.” The Dalai Lama has been known to put his foot in it with inadvertent enthusiasm, such as when he said it was possible he could be succeeded by a woman, but that she should be “very, very attractive”. He later made clear that he had meant no offence and said he was deeply sorry that people had been hurt by his words. His suggestion for how to make world leaders see sense on climate change may also raise eyebrows, but again seems to be the product of a lively 85-year-old sense of humour. The Dalai Lama chuckles as he suggests we should lock them all in a room and “pipe carbon dioxide into it until they realise what climate change really means”. He explains that “people who have a certain luxury sort of style of life in a room without proper oxygen” would realise “it is very difficult”. The Dalai Lama says he is in favour of large-scale tree planting to help tackle climate change. He also believes meat consumption worldwide should fall dramatically, but explains that since his own decision to go vegetarian in 1965, health problems have led doctors to advise him to resume eating a little meat. He says his greatest personal contribution to fighting climate change is education and promoting the concept of compassion. The Dalai Lama is most passionate when talking about his idea of oneness among 7 billion people. “We see too much emphasis on my nation, my religion, their religion. That really is causing all these problems due to different religions and different nations are fighting. So now we really need oneness.” He even says he can now live as one with China, which he claims is “the biggest Buddhist population now”. Nearing the end of this life, the Dalai Lama has not publicly explained how his reincarnation should be sought, or whether a 15th Dalai Lama should be found at all. He jokes that in his next life “I may be born on the Moon or Mars. Then I will starve.” In the past he has raised the idea of being the last in the line of Dalai Lamas, perhaps to prevent China naming a politically cooperative successor. For now, he says he wants to leave that decision to others. “As long as I live I should be useful to help other people. Then after that, not my business. These are the concerns of other people.” His advice for the rest of us living through the coronavirus pandemic is similarly practical, crediting an unnamed Indian scholar with the idea that “If there’s a way to overcome [coronavirus], then no need to worry. If there is no way to overcome, then it’s no use to worry too much either.” | ['world/dalailama', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/buddhism', 'media/channel4', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/environment', 'media/media', 'world/tibet', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/guru-murthy-krishnan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-11-11T19:00:47Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sustainable-business/2015/mar/04/economic-system-climate-talks-paris-transform-capitalism | The success of the Paris talks hinges on the courage its leaders | We can talk endlessly about the grip the globalised economic system has over us, but it is a myth that we are facing an impregnable monolithic structure we are powerless to change. The system has been built around the ideas and thoughts of a few powerful individuals that have, over time, been systemised into rules and institutions that hold it together. But once enough people in positions of influence start to change their minds, or when the public mood significantly changes, systems that look solid are always shown to be built on shifting sands. The problem with the current form of capitalism is that the elite is still gaining more than it is losing, there is a belief the system is too complex to transform, and some believe it is better to stick with the devil we know than risk the sort of economic collapse we have seen in countries like Greece. That is why it is such an important time for leaders to show us a more positive alternative future, but where are they? I was speaking to a senior UN official just the other week, who was in a meeting of world leaders who spent much of the time bemoaning the lack of leadership at this time of great crisis. She says she sat there aghast, thinking over and over again: “But you are the leaders, you are the change.” I asked Guilherme Leal what he feels around perceived feelings of powerlessness. The CEO of Natura will hear none of the talk that we are enslaved to the current economic paradigm. He points to the arrival of Pope Francis in the Vatican as an example of how one individual can drive transformation in even the most difficult of circumstances. “The institution was full of problems just before his election,” says Leal. “He went there as an individual saying, I am not able to bless you but I need your blessing. He’s getting much more change in the whole institution than others who are respecting the system, the red shoes, gold hats, and things like that.” Leal’s comments came to mind when I listened to the UK’s energy secretary Ed Davey say that the success or otherwise of this December’s climate change talks in Paris will rest not so much on all 195 countries agreeing a deal, but on the courage of a few key individuals sitting around the negotiating table. Davey argued that “historical record shows many examples of national leaders pursuing narrow interests, playing to domestic galleries and ignoring wider imperatives and horrific costs”, making the stakes for Paris very high. “And that is why I do believe personality matters,” said Davey. “It will matter who is sitting round the table in Paris in December. Who will be willing to take risks, to embrace enlightened self-interest, to move beyond the narrow confines of their domestic politics, to take that leap?” The power of individuals to either support transformation or kill if off is also a key factor in whether corporations can drive the sustainability agenda. I recently witnessed a team of senior executives within a multinational corporation go through the process of creating a new sense of corporate purpose. Re-imagining the benefit of the company to broader society went reasonable smoothly. There was also clear agreement on how to align this to a comprehensive strategy of change. So far so good. But as soon as the conversation turned to the realities of implementation, it ran into a brick wall. It focused on the egos of individual executives, who would almost certainly seek to block progress. All of this goes to show that transformational change depends on the outcome of the battle we face, whether as individuals, communities or nations, between the temptation to look after only ourselves or to serve the greater good. Paul Polman, CEO of consumer goods giant Unilever, talked at the recent 10th anniversary of the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders’ Group on the need to protect the world’s remaining tropical forests. He quoted Gandhi, who said that “what we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another”. In other words, to change the outer world, we need to change our mindset. Bill McDonough, co-creator of the cradle-to-cradle design concept, gave the same message at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, when he spoke of the growing problem of plastic waste going into our oceans being the result of our way of thinking. “Being less bad is not being good,” he said. “We need to start from the mindset of what would plastics look like if the ocean is fabulous.” What both Polman and McDonough are really saying is that if we choose to look more deeply, the economic system is not a monolith, but a permeable membrane which we can pierce at any moment when we have new eyes to see it. The rethinking prosperity hub is sponsored by DNV GL. 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/rethinking-prosperity', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/joconfino'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-03-04T14:53:16Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2000/aug/09/duncancampbell | Clinton flies in as 11 states go up in flames | New wildfires spread yesterday in the western United States in what the White House described as the worst outbreaks in half a century. President Clinton flew to one of the worst hit areas in Idaho to meet some of the 20,000 firefighters battling with the blazes. There are now 66 major fires ablaze in 11 states and hopes that some of the worst outbreaks could be contained swiftly proved unfounded. Evacuations were being planned for more homes as the fires reached more populated areas. Wildfires now engulf more than 866,000 acres of land across the western states as a combination of lightning, dry forests and dry air takes its toll. Idaho is the worst hit state with more than 350,000 acres consumed and new, mostly small, fires starting there every day. Mr Clinton was due to visit the Payette national forest in Idaho where the wildfire that has wiped out 23,000 acres started 26 days ago. "They're the worst wildfires in 50 years and the president very much wanted to go out and see the people working on them," said the White House spokesman Jake Siewert. During his visit, the president was scheduled to meet some of the troops from Fort Hood in Texas who have been trained up to bolster the weary full-time civilian firefighting service. The government announced that it was releasing $150m (£100m) to assist the firefighting process. The governor of Idaho, Dirk Kempthorne, said: "This could shape up to be the worst fire season in Idaho in 65 years of records kept. The conditions will only worsen." He predicted a long, hot summer. "I think it's highly likely we'll be looking to the military for more help," the forest service chief, Mike Dombeck, said in Idaho, "Our fire season could be another two months, maybe a little longer." The loss of land to wildfires so far this year totals more than 4m acres - already more than double the average over the last 10 years. Forest service officials are concerned that the fires have already spread so far at what is a relatively early time in the wildfire season. The national interagency fire centre in Boise, Idaho continued to show flashing "new" signs on its website page that charts the fires. Nevada reported four new wildfires and in Montana there was a fresh outbreak at Ryan Gulch which officials feared would lead to further evacuations. In the Umatilla national forest in Oregon, there were fears for some endangered species as the fires spread. A fire in the Mesa Verde national park in Colorado, a popular attraction for British tourists, was only 5% contained, prompting concerns for the local research centre and museum which contains valuable artefacts. Firefighters were finding it difficult to reach the heart of the blaze. While lightning is thought to be the main cause of the fires, it is believed that barbecues and smokers who ignore the warnings dotted through the forest landscape are also to blame. Temperatures have also been at record highs in many areas. Possibly the oddest cause of a fire was noted just north of the Grand Coulee dam in Washington state. There a grasshopper that had jumped on to an electric fence and burst into flames was being blamed for causing a fire that has already covered more than 3,500 acres on the Colville Indian reservation, according to local officials. Useful links US national interagency fire centre US forest service fire information Montana fire information | ['world/world', 'us-news/idaho', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'profile/duncancampbell'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2000-08-09T00:45:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2022/feb/28/lismore-flooding-before-and-after-pictures-show-the-full-scale-of-disaster | Lismore flooding: before and after pictures show the full scale of disaster | It is difficult to fully comprehend the destructive impact of the flooding that has inundated the New South Wales city of Lismore. Picture after picture shows a community under water, with some of Lismore’s 43,000 residents perched on rooftops waiting to be rescued. But if we look at what life was like before the flood waters arrived it is possible to garner the sheer scale of the disaster that occurred after more than 700mm of rainfall fell in just 30 hours as of Monday afternoon. Here is the Car Lovers car wash in Lismore before and during the floods. In the second image, it is barely visible above the flood water. This is Hunter Street before and during the flooding – from a sunny day to a huddle of umbrellas. This is the intersection of Keen and Magellan street. After the floods hit, the entrances to the historic buildings were cut off due to water levels. This is the Lismore Square shopping mall, not usually the spot to row your dinghy. Magellan Street is usually a busy shopping strip. After the floods hit, the shopfronts are virtually submerged by water. All that remains visible at Lismore’s McDonald’s are the golden arches as the takeout chain is submerged in metres of water. | ['australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural--disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'profile/caitlin-cassidy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-02-28T07:16:55Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2022/nov/06/the-observer-view-on-britain-urgent-build-more-nuclear-power-plants | The Observer view on Britain’s urgent need to commit to nuclear power | Observer editorial | For a moment last week, our cash-strapped government seemed ready to abandon a project that many experts believe is central to our plans of achieving energy independence and net zero emissions. According to the BBC, the Treasury had indicated the proposed new nuclear reactor Sizewell C was on a list of major construction projects that were under review for possible cancellation. Its days could be numbered, it was suggested. The threat has since been denied by Number 10. The new atom plant in Suffolk will go ahead, it has insisted. For a nation that hopes to wean itself off its fossil fuel addiction and its dependence on natural gas imports, this is good news. The UK’s future prosperity depends on its ability to generate electricity, independently and at low cost and nuclear power is expected to play a critical role in ensuring this happens. The trouble is that these plans have very shaky foundations, as was revealed last week when uncertainties about Sizewell C first surfaced. Britain has pledged to close all its coal power plants by 2024 while those that burn oil and gas are to be phased out by 2035. After that, a mix of renewables and nuclear plants is expected to fill this capacity, lighting and warming our homes, running our factories and keeping our trains and electric cars moving. For their part, renewables are doing well, with wind and solar plants providing healthy chunks of power for the UK grid. This is not the case for the nuclear component of this energy package, however. Just as the nation’s fossil fuel plants are being closed down, reactors have been providing less and less power for the nation. In the 1990s, atomic power generated 25% of Britain’s electricity. By 2020, this figure had dropped to 16% and it will continue to decline as more of our ageing nuclear plants are closed. Of the six reactors currently in operation, five are destined for closure by 2028. One additional new reactor, Hinkley Point C, should be in operation by then, leaving Britain with two reactors and limited fossil fuel provision – in addition to renewable sources – to supply power for the nation. Unless new reactors are built, by 2050 British nuclear capacity – the proposed cornerstone of the nation’s energy supply for the future – will be a third of what it is today. Solar and wind power will no doubt do their bit but on a freezing cold, windless, winter evening, the UK’s lack of a central generating capacity will be cruelly exposed. Blackouts will be inevitable. The proposed Sizewell C reactor will therefore be welcome, though on its own the plant will be insufficient for the nation’s needs. Britain will require at least half a dozen such reactors to provide the gigawatts of electricity on which it will depend to fend off a future that lacks power to run our homes and operate our factories. The problem is that a new nuclear plant takes around a decade to build once it has been approved. By that arithmetic, time is now desperately tight if the United Kingdom is to have the numbers it requires to generate the power the country is going to need. Nuclear energy is certainly not without flaws. Construction costs and waste storage are two clear examples. However, the government has committed the nation to atomic power. Having done so, it is now obliged to act with a speed that will provide the country with sufficient nuclear electricity – and keep the lights on over the next two decades. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/editorials', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/observer-editorials', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-11-06T06:30:12Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2018/oct/22/recycling-fuels-consumption-plastic | Are the days of recycling with a clear conscience over? | Sharon George | Is recycling supporting unsustainable consumerism? There is a recycling crisis and we may have only just noticed. For years we have been recycling, dispelling the guilt generated by our high-consumption lifestyles, as if our actions are somehow good for the environment. Recycling is the “green” thing to do. But is our whole recycling culture a shameful illusion that has been masking a growing problem of unsustainable manufacturing and consumerism? We are discovering that our recycling systems might not be fit for purpose. Retailers and companies producing waste are required to meet obligations according to how much waste they generate. They meet this obligation by buying packaging recovery notes (PRNs) or packaging export recovery notes (Perns). These PRNs are generated every time a tonne of waste is recycled – or so we thought. Exporters of waste are under scrutiny after some have been found sending out shipments of worthless contaminated or mixed waste and claiming the notes fraudulently. The National Audit Office found that about half of the UK’s plastic recycling is sent abroad but there is little assurance of what actually happens to it. Many countries in the developing world routinely dump waste into rivers and oceans. About 90% of ocean plastic started out inland and made its way to the ocean through just 10 rivers. The biggest contributor, the Yangtze in China, discharges a staggering 1.5m tonnes of plastic into the ocean every year. And it’s not just plastics. We export a number of other commonly recycled materials, including paper, glass and electronic waste, with faith that it is being dealt with in a sustainable manner. So what does happen to it? We might imagine our hi-tech devices undergo hi-tech reprocessing, but the reality is far from ideal. Just like plastics, most of our “e-waste” has been shipped to China. The city of Guiyu was a major hub for recycling international e-waste, with terrible consequences for the local environment: poisoned water and land, and high levels of lead in the blood samples of 80% of local children. This route was cut off in January 2018, when China decided that the environmental costs of accepting the world’s waste was not worth the profit, especially as it has its own growing stream of toxic e-waste to deal with. But this has not stopped us producing e-waste: in 2018 it is estimated that we will produce 50m tonnes globally. We have simply found new routes to dispose of the stuff. After China’s ban on importing recyclable materials, a huge wave of US and European e-waste found its way to Thailand, where hundreds of facilities have been set up to operate crude, low-cost recycling processes. These include recovering copper and other metals from cables and circuit boards by burning the plastics away, producing highly toxic fumes of dioxins and furans and heavy metals. Acid baths that strip out metals expose workers to acrid and toxic fumes. Thailand is now taking rapid steps to close its borders too. With more routes for our waste closed, we need to consider more sustainable solutions closer to home. The truth is, if we dealt with our waste on our own soil it would cost more. Recycling abroad, in countries with inexpensive labour and less regulation, is cheaper. This has become the norm, giving us a route to jettison our waste plastic, electronic goods, metals, paper and glass under the banner of recycling with a clear conscience. Meanwhile, we shop for cheap replacement goods. The illusion that we can recycle so easily has enabled us to continue to consume and as we see more countries refusing our waste, the problems are stacking up – literally. One way to reduce waste is to stem the flow of mass-produced cheap products, at least until we have a solution. Prices should reflect life-cycle costs. Higher prices would mean we buy less, but value those goods more. We would hang on to things. Disposable items such as single-use plastics would be uneconomical and we would reuse more. This also cuts across those business models that rely on fast product turnover, especially in electronics (the fastest growing source of waste). This might create some economic disruption in the short term, but would open up new business opportunities around reusing, repairing and locally recycling goods. It would certainly stem the rising tide of unsustainable “recycling”. • Sharon George is a researcher and lecturer in environmental sustainability and green technology at Keele University | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/recycling', 'tone/comment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'profile/sharon-george', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-10-22T14:14:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2017/oct/28/way-off-the-planet-regional-businesses-use-renewables-to-slash-costs | 'Way off the planet': regional businesses use renewables to slash costs | In the heart of Queensland’s mining belt, a businessman who has grown his enterprise mostly off the back of the coal industry sees the energy sector going only one way. “I think renewable energy is where the market’s going – what we class as the energy revolution,” says Jason Sharam. The self-described “dumb-arse electrician”, who will have grown his Mackay mining energy business from a starting staff of six to 150 by mid-2018, says he is trying to help people “see through the politics” on energy. “We try to stick to the facts and the real numbers,” Sharam says. In Mackay, as elsewhere in regional Australia, power prices are already eye-watering for small and medium businesses. One of Sharam’s clients has gone off the grid to run a diesel generator, which is not cheap, but still cheaper than paying for network electricity at an average of 86 cents – and as much as $1.26 – a kilowatt-hour. “They’re the sort of stories around, that’s just one client,” he says. Renewables being held out as a scapegoat for rising costs in the energy debate is “typical politics” but a complete red herring, Sharam says. The “elephant in the room” is the network and distribution charges that “we’re all paying exorbitant prices [for] and it seems to be the small to medium enterprises that are copping the brunt of it”, Sharam says. These “go through the roof” when a business uses more than 100 kwh a day. This is especially so in regional Australia because it lacks the concentrated populations to keep down network and distribution charges, which make up half of a business’s energy bill, he says. That means renewables like solar are a countervailing force, a way for businesses to drive down their network power costs, even if they stop short of getting off the grid. Sharam’s Linked Group Services has quit the grid entirely however, and some clients are also interested in “defecting” after hearing how the numbers stack up. Linked Group has spent $460,000 on a solar and battery installation, including what Sharam thinks is the first off-grid use of a Tesla Powerwall battery system in Australia. And yet the business will immediately save $75,000 a year on its energy bill – even while paying off a bank loan over six-and-a-half years for the installation. Linked Group supplies trade services for both coking and thermal coal miners out of the Bowen Basin, as well as manufacturing niche products such as solar lighting towers and transportable, self-sufficient buildings. Their latest product, a solar carport, has caught the interest of construction group Lend Lease. Sharam says the company’s new Mackay complex will be a showcase for these and other wares, such as an electric vehicle charging station free to the public, and a geothermal air-conditioning system, which halves the energy load by using 90-metre-deep boreholes to dissipate heat and makes more efficient use of the refrigerant. The complex will use a propane gas-fired micro-turbine as a backup generator. ‘We’ve done the numbers’ Sharam believes electricity prices are only going to rise. And the federal government’s proposed national energy guarantee (Neg), which would scrap renewables’ subsidies and incentives and put responsibility for emissions cuts on power retailers, “isn’t going to help it, it’s going to drive it, to be honest”. “That’s only our opinion, but we’ve done the numbers, hence why we’re doing what we’re doing.” Sharam spoke at the Powering Queensland Summit in Brisbane on Thursday, where the Australian Solar Council chief executive, John Grimes, also addressed the Neg by punctuating his presentation with a picture of reforming Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev. “This was to say, economics trumps ideology,” Grimes later told the Guardian. The Neg was a “perverse announcement” by the Turnbull government, which had an “immediate effect” of declaring a Cold War on renewables by sowing “delay, confusion and uncertainty” and scaring investors. “But my point is we’re on the right side of history and ultimately [renewables] will prevail,” he says. It’s just a question of a smooth, lowest-cost transition versus an abrupt one, Grimes adds. With solar now “the cheapest way of generating electricity, period” and wind close behind, it’s not the subsidy cuts that hurt the industry so much as the government’s signals to energy investors who deal in 10 to 15-year timeframes for new generation investments, he says. “What this government is saying is, we’re completely opposed to renewables and we’re going to lock in and mandate a minimum amount of coal and fossil fuels that are going to underpin our business,” Grimes says. “What the hell? I’m sorry, that’s just way off the planet.” Grimes says this is despite the premise that renewables targets drive up wholesale power costs being “blown out of the water” three years ago when the Warburton review found the opposite. Offsetting the solar industry’s “frustration and despair” at the Neg was Queensland’s emergence as “winner of the most improved award” in renewables nationally, Grimes says. From no large-scale renewables projects approved under the former Liberal National party government, the Palaszczuk Labor government now has 38 under way and in the pipeline. “It’s a huge turnaround because the resource is fantastic; the state government’s putting out the right signals for investment, and economics and industry has done the rest,” he says. At the summit, state energy minister, Mark Bailey, announced the government would offer $2,000 rebates on solar battery installations, after making zero-interest loans on solar and battery packages available to 20,000 households. Grimes credits the Palaszczuk government with taking its support of the solar industry beyond aspiration “both at a policy and a working level”. Solar council members are being helped by government departments when encountering “red tape roadblocks” or dealing with state-owned energy companies Ergon and Energex over network connections, he says. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/ethical-living', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/joshua-robertson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2017-10-27T23:00:42Z | true | ENERGY |
books/2018/feb/21/ebooks-are-not-stupid-theyre-a-revolution-erin-kelly | Ebooks are not 'stupid' – they're a revolution | I was a relatively late convert to the e-reader, getting my Kindle five years ago when it became clear that reading 600-pages of A Suitable Boy while breastfeeding wasn’t going to work. After a frenzied few months of almost exclusive e-reading, I returned largely to the traditional printed book for a number of reasons: screen fatigue, a tendency to scrawl in margins, because I want my kids to see me reading, and because I’m a passionate supporter of bookshops and booksellers. Hachette Livre CEO Arnaud Nourry recently called ebooks “stupid” – but last summer, they changed my life. My novel He Said/She Said, a psychological thriller about a couple who witness a rape, was a Sunday Times bestseller, but three months out of the trap, the hardback began the soft fall in sales that is the norm that period after publication. When the ebook edition began selling for 99p on Kindle for the summer, I’ll admit that I flinched, but – excluding a few days’ concession of my throne to Neil Gaiman – it topped the charts for six weeks and I was able to take my family on an overseas holiday for the first time. (On that trip, I took seven novels in a device that weighed less than a paperback, like something out of Star Trek.) I’d always had a core of loyal readers – but these numbers were something else. The subsequent revival of my backlist was a welcome surprise. Readers have been writing to me to praise, criticise and debate; more often than not, they sign off by saying they’ve bought my other titles as ebooks. This effortless chain-reading is something hard to replicate with the physical book – very few authors can be confident of walking into any bookshop or supermarket to find their entire canon for sale. The ebook of He Said/She Said has reignited interest in my other books, and brought new readers to the novels that, in genteel publishing speak, “underperformed” at the time. I’m as grateful for that as anything. Given that backlist especially is free money for the publisher, I’m bewildered by Nourry’s dismissal of the ebook. Of course there are caveats; Amazon’s near-monopoly of the market is worrying, and we have already reached the tipping point where competitive pricing has become a race to the bottom in which profit margins are negligible. But a stupid format? Clever books such as Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy are not dumbed down in digital. Lyra’s Oxford is just as enchanting in e-ink as when bound and typeset in carbon black. “It is exactly the same as print, except it’s electronic. There is no creativity, no enhancement, no real digital experience,” said Nourry. Fake news! The built-in, one-tap dictionary is a boon for Will Self fans. And as an author, I’m fascinated by the facility that shows you phrases other readers have highlighted; what is it about this sentence that resonated with dozens of humans? It’s an illicit glimpse into the one place even a writer’s imagination can never really go: readers’ minds. And Kindle’s Whispersync facility lets the reader fluidly alternate between reading a book and listening to it. What are these if not enhancements to the reading experience? And then there’s the simplest, most important enhancement of all: on any e-reader, you can enlarge the text. That in itself is a quiet revolution. Page-sniffers who dismiss ebooks out of hand are being unconsciously ableist. For decades the partially sighted were limited to the large print section of their local library, limited to only the usual, bestselling, suspects. Smaller authors might not be worth the punt and indie presses often don’t have the budget. The ability to enlarge text means that many readers are enjoying diverse voices, novels in translation, experimental short story collections – anything they want, for the first time in decades. Ebooks have given them access to a pleasure they thought they had lost along with the best of their sight. Likewise, downloadable library books are a lifeline for the housebound booklover, who may have lost their mobile library in any round of council cutbacks. The way e-readers have increased accessibility to books is not an enhancement, it’s a godsend. Finally, Nourry claims there is no digital experience. Isn’t that the point? If it’s got graphics, noise or animation, it’s no longer a book – it’s a computer game or a movie. Just as I write disconnected from the internet and in silence, I don’t want my books to do other stuff. The beauty of the book, in a world of digital noise, is the purity of the reading experience – and there’s nothing stupid about that. Erin Kelly’s He Said/She Said is published by Hodder & Stoughton. | ['books/ebooks', 'technology/ereaders', 'books/publishing', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'technology/efinance', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'technology/kindle', 'books/fiction', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-02-21T15:53:22Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2016/dec/14/asa-bans-ad-removal-pollution-filters-diesel-cars | ASA bans ad to remove pollution filters from diesel cars | The rogue practice of removing vital pollution filters from the exhausts of diesel vehicles has suffered a blow with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for the first time banning an advert for the service. However the number of filterless cars on UK roads, pumping out high levels of toxic particles, remains unknown and air pollution campaigners say the government must investigate and then crack down on the shady practice. Particulate pollution causes almost 29,000 early deaths each year, costing £15bn in health costs. Diesel particulate filters (DPFs) have been compulsory in new diesel cars since 2009 but can become clogged and cause breakdowns, particularly for city drivers. Replacing DPFs usually costs more than a £1,000 and, as a result, many garages across the country offer to remove the filter completely for a few hundred pounds. They exploit a legal loophole which means removing a DPF is not an offence, only driving the car afterwards on a public road. Without the filter, particulate emissions are likely to soar fivefold. Friends of the Earth complained to the ASA about an online advert from a garage in Bristol which offered to remove DPFs. The advert said: “The only MOT regulation regarding the DPF is a simple visual inspection. As long as the DPF still appears to be fitted, the vehicle will pass the MOT visual inspection. Therefore we only remove the internal core, leaving the outer casing in place. The vehicle will appear to have a DPF fitted and will appear unmodified.” A qualification was included at the bottom of the advert which stated “*Our DPF Removal service is sold for off-road use only”. However, the ASA concluded on Wednesday that this “was not sufficiently prominent to counter the overall impression that vehicles which had their DPF removed could be used on public roads” and banned the advert as misleading. Any future adverts must make “immediately clear with sufficient prominence that it is illegal to drive such vehicles on a public road”, the watchdog said. In 2014, ministers said the “unacceptable” practice of removing the filters was “clearly detrimental to people’s health” and introduced a visual check into the MOT. The Guardian revealed in May this had caught 1,188 vehicles. But with some garages promising “invisible” DPF removal to beat the MOT test, as in the case of the banned advert, the true number of filterless vehicles is likely to be much higher. “The more we uncover about diesel vehicles, the dodgier they seem,” said Aaron Kiely, at Friends of the Earth. “Removal of pollution filters – which are designed to reduce dangerous emissions and protect people’s health – should clearly be illegal. The Department for Transport must also investigate the full scale of this problem and clamp down on those who are putting people’s lives at risk.” A spokesman for the Department for Transport (DfT) said: “The government is firmly committed to improving the UK’s air quality and cutting harmful emissions. Changes to the MOT test were implemented in 2014 to ensure that particulate filters are fitted where necessary and if not then the vehicle would fail the test.” “Alternative methods of detecting the removal or effectiveness of particulate filters are under development and we are examining their suitability for use in an MOT,” said DfT spokesman: “Further research is required to ensure potential methods accurately determine a pass or fail.” Almost all diesel cars have also been revealed as emitting far higher levels of nitrogen dioxide than official limits. NO2 levels are illegally high in most of the UK’s air quality zones and calls are rising to ban dirty diesel vehicles from British city centres, as Paris, Madrid, Athens and Mexico City have already pledged. In May, the Guardian also revealed that Google, eBay and Gumtree had refused to ban adverts offering to remove DPFs. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'media/asa', 'media/advertising', 'uk/uk', 'money/motoring', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-12-14T06:00:17Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
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