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science/blog/2014/jan/27/flywheel-hybrid-flybrid | Can flywheel technology drive out the battery from car hybrids? | Corrinne Burns | Consider the hybrid car. Halfway between the traditional motor and the fully electric Nissan Leaf or the Volkswagen e-Up!, they're a nod to green motoring. While retaining a conventional diesel engine, they can harvest kinetic energy from the car's braking motion and use that to power an additional electric motor. But batteries are energy-intensive to manufacture, and the weight of a battery pack can add more than 50kg to a vehicle's mass, which means increased fuel usage – though hybrids are still get more miles per gallon than the conventional versions of the same models. Then there's the matter of fuel efficiency – you're going from kinetic to electrical to chemical (battery) energy, and back again, every time you use the system. The kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost as heat during braking is converted to electricity by a generator, which charges the battery, and is later converted back to kinetic energy. Conversion losses are inevitable. And battery disposal poses its own environmental problems. Batteries aren't the only way to store kinetic energy, though. Hybrid cars can be made with flywheels instead of batteries. In these "flybrids", the kinetic energy recovered during braking spins a flywheel. The recovered kinetic energy is stored in the spinning wheel, to be released upon acceleration. The amount of energy a flywheel stores comes down to its mass and the speed at which it rotates; prototypes have provided an 80bhp boost. Compared with batteries, flywheels offer the prospect of improved fuel efficiency: energy remains in a mechanical form, rather than morphing through mechanical to electrical to chemical, so conversion losses are reduced. Flywheels are light(ish), typically coming in at 6-8kg. (To deliver up to 60 kilowatts of power despite their low mass, they spin at centrifuge-like speeds of up to 60,000rpm.) And they don't present so many tricky issues when it comes to disposal. In 2010, Porsche put a flywheel into its 911 GT3 RS Hybrid. A year later, Jaguar showcased its prototype flywheel hybrid XF holding the promise of a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency. Then in 2012, Audi Sport's flywheel hybrid, the R18 e-tron quattro became the first hybrid car to win the legendary Le Mans 24-hour endurance race. In 2013, Volvo announced that its flywheel hybrid prototype could offer a 25% improvement in fuel economy. Great. So when will we be able to drive one? Well, if you're a bus driver, you already can. Buses in London (and soon, Northern Ireland) are being used to try out the tech. But you can't buy a flybrid road car yet. Jaguar has halted its flywheel research. The decision was taken, Jaguar told me, because production possibilities were limited by "packaging issues and cost". According to Flybrid Automotive, the UK company that devised its flywheel, Jaguar believes such a car would only be cost-effective if at least 60,000 a year were sold, and at the moment the infrastructure isn't available to make that many flywheel drives. Porsche has decided that the flywheel system isn't "energy dense" enough for a passenger car. Volvo told me its flywheel hybrid research is in the advanced engineering phase – it described flybrids as an interesting possibility, but wouldn't be drawn on a delivery date. Does that mean that the early promise of the flywheel has … well, flown? Maybe not. Earlier this month, a manufacturer called Torotrak bought Flybrid Automotive, and announced that within five years we could be buying flybrids for the road. "Mechanical flywheels have a long life, with good robustness against vibration, temperature and charge/discharge cycles," Tobias Knichel of Flybrid tells me. "Unlike batteries, you can charge [a flywheel] up and slow it down almost as often as you want. You don't have a degradation of performance over life." Flybrids may also be comparatively cheap to buy. If a manufacturer can be persuaded to make flywheel components in high volume, car price could be about one third of a battery hybrid. So when does Knichel think we'll see them on sale? "I'd estimate that we'll see road cars shortly before 2020; 2018 or 2019." Sounds promising. So could flybrids compete with battery hybrids? Rob Thring of Loughborough University's department of aeronautical and automotive engineering wonders if that's a fair question. "Flywheels are a good way of storing energy. But as for comparing them to batteries – it's like comparing petrol and diesel. Both have merit," he says. "Flywheels' have a lower energy density compared to batteries, but their power density is higher." Meaning flywheels can release stored energy far more quickly than batteries. So despite the fact that they can't store as much energy for the same weight, they might actually be great for city-centre driving, characterised by short distances and endless stop-starts. On the other hand, that lower energy density means a flywheel won't get you to France – you'll need to use the main engine most of the time. "You'd never create a flybrid that could drive with the engine switched off for, say, 50 miles," Knichel says. So will the remainder of the decade see a battle of the hybrids, with flywheels fighting it out with batteries? Doubtful. Batteries remain problematic in many ways, but battery innovation continues: it may even be that vehicle bodywork could be adapted to store energy. Toyota, makers of the flagship hybrid, Prius, has no plans to develop flybrids. "We looked at all sorts back in the 1960s and 70s, and decided to go with battery [hybrid] road cars, and capacitors for racing." Toyota's Richard Seymour told me: "We think that batteries are the best solution in terms of economy and emissions. And the majority of the components within our batteries are recyclable." The solution may be to incorporate both forms of storage into your future hybrid – a battery for the long drives, and a flywheel for the short stuff. | ['science/physics', 'science/science', 'technology/engineering', 'technology/research', 'technology/technology', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/environment', 'money/motoring', 'money/money', 'science/blog', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/corrinne-burns'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2014-01-27T15:44:24Z | true | EMISSIONS |
news/2014/nov/12/weatherwatch-skyscraper-gusts-glass-panes-boston | Weatherwatch: Gusts and a glassy skyscraper test the engineers | When meteorologists say the glass is falling, they usually mean that barometric pressure is decreasing. In Boston in November 1972 the glass was literally falling when a new skyscraper encountered the seasonal winds. The unfinished 60-storey John Hancock Tower had more than 10,000 window units, each with 12 square metres of glass. When the wind blew the panes started shattering, and broken fragments rained down. Streets around the tower were cordoned off. The boarded-up building was nicknamed the Plywood Palace. It was well known that wind channelled past a building could produce suction. The design had been tested using scale models in wind tunnels. It was initially assumed the tests had been flawed, that the John Hancock Tower was creating wind forces powerful enough to suck windows out of their frames. The real problem turned out to be the windows themselves. The outer layer of reflective chrome was rigidly soldered to the metal window frame, allowing no flexibility. Since the windows could not flex in the wind they cracked. The cracks spread and soon entire windows failed. By mid-1973 several thousand of them had broken. The problem was solved when all the windows were replaced with more robust glazing made of tempered glass, at a cost of $7m. In a final twist, in 1975, Bruno Thurlimann, a Swiss engineer, calculated that strong winds might bring the entire building down. An emergency strengthening programme was carried out. After a poor start, the John Hancock tower has successfully withstood the Boston winds ever since. • The picture accompanying this article was changed because the original depicted the wrong structure. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'us-news/boston', 'cities/skyscrapers', 'cities/cities', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-11-12T21:30:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/feb/02/country-diary-tiny-conifer-saplings-grow-where-the-giants-fell | Country diary: Tiny conifer saplings grow where the giants fell | Footsore, we reached the ruins of Metcalf’s House that, until the beginning of the 19th century, was an inn on an old road between Teesdale and Weardale. On this frosty morning, it’s the perfect spot for a sit-down, hands warmed by mugs of flasky tea. It wasn’t difficult to imagine what a welcome sight this place must have been for weary drovers of packhorses that once carried almost everything across these Pennine hills before the advent of railways, decent roads and the internal combustion engine. Now, there is no blaze in the hearth, open to the skies, and the apse-shaped oven built into the wall is full of rubble and ferns. In the inn’s heyday, when it had walls, doors and a roof, the air in these rooms must have been a fug of wood smoke, beer, hot beverages and warm bread. The forest below us, along Ayhope Beck, was partially wreathed in mist. There is probably no one alive who remembers this view before conifer plantations clothed the hillsides, but the birch, hazel, gorse and alder around Metcalf’s House hint at a pre-forested landscape of heathland. Our route onwards, thankfully all downhill, took us through air scented with the sharp, resinous tang of conifers. In a Scots pine plantation, some wind-thrown trees from past storms had been allowed to slowly subside into the earth: left to their own devices, forests can bury their own casualties under carpets of moss, until fungal decay completes its work and timber rots and crumbles. Winged seeds from cones above sometimes spin down and settle on these mossy seedbeds, elevated above the tangle of brambles, nurturing a new generation of saplings, rooted in decaying remains of fallen giants. We reached the valley bottom and the sweet, humic aroma of a deciduous woodland of lofty, straight-trunked oaks. They must have been among the first trees planted here, by unemployed shipyard workers and miners who were drafted in and housed in barrack huts, to afforest these windswept hillsides during the Depression years of the 1930s. Their names go unrecorded but they deserve to be remembered for this magnificent legacy. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-02T05:30:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/nov/07/great-barrier-reef-scientists-find-banned-pesticides-and-blast-chemical-regulator | Great Barrier Reef: scientists find high levels of pesticides and blast chemical regulator | Leading marine scientists have detailed a litany of “serious deficiencies” by Australia’s chemical regulator that have failed to prevent the ongoing pollution of the Great Barrier Reef catchment, where they found excessive levels of several pesticides banned by other countries. A new paper, co-authored by reef water quality expert Jon Brodie and fisheries veterinarian Matt Landos, found that pesticide regulation and management in the reef catchment areas of Queensland had failed to prevent the exposure of ecosystems to the significant risk of agricultural chemicals. The report detailed extensive concerns about the processes and practices of Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority (the APVMA), which is responsible for the regulation and licensing of chemicals. “More than 80 of the active ingredients registered for use in Australia are prohibited by the 27 member countries of the European Union,” the study says. “This includes 17 pesticides that are known to be or likely or probable to be carcinogens and 48 pesticides flagged as potential endocrine [hormone] disruptors. “More than 20 are classified as either extremely or highly hazardous by the World Health Organisation. Three of the pesticides are subject to actions by international conventions but are still used in Australia.” Among the pesticides the scientists show were detected in the reef catchment is Atrazine, a herbicide banned in 60 countries due to concerns about water contamination but registered for use in Australia. The study documented how more than 50 individual pesticide residues had been detected in Great Barrier Reef waterways, and how the highest concentrations were in freshwater areas adjacent to areas of intensive cropping. “Where monitoring exists in waterways (and little systematic monitoring of residues in waterways occurs in Australia), pesticide residues are detected widely and at concentrations often above Australian guidelines (where guidelines exist), and commonly above published effect levels, especially in intensive cropping situations,” the study said. “In the freshwater and estuarine reaches of Barratta Creek south of Townsville, with a catchment dominated by irrigated sugarcane cultivation and smaller areas of cotton and horticulture, a total of 43 pesticide residues were detected with seven pesticides exceeding ecologically relevant water quality guidelines/trigger values during the study period and four (including Atrazine) of these exceeding guidelines for several months. “Even far offshore in Great Barrier Reef marine waters pesticides are always found due to their surprisingly long half-lives in marine waters and long residence times in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.” The study detailed how the regulation and management by the APVMA had failed to prevent the exposure of ecosystems to chemicals, including the slow speed of regulatory reviews, which have in some cases dragged on for more than a decade. The authors’ concerns included that the regulator was focused on agricultural interests rather than environmental protection. “A major deficiency of the Australian regulatory system is that the APVMA is under the umbrella of the Department of Agriculture,” the study says. “This is unfortunate, because the priority of the Australian system is to provide chemicals for agricultural production, whereas protecting the environment is not a strong consideration.” Other concerns included the APVMA’s processes that support the ongoing use of registered products after environmental or health concerns are raised, rather than removing those products from use. “Australian law states that there must be conclusive scientific evidence that a pesticide is unsafe before it can be removed from use. Testing the effects of a pesticide on humans and the environment is a long and expensive process, so it’s unsurprising that Australia’s banned pesticides list is substantially shorter than most other countries which stipulate that a pesticide must be proven safe before it can be sold. “The ad hoc, case-by-case and very slow chemical review process administered by APVMA has not effectively assessed or addressed chemical risks to the Great Barrier Reef, or elsewhere.” The scientists found Australian water quality guidelines for pesticides were “badly out of date” and updates had been severely delayed. ‘“A related issue is the long delays between strong evidence of exceedance of guidelines in waters over long periods, as demonstrated via published monitoring studies, and regulatory or management action. “To adequately protect the Great Barrier Reef, given its marine protected area and world heritage status, both the special management provisions for the area already existing plus an effective national pesticide regulatory regime at least of the standard of the European Union are the minimum requirements. “Continued detections of above guidelines concentrations of pesticides and the conclusion that most basins of the Great Barrier Reef do not meet the current risk target lead us to conclude that, in general, pesticide regulation and management is, and has been, unsuccessful in the region.” The APVMA said in a statement it had not been provided with a copy of the journal article, nor were they approached by the authors of the article. “In Australia, we employ a weight-of-evidence, risk-based model to regulate pesticides. This model considers both the hazards posed by a product and the likely exposure of humans, animals and the environment to those hazards,” the authority said. “The APVMA only registers chemical products where the risks can be mitigated through specific application and safety instructions on the product label. It is then the responsibility of state and territory governments to control the use of these products.” It said active constituents were assessed on the basis of their expected volume of use, expected exposure and the behaviour of any active constituents, and the potential harmful effects on wildlife and organisms. “This information helps to establish whether the risk to any of these organisms posed by the use of the product may be considered unacceptable or whether there are other concerns due to the behaviour of the substance in the environment.” “Registered products are safe to use according to label directions.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/farming', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-11-06T21:33:33Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/aug/21/are-jellyfish-going-to-take-over-oceans | Are jellyfish going to take over the oceans? | Karl Mathiesen | Another British summer, another set of fear-mongering headlines about swarms of “deadly” jellyfish set to ruin your holiday. But news that jellyfish numbers may be rising carries implications far beyond the interrupted pastimes of the sunburnt masses. Like a karmic device come to punish our planetary transgressions, jellyfish thrive on the chaos humans create. Overfishing wipes out their competitors and predators; warmer water from climate change encourages the spread of some jellies; pollution from fertilisers causes the ocean to lose its oxygen, a deprivation to which jellyfish are uniquely tolerant; coastal developments provide convenient, safe habitat for their polyps to hide. In addition, the great mixing of species transported across the world in the ballasts of ships opens up new, vulnerable ecosystems to these super-adaptors. “They’ve got this unique life cycle where they can tolerate harsh conditions and then rapidly thrive when conditions are favourable. So when a stressor like climate change or overfishing opens up a niche for them they can really take advantage of that and rapidly proliferate,” said Lucas Brotz, a researcher at the University of British Columbia. Not all species of jelly benefit, rather there tends to be a reduction in the diversity of species and vast, homogenous masses emerge. “They can make millions and millions of copies of themselves and clone asexually. That’s when you get these massive blooms. I think that’s the secret to the success of jellyfish, the reason they’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years.” The latest flurry of “jellyfish invasion” stories was spawned by an announcement by the UK’s Marine Conservation Society (MCS) that their annual survey of UK waters for 2015 was looking like being a ‘record-breaker’. The problem is there aren’t many records to break. The MCS survey has only run for 12 years, not enough to identify a strong trend. Further confusing the issue, the MCS study relies on members of the public for its data. Citizen science is a wonderful tool but adds extra uncertainty – the society admits it cannot be sure how much of the growth is due to more jellyfish and how much is people becoming aware of their survey and reporting to it. Even so, the charity’s jellyfish expert Dr Peter Richardson said climate change and overfishing were fundamentally changing the ocean. “At the same time we seem to be witnessing increases in jellyfish around the UK. Is this an anomaly, a coincidence, or are the jellyfish telling us something?” he asked. Are these British blooms harbingers of the age of the jelly? Globally, jellyfish are little surveyed and their numbers vary wildly from year to year for reasons not entirely understood. Because of the paucity of historical records, jellyfish experts are hesitant about whether a global trend exists. But Priscilla Licandro, a researcher at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, said in the few places where decent data exist, populations of jellyfish tend to be rising. “There is not very much reliable information, but from what we’ve got, at least at a regional level, there is an increase in the persistence and the occurrence,” she said. In the Mediterranean Sea, where records date back some 200 years, natural cycles of boom and bust have been replaced by a constant, large presence. “[In the Mediterranean] there have been changes in the last 15 to 20 years that haven’t been seen for two centuries,” she said. Similar increases in the northeastern Atlantic seem to support the MCS’s more anecdotal findings. The links between human activity and local jellyfish blooms are strong. In the Black Sea, invasive comb jellies dumped from the ballast of tankers have spawned deliriously and destroyed the region’s fishing industry. In the Sea of Japan, fertiliser run-off has left an oxygen-depleted sea where little other than jellies can thrive. But aside from these regional observations, Mark Gibbons, a zoologist at the University of the Western Cape, said the evidence to support a global trend was still patchy. “Whether there is strong evidence of a global increase in jellyfish populations [now] is difficult to answer. Certainly in some coastal systems there have been increases but in others there have not – or at least the background data with which to measure change are absent or scant, so it is hard to say,” he said. Other researchers, including Steven Haddock from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, believe the current observed rise may represent a natural cycle. “I have a collection of headlines dating back as far as 1906, and all through the decades, the numbers that people see are ‘unprecedented’,” he said. “In my opinion... there is very little evidence for a global trend that indicates we are due for a future ocean dominated by jellies. They have been in the seas for millions of years, blooming and busting.” But scientists agree that the continued abuse of our oceans is leading us down a road where fish and other marine animals fail and jellies win. “In all likelihood, owing to the factors that you have listed, we are going to see more jellyfish,” said Gibbons. However, said Brotz, “we don’t want to be too quick to say that jellyfish are this evil plague, or the cockroaches of the sea or anything like that. Jellyfish are these beautiful, amazing creatures that play a very important role in the ecosystem.” To vilify them would be to miss the ultimate lesson: that a future of oceans filled with swarms of gelatinous beasts will not be a jellyfish apocalypse, but a human one. | ['environment/series/eco-audit', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/karl-mathiesen'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-08-21T14:29:54Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/nov/30/australia-tries-to-pause-unesco-process-that-can-force-climate-action-to-protect-great-barrier-reef | Australia accused of trying to block Unesco process that could put Great Barrier Reef in danger list | A dozen countries have accused the Australian government of trying to hit pause on a process that could still lead to the Great Barrier Reef being placed on a list of world heritage sites “in danger”. But a global climate change policy to guide how more than 190 countries deal with the crisis affecting some of the world’s most special places, couldn’t be agreed on at a major international meeting in Paris. At the general assembly meeting for the UN’s world heritage convention – a treaty signed by more than 190 countries to protect the most special places on Earth – Australia raised fears if sites were placed on the “in danger” list, they could stay there forever. Earlier this month the Guardian revealed Australia was lobbying against a section of the new climate policy that asked countries to adopt domestic measures that explicitly kept global heating to 1.5C. Australia preferred more generic language. Unesco recommended earlier this year the reef be placed on a list of world heritage sites “in danger” – the first time a site would have made the list chiefly because of impacts from climate change. Corals bleached en masse across the world’s biggest reef system in 2016, 2017 and 2020 in events caused by rising ocean temperatures driven by global heating. Intensive lobbying from Australia delayed the “in danger” listing, with a decision due to be considered again at a meeting in Russia in June next year. On Saturday, Australian government representative James Larsen told the general assembly climate change needed to be addressed and a new policy was “long overdue”. But he said: “What in particular is the route off the ‘in danger’ list for a single property if the dangers concerned are global developments that require global solutions? “Are we to accept a future where a large proportion of properties are to languish permanently on the ‘in danger list’ with no resolution deliverable by the state party concerned?,” Larsen, who is deputy secretary of the environment department, said. More than 190 countries have signed the world heritage convention, but its climate change policy has not been updated since it was adopted in 2007. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Because of the large number of changes proposed by Australia and others, countries couldn’t agree on the new policy and agreed instead to develop a working group. At this point, Australia – backed by Japan and Poland – asked the assembly to agree to officially note the “desirability of avoiding decisions which would otherwise pre-empt the outcomes” of those deliberations. Norway’s representative Eva Hauge Fontaine said Australia’s request was “highly inappropriate”, saying the language being proposed would have suspended the process for putting sites on the world heritage “in danger” list. But Larsen told the meeting that was not Australia’s intention and the language would not have stopped sites being placed on the in danger list. The appeal did not convince a dozen countries who successfully pushed for Australia’s paragraph to be deleted. Led by Palestine and Norway, the other countries opposing Australia were Iran, China, France, Russia, Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Thailand and Belgium. Imogen Zethoven, an adviser on world heritage issues to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: “The Morrison government tried to water down Unesco’s climate change policy to ensure it wasn’t required to take action on climate change to protect the Great Barrier Reef. It failed. “The failure of the Morrison government’s amendments at the general assembly means the World Heritage Committee can request ambitious climate action by Australia in line with 1.5C degrees to help protect the future of the reef. The government was trying to ensure this could not happen.” Since then, Unesco has found about one third of all the sites listed for their natural significance are under threat from the impacts of climate heating, such as rising temperatures, sea levels and extreme weather events. The Australian government has said the world heritage convention should not be used as a mechanism to encourage countries to take action on climate change, and that this should be left to the UN’s climate treaty. The UN’s science advisers are due to visit the Great Barrier Reef on a monitoring mission, and then produce a report to be considered at the Russia meeting next year. A spokesperson for environment minister Sussan Ley said Australia wanted a consistent approach for sites being affected by climate change “that does not see one site singled out when others are equally affected”. He said Australia had successfully proposed a working group with an expert panel to look at the climate policy in time for the next general assembly in 2023. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-11-30T01:49:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/article/2024/may/23/trump-oil-industry-money-investigation | Senate Democrats to investigate Trump’s reported big oil ‘deal’ | Powerful Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into an alleged quid pro quo offer from Donald Trump to fossil fuel executives. At a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago home and club last month, the former president reportedly told oil bosses he would immediately roll back dozens of environmental regulations if elected, and requested $1bn in contributions to his presidential campaign. It would be a “deal” for the executives because of the costs they would avoid under him, he reportedly said. On Thursday morning, the chairmen of two Senate committees each sent letters to eight oil companies and top fossil fuel trade group the American Petroleum Institute. The letters from Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate budget committee chairman, and Ron Wyden, the Senate finance committee chair, accused the companies of engaging in a quid pro quo with Trump and requested additional details about the meeting. “As Mr Trump funnels campaign money into his businesses and uses it as a slush fund to pay his legal fees, Big Oil has been lobbying aggressively to protect and expand its profits at the expense of the American taxpayer,” wrote the senators. “And now, emboldened by impunity, Mr Trump and Big Oil are flaunting their indifference to US citizens’ economic well-being for all to see.” Reached for comment, Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, said the investigation is an “election-year stunt to distract from America’s need for more energy, including more oil and natural gas, to power our economy and combat persistent inflation”. She added: “API meets with candidates and policymakers to discuss the need for sound energy policies, and this meeting was no different.” Last week, Jamie Raskin, who chairs the House oversight committee, also launched a House oversight investigation into the companies about the reported offer. But unlike Whitehouse and Wyden, Raskin does not have the power to subpoena companies if they do not reply to his inquiry, because Republicans control the House of Representatives. Trump has continued to ask oil companies for campaign funding amid scrutiny of his relationship with the fossil fuel industry. On Wednesday he attended a fundraiser luncheon hosted by three oil bosses at a five-star hotel in Houston, including two from companies reportedly represented at the Mar-a-Lago meeting. | ['us-news/series/big-oil-uncovered', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/us-senate', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/republicans', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/the-stakes-us-election-edition', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dharna-noor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2024-05-23T19:24:37Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2022/oct/10/its-a-serious-problem-battle-to-save-griffon-vulture-heats-up-in-cyprus | ‘It’s a serious problem’: battle to save Griffon vulture heats up in Cyprus | They’re vital for the ecosystem, play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, for bird lovers, are an ecotourism delight. But in Cyprus, where prolific use of poison bait has made the Griffon vulture virtually extinct, campaigners are taking action. “Island-wide, we had just eight,” says Melpo Apostolidou at BirdLife Cyprus, which is coordinating the EU-funded life with vultures project to boost what was once a thriving population. “That’s the lowest number of any country in Europe.” The battle to revive the Mediterranean island’s most threatened bird of prey was turbocharged last week when eight Griffons, imported from Spain, were released into the wild. For ornithologists, the move has not come a moment too late. “There is no time to lose,” says Apostolidou. “Restocking is vital. We released 15 in September and will be bringing in another 15 next month before releasing them as well in the spring.” Changing farming techniques and decreasing staples of available food are partly to blame for the decline of a bird whose scavenging role as a recycler of natural carcasses is deemed essential. So, too, is the loss of natural habitats and collisions with overhead power lines. In Cyprus, a culture of using banned poisons to reduce perceived pests, especially foxes and dogs, is also seen as the greatest cause of the Griffon becoming critically endangered. Over the past year, numbers have dropped precipitously as the scavengers have fed off poisoned carrion. “It’s a serious problem,” said Nikos Kassinis, a senior officer at the island’s Game and Fauna Service. After centuries of having Griffon vulture colonies nationwide, there is now only one nesting colony high up in the Episkopi cliffs in the British sovereign base area. Kassinis said authorities had also stepped in with the Game and Fauna Service setting up feeding stations for the birds. Earlier this year dog units – border collies specially trained to detect poison bait and poisoned victims – began patrolling rural areas. Replenishment of the species would be good for nature and indicative of the local ecosystem’s overall health, conservationists claim. Recent studies have shown that vultures not only provide what the EU project described as “a cost-effective and environmentally beneficial carcass disposal service,” but play a central role in regulating the spread of diseases such as rabies. Spain has Europe’s largest population of Griffon vultures, with the latest imports to be released from an acclimatisation aviary in the mountains north of the coastal city of Limassol. “We’ll be monitoring them closely,” said Apostolidou, adding that the Griffon have been tagged with GPS transmitters to track their movements. “The Spanish birds are juveniles, and it is very important that they mix and learn from the local birds. So far we’re pleased to report that although it’s still early, some of them are doing just that.” Tales of the prowess of Griffon vultures are legendary. Ornithologists recorded one bird, named after the wine god Dionysus, watching over the egg of a would-be hatchling in the Greek Rhodope Mountains for 33 days after losing his female mate at the time of incubation. The feat was seen as indicative of the vultures’ parental skills. In Greece as in Bulgaria, local populations, once also dangerously low, have gradually been restored. But with numbers so down in Cyprus, campaigners say they cannot afford to be sanguine. “Imagine if we hadn’t brought in any birds at all,” says Apostolidou. “The Griffon vulture would be extinct, but dealing with the poisoning problem must also now be a priority.” | ['environment/birds', 'world/cyprus', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/spain', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/helenasmith', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-10-10T04:00:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2007/sep/05/climatechange.sciencenews | Ice-free Arctic could be here in 23 years | The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the north-east passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030. Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University in Denver which released the figures, said: "It's amazing. It's simply fallen off a cliff and we're still losing ice." The Arctic has now lost about a third of its ice since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, and the rate of loss has accelerated sharply since 2002. Dr Serreze said: "If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lose all of its ice, then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe. But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate. It seems that the Arctic is going to be a very different place within our lifetimes, and certainly within our children's lifetimes." The new figures show that sea ice extent is currently down to 4.4m square kilometres (1.7m square miles) and still falling. The previous record low was 5.3m square kilometres in September 2005. From 1979 to 2000 the average sea ice extent was 7.7m square kilometres. The minimum extent of sea ice usually occurs late in September each year, as the freezing Arctic winter begins to bite. The sea ice usually then begins to freeze again over the winter. But Dr Serreze said that would be difficult this year. "This summer we've got all this open water and added heat going into the ocean. That is going to make it much harder for the ice to grow back. What we've seen this year sets us up for an even worse year next year." The winter ice has already failed to make up for increased losses in the summer in each of the last two years. Changes in wind and ocean circulation patterns can help reduce sea ice extent, but Dr Serreze said the main culprit was man-made global warming. "The rules are starting to change and what's changing the rules is the input of greenhouse gases. This year puts the exclamation mark on a series of record lows that tell us something is happening." The dramatic loss is further bad news for the region's wildlife which relies on the sea ice, such as polar bears. The animals use its coastal fringes to find food, and as the summer ice retreats to the north, they must swim further to hunt for seals. Some colonies of bears have already showed signs of malnutrition and biologists say there could be a severe drop in their population within a few decades, though they may not go extinct. Yesterday's announcement will also increase political interest in the Arctic, with a number of countries currently jostling to exploit the oil and gas reserves believed to lie under the ocean, which could become more accessible as the icy cover retreats. Last month Russia claimed a huge area around the north pole, and Denmark and Canada are preparing similar claims, which rely on showing that a chain of underwater mountains that runs across the region are connected to their respective continental shelves. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/arctic', 'environment/poles', 'science/science', 'tone/news', 'environment/sea-level', 'type/article', 'profile/davidadam', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2007-09-05T10:01:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
books/article/2024/may/03/gaza-vote-society-of-authors-after-call-to-condemn-israeli-military-action | Gaza vote divides Society of Authors after call to condemn Israeli military action | The Society of Authors (SoA) has come under fire from all sides after members voted against a resolution demanding it issue an official statement condemning Israel’s military action in Gaza. The campaign group Fossil Free Books (FFB) submitted two motions to the SoA, the UK’s largest trade union for writers, illustrators and translators, triggering an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Thursday night. Members voted 1,480 to 251 in favour of the first, which called for the publishing industry to divest from ties with the fossil fuels industry. Calls for the book industry to break ties with investment firm Baillie Gifford, which sponsors the UK’s most prestigious nonfiction prize and a number of literary festivals, began after Greta Thunberg pulled out of her scheduled appearance at the Edinburgh international book festival last year. Since then, FFB was formed, and a number of authors have continued to speak out against Baillie Gifford, which has a proportion of its investments in corporations that profit from fossil fuels. The second, which was narrowly defeated, called for the SoA to issue a statement saying it supported an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The motion called for a statement to be released to the effect that: “The SoA condemns indiscriminate targeting of civilians and cultural infrastructure including churches, mosques, hospitals, schools, libraries and universities. The SoA calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and for Israel to uphold its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The proposal said that “at least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed as a consequence of Israeli military action since October 7th, 2023” and added: “Writers at risk of harassment and obstruction while evacuating Gaza is of serious concern.” The management committee of the SoA added a note to the proposal saying it opposed the resolution because it did not feel the organisation should issue “a collective statement on issues that are outside of our remit and expertise and where we have no mandate from our membership”. The electronic ballot, conducted during the online meeting, saw 786 members vote for the motion, 883 against, with 239 abstentions. A statement released by FFB said:“We are disappointed that our trade union still refuses to: condemn the genocide in Gaza, support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, or express solidarity with Palestinian writers and publishing workers here in the UK who face job loss and censorship for speaking out.” Women’s prize-winning author of Home Fire Kamila Shamsie, who endorsed the motion, said that it was “astonishing” to see the SoA back the fossil fuel divestment motion while opposing the Gaza motion – she said both motions were “deeply political” but the SoA had opposed the Gaza proposal on the grounds the organisation doesn’t engage in politics. She said: “This is a very odd sort of society, which responds to opposing views within its ranks by declaring the subject off-bounds. How is this remotely democratic?” Guy Gunaratne, author of Mister, Mister, added: “Throughout this process they have resisted our call for condemning the killing of our colleagues. They asked all members to vote against it, and even changed the number of agreed speakers three hours before the vote. In spite of this, the resolution was rejected by a very small margin.” Among those who voted against the resolution was the author Hilary Freeman, whose next book in August is a children’s retelling of Tova Friedman’s Holocaust memoir entitled Daughter of Auschwitz. Freeman, who lost a family member in the Hamas kibbutz attacks on 7 October, said the resolution was too one-sided. “It didn’t mention Hamas or October 7 at all, it didn’t mention the hostages,” she said. “If it had condemned Hamas as well as Israel and called for a peaceful resolution it might have had more support. As it was, I just found it very offensive.” Freeman consulted the group UK Lawyers for Israel with a view to mounting a legal challenge against the SoA releasing a statement if the motion was carried, saying it was against the SoA’s remit. She said: “Despite letters from barristers, the SoA still went ahead with the vote.” Freeman, who said she was not a supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu or the Israeli government, but considered herself a Zionist because she believes in the existence of an Israeli state, added: “I think the fact that more than 200 people abstained shows how uncomfortable people were with it.” Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, chair of the SoA board, said: “We appreciate that many members are very disappointed with the result of the vote on Resolution 3, which asked the SoA to publish a statement on Gaza. Ahead of the EGM, while some expressed frustration that the SoA has not already made a statement on Gaza, others described Resolution 3 itself as ‘divisive’ and ‘alienating’. The fact that the voting was so close on this – 53% against to 47% for the resolution – demonstrates just how divided the membership is on this issue. “However, it is important to note that the Resolution 3 vote was on whether or not the SoA should publish a statement. It was not – as some have claimed – a vote on whether or not the SoA membership is for or against a ceasefire. We are a democratic organisation and our members will always hold a wide range of views, and disagree on issues – which means that as in this case the staff team and board need to navigate the fine line between them.” During the EGM, members also voted in favour of a further motion, put forward by the SoA management committee, asserting that they do not consent to the use of their works being used to develop generative artificial intelligence systems. | ['books/books', 'culture/culture', 'campaign/email/bookmarks', 'books/society-of-authors', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'environment/environment', 'world/israel-hamas-war', 'books/kamila-shamsie', 'books/guy-gunaratne', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'books/fossil-free-books', 'profile/davidbarnett', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2024-05-03T16:05:47Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2023/dec/23/israel-flooding-hamas-tunnels-seawater-risks-ruining-basic-life-gaza-expert | Flooding Hamas tunnels with seawater risks ‘ruining basic life in Gaza’, says expert | A potential plan by Israel to flood the Hamas tunnel network with seawater risks “ruining the basic conditions for life in Gaza”, one of the elements of the crime of genocide, a senior hydrologist has told the Guardian. Environmental experts have warned the strategy – which Israel has yet to commit to – risks causing an ecological catastrophe that will leave Gaza with no drinkable water and devastate what little agriculture is possible in the 141 sq mile territory. The UN special rapporteur for the right to water, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, compared it to the legend of Romans’ salting of the fields of Carthage to render uninhabitable the territory of their ancient rival. The rapporteur for human rights and the environment, David Boyd, said damaging Gaza’s sole water supply would be “catastrophic” for the environment and human rights. Media reports, photographs and satellite imagery suggest the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have set up pumps at al-Shati refugee camp on the eastern coastline of the Gaza strip, which they could use to pump millions of gallons of seawater into the tunnels used by the militant group. Israeli soldiers reportedly began trialling pumping seawater into the subterranean network last week, in an effort to drive Hamas’s militants above ground and deny them a significant strategic tool. The environmental consequences could be far-reaching. According to a study from the US military academy West Point, there were 1,300 tunnels stretching over 310 miles (500km) in Gaza at the start of the war in October. It has been estimated it would take 1.5m cubic metres of water to completely fill them. Mark Zeitoun, director of the Geneva Water Hub and professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said seawater pumped into the hundreds of kilometres of tunnels crisscrossing the porous, sandy soil of Gaza would inevitably seep into the aquifer that its 2.3 million residents rely on for about 85% of their water. Zeitoun, who has worked as a water engineer for the UN in the occupied Palestinian territories, said the aquifer was already badly contaminated from wastewater and from seawater infiltration caused by years of overabstraction. “If you add more seawater directly, right on through the sand into the aquifer, it’s not going to turn a top-quality resource into a vulnerable resource, it will turn a vulnerable resource into a catastrophic one,” Zeitoun said. He said the contamination would be such that current neighbourhood-level reverse osmosis desalination methods used by Palestinians in Gaza to treat their water would no longer be feasible. “It would ruin the conditions of life of everyone in Gaza,” he said. “I say the conditions of life because I think that’s one of the elements of genocide within the UN convention, the partial or complete physical destruction of the conditions necessary for life of any people. “Flooding the freshwater aquifer with seawater would go against every norm humanity has ever developed, including the environment aspects of international humanitarian law/rules of war and the recent principles on the protection of environment in relation to armed conflict and all the progress made towards criminalising harm to the natural environment: ecocide.” Wim Zwijnenburg, a researcher for the Dutch NGO Pax for Peace, who investigates the environmental impacts of war, warned of additional dangers. “We don’t know what’s stored in the tunnels,” he said. “There are reports floating around, which are not verified, but quoted by some sources [that] around 20,000 gallons of fuel is stored in the tunnels. So you have all those kinds of hydrocarbons that can potentially also affect the soil and get into the aquifer and groundwater.” Flooding the tunnels would also pose risks for the integrity of the ground on which the communities of Gaza, the world’s most densely populated territory, are built, Zwijnenburg warned. If they were to collapse beneath built-up areas, that could bring whatever buildings remain above them down as well. If implemented in full, the IDF’s tunnel-flooding plan would be the latest move in a long history of Israel’s targeting of Palestinian water supplies. Even before the damage to water infrastructure caused by the latest bombardment of Gaza, supplies were precarious for people in the territory and in the West Bank, said Hadeel Ikhmais, the head of the climate change office at the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority. In the West Bank, Palestinians have no access to surface water, and must buy water from the Israelis. Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked water supplies in the West Bank about three times a month between January 2022 and mid-2023. In Gaza, the groundwater aquifer is not recharging sufficiently to cope with demand due to a rising population and climate impacts including drought and higher temperatures. In the latest war, desalination plants, water harvesting and water treatment infrastructure have been targeted, leading to waste being discharged into the sea. “The disposal of wastewater into the sea makes it much more challenging to desalinate. By targeting water supplies, Israel is trying to make Gaza unliveable for Palestinians,” Ikhmais said. The UN Environment Programme said it had seen reports of Israel beginning to pump water into Gaza’s tunnels. Responding to the Guardian, a spokesperson gave a similar assessment of the potential effects. “The coastal aquifer, an underground natural reservoir which runs from the Carmel mountain range in the north to the Sinai peninsula in the south, and the already fragile ecosystem of Gaza must be protected, so there is no impact on agriculture, industry and the environment, and so that people can use the groundwater safely,” the spokesperson said. “Any method used by the warring parties during the conflict must take all precautions not to harm civilians, including impacting access to water and food resources.” The Israeli government and IDF did not respond to requests for comment. | ['world/israel-hamas-war', 'world/israel', 'world/gaza', 'world/palestinian-territories', 'environment/environment', 'environment/water', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'world/middleeast', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'profile/nina-lakhani', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-12-23T06:00:18Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2019/jul/25/most-youtube-climate-change-videos-oppose-the-consensus-view | Most YouTube climate change videos 'oppose the consensus view' | The majority of YouTube videos about the climate crisis oppose the scientific consensus and “hijack” technical terms to make them appear credible, a new study has found. Researchers have warned that users searching the video site to learn about climate science may be exposed to content that goes against mainstream scientific belief. Dr Joachim Allgaier of RWTH Aachen University in Germany analysed 200 YouTube videos to see if they adhered to or challenged the scientific consensus. To do so, he chose 10 search terms: Chemtrails Climate Climate change Climate engineering Climate hacking Climate manipulation Climate modification Climate science Geoengineering Global warming The videos were then assessed to judge how closely they adhered to the scientific consensus, as represented by the findings of reports by UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2013 onwards. These concluded that humans have been the “dominant cause” of global warming since the 1950s. However, Allgaier found that the message of 120 of the top 200 search results went against this view. To avoid personalised results, Allgaier used the anonymisation tool Tor, which hides a computer’s IP address and means YouTube treats each search as coming from a different user. The results for the search terms climate, climate change, climate science and global warming mostly reflected the scientific consensus view. Allgaier said this was because many contained excerpts from TV news programmes or documentaries. The same could not be said for the results of searches related to chemtrails, climate engineering, climate hacking, climate manipulation, climate modification and geoengineering. Very few of these videos explained the scientific rationale behind their ideas, Allgaier said. Most of these videos also supported the chemtrail conspiracy theory, which claims toxic substances are sprayed on to members of the public from the condensation trails from aircraft to modify the weather, control our brains, for biological or chemical warfare, or other sinister reasons. Allgaier noted, however, that although chemtrails videos received a lot of views, it does not mean the people watching them believed what they were told. He said it was important to examine the algorithms that decide which videos to show people, but did not suggest YouTube should remove climate denial material. “Effectively, this would be censorship, and YouTube says they are against censorship,” Allgaier said. “Perhaps they could change their algorithms to prioritise factual information, especially for health and medicine.” A YouTube spokesperson said: “YouTube is a platform for free speech where anyone can choose to post videos, as long as they follow our community guidelines. “Over the last year we’ve worked to better surface credible news sources across our site for people searching for news-related topics, begun reducing recommendations of borderline content and videos that could misinform users in harmful ways, and introduced information panels to help give users more sources where they can fact-check information for themselves.” Allgaier suggested more scientists should start taking YouTube seriously as a platform for sharing information. “YouTube has an enormous reach as an information channel, and some of the popular science YouTubers are doing an excellent job at communicating complex subjects and reaching new audiences,” he said. “Scientists could form alliances with science communicators, politicians and those in popular culture in order to reach out to the widest possible audience. They should speak out publicly about their research and be transparent in order to keep established trustful relationships with citizens and society.” The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Communication. | ['technology/youtube', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'environment/environment', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/world', 'technology/technology', 'technology/tor', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gregory-robinson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-07-25T04:01:33Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2018/sep/19/manifesto-for-wildlife-uk-countryside-species-biodiversity | My manifesto could save Britain’s dying wildlife | Chris Packham | Earlier this summer, I sat in my garden, admiring a small wildflower patch I’d sown. Then I realised something was missing. Not a single butterfly jinked between the flowers, no bumblebees buzzed, no hoverflies hovered. We have lots of data to prove these absences, and have become inured to them. We say that we’ve lost 97% of our flower-rich meadows since the 1930s or that we’ve lost 86% of corn bunting or 97% of hedgehogs. Loss, lost … as if this habitat and these species have mysteriously disappeared into the ether. Lost means inadvertently misplaced. No, our wildlife has been killed, starved, poisoned, ploughed up or concreted over. Our lazy, self-excusing terminology is representative of our chronic acceptance of such appalling catastrophes. We share these shocking statistics like a vicious game of Top Trumps – to the extent that they have lost their meaning. We’ve forgotten that they are a death toll, the dwindling voices of vanished millions, a tragic echo of a recent time of plentiful life. According to the definitive State of Nature report, between 1970 and 2013 56% of UK species declined, and 15% are now threatened with extinction. Of the 218 countries assessed for “biodiversity intactness”, the UK is ranked 189. We are among the most nature-depleted countries in the world. It’s time to rouse ourselves from this complacent stupor, because we are presiding over an ecological apocalypse. But it is not too late. There is hope we can hold on to, and there is action we can take. I’ve been organising the first People’s Walk for Wildlife, which takes place in London this Saturday from midday. Everyone is invited – foresters, reserve wardens, teachers, students, children, scientists, artists, bloggers, activists, volunteers, gardeners. We are going to sing songs, play birdsong from the missing birds and share our love of all species. But this isn’t some fluffy bunny-hugging endeavour. We have specific ideas to fix this too. Today I’m publishing a People’s Manifesto for Wildlife which we will present to the environment secretary, Michael Gove. I asked 17 independent experts to suggest practical, creative and hard-hitting measures to stop the destruction. They’ve amazed me. We’ve produced a manifesto containing nearly 200 ideas to revive British wildlife. Some are imaginative steps to ensure future generations grow up better connected to the natural world. Every primary school child could have one day of outdoor learning each fortnight. Twin every primary school with a farm to help children understand farming and food growing. Get primary school classes to name and own significant urban trees in perpetuity to form lifelong bonds between people and trees. Other ideas will ensure that everyone – no matter how urban – can gain access to high-quality green space. Hospitals must be supported to increase provision of “nearby nature” for patients and relatives. The NHS could work with environmental groups to develop “eco-prescribing” such as forest bathing, as practised in Japan. Swift, sparrow or starling boxes could be installed on all new-builds. Every park and industrial estate should have a wildlife pond. We also call for long overdue legal changes. Ban the weedkiller glyphosate. Ban driven grouse shooting. Ban scallop dredging in UK waters. Ban snares (the UK is one of only five EU member states where snaring is legal). Some bans will directly impinge upon our popular freedoms, such as excluding dogs (except assistance dogs) from nature reserves. We cannot live with impunity now we number nearly 70 million people. Many of these measures are cheap. Introduced today, they would transform Britain’s wildlife tomorrow. But the biggest positive effect on wildlife can be made by the custodians of 70% of Britain’s land: farmers. There is no doubt industrial farming has driven much of the decline in wildlife but it is not fair to blame individual farmers. If this becomes a fight between farmers and conservationists we all lose. Brexit gives us an opportunity to devise new, improved financial support for genuinely sustainable farming – which by definition is wildlife-friendly farming. Ultimately we depend on other species for our food, and our survival. In 2017 a scientific report revealed that 76% of flying insects had vanished from German nature reserves over the past 25 years. Extinguish insect life, and human life will follow. One farmer quoted in the manifesto argues that we must all rethink the way we live, shop, cook and eat “so that we wean ourselves off the damaging farming that has fed us cheaply, but at an appalling price to nature”. The manifesto is only a first draft. Some ideas will be criticised. Many of you will have other great ideas. Let’s share them, debate them, and take decisive steps to save the wildlife that enriches every single one of us. • Chris Packham is a naturalist, nature photographer and author | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/chris-packham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-09-19T04:59:09Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/sep/07/tesco-criticised-for-deducting-34m-from-plastic-bag-tax-charity-donations | Tesco criticised for deducting £3.4m from plastic bag tax charity donations | Millions of pounds in administration costs were deducted from the charitable donations made by Tesco using funds generated from the plastic bag tax, government data has revealed. No other major supermarket made any such deductions, leading senior MPs to urge Tesco to follow their lead. The 5p charge for plastic bags was introduced in England in October 2015 and has led to an 83% reduction in their use, equivalent to 9bn fewer bags. It is also credited with a drop by nearly half in plastic bags found littering beaches. The government is clear that it expects shops to donate the proceeds of the 5p plastic bag tax to good causes. The latest official statistics, covering the year to March 2017, show that Tesco sold 637m carrier bags, raising £31.9m in proceeds. But the supermarket giant deducted £3.4m to cover the “cost of administering donations”, equivalent to more than 10% of the total. Tesco topped the list of plastic bags sales but no other company in the top 10 made administration deductions, including Asda, Morrison, the Co-op, Marks and Spencer, Aldi, Iceland and Waitrose. “The legislation for the 5p plastic bag charge is clear that the money raised should go to good causes,” said Mary Creagh MP, chair of the environmental audit committee. “Five years after the horsemeat scandal and three years after a false accounting scandal, Tesco finds itself again in the spotlight for doing the wrong thing. They should drop this ridiculous charge immediately.” Neil Parish MP, chair of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee, said: “As much money as possible from the plastic bag tax should be going to charitable causes. It would be great to see Tesco follow the lead of other retailers and not deduct admin costs. That would be a very positive step for Britain’s biggest supermarket to take.” A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “There is clear expectation to donate the proceeds of the plastic bag charge to good causes. We know that £95m raised has been donated to good causes so far and by publishing the data on donations, along with the number of bags distributed, this has the added effect of encouraging retailers to donate to good causes.” Tesco’s spokesman said: “Since launching in 2015, our Bags of Help initiative has provided more than £33m to over 6,400 local community projects. A small proportion of the money raised is used to run and administer the scheme in partnership with the charity Groundwork, who help distribute the money to good causes.” Companies can deduct a portion of the revenue to cover “reasonable costs” of administering the donations. The spokesman said Tesco’s administration costs included customer communications and the provision of voting tokens and booths which customers use to choose the charities that are supported. The spokesman said Tesco did not profit from money retained for administration. Tesco stopped selling 5p “single-use” plastic bags on 28 August, instead offering a “reusable” 10p bag, which will be replaced free of charge if damaged. The company said the proceeds of the 10p bag sales would continue to fund community projects. All employers with more than 250 staff are required to charge customers in England for disposable plastic bags. Legally, retailers can choose whether to donate their bag tax revenue to charity. The government data lists the revenue of some, including Poundstretcher (£250,000), as “retained by company”. Companies can deduct a portion of the revenue to cover “reasonable costs” of administering the donations. England was the last nation in the UK to implement a plastic bag tax following Wales (2011), Northern Ireland (2013) and Scotland (2014), all of which subsequently saw big declines in bag use. | ['environment/plastic-bags', 'business/tesco', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'business/supermarkets', 'uk/uk', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-09-07T09:31:48Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/aug/01/retailers-likely-to-face-backlash-for-failing-to-curb-plastic-use-survey-finds | Retailers likely to face backlash for failing to curb plastic use, survey finds | Retailers are likely to face a consumer backlash if they fail to take action to curb plastic use, according to a survey by the owners of Canary Wharf in London. The operators of Canary Wharf are pledging to become the world’s first plastic-free commercial centre, in partnership with the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). As part of their commitment to become plastic-free, Canary Wharf Group carried out an audit of consumers, retailers and corporate businesses within the commercial and residential area, stretching across 16.5m square feet. It revealed 94% of businesses, consumers and retailers were keen to do something to reduce plastic use. The survey found consumers in particular felt they were using a lot of unnecessary plastic in their daily lives. The vast majority – 84% – said they would show more loyalty to a brand or organisation that was taking clear action on plastic. But the report said that retailers did not seem to be aware of the growing public pressure on plastic use and showed a degree of complacency. “Consumer scrutiny of plastic is at an all-time high with shopper protests against single-use plastic and packaging breaking out in supermarket aisles across the UK,” the report said. “It may be only a matter of time before smaller retail outlets face a similar backlash if they aren’t seen to be doing enough to curb plastic use.” The report identified plastic food packaging as a major concern, and said more recycling bins and better signage were needed. Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of SAS, said Canary Wharf was attempting a world first and he encouraged other business centres to take similar action. “We’d like to see other global financial centres take similar action on single-use plastics in the interest of healthy and happy communities everywhere,” he said. “Given the scale of threats to our coasts and marine habitats there could not be a more important time to take action on plastic pollution.” | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'uk/london', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-08-01T16:01:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2011/jun/21/music-festivals-glastonbury-green-environment | Can a music festival ever be considered 'green'? | Leo Hickman | Can a music festival ever really be "green", as some of them seem to be claiming? What's so green about tens of thousands of people travelling sometimes hundreds of miles to camp en masse in a field? I don't want to be too cynical, but the environmental impact of all those chemical toilets, rubbish bags filled with disposable cutlery and beer cans, and broken bottles trodden into the grass must be pretty huge. T Mear, by email Yes, the trash mountain created by festivals can take many days to clear up, but is that an argument that they shouldn't take place? What waste streams would festival-goers still be creating if they didn't attend? A number of festivals have made great play of the fact that they have attempted to clean up their act in recent years when it comes to recycling and promoting public transport as an alternative to arriving by car. Glastonbury, for example, says it recycled 49% of the rubbish it collected last year. It has also implemented the "Glastonbury Festival Green Traveller package" this year, which ensures anyone arriving by public transport gets exclusive use of solar showers and "access to compost toilets". If that's not incentive enough, I'm not sure anything will be. (Except half-price tickets, perhaps.) Is there anything else that festival organisers can realistically do to be "greener"? Could having a public transport-only policy ever really work? In 2008, Radiohead said that they no longer wanted to play at festivals without "a public transport infrastructure in place", essentially ruling out rural festivals such as Glastonbury. But is such an ambition fair to those fans living outside urban centres, or even realistic? And what about festival-goers? What actions can you take to reduce your own environmental impact? (Other than staying at home and watching the highlights on TV.) Will you be using biodegradable potato-starch tent pegs? Or, er, charging your phone with a T-shirt that generates electricity from its own piezoelectric panel? This column is an experiment in crowd-sourcing a reader's question, so please let us know your views, experiences and tips (as opposed to emailing them) and I will join in with some of my own thoughts and reactions as the debate progresses. I will also be inviting various interested parties to join the debate too. • Please send your own environment question to ask.leo.and.lucy@guardian.co.uk. Or, alternatively, message me on Twitter @LeoHickman | ['environment/series/ask-leo-lucy', 'environment/environment', 'music/glastonbury', 'tone/blog', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2011-06-21T08:00:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2023/oct/09/electricity-prices-wholesale-down-sydney-power-bills | Hope for power bill relief as eastern Australia’s wholesale electricity price tumbles | Eastern Australia’s wholesale electricity prices fell sharply in the September quarter, a trend that if maintained could deliver power bill relief for households and businesses alike. Spot market prices in the national electricity market (Nem) that serves about 80% of Australia’s population averaged $63 a megawatt hour in the July-September period, according to data provided by the Australian Energy Market Operator. That result was 70% lower than for a year earlier and almost 42% lower than in the June quarter of this year, Aemo said. Milder than normal weather during winter and early spring contributed to lower demand and increased renewable energy – aided by windy and sunny conditions – were among the factors sending prices lower. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Alison Reeve, the deputy director of the Grattan Institute’s climate change and energy program, said recent wholesale prices were a far cry from the record $264/MWh in the Nem during last June’s energy crisis. The Albanese government’s intervention last December to introduce price caps particularly for domestic gas played a key role in helping to lower prices, Reeve said. “The cap has had the effect that was intended,” she said. Wholesale prices typically account for about a third of final retail bills for consumers, with distribution and network costs – along with margins – making up most of the rest. The spell of relatively low spot prices would also need to be repeated for three more quarters to prompt a significant reduction in power prices. Still, the September quarter drop “points in the right direction”, Reeve said. The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the government had capped coal and gas prices “to shield Australians from the worst of global energy price spikes”. “We understand that rising energy prices are one of the big challenges facing Australian families and Australian businesses this year,” Bowen said, noting the Coalition had vowed to repeal the price cap if in office. Dylan McConnell, an energy analyst at the University of New South Wales, said the $63/MWh average price in the September quarter masked a wide spread between states. Taking volume-weighted figures, South Australia’s electricity cost of almost $115/MWh contrasted with $30.80 in Tasmania. For NSW, the price was $89.48, Queensland $74.47 and Victoria $58.77. Daniel Westerman, Aemo’s chief executive, said in a speech at an AFR energy summit in Sydney that wholesale power prices had typically ranged from $40 to $60/MWh for Aemo’s first decade of operations. This year marks 25 years of the Nem. Meanwhile, renewable energy has set records lately, including meeting 69.9% of Nem demand during part of 20 September. Rooftop solar supplied 38% of the market at that time, Aemo said. But Vik Bansal, chief executive at the building supply giant Boral, told the AFR summit his company often halted production at some factories because of high electricity prices. It was “an issue we face every single day”, Bansal said, adding that production delays resulted in staff working overtime or doing more night shifts. “At the end of the day … somebody is paying for it. It’s either Boral’s shareholders, Boral’s customers or Boral’s workers.” A Boral spokesperson later qualified that the shutdowns were happening mostly at two big plants at Maldon and Berrima. These halted output “three to four times a month for short periods due to energy price peaks”. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2023-10-09T14:00:14Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2023/aug/16/urban-trees-axe-champions-nature | Salute the tree saved from the axe because people showed they loved it. That’s the fighting spirit we need | Alys Fowler | There is a bent Scots pine on my cycle route into town that makes me smile every time I pass it. It is bent in an improbable manner, like it didn’t get the memo that street trees are mostly straight and restrained in their demeanour. It leans over the cycle path with one of its huge limbs stretching out horizontally before righting itself, like a seat for a giant. On a very ordinary stretch of road, it is an unexpected character. Surrounded by boring box units and universal architecture, where every city feels more or less similar, it is urban trees like this that bring identity to our world through colour, sound and seasonal change. This year, they are finally being celebrated as the Woodland Trust prepares to name its tree of the year. In the running, a series of city dwellers: a black poplar on a housing estate in Manchester that has thrived as industrial manufacturing polluted the soil and air, a holm oak in Exeter that survived the blitz, a walnut in Perth that, with its eye-catching boughs, is doing an excellent job of concealing a shopping centre, to name just a few. The role of trees like these in concrete environments is often overlooked. A city without trees is a city without birds, without autumn leaves to crunch, without new green to welcome spring, without somewhere to climb, to hide, to lean, to kiss, to cry, to sleep, to make memories. There’s a growing body of evidence to show how time spent with trees improves our wellbeing, to say little of what services they provide for us, too. A mature urban tree with a big canopy provides immediate shade on a hot day, and shelter from the rain and the wind. Well-planted trees also greatly reduce the risks of flooding. Trees and hedges capture and temporarily hold pollutants, both physical particles and gaseous ones, too. Leaf size, texture and arrangement matter, and not all species are created equal. Rough, hairy and needle-like leaves, like those found on a pine, capture more pollutants and a wider range of particles than simpler, smoother leaves. Scale matters, too: a large belt of trees can significantly reduce pollution. In urban areas, sweeping rows of trees are hard to come by. But exciting new planting methods show that urban forests still have a vital role to play. The Miyawaki method mimics the dense natural regeneration of a forest, with trees planted extremely closely together to encourage much faster growth. If you’re near the Horniman Museum in south-east London, then you can see head gardener Errol Fernandes’ version: a 300 sq metre microforest acting as a greenscreen to block out the view of the busy south circular road. The right plant in the right place is important. Trees need to thrive, not just survive, and urban trees have to withstand a lot: poor soil, higher urban temperatures, being knocked and tugged at, being used as a bike stand, or a noticeboard, among many other things. But if you can get the right tree into the environment it will benefit wildlife, even if it just makes a perch for a passing bird. The older a tree gets, the more it has to offer, with more nooks and crannies to become places to sleep, rest or nest – not just for birds, but also for moths, spiders, beetles and all manner of other insects, and fungi and lichen, too. A mature tree can be a whole ecosystem in itself – especially important in the depleted natural environment of our cities. More than 80% of the UK population lives in a city or town, and some of these places have an impressive number of trees, but sadly all too often these trees are undervalued. They are seen as taking up too much space, blocking progress in building roads, housing or infrastructure. Another of the contenders for tree of the year is an elm in Sheffield that was destined to be felled by the local council in 2017, but was saved when a rare white-letter hairstreak butterfly was found laying its eggs on it. It is one of 1,000 remaining mature elm that have survived Dutch Elm disease, which has killed 60 million others across Britain. We need to continue to protect these champions – the venerable and handsome elders – but also those wily, scrappy, less-than-perfect ones, too, who are working just as hard for us. Together, they make the forest we need to thrive in our cities. One of the best ways to do this is to notice them, to get to know them, to introduce other people to your favourites. The white hairstreak might have protected that elm, but it was saved because people loved it. It is a reminder of all the other creatures – the more-than-human, with whom we share our environment – who consider these urban giants part of their home, too. Alys Fowler is a gardener and Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/forests', 'environment/urban-wildlife', 'cities/urbanisation', 'environment/wildlife', 'cities/cities', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/alys-fowler', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-08-16T11:00:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/blog/2011/jul/13/jairam-ramesh-india-environment-ministry | Jairam Ramesh's legacy is an Indian environment ministry with an identity | In March, during the release of India's tiger census, some friendly banter between the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh and corporate affairs minister Salman Khursheed saw the latter observe that Ramesh was acquiring a tiger's features. "Run foul of him, and he will turn into a man-eater," Khursheed joked. Khursheed hoped Ramesh would not "land in the endangered" list like the tigers, words that have this week proved prophetic. On Tuesday, India's prime minister Manmohan Singh elevated Ramesh to a senior minister's rank, but also shifted him out of the environment and forests ministry to rural development where, Singh said, Ramesh's talents would be "better utilised". It had been coming. The bullish Ramesh, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology had upset many a government and business lobby's applecart. Until he took reins of his ministry in 2009, most Indians could not place who their environment minister was or what s/he said or did. The ministers collaborated with all mega projects such as dams and power plants, reducing the ministry to a rubber stamp. When development becomes paramount in a country like India, green concerns, however justified, are ignored. When Ramesh took over, India was one half of "ChinIndia"; growing at a 8-9% and courted as a future economic powerhouse. Sections of the Indian establishment took it so seriously that they seemed to forget that vast stretches of India are lagging behind, and are closer to sub-Saharan Africa than China in development indicators such as literacy, maternal and child mortality. Some of India's more controversial projects were coming up in such areas, home to tribes and biodiversity-rich forests. Examples include a $12bn steel project awarded to South Korean firm Posco, Vedanta Resources' bauxite mining project in eastern India and a controversial mega nuclear power plant, the world's largest and with French reactors, in Jaitapur. Others, such as a high-rise housing complex in Mumbai, violated Indian laws that prohibit buildings along the coast. As Ramesh observed in a "hedgehog versus fox" debate in May: "India needs to be liberated both from the 'high GDP growth hedgehogs' and the 'conservation at all costs hedgehogs'. What India needs, he said, is a smooth, cunning and crafty fox that balances high growth and conservation. "The hedgehog view (sticking to one big idea) is unresponsive and inattentive to the untidiness and complexity of real life," he observed. Ramesh held public consultations, raised environment-related objections, and cancelled some projects. He set up a national green tribunal, and worked on forest dwellers' rights. In 2010 he imposed a two-year moratorium on India's genetically engineered aubergine, and rebuked Indian science academies for their disappointing report on the subject. He backed a until-then unknown retired Indian scientist who wanted to point out that the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report's prediction that Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035 was wrong, which set the ball rolling about the need for stricter verification in IPCC reports. Ramesh lashed out against what he saw as "politicisation of climate science". He insisted India should not depend on western scientists' studies on climate change, and initiated a series of Indian studies on greenhouse gas emissions and black carbon. All decisions were made public on his ministry's websites, some running at more than 100 pages, with scores of appendices. But raising the green ante meant raising the hackles of powerful industrialists and cabinet colleagues. In April, Ramesh told a meeting chaired by Singh that India's target of adding 100,000MW power from 2012-17 was ecologically impossible. Ramesh could also be outspoken, on one occasion declaring: "If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt." But Ramesh eventually compromised, clearing the steel, coal and nuclear power plant projects and even a new airport for Mumbai. So why did he go? Most analysts agree that Ramesh's demarcation of forests into a "go" and "no-go" zone for coal plants was his undoing. An estimated 660m tonnes of coal fell within the no-go zones. The most recent tussle was over a coal project in a forested area in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, with the coal minister and powerful industrialists pressuring Singh for a speedy clearance. His successor is Jayanti Natarajan, is an articulate lawyer, a spokesperson for Congress party and a former junior minister in the civil aviation ministry. Ramesh raised the bar for the environment ministry's performance and if Natarajan raises it further, or at least maintains it, it will be good for India. • TV Padma is a Delhi-based science journalist | ['environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'world/india', 'world/world', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/politics', 'tone/blog', 'type/article'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-07-13T15:50:17Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2019/aug/24/jair-bolsonaro-claims-profound-love-for-amazon-rainforest-as-criticism-fires-intensifies | Jair Bolsonaro claims 'profound love' for Amazon rainforest as criticism intensifies | Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has professed to feeling “profound love and respect” for the Amazon as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest tropical rainforest and criticism of his environmental policies intensified. In a televised address to the nation – met with pot-banging protests in several Brazilian cities – Bolsonaro said he was “not content” with the situation in the Amazon and was taking “firm action” to resolve it by deploying troops to the region. But the rightwing populist played down both the significance of the forest fires that have mushroomed into a major political and environmental crisis – as well as his administration’s responsibility for it. “Forest fires exist in the whole world and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions,” Bolsonaro said in his brief, scripted address. Forest fires are an annual occurrence in the Amazon region – about 60% of which lies in Brazil. But experts and campaigners blame the scale of this year’s blaze on the green light they believe Bolsonaro has given to those who wish to destroy the rainforest. Bolsonaro hit back at such criticism in his Friday night address, claiming the spreading of “disinformation” – inside or outside Brazil – would do nothing to solve the Amazon crisis. “Brazil is an example of sustainability,” he claimed, as the Amazon state of Acre became the latest to declare a state of emergency because of the wildfires. “It is our duty to protect the forest. We are aware of this and we are taking action to fight illegal deforestation and any other criminal activities that put our Amazon at risk,” Bolsonaro added. “We are a government that shows zero tolerance to crime and it will not be different when it comes to the environment.” Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environment minister, told the Guardian it would take more than propaganda and “words in the wind” to solve the Amazonian “environmental emergency” caused by Bolsonaro’s policies. “Bolsonaro won the election with his anti-environment, anti-human rights and anti-indigenous discourse and on taking office he has transformed these words into deeds,” said Silva, who oversaw a significant reduction in deforestation while minister from 2003 until 2008. “These policies cannot be allowed to prosper.” Amid a growing chorus of international criticism, Donald Trump came to Bolsonaro’s defense on Friday. “I told him if the United States can help with the Amazon Rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!” the US president tweeted. “Our future Trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before,” Trump said. “Hugs from Brazil!” Bolsonaro’s son Carlos tweeted in response. Bolsonaro tweeted that he had discussed “a big trade negotiation” with Trump and that the US president “had also offered to help us protect Amazonia and fight the fires, if we wish, as well as to work together on environmental policies that respect the sovereignty of nations.” | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-24T01:03:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2015/mar/30/arab-nations-alarmed-by-prospect-of-us-nuclear-deal-with-iran | Arab nations alarmed by prospect of US nuclear deal with Iran | Arab governments are watching the endgame of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme with barely-concealed alarm, fearing that the US is bent on a rapprochement with Tehran, not so much at any price, but certainly at the expense of its long-standing Gulf allies. Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival, has made clear its unhappiness with the emerging deal. Still, unlike Israel, which flatly opposes any agreement, Saudi Arabia has adopted a more subtle approach. Adel Jubeir, its ambassador to the US, pledged to wait to see the outcome before criticising it. Jubair also conspicuously refused to rule out the kingdom seeking its own nuclear weapons — a pointed reminder to Barack Obama of the nuclear proliferation risks if his Iran strategy does not succeed. The Saudis have hinted for years that they would turn to Pakistan if they felt threatened by a nuclear Iran. Last year they displayed their Chinese-made intermediate-range ballistic missiles — capable of reaching Tehran — at a parade attended by the general who controls Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. It was, said the Brookings Institution analyst Bruce Riedel, “ a very calculated signal”. But the Saudis have wider concerns: an American-Iranian rapprochement, they fear, will undermine their own influence and security. Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief, warned in London earlier this month that the romance was now “nearing consummation”. The United Arab Emirates, which has a long-running dispute with Iran over three Gulf islands, is also concerned, suggesting a nuclear agreement will strengthen Tehran’s hand in other areas of Middle Eastern strategic competition that have a Sunni-Shia sectarian tinge – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and more recently Yemen. “We see the nuclear issue as a tool of Iran’s foreign policy,” one senior official said. Rather than directly confronting the US, the Saudis’ strategy is to improve unity in the Gulf. The obstacles to that are Oman, a long-standing mediator between the US and Iran, and Qatar, which also keeps carefully on the right side of Tehran. The drama over the final stage of the nuclear talks has been heightened by Saudi military operations in Yemen against Houthi rebels it says are backed by Iran. Saudi sources say that obtaining US backing for that was the work of Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, the powerful Saudi interior minister, who is now second in line to the throne. The degree of Iranian support for the Houthis is, however, hotly disputed. Emile Hokayem, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, says there is a tendency in the Gulf to overstate Iran’s role and a tendency in the west to understate it. Tehran’s involvement has been “gradually opportunistic rather than causal,” he said Sir William Patey, a former British ambassador to Riyadh, says some senior Saudis fear a return to the days of the shah before the 1979 Islamic revolution when Iran was America’s preferred regional ally. “Others realise that that is not what’s on offer,” he told the Guardian. “But a nuclear deal could lead to American accommodation to Iranian wishes and they find that worrying. “On the nuclear issue they are on the horns of a dilemma. They don’t want Iran to become a nuclear power and they will be as sceptical as the Israelis are as to whether this is going to be a real deal. On the other hand they won’t want to be forced into making a difficult decision. “They will be sceptical but they won’t be critical and they will learn to manage. Their worst fears won’t be realised. There will be all sorts of obstacles to the sort of Iranian-American relations that the Saudis fear. If Iran could be brought into a regional security arrangement that’s something they would learn to adjust to.” | ['world/middleeast', 'world/iran', 'world/world', 'world/saudiarabia', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/united-arab-emirates', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/ianblack', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2015-03-30T17:07:32Z | true | ENERGY |
film/2015/jul/10/tom-selleck-settles-legal-dispute-over-water-theft | Tom Selleck settles legal dispute over water theft | After being accused of stealing water to use on his avocado ranch, Tom Selleck has now reached a settlement agreement, according to the LA Times. The actor, whose last big screen role was alongside Katherine Heigl in the 2010 comedy Killers, had allegedly stolen from a public hydrant during a serious drought in California. The Calleguas municipal water district spent $22,000 on a private investigator to find out whether he had taken it illegally over district boundaries to his 60-acre estate. But he has now reached a confidential settlement after lawyers for both sides came to an agreement on Thursday. The water district’s resource manager Eric Bergh said: “We’re happy about it. It’s good news.” It brings to an end a case which saw both Selleck and his wife sued for costs associated with the investigation as well as legal fees and undetermined damages. Despite growing avocados, the actor has confessed that he actually hates them. “Honestly, they make me gag,” he said to People in 2012. Selleck has been best known for his role in 80s TV show Magnum, P.I. as well as film roles in Three Men and a Little Baby, In & Out and Coma. He has most recently returned to the small screen for hit show Blue Bloods. | ['us-news/california-drought', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'food/avocados', 'culture/television', 'environment/drought', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'law/law-us', 'profile/benjamin-lee-film', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-07-10T08:21:09Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2019/dec/05/new-car-sales-fall-again-as-uk-demand-for-diesel-vehicles-dives | New car sales fall again as UK demand for diesel vehicles dives | Sales of new cars in the UK continued to fall last month as demand for diesel vehicles declined sharply, while hybrid and electric vehicles reached a new record market share. Weak business and consumer confidence, economic uncertainty and confusion over diesel and clean air zones dragged down demand for new cars, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the industry body. It said 156,621 vehicles were registered in November, down 1.3% from the same month a year ago, after a 6.7% drop in October. The new car market is down 2.7% so far this year, with 2.2m registered. Sales of new vans – often regarded as an indicator of business confidence – fell for a third month, down 9.6% in November. Petrol car sales climbed 2% to 97,441, but sales of diesel models crashed by 27.2% to 36,941. Demand has plummeted amid air-quality concerns and taxation changes in after the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal, despite the industry’s insistence that the latest vehicles have significantly reduced nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions. The chancellor raised tax for new diesel and company cars last year. In London, a new ultra-low emission zone, which imposes a £12.50 daily charge on older diesels in central London, took effect in April. The area of the zone will be expanded in October 2021. Drivers of the most polluting diesel lorries, vans and buses face tougher standards in Greater London from next October. Leeds, Birmingham and other cities are expected to roll out similar clean air zones next year, making drivers pay a daily charge if their vehicles do not meet emissions standards. Diesel cars account for 23.6% of the market, after being virtually at parity with petrol two years ago. Demand for the latest battery electric cars more than tripled to 4,652 in November, up from 1,415 a year ago. Sales of plug-in hybrids rose by 34.8% to 4,362 cars, while hybrids were up 15% to 6,118 vehicles. More than one in 10 cars joining UK roads are now either hybrid, plug-in hybrid or pure electric – equivalent to 16,052 cars in November. They reached a record market share of 10.2%, up from 9.9% in October. Sue Robinson, the director of the National Franchised Dealers Association, said: “We hope a clear election result will stimulate the motor retail industry and continue the shift towards electric vehicles.” Demand from individual buyers weakened further, down 6.1%, while the business market declined by 3.2%. Fleet registrations fared better, up 2.8%. Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, said: “These are challenging times for the UK new car market, with another fall in November reflecting the current climate of uncertainty. “It’s good news, however, to see registrations of electrified cars surging again, and 2020 will see manufacturers introduce plenty of new, exciting models to give buyers even more choice. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go for these vehicles to become mainstream and, to grow uptake further, we need fiscal incentives, investment in charging infrastructure and a more confident consumer.” | ['business/automotive-industry', 'environment/electric-cars', 'business/business', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/environment', 'environment/air-pollution', 'uk/uk', 'business/consumerspending', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-12-05T13:05:45Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2010/jul/26/wikileaks-documents-taliban-missiles-aircraft | Wikileaks documents suggest Taliban has capacity to fire on aircraft | The legendary ability of small, shoulder-born missile launchers to transform the fortunes of otherwise crudely armed insurgents is one of the most alarming threats to emerge from the Wikileaks archive. Soviet troops discovered in 1986 when the CIA decided to put heat-seeking Stinger missiles into the hands of the otherwise low-tech Afghan resistance, such weapons can make life impossible for modern armies. As depicted in the Tom Hank's film Charlie Wilson's War, bearded warriors were able to stand on hilltops and blast the dreaded Russian attack helicopters out of the sky, ultimately forcing them to fly far higher, to much less effect. That image still haunts Nato commanders who are all too aware of how much they rely on thousands of transport planes, helicopters and drone surveillance craft to kill insurgents from the air and move troops around an increasingly hostile theatre of war. It has long been the international coalition's claim that whilst the Taliban might try to acquire technology capable of shooting down aircraft they had failed to do so, and were unlikely to ever succeed. Nonetheless, the risk is taken extremely seriously and the sight of distraction flares blasting out of the side of military helicopters are a regular sight in the skies above Afghanistan. The countermeasures, designed to confuse the heat seeking cone of the missile, are so sensitively calibrated they can be easily set off by a false alarm. But according to the WikiLeaks documents, there have been several cases of insurgents firing on US aircraft, all of which have been suppressed from the public record. In May 2007 a US Chinook was hit by a missile in Helmand after it had departed from the Kajaki base in the north of the province, killing everyone on board, although the US claimed it had been downed by lucky shot from a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) which has no heat seeking capability. The previous month the crew of a British Chinook had reported a missile flying 50ft past the aircraft before exploding. In July 2007, the crew of a C-130 transport plane reported that they had seen a rocket fly past them whilst they were refuelling at 11,000 feet. That event was actually reported by British journalist Tom Coghlan who quoted a military spokesman who said any such incidents were classified and could not be commented on. An official at HQ ISAF said he too was unable to comment on any incident involving anti-aircraft missiles. It is not clear why the coalition is so reluctant to publicly admit the risks posed to coalition aircraft by missiles. British defence officials said there was no evidence of weapons bigger than RPGs being fired at helicopters, but insurgents are making greater efforts to shoot down helicopters, which they believe have great propaganda value for them. "There is much greater focus on carefully coordinated attacks on helicopters by RPGs [rocket propelled grenades] or small arms", a Ministry of Defence source said. The insurgents "are constantly watching us and adapting their tactics", said a senior military official. In the latest incident an American Cobra helicopter was shot at in Marjah in central Helmand province, sources told the Guardian. David Cameron was forced last month to abandon a visit to British troops in Helmand province after an intelligence report suggested the Taliban was plotting to target an unnamed VIP. The prime minister's Chinook helicopter diverted after five minutes in the air when the information was received. Until very recently intelligence officials have argued that there was little risk that heat-seeking missiles ever be acquired by the Taliban, although the released military intelligence includes numerous reports of insurgent groups in individual provinces who were thought to have the capability as early as 2005. A western diplomat recently told the Guardian that the Taliban could not access such weapons because they are not freely available on the black market run by the world's private arms dealers. Another obvious source would be foreign government's hostile to the US occupation in Afghanistan, with perhaps the most likely source being neighbouring Iran. According to one unconfirmed April 1 2004 intelligence report, seven anti-aircraft missiles, originally acquired in Algeria, were sneaked over the porous Afghan border. But one intelligence source told the Guardian that although Shia Iran is happy to provide limited support to insurgents, it would never want to see such weapons in the hands of a Sunni movement which it nearly went to war with in 1998 when the Taliban killed ten Iranian diplomats. Another possibility is that the missiles were rare leftovers from the original stock of some 2,000-2,500 Stingers distributed to the mujahideen by the CIA. Even though the missile launchers are unlikely to work because their batteries degrade over time, the CIA made a big effort in the 1990s trying to recover as many Stingers as possible, offering between $80,000 and $150,000 per weapon in a buyback programme. | ['world/afghanistan', 'us-news/us-military', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'world/taliban', 'media/wikileaks', 'media/media', 'tone/news', 'world/the-war-logs', 'world/war-logs', 'type/article', 'profile/jon-boone', 'profile/richardnortontaylor'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-07-26T21:09:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2014/feb/25/government-flood-spending-uk-statistics-authority | Statistics watchdog contradicts government claims over flood spending | Sir Andrew Dilnot, head of the UK statistics watchdog, has contradicted the government's claim that it is spending a record amount on flood defences and called for official figures to be published "in the public interest". He set out his position following a bitter row between Labour and Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, about spending on defences. The issue will be debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Institution of Civil Engineers has called on the government to return spending on flood risk management to pre-2010 levels. Labour and other critics such as Friends of the Earth say coalition cuts to flood maintenance and protection budgets may have contributed to the damage this winter, when nearly 6,000 homes were flooded. They first took issue with government claims about flood defence spending when David Cameron said more was being spent on flood defences between 2011 and 2015 compared with the previous four-year period. He justified this by including money raised from private firms and other third parties as well as government spending. Paterson then went one step further, by claiming the government was "providing more than any previous government in this spending review". However, this was contradicted by an analysis by the House of Commons library, which found that the amount of public cash spent from 2007 to 2011 was £2.37bn while the amount from 2011 to 2015 will be £2.34bn. In real terms, this amounts to a £247m funding cut between the two four-year periods. Following a complaint by Labour MP Hugh Bayley, Dilnot said the UK Statistics Authority had looked into the matter and concurred with the Commons library figures. "We agree with their finding that, as at January 2014, government funding for flood defences was expected to be lower in both nominal and real terms during the current spending period than during the last spending period. "Our analysis also supports the conclusion that the statement 'over the current spending review period, more is being spent than ever before' is supported by the statistics if the comparison is made in nominal terms and includes external funding, but is not supported by the statistics if the comparison is made in real terms or if external funding is excluded." Dilnot said he would like the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to consider publishing official statistics on flood defence spending for the first time, given "the salience of these figures and the public interest". Paterson has now written to Bayley apologising for "any offence" caused by his answer to the Commons about providing more money than any previous government. He clarified that this was meant to include funding from private and third-party sources, and strongly rebutted the idea that there was any "manipulation of figures". Following criticism of the government response to the floods, Cameron announced grants of £5,000 for households to improve their flood protection and 100% relief on business rates for three months for firms affected by flooding. On Tuesday George Eustice, a Defra minister, set out more details of a £10m aid fund for farmers whose fields are under water. However, ministers remain under intense pressure over spending on long-term flood defences. On Tuesday the Institution of Civil Engineers called on George Osborne, the chancellor, to use next month's budget to increase spending. It said the annual maintenance budget for flood defences had fallen by 39%, from more than £100m in 2010/11 to £60.7m in 2014/15. The new announcement of £130m for emergency repairs and maintenance was not enough to make up for cuts introduced under the coalition, it said. A Defra spokesman said: "The government is spending £2.4bn on flood management and protection from coastal erosion which is more than ever before. The Prime Minister also recently announced £130m extra for flood defence repairs following the extreme weather." | ['environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'politics/owen-paterson', 'politics/politics', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/rowena-mason', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-25T17:29:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2014/jul/25/greenwashing-hospitality-industry-water-conservation-technology-hotels | Greenwashing the hospitality industry: could we be doing more? | For about 10 years now placards and door hangers have adorned the US hotel room with vague requests for greener behavior from guests: Please hang up your towel to conserve water; consider the planet with this don't-launder-my-sheets-card. Still, Americans consume 25 gallons per day during their hotel stay. Multiply that by nearly 5m rooms, at an average 65% occupancy, and the hotel industry uses over 2.4bn gallons per month. In June, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) pledged a 12% decrease in water consumption in water-stressed areas by 2017. Considering global water shortages and severe drought in many areas, is this the best the industry can do where water conservation is concerned? The challenges of a sea change Rafat Ali, CEO of Skift, a travel intelligence company that provides guidance for the travel industry, says it's extremely difficult to push through any sort of meaningful change in the industry. He notes that the $1.4tn hotel sector is actually very fragmented, and that brands are pursuing an “asset-light strategy” with investors and hedge funds owning the actual hotels. Though the industry is more disparate than it seems at first glance, Rafat says that until last year the American Hotel & Lodging Association was united in fighting an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandate to install swimming pool ramps for the disabled. “If they are fighting that,” says Rafat, “Imagine trying to sell them on sustainability without any cost benefit involved. The pitch has to be cost.” Enter Xeros, a Sheffield, UK-based commercial cleaning company whose water-substitute technology we profiled earlier this year. The company originated when researchers at the Leeds School of Textiles decided to try using polymers for fabric dye to strip laundry stains. The polymer beads, they discovered, worked extremely well as a partial water substitute. It also requires 50% less detergent, and the garment life is extended. As of this summer, the company has partnered with all five major hotel chains. Jonathan Benjamin, president of Xeros North America, says it's a slow process: “If I ask a General Manager how much water they are using in their laundry, they have no idea. One challenge we have is helping people understand this.” Using Xeros’s proprietary front-loading machine, the company claims water savings that top 75%, and energy savings of up to 50%. The polymer beads can be reused hundreds of times and are 100% recyclable. The company's Sbeadycare program uses the old polymer to manufacture car dashboards. Best of all, the beads do a better job than the standard water-and-soap combo. While the technology is exciting, cost is still a problem. Sterling Linen Services, a hospitality laundry in New England, was interested in adopting the Xeros technology, but the initial investment was daunting. The deal was ultimately made possible by Liberty Utilities, a small energy company serving ten states, which offers a rebate program for customers who invest in energy-efficient measures. Liberty commissioned an engineering study comparing Xeros to a commercial washer, finding that water use was cut by 80% and natural gas usage was reduced by 100%. Ultimately, it paid Sterling $28,000 as an incentive to adopt Xeros, based on projected water and energy savings A blueprint for innovation? Professor Rohit Verma, who researches green innovation at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, says that hotels are in fact feeling the pressure to conserve – from investors. At an industry roundtable he’s convened for the past six years, it is the investors who are pushing for sustainability reports like the one that Marriott publishes annually. In 2013, he and Professor Howard Chong, a faculty fellow at Cornell’s Atkinson Center for Sustainable Future, studied Sabre’s Travelocity data for over 3,000 of its eco-certified hotels concluding that for hotel guests. “Green”… was a wash. Consumers were not more or less likely to book a hotel that Travelocity had designed as “eco-friendly,” nor did they shun these hotels. For Rohit, however, this finding demands context: “While sustainability programs don’t improve market performance – people aren’t willing to pay more – guests are happier (customer satisfaction scores are higher). Mostly importantly, the cost structure – water, labor, and utilities – is much lower than their peer group. It’s all about efficient operations.” As Xeros’s North America president notes, it will take cost incentives for the industry to adopt this sort of technology on its own. Although new competitors like Airbnb are turning up the heat, he says, “We’re still on the cusp of the true urgency associated with some of the crises we’re seeing.” To this end, standards can play a crucial role. No one would have adopted low-flow toilets 20 years ago (or the ADA, apparently) if they weren’t mandated. And while innovation can drive change, it must be supported across the hospitality industry. The hospitality sector itself is not exactly known for being a hothouse of experimentation. It represents, however, a nascent example of a rigorous business case for sustainability. Considering the disruption from hotel alternatives like VRBO and new price-comparison services like Hotel Tonight, the industry’s interest in cutting costs might go hand in hand with easing our global water crisis. • This article was amended on 28 July 2014. The Xeros polymer beads can be used hundreds of times, not 100 times. Jerry Weinstein has contributed to a wide variety of publications including Triple Pundit, the Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Business Journal. He is an associate producer of the forthcoming documentary, Tested, and an adviser to the Adaptive Design Association. The Water hub is funded by SABMiller. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/technology', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/jerry-weinstein'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-25T13:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2018/oct/27/air-pollution-is-the-new-tobacco-time-to-tackle-this-epidemic | Air pollution is the new tobacco. Time to tackle this epidemic | Air pollution is a silent public health emergency, killing 7 million people every year and damaging the health of many, many more. Despite this epidemic of needless, preventable deaths and disability, a smog of complacency pervades the planet. This is a defining moment and we must scale up action to urgently respond to this challenge. Air pollution puts the health of billions at risk from the simple act of breathing. The World Health Organization estimates nine in 10 people globally breathe polluted, toxic air. Air pollution is a health risk at every stage of life. Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can damage a developing baby’s vital organs including the brain, heart and lungs and lead to a range of conditions including asthma, heart disease and cancers. Air pollution also negatively affects brain development during childhood, lowering children’s chances of success in school and employment possibilities later in life. The WHO’s latest estimates show that air pollution is responsible for one-quarter to one-third of deaths from heart attack, stroke, lung cancer and chronic respiratory disease. No one, rich or poor, can escape air pollution. A clean and healthy environment is the single most important precondition for ensuring good health. By cleaning up the air we breathe, we can prevent or at least reduce some of the greatest health risks. Although air pollution is getting worse in many parts of the world, this is not an inevitable march toward disaster. There is much that we can do to improve air quality, but we must all play our part. No person, group, city, country or region can solve the problem alone. We need strong commitments and actions from everyone: government decision-makers, community leaders, mayors, civil society, the private sector and even the individual. It will take time and endurance but we all have a critical role to play. The WHO is already taking on the battle. We are empowering health professionals not only to explain the risks of air pollution to their patients and how best to reduce those risks, but to give them the skills and evidence to advocate for health in policy decisions impacting air quality and public health. Through global commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris climate accord and the Urban Agenda 2030, the WHO is building alliances with partners working in energy, climate and environment. We are using the “health argument” to bring different players in transport, urban planning, housing, energy and environment to the table and giving them the tools, resources and support to evaluate the health impacts of their policy decisions. The WHO also supports the health sector to “walk the talk” on air pollution and health. Inefficient energy use in hospitals and other healthcare facilities contributes to air pollution but is also a barrier to providing even the most basic health services and ultimately universal healthcare. The WHO is working with partners in the energy sector to understand the power needs of essential medical services, and to help drive innovation in clean and renewable energy power for healthcare delivery. Despite the overwhelming evidence, political action is still urgently needed to boost investments and speed up action to reduce air pollution. I am excited and honoured that, in less than a week, the WHO will host the first global conference on air pollution and health, where leaders will chart next steps for future action to cut air pollution in their countries. The conference will include a high-level “action day” at which we expect ministers, mayors, heads of intergovernmental organisations and others to make commitments to reduce air pollution and its impact on health. This will include measures like strengthening standards and legislation on air quality, improving assessment of the effects of pollution, enhancing global leadership and advocacy, ensuring access to clean energy and increasing investments in low-emissions technologies, as well as research, monitoring and evaluation. The world has turned the corner on tobacco. Now it must do the same for the “new tobacco”: the toxic air that billions breathe every day. • Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is director general of the World Health Organization. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'society/health', 'environment/air-pollution', 'society/society', 'world/world-health-organization', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-10-27T05:00:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/jul/13/plan-to-build-worlds-biggest-renewable-energy-hub-in-western-australia | Plan to build world’s biggest renewable energy hub in Western Australia | An international consortium wants to build what would be the world’s biggest renewable energy hub in Australia’s south-west to convert wind and solar power into green fuels like hydrogen. The group of energy companies announced the proposal over a 15,000 sq km area that could have a 50 gigawatt capacity and cost $100bn. An area bigger than the size of greater Sydney has been identified in the south-east of Western Australia with “consistently high levels of wind and solar energy”. Guardian Australia understands the Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) could cost about $100bn. The project’s 50GW capacity compares to the 54GW of generation capacity of all the coal, gas and renewables plants currently in the national energy market, which includes all states except WA and the Northern Territory. Australia’s biggest coal plant is just 2.9GW. InterContinental Energy, CWP Global and Mirning Green Energy Limited announced plans for the mega project on Tuesday, saying it wants to build the scheme in three phases to produce up to 3.5m tonnes of green hydrogen or 20m tonnes of green ammonia each year. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Guardian Australia understands the consortium is looking to produce the first fuels from the project by 2030, and will look to construct an offshore facility to transfer fuels onto ships. The consortium – which includes an Indigenous-owned energy company – said it wanted to tap into a global market for green hydrogen it expects will be worth US$50tn by 2050. About 30GW of the hub would focus on wind, with the rest coming from solar power. Hydrogen and ammonia produced at the hub would be destined for use in power stations, shipping, heavy industry and aviation. The hub would be larger than a 45GW renewables project announced by German company Svevind Energy and planned for Kazakhstan, reported to be the world’s biggest renewables project proposed so far. Last month, Australia’s environment minister Sussan Ley rejected a plan for a 26GW hub in the north of WA for “clearly unacceptable” impacts on threatened migratory species and internationally recognised wetlands. In a statement, Trevor Naley, chairman of the Mirning Traditional Lands Aboriginal Corporation and a board member on the consortium, said: “As First Nations land owners, the Mirning people are excited to hold such an integral and defining stake in this historical partnership with WGEH. This partnership, through robust governance and a seat at the table for Mirning people, will provide opportunities never before available to Indigenous corporations.” Brendan Hammond, chairman of WGEH said the proposal was “historic on two fronts” for its scale and its partnership with traditional owners. “It is an honour and a privilege to be involved in this groundbreaking project,” he said. WA’s hydrogen minister Alannah MacTiernan told the West Australian the proposal was “truly massive” and said the state was positioned to be a major contributor to global decarbonisation. The newspaper said the consortium had secured a licence from WA’s McGowan government to complete site surveys and research to pursue a business case for the project. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-07-13T02:59:09Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2024/feb/07/danish-windfarm-firm-orsted-jobs-dividend-north-sea | Danish windfarm firm Ørsted to axe up to 800 jobs and pause dividend | The Danish company developing the world’s largest offshore windfarm in the North Sea is to cut hundreds of jobs and pause its dividend in an attempt to recover from a chaotic 12 months. Ørsted, which is behind the £8bn Hornsea 3 project off the Yorkshire coast, said on Wednesday it planned to axe up to 800 jobs, pull back from markets in Spain, Portugal and Norway, and suspend dividend payments to shareholders covering the 2023-25 financial years. The company said it would cut its target for developing renewable energy capacity by 2030, reducing it from 50 gigawatts to 35-38GW. Its chair, Thomas Thune Andersen, will step down after almost a decade in the role, after the two senior executives who left the business in November. The company, which is majority owned by the Danish government, said the “reset plan” was designed to make it a “leaner and more efficient company”. Ørsted has struggled in the face of high inflation, supply-chain disruption and rising interest rates, which have hit the windfarm industry. The company has also experienced problems in the US in attempting to secure tax credits. Last year, Ørsted cancelled two big offshore windfarm projects in the US, the Ocean Wind I and II schemes, blaming a sharp rise in costs. It took a 28.4bn Danish kroner (£3.3bn) hit as a result of the decision. The company had also raised doubts over the cost of the Hornsea 3 project early last year. However, in December it reaffirmed its commitment to 2.9GW development, which is expected to supply power to 3.3m homes. The RBC analyst Alexander Wheeler said financial markets had been expecting Ørsted to tap investors for funds, “which would have resolved the issues quicker and removed future risk in this regard”. He added: “However, we now have a period where Ørsted needs to execute on various components of its plan to improve its balance sheet metrics over the medium term.” Ørsted has 12 existing windfarms in the UK producing enough energy to power 6m UK homes. It is also working on a floating offshore wind project in Scotland. Separately on Wednesday, the turbine maker Siemens Energy, which was forced to strike a €15bn (£12.8bn) rescue deal with the German government last year, reported a €1.58bn first-quarter profit after selling a stake in its Indian unit. It said orders remained lower than forecast in its turbine division, where newer models have suffered technical faults, but it hoped to break even in that business in 2026. The problems affecting the windfarm industry caused the Swedish energy firm Vattenfall to stop work on the multibillion-pound Norfolk Boreas windfarm last year because it was no longer profitable. The Norwegian oil and gas producer Equinor posted quarterly profits of $8.68bn – down from $17bn a year earlier but ahead of City forecasts – due to lower energy prices. Meanwhile, the British Gas owner Centrica signed an agreement to buy a million metric tonnes of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Spain’s Repsol. The cargoes will be delivered to the Isle of Grain terminal in Kent between 2025 and 2027. Britain has a collection of gas terminals, providing fuel for domestic use and to be re-exported. Germany has raced to bolster its ability to import shipped LNG since piped Russian gas supplies dropped after the invasion of Ukraine, while the US last month moved to curb gas exports by pausing all pending export permits amid climate concerns. The new chief executive of BP said on Tuesday the oil and gas company would take a “more pragmatic” approach to reaching its green targets. Shell faced calls to speed up its investment in renewable energy last week, as it announced bumper profits and shareholder payouts and increased oil and gas production. In January, gas-fired power stations provided the largest share of Great Britain’s electricity supply, at 35.7%, ahead of wind power at 33.5%, National Grid said this week. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/windpower', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'business/job-losses', 'uk/uk', 'world/denmark', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2024-02-07T15:26:17Z | true | ENERGY |
fashion/2020/jul/15/bring-fast-fashion-to-a-standstill | Bring fast fashion to a standstill | Letters | To make yourself averse to new, retail-price clothes (The fast fashion fix: 20 ways to stop buying new clothes for ever, 14 July), consider this: less than 20% of that price represents materials and labour. The rest is the manufacturer’s and shop owner’s outgoings and profit margins. Are you really happy to pay five times what something is worth? If you are “squeamish” about wearing a stranger’s clothes, you’re not being realistic. A garment worn once, with care, will get no more wear than one tried on in a shop by a dozen people – some of whom may pull it off roughly on deciding that they don’t want it. Are there really people who abandon their clothes because of a scratchy label? If they don’t know how to use a pair of scissors, they need more help than is in this article. Rhoda Koenig London • I often wear clothes that are 20-plus years old (originally bought new). At the end of the 1980s I was colour-coded (and also style-coded). A wonderful investment. From then on buying clothes was easy, knowing they’d go together with everything in my wardrobe – placing two colours together and if in doubt adding a third. Jo Fisher Brampton, Huntingdonshire • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['fashion/fashion', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'money/money', 'environment/waste', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'uk/uk', 'business/retail', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-07-15T16:40:27Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-explained-video | Afghanistan war logs: How the Guardian got the story | The Afghanistan war logs series of reports on the war in Afghanistan published by the Guardian is based on the US military's internal logs of the conflict between January 2004 and December 2009. The material, largely classified by the US as secret, was obtained by the whistleblower website Wikileaks, which has published the full archive. The Guardian, along with the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, was given access to the logs before publication to verify their authenticity and assess their significance. A team of investigative reporters, regional specialists and database experts spent weeks combing the data for matters of public interest. After establishing the meaning of more than 400 abbreviations and military acronyms they were able to authenticate the logs by comparing them with other records and cross-checking with other sources. They were able to dismiss some of the more lurid intelligence reports as unfounded and establish that some aspects of the coalition's recording of civilian casualties is unreliable. But taken together, the logs provide a revealing and important picture of how the war is being conducted: the continuing escalation of the conflict; the weakness of much coalition intelligence; and the gap between the polished account of the war offered for public consumption and the messy reality experienced by commanders on the ground. This is one side's raw, immediate first hand account of the conflict as it happened. Although the material has a relatively low level of secrecy classification, the Guardian has taken care not to publish information that could identify intelligence sources, expose unknown intelligence-gathering techniques or place coalition forces in danger. For that reason we have not made available the full database. Instead we have published a selection of the logs relating to significant events in the paper and a number more on the web. The website has a glossary tool which makes them easier to read. The Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel agreed to publish their reports simultaneously, at the same time as Wikileaks released the full database online. The Guardian has no direct knowledge of the original source of the material. | ['world/the-war-logs', 'world/afghanistan', 'us-news/us-military', 'media/wikileaks', 'media/new-york-times', 'media/media', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/war-logs', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-07-25T21:19:25Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
news/article/2024/jun/07/weatherwatch-satellite-weather-data-plays-growing-role-in-saving-lives | Weatherwatch: satellite weather data plays growing role in saving lives | Early warning systems for adverse weather are increasingly important in saving lives and preventing economic disasters. Thirty countries in Europe, including the UK, are partners in a satellite programme, Eumestat, which observes weather from space and provides early warning of potentially dangerous weather patterns so those on the ground can prepare for the worst. Since the satellites can equally “see” the whole of Africa, which has among its 54 countries some of world’s poorest people and no chance of launching their own space hardware, the European programme has made its data available to that continent too. The images from space are beautiful and startling. One of the more recent shows desert dust from the Sahara being carried across the Mediterranean and deposited on Italy and Greece. This dust can cause flight delays and, when it drops on populated areas, respiratory problems. When the dust falls in the sea it has a fertiliser effect and causes algae blooms of phytoplankton, which in turn feed fish. The amount of detail that is gathered, including an hourly check on sea surface temperature, helps to predict day-to-day weather patterns but also climate trends and potential forthcoming extreme events. Eumetsat’s website allows anyone to view the Earth in real time from its many satellites. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/satellites', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-06-07T05:00:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/dec/14/hydrogen-village-plan-in-redcar-abandoned-after-local-oppositiion | ‘Hydrogen village’ plan in Redcar abandoned after local opposition | A plan to test the use of hydrogen to heat homes in a village in the north-east of England has been abandoned after months of strong opposition from concerned residents. The government said the Redcar “hydrogen village” scheme, which had been expected to start in 2025, wouldnot go ahead because of insufficient local hydrogen production for the trial to replace the home gas supplies with the low-carbon alternative. The decision ends months of protest against the scheme locals feared could raise energy bills and prove unsafe. A similar decision was taken in July, when plans to pilot hydrogen in Whitby, Cheshire, were scrapped after local opposition. Some residents raised concerns that they were at risk of becoming unwilling “lab rats” for a technology that would never take off in the UK. The government is due to make a decision about whether its net zero climate plans will include replacing household gas with hydrogen by 2026. It will assess evidence from a pilot in Fife in Scotland, and similar schemes in Europe. Many experts, including the government’s infrastructure tsars, believe that most households should switch to electric heating options, such as heat pumps, while hydrogen is used in heavy industry. On Wednesday, the UK government formally backed plans to ban gas and “hydrogen-ready” boilers from new-build homes in England from 2025. Claire Coutinho, the energy security secretary, said: “Hydrogen presents a massive economic opportunity for the UK, unlocking over 12,000 jobs and up to £11bn of investment by 2030.” The government said on Thursday it would back 11 new projects that planned to make “green hydrogen”, which is produced by splitting water molecules with renewable electricity. Other hydrogen types include blue hydrogen, which is extracted from fossil gas using carbon capture technology to prevent producing emissions. Businesses that stand to benefit from the hydrogen projects include the paper manufacturer Sofidel in south Wales, which will replace 50% of its gas consumption with hydrogen at its Port Talbot paper mill. In addition, the InchDairnie Distillery in Fife will use 100% hydrogen in its distilling process, and PD Ports in Teesside will use hydrogen to replace diesel in its vehicle fleet. Juliet Phillips, a senior policy adviser at the climate thinktank E3G, said the decision to scrap the Redcar home hydrogen trial was “another nail in the coffin for pipe dreams of hydrogen heating”. She said that although some gas lobbyists had proposed blending hydrogen with the existing gas supply to lower emissions while continuing to supply homes with gas, “the writing [was] on the wall” for fossil heating systems. “It’s time to prepare for a clean, electric future,” she said. Jess Ralston, an analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “It’s pretty clear that hydrogen will be a bit part player, if any role at all, in home heating in future. Everyone from government ministers to the National Infrastructure Commission accepts that, maybe less so the gas industry.” She added: “Unless the UK makes the shift away from gas heating, as the North Sea inevitably declines, we’ll simply become more dependent on foreign gas imports and the price they come at. The last two years show why that’s not a good idea.” Northern Gas Networks, which had hoped to lead the Redcar hydrogen project, said the company was “disappointed” that it would not be able to move forward with the plans. “Without adequate local hydrogen production, it is no longer possible to deliver the project,” a spokesperson said. The company said was vital that the government continues to explore the potential of hydrogen through a separate hydrogen village project in Fife, Scotland. | ['environment/hydrogen-power', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'business/business', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-12-14T14:39:33Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/jan/01/before-australias-climate-wars-when-a-coalition-cabinet-leaned-towards-positive-action | Before Australia’s climate wars: when a Coalition cabinet leaned towards positive action | John Howard still describes himself as “climate change agnostic” even though his government proposed an emissions trading scheme before the 2007 election. How different Australia’s response to climate change might have been if he had not lost the election. The 2001 cabinet papers, released by the National Archives of Australia on Saturday, supply further evidence of serious concerns and active ministerial work on climate change inside the Howard government, the archive’s historian, Chris Wallace said. There were fierce battles, but the cabinet often proved “a moderating force”, she said, forcing ministers to work together on policy solutions. “This can only have happened with John Howard’s assent and it reflects well on him. It arguably reflects, too, Howard’s greater capacity to manage internal policy differences and personnel than his successors possessed,” Wallace said. The faultline within the cabinet was on display in 2001 as it attempted to finalise its stance for a national energy policy to be negotiated with the states through the Council of Australian Governments. Senator Nick Minchin, one the leading climate change sceptics, brought the paper to cabinet in March. “We will continue to be heavily dependent on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future,” it said. It made almost no mention of climate change or renewables, particularly in the energy generation sector. Instead Minchin’s paper put the emphasis on consumer prices, a national energy market and sustained improvements in energy efficiency. Then as now, gas was privileged in the energy mix. There were a number of measures to promote the use and export of natural gas and the development of resources off north-western Australia and the Northern Territory. Robert Hill’s environment department was highly critical of Minchin’s proposal. “[The] cursory treatment of climate change and other environmental issues is not proportionate with their significance for energy policy and for key stakeholders in this sector. Nor is it consistent with the Coag communique of November 2000, which specifically called for the environmental impacts of energy supply and use to be encompassed within this strategy. “We note that the independent inquiry into energy market development and prospects overlooks climate change and other environmental issues. Given that energy market reform has (unwittingly) contributed to rapid and significant emissions growth in what is Australia’s single largest emissions source, we request that the terms of reference for this inquiry encompass options for reducing the greenhouse and adverse environmental impacts of the reform process.” The cabinet decision directed Hill and Minchin to come back “as matter of urgency” with a joint negotiating position on energy policy. Wallace said the papers confirmed that Hill was not alone in those concerns, and that the balance of cabinet opinion was with him. Meanwhile Australia was trying to balance its commitment to work with the international community on climate change against its relationship with its most important ally, the United States. Under President George W Bush, the US had opposed the Kyoto agreement, and ordered a review of its policy led by the vice-president, Dick Cheney, a former executive at the oil services company Halliburton. Howard had already written to Bush saying he shared Bush’s concerns about having a cost-effective outcome from Kyoto but believed an international agreement was the right path. A cabinet memo in May shows Australia was uncertain about where the Cheney review was heading. It noted that the Bush administration’s new energy policy focused “heavily on the supply side and will accelerate growth in United States emissions”, which did not bode well. What to do next? They decided that Howard should write another letter. It would suggest that an effective global framework to address climate change needed to include commitments from all major emitters; unrestricted market-based mechanisms, including emissions trading; an approach to carbon sinks that captured both economic and environmental opportunities; and a facilitative, rather than punitive, compliance system. Howard told Bush US leadership was essential if efforts to address climate change were to be successful. In February 2002, Bush announced his alternative to the Kyoto protocol, with a plan to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gases by 18% over 10 years – that meant emissions would still continue to grow, but more slowly. Because of the US position, getting agreement of other nations on Kyoto was difficult but eventually 192 parties signed the treaty. Australia was permitted to take account of changes in land-clearing policy, which allowed it to achieve its target. Water, salinity and land clearing were important environmental issues for cabinet in 2001. In March the cabinet agreed on a detailed offer to the Queensland premier, Peter Beattie, for commonwealth support to reduce land clearing in Queensland to help meet the nation’s Kyoto targets. Up to $50m would be made available on a 50:50 basis with the state to buy back land and reduce land clearing from 200,000 hectares a year to 50,000 by 2006. | ['australia-news/cabinet-papers-australia', 'australia-news/john-howard', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/kyoto-protocol', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anne-davies', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-12-31T13:05:20Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2023/mar/16/putting-up-a-stink-revolt-against-a-melbourne-councils-levy-starts-debate-about-waste | Putting up a stink: revolt against a Melbourne council’s levy starts debate about waste | They are the three Rs that have long defined the fundamentals of local councils: roads, rates and rubbish. Despite basic service delivery being the bread and butter of local governments, a suburban Melbourne council has attracted the fiery frustration of residents over a decision to separate charges for rubbish collection from its general rates. At a Yarra city council meeting on Tuesday night, residents from an area known for its community activism protested against a new waste levy charge for ratepayers being passed. In the eyes of disgruntled residents, the separate levy – which is also applied by various councils across Victoria and in some other states – is a “bin tax”. The council argues it is a financial necessity amid the costs associated with the state government’s new four-bin waste and recycling scheme, in line with other parts of Australia. Adam Promnitz, the founder of the Yarra Residents Collective, which has been central to the pushback, claims the council concealed a cash grab to circumvent state-imposed rates caps and criticises the lack of consultation. “They’re not just going and putting this surcharge in out of good faith,” he says. “The only reason they are doing this is to get around the rate capping.” The Andrews government’s rates cap will force ratepayers to fork out an extra 3.5% in costs from July – less than the current rate of inflation of 7.4%. By separating the waste charge from general rates, councils are able to increase revenue beyond the cap. Guidelines from the Essential Services Commission stipulate that the revenue can only be used to cover the cost of providing waste and recycling services in the area. A Monash University Sustainable Development Institute researcher, Jennifer Macklin, who specialises in Australia’s waste industry, says the model being adopted by the council is essentially a basic user-pays model but differs from a weight-based charging model. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup “A strong user-pays model would see you paying based on how much you use, just like with electricity and water, meaning those who produce more waste [by weight] pay more for their waste service,” she says. “Instead, the Yarra approach – which is standard across Victoria, South Australia and NSW – is a flat rate which involves people who don’t produce as much waste subsidising people who do produce a lot. I suspect that is as far as Australia will go with user-pays. I’ve not yet seen any council in Australia with the appetite to try a weight-based system, though some overseas places have successfully implemented such a model.” Macklin says there is also likely to be a disconnect between the public’s expectations of waste collection and the changed financial landscape since China effectively banned the importation of most rubbish in 2018. “Up until recently, China paid really good money for our household recycling,” she says. In Yarra Promnitz stresses that the residents’ concerns are above ideology, with the collective made up of people from across the political divide: “We’ve been accused of being far right and far left. We’ve got disillusioned Greens voters, Labor and Liberal voters. It really is from right across the spectrum.” The Yarra council’s waste charge will be calculated based on property value, with ratepayers who do not receive a kerbside service exempt from the charge. A spokesperson for the council says the decision had been implemented to tackle the rising cost of providing waste services and “ensure council’s ongoing financial sustainability”. Opponents to the move, including three councillors who voted against it, say the council should not pass on the charge to residents and should rein in internal spending. An independent Yarra councillor, Stephen Jolly – who has led the opposition against the levy – told Guardian Australia the fact that other councils have implemented their own charges is not a satisfactory excuse to do so in his area. “We’re the most progressive, most leftwing council and we’ve always been a trailblazer,” he says. “We spend half the time telling everyone we’re the best in the world, most progressive, and then when it suits them, the same people can say, ‘Oh, well, they’ve got someone else doing it.’” Jolly argues the levy could create a slippery slope where a user-pays model is used for other services such as swimming pools. Another independent Yarra councillor, Herschel Landes – who voted in support of the measure – says the conversation should focus on the collective duty to reduce the burden of waste management. “I would have liked to have seen some of the anger last night directed towards the manufacturers of the waste in the first instance,” he says. | ['australia-news/victoria', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'australia-news/melbourne', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/adeshola-ore', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-03-15T14:00:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2020/oct/02/weatherwatch-hurricane-laura-storm-surge-that-went-astray | Weatherwatch: storm surge | Storm surge is the biggest threat to lives and homes in coastal regions during the hurricane season. An “unsurvivable” six-metre storm surge was predicted for Hurricane Laura in August. The damage was far less than feared, but it turns out the prediction was not overstated. Storm surge is a steady rise in the sea level along the coast in addition to normal tides, caused by a combination of water piled up by wind and low air pressure. The size and strength of the hurricane determine the height of the surge. Hurricanes are circular storms, so the surge occurs on the side where winds are blowing towards the shore, highest where the winds are strongest. The topography of the coastline affects the surge. Bays or rivers funnel a higher storm surge and make it greater, a steep drop-off between land and seabed reduces it. Surge height is therefore highly dependent on the exact location of landfall. With Laura, densely populated areas escaped relatively lightly, though the surge still broke records. Damage assessment carried out in September by the National Weather Service explored sparsely inhabited swamplands further down the coast. They found mud and debris six metres up in trees, indicating that the surge had indeed occurred as predicted, just not at the feared location. | ['us-news/hurricane-laura', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'us-news/us-weather', 'world/extreme-weather', 'science/meteorology', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | us-news/hurricane-laura | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-10-02T20:30:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
music/2019/oct/10/stormzy-makes-cover-of-time-magazine-as-next-generation-leader-great-thunberg-annual-list | Stormzy makes cover of Time magazine as ‘next generation leader’ | Time magazine has named Stormzy one of its “next generation leaders” in the US news weekly’s annual list of young trailblazers. The 26-year-old rapper appears on the cover of the magazine and was interviewed by the Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race author, Reni Eddo-Lodge. The rapper sits alongside Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, American actor Tessa Thompson and Spanish musician Rosalía on the list. Senegalese artist Selly Raby Kane, British-Somalian boxer Ramla Ali and South Korean gaming activist Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon also appear. Born Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr, Stormzy posted a picture of the cover on Instagram, writing: “I’ve stared at this cover for a few minutes and it feels like one of those, ‘How the fuckkkkk did man get here?!’ moments.” He continued: “Anyone who knows me knows how much I shy away from being anything other than ‘Mike’. The thought of being a ‘role model’ or ‘leader’ or whatever it is can often feel way way way too heavy and too overwhelming and a lot of the time … I can’t even bare [sic] the weight of being myself let alone any of these other titles. “I am deeply flawed and still learning how to be a man and still figuring out how to grow into the person I need to be but within all of that confusion and all the juggling of being a human and trying to be a superhuman – I have purpose. And my purpose has lead [sic] me here. In the interview, he expressed gratitude to his forerunners in the UK grime scene who had endured more explicit racism in the early 2000s, encountering demonisation from politicians and having their performances subject to scrutiny from the now-scrapped Form 696, which required promoters to detail the ethnicity of a performer’s audience. “I know I’m the product of bare injustice,” he said. “I feel like all those artists or public figures or celebrities who went through that, had to go through that … they didn’t have the luxury of being free with their music, and they had to bite that bullet for me.” He described his headline slot at this year’s Glastonbury festival as “the pinnacle of my career, my defining moment”, and cited Beyoncé’s landmark Coachella set in 2018 as an influence: “Not in terms of anything to do with how it sounded or looked. Trying to imitate Beyoncé, that’s a fool’s game. Just in terms of quality, and impact.” Stormzy used his performance at the festival to shine a light on his peers, name-checking a long list of fellow UK rappers, from Wiley to Little Simz, and bringing out Dave and Fredo to perform their single Funky Friday. “I proper felt like I needed to do that,” he told Time. “There’s been this historical thing of letting one black person in at a time.” Explaining his partnership with Penguin – where his #Merky imprint publishes emerging British writers of colour – and the scholarship he established to support two black British students to go to Cambridge University, he said his purpose was to “shine a light where I can, do something where I can”. | ['music/stormzy', 'media/time-magazine', 'society/social-trends', 'world/activism', 'culture/culture', 'music/music', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'film/tessa-thompson', 'music/grime', 'uk/britishidentity', 'society/youngpeople', 'media/media', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'media/magazines', 'media/consumer-magazines', 'media/us-press-publishing', 'film/film', 'society/society', 'music/rap', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'culture/black-british-culture', 'profile/laura-snapes', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-10-10T16:32:44Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
us-news/2020/feb/11/shannen-doherty-terminal-cancer-wildfire-insurance | Shannen Doherty reveals terminal cancer amid wildfire insurance battle | The actor Shannen Doherty has revealed her battle with terminal breast cancer in an interview about her ongoing fight with State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, to receive compensation for her wildfire-damaged home. Doherty’s Malibu home was damaged by smoke from the Woolsey fire in November 2018, which killed three people, destroyed more than 1,600 buildings and burned nearly 100,000 acres. She made public the severity of her diagnosis in an interview with ABC News last week, in which Doherty called her fight with State Farm to receive compensation for home damages, temporary housing and emotional distress “one of the most horrific processes I have ever been through”. Doherty’s initial complaint against her home’s insurer, State Farm, was filed on 13 February 2019. Her attorney claimed the insurer had “taken advantage of Ms Doherty’s vulnerability and medical condition”. State Farm denied Doherty’s claims, contending that the revelation of her health issues is a ploy “to garner sympathy”. The disaster-stricken celebrity has become a California wildfire trope. While hardly representative of the average fire-impacted homeowner, they are presumably in a far more advantageous position to defend against and recover after catastrophe. Kim and Kanye West’s private firefighters who fought off the Woolsey flames were an auspice of inequality amid the climate crisis – but Doherty’s insurance battle shows some of the limits of privilege. “If it’s this hard for somebody who’s got money and a certain amount of power, imagine how hard it is for just a regular person to fight back when their insurance company isn’t living up to their obligations,” said Amy Bach, the executive director of the not-for-profit United Policyholders, which advocates on behalf of people who are battling with insurance companies after a disaster. Compared to her neighbors, Doherty was lucky: her home didn’t burn in the Woolsey fire, though she alleges it sustained significant smoke damage from proximity to the flames that left ash and char behind. Doherty contends that damage is an additional risk to her weakened health. But a partial loss, said Bach, is far more subjective and contentious than a total one. “It’s a little counterintuitive but for a lot of people it’s easier to reach a fair settlement with an insurance company promptly if your house has burned than if your house has just been damaged,” said Bach. “In addition to dropping people and raising rates, insurance companies have also adopted a much stricter approach to partial loss claims. You should be able to trust your insurance company if they tell you it’s safe to move back in. But it’s our experience that insurers are looking to control expenses.” In Doherty’s case, State Farm’s inspector claimed there was no damage. Proving the severity of hidden smoke damage can mean paying thousands of dollars for ones own inspections, on top of the already onerous insurance claims process that survivors often refer to as “the disaster after the disaster”. Insurance companies in California have reacted to the recent last few devastating and expensive wildfire seasons by raising rates and dropping policies. According to the California Department of Insurance, State Farm and other insurers declined to renew around 350,000 policies in high fire risk areas and another 33,000 in areas affected by major fires since 2015. In December, in an attempt to head off yet another disaster after the disaster, the state insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, announced a one-year moratorium on non-renewals for approximately 1 million people who own homes near recent wildfires. But as policymakers search for solutions to this home insurance crisis, insurers will continue to seek innovative ways to make up for years of lost profits. | ['us-news/california', 'culture/television', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'tv-and-radio/us-television', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/susie-cagle', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-02-11T11:00:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/jul/11/uk-accused-of-green-brexit-hypocrisy-over-regulation-of-suspected-carcinogen | UK accused of 'green Brexit hypocrisy' over regulation of suspected carcinogen | Michael Gove has been accused of “green Brexit hypocrisy” for trying to weaken regulation of a suspected carcinogen found in sun creams, paints and toothpastes, in a proposal seen by the Guardian. The European commission had proposed mandatory labelling and a cosmetics ban for titanium dioxide (TiO2) – a whitening chemical – after the European Chemicals Agency (Echa) declared it a “suspected carcinogen” last year. Agency recommendations are normally rubber-stamped, as happened with glyphosate last year. But trade in TiO2 – which is also found in soaps, pills and biscuits – is highly lucrative and the UK has backed a fierce industry campaign against regulation. The Green MEP Molly Scott Cato accused the UK environment secretary of “hypocrisy” after he previously condemned the EU for being “weak” on preventing regulatory capture. “Behind the facade of Michael Gove’s ‘green Brexit’ lies the reality of Conservative attacks on regulation,” she told the Guardian. “Far from the ‘race to the top’ that Gove promised, in this area of potentially carcinogenic chemicals we see government ministers doing their best to block regulation and to stick up for industry whatever the cost to public health.” More than 9m metric tonnes of TiO2 are produced annually and global trade is estimated at $13bn (£9.8bn) a year. Two-thirds of pigments produced around the world are thought to contain TiO2, which can be found in everything from white traffic lines to Oreo cookies. But when inhaled, liquid and powder forms of the substance are a “possible carcinogen”, according to the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, IARC, and US health agencies, as well as Echa. The European commission is due to propose TiO2 regulation in September but has already been forced to row back on its scope and ambition by the UK proposal. The British paper, which is co-authored with Slovenia, raises concerns about the “socioeconomic consequences” of classifying TiO2 as potentially cancer-causing. It also questions whether labelling is allowed for “particle toxicity” and repeats industry arguments about the potential impacts on recycling. “In our opinion, TiO2 has no intrinsic or extrinsic property to cause cancer,” says the paper, which is now supported by several EU states. However, one EU diplomat told the Guardian that the UK’s proposal was “a result of the [industry] lobby campaign”. The lobby offensive led by the Titanium Dioxide Manufacturers Association (TDMA), has been described as “unprecedented” in its sweep, which includes the launch of a €14m (£12.4m) “Euro science” programme to stave off regulation. The trade group argues that TiO2 has been safely used for a century and that its labelling now would lead to job losses, affecting “millions of workers in Europe and beyond”. Its campaign has been “really huge, really heavy, and well organised”, according to the EU diplomat. “We saw them several times and they would outnumber us. They brought more than 15 people.” EU member states and their national institutions were also contacted by the lobbyists, who tried to instigate dissent between them, according to the diplomat. “They had the power to hire good lawyers. We received several letters and it was like they were giving us orders.” Campaigners are gearing up to protest against any EU retreat from regulation of TiO2, with a report by Corporate Europe Observatory today saying that the TDMA paid the Brussels lobby firm, Fleishman-Hillard, up to €499,000 last year. Tatiana Santos, a spokeswoman for the European Environmental Bureau, said: “It is really quite outrageous to learn that companies are investing so much in order to prevent the public from knowing about the hazards of the chemicals they are being exposed to.” The government’s Health and Safety Executive denies any impropriety and insist that Britain’s TiO2 proposal followed “routine stakeholder engagement activities”. “The UK’s actions are not a response to industry lobbying,” the official said. “We continue to work to find an effective solution that applies not just to titanium dioxide, but also to other similar substances.” | ['environment/green-politics', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'environment/environment', 'world/eu', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/arthurneslen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2018-07-11T22:01:24Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
technology/2018/jun/05/apple-escalates-war-against-facebook-but-doesnt-mention-it-at-wwdc | Apple escalates war against Facebook, but doesn't mention it at WWDC | Over a long two hours at WWDC, Apple showed off the roadmap for the next year of its software. Phones will get performance boosts and services aiming to help people fight compulsive use, Macs will get iOS apps and new machine learning technologies, and even the Apple Watch sees an upgrade or two. But some changes didn’t make it on the main stage, either because they’re a bit too technical, a little embarrassing for the company, or just plain old bad news. The war against Facebook is even bigger than it looks If there was one theme running throughout Apple’s presentation, it was that the company is taking on Facebook on all fronts. The new Screen Time app, which aims to help users cut back on their device use, was demonstrated using Facebook’s Instagram as the test case, and Safari’s new anti-tracking tech is positioned squarely against Facebook’s use of Like buttons and comment boxes to track users around the net. But the specific details of ITP2, the updated version of the anti-tracking technology, are even more aggressively targeted at two of Apple’s biggest rivals, Facebook and Google, than the company let on on stage. ITP works by segregating the cookies dropped by websites so that they can only be read by that specific website, ensuring that an ad provider cannot, for instance, use those cookies to track your browsing across every single website on which it runs ads. Previously, that segregation had only kicked in 24 hours after a user visited the specific website. That was a handy out for sites such as Facebook, Google and YouTube, which users visit regularly enough to spend a lot of their time in that day-long window. Now, that grace period is gone, and Apple’s tracking prevention kicks in immediately. When ITP1 was launched last year, ad-tech firm Criteo saw an immediate 22% drop in revenue; what will Facebook see? Your £10,000 watch is now obsolete The new version of Apple’s watchOS brings with it a few nice features, including the ability to play audio from services other than Apple Music during workouts, and a nice auto-start feature for when you forget to tell the fitness tracker that you have begun your training. But Apple’s richest customers will have to shell out more for the privilege of acquiring those new features, because the update is the first version of watchOS not to run on Apple’s first-generation watches – including the £10,000+ solid gold Apple Watch Edition. In recent generations, Apple has dropped the price of its most expensive watch, fashioning it from ceramic rather than gold and selling it for “just” £1,299. But when it launched, it had ambitions for high fashion, and the solid gold watch was one manifestation of that goal. Those watches should carry on running for a while, but they’ll be cut off from more and more new features as time goes on. Have they been worth more than £3,000 per year of operation? For that, you’d have to ask one of the (select few) customers. Law enforcement’s secret weapon against iPhones got disabled Police forensics departments the world over have had a slight edge over Apple for the past year or so, thanks to a mysterious technology called Greyshift, which is able to crack the pin-lock on the latest iPhones. It is not clear how the service, which is packaged as a nondescript box that investigators can plug in to seized devices, actually works, but Apple has apparently worked out how to stop it: disable USB. From iOS 11.4.1 – coming very shortly – a new feature disables access to the phone from USB devices once the device has been locked for more than an hour. That means police will have to work fast if they’re going to extract usable information from phones taken in as evidence, or get the co-operation of the suspect and have them unlock it the old-fashioned way. It’s an odd game of cat and mouse, since Apple doesn’t enjoy being perceived as the enemy of the forces of justice, but when push comes to shove, it will protect its users’ security over anyone who seeks to compromise it. There’s probably going to be an iPad with FaceID Just because no new hardware was announced at Apple’s event, doesn’t mean there was no information about new hardware hidden away in yesterday’s releases. The beta version of iOS 12 for iPads appears to contain references to FaceID, the tech that the company first launched with the iPhone X to replace the old fingerprint-based touchID. That also explains, perhaps, why iPads now have the same gestures as the iPhone X, asking users to swipe down from the top corners to access notifications and control centre. | ['technology/wwdc', 'technology/technology', 'technology/apple', 'technology/computing', 'technology/facebook', 'technology/apple-watch', 'technology/ios', 'technology/software', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'technology/instagram', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-hern', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-06-05T09:39:49Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2004/dec/30/tsunami2004.brianwhitaker | Deaths, new dangers and relief efforts | Indonesia The death toll in Aceh province may reach 80,000, Michael Elmquist, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Indonesia, said yesterday. "It's a guess based on the relation between the numbers we have so far and our experience from other earthquake disasters," he said. In the coastal town of Meulaboh in Aceh, 40,000 people - a third of the population - may have been wiped out. Relief workers warned of the imminent risk of disease. Sri Lanka The government promised to prevent relief supplies becoming an ethnic or political issue after an army checkpoint stopped an aid lorry bound for a Tamil area and soldiers watched as Sinhalese villagers tried to divert it. The government's move came as UN aid teams fanned out across the country to assess whether food supplies, disease prevention, providing shelter, or the rapid burial of bodies were the top priority in the unprecedented emergency. Some 23,000 people have been confirmed dead. "We cannot discriminate in any area. We have to get together. We have all suffered. No-one has been spared", the prime minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, said. The Tamil Tiger guerrillas and the government are sparring over the bigger issue of who should deliver aid in the mainly Tamil north and east. Thailand The official death toll in Thailand rose to 1,829 yesterday but the government said more than 5,000 people were missing. They are thought to include 1,500 Swedes, 200 Finns, 200 Danes and hundreds of Norwegians. Hopes of finding more survivors were fading, and Sweden's foreign minister warned that many of the bodies may never be found. Andre Stulz, a German aid worker in Phuket, said the danger of epidemics was growing by the hour. The prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, admitted that the search and relief effort was inadequate. "We have too little equipment and foot searching is not sufficient," he said. Burma The military government has not taken up offers of help, saying the situation is manageable. The UN estimates that at least 90 people died. Malaysia The prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, said yesterday he would work with other countries to come up with an early warning system for natural hazards. Although there was widespread damage in parts of Penang province, its tourist belt was relatively unaffected by the tsunamis. The official death toll stands at 65. India Officials sought to reassure residents in Tamil Nadu state yesterday after it emerged that the water had hit the Madras atomic power station, forcing an immediate shutdown. "The reactors and basic capacities of the plant are absolutely safe, and there is no radiation whatsoever," the national security adviser, J N Dixit, said. The waves submerged a giant water pump used for cooling the two reactors. Officials say the plant will be restarted after an inspection. After three days of rescue and recovery work, India's death toll was 6,974, with the southern Tamil Nadu state accounting for 6,073 deaths, the defence minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said. Yesterday, 56 teams of paramedics began vaccinating more than 65,000 people in districts of Tamil Nadu state in a bid to prevent epidemics. Maldives The latest casualty toll in the archipelago of more than 1,000 coral atolls is 67 dead, 75 missing - though the economic effects of the disaster could be enormous. Between 10 and 12 of about 80 tourist resorts - the nation's main industry - have been severely damaged, and a similar number have suffered significant damage. East Africa An estimated 110 people died in Somalia, though 30,000-50,000 survivors are believed to need immediate help, especially on the low-lying Ha. Police in Tanzania said at least 10 people had died - mostly children. In Kenya, where up to three people reportedly died, the authorities reopened beaches. Infrastructure is said to have been damaged in the Seychelles and Madagascar. | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'type/article', 'profile/brianwhitaker', 'profile/jonathansteele', 'profile/maseehrahman'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-12-30T00:06:36Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2023/aug/09/lula-brazil-amazon-rainforests-money | ‘Nature needs money’: Lula tells rich countries to pay up and protect world’s rainforests | The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has told developed countries to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests, as major rainforest nations demanded hundreds of billions of dollars of climate financing and a greater role in how those resources are spent. “It’s not Brazil that needs money. It’s not Colombia that needs money. It’s not Venezuela. It’s nature,” Lula told journalists on the second day of a major environmental summit in the Amazon city of Belém. For two centuries, industrialized nations filled the world’s atmosphere with pollution, Lula declared, “and they now need to pay their bit to restore part of that which was wrecked”. “It’s nature that needs money. It’s nature that needs financing,” added the 77-year-old leftist. Lula’s appeal came after hours of meetings between the leaders of the Amazon’s eight nations and representatives of fellow rainforest nations, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Indonesia. Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC are home to 52% of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests, vast carbon sinks which play a critical role in efforts to control climate change. In a declaration entitled “United For Our Forests”, the governments of those countries reaffirmed their commitment to reducing deforestation and finding ways to reconcile economic prosperity with environmental protection. They also voiced concern at the developed world’s failure to meet mitigation targets and fulfill a pledge to provide $100bn a year in climate financing, calling for that to rise to $200bn by 2030. Lula said the fledgling rainforest bloc had a simple message to those “rich countries” in the lead up to November’s Cop28 summit in Dubai: “If they want to effectively preserve what is left of the forests, they must spend money – not just to take care of the canopy of the trees but to take care of the people who live beneath that canopy and who want to work, to study and to eat and … to live decently.” “It’s by taking care of these people that we will take care of the forest,” Lula added. The declaration came on the second and final day of Lula’s Amazon summit, part of efforts to reposition Brazil as a political and environmental heavyweight on the world stage. On Tuesday, the eight Amazon countries belonging to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (Acto) published a communique vowing to unite to prevent the rainforest region being commandeered by criminal groups or reaching a catastrophic point of no return after which the forest would die off. Activists called that declaration a significant first step in joint efforts to fight the climate crisis but voiced frustration at its failure to mention the phasing out of fossil fuel exploration in the Amazon or include a common commitment to halting deforestation by 2030. “Blame it on Bolivia,” one Brazilian official said of Acto’s failure to agree on a specific deforestation target. Another official told the Financial Times: “We tried [to include some deforestation targets], but Bolivia explicitly asked for it to be deleted.” Deforestation is currently soaring in the Bolivian Amazon, which represents about 8.4% of South America’s largest biome. In Brazil, which controls about 60% of the Amazon, the trend is more positive. Deforestation has fallen 42.5% in the first seven months of Lula’s government, after four years in which destruction soared under the far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro. Addressing reporters, Lula said his government was serious about what he called the “severe escalation of the climate crisis”. “Today, denying the climate crisis is nothing more than foolishness,” he said. “But valuing the forest, isn’t just about stopping trees being cut down. It means offering dignity to the nearly 50 million people who live in the Amazon.” Before Lula took power, Brazil signed a cooperation agreement with Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to work together on rainforest conservation at UN climate and biodiversity Cops through the so-called “Opec for rainforests”. The three countries, home to about half of the world’s tropical rainforest into the Amazon, Congo basin and Borneo and Sumatra, agreed to work together in talks around carbon markets and finance for conservation. Many rainforest countries want financial support from industrialised countries to conserve their forests, which are critical to meeting the goals of the Paris agreement, arguing that they are giving up opportunities to develop their economies. But markets where forest commodities are consumed, such as the EU, have preferred to establish bans on deforestation-linked commodities. At the UN biodiversity conference Cop15 in December where countries agreed to protect a third of the planet for nature, the DRC was one of the few countries that objected to the final agreement by demanding more money from the global north, prompting frantic behind the scenes negotiations which were only resolved after interventions by Brazil and Indonesia. In Belém, Lula also vowed to uproot the criminal enterprises that tightened their grip on the Amazon while his climate-denying, pro-development predecessor dismantled environmental and Indigenous protections. “We’re going to really fight to expel the narco-traffickers and gun-runners and organized crime from the forests of this country,” Lula said, as federal police announced they had destroyed dozens of gold-mining dredges in the remote jungle region where British journalist Dom Phillips was murdered last year with the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. | ['world/brazil', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-08-09T17:53:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2005/sep/03/hurricanekatrina.usa4 | Leader: Blaming Bush | Hurricane Katrina has cruelly demonstrated the awesome power of nature and the havoc it can wreak on the proudest efforts of humankind. It has also exposed the United States government, and George Bush at the head of it, to charges of badly mishandling what looks like being one of the country's worst ever natural disasters. Unlike what happened after the September 11 terrorist attacks, partisan warfare has already broken out over the waterlogged catastrophe that is New Orleans and the battered coast of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. This is a crisis in full spate - as shown by shocking images of bodies floating in putrid water and desperate refugees scrabbling to catch supplies dropped by helicopter. America is the richest and most powerful country on earth. But its citizens, begging for food, water and help, are suffering agonies more familiar from Sudan and Niger. The worst of the third world has come to the Big Easy. Such is the scale of this disaster that Mr Bush would probably have been criticised however he had responded. He was already under fire for taking the longest summer vacation in presidential history and he stayed put at his ranch in Texas as Katrina made her deadly landfall. On Wednesday, two days after the hurricane struck, he flew over the area in Air Force One, only arriving yesterday (but not in New Orleans itself) to see the scene for himself, though he did declare that relief efforts so far had been inadequate. He sounded grave, but spoke of hope ahead, even in these "darkest days". In previous public appearances, his tone and demeanour seemed inappropriate, further evidence of the tin ear he displayed when referring to Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers as "folks". It is hard to disagree with the New York Times, famously restrained in its use of language, whose editorial found that Mr Bush's response had been "casual to the point of carelessness". The Times' former editor, Howell Raines, wrote in our pages that his behaviour was "outrageous". More substantive points include charges that the president cut funding for the levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans from floods. Others have singled out the damaging and greedy redevelopment of coastal wetlands. Not all the criticism stands up to close scrutiny. Even with full funding in recent years, none of the flood-control projects would have been completed in time to prevent the swamping of the city. Staving off cuts to the budget of army engineers would not have helped since the destruction was vaster than any contingency. Still, there is a widespread perception that the sheer scale of the problems reflects a shuffling of resources - to pay for tax cuts and the Iraq adventure - that has left the US far too vulnerable. It is all a brutal reminder that government policies, sometimes followed only in the small print of rows over obscure budget allocations, can have real - and deadly - consequences for real people. The words "homeland security" now have a terribly hollow ring in the anarchic south: 35% of Louisiana's National Guard is serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. And recruiting is down because people fear being sent to Iraq. The priority given to law and order seems a troubling inverse reflection of what happened after the fall of Baghdad. Is it really more important to use deadly force against looters than to deliver humanitarian aid effectively? Elemental forces do not take account of secular political timetables, but Katrina struck at a moment when the president's ratings were at a second-term low. Americans, especially the poor black people who are the hurricane's main victims, will need to see a much more effective government response to this natural weapon of mass destruction if Mr Bush's reputation is not to sink further as the killer floodwaters start to recede. | ['us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/editorials', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-02T23:05:42Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/mar/21/new-forest-bog-trees | Drawn in by a captivating view | The New Forest covers a large area. “How do you decide where to go, and what to write about?” I’m asked. Often we know where we are going, but the rest is given by the landscape and the day’s conditions. Today I pause as I set out, decide to turn left and follow my nose. A view catches my eye as I head across the north of the forest. Stopping to get a picture, I find myself being drawn down into Crow’s Nest Bottom. The turf along the top looks pretty dry but is deceiving. One step releases a crackling sound as the brittle lichens break up under my weight. The next produces a squelch where the ground is still holding huge quantities of water, days after the latest rain. As the slope drops down, it becomes a bog, with wetter areas traversing it somewhat in the manner of a slalom. Dotted among them are pools in one of which a patch of purplish leaves stands out from the rest of the greenery. Botanist friends tell me later that these are an unusual form of lesser spearwort, and wonder whether the mature plants will still retain this basal leaf colouration. Towards the valley bottom, I watch droplets of water ooze out of the grasses and trickle down the leaves, like melting icicles. They feed a rivulet, which becomes a stream cutting into the ground as it travels through the trees along its route down the valley. Not far into the woodland, a long-dead oak has toppled across it. Here the rushing water has cut beneath it to tumble a metre or so before slackening pace. Broadening over a gravel bed, it runs through fern-lined banks as it twists its way into the distance. As I turn back, I stop to look more closely at the view that drew me here. This is still the season to see birches at their finest, with silver-white trunks catching the sun, set against the tan hues of bracken-draped hillsides. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/grahamlong', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-03-21T05:30:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2007/oct/24/usa.danglaister1 | 500,000 forced to flee California wildfires driven by winds | More than 500,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in southern California as fierce winds fanned fires across the region from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Officials expect the total number of evacuees to reach 750,000 before the fires die down. More than 1,000 homes were destroyed and 500,000 people evacuated in the San Diego area alone, while a second death was reported, following that of a Mexican migrant on Sunday. Fires around the celebrity enclave of Malibu calmed yesterday as the focus of the multiple blazes moved to inland areas including tourist destinations such as Lake Arrowhead, where 160 buildings were destroyed. The neighbouring town of Running Springs saw 100 homes gutted as winds whipped through the area. After California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency on Monday, George Bush weighed in yesterday, announcing he would visit the region tomorrow, and declaring a federal state of emergency for seven counties in southern California, a move that will set in motion disaster relief efforts. "All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes," Mr Bush said. "We send the help of the federal government." California senator Dianne Feinstein called the federal response to the fires a test of whether the federal emergency management agency (Fema) "has gotten its act together post-Katrina", and most observers agreed that the agency had acquitted itself favourably. However, some residents in Orange and San Diego counties criticised the agency for being too slow to provide aerial support to fire crews. More than 400 square miles of southern California had been overrun by 16 separate fires by Tuesday afternoon. Forecasters predicted winds that have propelled the fires would begin to weaken by the end of the day, but yesterday proved as hazardous as any since the outbreak began near Malibu Canyon early on Sunday. With temperatures pushing up towards 38C and winds gusting inland, authorities stressed that the fire still could spread. Sam Padilla of the Los Angeles County fire department warned that it would be "premature" for residents to move back to the area, stressing that the winds could pick up an ember and swiftly ignite a new fire. Authorities expected full containment of the Malibu fire by Friday. Residents were unable to return to evacuated homes, leaving luxury hotels across Los Angeles and Hollywood at capacity as they coped with the onslaught of homeless celebrities including actors Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks, studio chiefs including David Geffen, directors including James Cameron and evacuees from the celebrated rehab clinic Promises. | ['world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'travel/usa', 'us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'profile/danglaister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2007-10-24T13:41:58Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/dec/31/10-10-nene-plumbing | Making the cut for 10:10: Nene plumbing | Robert Walkam gave up an office job in 2008 to retrain as a plumber and start his own company, Nene Plumbing. For Walkam, joining the 10:10 climate change campaign - which encourages businesses and individuals to cut their carbon emissions by 10% during 2010 - affects both his business and home life. Walkam's Northampton-based business is run from home, so he's planning to revisit his energy bills and then work out a plan to cut them by 10%. "I signed up because saving energy and climate change is something I believed in," says Walkam. "I want to promote the idea that people should use energy-efficient appliances and have their homes properly insulated. A lot of focus is on new-build homes but we have to focus on retrofitting the millions of existing homes too." Cutting energy use at his business premises will be tricky, Walkam worries, because he's already put in 280mm loft insulation (more than the government's minimum recommendation), fitted double-glazed windows, draught-proofing and low-energy bulbs. "It's going to be quite a challenge for me," he says. After visiting trade shows, Walkham has also been inspired to expand his business into installing renewable energy as well as plumbing. He hopes to eventually fit air source heat pumps - which extract warmth from outdoor air and transfer it indoors for heating - and solar hot water systems in customers' homes. Action that will make the biggest difference "I'm just about to move home, so I'll be looking to increase the energy efficiency there - it has rubbish insulation and a really old boiler, so there's room for improvement," says Walkham. Biggest concern about meeting the target Like many tradesmen, Walkham does a lot of driving - sometimes 400-500 miles per month, visiting homes to view a job, driving home and then driving back again to undertake the job. "The miles will be the hardest thing," he says. Read more 10:10 case studies. | ['environment/10-10', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/features', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/construction', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-12-31T14:47:04Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2012/mar/21/tennessee-bill-teachers-evolution-climate-change | Tennessee bill protects teachers who challenge evolution and climate change | The state legislature of Tennessee has given legal cover to public school teachers to challenge the science of evolution and climate change, in a move that looks set to deepen a debate about politicisation of the classroom. The bill passed in the Tennessee Senate this week provides legal protection to teachers who personally do not believe in evolution or the human causes of climate change, and instead want to teach the "scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories". It comes at a time when science associations are increasingly concerned by moves to inject religious or ideological beliefs into science teaching ahead of the release next month of a new set of education standards which give a central place to climate change. The new standards, based on recommendations from the National Research Council, are not mandatory for all states. But they have already provoked a backlash from states, such as Utah, which have officially ruled climate change is not settled science. An unauthorised release of documents from the rightwing Heartland Institute last month revealed an ambitious plan in 2012 to discredit existing teaching on climate change. The Tennessee measure, which passed by 24-8 votes, was strongly criticised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Centre for Science Education, who called it a step backward. The house approved a similar version of the measure last year. Bloggers called the move a throwback to the Scopes monkey trial of the 1920s, when a Tennessee public school teacher was convicted and fined for teaching evolution. Supporters of the measure said it would encourage critical thinking. "The idea behind this bill is that students should be encouraged to challenge current scientific thought and theory," Bo Watson, a Republican state senator and the bill's sponsor, told reporters. But the National Association of Biology Teachers said the measure, would encourage non-scientific thinking – not critical thought. "Concepts like evolution and climate change should not be misrepresented as controversial or needing of special evaluation. Instead, they should be presented as scientific explanations for events and processes that are supported by experimentation, logical analysis, and evidence-based revision based on detectable and measurable data," the organisation said. The bill still has to be signed into law by the state's governor, Bill Haslam, who has said he will discuss it first with the board of education. Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards requiring teachers to describe climate change denial as a valid scientific position. A California school board last year instructed teachers to tell students that climate change was controversial, but later reversed the directive. The National Centre for Science Education launched a project earlier this year to support science teachers coming under pressure from those who dismiss climate change. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'science/evolution', 'science/biology', 'world/creationism', 'world/religion', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'education/schools', 'education/education', 'tone/news', 'science/controversiesinscience', 'us-news/tennessee', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2012-03-21T17:41:54Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/2018/dec/23/sunda-strait-tsunami-is-latest-in-a-series-of-indonesian-disasters-in-2018 | Sunda Strait tsunami is latest in a series of Indonesian disasters in 2018 | The tsunami that struck Indonesia’s Sunda Strait on Saturday night was the latest in a series of disasters in the vast archipelago nation this year. Other tragedies have included earthquakes that flattened parts of the tourist island of Lombok, and an earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands on Sulawesi island. Nearly 200 people died when a Lion Air passenger plane crashed into the Java Sea in October. Lombok earthquake More than 100 people died when an earthquake devastated the tourist island of Lombok near Bali in August. Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4-magnitude quake on 29 July that killed 17 people and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Rinjani. Sulawesi and Sumatra ferry disasters At least 31 people perished when a ferry travelling from Sulawesi to Selayar island sank in July. It came the day officials called off the search for 164 people presumed drowned when a wooden ferry sank on 18 June in a deep volcanic crater lake on the island of Sumatra. Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami In September an earthquake hit the area around Palu on the island of Sulawesi in northern Indonesia. The 7.5-magnitude earthquake spawned a tsunami and together the two natural disasters devastated the region reducing large parts of Palu and other towns to rubble. There were 170 aftershocks which hampered rescue efforts and it took days to mobilise heavy equipment to help the rescue effort on the island. The official death toll is more than 2,000 but it is feared this figure could finally rise to 5,000. Our correspondent Kate Lamb travelled to Sulawesi in the aftermath of the disaster and this is among her reports. Lion Air crash Almost 200 people died in October when Lion Air flight JT610 travelling from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka crashed into the sea a few minutes after leaving the capital city. Questions were raised about the reliability of the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet after reports that it flew erratically the previous day. An examination of the plane’s black box showed that it had experienced problems with its airspeed indicators on its previous four flights. Sunda Strait tsunami Officials fear the death toll from Saturday’s disaster could rise with at least 200 already dead and hundreds injured. Experts think the tsunami was caused by an eruption of the infamous Krakatoa volcano, which triggered landslides and set off the deadly wave. They also believe high tides at full moon may have played a part. | ['world/indonesia-tsunami-december-2018', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'world/indonesia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/martinfarrer', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | world/indonesia-tsunami-december-2018 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-12-23T06:35:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2010/sep/15/bp-oil-spill-permanent-seal | BP oil spill: permanent seal only hours away, say US officials | The final solution to BP's oil well spill could be in place by Sunday, five months after the deadly explosion spewed 5m barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration said today. But officials conceded the effects of the spill, which turned the Gulf of Mexico into an environmental and economic disaster zone and brought one of the world's biggest oil companies to the brink of ruin, would be felt for months, if not years. Barack Obama's point man on the oil spill, coastguard commander Thad Allen, told reporters in a conference call today that drill crews were hours away from intercepting the Macondo well and installing a permanent plug. "We started this morning the final drilling process to close in on the bottom of the Macondo well," he said. "Four days from now it could all be done. This is the window we are looking at right now." Allen said the administration had already begun to move out equipment from the well site, in anticipation of the placement of a permanent mud and cement seal. He said the central pipe of the well is already under a cement seal, after oil was injected into the top of the well in July. But he said it is unclear whether oil is still flowing in the area between that pipe and the rock formation. But even with the end only hours away, Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) adminstration, said there was still significant oil in the Gulf, especially at depths. The admission marks a reversal for the rosy assertions by the administration last month that nearly 75% of the oil had been broken down or cleaned up. "There continues to be some oil in the subsurface especially in this layer between 3,000 to 4,300ft," she said. "There is oil being observed in the sediment on the sea floor surface." Much of that oil is in tiny droplets – the width of a human hair but Lubchenco said that did not diminish its potential impacts. Scientists on a University of Georgia research voyage reported this week that they had found a two-inch-thick layer of oil on the ocean floor, challenging the NOAA's earlier assertions that the oil was rapidly being broken down. Lubchenco promised the administration would continue to track the oil over the long term to ensure the health of the marine environment and protect the seafood industry in the Gulf. Parish officials in Louisiana have reported a number of fish kills in areas affected by the spill and Plaquemines parish reported this week that large numbers of fish had died around Bayou Chaland on the west side of the Mississippi river. The officials said it was unclear whether the fish were killed by contact with oil or because of a drop in oxygen levels caused by high activity among microbes eating up the oil. | ['environment/bp-oil-spill', 'business/bp', 'environment/environment', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil-spills', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/business', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-09-15T19:57:41Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2011/oct/20/in-praise-durham-heritage-coast | In praise of … Durham heritage coast | Editorial | The coast of the UK has been subject to all manner of intrusions, from caravan parks to wartime defences. But few stretches have been as drastically affected as the cliffs and bays between Sunderland and Hartlepool, which for years earned the nickname of the "black beaches" because of the spoil from coalmining. They became notorious as one of the most dramatic settings for the iconic Michael Caine film Get Carter, along with Owen Luder's brutalist car park in Gateshead, which was demolished last year. There was a campaign to save that, but no one wanted to keep the black beaches. A huge and partly voluntary operation called Turning the Tide saw 1.3 million tonnes of mining spoil and industrial debris cleared by 2002, and the Durham Heritage Coast partnership, an amicable team of 14 councils and agencies long aware of the "big society", has continued the job. Footpaths, cycleways and nature reserves now mark a sinuous shoreline which contains 92% of the UK's coastal magnesian limestone. In contrast to the dark past, the rock gleams, and – through its easy handling by carvers and quarrymen – provides at least 8,000 years of archaeology. The transformation has now been recognised by a commendation in this year's Council of Europe landscape awards, and very deservedly so. But the harder task, of regenerating some of the country's most deprived and isolated communities in an area which has never recovered from the collapse of King Coal, remains to be done. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'commentisfree/series/in-praise-of', 'uk/newcastle', 'uk/sunderland', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/coal', 'environment/mining', 'tone/editorials', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2011-10-20T20:56:00Z | true | ENERGY |
film/2015/may/18/chariots-of-ice-lord-puttnam-returns-to-film-with-arctic-30-movie | Chariots of ice: Lord Puttnam returns to film with Arctic 30 movie | Lord Puttnam, the Oscar-winning producer behind some of the most successful British films of the 1970s and 80s, including Chariots of Fire and Bugsy Malone, is to return to movie-making after a substantial gap, with a film about the Arctic 30, a group of environmental activists seized by Russian troops last year. Speaking in Cannes, David Puttnam, 74, said that, despite a long career as an environmental activist, as well as chairing the committee which oversaw the 2005 climate change bill, he had become increasingly convinced the best way for him to influence thinking was through cinema. “I’m quite elderly,” he said. “There’s only going to be one more movie. [But] reluctantly, and rather late in life, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that the only professional tool I have at my disposal is that of a one-time producer.” Along with collaborators including the writer and actor Emma Thompson and producer Hani Farsi, Puttnam will oversee the adaptation of Greenpeace press officer Ben Stewart’s account of the Arctic 30 incident, entitled Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg. That book takes its title from advice given to the group by fellow prisoners at the Murmansk detention centre, where they were held on charges of piracy. In September 2013, 30 men and women travelled to the Arctic to attach a pod to a floating rig to prevent the extraction of oil. Before they could do so, their boat was boarded from the air by Russian troops and towed to Murmansk. The group were freed after two months in jail, as the Kremlin came under increasing international pressure ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics. That politicians and lobbyists had proved unable to galvanise the public about impending ecological catastrophe was, Puttnam said, “a little” disillusioning. “The left has failed to conquer the language of conservation,” he said. “Weirdly, historically, it was always been the right who have led the charge.” He hopes cinema might manage to make the connection. “Its job is to turn complex arguments into relatively simple human relationships,” he said. “You begin to feel the things that otherwise you’re forced to think.” The trick to battling apathy, said Puttnam, was to try to bypass biology. “Human beings are a little bit like boiled frogs. We are attuned to reacting magnificently to immediate disaster. But we’re terrible at long-term problems,” he said. Arctic 30 will aim to avoid polemic and excite a younger generation about the potential of political protest. “My grandchildren are funny and lovely, but the idea that someone of their generation would sacrifice something is sort of unthinkable to them,” Puttnam said. “It’s not part of the frame of reference. My idea is that my granddaughters would walk out of the premiere saying: ‘Gramps, Jesus! What can I do to help?’ That’s my dream.” The exact nature of Thompson’s involvement in the project has yet to be determined, but the writer and actor – who travelled to the Arctic with Greenpeace last year – is, according to Puttnam, eager to flag that “the hero of the film is the integrity of the Arctic itself”. Puttnam and Farsi declare themselves unconcerned about any possible Kremlin backlash to the film, which they say will be at pains to point out two of the 30 were Russian. And with the announcement by Shell last Monday that it is to resume gas and oil drilling in the Arctic, they sense a “new villain” on the horizon. “It’s not just Russia,” says Farsi. “By the time the film is released, we’re going to shame everybody.” Only a smattering of fiction films have tackled environmental matters in the past. Puttnam highlights Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi epic Interstellar, which offered a vision of a world in which the Earth has to be abandoned, as perhaps the most ambitious to date. However, the words “climate change” are not spoken in the film, something Puttnam suspects was down to studio encouragement: “That’s a turn-off.” The success of Nolan’s film, which took £428m globally, also points to a worsening hypocrisy in the British film industry, thinks Puttnam, who is currently chair of the Film Distributors’ Association. Films such as Interstellar and Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service prop up the box office but their directors rarely join the likes of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach on the lists of the most respected. “The industry pretends to be one of a different type of cultural dignity and integrity,” he said. Of the 1,641 films released in Europe last year – about four times the number made when Puttnam was first producing – only 41 took a profit. “More and more films making less and less money,” he said. “And yet some films making more money than God.” Such a situation, said Puttnam, resulted in a “cultural hypocrisy” unique to the film industry, which, he points out, prefers to declare its gross, including VAT, rather than post-tax profits. “We’re our own worst enemies. Because we need to get enthusiasm and convince ourselves it’s a hugely successful business we shout numbers that are actually not real.” | ['film/cannes-2015', 'film/cannesfilmfestival', 'culture/festivals', 'culture/culture', 'film/film', 'environment/arctic-30-protesters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'environment/greenpeace', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'world/russia', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/catherineshoard', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-05-17T23:01:05Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2024/apr/24/country-diary-standing-in-the-shadow-of-a-giant | Country diary: Standing in the shadow of a giant | Sean Wood | As a young boy, my copy of Strange But True contained fascinating photographs of a coach and horses and a Model T Ford driving through a hole in an enormous sequoia. Recently, these monsters have been in the news due to the number of sequoias, or giant redwoods, in the UK – about 500,000 here, compared with only about 80,000 in California, where the species is endangered after being used in construction for two centuries. I was reminded of a very large tree on my patch in Galloway, at the Crichton Campus in Dumfries. I have photographed the monster previously, thinking it a large cedar, but it is indeed one of our stock of Sequoiadendron giganteum (note the clue in the name), introduced to Britain’s country gardens and large estates in the 18th and 19th centuries. This specimen was planted in the early 1850s with seeds from the Lobb brothers, plant collectors who also introduced the monkey puzzle tree here. At 30 metres high and 11 metres wide, it is just about small enough to hug, but it would be dwarfed by the mighty Hyperion, the tallest known living tree in the world (and a coastal redwood, which are generally taller but thinner than the sequoia), standing at about 115 metres and aged between 600 and 800 years. On returning to the tree, I was buzzed by chiffchaffs, willow warblers and a very vocal song thrush. To stand beneath it is humbling, not only because it is huge but because it will keep on growing and still be standing hundreds of years after I have departed. And up close they’re fascinating too: deeply grooved brown and red bark to protect them from the elements and wildfires, and branches that form a cone-like canopy, drooping lower down with their characteristic upturned ends. The head gardener, Gary, shows me an early plan of the grounds. The tree is listed as “No 14”, in excellent condition, and with the additional designation of “Wellingtonia” – an old English name given to the species following the death of the Duke of Wellington. A passing dog walker also names it after a towering cultural figure, though one of a more distinctly Scottish flavour. “That’s Billy,” he says. “Why Billy?” I ask. “It’s the Big Yin.” • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/sean-wood', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-24T04:30:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2017/mar/28/weatherwatch-snow-wind-change-history-battle-towton-yorkshire | Snow that changed the course of history | The Battle of Towton, fought in a snowstorm on 29 March 1461 in Yorkshire, is said to be the largest and bloodiest battle fought on English soil. In four hours of hand-to-hand fighting between the Yorkists and Lancastrians, 28,000 people died. The Lancastrians outnumbered the Yorkists but lost the advantage because they were firing their arrows into the wind and swirling snow. These were falling short of the enemy while the Yorkist arrows carried further in the wind to deadly effect, killing many who were without protective armour, and paving the way for a victory that brought Edward IV to the throne. For those who could afford it, these were the great days of full body armour made strong enough both to deflect arrows and withstand heavy swords. The weight made the wearer into a human tank. Not needing a shield, the knight could carry a weapon in each hand. It was for these battles that the poleaxe was invented. With an axe on one side and a hammer on the other, the person inside the armour could suffer broken bones and internal injuries because of the shock waves from the heavy blows these weapons could inflict on an opponent. However, wearing armour in wet weather brought its own problems. The suits of interlocking plates were made of tempered steel. Kept indoors, they required little maintenance but, outside in the damp of Yorkshire, they rusted quickly. The steel needed treating daily with a mixture of sand and vinegar. Once the coating of rust had been removed, the armour was rubbed with olive oil as lubrication to ensure the smooth movement of the knight inside and to keep the water off. • This article was amended on 30 March 2017. An earlier version said the battle was “on the Yorkshire Moors”. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-03-28T20:30:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/dec/13/australias-bushfires-have-emitted-250m-tonnes-of-co2-almost-half-of-countrys-annual-emissions | Australia's bushfires have emitted 250m tonnes of CO2, almost half of country's annual emissions | Bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland have emitted a massive pulse of CO2 into the atmosphere since August that is equivalent to almost half of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, Guardian Australia can reveal. Analysis by Nasa shows the NSW fires have emitted about 195m tonnes of CO2 since 1 August, with Queensland’s fires adding a further 55m tonnes over the same period. In 2018, Australia’s entire greenhouse gas footprint was 532m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Experts say the pulse of CO2 from this season’s bushfires is significant, because even under normal conditions it could take decades for forest regrowth to reabsorb the emissions. But scientists have expressed doubt that forests already under drought stress would be able to reabsorb all the emissions back into soils and branches, and said the natural carbon “sinks” of forests could be compromised. The figures were provided to Guardian Australia by Dr Niels Andela, a scientist at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center and a collaborator in the Global Fire Emissions Database. The GFED uses data from satellites that have detected fire hot spots and combines it with historic estimates of emissions from fires. Andela stressed the estimates did come with large uncertainties, as the methodology was still under development, but he said it was “widely applied”. More than 2.7m hectares of land has been burned in this NSW bushfire season, with authorities warning there will be more fires with little prospect of rain in coming months. Separate GFED data provided to Guardian Australia on “active fire detections” from Nasa satellites shows the remarkable early start and large extent of fires in the NSW fire season compared with the past 15 years. Andela said CO2 emissions from fires in grasslands and savannas are absorbed in only a few years, but it can take many decades for forested areas to regrow and absorb CO2 that was lost in blazes. He said fires could also shift vegetation patterns of ecosystems that were already under stress. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Forests are regarded as a store – or sink – for carbon, by taking up CO2 as they grow and storing it as carbon in branches and soils. Dr Pep Canadell, of the CSIRO climate science centre and the executive director of the Global Carbon Project, said: “This pulse of fire emissions should indeed be of concern. Any additional carbon emissions to the atmosphere, with no guarantee that it will be removed back by regrowing vegetation in a later stage, is of concern, particularly in an Australia under climate change. “Thus, it is important to understand both risks – the emissions from fires but also the potential long-term loss of CO2 sink capacity of the terrestrial vegetation due to the incomplete recovery of burned landscapes due to permanent degradation. These emissions are very significant.” He said the long-term average of emissions from fires in Australia was about 380m tonnes of CO2 per year, but he said NSW was a minor contributor to this total, with most emissions coming from the Top End, “where thousands of savanna fires take place every year”. He said that in an average year, emissions from NSW would contribute no more than 5% to the Australia-wide total. In Australia’s greenhouse gas inventory, the government reported 340m tonnes of emissions from “wildfires” each year for the whole country from 2013 to the latest reporting year of 2017. Emissions from bushfires are considered to be neutral because when forests regrow after fires, they absorb a similar amount of CO2 as they did when they burned. But Canadell said this was “most likely an optimistic view of the world” because it didn’t consider that many burned areas never recovered to their prefire state “and therefore never end up accumulating as much carbon as they had before.” He said in some cases, such as the Tasmanian fires of 2015, peat that was burned “may take thousands of years to recover the carbon if the climatic conditions are suitable – the latter an unlikely assumption under the rapid climate changes we are already observing and are predicted.” Prof David Bowman, a fire ecologist at the University of Tasmania, said that under normal conditions the regrowth would reabsorb the CO2. But he said the ongoing drought, combined with climate change, meant conditions were not normal. “Drought-stressed trees recover less well – carbohydrates reserves are exhausted – and under climate change tree growth may be slow and fires more frequent, meaning less tree biomass and even loss of forest cover. “This is a nasty negative feedback cycle of a biosphere carbon sink becoming a source [of carbon].” | ['environment/series/environmental-investigations', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2019-12-13T01:42:35Z | true | EMISSIONS |
sustainable-business/2016/sep/03/elon-musk-solar-roofs-sustainable-homes-solarcity-panels | Elon Musk aims to refit 5m homes with solar roofs | Elon Musk’s solar company has its sights set on replacing 5m rooftops in the US with traditional roofing materials integrated with solar cell technology. SolarCity’s plans, announced last month, to develop traditional roofs made entirely from solar panels are part of a goal to make sustainable homes more aesthetically appealing, convenient, and ultimately affordable to the average homeowner. It’s betting that people who need to replace their roofs will be attracted to the company’s solar cell option because it won’t require additional work or dramatically alter the look of the home. In an August conference call with investors, company chairman Elon Musk said people are forced to postpone solar adoption when they know a roof replacement is imminent and that “there is a huge market segment that is currently inaccessible to SolarCity.” He added that the company’s solar cell roofing “looks way better” and “lasts far longer than a normal roof”. By integrating a SolarCity roof with Tesla battery packs, it believes those homes could operate on solar power 24-hours a day. The lingering question, however, is whether mainstream homeowners will be able to afford that initial investment. A SolarCity representative was tightlipped on costs, saying they could not share details about the product at this time. Some industry players doubt the product can be affordable to most homeowners. Previous versions of photovoltaic roofs – also called “solar shingles” – have cost up to a third more than traditional solar panels, were less efficient, and were far more pricey to install. “What [the company is] talking about is a paradigm shift, not just a small leap,” says Scott Franklin, owner of Lumos Solar, which specialises in solar panel architecture and design. “SolarCity is known for being a low-cost, fast installer. Now they’re talking about developing an entirely new product and becoming roofers? In terms of cost, they’re going from selling solar leases to telling somebody they have to replace an entire roof. That’s a dramatic cost difference.” In 2009, US multinational Dow Chemical began developing solar shingles. Yet at a price of more than $20,000 per roof, the technology was not commercially viable and Dow discontinued the product in June 2016. “That’ll be the battle – the cost factor,” says Bill Ellard, an economist for the American Solar Energy Society. “But if SolarCity works with some of the major homebuilders and they can invent their own systems, I think there’s a play there.” But even if it succeeds in creating an affordable product, can SolarCity match the success of other eco-home innovations? Smart home devices such as Google’s Nest thermostat are more affordable, and going down in cost each year. Thermostats and energy monitoring systems have taken off in recent years in part because they allow homeowners to cut energy use without changing their behaviour. “Homeowners don’t want to think about efficiency; they want it just taken care of,” says John Quale, a sustainable home design professor at the University of New Mexico. “We are not great about closing curtains or opening windows when we should. That’s why technologies that do things for us are so appealing.” Brian Abramson, cofounder of sustainable homebuilder Method Homes in Seattle, Washington, says smart home technology is becoming more mainstream, lower cost, and accessible. “We probably do Nest thermostats and basic lighting control on 80% of our houses; a couple of years ago there weren’t any smart thermostats, and lighting control was only in 20% of our homes.” Success in the residential solar market, by contrast, is heavily dependent on friendly government policies, a model that has proved challenging when tax incentives threaten to expire, or when monopoly utility companies are allowed to change the way they reimburse solar panel owners for energy put into the grid. By entering the home roofing market, SolarCity is also tacitly acknowledging that aesthetic concerns also hinder solar panel adoption. “Aesthetics are a big deal,” says Franklin. “The first wave of solar adoption was driven by economics or environmental concerns. Now people are already past the ‘I think it’s a good idea’ phase. They want to do it, but it has to look good and add to the value of a home rather than just be a bolted on addition.” The company’s announcement that it will unveil its solar cell roof “in the coming months” followed news that Tesla will acquire SolarCity as part of a master plan to integrate the solar panel company with Telsa battery products. That marriage between power production and storage could be the difference between failures of the past and what Musk hopes to achieve, Quale says. “If you look at the aspirations of Tesla and SolarCity, they have huge potential. Elon Musk is really talking about getting to the masses, and those companies could very well be an important driver in reducing costs,” he says. “The conventional glass panel arrays have come down substantially in cost in the last five years and there’s no reason to think these roofing materials couldn’t fall into that as well.” | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/redesigning-cities', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'society/housing', 'money/homeimprovements', 'technology/elon-musk', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'tone/features', 'profile/daniel-hernandez', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-09-03T07:00:25Z | true | ENERGY |
society/2005/feb/11/internationalaidanddevelopment.indianoceantsunamidecember2004 | Bogus tsunami fundraiser spared jail | A bogus fundraiser who conned shoppers by pretending their donations were going to the Asian tsunami appeal was spared jail today. Former IT worker Julian Hodgkins, 37, was arrested after posing as a charity collector in the centre of Reading, Berkshire, on January 4. Reading magistrates court heard he had conned the public in order to buy drugs after being overheard saying: "I will make some money out of this." Hodgkins, of Alder Close, Lower Earley, Reading, last month pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining the cash by deception. The court heard today that he had set out for Broad Street, in the centre of Reading, dressed in fluorescent clothing and holding a bucket, purporting to be collecting money for a tsunami appeal. Taira Kauser, prosecuting, told the court that police were called after receiving information about what Hodgkins was doing. An officer overheard him telling another man that he would "make money" and, when asked for identifiction, he could produce only a rent card, claiming he had left his ID at home. The court heard that police had found £12.01 in Hodgkins' top pocket. At an earlier hearing, the court heard that he had collected around £19, but had given some of the money to beggars. Hodgkins was taken to Reading police station, where he admitted he had set out to collect the money to feed his girlfriend's drug habit. However, tests showed that he had also been taking cocaine and opiates. Lee Evans, chairman of the panel of magistrates, told Hodgkins that his early guilty plea had spared him a jail term. However, he ordered him to carry out 80 hours of community service and placed him on a 12 month community rehabilitation order. The court also ordered that the money found in Hodgkins's possession should be paid to a charity working for tsunami victims. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/tsunami2004', 'uk/uk', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-02-11T17:31:51Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
society/2016/jan/28/fitness-monitoring-health-service-data-patients-trackers-fitbit | Fitness monitoring: gimmick or game-changer for the NHS? | Fitness trackers are surging in popularity, but are they any good for you? And are they any good for the doctor who is treating you? The devices, worn on the wrist, clipped to the belt or shoved into a pocket, measure your movements and, at the very least, promise to calculate how many calories you burned on your walk to work. Some offer considerably more, with myriad sensors measuring health indicators. The fad went mainstream last year, when 48m devices were sold worldwide, according to research firm CCS Insight. Sales are expected to rise to 61m this year and 131m a year by 2019. And that does not include devices such as smartwatches, which can also include fitness-tracking features. But can fitness trackers help health professionals keep tabs on their patients, or are they just a consumer gimmick? Fitness trackers use an accelerometer, detecting motion and translating it into steps, distance and calories burned. Other sensors include heart rate, sweat, temperature, UV and skin conduction monitors, capable of measuring anything from body fat to blood oxygen level. The efficacy of the units has been a subject of debate, however. Many believe they act simply as motivational aids rather than data-driven miracle cures. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that women given accelerometer-based trackers in a small study over a month increased their moderate physical activity by more than an hour a week. Their accuracy has also been called into question, with market leader Fitbit embroiled in a lawsuit over heart rate data. Iowa State University researchers tested a group of accelerometer-based fitness trackers against a portable metabolic system and found the best fitness trackers, including Fitbits, were inaccurate by up to 15-18%. For the NHS, consumer fitness trackers that are regulated under the “wellness” category, and not to the same standards as medical equipment, are a curio rather than a solution. Beverley Bryant, director of digital technology for NHS England, said: “If a patient goes to their doctor and says ‘I have a fitness tracker’ and the doctor thinks it’s a good thing, in a conversation about weight loss for diabetes, then who’s to say that uploading their activity levels with their blood glucose could not be beneficial? But it needs to be on an individual level, rather than NHS-wide.” But wearable technology that shares a lot in common with fitness trackers could form an important part of the future of the NHS, as limited resources lead to greater reliance on remote monitoring to maintain care. Bryant said: “We’ve got trials with diabetics uploading the results of their home monitoring, which is looked over by GPs. It allows clinicians to spot, say, if someone has a peak of blood glucose on a Sunday linked to a big Sunday lunch and have a conversation around that. “Being able to monitor their own condition and upload their readings is helpful for both patients and clinicians.” Remote monitoring of medical devices is not new. University Hospital Southampton, for instance, remotely monitors more than 1,000 patients with implantable cardiac defibrillators to detect problems and deal with them as early as possible. Some GPs, such as Piers Longhorn, a partner at the 10,500-patient Oaklands medical centre in Cheshire, would like to see wider use of monitoring. He said: “Patients have been able to share health data on their iPhones directly with my clinical system during a consultation for over a year. So far only one patient has done so. I had hoped it would be the end of transcribed blood pressure readings on bits of paper.” Dr Mohammad al-Ubaydli, founder and chief executive of patient records system Patients Know Best, said: “Every patient hates medical devices. Consumer trackers are much more usable, but their data needs to be audited and treated with regard to what kind of device it comes from. Quantified-self logging can be useful in some situations as it’s additional data.” Clinical home monitoring devices are clearly the future, with the digital health ecosystem expected to be worth £1.3bn in the UK alone, according to data from the government’s Office for Life Sciences. But on the hundreds of fitness trackers entering the market in 2016, the jury is still out. | ['society/health', 'society/series/this-is-the-nhs', 'society/society', 'society/nhs', 'lifeandstyle/fitness', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'society/gps', 'society/doctors', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-01-28T11:00:14Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/jul/04/report-links-childs-asthma-death-to-illegal-levels-of-air-pollution | Child's asthma death linked to illegal levels of air pollution | The repeated hospital admissions of a girl who died in an asthma attack at the age of nine show a “striking association” with spikes in illegal levels of air pollution around her home in London, legal documents have revealed. Ella Kissi-Debrah, from Hither Green, near the capital’s busy South Circular Road, experienced seizures for three years prior to her death in February 2013. Her family are calling for a new inquest into her death following fresh evidence that air pollution was a contributory factor. Documents submitted to the attorney general by the family’s lawyers show that Ella’s increasingly frequent hospital admissions from asthma attacks in her last three years coincided with spikes in illegal levels of air pollution, primarily from diesel cars and vans. Ella’s home was 25 metres from the South Circular, one of London’s hotspots for high levels of air pollution. “There was a striking association with air pollution episodes,” the legal papers state. Ella’s last hospital admission took place on 7 February 2013, just eight days before her death and during one of the worst air pollution episodes in her local area. “The dramatic worsening of her asthma in relation to air pollution episodes would go a long way to explain the timing of her exacerbations across her last four years,” the documents say. The government has been breaching the law since 2010 by failing to put in place plans to reduce air pollution and reduce the public’s exposure to it. Air pollution, labelled a public health emergency by the World Health Organization, leads to the premature deaths of at least 40,000 people a year in the UK alone. It is known to be a major risk factor for childhood asthma. New evidence submitted to the attorney general in support of a new inquest from Stephen Holgate, professor of immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton, states there was a “real prospect that without illegal levels of air pollution Ella would not have died”. He said nitrogen dioxide levels – primarily from diesel vehicles – around the child’s home were consistently above the legal limit of 40 µg/m3. He gave his “firm view” that Ella’s death certificate should reflect air pollution as a causative factor. Human rights lawyer Jocelyn Cockburn, who is representing Ella’s family in their application for a new inquest, said the government “had willingly presided” over illegal air quality and its failure to act was costing lives. “There are strong grounds for Ella’s inquest to be quashed on the basis that her right to life (Article 2 of the Human Rights Act) may have been breached by the government’s failure to act in relation to unlawful air pollution levels,” said Cockburn. “There is a clear need for a fresh inquest to investigate the link between air pollution and Ella’s death so that the family can properly understand the circumstances that led to her untimely and tragic death, and that lessons can be learned to prevent future deaths ... Ella’s case illustrates the hard-hitting human impact of air pollution.” A cause of death linked to air pollution in Ella’s case would be a legal first. As concern over the threat from toxic air and the government’s failure to act grows, increasing numbers of people are considering legal action both in the workplace and against the state. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said: “The attorney general expresses his sincere sympathies to Ella Kissi-Debrah’s family. I can confirm that an application for approval to apply for a fresh inquest has been received by the attorney general’s office regarding Ella’s case and we will review the evidence.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'society/asthma', 'society/society', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-07-04T15:18:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2021/sep/23/victorias-environment-regulator-sued-by-advocates-for-alleged-failure-to-limit-emissions | Victoria’s environment regulator sued by advocates over alleged failure to limit emissions | Environmental advocates are suing Victoria’s environment regulator in the supreme court for allegedly failing to limit carbon and toxic air pollution. The non-profit group Environment Victoria lodged the case – which also names energy companies AGL, Energy Australia and Alinta as defendants – on Thursday morning and said it would be the first test of climate laws passed in the state in 2017. Under the state’s climate act, government agencies are required to take climate change into consideration when making decisions. Environment Victoria will argue the state’s Environment Protection Authority failed to do this when it renewed the licences of the Loy Yang A, Loy Yang B and Yallourn power stations earlier this year without forcing them to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. The case will also argue the regulator is not complying with Victoria’s environment protection act by demanding industry adopt best practice to limit toxic air pollutants, including mercury, sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and particulates. The three Latrobe Valley power stations are responsible for about 40% of Victoria’s emissions. Environment Victoria’s chief executive Jono La Nauze said the EPA had failed to set any limit on greenhouse gas emissions when it renewed the licences for the stations in March. “Firstly, it’s 2021 and we argue that is ludicrous. But we also argue it’s unlawful,” La Nauze said. When it came to toxic pollutants, La Nauze said Environment Victoria would argue the permitted limits were too high when compared to similar power stations overseas, and that best practice was not being enforced by demanding the adoption of pollution control technologies used in states such as New South Wales. The case against the Victorian EPA is part of a growing push from the environment movement to test action on the climate crisis by governments and companies in court. In May, the federal court found Australia’s environment minister, Sussan Ley, had a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis after legal action taken by teenage activists. More recently, bushfire survivors in NSW took successful action against that state’s EPA, with the land and environment court finding the regulator had a duty to take actions to develop policies that would protect the environment from climate change. La Nauze said Environment Victoria took some hope from the successful action in NSW as well as the NSW government’s decision not to appeal the ruling. “What’s really behind all of this is that people are experiencing escalating climate impacts, they’re concerned about the future their children face and yet they’re seeing governments drag the chain,” he said. Environment Victoria is being represented by lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia. The firm’s principal lawyer, Nick Witherow, said the case was in the public interest. “It’s vital that our laws are applied as intended – to protect community health and our environment and reflect developing community expectations,” he said. Companies are also under increasing pressure from their own shareholders to align their business with globally agreed targets to limit global heating. On Wednesday, more than half of AGL’s shareholders backed a resolution demanding stronger carbon reduction goals. The company is Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. The Victorian EPA declined to comment on the action before the courts. AGL, which owns the Loy Yang A power station, said because the matter was before the courts it could not comment on the specifics of the case. “As Australia’s largest energy generator and greenhouse gas emitter, we understand and acknowledge our significant role in the energy transition and are committed to ensuring this is done responsibly, balancing Australia’s current and future energy needs with the commitment to decarbonise,” a spokeswoman said. A spokesman for Energy Australia, which owns the Yallourn power station, said the company had a strong record of environmental compliance and “a commitment to continuous improvement”. “Our approach is aimed at balancing care for the environment, meeting community standards, and having our power stations serve their important role of powering homes and businesses,” he said. Alinta Energy, the owner of Loy Yang B, declined to comment. | ['australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/air-pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-09-23T04:13:40Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2016/aug/05/bill-leaks-indigenous-cartoon-prompts-suncorp-to-cancel-ads-in-the-australian | Bill Leak's Indigenous cartoon prompts Suncorp to cancel ads in the Australian | The Australian has come under fire from advertisers over Bill Leak’s Indigenous cartoon with one major bank cancelling its advertising. SunCorp Bank said on Twitter it “definitely [does] not support the cartoon in yesterday’s issue”. “We are now working with our media placement agencies to remove our advertising from this content.” Another advertiser, the Adelaide festival, said it had placed ads “well in advance of Bill Leak’s disgraceful cartoon” and was now reviewing further ads. “The Adelaide festival does not endorse the sentiments of Bill Leak’s cartoon,” the festival said. “The festival deplores all forms of racism and editorial commentary that vilifies Australia’s First Nations people: it betrays the complex economic, social and cultural issues that face many Indigenous communities with racist stereotypes. “The Adelaide festival and the artistic directors, Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy, have a long history of providing a platform for contemporary Indigenous creative expression and will continue to do this proudly into the future. “It is through the power of creative storytelling that the diversity of Indigenous history and experiences have most successfully been shared with the broader Australian community.” Despite widespread criticism that the cartoon was racist, Leak and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Paul Whittaker, have defended the drawing of a drunk Aboriginal father who had forgotten his own son’s name. The Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, released a statement saying he was appalled by the cartoon’s racist stereotypes. Leak wrote in Friday’s Australian: “I was trying to say that if you think things are pretty crook for the children locked up in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale youth detention centre, you should have a look at the homes they came from. Then you might understand why so many of them finished up.” Whittaker cited columns by high profile Indigenous Australians Marcia Langton and Noel Pearson when defending the cartoon. But Langton told Guardian Australia she was not comfortable being used in the defence of the cartoon. The advertisers appear to be responding to people who have complained directly to them, perhaps prompted by an article in New Matilda which listed the companies which appeared in Thursday’s paper. Greenpeace Australia has also condemned the cartoon and the paper for publishing it. “We are saddened and upset by the offensive Bill Leak cartoon in the Australian that denigrates Australia’s first peoples,” it said in a statement. A spokeswoman for Suncorp Bank confirmed the bank had removed its advertising from the Australian. “We have removed our advertising from the content, and have temporarily suspended any future placements,” she said. | ['australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'media/australia-media', 'media/news-corporation', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/greenpeace', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amanda-meade', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2016-08-05T08:34:13Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
film/2005/sep/02/hurricanekatrina.usa | Film shoots fall victim to Katrina | Louisiana film officials are scrambling to put on a brave face in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, amid claims from Hollywood-based rivals that New Orleans faces years in the wilderness. At least three high-profile local shoots have been put on hold following the natural disaster, namely Disney's time-travel thriller Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington, Kevin Costner vehicle The Guardian, and Warner Bros' horror picture The Reaping, which stars Hilary Swank and David Morrissey. Studios ordered all their casts and crews to evacuate the state last Saturday and there is mounting speculation that they will relocate to safer locales rather than return to the ravaged southern region. Until Katrina struck Louisiana was a booming film centre buoyed by tax incentives that raised local production revenues from $20m (£11m) in 2002 to a projected $425m (£231m) this year. The state's film overlords have stressed that only 20% of Louisiana was seriously hit by Katrina. "The national media make it seem like the entire state is under water," Chris Stelly of the Louisiana Governor's office of film and television development said. However, the prognosis from Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp, was not so rosy. "Louisiana had been on a roll, but they literally came to a crashing halt. New Orleans is not going to be a good location for filming, probably for several years." Kyser's comments were not surprising. In recent months California has become increasingly vocal in its efforts to lure business back to the Golden State following years of 'runaway' productions to more financially attractive sites like Louisiana, New York, New Mexico, Canada and Eastern Europe. Californian lawmakers are debating a bill designed to encourage inward investment in the state through subsidised shoots. | ['film/film', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'culture/culture', 'us-news/louisiana', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-02T10:13:58Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2015/sep/02/weatherwatch-telford-el-nino-summer-ends-hurricane-season-atlantic | Heatwaves but El Niño reins in the hurricanes | Summer 2015 officially ended across the northern hemisphere on Monday with hot conditions again gripping central parts of Europe. Poland had some of the highest temperatures, with Warsaw recording 35C (95F), about 12 degrees above the seasonal average. The latest heatwave added to what has been a very hot summer in Europe, with high temperatures combining with drought and causing widespread crop failure in Poland, Czech Republic and Romania. As the northern summer ends the hurricane season across the Atlantic reaches its peak. In the last week two tropical cyclones formed. Erika tore its way through the Caribbean depositing about 33cm (13in) of rain in just 12 hours across the island of Dominica, leaving 20 people dead in its wake. Later it dumped 16cm of rain across Charleston, South Carolina, creating the fifth wettest day on record. Hurricane Fred then developed much further east across the Atlantic Ocean. It should decay in open water over the coming days. Despite Erika and Fred, the hurricane season overall is quieter than an average year thanks to the ever strengthening El Niño dampening storm activity across the tropical Atlantic. The El Niño phenomenon, the strongest since 1997-98, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology reporting on Tuesday, is often blamed for unusual, devastating, weather across many areas of the globe. But, as well as reducing the number of life-threatening hurricanes El Niño could also end a four-year drought that’s been gripping California, bringing possibly rain-bearing clouds over the unusually warm seas of the Pacific. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/hurricanes', 'environment/elnino', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-09-02T20:30:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2014/jul/04/hurricane-arthur-north-carolina-new-england | Hurricane Arthur leaves battered North Carolina and heads to New England | Leaving a battered North Carolina coast in its wake, hurricane Arthur is moving toward New England where it threatens to hamper Fourth of July celebrations. The first hurricane of the Atlantic season touched the North Carolina coast with 100 mph-plus winds Thursday night, striking as a category two hurricane – that is, a storm characterised by extremely dangerous winds of 96 to 110mph that are capable of causing extensive damage. Overnight, Arthur pounded North Carolina's Outer Banks islands with fierce winds and heavy rains, causing widespread power outages. It knocked out power, ripped apart trees and caused flash flooding. But even so, North Carolina governor Pat McCrory said the damage inflicted by Arthur was minimal. "Although hurricane Arthur made landfall near Morehead City as a category two hurricane, there are minimal reports of damage," McCrory said in a press release. Emergency management officials in the area began assessing the damage Friday morning, at which point more than 44,000 homes in North Carolina's coastal counties were reported to be without power, the governor's office said. The majority of the affected homes are in Carteret County, and Ocracoke Island, a strip of land off the state's coast, is also without power. Assessing the full extent of the damage is expected to take several days. Arthur was forecast to accelerate throughout the day as it passes southeast of New England later this evening, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said in its update. The hurricane, which has been downgraded to category 1, will be near of over western Nova Scotia by early Saturday, the NHC said. As of 11am, all hurricane warnings were discontinued, the NHC said. Tropical storm conditions – strong winds and rain – will persist in some areas of Virginia through early afternoon, and similar conditions are expected in New England this evening. But while the rain may upend barbecues, picnics and rooftop parties, it for the most part, won't affect the fireworks. "It's perfectly safe to shoot in [the rain]," said Julie Heckman, the executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. "It's an issue of wind and lightening." She said this is the first Fourth of July in recent memory that event organizers have had to deal with a hurricane. Two of the biggest shows in the country are expected to be safe from Arthur's fury. Forecasters are predicting the skies will clear in time for New York City's Macy’s Fourth of July Spectacular, which is to be held this year on the East River and feature the Brooklyn Bridge in the backdrop, and the annual Washington DC display, which launches fireworks from either side of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. When weighing whether to move up, Heckman said event organizers have to look at other factors aside from just the weather to determine if the show should go on, such as how many people would turn up to or if other aspects of the event would be hampered. She said most events are postponed, not cancelled, as the Boston Pops concert was, and that they almost always have rain dates in their contracts. Heeding bad weather predictions, the annual outdoor Boston Pops concert and fireworks show was held a day early. The Boston Globe reported that the performance went ahead without a hitch despite last-minute scrambling to move the concert up a day. The concert traditionally draws 600,000 to 1 million people, but only 75,000 were expected to turn up this year. Fireworks in some coastal towns, including East Providence and Warwick, Rhode Island, were postponed to Saturday. | ['us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/vermont', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lauren-gambino'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-07-04T18:40:59Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk/2012/dec/29/rains-pours-weather | It never rains and then it pours. What is going on with our weather? | The transformation of the British landscape over the last 12 months has been dramatic. At the end of 2011, the nation was caught in the grip of one of the severest droughts on record. Low rainfall over the previous year had reduced water levels in rivers and reservoirs to exceptional levels. The year ahead promised to be one of parched landscapes, hosepipe bans and streams turned to trickles. There could have been widespread consequences for farmers, food production, tourism, industry and domestic life, warned officers from the Environment Agency. Today, the country is in a very different state. Villages across much of the UK have been flooded and cut off; railway lines have been closed; hundreds of flood alerts have been issued by the Environment Agency; homes have been evacuated and commuters and travellers have been forced to abandon plans for the festive season as sections of the transport network have ground to a halt. Today, the UK is on the brink of having had its wettest year since records began in 1910. It is an astonishing change of fortunes. Last year was the driest on record in England and Wales for 90 years. This year will be one of the wettest. The question is: what has brought about this remarkable transformation? According to experts, the key changes in Britain's weather occurred in early summer. The past couple of weeks may have seen momentous downpours across much of the country, with south-west England bearing the brunt of the grim weather, but it was record falls over the months between April and June that brought UK figures to their highs for 2012 and have raised river and reservoir levels to brimming point. "The early summer months were the ones that turned drought to deluge in the UK," said Helen Roberts, a forecaster at the Met Office. "As to the cause, the jetstreams that sweep high over the country were largely to blame. Jetstreams carry ribbons of air at high speeds and altitudes and normally trap regions of high pressure over Britain in summer," she said. "But this year the jetstreams trapped a region of low pressure over the country for several months in summer and that, in turn, brought all that rain to the country." As to the reason for the change in jetstream behaviour, several suggestions have been put forward. These include the proposal that rising temperatures in the Arctic – triggered by increasing levels of manmade greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – could be destabilising jetstream patterns. However, scientists stress that more research is needed. | ['uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/drought', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/analysis', 'type/article', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-12-29T22:27:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/apr/03/parents-around-the-world-mobilise-behind-youth-climate-strikes | Parents around the world mobilise behind youth climate strikes | Parents and grandparents around the world are mobilising in support of the youth strikes for climate movement that has swept the globe. Under the banner Parents for the Future, 34 groups from 16 countries on four continents have issued an open letter. It demands urgent action to fight climate change and prevent temperatures rising by more than 1.5C, beyond which scientists say droughts, floods and heatwaves will get significantly worse. “What our kids are telling us is what science has been telling us for many years – there is no time left,” the letter says. “We now owe it to them to act.” “Parents – we are everywhere in society: in classrooms as teachers, in fields as farmers, in factories as workers, in hospitals as healers, in boardrooms as CEOs, in legislatures as policymakers,” it says. “We have the power to build this safe, just and clean future for our kids.” The groups involved come from countries including the UK, Germany, US, Australia, India and South Africa. In the UK, the Mothers Rise Up group will march in London on 12 May, international Mother’s Day, and protests are expected in other nations. “Although this is an event created by mums, it isn’t just for mums,” said Becky Wynn, from London. Wynn has two children – Seb, aged five, and Celeste, aged three. “We are calling anyone who is moved by the love of a child to join – fathers, grandparents, aunties, uncles, childminders and friends. We are all custodians of our threatened home.” The youth strikes for climate began with a solo protest by Greta Thunberg in Sweden in August 2018. “We live in a strange world, where children must sacrifice their education in order to protest against the destruction of their future,” she told an audience in Berlin on Saturday. Thunberg has now met world leaders and the strikes swelled to an estimated 1.5 million students in 125 countries on 15 March. Weekly strikes, registered at the Fridays for Future website, are continuing, with almost 450 strikes in 68 countries. The next global day of strikes will be 12 April. One of the instigators of the global action by parents is Helene Costa, from Parents For Future Seattle in the US and a mother of two. “If we don’t act for our own children, who will?” she said. “What we are seeing through the global youth mobilisation and this international letter from parents is the emergence of a transnational conscience around climate actions. That makes me very hopeful.” Eve White, a mother of two from Tasmania, Australia, and part of Australian Parents for Climate Action, said: “Climate change will make my kids’ lives much harder than my life has been in many ways. This is incredibly unfair, especially as scientists have been warning us about this for decades and the solutions are available. So why aren’t we acting – urgently?” In New Delhi, India, Bhavreen Kandhari, mother of twin girls, said: “My government needs to urgently focus on climate breakdown and the role of trees, coal, construction and their impact on our air and water as well. Our children are going to pay the price for our mistakes and that is not acceptable to me.” Tim Habraken, a father of two from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said: “For ages, parents grew up with the idea that their children would have a better life than theirs. Currently, we are seeing a world that not only will very likely be worse for our children, but potentially uninhabitable. We should ask: when our children hold us accountable in the future, and ask us what we did, can we live with ourselves?” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/parents-and-parenting', 'society/children', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-03T05:00:29Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
media-network/2014/oct/30/gleam-fashion-app-shop-talk | Gleam: the consumer fashion app targeting businesses and brands | Shop talk | What is Gleam? Gleam is an app and service for discovering, shopping for and organising the best in world fashion. Our overriding vision is to change the way the fashion industry interacts with global consumers in the mobile digital age. Combining a proprietary distribution channel with over 300,000 users, the Gleam app, with an analytics offering for brands – Gleam Fashion Intelligence – is a way for the industry to keep up with mobile consumers and know in real-time (and react to) how preferences are changing across markets, segments and with fashionistas everywhere. How does the Gleam Fashion Intelligence platform work? Gleam Fashion Intelligence aims to bring the project closer to becoming a complete platform for insight into the fashion consumer in what is already a highly competitive industry. This business-to-business (B2B) aspect of the Gleam platform is deeply rooted in data collected on the app and how we can make this data useful to brands. The 300,000 users of the app and the 400 daily published images allow us to collect real-time, in-app engagement data of over 100,000 daily data points, for example, likes, shares and buys. We want to become a key piece in the decision-making process of brands targeting our user demographics, using real-time data at varying levels of integration. Currently, the B2B offering only exists as an online dashboard where brands can analyse and drill down user engagement according to socio-demographic and behavioural criteria. But our vision is to offer these same insights in an integrated format to brands, even allowing them to act on the intelligence collected to test products and fine-tune their brand strategy. Why is it so important for retailers to get their head around data? In the fashion industry, data collection and analysis is not only important for converting sales, but also trend analysis, trend predictions, buying strategies, marketing strategies, customer relationship management (CRM), loyalty programmes and many other aspects. To keep up with the stiff competition, retailers and brands need to know in real-time what users are engaging with, what the trends are and where their tastes are shifting, all across myriad different markets. Data can help with that. What are your thoughts on the idea that online commerce and retail is a curse for the high street? While the opinion that online commerce can take away from the high street is surely valid, as has been the case in some industries, there are ways in which the digital and physical can coexist. While there is still a natural impulse in consumers to want to see and try on the clothes they are buying, the convenience of digital is gaining ground. But there are ways in which both can complement each other and grow to create a better consumer experience and brand value. Whether that’s using emerging technologies such as pass tech or beacons, or more traditional marketing-based strategies that can unite the retail experience across channels (omni-channel), it’s up to the brand as to how they want (or not) to lure consumers from the high street to their digital world – and vice versa. What other retail apps out there do you admire and why? Zara, Asos and Net-a-Porter – and all for the same reason: simplicity and functionality. What tips would you give to another retail tech startup? Always remember who your target consumer is and where they are. Also make sure you convey constant excitement and drive ongoing engagement; it’s all about the consumer delight. That said, it’s not only about engagement; it’s also about how interactions across the entire global digital spectrum can be converted into sales. Andreia Campos is managing director of Gleam, which you can follow on Instagram @gleamworld More like this • Befittd: step into the online fitting room To get weekly news analysis, job alerts and event notifications direct to your inbox, sign up free for Media Network membership. All Guardian Media Network content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled “Brought to you by” – find out more here. | ['media-network/media-network', 'media-network/series/technology-in-retail', 'media-network/series/shop-talk', 'business/retail', 'technology/efinance', 'technology/apps', 'technology/big-data', 'tone/interview', 'type/article'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-10-30T15:30:01Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2021/may/06/ipl-ponders-september-restart-in-challenge-to-crowded-calendar | IPL ponders September restart in challenge to crowded calendar | Sourav Ganguly, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, has confirmed the Indian Premier League is exploring a possible September restart in a move that would cause significant headaches for the international game. Speaking after an outbreak of Covid-19 among the franchises caused the IPL to be suspended this week with 31 games still to play, Ganguly said that failing to complete the 2021 tournament would incur a £245m loss for the BCCI. As such, one proposal would be to stage the IPL after India’s tour of England – due to end on 14 September – and before the T20 World Cup that begins on 20 October, with Ganguly, the former India captain, saying: “We have to speak to other boards and see if a window can be made available.” However, doing so would present a direct clash with a number of bilateral series scheduled as preparation for the global tournament, including England’s six-match white-ball tour of Bangladesh, scheduled to depart on 20 September, and then the two Twenty20 internationals in Pakistan on 14 and 15 October. The England and Wales Cricket Board has said it remains committed to both trips, throwing up the possibility of IPL players such as Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes being torn between their country and, pro rata, their biggest paymasters. Ashley Giles, director of the England men’s team, would certainly struggle to justify the policy under which England’s IPL players were originally allowed to miss the Test series against New Zealand from 2 June. In that instance, the late addition of the two Tests to the schedule was cited as the reason for flexibility. India’s ability to stage the IPL’s restart and the T20 World Cup is clearly in doubt and the United Arab Emirates is on standby for both. But according to reports Surrey, MCC (Lord’s), Lancashire and Warwickshire are proposing to host a crunched-down finish to the IPL in the UK during the second half of September. It is an ambitious idea given the sheer volume of cricketers and support staff required to travel and quarantine, even factoring in that India’s Test players would already be in the country. An ECB spokesperson said: “We speak to the BCCI regularly about tours and other matters and we’ll continue doing so, but we have received no indication that they are looking for alternative hosts for the IPL at the moment.” Meanwhile New Zealand have confirmed Trent Boult will miss the first Test against England at Lord’s next month and possibly the second at Edgbaston following a request to fly home and see his family after the IPL’s collapse. The left-armer is in line to return for the World Test Championship final against India in Southampton on 18 June, while the remaining Black Caps players at the IPL – Kane Williamson, Kyle Jamieson and Mitch Santner – will fly to the UK next Tuesday ahead of the full squad travelling on 16 and 17 May. | ['sport/ipl', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/cricket', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ali-martin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-05-06T16:15:48Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/2022/jan/30/sir-crispin-tickell-obituary | Sir Crispin Tickell obituary | Sir Crispin Tickell, who has died of pneumonia aged 91, was a career diplomat. He advised four prime ministers, had formidable intellect and displayed impeccable timing when intervening in policy. For example, when John Major was desperate for a big idea to present to the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 to help the UK seem visionary, Tickell reached into his briefcase and pulled out his plan for the Darwin Initiative, a scheme to protect biodiversity in the poorest countries. He had been working on the idea for some time and been waiting for the right moment to appear. Major was delighted with it, the scheme was launched in a speech at Rio and Tickell became the first chair of its advisory committee. In a long career he had often found himself in the right place at the right time. In 1956, as a junior Foreign Office official, he dispatched a Royal Navy destroyer to deter a threatened Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands, an intervention that was successful. He was involved in many negotiations on behalf of the British government, from arms control with the Russians, to entry talks to the European Community in 1972. But perhaps his greatest contribution to forming policy was on the environment. In 1977, while taking a sabbatical at Harvard he wrote Climatic Change and World Affairs. This was one of the first, and for at least a decade, the only book on the coming climate crisis, and what governments should do to prevent it. He argued for mandatory international pollution control, something that is finally taking shape. Margaret Thatcher credited him with convincing her of the science of global warming and the danger that it posed for the planet, which resulted in her speech on the subject to the Royal Society in September 1988. This brought climate change into the mainstream of British politics. Tickell was also concerned with the controversial subject of world population and the fact that extra billions of people were inevitably going to cause problems for biodiversity and the climate. But rather than draconian measures to curb population growth his emphasis was on being positive – better reproductive health, education for women and lifting millions out of poverty. He thought economic security was the best way to reduce family size. Whenever the government position allowed him to do so he helped to steer environment goals in the right direction – and was proud of his successful efforts as permanent secretary at the Overseas Development Administration (1984-87) to put an end to all aid for anything to do with tobacco. Tickell was born in London, the son of the writer and historian Jerrard Tickell and his wife, Renée (nee Haynes), also a writer. Their son was described early in his career as one of the brightest men of his generation, attending Westminster school and graduating from Christ Church, Oxford in 1952 with a first in modern history. He then went straight into the Coldstream Guards as a second lieutenant to do his national service before joining the Foreign Office in 1954. His first job was to look after the British Antarctic Territory, something that was strongly linked to the politics of South America and the Falklands, but was also central to the academic study of this pristine wilderness and the science of climate. There followed a series of postings to British embassies as his career progressed, including The Hague, Mexico City and Paris. By 1970 he was private secretary to various chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster and his impressive grasp of detail was found to be vital in the negotiations for the UK entry into the European Community. He married Chloe Gunn in 1954 and they had two sons and a daughter. The marriage ended in divorce in 1976. Tickell’s career continued to prosper and a second posting to Mexico was as ambassador, a job that allowed him to indulge his passion for studying the pre-Columbian art of the region. It was during that posting that the Queen knighted him, in 1983, on board the Royal Yacht Britannia while she was on an official visit to the country. His final diplomatic post was as British ambassador to the United Nations and permanent representative on the UN Security Council from 1987 until 1990. It was in this post that he played an active part in the talks to end the Iran/Iraq war. But in no sense did Tickell retire after that. He chaired Major’s government panel on Sustainable Development from 1994 until 2000 and was a member of two Labour government taskforces. He returned to Oxford to be warden of Green College from 1990 to 1997 and was chancellor of the University of Kent from 1996 to 2006. He became president of the Royal Geographical Society (1990-93) and of the Marine Biological Society (1990-2001). He found time in 1996 to write a biography of Mary Anning, the now celebrated Lyme Regis fossil hunter who was his great-great aunt, and he continued to give lectures on a variety of subjects well into his 80s. Tickell was showered with honorary degrees and fellowships in the UK, US and in Europe, and had a minor planet and a Mexican volcano named after him. In 1989 he was appointed GCMG. All his life he believed in staying fit, being a cycling commuter on a folding bike from his home in St John’s Wood to the Foreign Office, and latterly going on long walks near his home, a converted barn in the Cotswolds. True to the civil service tradition he always remained politically neutral. He is survived by his second wife, Penelope (nee Thorne), whom he married in 1977, and the two sons, James and Oliver, and daughter, Oriana, from his first marriage. • Crispin Charles Cervantes Tickell, diplomat and academic, born 25 August 1930; died 25 January 2022 | ['politics/politics', 'environment/biodiversity', 'politics/civil-service', 'tone/obituaries', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/population', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-01-30T15:14:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2014/jul/14/lumo-back-bodytech-review-posture | Lumo Back Bodytech review: a vibrating cummerbund to improve your posture | THE GOAL My posture has been terrible for as long as I can remember. As a child, my parents would constantly tell me to sit or stand up straight and as an adult, a pilates instructor friend informed me that my bad posture is due to a weak "core". Her tip, which years later comes hurtling back whenever I catch my slumped reflection in a shop window, is to imagine I'm gripping a satsuma under each armpit. It works for a bit, but then I forget. A desk-bound job doesn't help matters, so I have all my hopes pinned to the Lumo Back BodyTech. I want to learn to stand tall. THE METHOD An elasticised belt with a sensor attached communicates wirelessly with an iOS app. The Lumo Back BodyTech promisingly bills itself as the "world's most advanced biochemical model of pelvic tilt and core body movement". This basically means that it picks up on your slightest movements. If you slouch, the sensor vibrates, alerting you to sit or stand straight. The belt goes under my clothes with the sensor on the small of my back, and I get things started by calibrating the sensor. The Lumo adapts to individual users' body types so the calibration stage is crucial. Once it's ready to go, it zaps me each time it senses I've slumped a little. For the first two days, it vibrates well over 100 times. The app keeps track of my movements, giving a "Total Straight Time" and "Total Slouch Time" score every day, week or month so I can keep an eye on how I'm doing. There's also a little pedometer, so you can see how much walking you do. I end the first two days using more "zap time" (my term) than "straight time". By the third day, the vibrations ease a little. Tracking my progress on the app keeps me going. THE VERDICT This is a great idea in theory, and the technology used is impressive, if a little too sensitive - the slightest move equals a zap and is quite a distraction. I wore it for five days. It has made a difference. A week later, I'm more aware of my posture. Every time I look at the belt – now in its box on my desk along with a satsuma – I de-slouch, so annoying were the constant vibrations. | ['technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'lifeandstyle/fitness', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/shahesta-shaitly', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly/observer-tech-monthly'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-07-14T08:30:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/sep/16/amazon-deforestation-brazil-crime-report-human-rights-watch | Amazon deforestation is driven by criminal networks, report finds | Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is a lucrative business largely driven by criminal networks that threaten and attack government officials, forest defenders and indigenous people who try to stop them, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. Rainforest Mafias concludes that Brazil’s failure to police these gangs threatens its abilities to meet its commitments under the Paris climate deal – such as eliminating illegal deforestation by 2030. It was published a week before the UN Climate Action Summit. Ricardo Salles, Brazil’s environment minister in the government of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, has argued that poverty drives degradation, and that development of the Amazon will help stop deforestation. But the report’s author, Cesar Muñoz Acebes, argues that Amazon needs to be better policed. “As long as you have this level of violence, lawlessness and impunity for the crimes committed by these criminal groups it will be impossible for Brazil to rein in deforestation,” he said. “These criminal networks will attack anyone who stands in their way.” The report documents 28 killings in which it found evidence that “those responsible were engaged in illegal deforestation and saw their victims as obstacles”. Victims included indigenous people, forest residents and environmental agents, and only two cases went to trial. It cites “serious flaws” in investigations of six killings. More than 300 killings were counted by the Pastoral Land Commission, a not-for-profit group connected to the Catholic church, over the last decade in the Amazon, of which just 14 went to trial. Officials and environmentalists told the Guardian the report echoed their experiences working in the Amazon. “There is a lack of people, a lack of resources, a lack of logistics and a lack of will,” said Antonio de Oliveira, a retired federal police officer previously seconded to indigenous agency Funai. He worked with the Guardians, a brigade of Guajajara indigenous people who forcibly expel loggers from their heavily depleted Araribóia reserve in Maranhão state on the east of the Amazon. Oliveira received several death threats and came under fire from loggers during one operation, when an environment agency official sitting next to him was hit in the arm. Nobody was jailed. He agreed with the report’s assertion that illegal loggers have become more brazen since Bolsonaro launched a strong series of attacks on environmental agencies for levying fines and destroying loggers’ equipment, and promised to develop protected environment areas. “The situation has got worse,” he said. “There is a sort of encouragement to people to enter, to invade.” Paulo Bonavigo, president of Ecoporé, a not-for-profit group in Rondônia working on sustainable forest projects, said loggers operate freely in one protected area his group monitors. “There are lookouts, there is a radio network. These guys are organised,” he said. Speaking anonymously because environment agencies officials are banned from talking to the media, an employee from the Chico Mendes Institute who worked in Pará state said the men working on illegal deforestation and mining in the forest are badly paid, poorly educated and exploited by rich bosses. “Deforestation is not exactly slave work but it is not far off.” Bolsonaro has promised “zero tolerance” of environmental crime. But he and his ministers also called international concern over the Amazon an attack on Brazilian sovereignty, rubbished official government data as lies, and said they will counter deforestation by developing the Amazon. Many involved in land grabbing, illegal mining and deforestation in protected areas voted for Bolsonaro – including a group of gold miners who recently blocked an Amazon highway recently and called on him for support after a recent crackdown by environmental agencies. On Friday the foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, and the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, agreed to promote private sector development in the Amazon and announced a $100m biodiversity conservation fund led by private sector. The same day, the finance minister, Paulo Guedes, told foreign reporters that “there is still a precarious scientific basis” to climate change science. “We will sustainably develop the Amazon,” Guedes said. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/brazil', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dom-phillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-09-17T03:00:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/sep/02/conservationists-step-up-anti-fox-effort-after-attack-on-sydney-penguin-colony | Conservationists step up anti-fox effort after attack on Sydney penguin colony | Conservationists want to install motion-sensing cameras and fox-deterring lights at the last mainland penguin colony in New South Wales, after a fox killed 27 of the endangered birds in just 11 days. In June, a fox discovered the colony of little penguins in the Sydney suburb of Manly, resulting in carnage. There were just 60 breeding pairs in the colony before the attacks. The fox thought responsible was subsequently shot. It had evaded various traps to infiltrate the colony. The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, which has helped fund volunteers and nest boxes for the penguins since 1999, now wants to install new technology to thwart further fox attacks. The group is seeking $20,000 to install 20 motion-sensing cameras, a thermal camera to detect the body heat of predators and five fox deterrents that emit bright flashing lights. It will also buy a further 10 nesting boxes to help the penguins rebuild their population. The penguin colony was declared endangered in 1997. Foxes, dogs and urban development have wiped out other penguin populations in NSW, with only a few island-based groups left. Manly is the last mainland penguin location in the state. Monitoring of the colony shows that it had been in decent health – the 2013-14 breeding season was successful with 174 eggs laid and 146 chicks emerging. Little penguins are found only in southern Australia and New Zealand. They are less than 40cm tall and weigh just 1kg, but have razor-sharp beaks and can provide a nasty nip to people who flout the law by trying to pick them up. “The tragedy of the fox attack makes this fundraising extremely important,” said Susanna Bradshaw, the foundation’s chief executive. “This is the only mainland breeding colony left in NSW and I think the people of Manly have a sense of ownership over them. We want to reach out to the local community to help.” The foundation has launched a fundraising page for the defence of the penguin colony. | ['environment/marine-life', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/sydney', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-09-02T05:22:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/damian-carrington-blog/2015/sep/21/hinkley-point-nuclear-station-enemies | Judge the Hinkley Point nuclear station by its many enemies | “You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies,” said Oscar Wilde. In the case of the UK government’s bid to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, the quality of its enemies suggests the plan is idiotic. On Monday, the chancellor George Osborne announced £2bn in government loan guarantees in a bid to get the French-Chinese consortium behind Hinkley to finally commit to the much-delayed £24.5bn project. Energy secretary, Amber Rudd, accompanying Osborne on his trip to China, said the new Hinkley plant was “reasonably priced and value for money” and would provide a chunk of the low-carbon electricity needed to meet the UK’s climate change targets. Last week, Vincent de Rivaz, the CEO of French energy company EDF, said the Hinkley deal was “the right technology, at the right price, at the right time”. It’s true that the UK needs secure, low-carbon energy and that renewables are intermittent. The problem is that, apart from those with political or real capital riding on the deal, virtually no-one thinks the Hinkley plant is the answer. Let’s start with well-known energy analyst Peter Atherton, who is no tree-hugger. He said the deal is “one of the worst ever signed by a British government”, who are buying the “most expensive conventional power station in the world”. He calculated Hinkley would be pumping out vast profits by the end of the 35-year index-linked deal: £5bn a year, paid for by you and me. “The numbers are eyewateringly attractive for EDF and its partners; not so good for the national purse,” he said. Osborne’s loan guarantees - a taxpayer bailout for lenders if the project fails - are “a clear case of socialising risk and privatising profits”. The hard-headed number crunchers at HSBC agree, noting the high costs and vast delays to EDF’s two other new plants in France and Finland: “We see ample reason for the UK government to delay or cancel the project.” Turning to the sober suits at the Financial Times, the message remains the same: that the costs are far too high, more expensive than every kind of renewable energy, bar offshore wind. “Backing out might upset the French and embarrass the government. But a wish to spare ministerial blushes is no excuse for saddling the country with costs it cannot afford,” concluded the FT editorial. There’s more. Lord Turnbull, who knows his way around Whitehall, having led the civil service, recently told Osborne the Hinkley deal was a “bottomless pit and a big white elephant”. Another peer, Lord Howell is a former Conservative energy secretary, a fracking fan and also happens to be Osborne’s father-in-law. He warned the reactor design planned for Hinkley C has never “been completed successfully” and that it was “one of the worst deals ever” for British consumers and industry. Paul Massara, boss of RWE NPower, one of the UK’s Big Six, said: “We will look back and think that nuclear was a expensive mistake.” You’ll notice that not one of these Hinkley enemies I have cited are green activists, whose opposition can perhaps be taken for granted. But even those environmentalists who did back the deal, enraging many of their colleagues, have changed their minds. On Friday, George Monbiot, Mark Lynas, and Chris Goodall declared: “Hinkley C bears all the distinguishing features of a white elephant: overpriced, overcomplicated and overdue. The delay [to 2023 at the earliest] that was announced recently should be the final straw. The government should kill the project.” But as it stands, the government appears to be doing the opposite. It is not just trying to drag the Hinkley deal over the line, but is also aiming the get Chinese companies building other new reactors, of a completely different design. Energy security is serious, affordability is serious and tackling global warming is serious. But when serious people queue up to condemn Hinkley as a colossal waste of time and money, risking security, affordability and the climate, ministers should swallow their pride and ditch it. | ['environment/damian-carrington-blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2015-09-21T10:32:12Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/2015/jan/22/fabric-recycling-closed-loop-process-high-street-fashion | New fabrics make recycling possible, but are they suitable for high street? | As clothing brands experiment with textile-to-textile recycling models, the emergence of new fabrics built around closed loop processes could help accelerate this progress. Examples of recent innovation in this field include Econyl, X2 Plus, Returnity and SaXcell. Based on the concept of regeneration from the outset, these fibre-based textiles are largely crafted from waste materials and claim to be highly recyclable or reusable, making them suitable for multiple life cycles. Econyl is a type of nylon manufactured wholly from waste streams that include abandoned fishing nets and carpets. It is billed as a sustainable alternative to Nylon 6, which is traditionally sourced from caprolactam (a derivative of oil). Giulio Bonazzi, CEO of Aquafil, the company behind Econyl, says the clothing industry has been quick to take advantage of Econyl since its launch in 2011. “Swimwear brands were among the first to invest in the use of Econyl fibres as the majority of their products are made from nylon,” says Bonazzi. “Brands such as Koru Swimwear and Adidas were impressed with our efforts to not only recover derelict fishing nets … but also expand our supply source for post-consumer waste.” Besides swimwear, Econyl is suitable for the manufacture of sportswear, lingerie and outdoor clothing. Returnity is a 100% recyclable polyester which is replacing not only traditional polyester, but cotton and wool-based fabrics too. According to Dutch aWEARness, which owns the European license for the product, Returnity fabrics reduce CO2 impact by 73%, waste management by 100% and water usage by 95% compared to cotton. Returnity is mainly used in the workwear market, where takeback of corporate garments is easier to arrange. Dutch aWEARness founder Rien Otto believes the potential is there to widen its appeal: “Extension to the fashion market is possible, in particular in areas where garments are polyester-based, such as sportswear, outdoor wear and jackets.” Yarns appropriate for consumer fashion fabrics are already under development, Rien adds: “We see that more and more brands are looking for new production methods, new collections and materials. At this moment, we are sharing our knowledge with different brands that want to change their way of working.” With their Garment Collecting and Shwopping in-store clothing takeback programmes, H&M and Marks & Spencer (M&S) respectively are both keeping a watchful eye on such activities. H&M’s environmental sustainability coordinator Carola Tembe says the company’s long term goal is to find a solution for reusing and recycling all textile fibres and to use yarns made out of collected textiles in its products. “There are a lot of different exciting projects and research going on in this field, and we aim to find a scalable solution for textile-to-textile recycling with an outcome equal, or hopefully even better, than virgin fibres in the near future,” she says. H&M has already started to use pre- and post-consumer recycled textile waste in its products, but Tembe points to limitations, particularly when it comes to closing the loop on natural fibres. “For recycled cotton, the highest amount of mechanically recycled post-consumer fibre H&M can use at the moment is 20% without compromising the quality,” she says. “In the mechanical recycling procedure, the textile fibres are being regenerated in a way that makes the textile fibres shorter and with lower quality than virgin fibre. They need to be blended with virgin fibres to reach our quality standards.” M&S’s general merchandise innovation delivery manager Jo Gordon sees “huge potential” in reusing post-consumer raw materials in retail fashion – the company plans to launch more closed loop clothing lines later this year. However, she acknowledges there are still challenges involved. M&S is now looking to drive its own agenda in this space – it is working with the University of Cambridge on a project called Redress, part-funded by Innovate UK, to examine circular economy opportunities around garment recovery. “It’s a two-year project that will investigate opportunities to increase volume and value of textile recovery. It’s too early at this stage to go into further details on what the different opportunities might be, but we have committed to sharing the learnings of the project publicly in 2016,” Gordon says. Building greater durability into fabrics that can be used again and again could pave the way for the ultimate in closed loop clothing – leasable fibres. This would allow fabric suppliers or textile manufacturers to effectively retain ownership of a garment’s raw materials. Dutch aWEARness’ Otto says it’s a concept to aim for. “The advantage of a lease model and performance-based contracts is the continuous drive to optimise the performance of the product, the environmental performance and the costs.” Financing such models, however, remains a huge sticking point, he adds: “We are investigating if there are possibilities for a green investment fund with pension funds or investors.” Aquafil’s Bonazzi agrees it’s a “great concept”, but cautions: “The logistics could be a potential snag if not cost-effective to all parties, convenient for the consumer or if there is an overall lack of interest and participation from the consumer.” Read more stories like this: Retailers of the future are a cut above Fast fashion’s fickle market demands manufacturers closer to home Brought to you by H&M: H&M and Unicef collaborate to break the shackles of illiteracy in India The sustainable fashion hub is funded by H&M. 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/sustainable-fashion-blog', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'fashion/fashion', 'education/fashion-and-textiles', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'fashion/sustainable-fashion', 'profile/maxine-perella'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-01-22T07:00:09Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2015/sep/17/republican-congress-climate-change-action-rebellion | Republicans to break rank with party leaders in call for climate change action | Nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress will break ranks with leaders of their party on Thursday, and call for action against climate change. The mini-rebellion a week before the pope visits Congress appears timed to ratchet up the pressure on Republican presidential candidates and congressional leaders to soften a party line of casting doubt – or simply denying – the existence of climate change. So far, at least 10 House Republicans have signed on to the resolution acknowledging that human activity contributes to climate change, and calling for actions to respond to the threat of climate change. The resolution was drafted by Chris Gibson, a former US army colonel and congressman from New York who is not seeking re-election. The resolution, calling for “conservative environment stewardship” was endorsed by representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Robert Dold of Illinois, Dave Reichert of Washington, Pat Meehan, Ryan Costello, and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Richard Hanna and Elise Stefanik of New York, according to the National Journal. A number of those representatives are also not seeking re-election or are from moderate districts. Campaigners who have been working for months to break Republicans’ blanket climate denial said they were hoping for more converts. Catholic climate activists said on Wednesday they were planning to deliver copies of the pope’s encyclical on climate change – a sweeping denunciation of environmental degradation and global inequality – to each of the 166 Republican members of Congress. Church leaders were also pushing Congress to support Barack Obama’s climate change plan and fund climate aid for developing countries. “It gives us a more dynamic entry to treat the issue,” Oscar Cantu, the bishop of Las Cruces, told a news conference in Washington. It is unclear how the Republican leadership will respond. The party has vowed to defeat Barack Obama’s plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants, the pillar of his plan to fight climate change. The House speaker, John Boehner, has sidestepped the issue of climate change, saying: “I am not a scientist.” A number of Republican presidential candidates including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas deny the existence of climate change. Others, such as former senator Rick Santorum and former governor Jeb Bush have called on the pope to steer clear of the issue – although Bush later softened his language. Democrats and campaigners had been quietly cultivating moderate house Republicans for months to try to neutralise the highly partisan profile of energy and climate change issues. The pope, and his framing of climate change as a moral issue – rather than an economic or scientific concern – provided the perfect opportunity, according to Alan Lowenthal, a Democratic member of the House from California and a leader of the Safe Climate Caucus. “Behind the scenes there are Republicans who understand they cannot be in denial and we are being supportive of them,” he said in an interview last June around the time of the pope’s pastoral letter on climate change. “They care what the future is. They just find it difficult to be out there all alone, and maybe this will give them the courage to move forward.” By any standards outside of those of Republicans in Congress – where a majority denies the human contribution to climate change, or opposes action on climate change – the resolution would be seen as exceedingly timid. It calls on the house to “study and address the causes and effects of measured changes to our global and regional climates”. The formulation is bound to outrage some because there is no doubt that climate change is caused by rising concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The resolution also limits the potential scope of any action, saying efforts to deal with climate change should not impose any costs on the economy. But after five years in which Republicans have blocked all efforts to deal with climate change, it’s a start. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/pope-francis', 'us-news/us-congress', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/house-of-representatives', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'world/the-papacy', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2015-09-17T11:37:14Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/blog/2014/mar/26/events-climate-change-extreme-weather | 'Events, dear boy, events' have put climate change back on the agenda | Tom Burke | British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, was once asked what was the most difficult thing about his job. ‘Events, dear boy, events’ was his now famous reply. Put more colloquially, and much less elegantly, stuff happens and politicians have to deal with it. Things that happen can transform the political landscape, for better or worse, in a flash as Margaret Thatcher discovered in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Her successful response to this event transformed a looming electoral defeat into victory. Analysis is a far less insistent driver of politics. Governments can, and often do, ignore analysis, even to the point of disaster. Successive US governments were warned time and again by intelligence analysts that they were losing the war in Vietnam. But this was never enough to stop the war. One unmanned Sputnik briefly circulating the planet was, however, enough to release billions of dollars into the successful American effort to put a man on the moon. Until the unfortunate climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 the politics of climate change was primarily driven by analysis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by governments in 1988. Its job is to advice the 120 participating governments on the science of climate change. In the subsequent 26 years it has published five assessment reports based on the published scientific literature on climate change. Its summary for policy makers is agreed line-by-line by governments and has so far led to climate legislation in 66 countries. Each report has increased confidence in the science of climate change and alerted politicians to the magnitude and urgency of the issue. Copenhagen, however, revealed the depth of the political difficulty of taking their advice. Combined with the aftermath of the banking crisis, this led to a significant lowering of climate change on the agenda of global leaders. This decline has now been reversed. Among the global leaders who have already put their mark on the issue in the run up to the climate summit in Paris in 2015 are President Obama, President Xi, Chancellor Merkel, President Hollande and Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. It is not new analysis that has led to the restoration of climate change to the leaders agenda. This has simply reinforced what we already know. It is events, in particular two successive years of extreme weather events all over the world, that are now drawing political leaders back to the issue. Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 was the most dramatic of a series of extreme weather events that have occurred over the past two years. It inflicted some $68 billion worth of damage to the United States and produced the extraordinarily rare sight of a prominent Republican praising President Obama. But Sandy was only a precursor to an exceptional year of extreme weather events in every part of the world. Temperatures were so high for so long in Australia in 2013 that the weathermen had to add an extra colour, purple, to the weather charts to warn of the dangers of extreme heat. The summer of 2014 has been even hotter. In the same year China had its wettest May for forty years; California recorded the hottest temperature, 54C, ever recorded anywhere on earth; there was another drought in Brazil; the strongest typhoon ever to strike land devastated the Philippines and Bangladesh recorded its lowest ever temperature. Parts of the UK are still underwater three months after the St Jude storm began an eight week period of continually violent weather. This is only a partial list of the weather extremes in 2013. Such events are natural occurrences. But not extreme weather events, everywhere on the planet, in the same year. These events contributed to an overall loss of about $125 billion in 2013 from natural catastrophes. They are a powerful reminder of the chapter headings in an early James Bond novel: ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.’ It is now clear that we are seeing the beginning of ‘enemy action’ by the climate as it responds to an increased burden of carbon in the atmosphere. The changes we are seeing today are a result of the carbon burden we had added by the end of the seventies. This has increased global average temperatures by 0.8C. If we continue our current dependence on fossil fuels we could find ourselves in a world that is more than 2C warmer before the middle of the century. Much of what is today considered an extreme weather event may by then be the new normal. In the face of this onrushing flood of events those politicians still subsidising the use of fossil fuels resemble nothing so much as a forlorn, and dangerously irrelevant, King Canute trying to hold back the tide. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/tom-burke'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-03-26T12:31:59Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
lifeandstyle/2021/oct/01/will-lab-grown-meat-ever-rival-the-real-thing-we-ask-the-expert | Will lab-grown meat ever rival the real thing? We ask the expert | There are many complicated words for my diet – flexitarian, reducetarian, carnesparsian (from carne meaning meat, and eating it sparsely, because there is nothing like using Latin to give heritage to something made up online). I’m not alone: a third of Britons have reduced eating meat because of concerns about industrial farming. Soon to launch into this space is “lab-grown meat”, promising to take the slaughter and environmental exploitation out of your steak. But how does it work? And can it deliver? I spoke to Benjamina Bollag, founder of lab-grown bacon producer Higher Steaks. Hi Benjamina! So you’re bringing home the bacon … And pork belly! As far as I know, we’re the only cultivated pork belly producer. Presumably you’re doing steaks, too? Actually, no. But a friend came up with the name and it stuck. Hey, names matter. Tofurky, facon, seitan. People undervalue the role of puns in a sustainable lifestyle. So how does lab-grown meat actually work? We take a few high-quality cells from a pig, and feed those cells nutrients, expanding them to kilograms, into muscle and fat, which we then work to take the form of the final product. Sounds ... Frankenstein-y. How did you get into this? My background’s in chemical engineering and I was concerned about farming’s impact on the environment and on people’s health. In the US, there are as many antibiotics used on pigs as on humans. That can lead to antibiotic resistance, and that’s serious. But haven’t we been here before? Farming fish was supposed to relieve pressure on wild fish. But we just ate more fish, and our oceans and rivers remain depleted. Couldn’t the same thing happen with bacon? I believe we can get to the point where people go to the supermarket and find cultivated meat that has the exact same taste, smell, look and price, so they couldn’t differentiate it in a blind taste test. Why would anyone choose conventional meat then? For dramatic effect, maybe? Like when Ozzy Osbourne bit a bat. But can lab-grown meat really achieve an identical taste and texture? Some plant-based products already have, with sausages and nuggets. But it’s trickier with bacon and pork belly. Plant-based products? All these meat alternatives can be confusing. There’s plant-based “meat”, which emulates meat using plant proteins. Then lab-grown meat, which starts with meat cells and may use plant nutrients, but is still animal product. There’s also hybrid meat, which we’re working on – it mixes cultivated and plant-based meat to help on price. Plant-based ingredients are cheaper than growing cells, gotcha. What about other diets, say, kosher or halal? It’s a big debate. We spoke to several rabbis about it, all with contradictory opinions. We’ll keep listening and see. You’ve been working on your products for four years. Few journalists have tried a lab-grown meat sample and the ones who have didn’t love it. None of it is on sale except for some nuggets in Singapore. So, the big question: when will lab-grown meat be ready? I can’t say. Our plan is to work with restaurants first, then supermarkets. But a lot of it will be down to regulatory issues rather than the product. The consumer interest is really encouraging, though, as is the growing industry. The UK is doing an amazing job with alternative proteins. | ['lifeandstyle/series/conversations-with-experts', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'food/meat', 'environment/meat-industry', 'food/food', 'environment/food', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/coco-khan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/saturday', 'theguardian/saturday/cuttings', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/saturday-magazine'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-10-01T14:00:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2006/sep/01/water.uknews | Capital drought order withdrawn | Thames Water has withdrawn its application for a drought order in London after deciding it did not need any more restrictions beyond an existing hosepipe and sprinkler ban, it was announced yesterday. The company said there was still a drought in the capital, but it was not getting any worse after close to average rainfall in July and August. The six million London customers of Thames had saved 258m litres of water a day in July despite the heatwave, an 8% fall in demand. Thames applied to the government in June for a drought order, which would have extended restrictions on use of water to cover filling private swimming pools and washing cars. The company's environment director, Richard Aylard, said: "Response from customers has been magnificent. Our London reservoirs are now at 78% of capacity, higher than at the same time in two of the last three years." Thames said it was pressing ahead with work to replace London's leakiest water mains, with more than 1,000 people working at around 30 sites. The hosepipe and sprinkler ban introduced in April will remain in place across the Thames Water region. | ['environment/water', 'uk/uk', 'environment/drought', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews2'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-08-31T23:05:30Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2013/sep/04/kevin-rudd-tony-abbott-policies-2013-australian-election | Party divide: how Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott line up on the issues | Kevin Rudd Age 55 Party Labor Family Married, three children Career Former diplomat elected to House of Representatives in 1998. Labor leader 2006-10, and since June 2013. Policies Climate Labor has introduced an emissions trading scheme, starting with a fixed price, to meet Australia's greenhouse gas abatement targets of 5%-25% of 2000 levels by 2020. Asylum Labor has increased thehumanitarian intake to 20,000. The Coalition would cut it to 13,750. Both major parties would process asylum seekers who arrive offshore by boat in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru. Mining Labor has introduced a tax on mining company profits, though it has reaped little revenue so farowing to its design and lower commodity prices. Broadband Labor is spending A$37.4bn to provide the fastest possible broadband service to almost every Australian business and home. Paid parental leave Labor already pays the minimum wage of around A$620 (£360) for 18 weeks' leave. Tony Abbott Age 55 Party Liberal/Coalition Family Married, three children Career Trained in a Roman Catholic seminary and worked in journalism and business before being elected to House of Representatives in 1994. Policies Climate The Coalition says it will meet the same targets as Labor with "direct action" to reduce emissions through "reverse auctions", where firms, farmers and others can bid for government grants to help them reduce emissions. Asylum The Coalition has also promised "Operation Sovereign Borders", led by a three-star general, to intercept and turn around people-smugglers' boats on the high seas. Mining The Coalition will repeal Labor's mining profits tax. Broadband The Coalition says it can spend A$17bn less than Labor, complete the rollout more quickly and still provide speeds as fast as people actually need by taking fibre optic cables only to streetside "nodes" and using existing copper wire into premises. Paid parental leave The Coalition proposes to pay the mother's full replacement wage (up to a cap of A$150,000) for 26 weeks. | ['australia-news/australian-election-2013', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'australia-news/kevin-rudd', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'politics/politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/mining', 'technology/broadband', 'type/article', 'profile/lenore-taylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2013-09-04T18:37:06Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2019/jan/10/darling-river-fish-kill-cotton-industry-says-it-wont-be-the-whipping-boy-for-disaster | Darling River fish kill: cotton industry says it won't be 'the whipping boy' for disaster | The cotton industry says it is not to blame for the mass deaths of hundreds of thousands of fish in the Darling River and is tired of being a “whipping boy” for problems associated with the drought. Communities in the Menindee Lakes region, where two fish kills have occurred since December, have said over-extraction by irrigators helped cause the catastrophe that has put a spotlight on the environmental management of Australia’s largest river system. On Thursday, New South Wales Labor called for a special commission of inquiry into the environmental disaster as the cotton industry sought to defend itself against criticism it was behind the depletion of river flows. Cotton Australia said drought was affecting the river system and that the industry was also suffering, forecasting its crop this season would be half of the previous year’s. “On the Barwon-Darling, the impact on cotton production is even more devastating with zero hectares of cotton being grown in Bourke this season, down from 4,000 hectares the year before,” the general manager of Cotton Australia, Michael Murray, said. “Cotton Australia is very proud of our industry that produces a quality fibre that is in demand both here at home and around the world. But, as an industry, we are growing very tired of being ‘the whipping boy’ for all the problems that are being brought on by this crippling drought. “The recent fish deaths in the Barwon-Darling river system at Menindee was a devastating sight. However, it is wrong to blame cotton growers for this incident.” The immediate cause of the mass fish kill is believed to be a sudden drop in temperature that killed algal blooms in the water, depleting it of oxygen and causing fish to die. But Richard Kingsford, the director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW, said it was a disaster that had been many years in the making because too much water had been diverted from the system for agriculture. “Droughts would have contributed to the blue green algae outbreak,” he said. “But the river droughts are happening more often and they’re more intense as a result of the irrigation industry in the Darling diverting water from the river over the last 10 to 20 years.” He said the problem could be traced back to management of water by state and federal levels of government and both of the major parties. The NSW Labor leader, Michael Daley, called on Thursday for the Berejiklian government to establish a special commission of inquiry into the state’s water management. “The scale of this disaster is extraordinary and unprecedented,” the opposition leader said in a statement. “The people of NSW have watched for 18 months as water theft scandals, water mismanagement and now ecological disasters have rocked far west rivers.” The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, sought to assure residents of the state’s far west the government was working to find a solution. Her comments come a day after the minister for primary industries and water, Niall Blair, was criticised for bypassing a large gathering of people waiting to ask him questions on a visit to Menindee. “We’re working through it as fast as we can to see what solutions we can contribute towards and I commend him [Blair] for being on the ground,” she said. Blair said this week he had met with residents in Menindee but bypassed the gathering on the town’s main boat ramp on security advice. | ['australia-news/murray-darling-basin', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/farming', 'environment/water', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/michael-daley', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-01-10T07:23:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/blog/2021/sep/20/pressure-for-change-is-building-to-protect-cricketers-from-burnout | Pressure for change is building to protect cricketers from burnout | Ebony Rainford-Brent | Cricket has become a sport that never stops, but though the Indian Premier League restarts this weekend and the bandwagon keeps rolling we have also reached the end of the British summer, as good a time as any to take stock and assess where we are and what the future holds. For England, there are some easy answers and some harder ones. In terms of cricket it has been a solid few months, with success in the short-form game balancing out some disappointment in the Tests. But the way the men’s international summer ended, with the abandonment of the fifth Test of a superb series against India, demonstrated a sport in the middle of a transformation. The growth of franchise cricket and the success of the IPL has brought a massive rise in player power. Add to that a pandemic that forced new demands on top players, particularly those who perform across all three formats, and it was only a matter of time before they started deciding that some of the things that were being asked of them were unreasonable. The schedule is becoming relentless. If you look at England’s commitments over the next year, after the Twenty20 World Cup in October and November there’s the Ashes, a five-match T20 series followed by three Tests in West Indies, which end just after the next IPL season starts. Within 10 days of that tournament ending in late May the English international summer, in which New Zealand, India and South Africa are all scheduled to visit, starts with the first Test against the Kiwis at Lord’s. That’s 14 Tests, six ODIs, 11 T20s and a T20 World Cup, a minimum of 92 scheduled days’ play even if England don’t make it out of the group stage in Dubai or go on their pre-World Cup trip to Pakistan; and at the end of it there is another T20 World Cup, this time in Australia in October and November 2022. Even without quarantines and biosecure bubbles it feels like things are coming to a crunch, but with them it is practically impossible. The unravelling of the final Test against India, the speed with which India’s players fled the country afterwards, and the fact that there is minimal room to reschedule the game next year all show how tight things are. Players are starting to speak up about the impact on them as athletes and as people. Ben Stokes has stepped away from the game to focus on his mental health, setting an example that others may follow. There have been an unusual number of physical injuries – of bowlers who were or would have been in contention for a place in England’s Test team. Jofra Archer, Olly Stone, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes and Saqib Mahmood all missed some or all of the summer. India’s players clearly had the IPL on their minds when they decided not to play at Old Trafford, but they would also have been worried about testing positive midway through a Test and then being forced to self-isolate in England before leaving to join their next bubble, and perhaps losing a first chance in months to catch up with their families. It is important for governing bodies to start to find solutions. The sport has reached a point where the demands on top players are far beyond those faced by previous generations, and players are no longer afraid of forcing their way out of commitments they feel are unsustainable for them. Gone are the days when if you were chosen to tour, you toured. In the distant past a trip to Australia might take months – just getting there would take weeks – but families were not considered and mental health was ignored. The world has completely changed for athletes, and now a player like Jos Buttler, who has a young family and will want to have some semblance of balance in his life as well as protecting his mental wellbeing, could conceivably refuse to take part in some of the most high-profile, historic and prestigious Test series in the sport. And when big-name players start deciding to sit out whole series it will have big ramifications. The cancellation of the fifth Test against India might end up costing Lancashire and the ECB millions in lost broadcast revenue, ticket, food and merchandise sales, and there could be more hits to come. If there’s no guarantee that the best players will be involved in the Ashes, for example, that will very quickly be reflected in the fees being offered by broadcasters. A relatively small group of players can’t just keep playing indefinitely. Last winter the England head coach, Chris Silverwood, was widely criticised for his player rotation policy, but I think we’re starting to see that giving players clarity about when they will be needed and when they can schedule some time away from the game is essential. Teams will need bigger squads to cope with this rotation, which probably isn’t the worst thing in the world, but they will also need to manage the number of games being scheduled, at international and at club or county level. With the advent of the Hundred we now have four formats in our domestic schedule, which has brought more matches and also more challenges: in August Dawid Malan, for example, played for Trent Rockets in the Hundred and was in the Test team at Headingley five days later. If we want Tests to be the pinnacle of the sport I think we need to clear space around them for players to rest, prepare and focus. One thing I’m sure of is that pressure for change is building, and perhaps as we head into autumn some people will find the space and time to work out how to give the sport and those who play it the space and time they also need. | ['sport/cricket', 'sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/ipl', 'sport/sport', 'sport/blog', 'sport/twenty20', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/ebony-rainford-brent', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-09-20T07:00:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
news/2021/may/25/weatherwatch-stalagmites-help-explain-sixth-century-water-miracles | Weatherwatch: stalagmites help explain sixth-century water miracles | According to Gregory the Great, water miracles were common in Italy during the sixth century. In his Dialogues, written during the 590s, he describes how Saint Fridianus, a sixth-century bishop, changed the course of the Serchio River, preventing the Tuscan town of Lucca from flooding. Meanwhile, Saint Benedict came to the aid of monks living at a parched mountaintop monastery in Campania, by summoning springs to bubble up near the summit. Water miracles make up omore than one-fifth of the text in Dialogues, but new evidence points to a more earthly explanation. Robert Wiśniewski, from the University of Warsaw, and colleagues analysed a stalagmite from a cave near the town of Lucca. Oxygen isotope ratios within the stalagmite layers revealed how wet or dry it was when the stalagmite formed, while uranium and thorium isotopes allow the layers to be dated. The stalagmite provided nearly 1,000 years of data and the results, published in Climatic Change, reveal that the sixth century was especially wet. The stalagmite’s isotopic fingerprint indicates that the excess moisture during the sixth century was caused by a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, driving winter weather patterns that transport moisture from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, in this case resulting in decades of wet winters for central Italy. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/italy', 'science/geology', 'environment/water', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-05-25T05:00:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2004/dec/29/tsunami2004.thailand2 | Insurers expect £7bn bill in region mostly uncovered | The first estimates of the financial damage resulting from the tsunami catastrophe were yesterday put at €10bn (£7bn). Munich Re, one of the world's biggest insurers, said it was not possible to give totally accurate numbers but strong instinct suggested this was the kind of cost that should be expected. "We have no reliable numbers... but my gut feeling would say that the economic damage would be clearly in double-digit billions [of euros]," said Gerhard Berz, a risk expert at the German firm. "Considering the vast area that was affected and the tremendous damage I've seen in TV reports, I'm pretty sure it will reach that magnitude. It's a feeling, but its a strong feeling," he told local television station Deutsche Welle. Ironically Munich Re, which makes its money by charging frontline insurers to take on some of their liabilities, does not expect the disaster to have any impact on its earnings. The cost to the insurance industry generally is expected to be less than the hurricanes that hit the US this year because there is less insurance cover taken out in south-east Asia. As little as 20% of the economic damage might be recoverable from insurance companies although they could also be hit by insurance claims for cancelled flights and holidays to the region. The Munich Re estimate of the economic damage came as Thaksin Shinawatra, prime minister of Thailand, estimated the cost to his country at 20bn baht (£270m). Tourism experts have warned that it could be a year before resorts recovered. Tourism accounts for 6% of Thailand's gross domestic product. The disaster has sent some stocks tumbling and hit the value of the baht. Thai Airways saw its shares fall 1.5% yesterday after it declared that it had lost bookings worth $6.91m. Mr Berz said the insurance community would be reviewing the risk of their liabilities in a new way. Up until now companies have tended to concentrate on single countries or single markets for assessing the likely risks. But the multinational scope of this tsunami has awoken the industry to new threats. Munich Re said 2004 had been the most costly on record for the global insurance industry in terms of natural disasters. There had been insured losses of $40bn (£21bn) even before Sunday morning's disaster. In a wider assessment of the economic damage to the countries affected, the UN emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said the financial losses caused by the tsunamis could make this the costliest ever natural disaster. "The damage is really beyond comprehension at the moment," he said. "It will be in billions and billions of dollars or pounds." | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/thailand', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-12-29T00:03:50Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2005/jan/27/lastword.environment | Under-informed, over here | During the 1990s, parts of the US oil industry funded - through the so-called Global Climate Coalition (GCC) - a lobby of professional sceptics who opposed action to tackle climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The GCC was "deactivated" in 2001, once President Bush made it clear he intended to reject the Kyoto protocol. But the denial lobby is still active, and today it arrives in London. The UK has become a target because the government has made climate change a focus of its G8 presidency this year. A key player in this decision is chief scientific adviser Sir David King, who became public enemy number one for the denial lobby when he described climate change as a bigger threat than terrorism. In December, a UK-based group, the Scientific Alliance, teamed up with the George C Marshall Institute, a body headed by the chairman emeritus of the GCC, William O'Keefe, to publish a document with the innocuous title Climate Issues & Questions. It plays up the uncertainties surrounding climate change science, playing down the likely impact that it will have. It contrasts starkly with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's most reliable source of information on the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. In its last major report in 2001, the IPCC adopted an evidence-based approach to climate change and considered uncertainties on impact. It concluded that "overall, climate change is projected to increase threats to human health, particularly in lower income populations, predominantly within tropical/subtropical countries", and that "the projected rate and magnitude of warming and sea-level rise can be lessened by reducing greenhouse gas emissions". More than 2,000 of the world's leading climate experts were involved in compiling the report - the most authoritative scientific assessment to date. But today, the Scientific Alliance is holding a forum for members of the US and UK denial lobby to challenge the case for acting on the findings of the IPCC. The intention appears to be to get its retaliation in first before a meeting of climate change experts next week at the Hadley Centre, at which Sir David King will take part. Possibly more worrying is how much prominence their views are receiving in the UK media. The Daily Telegraph bizarrely used an anonymous leader on the tsunami in Asia to question the value of cutting emissions: "Whether or not this would have the effects claimed by ecologists - and the science is inconclusive - any gain would be insignificant next to the changes in temperature caused by forces outside our control." But the Daily Mail seems keenest to board the well-oiled bandwagon. Fresh from its now discredited campaign against MMR, it has run six opinion pieces over the last year questioning the science of climate change. David Bellamy and columnist Melanie Phillips have perhaps predictably joined in, but more surprising has been the conversion of Michael Hanlon, the paper's science editor. Last week, Hanlon cited Michael Crichton's research for his new novel as a further indication that climate change science is a con. The theme of Crichton's story is that environmentalists exaggerate the threat from climate change and eventually trigger its extreme effects themselves. It demonstrates the flakiness of the Hanlon case that he should need to rely on a sci-fi writer who has previously warned of the dangers of bringing dinosaurs back to life and of nano-robots turning the world into grey goo. All entertaining scare stories, all complete nonsense. So there we have it. On one hand we have the IPCC, the rest of the world's major scientific organisations, and the government's chief scientific adviser, all pointing to the need to cut emissions. On the other we have a small band of sceptics, including lobbyists funded by the US oil industry, a sci-fi writer, and the Daily Mail, who deny the scientists are right. It is reminiscent of the tobacco lobby's attempts to persuade us that smoking does not cause lung cancer. There is no danger this lobby will influence the scientists. But they don't need to. It is the influence on the media that is so poisonous. In a lecture at the Royal Society last week, Jared Diamond drew attention to populations, such as those on Easter Island, who denied they were having a catastrophic impact on the environment and were eventually wiped out, a phenomenon he called "ecocide". It's time for those living in denial of the evidence about the impacts of climate change to take note. · Lord May of Oxford is president of the Royal Society and was chief scientific adviser to the government 1995-2000 | ['science/science', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/series/lastword', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'type/article'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2005-01-27T01:21:08Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/2019/sep/17/the-french-still-feel-gloriously-gallic | The French still feel gloriously Gallic | Brief letters | I am sorry that James Skelton, a former miner from Sedgefield, feels his Englishness has been eroded by EU membership (Labour’s love lost, 16 September). French-ness is obviously more robust. Here in southern France this summer, the locals have been as gloriously Gallic as ever despite 62 years in the community. Homogeneity has never been part of the EU plan, but many Britons still seem irrationally unnerved by contact with fellow Europeans. Marion Worth Bouldoux, France • In order to win back those who have cancelled their contributions to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (having discovered that 2% of the charity’s income is spent on life-saving projects abroad), might I suggest a new policy where the RNLI saves only UK citizens in British waters. A simply cry of “Are you a foreigner?” before boarding a distressed vessel might do wonders for their image. Philip Ardagh Tunbridge Wells, Kent • I’ve just heard on the wireless that an American has swum the Channel four times, back and forth in one go. Did the poor lady have to keep going while Priti Patel made up her mind whether she could come back in? Paul Wright King’s Lynn, Norfolk • It’s good to see that the BBC is to streamline the selection of the UK’s Eurovision song (Report, 17 September). Of course, they could go one step further and simply announce that we’ve come last. David Napier Lewes, East Sussex • While any new tree-planting is welcome (Ancient woodlands on HS2 route get reprieve, 17 September), no quantity of saplings can “mitigate” the loss of ancient woodland – the clue is in the word “ancient”. Pam Lunn Kenilworth, Warwickshire • 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 | ['world/france', 'world/eu', 'politics/priti-patel', 'tv-and-radio/eurovision', 'media/bbc', 'environment/forests', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'uk/uk', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'politics/politics', 'society/charities', 'society/voluntarysector', 'society/society', 'media/media', 'music/music', 'environment/environment', 'uk/hs2', 'uk/rail-transport', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-09-17T17:31:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/apr/14/concerns-raised-about-uranium-mine-being-able-to-afford-clean-up-in-kakadu | Concerns raised about uranium mine being able to afford clean-up in Kakadu | Australian environmental groups have “major concerns” the company behind a uranium mine in Kakadu national park will not be able to afford the clean-up costs when it stops production. After holding its annual general meeting in Darwin on Tuesday, Energy Resources Australia (ERA) confirmed funds earmarked for the clean-up were contingent on a proposed second mine going ahead. The company is required to stop all mining production at the Jabiru site by 2021 and rehabilitate the area by 2026. It must also clean up the nearby Ranger 3 Deeps site, if its proposed mine there goes ahead. The current Ranger mine, surrounded by the world heritage national park, was forced to stop production in late 2013 after a leach tank failed, spilling about 1m litres of radioactive and acidic slurry. At Tuesday’s meeting ERA reported having spent $378m on rehabilitation and water management projects on the Ranger project area since 2012. Shareholders at the meeting also heard the company had a net loss of $188m in the year to 2014, compared with a loss of $136m in 2013. Environmental groups expressed concern that the successive financial losses, as well as a decreasing likelihood that the 3 Deeps mine will go ahead amid falling uranium prices since the Fukushima disaster, mean the company will not be able to pay for the full clean-up. Lauren Mellor, spokeswoman for the environment centre, said “the writing was on the wall” for the 3 Deeps mine, pointing to the company delaying the commencement date earlier this year. She called for ERA’s majority shareholder, Rio Tinto, to commit to rehabilitation costs should ERA be unable to pay. “As Ranger approaches its end of mine life the stark question of which company bears responsibility for the costly, complex and technically challenging rehabilitation effort is increasingly being asked,” she said in a statement. “Rio Tinto and ERA are playing a game of corporate convenience and the stakes are very high as the miners are required by law to bring the former mineral lease to a standard whereby it can be incorporated into the surrounding Kakadu national park.” Dave Sweeney, spokesman for the Australian Conservation Foundation, told Guardian Australia ERA “shouldn’t be going deeper at R3D when they’ve made no commitment to clean up their mess, and the window for mineral mining approval expires in 2021”. “We believe there is no market reason or social licence to advance R3D at this time,” he said. ERA’s chief executive, Andrea Sutton, told Guardian Australia the company had already done “quite extensive rehabilitation work over the last couple of years” and has approximately $512m in provisional funds for the clean-up. “That provision is obviously an accounting requirement to ensure we can account for the work that needs to be done,” she said, adding the figure was based on estimates of the cost in “current dollars”. However, Sutton confirmed the cost of rehabilitation relies on the “current business plan”, which includes the proposed 3 Deeps mine. Sutton said that should the new mine not go into production, the company “may require an additional source of funding, but we would need to consider that at the time”. Any suggestion that Rio Tinto would be the additional source were a matter for Rio Tinto and currently hypothetical. ERA is preparing a supplementary environmental impact statement (EIS) on the 3 Deeps mine. A draft EIS was criticised by environmental advocates for not containing sufficient information for the public to reasonably comment on it as several details were unknown ahead of a feasibility study’s completion. ERA rejected the criticism. Media were not allowed to attend Tuesday’s meeting, despite earlier indications to the contrary. In speeches later released online Sutton and the chair of ERA spoke of improvements in safety at the site. The company was “confident” such an event as the leach tank spill would not happen again. | ['environment/mining', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/northern-territory', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helen-davidson'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-04-14T08:28:17Z | true | ENERGY |
lifeandstyle/2013/oct/19/experience-saved-children-from-tornado | Experience: I saved my school class during a tornado | We don't usually get storms in Oklahoma in May, and although it was unseasonally humid, we were having a fairly unremarkable school day. I'm a special needs teacher and I'd seen the last of my class of five-year-olds leave when my dad rang to warn me that there was a tornado heading straight towards us. At first, I thought he couldn't be right, but then the tornado sirens went off. My own daughter, Kali, was at the school, in the kindergarten class across the hall, and that's where I headed. Her teacher, Jennifer, was following the standard procedure: moving the 10 children into the hallway, getting them to kneel with their elbows on the ground, hands over their heads. We encouraged the children to sing, to keep up their spirits, but when the skylights started to shatter and the lights went out, it became harder to keep everyone calm. Hail and broken glass showered into the hallway. Instinctively, Jennifer and I took five children each and lay across them. It wasn't something we had to think about: they were tiny children; we were adults and we would protect them with our lives. My daughter was among those I was shielding. I just kept saying over and over, "We're going to be OK. We're going to be OK." But soon I couldn't hear my own voice above the sound of the school's metal roof popping under tremendous pressure. Then came a noise so loud I'll never forget it, like a jet aircraft but 10 times louder: it was the tornado passing directly overhead. Suddenly I was being pelted with debris. I realised the roof had gone; the wind had torn it clean off. We were at the mercy of the elements. My mouth filled with dirt and I wondered if we were going to be buried alive. Beneath me, the children clung together tightly. I did my best to cover them, but now there was water, too, pouring down from ruptured pipes. Then I felt a blunt, jarring impact against my back. By now, I was simply repeating to myself, "Please go away, please go away." I just wanted it to stop. By the time it did, I felt we had been in the eye of the storm for hours, though I later learned we'd been sheltering the children for something like seven minutes. As the chaos subsided, I could hear voices, people from the community calling out to those trapped in the wreckage of the school. It was only when I finally dared raise my head that I discovered we needed rescuing ourselves: a black SUV had been hurled out of the school's car park and lay across us, upside down. It had been prevented from crushing us by a pile of rubble, but I'm sure it's what had hit me in the back. Once the car had been hoisted away, Jennifer and I were able to check on the kids. The worst anyone had suffered was a ruptured eardrum; Kali had a scratched leg. Frantic parents were arriving all at once, desperate to know if their children were safe. We would later learn that seven children had died when a wall collapsed on them, and as we picked our way through the ruins it seemed extraordinary that anybody had survived at all. A doctor examined my back and said I needed a checkup at the local hospital. Kali came with me in the ambulance, which drove us through scenes that looked like the end of the world: the tornado, more than a mile wide, had levelled whole streets. My husband and older daughter didn't reach us until almost midnight. I'd learned my back would be fine, despite heavy bruising, but when I saw them the shock and relief finally kicked in. I thought I'd never stop sobbing, and my husband was crying, too. Meanwhile, Kali was proudly showing him her new glasses. "Look, Daddy!" she said. "You told me to take care of these, and they're not broken." We all met up quietly with our classes before term started, to talk over what had happened and remember those we'd lost. There were tears and hugs; we're all closer now, I think. But even though Kali and I suffered nightmares, watch weather reports nervously and freeze at the sound of a passing jet, I would never move away from Oklahoma. I owe it to the children of this community to keep them safe. If we were hit by another tornado, I would want to be there to do the same again. • As told to Chris Broughton Do you have an experience to share? Email experience@theguardian.com | ['lifeandstyle/series/experience', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/oklahoma', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/weekend', 'theguardian/weekend/starters'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-10-19T07:00:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/may/09/trump-tower-rally-fossil-fuel-divestment-paris-climate-deal | Trump Tower rally demands divestment ahead of decision on Paris climate deal | Environmental activists held a rally inside Trump Tower in New York City on Tuesday, ahead of an expected decision from the president on whether to leave the Paris climate change agreement. About 90 people gathered in a public garden on the fifth floor of Donald Trump’s building in midtown Manhattan to encourage the New York City government to divest its pension funds from fossil fuel companies. Organizers from environmental group 350.org said individual states and local councils can still take action on climate change, even in the face of a government that seems ambivalent on the subject. “We need our governments to act, but we’re not powerless when they don’t,” said May Boeve, executive director at 350.org. “We’re trying to make a connection between the fact that the Trump administration is run by fossil fuel millionaires, from Rex Tillerson to Scott Pruitt. And there’s an effort to try to get the public and elected officials to break sides with fossil fuel industries and divest.” Trump is expected to make a decision on whether to remain in the Paris climate agreement later this month. The president has promised to “cancel” the agreement, under which almost 200 countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but his current thinking is unclear. A meeting of his top advisers on the subject was set to take place on Tuesday but was postponed. Tuesday’s “teach-in” protest was part of a week of Global Divestment Mobilization organized by a coalition of activist groups. Rallies encouraging governments to divest from the fossil fuel industry were taking place in 46 different countries. In New York City, activists are pushing for comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees the city’s $175bn pension funds, to divest investments in oil and gas companies like Exxon. The rally took place in one of two “public gardens” in Trump Tower, which as privately owned public spaces are open to members of the public. It included a quiz on which banks invest in fossil fuels, and a slightly on-the-nose tug-of-war which depicted Stringer being pulled in different directions by oil and gas companies and “the people”. New York City council member Helen Rosenthal, state senator Liz Krueger and state assemblyman Felix Ortiz are among the elected officials also demanding that the city ditch its investments in fossil fuel industries. “By fully divesting New York City pension funds from coal, oil and gas, we would take a prudent step toward protecting 1.5 million pension holders, withdraw our support from companies that are driving climate change, and align our financial interests with our goals of moving toward a cleaner, fossil fuel-free energy system,” Rosenthal said. A spokesman for Stringer said the comptroller did not have the power to unilaterally divest. The city’s $175bn is spread across five different pensions, each of which has its own board of directors who decide where money will be invested. The rally, organized by 350.org and New York Communities for Change, is part of a series the groups have held in Trump Tower. Trump has not returned to the building, where his wife, Melania, and 11-year-old son Barron have lived since his inauguration in January. The first lady has said she and Barron will move to Washington at the end of the school year. | ['environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'environment/paris-climate-agreement', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-gabbatt', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2017-05-09T21:25:08Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/blog/2011/feb/23/china-drought-meterologists-forecast | China's weather forecasters reluctant to confirm rumours of rain | Jonathan Watts | Word has it that China's weather forecasters expect rain in the next few days, but they are too skittish to make an official prediction. That is understandable, given the stakes. Gripped by its worst drought for 60 years, the world's biggest wheat producer is desperate for a downpour to avoid a crop failure that would have an impact on food prices around the world. The challenge is evident from the burst of recent reports in the Chinese media about food, water and the environment. Grain hoarding is already a problem, according to TV report about farmers who are reluctant to sell their stocks because they expect the price to increase in the near future. China News quoted the manager of Yucheng Xinfeng flour mill in Henan complaining about the difficulty of securing supplies since the start of the Chinese new year. "In the two months before the Spring festival, we were getting several hundred tonnes a day, but now we get only 30-40 tonnes. There are a lot fewer sellers because some people are still on holiday and because of the drought." There is still time to save the crop. As I noted in an earlier report from Shandong – one of the worst-affected provinces – the government is digging new wells as part of a billion-dollar emergency package. It has also pledged to use its large grain supplies – helped by a record harvest last year – to ease inflation pressures. But the influence of the authorities is limited. The political turmoil in the Middle East is driving up oil prices , which have a close correlation to grain costs due to the overlap of biofuels and the dependence of modern agriculture on fossil fuels. Even without the complication of climate change, water scarcity in China is a long-term problem that has been exacerbated by the growing demands of agriculture, industry and urban centres. The impact is not only felt in the dry north, but in the manufacturing heartlands along the coast. A People's Daily article this week noted that 40% of the lakes in Jiangsu – a wealthy workshop province – have dried up in the past 30 years. Pressure on food supplies is also coming from pollution. More than 12m tonnes of grain have been contaminated with heavy metals, according to a China Economic Weekly story earlier this week. Picking up the thread, South China Morning Post noted a 2007 warning by the former land minister Sun Wensheng that at least 10% of China's 120m hectares of farmland is affected by cadmium and other toxins. If evidence was needed of the impact of pollution on food supplies, it was provided by another People's Daily report on Tuesday about irrigation from a "black reservoir" in Tanggang, Henan, that withered the nearby wheat crop. The government has pledged to ramp up efforts to decontaminate the worst areas, to double spending on water conservation and to use weather-modification batteries to squeeze every possible drop out of passing clouds. Rain would have the added benefit of dousing the smog that has built up again in Beijing after an unusually long spell of clear skies. But it is not just the capital's wheezing populace hoping for a shower. With China's grain hoarders and international commodity speculators alike watching intently, the metereologists of Beijing have more reason than usual to hesitate about making predictions. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'world/china', 'world/world', 'weather/index/asia', 'science/meteorology', 'science/science', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-02-23T16:14:33Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2014/sep/03/samsungs-gear-vr-headset-is-oculus-rift-for-smartphone | Samsung’s Gear VR headset is Oculus Rift for smartphone | The virtual reality headset market is suddenly booming. Samsung has shown off a new device that turns one of its smartphones into an Oculus Rift-style product that straps to the face, competing with Google’s Cardboard and Sony’s Project Morpheus. The accessory requires the just-launched Galaxy Note 4 for a screen, slotting in and using software developed by Oculus VR, the company bought by Facebook behind the Oculus Rift headset. It renders images on a split screen to simulate a stereoscopic view for the wearer, much like 3D TVs and 3D spectacles in cinemas. Virtual reality headsets immerse the wearer in a visual and, often, auditory environment by matching what is shown to the eyes with the movements of the head. Effective implementation requires rapid feedback between the sensors on the headset to the screens: studies have shown that lags of more than 50 milliseconds between head movement and screen updates can induce sickness. That is why only the Note 4, with its large screen and fast processor, is sufficient. In Samsung’s system the Note 4 will provide the sensors, including a compass, accelerometer and gyroscope for detecting head moment to produce the virtual reality effect. A touchpad on the outside of the headset allows control of the device locked inside, while the smartphone’s rear camera can be used to provide the wearer with a view of the normal world outside. That video passthrough enables augmented reality applications, overlaying a virtual image onto the real world – but could also improve the day-to-day use of the device, letting owners take a break from the virtual world without taking off the cumbersome headset. John Carmack, the former Doom developer, introduced the hardware at Berlin’s IFA event, saying that “it’s been a secret project for too long”. He explained: “I’ve dedicated the last year of my life to making the best mobile VR system, and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished. Mobile VR is a hard problem to do well, and we’ve had to use a lot of technology to solve this.” Carmack cited the AMOLED screen of the Gear VR as one of the crucial leaps that made the problem solvable. A dedicated selection of apps built for the headset will be available including Theatre, 360 Player, and Gallery apps. A software development kit for the VR headset will be made available for third-party developers. The Gear VR will compete with Sony’s highly anticipated Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4, as well as Google’s Cardboard accessory for Android smartphones. Google’s Cardboard performs the same function, turning a phone into a virtual reality headset, but can be made by the user following some detailed instructions with some sturdy cardboard and an elastic band, instead of having to buy anything. Samsung and Google are not the first companies to think of turning a smartphone into a wearable virtual reality headset. The Vrase headset does the same thing using iPhones and various Android smartphones, and was successfully funded on Kickstarter in October 2013. • Sony’s Project Morpheus is bringing virtual reality into the mainstream • Oculus Rift - 10 reasons why all eyes are back on virtual reality | ['technology/samsung', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/phablets', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/virtual-reality', 'games/virtual-worlds', 'technology/facebook', 'technology/apps', 'technology/software', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-hern', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-09-03T15:32:04Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global-development/poverty-matters/2014/feb/10/ivory-coast-joins-africa-gold-rush-economy | Ivory Coast joins the African gold rush – but it's no quick fix for the economy | Tamasin Ford | From the sky, Ivory Coast looks like a patchwork quilt, with fields of varying shapes and shades of green and brown woven together. In the 60s and 70s, the country's economy was built on agriculture and it became the world's biggest producer of cocoa, as well as Africa's leading exporter of rubber and cashew nuts. When peace finally arrived in 2011, after more than a decade of conflict, President Alassane Ouattara's new government pledged to unlock the economy, not only by increasing trade with the non-francophone world, but by expanding it to sectors other than agriculture. "We are really open to all the world," the prime minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, said last month at the start of the country's first investment forum since the 2009 coup that split Ivory Coast into a rebel-controlled north and a government-controlled south. "We are now normal … and we want the rest of the world here," he said. Ivory Coast's historical reliance on agriculture has meant that it holds untapped potential for mining companies, with sources of manganese, iron ore, nickel, bauxite and, crucially, gold. The country lies along the Brimian Greenstone Belt, a 2bn-year-old rock formation stretching from Senegal to Ghana, with some of the richest gold deposits in the world. It is thought that there is more gold under Ivorian soil than in neighbouring Ghana, currently Africa's leading producer of the precious metal after South Africa. "There is a future for gold mining," said the newly appointed minister of industry and mines, Jean-Claude Brou, adding that the prospects looked "very, very good". Brou took up the post in November as the new ministry was formed, in a sign of the government's ambition to expand the industry. In the far north, 34 miles from the Malian border, a Tongon gold mine punctures the flat, arid landscape. Mountains of excavated rubble create a border around the site, which covers more than a square kilometre of land and is the largest mine in the country. "It looks like any old rock but in this rock there can be gold," says senior mine planning engineer Masauso Mumba, explaining that the smallest gold particles are almost impossible to see with the naked eye. Randgold Resources, an African-focused gold mining company with listings on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, has an 89% interest in the Ivorian company, Société des Mines de Tongon, which owns Tongon mine. They began operations in 2010 as fighting erupted after the presidential elections. Since then, they have secured 12 exploration permits, with three more waiting to be signed off; that means almost half a billion dollars of investment so far. According to Mark Bristow, Randgold's chief executive, Ivory Coast is the new frontier for gold. "I think it can very easily overtake Ghana without much effort," he says. "It has a lot more to offer," he added referring to low-cost power, good infrastructure and electricity grid network. "President Ouattara has a head start because this country used to be the powerhouse of west Africa," Bristow says. Ivory Coast has the largest economy of the eight countries that comprise the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and last year it recorded one of the highest economic growth rates on the continent. But after more than 10 years of political instability, are investors confident that peace is here to stay? "No, I'm not," Bristow admits. "But we believe in it prospectively." Asked the same question, Brou pointed to the Ivorian footballer Didier Drogba, who last year bought a 5% stake in the Ity gold mine in the west of the country. "It gives an answer to the confidence question. Didier believes in the future of this country," he says. The mines minister referred to last month's inauguration of the fourth gold mine by Endeavour Mining, adding that a fifth is expected to open this year, pushing the government closer to its target of tripling gold production within the next five years. "It all tells you there are not only opportunities there but that investors have strong confidence in the country and its future and potential," Brou says. He has been working on updating the mining investment code, a legal framework to put Ivory Coast in line with world regulations, which is waiting in parliament for final approval. "We are taking all the steps so that the mining sector becomes a very attractive sector," he says. But digging for gold is not a quick fix for the economy. While the operations of Randgold Resources and Endeavour Mining combined have provided more than 2,000 jobs, Ivory Coast's gold-mining sector has a long way to go before it matches Ghana's, which employs nearly 30,000 people. There may be more gold under Ivorian soil, but it can take up to 15 years from discovery to production, which means it will be a long time before Ivorians begin to truly benefit from their wealth of natural resources. • This article was amended on 11 February 2014. We originally referred to Randgold Resources as a South African company. This has been changed. | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'tone/blog', 'world/ivory-coast', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/mining', 'global-development/conflict-and-development', 'world/ghana', 'business/gold', 'type/article', 'profile/tamasin-ford'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2014-02-10T06:59:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/aug/08/discovered-in-the-deep-meet-casper-the-ghostly-octopus | Discovered in the deep: meet Casper the ghostly octopus | A white octopus sat on the seabed, gently waggling its short, stubby arms and peering with beady eyes into the camera of a deep-diving robot. It was 2016, in waters off Hawaii, at a depth of 4,290 metres (2.6 miles). No one had ever seen an octopus like it, and certainly not so deep. Based on its ghostly appearance, it was nicknamed Casper. Until then, the only cephalopods filmed at such depths were Dumbo octopuses, named after another cartoon character, seen swimming around as deep as 6,957 metres, with elegant, ear-like flaps on either side of their heads. The sighting of Casper was a striking moment for Janet Voight, associate curator of invertebrate zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. “This is totally new and different,” she says, recalling the discovery. That first glimpse of Casper threw up many tantalising mysteries. Why is it so pale? Most other octopuses have colourful chromatophores in their skin which change their appearance in an instant and act as camouflage to confuse predators. Even in the deep sea, octopuses can be colourful, like the purple, warty Graneledone. Some use a cloak of dark skin pigments, seemingly to hide glowing, bioluminescent prey they grab in their arms and thus avoid alerting other predators. Voight guesses that Casper’s pallor may come down to a lack of pigments in its food. Another puzzle is the short arms, although Casper is not alone in having a limited reach. “The shallower and more tropical you are, the longer and thinner your arms,” says Voight. This trend towards shorter arms in deep-dwelling octopuses doesn’t have a definite explanation. Voight thinks that, rather than stretching out to grab food, they evolved an alternative tactic of twisting their bodies around so that their mouths, on the underside of their bodies, are directly over their food. Scientists have learned more about Casper by scouring five years of archived footage gathered on deep-sea surveys across the Pacific. They spotted dozens more like Casper perched on the seabed, from two distinct species. “It could be that they’re fairly common,” says Voight. “It’s just an indicator of how little we know about what’s down there.” For Voight, especially exciting were the Caspers with their arms wrapped around clutches of eggs stuck to tall sponges. Previously, she had theorised that seabed-dwelling octopuses need hard rocks to lay their eggs on. Further down, there could be fewer exposed rocks, limiting how deep they can go. “Casper showed there are ways around that by finding a sponge stalk,” she says. “Is this a breakthrough in octopus evolution?” The sponges themselves are attached to rocky nodules that lie scattered across swaths of abyssal plains and take millions of years to form. If other deep-sea octopuses are anything to go by, the female Caspers probably spend a long time guarding their eggs. An octopus from another species (Graneledone boreopacifica) was seen off the coast of California, on a steep escarpment in Monterey Canyon, brooding her single clutch in the exact same spot for more than four years. For now, the pale and mysterious Casper octopuses have not yet been officially named, because all we know of them comes from imagery; no one has been able to collect a specimen to study in detail. “With an octopus, you really need it in your hand,” says Voight. | ['environment/series/discovered-in-the-deep', 'environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/helen-scales', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-08T05:00:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/sep/21/great-barrier-reef-pollution-prevention-too-slow-says-queensland-government | Great Barrier Reef pollution prevention too slow, says Queensland government | The Great Barrier Reef is in poor condition and efforts to prevent pollution flowing onto the coral ecosystem are not happening quickly enough, according to a Queensland government assessment. The reef report card found despite it avoiding an “in danger” listing from Unesco’s world heritage committee in July, inshore areas are undeniably in a bad shape throughout the 2,300km-long ecosystem. “Inshore sea grass showed signs of recovery at locations that were relatively free from disturbances in recent years, but remained in poor condition overall,” the report stated. “Inshore coral reefs have continued to improve since 2011-2012 when their condition reached its lowest point due to impacts by repeated disturbances. However, they remained in poor condition overall.” There have been some improvements in the amount of chemicals flowing onto the reef from agriculture. Between 2009 and 2014, the amount of particulate nitrogen fell by 11.5%, pesticides dropped by 30.5% and sediment fell 12%. Sediment and chemicals can smother corals, making it hard for them to feed and grow. High nitrogen levels, as well as warming waters, have also been linked to an explosion in coral-eating starfish numbers. However, the report card found just 13% of Queensland sugar cane producers had adopted “best management practice” in terms of nutrients, with only 30% using best practice with pesticides. Only 28% of graziers were managing their pastures properly to protect the reef, the report found. The target for all of these practices is 90% by 2018. The report card found 330ha of reef wetlands were lost between 2009 and 2013, which is considered a good result, although 30,980ha of riverbank vegetation was lost – a more worrying decline. The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in the past 30 years and faces its greatest threat from climate change, with warming, acidifying waters risking the future of corals and many of the 1,500 fish species and 3,000 types of mollusc that rely upon them. Cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish, fishing and pollution are other leading threats to the reef. “There are some trends that are improving but more needs to be done,” Roger Shaw, chairman of the scientific panel that oversaw the report card, told Guardian Australia. “We know the pollutant levels exceed the guidelines so we need to bring them back down. “The inshore area is still recovering from major floods we had in 2010 and 2011. Climate change is still the number one threat but I’d add climate variability too – if we have extreme events in a short period of time, there is less capacity for coral to deal with other stressors.” Shaw said the targets for farmers to improve their environmental practices were “ambitious” and conceded they will not be met by 2018. Queensland’s environment minister, Steven Miles, said there was room for improvement within the agriculture industry, particularly sugar cane growers. “In this reporting period, the rate of progress towards our water quality improvement targets has slowed dramatically,” he said. “Continuing to improve reef water quality is one of the key actions under the new Reef 2050 long-term sustainability plan and it is critical we build the momentum in reducing runoff from the catchments.” The federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, who fronted a vigorous lobbying effort to ensure the reef was not listed as in danger, was more upbeat. “Inshore sea grass has shown signs of recovery in some regions and inshore coral reefs continue to improve,” Hunt said. “It takes time for improvements in land management to translate into measurable outcomes in marine condition. We know the positive changes we are seeing on land will continue to translate into real, long-term benefits for the reef.” “The figures in the reef report card represent a clear fail for current programs,” said WWF spokesman Sean Hoobin. “Governments have promised to give the reef the clean water it needs to recover by 2025 – to meet this commitment they will need to overhaul current programs, and provide significant additional resources. “Key first steps are to enforce existing regulations to stop overuse of fertilisers. Leading farmers are showing that it is possible to achieve big reductions in fertiliser pollution while still being profitable.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'world/unesco', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'travel/australia', 'travel/travel', 'environment/wwf', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-09-21T01:34:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2018/aug/17/weatherwatch-august-1990-record-hot-teperature | Weatherwatch: August 1990 was a real scorcher | August is usually the hottest month in the UK, though of course temperatures do vary hugely from place-to-place and year-to-year. But few of us who were around at the time can forget the heatwave of early August 1990, which broke the UK temperature record that had stood for almost 80 years. The record-breaking figure came from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, on 3 August, when temperatures peaked at 37.1C (almost 99F). This comfortably broke the previous figure of 36.7C (98F) set at various locations in the famously hot summer of 1911. The 1990 heatwave was widespread, with temperatures in early August remaining over 32C (89F) across large swathes of England and Wales, and over 35C (95F) across much of southern England. This had predictably disruptive effects on the transport system, especially railways (the wrong kind of sun?), and also melted the entire stock of a chocolate factory in Liverpool. Tragically, the prolonged hot weather also led to a number of drownings, as people attempted to keep cool. But that August 1990 record only lasted another 13 years, until 10 August 2003, when the mercury reached 38.5C at Brogdale in Kent – finally breaking through the famous 100-degree Fahrenheit barrier. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/summer', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-08-17T20:30:30Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2014/feb/26/tony-abbott-drought-relief-is-not-super-favourable-social-security | Tony Abbott: drought relief is not ‘super favourable social security’ | The government has announced an extra $320m to help drought-affected farmers, with Tony Abbott emphasising it was disaster relief not a “super favourable social security regime”. A farming allowance equivalent to the Newstart allowance will be paid to farming families fortnightly to help them with daily living expenses; $280m in concessional loans will be delivered though eligibility standards yet to be announced, and more money will be poured into water-related infrastructure. Up to $10.7m will be provided to deliver social services, including mental health support, and $10m will be divided between Queensland and New South Wales for pest control, including reducing the impact of wild dogs. Parts of New South Wales and Queensland are entering their third year of drought with more than half of each state receiving no significant rain in two years. Abbott and the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, announced the long-awaited drought assistance on Wednesday morning and it was welcomed by the National Farmers’ Federation though the organisation had also hoped for long-term assistance. Abbott said the package largely built on programs that were already in place. “Some of you might be inclined to say well this is a special deal for farmers,” said the prime minister. “No, no. This is akin to a natural disaster and state and federal governments have always stood by people, wherever they are, who have been hit by natural disaster. Some of you might be inclined to say this is a relaxed or super favourable social security regime for farmers. No, it’s recognising that a farmer in trouble is in a very difficult situation and in a rather different situation to most of us when we’re in trouble.” Abbott said if farmers were unable to pay back their loans then they would be “unviable” and a “normal course of action” would take place. Joyce said the money to help farmers struggling with mental health issues was an important aspect of the package. “I take calls all the time from people who feel their position is dire and they’re looking for someone to talk to,” he said. The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) welcomed the package and its chief executive, Matt Linnegar, said its requests for short-term assistance had been largely met. However, he said the NFF would have liked more long-term assistance. The NFF was disappointed not to see wage assistance in the scheme but Linnegar said it was obvious the prime minister’s visits to drought-stricken areas last week had a personal impact on him. “We’d also like to particularly thank Minister Joyce. I know he has worked tirelessly to get this particular package announced today up. I don’t think it was an easy task,” he said. Linnegar said there were always concerns about farmers taking on unsustainable debt and the organisation was keen to see the eligibility criteria for sections of the assistance. “I don’t think any package would get it 100% right but it will have a good chance of getting those viable businesses through,” he said. The NFF released its proposed drought assistance package earlier this month. The Labor agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, said the measures should have been delivered a month ago. “A few questions remain unanswered. First of all we don’t yet know in detail what the new means testing will be for the family payment and we don’t know yet what the eligibility criteria will be for the concessional loans scheme,” he said. “If the concessional loans scheme eligibility criteria is not significantly relaxed then very few additional farmers will have access to the scheme and of course the money the prime minister announced today won’t be spent.” The Greens said action on global warming should be part of any effort to protect rural communities, though they welcomed the government’s package. “The biggest challenge facing Australian farmers is the Abbott government’s denial of global warming,” the Greens leader, Christine Milne, said. “Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce insist that it is something that cannot be planned for. They do not understand drought. The Greens support urgent financial support for farmers and welcome the provision of crucial mental health services to regional areas, but Tony Abbott’s plan won’t help farmers in the long term.” | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/bridie-jabour'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-26T02:31:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
artanddesign/2010/feb/13/photographs-coal-miners-ukraine | Ukraine miners: Coalfaces | On the night of 30-31 August 1935, the Soviet miner Alexey Stakhanov set a new record for coal production. Working deep inside the bowels of a mine in eastern Ukraine, Stakhanov managed to hew out 102 tonnes of coal in five hours and 32 minutes. This was 14 times more than the standard daily norm. Although it later emerged he had help, Stakhanov's super-human feat became a synonym for heroism and communist endeavour. In a matter of months the "Stakhanov" movement had spread across the Soviet Union, with workers and farmers urged to set their own norm-defying records for personal productivity. Seventy-five years later, miners still work at the mine where Stakhanov set his record. In a series of 100 remarkable portraits, the Russian photographer Gleb Kosorukov has captured the Ukrainian miners on their return to the surface from a six-hour shift underground, amid dust, dirt and artificial light. Most of the miners agreed to be photographed for the project. A handful refused. They were indifferent to Stakhanov's record, Kosorukov says. They regarded themselves as underpaid. They were also deeply cynical about their country's eternally feuding political leaders. "Oil and gas have been so much in the news in recent decades. Coal has almost disappeared from the territory of Europe. People imagine that it doesn't exist any more," Kosorukov says. "In fact, coal is responsible for a major part of the world's energy. I wanted to make coal visible." In practice, coalmining has hardly changed over the past 100 or 200 years – miners then, as now, face an omnipresent fear of death. "It's an archetype of the working class. It encapsulates all the things we think about working class. Miners face extremes in their profession. Mortality is high," Kosorukov says. "There is a little bit of heroism in their life. In some ways they are modern saints. They know that some day they may never come back from the mine." The photos were taken in September 2009 at the Stakhanov mine, 40km from the eastern industrial town of Donetsk. The mine was named after its most famous ex-employee following his death in 1977. It is part of a complex of four mines owned by the state. Production has fallen since Soviet times, from 1m tonnes a year under communism to 375,000 today. There are fewer miners, too: 2,381 compared with 10,000-12,000 in the mine's heyday. Little has changed, however. The miners continue to use the old Soviet equipment. And yet despite this production decline, Kosorukov argues that coal will continue to play a crucial role in the world's energy needs. He also sees it, moreover, as the answer to Ukraine's energy problems at a time when Russia regularly uses gas as a weapon against its smaller neighbour. "Coal is responsible for more than 40% of the energy produced by humans, more than twice exceeding respective figures for oil and gas. Because of the restrictive security limitations put on development of nuclear power plants, the situation will hardly change in the near future." glebkosorukov.com | ['artanddesign/photography', 'culture/culture', 'environment/coal', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/weekend', 'theguardian/weekend/features2'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2010-02-13T00:05:12Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2018/nov/28/hundreds-of-students-striking-over-climate-change-descend-on-parliament | Hundreds of students striking over climate change descend on parliament | School students protesting climate change have arrived in Canberra after the prime minister told them to be less activist and go back to school. Hundreds of students lined up outside Parliament House on Wednesday wanting to speak to Scott Morrison and government ministers about taking emergency action against climate change. On Tuesday, the Senate approved a motion to support the students in their decision to strike from school and hold a series of planned national protests. Students across the country plan to leave school this week, with protests in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart scheduled for Friday. On Wednesday it was the turn of Canberra students, who waited in the rain outside parliament and met with Labor, Greens and crossbench MPs, including the federal Greens leader, Richard Di Natale. Matilda, 9, held a sign that said “Beware: Radical student activist”. Riley, 12, told the crowd: “The politicians aren’t helping and we need to take action to save our climate.” “You need to help us because this is our future,” he said. On Monday Morrison said in question time that the students “should go to school”, in response to a question from Greens MP Adam Bandt. “These brave and courageous kids are joining young people around the world who are angry at the failure of governments,” Bandt asked. “Will you meet with and listen to these kids?” The prime minister replied that climate change was “a very real and serious issue” but that “kids should go to school”. “We don’t support our schools being turned into parliaments,” he said. “What we want is more learning in schools and less activism.” But a day later, the Senate narrowly voted to approve a motion from Greens senators Jordon Steele-John and Mehreen Faruqi that showed support for the striking students. On Wednesday, Steele-John, Labor MPs Ged Kearney and Julie Owens, and Centre Alliance MP Rebehka Sharkie also met the students to hear their concerns. • #MyClimateQuestions: experts and youth leaders answer your questions about climate change and political action | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-education', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/school-climate-strikes', 'profile/naaman-zhou', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/school-climate-strikes | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-11-28T00:49:03Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2014/oct/08/hinkley-point-european-commission-nuclear-power-station-somerset | EU approves Hinkley Point nuclear power station as costs raise by £8bn | The European commission on Wednesday gave Britain the green light for a huge government subsidy that will open the way for the first atomic power stations to be built for nearly 20 years. The ruling was welcomed by ministers and the nuclear industry but Austria threatened legal action against it, while consumer champions said it could add more than £5bn a year to energy bills. A majority of commissioners agreed Britain was not breaking state aid rules, overcoming the last regulatory hurdle for EDF Energy and its plan to construct Hinkley Point C in Somerset, south-west England. EDF believes the project will cost £16bn but the EC claimed construction costs alone by the time the plant is built in 2023 will be more than £24bn with a further possible £10bn of contingency payments. Joaquín Almunia, EC competition commissioner, had earlier overseen a heavily critical report on the subsidy arrangements drawn up by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Almunia argued that the EC could agree the measures in favour of Hinkley because the subsidy regime had been “significantly modified”, limiting distortions of competition in the European single market. British ministers see new nuclear reactors as important to provide low carbon energy when many old atomic and coal-fired stations are nearing the end of their lives. The subsidy arrangements guarantee the French electricity generator will obtain £92.50 per megawatt hour over the 35-year life of the Hinkley plant. This subsidy, twice the current price of electricity, will be paid out of customer bills and DECC claims it will represent a significant saving on alternatives such as gas, whose price is expected to rise even more sharply and which gives off significant carbon emissions. Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, said the EC decision was an important step on the road to Britain’s first new nuclear power station and a good deal for consumers. “While there is much work still to do before a final contract can be signed, today’s announcement is a boost to our efforts to ensure Britain has secure, affordable low carbon electricity in the 2020s,” he said. Hinkley Point C will be able to supply 7% of Britain’s electricity and could avoid about 9m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year being released by fossil fuel-generated power. But Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, said Hinkley set a “bad precedent” because guaranteed payments had previously been reserved for renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar. He said Austria was opposing the commission decision on economic and environmental grounds, saying nuclear power was not a sustainable form of energy, was a mature technology and was not an option for combating climate change. Nick Butler, a former No 10 energy adviser, said the whole subsidy arrangement was a mistake that would punish consumers and should be investigated by parliament’s public accounts committee. “The deal will go down in history, alongside the privatisation of the Royal Mail, as an example of the inability of the British government – ministers and civil servants alike – to negotiate complex commercial deals,” he wrote in a blog for the FT.com. Greenpeace said the EC move was a world record sellout to the nuclear industry at the expense of taxpayers and the environment. “It’s such a distortion of competition rules that the commission has left itself exposed to legal challenges,” said Greenpeace EU legal adviser Andrea Carta. Guy Newey of independent energy supplier, OVO Energy, said it would push up people’s bills for decades while Mark Todd, director of independent price comparison site energyhelpline, said: “The EU’s go-ahead for the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant could see UK homes collectively foot the bill for an additional £5.2bn per year on top of their current electricity costs.” But Lord Hutton of Furness, chairman of the British Nuclear Industry Association, said it was an important step in securing Britain’s home-grown low-carbon electricity generation while adding jobs and prosperity to the economy. Horizon Nuclear Power, owned by Toshiba of Japan and which wants to build new stations at Wylfa in Wales and Oldbury in Gloucestershire, said the EC move was “a huge boost”. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'world/european-commission', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'world/austria', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'world/eu', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2014-10-08T18:36:43Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/coca-cola-cutting-carbon-factories | Coca-cola: cutting carbon in factories, fridges and flavourings | The carbon footprint of a can of Coke is shrinking. Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is making coolers more efficient, its factories in the UK, France and Belgium are reaching higher energy standards and it is refusing to buy fridges that use hydroflurocarbons, the super greenhouse gases. The company has promised to reduce the carbon footprint of a drink by a third by 2020. It is achieving that target through carbon governance that covers every aspect of the business, from fridges to flavourings. CCE has three separate groups working on the carbon footprint of one of the world's most famous soft drinks. An energy and climate change steering group oversees the task of cutting emissions in factories, transport and refrigeration, another group focuses on packaging and a third on ingredients. In its factories CCE is on the alert for new energy efficient technologies and using renewable energy sources, like the sun. Cooler teams are fitting doors on units that were previously open-fronted, installing LED lighting, as well as devices to shut off lights and turn down the temperature when a cooler is not being opened regularly. The company is also helping suppliers plan their own carbon reduction strategies. Over the past few years, CCE has managed to disentangle its carbon emissions from business growth. In 2011, the company cut its carbon footprint by 8.4% on the previous year even though the business grew in volume by 3.5%. Provisional figures for 2012 promise a continuing cut in the carbon footprint. CCE received the highest ever score of 95% in its Carbon Trust Standard assessment in 2011 and was recognised as one of the leading performers in carbon management by The Carbon Trust in 2012. CCE's strong 2012 carbon disclosure saw the company listed for the first time in the 2012 Carbon Disclosure Project Leadership Index. Jackie Wills is part of the wordworks network The Guardian Sustainable Business Sustainability Case Studies contain articles on all the initiatives that met the criteria for the GSB Awards, demonstrating elements of genuine innovation and forward thinking. Become a GSB Member for regular updates from the network | ['sustainable-business/series/sustainability-case-studies', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/carbon-case-studies', 'sustainable-business/series/guardian-sustainable-business-awards-longlist-2013', 'type/article'] | sustainable-business/series/carbon-case-studies | EMISSIONS | 2013-05-17T08:56:24Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2022/dec/08/rome-solar-powered-christmas-tree-lights-row-italy | Rome’s solar-powered Christmas tree lights spark row over ‘ugly’ panels | A row has broken out over two “ugly” solar panels intended to power the lights on Rome’s traditional Christmas tree. There is always much anticipation in the Italian capital when the fir arrives at the Piazza Venezia in the historic centre – a Unesco world heritage site – with many giving their view on the choice of decoration. The 2017 incarnation made headlines around the world when its threadbare appearance drew comparisons with a toilet brush. This year it was the decision to install two giant solar panels at its base that sparked a row. Vittorio Sgarbi, an art critic and undersecretary at the culture ministry, described the initiative as “an exhibition of bogus environmentalism”. He said he had sought clarification from Rome’s superintendent for archaeology as he wages his battle “in defence of the landscape”. “This is an idea à la Greta Thunberg,” he said, adding that the panels should not be placed in a “monumental square” when there were plenty of alternatives. Fabrizio Santori, a politician with the far-right League, told La Repubblica: “I am receiving messages from people who have tried to install solar panels but who have been blocked by the superintendency, then seeing that the city can place two huge ones in Piazza Venezia seems like a mockery. The issue of renewable energy is important but we need respect for the scenery.” Linda Meleo, a former Rome councillor with the Five Star Movement, a party which places environmental protection among its central policies, also criticised the move. “There are other methods to light the tree with clean energy without placing two panels there which are objectively ugly,” she said. Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, defended the use of the panels, which will also power the Christmas lights on the nearby shopping thoroughfare, Via del Corso, especially during a period of high energy costs. He said the panels would lower carbon dioxide emissions by more than 70 kilos a day. “This is intended to strongly promote a culture of sustainability, also taking into account the delicate moment linked to the war in Ukraine,” he said. “The tree will consume 5.5 kilowatt hours which, instead of coming from the grid, will be self-produced by the photovoltaic system.” | ['world/italy', 'world/world', 'environment/solarpower', 'lifeandstyle/christmas', 'world/europe-news', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angela-giuffrida', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-12-08T14:08:40Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2009/feb/07/economicgrowth-recession | Tim Malnick: Evolving beyond homo economicus | The satirical puppet show Spitting Image used to have a rather cruel, but quite funny sketch where a pinstripe-suited, cigar-chewing Margaret Thatcher would stand shoulder to shoulder with to her male cabinet members in the House of Commons urinals. Awkward pleasantries exchanged, she would zip up, leaving them able, once she had departed, to get on with the job in hand. The suggestion was clear. As a powerful woman, she was portrayed as more of an alpha male than any of the men in her cabinet. Cruel, not the whole truth of course, but a striking image that caught something of her qualities at the time. And a strong image of the paradoxes, pitfalls and projections faced by women finding success in the male dominated worlds of business and politics. Psychologists have called this the queen bee syndrome – the way that many successful women feel compelled and conflicted, often at great personal cost, to act in traditionally masculine ways in order to get on in a largely male world. "Play our game or get out," is often the strong but totally implicit message in the typical boardroom. In last week's Observer, the business editor Ruth Sunderland explored the current economic crisis from a gendered perspective. The mess, she suggests, was created by men and yet, she points out, it is these very same men who were gathered in Davos trying to clear it up. Ms Sunderland argues that women must be more widely included in the economic debate and recognised for their roles in stimulating economic growth. This is welcome stuff, but like the current economic debate itself, does not go far enough. The issue is not just about women, or any under-represented group, entering into the economic discussions on their current terms, but about pointing out how bonkers some of the current terms are in the first place. Don't we need a new type of conversation that names the many absurdities inherent in our global economic rules and questions them from the off? For example, under the current rules for measuring growth in GDP, only activities that involve some transfer of money are economically relevant. This means that the work of the world's subsistence poor and the work of those raising children and building communities are on the whole considered irrelevant and unproductive by economists. Similarly, the services provided to us free of charge by the planet are also economically invisible, because no money changes hands when we get say fresh air, or clean water. If economically invisible, why should we expect politicians and business leaders in the game of chasing growth to really care about such things? At the same time wars, oil spills and crime waves can be good news for growth figures since they can all increase spending and production. Under this bizarre logic the New Zealand MP and radical economist Marilyn Waring famously pointed out: "If you want a really productive oil tanker voyage, it's a very good idea to ram your oil tanker into an iceberg. The Exxon Valdez was the most productive oil tanker voyage in history." If the sanity of these sorts of basic economic assumptions are not up for debate, then does it even matter who is involved in the discussions? Nor should we just celebrate women's roles as consumers or creators of economic growth. We need to recognise that men and women alike are more than simply consumers or contributors to growth. When I check in on my elderly neighbour in the snow, when I make time to chat (during working hours!) with a friend having a hard time, when I just sit quietly with my partner after a long week, none of these things increases my consumption or contribution to growth. But so what? They are all valuable, meaningful human activities – the real stuff of our lives. Isn't it time for deeper conversations about whether increased consumption and economic growth necessarily leads to the things we really want? Economists such as Richard Layard point out the many discrepancies between the things that make people happy and provide meaning in life and the things that contribute to economic growth as measured under current rules. Studies consistently show that beyond a certain level of material wellbeing (roughly where the UK was in the 1960s), there is no increase in subjective happiness with increased GDP. Environmental economist Paul Hawken goes even further in poking the rules of the economic game and its fixation on growth alone, on quantity rather than quality. He points out that continual growth in any living system (be it a human body, a forest or an elephant) is unhealthy beyond an adolescent stage, and is associated in adult humans with tumours and cancers. He suggests that as a culture we are still at an immature stage of development – and need to grow up pretty quickly. Rather than discussing the roles of men and women in the economic crisis, we need to explore the unbalanced world views that all of us, men and women alike, have come to accept as normal in modern, industrial society. In business and politics it is considered normal to focus exclusively on numbers, quantities, on whatever can easily be analysed into parts, measured and reported. It is considered odd, and even "unprofessional" to place equal value on emotional experience, subjective well-being, relationships and seeing the world as a complex whole. The quest for growth at any cost means many politicians and business leaders have come to focus only on a subset of human activity. And much of what they focus on to stimulate growth creates no real happiness or wealth. To paraphrase Einstein: "You can't solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it." • Tim Malnick is lecturer at the Bath University School of Management dealing with leadership, change and sustainability | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'business/economicgrowth', 'business/business', 'business/recession', 'politics/economy', 'politics/margaretthatcher', 'business/globalrecession', 'business/economics', 'tone/comment', 'world/gender', 'inequality/inequality', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'type/article'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-02-07T12:45:50Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
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