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global-development/2020/dec/28/how-a-tree-mortgage-scheme-could-turn-an-indian-town-carbon-neutral | How a 'tree mortgage' scheme could turn an Indian town carbon neutral | In the misty, hilly terrain of Wayanad, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the people with any access to land in the quiet town of Meenangadi have been out counting their trees. Sheeja CG, a 46-year-old farmer, has lived among coffee, coconut and pepper plantations all her life but last month she increased her income dramatically by mortgaging 53 of her trees at the local bank, in return for a sum of 2,650 rupees (£26.96), or 50 rupees each. She was one of the first beneficiaries of the state-sponsored scheme. It’s a simple incentive with big gains: plant a tree, and after three years residents can mortgage each sapling for an interest-free loan that can be renewed annually for 10 years. The money need be repaid only if the tree is chopped down. Kerala, with its sweeping, spice-filled forested landscape has been troubled in recent years by an ailing farming sector, deforestation which has led to loss of biodiversity, and the climate crisis making summers much warmer, especially in the Wayanad, which used to be comfortably cool. Suicides of farmers, landslides and floods have made the headlines. Farmers have been compelled to fell trees to supplement their income. Against such a background, the tree banking project, facilitated by a 10 crores rupee (£1.01m) grant from the state government, comes as a big incentive to keep them rooted to the ground. “With temperatures almost five degrees higher than normal, I’ve faced a crop loss of 25%. The loan from the tree banking scheme will ease financial pressure. I will buy manure for my farm,” says Sheeja. Prolonged dry spells and erratic rainfall have made the region increasingly vulnerable, with shrinking paddy farms and a threat to cash crops such as pepper and coffee. According to the Kerala State Action Plan on Climate Change, Wayanad is one of the four major climate change hotspots in the state. But the tree banking scheme has an ambition to reverse the damage and turn Meenangadi, a town of about 35,000 people into a carbon neutral region. The Carbon Neutral Meenangadi Project is the first of its kind in India, and has changed the way the community lives and works. “An energy audit in 2018 found Meenangadi had 15,000 tonnes of excess carbon. We are working on ways to bring it down to zero,” says Meenangadi’s panchayat (local government) president, Beena Vijayan. To balance the carbon emissions, a meticulous action plan has been set in motion. “We have held more than 500 meetings with farmers in every nook and corner on waste management, recycling plastic, solar lighting and panels, manufacturing environment friendly coffee and using high-efficiency stoves,” says Vijayan. Encouraging tree planting is a first step. “It is a model project for the whole district of Wayanad. It took root three years ago, when we prepared a nursery with 33 types of saplings under the national rural employment guarantee scheme. We planted 300,000 saplings in 250 homes in Meenangadi and common areas,” says Vijayan. “With the trees now mature, we rolled out the tree banking scheme and received about 200 applications that are being processed.” It was Kerala’s finance minster, TM Thomas Isaac, who first mooted the idea, saying it wouldguarantee a sustainable income for farmers in the district and vastly improve the socio-economic environment. “Wayanad has the lowest per capita income in Kerala state, so the aim is to double the income of the farmers without overly industrialising the region,” says Jayakumar C, founderof Thanal, the environment agency that is implementing the project. The trees also bring supplementary income to the residents, through the sale of fruit and other products, he adds. Among the thickets around her red-roofed cottage is a cluster of jackfruit trees that Sheeja has mortgaged, white tags hanging from their branches. The trees are monitored through an app. “We go from farm to farm with a team of volunteers to survey the trees that have matured, take photographs and map them on our monitoring system,” says Ajith Tomy, the project coordinator. “We will implement the project in 23 other panchayats in Wayanad by 2021. We plan to plant about 10m trees in the next few years.” For Sumathy Valiyakolli, the loan has come through at just the right time, as expenses for her brother’s medical treatment are mounting. She says: “It’s been very helpful. I will plant more trees and mortgage a higher number next year.” Sign up for the Global Dispatch newsletter – a fortnightly roundup of our top stories, recommended reads, and thoughts from our team on key development and human rights issues: | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/india', 'environment/farming', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-12-28T06:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2010/aug/13/how-greed-begets-hunger | How greed begets hunger | Afua Hirsch | The heatwave, forest fires and drought in Russia and central Asia may be unprecedented in recent times. But there is something familiar about the ensuing food crisis, as the price of wheat remains 50% higher than just six weeks ago. It is just two years since the last such crisis. A spike in the price of agricultural commodities in 2007-08 caused panic from Italy to Haiti, drawing sharp attention to a deeper malfunctioning in the world's food markets. This malfunctioning is creating disasters of an unfamiliar nature in the poorest countries. Niger, for example, a fragile west African nation, is experiencing its worst food crisis in years, but is not actually short of food. Mounds of cereals are piled high on market stalls – they are simply too expensive to afford. The obvious explanation for the high price of food in Niger is a crisis of production. Like the wheat-producing countries currently at the centre of world attention, a harvest was destroyed by extreme weather. But the rise in price has been accompanied by a rise in another phenomenon – speculation in commodity markets. Derivatives packaging products such as wheat and maize have created massive profits for speculators with no interest whatsoever in the underlying physical commodities. The number of derivative contracts in commodities increased by more than 500% between 2002 and 2008, a process that accelerated at the end of the last decade, when the collapsing US mortgage market and global recession were followed by a huge spike in food prices. There is clearly a causative link between these two phenomena. But clear battlelines have emerged in the argument over which way the arrow points. Investors claim the market's profitability is based on existing supply-side fluctuations in the price of food. On some estimates, food production in the next three decades will need to rise by more than 70% above current levels to cope with the demands of a larger, more urbanised and more affluent global population. Meanwhile, biofuels, erratic harvests and climate change have limited the potential for an increase in supply. But others claim that the speculation itself has been a cause of volatility in the commodity market. The anti-poverty group World Development Movement, whose recent report singles out the investment bank Goldman Sachs as last year making more than $5bn (£3.2bn) in profits from commodity trading, describes the practice as "dangerous, immoral and indefensible". "Silent mass murder" is the phrase used by the former UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler. The European single market commissioner, Michel Barnier, speaking at the European parliament earlier this year, described the fact that a billion people worldwide were suffering from food insecurity while others profited by speculating on agricultural raw materials as "scandalous". The UN's human rights council advisory committee has recognised the effect of price volatility in poor countries and recommended a series of measures, including re-establishing international buffer stocks to stabilise prices, greater controls over agricultural subsidies for developed states, limits on the use of bioenergy technologies that use staple foods, and further scrutiny of international trade agreements. Campaigners' demands are not without precedent. The Wall Street reform legislation recently enacted in the US demands greater regulation in derivatives trading, and will increase the transparency of commodity speculation. The obscurity of the UK's market is hard to deny; Liffe – the London futures exchange – has promised to publish a breakdown of investors in the commodities market, not least after the controversy surrounding Anthony Ward and his firm Armajaro, which last month cornered the cocoa market, buying up 7% of all annual world production. Cocoa prices responded with a 0.7% rise and are now at their highest level since 1977. In Ghana there remain endemic levels of poverty in cocoa-farming communities. The injustice of the commodities market is that while a fall in price can topple an economy, as it did for a number of countries in post-independence west Africa, a rise benefits those outside the zone of production – an army of speculators and investors based in London and New York. Either way, small-scale developing-world producers lose. And when high food prices combine with crop failures, forcing poor farmers to buy staples for their own consumption at market prices, then the issues become concentrated around one stark reality. Hunger. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/niger', 'environment/food', 'business/commodities', 'environment/environment', 'business/financial-sector', 'environment/drought', 'global-development/famine', 'business/business', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'profile/afuahirsch', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-08-13T19:00:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2007/jan/29/considerablygreenerthanyou | Greener than thou? | Prince Charles greets former US vice president Al Gore at the Harvard Club where he received his global environmental citizen award. Photographer: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images Prince Charles called on us last night to help him fight an eco war to save the planet as he picked up an award for raising environmental awareness. His impassioned, hard-hitting speech was intended to move the populace to action on climate change, which he called a "fundamental and critical threat to our survival". Despite starting the war, he seemed to have lost a personal battle with his critics today as they rallied together to condemn the carbon emissions total he clocked up on his way to collect his award. Prince Charles responded to environment secretary, David Miliband by claiming during his acceptance speech that he did not in fact take a transatlantic flight, rather, he was "a video recording. I have only made a virtual flight across the Atlantic and am virtually half-dead and only virtually royal." Sian Berry, spokesman for the Green party said "I am disappointed to see that his recognition of the threat posed by climate change does not extend to toning down his personal flying habits." Al Gore was more complimentary about the prince, saying that he was "a forward thinker on environmental issues since the 1970's, ranging from sustainable agriculture to climate change." What do you think, is Prince Charles a Global Environment Citizen and did he deserve his award? | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/algore', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'commentisfree/series/openthread', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2007-01-29T13:44:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2013/oct/17/australian-greenpeace-activist-colin-russell-to-face-bail-hearing | Australian Greenpeace activist Colin Russell to face bail hearing | An Australian Greenpeace activist detained in Russia on piracy charges will have his bail hearing later on Thursday, along with three other members of the “Arctic 30”. Colin Russell, a 59-year-old marine radio operator from Tasmania, is one of the Greenpeace group – 28 activists and two freelance journalists – held in Murmansk, north-west Russia, after security forces detained them last month during a direct action in the Pechora Sea. On Wednesday, New Zealander Jonathon Beauchamp was denied bail, along with three others. All members of the group have been charged with piracy and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. None has received bail so far. Relatives of some of the six British citizens held in Murmansk met with UK foreign office officials on Wednesday and appealed in public for their release. Clifford Harris, father of Alexandra Harris, 27, a Greenpeace digital communications officer based in Sydney and holding Australian residency, said: "It's a traumatic time for all of us and we just want to see an end to this as soon as possible … The Russian legal system we can do nothing about. We just hope and pray that they conduct this in a sensible manner." Harris said they had managed to speak to Alexandra on Friday night and that she was doing well given the "fairly basic" conditions of her captivity. "She's not complaining about how she's treated," he said. "She's terrified – she's certainly not used to living in that sort of situation – but mentally she was holding it together quite well, which surprises us because she's a very sensitive girl." Greenpeace says the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council will submit an appeal against the arrests to the prosecutor general of the Russian Federation later this week. The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, raised Russell’s case with the Russian deputy foreign minister, Igor Morgulov, at the Apec summit earlier in the month. Greenpeace says Russell is receiving consular assistance in Murmansk. | ['environment/arctic-30-protesters', 'environment/greenpeace', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/newzealand', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/laughland-oliver', 'profile/samjones'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2013-10-17T00:29:27Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2016/nov/22/extraordinarily-hot-arctic-temperatures-alarm-scientists | 'Extraordinarily hot' Arctic temperatures alarm scientists | The Arctic is experiencing extraordinarily hot sea surface and air temperatures, which are stopping ice forming and could lead to record lows of sea ice at the north pole next year, according to scientists. Danish and US researchers monitoring satellites and Arctic weather stations are surprised and alarmed by air temperatures peaking at what they say is an unheard-of 20C higher than normal for the time of year. In addition, sea temperatures averaging nearly 4C higher than usual in October and November. “It’s been about 20C warmer than normal over most of the Arctic Ocean, along with cold anomalies of about the same magnitude over north-central Asia. This is unprecedented for November,” said research professor Jennifer Francis of Rutgers university. Temperatures have been only a few degrees above freezing when -25C should be expected, according to Francis. “These temperatures are literally off the charts for where they should be at this time of year. It is pretty shocking. The Arctic has been breaking records all year. It is exciting but also scary,” she said. Francis said the near-record low sea ice extent this summer had led to a warmer than usual autumn. That in turn had reduced the temperature difference between the Arctic and mid-latitudes. “This helped make the jet stream wavier and allowed more heat and moisture to be driven into Arctic latitudes and perpetuate the warmth. It’s a vicious circle,” she added. Sea ice, which forms and melts each year, has declined more than 30% in the past 25 years. This week it has been at the lowest extent ever recorded for late November. According to the US government’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre, (NSIDC), around 2m square kilometres less ice has formed since September than average. The level is far below the same period in 2012, when sea ice went on to record its lowest ever annual level. Francis said she was convinced that the cause of the high temperatures and ice loss was climate change. “It’s all expected. There is nothing but climate change that can cause these trends. This is all headed in the same direction and picking up speed.” Rasmus Tonboe, a sea ice remote sensing expert at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen, said: “Sea surface temperatures in the Kara and Barents seas are much warmer than usual. That makes it very difficult for sea ice to freeze. “When we have large areas of open water, it also raises air temperatures, and it has been up to 10/15C warmer. Six months ago the sea ice was breaking up unusually early. This made more open water and allowed the sunlight to be absorbed, which is why the Arctic is warmer this year,” he said. “What we are seeing is both surprising and alarming. This is faster than the models. It is alarming because it has consequences.” Julienne Stroeve, the professor of polar observation at University College London said ice that should be growing at this time of year was retreating. “It’s been a crazy year. There is no ice at Svalbard yet. In the last few days there has been a decline in sea ice in the Bering sea. Very warm air has flooded into the Arctic from the south, pressing the ice northwards. “Air temperature drives the formation of the ice. It has been really delayed this year so the ice is also much thinner than it usually is. The speed at which this is happening surprises me. In the Arctic the trend has been clear for years, but the speed at which it is happening is faster than anyone thought,” said Strove. “Ice is very sensitive to weather. There is a huge high pressure over the Kara sea, and Eurasia and Canada. We are seeing very strong winds bringing warm air north.” The significance of the ice forming late is that this affects its growth the following year, with consequences for climate. “Extreme wind and high air temperatures [now],” she said, “could see ice extent drop next year below the record 2012 year”. She added: “The ice could be even thinner than it was at the start of 2012. This is definitely a strange year.” Ed Blockley, the lead scientist of the UK Met Office’s polar climate group, said: “The sea ice is extremely low. It is freezing but very slowly. Last week the Barents sea reduced its ice cover. There was less ice at the end than the start. “These temperature anomalies are not unprecedented but this is certainly extraordinary. We are seeing a continual decline in ice. It it likely to be a hiccup but it puts us in bad starting position for next year.” | ['environment/sea-ice', 'world/arctic', 'environment/poles', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-11-22T10:43:31Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2009/feb/27/climate-change | Andrew Simms: 93 months and counting | When Nasa's satellite dedicated to climate monitoring crashed last month after lift-off, even the most rational scientist must have worried it was a bad omen. The same month brought confirmation of worse-than-expected upward trends in worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and new research suggesting that the threat posed by even small rises in global mean temperature is greater than previously thought. The writing also seems to be on the wall, or rather in the fast-vanishing ice, for Spain's glaciers. Desperate times might seem to call for desperate measures. And there is a tendency is to make a grab for the first and apparently the easiest solution to come to hand. In this context, magic-bullet technological fixes are enjoying a renaissance. From nuclear power to GM crops, once-unpopular technologies are struggling anew for public acceptance. Some commentators associated with the green movement who were previously sceptical have voiced support, delighting some special interest groups but causing wider consternation. Because the timeframe for action on global warming is so short, the choices we make about where we put our efforts for action are vital. Take the wrong road and the risk is that there will not be a second chance. So, are those who remain sceptical dogmatic and ideological, while those whose positions shift, open minded and rational? Look, for example, at the issue of feeding a growing population in a warming world. For this reason alone, we are told, GM crops should be embraced. Yet recently, one of the most comprehensive scientific assessments yet undertaken on the future of farming globally, was profoundly ambiguous about the role and potential of GM crops. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was initiated by a combination of the World Bank and various UN bodies to do farming, health, the environment and development. Their set-up was roughly analogous to the IPCC's assessments on climate change. The GM industry itself was involved until the findings went against them and they withdrew. The assessment concluded that GM crops may sometimes have a role, but were in many cases unpromising and unproven. A separate UN report on farming in Africarecently found that, 'Simply applying the "industrial" agricultural models of the twentieth century into the twenty-first as a single, global solution will not serve us well.' It went on to say specifically that 'organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and that it is more likely to be sustainable in the long-term.' [http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditcted200715_en.pdf] What about a rational case for nuclear power as an energy fix for global warming? One problem for the new found advocates is time scale. If begun today, over the next crucial eight years and possibly significantly longer, any newly commissioned nuclear generating capacity will make no contribution at all to emissions reductions. It could, however, inadvertently push emissions up by redirecting funds away from cheaper, more efficient and quicker to implement alternatives, such as energy efficiency, conservation and renewables. In one of a number of similar studies, the UK Sustainable Development Commission found that, even in the face of climate change, the nation's energy needs could be met without recourse to nuclear power. In addition, it made the point that nuclear energy came with serious unsolved problems to do with long-term waste, cost, inflexibility and international security. The British government's own original white paper on energy was similarly dismissive of nuclear power and enthusiastic about renewables. Several studies have highlighted the so-called "voodoo economics" of the nuclear industry. Even nuclear's recent track record with the latest technology has been, at best, unimpressive. A Finnish nuclear plant, for example, that in 2002 was the first for a decade to be commissioned in Europe, was meant to be finished in 2009 at a cost of €3.2 billion. It's currently €2.2 billion over budget and at least three years behind schedule. So there are clearly other reasons why the debate on tackling climate change so often becomes transfixed by magic bullet technologies. Partly it is the impact of highly effective special interest lobbying. But there is clearly something else, more psychological going on, that possibly has a parallel with party politics. In reaction to its years of electoral isolation, the Labour party ended up fiercely embracing and internalising the neo-liberal economic agenda it once rejected. With whole economies collapsing, it was a conversion that turned-out rather badly. Now, in a broadly comparable dynamic, some environmentalists are ditching their former analysis for faith in technologies that shine the brightest and shout the loudest. Where climate change is concerned, the absolute urgency of action makes it even more vital not that we just do anything, but that we do the right thing. 93 months and counting … • Each month Andrew Simms is analysing how much closer the world has moved to catastrophic climate change. Read his previous blog here. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'environment/series/100-months-to-save-the-world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'environment/gm', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewsimms'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-03-01T11:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2016/jun/13/swifts-survive-wet-british-june-weatherwatch | How swifts survive a wet British June | For Britain’s breeding birds – especially those migrants that spend only a short time here before heading back to their winter home in Africa – June is a crucial month. Plentiful sunshine – June is usually the sunniest month of the year in England and Wales, thanks to the long hours of daylight – provide the vast amounts of insects and invertebrates that these birds require to feed their young. This sunlight-fuelled source of energy is crucial: if their youngsters are to be fit and healthy enough to make the epic journey south in the autumn, they need to get enough food during this time of plenty. Some Junes bring perfect weather for aerial hunters such as swallows, martins and swifts. These species feed on the tiny insect plankton that hangs invisibly in the air on still summer days, so if June is cooler and wetter than normal – as in 2012, which was the dullest since 1909 – they struggle to find enough food for their weak and hungry youngsters. For some species, this means disaster. Unless the weather improves, they will not have enough time to raise a second brood before autumn arrives. But the swift has a clever trick up its sleeve. During spells of bad weather, these aerial acrobats fly hundreds of miles away to avoid getting soaked. Meanwhile their young enter a state of torpor, reducing their energy consumption so they can survive for days without food. Once the weather improves, the adult swifts return to the nest laden with insects, and resume breeding. | ['environment/birds', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/insects', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-06-13T20:30:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/sep/02/uk-funding-to-tackle-climate-emergency-needs-to-more-than-double | Chancellor urged to double funding to tackle climate crisis | Britain’s biggest environmental groups have warned the government that funding to tackle the climate emergency must be more than double next year to avoid an even greater cost from catastrophic ecological breakdown in the future. Writing to the chancellor, Sajid Javid, as he prepares to announce on Wednesday his spending priorities for the year ahead, more than a dozen leading environment charities, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as well as other leading organisations such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, said urgent action was required to raise spending. Spelling out their demands in a costed roadmap for meeting the climate emergency, the groups said that government spending needed to increase from roughly £17bn a year at present to at least £42bn over the next three years. Further increases would be required in the future should the government wish to meet its promise of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Failure to deliver the bold rise in expenditure, equivalent to about 2% of economic output each year and around 5% of total state spending, would mean passing on an unsustainable economy with a “planet-sized debt” caused by a climate breakdown, the groups said. Although broadly welcoming the 2050 target, promised by Theresa May among the final acts of her premiership, the charities said the date needed to be brought forward by several years and that policy and funding arrangements were not yet in place. In the letter to Javid, the organisations urged the chancellor to demonstrate that he understood the gravity of the challenge by holding a climate and nature emergency budget to unleash a clean industrial revolution in Britain. Also signed by charities including the Woodland Trust, WWF and Islamic Relief, the letter said higher state investment would encourage more private spending to bring about a low-carbon economy, telling Javid: “Your department holds the key to ending the UK’s contribution to climate change and reversing nature’s retreat, while also setting off a positive economic transformation.” Boris Johnson had said there would be greater funding for big infrastructure projects but without giving specific details for low-carbon schemes. Polling carried out for the charities by Opinium found a majority of people want ministers to spend more on the climate emergency and nature more broadly. Among the priorities put forward by the groups are an £11.6bn expansion in transport spending, including a UK-wide car scrappage scheme to remove heavily-polluting vehicles from the roads. As much as £2.6bn per year should be spent on rewilding projects and other land management schemes, billions should be ploughed into buildings and industry to boost environmental sustainability, while more funding should be given to help communities disrupted by the transition to a low-carbon economy. John Sauven, an economist and executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “No one in government is still trying to argue that this is not an emergency, and yet no one in government is acting as though it is. “We are still constantly pumping carbon into the atmosphere, and trying to ignore the problem will leave our children with a damaged world and a planet-sized debt. There’s a strong economic case and an overwhelming moral imperative for the chancellor to act.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'politics/sajid-javid', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/friends-of-the-earth', 'world/oxfam', 'politics/theresamay', 'environment/wwf', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/richard-partington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-09-02T10:55:32Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
news/2015/jun/14/weatherwatch-winds-change | Weatherwatch: Winds of change | Just as the solar flight currently being attempted across the Pacific needs the sun, the first aeroplane to cross the Atlantic non-stop required aid from the weather – a westerly wind. The tailwind of 30mph helped Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown cross from Newfoundland in Canada to Clifden in County Galway, Ireland, in just 16 hours at an average speed of 118mph. But it was by no means all plain sailing. Brown had to repeatedly climb out of the cockpit to clear snow from the air intakes of the two Rolls-Royce engines, showing how surprisingly cold it was on 15 June, 1919. The landing was not easy either. Mistaking a peat bog for a grass strip, the converted Vickers Vimy bomber ended nose down in the mire. Both men escaped unhurt, were knighted, and became household names. It is a measure of their achievement that it would be another eight years before the next Atlantic crossing – this time a solo flight by the American Charles Lindbergh. Less well known is that less than a month after Alcock and Brown’s epic trip a British airship, the R34, made the first east west crossing. It left on 2 July and arrived at Long Island on 6 July – a flight of 108 hours – short of fuel, but with 31 people and a cat on board. Hot food was prepared on an engine exhaust pipe. A measure of the difference the prevailing wind made was that the airship’s return journey took just 75 hours, even though one of its five engines was out of action. This article was amended on 15 June 2015 to clarify that the Alcock and Brown flight was the first to cross the Atlantic non-stop. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-06-14T20:30:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/jul/14/country-diary-three-turtle-doves-glide-into-view | Country diary: Three turtle doves glide into view | Nicole Khan | It is an extra-warm and dry day, with very little in the way of a breeze. Anthony, who farms this land, drives me in his SUV to an area sparsely vegetated with arable wildflowers where seed has been put down. Anthony has farmed all his life in east Kent, and fondly remembers the song of the turtle dove being his summer soundtrack when he was growing up. At some point, though, the breeding turtle doves disappeared from here – most likely during the 1990s – as they did on many other farms. Even by the standards of British avian losses, the statistics for these special birds are shocking: a 98% drop since 1970. In recent years I’ve worked with Anthony on the RSPB’s Operation Turtle Dove project, which aims to reverse this astonishing decline, by creating natural seed-rich foraging areas, access to fresh water and dense scrub for nesting, and providing supplementary feeding. We already know that it has been working – the doves returned to the farm in 2021, and have been back every year since. Today, though, all expectations are exceeded. From the vehicle we hear the distinct purring song, and wait patiently for a sighting, keeping an eye out over the crops of broad beans. Eventually, three turtle doves come gliding into view, land 20 metres away and start nibbling at the seeds of clover and bird’s-foot trefoil. Up close you can see why they are such a celebrated species: strikingly marked and dainty, yet built for migration. We are speechless – this is the highest number we have ever recorded at the farm, and it’s a testament to all the work Anthony has done over the years. There are similar success stories elsewhere, too, in East Anglia and and other areas of the south east. That’s not all we see either: before we head back, we are treated to fantastic views of a pair of yellow wagtails that are feeding along the track and making use of a puddle for bathing. We also hear the hoarse call of grey partridges in the crop just beyond the track – another species that is now thriving on Anthony’s farm thanks to his careful management. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary • Nicole’s fee for this diary is being donated to the RSPB’s Operation Turtle Dove project | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/birds', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/nicole-khan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-14T04:29:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
science/2015/aug/24/yellow-gets-greener-summer | Yellow gets greener in summer | Remember winter, when everything was cold and grey? Right now, when all around is lush and green, the contrast couldn’t be greater. But is everything really as it seems? New research shows that we see things differently in winter compared with summer. Our eyes perceive four pure, unmixed colours – blue, green, red and yellow. People often find it hard to agree exactly what shade pure blue, green and red are, but curiously we tend to see pure yellow the same way, despite having different eyes. Lauren Welbourne, a psychologist at the University of York, wondered if that was because yellow is influenced more by the world around us than the biology of our eyes. To test this idea, she invited volunteers to identify the shade they believed to be pure yellow in both January and June. She found that people consistently added more green to make “pure” yellow in June. “In York, you typically have grey, dull winters, and then in summer you have greenery everywhere,” says Welbourne. “Our vision compensates for those changes, and that, surprisingly, changes what we think yellow looks like. It’s a bit like changing the colour balance on your TV.” Welbourne’s findings are published in Current Biology. Most likely this process takes a period of weeks, so our eyes don’t retune for a cloudy day. And in some regions where there is less seasonal change – in rainforest, say – people’s yellow perception will barely change. “Clearly it is an adaptation to changing seasonal environments, but we are not yet sure why this is useful,” says Welbourne. | ['science/psychology', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'science/meteorology', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-08-24T20:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
lifeandstyle/2022/nov/28/milking-it-farmers-turning-youtube-into-cash-cow | Milking it: the farmers turning YouTube into a cash cow | Name: Ian Pullen. Age: 57. Appearance: Daily. Occupation: Farmer/YouTuber That’s an odd combination. Not really. Pullen is a Gloucestershire farmer who films his working day and posts the videos on YouTube. That’s not odd? It’s very popular. He has more than 38,000 subscribers to his channel, where he goes by the name of Farmer P. What does he do in the videos? Basic farming stuff. Drilling winter wheat, unloading fertiliser, tagging new calves. And people really watch that? He gets between 10,000 and 20,000 views for each of his videos, and he puts up a new one almost every day. What’s the appeal? It’s quite soothing, and people seem especially fond of his dog Biskit. No, I mean, what’s the appeal for him? Farm work must take longer when you have to film everything. Money. You mean the videos bolster his farm profits? They are his farm profits. Pullen says he makes more money from YouTube than he does from his cattle. Really? How does that work? He claims he can make as much as £2,000 a month from his channel. “It’s a form of diversification,” he told the Derby Telegraph. “Some farmers open bed and breakfasts; some open a cafe. This is my version of that.” Are all farmers finding it necessary to diversify to stay afloat? This year has been especially difficult, thanks to low rainfall, labour shortages and the soaring costs of feed, fuel and fertiliser. Is Pullen the only one using YouTube this way? By no means. Irish dairy farmer Adrian Morris has 76,600 subscribers to his channel, where a typical offering is titled “Retro Fitting a Mastek Dribble Bar to an Old Abbey Tanker”. I don’t understand what any of that means. You will by the end of the half-hour video. But basically he’s putting a new spreader thingy on his old slurry tanker. And the videos are what’s keeping these farmers afloat? Merseyside farmer Olly Harrison told Bloomberg he made £55,000 from YouTube last year, while his farm made a loss of £240,000. Holy cats. In addition, farm revenues are seasonal, while YouTube posting offers a steady income. Pullen earned enough to pay for a new barn. So filming yourself farming is the new farming. Yes. And if things get any worse, watching YouTube farmers will be the new eating. Do say: “Hit the like button, press subscribe – I need a new gate.” Don’t say: “Read the script, you stupid cow!” | ['lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/farming', 'news/series/pass-notes', 'business/fooddrinks', 'technology/youtube', 'media/social-media', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-production'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-11-28T15:35:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/feb/17/harmful-subsidies-why-is-the-world-still-funding-the-destruction-of-nature-aoe | Harmful subsidies: why is the world still funding the destruction of nature? | By the middle of the century, our planet will need to feed almost 10 billion people, according to the UN. To do this sustainably and limit global heating to 1.5C, the world must also reforest on a huge scale, say scientists, while increasing food production without converting more rainforest and wetland into farmland. It is an intractable challenge. With vast areas of forest, grasslands and savannah already lost to expanding agricultural frontiers and resource extraction in the last century, the competition for space, dubbed “the land squeeze” by the World Resources Institute (WRI), will put unprecedented pressure on Earth’s planetary boundaries. Government incentives will play an important role in reconciling the competing demands on our planet’s resources. But new research reveals at least $1.8tn (£1.3tn) of environmentally harmful subsidies is heading in the wrong direction every year, financing the annihilation of wildlife and global heating through support for cattle ranching, pesticide use, the overproduction of crops and fossil fuel extraction. “In a situation where, as a civilisation, we are dying from climate change and biodiversity loss, we should not be spending money on making the situation worse,” says Ariel Brunner, head of policy for BirdLife Europe and Central Asia. “The biggest threats to our ability to feed ourselves are climate change and environmental collapse. We have enough food. The only scenarios in which we wouldn’t have enough are linked to running out of water, soil erosion and the collapse of ecosystems.” The report, produced by leading subsidy experts for the B Team and Business for Nature, estimated that, each year, there is at least $640bn of environmentally damaging financial support for the fossil fuel industry, $520bn for agriculture and $350bn for the unsustainable use of freshwater. Examples range from subsidies for soy production in the Amazon and palm oil plantations in south-east Asia to artificially low energy prices for groundwater pumping in Iran and poor water management in California. Despite a target on redirecting subsidies in the draft UN biodiversity agreement, repurposing them will not be easy. The B Team argues that the UN target should be strengthened to eradicate all environmentally harmful subsidies – not just the $500bn drafted at the moment – and businesses must reveal the support and subsidies they receive through environmental disclosures. But there is also political jeopardy. Governments have never met a UN target on halting the destruction of nature, with failure to act on subsidies highlighted as a key failure of last decade’s targets. Recent protests in France, Kazakhstan and Nigeria over the threatened loss of subsidies are warnings to leaders on how subsidy reform can go wrong. Costa Rica is a high-profile example of how government support can strike the balance between nature and agriculture. The country’s payments for ecosystem services programme, which won the inaugural Earthshot prize last year, helped halt and reverse what had been one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world in the 1970s and 1980s, while maintaining the production of bananas, pineapple, coffee and other crops. Chile, Ghana, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru have similar schemes where landowners are paid for environmental services, albeit on a smaller scale, helping to combat rural poverty and the climate crisis. “We have to restore ecosystems to be able to feed more people, not just for biodiversity,” says Helen Ding, an environmental economist with the WRI, who led research on repurposing farm subsidies in August last year. The research argued that redirecting subsidies to support agroforestry and low-carbon agriculture, especially among small farmers, who produce a large proportion of the world’s food supply, could improve soil quality and the ecological health of land without affecting bottom lines. “Farmers do need to receive subsidies, especially after the Covid pandemic. Rural communities have to recover from the economic shock. But we do know there are subsidies that are inefficient and are driving deforestation,” says Ding. While the postwar expansion of fertiliser and pesticide use alongside technological support lifted millions out of poverty, some well-intentioned schemes are not achieving their aims, according to the WRI report. In Malawi, the government spent about 60% of its annual agricultural budget on farming input subsidies like fertiliser after food instability in the early 2000s. Over time, the initial increase in maize yields fell while the soil was also damaged. Ding’s report argues that such schemes could be changed to benefit both farmers and the environment. Either way, the $1.8tn calculated in the new research is likely to be a gross underestimate of the true scale of environmentally harmful subsidies, say the report’s authors, Doug Koplow and Ronald Steenblik. A year after the review by Cambridge economist Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta of the failure of economics to take into account the rapid depletion of the natural world ahead of Cop26, there is little sign so-called “natural capital” has gone mainstream. The human-driven sixth mass extinction of life on Earth continues to be subsidised with public money. “We found at least $1.8tn a year in subsidies. What was equally striking to me is how much we couldn’t find out. There were no estimates of water for direct withdrawals by industry and agriculture, even though that’s just a massive use of freshwater around the world,” says Koplow, founder of the organisation Earth Track, which monitors environmentally harmful subsidies. “My hope is that this report restarts a critical conversation.” Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/forests', 'environment/farming', 'world/world', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-17T06:30:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2016/aug/27/camber-sands-high-risk-national-plan-beach-safety-strategy | Camber Sands given high-risk status in national plan after five die | The popular Sussex beach where five men drowned last week has been prioritised for inclusion in a national strategy aimed at making “high-risk” stretches of UK coastline safer. As the inquest continues into the cause of the deaths on Camber Sands last week, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) told the Observer it had already held talks with local councillors, businesses and police. As a result, Camber Sands is now to be included in its “community life-saving plan”, a national programme the service is rolling out to improve safety along the most hazardous stretches of UK coastline. Five Sri Lankans in their teens and 20s drowned during a day trip from London to Camber Sands last Wednesday. A few weeks earlier, a 19-year-old Brazilian, Gustavo Silva Da Cruz, died swimming in the same stretch of sea, prompting Sri Lankan relatives of the latest tragedy to criticise the lack of safety measures on the stretch of Sussex coastline. A temporary RNLI lifeguard service was introduced to the beach for the remainder of the summer, but a longer-term solution is already being prepared for what was, until recently, classified as a “benign” stretch of coast. So far, the RNLI has identified 227 locations where its community lifesaving plan will be introduced. Volunteer safety officers will be recruited to organise community involvement and education. This year the organisation also introduced a drowning prevention strategy for Britain, a 10-year blueprint running from 2016 to 2026. The strategy identified men as most at risk of drowning, accounting for eight in 10 of all the deaths. Fatalities rise markedly for males aged in their mid-to-late teens, peaking among the 20 to 29-year-old age group. The RNLI hopes to halve the number of drowning fatalities in the sea – over the past five years, close to 200 a year have been killed. The service recorded 15,000 incidents on beaches last year, with 18,000 people needing to be rescued. Brian Robson, community safety manager for the RNLI, said that Camber Sands, which can attract crowds of 25,000 to its seven-mile stretch of sands and dunes, was now among locations it had evaluated as high-risk. He said: “Camber Sands has been fairly unique for us; obviously it came upon our horizon because of the previous fatality. Some colleagues who work along the south coast were talking to the council about whether we are doing enough, is everything in the right place? “The horrible circumstances of last week has raised it on our risk scale. Until now, Camber Sands has been fairly benign, not a difficult area for us to work, but now it has been placed in a much higher-risk category.” The other locations where community life-saving plans have been introduced include Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower peninsula, one of south Wales’ most popular beaches. Following the drowning of two people last year, the RNLI launched a programme working with local businesses, landowners and the National Trust. Lifeguards are now introduced during busy periods and new high-profile safety signs warn of dangerous current and rip tides in the area. In the north Yorkshire resort of Scarborough, funds raised by the community, following the drowning last year of Andrew McGeown, 32, have seen the introduction of an initiative to teach local youngsters the perils of swimming offshore. This summer 400 local schoolchildren from the resort were educated on the dangers of swimming in open water compared with in a pool. The RNLI is also studying the possibility of deploying drones that can carry an inflatable life ring to a swimmer in distress. Designers in the US have tested rings that automatically inflate as soon as they hit the water, helping swimmers to stay afloat until rescuers arrive. One complicating factor is the constantly evolving nature of the UK coastline, with stretches becoming less or more dangerous. “The coastline around the UK is continually changing. One location might be high risk one year but not the next; the sea is dangerously unpredictable. We don’t know where the next event will strike, or what will happen this weekend,” said Robson. He said another complicating issue was that one in 10 drownings involved individuals who had not meant to be in the water in the first place, such as a hiker who may have fallen into the sea. | ['uk/uk', 'society/emergency-services', 'environment/sea-level', 'society/society', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/marktownsend', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-08-27T20:45:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
cities/2019/dec/24/from-rubbish-to-rice-the-cafe-that-gives-food-in-exchange-for-plastic | From rubbish to rice: the cafe that gives food in exchange for plastic | On bad days, when his employer made some excuse for not paying him his paltry daily wage, Ram Yadav’s main meal used to be dry chapatis, with salt and raw onion for flavour. Sometimes he just went hungry. For a ragpicker like him, one of the thousands of Indians who make a living bringing in plastic waste for recycling, eating in a cafe or restaurant was the stuff of fairytales. But last week, Yadav was sitting at a table at the Garbage Cafe in Ambikapur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, over a piping hot meal of dal, aloo gobi, poppadoms and rice. He earned the food in exchange for bringing in 1kg of plastic waste. “The hot meal I get here lasts me all day. And it feels good to sit at a table like everyone else,” he said. Opened in October by the Ambikapur municipal corporation, the cafe is designed both to encourage awareness about the need to collect and remove plastic waste and to give a meal to anyone – ragpicker, student or civic-minded individual – who does so. The tagline? “More the waste, better the taste.” The launch was attended by the Chhattisgarh health minister, TS Singh Deo, who emphasised that the cafe was for everyone by bringing in half a kilo of plastic himself. “It’s become well known fast, because it’s located right by the main bus stand in the city,” said the city’s mayor, Ajay Tirkey. “We’re getting about a dozen people coming in every day. One day a whole family came in with huge sacks weighing seven kilos.” Most Indian cities are struggling with huge amounts of unsegregated waste. There are few effective waste-management systems, and according to the country’s environment ministry the country generates approximately 25,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day – only about 14,000 tonnes of which are collected. A modest effort to push back against single-use plastic received a boost in October, when the prime minster, Narendra Modi, used the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth to announce that India would phase out single-use plastic by 2022 (though he stopped short of a blanket ban). Later that month, during a visit to Tamil Nadu state, he went for a morning walk by the sea at Mamallapuram and ended up “plogging” on the beach. Ambikapur is one of the cities at the front of the charge. It boasts 100% door-to-door waste collection and segregation, and was the second-cleanest in government rankings this year. It also generates about 1.2 million rupees (13,000 pounds sterling) a month selling plastic and recycled paper to private companies. The collected plastic from the Garbage Cafe will be used to construct roads – in 2015, the Ambikapur authorities built an entire road out of plastic. “It has lasted really well, even during the monsoon rains,” said Tirkey. The cafe’s concept of bartering food for plastic waste is catching on elsewhere, too. In Siliguri, West Bengal, the alumni of a local school are distributing free food on Saturdays to anyone who deposits half a kilo of plastic waste. At the other end of the country in Mulugu in Telangana state, the town authorities give one kilo of rice in return for one kilo of plastic. Local school children also go around collecting plastic. The district collector of Mulugu has said he wants to make his district the first in India to be free of single use plastic. The enthusiasm is proving infections: one local couple sent out wedding invitations printed on reusable cloth grocery bags. It has now reached the capital, New Delhi, where municipal authorities plan to open several Garbage Cafes along the lines of the one in Ambikapur. About 70% of the city’s plastic waste is single use, and most of it ends up in landfills or clogging drains. It is a particular menace for hungry cows who end up rummaging through garbage bins and eating plastic. Last year, a vet in Delhi removed 70kg of plastic from a cow’s stomach. Simar Malhotra, co-founder of Parvaah, a not-for-profit in New Delhi which campaigns against plastic, believes the Garbage Cafe is worth emulating across the country. “How many schemes solve two problems in one go? The cafe tackles waste and also gives hungry people a hot meal which in turn motivates them to collect more plastic,” she said. Tirkey stresses the importance of that loop. “What’s important is that our meals are nutritious and tasty. We didn’t want to give rubbish.” Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter | ['cities/cities', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/plastic', 'world/india', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/amrit-dhillon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/cities'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-12-24T10:00:11Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2015/mar/12/oxford-university-should-lead-the-way-and-divest-from-fossil-fuels | Oxford University should lead the way and divest from fossil fuels | Next Monday, Oxford University is expected to decide whether or not to rid its £2bn endowment of risky fossil fuel investments. This decision comes after almost two years of student organising, academic and alumni petition drives, marches, rallies, and teach-ins. As someone involved in the campaign, it is incredibly gratifying – and a little scary – to finally reach this point. That we have reached this point is thanks to the growing momentum of the international fossil fuel divestment movement and the combined mobilising efforts of people across Oxford. The idea of fossil fuel divestment, seemingly a radical pipedream just a few years ago, has taken hold remarkably fast. From Stanford’s decision to divest from coal to the Rockefeller heirs’ commitment to move their oil fortune out of fossil fuels, the dominoes keep falling. Each new win makes it that much easier for our Oxford campaign to argue that divestment is not a fringe notion; rather, it is something that a reputation-conscious institution can sign up to, and even garner mainstream praise in the process. Inspired by all the international activity, we launched our Oxford campaign with a scrappy motion to present at the student union council. Since then, we’ve faced a steep learning curve. We’ve worked to mould our demands into something that the university will not reject outright but that still challenges it to take meaningful steps on a road to full divestment. This effort culminated in a lengthy report, which calls on Oxford to immediately drop all direct investments in coal and tar sands, the most polluting of fossil fuels. It also recommends that Oxford continuously review all investments, and so, progressively rid its endowment of fossil fuels and other high-carbon assets. The report certainly helped our campaign gain credibility in the eyes of the university. The real momentum, though, came from the dozens of debates in college common rooms, speaker events with Oxford professors, rallies, and ‘carbon bubble’ parades on the highstreet, not to mention dinosaur fossil costumes. Through all this, the campaign gained the support of over 100 academics, nearly 550 alumni, and over 2,200 others, as well as 27 college common rooms and the Oxford University student union. The numbers don’t capture the feel of the campaign, though. The real drive has come from talking about climate change not as some hopeless crisis, but as a challenge we can do something about. It has been a learn-as-you-go process with panel discussions that stretch on for hours and people previously distanced from climate change issues talking excitedly about the possibilities. The very idea of divestment catches people’s attention, inviting new, challenging questions: what happens to our carbon-intensive global energy system? And what about the pervasive influence of fossil fuels on our politics and wealth distribution? On the flip side, many people are beginning to get excited about a less centralised, more affordable access to renewable power, less environmental degradation with cleaner water and healthier land – especially for the more vulnerable frontline communities. As so aptly captured in the title of Naomi Klein’s new book, tackling the climate crisis ‘changes everything’. Of course, fossil fuel divestment is a small part of a much broader climate movement, but even so, it has helped unite disparate parts of that larger campaign. Oxford is a small-scale example of this uniting effect. The support of academics and alumni aside, the student campaign would not be where it is now without the help of the Oxford city campaign. The city group, in turn, introduced us to campaigners in the church, trade unions, and the Art not Oil performing arts coalition. Beyond Oxford, we’ve been in touch with other students at Soas, Cambridge and UCL, and shared a platform with Natalie Bennett of the Green party at a recent panel discussion. We’ve also had support from People and Planet and 350.org, who’ve taught us a thing or two about how to mobilise. If the university divests, it will add to the critical mass of institutions that are demonstrating how to invest in a liveable planet. It will also multiply tenfold a message that is already sinking in within Oxford itself: that we need a new common sense, one where climate change is a top priority. This article was amended on 13 March to correct the value of the university’s endowment from £3.8bn to £2bn. | ['environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'education/oxforduniversity', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'education/education', 'type/article', 'tone/comment'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-03-12T14:03:41Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
news/2014/may/04/weatherwatch-nature-floods-rain-groundwater | Weatherwatch: Nature returns to normal | After the extremes of last winter's rainfall it is surprising how quickly the natural world reverts to normal. Some flood victims are still trying to dry and repair their homes, but rivers and streams are flowing gently and even the groundwater has receded. There were record groundwater levels in some parts of southern England in February and aquifers are still very high across the south including London and as far north as Cambridge. In these areas and in parts of the Scottish borders, including Cumbria and Dumfries, where rain was heavy and prolonged, there are valleys that were once water meadows where flooding is still visible. It is disappearing steadily, however, and remaining surface water will soon go. As often happens with British weather the long wet spell was followed by a dry period, particularly in the south and east, long enough for gardeners on higher ground with well-drained soils to start complaining about the drought. In some areas of the east the groundwater levels are officially "below normal" for the time of year. Generally though, the chalk streams of the south, which are spring-fed, have been revived by the winter deluge, and it bodes well for summer water supplies both for wildlife and people. However, now that spring is well advanced and everything is growing fast the amount of water being sucked out of the ground, particularly by big trees, means the groundwater will continuing receding until the autumn. It would take another deluge of biblical proportions to change that. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-05-04T20:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2013/jun/28/indians-flash-flooding-disaster-manmade | Indians question how far flash-flooding disaster was manmade | As India picks up the pieces from the worst-ever flash floods in the Himalayas, the nation is beginning to wonder to what extent human intervention – specifically religious tourism and hydroelectric projects – contributed to the disaster. About 1,000 people have been confirmed dead in Uttarakhand state from last week's flooding, and state authorities say the actual toll could be three to five times higher. The Himalayas are a relatively young mountain range with a fragile geology prone to landslides. The deluge on 17 June destroyed towns, villages, roads and bridges for more than 60 miles along the banks of the Mandakini and the Alaknanda, two important tributaries of the Ganges river. The origin of the disaster is beyond dispute: a glacier ruptured under the pressure of water from a severe cloudburst, raining tonnes of ice, water and rock on the Hindu pilgrimage town of Kedarnath, on the left bank of the Mandakini. Uttarakhand has experienced flash floods in the past. The latest disaster occurred at the peak of the pilgrim season, increasing the number of casualties. The boom in religious tourism has put a severe strain on the state's shaky infrastructure. The region has some of Hinduism's most sacred pilgrim destinations. Domestic tourist traffic has shot up by 300% in a decade, to more than 30 million a year. This number is expected to double by 2017. "There's a spurt in religiosity across India," said the sociologist Arshad Alam. "After two decades of rapid economic growth, the middle class has expanded and has more money to spend. So pilgrimages have become very popular." As a result, hundreds of new multistorey hotels, apartment blocks and religious centres have sprung up in Uttarakhand, often on the flood plains of the capricious Mandakini and Alakananda rivers, in defiance of building regulations. Several were washed away last week. "There has to be a check on the mindless, uncontrolled religious tourism in the Himalaya," said Maharaj K Pandit, director of Delhi University's centre for interdisciplinary studies of mountain and hill environment. But most analysts believe restricting the number of pilgrims would be political suicide. "The desire to worship at Kedarnath is almost like an irresistible force," said Pavan Srinath, of the Chennai-based thinktank Takshashila Foundation. "Despite the tragedy, people are already talking about when they will undertake the sacred journey. No government can bar the devout from the Himalayas." Pandit acknowledged it was a "ticklish issue", but said the tourist boom was putting unbearable strain on the Himalayan ecosystem. During the season, for instance, there is bumper-to-bumper traffic spewing diesel smoke on badly constructed mountain roads. "I once counted 117 buses go over a bridge in eight minutes," he said. In recent years Uttarakhand has also seen a boom in hydroelectric projects. Seventy projects are up or under way in the mountain state, some of nearly 300 planned by Delhi for the entire Himalayas. A few come with dams, but a majority are run-of-the-river projects requiring tunnelling through the mountainside. A recent official audit revealed that in some parts of the upper Ganges basin there is a hydroelectric project planned for every three to four miles of river. There were reports of serious damage to some of these projects in last week's deluge, with the debris causing havoc to the neighbouring environment, both natural and manmade. One of the worst-hit towns was Shrinagar, downstream from a newly constructed dam on the banks of the Alaknanda tributary. Much of the low-lying town was buried under thick sludge three metres (10ft) high, destroying even large government buildings and warehouses. A recent article in Science magazine warned against damage to the ecosystem from badly planned, poorly monitored projects. The region is known for its biodiversity – its flowers, butterflies and Mahseer fish. Science estimated that habitat degradation from dam building in the Himalayas could lead to the disappearance of 29 species of flowering plants and terrestrial and aquatic life. "Nobody is saying there should be no dams," said Pandit, the article's co-author. "But the emphasis should be on securing the Himalayan landscape after understanding its fragility, not on uncontrolled development." Not all experts are in agreement. Srinath maintains that the devastation would have been even more widespread if the reservoir of the region's biggest dam at Tehri had not contained a significant volume of the deluge. "Dams can also prevent disasters," he said. "The critical issue is not dams, but proper dam management. In India, we just don't have a culture of public safety." Pandit was not convinced. "Dams do hold water, but once they reach their maximum capacity they become ticking bombs," he said. Tehri dam is dangerously full, even though the monsoon has just begun. Next month a million pilgrims are expected in Uttarakhand for the annual Kanwar Yatra at Haridwar, downstream from Tehri. "The Himalaya is an earthquake-prone zone, so God forbid, if a major dam ever bursts the destruction it will cause will be unimaginable," said Pandit. Hindu revenge? For the devotees of Dhari Devi, a local avatar of the fierce Hindu goddess Kali, the flash flooding might seem preordained. Dhari Devi's tiny shrine in Shrinagar was to have been submerged by the water systems of a local reservoir, and national Hindu leaders appealed to the prime minister against its relocation. According to local lore, the goddess protected Uttarakhand from calamities, so her shrine could not be touched. But the power company moved the black stone idol on the night of 16 June to save it from the swollen dam reservoir. Within hours, disaster struck. | ['world/india', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hinduism', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/religion', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/maseehrahman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-06-28T09:36:09Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2024/mar/27/australias-carbon-credits-system-a-failure-on-global-scale-study-finds | Australia’s carbon credits system a failure on global scale, study finds | Australia’s main carbon offsets method is a failure on a global scale and doing little if anything to help address the climate crisis, according to a major new study. Research by 11 academics found the most popular technique used to create offsets in Australia, known as “human-induced regeneration” and pledged to regenerate scrubby outback forests, had mostly not improved tree cover as promised between about 2015 and 2022. The peer-reviewed study, published in the nature journal Communications Earth & Environment, analysed 182 projects in arid and semi-desert areas and found forest cover had either barely grown or gone backwards in nearly 80%. The academics said it meant these projects were therefore not reducing emissions as promised, and polluting companies that bought offsets created through these projects were often not reducing their impact on the climate as they claimed. They said this was a globally significant problem as Australia’s forest regeneration method is the world’s fifth biggest nature-based offsets program, with projects covering nearly 42m hectares, an area larger than Japan. More than 37m carbon credits – each meant to be worth a tonne of CO2 drawn from the atmosphere and worth between $750m and $1bn – had been issued for these projects by June last year. The authors of the study include Andrew Macintosh, an environmental law professor at the Australian National University (ANU), a former head of a carbon credit integrity assurance body and more recently a sharp critic of the management of the scheme. Two years ago he described it as a “sham” and a fraud on taxpayers and the environment. The researchers said the findings add to growing scientific literature that highlighted “the practical limitations of offsets and the potential for offset schemes to credit abatement that is non-existent, non-additional and potentially impermanent”. Megan Evans, a senior lecturer in environmental policy at the University of New South Wales in Canberra and a co-author of the new study, said the researchers found there was “nowhere near the forest cover that you should see” given the number of carbon credits issued. “What this means is that the projects are not actually sequestering the amount of carbon claimed, and we’ve got a whole bunch of carbon credits in the system that don’t represent one tonne of CO2,” she said. “Most of these credits are being used to offset heavy emitters under the safeguard mechanism, so we’re not actually reducing carbon emissions at all. The overall outcome is we’re increasing the amount of carbon pollution. “We’re ultimately getting worse outcomes for the climate than if we didn’t have these [forest regeneration] projects.” The researchers called on the Australian government to stop issuing carbon credits to regeneration projects in uncleared areas “for the sake of the integrity of Australia’s carbon market and the country’s decarbonisation efforts”. The Clean Energy Regulator, which manages the scheme, said it had confidence in the integrity of the carbon credit scheme and the human-induced regeneration method. “A number of reviews have confirmed the integrity of the HIR method,” a spokesperson said. The climate change minister, Chris Bowen told the ABC’s RN Breakfast on Wednesday that a review of the carbon credit scheme that he commissioned from Ian Chubb, a former Australian chief scientist, had backed the integrity of the system. Bowen said Chubb found the scheme was “basically sound”, but needed some reforms that were being implemented. The Chubb review was not asked to examine individual projects. Bowen said the regulator had also asked Cris Brack, an honorary ANU associate professor and forest researcher, to review the performance of five-year-old projects and found they were “demonstrating regeneration, and proponents are implementing the project activities”. “There’s been other checks in relation to the significant increase in vegetation that we’re looking for and it has found that increasing vegetation exists,” Bowen said. The carbon credits generated through forest regeneration can be used by companies to meet emissions reductions goals under the safeguard mechanism, a Coalition policy revamped under Labor to require the country’s 215 biggest industrial polluting facilities to reduce their emissions intensity by up to 4.9% a year. The projects analysed in the new paper are mostly in dry outback areas in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. They do not involve tree planting, but are said to regenerate native forests by reducing the impact of grazing by livestock and feral animals. Critics, which have included the Australian Conservation Foundation, say research suggests grazing by livestock and feral animals mostly does not affect “woody vegetation cover”. The study said the total amount of woody vegetation cover in the areas analysed increased by less than 1% after grazing was reduced. The researchers examined 75 projects that they said, based on the number of credits they received, should have had near 100% forest cover, but found the actual coverage in 2022 was only 21%. This was only a 1.8% increase since the projects were registered, they said. Don Butler, an ANU ecologist who led the statistical analysis, said the changes largely mirrored what happened in nearby areas not included in the projects. David Eldridge, another co-author and a longtime NSW government scientist now at the University of NSW’s Centre for Ecosystem Science, said the results of the study were not a surprise. “They align perfectly with what decades of research in Australia’s rangelands suggests would occur,” he said. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-03-26T22:21:35Z | true | EMISSIONS |
lifeandstyle/2017/sep/09/elystan-street-restaurant-phil-howard-chef-a-cooks-kitchen | ‘These pasta gadgets have become a signature thing for us’ | A cook’s kitchen | We’ve been living here in Barnes for 17 years. Our overhaul of the kitchen meant a lot of decluttering. It’s a simple space, but the kind of kitchen I like to work in. There are no wall cupboards full of spices that have been festering for 25 years: everything is exposed, out, stored in kilner jars. Nothing can be hidden. That’s a proper French farmhouse table to my left – there’s no history that I can shed light on, but I’m sure it has lots! It was one of the first expensive things we ever bought, from a little shop in Mortlake. The chairs are reclaimed too, and came from an amazing shop down in Dorset called Talisman. My wife, Jen, is a real plant fanatic and she uses the metal bucket under the table often for flowers, which burst forth from it. Alternatively, we use it as a wine bucket at barbecues ... I found a little lot of pasta gadgets like the one at my right hand at a flea market in Milan about 15 years ago – they are basically reconditioned garganelli rollers. You get a fresh rectangular sheet of pasta, about 3 x 5 inches, and you roll it around a little stick, then across the slats, and this puts grooves into the pasta as it turns. You end up with an inch-long tube of pasta with lovely markings on it – like rigatoni. For years, we served a pasta dish made in this way, with truffles shaved on top and lots of butter. These pasta gadgets became a signature thing for us at The Square. I bought 8-10 of them in Milan, and the last one is on its final legs. I always said that when the last one died I’d retire – but I don’t think I’m even close to retiring yet! Chopping boards are important things. If you want to cook, you’ve got to have a solid and appropriate surface. I hate those warped plastic things – mine here are of varying sizes – the most important thing is that they’re solid, flat, not wobbly. The one on the table came from an antique market in the French Alps. Sterilise and go! It’s fair to say that Jen does more cooking at home than I do – she’s a great cook. I crave simple things out of the restaurant – you’ve either got to spend time or money on great food. If my wife isn’t cooking, I tend to do the latter – buy and cook simple, delicious, healthy things – like turbot, tomatoes, green salad. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel with my food; I have a classical palate. Ingredients are the source of all inspiration in the kitchen. Our apple tree produces tons of fruit, which all gets put to work in the restaurants. This year, I have made an incredible apple and elderberry jelly, which we’ll serve with game throughout the season. Phil Howard is chef and owner of Elystan Street restaurant, London | ['food/food', 'lifeandstyle/series/a-cooks-kitchen', '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 | 2017-09-09T11:00:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2020/jan/24/australian-bushfires-will-cause-jump-in-co2-in-atmosphere-say-scientists | Australian bushfires will cause jump in CO2 in atmosphere, say scientists | The devastating bushfires in Australia are likely to cause a jump in carbon concentrations in the atmosphere this year, a forecast suggests, bringing the world closer to 1.5C of global heating. The fires have not only released vast amounts of carbon dioxide and soot, but the unusual extent of the blazes means regrowth is likely to be slower than in previous years. That will reduce the amount of vegetation available to act as a carbon sink, meaning less carbon dioxide is removed from the air. Experts at the UK’s Met Office have predicted that this year will see another large rise in the carbon content of the atmosphere, which has been measured at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii since 1958. They predict that carbon dioxide will peak at more than 417 parts per million in May, usually the highest point of the year for carbon concentrations, and settle to about 414ppm as the average for 2020. The predicted year-on-year rise of about 2.74ppm would be one of the biggest on record. Emissions from the Australian bushfires will make up one-fifth of the increase, according to the Met Office. Last year, scientists recorded the second biggest yearly increase on record, of 3.5ppm compared with 2018. The absorption of carbon dioxide by land ecosystems, such as vegetation and forests, is linked to swings in Pacific Ocean temperatures, the Met Office noted. Many regions become warmer and drier in years with a warmer tropical Pacific, limiting the ability of plants to grow and absorb carbon, while the risk of wildfires increases. That has contributed to the hot dry weather in Australia, making the bushfires more severe. Since the Mauna Loa records began, human activities have resulted in a yearly rise in the carbon content of the air. Some years have seen only a modest rise, but in recent years the rise has been stronger, despite global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Professor Richard Betts, of the Met Office Hadley Centre, said: “The [annual] rate of rise isn’t perfectly even because there are fluctuations in the response of ecosystem carbon sinks, especially tropical forests. Overall, these are expected to be weaker than normal for the second year running. The year-to-year variability in the rate of rise of CO2 is affected more by the strength of ecosystem carbon sinks and sources than year-to-year changes in human-induced emissions. Nevertheless, anthropogenic emissions are still the overall driver of the long-term rise in concentrations.” Each annual rise takes the planet closer to the crucial 450ppm threshold. That is regarded by scientists as the limit of safety, beyond which the impacts of climate change – droughts, floods, heatwaves, fiercer storms, and sea level rises – are likely to become much worse. “This analysis illustrates how feedback processes can accelerate the rise in greenhouse gas levels and hence the rate of warming,” said Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics. “Global warming in Australia, western North America and many other parts of the world is increasing the risk and extent of wildfires, releasing ever more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Such feedback processes will lead to the exhaustion of our emissions budgets even more quickly than expected. We are closer than we think to the point of no return.” Governments pledged at Paris in 2015 to hold global temperature rises to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration not to exceed 1.5C. In the years since, greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 4%, according to recent estimates. Current national pledges under the Paris agreement would take the world to 3C of heating. This November, governments will meet in Glasgow to try to set the world back on track to meet the Paris goals. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/met-office', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-01-24T00:01:09Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2020/jan/16/israeli-spyware-firm-nso-hacking-case | Israeli spyware firm fails to get hacking case dismissed | An Israeli judge has rejected an attempt by the spyware firm NSO Group to dismiss a case brought against it by a prominent Saudi activist who alleged that the company’s cyberweapons were used to hack his phone. The decision could add pressure on the company, which faces multiple accusations that it sold surveillance technology, named Pegasus, to authoritarian regimes and other governments that have allegedly used it to target political activists and journalists. A Tel Aviv court ruled that the case brought by Omar Abdulaziz, a dissident based in Canada, could go ahead. In his lawsuit, he has argued that Saudi spies used Pegasus to read his conversations with Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist later murdered in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. The Guardian understands that Abdulaziz and Khashoggi exchanged hundreds of messages in the months before he died. NSO had attempted to get the case thrown out of court by arguing that it lacked “good faith” and was abusing Israel’s judicial system, according to a copy of the ruling on 22 December. However, the judge, Guy Hyman, found no grounds for dismissal. Separately, while he agreed that the trial related to sensitive security issues, he did not accept that meant it should be held in secret. “The scope [of the case] is very broad, especially in matters of the roots of constitutional values and fundamental rights,” he said. “The ruling, therefore, in my view, must be public.” NSO should also pay Abdulaziz’s legal costs of 23,000 shekels (about £5,100), he added. Alaa Mahajna, the lawyer representing Abdulaziz in Israel, welcomed the ruling and said the decision would push the trial forward. “It will force NSO to provide a defence and not just hide behind procedural delay tactics,” he said. “To my knowledge, this is the most advanced stage any private lawsuit against spyware developers has ever reached.” In his lawsuit, Abdulaziz has claimed 600,000 shekels in damages. He argued that the intercepted communications between him and Khashoggi – including discussions about how to push for democratic change in Saudi Arabia – were critical elements in the decision to kill Khashoggi. “While the deceased Khashoggi’s political activities were not new, and officials from the Saudi government knew of them a long time ago, the tightening collaboration between the plaintiff and the deceased in developing joint projects was the main reason for the decision to kill him,” the lawsuit claimed. An NSO spokesperson said the company would appeal against the decision. “The latest judgement was part of an interim proceeding which did not address the merit of [Abdulaziz’s] allegations; we remain confident that, once considered, the court will reject them,” he said. The spokesperson would not comment on specifics of the case but said Khashoggi was never targeted by one of the firm’s products. On Thursday, an Israeli court ruled that a separate case related to NSO should be held behind closed doors. In that lawsuit, Amnesty International and other rights groups have sought to force Israel’s ministry of defence to revoke some of the spyware company’s export licences. Amnesty claims that multiple rights activists, and one of its own staff members, have been targeted by NSO products. Meanwhile, the ministry’s legal team argued that the case should be held in secret on national security grounds. While NSO has not commented on specific cyberattacks cited in the Amnesty lawsuit, it has said it would “do whatever is necessary” to ensure its technology is not abused to undermine human rights. NSO faces a further case in the US, brought against it in October by WhatsApp, which accuses the company of a series of sophisticated cyber-attacks that breached its messaging platform. While Abdulaziz claims that his phone was hacked after he clicked a fake link in an SMS message that he thought was from a courier service, WhatsApp believes that hundreds of others had their mobile phones hacked last year via its software. Last month, the Guardian reported that a least two dozen Pakistani government officials were allegedly targeted in this way, the first public instance of how Pegasus could have been used for “state-on-state” espionage. WhatsApp’s legal team said last week that NSO had not yet responded to the California lawsuit, or hired a lawyer to represent it. According to an affidavit filed by WhatsApp, this was despite the fact that it had hand-delivered the complaint to NSO’s offices in Israel. The documents, WhatsApp said, included a request for contact details and a note informing NSO of its “duty to preserve all documents that may be relevant to this litigation”. NSO previously said it would vigorously contest claims by WhatsApp and its parent company, Facebook, and the company spokesperson said it still intended to defend itself. “NSO’s technology is only licensed, as a lawful solution, to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of preventing and investigating terror and serious crime,” the spokesperson said. Separately, NSO has put a new human rights policy in place to “prevent and mitigate” abuse of its spyware. The policy states that NSO customers have contractual obligations to limit the use of the company’s products to the “prevention and investigation of serious crimes, including terrorism, and to ensure the products will not be used to violate human rights”. | ['world/espionage', 'world/israel', 'technology/data-computer-security', 'world/saudiarabia', 'technology/whatsapp', 'technology/hacking', 'world/middleeast', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'world/jamal-khashoggi', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-holmes', 'profile/stephanie-kirchgaessner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-01-16T10:27:24Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
science/2024/jan/27/race-against-time-to-unlock-secrets-of-erebus-shipwreck-and-doomed-arctic-expedition | Race against time to unlock secrets of Erebus shipwreck and doomed Arctic expedition | Archaeologists have made hundreds of new finds on the wreck of HMS Erebus, the ship commanded by Sir John Franklin on his doomed Arctic trip 180 years ago. The team’s discoveries include pistols, sealed bottles of medicines, seamen’s chests and navigation equipment. These are now being studied for clues to explain the loss of the Erebus and its sister ship Terror, and the deaths of the 129 men who sailed on them. The work is considered to be particularly urgent because the wreck of the Erebus – discovered 10 years ago in shallow water in Wilmot and Crampton Bay in Arctic Canada – is now being battered by increasingly severe storms as climate change takes its grip on the region. “Parts of the ship’s upper deck collapsed recently and other parts are sloping over dangerously,” said Jonathan Moore, manager of the Parks Canada underwater team that completed the most recent exploration of the wreck. “It’s getting tricky down there.” Investigators’ efforts were made even more pressing by Covid-19, which halted all exploration in 2020 and 2021, and by severe weather that badly disrupted investigations in 2018. As a result, marine archaeologists have been left in a race against time to unlock the vessel’s secrets. Sir John Franklin set off from Greenhithe in Kent in 1845 to find the Northwest Passage, a polar route that linked the Atlantic and Pacific. His ships, Erebus and Terror, were fitted with steam-driven propellers to help them manoeuvre in pack ice while their holds were filled with three years’ worth of tinned provisions. The ships failed to return, however, and it was not until the 1850s that the Scottish explorer John Rae discovered, after interviewing Inuits, that Franklin had died in 1847 after his ships had been trapped in sea ice for two years. Later his men, by now starving, started to eat each other. Victorian society was appalled and Rae was denounced, with his chief persecutor, Charles Dickens, claiming that the explorer had no right to believe “a race of savages”. Then, in 1997, the bones of several crewmen were discovered on nearby King William Island – with marks consistent with having been cut up and eaten. Trapped in the ice for years and afflicted by scurvy, starvation, and possibly lead poisoning from their poorly preserved tins of food, the men had suffered appalling fates. But the exact sequence of events that led to the expedition’s survivors to leave their ship to make their desperate bid to seek salvation in the south seemed destined to remain a mystery – until the discovery of the wrecks of Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016. These now offer the tantalising prospect of understanding the precise unfolding of the catastrophe that overwhelmed the expedition and crew. One report from Inuit legend indicates that at least one body remained on the Erebus after it was abandoned. Could this have been the corpse of Franklin? Could his body be lying in a casket in the hold of the Erebus, archaeologists have wondered. At present, investigation of the ship – which is proceeding with considerable caution, with explorers descending very slowly down through the wreck – has discovered no human remains. On the other hand, a great many distinctive personalised remains have been discovered and brought to the surface, revealing intriguing details about those who manned the ship. In one cabin, believed to be that of Second Lieutenant Henry Dunda Le Vesconte, Moore and his colleagues found items that included an intact thermometer, a leather book cover and a fishing rod with a brass reel while a leather shoe, storage jars and a sealed pharmaceutical bottle were found in an area believed to represent the pantry of the captain’s steward. The team has also begun excavating a seamen’s chest in the forecastle area, where most of the crew lived. Inside they have found pistols, bottles of medicines and coins. Archaeologists have also captured thousands of high-resolution digital photos that will be used to produce highly accurate 3D models which will be vital in understanding how the site is changing over time. In the past, this work was exceptionally difficult to carry out, Moore pointed out. The sea above the wrecks is only free of ice for short periods, while diving in traditional scuba equipment has been difficult, cold and unpleasant. Most of the time, the sea temperature there is only one or two degrees above freezing. But recent innovations had made investigations of Erebus far less intimidating, Moore added. “We have air supplied from the surface and we have heated suits, and that has made it much easier to work down there. In fact, we were able to make 68 dives for the 12 days we worked at the wreck in September. In that way we were able to do a lot more exploring and retrieval of artefacts.” Virtually all this work has focused on the threatened Erebus. By contrast, Terror – which sank in deeper water about 45 miles away from the wreck of Erebus – is less at the mercy of the elements and was only visited briefly last year. “Terror is 24 metres below sea level, but Erebus is only 11m down, and that makes the latter our prime concern,” said Moore. “We are going to concentrate on it and peel back its story layer by layer.” | ['science/exploration', 'world/arctic', 'science/archaeology', 'environment/oceans', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/poles', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'culture/heritage', 'technology/3d', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-01-27T14:00:39Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2021/may/28/in-the-pipeline-networks-to-warm-uk-homes-using-surplus-heat | In the pipeline: networks to warm UK homes using surplus heat | Tens of thousands of homes, offices and hospitals could soon be warmed with surplus heat from factories, incinerator plants and even disused mine shafts under plans by the government to fund low-carbon heating. The government will spend £30m to help set up heat networks across cities including London, Glasgow and Manchester and a further £14.6m to develop other low-carbon technologies that can heat and cool buildings without fossil fuels. The UK’s largest planned heat network will receive just over £12m to capture the surplus heat produced at a waste incineration plant in the London borough of Bexley to warm up to 21,000 homes in south-east London. The Cory waste plant receives 785,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste a year from barges on the Thames which is burned to generate electricity and reduce the waste taken to landfill sites. Electricity-from-waste plants have come under fire from green campaigners for adding to greenhouse gas emissions. The Cory plant is exploring options to fit the plant with technology to capture its emissions before they are released and claims that its carbon footprint is far lower than landfill waste. The scheme will be run by Cory in partnership with Swedish utility giant Vattenfall, which hopes to develop enough heat works in the Thames estuary to warm 75,000 homes from low-carbon sources over the next decade. The latest funding round is part of the government’s plan to cut the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, which will require homes to slash their reliance on fossil fuel gas for heating and cooking. Lord Callanan, the minister for climate change, said almost a third of all UK carbon emissions come from heating homes “and addressing this is a vital part of eradicating our contribution to climate change by 2050”. Heat networks are considered a vital part of the government’s low-carbon heating plans for urban areas. Electric heat pumps are also expected to play a major role in the government’s soon-to-be-published heating strategy alongside plans to retrofit the gas grid to use clean-burning hydrogen gas. The government’s funding will include research to develop new low-carbon heating innovations including a project by Durham University to explore whether the water at the bottom of abandoned coal mines could provide a geothermal source of heat. “Today’s funding package will accelerate the development of low-carbon technologies that will both reduce emissions and ensure people’s homes are warmer, greener and cheaper to run,” Callanan said. The energy industry believes ministers are poised to reveal a long awaited heating strategy paper, which will include plans to incentivise better home energy efficiency to meet an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of C or above from 2030, and potentially ban installation of new gas boilers from 2035. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-05-27T23:01:40Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2023/feb/14/tanya-plibersek-urged-to-intervene-to-stop-stockpiled-soft-plastics-from-being-dumped | Tanya Plibersek urged to intervene to stop stockpiled soft plastics from being dumped | Environment groups are urging federal and state governments to ensure thousands of tonnes of soft plastic that could end up in landfill are safely warehoused by supermarket chains until recycling facilities become available, even if that takes years. The Boomerang Alliance – a coalition of 55 conservation groups – has accused the packaging industry of using a failed scheme run by REDcycle, which led to more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic collected by the public being stockpiled since 2018, as a marketing ploy to mask how little was being done to improve recycling rates. It has urged the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, to regulate to stop the stockpiled waste being dumped, arguing it was possible to do it while reducing fire risk. In letters sent last week, the coalition called on Plibersek and state ministers to also use the crisis to back a tougher national plan to properly deal with Australia’s languishing recycling rates by 2025. The Nine newspapers revealed that plastic collected and dropped off by supermarket customers had been secretly stored for at least four years while the company contracted to run the scheme, REDcycle, claimed it was being distributed for reuse and recycling. The NSW Environment Protection Authority this month issued clean-up orders to Coles and Woolworths for 15 warehouses and storage depots after finding plastic “from the floor to the ceiling, blocking entry ways and preventing adequate ventilation”. Tony Chappel, the EPA’s chief executive, said it was a fire hazard and the plastic may “unfortunately end up in landfill”. The Victorian EPA has said it was aware of 14 warehouses in suburban Melbourne where plastic was being stockpiled and had taken action to ensure the immediate fire risk was controlled and laws were complied with. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Boomerang Alliance’s director, Jeff Angel, said Plibersek and the NSW environment minister, James Griffin, should intervene to ensure supermarkets were required to maintain safe storage facilities, including installing fire warning and suppression systems and employing around-the-clock security guards. “There are ways of doing it, but the issue is at the moment no one is required to,” Angel said. “In 2025, when we’re supposed to meet national packaging targets, all the stuff that’s stockpiled should then be used to plug into new plants.” Plibersek said the federal government would not directly intervene. She said the government had been supporting the supermarkets to resolve the problems, but safety must be the first priority. “I support any action state and territory governments need to take to get this sorted out. They have the regulatory powers to do this, and EPAs need to be able to do their jobs without political interference,” she said. A spokesperson for Griffin said the NSW EPA had an obligation to protect human health and the environment and would continue to engage on options for dealing with the stockpiles, “which include reprocessing, export or landfill”. Ambitious solution needed The Boomerang Alliance said Australia used about 449,000 tonnes of soft plastic each year, about a third of which came from households. It said REDcycle was collecting a “very small amount” – less than 1% of the problem – and a more ambitious solution was needed. Angel said Plibersek should strengthen product stewardship laws to ensure the use of plastic packaging started to fall and voluntary recycling targets set for 2025 – including 70% of plastics being recycled or composted and packaging having 20% recycled content – were met. He said that would require kerbside collection for soft plastic, a step proposed by the Victorian government, as well as new sorting facilities and making the targets mandatory. “We have no confidence that the current taskforce comprised of the big supermarkets can move substantially at a sufficient pace to avoid many millions more tonnes of soft plastics being landfilled or littered,” Angel said. “We commend the federal environment minister for threatening to regulate, but frankly the packaging sector ran out of time years ago and the REDcycle catastrophe was the nail in the coffin of more voluntary efforts.’’ Federal and state environment ministers last year pledged to reform the regulation of packaging by 2025 and the Albanese government in November joined a global “high ambition” coalition to end plastic pollution by 2040. Plibersek has announced $250m in funding for recycling infrastructure. Coles said it had contributed $12.5m over a decade to recycling soft plastic, and was working to help find solutions to the immediate and long-term problem. They included “exploring initiatives like a product stewardship scheme”. Woolworths said the suspension of the REDcycle program showed a new model that could collect and recycle more plastic waste was needed. “The supermarkets in the soft plastic taskforce are currently working together on a short-term solution to restore household access to soft plastic recycling,” a spokesperson said. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/ethical-living', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'weather/victoria', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-02-13T14:00:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2021/mar/12/putrid-stench-of-rotting-whale-carcass-on-australia-beach-leaves-locals-retching | ‘Putrid’ stench of rotting whale carcass on Australian beach leaves locals retching | A dead whale carcass beached at Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, is quickly decomposing, leaving locals retching over the putrid smell and rotting blubber. The sperm whale, measuring more than 16 metres, washed up on Forrest Caves beach last Saturday. A Phillip Island local, Mat Bowtell, who founded the charity Free 3D Hands, went with his staff during their Wednesday lunch break to pay their respects to the whale. The experience reminded him of a scene from Fight Club, he said, when Brad Pitt’s character steals fat from a liposuction clinic. “They throw the fat over the fence, and the bag breaks, and it just pours all over him and he’s just gagging – it’s just like that,” Bowtell told Guardian Australia. “You are walking towards this whale – this beautiful, majestic creature – and suddenly you can feel your feet getting heavier and heavier. And you look down and it’s just curdled sand. All this fat and blubber has washed out to sea and been brought back up to the high tide mark. “It’s like you have dipped your foot in a grease tray. And the more you try and rub it off, the more it is rubbing in.” Bowtell regrets wearing his favourite shoes – a pair of blue suede Jordans – on the sand, because he was worried that they would get stolen if he left them by the stairs. “It’s funny in hindsight,” he said. “Having my shoes stolen by the stairs would have been better because you can’t give them away now.” Locals have taken to social media to describe the smell of the decaying carcass. “I expected it to maybe smell a bit like rotten fish (which is bad enough) but this was like nothing I’ve ever smelt before,” Samantha Hutchinson commented on a public Facebook post about the beached whale. “We didn’t get closer than 30 metres but all had to shower and wash hair to get rid of the smell. It stays in your nostrils and throat for hours.” Another user named David Clarke wrote: “If the wind is blowing the right way you can smell it on Phillip Island Road when you go past.” Bowtell agreed that the stench was “putrid”, and locals even 5km to 6km away were saying they could smell it. “I was wearing a mask on the beach but it doesn’t matter,” he said. “It travels through you, your body absorbs it. It felt like my entire nose and lungs were coated in this rotting flesh. “But there were no seagulls or flies near the body. They don’t even want to get close to it.” Bunurong Environment Centre’s education officer and a Phillip Island local, Mike Cleeland, told Gippsland ABC Radio that he suspected a giant squid had attacked the whaleafter noticing “sucker marks” on the side of its body. “These sperm whales dive down a kilometre or more in depth to feed on the giant squids, but if they come up to a squid and the squid tries to defend itself by wrapping itself around the sperm whale, they finish up with these sucker marks and that was apparent on this one at Forrest Caves,” Cleeland said. “There is no obvious cause of death so it may have simply have reached the end of its natural life and washed in on this nearest beach here in Phillip Island.” Despite the odour, a spokesperson for Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) said the plan was to leave the whale to break down naturally. “The process of decomposition emits a strong odour, which indicates the natural process is well under way,” the spokesperson said. “DELWP, upon discovery of the carcass, conducted assessments for a number of options for the removal of the whale from the site, however, due to the whale’s location on the beach there is no access to remove the whale. “The public are encouraged to refrain from visiting the area due to the strong odour and risk of pathogens from the decomposing whale and reminded that it is an offence for people to be within 300 metres of the whale.” The spokesperson said the department was concerned about illegal interference with the carcass that took place overnight, after parts of the whale’s jaw were missing Friday morning. | ['australia-news/victoria', 'environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justine-landis-hanley', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-03-12T04:29:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2015/may/13/great-barrier-reef-funding-only-a-fraction-of-what-is-needed-wwf-says | Great Barrier Reef funding only a fraction of what is needed, WWF says | Government programs have yet to have any positive effect on the Great Barrier Reef, conservationists say, with federal funding only a fraction of what is needed to tackle chemical pollution, conservationists say. WWF-Australia said the federal budget, the last before Unesco decides next month whether to list the reef as in danger, set aside only $100m to fight runoff into the reef where $500m was needed. The group said a slight improvement in coral health, flagged in an upcoming report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), was more likely the effect of less flooding over recent times than any rearguard action by government to avoid the Unesco endangered listing. WWF-Australia’s conservation director, Gilly Llewellyn, said reef protection should have been “made a priority in the budget”. Another WWF spokesman, Nick Heath, said the Aims report was encouraging but had to be taken in context. “It’s premature to say it is a trend and it pales in comparison with the loss of over 50% of coral cover in the last 30 years, and up to 70% since the 1960s,” said. “Unfortunately, there is not yet evidence that government programs have led to any improvement.” A quote by report contributor Britta Schaffelke that “corals and sea grass are showing an up-kick because we’ve had a few dry years’’, pointed to less flooding as the likelier cause. “The sad truth is that the reef is still in big trouble and the funding provided by our governments to tackle water pollution is nowhere near what is required,” Heath said. The environment minister, Greg Hunt, in commenting on the upcoming Aims report this week, said that the Abbott government was “doing more than any government before us to protect the Great Barrier Reef”. Hunt told the Courier-Mail that Australia had addressed every concern raised by the UN’s world heritage committee and set up a reef trust last week specifically to tackle water quality issues. Heath said the federal government was misleading in its claim to be spending $2bn on improving the reef over 10 years, with almost a quarter of those funds to be spent on “maritime safety”. “It’s being spent on items like promoting maritime safety and providing a search and rescue service,” he said. “[This is] legitimate spending – but it is not money going directly to bringing back coral, sea grass, turtles and fish.” | ['australia-news/australian-budget-2015', 'environment/coral', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/marine-life', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-05-13T00:46:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2014/jun/04/flying-squirrel-and-eyeless-spider-discovered-in-greater-mekong | Flying squirrel and eyeless spider discovered in Greater Mekong | A series of high-flying creatures, including giant flying frogs and squirrels and a parachute gecko, are among the hundreds of exotic new species recently discovered in the greater Mekong region in southeast Asia. A new eyeless spider and a fish that mates head-to-head are also highlighted in a report from WWF on the extraordinary biodiversity in the forests surrounding the Mekong river, which runs through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China, and is also home to about 325 million people. The discovery of over 300 new species of animals, fish and plants in the region in 2012-13 comes as scientists revealed that human activities such as the destruction of habitats, hunting and the pollution of land and water have driven extinction rates to 1000 times faster than the natural rate. “Most species remain unknown to science and they likely face greater threats than the ones we do know,” said Professor Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University in North Carolina, US, and who led the new study published in Science. Without urgent action, he said, further rises in extinction rates are likely, heralding what many believe could become the sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history. The discoveries in the Mekong region illustrate how, even as many species are dying out, new animals can be revealed even in heavily populated areas. The new species of red-and-white-furred flying squirrel was discovered on sale in a bush meat market in Laos. In Cambodia, a new tailorbird warbler was found hiding in plain sight in the capital Phnom Penh, during routine checks for avian flu. “The species discoveries affirm the Greater Mekong as one of the world’s richest and most biodiverse regions,” said Thomas Gray, manager of WWF-Greater Mekong’s Species Programme. “If we’re to prevent these new species disappearing into extinction, and to keep alive the hope of finding other fascinating creatures in years to come, it’s critical that governments invest in conservation.” Among the 21 new amphibian species discovered is Helen’s flying frog, discovered less than 62 miles from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The huge green frog managed to evade biologists until recently by using its large, webbed hands and feet to glide between treetops and only coming down to breed in rain pools. It was found in a patch of forest surrounded by farmland, highlighting the urgent need for conservation. “Lowland tropical forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world due to human pressures, such as logging and degradation,” said Gray. “While Helen’s tree frog has only just been discovered, this species, like many others, is already under threat in its fast shrinking habitat.” Also discovered in Vietnam was a tiny new fish with a very complex anatomy which includes having its sex organs just behind its mouth. As as a result, it mates head-to-head. The new species of parachute gecko was discovered in the evergreen forest in western Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan national park, which also hosts one of the world’s biggest tiger populations. The new spider, which has evolved to have no eyes as a result of living permanently without daylight in caves, was found in Laos. While nature reserves are critical, Pimm said many threatened animals lived outside them and called for citizen scientists to help conservationists track the species. “Most species live outside protected areas, so understanding how their environments are changing is a vital task,” Pimm said. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/cambodia', 'world/laos', 'world/vietnam', 'world/china', 'world/world', 'environment/rivers', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'environment/wwf', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-06-04T16:01:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
theguardian/2013/may/13/letters-horse-burgers-scary-emissions | Letters: Horse meat burgers are scary but not as much as CO2 emissions | Carbon dioxide at its highest level for 3m years and Damian Carrington's story merits only page five in the Guardian (Report, 11 May); it doesn't even get a mention on the front cover. As a 15-year-old I am confused as to why this is considered less important than the horse meat scandal or the Co-op bank's difficulties or, on the second page, talk of another coalition. I realise that these things are important, but I think that the survival of the human race is just a little more important than parliament, which, with the current rates of CO2 emissions, will most likely be flooded by about 2200. Geoffrey Liddell Clatford, Hampshire • Damian Carrington tells us: "The world's governments have agreed to keep the rise in global average temperature ... to 2C". This is precisely what has not happened. More than 20 years of climate change negotiations have failed to yield any agreement whatsoever to limit global emissions to any specific target. David Campbell Professor of international business law, University of Leeds • It is not only environmental campaigners who oppose European investments in coal power (Report, 13 May). It is also mainstream scientists, concerned citizens and the people that Christian Aid works with across the developing world, who are already feeling the impacts of a changing climate on their lives. Investing now in unabated coal technologies in EU and EU accession countries will make it impossible for Europe to achieve the ambitious carbon cuts needed to lead global action against climate change. Dr Alison Doig Senior adviser on climate change, Christian Aid • The letter writers against Oxford's partnership with Shell (Letters, 9 May) forget that our understanding of climate change is underpinned by geological knowledge obtained in a relatively underfunded academic field, coupled with a neglected British Geological Survey. As James Lovelock has demonstrated, once triggered, global heating will be irreversible on a human time scale, and so aiming to keep global temperatures within 2C is a meaningless target. It would be madness to turn our backs on investing in carbon capture and storage on a massive scale, even if this is a spinoff of the wicked hydrocarbon industry. This could eventually reduce atmospheric levels if it were treated with the same urgency as the second world war Manhattan project by governments who appear interested only in keeping enough of the people happy at any one time. Companies like Shell can only be expected to clear up our waste gases if they are given clear political leadership, not warm words. David Nowell New Barnet, Hertfordshire • Roger Scruton (Comment, 11 May) criticises the government for not agreeing with conservative voters who believe the "climate change" agenda has been foisted on us by an unaccountable lobby of politicised intellectuals. Does he think manmade emissions of greenhouse gases should be reduced by other means, or does he consider the IPCC's assessment of the science and its consequences is completely wrong? Stewart Reddaway Baldock, Hertfordshire | ['tone/letters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2013-05-13T20:00:06Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
sport/2018/apr/11/tracey-neville-england-new-zealand-netball-commonwealth-games | Tracey Neville calls on England to use New Zealand win as springboard to gold | Tracey Neville has urged her England netball team to use the historic victory over New Zealand to spur them to Commonwealth gold and allow the veteran Geva Mentor to retire happy, whenever that may be. England beat the fast declining New Zealand, who also lost to Malawi, to top their group. It is the first time they have defeated them since netball was introduced to the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and it continued their unbeaten run. The 54-45 win means they face Jamaica in the semi-finals on Saturday. “It was guts and a lot of hard work that got us through that performance,” Neville said. The coach paid tribute to the 33-year-old Mentor, who made her England debut against New Zealand in 2001 aged 16 and is widely considered one of the world’s best defenders. “Geva is so experienced,” Neville said. “It’s brilliant to have her at the back, she comes through when we need her. I always joke she’s not retiring until she gets a gold medal. You talk about people starting to dip at the end of their career, she’s just got better and better. She’s like a fine wine.” Mentor, who is from Bournemouth and plays her club netball for Sunshine Coast Lightning in Australia, said beating New Zealand, the No 2-ranked team in the world after Australia, in a major tournament was a breakthrough, despite the Kiwis’ faltering form. “It’s important for us to have that win,” she said. “We’ve done it the past couple of times but we’ve never done it in a major tournament. We mean business and if we want to achieve it and go all the way into that gold-medal final, we’ve got to beat every team. “We knew New Zealand were definitely going to be hurting after that loss to Malawi and we knew they’d have a point to prove. The number of girls playing in Australia – we have that experience now. We’re collectively able to pull together as a team. It’s exciting netball, exciting for the crowd and for us as a team to be able to hold off when we know New Zealand are coming back at us. It’s character building.” The woes of England’s track and field team continued when the high-jumper Robbie Grabarz, a bronze medallist at the London Olympics in 2012, failed with three attempts at 2.21m. However, Dina Asher-Smith and Zharnel Hughes qualified comfortably for their respective 200m finals and have a good chance of restoring some glory to the team. Hughes, who is originally from Anguilla and trains in Jamaica at Racers Track Club, the former base of Usain Bolt, looked in imperious form has he won his semi-final in 20.37sec. Asher-Smith, Britain’s fastest woman over 100m and 200m, came second in her semi-final behind Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, who is also joined in the final by her compatriots Elaine Thompson and Sashalee Forbes. “Obviously you want to go and win a semi-final but I eased off,” Asher-Smith said. “You can get into a tear-up if you want to and there was a little thing in the back of my mind reminding me it was a semi-final. I’m really excited. I ran 22.44 and I feel good so I’m happy with that.” The 22-year-old said she was not feeling any additional pressure after other established names in the England team, including Grabarz, Andrew Pozzi and Sophie Hitchon, failed to deliver in recent days. “I don’t pay attention to what’s happening outside the bubble,” she said, “so I don’t know what’s been said. But we all want to come out here and do well and we all want each other to do well. We are a team so there’s no individual pressure.” | ['sport/netball', 'sport/commonwealth-games-2018', 'sport/commonwealth-games', 'sport/sport', 'sport/australia-sport', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/martha-kelner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/commonwealth-games-2018 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-11T16:24:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
lifeandstyle/2023/nov/25/air-pollution-impacting-pregnancy-mens-reproductive-health | Prenatal exposure to air pollution may hurt reproductive health in adult men, study finds | In-utero exposure to common air pollutants may lower semen quality and increase the risk of reproductive system disease in men, new research finds. The peer-reviewed Rutgers University study looked at whether exposure to particulate matter called 2.5 (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxide may shorten the distance between the anus and genitals, or the anogenital distance, in developing fetuses and newborns. Crucially, anogenital distance is a marker of reproductive health related to hormone levels, lower semen quality, fertility and reproductive disorders, and the research identified a likely link between it and exposure to the pollutants. “When we see shorter anogenital lengths, it’s telling us there is lower testosterone activity in the womb … and it may have implications for fertility and reproductive health down the road,” said Emily Barrett, a biostatistics and epidemiology professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, and the study’s lead author. The findings come amid growing concern over global drops in semen quality, which have so far been tied to exposure to other toxins like PFAS and phthalates. Sperm concentration levels have dropped by 51% in recent decades, and the Rutgers study is among the first “to suggest that the air around is contributing to that, as well”, Barrett added. PM2.5 is among the most common and well-studied air pollutants, and is linked to cancer and respiratory and circulatory disease. Among common sources are diesel exhaust, heavy industry emissions and wildfires, and the Environmental Protection Agency is poised to lower ambient air limits as evidence of its toxicity at smaller exposures becomes clearer. Nitrogen oxide is a common toxin linked to cardiopulmonary disease, decreased lung function growth in children, asthma and other respiratory ailments. Among common sources are heavy industry, like power plants, and traffic. In animal studies, anogenital distance is used to determine developmental toxicity of pollutants – reduced distances are a sign that a toxic exposure is interfering with fetal testosterone production. Researchers suspected that the same might hold true in humans and pulled anogenital distance data from The Infant Development and Environment Study (Tides), an ongoing study of about 700 pregnant women and their children launched in 2010 in Minneapolis; Rochester, New York; San Francisco and Seattle. It tracks anogenital distance at birth in children, and at one year for boys. The study compared Tides data with air pollution levels in the residential neighborhoods where the study’s participants lived. Researchers identified a link between elevated PM2.5 exposure during the “male programming window” at the first trimester’s conclusion and anogenital distance. The male fetus typically develops testosterone during this period, and that affects anogenital distance at birth. “Testosterone is really important for the development of the male reproductive system, and anything that disrupts that normal testosterone surge during gestation has the potential to then have a cascade of effects that impacts all future reproductive development,” Barrett said. The researchers also found a link between PM2.5 exposure during “mini puberty”, a period in early infancy when hormone production is high, and shorter anogenital distance in males at one year old. PM2.5 may also carry other toxins, like cadmium and lead, that interfere with hormone production. Though the study didn’t include women, those women with longer anogenital distances are at higher risk of polycystic ovary syndrome, Barrett said. The best way for pregnant people to protect their fetuses is to follow air quality advisories and stay indoors when pollution levels are high. N95 masks can be used outdoors, and furnace filters with a rating of MERV 13 are effective at reducing indoor air pollution. Policymakers and regulators should also be doing more to rein in pollution and not leaving it to individuals to protect themselves, Barrett added. “This is a public health issue that impacts all of us and there should really be a nationwide and worldwide effort to reduce air pollution,” she said. | ['lifeandstyle/pregnancy', 'environment/air-pollution', 'science/medical-research', 'society/health', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tom-perkins', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-11-25T12:00:49Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
lifeandstyle/2015/may/20/garlic-zoom-kitchen-gadgets-review-leprechaun-perspex-stagecoach | Kitchen gadgets review: the Garlic Zoom – a leprechaun’s Perspex stagecoach | What? The Garlic Zoom (£9.99, firebox.com), a rollable chamber, housing revolving blades. Manual propulsion minces garlic cloves or root ginger; chopped product can be collected in the chamber’s upper hemisphere. It aims to replace the garlic press or, er, a knife. Why? For when you want chopped garlic, but can’t be bothered to chop garlic. Or are scared of garlic. Fair enough if you have problems holding a knife, but not if you’re worried about garlic fingers, or are incredibly lazy. How are you going to cook the rest of the meal? This is the easiest bit. Well? According to the packaging, Garlic Zoom was created by “David A Holcombe, Famous Inventor”. The words are self-undermining, but I like the attitude. It is what an eight-year-old would write on his pencil case. In fact, with big green wheels and mini blades that resemble ninja throwing stars, the Garlic Zoom does feel a bit child-designed. It is not very efficient – two peeled cloves crammed inside feels crowded, and to get anything like a uniform chop you have to zoom the carriage back and forth hard, like an only child furiously rolling a Tonka truck, or someone trying to erase a mistake. Which doesn’t feel like cooking. It cuts fine – as in OK – but the pouring hatch is redundant: you have to fish around with a finger to get the sticky stuff out. Ginger may fare better, but there will still be fiddly blade-washing afterwards, so either way your fingers are going to see some blue plasters. However, the real problem isn’t that it doesn’t work; it is that you don’t need it. In use, the cogs mesh smoothly and the wheels have a pleasing traction, thanks to their thick rubber trim. But this is garlic-chopping, not the Indy 500. Why are we talking about wheel trim? I am telling you now: Gordon Ramsay did not earn his chops mincing garlic in a Perspex gizmo that looks like a leprechaun’s stagecoach. If you must spend some money, go and buy a good knife. Redeeming features It claws a point for the quirky, compact design, and the easy separation of parts for washing. However, it still creates too much washing up for chopped garlic, and at a tenner, is not particularly cheap. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? Back of the cupboard. Or an elf’s garage. 1/5 | ['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'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-05-20T12:57:54Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/nov/26/green-groups-fear-victorian-logging-ban-may-actually-endanger-some-old-growth-forest | Green groups fear Victorian logging ban may actually endanger some old growth forest | Environment groups have raised doubts about the Victorian government’s promise to protect 90,000 hectares of old growth forest, just weeks after the Andrews government announced a major transition plan for Victoria’s timber industry. Six organisations, including The Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth and Environment Victoria, have expressed fears that the government will open up some areas currently mapped as old growth to logging. In a letter to the premier, Daniel Andrews, and the environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, the groups have called on the government to clarify how it plans to implement its promises, which include an immediate ban on old growth logging. Current maps used for native timber harvesting identify areas of old growth forest that are off limits to logging, but the groups fear some of these areas may be opened up under a new verification system. The government is developing a tool that would be used by VicForests to verify in the field what is and is not old growth. The groups say the existing models should instead be used to immediately protect all patches of forest mapped as old growth. Amelia Young, the Wilderness Society’s Victorian campaigns manager, said they were concerned the government’s field verification plan would leave some areas currently identified as old growth vulnerable. She said the groups were also concerned that old growth that falls outside of the existing mapped areas could “fall through the cracks”. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “The government must immediately confirm which 90,000 hectares of modelled old growth it is protecting from logging,” Young said. “It’s only necessary to verify what is and isn’t old growth in areas the government intends to log to make sure it is effectively banning old growth logging as promised.” The concerns have similarities to those raised in NSW earlier this year about remapping of old growth forest that had been proposed by the NSW government. “There is no need – indeed it is not practically feasible – to field-verify 90,000 hectares of mapped modelled old growth; it simply just requires immediate protection, in line with the promise,” the organisations say in their letter. Ed Hill, the spokesman for Friends of the Earth and the Goongerah Environment Centre, said the lack of detail from the government since its announcement had caused concern. “It’s just astonishing that the government would announce a ban on old growth logging and have no clear answer on how they will implement it,” he said. “They’ve told Victorians that 90,000 hectares of old growth will be protected and they can’t tell Victorians how that’s going to happen. They announced an immediate ban on old growth logging and in East Gippsland we’re seeing old growth logging occurring right now in areas mapped as old growth that should be protected.” Draft field procedures for the identification of old growth forest were released for public consultation by Victoria’s conservation regulator on 21 November 2019. The consultation will close on 23 December. The draft procedures will be used by VicForests and monitored by the regulator. “We’re protecting all old growth forest in the field – based on current models, there’s about 90,000 hectares of old growth forest left in areas that were previously available for timber harvesting,” a government spokeswoman said. | ['environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/victorian-politics', 'world/daniel-andrews', 'environment/deforestation', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-11-25T17:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2014/dec/16/greenpeace-activists-could-face-extradition | Greenpeace activists could face extradition over protest in Peru | Peru will seek to extradite the Greenpeace activists whom it accuses of causing “irreparable damage” to the Nazca lines during a publicity stunt meant to send a message to the UN climate talks delegates in Lima, the country’s vice-minister for culture said on Tuesday. “We will extradite them and bring them to face their penal and civil responsibility,” Luis Jaime Castillo told state media. “Our heritage has been tarnished by this action. Now everyone wants to go the Nazca lines, but to see the area affected by Greenpeace’s actions,” he added. Castillo told the Guardian that Peruvian authorities had identified six members of the group who participated in the protest at the Unesco world heritage site last week, adding that prosecutors have filed charges of attacking archaeological monuments - a crime punishable by up to six years in prison. But the minister said Greenpeace had refused to name all the protesters – leaving Peru no choice but to pursue it “through our legal means”. “Greenpeace says it wants to take responsibility but in not giving us the names so that those responsible can appear before a judge in Peru it is refusing to do that,” he told the Guardian. “It’s a contradiction in terms.” “It makes you wonder if they really are as ashamed as they say they are.” As UN climate talks began in Peru’s capital last week, around 20 activists entered a restricted area to leave sign reading “Time for Change! The Future is Renewable” beside the giant figure of hummingbird scratched in the desert ground more than 1,000 years ago. Archaeologists say footprints left by the activists could remain in the arid desert ground for decades. Castillo said that footage of the protest showed the activists acting as if they were on a “picnic”. “Peru is not asking for money, first we want to know what happened and for those responsible to face justice,” he said. “It’s not a matter of money. The destruction is irreparable,” said Ana María Cogorno, president of the Maria Reiche Association, named after the German archaeologist whose groundbreaking research on the Nazca lines from 1940 onwards saw them gain recognition and protection. The hummingbird etching on which the Greenpeace stunt was laid was the “only one of the lines which was completely untouched and perfectly conserved,” she said. “It’s one of the symbols of Peru,” she added. After a meeting with Greenpeace’s executive director, Kumi Naidoo, on Monday, Peru’s minister for culture, Diana Álvarez-Calderón, said the group’s failure to reveal the protesters’ names amounted to a “ kind of cover-up”. She said Naidoo had asked for 30 days for Greenpeace to carry out an internal investigation. The activists have all returned to their home countries – believed to include Germany, Colombia and Argentina. Last week a Peruvian judge rejected prosecutors’ request to keep the activists in the country to face questioning, citing incomplete information. “We respect the judiciary but we don’t agree with how they acted on this occasion, Álvarez-Calderón told reporters later, adding that while Greenpeace had apologised it “did not repair the damage to our heritage”. “We have to continue the process when a person is not in Peru – extradition if the judge decides so or civil reparation,” she said. She also said that an activist who appeared on a promotional video released by Greenpeace had been located and was expected to reveal who had been part of the team, as well as the identity of the archaeologist who took them to the site. In a blogpost on Tuesday John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, made clear his disapproval of the stunt, which was apparently organised to highlight the slow progress of the United Nations climate talks in Lima. “For many years, Greenpeace offices around the world have been making concerted efforts to reach out to and collaborate with communities everywhere. We understand the importance of being a respectful ally who can learn from our partners and ensure the work we do reflects and supports all communities. This action did not measure up to that commitment. But this activity is not who we are. It is not what we believe in, and this is not what I believe in,” Sauven wrote. Kyle Ash, a Greenpeace spokesman, said that the group had taken “every care” to avoid any damage. “The surprise to us was that this resulted in some kind of moral offence. We definitely regret that and we want to figure out a way to resolve it.” | ['world/peru', 'environment/greenpeace', 'science/archaeology', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-collyns'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-12-16T21:23:40Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
technology/2014/nov/27/gopro-consumer-drones-faa-aviation-risks | GoPro tipped to launch consumer drones as FAA mulls aviation risks | Daredevil videos shot using GoPro’s range of wearable cameras are increasingly popular on YouTube, but now the company is reportedly working on another way to capture startling footage: drones. GoPro will launch its first consumer drones late in 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal, which suggested that the company may undercut established firms in that market by pricing its devices at between $500 and $1,000. Several of those rivals already support GoPro in their existing drones, which can be customised to carry its cameras and shoot video from the air. Making consumer drones more affordable – a trend that will go beyond GoPro – will ensure more of them are buzzing through the skies. Which, in turn, may provide a growing headache for aviation authorities concerned at the risks to planes. News of GoPro’s plans came as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released records showing that since 1 June 2014, there have been 25 separate examples of small drones involved in “near mid-air collisions” incidents with planes and helicopters in the US. The incidents, published by the Washington Post, include a drone coming within 10 feet of the left wing of a Boeing 737 arriving in New York; several flights reporting drones coming within 100 feet while flying at heights of 3,000 or 4,000 feet; and a drone flying circles around a police helicopter in New York, resulting in the apprehension of its operator on the ground. The release of the incident reports came as the FAA and other aviation authorities are mulling changes to legislation on how and where drones can be flown, whether owned by individuals, or operated by companies. In the US, personal drones can be flown at up to 400 feet, as long as they are not within five miles of an airport or other restricted areas, notes the Post, which adds that more than 500,000 small drones have been sold in the US alone in the last three years. A separate investigation by the Washington Post earlier in 2014 found that more than 400 large US military drones had crashed around the world in the past 13 years, including collisions with homes, runways, and one air force transport plane in midair. Drones are also causing regulators to consider their impact on privacy. Earlier in November, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued new guidance on the operation of drones, stressing that their operators should alert people before recording them, plan their flights in advance, and always keen their drones in sight. • Christmas gift: attack of the drones | ['technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'world/drones', 'travel/flights', 'technology/startups', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stuart-dredge'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-11-27T11:16:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/apr/19/country-diary-a-question-of-land-use-that-has-no-easy-answers | Country diary: A question of land use that has no easy answers | Kate Blincoe | The massive oak trunk lies close to where it fell, now carved into a bench. I sit there, feeling the balm of long-awaited spring sunshine on my face. Across the valley, the hay meadows are greening up, promising bales and bales of goodness for the horses. The hum of the bypass is, for a few minutes, overpowered by the piercing trill of a skylark, rising up just a few metres from me, rising up just a few metres from me. I smile at the walkers passing by. As spring revives the landscape, so too does it beckon people. Much of the local countryside here is inaccessible, often behind barbed wire and “keep out” signs. Here at High Ash Farm, miles of wide grass tracks are freely accessible to the public; my dad has even created a small parking area for walkers. Being close to a city brings some difficulties, but also opportunities to share nature. It means hundreds of people care about the farm and become unofficial custodians, picking up litter and reporting broken fences. Maybe, as tenant farmers, my brother and dad have an in-built knowledge that this land is not theirs to possess. But change looms. Parking charges are under consideration at the nearby remains of a Roman town that are popular with walkers. Maintaining the site is expensive, especially as there have been recent problems with public behaviour. Yet the risk is that this will increase traffic on the surrounding narrow lanes here, as drivers seek places on verges and the farm’s free parking spots. A little owl perches on the fence post behind me. With a strict, yellow gaze, it watches over everyone like a grumpy park-keeper. Strictly speaking, it’s the owl that’s not meant to be here – the species having been introduced to the UK from Europe in the 19th century – but here it is. A dog on a long extending lead runs near, sniffing at the ground, and the owl flies off with a bumpy, undulating flight, like a light plane hitting turbulence. I resist the urge to frown at those who disturbed my moment. The child in me wants this place all to myself, but the adult knows it is not mine. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/forests', 'uk-news/norfolk', 'environment/farming', 'science/agriculture', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-blincoe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-04-19T04:30:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2022/oct/07/energy-crisis-it-isnt-that-we-have-too-little-oil-and-gas-we-have-too-much-lucas | Energy crisis? It isn’t that we have too little oil and gas. It’s that we have too much | Caroline Lucas | Hurricane Ian has just swept across the Caribbean and the US east coast. It’s likely to become the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history. The entirety of Cuba lost power for several days; homes have been flattened; and repairing the devastation could cost billions. Hurricanes are a natural meteorological phenomenon, but one study has already found that the climate emergency directly added 10% more rainfall to Hurricane Ian. Arguably, we are already in the eye of an even bigger, global storm – and with every fraction of a degree of global heating, the damage escalates. Yet as politicians are preoccupied by the global energy price crisis, they are deliberately failing to join the dots. It is the soaring cost of gas, precipitated by Russia’s devastating war in Ukraine, that has tipped us over into eye-watering energy bills, and put supply volatility under the microscope. We know that fossil fuels are the root cause, and we know that breaking our dependence and keeping them in the ground is our only way out. Yet for some reason, we haven’t stopped digging. Why? Because major fossil fuel giants, and the nations propping them up, are acting like tobacco companies, stonewalling any efforts to reduce – let alone end – global fossil fuel production. Global climate diplomacy has now become an anti-smoking campaign which is too afraid to mention the word “cigarettes”. The landmark 2015 Paris agreement failed to contain a single reference to fossil fuels, and the Cop26 Glasgow climate pact agreed last year could only “call upon” countries to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” – as if they are ever efficient. Even the language on coal was diluted to a thin gruel, from “phase out” to “phase down”. No wonder the fossil fuel industry is thriving, and we’ve not yet ditched our deadly 40-a-day habit. We need a global solution to end this stitch-up, with fairness and security at its heart to ensure no country is left behind in the energy transition – and this is why the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty is so significant. Modelled on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which has been signed by 191 countries worldwide, it complements existing UN frameworks with three new specific goals: to end to all new fossil fuel exploration and production; to phase out existing fossil fuel production in line with 1.5C; and to adopt a just transition for every worker, community and country. The treaty has so far been backed by more than 65 cities and sub-national governments across the world. And just a matter of days ago, the island state of Vanuatu became the first country to throw its weight behind the treaty. The global south is at the sharp end of the climate emergency – countries such as Vanuatu understand that every fraction of a degree matters to the very survival of their people, and every drop of oil makes a difference. Any successful global agreement to shift away from fossil fuels for good will rely on knowing what the fossil fuel giants are planning when it comes to future drilling and pumping. That’s where the global registry of fossil fuels comes in. The world’s first public database of fossil fuel production, reserves and emissions, developed by Carbon Tracker and Global Energy Monitor, contains data for more than 50,000 fields in 89 countries, covering 75% of global production. And it’s already found that producing and burning the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves would bust our remaining carbon budget for 1.5C more than seven times over. This reality exposes the absurdity of countries like ours, which are ploughing ahead with new production and infrastructure – such as major North Sea oil and gas fields including Cambo and Jackdaw – fuelling our toxic fossil fuel habit and leading to a vicious cycle of locked-in emissions. The need to keep fossil fuels in the ground is undeniable. But in this energy crisis, a clean, green, cheap and long-term alternative is needed in their place – and fortunately, it’s ready and waiting. Here in the UK, renewables are now a staggering nine times cheaper than gas; and on a global scale, solar and wind has the potential to meet our planet’s energy demand 100 times over. It just needs the political will to adopt the infrastructure at speed and scale. And it’s starting to happen. Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August, has been labelled “the biggest step forward on climate ever” – it directed $369bn of investment towards renewable energy and reducing the US’s current astronomical emissions. Even here in the UK, the one tiny silver lining from Kwasi Kwarteng’s omnishambles mini-budget was the unblocking of onshore wind – one of the cheapest and most popular forms of energy generation. But no matter how many new renewables we bring online, our security will continue to be undermined unless they are a replacement for, rather than simply an additionto, the fossil fuels in the global registry. When the storm is rapidly gathering, and the window of a safe and liveble future is rapidly closing, we must unite to keep fossil fuels in the ground for good. Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/series/guardian-climate-pledge-2022', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/carolinelucas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-membership'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-10-07T07:00:51Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2023/jan/11/california-storms-latest-atmospheric-river | Storm-ravaged California scrambles as fresh atmospheric river rolls in | California is facing a new round of brutal storms that will bring torrential downpours and gale force winds in the north as the state scrambles to clean up and repair widespread damage amid a break in the weather. The state has been ravaged by a relentless string of storms that have killed at least 17 people – a number the governor warned was likely to grow. The bout of extreme weather has closed highways, knocked out trees and infrastructure and cut power to thousands of people. More than half of California’s 58 counties have been declared disaster areas. The newest round of storms is forecast to hit the northern coast, where the threat of flooding will persist until Friday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. A wind advisory is in effect in some areas, which could see gusts of up to 60mph (96.5km/h). The plume of moisture lurking off the coast stretched all the way over the Pacific to Hawaii, making it “a true Pineapple Express”, the NWS said. Meanwhile, southern California will see a break in rains until the weekend, when more wet weather is forecast. Communities across the state are working to pick up the pieces after days of severe rain, wind and flooding. This week’s storm, which began on Monday, was one in a series that began in late December and repairing the damage may cost more than $1bn, said Adam Smith, a disaster expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Los Angeles Times reported. Crews worked to reopen major highways that were closed by rockslides, swamped by flooding or smothered with mud. More than 10,000 people who were ordered out of seaside towns on the central coast were allowed to return home. They included Montecito, a wealthy Santa Barbara county community that is home to Prince Harry, Meghan, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities, where 23 people died and more than 100 homes were destroyed in a mudslide five years ago. In the Rancho Oso area of the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara, mud and debris across the roadway isolated about 400 people and 70 horses, the Santa Barbara county fire department said on Twitter, posting a photo of a vehicle stuck in the mud. Officials in central California resumed the search for a five-year-old boy who was swept away by raging floodwaters this week near the small village of San Miguel, the local sheriff’s department said. While some emergency orders were lifted, thousands of people living near rain-swollen creeks and rivers remained under evacuation. In the San Joaquin Valley, raging waters from Bear Creek flooded parts of the city of Merced and neighboring Planada, a small agricultural community along a highway leading to Yosemite national park. Neighborhoods were under water with cars submerged up to their roofs, and all 4,000 residents of Planada were ordered to leave Tuesday morning. Other evacuations were ordered because of levee breaches in parts of Monterey county. The torrential rains, along with heavy snow in mountain areas, are caused by “atmospheric rivers” of dense moisture funneled into California from the tropical Pacific. The storms brought unprecedented amounts of rain coupled with furious winds and even hail and lightning that knocked down trees and damaged electrical lines in many areas. More than 52,000 homes and businesses remained without power as of early Wednesday, according to data from Poweroutage.us. The wet and blustery weather has highlighted the grave risks facing California’s large unhoused population. At least two homeless people in Sacramento county died after trees fell on their tents and more than a dozen people were rescued from a homeless encampment on the Ventura River. Theo Harris, who has lived on San Francisco’s streets since 2016, fortified his shelter with tarps and zip ties on Tuesday and took in his girlfriend after her tent flooded. “The wind has been treacherous, but you just got to bundle up and make sure you stay dry,” Harris said. “Rain is part of life. It’s going to be sunny. It’s going to rain. I just got to strap my boots up and not give up.” In San Francisco, a tree fell on a commuter bus on Tuesday without causing injuries and lightning struck the city’s Transamerica Pyramid building without damage. High winds also ripped away part of the roof on a large apartment building. Further south, mudslides damaged some homes in pricey Los Angeles hillside areas, while further up the coast a sinkhole damaged 15 homes in the rural Santa Barbara county community of Orcutt. Kevin Costner, best actor winner in a television drama series for Yellowstone, was unable to attend Tuesday’s Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles because of the weather. The presenter Regina Hall said he was sheltering in place in Santa Barbara due to flooding. The growing frequency and intensity of such storms, interspersed with extreme heat and dry spells, are symptoms of the climate crisis, experts say. Though the rain and snow will help replenish reservoirs and aquifers, a mere two weeks of precipitation will not solve two decades of drought. | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/climate-crisis-in-the-american-west', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dani-anguiano', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | us-news/climate-crisis-in-the-american-west | GLOBAL_CRISIS | 2023-01-11T19:47:54Z | true | GLOBAL_CRISIS |
environment/2017/mar/31/is-it-now-socially-acceptable-to-challenge-climate-denial | Is it socially acceptable to challenge climate denial? | Adam Corner | When does a social attitude become morally unacceptable enough that it is OK to challenge and confront it? That is the question that motivated a new study conducted at the University of Exeter in which participants were given descriptions of people being confronted after expressing certain views. When the views expressed a disregard for racial equality, the confrontations were approved of. But challenging – even politely – a disregard for climate change was seen as carrying a social cost by the students taking part in the experiment. Participants in the study felt less warm towards the character in the scenario (and were less likely to want to be friends with them) when they challenged views dismissive of climate change. The findings add to a long line of research showing the importance of social norms in guiding people’s attitudes and behaviours. But they might also tell us something important about the value of publicly debunking climate change contrarians. Clearly, neither people nor the planet are well-served by accepting, propagating or ignoring myths and falsehoods. But the potential collateral damage caused by challenging climate denial is important to consider too. It is well known that what drives people’s views on climate change are values and political ideology rather than levels of knowledge about climate science. Dismissing climate change has become a social norm on the right of US politics – reaction to the Republican party’s dismantling of Barack Obama’s energy policies is the most vivid current example – and is present to a lesser extent in the UK. What if debunking climate sceptics allows minor battles to be won, but risks losing the bigger fight for public opinion by stepping over invisible but powerful social lines? Bridging the ideological divide on climate change is essential. But that means changing the prevailing social norms – not ignoring them. While a lot of attention has been given to communicating the scientific consensus on climate change and concerns raised about the fact that people consistently underestimate it, the social consensus may be just as important. Several studies have shown that while most people in the UK are in favour of renewables, they don’t think other people are. Because of the continuing social silence around climate change and the space given to contrarian views in the media, the sense that other people don’t care is widespread – even when they do. Emphasising positive social norms is an important way of dispelling misconceptions around others’ views, and can help build momentum for a society to move towards lower carbon emissions. A commitment to the truth is a non-negotiable component of any credible communication around climate change, but campaign strategies also need to go with the grain of human behaviour. And if the unsettling swing towards “post-truth” discourse has taught us anything, it is that being right is not the same thing as being persuasive. Climate communicators need to get better at doing both at the same time. | ['environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/adam-corner', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2017-03-31T10:46:48Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
news/2024/oct/03/soakings-and-the-city-urban-areas-found-to-intensify-summer-storms | Soakings and the city: urban areas found to intensify summer storms | Cities are magnets for summer rainstorms and now it turns out that they also intensify storms, raising the risk of flash flooding. The larger the city, the more of a deluge it generates, and as climate warms and cities grow, the greater this problem is likely to become. Herminia Torelló-Sentelles, from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and her colleagues studied seven years of rainfall data from eight cities in Europe and the US. The cities varied in size, climate and shape, but all of them were in relatively flat regions and far from large bodies of water. They found that larger cities – such as London and Phoenix – received summer rainfall that was both more intense (up to 11%) and concentrated (up to 15%) than that of their surrounding areas. Meanwhile, smaller cities such as Milan saw rainfall intensify by about 4%. This extra summer rain is likely to be triggered by a number of factors, including the urban heat island effect, air pollution and city skylines (which act like mini mountain ranges). All of these help to drive warm air rapidly upwards where it condenses into rain clouds. Reporting in the journal Earth’s Future, the researchers say that city planners need to beef up urban drainage systems, put in more flood-resilient infrastructure and prepare for summer rain that pours down. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/london', 'uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-03T05:00:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2024/mar/15/eu-approves-watered-down-human-rights-and-supply-chain-law | EU approves watered-down human rights and supply chain law | EU countries have slashed the scope of a law to make companies hunt down human rights abuse and environmental harm in their supply chains. The EU’s corporate sustainability directive, which was agreed in December but nearly scuttled after a minor coalition partner in the German government withdrew its support, was approved by member states on Friday after a month-long search for compromise and further lobbying from France and Italy. Lara Wolters, a Dutch MEP with the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) grouping who led negotiations for the European parliament, said the new law would help “stop businesses from looking away from very real human misery and destruction” but criticised member states who “persistently delayed” the adoption of the agreement. The Belgian government, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, thrashed out a compromise that limits the number of companies expected to comply. The new agreement applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees, up from 500, and a net turnover of €450m (£385m) – triple the amount previously agreed. Environmental groups estimate the changes will exclude 70% of the companies the law was meant to cover. EU governments have “killed two-thirds of the law” and the impact that it could have had, said Uku Lilleväli, a sustainable finance policy officer at WWF. “The EU countries endorsed the much-needed due diligence law, but at what cost? We’re left with bare bones, with an already weak framework that now covers only a fraction of all large companies.” The rules, which must be voted on in the European parliament before they come into force, provide a framework for communities to sue EU companies for human rights abuses and environmental harm in their supply chains. But efforts to water down the rules mean fewer companies will have to set targets to cut pollution and adopt climate transition plans than previously agreed and will have more time to comply. Member states also gutted a provision that would force companies to offer managers financial incentives to hit climate goals. Aurélie Skrobik, a corporate accountability campaigner at Global Witness, said it was an affront by national governments but a relief that there was a law at all. “This law is a shadow of what it should have been – and what negotiators agreed in December.” Opponents of the law argued it would place too big a burden on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who secured extra support in the final agreement, and would raise the potential for legal challenges. Markus Beyrer, the director general of lobby group BusinessEurope, said the new rules added “unparalleled obligations” and imposed harsh sanctions on companies that would expose them to litigation. “SMEs, even though they are theoretically out of the scope of the directive, will be negatively affected as they make up the largest part of value chains,” he said. The Chinese chamber of commerce to the EU said in a post on X that the law “could be very concerning” and warned of possible trade disruptions and cost increases. “We call for urgent clarification, and the EU should refrain from erecting market barriers that hinder non-EU producers.” Industry groups had found support in the German Free Democrats party, which opposed the law after having previously agreed to it. It sparked a public fight within Germany’s governing coalition of the centre-left Social Democratic party and Greens. “If we break our word after having pledged our support in Brussels, we risk losing the trust placed in us,” said the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock of the Greens, in February. The German government abstained on the vote on Friday, which only secured enough votes after Italy threw in its support. Campaigners decried the 11th-hour horse-trading as undemocratic. Anaïs Berthier, the head of the Brussels office of environmental law campaign group ClientEarth, said corporate pressure and political games had “butchered” an opportunity to revolutionise how business is done in the EU. “This disrespect for the rule of law is an unsettling trend that we are witnessing across several environmental laws still being approved,” she said. “It’s a worrying sign of things to come in the run-up to the EU elections.” | ['world/eu', 'world/world', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'law/human-rights', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ajit-niranjan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2024-03-15T16:58:38Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2011/apr/26/chernobyl-lessons-missed-research-gaps | Chernobyl lessons missed because of research gaps, says radiation expert | The long-term health effects of Chernobyl remain unclear 25 years after the most serious nuclear accident in history, according to a former World Health Organisation (WHO) official. A full assessment of the public health impact has been thwarted by poorly co-ordinated research on residents in areas close to the plant, and should be carried out with funding from the European commission, said Keith Baverstock, a former health and radiation adviser to the WHO. He said research had been frustrated by pro- and anti-nuclear lobby groups who had turned the debate over health risks into a battleground. Crucial lessons on how to respond to nuclear emergencies and quell public anxiety had been missed by governments and authorities such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In an editorial in the British Medical Journal to mark the anniversary of the disaster, Baverstock calls for comprehensive research into cancers, birth defects and other health problems among 600,000 people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. "Much could still be learnt and 'no evidence of health damage' after comprehensive investigation would be a valuable result," he writes. The project should be funded by the European commission and would cost €10m (£8.8m) for the first 10 years, Baverstock told the Guardian. A similar programme is under way to monitor the health of survivors of the nuclear bomb attacks on Japan in 1945. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and caught fire on 26 April 1986, blasting vast quantities of radioactive material into the atmosphere where it drifted across European borders. Health restrictions are still in place at some UK farms after radioactive caesium from the plant blew over and contaminated pastureland. The incident is thought to have caused 6,000 extra cases of thyroid cancer in people who were children at the time. Inaction by the Soviet authorities meant there was no ban on milk and other foodstuffs contaminated with radioactive iodine, which is now known to cause the cancer. In Japan, officials took swift action after the Fukushima power plant leaked radiation last month, distributing protective iodine pills to local residents. The spread of radioactive material across Europe in 1986 led to widespread chaos as food bans were introduced in some countries and not others, and governments issued conflicting travel advice, a run of events now playing out in Japan, said Baverstock, who is now based at the University of Eastern Finland. "Although information abounds, little of it is usable, especially in terms of determining the potential effect on public health, and its truthfulness is doubtful," the editorial states. In the first days of the Fukushima crisis, the engagement of both the WHO and IAEA "was notable by its absence", a situation Baverstock describes as "institutional failure". After Chernobyl, the WHO set up a nuclear emergency project office to co-ordinate its response to future nuclear accidents, but the office was closed in 2000. Baverstock argues that the health implications of Chernobyl have become a battleground for pro- and anti-nuclear lobbies that "seek to interpret the effects or absence of effects to their own advantage and are apparently unwilling to find the truth". "Apart from exacerbating the psychosocial effects on those directly affected, this situation has prevented a comprehensive evaluation of the importance of the event to public health," he writes. Geraldine Thomas, director of the Chernobyl tissue bank at Imperial College, London, said lifespan studies that monitor the health of people around Chernobyl would be valuable, if only to prove there were no other long-term consequences from the accident. But she said putting too much emphasis on questions that may never be answered could raise unnecessary fears. "Telling a whole population that it may have health consequences at some point in its lifetime is not good for that population psychologically and we possibly do more harm than good in this respect," she said. | ['environment/chernobyl-nuclear-disaster', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'society/health', 'world/ukraine', 'world/european-commission', 'world/world', 'society/society', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-04-26T06:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/oct/24/paul-barrett-ceo-hysata-hydrogen-company-joins-australian-pm-anthony-albanese-joe-biden-visit-us-clean-energy | Australian hydrogen company boss joins PM on Biden visit to explore US clean energy opportunities | The chief executive of an Australian company that builds commercial-scale electrolysers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen will join a business delegation accompanying the prime minister’s four-day official visit to the US to explore clean energy opportunities created by the Biden administration’s US$369bn Inflation Reduction Act. Paul Barrett, the chief executive of Hysata, says the company expects to ramp up to as much as one gigawatt of capacity annually within years. “We’ve delivered ahead of time, ahead of budget and we’re ramping up really rapidly with the space to do it,” Barrett said, referring to the company’s new site near Port Kembla, south of Sydney. Barrett said the company had “made some pretty outstanding progress” in the past year. “We want to be the world’s biggest electrolyser company and definitely have the technology to do that,” he said. Hysata, which works on technology originally developed at the University of Wollongong, received more than $23m in grants from the federal and Queensland government. Those funds, along with $42.5m of its own capital raising, will support the development of electrolysers that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen with about 95% energy efficiency and just 5% waste. Hydrogen, particularly produced using renewable energy, is expected to become a major new energy source to replace fossil fuels in the production of steel, aluminium and other industrial processes. Among the challenges, though, will be getting the price of hydrogen low enough to compete, particularly in the absence of carbon price. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The company is not expected to make fresh announcements during this week’s visit to the US. Of interest, though, will be exploring opportunities generated by the Biden administration’s US$369bn (A$585bn) clean energy investment portion of the Inflation Reduction Act. “We’ve got huge interest from the global investment community and in what we’re doing and we’ll be tapping into that at the appropriate time,” Barrett said. Vestas, one of the world’s largest producers of wind turbines, is among the investors, as is IPGroup. Hysata employs about 60 staff now, a number that will probably swell to the hundreds next year. The company has bought the equipment needed to build 100 megawatts of electrolyser capacity a year, and will have the line operating next year, Barrett said. The plant is designed to replicated to meet “conditional pre-orders and letters of intent” for gigawatts of more capacity, with a further 40-50GW in the pipeline. “These are pretty big, multibillion dollars of [signings] and, you know, tens of billions of dollars in a pipeline,” he said. “We’ve got tailwinds that I think is getting us a lot of international exposure.” | ['environment/hydrogen-power', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2023-10-24T00:36:40Z | true | ENERGY |
books/2017/jul/18/neil-degrasse-tyson-fighting-science-denial-starts-with-people-not-politicians | Neil deGrasse Tyson: fighting science denial starts with people, not politicians | Albert Einstein has been called many things: a genius, a pioneer, a Nobel prize winner. Neil deGrasse Tyson just calls him a badass. “I think it fits, right? It’s not a stretch,” he tells Guardian Australia before his appearance in Melbourne on Saturday night. “The dude’s a badass.” This description of the father of modern physics is one of many notable turns of phrase in Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, the latest book from the astrophysicist and host of the StarTalk podcast. He is currently touring Australia with Think Inc to promote the book and talk about the science of the universe, with shows in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. The book has had an extraordinary global reception, placing in the top five of the New York Times’ bestseller list for 10 weeks. Its success reflects a broader appetite around the world for science told with passion and conviction, outside of high school textbooks. Tyson stresses, though, that if you’re not in a hurry you really shouldn’t buy it. “If you’ve found time to read other books on astrophysics, you’re not in a hurry,” he says. “Put this book down and read the other stuff. I’m very serious about this: don’t buy the book if you’re not in a hurry.” The book is not quite astrophysics for dummies; while it is simplified, it is not simple. It is more a collection of the best and most thrilling moments; astrophysics’ greatest hits. “It’s astrophysics handpicked for the most mind-blowing things that exist in the universe,” Tyson says. It is also the first time Tyson has recorded an audiobook; those in a hurry, after all, don’t always have time to sit down and read. One particular benefit of this, he says, is to make the book available for those stuck in traffic in Los Angeles – and also for those stuck in traffic in Australia, a situation he nevertheless finds highly improbable. “Why there is traffic in Australia, I have no idea,” he says. “Hardly anybody lives here. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong, y’all got to figure that one out. “Within a 30km radius of where I live are more people than the country of Australia. And you guys have traffic. Maybe it’s just an inescapable law of the universe.” Tyson’s mission as a science educator is not without obstacles. In Australia and around the world, the denial of scientific truth is very real, sometimes at the very highest levels of government. But how do you fight and challenge these kind of ideas? Tyson has a different view to some: the focus shouldn’t be on the politicians, he says, but on the people themselves. “I don’t concern myself much with politicians,” he says. “In an elected democracy, they represent an electorate. So if an electorate votes for somebody who denies what science is and how it works, then the issue is not with the politician but with the electorate. “I’m an educator and I feel a certain duty to educate the public so that, when they vote, their vote can be as informed as it possibly can, with whatever political leanings they might have. That’s what makes the richness of a diverse political system.” While the descriptions of black holes and anti-matter Tyson sets out in his book can sometimes sound like science fiction, he stresses that many of the ideas in the genre reflect the science of the real world. “I don’t turn to sci-fi in the way most people do,” he says. “Most people do it to escape. For me, just [by] doing my job I’m escaping. The universe itself is a form of escapism. “Warped space, black holes, wormholes: all of this comes from us.” The near future of astrophysics promises to be particularly exciting: like science, it is driven by data, and for astrophysics that often involves space missions to gather information from the distant cosmos. Tyson says that the understanding of dark matter may be one of the key developments over the next 10 years. And there is, of course, the possibility of finding life on another planet. Could the world handle that? “If you had some philosophy that precluded life from existing elsewhere and then we find it, you’re probably not going to say, OK, we’re wrong, everything we taught is wrong, everything we preach is wrong, let’s close up shop,” Tyson says. “What is more likely is that it will simply be absorbed into our understanding of the universe.” He recalls the aphorism that every great truth passes through three phases: “First, they say it’s not true. Second, they say it conflicts with the Bible. Third, they say they’ve known it all along.” • Neil deGrasse Tyson: A Cosmic Perspective is on in Perth on 22 July, Brisbane on 23 July and Sydney on 29 July | ['books/books', 'science/science', 'culture/culture', 'science/space', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'books/science-fiction', 'type/article', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'tone/features', 'profile/paul-farrell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-culture'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2017-07-18T04:36:49Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
business/2021/aug/15/renewable-electricity-deals-investigated-by-uk-government | Renewable electricity deals investigated by UK government | The UK government has launched an investigation into renewable electricity deals amid growing concern over the extent of “greenwashing” by large energy firms claiming to offer environmental benefits to customers. In a crackdown as increasing numbers of people switch to a renewable energy deal, the government said it would review how the sector markets its green electricity tariffs to consumers. Warning that it planned to tighten the rules to stop firms from exaggerating the environmental benefits of their green electricity tariffs – a marketing tactic known as greenwashing – the business department said the investigation would focus on whether labels such as “100% renewable” or “green” remained fit for purpose. As many as nine million British households are on green tariffs, with more than half of all new deals launched by energy providers now claimed to come with environmental benefits. However, firms are currently able to advertise their tariffs as “green” even if some of the energy they supply comes from fossil fuels, which industry figures have warned risks misleading consumers. Suppliers can use several ways to achieve green status under the current rules, including through committing to use 100% of the income from their customers to invest in developing renewable energy or by striking a deal with an existing windfarm or solar array to buy the electricity they produce. Under a government scheme, energy firms buy certificates known as Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin, which are designed to show consumers how much of the electricity they sell has been acquired from clean sources. When a supplier claims that its 100% renewable energy tariff is backed in this way, it means it will match each megawatt hour of electricity its customers use with certificates representing the same amount of renewable energy. However, experts have warned the system is open loopholes that risk “double counting” the UK’s renewable energy supply use or even claiming foreign renewables as its own. The government said it was considering whether to reform the Rego system to make it “smarter”. Energy suppliers could also be forced to provide clearer information to consumers about their green tariffs, including the type of renewable energy used, such as wind or solar, and where and when the renewable power was generated. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the energy minister, said there were concerns that some energy companies were overstating how environmentally friendly their products were. “Millions of UK households are choosing to make the green switch, and more and more of our energy comes from renewables. But I want people to know that when they sign up to a green tariff, they are investing in companies that make a conscious choice to invest in renewable energy. Part of that is ensuring companies are being as transparent as possible on where their power comes from,” she said. The business department said polling by YouGov showed that almost two-thirds (62%) of UK energy consumers said their purchasing decisions were influenced by how eco-friendly an energy tariff was. However, 75% believed suppliers should be open and transparent about their tariffs, including how much of their renewable energy they buy from other companies. The company Good Energy is one of those that has been a vocal critic of greenwash tariffs. In April this year it said energy suppliers had for some time been able to “mislead” customers who were trying to do the right thing in choosing green. The government is also publishing a separate call for evidence on “third-party intermediaries” in the retail energy market, such as price comparison websites, auto-switching services and other brokers. At the moment, these operate outside the retail market rules, and ministers will ask for views on whether a regulatory framework is needed. Consumer protection advocates and price comparison services have also called for greater transparency around suppliers who market their tariffs as green. Richard Neudegg, the head of regulation at Uswitch.com, the comparison service, said: “More and more people are purchasing green tariffs but it’s been difficult for bill payers to know exactly what’s under the hood of these deals. We support any measures that aim to demystify green tariffs for households.” • This article was amended on 20 August 2021 to indicate megawatt hour (rather than megawatt) as the correct unit to denote the amount of electricity consumed. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rupertjones', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-08-15T21:30:18Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2020/jan/03/royal-dutch-shell-may-fail-to-reach-green-energy-targets | Royal Dutch Shell may fail to reach green energy targets | Royal Dutch Shell is at risk of falling short on plans to invest up to $6bn (£4.6bn) in green energy projects between 2016 and the end of 2020, with its slow progress likely to raise concern that oil companies are not moving fast enough to help tackle the climate crisis. The Anglo-Dutch oil company has spent an estimated $2bn on building a low-carbon energy and electricity generation business since setting up its “new energies” division in 2016. With a year to go, the sum is well below Shell’s own guidance that the total investment between 2016 and the end of 2020 would be between $4bn and $6bn. Shell’s green energy plans are some of the most ambitious in the oil industry, despite assigning just a 10th of its spending pot to “new energies”. Shell told investors in 2017 it would spend between $1bn to $2bn a year developing a clean energy business up to the end of 2020, up from a previous plan to spend up to $1bn a year in the same period. Under the plans Shell would spend up to $6bn on green investment , but instead it is on track to meet a third of this, with only a year left for the company to meet its guidance. Up to the end of 2019, Shell’s guidance suggests it should have spent at least $3bn. In the same four years the company spent more than $120bn developing fossil fuel projects and set out plans to increase its total spending to $30bn a year in the early 2020s. A spokesman for Shell declined to comment. Shell is considered a climate leader within the oil industry despite spending a fraction of its total budget on new energies, which include biofuels, hydrogen and electricity investments. Data from Rystad Energy, a Norwegian consultancy, shows that Europe’s five largest oil companies – Shell, BP, Total, Eni and Equinor – together spent a total of $5.5bn on renewable energy projects to date, comparedwith a combined total budget of almost $90bn last year alone. Stephen Kretzmann, the executive director of Oil Change International, said executives “trumpet their relatively tiny investments in renewables” but continue to “pour more fuel on the fire of global warming every day”. He said: “It used to be the case that some people believed that an oil company that invested even only a small portion of their resources in renewable energy was worthy of praise… because it makes us feel better to believe that the people who run these powerful companies get it.” Oil bosses have voiced support for global climate targets in public but the industry continues to invest an estimated 1% of its annual spending budget on clean energy while producing more fossil fuel products than the Paris Climate Agreement allows. “The executives that run the carbon companies definitely do not get the part about the need for them to make less of the thing that is driving climate disaster,” Kretzmann added. “The big problem isn’t too little investment in renewables - it’s too much investment in, and government support for, fossil fuels.” Shell’s green spending plans were dealt a blow earlier this year when the company missed out on a multibillion dollar race to buy Dutch utility Eneco, which has a large renewable energy portfolio. Shell and its pension fund partner lost out to a consortium of investors led by Japan’s Mitsubishi, which paid $4.5bn for the company. The deal might have pushed Shell’s green investment towards its planned spending range. Shell said it was disappointed it lost the bid, and said that it would continue to invest growing gas and electricity generation from renewable sources. Shell’s previous acquisitions have included UK energy supplier First Utility, a 49% stake in Australian solar company ESCO Pacific, and Eolfi, a French renewable energy developer that specialises in floating wind projects. Shell plans to spend $2bn to $3bn through its “new energies division” every year between 2021 to 2025. The company said it plans to become the world’s biggest electricity company by the 2030s, and hopes to bring a reliable electricity supply to 100 million people in developing countries by 2030. | ['business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/oil', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'business/commodities', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-01-03T06:00:55Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2015/apr/17/pippa-middleton-whale-meat-dinner-blunder | However you slice it, Pippa Middleton’s whale-meat dinner was a real blunder | Chris Vicks | So Pippa Middleton tasted “smoked whale carpaccio” while on holiday in Norway. Why should we care? Because with an issue as controversial as whaling, eating it – or not eating it – is making a statement. The fact is, Middleton is normalising the killing and eating of whales, a practice most of us feel is morally unacceptable. Middleton didn’t have to eat whale meat. And she certainly didn’t have to broadcast the fact in a national newspaper. Her actions are particularly salient because her brother in law, the Duke of Cambridge, is so outspoken about conservation and wildlife crime. We don’t think of Norway as a country that endangers its wildlife. But Norway continues to whale as a result of its “objection” to the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium – as do Iceland, and Japan, which practises so-called “scientific” whaling (the whales from the hunt are then sold and consumed). Middleton ate minke during her meal. While the species isn’t listed as endangered, one of the problems is that this is not a well-studied species; we still know far too little about them, and whaling can deplete sub-populations, affecting their viability. In 2014, Norwegian whalers killed 736 minke whales, the only whale species currently being hunted in Norwegian waters. The demand for whale meat in the country is steadily declining, but unfortunately there is still a strong political lobby behind the industry. A big marketing campaign is trying to increase interest in whale products among the Norwegian people and tourists alike. How can we influence countries that still hunt whales to fall into line with international norms? There are three main ways. First, through the International Whaling Commission, where countries debate and determine the types and volume of whaling. However, the IWC is increasingly becoming a forum for conservation as much as a convention for regulating whaling. Secondly, through example. Australia and the UK, to name but two nation members of the IWC, have long histories of whaling. However, governed by emerging science, research and an appreciation of wildlife and the natural world, those two and many other countries have decided that there is no place, or need, for whaling in modern culture. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, it is by no means a given that whaling has overwhelming support in the countries that practice it. In Iceland, for instance, only 1.7% of the population regularly eat whale. Meanwhile, 23.6% are against whaling, and 30.9% remain undecided. Demand and support for the industry is in decline in Norway, Iceland and Japan. The tide is turning. One of the best things NGOs can do is work positively with pro-whale voices in those countries to help bring about change. We are confident that the situation will evolve and improve rapidly in the coming years. Besides, the protection of whales is not simply a game of numbers or conservation. Whales are intelligent, with complex social lives. Whaling is unnecessary and inherently cruel, with many whales suffering long, drawn-out deaths. There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea. Not every high-profile celebrity can promote every worthwhile cause, but they can undoubtedly have a positive influence. It is interesting to compare Middleton’s actions with those of the actress Emma Watson, who made a point of not eating whale while filming in Iceland, then telling David Letterman on US TV why. Game of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn has spoken out against whaling. Fellow Thrones star Kit Harington has stated that he didn’t feel comfortable eating whale meat on set in Iceland. Perhaps it was simply an ill-judged decision to accept the food her hosts provided, out of politeness. Perhaps she is against the practice of killing and eating whales? If so, she now has a great opportunity to say so. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/whales', 'lifeandstyle/pippa-middleton', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/comment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-04-17T16:52:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/sep/28/air-pollution-likely-cause-of-up-to-6m-premature-births-study-finds | Air pollution likely cause of up to 6m premature births, study finds | Air pollution is likely to have been responsible for up to 6 million premature births and 3 million underweight babies worldwide every year, research shows. The analysis, which combines the results of multiple scientific studies, is the first to calculate the total global burden of outdoor and indoor air pollution combined. Indoor pollution, mostly from cooking stoves burning solid fuel such as coal or wood, made up almost two-thirds of the total pollution burden on pregnancies in 2019, according to the latest findings. This is especially true in developing areas, such as in some parts of south-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. “At an individual level, indoor air pollution exposure appears to carry a much higher burden compared to outdoor levels,” said Rakesh Ghosh, an epidemiologist at University of California, San Francisco and lead researcher on the paper, published in the journal Plos Medicine. “So, minimising household pollution exposure, to the extent possible, should be part of the message during prenatal care, especially where household pollution is prevalent.” Air pollution is usually measured according to exposure to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns: once inhaled, the minuscule size of these particles allows them to be absorbed deep into the bloodstream, potentially causing far-reaching health problems. More than 92% of the global population lives in areas where the outdoor air quality is below recommended limits set by the World Health Organization, and about 49% are exposed to equally high levels of indoor air pollution. Regions such as south and east Asia are the most polluted, with Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan home to 49 of the 50 of the most polluted cities worldwide. In recent years wildfires, agricultural fires and dust storms have also caused extensive air pollution. The cost of air pollution to the global economy is estimated at more than $2.9tn each year, in addition to serious damage to public health. For this study, Ghosh’s team examined 108 research papers on indoor and outdoor pollution in correlation with four main pregnancy risks – gestational age at birth, reduction in birthweight, low birth weight, and premature birth – for 204 countries. After controlling for risk factors such as pregnancy weight, smoking and alcohol use and nutrition, the researchers found air pollution was a leading cause of low birth weight and premature birth. The latter is a main cause of the 15 million newborn deaths worldwide each year. The findings build on previous research by Ghosh and colleagues, which calculated that air pollution contributed to the deaths of 500,000 newborns globally in 2019. By minimising air pollution in south-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the study calculated that the number of premature births and babies with low birth weight could be reduced by almost 78% globally. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/infant-and-child-mortality', 'environment/pollution', 'global-development/global-development', 'society/society', 'science/science', 'education/research', 'education/education', 'society/health', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sofia-quaglia', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-09-28T18:00:29Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2018/may/04/weatherwatch-why-does-antarctic-ice-melt-in-the-depths-of-winter | Weatherwatch: why does Antarctic ice melt in the depths of winter? | Scientists have long known that the amount of ice in the Antarctic is steadily decreasing. They were surprised, however, to discover recently that up to a quarter of the melting occurs in the depth of winter, when the average temperature is 15C below freezing. The melting is caused by a phenomenon called the föhn effect. The föhn or foehn wind was first noted in the Alps, and occurs when a wind blowing over mountains descends on the far side. The increase in pressure at lower altitude causes the mass of air to warm up by about one degree per hundred metres. Such a wind blowing down from a high mountain range can easily rise above freezing. The Chinook wind in the Rocky Mountains is sometimes called “snow eater” for its capacity to strip snow from the slopes. The winter Antarctic ice melt was discovered by a team led by Peter Kuipers Munneke of Utrecht University, using data from satellites and unmanned weather stations. It was presented to the European Geosciences Union in Vienna in April. The Antarctic has the highest elevation of any continent, and consequently fierce föhn winds. The new results show that these hot winds are making a significant contribution to ice melt. | ['world/antarctica', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-05-04T20:30:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/dec/22/uk-landfill-site-investigated-after-residents-plagued-by-noxious-fumes | UK landfill site investigated after residents plagued by noxious fumes | The Environment Agency has launched an investigation into alleged illegal waste activities at a landfill in Staffordshire which has plagued residents with noxious fumes for months. People living next to Walleys Quarry landfill in Silverdale, Newcastle-under-Lyme, are facing misery from strong smells caused by high levels of hydrogen sulphide on the site. The EA said it had launched a formal investigation into the landfill operators, Red Industries, after receiving new information in October. The company denies breaking any regulations. Campaigners hailed the news as an “early Christmas present” and a milestone in their fight for better air quality, although many said they felt an investigation was long overdue. “All we want is the truth. But we won’t take the pressure off the EA yet because we actually need to see the results, we won’t just accept platitudes,” said Dr Mick Salt, a resident and radiation physicist. The Newcastle-under-Lyme MP, Aaron Bell, said: “I welcome this formal investigation and I would like to thank all the sources that have come forward over the past year. This is just one step, and it is important for legal reasons not to prejudice or prejudge this investigation. However, I know the community will welcome this development.” Campaigners were dealt a blow last week when the EA won an appeal over a high court case that found it was not doing enough to control the landfill emissions that were shortening the life expectancy of a five-year-old, Mathew Richards. Mathew’s mother, Rebecca Currie, said she was “heartbroken” by the ruling and would take the case to the supreme court. “It felt like we’d put up all that fight for nothing. But my legal team are not letting it drop,” she said. “And the news of the EA’s investigation has put a smile on my face, it’s given us a big boost in the fight.” The family live half a mile from the landfill, and Currie said the fumes were still having a major impact. “We ring up [the EA] and complain about it but it doesn’t feel like it’s getting us anywhere. Mathew is coughing so bad to the extent he’s choking,” she said. The EA said it welcomed the court’s decision but added it “will not affect our determination to tackle the problems at Walleys Quarry”. It said that after the EA’s interventions, “there has been a clear downward trend in hydrogen sulphide levels recorded at our air quality monitoring stations in recent months”. Walleys Quarry Ltd, an associated company of Red Industries, said: “Walleys Quarry Ltd has never received or disposed of hazardous waste in contravention of any regulations. Any allegations that it has ever done so are baseless and wrong. “There are no grounds whatsoever for this investigation or the unprofessional way it has been publicised by the EA as a supposedly responsible regulator. Despite this, the company will cooperate fully with the EA investigation so the true facts can be established and made known at the earliest opportunity.” | ['environment/environment-agency', 'environment/landfill', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/air-pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jessica-murray', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-12-22T15:21:58Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/2019/apr/24/how-to-respond-to-donald-trumps-state-visit-to-the-uk | How to respond to Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK | Letters | On the same day that Trump’s state visit to the UK is announced (May under fire for allowing Trump state visit during D-day celebrations, 24 April), I see that Michael Bloomberg has stepped in to personally cover the $4.5m shortfall resulting from his country’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement. So that got me thinking… Why don’t we have a people’s state visit on exactly the same days, just for Americans we do admire and want to honour? Let’s start with Bloomberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (obvs), Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton and any available Obama. Surely far better than ranks of protesters – Trump loves any crowd – would be the entire citizenry somewhere else (maybe just in earshot of the palace) for the people they really want to see? Jonathan Myerson London • President Trump may be invited to address parliament. I hope not but those of us who feel this is totally inappropriate can stay away. The American people gave their view at his inauguration, attending in very sparse numbers. Peers and MPs can make their views known in the same way. I shall not be attending if there is a parliamentary address. Sue Miller Liberal Democrat, House of Lords • Another example of Mrs May’s skewed priorities: declining to attend a meeting of party leaders with Greta Thunberg (Report, 24 April) but ensuring Mr Trump makes his state visit while she is still in office. Judy Stober Bruton, Somerset • Rather than organising a mass protest and bigger balloon to greet President Trump in June (Trump could be met by bigger baby blimp during state visit, 24 April), just invite Greta Thunberg to meet him at the airport and save us all a lot of bother. Ian Grieve Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal • I will certainly be protesting against the visit of President Trump on 4 June – a man who has little care for children in the firing line, for example, in Palestine or Yemen. So I note the irony of 4 June being the International Day for Children as Victims of War. Rae Street Littleborough, Lancashire • I have just listened to President Obama’s speech to both houses of parliament. Let Trump come and deliver what will no doubt be the best speech to parliament ever, BY FAR, possibly the best in history. His speech can then be compared with Obama’s to show how inadequate he is as a world leader. The introduction and thanks are given by the leaders of the Commons and Lords respectively. They too may provide interesting comparisons. Mike Lowcock Wistaston, Cheshire • The state visit invitation to President Trump is a disgrace. We are told we are honouring the office not the man, but if the man does not honour the office, where does that leave us? Roderick McCallum Annan, Dumfries and Galloway • 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 | ['us-news/donaldtrump', 'politics/politics', 'politics/theresamay', 'us-news/michaelbloomberg', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/houseofcommons', 'politics/lords', 'tone/letters', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-24T17:13:56Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/cif-green/2010/jun/22/action-research-pollinators | Action - not research - is needed to save our pollinators | Alison Benjamin | Do we really need to spend £10m on researching why our pollinators are dying out? There is no doubt that honeybees, hoverflies, wasps, bumblebees, moths and butterflies are all under threat. Since the 1970s, there has been a 75% decline in butterfly species in the UK, three species of bumblebees are now extinct, and honeybees have been having a pretty hard time for the last few years. But is research into a variety of possible causes from land use, disease, environmental change and pesticides what is needed to save them? The nine projects that received a share of the £10m funding announced today all sound incredibly interesting, especially the one that includes fitting tiny radio frequency ID tags to pollinators (pdf) to record when bees enter and leave the nest. Funding for Warwick University to unravel the impact of the varroa mite on transmitting viruses in honeybees (pdf) will be particularly welcomed by beekeepers across the world as they grapple with trying to control the blood-sucking parasite that lives on most of our honeybees and is a major reason for their continual demise. Anyone wanting to green their city and encourage urban beekeeping will be delighted that Jane Memmott at Bristol has been awarded a grant to answer the question "How can we make our cities more pollinator-friendly?" Yet the truth is that we already know the answer to many of the questions about why our pollinators are dying out. As Claire Carvell at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology says: "Bumblebees have declined worldwide, largely due to the loss of flowers and other habitats they need to survive in the countryside." For bumblebees, read hoverflies, wasps, moths and butterflies. So rather than spend three years researching how far bumblebees go to forage and make their nests, wouldn't it be better if we reintroduced a more sustainable way of managing agricultural land right now? After all, we know that when the scientists have spent their research money, they will conclude what we knew all along: that we need to manage landscapes in a way that are more effective in conserving bumble populations. When I researched A World Without Bees, I was surprised by how much scientific research had already been carried out, mainly in France and Italy, into the effects of pesticides on honeybees' communication and navigation. Despite this research, the pesticide companies maintained that the blame couldn't be pinned on their products as there were too many other potential culprits. The United States Department of Agriculture, which has been leading research into colony collapse disorder in the US, now acknowledges - four years after the strange phenomenon which leads to the disappearance of honeybees from their hives – that pesticides are part of the problem. But guess what? The same pesticides are still being used by farmers. So research on its own is not enough if we are serious about saving our pollinators. We need action. Action by governments to ban pollinator-toxic pesticides, to toughen the registration tests for pesticide approval so that in the case of honeybees their impact is measured not just on an adult bees but on the colony as a whole, and to develop more organic styles of farming that wean ourselves off the pesticides. It is the pesticides that go hand-in-hand with the intensive, monoculture farming methods that are responsible for the loss of habitat and flowers that the scientists already know is causing the decline of our pollinators. The UK has lost more than 3m hectares of wildflower-rich habitat since the second world war, but farming wildlife schemes have only recreated 6,500 hectares. The charity Buglife is calling on government to tackle the issue head-on and create a network of wildflower meadows now. Its "B-lines" would be rivers of flowers in every county, one going east west and the other north-south. The scheme would depend on a new "conservation credits" scheme that would require developers – and others who provide economic benefits but whose sector degrades wildlife – to purchase credits that would secure wildflower habitats. I know where my £10m would go. | ['environment/insects', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'science/agriculture', 'science/science', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'environment/bees', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'type/article', 'profile/alisonbenjamin'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-06-22T13:15:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
science/animal-magic/2016/sep/13/red-footed-booby-galapagos-uk | Did this red-footed booby really fly all the way from the Galapagos to the UK? | It’s not every day that a red-footed booby lands on the shores of Britain. Yet on Sunday 4 September, a bedraggled specimen came to rest on the beach at St Leonards-On-Sea near Hastings on the south coast of the UK. According to a story on the Daily Mail website, the wayward bird was “6,000 miles from home”. The blown-off-course booby was spotted by local resident Gail Cohen who was having brunch in her beach hut with a friend. She’d seen the species on a trip to the Galapagos so knew instantly that it was from far afield. “It went to sleep on the beach and I knew there was definitely something wrong so I called the rescue service,” she told the Mail. Since then, the RSPCA at nearby Mallydams Wood has been giving round-the-clock intensive care to the rarity. Meanwhile, there has been plenty of speculation over where the bird came from and how a species that doesn’t migrate could have ended up so far from home. The Mail went definitive and claimed the bird had to have come from the Galapagos. But this is almost certainly not the case. The red-footed booby Sula sula is found on tropical islands in most oceans, with the exception of the eastern Atlantic, so it could have come from virtually anywhere. Except that this species is notable for coming in three main flavours or morphs. The most common is the white morph. There is a white-tailed brown variety. There is also a full-on brown version. The St Leonards-On-Sea specimen is clearly white-tailed brown. In the Galapagos, red-footed boobies are almost exclusively full-on brown. “I don’t think this bird is coming from Galapagos,” says Matthieu Le Corre, an ecologist at the University of Reunion Island who has studied red-footed boobies in the Indian Ocean. “Your bird has a white tail so it is not a bird from the Pacific.” It’s more likely that the rogue red-foot has come from somewhere like the Antilles in the western Atlantic, he suggests, “which is a shorter journey to Sussex”. Even then, this is a distance of well over 4,000 miles, around 40 times further than a red-footed booby would normally fly on a foraging trip. “The red-footed booby often sits on vessels at sea, especially if they are exhausted,” notes Le Corre. “It may have been the case with this one.” However it managed to reach the UK, the bird was understandably weak, thin and dehydrated when it arrived. By the end of last week, the staff at RSPCA Mallydams Wood had managed to feed him some sprats by hand and he’d put on some weight. But an update from Monday afternoon did not bring such good news. “Sadly over the weekend his condition deteriorated and he has gone off his food. Our staff are now tube feeding him and trying a variety of fish to see if they can spark his interest in food again.” | ['science/animal-magic', 'science/series/science-blog-network', 'science/science', 'science/zoology', 'science/biology', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'tone/news', 'profile/henry-nicholls', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-science'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-09-13T15:12:57Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2013/sep/19/future-japan-fukushima-leaks-pm | Future of Japan depends on stopping Fukushima leaks, PM tells workers | Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has told workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that "the future of Japan" depends on their ongoing struggle to contain leaks of highly radioactive water at the site. Abe's brief visit to the stricken plant on Thursday – his second since he became prime minister last December – comes weeks after he reassured the world that the situation at the facility was under control, amid reports that large quantities of contaminated water were seeping into the Pacific ocean. Abe's reassurances are thought to have helped Tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, but were later challenged by a senior official at the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco]. On Thursday, Abe and his entourage, dressed in protective suits, masks and helmets, heard Tepco officials explain how they planned to prevent additional leaks from tanks that have been hastily built to store water that becomes contaminated after it comes into contact with melted nuclear fuel in damaged reactor basements. He also visited a water decontamination facility and a chemical dam being built along the coastline to contain leaks of groundwater into the Pacific ocean. The visit was designed to calm fears at home and overseas about safety at the plant, amid rising doubts about Tepco's ability to conduct the cleanup operation alone. This week it emerged that US experts had urged Japanese authorities to take immediate steps to prevent groundwater contamination two years ago, but their advice been ignored. Tepco reportedly lobbied against the proposed construction of a barrier – a measure that will now be taken with government funding – because it feared the high cost would spook investors and push the firm closer to insolvency. Charles Casto, a representative of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said discussions about a barrier had begun within weeks of the meltdown. "It was obvious to us that there was great deal of groundwater intrusion into the plant, and we shared that with the Japanese government," he told Reuters. "At the time, they didn't believe there was a significant amount of groundwater getting into the plant." Abe told some of the thousands of workers at the plant that the government would continue to support the utility during a long potentially hazardous decommissioning operation that is expected to last four decades. "The future of Japan is on your shoulders," he said during a visit to the plant's command centre. "The government will step forward and take concrete measures. I am counting on you to do your best." Later, he said he had told Tepco officials, including the firm's president, Naomi Hirose, to decommission reactors 5 and 6, which were not in operation when the plant was wrecked by a powerful earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. Hirose said Tepco, which is hoping to restart some nuclear reactors to help repair its tattered finances, would make a decision on the two reactors by the end of the year. Reactors 1 to 4 have already been earmarked for decommissioning. Abe stood by his recent claim, made before members of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires earlier this month, that contaminated water had been prevented from flowing beyond the plant's harbour, and that the water crisis was under control. "One of the main purposes of this visit was to see the situation for myself, having made those remarks on how the contaminated water is being been handled," he said, adding that the government believed the water issue would be resolved by the time the Games are held in 2020. "As I stated in Buenos Aires, I am convinced that the contaminated water leaks have been confined to an area of 0.3 sq km within the cove next to the plant. "In light of that, I will work hard to counter rumours questioning the safety of the Fukushima plant." Earlier this week, however, Kazuhiko Yamashita, a senior Tepco official, said the water leaks were not under control. "Predictable risks are under control, but what cannot be predicted is happening," Japanese media quoted Yamashita as telling opposition MPs. "We believe that the current conditions show that [the radioactive water problem] is not under control." Abe, accompanied by Tepco officials, was shown a water treatment facility that can remove radioactive materials from contaminated water. The equipment failed during an earlier a trial run and is now under repair. The plant's manager, Akira Ono, said it would be tested again later this year. Abe later inspected a water tank that last month leaked 300 tonnes of water, sending radiation levels in the immediate vicinity soaring. Ono said 90 Tepco workers were patrolling the plant's 1,000 water tanks four times a day, adding that gauges would soon be installed to monitor water levels in the tanks. Tepco hopes to replace suspect tanks with more reliable welded versions by the end of the year, he added. | ['world/shinzo-abe', 'world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/fukushima', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-09-19T11:15:22Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2018/dec/13/scott-morrison-and-the-business-council-are-pushing-coal-but-on-what-evidence | Scott Morrison and the Business Council are pushing coal – but on what evidence? | Richard Denniss | Fresh from losing the economic fight about company tax cuts, the Coalition government is doubling down on an economic fight about renewable energy. And yet again, as they march into battle they have the Business Council of Australia as their key source of economic and political advice. What could go wrong? The cost of renewable energy has fallen dramatically in the past 10 years and will continue to fall for years to come. By some accounts, new renewables with storage are already cheaper than coal fired power stations. Some argue that they aren’t quite there yet. But no one argues that in 30 years’ time a new coal-fired power station that has to buy coal will be able to compete with a solar farm that gets its sunshine for free. Betting on the future cost of renewables is like catching a falling knife, but if there is one thing that unites the Coalition and the BCA it’s that they aren’t averse to self-inflicted wounds. At precisely the time when the costs of renewables and storage are plummeting and the world is meeting in Poland to discuss reductions in fossil fuel use, the Liberal government and the peak body for the biggest businesses in Australia are united in arguing that a 45% emissions reduction target by 2030 would be – in the words of BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott – “economy wrecking”. As with the failed campaign for company tax cuts, the nation’s prime minister is getting his talking points from the nation’s biggest lobbyists. In parliament last week Scott Morrison declared “a 45% target is economy wrecking”, adding to a scare-campaign designed to convince the Australian public that they have to choose between the environment they want for their kids and the jobs they want for them. It is sickening. Not even the BCA’s own members believe the rhetoric of their peak body. Both Commonwealth Bank and Citi have renewable energy targets of 100% – Citi by 2020. Other BCA members like the CSIRO have put out a transition road map which includes 90% electricity generation from solar PV and wind by 2050 while maintaining reliability in the grid. Even big polluters like Rio Tinto boast that 75% of their electricity is carbon-free, while Origin has a 50% emissions reduction target. Indeed, it wasn’t that long ago that Westacott herself was sceptical of the claim that action to decarbonise Australia’s energy system would “wreck the economy”. In fact, in 2009 when she was heading up KPMG’s Sustainability, Climate Change and Water practice she told the Senate that: The science of climate change indicates the economic risks posed to Australia are both materially significant and proportionally higher than for most other countries … global carbon pricing is inevitable … [and] given these economic risks, Australia needs to act to decouple energy and emissions growth from economic growth, or we will face steadily declining competitiveness as global carbon pricing and other controls increase.” Of course, if the facts change it is good to change your mind. But it is hard to see what evidence Westacott and the BCA might be relying on. Not only have the costs of building large-scale wind, solar and battery projects collapsed since 2009, the retail costs of installing solar panels and batteries have declined similarly. There are now more than two million Australian homes with solar panels on their roofs, and that means there are more than two million homes that know that renewables not only work to generate power, but they work to lower electricity bills as well. Opinion polls show that an overwhelming majority of Australians support rapid investment in renewable energy. The Australia Institute’s 2018 Climate of the Nation survey of Australian attitudes on climate change showed that 67% of Australians want to end coal-fired power within the next 20 years. But it’s not just the economic and opinion polling evidence that suggests the BCA and Morrison government are pushing coal uphill. One of the key lessons from the recent company tax debate is that the Australian public no longer trust business leaders who claim that they are acting in the national interest rather than their self-interest. And when it comes to talking about electricity prices, the BCA’s biggest problem is that some of its biggest members are the biggest energy retailers who make some of the world’s biggest profits selling Australians some of the world’s dearest electricity. What could go wrong indeed? • Richard Denniss is chief economist for the Australia Institute | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/australia-economy', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/richard-denniss', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2018-12-13T01:20:27Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2023/jul/24/china-economy-slowing-impact-on-australia-collapse | China’s sudden economic slowdown is worrying. But it doesn’t have to be all bad news for Australia | John Quiggin | After two decades of stunning economic growth, evidence of a slowdown in China is naturally a cause for concern. The evidence, unfortunately, is not hard to find. China’s estimated annual rate of GDP growth is slowing and looks to be stabilising at about 4%, only a couple of percentage points higher than that of rich countries in the OECD. At this rate it will take many decades before income per person in China catches up with that of other leading economies. High youth unemployment is another symptom of a slowdown, where businesses retain their existing workers but stop hiring new ones. For young workers it represents a violation of the implicit social contract offered by the CCP, where acquiescence in authoritarian rule is rewarded with steadily improving living standards. This represents a threat to the stability of the government, which is doing its best to keep the growth engine running a bit longer, even at the risk of a worse crash later on. Over decades of rapid economic growth, China has transformed itself from a poor, mostly rural and agricultural country to an urban and industrial country with income per person slightly above the world average. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup This process has required huge investments in manufacturing, infrastructure and, of course, construction. The central inputs to this process are steel produced from iron ore in blastfurnaces driven by metallurgical coal and electricity generated mostly by burning thermal coal. Australia produces all three in large quantities. Even when Australian miners don’t supply China directly, they benefit indirectly from higher world prices driven by Chinese demand. But the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation are reaching their limits in China, as they have already done in most developed countries. Just as the industrial economy replaced agriculture as the central focus of economic activity, services, and particularly information services, are replacing industry. China is losing manufacturing industries to competitors like Vietnam. Meanwhile, as education standards improve, younger workers are increasingly unwilling to take low-skilled assembly line jobs. This transformation is inevitable and ultimately beneficial, but it implies the end of one of the biggest construction booms in history. The recent $81bn loss announced by financially distressed firm Evergrande is only the beginning. Two years after acute problems emerged in the sector, the government is no closer to managing an orderly resolution. There are also big problems for local and provincial governments, which have relied heavily on construction projects to generate revenue and jobs. They have been issuing permits for new coal-fired power projects at a rate of up to two a week, even though existing plants are operating way below capacity and are unable to compete with new solar and wind. The resulting pile of debt, amounting to as much as $US20tn, threatens to send many of them into default. None of this is good news for Australia’s coal and iron ore exports. Sales of iron ore to China have been a major source of revenue. And even though we export little coal to China (the lifting of China’s unofficial boycott didn’t change much) a reduction in China’s import demand will reduce global prices. However, there is no need to panic. Few Australians are directly exposed to losses from lower prices. For most of us, the effects flow through reductions in company tax and royalties, which are a small, though significant, share of government revenue. Moreover, much of the impact has already happened. Prices of coal and iron ore are far below the peaks reached in 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For example, the price of thermal coal exported from Newcastle – which was more than $US300/tonne a year ago – is now at $US131/tonne and falling. Most importantly, the transformation of the Chinese economy is a necessary part of the transition to decarbonising electricity and steel, which Australia must accept sooner or later. While this will involve some economic costs, there are also large potential benefits for Australia as a producer and exporter of both clean energy and critical minerals. Not only do we have large and accessible lithium resources, but we have the potential to shift iron ore production from hematite to the high-quality magnetite needed for the production of “green steel”. Finally, minerals are not the only export industry that depends heavily on China. The transformed Chinese economy will need ever increasing numbers of educated workers. Australia’s education system depends on international, and particularly Chinese, students to remain viable. The great Chinese construction boom has lasted longer than anyone thought possible. But all things must pass, and we can only hope that the slowdown will not be too painful. • John Quiggin is professor at the University of Queensland’s school of economics | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/china', 'business/steel-industry', 'world/asia-pacific', 'business/chinese-economy', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'business/energy-industry', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/john-quiggin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2023-07-23T15:00:44Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/shortcuts/2016/may/13/this-shops-full-of-rubbish-the-art-of-fighting-litterbugs | The Con-Venience: the art shop stocked with decades-old litter | The Con-Venience corner shop in Colford in the Forest of Dean looks a lot like a standard corner shop. Look closer, though, and you’ll see it is stocked with decades-old litter found in the forest – sandwich boxes, beer cans, drinks bottles, jars of old sweets – scrubbed clean and neatly stacked on shelves. Wander through the forest and you’ll find a vending machine sat in a clearing doling out the same. It’s a little surreal. It’s unlikely that you lie awake at night fretting about that can of Irn-Bru you dumped in a hedge decades ago. But Con-Venience is at the centre of a new anti-littering campaign, launched this week by the Forest of Dean District Council and environmental charity Hubbub, which aims to ensure you do. “It’s not your normal shopping experience,” says Trewin Restorick, Hubbub CEO and founder. The vending machine, for example, stands more as a sculpture than a snack dispenser. Designed by Brighton-based green activist artists Lou McCurdy and Chloe Hanks, who previously worked on a similar installation titled Dirty Beach in Brighton, the stunt aims to address the ongoing impact of littering in the area. Litter across Britain costs £1bn a year to clear up – surprising, since only 19% of people admit to dropping any, according to environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy. “At the heart of our work,” says McCurdy, “is one core yet mysterious truth: every plastic item anyone of us has ever owned, still exists in one form or other. The Dirty Beach CON-venience shop installation uses humour to examine the serious consequences of our modern lifestyles, raising questions about throwaway everyday consumerism and the cons of this consumption.” Currently, the task of tidying the forest is left to weekend volunteers, but they’re slowly getting the collective hump. “There’s a lot of littering around some of the most heavily touristed areas, and there’s an awful lot of local community groups who give up their Saturdays and Sundays to go out cleaning up litter,” Restorick says.“All those little individual acts [of littering] have an impact on the locality.” Litter-picking squads have turned up crisp packets from as long ago as 1983, and they’re just as much of a nuisance now as when they were first dropped: “The person who chucked that on the floor at that time had no idea that 33 years later, that would still be lying there.” While being thrown back to a time of retro-flavoured crisps might be briefly pleasurable in a whatever-happened-to-white-dog-poo sort of way, it’s clearly no good for the forest itself. Keeping the area looking its best costs the local authority £400,000 a year, but Restorick says it’s crucial for the local economy: “It’s obviously an aesthetic thing, but for an area which is there to attract tourists, that’s quite a major thing.” So what’s next? Restorick wants more community groups to enlist artists to draw attention to this particular plight, and to mobilise locals using the lessons learned from the junk-shop venture: “Hopefully, this will be part of more littering campaigns that can be run by any organisation that wants to take them up.” | ['environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'culture/culture', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/features', 'uk/uk', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-05-13T17:35:57Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
media/2006/jul/18/newmedia.worldcup2006 | World Cup hailed as digital triumph - but fans prefer the telly | The World Cup has been hailed as a digital triumph, with record numbers of viewers watching matches on new media platforms, but according to research many people believe TV still can't be beaten for quality and reliability - yet. This summer's tournament, billed as the first mobile World Cup, was a watershed for viewing on demand, with millions of football fans watching their teams via mobile phones, online or through interactive TV. Mobile operator 3 recorded more than 3.6m viewings of its World Cup mobile programming, pushing mobile TV usage to an all-time high. 3's match highlights channel proved the most popular with 60,000 people - the equivalent of a capacity crowd at Arsenal's new stadium - tuning in daily. During the 2002 World Cup the BBC website managed 191m page impressions, while this time around the popularity of its online offering ballooned to 399m impressions. The total number of "requests" to view live streamed games online - the first time it has been possible during a World Cup - reached 5.72m across the tournament. And a total of 5.3 million digital satellite users pressed the "red button" to access interactive services. The Fifa World Cup site, run by official partner Yahoo!, clocked up more than 138m video streams during the competition. It was the first time video highlights of World Cup matches have been provided free on the internet. Furthermore, 3.5 million users viewed pictures posted by fans on Yahoo!'s photo-sharing site Flickr. However, despite record levels of new media viewing, a survey by media agency Starcom found that content often fell short of consumers' high expectations of quality and reliability. "Despite the success of new media viewing, the first choice for fans is to watch matches [on TV] live at home or in the pub," said Jeremy Pounder, the consumer insight manager at Starcom. "Significantly, people are using new media to supplement, not replace, their normal TV viewing habits - when they can't get to a TV or are at work, for example." Starcom's research, which involved interviews with 1,000 consumers, found that the novelty of being able to watch matches online or on mobile phones was no longer enough - it had to be fast, reliable and of high quality. Only 25% of those surveyed regarded viewing by mobile as a positive experience - compared with 44% for watching on the internet and 63% for interactive TV viewing. Screen size, download speed, picture and sound quality were considered to be the main drawbacks. This compared with the 75% of viewers who rated watching at home as a positive experience and 68% who enjoyed watching matches live at the pub. Seventy-eight per cent of those surveyed felt that digital viewing had no negative effect on their conventional TV viewing of games. Overall in the UK, according to Nielsen//NetRatings research, BBC Sport was the most popular sports website during the World Cup, notching up more than three times as many visitors as its nearest rival, the official Fifa site. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/digital-media', 'football/worldcup2006', 'media/television', 'football/football', 'media/media', 'uk/uk', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'football/world-cup-football', 'type/article'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2006-07-18T10:30:57Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2021/dec/04/england-secure-netball-series-win-against-jamaica-in-emphatic-style | England secure netball series win against Jamaica in emphatic style | England’s Roses secured an emphatic victory over Jamaica and their first series win against the Sunshine Girls since 2013. From the blow of the first whistle Jess Thirlby’s side romped to victory, using the full depth of the bench to reinforce their Commonwealth Games winning credentials ahead of the Birmingham 2022 challenge. Last week’s sluggish start by England was cast into distant memory as the Roses burst emphatically out of the blocks. Eleanor Cardwell, rewarded by Thirlby for the force of impact she made in the first Test victory, continued to wreak havoc on the Sunshine Girls’ star-studded defence. A rejection by Jamaica’s world-class defender Shamera Sterling on the Manchester Thunder player at 10-4 was a sharp reminder to the crowd of what the Jamaicans are individually capable of when given space, but it did little to dent either Cardwell or the Roses’ momentum. Down in Jamaica’s attacking end, a starting seven changed by Connie Francis struggled to penetrate. All 1.98m of Jhaniele Fowler was efficiently neutralised by the iron-cast partnership of Eboni Usoro-Brown, Layla Guscoth and Beth Cobden. An on-the-buzzer goal from the circle’s perimeter by Jamaica’s skipper closed the quarter a whopping 21-13 in England’s favour. A visibly fired-up Jamaica entered the second quarter determined to undo some of the damage inflicted on them in the first 15. Sterling, now in at goal keeper to try to answer the Sunshine Girls’ Cardwell problem, made an impression. Two errant goals off the bat by Jo Harten and a more efficient Jamaica forced Thirlby into her first change. Helen Housby replaced the shooter. As the Cardwell-Housby connection oiled up England rediscovered their first-quarter form. Jamaica, lacking in execution with 12 unforced errors to England’s five, burnt out and England went into the break the sharper and more authoritative side. A 16-goal advantage in the hosts’ favour heading into the third was quickly extended to 20 by En gland as Jamaica’s error count headache rumbled on. Buoyed by a score-line showing her seven’s dominance Thirlby turned to her bench and gave those that had been responsible for England’s lamentably slow start last week a chance to redeem themselves. With tested combinations the key in Thirlby’s eyes to England walking away in Birmingham back-to-back gold medallists next year, the Roses’ head coach did not hesitate to throw all her players under the cosh. The up-and-coming Sophie Drakeford-Lewis was tried at wing attack and England’s most capped player, Jade Clarke, put in at centre. As the klaxon heralded the 66-47 win the home crowd roared. With back-to-back series wins, first against the world champions, New Zealand, away on their turf and then Jamaica here on home soil, the Roses have never dared to look so formidable. Thirlby, however, was reticent to start the revelries just yet: “I’m not the kind of coach that gets too carried away too soon,” the Roses’ head coach said after her side’s triumphant win, “so we’ll quietly celebrate the series win this evening and get ourselves ready for tomorrow. “To get a series win against both New Zealand and a series win against Jamaica back here is an incredible achievement and not one that has been done in such a short time frame by any England team so it certainly helps to build confidence and that is an important part of that jigsaw heading into a major tournament.” The three-Test series will conclude on Sunday with the final match taking place once again under the lights of Nottingham’s Motor Point Arena. | ['sport/netball', 'sport/england-netball-team', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/chloe-merrell', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/sport', 'theobserver/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/england-netball-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-12-04T18:21:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2015/apr/02/country-diary-juniper-pennines-trees | Magical place of gin-scented foliage | “KILLER ON THE LOOSE” warned the dramatic sign beside the disinfectant footbaths at the entrance to Moor House national nature reserve. As we followed the path towards High Force waterfall, the work of the killer, a microscopic fungus-like organism called Phytophthora austrocedri, was plain to see; we passed scores of dead and dying junipers. With the warmth of spring sunshine on our backs, and a sense of wellbeing that comes with the knowledge that winter is over, we had followed the Pennine Way beside the river Tees, upstream from Wynch Bridge. Oystercatchers, immaculately clad in black and white plumage and perched on rocks mid-stream, had returned to breed. Curlews lifted from the pastures as we passed and then descended, trailing notes of their courtship songs across the landscape. All reassuring signs, repeated annually over the 40 years that we have trod this path, that the seasons were turning, that all was as it should be. It‘s four years since juniper dieback disease, which originated in Argentina, was first noticed here. We were surprised to find that it now has such a grip on the trees that cloak the fellside. This juniper forest is one of the botanical wonders of Teesdale, a magical place of bottle-green, gin-scented foliage, purple berries and gnarled trunks prostrated by the burden of winter snow and shaped by the south-westerly wind. The tallest trees, perhaps more than 200 years old, are not much more than twice the height of a person. This is a place that invites fantasies; lose sight of other points of reference and it can trick your imagination into believing that you are a giant lost in a forest. As the path through the densely packed junipers winds its way towards the viewpoint above High Force, which remains hidden until the last moment, the ominous rumble then roar of falling water grows steadily louder. Victorian explorers must have experienced the same sense of drama and anticipation as they trekked through dense jungle towards the sound of distant cataracts. It is shocking to realise the damage that a micro-organism might soon wreak on this magnificently theatrical landscape. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'environment/birds', 'type/article', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-04-02T04:30:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2013/nov/13/climate-change-red-state-opinion-america-study | Majority of red-state Americans believe climate change is real, study shows | A vast majority of red-state Americans believe climate change is real and at least two-thirds of those want the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions, new research revealed on Wednesday. The research, by Stanford University social psychologist Jon Krosnick, confounds the conventional wisdom of climate denial as a central pillar of Republican politics, and practically an article of faith for Tea Party conservatives. Instead, the findings suggest far-reaching acceptance that climate change is indeed occurring and is caused by human activities, even in such reliably red states as Texas and Oklahoma. “To me, the most striking finding that is new today was that we could not find a single state in the country where climate scepticism was in the majority,” Krosnick said in an interview. States that voted for Barack Obama, as expected, also believe climate change is occurring and support curbs on carbon pollution. Some 88% of Massachusetts residents believe climate change is real. But Texas and Oklahoma are among the reddest of red states and are represented in Congress by Republicans who regularly dismiss the existence of climate change or its attendant risks. Congressman Joe Barton of Texas and Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma stand out for their regular denials of climate change as a “hoax”, even among Republican ranks. However, the research found 87% of Oklahomans and 84% of Texans accepted that climate change was occurring. Seventy-six percent of Americans in both states also believed the government should step in to limit greenhouse gas emissions produced by industry. In addition, the research indicated substantial support for Obama's decision to use the Environmental Protection Agency to cut emissions from power plants. The polling found at least 62% of Americans in favour of action cutting greenhouse gas emissions from plants. Once again, Texas was also solidly lined up with action, with 79% of voters supporting regulation of power plants. The acceptance of climate change was not a result of outreach efforts by scientists, however, or by the experience of extreme events, such as hurricane Sandy, Krosnick said. His research found no connection between Sandy and belief in climate change or support for climate action. Instead, he said the findings suggest personal experiences of hot weather – especially in warm states in the south-west – persuaded Texans and others that the climate was indeed changing within their own lifetimes. “Their experience with weather leaves people in most places on the green side in most of the questions we ask,” he said. There was some small slippage in acceptance of climate change in north-western states such as Idaho and Utah and in the industrial heartland states of Ohio. But even then at a minimum, 75% believed climate change was occurring. The findings, represented in a series of maps, were presented at a meeting of the bicameral task force on climate change which has been pushing Congress to try to move ahead on Obama's green commitments. There was insufficient data to provide findings from a small number of states Henry Waxman, the Democrat who co-chairs the taskforce, said in a statement the findings showed Americans were ready to take action to cut emissions that cause climate change. “This new report is crystal clear,” said Waxman. “It shows that the vast majority of Americans – whether from red states or blue – understand that climate change is a growing danger. Americans recognise that we have a moral obligation to protect the environment and an economic opportunity to develop the clean energy technologies of the future. Americans are way ahead of Congress in listening to the scientists.” Some 58% of Republicans in the current Congress deny the existence of climate change or oppose action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress. | ['environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'us-news/us-news', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'us-news/us-politics', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2013-11-13T19:40:43Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-threat-food-security-humankind | Climate change a threat to security, food and humankind - IPCC report | A United Nations report raised the threat of climate change to a whole new level on Monday, warning of sweeping consequences to life and livelihood. The report from the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change concluded that climate change was already having effects in real time – melting sea ice and thawing permafrost in the Arctic, killing off coral reefs in the oceans, and leading to heat waves, heavy rains and mega-disasters. And the worst was yet to come. Climate change posed a threat to global food stocks, and to human security, the blockbuster report said. “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,” said Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC. Monday's report was the most sobering so far from the UN climate panel and, scientists said, the most definitive. The report – a three year joint effort by more than 300 scientists – grew to 2,600 pages and 32 volumes. The volume of scientific literature on the effects of climate change has doubled since the last report, and the findings make an increasingly detailed picture of how climate change – in tandem with existing fault lines such as poverty and inequality – poses a much more direct threat to life and livelihood. This was reflected in the language. The summary mentioned the word “risk” more than 230 times, compared to just over 40 mentions seven years ago, according to a count by the Red Cross. At the forefront of those risks was the potential for humanitarian crisis. The report catalogued some of the disasters that have been visited around the planet since 2000: killer heat waves in Europe, wildfires in Australia, and deadly floods in Pakistan. “We are now in an era where climate change isn't some kind of future hypothetical,” said Chris Field, one of the two main authors of the report. Those extreme weather events would take a disproportionate toll on poor, weak and elderly people. The scientists said governments did not have systems in place to protect those populations. “This would really be a severe challenge for some of the poorest communities and poorest countries in the world,” said Maggie Opondo, a geographer from the University of Nairobi and one of the authors. The warning signs about climate change and extreme weather events have been accumulating over time. But this report struck out on relatively new ground by drawing a clear line connecting climate change to food scarcity, and conflict. The report said climate change had already cut into the global food supply. Global crop yields were beginning to decline – especially for wheat – raising doubts as to whether production could keep up with population growth. “It has now become evident in some parts of the world that the green revolution has reached a plateau,” Pachauri said. The future looks even more grim. Under some scenarios, climate change could lead to dramatic drops in global wheat production as well as reductions in maize. "Climate change is acting as a brake. We need yields to grow to meet growing demand, but already climate change is slowing those yields," said Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton professor and an author of the report. Other food sources are also under threat. Fish catches in some areas of the tropics are projected to fall by between 40% and 60%, according to the report. The report also connected climate change to rising food prices and political instability, for instance the riots in Asia and Africa after food price shocks in 2008. "The impacts are already evident in many places in the world. It is not something that is [only] going to happen in the future," said David Lobell, a professor at Stanford University's centre for food security, who devised the models. "Almost everywhere you see the warming effects have a negative affect on wheat and there is a similar story for corn as well. These are not yet enormous effects but they show clearly that the trends are big enough to be important," Lobell said. The report acknowledged that there were a few isolated areas where a longer growing season had been good for farming. But it played down the idea that there may be advantages to climate change as far as food production is concerned. Overall, the report said, "Negative impacts of climate change on crop yields have been more common than positive impacts." Scientists and campaigners pointed to the finding as a defining feature of the report. The report also warned for the first time that climate change, combined with poverty and economic shocks, could lead to war and drive people to leave their homes. With the catalogue of risks, the scientists said they hoped to persuade governments and the public that it was past time to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to plan for sea walls and other infrastructure that offer some protection for climate change. “The one message that comes out of this is the world has to adapt and the world has to mitigate,” said Pachauri. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'environment/rajendra-pachauri', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-03-31T10:50:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2020/dec/11/global-action-climate-crisis-britain-summit | Finally there's global action on the climate crisis, and Britain must lead the way | Dominic Raab | On Saturday the UK, UN and France will co-host the climate ambition summit alongside partners Italy and Chile, on the fifth anniversary of the UN’s landmark Paris agreement. The summit brings together the world’s most ambitious climate leaders from government, business and civil society, all seeking to ramp up action and ensure the Paris agreement is delivered. Covid-19 has not stopped the climate crisis. Our world continues to get hotter. The effects of climate change are already being felt in droughts, floods and other extreme weather events around the world. But there are reasons to be positive. First, we have come a long way in a short time. Since the concept of net zero was agreed in Paris, at least 120 countries have made net zero or carbon neutral commitments. Now we need to see these long-term goals turned into implementation plans, near term targets and decisive actions to shift away from coal. This is what the consultancy Systemiq have called the Paris “ratchet” effect. The UK was the first major economy in the world to pass laws to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, and we now have a plan of actions to get us there, including a reduction of at least 68% in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, compared to 1990 levels. We will keep working with our partners around the world to build the momentum on emissions cutting, climate finance and adaptation and resilience. The second reason to be positive is that some of the big net-zero dominoes are beginning to fall. In September, president Xi Jinping announced that China would achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. In October, prime minister Yoshihide Suga declared that Japan would reach net zero before 2050. A few days later, president Moon Jae-in announced that South Korea would achieve net zero by 2050. US president-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to recommit to the Paris agreement and achieve a “carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035” is a game-changer. We are using our diplomatic reach and clout to keep pushing at the dominoes, encouraging our partners around the world to be as ambitious as they can. The third reason is that the economics of the low-carbon transition are changing. Renewables are finally undercutting fossil fuels as the cheapest and most secure form of energy. Countries want to position themselves at the forefront of the technological revolution. Business already gets it. Companies that have set their own net-zero targets now have a combined global revenue of over $11.4tn. The stars are aligning for decisive action. We know how important it is to act. The world is changing around us, and we must adapt to it. Many countries are already doing this, tackling head-on the new reality we face as a result of climate change. In Bangladesh, for example, with the support of the UK and others on disaster risk reduction, the mortality rate from cyclones has been cut more than a hundredfold – from 500,000 deaths in 1970 to 4,234 in 2007. So let’s seize this moment. I’m sure today’s summit will deliver the boost we need as we enter the crucial year ahead – which culminates with the UK hosting the UN climate change conference in Glasgow next November. We are determined to keep raising ambitions around the world in the fight against climate change, and to go further and faster in 2021. • Dominic Raab is foreign secretary and first secretary of state, and the Conservative MP for Esher and Walton | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/dominic-raab', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-12-11T17:00:02Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2019/sep/01/hurricane-dorian-bahamas-us-flooding-florida-south-north-carolina | Hurricane Dorian: millions evacuated from coastal US as category 5 storm hits Bahamas | Millions of coastal US residents from south Florida to the Carolinas were evacuating inland on Monday as Hurricane Dorian – a category 5 monster storm with gusts above 200mph – continued to tear apart the northern islands of the Bahamas. Dorian, the most powerful cyclone to strike the Caribbean in modern times, was predicted to start moving west and towards the US mainland later on Monday after spending the day parked over Grand Bahama island, scouring it with devastating wind and rain. Officials said the storm was continuing to cause terrible damage in the Bahamas, where it made landfall at lunchtime on Sunday, its sustained 175mph winds tearing apart buildings and ripping off roofs, and destroying or severely damaging at least 13,000 homes, according to the Red Cross. The hurricane, which brought “catastrophic winds” and a storm surge above 20ft to the Caribbean island nation, also claimed its first recorded fatality, an eight-year-old boy who drowned on Abaco Island. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued in the US ahead of Dorian’s expected midweek march up the east coast, with National Hurricane Center experts warning of “life-threatening storm surges and dangerous hurricane force winds” even if it follows its forecast track of remaining out at sea. “It is still possible for the hurricane to deviate from this forecast and move very near or over the coast,” Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane expert at the NHC, said. In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster announced the evacuation of eight coastal counties, affecting more than 800,000 residents, adding to earlier orders issued for large numbers of counties along the coasts of central and north Florida and Georgia. Rick Scott, the former Florida governor and now a Republican US senator for the state, said that even storm surges of seven feet that are predicted to affect the state’s east coast, whether the hurricane makes landfall there or not, were almost unprecedented. He was concerned that people were not taking the storm seriously and that they should evacuate, where recommended, and prepare elsewhere. “I want everyone to stay alive … this is not the time to take a chance … I do not want to lose anyone [in Florida] and it’s the same in Georgia and the Carolinas,” he told CNN. Later on Sunday, on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, footage emerged of floodwaters reaching halfway up the sides of family homes with parts of the roofs torn off. The island chain’s homes are built to withstand winds of at least 150mph (241km/h). Americans should “pray for the people in the Bahamas”, Donald Trump said from Washington as south-eastern US states looked on nervously. The Bahamian prime minister, Hubert Minnis, said in a nationally televised news conference that a “monster storm” was battering the region. “This will put us to a test that we’ve never confronted before,” he said. “This is probably the most sad and worst day of my life to address the Bahamian people. I just want to say as a physician I’ve been trained to withstand many things, but never anything like this.” The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Dorian made a second landfall at 2pm ET (1800 GMT) on Sunday, hitting Great Abaco island with large waves and winds of 185mph with higher gusts. That was tied for the strongest Atlantic hurricane landfall on record, with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. As hundreds hunkered down in schools, churches and other shelters, Bahamian authorities made a last-minute plea for those in low-lying areas to evacuate. Reporters in the Bahamas said hundreds of residents of lower-lying islands, including Grand Cay and Sweeting Cay, had ignored mandatory orders to go. “Once the winds get to a certain strength we’re not going to to be able to respond,” Don Cornish, head of the Bahamas national emergency management agency, warned in a pre-storm briefing. “We may not have the resources to come after persons who are in harm’s way.” On Monday, the storm, which had been moving west at 8mph, was basically stalled over the islands. “It’s going to be really, really bad for the Bahamas,” a Colorado State University hurricane researcher, Phil Klotzbach, told the Associated Press, adding: “Abaco is going to get wiped.” On Sunday morning, a significant change to the forecast by NHC experts brought the cyclone much closer to Florida’s south-eastern coast by Monday and Tuesday, prompting new hurricane and tropical storm force watches from just north of Miami to Sebastian inlet, 100 miles north of West Palm Beach. Dorian’s predicted path would then take it north, skirting the US coast towards Georgia and the Carolinas. The increasing strength of the storm makes this the fourth consecutive year that at least one Atlantic cyclone has reached category 5, according to the NHC. Hurricane Matthew in 2016 followed a similar offshore track to Dorian’s expected path yet still caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage and 47 deaths in the US from wind, storm surge and significant inland flooding. In 2017 Irma and Maria tore through the Caribbean, the latter blamed for more than 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico, and last year Hurricane Michael wrecked areas of the Florida Panhandle that are still struggling to recover. The Associated Press contributed to this report | ['world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'world/bahamas', 'world/americas', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/south-carolina', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'us-news/us-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricane-dorian', 'world/extreme-weather', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricane-dorian | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-09-02T14:12:51Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk/2009/apr/21/prince-charles-harmony-book-film-environment | Prince Charles set to release book and film on the environment | Time was that when anybody mentioned the word "harmony", the instinctual reaction was to think of hairspray. But that was then. Now the word is to be reclaimed as a description not of bouffant hairdos but of nature's way, courtesy of the Prince of Wales. He is to bring out a book and film next year under the title Harmony. The move is an interesting step for the prince, who has, it must be said, endured his fair share of dissonance in his life. But now, as he enters his seventh decade, happily second-married, serenity seems to be the order of the day. The book, to be published by Rupert Murdoch's New York house HarperCollins, will be a plea for a revival of "the lost balance between Man and Nature and to follow a more philosophical path which reconnects humankind with ancient wisdom and intuition". It will bring together the various strands of his belief in a need for caution and conservation, with climate change as its focal point. The sting of the work is likely to be directed on this occasion at big businesses that have damaged the environment in their insatiable drive for profits. In a statement, the prince set out his desire to "rediscover that sense of being a part of, rather than apart from nature". Then, he went on, "we would perhaps be less likely to see the world as some sort of gigantic production system, capable of ever-increasing outputs for our benefit - at no cost". For someone who puts such great store on "living in harmony", Prince Charles certainly knows how to pick a fight. With the world's top architects already directing their heavy guns at him for his opposition to Richard Rogers's modernist design in Chelsea, he has now opened up a second front against agricultural giants, mining and energy interests. The film is to be shot largely in America, providing no shortage of examples of environmental pillage. The most gruesome illustrations will presumably be toned down for the children's book version that will follow in 2011. Comparisons have instantly and inevitably been made with Al Gore, whose own ventures in a book and film about the perils of climate change proved rather successful. Before An Inconvenient Truth, Gore was a failed public figure who was pilloried for his views and teased for his wooden delivery; after it he became an Oscar-winning Nobel Laureate. Who could blame Charles for desiring just a touch of the same? To be fair, though, the prince has already effected a degree of his own rehabilitation. You don't hear much these days about his fondness for talking to plants; his passion for the natural order of things that once seemed deeply unfashionable now chimes with the zeitgeist in the era of global warming. As he told the Sunday Telegraph recently while on a tour of South America: "If now people are beginning to realise that perhaps, after all, I wasn't talking complete nonsense, then I am delighted." | ['environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'uk/prince-charles', 'books/books', 'film/film', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/edpilkington'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-04-21T18:05:48Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/blog/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-diary | Copenhagen diary: US in typo shock and 'red zone' extended to journalists | Suzanne Goldenberg and John Vidal | Lulu, president of Brazil? Is there a Lulu in the house? The White House had a few moments of embarrassment last night when it put out its customary "readout" of Barack Obama's telephone calls with world leaders. Obama has been working the phones to try to get developing countries on board with a climate deal — a fact that the White House is anxious to emphasise. "Readout of the president's call with President Lulu of Brazil and prime minister of Grenada," the original release said. The correction, with Lula, arrived 25 minutes later. Inhofe brings the climate contrarian cavalry James Inhofe, the Republican who is the lead climate change contrarian in the Senate, has arrived in Copenhagen to gloat over the sense of rising panic on the penultimate day of the talks. "So the Copenhagen talks are stalemated. It's clear to all the developing countries don't want burdensome regulations to stifle their economy. I don't blame them," he said in a statement, going on to forecast that US climate change legislation would also die in the Senate. Civil society makes room for high society Under 1,000 of the original 8,000 members of civil society are now allowed into the conference centre, to make room for world leaders arriving today and tomorrow. Greenpeace, Oxfam, ActionAid, Friends of the Earth International, the WWF and others have been allowed a handful of people each. But the groups in the south are even more curtailed: the UN has base allocated numbers on membership, and most poor countries have small membership bases. Visitors arriving at the conference centre this morning saw empty booths for Oxfam, Worldwide Fund for Nature, Action Aid and Friends of the Earth. The only sign of the former presence were posters pinned on to the wall, saying: "Civil society has been removed from negotiations. How can you decide about us without us?" NGOs consult lawyers over evictions NGOs have been consulting their lawyers over their evictions. Even though Denmark has a law under the Aarhus convention that guarantees the public access to international meetings, it does not wash in Copenhagen. So quite a few activists have taken to trying to spend the night in the conference centre. Unfortunately that tactic failed too — Greenpeace was chucked out at 2.30am this morning. Journalists excluded from red zone First they come for the public, then for the press. The world's 3,000 or more journalists here in Copenhagen were told on arrival at the conference today that a red zone has been created that restricts reporters from conference rooms and delegates' headquarters. Anyone who wanted to go to a press conference would also have to be escorted by UN staff. There was fury at the news, which effectively turns the press centre into an island. "It's a shambles," said Shane Smart of EuroTV. "We have an interview in five minutes with the head of the IPCC, but they won't let us through to see him. Our producer is going crazy." "Tell the world this is a Scandinavian police state," said a Bolivian delegate. Eventually the UN was given such a hard time by the press it temporaraily abandoned its journalist security measures. But it appears to have erected red zones elsewhere in the centre. Prescott on the err, campaign trail John Prescott has announced that he will stand down as an MP at the next general election, but at Copenhagen today he sounded distinctly like he was on the campaign trail — or hankering for a return to the cabinet. "Thank god, we have a leader like Gordon Brown!" the former UK deputy prime minister said in praising the premier for being the first head of government to confirm his attendance at the climate talks and going further than his counterparts in pledging finance. "If there was ever a time when needed a conquering hero, it is now. Perhaps I am building him up too much, but if this meeting comes off, it will have a lot to do with Gordon." But Prescott was distinctly less enthusiastic about the organisation of the conference. "As I stood in the line for three hours trying to get in on the first day, I was not impressed." | ['environment/blog', 'tone/news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-12-17T12:29:46Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2022/jan/30/observer-view-britains-energy-crisis | The Observer view on Britain’s energy crisis | Observer editorial | Energy is vital to our daily lives. We need reliable supplies to heat our homes, to cook, to keep our food fresh, to power our transport systems, to illuminate our cities and to stay in communication with each other. Ensuring there are no significant disruptions to that provision is one of the most important tasks that a government must perform on behalf of its citizens. In recent months, it has become clear that serious strains are now being placed on energy security in the United Kingdom, however. Spiralling gas costs are causing considerable financial difficulties for thousands of households. At the same time, electricity supplies are now threatened because most of the UK’s ageing nuclear reactors, which currently provide 20% of our electricity, face closure in the next few years with little prospect, at present, of new atomic power plants being ready to fill the gap in lost output. On top of these issues, an urgent overhaul of our use of fossil fuels is required if the country is to have any chance of reaching its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a promise made by the government as part of its commitment to tackle climate change and to help halt the dangerous warming of our planet. At present, roughly half our electricity is generated by burning natural gas in power plants. About half of that comes to our shores from North Sea rigs whose overall output is dwindling as gas fields reach the end of their lives. The rest of our gas is imported from other nations; most of it is shipped from Qatar or the US or piped from Norway. Very little is imported from Russia, it should be noted. In addition, gas plays a dominant role in heating our homes, a reliance that cannot last for much longer if we are to meet our climate change obligations. In short, we need, as a matter of priority, to replace gas with electricity generated in a safe, renewable, environmentally friendly manner. The nation can achieve this goal in two ways: it can import more electricity from mainland Europe (around 6% of our power already comes via inter-connectors to France, the Netherlands and Ireland) or it can find alternative sources within the UK. The latter path is very much the preferable one, both in terms of establishing security for our energy supply while also ensuring this power is generated in a manner consistent with our carbon emission aspirations. Energy security and fighting climate change are inextricably linked, in other words. This transformation needs to be done as a matter of urgency, however, a point that appears to have escaped ministers whose attempts to reshape power use in the UK have already started to unravel. Consider the government’s green homes grant scheme for England. Hailed by Boris Johnson as a key plank in his green industrial revolution by helping the public make their homes more energy-efficient and less reliant on fossil fuel heating, it targeted a total of 600,000 homes for improvement. In the end, however, only 47,500 were upgraded. As Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, put it last year: “This scheme was a slam dunk fail.” Such setbacks are alarming and underline the urgent need for ministers to provide the nation with a cogent, detailed set of proposals for generating power securely and sustainably while minimising energy waste. Several key issues need to be addressed to achieve these goals. The first is the creation of a system of smart grids. These local networks would distribute power generated from renewable energy sources to supplement mains supplies and reduce electricity bills. Establishing such a system should be seen as a priority for they offer the prospect of making maximum use of power generated within our shores at low cost. Properly insulating buildings would have a similar effect. Despite Johnson’s green homes initiative failure, efforts to make homes and workplaces more energy-efficient should be redoubled. It will not be possible to fit every house in Britain with a heat pump or solar panels. Nevertheless, making more houses and offices greener today will have critical impacts in coming years. Providing power when weather is gloomy and winds are non-existent is also key. At present, nuclear and gas-power plants provide that electricity. The disappearance of the latter over the coming decade will put more pressure on the UK to develop an efficient atomic power programme. Currently, our nuclear plans look piecemeal and unimpressive, despite last week’s announcement of a £100m investment to help develop the Sizewell C power station in Suffolk. Further research is also needed to find new, efficient ways to store energy, so power from renewable sources can be stored for those gloomy, windless days. We also need to find ways to capture and store carbon dioxide from old power plants and so extend their lives. Such developments will be crucial in providing the nation with a full range of options for generating its own power securely and cleanly. The alternative is to sit back and allow these issues to be resolved beyond our shores. In a world where energy will become ever more critical to national survival, that is not an option to be countenanced. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/editorials', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy-storage', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'money/household-bills', 'type/article', 'profile/observer-editorials', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-01-30T06:00:13Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2013/may/25/indonesia-new-corporate-colonialism | 'Indonesia is seeing a new corporate colonialism' | Land conflicts between farmers and plantation owners, mining companies and developers have raged across Indonesia as local and multinational companies have been encouraged to seize and then deforest customary land – land owned by indigenous people and administered in accordance with their customs. More than 600 were recorded in 2011, with 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The true number is probably far greater, say watchdog groups. The Indonesian national human rights commission reported more than 5,000 human rights violations last year, mostly linked to deforestation by corporations. "Deaths of farmers caused by the increase in agrarian conflicts all across Indonesia are increasing," said Henry Saragih, founder of the Indonesian Peasant Union, which has 700,000 members. "The presence of palm oil plantations has spawned a new poverty and is triggering a crisis of landlessness and hunger. Human rights violations keep occurring around natural resources in the country and intimidation, forced evictions and torture are common," said Saragih. "There are thousands of cases that have not surfaced. Many remain hidden, especially by local authorities," he says. Communities complain that they are not warned, consulted or compensated when concessions are handed out and that they are left with no option but to give up their independence and work for minimal wages for the companies. At fault are badly drafted laws, unclear regulations, corruption and heavy-handed security and paramilitary forces – all of which favour large business over the poor. Illegal land purchases and logging are mostly supported by police, armed forces and local government staff. Companies are even allowed to work with security forces. Feelings run high when land is taken and livelihoods are wiped out by deforestation. In December 2011, 28 protesters from a logging concession area on Padang island in Sumatra sewed their mouths shut in front of the parliament building in Jakarta in a protest against having their land "grabbed" by a giant paper and pulp company. Last year, three people were killed in a clash with security forces during a protest over gold prospectors in Bima on the island of Sumbawa. Farmers from Mesuji in Sumatra claimed that security forces murdered residents to evict them from their land. Over 10m hectares (24.7m acres) of land has been given away and converted to plantations in the last 10 years, forcing thousands of communities to give up forest they have collectively used for generations. Politicians offer land to supporters and give permission to develop plantations with little thought for the human or ecological consequences. In addition, government attempts to move landless people from densely populated areas to less populous areas with "transmigration" policies have caused major conflicts with indigenous groups in provinces like Papua and Sulawesi. "Who controls the land in Indonesia controls the politics. Corruption is massive around natural resources. We are seeing a new corporate colonialism. In the Suharto era you were sent to prison for talking about the government. Now you can be sent there for talking about corporations," says Abetnego Tarigan, director of Friends of the Earth Indonesia in Jakarta. Three of the group's staff members, including its south Sumatra director, are in prison following protests at the involvement of the police and military in a land dispute involving a state-owned palm oil plantation firm. "The scale of the conflicts is growing. Every day new ones are reported. More and more police are now in the plantations. Government is trying to clamp down on mass protests," said Tarigan. "These developments are classed as 'growth' but what we are seeing is the collapse of communities of fisherfolk or farmers and increasing poverty. We are exchanging biodiversity for monocultures, local economies for global ones, small-scale producers are becoming labourers and community land is becoming corporate. This is the direction we are going." | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/indonesia', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'environment/palm-oil', 'tone/news', 'society/society', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/international-land-deals', 'environment/land-rights', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-05-25T22:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
lifeandstyle/2024/apr/27/teenager-finds-holy-grail-lego-octopus-from-1997-spill-off-cornwall-coast | Teenager finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus from 1997 spill off Cornwall coast | A 13-year-old boy has discovered a “holy grail” Lego octopus which spilled into the sea from a shipping container in the 1990s. The octopus is one of nearly 5m Lego pieces that fell into the sea in 1997 when a storm hit a cargo ship 20 miles off Land’s End, Cornwall. While 352,000 pairs of flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, and 92,400 swords went overboard, the octopuses are considered the most prized finds as only 4,200 were onboard. Liutauras Cemolonskas has collected 789 pieces of the collection over the past two years, alongside numerous fossils. The Cornish teenager made the octopus discovery on a beach in Marazion on one of his regular trips with his parents. His father, Vytautas, 36, told the PA Media news agency: “We’ve been looking for that octopus for two years, it’s not easy to find. We were not expecting to find it at all because it’s very rare.” After passing on his childhood interest in archaeology to his son, the family routinely undertake beachcombing trips. Liutauras said he was “happy” to have found the rare octopus. He said his next goal was to find one of the 33,941 dragons that went missing after the incident, in which 62 containers toppled off the ship. Tracey Williams, a beachcomber, is behind the Lego Lost at Sea project, which has spent years trying to find the plastic pieces. She told PA a second Lego octopus was found two days after Liutauras’s discovery, in Porthleven. “I think that’s because we had a very high spring tide coupled with strong onshore winds and when the two collide, the waves eat into the dunes that then release a lot of the plastic that has washed up,” Williams said. “I think there’s something quite magical about the octopuses. They’re often seen as the holy grail of finds from that shipping container.” Williams started collecting the pieces near her parents’ home shortly after the incident, but then forgot about them until she moved to Cornwall in 2010 and began finding them again. “I found one octopus back in 1997 and I didn’t find another for 18 years,” she said. While collecting the Legos began as “a bit of fun”, she said it gradually opened her eyes to the amount of plastic in the ocean. | ['lifeandstyle/lego', 'environment/plastic', 'uk-news/cornwall', 'uk-news/england', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/toys', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/cash-boyle', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-04-27T14:21:51Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2015/jul/13/barnaby-joyce-to-retain-portfolio-despite-criticism-of-shenhua-mine-approval | Barnaby Joyce to retain portfolio despite criticism of Shenhua mine approval | Tony Abbott says he is getting “double the marketing advantage” by campaigning for the agriculture white paper without his agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, who will promote the document in a different location. The prime minister said on Monday that Joyce would “absolutely” retain his position as agriculture minister despite his outspoken criticism of Greg Hunt’s decision as environment minister to approve the Shenhua Watermark coalmine in the Liverpool Plains in New South Wales. Abbott was visiting a farm in Tirrannaville in New South Wales to promote the government’s blueprint for the agricultural sector, released just over a week ago. The prime minister was joined on Monday by the local Liberal MP for Hume, Angus Taylor, but not the agriculture minister, who savaged the coalmine’s approval last week as evidence that “the world has gone mad”. At a media conference, Abbott credited Joyce with bringing “enormous passion and commitment to the task” of developing the agricultural competitiveness white paper, but the prime minister faced questions about why the minister was absent from the event. “Barnaby is doing his job,” the prime minister said. “He’s doing his job extremely well and his job is going out to market the agriculture white paper where he is, just as it’s my job to market the agriculture white paper where I am. We are both doing our job to the best of our ability and as far as I’m concerned that means we get double the marketing advantage on a day like today.” Abbott backed Joyce’s cabinet position, saying the agriculture minister was “passionate, committed, knowledgeable and this white paper is a tribute to his good work”. Joyce spoke to local reporters at a media conference in his electorate of New England on Monday morning. The Watermark coalmine, to be operated by Chinese firm Shenhua, would be in Joyce’s local electorate of New England, but he has made clear that he objected to the proposal in his capacity as agriculture minister. The Watermark project manager, Paul Jackson, accused Joyce of “sabre-rattling” and being “a loony”. “A big part of this is about us being Chinese and state-owned, and him being naive and xenophobic and not liking Chinese state-owned enterprises buying farmland or developing resources in Australia,” Jackson told the Australian newspaper on Monday. “The wider benefit of this mine is that you can engender a long-term relationship with China and they will want to take your agricultural goods from the other one million hectares of the Liverpool Plains.” Joyce reaffirmed on Monday that he would not resign from the cabinet and he said he found Jackson’s comments to be “desperately disappointing”. “I don’t see myself as a xenophobic loony, as he so politely points out, but what I do think that shows is the rather abrupt nature of Mr Jackson,” Joyce said. Joyce questioned the former New South Wales Labor government’s decision to grant an exploration licence to the mine proponents and said he had recently written to the Liberal premier, Mike Baird, urging him to prevent the project from going ahead. Hunt also pointed to “the New South Wales Labor decision to open up the land” as he attempted to defend the federal environmental approval. However, the former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally said on Twitter that the Shenhua mine exploration licence expired in 2012 and was renewed by NSW Liberal government. She described this as “an inconvenient fact left out by [Steven] Ciobo & Hunt today”. Hunt defended his decision – saying he had “put in place the toughest conditions in history” – but also backed Joyce’s right to voice his “longstanding view”. “He’s got a longstanding commitment that predates being a minister. It wouldn’t be reasonable to get him to suddenly pretend that he doesn’t have his views,” Hunt told ABC Radio National on Monday. “He’s a really good man. He’s an honest and decent man and I want to stand up for him.” Hunt told reporters he had spoken to Joyce twice in the past week and they had “an incredibly positive civil relationship”. Hunt insisted, however, that the mine was “not on prime agricultural land”. Joyce, the deputy Nationals leader, said in a Facebook post last Wednesday that he had never supported the Shenhua mine because “it is ridiculous that you would have a major mine in the midst of Australia’s best agricultural land”. “I think the world has gone mad when apparently you cannot build a house at Moore Creek because of White Box grassy woodlands but you can build a super mine in the middle of the Breeza Plains,” he wrote. Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, said the government was divided on the question of whether the mine was on prime agricultural land. “The warring ministers are causing more confusion, fear and uncertainty in the communities of the Liverpool Plains,” Fitzgibbon said. “Greg Hunt must quickly move to clarify the situation and in doing so, prove his agriculture minister wrong. He must do so by releasing the documentation and scientific evidence he has relied on in making his decision.” The Victorian Liberal party president, Michael Kroger, said Joyce’s public comments were “extremely unusual” for a cabinet minister. “Some people say it’s just Barnaby being Barnaby,” Kroger told Sky News on Monday. “Is it in accordance with the Westminster principles? No.” Kroger said there were some cases of “authorised or allowable” cases where ministers from time to time could disagree with government policy. He cited the example of Western Australian ministers who had strong views about distribution of goods and services tax revenue. The trade minister, Andrew Robb, played down the government divisions on Sunday, saying Joyce felt “enormously strongly” about the issue and the prime minister’s role was to manage a cabinet full of “type A” personalities. | ['australia-news/barnaby-joyce', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'science/agriculture', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/greg-hunt', 'australia-news/national-party', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/daniel-hurst', 'profile/shalailah-medhora'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-07-13T03:20:12Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/askjack/2008/may/29/catchingupwithbbctvprogra | Catching up with BBC TV programmes | How do I get to watch BBC Songs of Praise from Sunday April 27? Peter T Jeffers You don't, unless you are very lucky. The BBC makes programmes available via its iPlayer service (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer), but only for seven days and only to people who live in the UK. Even someone who downloads a programme can only keep it for 30 days. Many TV programmes are available via BitTorrent file sharing, of course, and it's not hard to find popular American series. However, nobody seems to have seeded Songs of Praise: not even one featuring Mica Paris. | ['technology/askjack', 'technology/technology', 'tone/blog', 'media/bbc', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'media/media', 'type/article', 'profile/jackschofield'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-05-29T00:08:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2021/jul/01/lytton-wildfire-heatwave-british-columbia-canada | ‘Lytton is gone’: wildfire tears through village after record-breaking heat | After three days of unrelenting heat, the people in the British Columbia village of Lytton were hoping for a modest respite. Temperatures which had shattered longstanding national records – at one point reaching a blistering 49.6C (121.28F) – eased slightly on Wednesday, raising hopes that the worst was over. But that same day, in the late afternoon, a wildfire tore through the settlement 153km (95 miles) north-east of Vancouver. The fire was in the town and consuming buildings so quickly that residents weren’t given advance notice to evacuate. Many were already leaving by the time the order came from the mayor at 6pm. Residents saw the thick black smoke filling the valley, grabbed what they could, and escaped. Within hours, most of the buildings had been consumed by flames. “Our poor little town of Lytton is gone,” Edith Loring-Kuhanga, an administrator at Stein Valley Nlakapamux school, wrote on Facebook. She grabbed her suitcase, a pillow and computer case. Despite a loud explosion from the fire, she rushed back in to grab her purse. “We loaded everyone up in our vehicles and started driving … we had no power or internet in Lytton and everyone was trying to reach people,” she wrote. “This is so devastating – we are all in shock! Our community members have lost everything.” While the unprecedented heat has ebbed slightly, the people of Canada’s western provinces are now confronting the grim effects of the blistering temperatures – including a surge in heat-related deaths and the growing spectre of wildfires devouring bone-dry forests. The people of Lytton had been warned of a fire, 123 acres in size, which was burning south of the village. Officials watched warily as it grew and inched towards the community of 250. But it was a new fire, fanned by strong winds, that surprised town officials, ripping through the community and engulfing buildings within minutes of being spotted. “I cried. My daughter cried,” resident Jean McKay told the Canadian Press. She packed up what she could in her home in Kanaka Bar, a First Nations community near Lytton, “[My daughter] said, ‘I don’t even know why I grabbed my key. We might not even have a home.’ I said … as long as we’re together we’ll survive.’ I just pray that our houses are OK.” The “heat dome” that blanketed British Columbia – and is now moving eastward to Alberta – has produced a flurry of wildfires in recent days. Crews are grappling with more than 26 blazes across the province – a task complicated by the lingering effects of the record-breaking temperatures. Earlier this week, helicopters meant to fight the Sparks Lake fire, which has since grown to more than 200 sq km in size, were grounded because their engines had overheated. Towering over that blaze were pyrocumulonimbus clouds – a towering formation often known to create other weather systems, including lightning strikes. The dry, tinder-like conditions of the landscape have made suppressing the fires impossible and the province has pulled back resources to keep fire crews safe. As the interior of the province burns, residents in major cities received a glimpse of the danger brought by the heatwave when Vancouver’s chief coroner announced “sudden and unexpected” deaths had surged nearly 200% in the preceding five days – a figure that will only rise as more communities input data. On Wednesday, the province announced 486 sudden deaths, far above the typical 165 deaths for a similar period. “While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat-related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather BC has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province,” Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner, said in a statement. Many of those who died over the five-day period were seniors, lived alone and were found in residences that were hot and not well-ventilated. “What we’ve seen here is absolutely unprecedented,” Mike Farnworth, the province’s public safety minister, told reporters. Heat-related deaths are rare in the province – only three have been recorded over the last five years. Experts – and Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden – have linked the unprecedented recent heatwave to climate change, warning it is likely to make extreme weather events a more common occurrence in the future. Farnworth said a detailed coroner’s report on the deaths is critical for the province to prepare “if and when an event happens like this again” – an indication that officials are bracing to once again confront record-breaking heat. • This article was amended on 2 July 2021 to make clear that while (as reported) authorities had no time to issue an evacuation order in advance of the Lytton fire, an order was issued at 6pm as residents departed. | ['world/canada', 'world/wildfires', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/canada-wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/canada-wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-07-01T18:24:41Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2024/feb/27/smallest-fish-sounds-loud-danionella-cerebrum | One of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot | One of the world’s smallest fish, measuring about the width of an adult human fingernail, can make a sound as loud as a gunshot, scientists have said. The male Danionella cerebrum, a fish of about 12mm found in the streams of Myanmar, produces sounds that exceed 140 decibels, according to the study published in the PNAS journal, equal to an ambulance siren or jackhammer. The most common mechanism in fishes to produce sound involved vibrations of their swim bladder – a gas-filled organ used to control buoyancy – driven by rhythmic contractions of specialised “drumming” muscles, the paper said. However, the sound production mechanism of the pulses generated by Danionella cerebrum, which has the smallest known brain of any vertebrate, had been a mystery as swim bladder-related muscle mechanisms did not provide a plausible explanation for the origin of the sound. The scientists at Charité University in Berlin have found the fish has a unique sound production system, involving a drumming cartilage, specialised rib and fatigue-resistant muscle. This allows the fish to accelerate the drumming cartilage at extreme forces and generate rapid, loud pulses. “Understanding this extraordinary adaptation expands our knowledge of animal motion and highlights the remarkable diversity of propulsion mechanisms across species, contributing to our broader understanding of evolutionary biology and biomechanics,” the paper said. The team of scientists used high-speed video recordings to investigate the mechanism of sound production. To produce sound, a rib that lies next to the swim bladder is moved by a special muscle into a piece of cartilage. When the rib is released it hits the swim bladder and makes the drumming sound. The rib is much harder in males, which explains why females do not produce sounds. The scientists have not established why the fish make such loud sounds but suggested it could help navigate murky waters or be an aggressive tactic used by males to warn off competition. | ['science/animalbehaviour', 'environment/fish', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/biology', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jamie-grierson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-02-27T10:11:09Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2014/apr/25/wind-power-uk-scaled-down-windfarms | Should wind power in the UK be scaled back? | Head to head | Maria McCaffery: 'Onshore wind will be cheaper than new nuclear' The latest announcements make grim reading for anyone looking for any kind of stability in energy policy. It's a real rollercoaster: one day you're up, the next day they're trying their best to choke you. For example, there was good news on Wednesday when the government announced financial support for eight offshore wind and biomass projects, and released its April 2014 Energy Investment Report (EIR) showing that £14bn has been invested, with the Lib Dem energy secretary Ed Davey saying that "the energy sector in the UK has an exciting and bright future". What a difference a day makes. On Thursday the Conservative energy minister Michael Fallon chose the front page of the Telegraph and Radio 4's Today programme to announce that a future Tory government would end subsidies to onshore wind and introduce draconian planning laws to block new schemes. Figures from Fallon's own department show that onshore wind will be cheaper than new nuclear, and could be cheaper than new gas early in the next decade. To an extent this depends on the price of gas, but even the shale gas industry says that if any boom were to happen it would not cut the cost of gas. So sensible politicians should factor in the risk of gas prices continuing upward, and have good alternatives such as wind in place. The EIR shows that on top of the £14bn invested so far, the UK needs a further £96bn in the next six years. The bulk of the £14bn has been invested in renewables. The government is being complacent if it thinks it can grandstand against onshore wind without worrying other market players. Worry equals risk, which equals spooked investors in all parts of the energy sector – and that leads to higher lending rates and increased consumer cost. The whole wind sector can agree with David Cameron that subsidies should be in place no longer than necessary, and we are confident that onshore wind will be the first renewable technology to be subsidy free. When that happens will depend partly on international energy markets, but mainly on whether the government makes the development of onshore wind harder or easier. Hence, by talking up further planning changes Fallon risks increasing costs for all of us. The suggestion that it will take unilateral action against a single technology such as onshore wind by introducing draconian measures into the planning system will be problematic for the Tories. At the same time that they are threatening an onshore wind clampdown, they are also proposing planning reforms to force shale gas projects through in the face of local opposition. This makes no sense, as opinion polls consistently show that all voters, including Conservative and Ukip ones, want to see more investment in onshore wind, and would prefer to see it rather than shale gas further developed. The simple point is that we will need new gas and onshore wind to keep the lights on and increase security of supply. Sensible policy is all about a balanced mix, but short-term politics is getting in the way of long-term policy. Short-termism is bad for investment and bad for consumers – and out of tune with the majority of voters. Maria McCaffery is chief executive of RenewableUK, the not-for-profit trade and professional body representing the wind, wave and tidal energy industries Mark Wallace: 'Wind winners are wealthy investors and landowners' I may be alone among opponents of windfarm subsidies, but I rather like the look of the turbines. Where some of my ideological fellows see ugly "eco-crucifixes" that blight the landscape, I find them graceful and gently lulling to watch as they spin. Unfortunately, that's just about all they have going for them. As a titanically expensive source of intermittent energy, rather than the affordable baseload we need, my enthusiasm for their elegant lines will only stretch so far. The simple fact is that we – the bill-payers and the taxpayers – cannot afford to continue paying hefty subsidies for an ever increasing number of turbines. This isn't 2004 when the general consensus was that boom and bust was over, eternal growth was guaranteed and we could throw as much money as we liked at renewables, regardless of their effectiveness, because we would always have more cash. This is 2014, when we have come to realise that only charlatans claim that you can buck the market, that busts can take a long time to get over, and that something which claims to be green can still be wasteful. Windfarm subsidies have succeeded in increasing the number of onshore turbines in the UK, but policy makers for too long refused to ask whether doing so was worth the price. Green rhetoric suggests that the alternative to any given policy is an apocalypse, that any price is worth paying to reduce emissions. But scientific and economic reality suggest that some technologies simply don't justify the cost. The winners of the wind boom are predictable – wealthy investors, landowners and renewables firms accepted the invitation to cash in at artificially high rates of return, as intended. The losers are more simple for the environmental establishment to ignore – consumers squeezed by higher energy bills, and British manufacturing workers whose jobs were exported to China as energy-intensive industries became unviable in the UK. The easy choice for a politician setting renewables policy is to side with the elite who either benefit from windfarm subsidies or who can afford to ride out the harm that they do. They're the ones with the money, the voice and the influence. The harder but correct choice is to take that elite on – scrap the subsidies, bring down bills, reduce the burden on those who can least afford to pay, and stop driving jobs out of our relatively clean economy to high-polluting, coal-guzzling China. That's the choice the Conservative party just made. Mark Wallace is executive editor of ConservativeHome | ['commentisfree/series/head-to-head', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/liberaldemocrats', 'politics/liberal-conservative-coalition', 'politics/ed-davey', 'politics/michael-fallon', 'politics/davidcameron', 'type/article', 'profile/maria-mccaffery', 'profile/mark-wallace'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2014-04-25T12:13:00Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2010/dec/02/britons-ahead-new-technology-ofcom | Britons well ahead of the pack in adopting new technology, says Ofcom | Britons are early technology adopters who have embraced smartphones more rapidly than other nations and spend more online than any other European country, according to research from Ofcom. The communications regulator said that the UK was near or at the front of almost all the basic categories it studied, including percentage of broadband users, adoption of new TV technologies, use of social networking, smartphone and mobile internet take-up, and use of laptops rather than desktop computers to access the net. Italy has the highest take-up of smartphones among European countries with 26 subscribers for every 100 people, followed by Spain (21) and the UK (18). However, Britain is seeing the fastest rise in consumers likely to subscribe to high-end handsets such as the iPhone, with 61% growth in the market for high-value subscribers, compared with Spain with just 4% growth. The report also shows the extent to which online shopping has taken hold in the UK. On average, Britons made more than double the number of online purchases in the past six months (14 per person) than people in all other major European countries except Poland (19 per person). The value of online purchases was highest in the UK at £1,031 – nearly twice the amount spent by internet users in the next-placed country, France, with £595. The study, published today, is the fifth annual report by Ofcom on the international communications market, comparing the take-up, availability and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV and radio in 17 countries. "Among the surprises were the extent to which UK users are embracing the mobile internet in such a big way," said James Thickett, Ofcom's director of market research. "The UK saw a huge take-up of smartphones between January 2009 and January 2010. We also tend to use laptops rather than desktops. It's being driven by younger people in the 18 to 24 age range." The UK is ahead of the curve because it has frequently been the first international location for innovative US companies, Thickett suggests – and now it is reaping the benefits. He forecasts that in a couple of years the UK will aldso be world-leading in the adoption of the high-speed mobile internet technology "LTE" – the next step up from 3G networks. | ['business/technology', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/digital-music-and-audio', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/television', 'technology/telecoms', 'technology/internet', 'money/internetphonesbroadband', 'media/ofcom', 'media/media', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/charlesarthur', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-12-02T07:00:05Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2022/apr/30/country-diary-a-push-a-pull-and-the-first-calf-of-spring | Country diary: A push, a pull … and the first calf of spring | It is calving season. By my estimation, having tracked her cycle from when she ran with the bull last summer, this beast is overdue. That’s not unusual, but she is a heifer – a first-time mother – so I have been monitoring closely. She had behaved normally at feeding, giving no reason to suspect change, but later on as I pass through the woods with the dogs, I see her down. By habit, I inspect. She seems uncomfortable, her breath pulses shallow and quick, though she has been doing this intermittently for days. As I look, there is a sudden expulsion of fluid at my feet. She stands abruptly, just as surprised as me, and sniffs at the ground. Then she makes the tenderest of sounds, instinctively communicating with her unborn calf. There is a primitive power in this moment in which a life is about to be made living, but additionally so in this instance. The mother of this heifer was our original matriarch, a cow we relied on. In 2019, she was condemned with TB along with almost half our small herd. We wondered if the farm could continue after such a big loss, but the orphaned calf – her only surviving progeny – felt reason enough to try. Progress is steady. She alternates between lying and standing. When she goes down, I make sure the calf is presenting correctly – two blanched hooves, pointing down; inside her I feel a nose. But steady becomes slow, she is losing momentum. At the next wave of contractions, I go to help. With both of us straining – she pushing, me pulling – we inch it out until the calf fully emerges, a warm, slithering mass. It is momentarily lifeless, its tongue blueish and swollen. I prop it upright and squeeze my hand over its nostrils to clear the airways. She licks, I rub, we both urge encouragement. Then it blinks and gives a slight shake of its head. It is alive – and what’s more, it’s a heifer. Opinion is mixed on the naming of livestock, but sometimes the case is clearcut. Given her provenance and her future potential, we call this new calf Faith. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/farm-animals', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/sarah-laughton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-04-30T04:30:45Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2019/nov/02/brazilian-forest-guardian-killed-by-illegal-loggers-in-ambush | Brazilian 'forest guardian' killed by illegal loggers in ambush | A Brazilian indigenous land defender has been killed in an ambush by illegal loggers in an Amazon frontier region. According to a statement by the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples Association, Paulo Paulino Guajajara was shot and killed inside the Araribóia indigenous territory in Maranhão state. Another tribesman, Laércio Guajajara, was also shot and hospitalised and a logger has been reported missing. No body has yet been recovered. Sérgio Moro, the justice minister of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s government, confirmed that Brazil’s federal police were investigating the killing. “We will spare no effort to bring those responsible for this serious crime to justice,” he tweeted. The tribesmen are members of an indigenous forest guard called Guardians of the Forest, which formed in 2012 to ward off logging gangs pillaging their rare, hardwood-rich reserve. Their work involves armed patrols and destroying logging encampments and has earned them dangerous enemies. Several Guardians in Maranhão have been killed in recent years, including three from Araribóia. According to Gilderlan Rodrigues, Maranhão regional coordinator of Brazil’s indigenous missionary council, the murdered tribesman had been threatened several times. “Their work bothers those that want to loot their territory,” he said, adding that the killers were from a nearby rural settlement and had entered the reserve without permission. “These criminal actions must be combated so that more lives are not lost.” The 4,130 sq km (1,595 sq miles) Araribóia indigenous reserve is home to an estimated 5,300 indigenous Brazilians of the Guajajara tribe and the Awá, an isolated group described as the “world’s most endangered tribe”. It concentrates much of the last remaining Amazon rainforest in Maranhão state. Sarah Shenker, senior research and advocacy officer at Survival International, who knew the murdered tribesman, described it as an “island of green amid a sea of deforestation”. She said the killing was “a crime foretold”. Earlier this year Paulino told Survival International: “It makes me so mad to see this [forest destruction]. These people think they can come here, into our home, and help themselves to our forest? No. We won’t allow it. We don’t break into their houses and rob them, do we? My blood is boiling. I’m so angry.” The reserve is officially protected by the Brazilian government but is constantly targeted by logging gangs and has long been a hotbed of violent conflict. In 2015, a former enforcement operations coordinator with Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama, Roberto Cabral, was shot there. In June this year, the Araribóia Guardians’ leader, Olímpio Guajajara, recorded a video calling for help from the Brazilian state after reporting that gunmen were being paid to kill them and indigenous houses had been shot at. “We don’t want war, we want to resist,” he said. “We want the Brazilian authorities to help protect the lives of the Guardians that are threatened.” The video was sent to the Brazilian government. Few land conflict-related killings in Brazil result in convictions, which advocates say has produced a culture of impunity. According to Brazil’s pastoral land commission, a rural violence watchdog, of 157 land conflict killings in Maranhão state between 1985 and 2017, just five cases went to court. Since the beginning of this year, when Bolsonaro took office, observers noted that attacks and invasions of indigenous lands had soared in Brazil as environmental and indigenous protection agencies suffered cuts and interference. “The indigenous genocide of Brazil is legitimised by the discourse of the president,” said indigenous leader Sonia Bone Guajajara, who is from the Araribóia reserve and is currently in Europe with the campaign Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More. | ['world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/protest', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/world', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sam-cowie', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-11-02T19:30:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2022/aug/02/southern-water-challenged-over-request-to-take-more-water-from-river-test | Southern Water challenged over request to take more water from River Test | Southern Water is being challenged on Wednesday over its attempts to resort to a drought permit to take more water for its customers from a chalk stream as the dry conditions continue, even as the company leaks approximately 88m litres of water a day from its pipes. The water company is asking for permission to remove more water from the River Test because of drought conditions in the south of England. But Fish Legal has asked for a formal hearing to challenge the attempt to abstract more water. The campaigning legal group says the company has not done enough to reduce water usage by customers or come up with a way to protect fish populations in the river before resorting to a drought permit. Southern became the first water company in England to issue a hosepipe ban last week in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. With other water companies, Southern contributes to water leakage of nearly 3bn litres a day from its pipes, although it says it is among the best in the country at tackling leaks. The company leaks approximately 88m litres of water a day. The company has submitted a drought permit application to the Environment Agency to allow it to continue abstracting water from the Test even if the river falls below an agreed minimum level, which has been set to protect the salmon population. Southern Water’s current licence allows it to take water from the Test as long as the flow does not drop to below 355m litres a day (mld), called the “hands-off flow” limit. This limit was set by the EA after a public inquiry in 2018. The utility company now want this level to be reduced temporarily to 265mld. Penelope Gane, head of practice at Fish Legal, said: “With a dry winter and spring, a drought was virtually inevitable this summer. Yet water usage in the area has actually gone up since October 2021, which suggests that the water company’s efforts to ‘manage demand’ have not been working. “Southern Water drought planning has not put the environment first. It is only belatedly that they have warned customers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that they intend to bring in a hosepipe ban. “That says that only in extremis and at the last minute will Southern Water take proactive measures to protect the environment, in this case a rare chalk stream that is a habitat for salmon, rather than just continue with business as usual.” Fish Legal says continued abstraction to below the current flow limit could seriously threaten the river’s ecology and fish populations, including Atlantic salmon and sea trout that are already being stressed due to low flows. Wild salmon is at critical levels in English rivers. A report by Defra last month shows that 74% of rivers in England are now “at risk” with wild salmon populations no longer at sustainable levels and threatened with irreversible decline or even extinction. Andrew Kelton, a solicitor for Fish Legal, said: “The drought permit will inevitably harm fish by reducing already extremely low, deoxygenated, warm water a great deal further and predictably leading to fish deaths. Southern Water have made some initial – and untested – plans for fish rescue and relocation, but I am not aware that this has ever been successfully done for migratory adult salmon.” Southern Water said regarding its application for a drought permit: “While in the process of applying for a drought permit, we urge and remind all customers in Hampshire to reduce water use wherever possible, to help us protect the impact on the river’s habitat.” Nick Price, water resources strategy manager at Southern Water, said: “With river flows dropping following a dry winter and spring, the risk is increasing that we will need to use a drought permit in order to continue supplying water. The less we take out of the River Test for water supply, the more we leave in it for wildlife and to support its precious habitats. We continue to ask customers to use water wisely.” The company says its aim is to reduce water leakage by 15% by 2025 and 40% by 2040. | ['environment/water', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/fish', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/drought', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-02T16:14:43Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2012/feb/08/vestas-board-upheaval-chairman | Vestas board upheaval continues as two more executives resign | A massive sweep-out of senior executives at Vestas, the world's biggest maker of wind turbines, was under way on Wednesday, with the chairman and his deputy saying they would not stand for re-election at the forthcoming annual general meeting. The departures of Bent Erik Carlsen and Torsten Erik Rasmussen follow the exit 24 hours earlier of the chief financial officer and deputy chief executive, Henrik Nørremark, which leaves the chief executive, Ditlev Engel, as one of the few board members still standing. The Danish company, which has a research and development base on the Isle of Wight and plans to build a factory at Sheerness in Kent, has record order levels of 9,550MW of turbine capacity, worth almost €10bn (£8.33bn). But it has also just suffered a larger-than-expected net loss in 2011 and warns it may not be profitable in 2012. Vestas has been hit by low-cost competition from China and uncertainty over European subsidy levels but has also continually failed to meet its internal targets with cost overruns and operational failures. Hundreds of jobs have been cut and some factories closed and there have been calls for Engel to resign. The closure of a production plant on the Isle of Wight in 2009 was badly handled, leading to an occupation by British workers and a stream of political criticism. | ['environment/vestas', 'environment/energy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'environment/green-jobs', 'environment/green-economy', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2012-02-08T16:10:00Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2005/jan/24/worlddispatch.tsunami2004 | Washing away history | It is one of many places in Banda Aceh that has yet to be cleaned up. But the rambling graveyard in the centre of town differs from other monuments in one unique respect - that the dead who are buried there are not Indonesian but Dutch. When the tsunami swept into the port of Banda Aceh almost four weeks ago, killing at least 70,000 people, it also destroyed much of the city's surviving colonial heritage. The wave washed away several graves in the Kerkhof, as the cemetery is known, where more than 2,500 Dutch soldiers who first arrived in Banda Aceh in 1873 are buried. Last week the graveyard was still a mess. Many of the tombstones remain under water; others have sunk beneath an avalanche of mud. At the imposing entrance gateway, inscribed with the names of Dutch soldiers who died here, a corpse lies entangled in a pile of rotting timber. Nobody appears to have noticed it. Nearby, diggers are still scooping up foul-smelling debris from a flooded school. "We haven't cleared the graveyard yet," Manto, a relief worker, explained. "The cemetery was severely flooded during the disaster, and hasn't yet dried out." Yesterday, Darwis Nyakman said that he and his brother, who looks after the graveyard, had found 30 bodies inside it, floating on top of the already-buried Dutch. "The dead weren't from here. They came from the port," he said. The cemetery is one of the principal reminders of the town's bitter colonial past. The Acehnese have always been fiercely independent, embracing Islam as early as the eighth century. By the 17th they had transformed Banda Aceh into a flourishing commercial harbour, with control over the Malacca Straits, a crucial shipping channel. In March 1873 the Dutch invaded and stormed the mosque. In the ensuring war, some 10,000 Dutch soldiers perished, together with at least 100,000 Achenese. Although Aceh's sultan signed a peace treaty in 1903, the Achenese continued a campaign of resistance. The Japanese eventually drove the Dutch out in 1942, during the Second World War, when they occupied most of East Asia. Yesterday, Mr Nyakman said he preferred the Dutch to the Japanese, who, he said, were "more cruel". "At least the Dutch tried to build a nation here," he added. "As well as taking our coffee and rubber, they built bridges and schools and roads. The Japanese merely collected all the beautiful girls from here and took them away." "I didn't read this in a book," he went on. "My grandfather told me." His comments came as 20 Japanese troops arrived in Banda Aceh yesterday to join the multi-national relief effort. Given the historical sensitivities involved, they are likely to keep a low profile. The tsunami, meanwhile, did only minor damage to Banda Aceh's most magnificent piece of architecture - the Baiturrahman grand mosque, which was built by the Dutch in the nineteenth century after their troops destroyed the original. A plaque under a rare geulumpang tree commemorates the spot where the Dutch general in charge of the invasion, JHR Kohler, fell while leading his men. Groups of Indonesian soldiers have now cleaned the mosque up. A short walk away, though, other colonial-era buildings have fared less well. The SMP junior high school, constructed when the Dutch unsuccessfully tried to re-conquer Indonesia in 1946, is now a heap of rubble. Next door the senior school, once the Dutch church, with a white portico and Ionic columns, is still standing. But it is full of mud. Yesterday the school's headmaster, Dr Sahnsi Harun, said he didn't have much sympathy with the Dutch. "They were imperialists. That's all you can say about them really," he said. "But at least they knew how to build. My school didn't fall down and with luck can be rehabilitated." After the Dutch finally abandoned Aceh, and Indonesia became independent, the province began another rebellion - this time against the new government in Jakarta. The insurgency is still going on today. Yesterday Mr Nyakman said he didn't know when the Kerkhof would reopen. Very few foreign tourists came here anyway, he admitted, especially after Jakarta imposed a state of emergency in the province in 2003. "My brother used to earn $30 a month from the Dutch for painting the gravestones and keeping it tidy. He would also receive foreign guests," he said. "Now he's in a refugee camp." | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/series/worlddispatch', 'world/banda-aceh', 'type/article', 'profile/lukeharding'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-24T10:17:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/aug/23/sugarcane-farmers-support-group-working-to-undermine-great-barrier-reef-science | Cane growers support front group working to undermine Great Barrier Reef science | Queensland cane growers’ groups are backing an opaque front organisation working to undermine Great Barrier Reef consensus science, including publishing claims that “we know in our hearts and minds” that the experts are wrong. The group, Farmers United, published full-page advertisements in News Corp Queensland newspapers this week. Its website describes Farmers United as “a group of individuals drawn from various primary production and horticulture sectors, industries and representative organisations” but lists no contact details, organisational structure, financial backers or supporters. A fundraising page for the group was set up by the Invicta Cane Growers Organisation, a farmers’ group based at Ayr. The manager of Invicta, Michael Kern, did not return calls. Another group based in the Burdekin region, the Kalamia Cane Growers Organisation, has actively encouraged members and others to support Farmers United. The emergence of Farmers United comes as the agricultural sector ramps up a broad-ranging campaign to pressure the Queensland government in relation to proposed new reef regulations, which would set sediment and chemical run-off load limits in reef catchments. The sector is broadly split between organisations which have concerns about the regulations but believe that questioning the consensus science would undermine their ability to have those concerns taken seriously, and those which have sought to promote minority conspiracy views. The Queensland Liberal National party opposition made clear to Guardian Australia its position: “We aren’t questioning the science, we are questioning these deeply flawed laws.” However, an increasing number of state LNP MPs and party members are among those demanding that the science be questioned and checked. At its state conference, the LNP agreed to investigate establishing an office of scientific quality assurance, a proposal backed by controversial academic Peter Ridd, who argues farm run-off is not damaging the reef. The Callide MP, Colin Boyce, whose Facebook page includes hundreds of posts doubting climate change, posted that he was joined by several LNP colleagues at one of Ridd’s lectures last week. “THE GBR IS NOT DEAD,” Boyce said on Facebook. “The science being spread by the FAKE GREENS is flawed and is manipulated for the lefts political ideology. 97% of the reef is unaffected by sediment from the river systems.” Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Farmers United is one of several new campaigning vehicles that has emerged in recent weeks, as the government prepares to bring its proposed reef regulations back before the parliament. They include a campaign, organised by AgForce, to “stand up for regional Queensland” that raises issues like electricity prices, community services and digital access. Farmers United’s website links to “news” from a climate science denial blog. Its advertisements say the reef regulations are “a man made disaster”. The group appears to be a tool to undermine the science while shielding agricultural groups – many of which receive state and federal grants for reef water quality measures – from suggestions they have walked away from a commitment to the reef. “The science keeps claiming, to the detriment of tourism and jobs, that the reef is dying, coral cover is reducing and that farmers are killing the reef with fertiliser, pesticide and sediment that runs off during natural flooding events. “In our hearts and minds we know this not to be true, as does Dr Peter Ridd.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-22T18:00:48Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2014/apr/27/weatherwatch-icebergs-greenland-titanic | Weatherwatch: Did warm weather cause the Titanic disaster? | It was a cold and moonless night when the Titanic sank. All had been well until 11.40pm on 14 April 1912, when the crow's nest lookouts sighted a large iceberg, 500m ahead. Despite desperate avoidance efforts the ship struck the iceberg, and in just over two and half hours the entire ship had sunk, with the loss of 1514 lives. Now new research reveals that the disaster may have been triggered by unusual weather in 1908. The Titanic struck her berg at just over 41°N. During an average year only a few hundred icebergs make it south of 48°N, before melting away. But 1912 was an unusual year, with 1038 icebergs crossing this latitude line, nearly 400 of them in April. Some have blamed the increase in icebergs on exceptional high spring tides that year, or low sunspot activity, and certainly the weather at the time played a significant role: a dominant high pressure system resulted in days of northerly winds, and combined with the ocean's Labrador Current, many icebergs travelled further south than normal. But in fact the catastrophe may have been set in motion by a warm, wet year over Greenland in 1908, resulting in greater snow accumulation. Writing in the journal Weather, Grant Bigg and David Wilton of Sheffield University explain how the snow soaked through cracks in the ice sheet, encouraging excess iceberg calving over the following few years. Soberingly, global warming has increased iceberg hazard greatly in recent decades, making years like 1912 more the norm than the exception. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/the-titanic', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-04-27T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/oct/20/young-climate-activists-vow-to-keep-fighting-despite-un-setback | Young climate activists vow to keep fighting despite UN setback | A group of youth activists say they have been spurred to fight even harder after their landmark case arguing that countries perpetuating the climate crisis violate their human rights was rejected by a UN children’s rights body. Greta Thunberg and 15 other activists from around the world filed their case accusing Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey of violating their rights to life, health and culture under the convention on the rights of the child by failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions to levels that would restrict global warming to 1.5C, in accordance with the Paris agreement. The Committee on the Rights of the Child accepted some of their arguments – including that states are legally responsible for the impact of emissions on children outside their borders and that the young people are victims of anticipated threats to their rights. But with only weeks to go until the start of vital climate talks at Cop26, the UN body ruled their case was inadmissible and said it would not hear it until they had first taken it to individual national courts – a process that lawyers predict will take years. The US climate activist Alexandria Villaseñor, who was one of the petitioners on the case, said she was shocked and angered by the result. The 16-year-old, who started school striking when she was 13 outside the UN headquarters in New York, predicts it will encourage young activists to be even more vocal at Cop26. “We are still going to be making our voices heard and if anything it’s made a lot of us even more upset and even more ready to make our voices heard,” she said. “So we’re not going to stop, but it definitely was a landmark in showing how much we have to put pressure and how much we have to push.” The rejection of their case shows, she said, that world leaders are not doing enough to protect children’s rights. “And so that’s why at Cop there’s going to be so many children and these activists there who are going to be pushing our world leaders … because a lot of us are angry and we’re fed up with what has been happening.” She said they would not give up on the case, adding: “The Committee on the Rights of the Child has not heard the last of it from the petitioners.” Ayakha Melithafa, 19, a climate activist from Cape Town who was also a petitioner on the case, said she was devastated by the committee’s decision but was more determined than ever to keep fighting for her future. “We’re on the wrong track and our political leaders must change course immediately,” she added. “Young people should not need to bring legal claims to hold them to account for promises made.” Melithafa, whose mother is a small-scale farmer and was hugely affected by South Africa’s water crisis, said Cop26 would be a vital opportunity for activists to “stress the urgency of the climate crisis and that we need fast action right now”. Scott Gilmore, a human rights lawyer at the law firm Hausfeld and lead counsel on the case, said that while the case had made significant progress in clarifying the state of the law, which he hoped they could use to influence national courts, the result was “a deeply disappointing dereliction of the committee’s duty”. They are evaluating their legal options but he expects they will next go to the national courts before returning to the UN with their case – even though it could take as long as five years. “Doing what the committee said these children need to do – exhaust domestic remedies – means spending years litigating these issues, on appeal, facing reversals until finally coming back to the UN and bringing exactly the same case that was filed in 2019,” he said. “Only this time, the evidence will be even worse, the threats will be even greater and the failures of these respondent states to take sufficient action will be even more pointed.” The Committee on the Rights of the Child said the ruling advanced international law relating to extra-territorial jurisdiction and “keeps the door open” to other climate challenges in the future. A spokesperson said the committee’s individual complaints mechanism “must comply with pre-established rules including that a complainant must first ‘exhaust domestic remedies’, ie bring his/her case before national jurisdictions. “In this case, the committee held five oral hearings with the children’s legal representatives, the states’ representatives and third-party intervenors between May and September 2021. It also heard the children directly. During these hearings, it was clearly demonstrated that in the five countries concerned, there were judicial remedies available to children, including non-nationals, to address the issue of climate change. “In the future, if these children (or other children), supported by their legal representatives have already sought remedies at the domestic level, or if they can show attempts to exhaust domestic remedies, then such cases may be declared admissible. The committee will continue to address the issue of climate change and children’s rights using various possible tools.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/miranda-bryant', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-10-20T10:52:03Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2012/sep/02/edf-china-nuclear-reactor | China could take key role in UK nuclear infrastructure through Hinkley Point | EDF has been holding talks with China about sharing the soaring cost of building £10bn worth of new reactors at Hinkley Point, Somerset. The move underlines growing pressure on the French company's internal finances and has reignited a fractious debate about Communist state-run businesses playing a critical role in sensitive western energy infrastructure. The overtures to Beijing's state corporations – as well as approaches to Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds – come as EDF faces growing investment demands in France and the UK that have sent debt levels rocketing to €39.7bn (£30bn). "We have always said we were open to the idea of other partners investing in the project. As we approach our final investment decision, it is right to consider funding options including seeking additional partners," said an EDF spokesman. "Plans to build new reactors are advancing well and have achieved a level of maturity to make it attractive to potential new investors," he added. "However, it is too early to say anything about the outcome [of these talks]." EDF Energy owns and operates eight of the UK's existing 10 nuclear power stations and has plans to expand two of these sites, Hinkley Point and Sizewell, Suffolk, by building four new nuclear reactors. The company plans to make a final investment decision on Hinkley Point C by the end of this year but remains upbeat about the scheme, on which it has already spent £1bn. While EDF would not publicly confirm it, well-placed industry sources say the group, which has a 20% partner in Centrica already, has been in discussions with China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC). These are the rival state-owned companies that have already teamed up with two Western consortiums vying to buy the Horizon Nuclear Power company from RWE and E.ON. Horizon owns sites at Wylfa, on Anglesey, and Oldbury, South Gloucestershire. SNPTC is in a bidding team with Areva, the French engineering company that is already working with EDF in Somerset, while talks have already been held by Chinese officials with the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change about independently developing other nuclear sites in Britain such as Hartlepool in the north-east of England. Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP and member of the parliamentary joint national security committee, said any Chinese involvement in EDF's new nuclear plans would raise concerns on a number of fronts and could even require a direct UK government involvement through some kind of golden share. "If there is significant Chinese financing, then the coalition government should consider retaining a controlling stake," he said. "There would also need to be national security safeguards over any Chinese design and build." "Restrictions should also apply as to the number of Chinese workers who could work on UK-based nuclear projects. Major nuclear infrastructure projects are an opportunity to create tens of thousands of new jobs for UK workers." Nick Butler, a former energy adviser to Number 10, has earlier raised concerns about Chinese involvement in any potential Horizon bids. In a recent FT blog, he wrote: "They will be inside the system, with access to the intricate architecture of the UK's National Grid and the processes through which electricity supply is controlled, as well as to the UK's nuclear technology." Meanwhile, EDF last month revealed its debt levels had jumped nearly 20% in the first half of the year, partly because of €10bn in new spending commitments demanded by the French government on local reactors in the aftermath of the Fukushima atomic crisis in March last year. The energy company – majority owned by the French state – is also facing mounting cost overruns and delays on its planned new reactor scheme at Flamanville in northern France. A final green light for Hinkley Point C depends on receiving an acceptable "strike price", agreed with the government, that would guarantee future returns. EDF insists this strike price – seen by critics as unfair subsidy – will be lower than the £140 per megawatt hour that is roughly the current cost of producing offshore wind power. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/edf', 'business/nationalgrid', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'world/china', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2012-09-02T14:56:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2014/feb/05/michael-bloomberg-world-leaders-climate-deal | Michael Bloomberg pledges to help world leaders reach climate deal | New York's former mayor, Mike Bloomberg, said he plans to spend his post-political career helping the United Nations with the “very difficult” and “frustrating” work of herding leaders towards a global climate deal. Bloomberg, who was named UN special envoy for cities and climate change last week, told a conference call he sees his next mission as getting leaders on side for a global climate deal. The former mayor put climate change at the top of his agenda during his 12 years running New York, and led an international group of cities acting on climate change, the C40. He told a conference call organised by the C40 group the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, could use a push getting world leaders to turn up to a summit in New York in September with “concrete solutions” to climate change. “The secretary general – he has a very difficult job,” Bloomberg told the call. “I think he is probably a little bit frustrated that the nations of the world haven't come together in Rio+20 and all the others things like that have to be taken to the next step. What he is trying to do is get as much help as he can so at the national level they take the bull by the horns, and really make progress.” He went on: “If I can carry the flag for him, and get him a little bit of information and be a spokesman for him, I would really love to do that,” Bloomberg said. As mayor, Bloomberg committed to cutting New York's greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030, retrofitting official buildings with energy saving features, cleaning up waste, and installing bike lanes. He told the call cities produced a large and growing share of greenhouse gas emissions. Three-quarters of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, according to projections. Bloomberg argued that city mayors, through their use of executive powers, have greater scope for action than state or national legislatures. “While little progress is made on international levels, cities are just forging ahead," he said. The 63 member cities in the C40 group had between them committed to 8,000 different actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report out on Wednesday. Those actions ranged from introducing energy-saving building codes to investing in bus rapid transit systems which take thousands of cars off the roads, and installing LED street lighting. Some 90% of cities were now moving towards the more efficient LED lighting, the report said. Among those is Glasgow, funded by the UK's green investment bank. Thirty-six cities had bike sharing schemes. Not all of Bloomberg's efforts succeeded, of course. He failed in one of his biggest battles to get a congestion charge, taxing vehicles entering Manhattan, through the New York state legislature. But the mayor told the call he saw his two-year term as UN climate envoy as a chance to persuade national leaders there was a lot they could do to avoid catastrophic climate change. “It is in the interests of all these countries to do something, and sometimes I think the benefits just get lost in all of the verbiage and structure,” he said. “Sometimes just bringing something to people's attention just gets them to focus and take action.” | ['environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-02-05T05:00:28Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/may/24/supply-chain-delays-and-steel-costs-are-part-of-perfect-storm-stalling-renewable-energy-growth | Supply chain delays and steel costs are part of ‘perfect storm’ stalling renewable energy growth | Supply chain delays from China and the soaring cost of steel and other materials are combining to slow the advance of renewable energy in Australia and elsewhere, a leading insurer and industry groups say. The cost of steel for wind turbine blades had risen by 50% or more since the Covid pandemic’s start, even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a scramble to accelerate the switch away from coal, oil and gas to clean energy alternatives, according to GCube, a global insurer of renewables that has recently opened its first Australian office in Sydney. “You’ve almost got the perfect storm right now,” Fraser McLachlan, GCube’s chief executive said. “We’re seeing delays of six months at a minimum to get replacement parts and things like that coming out of China, sometimes more.” To order a blade for a multi-megawatt sized turbine can now take as much as a year or longer, adding to windfarm operators’ costs. Supply chain disruptions caused by the extended lockdowns in China are also stalling supplies of solar panels, and may take months to be resolved, McLachlan said. Delays to new projects or repairs to existing ones will not be welcome news for a power sector that has already seen a more than doubling in wholesale prices in the year to March, with further steep climbs since. The spike in power prices – which is already pushing retail electricity bills higher – has been triggered mostly by more costly gas, which often sets the market’s generation price. Outages by coal-fired power plants also haven’t helped. Renewables are already supplying close to 30% of the electricity for eastern states, with the incoming Albanese Labor government targeting as much as 80% by 2030. However, delays in new projects or curbs to existing ones could hamper progress. “Supply chains have really broken down globally,” John Grimes, head of the Smart Energy Council, said. Solar panels, inverters and batteries are among the products caught up, and facing rising costs. “We’d have to go back to about 2008 to see prices increasing,” he said, adding that this was before the full effect of Europe’s efforts to shift off Russian energy hits. Arron Wood, director of external affairs for the Clean Energy Council, said renewables, as with any other industry, were not immune to supply chain challenges. “Rising costs and ongoing shipping delays are certainly hurting many clean energy projects in Australia, but we’re hopeful that we’ll soon be through the worst of this period of global uncertainty,” Wood said. Still, while supply issues were important, they were arguably eclipsed by ongoing policy uncertainty that may now ease after the change of government. “States have stepped in to fill the federal vacuum, but we still need federal leadership and national coordination,” he said, adding overseas snags were also fuelling “a much greater focus on developing clean energy supply chain manufacturing in Australia”. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The global supply challenges are outlined in a new report by GCube, a London-based firm recently taken over by Japanese insurance giant, Tokio Marine. About 8% of its annual underwriting worth $US140m ($200m) covers Australian renewables. “Premiums have been rising, I would say, over the last four years,” McLachlan said, adding, however, that they are not yet back to levels of a decade ago. And while the cost of clean energy generation was lately rising, it remains a lot cheaper than just a few years earlier in part because of increasing scale and other technological improvements. Wind turbines were now reaching capacities of 10 megawatts each, although that size complicated repair and maintenance issues given the more onerous task of fixing or repairing much bigger blades. “You look at where solar was only a few years ago, it’s $US6m a megawatt,” he said. “Now you’re looking at $US1.5m a megawatt.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would stoke soaring demand for clean energy, particularly in Europe given its reliance on its oil and gas. “That’s going to have a knock-on impact of sorts for the southern hemisphere, in terms of where a lot of supplies are coming from,” McLachlan said. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/windpower', 'world/china', 'environment/solarpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2022-05-23T17:30:42Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/dec/29/time-to-get-real-about-the-uks-flood-defences | Time to get real about the UK’s flood defences | Letters | If people such as floods minister Rory Stewart, David Cameron and other politicians are to serve a useful function to the public on issues such as flooding we need them to finally learn and apply a new vocabulary. They must replace useless words like “unprecedented” and “extraordinary” with the words “predicted”, “adaptation”, “mitigation”, and “climate change”. They must replace platitudes such as “once-in-100-years event”, designed to give an excuse for doing nothing, with a new vocabulary that accepts changed circumstances and responsibilities. They must acknowledge the predicted changes in rainfall patterns that the Met Office and others have been warning about for well over a decade. They must change the planning process to make it impossible to build houses on flood plains. They must implement a strategy to transform the siting and the design of public infrastructure, including roads, electricity sub-stations, sewage farms, water works and power stations, to protect these from flooding (and they must stop the madness of refusing to make use of EU funding that is available to do this). They must learn from insurance companies, instead of trying to bully them into hiding the fact that the risk of flooding events has changed. In short, our politicians need to stop pretending and get real. Christian Vassie York • What does “doing whatever it takes” mean? The solutions have already been spelt out in the environmental audit select committee’s 10th report of 2014-15, Climate Change Adaptation. We just need action now – from each government department and from government as a whole. As flooding is the biggest adaptation risk in the UK, we should waste no more precious time in producing an effective and strategic national adaptation programme. So will the chancellor now commit to appearing before the EASC and explain the Treasury’s policy? Will the communities and local government secretary commit to reversing its policy exempting smaller developments from building on flood plains? As the Aldersgate Group’s recent report on the business case for an ambitious natural capital policy makes clear, investing in our natural assets has to be the way forward. The government must rise to the challenge. Joan Walley Chairman, Aldersgate Group; former chair, EASC (2010-15) • Recent governments have slashed public spending, and in gambling that the consequences will not be felt on their watch, they have yet again brought grief to many. We should have been able to rely on our government delivering better defences, better mitigation arrangements upstream and much earlier action on climate change. Instead we get nominal compensation for ruined homes, insurance companies wriggling out of paying up, destruction of UK renewables industries, more public money thrown at dirty diesel power stations and a headlong rush to frack gas from under our countryside. The Environment Agency now seems to be bringing expert knowledge and local knowledge together, but nothing will change until the government takes responsibility and actively invests in the public interest to deal with the wider underlying issues. Otherwise we all know this will happen again and again. Carole Price Hexham, Northumberland • Two simple things need to be done. First, the public need to be aware that hundreds of economically viable flood-prevention schemes are never built because the government insists that every scheme has to have discounted benefits that are more than seven or eight times their costs in order to be funded. This is the way the government rations the capital budget. Second, when schemes are built, the standard of defence adopted in the UK is far too low. The as yet incomplete scheme on the river Aire in the centre of Leeds was designed for a one-in-75-years event. Had it been completed, it would have been overtopped last weekend. Had such a scheme been under construction in the Netherlands, it would have provided a far higher standard of protection. There is nothing to prevent a higher standard of protection being adopted in the UK. If this were done, the resulting schemes would also have the ability to provide effective defence against next year’s “unprecedented” floods. The flooding events we have witnessed over the past month in Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire will happen again. But, if the public demands it, damage on this scale could, and should, happen far less frequently. A frozen annual capital budget is neither an intelligent, nor an economically sound, response. Greg Haigh (Chartered engineer), Dorking, Surrey • The cost as a result of the past few weeks of flooding is estimated at over £5bn. The government boasts it may spend £2.3bn over the next four years. Time for a little cost-benefit analysis? Ron Brewer Old Buckenham, Norfolk • As many politicians seem to like to run things on the what-if principle (with Trident: what if Russia or North Korea threaten us with nuclear attack?), could they bend their minds a bit more to what-ifs for the citizens? Why not ensure, for example, well in advance that, if flooding occurs on an unprecedented scale, every citizen and every home and business are guaranteed to be safe and secure through politicians’ foresight and applied intelligence? Ian Flintoff Oxford More letters on the UK floods • Rewild the landscape to absorb storm waters • Common sense on flood prevention is being swept aside • Missing contour data hampers UK’s floods response • Tories’ leaky policies on flooding leave us unprepared • Floating structures go with the flow • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | ['environment/flooding', 'uk/uk', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'world/world', 'uk/york', 'tone/letters', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-29T18:08:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/oct/05/englands-shoppers-say-goodbye-to-free-plastic-bags | England's shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags | A 5p tax on plastic bags must be extended to all shops to prevent further damage to the environment, campaigners have warned. Without the participation of smaller shops, and not just those employing more than 250 staff, the impact of the tax will be limited, they said. Friends of the Earth said ministers should extend the scheme after surveys showed that convenience store owners were supportive of extending the scheme to all retailers. English shoppers face a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags from today as part of a government scheme to reduce litter and protect wildlife. The introduction of the 5p charge in England brings it into line with schemes already operating in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of a drive to encourage a switch away from throwaway carrier bags. According to the government, 8.5bn thin-gauge plastic bags were used last year by customers of UK supermarkets alone. That is down from the all-time peak of 12bn in 2006, but still amounts to more than 23m a day. In England the average person goes through nearly 12 thin-gauge bags per month, while in Wales, where there has been a 5p charge per bag since 2011, shoppers use just two per month. On the basis of charging elsewhere, the government expects bag numbers to fall by more than 70% – cutting the number ending up in landfill or in the oceans by many billions every year. Retailers have tried to take the sting out of the looming charge by emphasising the benefits to local causes. The government estimates that more than £70m a year – and the lion’s share generated by supermarkets – will be raised for good causes across England. At Tesco, for example, customers will get the chance to vote in store and online for the projects they most want to see go ahead in their own local areas. Some shoppers are puzzled about the exemptions to the rules, which include corner shops, and when they are buying food items that need more protection, such as fresh fish. Only larger retailers who employ more than 250 people will have to levy the charge, which environmental campaigners who otherwise welcome the change say makes absolutely no sense. David Powell, senior resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth, says: “The English charge is a good start, but it makes no sense that it only applies to big retailers. Shoppers will get mixed messages depending on where they shop. This could defeat the main point of the charge in the first place – to change the way people and stores think about over-using plastic bags.” The initiative appears to have the support of the majority of shoppers in England, with 62% thinking it is reasonable to charge 5p for all carrier bags - a 6% increase on 2012, a poll for the Break the Bag Habit coalition of litter charities found. But the survey found 51% were in support of an even more comprehensive scheme that extended the charge to all retailers. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'business/retail', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/rebeccasmithers'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-10-05T06:00:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2021/jul/24/weatherwatch-trinidad-and-tobago-one-nation-two-very-different-islands | Weatherwatch: Trinidad and Tobago – one nation, two very different islands | Although commonly considered part of the Caribbean region, the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago falls into two very different zoogeographical zones. Tobago, the smaller island to the north, is indeed typically Caribbean, with a fairly limited fauna and flora, similar to other islands in the Lesser Antilles such as Grenada, Barbados and St Lucia. Trinidad, which lies much closer to the coast of Venezuela than it does to Tobago, has a more wide-ranging list of species, including many also found in the rest of South America. Climatically, however, both islands are fairly similar. Conditions are warm all year round, with virtually no variation in daytime or night-time temperatures. Rainfall, however, does vary: the dry season runs from January to May, and the wet season from June to December. Both islands are cooled by the prevailing north-easterly trade winds, which make the climate more comfortable than the raw temperatures might suggest. Being closer to the equator than other islands in the region, the country rarely experiences hurricanes; the major exception was Hurricane Flora in 1963, one of the deadliest in history. Flora caused major destruction across Tobago, where it wiped out an introduced population of the greater bird of paradise from New Guinea, whose numbers were no longer viable after the storm. Since then, the only notable weather event has been Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, which caused very little damage. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/trinidad-and-tobago', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-07-24T05:00:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2023/mar/01/nrl-and-football-australia-accept-link-between-head-trauma-and-cte | NRL and Football Australia accept link between head trauma and CTE | The NRL and Football Australia have acknowledged the link between head trauma and serious neurodegenerative disease, a Senate committee has heard. Representatives from some of the major contact sporting codes in Australia gave evidence at a hearing held on Wednesday for the Senate inquiry into concussions and repeated head trauma in contact sports. The inquiry was established in the wake of increasing public concern, including ongoing reporting by Guardian Australia, about sporting organisations’ management of player head injuries and the large and growing body of scientific evidence showing links between repeated exposure to head injury in contact sports and the neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE often manifests as behavioural changes, memory loss and other cognitive impairment, mood swings, depression and anxiety. It is unable to be definitively diagnosed except postmortem by autopsy, but has been found in the brains of multiple Australian sportspeople, from amateurs to professionals. When asked about University of Glasgow research in 2019 showing that soccer players were 3.5 times more likely than the general population to develop neurodegenerative disease, Football Australia’s chief operating officer, Mark Falvo, said the code was already taking action to “to mitigate the risk of CTE occurring in our sport”. Those actions included minimising heading of the ball, teaching better technique and looking at training techniques that “may not involve the ball to begin with”. The NRL chief medical officer, Sharron Flahive, said the league accepted the association between CTE and repeated head trauma, but said it didn’t know how strong the association was, the type of head trauma involved or who was more susceptible to developing it. “But we do accept that there is an association and therefore that is why we operate with as much caution as we can,” Flahive said. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Her appearance came in the wake of moving evidence from Hayley Shaw, the daughter of late NRL player and coach Steve Folkes, who was the first Australian to be diagnosed with CTE posthumously in 2019. Folkes’ main signs and symptoms had been loss of memory, Shaw said. “He would tell us the same story over and over again. He would introduce us to people that we’ve met many times. He kept a calendar of every single thing he had to do in his life because he knew, I think, that he would forget things.” Shaw said her father showed signs of depression that the family put down to grief, but after his death and posthumous diagnosis, wondered if “he was battling it more than we realised”. Shaw said her family had never been contacted by representatives of the NRL since they found out about her father’s pathology, despite its links to his playing career and the diagnosis being widely reported. Asked if she thought the NRL was aware of her father’s diagnosis, Shaw said: “They’d be living under a rock if they weren’t.” Shaw said the family had never wanted compensation but rather acknowledgment of what her father went through for the sport. “Dad was involved in rugby league his whole life, 30 years at the top level,” she said. “We never wanted anything in terms of compensation. We certainly don’t want to ruin the game … It’s all about awareness for us.” Shaw said the family had been contacted over the years by former professional players “saying how much they’re struggling and they don’t know where to go … They just don’t know what to do. We just want them to feel supported.” Flahive said later in the hearing she had not been aware of the background to Shaw’s evidence, but said “certainly the detail of that, we’ll be looking into”. The committee also heard from representatives of government agencies, including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which provides funding for medical research. Asked how the NHMRC ensured the independence of that research, given some of it had gone to researchers with close ties to major sporting bodies, such as neurologist and accused plagiarist Paul McCrory, the NHMRC executive Alan Singh said the funding agreements bound organisations to conduct research “responsibly, ethically and with integrity”. “We think that those sorts of issues, depending on the nature of the involvement, would be picked up through that process,” Singh said. An influential neurologist in concussion in sport, McCrory stood down as chair of the global Concussion in Sport Group in March last year after the British Journal of Sports Medicine retracted one of his 2005 editorials, citing an “unlawful and indefensible breach of copyright” of the work of Prof Steve Haake. At the time McCrory was quoted apologising on Retraction Watch, saying his failure to attribute Haake’s work was an error and “not deliberate or intentional”. The BJSM has since retracted nine of McCrory’s articles and placed concerns notices on a further 74. Reporting by Guardian Australia revealed that McCrory had directly received at least $1.5m from the NHMRC. The council’s written submission to the Senate inquiry said the statutory body had provided grants totalling $6.4m for research on sports-related concussion since 2004. | ['sport/concussion-in-sport', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'sport/australia-sport', 'sport/football-federation-australia', 'sport/nrl', 'campaign/email/morning-mail', 'type/article', 'profile/stephanie-convery', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-03-01T08:22:15Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2015/aug/07/abbott-warns-against-courts-sabotaging-projects-such-as-carmichael-coalmine | Abbott warns against courts 'sabotaging' projects such as Carmichael coalmine | Tony Abbott has reaffirmed his support for the huge Adani coalmine in central Queensland, arguing Australia has “a problem as a nation” if the courts could “be turned into a means of sabotaging” such projects. The prime minister warned against becoming “a nation of naysayers” two days after the federal court set aside the federal approval for the Carmichael mine because the environment minister, Greg Hunt, had not fully assessed its impact on two vulnerable species: the yakka skink and the ornamental snake. The Mackay Conservation Group, which initiated the legal challenge against Australia’s largest proposed coalmine, said it appeared that “the government thinks it is above the law”. Labor expressed alarm “that the leader of this nation is now second-guessing our judges”. Adani blamed the result on “a technical legal error from the federal environment department”. The department said it would not pre-empt a final decision about the project but indicated it would take six to eight weeks to prepare revised advice for the minister to consider. In an interview with the Australian newspaper published on Friday, Abbott said the country “must, in principle, favour projects like this” because it was vitally important for Queensland’s economic development and “the human welfare of literally tens of millions of people in India”. “If a vital national project can be endlessly delayed, if the courts can be turned into a means of sabotaging projects which are striving to meet the highest environmental standards, then we have a real problem as a nation,” the prime minister said. “We can’t become a nation of naysayers; we have to remain a nation that gives people a fair go if they play by the rules.” At a media conference on Friday, Abbott acknowledged that people had a right to launch court challenges but said Adani had already invested about $3bn in Australia in preparation for a $21bn investment if the project went ahead. “If we get to the stage where the rules are such that projects like this can be endlessly frustrated, that’s dangerous for our country and it’s tragic for the wider world. “We’ve got to get these projects right, absolutely vital that we get these projects right, but once they are fully complying with high environmental standards, let them go ahead. Let them go ahead for the workers of Australia and for the people of countries like India who right at the moment have no electricity.” The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said the government had “rushed its approvals and then it’s got tripped up in the court system”. “I don’t think it is right that the leader of this nation is now second-guessing our judges,” Shorten said. “If there’s a problem with the way the law’s formed, well, then we go back and debate it in parliament. But Mr Abbott seems to be creating a new test for environmental protection in this country that near enough is good enough. Well, it’s not.” Mackay Conservation Group co-ordinator Ellen Roberts said it was “astonishing and deeply troubling that it has taken a legal case by a small community group to bring the approval process under proper public scrutiny”. “These laws protect not only yakka skinks and ornamental snakes, but all Australian plants and animals. Today it’s the yakka skink, tomorrow it will be the koala,” she said in a statement. Roberts disputed the claim made by Adani – and repeated by Abbott – that the project would create 10,000 jobs. She pointed to previous testimony in court that suggested a much lower jobs estimate. Hunt had earlier played down the significance of the court’s decision to set aside the approval. On Wednesday the environment minister said: “What has happened is that the court has, at my request, set aside the decision to be reconsidered … the reason being the department gave advice that there was a possibility, and that the court might conclude, that additional material never before considered could be required.” Abbott has repeatedly expressed vocal support for the coal industry despite growing international momentum for strong targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The prime minister, who came to power promising to abolish the former Labor government’s carbon pricing scheme, declared in 2014 that “coal is good for humanity” and called for an end to the “demonisation of coal”. The Abbott government will soon decide on the post-2020 emissions reduction target that Australia will present to the climate summit in Paris in December. | ['environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'business/adani-group', 'environment/coal', 'business/mining', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/greg-hunt', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/queensland', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/daniel-hurst'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-08-07T00:28:10Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2018/aug/05/california-wildfires-why-are-they-so-intense-and-what-can-be-done | Why are California's wildfires so intense and what can be done? | The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning in parts of California warning of conditions conducive to the growth of wildfires, including strong winds, low humidity and very high temperatures. The White House has declared California’s fires a major disaster and there are signs they are growing more intense. Where are the fires? More than 4,500 firefighters have been fighting the so-called Carr fire 160 miles north of Sacramento since late July. On Saturday, the blaze killed a power company lineman, the seventh person to die in the fire. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, though the LA Times reported that it may have come from a vehicle towing a trailer with a flat tire, its metal rim creating sparks as it rolled along. The Mendocino Complex fire, now the sixth-largest in recorded state history, is a pair of massive fires burning on either side of Clear Lake, about 100 miles north of San Francisco. On Saturday night, fire expanded dramatically to cover nearly 230,000 acres. The conflagration, which has forced thousands from their homes and burned dozens of structures, is now the most pressing of the 17-large wildfire emergency across the state. Why are they so intense? In short, high temperatures and lack of rainfall, exacerbated by years of drought. Record precipitation last winter resulted in a boom in the growth of grasses, shrubs, trees – what fire fighters call fuel – across the state. California has grown hotter in recent years, this summer record temperatures have been recorded across the state. The day the Carr fire spread out of control was 26 July, the same day thermometers in nearby Redding hit 45C (113F). The heat has periodically overwhelmed electrical systems, leaving parts of Los Angeles without power. Palm Springs had its warmest July on record, with an average of 36.3C (97.4F), while Death Valley averaged 42.3C (108.1F), also a record. It was the warmest July on record in San Luis Obispo, Oxnard, Camarillo, Long Beach, Van Nuys, Lancaster and Palmdale. But record heat maybe not be the most useful measure. Overnight and summertime minimum give insight in how sustained the heat has become. The top six warmest summertime minimum temperatures in California have occurred in the last six years, readings that show California not cooling off at night as it once did. “You have greenhouse gases acting like a blanket and not letting things cool down as much – keeping things warmer,” Nina Oakley, regional climatologist for the Western Regional Climate center in Reno, told the Los Angeles paper. Is it climate change? The last five years have been among the hottest in 124 years of record keeping, leaving little room for other interpretations. “In the past, it would just be kind of once in a while – the odd year where you’d be really warm,” state climatologist Michael Anderson told the LA Times. “That’s definitely an indication that the world is warming, and things are starting to change,” said Anderson. “We’re starting to see things where it’s different. It’s setting the narrative of climate change.” What can be done? Bluntly, stop using fossil fuels. “People are doing everything they can, but nature is very powerful and we’re not on the side of nature,” California Governor Jerry Brown said last week. “We’re fighting nature with the amount of material we’re putting in the environment, and that material traps heat.” Will it improve? Not necessarily. The sudden transitions back and forth from wet years to dry years, what scientists call “climate whiplash – are contributing to the increased risk of wildfires across the state. In California, peak wildfire season is in the fall, and there’s no sign of an onset of unseasonal rainfall. “We’re having peak fire season conditions in the off-peak time of year, and there’s no real indication that things are going to get better before the peak of the season in the fall,” says Daniel Swain, a University of California, Los Angeles climate scientist and leading expert on climate whiplash. | ['world/wildfires', 'us-news/california', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/edwardhelmore', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-08-06T20:29:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2010/jul/15/cap-farming-subsidy-biodiversity-rspb | Response: The CAP is our best hope of protecting biodiversity in the countryside | Mark Avery | The RSPB, alongside a Swedish accordion club and a Danish billiards club, is one of the groups highlighted in your editorial as recipients of payments through the common agricultural policy (CAP) (Rotten but here to stay, 5 July). But while the piece features some of the unusual recipients of CAP money, the real story is what work this money pays for. Some of this is hugely important and helps benefit wildlife and the environment – but often this money is being paid out to landowners with little regard for what they do to protect biodiversity and precious natural resources. "Everybody agrees the CAP is rotten," your piece states. "Everybody, in public, promises reform. Everybody, in private, is out for what they can get," it goes on. But there are many out there who, like us, want to farm while being rewarded for protecting birds and other wildlife – and we feel that CAP reform is essential if this is to be achieved. There are two types of CAP funding. The vast majority of CAP expenditure goes on direct payments to farmers – the single payment scheme (SPS). The rest is the part of the CAP that can and does deliver tangible benefits – the agri-environment schemes. These schemes, if designed properly, address serious issues such as farmland bird declines, water quality and soil protection. These environmental benefits are not rewarded by the market and so there is a clear need for state intervention to reward their delivery. Despite this, agri-environment schemes get just 8% of the CAP budget overall. Your report comes on the back of the publication of CAP payments, which have appeared on farmsubsidy.org following new transparency rules. The site shows the RSPB receives significant sums of money from the CAP. Each year we receive about £750,000 in SPS payments and £4.2m from agri-environment schemes. We own and manage more than 140,000 hectares of land, including our own commercial farm in the Cambridgeshire countryside, and each and every pound of this money is spent with environmental delivery in mind. It could well be the case that the billiards club in Denmark and the accordion club in Sweden also manage their land with environmental quality as the prime objective. However, what matters is that for the vast majority of CAP payments there is no objective. Worse still, the SPS may even be using public money to support unsustainable forms of farming. The CAP used to be coupled to food production – with disastrous consequences for the environment – but now that link has been removed. So if the payments aren't for food – what are they for? The SPS is an outdated system that channels huge sums of public money with no clear purpose. It does not act as income support in any meaningful way – poor farmers get the smallest payments – nor is it linked to any environmental benefit. Your leader says that one day the CAP "will collapse under the weight of its own illogicality. Sadly, there is no sign of it happening soon." On the contrary, the CAP is our best hope of halting biodiversity loss in our countryside – and financial reality means that change is now inevitable in 2013, the date set by the EU for its reform. That's why the RSPB is lobbying with farmers who share our view that the CAP must reform or die. If we get it right, farmers, consumers and the environment can all benefit. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'commentisfree/series/response', 'science/agriculture', 'world/eu', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/farming', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/mark-avery', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-07-14T23:05:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/mar/13/tories-plan-big-expansion-of-wind-farms-to-protect-national-security | Tories plan big expansion of wind farms ‘to protect national security’ | A massive expansion of wind farms across the UK is now needed for national security reasons, the business secretary has declared, as, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government considers sweeping changes to planning laws to improve Britain’s energy independence. Boris Johnson is planning to unveil a radical new “energy strategy” within a fortnight to ensure the UK can meet its domestic needs from a mix of renewables and nuclear. The war in Ukraine has brought further huge rises in global fossil fuel prices and exposed countries’ dependence on overseas supplies. Remarkably, the need for more on- and offshore windfarms – traditionally a highly controversial subject in the Conservative party – is now being talked about within government as a matter of security, rather than a way of fighting climate change. Renewables such as wind and solar power are expected to be part of the new government strategy to free Britain from dependence on imported oil and gas and spare households and businesses from the effects of wild fluctuations on global energy markets. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business, energy and industrial strategy secretary, said last week on Twitter: “This is no longer about tackling climate change or reaching net-zero targets. Ensuring the UK’s clean energy independence is a matter of national security. Putin can set the price of gas, but he can’t directly control the price of renewables and nuclear we generate in the UK.” Official figures show that meeting net-zero targets would lead to a drop in gas use of 65% by 2035 in the UK, and almost 100% by 2050. While some Tory MPs also want the moratorium on fracking for shale gas to be lifted to help reduce dependence on imports, cabinet sources said there was no realistic prospect of doing so in the short term, until the process had been proved to be demonstrably safe. Instead a majority of cabinet ministers back a big push for more renewables and an expansion of nuclear. Johnson said last week that all oil imports from Russia would be phased out by the end of this year. In the UK, 4% of gas and 8% of oil currently comes from Russia. The EU sources about 40% of its gas from Russia and 27% of its oil. Sources said changes to planning rules that would make it easier to build windfarms are likely to be announced as part of the new energy strategy. Construction has tailed off since David Cameron tightened regulations when he was prime minister: at the moment local residents can easily block such plans. It is also understood that the government may ease the way for more offshore wind farms, in the teeth of opposition from the fishing industry. Other countries are also using security issues raised by the Ukraine crisis to push urgently for more green and clean energy. Germany’s government announced last week an additional €30bn for its clean energy transition in response to the invasion. Christian Lindner, the finance minister, described renewables as “freedom energies” that could allow Germany a greater degree of energy independence and transform “the economy, society and the state”. Labour has called for an urgent “national sprint” to build a clean, green, secure energy future including more renewables. Ed Miliband, shadow secretary for climate change and net zero, said last week: “Energy security is national security. Homegrown, clean power is the cheaper, more secure route to energy security and sovereignty.” In 2020 renewables generated 43 per cent of Britain’s electricity while gas, oil and coal contributed about 40 per cent. The remaining capacity was filled by nuclear. In October last year Johnson announced that all of Britain’s electricity will come from clean energy sources by 2035. The plan now is to bring that date forward. While many Conservative MPs and party members have opposed windfarms, there are signs of growing support. Kevin Hollinrake, Tory MP for Thirsk and Malton, said: “England’s planning system has blocked nearly all new onshore wind developments in the past five years, despite this being the cheapest source of new electricity generation. Reforming these rules, while ensuring communities still get a meaningful say, will spur investment in homegrown clean energy and accelerate our transition away from expensive fossil fuels.” Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, an independent forum for Tories who back decarbonisation, commented: “Streamlining planning approvals and regulations would unleash more wind and solar projects to provide cheap, clean, homegrown power. Now is the time to accelerate the drive towards net zero and away from volatile fossil fuels.” | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'politics/kwasi-kwarteng', 'world/russia', 'world/ukraine', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/oil', 'environment/windpower', 'politics/planning', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tobyhelm', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-03-13T09:45:25Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2018/jul/09/disabled-person-plastic-straws-baby-wipes | I rely on plastic straws and baby wipes. I’m disabled – I have no choice | Penny Pepper | I remember the dawning of my green consciousness: the sudden, painful realisation that products were tested on animals. This was in the early 1970s. I was about 10 years old. A teacher told me that baby powder was put into the eyes of cats and dogs to make sure it was safe. She also said that the plastic container would pollute the Earth. A few years later, as punk sensibility captured my naturally rebellious heart, I immersed myself in the ecological fight. I joined Greenpeace. I wrote letters – even to the pope on his visit to Britain – arguing against the clubbing of baby seals in Canada. This passion has never left me. Throw into the mix that I’ve been disabled since the age of 14, however, and environmentalism can start to get tricky. Over the years, I’ve had to learn that being green does not always sit comfortably with my access needs. Take the plastic straw debate, and the warning that baby wipes cause fatbergs. Along with many disabled people, I need both. Not as a lifestyle choice. Not as a luxury. I need straws that bend, ones that can handle all drinks, including medication, and all temperatures. I need straws that aren’t too fat, that won’t cause me to choke or be difficult for me to keep in my mouth. This is why the news that Seattle has become the first major US city to ban the use of plastic straws causes me some conflict, as do reports that Theresa May wants to ban them in the UK. I’ve heard through my networks that straws may become “a special medical item” for disabled people. Let me tell you, disabled people are fed up with being “fucking special” (the title of a poem of mine) and, if the rumours are true, will no doubt be forced to go through more repulsive assessments to qualify for a straw. I’ve been in this ecological battle for longer than many newcomers have been alive. I get uncomfortable and angry when I see non-disabled people behave as though they know the answer to this dilemma in exchanges that can get heated, if not abusive. Why do we need plastic straws? Won’t paper ones do? What about bamboo? Or glass? Metal? These questions are not easy to answer. Paper straws generally don’t do well in hot liquids and I’ve yet to find decent flexible ones. This is important to get the angle right for safe drinking, when you can’t hold a cup or even if another person holds it for you. Metal ones are often fat, better used for smoothies and not good if you have a biting issue. I tried silicone straws, which were too soft and fat to be reliably useful. As for disposable wipes, the issue here is mostly cost. Many biodegradable versions are available, but some of the best eco options can cost as much as £4.99, with an equivalent non-biodegradable set 79p. Hard-up parents, disabled people and those on benefits may be forced to choose the cheaper option. I know I certainly have done over the years. The irritating thing is that somehow disabled people are tainted as not caring about environmental issues. The truth, in my experience, is that many actually care more. Perhaps it’s because those of us who need these things navigate multiple obstacles and negative attitudes on a daily basis, and find ourselves forced to think about things differently. Then there are the health factors. I don’t actually want to use harmful chemicals in the interests of my personal care. Neither do I want the same products and chemicals to destroy marine life – and I was involved in the first wave of the drift-net fishing protests back in the 1980s, I’ll have you know. Even if I were to be a lone voice within a large and contrary disability community that didn’t care about ecological issues, I would guess that our use of these products is vastly outweighed by those using them as part of a couldn’t-care-less attitude, or because they are simply there. Disabled people don’t want to have to put their own care above the environment – but it seems no one is considering the impact of future legislative changes on our wellbeing. If there’s going to be a ban, let governments and manufacturers come up with decent, affordable, green alternatives for us all. • Penny Pepper is a writer and disability rights activist. Her memoir First in the World Somewhere is published by Unbound | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/disability', 'environment/plastic', 'society/society', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/penny-pepper', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-07-09T10:52:27Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2023/dec/28/revolt-royals-rewilding-rainforest-beaver-balmoral | This is how our 21st-century peasants’ revolt took on the royals over rewilding – and won | Joel Scott-Halkes | Sid Rawle, the 1960s peace campaigner and infamous “King of the Hippies”, once remarked that if land ownership in Britain were to be divided equally, we would each get about an acre. Surprisingly, this thought experiment would just about hold true today. The UK measures 60m acres in total and is home to around 67 million of us. There is something rather beguiling about such extreme egalitarianism – impractical though it might be. One person, one vote, one acre. But there’s also something about it that rather helps clarify the mind should you ever find yourself, as I have done recently, trying to reform the mind-bogglingly large amounts of land owned by the British royal family. Taken together, just two Britons – a certain Charles and William Windsor – own and derive a significant share of profits from more than 850,000 acres of land and foreshore. This feudally formidable figure, medieval in its absurdity, can only be understood through comparison. It is an area of land twice the size of Greater London, or about half again bigger than either the Lake District, or Snowdonia (Eryri) national parks. In 2021, myself and a tiny unfunded group of activists decided to do something about this. With most of us living at the time in house-sits, shared flats or bouncing from one activist house to another, we started a sort of 21st-century peasants’ revolt: a rewilding revolt that we called Wild Card. Using evenings and weekends, we travelled the country mobilising local people to come together and demand that royal land be rewilded. Our long-term aim is to rewild 50% of Britain. But why should it matter to an ordinary person? Unless you’re planning on giving up the benefits of the modern economy and returning to subsistence farming, getting a say over your nominal acre of land wouldn’t improve your life anyway – right? So goes the argument of many a politician turning a blind eye to land inequality in recent years. But as we career down the highway to climate breakdown, such wilful blindness to land – and who controls it – has run out of road. It is only recently that we’ve started to realise that land, far from being a fringe concern, is in fact our single most important environmental resource. Land that is burnt for sport, drained, overgrazed, over-fertilised or polluted, fuels the climate and wildlife emergency. Conversely, land that is rewilded heals it. But despite the speeches, charters, TV shows, nature-themed coronation invitations and replantable Christmas tree initiatives (all of which I do believe are deeply sincere and well-intentioned), royal land is still overwhelmingly a climate heater, not a climate cooler. Little of the royal holdings are treed, or managed for diverse wildlife; instead they are disfigured by grouse shooting and exhausted by livestock farming. This is hardly surprising when the estates (Duchy of Cornwall, Duchy of Lancaster and crown estate) were pushed to make a profit for “the firm” of more than £136m this year. The condition of royal land, just like the condition of other big landowners’ portfolios, does in fact matter to us all (let’s remember, as discovered by author Guy Shrubsole, that 50% of England is owned by less than 1% of its population). This leaves us, the unlanded, sleepwalking into a truly precarious situation. The keys to our future are held by the unelected. Our movement had little money and no legal mechanism to hold the royal estates to account, so we tried to embody the voice of the jester – the only courtier who could speak the truth without losing their head for it. With colour, humour and an abundance of love for nature we marched to Buckingham Palace with Chris Packham and hundreds of schoolchildren, threw down a 5m sculpture of a medieval gauntlet to Prince William, led investigations into royal greenwashing, won the backing of more than 100 climate scientists and public figures and, in collaboration with 38 Degrees, gathered over 175,000 signatures on our petitions. Incredibly, it seems to be working: this summer the Duchy of Cornwall agreed to our petition to expand Dartmoor’s temperate rainforest. The crown estate announced its first ever beaver release. And now, the unthinkable: even the king’s beloved Balmoral, once a bastion of bloodsports, is set to get its first rewilding project. This of course is only a lilliputian step forward, and arguably these victories just raise a bigger question: given the overwhelming public support for rewilding, should it really be up to activists alone to make sure landowners act? If Wild Card has revealed one thing, it’s that more land needs to be brought into public ownership and transformed by democracy. While Sid Rawle’s dream of total egalitarian ruralism would probably be just as undesirable as today’s inequality (I for one can barely keep a tomato plant alive), we can surely all agree on one thing: we all deserve a vote over how our nation’s land is used and nature urgently needs one too. Joel Scott-Halkes is the co-founder of Wild Card | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/rewilding', 'uk/prince-charles', 'uk-news/land-ownership', 'uk/monarchy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/farming', 'uk-news/duchy-of-cornwall', 'uk-news/duchy-of-lancaster', 'environment/forests', 'uk-news/crown-estate', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/joel-scott-halkes', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-12-28T13:00:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2015/mar/23/weather-spring-oceans-snow | Kate Ravilious on the changing of the seasons | Last Friday was the spring equinox, and for those of us in the northern hemisphere the days started to become longer than the nights. The extra minutes of sunshine (when the sun manages to break through the cloud) do bring a spring-like feel to the air, but we are not out of the winter woods yet. In the UK, a blast of snow in March or April is not unusual, and in fact snow is more likely to fall at Easter than it is at Christmas. One of the reasons for this seasonal delay is that the oceans take significantly longer to respond to the warming effects of the sun. Air and land heat up quickly, but water has a very high heat capacity, meaning that it takes a lot of heat energy and, therefore, a long time to heat the oceans up. Equally water is good at holding on to energy, meaning that it takes a long time for warm oceans to cool at the other end of the year. Since more than 70% of Earth is covered by ocean, most locations experience some seasonal lag. In the UK our seasons lag behind the sun’s heat input by around one month, which explains why our warmest months tend to be July and August, rather than midsummer, and our coldest months are January and February rather than midwinter. Temperature-wise, March has more in common with December than its equinox equivalent month – September. So if you are impatient for warmth, hang on in there: it is on the way, but we just have to wait for the oceans to catch up … | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/spring', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-03-23T21:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2013/oct/25/bushfire-climate-change-emergency-agenda | More frequent bushfires? Fears are being realised, says emergency council | Predictions that climate change would lead to a greater frequency of bushfires and a higher average intensity of bushfires are being realised, according to the peak government and private sector body for fire and land management and emergency service authorities in Australia and New Zealand. The statement runs counter to the view of the prime minister, Tony Abbott, who insists any link between climate change and bushfires is “complete hogwash”. In a submission to a 2013 Senate committee inquiry into recent trends in and preparedness for extreme weather events, the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC) referred to a 2009 paper it had published reviewing all available scientific evidence on climate change. It found that scientists were predicting greater frequency of bushfires and higher average intensity of bushfires, among other things. “In the period of just over three years since September 2009, Australasian fire and emergency services have been involved in responding to the realisation of that prediction, with a number of emergencies and disasters linked to extreme weather events. Examples include, bushfires in Western Australia, notably at Toodyay, Roleystone/Kelmscott and Margaret River, occurring in the context of prolonged dry and warm weather … and the Tasmanian and New South Wales bushfires in early 2013, which were associated with record high average maximum temperatures in Australia,” AFAC says in its submission. “AFAC is not in a position to say with any certainty that there is a causal link between any one of these events and climate change, and we would defer to the opinions of experts in the field in that regard. Nonetheless, increasing numbers of events of this kind are what was anticipated in our climate change position.” In fact the Senate committee, chaired by Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham, received evidence from many organisations that the projected increases in hot days and in consecutive dry days and droughts would lead to more days with extreme fire danger. The Australian Academy of Science told it that “there is a clear observed association between extreme heat and catastrophic bushfires”, the Bureau of Meteorology said “projected rising temperatures and likely decreases in winter and spring rainfall across southern Australia … will also contribute to an increased bushfire threat” and the CSIRO said it was projecting “that warmer and drier conditions are expected in future over southern and eastern Australia, and that consequently, an increase in fire weather risk is likely, with more days of extreme risk and a longer fire season”. | ['world/wildfires', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'world/newzealand', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-10-25T07:41:47Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/jan/14/campaign-aims-raise-awareness-fairtrade-gold | Campaign aims to raise awareness of Fairtrade gold | A human ‘ring of gold’ will be formed outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday to mark the start of a new campaign encouraging couples to tie the knot with Fairtrade wedding bands. The “I Do” campaign backed by top designers including Katharine Hamnett will urge brides and grooms to buy Fairtrade gold to help improve the lives of the people who mine gold, and the environment. The initiative from the Fairtrade Foundation (FF) also aims to increase consumer awareness of Fairtrade gold, which was introduced in the UK in 2011 but is less well-known than mainstream Fairtrade food and drink products. More than half of people in an ICM survey undertaken last February thought that buying Fairtrade products was the responsible thing to do, but only 16% had heard of Fairtrade gold, compared to 64% who knew of Fairtrade tea and coffee. The FF estimates that if 50,000 couples chose Fairtrade-certified gold wedding rings, £650,000 could be generated to help the poorest mining communities in the world transform their lives, health and working conditions and support community projects such as schools. Around the world, some 15 million artisanal and small-scale gold miners produce 10-15% of the world’s supplies, but they work in notoriously dangerous conditions and are poorly paid by middlemen for their gold. Gold mining is one of the world’s most dangerous industries with miners earning as little as $1 per day. Daily contact with toxic chemicals used to process gold such as mercury, cyanide and nitric acid means workers risk disease, serious injury, premature births and even death. Securing Fairtrade certification guarantees a fair price – 95% of the London Bullion Market Association price – for mining groups’ gold, and a premium of $2,000 (£1,300) per kilogram. Since achieving certification in 2010, mining organisations in Peru have invested in healthcare, education and improved equipment. To meet Fairtrade standards, mining groups are helped to improve their working conditions, with safety measures implemented in the mines, safer handling of the mercury used to extract the gold and children banned from working in the mines. The UK initiative will feature an exhibition showcasing the work of designers working with Fairtrade gold, including Pippa Small, whose jewellery is sold at fashion website Net-a-Porter and at Harrods. Stephen Webster and Beaverbrooks the Jewellers also stock Fairtrade jewellery. Amy Ross, project manager for the Fairtrade Gold and Precious Metals programme at Fairtrade International, said: “By putting the interest of the most disadvantaged miners around the world, and the environment, at the centre of their work, Fairtrade jewellery designers are revolutionising the industry and paving the way for a fairer, and truly beautiful, wedding ring for UK’s couples.” | ['global-development/fair-trade', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/weddings', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'business/mining', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-01-14T06:00:05Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/sep/27/adani-coalmine-queensland-warned-not-to-sign-royalty-deal-until-rail-line-agreed | Adani coalmine: Queensland warned not to sign royalty deal until rail line agreed | Queensland taxpayers risk subsidising “a foreign-owned unregulated monopoly asset” if the state government signs a royalties agreement with Adani before securing access to the company’s rail line, the Australia Institute says. The state government has set a self-imposed deadline of 30 September to finalise the terms of a royalty deferment with Adani. Both parties say negotiations over royalties are ongoing and confidential. Under a “transparent policy framework” adopted by the state in 2017, Adani must provide multi-user infrastructure to be eligible to defer royalty payments. Guardian Australia has confirmed the Queensland Competition Authority, which regulates third-party use of private infrastructure, has not yet been asked to consider access arrangements. In a new report, the Australia Institute argues a royalty deal should not be signed until after the QCA has assessed the rail line. It estimates a royalties deferment could be worth $250m to $700m to Adani. In 2017 Queensland announced the new framework to offer favourable royalties packages – allowing payments to be deferred, with interest – to mining companies which were the first to build infrastructure in undeveloped areas. The secretive policy was considered a political masterstroke by the Labor government – allowing it to do a deal that would benefit Adani, while claiming it had kept an election promise not to give the company taxpayer subsidies or special treatment. In a statement released at the time, the government said projects approved for the royalties incentive must abide by certain principles, including the provision of “third-party access infrastructure”. The state has been in negotiations with Adani about the details for more than two years, since the parties reached an in-principle agreement. Changes to the scale of the Carmichael project in the meantime have raised questions about whether Adani will still be eligible for a royalties deal under those principles. When the framework was announced, the Carmichael project was planned to include infrastructure considered critical to the development of the Galilee Basin – an airport, a rail line to the Abbot Point port and a second terminal at the port. Each has since been scrapped or shelved. Instead Adani will build a rail spur line linking the Carmichael mine to the Aurizon freight network. There are already concerns the rail plan leaves little to no additional capacity on the network. The Australia Institute’s research director, Roderick Campbell, said the competition authority needed to work with Adani on access agreements “like in all Queensland’s rail lines and other significant infrastructure. “Otherwise, there is no guarantee that Adani’s rail can be used by other parties and is therefore not eligible for the royalty deferment,” Campbell said. “Adani shouldn’t be treated differently to the rest of the coal rail network. “This is a worthy investment of time to ensure Queensland taxpayers are not left short-changed subsidising a rail line that would ultimately be a foreign-owned, unregulated monopoly asset. “Subsidising coal mines as the world tackles climate change is bad enough. Subsidising coal mines and unregulated monopoly assets would be plain stupid.” Negotiations between the Queensland government and Adani broke down last year, but resumed after the May federal election and after a shellshocked Labor pivoted in support of the coal industry. Guardian Australia understands the previous sticking point had been the government’s insistence – and another requirement of the state policy – that Adani provide security for any deferred payments. It is unclear whether that has been resolved. The Queensland deputy premier and treasurer, Jackie Trad, said negotiations were ongoing and “parties are working in good faith to meet the coordinator general’s timeframe”. Trad said another project, New Century Zinc, had already secured government approval for a royalty deal under the framework. “The (framework) principles seek to ensure that major new resource projects deliver secure local jobs at no cost to the taxpayer and all monies owed to the Queensland people through the use of our resources is paid in full,” Trad said. “Adani have advised that the commencement of construction of the Carmichael mine is not dependent on the finalisation of … negotiations.” Adani said in a statement: “We are continuing to work with the Queensland government to finalise the royalties agreement. “The details of the royalties agreement are commercial in confidence.” | ['environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/tax-australia', 'business/adani-group', 'business/australia-economy', 'business/mining', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2019-09-26T18:00:09Z | true | ENERGY |
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