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politics/2019/mar/06/britain-urged-to-reject-backward-us-food-safety-standards | Britain urged to reject ‘backward’ US food safety standards | The US should join the back of a queue for a post-Brexit trade deal if it thinks its “woefully inadequate” and “backward” animal welfare and food safety standards will be accepted in Britain, the former farming minister George Eustice has said. Eustice, a leading Brexit supporter who resigned from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last week, said signing any deal that allowed a reduction in food standards would be a mistake, as it could “give free trade a bad name”. His remarks are a rebuttal to Woody Johnson, the US ambassador, who last week invited the UK to drop its opposition to certain practices such as the use of hormones in beef and chlorine washes in chicken when considering a trade deal. The issue is a contentious one within the UK government as Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has insisted food and welfare standards will be maintained, but Liam Fox, the trade secretary, has defended the safety of chlorine-washed chicken. Writing for the Guardian, Eustice said the UK has a “sophisticated and discerning” market for food but agriculture in the US “remains quite backward in many respects”. “Their livestock sectors often suffer from poor husbandry which leads to more prevalence of disease and a greater reliance on the use of antibiotics,” he said. “Whereas we have a ‘farm to fork’ approach to managing disease and contamination risk throughout the supply chain through good husbandry, the culture in the US is more inclined to simply treat contamination of their meat at the end with a chlorine or similar wash.” He said the situation in relation to animal welfare was even worse, as “legislation as regards animal welfare is woefully deficient”. “There are some regulations governing slaughterhouses but they are not as comprehensive as ours,” he said. “As far as on-farm welfare legislation is concerned, there is virtually nothing at all at a federal level and only very weak and patchy animal welfare regulations at a state level, predominantly in the west coast states. There is a general resistance to even acknowledging the existence of sentience in farm animals which is quite extraordinary.” Eustice, a longstanding Brexit supporter, resigned from the government last week, saying Theresa May’s decision to allow a vote on delaying article 50 would be “the final humiliation of our country”. He said he was strongly supportive of the UK striking trade deals after Brexit but they should demand that suppliers meet British standards, highlighting a Conservative manifesto commitment to do so. “If the Americans want to be granted privileged access to the UK market, then they will have to learn to abide by British law and British standards, or they can kiss goodbye to any trade deal and join the back of the queue,” he said. He said trade deals should be an opportunity to “project British values of kindness and compassion” rather than allow them to be undermined. Johnson, who has been ambassador since 2017, set out the US position on a post-Brexit trade deal in the Telegraph last week, saying it was a myth that chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped beef were bad. “You have been presented with a false choice,” he wrote. “Either stick to EU directives, or find yourselves flooded with American food of the lowest quality. Inflammatory and misleading terms like ‘chlorinated chicken’ and ‘hormone beef’ are deployed to cast American farming in the worst possible light.” Johnson described using chlorine to wash chicken as a “public safety no-brainer” and insisted it was the most effective and economical way of dealing with “potentially lethal” bacteria. He said the EU was a “museum of agriculture” and its “traditionalist” approach belonged in the past. | ['politics/eu-referendum', 'politics/article-50', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/farm-animals', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rowena-mason', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-03-06T07:00:13Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
society/2024/dec/16/more-than-a-million-vapes-a-day-in-uk-thrown-away-says-research | More than a million vapes a day in UK thrown away, says research | Thirteen vapes are thrown away every second in the UK – more than a million a day – leading to an “environmental nightmare”, according to research. There has also been a rise in “big puff” vapes which are bigger and can hold up to 6,000 puffs per vape, with single use vapes averaging 600. Three million of these larger vapes are being bought every week according to the research, commissioned by Material Focus, and conducted by Opinium. 8.2 million vapes are now thrown away or recycled incorrectly every week. From June 2025 it will be illegal to sell single-use vapes, a move designed to combat environmental damage and their widespread use by children. Vapes will only be allowed to be sold if they are rechargeable or contain a refillable cartridge. But all types of vape contain lithium-ion batteries which are dangerous if crushed or damaged because they can cause fires in bin lorries or waste and recycling centres. These fires are on the rise across the UK, with an increase last year of 71% compared with 2022. They are also considered by environmentalists to be wasteful and damaging to the ecosystem because they contain valuable and critical materials such as lithium and copper, which end up in the bin. Material Focus has calculated that the number of vapes thrown away per annum could instead be powering 10,127 electric vehicles. Vapes are also toxic to wildlife if littered, which they often are. The campaign group is asking for urgent action to be taken including takeback systems in shops as part of a proposed licensing system for selling vapes, and more information displayed on vapes and in shops on how they can be recycled. Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, said: “Vape producers are being infinitely creative with their products in order to avoid the forthcoming disposable vape ban. Whilst the current ban will take some of the most environmentally wasteful products off the market, we might need more flexible legislation to deal with the ongoing challenges of the new products surging onto the market. “It should be as easy to recycle a vape as it is to buy one. We want more vapers demanding that where they buy them provide recycling points as it is a legal obligation for all those who sell vapes to provide this. “Vapes, like any other electrical with a plug, battery or cable, should never be binned and always be recycled as a minimum. We need rapid growth in the number of accessible and visible vape recycling drop-off points. And we need proper retailer and producer financing of genuine recycling solutions to recover materials and manage fire risks. The UK needs more accessible recycling drop-off points in stores, in parks, in public spaces near offices, bars and pubs, and in schools, colleges and universities.” | ['society/e-cigarettes', 'society/smoking', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-12-16T06:00:05Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/dec/26/alarm-over-amazon-road-project-brazil-bolsonaro-biodoverse-indigenous-communities | 'It's as if we've learned nothing': alarm over Amazon road project | Brazilian activists have voiced alarm over their government’s plans to bulldoze a 94-mile highway through a biodiverse corner of the Amazon along the border with Peru that is home to at least three indigenous communities. The planned road is an extension of the BR-364, a 2,700-mile highway that links São Paulo with the Amazon state of Acre, and would connect the town of Cruzeiro do Sul with the Peruvian border town of Pucallpa. Backers of the “transoceanic” project, who include Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, argue it will boost the economy of this remote region by creating a transport hub through which agricultural products can be shipped to Pacific ports in Peru and on to China. “This project won’t destroy the forest, it will bring sustainable development to the region by heating up commercial and cultural relations [with Peru],” said Mara Rocha, a centre-right congresswoman from Acre who supports the idea. Rocha said the project was critical to a region that felt “forgotten and invisible to the rest of the country”. Opponents, however, fear it could have catastrophic consequences for Brazil’s environment, which is already reeling under Bolsonaro as the rate of Amazon deforestation soars to its highest level in more than a decade. A report in the Estado de São Paulo newspaper said an 80-mile (130km) stretch of pristine forest would need to be felled to build the road, which would cut through the centre of the protected Serra do Divisor national park. Experts call the park one of the Amazon’s most biodiverse regions, hosting at least 130 species of mammal and more than 400 species of bird. Brazilian lawmakers are considering plans to water down its protections in an apparent attempt to accelerate the road’s construction. Luís Puwe Puyanawa, a local indigenous leader who opposes the project, said: “The truth is that nobody in Acre needs this transoceanic route – there’s already a road linking us to Peru. What we need is to leave the forest standing.” Miguel Scarcello, the head of SOS Amazônia, an environmental group based in the state capital, Rio Branco, described the project as “irresponsible” and a throwback to Brazil’s military dictatorship when roads where bulldozed through the Amazon in an attempt to populate and develop the region. “It’s such an old-fashioned, backwards vision … that pays absolutely no attention to conservation. It will cut through an untouched area of forest and affect the headwaters of really important tributaries of the Juruá River,” Scarcello said. He described how during the 1964-85 dictatorship such roads “decimated” indigenous communities and inflicted “immense destruction” on the rainforest, as loggers used them to access previously inaccessible areas. “We’re not in the 1960s any more,” Scarcello said. “It’s as if we’ve learned nothing from the effects that this could cause and how much destruction could be caused.” He added: “They say it will bring development but, as always, it will be development for half a dozen people,” and he warned of a “carnival of land grabbing” that would accompany the planned road. If the project is approved, three indigenous communities near the road will reportedly be affected: Nukini, Jaminawa and Poyanawa. Scarcello said it was possible the national park was also home to isolated tribes with whom contact had not been made. Puyanawa, 41, said he feared his community would be worst hit. “The road is expected to pass within about a kilometre of our lands. One of my biggest concerns is that this stretch is home to some of the most important water sources of the Amazon basin. The Alto Juruá provides all the waters that flow into the Rio Solimões and then Rio Negro, until they reach the sea,” he said. “All of these rivers could be really affected and this could cause the disappearance of important headwaters in the Amazon. With that, many species could disappear.” Puyanawa said plans for such a route had been touted by politicians for decades but appeared to have accelerated since Bolsonaro took office in January 2019. “Nobody has wanted it as much as Bolsonaro,” he said. Bolsonaro has overseen a highly controversial dismantling of Brazil’s environmental protection system, causing Amazon deforestation to skyrocket, critics say. Last month government figures showed Amazon destruction had surged to a 12-year high, with an area seven times larger than Greater London lost between August 2019 and July 2020. That increase has been blamed on the feeling of impunity that Bolsonaro’s presidency has brought illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and miners seeking to cash in. “They feel completely at ease,” said Carlos Rittl, a Brazilian environmentalist who works at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Germany. “We are being governed by people whose motto for the environment is: destruction.” The BR-364 extension, which Bolsonaro has publicly backed as a means to give Brazil “a passage to the Pacific”, is not the only Amazon road project worrying environmentalists and climate campaigners. Last week his administration said it would begin repaving the BR-319, a decaying dictatorship-era highway that cuts north to south through the Amazon from Manaus to Porto Velho. “A historic day for the north!” Bolsonaro wrote on Facebook, announcing the news. But in a recent essay, Prof Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research, said reviving the BR-319, which has been abandoned since late 1980s, “would give deforesters access to about half of what remains of the country’s Amazon forest” and was “certainly among the most consequential decisions facing Brazil today”. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'profile/caio-barretto-briso', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-12-26T06:00:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2024/feb/23/another-grand-slam-beckons-for-irelands-unstoppable-machine | Farrell and Crowley bring certainty to Ireland’s pursuit of repeat grand slam | The rest may as well go home. The title is Ireland’s. So say the bookies, who are offering an Ireland championship at a little better than 10-1 on, which equates to a 90% likelihood. That is quite the statement, given there are three rounds (out of five) still to play, including a trip for Ireland to the home of the side that took bronze at the World Cup only a few months ago. Ireland are two wins from two, going into round three, but then so are England. You can get the latter at 10-1, which equates to less than a 10% chance. An Ireland grand slam is rated 2-1 on, or 67% likely. Those who know their rugby will rightly point out that England’s bronze medal was not a fair reflection of the pecking order in international rugby – and their two wins so far in the Six Nations have hardly been impressive. Ireland, on the other hand, were pipped in one of the epic quarter-finals of the World Cup and they fairly dismantled France in Marseille in round one of the championship, before brushing aside an Italy team that took England to the brink and outscored them three tries to two. It says something, all the same, about Ireland’s standing in the game that such cold, dead-eyed commentators as the bookmakers have them as all but definite to prevail. There is a certainty about Ireland that their closest challengers in the north, France, still lack, for all their brilliance. Andy Farrell, Ireland’s coach, might serve as the embodiment of his team. In his pomp he could pretty much do anything on a rugby field, a hard man and a footballer. Nowadays, it is as if he breathes his understated charisma throughout the team. An air of confidence is indeed the result, however much he may keep them on their toes. Which is all the more impressive, given the gaping hole where Johnny Sexton once stood. If the mark of a player is the way he steps up on the big occasion, Jack Crowley’s first outing as successor to Sexton suggested Ireland will not miss a beat as they venture into a future without the great man. Crowley’s performance in that bonus-point win against France on the opening weekend was masterful, orchestrating proceedings with confidence and knocking over conversions from every angle. Against Italy in Dublin the dynamic was totally different. He missed a few kicks but that is OK when it does not matter. He scored his first Test try instead, and a rejigged Ireland team made hay from there. For this weekend’s visit of Wales, they welcome back most of their first-choice team. Hugo Keenan, injured against Italy, does not make it, so another relatively unfamiliar face is thrown in at full-back. Ciaran Frawley, the utility back from Leinster, was named as one of three potential replacements for Sexton in Farrell’s original Six Nations squad. He will make his first Test start, at the age of 26, in a position he has played six times this season for Leinster. Such adjustments are not considered much of a weakness for Wales to exploit. When a team is rated 90% likely to win an entire tournament, the bookies do not have much further to go when rating them for an individual match at home against a side nought from two. Wales are given a roughly 5% chance in this one, with a 23-point head start in the handicap market. They hardly stride boldly into town. Rob Howley, back on the coaching panel, has described their best chance as to create chaos, while the head honcho himself, Warren Gatland, referred to Welsh rugby as “a sinking ship” only a couple of days ago. One imagines the rhetoric in the visitors’ changing room will be a little more uplifting than that come Saturday afternoon. But there is no doubt these will not go down as glory days when the next chapters are written in Welsh rugby history, however much they made those bronze-medal winners work for their second win from two in the last round. Sam Costelow returns at fly-half, having left with a neck injury in the first half of the opening match, when the score read 20-0 to the visiting Scots. Otherwise the team is the same as that which started at Twickenham a fortnight ago. They impressed then, even if they could not stop England slow-stepping their way to another win. The challenge in Dublin will be of a different order. | ['sport/six-nations-2024', 'sport/sixnations', 'sport/ireland-rugby-union-team', 'sport/wales-rugby-union-team', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-breakdown', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/michaelaylwin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/wales-rugby-union-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-02-23T14:48:19Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2012/oct/03/iran-economy-sanctions-nuclear | Iran's economy is hurting – yet sanctions are not a nuclear deterrent | Hassan Hakimian | The recent mayhem in Iran's currency markets that has seen a staggering 17% depreciation of the rial in one day is likely to go down as Iran's version of the UK's Black Wednesday. But as central bank authorities around the world operating under fixed exchange rates know, it is futile to try to intervene in the markets to prop up a beleaguered currency. That was the lesson Norman Lamont, the former British chancellor of the exchequer, learned in 1992. This also seems to be the lesson Iran's central bank discovered only a week after setting up a "special exchange" to calm the currency nerves: markets responded by taking those measures as sure signs of abnormality. The precipitous decline in the value of the national currency in recent days represents in essence a dash by Iranians from all walks of life to take shelter in the safety offered by hard currencies. This has in turn set in motion a vicious spiral from which there may be no easy escape in the short term other than measures such as restricting imports, rationing basic commodities and reintroducing the multiple exchange rate system that Iranians came to know in the harsh decade of the 1980s during the war with Iraq. Market sentiments and psychological factors no doubt play a big part in situations like this. The main drivers, however, have deeper roots and are compounded by both domestic and external factors. Iran's economy is vulnerable on two fronts. Over-reliance on oil exports, which account for 80% of her foreign currency revenues, is compounded by a high degree of import dependence for major items, both for feeding the population and for keeping industrial units afloat. The rial's recent freefall reflects mainly negative market sentiments and an expectation that the Iranian government will continue to experience severe difficulties in selling oil in international markets as the sanctions' noose tightens. The level of Iran's foreign currency reserves, though not known exactly, is respectable, at least on paper, by regional standards. According to Opec, the value of Iran's petroleum exports in 2011 exceeded $114bn, which indicates a comfortable imports cover of over a year. This is much better than for "Arab spring" countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. The problem, however, is the markets' glum prognosis of where sanctions are taking Iran's economy in the medium term. Such structural factors are compounded by poor policies and mismanagement at home. With an administration criticised by friends and foes alike for lack of transparency, official Iranian data are often received with derision both inside and outside Iran. Analysis of Iran's economic policy is also complicated by intense factional politics and an intricate labyrinth of decision-making, ratification and oversight. Moreover, a veneer of official probity and populist jargon sits oddly with widespread patronage, a spate of banking scandals, record non-performing loans and a highly skewed concentration of wealth. It is no wonder that both rival factions and the public at large blame the economic plight of the country squarely on president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration. Structural weaknesses and poor domestic management give great comfort to proponents of unilateral economic sanctions who have been too willing to predict the Iranian economy's downfall. Victoria Nuland, the US state department's spokeswoman, was quick to attribute the rial's recent ill fate to "the unrelenting and increasingly successful international pressure" on Iran's economy. Earlier in the week, Israel's finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, alleged that the sanctions were pushing the Iranian economy towards collapse. As early as in January 2011, Hillary Clinton was claiming to a student audience in the UAE that "the sanctions are working", judging by "a slowdown in Iran's nuclear progress". The underlying logic of these extrapolations is that "if sanctions are hurting, they must be working". But this overlooks a number of important issues. First, although Iranian sanctions are harsh, other economies have withstood harsher economic pressures in the past and there is no shortage of regimes under sanctions which have survived without changing their course – North Korea, Zimbabwe and Cuba, to name but a few. Second, if sanctions were to be judged by their adverse impact on the population at large their "success" would be a foregone conclusion. The tightening noose has already led to shortages in essentials such as some food items and medicine precipitating panic buying. Similar sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein pushed millions below the poverty line, increased infant mortality and stepped up the brain drain without altering the government's foreign policy. Third, precisely how economic sanctions are expected to "work" is not always clear. Two main explanations seem to be on offer. First, an implicit assumption that sanctions help the economic and political cycles to converge (ie, economic hardship will bring about internal implosion); and second, that they help alter the balance of the costs and benefits associated with undesirable policies (in this case Iran's "'nuclear ambitions") by raising the former and diminishing the latter. The problem is that the first of these "mechanisms" flies in the face of evidence: both the "Arab spring" and Iran's 1979 revolution followed periods of relative prosperity, not deprivation and hardship. Similarly, the cost-benefit rationale overlooks the fact that ideologue regimes like Iran tend to have a high pain threshold and may be willing to take a big hit against their population without yielding in their international stance. Despite growing economic pain, there seems as yet no overriding reason why the Iranian regime might back down on its nuclear stance. Economic sanctions – whether in Iran or elsewhere – are ultimately flawed because of the way they operate: as collective punishment they penalise the very victims of the target regimes who might use the spectre of external threat to quash internal dissent. As with so many sanctions in recent history, the sanctions against Iran are clearly proving capable of destabilising the economy and inflicting pain on ordinary people, while the prospect of achieving their stated objective of nuclear non-proliferation in the region remains elusive. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/iran', 'world/middleeast', 'world/world', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/hassan-hakimian'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2012-10-03T11:18:57Z | true | ENERGY |
media/2019/aug/02/andrew-bolts-mocking-of-greta-thunberg-leaves-autism-advocates-disgusted | Andrew Bolt's mocking of Greta Thunberg leaves autism advocates 'disgusted' | News Corp’s Andrew Bolt showed “absolute ignorance” when he mocked the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg in a column for the Herald Sun, an autism awareness advocate says. The high-profile columnist for Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and Sky News commentator attacked the 16-year-old campaigner as “deeply disturbed”, “freakishly influential” and “strange” in the piece published on Wednesday. Thunberg responded on Thursday, turning Bolt’s words back on him to say she was “deeply disturbed” by the “hate and conspiracy campaigns” run by climate science deniers. But the column has provoked outrage among advocates for people with autism, while an expert says the News Corp writer has sent a “dangerous” message. “It just shows absolute ignorance on this and it’s particularly cruel,” said Nicole Rogerson, the chief executive of Autism Awareness Australia. “And it also leads to misunderstanding in the wider community and his audience about what autism is.” Rogerson said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the attack on the 16-year-old, which she said sought to “equate her autism to having a range of mental disorders”. “I’d ask Mr Bolt does he think that nobody, no individual with autism can make a contribution to wider public discussion,” she said. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Daniel Skorich, an autism researcher at the University of Queensland, said Bolt’s description of autism was incorrect and was “dangerous in the message it sends about autistic people”. “In contrast to Andrew Bolt’s derisory claims, what autism is not is a ‘disorder which intensify fears’, ‘a fault, and a dangerous one’, that makes autistic people ‘deeply disturbed’ and ‘irrational’, nor one that gives them ‘all that certainty that unreason can possibly give,’” Skorich said. The condition was “characterised by difficulties in social interaction and communication”, he said. But it also leads to “relative strengths in many areas, particularly in the arts, and in the natural sciences, where autistic people are over-represented relative to neurotypicals”, Skorich said. A Press Council spokeswoman said: “The Press Council can confirm that it has received a complaint about Andrew Bolt’s Herald-Sun column about Greta Thunberg.” In the column, Bolt criticised Thunberg’s decision to sail across the Atlantic in a high-speed racing yacht to attend UN climate summits in the US and Chile. “I have never seen a girl so young and with so many mental disorders treated by so many adults as a guru,” he wrote. Thunberg has said she sees her autism as gift that helped open her eyes to the climate crisis. Her solo protest last year sparked the Fridays for Future global school climate strike movement. Rogerson said: “You can imagine how terrible it would feel if you’re a young person with autism, who cares about social issues, not just environmental issues, you care, and you want to have a contribute contribution, you want to have a say? “And essentially, Andrew Bolt has decided that because of your autism, you shouldn’t be taken seriously. I mean, where did you draw the line?” | ['world/andrew-bolt', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'media/australia-media', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/world', 'media/media', 'environment/environment', 'media/news-corporation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/luke-henriques-gomes', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-08-02T06:23:13Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
uk-news/2019/mar/04/scotland-climate-change-emissions | Scotland needs to act more urgently on climate change – report | Nicola Sturgeon’s government needs to show much greater urgency in tackling climate change, a cross-party committee of the Scottish parliament has said. The environment committee said the Scottish government’s goal of cutting emissions by 90% before 2050 failed to address the scale of the challenge. Instead, ministers should aim for a net zero target, where there are no additional emissions that affect the climate, MSPs said. In a detailed report on the Scottish government’s climate bill, the committee said ministers needed to heed the latest advice from the International Panel on Climate Change, which called for global action to cap emissions at 1.5C. Achieving that target required much more radical and swifter action, the committee said. They said the scale of the changes to the way the economy operated to ensure emissions did not breach a 1.5C increase was “unprecedented in human history”. There needed to be “a greater urgency of action across all parts of government, across the public and private sectors and by individuals, to deliver the transformational change required. “Climate change is an intergenerational justice issue and the committee believes we need to act now to help ensure future generations inherit a world that is sustainable.” Scottish ministers insist their goal of reaching 90% by 2050 is a realistic target but said they could revise those targets after getting updated advice from the UK committee on climate change, an official body set up to advise the UK and devolved governments, due in May. “We want to go further and achieve net-zero emissions for all greenhouse gases as soon as possible,” it said in a statement. “We’ll set a target date as soon as this can be done credibly and responsibly.” The Holyrood committee’s criticisms increase pressure on the Scottish government to set tougher targets. Caroline Rance, a climate campaigner from Friends of the Earth Scotland, said ministers should also set much tougher emission reduction targets for 2030. “Climate change is the most urgent and pressing crisis facing the world and Scotland’s targets for cutting emissions must reflect our commitment to meeting that challenge,” she said. Protesters from the radical activist group Extinction Rebellion have targeted Holyrood twice in the past six weeks. Calling for a net zero target of 2025, they staged a sit-in at Holyrood’s debating chamber in January and tried to mount a protest at first minister’s questions last Thursday, but were stopped by police. The Scottish Greens and environmentalists were highly critical of the Scottish government’s progress on tackling carbon emissions from transport last week after the latest data showed levels of bus use and cycling were falling while car use and flights were increasing. Railway use had also gone up. | ['uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/nicola-sturgeon', 'environment/ipcc', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-03-04T11:14:43Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2017/sep/17/beware-nuclear-industrys-fake-news-on-being-emissions-free | Beware nuclear industry’s fake news on being emissions free | Letters | I wholeheartedly agree with much of your editorial (14 September), as the economics of new nuclear is weaker than ever at a time when renewables are coming in cheaper year on year. You point out the crisis in the funding of renewables and we could not agree more. The UK desperately needs to reboot financial support for decentralised energy in order to maximise long-term benefits for all. Councils, in particular, are calling for the restoration of feed-in tariffs and other support that has been instrumental in the creation of innovative, local, low-carbon energy schemes, Passivhaus-accredited buildings, and energy efficiency programmes for dealing with the scourge of fuel poverty. While the dramatic cost reductions in offshore wind are to be welcomed, it has to be joined with renewed support for decentralised energy projects, approval for tidal energy schemes and the resumption of support for solar and onshore wind. The government must see that the energy landscape has changed dramatically. An energy review and reboot is urgently required. Cllr David Blackburn Vice-chair, UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Authorities • Your incisive editorial makes many strong points, not least highlighting the exigencies of potential security compromises and terrorism vulnerabilities of the planned new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point. But there is a fatal flaw in the argument you set out. The editorial asserts: “Nuclear power has a trump card: it is a zero-carbon technology which delivers a continuous, uninterrupted supply.” This is demonstrably untrue. On the latter point, you only have to consult the published operating record of reactors to see this is an unsustainable claim. All reactors have lengthy planned outages (shutdowns) for operational reasons; some have significant unplanned outages due to operational failures; and in the extreme case of post-accident safety prudence, such as in Japan, their 54 reactors were all closed for years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster – and became hugely expensive “stranded assets”. On alleged zero-carbon status of nuclear plants, you repeat a similarly erroneous assertion made in your editorial of 1 October 2005 (Pre-empting debate), where you wrote: “The big advantage of nuclear generation is that it does not produce environmentally degrading emissions in the way that fossil fuel generation does.” You printed my response to this assertion (There is nothing green about Blair’s nuclear dream, 20 October 2005) in which I set out the various ways the carbon footprint of nuclear power is substantial, if the whole “cradle-to-grave” nuclear fuel chain (uranium mining, milling, enrichment, fuel production, in-reactor fuel irradiation, storage and final long-term management) is properly calculated. I pointed out that the nuclear industry’s proponents, such as those gathered at last week’s World Nuclear Association jamboree in London, are fond of spreading fake news such as describing nuclear energy as “non-carbon emitting”. It is about time this dangerous falsehood was confined to the dustbin of history. Dr David Lowry Senior research fellow, Institute for Resource and Security Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA • With reference to your editorial, we are used to electricity being on tap. That will continue when we are recharging our car batteries in the years ahead. Accordingly, there is a requirement for a significant fraction of our supply to come from a source that is independent of wind and sun. Battery storage on the scale required is a pipe dream. Nuclear power is the obvious solution. To reject it in principle would be absurd, especially in view of our nuclear heritage. There is a better solution available than that pursued by our current planners. It is to build the remaining nuclear plants with CANDU-type reactors, pioneered by the Canadians. These run on any nuclear fuel and use heavy water as moderator. A heavy-water plant could be built and fed by off-peak renewables, of which tidal power would be ideal. In effect, this provides a solution to the energy storage problem – electricity is “stored” in the form of heavy water. David Hayes Formerly of the Central Electricity Generating Board, Bristol • Re your article Cheap, fast wind turbines are leaving nuclear behind (12 September) and your editorial: an even more persistent myth than nuclear being cheaper than renewables is its supposed usefulness in providing a reliable supply of electricity. Base load nuclear, as it is referred to, is incapable of increasing or decreasing its output in response to the daily fluctuation in demand. This is a significant drawback, given that peak daytime demand is twice that at night. During the day, nuclear has to be supported by gas or coal plants, in almost the same way as wind and solar. So much for nuclear’s green credentials, locking us in to the emission of greenhouses gases indefinitely. Dr Fred Starr London • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'tone/letters', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/gas', 'business/gas', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2017-09-17T17:52:18Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2018/feb/27/sumatra-palm-oil-ernest-zacharevic-sos-distress-call-indonesia-rainforest-orangutan | ‘SOS’: the rainforest distress call carved into Sumatra's oil palms | Kate Lamb | Dramatically carved into the landscape of a Sumatran oil palm plantation that borders one of the world’s most unique rainforests are three ominous letters: SOS. The message stretches half a kilometre alongside a snaking river; a bird’s-eye view gives the eerie sense the land has been given voice, and is issuing a mayday. “From the ground, you would not suspect anything more than just another palm oil plantation. The aerial view, however, reveals the SOS distress signal,” says the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic. For a week Zacharevic has been carefully plotting his concept out tree by tree – or oil palm by oil palm – all 1,100 that were cut down to etch out the message. The work in Bukit Mas, Sumatra, is intended to convey a pressing distress signal, drawing attention to the ongoing destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and the critically endangered species, such as the Sumatran orangutan, that reside within it. “Save Our Souls is a message communicated to those at a distance, a reminder of the connectedness we share with nature,” he says of the acronym. “As more of the forests are lost, we lose a little bit of ourselves in the process.” This is the second year running that Zacharevic, a multidisciplinary artist famed for his Penang murals, has taken the state of Indonesian forests to heart in an artistic awareness campaign called Splash and Burn. The campaign is a play on the “slash and burn” technique used by some Indonesian farmers to clear swaths of rainforest for oil palm plantations. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil – a substance widely used in food, cosmetics and cleaning products – and as the country’s rainforests shrink, the industry stands accused of complicity in mass deforestation. Inspired initially by the devastating forest fires of 2015, Zacharevic says this year he has delved deeper into the industry’s problems, as well as artistic ways to express them. “Last year I said if we ever come across a huge piece of plantation it would be very fun to carve an artwork into it. Even a simple piece could speak very loudly,” he explains. “And things just fell into place a few weeks ago.” Armed with ribbons, a drone and a chainsaw-wielding crew, Zacharevic and his team laboured over five days to carve the message into an area spanning 20 hectares. But it wasn’t until one of the final days when the clouds cleared that they were certain they had pulled it off. “We lived in the village so we would rise with the locals and it was very beautiful and sunny,” he recalls. “We launched our drone and we get this sharp, direct sunlight, the morning light, and it was so sharp and vivid. We all screamed, “It works, it works!” This year the artist has collaborated with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), which, together with the cosmetics company Lush, raised the funds to buy the 50-hectare (124-acre) oil palm plantation with the intention of reforesting it entirely. Before the oil palms are replaced with tens of thousands of native seedlings, Zacharevic was offered the chance to bring his idea to life. SOS’s director, Helen Buckland, was on site as the art project was under way and cheered as the oil palms were felled. “Mostly conservationists when they hear a chainsaw near a forest get a bit of a shudder down their spine, but this time it was a very positive experience,” says Buckland. “As we went across on a raft I could already hear the chainsaws and it was exciting because I knew they were clearing the land for two reasons: for Ernest’s creation of his artwork, but also reclaiming it for this new restoration site.” Funds for the site were raised in part through the sale of 14,600 orangutan-shaped soaps, produced by Lush last year – one for every critically endangered Sumatran orangutan left in the wild. The land is now owned by SOS’s Indonesian sister organisation, the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), and will link up to an existing OIC restoration site that borders the Leuser ecosystem, the last place on earth where orangutans, rhinos, tigers and elephants coexist. In about four years the former plantation will have a well-established young forest structure, says Buckland, with trees up to six metres high. “It is really special to be able to go back to a restoration site and stand under the shade of a tree that was only planted a couple of years ago and hear birdsong,” she says. The reforested area will also create a buffer zone for the protected forest as well as new habitats for orangutans and other species. Zacharevic says he hopes the work can cut through the distractions and start a much-needed dialogue. “From my perspective it was bringing in a bit of social media culture,” he says of the concept. “I think a lot of us are very immersed and distracted by false values so I thought about putting up a distress signal, where people’s attention should be.” | ['global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/indonesia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/palm-oil', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/art', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-lamb', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-02-27T06:30:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
money/2019/apr/23/sodastream-recycling-deposit-refund-cartridge | SodaStream’s recycling incentive has left a nasty taste | I have had challenges reclaiming deposits from SodaStream. If you pay a £10 deposit for an online order of a gas cartridge they commit you’ll get it back when you return it empty for recycling. However, on four occasions I have had to chase and in three cases they insisted they did not owe me anything. The latest wrangle went on for several weeks. I use SodaStream to avoid using plastic bottles of sparkling water. But all this hassle is leaving a nasty taste. RZ, Arundel, West Sussex We wonder if SodaStream is struggling to cope with all the new business triggered by the backlash against single-use plastic water bottles. It’s odd it offers an incentive to encourage recycling and then customers have to jump through hoops to get their money back. It says: “We have a dedicated, UK-based team to answer customer inquiries. We aim to respond within two working days though, on occasion, we don’t provide the level of service we aspire to. We’re employing more people and have recently invested in new technology to help us deliver the high standard our customers expect and deserve.” You are advised to retain receipts so it can investigate if things do not go smoothly. We understand your refund has been processed, and it has apologised. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to terms and conditions | ['money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/consumer-rights-money', 'money/money', 'tone/features', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/money', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-04-23T06:00:46Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2021/apr/01/tornadoes-leave-trail-of-destruction-and-death-in-alabama-us | Tornadoes leave trail of destruction and death in Alabama | A series of tornadoes swept through the state of Alabama last Thursday, leaving a trail of destruction and death. The tornadoes formed from supercell thunderstorms, which later moved eastwards into Georgia. As many as eight tornadoes are believed to have formed, with one tornado reportedly staying on the ground for more an hour, covering a path of 100 miles. At least five people were killed in the town of Ohatchee, in Calhoun County, and many homes and businesses were ruined. Trees were uprooted and 35,000 people across the state were without electricity. The first lady, Jill Biden, postponed a planned trip to the state. Meanwhile, the east coast of Australia has been affected by widespread historic flooding due to prolonged heavy rainfall. New South Wales and Queensland have been worst affected, with some parts of NSW recording almost 1 metre of rain. This follows the third wettest summer for Australia since 1900. At the height of the flooding last week at least 40,000 people were evacuated, and two people drowned after being trapped in their vehicles. The severe weather has also led to delays in Australia’s vaccination programme against Covid-19. Finally, parts of the Middle East have been experiencing record-breaking heat. In Mitribah, Kuwait, 44.6C was recorded, the highest temperature the Arabian peninsula has observed in March. | ['world/tornadoes', 'news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'us-news/us-weather', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-04-01T05:00:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2020/mar/02/the-guardian-view-on-an-energy-u-turn-the-winds-of-change | The Guardian view on an energy U-turn: the winds of change | Editorial | The government’s decision to overturn an effective five-year-old ban on new onshore wind power generation is hugely welcome. Wind provides the cheapest energy, with the first subsidy-free contracts for offshore projects awarded last year. Onshore wind is even cheaper. It is also popular, scoring above other infrastructure (including roads and railway stations) in opinion polls despite the efforts of climate denialists to portray it as a public nuisance. Most importantly, it is renewable and very low-carbon. Unlike oil, gas and coal, wind does not produce greenhouse gases (apart from in the initial phase of manufacturing and installation) and is not something we can run out of. Unlike nuclear, it does not produce toxic waste as a byproduct. The government’s climate advisers say that onshore wind power capacity will need to triple in 15 years if the UK is to meet the target of net-zero emissions by 2050. This is a huge challenge, and forms just one part of an even bigger one. The good news is that the UK’s wind sector is already – and despite David Cameron’s foolish decision to stymie it – a world-beating one. While the solar power industry was seriously damaged by the removal of subsidies, with domestic installations collapsing after the withdrawal of feed-in tariffs, wind companies were able to shift resources and expertise offshore. Ministers must not be allowed to sit on their laurels. Wind and solar will not solve all our energy problems and research and development into battery storage, carbon capture and renewable power projects of all kinds are urgently needed. Systematic retrofitting of the UK’s aged housing stock, to increase energy efficiency, has been shamefully neglected. Having promised that the public will, in future, have a greater say over wind developments through an altered planning process, ministers must now ensure that all new housing and construction projects are compatible with climate goals. But if Boris Johnson’s government should expect limited credit for reversing a destructive decision that many of its own ministers supported, the significance of Monday’s announcement should not be underestimated. Under the last two prime ministers, energy policy often appeared more ideological than rational. While environmental campaigners of all stripes, including some Conservatives, argued in vain on behalf of renewables, ministers consistently (and in the teeth of furious local opposition) sided with frackers. That chapter has now ended. The UK’s fracking industry has all but collapsed. The influence on public life of climate deniers including former chancellor Nigel Lawson has dramatically waned – with 2019’s upsurge of climate activism among the causes. The UK has a mountain to climb to reach emissions targets, and the government’s record so far is not encouraging. But the return of onshore wind is a breath of fresh air. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/conservatives', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-03-02T18:36:21Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2023/may/03/snowy-hydro-20-project-hit-by-delay-of-up-to-two-years-and-another-cost-blowout | Snowy Hydro 2.0 project hit by delay of up to two years and another cost blowout | The multibillion-dollar Snowy Hydro 2.0 development, billed as vital to support the transformation of Australia’s east coast electricity grid, will be delayed by up to two years and face another cost blowout. It follows a series of problems with the development, including a tunnel-boring machine becoming stuck about 70 metres below the surface, the collapse of one of the project’s contractors and delays related to Covid-19. In a statement on Wednesday, the federal government-owned company said its management team was “working towards resetting the delivery timeline and budget” for the pumped hydro project. It expected a delay of one or two years, pushing the earliest start date to the second half of 2028 and the completion of all units to the end of 2029. The statement did not include an updated cost. The expected bill for the project had already blown out from $2bn when it was announced by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 to $5.9bn before the latest delay. Snowy Hydro’s new chief executive, Dennis Barnes, said he was focused on ensuring the company’s major projects were “placed on a realistic and sustainable footing, while maintaining construction progress”. “I am committed to being transparent about our progress and how we are proactively managing the inevitable issues and challenges that arise in a complex project like this,” he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Snowy 2.0 is promised to provide 2 gigawatts of capacity and about 350,000 megawatt hours of large-scale storage to the national electricity market to help backup a system increasingly dominated by solar and wind energy. The finished project would pump water to the highest reservoir in a linked system during periods of cheap electricity and release it when required. The climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, confirmed that the delay could stretch to from the end of 2028 to at least December 2029 before Snowy 2.0 begins operations. “Of course we would hope to have some early progress before then,” he told the Smart Energy Council conference in Sydney. “Of course they’re working very, very hard to make it the earlier part of that [range]. “They’ll be providing further advice to the government later in the year about how they’ve gone.” He added that both Barnes and chairman David Knox had been in Italy recently “resetting the contract with the joint venture partners”. The delay is likely to spark fresh concerns about whether the national electricity market will have enough capacity in place to ensure electricity supply and keep power prices at an affordable level when several ageing coal-fired power plants are due to stop operating later this decade. There is ongoing debate over whether the giant Eraring coal plant in New South Wales should have its life extended beyond its scheduled closure in August 2025. The Albanese government has promised the national grid, which supplies the five eastern states and ACT, will be running on 82% renewable energy by 2030. The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, expressed concerns about the implications of the delay for future energy supplies, adding his government was working with the federal government, the energy regulator and Eraring’s owner, Origin Energy. “The delay of Snowy Hydro by two years is an impediment to making sure that we’ve got an efficient dispatchable supply of power [as] we work our way through the renewable energy revolution,” Minns said. “It’s a difficult transition. We’ve never pretended anything otherwise. “It’s one of the leading reasons why, during the election campaign, we kept the door open to ensuring that Eraring is available to the consumers of energy in NSW. “Everybody’s got an interest in keeping the lights on. We’ve made it clear that’s a priority for us.” Work on Snowy 2.0 stopped last year after a tunnel collapsed as a boring machine, nicknamed Florence, hit unexpectedly soft rock near Tantangara site in the Snowy Mountains. Barnes told the ABC’s RN Breakfast that the machine’s progress was “still at 1%”, but progress was expected in “weeks, not months”. Snowy Hydro said it expected further details on the cost of the “project reset” would be known by about July. A spokesman for the Australian Energy Market Operator said the agency’s recent reliability outlook (the 2022 ESOO and February 2023 update) included previously advised timing and modelling for various delays on Snowy 2.0. “Today’s announcement is consistent with the range of modelling carried out and does not have a material impact on forecast reliability outcomes due to transmission limitations within NSW,” he said. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/hydropower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'profile/tamsin-rose', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-05-03T05:19:04Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2015/apr/22/stradbroke-island-sand-mining-company-cleared-of-illegal-extraction | Stradbroke Island sandmining: company cleared of illegal extraction | A mining company has been cleared of charges of illegally extracting sand brought by Queensland’s environment department after a five-and-a-half-year prosecution. Sibelco, the Belgian miner formerly known as Unimin, was found not guilty in the Brisbane magistrates court on Tuesday of two charges of illegally extracting sand as part of its Stradbroke Island operations. The former Bligh government was warned in 2010 by critics of the company that “technical defences” were available to both charges. Solicitor Richard Carew, who has acted for Friends of Stradbroke Island and local Indigenous owner Dale Ruska against Sibelco, said the case highlighted “weaknesses in the system” of holding miners to account under environmental law. “The government needs to look at law reform to ensure mining companies or others cannot use weaknesses in the system to drag out prosecutions,” he said. “A five and a half year prosecution brings the criminal justice system into disrepute.” Magistrate Graham Lee did not read out the reasons for his verdict on Tuesday, which are yet to be published. Sibelco’s spokesman, Paul Smith, welcomed the ruling, saying it “affirms [the company] as a responsible corporate citizen with a genuine commitment to environmental sustainability”. “The decision supports Sibelco’s position that all activities were in accordance with government regulations,” Smith told the ABC. However, both the supreme court and the court of appeal have ruled in separate applications brought by Sibelco that it could not lawfully sell non-mineral sand under its mining lease except with local government approval. The charges brought by the environment department related to extracting the lower grade sand, which the company argued was an unavoidable by-product of its mining. The company reportedly sold at least 50,000 tonnes of this lower grade sand a year for two decades. Smith said the government “accepted royalties having full knowledge of the operation” for the entire time the non-mineral sand was extracted. The government in 2010 declined to act on advice given by a barrister, Peter Callaghan, that there was a “prima facie” case against Sibelco for the charges of stealing and fraud. These charges would have resulted in proceedings in the district court, where pre-trial processes are shorter than in the magistrates court. Carew said a matter in the district court would “likely have been concluded within two years”. The government also brought a third criminal charge against Sibelco under the Forestry Act, alleging it did not have the required permit, one day after the limitation period expired. The charge was dismissed by the magistrate. The government had six months to lay the charge and was warned by lawyers for Sibelco’s opponents about the approaching deadline. Sibelco, who faced an end to its Stradbroke mining operations in 2019 under the Bligh Labor government, subsequently spent more than $90,000 campaigning for Campbell Newman in his seat in the 2012 state election. The Newman government later amended legislation to give the company the option of extending its mine until 2035 and over an extra 700 hectares of bushland. The Labor opposition complained about the legislation to the crime and corruption commission. The CCC decided not to commence an investigation due to “an absence of evidence in support of a criminal offence by any elected official”. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/liberal-national-party', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'law/law-australia', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-04-22T00:04:41Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2023/mar/22/eight-dolphins-die-new-jersey-stranding | Eight dolphins die in New Jersey stranding | Eight dolphins have died after being stranded on a beach in New Jersey, a rehabilitation center said. According to the New Jersey-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC), the pod of eight dolphins were caught in a “mass stranding event” in the state’s southernmost city, Sea Isle City, on Tuesday morning. By the time rescuers arrived, two of the dolphins had died. The other six were “rapidly deteriorating”, the MMSC said on Facebook. An onlooker, Tim Ramsey, told CBS: “Six big dolphins [were] flapping around on the beach and I was kind of stunned for 30 seconds or so.” Half a dozen officers and rescuers spent hours pouring seawater on to the dolphins, to no avail. “The remaining six dolphins were assessed by our veterinarian and their conditions were rapidly deteriorating,” MMSC said. “The decision was made to humanely euthanize the dolphins to prevent further suffering, as returning them to the ocean would have only prolonged their inevitable death. “All eight dolphins have been transported to the NJ state laboratory for immediate necropsies. We share in the public’s sorrow for these beautiful animals, and hope that the necropsies will help us understand the reason for their stranding.” The dolphin deaths come less than a week after two dolphins stranded and died on a different beach in New Jersey. According to MMSC, an adult dolphin was dead by the time rescuers arrived. Rescuers rescued a calf but after it was transported to a clinic, a veterinary exam determined that it was in an “extremely weakened condition and could not survive”. Doctors then made the decision to euthanize. As of last month, at least nine dead whales had washed up on the New Jersey coast this year, deaths described by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) as “unusual mortality events”. Some have attributed the deaths to wind farms and turbines being built along the New Jersey coast. According to such claims, noise created by offshore wind survey work disrupts cetacean navigation systems. Earlier this year, a conservation non-profit, Clean Ocean Action, demanded an “immediate and fully transparent investigation into the recent whale deaths by federal agencies” and called for a “hard stop on all existing offshore wind industry geotechnical and development activities”. Scientists have disputed such claims. “There is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could … cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys,” said Noaa. | ['us-news/new-jersey', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/dolphins', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/maya-yang', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-03-22T18:51:57Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2018/sep/12/gove-farming-shakeup-health-agriculture-sustainable | Gove’s farming bill is more chaff than wheat | Catherine Broomfield | Michael Gove’s agriculture bill – the first such legislation since 1947 – is not before time. It sets out to replace the existing agriculture subsidy systems, based on direct payment for acres owned, to a system that links payments directly to farmers’ delivery of vital environmental outcomes. This has to be a move in the right direction for the environment, and should also provide smaller farms with a fairer share of the subsidy pot. There is, however, precious little detail in the bill about food or human health. The big elephant in the room, between farmers producing nutritious food and the food people put on their plates, is the powerful corporate interests of the food manufacturing and retail sector. The new bill gives no more than a nod to redressing the established inequities in this vital part of the food and farming chain. It says nothing about the need to focus food production towards public health and the reduction of childhood obesity. Nothing about ensuring the integrity of shorter, stronger food supply chains, nor the need for legislation to rebalance the patently unfair David and Goliath power relationship between food retailers and farmers. Diversity has to be the cornerstone of any agricultural policy capable of producing sufficient quantity of food in a way that sustainably delivers good outcomes for both humans and planet. Highly specialised farming systems, in which diversity is an obstacle to efficiency, bear the greatest responsibility for our degraded soils, water, air and biodiversity. Yet despite this, it has stubbornly remained in the ascendency of farming practice in the developed world and way beyond since the second world war. Globally, agricultural diversity has reduced drastically over the past 40 years. The UK has lost 12% of its farm holdings over the past 10 years as farms have consolidated, specialised, intensified and industrialised. During this time mixed farming, where livestock and crops are farmed together, was largely rejected as an inefficient jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none system of farming. This postwar dismissal of mixed farming threw the beautiful baby out with the bathwater. At the heart of mixed farming is a centuries’ old principle of sustainability. It is a circular system, taking out from the soil and putting back in equal measure. Crops are grown in rotation with livestock fertilising the land as they graze, simultaneously building soil structure and fertility while converting plant matter – indigestible by humans – into healthy protein for human consumption. Farming systems that attempted to replace livestock with bags of synthetic fertiliser have never replicated mixed farming’s natural cycle of sustainability. The consequential loss of organic matter has contributed to a loss of topsoil in the UK of around 2.2m tonnes per year. And growing vast acreages of one type of crop significantly increases the attendant problems from pests and diseases, spawning a generation of pesticides that in turn have contributed to a dramatic reduction in the UK’s wildlife, including flying insects and bee populations, which we are dependent on to pollinate most of our fruits and vegetables. It has set in train a vicious spiral propelling us ever faster towards the bottom. A return to mixed farming would be one big step towards UK agriculture reversing the loss of soil nutrients, fauna, flora, and public trust. Big change is required; difficult enough for any industry but especially so for one as naturally conservative as farming. It will, therefore, need its share of radical pioneers to help the conservative majority have the courage to think differently. One such radical intervention is the Knepp Castle experiment to rewild 3,500 acres of prime West Sussex farmland in an attempt to create a sustainable farming system. The farming establishment undoubtedly views this laissez-faire approach as the antithesis of good farming practice. And while the Knepp approach is unlikely to be replicated on any kind of scale in UK agriculture, the farming establishment would be wise to recognise the Knepp project for what it is: a radical intervention that lays down a challenge for all in farming to thinking differently and commit to meaningful change. In his Nuffield Farming Lecture Report 2018, Changing Food Cultures: Challenges and Opportunities for UK Agriculture, Michael Winter, professor of land economy and society at Exeter University, points to a systemic change required throughout the food chain from farm to plate. His report notes that of the thousands of plant species documented as human food, incredibly just three – rice, wheat and maize – provide 50% of the world’s plant-derived energy. There is a need, and a market opportunity, for UK farming to produce a greater diversity of grains and pulses. The report’s recommendations include a refocus of agricultural policy towards human health and nutrition, policy to encourage diversity of output, and the development of shorter, stronger supply chains. The latter point speaks to other forms of diversification, size of farms, and diversity of new entrants to farming. The common view that small farming is inefficient is being challenged. According to Winter’s report, small farms can perform well, and provide a way in to farming for many new entrants, bringing with them a diversity of attitudes and skills. The importance of small farms is also crucial in providing the consumer with a trusted, shorter supply chain, a fact recognised by consumers after the horsemeat scandal in 2013, when butchers and farm shops reported a 30% increase in sales of locally sourced meat – an issue that, if we need reminding, can resurface without constant vigilance throughout the supply chain. Gove’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs must recognise that its vision of health and harmony in UK food and farming is wholly dependent on re-establishing real diversity in our food and farming industry. Thus far, its commitment appears to fall some way short of its intent. • Catherine Broomfield writes on farming and keeps cattle on a grassland farm in Devon | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'environment/food', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/farm-animals', 'environment/soil', 'politics/michaelgove', 'politics/politics', 'environment/plants', 'environment/meat-industry', 'tone/comment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/catherine-broomfield', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-09-12T15:07:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/feb/28/country-diary-the-sweet-pre-spring-scent-of-optimism | Country diary: The sweet pre-spring scent of optimism | Carey Davies | A cold north-westerly slices through bare trees of Weston Woods, and the sky is a slab of grey. But change is in the air. The light has a gathering confidence, even through the clouds; the piercing territorial call of a buzzard rings out; birdsong has thickened and brightened. We have entered that unsung season between winter and spring, the “prevernal”. Another good omen: thousands of small green tongues have emerged from the damp soil. These leaves herald what will arrive here in a matter of weeks: the most extravagant display of wild garlic bloom I know of in this part of the world, an allium avalanche, where pearly white flowers swamp the wood in the hundreds of thousands. Walking through these drifts of pungent spring, snow stings the nose and startles the eyes. On the outskirts of Otley’s Weston Estate, which I grew up next to, Weston Woods (or East Wood) is not a venerable “ancient” woodland, but it still hosts a richness of plant and animal life. Bats roost in giant beeches; tiny goldcrests nest in yews; a colony of rooks lives in the convoluted branches of a cluster of sycamores. It does not always get treated well. Local kids tear around it on trail bikes and fly-tipping is a problem. In my adolescence, I once accompanied a friend here who was trying (unsuccessfully) to shoot rabbits. Maybe I thought of this as a slightly shabby place, but my perception changed as an adult. And as with many other local landscapes I thought I knew, my connection to this wood deepened during the first Covid lockdown; as the death count for that wave peaked, so did the outrageous beauty of the flowering ground flora. Weston Woods was recently put up for sale, marketed as a potential timber plantation – but a coalition of local groups launched an outstanding fundraising campaign, collecting more than £140,000 for a successful community buyout. Donations are still needed, but I am grateful and encouraged. Once people establish a connection to nature, they will always do the right thing for it, as surely as winter gives way to spring. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/plants', 'environment/spring', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/carey-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-02-28T05:30:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2023/jun/06/nova-kakhovka-ukraine-dam-collapse-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-iaea | Ukrainian dam collapse ‘no immediate risk’ to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant | The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and the draining of the reservoir behind it does not pose an immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant further upstream, but will have long-term implications for its future, according to Ukrainian and UN experts. The Ukrainian nuclear energy corporation, Energoatom, put out a statement on the Telegram social media platform saying the situation at the plant, the biggest nuclear power station in Europe, was “under control”. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said in a statement: “our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the plant.” But there are long-term concerns, both over safety and the possibility of the plant becoming operational again in the coming years. Oleksiy, a former reactor operator and shift supervisor at the plant, pointed out that all six reactors had been shut down since the plant found itself on the frontline after the Russian invasion. Five of the reactors are in “cold shutdown”, turned off completely and being cooled, and one is in “hot shutdown”, kept at 200-250C so it would be easier to restart if conditions allowed, and to supply winter heating to the neighbouring town of Energodar. Oleksiy, who left after Russian forces occupied the plant in March last year and is now elsewhere in Ukraine, said the last reactor should be shut down and that the plant had sufficient resources to keep all reactor cores cool. “I think that the damage of the dam doesn’t impact the plant immediately, because they are being cooled by the safety systems located at the plant, which are spray systems,” he said. “The plant has a cooling lake, about two or three kilometres in diameter.” The Energoatom statement said the cooling lake was filled and was at 16.6 metres (54.5ft), “which is sufficient for the power plant’s needs”. Mariana Budjeryn, a Ukrainian nuclear scientist, said: “The fact that there’s an artificial pond next to the ZNPP [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant] where water can be maintained above the reservoir level, and the fact that the reactors are in cold shutdown, offers some reassurance and increased time to respond if ZNPP starts getting affected.” But Budjeryn, who is a senior research associate on the project on managing the atom at Harvard University, added: “The bigger problem – who is going to do it? ZNPP is already down-staffed to bare bones.” Oleksiy said that over time water would evaporate from the cooling lake and if it could not be filled from the vast reservoir created upstream of the Nova Kakhovka dam, the turbines and the power plant could not be operated. In his statement, Grossi said that the cooling pond should last “for some months” but it was imperative it was not damaged in fighting. The water is used to cool not just the reactor cores, but also the spent fuel and the diesel generators used for safety systems. “Absence of cooling water in the essential cooling water systems for an extended period of time would cause fuel melt and inoperability of the emergency diesel generators,” he warned. Budjeryn pointed to another implication of the dam collapse regarding the future of the Russian occupied nuclear plant, which Russian occupying forces have allegedly mined. “If the Russians would do this with Kakhovka, there’s no guarantee they won’t blow up the reactor units at ZNPP that are also reportedly mined – three of the six,” she said. “It wouldn’t cause a Chornobyl, but massive disruption, local contamination and long-term damage to Ukraine.” | ['world/ukraine', 'world/russia', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/iaea', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'campaign/callout/callout-nova-kakhovka-dam', 'profile/julianborger', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2023-06-06T10:14:30Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2022/jul/07/criticism-of-albaneses-overseas-trips-is-absurd-but-the-pm-finds-its-no-holiday-at-home-either | Criticism of Albanese’s overseas trips is absurd, but the PM finds it’s no holiday at home either | Hugh Riminton | There’s a reason Peter Dutton didn’t lead the condemnation of Anthony Albanese’s international travel. Dutton is on holiday. As the prime minister pointed out about himself, he hasn’t had a day off “in a very long time”. In the opposition leader’s absence, National party leader David Littleproud and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor launched the swing, with an attack that lacked both logic and conviction on Albanese for travelling overseas, including to Ukraine. On Sky News, Taylor simultaneously accepted the PM’s Ukraine visit was “necessary” while condemning his radio silence. “It’s important that constituents know that people are on the job and we hadn’t heard from Mr Albanese for 48 hours,” he said. On the Today show, Littleproud wanted payback for the treatment Scott Morrison copped for his Hawaiian holiday at the height of the Black Summer bushfires. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” he grizzled. “They were pretty quick to throw a few grenades at Scott Morrison.” A dictionary-worthy definition of “false equivalence”. All it really achieved was an opportunity for TV bulletins to recycle pictures of the previous prime minister in his boardies on the holiday his media office denied was happening at the height of a conflagration that most certainly was. “I think that says more about the people who have laid the criticism than it does about myself,” said Albanese at a news conference flanked by the NSW and commonwealth emergency services ministers and NSW premier Dom Perrottet. Entering a war zone requires tight operational security, especially for a high value target like a visiting prime minister. As Albanese pointed out, his movements could potentially have led Russian intelligence to their greatest prize, Volodymyr Zelenskiy himself. “We didn’t have any electronic equipment. No phones, no internet, no communication with outside. That was a matter of keeping us safe but also keeping safe President Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian people that we were meeting with. “To compare that with a holiday is … I just find it beyond contempt, frankly.” His first three phone calls once back across the border were with the acting prime minister, Richard Marles; emergency services minister, Murray Watt; and the NSW premier. “As soon as he could he picked up the phone to call me,” confirmed Perrottet. The premier enthused that coordination and support from the new federal government has been “great … exactly how it should work.” Albanese will be flying overseas again next week. Events on Scott Morrison’s watch have left him with no option but to attend the Pacific Islands Forum. Australia needs to reset its Pacific relationships in the face of Chinese adventurism. Taking a less contemptuous climate change policy to fragile island nations is a start, but turning up in person also matters, as Albanese acknowledges. “Australia dropped the ball with engagement with the Pacific,” he says. It’s not a mistake he plans to repeat. The floods, however, are just the most obvious and heart-breaking of the problems brewing at home. Rising interest rates, still galloping inflation, restive unions, a new parliament to negotiate and a budget to frame by October are just the start. The issues raised by the rain are profound. At one stage this week, 85,000 people – the equivalent of Launceston or Mackay – were forced out of their homes or were preparing to flee. This was the fourth such flood in 18 months, the third this year, added to the double-whammy NSW Northern Rivers floods and the flood devastation in greater Brisbane. At the Hawkesbury’s Helping Hands food distribution centre in Windsor, Jodie Saint, dressed in a grey sloppy-joe, spoke quietly as two of the most powerful men in Australia leaned in to catch her words. “I walked out with my bag above my head,” she said, raising her arms to demonstrate the height of the water. “We’ve only got the clothes on our back. It doesn’t get any easier.” The PM and the premier listened solemnly. “There’s no insurance. The majority of the people here – me included – we’re not insured,” chimed in Jodie’s neighbour, Scott Hinks. “I want to say thank-you for turning up here and visiting us, but [without something changing] you’re going to be turning up again in the next three or four months.” The centre offers food hampers, a sausage sizzle and a 24-hour kettle for the newly homeless. CEO Linda Strickland says people are “traumatised”. Many who come for food stay for a hug and a cry. “They walk in and then all of a sudden … they just break down,” she says. The flood victims are pissed off and tired. Many want the massive Warragamba dam built higher. They want clearer information on services and grants and they want to believe the grant money will come. Last time, says Scott Hinks, it never did. When Albanese moved on to meet SES volunteers, Jodie Saint felt deflated. “I mean, he’s here but I feel there’s no real solutions, nothing offered, no empathy,” she said. “I wasn’t very reassured, to be honest.” Was there any value there for you, I asked her neighbour Kelly Gabriel. “I don’t think so. There were no solutions there.” The first President Bush presided over the end of the cold war, victory over Saddam Hussein in Kuwait and the declaration of a new world order. He was then kicked out by an Arkansas governor called Clinton, whose political sidekick James Carville told anyone who would listen “it’s the economy, stupid”. There are very good reasons for Albanese’s overseas visits since becoming prime minister, and they certainly can’t be compared to a holiday. But he must tread carefully, as George Bush Sr discovered, no amount of being a hero overseas will save you if you can’t fix problems at home. Hugh Riminton is national affairs editor at 10 News First | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/flooding', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/dominic-perrottet', 'world/ukraine', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/hugh-riminton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-07-07T01:02:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2016/aug/15/proust-remembrance-summer-rain-weatherwatch | Proust's remembrance of summer rain | Sometimes, when the weather had broken, the narrator and his family were obliged to go home. “Here and there, in the distance, in a landscape which, what with the failing light and saturated atmosphere, resembled a seascape rather, a few solitary houses clinging to the lower slopes of a hill whose heights were buried in cloudy darkness shone out like little boats which had folded their sails and would ride at anchor all night, upon the sea,” writes Marcel Proust, in Swann’s Way, 1913 translated by CK Scott Moncrieff. “But what mattered rain or storm? In summer, bad weather is no more than a passing fit of superficial ill-temper expressed by the permanent, underlying fine weather; a very different thing from the fluid and unstable ‘fine weather’ of winter, its very opposite in fact; for has it not (firmly established in the soil, on which it has taken solid form in dense masses of foliage over which the rain may pour in torrents without weakening the resistance offered by their real and lasting happiness) hoisted, to keep them flying throughout the season, in the village streets, on the walls of the houses and in their gardens its silken banners, violet and white.” His remembrance of things past extended even to the sound of rainwater “dripping from our chestnut-trees, but I would know that the shower would only glaze and brighten the greenness of their thick, crumpled leaves, and that they themselves had undertaken to remain there, like pledges of summer, all through the rainy night.” | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'books/marcelproust', 'books/books', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/timradford', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-08-15T20:30:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/mar/10/disney-greenhouse-gasses-carbon-footprint | Disney seeks to slash its greenhouse gas emissions in half over the next four years | The Walt Disney Company wants to cut company-wide greenhouse gas emissions in half during the next four years, and reduce electricity consumption by 10% over the next five, as part of a series of environmental initiatives outlined yesterday. The chief targets: Disney's theme parks, resorts and cruise ships, which, according to internal figures, account for 91% of the company's total greenhouse gas emissions through boilers, generators, refrigeration systems, cruise-ship engines and more. The group also accounts for 73% of Disney's total electrical use. "Clearly, our biggest footprint is with the theme parks and resorts. So we know we've got a lot of work to do with them," said Beth Stevens, Disney's senior vice president of environmental affairs. Disney released the environmental goals just ahead of what is expected to be an otherwise sombre annual shareholders meeting today in Oakland, California. The Burbank, California-based media and entertainment company has been hit hard by the global recession, which has depressed sales of everything from theme-park tickets to television advertising to DVDs. Company earnings tumbled 32% during the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ended on 27 December, and Disney is slashing jobs across its operations. Shares in Disney closed yesterday at $15.59, half its price from when shareholders met last year in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Disney's environmental plans were part of a 100-page Corporate Responsibility report posted online yesterday. In addition to reducing or offsetting greenhouse gas emissions - the company's goal is to cut in half its forecast 2012 emissions - and cutting electricity consumption, Disney said it aims to cut in half the amount of garbage generated at its parks and resorts by 2013. Disney said the environmental targets are interim steps toward long-term goals of achieving zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions, reducing indirect emissions through electrical consumption, and eliminating all garbage sent to landfills. Eric Draper, a lobbyist for Audubon of Florida, called the targets and timetables set by Disney "pretty aggressive". He said the plan to cut electrical consumption by 10% was especially promising. "That's more than you're going to get just replacing light bulbs," Draper said. | ['environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'film/walt-disney-company', 'business/business', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-03-10T15:54:41Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2014/jul/29/ipcc-climate-change-reports-findings-must-be-accepted-mps-say | IPCC climate change report's findings must be accepted, MPs say | The world’s most comprehensive report yet on the science of climate change has been strongly endorsed by an influential group of MPs. The Energy and Climate Change Committee found that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's processes were “robust” and their conclusions should be accepted by policymakers. The IPCC, a grouping of hundreds of scientists convened by the UN, published its mammoth report in three parts from last September to this spring, its first such update in seven years. It concluded that climate change is almost certainly manmade, that a large proportion of fossil fuel reserves will have to stay in the ground to avoid dangerous warming of 5C or more, and that global warming is being felt "on all continents and across the oceans". It also concluded that the transition to clean energy to avoid the worst impacts of climate change was eminently affordable. But climate sceptics including Lord Lawson of the Global Warming Policy Foundation have said the IPCC's processes and the conclusions were flawed, and sceptics have seized on mistakes in the organisation's 2007 report. Tim Yeo, the former Conservative minister who chairs the committee, said: “The importance of the conclusions of IPCC reports in terms of their policy implications understandably places the IPCC under a lot of scrutiny. Some of the criticism directed toward the IPCC has been from people who for various political or economic reasons do not like its conclusions, but we decided to take a closer look at whether the scientists involved in the IPCC could be doing more to address genuine concerns.” The committee's MPs examined the IPCC processes and gave them a clean bill of health. This will reinforce the argument that the IPCC’s findings must play a major role in the future of the UK’s and Europe’s climate and energy policies. That could prove crucial in the coming years, as there is a growing movement - particularly among sections of the Tory party and UKIP - to turn climate change and environmental issues into a politically divisive issue. Owen Paterson, the sacked environment secretary, was reported by the Daily Mail to have boasted to David Cameron that he had “reversed a 25-year consensus” on the environment among the UK’s three main parties. There are fears that this tendency could grow in the run-up to the election or after it, depending on the outcome. The next year is a crucial one in climate change negotiations, because governments around the world have committed to forging a global agreement in Paris late next year that would commit countries to steep cuts in emissions. In previous rounds of the UN talks, the UK has played a key role in paving the way for such a historic agreement. An early commitment by the government to abide by the IPCC’s advice, and to set out strong targets, will be essential, according to Yeo, one of the few remaining longstanding “green Tories”, who was de-selected by his constituency party early this year. He said: “Policymakers in the UK and around the world must now act on the IPCC’s warning and work to agree a binding global climate deal in 2015 to ensure temperature rises do not exceed a point that could dangerously destabilise the climate.” The committee decided that the IPCC had addressed key criticisms and tightened its review processes for the fifth assessment report, known as AR5. But they also suggested the panel recruit a small team of non-climate scientsts to observe the review processes and the meeting at which the summary of the report for policymakers is agreed. Yeo said: “What is starkly clear from the evidence we heard however is that there is no reason to doubt the credibility of the science or the integrity of the scientists involved. Policymakers in the UK and around the world must now act on the IPCC’s warning and work to agree a binding global climate deal in 2015 to ensure temperature rises do not exceed a point that could dangerously destabilise the climate.” The committee includes his fellow former Tory minister Peter Lilley, a climate sceptic who voted against the UK’s Climate Change Act. In a nod to the Climate Change Act, Yeo said there was no scientific basis for reducing the UK’s carbon budgets, which some in industry have urged the government to do. | ['environment/ipcc', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-29T04:00:08Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2013/nov/06/palm-oil-companies-ethical-report | Major palm oil companies accused of breaking ethical promises | Large palm oil companies that have promised to act ethically have been accused of land grabbing, ignoring human rights and exploiting labour in their African and Asian plantations. In a damning 400-page investigation, the companies are variously charged with impacting on orangutan populations, destroying tropical forest and burning and draining large tracks of peat swamp forest. Sixteen palm oil concessions, in Indonesia, Liberia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon, all operated by members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) were visited by monitors working with international human rights groups including UK-based Forest peoples programme and Sawit Watch, from Indonesia. Local communities consistently accused the companies of not respecting their customary land rights, violating laws and court rulings and acting in such a way that encouraged conflict. The growing global demand for palm oil has fuelled a massive expansion of plantations across the forests of southeast Asia and Africa but concerns have been growing for over a decade about the resulting environmental and social impacts. The RSPO, set up in 2004 by the industry and civil society groups including WWF, sets criteria for greener palm oil production and tries to encourage industry expansion in ways that do not cause social conflict. About 15% of the world's palm oil is now certified as "sustainable" by the RSPO, whose members range from some of the largest growers and traders, to relatively small companies. "Since its founding the RSPO has adopted good standards, but too many member companies are not delivering on these paper promises," said Norman Jiwan, director of human rights group Transformasi Untuk Keadilan Indonesia. The report will be published on Thursday in Sumatra, where over 10.8m hectares of land has been planted with oil palm trees, to coincide with the annual meeting of the RSPO in Medan, Indonesia. It follows growing alarm at the way communities in Asia and Africa are being pushed aside to make way for large plantations and the loss of wildlife, including the tiger. Many organisations, including the World Bank, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, Greenpeace and Walhi, have expressed deep concern at the resulting impoverishment of local commuities and the growth of confllict around the concessions. According to some, the RSPO's voluntary "best practice" rules and guidelines are not working and the organisation is in danger of becoming a figleaf for agribusiness to take advantage of weak land laws. "Underlying this failure of 'voluntary best practice' are national laws and policies which deny or ignore indigenous peoples' and communities' land rights," said Marcus Colchester, an adviser at Forest Peoples Programme. "In their rush to encourage investment and exports, governments are trampling their own citizens' rights. Global investors, retailers, manufacturers and traders must insist on dealing in conflict-free palm oil, and national governments must up their game and respect communities' rights." Concern in the report centres on the Indonesian legal system which is described as "unjust" because it allows land to be expropriated from local peoople without regard for internationally recognised rights. Land laws favour large-scale plantations and lead to the widespread abuse of human rights. The report found that palm oil expansion in the Malaysian state of Sarawak was systematically grabbing Dayak lands without their consent. "So much effort has been invested in the RSPO ... but to little avail," said Jefri Saragih, executive director of Sawit Watch, a founding member of the RSPO. "We can point to one or two good results on the ground, but there are thousands of land conflicts with oil palm companies in Indonesia alone, and the problem is now spreading to other parts of Asia and Africa. We are calling for an urgent and vastly expanded response to this crisis." The RSPO responded to the criticism in a statement. "Making the palm oil market fully sustainable is possible but only over time, and with the right levels of commitment. The RSPO depends on the goodwill of companies on the ground, and local government authorities, to ensure that these principles and criteria are abided to. There have been a number of cases of non-compliant members." It further said that it has strengthened its commitment towards human rights, requring companies to implement policies to counter corruption, ban forced labour and forbid use of disputed lands. However, there is no legal compulsion on members to comply with RSPO's principles and criteria. "Non-complying member organisations can simply opt to leave the RSPO in the midst of a complaint, and consequently they will not be governed by any of our rules. The RSPO closely monitors the activities of its members [but] it has no legal way to enforce its members to comply." | ['environment/palm-oil', 'environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/land-rights', 'environment/environment', 'world/indonesia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'world/malaysia', 'environment/wildlife', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-11-06T16:28:38Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2015/sep/17/california-residents-condemn-red-cross-wildfires | California residents condemn Red Cross for slow response to wildfires | The response of the Red Cross to wildfires that have swept across California and forced thousands of people from their homes has been condemned by locals, who have formed their own volunteer corps to help victims uprooted by catastrophe. Viri Agapoff, a Middletown high school graduate and Calistoga resident, said she organized relief efforts after she and others concluded the Red Cross was slow to deliver assistance. “We were frustrated by the initial reaction from the Red Cross, so we are happy to help out,” she said. Hundreds of locals from the area have come out to support evacuees forced from towns affected by the Valley Fire in northern California. By Thursday, the fire had left over 74,000 acres burned, at least three people dead and others missing. In Calistoga, thousands are waiting to return to their towns, hoping a home will still be standing. Shortly after the evacuation occurred Saturday afternoon, Agapoff’s team set up a Facebook page, #ValleyFireVolunteersCalistoga, prompting hundreds of locals to arrive at a nearby camp to offer their assistance early on Sunday morning. “The Red Cross was not welcoming to people who needed help,” Agopoff said. “When we got here, there were no batteries, no tape, no sharpies and they were turning away donations.” Agopoff said she and others went out and bought toothbrushes and toothpaste for the evacuees when they realized little was being provided. Santa Rosa resident and volunteer Andrea Guzman agreed the response was slow. “I heard reports that people needed help and there wasn’t enough assistance going on, so I came out,” she said. Guzman said she was pleased to see the response, but added: “I would have expected much more organization from those who have experience doing this”. Middletown native Clint Barber, who arrived at the fairground shelter on Tuesday morning, said that a number of his friends evacuated because of the fires had requested toothpaste, towels and other basic items. “We all are doing what we can,” he said, “and I know that things will get in order, but it seems the first few days a lot people didn’t get the basics that they needed.” Red Cross media spokesperson Pooja Trivedi said she could understand the frustration over what locals perceive as a slow response, but insisted the relief organization, which responds to natural disasters across the world, was following guidelines that prioritize the construction of shelters. “It is not our intention to ignore anyone,” Trivedi said on Thursday. She conceded: “Certainly we might not have had everything right away.” She agreed with Agapoff’s assertion that the Napa County Fairgrounds, where shelters have now been erected, was initially lacking supplies and manpower, but argued it was largely due to having already maintained a shelter in nearby Kelseyville, where hundreds had gathered late on Saturday after fleeing the fires. At that shelter, blankets and other supplies were readily available. “But then we realize that more and more people were coming and we needed a bigger facility,” Trivedi said. She added: “I can understand why some other volunteers may feel that we were slow, but there are processes we must follow in order to maintain a facility for potentially weeks.” Cynthia Shaw, the regional communications director for the Red Cross of California Northwest, praised the community: “In disasters it is never one organization that does everything, local communities are [a] big part of the response.” She said there are currently only two paid Red Cross staff at the Fairgrounds and the rest are volunteers, bolstered by an additional 38 Red Cross volunteers, running the shelters 24 hours a day. Agapoff, however, said problems persisted until as recently as Wednesday. Her team had gone out to get essential items, including tarps ahead of rain that day, after discovering the Red Cross did not have the equipment. “It was slow,” she said. “That’s certain.” Trivedi said this often happens in the immediate stages of a crisis and as the Red Cross gathers personnel and equipment there can be a void. Whatever frustrations may have existed over the Red Cross’s response, hundreds of volunteers are out, cooking food and helping those evacuated from their homes. Youth old enough to help are also coming to the camp to help, urged on by their parents’ example. This article was amended on 26 May 2016 as a result of a fact-checking investigation. Quotes that could not be verified have been removed. The article was also corrected to amend the spelling of Viri Agapoff’s surname, and to remove an incorrect statement that shelters in Calistoga and Kelseyville were at full capacity. | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joseph-mayton', 'profile/halima-kazem'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-09-17T22:54:51Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2022/oct/10/absurd-british-cycling-faces-backlash-after-announcing-partnership-with-shell | ‘Absurd’: British Cycling faces backlash after announcing partnership with Shell | British Cycling is facing a backlash from environmental groups and its members after announcing a major new partnership with the oil giant Shell. The governing body claimed it would “help our organisation and sport take important steps towards net zero”. Critics used social media to ask whether it was April Fool’s Day and the mood was captured by one respondent who wrote: “Partnering a fossil fuel company as an accelerant to your path to net zero? Is this satire?” The decision to enter a long-term partnership with Shell was condemned by Greenpeace. “The idea of Shell helping British Cycling reach net zero is as absurd as beef farmers advising lettuce farmers on how to go vegan,” the Greenpeace UK policy director, Dr Doug Parr, said. “After being booted out of museums and other cultural institutions, Big Oil is looking at sports as the next frontier for their brazen greenwash. But their aim hasn’t changed – to distract from the inconvenient fact that the fossil fuel industry is making our planet uninhabitable.” A similar message was sent by Friends of the Earth, whose energy campaigner Jamie Peters questioned why the eight-year deal had been struck at all. “Cycling is the epitome of environmentally friendly travel,” he said. “It’s deeply disappointing that British Cycling could think it’s appropriate to partner with a fossil fuel giant. “Shell is continuing to invest billions in oil and gas projects, while using cynical PR initiatives like this partnership to attempt to greenwash its harmful activities. “Tobacco firms are rightly banned from sports sponsorship due to the damaging health effects. The same should apply to oil and gas companies which are devastating the health of our planet. Shell should have been told to get on its bike.” There were also numerous threats to cancel British Cycling memberships as a result of the deal on social media, with some noting it is the second time in a month British Cycling has made a questionable PR move, after their widely mocked suggestion that people should not use their bikes at all during the Queen’s funeral, which they were later forced to reverse. “What fresh hell is this?” wrote another respondent. “What on earth are the leadership team thinking?” “This is ethically abominable,” said another. “Whoever is behind this should be ashamed to be party to greenwashing at this scale.” British Cycling said the partnership would help support Great Britain’s cyclists and para-cyclists through the sharing of world-class innovation and expertise and help more people ride. “We’re looking forward to working alongside Shell UK over the rest of this decade to widen access to the sport, support our elite riders and help our organisation and sport take important steps towards net zero – things we know our members are incredibly passionate about,” said British Cycling’s chief executive, Brian Facer. • This article was amended on 11 October 2022. In an earlier version, text within a quote incorrectly referred to “UK Cycling” rather than British Cycling. | ['sport/british-cycling', 'sport/cycling', 'environment/greenpeace', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'environment/environment', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/seaningle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-10-10T16:48:16Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global-development-professionals-network/2015/feb/03/ngo-civil-society-india-development-government-modi | 12 routes to more effective civil society in India | Show government the value of civil society, and vice versa: Civil society organisations (CSOs) share a symbiotic relation with government. A strong civil society can only exist within a democratic framework guaranteed by government. CSOs need to acknowledge that law-making should be the domain of elected representatives in a democracy, rather than un-elected ones. Similarly, civil society’s role as a facilitator of democracy and development and a watchdog must be acknowledged by the government. Saket Mani, youth representative,World We Want 2015, Pune, India, @SaketMANI Open lines of communication: Dialogue is key. It takes two to dialogue. While it is still early days to assess what the prime minister’s office thinks about the development sector, the only real engagement with civil society so far is via leaked reports. That’s not the best way to have an healthy dialogue. Divya Raghunandan, programme director, Greenpeace, Bangalore, India, @draghuna Make friends in high places: Identify your allies within the government and ask them how to present data and information. Taking a confrontational stand only complicates matters. This is what we’ve learned, as LGBT citizens deemed criminals by some in this country. Pallav Patankar, programmes director, The Humsafar Trust, Mumbai , India, @pallav01 Engage the public: NGOs need to take outreach to a wider audience. The middle class and youth need to be engaged. There is a link between economic and political capture by a small group and projection of certain kind of development. Parvinder Singh, campaigner and civil society activist, New Delhi, India, @parvindersingh1 Support other organisations: NGOs are a divided community in India and have failed to make a compelling case for themselves, not just in the public eye, but also with government. There has been too little solidarity in the community for those who are prosecuted by the government. Biraj Patnaik, principal adviser, Office of Supreme Court Commissioners on Right to Food, New Delhi, India Campaign for more government transparency: There is still a lot of information on legal and financial compliance that the NGOs don’t have easy access to. This causes quite a few issues. There is a real need for transparency on the processes and decision making by the government. This information should be easily accessible to NGOs. Rujuta Teredesai, co-founder and director, Equal Community Foundation, Pune, India, @RujutaTH Don’t be complacent: The Delhi High Court order was brilliant and it will certainly have an impact on the brazenness of state impunity in so far as restricting foreign funding of Greenpeace. But there is no room for complacency and I do see a trend of growing intolerance towards all sections of society who dissent and not just NGOs. The battle in my view has just begun, and we have a very long way to go. Biraj Patnaik Work in political and public spheres: CSOs should also learn to work more strategically with political parties. As CSOs operate in the space between public and political arenas, government responsiveness is improved by engaging both arenas. Saket Mani Create a counter-culture: It is important to recognise that we live in an age of political capture where the power – economic and wealth – is more concentrated than it has ever been, with this impacting how policies function. We need to create a popular narrative with a clear vision of what change looks like – in terms of poverty, gender and social inclusion. We have stopped working on creating a counter-culture which is fundamental to allow people to ingrain the idea of democracy and equality. Parvinder Singh Improve the sector’s reputation with the upper class: Many sections of Indian society view NGOs with suspicion, particularly the upper echelons. While it is true that a few black sheep have tarnished the image of the sector, much of the opposition is because it clashes with the class interests of the elite in India. NGOs need to work much harder to convince people of their motivations. Biraj Patnaik Take responsibility for accountability and transparency: Businesses have been accused of using NGOs for money laundering. NGOs should account for the money they spend while working within the parameters of national governing frameworks and laws. The best NGOs strategise about how they can be accountable to the communities for whom they work. Saket Mani Convince the middle class that poverty affects them too: Highlight to the middle class that in the long run governments focusing on the interests of the top 1% is detrimental to their interests, not just that of the poor. This is a challenge in the UK as much as it is India. Globally we need to work harder on scripting a new narrative and as the recent elections in Greece demonstrated, it is possible. Biraj Patnaik Read the full Q&A here. Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. | ['working-in-development/working-in-development', 'global-development-professionals-network/series/best-bits', 'world/india', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'law/civil-liberties-international', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/anna-veronica-leach'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-02-03T14:16:32Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
news/2011/nov/29/weatherwatch-pineapple-rivers-atmosphere | Weatherwatch: The 'Pineapple express' flows from Hawaii to the US | When you watch the clouds rolling by overhead, you're seeing thousands of tons of water in rapid motion, and there may be an equal amount present invisible as humidity. Sometimes this movement is great enough to constitute an "atmospheric river", an expression coined by MIT meteorologists Reginald Newell and Yong Zhu in 1994. An atmospheric river is a corridor of very moist air a few hundred kilometres wide and several thousand kilometres long. According to Zhu and Young there are typically six to 10 of them around the world at any one time. They are not fixed but move with weather systems. A large one can transport more water than the Amazon, the biggest terrestrial river in the world. Atmospheric rivers may stall and release their load of water when they reach land, making them major contributors to rainfall. Not surprisingly, they are also behind some periods of extreme rainfall and heavy flooding in middle latitudes, including much of Europe and North America. A recurring atmospheric river nicknamed "Pineapple Express" brings a large mass of moist air from Hawaii to the mainland US, and produced major flooding in 2005 and 2010. A recent study by the University of Reading suggests that all major autumn and winter flooding in the UK over the last 40 years can be traced directly to atmospheric rivers. A better understanding of the dynamics of these rivers in the sky could help us assess and deal with flood risk. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'travel/hawaii', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-11-29T22:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/oct/06/eu-rules-out-tax-on-plastic-products-to-reduce-waste | EU rules out tax on plastic products to reduce waste | The EU has ruled out penalties on single-use plastic products, in favour of raising public awareness of the damage consumer plastics are doing to the world’s oceans. Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European commission, said a tax would “not be sustainable”, but that changing the way plastic was produced and used could work. “The only sustainable method is to create recyclable plastic and take out microplastics. You can’t take out microplastics with a tax. You need to make sure things are reused, and not put in the ocean.” He said the commission was working with manufacturers to help change their products and packaging. Karmenu Vella, environment commissioner, also pledged that the EU’s long-awaited plastics strategy would be published by the end of the year. The European commission cannot raise taxes directly, but can encourage member states to do so, and can impose other penalties, as with the emissions trading scheme to reduce carbon from heavy industry. Timmermans rejected outright charges and taxes on single-use plastic, and was reluctant to consider legislative measures, but called instead for public information campaigns on the problems plastics cause. “It is not that we, through legislation, should force [producers of plastic to change], though if we have to we might, but through public awareness, to urge countries to raise awareness,” he said. “Nothing disciplines companies more than consumer practices. We are on the verge of changing consumer habits. I sense a turning point, like that we saw 10 to 15 years ago on climate change,” he told journalists at the Our Ocean conference in Malta. “That was what happened with recycling. Who made us recycle? Our kids. I don’t think there is one producer of consumer goods that would go against the grain of public awareness.” At present, only about 6% of plastic waste is recycled within the EU. In part, this is because of the many different forms of plastic that are used in consumer goods, and the difficulty of returning them to the kind of versatility that virgin plastics enjoy. But Timmermans said consumers would accept “less flashy” and less aesthetically pleasing packaging, if they understood it would help remove pollution from the oceans. Vella added that companies should design plastic products with reuse in mind from the outset: “The circular economy is the most effective way to deal with plastics.” He promised that the forthcoming plastics strategy would include design, recycling, biodegradable plastics, single-use plastics and microplastics. The commission is also to remove single-use plastics, including drinking vessels, from its own offices by the end of this year. The commission is to devote €550m (£490m) to projects that improve the health of the oceans, from marine protection zones and satellite monitoring, to plastic waste disposal. At the conference, more than €6bn was pledged in total by governments, institutions and private sector companies towards efforts to combat overfishing, pollution, plastic waste, ocean acidification and other threats to the marine environment. This included a pledge of $150m (£115m) from a group of NGOs and companies to prevent plastic waste reaching oceans in south-east Asia. Five countries – China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand – are responsible for half of all the plastic waste that enters the oceans globally each year. In those countries, on average less than 40% of plastic waste is recycled. The organisations include PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, 3M, the American Chemistry Council, the World Plastics Council and Ocean Conservancy. Insurers are also taking action against illegal fishing, with several of the world’s biggest companies pledging to stop insuring vessels that have been pirate fishing. Illegal fishing costs the world an estimated $10bn to $23bn a year, amounting to about 25m tonnes of fish that are taken from waters against quotas, or in contravention of national fisheries rights and policies. The insurers include Allianz, Axa, Generali, Hanseatic Underwriters, and The Shipowners’ Club. However, the environment lawyers ClientEarth said laws against illegal fishing in the EU were being undermined by failures among member states. Analysing the enforcement system in six of the EU’s biggest fishing countries – France, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Ireland and the UK – the lawyers found none were properly implementing the anti-piracy regulations of the Common Fisheries Policy, and the level of sanctions against offenders was low. Elisabeth Druel, lawyer at ClientEarth, said authorities were doing little to combat illegal fishing. “Strong and systematic sanctions are needed to deter illegal fishing and pay for the damage done to our marine environment. The fishing industry would have us believe they are heavily inspected and sanctioned, but our research shows that is just not the case.” This article was amended on 27 October 2017. Oceana was named as one of the organisations involved in the $150m plastic pledge; this should have been Ocean Conservancy. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-10-06T13:53:51Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/datablog/2012/sep/10/paralympics-2012-charts-visualised | Paralympics 2012 visualised in charts and numbers | NEW! Buy our book • Facts are Sacred: the power of data (on Kindle) More open data Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Development and aid data • Search the world's global development data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? • Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group • Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter • Like us on Facebook | ['news/datablog', 'sport/paralympics-2012', 'sport/series/london-2012-olympics-data', 'technology/data-visualisation', 'sport/paralympics', 'sport/disability-sport', 'sport/olympic-games', 'tone/graphics', 'type/graphic', 'type/article', 'profile/simonrogers'] | technology/data-visualisation | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2012-09-10T09:12:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2008/dec/05/uk-carbon-emissions | Carbon budgets in the UK | Yesterday the Committee on Climate Change published its recommendations for how the government should implement the requirements of the Climate Change Bill to introduce legally binding carbon budgets for the next 15 years. I have to declare an interest in this subject – when I worked at Friends of the Earth we wrote the first report calling for carbon budgets to be introduced, as long ago as March 2005. Then while working in Government I was lucky enough to be involved in writing the concept into the Draft Climate Change Bill which has just been finalised and become an Act. The UK needs its own legislation because there is insufficient clarity at an international level about what it is each country is required to do to combat climate change – the Kyoto Protocol currently runs out in 2012 and the EU's policy package has still to be agreed and is anyway contingent on a new global deal being reached. So in this policy vacuum the UK has been merrily drifting along – doing some bits and pieces to try to incentivise and disincentivise various things - but failing overall to deliver a sustained reduction in emissions across the economy as a whole. The Climate Change Act was designed to create both the impetus and the tools for the UK to act, decisively and unilaterally, in pursuit of a low carbon economy. Yesterday's publication was therefore both encouraging and disappointing. On the plus side the report presents persuasive evidence that acting will not be painful – costing less than 1% of GDP in 2020 and delivering the Treasury a net benefit of in the region of £4.5bn per annum. But on the down side there is almost nothing new in the targets they recommend - just a rebranded version of the EU's proposals that we signed up to way back in Spring 2007. The condition that targets will only become meaningful once a global deal is reached is still there and the upper end of ambition (the 'Intended budget') is no greater than we would be required by Europe to do anyway. There is also still uncertainty about the extent to which the UK has to act itself or can simply piggy back on the back of cheaper emissions reductions achieved in other countries – in the rest of the EU or beyond. And, perhaps most worrying of all, the science on which even the more ambitious budgets are based assumes that we will not be able to hold global average temperature increases to below 2C. So now it is up to the Government to respond. They have given themselves six months, which is not quite long enough to wait and see what happens in Copenhagen next December, so they are faced with an interesting choice. Commit now to a strong and clear legal framework that moves the UK forward, irrespective of what the rest of the world is doing and thereby provide investors in the UK with an unequivocal signal that they had better be investing in low carbon; or continue to wait until we are told what to do by the UN and Europe. The later course of action seems to be utterly meaningless – what is the point of the last two years of negotiating the Climate Change Act if all it achieves is something that would have happened anyway? Ed Miliband now has the perfect opportunity to show genuine leadership on this issue - if he opts for the first course of action – legislating now for a 42% cut in greenhouse gases by 2020 – then we can all get on with working out precisely how to deliver it. And not a moment too soon. • This article was shared by our content partner Sandbag.org.uk, a member of the Guardian Environment Network | ['environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'environment/series/guardian-environment-network', 'type/article'] | environment/carbon-capture-and-storage | EMISSIONS | 2008-12-05T00:01:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
us-news/2024/oct/19/tribal-marine-sanctuary-chumash-heritage | US approves first-ever tribal marine sanctuary: ‘Our community’s hard work has come to fruition’ | After years of campaigning by Indigenous Americans in central California, the US has finally approved the country’s first Indigenous-nominated national marine sanctuary, a 4,543 sq mile expanse of ocean that will protect marine life from mining and oil drilling. The Chumash Heritage national marine sanctuary – which will be nearly four times the size of Yosemite national park – will stretch along 116 miles of the California coastline that supports a number of at-risk species, including southern sea otters, abalone and blue whales. The area is also home to critical kelp forests, which not only provide food and shelter for marine life, but also act as a carbon storage system – they can sequester up to 20 times as much carbon as terrestrial forests. “We had huge, overwhelming support for this area to be protected, and we brought communities together,” says Violet Sage Walker, chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council (NCTC), who was integral in pushing for the sanctuary to be nominated. The tribe worked with a variety of community and environmental groups to rally support for the sanctuary. “Generations of central coast residents from tribal elders to college students have knocked on doors, sent postcards and emails, circulated petitions, addressed local governments and community groups, and held fundraisers on behalf of the marine sanctuary,” said Gianna Patchen, coordinator of the Santa Lucia Sierra Club chapter. “Now that our community’s hard work has come to fruition, we’re elated to help make this sanctuary the best it can be.” Walker took over campaigning following the death of her father, Fred Collins, former chief of the tribe, who had nominated the sanctuary in 2015. The tribe say they are stewards of both the land and the ocean, and have a duty to protect the waters from oil drilling, deep sea mining and overfishing. The sanctuary will encompass Point Conception – known as Humqaq in the Chumash language, which means “the Raven comes”. This area, also known as the “western gate”, is particularly sacred to the tribe, who believe it is the point from which the souls of their dead travel from this world to the next. Two days before Collins died unexpectedly in 2021, he asked his daughter to help him realize his dream of creating a sanctuary. “I feel complete,” Walker said, “like I’ve fulfilled a promise and an obligation to my family, to the earth. It’s something that has been on my mind for a long time, and something we’ve always been worried about. Now we can stop worrying so much and move onto the other things we have to deal with.” The sanctuary’s boundaries will come into effect on 15 December, following a statutory 45 day final review by US Congress and the state of California. One of the main points of contention was an offshore wind farm that the California Energy Commission approved earlier this year. The farm will see hundreds of giant turbines floating in the ocean 20 miles off Morro Bay, a small city in central California, that could bring up to 3 gigawatts of clean energy to the grid – enough to power more than 1 million homes. The tribe was concerned about the impact that the increase in ocean noise would have on whales, fish and other marine species, as well as the proposed port that would need to be built to transport the energy. Morro Bay is home to one of the last remaining southern sea otter populations, and environmental campaigners raised concerns about increased boat traffic through the proposed port. “We’re protecting what we can now, and this is the biggest success, but there’s still more work to be done,” Walker said. The plan that has been approved is significantly smaller than what the tribe initially proposed, which was 7,670 sq miles of ocean. Morro Bay, which was also included in the tribe’s original plan, has been excluded from the sanctuary. In 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) conducted an environmental review of potential impacts of offshore wind activity in the central California coast region and found “no significant impacts to environmental resources”. The sanctuary had widespread support from senators and members of US Congress. Salud Carbajal, a Democratic representative, whose district includes parts of San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria, areas alongside the sanctuary’s boundaries, said he is “grateful” to the Indigenous leaders who helped advocate for these protections. “The historic designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary comes not a moment too soon,” he told the Guardian in an email. “As our oceans and communities [face] unprecedented challenges from a changing marine environment, this new sanctuary comes at a critical time for our region.” Carbajal was part of the negotiations between the tribe, local communities and federal and state entities to reach a compromise that would allow offshore wind development off the Morro Bay coast. Although the tribe won’t manage the sanctuary, Paul Michel, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s sanctuaries, west coast region, adds that Noaa will “establish a collaborative co-stewardship management structure for the sanctuary to provide for respectful and meaningful involvement of representatives and partners from multiple local tribes and Indigenous communities”. As for Walker, who has spent the past three years fighting for the sanctuary’s designation, she says she’ll be taking some much needed time off. “I just want to relish in the moment,” she said. “And so I’m going to ride my horses and try to relax before I start on our next campaign.” | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/west-coast', 'environment/environment', 'environment/windpower', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/lucy-sherriff', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2024-10-19T14:00:18Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/may/09/huon-aquaculture-accounts-for-75-of-seal-deaths-at-tasmanian-salmon-farms-in-past-year | Huon Aquaculture accounts for 75% of seal deaths at Tasmanian salmon farms in past year | Huon Aquaculture accounted for the deaths of at least three-quarters of seals killed at Tasmanian salmon farms since the start of last year, with new data showing the company released more than 8,000 underwater explosives aimed at scaring the seals. Government data released in response to a right-to-information request revealed Huon Aquaculture, now owned by the controversial Brazilian meat company JBS, used 8,057 underwater explosives against seals in the 15 months to the end of March. The company accounted for 18 of the 23 seal deaths over the period. Under Tasmanian laws, companies are allowed to use underwater explosives, known as “seal crackers”, which can scare seals with loud noise and a flash of light. Other authorised measures include shooting seals with fabric-coated plastic shells containing lead shot, known as bean bag rounds, and darts with blunt tips known as “scare caps”. The data released by the Department Natural Resources and Environment showed the salmon industry has used more than 125,000 explosive devices since 2016. Between the first and second halves of the 15 months, Tassal and Petuna slashed their use of explosive devices by more than 75%. Huon Aquaculture went in the opposite direction, increasing its use by more than 10%. Huon Aquaculture did not respond directly when asked why its use of seal crackers remained high while the other two companies had reduced their use. The company pointed to a January 2021 backgrounder that said “our use of crackers has increased as a result of our expansion into offshore waters in Storm Bay; additional fish in the water equals more seals. If bait fish (mackerel) schools increase, as they often do in Storm Bay and the [D’Entrecasteaux] Channel, increasing incidents of opportunistic seals attempting to breach pen perimeters occur.” JBS completed its $425m purchase of Huon Aquaculture in mid-November 2021, fending off a rival takeover bid lodged by Tattarang, a private company owned by mining magnate Andrew Forrest. As part of its takeover campaign, JBS vowed Huon Aquaculture would “uphold the highest standards of fish health and sustainable farming practices”. Bec Howarth, a fish farm and marine campaigner with the Bob Brown Foundation, said Huon Aquaculture’s “continued high level of use of deafening seal crackers” indicated “JBS has already broken their commitment to cause no environmental harm”. The company did not respond directly to a question on why seal deaths on its leases accounted for such a large share of the total seal death toll. The department said seal deaths at salmon farms could be caused by a range of factors, including entanglement in netting, being struck by vessels, using deterrents and being euthanised. In one document released to Environment Tasmania in early 2021, government wildlife biologist Sam Thalmann wrote that salmon company estimates of seal deaths due to the use of approved deterrents were “likely a large underestimate as many seals with injury/penetrating wounds resulting from deterrents would leave the area and die outside the lease area”. The latest data also revealed that neither Petuna, the smallest of the three salmon producers, nor Huon Aquaculture, used bean bag rounds against seals. Petuna reported no seal deaths on its leases. Tassal is the only salmon producer still using bean bag rounds, but its reliance on them declined dramatically over the past year. This article was republished with permission from the Tasmanian Inquirer. | ['australia-news/tasmania', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/bob-burton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-05-09T01:19:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2022/oct/06/hurricane-ian-florida-ron-desantis-residents-return-sanibel-captiva-pine-island | Hurricane Ian: residents return to battered homes as death toll rises | Residents of south-west Florida were on Thursday returning for a first look at damage wreaked on their homes by Hurricane Ian, as the storm’s death toll continued to rise and details emerged about the victims. Inhabitants of Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Island were among the first to get a glimpse after authorities still searching for survivors from the 28 September storm gave the go-ahead for civilians to return. A steady stream of residents arrived, mostly on small chartered motorboats, after sections of the Sanibel and Pine Island causeways, the only road links to the mainland, were swept away by 150mph winds and a 12ft (3.6 metres) storm surge. “We feel, as a community, that if we leave the island, abandon it, nobody is going to take care of that problem of fixing our road in and out,” said a Pine Island resident, Leslie Arias. The number of storm-related deaths rose to at least 101 on Thursday, eight days after the storm made landfall in south-west Florida. According to reports from the Florida medical examiners commission, 98 of those deaths were in Florida. Five people were also killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia. Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland US in the 21st century after Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane ever to hit the US was the Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8,000 people. But Ian’s fury makes it the deadliest storm to strike Florida since the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 claimed more than 430 lives. The oldest victim of Ian was a 96-year-old man found trapped under a car in high water in Charlotte county, the medical examiners’ report said. A 73-year-old man in Lee county “shot himself after seeing property damage due to the hurricane”. In Manatee county, a 71-year-old woman died after being blown over: “The decedent was outside her residence smoking a cigarette when a gust of wind from the hurricane blew her off the porch and she subsequently struck her head on a concrete step.” Most victims drowned, underlining that the storm surge was the deadliest part of the hurricane. Not included in the report are five deaths in North Carolina, one in Virginia and three in Cuba, when Ian swept across the west of the island two days before gaining power in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and slamming into the south-western Florida coast. Authorities in Florida have been criticized for issuing evacuation orders too late, although Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, and county officials have defended their actions. DeSantis has claimed, falsely, that Lee county was not yet included in the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) forecast track 72 hours before the storm hit, and that it was predicted instead to strike Tampa, about 120 miles north. The NHC “cone of uncertainty” included parts of Lee county during that time frame, including Cayo Costa, where Ian made first landfall. More than 215,000 customers remained without power across Florida, authorities said, while thousands of workers sought to repair grids. On Pine Island, piles of rubble and debris have replaced many homes, power lines and wooden poles littering yards and roadways. In a visit to the worst-hit areas on Thursday, Joe Biden promised the resources of the federal government would be available “as long as it takes”. Some estimates have calculated the damage at $55bn. The president met local residents, small business owners and relief workers in Fort Myers, praising the cooperation between state and federal agencies. Noting that the recovery could take months or years, he said: “The only thing I can assure you is that the federal government will be here until it’s finished. After the television cameras have moved on, we’re still going to be here with you.” DeSantis, seen as a potential rival to Biden in the 2024 presidential election, also struck a conciliatory tone. “We are cutting through the red tape and that’s from local government, state government, all the way up to the president. We appreciate the team effort,” he said. The Associated Press contributed to this report | ['us-news/hurricane-ian', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'environment/environment', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-10-06T18:24:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2020/sep/10/microsoft-russia-us-election-2020-hackers | Russian hackers targeting US political campaigns ahead of elections, Microsoft warns | The same Russian military intelligence outfit that hacked the Democrats in 2016 has attempted similar intrusions into the computer systems of organizations involved in the 2020 elections, Microsoft said Thursday. Those efforts, which have targeted more than 200 organizations including political parties and consultants, appear to be part of a broader increase in targeting of US political campaigns and related groups, the company said. “What we’ve seen is consistent with previous attack patterns that not only target candidates and campaign staffers but also those who they consult on key issues,” Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice-president, said in a blogpost. Most of the infiltration attempts by Russian, Chinese and Iranian agents were halted by Microsoft security software and the targets notified, he said. The company would not comment on who may have been successfully hacked or the impact. Microsoft did not assess which foreign adversary poses the greater threat to the integrity of the November presidential election. The consensus among cybersecurity experts is that Russian interference is the gravest. Senior Trump administration officials have disputed that, though without offering any evidence. Intelligence officials have found that – as in 2016 – the Russian government is attempting to undermine the Democratic candidate and boost Donald Trump’s chances of winning. In 2016, actors working on behalf of the Russian government hacked email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and publicly released stolen files and emails. The Russian government also funded “troll farms” in St Petersburg where nationals pretending to be from the US would post misinformation online to sow unrest. “This is the actor from 2016, potentially conducting business as usual,” said John Hultquist, the director of intelligence analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye. “We believe that Russian military intelligence continues to pose the greatest threat to the democratic process.” The subject of Russian interference has been an ongoing frustration for Trump, who has disputed the country’s meddling in the 2016 elections despite extensive evidence, calling it a “witch hunt”. Trump loyalists at the Department of Homeland Security have also manipulated and fabricated intelligence reports to downplay the threat of Russian interference, a whistleblower claimed on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign said it takes cybersecurity threats “very seriously” and does not publicly comment on specific efforts it is making. “As President Trump’s re-election campaign, we are a large target, so it is not surprising to see malicious activity directed at the campaign or our staff,” she said. “We work closely with our partners, Microsoft and others, to mitigate these threats.” The attempted hacks come at a time when election security concerns are remarkably high, given that many people will be voting with mail-in ballots due to the Covid-19 pandemic. An international body in August called these “the most challenging” US election in recent decades. Campaigns are also at a heightened risk for hacking given that many employees are now working from home without heightened security measures that may exist on workplace computers, said Bob Stevens, the vice-president of mobile security firm Lookout. “Mobile devices now exist at the intersection of our work and personal lives,” he said. “Considering how reliant we are on them to support all aspects of our lives, bad actors have taken note.” The Microsoft revelations on Thursday show that Russian military intelligence continues to pursue election-related targets undeterred by US indictments, sanctions and other countermeasures, Hultquist said. Microsoft, which has visibility into these efforts because its software is both ubiquitous and highly rated for security, did not address whether US officials who manage elections or operate voting systems have been targeted by state-backed hackers this year. US intelligence officials say they have so far not seen no evidence of that. | ['technology/microsoft', 'us-news/us-elections-2020', 'world/russia', 'technology/hacking', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kari-paul', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-09-10T21:02:56Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
news/2021/mar/18/storm-system-triggers-severe-weather-and-tornadoes-in-us | Storm system triggers severe weather and tornadoes in US | A storm system crossing the central US has caused an array of severe weather across several states in recent days. It instigated an early start to the tornado season in the Texas Panhandle, with numerous tornadoes reported south of Amarillo on 13 March. Two tornadoes on the ground from the same camping site at the Palo Duro Canyon state park resulted in several camper vans being overturned, but no injuries were reported due to the sparseness of the area affected. The same storm system was also responsible for heavy snowfall through Colorado and Wyoming over the weekend bringing accumulations of up to 65.5cm (25.8 inches), recorded in Cheyenne. Denver international airport shut down all runways on Sunday due to heavy to moderate snow during the day alongside blustery winds. Elsewhere across northern Colorado, power outages affected about 40,000 customers on Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, in Europe, a period of settled weather has given way to much more unsettled conditions across the north-west of the continent, bringing strong winds. These winds combined with spring sunshine led to a near-record-breaking level of renewable energy production, with Germany reaching 61.2GW for a time on 12 March, remarkably close to the record of 61.4GW on 26 August 2020. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'us-news/us-weather', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/tornadoes', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-03-18T06:00:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/oct/22/europe-failing-to-clamp-down-on-illegal-logging-report-warns | Europe failing to clamp down on illegal logging, report warns | A European bid to clamp down on the $100bn-a-year global trade in illegal timber has been poorly designed, badly managed and largely ineffective, according to a damning report by the EU’s court of auditors. Illegal logging is thought to be responsible for around one-fifth of man-made greenhouse gas emissions – more than from all the world’s ships, planes, trains and cars combined. It is also an existential threat to forest-dependent indigenous people, and to biodiversity. But 12 years after launching an action plan to end the trade, results from the EU’s €300m aid programme to 35 partner countries have been “meagre” according to the auditors’ report, with problems at the demand and supply ends of the trade chain. Four EU countries - Greece, Spain, Hungary and Romania - have still not implemented an EU timber regulation proposed five years ago, allowing an easy passage to market for the fruits of deforestation. “As the chain of control is only as strong as its weakest link in the single market, illegal timber could still be imported into the EU via these four countries,” Karel Pinxten, one of the auditors of the report, said. “The EU should put its house in order.” “The EU cannot continue to allow illegal wood in its market while pushing other countries to thoroughly address the problem,” added WWF’s senior forestry policy officer, Anke Schulmeister. Interpol estimates that illegal logging is responsible for up to 30% of all global forestry production. Penalties for wood trafficking across the EU vary though, from €7,500 in Bulgaria to €5m in the Czech Republic and an unlimited sum in the UK. On the supply side, part of the problem rests with a poor prioritisation of aid, the auditors say. Liberia received €11.9m to tackle illegal logging, when its yearly wood exports to the EU only averaged €5m. The commission says the funding was needed as illegal logging has been used to fund Liberian militias. The Central African Republic similarly received €6.8m, when it exported just €18m of timber to the EU. “If you compare these amounts there is something surreal about it,” Pinxten said. “The imbalance between the amounts spent and imported from these countries is amazing.” Despite the sums of money involved, the commission did not develop criteria to assess the scale of illegal logging in partner countries, their commitment and potential to act, or their trade importance. Poor monitoring, licencing and delivery procedures led to the failure of a number of projects, including a €2.27m timber tracking system in Cameroon. A European commission reply in the report says: “The commission recognises the need to develop more specific objectives, milestones and a common roadmap as well as the need to more systematically monitor ... implementation. The recommendations of the ongoing evaluation will certainly help in this effort.” | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/arthurneslen'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-10-22T08:19:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2019/oct/14/labor-mps-condemn-suggestion-they-adopt-coalition-climate-change-policy | Labor MPs condemn suggestion they adopt Coalition climate change policy | Joel Fitzgibbon has copped a blast in the left and right caucus meetings for declaring Labor should adopt the Coalition’s Paris emissions reduction target rather than pursue ambitious cuts to carbon pollution. The internal unrest came as the shadow cabinet was expected to sign off on Monday night on a shift in Labor’s attitude to the controversial “big stick” policy of the Morrison government. Labor opposed the government’s policy in the last parliament to create a “big stick” power breaking up big energy companies if they engaged in price gouging. But it is now, assuming shadow cabinet and caucus approval, expected to allow the legislation to pass, having received assurances it will not be used as a backdoor means of privatising state-owned assets. Fitzgibbon, the shadow resources minister, who suffered a significant swing against him in his coalmining seat in the Hunter Valley in the May election, used a speech to the Sydney Institute last week to argue the ALP should offer “a political and policy settlement” on climate policy “to make 28% the target by 2030”. The unanticipated foray from the senior New South Wales rightwinger prompted internal uproar, and the shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, promptly declared Labor would not adopt Tony Abbott’s suboptimal target. “The government’s target, which was developed by Tony Abbott with no expert advice, is fundamentally inconsistent with the Paris agreement,” Butler told Guardian Australia. “It would lead to global warming of more than 3C and, for that reason, Labor cannot support that target”. With parliament resuming on Monday after a spring break, the left and the right caucuses met separately in the evening ahead of Labor’s regular caucus gathering on Tuesday morning. Guardian Australia understands that in the left caucus, more than 10 MPs spoke forcefully against Fitzgibbon’s intervention, including the senior frontbenchers Tanya Plibersek and Catherine King. Butler, a South Australian leftwinger, and key Albanese backer, did not speak at the meeting but attended and received unanimous support for his position. In the right caucus, Fitzgibbon also faced criticism from within his own group, with colleagues concerned that his contribution at the Sydney Institute had been unhelpful to both Labor and to the leader, Anthony Albanese. While the majority of contributions during the right caucus discussion were sharply negative about the Fitzgibbon proposal, according to people present – with colleagues pointing out that not everybody in the faction represented a coalmining electorate – there was, however, in-principle support for having a debate about the climate policies Labor took to the 2019 election. There was concern in the right that internal discussion about Labor’s climate policies before the last election had been largely restricted to the shadow cabinet rather than a more freewheeling conversation in caucus. Fitzgibbon, according to people at the meeting, launched a robust defence of his position both on the policy substance and on the politics of climate change. He contended at the Sydney Institute that ambitious climate policies had cost Labor both leaders and elections, and told colleagues on Monday night that trying to front a position where emissions were reduced to zero by mid-century would be politically fraught. Assuming an about face on the “big stick” is ticked by shadow cabinet on Monday night, that will hand the Morrison government a significant win. It was faced with the risk of amendments during parliamentary debate that would have split the Liberals and the Nationals. The Centre Alliance was proposing to amend the legislation to impose a divestiture power across the economy, not just to the energy sector. While Nationals might have viewed that favourably, it would have prompted a revolt among Liberals already concerned that the proposal offends the pro-market principles of the government. | ['australia-news/labor-party', 'environment/paris-climate-agreement', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/coalition', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2019-10-14T09:15:36Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2009/mar/17/nuclear-weapons-gordon-brown | Guardian Editorial: Gordon Brown's renewed interest in nuclear disarmament is welcome | The advance billing for Gordon Brown's speech on nuclear proliferation focused on its words about Iran. But the most significant part of the speech as delivered at Lancaster House yesterday was about Britain's own weapons of mass destruction. It has been many years since a British prime minister took an initiative to reduce the UK's nuclear weapons stocks, but Mr Brown made clear he is now ready to be part of such a global push. Nuclear weapons states, he said, cannot expect to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons elsewhere if they do not themselves take active steps to disarm their own stockpiles. Britain's arsenal was therefore on the table as part of any multilateral process of this kind and Britain was ready to take part in a broader process. Then Mr Brown took a more specific step forward. "If it is possible to reduce the number of UK warheads further, consistent with our national deterrence requirements and with the progress of multilateral discussions," he said, "Britain will be ready to do so." It is important to be clear what Mr Brown is saying – and also what he is not. The cautious multilateralist is not suddenly flirting with unilateralism. Nor is Mr Brown preparing us for sudden dramatic cuts or an abandonment of the Trident replacement programme. The disarmament process in which he seeks to participate will move "in steps, not in one leap". What he is saying, moreover, is a development of past policy not a radical break with it. In the Trident debate of 2007, which produced the largest Labour backbench revolt since the Iraq war, ministers pledged to cut the number of missile tubes on the UK's nuclear submarines to the minimum necessary for defence, while operational warheads have already been reduced to around 160. In 2007, the then foreign secretary Margaret Beckett even committed Britain to the aim not just of reducing but of abolishing nuclear weapons; her words were signed off by Tony Blair and Mr Brown. Mr Brown is nevertheless consciously pushing the nuclear weapons issue up the agenda. He is right to do so. His speech yesterday was another small sign of a greater political confidence. He is, though, setting out his stall because the Obama administration has begun clearing the way for fresh bilateral and multilateral moves on nuclear weapons already. Mr Brown has a weakness for presenting himself as the leader of all that is progressive in international relations, but the truth is that the US president has reopened the issue and Britain is rightly responding. America's renewed readiness to talk nuclear turkey with Russia by making deep cuts in their respective arsenals has had a fairly positive response from Moscow. With the next non-proliferation treaty review conference scheduled for 2010, this is a moment for preparing fresh weapons reductions initiatives, especially because without them the existing nuclear powers can have little hope of persuading Iran and others that non-proliferation agreements are being taken seriously. That did not happen at the last review conference in 2005 but it is all the more important that it does so next year. Yesterday was part of that welcome new priority. As ever, Mr Brown is thinking about other factors too. It would be mistaken to claim that he has become an advocate of weapons cuts because of pressures on government spending and borrowing; the savings from any nuclear weapons cuts would not be felt before 2020 at the earliest. But more immediate political issues are certainly at stake here. Yesterday's speech is a timely reminder that there are other big issues on the national agenda beyond economic recovery. It is also in part an attempt to reach out to liberal opinion that has tended to abandon Labour latterly. Today's Guardian ICM poll, showing Labour flatlining at 30% but hinting at the possibility of a recovery that may yet leave Labour a major force in a hung parliament, shows the sense of that approach. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'politics/gordon-brown', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/iran', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/unitednations', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'politics/polls', 'tone/editorials', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-03-17T18:59:43Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/may/21/australias-rainiest-place-the-tiny-nsw-town-has-had-just-14-dry-days-this-year | Australia’s rainiest place: the tiny NSW town has had just 14 dry days this year | There’s not much to Yarras, a suburb on the scenic Hastings River inland of New South Wales’ mid-north coast. An hour’s drive west of Port Macquarie, and with a population of 65, the landscape around Yarras is dominated by farmland. To find a pub or general store you’ll need to travel 15 minutes down the Oxley Highway to the next village, Long Flat. What Yarras does have, though, is the unenviable record of being the rainiest location in Australia this year. Meteorologists have said it was an “exceptionally wet start to the year” in NSW and Queensland – and Yarras recorded 121 days of rain by 15 May, meaning only 14 days of the year have been dry. That’s a month’s worth of rainy days more than Sydney, which in 2022 has had 90 days of rain, ahead of Brisbane and Darwin with 70 days each. The Bureau of Meteorology defines rainy days as ones which recorded at least 0.2mm of rain. Yarras resident Michael Prott has confronted a revolving door of challenges over the past three years from bushfires to drought, followed by Covid and now downpours and floods. Working as a carpenter, subcontractor and labourer, he’s only picked up eight days of work over the past two months, and an attempt to diversify his income didn’t go to plan. “We launched a kayaking and paddle tours business – Moon River paddle – at the start of this year and we were only able to run one paddle in the entire season,” Prott says. Cattle farmer Phillip Morton lives in the next valley over from Yarras in Rollands Plains. When there was a rare break in the rain a few weeks ago, Morton planted winter feed for his livestock. But a fortnight of persistent rainfall rotted every seed he’d planted, resulting in $5,000 worth of damage. “I hope I don’t sound like a whinging farmer,” he says. “It’s better than drought but I’d like to see a bit more scattering of the rain.” Of the 10 places in Australia with the most rainy days this year, eight were in NSW. Yarras’s 121 days of rain in 2022 puts it just outside the top five for rainiest starts to a year, a list dominated by locations in the tropics. Lockhart River had only six days without rain by 15 May in 1977. Ben Domensino, a meteorologist from Weatherzone, says Sydney reached its annual average rainfall before Easter this year – the earliest date on record. Brisbane had one of its top three or four wettest starts to a year on record. Brisbane has been the wettest capital city this year, with 1060mm of rain, ahead of Darwin’s 1013mm and Sydney’s 967mm. While Perth and Adelaide are yet to record 100mm. “It’s been an exceptionally wet start to the year with persistent rain but also some very big rain events,” Domensino says. “Some of the biggest anomalies that we’ve seen have been on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range in NSW and south-east Queensland. “[In Sydney] the dams are full and the ground is still completely saturated.” The heavy downpours have sparked anxiety for those whose livelihoods depend on the weather. Working as a recruiter for a Sydney construction company, Jose Dominguez says the first question people ask him is whether they’ll be working outside. “This year it’s been raining a lot and when you are paying rent or you have kids, it’s tough when you don’t have secure work,” he says. “As a company we try to help people as much as we can but sometimes jobs depend on the weather and when it’s raining it affects everyone.” Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning But the wet weather isn’t looking like it will let up soon. Domensino says many locations in Australia will see historic levels of rainfall this year. He says La Niña is still lingering over the Pacific Ocean and on the other side of Australia, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole is starting to develop. “That will mean that we’re about to [get] more moisture coming across the Indian Ocean over the next three to six months,” Domensino says. “That is likely to cause more above average rainfall over large areas of Australia in winter and spring.” | ['australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/eden-gillespie', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-05-20T20:00:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/nov/04/country-diary-a-peckish-crow-appears-to-observe-the-green-cross-code | Country diary: A peckish crow appears to observe the Green Cross Code | Something has died on the road. Cars bomb – too fast, too fast – down the hill, and sometimes even the canniest urban animal leaves its escape too late. It’s not clear exactly what it is, but there are grey feathers, so I’m going with pigeon. The feathers flutter uselessly in the wash of the passing cars, then settle. The road is briefly empty. The crow has been waiting for a gap. There’s easy meat on offer, and it’s not going to be put off by tons of thundering metal. It only needs a few seconds. It walks into the road with a jaunty, rolling swagger. Cocky. A touch of the wide boy. Clever birds, crows. Famous problem-solvers. Give them a full bin and they will extract maximum value from it. They might also drop molluscs from a height to smash them open. You wouldn’t bet against them perpetrating a basic phishing scam. Background birds in this part of south London, they vie with gulls for the title of urban scavenger of the year. They hang around the cemetery in small groups, as black and glossy as a Spinal Tap album, almost as if they know the folklore. Omens of ill, harbingers of death, bad news all round. Goth birds. Often, when I look out of the window, there will be one, rowing gamely across the sky. Strong flyers, they nonetheless give the impression of constantly flying into a troublesome headwind. On a grey, blustery day like today, they show their prowess, allowing the wind to carry them backwards, wings folding in on themselves, as a handkerchief. The wind drops, and they draw themselves through the air, overcoming the turbulence with deceptively lazy wingbeats. Another lull. Out it swaggers, pecks at the pigeon with its stout, curved bill. One eye on the approaching traffic, it tears meat from the cadaver. Observing the Green Cross Code, it looks both ways between pecks. A car comes down the hill – too fast, too fast – and it’s time to go. One more peck, and in the nick of time it launches itself up at an angle, wings beating deep to draw it into the air and off and away. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/birds', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/lev-parikian', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-11-04T05:30:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2017/oct/02/coogee-beach-water-quality-rises-but-sydney-harbour-spots-sink | Coogee beach water quality rises but Sydney harbour spots sink | One of Australia’s most famous beaches, Coogee, has joined its Sydney neighbour Bondi in receiving a clean bill of health in the latest assessment of New South Wales beaches. But problems still persist at Sydney harbour swimming spots, at Malabar in Sydney’s south, and at popular beaches on the central coast, notably Avoca and Terrigal, due to stormwater runoff. In heavy rain, sewer systems often overflow into the stormwater, causing bacteria and faecal matter to enter the harbour, rivers and oceans. Until now, Coogee had failed to make the grade and had been classified as having poor water quality. The main reason for the change, detailed in the annual State of the Beaches report, appears to be the slightly drier weather in 2016-17 and timing of the tests. In general, open ocean beaches in NSW have excellent water quality, with 98% of 140 monitored ocean beaches graded as very good or good. This indicates they were suitable for swimming most or almost all of the time. This was a slight improvement on 2015-16, when 97% of ocean beaches were graded as very good or good. Overall, of the 250 sites where water quality was tested, 84% were graded as good or very good. These sites were suitable for swimming most or almost all of the time. But rainfall can change the water quality quickly and most beaches and harbour, lake and estuarine swimming spots carry warnings about swimming after rain. In general, swimming should be avoided during heavy rain and for up to a day afterwards at ocean beaches and up to three days at estuarine sites, as they take longer to flush. Fifty-eight (73%) of the 79 estuarine swimming sites were graded as very good or good, a slight decline on the previous year. These swimming sites were typically located in the well flushed sections of the estuaries or had few potential sources of faecal contamination. Seventeen of the estuarine beaches were graded as poor, including Rose Bay beach and Tambourine Bay in Sydney Harbour, Carss Point baths and Oatley Bay baths in the lower Georges River and Horderns beach in Port Hacking. Several were graded as fair, due to their proximity to stormwater outlets. The NSW environment minister, Gabrielle Upton, said stormwater generated by heavy rain was a major cause of pollution in recreational waters. “Councils and water authorities are constantly investing in improving water quality. It’s important to remember whatever is thrown on the ground may end up in stormwater and eventually lead into waterways,” she said. Very heavy rainfall and large swells affected much of the NSW coastline in early June 2016 due to a significant east coast low storm. Dry periods persisted in the later months of 2016 and into early 2017, but wet conditions returned in February 2017, followed by the wettest March on record for many coastal areas. Exposure to contaminated water can cause gastroenteritis, with symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach ache, nausea, headache and fever. Eye, ear, skin and upper respiratory tract infections can also be contracted when pathogens come into contact with small breaks and tears in the skin or ruptures of the delicate membranes in the ear or nose. | ['australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/bondi', 'australia-news/bondi-beach', 'australia-news/sydney', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/water', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anne-davies', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-10-02T00:59:56Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/jan/29/grow-your-own-sponges-and-other-innovative-ways-to-live-more-sustainably | Grow your own sponges – and other innovative ways to live more sustainably | Could your garden be the key to your zero-waste ambitions? Gardeners at the National Trust’s Knightshayes estate in Devon have grown luffa plants to produce their own sponges in an attempt to cut down on waste. They are as easy to cultivate as courgettes, according to the kitchen garden supervisor, Bev Todd. Just sow the seeds in April or May in a warm and sunny spot, and give the plant a support to scramble up. Once the fruit matures and withers, squeeze it to loosen, and peel off the skin. Wash and remove the seeds and flesh, hang to dry and voilà – your own sustainable sponge. If you find that inspiring, Zoë Morrison, a blogger and the author of Eco Thrifty Living, has another green-fingered suggestion: “I like to regrow vegetables from their bottoms, so that they can be saved from the bin or the compost heap.” She has successfully regrown lettuce, celery and leeks this way. But it’s also important to avoid bringing waste into your home in the first place: buy loose fruit and vegetables, fill up on dried goods and cleaning products in a zero waste shop, replace tinfoil and clingfilm with wax wraps, plan your meals and buy only food you need. Helen White, a special adviser on household food waste at Wrap, says that storing your groceries in the right place is half the battle in tackling food waste. “Most fresh produce is going to be better in the fridge, but not bananas, onions, pineapples or potatoes.” Pass on unwanted food via apps such as Olio or invest in a wormery to get rid of odds and ends, recommends Jen Gale, the founder of Sustainable(ish), a social enterprise. And get involved with sites such as Freecycle and Freegle. “It’s a great way to pass on stuff the charity shop won’t take,” says Gale. You never know who will take your castoffs. We asked Guardian readers for their own unusual methods for reducing waste at home. Charlie Laffitte, an electrician from Orléans in France, recommends using grey water from the washing machine to flush the toilet. Mary Sweeney, a marketing specialist from Cleveland, Ohio, suggests washing plastic bags so they can be reused. But the standout was Emer Brangan, a health researcher from Bristol, who made her own tissue holder using the fabric from an old umbrella after realising how much waste was generated by the handy plastic-wrapped tissue packets she had used before. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/food-waste', 'tone/features', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/katherine-purvis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-01-29T07:00:40Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
lifeandstyle/2014/jul/04/wake-up-smell-coffee-use-reusable-cup | Wake up and smell the coffee: it's time to carry a reusable cup | We have a lot of green blind spots – moments where acute cognitive dissonance consolidates rather than changing a rather unsustainable behaviour. Of course we all care about waste, but convenience conquers all when push comes to shove. The vast towering mountain of disposable coffee cups is a case in point. After all, the alternatives are not exactly harrowing. Why not plonk your overworked behind on a chair for 15 happy minutes and enjoy the privilege of your pricey hot beverage? Why not sip it from a rather more sophisticated china rim as opposed to sucking it toddler-like through a slit in a plastic lid (stay classy, Seattle). Or use a reusable cup perhaps? Apparently the ability to rinse, reuse and remember to carry these with us has so far been beyond the realms of convenient reality. It's much like the way our desperate and urgent need for rehydration demands instant access to disposable plastic bottled water. How strange this must look to desert dwelling peoples! If we’re so terrified of daily dessication, can’t we carry a reusable flask? It would appear not, and so we wretchedly resign ourselves to the status quo, and the cups and bottles pile up around us. But is this really the best we can do? Even during the most solipsistic, hedonistic occasion of a summer festival, traditionally carpeted with a crunchy shagpile of can and cup debris, pioneers such as Shambala have already gone entirely plastic bottle free, introduced reusable cups and are striving for genuine "zero waste to landfill" status. If you can get several thousand addled punters to reuse cups and bring their own water bottles in a damp English field it can’t beyond the ken of more urban types to do the same. There was also a move to do this at Glastonbury this year. Ultimately, we are fallible and forgetful, so the best way to solve the problem is as always choice-editing or design this inconvenience out. Not got your reusable shopping bag on you, or have popped to the shop spontaneously? I recently bought a jacket from Guild of Labour that has a canvas shopper buttoned neatly onto the lining. A beautifully simple and literal no-brainer solution. Maybe we need a reusable cup holster, like a tool-belt, for the urban caffeine addict? It could hold a stunningly designed, unique and characterful reusable cup, like the mobile phone cases we use to stop us smashing our digital pride and joys. Or we might innovate the business model itself, and incentivise reusable "deposit" cups that coffee shops wash themselves. We could introduce a standard cup shared across different coffee companies, or significant discounts (really significant not token) for those using reusable cups – after all the cup can cost twice as much as the coffee in it. As always, the solutions are out there to eliminate this monstrous pile of pointless and avoidable waste. Either we have to get a bit more festival-like in our attitudes and behaviours or we have to have our own ineptitude designed away from us. Or both. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. And not through that awful slit. Been meaning to buy a reusable coffee cup? We've tried them out for you. Ed Gillespie is author of 'Only Planet - a flight-free adventure around the world' and Co-Founder of Futerra Sustainability Communications Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? Take a look at this month's Live Better challenge here. The Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable living. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['lifeandstyle/live-better', 'lifeandstyle/series/live-better-reduce-reuse-recycle', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'food/coffee', 'travel/festivals', 'food/food', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'profile/ed-gillespie'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-07-04T10:14:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2012/nov/06/new-york-jersey-sandy-vote-us-election | New York and New Jersey help Sandy-hit residents vote in US election | Residents of areas of New York and New Jersey that were left without power when Hurricane Sandy struck last week were on Monday being bused to non-damaged polling stations, in order to vote. Executive orders have been signed in both states to allow voters to cast their ballot at any booth, in an attempt to accommodate people who were forced out of their homes by the superstorm. Ernie Landante, a spokesman for the New Jersey Division of Elections, said: "We are doing everything we can in this extraordinary situation not to disenfranchise voters displaced by Sandy. Their voices and their votes will be heard no differently than anyone else's." Officials in both states must also provide shelter for all those who are still without power, ahead of a storm which could hit the area as early as Wednesday. The expected nor'easter could bring winds of up to 60mph and more flooding to areas which were hit badly by Sandy. In New York, up to 40,000 people are expected to need accommodation in the coming days. In cut-off areas of Staten Island and the Rockaways – a coastal region in the borough of Queens – some homeowners have endured an eighth night without power. On Monday, temperatures dropped to near freezing for a second consecutive night. New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said on Monday that the city had adequate shelters for those who needed them. "Every New Yorker who needs a warm place to live and a roof over his or her head is going to have one," he said, before adding that the incoming storm would make the work of emergency teams "more difficult and more urgent". Bloomberg said that housing everyone who needed help would pose a "big challenge". The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) said it had spent more than $200m on emergency housing assistance and had found places for 34,000 displaced people in hotels and temporary homes in New York and New Jersey. No long-term plan for accommodating all those hit by Sandy has been made. It is thought that more than a million homes and businesses are without power, as a result of downed lines and broken cables. Sandy has been blamed for more than 100 deaths in the US, adding to scores of deaths in the Caribbean. It is feared that with more bad weather on the way, hypothermia could claim move victims, especially among the elderly and infirm. Door-to-door searches are underway in New York, in an attempt to encourage those still suffering from loss of power to find alternative shelters. For some on Tuesday, voting was not an immediate concern. One Staten Island resident, Paul Hoppe, said he probably would not vote. He said his home, a block from the beach, was uninhabitable, his family had been displaced and their possessions ruined. "We've got too many concerns that go beyond the national scene," Hoppe said. But for others, finding a polling booth was part of the transition back to normality. New York City authorities planned to run shuttle buses every 15 minutes to bring voters to the polls. Sixty of the city's 1,350 polling sites were unusable. Bloomberg said city residents should check the Board of Elections website, in order to find out about polling changes. "Vote. It is our most precious right," he said. In the badly-hit coastal region of Ocean County, New Jersey, officials hired a converted camper van to bring mail-in ballots to shelters in Toms River, Pemberton and Burlington Township. "It's great. This is one less thing I have to think about," said Josephine DeFeis from Seaside Heights, who voted on Monday. In New York and New Jersey, election officials were guardedly optimistic that power would be restored and that most polling places would be open in all but the worst-hit areas. New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Monday allowing residents to cast a so-called affidavit or provisional ballot at any polling place in the state. Such votes will be counted after officials confirm the voter's eligibility. Cuomo said: "Compared to what we have had to deal with in the past week, this will be a walk in the park when it comes to voting." | ['us-news/us-elections-2012', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/michaelbloomberg', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/new-jersey', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/matt-williams'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-11-06T16:35:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2021/may/19/brazilian-police-raid-environment-ministry-timber-sales | Brazilian police raid environment ministry over ‘illegal’ timber sales | Federal police have raided the ministry supposedly tasked with protecting the Brazilian environment and the environment minister’s home as part of an investigation into the illegal export of Amazon timber. The early-morning operation – the most prominent targets of which were the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, and his environmental chief, Eduardo Bim – was celebrated by activists, who accuse Jair Bolsonaro’s rightwing government of systematically dismantling environmental protections. Amazon deforestation has soared to a 12-year high under Bolsonaro. An area seven times larger than Greater London was destroyed last year alone. “It’s time to put this gang of devastators in jail,” Marcelo Freixo, a prominent leftist leader, tweeted as details of the raid emerged on Wednesday morning. Greenpeace Brazil demanded Salles’s dismissal, tweeting: “We Brazilians are proud of our environmental heritage and do not deserve to be internationally humiliated by these disastrous anti-environmental policies.” Federal police said they had launched their investigation – named after the indigenous deity Akuanduba – in January after receiving information “from foreign authorities suggesting the possible misconduct of Brazilian civil servants in the export of timber”. Police said about 160 officers had raided addresses in the capital, Brasília, São Paulo, and the Amazon state of Pará with search warrants as part of the inquiry into suspected acts of corruption involving government employees and loggers. The news website G1 said police were investigating wood exported to the US and Europe. The magazine Veja said police had been acting on information passed to them by the US Fish and Wildlife Service after a January 2020 seizure of Brazilian wood at the port of Savannah in the state of Georgia. Ten officials from the environment ministry and Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama were removed from their posts by order of the supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes. They included Bim, the president of Ibama, and Leopoldo Penteado Butkiewicz, a special adviser to the environment minister. Salles, one of Bolsonaro’s most committed allies, was reportedly answering questions at the federal police headquarters in Brasília on Wednesday morning. The 45-year-old conservative, whom critics call Brazil’s “anti-environment minister”, is a hate figure among environmental activists and a hero for some on the far right. Salles had reportedly never visited the Brazilian Amazon before being made environment minister shortly after Bolsonaro’s 2018 election. In office, Salles has presided over what conservationists and indigenous activists call one of the most damaging periods in Brazil’s recent environmental history, stripping back protections and allegedly encouraging environmental criminals by reducing monitoring and inspection operations. The newspaper O Globo said residences used by Salles in Brasília and São Paulo and an office in the Amazon were among the addresses raided by police. The indigenous god after which the operation is named is venerated by the Arara people who live along the Iriri River in Pará, one of the Amazon states worst affected by illegal deforestation. The Arara believe that by playing a small flute, Akuanduba brought tranquility and order to an unstable world. Salles told reporters he believed the operation was “over the top and unnecessary” and had told president Bolsonaro that, in his opinion, there was no substance to the allegations. | ['world/brazil', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-05-19T14:31:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2013/may/29/santa-barbara-wildfires-contained-earthquake | Santa Barbara wildfires 80% contained as calm weather assists firefighters | Firefighters have largely contained wildfires in Santa Barbara County but an earthquake on Wednesday gave residents a fresh fright. Ground crews and water-dropping helicopters tamed the biggest blaze in Los Padres national forest, north of Los Angeles, by Wednesday after it scorched 1,858 acres. The US Forest Service said the fire was 80% contained and that crews would continue tackling concentrated hotspots. Hundreds of people who were evacuated on Tuesday were allowed to return home. The region suffered an additional scare on Wednesday however, when a magniture 4.6 earthquake shook the coast at 7.38am local time. No injuries or damage were reported, but the temblor left people on edge. "Yipes! Jolted out of bed this AM by a 4.6 earthquake just down the road. Lots of noise but no damage here," tweeted Mary Anne Masterson. Some made light of it. "Fire? Earthquake? I like it better when #santabarbara is in the news for celebrity weddings," tweeted one. Firefighters have been busy in southern California since early May. Strong, dry winds and hot temperatures, following one of the driest winter in years, have turned swathes of wilderness into a tinderbox. The blaze in Los Padres broke out on Sunday and swiftly scorched much of the White Rock campground. Flames up to 30ft high consumed brush and oak trees and menaced dozens of houses. About 600 firefighters cut lines around the perimeter of the blaze while helicopters dumped water on peaks and other inaccessible areas. Slower winds on Wednesday helped control the fire. Smaller fires elsewhere were also brought under control. | ['world/wildfires', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rorycarroll'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-05-29T17:51:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2017/oct/30/puerto-rico-whitefish-energy-fbi-investigation | FBI reportedly investigating Whitefish Energy's Puerto Rico power contract | The FBI is reportedly investigating the $300m contract awarded seemingly without tender by Puerto Rico’s power utility to Whitefish Energy, a Montana company which had just two full-time employees. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI’s San Juan field office is looking into how Whitefish was awarded the contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s shattered power infrastructure despite never having handled a similar project in the past. The Guardian has contacted the FBI for confirmation of the investigation. On Sunday, Ricardo Ramos, executive director of the government-run Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority, said he accepted a request from Governor Ricardo Rosselló to cancel the contract, claiming it had become an “enormous distraction” to the island’s recovery efforts. There is mounting pressure from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress for an explanation as to how Whitefish landed the contract, with the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security set to review the matter. About $8m has already been paid to Whitefish, according to Rosselló. Nearly three-quarters of Puerto Rico is without electricity, more than a month after Hurricane Maria smashed into the island. On 26 September, Whitefish was handed a contract by the power utility to repair the electricity grid. At the time, the company only had two full-time employees. Whitefish is based in the home town of Ryan Zinke, the secretary of the interior. Zinke has said he was in contact with the company after the contract was awarded, and his son has completed an internship there, but he denied any knowledge of the deal nor having any influence over it. The White House has also denied any impropriety. The Whitefish contract states that Federal Emergency Management Administration (Fema) had approved the terms of the deal – an assertion that the disaster agency said was “inaccurate”. Fema said it was not involved in the selection of Whitefish and that is has “significant concerns” about how it was decided. According to the terms of the contract, Whitefish would be paid $319 an hour for a journeyman lineman, $286 an hour for a mechanic and $322 an hour for a foreman of a power line crew. Whitefish has said the contract was obtained properly, with chief executive Andy Techmanski claiming that “there are people out there on a witch-hunt looking for something that does not exist”. In a further statement posted on Facebook, Whitefish said it managed to obtain 350 workers for the task of restoring Puerto Rico’s power and that it was disappointed by the decision to scrap the contract. “The decision will only delay what the people of Puerto Rico want and deserve – to have the power restored quickly in the same manner their fellow citizens on the mainland experience after a natural disaster,” the statement read. | ['us-news/puerto-rico', 'world/hurricane-maria', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/montana', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-10-30T18:53:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2015/feb/04/future-leaders-new-economy-opportunity-uk | Business bosses should speak out against 'anti-sustainability rhetoric' | Last week was my final at Kingfisher, after 17 years with the organisation. As I step down as chief executive I am moved to reflect on my personal view about what leadership is – or at least should be – all about. Leadership must be about creating real change in two directions: inside an organisation and in the wider systems which affect the ways we live and operate. Though our primary duty must be to develop and sustain our own businesses, making sure it is truly sustainable, it is not enough to tidy up internally. Business leaders have a responsibility to use their impact across their supply chains, their industries and their political systems. One definition of leadership I have found helpful is that it is able to convince people to move to places they would not on their own, but thinking that it was their idea all along. Creating a sustainable business with this process has four distinct phases. First, all businesses need a plan or a strategy and that is true for their sustainability agenda. That plan must derive from nature of that business and focus on the unique contribution that you can make. At Kingfisher, for example, we decided to pick four areas where we could make a difference: timber, energy, communities and innovation. We didn’t ignore the foundations of sustainability, such as cutting our waste, but we made a clear strategic choice that allowed us to focus the whole organisation. Second, leaders must engage the organisation around the strategy. This can be frustrating and repetitive for the leadership as they have to keep broadcasting the same messages day in, day out, but it’s only once teams across the business understand the plan that it can become real. An abstract idea in the mind of the chief executive which has no basis in the reality of the business is delusional self-indulgence. Engagement is the biggest internal leadership challenge and it is never finished. Third, you must constantly test your plans and show you intend to make them a reality. Leaders need to create a culture which allows trials and innovation. At B&Q, for example, we trialled the easyGrow system, which eventually changed the way we sell plants and eliminated thousands of tons of polystyrene waste. Finally, after you have your early proofs and trials running, you need to work out how to scale up the plan. There has to be a plan for each area of the business, so that the achievement of one goal is not subtly undermined by the outdated work practices of another. All of which leads me to a final point about leadership: speaking up. Most chief executives are rightly nervous of public pontification and I cannot understand why anyone would read a chief executive’s Twitter feed. But on certain key issues, business leaders do carry a responsibility to speak out. In the last 10 years I have seen two clear situations where action is needed. There are times when political leaders need the support and permission to act, to create the right regulatory frameworks that will help sustainable business to prosper. My experience, working with Tony Blair and President Barosso of Portugal through the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group, was that the public call to action by a leadership group made a substantive difference to the political process. It is also true that it is easier to get chief executives to speak if they do so in a group; there is safety in numbers. There are also still some examples of deliberate blocking of progressive business policies by traditional or dinosaur corporates that claim they cannot adapt to the new economy. If foresighted leaders do not counter these voices then wrong will prevail from the inaction of good people. In the past we have seen some of the major European car manufacturers, chemical and oil groups block progressive measures. While we must fully debate their concerns and acknowledge that energy-intensive industries have real challenges of competitiveness, the answer is not anti-sustainability rhetoric but bold adaptation to new ideas – as we have seen from the European pulp and paper industry. The new economy is coming and is a tremendous opportunity for the UK and EU – it needs the next generation of leaders to step up and demand its delivery, and to take back the initiative from the naysayers. • Click here to enter the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards 2015. The business futures hub is funded by The Crystal. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled “brought to you by”. Find out more here. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. | ['sustainable-business/series/business-futures', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/blog', 'business/kingfisher', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'business/corporate-governance', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'type/article'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-02-04T12:29:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/jun/01/what-the-hell-australian-scientists-discover-biggest-plant-on-earth-off-wa-coast | Scientists discover ‘biggest plant on Earth’ off Western Australian coast | About 4,500 years ago, a single seed – spawned from two different seagrass species – found itself nestled in a favourable spot somewhere in what is now known as Shark Bay, just off Australia’s west coast. Left to its own devices and relatively undisturbed by human hands, scientists have discovered that seed has grown to what is now believed to be the biggest plant anywhere on Earth, covering about 200 sq km (77 sq miles, or about 20,000 rugby fields, or just over three times the size of Manhattan island). The species – a Posidonia australis, also known as fibre-ball weed or ribbon weed – is commonly found along the southern coastlines of Australia. But when scientists started looking for genetic differences in ribbon weed across the bay, they came across a puzzle. Samples taken from sites that were 180km apart suggested there were not multiple specimens of Posidonia australis, but one single plant. “We thought ‘what the hell is going on here?’” said Dr Martin Breed, an ecologist at Flinders University. “We were completely stumped.” Student researcher Jane Edgeloe, of the University of Western Australia (UWA), said about 18,000 genetic markers were examined as they looked for variations in the species that might help them select specimens for use in restoration projects. But what they found instead was that the same plant had spread using rhizomes in the same way that a lawn can spread from its edges by sending out runners. “The existing 200 sq km of ribbon weed meadows appear to have expanded from a single, colonising seedling,” she said. The one plant now spreads out like a meadow, providing habitat for a huge array of marine species including turtles, dolphins, dugongs, crabs and fish. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Ribbon weed rhizomes can grow up to 35cm a year and, using that rate, the authors of the research – published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B – estimate the plant will have needed at least 4,500 years to spread as far as it has. Dr Elizabeth Sinclair, a co-author of the research at UWA, said they hadn’t given the plant a nickname, and original samples – pulled from the seagrass meadow – originally had 116 different labels with GPS coordinates when they were stored in a deep freeze ready for genetic sampling. The plant has formed huge, dense meadows that in some areas stretch as far as the eye can see in all directions. The ribbons of the plant are only 10cm long in some places, but up to a metre in others. Conditions in Shark Bay itself are challenging. The plant has found a way to survive in areas where the salinity is double that elsewhere in the bay, and can thrive in water temperatures as cold as 15C and as hot as 30C. The seagrass plant’s survival appears to be linked, Sinclair said, to how it had held on to all the chromosomes from its two parents, giving it inbuilt genetic diversity. “Instead of getting half [of] its genes from mum and half from dad, it’s kept all of them,” she said. Sinclair and colleagues are still working through the secrets of the giant specimen, but she said it appears to be “largely sterile” and so has to rely on its own ability to grow, rather than disperse seeds. Breed said the fact the plant “doesn’t have sex” but had survived for so long was a puzzle. “Plants that don’t have sex tend to also have reduced genetic diversity, which they normally need when dealing with environmental change,” he said. Breed said they had detected some very subtle mutations in the plant’s genetics across the places it was growing that might also explain its extreme longevity. The size of the Shark Bay ribbon weed is about 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) – making it much larger than a stand of quaking Aspen trees in Utah, often referred to as the world’s largest plant, covering 43 hectares. Associate professor Kathryn McMahon, of Edith Cowan University, was not involved in the Shark Bay research but is an expert on seagrass. She said the method used by the researchers gave her confidence they had identified one single specimen, which she said was “amazing”. Genetic studies of other seagrass species had estimated the plants could live for between 2,000 and 100,000 years, so McMahon said the estimate that the Shark Bay specimen was 4,500 years old fits into that range. “They have a versatile growth pattern which contributes to this long life span,” she said. “They can grow towards nutrient-rich patches to access the nutrient they need, or to gaps in the meadow where there is space for them to grow or away from stressful locations. “All of these characteristics mean that if they are in the right place they can persist over long periods of time.” | ['environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'environment/plants', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-05-31T23:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2016/nov/26/us-army-orders-eviction-of-dakota-protesters-camp-tribe-says | Standing Rock: army engineer corps order closure of protest camp, tribe says | The US army corps of engineers has ordered the closure of the main encampment established by activists opposing the Dakota Access pipeline, according to a letter released by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Citing federal regulations governing public lands, Colonel John W Henderson of the army corps of engineers wrote to the Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman, Dave Archambault, that he was ordering the closure by 5 December. The order was “to protect the general public from the violent confrontations between protestors and law enforcement officials that have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious injury” from the winter weather. Henderson added that the corps would establish a “free speech zone” south of the Cannonball river, but that any individuals found on army land north of the river after 5 December would be considered trespassing and could be prosecuted. “Our tribe is deeply disappointed in this decision by the United States, but our resolve to protect our water is stronger than ever,” Archambault said in a statement. “The best way to protect people during the winter, and reduce the risk of conflict between water protectors and militarized police, is to deny the easement for the Oahe crossing, and deny it now,” he added. The pipeline lacks a final permit to drill under the Missouri river. The corps of engineers has twice delayed issuing the permit, known as an easement. On 15 November, the pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, filed court papers asking a judge to force the army to allow drilling to proceed. The army corps of engineers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. The move to evict the main Standing Rock encampment, known as Oceti Sakowin, comes at the end of a tense week for the indigenous and environmental activists opposing the construction of the oil pipeline, which is slated to cross under the Missouri river just north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. On Sunday, local law enforcement deployed teargas, “less-than-lethal” munitions, and water cannons on hundreds of peaceful demonstrators amid sub-freezing temperatures. Twenty-six people were hospitalized, and hundreds more were injured, according to the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council. The activists, who refer to themselves as “water protectors”, have continued to hold demonstrations and prayer ceremonies since Sunday’s incident. At least 33 people were arrested on Friday after they entered a shopping mall in Bismarck, North Dakota, and formed a circle to pray, according to Reuters. More than 500 have been arrested since August. Members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe established the first of several “spiritual camps”, known as Sacred Stone, near the site of the proposed river crossing in April. The tribe fears that the pipeline will contaminate their water and objects to the fact that construction has disturbed sacred burial grounds and is taking place on land they say belongs to them under the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The movement to stop the pipeline has drawn thousands of supporters, including members of hundreds of indigenous groups. As more people arrived in North Dakota, new camps were established north of the Cannonball River, on land owned by the army. One of those camps was forcibly cleared in late October, with law enforcement in armored vehicles deploying pepper spray and arresting 141 people. Friday’s letter sets the stage for a confrontation over the largest encampment, which is home to as many as thousands of people at any given time. “It is both unfortunate and disrespectful that this announcement comes the day after this country celebrates Thanksgiving – a historic exchange of goodwill between Native Americans and the first immigrants from Europe,” Archambault said in a statement. Water protectors at Standing Rock held numerous events on Thursday to mark the Thanksgiving holiday, which many consider a day of mourning for the genocide of indigenous peoples by European colonizers. “Although the news is saddening,” Archambault added, “it is not at all surprising given the last 500 years of the mistreatment of our people.” This article was amended on 28 November 2016. A previous headline incorrectly stated the US army had ordered the closure of the camp; it was the army corps of engineers, a federal agency. The army has no legal rights to operate inside the US. | ['us-news/dakota-access-pipeline', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/north-dakota', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oil', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/julia-carrie-wong', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2016-11-26T13:07:37Z | true | ENERGY |
society/2005/jan/11/internationalaidanddevelopment.comment | Nick Cater: adding insult to injury | How much tsunami disaster cash will reach those in greatest need and have a significant, sustainable impact is as much a question for all those fundraising charities running appeals as for governments whose multimillion dollar pledges sometimes do not materialise. Around the world, hundreds if not thousands of charities are raising vast sums from the desperate altruism of TV audiences confronted by a crisis almost beyond comprehension, and many are also queuing up to get their slice of those state pledges. But why should so many millions of what was our money and is now, in effect, held in trust for tsunami survivors, be diverted via international aid agencies, with their costly overheads and offices, staff and pensions, flights, hotels and phone bills, when it could go direct to low-cost indigenous charities already hard at work? As waves of expatriates parachute into this crisis, it feels like a disaster from the past, complete with age-old myths: survivors can do nothing for themselves; only foreigners solve problems; and any aid - even second-hand garments sent back to the region that makes many of the world's clothes - will help. The media is part of the problem, highlighting foreign aid while downplaying local efforts to distribute food, clear rubble and restart schools. These local charities, councils and churches could have done much in the first few hours and days with a fraction of the money now beginning to arrive. Can international charities add much value in this crisis? Most of the affected countries, with some caveats and exceptions, have reasonably democratic governments, plenty of effective NGOs (non-governmental organisations), fair communications and logistics, thriving private sectors, military forces and even - when we don't poach them - doctors and nurses. Do outside charities know the tsunami zone better than local groups/speak all the languages/understand the customs and know where immediate supplies can be found? Were outside charities already part of the local infrastructure as the tsunami struck? Will they stay on even without outside funding? And are they accountable to tsunami survivors? Or is this, between no doubt dedicated relief efforts, a chance for international charities to recharge their financial batteries, justify their existence and grab some TV coverage? There is a whiff of patronising arrogance in this, especially when United Nations agencies, donor governments and international charities talk about working closely with "local partners", their euphemism for indigenous institutions used as cheap labour and kept on a tight financial leash. There are some fairly honourable exceptions: the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, with its global network based on vital principles of independence, neutrality and impartiality; and agencies within faith networks, such as Christian Aid or Cafod, which are far more likely to work in true partnership with local churches, mosques and temples. However local charities in the developing world are starting to resent foreign charities' cost-conscious condescension and challenge it in ways that could shift the centre of aid's gravity south. Some groups - especially Asian charities pursuing their diasporas - are soliciting internet donations directly, while in Africa, indigenous NGOs are pressing for significantly better external support to turn partnership rhetoric into reality by building capacity and skills. At a recent conference in Ethiopia organised by the leading agency Africa Humanitarian Action and representing hundreds of African NGOs the demand was simple: put much more money into indigenous agencies so they can create a sustainable infrastructure for relief, rehabiliation and development that is on the spot, responsive to local needs and able to save many more lives. Only if local institutions are at the centre of decision-making and spending - in disasters and development - will progress be sustainable, including investments in preparedness, such as the proposed Indian Ocean tsunami warning system. We need a new spirit of solidarity, in which those at the sharp end take the bulk of decisions while those sitting in comfort elsewhere raise money and advocate in their support. This disaster would be a good place to start. International charities could pass over the bulk of their funds to partners, use their reach to promote direct donations to local groups, and help create community foundations with locally-run, internationally-endowed funds for long-term support. For its part, the UK Disasters Emergency Committee could start working itself out of a job by fostering equivalents in disaster-prone countries into which globally-generated future funding could be channelled. · Journalist and consultant Nick Cater is international editor of Giving Magazine and a contributor to the humanitarian portal AlertNet.Org He can be contacted at: caterguardian@yahoo.co.uk | ['global-development/global-development', 'tone/comment', 'society/society', 'world/tsunami2004', 'uk/uk', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-11T13:07:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2024/sep/27/charges-iran-trump-campaign-hack | Justice department charges Iranian operatives in Trump campaign hack | The US justice department unsealed criminal charges on Friday against three Iranian operatives suspected of hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and disseminating stolen information to media organizations. The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said on Friday afternoon that hackers were trying to undermine Trump’s campaign, as the Republican nominee for president. He said the department was seeing “increasingly aggressive” Iranian cyber activity in this presidential election cycle. The Trump campaign disclosed on 10 August that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. Multiple major news organizations that said they were leaked confidential information from inside the Trump campaign, including Politico, the New York Times and the Washington Post, declined to publish it. US intelligence officials subsequently linked Iran to a hack of the Trump election campaign and to an attempted breach of what was previously the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign, before the US president dropped his re-election bid and his vice-president took over the top of the ticket for Democrats. Officials said the hack-and-dump operation was meant to sow discord, exploit divisions within American society and potentially influence the outcome of elections that Iran perceives to be “particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests”. Last week, officials also revealed that the Iranians in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails containing excerpts of the hacked information to people associated with the Biden campaign. None of the recipients replied. The Harris campaign said the emails resembled spam or a phishing attempt and condemned the outreach by the Iranians as “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity”. The indictment comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel escalate attacks against each other, raising concerns about the prospect of an all-out war, and as US officials say they continue to track physical threats by Iran against a number of people including Trump. Earlier this week, US intelligence officials briefed Trump about a suspected Iranian plot to kill him, his campaign has said. The briefing, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), was believed to have focused on a scheme unrelated to two failed domestic assassination attempts against the Republican nominee for president, and came amid the reports suggesting that Iran was conducting an ongoing hack against Trump’s campaign. | ['us-news/donaldtrump', 'world/iran', 'technology/hacking', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-09-27T16:54:54Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2018/apr/29/violent-misogyny-not-confined-to-internet-incels | Violent misogyny is unfortunately not confined to the internet’s ‘incels’ | Catherine Bennett | There were, and remain, many compelling reasons not to read My Twisted World, as Elliot Rodger called the apologia he distributed before killing six people, then himself, in 2014. The main one being: let’s not do what he wanted. Women readers, in particular, were scheduled to study his plans to murder as many of them as possible and realise, too late, that it was their fault for not sleeping with him. But maybe we’ve missed something? In a close reading on a music website, a male reviewer commended it online (before his removal) as “beautifully written”. Without the internet, in fact, the lengthy document might, like most of its genre, never have gone much beyond clinical circles and the dedicated, spree-killer subset of true crime connoisseurs. As it was, the peer-to-peer connectivity that inspired dreams, among early cyberutopians, of a better world, ensured that the Rodger document would be circulated, rapidly, within the sort of existing misogynistic circles he’d frequented. Here, an international membership feels no need to represent its interest in women killing and torturing as a scholarly pursuit. On, for instance, Reddit, a website long portrayed by enthusiasts who included Rodger as a marvel of in-house moderation, a sub-group of men identifying as “involuntary celibates” and who idolised Rodger was only closed down last year. Fortunately, given the Toronto mass murderer appears likewise to have worshipped Rodger, Reddit had finally adjusted its policies so as to prohibit content that “encourages, glorifies, incites or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or group of people”. Prior to that, content glorifying Rodger, alongside more stereotypical exhortations to violence, was presumably regarded as just the routine, woman-hating banter some men go in for, in private, and quite unlike the terrorist hate speech designed, in less respectable online communities, to conclude in murder. At any rate, the relevant participants shortly reconvened in less censorious forums. “I want to murder a femoid,” a contributor shares on a notionally moderated site, whose signatories enjoy debating how they’d murder a woman, after drugging and raping her. One fancies this: “Take a surgical knife, cut open her abdominal area and remove the organs while she’s alive.” In the days since the Canadian man murdered 10 people, a good deal of attention, including glossaries of special terms, has focused on the peculiarities of “incel” online behaviour. Here, the standard misogynistic repertoire – “you deserve to be raped”, etc – is ornamented, a bit, with coinages such as femoids. But actually, so what? To many social media users, neither the language nor the sentiments expressed in posts such as the one above, however far along the woman-hating continuum, are likely to look radically out of the ordinary. Apart from anything, Jack the Ripper, who would now be the toast of angry celibates, had the disembowelling idea 130 years ago. And further demonstrating that misogynistic tropes are by no means the monopoly of resentful male virgins, curators at San Francisco library are currently staging an exhibition featuring a display of dissident-silencing weaponry (axes and bats) and other hate-advertising artefacts. Photographs of one vitrine, featuring a red bespattered T-shirt reading: “I punch terfs!” (trans-exclusionary radical feminists/women who disagree with me), may have struck a chord with anyone following the current UK debate about the government’s self-ID proposals. To date, threats, from one side, which echo, inescapably, some of those in the pro-Rodger playbook (“die in a fire terf scum”) have yet to generate comparably widespread concern, even after a woman was punched. Her assailant had earlier expressed the wish to “fuck up some terfs”. For many prominent women, the violence threatened by Rodger fans must sound especially familiar. Caroline Criado-Perez, to whom we owe the new statue of Millicent Fawcett, is just one brilliant woman to have been rewarded, on Twitter, with sexualised menaces (”choke you with my dick” etc), which attracted nowhere near the appalled interest that now surrounds “incels”, as we should surely agree not to call these men, and not only because it implies that involuntary celibacy represents a special condition. It’s often called, for instance, “being single” and is what dating websites were invented for. To agree to use the lads’ pet terminology, is, moreover, to suggest that something distinguishes them from legions of other threatening men expressing a similar wish to control, punish or just silence women and, critically, in similar language. Such as, to non-compliant sexual targets, “choke on my dick”. A glance at Twitter confirms how generously such abuse has been accommodated, even as the repetitive insults and threats indicate gendered hostility to women in general. If sexism does not explain how rapidly the language employed against dissenting women (including some trans women) in the UK self-ID debate, degenerated, in some quarters, into generic-sounding obscenities (eg, to unco-operative lesbians, “choke on my ladydick”), perhaps it’s because social media has for so long facilitated the delusion that hate speech, as applied to women, is simply part of the landscape. The very odiousness of the misogynist language that has become, according (pre-Rodger) to one academic, Emma Alice Jane, “a lingua franca in many sectors of the cybersphere”, may help explain, she argues, why the “ethical and material implications” of this form of hate speech have been so under-studied. Hate speech that persists unchallenged, by both – for their different reasons – reactionaries and progressives, is unlikely, anyway, to be corrected. Maybe women should skim the Elliot Rodger plan for subjugating their sex, if only to appreciate that, once non-subservient women are expected to live with obscene online threats – and axe exhibitions and punching – at least some elements of his vision have surely been realised. • Catherine Bennett is an Observer columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/toronto-van-incident', 'tone/comment', 'society/rape', 'lifeandstyle/women', 'world/world', 'technology/reddit', 'society/society', 'lifeandstyle/men', 'type/article', 'profile/catherinebennett', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | world/toronto-van-incident | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-29T04:59:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2023/jun/27/cultural-change-sport-misogyny-womens-cricket-icec-report | Cultural change across a sport founded on misogyny is far from straightforward | Raf Nicholson | Len Hutton is reported to have once said that women’s cricket was “absurd, like a man trying to knit”. The comment dates back to 1963, but reading through the report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, it appears there are a number of Len Huttons continuing to lurk within English and Welsh cricket. The report labels them “Type Ks” – white, affluent, middle-class men who still, for the most part, run cricket, and who still treat women’s cricket as, well, a bit of a joke. It is sad but true that anyone who has any involvement in women’s cricket in England or Wales will find themselves nodding in recognition at some of the scenarios described in the report. The commission spoke to women throughout the game – recreational and elite players, female umpires and coaches – and found damning evidence of a culture of sexism, at all levels. “Women and women’s teams are frequently demeaned, stereotyped and treated as second-class,” the Icec findings read. “This included misogynistic and derogatory comments about women and girls, and everyday sexism … There was evidence of unwanted and uninvited advances from men towards women.” The report also concludes that women have little or no power, voice or influence within cricket’s decision-making structures – a point Heather Knight disputed on Monday, saying she feels that “things have changed” since she took on the England captaincy seven years ago. “My voice has definitely been listened to a lot more recently,” she said. “We’ve still got some way to go, but I do think things are starting to tip in women’s cricket.” Jon Lewis, the England women head coach, concurred with the assessment. “We’ve got some really strong, powerful women in the dressing room who have got really strong options about how the game should be moving forward,” he said. Ironic, then, that neither Knight nor Lewis appeared to have been briefed in advance on how to respond to the report – despite its far-reaching implications for the women’s game. The report calls on the England and Wales Cricket Board to undertake “a fundamental overhaul of the professional women players’ pay structure”, with the aim of achieving equal pay at domestic level by 2029 and at international level by 2030. This is radical to a mind-boggling extent. No other team sport in England, including football, has achieved anything even approaching equal pay between men and women. Within cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and New Zealand Cricket both introduced equal match fees last year, while Australia’s female cricketers, by far the best paid in the global game, enjoy a revenue-sharing model with the men. This, though, is in a different ballpark: the commission wants average salaries, prize money and commercial pay to match the men’s within seven years. And by the start of the 2024 season – a mere 10 months away – minimum salaries for the women’s regional teams should be equal to those of the men’s first-class counties. The obvious question is how the ECB would fund such an undertaking. One relatively straightforward way, in economic terms, would be to lower the salaries of men’s players, an idea which I actually mooted to the commission when I gave evidence 18 months ago. But the ECB has stated that it will “work with the whole game to build a plan of action”, and one suspects the idea of taking money away from Peter to give to Pauline will go down like a bucket of cold sick with most of the key decision-makers. Something else which will ruffle feathers among the men’s counties is the recommendation that the women’s game should have equal representation to the men’s game throughout English and Welsh cricket’s governance structure, including membership of the ECB and representation on its board and committees. Of course it is patently unfair that the 18 first-class counties would, as it stands, be able to vote to abolish the Hundred without any reference at all to those running women’s cricket. And yet, as the saying goes: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” And that, perhaps, is the problem. For all that the ECB has bravely commissioned this report, and appears, to its credit, determined to take on board its findings, cultural change across a sport founded on centuries of misogyny – particularly across the recreational game which relies on a network of “Type K” volunteers – will be far from straightforward to achieve. • This article was amended on 27 June 2023. An earlier version implied that the England and Wales Cricket Board could have shown the report in advance of its release to Heather Knight and Jon Lewis. However, the ECB says it was not permitted to share the report with players or staff, or brief them about the contents before it was released. | ['sport/womenscricket', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/england-women-cricket-team', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/sport-politics', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-spin', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/raf-nicholson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-06-26T23:01:33Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2021/dec/07/oil-companies-blame-clean-energy-transition-for-market-volatility | Oil companies blame clean energy transition for market volatility | Leaders of the world’s biggest oil companies have used an industry gathering in Houston to launch an attack on the speed of transition to clean energy, claiming a badly managed process could lead to “insecurity, rampant inflation and social unrest”. Executives from oil companies including Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, and US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron publicly described the shift towards clean energy alternatives as “deeply flawed”. They called for fossil fuels to remain part of the energy mix for years to come despite global efforts for an urgent response to the climate crisis. Saudi Aramco’s chief executive, Amin Nasser, told delegates at the World Petroleum Congress in Houston, Texas, that adapting to cleaner fuels “overnight” could trigger uncontrolled economic inflation. “I understand that publicly admitting that oil and gas will play an essential and significant role during the transition and beyond will be hard for some,” he said. “But admitting this reality will be far easier than dealing with energy insecurity, rampant inflation and social unrest as the prices become intolerably high, and seeing net zero commitments by countries start to unravel. “The world is facing an ever more chaotic energy transition centred on highly unrealistic scenarios and assumptions about the future of energy.” Anders Opedal, the boss of Equinor, Norway’s state oil company, said: “The volatility in commodity prices and the impact on business and people illustrates the risks we face in an imbalanced transition.” Global oil and gas prices have surged in recent months since the original Covid-19 lockdown, which stifled economies around the world in 2020. Energy experts and economists have argued that the global energy market surge – which has triggered blackouts, higher bills and the shutdown of factories in some countries – should encourage policymakers to accelerate the move away from volatile fossil fuels. Amin said that many “assume that the right transition strategy is in place”. He said: “It’s not. Energy security, economic development and affordability are clearly not receiving enough attention.” Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company has made the biggest contribution to the carbon dioxide emissions responsible for the global climate crisis of any major company, according to an investigation by the Guardian, after producing almost 60bn tonnes of CO2 emissions between the 1960s and 2017. Chevron has made the second largest corporate contribution to global heating after producing 43.35bn tonnes of CO2 emissions over the same period. The company’s chief executive, Mike Wirth, told the same industry conference that oil and gas “continue to play a central role in meeting the world’s energy needs, and we play an essential role in delivering them in a lower carbon way. Our products make the world run.” Darren Woods, the chief executive of ExxonMobil, the fourth largest corporate climate polluter behind Russia’s state-backed gas company Gazprom, told the conference: “The fact remains, under most credible scenarios, including net zero pathways, oil and natural gas will continue to play a significant role in meeting society’s need.” The calls for a slower transition to clean energy put oil executives on a collision course with those energy industry experts, climate scientists and governments which have warned that without a rapid phasing out of CO2 emissions within the next decade catastrophic levels of global heating will be unavoidable. The US deputy energy secretary, David Turk, speaking at the same conference, rebuffed the industry’s stance against a rapid shift to cleaner energy by insisting that action to address the climate crisis was urgent. “There is not an alternative to stepping up and fixing the threat to climate change,” he said. The global energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, told the industry last year that no new fossil fuel projects were compatible with plans to prevent a climate crisis before 2050. A spokesperson for Greenpeace UK said: “The fossil fuel markets have been a rollercoaster of volatility ever since they were invented and it’s ludicrous for big oil bosses to blame renewables for their instability. If anything, the recent surge in gas prices and the hardship it caused to so many households are yet more proof that the sooner we wean our societies off fossil fuels the better.” • This article was amended on 8 December 2021. Global CO2 emissions by Saudi Aramco totalled almost 60bn tonnes between the 1960s and 2017, not 60m tonnes. | ['business/oil', 'business/exxonmobil', 'business/chevron', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'business/business', 'business/commodities', 'environment/environment', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/saudiarabia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2021-12-07T17:41:43Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2018/sep/15/climate-change-hurricane-florence-can-start-new-conversation | 'This one feels different': Hurricane Florence can start a new conversation | My sister sent me a text two days ago from Wilmington, North Carolina. She was moving her furniture to the second floor, nailing plywood to the windows, and packing up her valuables in advance of Hurricane Florence. What would you take? she asked. A second question appeared minutes later: What if we lose our home? Growing up in the eastern North Carolina towns of Rocky Mount and Atlantic Beach, I evacuated for Hurricane Hugo, heard my parents’ friends talk about the horror of Hazel, watched friends’ homes flood in Hurricane Floyd and again in Hurricane Matthew. But I moved to New England a few years ago; I’ve never had to evacuate in my own car full of children, pets and valuables. I’m sorry this is happening, I wrote. You’re doing the best you can. Hurricanes are an unsentimental force, the ultimate man versus nature narrative. They mark time in the coastal south, create stories of trauma and resilience, generate lore. You grow up waiting for them, stomaching a low-level anxiety that flares up in September. In 2018, this anxiety is worse than ever. Perhaps it should be. This week, I saw people post articles online about North Carolina ignoring climate science, in a told-you-so tone, as if the state is somehow on track to get what it deserves. To be clear, it isn’t the entire state of North Carolina that willfully ignored climate science. It was a Republican-led group that voted to use historical data to project sea level rise instead of contemporary climate change models. In 2012, the conservative-leaning North Carolina legislature passed HB 219, a bill that deemed current climate science “unreliable” and “extreme”. The best science was left out of coastal development and policy discussions. “They need to use some science that we can all trust when we start making laws in North Carolina that affect property values on the coast,” the Republican state representative Pat McElraft said. The result is an overly developed, vulnerable coastline, one currently inundated with storm surge. Like many thorny issues in North Carolina – gendered bathrooms, gay marriage, Confederate monuments, radical gerrymandering – conservatives insisted on looking backward instead of forward on climate change. This mentality will probably cost the state billions of dollars in forthcoming damage to infrastructure and homes. The past six years could have been spent planning for climate events like Florence, making coastal communities more resilient. Know, however, that the entire state of North Carolina is not a solid bloc of backwards, anti-science people. Do not buy into the “dumb southerner” narrative recently peddled by our president, a man clearly limited in empathy and appreciation for science. There are smart people and organizations working to protect the state’s coast, such as the North Carolina Coastal Federation, Duke University’s Orrin H Pilkey, retired East Carolina researcher Stanley Riggs, UNC professor Jason West, and former legislator Deborah K Ross, to name a few. As Hurricane Florence rips into seaside towns, floods rivers, damages fragile coastal ecosystems, and destroys homes, remember that it is also destroying real lives. Remember that it’s affecting those who believe in climate science and fight for progressive values below the Mason Dixon Line. It will affect nursing homes in Lumberton, farmers in Nash county, professors in Chapel Hill, hospitality workers in Wilmington. The storm will probably have an outsized effect on those who don’t have the time or privilege to ponder the latest models of rising seas. A childhood friend and I have been texting as Florence barrels toward our parents’ homes. This one feels different, I wrote yesterday, and she agreed. While hurricanes have always pummeled the coast, research indicates they’re stronger than ever. A recent report notes that Hurricane Florence will produce 50% more rain due to climate change. “Never have I been so anxious,” a friend writes on Instagram, posting a picture of his family’s wooden beach cottage, which looked beautiful all summer. Now it just looks vulnerable. There is a potential radical shift at hand for all of us who grew up on the coast, a reckoning with the new and sometimes terrifying normal of climate change – where there is no normal. The most radical shift may be occurring right now among moderates and conservatives who have long dodged the science of a warming planet and rising seas. They will be forced to consider its realities: sunny day flooding (Wilmington had 84 days of high tide flooding in 2016), more extreme weather events, a rapidly changing coastline, and the loss of culture and landscape. Those who have stayed doggedly rooted to the past, or maintained a business-first mentality, may have their eyes opened uncomfortably to the future. And how we talk to those people, and about them, matters. We must speak honestly and unabashedly about climate science in the south. Communicating in a direct and compassionate – not condescending – way about climate change could put us on a more collaborative and inviting path toward solutions. We need change and resilience more than we need to score a point. • Megan Mayhew Bergman is the director of the Robert Frost Stone House Museum at Bennington College, and is also the director of Middlebury’s Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/hurricane-florence', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/megan-mayhew-bergman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | world/hurricane-florence | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-15T10:00:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2013/sep/13/green-leader-natalie-bennett-party-pleasant-green-field | Green leader Natalie Bennett says her party is like a 'pleasant green field' | Green leader Natalie Bennett paints her party as a "pleasant green field in which we can all pass the ball between each other". Delegates at the autumn conference in Brighton certainly began by living up to this tree-hugging, hand-holding image as it all kicked off with a minute of silent "attunement" for reflection. Speakers were barely able to finish a sentence without a bout of cheerful clapping and Bennett received a warm reception for her attack on the "virtually indistinguishable" major parties. Over the next few days, they will debate topics such as ending food poverty, abolishing the monarchy, re-nationalising the railways and the gender balance of the leadership. Along the way, they will enjoy a vegetarian barbecue or two in the evenings, as well as something called a Hullabaloo Quire (songs of protest and celebration from around the world). It all sounds as wholesome as a fresh green apple, but scratch the surface, and things aren't quite perhaps as rosy as they first appear − the party is treading water in the polls and struggling with its own internal battles. While the Tories tore themselves apart over Europe and Labour takes on the unions, the Greens have been fighting like rats in a black plastic sack over waste collection in their stronghold of Brighton. The row came to a head earlier this summer after the city council, led by Jason Kitcat, backed a plan that would see bin workers' pay cut by up to £4,000 a year. This provoked a furious response from Caroline Lucas, Brighton's Green MP and a former party leader, who joined protests against the policy. More than 40 members of Kitcat's party signed an open letter calling on him to go. Lucas revealed on the conference's first day that the party may have to resort to mediation to sort out the issue. As for the people of Brighton, the party's biggest pool of voters, many were less than impressed when their bins went uncollected during the week-long strike in June. It is not the only dispute to rock the party. A Green party committee warns in its conference report that there is a "culture of bullying in many areas of the party and at all levels, which is our collective duty to address and eliminate". It talks of "a number of very difficult disputes to deal with, resulting in some expulsions". The most high-profile case was the sacking of a Christian Green councillor, again in Brighton, for refusing to back gay marriage last year. There also appears to be a deep ideological split between the "watermelons", red on the inside with a soft spot for Labour, and the "mangoes", yellow on the inside who are more partial to liberal politics. Bennett argues it is inevitable to have internal rows when the party has such a loose structure of local groups and rejects too much centralised control. The party is "much stronger" after the bin dispute and the whole episode was a lesson in being part of "grown-up" decision-making in local government, she said. However, another senior Green figure points out it is not unusual for fights to break out when a party finds itself in an uncertain place in the political landscape. Even Bennett admits the party faces a tough fight to hold on to its parliamentary seat and council over the next few years, especially as public interest in green issues has taken a hit during tough economic times. Although the Greens have the advantage of their own MP, surveys suggest they are typically winning single-digit percentage points of the vote, while Ukip is consistently gaining more than 10%. There is bemusement among delegates about the success of their rival fringe party, which has soared to prominence in the last year. Bennett utterly dismisses Nigel Farage, saying that waving a pint and a cigarette will not make him a serious leader. But at the same time, Green members can attend a talk on Saturday about "how to break into mass popular awareness as Ukip has done". There are perhaps more similarities than either side would like to admit − a membership of protest voters, an anti-establishment vein, a proudly amateur streak, a certain nostalgia for simpler times, and of course, the inner turmoil. But as the Greens themselves acknowledge, they haven't quite cracked Ukip's wider appeal − yet. | ['politics/green-party', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'politics/ukip', 'politics/labour', 'politics/nigel-farage', 'politics/caroline-lucas', 'tone/news', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/natalie-bennett', 'type/article', 'profile/rowena-mason'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-09-13T18:42:24Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2008/apr/17/food.recycling | Ask Leo: Leo Hickman on the alternative to buying fizzy drinks | My kids love drinking fizzy water, but I hate putting the plastic bottles into the bin (there is no plastic recycling where we live) and the only versions I can find in nearby shops in glass bottles have been shipped from Italy. When I was a kid I remember that my dad used to give us carbonated water from a soda fountain. Is this a greener alternative? What about all the gas canisters? Dr Hannah Barker, Manchester I feel as if I'm being tempted down a wormhole back to 1981 when I, along with just about everyone of my contemporaries, were "getting busy with the fizzy". The ubiquitous SodaStream seemed to make perfect sense back in those less health-aware times - instead of buying pop from the local shop why not just make it at home yourself, while at the same time recreating the frisson and mock danger of a science-class experiment? - but I can't actually recollect seeing one of these machines in someone's home for at least 20 years. So I was surprised to discover that SodaStreams are still out there dispensing drinks and nostalgia in equal measure. In fact, look on the SodaStream website and you can find plenty of evidence that it has survived the turning of the millennium. For example, it is now offering a caffeine-fuelled energy drink concentrate for its machines (I shudder to think what would happen if anyone were ever to drink that neat rather than dilute it first), and it is also making environmental boasts. "With no batteries or electricity, SodaStream is a highly energy-efficient small appliance," it says. "The power supply comes from Alco2Jet cylinders, which are refillable. When you bring back your empty cylinder, we refill it and distribute again. By using our carbonating bottles, you are not wasting plastic throwaway bottles or cans." It also claims that over three years a family of four using a SodaStream can cut their "soft-drink-related packaging usage by over 90%". If minimising plastic waste is your main goal then, yes, it does seem that using your own soda fountain has merit. But an arguably even greater advantage is that these machines use tap water instead of relying on water being transported all the way from their source. Time for a full-scale revival, perhaps? · Post questions and answers to Ask Leo The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1 3ER Fax: 020-7713 4366. Email: ethical.living@theguardian.com Please include your address and telephone number | ['environment/food', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'food/food', 'environment/ethical-living', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'environment/series/ask-leo-lucy', 'profile/leohickman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-04-17T00:51:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2018/jun/08/oxford-street-london-traffic-sadiq-khan-westminster | Oxford Street – and its traffic – will make or break Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty | Christian Wolmar | Westminster city council’s decision to block the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street threatens to undermine Sadiq Khan’s hopes of a legacy that will be remembered for decades. Khan is now facing the biggest test of his mayoralty. If he allows the scheme to fall by the wayside, his tenure will be seen as a failure and London will be left with a shabby, polluted street as its once-famous commercial centre. The pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, which Khan adopted as his policy after I suggested it at one of the hustings during the mayoral candidate selection process, is key to its future. With online shopping causing daily casualties of well-known high-street retail names, is it any wonder that fewer people want to brave the fume-filled narrow stretches of pavement when 50% of the street’s space is given over to empty buses and taxis? There have been four deaths and numerous serious injuries caused by motorised traffic on the road in the two years since Khan took over. This carnage should not be allowed to continue. Moreover, there is the arrival in December of Crossrail, whose trains will bring up to 1,200 people into the street’s two stations, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street, from a single train – and there will be up to 24 per hour in each direction. Most cities in the world have learned that pedestrianised areas lead to an improved economy and a better environment and yet Westminster, a deeply reactionary Tory-led authority which makes tens of millions of pounds of profit from parking tickets and fines, insists London remain in the dark ages. Its Tory leader Nickie Aiken, who, astonishingly, revealed the council’s decision to block pedestrianisation on the very day House of Fraser announced it was closing its store, admitted in double negative speak that, “we do think that most people, ourselves included, feel that doing nothing is also not an option”. Yes, two-thirds of local people objected to the closure, but only because they feared more traffic on their local streets, which is unlikely to happen since only the buses and taxis currently allowed in Oxford Street will be displaced. So the effects will be minimal. More importantly, two-thirds of Londoners overall supported the plan and the mayor must show that he represents them, not the few misinformed nimbys of Westminster. Khan, quite rightly, condemned Westminster’s decision but that’s the easy bit. He seemed to make no commitment to pushing ahead with the scheme other than a vague pledge: “I won’t walk away from Oxford Street.” Neither has he set out any strategy about what action he could take. Westminster seems intent on stalling through yet more consultation, but the time for talking is over. Instead, Khan must show that he really believes in a policy that has widespread support across London. He could take lessons from his predecessor. Most of what Boris Johnson did as mayor was showboating, but his one success was the cycle superhighways. They are now used by tens of thousands of cyclists daily and yet, at the time, some key business interests, notably the Canary Wharf Group, threatened legal action, horrified by the thought that humble cyclists would be given priority over limos speeding along Lower Thames Street. The powerful taxi lobby was also intent on wrecking the scheme. Nevertheless, Boris – backed by his eccentric cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan – held firm and the world-class route along the Embankment is his legacy. Gilligan was a genuine cycling proselytiser and campaigner; Khan, on the other hand, has appointed a cycling and walking commissioner, Will Norman, who comes across as a bureaucrat. Khan has further weakened his position by having just replaced his deputy mayor for transport, Val Shawcross, with the former MP Heidi Alexander, who has no previous experience in transport. Khan must throw his natural caution to the wind and show Westminster he means business; he can do this by cutting off any funds going to the council since every borough gets an allocation from Transport for London. He should continue to move bus routes away from Oxford Street, which in any case is a necessary step to closing the street to traffic, and he could even threaten to ban licensed cabs from Oxford Street. The very future of the centre of London is at stake. • Christian Wolmar is a writer and broadcaster specialising in transport | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'uk/london', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/politics', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'lifeandstyle/cycling', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'politics/transport', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/christianwolmar', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-06-08T16:33:41Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2019/nov/13/india-to-use-hydrogen-based-fuel-as-delhi-pollution-continues | India says it plans to use hydrogen-based fuel to tackle air crisis | The Indian government has said it intends to use hydrogen-based fuel technology to help combat pollution, as Delhi was once again enveloped in “severe emergency” levels of smog. Pollution levels in the capital peaked to dangerously high levels just over a week after the city endured its longest spell of hazardous air quality since public records began. The overall air quality index in the city was 494 on Wednesday morning, according to the monitoring agency Safar, almost 10 times the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO). It prompted judges at India’s supreme court to once again criticise the government for failing to prevent noxious conditions in the capital and surrounding states. “In our view, little constructive efforts have been made by the government and other stakeholders to find solutions to the problem,” said the supreme court judges Ranjan Gogoi and SA Bobde. “The whole of north India […] is suffering from the issue of air pollution.” However, the solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, told the supreme court that the central government was exploring the introduction of hydrogen fuel technology – to be specially developed by Japanese experts – across the capital as an alternative to some of the polluting fuels used in factories, cars and public transport. Hydrogen fuel, which produces only water as a byproduct, is increasingly used in China, Japan and Germany as a clean energy alternative in public transport, and was pivotal in helping Japan tackle its pollution crisis. The government will submit a full report on the hydrogen fuel proposal to the supreme court by early December. One of the biggest causes of pollution, farmers in the nearby states of Punjab and Haryana burning their crop stubble, has carried on unabated, despite warnings by the supreme court. So far this year, Punjab has registered 48,683 crop fires and it is the smoke from these flames alongside colder weather conditions that lock in the fumes that have been a key contributor to northern India’s pollution crisis of the past few weeks. It was into this severe pollution and thick brown smog, which limited visibility to a few metres, that Prince Charles arrived on Wednesday, on his first stop on a two-day visit to India. Top on his agenda is tackling climate change and environmental concerns. On Wednesday afternoon he met with the Indian Meteorological Department in Delhi. | ['world/delhi', 'world/india', 'world/world', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/air-pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/hannah-ellis-petersen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-11-13T12:54:10Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2015/sep/25/anti-radicalisation-awareness-kit-never-meant-for-use-in-schools-says-key-author | Anti-radicalisation kit never meant for use in schools, says key author | One of the experts quoted in the government’s anti-radicalisation awareness kit has distanced himself from the handling of the report, arguing it was never meant to be used in schools and that people need to be “trained in how to use it and how not to abuse it”. Another specialist, Prof Michele Grossman of Victoria University, whose research is acknowledged in the report, has questioned the use of an environmental activist, “Karen”, as an example of a violent extremist, saying it “fudges and blurs some of the lines” between activism and violence. The booklet has attracted the ire of green groups for highlighting the example of a forest activist involved in the “alternative music scene”. Emeritus Professor Gary Bouma, who is quoted extensively throughout the booklet, told Guardian Australia that while he stood by the research, it was never intended to be distributed to schools. “It was meant for professionals who are leaders in communities, and to be used in training sessions to make people aware of the background of social and cultural factors that lead in very rare cases to radicalisation,” he said. “We workshopped it with communities … then out of the blue the Attorney General’s Department decided to send it around to schools.” Bouma said the example of Karen was a well-established case study, but had been shared with the department “as an example of someone who in fact did not radicalise”. Prof Pete Lentini, who also worked on the project, confirmed Karen was a real-life example. But he said “radical” had been used in the booklet as a neutral, technical term referring to “a change in belief structure” - not as a pejorative label. “I actually think, thank God for radicals, things like the suffragette movement, anti-slavery, and so on,” he said. “And I actually got interested in the study of politics through alternative music.” About three dozen people were interviewed for the research on which the booklet drew, most of which was given to the department more than three years ago, he said. He said the researchers were aware “Muslim communities have been taking it very hard for the last decade because of what people are doing in their name”, and so they endeavoured to show there was “a spectrum of radical politics”. Like Bouma, he said the research was never intended to be distributed to schools. “This was geared towards civil servants and general law enforcement … But you produce a report and the client does whatever they want with it,” he said. News of the booklet, launched last week by the counter-terrorism minister, Michael Keenan, was first published in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph under the headline, “Schoolyard Terror Blitz”. But Bouma said the information in the kit was not intended for public consumption. “People should have been trained in how to use it and how not to abuse it … to simply throw it out there was not the intention,” he said. Other experts in radicalisation told Guardian Australia on Monday that teachers should not to “jump to conclusions” about students who show symptoms described in the kit, warning Australia risked its own Ahmed Mohamed incident. Ahmed, 14, was arrested in Texas last week after a clock he assembled was mistaken by a teacher for a homemade bomb. Grossman, who also said she was unaware the booklet was being produced and distributed to schools, questioned the use of the case study relating to “Karen”. “For me, that is not an example that I think is particularly helpful,” she said. “I think we want to be very careful not to conflate political activism automatically with violent extremism. “There is a difference between people who get involved in what you would call incidental violence as a result of a political protest. To me, that’s not what we mean when we talk about facing and tackling the very serious issues around violent extremism. “It’s going to draw attention away from some of the really valuable things that are included in the awareness kit that should be up for discussion and debate.” The Greens on Friday called for the prime minister to “recall and recycle” the kit. “This booklet is so tainted by Tony Abbott’s politics of fear it should be shredded. Malcolm Turnbull has got to assert his leadership and declare Abbott’s culture wars are over,” said the Greens leader Richard Di Natale. “Australians who care about our incredible natural environment should be congratulated, not silenced, abandoned and demonised as they have been by this Liberal government.” • This article was amended on 26 September 2015 to clarify that Gary Bouma fully supported all the research behind the anti-radicalisation awareness kits. | ['australia-news/australian-security-and-counter-terrorism', 'australia-news/australian-education', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/religion', 'world/islam', 'australia-news/police-policing-australia', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-safi'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-09-25T02:27:46Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2022/may/09/climate-limit-of-1-5-c-close-to-being-broken-scientists-warn | Climate limit of 1.5C close to being broken, scientists warn | The year the world breaches for the first time the 1.5C global heating limit set by international governments is fast approaching, a new forecast shows. The probability of one of the next five years surpassing the limit is now 50%, scientists led by the UK Met Office found. As recently as 2015, there was zero chance of this happening in the following five years. But this surged to 20% in 2020 and 40% in 2021. The global average temperature was 1.1C above pre-industrial levels in 2021. It is also close to certain – 93% – that by 2026 one year will be the hottest ever recorded, beating 2016, when a natural El Niño climate event supercharged temperatures. It is also near certain that the average temperature of the next five years will be higher than the past five years, as the climate crisis intensifies. “The 1.5C figure is not some random statistic. It is rather an indicator of the point at which climate impacts will become increasingly harmful for people and indeed the entire planet,” said Prof Petteri Taalas, head of the World Meteorological Organization, which published the new report. “For as long as we continue to emit greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue to rise,” said Taalas. “Alongside that, our oceans will continue to become warmer and more acidic, sea ice and glaciers will continue to melt, sea level will continue to rise and our weather will become more extreme.” Natural climate cycles can nudge global temperatures up or down. But the Paris Agreement requires nations to hold the underlying rise, driven by human activities, to well below 2C, as well as pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5C. The world’s scientists warned in 2018 that 1.5C of global heating will bring severe impacts to billions of people. “A single year of exceedance above 1.5C does not mean we have breached the iconic threshold of the Paris Agreement, but it does reveal that we are edging ever closer to a situation where 1.5C could be exceeded for an extended period,” said Dr Leon Hermanson, at the Met Office. “The possibility of surpassing the 1.5C threshold, even if only for a year, is worrying,” said Dr Andrew King, at the University of Melbourne. “Our greenhouse gas emissions are still at near-record highs and until we get emissions down to net zero we’re going to continue to see global warming. Rapid and drastic emissions reductions are needed urgently.” “To actually exceed the [Paris] target we’d have to be above 1.5C even in a ‘normal’ year” unaffected by natural climate variations, said Prof Steven Sherwood at the University of New South Wales. “But the report reminds us that we are getting uncomfortably close to this target.” The annual forecast harnesses the best prediction systems from climate centres around the world to produce practical information for decision-makers. It found a higher chance of rain in 2022 compared with the average of the past 30 years in northern Europe, the Sahel, north-east Brazil and Australia, while drier conditions than usual are forecast for south-western Europe and south-western North America. Prof Taalas also warned of especially rapid heating at the north pole: “Arctic warming is disproportionately high and what happens in the Arctic affects all of us.” The shrinking of sea ice and its knock-on effects have been linked to extreme weather events in Europe, the North America and Asia, including heatwaves, floods and even snowstorms. The forecast indicates that the rise in Arctic temperatures will be three times greater than the global average over the next five years. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'world/arctic', 'environment/environment', 'environment/elnino', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2022-05-09T21:00:19Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2014/may/09/obama-solar-power-initiatives-california | White House solar panels power up | Barack Obama will on Friday unveil several new initiatives intended to expand the deployment of solar power on Friday, as officials confirmed that a set of solar panels on the roof of the White House was now operational. Obama will – once again – bypass a deadlocked Congress and use his executive authority to announce $2bn funding for energy-saving measures at federal government buildings, as well as new financing and training programmes for solar installations. The announcements, to be made on a trip to California, cap a climate-focused week at the White House, following the release of an authoritative report on the growing threat posed by heat waves, severe downpours and sea-level rise. White House officials told a conference call with reporters the initiatives were intended to add momentum to the solar industry, which has seen rapid expansion over the last two years. “We are going to be doing everything we can, with the tools that we have to move forward,” said Dan Utech, special assistant to the president on energy and climate change. In a largely symbolic move, the White House began installing a small set of solar panels on the roof last summer. The fit was now complete, officials said, releasing a video in which the panels were shown being installed. “The size of the array we established here is the typical size for the average American house, ” said James Doherty, the White House usher. Security concerns had prevented the whole roof being covered, he said. The solar panels were part of a broader energy retrofit at the White House, demonstrating it was possible to introduce renewable energy even in historic buildings, officials claimed. Solar panels were originally installed at the White House under Jimmy Carter, but Ronald Reagan ordered them dismantled in 1986. Obama brought in the latest solar technology as a sign of his commitment to renewable energy. The panels will repay the costs of installation within eight years, officials said. Solar power is the fastest-growing source of renewable energy in America. However, it still acounts for just 1% of overall electricity generation, according to the Energy Information Administration. The White House has been working to challenge companies such as Walmart and Ikea to expand their use of solar power. The president travelled to California on Friday to visit a Walmart store in Mountain View, where the company will commit to doubling its use of solar power. Walmart already produces and uses more solar power than any other big-box retailer – more than twice as much as Costco, its nearest competitor. That still amounts to only about 4% of its overall energy use provided by solar power, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The environmental group Friends of the Earth said holding up Walmart as an example was misguided. “Walmart has both under-reported its greenhouse gas emissions and failed to meet its 2012 targets,” the group said. The measures outlined on Friday add to a suite of programmes that have made it more easier and more affordable for companies and homeowners to install solar panels. Tax credits have helped offset the costs, and the price of solar panels has fallen by half just since 2010. On Friday, Obama will announce measures designed to make solar panels affordable even for multi-family houses, and new programmes to train solar installers at community colleges. | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'business/wal-mart', 'business/business', 'business/useconomy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2014-05-09T10:00:02Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2018/jun/07/protesters-trying-to-save-sheffield-street-trees-avoid-jail | Sheffield tree protesters get suspended sentences | Three tree campaigners have avoided jail after being found in contempt of court for demonstrating against tree-felling work in Sheffield. Simon Crump, Benoit Benz Compin, and Fran Grace were taken to court by the city’s council as part of a long-running dispute over the city’s plans to fell up to 17,000 trees. A judge at the high court in Sheffield on Thursday found that the trio had breached an injunction by entering “safety zones” around trees to stop them being chopped down. The judge, Mr Justice Males, gave both Crump and Compin a two-month prison sentence, suspended for one year. He decided no further punishment was appropriate for Grace. Males said he would reserve judgment on a fourth defendant, Paul Brooke, as he said there were further legal issues to consider. The controversial tree-felling programme was paused in March following a fresh series of confrontations earlier this year, which entailed the deployment of dozens of police and arrests of protesters. In August the city council obtained an injunction to stop protesters taking direct action against the felling of trees as part of a £2.2bn PFI deal to maintain Sheffield’s roads and pavements. The council said its outsourcing company, Amey, removed trees only if they were “dangerous, dying, diseased, dead, damaging or discriminatory” (the last meaning they could damage pavements and potentially obstruct disabled residents). But protesters accuse Amey of chopping down healthy trees for the reason that they were more costly and difficult to maintain than young saplings. The environment minister, Michael Gove, has described the programme as “bonkers”. This week Males pushed the council’s legal team to confirm explicitly that the case was being brought with the blessing of Sheffield city council leader, Julie Dore, who has only rarely spoken publicly about the dispute. After a short adjournment, Yaaser Vanderman, the council’s barrister, said he had been assured that Dore “positively agreed that proceedings should be brought”. Last year another protester, Calvin Payne, was found to have breached an injunction not to enter a “safety zone” around trees earmarked for the chop, and to have incited others on Facebook to follow his lead. He was given a suspended sentence and told to pay the council’s £16,000 legal costs, after the local authority instructed a prominent QC for a one-day hearing. Local celebrities, including Jarvis Cocker, helped crowdfund the legal fees for Payne and another protester who was handed an £11,000 bill for spending 10 minutes in a tree safety zone. | ['uk/sheffield', 'society/localgovernment', 'world/activism', 'politics/pfi', 'environment/forests', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-06-07T17:28:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
politics/2022/jul/13/tory-leadership-hopefuls-domain-web-addresses-boris-johnson | How Tory hopefuls snapped up campaign web addresses well before Boris Johnson quit | How early is too early to start planning your run for party leadership? Do it too soon and you might look disloyal to the current prime minister, but leave it to late and you could miss the starting gun entirely. You might think you could start planning in secret, like Rishi Sunak did, but one little thing will give you away: your web address. Sunak’s team registered his official website, Ready4Rishi.com, on 6 July, the day after he quit his post as chancellor, according to public records. That might have been a bit forward, since Boris Johnson had yet to announce plans to resign as PM, but it’s barely a paper cut compared to the knife in the back he’d delivered the day before. Except that six months earlier, as the prime minister was in the depths of the Partygate scandal, a very similar web address was registered: Readyforrishi.com. That address, which now redirects to Sunak’s official campaign, was snapped up on 23 December and kept secret for more than six months of supposed collegiality. Sunak’s team denies that they’re the owners of the second address, even though the spelling matches that of his campaign Twitter account. Why might Sunak be so eager to secure his valuable online real estate? Look no further than the dark horse of the race for leader, Penny Mordaunt. Her slogan, “PM4PM”, might be a bit on the nose, but it seems like she settled on it a very long time ago: the address PM4PM.com was registered in May 2019, months before the resignation of the last prime minister, Theresa May. In the end, Mordaunt decided not to run in that race, but kept hold of the web address anyway. And her team’s fast fingers aren’t just playing defence. In the last few days, competitors who weren’t quick enough to secure their own turf have found Mordaunt already there. Nadhim Zahawi has been campaigning with “NZ4PM” – but as of Wednesday, NZ4PM.com will take you to Mordaunt’s page instead. Suella Braverman didn’t go for the short form of her campaign slogan, but lost out to Mordaunt nonetheless, with Suella4leader.co.uk now hijacking would-be visitors to the attorney general’s website. Such “domain squatting” is legal, though frowned upon, in most situations. It can be relatively easy to fight if the squatted domain is a registered trademark, or if the squatter is clearly attempting extortion by, for example, offering to sell the domain at an inflated price. But there’s one leadership contender who Mordaunt’s campaign hasn’t nobbled: Kemi Badenoch – perhaps because they fear what could happen if they spark a head-to-head cyberwar. Badenoch is no stranger to playing dirty online, the former equalities minister admitted in 2018. That year, she came clean that she had been behind the hack and defacement of Harriet Harman’s website in 2008, when a then-unidentified prankster had guessed the password to the MP’s site and updated it with a message supporting Boris Johnson’s candidacy to become the mayor of London. Badenoch confessed to the hack in response to a question about the “naughtiest” thing she had ever done, but insisted it wasn’t “real hacking”. Real hackers, however, were angry that the MP was laughing off an action for which others have gone to prison. “If a Conservative MP can admit to a computer crime on television and get away with it, then that says the law is not being enforced equally in the UK,” Mustafa Al-Bassam, a former member of the hacking collective LulzSec, told the Guardian at the time. | ['politics/conservatives', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'politics/penny-mordaunt', 'uk-news/nadhim-zahawi', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/politics', 'technology/internet', 'politics/suella-braverman', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/lulzsec', 'uk/uk', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/analysis', 'politics/kemi-badenoch', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-07-13T14:55:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2019/jul/09/glacial-melting-in-antarctica-may-become-irreversible | Glacial melting in Antarctica may become irreversible | Antarctica faces a tipping point where glacial melting will accelerate and become irreversible even if global heating eases, research suggests. A Nasa-funded study found instability in the Thwaites glacier meant there would probably come a point when it was impossible to stop it flowing into the sea and triggering a 50cm sea level rise. Other Antarctic glaciers were likely to be similarly unstable. Recent research found the rate of ice loss from five Antarctic glaciers had doubled in six years and was five times faster than in the 1990s. Ice loss is spreading from the coast into the continent’s interior, with a reduction of more than 100 metres in thickness at some sites. The Thwaites glacier, part of the West Antarctic ice sheet, is believed to pose the greatest risk for rapid future sea level rise. Research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal found it was likely to succumb to instability linked to the retreat of its grounding line on the seabed that would lead to it shedding ice faster than previously expected. Alex Robel, an assistant professor at the US Georgia Institute of Technology and the study’s leader, said if instability was triggered, the ice sheet could be lost in the space of 150 years, even if temperatures stopped rising. “It will keep going by itself and that’s the worry,” he said. Modelling simulations suggested extensive ice loss would start in 600 years but the researchers said it could occur sooner depending on the pace of global heating and nature of the instability. Hélène Seroussi, a jet propulsion laboratory scientist at Nasa, said: “It could happen in the next 200 to 600 years. It depends on the bedrock topography under the ice, and we don’t know it in great detail yet.” Antarctica has nearly eight times more land-based ice than Greenland and 50 times more than all mountain glaciers combined. The Thwaites glacier alone contains enough ice to increase global sea levels by about 50cm. Sea level rise linked to warming has already been linked with increased coastal flooding and storm surges. The researchers found a precise estimate of how much ice the glacier would shed in the next 50 to 800 years was not possible due to unpredictable climate fluctuations and data limitations. However, 500 simulations of different scenarios pointed to it losing stability. This increased uncertainty about future sea level rise but made the worst-case scenarios more likely. A complete loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet would be expected to increase global sea levels by about five metres (16ft), causing coastal cities around the world to become submerged. A separate study last week in the same journal found the expanse of sea ice around Antarctica had suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014. Satellite data showed Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years as the Arctic lost in 34 years. Unlike the melting of ice sheets on land, sea ice melting does not raise sea levels but the loss of the reflective white ice leads to more of the sun’s heat being absorbed in the ocean, increasing the pace of heating. Antarctic sea ice had been gradually increasing during 40 years of measurement and reached a record maximum in 2014, before falling markedly. The cause of the abrupt turnaround has not been established. | ['world/antarctica', 'environment/glaciers', 'environment/sea-level', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/science', 'science/nasa', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/poles', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-07-09T10:50:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/new-carbon-offetting-schemes-emissions-development | New carbon offsetting schemes aim to reduce emissions and aid development | Many may think that carbon offsetting has had its time, but you might be surprised to discover that leading sustainable businesses are reviving their faith in the idea. Aviva, the UK's largest insurer is one such organisation. The company's humanitarian and environmental work in Kenya, where it helps fund gravity-fed water filters, and in India, where it supports the use of clean energy cookstoves, has been a pioneering success. Not only has it made the lives of 200,000 people safer, it has also offset more than 126,000 tonnes of CO2 in two years. The insurance company is carbon-neutral, offsetting all its emissions and supporting projects such as these through specialist partner ClimateCare. "It's what our customers and investors expect," says Zelda Bentham, head of environmental and climate change at Aviva, adding that the model brings reputational benefits too. Aviva's approach to these projects represents a signpost for the future. Instead of concentrating on just one type of scheme – environmental or humanitarian – the insurance firm is bringing them together. Supplying water filters, for instance, saves people in Kenya from boiling water on open fires, which emits considerable carbon dioxide. It also makes their daily lives easier and safer. While helping deliver a measurable social benefit, Aviva can use the reduction in C02 emissions to meet its own carbon-offsetting targets. Jamal Gore, chair of the International Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Alliance (ICROA), says the social aspect of these "dual schemes" helps businesses explain the value of what they are doing. "In many cases, [benefits to people] are the features of the projects that stand out when publicising carbon neutrality," he says. The networking potential of such schemes, whether with local government representatives and suppliers or with NGO and community leaders, offers an additional incentive for organisations to get involved, according to Rob Stevens, head of client relations at ClimateCare. "Multinationals are, increasingly, seeing their growth coming from emerging markets," says Stevens, who helped co-ordinate Aviva's offset programme. "And these projects provide an amazing platform to strengthen their networks." In a similar vein, efforts to promote economic development in these emerging markets should theoretically reduce the socio-political risks associated with future investments there. What's the price tag? Anyone can support these climate and development projects, buying as little as one tonne of carbon on the ClimateCare website. However, corporate partners are increasingly looking at a project's long-term sustainability and want to get involved upfront with bespoke projects so that they can claim greater ownership for the project delivery. Developing a new project to provide a community with biomass-fuelled portable cookers with ClimateCare costs around £125,000, according to Stevens. Stevens is confident that the kind of holistic offsetting model proposed by ClimateCare represents a viable approach to tackling development challenges as well as climate change. "There is a growing feeling in the private sector that they have got to take action themselves because governments aren't leading," he says. "Companies are seeing climate change, resource restrictions and community development as future risk, and they aren't waiting for governments to force them to take action." That's not to say the road ahead will be easy. The wider offsetting market has suffered some high-profile failures in the recent past. The criticism levelled at the government-backed EU Emissions Trading Scheme will leave many business leaders wary. Likewise, reports of bogus projects under market-based initiatives such as the UN's Clean Development Mechanism have heightened public scepticism. As a consequence, many have found it too easy to discount offsetting, without fully understanding the facts. Unlike most major offsetting initiatives, the combined climate and development model advocated by the likes of ClimateCare is helping change this perception. It remains early days for many companies when it comes to investing in community projects overseas. International law firm Osborne Clarke is typical in focusing most of its budget domestically. But that could change, says company spokesperson Simon Marshall: "As we grow increasingly international as a firm and we do more business in developing countries I think we'll have a greater international dimension to our CSR [Corporate and Social Responsibility]." Fellow law firm Herbert Smith Freehills also anticipates augmenting its range of programmes as it expands its offices in the developing world. At present, the London-based firm runs a free legal assistance facility for government officials in Sierra Leone. Developing a more human side to offsetting promises to go down well with employees and customers too. Zelda Bentham at Aviva is sure that these two key stakeholder groups will increasingly want and expect large corporations to commit to humanitarian and environmental causes. Bringing the two aims together produces "more of a resonance" with both parties, she insists: "More of our employees are picking up on our carbon offsetting. There's bigger and more positive feedback." This content is brought to you by Guardian Sustainable Business in association with ClimateCare. Produced by Guardian Professional to a brief agreed and paid for by ClimateCare. All editorial controlled and overseen by the Guardian. | ['sustainable-business/series/in-focus-carbon-finance-for-development', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'type/article', 'profile/neasamacerlean'] | sustainable-business/series/in-focus-carbon-finance-for-development | EMISSIONS | 2013-11-27T07:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2013/oct/22/rainforests-francis-halle-il-etait-une-foret | Welcome to the jungle: the botanist trying to alter perceptions of rainforests | At an age when freedom passes allow pensioners to take on the challenge of clambering to the top deck of a bus, Dr Francis Hallé is more likely to be found perched at the top of a tree. The retired professor of botany is 75 and has just completed his first film. In it he can be seen standing, without a safety rope, on a branch of a massive moabi tree 230 feet above the forest floor. He is at ease, seemingly oblivious to the dizzying drop and, as the camera pans away, the beauty of the forest stretching into the distance becomes apparent. But it is a bittersweet image. During his lifetime he has watched helplessly as tropical forests undisturbed for millennia have been logged, razed and ploughed. In an attempt to bring world attention to the plight of the rainforests he spent 25 years seeking a film-maker who could breathe life into a film in which trees are the stars. His search ended when he met Luc Jacquet, the Oscar-winning director of March of the Penguins, who was looking for a new challenge after his Antarctic success. The result of the collaboration is Il Etait une Forêt. Hallé hopes the film can bring the same public attention to forests as Jacques Cousteau did for marine life: "When I was young I saw the first film of Commander Cousteau [The Silent World]. This film had a very big impact on the public in many places in the world. So our aim – Luc and I – is to inform the public but also to try to modify behaviour." His main concern is for primary tropical forests, the undisturbed jungles that take at least 700 years to re-grow and which now cover a tiny fraction of what they did even half a century ago. "When I was a young scientist in the 1960s primary rainforest was everywhere in the tropics," he said. "Africa, Asia, South America. Everywhere. "Fifty years later there are practically no primary forests left in the tropics. This happened over my lifetime. I'm a witness to it." Had he suggested back in the 1960s that the forests were on their way out "everybody would have laughed". Much of the problem, he believes, is that the public still regard tropical forests as lethal tracts of jungle where humans should fear to tread. The truth, he says, is that when the forests are left undisturbed by logging and other destructive human activities, they are havens of tranquillity. He said: "When you talk about the forest everyone is horrified. It is seen as a 'green hell'. It's still considered dangerous and without interest. "We wanted to renew the image of the forest. It's not dangerous, it's not terrifying. It's extremely relaxing and extremely beautiful. This is what we want to say, what we want to demonstrate." It is so peaceful in the forest, he adds, that he can think of few things that he would prefer to walking on the tops of trees in the jungle: "Sometimes it is really useful to have a rope but many times I am so comfortable that I am just free. It's extremely pleasant for me. I draw at the top of the tree. I'm a draughtsman so I like to draw." Once he saw a rainforest for himself, Jacquet needed little persuasion to make the film. He said: "I needed to know if it was inspiring. I went, and it was just magic. First of all, I felt very comfortable in the forest. It was quiet and natural, it felt safe. I felt a connection. "It was like discovering an observed yet secret universe. We have all seen many forests in the world but it felt secret. "For me, this film had to be done. This is my moral position. We hope it is going to change things. We have to try. We must try! "This is important for me. I find very strong and deep emotions in that place. To think that these things will disappear and my children won't be able to see them – I can't accept it." • Il Etait une Forêt, distributed by Disney, will open in France in November. It is due to be shown in the UK in 2014. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'tone/features', 'world/world', 'environment/biodiversity', 'world/france', 'film/documentary', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'type/article'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-10-22T09:50:40Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/2015/feb/16/graphene-food-waste-circular-economy | Turning our mountains of food waste into graphene | Blended cocoa beans, rice, fruit skins, leeks and asparagus sounds like it should be a recipe for a disastrous smoothie. But these are just some of the wasted foodstuffs that are being treated and converted into materials, with environmental benefits. Scientists at the City University of Hong Kong have found that they can turn coffee grounds and stale bakery goods – collected from a local Starbucks – into a sugary solution that can be used to manufacture plastic. The food waste was mixed with bacteria and fermented to produce succinic acid, a substance usually made from petrochemicals, that can be found in a range of fibres, fabrics and plastics. Meanwhile, engineers at the Colorado School of Mines have discovered a way to turn banana peels, eggshells and rice husks into glass. By blending, drying and pounding it into a fine powder, and with a little help from the magic of science, they found the mixture could provide some of the metal oxides required in the composition of glass. Ivan Cornejo, a professor at the university, told the Denver Post at the time that such an innovation could reduce the need to mine for silica, one of glass’s primary components. Food into graphene Now, a new EU project, PlasCarb, is researching a way to fashion food waste into graphene. It’s perfectly timed, given the recent buzz surrounding the material and its potential to revolutionise the green industry. The material, discovered in 2004, is so super, Bill Gates is even investing in it to develop an ultra safe condom. The project uses a process known as anaerobic digestion (AD), where waste is converted into biogas. Finding a new lease of life for food waste using AD isn’t anything out of the ordinary. Businesses have been using the process to make energy for some time. Most notably, early last year, Harvest Power, a Brooklyn-based waste treatment plant, built a digester to deal with waste coming from Disney World. More recently, Sainsbury’s partnered with recycling specialists Biffa to launch their first shop powered by food waste collected from the chain’s stores. But PlasCarb takes the process one ambitious step further. “Together with an innovative low-energy plasma reactor we convert the biogas from AD, which is mainly methane and carbon dioxide, to graphitic carbon [from which comes graphene] and renewable hydrogen,” explains project manager Neville Slack, from the Centre for Process Innovation. Beyond the science and technicalities of the process, PlasCarb offers a possible dual advantage over how traditional materials and gases are produced: a happier environment and a commercial use for food waste from a range of industries including retail and hospitality. “The obvious benefit is taking waste destined for landfills and transforming it into raw materials in a sustainable way,” adds Slack. “Graphene is the latest wonder material. Hydrogen has also been identified as a future transport fuel for a low carbon economy.” Food mountains According to the PlasCarb, 95% of hydrogen currently comes from fossil fuels. And some bioplastics produced from crops such as corn are beginning to be deemed unsustainable. The belief is that there won’t be an endless supply of crops, but whether we like it or not, there will probably always be a high volume of discarded food. Growing materials from waste streams could also reduce concerns over how corn-based biopolymers may impact on crop prices, land availability and food shortages. Graphene and hydrogen from surplus food are desirable alternatives, but despite the exciting prospects they offer, Slack and his team aren’t getting ahead of themselves. There is still a question of scalability and how both small and large businesses could access the technology to deal with their waste. He says the project is still in its infancy – it’s in its second year of its three-year duration – and that the economics of it all need to be ascertained. A pilot trial lasting at least a month will see 150 tonnes of food transformed into 25,000 cubic metres of biogas and then on into the graphitic carbon and renewable hydrogen. The results of this will give the team some indication about future market interest and uptake. There’s no doubt that, if scaled up successfully, PlasCarb could play a key role in helping prolong food’s life cycle. But Slack suggests that it doesn’t take away from the fact that, in an ideal world, there wouldn’t be any waste at all. Even though the EU has steps in place to improve the situation (including a target to reduce waste by about 30%), estimates indicate that more than 100m tonnes of food is thrown away annually across the union, and this could rise to 126m by 2020 if not enough action is taken. The circular economy hub is funded by Philips. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/food', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/rich-mceachran'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-02-16T10:02:22Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/feb/27/huge-crowds-expected-for-greta-thunberg-visit-to-bristol | Huge crowds expected for Greta Thunberg visit to Bristol | A huge security operation is being put in place in Bristol for a visit by Greta Thunberg that is expected to attract a crowd of around 25,000, most of them children and young people. Police and Bristol council officials said there would be significant disruption for the youth climate strike on Friday and warned that they could not be responsible for the care of unsupervised children. The Guardian heard from children and adults across the country, as far afield as Scotland, who have said they will be attending. Special coaches are being arranged from London, Cardiff, Exeter, Oxford and Birmingham, and rail and bus stations are gearing up for a huge influx of youngsters keen to take part in the strike and hear Thunberg speak. At least one Bristol school is expected to close and the numbers will be swollen by thousands of students from the city’s universities and colleges. Police advised people to think carefully before coming into Bristol if they are not taking part in the strike. Youth striker Kai Damani, 18, a sixth form student, anticipated that up to 30,000 people could attend. Thunberg is due to make a speech on College Green outside city hall before joining a march around the city. She may also visit a mural of herself in the Bedminster area of Bristol. Damani said the movement was working closely with the police and the city council and would provide its own stewards and wellbeing officers to help. He also said that the risk from coronavirus had been considered but it had not received advice from the authorities to call the strike off. Bristol city council’s executive director, Mike Jackson, and Supt Andy Bennett, the city’s police area commander, issued a joint statement in which they said they were working to manage public safety and minimise disruption. But they said: “We know there will be major disruption to the city. We have seen a number of protests over the last year. However, this one will be significantly larger. “We want to ensure that anyone planning to attend is prepared and able to make their own safety and safeguarding arrangements. Parents are responsible for their children. The council and police are not responsible for unsupervised children. “The event has grown so large that the usual controls, stewarding and safety measures that are routinely put in place by the teenage Youth Strike 4 Climate organisers may not be adequate, especially for primary school children and people with disabilities. “We would encourage those attending, or who are responsible for children who wish to attend, to consider their arrangements carefully and make their own informed decisions. Please do not underestimate the scale of this protest. “We’re working to ensure Bristol is open as usual, but would urge people to allow extra time for travel and consider whether their journey is necessary.” Johnny Palmer, founder and managing director of the Bristol company SolCell, which will be providing green energy for the sound system, said his eight-year-old son, Wilfred, would be helping him for the day rather than going to school. “For him, it’s a way of taking positive action rather than suffering from climate change anxiety,” he said. Ishmael, a 13-year-old from Bristol who is attending, said Thunberg’s visit might inspire those who do not usually attend to turn out: “Lots of us are regular protesters. However, I think this might help others feel like pulling their sleeves up and joining in.” Willow, a 15-year-old from Gloucestershire, and some of her friends were planning to head to Bristol. She said: “It shows that it takes one person to stand up to something which is not right, and many, many people will stand with them. It shows that time is running out and we are in serious need of change. And it shows that young people should not be underestimated – we have a voice and we are strong.” A father said his six-year-old wanted to attend. He added: “I might take our 20-month-old too but it depends on his nap.” Bristol Green party councillor Carla Denyer said: “I fully support the children in taking part in this strike. I have been helping the organisers with some logistics and will be there in person on Friday. Of course education is important, but so is ensuring they have a healthy environment to grow up in. “Greta Thunberg and the millions of climate strikers she inspired have played such a crucial role in forcing climate change up the agenda and ensuring that politicians and other leaders cannot be seen to be ignoring the issue.” | ['environment/greta-thunberg', 'uk/bristol', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'profile/caroline-bannock', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-02-27T07:00:40Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
news/2020/apr/29/weatherwatch-deadly-tornadoes-hit-us-while-cuba-has-hottest-day | Weatherwatch: deadly tornadoes hit US while Cuba has hottest day | In the space of a week in April, Mississippi, US, was hit by four separate tornadoes. Three of these occurred on Easter Sunday and brought damaging winds reaching 190mph. These left one person dead and another injured, as well as damaging many homes and mobile homes. A week later, on 19 April, another tornado brought winds of up to 170mph to southern Mississippi, creating a total of 227 miles of damage through the state in the course of a week. Records were broken last week when, on 25 April, a tropical depression formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean, almost three weeks before the official start of the eastern Pacific hurricane season. The depression occurred far out at sea, south-west of Mexico, and didn’t make landfall. However, this is the earliest ever recorded formation of a tropical depression in the ocean basin since records began in 1966. Another record was broken this month when Cuba recorded its highest temperature since records began. On 12 April temperatures reached 39.3C in the town of Veguitas. This was mainly due to a strong high pressure system and light winds allowing for heat to become trapped at the surface. The previous record had been 39.1 degrees, recorded last year on 30 June. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/mississippi', 'world/cuba', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-04-29T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2014/jun/17/greenpeace-3m-gamble-dividends-climate-change | Greenpeace's £3m gamble could yet reap dividends in the fight against climate change | John Vidal | A "well intentioned but inexperienced" person in Greenpeace International's finance department gambles on a currency deal and loses the group £3m. Its political enemies smirk, thousands of small donors question the Amsterdam-based organisation's financial competence, and the folk who make a business of pointing out other people's faults are humbled and have to apologise. On the surface this seems like many other finance scandals, with a single person, a rogue trader, blamed for what is probably an institutional failure. But it raises other questions: was this bad luck or bad organisation? Should Greenpeace be indulging in high-risk trading? Was this financial speculation or hedging? Was it balancing risk or trying to profit from markets it little understood? Some context is needed: £3m is a lot of money, especially when made up of the millions of small donations on which Greenpeace traditionally depends – but it is less than 1.5% of Greenpeace's turnover. The organisation may like to be seen as the brave underdog, but it employs 2,200 people, turns over about £200m a year worldwide and is just as much a multinational as the oil and chemical companies that it challenges in court or at sea. Its turnover may be less than the budgets of many oil company marketing departments, or the combined salaries of a few chief executives, but it is no political or financial ingenue. Greenpeace's growing size makes it more effective worldwide, but it also makes it harder for people to sympathise when it gets it wrong. The £3m loss also hides the fact that even without its rogue trader the group lost money last year. The recession has been particularly hard for international charities, who are increasingly constricted by governments and have had to cut staff, reduce salaries and retract, thanks largely to the greed of bankers and financial institutions who plunged whole economies into crisis with their risk-taking. The irony is that it is really only the international environment and development groups such as Greenpeace, Oxfam, FoE International, Third World Network and WDM that are challenging rich governments' ideological reliance on volatile and risky markets to provide the money promised for poor countries to adapt to climate change, redress deforestation and avoid ecological disaster. It hurts when Greenpeace loses the widows' mite, but it will be nowhere near as painful as when countries such as Bangladesh or the Maldives are told there is no money in the Green Climate Fund, the IMF or the World Bank to build defences against rising sea levels or storm surges because anonymous rogue traders and trusted financiers in New York or London have misjudged the market and lost billions. If it only costs £3m for Greenpeace to prove to the world that speculation on risky markets to raise money is madness, then it may be money well spent. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'world/world', 'world/protest', 'tone/comment', 'society/charities', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-06-17T14:19:51Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2022/sep/24/uk-energy-system-state-coffers-britain-british-public | The UK’s energy system is fattening state coffers – just not Britain’s | Frances O'Grady | Despite yesterday’s mini-budget, nearly every family will face the winter with much higher bills than last year. The current government support to keep bills down is just a short-term sticking plaster. Liz Truss and her ministers have no long-term solution. Clues to the answer we need lie in Munich, Germany, where a dad takes his daughter swimming in an Olympic-sized pool. And in Bergen, Norway, where a student receives her engineering degree without paying a penny in tuition fees. And on the windswept coast of Brittany, France, where a grandmother gets her energy bill, delighted to find it barely changed from last year – despite French companies facing surging wholesale prices for gas. What do they have in common? And how does that relate to your rising energy bills? All of the above have been funded with the proceeds of energy companies – including profits made from offshore windfarms in Britain. While the UK sold off its energy industry to private companies, the governments of France, Denmark, Norway, and several German provinces and cities chose a different path. They developed publicly owned energy companies, alongside private sector competition. Without shareholders extracting value, these companies generated billions to reinvest in services, infrastructure and lowering bills. The Norwegian people now own one of the world’s largest investment funds – so big that it provides a fifth of the nation’s budget year on year. This is in large part because it directed profits from its North Sea oil and gas fields into a sovereign wealth fund. The UK could have done the same. But we allowed private companies to take all the profit. Oil and gas are not the only riches off our shores. Powerful winds course across the North Sea like rich seams of gold. But unlike gold – or fossil fuels – no matter how much you take, it never runs out. Over the past two decades, Britain has had the second largest expansion of offshore wind power in the world. This time, much of the profit flowed into the public purses of other countries: to Sweden, via the company Vattenfall; to the United Arab Emirates, via Masdar; to Canada, via a Quebec public pensions investment fund. Meanwhile, fabrication yards and ports stood empty in Scotland and north-east England as wind turbine contracts went elsewhere in the world. And crews servicing turbine construction sites were found to be working for less than the national minimum wage. Research published today in a TUC report shows that if the UK had a publicly owned energy champion like other countries, the Treasury could receive between £63bn and £122bn over the next two years due to the escalation of wholesale energy prices. That’s at least £2,250 for every UK household – enough to cover the bulk of the government’s energy price guarantee. This should not just be a moment for looking back in regret. It’s not too late to change our approach. In fact, we are still in the early stages of a major energy transition. In the years ahead, the UK will need to build a tremendous amount of new clean energy infrastructure, to reduce our reliance on volatile fossil fuels and to keep the climate safe for future generations. The British public should get the full benefit of this UK-generated energy. Our report sets out proposals for the creation of a public energy champion to give the British people a major stake in our new energy infrastructure. And to make sure that the profits come back to the public purse – the UK’s public purse. The national wealth that will be generated is not the only benefit. Energy companies are tools for long-term transformation too. When their only aim is public benefit, they can help change the nation in positive ways for us all. Public energy champions can think ahead to the energy mix needed for the future. They can pioneer technologies, as Orsted did with offshore wind and EDF with nuclear. On the scale of German or French companies, a new UK public energy champion could build 27-77 gigawatts of new, clean-electricity-generating infrastructure. This is at least a tenth, and up to a third, of the power needed for UK homes and industries by 2050. They can set the gold standards on being a good employer, with best practice in workplace safety, pay, benefits and workforce relations. EDF, for example, practises this across many of its operations, from working to make construction a welcoming industry for female workers, to taking care of workers’ re-employment when coal power plants are wound down. For customers, public energy champions provide price stability even when global markets are volatile. And they enable support to households who need it, whether in an energy crisis or not. If we get on the right track now – if we invest in a public energy champion – it will help ensure that our children and grandchildren live in warm homes, breathe clean air and work in good jobs. Frances O’Grady is general secretary of the TUC | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/frances-o-grady', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-09-24T07:00:08Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2023/jun/08/canada-wildfires-air-quality-preparedness | Canada battles hundreds of wildfires as smoke still chokes major cities | Wildfire crews in Canada continue to battle hundreds of blazes across the country as air quality in major cities remains poor and other regions brace for intense heat. And as the country burns, experts warn Canada needs to do a better job of readying its communities in areas increasingly prone to destructive blazes. More than half of the 414 fires across the country are out of control, said the emergency preparedness minister, Bill Blair – with the hottest and driest months still to come. Paul Kovacs, the executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University, said Canada was increasingly seeing two wildfire peaks: one in the late summer, and one in the spring. “When the snow melts early in the spring, and hot, dry weather comes very early, you have this window of vulnerability,” he said. “Spring fire is much more evident than it was 20 or 30 years ago. And while we might get a bit of quiet in the coming weeks as the green returns, we’ll be on edge all over again soon after.” Weeks of late spring wildfires have broken records in many regions of Canada, including in Nova Scotia, where sprawling, destructive wildfires are rare. In Quebec, where more than 160 fires are burning and the smoke has pushed down into the United States prompting dozens of air quality warnings, the province’s premier pleaded with residents to follow evacuation orders. “Don’t put your life in danger,” said the premier, François Legault. “When we ask you to evacuate it’s because there’s a real risk.” In the worst-hit areas, northern Quebec and the western Abitibi region, no rain is forecast in the coming days. “I want us all to be realistic so that we don’t see things through rose-coloured glasses,” said Legault. Already more than 11,000 people have been displaced by the wildfires and a record 457,000 hectares have burned. “In the history of [the agency] – nearly 50 years – we’ve surpassed the worst year on record,” Quebec’s natural resources minister, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, told reporters. “It’s a situation that’s unprecedented.” Legault told reporters the province was working with France, the United States, Portugal, Spain and Mexico to get additional fire crews, adding he was hopeful the number of firefighters on the ground would jump from 520 to 1,200 in the coming weeks. The Canadian armed forces already have 150 members helping battle the fires, but the military commanders say requests from all over the country are putting a strain on resources. Even in regions where wildfire is a more common seasonal occurrence, records appear set to fall. British Columbia is struggling to contain the Donnie Creek wildfire, already more than 3,100 square kilometres in size and projected to keep growing. The blaze in north-eastern BC is the second largest ever recorded for the province. In Ontario, where the nation’s capital and surrounding communities have spent days under a thick haze of smoke, the premier, Doug Ford, has not yet called for a province-wide ban on campfires, despite more than 50 blazes in the province. During a legislative session in Toronto, he accused the New Democratic party leader, Marit Stiles, of “politicizing” the wildfires after she asked him why he was not linking the blazes to human-caused climate change. Ford instead said lightning and campfires were to blame. “They happen every single year,” he said. Ford’s natural resources minister told reporters that climate change was “real and happening”. As the country grapples with historically high temperatures, prolonged periods of drought, officials have started speaking about more proactive measures. “In coming years, we will have to reflect seriously on how we can equip ourselves to deal with this new reality,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, told reporters on Wednesday, adding the government might create a federal disaster-response agency to better enable officials to “predict, protect and act”. But Kovacs said the country already had a plan – it just needed more money. In 2005, the federal government and provinces developed the Canadian Wildland Fire Strategy. At the time, they suggested C$2.32bn (US$1.74bn) was needed to better address wildfire risk. But, after 10 years, only C$1.47bn was spent. “We know what we need to do. We have a plan. We just need to fund it,” he said. Kovacs also says the recent fires highlight the need for a nationwide building code that reflects the growing risk of intense fires. “Our infrastructure construction should be wildfire resilient and should be part of how we live as a nation,” he said. “In addition to the conversation about more firefighters and how to organize them, there’s also a need for how to live with fire, and in particular, how to build our buildings and take care of our buildings so that they’re safe from fire.” | ['world/canada', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'world/wildfires', 'world/canada-wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | world/canada-wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-06-08T16:23:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/sep/13/killer-whales-launch-orchestrated-attacks-on-sailing-boats | Scientists baffled by orcas ramming sailing boats near Spain and Portugal | Scientists have been left baffled by incidents of orcas ramming sailing boats along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. In the last two months, from southern to northern Spain, sailors have sent distress calls after worrying encounters. Two boats lost part of their rudders, at least one crew member suffered bruising from the impact of the ramming, and several boats sustained serious damage. The latest incident occurred on Friday afternoon just off A Coruña, on the northern coast of Spain. Halcyon Yachts was taking a 36ft boat to the UK when an orca rammed its stern at least 15 times, according to Pete Green, the company’s managing director. The boat lost steering and was towed into port to assess damage. Around the same time there were radio warnings of orca sightings 70 miles south, at Vigo, near the site of at least two recent collisions. On 30 August, a French-flagged vessel radioed the coastguard to say it was “under attack” from killer whales. Later that day, a Spanish naval yacht, Mirfak, lost part of its rudder after an encounter with orcas under the stern. Highly intelligent social mammals, orcas are the largest of the dolphin family. Researchers who study a small population in the Strait of Gibraltar say they are curious and it is normal for them to follow a boat closely, even to interact with the rudder, but never with the force suggested here. The Spanish maritime authorities warned vessels to “keep a distance”. But reports from sailors around the strait throughout July and August suggest this may be difficult – at least one pod appears to be pursuing boats in behaviour that scientists agree is “highly unusual” and “concerning”. It is too early to understand what is going on, but it might indicate stress in a population that is endangered. On 29 July, off Cape Trafalgar, Victoria Morris was crewing a 46ft delivery boat that was surrounded by nine orcas. The cetaceans rammed the hull for over an hour, spinning the boat 180 degrees, disabling the engine and breaking the rudder, as they communicated with loud whistling. It felt, she said, “totally orchestrated”. Earlier that week, another boat in the area reported a 50-minute encounter; the skipper said the force of the ramming “nearly dislocated the helmsman’s shoulder”. At 11.30 the previous night, British couple Beverly Harris and Kevin Large’s 40ft yacht was brought to a sudden halt, then spun several times; Harris felt the boat “raise a little”. Earlier that evening, Nick Giles was motorsailing alone when he heard a horrific bang “like a sledgehammer”, saw his wheel “turning with incredible force”, disabling the steering as his 34ft Moody yacht spun 180 degrees. He felt the boat lift and said he was pushed around without steering for 15 minutes. It is not known if all the encounters involve the same pod but it is probable. Dr Ruth Esteban, who has studied the Gibraltar orcas extensively, thinks it unlikely two groups would display such unusual behaviour. Alfredo López, a biologist from the Coordinator for the Study of Marine Mammals in Galicia, said orcas made their way up the coast each September from the Gulf of Cadiz to chase tuna into the Bay of Biscay. Morris’s sailing job was abandoned after the boat was lifted for repair, and she was diverted to another delivery. She is currently sailing down the Spanish coast and in the early hours of Friday a VHF radio warning came in. “All ships, all ships,” it began. “Orca just north of Vigo” – five miles from her location. After her last experience, Morris is a little jumpy, but, as a science graduate with plans to study marine biology, she is concerned for this vulnerable population of orcas and interested to learn more. She’d just prefer not to get too close a view next time. | ['environment/marine-life', 'tone/news', 'sport/sailing', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/spain', 'science/science', 'world/gibraltar', 'environment/whales', 'environment/environment', 'science/animalbehaviour', 'world/portugal', 'type/article', 'profile/susansmillie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-09-13T06:27:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/2017/may/27/waste-free-living-gadgets-list-themselves-on-ebay-lidless-bottles-design | Waste-free living: from gadgets that list themselves on eBay to lidless bottles | Modern life is wasteful. From the plastic packaging that fills our kitchens – and ends up in our oceans – to the 40m tons of e-waste we generate per year, our throwaway culture is alive and kicking. And it’s wreaking havoc on the planet. But a host of designers, researchers and startups are on the case, coming up with new ideas to cut waste and make life more efficient. Here are six of our favourites. 1) Use Me/Lose Me What if that sandwich maker gathering dust at the back of your cupboard could list itself on eBay? That’s the vision of design consultancy IDEO, which has come up with a proposal for getting unloved appliances back into circulation, saving materials and money and diverting e-waste from landfill. The Use Me/Lose Me service would monitor your appliances via web-connected chips and if anything went unused for too long, ping you a text with its likely market value. By replying to the text, you would authorise it to upload the product’s details on to an auction site and manage the sale, payment and shipping process – leaving you just to remove it from the cupboard and take it to the front door, says IDEO portfolio director Chris Grantham. The key question, he says, is: “How can we make this easier than remembering to go to the dump on a Saturday?” 2) Bottles without lids When designer Marilu Valente set out to reduce waste in personal care packaging, she found inspiration in the shape of the carnivorous Nepenthes plant. Her resulting bottle design aims to tackle the problem of small, hard-to-recycle bits of plastic which often end up in landfill, or waterways, by doing away with the need for a separate lid. Instead of a cap, the bottle’s flexible, slender spout plugs into a cavity on the side, sealing the container when it’s not in use. Nepenthes, which is currently just a prototype, also unplugs at the bottom, making it easy to clean and reuse, says Valente. The self-funded designer, who has not yet settled on a material for the concept, says she is in talks with mould manufacturers and has been approached by personal care brands. 3) DIY plastics recycling If Dutch designer Dave Hakkens gets his way, all of us could soon be turning plastic packaging into new products via home or community-based plastic recycling machines. His open-source Precious Plastic device is designed to give ordinary people around the world the tools to turn plastics lying around their neighbourhoods into useful and valuable items, from clipboards to bowls. Hakkens shares blueprints, step-by-step instructions and useful templates online to help people build and operate the machines, which he says are easy to assemble using basic tools and low-cost materials. The technology, which was highlighted in a recent report on digital disruption by UK innovation foundation Nesta, can be used to start a business, he says – and he won’t be asking for a share of the profits. 4) Tabletop composting Taiwan-based startup Bionicraft wants to encourage urban dwellers living in small spaces to put their food scraps somewhere more useful than the bin. Its indoor, table-top ecosystem uses earthworms to turn food waste into soil, which is then used as a bed for plants, or can be removed for use in other plant pots. The system, is able to process up to 3kg of food waste per week, says founder Brooklyn Chao, who hopes it will also remind people to reduce waste by planning their meals better. Chao’s team raised around $60,000 (£46,000) on Kickstarter to fund project development and the first production batch, priced at $169 a go, will be ready to ship soon, says Chao. 5) Fruit-protecting plasma Also taking on the food-waste challenge are startups and researchers promising to radically extend shelf life. California-based Apeel Sciences is touting an “invisible, tasteless and edible” substance made from waste farm produce such as banana peel and broccoli stalks, which it says can roughly double the life of avocados, mangos and citrus fruits by providing a protective layer against oxidation and transpiration. Meanwhile, Australian researcher Kirsty Bayliss has found a way to use plasma technology – already established in medicine and dentistry – to ward off mould from fresh produce and grains. In lab tests the technique, which uses an electrical charge to generate the plasma, doubled avocado shelf life to 10 days, says Bayliss. She is hoping to trial the approach at scale in the avocado industry and expects eventually to develop a small device for use at home, or by smallholder farmers, with a price tag of around $100. 6) Single-use shampoo pods When 14-year-old Benjamin Stern saw a video of a turtle snarled up in plastic waste, he decided to start a business focused on getting unnecessary plastics out of the bathroom. Now 18, the CEO of Nohbo is four years – and a couple of prototypes – into his project to develop packaging-free, single-use shampoo portions for travellers and hotels. First designed as a hard ball which lathered on contact with water, Nohbo had to be redesigned after some of the first commercial batch broke apart during shipping last year, says Stern. The latest version is a shampoo pod, encased in a film made from water-soluble polymer PVOH. The company aims to release the new line in Autumn this year, says Stern. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/food-waste', 'science/science', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/technology', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'profile/olivia-boyd', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-05-27T07:00:21Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2020/mar/12/un-under-fire-over-choice-of-corporate-puppet-as-envoy-at-key-food-summit | UN under fire over choice of ‘corporate puppet’ as envoy at key food summit | A global summit on food security is at risk of being dominated by big business at the expense of farmers and social movements, according to the UN’s former food expert. Olivier De Schutter, the former UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said food security groups around the world had expressed misgivings about the UN food systems summit, which is due to take place in 2021 and could be crucial to making agriculture more sustainable. “There’s a big risk that the summit will be captured by corporate actors who see it as an opportunity to promote their own solutions,” said De Schutter, who criticised the opaque evolution of plans to hold the meeting, which he said emerged from “closed-door agreements” at the World Economic Forum in Davos. His comments followed protests last month over the announcement that Agnes Kalibata, the former Rwandan minister for agriculture, would lead the event, despite her role as president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), which has been accused of promoting damaging, business-focused practices. De Schutter emphasised that his comments were not directed at Kalibata personally. In February, 176 organisations from 83 countries signed a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, saying Kalibata’s appointment was “a deliberate attempt to silence the farmers of the world” and signalled the “direction the summit would take”. Kalibata was appointed by Guterres to serve as his envoy to the summit. Last year, the US national academy of sciences awarded Kalibata the public welfare medal for her work in improving livelihoods. The UN pointed to her accomplishments as an agricultural scientist and policymaker and said her time as minister had driven “programmes that moved her country to food security, helping to lift more than a million Rwandans out of poverty”. But signatories to the letter, published on the website of the Oakland Institute, accused Agra of being “puppets of agro-industrial corporations and their shareholders”. Agra was established in 2006 as an African-led, Africa-based institution. According to its website, it “puts smallholder farmers at the centre of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives”. Over the past decade Agra has been funded by the UK, as well as Canadian and US government agencies. De Schutter, who is now co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, said the opinions of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) committee on world food security (CFS) risked being drowned out during the summit. The CFS was formed in 2009 with the aim of giving farmers and communities an equal say with big businesses. “If anything, [CFS] has been more successful than anticipated,” said De Schutter. “The reality is the private sector has felt, whether correctly or not, it was marginalised in the CFS and thus it was tempting for them to establish other forums where they might feel more comfortable and set the tone for discussions.” He called for the summit to be built around the CFS and to highlight and support sustainable systems that worked for small-scale farmers. The letter to Guterres said: “With 820 million people hungry and an escalating climate crisis, the need for significant global action is urgent to deliver on the sustainable development goals by 2030”. However, Agra’s involvement would “result in another forum that advances the interests of agribusiness at the expense of farmers and our planet”, said the signatories. The letter also accused Agra of “diverting public resources to benefit large corporate interests”. Since 2006, Agra has worked to open up Africa – seen as an untapped market for corporate monopolies controlling commercial seeds, genetically modified crops, fossil fuel-heavy synthetic fertilisers and polluting pesticides. “This is an ill-conceived approach focused on monocultural commodity production by large agribusiness at the expense of sustainable livelihoods, human development, and poverty eradication,” the letter said. The UN said Kalibata’s role was to work with governments and stakeholders “to galvanise action and leadership” for the summit, speeding up efforts “to make food systems inclusive, climate adapted and resilient, and support sustainable peace”. Waiganjo Njoroge, Agra’s interim head of communications, said Kalibata was “committed to enabling an inclusive process that will draw upon the thoughts, evidence, and commitments from stakeholders all around the world”. He defended her record of “delivering an agricultural transformation that pulled millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty in her home country” and said she was “now driving a similar transformation across the continent”. In an article published by Thomson Reuters Foundation, Kalibata wrote: “We need to harness all innovative ideas and develop deeper partnerships to make this happen. As the summit’s special envoy, I will steward a global conversation to define the food systems we want for our future. This will be done by learning from each other, particularly smallholder farmers, indigenous peoples, and those who deal with food systems every day.” | ['global-development/food-security', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/rwanda', 'world/africa', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/farming', 'environment/pesticides', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/saeedkamalidehghan', 'profile/kaamil-ahmed', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-03-12T07:00:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2014/jan/09/australia-has-2m-small-scale-renewable-systems-says-clean-energy-regulator | Australia has 2m small-scale renewable systems, says Clean Energy Regulator | Australia now has more than 2m small-scale renewable energy systems, according to the Clean Energy Regulator, the falling cost of solar panel systems and the renewable energy target credited for the milestone. The Clean Energy Regulator, a government agency that oversees Australia’s renewable energy targets, said the 2m systems could generate 6,882 gigawatt hours of electricity a year. This equates to the amount of electricity required by about 1.04m Australian homes, equivalent to all households in Perth, Hobart, Darwin and Canberra combined. The bulk of the small-scale systems are solar-based. 1.1m are solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop appliances, with a further 842,000 solar systems used to generate hot water. A small amount of wind and hydro energy makes up the rest of the total. “Assisted by falling system costs coupled with financial incentives derived from the renewable energy target, small-scale systems have become more and more affordable for everyday Australians,” said the Clean Energy Regulator. The milestone comes just eight months after Australia achieved its first rooftop solar systems. The renewable energy target, which mandates that 20% of Australia’s energy must be from renewable sources by 2020, is currently under scrutiny, with the government set to review the target. As reported by Guardian Australia, several members of the Coalition want to scale back or completely dismantle the RET, claiming it adds to energy costs. Russell Marsh, policy director at the Clean Energy Council, said the push to scrap the RET was “concerning” given its effectiveness. “We’ve got no real indication which way the government is going to go but we’d hope they will conclude the RET is a good piece of policy,” he said. “The RET is helping Australians install solar PV and it’s clear there is a tremendous appetite across Australia for people to install technology in their own homes and effectively generate their own energy. “If you look at the reports from state regulators, all have indicated that the cost of the RET is a tiny part of people’s power bills, only a couple of a percent. This tiny cost is far outweighed by the benefits and the investment flowing from the RET to renewable energy is actually having a moderating effect on power prices.” | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2014-01-09T06:14:14Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2018/may/11/hurricane-season-may-be-even-worse-in-2018-after-a-harrowing-2017 | Hurricane season may be even worse in 2018 after a harrowing 2017 | The US may have to brace itself for another harrowing spate of hurricanes this year, with forecasts of an active 2018 season coming amid new research that shows powerful Atlantic storms are intensifying far more rapidly than they did 30 years ago. The peak season for Atlantic storms, which officially starts on 1 June, is set to spur as many as 18 named storms, with up to five of them developing into major hurricanes, according to separate forecasts from North Carolina State University and Colorado State University. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will soon provide its own 2018 hurricane predictions. The initial forecasts of an above-average season for hurricanes follow a punishing 2017, most notable for Hurricane Harvey, which drenched large areas of Texas, Hurricane Irma’s sweep over Florida and the devastation that stubbornly lingers in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria. These huge hurricanes brought winds of up to 185mph and lashing rains, causing hundreds of deaths, flattening homes, felling power lines and ruining roads. Combined, the three storms caused around $265bn in damage, and all ranked in the five most destructive hurricanes ever recorded. Many communities, particularly in Puerto Rico and Texas, are still struggling to recover from last year’s hurricanes as the upcoming storm season approaches. And while the US may be spared 2017 levels of devastation this year, scientists have warned that the warming of the oceans, driven by climate change, is likely to stir greater numbers of prodigious storms in the future. Atlantic hurricanes are intensifying far more rapidly than they did 30 years ago, according to a new study that analyzed the acceleration in wind speed of previous storms. Major hurricanes are defined by a sharp increase in speed, of at least 28mph in a 24-hour period. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that these big hurricanes are, on average, speeding up 13mph faster in this 24-hour period than they did 30 years ago. Much of this has to do with shifts in a natural climate cycle called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Separate research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research suggests this natural variation will combine with escalating warming in the oceans and atmosphere, caused by the burning of fossil fuels by humans, to produce stronger hurricanes in the future. A warm ocean surface, combined with consistent wind patterns, contribute to the formation of fiercer, if not more numerous, hurricanes. In the weeks before Hurricane Harvey smashed into Texas in August last year, the Gulf of Mexico’s waters were warmer than any time on record at around 30C (86F), the NCAR research found. “The implication is that the warmer oceans increased the risk of greater hurricane intensity and duration,” said Kevin Trenberth, an NCAR senior scientist and lead author of the study. “As climate change continues to heat the oceans, we can expect more supercharged storms like Harvey. “While we often think of hurricanes as atmospheric phenomena, it’s clear that the oceans play a critical role and will shape future storms as the climate changes.” Hurricanes act as a sort of relief valve for hot tropical oceans, funneling heat away into the atmosphere. Persistent warmth in the oceans, however, adds further energy to hurricanes and risks causing worse damage to life and property when these storms make landfall. Faced with the prospect of supercharged hurricanes, as various other burgeoning climate change-related threats, Donald Trump has rescinded Obama-era rules preparing infrastructure for climate impacts. He has taken an axe to policies that would lower greenhouse gas emissions from cars and power plants and announced that the US will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. This agenda has been criticized by researchers who have called for an urgent reappraisal of the risk posed by climate change. “We know this threat exists, and yet in many cases, society is not adequately planning for these storms,” Trenberth said. “I believe there is a need to increase resilience with better building codes, flood protection, and water management, and we need to prepare for contingencies, including planning evacuation routes and how to deal with power cuts.” This year, however, the focus will again be on disaster recovery rather than long-term mitigation. Ken Graham, director of Noaa’s National Hurricane Center said that the “entire Gulf Coast is at risk from storms and that several hurricanes can strike in a single season”. “Don’t wait for a hurricane to be on your doorstep to make a preparedness plan, by then it may be too late,” he added. “Take the time now to get prepared for the season ahead.” | ['world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-05-11T05:00:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2019/jul/05/eurofins-ransomware-attack-hacked-forensic-provider-pays-ransom | Hacked forensic firm pays ransom after malware attack | Britain’s largest private forensics provider has paid a ransom to hackers after its IT systems were brought to a standstill by a cyber-attack, it has been reported. Eurofins, which is thought to carry out about half of all private forensic analysis, was targeted in a ransomware attack on 2 June, which the company described at the time as “highly sophisticated”. Three weeks later the company said its operations were “returning to normal”, but did not disclose whether or not a ransom had been paid. The BBC has reported that the company paid the hackers to regain control of its systems, although it said it had not been told how much money was paid or when any payment was made. Ransomware is a type of computer program that infiltrates an IT system and threatens to publish the victim’s data or block their access to it by encrypting files until a sum of money is paid. Since the attack, police have halted all work with Eurofins, which normally processes more than 70,000 criminal cases each year in the UK, including DNA analysis, toxicology, firearms analysis and computer forensics. The National Police Chiefs’ Council launched an emergency response to the cyber-attack to prioritise the flow of forensic submissions so that the most serious crimes could continue to be investigated rapidly. However, cases are being delayed as police struggle to allocate the growing backlog of case work. Other forensics firms doing case reviews on the behalf of defence teams have been told they cannot access files held by Eurofins, meaning prosecutions that are already under way are also being affected and some court hearings have already been postponed. Eurofins has not responded to questions from the Guardian about whether a ransom had been paid. In its last update on 24 June, the company said it had “identified the variant of the malware used” in the attack and had strengthened cybersecurity. It said at that point that its investigations had not found evidence of any unauthorised theft or transfer of confidential client data. The National Crime Agency, which is leading the criminal investigation into the cyber-attack, said whether to pay the ransom iwas a matter for the victim. Rob Jones, the director of threat leadership at the NCA, said: “We are securing evidence and forensically analysing infected computers, but due to the quantity of data involved and the complexity of these kinds of inquiries, this is an investigation which will take time, therefore we cannot comment further at this time.” The Eurofins case is the latest major problem to hit forensic provision, following the collapse of Key Forensic Services and alleged drug test manipulation at Randox Testing Services laboratory in Manchester. | ['science/forensicscience', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'technology/malware', 'technology/cybercrime', 'science/science', 'technology/data-computer-security', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/hannah-devlin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-science'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-07-05T15:51:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
artanddesign/2014/oct/14/frieze-sigmund-freud-paris-flat-sleeping-security-guard | Frieze: even sleeping security guards are art in a world of elaborate disguises | There is an ingeniousness to the way Frieze adopts its elaborate disguises. This year, perhaps the two most ardently discussed booths at the twin art fairs in Regent’s Park – Frieze, for contemporary work, and Frieze Masters, for antiquities, old masters and 20th century art – seem to have very little pretension to selling anything at all. The stand that artist Mark Wallinger has curated for Hauser & Wirth at Frieze is a reimagining of Sigmund Freud’s study; Helly Nahmad’s stand in Frieze Masters is a theatrically intricate summoning-up of a Parisian collector’s apartment in 1968. Nahmad, with co-conspirators including Sir Norman Rosenthal, the former exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, has fantasised in hectic detail the life of one Corrado N, who works at the Bourse de Paris by day, listens to Stockhausen and Berio by night, and fills his apartment with art – a Giacometti by the bed; Ernst and Schwitters and Dubuffet dotted around the walls, with a Morandi and a Fontana nodding to his Italian origins. The kitchen sink is filled with washing up. A cheap newspaper on a chair tells us that there is a “scandale enorme au coeur de l’Angleterre” and every surface is stacked high with art magazines, every wall covered with postcards and photographs and political posters apparently ripped off the streets. By the last we can date our visit to summer 1968, in the wake of the évenéments. Brigitte Bardot is on the telly. Everything is visible, nothing is tidied away – a shirt is crumpled on the bed; stamps steamed off envelopes sit on a ledge awaiting some unknown purpose. Our collector is an obsessive. He’s also invisible, ready to be invented in the mind of the viewer. As a lowkey sales pitch, it’s rather smart – can’t you imagine just slipping out of your raincoat, throwing yourself into an armchair and lighting a Gauloise as you contemplate your Miros? Booths at art fairs are usually all about the artists – this one is a piece of high flattery to the idea of the collector. At the other end of Regent’s Park, a real man is dozing in a chair, this time in the stand that Wallinger has curated, with great elan, for Hauser & Wirth. The sleeper is a security guard – a kind of personage with which both fairs are liberally provided, hardly surprisingly given that there’s a £30m Rembrandt for sale at Masters. Some of Frieze’s more expensively dressed visitors give little moues of disapproval, as if they too employ security officers, and dislike the idea of any fellow thus employed taking 40 winks on the job. It is in fact Christoph Büchel’s work, Sleeping Guard. For Wallinger, here, he is not just sleeping but dreaming. If Nahmad was delving into memory and fantasy, Wallinger plunges us into the unconscious. I begin to imagine that the artworks around me in the stand – which is painted in red and green, its floors stained dark and covered with oriental rugs – are extrusions of the guard’s dreamscape. On a couch, a naked female figure, a bronze by Bourgeois, arches her back. There are clownish, bulbous chairs by Phyllida Barlow, made from timber, plaster, polyurethane foam and scrim. Roman Signer’s Hocker mit Lampe, a red lightbulb on a wooden stool, burns reassuringly on. The stand is, as far as is possible for an array of intensely valuable art laid out at an art fair, homely. Or at least, the kind of offkey, disconcerting kind of homely we can experience in dreams. There’s a hint of anxiety in the air, though, a touch of the post-apocalyptics about the place. At Green Tea Gallery they are handing out soup – made with vegetables grown in Fukushima. I pass. Dan Gunn’s stand is a nuclear fallout shelter – at least as imagined by New York artist Michael Smith, as “Mike”, the naive, bumbling character he invented for his performances. Mike’s Government Approved Home Fallout Shelter/Snackbar was first seen in Manhattan in 1983 – “a real backroom of the psyche”, the Village Voice noted at the time. It is a bar, rather pleasant as it goes, all cluttered up with the kind of basement lumber a suburban American might have accumulated in the early 1980s – a copy of John F Kennedy’s memorial LP, a Star Wars 200-piece jigsaw. Domestic in a quieter way are João Modé’s used dishcloths and handkerchiefs folded and stitched so that their stripes and edgings form abstracted geometric patterns, shown by A Gentil Carioca from Rio Janeiro. It seems to me to be about the least showy art at either of the fairs, but oddly touching. (It was not, however, the least expensive – that was a Hogarth bookplate at Masters, which Andrew Edmunds sold as the fair opened for £350.) Even if Jean Tinguely’s hilarious, humanoid machines made from springs and chains and hair and rubber tubing were deemed too precious to be plugged in at Masters (and thus made to whir and bounce) – leaving them rather sad and lifeless – I was mesmerised by Adam Linder’s dance piece with the gallery Silberkuppe, one of a number of performance works at Frieze this year. He and a fellow dancer reacted to texts written on the spot by art writer Jonathan P Watts, sliding and gliding across their bare stand with the grace you might expect from (in Linder’s case) a man who used to dance with the Royal Ballet and Michael Clark. Humanity – despite the throng – sometimes seems absent (or at least dozing) at Frieze. Here it was in all its breathing, sweating, blood-coursing glory. | ['artanddesign/friezeartfair', 'artanddesign/art', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'artanddesign/frieze-art-fair-2014', 'books/sigmundfreud', 'books/books', 'artanddesign/mark-wallinger', 'artanddesign/ernst', 'artanddesign/giacometti', 'film/brigitte-bardot', 'film/film', 'environment/fukushima', 'world/world', 'world/japan', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/charlottehiggins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2014-10-14T21:09:53Z | true | ENERGY |
politics/2017/jun/12/michael-gove-entirely-unfit-to-be-environment-secretary-says-greens | Michael Gove as environment secretary is 'fox in charge of hen house' | Michael Gove’s appointment as environment secretary is like “putting the fox in charge of the hen house”, according to a colleague who worked alongside him in the coalition government. Theresa May announced Gove’s return to politics as part of her reshuffle on Sunday. The news was greeted with anger and frustration by environmental campaigners, who lamented his record on green issues, including his attempt to remove climate change from the geography curriculum while education secretary. Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary at the time, said anyone who cared about the environment should be “deeply worried” by Gove’s appointment. “I didn’t think it could get any worse but putting Michael Gove in charge of the environment is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. It’s bad news.” Davey said Gove had tried to remove climate change from the geography curriculum in 2013, adding that the new environment secretary also believed key EU rules – protecting anything from wildlife to air pollution – should be discarded. “There are huge issues coming down the line – from climate change to air pollution – and it makes me deeply concerned that he is in this position.” Caroline Lucas, the Green party co-leader and MP, echoed those concerns. She said it was hard to “think of many politicians as ill-equipped for the role of environment secretary as Michael Gove”. “His record of voting against measures to halt climate change and his attempt to wipe the subject from our children’s curriculum show him entirely unfit to lead our country in tackling one of the greatest threats we face,” she added. “This appointment is further evidence of both Theresa May’s complete disregard for the environment and her desperation to hold together a government in chaos.” Jon Sauven, the Greenpeace chief executive, said Gove would have to act fast to prove “he is better than his record suggests”. “Michael Gove is about to find an in-tray loaded with urgent problems, from tackling the air pollution crisis to reforming our broken farm subsidy system and protecting our oceans from overfishing and plastic waste. He should move swiftly to prove that he’s better than his record suggests,” said Sauven. As education secretary Gove tried to remove climate change from the geography curriculum saying it should be taught in science. He was forced to drop the plans after Davey, environmentalists, and teachers argued the omission would downgrade the topic and make its existence a matter of greater dispute. This year Gove underlined his opposition to key elements of EU environmental legislation, saying Brexit could allow Britain to scrap “absurd” rules such as the European commission’s habitats directive and clinical trials directive. Lucas said: “As we enter Brexit negotiations, Gove’s past suggestion we scrap vital EU environmental protections becomes ever more concerning.” During an event in 2014, Gove said “man and his activities clearly have an influence on the climate”, adding the government must “take appropriate steps to deal with it ... guided by the science and we need to make sure that we’re hard headed but realistic”. He added: “I think it’s important, too, that we recognise that climate change has had an impact on societies in the past as well.” He said that the environmental agenda had been captured “by people who want to use the genuine dangers ... as a way of providing a new rationale for greater state power and centralisation”, but he argued environmentalism was in reality a “core Conservative instinct”. Friends of the Earth said Gove’s record would rankle with young voters who had turned out in huge numbers during last week’s election. “Young people, who voted in droves at the general election, care passionately about climate change and the state of the environment,” said Dave Timms, a senior FoE campaigner. “The prime minister and Mr Gove can choose to listen to their voices, or ignore them at their own cost.” One of the first challenges Gove will face is an attempt to defend the government’s air quality plans in the high court. It is the third court appearance for ministers after their previous plans to clean up the UK’s toxic air were deemed so poor as to be illegal. Client Earth, which is bringing the case, said Gove had a “career defining opportunity” to be the politician who cleaned up the UK’s air. Gove was a leading Brexit campaigner and is a close associate of Rupert Murdoch. On Monday Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, wrote to May to ask whether the media tycoon had lobbied to get him back on the frontbench. In a statemen Gove said it was an honour to be appointed environment secretary. “As we leave the European Union, I am determined to protect our precious environment, support our thriving fishing industry and help our globally renowned food and farming industries grow more, sell more and export more great British food and drink.” | ['politics/michaelgove', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/green-party', 'politics/caroline-lucas', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2017-06-12T16:34:47Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
fashion/2018/nov/27/mps-criticise-high-street-fashion-throwaway-culture | MPs criticise high street fashion's throwaway culture | Major high street names including Primark, Boohoo and Missguided have come under fire for fuelling a throwaway fast fashion culture that has been linked to the exploitation of low-paid workers in UK factories. Britons buy more new clothes than any other country in Europe and MPs are looking at the environmental and human cost of £2 and £200 T-shirts amid growing concerns the multibillion-pound fashion industry is wasting valuable resources and contributing to climate change. The low prices in Primark stores, where T-shirts can cost as little as £2, were challenged by MPs on the Commons environmental audit select committee, who suggested shoppers viewed its clothing as disposable. “Isn’t the real problem with the fast fashion industry that if you are selling stuff at £5 people aren’t going to treat it with any respect and at the end of its life it’s going to go in the bin?” asked the Labour MP Mary Creagh, the committee chair. Paul Lister, Primark’s head of ethical trade and environmental sustainability, denied that was the case: “We are proud of the quality and durability of our garments. They are not bought to throw away.” Lister said the retailer kept its prices low by shunning traditional advertising, which saved it about £150m compared with rivals and “that goes straight into price”. He said he knew of no one under 16 working in any of its supply factories. “Factory to store, we keep our costs to the absolute minimum and in store we keep margins very tight,” he said. “Our business model takes us to a £2 T-shirt.” While Primark was forced to defend its low prices, Burberry was scrutinised over its now-defunct policy of burning piles of unsold expensive clothes. Leanne Wood, the brand’s chief people and corporate affairs officer, told MPs it was an industry-wide practice: “We’re the only luxury business that’s reported it in their accounts … but it is something that happens in the industry.” Online retailers Asos, Boohoo and Missguided were questioned about the health checks carried out on the large number of Leicester factories they worked with. An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches alleged last year UK factories supplying retailers such as River Island, New Look, Boohoo and Missguided were paying workers between £3 and £3.50 an hour. A Financial Times investigation (£) also found examples of exploitation in Leicester factories. Creagh questioned how it was physically possible for Manchester-based Boohoo to sell UK-made dresses for £5 when the hourly minimum wage was £7.83. The company’s joint chief executive Carol Kane said the company did not make any profit on the £5 dresses, which were “loss leaders” designed to attract shoppers to its website. The typically short dresses, made out of polyester and elastane, featured no zips or buttons, so were easy for machinists to run up, she said. “We do not make a profit on a £5 dress,” said Kane, adding that the cost price of the garments was even less at £2.50 to £3. “It’s a loss leader. It’s a marketing tool designed to drive visitors to the website.” Asos and Missguided told the hearing they had pulled production from a number of factories in Leicester that fell short of their standards. The select committee is examining the impact of clothing production, ranging from environmental cost to worker conditions, especially when garments are produced cheaply and quickly in response to fast fashion trends. With 300,000 tonnes of clothing sent to landfill every year in the UK, Primark said it would launch a clothing collection service in all its stores next year in a similar vein to Marks & Spencer’s “shwopping” scheme. But Mike Barry, M&S’s head of sustainable business, said collecting unwanted clothes was not the biggest problem for the industry – it has collected 30m garments over the past decade – but what to to with them, given the lack of a domestic industry to process the material. “It is quite possible to prevent clothing going to landfill but much harder to do something with the fibres you recover.” The environmental cost of UK fashion Britons spend £52.7bn a year on fashion, according to the government-backed Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap). The lion’s share (£47.4bn) goes on clothing while £4.5bn is spent on accessories. The amount of clothes bought each year continues to rise – 1.13m tonnes in 2016, up from 950,000 tonnes in 2012, according to a 2017 Wrap report. The total carbon footprint of the clothing worn in the UK was 26.2m tonnes of CO2e in 2016, up 9% on 2012. The carbon footprint per tonne fell 8% but was outweighed by the increase in consumption. About 1m tonnes of clothing is cleared out of wardrobes every year. Of that, 700,000 tonnes is collected for reuse and recycling with the remainder sent to landfill or incinerated, at an estimated cost of £82m. In the UK, two-thirds of clothing is made from synthetic plastic materials, which are among the leading contributors to microplastic pollution. Up to 2,900 tonnes of microplastics from the washing of synthetic clothing such as fleeces could be passing through wastewater treatment into UK rivers and estuaries, according to a recent Friends of the Earth report. | ['fashion/fashion', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/retail', 'business/primark', 'fashion/burberry', 'business/burberrygroup', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'business/boohoo', 'profile/zoewood', 'profile/sarahbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-11-27T19:47:41Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
artanddesign/2012/may/02/photographer-mitch-dobrowner-best-shot | Photographer Mitch Dobrowner's best shot | I'd seen some pictures taken in Tornado Alley, in the US midwest, and wanted to go there – to see its big supercell motherships for myself. So in 2009, I started going out on road trips with Roger Hill, who's been a stormchaser for 30 years. We used Rapid City in South Dakota as a base, then drove to Minnesota, Colorado and Texas, seeing some amazing phenomena along the way. This shot was taken in North Dakota in 2011. That morning, the temperature was 90 degrees, the humidity 70% and it was extremely windy – around 30mph. We knew something was going to happen, but it wasn't until early afternoon that one of the supercells began to form. After following the clouds on the interstate for about 40 miles, we eventually saw a funnel appearing. We got out of the car: although the tornado was only about a mile away, it was travelling left to right – so we were safe. I photograph landscapes a lot and have always liked to capture weather. Tornadoes aren't my primary focus, though. I much prefer the composition of clouds. But when I decided to do a series of storm shots, I envisioned a tornado as one of its cornerstone images – not for the death and destruction they can cause, but because of how beautiful they can appear. I think of storm systems as living, breathing things. They are like teenagers: in the beginning, they are violent and a little crazy; you don't know what's going to happen. Then they take on a life and an individuality of their own, but in the end they are fighting to stay alive. Some die quickly, others last for hours. I took 20 pictures, over 10 minutes. This shot captures the tornado towards its end, at a stage called the "rope out". It was much larger when it was in full force – and, within 15 seconds of this shot, it had gone completely. It was an exhilarating experience. I felt very lucky to be in the right position at the right time. It made me remember we are just on a rock spinning through space. CV Born: 1955, New York. Studied: New York Institute of Technology; self-taught photographer. Influences: Ansel Adams and Minor White High point: "The people I've met and the places I've been to, thanks to photography." Low point: "None. There are so many people with cameras. I feel very lucky to be doing it as a job." Top tip: "Only listen to criticism that is constructive and believe in yourself." • Mitch Dobrowner was a winner at the Sony World Photography Awards, showing at Somerset House, London WC2, until 20 May | ['artanddesign/series/mybestshot', 'world/tornadoes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'artanddesign/photography', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/sarahphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/arts'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-05-02T17:12:36Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2018/jul/02/chicken-farmer-given-suspended-sentence-for-free-range-egg | Chicken farmer given suspended sentence for free-range egg fraud | A chicken farmer has been given a suspended jail sentence for falsely claiming that eggs produced in crowded henhouses were free-range. Eggs from James Gigg’s farm in Dorset were sold to shops and delicatessens that marketed them to customers as free-range. Judge Paul Cook told Gigg, 41, at Taunton crown court: “You have brought shame on yourself and brought embarrassment on your family. You cheated people buying free-range eggs.” He sentenced Gigg to 12 months in jail but suspended it for 18 months because he accepted the farmer had not acted out of greed. The court was told Gigg was a hard-working man living in a mobile home who was struggling to make ends meet. “This offence was not born out of greed on your part,” the judge said. The court was told that Gigg broke EU regulations by overstocking his henhouses, which meant the eggs could not be classed as free-range – and he knew that it was an offence to do so. He also provided inspectors with false information and paperwork. His fraud was worth between £133,000 and £200,000 and involved him packing 3,000 more hens into his chicken houses than allowed. Gigg admitted fraud and giving false information to an inspector. The judge said the fraud did not have an effect on the public’s health. Ian Fenny, prosecuting, said the public bought free range eggs for “ethical considerations” and said that standards had to be implemented rigorously. Fenny said that in interviews Gigg said he was struggling financially and committed the offence out of desperation rather than greed. Sarah Regan, defending, said Gigg was in a “blind panic” when inspectors arrived and accepted he should have come clean immediately. She said his birds were perfectly healthy. | ['uk/uk', 'environment/farm-animals', 'food/eggs', 'environment/farming', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-07-02T14:35:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2016/oct/31/ifs-buts-long-term-weather-forecasting-weatherwatch | The ifs and buts of long-term weather forecasting | Ever since the Met Office was derided for predicting a barbecue summer, long-range weather forecasting for the season ahead has been avoided. The most that is attempted is 30 days, and the current forecast contains so many ifs, buts and possibilities that almost any weather might occur in November and no one could complain. That does not mean that predicting the weather for the coming season is not the ambition of every meteorologist and scientist, especially as climate change makes extreme weather both more likely and economically important. In Britain the track of depressions across the country that turn into winter storms and bring the threat of flooding are of increasing concern. The warmer atmosphere out in the Atlantic means more water in the clouds has to be deposited as rain. The second threat, extreme cold, is posed by changes in the Arctic. According to the latest research, the jet stream, that is responsible for pushing the depressions towards us across the Atlantic, is developing a wavy habit. This has led to the current dry spell as long lasting high-pressure systems block the path of the lows that would normally bring autumn rain. If the weather pattern persists, or returns in the winter, the weather will turn cold and could remain bleak for days and possibly weeks. Researchers say this has already happened in the past in the UK, and brought the winters that the Eastern United States has suffered recently with record snowfalls. And it may soon happen again. On the other hand, as the Met Office would be careful to say, it might just rain a lot. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'uk/weather', 'us-news/us-weather', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'world/arctic', 'world/antarctica', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-10-31T21:30:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2017/feb/09/government-may-change-native-title-laws-to-uphold-at-risk-mining-deals | Government may change native title laws to uphold 'at-risk' mining deals | The Turnbull government is considering changing native title laws to uphold mining deals with traditional owners that have been thrown into doubt by a landmark federal court ruling. But a lawyer for traditional owners fighting Adani’s Queensland Carmichael coalmine said claims that hundreds of projects are at risk were “a beat-up” to justify a push for legal changes aimed at nobbling his clients. The Native Title Tribunal is reviewing existing Indigenous land use agreements (ILUAs) to see if they are affected by last week’s court ruling that struck down a deal involving the Noongar people of Western Australia. The full bench of the federal court found the ILUA was not valid because not all of the Noongar’s native title claim representatives had signed it. A spokesman for the federal attorney general, George Brandis, has told the Australian the government is considering possible amendments to the Native Title Act in response. The National Native Title Council, which represents 16 Aboriginal land councils, told the newspaper that “upwards of 200” ILUAs and their attached compensation packages could be in jeopardy. But Colin Hardie, whose Brisbane law firm acts for Wangan and Jagalingou opponents to the Carmichael mine, said the Adani ILUA was one of a handful that would be affected by the federal court ruling. His clients are using the Noongar ruling to demand the miner scrap its bid to register an ILUA supported by seven of 12 W&J native title claim representatives. They have threatened fresh federal court action unless Adani drop the bid by 14 February. The ILUA is seen as crucial for Adani’s prospects of financing the mine. Hardie said ILUAs already registered with the Native Title Tribunal – even those not signed with unanimous support from native title claim representatives – would be protected under the act. He said that under section 199C (3) of the act, a registered ILUA could only be struck down by federal court order if it was shown “a party would not have entered into the agreement but for fraud, undue influence or duress by any person”. It was only future ILUAs or those applying for registration with the Native Title Tribunal, such as Adani’s, that would now need unanimous support, he said. ILUAs signed by successful native title holders could continue to be upheld in majority decisions by their prescribed body corporates, Hardie said. “The attempt to portray the ruling in the Noongar case as the native title system in crisis is a beat-up designed to take the focus away from controversial ILUAs, such as Adani’s, which seek to exchange cash and other incentives for the surrender of the rights of traditional owners of country,” Hardie said. “It is not the case that many ILUAs will be affected by the Noongar decision, or that there is now some type of systemic crisis that requires the urgent amendment of the Native Title Act.” Gavin Scott, a native title specialist at Ashurst law firm, said the “alternative argument” to Hardie’s view was that the Native Title Tribunal may consider the WA precedent to mean ILUAs without unanimous support were never valid. Scott said the fact the tribunal was reviewing existing ILUAs showed “they obviously think it’s a concern”. “I think what is exercising the tribunal’s mind, and probably people with old ILUAs, is whether the tribunal considers that they shouldn’t have been put there on the register in the first place. “It’s a nuanced legal point. That’s why the tribunal is obviously being concerned about it. “I think most of the industry are thinking this could have reaching impacts.” Hardie, whose Brisbane firm Just Us Lawyers also acts for resource project proponents, said he had spoken with a number of resource companies, including a major gas company, to “reassure them that there is no desire on behalf of our clients to resile from registered ILUAs”. “We are concerned statements from the Queensland resources council and the national native title body are inflaming the situation and causing both proponents and native title holders to feel their existing arrangements are in jeopardy and that’s not the case,” he said. “This preoccupation with arguing a whole stack of ILUAs are going to be affected by this decision is just an attempt to hide the truth. “Any amendment to the legislation that goes through is there to protect the position of Adani or what’s happening in WA. The government should call it that and don’t disguise it by pretending that it’s going to affect anybody else.’ | ['australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/adani-group', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/mining', 'business/mining', 'law/law-australia', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'australia-news/wangan-and-jagalingou', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2017-02-09T07:40:49Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/child-labor-us-tobacco-farming-human-rights | Twelve-year-old tobacco farmers: the hidden battle against US child labor | Nearly every hot, humid North Carolina summer morning, 15-year-old Eddie Ramirez wakes up at 4am, slips on a thick, long sleeve T-shirt and boards a school bus with his mother in Snow Hill, North Carolina. The bus is cramped – not with students, but with up to 40 migrant farm workers on the way to work in a tobacco field. Ramirez began this work – hand-picking tobacco for shifts up to 12 hours in his school holidays and sometimes during term – when he was just 12 years old. He is among 141 youth farm workers featured in a report released Wednesday by international human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW), documenting child labor in tobacco fields in the southern United States. Eighty children come from North Carolina, with the rest from Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. The 138-page report, Tobacco's Hidden Children, reveals the dangers and harmful conditions of tobacco work. It emphasizes the US lagging behind Brazil and India, the top two tobacco producers in the world, who have banned children from working in their fields. Lack of action from businesses "The companies have the responsibility to monitor the conditions of and protect the human rights of their supply chain," says Margaret Wurth, HRW's lead researcher for the report. Wurth cites Philip Morris International (PMI) as a company "with a great policy and definition of hazardous work" but adds "we still think there's room for more." In 2010, HRW released findings targeting PMI for child labor in Kazakhstan. Since then, PMI launched an Agriculture Labor Practices Program that establishes, reevaluates and enforces an internal company code of conduct. The company has also assisted in changing Kazakh legislation to allow for child farm workers to go to school. HRW and NC Field urge tobacco companies to invest in the communities in which child labor is prevalent, but also part of a family's earnings. They recommend companies work with advocacy organizations to provide scholarship funds and alternative job opportunities. In the US, a law allowing a child as young as 12 to work in agriculture conflicts with any company's business code of conduct. The problem worsens when coupled with a socioeconomic need in communities where all families must work to get by. Miguel Coleta, PMI's director of external labor policies, says these two factors must be addressed. He says PMI works closely with both farm owners and farm workers to touch all parts of the growing system that provides tobacco for the company. He cites the US as an environment that is "very adversarial", but sees a need to collaborate with advocate organizations, unions and policy makers to make the same changes they have succeeded to implement in other countries. PMI contracted with Verité, a consulting company that has worked with large companies to understand and address labor rights issues in their contract and supply chains since the mid 1990s. "The fact that this report is literally bringing the words of child workers to the companies is compelling and makes it essential that the companies respond," says Dan Viederman, CEO of Verité. "This is not just the voices of workers, it's the voices of really vulnerable people who are contracted under the companies' operations." The need for stricter regulation Ramirez and other youth farm workers from NC Field, a North Carolina-based non-profit that works with migrant and seasonal farm worker youth, accompanied representatives from HRW to Washington DC last week to lobby for greater protections in legislation. But while members of Congress are being targeted as allies to the cause, the groups are taking the tobacco companies to task in enforcing greater protections that set a precedent, even if the law remains unfettered. Workers typically arrive to the fields by 6am, when the dew is fresh. Damp green tobacco leaves emit dangerous amounts of nicotine. When exposed to the skin, it can lead to Green Tobacco Sickness, a toxic and potentially lethal illness. Ramirez reiterates details in the report that point to symptoms of GTS: burning eyes, nausea, dizziness, vomiting and headaches. He provides his own shirt and hat, and many workers cut armholes into plastic garbage bags to wear for extra protection. Child labor law prohibits children to begin working until they reach 14-years-old. Yet agriculture is exempt from standard labor law, and the age is set at 12. The Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits anyone under the age of 16 to work in conditions deemed hazardous by the US Secretary of Labor. Tobacco has not been deemed hazardous, giving 12-year-olds legal permission to do that work. "We're young kids. There are hundreds of kids working out there trying to help their families," says Ramirez, who has worked alongside children as young as 10. "We got rights to talk about how we feel. The companies might not know that young kids are working out there." The USDA Census of Agriculture does not provide clear data of how many youth work in American fields. But the exemption can be traced back to the idea that American family farmers are strictly employing their own children to help out. The HRW report finds an overwhelming majority of youth workers are immigrants or children of immigrants. None of their parents own the farm, and most are farm workers themselves. Victoria Bouloubasis is a food journalist based in North Carolina, covering farm worker rights, food justice and sustainable agriculture. She can be reached at victoria@thisfeedsme.com | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/blog', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/tobacco-industry', 'law/child-labour', 'society/child-rights', 'sustainable-business/series/social-impact', 'type/article'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-05-15T16:45:51Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2011/nov/17/japan-backs-carbon-emissions-deadline | Letters: Japan backs carbon emissions deadline | Your claim that Japan views moves to construct a new framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 as unrealistic and that it favours extending the time allowed to achieve it is entirely without foundation (Reports, 4 November and 10 November). In the climate change negotiations, Japan has consistently supported the expeditious adoption of a new, single and comprehensive, legally binding document which establishes a fair and effective international framework in which all major economies participate. Japan's position is that the new document should be adopted as early as possible. Until there is a new international framework, based on the Cancun agreements, Japan believes all countries should continue efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Japan emphasises the importance of support for developing countries, in particular those vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, and so far has implemented more than $11.3bn of $15bn that was pledged at Copenhagen (COP15) to this end. From now on, Japan will put into effect commitments it has announced, and from 2013 will provide help for vulnerable countries in concert with the international community. It will also give due consideration to adaptation to climate change, which is important to developing countries. As well as announcing this stance at the pre-COP meeting held in South Africa this October, Japan has officially handed its submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP17 is being held in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 9 December. It is important that the whole world agrees on the need for a legally binding document, and achieves significant progress in this regard. Japan is determined to join other countries in resolutely tackling this issue. Naoki Ito Minister (economic), Embassy of Japan • John Ashton is right to say we need to at least "commit to commit" to tackle climate change (Comment, 15 November). The trouble is, most countries have done so but failed to spell out what that commitment means. This has allowed some to shrug off the idea that the global Contraction and Convergence framework is required, on the grounds that a grindingly slow step-by-step approach is what ensures buy-in. What this approach actually secures is a series of witheringly small advances in the face of an alarming acceleration of the problem. This is hailed by those involved as a success, in the pretence that action is being taken. Politicians can point to minute triumphs – for their negotiating positions, if nothing else – and life goes on, business as usual. The Poznan UN climate change summit, a year before Copenhagen and a year into the credit crunch, saw minister after minister hailing the green revolution response to climate change as our economy's saviour. Now it is clear they didn't believe a word of it. Colin Challen Former chair, all-party parliamentary climate change group, Scarborough | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-11-17T21:00:04Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2019/nov/13/climate-crisis-will-affect-lifelong-health-of-young-warn-doctors | Climate crisis will affect lifelong health of young, warn doctors | The climate crisis will determine the lifelong health of today’s children, doctors have warned, noting that global heating was already causing harm. Children are especially vulnerable and the global team of researchers say rising temperatures mean the bacteria causing deadly diarrhoea will thrive while poorer crop yields could lead to more malnutrition. The annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change tracks the impacts of global heating on health. As well as children, older people are particularly vulnerable to heatwaves since they are less able to regulate their temperature and fluid balance. The authors found that 220 million more people over 65 were exposed to heatwaves in 2018 compared with 2000. Europe, the report said, was especially at risk, due to its high number of older citizens living in large, hot, cities. The 2019 report, coinciding with wildfires raging in Australia, also found that human exposure to fires had doubled since 2000. Wildfires not only cause deaths and health damage but had significant economic and social impacts. Hugh Montgomery, a professor at University College London, who is co-chair of the Lancet Countdown, said: “Our children recognise the climate emergency, and demand action to protect them. We must listen, and respond. This year the accelerating impacts of climate change have become clearer than ever. The highest recorded temperatures in western Europe, and wildfires in Siberia, Queensland, and California triggered asthma, respiratory infections and heatstroke.” Nick Watts, executive director of the Lancet Countdown, said: “Children’s bodies and immune systems are still developing, leaving them more susceptible to disease and environmental pollutants. The damage done in early childhood lasts a lifetime. Without immediate action from all countries climate change will come to define the health of an entire generation.” The report is produced by 120 experts from 35 institutions, including the World Health Organisation, World Bank, and Yale and Tsinghua universities. The study tracks 41 indicators including the spread of infectious diseases. It was found that, spurred on by global heating, the ability of dengue fever to be transmitted by mosquitoes in 2017 was at the second highest level recorded since 1950, while nine of the 10 most suitable years for transmission had happened since 2000. “Dengue is the most rapidly expanding infection around the world,” said Watts. “It is called breakbone fever because it is incredibly painful.” The report also found 2018 was the second most suitable year on record for the spread of the cholera bacteria, which cause much of the diarrhoeal disease and wound infections around the globe. Watts said the first native cases of tick-borne encephalitis in the UK were recorded in October. “This is a disease we know is moving as a result of climate change.” The report said infants were worst hit by malnutrition, and that, as temperatures have risen, the capability of many cereal crops to deliver full yields has fallen in the last 30 years. The report examined people’s exposure to wildfires for the first time. “At a global level, there is an increasing exposure,” said Elizabeth Robinson, a co-author and professor at the University of Reading. (Other research had not recorded a growth in numbers of wildfires.) Coal-fired power plants should be phased out worldwide and travel shifted to public transport and cycling, the report also said. Robinson said urgent action was needed to cut agricultural emissions by humans eating seasonal plant-based diets. The report found the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock in the UK were equivalent to 40% of emissions from the power sector. Robinson said the technology existed to tackle climate change and that action made sense economically, even just on health grounds, particularly as the air pollution from fossil fuel burning cost trillions of dollars. The choices today were “entirely political”, she said. Stella Hartinger, of Cayetano Heredia University, in Peru, and a Lancet Countdown author, said: “The path that the world chooses today will irreversibly mark our children’s futures. We must listen to the millions of young people who have led the wave of school strikes for urgent action.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'global-development/global-health', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'global-development/malnutrition', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'society/children', 'global-development/global-development', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'science/science', 'science/agriculture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-11-13T23:30:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2018/dec/30/spain-paradores-solar-power-pledge | Solar, thermal… Spain’s historic hotels go green | Spain’s state-owned chain of paradores, the grand hotels often housed in ancient castles and monasteries, has announced that all 97 of its establishments will use only electricity from renewable sources from the start of the new year. The 90-year-old chain said the decision to switch to green electricity had been made for both environmental and symbolic reasons. “Paradores is a company that supports sustainable tourism in every sense of the word,” said its chair, Óscar López Águeda. “What’s more, as a public company, we also want to set an example when it comes to investments that encourage energy saving and responsible consumption.” The deal, signed with the Spanish utility giant Endesa, will ensure that all the electricity used in paradores will come from green sources from Tuesday, the start of the new year. However, the company said it has no plans as yet to stop using natural gas. “Natural gas is less polluting than some of the other sources that hotels have traditionally used,” its head of communications, Sonia Sánchez Plaza, told the Observer. “But we are gradually eliminating our fuel oil consumption and we have an ambitious plan to bring renewable energies into Paradores, including biomass, solar and geothermal energies.” Sánchez said biomass technology was already being used in two hotels, while solar panels had been installed in other paradores, such as the one in Cádiz, Andalucía. The hotel chain is also looking into harnessing geothermal energy for its hotel on the volcanic island of Tenerife. Paradores, which was founded in 1928, has more than 4,000 staff and 10,000 rooms. Sánchez said it was in the company’s interests to protect the environment because many of its hotels are close to national parks and biosphere reserves. “We have a lot of environmental projects, both when it comes to enjoying and looking after our surroundings and to restoring flora and fauna and eliminating plastics,” she said. The move was welcomed by the environmental group Ecologists in Action. “It’s a decision we applaud and which others should now follow,” said the group’s co-ordinator, Paco Segura. “Getting public bodies to make sure their energy comes from renewable sources has a transformative effect. We’ve put together best-practice manuals and have urged public bodies to make sure their plans are based on renewable energy.” He said some – such as Madrid city council – had already arranged for their energy to come from renewable sources, but many more still needed to follow suit. “It’s great that the paradores are now travelling in the same direction we all need to be going in if we’re going to have a carbon-free economy and carbon-free energy,” said Segura. “The only way to do that is by abandoning dirty fossil fuels that pollute and aren’t sustainable and replacing them with renewable sources.” Spain is aiming to ensure that its electricity system uses entirely renewable sources by 2050 and then to decarbonise its economy. Its draft climate change and energy transition law is intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels by installing at least 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar power capacity a year for the next decade. The draft legislation will also ban new licences for fossil fuel drills, hydrocarbon exploitation and fracking wells. At the end of October, Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government struck a deal with unions to shut down most of Spain’s coal mines in return for a €250m (£221m) investment in mining regions over the next decade. | ['world/spain', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'travel/spain', 'travel/travel', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'profile/samjones', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2018-12-30T05:59:13Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2005/sep/17/hurricanekatrina.usnews | US conservatives round on Bush over Katrina aid pledges | US president George Bush's promise to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf coast "higher and better" has triggered a wave of anxiety among conservatives in his own party, who are shocked at the expansion of the federal role in disaster relief. Yesterday Mr Bush led the country in a day of prayer for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in Washington's national cathedral, declaring: "The destruction of this hurricane was beyond any human power to control, but the restoration of broken communities and disrupted lives now rests in our hands." But his ambitious pledge the night before to lead "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen" has dismayed many of his own followers. The promise was made in a dramatic prime-time address to the nation from a floodlit Jackson Square in the heart of New Orleans, where President Bush attempted to rebuild his credibility as a strong leader. In doing so, he apologised once more for the bungled, delayed response of the federal government. "Four years after the frightening experience of September 11, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency," he said, adding that he was personally "responsible for the problem, and for the solution". Mr Bush presented the solution in terms of an array of far-reaching government programmes. He proposed the creation of a "Gulf opportunity zone" along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coast, in which rebuilding would be encouraged by tax incentives and subsidies. Secondly, worker recovery accounts would be set up giving adult evacuees $5,000 (£3,500) each to help them find work. He also proposed an "urban homesteading act" providing federal land for displaced people to build new homes. Senior members of the president's own party had voiced doubts over the wisdom of rebuilding a city like New Orleans, which is mostly below sea-level, but Mr Bush shrugged off those concerns, declaring: "This great city will rise again." The speech was aimed at reassuring Hurricane Katrina's refugees, although fewer than half said they intended to return home, according to a poll published yesterday by the Washington Post. The promise of arguably the biggest federal government project since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal triggered a reaction among fiscal and "small-government" conservatives. "This is a shocking expansion of the federal role in disaster relief," said Stephen Slivinski, director of budget studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian thinktank. "The fear is these programmes that are supposed to be temporary will find a permanent home in the budget." The broad and deep tax cuts of the Bush administration's first term coupled with the Iraq war drove the federal budget from a surplus to a $412bn deficit in 2004. Higher tax revenues brought White House predictions it would drop to $333bn this year, but that hope has been dashed. Some Republicans are voicing their unease. Senator Tom Coburn declared: "I don't believe that everything that should happen in Louisiana should be paid for by the rest of the country." So far, Mr Slivinski said, Republican rebels in Congress could be counted "on two hands and one foot" but he predicted that, as congressional elections approach next year, concern will rise when leaders face the rank and file, who still believe in small government and balanced budgets. | ['environment/environment', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/hurricanes', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'world/natural-disasters', 'profile/julianborger', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international1'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-17T14:05:41Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2016/nov/27/hurricanes-become-more-costly-weatherwatch | Hurricanes become more costly | In a couple of days the Atlantic hurricane season officially comes to a close. 2016 has been very active, with 15 named storms, seven of which became hurricanes. It started nearly five months early with Alex in mid-January, and ended unusually late with Otto, just a few days ago. Three storms – Gaston, Matthew and Nicole – developed into major hurricanes, and Matthew’s long passage over land made it particularly deadly, taking 1,655 lives. In total the storms have unleashed over 60% more energy than an average hurricane season, and it’s also been the costliest since 2012, causing over $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of damage thus far. Recent years have seen some eye-watering bills for hurricane damage. The storms of 2012 (which included hurricane Sandy) resulted in $79.2bn (£63.6bn) of damage, while 2005 (which included hurricane Katrina) cost $158.9bn (£127.7bn) – the most expensive Atlantic hurricane season in history. Now research published in Environmental Research Letters predicts that the cost associated with Atlantic hurricanes will keep increasing, with the average losses becoming three times greater by 2100. Modelling hurricane damage in the US for the period 1963 through to 2100, the scientists found that a third of the increased cost will be due to climate change (bringing more frequent and intense hurricanes), while two thirds of the increased cost will be due to socio-economic factors. Ownership of more expensive gadgets, and confidence that insurance policies or governments will pick up the tab, will lead to rapidly increasing hurricane damage bills. Understanding where and why hurricane costs are increasing is important, to make sure governments select the best strategies to reduce the risk. | ['world/hurricanes', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/series/hurricane-katrina-10-years-on', 'world/hurricane-matthew', 'world/hurricane-otto', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'environment/autumn', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/hurricane-matthew | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-11-27T21:30:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2009/dec/31/the-year-ahead-science | The year ahead: science | The year ahead is shaping up to be one long celebration for the world's oldest science academy. The Royal Society formed on a dreary night in London 350 years ago, when the acquisition of scientific knowledge was little more than a hobby for amateurs and polymaths. As part of the celebrations, world-leading researchers have been invited to Britain to thrash out the most pressing questions facing science today: what is consciousness? Where did the universe come from? How are we ever going to feed everybody? Whatever the scientists decide, it will reflect the agenda for the next two decades. Science and scientists have been transformed since the creation of the society and the year ahead will emphasise this. Modern science is more complicated and costly. It is dominated by huge groups, not individuals. It is more international, professional and specialised. A decade ago, scientists from more than 80 countries began the world's first comprehensive census of sea life. In 2010, they will publish their results, giving us the first global snapshot of ocean life from the Arctic to the Antarctic, via corals, continental shelves and deep-sea vents. The importance of the Census for Marine Life project is hard to overstate. It will help to predict the future health of the oceans; to spot species on the brink of extinction and highlight spectacular new species that had hitherto gone unnoticed. It will quantify the biodiversity of the oceans and give scientists unprecedented insight into these complex and fragile ecosystems. The new year also marks the beginning of a critical period for physics. The Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European Nuclear Research Organisation near Geneva, will go into full operation and begin crashing subatomic particles together at unprecedented energies. The future of physics hangs on what scientists find there. The long-sought-for Higgs boson, which confers mass on fundamental particles, is one hoped-for discovery. Before that, Cern scientists might create previously unseen particles that prove a theory called supersymmetry, which pairs every particle in the universe with a heavier twin. Some of these might make up the mysterious and invisible dark matter that accounts for a quarter of the mass of the universe. If the optimists are to be believed, the year ahead will see tentative steps towards stem-cell-based medical treatments. Geron, the US biotech company, expects to launch its first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells in patients with spinal-cord injuries. Laboratories around the world are racing to make stem cells from patients' skin, a technique that raises the possibility of treating a person's illness with their own cells. The steady advances in genetics are beginning to bear fruit and will continue in the coming year. The cost of reading a person's whole genome is falling almost by the month, making the technology cheap enough for mainstream use in hospitals. In the year ahead, doctors will use genetic sequencing machines to pinpoint the genetic defects that drive patients' cancers, information that should help them select more effective drug treatments. Finally, this could be the year that Craig Venter, the American genetics pioneer, achieves his goal of creating artificial life. A mere microbe it may be, but if Venter pulls it off, he will have opened the door to a new and potentially powerful branch of science. Venter's forceful style and taste for competition have seen him cast as the bad boy of modern science but, more than anyone, he personifies the spirit of individualism that has underpinned the success of the Royal Society since its birth. | ['science/science', 'world/series/2010-the-year-ahead', 'world/world', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/cern', 'science/medical-research', 'science/genetics', 'science/venter', 'tone/features', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'science/synthetic-biology', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-12-31T00:05:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2024/feb/10/climate-crisis-deniers-sought-for-exclusive-florida-residence-private-ark-essential | Climate-crisis deniers sought for exclusive Florida residence. Private ark essential | Gaia Vince | Reality deniers with big pockets are sought by a family of Floridian property developers hoping to sell the most expensive home in the US: a waterfront property on the market for $295m (£234m). The compound squats on Gordon Pointe peninsula, a spit of beachfront in south-west Florida, extending perilously into the Gulf of Mexico. The late financier John Donahue bought the land for $1m in 1985, when it was a beautiful remote nature spot, protected by mangroves, with a small fisherman’s cottage on it. He soon razed this and replaced it with McMansions with de rigueur swimming pools and lawns. Offered for your $295m are three houses with parking for yachts and other conveniences for the wealthy sea-level-rise gambler. The Donahue family is selling at the right time. This is one of the parts of the world most vulnerable to climate impacts, with sea levels rising three times faster than the global average, and increasing risk from hurricane damage. The whole neighbourhood, Port Royal, has been categorised as at “extreme risk of flooding” over the next 30 years, and is regularly hit by weather disasters, making it very expensive to get home insurance. Buyer beware, as Canute might say. Diminishing returns… A chilling prediction We learned last week that the planet spent a full year above 1.5C on the preindustrial average, and a glance at the extreme weather disasters for the week, with fires, heatwaves, floods and storms, confirms we’re very much into the post-climate-change era, and have been for some years. Paradoxically, global heating could cause northern Europe to freeze. The melting Greenland glaciers may lead to the collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), the system that carries warm Gulf Stream water up from the equator and ensures milder European temperatures. A report modelled the shocking speed at which this could happen once a tipping point was reached – temperatures would drop by 1C a decade, compared with the current 0.2C rises. This rapid change would make societal adaptation nigh on impossible. Estimates vary about when this may happen: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has “medium confidence” it won’t occur this century; last year, researchers from the University of Copenhagen controversially forecast “mid century”; while the Met Office says it’s “very unlikely” to occur before 2100. With scientific understatement, the latest paper states: “This is bad news for the climate system and humanity.” One outcome would be the freezing over of the English Channel. I guess “stop the boats” would become “stop the bobsleighs”, but it’s hard to know which direction the climate migrants would be headed. Free to peddle fiction As we head into election season, the fetid quagmire of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories has found an unexpected champion in the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, which last week ruled that Scottish anti-vaxxer Neil Oliver was fine to claim on his GB News programme in January that Covid vaccinations caused “turbo cancer” in children. The watchdog received more than 70 complaints about Oliver linking vaccines to this entirely fictional condition, which he described as an aggressive form of cancer, yet Ofcom ruled he was free to express these views, which didn’t “materially mislead the audience”. The only justification for this decision can be that Ofcom determines GB News’s output is not taken seriously by its audience – a very dangerous presumption. In the meantime, the watchdog badly needs some scientists on its panel. Wind up Alarming forecasts from Big Wind this week, as the world’s three largest companies are struggling with hikes in raw material costs, delays, investment problems and high inflation — offshore wind is around 30% more expensive now. Turbine makers Vestas and Siemens Energy won’t be paying dividends, with the latter expecting €2bn (£1.71bn) losses this year, partly because of equipment failures. The biggest shock is from Danish wind giant Ørsted, which announced it’s slashing one-third of installations from a planned 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2050 to just 35-38GW. It’s cutting around 800 jobs, pulling out of Norway, Portugal, Spain, and slowing what remains of its US projects. Ørsted (formerly known as Dong, snigger) has been the posterchild of the clean revolution, pioneering the transition from an oil and gas major to wind superpower. But over the past few years, the proverbial hit its giant blades. It blames long, costly regulatory delays as it expanded in the new US market, a struggle to get tax credits and requirements for expensive locally made parts. We cannot afford this slowdown: the world has agreed to triple renewable power by 2030. Governments must create the conditions for rapid expansion in these challenging offshore and floating markets, even if it means agreeing higher energy prices in the short term. Now, where did we put that £28bn? • Gaia Vince is an author, journalist and broadcaster. Her latest book is Nomad Century | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/series/observer-notebook', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'media/gb-news', 'society/vaccines', 'us-news/florida', 'type/article', 'profile/gaia-vince', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2024-02-10T15:55:22Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2016/sep/02/hurricane-hermine-samsung-trump-casino-clinton-briefing | Hurricane Hermine's path unclear after hitting Florida | The daily briefing | Hurricane Hermine makes landfall in Florida The hurricane, the first to hit Florida in more than a decade, made landfall overnight in the panhandle. Governor Rick Scott warned of the danger of strong storm surges, high winds, downed trees and power outages. Hermine is expected to drop back down to a tropical storm and push rapidly into Georgia. Where the first major Caribbean storm in what is anticipated to be a busy hurricane season tracks next over the holiday weekend is unclear to meteorologists. It could stall off Georgia, go out to sea, or hit New York. Hurricane Hermine makes landfall in Florida Samsung reports smartphone fire issues The Korean tech giant Samsung has suspended sales of its top-end Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after confirming that in 35 cases the newly launched devices have exploded while being charged. The company stopped short of full recall. It said it would take two weeks to prepare replacement devices of which 2.5m had been manufactured and 1m had been sold. Samsung suspends sales of Galaxy Note 7 after smartphones catch fire Georgetown University slavery apology runs into problems Just as John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University in Washington, concluded a speech pledging to make a formal apology for the 1838 sale of 272 slaves and give preference in admissions to their descendants, a group of descendants claiming to have been left out of the process rushed the stage. “Nothing about us without us,” they shouted. “If reconciliation is gonna take place as it has to, it needs to start at home and you don’t start reconciling by alienating,” said slave descendant Joe Stewart. Trying to atone, Georgetown University accused of excluding slave descendants Atlantic City’s premonition of a Trump America On the night of 2 April 1990, Donald Trump threw a party for the opening of his new $1.1bn Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Michael Jackson, Elle Macpherson and other stars and socialites were flown in for the bash. Trump called his new premises, with its $16m worth of chandeliers, the “eighth wonder of the world” –and one that would transform the fortunes of New Jersey. But it didn’t, and now the Taj is set to close its doors permanently on 10 October. Trump and Atlantic City: the lessons behind the demise of his casino empire Hillary Clinton’s cash haul Clinton’s presidential campaign has had its best month ever, bringing in more than $143m in August for the campaign, as well as for the Democratic party, and setting the candidate up with bulging $152m pre-fall war chest. Donald Trump’s campaign has not yet reported its August fundraising numbers. Hillary Clinton raised more than $140m in August Biden silences critic over personal loss Faced with a man bereaved by the Syrian war during a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton, vice-president Joe Biden, who lost his son Beau to cancer, issued a reply that silenced the room. “My friends died, my American friends,” the heckler shouted. “Will you listen? So did my son, OK?” the vice-president shot back. ‘My friends died,’ heckler shouts. ‘So did my son,’ Joe Biden shoots back Melania Trump sues the Daily Mail Lawyers for Melania Trump on Thursday filed suit for $150m damages against the UK’s Daily Mail and blogger Webster Tarpley in Maryland state court in response to published articles reporting rumors that Trump worked as an escort in the 1990s. The “defendants’ actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs Trump that her damages are estimated at $150m”, said Trump’s lawyer Charles Harder. The Daily Mail printed a retraction today. Melania Trump sues the Daily Mail for $150m over ‘lies’ about her past SpaceX loses another rocket Notwithstanding the spectacular explosion of the reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket yesterday at Cape Canaveral – and the destruction of a Facebook satellite meant to expand internet access in Africa – the loss is hardly unprecedented, writes Alan Yuhas. The first time Nasa tried to launch a satellite into orbit, in December 1957, the rocket made it 4ft off the ground before crumpling into a blossom of smoke and fire. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he was “deeply disappointed” by the destruction of his satellite. SpaceX’s booms and busts: spaceflight is littered with explosions and disaster Smith & Wesson reports strong profits Smith & Wesson, the second largest gunmaker in the US, made $87.6m in latest quarterly profits – a jump of 49% – in a period that included the Orlando nightclub shootings in June and the Dallas police shootings in July. Nearly 2.2m firearms background checks were processed this July, up from 1,600,832 last year. Smith & Wesson president James Debney attributed the gains to strong consumer demand. Smith & Wesson profits jumped almost 50% after Orlando and Dallas shootings Kaepernick sits it out for the anthem, again Colin Kaepernick and San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid knelt during the national anthem on Thursday night, continuing the quarterback’s preseason protest against American racial injustice and minority oppression, the Associated Press reports. Kaepernick received scattered boos from the San Diego Chargers crowd – but got heavier boos when he led the 49ers on a 16-play, 85-yard touchdown drive. Colin Kaepernick joined by Eric Reid in kneeling for national anthem protest In case you missed it … To celebrate the publication of John le Carré’s first memoir The Pigeon Tunnel this month, actor Rachel Weisz reads from the author’s 2001 novel The Constant Gardener. Weisz won an Oscar for her role in the 2006 film adaptation. If you liked that, here’s Tom Hiddleston reading from Le Carré’s The Night Manager. Rachel Weisz reads from John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener – video | ['us-news/series/guardian-us-briefing', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/edwardhelmore', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-09-02T12:20:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/feb/16/foi-documents-reveal-plan-to-skip-federal-environmental-approvals-for-some-projects | FOI documents reveal plan to skip federal environmental approvals for some projects | The Morrison government is considering whether a little-known section of national environmental laws could be used to allow developments in some parts of the country to proceed without the need for federal approval. The move, revealed in documents released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws, could allow the commonwealth to reduce its role in environmental decision-making without needing support for a bill to transfer power to the states and territories which has been blocked by the Senate since last year. A year ago, a review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, led by the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel, called for an overhaul of Australia’s environmental protections to address the decline of the country’s wildlife. Since then, legislation that would clear the way for states and territories to take responsibility for environmental decisions under the act has failed to gain enough support in the Senate, in part because the Morrison government has not adopted a set of national environmental standards recommended by Samuel (instead drafting a weaker version of its own). Legal workaround Internal documents from the federal environment department show the government could instead rely on another section of the act, which allows for regional planning of conservation, to shrink the commonwealth’s approval role. Under national laws, the environment minister may create what is known as a regional plan. These plans are only vaguely described in the act as covering a broad range of biodiversity, social and economic factors and have previously only been used in marine areas to guide conservation and industrial activities. Another section of the act, known as section 37A, allows the federal environment minister to declare certain development activities are exempt from the requirement to gain federal environmental approval where those projects are covered by a regional plan. In last year’s budget, the government announced it would spend $2.7m on a pilot regional plan in an area of Australia that is yet to be announced. Since late last year, it has been consulting several stakeholders about the design of a framework for regional plans, among them state governments, environment and industry groups. An internal departmental briefing document, released under FOI laws, states that two of the pilot’s objectives are to “streamline development decisions by moving away from project-by-project assessments” and “establish that actions taken in accordance with a regional plan declared under s37A of the EPBC Act would not require” a separate federal environmental approval. It states the other objectives are to allow for planning at different geographic scales and to support “targeted investments in protection, conservation and restoration”. Habitat protection hopes The documents have raised concern among environmental groups involved in the consultation, several of whom are supportive of regional approaches to conservation if they are used to improve the environment of a whole area, such as by identifying and protecting critical habitat. “If it goes ahead, this pilot must be about real action to protect our wildlife and natural heritage, not an effort to lock in wholesale exemptions for destructive industries from community and environmental checks and balances, like we’ve seen with the disastrous Regional Forest Agreements,” Suzanne Milthorpe of the Wilderness Society said. A greater role for regional conservation planning – tied to national standards – was a key recommendation of the Samuel review, which suggested the government focus initially on places that were threatened species hotspots. Samuel suggested the government develop regional recovery plans to support this. Members of the threatened species scientific committee have also previously raised regional planning as a tool that could be used to address threats and environmental decline at a landscape level. “Regional plans hold great promise if done to maximise environmental outcomes,” said Alexia Wellbelove, a campaign manager at Humane Society International. “But we would be extremely concerned if they are only going to be used as an alternate pathway to exempt destructive developments from environment approvals without any standards, safeguards or investment for conservation.” The Minerals Council of Australia, which is participating in the consultation, said it was supportive of the government’s regional planning initiative, which, where practical, would “provide a pathway to balance multiple land-use options”. The council’s chief executive, Tania Constable, said: “This will avoid the need for project-by-project approvals, while supporting long-term management of regional environmental and other values.” Warwick Ragg, the National Farmers’ Federation’s general manager of natural resource management, said the organisation hoped some of its long-held concerns about the act could be addressed through a regional focus. This could include making it simpler for land-use sectors, particularly farmers, to seek advice on and understand their obligations under the law. Landscape-scale planning could include incentives for farmers who manage the environment, Ragg said. He said the NFF did not support the standards proposed by Samuel. According to a timeline in the department’s documents, the development of a regional plan in partnership with a willing jurisdiction would take about 18 months. The location would be selected shortly, potentially in time for a pre-election announcement. However, a Senate estimates hearing heard on Monday that conversations with a state or territory had not yet advanced. “Extensive consultation continues with stakeholders to finalise the pilot and location,” a spokesperson for the environment minister, Sussan Ley, said. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/series/environmental-investigations', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-15T16:30:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2020/sep/07/frances-greens-hope-build-summer-success | France's Greens hope to turn summer wave into ongoing tide | Regional and presidential polls over the next two years will show whether the “green wave” that surged through a swath of big French cities earlier this summer heralded a fundamental redrawing of the country’s politics – or a transitory ripple. In June’s municipal elections, Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) – alone or at the head of leftwing majorities – held Grenoble, seized Annecy, Besançon, Bordeaux, Lyon, Poitiers and Strasbourg, and were part of winning coalitions in Paris and Marseille. Amid a broad but not yet decisive advance by green parties across much of Europe, Yannick Jadot, an MEP and one of the French party’s most senior figures, hailed a “historic turning point”. The results revealed “a desire for concrete ecology in action: solutions for commuting, housing, food, rebuilding local economies”, he said; France’s political landscape was being “remodelled around the theme of ecology”. EELV aims to field a full list of candidates in regional elections due next year. Ecology was “no longer a political add-on,” another MEP, David Cormand, said at the party’s summer conference last week. “We are moving from a force of opposition, to a force of government.” The party’s unexpected June election triumph built on an encouraging 13.5% – and third-place finish – in last year’s European parliamentary elections, and represented a remarkable rebound from a disastrous few years for France’s Greens. Jadot withdrew from the 2017 presidential poll to boost the chances of the Socialist party candidate, Benoît Hamon – who then crashed out in the first round with 6.4% of the vote. In the ensuing parliamentary poll, EELV failed to win a seat. But the party now feels that its local victories in former bastions of both left and right show that the foundations of French politics are shifting. The winning formula, it believes, lies in a broad political offering in coalition with a range of other leftist parties around the themes of ecology, social solidarity and a more representative democracy. Critically, the party notes, France’s once dominant Socialist party was willing to play second fiddle to EELV in several successful municipal coalitions. “The time when we were behind the rest is over,” said Sandra Regol, the party’s deputy leader. “It’s now up to the rest to decide whether to join us.” Some analysts think EELV may be right. Since the pro-business centrist Emmanuel Macron blew up France’s political landscape in 2017, crushing the main centre-left and centre-right parties on his way to the Élysée, most have assumed that the 2022 presidential race would be a repeat of his face-off with the far-right Marine Le Pen. “But that’s not necessarily a given,” said Brice Teinturier of the polling firm Ipsos. “An offer that successfully unites the left and the Greens could have a real chance of making it to the second round.” The pollster said the party was attracting, in particular, disappointed left-leaning Macron voters, and that its success reflected French voters’ continuing search for new forms of political expression beyond the left-right divide. “In 2017, that benefited Macron,” he said. “This time it was the Greens who looked different.” There are reasons, however, to be cautious about EELV’s prospects on the national stage. Voters behave differently in local and European elections – where different concerns are in play – than in parliamentary and presidential polls. EELV fared well in France’s cities, but may struggle to impose itself nationally. Crucial to its chances will be a credible presidential candidate – but the party is already bitterly divided over who it should select, and an Ifop-Fiducial poll published after the local elections had Jadot scoring just 8% in the 2022 first round. June’s elections were also held in unusual circumstances, analysts note, with the second round delayed for months due to the coronavirus crisis. “The virus raised public awareness of the issues that EELV campaigns on,” said Ifop’s Jérôme Fourquet. “Many viewed the epidemic through the prism of the environment, of excessive consumption, the destruction of our ecosystems. Voters were much more awake to a more localised, ecological approach. That played a part.” Macron, furthermore, is not giving EELV a free ride: the president recently accepted all but three of the 149 recommendations of a citizens’ commission for the climate and has made green investment central to France’s mammoth €100bn (£90bn) post-Covid recovery plan. His entourage, however, is divided on the best strategy for defeating EELV. Many more left-leaning members of Macron’s La République en Marche (LaRem) believe the only way is to out-green the Greens. “We have to go bigger and faster on the environment,” one LaRem MP said. “That’s what voters expect. We will be punished if we don’t.” Others believe that the presidential party must invent a “pro-business environmentalism”, with green technologies driving an economic revolution. Still others, mainly on the right, believe LaRem must counter EELV directly by attacking its credibility. The Greens’ willingness to ally themselves with the French Communist party and far-left La France Insoumise – as well as the views of some of their newly elected officials – make them a soft target, many in the government believe. The freshly sworn-in EELV mayor of Colombes, Patrick Chaimovitch, was recently forced to apologise after comparing the modern-day French police to the Vichy regime of the second world war. EELV councillors have claimed that 5G technology is harmful to health, which is not supported by science; the EELV mayor of Marseille was confronted with a 2018 tweet in which she called for an end to compulsory vaccinations; and two EELV Paris councillors were excluded from the majority coalition after a heated row with the Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo. The party’s supporters say such incidents are inevitable when activists become politicians, and will not deter voters persuaded by EELV’s core message. EELV’s opponents will argue that they preclude the party from becoming a serious political force. | ['world/france', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/jonhenley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-09-07T05:00:44Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2021/jun/08/knowledge-of-medicinal-plants-at-risk-as-languages-die-out | Knowledge of medicinal plants at risk as languages die out | Knowledge of medicinal plants is at risk of disappearing as human languages become extinct, a new study has warned. Indigenous languages contain vast amounts of knowledge about ecosystem services provided by the natural world around them. However, more than 30% of the 7,400 languages on the planet are expected to disappear by the end of the century, according to the UN. The impact of language extinction on loss of ecological knowledge is often overlooked, said the study’s lead researcher, Dr Rodrigo Cámara-Leret, a biologist from the University of Zurich. “Much of the focus looks at biodiversity extinction, but there is a whole other picture out there which is the loss of cultural diversity,” he said. His team looked at 12,000 medicinal plant services associated with 230 indigenous languages in three regions with high levels of linguistic and biological diversity – North America, north-west Amazonia and New Guinea. They found that 73% of medicinal knowledge in North America was only found in one language; 91% in north-west Amazonia; and 84% in New Guinea. If the languages became extinct, the medicinal expertise associated with them probably would too. Researchers expect their findings from these regions to be similar in other parts of the world. “The loss of language will have more critical repercussion to the extinction of traditional knowledge about medicinal plants than the loss of the plants themselves,” said Cámara-Leret. The areas with languages most at risk were in north-west Amazonia, where 100% of this unique knowledge was supported by threatened languages, and in North America, where the figure was 86%. In New Guinea 31% of languages were at risk. The anticipated loss of linguistic diversity would “substantially compromise humanity’s capacity for medicinal discovery”, according to the paper, published in PNAS. Such knowledge includes using the latex of plants to treat fungal infections, using bark to treat digestive problems, fruits for respiratory ailments, as well as natural stimulants and hallucinogens. “The list goes on and on, it’s quite impressive,” said Cámara-Leret. “Even the best plant taxonomists out there are amazed by the breadth of knowledge of indigenous cultures, not only about plants but also animals and their inter-relations.” It is impossible to know what has already been lost. More than 1,900 of the languages spoken now have fewer than 10,000 speakers and the UN has declared 2022-32 to be the International Decade of Indigenous Languages in recognition of this issue. Jordi Bascompte, an ecologist from Zurich University and second author of the paper, said European medicinal knowledge may represent the “tip of the iceberg”. Although a lot of drugs are based on synthetic compounds, there may be many more chemical components provided by plants that could unlock the potential for new treatments. “Any insight, regardless of where it comes from, may end up being useful,” he said. The paper did not examine to what degree medicinal services are considered effective in the western sense, although researchers say that in many instances plants had proved effective. Much of the world’s linguistic diversity is being safeguarded by indigenous people whose culture and livelihoods are under threat as barriers between groups are broken down. Unlike societies where information has been transcribed in books and computers, most indigenous languages transmit knowledge orally. Governmental programmes to stimulate the transmission of languages, bilingual schooling and interest in cultural heritage would help communities retain linguistic diversity, said Cámara-Leret. But the medicinal aspect was just one of many reasons to promote the conservation and diversity of languages in the world, he added. Dr Jonathan Loh, an anthropologist and conservationist from the University of Kent, who was not involved in the research, said he was surprised by the degree of linguistic uniqueness in medicinal plant knowledge. He has previously spoken about the parallels between linguistic and biological diversity, commenting that these had evolved in remarkably similar ways, and both faced an extinction crisis. He said it was important, however, not to focus on utilitarian arguments for the conservation of languages, cultural diversity and biodiversity. “There may be valuable knowledge of medicines unknown to western science contained within these languages, and doubtless that is true to some extent, but it is not the most important reason for conserving them,” he said. “Every indigenous language and culture is a unique evolutionary lineage that once lost is lost forever.” 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/plants', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'science/language', 'science/science', 'lifeandstyle/alternative-medicine', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'world/papua-new-guinea', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/pacific-islands', 'world/native-americans', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phoebe-weston', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-06-08T04:00:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2014/sep/15/weatherwatch-computer-says-rain | Weatherwatch: Computer says rain | It is still easy to find a reason to grumble about weather forecasts, as Kate Ravilious remarked on this page last Tuesday. On showery days, local variations can be enormous, with places only five miles apart experiencing contrasts between a drenching and completely dry with long periods of sunshine. But for extreme weather events, the Met Office has had increasing success, with warnings days in advance, particularly predicting high winds and rainstorms. This is principally because much money has been spent on both research and supercomputers that can plot the progress and intensity of storms. Forty-six years ago the Met Office did have computers – in fact they had just taken delivery of a new one called Atlas. It cost £475,000, the equivalent of £14m in today's prices. But clearly Atlas was not up to the job. The forecast for 16 September – "generally cloudy with outbreaks of rain" – did not prepare people for the coming deluge. Warm air from the south collided with a cold front, and some parts of the south of England had 200mm (8 ins) of rain in 24 hours – more than in the previous three months. The floodwater on some roads was more than two metres deep, and 150 train passengers travelling from London to Hastings spent 12 hours stranded at Edenbridge. The Met Office issued a statement saying there was no computer big enough anywhere to make an accurate forecast of daily rainfall, and they needed one 20 times faster. Well they are now 1,000 times faster, so it should never happen again. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-09-15T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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