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environment/2014/nov/29/chernobyl-desolation-camera-drone | Chernobyl’s eerie desolation revealed by camera mounted on drone | A camera mounted on a drone has revealed the eerie post-apocalyptic landscape of a town abandoned after the nuclear power station at Chernobyl exploded nearly three decades ago. The British documentary maker Danny Cooke has travelled to Pripyat, just a few miles from the power plant, which was once home to 50,000 people. It was evacuated soon after the disaster on 26 April 1986 that killed 31 people and sent large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere over the western part of the then Soviet Union and Europe as far as away Wales. His video, Postcards from Pripyat, Chernobyl, marks the first time the area has been seen from the air. He shot the footage while working on a segment for US current affairs programme 60 Minutes on CBS, which was broadcast last week. Cooke’s haunting three-minute film shows sights such as a Ferris wheel in an amusement park quietly rusting away. The park had been due to open for the first time just days after the disaster. The sun is shining as the wind rustles the lush vegetation that is slowly taking over the decaying buildings and facilities. The Devon-based film-maker also sent the drone into a crumbling indoor swimming pool and over factories and apartment buildings where the only sign of life is the weeds growing on the roof. “Chernobyl is one of the most interesting and dangerous places I’ve been,” Cooke said. “There was something serene, yet highly disturbing about this place. Time has stood still and there are memories of past happenings floating around us.” It is not until the drone is sent rising above the treetops that viewers can see the vast dome being built to place over the damaged reactor. There is still so much radiation spewing from it that the 1,400 workers are building the 20,000-tonne steel structure nearby, shielded from the radiation by a huge concrete wall. When the 190m-high dome is finished it will be inched into place and sealed over the defunct power plant. Funding for the project of almost £500m was pledged by 28 countries including Britain in 2011, but it has faced a series of delays following the conflict in Ukraine. Despite the 20-mile exclusion zone around Chernobyl, some former residents returned to the area and it has also become something of a nature reserve and an attraction for a certain type of tourist. Cooke used a DJI Phantom 2 drone and a Canon 7D on his shoot. | ['environment/chernobyl-nuclear-disaster', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'world/ukraine', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'artanddesign/photography', 'culture/culture', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'media/media', 'tone/news', 'world/drones', 'type/article', 'profile/chris-johnston'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2014-11-29T14:20:58Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2008/jan/09/china.plasticbags | China bans plastic bags in fight against pollution | China is to ban the use of some plastic bags and force consumers to pay for others in its latest attempt to conserve resources and ease environmental pressures, the state council announced yesterday. As many as 3bn plastic bags a day are used in China, putting intolerable pressure on the country's resources, it said. From June 1, production of the poorest quality bags handed out by supermarkets will be banned, and shoppers will have to pay or reuse old bags. Producers and retailers face prosecution, the council said. The ubiquitous plastic bag, found floating in the murk of the Yangtze river, scattered across tourist spots and abandoned in numbers on every street, is symptomatic of wider problems in China. With hundreds of millions of urban residents enjoying the fruits of consumerism, the government is struggling to bring a sense of the environmental costs of breakneck economic growth. It has tried to rein in industrial polluters by cutting off credit, suspending licences and jailing repeat offenders, but officials bemoan the failure of ordinary people to be green. Pan Yue, the crusading deputy director of China's state environmental protection administration, has acknowledged that public awareness of the problem remains poor: using three layers of plastic to package eggs not only connotes hygiene in a food industry dogged by safety scandals, but also appeals to a sense of luxury. Dong Suocheng, of the China Institute of Resources, said two-thirds of China's cities are marooned in belts of garbage, only a fraction of which is buried. Each person produces an average of 264kg of rubbish every year, totalling nearly 1m tonnes a day, according to official figures. With the urban population set to rise from around 45% to 60% of the total by the end of 2020 that volume is rising at a terrifying rate. The ban on bags brings China in line with a growing international trend. · This article was amended on Thursday January 10 2008. China produces about 1m tonnes of rubbish a day, not the 100m tonnes we stated in the above news report. This has been corrected. | ['world/world', 'world/china', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/davidstanway', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-01-09T09:58:42Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2004/dec/26/indianoceantsunamidecember2004.naturaldisasters | Chronology: world's deadliest earthquakes | December 26 2003: Southeastern Iran, Bam, magnitude 6.5; More than 41,000 killed. May 21 2003: Northern Algeria, magnitude 6.8; Nearly 2,300 killed. March 25 2002: Northern Afghanistan, magnitude 5.8; up to 1,000 killed. January 26 2001: India, magnitude 7.9; at least 2,500 killed. Estimates put death toll as high as 13,000. September 21 1999: Taiwan, magnitude 7.6; 2,400 killed. August 17 1999: Western Turkey, magnitude 7.4; 17,000 killed. January 25 1999: Western Colombia, magnitude 6; 1,171 killed. May 30 1998: Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, magnitude 6.9; as many as 5,000 killed. January 17 1995: Kobe, Japan, magnitude 7.2; more than 6,000 killed. September 30 1993: Latur, India, magnitude 6.0; as many as 10,000 killed. June 21 1990: Northwest Iran, magnitude 7.3-7.7; 50,000 killed. December 7 1988: Northwest Armenia, magnitude 6.9; 25,000 killed. September 19 1985: Central Mexico, magnitude 8.1; more than 9,500 killed. September 16 1978: Northeast Iran, magnitude 7.7; 25,000 killed. July 28 1976: Tangshan, China; magnitude 7.8-8.2; 240,000 killed. February 4 1976: Guatemala, magnitude 7.5; 22,778 killed. February 29 1960: Southwest Atlantic coast in Morocco; magnitude 5.7; some 12,000 killed, town of Agadir destroyed. December 26 1939: Erzincan province, Turkey, magnitude 7.9; 33,000 killed. January 24 1939: Chillan, Chile, magnitude 8.3; 28,000 killed. May 31 1935: Quetta, India, magnitude 7.5; 50,000 killed. September 1 1923: Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan, magnitude 8.3; at least 140,000 killed. | ['environment/environment', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-12-26T16:00:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2019/nov/10/thailand-pesticides-dow-monsanto-syngenta-trump | Thailand wants to ban these three pesticides. The US government says no | Carey Gillam | You know it’s a dark day for America when foreign leaders have to lecture US officials about the importance of prioritizing public health over corporate profits. Yet that is what is happening now, as the Trump administration pressures Thailand not to ban three pesticides that scientific research has shown to be particularly dangerous to children and other vulnerable populations. Thailand’s leaders have said that as of 1 December, a ban will take effect on the use of the following farming chemicals: chlorpyrifos, an insecticide made popular by Dow Chemical that is known to damage babies’ brains; Syngenta’s paraquat, a herbicide scientists say causes the nervous system disease known as Parkinson’s that has been banned in Europe since 2007; and Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide, which is linked to cancer and other health problems. Dow, Syngenta and Monsanto have each merged their way to become bigger corporate behemoths in recent years, wielding their enhanced power in Washington to keep these and other money-making pesticides on the market. For example, before merging with DuPont earlier this year and spinning off the agrochemical business that made chlorpyrifos, Dow successfully defended continued use of chlorpyrifos despite scientific concerns. The agrochemical companies are not having as much luck keeping foreign leaders in line, however, amid growing global awareness of the risks many pesticides spell for human health. Thailand joins dozens of countries that have already banned or are planning bans on paraquat, chlorpyrifos and/or glyphosate. Thailand’s national hazardous substances committee voted last month to ban all three due to the dangers established by scientific evidence. Thailand’s leaders were motivated in part by research showing that use of these chemicals in agriculture not only puts farm workers at risk, but also endangers consumers because the bug and weed killers’ residues persist in fruits, vegetables, grains and other foods. In the United States, pesticide residues are so common in domestic food supplies that a Food and Drug Administration report issued in September found more than 84% of domestic fruits, 53% of vegetables, and 42% of grains sold to consumers carried pesticide residues. US regulators parrot industry talking points as they insist that dietary exposures to pesticides are nothing to worry about and say any risks to farm workers can be mitigated with proper training, protective clothing and other measures. According to Thai news reports, US officials have also been warning that the ban will interfere with lucrative trade. The US is especially upset about a glyphosate ban, arguing that it could limit hundreds of millions of dollars in Thai imports of US grains, which are often laced with glyphosate residues. Outraged Thai officials say they have been forced to “clearly explain” to US officials that Thailand’s priority is the health of Thai consumers. “Our job is to take care of the people’s health,” the public health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, told the press. If only US leaders had such moral clarity. It may be disgraceful, but it’s certainly not surprising that the Trump administration is working to protect glyphosate and other pesticides that bring profits to big corporations. The agrochemical industry players are devoted donors to the political machinery that runs Washington and they expect a return on their dollars. Chlorpyrifos was scheduled to be banned two years ago from US agricultural use but when Trump came into office the EPA decided to delay any action until at least 2022. The agency is currently updating its risk assessment of paraquat, seeking public comments through 16 December; but it appears poised to allow continued use, albeit with restrictions. And earlier this year the EPA affirmed that it continues to find no health risk associated with glyphosate. One example of the governmental fealty was laid out in an internal Monsanto consultant’s report made public through litigation against the company. The report quotes a White House policy adviser as saying: “We have Monsanto’s back on pesticides regulation. We are prepared to go toe-to-toe on any disputes they may have.” It is true that every day seems to offer a new opportunity for outrage with the Trump administration. Whether it is feckless foreign policy moves, illicit self-dealing or controversial corporate alliances, there is no shortage of scandal to alarm and divide Americans. It is often easiest to simply ignore the headlines and convince ourselves the partisan battles don’t actually affect us. But when it comes to the food we eat and feed our families, we only harm ourselves when we ignore policies that literally promote the poisoning of our children for profit. We can’t afford to look away from this. Carey Gillam is a journalist and author and a public interest researcher for US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group. She is a Guardian US columnist This article was amended on 11 November 2019. Some text was updated to make clear that Dow no longer produces chlorpyrifos | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'society/health', 'world/thailand', 'business/monsanto', 'science/agriculture', 'environment/pesticides', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/carey-gillam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-11-10T07:00:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2022/apr/14/south-african-police-disperse-crowd-calling-for-aid-after-flooding | South African police disperse crowd calling for aid after flooding | Police in South Africa have used stun grenades to disperse a crowd calling for more and better official aid for victims of the lethal floods earlier this week. The demonstration on Thursday briefly blocked a major highway in the eastern city of Durban, where more than 300 people have died in flooding in recent days. The president, Cyril Ramaphosa, described a “catastrophe of enormous proportions” and attributed the disaster to the climate emergency. South Africa is bracing for more heavy rain in districts hit by the record-breaking rainfall earlier this week. “It is telling us that climate change is serious, it is here,” Ramaphosa said as he visited the flooded metropolitan area of eThekwini, which includes Durban, on Wednesday. “We no longer can postpone what we need to do, and the measures we need to take to deal with climate change.” Analysts have frequently raised concerns that climate change will place huge stress on already unstable or weak countries, worsening existing problems and forcing cash-strapped governments to use scarce resources to offer relief or rebuild after extreme weather events. The South African weather service has warned of continuing high wind and rain bringing the risk of more flooding in KwaZulu-Natal and some other provinces over the Easter weekend. Meteorologists said the flooding had taken them by surprise. Some parts of KwaZulu-Natal recorded almost their average annual rainfall in 48 hours. “While impact-based warnings were indeed issued in a timely manner, it appears that the exceptionally heavy rainfall exceeded even the expectations of the southern African meteorological community at large,” a statement from the weather service said. The service said that although it was impossible to attribute an individual event to the climate crisis, “we can state with confidence that globally (as a direct result of global warming and associated climate change), all forms of severe and extreme weather … are becoming more frequent and more extreme than in the recent past. In other words, heavy rain events such as the current incident can … be expected to recur in the future and with increasing frequency.” The death toll is expected to increase as search-and-rescue operations continue, officials said, and the full extent of the destruction becomes clear. Thousands of people have been made homeless by the floods, roads and bridges were destroyed, and at least 248 schools have been damaged. In one township a Methodist church was swept away. A Hindu temple was badly damaged in Umhlatuzana, Chatsworth, near Durban, after a river burst its banks. Elsewhere, flooding triggered huge landslides. Durban’s port, the busiest in southern Africa, was also badly hit. In Amaoti, a township north of Durban, residents balanced precariously on the edge of a broken road, trying to fetch clean water from a broken pipe underneath. The flooding destroyed water pipes and power cables across large parts of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area, and it will take at least a week to restore those services, officials in Durban said. NGOs were scrambling on Thursday to bring relief to badly hit communities. The damage to Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area is estimated at 757m rand (£39m), the mayor of eThekwini, Mxolisi Kaunda, said on Thursday. At least 120 schools have been flooded, causing damage estimated at more than 380m rand and bringing officials to temporarily close all schools in the province. At least 18 students and one teacher have died in the floods, the education minister, Angie Motshekga, said. “This is a catastrophe and the damage is unprecedented. What is even more worrying is that more rain is expected in the same areas that are already affected.” Volunteers said they were desperate to source food, clothes and other essentials. In a pitch-dark hall in Durban’s Glebelands hostel district, volunteers used the torches from their mobile phones to register scores of displaced people overnight. “We are just helping the people because we care,” said Mabheki Sokhela, 51, who helped organise temporary shelter at a community hall. The ruling African National Congress, in power for nearly 30 years, has frequently been criticised for inadequate responses to natural disasters. Rescue efforts by the South African National Defence Force were delayed as the military’s air wing was affected by the floods, but the military has now deployed personnel and helicopters to bring in humanitarian relief. Rain continued in parts of Durban on Wednesday afternoon and a flood warning was issued for the neighbouring province of Eastern Cape. Durban was the centre of deadly riots last July that killed more than 350 people, South Africa’s worst unrest since the end of apartheid. | ['world/southafrica', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/africa', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasonburke', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-04-14T16:54:57Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2021/apr/09/the-forgotten-people-picking-your-brazil-nuts-for-a-fraction-of-the-price | The ‘forgotten’ people picking your Brazil nuts – for a fraction of the price | On a steamy March morning, Edivan Kaxarari walks with a few other villagers in single file down a trail in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil’s Rondônia state, near the border with Bolivia. His sister-in-law Cleiciana carries her 11-month-old son in one arm and a rifle in the other, and his brother Edson clears the path ahead with a machete. It is hunting season for the seeds of the Amazonian Brazil nut tree. Brazil nuts have never been successfully cultivated at scale on farms, and in the wild are dependent on the conservation of the forest around them. Reaching up to 60 metres, the trees are among the tallest in the vast South American forest, living happily for 500 years, and not uncommonly up to 1,000 years. But as the Amazon is ever increasingly under threat from legal and illegal industries – agriculture, logging, mining and cattle farming – the future of Brazil nut harvests look uncertain. “We work with Brazil nuts because they have no environmental impact,” says Edivan. From December to March, like thousands of others across the Amazon, the 170 families in this community fan out over their 146,000-hectare territory, walking for hours along ancient trails and sometimes camping out for days deep in the forest. March is the rainy season, and finding fruits that have fallen into dense undergrowth, shared with venomous snakes, is a wet and muddy activity. The nuts come in husks similar to coconuts, with 12 to 24 wedged inside. With well-honed technique, Edivan steadies one in his hand, using the other to bring down the machete, slicing it neatly and shaking the contents into a plastic sack. Eighteen-litre metal pails – or latas – are the trade’s unit of measurement and the Kaxarari fill 30,000 to 40,000 every harvest. The buyers paid about 45 to 50 Brazilian reais (about £6) for each lata this year. The Kaxarari know their nuts fetch substantially more at their final selling points – up to 65 times the price they receive – but Edivan says: “We do not have access to the retail market. So we sell to middlemen, who pay very little.” Edivaldo Kaxarari, a schoolteacher, buys and sells Brazil nuts to complement his income, marking up each lata by 5 reais. Once he has a few dozen sacks in his yard, Rosenilson Ferreira, who lives in the nearby town of Extrema, comes to collect them in his truck, transporting them to other buyers nearby and across the border in Bolivia. Ferreira worries about how long this trade, so reliant on nature, will last. “We are losing the forest and I’m worried that, over time, the crop of nuts will decrease,” he says. Illegal logging has been an issue on Kaxarari land for years, with little effort from the authorities to stop it. The unsolved murder of a community leader in 2017 made people reluctant to speak out; they believed the killing was meant to intimidate them. “If the government can’t stop this activity, imagine us,” says Edivan, who recently unsuccessfully ran for municipal office to try to win Kaxarari representation. “We’ve suffered many threats from the invaders. We’re afraid.” And some of their own have joined the criminals. “When they saw the wood being hauled out, they started selling, too,” says Marizina Kaxarari, chief of Pedreira, one of the region’s nine villages. “They said they needed the money.” To reduce this temptation, the Kaxarari want to make the nut business lucrative, to build a small processing factory, buy a truck and sell direct to retailers. Elsewhere nut collectors – castanheiros – have made progress in cutting out the middlemen. One co-operative formed in Pará, called Coopaflora, has a supply deal with a bakery, enabling the group to pay 20–40% more to members. But Leo Ferreira at Imaflora, the conservation NGO behind the project, says they have had limited success reaching foreign markets, and they have not completely done away with the middlemen. Brazil nut prices fluctuate, and when they are scarce, prices rise far above what the co-operatives can pay. Agents also offer payment in advance, creating dependence among castanheiros held “hostage” by the system, says Ferreira. “This is one of the biggest difficulties in establishing a long-term partnership with the castanheiros. Many depend on the harvest as their main source of income, so we understand that it is difficult to be loyal in years when the local middleman pays a price significantly above the co-operative.” So far the Kaxarari have been unable to get a co-op to support them and have been unsuccessful in their petitions for government help. In the forest Edson throws the sack with his day’s harvest of nuts over his shoulder and begins the trek back to his motorbike. “We feel forgotten here,” he says. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/brazil', 'world/bolivia', 'world/americas', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/world', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/flavia-milhorance', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-04-09T07:00:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
books/2019/mar/31/clearing-the-air-tim-smedley-choked-age-of-air-pollution-beth-gardiner-review | Clearing the Air by Tim Smedley; Choked by Beth Gardiner – review | On Friday 5 December 1952, a thick fog settled over London. The city’s “peasoupers” were a common event in those days, but this fog was different. It persisted – and intensified. After two days, visibility had dropped to its lowest level on record – just over a metre. Londoners, as if blindfolded, were walking in front of cars and stepping off rail platforms. At Sadler’s Wells, a performance of La traviata was halted when the audience could no longer see the stage. Then hospital wards began to fill up as citizens succumbed to respiratory illness. By the fog’s fifth and final day, tens of thousands had been laid out after breathing in thick, soot-laden air for several days. Of these, an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 eventually died. “The fog caused more civilian casualties than any five-day German bombing campaign had managed a few years before,” says Tim Smedley in Clearing the Air. Never had the debilitating impact of polluted air been more forcibly demonstrated. The government responded in 1956 by passing the Clean Air Act, which brought coal-fired power – the principal cause of those dense fogs – under careful control. “By the late 1970s, London’s peasoupers were a thing of the past,” adds Smedley. And for several decades after that, air pollution was treated as a problem solved. But as both Smedley and, in Choked, Beth Gardiner make clear that quiet assurance now looks horribly complacent. Our air today may not have the look of a peasouper. Nevertheless, its quality has been worsening relentlessly and is poisoning us as assuredly as it did in 1952, though the deadly airborne contaminants we now inhale consist of microscopically tiny particles rather than gobs of carbon. Polluted air used to stare us in the face. Today, it is an almost invisible threat. Nor is the issue confined only to London. Across the world, men, women and children are breathing in air that is becoming more and more harmful to their health. As Gardiner states: “Nothing is as elemental, as essential to human life, as the air we breathe. Yet around the world, in rich countries and poor ones, it is quietly poisoning us.” We have sleepwalked into a public health crisis. Nor is it difficult to spot the main culprit: motor vehicles, in particular those powered by diesel engines, which are now pumping out nitrogen oxides and tiny particles, known as PM2.5s, in increasing volumes, damaging our lungs and tainting our blood. Earlier this month, scientists put the number of early deaths attributable to this atmospheric poisoning at an incredible number: 8.8 million a year. Nine out of 10 people round the world now breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. As a result, nearly 600,000 children die every year from diseases caused or exacerbated by air pollution. It is a shocking litany of damaged lives, laid bare by Smedley and Gardiner in stark and vivid terms. Both are clearly motivated by concern for their own children and both rightly link the crisis we face from polluted air to the catastrophe that is already being triggered by global warming. As Gardiner puts it: “Both are symptoms of the unhealthy foundation on which we have built our world: fossil fuels.” Of the two books, Gardiner’s is the more descriptive, following the story of the harrowing impact of air pollution – from Brooklyn to Poland and Delhi to Berlin – in terms of its human cost. Smedley, by contrast, is more prescriptive and ends his book with a detailed blueprint for saving our cities. Suggested measures include a ban on all petrol and diesel cars in city centres; the replacement of diesel buses and trains with electric vehicles; and an end to the use of wood-burning stoves and coal fires. It’s an achievable vision, he insists. “However, whether it happens in 10 or 100 years is down to public pressure and political will.” • Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution by Tim Smedley is published by Blomsbury (£16.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99 • Choked: The Age of Air Pollution and the Fight for a Cleaner Future by Beth Gardiner is published by Granta (£14.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99 | ['books/scienceandnature', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/books', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-03-31T10:00:06Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
media/2006/nov/24/indianoceantsunamidecember2004.broadcasting | BBC tsunami drama gets mixed reaction | The BBC's decision to screen a major new drama based around the events of the 2004 Asian tsunami so close to the second anniversary of the disaster has provoked a mixed reaction from survivors and relatives of its victims. Scripted by Abi Morgan, the Bafta winning writer behind Channel 4's Sex Traffic, Tsunami: the Aftermath is a big budget three-hour drama. It is billed as a fictionalised account but one based on seven months of meticulous research and interviews with a wide range of witnesses. The BBC2 drama uses fictional characters to relate the experience of those caught up in the disaster, which killed more than 227,000 people in south-east Asia, and make wider points about the chaotic aftermath, the relief effort and the lack of an early warning system. But some relatives of victims have raised concerns over the timing and branded the decision to make a fictionalised account offensive. "I find it very offensive that they've fictionalised it," said Tom Needham, a screenwriter who lost his brother Robin, an aid worker who spent his career working throughout Africa and Asia, in the disaster. "They had an opportunity to bring a few people back to life and tell the truth of it. I find it very troubling that it's neither fish nor fowl." Mr Needham, who has not seen the two-part drama, said he was "very angry" and that the timing of it, with the first 90-minute episode going out next Tuesday on BBC2, "smacks of cashing in". Morgan, who spent more than seven months researching the film, said she was steeled for some criticism. "We have to take those criticisms on the chin and not ignore them. But I hope the work will speak for itself. I think we're all acutely aware that it would always be too soon for the survivors." The executive producer, Jane Featherstone, said many of the survivors and relatives who had seen the drama at screenings arranged through the Tsunami Support Network had praised the film. "A lot of the people Abi and I spoke to last summer and the survivors we've spoken to since felt we should do it as quickly as possible to keep the memory alive," she said. "A lot of the survivors felt it would help their families understand a little bit of what it was like and what they went through. They felt this was incredibly authentically portrayed," added Ms Featherstone, also joint managing director of the production company Kudos, which made its name with the BBC series Spooks and Life on Mars. Tsunami: the Aftermath features powerful performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sophie Okonedo as a couple whose six-year-old daughter goes missing, and Gina McKee as a mother fighting to get her injured son home following the death of her husband. The film was shot in Phuket, Thailand. | ['media/media', 'world/tsunami2004', 'media/television', 'media/bbc', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/owengibson'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-11-24T07:28:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/gender-equality-finance-industry-progress-battles | Gender equality in finance industry: progress made and battles ahead | On International Women's Day we celebrate the wonderful women in our lives and all they have achieved, but it's also a time to explore the barriers preventing women from achieving more. In the finance world, Christine Lagarde heads up the IMF, Janet Yellen has recently become chair of the Federal Reserve, Inga Beale is the first female CEO in Lloyd's of London's 350-year history, while Sherry Coutu and Joanna Shields have ended the male monopoly on the London Stock Exchange's board. We're good at citing examples of women in influential posts, but in reality, women hold only 14% of board seats and 2% of CEO positions (pdf) in the financial services despite making up 60% of its global workforce. In the absence of quotas, can anything really change? Chuck Stephens, global head of gender at Barclays, writes: I am not personally a fan of quotas, however ... we track ratios all over the business as indicators of success. Diverse talent is the same especially when you view talent as a supply chain consideration. The industry provides a service and it can't provide the best service possible without a proportionate input from 52% of the population. Stephens continues: "The introduction of the Talking ATM was originated by one of our women bankers. The men working on the project had missed that opportunity previously." EY's Tara Kengla agrees that quotas aren't necessarily the answer but believes through cross-gender mentoring, sponsorship and support we can edge closer to equality. "Women need to look outside of just female sponsors and mentors. And men need to be willing to sponsor and mentor women." When men are mentored or managed by women it can also help counter biases. It is progress when men have a better appreciation and understanding for what women face. However, my experience working with senior men is that they are facing their own challenges. In order to shift our stereotypes about women and power we also need to shift our stereotypes about men. - Justine Lutterodt, director of the Centre for Synchronous Leadership There's also real value to be found in seeking new thinking from outside your organisation as Kathryn Nawrockyi, director of Opportunity Now acknowledges. "Workplace inequality is both influenced by and responsible for social inequality ... I have worked in the past with Rape Crisis [and] cannot begin to describe how much that experience has influenced and fuelled the work I do with Opportunity Now; in turn, the employers we work with can influence significant societal change for women outside of the workplace." If quotas aren't the answer, what about a more transparent recruitment process? While people can gravitate towards those most like themselves accidentally, the unintentional consequences are huge. Removing unconscious bias in the recruitment process is key and Stephens says Barclays is developing its leaders, both men and women, with training in this area. By measuring the number of women applying, being shortlisted and hired into your organisation and putting this data in the public spotlight, the imperative to act is far greater, says Nawrockyi. Measuring how women fare in recruitment is one thing, but getting them to the first stage of the recruitment process is part of the battle. While employer interventions in-house are helpful, the industry could focus more on equality at the education stage by exposing girls to the finance industry and encouraging them in the right direction. It is crucial that we do more to ensure that young girls are are encouraged to study STEM subjects. We should also be working much earlier with girls to help them understand the gender differences that play out in the workplace and how they will shape their career around family responsibilities - Pavita Cooper, steering committee member for the 30% Club One of the biggest gender differences that plays out in the workplace is the attitude towards flexible working. "We need to challenge the stigma attached to [flexible working] – you still hear women struggling to be recognised because they work flexibly, and sadly you also hear men fearing the emasculation of doing the same. Not all men of course, but anecdotally," says Nawrockyi. As an American who has moved to London, Stephens admits he was surprised to see the cultural assumptions, by both men and women, concerning child responsibilities. In a 2013 survey of Citymother members, 77% of respondents said they had a flexible working arrangement in place but 45% felt their path to career progress would be slower as a result and 32% felt it would be unachievable, explains founder of Citymothers, Louisa Symington-Mills. "Flexibility needs to be available based on our personal priorities be they children, additional education or life goals. Those are all gender neutral," writes Stephens. There's no denying the old boys' clubs still exists in the financial services, but with a growing number of women's networks, a new form of club is emerging. Some 20% of FTSE 100 board members are now women and Nawrockyi points that we are now 50 women away from meeting Lord Davies' targets for women on boards. "Admission and acceptance is the first step on the road to recovery ... and I think now at least the City openly admits it has a problem," writes Symington-Mills. The case now is for keeping up the momentum and bridging the gap between what's being said and what's being done. Nawrockyi wraps it up: Don't think this gender thing is sorted yet for even a moment. Speak up, support other women, work with men to advance the agenda. Support the many other campaigns out there, whether on women in sport, women in work, the pay gap, sexual violence ... There is still so much to do and you are as much a part of it as anyone else. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/financial-sector', 'inequality/inequality', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/finance', 'profile/hannah-gould'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-03-08T07:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2024/jan/04/its-slipped-off-the-radar-why-are-there-fewer-street-trees-in-the-australian-bush | ‘It’s slipped off the radar’: why are there fewer street trees in regional towns across Australia? | Regional Australia’s back yards and nature strips need more trees to combat extreme heat and make rural towns more livable, experts say. Increasing shade cover in cities and towns can dramatically reduce surface temperatures and encourage walking and cycling. But as many metropolitan councils set ambitious tree canopy targets, budget constraints, fewer incentives and social attitudes mean some regional areas are lagging behind. Dr Laurel Johnson from the University of Queensland says increasing tree canopy cover in regional towns is one of the few tools available to ameliorate extreme summer temperatures exacerbated by global heating. “When there are more days over 40C, your tree canopy becomes really critical in cooling a township,” Johnson says. “We are sort of in tune with that phenomenon in more urbanised areas but regional towns don’t seem to be.” Awnings and street trees provide shade and create a welcoming environment for pedestrians, Johnson says, but they are often confined to the high street. “If you then need to walk to another part of town, you’ll find yourself quickly exposed to the elements,” she says. Johnson says the prioritisation of cars over public transport and pathways for pedestrians in many regional towns mean the benefits of street trees have not been fully realised. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter “Regional towns are much more concerned with the quality of the bitumen,” Johnson says. “That will trump tree planting every time.” More space, more resistance Landscape restoration projects in regional areas can initially be met with strong community opposition, says Greening Australia Queensland program officer Freddy Herrera. “You have this fightback of people thinking that you’re just going to make everything bush,” Herrera says. “Having been part of a regional community you understand it – it’s almost an attitude of: ‘We have always done it this way, why change?’” Herrera says community consultation and a fire management plan were a vital part of getting approval for a project outside Gatton in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley, where the not-for-profit planted native shrubs and trees along an eroded creek. But he says the town does not have a broader strategy to increase the urban canopy. “In rural areas you have more space [for trees] but you are fighting a bit of resistance,” Herrera says. “In the cities you have mostly positive attitudes but you are constricted by space.” West of Gatton, on the Darling Downs, tree planting efforts have been mixed. The Toowoomba regional council has planted tens of thousands of trees on council land and distributed thousands more free tree vouchers to residents, resulting in an estimated 2% to 5% increase in the urban canopy since 2011. In the neighbouring Western Downs regional council, 8,000 trees have been planted on kerbs since 2017 as part of an “adopt a tree” program. But to the south, the Goondiwindi regional council said while it is “extremely proud” of its tree-lined streets, it doesn’t have a plan to increase its urban canopy. In the Southern Downs regional council there had been no effort to increase the number of trees until December 2023, when the council announced it had secured a $100k federal government grant to plant trees. Prof Thomas Astell-Burt from the University of Wollongong says the percentage of tree canopy cover can vary widely between council areas. In the Sydney suburb of Ryde, tree canopy has decreased from 40% to 33% in seven years due in part to a large number of subdivisions in the area. In the regional city of Wollongong, the council has set an ambitious target to increase urban canopy cover to 34% by 2037. It’s currently estimated at just 17%. Astell-Burt says tree preservation is just as important as planting new trees, to avoid an overall decrease in canopy growth overtime. And he says the benefits go beyond shade: “Tree-lined streets present opportunities for serendipitous conversations with neighbours that in turn builds social capital, improves mental health and reduces loneliness.” ‘Easily a null issue’ Dr Jennifer Kent from the University of Sydney says many of the arguments for increasing urban tree canopy cover – namely the health benefits of regularly interacting with nature and parkland – are less persuasive in regional areas than in large cities because there is easier access to natural bushland. “It’s always going to be a good thing to plant trees,” Kent says. “But regional areas are quite often really well endowed with public open spaces – I can see how from a policy perspective it’s slipped off the radar a bit.” The layout of regional towns, with fewer buildings spaced further apart, also lessens the impact of urban heat islands, which have been a major driver of ambitious urban tree planting programs, Kent says. It is also harder to persuade people to switch from cars to walking or cycling in regional towns, despite the shorter distances traversed, because the lack of traffic and availability of parking makes them the “perfect environment” for car dependency. Ian Plowman, a former psychologist and social researcher, said land ballots conducted throughout the 20th century – where crown land was handed out to prospective farmers on the condition it was clearcut and productive – may also have shaped the perception of large-scale tree-planting projects in regional Australia. “In regional areas, do people find trees appealing, or do they signal a loss of productivity?” he says. Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community | ['australia-news/series/the-rural-network', 'australia-news/rural-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/urban-planning', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/transport', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'australia-news/series/rural-network', 'profile/aston-brown', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-rural-network'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-01-03T14:00:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/may/18/recycling-universal-symbol-chasing-arrows | Universal ‘chasing arrows’ recycling symbol could be dumped in US | The triangular loop of arrows that has been the universal symbol of recycling for the past five decades could itself end up being binned in the US, with Joe Biden’s administration mulling whether it is misleading to the public. The “chasing arrows” logo, designed by a college student for the first Earth Day in 1970, has become ubiquitous on everything from cartons of milk to shampoo bottles as a way to nudge users to recycle packaging rather than discard it. But the widespread use of the symbol on products that are not routinely accepted for recycling is helping stoke “consumer confusion about what is recyclable and/or compostable” and is leading to “deceptive or misleading” claims on packaging, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA said it is regularly bombarded by public queries about what is able to be recycled, and called for the recycling logo to be ditched from whole classes of plastics, in official comments lodged with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is currently updating its rulebook on the sorts of environmental claims that companies can accurately make about their products. At issue is the use of the logo along with the “resin number” of different types of plastics. Resin one and two plastics, such as bottles and jugs, are the most easily recycled products, but those marked with numbers three to seven, categories that include plastic bags, styrofoam and plastic trays, are typically not recycled and are instead sent to landfills or burned. The placement of the chasing arrows symbol upon these hard-to-recycle single-use plastics “does not accurately represent recyclability as many plastics (especially 3-7) do not have end markets, and are not financially viable to recycle,” the EPA said in its comments. A new rule was needed, the agency said, to help clear up this confusion. In 2021, California passed a law to restrict the use of the logo to avoid misleading claims about recycling. Environmental groups are pushing for an end to the blanket use of the logo, too, claiming that its use amounts to “greenwashing” by companies. “Instead of getting serious about moving away from single-use plastic, corporations are hiding behind the pretense that their throwaway packaging is recyclable,” said John Hocevar, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace, which has previously released research finding that most types of plastics are not recycled in the US. “We know now that this is untrue,” he said. “The jig is up.” Only around 5% of plastics are recycled in the US, a proportion that has been declining since China announced it would no longer be accepting unwanted plastic waste from western countries in 2018. American households produce around 51m tons of plastic waste a year, more than any other country, with much of that either dumped in landfills, incinerated or littered, often ending up in the ocean. Recycling isn’t itself a panacea to this situation, the United Nations warned in a report this week. Excessive packaging and single-use plastics need to be eliminated from use, the report found, which would be among a series of steps that could slash global plastic pollution by 80% by 2040. | ['environment/recycling', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-05-18T16:01:53Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2020/feb/22/flood-anger-climate-crisis-fossil-fuel | With every flood, public anger over the climate crisis is surging | Gaby Hinsliff | Sometimes it has felt as if the rain might never stop. These storms have gone beyond the point of simply being storms now, each blurring into the next to create a strangely end-of-days feeling. Everything is freakishly sodden and swollen, and while the rural flood plain on which I live fortunately hasn’t flooded anything like as badly as some, the rivers are rising alarmingly. Yet still the lashing winds and biblical downpours keep coming. Suddenly the 40 Days of Action campaign that Extinction Rebellion (XR) will launch on Ash Wednesday (26 February), encouraging people to reflect on the environmental consequences of their actions in a kind of green Lent, feels ominously well named. This week’s stunt in Cambridge, where XR activists dug up Trinity College’s lawn in symbolic protest at the college’s plans to build on land it owns in rural Suffolk, may be just the beginning. Some ask why these activists aren’t out stacking sandbags for the poor householders of the Wye valley, or canoeing through the streets of Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, highlighting the risks of a climate crisis that can only mean more freak flooding. Yet in some ways that was the point of targeting Trinity in the first place. Of all the Cambridge colleges, it’s the one identified by student journalists – using freedom of information requests – as the biggest investor in fossil fuel companies blamed for aggravating the climate crisis. Activists blockaded a research building run by the oil exploration company Schlumberger as well as making holes in the lawn. The clear aim is to make it toxic for institutions to maintain ties to polluting industries; and what makes universities tempting targets is that they’re already being hammered from inside by students raging against what they see as dirty money. But universities are not alone. This week Amazon chief Jeff Bezos announced he was giving $10bn (£7.7bn) to fight the climate crisis, provoking much the same complaints that greeted BP’s recent vow to go carbon-neutral by 2050: it’s not enough, it’s too vague, it’s just greenwashing. And yes, obviously Bezos should tackle his own company’s carbon footprint first, not to mention treating staff better and paying more tax if he has billions to spare. But until governments have the guts to legislate for all of that, then we are where we are, which is in danger of missing a sea change in corporate life. Executives in polluting industries haven’t quite reached the nadir of bankers after the financial crash, cold-shouldered at school gates and berated in the street, but the more enlightened can see something similar coming if they’re not careful. When BP’s new chief executive, Bernard Looney, made his carbon neutral announcement, following a similar pledge from British Airways, one key factor cited was pressure from staff. It hurts when your company is spurned by the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which ended its sponsorship deal with BP last year amid climate protests, not long after the actor Mark Rylance compared the firm to an arms dealer or tobacco company. At Amazon, too, Bezos had felt the heat internally with hundreds of staff protesting publicly against the company’s links to oil and gas exploration. And if younger staff are making waves now, then the climate will be an even harder red line for the graduates these companies need to recruit in future. Two-thirds of American teens now think oil and gas companies create more problems in the world than they solve, according to a report from management consultants EY. Generation Z want to work for ethical companies that make them feel good about themselves, and increasingly see jobs that fuel climate change as morally suspect. Who wants to spend a first date plaintively explaining why working in Big Oil doesn’t make them a bad person? It may sound ridiculous to their parents’ generation, for whom energy companies were the ones keeping the lights on, but even those with no such qualms must wonder if there’s much future with fossil fuel companies – squeezed between the political rock of legal commitments to hit zero emissions by 2050 and a public hard place that gets harder with every flood or bush fire. It’s not consumer boycotts driving this, so much as social stigma. It’s tough to go without these companies’ products – there was outrage when a bursar at St John’s College, Oxford, responded to student demands to divest immediately from fossil fuels with a tongue-in-cheek offer to turn their heating off if they were that worried – although the intention was to make the students think, not freeze. But noisy public disapproval costs absolutely nothing, which makes it a powerful weapon. Add in shareholder pressure, driven by new government rules requiring pension funds to take account of climate risk, and the heat is really on. Suddenly Bezos’s gesture starts to look positively cheap in comparison with being forced to change his business model. Yet, whatever the motivation, it’s still one of the biggest philanthropic donations in recent history, and it shows which way a howling wind is blowing. How to spend those billions? Bill and Melinda Gates argued this month that private philanthropists should be “swinging for the fences”, taking the big risks governments can’t take with public money. So perhaps the Bezos fund will simply go on a few high-profile scientific gambles. But the radical choice would be to spend some of it funding movements within corporate and institutional life, pushing the foot-draggers to act while they’re still in control of the situation. Better to move fast than wait for activists to dig up your lawn; better to act now, before the river of public anger bursts its banks. • Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'business/bp', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'tone/comment', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/gabyhinsliff', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-02-22T09:00:18Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2017/apr/12/loss-of-coral-reefs-caused-by-rising-sea-temperatures-could-cost-1tn-globally | Loss of coral reefs caused by rising sea temperatures could cost $1tn globally | The loss of coral reefs caused by rising sea temperatures could cost $1 trillion globally, a report from Australia’s Climate Council has projected, with the loss of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef alone costing that region 1m visitors a year, imperilling 10,000 jobs and draining $1bn from the economy. The longest global coral bleaching event on record, which began in 2014 and has affected some reefs in consecutive years, has given reefs little chance to recover, and should be a “wake-up call” to act to save the natural and economic assets, the Climate Council’s Lesley Hughes said. “The extraordinary devastation being experienced on the Great Barrier Reef is due to the warming of our oceans, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas,” Hughes said. “It would have been virtually impossible for this to have occurred without climate change.” Hughes argued it was a false dichotomy in public debate “to pit the environment against the economy”. “This isn’t just an environmental issue. The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s greatest economic assets. It’s responsible for bringing in more than $7bn each year to our economy, while also supporting the livelihoods of around 70,000 people. A healthy Great Barrier Reef underpins the tourism industry and the jobs that it supports.” The $1 trillion figure for the value of the world’s coral reefs is derived from a 2015 report led by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, which found that worldwide, reefs supported 500 million people across 50 nations. The cooler water temperatures brought by Cyclone Debbie are expected to offer Queensland reefs some relief from the bleaching events of 2016 and 2017, though this is expected to be only temporary, and could be offset by the physical damage caused by the Category 4 tropical cyclone. Professor Will Steffen, climate councillor and emeritus professor at the ANU, said bleaching events were likely to become more frequent and more severe in Australia over the next two to three decades, which could devastate the long-term health of the reef and its ability to regenerate. “The only way to protect coral reefs in Australia and around the world is to stop greenhouse gas emissions. Australia is the caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef and we are lagging well behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to doing our part to effectively combat climate change. “Emissions are flatlining in China and declining in the United States and in other OECD countries. In comparison, Australia’s emissions continue to grow. We’ve got to stop and then reverse this trend and we’ve got to do it now. There is no time to lose.” Australian emissions grew by 0.8% in 2016, the council’s report says. Steffen said the opening of new coalmines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin was inconsistent with protecting the Great Barrier reef, and reducing Australian – and global – carbon emissions. This week the Australian Research Council’s centre of excellence for coral reef studies released the results of its latest aerial surveys, which assessed 800 individual reefs. The surveys show the 2016 and 2017 mass bleaching events have now affected two-thirds of the reef. Only the reef’s southern third has emerged unscathed. This year’s bleaching event was most intense in the reef’s middle third, while last year’s was further north. The federal and state governments’ efforts to save the reef have been laid out in a joint long-term plan through to 2050. Combined, they spend about $200m annually to protect and preserve the reef. Announcing new measures last month – including offering financial incentives to farmers who reduce nitrogen and sediment run-off into the reef – environment minister Josh Frydenberg said the government was working with local communities to improve the reef’s health and maintain it for future generations. “These new projects complement existing efforts and demonstrate how we can make private investment work effectively alongside public funding to maximise results for the reef from each dollar invested. Collaborative partnerships like the ones announced today are critical to address the threats and pressures faced by the reef.” Both the federal and state governments support Indian conglomerate Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, which environmental groups and climate scientists have argued will cause massive carbon emissions, and endanger local species and groundwater supplies. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/series/great-barrier-reef-in-crisis', 'environment/coral', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/josh-frydenberg', 'environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-doherty', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-04-11T20:12:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/sep/16/extinction-rebellion-go-floppy-when-arrested-complains-senior-met-officer | Extinction Rebellion 'go floppy' when arrested, complains senior Met officer | One of Britain’s most senior police officers has launched an angry tirade against Extinction Rebellion protesters going “all floppy” when they get arrested. Sir Stephen House, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said the tactic of going limp was a “flipping nuisance” as it required extra officers to drag protesters away. House told a London assembly police and crime committee hearing: “We have asked them to stop being floppy. And that might seem like a silly thing to say, but when we arrest them and pick them up, they go all floppy, which is why you see four or five officers carrying them away. It’s a complete waste of officers’ time, and a complete pain in the neck.” House also expressed annoyance at how the tactic made the police look heavy-handed. He said: “The problem with them going floppy and four offices carrying them away [is that it] looks to the general public like police are overreacting here. We’re not making them go floppy. They’re just sort of being a nuisance.” House said the matter was a “real issue” for policing demonstrations by Extinction Rebellion, which has organised a series of protests across the UK to highlight the climate emergency, including a blockade this month of printing distribution centres used by right-leaning newspapers. A spokeswoman for XR confirmed that its protesters were encouraged and trained to go limp when being arrested. “It is part of our non-cooperation tactics. It is totally peaceful,” she said. The tactic is used by many of the older protesters who have joined the demonstrations. Speaking after being arrested at an XR sit-in in Parliament Square last year, Bryn Raven, 77, a retired English teacher, said: “Four officers organised themselves to carry me. I was totally limp.” House said: “If they could just behave like sensible adults. It is a flipping nuisance. And I think the majority of the public would look at that and go: ‘For goodness sake, you’ve made your point. You’ve been arrested, the police are treating you perfectly fairly, just get on with it.’” XR held 10 days of protests in central London at the start of September, with the latest figures from the Met showing that 680 people had been arrested. These were for alleged offences including obstructing the highway, criminal damage and breaching the legal conditions set on the demonstration. | ['environment/extinction-rebellion', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'environment/activism', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewweaver', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-09-16T15:08:45Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
politics/2009/apr/09/mandelson-slime-caution | Protester who 'slimed' Mandelson given caution | A climate change protester who "slimed" Lord Mandelson said today she had "no regrets" despite receiving a police caution for her actions. Scotland Yard confirmed that Leila Deen attended a central London police station today and accepted the punishment "on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service". The 29-year-old, a member of the Plane Stupid campaign group, covered the business secretary in green custard as he left a meeting in the capital last month in a protest against the proposed expansion of Heathrow airport. Police originally said they would not investigate the matter, but backtracked after John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, said it would be "totally unacceptable" to allow it to pass unchallenged. Deen said she had wanted to highlight the hypocrisy of the government's attitude to climate change and the third runway at Heathrow. "Despite the harmless and comic nature of my antics, the police informed me that throwing custard over an unelected government minister could be seen as a public order offence and have cautioned me accordingly." She added: "Climate change is the greatest threat we have ever faced through which millions will lose their lives and livelihoods. "I don't regret taking action against this government's hypocrisy and am grateful that the country cheered me on for what I did. "The movement to stop climate change is large and growing, and since our democratic system is crippled by people like Mandelson, we have no choice than to continue to use the noble tradition of direct action to effect the urgent change we need, and to call the government to account." A spokesman for Mandelson, who was today returning to the UK following an official trip to meet business leaders in the Middle East, said only: "This was a matter for the police." Prescott, writing on his blog, said: "I'm glad to see that Leila Deen has received the police caution and now accepted that her actions were plain stupid. "I've campaigned for action on climate change, negotiated the Kyoto treaty and hope to see a new deal at the Copenhagen conference in December. But this media stunt was totally unacceptable. "I hope this now serves as a warning to other protesters eager to grab the limelight by attacking others that such actions will now be held to account." | ['environment/green-politics', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'politics/peter-mandelson', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'environment/heathrow-third-runway', 'world/air-transport', 'type/article', 'profile/deborahsummers'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-04-09T14:27:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2015/nov/27/farewell-autumn | Farewell to autumn | The frost has bitten and winter finally arrived. In Banhaw Wood, after a particularly colourful autumn, the trees have mostly shed their leaves. On the aspen a few hang on, stiff yellow flags rattling delicately in the breeze. The more sheltered hazels are still in leaf, but they are flaccid and defeated. Many oaks are bare, but some still hold rusty brown leaves, and one moderately sized oak is notably verdant, as if in defiance of the near onset of December. The ash trees dropped their leaves a while ago; they stand in naked greyness, adorned with many hanging bunches of dark keys. In one ash, two pairs of bullfinches flit between bunches of seeds. Each grips a twig and leans upside down to pluck a seed, then rights itself and dexterously unsheathes the kernel with its thick bill. This behaviour makes them look more parrots than finches, particularly the males with their gaudy orange-pink fronts and neat black caps. Beyond the wood, just over the crest of the hill, are some significant medieval earthworks. The largest is a 25m square mound surrounded by a deep moat. Upper Lyveden moated site is thought to date from around 1300, and floor tiles from the 1400s have been found. The valley floor further on is littered with long abandoned villages and the fields surrounding the site are scattered with limestone bricks. There is evidence of thriving potteries and kilns, and the area is the source of Lyveden Stanion Ware. However, by the mid-1500s, whatever building once stood here had disappeared and now the mound is encapsulated by young trees. Nearby are two substantial fishponds, bunded to maintain water in this elevated position. They would once have supplied large carp to supplement the farmed produce. One remains as a significant pond, but is now surrounded by shooting butts, with the margins richly layered with grain. This, to my eye, spoils the appearance of the historic feature, but perhaps, if they still serve a purpose in supplying some meat for the tables of the local farmers, we shouldn’t judge too harshly. | ['environment/winter', 'environment/forests', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'environment/birdwatching', 'science/archaeology', 'type/article', 'profile/matt-shardlow', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-11-27T05:30:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
travel/2013/jul/27/englands-forests-visiting-after-dark | England's forests: if you go down to the woods at night … | There is something of the night about forests. Even at the height of summer, even under the midday sun, they are places of murk and mystery, blotting out the light with a mille-feuille of foliage. Even the most regimented spruce plantation has its shadows and its secrets. At the heart of every forest is a darkness that bides its time. And as the sun goes down, after that lovely hour of slanting golden light, this dark spirit reclaims its own, rolling out across bracken and brambles towards its still-grey borders. The wood is at its woodiest. If you are lucky enough to live surrounded by forest – as I once was – you feel it recede and fade at sunrise, only to creep back as night falls, a tide retaking the beach. The last crow heads to its roost, the first bats unfold their wings, and beneath them the beasts that have hidden all day emerge to feast, fight and fornicate. All around you are squeaks and rustles, grunts and barks, cries of terror and of lust. On your first night, you may be tempted to rush back indoors and shoot the bolts. But keep calm – that crashing through the undergrowth is probably just a deer. That screaming is almost certainly foxes. Try not to think of The Blair Witch Project, or JRR Tolkien's Mirkwood. Nyctohylophobia – the fear of forests at night – is what is known as a "learned phobia". "We learn to fear forests because of movies [and books] that generally involve some marauding killer or wild animal that stalks victims," says the appropriately named Fear of Stuff website. "We can also learn this fear when playing as children and discovering there are far too many hiding places and too many opportunities for playmates to jump out and frighten us." But there are no giant spiders waiting to wrap you in their silk. It's two and a half centuries since anyone in Britain had to worry about wolves. By all means take a torch, but try not to use it. Yes, a sweep of its beam will reveal dozens of watching eyes, but the spell will break and you'll wreck your night vision. The same goes for checking your mobile. On all but the darkest nights, it's amazing what you can see once your eyes adjust. Wait quietly and patiently where the canopy is thinnest – at the forest's edge, in a clearing, by the side of a road – let the stars and the moonlight work their magic, and you might see badgers and deer, hedgehogs and mice, pine martens and foxes, maybe even a dormouse or a boar. And don't forget to look up, in case an owl is silently sweeping past. Savour the moment. Robert Frost knew what he was talking about: the woods really are lovely, dark and deep. | ['travel/series/englands-forests', 'travel/england', 'environment/forests', 'education/agricultureandforestry', 'books/robert-frost', 'type/article', 'profile/phildaoust', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/special-supplement', 'theguardian/special-supplement/special-supplement'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-07-26T23:01:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/article/2024/jun/07/us-south-west-heatwave | Heatwave grips US south-west with record highs: ‘Hotter than we’re used to’ | The US south-west continued to endure sweltering weather as the first heatwave of the year brought temperatures of 110F (43C) and higher from California to Arizona. The temperatures are higher than normal for this time of year, with the official start of summer still two weeks away. Roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, which the National Weather Service extended until Friday evening. The alert was extended through Saturday in Las Vegas, where it has never been hotter this early in the year. “High temperatures as much as 10 to 15 degrees above normal can be expected, with record high temperatures likely for some sites through Friday,” the weather service in Las Vegas said. Temperatures will slowly retreat over the weekend, but will remain above normal into early next week. The National Weather Service in Phoenix, where the new record high of 113F (45C) on Thursday leapfrogged the old mark of 111F (44C) set in 2016, called the conditions “dangerously hot”. There were no immediate reports of any heat-related deaths or serious injuries. But at a campaign rally for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, in Phoenix, 11 people fell ill from heat exhaustion by late afternoon and were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, fire officials said. And in Las Vegas, with a new record of 111F (44C) on Thursday that also matched the earliest time of year the high reached at least 110F, the Clark county fire department said it had responded to at least 12 calls for heat exposure since midnight on Wednesday. Nine of those calls resulted in a patient needing hospital treatment. Several other areas of Arizona, California and Nevada also broke records by a degree or two, including Death Valley national park with a record high for the date of 122F, topping 121F dating to 1996 in the desert that sits 194ft (59 meters) below sea level near the California-Nevada line. Records there date to 1911. California’s interior continued to face grueling temperatures into Friday. Fresno in the Central valley and Redding in the state’s far north expected to see highs of 103F (39C) on Friday. In Fresno, officials briefly postponed a graduation ceremony this week due to the heat risk, and the public health department has warned people with health conditions to take precautions. “Every heat-related death can be prevented,” Dr Rais Vohra, Fresno county’s interim health officer, told KVPR. Advocates have warned that unhoused people in particular face increased risks from the extreme heat and lack of cooling centers. In Chico, which saw temperatures of 104F this week, a local non-profit was handing out ice and water to people on the street. “We have an ageing homeless population here and they are so much more susceptible to heat stressors,” said Lauren Kennedy, the program coordinator of Safe Space, which operates shelters during extreme weather in Chico. The non-profit relies on churches and other groups to provide temporary shelter, but does not have spaces available this week. “We’re really short on spaces that people can gather. Not just homeless people but anybody,” Kennedy said. The heat has arrived weeks earlier than usual even in places farther to the north at higher elevations – areas typically a dozen degrees cooler. That includes Reno, where the normal high of 81F (27C) for this time of year soared to a record 98F (37C) on Thursday. Records there date to 1888. The National Weather Service forecast mild cooling across the region this weekend, but only by a few degrees. In central and southern Arizona, that will still mean triple-digit highs, even up to 110F. On Thursday in Phoenix, the unseasonably hot weather did not prevent Oscar Tomasio of Cleveland, Ohio, from proposing to his girlfriend, Megan McCracken, as they attempted to hike to the peak of a trail on Camelback Mountain with three liters of water each in tow. “It was a grueling hike,” Tomasio told the Associated Press. “It was extra hot, so we started extra early.” “The views were beautiful. We didn’t make it quite to the top because she was a little nervous with the heat,” he said. “So I proposed to her when the sun rose.” McCracken confirmed they had planned a sunrise hike and awoke about 5am in an effort to beat the heat and an impending closure of the trail. “Probably not early enough,” she said. | ['environment/extreme-heat', 'us-news/west-coast', 'us-news/arizona', 'us-news/nevada', 'us-news/california', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dani-anguiano', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/extreme-heat | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-06-07T19:09:27Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2018/sep/17/florence-floodwaters-wilmington-isolated-supplies-scarce | Florence floodwaters leave Wilmington residents desperately seeking fuel | Past the jam of cars and bodies at Buffalo Wild Wings, past the long lines at the drive-ins at Taco Bell and Arby’s, an even longer line grew at the Harris Teeter Fuel Station. The caravan of vehicles waiting for gas wrapped around a block, longer than half a mile. About 200 cars crawled along, halting, moving a quarter of a mile in 90 minutes. A grey car snuck into line, prompting a cacophony of horns. The driver ignored the mob and crept ahead to get gas, precious gas. Wilmington is cut off by floodwaters and vital supplies are becoming scarce. Word of abundant and available gas had spread. It was supposedly available at Costco and this station for the first time since before Florence made landfall on Friday. Masses waited impatiently for their turn. For most, it never came. A man in a yellow raincoat waved away hundreds. “Sorry! There’s no more!” he screamed into the rain, waving his arms to shoo cars away from the store. Before Florence, the GasBuddy app activated a fuel tracker for the Carolinas and Virginia. The closest and most accessible area with multiple fuel options, it said, was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, more than a two-hour drive south. That was not an option on Sunday. Wilmington was an island after access roads flooded and fallen trees blocked communities. New Hanover county officials said there was no way in or out. On Facebook, they said: “The county is virtually surrounded by water right now and there is no easy way to come home.” Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, wrote on Twitter that 73% of gas stations in Wilmington were reported to be out of gas. “That’s a fairly high number,” he said, pointing out that “millions of evacuees” would have depleted supplies on leaving. “Looking at the statewide outage number, about 20% as of now, that’s lower than outages after last year’s Hurricane Irma.” A whisper network emerged, rumours of stations with gas spreading like precious fumes. Patricia Green, a resident of downtown Wilmington, was adamant a truck stop down the road was open and ready for business. “Even for cars, yes, they said they have 5,000 gallons of fuel,” she said. It wasn’t open. In an isolated city, three days after the storm, it was not only fuel that was becoming hard to find. Even food supplies were becoming limited. An airlift was planned. But tempers were beginning to fray. On Saturday, local news reporter Luke Lyddon posted video after someone cut a line for gas. In the ensuing argument, somebody pulled a gun. No one was hurt. At Costco, police looked on. In Wilmington, people now have no choice but to wait. | ['world/hurricane-florence', 'weather/florence', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/khushbu-shah', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricane-florence | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-17T13:22:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/dec/16/sally-austin-obituary | Sally Austin Brown obituary | My sister Sally Austin Brown, who has died of cancer aged 74, found her vocation in 1978 when she joined Greenpeace and campaigned in the original crew of the Rainbow Warrior, the first of her lifelong actions in the growing environmental movement. Born in Colchester, Essex, to Pamela (nee Woodhead) and Sq Ldr John Austin, who met whilst serving in the WRAF and RAF, she endured boarding at Redmaids’ school in Bristol. Although she wanted to go to art school, instead she attended Gloucestershire Technical College, where she gained essential O-levels but her artistic interests were unfulfilled. Aged 18 she trained as a state registered nurse at West London hospital in Hammersmith, then worked in renal care where she met and married Craig Dexter. They divorced a few years later and Sally moved to Cornwall where she lived the rest of her life, starting work in Falmouth hospital on the children’s ward. When our father John died in tragic circumstances, she lived with Pam for a year, during which time she saw a 1978 television documentary about whaling and Greenpeace. Out of nowhere she found a passion. After writing to express interest she was invited to the London office. Within weeks she had joined the crew of the UK branch’s new flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, then moored in Amsterdam, as nurse and cook, for various campaigns on whaling and nuclear waste. In 1982 commercial whaling was banned worldwide. Sally foresaw many of the ways in which humanity needs to change if it is to live healthily, peacefully and harmoniously with the natural world. But more than that, she took action, promoting vegetarianism, selling whole foods, fighting harmful developments, reducing plastic consumption and creating healthy cleaning products. She combined the last two of these in 2005 when she started making natural, non-toxic soap-based cleaners in her shed, first in Falmouth, and later at her home in the village of Devoran. She founded the Ecogenie cooperative with her friend Kate, and they sold their products to refill recycled plastic bottles, using them in house cleaning services and supporting schools and communities in the south-west. After the company closed in 2013, Sally continued to sell her natural soap products. Sally’s family were everything to her: her loving partner of 40 years, David Brown, their son, Tom, and her stepson, Jon – all three boat riggers – and their wider families. Caring for her grandchildren as well as our mother in her declining years exemplified her selfless commitment to others. Many old friends in her community will miss her dearly. We are all profoundly influenced by her values, which live on through us. Pam died in 2015. Sally is survived by David, Tom, Jon and me. | ['environment/greenpeace', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'type/article', 'tone/obituaries', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-12-16T18:32:37Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
technology/2014/nov/06/uk-drone-lab-imperial-college | UK’s most advanced drone lab to be built at Imperial College London | A new £1.25m drone testing lab is being built in South Kensington as part of Imperial College London’s investment into next-generation robotics. Construction of the Brahmal Vasudevan aerial robotics lab starts in 2016 and will see a two-storey lab and workshop built on the roof of Imperial College’s City and Guilds building. It will provided test-flight facilities for hybrid unmanned aerial robots that can also dive and operate in water – one of only a handful of such facilities in the world. “It’s an excellent opportunity to create a state-of-the-art facility, not only in the UK but worldwide,” Dr Mirko Kovac, the director of Imperial’s aerial robotics lab, explained to the Guardian. “The time is right to invest in drones because devices like smartphones are so widespread, technology like the GPS chip has become small and cheap and can be used for drones, which has fuelled this type of research. “At the same time industry – across oil and gas, water, agriculture, energy, health, flooding response and search and rescue – have realised that drones can transform their businesses. Drones are moving away from military use toward the civil space in service to humanity in general driving momentum in the space.” ‘Develop new engines’ The flight arena will open in 2017, a glass-fronted cube that will be lit so that the drones are visible from the outside. An accessible roof will also provide a takeoff and landing platform for testing outdoor flight. The lab will have 16 high-speed 3D cameras capable of tracking the robots in flight, and a further eight under water. A handful of universities around the world, including Bristol and MIT, have similar facilities, but Imperial’s new drone lab will also have a fume extraction system. This “is unique and will allow us to research and test combustion for flying robots so that we can develop new engines and new principles for robotics using hazardous chemicals”, Kovac said. The new lab will be twinned with a a rapid prototyping facility that allows researchers to 3D print and laser micro-machine drones, making Imperial one of the world’s best-equipped centres for aerial robotics. ‘Inspire future aeronautical engineers’ Kovac’s lab , with14 researchers, currently focuses on two types of drone development: aerial robots for construction and repair of infrastructure, including a flying 3D printer that is currently on exhibit at the Science Museum in London, and aerial-aquatic robots, which are expected to be the next step in drones for search and rescue among other multi-use applications. Other researchers from across Imperial’s engineering departments will have access to the facility, including mechanical, electronic and aeronautical engineering students. Money for the new aerial lab is provided by Brahmal Vasudevan, an Imperial alumnus and chief executive of Creador, one of Asia’s leading private equity firms. “Aerial robotics has a tremendous range of applications, and Imperial is well-equipped to play a pivotal role in this nascent industry,” said Professor Alice Gast, the president of Imperial. “The Brahmal Vasudevan aerial robotics lab will showcase Imperial’s outstanding abilities and inspire future aeronautical engineers. We are fortunate to have engaged alumni who support the student experience and keep us at the forefront of discovery.” Legislative challenges Drones – and the legislation covering them – have been thrown under the spotlight as companies such as Amazon, Google and DHL have looked to use them to deliver goods and services. In the UK is prohibited to fly drones over gatherings of 1,000 or more people at any height, or within 50 metres of a building or structure. Since 2010 the Civil Aviation Authority has required drone operators to seek permits to use drones. The number of organisations given permits, including police forces and film makers, has increased 80% since the beginning of the year. Six movie and TV production companies were recently given permission by the US Federal Aviation Administration to film with unmanned aircraft in defined closed areas. It was hailed as a “significant milestone” towards the commercial exploitation of drones in US airspace by the Obama administration. • Drones spotted over seven French nuclear sites, says EDF • Drone permits issued to UK operators increase by 80% | ['technology/research', 'world/drones', 'technology/engineering', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'world/world', 'science/science', 'education/imperialcollegelondon', 'education/education', 'education/higher-education', 'uk/uk', 'education/research', 'education/researchfunding', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-11-06T06:00:03Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global-development/2013/oct/22/indian-illegal-mining-investigation-shah-commission | Indian illegal mining investigation ends without explanation | A major investigation into India's illegal mining practices that led to the arrests of public officials for corruption was wound up last week without explanation, sparking concern about the extent of government complicity in illegal activities. The investigation was set up by the government in November 2010 in response to public pressure to address India's escalating illegal mining practices. Vijay Pratap, convener of the thinktank South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy, is convinced it was closed due to the extent of corruption uncovered in the country's mining sector. Pratap said: "The commission was exposing too much corruption at government level and risked undermining tightly woven corporate collusion with the political class, which has sadly become endemic in the mining industry. This is why the government aborted the investigation." The commission was headed by Justice M B Shah, with a mandate to investigate financial transactions between exporters, traders and mining lease owners, as well as illegal practices, such as mining without a licence, mining outside lease areas, transporting minerals illegally and mining-related ecological destruction. The government's ministry of mines terminated the commission on 16 October without offering an explanation. "The government has not stated any reason for instructing us to end our investigations," said U V Singh, the commission's primary investigator. The commission should have conducted investigations in seven resource-rich states where illegal mining has become widespread. But inquiries in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where mining abuses have been reported, were not completed. "A full inquiry was not possible," said Singh. The commission has submitted two reports, one on illegal manganese and iron ore mining across the country and the other on illegal mining in Goa, the largest exporter of iron ore in the country. Following the report, the supreme court slapped a temporary ban on all mining activity in the state. The commission submitted its final report earlier this month, which was expected to reveal the extent of losses from financial irregularities across India's mining sector between 2006 and 2011, but is now expected to just focus on Goa. The commission's reports on mining in Goa accused both the state and the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) of allowing illegal mining in the state and putting the region's environment and ecology at risk. It reported that all 90 mines were functioning without the mandatory permission from the National Board for Wildlife, and 33 of them were located within 1.5km of wildlife sanctuaries. Investigations into illegal mining have exposed high levels of corruption in the industry. Two former Congress chief ministers of Goa, Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane, have been indicted for involvement in illegal mining and failure to safeguard the environment from mining-related devastation. The state's former director of mines and geology, Arvind Lolienkar, was also charged. Goa's state financial losses have been estimated at Rs 35,000 crore (US$5bn) as a result of large-scale mining scams. M E Shivalinga Murthy, former director of Karnataka's mines and geology department, has been charged with issuing fake permits to Associated Mining Company (AMC), owned by jailed former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. After further investigation, the mines and geology department discovered six of its top officials were complicit in AMC's illegal iron ore mining. Karnataka incurred a revenue loss of Rs 2,976.26 crore between 2005 and 2011 due to illegal extraction and transportation of minerals. In response to the commission's findings, the supreme court banned mining in Karnataka between July 2011 and April 2013, while in Odisha, the state government placed a temporary ban on iron ore exports in October 2012 until investigations had concluded. According to the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), iron ore exports dropped 70% during the ban on iron ore mining in Karnataka and Goa. India lost an estimated $10bn in iron ore exports in the last financial year and is expected to become a net importer of the commodity. The government's decision to end the investigation displays a failure to protect vulnerable tribal communities, said Madhu Sarin, honorary fellow of Rights and Resources Initiative. "The commission's termination will have a direct impact on the rights of all those illegally displaced already and under threat of displacement in the future due to non-recognition of their forest rights and being denied the right to decide whether mining in their ecologically fragile homelands should be permitted or not," she said. | ['global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/world', 'world/india', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'business/mining', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/matthew-newsome'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2013-10-22T09:51:03Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2020/nov/11/new-species-of-extinct-monk-seal-identified-from-fossils-in-new-zealand | New species of extinct monk seal identified from fossils in New Zealand | Fossils found in New Zealand have led to the discovery of a previously unidentified species of extinct monk seal, which biologists say is the biggest breakthrough in seal evolution in seven decades. The animal – named Eomonachus belegaerensis – was named after a sea in JRR Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings, and has radically changed scientists’ understanding of how seal species have evolved around the world. Eomonachus belegaerensis lived in the waters around New Zealand some three million years ago, and was 2.5 metres in length and weighed around 200-250kg. Monash University palaeontologist James Rule, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, worked with a team of Trans Tasman scientists on his paper. “This new species of extinct monk seal is the first of its kind from the Southern Hemisphere. Its discovery really turns seal evolution on its head,” Rule said. “Until now, we thought that all true seals originated in the northern hemisphere, and then crossed the equator just once or twice during their entire evolutionary history. Instead, many of them appear to have evolved in the southern Pacific, and then criss-crossed the equator up to eight times.” The equator usually acts as a barrier for marine animals crossing, Rule said, as the waters are so warm, so the discovery that seals crossed numerous times over their evolutionary history is significant. It was previously thought that all true seals originated in the north Atlantic, with some later crossing the equator to live as far south as Antarctica. Eomonachus shows that many ancient seals, including the ancestors of today’s monk, elephant and Antarctic seals, actually evolved in the southern hemisphere. Dr Felix Marx, Te Papa Museum of New Zealand’s curator of marine mammals, said the discovery was a triumph for citizen science, as the fossils studied by the Monash team were collected by beach-goers in Taranaki between the years 2009-2016. “This new species has been discovered thanks to numerous, exceptionally well-preserved fossils – all of which were found by members of the public,” Marx said. “New Zealand is incredibly rich in fossils, and so far we have barely scratched the surface.” Rule says now ancient monk seals have been discovered in New Zealand, it makes the research possibilities for all of the south Pacific much more urgent. Traditionally the southern hemisphere is under-researched compared to the northern hemisphere, Rule said. “I would like to see if there’s any monk seals to be found in Australia. Also, now that New Zealand has produced a monk seals I want to look for other seals [in NZ] that would be completely unexpected.” | ['world/newzealand', 'environment/marine-life', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/eleanor-de-jong', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/new-zealand'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-11-11T03:16:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2018/sep/14/florence-waffle-house-opening-north-carolina-waiting-for-hurricane | 'If Waffle House is closed, be concerned': Carolinians brace for Florence with syrup and bacon | The smell of bacon grease and waffles wafted out the door as Bill Hobbs stepped into a Waffle House in Wilmington, North Carolina, with daughter Kenzi Tippetts and granddaughter Grace. It was a tradition to visit the predominantly southern chain restaurant on the day hurricanes are expected to make landfall. And Hurricane Florence was coming. In front of him, Delta employee Jennifer Garay, 47, was waiting for a booth after having called ahead to make sure the restaurant was open. Not only because she was hungry, but because it’s a sort of barometer of how bad Florence might be for Wilmington and the rest of the Carolina coastline. “That’s a southern thing. If Waffle House is closed, you should be concerned. That’s the first place we called this morning, to make sure Waffle House was open,” she said, eyeing the grill overcrowded with eggs, bacon and sausage. She’s not alone in that calculation. A 2011 Fema blog entry explained how Craig Fugate, Florida’s former department of emergency management administrator, measured hurricane levels by something called the Waffle House test: when a Waffle House stays open during a storm and they offer the full menu, the index remains green. If it offers a limited menu, the index turns yellow. And when a Waffle House must close, the index goes red. Two of Wilmington’s Waffle House restaurants had limited menus on Thursday morning and a line had formed outside the downtown establishment. Waffle House takes the responsibility seriously, tweeting earlier in the week, “The @WaffleHouse Storm Center is activated and monitoring #Florence. Plan ahead and be safe.” Ahead of the impending disaster in North Carolina, Waffle House employees cycled customers in and out of booths with charm and wit. Ryan, a volunteer server at Waffle House during the hurricane – he can’t give his last name as he’s not allowed to talk to the media – dished up bacon for Hobbs and quipped, “The last bacon in town”, as he warned the table to watch the hot plate. He has sent his kids off to the mountains while he stays at the Holiday Inn across the street, where Waffle House is putting up employees. It’s waffles all around in the booth, slathered in butter and syrup. Ryan tells another booth he’ll be out of ice within the hour before coming to refill coffee and water for Hobbs and the Tippetts. “It’s a tradition,” Hobbs said. This isn’t the first major hurricane for the Wilmington native, either. When he was 12 years old, he delivered newspapers the morning Hurricane Hazel destroyed the Carolina coast in 1954. Still, Florence worries him because of the potential for flash flooding. Hobbs says he thinks a few other places might stay open, like The Harp in downtown. But, across town, siblings Pam Battson and Patrick Ogelvie wait for a table outside another Waffle House because The Harp doesn’t have a cook until later in the afternoon. And with the coming “monster” of a storm, as North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, called Florence the night before, it’ll be their last hot meal for a while. “We drove around and almost every place is boarded up, including their doors,” Battson explained. She’s looking for a shot of grits because, “We’re in the south, woman.” After breakfast, the pair are heading home to wait it out. “Waiting for old Flo to roll in,” Ogelvie said. A little while later, three young Wilmington residents, decked out in American flag-printed shorts, one man sporting a wig and an American flag, rolled by to head to the Waffle House. “Just want to see what they have and if they’re open,” the one in a wig shouts. Back on the other side of town, Hobbs reaches to pay the tab. Before he can, server Ryan walks by, grabbing bills as he goes. “Someone picked up everyone’s tab,” he yelled. Bellies full and traditions fulfilled, the wait for Flo begins. | ['world/hurricane-florence', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/khushbu-shah', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricane-florence | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-14T10:00:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/article/2024/aug/27/australia-prozac-waterways-fish-behaviour | Prozac in waterways is changing how fish behave, research finds | Contamination of waterways with the antidepressant Prozac is disrupting fish bodies and behaviours in ways that could threaten their long-term survival, new research has found. As global consumption of pharmaceuticals has increased, residues have entered rivers and streams via wastewater raising concerns about the effects on ecosystems and wildlife. Research published in the journal of Animal Ecology found low concentrations of fluoxetine – an antidepressant commonly known as Prozac – reduced the body condition and sperm vitality of male guppies over multiple generations. The study’s co-lead author, Dr Upama Aich from Monash University, said thousands of chemicals were “being dumped into our waterways every day”. The researchers chose to look at fluoxetine as it was “quite ubiquitous”. Aich said the changes observed in guppies at low concentrations of the drug should be taken as a warning about their ability “to live and survive and thrive in a polluted environment”. Researchers caught 3,600 wild guppies – an invasive species in Australia – and randomly assigned them to tanks fitted with gravel and aquatic plants. Over five years they dosed the tanks with different concentrations of fluoxetine – zero, low (31.5 nanograms a litre) and high (316 ng/L), consistent with levels found in the natural environment. Researchers then studied the effects on male fish behaviour, bodies and reproductive traits over multiple generations. Aich said low exposure reduced the body condition of males in the population as a whole, “which is really important, not only for mating, but also for fighting with other males, and their overall survival”. Exposure to low doses also reduced sperm velocity but increased the length of the gonopodium, a fin-like organ used to fertilise the female, she said. She said exposure to the drug also reduced variation in activity and risk taking behaviour, which could affect guppies’ ability to respond to changes in the wild. Dr Minna Saaristo, a principal scientist in ecological risk and emerging contaminants at the Environment Protection Authority Victoria, said medicines were designed to work at low doses, which could explain why there were more profound effects at low concentrations. Saaristo led EPA research that found 18 common pharmaceuticals in four Victorian rivers and creeks, including upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plants. Sampling detected common antidepressants, blood pressure, heart and epilepsy medicines, caffeine and antibiotics. “It’s a whole cocktail that we’re dealing with,” Saaristo said. The EPA also tested for pharmaceuticals in commonly caught fish. The highest concentrations were for antidepressants, including venlafaxine (150 micrograms a kilogram) in redfin perch and sertraline (100 μg/kg) in eel. Saaristo said there was no significant risk to human health but the regulator was monitoring the situation. She said people should not flush pharmaceuticals down the toilet. Instead they should return unwanted and expired medicines to a pharmacy. “That will be very helpful for the fish that are swimming in our waterways.” | ['environment/series/australian-climate-and-environment-in-focus', 'environment/fish', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'science/drugs', 'environment/waste', 'science/science', 'environment/rivers', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/petra-stock', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-08-27T04:01:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
money/2008/mar/28/consumeraffairs.waste | Dear Anna: PC World admits to a Weee recycling error | Last July, a zippily named directive, Weee (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), came into force to coax the nation towards a greener conscience. Electrical retailers are now obliged to accept customers' redundant goods for recycling. PC World's website invites shoppers to dump their defunct fax machines, televisions etc at its stores for eventual rebirth and explains how "lead and other toxins in electrical goods can cause soil and water contamination" when added to landfill. However, when Tom Davies took his printer in to the Tottenham Court Road branch, in central London, staff there knew nothing of the new rules and insisted they had no recycling facility. Eventually they offered to take the printer provided Davies signed a form permitting it to be binned. Davies rang PC World customer services and found operatives there just as ignorant of the Weee promise. A spokesman for the Dixons Group, of which PC World is a part, says that head office staff have contacted the store to ensure that the misunderstanding does not recur and points out that the company has recycled 21,300 tonnes of goods since July. Meanwhile, Philip Resheph was anxious not to add his mobile phone needlessly to the waste mountain. He had lost his O2 phone, claimed a new one from O2's insurers and then found the original. As he preferred the latter to its replacement he asked O2 if he could buy it back from the insurers rather than return it to be destroyed. O2 refused and at one point even threatened to cut him off if he did not send it back. O2 says Resheph was misinformed and has contacted him to apologise. Lost handsets become the property of the insurer but if customers find theirs they can keep them, provided they return the replacement, says a spokesperson. Moreover, O2 insists that returned handsets are reconditioned or recycled, not destroyed. · Send your consumer grievances to Dear Anna, at Shopping, 3rd Floor, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER email consumer@theguardian.com | ['money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'technology/mobilephones', 'business/retail', 'environment/environment', 'money/series/dearanna', 'type/article', 'profile/annatims', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-03-28T00:16:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/may/18/uk-climate-champion-stubbornly-optimistic-about-net-zero-deal-at-un-talks | UK climate champion ‘stubbornly optimistic’ about net zero deal at UN talks | The UK’s climate champion, Nigel Topping, says he is stubbornly optimistic that the world will converge on an agreement to forge a transition to a net zero future at the UN climate talks later this year. Topping’s role in the run-up to the UN Cop26 climate summit, to be held in Glasgow in November, is to drive and encourage action from businesses, civil society, and local and regional government on climate change. Topping acknowledges the need to be sanguine about the fact that the world has not done enough and is running out of time. “But I am a stubborn optimist,” he said. Topping, who was appointed the UK’s climate champion by Boris Johnson last year, said: “We do know what needs to be done, we do have solutions and we are rapidly seeing the whole world converge on an agreement. “Most commentators haven’t studied history enough to see that these complicated industrial transformations have always seemed to take forever to start, but then have gone very quickly.” Topping and his fellow climate champion, Chile’s Gonzalo Muñoz, are leading the so-called Race to Zero, a global campaign to rally support and commitments for a net zero future and emissions limits for the next decade. Topping says he is “soapboxing” to drum up as much support as possible from city leaders, regional governments, business and civil society to support the transition to net zero. The UK government has committed to reaching net zero by 2050, and recently announced it will reduce emissions 78% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels in a move to spur action ahead of Cop26. At Cop26, nations will be asked to set out national plans for carbon curbs over the next 10 years. “Transformational change starts with bold targets, then you have got to seal in the policies. That is quite normal in politics,” said Topping. Public support for the changes needed to transform economies to net zero was vital, said Topping. A new BBC documentary, The People versus Climate Change, traces the personal journeys and major life changes taken by some members of the public who took part in the UK government’s climate assembly last year. The film follows some of the participants, including Sue Peachey, 56, from Batheaston in Bath, a former fishmonger and traffic warden who now manages a retirement home. Since the experience Peachey has bought an electric car and joined the parish council to advocate for local climate action. Topping said the experiences of those who took part highlighted how perspectives could change as a result of a little education and informed conversations. “It is really simple on one level but also complicated. We have got to challenge everyone and have them asking, how much change does that mean for me?” Businesses, he said, needed to be held to account as they made commitments to cut emissions and transition to a net zero future. The Race to Zero campaign is attempting to build momentum around the shift to net zero. “All the companies that are in the race to zero are committing to not just getting to zero down the line in five CEOs time, but playing their part in getting to 50% reduction by 2030, having clear intermediate targets and publishing and enacting their plans,” he said. “And they need to be held to account by government, the public and investors to make sure they are doing enough in the next two years to be on track.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-05-18T08:19:15Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2020/mar/10/ecosystems-size-of-amazon-rainforest-can-collapse-within-decades | Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades' | Even large ecosystems the size of the Amazon rainforest can collapse in a few decades, according to a study that shows bigger biomes break up relatively faster than small ones. The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged. The authors of the study, published on Tuesday in the Nature Communications journal, said the results should warn policymakers they had less time than they realised to deal with the multiple climate and biodiversity crises facing the world. To examine the relationship between an ecosystem’s size and the speed of its collapse, the authors looked at 42 previous cases of “regime shift”. This is the term used to describe a change from one state to another – for example, the collapse of fisheries in Newfoundland, the death of vegetation in the Sahel, desertification of agricultural lands in Niger, bleaching of coral reefs in Jamaica, and the eutrophication of Lake Erhai in China. They found that bigger and more complex biomes were initially more resilient than small, biologically simpler systems. However, once the former hit a tipping point, they collapse relatively faster because failures repeat throughout their modular structure. As a result, the bigger the ecosystem, the harder it is likely to fall. Based on their statistical analysis, the authors estimate an ecosystem the size of the Amazon (approximately 5.5m km2) could collapse in approximately 50 years once a tipping point had been reached. For a system the size of the Caribbean coral reefs (about 20,000 km2), collapse could occur in 15 years once triggered. The paper concludes: “We must prepare for regime shifts in any natural system to occur over the ‘human’ timescales of years and decades, rather than multigenerational timescales of centuries and millennia. “Humanity now needs to prepare for changes in ecosystems that are faster than we previously envisaged through our traditional linear view of the world, including across Earth’s largest and most iconic ecosystems, and the social-ecological systems that they support.” The paper says this could be the case in Australia where the recent Australian bushfires followed protracted periods of drought and may indicate a shift to a drier ecosystem. Scientists were already aware that systems tended to decline much faster than they grew but the new study quantifies and explains this trend. “What is new is that we are showing this is part of a wider story. The larger the system, the greater the fragility and the proportionately quicker collapses,” John Dearing, professor in physical geography at the University of Southampton and lead author of the study, said. “What we are saying is don’t be taken in by the longevity of these systems just because they may have been around for thousands, if not millions, of years – they will collapse much more rapidly than we think.” Dearing said he was concerned that one of the possible implications of the study was that complete destruction of the Amazon could occur within his grandchildren’s lifetimes. “This is a paper that is satisfying from a scientific point of view, but worrying from a personal point of view. You’d rather not come up with such a set of results,” he said. A separate study last week warned the Amazon could shift within the next decade into a source of carbon emissions rather than a sink, because of damage caused by loggers, farmers and global heating. Experts said the new findings should be a spur to action. “I think the combination of theory, modelling and observations is especially persuasive in this paper, and should alert us to risks from human activities that perturb the large and apparently stable ecosystems upon which we depend,” said Georgina Mace, professor of biodiversity and ecosystems at University College London, who was not involved in the studies. “There are effective actions that we can take now, such as protecting the existing forest, managing it to maintain diversity, and reducing the direct pressures from logging, burning, clearance and climate change.” These views were echoed by Ima Vieira, an ecologist at Museu Emílio Goeldi in Belém, Brazil. “This is a very important paper. For Brazil to avoid the ecosystem collapse modelled in this study, we need to strengthen governance associated to imposing heavy fines on companies with dirty supply chains, divestment strategies targeting key violators and enforcement of existing laws related to environmental crimes. And we have to be quick.” However, the methodology was not universally accepted. Erika Berenguer, a senior research associate at the University of Oxford and Lancaster University, said the regime shifts paper relied too much on data from lakes and oceans to be useful as an indicator of what would happen to rainforests. “While there is no doubt the Amazon is at great risk and that a tipping point is likely, such inflated claims do not help either science or policy making,” she said. The authors said their study was not a forecast about a specific region but a guide to the speed at which change could occur. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/peru', 'world/ecuador', 'world/colombia', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/venezuela', 'world/bolivia', 'world/suriname', 'world/guyana', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-03-10T16:00:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2008/dec/12/poznan-climatechange | Tom Sharman: Lack of progress at Poznan | Anyone concerned about the future of the planet and its people should be alarmed at the lack of progress made at the UN climate talks in Poznan. The 190 countries meeting in Poland's former capital were supposed to put flesh on the bones of a new international agreement on climate change to be finalised in Copenhagen next year. While ActionAid saw developing countries turning up to do just that, their counterparts from the rich world were determined to keep the bones bare. Some of their actions have even fractured parts of the skeleton. First, the discussions have been hampered by a lame-duck United States team. With Barack Obama due to take over in January, the outgoing negotiators have kept a low profile, while being careful not to make any new commitments. Second, Europe arrived without first having a word with their bank manager. The whole question of how the world pays for action on climate change – cutting greenhouse gas emissions, helping poor countries to adapt and harnessing clean technology to do both – is a crucial piece of the jigsaw. Without clean technology the green development that will reduce poverty while protecting the climate is impossible. As low-lying Tuvalu's Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia put it on Thursday, "We cannot sink while others rise." Yet the EU hasn't decided how it should find the cash and won't know until March. While the UK's climate change minister, Ed Miliband, apparently found an extra £500,000 in his back pocket to spend on helping get the global Adaptation Fund up and running, this pales into insignificance against the $86bn extra a year the UN says poor countries need to help them adapt. Finally, the EU's internal squabbling in parallel climate talks in Brussels has shredded much of its credibility as a leader on the issue. Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, made an impassioned plea to Europe's leaders on Thursday. "If Europe sends a signal that it can make deep cuts only in prosperous times, what signal does this send to India and China?" he said. But his call fell on deaf ears as Germany, Italy and a number of eastern European countries managed to wriggle out of making substantial cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions. One year ago the EU committed to a unilateral cut of 20% on 1990 levels, rising to 30% in the event of a global deal. But due to all the special pleading from businesses, a wide range of exemptions have been given to Europe's dirtiest industries meaning that the actual domestic cuts could be as little as 4%. With less than 12 months to go before a deal is finalised, politicians everywhere are going to have to find a different way of working. Negotiators are usually like students with essay deadlines – they wait until the last possible moment to start their work, and then they ask for an extension. ActionAid believes there is still time to reach a fair deal in Copenhagen next year but Poznan has made the mountain to climb that much steeper. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/poznan', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/tom-sharman'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2008-12-12T20:30:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2018/nov/09/iceland-christmas-ad-palm-oil-banned | Iceland’s Christmas ad was brave and necessary. It shouldn’t be banned | Jessica Brown | Major retailers enter a battle every Christmas to make us cry with their saccharine seasonal ads – but this year we already have a clear winner. Concern about our planet has never been greater, thanks to last month’s UN report warning that we have 12 years to stop irreversible damage to the Earth. Yet, one month on, a supermarket’s Christmas advert showing the damage palm oil is doing to the natural world has been deemed too political to put on TV. If that doesn’t make you weep, I’m not sure what will. Iceland repackaged a short film by Greenpeace showing the destruction of an orangutan’s rainforest habitat due to palm oil growers. Palm oil is about as unsustainable as it gets, and contributes to habitat loss and the endangerment of species, including elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans. In a move that has been widely criticised, Clearcast, which approves ads on behalf of broadcasters including Sky, Channel 4 and ITV, says it couldn’t clear the Iceland ad against the rules of the Broadcast Code of Advertising Practice. The Advertising Standards Authority, which has the authority to rule on Clearcast’s decisions, says it has had “no role” in this case. But rather than protecting the public from insidious political messages, Clearcast has prevented a crucial message being broadcast to millions of viewers, many of whom buy products containing palm oil without knowing the devastation it’s causing to animals and global warming. Protecting and restoring forests would achieve 18% of the emissions mitigation needed by 2030 to avoid irreversible climate change, a group of 40 scientists said last month. While deforestation is “just as urgent” as eliminating the use of fossil fuels, the scientists warned that the importance of forests risks being overlooked by the world’s governments. And there is evidence suggesting this isn’t likely to change in the near future. This year, Greenpeace’s Unearthed revealed correspondence between the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the British high commission warning that supporting an EU ban on the imports of palm oil in biofuels could put at risk defence deals with Malaysia – one of the world’s biggest producers of palm oil – to replace its fleet of fighter jets with British-built Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. While fundamental change needs to happen at a political level, businesses also play a massive role in enacting structural and social change, and Iceland is leading the way by putting its money where its mouth is. It will be the UK’s first major supermarket to stop using palm oil as an ingredient in all its own-label products by the end of 2018. That’s no easy feat, since palm oil is found in thousands of supermarket products, from biscuits to cosmetics to cleaning products, and is integral to the global supply chain. Latest Greenpeace research found that 25 palm oil groups had cleared more than 130,000 hectares of rainforest in the last three years, while companies including Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Mondelez, Mars and Kellogg’s buy palm oil from companies deemed destructive by Greenpeace. In the fight against palm oil, money has been the clear winner so far. This is exactly why arguments against the human destruction of the planet shouldn’t be silenced, and why Iceland’s animated film of a friendly orangutan shouldn’t be banned for being too political. What’s really political in this scenario is the banning of a video containing facts that are in the interest of viewers, and apparently against the interests of some politicians. Iceland has uploaded the video to YouTube instead, but the damage is already done. Clearcast’s response sends out the message that businesses can’t shout about the good things they’re doing to be more sustainable. Iceland’s managing director, Richard Walker, says its Christmas ad was the retailer’s “first chance to prove we can put commercial interests to the side in order to make the changes required to save our planet in the aftermath of the landmark UN report”. But, he says, it failed. Businesses aren’t the most obvious winners in a battle for environmental consciousness, but, in this case, Iceland is setting a shining example of how a retailer can attempt to help the planet, and shows that commercial interests and climate change don’t have to be in conflict. There are massive failures here – but not from Iceland. • Jessica Brown is a freelance journalist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/palm-oil', 'media/christmas-ads', 'business/iceland-foods', 'media/advertising', 'media/media', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/christmas', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/jessica-brown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-11-09T16:13:28Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sustainable-business/2015/sep/09/business-private-sector-water-sanitation-hygiene-developing-countries-wateraid-unilever-coca-cola | Three reasons why businesses win by providing clean water, taps and toilets | Included in the sustainable development goals to be endorsed by heads of state and government later this month, is a dedicated goal to ensure available and sustainable water and sanitation for all. Universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) cannot be achieved without the private sector. In the past, companies’ support for the provision of clean water to communities was viewed as a philanthropic activity. Yet there is a strong business case for this too. First, with rapid urbanisation and population growth there is increasing competition for a limited supply of water. Consequently, a real or perceived mismanagement of this resource adds to the risk of conflict with local communities, with companies potentially losing their social licence to operate. In 2014, for example, authorities in northern India ordered the closure of a Coca-Cola bottling plant accused of extracting too much groundwater. Second, providing clean water has the potential to reduce absenteeism and the turnover of supply chain workers. Improved production quality and productivity helps make the case for other suppliers to participate in improving water practices too. The World Health Organisation has calculated that for every $1 invested in sanitation, the economic benefits range from $3.10-$16.60 by keeping people healthy and productive. Third, the provision of clean water can be fundamental to business growth. Unilever has stated publicly, for example, that making water, sanitation and hygiene commonplace offers a market opportunity for them as well as a human development one. Instigating change Over the past decade, an increasing number of businesses have been working to understand the risks and effects that water may pose for them. Of the more than 1,050 companies that responded to the latest CDP water report, 68% indicated that water posed a substantive risk to their business. Almost a quarter said that issues around water could limit the growth of their business. Of those, one-third expected the constraint to be felt in the next 12 months. More companies are working to manage their water discharge and understand the impact they have locally. For many, their own operations are a good place to start. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s WASH at the workplace pledge supports companies to develop the right internal processes to ensure access to WASH for all employees. Companies such as Unilever, EDF, Nestlé and Veolia have signed up. But responsibilities do not end at the factory fence. With the formal recognition of the human right to water and sanitation in 2010 and the adoption of the UN guiding principles on business and human rights in 2011, there are increasing expectations of companies. Some are making a concerted effort. Coca-Cola has so far spent about a billion dollars developing wastewater treatment plants around the world to date. Fellow drinks company SABMiller has a target of reducing water in its breweries by a quarter by 2015 from a 2008 baseline. But we cannot rely on corporation-led targets alone. Another drinks firm, Diageo, revealed in its annual report last month that it had failed to meet all but one of its environmental targets. While implementing standards in a company’s own operations should be straightforward, a number of companies find it difficult to ensure access to water and decent toilets in their supply chains. Some of the world’s largest agribusinesses, for example, employ thousands of seasonal workers and maintain an extensive supply chain. Their challenges are often practical, such as how to ensure that there are toilets on large farms. Overcoming such challenges requires the involvement of top-level management to get taps and toilets on the corporate agenda. That means gathering hard data to demonstrate the impact of interventions. From social and environmental concerns to market opportunities, there are compelling reasons for businesses to prioritise water stewardship. Hannah Greig is a private sector advisor at WaterAid, MaiLan Ha is an advisor at the CEO Water Mandate and senior research associate at the Pacific Institute and Sara Traubel is an associate on water at World Business Council for Sustainable Development. | ['sustainable-business/series/role-business-development', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'global-development/access-to-water', 'environment/water', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'global-development/sanitation', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'business/business', 'society/society', 'business/nestle', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-09-09T11:09:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2015/nov/10/surfer-injured-in-suspected-shark-attack-on-nsw-north-coast | Surfer in induced coma after shark attack on NSW north coast | A surfer has undergone surgery at a Gold Coast hospital after he was mauled by a shark off the NSW far north coast. Sam Morgan was attacked at Lighthouse Beach in East Ballina on Tuesday evening but managed to make it back to the beach, where others came to his aid. The 20-year-old suffered serious wounds to his left thigh and was flown to the Gold Coast University hospital where he underwent surgery on Tuesday night. He remains in a stable condition in an induced coma. The Department of Primary Industries believes the shark was possibly a bull shark about 2.8 to 3.1 metres long. At least 14 shark attacks have been recorded in NSW this year, including a serious attack on bodyboarder Mat Lee in July at the same beach and a fatality nearby, when Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara, 41, was killed at Shelly Beach on 9 February. Lighthouse Beach has been closed for 24 hours. | ['environment/sharks', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'type/article', 'tone/news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-11-10T08:40:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2014/oct/03/hudl2-tesco-releases-android-tablet-parental-controls | Hudl2: Tesco releases new larger Android tablet with parental controls | Tesco has launched its second generation of Android tablet, the Hudl2, with enhanced parental controls, a year after the surprise success of its first tablet, which was unveiled in September 2013. The Hudl2 tablet is larger, faster, and sleeker than the first Hudl, which was available for less than £120 and won acclaim for getting the basics right with a low price. The first Hudl sold 35,000 units in the first two days, 400,000 in three months, and went on to sell 750,000 in a year. Tesco is undercutting rivals from Google, Samsung and Apple, hoping that the new device will bea high point in a year marked by poor Christmas sales, share price drops and an accounting scandal that has seen senior managers suspended and stock market value halve. “Cutting-edge technology doesn’t have to come with a big price tag,” said Michael Comish, group digital officer at Tesco. “Hudl2 may be affordable, but we’ve cut no corners when it comes to performance – this is our best tablet offering yet.” The Hudl2 has a full HD 1080p 8.3in screen, Dolby stereo speakers and two cameras: a five-megapixel rear camera and a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats and selfies. “We know customers want easy, accessible technology that the whole family can use whether working, shopping, gaming, learning or just taking some time out,” said Comish. The tablet has an Intel Atom 1.83GHz quad-core processor, making the Hudl2 three times faster than the original tablet according to Tesco, as well as 16GB of storage with support for more via a microSD card slot. Tesco says the battery will last eight hours on a single charge. ‘Child safety filter on Hudl2 is more parent friendly’ A collection of Tesco apps have been added to Google’s Android 4.4.2 “KitKat”, including Blinkbox movies and TV, and Tesco’s shopping services. Tapping a small “T” in the top left of the screen opens up a list of Tesco services. Tesco partnered with parent support group the Parent Zone to develop parental controls to filter unsuitable content for children on the tablet, while allowing full access for parents. The pre-loaded app allows parents to set up profiles for up to seven users, tailoring each according to age and suitability of content. Timers can also be set for how long children can use the tablet. “The child-safety filter on Hudl2 is more parent-friendly than anything we have seen before,” said Vicki Shotbolt, chief executive of The Parent Zone. “Tesco really understands that making a tablet as family-friendly as possible needs to start at the design stage. Filters are never a total solution, which is why we have worked with Tesco to create helpful information for parents too.” The Hudl2 will be available for £129 in eight colours, both in store and online, from 9 October. As with the previous generation Hudl, Tesco customers can use their Clubcard loyalty vouchers to buy the tablet for £65. Tablets, tablets, tablets The total tablet market is forecast to grow by 19.4% in 2014 to 260.9m units globally, according to research firm IDC, but that is down from a growth rate of 51.6% in 2013, showing slowing demand. Research firm eMarketer expects there to be 12.3 million iPad users in the UK in 2014, representing 19.1% of the country’s total population. That figure also represents 50% of UK tablet users, which eMarketer estimates will be down from 59% share of all tablet users last year. The budget tablet market is still expanding in the UK, as those that would have considered a low-cost laptop or PC are able to pick up tablets for less than £100. Argos and Aldi have also launched own-brand tablets in attempts to capitalise on the demand. Whether the Hudl tablets make money for Tesco on their own is unknown, but Tesco says that 230,000 people a week access Tesco’s services through the Tesco button on their Hudl tablets. Tesco hopes that Hudl buyers will be more inclined to continue to use Tesco’s services, a similar model Amazon uses for its Kindle Fire tablets, which are sold close to cost price but are used to drive customers to Amazon shops and services. Trouble at Tesco The future of Tesco’s media arm, the on-demand video service Blinkbox, was also called into question this week as reports indicted that Dave Lewis, Tesco’s new chief executive, has kicked off a strategic review of the under-performing service intending to seek a buyer. Lewis is now dealing with the fallout from the accounting scandal, which saw Tesco admit that it had overestimated its first half profits by £250m last week, after a whistleblower had alerted it to over-optimistic accounting for payments from suppliers and business costs. The news caused the supermarket’s share price to plummet with the suspension of four senior managers. Tesco acknowledged on Wednesday that it would face an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority. Tesco’s core supermarket business also has issues is losing market share under attack from discounters Aldi , Lidl and Morrisons. • Tesco Hudl tablet review: a lot of tablet for your money | ['technology/tablet-computer', 'technology/android', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'business/tesco', 'technology/computing', 'technology/google', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/retail', 'technology/software', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-10-03T09:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2014/feb/03/in-praise-of-the-national-tree | In praise of … the national tree | Editorial | Scotland's decision last week, following a public consultation, to designate the Scots pine as its national tree is clear and logical. But it prompts the question, probably not often asked until now, of whether the United Kingdom, from which the nationalist government wishes Scotland to separate, itself lays claim to a national tree? England, by general consent, has a de facto national tree in the form of the English oak, scientific name Quercus robur, which is also, problematically, sometimes dubbed the French oak. Wales honours Q robur's cousin the sessile oak, Q petraea, as its national tree, though this is also known, confusingly, as the Cornish oak. To complicate matters further, the sessile oak is also claimed by the Irish republic. All of which suggests that, though oaks of various kinds are probably the closest that Britain has to a national tree, the post might tactfully be treated as vacant. A seconder for the bong tree, anyone? • This article was amended on 4 February 2014. An earlier version referred to Quercus rubor rather than Quercus robur. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'uk/scotland', 'commentisfree/series/in-praise-of', 'tone/comment', 'environment/forests', 'tone/editorials', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-02-03T22:46:22Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2019/jul/18/faceapp-privacy-data-russians | Is FaceApp an evil plot by 'the Russians' to steal your data? Not quite | Arwa Mahdawi | Over the last few days the #faceappchallenge has taken over social media. This “challenge” involves downloading a selfie-editing tool called FaceApp and using one of its filters to digitally age your face. You then post the photo of your wizened old self on the internet and everyone laughs uproariously. You get a small surge of dopamine from gathering a few online likes before existential ennui sets in once again. Challenge completed. On Monday, as the #faceappchallenge went viral, Joshua Nozzi, a software developer, warned people to “BE CAREFUL WITH FACEAPP….it immediately uploads your photos without asking, whether you chose one or not”. Some media outlets picked this claim up and privacy concerns about the app began to mount. Concern escalated further when people started to point out that FaceApp is Russian. “The app that you’re willingly giving all your facial data to says the company’s location is in Saint-Petersburg, Russia,” tweeted the New York Times’s Charlie Warzel. And we all know what those Russians are like, don’t we? They want to harvest your data for nefarious purposes. Unlike American techies, of course. Who are always deeply respectful when it comes to personal data, and only use your private information to make the world a better, more connected, place. By Wednesday things had calmed down a little bit. A French security researcher who uses the pseudonym Elliot Alderson ran a check on the app and found it was not actually uploading your entire camera roll – just the photo you were modifying. Which is what you’d expect from an app like that. Speaking to me over the phone, Alderson said he also couldn’t find any evidence it was stealing all your data; it was just getting your device ID and your device model. Which, again, is pretty much to be expected. The reason the app was causing such a fuss, Alderson hypothesized, was because of fears about Russia. FaceApp also responded to the controversy, telling 9to5Mac on Wednesday that it “might store” some uploaded photos in the cloud for “performance and traffic” reasons. It also said that while the app’s “core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia”. As more information about FaceApp came out, Nozzi, the developer who helped raise the alarm about the tool, issued a lengthy mea culpa and deleted his original tweets. Wurzel also deleted his tweets about FaceApp, stating that his comments about it being Russian were being misinterpreted. “My frame of reference for them came from reporting i’m doing on diff apps accessing data/ sending it places we wouldn’t assume (3rd parties, not govts),” he tweeted. So does this mean everything is fine? Should we feel free to partake in the #faceappchallenge without worrying about our photos being misused? Well, no, not exactly. According to FaceApp’s terms of service, when you use the app you grant it a “perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide” license to do whatever it wants with your photos. However, while this may be awful, it’s worth pointing out that it’s the same as the privacy policy of basically every other tech service and platform. If you refused to partake in the #faceappchallenge because you were worried about your privacy, good for you. However, I wouldn’t feel too smug yet. Chances are your face is already in a database somewhere, helping to train artificial intelligence (AI) to take over the world. As Adam Harvey, a privacy expert, pointed out to me over email: “Google researchers disclosed that they used at least 8 million user images to train face recognition. And Facebook researchers mentioned using at least 10 million users.” In May Google researchers also disclosed that they had used 2,000 YouTube videos of people doing the mannequin challenge (the viral challenge where you stay still) to help train an AI model on predicting the depth of a moving object in a video. The researchers also released their data set for future research, meaning there’s no saying how that data will be used in the future. That video you made as a joke might be helping to train anything from a self-driving car to a killer drone. You don’t even have to upload anything to the internet yourself for your photo to end up training AI technology. Earlier this year it was reported that the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs had secretly been photographing students for a facial recognition study. Images of more than 1,700 people were collected between 2012-2013 without their knowledge or consent. Those photos went into a dataset used for training facial recognition algorithms. The funding for this dataset came from US intelligence and military agencies. The moral of this story, then, is that you shouldn’t worry too much about a Russian app. You should worry about everything. We are only just beginning to understand the extent to which we live in a surveillance hell. We are only just beginning to realize that our faces no longer belong to us, they’ve been privatized. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/privacy', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'technology/technology', 'technology/apps', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/arwa-mahdawi', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-07-18T06:00:16Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/jun/05/home-solar-panel-installations-fall-by-94-as-subsidies-cut | Home solar panel installations fall by 94% as subsidies cut | The Labour party has accused the government of “actively dismantling” the UK’s solar power industry after new installations by households collapsed by 94% last month. Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, used prime minister’s questions to challenge the government’s record on climate action after scrapping subsidies for domestic solar panels from April. Standing in for Jeremy Corbyn, Long-Bailey said solar power had the potential to cut household bills and carbon emissions while creating thousands of jobs. “But the government, for some reason, appears to be determined to kill it off, while continuing to cheerlead for fracking,” she said. The solar feed-in tariffs had encouraged more than 800,000 homes to fit to their roofs solar photovoltaics, the panels which generate electricity. The end of the scheme was widely expected after a series of cuts to subsidy levels in recent years. Renewable energy developers and green groups had hoped ministers would replace the scheme with another incentive system to avoid dashing the sector’s momentum and accelerating job losses in the industry. Instead, officials confirmed that new solar pv installations would be expected to give their unused clean power to energy companies for free until a new scheme is set up. A spokesman for the government said new proposals will be unveiled in the coming days. “Parliament declared a climate emergency yet there is no evidence that this government takes this seriously,” Long-Bailey said. The opposition said data showed the scrapping of home panel subsidies from April caused new solar power capacity to fall from 79MW in March to only 5MW last month. At that rate it would take the government until 2092 to match Labour’s commitment to install solar panels on an additional 1.75m homes within its first term in power. The slowdown poses a big risk to plans put forward by the independent Committee on Climate Change to create a net zero carbon economy by 2045. Trade unions said last month that the number of jobs in renewable energy had plunged by nearly a third in recent years because of a slowdown in the rollout of new projects. In response to the opposition, David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, told MPs that since 2010 the UK had cut greenhouse gas emissions faster than any other G7 nation. He said ministers would outline a plan to tackle the climate crisis and create green jobs “later this year”. Lidington said: “There are 400,000 jobs already in low-carbon businesses and their supply chains throughout the UK and scope for much larger low-carbon growth to support up to 2m jobs in the future. “We now have received advice from the independent climate change committee about how to time and to legislate for our transition to a completely decarbonised economy, and we will be bringing forward our decisions later this year as to how and when will be taking that action.” Theresa May had intended to confront Donald Trump about his views on climate breakdown during his state visit this week. “But with her government actively dismantling the UK solar industry it is unclear who has the most to teach the other about climate change denial,” Long-Bailey said. | ['environment/solarpower', 'politics/labour', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'politics/david-lidington', 'politics/conservatives', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-06-05T11:41:54Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2022/nov/21/california-nuclear-power-plant-biden-grant | California’s last nuclear power plant gets $1bn funding to extend life | California’s last nuclear plant could get a new lease on life after the Biden administration announced the approval of up to $1.1bn in conditional funding on Monday. The grant funds may offer a path to keeping the ageing facility known as Diablo Canyon online beyond its scheduled shutdown in 2025. Tucked against picturesque bluffs along California’s central coast, the plant has faced a spate of controversies over the decades, for its impact on underwater ecosystems, the production of toxic waste and its proximity to earthquake fault lines. Its planned closure by 2025 seemed an all-but-certain step in California’s ambitious journey toward a greener future. But concerns over the state’s ability to generate enough green energy to fill the gap left by the plant’s closure grew as the deadline neared. The state is far from finding a reliable and climate-conscious replacement for the energy produced by the plant. The largest single-source provider in the state generates more than 8% of California’s electricity, enough to supply more than 3 million residents. California is facing steep energy challenges that are only expected to worsen as the climate crisis intensifies. It’s an issue being grappled with in states across the US. The nuclear power industry’s 92 reactors generate more than half of the country’s virtually carbon-free electricity, but about a dozen reactors have closed since 2013 in the face of competition from renewable energy and plants that burn plentiful natural gas. As part of its effort to fight the climate crisis, the Biden administration set aside these grant funds to keep struggling nuclear plants online. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has also been among those strongly advocating for extending the life of Diablo Canyon, thereby giving the state more time to complete its ambitious green energy transition. In September, the governor pushed state lawmakers to approve a $1bn loan to keep the facility running an additional five years. The federal funds – the terms of which are still being negotiated – would help cover operating costs and be doled out over the course of four years. Diablo Canyon still has obstacles to cross though, most significantly the need for a renewed license from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Significant upgrades were needed to ensure the plant could continue to operate safely and sustainably. And there are still vocal critics of any plan to keep it open. “The danger of Diablo Canyon is that it is a tempting way of somehow assuming that there’s an easy way to avoid responsibility for the next phases of the clean energy transition,” said Ralph Cavanagh, the energy co-director of the environmental advocacy organization Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate and clean energy program, who helped negotiated the plant’s decommission. Critics also highlight how the region is vulnerable to earthquakes and that there is no permanent place for disposing of radioactive nuclear waste. Suzanne Hosn, a spokesperson for PG&E, the utility company that operates the plant, said Diablo can “safely withstand extreme natural events, including potential earthquakes, tsunamis and flooding”. Hosn pointed to analyses performed in 2015 by the NRC after the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan that was slammed by a tsunami, releasing radioactive materials and forcing the evacuation of some 80,000 residents. The NRC said in the 2015 reports that Diablo was safe from tsunamis including ones generated by underwater landslides and earthquakes. Calling nuclear the “nation’s largest source of clean electricity”, US secretary of energy, Jennifer Granholm, said the grant was a “critical step toward ensuring that our domestic nuclear fleet will continue providing reliable and affordable power”. Biden has set a goal of decarbonizing the grid by 2035, and the administration is relying on nuclear energy to play a part. The grant is intended to ensure that plants like Diablo Canyon can stay afloat. “We can protect these facilities and the communities they serve,” Granholm said. Reuters contributed reporting to this story | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'us-news/biden-administration', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2022-11-21T22:08:01Z | true | ENERGY |
cities/2014/oct/10/cities-global-issues-climate-change-adapt-design-resilient | For too long, cities have paid little notice to global issues. Climate change must change their mindset | There’s a growing chorus of voices looking to get us back on track with tackling climate change – but this chorus is led by a host of unusual suspects. Around the world, businesses and major corporations – supported by the likes of the World Economic Forum and the UN – are taking the lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, deemed to be a major business risk to their current operations. Environmental risks such as climate change come with a price tag. The Natural Capital Coalition estimates the annual cost to the global economy of carbon emissions, pollution, and other damages caused by industry at $7.3 trillion (£4.5tn). This risk is only set to heighten – and it is risk that is focusing minds. It’s significant that Thomas Steyer, Michael Bloomberg and Henry Paulson Jr have decided to call their new study on the economic cost of climate change in the US, Risky Business. Part of the reason for this latest push is the sheer pace of global change. There were one billion members of the global middle class at the turn of the millennium. That is, one billion people who spend between $10 and $100 a day. By 2013, that number had doubled. It will reach five billion by 2030. Can our planet deliver on the expectations and consumption habits of this new group? Urbanisation intensifies the challenge: today more than half the world’s population live in cities, but projections for the future are startling. A further two billion will move to urban areas in the next two decades. That will include remarkable growth in China where, according to McKinsey, the urban population will hit the one billion mark by 2030. And the explosion won’t be confined to the Asia Pacific: there will be an additional 1.3 billion city dwellers in Africa by 2050 for example. Hubs of political, economic and cultural power, cities are magnets for the growing affluent and, of course, their consumption habits. Against this backdrop, the consensus seems to be that cities are a part of the problem. It’s true they are at the frontline of climate change: they already account for 80% of global greenhouse gases, and 66% of the world’s energy. But urbanisation and its connection with climate change isn’t just about risk. They’re undeniably a part of the solution – and there lies opportunity. Mature cities in the developed world can adapt. New cities can design themselves to be climate resilient from the start. The first route entails unavoidable expenditure, but both also involve potentially lucrative benefits for innovative businesses providing solutions. And the prize is a big one: there’s a $340bn global market in urban innovation up for grabs by 2030, a market that is just starting to open up. Many cities are waking up to the need to work differently. A healthy new language around “adaptation” is emerging. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an independent body of scientists from around the world, depict a transition towards making our cities resilient to future shocks and strains. Given our future wellbeing and prosperity hangs on how cities develop, more cities – and businesses looking to deal with them – need to adopt this new mindset. Traditionally, urban development has paid little notice to global issues. Planners paid far more attention to local impacts. But now we’re living in a globalised world. Global issues are local, and vice versa. Competing in a global market, cities need to balance building a thriving economy with reducing environmental impact. Managing this kind of complexity requires a “city systems” approach. That means city planners, businesses and city thinkers working together, seeing each city as one constellation of systems and collaborating to manage them for greatest positive impact. They’re not on their own. Informing this new approach is an emerging ‘science of cities’ that helps collaborators to understand how cities work on a granular level, getting to grips with the challenges involved and how best to tackle them. The UK is leading in this space, fast becoming a hub combining the greatest global thinking and partnerships on urban innovation. A recent report from Future Cities Catapult reveals a thriving, world-leading cluster of city-making expertise estimated to be worth £16bn and employing hundreds of thousands of professionals. For a small nation, that’s an incredible concentration of expertise. Not just businesses, but world-class research instituitons, city authorities and civic initiatives all contributing to a rich and lucrative ecosystem. This group is already moving ahead with the kind of joined-up thinking required to turn risk into opportunity and advantage. They have made the UK the go-to place for ambitious businesses and cities looking to exploit the latest urban thinking. Big and inescapable changes are afoot – we all know that – and cities are at the heart of how we respond to them. That means cities have to plan now, and act, both to remain competitive and build resilience. Businesses, too, if they want to shape, take part and profit from a flourishing market. And there’s the point. Where there is risk, there is opportunity. A whole new cities ecosystem needs to emerge with a proactive mindset and a willingness to embrace working together. The prize is significant: better lives, better business – and a better planet. Sir David King is the foreign secretary’s special representative for climate change and chair of the Future Cities Catapult Richard Sennett: Why climate change should signal the end of the city-state | ['cities/series/resilient-cities', 'cities/cities', 'cities/urbanisation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/david-king'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-10-10T09:00:29Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2023/jun/06/the-guardian-view-on-labours-green-prosperity-plan-the-right-strategy-for-britain | The Guardian view on Labour’s green prosperity plan: the right strategy for Britain | Editorial | Placing a speculative price tag on Labour party spending plans is, of course, a time-honoured pre-election manoeuvre by Conservative governments. In January 1992, as John Major seeded the ground for what turned out to be a fourth successive Tory victory later that year, voters were warned of a “tax bombshell” costing the average taxpayer £1,000. The calculations were spurious but politically damaging. A year or so away from the next election, the front-page headline in one newspaper on Tuesday read: “Families face £1,000 a year bill for Labour eco plans”. Ministers are warning that the cost of the green strategy outlined by the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, would spook markets and drive up mortgage rates. One can marvel at the chutzpah while deploring the cynicism. Aware that just these consequences followed Liz Truss’s disastrous experiment in free-market fundamentalism – a memory etched on the public mind – the government hopes to weaponise that experience against Labour’s plans to use the state to drive the transition to net zero. It has identified Labour’s £28bn “green prosperity plan” as a prime zone of vulnerability, within which it can target opposition spending pledges this time round. There will be much more of this to come. But Labour has winning economic as well as ethical arguments on its side, and needs to make them with confidence. The shadow chancellor’s proposals to borrow to subsidise windfarms (onshore as well as offshore), insulate homes, encourage the battery manufacture necessary for a viable car industry, and invest in nuclear power all go with, rather than against, the grain of market sentiment. Britain is already lagging badly behind its European neighbours and the United States when it comes to public investment in the green transition. The government’s refusal to contemplate an industrial strategy worthy of the name has dismayed leading businesses. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the independent advisory body, has become steadily more withering in its criticisms of Whitehall drift. In the absence of a more proactive state to shape, collaborate and intervene in markets, the price of passivity will be paid in terms of lost jobs, growth and opportunities in a new economic era. The markets know this, and so do the unions. As a CCC report published last month emphasised, a crucial dimension of intervention must be to minimise the disruption caused to those at the sharp end. The gradual transition away from fossil fuel production must be accompanied by a focus on transferable skills that can be deployed in carbon capture storage and a thriving hydrogen sector. The general secretary of the GMB, Gary Smith, was right to point out at the weekend that good jobs in renewable energy had not yet materialised on a big enough scale to inspire confidence. Their creation requires a committed government prepared to invest to get ahead of the times (or rather catch up with them), and prepare the ground, rather than the chronically short-termist one currently in office. Speaking to the GMB conference in Brighton on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer promised that a Labour government would never allow “an industry [to come] to an end and nobody had planned for the future”. To deliver on that pledge, and on the broader green transition, Labour must make its case and stick to the principles of its plan. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/labour', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'uk-news/gmb-union', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/committee-on-climate-change', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-economy', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/committee-on-climate-change | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-06-06T17:48:59Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sport/2021/mar/10/human-rights-commission-asked-to-examine-racism-in-english-cricket | Human rights commission asked to examine racism in English cricket | The Equality and Human Rights Commission will be asked to conduct an investigation into racism in English cricket following a number of disturbing revelations from black and Asian players and umpires about their experiences in the game, the Guardian can reveal. A letter will be sent this week to the EHRC by Mohammed Patel, the solicitor acting for the former Test umpire John Holder and reserve umpire Ismail Dawood who have issued a claim in the employment tribunal against the England and Wales Cricket Board on grounds of racial discrimination. But the letter will also address wider concerns about institutional racism in English cricket. It comes just days after a group of MPs, including the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, signed an early day motion in parliament expressing “alarm” at the ECB’s “failure to address the institutional racism that is present at all levels of the game”. The prominent human rights lawyer and former judge Peter Herbert, who has been advising the MPs, said that while the EHRC was not compelled by law to act, it was important it did so as the ECB remained “frozen in time around 1990 – and had not moved with the times”. Herbert told the Guardian: “We will be writing to the EHRC and asking them to conduct an investigation on racism in cricket. There needs to be a root and branch reform from the grassroots upwards. It can’t just be a tick-box exercise.” Herbert said that while the ECB had been given £60m between 2009 and 2017 to promote equality and diversity it had failed to do enough to make the game reflect modern Britain. He cited the lack of diversity in senior positions, the “minimal” funding to African, Caribbean and Asian cricket associations, and a growing number of concerning comments from former players and officials alleging racism in the game. The former England opener Michael Carberry said last year “cricket is rife with racism” while Azeem Rafiq, the former England under-19 captain, filed discrimination and harassment proceedings against Yorkshire after alleging “institutional racism” at the club. Yorkshire’s investigation into his claims continues. The ECB is also facing legal action by Holder, who believes he was dropped after raising concerns about alleged ball-tampering by the England team in 1991, and Dawood who are seeking compensation and a recommendation on the ECB’s future conduct. “John and Ismail are probably the most unrevolutionary people you can find,” said Herbert, who pointed out there had not been a non‑white British umpire in Test cricket for 30 years since Holder was dropped. “They are just people who just are deeply unhappy with the unfairness of it and have been left out in the cold.” Herbert also called on the government, which is expected to hand the ECB tens of millions of pounds of public money to help it come through the pandemic, to better hold cricket to account by making anti-racism and equality and diversity targets within cricket a ministerial priority, and to ensure the ECB reported annually on progress. When asked for its response to claims of institutional racism and being referred to the ECHR, an ECB spokesperson told the Guardian: “We have established the independent commission for equity in cricket, which is chaired by Cindy Butts, to examine all issues relating to race and equity in cricket. It will play an important role in helping us to listen and understand the reality of the inclusion challenges in the game, so that we can focus our efforts on ensuring that more people can say that ‘cricket is a game for me’.” | ['sport/cricket', 'sport/ecb', 'society/equality-and-human-rights-commission-ehrc', 'world/race', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/seaningle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-03-10T16:00:28Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
technology/2014/jul/30/government-driverless-car-self-driving-car | Driverless cars get green light for testing on public roads in UK | The UK is to encourage the development of driverless cars on its roads, it was announced on Wednesday, with a multimillion-pound research fund and a review into the relevant laws around road safety. The business secretary, Vince Cable, said a £10m fund will be made available for driverless car researchers in the UK, joint funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) and the Department for Transport (DfT). “The excellence of our scientists and engineers has established the UK as pioneers in the development of driverless vehicles through pilot projects,” said Cable. “Today’s announcement will see driverless cars take to our streets in less than six months, putting us at the forefront of this transformational technology and opening up new opportunities for our economy and society.” Fully autonomous and driver-equipped The DfT will also kick off a review process of the laws governing road use, including the Highway Code and the Road Safety Act, to permit the testing of driverless cars on public roads, Cable said while visiting the technology and engineering company Mira in Nuneaton. Two types of testing will be reviewed for public roads: fully autonomous cars without a driver, and those with a qualified driver who could take control at any time, similar to laws in the US where driverless cars have been tested on public roads since 2011 in some states. The review process will conclude in a report submitted to government by the end of 2014, a spokesperson for DfT told the Guardian. Research groups to apply for government money The £10m fund will be governed by the UK’s innovation agency the Technology Strategy Board. Interested local research institutions will be able to apply for funding by submitting a business case paired with a local city or authority as to why driverless cars are a viable transport solution in their area. Three cities across the UK will be selected to host driverless car trials from next year, with each test to last between 18 and 36 months starting in January 2015. The deadline for driverless car research applications will be 1 October. The fund was first announced by the chancellor, George Osborne, in December as part of the national infrastructure plan. Google’s driverless cars hit headlines and the public consciousness in May, when the search giant announced a brand new bespoke prototype design. ‘A big leap of faith needed by drivers’ The UK has various groups already working on driverless car technology, including engineers at the University of Oxford and engineering firm Mira, which provides autonomous vehicle technology to the military and has been testing driverless cars on a 850 acre site in the Midlands. “Today’s announcement takes us closer to seeing fully autonomous vehicles on our roads but it will take some time for them to become commonplace,” said Edmund King president of the AA. “Cars are becoming more automated with the introduction of assistance systems to aid parking; keeping a safe distance from the car in front; or lane departure warning systems,” said David Bruce, director of AA Cars. “However, there is a big leap of faith needed by drivers from embracing assistance systems to accepting the fully automated car. Two-thirds of AA members still enjoy driving too much to want a fully automated car,” Bruce said. ‘Britain brilliantly placed to lead the world’ “Driverless cars have huge potential to transform the UK’s transport network – they could improve safety, reduce congestion and lower emissions, particularly CO2,” said the transport minister, Claire Perry, who committed to the regulatory review of road law. “Britain is brilliantly placed to lead the world in driverless technology,” said the science minister, Greg Clark. “It combines our strengths in cars, satellites, big data and urban design; with huge potential benefits for future jobs and for the consumer.” Driverless cars are expected to begin being tested on public roads in 2015, although the DfT could not provide a timescale beyond report submission to the government by the end of 2014. “This competition for funding has the potential to establish the UK as the global hub for the development and testing of driverless vehicles in real-world urban environments, helping to deepen our understanding of the impact on road users and wider society,” said Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board. “The ability to test driverless cars at scale, when married to the UK’s unique strengths in transport technologies and urban planning, will also attract further investment, helping to establish new design and manufacturing supply chains, driving forward UK economic growth,” Gray said. Dr Geoff Davis, chief commercial and technical officer of Mira said he welcomed the news. “Our 10 years of experience developing driverless car solutions with successful applications in defence and security as well as cooperative systems in road transport applications means we are already working on a number of projects that explore the potential of connected and cooperative driverless cars,” Davis said. Google’s self-driving car: how does it work and when can we get one? | ['technology/technology', 'technology/self-driving-cars', 'uk/uk', 'politics/transport', 'uk/transport', 'politics/politics', 'technology/gadgets', 'politics/vincentcable', 'world/road-safety', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'technology/computing', 'technology/robots', 'technology/motoring', 'money/motoring', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-07-30T09:09:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2021/oct/05/volcanoes-are-life-how-the-ocean-is-enriched-by-eruptions-devastating-on-land | ‘Volcanoes are life’: how the ocean is enriched by eruptions devastating on land | The eruption of the volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands is a vivid reminder of the destructive power of nature but, as it lays waste all before it on land, for marine life it is likely to be a blessing. When the lava reached the sea near the La Palma marine reserve on Tuesday night, every marine organism that was unable to swim out of danger was instantly killed. However, unlike on land, which lava renders lifeless for decades (and with forest not returning for more than a century), marine life returns quickly and in better shape, research shows. A study by researchers at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria looked at the after-effects of Tagoro, a volcano that erupted underwater just off the nearby island of El Hierro in 2011. The eruption, which continued for nearly six months, caused such extreme changes in temperature, acidity and chemical composition of the water in the Mar de las Calmas marine reserve that all traces of life were wiped out in area popular for recreational diving. However, the researchers found that within three years, with the exception of a 200-metre radius from the crater, the entire submarine volcano was covered with life, and not just basic life forms such as phytoplankton, but organisms from the surface of the ocean to the seabed, including mature fish, squid and octopus. In fact, the biomass of phytoplankton was bigger than before the eruption. However, although there was more of it, there was a decrease in biodiversity. “The lava is rich in iron, as well as magnesium and silicates, and this supplies nutrients to the water,” says Carolina Santana González, an oceanographer at the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. “This happens almost immediately. The lava fertilises the water and the area recovers in a short space of time. In the case of El Hierro, it had almost completely recovered within three years.” “It’s like a forest fire. It destroys everything, but at the same time provides nutrients for new growth. The difference is that marine life recovers much faster than a forest.” In El Hierro, the concentration of iron near the volcano’s cone was nearly 30 times the normal level. The waters around the volcano were also rich in carbon dioxide, which lowers pH levels and thus helps microorganisms to absorb the iron. Iron oxidises quickly in water and forms other compounds that sink to the seabed. However, as there continued to be low-level volcanic activity in El Hierro, it continued to emit iron. Another factor is “upwelling”, which occurs when lava forces nutrient-rich water near the seabed to the surface. In La Palma, the lava is abouty five miles (8km) from a marine reserve that covers about 3,500 hectares (8,500 acres) of sea. It is home to tropical anemones, sea bream, brown algae, lobsters and sea turtles. “We can’t stop nature, but nature has mechanisms for regeneration that are rapid and effective,” says Eugenio Fraile Nuez, who is in charge of monitoring the La Palma volcano from the Institute of Oceanography’s vessel moored off the stretch of coast where the lava is pouring into the sea. “That’s why it’s not an environmental catastrophe, but quite the opposite: volcanoes are life,” he says. As eruptions continued, the lava advanced at two metres an hour and soon covered more than 30 hectares of sea to a depth of 24 metres, doubling the size of the island’s newly created peninsula. While marine life may face a bright future once the volcano stabilises, on land the picture is grim. The lava has destroyed 855 buildings, rendered hundreds of hectares of land unusable and buried about 17 miles of road. About 20% of banana plantations, key to the island’s economy, have been lost. The scientists who spent six years studying the aftermath of the El Hierro eruption say that marine areas with volcanic activity could be used to understand how the climate crisis could affect oceans. In the meantime, Santana says the biggest threat to the island’s marine life is not the volcano but human activity. “The real problem is overfishing,” she says. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'world/volcanoes', 'environment/marine-life', 'world/spain', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/europe-news', 'weather/spain', 'world/natural--disasters', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephen-burgen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-10-05T06:01:43Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2021/aug/18/french-wildfire-saint-tropez-found-dead | Two people found dead in French wildfire near Saint-Tropez | Two people have died during France’s biggest wildfire of the summer, local authorities have confirmed as the blaze continued to rage in the countryside behind Saint-Tropez. At least one man is among the deceased, local prosecutor Patrice Camberou told the TV channel France 3. He said the other body, found in a destroyed home in the village of Grimaud, was too badly burned to identify. France has deployed 1,200 firefighters and a dozen aircraft to try to contain the blaze, which broke out on Monday night near a motorway rest stop and has torn across 5,000 hectares (12,350 acres) in the south-eastern region of Var. Although the fire lost pace on Tuesday night, it still has not been contained, firefighters told Agence France-Presse. Around 10,000 people, including tourists holidaying on the French Riviera, have been evacuated and spent the night in welcome centres around the region. Twenty-nine people have been injured, including five firefighters, the local prefecture said, with most suffering smoke inhalation. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited the region on Tuesday before the death was announced, saying: “The worst has been avoided.” France had until now been spared the wildfire devastation that has consumed other parts of the Mediterranean this summer, including in Greece, Spain, Turkey, Italy and Algeria. Delphine Oberti, a resident of Cavalaire-sur-Mer, fled her home with her two children to shelter at her parents’ house as embers began to fall. Her husband stayed behind to defend their house. “It’s apocalyptic,” she said. “The sky was red, we couldn’t breathe, we couldn’t see our neighbours’ houses. “My children are disturbed, my six-year-old son talks of nothing but the fires.” Yet Oberti, who works in Grimaud, said they were lucky – their home was not lost and they have been able to return. The fire has burned through more than 50% of Plaine des Maures natural reserve, a biodiversity hotspot in the region, said the park conservator, Marie-Claude Serra. With the flames still not contained, she has yet to survey the full extent of the damage to the park, which is home to 240 protected species including reptiles, bats and the endangered Hermann’s tortoise. “Amid this human catastrophe, the worry is that we’re living through an ecological catastrophe as well,” Serra said. Recent weather conditions have left the reserve extremely vulnerable to the threat of wildfire. “There’s very little moisture in the plants. This, combined with the high heat and the wind produced the explosive cocktail that we are now experiencing – devastating fires that move very, very quickly,” Serra said. “We need to stop asking whether climate change is here or not. It’s here – what are we going to do about it?” The 2021 fire is moving much faster than previous catastrophic blazes in the region, firefighters told BFM TV. In 2003, four people died and more than 70,000 hectares burned in the south of France. Firefighters are also battling blazes in the Aude region in the south-west, and in Beaumes-de-Venise, Provence. | ['world/france', 'world/wildfires', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/megan-clement', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-08-18T12:46:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2009/apr/01/tesco-packaging-waste-trial | Tesco tells shoppers: too much packaging? Leave it with us | Tesco is to encourage customers to discard unwanted and excessive packaging near the tills, in an experiment along the lines of a similar "take-back" scheme in Germany. The supermarket chain has already cut back on what it regards as "wasteful" packaging, such as bulky dog food bags and unnecessary plastic wrapping on food. A regional trial will now try to find out which kinds of packaging consumers are prepared to do without. Common customer gripes include the amount of plastic, cardboard and foil used with Easter eggs, the superfluous boxes accompanying toothpaste, and the trays and plastic film that "protect" fruit. The trial runs initially for six weeks from today, at Tesco stores in Guildford, Surrey, and Ilminster, Somerset. The company stressed that the arrangements were temporary to get consumer feedback. The scheme allows customers to leave excess packaging for recycling. Alasdair James, Tesco's head of energy, waste and recycling, recently visited Germany. He said: "We know our customers expect us to help them recycle easily and we have also committed ourselves to cutting our own waste. This unique pilot helps us do both. Packaging left by customers at the store will tell us a lot about areas we may need to look at again, as well as where we have got it right." Tesco has more than 3,500 recycling and reducing packaging projects. It stressed that for regulatory reasons or where labelling was essential - for instance in warning of products containing nuts - packaging might still be necessary. A large proportion of retail packaging ends up in landfill space where it takes a long time to decompose, and even then the waste can give off harmful gases and toxins which pollute the air and water. Tesco said it was now diverting 87% of its waste from its store network away from landfill, compared with its target of 95% by the end of the year. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco executive director for corporate and legal affairs, said: "Tesco is committed to tackling environmental and climate change and we are always working hard to play a positive role and make it easier for our customers to do the same. We know that our customers want us to continue to reduce packaging. "At the same time we need to make sure that we are preventing unnecessary food waste. We are looking to find the least amount of packaging necessary and this trial will help us to establish customers' views." A recent report by the Local Government Association said that Waitrose had the most packaging and Tesco the least, while Sainsbury's had the highest proportion that could be easily recycled, and Lidl the lowest. | ['money/consumer-affairs', 'business/tesco', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'money/money', 'business/supermarkets', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'environment/recycling', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-03-31T23:01:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/jul/14/just-stop-oil-protestors-disrupt-bbc-proms-at-royal-albert-hall | Just Stop Oil protesters disrupt BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall | Two Just Stop Oil protesters disrupted the opening night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall after running on to the stage. The pair were taken off stage at the west London venue within moments of unfurling their orange banners on Friday evening, according to footage on social media. The climate campaign group wrote on Twitter: “We cannot afford to fiddle while Rome burns. “Two Just Stop Oil supporters have ran onto the stage at the Royal Albert Hall on the opening night of the BBC proms.” One stage invader was Kate Logan, 38, from London. In quotes posted on the Just Stop Oil Twitter account, she said: “Many years ago, I sang with a youth choir at the Albert Hall, never imagining I would one day disrupt a performance here to draw attention to the planetary crisis we find ourselves in. “But that’s what this has come to – our leaders and the press have failed us for decades and now it’s up to ordinary people to demand the changes we need.” Pia Bastide, 29, a community worker from London, was also involved in the demonstration. She said: “I’m sorry to harp on about it, but business as usual isn’t working any more. We can no longer ignore this crisis when extreme temperatures are scorching Europe right now. “Last week, the secretary general of the United Nations said that the climate crisis is ‘out of control’. I refuse to accept that my future is being sold away, one new oil licence at a time, and do nothing.” Three Just Stop Oil activists also interrupted the start of Channel 4 programme The Last Leg, which is broadcast live. The protesters handed hosts Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe orange Just Stop Oil vests before being led away by security, according to footage posted on social media. Last month, Just Stop Oil protesters interrupted a performance during the Glyndebourne opera festival in East Sussex by letting off glitter cannon and blowing air horns. The disruption took place during a performance of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the festival near Lewes. Protests have also interrupted Wimbledon, London Pride and an Ashes cricket match in recent weeks. • This article was amended on 15 July 2023. An earlier version stated that the Proms protesters threw confetti and sounded air horns. This information, which came from a statement from Just Stop Oil, could not be independently verified and the reference was removed. | ['environment/just-stop-oil', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'music/proms-2023', 'music/proms', 'music/music', 'culture/royal-albert-hall', 'media/bbc', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/nadeembadshah', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/just-stop-oil | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2023-07-14T21:04:15Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
travel/2009/oct/27/snowcarbon-rail-transport-skiing | New website promotes rail travel to the slopes | A new website launched today promises to lure skiers and snowboarders off planes and on to trains. Snowcarbon lists 30 of the most convenient European resorts to reach by train and provides step-by-step guides to timetables, transfers and booking. The site also features warts and all resort guides written by specialist ski journalists, as well as comparison information on the carbon footprint of reaching each resort by rail and air. "So many skiers and boarders would rather travel to resorts by train," says Snowcarbon founder Daniel Elkan, "but few realise how many resorts are convenient by rail, or know how to reach them. Until now, finding this information has been difficult, like fitting pieces of a puzzle together." Only 6% of journeys to European ski resorts last winter season were made by rail, up from 5% in 2007-8, according to Ski Club of Great Britain research. The vast majority of last season's journeys - 72% - were still by air in winter 2008-9. However dozens of Alpine resorts are under threat if predictions of global warming's impact on the snow line prove accurate. A report from the OECD in 2006 found that just a two-degree rise in temperature in the Alps, which could occur by 2050, would reduce the number of viable ski slopes in the region from 666 to 400. "Travelling to a ski resort by train is proven to reduce skiers' carbon footprints and Snowcarbon will help people plan their journey by train more easily," said Betony Garner of The Ski Club of Great Britain, which runs its own environmental campaign, Respect the Mountain. Snowcarbon is working with Best Foot Forward to show how far travellers can cut their carbon emissions by switching to rail. A one-way journey to the French resort of Chamonix, for example, generates 10.81kg of CO2 per person by train, 79.01kg per person by plane and 206.67 kg per car. Set up by Elkan and fellow freelance journalist Mark Hodson, Snowcarbon is independent but has worked closely with Eurostar, Rail Europe and Deutsche Bahn, to offer simpler online booking forms for travel to featured resorts. Tourist boards and ski resorts provided some initial funding and rail operators will pay Snowcarbon a commission on each completed booking, at no extra cost to travellers. "It's something I'm passionate about, but because it's so research intensive – it's taken me a year nearly full time. I've got into debt doing it, I've even slept rough in a Basel doorway researching it!" says Elkan, who has visited over 50 resorts by train. "I know when there's a lift to the platform, where you can kill a half hour waiting for a connection at a nearby cafe. Snowcarbon can also be an insider's guide and help people enjoy their journeys more." Historic obstacles to a major take-up of rail routes have been the lack of integrated booking systems between the major rail operators and concern among travellers about long, complicated journeys with little information on transfers and additional costs. "Information about transfers is crucial," according to Elkan. "If you don't know how far the station is to the resort or how much a taxi will cost, you are not going to try it. Also, the name of a station is often not the same as the resort so we give guidance on that." This winter sees the added challenge of a halt in the operation of Rail Europe's direct Snow Train service to the Tarentaise ski area, serving Tignes, Meribel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires and Courchevel. "The big problem for low-carbon skiing is Rail Europe's Snow Train being discontinued this winter, due to poor exchange rates and high costs charged by SNCF," commented Mark Smith, founder of award-winning rail information website The Man in Seat 61. "This leaves only Eurostar ski trains or scheduled trains with the need to change in Paris. We need more trains to the snow." Despite this, Elkan believes there are enough other options to make taking the train to the Alps a viable alternative to flying, and that the situation will improve. "Things will become more integrated because rail companies will become more integrated, they have just been slow. The future is also with tour operators because they can organise transfers from the nearest station and rail travel included in their packages." "Once we are up and running, the most useful thing we can do for skiers, boarders, resorts and the environment is to be a catalyst for making the journeys even better." | ['travel/railtravel', 'travel/skiing', 'travel/green', 'travel/travel', 'tone/news', 'world/rail-transport', 'travel/travelwebsites', 'travel/winter-sports', 'travel/snowboarding', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/environment', 'travel/europe', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'uk/rail-transport', 'type/article', 'profile/lianekatz'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-10-27T18:25:41Z | true | EMISSIONS |
business/2020/nov/16/bank-of-england-needs-more-powers-to-decarbonise-economy-say-experts | Bank of England needs more powers to decarbonise economy, say experts | Urgent reforms of the Bank of England are needed to help decarbonise the financial system and boost green investment as Britain recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of leading academics has said. The New Economics Foundation thinktank and Positive Money campaign group said landmark changes needed to be made by the government to give Threadneedle Street more powers to cut carbon emissions. In a letter to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the Bank’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the organisations and a group of leading academics said urgent changes to its mandate were needed to help Britain meet its net zero carbon emissions target. Signatories of the letter include Willem Buiter, a former member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee, Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, Nouriel Roubini, the American economist, and Stephanie Kelton, the author of The Deficit Myth. It comes after Sunak announced that large companies and financial institutions would be forced to come clean about their exposure to climate risks within five years, as part of a tougher disclosure regime to help make Britain a net zero carbon country by 2050. To demonstrate the government’s commitment to tackling global heating, the chancellor also said the UK would launch its first green government bond. Following the lead of 16 other countries including Germany and Sweden, the bond will be sold to big City investors next year, with the money raised paying for investment in carbon-reducing projects and the creation of green jobs. Although welcoming the measures, the campaigners warned the steps left too much to financial markets to self-regulate climate risk. “They assume that markets are efficient and financial institutions can effectively self-regulate. The 2008 global financial crisis served as a wake-up call to the reality that financial markets left to their own devices are prone to excessive risk-taking,” the letter said. The signatories, which also include the economist Steve Keen and former Green MEP and economist Molly Scott Cato, said further steps were therefore necessary to decarbonise the banking system, including reforms to Threadneedle Street’s powerful regulatory toolkit. It also called on the Treasury to use the Bank’s resources to fund the launch of a new Green Investment Bank. It comes after the energy minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, said earlier this summer that he expected the government to set out plans for a successor to the Green Investment Bank “in the not-too-distant future”. The original green bank, used for financing low-carbon projects, was sold off under Theresa May three years ago in a £2.3bn privatisation deal with the Australian bank Macquarie. Calling for a new vehicle to be launched, the academics suggested proceeds from the Bank’s Covid corporate financing facility (CCFF) – which offers cheap loans to large companies in exchange for corporate bonds – could be used to capitalise the new GIB. More than £15bn has been lent to struggling companies through the scheme, including airlines, carmakers and oil firms despite government assurances of a green economic recovery from Covid-19. Fran Boait, the executive director of Positive Money, said: “The measures announced by the Treasury and the Bank of England this week are positive steps, but they are just baby steps considering what needs to happen to shift UK finance in line with the Paris agreement and the government’s net zero target. If the government wants to show leadership ahead of Cop6 it will have to go further.” | ['business/bankofenglandgovernor', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'business/economic-recovery', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'business/andrew-bailey', 'business/economics', 'politics/economy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/richard-partington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-11-16T11:50:56Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2017/feb/16/rio-carnival-samba-protest-amazon-dam-environment | Samba troupe's political plan for Rio carnival ignites firestorm with farm lobby | It is close to midnight in Rio de Janeiro’s north zone, and hundreds of city-dwellers are marching around a hangar-like building, chanting solidarity with distant indigenous tribes and their fight to conserve the rainforest from hydroelectric dams and agribusiness. “Sacred garden discovered by the white man, the heart of my Brazil bleeds,” they sing, the words and music echoing through the streets outside. “A beautiful monster steals the children from the land, devours forests and dries up rivers, greed has destroyed so much wealth.” The polemical sentiment would not be out of place in a Green party rally. The hands thrown in the air could come from an evangelical sermon. The late-night gathering was inspired not by politics, nor by religion, but by what is usually one of the world’s greatest displays of escapist hedonism: the Rio carnival. The Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school was rehearsing for a display at the annual festival that has provoked nationwide controversy even before it is performed next week at the Sambodrome. Eschewing the syrupy commercial themes that have become a staple of the annual contest in recent years, Imperatriz Leopoldinense have devoted their entry to the indigenous tribes along the Xingu river, and their resistance to the deforestation, industrial agriculture and the massive Belo Monte dam. On the parade ground, its members will dress as indigenous people and trees plagued by farmers with skulls on their chest spraying pesticides, while the chorus sounds: “Save the green of Xingu, the hope / the seed of tomorrow, heritage / Our voice will echo nature’s call: Preserve!” The performance of an environmental call to arms before a TV audience of tens of millions is an alarming prospect for the nation’s powerful agricultural lobby, which has recently encouraged the government to weaken rules on indigenous land demarcation and forest protection. The Brazilian Association of Cattle Breeders accused the samba school – which has won the annual contest eight times – of a plot to vilify farmers who, it says should be treated as national heroes because they account for 22% of GDP. “It is unacceptable that the most popular Brazilian festival, which has the admiration and respect of our sector, should stage a show of sensationalism and unfounded attacks,” it said in a statement. This was echoed by the Brazilian Rice Industry Association, which warned of “great potential damage to the country, both internally and in the international scenario, due to the evident ignorance and imprudence with which the samba school portrayed agribusiness”. In a sinister backlash, congressman Ronaldo Caiado – a member of the powerful ruralista bloc which is allied with agribusiness interests – proposed an investigation of the school and its financial links. A TV presenter Fabélia Oliveira caused even greater commotion by suggesting that if the samba school members truly wanted to support indigenous culture then they should “not eat from a fridge, take a shower or use medicine” but instead “die of malaria, tetanus and childbirth”. The samba’s school’s president, Luiz Pacheco Drumond, said the farm lobby had misinterpreted the lyrics. “Beautiful monster”, he said, was a reference to the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam rather than agribusiness. But, having spent several days with Xingu tribes, the subject, he was unapologetic about the call for forest conservation. “The often uncontrolled production, felling, burning and other unbridled deeds in the name of progress and development drastically affect the environment and jeopardize the future of future generations,” he said in a statement. “We believe that in addition to entertainment, carnival and the samba school … have a commitment to social and sustainable development. Our message is one of preservation, respect, tolerance and peace.” Indigenous rights campaigners are delighted. “This is excellent,” exclaimed Ivaneide Bandeira, of Kaninde Ethno-Environmental Defence Association. “Imperatriz put this issue on the streets and should be applauded. It was very brave of them, and very intelligent.” Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, a professor of anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said the only similar case he could think of was the 2004 display by the Portela samba school, which explored the past myths and folklore of the Amazon. This time, however, he said Imperatriz was focusing on contemporary controversy. “For perhaps the first time ever, the issue of the destruction of the Amazon stops being the territory only of environmentalists or a university-educated middle class and becomes part of urban popular culture. It’s a very welcome change and a sign that with the scale of the devastation, something has clicked,” he said. The question now, he said, will be the reaction of the Sambodrome crowds, particularly the VIP boxes which often include agribusiness executives and ruralista politicians. “It will be incredible to see a critical samba being sung about this in Rio de Janeiro,” Viveiros de Castro said. “In the context we are living in, this is revolutionary.” | ['world/rio-de-janeiro', 'world/brazil', 'environment/environment', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/americas', 'environment/conservation', 'world/protest', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-02-16T10:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2022/jun/07/tanya-plibersek-urged-to-protect-indigenous-rock-art-up-to-50000-year-old-by-blocking-45bn-wa-fertiliser-plant | Tanya Plibersek urged to protect Indigenous rock art up to 50,000 years old by blocking fertiliser plant | The incoming federal environment minister has been urged to block the construction of a fertiliser plant on a world heritage-nominated site in Western Australia, and to act swiftly to stop the multinational company behind the plans from removing Indigenous rock art. Perdaman is planning a $4.5bn plant on the Burrup Peninsula, in the Pilbara region. The plant, which is strongly supported by the state government and was backed by the former federal government, will require the removal of Aboriginal art produced over a period starting about 50,000 years ago. In March, then-environment minister Sussan Ley ordered Perdaman to stop work at the site while she considered an application made by two traditional owners, Raelene Cooper and Josie Alec, for emergency protection of the rock art. But less than three weeks later, only days away from the beginning of the government’s caretaker period, Ley advised Cooper and Alec that she would not grant the emergency protection application, as Perdaman had advised her they would not be in a position to remove the art for another two months. Cooper, a Mardudhunera woman and member of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, and Alec, a Kuruma/Marthudhunera woman who is also a Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation member, sent a fresh application for emergency protection on Monday to incoming environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, and Indigenous affairs minister, Linda Burney. Cooper and Alec have called for Plibersek to urgently protect four petroglyphs that Perdaman plans to move, noting that the two-month timeframe the company provided to Ley had passed. The pair also said the plant should not be built on Murujuga country, as it poses a serious risk of desecrating their land. If it was to be built, it should be moved from Burrup Peninsula, as acidic emissions from the plant would damage petroglyphs in the area even after they’re moved. Perdaman was contacted for comment. The plant was expected to produce two million tonnes of fertiliser grade urea annually, and plans to use gas from Woodside’s nearby Scarborough project. That project may also threaten petroglyphs, traditional owners fear. Woodside disputes suggestions its expansion on the Burrup poses a risk to the petroglyphs. A spokesperson said research had not demonstrated that its operations had any impact, and it was supporting a “world-best-practice programme to monitor and protect the rock art” that was co-managed by the local Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and government officials. “It is Woodside’s view that traditional custodians must be central to the management of their heritage,” the spokesperson said, adding the company had consulted with them and responded to requests for environmental monitoring, archaeological and ethnographic surveys and access to independent expert advice. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning A spokesperson for Plibersek confirmed she had received the application under section nine of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act for the preservation and protection of Murujuga cultural heritage. “The minister’s office received the application today and it is now with the department for advice.” Perdaman have received $255m in state and federal government funding to build water and marine infrastructure near the site, and claims to have received approval from traditional owners for its plans. But Cooper had previously told Guardian Australia that members of the community had been misinformed about Perdaman’s plans. “The elders never approved this,” Cooper said in March. “They had no understanding of it. No one had ever explained to them what was really going on. “I mentioned that they were going to start removing the rock art and said they don’t want that. They said so repeatedly.” | ['australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'artanddesign/indigenous-art', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'culture/heritage', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/nino-bucci', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2022-06-06T20:27:29Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2011/apr/27/japan-royal-couple-visit-tsunami-hit-town | Japan royal couple visit tsunami-hit town | Japan's emperor has made his first visit to the area that bore the full force of last month's earthquake and tsunami, as the government admitted it was struggling to secure enough land for temporary homes for tens of thousands of evacuees. Akihito, accompanied by Empress Michiko, spoke to survivors at an evacuation shelter in Minamisanriku – a Miyagi prefecture town of 20,000 where 496 people died and another 656 are missing, presumed dead. The tsunami destroyed 3,800 houses in the town, leaving more than 6,000 people homeless. The royal couple were greeted by rescue workers and briefed on the recovery effort. The pair spent about 30 minutes speaking to some of the 200 evacuees living in a school gymnasium. They later visited another shelter in Sendai before flying back to Tokyo on a military helicopter, according to the imperial household agency. Shin Kageyama, a volunteer in Minamisanriku, 250 miles north-east of the capital, accused the government of neglecting the immediate needs of evacuees while it focuses on the nuclear crisis. The emperor, he said, had lifted their spirits, but added: "If the prime minister came, we'd all just feel like punching him." He told Associated Press: "Maybe it's taboo to say this, but the emperor is truly like a god." The imperial couple's previous visits have been confined to evacuation centres nearer Tokyo. On Monday they will visit Iwate prefecture, north of Miyagi, and Fukushima early next month to meet residents driven out of their homes by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the agency said. The government estimates it will need to build about 72,000 prefabricated homes for the 130,000 evacuees still living in shelters in the three worst-affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. It has promised to build 30,000 units by the end of May, and the remainder by the end of the summer. As of last week only 395 units had been completed. This week, however, the government said it was confident it could secure enough land for only 52,000 prefabs. Officials say the rehousing effort is being held up by the high cost of materials, labour shortages and the dearth of flat land on higher ground. In addition, some evacuees have said they do not want to be re-housed away from their own towns and villages. The government is considering borrowing private land as all available publicly owned spaces have been earmarked for prefab construction. Evacuees will be entitled to live in the units, rent-free, for up to two years, but will have to pay for electricity and other utilities. In Ishinomaki, 6,700 households drew lots for a place in temporary units able to accommodate just 137 of them. "It's like winning a prize in a lottery," said one evacuee who has been living in a junior high school for almost seven weeks. "But it's also too late," he told Kyodo News. | ['world/japan', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-04-27T09:52:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2021/feb/04/make-oil-firms-install-electric-car-chargers-in-petrol-stations-says-thinktank | Make oil firms install electric car chargers in petrol stations, says thinktank | Oil companies should be required to install rapid chargers for electric cars in all their petrol stations above a certain size by 2023 in order to speed up the rollout of vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions, according to thinktank Bright Blue. Bright Blue’s report also calls for a reversal in cuts to government grants for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), a new grant to help low income households buy secondhand BEVs, and for the lower lifetime costs of BEVs compared with those of petrol and diesel cars to be made clear at the point of sale. The transport sector is the UK’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for almost 28% of emissions in 2018, but unlike other sectors has made minimal reductions in recent years. Cars cause over half of the emissions. The government has announced an end to sales of petrol and diesel cars in 2030 to help tackle the climate crisis. Ministers have committed to BEV grants until 2023 but Bright Blue said they should be front-loaded, rising to £5,000 from today’s £3,000. To encourage purchases, the grants would then taper down to zero in 2023, when the prices of BEVs are expected to match those of conventional cars due to falling battery costs. The grant for used BEVs should be £2,000, the thinktank said, and such schemes already exist in the Netherlands and France. People say upfront cost is the main barrier to buying BEVs, according to polling. A cut in the subsidy level was blamed in 2019 for a fall in sales. “In 2020, 6.6% of new UK vehicle sales were BEVs. Those figures are going to need to increase dramatically within nine years, if we’re going to meet the petrol and diesel phase-out by 2030,” said Patrick Hall at Bright Blue. Hall said rapid chargers away from motorways were currently rare. Requiring oil companies to install at least three at each petrol station would help tackle the fear drivers have of not being able to recharge their cars on longer journeys, he said, adding that the government could pay for the necessary grid connections through the existing £950m Rapid Charging Fund. Shell, which has 1,000 petrol stations in the UK, has almost 100 rapid chargers on its forecourts and aims to have 200 by the end of 2021. “Whether at home, at work or on-the-go, we want to provide our customers with accessible and affordable EV charging options,” said István Kapitány, at Shell Global Mobility. The Bright Blue report also recommends introducing an obligation on all local authorities to install on-street BEV chargers within three months when requested by residents. “You would end up getting chargepoints in places where they are needed and going to be utilised – it’s a targeted chargepoint rollout,” said Hall. On Tuesday, the government announced a £20m extension to its on-street residential chargepoint scheme, which could fund 4,000 more chargepoints. The same day, another thinktank, Policy Exchange, said installations needed to increase from 7,000 to 35,000 points a year to meet the 2030 deadline for the end of sales of fossil fuel-powered cars. Other policies proposed by Bright Blue include making the interoperability of different charging networks a condition for central and local government funding, as already is the case in Germany and California. Hall said this would allow drivers to roam easily between different networks in the same way as mobile phone users. Another policy proposal is to immediately mandate that all new vehicles bought by central and local government must be BEVs. There are approximately 75,000 vehicles in the public fleet. A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “This government is going further and faster than ever before to decarbonise transport and to end the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050. Our £2.8bn strategy is powering the electric transition to incentivise drivers and create a cleaner, greener transport system for all.” | ['environment/electric-cars', 'politics/transport', 'uk/transport', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-02-04T06:01:26Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2021/feb/17/barcelona-to-ban-smoking-on-four-of-its-beaches | Barcelona to ban smoking on four of its beaches | Barcelona is banning smoking on four of the city’s most popular beaches as part of its clean air policy. The ban complements moves to limit road traffic in an attempt to improve the city’s poor air quality and “to advance towards a healthy, smoke-free city, and that includes tobacco smoke”, said Gemma Tarafa, the council’s health spokesperson. From 29 May to 12 September smoking will be banned on the Sant Miquel, Somorrostro, Nova Icària and Nova Mar Bella beaches as part of a pilot scheme, although offenders will not as yet face fines. Smoking will still be permitted on Sant Sebastià, the popular nudist beach. If successful, the city’s other six beaches – as well as parks and bus stops – are expected to be included next year. Some 2,200 of the city’s citizens die of smoking-related diseases each year, nearly 14% of the total. Furthermore, about 15% of the 32m cigarette butts discarded every year end up the sea. In the 10 years they take to decay they release particles of arsenic, iron, nickel and cadmium that enter the food chain. While the move is unlikely to be popular among Spain’s estimated 10 million smokers, the tide of popular opinion is running against them. The ban on smoking indoors that came into force in 2012 has been welcomed by both restaurateurs and their clients and the council isn’t expecting serious opposition to extending it to beaches and other open spaces. However, plans proposed in 2019 to ban smoking on Barcelona’s outdoor terraces led to protests from both smokers and the hospitality trade which had compensated for the prohibition on smoking indoors by increasing the number of outside tables. That plan has been put on hold by Covid, which has made the terraces vital to the survival of bars and restaurants, dozens of which have gone out of business. Under Catalonia’s Covid restrictions, smoking outdoors is banned everywhere where it is not possible to maintain social distancing but this is one ruling the otherwise compliant citizenry has chosen to ignore. Barcelona is not the first place in Spain to outlaw smoking on the beach. The first was Baiona in the northwest region of Galicia. Altogether, 115 of Spain’s 3,514 beaches are smoke-free. | ['world/barcelona', 'world/spain', 'world/catalonia', 'society/smoking', 'environment/air-pollution', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stephen-burgen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-02-17T12:53:39Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2022/aug/12/drought-uk-england-privatised-water-climate-emergency-government | As drought blights the UK, the Tories have their heads buried in the sand | Caroline Lucas | A drought has officially been declared across vast swathes of England. Rivers and reservoirs are evaporating in front of our eyes. Water may soon be rationed and crop irrigation restricted. Drought, and the extreme heat that exacerbates it, isn’t some occasional freak occurrence that can be brushed off as “super scorchio” fun once or twice a year. It’s a consequence of years of inaction on the climate emergency. This is producing a perfect storm of energy insecurity, food supply chaos and extreme weather that is wreaking havoc on society. Getting a firm grip on this crisis requires both immediate and long-term solutions. Our lame duck government is offering neither. It’s clear that the privatisation experiment for water companies has failed. They’re fit for profit, not for purpose. The head of Thames Water – the company responsible for the supply fiasco at Northend in Oxfordshire – is set to receive a £3.1m “golden hello” for signing on as CEO. English water firms across the board have handed over £72bn to shareholders in dividends. Ed Vaizey claimed on Good Morning Britain this week that “you get better run companies in the private sector”. Are these the same companies that dithered over hosepipe bans for fear of annoying customers, further intensifying our drought crisis? Companies that failed to meet their own targets on fixing leaks and faulty mains pipes? Companies whose incessant dumping of raw sewage has blighted our waterways? All that profit, yet investment in our waterways is falling woefully short. Not a single new reservoir has been built in the past three decades, and our Victorian water pipes are being replaced at a rate 10 times slower than our European neighbours. So we need immediate action. The Green party is calling for an urgent enforcement order on water firms, a cut to bosses’ obscene executive pay, an end to dividends to shareholders and for the water supply to be brought back into public ownership as soon as is practicably possible. Public ownership works, and is popular. Publicly owned Scottish Water is the most trusted public utility in the UK, while not-for-profit Welsh Water has helped 60,000 low-income customers to pay their bills. They invest more, too. Scottish Water has invested nearly 35% more per household in infrastructure since 2002 than privatised firms in England; it charges 14% less in water bills; and it doesn’t pay out costly dividends to shareholders. Making ourselves more resilient to droughts in the future requires long-term solutions that tackle the climate emergency at its source. Yet just when we need real climate leadership to address this urgent crisis, our government has gone awol. During last month’s heatwave, Boris Johnson ducked out of chairing several Cobra meetings, and has barely been seen in public since. Prospective leader Rishi Sunak thinks letting his daughters do the recycling will help us get to net zero. This is hardly the muscular and resolute decision-making we need to tackle the climate emergency. Meanwhile, Liz Truss is on a bizarre crusade complaining about solar panels in fields, when solar is the cheapest form of energy and covers just 0.06% of UK land, far less than the amount of land used by airports. To top it all off, Truss has also refused to increase the windfall tax on energy companies, and has pledged to lift the ban on climate-wrecking fracking. The solutions to this crisis are clear. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and deliver a clean, green and affordable energy system. We need publicly owned utilities to do what they say on the tin, rather than simply siphon off obscene profits to shareholders. The climate emergency affects us all – and we can all be part of the solution. Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/drought', 'business/utilities', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/weather', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/carolinelucas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-12T14:21:18Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2020/jun/25/renewable-energy-breaks-uk-record-in-first-quarter-of-2020 | Renewable energy breaks UK record in first quarter of 2020 | Renewable energy made up almost half of Britain’s electricity generation in the first three months of the year, with a surge in wind power helping to set a new record for clean energy. The government’s official data has revealed that renewable energy made up 47% of the UK’s electricity generation in the first three months of the year, smashing the previous quarterly record of 39% set last year. The government’s renewable energy data includes electricity from the UK’s windfarms, solar panels and hydro power plants as well as bioenergy generated by burning wood chips instead of coal. The “substantial increase” in the UK’s total renewable energy output was chiefly driven by a growth in electricity generated by solar panels and windfarms which climbed by more than a third over the last year, according to the government’s energy analysts. The report added that the start up of new windfarms combined with the UK’s unusually wet and windy weather at the start of the year – particularly storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge – helped to generate record wind power generation. Offshore windfarms powered the largest increase in renewable energy in the first quarter of the year, climbing by 53% compared with the previous year, while onshore wind generation grew by a fifth. In total, wind power generated 30% of the UK’s electricity in the first quarter, beating the previous record of 22.3% set in the final months of 2019. Rebecca Williams, of Renewable UK, said the renewable energy industry’s records were bound to be broken again in the years ahead as the government worked on “a massive expansion of renewables as part of the UK’s green economic recovery”. Britain last week set a new coal-free record of more than two months for the first time since coal-fired power generation began during the Industrial Revolution, following a surge in renewable energy due to bright, breezy weather and low demand during the Covid-19 lockdown. Williams said the government’s record quarterly data showed the clean energy transition “written very large indeed” because the records had been set at the coldest time of year “when we need it most”. The rise of renewable energy combined with a steady supply of nuclear power, which made up about 15% of the UK generation mix, drove fossil fuel power plants to a new record low in the first quarter. Gas-fired power plants made up less than a third of UK generation in the first quarter compared with over 40% in the first months of 2019, and coal-fired power made up 3.8% of electricity generated in the UK. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-06-25T13:01:58Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2008/jan/21/climatechange.energy | Desert state channels oil wealth into world's first sustainable city | In an expanse of grey rock and dust in one of the harshest environments on earth, the United Arab Emirates is about to build what is being described as the world's first sustainable city, designed by British architect Lord Foster. The site is far from promising. Miles from a polluted sea, a fierce sun raises temperatures to 50C (120F) in the summer, and there is no fresh water, no soil and no animals. But tens of billions of petro-dollars will be poured into these seven square kilometres of desert on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. Called Masdar - "the source" in Arabic - the walled city is intended to house 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. It will have no cars and be self-sufficient in renewable energy, the majority of which will be solar energy. The formal unveiling of the desert eco-city will be made today at a summit on future energy sources in Abu Dhabi, attended by the UK business secretary, John Hutton, and Prince Andrew. "It's extremely ambitious," said Gerard Evenden, senior partner in Lord Foster's architecture practice in London, which has had a team working on the design for nine months. "We were invited to design a zero-carbon city. In this harsh place we needed to look back at history and see how ancient settlements had adapted to their environments." The buildings will huddle together as in a casbah, and will be cooled by wind towers which will collect the desert's breezes and flush out hot air. No building will be more than five storeys high; the city is to be oriented north-east to south-west to give the optimum balance of sunlight and shade. It will feel closer to many cities built in the age of the cart and horse. Most roads will only be 3 metres (10ft) wide and just 70 metres long to develop a micro-climate and keep the air moving; roofs will allow in air and keep the sun out in the summer. No one will be more than 200 metres from public transport, and streets will give on to colonnaded squares and fountains. "We are definitely not imposing a standard international architecture in Masdar. We are aiming to find a balance of light and heat," said Evenden. "It's only really hot for three months of the year, but at other times it's humid." It is every architect's dream to build a new city and Foster's team say they started from scratch. The idea has been to reduce the amount of energy needed to build it and to live there, and then to let solar energy take over. "We will start with a large solar power station which will provide the energy to construct the city. Some 80% of all the roof space will be used to generate solar power, and because we expect technology to improve as we are building it, we hope we will later be able to remove the power plant. We could 'borrow' energy from outside, but we are trying to prove it can all be generated in the confines of the site," said Evenden. The architects are also planning some hi-tech gadgetry. The 50,000 inhabitants, and everyone who works there, will move around on one of three levels. A light railway will whizz people to and from Masdar to Abu Dhabi's forest of glass and steel towers; a second level is reserved for pedestrians; and a third for "personalised rapid transport pods," described by Evenden as "little vehicles like driverless personal taxis which run on tracks or magnetic discs in the road. It's a tried technology. They are in production in Holland, and used to move containers around in Rotterdam port," he said. No clues have been given about the city's cost, how it will be socially organised and who will live there, but money is clearly no object. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, is vying with neighbour Dubai to be the most dazzling Gulf city and the environment is seen as the new card in the deck. With at least $1trillion (£500bn) invested abroad and sitting on nearly 100bn barrels of oil, Abu Dhabi is the richest city in the world. Its 420,000 inhabitants are theoretically worth about $17m each, and they are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than any other population in the world. This week Abu Dhabi is expected to announce a $500m deal to manufacture thin-film solar panels to make Masdar a centre of the global solar energy manufacturing industry. "This will be the global capital of the renewable energy revolution. It's the first oil producing nation to have taken such a significant step towards sustainable living," said Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, director of WWF's One Planet Living initiative, which aims to develop sustainable communities. But critics said Masdar is a fig leaf for the rest of the Gulf, heartland of the world's fossil fuel extraction. "The numbers must be put into perspective. They are spending welcome billions of dollars on renewables but trillions are still going into climate-changing oil economies. The future is the sun and renewables but there is no time to wait for this revolution," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. How will it work? Zero carbon 100% of energy supplied by renewables - photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, wind, waste-to-energy and other technologies Zero waste 99% diversion of waste from landfill, reuse of waste, composting Sustainable transport Zero emissions from transport in the city Building As much as possible using recycled or certified materials Water Per capita consumption to be 50% less than average. All waste water to be reused. Drinking water to be desalinated with solar energy Equity and fair trade Fair wages for all workers who are employed to build the city | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'travel/unitedarabemirates', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'artanddesign/art', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'culture/culture', 'technology/technology', 'environment/deserts', 'world/united-arab-emirates', 'cities/cities', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews4'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2008-01-21T12:59:49Z | true | ENERGY |
lifeandstyle/2015/apr/04/naomi-klein-i-always-had-keen-sense-of-right-and-wrong | Naomi Klein: ‘I always had a keen sense of right and wrong’ | I wasn’t an activist as a child. I grew up in the 80s consumer culture. Very few teenagers want to be at war with the prevailing culture. But I was the daughter of activists and I always had a keen sense of right and wrong. My mother had a stroke when I was 17. At the time I remember everyone saying how young she was, but you never think of your parents as young. Now I’m the same age she was at the time. Helping my mother navigate her new world in a wheelchair taught me a lot about how brutally cruel certain parts of our culture can be, and how quickly we put up barriers to each other. The success of No Logo was an incredible gift, because it gave me the freedom to do what I love at a time when journalism in general was cutting back massively. I was able to take five years to write each of my next books; it’s an interesting paradox that market success is what brought that about. I have never been religious. I feel like I have a relationship with nature that is deeply nourishing and spiritual. But I don’t believe in God. Before my son was born, I’d have 90-minute yoga classes and meditation routines. I was very zen. Now I’m lucky if I can work out for 20 minutes. But having a two-and-a-half-year-old can be very relaxing. I’ll go from all this doom-and-gloom politics stuff to just sitting on the floor drawing pictures with him. I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic about the future, but I’m not a nihilist either. Reporting from disaster zones, such as Hurricane Katrina, you see that human beings can behave magnificently in a crisis. They gather and act with unbearable solidarity to overcome divisions. There are two climate movements in the UK: there’s the more elite Prince Charles movement, but also a very activist, grass-roots climate-camp movement. It was no accident that the spokesman for climate was Al Gore, a former vice-president, who reached out to billionaires like Richard Branson and Hollywood celebrities. It created this idea that the environment was elitist. There is a temptation to think of all movements as the same: the Labour movement, the civil rights movement. But they’re not. The roots of the environmental movement in the US were a kind of country club, preserving land for fishing, hunting and birdwatching. It was a movement of insiders. Obama blew an amazing opportunity. He came to power with a clear mandate to act on the climate and also the tools to do it thanks to the bailouts for the banking and automobile industries. No other president since Roosevelt has had that kind of economic power at their fingertips. In the past we have overemphasised the importance of individual lifestyle choices and underemphasised the big-policy changes. People worry about their hybrid cars rather than fighting for free public transport. I had thyroid cancer last year, which forced me to think about death. I think it’s healthy. One of the things I liked about yoga was corpse pose. It’s good to remember that you will be a corpse one day; a reminder that life is fleeting. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein is out now. To order a copy for £7.19, go to bookshop.theguardian.com Follow the Observer Magazine on Twitter @ObsMagazine | ['lifeandhealth/series/thismuchiknow', 'books/naomi-klein', 'environment/activism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/protest', 'books/books', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'tone/interview', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/ed-cumming', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/life-and-style'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-04-04T13:00:05Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2022/dec/28/france-ban-on-single-use-restaurant-tableware-hailed-as-fast-food-revolution | Ban on single-use restaurant tableware hailed as fast-food ‘revolution’ in France | Fast-food chains in France are preparing for one of the biggest changes to their restaurants in decades as the government bans disposable plates, cups and tableware for anyone eating or drinking on-site. Chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks and Subway are facing what environmentalists have called a “revolution” on 1 January as pioneering new measures come into force in France to combat waste. Much of the fast-food industry uses an economic model built on throwaway boxes, cups and packaging which customers tip from their tray into a bin straight after eating. Under the new rules, any restaurant with more than 20 seats – including work canteens, bakery chains, fast-food and sushi outlets – will have to provide reusable, washable cups, plates, dishes and cutlery for customers eating in. French environmental groups called it a “complete paradigm shift” for the sector. The roughly 30,000 fast-food outlets in France serve 6bn meals a year, generating an estimated 180,000 tonnes of waste. Environmental groups said 55% of that was generated by people eating in. “We’re extremely happy that this is finally coming into force,” said Alice Elfassi, head of legal affairs for the NGO Zero Waste France, which pushed for the measure in a law that was published in 2020 but gave companies until 2023 to prepare. “Fast food is a sector that produces a lot of waste. Although single-use plastic had already been banned, it had been replaced by large amounts of throwaway products like cardboard, wood, bamboo, which we consider an unacceptable waste of resources.” Zero Waste France and other groups are pressuring the government to carry out proper checks on whether fast food restaurants are respecting the law, and hand out fines if necessary. It said there should also be consideration of what alternatives are put in place. “Most fast-food restaurants won’t switch to classic, long-wearing glass or china that lasts years, they will opt for hard plastic and we have concerns about its durability – will it withstand hundreds of washes or will it be thrown out after only a few? We’ll be vigilant on that.” The law concerns only tableware used by customers sitting down in restaurants. Anyone ordering takeaway, for example from McDonald’s, will continue to receive single-use packaging. But environmental groups hope that single-use takeaway packaging could also be changed in future, for example with customers leaving a deposit for reusable packaging and returning it. The new law means eat-in burgers and sandwiches can no longer be served in a box but they can continue to be wrapped in paper. All other food – including chips, nuggets, pizzas, ice-creams or cakes – must be served on reusable tableware, and drinks in re-usable cups, washed at 60C as in traditional restaurants. Several McDonald’s stores have recently put in place reusable plastic containers for fries, shaped to look exactly like the company’s traditional red disposable packaging. Burger King has trialled reusable bowls and cups with the company’s logo. The challenge for many fast-food restaurants has been to find space to put in dishwasher facilities to clean the cups and plates, and also deploy staff to stop customers throwing them away or taking them home. Some young customers said they worried reusable cups wouldn’t be clean and preferred to get takeaway. Four French environmental groups, including Surfrider and No Plastic In My Sea, published an open letter appealing to customers to stay vigilant and to stop eating in any restaurants where they noticed the new law wasn’t being upheld. | ['world/france', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'food/fast-food', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'food/food', 'food/restaurants', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angeliquechrisafis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-12-28T16:25:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2013/jun/17/bloomberg-new-york-composting-food-waste | Bloomberg set to roll out New York composting plan for food waste | The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is preparing to roll out a new composting plan for the city, aimed at diverting some of the 100,000 tons of food scraps that ends up in landfill every year. Bloomberg, who is due to leave office early next year, has called food waste the "final recycling frontier". Now it appears New York is moving towards that line, testing pilot projects in some neighbourhoods in preparation for a city-wide composting plan. The city has hired a composting plant to handle up to 100,000 tons of food scraps a year – or about 10% of the city's total food waste, according to the New York Times,, which first reported the story. Last April, about 100 city restaurants joined a voluntary composting plan, the food waste challenge. By next year, 150,000 households will be on board along with 100 high-rise buildings and 600 schools. The entire city could be recycling food scraps by 2015 or 2016. The composting programme will at first be voluntary. But a city official told the Times that after a few years New Yorkers who do not separate out their food scraps could be liable to fines – just as they would be now if they do not recycle paper, plastic or metal. The composting plan will make up a big part of New York's efforts to divert up to 75% of its solid waste from landfills by 2030. Reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills also reduces greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Food waste from all sources makes up about a third of the 20,000 tons of trash the city generates every day. New York spends $336m a year to send its trash to landfills in Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. A composting programme would save about $100m a year, Ron Gonen, the city official responsible for recycling and sustainability, told the paper. Other cities, such as San Francisco, have composting programmes in place. New York had been seen as a challenge because of its population density. | ['us-news/new-york', 'us-news/michaelbloomberg', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/landfill', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2013-06-17T15:03:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2010/jul/27/bp-tony-hayward-statement | BP's Tony Hayward: resignation statement | BP chief executive Tony Hayward is leaving the oil group after almost 30 years with a £1m payoff and a pension expected to be about half a million pounds a year. He will hand over as chief executive in October but will remain on the BP board until 30 November. BP plans to nominate him as a non-executive director at its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP. Tony Hayward's statement: "The Gulf of Mexico explosion was a terrible tragedy for which – as the man in charge of BP when it happened – I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie. "From day one I decided that I would personally lead BP's efforts to stem the leak and contain the damage, a logistical operation unprecedented in scale and cost. We have now capped the oil flow and we are doing everything within our power to clean up the spill and to make restitution to everyone with legitimate claims. "I would like to thank all of the BP people involved in the response and the many thousands of others along the Gulf Coast who have joined us in our efforts. "I believe the decision I have reached with the board to step down is consistent with the responsibility BP has shown throughout these terrible events. BP will be a changed company as a result of Macondo and it is right that it should embark on its next phase under new leadership. "I will be working closely with Bob Dudley over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition. It has been a privilege to serve BP for nearly 30 years and to lead it for the last three. I am sad to leave so many fine colleagues and friends who have helped this great company to achieve so much over the years. I am sorry that achievement has been overshadowed by the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico." | ['business/tony-hayward', 'business/bp', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil-spills', 'tone/news', 'type/article'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-07-27T07:38:21Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/may/19/governments-achieve-10-year-target-of-protecting-17-percent-land-aoe | Governments achieve target of protecting 17% of land globally | An area greater than the land mass of Russia has been added to the world’s network of national parks and conservation areas since 2010, amid growing pressure to protect nature. As of today, about 17% of land and inland water ecosystems and 8% of marine areas are within formal protected areas, with the total coverage increasing by 42% since the beginning of the last decade, according to the Protected Planet report by the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Protected Planet report is the final report card on Aichi Target 11 – the global 10-year target on protected and conserved areas. The UN calculated that 16.64% of land and inland waters has been protected to date but concluded that governments had met the 17% target because of a lag in reporting on data. The 17% ambition was just one of seven parts of Aichi Target 11. Governments have not fully met any of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets agreed in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010. Despite making significant progress, the report warns, a third of key biodiversity areas lack any coverage, connectivity between areas protected for nature remains poor and gaps remain in the quality of conservation work. “Many protected and conserved areas are not demonstrating effectiveness,” said James Hardcastle, who leads the IUCN’s green list initiative. “There hasn’t been enough focus on the quality. They’re not able to fulfil their true potential.” The report comes as a new public-private scheme backed by the German government to provide long-term funding for biodiverse areas in developing countries is launched on Wednesday. Known as the Legacy Landscapes Fund (LLF), it aims to provide stable financing for at least 30 conservation areas by the end of this decade to pay for park rangers, support surrounding communities and maintain infrastructure. Under the 30x30 initiative, more than 50 countries have committed to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030. Through public and private donors, the LLF aims to become one of the biggest nature conservation foundations in the world, with $1bn (£700m) of capital by 2030. Pilot projects in Angola, Indonesia and Bolivia are among those selected for the launch. Stefanie Lang, executive director of the LLF, said: “It’s much easier to find funding for something spectacular like a rhino introduction than operational costs for monitoring and law enforcement. That is the gap the fund wants to close: establish something that ensures funding for perpetuity.” Lang said the fund was looking at schemes like the IUCN’s green list, a standard that aspires to uphold high-quality governance, planning, management and preservation of nature in protected and conserved areas, an initiative also highlighted by the Protected Planet report. Hardcastle welcomed increased momentum around protected areas outlined in the report but said there were big caveats, and that respect for human rights and indigenous communities must be at the heart of the expansion of protected areas. “It is not just about creating new areas. It’s the identification and full recognition for existing areas that might be governed by indigenous peoples, local communities and private actors. That is going to be the key to the future,” he said. About 22.5m sq km (16.64%) of land and inland water ecosystems are within documented protected and conserved areas, according to the Protected Planet report. Neville Ash, director of Unep’s Conservation Monitoring Centre, said governments must ensure that biodiversity and benefits for people are at the heart of the UN agreement for this decade, which is scheduled to be formalised in Kunming, China, later this year. Protecting 30% of the world’s oceans and land is likely to be one of the 20 targets. “Protected areas are only part of the solution for addressing the biodiversity crisis and the opportunities ahead of us. They need to sit alongside wider sustainability measures, sustainable consumption and production patterns, aligning financial flows to the benefit of nature and reducing perverse subsidies,” Ash said. 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/biodiversity', 'environment/series/the-road-to-kunming', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'world/unitednations', 'world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/national-parks', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-05-19T14:15:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2022/feb/28/brisbane-flood-2022-bne-river-peak-floods-update-property-flooding-warning-queensland | Brisbane flood: warning up to 15,000 properties could be inundated as river reaches peak | Queensland authorities estimate up to 15,000 properties could be affected by flood waters as the Brisbane River reached its likely peak on Monday morning, inundating low-lying areas in the city’s central business district. Heavy rain lasting more than three days unabated in Brisbane eased at midnight on Monday, removing some of the strain that had choked suburban floodways and dumped unprecedented volumes into dams. Eight people have now died in flood waters since last week and three are still missing. On Sunday afternoon a 59-year-old man was swept away while attempting to cross a flooded road on foot at Taigum, in Brisbane’s outer north. Police said witnesses had attempted to give the man CPR but he died at the scene. A man believed to be in his 50s is also presumed dead after his car was washed away in flood waters in the Currumbin Valley early on Monday. Police said they believe the man’s vehicle was driven about 30m along a flooded road. The vehicle has not been found. The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m on Monday morning, still well below the 4.56m peak of the 2011 flood. An “unprecedented” volume of water, about 1,450 gigalites, entered Wivenhoe Dam in the past three days, taking its storage levels from under 60% to 183%. By contrast, in 2011, less water entered Wivenhoe in more than six days. Some parts of Brisbane have received about a year’s annual rainfall in just a few days. More than 1.5m of rain has been recorded at Mount Glorious this week. The average annual rainfall for the town, about 30km west of Brisbane, is about 1.6m. It is not yet known exactly how many homes were affected by flood water but what is known is that, in many places, the impacts were very different to 2011. Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told reporters modelling had estimated as many as 15,000 houses affected. Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, told ABC radio the city council’s modelling for a 4m Brisbane River peak – higher than the observed peak on Monday morning – indicated that about 4,500 properties, including about 2,100 residential properties, would be flooded. An additional 10,800 properties would be partially flood-affected, according to the council’s modelling. On Monday suburban flooding caused by swollen creeks and Brisbane River tributaries largely subsided and people were able to return to their homes to assess the damage. But at the same time, the river peak caused inundation of low-lying banks, including the CBD, Southbank and West End. Extremely high tides are expected to continue, but abate gradually, for the rest of the week. There remains some concern that while heavy rainfall has finally eased, storms are forecast for later in the week which might cause further chaos if river levels remain high in the meantime. Diana Eadie from the Bureau of Meteorology said those storms posed an additional risk. “That really intense rain is now shifting into north-east New South Wales and is easing for much of south-east Queensland,” she said. “That being said, the risk for significant flooding is still very real. “We’re expecting more settled conditions today and continuing into tomorrow. From Wednesday onwards and the following five days, we see a return of the potential for severe thunderstorm activity with the risk of damaging winds, large hail and locally heavy falls. “We’re not expecting widespread rain as we have seen in this event, but with any severe thunderstorm, there is the potential that we could see very intense rainfall rates in some localised areas.” Palaszczuk said there had been “a huge response effort”. “It has been fast and it has been furious and it has had a big impact,” she said. “I don’t know about everyone else, but last night it was like cyclonic conditions outside. The winds, the rain and … we had two systems of thunderstorms merging last night as well during the course of the day. We didn’t know that was going to happen.” She added: “All these emergency services people have been on the frontline doing the best they possibly can. “If it wasn’t for them, there would have been a lot more loss of life. We should be thanking them for everything they have been doing. I want people to understand how much rainfall has come into these catchments and across the entire south-east.” Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, told reporters on Monday that in addition to the seven flood deaths, there were fears of additional fatalities after reports of people missing in flood waters at Yatala, Goodna and Esk. A man who fell from a vessel into Brisbane’s Breakfast Creek two days ago also remains missing. Social services groups are calling on governments to increase assistance payments for people affected by the floods. Aimee McVeigh, the chief executive of the Queensland Council of Social Services, said: “$1,000 per adult will not cut it, especially in the face of a record-breaking housing crisis … Queenslanders have experienced devastating flooding in the past 48 hours.” McVeigh added: “People in lower-lying areas are now facing the prospect of another brutal cleanup after another once-in-a-century flood. People in areas that have never experienced inundation are now reckoning with the fact that their homes are uninhabitable. “Our community organisations also need access to additional emergency relief funds now. They are on the ground sourcing emergency accommodation, providing food and supply packages and crucial mental health supports.” | ['australia-news/brisbane', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-02-28T03:10:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/jul/11/tanzania-leads-the-fight-against-plastic | Tanzania leads the fight against plastic | Letters | Re your article about “Plastic City” on the outskirts of the Philippine capital of Manila (The villagers who are forced to live with the world’s waste, 9 September), we have just returned from Tabora town in Tanzania, having worked as volunteers for 10-week periods over the past 20 years. Our final trip revealed an amazing and extraordinary fact that Tanzania has recently banned all plastic bags, with not a black plastic bag to be seen in the streets, which hitherto was a common sight in the ditches, on the roads and in fact everywhere. These black bags were given to you in the market and from small roadside stalls selling fruit and veg, clothes and much more. In May this year Tanzania passed a law making the use of plastic bags an offence with a hefty fine or imprisonment. The law was implemented within a month, ie on 1 June, and the effect was immediate, with all stalls and shops using a new paper-based bag in varying sizes and colours. Tanzania, a country 81st in the UN GDP listing (the UK is fourth), has done this, and the people we spoke to were very much in favour and, poor though they are, pay a few pence extra for a paper-based bag which can be used time and time again. As a wealthy western country, all our government has done is bring in a small charge on single-use bags which, while dramatically reducing their use, still does not address the problem completely. This pussyfooted decision is a reflection on our government’s priorities – no doubt largely influenced by aggressive commercial lobbying. Phil Barlow Nottingham • Our nine-year-old granddaughter visiting us on Sunday: “Granny, why are you keeping the paper straws in a plastic container?” Why indeed! Helen Evans Ruthin, Denbighshire • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/environment', 'world/tanzania', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-07-11T17:22:21Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
food/2018/dec/15/croissant-pain-au-chocolat-stale-pastry-pudding-recipe-waste-not-leftovers | How to turn stale croissants and pastries into a luxurious pudding | Tom Hunt | It’s perhaps unlikely that you, I or any other food-loving individual would waste a croissant, pain au chocolat or any other pastry, but it does happen, and not just in the home. As a chef, I’ve seen first-hand how bakeries, cafes and hotels waste as much as half the patisserie treats they display each day. Pastries go stale quickly, making it tricky to manage stock, but with a little tenacity, they can be upcycled into something new and luxurious. If your pastries are lifeless, simply give them a quick blast in a hot oven. Day-old croissants make a decadent toasted sandwich when filled with cheese and tomato. If croissants are two days old, try a deluxe version of eggy bread: dip the croissant in egg, then gently fry in butter, before serving sweet with icing sugar or savoury with salt, pepper and fried smoked tempeh or bacon. And if your pastries are really old and stiff as cardboard, persevere and revamp them into this dessert. You’ll be well rewarded for your thrift and culinary nimbleness. Croissant and pastry pudding This is my all-time favourite way to revitalise a stale croissant or pastry. You can make it with fresh ones, of course, but it just isn’t as satisfying. It’s very quick to make and can turn even just half a croissant into a dainty dessert for two. Croissants, pain au chocolat or other pastries 1 egg for every 1-2 pastries 120ml whole milk for every 1-2 pastries ½ tbsp brown sugar for every 1-2 pastries Scatter of chocolate chips (optional) 1 dash brandy, or other spirit (optional) Cream or ice-cream, to serve Heat the oven to 190C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Choose a stoneware dish or ramekin that will accommodate your leftover pastries, then rip or cut them into it. Beat an egg with 120ml of milk and half a tablespoon of brown sugar for every one to two pastries, and add a dash of brandy (or other spirit) and a scatter of chocolate chips, if you like. Pour over the pastries and squash them down to make sure they are soaked. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until browned on top, then serve warm with cream or ice-cream. Fiona Beckett’s wine pairing suggestion In the interests of frugality, whatever you’ve got around in the way of sweet sherry (see this week’s column) or marsala (see my recommendation for Yotam’s chestnut and clementine trifle). | ['food/series/waste-not', 'food/food', 'food/pastry', 'environment/food-waste', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'tone/recipes', 'environment/waste', 'food/christmas-food-and-drink-2018', 'food/baking', 'food/chocolate', 'food/spirits', 'type/article', 'food/christmas-food-and-drink', 'profile/tom-hunt', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/feast', 'theguardian/feast/feast', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/feast'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-12-15T06:00:06Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/aug/23/amazon-fires-why-ecocide-must-be-recognised-as-an-international | Amazon fires: why ecocide must be recognised as an international crime | Letters | Eliane Brum’s passionate attack on the Amazon clearances is well made (In the burning Amazon, all our futures are now at stake, 23 August). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the war between Ralph and Jack leads to the burning of the jungle. The boys are rescued by a naval crew attracted by the smoke and flames. But it is worth noting that Golding had to be persuaded by his editor to change the ending, which was considered a bit bleak for the 1950s, when it was written. He would have been quite happy for readers to take in the consequences of their selfishness and stupidity; the destruction of the place where they live. How he must be chuckling now. Simon Surtees London • In 1944, Winston Churchill described German atrocities in Russia as “a crime without a name”. Later that year, the term “genocide” was coined. Today the Amazon rainforest – the lungs of the world – is ablaze, with thousands of fires deliberately lit by land-grabbers keen to clear the forest for logging, farming and mining. This destruction, which has increased massively since Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s deregulated deforestation, threatens an area that is home to about 3 million species of plants and animals and 1 million indigenous people. In order to stop such wanton destruction in Brazil and around the world, it is surely time to recognise ecocide – destruction of the environment or ecosystem – as an international crime. It should not be necessary to name something for it to become real but, as with genocide, a word can help encompass the enormity of a horror that might otherwise be too great to imagine. Stefan Simanowitz London • There’s a touch of Nero and fiddles in your article (Chicken or beef? Enjoy both on longest nonstop flight, 19 hours Sydney to London, 23 August). The celebration of super technology getting us to Australia hours faster seems deeply misplaced against the background of doom that almost all sane people believe awaits the human stay on planet Earth. Qantas’s chief executive Alan Joyce calls it, without irony, “truly the final frontier in aviation”. The article’s previous point gives the game away: “successful test flights would fire the starting gun on a race between the Boeing and its European rival, Airbus, to sell Qantas their new ultra-long-range aircraft”. It’s about naked competition – the central drive of capitalism which has taken us to the cliff edge. Finding a way collectively to ground the whole system is our only hope of survival. John Charlton Newcastle upon Tyne • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'tone/letters', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'books/williamgolding', 'books/books', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'business/qantas', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-23T15:41:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2015/jun/03/weatherwatch-lee-texas-floods-india-heatwave-australia-snow-skiing | Texas swamped after years of drought | The southern plains region of the United States has, in the past week, continued to be deluged by unprecedented rainfall, exacerbating the flooding, which has killed at least 24 people in Texas. The state has been one of worst hit areas, with the height of the severe storm season helping to dump upon it more than 35 trillion gallons of water during May – enough to cover the entire state in 20cm (8in) of water, according to the National Weather Service. The recent flooding comes on the back of years of severe drought that have affected large swaths of this US region. Meanwhile, India and Pakistan have been suffering from a pre-monsoon heatwave. Temperatures have regularly exceeded 45C (113F) in the past week, and are expected to continue to do so over the coming days. The searing heat has caused the deaths of more than 2,300 people in India, and this number is expected to rise. Andhra Pradesh, on the eastern coast, is reported to be the worst-hit state. May tends to be the hottest month in India, before the gradual arrival of the monsoon rains over the summer period. Finally, while meteorological summer gets underway in the UK, Australia has begun winter, starting with a notable cold spell. Temperatures plummeted to -7C (19F) in Canberra, the nation’s capital, Monday morning. The average low is usually around 1C at this time of year. Much of the state of New South Wales also woke up to sub-zero temperatures. It has been a great start to the season for Australian ski resorts, however, with 30cm of snow falling in some locations. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/india', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/pakistan', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-06-03T20:30:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2017/sep/20/british-virgin-islands-may-face-155mph-winds-with-hurricane-maria | British Virgin Islands to face 155mph winds with Hurricane Maria | British territories in the Caribbean are bracing for another big hurricane only a fortnight after the last devastating storm, with category 4 Maria threatening the British Virgin Islands. The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said the storm had already unleashed sustained winds of 175mph, and the British Virgin Islands were expected to face winds of 155 mph. The centre said preparations against a “life-threatening storm surge and rainfall, flooding and destructive winds” should be “rushed to completion”. Maria has already claimed one life, as officials on the French island of Guadeloupe confirmed a person was killed by a falling tree. Another two people were missing after their boat sank. British troops have been helping with preparations for the storm with the main concern on the British Virgin Islands being flooding. Brigadier John Ridge, second in command of the UK’s joint task force, said that he expected the British Virgin Islands to escape the level of destruction wrought by Hurricane Irma, but added: “The real concern is the amount of rain and the storm surge. They are predicting between 7ft and 11ft of storm surge, and the problem with the rain is the flooding and run-off associated with that.” In a separate interview with the BBC, he said: “We are hoping that the military personnel there – hunkered down during the worst of it – will be up and back in communication with us in the next hour or so. The worst in terms of the wind will certainly have been over the last few hours.” Speaking via video link from Barbados, Ridge said: “We did everything we could until the last moment and then the teams out there hunkered down so that they were ready prepared.” The Department for International Development (DfID) said 60 tonnes of supplies were on their way to the area on board HMS Ocean. Ridge confirmed they were due to arrive on Friday. “The moment the hurricane is clear one of the first things I’ll be asking [the military personnel] to do is to confirm the state of the runway which is on Beef Island, just to the east of Tortola,” said Ridge. “That’s critical because it allows me to continue the [delivery] of aid and other support as required.” The area has already been ravaged by Hurricane Irma and the British Foreign Office said: “There is a high risk of further severe damage. Coastal flooding is also highly likely.” Updated travel advice warned: “If you’re in the British Virgin Islands you should identify shelter immediately and be ready to take cover when the hurricane approaches. If you’re currently outside the islands, you should not return to the territory at this time.” No flights are operating there, officials said. The British international development secretary, Priti Patel, has described the situation as an “unprecedented crisis” and stressed that the UK government was “working flat out”. On the British Virgin Islands, relief workers raced to secure debris left strewn about after Irma, as loose items could make the next hurricane more hazardous if picked up by the high winds. Patel said: “This is an unprecedented crisis with two hurricanes of such brutal force hitting the Caribbean in less than a fortnight. Families have lost their homes, lives have been ripped apart, and the victims of Hurricane Irma are now facing the new threat of Hurricane Maria. But they should know, the UK government is working flat out to put the right supplies in the right places to cope with the fallout from this new hurricane.” On Dominica nearly all communications were lost as Maria knocked out phone lines and the island’s broadcast service. Roofs were lost on 70% of properties, according to reports. More than 1,300 UK troops are in the Caribbean after being sent to help with relief and repair work after Irma. An additional 42-strong military resilience team has also been deployed to the BVI, ready to offer support and assistance after Maria. The Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This has been a fortnight of just relentless catastrophe.” He agreed with Ridge that the BVI were not expected to be hit as hard as previously, although he added: “I’m afraid anything on top of what happened before is quite bad enough and just adds to the misery.” | ['world/hurricane-maria', 'world/british-virgin-islands', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'environment/flooding', 'world/dominica', 'world/hurricane-irma', 'world/americas', 'weather/caribbean', 'politics/priti-patel', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/caribbean', 'profile/kevin-rawlinson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | world/hurricane-irma | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-20T14:18:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2022/jan/03/return-whales-seals-dolphins-british-coast-wonder | The return of whales, seals and dolphins to the British coast is a wonder to witness | Philip Hoare | It’s an encouraging start to 2022. In an informal census – or perhaps a sort of watery award ceremony – the Wildlife Trusts’ marine review of 2021 has pointed to humpback whales off the north-east coast of Scotland and England, increasing numbers of seal pups being born, and seahorses in protected beds of eel grass off the Dorset coast. It seems the work of the trusts and other marine conservation bodies is having a good effect. Blue whales appearing in the Irish Sea may be physical beneficiaries of the general agreement of the International Whaling Commission in 1982, effected three years later, to halt the cull of the species. It is as if the whales themselves remember, encouraged to return without fear of someone sticking a harpoon in them. But in many ways these optimistic signs are also the markers of what we have lost. In the 19th century the waterways of the Solent were so full of salmon that local apprentices, according to one author writing in 1850, “stipulated in their indentures that it should not be served up to them oftener than three times a-week”. The same author reported shoals of porpoises in Southampton Water, “rolling and springing on the surface in their renewed gambols”. While in the 18th century, Oliver Goldsmith reported on an English Channel filled with whales, dolphins, cod fish, tuna and even great white sharks chasing columns of herrings. “The whole water seems alive,” Goldsmith wrote in one of the first popular science books, Animated Nature, in 1776, “and is seen so black with them that the number seems inexhaustible.” Humans, too, were once more watery. In the north of England and Scotland, fisherwomen were known as herring quines, so covered were they in silvery scales they seemed to be becoming fish themselves. Charles Richard Weld of the Royal Society declared in 1859, riffing on Darwin: “If a man may become a monkey, or has been a whale, why should not a Caithness damsel become a herring?” To these writers, the idea that one day there might not be plenty more fish in the sea would have been unthinkable. The depredations of the natural world that began to accelerate in the 19th century would remove much of that marine biomass from around our shores, with disastrous effects. The physical absence of the great whales such as blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales may have actually accelerated the climate crisis – because it deprived the oceanic food chain of their fertilising faeces, and their rotting carcasses which, on the sea bed, helped sequester carbon from the ecosphere and sustain species, from polar bears and seals to bone-eating osedax worms. The life cycles of smaller organisms depended entirely on carcasses. We look to science to point out what needs to be done, but often art inspires as much as academic reports. In 2012, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey performed a kind of reincarnation on the skeleton of a minke whale stranded at Skegness by growing diamond-like chemical crystals on its bones. A year later, the artists Ellen Gallagher and Edgar Cleijne used the bone-eating worm to conjure up a similarly alchemical transformation in their film, Osedax: a dead whale slowly sways to the bottom to become, in the words of Shakespeare’s Ariel in The Tempest, “something rich and strange”. With its shapeshifting sense of gender (slipper snails form stacks upon each other, changing sex from male at the bottom to female at the top) and of time (“shadow” parts of the ocean may be 1,000 years old), the sea defies all our assumptions. It is a decidedly queer place; just ask any dolphin. Nor does it recognise national boundaries, of course. The sea is where our laws and jurisdictions run out. That inevitably raises contrary questions of responsibility and freedom. Indeed, it is hard to divorce the threats to our native marine life from “alien species” without considering the human refugees arriving on those same shores. Or to note that the climate crisis is a driver for both. It is easy to ignore the sea, or to think of it as a kind of highway with a fish shop attached. Some may consider it bizarre that commentators such as George Monbiot call for a rewilding of our seas as well as of the land. Others may worry there’s no chance of that while English and French politicians squabble over who has the “right” to take fish from the sea. But humpbacks off Whitby? Dancing sea slugs off Cumbria? White-beaked dolphins off Essex? These may be anomalies or signs of disruption, but merely bearing witness to such wonders has the power to restore our faith. As I swim in the chilly winter sea, the sleek black head of a grey seal pops up beside me, and in the louring grey sky a skein of brent geese, charcoal-coloured visitors from Siberia, steer into view. It’s not quite Goldsmith’s vision of Eden, but I’m still hoping for miracles in 2022. Happy new year to the sea, all its species, and to all of you. Philip Hoare is an author whose books include Leviathan, Or the Whale | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'environment/rewilding', 'profile/philip-hoare', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-01-03T06:00:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2023/dec/14/ive-never-seen-anything-like-this-japan-says-reason-behind-1200-tonnes-of-fish-washing-ashore-is-unknown | ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Japan says reason behind 1,200 tonnes of fish washing ashore is unknown | Officials in Japan have admitted they are struggling to determine why hundreds of tonnes of fish have washed ashore in recent days. Earlier this month, an estimated 1,200 tonnes of sardines and mackerel were found floating on the surface of the sea off the fishing port of Hakodate in Hokkaido, forming a silver blanket stretching for more than a kilometre. On Wednesday, officials in Nakiri, a town on the Pacific coast hundreds of miles south of Hokkaido, were confronted with 30 to 40 tonnes of Japanese scaled sardines, or sappa, which had been observed in the area a couple of days earlier. Local fishers scrambled to collect the fish, fearing their carcasses would lower the oxygen content of the water as they decompose and damage the marine environment. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” a fisher who has worked in the area for 25 years told the Mainichi Shimbun. “It was only around last year that we began to catch sappa in Nakiri. It makes me wonder if the marine ecosystem is changing.” Experts have speculated that the migratory fish in both areas had become stranded after being chased to the point of exhaustion by amberjack and other predatory fish. Mass mortality events can also occur when there are sudden drops in the water temperature, causing the fish to go into shock, they added. But no one has been able to confirm the cause. “The cause is unknown at the moment,” Mikine Fujiwara, a local fisheries official, told the newspaper. “We plan to sample the seawater at the site and examine it to uncover the cause.” Japanese government officials have blasted a report in the British newspaper the Daily Mail that appeared to link the phenomenon to the release of treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The report noted that dead fish had begun washing ashore almost four months after the plant began discharging the water – which contains small quantities of the radioactive isotope tritium – into the Pacific. The International Atomic Energy Agency approved the plan, stating in a safety review that discharging the water would have “a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment”. China, which opposed the release and imposed a ban on Japanese seafood, has been accused of hypocrisy since its own nuclear plants routinely pump wastewater with higher levels of tritium than that found in Fukushima’s discharge. “We are concerned about unsubstantiated information,” a Japanese fisheries agency official told the Asahi Shimbun. Images of the fish have been widely shared on social media – many accompanied by Fukushima conspiracy theories. “There have been no abnormalities found in the results of water-monitoring surveys,” the fisheries agency said, referring to the water that has been pumped out of the Fukushima plant so far. “We’re concerned about the proliferation of information that’s not based on scientific evidence.” Fishing cooperatives in Fukushima had warned that the discharge would inflict further damage on the reputation of their seafood. Town officials in Hakodate urged local people not to consume the stranded fish amid reports that some were gathering quantities to sell or eat. “We don’t know for sure under what circumstances these fish were washed up, so I don’t recommend eating them,” Takashi Fujioka, a fisheries researcher said. | ['world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'food/seafood', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-12-14T04:23:43Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2022/mar/04/we-wont-reopen-nsw-flood-destroys-5m-of-stamps-and-notes-signalling-end-for-a-small-business | ‘We won’t reopen’: NSW flood destroys $5m of stamps and notes signalling end for a small business | A harsh sun shines down across the still partially flooded Lismore, spreading the smell of mud and sewage through the humid air, as Mark Bailey holds an album of vintage East German stamps that is dripping brown. “Everything in there’s fucked,” he says, as he hurls it onto a pile of ruined goods and furniture he had been amassing at the front of his store, just like many other shop owners along Molesworth Street in the centre of town. While each pile looks a similar shade of brown, the muddied faces of Queen Elizabeth, Karl Marx, Michael Jordan and gold prospector Edward Hargraves on loose stamps, faded banknotes and sports cards are visible up close. Bailey believes the collectibles in his pile are worth about $5m, at least they were, before flood waters rose above the ceiling of The Penny Man – the shop he manages as a partner – earlier this week. Now, he will throw everything out, save for some antique items he believes he can salvage. The shop was uninsurable, given its position near the riverbank in flood-prone Lismore, and had only been open since December. When the evacuation orders were issued on Sunday night he did not have enough time to organise a truck to save the valuables in his shop. He says he felt sick waiting days for the waters to recede, knowing he would be returning to millions in damage. “I’m not mad at anyone in particular, every shop has a different story along here,” he says. “We won’t be reopening here, and I would be surprised if half of the street ever does.” He is yet to lodge a business activity statement for the business, and is worried he won’t qualify for the government support grants he already knows “won’t scratch the surface” of the true cost of what he has lost in the floods. As the nation’s attention largely turned from the news reports of Lismore’s residents returning to their ruined homes to the heavy rain and flood warnings in Sydney on Thursday, the mammoth cleanup task continued at homes and shops across the northern river. Next door to The Penny Man, opposite the local MP Kevin Hogan’s electorate office, is the Mega Choice discount variety store. Its pile of ruined stock is a rainbow of children’s toys, costumes, greeting cards and cleaning supplies – it still looks brown. While the store’s owners have been stuck in Ballina, locals have begun helping bring the aisles of products out onto the street. Underneath a sign next to the checkouts that reads “The store with more”, are bare shelves, with ruined goods strewn across the floor. Few businesses have been able to reopen, contributing to the food access issues that have been driven by severed supply routes and seen empty supermarket shelves in neighbouring towns. Free meals are provided at a church and by Sikh volunteers who drove into town. While the waters have receded, some parts of town are still inaccessible. As emergency services continue to survey the damage, everyone is dreading the discovery of more bodies. On Wednesday, police revealed how search teams in south Lismore earlier had heard a faint call for help from inside a home where water had reached the eaves. After a constable dove through an open window, they discovered a 93-year-old woman floating on a mattress, with “no more than 20cm of room between the roof and the water level”. She was pulled from the home on a boogie board and then onto a rescue boat. However, many of the stories of local rescue operations, and the most up to date death toll, are taking days to spread, due to the lack of internet or patchy mobile coverage. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning For the most part, locals are still focused on cleaning up their homes. In the streets of Lismore that are now accessible, the piles of ruined possessions continue to grow. After lunchtime on Thursday, Orion Street sounded a bit like a tip. At one house a man emptied a large storage container full of muddied toys on a pile on his frontage. Next door, a woman hurled broken furniture and books from the second floor of her elevated Queenslander-style house. At a neighbouring house, broken timber chairs were balanced on a refrigerator door, which still had family photo magnets stuck on it. The task of cleaning up the town and others in the northern rivers will take many months and probably far longer than the floods of 2017, the most recent disaster milestone in the region’s collective memory. It was then that Lismore’s levee was breached for the first time, however these last few days have set a new, terrifying benchmark. Back on Molesworth Street, Mark Bailey surveys what is left behind and ponders the future. “You look around and see this is like Cyclone Tracy without the wind,” he said. “We can’t just let something like this pass without changing things.” | ['australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/rural-australia', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/elias-visontay', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-03T16:30:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2018/jan/01/new-year-new-rules-what-changes-on-1-january-around-the-world | New year, new rules: what changes around the world from 1 January | Saudis and Emiratis will pay more tax, the Swiss will pay less, Brits will start taking more expensive train journeys and China will stop taking in the world’s rubbish. These are some of the changes that will take effect as the world ticks over into a new year. In the US, New Yorkers will receive a more generous family leave entitlement, and more than 40 years after the summer of love, Californians will from New Year’s Day finally be able to buy marijuana legally for recreational purposes. Some national parks will be more expensive to visit. However, budding consumers may hit a snag, as state and local governments are still trying to figure out how to regulate cannabis, so few dispensaries will likely be ready to open their doors. It is all change at the helm of the world’s big trading blocs and axes, as Bulgaria has its first crack at presiding over the EU council – a chance for the EU’s poorest member state to chair meetings and set its agenda. Argentina, meanwhile, takes over the G20 presidency (its president, Mauricio Macri, has a thing for education technology and women’s access to finance, so watch out for these to be themes of his year in charge). Valletta in Malta and Leeuwarden in the Netherlands will start to enjoy being European capitals of culture. Elsewhere, it will be harder to become Swiss, and more expensive to stay in Greece and Hawaii because of new tourist taxes, and if you are driving in Ukraine, you will find urban speed limits reduced from 60km/h to 50km/h. Finland may be about to get a little boozier, as stronger alcohol is allowed in grocery stores. Seattle, meanwhile, will step up the battle against obesity with a sugar tax. Perhaps one of the most striking changes, with global implications, is China’s decision to stop importing a wide range of plastic and other waste. China has long been a repository for waste materials from around the world, as its hungry economy hoovers up all the resources it can get. In 2016, China imported 7.3m tonnes of waste plastics. Developed countries will need to figure out what will happen to all those jettisoned bottles and containers. This is not the only new year regulation that will affect the environment. In London, all new black cabs must be able to run on electric power, which is aimed at reducing high levels of nitrogen oxide and tiny particles in the air. In Europe, all gas and wood-burning stoves must comply with strict emissions and energy efficiency rules. Open fires will no longer be allowed to be sold in EU member states. There will be tighter regulation of fertilisers, more fish protected by EU quotas in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea, and a new law taxing pollution in China. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency is introducing various new standards. Any technician who wants to maintain, repair or dispose of appliances with HFCs will have to pass an exam, with the sale of HFCs restricted to certified outlets. The EPA estimates that the rules will reduce greenhouse gas emissions annually by 7.3m tonnes – roughly equivalent to taking 1.5m cars off the road a year. The EU’s most ambitious financial reforms will mostly come into effect on Wednesday. The markets in financial instruments directive, consisting of 1.4m paragraphs of rules, is intended to protect investors and bring more transparency into trading. Gibraltar will bring in a new licence for fintech firms using blockchain, the first attempt anywhere in the world to regulate the technology behind cryptocurrencies. In Russia, a bill obliging operators of internet messengers to verify the identity of every user comes into force. The law requires users to register their phone numbers to use chat apps. It also requires chat apps to limit or suspend access to users suspected of spreading illegal content, as well as to send messages from government bodies if asked. The BBC faces tighter regulatory conditions obliging it to make more original – and regional – programming. A new year typically means higher rail fares in Britain. This year, prices will rise by an average of 3.4% on Tuesday, well above inflation. Exasperated passengers are unlikely to welcome paying more for the delays, cancellations and undignified rush-hour overcrowding that blight many services. Britain will get a new university regulator, the Office for Students, to oversee quality and standards, and decide which institutions deserve to call themselves universities and award degrees. In sport, the 72 Football League clubs have agreed to try to increase the number of coaches and managers from minority groups by interviewing at least one BAME candidate for vacant posts. Fifa will begin monitoring international transfers in the women’s game. Reporting team: Oliver Milman and Jessica Glenza in New York, Shaun Walker in Moscow, Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Lucy Lamble | ['us-news/california', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/finland', 'world/argentina', 'world/greece', 'world/china', 'world/americas', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'society/cannabis', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/mark-rice-oxley', 'profile/richard-nelsson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-special-projects'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-01-01T06:00:02Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sport/2022/oct/28/wallaroos-tap-into-professional-mindset-for-world-cup-clash-with-england | Wallaroos tap into professional mindset for World Cup clash with England | Daniel Gallan | It moves like a Roman phalanx. A cohesive mass of humanity, relentlessly drilled, ruthless in its ambitions, clinical in its executions. In a different time and place, the Red Roses pack might have conquered the Mediterranean. “They’re formidable, that’s for sure,” says Michaela Leonard, the Australian lock assuming the role of a Gallic warrior this weekend as her Wallaroos face up to the toughest challenge in world rugby. “We’re ready for it. We’re confident. We back ourselves. We want to prove to ourselves that we can do it.” In their 75-0 demolition of South Africa, England’s forwards scored a dozen tries. There were hat-tricks for second rower Rosie Galligan and hooker Connie Powell. Sadia Kabeya and Poppy Cleall bagged two each with Shaunagh Brown crashing over as well. What’s frightening, as far as Australia are concerned, is that none of them are guaranteed starters for the quarter-final clash in Auckland. “Because they’ve got so much depth, you have to plan for so many scenarios,” Leonard says. “I help call the line-outs and I have to pay attention to a number of different possible combinations. You don’t know who you’ll be up against or who they’ll put up in the air. That’s why we’re choosing to focus on our own game. If we spend too much time worrying about them we’ll lose sight of what we can do.” That’s a romantic notion but the Wallaroos will be wise to be cautious. England were disjointed with ball in hand against South Africa but their set piece was brutally effective. The scrum routinely won penalties in both red zones. The line-out operated at 88%. The maul, the Roses’ most potent weapon, contributed six tries to the cause. Australia will need to find a way of halting the tide but will have to do so within the laws of the game. Discipline has been a concern and they’ve collected cards in each of their group games for a tally of four yellows and a red. Ten minutes with a numerical disadvantage against England could prove fatal which places extra pressure on the way they defend their line. “You never try to bring down a maul illegally or collapse the scrum, but at the same time you’re doing everything you can to stop them getting over,” says tight head prop, Bridie O’Gorman. “You’re desperate and in those moments you can do something that you shouldn’t. We’ve spoken about the aggression that we need to bring. We have to match them up front. It’s a mindset thing.” The South African men’s hooker, Bongi Mnonambi, has said that he envisages his wife and children behind him whenever he’s up against a pack on the march, reimagining his opposition as home invaders. This helps him dig deep into his psyche to ignite his primal instincts. Leonard doesn’t have any children, but she likes the strategy involving visualisation. “Maybe I’ll think of my dog on Sunday,” she says. “Maybe that will give me a boost.” She’ll need it. Australia’s squad, composed of teachers, personal trainers and a labourer, is up against a fully professional outfit that enjoys the advantages of adequate rest and recovery time. Conversely, when they’re not in camp or on tour with their country, O’Gorman works as a civil engineer and Leonard practices as a physiotherapist. Both state their desire for change in the women’s game and point out the obvious impact of such a disparity. But that is no excuse, at least not for Scott Fava. The former five-Test Wallaby now serves as the Wallaroos’ defence coach and argues that his charges are amateur in name only. “We’ve all been together for the last five weeks, we’ve done nothing else but gear up for this moment and prepare ourselves for it,” Fava says. “If this was a one-off Test, then sure. We’d be coming in cold. Back in August we had a two-month break and we got whacked 52-5 by New Zealand in Christchurch. We were effectively club players coming into a professional game. “But they are professionals now. They’re training like professionals and have the mindset of professionals. We’re focussed on bringing the physicality against England because we know we can. We’ve proved that by beating two northern hemisphere teams in the competition already.” Narrow wins over Scotland and Wales has helped catapult Australia to sixth on World Rugby’s rankings. It is also the first time since July 2019 that they’ve won back-to-back Tests. According to Leonard, this change in fortune is a consequence of increased contact time. “It’s so important that you understand each others’ games when you’re working together as a pack,” she says. “You start to know what someone is going to do before they do it. If they’re going to break around the fringe or if they need you to support them in the maul or on the floor. We’re starting to click.” Now is the acid test. Rugby Australia has set themselves a three-year target to offer professional contracts for its players. A win on Sunday might hasten that deadline. | ['sport/womens-rugby-world-cup-2021', 'sport/australia-women-s-rugby-union-team', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/sport', 'sport/australia-sport', 'campaign/email/the-breakdown', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/daniel-gallan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-sport'] | sport/australia-women-s-rugby-union-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-10-27T15:00:08Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/2012/may/04/bnp-green-party-election | BNP falls as Greens rise on mixed night for smaller parties | Smaller political parties received mixed results from Thursday's local elections. While the British National party is facing obliteration, other parties, including the Greens, made gains across the country. The far-right British National party is facing political meltdown after losing six council seats on the night and seeing its share of the vote drop by as much as half in some of its former strongholds. It failed to make any gains. The party now has just three councillors left from a high of 57 three years ago and has been wiped out in Burnley, one of its original heartlands. In London, the BNP poured resources into the assembly election, but with counting underway it appeared it had fallen short. The party lost seats in key BNP areas such as Epping Forest and Pendle. This year it stood substantially fewer candidates than in previous years, with no one representing the party in several of its previous strongholds, in Yorkshire and the north-east. The Green party was celebrating a night of steady progress after it added to its number of councillors and successfully defended seats in existing strongholds. The Greens had 34 seats – a net increase of 11 – winning in target areas such as Reading and Dudley, and defending all six seats in Norwich. The Greens were also third in the list of London-wide assembly members – those seats allocated via a form of proportional representation. The party contested 943 seats in 119 councils and defended 22 seats it already held. By Friday night, it had won an average of 9% of the vote in 454 wards, according to the BBC, and the Green vote was up by one point in those wards it also fought last year. The UK Independence party (Ukip) has been averaging 13% of the vote in the seats it contested – five points higher than a year ago – making 2012 a record year for Nigel Farage's Eurosceptics. The English Democrats, a nationalist party, were down two seats, but retained the position of the mayor of Doncaster. The Respect party, on the back of George Galloway's victory in Bradford West, won five seats on the city council. The number of Residents' Associations winning seats has increased by five council seats to 21 across the country. | ['politics/local-elections-2012', 'society/society', 'society/localgovernment', 'politics/localgovernment', 'politics/local-elections', 'politics/politics', 'politics/bnp', 'politics/green-party', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/ukip', 'politics/respect-party', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rajeev-syal', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-05-04T17:14:43Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
politics/2022/jul/15/we-need-a-practical-handbook-to-build-a-bottom-up-democracy | We need a practical handbook to build a bottom-up democracy | Letters | Many of us have been crying out for a sea change in our politics such as the one described by George Monbiot (Feeling the urge to take back control from power-mad governments? Here’s an idea, 13 July). He mentions the social ecology of Murray Bookchin, but getting to grips with that is very hard work, so I recommend reading The Dawn of Everything by David Wengrow and David Graeber, which suggests that the way things are is not inevitable and that people have lived successfully in decentralised polities for thousands of years. Many of the older generation, who continue to prop up this dishonest and incompetent Tory government, yearn for things to be the way they were in “the good old days”. Perhaps knowing that our ancient ancestors actually were capable of caring about their less well-off neighbours, and seeing to it that people like Boris Johnson got their comeuppance before they had the chance to ruin the country, might make them feel that governance from the bottom up is not new and terrifying but simply another way of doing things that has always been an option. What we need is a practical handbook for making the change in these increasingly undemocratic times. Perhaps Monbiot could write one – preferably soon, as I am on the last leg of my life journey, and I want to be part of this revolution. Janet Bayford Little Hulton, Greater Manchester • George Monbiot is right, but the solution to our enfeebled democracy lies in a complete revision of economic and legal systems as well as the political. People cannot be enfranchised politically while just a few thousand extremely wealthy individuals protect and enhance their asserted right to use the planet’s resources for their own benefit, at the expense of everybody else. In particular, we a have a completely inequitable ownership of land – Britain is a stark example, with only a dozen or so owning most of it – and the assumed right to exploit assets such as farming, fishing, minerals and fossil fuels on or under that land, with no participation, ownership or control by the population in general. It’s feudal. Among the necessary reforms is the urgent need to define the true wealth of environmental assets – breathable air, clean water, fertile soil, biodiverse forests and oceans – and to establish legal and economic systems that protect those things from harm. For instance, we should define a crime of environmental theft, which is what pollution amounts to. Today’s political class seek millionaire status by doing the bidding of the billionaires who are stealing the planet’s resources. Getting rid of them and their silly circuses is just the starting point. Bill Dixon The Hague, Netherlands • I am very happy to support George Monbiot’s call for participatory democracy in the form of assemblies. I would be even happier if he would accept the recommendations from an assembly that has actually taken place, the Climate Assembly UK, in September 2020. There, a majority of assembly members agreed that three ways of generating electricity should be part of how the UK gets to net zero: offshore wind, solar and onshore wind. Nuclear power, which Monbiot continues to advocate, saw lower levels of support. Here is an example of his “enclaves of democracy” that it seems he would rather disregard. Linda Rogers Llangoed, Anglesey • No, George, no. As Simon Jenkins explains so eloquently (Why the Labour party is praying for the Tories not to vote for Rishi Sunak, 12 July), the answer to our governmental ills is not more power to the people – which has brought us Trumpism, Johnsonism and populist rule by the angry old white men of the Daily Express and Daily Mail. The answer is to strengthen our institutions so that errant prime ministers cannot prorogue parliament or disobey international law when they feel like it, or have their cheerleaders squeal “enemies of the people!” when the law gets in their way. If ever there was a lesson from the last few disastrous years, it is this. Jonathan Harris Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. | ['politics/politics', 'politics/constitution', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'inequality/inequality', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/electoralreform', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2022-07-15T17:36:37Z | true | ENERGY |
media/2008/mar/11/rupertmurdoch.yahoo | Murdoch: I don't want to fight Microsoft over Yahoo deal | The slim chance of News Corporation striking a deal with Yahoo has receded further after the company's chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, said he was not prepared to get into a fight with Microsoft. Yahoo, which has been holding talks with companies as it looks for an alternative to Microsoft's $42bn takeover bid, had discussed a deal that would see News Corp merge internet properties including MySpace with Yahoo in exchange for a stake in the overall company. "No, we're not going to get into a fight with Microsoft, which has a lot more money than us," said Murdoch in response to a question at the annual Bear Stearns media conference. Murdoch added that News Corp was "very happy to be in the Google camp. They sell our search advertising [on MySpace] and pay us well for it. Yahoo missed out". The comments pretty much confirmed the view of Wall Street analysts who have argued that it would be difficult for Yahoo to find a deal that shareholders would find as attractive as the Microsoft bid. Yahoo has also been linked with a potential deal with Time Warner-owned AOL. While AOL is too small to buy Yahoo, a joint venture or merger of the two companies could be seen as an alternative to the latter being swallowed up by Microsoft. Google, which owns a 5% stake in AOL, is said to be supportive of such a deal. Last week, Yahoo amended its company bylaws in a bid to delay a boardroom battle with Microsoft to give it more time to seek an alternative deal. Yahoo amended its bylaws on the deadline for nominating directors to its board – scheduled for March 14 – to 10 after the public announcement of the date for its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Because Yahoo has not yet set a date for the meeting it has effectively bought more time to advance talks with Microsoft or find a new partner. Microsoft had been preparing to nominate directors to the board of Yahoo by the March 14 deadline and kick off a so-called "proxy" contest, in which its appointees would push for the takeover to happen from within the rival company. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/rupert-murdoch', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'technology/yahoo', 'media/news-corporation', 'technology/microsoft', 'media/digital-media', 'business/business', 'media/mediabusiness', 'media/media', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'profile/marksweney'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-03-11T13:53:43Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2022/aug/06/great-barrier-reefs-record-coral-cover-is-good-news-but-climate-threat-remains | Great Barrier Reef’s record coral cover is good news but climate threat remains | The Great Barrier Reef is one of the planet’s natural jewels, stretching for more than 2,300km along Australia’s north-east. But as well as being a bucket-list favourite and a heaving mass of biodiversity across 3,000 individual reefs, the world heritage-listed organism is at the coalface of the climate crisis. Yet this week, a report on the amount of coral across the reef showed the highest level in the 36 years of monitoring in the north and central parts. But that does not mean the crisis is over. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Ecosystems get hit with multiple threats and disturbances, and for the reef those include invasions by voracious coral-eating starfish, pollution running off from the land and destructive cyclones. The overwhelming threat is the climate heating, which has caused corals to bleach en masse six times since 1998. The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), which runs the monitoring program, surveyed 87 reefs. The report counts hard coral – an important measure because their skeletons are what builds structure for reefs. The increase in coral cover was thanks to a fast-growing acropora corals that are also the most susceptible to heat stress and are favoured by coral-eating starfish. Resilience versus threats Conditions in recent years have been relatively benign, with few cyclones, low numbers of starfish and two summers dominated by La Niña weather pattern that usually means cooler conditions. But earlier this year was the first mass coral bleaching in a La Niña year – an event that shocked and surprised marine scientists who expect those cooler years will give corals a clear run to recover. Global heating now means even La Niña years are not safe for corals. The inevitable arrival of a warmer El Niño phase has many extremely worried. The first ever mass bleaching was in 1998, followed by events in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022. One study found only 2% of all reefs have escaped bleaching since 1998. For the most recent Aims monitoring report, about half the reefs were visited before this summer’s bleaching. While bleaching was widespread, Aims said the heat was likely not high enough to have killed many corals outright. Depending on the severity of heat stress, corals can survive or die. If corals sit in hotter-than-usual water for too long, they lose the algae that gives them their colour and most of their food. This means coral starvation, so the events have sub-lethal effects on the growth rate, the ability to reproduce and susceptibility to disease. Reef scientists talk about the resilience of the reef – the ability to bounce back from disturbances. “There’s no question this is good news,” says Dr David Wachenfeld, chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. “But we would be in deep trouble if in 2022, at 1.1C of global heating, the reef had already lost that resilience. We would have no chance of keeping the reef in a healthy condition. “According to last year’s [UN climate assessment], we are going to be at 1.5C of warming in the next decade. That’s an extremely confronting forecast. To a thermally sensitive ecosystem like the reef, that’s a lot and it’s only about a decade away.” Global heating of 1.5C is considered a guardrail for reefs, after which the bleaching comes along too quickly for strong recovery. “We’re on a trajectory to blast past 1.5C and get to 2.6C or 2.7C. So the resilience we see at 1.1C will not continue,” says Wachenfeld. Unchartered territory Dr Mike Emslie, who leads the Aims monitoring, says the rise in coral cover was expected, given the relatively benign conditions, but four bleaching events in seven years was uncharted territory. “We have dodged a couple of bullets in the last couple of years and while this recovery is great, the predictions are the disturbances will get worse,” he says. In some conservative media, the survey has been used to push arguments the reef is not under threat. “The naysayers can put their heads in the sand all they like, but the frequency of disturbances is going gangbusters,” says Emslie. Wachenfeld points out that scientists have never said the reef is dead. “Scientists have been ringing an alarm bell, not a funeral dirge,” he says. “The notion scientists have been misleading people is a nonsense.” He likens the reef’s resilience to a rubber band that can be stretched many times, but only so far before it snaps. “It’s hard to predict when that will happen, but it’s a bit like that with the reef,” he says. “We have a limited amount of time to slow and stop the warming. There is no way this resilience can last forever.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-05T20:00:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/jun/05/the-planet-is-on-edge-of-a-global-plastic-calamity | The planet is on edge of a global plastic calamity | Erik Solheim | Plastic pollution has grabbed the world’s attention, and with good cause. More than 100 years after its invention, we’re addicted. To pass a day without encountering some form of plastic is nearly impossible. We’ve always been eager to embrace the promise of a product that could make life cheaper, faster, easier. Now, after a century of unchecked production and consumption, convenience has turned to crisis. Beyond a mere material amenity, today you’ll find plastic where you least expect it, including the foods we eat, the water we drink and the environments in which we live. Once in the environment, it enters our food chain where, increasingly, microplastic particles are turning up in our stomachs, blood and lungs. Scientists are only beginning to study the potential health impacts. That’s why we urgently need consumers, business and governments to step up with urgent, decisive action to halt this crisis of consumption of single-use, throwaway plastics. If we do that, we’ll also help fight climate change, create a new space for innovation and save some species in the process. Since we began our love affair with this now ubiquitous material, we’ve produced roughly nine billion tonnes of plastic. About one-third of this has been single-use, providing a momentary convenience before being discarded. The straw in your average drink will be used for just a few minutes, but in the environment, it will last beyond our lifetimes. In your shopping trolley, a plastic bag will be used for less than an hour, but when they find their way to the ocean they kill more than 100,000 marine animals a year. Whales have been washed up in Norway and Spain choked with indigestible shopping bags – part of the 13m tonnes of plastic litter that end up in the ocean each year. Unlike other environmental challenges, sceptics are hard-pressed to refute the reality of what we can see with our own eyes. Instead, the counter-narrative aims to undercut the urgency of efforts to beat plastic pollution – sometimes by painting the problem as a waste management issue, as if we had infinite landfill space. But let there be no doubt: we are on edge of a plastic calamity. Current projections show that global plastic production will skyrocket in the next 10-15 years. This year alone, manufacturers will produce an estimated 360m tonnes. With a booming population driving demand, production is expected to reach 500m by 2025 and a staggering 619m tonnes by 2030. So the next time you see scenes of plastic choking a river or burying a beach, consider double that impact in just over 10 years. Avoiding the worst of these outcomes requires more than awareness, it demands a movement. A wholesale rethinking of the way we produce, use and manage plastic. That’s why United Nations Environment is now focusing on a simple yet ambitious goal: beat plastic pollution. First, citizens must act as both responsible consumers and informed citizens; demanding sustainable products and embracing sensible consumption habits into their own lives. Individuals are increasingly exercising their power as consumers; turning down plastic straws and cutlery, cleaning beaches and coastlines, and rethinking their purchase habits. If this happens enough, retailers will get the message and look for alternatives. The private sector must then innovate by adopting business models that reflect responsibility for the downstream impact of their products, and bring about scalable alternatives. Ultimately our plastic problem – much like the state of the global economy – is one of design, both in the plastics themselves and the linear economic model that makes throwing things away profitable. Public and private investment in the fields of green design and green chemistry need to be increased and manufacturers must be held to account for the life cycle of their products. And finally, governments must lead by enacting strong policies that mandate responsible design, production and consumption of plastics. Kenya has banned throwaway plastic bags recently, and the result is that its stunning national parks are even more attractive and city drains are less blocked, helping reduce flooding. Rwanda has done it too, making Kigali one of the world’s cleanest cities and the kind of place people choose to live and do business. Those who say there are more important environmental crises to tackle are mistaken. In today’s world, protecting our environment is not about choosing one issue above another. The deeply interconnected systems that make up the natural world defy such a narrow-minded approach. Beating plastic pollution will preserve precious ecosystems, mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and indeed human health. Confronting this crisis of convenience, is a fundamental battle that must be fought today as part of the broader struggle for a sustainable tomorrow. | ['environment/plastic', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-06-05T05:00:39Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/nov/13/waves-in-st-marks-square-as-venice-flooded-highest-tide-in-50-years | Two people die as Venice floods at highest level in 50 years | Two people have died as the highest water levels for more than 50 years caused hundreds of millions of euros of possibly irreparable damage in Venice, officials have said, with another surge expected to cause further flooding. Flood levels in the lagoon city reached the second-highest level since records began in 1923 as a result of the acqua alta, which hit 1.87 metres (74in) late on Tuesday night amid heavy rain, just short of the record 1.94 metres measured in 1966. Another deluge engulfed the city on Wednesday morning, causing the acqua alta, or high water, to reach 1.60 metres. Most of the water had receded by the afternoon, but residents are bracing themselves for more to come as forecasts predicted high tides of 1.20 metres late on Wednesday night and 1.30 metres on Thursday morning. An elderly local man from Pellestrina, one of the many islands in the Venetian lagoon, died when he was struck by lightning while using an electric water pump, the fire brigade said. The body of another man was found in his home. More than 85% of Venice was flooded, authorities said, including the historic St Mark’s basilica. While the water level dropped slightly on Wednesday morning, a further torrent of water, whipped up by high winds, is forecast to sweep in later in the day, reaching a level of 1.60 metres. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, said he would declare a state of emergency, adding that the flood levels represented a wound that would leave indelible marks. “We ask the government to help us. This is the result of climate change,” he said, putting the damage in the hundreds of millions of euros. Italy’s minister of culture, Dario Franceschini, said the government would provide an as-yet unspecified amount of funding to help preserve the Unesco world heritage site. Venice sits on thousands of wooden piles driven into the mud, but rising sea levels and heavy cruise ship traffic have steadily eaten away at the surrounding marshes and mudbanks, causing the city to gradually sink. St Mark’s Square was submerged by more than one metre of water, while the adjacent basilica was flooded for only the sixth time in 1,200 years – but the fourth in the last two decades. The last occasion, in November 2018, caused an estimated €2.2m (£1.9m) of damage. The archbishop of Venice, Francesco Moraglia, said St Marks had suffered “structural damage, because the water has risen. This is causing irreparable harm, especially – when it dries out – in the lower section of the mosaics and tiling.” Carlo Alberto Tesserin, who heads the team responsible for managing the historic site, told Agence-France Presse the water had surged into the basilica with a force “never seen before, not even in the 1966 flood”. Warnings about potential damage from increasingly high tides “went unheeded”, Tesserin said, adding: “The damage we see now is nothing compared to that within the walls. The salt enters the marble, the bricks, everywhere.” The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, described a scene of “apocalyptic devastation”, saying the city was “on its knees”. “The art, the basilica, the shops and the homes, a disaster … Venice is bracing itself for the next high tide,” he said. Brugnaro also pledged that the multibillion-euro Mose project, designed in 1984 to protect Venice from high tides but still not in operation, would be completed. Work began in 2003 but has been dogged by delays and myriad issues, including a corruption scandal that emerged in 2014. The head of the Venice hotels association said the damage was enormous, with many hotels losing electricity and lacking pumps to remove water. Tourists with ground floor rooms had to be evacuated to higher floors as the waters rose on Tuesday night, Claudio Scarpa told the Ansa press agency. The coastguard provided extra boats to serve as water ambulances. Tables and chairs set out for aperitifs bobbed along flooded alleyways in the dark, as locals and tourists waved aloft umbrellas, the water slopping over the top of waders and wellies. Water taxis attempting to drop people off at the historic hotels along the Grand Canal discovered that gangways had been washed away, and had to help passengers clamber through windows. At the sumptuous Gritti Palace, which has played host to royals and celebrities over the decades, including Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the bar was largely underwater. Rich tapestries were piled on to tables, while the waters lapped around velvet sofas and leatherbound books. Two French tourists said they had “effectively swum” after some of the wooden platforms placed around the city in areas prone to flooding overturned. The overnight surge also triggered several fires, including one at the International Gallery of Modern Art Ca’ Pesaro. Video on social media showed deep water flowing like a river along one of Venice’s main thoroughfares. Other footage showed large waves hammering boats moored alongside the Doge’s Palace and surging over the stone sidewalks. Much of Italy has been pummelled by torrential rainfall in recent days, with widespread flooding, especially in the southern heel and toe of the country. Further bad weather is forecast for the coming days. | ['environment/flooding', 'world/italy', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'uk/uk', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonhenley', 'profile/angela-giuffrida', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-11-14T04:51:55Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2012/nov/28/us-coastal-cities-sea-level-rise | US coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns | Sea-level rise is occurring much faster than scientists expected – exposing millions more Americans to the destructive floods produced by future Sandy-like storms, new research suggests. Satellite measurements over the last two decades found global sea levels rising 60% faster than the computer projections issued only a few years ago by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The faster sea-level rise means the authorities will have to take even more ambitious measures to protect low-lying population centres – such as New York City, Los Angeles or Jacksonville, Florida – or risk exposing millions more people to a destructive combination of storm surges on top of sea-level rise, scientists said. Scientists earlier this year found sea-level rise had already doubled the annual risk of historic flooding across a widespread area of the United States. The latest research, published on Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters, found global sea-levels rising at a rate of 3.2mm a year, compared to the best estimates by the IPCC of 2mm a year, or 60% faster. Researchers used satellite data to measure sea-level rise from 1993-2011. Satellites are much more accurate than tide gauges, the study said. The scientists said they had ruled out other non-climatic causes for the rise in water levels – and that their study demonstrated that researchers had under-estimated the effects of climate change. "Generally people are coming around to the opinion that this is going to be far worse than the IPCC projections indicate," said Grant Foster, a US-based mathematician who worked on the paper with German climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf. The implications are serious – especially for coastal areas of the US. Large portions of America's Atlantic and Pacific coasts are regarded as "hotspots" for sea-level rise, with water levels increasing at twice the rate of most other places on the planet. Scientists previously had expected a global sea-level rise of 1m by the end of the century. "But I would say that if you took a poll among the real experts these days probably they would say that a more realistic figure would be more than that," Foster said. "The study indicates that this is going to be as bad or worse than the worst case scenarios of the IPCC so whatever you were planning from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod in terms of how you were preparing for sea-level rise – if you thought you had enough defences in place, you probably need more," Foster said. A study published last March by Climate Central found sea-level rise due to global warming had already doubled the risk of extreme flood events – so-called once in a century floods – for dozens of locations up and down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It singled out the California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego on the Pacific coast and Jacksonville, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic, as the most vulnerable to historic flooding due to sea-level rise. Sandy, which produced a 9ft storm surge at Battery Park in New York City, produced one example of the dangerous combination of storm surges and rising sea level. In New York, each additional foot of water puts up to 100,000 additional people at risk, according to a map published with the study. But tens of millions of people are potentially at risk across the country. The same report noted that more than half of the population, in some 285 US cities and towns, lived less than 1m above the high tide mark. "In some places it takes only a few inches of sea-level rise to convert a once in a century storm to a once in a decade storm," said Ben Strauss, who directs the sea-level rise programme at Climate Central. Large swathes of the mid-Atlantic coast, from Virginia through New Jersey, also faced elevated risk of severe flooding, because of climate change, he said. | ['environment/sea-level', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/coastlines', 'environment/flooding', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/state-of-georgia', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-11-28T00:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
society/2019/jul/01/weatherwatch-hay-fever-pollution-rising-temperatures-carbon-dioxide-uk | Weatherwatch: how pollution helps fuel UK hay fever epidemic | It was 200 years ago that a London doctor first described hay fever. John Bostock reported his symptoms of what he called “summer catarrh”, including “irritation of the nose, producing sneezing, which occurs in fits of extreme violence”. Strangely, though, Bostock only found 28 similar cases, mainly among the privileged classes, even though far more people in those days worked outside surrounded by grass. But in recent times, hay fever has reached epidemic proportions, with about one-fifth of the UK population thought to be affected, according to NHS figures. Fuelled by rising temperatures and higher levels of carbon dioxide, the pollen and growing seasons are becoming longer, which means hay fever symptoms last longer – the grass pollen season, which used to end in late July, now carries on well into August in some areas. And the increased loads of pollen in the air pile on misery for those affected. Air pollution from traffic also plays a large role. Pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and ozone can attack the pollen grains, bursting them open and releasing more of the highly allergic proteins that trigger hay fever. Ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide pollution also attack the membranes in the respiratory tract, making people more susceptible to the pollen. In fact, many people who have never had hay fever before are experiencing the symptoms. | ['society/hay-fever', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'society/health', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-07-01T20:30:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2008/oct/20/conservation-brazil | The 'win-win' solution failing the rainforests | On paper, the idea looks like a conservation masterstroke. Take a huge swath of pristine rainforest, put a price on the rainfall it produces and other "services", and sell these off to rich philanthropists with a conscience. That's precisely the rescue package dreamt up by investment house Canopy Capital. And it's working. The London-based firm has persuaded 10 wealthy individuals to buy into the "ecosystem services" of Guyana's heavily forested Iwokrama Reserve. The logic is straightforward. Trees need to be worth more standing up than chopped down. Giving them a "utility value" is one way of achieving that. "How can it be that Google's services are worth billions, but those from all the world's rainforests amount to nothing?" Canopy Capital's director, Hylton Philipson, is fond of saying. Putting a price on trees' services — climate regulation, biodiversity maintenance and water storage, for example — is the latest in a long list of market-based measures designed to save Latin America's forests. Governments across the region have bought into ecotourism, forest certification, biodiversity offsets and carbon emission trading in recent years. Market-based mechanisms appeal because they appear a win-win, says Ronnie Hall, coordinator for Global Forest Coalition, an international coalition of environmental groups. "Governments don't have to dip into the public purse so much, and private investors think they can make a profit out of it … It's very skewed. In the end, it's all become about money", she says. As the world's financial markets totter, Latin Americans are wondering if the business theorists haven't hoodwinked them. "The problems that have been caused by companies with their own rules cannot be solved by the same companies with the same rules," says Ana Filippini, spokesperson for the World Rainforest Movement, a Uruguayan-based conservation group. Despite millions being poured into sustainable projects in the Amazon, for example, illegal loggers are still hard at work in the world's largest rainforest. Monthly deforestation rates in August were almost three times higher than the same time last year, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. Business-based schemes also have a habit of generating unintended consequences. The Global Forest Coalition lists examples in a new report, Life as Commerce: the Impact of Market-based Conservation. Take tree plantations. Under the Kyoto protocol, the carbon captured by so-called carbon sinks can be sold to buyers in developing countries. As a result, companies across the continent have been fighting over themselves to plant fast-growing plantations for the profitable carbon market. The climate change benefits of monoculture plantations, however, are arguably offset by the enormous damage they cause to local biodiversity. In endorsing commercial plantations, timber certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council are also cited in the report for doing more harm than good. Market-based schemes fail the residents of Latin America's forests as much as the forests themselves, says the Global Forest Coalition. Often complex and poorly explained, business mechanisms frequently leave local inhabitants sidelined and disenfranchised. In Costa Rica, for example, conflicts have flared up among indigenous groups after individuals in these communities sold medicinal plants to pharmaceutical companies — a practice known as bioprospecting. Forest communities in Colombia, meanwhile, have reportedly lost control over what trees to plant on their own land after agreeing to participate in a carbon-credit reforestation programme. In some cases, the forests they were regenerating have been reclassified as stubble to make way for timber plantations. "Although there's a theoretical opportunity for indigenous people, they can't really engage [with market-based schemes] because there's so many hurdles they have to jump," says Hall. Just as they have with the financial markets, governments need to step in with a robust rescue plan, says Sergio Leitao, campaign director of Greenpeace Brazil. "We can't leave such an important subject for the future of the planet as forest preservation in private hands," he says. He cites the example of Paraguay, not a country associated with strong public governance. A recent moratorium on deforestation cut illegal logging in the forest-rich state by 83% in one year. Simone Lovera, author of the report, suggests an alternative: leave the forest communities of Latin America to protect their natural habitat. After all, the best-preserved forests today are found on indigenous territories, she points out. "Indigenous-led conservation initiatives have proven to be very cost-efficient," she says. Regrettably, few residents of Latin America's forests are likely to make it to the next round of climate change talks in Poland in December. As business-minded negotiators brush down their suits in preparation, though, the message of cost-efficiency may win them a hearing. | ['business/business', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/americas', 'type/article'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-10-20T09:21:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/article/2024/aug/22/how-climate-crisis-made-this-uk-summer-feel-like-a-letdown-weatherwatch | How climate crisis made this UK summer feel like a letdown | There has been a widespread feeling that this summer was a big letdown, unusually cool and even cold at times. But was it really so bad? There were some hot spells, and on 12 August temperatures peaked at 34.8C in Cambridge, which was remarkably hot. British summers in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s were far more likely to be thoroughly cool. And even the historic long hot summer of 1976 had only one occasion when 34.8C was exceeded, with a high of 35.9C on 3 July in Cheltenham, which set a new record at the time for the UK’s highest temperature. The difference now is that extreme heat is taken for granted, highlighted by the UK’s latest record highest temperature of 40.3C on 19 July 2022. Cool spells have become more unusual, and although this July was largely written off as disappointing, it was actually warmer than the average July temperatures over the decades from 1961 to 1990. What has changed is our perceptions as hot summers have become normalised with the growing impact of the climate crisis. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/weather', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-08-22T05:00:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global/2023/nov/01/2023-australian-institute-of-architects-awards-winners | Rockhampton museum and a small Sydney home among winners in Australia’s top architecture awards | Museums, concert halls, modern farmhouses and inner-city homes that maximise space are among Australia’s latest buildings to be recognised as architectural marvels. The Australian Institute of Architects’ 2023 national awards highlight innovative, sustainable and infill developments that could help alleviate Australia’s housing crisis, according to its organisers. The awards also aim to draw attention to projects outside big cities. Almost a third of the winning projects are in regional Australia. The judges travelled to every state and territory to visit 68 buildings over two weeks. The new Rockhampton Museum of Art, a waterfront museum that opened in 2022, won the Sir Zelman Cowen Award, one of the top prizes. “You feel like you can wander in there in your shorts and T-shirt,” said architect Lindsay Clare, who designed the building with wife and fellow architect Kerry Clare. The building was not only designed to be welcoming, it also had to link the city to the river, host local shows and international exhibitions, and keep the city’s art collection safe from heat and humidity. The three-year project, which cost about $34m, has exceeded expectations for visitor numbers. The National Award for Public Architecture went to the Art Gallery of NSW’s Sydney Modern building designed by Japanese firm SANAA, and the yet-to-be opened Melbourne Holocaust Museum designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects. Jury chair Shannon Battisson hopes the awards will provide inspiration for more buildings that engage with Australia’s climate, and with sustainability and culture. In Sydney’s Surry Hills, a 69-square-metre home wedged between a modern mixed-use building and a factory on Waterloo Street, received the Robin Boyd award for residential architecture. “The home shows how hard architecture can work, even on a small footprint,” judges said. It was designed so that all elements of the home – entry, workspace, kitchen, living area, bedroom and rooftop garden – open off the central stairwell, allowing each space to be filled with natural light while expressing “character and charm”. “From the moment it comes into view, the home announces itself as something different. Full of colour, the facade disguises the program within, allowing an element of privacy balanced by a sense of generosity to the public street,” the judges said. Battisson said Australia was in the depths of a once-in-a-generation housing crisis, overlaid by a climate crisis. “We are in dire need of new approaches to our built environment.” The redeveloped concert hall at Sydney Opera House won two awards, for heritage, and for interior architecture. “The combination of painstakingly re-crafted timbers and new fuchsia colouring, which nod to the original interiors designed by Peter Hall, is nothing short of awe-inspiring,” the judges said. “‘The House feels ready for its next 50 years.” Merricks Farmhouse on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, designed by Michael Lumby with Nielsen Jenkins, won the National Award for Residential Architecture, alongside another Victorian project, Spring Creek Road farm house by architects Brew Koch. Melbourne’s Nightingale Village apartment development in Brunswick won the multiple housing residential category, as well as the David Oppenheim award for sustainable architecture. “The ‘triple-bottom-line’ multiple-housing typology, where the architect is also the developer, has been so successful in Melbourne that the waiting list for apartments in these developments remains in the hundreds,” the judges said. Nightingale units are built with essential spaces and then residents share communal spaces such as rooftop gardens, with others living in the complex. The development, next to a train station on Brunswick’s bustling Sydney Road, has parking for bikes and shared cars only. The Rockhampton Museum of Art was a special project, said Kerry and Lindsay Clare, who also designed Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art. Its sandstone elements were dug from the same quarry as the nearby historic Customs House. In fact, the builders used scraps from the first dig more than a century ago. The gallery can be closed off so people can use three storeys of the building for events, making it a multipurpose destination. Unlike designing private houses, many people can experience public architecture, benefitting the whole community, said Kerry Clare. “A public building is there, hopefully, for at least 50 years, so we find it quite gratifying to be involved in those sorts of projects,” she said. | ['campaign/email/five-great-reads', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'australia-news/housing', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/elias-visontay', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-11-01T02:13:58Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2013/aug/26/california-rim-fire-tuluomne-city-defend | Firefighters rush to defend town from California's raging Rim fire | Firefighters have cleared brush and dug trenches to defend Tuolumne City from a huge wildfire which has continued to grow and devastate areas in and around California's Yosemite national park. The so-called Rim fire raged for a 10th day on Monday, covering 234 square miles and threatening thousands of rural buildings as well Tuolumne and San Francisco's water supply. A Nasa satellite showed the flames and smoke from space. However 2,800 fighters made progress in taming the western side of the blaze and cooler temperatures – partly caused by smoke plumes creating shadow – slowed the fire's previously breakneck growth. They contained 15% of the blaze, up from 7% on Sunday, and lifted evacuation advisories for the communities of Pine Mountain Lake and Buck Meadows. Other good news was the fire's advance into less wooded areas, where there was less to burn. "Good progress was made with constructing and securing lines along the northwest and northern portions of the fire," said InciWeb, an inter-agency emergency services site. "Good progress is also being achieved with construction of contingency lines along the western edge of the fire." Authorities monitored winds, which drive the flames, to determine the risk to Tuolumne City, a logging town of 1,800 people which could become the next major battlefront. Fire crews lit backfires to try to divert the blaze around the town, a tactic used last week to defend Groveland. Crews cleared brush and used sprinklers to keep flames away from groves of giant sequoias on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. A continuing concern was the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir – source of San Francisco's drinking water – with flames just a mile away. Water supplies have not been affected so far, unlike hydroelectric power which was interrupted, forcing the city to seek power elsewhere. Governor Jerry Brown extended a state of emergency last Friday. He was expected to visit a fire base camp on Monday. A dry winter and spring has created tinderbox conditions, fuelling one of the biggest wildfires in California's history. Flames which leap across treetops creating a "crown fire" are complicating efforts to contain it. It started on August 17 in a remote canyon of the Stanislaus national forest and spread rapidly, torching timber and brush with such power it created its own weather pattern. It remains unclear how it started. A total of 8,300 firefighters are battling nearly 400 square miles of fires across California. | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'tone/news', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'profile/rorycarroll'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-08-26T21:19:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/blog/2009/aug/05/iphone-apple | Next step for Netflix: Instant movies, streamed to your iPhone? | You may be aware of the US movie rental company Netflix - they pioneered the postal DVD business, a model followed by companies such as Lovefilm and (more recently) the video giant Blockbuster. The company has got headlines for its deals to stream video instantly using its web service, and its $1m prize for anyone who improved its algorithm - which I mentioned last week. Now, though, the company could be on the verge of something even more interesting: bringing full on-demand video streaming to the iPhone and Nintendo Wii. Reports - largely based on this story from Multichannel News - suggest that Netflix is making progress with these new avenues. What would it mean? Well, currently subscribers can instantly stream thousands of TV shows and movies to their computers, including the likes of Lost, Hannah Montana and Pineapple Express (pictured). And though I haven't used it personally, it's a service that a lot of people I know praise highly. There are a few caveats to a Netflix iPhone app, however: the system would not be a direct port of the web version, since that uses Microsoft's Silverlight technology. However, it could use the native video viewing capability that was opened up to developers in the latest version of the iPhone software. And how would you get your movies in the first place? Wired suggests it may simply be a "download-to-your-iPhone" service, and it certainly seems unlikely - though possible - that American iPhone network AT&T would allow people to stream movies over its already-beleaguered 3G network. Perhaps it could only work through a WiFi connection (which would not allow you to watch films anywhere). And, of course, there's always the question of whether Netflix on-demand would be deemed too much of a competitor to iTunes. Given the seemingly-random decision making process by Apple's app store team, who knows how that would turn out. What's clear is that this could be one area in mobile where the US is seriously ahead. Come on Lovefilm: where's your iPhone app? | ['technology/blog', 'technology/iphone', 'technology/apple', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/technology', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/bobbiejohnson'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-08-04T23:46:46Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sustainable-business/2016/nov/14/hostels-to-high-end-the-australian-hotels-embracing-renewable-energy | Hostels to high-end: the Australian hotels embracing renewable energy | When it comes to the carbon impact of holidays, the focus has long been on the journey, not the destination. Yet a growing stable of accommodation providers in Australia are on a mission to change that, switching over en masse to renewable energy in a bid to attract eco-conscious holidaymakers. Hospitality operators are cottoning on to the fact that the natural features that draw tourists in also have the potential to power their hotels and hostels – from the solar and tidal capacity of beach getaways to the wind and geothermal power potential of mountainside hot spring resorts. Dozens of destinations have taken up solar PV in recent years, such as Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort in Queensland, which promotes its solar as part of an effort to save the Great Barrier Reef that guests are coming to visit, or the 1.8MW of solar panels installed at Ayers Rock Resort (with assistance of financing from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation) in a bid to capitalise on the desert heat. Tucked away in the Bass Strait separating mainland Australia from Tasmania, ecotourism destination Flinders Island is installing a tidal energy system to make the most of the waves that batter its coastline. Representing the wind sector is Wolgan Valley Resort up in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, where a turbine pumps water for guests from a nearby dam. Thomas Hillig, the managing director of THEnergy sustainable consulting, says the more far-flung holiday destinations of Australia are leading the way for a very practical reason – guests don’t want their downtime disrupted by noisy small-scale fossil fuel power sources. “At remote hotels that generate their power onsite with diesel generators, the advantages of renewables are most obvious,” he says. “Diesel gensets are loud and emit hazardous exhaust gas. In addition, trucks that transport the diesel to the hotel cause additional annoyance. “Wind and especially solar energy are clean and less noisy than diesel gensets. After they are constructed, fuel deliveries are not required.” Of course, just because the green credentials of the destination are suddenly a factor, it doesn’t mean the journey no longer counts and such remote destinations tend to involve long gas-guzzling car voyages or extended carbon-intensive flights. More accessible physically if not financially, high-end urban accommodations with the budget to do so are also going green, such as the solar thermal-powered Accor Group hotels at Sydney Olympic Park. Outside the luxury market, hostel chain YHA Australia has found a way to invest in renewables on a budget by following in the carbon footsteps of airlines that allow customers the option of paying extra to offset the emissions of flights. YHA’s Tom Smith says guests can opt to chip in towards the chain’s sustainability efforts, pointing to recent efforts by Sydney Harbour YHA as an example. “They’ve won award after award for sustainability and they’ve installed a great new PV solar panel system only in the last month or so – the panels were installed with 50% funding from YHA’s Sustainable Hostels Fund, which is generated by guests’ donations and matched dollar-for-dollar by YHA,” he says. Donations from the fund have gone towards solar hot water systems at YHA locations at Adelaide Central, Byron Bay, Cairns Central, Glebe Point, Pittwater, Grampians Eco Lodge, Melbourne Metro and Alice Springs. YHA has also been active on the sustainable front in New Zealand, where their hostel servicing the bubbling mud pools of Rotorua harnesses geothermal energy through a down-bore heat exchanger. The New Zealand YHA has also not forgotten about the journey, with its Low Carbon Traveller initiative having given away over 4,000 discounted nights to backpackers travelling on foot or by bike since 2011. Such efforts could prove lucrative for the hostel chain – the 2013 study Green Retail and Hospitality Report – Waste Management by McGraw-Hill Construction found that the core business of hotels is positively affected by green efforts. Hillig, whose THEnergy consultancy offers workshop and marketing programs to businesses within the hospitality and renewable-energy sectors globally, cautions that, despite all the progress down under, the region is by no means a world leader. “What we have not seen so far is a commitment from a hotel chain to fully switch to renewables such as the Melia group has done in Europe,” he says. He also thinks that the marketing potential of green energy in the tourism industry has not yet been fully harnessed by those taking it up. “The use of renewable energy also offers a great opportunity regarding communication and allows for attracting new target groups,” he says. “However, we see that many hotels do not play that card very actively. “Especially chains seem to be aware that they are still at the beginning of a development and that active communication on their first flagship renewable energy projects might raise questions regarding other establishments where they have not done anything yet.” | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/smart-cities', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'travel/travel', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'travel/queensland', 'travel/northern-territory', 'travel/australasia', 'travel/australia', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'tone/features', 'profile/max-opray', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-gsb'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2016-11-14T00:36:43Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2015/apr/24/university-of-wa-academics-demand-end-to-deal-with-climate-change-contrarian | University of WA academics demand end to deal with climate change contrarian | Academics at the University of Western Australia have asked the university to break its agreement with the Abbott government to establish a $13m “consensus centre” with Danish climate change contrarian Bjørn Lomborg. Guardian Australia understands the demand, made by Professor Sarah Dunlop, head of the school of animal biology, and James O’Shea, branch president of the National Tertiary Education Union, was met by “riotous applause” at a staff meeting at the university’s business school on Friday. About 50 staff were turned away from the meeting because of a lack of space in the 150-seat lecture theatre, with one university staffer commenting, “it’s like a Rolling Stones concert in there”. Tensions among staff and students at UWA have been building since Guardian Australia revealed the university had accepted $4m from the Abbott government to set up the Australian Consensus Centre, a copy of Lomborg’s controversial Copenhagen Consensus Centre. The UWA Academic Staff Association called the meeting with the vice chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson, to address significant concerns among the university’s 4,000 academics that the centre would tarnish its reputation. Those who attended the packed meeting told the waiting media they were critical of Johnson’s response to those concerns, saying he did not accept suggestions the funding was politically motivated and did not think the university’s international reputation would be damaged. Dr Eric Feinblatt, an honorary research fellow with the department of engineering, said as he left the meeting the centre “would not happen anywhere but Australia”. “The only reason it’s happening in Australia is because the policy of the Abbott government makes it a favourable environment,” he said. “This is just a proxy for the Abbott government. And for the administration of the university not to admit that, to deny that, is ridiculous.” Fairfax Media has reported the push for the centre came from within the prime minister’s office. Tony Abbott is a known fan of Lomborg’s work, having praised it in his 2009 memoir Battlelines. Lomborg is best known for his 2002 book The Skeptical Environmentalist, which was the subject of complaints to the Danish Committee of Scientific Dishonesty. In 2009 he was named one of Business Insider’s top 10 most respected global warming sceptics. Feinblatt said the university was hiding behind the methodology of the centre, which is essentially one of cost-benefit analysis. “That’s not a methodology, that’s economics 101,” he said. “What this person is doing is pushing an agenda that the World Bank has pushed, that all sorts of failed development projects have pushed, for the last 50 years. “And they want us to buy into this because they say it’s a cost-benefit analysis? That’s nothing. That’s nothing.” Staff say Paul Flatau, the director of the Centre for Social Impact at the UWA business school and a key negotiator with the Abbott government in establishing the Australian Consensus Centre, told the meeting he should have consulted more broadly before signing the agreement. But speaking to the media after the meeting, Johnson said it was standard practice for decisions like the establishment of a new research centre to be made without consulting the university senate, and there was nothing untoward in this case. “Paul said he felt that there hadn’t been the degree of discussion that should have taken place,” Johnson said. “My understanding is the dean of the business school did discuss this with the leadership group of the business school. However, it is fairly common that we don’t take forward research proposals, grant proposals, for broad discussion.” Johnson said the university would listen to the views of staff but would not abandon its plans for the consensus centre. “The university has signed a contract with the government,” he said. Johnson said Lomborg had been offered an adjunct role at the university and would not be a member of academic staff, but would be on the Australian Consensus Centre’s advisory board. They are currently hiring a director and the centre is expected to be up and running in the second half of the year. Asked whether Lomborg’s involvement was necessary for the centre to go ahead, Johnson said it was, “predicated on having a working relationship with the Copenhagen Consensus Centre but he is president of that centre, so I would say yes”. He said the response from staff and students had been “passionate” but added “one of the things that we should always avoid in universities is being forced by pressure to resile from our commitment to academic freedom”. Lizzy O’Shea, president of the UWA student guild, attended both the staff meeting and a meeting on Monday where Johnson addressed the student body. She said both meetings were “quite tense”. O’Shea told Guardian Australia students were concerned the association with Lomborg would diminish the value of their degree, and staff were reporting it had already damaged their relationships with research partners and donors. “No one disputes the aims of the centre … but there is no way that they will be happy with having Lomborg involved,” she said. O’Shea said she had been contacted by a number of alumni who were considering pulling regular donations in light of Lomborg’s appointment. “You sort of think, when the amount of donations to be withdrawn exceeds $4m, do you pull out?” she said. “If I was the VC I would be concerned about year 12 leavers who are picking their uni around this time of year. If you’re looking to do a degree in climate science, do you come to UWA now?” | ['world/bjorn-lomborg', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'world/denmark', 'australia-news/australian-universities', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2015-04-24T09:10:09Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
australia-news/2022/mar/30/paradise-under-water-the-floods-that-caught-byron-bay-off-guard | Paradise underwater: the floods that caught Byron Bay off-guard | Everyone across Bryon shire went to bed Tuesday night thinking they were going to be fine, Mark Swivel says. “But people awoke in Byron to see the town centre flooded and shops underwater,” the councillor and lawyer said on Wednesday. “They were thinking, ‘well, what the hell has happened here?’” That question is being repeated across the nation, since people saw images of flood water inundating the tourist destination at levels not seen in living memory. It still has the capacity to shock many in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, even after weeks of flooding that has taken and upended lives across huge swathes of New South Wales and Queensland. Somehow, the thought of their favourite summer playground being underwater seemed unthinkable, right until it happened. For many in Byron, they know they live in a flood-prone area but were seemingly unaware of the danger they faced. On Tuesday night, after waiting out most of the pandemic to do so, John Mitchell and Karen Martin hosted their first event in two years, with bird expert Gisela Kaplan giving a talk and a book signing at their Byron Bay bookshop. Despite days of rain and the last-minute arrangements, the event sold out. “Since the big rain we had four weeks ago, there was a real sense of the town coming out of itself – a sense of: ‘let’s go out and have some fun’,” Mitchell says. Swivel says there was sense it was going to be “a wet and tricky” night, but there would “be no real drama”. He was hosting a dinner party – a nice, relaxing get-together. Then he drove a friend home at about 10.30pm. “As the night went on, the rain got more intense, and people started to feel that something was awry,” he says. “You could literally sense it.” Between midnight and 1am, the reports started coming through on social media. “Suffolk Park, where it rarely floods, if at all, you’ve got people standing in lounge rooms knee deep in water,” he says. “In Bangalow you’ve got cars lost with flooding that no one was expecting.” On the 2am news bulletin, Swivel says, “Byron doesn’t even rate a mention.” Swivel speaks of anger and frustration about the emergency warnings. He says they did not come until after the emergency, and the forecasts were not accurate. “There is real anger in the community – and it is constructive anger,” he says. “What we are really looking at is the under-resourcing of services that the public should be able to rely on in a crisis. “There has to be a limit to accepting what we experience.” Martin says it is an anger that had been bubbling away for the last two years in a town that feels abandoned by a Sydney-centric state government. Mitchell’s anger is directed at all levels of government and their failure to prepare for seasonal disasters that are only becoming more frequent and intense due to the climate emergency, but which are far older than the town itself. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “We can keep focusing on the awfulness and the tragedy – or we can start to understand what is actually happening here,” he says. This is a message echoed by the town’s former mayor, Simon Richardson, who says Byron is a “living example of poor planning 100 years ago”. “It’s actually below the waterline in a wetlands – you wouldn’t build a town there now for quids,” he says. “The water gets captured in Byron like in a wok.” Richardson stood down in 2021 after nine years as mayor and 13 years on a council which he says his rebuilt roads lost to landslides that they knew would not stand up to the next big downpour. “We fixed those roads knowing they were going to fail again,” he says, “because we wouldn’t have been funded by the state government if we improved the roads and made them more resilient.” Yet, if their infrastructure failed them, the people of Bryon proved resilient. When Annick Muylle’s clothing store in Fletcher Street went under, so too did hundreds of thousands of dollars of carefully chosen clothing. So the Belgium-born shopkeeper went for a stroll around her flooded town. “The bakery was open, babies were in prams, people were walking their dogs,” she says. “I thought: ‘This is so Australian, to get on with life.’ After so much rain, and such a long night, to go: ‘OK let’s just walk the dog, or have a coffee, or put the baby in pram have a walk around’ – that was something positive.” | ['australia-news/byron-bay', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/joe-hinchliffe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-30T10:26:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2011/aug/30/hurricane-irene-airlines-normal-service | Hurricane Irene: airlines return to normal service | Transatlantic airlines have resumed a normal service in the aftermath of hurricane Irene, raising hopes that some of the thousands of Britons stranded in the US may soon be able to get home. As many as 10,000 Britons are thought to have been affected by the disruption caused when the tropical storm tore along America's eastern seaboard, bringing strong winds, torrential rain and leading to the cancellation of 6,000 flights on Sunday. The hurricane killed at least 40 people in 11 US states, as well as three in the Dominican Republic and one in Puerto Rico. British Airways said it was now running a "full schedule" of flights from New York and other east coast airports. "We were forced to cancel a number of flights over the weekend and are doing our very best to rebook customers on to the next available service," said a spokeswoman. "We have put on extra capacity over the coming days by adding three additional flights to New York to repatriate our customers." She advised passengers to check ba.com for the latest information. Virgin Atlantic also said it had resumed its usual schedule. "Additional seats will also be made available to ensure that the backlog of passengers away from home is cleared as soon as possible," said a spokeswoman, who also directed passengers to the company's website. The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), which estimates that as many as 10,000 British holidaymakers could be in New York, said that things appeared to be getting back to normal. However, an Abta spokesman reminded passengers travelling with EU-based carriers that their airlines were obliged to pay for their food and accommodation in the events of delays and cancellations. He also advised those travelling with non-EU carriers to check their insurance to establish what they could claim for in the wake of the hurricane. | ['us-news/hurricane-irene', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/air-transport', 'uk/uk', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/samjones'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-08-30T11:47:42Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2013/sep/04/hopes-grow-vento-bicycle-path-italy | Hopes grow for VenTo, a proposed 422-mile cycle path in northern Italy | It would take you from the stately squares of Turin to the waterways of Venice; from the shadow of the Alps to the open skies of the Po delta, with the palaces of Ferrara and violins of Cremona just waiting to be admired en route. A plentiful supply of pasta, polenta and pork would help your stamina but you might consider an extra pannier for the bottles of Barolo. For the past three-and-a-half years, activists in Italy have been lobbying for the construction of a 422 mile (679km) cycle path, known as VenTo, that would link the major cities of the north as well as a host of lesser-known treasures along the banks of the river Po. Now, as the eurozone's third largest economy starts to see faint signs of recovery from its longest postwar recession, hopes are growing that the project's time may just have come. Last week, after meeting with VenTo's proponents, the culture and tourism minister, Massimo Bray, lavished praise on the idea, saying it was an important initiative that could be an example of sustainable development for the rest of Italy and would ideally tie in with the Universal Exposition due to be held in Milan in 2015. Paolo Pileri, spokesman for VenTo, said he was hopeful that under this, the third Italian government since its inception at the end of 2009, the project might not be falling on deaf ears. "The government is starting to say: this is interesting," he said. Pileri, a professor of urban and environmental development planning at the Politecnico university in Milan, added: "This cycle path is like the chain of a necklace … Turin is the first pearl, Valenza the second pearl; there are so many pearls – but at the moment we're just missing the chain." Pileri and his colleagues estimate the cost of VenTo's construction at €80m. But, they say, that would be rapidly offset by the tourism-related income the path would generate throughout northern Italy – a figure they put at about €100m a year. The project, they say, would create 2,000 jobs in hospitality and other related sectors. "[We want] to show the country that out of the landscape, cultural heritage and 'healthy' tourism can come a significant response to the crisis, which should not be sniffed at," said Pileri, who wants the state to see investment in sustainable projects like VenTo as a new and improved model of economic development. Like many cyclists here, both tourists and locals, he also just wants to be able to enjoy two-wheel travel rather more than is currently possible. Italy is famous for being one of the most car-dependent countries in the world and has lagged behind on the provision of the kind of long and continuous bike paths seen in some other European countries such as Germany. But, with the recession, the country that gave the world Fausto Coppi and the neorealist masterpiece Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette) has been rediscovering its past pleasures, with 2012 sales of bikes up 200,000 on the year before. Activists believe there is now an urgent need to create a national network of workable paths. "While there's no shortage of Italians who cycle around Italy, many are put off by aggressive drivers and high traffic levels, so not as much cycling takes place as it could do if conditions were made friendlier for lovers of two-wheel transport," wrote Alex Roe, a Milan-based blogger, who said it would be a great shame if VenTo were not built. If it did get the funding from state and regional authorities, Pileri says VenTo would be the longest continuous cycle path not only in Italy but also in southern Europe as a whole. According to the plans, it would have two lanes and be 2.5m wide – modest measurements that have not, however, prevented it being dubbed a cycle motorway. The comparison is not altogether unfounded. Pileri said the route envisaged would draw inspiration from paths already in existence abroad that "have a design kind of like motorways – very linear, few curves, few slopes, because our idea is precisely to import into Italy a model of infrastructure that can be used by everyone – not just the very fit but also children, the elderly, everyone," he said. | ['world/italy', 'lifeandstyle/cycling', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/lizzydavies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-09-04T18:20:20Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2011/jan/25/michaels-climate-sceptic-misled-congress | Climate sceptic 'misled Congress over funding from oil industry' | A leading climate sceptic patronised by the oil billionaire Koch brothers faced a potential investigation today on charges that he misled Congress on the extent of his funding from the oil industry. Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a thinktank founded by Charles and David Koch to promote their libertarian, anti-government views, appeared before the house energy and commerce committee in February 2009. At the time, the committee was headed by the California Democrat Henry Waxman and Michaels was the only one in the line-up of witnesses to cast doubt on global warming, testifying that mainstream science had exaggerated the threat posed by climate change. Now, Waxman writes in a letter to the incoming committee chair, Fred Upton, it appears as if Michaels may have misled the committee. In 2009, Michaels said 3% of his $4.2m in financial support came from the oil and gas industry. But in an appearance on CNN in August last year, and in subsequent interviews, Michaels suggested that figure was 40%. "Michaels may have provided misleading information about the sources of his funding and his ties to industries opposed to regulation of emissions responsible for climate change," Waxman writes in the letter, released on Monday. Waxman urged Upton to call on Michaels to clarify the sources of his funding, and to give a complete account of his funding sources to the committee. The request for an investigation is a turn on the Republicans, who have set out a long list of potential targets for scrutiny since their takeover of the house, starting with the Environmental Protection Agency. Michaels has also received direct funding from the Koch brothers. From their base in Wichita, Kansas, the Kochs control the largest privately held oil company in the US. They gained notoriety during the mid-term elections for bankrolling a leading, conservative Tea Party organisation, Americans for Prosperity. But the Kochs have for years been funnelling money to organisations which oppose government regulations and deny the existence of climate change. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/oil', 'us-news/us-politics', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/tea-party-movement', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2011-01-25T12:58:04Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2022/mar/20/high-petrol-prices-tempt-us-to-buy-electric-cars-but-were-less-put-off-by-surging-electricity-cost | Petrol prices are driving us to electric cars, and surging utility bills are no deterrent | Torsten Bell | The net zero transition is really a big invest-to-save plan. Saving the planet is obviously the main goal, but there are purely financial savings too if you take the long view: we pay upfront in the next few decades for the infrastructure for lower carbon travel, heating and production, which saves us money over time because it’s cheaper to run. Electric vehicles (EVs) are where the big savings come from. A year’s petrol or diesel typically costs well over £1,000, but if you can charge an electric car at your home overnight the annual fuel cost can be under £150. Making the EV switch is a big job – we’ve got 32m cars to replace. But the turnover has recently gone up several gears, with EV sales outpacing all forecasts: they now account for one in five new car purchases. Interesting new research digs into how sensitive are drivers pondering the switch to the savings that come from moving from petrol to electric vehicles. Using data from California, it shows the obvious: EV sales respond both to electricity prices (falling as they rise) and to petrol prices (rising as pump prices increase). The interesting bit is that sales respond to petrol prices at around four to six times the rate of electricity prices. Why? Consumers are just less aware of electricity prices than petrol prices. I definitely am, having watched petrol pump prices rise by 40p a litre over the past year. So if you want a (small) silver lining to today’s catastrophic energy price surge, it’s that bonkers pump prices should encourage more people to buy electric vehicles while nuts electricity prices won’t put them off much. • Torsten Bell is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation. Read more at resolutionfoundation.org | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'commentisfree/series/hidden-gems-from-the-world-of-research', 'environment/electric-cars', 'money/motoring', 'tone/comment', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'profile/torsten-bell', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2022-03-20T09:30:52Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2020/feb/29/welsh-woman-sioned-jones-found-guilty-biodiversity-sitka-spruce | Welsh woman declares vindication after ‘guerrilla rewilding’ court case | Sioned Jones used to adore the landscape and wildlife of her adopted home in Bantry, a bucolic region in west Cork on Ireland’s Atlantic coast. She planted vegetables and herbs, foraged for nuts and berries and observed birds, insects, frogs and lizards. Then, on land above her house, the state-owned forestry company Coillte planted a forest of Sitka spruce, a non-native species that Jones considered a dark, dank threat to biodiversity. The Welsh grandmother got a chainsaw and started cutting – and cutting. A few trees at first, then dozens, then hundreds. In their place she planted native broadleaf trees – birch, hazel, oak, alder, crab apple and rowan – a guerrilla rewilding campaign that lasted more than 20 years. The law caught up with 61-year-old Jones on Friday, when a Cork circuit criminal court convicted her of stealing logs worth €500. Sentencing was adjourned until October. The judge, Seán Ó Donnabháin, directed the jury to find Jones not guilty of the more serious charge of criminal damage to 500 Sitka spruce trees. Jones declared vindication. “Citizens have a duty to protect the environment and biodiversity,” she told the Guardian. “I was managing that site for biodiversity. It was being destroyed by the spruce.” She started felling soon after the plantation appeared in 1995, targeting trees that cast bilberry plants in shadow, she said. “Nobody said anything so I continued. As time went on, I got bolder.” Initially she used manual saws, later switching to mechanical saws. “I’m a strong woman. I ended up using a chainsaw, yes. That’s how they caught me.” Jones hopes the case will become a catalyst to change forest policy. Her prosecution shined a light on a national afforestation programme heavily reliant on Sitka spruce, a fast-growing coniferous evergreen originally from North America. The trees number an estimated 34.5m, covering what used to be farmland and wilderness. They absorb carbon and supply wood for pulp, pallets and furniture. Critics question the carbon sequestration impact and say the plantations are industrial monocultures that stifle biodiversity and ruin the landscape. Activists in other parts of Ireland, notably Leitrim, have campaigned against plantations but few have gone as far as Jones. Extinction Rebellion hailed her a hero. “This makes her part of a wider campaign of conscientious protectors who take non-violent direct action to protect nature when they see it as being threatened,” the climate action group said in a statement. Jones, who has a biochemistry degree and a background in farming and forestry, moved to Maughanaclea in Kealkill, Bantry, in 1987. When the Sitka spruce plantation appeared, she feared damage to biodiversity and the water supply to her well. “I was outraged. I felt obliged to act. Plants are destroyed, insects have nothing to live on, the habitat is gone.” Jones cut down 250 trees and ringmarked – an incision around bark that slowly kills a tree – another 250. She turned some felled spruces into protective barriers for their broadleaf replacements, she said. Other logs she brought home as firewood. A Coillte official reported unauthorised clearances on 4 December 2018. A few hours later, police intercepted Jones in her green Toyota Starlet. She was covered in sawdust and had a chainsaw. She admitted the felling. “The felling of trees without a licence or removal of timber without proper authorisation is an illegal activity, and we work with the relevant authorities to seek prosecutions if this occurs on our lands,” Coillte said in a statement on Friday. The company said it sets aside 90,000 hectares of land for native broadleaf trees. “We continue to invest heavily into the restoration and management of these key biodiversity habitats.” Mr Justice Ó Donnabhái queried Jones’s claim to be an ecological guardian. “I don’t understand how a hero of the greenery can go around with a chainsaw in one hand and a burning log in the other and claim to be a protector of the environment.” He deferred sentencing to October on condition that Jones did not target more Sitkas without Coillte’s approval. She agreed. | ['world/ireland', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/forests', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/wales', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/rewilding', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-02-29T05:00:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2014/jul/14/tomtom-multisport-watch-review-running | TomTom multisport watch review: a smartwatch fit to run with Mo Farah | THE GOAL I have no goal. And that, apparently, is a problem. I started running last year, after eight years of doing no exercise other than drag small children round by their ears (good for the forearms, releases tension). I like running. I'm slow and don't run very far, but I enjoy my varying routes round the park and I love the mad post-run serotonin rush. I do it for the high: all other benefits are secondary. But, with sport, as with most things in life these days, you are meant to have a Goal. What are you aiming for? What is your motivation? A hangover-free buzz is not enough. I'm wary of fitness goals, as I used to be a competitive person. Being competitive at sport when you're not an athlete and way past 40 is a very bad idea: I worry I'll think I'm Usain Bolt and sprint myself to a heart attack. So, I have been running without timing my runs, without knowing how far I've gone. I'm deliberately Goal-averse. Still, when my editor said, "Why don't you run a race?", I said, OK, and signed up for a 10k. I had no idea how far I'd run before I did this; I just knew a marathon was out of the question. I picked the Bupa 10k because the route was glamorous: start on the Mall, finish in front of Buckingham Palace, loads of other people to look at if you get bored of the scenery. Plus: Mo Farah! THE METHOD For a more organised person than me, this section would consist of a eight-week programme of carefully increased timed runs, cross-training and rest days. Instead, I sporadically tried out a few running apps; I hated pretty much all of them. The Nike app suggested that I told Facebook I was going on a run, and then when a friend "liked" my status, I would hear a cheer in your ear! Can you imagine! And the Adidas one was voiced by a mate, which was just too weird. The only apps I liked were Zombies, Run! and RunKeeper. Zombies, Run! has a 5k option, devised by experts, structured training, blah blah, which I didn't bother with. Instead, I went for the story version. Every time you go for a run, you hear a chapter of the story (devastated world, zombies everywhere, only a few humans left, including you). You are Runner No 5 and it's like you're in a computer game: as you run, a disembodied voice says you've picked up some medical equipment or some food. Then there's the "drama" bits, in which the story unfolds. Best of all, at certain points the Zombies chase you, so you have to sprint. It's a right laugh. RunKeeper is more straightforward. It just tells you how far you've run, how high, gives you a map of your route and whether you've gone any faster than before. It's good because it's unfussy, its satnav is accurate and quick and, as you run, it tells you –not too often – how many miles you've covered. I also tried a TomTom watch-type thing called a Multi-Sport, which initially got me into a frenzy because it takes a long time to get itself ready for you to run. But once I got used to that, I ended up liking it because it's very reliable. It doesn't talk to you, it's just giving you the time, how many calories you've burnt (yuk), or how far you've managed to get. If you have a goal, the Multi-Sport is happy to help you get there, by the way; there's a website where you can plot your progress, tell your mates, do all the social stuff I hate. Also, you can use the Multi-Sport for cycling and – even better – swimming, where mobile phones are useless. THE RESULT You know what, you don't need any of this stuff for a 10k. You just need to run really, really slowly and drink a lot of water. Before I did the 10k, the furthest I'd ever run in my life was just under 5k. I ran the 10k with two friends who were experienced runners, who were kind enough to slow down to my snail's pace and we chatted all the way round. And I didn't stop! I didn't even walk! Mo Farah was there, doing his arm-heart thing as we moved slowly off along the Mall. There was lots of music along the way – brass bands, bongo drums, some awful DJs – which was entertaining in a don't-laugh-you'll-be-sick way. The route was great, a highlights of London trip, with no traffic. Overall, the atmosphere was like a festival: queuing for Portaloos, massing of people in a park, terrible joke outfits, general geniality. I was in the last 10% when it came to time. But I did it. I got a medal and everything. If you run a little bit – two miles per run, every week or so – then a 10k is definitely within your reach. Run with mates; they're the gadget. Still, if I could, I would keep the Multi-Sport watch. The more I run, the more I like running without listening to anything. Not music (makes me run too fast), not Zombies, Run! or the Freakonomics podcast (though I still do at least one run a week listening to one of those). I enjoy running without artificial extras, just letting the pad-pad-pad of my feet and the pumping of my blood lull my chattering mind into a sort of high-energy, wakeful doze. You sort out all your head-rubbish while running. And when you get home, you plug in your watch or phone to your computer and your efforts are recorded. Ignore those records, obsess over them: it's up to you. TomTom Multi-Sport or RunKeeper, those are my recommendations, whether you're goal-less or going for gold. | ['lifeandstyle/watches', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/smartwatches', 'lifeandstyle/running', 'technology/apps', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/fitness', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/mirandasawyer', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly/observer-tech-monthly'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-07-14T08:00:01Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2022/mar/22/country-diary-calm-after-storm-flood-defence-priority | Country diary: In the calm after the storm, defence is a priority | Through sheer luck, I have been away on holiday while Dudley, Eunice and Franklin swept through, but in this calm after the storm, the effect they had on the River Wharfe is visible everywhere. Matted wads of grass, vegetation and detritus hang in branches like ragged nests, sometimes 10ft or so above the current level of the water. Parts of the bank have been scoured and disfigured; trees have toppled and snapped. A pair of grey wagtails flit across an alder that has crashed into the water, yellow plumage glinting brightly as they explore this altered component of their riparian world. River flooding is, of course, a natural process, and the life in and around rivers can adapt to, and sometimes even become intertwined with, the effects of deluges. In general, though, the increasing frequency and severity of floods is awful news for wildlife – wetlands suffocate, washed-away topsoil stifles the aquatic ecology, and invertebrate populations die as gravel beds are ripped out, providing less food for fish, and less prey for birds like the kingfisher. Upstream, I am startled to see the leathery carcass of a sheep dangling from a sycamore branch, suspended by its hind legs. It’s a pitiable sight, but it makes my thoughts journey upriver, to the landscape of heavily grazed sheep pastures and treeless moors which the Wharfe drains. The political dialogue around flooding often mistakenly – or cynically – counterposes the aims of conservation and flood prevention. But when looking at rivers as a whole, measures such as reforestation, moorland restoration and the reintroduction of “lost” species like beavers have all proven to be extremely beneficial for – among many other things – helping to control flood peaks. Hard flood defences have recently been built here in Otley, at a cost of £4m. They prevented local homes from being deluged in the recent storms, though the Wharfe burst its banks elsewhere. But more ambition is required to implement the natural remedies needed to rise to the challenges of this increasingly extreme era. Ambitious solutions have the potential to benefit everyone. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'uk/weather', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/carey-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-22T05:30:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/mar/11/african-swine-fever-destroying-small-pig-farms-as-factory-farming-booms-report | African swine fever destroying small pig farms, as factory farming booms – report | Small farmers across the globe are losing out in the aftermath of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak that killed a quarter of the world’s pig population, argues a new report. Nowhere is this more evident than China, where swine fever has hit the country’s nearly 40 million small-scale pig farmers hardest, says the report by non-profit organisation Grain. China’s long tradition of small-scale pig farming seems to be coming to an end because of a lack of government support to compensate for culled or diseased pigs, to pay for veterinary costs or chemicals for limiting the spread of ASF, and other biosecurity measures in existing facilities, according to Grain. “Unfortunately, small farmers are getting almost no support, from what we can see,” said Devlin Kuyek, lead author of the report. After the first notification of the ASF outbreak in China in August 2018, the illness spread rapidly throughout the industry and led to the slaughter of millions of pigs within months. Just a year later, however, the startling rise in pork prices meant that, despite their losses, many of the biggest industrial pig producers were achieving record profits. Grain has been unable to determine exactly how many of the ASF outbreaks originated in large factory farms or within contract farming production chains that feed the bigger facilities, because of a lack of information or official figures from authorities. In a MARA survey of 1,500 Chinese pig farms in mid-2019, 55% said they had abandoned plans to raise pigs after culling due to future risk of disease, while 22% were waiting to see if the situation cleared up. Only 18% had definite plans to continue pig farming. In the 1990s, small backyard farms supplied around 80% of China’s pork needs. But this has changed rapidly over the past two decades, as the government has steadily industrialised the sector. By 2018, the share of pig farms with more than 500 pigs was around 80%, state-run media reported in November. The government is aiming for at least 65% of pork from industrial farming operations by 2025. As the government’s focus has shifted towards supporting larger-scale production, smaller operations continue to be squeezed into contract farming operations for larger companies. “It is the combination of these two changes that has created the conditions for the rise of new epidemics [like ASF and others] in Asia’s pork sector,” Kuyek told the Guardian. Despite the fact that it is supposed to be safer, the huge scale of the industrial pig farming industry has propelled the crisis to a global scale, argues the Grain report. “In our view, this is what explains the scale of the recent outbreak. It would not have taken on such massive proportions if it had not penetrated into the global, industrial pork system.” China is not the only country where small farmers have been particularly adversely affected. In mountainous northern Vietnam, the virus has had a disastrous impact on indigenous women who use leftover mash from rice-wine processing to feed pigs they raise to pay bills and school fees. Aaron Kingsbury, an assistant professor of Arts and Sciences at Maine Maritime Academy, who was conducting research in the region at the time of the outbreak in Vietnam, witnessed the devastating effects on these small farmers. “Typically, what you get here is an ethnic minority woman who is raising one or two pigs for family consumption or possibly the wet markets,” Kingsbury said. “Something that provides the family with direct income they otherwise would not have.” “When one [operation] gets swine fever [and culling begins], the industrial producers are much more capable of tapping into government subsidies for losses of pigs than these small [producers], sometimes illiterate women who may not speak Vietnamese and are isolated in small communities,” he said. “When these small producers lose a pig, they really lose quite a bit.” The report argues that global meat producers are “using the pandemic that they helped to propagate as a political weapon to consolidate their dominance”. But Brett Stuart, co-founder of Global AgriTrends, an agriculture consulting firm based in the US, disagrees. “I’m not sure that ASF can be shown as a tool of the big companies,” he said. “The incredible profits now are fuelling small farmer margins as well as large.” Stuart said: “The problem is that complicated diseases like ASF ultimately benefit those with enough scale to pay on-farm vets and implement feed milling procedures, that help protect herds. So while small farmers face a much more uncertain future, that is not enough evidence in my opinion to indict large farmers.” Andriy Rozstalnyy, an ASF expert and animal health expert at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the organisation was gathering information to enable a full understanding of ASF transmission. “We cannot speculate on the role of each production sector in ASF spread or endemicity, because the production systems and value chains are very long and complicated in south-east Asia and in particular in China,” Rozstalnyy said. “The fragmented and incomplete data does not fully explain the real epidemiological situation in south-east Asia. FAO is working to collect and analyse data to better understand ASF transmission including the role of feed, fomites, pork products in production systems with different biosecurity practices. This understanding is used to assist countries in development of technically sound and feasible control strategies.” Rozstalnyy said early detection and containment of ASF outbreaks challenges both small and large-scale operators and both sectors need to be vigilant about any risky practices and aware of establishing more bio-secure practices. “It doesn’t matter if it is a small-scale backyard farmer or workers at a large scale commercial farm, feed supplier, butcher, hunter or international traveller. [They all] need to strictly follow rules and regulations defined by governments to address risks related to ASF.” | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/environment', 'science/agriculture', 'environment/farming', 'science/science', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/vietnam', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/african-swine-fever', 'profile/michael-standaert', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-03-11T17:23:44Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2019/dec/19/weatherwatch-storms-hit-france-and-iceland-as-australia-overheats | Weatherwatch: storms hit France and Iceland as Australia overheats | A violent storm system hit Iceland last week, with high winds and blizzards bringing significant disruption. The storm left thousands without power after gusts of more than 100mph in places and heavy build-ups of snow left some residents snowed in. While its exposed position in the north Atlantic makes Iceland vulnerable to storms, this particular example triggered the Icelandic meteorological service’s highest warning. The central atmospheric pressure of the storm, believed to be about 950 millibars, was similar to that of a category 3 hurricane. Later in the week, two storm systems swept through southern France bringing strong winds and flooding. Two people died as a direct result of the weather in the south-west, including one in the Lot-et-Garonne. This relatively low-lying area of France is familiar with high wind events, as it has little shelter from low-pressure systems tracking through the Bay of Biscay. Meanwhile, in Australia this week, heatwave conditions are set to continue across many parts of the country. Temperatures peaked at 40C in Perth on Sunday, more than 10 degrees higher than normal, and weather patterns will help to shift this excessively hot weather towards the eastern population centres as the week continues. | ['news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'world/extreme-weather', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/iceland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/france', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-12-19T11:33:52Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2022/aug/08/puffins-toucans-biodiversity-crisis-risk-of-extinction | The most awe-inspiring and exuberant birds are facing extinction first – let's stop nature becoming boring | Lucy Jones | For decades ecologists have been warning about the homogenisation of diversity – species becoming more alike – in the living world. Now, researchers at the University of Sheffield have published research predicting that bird species with striking and extreme traits are likely to go extinct first. “The global extinction crisis doesn’t just mean that we’re losing species,” says the study’s leader, Dr Emma Hughes. “It means that we are losing unique traits and evolutionary history.” This shows that human activity is not just drastically reducing numbers of species, it is probably disproportionately destroying the most unique, unusual and distinctive creatures on Earth. What would it mean to no longer share a planet with the toucan, and its bodacious bill four times the size of its head, even if you never see one in real life? Or the elegant Bengal florican, which looks like a walking treble clef. Or the iridescent hummingbird? Or the bird of paradise, with its rococo coiled plumes? Many of the potential impacts are unpredictable, but bleak. As Hughes says, we are losing species that could “confer unique benefits to humanity that are currently unknown”. And we already know the knock-on effects of species loss can be catastrophic. The decline of vultures in India and the loss of their scavenging, carrion-eating niche has already had negative consequences for human populations, including the spread of disease. This will not just affect faraway places with higher numbers of unusual species. “The extinction crisis will lead to a loss of morphological diversity in the UK too,” Hughes says. Unfortunately, the Atlantic puffin, one of Britain’s most-loved birds, and other unique seabirds such as the black-legged kittiwake and Leach’s storm petrel, are vulnerable. Losing any species is tragic, but we’re also facing a decline in the species that inspire the most awe in humans. In short, we can expect the world to become “really simple and brown and boring”, Dr Eliot Miller, of the Cornell lab of ornithology, told the New York Times. More sparrows; fewer puffins. If you were captured by an alien and asked to make the case for why the Earth shouldn’t be blown apart, what would you say? As much as I love little brown jobs, I would think about the species so beautiful and unusual you can barely believe they are real. I would tell them about the mandrill with its bright blue and pink face and rump. I would tell them about the hornbills that look as if they’re balancing a banana on their head. I’d mention the atlas moth that’s as big as a human hand. The peacock jumping spider, the Christmas-tree worm, the elf owl. I would tell them about the curlew, with its extraordinary curved beak; the kingfisher that bolts down the river like a turquoise meteor; the flamboyant antlers of a stag. I would tell them about mountain gorillas and blue whales and golden eagles. Baobabs, frogs and diatoms. Toucans! We have toucans! It wouldn’t be difficult to argue, for the exuberant diversity of life on Earth is its signature and wonder. Wonder isn’t just nice, or a luxury. Scientists have shown that experiencing awe has a measurable effect on human health. A study from the University of Toronto found that awe was the one positive emotion that could predict lower levels of unhealthy inflammation. Awe can also affect how we treat other people. People are more ethical, kind and generous after feeling awe, and despite our unprecedented estrangement from the non-human, we still get most of our experiences of awe from the living world. All this focus on human emotions sounds awfully anthropocentric and a minor issue but humans are naturally curious – and curiosity thrives on variety and diversity. While denialism in the face of climate breakdown and extinction seems hard to budge, could this new deepening of what the biodiversity crisis means – a less interesting world – be a warning that cuts through? This latest research illustrates what the often hard-to-imagine biodiversity crisis looks like: a less resplendent, less vibrant world. It is heartbreaking, yes, but galvanising, and an opportunity for focus and pressure on those in power. The vast majority of us don’t want to live in a world bereft of toucans and puffins. Or a boring world, or a dying world. So would politicians care to mention how they square the myopic focus on “growth” with a burnt-out, used-up Earth that is clearly telling us to stop? If we wipe out the species with the most unique traits, and continue to destroy the rich diversity of the Earth, we will all be impoverished in ways we can’t yet comprehend. Even if we never see a toucan in the wild, we are still their kin. Their wildness is still, in some way, part of us. We are still animals among animals. Lucy Jones is a journalist and the author of Losing Eden and The Nature Seed | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/uk', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/lucy-jones', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-08T09:00:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/flat-roofs-urban-floods-solution | Flat roofs may be the answer to managing urban floods | All sorts of causes are being blamed for the current flooding in the UK: lack of dredging, poor management of catchment areas, construction on flood plains and paving over front gardens to name a few. One thing is for sure – we will be paying a lot more attention to the topic given the current experience. Wetter winters are predicted in our changing climate, with a certainty of more extreme events, which means that we need to look at more sustainable, affordable and quick-win solutions for flood mitigation. We know how to address floodwater problems in new developments and how to attain sustainable credits. Large underground storage tanks with specialist flow control regimes allow us to minimise the impact of stormwater flows on the downstream drainage system. Sometimes, because of the level of the sewer, we need to pump the stored water – adding to the cost and complexity of the system. And all this is expensive; not a great message for these cash-strapped times. Recent experience has also shown us that it can be ineffective when inundated by a larger flood. However there is a simple and cheap alternative that makes use of a free resource that we often neglect: gravity. Gravity offers a simple and cheap way to attenuate stormwater flows – by storing water temporarily on a flat roof. Attenuating roof drains which store stormwater on a flat roof at a depth of just three inches can reduce the impact of even a big storm. The water will drain away slowly over a few hours, without affecting the downstream drainage system. The only additional costs are for slightly higher waterproofing details and a simple insert in the roof drain. Worried about flooding into the building? No problem – simply provide extra overflow drains. And can the structure take it? The weight of the water is less than the weight of a heavy snowfall. As most roofs are designed for snow, the roof will be strong enough already. With modern waterproofing solutions carrying long warranties, roofs can be designed flat, so very little needs to change in the design. If the load-bearing capacity of an existing flat roof is known, then it can be retrofitted to cope with stormwater. In the case of new builds, it's particularly cost effective because it saves expensive ground works. And when it comes to existing housing or commercial buildings, it's possible that a building owner could claim a payment for upgrading a roof. The other side of this coin would be that building regulations in the future might require any re-roofing to adopt this technique. This is currently the case for any changes to front garden paving which now require a sustainable drainage solution. These approaches make it a very cost-effective solution to what can otherwise be an expensive and unappreciated underground installation. It's also fully compatible with green or brown roofs, and can improve their appearance and biodiversity by providing a wider range of growing conditions. If you want to take this solution a little further, then why not use the water as it trickles away down the pipes? The attenuating drains filter the rainwater, so you could pipe it to small tanks for flushing the toilets in the building. This makes it a zero-energy rainwater harvesting system that provides a sustainable urban drainage solution at the same time. These ideas have already been developed, tested and proven in the field. There is no reason why this approach can't be used in the right context – it just takes lateral thinking, and appropriate detailing to accommodate the rainwater on the roof. The construction industry needs to start implementing the techniques and we will need to see promotion for this kind of design change from the government as part of its strategy to protect urban areas from flooding in the future. There's no doubt that finding the full solution to flooding is a complex task. From time to time though, it's very satisfying to find an easy idea that is part of the solution, while saving money at the same time. Jonathan Ward is a building engineer at Arup London Buildings team. Recent projects include the Leadenhall Tower, the Athletes Village and the Siemens Crystal. Thoughts has further articles from Arup on the built environment. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'guardian-professional/sustainability', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'environment/flooding', 'tone/blog', 'artanddesign/design', 'type/article'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-21T07:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/2006/jun/23/broadcasting.bbc1 | MP wades into BBC's big screen football row | An MP has demanded the BBC rethink its World Cup big screen events after just 24 people turned up to one event yesterday, which cost the corporation £200 a head. Conservative MP Nigel Evans said the screening in Preston had cost more than £200 per person and accused the broadcaster of wasting taxpayers' money. "The BBC must urgently review it, as throwing licence-payers' money away in such a flagrant way is a complete waste," he said. The Lancashire Evening Post said 20 fans were at the National Football Museum outside Preston North End's Deepdale ground last night to see Brazil beat Japan. And an additional four spectators had braved the rain to watch earlier World Cup action, the paper reported. Mr Evans, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: "I know the BBC is told not to chase ratings but this is taking the opposite to the ridiculous. "It would have been cheaper, and probably gained more of an audience for the games on show, if they had bought five plasma screens and given them to the people there and told them to invite their friends along. "At a time when the BBC is asking for inflation-busting increases from the licence fee, it must look inwards as to how it can save money. Spending £5,000 to entertain 24 people is nothing like good value for money," said Mr Evans. He called for the screenings to be urgently reviewed, taking into account the violence that caused the cancellation of live showings in Liverpool and London during England's opening game against Paraguay. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/television', 'media/bbc', 'media/media', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'type/article', 'profile/juliaday'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2006-06-23T11:10:47Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
healthcare-network/2014/nov/04/big-data-enabling-future-healthcare | Big data: enabling the future of healthcare | Everyone’s talking about the importance of big data in healthcare. Yet, as the data piles up – most of it is isolated in different silos, and health systems are struggling to turn big data from a concept into a reality. Here’s how I see it having a substantial impact on the health of populations, today and in the future. Most healthcare organisations today are using two sets of data: retrospective data, basic event-based information collected from medical records, and real-time clinical data, the information captured and presented at the point of care (imaging, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart rate, etc). For example, if a diabetic patient enters the hospital complaining about numbness in their toes, instead of immediately assuming the cause is their diabetes, the clinician could monitor their blood flow and oxygen saturation, and potentially determine if there’s something more threatening around the corner, like an aneurism or a stroke. Pioneering technologies have succeeded in putting these two data pieces together in a way that allows clinicians to grasp the relevant information and use it to identify trends that will impact the future of healthcare – otherwise known as predictive analytics. So for example, if more diabetic patients start to present a similar trend of numbness in their toes, the coupling of real-time and retrospective data can potentially help doctors analyse how treatments will work on a particular population. This gives hospitals a much stronger capability to develop preventative and longer-term services customised for their patients. But what if we take data a step further and introduce gene sequencing into the picture? Today, gene sequencing is used primarily to determine the course of treatment for cancer patients. As gene sequencing becomes more common, the cost may fall, making it more likely that we’ll see gene sequencing become a routine part of a patient’s health record. Imagine the kind of impact this data will have on treating infectious diseases, where hours and even minutes matter. The next time there’s a disease outbreak, we could potentially know the genome of the infectious organism, the susceptibility of the organism to various antibiotic therapies, and therefore determine the correct course of action without wasting precious resources in trial and error. Undoubtedly, we have yet to determine the most practical, cost-effective way to manage this kind of data. To put it into perspective, the human body contains nearly 150tr gigabytes of information. That’s the equivalent of 75bn fully-loaded 16GB Apple iPads, which would fill the entire area of Wembley Stadium to the brim 41 times. Imagine collecting that kind of data for an entire population. There’s no doubt that this is a mammoth task, and while we might not be there yet, we are certainly getting closer. There are still challenges ahead: organisations are learning lessons from the early adopters and trying to determine the best ways to cooperate and share data. Undoubtedly the amount of investment required to make big data technologies work is more than what a single segment of the market can afford. That means all stakeholders, including pharmaceuticals, will have to work towards a common vision. But with public-private partnerships paving the way for payers and providers to work more closely together, we are heading towards success, and more importantly, better patient care. The data management hub is funded by EMC, Fortrus and the NIHR Clinical Research Network. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Are you a member of our online community? Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers. | ['healthcare-network/healthcare-network', 'healthcare-network/data-management', 'healthcare-network/patient-records', 'healthcare-network/work-practices', 'healthcare-network/hospitals-and-acute-care', 'healthcare-network/gps-and-primary-care', 'tone/comment', 'technology/big-data', 'type/article'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-11-04T08:30:06Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
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