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environment/2018/jun/08/heathrow-third-runway-protesters-vow-to-go-on-hunger-strike | Heathrow third runway protesters vow to step up campaign | Activists opposed to the government’s Heathrow expansion plans have vowed to escalate their protests in the coming weeks to avoid what they say would be an “environmental catastrophe”. The warning follows a week of direct action in which eight people have been arrested as environmental opposition to the a third runway proposal grows. Environmentalists warn the expansion of Heathrow will have a disastrous long-term impact on both air pollution and climate change and a group including a priest, a farmer and a pensioner have pledged to begin an indefinite hunger strike on Saturday in protest. Alex Thompson, from the Vote no Heathrow campaign which is behind the hunger strike, said: “Catastrophic climate change is killing hundreds of thousands of people every year and yet, terrifyingly, it is absent from the discussion around expanding Heathrow, the place already emitting the most carbon dioxide in the country. “A third runway will kill more people through hotter droughts and more powerful hurricanes, whilst helping a wealthy corporate elite pocket some government money and hop off more easily to their second homes.” Organisers say people from all around the country will descend on Labour Party HQ in London tomorrow to begin their hunger strike. They are targeting Labour to try and persuade the party to formally oppose the Heathrow plans when they come before parliament in the next few weeks. Thompson said Labour must “vote with its morals” and oppose the government in parliament. “We will continue to pressure Labour until they agree to meet and impose a three-line whip. We are going nowhere.” Organisers said around 30 people are expected to start the fast on Saturday, with around a dozen people committed to going on indefinite hunger strike. Clare Farrell, 35, a fashion consultant from London, is one of the long term hunger strikers. “This may seem like an extreme response but when you see this proposal in the context of the climate catastrophe we are facing it is entirely proportionate,” she said. “I am concerned about things like air pollution, noise and dislocation of local people but it is its devastating impact on the fight against climate change that makes this proposal so extreme – and so indefensible.” Earlier this week protesters spray-chalked slogans outside Labour Party HQ in a bid to persuade the leadership to vote against the expansion plans. Eight people were arrested. Another protest was held in parliament on Wednesday. Thompson said the direct action campaign would intensify in the coming weeks and other environmental action groups also vowed to step up their opposition. A spokesperson for Plane Stupid which has been opposing Heathrow expansion plans for over a decade said: “If politicians and Heathrow think that we will quietly stand by while they rubber stamp this climate disaster of a runway, then they must be plane stupid. We have resisted this for over a decade and it is still a bad idea.” Following this week’s announcement by the government that it was backing a third runway at Heathrow, Labour said it would consider whether its four tests – relating to noise, air quality, climate change and economic growth – had been met before deciding whether to oppose the plans. John McDonnell, shadow chancellor and a long time opponent of Heathrow expansion, tweeted on Tuesday: “I remain implacably opposed to expansion at Heathrow and after listening to the transport minister, Chris Grayling, today I am even more convinced that this would be a costly, environmental and social disaster that will never be built.” However, many backbench Labour MPs and key unions such as Unite and GMB support a third runway. The escalating protests come as it emerged that a coalition of four local authorities and environmental group Greenpeace are considering mounting a fresh legal challenge to the plan. Simon Dudley, leader of Windsor and Maidenhead borough council, said: “It is highly likely a number, if not all four of the councils, will come together to challenge this decision in the courts if it is passed in parliament in its current form.” The other authorities involved in the potential legal action are Hillingdon, Richmond and Wandsworth, he added. Environment lawyers at ClientEarth, who have successfully taken the government to court three times over their “illegally poor” air pollution plans, have also raised questions about the legality of the government’s proposals. CEO James Thornton said: “The UK Government is already failing to meet legal limits for harmful air pollution, so expansion looks very tough under those circumstances. Ministers should be doing everything they can to comply with air pollution laws to protect people’s health before even considering adding to the problem. He added: “It’s also very difficult to see how this could be done given the UK’s climate commitments. We’ll be examining the final plans with interest.” | ['environment/heathrow-third-runway', 'uk-news/heathrow-airport', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/environment', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'environment/activism', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-06-08T10:01:48Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
australia-news/2015/may/18/solar-industry-attacks-coalition-after-bipartisan-deal-struck-on-ret-scheme | Solar industry attacks Coalition after bipartisan deal struck on RET scheme | Australia’s solar industry has warned it will campaign against the Coalition in the lead up to the next federal election after an agreement was finally reached to cut the renewable energy target to 33,000 gigawatt hours. The Coalition and Labor came largely to terms on the future of the RET on Monday after months of intense wrangling. The political deadlock has prompted an investment strike in the renewables sector. To close the deal, the Abbott government dumped a demand that the RET be reviewed every two years – a non-negotiable condition Labor put in the discussions. But the government is persisting with a plan that would allow the burning of native forest waste to count towards the RET. Labor made it clear on Monday it would not support that element of the RET resolution when it comes back to parliament next week. The wood waste measure is expected to be presented to parliament in regulations. Labor says it will oppose the regulations in both houses. But the government will press on regardless, seeking crossbench support for the wood waste burning measure. “I am confident, without presuming, that the Senate will support it,” the environment minister, Greg Hunt, told reporters on Monday. The RET saga began with a concerted effort by the Abbott government to wind back the renewable energy target shortly after taking office. The government initially demanded the 41,000Gwh RET be slashed to 26,000Gwh. Labor dug its heels in, saying it would not accept a RET below 35,000Gwh. Labor now says the new target is a floor and not a ceiling, and that the deal has been struck in order to get investment moving in renewables once again. But Monday’s landing point has prompted the Australian Solar Council to warn the fight is not yet over. Chief executive John Grimes says reducing the target to 33,000Gwh was an “act of political bastardry”. “Our campaign is not going to stop,” Grimes told Guardian Australia. “What the government has shown is they can’t be trusted when it comes to renewables policy.” “At every juncture [the Coalition] will seek to build in booby traps and other mechanisms to delay. It remains the case that this government is the most radically anti-solar government in the world today,” Grimes said. “They don’t have a vision for Australia’s future and that position isn’t politically tenable. For as long as they hold that view, we will continue a pointed political campaign – and this will cost them massively electorally in the lead up to the next election.” Grimes also told Guardian Australia the industry was now lobbying Labor to accept a policy of 50% renewables by 2030. He said the solar industry was looking for the opposition to agree to a change of policy at its national conference in July. “We hope they are prepared to stand up early and call this, and not squib it.” A spokeswoman for the shadow environment spokesman, Mark Butler, said Labor had already indicated 33,000Gwh was a floor and not a ceiling. She said Labor would work in consultation with the industry on future changes to the RET post-2020 – and hoped to be in a position to unveil new policy either ahead of or at the national conference. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/greg-hunt', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'profile/katharine-murphy'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2015-05-18T04:52:43Z | true | ENERGY |
lifeandstyle/2016/jul/06/kitchen-gadgets-review-citrus-zinger-infusion-pack | Kitchen gadgets review: Citrus Zinger infusion pack – tranquility in the sucking of a fruity teat | What? The Citrus Zinger infusion pack (£14.99, John Lewis) is a plastic flask with interchangeable reamers in detachable base. Used to infuse water with fruit flavours. Why? But, Holmes, how does one make water exciting? Lemon entry, my dear Watson. Well? I never feel thirsty. Even when I am thirsty, my brain converts the feeling into hunger and I eat Pringles instead. It’s almost a superpower: the ability to be constantly dehydrated but never notice. Not a great power, but it comes with very little responsibility, so I’ll take it. I’ve tried to get the recommended daily dose of water. I’ve lugged a cooler’s worth around, telling myself to drink it all by sundown. I never manage, yet I still spend 78% of the day standing over a toilet bowl, literally pissing my life away. The Citrus Zinger infusion accessories pack is here to change my attitude. “Yes, water is boring,” it seems to say, “but what about fruits, eh? Do you like fruits?” Not much, I reply. “What if I said you could spend your day struggling to drink a bottle of water that tastes mildly of kumquat?” Whatever, I say, let’s get on with it. The attachments are actually a citrus press, a kiwi press and a cucumber slicer. As reamers and a spiraliser, they work fine, infusing the water with a helix of watery snozzcumber, or the distant memory of fruit. This almost-flavouring is a frustrating tease, like trying to eat sweet-scented soap. The lure of the weakest lemon squash known to man doesn’t make me want to drink more. However, Citrus Zinger also sell a version with a sport-friendly top, which has a flip-up mouthpiece and a wide, internal straw. You’ve probably seen these around. Sucking on it makes me feel like an infant; I may as well revert to wearing nappies and sicking up on people’s shoulders when they hug me. Yet, I like it very much – and drink more frequently, too. It’s soothing. In fact, I think we need to be grown up about this and demand full-on adult dummies, for these are testing times. The world is out of control. If a man should locate tranquility in the sucking of a citrus teat, I say give the baby his bottle. Any downside? Comedically, a zinger is a snappy line delivered with zest. But there are no jokes on the box at all. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? Back to nursery. Soft toys, not hard truths! Mobiles, not smartphones! 2/5 | ['lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-07-06T15:24:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
money/2013/jun/27/flood-insurance-deal-industry-government | Flood insurance deal sees fears recede over future cover | Hundreds of thousands of flood-hit homeowners will still be able to buy insurance after a deal was reached between the government and the insurance industry. The agreement will cap flood insurance premiums, linking them to council tax bands so people will know the maximum they will have to pay. It is expected to protect up to 500,000 households, but they will have to wait until 2015 before the agreement comes into force. Minister Richard Benyon said: "there is still a lot of detail to work out." Under the terms of the scheme, known as Flood Re, all UK household insurers will have to pay into £10.50 each to a fund that can be used to pay claims for people in high-risk homes. But the insurance industry said this already happened informally now, so general premiums should not rise. The scheme will operate for 20-25 years, after which homeowners will be expected to protect themselves. Homes built after 2009 will not be covered by the new cap. Benyon said: "We have to be absolutely sure that some of the mistakes in the past are not made again. We do not believe building should take place in areas of high flood risk." In the event of a huge flood event, which led to a national emergency, the government would step in if the money in the Flood Re scheme was insufficient. The agreement, which will form part of the water bill, follows months of talks over the future of insurance for properties at risk of flooding. A statement of principles, which obliged insurers to continue providing cover to existing customers but had no provisions for cost, was due to expire at the end of July. That will now continue until the new system comes into force. Otto Thoresen, director general of the Association of British Insurers, said his members' priorities had always been to make sure flood insurance remains affordable and available for everyone who needs it. "Getting to this stage has required compromise by both sides, and there remain issues that need to be overcome," he said. "Insurers and the government are now working towards a shared vision, with Flood Re as the government's preferred choice." The cap on the amount households will pay for flood insurance premiums will start at no more than £210 per annum in Bands A and B, rising to £540 per year in B and G. Aiden Kerr, head of property at ABI, said: "The statement of principles didn't address anything about price - just that insurers had to offer a renewal. This new levy is designed to provide those at the highest risk with an affordable level of cover. This will bring an end to anyone having to pay thousands of pounds for their insurance in flood risk areas, or huge excesses – with a standard excess of between £250 and £500." Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, said there were still areas that need to be worked through. "Flooding is terrible for anyone affected by it, and can lead to worries the next time there is heavy rainfall. We have worked extremely hard with the industry to reach an agreement on the future of flood insurance. "People no longer need to live in fear of being uninsurable, and those at most risk can get protection now and in the future." Paul Cobbing, chief executive of the National Flood Forum, said there were still questions about the scheme. "What we don't have are answers to the impact on households, and how affordable and accessible this scheme will be for people, and whether it protects those who are vulnerable. "However, this is the preferred approach because it actually does what insurance is supposed to do, which is providing cover for everybody and sharing risk between them, whereas other models didn't do this." The NFF charity said the number of calls to its helpline trebled in the past year, with some callers reporting huge rises in the cost of their cover, and others saying they were unable to sell their properties. Some householders' premiums had doubled to £2,000 a year, and in one case a small business saw its premium rise from £4,000 to £25,000 a year. Shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, warned: "The process announced today is fraught with difficulties and may not be completed by the time of the next election." Benyon said new powers in the water bill to directly regulate flood insurance premiums were a "fallback" plan. | ['money/homeinsurance', 'money/property', 'money/insurance', 'money/money', 'business/insurance', 'business/business', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/harriet-meyer', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-06-27T12:10:44Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/mar/17/haddock-fish-scotland-uk-waters-removed-sustainable-seafood-list | Haddock from UK waters removed from sustainable seafood list | It is among the most popular fish in the UK, but haddock may soon be off the menu in some fish and chip shops because of dwindling stocks. Haddock from three North Sea and west of Scotland fisheries have been removed from the Marine Conservation Society recommended “green” list of fish to eat, after stocks fell below the acceptable levels in 2016. Action had to be taken to increase the number of breeding age fish, which is one of the UK’s “big five” marine species eaten, alongside cod, tuna, salmon and prawns, said the charity. The MCS encouraged people to ask for “green-certified” haddock – caught in the north-east Arctic and Iceland – in fish and chip shops and on fish counters, or eat fish on the green list such as coley, mackerel and hake. But Scottish fishermen’s representatives reacted angrily to the downgrade, accusing the MCS of “dressing advocacy up as science”. Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said the advice could be damaging, causing already-caught fish to rot on fish counters. “We have gone to enormous lengths to maintain fishing stocks, including haddock,” he said. “We completely reject this [downgrade], it’s silly, it’s unhelpful and the public should ignore it.” Armstrong said all Scottish fisheries adhered to fishing limits laid out by the Marine Stewardship Council. It was “unlikely” that the fish-eating British public would be put off eating haddock, he added. “Fish customers rightly trust their supplier to be responsible. This downgrade is something of nothing, they do it every year, it’s absolutely meaningless and counter-productive if anyone pays any notice.” The MCS said a mistake had been made in calculating stock levels and further information had been considered, which had led to a re-evaluation of current stocks. Two of the fisheries have been given an amber warning, after scoring just four in the MCS’s Good Fish Guide. The scale goes from one to five, with one being the most sustainable and five being “a fish to avoid”. The other fishery has a change from haddock being “good to buy” to one to eat only occasionally, with a “three” rating. According to the government body Seafish.org, most of Scotland’s haddock supply comes from the North Sea via landings into the port of Peterhead. “These fisheries are in a more exposed position than previously thought and we want people to make the most responsible decision when choosing fish, and go for green-rated fish,” said Samuel Stone, head of fisheries and aquaculture at the MCS. “But the haddock population hasn’t suddenly crashed and there is in fact evidence that the stock will increase by a meaningful amount this year.” There was more positive news for scampi fisheries in the west of Scotland, Clyde and Jura catch areas in the latest list from the society. Scampi from Farn Deeps fishery was upgraded from the lowest rating of five – a fish to avoid – to four, thanks to better management, according to the guide. Consumers were urged to chose American lobster with an MSC certification, which it said were more sustainably managed. In December last year it was announced that British fishing fleets would be allowed to catch greater quantities of cod, haddock and sole in 2017, after Europe’s ministers approved a new fishing quota. Scientists concerned over dwindling stocks warned that the EU catch limits for 2017 were above their recommendations, in contravention of the reforms to the common fisheries policy, which are supposed to ensure levels of catch are sustainable by 2020. Nearly two-thirds of European fish stocks are overfished and 85% are below healthy levels. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) states that about 90% of global fish stocks are fully or overfished, but warned last year that production was set to increase by 17% by 2025. María José Cornax, of Oceana, which seeks to protect the world’s oceans, said the EU was still failing to properly manage fish stocks. “The situation we are in now is a consequence of years, decades, of disregard for the science by the council of ministers,” she said. “The situation has improved but 45% of the Atlantic and 90% of the Mediterranean is overfished. It’s not just environmentally irresponsible, it’s economically irresponsible as according to our data more, not less, fish could be available if stocks were managed sustainably.” | ['environment/conservation', 'environment/oceans', 'food/fish', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/marine-life', 'food/seafood', 'environment/environment', 'environment/food', 'food/food', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alexandratopping', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-03-17T00:01:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/feb/28/what-is-the-ipcc-climate-change-report-and-what-will-it-say | What is the IPCC climate change report – and what does it say? | What is the IPCC? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, charged with publishing regular comprehensive updates of global knowledge on the climate crisis, intended to inform government policymaking. Each “assessment report” takes about five to seven years to complete, involving hundreds of scientists reviewing the work of thousands more experts. The current report – being published in four parts, from August 2021 to October 2022 – is the sixth since the body was set up in 1988. What are the four parts? The three working groups that make up the IPCC each publish their own reports. The first looks at the physical basis of climate science – that is, how the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere are changing and are likely to change in future, and whether human influence is responsible. The second – the group producing the latest report – assesses the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather, droughts, floods and temperature rises, and how humanity can adapt to these. The third group looks at ways of cutting emissions, and the fourth report is a synthesis, to be published in October, ahead of the Cop27 UN climate summit, to be held in Egypt in November. What does the report say? The warnings make for grim reading. 3.5 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate impacts and half the world’s population suffers severe water shortages at some point each year. One in three people are exposed to deadly heat stress, and this is projected to increase to 50% to 75% by the end of the century. Half a million more people are at risk of serious flooding every year, and a billion living on coasts will be exposed by 2050. Rising temperatures and rainfall are increasing the spread of diseases in people, such as dengue fever, and in crops, livestock and wildlife. Even if the world keeps heating below 1.6C by 2100 – and we are already at 1.1C – then 8% of today’s farmland will become climatically unsuitable, just after the global population has peaked above 9 billion. Severe stunting could affect 1 million children in Africa alone. If global heating continues and little adaptation is put in place, 183 million more people are projected to go hungry by 2050. The ability to produce food relies on the water, soils and pollination provided by a healthy natural world, and the report said protection of wild places and wildlife is fundamental to coping with the climate crisis. But animals and plants are being exposed to climatic conditions not experienced for tens of thousands of years. Half of the studied species have already been forced to move and many face extinction. Maintaining the resilience of nature at a global scale depends on the conservation of 30% to 50% of Earth’s land, freshwater and oceans, the IPCC report said. Today, less than 15% of land, 21% of freshwater and 8% of oceans are protected areas, and some regions, like the Amazon, have switched from storing carbon to emitting it. What role do governments play? IPCC reports run to thousands of pages, incorporating data from years of research. But the key document that emerges at the end of the process is a distillation of all this knowledge known as the summary for policymakers, which contains the key messages. It is pored over line by line by the lead scientific authors but also by representatives from governments, a process open to all states who want to contribute. Critics say this process waters down key messages; defenders say the scientists take a robust line and few significant changes are made. Will governments try to water down this report? This second part of the report is likely to be the most politically sensitive, because it deals with the probable real world impact of the climate crisis, including issues such as the potential for food shortages. One of the most contentious issues is over how the world adapts to the climate crisis and the question of “loss and damage” – the impacts of the climate crisis that are too great for countries to adapt to. This issue has dogged the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate negotiations for more than a decade, and at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow last year many countries were disappointed that rich nations failed to agree a programme to issue funding to poor countries for the loss and damage they sustain. Concerns have already been raised by some campaigners that “loss and damage” has been changed to “losses and damages”, but analysts say this change is minor and does not change the substance of the findings. The substantive issue will be what the report says about adaptation and the global need to adapt to extreme weather that, as the first IPCC working group found in August, is becoming inevitable. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2022-02-28T12:08:48Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
politics/2020/jan/21/counter-terrorism-policy-is-a-threat-to-democracy | Counter-terrorism policy is a threat to democracy | Letters | We are deeply concerned at the inclusion of peaceful campaigning organisations in a counter-terrorism police document distributed to NHS trusts, schools and safeguarding boards (Report, 18 January). The suggestion that campaigning for peace, environmental justice, human rights and animal rights, and against racism, should be regarded by those safeguarding the public as extremist activities is grotesque. This provides yet more evidence of the threat posed to core democratic values, including free speech, by the government’s counter-terrorism agenda. This document must be immediately rescinded. But there is also an urgent need for a full, and proper independent review of the Prevent strategy. More widely, we collectively support the demands of the Network for Police Monitoring’s Protest Is Not Extremism campaign, which calls on the police to stop categorising campaigning and protest activities as “domestic extremism”, for a clear separation of protest policing from counter-terrorism, and for better protection for campaigners against surveillance. This must include independent oversight of how the police use surveillance in relation to political protest. These proposed measures are essential to defend our right to political engagement and peaceful protest – and indeed to defend democracy. Kate Hudson General secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Ben Jamal Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Lindsey German Convener, Stop the War Coalition, John Sauven Executive director, Greenpeace UK, Isobel Hutchinson Director, Animal Aid, Weyman Bennett Co-convener, Unite Against Fascism, Sabby Dhalu Joint secretary, Stand Up to Racism, Jane Tallents Trident Ploughshares, Angie Zelter XR Peace • How have we got to the point where those campaigning for environmental justice are now regarded by the state as potential terrorists? One answer to this is that this is not a new phenomenon. For decades, state agents and politicians of both major parties have sought to extend the definition of subversion – as Merlyn Rees, the former Labour home secretary, did in 1978. In 1981, a former senior police officer, Harold Salisbury, defined subversion as “anyone who shows affinity towards communism, that’s common sense, the IRA, the PLO and I would say anyone who’s decrying marriage, family life, trying to break that up, pushing drugs, homosexuality, indiscipline in schools, weak penalties for anti- social crimes … a whole gamut of things that could be pecking away at the foundations of our society and weakening it”. In fact, it is the views of those like Rees and Salisbury, and their contemporary equivalents, not the attitudes of those engaging in perfectly lawful activities, which are undermining and pecking away at the democratic foundations of this country. Such attitudes and pronouncements are designed to discourage popular participation in democratic action for fear of being labelled domestic terrorists. Is there any other country in the world, which claims to be democratic, where those campaigning against badger culling have been placed on a terror list? Even having to ask this question clearly illustrates the further intensification in the authoritarianism of the state. Prof Joe Sim School of Justice Studies, Liverpool John Moores University • The only surprise about police monitoring the likes of Greenpeace should be that anyone is surprised. Those of us with longer memory and experience know that the police and their co-workers, special branch, MI5 etc, have always treated members of such groups as dangerous radicals and extremists to be watched. In the 1980s I was a member of Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and CND; I was illegally detained and photographed at a peaceful demonstration where the police, mostly not local, were under the direction of a special branch officer. I expect I have a file somewhere, which will have to be dusted off when I chain my Zimmer frame to the railings in protest at the importation of chlorinated chicken. Andrew Gold Seaton, Devon • On Monday three of my friends from Manchester XR presented themselves at their local police station to register as potential “terrorists”. They were politely received and offered a cup of tea. Their only complaint? There was no vegan milk. Lisa Battye Oxton, Merseyside • 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 | ['politics/terrorism', 'uk/uksecurity', 'politics/politics', 'uk-news/prevent-strategy', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'world/protest', 'world/activism', 'uk/police', 'tone/letters', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-01-21T18:39:39Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2008/jun/02/recycling.waste | Packaging helps supermarkets bag top spots in green poll | High-profile green advertising campaigns by supermarkets appear to be paying off with five of the country's biggest grocers coming out top in a survey of the most environmentally friendly brands. Campaigns to discourage plastic bag use and an emphasis on less packaging helped Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda take five of the top six places in a survey of 1,500 people. For the second year running, the cosmetics retailer Body Shop took the top spot in the poll by Landor, Cohn & Wolfe and PSB - marketing consultancies owned by the media group WPP. The rest of the top 10 is made up of the soaps firm Dove, the internet giant Google, the Co-operative Bank and the utility company E.ON. Several supermarkets featured in last year's top 10, but they have moved up the rankings this year. "The British public have clearly responded positively to initiatives such as Marks & Spencer's widely publicised Plan A campaign and most recently its move to charge for plastic bags," said Phil Gandy, a consultant at Landor. Although media reports on supermarkets often focus on issues such as food miles, the poll showed that consumers were more interested in smaller, more tangible challenges, Gandy said. "People look for practical, substantive examples of action that they can relate to." People are less concerned about global issues such as climate change, he said, and respond most to "down-to-earth language about what affects me", such as initiatives around waste, pollution and recycling. When asked to name the most important green issue today, 24% of respondents said waste generated by individuals or corporations, up from 11% last year. But global warming lost ground. In 2007 it was the top green issue for 40% of respondents. This year only 15% put it first. Despite responding well to ad campaigns, consumers still feel supermarkets could do more. Some 94% said products, especially food, were overpackaged. Gandy said: "There is a direct correlation between being more green and people wanting to buy more from you." | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/katieallen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-06-01T23:01:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2018/dec/24/sunda-strait-tsunami-volcano-indonesia | Indonesia tsunami caused by collapse of volcano | The deadly tsunami in Indonesia was triggered by a chunk of the Anak Krakatau volcano slipping into the ocean, officials have confirmed, amid calls for a new early warning system that can detect volcanic eruptions. At least 373 people were killed and many buildings were heavily damaged when the tsunami struck, almost without warning, along the rim of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands late on Saturday. Anak Krakatau had been spewing ash and lava for months before a 64-hectare (158-acre) section of its south-west side collapsed, an Indonesian official said. “This caused an underwater landslide and eventually caused the tsunami,” said Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of the meteorological agency. Images captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite showed a large portion of the southern flank of the volcano had slid off into the ocean, scientists said. The fact that the tsunami was triggered by a volcano rather than an earthquake meant no tsunami warning was triggered, scientists said. Coastal residents reported not seeing or feeling any warning signs before waves of up to three metres high surged in. Hundreds of military personnel and volunteers spent Monday scouring beaches strewn with debris in search of survivors. At least 1,459 people were injured and more than 600 homes, 60 shops and 420 vessels damaged when the tsunami struck. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the chief spokesman for the Indonesian disaster agency, said the country had no early warning system for landslides or volcanic eruptions. “The current early warning system is for earthquake activity,” he wrote on Twitter. “Indonesia must build an early warning system for tsunamis that are generated by underwater landslides and volcanic eruptions … Landslides triggered the 1992 Maumere tsunami and the Palu 2018 tsunami.” He also said Indonesia’s tsunami buoy network had not been operational since 2012. “Vandalism, a limited budget and technical damage mean there were no tsunami buoys at this time,” Sutopo said. “They need to be rebuilt to strengthen the Indonesian tsunami early warning system. “Anak Krakatau has been erupting since June 2018 until now. Yesterday’s eruption was not the biggest. The October-November 2018 period had a larger eruption.” The death toll is expected to rise as 128 people were still missing on Monday. At least 1,600 people have also been displaced. Dody Ruswandi, a senior official at the disaster agency, added that the rescue effort was likely to last a week. Sutopo warned locals to stay away from the coast. “People should not carry out activities on the beach and stay away from the coast for a while,” he told reporters. The University of Queensland volcanologist Teresa Ubide said Anak Krakatau had been erupting for the past few months, which was not unusual. “It seems like the volcano is active at the moment and it may happen again,” Ubide said. “The volcano is very close to the shoreline so … there wouldn’t be much time to warn because it’s close and the tsunamis can travel very fast.” The lack of seismic activity that would accompany an earthquake was also significant, she added. Richard Teeuw of the University of Portsmouth said sonar surveys were needed to map the seafloor around the volcano, but that work usually took months. “The likelihood of further tsunamis in the Sunda Strait will remain high while Anak Krakatau volcano is going through its current active phase, because that might trigger further submarine landslides,” he said. Kathy Mueller from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said aid workers were helping evacuate injured people, bring in clean water and tarpaulins, and provide shelter. She said the group was preparing for the possibility of diseases breaking out in the tsunami zone, adding: “The situation, and the death toll, will remain fluid over the next days and even weeks.” The water washed away an outdoor stage where a local rock band, Seventeen, were performing, killing their bassist and manager. Other people who had been watching the band on the beach were missing. Azki Kurniawan, 16, said his first warning about the tsunami was when people burst into the lobby of the Patra Comfort hotel shouting: “Sea water rising.” Kurniawan, who was undergoing vocational training with a group of 30 other students, said he was confused because he had not felt a big earthquake. He said he ran to the car park to try to reach his motorbike but discovered it was already flooded. “Suddenly, a one-metre wave hit me,” he said, his eyes red and swollen from crying. “I was thrown into the fence of a building about 30 metres from the beach and held on to the fence as strong as I could, trying to resist the water, which felt like it would drag me back into the sea. I cried in fear ... ‘This is a tsunami?’ I was afraid I would die.” Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report | ['world/indonesia-tsunami-december-2018', 'world/indonesia', 'world/tsunamis', 'world/volcanoes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-martin', 'profile/naaman-zhou', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/indonesia-tsunami-december-2018 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-12-24T17:37:50Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2008/feb/28/plasticbags.marksspencer | M&S hopes to cut plastic bag use with 5p levy | Marks and Spencer will charge food customers 5p for every plastic carrier bag they use, the chain announced today. The charge is aimed at reducing demand for the bags, which campaigners say damage the environment. Marks and Spencer said money raised from the levy would be spent on improving parks and play areas across the country. Around 13bn plastic bags, which experts say can take up to 1,000 years to decay, are given free to UK shoppers every year. The move follows a trial at 50 stores in Northern Ireland and the south west of England which saw demand for polythene bags fall by more than 70%. If this figure was replicated across the country, the move could reduce the number of bags used by 280m each year, chief executive Sir Stuart Rose said. He said: "We want to make it easy for our customers to do their bit to help the environment and our trials have shown us that they want to take action. "Just imagine if M&S customers right across the UK cut the number of food bags they use by 70% - that's over 280m bags they'd be saving every year. "On top of this, our customers will be raising valuable funds to go to our partner charity, Groundwork, to invest in much-needed green spaces in our neighbourhoods." Groundwork's chief executive, Tony Hawkhead, said: "We all want our neighbourhoods to be cleaner and greener, and our experience shows that when a major household name takes the initiative, it can encourage millions of people to change their behaviour. "Not only will this scheme reduce the amount of food carrier bags sent to landfill sites but it will also help improve the quality of life in towns and cities across the country." Marks and Spencer will give all food customers free long-lasting bags from early April for one month. The 5p charge will begin on May 6. | ['environment/environment', 'business/marksspencer', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/waste', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/retail', 'uk/uk', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'profile/allegrastratton'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-02-28T11:01:31Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/dec/09/scottish-wildlife-government-funding-aoe | Scottish wildlife at risk after £100m funding cut, say charities | Public funding for environment bodies in Scotland has plummeted by 40% in a decade, placing already declining wildlife at risk, according to analysis of government budgets. Scottish Environment Link, a coalition of more than 35 wildlife, environment and countryside charities, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, WWF and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, estimates almost £100m has been slashed from the budgets of public agencies in Scotland between 2010-11 and 2019-20. The group described the cuts as “staggering”, given the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis. The agencies affected are Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) and several research institutes, including the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and Scotland’s Rural College. The Scottish government said the analysis gave a “misleading picture” and did not take into account EU and other sources of funding. Budgets had been constrained by UK-wide cuts, it said. Deborah Long, Scottish Environment Link’s chief officer, said: “Obviously there’s a lack of resources across the board: in the NHS, in policing. But what we’re seeing is that cuts to environment have been ongoing and we’re at a stage where if we want to tackle the biodiversity and climate crisis, that needs to be reflected in budgets. “If we are going to tackle the biodiversity and climate crisis you can’t do that with no money and no staffing.” Citing Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, who announced a climate emergency and the need for “transformative change” seven months ago, Long said there was a significant mismatch between words and action. Long said the State of Nature Scotland report, which showed 49% of species had decreased in abundance in Scotland and one in nine were facing extinction, had clarified the cause of biodiversity loss in Scotland and the UK. The budget cuts had put the agencies under strain, she said. “We can definitely see it reflected in the stresses in what the agencies are trying to do,” Long said. “There’s a need for action on the ground and for monitoring, Both of these are under severe stress. It is easy not to act until it’s too late.” Taking account of inflation, the analysis showed funding has dropped overall from £246m in 2010-11 to £147.5m in 2019-20. It looked at Sepa, Scotland’s environment regulator, SNH and the research bodies covered by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (Resas), and used draft budget equivalent figures, measured in 2019 prices. “Compared to nine years ago, the annual aggregate SNH, Resas and Sepa budgets have been cut by almost £100m, measured in 2019 prices, a staggering 40% reduction in real terms,” the Link reports. It called for funding for environmental agencies and research to be substantially increased. The report says UK government austerity measures are partly to blame. Ruchir Shah, the director of external affairs for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, described the analysis as “stark”. “It is counterproductive to shift resources away from nature as it has been shown how important it is to health and welfare,” he said. Aedán Smith, the head of policy at the RSPB in Scotland, said: “This definitely illustrates not only have we been underfunding nature and the environment but actually reducing funding. A transformative change is required. We need to be embedding tackling climate change and reversing the decline in nature.” A Scottish government spokesperson said the Link figures were inaccurate. “This analysis provides an incomplete and misleading picture of government spending on environment activity and relevant agencies,” they said. “It does not include other sources of funding nor recognise how the shift from one EU CAP programme to another might have affected the availability of funding for internal government research. It also does not include the full picture on other sources of funding such as European funds or in-year budget adjustments. “While budgets have been constrained over the past decade due to UK budget cuts, we have worked hard to provide our environment agencies with the necessary resources to fulfil their statutory functions and enabled them to increase revenue through environmental charges making polluters pay towards protecting our natural resources.” It had also expanded the range and number of agencies working in this area, it said. The SNH said that because of additional funding for peatland restoration from the Scottish government, its budget since 2017-18 had increased. It pointed out its European funding had also increased and “this year the Scottish government announced a £2m increase to the Biodiversity Challenge Fund”. A Sepa spokesperson said its staffing levels had remained consistent through the decade. Sepa said its baseline budget grant from the Scottish government was £34.2m in 2008-09, compared with £31.7m in 2019-20. Link’s figures were £45m in 2010-11, down to £34.4m in 2019-20. | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/biodiversity', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/conservation', 'politics/scotland', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'society/charities', 'society/society', 'society/voluntarysector', 'environment/wwf', 'environment/rspb', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-09T18:09:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2017/nov/08/rare-victory-for-rainforests-as-nations-vow-to-stop-death-by-chocolate | Rare victory for rainforests as nations vow to stop 'death by chocolate' | The governments of Ghana and the Ivory Coast are formulating plans to immediately put a stop to all new deforestation after a Guardian investigation found that the cocoa industry was destroying their rainforests. The west African neighbours have been drafting new measures to rescue their remaining forests and replant degraded ones. In an investigation published in September, the Guardian found that deforestation-linked cocoa had entered the supply chains of some of the biggest players in the chocolate industry. At the same time, the environmental group Mighty Earth published Chocolate’s Dark Secret, a report that found that “a large amount of the cocoa used in chocolate produced by Mars, Nestle, Hershey’s, Godiva, and other major chocolate companies was grown illegally.” Corrupt Ivorian officials whose job it was to protect the country’s national parks and classified forests were accepting huge bribes to allow small-scale farmers to cut them down and grow cocoa. This cocoa was then bought by middlemen who sold it on to large cocoa traders including Barry Callebaut and Cargill, companies which sell to Mars, Cadbury and Nestlé. The action taken by the governments is very promising, Mighty Earth said, but will not succeed unless the cocoa traders and chocolate manufacturers put money into the effort. “The big danger now is that the industry’s going to kick the can down the road and blame the Ghanaian and Ivorian governments and make them fix the problem without helping enough financially. But the people who have the money and the technical resources to fix it are the industry,” said Etelle Higonnet, the lead author of the Mighty Earth report. Contacted by the Guardian, the chocolatiers Mars, the Hershey Company and Mondelez, the owners of Cadbury, did not say that they would commit any money to the governments’ plans; Mondelez pointed to its sustainable sourcing programme Cocoa Life, while Hershey said that more than 75% of the cocoa it buys is certified and sustainable, and that it would be at 100% by 2020. Mars said that “joint frameworks for action” would be released at the climate change conference, outlining “the key actions, time frames, and technical and financial commitments for forest protection and restoration in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.” Under the Ivorian draft plans, which appear to be sanctioned by the prime minister’s office, these traders will each take responsibility for a number of degraded classified forests and turn them into densely shaded forest, organising farmers to plant trees while growing cocoa underneath them. This is a far more sustainable way of growing the cocoa on which the Ghanaian and Ivorian economies rely than the current way, whereby many farmers cut down ancient trees to ensure their cocoa plantations have full sun. As well as the effect that the decimation of west African rainforests has on global climate change, scientists say it also dramatically reduces rainfall. If current patterns continue, there will not be enough rain to grow cocoa at all. The handful of Ivorian classified forests that have not lost swaths of trees will be upgraded to national parks, while one national park, Marahoué, is in such a bad condition that it will probably be downgraded, perhaps to a classified forest. It is unclear who will pay for the Ivorian government’s plans. It expects the traders to pay, but has not made it clear what the consequences will be if they refuse. The number of people living inside protected areas makes it a complicated and fraught task: the government has faced accusations of human rights abuses for evicting thousands of cocoa farmers from Mont Péko national park. In Ghana, meanwhile, the plans are far-reaching, and if enacted, could transform the landscape, though it is unclear whether those drafting them have sufficient clout or money to do so. In addition to committing to no new deforestation, land and tree tenure reform, and transparency in the supply chain so that cocoa can be traced down to the farm gate level, ensuring that none of it comes from illegal protected areas, the government is also agreeing to the high carbon stock approach. This is a way of making decisions about land use that protects low as well as high-density forest, which means that more of Ghana’s forests can be salvaged. However, there is still less clarity on how this will be funded than in the Ivory Coast. Cocoa prices in both countries have fallen by a third in the past year, and Ghana’s economy has been affected by low gold and oil prices too, as well as a fiscal crisis that that the IMF plugged with credit that so far totals $565m. Monitoring and replanting the forests will cost tens of millions the country will struggle to afford. Chocolate companies and traders should pay, according to Higonnet. “The companies need to pay for planting the trees next year. They’re likely to reap a $4bn windfall profit, because the price of chocolate bars has stayed the same but the price of cocoa is collapsing,” she said. “So what can they do with that extra money? Well, they can use it to plant trees.” Many top players in the cocoa industry say they will release a “joint framework for action” with the governments on 17 November. But there is concern that a tightening in west Africa could just push the trade elsewhere. “Cocoa is moving into these frontier forests,” Higonnet said, “ in central Africa, Indonesia and the Amazon – and we will keep reproducing the same disasters that we saw in west Africa unless we protect those forests now.” | ['world/series/half-full-solutions-innovations-answers', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/ivory-coast', 'world/ghana', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ruth-maclean', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-special-projects'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-11-08T05:00:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/article/2024/may/22/uk-warning-china-threat-cybersecurity-infrastructure | UK not heeding warning over China threat, says ex-cybersecurity chief | The UK is not paying enough attention to a “gamechanging” shift in China’s cyber-espionage tactics towards infiltrating critical infrastructure including energy and communications networks, a former head of Britain’s cybersecurity agency has warned. Ciaran Martin, the ex-chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, said a warning from the US this year that Chinese state-backed hackers were targeting key sectors was a pivotal moment in Beijing’s approach to cyberwarfare. “The UK has not paid enough attention to a gamechanging warning from the US that China is planning disruption to key critical infrastructure,” Martin said. He said there should be more focus on the threat across the public and private sectors and “swaths of civil society”. Martin said the government should make clear in its public messaging to China that the threat of disruption to key infrastructure was unacceptable. “We should be clear where our red lines are and disruption of civilian infrastructure should be a red line,” he said. Speaking to the Guardian at the DTX conference at Manchester Tech Week, Martin said China had no history of disruptive cyber-operations, unlike Russia, but was now moving to Moscow-style tactics. “They’re preparing to be like Russia,” he said. He pointed to a warning in April from Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, the US domestic intelligence agency, that Chinese state-backed hackers had infiltrated key US infrastructure and were waiting for “just the right moment to deal a devastating blow”. Wray said a group known as Volt Typhoon had burrowed into American companies in the telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted. The tactic is known as “pre-positioning”. Wray said China was developing the “ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing”. He added: “Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic.” The US first revealed that Chinese state-backed hackers were seeking to lodge themselves in key domestic IT networks in February. Martin said an example of the disruption caused by infrastructure attacks could be seen at the British Library, which has been severely affected by a ransomware attack. Such attacks are typically carried out by Russia-based criminal gangs. “What if we had 100 British Library attacks all at once,” he said. Making further comments at a keynote speech at DTX, Martin said the disruption from cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure “probably wouldn’t directly kill anybody but it would hurt”. In March the UK confirmed that Beijing-backed hackers were responsible for a cyber-attack targeting the UK elections watchdog and a surveillance operation on British politicians. At the time, Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, said the government would “not hesitate to take swift and robust actions wherever the Chinese government threatens the United Kingdom’s interests”. Martin, a professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, welcomed a report by the tech website The Record that the UK government was considering making reporting of ransomware attacks mandatory and requiring victims to seek a licence before making ransom payments. “I am really glad they are taking it so seriously,” he said. | ['uk/uksecurity', 'technology/cyberwar', 'world/china', 'uk/uk', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/danmilmo', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-05-22T15:43:24Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2023/oct/14/it-was-a-plague-killarney-becomes-first-irish-town-to-ban-single-use-coffee-cups | ‘It was a plague’: Killarney becomes first Irish town to ban single-use coffee cups | Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park. The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste. Not any more. Three months ago, Killarney became the first town in Ireland to phase out single-use coffee cups. If you want a takeaway coffee from a cafe or hotel, you must bring your own cup or pay a €2 deposit for a reusable cup that is returned when the cup is given back. The results are evident in bins, which now seldom overflow, and on streets and forest trails where it is rare to see abandoned cups. “It was a plague on the town and countryside,” said Michael Gleeson, chair of the group Killarney Looking Good, that promotes civic improvements. “This was a wonderful and necessary initiative. The amount of cups strewn around is considerably reduced.” On a stretch of the N22 road to Cork, Gleeson used to pick up five or six cups, now he tends to find just one, if any. Other Kerry towns, including Tralee and Dingle, are considering emulating the experiment, and the hope is that it will spread across Ireland and beyond, said Gleeson. “Our great challenge is to make our world more beautiful.” Eliminating single-use cups sounds a relatively modest goal but only a handful of other towns, such as Freiburg in Germany, are known to have tried similar initiatives. The people behind Killarney’s campaign know why – it’s not easy. “We were looking at options for community projects, and we thought, ‘Oh, coffee cups, that’ll be quick’,” said Louise Byrne, a sustainability manager for the Killarney Park Hotel and The Ross. “Oh, were we wrong,” said Ciara Treacy, another hotel manager. “It takes a lot of work, and it doesn’t stop. People think we’re the coffee cup police. We’re not. We have jobs.” Pilot projects in other places faltered because participating cafes discovered that customers migrated to cafes that continued offering disposable cups, said Treacy. “The minute you give consumers the choice, they’ll take the convenience.” The campaign sought to enlist all of Killarney’s 21 independent cafes, a lengthy process of individual face-to-face meetings, research, negotiations, a town hall-style gathering, a video, and more discussions. In addition to environmental benefits, the organisers said cafes could save money – each disposable cup costs 20 to 30 cents – and enhance Killarney’s brand. Still, some cafe owners worried about forfeiting their stocks of single-use cups and alienating local customers as well as tourists. Eventually, nearly all signed up, and a credit union donated €5,000 for marketing, paving the way to the launch on 31 July. “If it can be done in Killarney, at the height of the tourist season, it can be done anywhere,” said Killian Treacy, of Luna Deli + Wine. More than 50 local businesses are now on board, including a factory that told staff to bring only reusable cups to work. “It’s a great idea,” said Paul McClure, 43, visiting from San Diego. He had no objection to paying a €2 deposit for a takeaway cup that could be returned to any cafe in Killarney or 400 locations across Ireland, including Dublin airport, that are part of a wider campaign. Thorunn Einarsdottir, sipping a flat white, said the scheme could work in her native Iceland. “It’s really smart. It’s like learning to organise your trash – it’s habit.” Replicating the scheme in cities would require government intervention because not every cafe would voluntarily sign up, said Killian Treacy. The Irish government’s planned 20-cent tax on disposable coffee cups, known as the latte levy, is a start, but not enough, he said. Killarney cannot take success for granted – businesses need regular reassurance and updates, said Ciara Treacy. “There is a lot of hand-holding.” At least one holdout remains. “We have a big stock of disposable cups to use up,” said Elaine Leahy of Noelle’s cafe, which has stayed out of the scheme. That has had a knock-on effect on a neighbouring cafe, Rí-Rá, which has resumed using single-use cups as well as reusables. Byrne is confident the scheme will continue to expand with help from community leaders and schools. “We can’t save the world but each of us can make a little change.” | ['world/ireland', 'food/coffee', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'uk/uk', 'food/food', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-10-14T14:00:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2016/mar/03/oregon-coal-climate-law-kate-brown | Oregon becomes first state to pass law to completely eliminate coal-fired power | Oregon has become the first US state to pass laws to rid itself of coal, committing to eliminate the use of coal-fired power by 2035 and to double the amount of renewable energy in the state by 2040. Legislation passed by the state’s assembly, which will need to be signed into law by Governor Kate Brown, will transition Oregon away from coal, which currently provides around a third of the state’s electricity supply. At the same time, the state will also require its two largest utilities to increase their share of clean energy, such as solar and wind, to 50% by 2040. Combined with Oregon’s current hydroelectric output, the state will be overwhelmingly powered by low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels. Climate campaigners said the legislation was a landmark moment and showed that the US was moving rapidly towards renewables, despite the temporary block placed by the supreme court on the Obama administration’s clean power plan. “This historic step forward is the most significant legislative action the US has taken since the Paris climate agreement,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “Oregon’s climate leadership is an example for states across the country.” State Republicans claimed the bill would drive up energy bills for households while resulting in a negligible impact upon the environment. “You don’t have to be a climate denier to dislike this bill,” said state senator Ted Ferrioli. Pacific Power, one of the largest utilities in Oregon, said the shift would raise costs by less than 1% a year until 2030 and would reduce carbon pollution by 30m metric tons. “Maintaining the affordability and the reliability of the electric grid is very important to us,” said Scott Bolton, Pacific Power’s vice-president of external affairs. “Working through the legislative process with a diverse range of stakeholders, we have meaningfully advanced Oregon’s clean energy future in a way that is both workable and affordable.” Oregon, which has a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, from 2005 levels, follows the UK’s decision to phase out coal-fired power within 10 years and China’s ban on all coal mine approvals over the next three years. No similar edicts have been issued in the US until now, although Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, has said he aimed to wind down coal power plants in the state by 2020. | ['environment/coal', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'us-news/oregon', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2016-03-03T22:43:20Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2021/jul/25/thunderstorms-leave-cars-and-buses-stranded-in-london | Thunderstorms leave roads and tube stations flooded in London | Torrential rain has flooded roads and tube stations in London after thunderstorms hit the south of England on Sunday. Barts Health NHS trust declared a major incident after the flooding led to problems at Whipps Cross hospital and Newham Hospital in the east of the city. A statement from the trust says: “We are working closely with our local partners to resolve the issues and maintain patient care and — while services remain available for people in an emergency — patients are asked to attend alternative hospitals where they can, to help us put solutions in place as quickly as possible.” Police had to close a road in south-west London where three doubledecker buses were stuck under a railway bridge, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse. The driver said passengers had to get off after his bus started taking on water. Other motorists in Walthamstow, north-east London, had to abandon their vehicles. It was also reported that some residents there were in waist-high water in their homes with emergency service called to rescue them. Portobello Road in west London was also deluged, according to social media posts. Met Office and Environment Agency rain gauges showed there was 48.5mm (1.9in) of rain in one hour at Bethersden in Kent between 3pm and 4pm on Sunday. There was 38.5mm in one hour at Ryde, Isle of Wight, and 20-30mm in one hour in parts of London and nearby counties. London fire brigade said it had taken 300 flooding-related calls in just a few hours on Sunday. The Standon Calling music festival, which had been taking place in Hertfordshire with a capacity of 15,000, was called off due to flooding. Standon Calling said on Twitter: “If you can safely leave the site this evening please do so as soon as possible. We are working on getting everyone off site as safely and quickly as possible.” The festival said it expected “considerable delays” leaving the site and warned festivalgoers not to drive if intoxicated. The Environment Agency on Sunday issued five flood warnings across the southern parts of England and 19 flood alerts, which included parts of Wales. A yellow thunderstorm warning was in place until midnight on Sunday covering an area of the south from Norwich to Plymouth. An amber warning for thunderstorms had previously been issued by the Met Office for parts of south-east England, including the London area, during Sunday afternoon and early evening. Met Office meteorologist Steven Keates said the storms were being caused by a convergence of air currents as warmth in the Earth’s surface from the recent heatwave rose to meet cooler air in the atmosphere. Forecasters said Monday would be a “slightly quieter” day in the south with a few locally sharp showers and some heavier showers across the north of the UK. However, through the coming week, the unsettled weather will continue and further rain and thunderstorm warnings could be issued for Tuesday and onwards. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'uk/wales', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jane-clinton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-07-25T21:53:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/aug/26/climate-camp-location | Blackheath revealed as Climate Camp location | Thousands of green activists are descending on Blackheath in south-east London for this summer's Climate Camp after being sent on a wild goose chase around London by cryptic text messages sent out by the camp's organisers. Environmental protesters at seven "swoop" locations dotted around central London had been directed to wait for text messages at noon revealing the secret location. At 12.30 at least three groups received messages to move but their final destination was not initially confirmed. Rumours spread on Twitter and blogs that the end point for the swoop might be City airport or Hackney Marshes but it became increasingly obvious that the final location would be to the east of the city. Some people have started to arrive at Blackheath but none of the groups had made it by 2.30pm. At 12.30 the brown/white group were told: "Head north over London bridge and take a tour of the city! Please stay together and keep it slow," while the group of cyclists at Waterloo were told to head for London Bridge. A third group at St James's Square were told to head to Trafalgar Square. Organisers of the camp were reluctant to reveal the location until the first day because they feared that police might stop the event from going ahead. The Metropolitan police have promised not to use heavy-handed tactics but have criticised Climate Camp for not cooperating with them over the location. Senior officers have held five meetings with protesters to prepare for the event, which has been promoted on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, saying they intend to use "community-style" policing to avoid a repetition of their controversial handling of protests during the G20 summit. The Met has activated its own Twitter account, CO11MetPolice, to spread information on its operation. Climate Camp reacted by releasing a video condemning police tactics. The voiceover said: "Judging from past experience the best thing the police could do to ensure the health and safety of Climate Camp in 2009 would be to stay as far away from it as possible." The seven "swoop" locations where activists have gathered have been chosen because of their significance to climate change or deaths linked to police action. One group gathered at Stockwell tube station, the site of the shooting by police of Jean Charles de Menezes. Another group gathered in Threadneedle Street, near the spot where the newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson collapsed and died after being struck by a police officer during the G20 demonstrations in April. Today police said that everyone attending the protest would be photographed for their records. In a national opinion poll commissioned by the charity Christian Aid this week, 33% of people said that recording protesters was a breach of their privacy, while 18% said they had been put off going to environmental protests by police tactics. The camp is planned to run until 2 September and organisers say that attendees will meet to discuss climate change, learn how to live more sustainably and undergo training for direct action. There are also rumours that 20 targets in London have been discussed for potential direct action. • You can read a live blog of today's events here. | ['environment/climate-camp', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'world/protest', 'uk/uk', 'uk/police', 'politics/politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesranderson'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2009-08-26T13:40:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2023/jul/16/the-french-dont-need-president-macron-to-tell-us-how-to-make-do-and-mend | The French don’t need President Macron to tell us to make do and mend | Agnès Poirier | ‘In France, we have no petrol, but we have ideas.” So goes a popular French saying born in the 1970s during the oil crisis. Said differently, France is a champion of quirky initiatives that can feel both admirable and somewhat pointless. The latest in a series of eco-friendly measures taken by the French government is the “repair bonus”. Instead of throwing into the bin a pair of ripped trousers, a bag with a broken strap or a moth-eaten polo neck, the state will pay for them to be mended at your local cobbler or retoucheur (sewing workshops). From October and for the next five years, we will be able to claim back between €6-€25 of the costs of mending our clothes and shoes with artisans who have joined the scheme. The hope is to help create a virtuous circle, change habits for the planet’s sake (700,000 tonnes of clothing is thrown away in France every year), sustain local artisans and even create jobs in what we now need to call the “refashion” sector. Three years ago, a similar scheme encouraged my compatriots to fix their old toasters or rickety washing machines, rather than dispose of them out of frustration. Legislators even obliged companies to revise their obsolescence strategy by publishing a “repairability index” for each item produced. Consumers can now buy new home appliances knowing in advance how easy (or difficult) they are to repair. I get it: every little helps in the race to reduce our carbon footprint, and the fashion industry is one of the most polluting. But what fresh hell! To think that we need the government to remind us of the most basic things in life, like repairing what’s broken rather than throwing it away in a childish fit? Have we gone amnesic as a nation? Can’t we remember our mothers/grandmothers/aunts knitting clothes, darning socks and trousers in front of the telly, sewing house linens on old Singer machines; and wearing our older siblings’ clothes? I can perfectly recall the satisfaction of seeing through the fabric of a worn-out pair of jeans: it meant I could finally buy a new pair, or better still, some funky vintage denim at the Paris flea markets. So cool and so écolo, as we used to say before “eco-friendly” was coined. I’m not that ancient that I don’t also remember the beginning of fast food and fast fashion in the 1980s. I was a kid and I remember the heady feeling of a new way of life: cheap, fast and… fat-free. The euphoria didn’t last long: images of children producing polyester clothes by the millions in Asia, and acres of landfill piled high with textile detritus did not feel like progress. As for the fat-free industry, what a con. So let’s focus on the task and go further, please! What we need is President Macron on the phone to the Musks and Zuckerbergs of this world, enrolling an army of influencers to spread the “old is cool” mantra on social networks. The fashionistas under 40 will love how a patched elbow will be perceived as virtue signalling, their favourite pastime. As for us over 40, it will be the most welcome return of common sense. And if I can give one last piece of advice to the French government, instead of subsidising mending and repairing, why don’t schools teach every child, girl and boy alike, please, how to sew, cut, knit and mend clothes? So the next generation remembers their grandfather and father darning socks in front of Call My Agent!. • Agnès Poirier is a political commentator | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/recycling', 'fashion/fashion', 'world/europe-news', 'world/france', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'environment/landfill', 'fashion/fashion-industry', 'type/article', 'profile/agnespoirier', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-07-16T08:32:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2021/oct/27/the-coalitions-net-zero-policy-is-merely-a-plan-to-freeload-off-the-rest-of-the-world | The Coalition’s net zero policy is merely a plan to freeload off the rest of the world | Tristan Edis | The Morrison government has now confirmed that it will target net zero emissions for Australia by 2050. But, unlike Europe, the US and China, the Morrison government believes we’ll manage to reduce emissions to zero without implementing any legislation that either requires businesses to reduce their emissions or that of their products; or provides funding to pay these businesses to reduce their emissions at mass scale. Instead the government has a plan for “technology not taxes”. Underpinning this three-word slogan is the argument that Australian businesses and households will reduce emissions almost entirely as a result of their own voluntary initiative. The government simply doesn’t need to legislate things like renewable energy targets, or emission limits applying to car exhausts or smoke stacks, or even provide rebates to install batteries or buy electric vehicles. In the government’s favour is that a range of carbon abatement technologies are managing to achieve substantial reductions in costs. As a result both business and household demand for these products has been expanding. One in four Australian homes now have a solar system installed. In addition, we’ve seen a range of a big corporates over the past two years make commitments to offset a substantial proportion, if not all, of their electricity consumption through the purchase of renewable energy certificates. More recently we’ve also seen the price of Australian carbon credits traded above $30, which is far higher than the price the government has been offering to pay via its abatement purchasing auctions of around $16 to $17. Also, some of the world’s biggest motor vehicle manufacturers have indicated their intentions to move most or all of their models to be fully electric over the next 10 to 15 years. So does this mean the government is off the hook? Solar headwinds While solar is now on a fifth of homes, landlords have proven to be utterly uninterested in installing solar or any other energy efficiency upgrades to their rental properties. These represent a third of all households and their share is growing. Also by 2025 solar generation will approach the point where it will regularly exceed overall grid demand during the midday period. This will lead to increasing solar spillage and deteriorating interest in solar systems unless government can spur greater uptake of batteries. Voluntary offset demand from the private sector remains tiny relative to overall emissions Green Energy Markets estimates demand for renewable energy outside the legislated renewable energy target is expected to dramatically expand from 688GWh in 2018 to reach 12,662GWh by 2025, after which it stalls. Although 3,600GWh of this is actually as a result of government policies, leaving about 9,000GWh that is driven by private sector voluntary action. That is equal to under 4% of Australia’s total electricity consumption. Now it’s likely that further voluntary commitments to purchase renewable energy will come, but even if we doubled demand it would still be comfortably less than 10% of Australian electricity consumption. Meanwhile total voluntary demand for Australian carbon credits in 2021 was less than 2 million tonnes according to analysts Market Advisory Group. By 2030 they expect it to grow to roughly about 4 million tonnes which is less than 1% of Australia’s total emissions. Dramatic reductions are being achieved in Australia’s electricity emissions, but what’s really driving change isn’t so much voluntary demand as government policy. It’s just that policy is coming from state governments. But it would be so much more efficient if this could be done nationally. Does Australia want to be lumped with the next Betamax video tape? Given the plans of the world’s major motor vehicle manufacturers Australia will inevitably move to electric vehicles. However, if the Morrison government does little to expand the availability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and refuses to upgrade our vehicle emissions standards in line with those overseas, we run the risk of becoming a dumping ground for obsolete oil-fuelled vehicles over this decade. Consumers will initially think this is great as they get cut-price cars. But after 2030 they could find themselves with a vehicle that is the equivalent of a Betamax video tape player in a world of Netflix. That could make keeping that car on the road increasingly expensive, while also leaving Australia with a long-term emissions legacy given how long cars last. Don’t get too excited about cheap hydrogen While the Morrison government doesn’t believe it needs to do much to drive adoption of renewable energy or electric vehicles, it has indicated that it will help fund technological research and development of things like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, low emission metal production and measurement of soil carbon. Yet even if the government was spectacularly successful in achieving its stated cost targets for these technologies, they would still remain financially unattractive. So these will remain left on the shelf without legislation that bridges this cost premium. Freeloading off the rest of the world The Morrison government is correct that even if they do nothing, Australia will still significantly reduce emissions from electricity and transport thanks to technological advancements driven by other nations. But for these technological advancements to transpire will require substantial investments and policies that will impose additional costs on these nations, at least in the short term. While it might seem like it’s worth a try to see if we can get away with it through the government’s technology not taxes plan, do we really want to simply freeload off these other nations when it comes to climate change? • Tristan Edis is the director of analysis and advisory at Green Energy Markets | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/tristan-edis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2021-10-27T01:05:57Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/jan/11/trusts-critics-cant-see-the-wood-for-the-trees | Trust’s critics can’t see the wood for the trees | Letters | The response in your letters section to the northern forest raised some useful points (Development for the north? Let them eat wood, 9 January). However, drawing parallels between the Woodland Trust’s native woodland policy and xenophobia demonstrates ignorance of the ecology and the conservation of semi-natural woodlands. Britain’s native woodlands are so diverse because of the association and dependency of species that have co-evolved over several thousand years. The accusation that we create “plantations of birch and rowan and field maple, producing scrub rather than woodland” couldn’t be further from the truth (and, by the way, scrub habitat has huge conservation value). We use local tree and shrub species to create diverse, functioning and resilient habitats for biodiversity and local communities. While other organisations have an important role in promoting non-native species for productive forests, our aim has been to champion and protect what’s left of our precious ancient woodland and create new native woodlands where the opportunity arises. Readers should be reassured, all our native tree species (with the exception of some rare Sorbus species) are actually quite “multicultural” and are found throughout many other parts of Europe. Dr James Paterson Conservation adviser, Woodland Trust • I fear that your correspondent Derek Goldrei is being overoptimistic. Decades before the northern forest is harvested for sleepers or anything else, millions of leaves will have rained down, ensuring that the polluting, underpowered bi-mode and diesel trains (foisted on us by the Department for Transport’s abandonment of electrification) will for years to come be slipping and sliding up the gradients of the Pennines every autumn. Paul Birchall Derby • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-01-11T19:14:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2009/oct/26/copenhagen-climate-summit-targets-gm | Letters: Copenhagen targets need to be stronger | You report that EU environment ministers have proposed targets to cut global climate emissions from shipping and aviation in the run-up to Copenhagen (Report, 22 October), but you fail to mention that, because the targets would only be measured from 2005 levels – a reduction of 10% for aviation and 20% for shipping by 2020 – this would actually allow emissions to increase by up to one-third on 1990 levels. Here is a clear demonstration of the extent to which these industries still receive special treatment. While I welcome the long-overdue decision to bring their emissions under control with binding targets, it is still extremely disappointing. What's more, it is likely that most of these reductions could be offset by carbon credits from projects whose true additionality and contribution to emission reductions remain in doubt. EU leadership will count for nothing as long as a smoke-and-mirrors approach is taken to targets and timetables. Emission cuts need to be in line with the latest science, and significant resources for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries – in the region of €35bn a year by 2020 from the EU alone – need to be on the table if we are to have any hope of a deal at Copenhagen. Caroline Lucas MEP Green party • I have little doubt the Royal Society is correct in its report that GM technology is essential if the growing world population is to be fed (Report, 21 October). But isn't it ignoring a fundamental issue: population. What does the Royal Society suggest we do next when the global mouth increases beyond the reach of GM technology? Dr Richard Miller Addlestone, Surrey | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/letters', 'environment/environment', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'environment/gm', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-10-26T00:05:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/dec/16/more-than-1-in-10-species-could-be-lost-by-end-of-century-study-warns-aoe | More than 1 in 10 species could be lost by end of century, study warns | Earth could lose more than a tenth of its plant and animal species by the end of the century on current trends, according to new research which comes as nearly 3,000 scientists call for action from governments to stop the destruction of nature in the final days of negotiations at Cop15. The climate crisis will drive an accelerating cascade of extinctions in the coming decades, as predators lose their prey, parasites lose their hosts, and temperature rises fracture Earth’s web of life, according to the researchers, who warn of the risk of co-extinctions in a paper published on Friday in Science Advances. From leaf frogs to basking sharks, the extinction risk of plants and animals is typically monitored on the IUCN red list, where scientists have published their analysis on threats to more than 150,388 species, finding that more than 42,000 could go extinct, often due to human behaviour. However, the new research has used a supercomputer to model a synthetic Earth complete with virtual species to understand the effect global heating and land use change could have on the web of life. The researchers say 6% of plants and animals will disappear by 2050 in a middle of the road emissions scenario, which the world appears to be heading for, rising to 13% by the end of the century. In the worst case scenario of global heating, they estimate 27% of plants and animals could disappear by 2100. “We have populated a virtual world from the ground up and mapped the resulting fate of thousands of species across the globe to determine the likelihood of real-world tipping points,” said Dr Giovanni Strona, the lead author and a former scientist at the University of Helsinki, now at the European Commission. “This study is unique because it accounts also for the secondary effect on biodiversity, estimating the effect of species going extinct in local food webs beyond direct effects. The results demonstrate that interlinkages within food webs worsen biodiversity loss,” said the study’s co-author, Prof Corey Bradshaw of Flinders University in Australia. “Think of a predatory species that loses its prey to climate change. The loss of the prey species is a ‘primary extinction’ because it succumbed directly to a disturbance. But with nothing to eat, its predator will also go extinct (a co-extinction). Or, imagine a parasite losing its host to deforestation, or a flowering plant losing its pollinators because it becomes too warm. Every species depends on others in some way,” he said. Using hundreds of virtual Earths populated by more than 33,000 species, scientists looked at how relationships between virtual plants and animals changed due to different biodiversity loss drivers. The virtual species were able to recolonise new regions of the planet and adapt to changing conditions in the model, say researchers, who found that climate change would be the main drive of extinctions. The research comes as talks at the biggest biodiversity conference in a decade reach critical point in Montreal. More than 100 environment ministers from around the world are discussing this decade’s targets to protect Earth’s biodiversity. In the city’s first big snowstorm of the winter, late-night discussions are expected this weekend as ministers seek to resolve divisions between the global north and south about finance for new draft conservation targets to protect 30% of Earth and restore an area the size of China. In an open letter, more than 2,700 scientists have called for governments to tackle overconsumption of the Earth’s resources in the final text and begin reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. “The Parties to Cop15 must commit to halting and starting to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, to set us on a pathway to recovery where ecosystems can provide the functions that people need. There is a moral obligation to do so. Furthermore, it makes scientific sense, and is achievable if we act now, and act decisively. We owe this to ourselves and to future generations – we can’t wait any longer,” the letter, signed by leading researchers, reads. It says that the action on biodiversity loss in the Cop15 agreement, known as the global biodiversity framework, must involve an agricultural transformation, and warns a delay in meaningful action on the destruction of nature will exacerbate human poverty and inequity. “We will not succeed without putting as much effort into the goals and targets relating to the fundamental drivers of ecosystem destruction and biodiversity loss, including making our supply chains resilient and sustainable,” the letter reads. “This requires attention to the disproportionately harmful consumption of wealthy nations, and to the rights and priorities of disadvantaged groups. Critically, this means that wealthy nations and actors need urgently and rapidly to reduce the impacts of their consumption, rather than imposing all the costs of nature recovery on less-wealthy nations where the biodiversity predominately remains,” the letter says. Negotiations are scheduled to conclude on Monday 19 December, although they are likely to overrun. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/cop15', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/plants', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-12-16T19:00:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/oct/24/why-arent-we-in-prison-ask-insulate-britain-protesters | Why aren’t we in prison, ask Insulate Britain protesters | Climate protest group Insulate Britain has revealed its “absolute disbelief” that its members have been allowed to repeatedly disrupt the motorway network, saying it had originally expected its campaign of direct action to last just two days. As the group prepares for a fresh wave of protests this week, organisers admit they are baffled over why the police have effectively allowed them to keep closing major routes. Activists have so far orchestrated a five-week campaign that has provoked clashes with angry motorists and government threats. Following a 10-day pause, it is about to restart. During 14 separate days of direct action, hundreds of group members have been arrested yet, despite some being apprehended 10 or 11 times, none has been detained on remand. On Friday, the Metropolitan police said it had arrested 207 activists, with many other arrests occurring outside the force area. A spokesman for Insulate Britain said that the group had initially expected the campaign to be extremely short-lived because all its members would be in custody. They also revealed that police had politely emailed to ask for details in advance of where the group planned to protest so they could deploy resources, but said Insulate Britain was under no obligation to offer advance warnings. “It’s fair to say that there is absolute disbelief and surprise that the campaign has lasted this long. We assumed that we would not be allowed to carry on disrupting the motorway network to the extent that we have been. We thought that people would basically be in prison,” said the spokesman. Since 13 September, Insulate Britain has staged demonstrations on the M25 and M4, and on major arterial roads in London, as well as around the port of Dover, causing widespread gridlock. The government has responded by taking out injunctions, banning the group from protesting on specific sections of the strategic road network, which Insulate Britain has defied. Breaching an injunction can lead to charges of contempt of court and a jail sentence. “The police absolutely have powers to imprison people, the courts have powers to imprison Insulate Britain activists. The powers that the state has to protect the public were not used. If our actions are as dangerous and as disruptive as is being claimed, then I think the question has to be, why were we allowed to continue day after day?” said Insulate Britain. After the first five Insulate Britain actions, the government also won a court ruling that climate change protesters could be jailed if they continued blocking the M25. Activists defied the ruling, prompting the home secretary, Priti Patel, to tell the Conservative party conference that new orders would stop the “small minority of offenders” intent on “causing disruption”. Transport secretary Grant Shapps has also warned that activists face possible imprisonment. Yet the group says that the reality has been far different from the rhetoric and that it is continuing to attract new members willing to participate in direction action. “Priti Patel and Grant Shapps and the government are trying to have their cake and eat it at the moment. They’re saying: ‘We will act on this, look how tough we’re being.’ And at the same time, they’re refusing to take action, ” they said. One theory among organisers is that the government is keen to avoid detaining members who could be presented as “climate prisoners” when the Cop26 climate summit opens in Glasgow next weekend. Insulate Britain is calling for a national programme to ensure homes are insulated by 2030, which government experts on climate change believe is essential to meet targets on reducing carbon emissions. The National Police Chiefs’ Council has been approached for comment on the law enforcement strategy towards the group. In a recent open letter to Boris Johnson, Insulate Britain said it “profoundly” acknowledges the disruption caused. | ['environment/insulate-britain', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'uk/police', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/marktownsend', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-24T07:40:04Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sustainable-business/2016/jul/10/rainwater-beer-amsterdam-hemelswater-rainfall-climate-change-de-prael-brewery | 'Heaven's water': the launch of Amsterdam’s first rainwater beer | It may have been the wettest June since records began in some of the Netherlands, but that’s no reason for the Dutch to be despondent. A small group of entrepreneurs has demonstrated that it’s the perfect excuse to make beer, launching a brew made from rainwater. The idea is that with climate change linked to increased rainfall in the Netherlands – just as in the UK – they might as well use it as a business opportunity. At the De Prael brewery in Amsterdam early on Friday evening, bitter lovers turned up for a free tasting of Hemelswater: code blond, a 5.7% beer made from ultra-filtered rain, organic malted barley and wheat, hops and yeast. “It’s a bitter blond, like an IPA,” explains Hemelswater (which means heaven’s water in Dutch) co-founder Joris Hoebe, “It’s quite bitter, fruity and soft.” The social entrepreneur and student coach got involved in this project, inspired by a government spin-off called Amsterdam Rainproof. This body aims to make citizens aware of the problems of heavy rainfall and take action (pdf) to increase the city’s sponge capacity, so that rainwater is absorbed or used instead of causing flash-floods. “We get lousy summers and a lot of rain,” says 37-year-old Hoebe. “As a hobby, I was also brewing beer and noticed you need a lot of water. I was thinking, why don’t we put these two together: the abundance of rainwater and the need for water to brew beer?” Together with a group of four students and a researcher from the startup development initiative MediaLAB Amsterdam, Hoebe set up two huge tanks in the grounds of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Obligingly, May brought two weekends of heavy rain and the team managed to push 1,000 litres of rainwater to De Prael brewery in central Amsterdam, which had agreed to be their partner. Using a special bacterial filtration system also called Hemelswater, they filtered the beer and handed it over to be boiled and made into the brewery’s simplest beer. The brew is currently on sale for around €2 (£1.70) a bottle, and will be served on tap at various restaurants and bars around the Dutch capital (for around €4 or £3.40). “In the next year, we want to scale up with hundreds of these tanks across the city, on [the roof space of] companies, restaurants and cafes,” says Hoebe. “We want them to catch the water, we’ll put in sensors and when their tanks are full, we’ll collect the water with electric cars and filter it. We are thinking about making beer, sorbet, soup and lemonade.” There is a precedent, he adds. “It seems like a disruptive idea, but when we researched it, in the middle ages, [Dutch] breweries set up near churches and cathedrals to catch rainwater runoff from their roofs. People may worry that about the cleanliness of rainwater, but Hoebe says “you boil the beer so bacteria are killed. There are a lot of problems with drinking water, with more drugs and hormones [found in it]. We believe that with rainwater, we can make cleaner beer.” De Prael liked the sound of the project from the start, says marketing manager Thomas Gesink. Founded 13 years ago, the Amsterdam brewery employs people facing difficulties in getting a job, training them in the art of making beer (with some support from social funds). It is set to expand to a second site, and is planning a rainwater tank for the roof to make more code blond beer – whose name is inspired by Dutch colour-coded weather warnings. “We have this goal to contribute to a better society, and we like to use and make products that are good for the environment,” says Gesink. “The idea is to have cafes catch their own water that we use to make their beer.” Daniel Goedbloed, programme manager at Amsterdam Rainproof, said the body was created by the Dutch water infrastructure organisation Waternet in response to a disastrous 2011 cloudburst in Copenhagen, which saw six inches of rainfall in less than three hours causing £688m of damage. “They thought how vulnerable Amsterdam is with all its canals,” he explains. His group gives commissions to small projects, encourages people to create rain-friendly gardens and green roofs, and lobbies larger building projects to incorporate rainwater gathering. A new island in the IJburg artificial island chain in Amsterdam, for instance, is now being rainproofed, and Mirandabad swimming pool has a parking area on large plastic crates of gravel, so rainwater drains through quickly. There are government grants to make green roofs and Amsterdam Rainproof is working with other organisations to encourage crowdfunding. “Rain beer is great,” said Goedbloed. “We say every drop counts, and don’t just look at the down sides. Look at the fact that you can use rainwater to green the city and make it more attractive or even flush your toilet. Hemelswater uses rainwater to make a really nice product: beer. It’s fun, and a lot of people drink beer.” | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'world/netherlands', 'world/europe-news', 'food/beer', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/water', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/senay-boztas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-07-10T07:00:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/2014/oct/21/berkeley-laboratory-low-energy-flexlab-san-francisco-carbon-footprint-biotech | Hacking the optimal office space | High in the hills of Berkeley, California, a series of boxy structures contain experiments that will affect the health and comfort of employees of firms just across the bay. These odd garage-like structures are test areas for energy-efficient buildings that allow architects and builders to determine how well their designs will fare in a simulated setting before completing the engineering or construction of a project. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory launched the $15.9m Facility for Low-Energy eXperiments, or Flexlab, just this summer. “Often times buildings don’t perform the way they are supposed to from an energy-efficiency perspective. The calculations from vendors are theoretical,” said Carla Boragno, vice president of site services at Genentech, one of Flexlab’s first contractors for an office building that’s under construction in south San Francisco. “A building is made up of multiple components. The ability to test these components to see how well they work together in the micro climate of south San Francisco is something that the vendors can’t do on their own,” Boragno said. Commercial buildings, which include offices, schools and hospitals, account for about 20% of all energy use in the US and rack up over $200bn in power bills each year, according to the US Department of Energy. Residential energy use is equal to that. Inefficient building design, equipment and operation squanders about 20% of that energy in each sector. States such as California and Washington have adopted some of the most stringent building codes, which require builders and owners to use energy-efficient layouts and equipment for lighting, cooling, heating, ventilation and other building operations. These products and services and the push to create zero-energy homes and buildings – ones that don’t use more energy than what they could produce onsite over a year period – is creating a growing market for technology developers, manufacturers, banks and service providers. The zero-energy building market is expected to grow from $629m in 2014 to over $1.4tn by 2035 worldwide, according to Navigant Consulting. For a growing number of businesses, it’s not just about complying with regulations. Those wanting to cut energy use, lower their carbon footprints and, increasingly, create a more comfortable and productive work environment through more energy-efficient designs are also asking architects and contractors to design and build more thoughtfully. There is no shortage of sustainable and energy-efficient materials and equipment on the market today, but there are few means for builders to figure out not only whether each can perform as promised but also collectively if they are a good fit, said Cindy Regnier, executive manager of Flexlab. “Historically, we focused on a single widget or component. To achieve energy efficiency, we need to integrate them and get the system to operate together,” Regnier said. In practice Flexlab features four spaces, each with two cells for comparison testing. One of the four test labs sits on a concrete slab that rotates with a three-horsepower motor to vary the room’s orientation to the sun and mimic a certain time of day or a particular season. The rooms are specially wired and embedded with sensors to collect data on all sorts of metrics: lighting, shade, air- and water-based heat and cooling, among others. There’s also roof space for testing solar panels. The testing facility targets three areas of users: architects and contractors, manufacturers, and utilities. Many utilities across the country offer rebates for buying energy-efficient appliances and tips for cutting excess energy use. As more households install solar panels or purchase electric vehicles, the amount and timing of delivered energy changes, which requires utilities to re-think how they balance supply with demand to run the electric grid smoothly. For biotech company Genentech, the goal is to allow its in-house building manager and project contractor, Webcor Builders, to try out some of the controls for the electrical and mechanical systems, such as lighting and shading, along with different office furniture layouts, chosen for the seven-story, 250,000 square-foot building project. Construction began about a year ago and is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2015. In Genentech’s simulated office space, four wooden panels with different lattice designs allowed different amounts of sunlight to flow inside. (The shading structure for the actual office building will be made in aluminum or steel.) A bank of four cameras were set up inside to take photos every minute in different exposures to capture the location and amount of glare. Photometers on the floor and desks measured the lighting levels. LED lighting shone overhead. “We are experimenting with how closely we can put the desks to the window so that we don’t have too much glare, what colors of furniture work best from a glare perspective, how do we optimize window shades and the thermal load,” Boragno said. “It’s like a well orchestrated dance.” Flexlab charges fees for collecting and reporting data, setting up experiments and renting out each test bed. The baseline rental fee is $3000 per cell per week. The amount for other fees is dictated by the complexity of the work involved. One of the goals for Flexlab is to use the data and analysis, private or public, to help technology developers improve and deliver products. The lab plans to publish data that its customers don’t consider proprietary. “The energy efficiency industry has started to see the integration issues that we need to address,” Regnier said. “How do you know if you can save energy if you don’t have controls for all the pieces?” The technology and innovation hub is funded by BT. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/ucilia-wang'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-10-21T13:48:11Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
technology/2015/oct/21/battlefield-technology-concussion-sports-american-football-nfl-linx-ias-sensor | How battlefield technology is being used to track concussion on the sports field | In April this year, a US federal judge gave the final approval to a $900m class-action lawsuit settlement between the National Football League and thousands of former players. More than 5,000 retired players represented by the case complained that the league hid the risks of multiple concussions in order to keep players on the pitch. Each will now be awarded up to $5m (£3.23m) for any serious medical conditions associated with repeated head trauma. The high-profile dispute highlighted the long-term risk of concussion and sent a seismic panic over liability to colleges, high schools and club teams playing contact sports. One company that stands to benefit from the heightened concern over concussion is BlackBox Biometrics, which makes a small wireless sensor that pairs with an app to detect blows during training and gameplay. The technology – called Linx IAS – originated as a military tool to measure the invisible impact of shockwaves from an explosive blast which can rattle soldiers’ brains inside their skulls. The sensor gives medical staff an indication of the severity of the impact of the shockwave on an individual, which in turn helps the triage process. “We saw a significant amount of attention being given to concussions in sports – driven by the NFL – and thought we could address the problem in the way we do for the military,” explains David Borkholder, chief executive officer and founder of BlackBox Biometrics. High-school athletes in the US suffer as many as 300,000 concussions per year playing football, lacrosse, hockey and boxing. These traumatic brain injuries can cause headaches as well as problems with concentration, memory and coordination. The Linx IAS sensor fits against the skull on a fabric headband, measuring concussive forces. These are transmitted wirelessly to an app which marks each blow on a scale of 1-99, along with an associated traffic light colour code. A green light signals a low-level “sub-concussive” blow, while red flags a severe hit. The app keeps track of these hits over time, so a coach can better monitor the wellbeing of his or her team. “You can compare how often one player is hit compared to others in his position, and use that information to change behaviours,” explains Borkholder. “Maybe you’ll let him rest rather than playing or doing some other type of drill to maintain that athlete at peak performance.” Around 400 devices are currently being trialled around the US, mostly in high schools. BlackBox Biometric is focusing on younger athletes because they don’t tend to have the same level of medical support as professional organisations and, as Borkholder says, “they are more susceptible to brain injury”. Alan Shahtaji, a doctor from UC San Diego Health who specialises in sports medicine and concussion, echoes Borkholder’s words. “The majority of adults recover within a week, but for kids it’s closer to three or four weeks. We don’t fully understand why but their brains are developing and so there is a different healing process,” he says. He believes that there needs to be more support and education about concussion at the youth level of sport, pointing out that if an NFL player is suspected of having concussion he has to undergo rigorous testing before being allowed back on the field. “But the people most vulnerable and who we should be being most cautious with don’t have these resources and aren’t getting the evaluations.” Systems like Linx IAS could be useful as one tool for monitoring safety, he says, but shouldn’t be relied upon solely. And certainly not for diagnosis as there are too many variables at play. Borkholder agrees: “Our system is an impact sensor. An impact that causes concussion for one person may not in another.” Shahtaji does, however, see value in using such a system to help hone athletes’ form. He explains: “If a kid is taking a lot of hits, maybe the coach needs to see if they’re having proper form, whether they are tackling or playing in the right way.” Dom Arioli has been testing the system in his boxing gym in Rochester, New York. He runs one of the only high-school boxing programmes in the US, and has used Linx IAS “extensively” during practices in the last year involving children aged 13 to 18. “No device is going to replace my eyes, but this helps keep track of the accumulation of blows - that’s where the real damage can be done. I can see whether a kid is taking too many punches in sparring and either send them to get checked out by a doctor or get them working on their defence,” he explains. Arioli says he invites the children’s parents and grandparents to sparring sessions to show the technology in use. “More parents will feel better about letting their kids box because I’m taking these precautions,” he says. The school considers the trials to be so successful that it plans to expand the use of the system to its American football, football, lacrosse and hockey teams. The data collected from all of the trials will be used to tweak the user interface of the mobile app before the product launches commercially in early 2016. | ['technology/gadgets', 'technology/startups', 'technology/technology', 'lifeandstyle/sports-injuries', 'sport/sport', 'sport/nfl', 'technology/internet-of-things', 'society/health', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tone/news', 'profile/olivia-solon'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-10-21T10:50:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/oct/10/uncharted-territory-kew-scientists-say-more-than-2m-fungi-species-waiting-to-be-identified-aoe | ‘Uncharted territory’: more than 2m fungi species yet to be discovered, scientists say | More than 2m fungi species are waiting to be identified around the world in what scientists have called “a new frontier of discovery” for life on Earth, according to a new report. But researchers also warn that the vast majority of new plant discoveries are endangered species, which should be listed as threatened with extinction by default, warning that three-quarters of undescribed species are likely to be at risk of disappearing. From the residents of the human microbiome to the largest known terrestrial organism on the planet, fungi are second only to invertebrates in their diversity – they are found in the air, inside plants and animals, and in the soil and ocean, in many shapes and sizes. More than 90% of them remain unknown to science, according to researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who have released a new estimate of fungi diversity as part of a report on the health of the world’s plants and fungi, finding that there are probably about 2.5m species with only 155,000 identified so far. “This is uncharted territory,” said Prof Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at RBG Kew. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen an increasing appreciation for the role of fungi in everything … They are sustaining our life, our vegetation, they are absolutely crucial for every single animal species. “Now we have DNA analysis, we are trying to push frontiers. It’s quite similar thing to explore the outer universe. Fungi are the dark matter.” Scientists’ excitement at this undiscovered world was tempered by concern at the threat of extinction faced by many newly discovered species. Of the vascular plant species identified in 2020, researchers found more than 77% already met the criteria for threatened, 59% of species were likely to meet the criteria for endangered, and 24% likely to meet the criteria for critically endangered. With 350,000 species of vascular plants known to science, researchers believe about 100,000 are yet to be identified, but as many as one in three of those are likely to be threatened with extinction, the RBG Kew report estimates. The Kew scientists say all newly described species should be treated as being threatened unless it can be shown otherwise. Researchers around the world are encouraging the public to help with their identification efforts, which have been revolutionised by new DNA sequencing techniques that have found hundreds of fungi species in a single teaspoon of soil. In the Netherlands, one scheme offers the public the chance to name any new fungi species found in soil samples they send in to the laboratory. Since 2020, about 10,200 new fungi species have been formally described, but scientific advances mean that researchers are hopeful they could identify 50,000 new fungi species a year. This year, Kew researchers said they had found a new parasitic fungus that preys on trapdoor spiders in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest, similar to zombie-ant fungi, which overcome the insects and trick them into leaving their nests to go to places where they can spread their spores. Ester Gaya, a senior researcher at RBG Kew focused on fungi, said she was hopeful that identifying more species could lead to advances in medicine, agriculture and engineering, as well as helping better understand human diseases. “DNA techniques have revolutionised fungi research, much more than plants and animals. Initially we were only looking at mushrooms and lichens,” she said. “Now, it’s the gut microbiome. Many, many human diseases now are shown to be caused by fungus or by an imbalance in your fungal community. Fungi underground connect trees and establish symbiotic relationships with the roots of trees and they exchange nutrients and water. You are breathing spores of fungi right now.” The report says identifying and describing new plant and fungi species is a crucial challenge for biodiversity science. Researchers highlighted 32 plant diversity “darkspots” where there are critical knowledge gaps, with Colombia, New Guinea and south-central China having the greatest shortfalls. “The problem is that we have lots of knowledge gaps. We have lots of places around the world where we have not yet collected enough [plants] or collected a very biased proportion of the biodiversity,” Antonelli said. “The idea [with darkspots] was really to identify those areas where we can get the most cost benefits. The biggest reward systems of new scientific discoveries.” Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X (formerly known as Twitter) for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/environment', 'science/fungi', 'environment/plants', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/biology', 'science/kew-gardens', 'science/science', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-10-10T06:00:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2018/jan/13/ive-become-a-rummager-a-magpie-of-sorts-samin-nosrat | ‘I’ve become a rummager, a magpie of sorts’: Samin Nosrat | I live in North Berkeley, California, a few blocks from Chez Panisse. I moved here about 9 years ago, when I was 29. I’m 38 now, and I feel like the apartment – certainly the kitchen – has grown up with me. The front door of the apartment opens right into the kitchen; it’s a small room but it has a lot of windows, so it’s beautifully light. And a lot of the time I use the patio as an extension of my cooking space. I have a lot of plants – my living room is like a jungle. I like the idea of bringing the outside in. I always joke that if I write a memoir it’ll be called A Bay Leaf in Every Pot. Often recipes will call for a bay leaf, and I didn’t really understand what the bay leaf was doing until I had fresh bay for the first time – it blew my mind; the aroma was so incredible. So I bought a small plant, and now I put a leaf in everything I cook. I went straight from college into restaurants so, from the beginning, my idea of what a kitchen should be was the highfalutin restaurant type – and what I had at home never measured up to that. When I left restaurants, I had to learn to be a home cook. I realised that I didn’t actually need that much: my stove is small and my fridge is old, but I’ve cooked so much in here. I’ve tweaked the space slowly – the wooden surface I inherited when a friend renovated his kitchen. I redeployed an Ikea filing cabinet to organise my spices. And then there are all the things people have given me: an artist friend made the spoon rest and the twine is from Dario Cecchini, the world-famous butcher in Tuscany. He’s a good friend of mine, a real character and was my mentor when I lived in Italy. For a while I had a piece around my wrist. It’s what I ask for anytime someone is going to Italy. People love giving cooks spoons, I’ve noticed. Or at least they love giving them to me. My best friend travels around the world for his research and we share a love for obnoxiously large utensils, so he always brings me one from wherever he goes. My collection is housed in an old Chez Panisse amarena cherry tin. I grew up in southern California, which is suburban, sterile and super-polished. If you need something, you go to the store and buy it. Under no circumstances would my mom have allowed me to go through trash on the street and bring it home. I’ve since become a rummager, a magpie of sorts. In Berkeley, there’s a culture of leaving unwanted items on the pavement, and I’m always rifling through, and bringing things home: a copper bowl, a black crepe pan, two red milk warmers … The biggest of my knives is one I got for six bucks in a junk shop. I had it fixed by a cutler, who told me it’s from the 1940s in Chicago, totally handmade. Working at Chez Panisse and living in the Bay Area has really taught me how to see the potential in things. Samin Nosrat is a chef and author of Salt Fat Acid Heat (Simon and Schuster). ciaosamin.com | ['food/food', 'lifeandstyle/series/kitchen-encounters', 'food/chefs', 'tone/features', 'technology/gadgets', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'profile/dale-berning-sawa', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/cook', 'theguardian/cook/cook', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/cook'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-01-13T13:00:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2016/mar/21/plans-to-log-tasmanias-world-heritage-forests-dropped-after-un-criticism | Plans to log Tasmania's world heritage forests dropped after UN criticism | Plans to allow logging inside Tasmanian world heritage forests have been abandoned after a United Nations report recommended against it. The UN also expressed concern about plans for expanded tourism in the area and called for a master plan that would detail what sorts of tourism would and wouldn’t be allowed. The recommendations were immediately accepted by the state and federal governments, although the Tasmanian state forestry minister said it was “very disappointing” that logging would not occur. Coalition governments at the state and federal levels have been trying to expand logging in and around the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which covers about a fifth of the state. In 2014 the state government ripped up a deal brokered in 2011, which banned logging in 400,000 hectares of forest and strengthened laws that would prosecute people protesting against logging. That year, the Abbott-government also attempted to delist 74,000 hectares of the world heritage area, a decision that was very swiftly rejected by the UN. Then in 2015, it was revealed the state government planned to allow logging of “specialty timbers” inside the Tasmanian wilderness world heritage area, as well as removing the word “wilderness” from its title, and allowing more tourism in the property. But over the weekend, Unesco published a report which recommended against the logging, recommended the term “wilderness” be retained, and expressed concern over the type of tourism that could be allowed. The report said “it does not consider a world heritage property recognised for its outstanding cultural and natural values the place to experiment with commercial logging of any kind.” “On balance and in line with the above committee decision, the mission recommends that the property be off limits to any commercial logging, mineral exploration and extraction,” it read. “The decision of the United Nations to prohibit limited special species harvesting in the Tasmanian wilderness world heritage area is very disappointing,” said Peter Gutwein, the Tasmanian minister for forestry. “However, it would be grossly irresponsible for any government to defy such a ruling, and we will abide by it.” “The truth is, once the area had been made World Heritage by Labor and the Greens, it was always going to be extremely difficult to secure timber from within it.” The federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, said: “It was important that the mission experts had the opportunity to hear all sides of the debate, and having done so, their clear advice to the world heritage committee is that there should no timber harvesting in the world heritage area including for specialty timbers.” In relation to expanding tourism inside the area, Guardian Australia previously reported the government had sought to allow cruise ships to berth on Lake Gordon, Macquarie Harbour and Port Davey and permit landing sites for planes and helicopters in areas including Cradle Mountain and the Walls of Jerusalem national park. In response, the UN concluded the moves “have created room for interpretation and even suspicions”. It accepted that “tourism and recreation are longstanding, important and widely accepted uses” and called for a “master plan” that would outline exactly what would be allowed. The report also called for Australia to support the joint management of the area with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. “This report outlines a range of very clear steps government needs to take to demonstrate Australia is properly protecting the outstanding values of our wilderness world heritage area,” Wilderness Society Tasmanian campaign manager Vica Bayley said. “We welcome the report and seek very clear commitments from both the state and federal governments about the exact steps they propose to take to meet these recommendations and maintain strong protections for world heritage values, including wilderness. “We note the clear recommendation that issues pertaining tourism development and values’ protection are to be ‘refined’ based on ‘consultation and negotiation of competing interests’, including environmental concerns.” | ['environment/conservation', 'australia-news/tasmania', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-slezak'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-03-21T02:13:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/may/17/air-pollution-kills-more-people-in-the-uk-than-in-sweden-us-and-mexico | Air pollution kills more people in the UK than in Sweden, US and Mexico | People in the UK are 64 times as likely to die of air pollution as those in Sweden and twice as likely as those in the US, figures from the World Health Organisation reveal. Britain, which has a mortality rate for air pollution of 25.7 for every 100,000 people, was also beaten by Brazil and Mexico – and it trailed far behind Sweden, the cleanest nation in the EU, with a rate of 0.4. The US rate was 12.1 for every 100,000, Brazil’s was 15.8 and Mexico’s was 23.5, while Argentina was at 24.6. The figures are revealed in the WHO World Health Statistics 2017 report, published on Wednesday, which says substantially reducing the number of deaths globally from air pollution is a key target. The report reveals outdoor air pollution caused an estimated 3 million deaths worldwide, most of these in low- and middle-income countries. Wealthy European nations had high levels of air pollution from fine particulate matter. The UK had an average of 12.4 micrograms of fine particulate pollutants (PM 2.5) for each cubic metre of air, which includes pollution from traffic, industry, oil and wood burning and power plants in urban areas. This is higher than the pollutant levels of 5.9 in Sweden, 9.9 in Spain and 12.6 in France. Germany had higher levels of particulate pollution than the UK at 14.4 and Poland’s was 25.4. Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said the report confirmed that deaths from air pollution were higher in the UK than many other comparable countries. She said: “It is deeply tragic that around 3 million lives are cut short worldwide because the air we breathe is dirty and polluted. In the UK, air pollution is a public health crisis hitting our most vulnerable the hardest – our children, people with a lung condition and the elderly. “Yet, we are in the fortunate position of having the technology and resources to fix this problem. It’s time to use what we have to sort this problem out as a matter of urgency and clean up our filthy, poisonous air. The next government needs to bring in a new Clean Air Act to protect the nation’s lung health.” The worst countries for toxic air included India, where 133.7 deaths for every 100,000 people are attributed to air pollution, and Myanmar, where the rate was 230.6 deaths. WHO said: “Outdoor air pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting everyone in developed and developing countries alike. “Some 72% of outdoor air pollution-related premature deaths were due to ischaemic heart disease and strokes, while 14% of deaths were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or acute lower respiratory infections, and 14% of deaths were due to lung cancer.” The World Health Organisation said it was up to national and international policymakers to tackle the toxic air crisis “Most sources of outdoor air pollution are well beyond the control of individuals and demand action by cities, as well as national and international policymakers in sectors like transport, energy, waste management, buildings and agriculture,” the WHO said recently. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'world/world-health-organization', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-05-17T18:00:16Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/jan/15/scotlands-historic-sites-at-high-risk-from-climate-change-report-says | Scotland's historic sites at high risk from climate change, report says | Dozens of Scotland’s most famous historic sites are at very high risk of being badly damaged by climate change and need urgent protection, an expert survey has found. Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the agency which oversees nearly 340 of the country’s most important castles, abbeys, Neolithic sites and ruins, has for the first time issued red warnings for nearly a fifth of its sites and put amber, high risk warnings against another 70%. Of those, 28 sites are identified as at the greatest risk because they are not yet properly protected. Those include Fort George , a vast fortress built near Inverness after the battle of Culloden, 800-year-old Inchcolm abbey and Inchcolm island on the Firth of Forth, and the Brough of Birsay, a Pictish and Viking-settled island in Orkney’s world heritage site, threatened by sea level rises and storms. The agency says those 28 places, already made fragile by their age and weathering, are at an “unacceptable level of risk exposure that requires immediate mitigating action”. Among the 70% of its sites given an amber warning is Holyrood Park in Edinburgh which includes Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags, and borders the Queen’s official home in Scotland, Holyrood Palace, as well as the Scottish parliament. The park is at very high risk of being damaged by landslides and flooding, which justify red warnings in four categories, but those threats are reduced because the park is maintained by HES’s ranger service, so under the new risk register published on Monday it gets an amber . Edinburgh Castle has red warnings for the risk of landslide and groundwater flooding, but as it too is under constant supervision by HES, it also gets an amber rating . Three other world famous sites, Glasgow cathedral, the Neolithic village of Skara Brae and the Maeshowe chambered cairn on Orkney, and the Viking village of Jarlshof on the southern most tip of mainland Shetland, are also given red risk ratings. They too are under constant supervision, lowering the threat level to amber, but HES officials warn that even so, protected sites could still be damaged by the far more severe weather events now being forecast. The study, the first of its kind, has combined climatic data from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, geological information from the British Geological Survey, and the agency’s own site surveys to draw up a detailed assessment of every site. Combined into a single database, the surveys have confirmed evidence from numerous places that already fragile or exposed historic sites are at even greater risk from heavier flooding, coastal erosion driven by stronger storms and rising sea levels, increased winter rainfall or much drier summers. Its publication will increase pressure on other conservation bodies such as the National Trust of Scotland, which owns numerous sites at risk of extreme climate events, to step up their research. The database will be constantly updated and refined, said Ewan Hyslop, the agency’s head of technical research and science, particularly after far more detailed and updated UK-wide projections of climate risks are published in several months. HES has increased the priority it gives to climate mitigation under legislation driven through by Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, which requires public bodies to factor climate change into their activities. But even so, HES faces an 8% cut in its grant under the Scottish government’s draft budget. The budget of Sepa, the Scottish agency responsible for monitoring climate change, will also be cut again. The research draws on forecasts from Sepa that sea levels around Scotland will increase by between 16.5 and 28 centimetres by 2050, threatening coastal sites such as Skara Brae. Average temperatures will rise by 2.8C in summer and 2.2C in winter, while average rainfall will jump by 16% in winter and fall by 13% in summer, increasing the risks of grassland and forest fires at historic sites. The report notes: “Water is the most destructive agent of decay. On a large scale, heavy and intense rainfall can directly lead to flooding in a short timeframe, which has the potential to cause catastrophic damage to all elements of the historic environment within reach of these potential flood zones.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/conservation', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/sea-level', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/edinburgh', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-01-15T06:30:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2015/jan/29/apple-samsung-ties-biggest-smartphone-maker-iphone | Apple draws level with Samsung as biggest smartphone maker | The popularity of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus helped Apple to catch up with Samsung in sales in the last quarter of 2014, research shows. The two companies have been locked in a battle for the top spot since 2011, when Samsung’s Galaxy S line of smartphones helped the South Korean group to steal the crown of the world’s biggest smartphone maker from Apple. Neil Mawston, executive director at the research company Strategy Analytics, said Apple sold 74.5m smartphones worldwide, giving it a record 20% market share in the three months to 31 December, up from 18% the previous year. That means Apple tied with Samsung as largest smartphone vendor for the first time since the same quarter in 2011. Samsung also sold 74.5m smartphones for a 20% market share – a significant fall from the 30% market share and 86m smartphones sold in the final quarter of 2013, according to the Strategy Analytics data. The company’s mobile phone division has struggled, with profits collapsing to 1.96tn won (£1.18bn) in the period, from 5.47tn won in 2013. However, Samsung remained the top smartphone maker for 2014 as a whole, selling 317.2m devices. Smartphone domination Apple sold 192.7m iPhones in 2014, up from 153.4m the previous year. In contrast with Samsung’s sales, which include mid-tier and budget models as well as flagship devices, Apple’s flagship-only strategy has resulted in high margins at volume, which was reflected in this week’s record quarterly profits. Together Apple and Samsung dominate the global smartphone market, with a 40% share. But both are facing increasing pressure from Chinese rivals including Xiaomi – referred to as China’s Apple by analysts – whose sales in China put it in third position globally in the third quarter of 2014. “Samsung continues to face intense competition from Apple at the higher end of the smartphone market, from Huawei in the middle tiers, and from Xiaomi and others at the entry level,” Mawston said. “Samsung may soon have to consider taking over rivals, such as BlackBerry, in order to revitalise growth this year.” Lenovo’s merger with Motorola left the joint company with 6% of the global smartphone marketshare in the fourth quarter, making it the third-largest manufacturer at the expense of Xiaomi. “Lenovo is hoping to leverage Motorola’s famous brand to drive global scale this year and to offset some of Lenovo’s recently weakening smartphone growth at home in China,” said Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics. Android tops 1bn devices sold in 2014 Apple’s new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models – the first to move past the 4in screen size introduced with the iPhone 5 – have proved wildly popular in China, the US and Europe, according to Mawston. Much depends on Samsung’s launch of its Galaxy S6, expected in March. Samsung hopes that the new phone will reinvigorate sales after the Galaxy S5 reportedly sold 40% fewer units than the company expected. The new model is expected to follow Samsung’s design shift to metal-bodied phones, as seen in its top phablet, the Galaxy Note 4, which won praise for its build. Google’s Android also sold 1bn devices across many manufacturers for the first time in 2014, accounting for 81% of all smartphones shipped. That left Apple’s iOS with a 15% share of the market and Microsoft’s Windows a 3% share, as global smartphone shipments jumped 30% to 1.3bn units for the year. Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics, said: “Emerging markets, such as China and Indonesia, drove the industry’s growth last year and they will continue to do so through 2015.” • Nine things we learned from Apple’s monster financial results | ['technology/apple', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/samsung', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/iphone', 'technology/iphone-5', 'technology/iphone-6', 'world/world', 'business/technology', 'technology/mobilephones', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-01-29T14:25:43Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
money/2021/nov/21/why-ive-rented-my-dress-could-soon-be-the-most-fashionable-thing-to-say | Why ‘I’ve rented my dress’ could soon be the most fashionable thing to say | When planning her outfit for an upcoming awards ceremony, Lily Murphy was wary of two things – how much she spent on clothes and the impact on the environment. The solution was to rent a dress from someone who had the style and fit she wanted. “I have become really aware of my over-consumption of fashion over the years,” says the 26-year-old PR manager. “I have also become aware of how much money I have spent on clothes, and how frequently I wear a new outfit and then lose interest in ever wearing it again. I think this is typical of young women, especially when you buy something with one event in mind.” Using an app called Hurr, Murphy rented a dress by London-based designers Rixo to attend her black tie event, paying just under £65 to borrow it for four days. Renting fashion online is not a new thing – Marks & Spencer last week made a range of womenswear available for rent – but her outfit came from the wardrobe of another woman. As a younger generation of consumers takes a more sustainable approach to what it wears and also demands to have fresh looks for its social media posts, networks that link buyers and sellers have emerged. By Rotation, a London-based company, was started in 2019 by Eshita Kabra, who was concerned about the high levels of textile waste she saw during her honeymoon in her native India. Kabra says most of her users are millennials and from “generation Z” – that is, the under-40s. Users can borrow or lend designer dresses and bags by the day, with the option of the item either being posted or collected. Loans are usually for between three and four days – to take into account the time needed to post the item back. Each side pays a 15% fee and there is an optional fee for cleaning set by the lender. In one example, a designer dress is listed for rental at £10 a day – £30 for three days – with a £10 cleaning fee, plus the 15% fee for the company which comes to £6, bringing the bill to £46. Dresses can be rented for one day, but the company recommends lenders set three as the minimum, with the dress received on the first day, and returned on the third. Hurr, which Murphy used, operates in a similar way. Pieces have to be less than two years old and in “excellent condition” according to the company. An algorithm calculates the suggested rental fee, based on the retail price of the piece, and the fees are 15% for both sides. Murphy’s bill for four days’ rental was broken down into £34.30 for the clothes, a service fee of £5.15, a dry-cleaning charge of £10, shipping of £10 and a damage protection fee of £5, which is optional. Bought new, the dress would have cost £270, and Murphy says she may not have worn it more than once. If something is damaged, owners can bill the borrower on By Rotation. If they refuse to pay, the borrower’s details can be handed over to the lender for them to pursue the matter in the small claims court, although this has not happened yet, Kabra says. Hurr founder Victoria Prew says borrowers are asked to pay the market value if an item is damaged beyond repair. As well as wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, young consumers often want to wear something new to an event – and to update their social media feed . “They don’t just think about the days they are wearing the clothes – they think about the Instagram photo and the moment that will last forever,” says one industry figure who works in venture capital. “She wants the photo in that dress that will stay on her Instagram, and will forever stay in her feed. People are investing for that.” What you won’t find on the new generation of lending apps are high-street brands such as Zara and H&M, where shoppers can buy pieces for the same amount they would pay to rent a high-end piece. They are, however, to be found on an app called Nuw. Aisling Byrne set it up to try and tackle the problem of vast amounts of waste in the fashion industry, which often end up in the developing world. In what is described as an “online swap shop”, users can upload pictures of their clothes – designer or high street – and earn coins, which can then be exchanged for items that other users put up. The coins are received when the item is uploaded to the site, with a high street brand earning a silver coin and a designer piece getting a gold coin, which can then be traded. The person receiving the piece pays a 99p fee and postage. Although there are designer clothes on the site, all of the top 10 sources of items are high street stores, says Byrne. Renting would not work for casual, cheaper clothes, she says, nor would selling them secondhand as they are already so cheap in the shops. But by taking away the choice of having to put a price on the clothes, there is now a far more efficient way to circulate them to avoid landfill. “These clothes are still valuable, they are in perfectly good condition and people want them, but they won’t buy them secondhand at the same price as they are sold firsthand,” she says. Some 22,000 items have been exchanged over the last year. | ['money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'fashion/fashion', 'fashion/fashion-industry', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/shane-hickey', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/cash', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-11-21T09:00:08Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
australia-news/2021/apr/26/australian-super-funds-to-vote-against-company-directors-not-tackling-climate-crisis | Australian super funds to vote against company directors not tackling climate crisis | Big super funds have threatened to vote against company directors who do not make sure their businesses are committed to action on global heating that includes hitting net zero by 2050. The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (Acsi), which represents investors that manage more than $1tn in retirement savings and hold about 10% of the shares in the top 200 companies in the country, said some boards were not tackling the climate crisis quickly enough. Its tougher stance comes after a week in which regulators and ratings agencies stepped up the pressure on corporate Australia to properly consider climate risks and the US president, Joe Biden, increased the pressure on the Australian government to commit to emissions cuts sooner. Australian companies attempting to find new markets due to the trade war with China face a risk that Europe will impose border taxes due to the country’s high emissions. At the same time, new research by insurance group Swiss Re, released this week, estimates that Australia’s economy will take a hit of as much as 12.5% by 2050 if the globe warms by 2.6C. Under a new climate policy, released on Monday, Acsi now expects companies to adopt and detail a corporate strategy in line with the international Paris agreement, which aims to limit heating to 1.5C, and commit to net zero emissions by 2050. Acsi said that companies should also work out and fully disclose what physical and financial risk global heating poses to their assets, as well as making sure that their lobbying efforts – including through industry associations – do not undermine efforts to limit climate catastrophe. It said it would also support “say on climate” resolutions, which ask companies to publicly report on their climate exposure, that are put forward by shareholders at annual meetings. If companies consistently fail to comply with the new policy, Acsi may recommend a vote against directors when they come up for re-election at shareholder meetings. “Our recommendations will focus on the individual directors most accountable for oversight of climate-change related risks, for example company chairs, and the chairs of the risk and sustainability committees or similar,” Acsi said in its new policy, which is effective from next year. “I don’t like to use the word threat,” the Acsi chief executive, Louise Davidson, said. “Accountability for having proper climate strategy and proper climate focus at companies lies with directors. “And so, we are now saying to directors ‘this is our expectation and we will hold you accountable for it’.” She said Acsi wanted the Morrison government to set a 2050 emissions target consistent with the Paris agreement that also included milestones along the way, but companies needed to act even if the government failed to do so. “In a way it doesn’t matter from an investment risk perspective, what happens from an Australian regulation perspective, it’s what happens globally now that matters and there’s huge momentum, particularly since the change of administration in the US,” she said. “Carbon trade tariffs are an impending risk for companies, and the other issue is capital movement. “If companies don’t have their house in order on climate, and a clear strategic path to being a successful operation in a low-carbon environment, where’s the investment going to come from?” She said the rapid pace of change internationally meant companies with strong climate policies could not rest on their laurels. “I just think things are moving very quickly and so even if you are doing a good job now, that might not seem such a good job in a year,” she said. “The world’s going to move without us. And so it’s really important for Australian companies that are globally exposed to be on that train, you know. We can’t sit around saying, well we haven’t got regulation, we need policy … all of those things would be helpful, but the world is moving on.” Last week, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority issued new draft guidance calling on the boards of banks and super funds to properly identify and mitigate climate risks – a stance that will put it on a collision course with some members of the government who have already opposed the regulator taking any action over climate. Emma Herd, the CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change, a group that represents funds with more than $2tn under management, said Apra’s move was critical and “will go a long way to consolidating accelerating action across the financial sector to address the systemic financial risks created by climate change”. Ratings agency Moody’s also poured pressure on the finance sector, saying in a note that the industry was under financial and regulatory pressure to take account of climate in making lending decisions – something Australian banks NAB and ANZ already claim to do. “Lenders that are slow to adapt will face more pressure on their credit strength,” the Moody’s analyst Alberto Postigo said. In February, ANZ stopped lending to Australia’s biggest coal port, the Port of Newcastle, as a result of its climate policies. It was replaced in the syndicate financing the port by NAB. According to Swiss Re’s research, global gross domestic product will be lower by as much as 13.9% compared to a baseline projection if the world heats by 2.6C, which is considered at the top end of likely warming. It will take a hit of between 0.5% and 4.2% if the Paris target is achieved, the insurer said. Under Paris targets Australian GDP would lose between 0.5% and 4.4% but would take a hit of between 1.7% and 12.5% in a 2.6C rise scenario. | ['australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'business/australia-economy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-butler', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-04-25T17:30:13Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2021/aug/02/china-floods-death-toll-rises-people-still-missing-henan-province | China floods death toll rises to 302 with 50 people still missing | Chinese authorities have raised the official death toll in last month’s devastating Henan floods to 302, with at least 50 still missing. The announcement more than triples the confirmed number of people killed in the floods, which had sat at 99 since Thursday. At a press conference on Monday, Henan authorities announced 292 people were killed in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, and 47 were missing, state media reported. Another seven were killed and three still missing in Xinxiang city, while two were killed in Pingdingshan and one in Luohe. Zhengzhou’s mayor, Hou Hong, said 39 people were found dead in underground car parks, and six had died in the cross-city tunnel – raising the tunnel’s toll from four. Record-breaking rainstorms hit Henan province in central China in late July, overflowing reservoirs, breaching riverbanks, and overwhelming public transport systems and roads in major cities. In Zhengzhou, more than 600mm of rain, equivalent almost to an average year, fell in just three days. China routinely experiences flooding in summer, but the impact from the unprecedented deluge was exacerbated by rapid urbanisation, conversion of farmland and the worsening climate crisis, as well as overwhelmed flood mitigation systems. More than 200mm fell in a two-hour window on one afternoon, flooding the city’s subway system and a cross-city tunnel filled with cars. At least 14 died in the subway when about 500 people were trapped in carriages and platforms, with alarming footage showing the water rising up to people’s necks. While hundreds of cars were trapped in the tunnel, many people were reportedly saved by a retired soldier who swam from car to car getting people out. According to Chinese authorities, the disaster affected 13 million people, damaged nearly 9,000 homes, and caused 53bn yuan (£6bn) of economic losses. Questions around official transparency have swirled in the weeks since the disaster, amid some citizens struggling to search for or find information about their missing loved ones, online censorship, and serious harassment and threats against foreign journalists reporting that residents had concerns about the response, and that there were questions over the government’s preparation. Senior government officials were among those accusing journalists of “smearing China” and broadcasting lies about the disaster, with particular hostility towards the BBC. In the aftermath of the floods, local authorities faced official scrutiny for not stopping the Zhengzhou subway or closing schools, with the central government ordering an investigation and improvements. | ['world/china', 'environment/flooding', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helen-davidson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-08-02T11:11:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2011/nov/03/recycling-rates-england | Recycling rates in England top 40% for the first time | Households in England pushed through the 40% recycling rate for the first time in 2010, but the speed at which recycling rates are increasing has continued to slow, according to government figures published on Thursday. Rochford district council and South Oxfordshire district council topped the recycling league tables. The two councils came top with recycling, reuse and composting rates of 65.79% and 65.11% respectively, with Ashford borough council bottom of the rankings with a rate of just 14%. The average recycling rate for English councils was 41.2% between April 2010 and March 2011, up from 39.7% the year before. Recycling rates have been nudging up annually in the past decade but the rate of progress been begun to slow since 2008, a trend that continued last year. Minister for waste and recycling, Lord Taylor, said: "Recycling is now part of our everyday lives and we're sending less waste to landfill than ever before. This is good news for householders, councils and the environment, but there is still much more we can all do. By all working together to deliver the recycling services local people want and need, we can achieve our ultimate aim of a zero waste economy." The EU Waste Framework Directive requires the United Kingdom to recycle, compost or reuse 50% of waste from households by 2020. The UK government has been looking at a series of measures to reduce waste, including charging people who fail to recycle their rubbish and, in parts of the country, reducing weekly bin collections to fortnightly. The UK still produces more household waste per head of population than many of its European neighbours, with an average of 449kg per year, compared to 406kg for the European average. Analysis of the new data from the Department for the Environment, food and rural affairsshows that 231 municipalities increased their recycling rates, but 40 stayed the same and 87 got worse. . Ashford Council could not be reached to explain why their rate was so low. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'society/localgovernment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/hanna-gersmann'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2011-11-03T17:07:31Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2015/may/11/walmart-sourcing-bottled-water-california-drought | Walmart found to be sourcing bottled water from drought-stricken California | Walmart is the latest company found to be sourcing its bottled water from drought-stricken California, as state residents push for greater regulation of the bottling industry. Starbucks was moved to alter its bottling practices in California last week and Mount Shasta community members are fighting the opening of a major bottling plant by California-based company Crystal Geyser. Then on Friday, an investigation by CBS13 in Sacramento found that Walmart’s bottled water comes from the Sacramento municipal water supply. The revelations come as state residents face increased water use limits during the fourth year of drought in the state. State governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order last week that calls for a 25% urban water reduction across the state. “It’s only logical that as the governor has asked all Californians to reduce their water consumption that he holds extractive industries like bottled water companies to the same standard, yet he hasn’t asked anything of them,” said Adam Scow, the California director of Food & Water Watch, which is calling for a moratorium on bottling water. There is little oversight or monitoring of bottling plants in the state, which are also operated by major corporations including Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. About 1% of state water is used in industry, and the bottling industry represents an even smaller fraction of that, according to the US Geological Survey. Walmart, like other large companies, draws water from municipal supplies to keep costs down. A Walmart spokesperson said that the company is “very concerned” about how the drought is affecting its customers and associates. “We share those concerns and are tracking it closely,” the spokesperson said. “Our commitment to sustainability includes efforts to minimize water use in our facilities. We have and continue to work with our suppliers to act responsibly while meeting the needs of customers who count on us across California.” Starbucks was pushed to stop sourcing its Ethos bottled water from California after Mother Jones discovered that it had been drawing water from Placer County. Starbucks said it would move production to a supplier in Pennsylvania over the next six months. It is also looking for alternative suppliers for its west coast distribution. “At the end of the day, bottling the public’s water for private profit is not in the public interest,” said Scow. He said the practice has a negative effect on local watersheds, that the oil and energy used to make plastic bottles and transport them across the nation are harmful to the environment and that there is a huge waste problem with plastic bottle disposal. Crystal Geyser, a bottled water company headquartered in San Francisco, announced it is opening a new plant near Mount Shasta, which feeds water into the Sacramento River. The company does not need to obtain a permit to draw the water and there is not a requirement to conduct an environmental impact report. Raven Stevens, community liaison for the Gateway Neighborhood Association, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the top concern is that there is little regulation for bottling plants. “Crystal Geyser in one day plans to pump more water than any three of my neighbors will use in an entire year,” Stevens said. “The entire state is under a 25% cut, farmers are letting fields go fallow and we don’t have one piece of legislation regulating water bottling.” | ['us-news/california-drought', 'us-news/california', 'environment/water', 'business/wal-mart', 'environment/drought', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amanda-holpuch'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-05-11T17:19:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2024/may/02/australian-red-meat-industry-has-recorded-78-reduction-in-emissions-since-2005-report-shows | Australian red meat industry has recorded 78% reduction in emissions since 2005, industry report found | The Australian red meat industry has recorded a 78% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions since 2005 due to reduced rates of land clearing and increased forest regrowth, a report commissioned by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has found. The report, released on Thursday, found that net greenhouse gas emissions from the red meat industry were equivalent to 31m tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2021. But the emissions data was derived from the Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which analysis suggests may be significantly underreporting land clearing in Queensland, making any claims based on that data “not reliable”. The report said high rainfall in 2020-21 resulted in a large increase in carbon sequestration due to increased vegetation growth on land managed by the red meat sector, an area equivalent to about half of Australia’s landmass. This drove a 40% recorded decrease in industry-wide emissions on the previous year. However, the report said the carbon sequestration estimates were “associated with high levels of uncertainty”. MLA in 2017 announced the industry’s goal to reach net zero emissions by 2030. Climate and agricultural scientists have said the target is unachievable. Julia Waite, the MLA’s carbon neutral 2030 project manager, said lower rates of land clearing and greater volumes of regrowth had offset the sector’s direct emissions, about 80% of which is methane released by cattle burps and manure. Those emissions fluctuate with the recorded size of Australia’s cattle herd and have remained relatively stable since 2005. “Given the variability of the Australian climate, we anticipate sequestration volumes will retract when conditions trend back towards drier El Niño,” she said in a statement on Thursday. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Cattle population data in the report, which put the herd size at 23.3 million in 2021, is based on Australian Bureau of Statistics farm surveys. The ABS’s head of agriculture statistics, Rob Walter, told Guardian Australia in March that these surveys were never designed to record Australia’s cattle population and are “clearly a lower estimate than the actual number of cattle”. One study found we may be undereporting the number of cattle by 10 million. Waite said the annual emissions report by MLA was informed by the best available science and nationally maintained data. Earlier, Waite told Guardian Australia that emissions reductions from carbon sequestration in vegetation “has a shelf life” because the rate of sequestration declines as forest regrowth reaches maturity. She also said net zero by 2030 “isn’t a static target”. “To maintain an enduring net zero emissions position will require percentage reductions in direct emissions of raising livestock and energy, which will also reduce over-reliance on sequestration,” Waite said. Since 2017, MLA has co-invested $152m into research and development largely focused on nascent technologies such as methane-reducing feed additives. MLA previously said more than $180m had been invested, but has since revised the figure. Greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the red meat industry, including those released by fertiliser production, supplementary feed and transportation were not included in the report. It said this was due to “data and methodological limitations” but that they could possibly be included in future. | ['australia-news/series/the-rural-network', 'environment/meat-industry', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'environment/food', 'science/agriculture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/series/rural-network', 'profile/aston-brown', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-rural-network'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-05-01T23:39:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/green-living-blog/2010/jun/17/carbon-footprint-of-tea-coffee | What's the carbon footprint of ... a cup of tea or coffee? | The carbon footprint of a cup of tea or coffee: 21g CO2e: black tea or coffee, boiling only the water you need 53g CO2e: white tea or coffee, boiling only the water you need 71g CO2e: white tea or coffee, boiling double the water you need 235g CO2e: a large cappuccino 340g CO2e: a large latte They may not be as crucial as the homes we heat and the cars we drive but – depending on how we take them – hot drinks can make up a surprisingly large slice of our carbon footprints. If you drink four mugs of black tea per day, boiling only as much water as you need, that works out as just 30kg of CO2e each year – the same as a 40-mile drive in an average car. Three large lattes per day, by contrast, and you're looking at almost twenty times as much carbon, equivalent to flying half way across Europe. Whatever drink you favour, the big shock here is the milk. If you make a white tea, filter coffee or instant coffee, and you don't overfill the kettle, then the milk will typically account for around two-thirds of the total footprint – more than boiling the water and cultivating the tea or coffee put together. One reason for this counter-intuitively large contribution is that milk comes from cows, which, as ruminant animals, belch a lot of methane into the air. The obvious way to slash the footprint of your drink, therefore, is to reduce the amount of milk you add, or simply to take it black (herbal or green tea, anyone?). This will fractionally reduce your nutritional intake, of course, but you could easily replace the lost calories with something more carbon-friendly – such as a biscuit. Or you might just decide that slightly fewer calories isn't such a bad thing. What about frothy coffees? As the figures above show, a large cappuccino or latte comes in with a higher impact than four or five carefully made Americanos, filter coffees or teas. Once again, the milk is the key factor: some lattes contain more than half a pint of the stuff, which many of us drink without really thinking about it it. The other big part of the picture, of course, is boiling water. If you boil more than you need (as most people do), you could easily add 20g to the carbon footprint of each drink. Boiling excess water wastes time, money and carbon; if you haven't yet developed perfect kettle-filling judgement, to avoid this waste you can simply measure the water into the kettle with a mug. How you boil the water makes a difference too. The least expensive and most carbon-efficient way to do it is to use an old-fashioned stove-top kettle on an appropriately sized gas hob. This is greener because inefficiencies in our power stations and distribution systems make electricity a relatively wasteful and high-carbon way of producing heat. Gas kettles are particularly efficient in winter, when any heat that escpaes from the gas flames around the edge of the kettle serves to warm the room – so virtually no energy is actually wasted. On the other hand, gas kettles also take much longer to boil than their electric counterparts, so they may not be suited to people who require their morning caffeine hit with the shortest possible delay. See more carbon footprints. • This article draws from How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee. | ['environment/green-living-blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/series/the-carbon-footprint-of-everything', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/extract', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'profile/mike-berners-lee', 'profile/duncanclark'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2010-06-17T06:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2019/jun/09/tempted-to-pray-for-a-less-pitiful-pension | Tempted to pray for a less pitiful pension | Brief letters | It is not my wish to denigrate the sacrifices made for the nation in the second world war, but if these brave veterans are so valued by the government, why are they among the recipients of the poorest pensions in Europe? Compared to Germany they are insulting. Collin Rossini Dovercourt, Essex • Rome is merely playing catch-up (Pope approves change to wording of Lord’s Prayer, 7 June). In both the Edwardine (1549) and the Elizabethan (1559) Book of Common Prayer, the wording is “… let us not be led into temptation”. Unfortunately the 1662 revision used the familiar, clouded translation. Emeritus Professor Bruce Wood School of Music, Bangor University • No longer will generations of Long Eaton schoolchildren in school assembly be heard to intone “Lead us not in to Trent station” (a notoriously bleak interchange between Derby and Nottingham). Roger Wilkinson Leasgill, Cumbria • You quite rightly praise Waitrose for offering packaging-free, refilling service for customers (Editorial, 5 June). In the early 1980s at our local Co-op in Headingley, you could bring your own bottle and refill with sherry. Aye them were t’days ‘appen. Dr Khosro S Jahdi Leeds • Sod all these people sharing birthdays with celebs, dictators, et al (Letters, 8 June). I have the misfortune to share mine – 23 June – with the first bloody referendum. I can’t wait for the second … please? Lynn Wiseman Lewes, East Sussex • Ever since I discovered I shared a birthday with Mickey Mouse (18 November), I’ve wondered if that could account for my sunny disposition and slightly prominent ears. Peter Bevington Leeds • 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/religion', 'world/world', 'world/catholicism', 'world/christianity', 'money/pensions', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'film/walt-disney-company', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'politics/article-50', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-06-09T16:50:56Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/may/31/uk-creates-blue-belt-of-marine-protected-areas-twice-englands-size | Large expansion to 'blue belt' of UK's protected marine areas announced | An area nearly twice the size of England will become a “blue belt” of protected waters after the government created 41 new marine conservation zones. The short-snouted seahorse, the ocean quahog, ross worm reefs and blue mussel beds are among the species and habitats that will benefit from the new protections, although dredging and other damaging activities can only be halted in zones that lie within inshore waters, up to 12 nautical miles from the coast. The newly-protected areas ranging from Studland Bay, near Bournemouth, to the Goodwin Sands off the Deal coast in Kent will cover 4633 sq miles (12,000 sq km) of marine habitat, eight times the size of Greater London, bringing the total number of marine protected areas around the British coastline to 355. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, said: “The UK is already leading the rest of the world by protecting over 30% of our ocean – but we know there is more to do. Establishing this latest round of marine conservation zones in this year of green action is another big step in the right direction, extending our blue belt to safeguard precious and diverse sea life for future generations to come.” Critics have in the past dismissed marine conservation zones as “paper parks” with few creating “no-take” zones that prevent all fishing, but conservationists said these zones had begun to make a real difference, with some damaging activities halted. Joan Edwards, director of living seas at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “They are not paper parks. Many of the sites here in Devon have had scallop dredging banned so the most damaging activities have been stopped. “The pressure of fishing has been removed from a very large part of our seabed which is good for nature conservation, and good for fishermen because if you have areas that are left alone they will produce more fish.” After scallop dredging was banned in Lyme Bay in 2008, the seabed’s sea fans, sunset corals and ross corals have flourished. Edwards said: “We thought it would take 20 years at least for Lyme Bay to recover but it’s recovering in three years, with divers spotting baby sea fans appearing. By designating these sites and taking away damaging activities, recovery will happen. We need a healthy marine environment because it will absorb more carbon dioxide so it’s good for climate change, good for nature conservation and good for fishermen as well.” Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, said: “Today really does mark a major step forward for the conservation of our precious marine environment, but there is still much to be done, including putting in place more of the good practices that we know are needed to secure the long-term health of our seas and their wildlife.” The management of each zone differs depending on the requirements of marine life and local people including fishermen, who are consulted on new regulations and management. Trawling can be restricted and new cabling for offshore windfarms will normally have to be routed around the parks. Alec Taylor, head of marine policy at WWF, said: “These new zones are critical in creating a network to protect our marine wildlife, but at the moment they are just empty words on a page. The UK is nearing 30% coverage of its waters protected, but these areas are poorly monitored and we have little evidence that wildlife is benefiting.” Edwards added: “Now we need to see good management of these special places to stop damaging activities such as beam-trawling or dredging for scallops and langoustines which harm fragile marine wildlife. “Let’s make sure we actually monitor them. These are sites where we’re taking human pressure away and we might see our wildlife recover and we need to see what that looks like.” | ['environment/marine-life', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/fish', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-05-31T05:00:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2017/may/17/the-guardian-view-on-googles-nhs-grab-legally-inappropriate | The Guardian view on Google’s NHS grab: legally inappropriate | Editorial | That the Google-owned artificial intelligence company DeepMind obtained the personal medical records of 1.6 million patients on a “legally inappropriate” basis is unnerving. The complacency of both the NHS in north London and Google in the face of basic principles of privacy is remarkable. Why weren’t alarm bells ringing? The reason is the overwhelming asymmetry between a wealthy, technologically supercilious firm and overstretched public services in possession of our most sensitive, identifiable data. DeepMind said it was designing an app that would diagnose acute kidney injuries early and therefore was entitled to all patient data, because it was, like a physician, offering direct care. In her first ever ruling, the national data guardian, Dame Fiona Caldicott, disagreed, saying the transfer was in effect unlawful. It is now up to the information commissioner’s office to decide whether to fine Google’s AI division, the NHS or both. It should levy the maximum penalty of £500,000, the amount of revenue Google clocks up in four minutes, and accompany this by a strong admonition of Silicon Valley’s unacceptable behaviour. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'technology/google', 'society/nhs', 'technology/big-data', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'technology/alphabet', 'technology/technology', 'technology/data-protection', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-05-17T18:46:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
money/2007/dec/09/tax.corporatesocialresponsibility | It's time to tame blue chips' charity monkey business | The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday December 23 2007 In the article below, we referred to a table in a National Audit Office report that gave as zero the number of successful money laundering prosecutions in Jersey. This was an error by the NAO. The figure should have been left blank, as it did not collect this data for Jersey. In fact, there were four prosecutions there in 2005 alone and a further case is pending. The gorillas and orang-utans steal the show at Durrell's, the Jersey zoo founded by the famous naturalist and author Gerald Durrell. Around 300,000 people each year enjoy the zoo's 31-acre site. In so doing they help the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in its bid to prevent the extinction of endangered animals. But Durrell's has another claim to fame. No other zoo in the world can boast such a stellar line-up of blue-chip financial institutions as corporate members and donors. Attention on the way huge banks harness charitable trusts to shield them from tax has intensified following the Northern Rock financial crisis. And some fear that Durrell zoo may be used in a similar way. It boasts support from institutions such as ABN Amro, Bank of India, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and NatWest, according to its 2006 annual report. Joining these are UBS, Cazenove and Coutts, the Queen's bank. In fact, 100 of the world's biggest multinationals help the zoo look after its rare birds, insects and giant mammals and fund its research activities. Durrell zoo officials attribute its popularity among the global banking elite to its status as an offshore tax haven where financial services are the most important industry. It was recently revealed that the international super-rich had stashed assets worth $491bn in Jersey in order to 'avoid tax'. A spokeswoman for Durrell's marketing department suggested that donating money to the zoo fulfilled a corporate social responsibility. 'This is seen as top of the agenda nowadays,' she said. But the official could not comment when asked to explain whether she was aware if any of its corporate members were using its charitable donations as a way of avoiding tax on multi-billion-pound cash-raising schemes. Durrell's donations and legacies account for just under half of its £4.8m income. And that includes bequests from individuals. It is impossible to work out exactly how much banks contribute to the zoo from its financial statements. Many institutions give the zoo little more than £5,000. To some, this is a small price to pay for the benefits that charitable donations bring. Forensic accountant Richard Murphy says: 'None of this is illegal but it is highly likely that some of these banks are giving small amounts of money which enables them to raise huge securitisation revenue streams, while minimising their tax obligations.' Last week, it emerged that UK banks raised billions of pounds through opaque structures that use supposed charitable trusts, some of which fail to donate a penny to good causes. Pressure is growing on the Treasury to crack down on charity tax loopholes which allow banks to raise hundreds of billions of pounds in bonds, the profits of which go completely tax-free. Attention on offshore Crown dependencies comes in the wake of a recent damning National Audit Office report which revealed glaring holes in nine tax havens. The NAO found that out of 3,600 suspicious activity reports in nine havens including Bermuda, Gibraltar, Jersey and the Isle of Man, just two successful prosecutions were concluded. Both of these were in the Cayman Islands. The NAO found there was a dearth of trained investigators and accountants capable of dealing with an increasing workload, which is growing in complexity. The NAO report, Managing Risk in the Overseas Territories, also established significant failure by some government departments to submit accounts dating back four years. The report stated that 'in Bermuda, very few of the 313 reports received in 2006 had been investigated to the extent of their potential for prosecution. 'In Anguilla, the Financial Intelligence Unit has no permanent full-time staff. Investigation work, and developing local officers to investigate financial crime there, fell to a contracted UK detective inspector, who also acquired criminal investigation and management responsibilities and was supported by one part-time local detective-constable. There was a backlog of some 20 cases and the inspector estimated that the number of staff needed to handle the workload should be three full-time investigators and an administrator.' The report also concluded that: 'Where significant numbers of suspicious activity reports are generated, an increasing burden falls on law enforcement agencies to assess the substance of the reports, investigate this and to support subsequent prosecutions. 'This burden has outstripped the capacity of law enforcement agencies in most territories. Only the Cayman Islands has so far achieved any successful prosecutions of local participants for offshore money-laundering offences.' | ['money/tax', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'society/voluntarysector', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'profile/nickmathiason', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/businessandmedia', 'theobserver/businessandmedia/news'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-12-09T12:47:15Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/blog/2007/dec/12/doingitforthechildren | Doing it for the children... | The red carpets are out and men with assault rifles now mingle with sunbathers on the Bali beaches. The high level segment of the talks have begun, and things are starting to get serious... Well, almost. The fight to save the planet did take a surreal twist today when delegates were treated to a musical plea to "save it for our children" penned by the president of Indonesia. Heads of state and senior ministers squirmed in their seats as the song's video, complete with smiling children, burning forests and melting ice, was beamed onto a giant screen ahead of a formal series of speeches, and an aide of the president urged them to clap and sing along. The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is a minor pop star in Indonesia, with an album and several songs in the national charts. His global warming tune included the lyrics: "We're all gathered in Bali, we want to save our planet. We're all meeting here in Bali, for a better life, a better world, for you and me." Another person trying an unconventional approach was Kurt Oddekalv, a Norwegian campaigner and real-life former cowboy, who had dug out his spurs out to make a point to George Bush. Carrying a branding iron and whip, the Norse Ranger, claimed he was cooler than when wearing his shorts the day before. Those buffalo skin trousers must be thinner than they look. On the serious side of the talks, which must conclude on Friday, the rows about the 25-40% carbon cuts for rich countries rumbles on, with the US bringing out the big guns to say exactly what they said on Monday: no way. In the corridoors, most politicians are optimistic about a deal come the end of the week. Most environmentalists talk of a possible meltdown. Business as usual then. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/bali', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/davidadam'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-12-12T15:26:18Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2019/dec/02/narwhal-tusk-london-bridge-attacker-polish-man-terrorist | A narwhal tusk was used against the London Bridge attacker – but what is it? | Philip Hoare | Among the heroic responses to the terrorist attack on London Bridge on Friday, one stands out for its strangeness. A man at Fishmongers’ Hall, where the incident began, grabbed a narwhal tusk that was displayed by the side of the hall’s doorway and, wielding it like a lance, deployed it against the assailant outside. He acted according to instinct, yet his brave gesture, with its knightly resonance, has an emblematic power. In medieval times, the narwhal’s tusk was invested with magic powers: ground up as a powder it was thought to protect monarchs against poisoning. Elizabeth I was given a tusk by her Arctic explorer, Sir Martin Frobisher; it was so valuable she could have bought a castle with it. Another was turned into a royal sceptre. This heavy ivory spiral – it is difficult to hold in one hand – was long believed to have belonged to the mythical unicorn, as emblazoned on the royal coat of arms along with the lion. The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I had the animal’s image etched on his jousting armour. Nowadays, tusks – which cannot be traded internationally – can change hands for £25,000 in north America, where the animals are still hunted with high-velocity rifles. This enigmatic Arctic mammal’s name itself has a fated aspect, being old Norse for “corpse whale”, since the cetacean’s spotted hide was said to resemble a drowned man. For centuries it was believed that the narwhal itself only used its tusk in jousts between males. In fact, recent research has established that the tusk – actually an extended tooth that erupts through the whale’s upper lip, and spirals out for up to five metres – is sensitive with nerve endings at the surface, and that the animals rub tusks together in sensory communication. If one animal’s tusk gets broken off, another narwhal may even break off the tip of its own tusk in the gap, perhaps the ultimate altruistic gesture. Perhaps more apposite is another new discovery: that in a fearful situation the narwhal’s heart beat slows down to just four beats a minute. It is strange to note that only hours after the London Bridge attack, a dead minke whale stranded on the banks of the same river, at Battersea Bridge, its sleek black carcass lying within the pooled bright lights of the city’s back side at night. That whale joined two others that have perished in this waterway in the past two months, one of them killed by a ship-strike. It is hard not to see this river as a mortal place, out of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, or TS Eliot’s The Waste Land. Yet whales have forever been seen as omens – of good as well as ill. And perhaps there is another, more human poetry to be found in the terror of what happened in the heart of a metropolis that is often seen as an unfeeling, lonely place. That for people, as for whales, it is our sense of community that offers a real kind of hope. • Philip Hoare is an author whose books include Leviathan, or The Whale | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'uk-news/london-bridge-terror-attack', 'environment/whales', 'tone/comment', 'environment/marine-life', 'uk/uksecurity', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/philip-hoare', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-02T16:50:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/article/2024/aug/04/north-korea-floods-putin-pledges-aid-after-kim-jong-un-rebuffs-seouls-offer-of-assistance | North Korea floods: Putin pledges aid after Kim Jong-un rebuffs Seoul’s offer of assistance | Russia has pledged humanitarian assistance to North Korea after devastating floods damaged thousands of homes and caused an unknown number of casualties, with reports from South Korea that the number of dead or missing could be as high as 1,500. President Vladimir Putin offered condolences and humanitarian aid after a record downpour on 27 July which submerged swathes of farmland in the north near China, the Kremlin and North Korean state media said. “I ask you to convey words of sympathy and support to all those who lost their loved ones as a result of the storm,” Putin said in a telegram to Kim, adding “you can always count on our help and support”. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un thanked Putin for the offer but said since his government has already taken measures to conduct recovery work, he would ask for help “if aid is necessary”, KCNA state media said. Heavy rains have pummelled North Korea’s north-western areas in recent days, flooding more than 4,000 homes and isolating 5,000 residents, KCNA has reported. State media said Kim had personally inspected the affected areas. On Saturday, Kim accused South Korean media outlets of spreading rumours about damage and casualties from the floods, days after Seoul reached out to offer humanitarian aid. South Korea’s government on Thursday said it was willing to “urgently provide” humanitarian assistance to “North Korean disaster victims” following reports in local media that the toll of dead and missing could number 1,500. The report by South Korea’s TV Chosun, which was later picked up by other outlets, also reported on the possible death of rescue workers killed in helicopter crashes. North Korea’s Kim slammed the reports for “spreading the false rumour that the human loss … is expected be over 1,000 or 1,500”, according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency. The flooding reports constituted a South Korean “smear campaign to bring disgrace upon us and tarnish” the North’s image, he added. North Korea and Russia have been allies since the North’s founding after the second world war, but Pyongyang and Moscow have ramped up diplomatic and security ties in recent months, with Kim and Putin exchanging visits and signing a “comprehensive strategic partnership” pact in June. Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report. | ['world/north-korea', 'world/south-korea', 'environment/flooding', 'world/kim-jong-un', 'world/russia', 'world/vladimir-putin', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-08-04T01:21:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2015/mar/17/greg-hunt-failed-to-check-record-of-company-behind-165bn-coal-mine-says-writ | Greg Hunt failed to check record of company behind $16.5bn coalmine, says writ | A legal challenge to the huge $16.5bn coalmine at Carmichael in Queensland will allege that federal environment minister Greg Hunt failed to properly consider the operator’s international environmental record. Hunt approved the application by Indian-owned company Adani to build a greenfield coalmine – the biggest in Australia – in the Galilee Basin in July. In January, the New South Wales Environmental Defenders’ Office lodged a test case on behalf of Mackay Conservation Group on the grounds that an environmental assessment of the mine should have considered the impact greenhouse gases generated by the burning of mined coal would have on the nearby Great Barrier Reef, as well as the impact of greenhouse gasses created by the mine itself. This week the EDO amended the claim to the federal court to include allegations Hunt failed to consider Adani’s environmental record in India. Greenpeace raised Adani’s international record in a 2013 submission to the federal government opposing the mining application. It said Adani has been subject to numerous court cases and two reviews by the Indian government over its operation of a power plant in Gujarat, including a 2012 decision by the Gujarat high court that found construction had occurred in an area that did not have environmental approval. In his statement of reasons for approving the application, provided to Guardian Australia by Mackay Conservation Group, Hunt said he “noted that a number of public comments were made in relation to the environmental record of the Adani Group overseas,” but that he was satisfied by the company’s own account of its environmental record. “The proponents referral states that the Adani Group has a history of responsible environmental and community management applied to similar projects in other countries,” Hunt said. “The department’s compliance database shows that there is no adverse environmental history for Adani Mining Pty Ltd in Australia. “I found no reason why the proponent would be unwilling or unable to undertake this proposed action in accordance with the conditions of approval.” The Carmichael coalmine and associated Galilee Basin rail and Abbot Point port expansion are Adani’s only projects in Australia. Ellen Roberts, coordinator of the Mackay Conservation Group, said Hunt could not have granted the approval if he had properly considered Adani’s environmental track record in India. “Adani has an appalling environmental track-record in India,” Roberts said. “The only way Greg Hunt could issue an approval was to try to brush it under the carpet.” Roberts said she considered Adani’s track record to constitute “major breaches of environmental law”. “It’s not a small thing to approve a project of this size,” she said. “And when you have evidence of violations of environmental regulations we are saying that’s something that he should have had proper consideration for, and he clearly didn’t.” The coalmine would be the biggest in Australia, producing 60 million tonnes of coal a year. It was backed by the Newman government, which said it would create 10,000 jobs and contribute $22m in royalties to the state’s annual revenue. According to the Adani’s own environmental impact statement it would also release more than 200m tonnes of carbon dioxide over the 60-year life of the mine. The 60m tonnes of coal it produced each year would create 130m tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, equivalent to a quarter of Australia’s total emissions. Construction was slated to begin in 2015 but has been delayed by another legal challenge from the Queensland Environmental Defender’s Office, acting on behalf of the Land Services of Coast and Country. The five-week hearing is due to begin in the Queensland Land Court on 30 March. The federal court challenge will be heard in Sydney on 10-11 August 2015. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/mining', 'business/business', 'business/australia-economy', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-03-17T13:01:07Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/planet-oz/2013/nov/19/warsaw-climate-talks-coal-pink-lungs | Climate talks, coal and the pink lungs of Warsaw | Graham Readfearn | From the Warsaw city centre there's only one route to the precinct where the rotund cement beast that doubles as a national sports stadium is holding United Nations climate change talks. That route is across a road bridge over the mud-brown Vistula River offering views to the south of the Siekierki coal plant that spews out about 3.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Funnelling into the stadium are 1001 members of the media, 6120 registered delegates and 4719 "observers" – UN officials, campaigners and members of other non-governmental groups. Just as the Siekierki plant is hard to miss if you take the breezy stroll over the Vistula, so has been coal. Provocatively, cheekily and perhaps even audaciously, the World Coal Association decided to hold a two-day conference in the city with the overt support of Poland's Ministry of Economy. Opening on Monday, one of the first through the doors and onto the coal conference stage was Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. She pulled few punches, telling the industry it should be throwing its money at renewable energy. Most of the existing coal reserves should be left in the ground, she told them. Greenpeace were already there with a protest banner. Another campaign group turned up with some eight metre bright pink inflatable lungs. Back at the stadium, another protest. Two rolls of carpet – one red and one green – and some campaigners dressed in traditional Polish dress. The red carpet to symbolise the welcome the Polish government has given to the coal industry and the green – well, it's not subtle, but it makes a point. One observer asked why anyone would want to walk down the red carpet. "There's money in it," came the instant reply. Later, youth climate campaigners staged another protest with a referee brandishing a red card to "kick coal out of the climate talks". Oh yes. There are talks. Monday marks the beginning of the high-level discussions in the plenary rooms – massive, white demountable buildings placed on the football field and accessed through a tunnel network. The large screens in the media room list a near infinite number of press conferences and side meetings. The entries tick over like airport flight departure boards. Australia's delegation – described by some as now taking an "anti-climate" position – is keeping its head down. Unlike previous UN climate meetings, there are no daily briefings. There has been no sunshine either. A breezy 4C outside and a thick blanket of cloud, Figueres admitted in an afternoon press conference she was missing the sun. But there is one chink of light – the release of a piece of draft text for negotiators to get their molars around. Eventually, this could deliver a formula for countries to work out what's fair when it comes to cutting emissions. That leads to targets and a possible new global deal in Paris in 2015. And the name for this key piece of text? "It is called an annotated draft text, no, it's called a draft text," muttered Figueres as she thumbed through pages to locate the mystery name for the expectant press. "Here we go," she said, relieved to have now located the item. "Draft text on ADP two dash three agenda item three," she said, before raising her eyes to chuckles from the gathered media. "Clearly not yet baptized," noted a UN official. | ['environment/series/guardian-environment-blogs', 'environment/environment', 'environment/planet-oz', 'tone/blog', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop-19-un-climate-change-conference-warsaw', 'environment/coal', 'environment/christiana-figueres', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2013-11-19T00:49:00Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2019/jul/30/paddling-in-plastic-meet-the-man-swimming-the-pacific-garbage-patch | Paddling in plastic: meet the man swimming the Pacific garbage patch | Ben Lecomte is spending his summer swimming in trash – literally. So far, he’s found toothbrushes, laundry baskets, sandbox shovels and beer crates floating out in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. The 52-year-old Frenchman is journeying from Hawaii to San Francisco via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to better understand how plastic is affecting our oceans. He will swim a total of 300 nautical miles, intermittently travelling by sailboat with a crew of 10 the rest of the way. His swim will take him through a gyre known as the Pacific trash vortex, home to the largest concentration of plastic debris in the world. The distance is also a metaphorical journey for the 300m tons of plastic waste produced annually, of which an estimated 8m tons of plastic waste is pushed into the oceans. Since starting the trip on 14 June in Hawaii, Lecomte and his crew – consisting of sailors, storytellers and scientists – have found everything from empty containers to children’s toys and abandoned fishing nets. Crew member and scientist Drew McWhirter even discovered microplastics in their dinner: upon slitting open a freshly caught mahi-mahi, he saw a piece of plastic lodged in the fish’s stomach. “It was a very sobering experience,” Lecomte says. “Plastic trash coming back to our plates.” The long-distance swim is the first of its kind ever to be attempted. Designed as a science-meets-adventure expedition, Lecomte and his team are collecting microplastic samples and placing GPS tags on larger floating plastic waste, so that researchers can better understand how plastics move through the oceans. Lecomte is also on a mission to debunk the myth that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a floating pile of plastic. There is no “trash island”, he says, but rather an “underwater smog of microplastic”. This is not Lecomte’s first long-distance swim. In 1998, he became the first man to cross the Atlantic without the aid of a kickboard – a feat that took him 73 days and even saw him followed by sharks. Last year he attempted to swim across the Pacific, launching from Japan. He completed 1,500 nautical miles (2,700 kilometers) before he was forced to abandon the effort due to stormy conditions, which damaged his support boat. That support boat is crucial, giving Lecomte the rest and nourishment he needs to swim an average of eight hours every day. He stops during his swim to have some soup and bread and refuel but can go as long as five hours without stopping. After eight hours in the water he’ll get back on the boat for a carb-heavy meal, he says, followed by an evening nap and a second meal at night. Lecomte, who hopes to complete the crossing in September, swims seven days a week, taking breaks only when he’s severely fatigued or if the weather conditions are too risky. Meanwhile, the crew is busy using nets to collect samples of plastic in the water, often thousands of pieces per day, which are meticulously laid out and counted. The team estimates that in the past three weeks they’ve collected more than 17,000 pieces of microplastics and spotted more than 1,200 larger pieces of floating trash. Lecomte’s swimming route is dictated by scientists from the University of Hawaii, using satellite imagery and ocean modeling to locate the highest concentration of debris. “Our goal is to arrive in California with the first transpacific dataset on plastic pollution, and engage as many people as possible to be part of the solution,” Lecomte says. This expedition is also sponsored by Icebreaker, a New Zealand-based outdoor brand that emphasizes the use of natural materials in its clothing. His swim is drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of synthetic microfibers in the planet’s water systems. Studies have estimated that between 700,000 and 1m synthetic fibers are unleashed by just one load of washing in a machine. Dr Sarah-Jeanne Royer at the University of San Diego specializes in plastic and microfiber degradation, and has been supporting Lecomte’s mission from land. She says the boat crew has collected seawater samples at a variety of locations, and found microfibers in every sample. “These synthetic fibers are so lightweight, that they’re being carried everywhere,” she says. “We’re breathing them.” Despite enormous public interest, scientists still know little about the pervasiveness of ocean plastic pollution, says Royer. The vastness of the oceans makes the movement of plastics difficult to study, while gyres such as the one Lecomte is swimming near can keep plastic waste in a restricted area for long periods of time, before unleashing them towards the Hawaiian shorelines. “We only know where 1% of the plastic waste is in the ocean,” she says. Indeed, a 2014 study found that the overwhelming majority of all plastic known to have entered the oceans cannot be accounted for. “So the big question for us is where is this plastic going in the ocean?” She hopes the findings by Lecomte and his team will help begin to answer that question. “This data is priceless. [The crew] could have done a campaign without collecting data. But they realized how important it is to collect these samples,” she says. “Without science, it’s not possible to prove the claims about plastics and its damaging effect on the environment.” | ['us-news/series/united-states-of-plastic', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/esha-chhabra', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-07-31T05:00:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/blog/2012/jul/27/climate-sceptics-conspiracy-theorists | Are climate sceptics more likely to be conspiracy theorists? | Adam Corner | It's time to come clean: climate change is a hoax. And the moon landings were faked, 9/11 was an inside job, and the CIA is hiding the identity of the gunman on the grassy knoll. It might seem odd to lump climate change – a scientific theory supported by thousands of peer-reviewed papers and hundreds of independent lines of evidence – with conspiracy theories like these. But new research to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science has found a link between the endorsement of conspiracy theories and the rejection of established facts about climate science. In a survey of more than 1,000 readers of websites related to climate change, people who agreed with free market economic principles and endorsed conspiracy theories were more likely to dispute that human-caused climate change was a reality. Stephen Lewandowsky and his colleagues at the University of Western Australia posted a link to an online questionnaire on eight climate-related blogs with a diverse readership, in order to capture people's views about economics, science and conspiracy theories. Five "sceptic" (or "sceptic-leaning") blogs were also approached but declined to post the link – interesting in and of itself, given the frequent claim that sceptical views are excluded from mainstream debates. What they found was remarkable. People who endorsed conspiracy theories such as "9/11 was an inside job" and "the moon landings were faked", were also more likely to reject established scientific facts about climate change, such as "I believe that the burning of fossil fuels on the scale observed over the last 50 years has increased atmospheric temperatures to an appreciable degree." Clearly, a self-selecting sample of blog users is not representative of the wider population. But this is precisely why the researchers targeted this group: in the cut-throat world of climate change scepticism, this is undoubtedly where the action is. Lewandowsky's research poses difficult questions for the climate sceptic community. Although they are not a homogenous group, they tend to coalesce around common themes relating to the reality and seriousness of climate change. The findings suggest that at least some proportion of the people who consider themselves sceptical about climate change are also willing to entertain conspiracy theories that are not taken seriously in mainstream society. All scientists are sceptics: it is a healthy, everyday part of the process of systematically weighing up evidence and reaching a considered conclusion. But if vocal online opponents of climate change science also do not accept basic historical truths about society, can their position really be described as "scepticism"? The findings provide yet more evidence that a rejection of climate science has more to with ideological views than scientific literacy, bolstering the well-supported finding that climate change scepticism is more likely to be found on the right, than on the left of politics. But they go a step further, adding an important layer of detail to the crude characterisation of climate change scepticism as a "conservative" issue. The link between endorsing conspiracy theories and rejecting climate science facts suggests that it is the libertarian instinct to stick two fingers up at the mainstream – whatever the issue – that is important. Because a radical libertarian streak is the hallmark of free-market economics, and because free market views are popular on the political right, this is where climate change scepticism is most likely to be found. The findings also suggest that talk of a 'consensus' on climate change is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, the weight of scientific evidence showing that humans are changing the climate is a powerful argument for taking action to prevent its dangerous effects. But the very notion of consensual agreement is also a red flag to libertarians, who distrust statements about consensus on principle. All of this suggests that the battle to overcome climate scepticism – if that is even a useful way of thinking about it – will not be won by simply restating the scientific facts. The problem is that "the facts" are not "the facts" for a small proportion of people – and the noise made by this minority group dilutes the otherwise clear signal about climate change received by the wider population. Climate change is a scientific entity, but one given meaning through the social, political and economic lenses we view it through. The challenge of engaging with climate change sceptics is finding the lens that better fits their ideological views – not just shouting the science more loudly. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'science/science', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'science/apollo-11-moon-landing', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-corner'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2012-07-27T10:38:19Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2021/may/16/could-engineered-coral-save-the-planets-reefs-from-destruction | Could ‘engineered’ coral save the planet’s reefs from destruction? | This weekend, conservationists will put the final touches to a giant artificial reef they are assembling at London zoo. Samples of the planet’s most spectacular corals – vivid green branching coral, yellow scroll, blue ridge and many more species – will be added to the giant tank along with fish that thrive in their presence: blue tang, clownfish and many others. The scene will then be set for Monday’s opening of the zoo’s new gallery, Tiny Giants, which is dedicated to the minuscule invertebrate creatures that sustain life across the planet. The coral reef tank and its seven-metre wide window will form the core of the exhibition. The aim of the new gallery goes beyond merely demonstrating the wonder and glory of coral reefs, however. It will also showcase the research that is now being carried out in a bid to halt the destruction of the world’s reefs as global heating warms the oceans and bleaches and destroys their coral. “Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems on Earth and we want to show people how wonderful they are,” said Paul Pearce-Kelly, senior curator of invertebrates and fish at the Zoological Society of London. “However, we also want to highlight the research and conservation efforts that are now being carried out to try to save them from the threat of global warming. We want the public to see what is being done to try to save these wonders.” Corals are tiny animals, known as polyps, that have mouths surrounded by tentacles for capturing food. These polyps are clear but get their brilliant colour from algae that live within them. The algae get protection while their photosynthesising of sun’s rays provides nutrients for the polyps. This comfortable symbiotic relationship has led to the growth of coral reefs that cover 0.1% of the planet’s ocean bed while providing homes for more than 25% of marine species, including fish, molluscs, sponges and shellfish. As a result, they are sometimes described as the “rainforests of the sea”, though the comparison is disparaged by some naturalists, including David Attenborough. “People say you cannot beat the rainforest,” Attenborough has stated. “But that is simply not true. You go there and the first thing you think is: where the hell are the birds? Where are the animals? They are hiding in the trees, of course. No, if you want beauty and wildlife, you want a coral reef. Put on a mask and stick your head under the water. The sight is mindblowing.” Unfortunately these majestic sights are now under very serious threat, with the most immediate problem coming in the form of thermal stress. Rising ocean temperatures are triggering bleaching events that strip reefs of their colour and eventually kill them. And that is just the start. Other menaces include ocean acidification, sea level increase, storms, deoxygenation and ocean current changes, while the climate crisis is also increasing the threat of disease and exacerbating habitat destruction, overfishing and pollution by humans. As a result, vast areas – including massive chunks of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – have already been destroyed, and scientists warn that more than 90% of reefs could be lost by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to tackle global heating and greenhouse gas emissions. “You can think of the coral reefs as the canary in the mine,” said Pearce-Kelly. “They have to survive really harsh conditions – crashing waves, erosion and other factors – and when things start to go wrong in the oceans, then corals will be the first to react. And that is exactly what we are seeing now. Coral reefs are dying and they are telling us that all is not well with our planet.” Decisions taken this year at the Cop26 climate meeting in Glasgow will be crucial in slowing down global heating and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that are absorbed by the sea, a process that leads to ocean acidification. Both could help protect threatened coral reefs. However, scientists are working to try to pinpoint hardy strains that could survive our overheated oceans, and some of this research will be carried out at London zoo. “Behind our new coral reef tank we have built laboratories where scientists will be studying coral species,” said Pearce-Kelly. One aim will be to carry out research on species to find those that can survive best in the warm, acidic waters. Another will be to try to increase coral reproduction rates. “Coral spawn just once a year,” he added. “However, aquarium-based research has enabled some corals to spawn artificially, which can assist coral reef restoration efforts. And if this can be extended for all species, we could consider the launching of coral-spawning programmes several times a year. That would be a big help in restoring blighted reefs.” Research in these fields is being worked on in laboratories around the world, with the new London zoo facility linked to this global network. Studies carried out in one centre can then be tested in others. These can then be displayed in the tank in Tiny Giants. “The crucial point is that the progress we make in making coral better able to survive in a warming world can be shown to the public and encourage them to believe that we can do something to save the planet’s reefs,” said Pearce-Kelly. “Saving our coral reefs is now a critically important ecological goal.” | ['environment/coral', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-05-16T07:15:48Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2016/sep/12/childhood-wild-forest-schools-outdoors | Bring back childhood’s wild side | Patrick Barkham | Once we had forests and children, like my dad, John, roamed them freely. One day in the 1950s, he encountered a forester (now an extinct species, like the free-roaming child) in a nearby wood. The old woodman showed him how to use a billhook; John slung his hook and gashed his knee. I only learned this story when reading A Tale of Trees, a new book by Guardian country diarist Derek Niemann, who recounts a very human story of vanishing forests. It’s estimated that Britain lost more ancient woodland in the 40 years after the second world war than in the previous 400. There were still woods but many became industrial plantations of Sitka spruce – inhospitable to both children and other species. Coincidentally, my three-year-old, Ted, this week brought home a lump of wood from his new forest school nursery. He had drilled holes and banged nails into this lump without any maiming because he was under close supervision, as I saw from photos – which hard-pressed nursery teachers now spend their weekends sending to parents. A free-roaming childhood is gone forever, more because of the volume of traffic than the loss of open woodland, but this need not be a source of despair. Forest schools represent the best of the present and are a sign that we are belatedly recognising woodland as a supreme setting for the learning that comes from free play outdoors. My father’s roaming made him a woodland ecologist. Will a grammar school-obsessed government help more primary schools have a weekly woodland experience via the forest schools movement? Probably not, but more forest schooling will happen without them, from the grassroots up. Ancient woods are still threatened – the Woodland Trust lists 633 at risk, its highest ever figure – but there is also a flowering of imaginative alternatives to planting spruces, such as the “new age wood pasture” of rewilded Knepp Castle estate in Sussex. We often try to save ancient forests by identifying their usefulness (as sources of rare species, sustainable fuel, flood allevience and carbon sequestration) but Niemann’s book is a timely reminder of “the magic, delight, solace and physicality of ancient woods” – for adults, as well as children. Plastic passion Australians must be laughing all the way to the bank about Britain’s “hi-tech” plastic fivers, which come into circulation tomorrow. They’ve had polymer cash for nearly 25 years. When I worked in Sydney years ago, I was astounded to pull a pair of jeans from the wash and find a five-dollar note still intact in the pocket. Ironically, the first batch of Britain’s new fivers is being made in Melbourne. At least a native factory making plastic fivers and tenners has now opened in Cumbria, where debate currently rages over rewilding its sheep-grazed fells. Plastic tenners manufactured in a rewilded landscape: I love how the future’s weirdness is beyond our wildest imagining. Bird-brained licence to kill The future of driven grouse shooting will be debated in parliament after naturalist Mark Avery’s petition to ban it reached more than 100,000 signatures. Meanwhile Natural England is considering four more licences for gamekeepers to shoot buzzards to save non-native pheasants, on the eve of a State of Nature report, which will this week reveal the ongoing decimation of British wildlife. The politest way of describing the government’s wildlife watchdog potentially endorsing further extermination of a wild bird to protect a farmed one shot for fun at this moment in time? Grim irony. | ['commentisfree/series/notebook', 'environment/wildlife', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/conservation', 'education/education', 'environment/environment', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'tone/comment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-09-12T17:35:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2017/sep/19/bhp-agrees-to-rethink-its-links-to-minerals-council-of-australia | BHP agrees to rethink its links to Minerals Council of Australia | The giant Anglo-Australian miner BHP has agreed to reconsider its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia, as well as other industry groups, and to clarify how BHP’s position on climate and energy policy differs from those bodies. The move comes as BHP faces a shareholder resolution urging the company to terminate membership of bodies that demonstrate a pattern of advocacy on policy issues at odds with the company’s positions since 2012. The resolution was moved by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility on behalf of more than 120 shareholders of BHP. “The last decade or longer of Australian climate and energy policy has been characterised by short-lived policy subject to relentless scrutiny and adversarial campaigning by industry bodies, or no policy at all,” the ACCR said on behalf of about the shareholders in a supporting statement. The statement called for BHP to review membership of industry bodies, and singled out the Minerals Council of Australia, noting its activities have “diminished the federal government’s ability to resolve a national policy issue of material relevance to our company and the stability of its operations”. “The MCA’s activities undermine the possibility of achieving what our company has stated an ‘effective policy framework’ should include: a complementary set of measures including a price on carbon, support for low-emissions technologies, energy efficiency and measures to build resilience,” the statement said. “Over time, these activities have the potential to undermine shareholder value, given our company’s exposure to climate-related risk and energy instability.” In 2016 AGL, Australia’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, left the MCA, citing material differences in their positions on climate change and energy. “AGL’s positions on climate change and renewable energy differed from those held by the Minerals Council of Australia and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, and AGL has elected not to renew its membership of these organisations,” the company said. In recent months BHP has expressed public displeasure at some of the MCA’s lobbying activities. The CSIRO has come under fire for its membership of the MCA. In a statement uploaded to the BHP website on Monday, the miner said it would review its membership of industry bodies, specifically mentioning the Minerals Council of Australia. It also committed to publishing statements on how its positions differ from industry groups on climate change. “In the past, we have always sought to make our position on significant public issues clear,” BHP said. “However, we will further our efforts to ensure that material differences with industry associations on key issues are clearly understood. “To that end, we will make public, by 31 December 2017, a list of the material differences between the positions we hold on climate and energy policy, and the advocacy positions on climate and energy policy taken by industry associations to which we belong.” | ['business/bhpbilliton', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'business/business', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2017-09-19T06:54:19Z | true | ENERGY |
media/2010/jun/16/world-cup-itv-hd-complaints | Ofcom receives 750 complaints over ITV World Cup goal gaffe | Ofcom has received more than 750 complaints over a transmission glitch that saw around 1.5 mnillion fans miss England's opening goal in the World Cup tie with the USA, bringing the total number of complaints about ITV's broadcast to almost 6,000. The media regulator has received a total of 773 complaints about the incident which saw an ad aired as Steven Gerrard struck a fourth-minute goal during ITV's high-definition broadcast. ITV said it has received about 5,000 complaints about the incident which it put down to "human error" at transmission supplier Technicolor. Ofcom will now assess the complaints to see if there has been any breach of the broadcasting code. Bookie Paddy Power had taken "less than a dozen" bets at 8/1 on the market that ITV would show an ad during play of any World Cup match. There are not thought to have been any major winners from the glitch, which the Daily Mail insinuated might have been caused deliberately. "We have not ruled anything out but there is nothing to suggest that this is the case," said a spokesman for ITV. Paddy Power has now opened several new markets where punters can bet on another glitch occurring, with lengthened odds on the basis ITV will be running a very tight operation. The bookmaker is offering 20-1 that another ad is aired during play in any match or 50-1 that ITV misses airing another goal. There are even odds on which ad it would be that interrupted play – the glitch on Saturday night saw sponsor Hyundai's ad appear – if there was another transmission problem. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/ITV', 'media/ofcom', 'media/television', 'media/hd-tv', 'media/media', 'tone/news', 'football/football', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'football/worldcup2010', 'football/world-cup-football', 'type/article', 'profile/marksweney'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-06-16T11:52:51Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2011/aug/29/irene-media-hysteria-bank-repossession | Hurricane Irene could never take from Americans what the banks already have | Priyamvada Gopal | It's a disaster. I am in small-town Massachusetts, listening to tropical storm Irene chattering on the loft windows, there's no milk for tea, and it's my fault. For the last 48 hours frantically excited radio and television anchors have spared no effort in producing high-level panic on an interminable loop. Even the generally measured tones of National Public Radio turned breathless with dystopian anticipation. By the time we turned up at the supermarket the evening before Irene made landfall, all milk, food, water, batteries and toilet paper had vanished. The bottled water shelves gleamed with an eerie emptiness: no post-apocalyptic looting could have been more thorough. After arriving on the eastern seaboard Hurricane Irene ran its course as a tropical storm, having already lost its dangerous "eyewall", as meteorologists showed. But the manufactured hysteria that had preceded its arrival and continued well after Irene had clearly diminished in force drew out some less admirable aspects of American life. Where sensible rationing was called for, unbridled runs on supermarkets resulted in unnecessarily vast quantities of food and water being hoarded in individual basements, much of it undoubtedly destined for the rubbish bins as skies clear. Even as it cast about desperately for dramatic disaster footage, the broadcast media covered the storm with manic single-mindedness, revelling in the rhetoric of siege and assault. A "big threat to the US" would "viciously" make its way up the coast, "menacing", "taking aim", and "pounding" the nation. Singularly uninterested in weather misery elsewhere, the American media's wilful parochialism reinforces the state of exception that is the default political setting in this country. A few days before the 10th anniversary of September 11, America was again uniquely under siege and would fight the assault through a combination of bunker mentality and indomitable will. Cyclones and storms routinely devastate low-lying areas and kill many in countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines. We hear little of these until the body count rises, and they certainly never merit the raindrop-by-raindrop international media coverage accorded to Irene's American jaunt. By the time Irene arrived stateside, the storm had already done its worst in the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and the American colony of Puerto Rico. But you'd be forgiven for thinking the hurricane had the United States uniquely in its sights, one of the many forces in the world apparently ranged against the American way of life. Along with other eastern regions, a state of emergency was declared in New York City, initiating sensible measures such as evacuating homes at flood risk. Shutting down the entire subway system was a more questionable decision, given the city disaster management office's own hurricane instructions: "Evacuate immediately: use public transportation if possible." Echoing Katrina's mistakes, the Rikers Island prison population, including children, would not be evacuated and Mayor Bloomberg's evacuation plans provide no instructions to people without access to either private or public transportation. Preparedness with a sense of proportion is always good. It would have saved thousands of lives and homes in New Orleans in the wake of 2005's Hurricane Katrina. But the ratcheted-up rhetoric around Irene, termed a "historic hurricane" by President Obama, spoke less of the state's duty to protect than of inflated pre-election grandstanding complete with cowboy-style gubernatorial warnings to people "to stay the hell off the beach". This is not to participate in the blame game that has already begun as media pundits denounce and politicians defend their actions. Some superficial queries about "over-reaction" are now being posed. But the real question is what political role such manufactured hysteria plays at a time when ordinary Americans are far more vulnerable to the damage being inflicted on them by their economic and political elites than to individual weather events. (Changing climate patterns are a different matter). Put simply, millions more homes will have been lost to bank repossessions than have been damaged by Irene. The storm caused some flooding, but much greater degradation has been inflicted on the US coastline by last year's BP oil spill. A few days without electricity is challenging, but the blow to clean energy prospects posed by the state department's recent approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to the Texas coast is more worrying. A real state of preparedness for natural catastrophes anywhere is only possible for a general population protected by fair access to decent housing, good universal healthcare and robust environmental regulations. Preparing for the worst means addressing both what causes or aggravates natural disasters – like climate change and poverty – and how the damage they inflict can be minimised by a strong social infrastructure. Like Britain, the US is headed further in the opposite direction. Piling up sandbags and stocking up on masking tape will not then save anyone from disasters to follow. | ['us-news/hurricane-irene', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/priyamvadagopal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-08-29T14:59:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/sep/28/robins-alarm-red-danger-green-space-shropshire-country-diary | Robin's alarm flashes red for danger across the green space | When I heard the robin’s call, I stopped on the path and peered into the woods. The call had all the qualities of alarm that we recognise: an annoying insistence, a way of filling space with inescapable sound, an instinctive understanding that something was wrong. Like heart-monitoring machines in A&E, a reversing vehicle or a broken-into car, it was a warning but, unlike mechanised alarms, it was made from a narrative – a collection of rapid phrases, sharp as rattling a box of knives. The season might have just tipped over the balance of the autumn equinox but the woods were still green. Infinite greens – leaves, stems, trunks, brambles, ferns, shadows – merged together to form a vanishing green in which everything disappeared. Something stirred in the crab apples and the alarm flashed red-for-danger as the robin turned to face me. Out of the woods, the world was changing faster, accelerating through the seasons; there was no way to arrest or relax the perpetual motion of careering time. What’s the point? The Point here is the name of a scrubbed-over field on the steep slope of the Edge facing west. From a tall lime tree above thorn and briar tangles at the top, the view opens across Severn Vale to the Breiddens of mid-Wales and the Berwyns beyond them. Throughout this landscape, harvested fields were turning tawny, and there was a similar tint beginning to seep into surrounding leaves but, across that slowly undulating expanse, an anarchic grid of oaks in hedges, open fields, copses, spinneys and woods held the green land together. From the Point, released from the intimacy of the woods, it was possible to feel the extent of the web of trees and woodland connected below ground by water, roots and fungal threads and above by sunlight, breeze and birds. The robin was joined by other alarmists, but I was not the cause of their concern. For the briefest of moments I saw what was: the barred feathers of a tawny owl, taking its chance to escape the mob, into the vanishing green. Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/autumn', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/birds', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulevans', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-09-28T04:30:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
film/2019/sep/26/sea-of-shadows-review-vaquita-totoaba-mexico-documentary | Sea of Shadows review – porpoise documentary slips through the net | The sad plight of the vaquita – an endangered species of porpoise to be found in the Sea of Cortez off the Mexican coast – is the subject of this earnest, but frankly rather precious and slightly self-admiring documentary from National Geographic, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. It is heartfelt, but its periodic attempts at thriller-style bouts of excitement are redundant, and I wondered sometimes if the film-makers were sure what exactly their story was. There are now estimated to be only 15 vaquita left in the world, and the reason they are dying is that they are getting caught in the nets of those who are illegally trying to catch totoaba, a fish that swims in the same waters, and whose swim bladder is much prized in China, both as a delicacy and for its supposed medicinal value. So the totoaba is now called “the cocaine of the seas” and cartel gangsters are heavily involved in fishing for it, and transporting it to Hong Kong. The film shows clearly enough how dangerous and ugly this criminal connection is, and how worrying is the evidence that police and navy personnel are vulnerable to bribery. But there are other things going on, too. Legitimate fishing communities are enraged that their business is being sacrificed in the crackdown, and some are openly mutinous towards the authorities, because they say that they and their livelihoods are endangered. The film is not sure quite what to do with this interesting debate, and simply dispenses with it. Only late in the film, and very ineffectually, does it get round to the obvious point: how can Mexico persuade China to crack down on their own appetite for totoaba, which, as with the market for elephant tusks, is driving the whole business? The film doesn’t give this issue nearly enough attention. A wasted opportunity. • Sea of Shadows is released in the UK on 27 September. | ['film/documentary', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/fish', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'world/mexico', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/peterbradshaw', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/film', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-09-26T16:00:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2002/sep/12/rugbyunion.walesrugbyleagueteam | One-off league lifeline for Harris | Iestyn Harris is to be offered a temporary escape from his rugby union tribulations with a return to rugby league for Wales's friendly against New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on November 3. Harris, who left Leeds Rhinos to play union for Cardiff and Wales 12 months ago in a deal worth more than £500,000, has been struggling for club and country after a promising start. He lost his place in the Wales team during last season's Six Nations Championship and has been out of favour with Cardiff this season; he made only the substitutes' bench for their Celtic League match last weekend. That has alerted Neil Kelly, the coach of the Wales league team, who plans to sound out Harris next Tuesday at a press conference in Cardiff to promote the international match - as well as the Challenge Cup final, which will also be played at the Millennium Stadium on April 26. "If somebody said to me that Iestyn Harris is available, I would snap his hand off," said Kelly, who also coaches Widnes in the Super League. "I think everybody in rugby league feels a bit of sympathy for Iestyn Harris because it hasn't turned out to be the dream change he wanted. "It could be beneficial both for Iestyn and Cardiff, as well as us, if he does come back to play against the Kiwis. I haven't spoken to him recently but I wouldn't have thought he is too pleased with how things are working out for him at the moment. "This could be a confidence booster for him, and I can see a situation where Cardiff would be happy with that." Harris's presence would also be certain to increase attendance for the fixture, with the Rugby Football League hoping to match the record 18,000 it attracted to the Millennium Stadium for a match between Wales and New Zealand in the 2000 World Cup. However, there is no suggestion that Harris, who has been capped seven times by Wales since switching to union, will make a permanent return to rugby league - at least not yet. Gary Hetherington, chief executive of Leeds, who retained the stand-off's league registration when he moved to Wales, said yesterday there was "nothing afoot other than what has already been arranged". Harris is due to return to Leeds, and rugby league, the summer after next, after he has completed his union commitments for the 2003-04 season. | ['sport/rugby-union', 'sport/sport', 'sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'type/article', 'profile/andywilson'] | sport/wales-rugby-league-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2002-09-11T23:15:43Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2019/mar/26/australian-researchers-find-huge-lakes-beneath-largest-east-antarctic-glacier | Australian researchers find huge lakes beneath largest east Antarctic glacier | Australian researchers have discovered huge underwater lakes beneath the largest glacier in east Antarctica. The lakes were detected by scientists setting off small explosives 2m below the surface of the Totten glacier and listening to the reflected sound. The Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi said the research was critical to helping scientists predict how the melting of Antarctic glaciers would change the world’s oceans. The Totten glacier is 30km wide and up to two kilometres thick, and has the potential to raise sea levels by seven metres. “The explosives were a sound source for us … and it would then echo off different layers in the ice,” Galton-Fenzi told the Guardian. “We placed geophones [a series of microphones] along the surface of the glacier to listen to the reflected sound, giving us a picture of what lies beneath the ice.” He said the speed glaciers travel at is determined by what they move across. “If there’s bedrock under the glacier, it’s sticky and will move more slowly, but if there’s water or soft sediments, the glacier will move faster,” he said. Galton-Fenzi said the next step for researchers would be to drill down to take a sample of the lakes but he lamented there was no funding certainty for future research. “This is the single biggest problem we need to face and have answers to over the next couple of decades,” he said. “I’m not just a scientist saying ‘I need more money’ … I’ve got kids who are six and eight and [climate change] is a real threat for them.” The scientists, who were based at Casey research station, were among more than 550 expeditioners who travelled with the Australian Antarctic Program over the southern summer, working on more than 56 projects. | ['world/antarctica', 'environment/glaciers', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'environment/poles', 'world/world', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-martin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-03-26T05:10:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2023/jul/20/eastern-australia-hit-with-rising-electricity-prices-despite-record-warm-weather | Eastern Australia hit with rising electricity prices despite record warm weather | Eastern Australia’s wholesale power prices increased in the June quarter, although they remained well below the level reached during the energy crisis a year earlier, the Australian Energy Regulator has said. New South Wales posted the highest spot pricing with an average of $148 a megawatt hour, up from just over $100/MWh during the first three months of the year. During last winter’s energy squeeze, prices averaged about $320/MWh. For the June quarter, Queensland and South Australia’s wholesale prices averaged about $140/MWh, and Victoria’s just under $100, while Tasmania’s were cheapest at $65. During the period, AGL closed the final units of its Liddell coal-fired power station in NSW’s Hunter valley, contributing to the uptick in prices for the quarter, the AER said. Still, supply conditions were not as tight as a year ago when delayed maintenance at ageing coal-fired power stations combined with an extended cold weather snap, which pushed up energy demand. Wind energy was also lower than expected. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup “We have seen far fewer coal generator outages and more coal capacity offered into the market than the same period last year,” said Justin Oliver, an AER board member. “There are strong gas flows between states and high gas storage levels at [Victoria’s] Iona facility, which is critical for managing supply-demand shocks.” The pickup in wholesale prices were reflected in the updated default retail power prices offered across the eastern states. These have risen by a quarter or more since the start of July even while wholesale prices have started to trail off. The increase in spot prices came even with the federal government imposing price caps for domestic use of gas at $12 a gigajoule and $125 a tonne of black coal since January. The gas price limit has been extended to 2025 while the coal cap will lapse after 12 months. Despite the cap, east coast gas market spot prices averaged about $14.50/GJ in the April-June period, up from about $12 during the March quarter, the AER report said. “High May prices were largely the result of production constraints at Longford [in Victoria] combined with pipeline capacity constraints on the Moomba-to-Sydney pipeline,” the report said. “This resulted in downstream prices in southern markets increasing above $19/GJ, before pipeline capacity increases in June reduced upwards price pressure.” Gas demand trailed off in June, in part because of milder temperatures, sending gas prices below $10/GJ. Eastern Australia had its warmest ever June by maximum temperatures, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. In Victoria, a state where many residents rely on gas for heating, minimum temperatures were 1.77C above the 1961-90 average. That was the state’s fifth-warmest June by overnight temperatures on record and the mildest since 2014. Renewable sources continued their advance, with 1,100 megawatts of new capacity in the form of solar, wind energy and batteries added in the quarter. Wind output reached record levels in June in the national electricity market. The output of solar and wind energy was also on average 745MW greater than for the same quarter last year, the AER said. The chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, told an energy summit in Sydney that Australia wasn’t building renewable energy quickly enough “to replace failing coal and expensive gas, ensuring reliability and driving down power prices”. “Over recent years we have been averaging around 3 gigawatts of rooftop solar and 3GW of large-scale renewables per year,” he said on Tuesday. “That needs to double to put us on track to 82% renewable energy by 2030.” However, despite the need to double the pace of investments, a range of headwinds including drawn-out planning approvals meant new project commitments were actually slowing. “Just 0.4GW of new large-scale renewable energy projects have been committed in the first half of 2023,” Thornton said. “That’s a long way short of the 5GW per annum we need.” | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2023-07-19T15:00:03Z | true | ENERGY |
politics/2023/jun/21/former-tory-ministers-form-group-push-green-policies-next-election | Former Tory ministers push for ‘bold and positive’ green agenda at election | Former Tory cabinet ministers have formed a group to pressure the government to improve its green policies in the hope of making it “credible” in the next general election. Alok Sharma, the former Cop26 president, is urging Rishi Sunak to have a “bold and positive environmental agenda” in the next general election. He joins the former transport secretary Chris Grayling and Simon Clarke, who was the levelling up secretary, in calling for more ambitious climate policies. They will sit on the new steering committee for the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), a group of 159 Tory MPs who pressure the government to improve its green offering. The group was formed a decade ago. The ministers will be calling for Sunak to adopt ambitious policies to unlock more onshore and offshore renewables, improve home energy efficiency, incentivise sustainable transport options, clean up rivers and seas and reward farmers for using nature-friendly practices. In recent weeks, Sunak and government ministers including the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, have criticised the Labour party for its green energy policies and the fact one of its donors also donates to the campaign group Just Stop Oil. There are fears among green Conservatives that despite hosting Cop26 and announcing a range of environmental initiatives, the Tories are in danger of losing credibility on the matter, while Labour commits to policies that include ending the moratorium on onshore wind, and vastly expanding green energy. In addition, the Tories have recently given the green light to a coalmine in Cumbria, which the government’s own net zero tsar, Chris Skidmore, said should never have been approved. Their focus appears to be on the more expensive routes such as carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power rather than cheaper, proven solutions such as insulation and onshore wind. Sharma said: “Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. As the UK showed at Cop26, the leadership of a country with a small share of the world’s emissions can make a big difference, raising global ambitions and creating new jobs and industries at home. “The Conservative Environment Network has been a critical voice in keeping environmentalism at the heart of successive Conservative governments. I look forward to working with its many members to ensure the government has a bold and positive environmental agenda ahead of the next election.” The new group also includes the 2019 Conservative manifesto co-author Rachel Wolf, the environmental audit committee chair and MP, Philip Dunne and the MPs Katherine Fletcher and Selaine Saxby. While the Labour party attempts to focus on green issues and make them a key part of its manifesto offering, there are debates among Conservatives about whether it is worth reaching climate goals at all. Sam Hall, the director of the CEN, added: “While some conservatives remain sceptical, they are in the minority, with almost half of Conservative MPs signing up to CEN’s principles during this parliament. “The debate has moved to focus on how we deliver on our climate and nature goals in a way that enhances our prosperity and security, not whether we have to act or if humans are responsible for environmental degradation. “As we head toward the next election and the future of conservatism debate continues, we will work to ensure environmental leadership remains at the core of the centre-right politics and to urge conservatives to set out a positive agenda for further environmental action.” | ['politics/conservatives', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'politics/labour', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-06-21T12:08:19Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2020/sep/23/by-2020-standards-angus-taylors-low-emissions-technology-statement-is-not-really-a-climate-policy | By 2020 standards, Angus Taylor's low-emissions technology statement is not really a climate policy | Adam Morton | The first point to make about Angus Taylor’s low-emissions technology statement, launched on Tuesday as the Morrison government’s primary response to the climate crisis, is an obvious one: it would be terrific if it worked. We should all hope the technologies that Taylor says the government will prioritise – hydrogen, energy storage, low emissions steel and aluminium, soil carbon and, yes, even the much-mocked carbon capture and storage (CCS) – come off and allow deep, rapid, sustainable cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Dealing with climate change is an unparalleled global challenge and any solution that can help address the problem should be embraced. Big claims have been made about the future of hydrogen, perhaps more than evidence to date can justify, but its potential applications across industry, manufacturing, transport and electricity are so great it is an obvious focus for research and development. Similarly, taking steps to bring down the cost of energy storage is a no-brainer. The statement mentions the potential of pumped hydro, batteries and solar thermal. Cheap and varied storage options would, in theory, allow an accelerated take-up of renewable energy while reducing the reliance on the gas-fired power the government seems so keen to impose on the market. The world needs affordable green steel production as quickly as it can get it, and the more carbon that can be sequestered in soils through improved farming practices the better. CCS – capturing CO2 and burying it underground – is more problematic given its lengthy history of grand promises, taxpayer support for fossil fuel industries and lack of results. The statement’s suggestion it could be used in power generation seems fanciful given the international experience, but serious studies have found it is likely to be needed to play a role in industrial processes that are otherwise hard to deal with – so let’s not completely discard the idea. The second point that should be made is less positive. While the technologies chosen may have varying degrees of merit, next-to-no evidence has been provided to explain how they were chosen, or why they are most deserving of a crack at $18bn in taxpayers’ money over the next decade. Instead, there are a series of unanswered questions. It is not clear why they were preferred to other possibilities mentioned in the statement, including energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging infrastructure or steps to cut potent methane emissions. Based on Tuesday’s evidence, voters are just expected to trust Taylor and his handpicked advisers to successfully pick winners deserving of public support where others have failed. The statement makes a series of big claims, including that it is anticipated the technologies will lead to Australia beating its 2030 climate target under the Paris agreement, help support more than 130,000 jobs and “avoid” 250m tonnes of emissions a year – nearly 50% of Australia’s current annual emissions – by 2040. No evidence has been released to back them up. It sets “stretch goals” for each technology – the price point, Taylor says, at which technologies are cheaper than the more polluting alternatives used today. It is not clear how they will be met – there are no pricing mechanisms to drive technologies forward, no requirements for industry to adopt them – and the goals themselves do not come with a timeframe. A cynic might be tempted to think it was designed so the Coalition could never be accused of having failed. The final, and perhaps most important, point to make is that the statement is not, by 2020 standards, really a climate change policy. It makes no attempt to set a path to net zero emissions, let alone net zero by 2050, the underlying goal of the Paris agreement backed by scientific consensus, business leaders, farmers, unions and investors, and more than 100 countries. The statement uses vague terms such as “clean” and “low emissions” technologies. Asked to define these terms, Taylor said they meant reducing emissions to below current levels. Without a concrete test – a low-emissions intensity standard or emissions reduction benchmark – it could be interpreted as suggesting a small improvement on today’s high-emitting levels would be enough. But it’s hard to know. The statement does make clear that projects with the potential for significant greenhouse gas emissions, including hydrogen and steel made with gas, could win backing from public agencies created to lift renewable energy, assuming the government can convince the Senate to change the legislation for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It is possible there is a case for this – that using gas in the short term could help bring on the shift that would lead to fewer emissions overall. But it could be justified from a climate perspective only if it was part of a clear plan to get to renewably-based green hydrogen, steel and aluminium as quickly as possible. Major investors believe that’s what global markets will want. The government has not said that’s where it wants to go and it continues to reject the sort of overarching policy – some form of carbon price – that experts maintain would help drive emissions cuts at lower cost. Instead, the prime minister says he sees net zero emissions as an issue for the second half of the century, a more distant goal than nearly everyone (other than those on the anti-science far right) believes is necessary. And he just wants us to trust him. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/series/environmental-investigations', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/angus-taylor', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-09-22T17:30:05Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2024/nov/01/indigenous-cultural-burning-managed-australias-bushfires-long-before-colonisation-its-needed-now-more-than-ever-a-study-says | Indigenous cultural burning managed Australia’s bushfires long before colonisation. It’s needed now more than ever, a study says | Indigenous cultural burning practices halved the shrub cover across south-east Australia thousands of years before colonisation, reducing the intensity of bushfires, new research suggests. The study’s authors argue that “wide-scale re-integration” of cultural burning practices, in combination with western fire management techniques, is “crucial” at a time when wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense due to the climate crisis. The study, published in the journal Science, found that shrub cover in south-east Australia since European colonisation has increased to the highest levels ever on record, increasing the risk of high-intensity fires. Indigenous cultural burning practices involve systematically applying frequent low-intensity fire to the land. They differ from the hazard reduction burning used by fire authorities, which can be more intensive and extensive. The study found that during the early to mid-Holocene period, 6,000 to 12,000 years ago, the shrub layer in woodlands and forests accounted for about 30% of land cover. Indigenous cultural burning halved shrub cover to 15% about 6,000 years later. Since European colonisation, that figure has increased to 35%, the researchers found. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email A study co-author, Dr Simon Connor, of the Australian National University, said the reduction in the shrub layer made it more difficult for ground fires to travel upwards into the forest canopy and create high-intensity fires. “Once Europeans come in and Indigenous populations are displaced from their land, then fires come back in a big way – the shrub layer comes back in an unprecedented way,” Connor said. “The pace of change in the last couple of hundreds years has been so fast compared to what’s happened over thousands of years.” The study’s findings pointed to “a way that fire can be used to fight fire”, Connor said. He emphasised that cultural burning involved an intimate understanding of vegetation in different ecosystems and could involve “not burning a particular vegetation type”. “Many Indigenous communities are really keen to reintroduce or reinvigorate cultural burning,” Connor said. “But when they try to do it, they hit … layers of bureaucracy that prevent that cultural practice being carried out.” Prof David Lindenmayer, a forest ecologist also at ANU, who was not involved in the research, said there was no doubt that cultural burning was very important in certain areas. While extensive burning occurred, he said, particularly in grasslands and woodlands in inland Australia, there were other areas where First Nations people deliberately avoided using fire. Lindenmayer’s research has previously found, for example, that cultural burning was not widely practised in the mountain ash forests in Victoria. “There are pretty significant parts of some forest landscapes that have no history of extensive burning – some of the tall wet forests, the Gondwana rainforests, tropical rainforests,” Lindenmayer said. “This is a very complicated area, because what is appropriate fire in some cases is actually highly inappropriate fire in others.” The researchers used pollen counts to estimate shrub cover at different periods, and calculated historical burning through charcoal in sedimentary records. In total, they analysed 2,833 archaeological records on vegetation cover, past climate, burning and population size. The study’s lead author was Dr Michela Mariani, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham. | ['australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/breaking-news-australia', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/donna-lu', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-31T18:00:26Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/aug/14/microplastics-found-at-profuse-levels-in-snow-from-arctic-to-alps-contamination | Microplastics ‘significantly contaminating the air’, scientists warn | Abundant levels of microplastic pollution have been found in snow from the Arctic to the Alps, according to a study that has prompted scientists to warn of significant contamination of the atmosphere and demand urgent research into the potential health impacts on people. Snow captures particles from the air as it falls and samples from ice floes on the ocean between Greenland and Svalbard contained an average of 1,760 microplastic particles per litre, the research found. Even more – 24,600 per litre on average – were found at European locations. The work shows transport by winds is a key factor in microplastics contamination across the globe. The scientists called for research on the effect of airborne microplastics on human health, pointing to an earlier study that found the particles in cancerous human lung tissue. In June, another study showed people eat at least 50,000 microplastic particles per year. Many millions of tonnes of plastic are discarded into the environment every year and are broken down into small particles and fibres that do not biodegrade. These particles, known as microplastics, have now been found everywhere from high mountains to deep oceans and can carry toxic chemicals and harmful microbes. The latest study was led by Dr Melanie Bergmann of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. She said: “We really need research on the human health aspect. There are so many studies being published now on microplastics but nothing on human health, and that is really strange in my opinion.” Bergmann added that microplastics should be included in air pollutant monitoring schemes. Bergmann had previously found 12,000 microplastic particles per litre in samples of Arctic sea ice: “So we asked where does it all come from?” Some is carried from populated regions by ocean currents, but analysis of snow samples shows much is blown by the wind. “Microplastic concentrations in snow were very high, indicating significant contamination of the atmosphere,” concluded the study published in the journal Science Advances. “It basically gets everywhere with the wind,” said Bergmann. Pollen and dust from the Sahara are already known to be blown over long distances. As well as the Arctic ice floes, the team’s 22 samples included snow from Svalbard, an island well north of the Arctic circle, the German and Swiss Alps and the city of Bremen. The team found that the smallest particles were the most abundant, but their equipment could not detect particles smaller than 11 microns. “I am convinced there are many more particles in the smaller size range beyond our detection limit,” said Bergmann. “The worry with smaller particles is they can be taken up by a greater range of organisms and, if they reach nano-scale, they could penetrate cell membranes and translocate into organs much more easily than the larger fraction.” Microplastics from polymer-based protective coatings on vehicles, buildings and ships were the most common of those frequently found by the researchers, followed by rubber, polyethylene and polyamides including nylon. The researchers cite a 1998 study as the only assessment of microplastic in human lungs. It found inhaled fibres were present in cancerous lung specimens and concluded: “These bioresistant and biopersistent plastic fibres are candidate agents contributing to the risk of lung cancer.” The European commission’s chief scientific advisers said in a report in April: “The evidence [on the environmental and health risks of microplastics] provides grounds for genuine concern and for precaution to be exercised.” Scientists not involved in the latest study expressed concern that supposedly pristine ecosystems such as the Arctic were contaminated. “The work is very important because it strengthens the argument for much more stringent regulations on the plastics industry and forcing the governments of the world to address the issue of plastic pollution,” said Steve Allen, at the EcoLab research institute in France. “With [microplastics] pouring into our environment, it is highly likely we will only find out the safe levels after we have exceeded them.” An earlier study published by Allen in April found significant microplastic quantities falling from the air in the Pyrenees, also implicating wind as a transport mechanism. The Bergmann-led research, however, is the first to look the contamination of snow. Just two previous studies have looked at the presence of microplastics in the air, one in Paris, France, and another in Dongguan, China. Both found a steady fall of particles. Other recent research has found microplastics raining down on the Rockies in North America and in farmland soils near Shanghai in China. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/arctic', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-08-14T18:00:19Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2015/aug/28/bush-new-orleans-10-years-after-katrina | George W Bush visits New Orleans 10 years after storm stained his reputation | George W Bush returned to the scene of one of his presidency’s lowest points on Friday and lauded the city’s overhaul of its education system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. “Today we celebrate the resurgence of New Orleans schools, we honour the resilience of a great American city whose levees gave out but whose people never gave up,” the former president said in a speech at Warren Easton charter school, the city’s oldest public high school. “Out of the devastation of Katrina you vowed to do more than just open the schools, you vowed to challenge the status quo.” Warren Easton was badly damaged in the 2005 storm, but was rebuilt with the help of the library foundation started by Bush’s wife, Laura. The then-president also visited it on the first anniversary of the disaster. “Laura and I are here in New Orleans to remind our country about what strong leadership means,” Bush said, referring to the determination of locals to rebuild the city and the dramatic changes it made to its public schools, adopting an all-charter model and firing 7,500 school board employees. Graduation rates and test scores have risen, though the new system is not without critics and controversies. In his remarks, Bush steered clear of revisiting the mistakes that caused him serious political damage in the aftermath of the storm, which killed more than 1,800 people and displaced about a million in the Gulf region. After the federal levee system failed, the response to the emergency was sluggish and inadequate, and Bush notoriously praised then Fema chief Michael Brown for doing “a heckuva job”. Ten days later, Brown resigned after coming under intense criticism over his qualifications and the agency’s botched efforts. In 2010, Bush told NBC that the photograph showing him flying over the flooded city in Air Force One was a “huge mistake” because it made him seem “detached and uncaring”. Since the disaster, Bush has been at pains to emphasise that he cares passionately about the city and the region. He has made several visits over the past decade and, though some of the money was slow to come, the Bush administration initiated tens of billions of dollars in federal aid and pledged to rebuild the city at a time when some in Washington were questioning the wisdom of committing to a full restoration. “Hurricane Katrina is a story of loss beyond measures. It’s also a story of commitment and compassion. I hope you remember what I remember and that is 30,000 people were saved in the immediate aftermath of the storm by US military personnel, by Louisiana law enforcement and by citizens who volunteered. I hope you remember what I remember, it was the thousands who came here on a volunteer basis to provide food for the hungry and to help find shelter for those who had no home to live in,” he said on Friday. Bush said that the school’s success gave Americans reason to believe that “New Orleans is back and better than ever” and that “the darkness from a decade ago has lifted, the Crescent City has risen again and its best days lie ahead”. However, that version of events is viewed with scepticism by many in the poorer, African-American neighborhoods, who are worse off now than before the storm as a result of a recovery process that underlined long-existing racial and social inequalities. Barack Obama referred to these “structural inequalities that left too many people, especially poor people, especially people of colour, without good jobs or affordable healthcare or decent housing” in a visit to New Orleans on Thursday in which he described the storm as a natural disaster that “became a manmade one – a failure of government to look out for its own citizens”. Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak on Saturday, the tenth anniversary of Katrina’s landfall, at an event called The Power of Community that is to be held in the city’s basketball arena. | ['us-news/new-orleans', 'us-news/series/hurricane-katrina-10-years-on', 'education/education-us', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/george-bush', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tom-dart'] | us-news/series/hurricane-katrina-10-years-on | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-08-28T17:29:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2021/sep/14/california-wildfire-sequoia-kings-canyon-latest | Ancient sequoia trees threatened by growing wildfire in California’s Sierra Nevada | A growing wildfire, sparked by lightning and spread through the dense, dry, forested Sierra Nevada, is posing dangers to the ancient sequoia trees in their namesake national park. The Paradise fire and the Colony fire, which have burned together to become the KNP Complex fire, surged through more than 5,860 acres of steep and difficult-to-reach terrain since igniting on 9 September in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, with 0% containment by Tuesday evening. The flames are burning so intensely that park officials fear that the world’s largest trees could be in peril. “There is a threat to the groves. It is a serious threat,” said Mark Ruggiero, the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks fire information officer. Fueled by dried brush and desiccated ponderosa pine tinder – dead trees that had already succumbed to dire drought conditions and insect infestations – the fire exploded in size on Tuesday, gaining more than 1,000 acres of ground. Mandatory evacuations were issued throughout the park and into parts of the Three Rivers community. The blaze has crept within a mile of the Ash Mountain headquarters in the park. A specialized emergency management team has been deployed to aid the 350 firefighters already battling the blaze and will arrive Wednesday, officials said, signalling the development of a potentially major incident. But resources are strained, they added, with so many big blazes already burning across the west. “Some of those trees are more important than our buildings,” said Clay Jordan, the superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national park, noting that the General Sherman tree – the world’s largest, and one that’s believed to be roughly 2,700 years old – is among them. “We want people to come 200, 300 years from now to enjoy those trees. “As a community we are going to be tested,” he said, adding that it will probably be worse before it gets better. Sequoias, which stretch hundreds of feet into the sky and have adapted to thrive in fire, are incredibly resilient. The giant trees have evolved to withstand the heat, with bark that protects them and seed-carrying cones that rely on flames to open. Fires are usually considered healthy for the forests, helping to clear the undergrowth to create space for seedlings. But blazes burning hotter and with increasing intensity have posed new threats for the trees that have survived there for thousands of years. Last year, more than 10% were lost to flames. “I cannot overemphasize how mind-blowing this is for all of us,” said Christy Brigham, the chief of resources management and science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, last year of the grim discovery. “These trees have lived for thousands of years. They’ve survived dozens of wildfires already.” Scientists with the National Park Service (NPS) called the last severe drought between 2012 and 2016, which was coupled with higher temperatures, a “tipping point for giant sequoias and other Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests”. Between 2015 and 2020, two-thirds of the area where the giant sequoia groves grow burned, according to the NPS, while only a quarter of that region burned during the century before. The Castle fire alone was responsible for killing up to 10,600 large sequoias – 42% of the trees that stood in its path. Ruggiero noted that the KNP Complex is burning with the same intensity and through similar a landscape to the Castle fire, which erupted in August 2020 and torched 175,000 acres of the park before it was finally put out in December. The climate crisis, which has caused the hotter and drier conditions, also set the stage for extreme blazes that have torn across the American west in recent years. Drought-stricken California, where close to 90% of the state is mired in the “extreme drought” category according to the US Drought Monitor, has already seen record-breaking blazes this year with months of fire season still ahead. There are now 13 large wildfires burning in the state, including the Dixie fire and the Caldor fire, two destructive infernos also burning through the Sierra Nevada. Crews battling this fire have struggled to access the steep and rugged terrain, limiting containment efforts. Smoke has inhibited aircraft from attacking the fire from above until visibility improves, which is expected on Tuesday afternoon. A management team has been deployed to the fire, Ruggiero said, and is expected to arrive on Tuesday. The park was also in the process of fully evacuating after the blaze reached a nearby “management action point”, a pre-planned position that Ruggiero said dictated it was time to get all non-essential employees out of the park. “Because of the intensity of how fires are now burning in this day and age, this is the new way of living with fire,” he said. “This is serious business,” he added. “And it is a huge loss.” | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'environment/national-parks', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-09-14T19:51:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
money/2018/nov/06/will-we-ever-be-able-to-get-rid-of-paper-receipts | Will we ever be able to get rid of paper receipts? | You diligently recycle, you carry a reusable coffee cup and you have sworn off plastic straws. Yet your wallet is stuffed with crumpled scraps of paper recording all manner of recent (and ancient) transactions: the couple of quid at Tesco, the £50 from a cash machine last week, that pricey pair of shoes from a year ago. Every year the UK pumps out 11.2bn paper receipts. What many of us probably don’t realise – as Wired flagged on Tuesday – is that at least half of them can’t be recycled; they are printed on what is known as “thermal paper” and coated with a potentially toxic substance called bisphenol A (or a substitute, BPS). The advice is that we should send thermal paper receipts to landfill, not the recycling bin. Is this mountain of unrecyclable paper necessary? The rapid growth of contactless payments means many retailers don’t even offer you a receipt any more. Yet if you are paying with cash, there may be no other way of acquiring a record of your purchase. Increasingly, instead of saying “Receipt’s in the bag”, shop assistants have been asking: “Can we email you your receipt?” On the face of it, this is a welcome trend – less potentially toxic paper produced and discarded. But, of course, once that retailer has your email address, you will simply be swapping that pile of paper scraps for a mountain of digital inbox detritus. And what if that email receipt never arrives, and your pricey new shoes fall to bits a week later – or, worse, you are accused of shoplifting? At least those of the old school have a receipt to wave righteously. It might be in decline, but we won’t be seeing the last of the paper receipt any time soon. Remember the plans to kill off another arguably outdated piece of paper – the cheque? In 2009, it was announced that cheques were going to be phased out – by last Wednesday, in fact. But that prompted a huge row, forcing a humiliating U-turn by the body representing banks. Any plot to kill off paper receipts would probably be met with a similar outcry from many older people, charities and digital refuseniks. | ['money/money', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrickcollinson', 'profile/rupertjones', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-11-06T18:11:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2009/oct/30/eu-climate-change-funding-deal | EU puts €100bn-a-year price on tackling climate change | European leaders agreed for the first time today that the price tag for tackling global warming would amount to €100bn (£89bn) a year by 2020, up to half of which would need to come from taxpayers' money in the developed world. But mired in wrangling over how to split the European share of the bill among 27 countries and how much Europe collectively should spend, they failed to agree on urgent short-term funding for combating climate change in the developing world. Five weeks ahead of the Copenhagen conference on a new international treaty on global warming, an EU summit spent two days immersed in number-crunching rows over the costs and who should bear them. Difficult decisions were shelved because of an east-west dispute pitting the poorer member states against the wealthy western countries, and because leading EU states such as Germany, France and Italy were reluctant to make specific commitments on funding for the developing world before hammering out an agreement with the US, Japan and other rich states. "Europe is leading the way, making these bold proposals," said Gordon Brown. "The major decision to come out of this is we're leading the way on the climate change negotiations." The agreements fell well short of what had been sought by the Swedish presidency of the EU, the Danish government hosting the Copenhagen conference, the UK and the European commission. In the short-term, the leaders agreed that up to €7bn a year was needed from January for three years for "fast-track" funding in the developing world. The EU said only that it would seek to persuade others to share that bill and that Europe would pay its "fair share". Some of the east Europeans, led by Poland, which balked at being asked to pay up, are refusing to contribute and Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, admitted that European contributions to the fund would be "voluntary", meaning they may not be made at all. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, was said to have fought strongly to avoid firm funding pledges. She goes to Washington next week, as do other EU leaders, for what could be crucial negotiations with the Obama administration on how to come up with a global fund for the poor countries. The issue of financing climate change measures in the developing world is a possible deal-breaker at Copenhagen. The Germans were highly critical of the east European reluctance to share the bill, arguing that it was difficult to ask some of the world's emerging economies to contribute when Europe's poorer countries were saying no. "EU leaders speak loud and clear on the global challenges of climate change, but remain tongue-tied when it comes to meeting their own responsibilities," said Rebecca Harms, leader of the Greens in the European parliament. "EU governments have now acknowledged the need for an annual €100bn towards climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, but have once again failed to put a clear figure on the EU's contribution." While the Swedes, Danes and others argued that Europe had to take the lead on climate change and send a strong signal for Copenhagen, the Germans are more skeptical, noting that there are limits to leadership and calling for the other rich countries to step up to the plate. It is not yet clear on what basis the contributions will be made. The west Europeans want to combine the "polluter pays" principle with ability to pay, meaning that a donor country's GDP and level of greenhouse gas emissions will determine how much it puts in. Of the €100bn euros ballpark figure, the Europeans said €22bn-€50bn should be public sector money in annual transfers to the developing world by 2020. Although the Europeans refused to specify the European share, Merkel said it should be around one-third; the same amount should be supplied by the US, and Germany would foot around 20% of the European bill. The 22-50 cost range is wide and vague enough for lots of wiggle room. Britain says €50bn is "unaffordable" and €22bn is not enough. It sought a narrower range of €30bn-€40bn. Rather than detailing specific European pledges, the leaders agreed only to contribute a "fair share" to the global fund and stressed that the offer was "conditional" on agreement with the other main donors. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'world/eu', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'politics/politics', 'politics/gordon-brown', 'business/business', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/iantraynor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-10-30T17:38:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
education/2019/aug/10/university-isnt-for-everyone-alternatives-to-going-through-clearing | University isn’t for everyone ... | Since it’s likely you’ll walk away with £50,000 of debt, it’s worth seeing what other options are available before you agree to university and start drawing down on that student loan. Apprenticeships remain a popular option, with 375,800 starts in the 2017/18 academic year, according to government figures. Ryehan Amir, 20, took up an accountancy apprenticeship at water treatment solutions provider ESC Global after his first year of A-levels. “The debt that students walk out of uni with was something I was uneasy about, and I felt that I would be better suited to a vocational qualification,” explains Amir, who lives in Scunthorpe and is also studying for his Association of Accounting Technicians qualification. “When I was at college I felt that, in some quarters, there was a belief that to succeed, you need to go to university. Now I know that this isn’t the case.” There are also plenty of other choices beyond the typical three-year university route. Students may decide to study for a foundation degree, which focuses on developing skills for the workplace. Others may wish to enter the workforce and study for a part-time degree, opt for distance learning to save money and live at home, or look to a private university for more choice. “As long as your course is registered, you can get student finance for at least part of your tuition fees,” says Polly Wiggins, a careers education consultant. “You could also consider going to university abroad, but be aware you won’t be entitled to UK student finance.” Finding a regular job can also bring about interesting opportunities. “You can use it to test out your ideas without the commitment of further study and [you] will be developing new skills and contacts in your industry,” says Wiggins. “You could then go on to do further training if you want to progress to higher-level jobs.” Alternatively you could start your own business. “Developing your entrepreneurial skills and building a network to support your new business will teach you things you’ll never learn in school,” she adds. ‘Even to this day, I don’t know what I would have studied’ Alex Durrant chose an accountancy apprenticeship over uni, and now he’s co-launched a dating app There weren’t enough reasons convincing me to go to university. After my A-levels I decided to take on an apprenticeship at the accountancy firm I’d worked at the two previous summers and start earning money. In the back of my mind the thought of university lingered. I thought that perhaps after a year, with money saved up, I could choose to go off to uni if I wanted. In the end, I got used to working and the routine. I knew I wanted to continue to learn on the job and just savoured the practicality of it. To be honest, I didn’t know what I would study at uni either. A lot my friends didn’t know what they really wanted to study and ended up choosing any subject. After a year, I decided to leave Great Yarmouth for Leeds, moving into my home friend’s university house with nine others. It was mad. I was working in audit, from 8am-8pm, and didn’t sleep for a year. That year, my friend Max and I came up with the idea of a dating app. We spotted the opportunity at uni, seeing guys sitting around the sofa each night spending time going through profiles that never materialised into a date. We realised there was a massive gap in communication and a need for a different kind of dating app. With Jigtalk, jigsaw pieces covering a person’s face are unveiled one by one during every conversation you have, until you see their face. It encourages conversation. We launched it in London in January. The practical skills I learned through my accountancy job set me up for a dream scenario: launching my own business. It accelerated my professional life – I already had the skillset to deal with clients and the financial acumen. All that hard learning between the ages of 18 and 20 put me in great stead. It’s also meant I’m not seriously in debt. I would have owed at least £27,000, and even to this day, I don’t know what I would have studied. I don’t regret my decision one bit. SB | ['education/series/clearing-2019', 'education/apprenticeships', 'education/series/degree-apprenticeships-in-focus', 'education/clearing', 'education/student-experience', 'education/accounting-and-financeaccounting-and-finance', 'education/part-time-courses', 'money/student-finance', 'education/students', 'education/vocational-education', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/suzanne-bearne', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-labs'] | education/series/degree-apprenticeships-in-focus | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-08-10T06:00:16Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/oct/01/autumn-heat-continues-in-europe-after-record-breaking-september | Autumn heat continues in Europe after record-breaking September | Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland have all experienced their hottest Septembers on record, with unseasonably high temperatures set to continue into October, in a year likely to be the warmest in human history. As 31C (88F) was forecast in south-west France on Sunday and 28C in Paris, the French weather authority, Météo-France, said September’s average temperature was 21.5C, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the norm for the 1991-2020 reference period. That made it the hottest September – by more than 1C – since records began in 1900, the meteorologist Christine Berne said, adding that in several regions, the deviation from the September average of the past three decades had exceeded 4C, sometimes 6C. “A great many” monthly records had been broken across the country during an “exceptional” month, Météo-France said, with the temperature average higher than in July and August, and heatwave alerts issued in September for the first time. Germany’s weather office, DWD, said this September had been the hottest since national records started, almost 4C higher than the 1961-1990 baseline, while Belgium’s 19C average temperature was also almost 4C warmer than the norm. David Dehenauw of the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute said: “Here too, September was hotter than July and August, which has not happened since 1961. “Belgium has never experienced a month of September this warm.” Poland’s weather institute has also announced September temperatures were 3.6C higher than average, and the hottest for the month since records began more than 100 years ago, as have authorities in Austria and Switzerland. The unseasonably high monthly averages were boosted by an unprecedented heatwave in the first half of last month in which France recorded its highest ever September temperature of 38.8C in the centre-west département of Vienne. The EU climate monitor said in early September that global temperatures in the northern hemisphere summer were the hottest on record. The Copernicus Climate Change Service also expects 2023 to be the hottest year humanity has experienced. Scientists say climate change driven by human activity is pushing global temperatures higher, with the world at around 1.2C of warming above pre-industrial levels. The disruption to the planet’s climate systems is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves, drought, wildfires and storms more frequent and more intense. Météo-France’s Berne said heatwaves were also occurring outside the usual high summer months of July and August. “We’re seeing them in spring and September, even October, as modelled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC),” she said. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/france', 'world/germany', 'world/belgium', 'world/spain', 'world/austria', 'world/switzerland', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/extreme-heat', 'profile/jonhenley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/extreme-heat | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-10-01T11:39:51Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2010/dec/06/israeli-forest-fires-police-arrest | Israel forest fire inquiry sees police arrest 14-year-old boy | Israeli police say they have arrested the "prime suspect" in the nation's worst wildfire – a 14-year-old boy who says the blaze was an accident. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the boy, who was arrested yesterday, told them he had been smoking a hookah last Thursday and threw some burning coals into an open area in the Carmel forest.Rosenfeld says the boy told police he panicked, fled the scene and returned to school without telling anyone as the fire quickly spread through the forest. Rosenfeld would not say how police found the boy, or whether he was connected to other suspects. Police have two other youths under house arrest. Forty-two people died in the blaze, including Israel's most senior female police officer who diedyesterday, after sustaining severe burns in the forest fires that ravaged the north of the country and were finally extinguished on Sunday. Ahuva Tomer, 53, the commander of Haifa police, was travelling in a car which was trapped in flames while on a mission to rescue a bus full of trainee prison officers. Thirty-six people died as the bus was consumed in the fire. Tomer, who was promoted posthumously from the rank of deputy commander to brigadier-general, was taken to hospital. She was resuscitated by a team of doctors but later died of her injuries. Minutes before setting out on the rescue mission, she told a TV reporter that the fires were "heartbreaking". "It looks like it will last a long time," she added. She was buried today at Haifa military cemetery in a service attended by hundreds of police officers, as well as relatives and friends. David Cohen, Israel's police commissioner, said: "Ahuva, our friend, lived and died as a hero. The whole of the Israel police family is stunned with grief, and is hurting today."The fires were eventually brought under control with the help of firefighting planes, equipment and personnel from 10 countries, including the Palestinian Authority. The cost of the disaster was estimated to be around £350m. Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has ordered a payment of about £440 to each person who is unable to return to their home within a month because of fire damage. The sum is intended to cover basic and urgent necessities, including clothing and school books. About 17,000 people were evacuated from their homes, and about 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) were destroyed. Two teenage brothers who were detained on suspicion of starting the fires through negligence were released today after after a judge said that limited evidence had been presented. | ['world/israel', 'world/middleeast', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'profile/harrietsherwood'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-12-06T21:20:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2021/jul/31/tourists-rescued-mediterranean-beach-turkey-wildfires-heatwave | Tourists rescued from burning Med resorts by flotilla of boats | Holidaymakers have been evacuated from beaches by rescue boats in Turkey after wildfires threatened hotels in the Aegean resort of Bodrum. Coastguard vessels were joined by private boats and yachts to bring the tourists to safety, according to Turkish media on Saturday. Videos posted online showed people wheeling their suitcases along the road while smoke from forest fires billowed into the sky. Six people have died and more than 500 needed hospital treatment in Turkey’s Mediterranean towns from fires that have raged across the country since Wednesday, burning down forests and some settlements, encroaching on villages and tourist destinations. A severe heatwave has swept across much of south-eastern Europe, with temperatures rising above 40C in some places. Wildfires have also broken out in Greece and Italy. Four villages were evacuated in the mountains around Patras in western Greece, while in Sicily 150 people were taken to safety from the seaside around Catania. In Turkey, more than 100 Russian tourists had been evacuated from Bodrum and relocated to new hotels, according to the Russian news agency Sputnik. In one video of the Bodrum fire filmed from the sea, a man helping with the evacuations was stunned at the speed of the fire, saying: “This is unbelievable, just unbelievable. How did this fire come this fast in five minutes?” Bekir Pakdemirli, the agriculture and forestry minister, said 91 of the 101 fires that broke out amid strong winds and scorching heat have been brought under control. Neighbourhoods affected by the fire in five provinces were declared disaster zones. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited some affected areas on Saturday, inspecting the damage from a helicopter. He said the number of planes fighting the fires had been increased from six to 13, including aircraft from Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and that thousands of Turkish personnel as well as dozens of helicopters and drones were assisting. In a speech from Marmaris on Saturday night, Erdogan said one of the fires there had been started by children. At least five people have died from the fires in Manavgat and one died in Marmaris. Both towns are Mediterranean tourist destinations. In Greece the Civil Protection Agency urged people in four villages near Patras to leave by sending emergency text messages, but local media reports said some villagers had stayed and were trying to fight the fires with garden hoses. The wildfires also affected the Sicilian provinces of Palermo, Syracuse and Messina. Italy’s civil protection authorities said they have received 558 requests from regions to help in fighting brush and forest fires this season, one-third in the past week alone. That makes it the fourth most severe fire season since 2007. | ['world/turkey', 'world/greece', 'world/europe-news', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural--disasters', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/davidconnett', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-07-31T22:01:53Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2017/oct/03/smallest-ichthyosaurus-ever-found-was-squid-eating-newborn-research-reveals | Smallest Ichthyosaurus ever found was squid-eating newborn, research reveals | Not all new palaeontology discoveries are made on dramatic rocky outcrops. Sometimes dusty drawers in the back-rooms of museums are the source of exciting discoveries. A new study by Dean Lomax, a researcher at the University of Manchester, and colleagues on a previously neglected specimen in the the Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham, UK, has increased our knowledge of how the youngest ichthyosaurs - a group of extinct marine reptiles - lived and fed. Ichthyosaurs were a diverse group of marine reptiles, viewed as the Mesozoic equivalent of modern day whales and dolphins (and a prime example of convergent evolution in action). With streamlined bodies, flippers and tail flukes, they evolved from a reptilian ancestor on land to become highly adapted to an exclusively marine lifestyle. Ranging from smaller, agile hunters less than a metre long to 20-metre, toothless suction feeders like Shastasaurus, we already know a fair deal about these animals – which died out about 95 million years ago – from exceptionally well-preserved fossils. Ichthyosaur fossils often make for dramatic storytelling. Many specimens have been found that show us one of the group’s key adaptations to a fully aquatic life: they gave birth to live young, the skeletons of which can be seen within the mother’s body. Some specimens even appear to show animals caught in the very act of giving birth, although the reality is probably rather less romantic: a build-up of gases in the decaying carcass probably pushed the embryo halfway out of the birth canal (something which can be seen today in stranded pregnant whale carcasses). The same exquisite preservation of more or less complete skeletons means that we know a lot about ichthyosaur diets too. The gastric contents of ichthyosaurs have been studied in fossils from the early Jurassic (around 190 Ma) shales of Lyme Regis and Whitby in the UK for more than 150 years, and from the slightly younger Posidonia Shale near Holzmaden in Germany. Early Jurassic ichthyosaur stomachs were densely packed with hooklets from the limbs of squids, with some also containing fish scales and other remains. Conversely, coprolites (fossil faeces) thought to have been produced by the same ichthyosaurs contain fish scales and spikes but fewer contain squid hooklets – which presumably built up in the animal’s stomach. By contrast, a younger, early Cretaceous, ichthyosaur graveyard found in Chile shows large numbers of individuals, of all ages, thought to be hunting for fish and belemnites, and a regurgitation pellet containing pterosaur remains. The specimen which Lomax and colleagues describe is an Ichthyosaurus communis, the type species for Ichthyosaurus, which was initially described back in 1822. And it’s small: only 70cm long, and the smallest known which has been positively identified as a member of this species. Combine its overall size with a sclerotic ring (eye bones) which fill the orbit space, and bones which are not fully ossified, and you have key indicators that it was very young when it died. So why is this a newborn and not another ichthyosaur foetus? Firstly, it isn’t within or associated with a larger individual. Secondly, its last meal is also preserved: it has squid hooks in its rib region. This is interesting, because previous studies on Stenopterygius, a similar ichthyosaur from Holzmaden, found that the young of that species fed exclusively on fish, before switching to a squid-rich diet as they matured. Different species preferred different baby foods. One problem with back-room discoveries is that you don’t always have all the contextual data you would wish for. Sadly, this is the case for this newborn Ichthyosaurus specimen, which lacks any information on where it was collected and from which stratigraphic layer. Lomax and colleagues used another palaeontological technique to help to address this, by getting a small fragment of the rock analysed for microfossils. The ostracods and foraminifera which were found allowed them to pinpoint the age of the specimen to around 199 Ma (very latest Hettangian to very earliest Sinemurian of the Lower Jurassic), though since rocks of this age are widespread across the UK, it hasn’t helped them to establish a likely locality. Reference Lomax, D. R., Larkin, N. R., Boomer, S., Dey, S. and Copestake, P. 2017. The first known neonate Ichthyosaurus communis skeleton: a rediscovered specimen from the Lower Jurassic, UK. Historical Biology, https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2017.1382488 | ['science/series/lost-worlds-revisited', 'science/series/science-blog-network', 'science/science', 'science/fossils', 'science/biology', 'science/evolution', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'tone/news', 'profile/susannah-lydon'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-10-03T06:00:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2010/feb/22/aerogenerator-wind-turbine | Turbine design breathes new life into hopes for UK's renewable targets | A radical windmill design could hold the key to making offshore wind power more economical and helping the UK meet its ambitious renewable energy targets. The Aerogenerator turns conventional windmills on their side, with a 100m tall V-shaped blade rotating on a vertical, rather than the usual horizontal, axis. By building all the moving parts and machinery at the base of the windmill rather than the top of a tower, its designers claim it will be easier to build and maintain, making its renewable electricity cheaper. Nova (Novel Offshore Vertical Axis Demonstrator) — which came up with the design — is one of three projects being funded by the government-backed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) as part of a project to find ways of bringing down the cost of offshore wind power. The UK has the biggest wind resource in Europe - some estimates put the UK's share at one-third of the continent's total. Taking advantage of the country's potential wind power will be critical in meeting the targets set by government for the UK to meet 15% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. In January, the government announced a £75bn programme to build 25GW of offshore wind turbines. The nine sites in line for development in the Crown Estate's programme — including Dogger Bank, the Bristol Channel, the seas off Norfolk and the Firth of Forth — are all further away from the coast and in deeper waters, around 30m, than any existing offshore project, and therefore more challenging to build. "The current cost of electricity by offshore wind is somewhere between 12-15p per KWh, that's about double the cost of onshore wind and three times the cost of conventional generation. Our job is to significantly reduce that. By 2020, we want it to be comparable to onshore generation. As we move to 2050, we want it to be comparable to conventional generation," said Grant Bourhill of the ETI. He said that traditional offshore windmills seemed to have reached their economic limit with the huge 10MW turbines that are planned for the next few years, but Nova could potentially deliver more. "No one understands the economic limits for vertical-axis and it may be the economic limit is significantly better than a 10MW can provide, so we will be able to generate electricity at a much lower cost. The design could be more reliable and the maintenance costs could be significantly lower because the main components are actually closer to sea level than they are with the horizontal-axis design," said Bourhill. Nova, which has collaborators from Cranfield, Sheffield and Strathclyde universities, is being developed by OTM Consulting Limited. The team aims to have 1GW of offshore vertical axis turbines installed by 2020, with a demonstrator Aerogenerator turbine built offshore by 2015. Each windmill would be designed to generate between 5MW and 10MW of power but, because each would be cheaper to build than an equivalent modern turbine, the overall cost of an offshore wind farm, and the electricity, should be lower. The ETI's strategy for offshore wind is to find ways to make this source of energy much cheaper and more reliable. The other two projects funded by the institute's £20m offshore scheme are Helm wind, a consortium led by energy company Eon that is focused on examining how conventional windmill designs can be made more cheaply, and Project Deepwater, a design for floating windmills out at sea led by Blue H Technologies and which includes collaborations from BAe Systems and EDF energy. The ETI's funding for the three projects so far is aimed at producing detailed design specifications for the three ideas. Bourhill said that, once these plans have been evaluated by the institute, one of the ideas will be in line for a multi-million pound demonstration project. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'tone/news', 'environment/energy', 'technology/energy', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2010-02-22T14:47:36Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/feb/28/brisbane-flood-2022-bne-river-peak-floods-update-property-flooding-warning-queensland | Brisbane flood: warning up to 15,000 properties could be inundated as river reaches peak | Queensland authorities estimate up to 15,000 properties could be affected by flood waters as the Brisbane River reached its likely peak on Monday morning, inundating low-lying areas in the city’s central business district. Heavy rain lasting more than three days unabated in Brisbane eased at midnight on Monday, removing some of the strain that had choked suburban floodways and dumped unprecedented volumes into dams. Eight people have now died in flood waters since last week and three are still missing. On Sunday afternoon a 59-year-old man was swept away while attempting to cross a flooded road on foot at Taigum, in Brisbane’s outer north. Police said witnesses had attempted to give the man CPR but he died at the scene. A man believed to be in his 50s is also presumed dead after his car was washed away in flood waters in the Currumbin Valley early on Monday. Police said they believe the man’s vehicle was driven about 30m along a flooded road. The vehicle has not been found. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m on Monday morning, still well below the 4.56m peak of the 2011 flood. An “unprecedented” volume of water, about 1,450 gigalites, entered Wivenhoe Dam in the past three days, taking its storage levels from under 60% to 183%. By contrast, in 2011, less water entered Wivenhoe in more than six days. Some parts of Brisbane have received about a year’s annual rainfall in just a few days. More than 1.5m of rain has been recorded at Mount Glorious this week. The average annual rainfall for the town, about 30km west of Brisbane, is about 1.6m. It is not yet known exactly how many homes were affected by flood water but what is known is that, in many places, the impacts were very different to 2011. Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told reporters modelling had estimated as many as 15,000 houses affected. Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, told ABC radio the city council’s modelling for a 4m Brisbane River peak – higher than the observed peak on Monday morning – indicated that about 4,500 properties, including about 2,100 residential properties, would be flooded. An additional 10,800 properties would be partially flood-affected, according to the council’s modelling. On Monday suburban flooding caused by swollen creeks and Brisbane River tributaries largely subsided and people were able to return to their homes to assess the damage. But at the same time, the river peak caused inundation of low-lying banks, including the CBD, Southbank and West End. Extremely high tides are expected to continue, but abate gradually, for the rest of the week. There remains some concern that while heavy rainfall has finally eased, storms are forecast for later in the week which might cause further chaos if river levels remain high in the meantime. Diana Eadie from the Bureau of Meteorology said those storms posed an additional risk. “That really intense rain is now shifting into north-east New South Wales and is easing for much of south-east Queensland,” she said. “That being said, the risk for significant flooding is still very real. “We’re expecting more settled conditions today and continuing into tomorrow. From Wednesday onwards and the following five days, we see a return of the potential for severe thunderstorm activity with the risk of damaging winds, large hail and locally heavy falls. “We’re not expecting widespread rain as we have seen in this event, but with any severe thunderstorm, there is the potential that we could see very intense rainfall rates in some localised areas.” Palaszczuk said there had been “a huge response effort”. “It has been fast and it has been furious and it has had a big impact,” she said. “I don’t know about everyone else, but last night it was like cyclonic conditions outside. The winds, the rain and … we had two systems of thunderstorms merging last night as well during the course of the day. We didn’t know that was going to happen.” She added: “All these emergency services people have been on the frontline doing the best they possibly can. “If it wasn’t for them, there would have been a lot more loss of life. We should be thanking them for everything they have been doing. I want people to understand how much rainfall has come into these catchments and across the entire south-east.” Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, told reporters on Monday that in addition to the seven flood deaths, there were fears of additional fatalities after reports of people missing in flood waters at Yatala, Goodna and Esk. A man who fell from a vessel into Brisbane’s Breakfast Creek two days ago also remains missing. Social services groups are calling on governments to increase assistance payments for people affected by the floods. Aimee McVeigh, the chief executive of the Queensland Council of Social Services, said: “$1,000 per adult will not cut it, especially in the face of a record-breaking housing crisis … Queenslanders have experienced devastating flooding in the past 48 hours.” McVeigh added: “People in lower-lying areas are now facing the prospect of another brutal cleanup after another once-in-a-century flood. People in areas that have never experienced inundation are now reckoning with the fact that their homes are uninhabitable. “Our community organisations also need access to additional emergency relief funds now. They are on the ground sourcing emergency accommodation, providing food and supply packages and crucial mental health supports.” | ['australia-news/brisbane', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-02-28T03:10:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2024/jan/20/supermarket-price-gouging-inquiry-australia-cost-of-living-woolworths-coles-aldi-farmers | ‘We’ve got to break them up’: farming groups say supermarkets use market power to distort prices | Farming groups have accused the major supermarkets of using their power to distort the market, leading to elevated prices for shoppers and low prices for producers. The claim comes amid falling global prices for agricultural goods that have failed to dent grocery bills, and growing scrutiny of supermarket pricing practices through newly announced federal and state parliamentary inquiries. Xavier Martin, the president of the NSW Farmers Association, said the food retailing market was not functioning properly, and that the major supermarket chains were too big. “We need to have mandated rules of fairness,” Martin said. “There’s no doubt more equitable and fair pricing would work well all round, but these unfair trading practices distort the market. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup “They’ve been unfair to farmers with their pricing and they’ve been unfair to consumers with their pricing and we’ve got to break them up if they will not behave.” Coles and Woolworths dominate Australia’s supermarket sector, with a combined control of two-thirds of the market. Aldi is the next biggest, with just over 10%. There has been a revitalised political interest in supermarket practices coinciding with furious criticism by farmers that falling produce prices last year did not result in comparable price cuts for their products on supermarket shelves. Lower supermarket prices for meat and other produce would typically lead to increased purchases, resulting in higher prices for farmers. Farming groups AgForce and the National Farmers’ Federation have also expressed concerns at supermarket pricing decisions and what they say is a widening gap between wholesale and shelf prices. The country’s major grocery retailers have defended their pricing decisions, and say they are committed to helping Australians with cost-of-living pressures. They say that they have long-term relationships and contracts with the farming sector that do not reflect volatile saleyard prices. A Coles spokesperson said the supermarket was working hard to keep prices affordable. “There are many factors which determine both the retail shelf price of produce and meat, and how long an item is on promotion,” the spokesperson said. A Woolworths spokesperson said saleyard prices don’t reflect the reality of the company’s supply chain. “Cattle markets are prone to swing up and down sharply over short periods of time, with the cattle market price indicator already shooting up 60% from its lowest point three months ago,” the spokesperson said. The UN’s food price index, which measures global prices of agricultural goods, ended last year about 10% below 2022 levels, led by falling costs for meat, dairy, cereals and vegetable oils. Australia’s food inflation is running at an annual rate of 4.8%, however the figure represents the prices charged by grocery retailers, and not the wholesale price of food, given it is derived from supermarket scanner data. Guardian Australia analysis has consistently shown supermarkets expanded their profit margins during the pandemic and inflationary period after more than accounting for the increased costs of running their stores. Coles and Woolworths have argued their profits are not excessive and that they balance the needs of customers and suppliers, as well as being major employers. The major chains are now facing several investigations, including an upcoming Senate inquiry and, separately, a Queensland parliamentary inquiry. Former Labor minister Craig Emerson is also leading a review of the grocery conduct code which governs how the food retailers deal with suppliers and customers. The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, said on Friday the supermarkets had agreed to share more pricing information with the state, and that information would be made public, declaring that “transparency and scrutiny” were the first steps to helping farmers and consumers. Farming groups have also called for an investigation by the competition regulator to test whether the sector is operating as a competitive industry should. Overseas governments have used a combination of competition investigations, pricing inquiries and threats of price controls, sanctions and divestments to pressure supermarkets in recent months, amid growing angst over the rising cost of groceries. | ['business/supermarkets', 'business/retail', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'australia-news/cost-of-living-crisis-australia-', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'business/australia-economy', 'business/woolworths-australia', 'business/coles', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathan-barrett', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-01-19T14:00:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/2016/feb/23/half-the-price-in-half-the-time-solar-storage-innovation-harnesses-new-energy-frontier | Half the price in half the time: solar storage innovation harnesses new energy frontier | If Tesla’s Powerwall is the “Lamborghini” of the solar storage industry, a small Brisbane company backed by University of Queensland researchers says it has hit on the formula to deliver the “Toyota”. Redback Technologies, which last week inked a commercialisation deal with UQ, claims to have harnessed the power of algorithmic software and efficient design to produce the most cost-effective solar storage system on the Australian market. Despite relying on a smaller battery than the Powerwall – which is widely expected to be the catalyst for rapid growth of the solar storage market this year – Redback says its “Ouija board” system, available from June, will pay for itself in half the time. Redback’s founder and managing director, Philip Livingston, said it would take an average 5.6 years to earn back the Ouija’s $9,000 price tag through electricity bill savings, versus 11 years on the Powerwall’s $15,000 to $17,000 installation cost. Livingston said the company, set up just last year, was less concerned with batteries as the cutting edge of the household solar energy market as it was with tackling its key problem: how can households consume more of the power their solar panels produce? “We’ve realised that even if batteries were free today, they only count for about 25-30% of an overall system cost, which means you don’t get anywhere near a five-year return on investment,” he said. Five years was considered the benchmark in 2012, when returns for solar panel owners selling back to power companies were at their high-water mark before state governments drastically cut those rates. “Fundamentally, the big thing we all need to be talking about as consumers is not batteries or whatever, but self-consumption – that is the itch we have to scratch,” Livingston said. The average solar-powered house consumed only 25-30% of the power it produced, the rest now fetching scant rates on the wholesale power market, he said. The Powerwall, with its Lithium battery, would take “self-consumption” to 57%. The Ouija system would better that at 61% and “about a third less in cost” than the Powerwall, Livingston said. This was in part because of a different approach to design, he said. Redback’s system components were not separated out and were lighter, he said, meaning they could be installed more quickly and by fewer staff. “The heaviest unit in the device is the inverter, it’s 40kg; the battery enclosure we bring out next month is 25kg and each battery you place inside it is 20kg and they’re all outdoor-rated,” Livingston said. “So effectively, a few guys and a small truck can get it installed rather than four guys and a crane, which is what you need for a Powerwall. “In integrating these systems, what needs to be considered is not just the aesthetic, but that all the other elements add cost when integrating a system. “While it’s great to have a battery that’s really sexy, at the end of the day, a lot more people buy Toyotas than they do Lamborghinis – or Teslas for that matter.” Redback also claims to more efficiently exploit its smaller battery by using a cloud-based software platform to control appliances such as “hot water systems, heaters, pool pumps and the like”. “It’s not being done by a person per se – although they can put schedules in – but by machine learning and that’s where we’re going with this,” Livingston said. “People don’t have to be focused on using expensive hardware solutions for things that can be done with software.” This reliance on software to boost the efficient use of power is what led Redback to signing its memorandum of understanding with University of Queensland last week. “Who better than a university that specialises in the creation of heuristic algorithms for machine learning?” Livingston said. “By working with UQ we are getting years and years of experience of analytic calculations, supercomputers they have on site, and we are able to use their faculties and build machine-learning capabilities that allow us to optimise these types of scenarios so we can become even less reliant on batteries over time.” Learning to drive energy efficiency through software is a “rabbit hole that continues to grow because we are learning how to optimise these scenarios to a greater and greater extent”, Livingston said. While the hardware is designed in Seattle and manufactured in China, all the intellectual property is generated in Brisbane, where the company has 16 staff and plans to increase its ranks of engineers. Livingston, whose early career included installing solar water systems in the Philippines with the US Peace Corps, said he believed the Australian market for solar storage systems would soon “cut across the ‘chasm’, as they call it, of early adopters into the early majority” in line with the one in five households that now had solar panels. “It should be quick because the economics are going to get even better than they are now,” he said. Dean Moss, the chief executive of UniQuest, the University of Queensland commercialisation arm whose past projects include the cervical cancer preventing vaccine Gardasil, said the collaboration with Redback would “convert research discoveries into exciting, innovative new products that create change”. Paul Meredith, the director of UQ Solar, said the company with its “energy storage innovations [and] entrepreneurial drive” would be tapping into an institution with “a rich history of cutting-edge renewable energy research, particularly in the systems integration space”. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/innovations-in-renewables', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/brisbane', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'tone/features', 'environment/energy-storage', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2016-02-23T01:34:12Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2024/feb/14/north-korea-iran-ai-hacking-microsoft | North Korea and Iran using AI for hacking, Microsoft says | US adversaries – chiefly Iran and North Korea, and to a lesser extent Russia and China – are beginning to use generative artificial intelligence to mount or organize offensive cyber operations, Microsoft said on Wednesday. Microsoft said it detected and disrupted, in collaboration with business partner OpenAI, many threats that used or attempted to exploit AI technology they had developed. In a blogpost, the company said the techniques were “early-stage” and neither “particularly novel or unique” but that it was important to expose them publicly as US rivals leveraging large-language models to expand their ability to breach networks and conduct influence operations. Cybersecurity firms have long used machine-learning on defense, principally to detect anomalous behavior in networks. But criminals and offensive hackers use it as well, and the introduction of large-language models led by OpenAI’s ChatGPT upped that game of cat-and-mouse. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, and Wednesday’s announcement coincided with its release of a report noting that generative AI is expected to enhance malicious social engineering, leading to more sophisticated deepfakes and voice cloning. A threat to democracy in a year where over 50 countries will conduct elections, magnifying disinformation and already occurring, Microsoft provided some examples. In each case it said all generative AI accounts and assets of the named groups were disabled: • The North Korean cyber-espionage group known as Kimsuky has used the models to research foreign thinktanks that study the country, and to generate content likely to be used in spear-phishing hacking campaigns. • Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has used large-language models to assist in social engineering, in troubleshooting software errors and even in studying how intruders might evade detection in a compromised network. That includes generating phishing emails “including one pretending to come from an international development agency and another attempting to lure prominent feminists to an attacker-built website on feminism”. The AI helps accelerate and boost the email production. • The Russian GRU military intelligence unit known as Fancy Bear has used the models to research satellite and radar technologies that may relate to the war in Ukraine. • The Chinese cyber-espionage group known as Aquatic Panda – which targets a broad range of industries, higher education and governments from France to Malaysia – has interacted with the models “in ways that suggest a limited exploration of how LLMs can augment their technical operations”. • The Chinese group Maverick Panda, which has targeted US defense contractors among other sectors for more than a decade, had interactions with large-language models suggesting it was evaluating their effectiveness as a source of information “on potentially sensitive topics, high profile individuals, regional geopolitics, US influence, and internal affairs”. In a separate blog published on Wednesday, OpenAI said its current GPT-4 model chatbot offers “only limited, incremental capabilities for malicious cybersecurity tasks beyond what is already achievable with publicly available, non-AI powered tools”. Cybersecurity researchers expect that to change. Last April, the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly, told Congress that “there are two epoch-defining threats and challenges. One is China, and the other is artificial intelligence.” Easterly said at the time that the US needed to ensure AI is built with security in mind. Critics of the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022 – and subsequent releases by competitors including Google and Meta – contend it was irresponsibly hasty, considering security was largely an afterthought in their development. “Of course bad actors are using large-language models – that decision was made when Pandora’s Box was opened,” said Amit Yoran, chief executive of the cybersecurity firm Tenable. Some cybersecurity professionals complain about Microsoft’s creation and hawking of tools to address vulnerabilities in large-language models when it might more responsibly focus on making them more secure. “Why not create more secure black-box LLM foundation models instead of selling defensive tools for a problem they are helping to create?” asked Gary McGraw, a computer security veteran and co-founder of the Berryville Institute of Machine Learning. The NYU professor and former AT&T chief security officer Edward Amoroso said that while the use of AI and large-language models may not pose an immediately obvious threat, they “will eventually become one of the most powerful weapons in every nation-state military’s offense”. | ['technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/openai', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'world/north-korea', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/iran', 'technology/computing', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-02-14T19:52:35Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2014/feb/08/flooding-floods-somerset-levels-britain | The floods: what a shower | Editorial | Rotting carpets, sodden furniture and drenched possessions are making life desperate for swaths of Britain, from the Somerset Levels in the west, to Saffron Walden in the east. The misery is real, and – as ever – it is inflaming an itch to blame. The Environment Agency chief, Chris Smith, seemed to do everything possible to draw the deluge of fury his way. He stopped off first, not at one of the most drenched, but one of the driest villages in the corner of Somerset he was visiting. He failed to tip off councillors and local MPs, then failed to apologise. The prime minister's own outing was less disastrous, but deepened the wet fury – which is now that much more intense – that was already bursting over during his own post-Christmas outing to Yalding in Kent. Lack of clarity about where the buck stops does not help, as – over the weeks – it has at moments been grabbed, and then rapidly passed between the Department for the Environment, communities secretary Eric Pickles, as well as Messrs Cameron and Smith. This is a disaster that could have been better prepared for, with greater clarity from the start. But we should not lose sight of the fact that it is, first and foremost, still a freak natural disaster – what used to be called an act of God. There has, very simply, been a dreadful amount of rain, with dreadful consequences. As ever within a random weather system, it is not possible to put any single event down to a specific cause, although it is very much worth noting in parenthesis that every serious analysis of climate change agrees that it will tend to shorten the odds on serious flooding. Indeed, one serious study has shown the risks of serious flooding in the UK had already doubled by 2000. Beyond emphasising the need to act against this underlying danger, an area where this government's record has gone from middling to poor, a rising risk also points to the need for better defences. Games get played with the numbers, but spending this year on flood defences is still below 2010. This can't have helped. In the face of the rain we have witnessed, a little more money would certainly not have kept everyone dry, but more investment in changing land use to create more "space for water" on food plains might have done some good in some places. The fiercest argument about dredging is, in contrast, wide of the mark. Yes, it may well have often been done for hundreds of years, but that does not guarantee it would work today in the face of these rare rains. As with quack cancer cures, some solutions that can sound appealing to desperate people look less effective to the dispassionate eye. The misery – and the rage – are compounded by drift in place of action. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'environment/environment-agency', 'tone/comment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/editorials', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-08T00:12:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/mar/18/pitcairn-islands-marine-reserve-budget-2015 | Pitcairn Islands to get world's largest single marine reserve | The UK is to establish the world’s largest continuous marine reserve in waters around the Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific, the government has said. While not mentioned in chancellor George Osborne’s speech, the budget published on Wednesday confirms that the government will go ahead with designating the ocean around Pitcairn – famous partly as the island where the mutineers of the Bounty settled – as a marine protected area (MPA). The zone is expected to ban commercial fishing, and will cover a 834,000 sq km (322,000 square miles) area where previous expeditions have found more than 80 species of fish, coral and algae. Conservationists had argued that modern satellite monitoring meant that costly boat patrols to stop overfishing made such a protected zone feasible and affordable, and the government in its budget statement appears to agree. It said the MPA “will be dependent upon reaching agreement with NGOs on satellite monitoring and with authorities in relevant ports to prevent landing of illegal catch, as well as on identifying a practical naval method of enforcing the MPA at a cost that can be accommodated within existing departmental expenditure limits”. Campaigners said they were delighted that the reserve would be designated. Zac Goldsmith, a Conservative MP, who has called for the reserve’s creation along with celebrities including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Gillian Anderson, Julie Christie and Helena Bonham-Carter, said: “This is wonderful news and the chancellor deserves real credit for this. I very much hope it is just the start. Pitcairn is not our only large ocean territory, and we should be looking for similar opportunities elsewhere.” He added: “What has happened in our oceans is a biodiversity tragedy, but it is a humanitarian issue too. Nearly a billion people depend on fish as their primary source of protein, and nearly a quarter of a billion depend on fish for their livelihoods.” Jo Royle, of Pew’s Global Ocean Legacy, said: “With this designation, the United Kingdom raises the bar for protection of our ocean and sets a new standard for others to follow. The Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve will build a refuge of untouched ocean to protect and conserve a wealth of marine life. We celebrate members of parliament for pressing for this action.” The UK already has the world’s largest marine protected area, in the waters surrounding the Chagos archipelago in the Indian ocean. But Britain is facing a legal challenge against the reserve in the UN’s permanent court of arbitration in the Hague, which is expected to rule soon. | ['environment/marine-life', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/fishing', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-03-18T15:56:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/jun/28/park-staff-in-england-tell-of-litter-chaos-as-super-saturday-looms | Park staff in England tell of litter chaos as 'Super Saturday' looms | Hundreds of tonnes of additional rubbish, including mountains of single-use plastic, is being discarded by the public in English parks each day as park managers warn of their fears for “Super Saturday” this week. Officials in Bournemouth said they collected 50 tonnes of litter left by revellers and beachgoers on the beach on one day alone last week, compared with five tonnes on an average June day. The scenes of waste mountains are being repeated across the country, on beaches and in parks – where the partial lifting of lockdown has led to millions more people using the green spaces to meet, exercise, eat and drink. Park staff across the country spoke out to express concern at the pressure they are likely to face on 4 July, the day dubbed in some quarters as “Super Saturday”, which the government has announced will mark the further lifting of lockdown, with alcohol widely available to take away under what are designed to be new feelgood laws drawn up by ministers. Park managers have shared experiences of the pressure that green spaces are currently under on a nationwide online forum. In Rugby, an extra 10 tonnes of plastic waste, bottles and food packaging are being collected every day from the town’s parks. In Salford, council staff collected 200 tonnes more rubbish from the cities parks and streets in the eight weeks between 23 March and 21 June than they did in 2019. Chris Worman, manager of parks at Rugby borough council, said: “We are collecting seven Transit vanloads extra every day – that’s around 10 tonnes more rubbish. People are defecating in the grass, they are leaving rubbish on the ground when there are bins nearby, they are abusing our staff. “And we are key workers. We have worked throughout the pandemic and now they are suffering this. The people coming to the parks don’t seem to care about the environment, or the staff that have worked all the way through this. It is bizarre and frustrating behaviour.” Worman said he and other park managers were concerned about Super Saturday. “I am dreading what will happen, to be honest,” he said. Paul Rabbitts, chair of the parks management forum, said park keepers had been sharing their experiences of the last few weeks: “There are something like 1,400 parkees who have signed up and shared their experiences, and across the board it is chaos out there.” As well as hundreds of tonnes of extra rubbish being cleared, Rabbitts said parks were being left covered in nitrous oxide – laughing gas – canisters. “There are thousands of them being left, scattered across parks and car parks.” He said park managers were bracing themselves for Super Saturday. Richard Mcllwain, from Keep Britain Tidy, said there was “considerable concern” about 4 July in parks and open spaces across the country. “As lockdown measures have eased, like many others, we’ve been aghast at the huge amounts of litter left strewn across our parks and beaches,” he said. Mcllwain said the rise in use of single-use plastics risked diverting from the push to increase reuseable and recycled materials in food and drink packaging. The government has pushed back the implementation of its deposit return scheme for plastic bottles, and its legal mandate to manufacturers to use a minimum of 30% recycled plastic in packaging and bottles. “We’re already seeing littering of single-use plastic glasses as a result of off-licence sales from pubs, and further relaxation to allow drinks to be served in car parks and other areas can only exacerbate this issue,” said Mcllwain. “Covid-19 is no excuse for doubling down on our single-use culture, when refillable drinks glasses can be just as safe if appropriate procedures on use and cleansing are followed.” As well as plastic waste, the litter being left in parks and beaches includes items of PPE such as face masks and gloves, raising concerns that Covid-19 is leaving a plastic-waste crisis in its wake. A recent study warned that the estimated use of 129bn face masks and 65bn gloves globally each month was resulting in widespread environmental contamination. Mcllwain said the government must not delay its deposit return scheme further than its planned 2023 date. A Keep Britain Tidy survey last year found that 75% of street litter consisted of drinks containers. “That is why we’re calling for a comprehensive deposit return scheme, which can increase collection rates to over 90% and reduce littering,” he said. | ['environment/waste', 'travel/parks-and-green-spaces', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'politics/health', 'campaign/callout/callout-coronavirus', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-06-28T16:29:41Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/feb/19/colombia-cattle-ranching-coca-amazon-deforestation | Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia – report | Cattle-ranching, not cocaine, has driven the destruction of the Colombian Amazon over the last four decades, a new study has found. Successive recent governments have used environmental concerns to justify ramping up their war on the green shrub, but the research shows that in 2018 the amount of forest cleared to cultivate coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, was only 1/60th of that used for cattle. The study’s findings vindicate conservation experts who have long argued that Colombia’s strategy to conserve the Amazon – often centered on combating coca production – has been misplaced. “We want to finally eradicate this narrative that coca is the driver of deforestation,” said Paulo Murillo-Sandoval at the University of Tolima, who led the study. Deforestation spiked after the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) signed a landmark peace agreement with the government in 2016 and laid down their weapons. As the rebels came out of the jungle, land-grabbers took advantage, clearing trees with chainsaws and burning vast areas. Deforestation reached a record high of 219,973 hectares (543,565 acres) in 2017, up 23% from the previous year. Then president Iván Duque used the environmental destruction caused by coca cultivation to justify stepping up military action against coca farmers. Prohibited from spraying coca crops with glyphosate after the chemical was banned in 2015 for health concerns, the Duque government sent in choppers and armed troops into the Amazon rainforest, sometimes into deadly confrontations with coca farmers. Yet while cattle ranches cleared more than 3m hectares (7.4m acres) of Amazon rainforest in 2018, coca’s impact was negligible. Only 45,000 hectares (111,200 acres) were cleared for coca in 2018, the latest year available in the study. Using a deep learning algorithm to differentiate between land used for coca and cattle, Murillo and his colleagues were for the first time able to distinguish between the activities on a mass scale from 1985 to 2019. “We have always contested the government’s argument that coca was driving deforestation but lacked the evidence,” said Angelica Rojas, liaison officer for Guaviare state at the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development, a Colombian environmental thinktank. “Now we have real data with which we can oppose this mistake.” The figures show that previous governments have used the environment as a false justification to wage war on coca farmers, said Rojas, who was not involved in the study. “They didn’t want to prevent deforestation, they just wanted to justify spending more money and resources on their real political goal: eliminating coca,” she said. The study also adds to evidence that despite lives being sacrificed and billions of dollars being spent, Colombia’s “war on drugs” has failed to halt coca production – and in some cases it may have even made it worse. When farmers have their crops eradicated they simply establish new plots, often just a few kilometres deeper into the forest canopy, Murillo said. “The war on drugs started 40 years ago now, yet everyone knows where coca is: in the same place they have always been.” As the government has engaged in a game of whack-a-mole with coca farmers, the real driver of deforestation, cattle farming, has been allowed to swallow up vast swathes of land, the authors argue. Flaws in Colombian land regulation have incentivised the conversion of biodiverse tropical rainforests into barren pastures. To get their deeds recognised, landowners must demonstrate that 75% of their plots are productive, and it is far easier for farmers to use cows than crops, said Carlos Devia, a forest engineer at Bogotá’s Javeriana University who was not involved in the study. “Ranching is the easiest way to show you’re using land, as it’s unregulated. You could have 100 hectares of land and just throw 10 cows in there, whereas for potatoes or corn only a hectare would require a year of great work,” Devia said. Landless farmers often clear a few hectares of rainforest and sell them illegally to members of criminal organisations who then join up multiple small lots, transforming them into vast swathes of lifeless, arid pasture. Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who took office in August last year, is proposing a U-turn on Colombia’s failed anti-narcotics strategy. Petro, a former member of the defunct M-19 rebel group, has turned the focus away from forced coca eradication, and is buying up millions of hectares of land to give to farmers. “Reducing drug use does not require wars, it needs us all to build a better society,” Petro told the UN general assembly in September last year. | ['environment/deforestation', 'world/colombia', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'business/cattles', 'world/americas', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/luke-stephen-taylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-02-19T10:30:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2007/oct/03/environment.rorycarroll | Sighting of Amazon group bolsters environmentalist case | At first they are just a blur, tiny figures by a river in Peru's Amazon jungle. Then the plane descends, the camera focuses, and you see them: 21 people outside palm huts, the apparent remnants of an uncontacted tribe. They gaze up at the intruder, itself a blur of noise and metal, and a woman carrying arrows gestures aggressively. When the plane makes a second pass the people melt into the jungle. The encounter took place last month by the banks of the Las Piedras river in the Alto Purús national park near Peru's frontier with Brazil. Scientists believe the grainy figures were members of the Mascho Piro tribe, hunter-gatherers who have shunned the outside world. The contact was fleeting but the repercussions could be profound because this swath of Amazon, 550 miles east of Lima, is at the centre of a battle pitting indigenous rights groups and environmentalists against the Peruvian state, loggers and oil companies. Those who want to develop the rainforest have played down the impact on its human inhabitants. Some even questioned their existence. Daniel Saba, president of Perupetro, the state oil company, said the notion of uncontacted tribes was "absurd" since no one has seen them. A company spokesman compared the rumours to the Loch Ness monster. The film, taken by ecologists from the national institute of natural resources, is a powerful riposte. They were looking for evidence of illegal logging and spotted the group by chance, said Ricardo Hon, a forest scientist who was in the small plane. "There were three huts and about 21 Indians - children, women and young people," he said. Similar types of huts were spotted in the region in the 1980s, prompting speculation that this was the Mascho Piro, a tribe which erects temporary dwellings near riverbanks during the dry season when it is easier to fish, then move back into the forest during the wet season. "This is the most recent recorded sighting of them," said Peru's national Indian organisation, Aidesep. "The uncontacted tribes exist. If we don't act now, tomorrow could be too late." Contact with outsiders has proved fatal to people who have not developed resistance to the common cold and other illnesses. More than half of the Murunahua tribe who came into contact with loggers in the mid 1990s are said to have died. Some members of the Mascho Piro, estimated to number about 600, are believed to have had dealings with more settled groups but most have avoided the outside world. | ['world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'type/article', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-10-02T23:05:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk/the-northerner/2011/aug/03/sellafield-mox-cumbria-seker-marchon-kangol-whitehaven-egremont-cleator-moor-nuclear | West Cumbria needs a wider industrial base | Cumbria has taken another hefty punch with the closure of Sellafield's Mox (mixed oxide) plant. The news comes while the county still copes with the long-term aftermath of November 2009's floods and the psychological fallout from Derek Bird's murderous last day. Reaction from local official bodies centres on a demand for a proposed new and more modern reprocessing centre to be confirmed and built; but others want more clout given to promoting the county's western side as an ideal place to site new and different business. This happened in and just after the greater depression of the 1930s when three new companies were brought to the area, all by refugees from the Nazis in Europe. There was Seker's silk at Whitehaven, the Marchon detergent factory in the same town and Kangol (silK,ANGora,woOL) making first berets and then seatbelts in Egremont, Cleator and other stops on the long, winding Irish Sea coast. They used the existing skills made redundant by coal, ironworks and engineering. Today, West Cumbria has a still more highly-trained workforce and the added attraction of fabulous countryside on its doorstep and relatively cheap housing – the spiralling prices of the Lake District have not yet crept this far. Those who doubt the wisdom of dependence on nuclear power are keen to promote this; but in the meanwhile, the calls for 'new Mox' will be loud and persuasive. Cumbria county council's Labour leader Eddie Martin says: The Government must surely step in to ensure that nuclear skills and jobs are retained in West Cumbria for the longer term future of the industry and for the regeneration of Cumbria as a whole. The most effective way of doing this is for the Government to immediately confirm it will commission and build a new Sellafield Mox plant that will serve modern needs, as soon as possible, not least because other countries, such as Russia, are building Mox plants and the commercial opportunities may well bypass us if we are not quick off the mark. The need for reprocessing is never going to go away. Nuclear energy is still a global solution, despite the Fukushima crisis. Tim Knowles, the council's Cabinet member responsible for nuclear issues, echoes his leader What we now need from Government is an immediate and clear commitment to invest in a new generation of Mox plant at Sellafield so that we can deal with the UK's plutonium stockpile and produce a fuel that will contribute to low carbon energy generation. Sellafield's Mox workforce need to know that they have a future on the Sellafield site, otherwise we risk losing their skills. We always expected this Mox plant to be decommissioned, but our expectation and hope was that it would happen after a new Mox plant was installed. The Government is working on a massive programme around nuclear energy for the 21st Century and Cumbria is an integral part of that programme. What we can't have is a situation where jobs disappear and nuclear skills leak out of the region because of the Mox closure. A new plant would dramatically reverse today's gloom, providing some 5,000 construction jobs as well as the permanent staff once work began. The closure means the loss of 600 jobs at Sellafield with probable knock-on effects on 1000 others at service and supply firms. Can nuclear opponents come up with comparable job-providing alternatives? | ['uk/the-northerner', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'travel/lakedistrict', 'society/unemployment', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'type/article', 'profile/martinwainwright'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-08-03T17:00:20Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2008/dec/18/plasticbags-waste | Supermarkets cut back on handing out carrier bags by half | Seven major supermarkets today reached an agreement with the government to halve by spring 2009 the number of single-use carrier bags being handed out in stores around the UK. The deal, between the British Retail Consortium and the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs, will see 5m fewer bags being handed out each year — enough to fill 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the government has estimated. Asda, the Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Waitrose and Tesco stores in England, Wales and Northern Ireland signed up to the voluntary agreement that obliges them to halve the numbers of single use carrier bags compared with 2006 levels. They also committed to an "aspirational" target to eventually cut bag use by 70%. The Scottish Executive has agreed a similar deal with retailers in Scotland. Environment minister Jane Kennedy hailed the deal as a "bold commitment". She said: "Supermarkets have already taken some imaginative steps to help us use fewer carrier bags and other high street retailers should look to them for inspiration. Of course, we can all play our part to reduce the number of carrier bags on our high streets and the government will work closely with the BRC on a campaign to help us all to do so." Stephen Robertson, the director general of the BRC, said: "Together with other environmental initiatives, supermarkets are meeting their existing commitment to reduce the environmental impact of bags by 25%. They're now volunteering an ambitious new target to help customers halve bag use by next spring. Supermarkets have been so successful in this by taking customers with them in ways they find acceptable, by encouraging and rewarding." Compliance with the new target will be independently monitored by the government's waste advisory body Wrap, which will then review progress with the supermarkets by 2010. Thirteen billion plastic bags are given away each year in the UK alone. Their production and disposal adds to CO2 emissions and many contribute to pollution problems and threaten wildlife. Modbury in Devon attracted much attention in 2007 when it banned plastic bags altogether following a campaign by a wildlife camerawoman Rebecca Hosking who was appalled to see wildlife choking on plastic waste while filming in the Galapagos. Some supermarkets in the UK have taken voluntary action already – in February, Marks & Spencer announced it would charge food customers 5p for every plastic carrier bag. But retailers were warned by the chancellor in March that they had a year to cut down on the number of plastic bags handed out or face legislation that would force them to impose a charge. In Ireland a 15c tax on plastic bags that was introduced in March 2002 saw usage drop by 90%. Other European countries including Denmark and Switzerland have also introduced such taxes. In June, China implemented a ban on free plastic bags, and has banned the production of ultra-thin plastic bags in an attempt to reduce pollution. Shops that violate the new rules could be fined or have their goods confiscated. | ['environment/waste', 'business/supermarkets', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jessicaaldred'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-12-18T13:27:54Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2005/sep/06/usnews.oilandpetrol | US braced for pain from crippled oil production | A week after Hurricane Katrina ripped through America's Gulf coast, estimates of the cost of repairing the stricken southern states and the potential effect on the US and global economies are growing daily. Initially, economists thought that as the affected areas were relatively poor states, there would be a brief impact on the wider US economy before a rebuilding boom would help it recover, as happened after previous hurricanes. But now it has emerged that the damage is much greater than first thought and the impact on oil and other commodity industries looks so severe that some experts fear the US economy could slow sharply, at least in the short term. They also think the Federal Reserve Board may try to restore confidence among US consumers by calling a halt to the successive rises in interest rates that began last year. The states hit by the hurricane and flooding - Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi - together account for less than 3% of the overall US economy. But what matters to the wider economy is that the Gulf of Mexico produces about a quarter of US oil and gas, and much of the Gulf's production has been disrupted - possibly for months, if fears of extensive damage to undersea pipelines prove true. Moreover, with the primary damage to New Orleans and the surrounding area being due to flooding rather than gales, nine refineries have been knocked out, possibly for a considerable time. That has taken out 10% of America's refining capacity at a time of strong demand and has pushed petrol prices up to record highs. Sky-high prices Hence the decision last Friday by the 26 member countries of the International Energy Agency to release 2m barrels a day of oil and petrol from stocks to prevent the US running dry. The announcement helped halt the surge in petrol prices that followed the disaster. New Orleans is the second-largest port in the US and a huge storage depot for commodities such as grain, which are transported down the Mississippi river. But the main impact on the wider economy is from energy prices and the potential blow to consumer confidence from sky-high pump prices, now well over $3 a gallon (43p a litre) on US forecourts. Julian Jessop, of Capital Economics consultancy, said: "We are clearly more worried about the economic impact than we were initially. The subsequent surge in petrol prices has made an already bad situation much worse." He reckoned annualised growth in the US, which was running at a robust 3.3% in the second quarter of the year, could be down to 2.5% by the fourth quarter. Economists at Goldman Sachs think Katrina might knock 0.5-1.0 percentage points off US growth in the third and fourth quarters, especially if insured losses and rebuilding costs head towards $100bn (£54bn), as some are estimating. "The hit to growth, expected to last through the year-end, will be larger than from other disasters for two reasons," they said. "First the scope of the storm and the area affected is much bigger, forcing larger and longer cutbacks in output. Second, the nation's energy output has been hurt and this is likely to force cutbacks in spending by the public." Research suggests that every 10 cent rise in the price of petrol takes $11.4bn out of consumers' pockets a year. Given that prices had already risen sharply before Katrina, and have jumped since, the hit to consumption could be large. Global Insight, a consultancy, has also become more concerned about the economic impact of the hurricane. It, too, expects third and fourth-quarter US growth to be down by 0.5-1.0 points. It forecasts petrol pump prices to remain between $3 and $3.50 for weeks if not months. Its chief economist, Nariman Behravesh, thinks the Fed may halt rises in US interest rates, which have taken them to 3.5% and were expected to take them to 4% or higher by the end of 2005. "[We] believe that, at most, the Fed will hike the federal funds rate another 25 basis points [0.25 percentage points] before the end of the year," he says. Most economists think the economy will receive a boost from reconstruction spending but not until next year. President George Bush, under fire for his slow reaction to the hurricane, has already pledged $10.5bn for rebuilding, a payment that is likely to be the first of many, reducing the chances of shrinking the enormous budget deficit. | ['business/business', 'us-news/us-news', 'business/oil', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'world/natural-disasters', 'profile/ashleyseager'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-05T23:04:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2019/jan/22/the-guardian-view-on-rising-sea-levels-a-warning-from-greenland | The Guardian view on rising sea levels: a warning from Greenland | Editorial | Dramatic increases in the rate at which ice on Greenland and East Antarctica is melting are, along with the heatwave gripping Australia, among the latest manifestations of the changes our planet and its atmosphere are undergoing. Concerns surrounding the risk of melting ice causing sea levels to rise were previously focused mainly on large glaciers. But scientists have discovered that the largest recent losses from Greenland’s vast ice sheet, which is two miles thick in places, have occurred in the island’s largely glacier-free south-west. Combined with recent analysis of retreating Antarctic glaciers that were previously thought to be stable, this new research makes unnerving reading. This is because of what it tells us about the extent of likely sea level rises, and warming seas linked to coral die-off and chaotic weather, but also because it highlights the difficulty of fully understanding the climate system. Last year the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urged governments to work towards the most ambitious targets in the 2015 Paris agreement, and a global temperature rise not greater than 1.5C. Many experts fear that factors including the election of Donald Trump in the US and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil mean that even the more modest goal of sticking to current commitments, putting the world on course for a 3C rise, remains a huge challenge. Currently, global carbon emissions are still rising. But if people all over the world are getting used to the idea that higher temperatures and increased frequency of extreme weather events are the new normal – recent polling in the US suggests 72% of Americans believe global warming is important, the highest-ever figure – we are arguably less advanced in our understanding of warming oceans. The sea level rises that scientists expect to accompany a temperature rise of 3C would submerge cities including Shanghai, Osaka and Miami along with parts of Rio de Janeiro and Alexandria – less than a century from now. Among nations, Bangladesh will be particularly severely affected, with one estimate suggesting that 250,000 people are already forced to move each year, making them environmental refugees. Such facts on the ground, as well as predictions, are why climate activists have long linked their cause to wider concerns around social justice. Just as carbon emissions must be limited to protect the livelihoods of people already struggling in areas vulnerable to drought and desertification, sea level rises must be restricted to protect the millions of people who live on coasts and in low-lying areas. The movement of peoples around the world, including but not limited to refugees, is in some cases a direct consequence of changes to the environment. Weather and climate systems are complex, and sea levels are hard to predict confidently. Already, ice sheets and glaciers are surprising scientists by behaving in unexpected ways. But while trying to limit future emissions remains the most pressing task, these ominous findings highlight the need to address the consequences of carbon already emitted. Sea level rises will continue long after emissions have peaked. We will have to adapt to our world’s changing shape. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/sea-ice', 'environment/sea-level', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/greenland', 'world/world', 'environment/poles', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/sea-ice | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-01-22T18:53:09Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/blog/2009/mar/04/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack-subcontinent-reaction | Dileep Premachandran on how the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team has sent shockwaves through the subcontinent | As Sri Lanka's cricketers fly home, it is easy to forget that they should not have been in Pakistan in the first place. India were supposed to tour the country in January and February but pulled out. Sri Lanka's tour was essentially a goodwill gesture, a big step on Pakistan's road to cricketing normality after 14 months without a Test. So much for normality. It is hard to imagine what might have happened had it been Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni nursing shrapnel wounds instead of Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana. After India had worn black armbands in solidarity with their fellow cricketers during the second half of yesterday's one-day game against New Zealand in Napier, Dhoni was asked about the Indian government's decision to cancel the Pakistan tour. That had come about in the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai at the end of November. "I'm happy we didn't tour Pakistan, and that the government didn't allow us to tour," he said. "It may or may not have happened to us." What happened yesterday in Lahore has sent shockwaves through the subcontinent. For years, those in favour of cricket being played in Pakistan have spoken of how sportspeople were never the targets of terrorism. Now, the boundary rope has shifted and the old cliche about cricket being the subcontinent's religion can be buried forever. Imran Khan was one of those who had called for normal engagement with Pakistan and after yesterday's attack he was incensed by the security provided to the Sri Lankans. "First of all, I apologise to the Sri Lankan team for they toured Pakistan despite huge pressure," the former Pakistan all-rounder said. "I condemn the security provided to the Sri Lankan team because it was 10 times less than what is given to the interior ministry adviser Rehman Malik. The Sri Lankans were assured of top-level security but there was lax security and I think from the governor of Punjab to police officials, all must be made accountable – how did the gunmen openly shoot at a high-profile team?" These days, Imran is a politician himself, with his Tehreek-e-Insaaf [Movement for Justice] party, and he ascribed cynical motives for this latest atrocity. "Usually the terror attacks are on the Pakistan military, United States army or on Nato forces, which are suicide missions aimed to revenge action against them, but these attacks are aimed at destabilising Pakistan. "The Mumbai attacks were also the same. They [the terrorists] wanted to attract the international media and this incident will deter all those foreign investments in Pakistan and hit the already embroiled economy." What is even more worrying is that the Pakistan team, rather than the Sri Lankans, might have been the intended target. Usually, both teams leave the hotel at the same time and travel to the ground together. That did not happen yesterday because the Pakistanis were running slightly late. With the International Cricket Council almost certain to strip Pakistan of co-hosting rights to the 2011 World Cup, the time has come for the Pakistan Cricket Board to look for a home away from home. Cricket Australia has already announced its preparedness to play a Test series against them in England in the summer of 2010 and Abu Dhabi and Dubai will be hosting one-day games later this month. The mood in Pakistan is understandably sombre. Cricket message boards like the extremely popular Pakpassion forum were full of apologies to the Sri Lankans and also resigned acceptance of the fact that Pakistan will not be hosting any international teams in the near future. And while some tried to blame a foreign hand, most preferred to look within, at the extremist cancer that is gnawing away at the country's fabric. | ['sport/blog', 'sport/sri-lanka-cricket-team', 'world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/sport'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-04T02:51:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2015/may/19/climate-change-shell-annual-meeting-oil-global-warming-resolution-shareholders | Climate change dominates marathon Shell annual general meeting | Shell shareholders have voted through a resolution requiring it to test its business against international goals to limit climate change – but Britain’s biggest oil company faced a barrage of questions over its commitment to battle global warming. At its annual general meeting in The Hague, 98.9% of votes supported the call for Shell to report on whether its activities were compatible with a pledge by governments to limit global warming to a 2C rise. The resolution was filed by 150 investors controlling billions of pounds’ worth of its shares, under the banner Aiming for A. It includes a ban on corporate bonuses for activities that damage the climate and a requirement to invest in renewable energy. Several investors who backed the proposal praised Shell’s board for supporting the resolution, which was passed last month at BP. But the annual meeting, which lasted four and a half hours, was dominated by shareholders casting doubt on Shell’s climate change credentials and others criticising its continued efforts to extract fossil fuels. Bill McGrew, a fund manager for the US’s biggest public pension fund, California’s Calpers, applauded the Anglo-Dutch company for recognising that climate change posed a threat to the world and to Shell’s business. He said: “I carry an important message that US investors care. It’s not just a US voice; it’s not just a European voice; it’s a global voice expressing support for your leadership today.” Others were more hostile. Investors from Alaska said Shell’s decision to drill for oil off the state’s northern coast threatened their communities. The board also faced questions on the company’s membership of lobby groups sceptical of climate change, the slow progress in developing renewable energy and the potential worthlessness of its assets under global climate change commitments. Questions came from shareholders representing campaign groups such as Greenpeace and Global Witness but also from individual investors and fund managers. A shareholder from Alaska said her community was in danger after a US government report said there was a 75% chance of at least one oil spill in the next 77 years if Shell was allowed to explore. “We rely on the ocean for our food. I’m a grandmother with 17 grandkids. They are so afraid right now that with a 75% chance [of a spill] they will never be able to eat our traditional food again.” Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive, said that figure had been misunderstood and that the chance of a disaster was less than 1%. Van Beurden has criticised the oil industry for being slow to admit to the existence of climate change and for relying too easily on the argument that environmental protection threatens jobs. But a Guardian investigation found that Shell’s own forecasts assume the Earth’s temperature will rise by almost double the 2C danger threshold adopted by governments. Shell is also a member of the American Legislative Council (Alec), a political organisation that opposes policies that try to tackle climate change. A shareholder told the board: “The international community wants you to change your policy for Earth and mankind. I want to ask you to stop the lobbying against sustainable energy.” In his only expression of irritation during the meeting, Van Beurden replied: “I would suggest that you pay a little bit more attention to what we are doing and saying. I have never and the company has never advocated against renewable energy. We are one of the biggest investors.” He said if Shell disagreed with industry groups it belonged to then the company put forward its own view separately. Several shareholders told the company to go faster in developing alternative sources of energy such as solar power. Mark van Baal, founder of a group of green Shell shareholders, said the company risked becoming redundant – “the next Kodak or Nokia” – if it delayed in switching away from oil and gas. He added: “Enjoy the profit while you have it but let’s invest those profits in renewables, the energy of this century, and not just fossil fuels.” Van Beurden said Shell would be at the forefront of change but that it needed to find more oil in the short term to meet the demands of population growth and economic development in emerging markets. He rejected the idea that Shell could be left with “stranded assets” that cannot be extracted because climate change will make them unviable. He dismissed as a red herring the argument that there was a carbon bubble of investment in fossil fuels. Van Beurden said in the second half of this century solar power would become dominant as a source of energy but that the world would have to rely on oil and other traditional fuels in the meantime. Simon Henry, Shell’s finance director, said fossil fuels made up 80% of the world’s energy sources and that oil was needed to produce and transport food, make clothes and manufacture roofs. “Modern life would not be possible” without oil, he said. | ['business/royaldutchshell', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/oil', 'business/commodities', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/environment', 'environment/cop-20-un-climate-change-conference-lima', 'uk/uk', 'world/netherlands', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sean-farrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-05-19T17:53:28Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/dec/18/sse-begins-work-on-hydrogen-storage-cavern-on-yorkshire-coast | SSE begins work on hydrogen storage cavern on Yorkshire coast | The energy company SSE has begun work to develop an underground cavern in east Yorkshire to store hydrogen, aiming to stockpile the renewable source of power for when the freezing, windless conditions experienced in the last week occur in future. The project will produce hydrogen using renewable energy in a 35-megawatt electrolyser which will be stored in a cavern the size of St Paul’s Cathedral located a mile deep at an existing SSE site in Aldbrough on the Yorkshire coast. The hydrogen will be used to fire a turbine which can export power to the grid when demand is high. SSE hopes the “pathfinder” project, which could cost more than £100m, will demonstrate the technology before bigger projects in the area which would require larger pipelines and infrastructure. The company hopes to receive government money for the project through a fund set up to support low-carbon hydrogen projects. Last week icy conditions led to a surge in energy demand as Britons cranked up their heating. Simultaneously, a lack of wind cut the power available from windfarms, forcing National Grid to pay high prices to encourage operators of gas “peaking plants” into action. Hydrogen is an expensive form of power generation as it requires large amounts of electricity to produce. However, it is seen as important in efforts to decarbonise heavy industries reliant on fossil fuels. Catherine Raw, managing director of SSE’s thermal division, told the Guardian: “Even if hydrogen is expensive relative to other fuels, you’re able to deliver the power exactly when you need it during peak demand and when power prices are justified. So this would be, even as a research and development project, helping to ease that system pressure during periods of peak demand like we’ve just seen.” It emerged last week that Ofgem is pushing for a cap on how much power stations can charge National Grid for backup electricity. Ofgem wants to tighten rules to prevent “excessive” profits and intends to publish proposals early next year. The Grid spent more than £27m paying power stations to increase supplies at short notice as temperatures dropped on Monday last week. Vitol Group’s Rye House gas-fired power station, just north of London, earned as much as £6,000 per megawatt-hour, reigniting a debate over power generators’ profits. Gas-fired power stations were exempted from the electricity generators levy announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, last month, as the government cited their role in providing security of energy supplies. SSE has several gas-fired plants in the UK and Ireland. Raw declined to comment on last week’s events but said: “The rising gas price has meant that we’ve had to take risks that we would not normally take, and therefore how do you get rewarded for taking those risks? Our responsibility as a generator of power is to keep the system balanced and SSE takes that very seriously.” SSE, which runs gas-fired power stations alongside hydroelectric plants and windfarms, last month reported a more than tripling of profits thanks to soaring energy prices. SSE hopes to get the project running by 2025, before a larger hydrogen storage project planned for the same site in 2028 in partnership with the Norwegian energy company Equinor. The pair are also developing the Keadby hydrogen power station, planned to be the world’s first big 100% hydrogen-fired power station. SSE has signed a contract with Siemens Energy for design and engineering work on the pathfinder project. Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, has invested in an industry joint venture which will trial using hydrogen at an existing peaking plant at the Brigg station in Lincolnshire. The pilot, which will launch in the second half of next year, is aimed at examining the role that hydrogen can play in producing power. | ['business/scottishandsouthernenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energy-storage', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'environment/hydrogen-power', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/centrica', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-12-18T11:42:24Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2021/sep/05/furlough-end-unlikely-to-resolve-driver-and-care-staff-shortage-says-thinktank | Furlough end unlikely to resolve driver and care staff shortage, says thinktank | Britain’s shortage of lorry drivers and care staff is unlikely to be solved by furloughed workers being made redundant when the job protection scheme ends at the end of the month, according to a study by a leading thinktank. A mismatch between the types of jobs that are no longer needed and the vacancies in industries facing a significant lack of skilled staff will persist into next year without government intervention, the Resolution Foundation said. The warning came as truck companies said a national shortage of 500,000 lorry and van drivers could lead to a rise in food prices. Business leaders from across the retail, wholesale and farming sectors have criticised the government’s response to supermarket shortages after an exodus of European Union drivers, which they said could not be replaced by domestic drivers in the short term. The Federation of Wholesale Distributors, which represents about 600 firms in the wholesale sector, said businesses were offering incentives and higher wages that would need to be passed on to retailers. Calls for the government to offer year-long visas to foreign truck drivers were rebuffed last month by the business minister, Kwasi Kwarteng. He told business leaders they needed to train and support domestic workers rather than call for sticking plaster solutions. The Resolution Foundation report found that as many as 900,000 workers will still be on the furlough scheme when it ends on 30 September, most of them older workers or those under the age of 25. It said that while older workers may leave the job market altogether if they are made redundant and young workers may find alternative jobs, there was likely to be a rise in unemployment next month, possibly from the current 4.7% figure to as high as 5.5%. “Age continues to be a significant factor,” the report said. “While under-25s have been the age group most likely to be on furlough for most of the crisis, over-65s have recently become the group with the highest furlough rates – and most likely to have been furloughed for long periods of time – putting them at higher risk of job losses when the scheme ends. “Older workers also suffer more severe consequences from losing their jobs than other age groups. Over-55s are less likely than younger workers to return to work within six months of becoming unemployed, and tend to take a substantial pay cut when they do return,” it added. Tens of thousands of graduates are also expected to join the workforce in the autumn, many following a year-long delay while they continued with their education, putting additional pressure on the jobs market. Hannah Slaughter, an economist at the foundation, said the government should also protect workers that cannot find a job by maintaining the current level of universal credit. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, plans to cut universal credit by £20 a week from next month. The £20 was introduced at the start of the pandemic, and its loss will affect the incomes of 6 million families and about half of all UK children. “With firms already reporting hiring bottlenecks, even a fresh surge in job starts in unlikely to be enough to prevent unemployment rising this autumn,” Slaughter said. “Given the uncertainty surrounding the labour market, the chancellor should maintain the £20 uplift to universal credit. Cutting support while unemployment is rising is bad politics, bad economics and bad for living standards.” | ['business/job-losses', 'uk-news/uk-job-furlough-scheme', 'business/retail', 'environment/farming', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'type/article', 'profile/phillipinman', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-09-05T05:15:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/cif-green/2009/apr/26/water-shortage | Jeffrey Sachs: Stemming the water wars | Many conflicts are caused or inflamed by water scarcity. The conflicts from Chad to Darfur, Sudan, to the Ogaden Desert in Ethiopia, to Somalia and its pirates, and across to Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, lie in a great arc of arid lands where water scarcity is leading to failed crops, dying livestock, extreme poverty and desperation. Extremist groups like the Taliban find ample recruitment possibilities in such impoverished communities. Governments lose their legitimacy when they cannot guarantee their populations' most basic needs: safe drinking water, staple food crops, and fodder and water for the animal herds on which communities depend for their meagre livelihoods. Politicians, diplomats and generals in conflict-ridden countries typically treat these crises as they would any other political or military challenge. They mobilise armies, organise political factions, combat warlords, or try to grapple with religious extremism. But these responses overlook the underlying challenge of helping communities meet their urgent needs for water, food and livelihoods. As a result, the United States and Europe often spend tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars to send troops or bombers to quell uprisings or target "failed states", but do not send one-10th or even one-100th of that amount to address the underlying crises of water scarcity and underdevelopment. Water problems will not go away by themselves. On the contrary, they will worsen unless we, as a global community, respond. A series of recent studies shows how fragile the water balance is for many impoverished and unstable parts of the world. Unesco recently issued the UN World Water Development Report 2009; the World Bank issued powerful studies on India (India's Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future) and Pakistan (Pakistan's Water Economy: Running Dry); and the Asia Society issued an overview of Asia's water crises (Asia's Next Challenge: Securing the Region's Water Future). These reports tell a similar story. Water supplies are increasingly under stress in large parts of the world, especially in the world's arid regions. Rapidly intensifying water scarcity reflects bulging populations, depletion of groundwater, waste and pollution, and the enormous and increasingly dire effects of manmade climate change. The consequences are harrowing: drought and famine, loss of livelihood, the spread of waterborne diseases, forced migrations, and even open conflict. Practical solutions will include many components, including better water management, improved technologies to increase the efficiency of water use, and new investments undertaken jointly by governments, the business sector, and civic organisations. I have seen such solutions in the Millennium Villages in rural Africa, a project in which my colleagues and I are working with poor communities, governments, and businesses to find practical solutions to the challenges of extreme rural poverty. In Senegal, for example, a world-leading pipe manufacturer, JM Eagle, donated more than 100 kilometers of piping to enable an impoverished community to join forces with the government water agency PEPAM to bring safe water to tens of thousands of people. The overall project is so cost effective, replicable, and sustainable that JM Eagle and other corporate partners will now undertake similar efforts elsewhere in Africa. But future water stresses will be widespread, including both rich and poor countries. The US, for example, encouraged a population boom in its arid southwestern states in recent decades, despite water scarcity that climate change is likely to intensify. Australia, too, is grappling with serious droughts in the agricultural heartland of the Murray-Darling river basin. The Mediterranean basin, including southern Europe and north Africa, is also likely to experience serious drying as a result of climate change. However, the precise nature of the water crisis will vary, with different pressure points in different regions. For example, Pakistan, an already arid country, will suffer under the pressures of a rapidly rising population, which has grown from 42 million in 1950 to 184 million in 2010, and may increase further to 335 million in 2050, according to the UN's "medium" scenario. Even worse, farmers are now relying on groundwater that is being depleted by over-pumping. Moreover, the Himalayan glaciers that feed Pakistan's rivers may melt by 2050, owing to global warming. Solutions will have to be found at all "scales", meaning that we will need water solutions within individual communities (as in the piped-water project in Senegal), along the length of a river (even as it crosses national boundaries), and globally, for example, to head off the worst effects of global climate change. Lasting solutions will require partnerships between government, business, and civil society, which can be hard to negotiate and manage, since these different sectors of society often have little or no experience in dealing with each other and may mistrust each other. Most governments are poorly equipped to deal with serious water challenges. Water ministries are typically staffed with engineers and generalist civil servants. Yet lasting solutions to water challenges require a broad range of expert knowledge about climate, ecology, farming, population, engineering, economics, community politics, and local cultures. Government officials also need the skill and flexibility to work with local communities, private businesses, international organisations, and potential donors. A crucial next step is to bring together scientific, political, and business leaders from societies that share the problems of water scarcity – for example Sudan, Pakistan, the US, Australia, Spain, and Mexico – to brainstorm about creative approaches to overcoming them. Such a gathering would enable information-sharing, which could save lives and economies. It would also underscore a basic truth: the common challenge of sustainable development should unify a world divided by income, religion, and geography. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2009 | ['commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/jeffreysachs'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-04-26T16:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/jul/23/sharks-functionally-extinct-at-20-of-worlds-coral-reefs-as-fishing-drives-global-decline | Sharks 'functionally extinct' at 20% of world's coral reefs as fishing drives global decline | Destructive and unsustainable fishing has caused a crash in shark numbers across many of the world’s coral reefs, upsetting the ecological balance of the critical marine ecosystems, a major study has found. A network of remote underwater cameras across 58 countries found sharks were “functionally extinct” at almost one in five of the 371 reefs studied over four years. The loss of sharks was putting further pressure on coral reefs around the world that were already under threat from global heating, scientists said. Shark numbers were lowest on 69 reefs surveyed in the Dominican Republic, the French West Indies, Kenya, Vietnam, the Windward Dutch Antilles and Qatar, where just three sharks were seen during 800 hours of footage. Across four regions – the Indo-Pacific, Pacific, the western Atlantic and the western Indian Ocean – the nations with the highest numbers of sharks included Australia, the Bahamas, the Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, the Maldives and the United States. The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), a partner in the research published in Nature, said the study revealed a previously undocumented global decline in sharks on reefs. Reefs close to human populations in countries with poor governance were the worst affected. Sharks did best in places where the use of longlines and gillnets were controlled, catch limits on sharks were in place and marine sanctuaries had been created. Dr Mark Meekan, of AIMS, said the study, part of a project called Global FinPrint, painted a bleak picture, but it also demonstrated the problem could be fixed. “Stopping destructive fishing practices and getting some good governance into these fisheries could change the situation almost overnight,” Meekan said. “These are very doable things.” Sharks play a critical role on coral reefs, keeping the balance of species across the marine habitats in check, he said. Losing sharks was impacting the health of coral reefs that many millions of people relied on for food. “Sharks are important for the ecology of coral reefs, particularly at a time when they are facing so many other threats from climate change.” To carry out the study, underwater cameras were deployed on 371 reefs across 58 countries. Bait was attached to a pole at the front of the cameras at regular intervals to attract any nearby sharks. Between July 2015 and June 2018, the cameras recorded 15,000 hours of footage and captured 59 different shark species. More than 90% of the species sighted were species that frequently visited reefs or were residents. Some 34 out of 58 nations had shark numbers that were half what was expected, “suggesting that loss of reef sharks is pervasive among reefs globally”, the study said. The lead author of the study, Dr Aaron MacNeil of Dalhousie University in Canada, said: “From restricting certain [fishing] gear types and setting catch limits, to national-scale bans on catches and trade, we now have a clear picture of what can be done to limit catches of reef sharks throughout the tropics.” On 19% of reefs, almost no sharks were seen. Prof Colin Simpfendorfer, a co-author of the study from James Cook University, said: “This doesn’t mean there are never any sharks on these reefs, but what it does mean is that they are ‘functionally extinct’ – they are not playing their normal role in the ecosystem.” Shark numbers were comparatively high on the world’s largest coral reef system – the Great Barrier Reef – where 1,178 cameras were used across 11 reefs. Dr Michelle Heupel, a marine ecologist at AIMS and the University of Tasmania, coordinated the study efforts across the western Pacific, including the Great Barrier Reef. She said shark numbers were highest in the more remote northern section of the reef. Dr Mike Heithaus, of Florida International University, and a leader of the Global FinPrint project, said: “Now that the survey is complete, we are also investigating how the loss of sharks can destabilise reef ecosystems. “At a time when corals are struggling to survive in a changing climate, losing reef sharks could have dire long-term consequences for entire reef systems,” he said. Meekan said it was “not all doom and gloom out there” and the plight of sharks was not irretrievable. As well as sharks performing a critical ecological function, he said sharks were also important to many economies around the world, particularly those with strong diving tourism sectors. One example was Palau, where 8% of the nation’s GDP was generated through shark tourism. “Many people are scared of sharks but, in fact, there’s a whole slew of people who dive just to see them,” he said. “On the Great Barrier Reef, divers say they want to see sharks.” Global FinPrint said the study was the most comprehensive data-collection and analysis of the world’s populations of reef sharks and rays ever compiled. Jody Allen, chair of the Global FinPrint funder the Paul G Allen Family Foundation – named after the late Microsoft co-founder – said the shark losses discovered in the study were tragic. But, she added, “the data collected from the first-ever worldwide survey of sharks on coral reefs can guide meaningful, long-term conservation plans for protecting the reef sharks that remain”. | ['environment/sharks', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/coral', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-07-22T17:30:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2008/aug/11/ukcrime.recycling | Edward Pearce: Failure to close a rubbish bin shouldn't be a crime | Open-ended DNA-taking is a grievous instance of the malign drift of the Blair people's astonishing authoritarianism. This is the "Let's see what we can get you for" sort of policeman deciding who shall be listed as suspect potential. It's Kafka without the jokes. It is, however, only one of the ways in which legal practice has sleep-walked through a welter of liberal talk to authoritarian practice. Crime used to be a narrow field inhabited by a tight group of - well, criminals. It has since become the tag for a legion of regulation breakers and minor trespassers, its punishments visited upon defaults, failures to make declarations, forms unfilled-in, motoring offences - the acts of non-criminals. There used to be a sharp division in English law between crime and lesser acts. Crime was once, with beautiful clarity, defined as requiring an intent. Essentially it had two other unstated qualities to itself. Putting aside treason, crime had almost invariably to involve acts of violence or dishonesty. Dishonesty might once indeed have included acts not remotely criminal to us, like taking his Lordship's game or cutting turf on former common land. But the distinction is a good one. Theft, whether of shoes from a shop or the grand larceny of City of London fraud, is a clear and certain intended and criminal thing. We know where we are with it. Violence, from rape and murder through to blows injuring and meant to injure, is also sharply focused in the citizen's eye. It is something he naturally recognises as criminal. By no accident do the authorities now habitually use the weasel, stoat and ferret word: "offence". Crimes were committed by criminals, a very narrow group as common sense defined them. "Offences" are committed by "offenders" which means you who, for some footle, now have a criminal record and whose DNA must be taken. Government likes this sort of thing. It empowers government and its agencies. It threatens, bullies and above all, tabulates. Manifestly, failure properly to close the top of a refuse bin is not a crime, but in the Blairite world of meddling, finger-clicking legislators and policemen it has become one, part of an everlasting schedule of the acts and omissions of non-criminals. And when we have opened-up a five-lengths lead over every country in Europe in the numbers held in prison, stripping it back is a priority. One place to start, however much it goes against the progressive grain, is the motoring offence. Personally I favour low-powered cars like our Skoda, kept to a maximum of 50mph by my cautious wife. And I look upon Clarkson as an enemy of all civility. Even so, motorists driving too fast, driving after drinking too much or driving negligently should not go to prison. Further, the speeding/ drunken/negligent driver accidentally killing someone should not go to prison either. A terrible thing has happened but it was not intended to happen. The driver has not proposed an action and undertaken to carry it out. This person is not a criminal and no amount of a victim's distressed family calling for revenge will make him one. All such cases belong in the civil courts and the damages may be very heavy. But damages are not punishment, they are recompense. Government, however, trailing as it does after the mob press, wants to punish - wants, in the favourite terms of Charles Clarke and David Blunkett - to "crack down" and be seen cracking down. We have a criminal law led by headlines. We need a politician with the character and intelligence to eschew the punishment impulse, the power-hoarding impulse, the crowd-gratification impulse. Dominic Grieve, a seriously thoughtful shadow home secretary, might yet be heard from. Suppose the Tories took their wispy libertarianism seriously, suppose ... ? It 's only a thought but we haven't had much of that in criminal legislation lately. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'uk/ukcrime', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/edwardpearce'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-08-11T09:30:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2011/jun/07/japan-doubles-fukushima-radiation-leak-estimate | Japan doubles Fukushima radiation leak estimate | The amount of radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the days after the 11 March tsunami could have been more than double that originally estimated by its operator, Japan's nuclear safety agency has said. The revelation has raised fears that the situation at the plant, where fuel in three reactors suffered meltdown, was more serious than government officials have acknowledged. In another development that is expected to add to criticism of Japan's handling of the crisis, the agency said molten nuclear fuel dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel in the No 1 reactor within five hours of the accident, 10 hours earlier than previously thought. By the end of last week, radiation levels inside the reactor had risen to 4,000 millisieverts per hour, the highest atmospheric reading inside the plant since the disaster. The agency also speculated that the meltdown in another reactor had been faster than initially estimated by the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco). It is not clear whether the revised account of the accident, the world's worst since Chernobyl in 1986, would have prompted Tepco to respond differently at the time. But it is expected to raise questions about the ability of Japan's nuclear authorities to provide accurate information to the public. According to the latest estimates, 770,000 terabequerels – about 20% as much as the official estimate for Chernobyl – of radiation seeped from the plant in the week after the tsunami, more than double the initial estimate of 370,000. In a possible sign that the contamination is more widespread than previously thought, a university researcher said at the weekend a small amount of plutonium had been identified a mile from the front gate of the Fukushima plant. It is the first time plutonium thought to have originated from the complex has been detected in soil outside its grounds. However, Masayoshi Yamamoto, a professor at Kanazawa University, said the level of plutonium in the sample was lower than average levels observed in Japan after nuclear weapons tests conducted overseas. The release of findings coincided with the start of an investigation on Tuesday into the accident by a 10-member panel. Last week, a fact-finding team from the International Atomic Energy Agency criticised Tepco for failing to acknowledge the risk to the plant from a tsunami, despite warnings from government experts and its own scientists. The panel, led by Yotaro Hatamura, a human error expert from Tokyo University, will issue an interim report by the end of the year. "I think it is a mistake to consider [the plant] safe," he said. The prime minister, Naoto Kan, said he would be willing to undergo questioning in the hope that the report "stands up to scrutiny from around the world". | ['world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/japan', 'world/world', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-06-07T12:34:49Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2023/oct/23/heavy-rain-forecast-storm-babet-flooding-met-office | Heavy rain forecast in areas hit by Storm Babet flooding, Met Office warns | England should brace for heavy downpours in areas already suffering flooding caused by Storm Babet, forecasters warned on Monday, as Scotland’s first minister pledged to support a devastated Angus town. The Met Office issued yellow weather warnings for heavy rain between 3am and 4pm on Tuesday, which could lead to a further deluge in the east Midlands, including in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire; much of Yorkshire, including Sheffield, Leeds and York; and Humberside. Some areas in the Midlands will see up to 50mm (2in) of rain falling within two to three hours, the forecaster said. A yellow weather warning has also been issued for parts of south-west Wales, where heavy rain is predicted from 5pm on Monday until just before midnight. At least five people had died as a result of the storm as of Monday evening, with police recovering the body of a man reported to have been trapped in a vehicle in flood water near Marykirk, Aberdeenshire. The announcement came shortly after a van driver who was killed on Thursday by a falling tree near Forfar was named as John Gillan, 56, from Arbroath. In a statement released through police, his family said: “We are devastated by the loss of John and the circumstances in which he died. “John was a loving husband to Gaynor, dad to Marc, father-in-law to Natasha, and granddad to Reygan and Finley. He was also a loving son to John and Moira, brother to Wendy and a loving uncle, son-in-law and brother-in-law. John will be deeply missed by us all.” On Sunday, a woman washed away in Glenesk was named as Wendy Taylor, 57, described by her family as a “beloved wife, best friend and soulmate … mother and granny”. In England, an 83-year-old Derbyshire woman, Maureen Gilbert, and a Shropshire man in his 60s have died. Four other people have died in traffic accidents in flood-hit areas, although it is uncertain whether Babet was a direct cause. Humza Yousaf promised the Scottish government would consider emergency funding to help the town of Brechin recover from the storm, but said it was unclear what kind of help was needed. Yousaf visited on Monday, three days after hundreds of homes in the town in Angus were inundated when the South Esk river broke through flood defences, which had been designed for a one in 200 year flooding event. Numerous roads in the area, including the A90 trunk road between Dundee and Stonehaven, remained closed on Monday. Local councillors said some residents may never be able to return to their homes, with others unlikely to return before Christmas. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Gavin Nicol, a Conservative councillor, said: “Angus council, unfortunately, does not have the resources to do the job it needs to to protect the residents. “We really need finance from the Scottish government in order to protect our residents, to rehome them. Some will be out for months, if not permanently.” Yousaf said detailed assessments were needed before it would be clear whether emergency funding was required. Scottish ministers could approach the UK government for additional support, he said. Flooding has already caused travel chaos across Britain’s rail networks, and the Met Office advised that flooding could lead to dangerous driving conditions and road closures. On Sunday, Nottinghamshire county council declared a major incident, with at least 200 properties evacuated as the River Idle reached record levels. Katharine Smith, an Environment Agency flood duty manager, said: “Ongoing flooding is probable on some larger rivers including the Severn, Ouse and Trent through to Tuesday.” Keir Starmer has called on ministers to end the “never-ending cycle” of flooding while on a visit to Wales. Speaking to broadcasters in Port Talbot, he said: “My heart goes out to all those that are affected by this. “Above all else, we need a government with a strategy, a prevention strategy, to make sure we are not continually in this cycle, this never-ending cycle, that affects people so deeply.” | ['uk/weather', 'uk-news/england', 'uk/wales', 'uk-news/nottinghamshire', 'uk-news/lincolnshire', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'uk/sheffield', 'uk/leeds', 'uk/york', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'world/extreme-weather', 'uk/uk', 'uk/scotland', 'politics/humza-yousaf', 'politics/scotland', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/mabel-banfield-nwachi', 'profile/severincarrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-10-23T14:17:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2019/may/29/pesticides-everyday-products-toxics-guide | Pesticides explained: the toxic chemicals in up to 70% of produce | What are pesticides? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines pesticides as any chemical substance used to regulate, prevent or destroy plants or pests – usually insects, rodents or microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria – or that acts as a nitrogen stabilizer in soil. One billion pounds of conventional pesticides are used annually in the US, according to the latest EPA data available. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which monitors residues in food, found tested samples very rarely exceeded limits on pesticides and other chemicals, which the EPA says are calculated on “reasonable certainty of no harm”. Residues are in up to 70% of produce sold in the US, according to the latest annual analysis of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data by the health advocacy group Environmental Working Group. Some persistent pesticides have been found to concentrate in the milk and meat of farmed animals through contaminated animal feed, various researchers around the world have found, as well as in fish in contaminated waters. A 20-year study by the US Geological Survey, for example, found pesticides at levels potentially harmful to aquatic life in 60% of the country’s rivers and streams in agricultural areas (that figure jumps to 90% in urban areas). Up to 50 million Americans could be drinking from groundwater potentially contaminated with pesticides, according to a 2000 study by the USDA. Pesticides have also been found in pet shampoos, building materials and boat bottoms. Can pesticides cause harm? A growing number of studies have linked pesticides to various human health effects, though these are still hotly debated. A 2004 review co-authored by the National Cancer Institute concluded that “epidemiological evidence clearly suggests that at current exposures pesticides adversely affect human health”. Some pesticides are also known to disrupt endocrine or hormone function, research reviewed by the EPA and published in a toxicology handbook states. A 2013 report commissioned by the European Food Safety Authority reviewed 600 research studies on pesticides and found the strongest associations with certain cancers, asthma, childhood leukemia and Parkinson’s disease, but couldn’t draw any firm conclusions. A response to that report noted limitations of the data and recommended new approaches to using epidemiological data in risk assessments. Pesticides are “intrinsically toxic”, the World Health Organization says. The EPA says its regulatory actions and improvements in science over recent years has led to “an increase in the use of safer, less toxic pesticides … [and an] overall trend of reduced risk from pesticides”. In a landmark ruling in August last year, Monsanto was found liable for causing a school groundskeeper’s cancer through exposure to Roundup, the company’s leading pesticide. Earlier this month, in a later case, Monsanto was ordered to pay more than $2bn to a couple that got cancer after using its weedkiller. Roundup, a glyphosate-based, organophosphate weedkiller, is one of, if not the most widely-used pesticides in the world. A formal review of glyphosate by the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) released this month found some statistically significant links to certain cancers, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Farm workers face significantly higher exposure than the general population. Pesticides have been linked to a list of long-term health issues, including: prostate, lung, thyroid and bone marrow cancer; diabetes; Parkinson’s disease; asthma and macular degeneration, according to the Agricultural Health Study, a government-funded research study that has monitored nearly 90,000 farmers and their spouses since the early 1990s. Acute pesticide poisoning may cause, along with short-term effects, long-term neurological damage, an EPA manual for healthcare providers warns. Organophosphate (OP) pesticides, which include glyphosate and chlorpyrifos, have been targeted by some researchers as especially harmful. University of California researchers found, in a 2018 meta-review of OP health studies, “compelling evidence” that prenatal exposure leads to increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders and cognitive and behavioral deficits. Those researchers urged governments around the world to phase out the chemicals entirely. As of April, the EPA is under court order to decide whether to ban chlorpyrifos, which the agency found in 2017 to exceed safe standards of pesticide residue in food and water, by July. How can consumers limit any risks? Pesticides can enter the body through inhalation, through the skin from contaminated soil or water, or through contaminated food. Reduce your exposure through food by peeling produce and trimming the fat from meat and fish (where pesticides might collect); washing and scrubbing fruits and vegetables under running water (not all pesticides can be washed off, the EPA says); and selecting food from different sources to avoid potentially high exposure to a single pesticide. Buy organic where you can. But don’t avoid fresh foods if you can’t buy organic. Eat different kinds of produce to avoid potentially high exposure to a single pesticide. Shop at your local farmer’s market and ask about pesticide practices straight from the source, or you can go even further if you have a garden and grow your own. How are pesticides regulated? The EPA has oversight of all pesticides used or produced in the US and sets certain safety standards for pesticides used in food in animal feed. The agency also regulates maximum limits of some pesticides in drinking water, but many remain unmonitored. While manufacturers must register all pesticides with the EPA, inert ingredients are considered “trade secrets” and do not have to be disclosed. The US continues to use several pesticides banned in the EU or other countries, including atrazine, glyphosate, 1,3-D, paraquat and neonicotinoids. All have been linked to serious health or environmental consequences. For example, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found exposure to paraquat and two other pesticides increased the risk for Parkinson’s disease by three-fold, and the European Commission severely restricted neonicotinoids because of the risks to bees. | ['us-news/series/toxic-america', 'environment/pesticides', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/lauren-zanolli', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-05-29T11:00:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/jul/01/warnings-on-air-pollution-need-to-be-directed-towards-polluters-study | Warnings on air pollution need to be directed towards polluters – study | Summer is here and so is the risk of summertime smog. To help, Leeds city council has launched an email service to warn people when air pollution deteriorates. This joins long-established air pollution information systems that include the UK government’s webpages. These systems have changed a lot in the past 30 years. In the 1990s pollution data had to be accessed via a free telephone service or read on our television screens through Teletext and the BBC’s Ceefax. The internet and smartphones have led to a proliferation of air pollution information systems – but how could these develop in the future? A new study has looked at the ways Londoners can find out about air pollution. It found that a surprisingly large number of systems – 54 – were already in operation. These include near-real-time air pollution maps, measurements on webpages, apps and the mayor’s system that displays messages on bus stops. Services run by government, meteorological agencies and universities are framed around the idea that information will help people to behave differently. However, the study found that an increasing number of commercial companies are providing data to create a market for the purchase of personal sensors, masks and air filters. Current systems have their weaknesses. Kayla B Schulte, a DPhil candidate at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford who led the study, said: “If people are seeking air quality information associated with their exact physical location, most services are incapable of providing it.” The University of Southampton’s Prof Sir Stephen Holgate, who was not involved in the London study, said: “People are increasingly aware of the damaging effects of air pollution, but they need information on how and what they can do about it. Any new air quality information system needs to be based on what people are exposed to in their localities, including real-time variations.” These needs are partially being addressed by community sensor networks that are helping people to make and share measurements. Another limitation is a narrow focus on messages to help vulnerable people protect themselves when air pollution gets high. While this is sensible, it also risks transferring responsibility for the problem to the individuals that suffer the consequences. In looking forward we can draw on an example from the past. The first air pollution warning system, created in Los Angeles in 1955, was very different. Instead of being directed towards people who breathe poor air, it was directed towards polluters. When implemented, industries activated plans to lower boilers and use carpooling schemes, while residents were asked to drive less and stop burning rubbish. | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'uk/leeds', 'environment/summer', 'education/research', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-07-01T05:00:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
film/2021/sep/15/escape-from-extinction-review-eco-plea-bordering-on-pro-zoo-propaganda | Escape from Extinction review – eco plea bordering on pro-zoo propaganda | This is a disingenuous documentary that has a noble cause: it’s nominally about the sixth mass extinction threatening Earth’s biodiversity. It shoots itself in the foot, though, by doubling up as a polemic in favour of zoos, and their part in directing species conservation. (It is produced by animal welfare charity American Humane.) Many of the points it makes, sagely narrated by Helen Mirren, are impossible to argue with, and important correctives amid current heated questioning about whether zoos should exist at all. But they’re made in such a one-sided and nakedly emotive way that Escape from Extinction borders on propaganda. An initial statistics blitzkrieg leaves us in no doubt about the scale of the present crisis: one-eighth of the planet’s 8 million species are in danger of disappearing. But the protesters lined up outside zoo gates are often misguided and misinformed, the film’s many conservation interviewees argue. Take the case of the much-maligned SeaWorld: it provides invaluable cetacean research not possible in the wild, and freeing orcas raised in captivity is usually not to the benefit of the animals. Elsewhere, the film racks up numerous examples of where zoos are not only sites of learning but havens for repopulating species that wouldn’t otherwise have survived: the grey wolf, the black-footed ferret, the whooping crane, the kakapo. Fair enough. But Escape from Extinction is so hellbent on forcing its case, it feels hard to trust. It doesn’t engage on what conditions “accredited zoos” must meet, or enter into discussion with animal rights activists with legitimate concerns about the lives of animals in captivity (a word the film pettily quibbles with). In a segment about sharks, it criticises their demonising portrayal in films such as Jaws and TV shows such as Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, then uses the same sensationalist editing to tar zoo protesters (with non-stop orchestral cheerleading for any zoo success story). Possible mass extinction may well justify the zoos-as-arks argument, but this means broaching complex questions about man’s relationship with nature that this film does not have time to answer. Already in the grip of this crisis, animals – and us – deserve better than this partial survey. • Escape from Extinction is in cinemas from 17 September. | ['film/film', 'film/documentary', 'science/extinct-wildlife', 'environment/biodiversity', 'world/zoos', 'culture/helen-mirren', 'world/world', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'culture/culture', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/philhoad', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | science/extinct-wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-09-19T09:39:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2009/nov/17/q-and-a-copenhagen | Q&A: Mounting pressure in the lead-up to the Copenhagen conference | What is the state of play for Copenhagen now? Copenhagen is now viewed as the stage on which the rich nations, the rapidly emerging economies, and poor countries will commit to specific action on dealing with climate change – but will leave negotiators to iron out the legal details of a treaty later. "It is like a two-stage approach. We will get the substance in Copenhagen," said Janos Pasztor, climate change adviser to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. "Then within [some] months, the international community will agree on a legally binding treaty." But whether that scenario will play out depends alomost entirely on the US – as the world's largest historic polluter – announcing it will cut its own greenhouse gas emissions. With Copenhagen now just three weeks away, such a dramatic move remains very uncertain. What is the challenge for Barack Obama? Obama has said he wants to act on climate change, but the real authority to make the sweeping changes to America's economy rests with Congress. In June, the House of Representatives passed a bill proposing a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020. But the effort is stalled in the Senate, with Democratic leaders pre-occupied with healthcare reform, rising unemployment, and the ballooning financial deficit. Some Democratic senators, especially from coal states, have warned they cannot support a move away from fossil fuels. If Obama gets ahead of the Senate at Copenhagen and commits to specific action, he risks provoking a backlash that could defeat the legislation needed to make it a reality. But if he does not commit, he risks collapsing the Copenhagen deal, and the international plan to tackle global warming, returning America to the status of environmental villain it bore under George Bush. What about the US midterm elections? Democratic leaders say the Senate must pass climate change bill by spring 2010, if there is to be any US legislation at all. Democrats from coal and old industry states will be cautious about signing up to sweeping energy and climate laws in the run-up to midterm elections in November 2010. The oil, coal and manufacturing lobbies have been spending millions to frame the proposed laws as measures that will fuel unemployment and increase home heating bills. "Conventional wisdom is that you have until the spring to get controversial issues moving," the senator Ben Cardin, the Maryland Democrat who helped write a climate change proposal before the Senate, told the trade publication ClimateWire. What are others doing? America may be paralysed, but industrialised and rapidly emerging economies are signing up to action on climate change. South Korea offered today to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 4% from 2005 levels by 2020 – even though it was not obliged to do so under the Kyoto treaty. Last week, Brazil offered to reduce its projected emission levels by at least 36% by 2020 – the first major developing country to make a specific commitment to alter its course of development. Among industrialised countries, Japan offered to cut emissions by 25% over 1990 levels by 2020 in September. The European Union has said it will deepen its emissions cut target to 30% over 1990 levels by 2020 if there is a deal in Copenhagen. What is China's role? China as the world's biggest current polluter is critical to any climate change treaty. President Hu Jintao has committed to reducing future emissions – but has yet to come up with a figure. Revealing that figure – possibly a roughly 50% cut in carbon intensity – would be a pivotal moment, piling pressure on the US. But it is not clear whether China will support America and other countries in seeking a meaningful political deal at Copenhagen. China has said it might sign on to a "political deal" at Copenhagen, if rich countries make specific commitments to cut their emissions. But China is also aware of the obstacles facing Obama. Today's visit by Obama has also helped expand co-operation on energy and technology that is potentially valuable to Beijing. What happens next? Environment ministers are winding up their last big meeting before Copenhagen today. In the next few weeks, negotiators hope to see more countries make specific commitments on cutting or curbing emissions. There is also mounting pressure on developed countries – especially America – to propose a figure on funding to help the developing world adapt to climate change. India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, will visit the White House on 24 November. A partnership on energy could also help to persuade India to agree to specific targets for reducing its emissions in the future. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/resource', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-11-17T17:25:18Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
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