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environment/2012/jun/18/elysia-viridis | Elysia viridis – Photosynthesising sea-slug | Description This sea slug has a delicate leaf-shaped body up to 5 cm in length tapering off to a point. Ecology This species is commonly vivid green, and occasionally bright red or brown. It feeds on seaweed and takes its colour from the seaweed's photosynthesising cells (chloroplasts). The chloroplasts are retained unharmed in its body, where they continue to photosynthesise – the sugars they produce supplement the sea slug's diet. Distribution It can be found in shallow water and rock pools in European waters, with most British records being from western coasts. • Name the other species by clicking on the links on the right-hand side or the previous and next buttons at the top of the page | ['environment/series/name-a-species', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2012-06-18T07:06:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2016/nov/21/dawn-raid-war-on-trees-sheffield | A dawn raid, dissenters silenced: is this a war on trees? | Patrick Barkham | When Jenny Hockey was woken by two policemen hammering on her door at 5am last Thursday, her first fear was that some disaster had befallen her children or grandchildren. But as chainsaws revved in the dark and the officers ordered her to move her car, a disaster was about to befall her street trees. There is often a moment in long-running disputes when one side jumps the shark and performs an action so preposterous that its case is forever discredited: so it was with Sheffield’s Labour council and its dawn raid to destroy eight trees in Rustlings Road, where Jenny Hockey lives. A 70-year-old emeritus professor she felt unable to stand “feebly watching” as these mature limes were hacked down, so she stepped past a protective barrier with another pensioner in peaceful protest. Both women were arrested and spent eight hours in a cell. Hockey fears she could face a six-month jail sentence. The bleak stumps, on which locals have lain flowers, are perhaps not as distressing as the council document published at 4.25am last Thursday morning: its independent tree panel found that seven of the eight trees were in good condition with a good life expectancy. Ah, experts. There is something rotten in Sheffield and it’s not the 36,000 mature street trees in this uniquely green city. Contrary to council claims, an independent survey in 2007 found that just 1,000 required replacing. Instead 4,000 so far have been chopped down by Amey, who are four years into a 25-year PFI contract to manage Sheffield’s roads. This contract is disastrous for trees because, like big old buildings, big old trees cost more to maintain. A newly planted tree is far cheaper over the 25-year contract. If a PFI deal were signed to manage Buckingham Palace, it would be demolished. This is no parochial dispute. Enfeebled local authorities have signed secret PFI contracts (even the outraged local MP Nick Clegg can’t see Sheffield’s unredacted version) across the land. The myopic mathematics involved fail to account for the financial contribution a mature tree makes to flood alleviation, air quality, climate change amelioration and property prices. That’s before we consider trees’ impact on mental and physical health. And is it irrelevant that local people find these trees beautiful? Sheffield says it must, with an eye for the future, engage in sensible husbandry, and trees will be replanted, but poor Jenny Hockey must cope with her name in the news. The people responsible for this controversy in Sheffield – from councillor Bryan Lodge to Sheffield city council chief executive John Mothersole to Amey chief executive Andy Milner – should be named too. They won’t feel shamed but they should. Slim down fatcars A few friends have bought SUVs to “protect their families” and it’s clear that the big-car arms race shows no sign of abating. Almost one in three new cars sold in Britain is an SUV. No surprise, then, that National Car Parks is enlarging many of its. Road tax linked to car size might shape thinking. Fatcats are universally detested. Fatcars are getting away with it. Brewdog can get stuffed I rather like taxidermy but beer maker Brewdog is courting outrage by relaunching a 55% ABV beer called The End of History as part of a crowd-funded bid to open a brewery in Ohio. Each bottle is encased in a taxidermied corpse, usually a squirrel. It’s taken a century for the Victorian taxidermy of Walter Potter – who put anthropomorphised animals in comic tableaux – to return to fashion. I’m sure this historical comeback will end rather more quickly. | ['commentisfree/series/notebook', 'environment/forests', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'uk/sheffield', 'politics/pfi', 'tone/comment', 'cities/cities', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-11-21T18:11:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2013/sep/09/barrington-tops-farm-climate-change | Bushfires in September: voting while the planet burns | Jane Caro | "The Caros have been urban since the 12th century", I protested when my until then fairly reasonable wine-marketer husband declared that he wanted to breed stud cattle. It was a farm he wanted and, thanks to a small inheritance, it was a farm he (and I) got. We've owned our small property on the edge of Barrington Tops, the only temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, for almost 20 years. Rainforests, as the name suggests, are very wet and so generally don't burn. It also gets very cold in winter; it used to snow occasionally, particularly on the Tops, but we haven't seen that in years. On Saturday, after casting our votes, my daughter and I left the city behind us and headed to the farm. As farmers will know (not that I really lay claim to being a farmer – it was my husband's dream, after all) the weather takes on a new significance when the difference between a good year and a bad year relies on it. And the weather has certainly been behaving very strangely, at least around here. We still get more or less the same rainfall but it now seems to come down in huge torrents, rather than weeks of slow drizzle, so we get more raging floods and then it stops completely, like it has now. It hasn't rained a drop up here for almost three months and the place is dry – very dry. It's also getting much hotter much earlier. My husband used to complain bitterly that we didn't see even a hint of spring until October at the earliest. In the last few years, however, the daffodils are finished already and the wisteria is in full bloom – and it's only just September. And as we drove along the narrow dirt road towards our place yesterday, my daughter and I observed something much more sinister. The valley was in flames. Now don't get me wrong, spring is the traditional time when farmers up here burn to keep down weeds and ticks, so the grass fires we passed didn't worry us unduly at first. Though, as we commented, at 30 degrees (in September!) and with everything so tinder dry, it seemed high risk to do even a controlled burn. Then we got to our own property, and it was on fire too. Which couldn't be a controlled burn because we had not been there to either light it or control it. And, as well as breeding cattle, we grow trees as a commercial plantation – so when we burn, we watch it very carefully. As a neighbour explained, the fires had been burning for three solid weeks, slowly eating their way up the valley. They hadn't done any real damage, sticking to the undergrowth and not getting into the canopy at all. To be honest, they've probably done us a favour by getting rid of the built up fuel that might be a real danger once summer hits, particularly if it stays this dry. Nevertheless, it spooked us a bit. In 40 years of visiting this valley, we had never seen or heard of such a slow fire, especially in August and September. Nor can anyone remember spring coming quite so early or being quite so hot. In fact, the world has just experienced its 342nd consecutive month of hotter-than-average temperatures. In the evening as we watched Australia elect a government sworn to repeal the carbon tax, we couldn't help remarking on the irony, particularly as we watched the results come in while listening to the fire in the paddock across the river crackle and burn. As darkness fell, we could see little red pockets of fire scattered amongst the thick woodlands to our north and hear the crash of the occasional burnt out tree as it fell – in early September, on the edge of a temperate rainforest. We may have got a little drunker than we'd intended listening to the fire while watching Australians decide that what we could see, smell and hear either didn't matter or, if it did, wasn't important enough to truly do anything about it. According to leaked details from the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, the world's ice sheets are melting rapidly as the planet warms. Greenland's ice added six times more to sea levels in the decade up to 2011 than in the previous 10 years and the Antarctic melt produced a five-fold increase. But, hey, at least our new prime minister is going to honour all his promises – including repealing the carbon tax, whether its the right thing to do or not. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/liberal-party', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/jane-caro'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2013-09-08T23:24:00Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/2007/may/30/japan.whaling | Japan's whale cull offer rejected | Japan has been accused of "needless provocation" after it offered to spare endangered humpback whales in its Antarctic hunt later this year in return for permission to kill a limited number of whales in Japanese coastal waters. Leading opponents of whaling dismissed yesterday's offer, which came on the opening day of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. "Japan may have underestimated the extent to which the hunting of humpbacks will be seen as a deeply provocative action by the people of New Zealand," Chris Carter, the country's conservation minister, said. Australia, which depends on humpbacks as the main attraction of its whale-watching industry, also condemned the proposal. "It is calculated to undermine dramatically the standing ... between the Australian and the Japanese people," said Australia's environment minister, Malcolm Turnbull. "It is a needless act of provocation." Despite the response from its opponents, Japan said it had not given up hope of securing agreement to allow it to hunt a small number of minke whales with the meat used exclusively for local consumption. "We are open-minded for dialogue, and we might come up with a big package that will satisfy all members," said Joji Morishita, Japan's deputy whaling commissioner. | ['world/world', 'world/japan', 'environment/whaling', 'world/animal-welfare', 'environment/whales', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-05-29T23:04:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2019/aug/08/beef-industry-linked-to-94-of-land-clearing-in-great-barrier-reef-catchments | Beef industry linked to 94% of land clearing in Great Barrier Reef catchments | More than 90% of land clearing in Great Barrier Reef catchments over a five-year period was attributable to the beef industry, according to new analysis by The Wilderness Society. The environment group has used spatial data analysis to examine which sectors are driving deforestation in the state with the highest levels of land clearing in Australia. The report analysed the more than 1.6m hectares cleared in Queensland between 2013 and 2018 and found that 73% of clearing across the state occurred for beef production. The next largest land uses linked to deforestation and clearing were, in order: sheep, crops, multiple mixed use, mining and extractive industries, and rural housing, according to the study. Beef production was linked to 94% of all clearing in the Great Barrier Reef catchments over the five-year period, the TWS report found. “It’s very hard to argue that deforestation in reef catchments isn’t a problem because everybody knows that the reef is in crisis,” said Jessica Panegyres, TWS’s national nature campaigner. “These findings help us pinpoint exactly what is driving Australia’s deforestation crisis and beef is number one on that list.” The research was compiled using data the Queensland government makes publicly available on spatial vegetation, land use and clearing across the state. The government’s own analysis already shows that more than 90% of clearing in the state is due to clearing for pasture. But TWS said identifying how individual sectors were contributing could help build understanding of where more action was needed, and which industries were potentially exposed to financial risk as a result of deforestation. “There’s increasing pressure on major retailers because of global trends toward deforestation-free commitments,” Panegyres said. “Some of those corporations with deforestation-free policies are already purchasers of Australian commodities. “Australia is well-placed to transition to deforestation-free products, but we need to deal with the beef industry.” Panegyres said it was positive that the beef industry had indicated it wanted to move to a more sustainable footing. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The industry set up the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework in 2017 and it tracks the performance of producers over several areas, one of which is environmental stewardship, which covers land management and vegetation practices, as well as climate change mitigation and waste minimisation. Tess Herbert, the chair of the network, said it was important to differentiate between clearing of remnant vegetation and the active clearing of regrowth that was undertaken in parts of Queensland. “Actively managing regrowth and thickening of vegetation can be required for both environmental benefit and production,” she said. She said the framework recognised that deforestation and vegetation management was an issue for its major customers and because of this it had produced a report on the balance of trees and grass cover on beef properties. Herbert said the report looked at both increases and decreases in trees and pastures for the last 30 years across 56 regions and was focused on “evidence-based and practical measures to add certainty and credibility to a contentious topic”. In May last year, the Queensland government introduced new laws aimed at curbing the state’s rate of land clearing. The most recent data summary published through Queensland’s statewide landcover and trees study (Slats) found 40% of clearing that occurred over 2016-17 and 2017-18 was in reef catchments. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/farming', 'food/beef', 'environment/environment', 'food/food', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-07T18:00:56Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2007/oct/30/environment.climatechange | Malaria moves in behind the loggers | The afternoon is hot and sticky on the banks of the Napo river, an arm of the Amazon, but Claudio, a logger, is shivering in his creaky wooden bed. "I feel bad, very bad, pain all over my body, fever, high fever, shudders," he says. "I have malaria; this is the 17th time so far. I don't know what to do any more." The mosquito-borne illness has returned to the many villages only accessible by boat in the Peruvian Amazon, inflicting on the inhabitants days of fever, permanent anaemia and - in the worst cases - death. In Peru, malaria was almost eradicated 40 years ago, but this year 64,000 cases have been registered in the country, half in the Amazon region. It is thought there are many more unregistered cases deep within the massive and humid rainforest, where health authorities find it almost impossible to gain access. "Malaria is present. There have been 32,000 cases this year in this area alone - that says malaria is very much present," said Hugo Rodríguez, a doctor at the Andean Health Organisation, which is fighting malaria in border areas of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. His organisation distributes mosquito nets to some villagers, spreading the message through the area that the illness is dangerous and - where they can identify the cases - helping in post-infection treatment. "Now we are not talking about eradicating malaria any more, as that is impossible and unsustainable; we are doing our best to try and control it," he added. Climate change and deforestation are behind the return of malaria in the Peruvian Amazon. Off-season rain is altering the pattern of mosquito development, leaving puddles containing the lethal larvae in areas where malaria had been nonexistent. "The actual malaria problem of the Peruvian Amazon is caused by constant climate changes," said biologist Carlos Pacheco, head of the mosquito control unit in Iquitos, the regional capital south of Mazán. And deforestation is having a similar effect, forcing the mosquito to move to new areas and spreading the disease to places where people are not aware of the disease, where villagers lack the means to get hold of mosquito nets and preventive medicines, and where health authorities have no presence. "Every time we fight the mosquito, we feel we are fighting against a much more evolved and adaptable one, one that can easily migrate to areas that were clean of malaria before and that are very hard to access," said Mr Pacheco. Two scientific reports last year linked malaria with deforestation. Peruvian researchers found that frontier areas cleared of trees for logging, settlements, roads, farming or mining were far more likely to harbour malaria-carrying mosquitoes. In one Peruvian study, researchers said the biting rate of mosquitoes in deforested areas was nearly 300 times greater than in virgin forests. Increases in human population density had no impact on biting rates. The insects lay their eggs and thrive in open, sunlit pools of water. Roadbuilders dig channels and culverts which become blocked, silt washes off farmland blocking streams, and opencast mines and new settlements create ideal breeding grounds. Anyone who catches malaria in the Amazon region has few opportunities for treatment. Even in the most densely populated areas, there are few health centres. Loggers are the mosquitoes' main victim. "The districts with the higher logging activity are the critical ones, making the disease there to be almost impossible to control," said Dr Rodríguez. "It is very hard to access the areas where the clearing of the rainforest occurs and these people are not conscious of the risks and once infected - and sometimes because of the illegality of this activity - loggers are very reluctant to get treated by health authorities." Alongside the Amazon river and its many tributaries, poverty-stricken loggers like Claudio move deep into the rainforest, in areas where malaria is prevalent, without taking any precautions and for meagre wages. Pointing at his neighbour's one-year-old son who is recovering from the disease, Arquímedes of the village of Manacamiri near Iquitos said: "Here most people suffer from this disease, from malaria. "There are no other diseases like this, no other problems like this here ... We have now become the malaria zone." Behind him, the bank of the low Nanay river seems nothing more than a mud puddle with mosquitoes buzzing around. "Children, elderly, how many deaths we already had," said Arquímedes. "At the beginning we had no idea what it was, and it was malaria ... there is not a single day without a malaria patient." · This article was amended on Monday November 5 2007. We used a photograph of the wrong type of mosquito to illustrate the above article. The picture was of an Aedes mosquito, which does not transmit malaria. The picture has been removed. | ['world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/globalisation', 'business/internationaltrade', 'society/malaria', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/peru', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-10-30T12:29:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2011/oct/09/china-energy-resources-shale-uranium | China eyes gas from shale and uranium miner in resource grab | China's growing attempts to seize global natural resources has reached Britain with a link to the recent shale discoveries near Blackpool and a bid for a London-listed uranium company. Close ties have emerged between China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and a backer of Cuadrilla Resources, the exploration group that claimed last month there were trillions of cubic metres of shale gas under Lancashire. The Beijing-to-Blackpool link was revealed after the Hong Kong-based Kerogen Capital came to the rescue of one of the largest shareholders in Cuadrilla. Kerogen and CNOOC are behind a new $1.5bn (£1bn) fund, which is looking at investing in new resource projects. Kerogen, set up by former JP Morgan bankers Ivor Orchard and Jason Cheng, has taken a 15% stake in AJ Lucas – an Australian engineering business that holds about 40% of Cuadrilla. Lucas has been struggling to raise new cash and needed to inject $10m in Cuadrilla to maintain its stake in a business that is also 40% owned by Riverstone – a private equity firm in which former BP boss, Lord Browne, is a key player. Chinese companies have already bought into shale gas companies in the US, where a welter of discoveries has sent the price of natural gas plummeting. Cuadrilla made headlines when it claimed that two exploratory wells in the Bowland shale of Lancashire indicated huge reserves of 5.6tn cubic metres of shale gas. Some academics have questioned the very high estimates, but Cuadrilla told the Guardian that it stands by those numbers, and made clear that Lord Browne, one of the most respected figures in the oil world, had endorsed them too in his capacity as a Cuadrilla board member. Objections to shale operations focus on potential water contamination, due to the chemicals pumped into the ground with water to hydraulically fracture, or "frack", the rock and release the hydrocarbons. Green groups also fear that cheap gas will undermine government carbon-reduction targets and inhibit the nascent renewable energy industry. The process has been banned in France and some US states but another company is also applying for drilling licences in Britain, this time in the Mendip Hills outside Bath. Meanwhile, the state-backed China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG) is expected to launch a £650m takeover of a London-listed uranium miner, Kalahari Minerals, as early as this week. Shares in Kalahari, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, rose 7% on Friday amid speculation about interests in the far east. Kalahari is of interest to nuclear operators because it owns a big stake in the Husab uranium mine in Namibia, one of the world's largest. Despite the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, China is still expected to proceed with its reactor construction programme – it already has 25 plants under construction, half of the world's new capacity. CGNPG offered 290p a share for Kalahari Minerals in March, valuing the mining group at £756m, but the deal fell apart after the Chinese company tried to cut the price after Fukushima. The tsunami led Japan, Germany and Austria to halt their new nuclear programmes or phase out reactors early, reducing uranium's value as a fuel. China's Minmetals launched a $1.2bn offer last month for Anvil Mining, a copper producer with assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/energy', 'environment/gas', 'environment/environment', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/china', 'world/world', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-10-09T16:21:38Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/poverty-matters/2011/dec/14/aid-climate-conferences-integrated | After a deluge of conferences, shouldn't we all get under the same umbrella? | The Durban conference on climate change ended with a much better deal than most experts expected, but so much remains to be worked out that it is hard to say how much real progress has been made. The same could be said for the Busan conference on development co-operation, which ran concurrently across the Indian Ocean. Noticeably, there was little reference between the two events. The Busan outcome document mentions climate finance as an afterthought, clearly wanting to avoid stepping on the toes of another international process. There is clearly a rationale for both processes. One focuses on development co-operation, the other on global climate change. But there is also a danger the two agendas will grow apart if they are not brought together. After all, it was the Indian representative's impassioned speech on equity and the right to develop that made such an impact in Durban, according to reports. The Busan conference recast aid in terms of "development effectiveness". It's not a new term, but it has returned to the limelight as a result of the overly technocratic aid effectiveness agenda, and also thanks in no small part to advocacy from BetterAid and those civil society organisations that have been banging the drum for years. In similar vein, Tom Mitchell, head of the climate change, environment and forests programme at the Overseas Development Institute, has coined the term "climate effectiveness". Yet, as climate finance continues to live its bizarre parallel (but non-additional) existence to aid, isn't it time the two agendas became fully integrated? Rather then set up a new partnership to ensure the "development effectiveness" of development finance, it would seem sensible to bring development and climate finance together, monitoring the efficacy of both. There is little practical difference in reality; one and the same national development plan needs to respond to poverty, inequality, climate change and limited resources. The Busan conference tentatively set out plans to build a new "global partnership for development effectiveness", the modalities of which will be worked on in the months leading up to June 2012. Whether by coincidence or design (probably the former), that is when the next major international conference takes place, and it is the perfect place to rebuild the links between the environmental and development agendas. Called Rio+20 in homage to the Rio conference of 1992 – which was, in many ways, the mother of all international conferences – the summit is again taking place in the Brazilian city. It is the last major conference before the millennium development goals come up for renewal in 2015. One of Rio+20's two main objectives is to "improve international co-ordination for sustainable development". The organisers could start by getting on the phone to the UNDP and OECD representatives charged with taking forward the Busan partnership. More generally, Rio is an opportunity to put the concept of sustainable development back at the heart of the modern global development discourse. Sustainable development means taking into account what has been called the "triple bottom line": the economy, the environment, and social equity and poverty. Western politicians, leading their countries through a period of slow-to-no growth, may find it harder to focus on poverty and the environment. Southern politicians will be happier to talk about poverty and international equity, but national equity and the environment may not resonate in some core constituencies. Aware that growth is still the one concept that draws all major political strands together, Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general, claims that "the sustainable development agenda is the growth agenda for the 21st century". But the Rio+20 conference must be careful that its decision to focus on the term "green economy" does not obscure the balance implicit in the well-worn but still vital concept of sustainable development. No idea has yet garnered so much political and academic support, and separating the three core factors is as unsatisfactory theoretically and practically as it may be attractive politically. The idea of sustainable development goals, first floated by the Colombian government and seemingly gathering momentum as Rio+20 approaches, could be a way of embedding the concept into international dialogue, as well as binding together disparate processes such as Busan, Durban and the MDGs. Countries in the north are tempted to give in to vested interests and protect the dirty economy, as Canada appears to be doing by pulling out of the Kyoto protocol. Rio could be the arena to remind them that a green economy will be better for jobs and growth, as well as the planet, if they only have the vision to look beyond the dangerous comforts of the growth model with which we have so far been stuck. | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'global-development/fourth-high-level-forum-on-aid-effectiveness', 'environment/durban-climate-change-conference-2011', 'global-development/aid', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/world', 'world/southafrica', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathan-glennie'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-12-14T10:41:19Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/blog/2012/feb/23/ed-stafford-amazon-explorer-conservationist | Web chat: Ed Stafford, Amazon explorer and conservationist | Joining us at 1-2pm today is Ed Stafford, the first man to walk the length of the Amazon river. Stafford is the public face of the Rainforest Reporter competition, launched today by the RSPB and Tesco as part of a new partnership to raise £1m in the first year of a partnership to protect rainforests from deforestation. Whatever you want to ask about the Amazon rainforest, this is your chance. Interested in what the first-hand experience of trekking the Amazon is like? Want to know his thoughts on plans to water down logging penalties through changes to the Forest Code? Or do you just want to know more about survival and exploration in the wilderness? Post your questions below for Stafford - please note anything off-topic will be removed. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'profile/environmenteditor'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2012-02-23T10:10:53Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/jan/17/country-diary-the-alder-trees-here-are-suffering | Country diary: The alder trees here are suffering | Tom Allan | There is no path, so we follow the faint line of a ditch into the trees. Jackdaws scatter away through the twisting tree trunks, and my 18-month-old daughter, perched in her rucksack, points after them and imitates their clack clack clack calls. This soggy fragment of alder and ash woodland in the southern Borders is a site of special scientific interest, a rare scrap of mature native trees in a land of sitka spruce and sheep-grazed upland. For me it’s always been an edge, the point where my parents’ garden ends and the open hill begins. Each spring I came in search of jackdaw nests here, clambering up the side branches and peering into the darkness at the leathery nestlings, wincing from the acrid stench that emerged. Today I linger too long trying to photograph lichen on a branch and my daughter urges me forward: “on-we-go”. Her world is vivid and full of dazzling details, but not always those that I am drawn to: lichen and moss are currently of little interest compared to gate latches and drain covers. So we walk on, disturbing a roe deer that bounds away through the tussocks. My daughter shrieks – the deer must be a firework, a unicorn in her world. Then we see the first dead crowns. The alder trees here are being ravaged by disease, most probably the fungus-like organism Phytophthora alni. Its name conveys its devastating effect, coming from the Greek phyto (plant) and phthora (destruction). This plant destroyer is waterborne, spreading downstream along rivers and burns from infected sites. There are no up-to-date formal figures on its prevalence in the UK, but Forest Research (formerly the Forestry Commission) estimates that it affects at least 20% of trees in infected river systems. Phytophthora will thrive in the warming climate, as cold winters have been found to slow its progress. As floods become more frequent and severe, the opportunities for it to spread are increasing. We have reached the edge of the copse, where a wire fence separates the alder from the open hill behind. Pausing to look at the last alder tree, I point out the new catkins to my daughter. She reaches out for the powdery, violet seeds and repeats back two toddler-friendly syllables: “cat-kins”. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/allan-tom', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-01-17T05:30:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/jul/06/our-ancestors-fled-to-forest-escape-disease-now-its-us-aoe | Back to nature: the story of one family’s retreat into the Amazon forest to escape Covid | As billions of people isolated around the world in 2020, villagers from Sarayaku , a Kichwa community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, headed deeper into the forest to escape the coronavirus pandemic. The journey, documented in a new short film called The Return, reaffirmed the bond the community has had with the forest for generations, protecting ancestors from missionaries, militias and emerging diseases such as measles and smallpox, as well as sustaining life. Directed by the indigenous film-maker Eriberto Gualinga and co-produced by his niece and environmental defender Nina Gualinga, both from Sarayaku, alongside British film-maker Marc Silver, the Guardian documentary had its premiere at the Sheffield DocFest in June. The Kichwa community has gained international acclaim for its environmental activism, successfully defending its ancestral lands in the Bobonaza river basin against an oil company looking to drill, and winning a case against the Ecuadorian government at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in 2012 for not respecting the right to life, safety and land. The Guardian spoke with Eriberto and Nina about the message of The Return and their work as defenders of the forest. When did you realise the pandemic was coming? Eriberto: “On 17 March 2020 there was terrible flooding in our village, Sarayaku, and other communities. It reached a height we’d never seen before, covering the roofs of homes and tearing down bridges. It left us with nothing, without food, nothing. We were reconstructing our homes and replanting crops when we heard on the radio that Covid had arrived in the nearest city. We’d already heard about the virus in February. When we were completely physically exhausted, Covid attacked us.” Some villagers headed deeper into the forest. Why did you want to document this journey? Eriberto: “I wanted the world to also return to the forest. The forest is important. That is where life is. It is the lungs of the world. I imagined people isolating in the city in the pandemic – being stuck in four walls alone in a house – and all the problems that can bring. “Isolating in the forest is completely different. It is freedom, fishing, collecting fruit, long walks, sharing knowledge with parents, collecting medicinal plants … I wanted to show how important the forest is for the world and why we should reconnect with her. In Kichwa, the film is called Tiam which means ‘look back’. It’s about reconnecting with and respecting nature.” In the film, it’s clear this is not the first time Kichwa community members have sought the protection of the forest. Eriberto: “This is something our grandparents told us they and their ancestors did to escape the army, missionaries and illnesses such as measles and smallpox. Without making a noise, they’d confine themselves to the forest. They’d tell us about it as if it were a story, but it was reality, it actually happened. Now we’ve had to do it, too: escape to the middle of the forest, but evidently this time with technology by our side. The radio was telling us what was happening in the world.” Sarayaku is a small village but its impact on the world has been mighty. What is it about people from Sarayaku? Nina: “From the beginning, the Sarayaku people has been very clear with our vision for the future, our culture and our identity. We know what we are defending. I think that’s reflected in the decisions and creativity of young people, my uncle and myself. It’s not only Sarayaku, but I think the victory against the Ecuadorian government set a precedent internationally.” Can you tell me about the Sarayaku’s living forest proposal, which seeks the protection of indigenous lands around the world? Nina: “It’s very interconnected with what The Return is about and what it means. It’s a way to explain the indigenous view on how we as humans are part of this Earth, this living being, and all of these different ecosystems. It recognises life in the forest as a collective and individual: the plants, the trees, the stones, the spirits. That’s how Sarayaku understands the world. “The living forest proposal is about recognising that. And reframing the mechanisms we have constructed around us, such as laws and the economic system, to rethink what we actually value. Everything is recognised as a living being, beyond what our eyes can see in the Amazon rainforest and everywhere else. Perhaps it sounds complex and far away for many, but I think it’s really necessary right now.” Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/environment', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/ecuador', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-07-06T11:00:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2022/mar/04/international-paralympic-committee-president-condemns-ukraine-war-at-winter-paralympics-opening-ceremony | IPC president condemns Ukraine war at Winter Paralympics opening ceremony | The International Paralympic Committee president, Andrew Parsons, gave one of the most political speeches at an Olympics or Paralympics opening ceremony for decades, as he opened the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics saying: “I want – I must – begin with a message of peace as the leader of our organisation. I am horrified at what is taking place in the world right now. The 21st century is a time for dialogue and diplomacy, not war and hate.” Throwing away decades of tradition of making only guarded comments at such events, Parsons continued: “The Olympic Truce for peace during the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a UN resolution. It must be respected and observed, not violated. At the IPC we aspire to a better and more inclusive growth, free from discrimination, free from hate, free from ignorance, and free from conflict.” He finished his speech by almost bellowing the word “peace”. In 2014, in Sochi, the Ukrainian Winter Paralympics team had staged a symbolic protest, sending only one athlete to the opening ceremony as Russian troops invaded the Crimean peninsula. Eight years later, with their country again under attack from Russia, the scene was very different. Maksym Yarovyi carried in his nation’s flag in front of a full delegation, whose arrival in China had been fraught, while the Russian delegation announced that it would be leaving China rather than filing an immediate legal appeal over its expulsion. The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Valerii Sushkevych, told a news conference on the eve of the Games: “It’s a miracle that we have made it to the Paralympics. We overcame a lot of barriers on the way.” He had himself slept on the floor of a bus during the last two days of their journey through Europe. With the ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus, 46 nations paraded in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium, as the city became the first to host both the summer and winter editions of the Paralympics. “Let’s work together for a shared and brighter future,” said Cai Qi, the president of the Beijing organising committee. Athletes from Azerbaijan, Israel and Puerto Rico represented countries making their Winter Paralympics debut in a Games held not just under the shadow of war in Ukraine, but widely criticised for the decision to hold them in China at all, given the host nation’s human rights record. The Games run until Sunday 13 March, when the closing ceremony will take place in the same venue. Covid restrictions meant the crowd was limited, but there was no need to use the cardboard cutouts of people employed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony to boost the apparent numbers. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, attended and formally declared the Games open. The Sochi bronze-medal winner Gregor Ewan and Paralympic debutant Meggan Dawson-Farrell were flag-bearers for the British Winter Paralympics team, who are sending their largest delegation of athletes – 25 in total – since Lillehammer in 1994. Ewan and Dawson-Farrell are part of the wheelchair curling team who will face Norway and then the United States in their opening matches on Saturday. British athletes will compete in five of the six sports at these Games: Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, snowboarding as well as wheelchair curling. Only the para ice hockey contest will not feature British representation. The medal hopefuls Millie Knight and Menna Fitzpatrick were absent from the parade, preparing for their Alpine skiing races that start from 10am in Beijing (2am UK time) on Saturday . Meanwhile, the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) confirmed its delegation would be leaving China. In a statement the RPC said it reserved “the right to apply to the appropriate international and national court” later, but that it was not “worthwhile at the current time to remain in Beijing”. It also singled out the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, for criticism, saying his call for Russian and Belarussian teams to be expelled from international events lead “to the degradation and collapse of the world sport”. Bach was absent from the opening ceremony, having tested positive for Covid-19 in the buildup. The RPC delegation is expected to depart China on Sunday. Associated Press contributed to this report | ['sport/winter-paralympics-2022', 'sport/sport', 'sport/disability-sport', 'sport/paralympics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/martin-belam', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/winter-paralympics-2022 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-03-04T13:42:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2020/feb/23/england-undone-by-south-africa-at-womens-t20-world-cup | England undone by South Africa at Women's T20 World Cup | In a setback to their hopes of reaching the T20 World Cup semi-finals, England suffered a dramatic final-over defeat in their opening match against South Africa at Perth on Sunday. With South Africa, chasing a 124-run target, needing seven runs from the final four balls, it came down to a battle of experience: England’s Katherine Brunt against South Africa’s Mignon du Preez, playing in her 100th T20 international. It was the latter who came out on top – walloping a 67-metre six straight over backward square leg, before pulling the next ball for four to take her side across the line with two balls to spare. It is only the third time that South Africa have ever got the better of England in the shortest format. “It’s nice to finally beat them in an ICC tournament,” Du Preez said. “This is the seventh one I’ve played in and we’ve never got close before. We’ve always known how strong we are and that within the team we have matchwinners but we had a monkey on our back.” “I’ve played enough games in my career to be able to step up in crucial moments and I think to finally do that and contribute to the team is really special.” The result means England are likely to need to win every one of their remaining group matches to reach the semi-finals. “It puts the pressure on,” Natalie Sciver said. “The quality of the teams overall for this T20 World Cup has stepped up a notch.” South Africa had been well on course at 90 for one in the 16th over, with Marizanne Kapp and Dane van Niekerk having racked up an 84-run partnership after their bombastic opener Lizelle Lee fell early in the chase; but Sarah Glenn’s maiden World Cup wicket looked like it might have spoiled the party – Kapp sending a drifting ball straight back into the hands of the young leg-spinner, after amassing a 33-ball 38. Van Niekerk departed four balls later, four runs short of a half-century, caught by Tammy Beaumont at point attempting to cut Sophie Ecclestone. Ecclestone’s second wicket again looked like it might be decisive, removing Chloe Tryon with a quicker ball off the last ball of the 19th over that slid past her defences, after the power-hitter had racked up 12 quick runs. Du Preez, though, calmly finished the job. Despite the close nature of the result, England’s tactics of playing eight batsmen, with Tammy Beaumont dropping down to No 6 (both adopted under their new coach Lisa Keightley), are likely to come under the spotlight after this performance. Opener Amy Jones had looked in fine form early on, attacking the left-arm spin of Nonkululeko Mlaba with a couple of lofted drives; all four of England’s boundaries in the powerplay came off her bat. She came unstuck, however, trying to repeat the feat against the considerably more experienced Kapp, instead sending it into the hands of Tryon at mid-off, dismissed for a 20-ball 23. Four balls later – having faced just four deliveries in the opening four overs – Wyatt over-egged the pudding in her keenness to get going, popping the first ball of Ayabonga Khaka’s spell up into the hands of Lee at point. From there, wickets continued to fall all too regularly, leg-spinner Van Niekerk making a decisive intervention with the ball at either end of her four-over spell. She first removed the in-form Heather Knight, courtesy of an excellent effort by Shabnim Ismail running round from long-on, and later the frustrated Fran Wilson, also caught in the deep after England mustered just one boundary between the eighth and 15th overs. Only a late-dash 41-ball half-century by Sciver dragged their effort up towards respectability. “We were a bit short with the bat – we didn’t get quite enough runs unfortunately,” Sciver said. “As a batting unit we are not quite aligned – there’s a few things we need to tweak. “Hopefully we can go out in the next game at Canberra and play positively and play with freedom.” | ['sport/womens-world-t20-2020', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/womens-world-twenty20', 'sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/raf-nicholson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/womens-world-t20-2020 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-02-23T15:23:02Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
lifeandstyle/2023/sep/24/lego-abandons-effort-to-make-bricks-from-recycled-plastic-bottles | Lego abandons effort to make bricks from recycled plastic bottles | Lego has stopped a project to make bricks from recycled drinks bottles instead of oil-based plastic, saying it would have led to higher carbon emissions over the product’s lifetime. The move, first reported by the Financial Times, followed efforts by the world’s largest toymaker to research more sustainable materials, as part of a wave of companies reassessing their contribution to global emissions as the climate crisis hits. The Danish company makes billions of Lego pieces a year, and in 2021 began researching a potential transition to recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which needs about 2kg of petroleum to make 1kg of plastic. ABS is used in about 80% of Lego blocks. “It’s like trying to make a bike out of wood rather than steel,” said Tim Brooks, Lego’s head of sustainability, referring to how the non-oil-based material was softer and demanded extra ingredients for durability, as well as greater energy for processing and drying. The “level of disruption to the manufacturing environment was such that we needed to change everything in our factories” to scale up recycled PET use, he said. “After all that, the carbon footprint would have been higher. It was disappointing.” The company said in 2021 it had more than 150 people working on sustainability. But Lego’s chief executive, Niels Christiansen, told the FT the toymaker “tested hundreds and hundreds of materials” but could not find a “magic material” to solve sustainability issues. Instead, Lego aims to make each part of ABS more sustainable by incorporating more bio-based and recycled material. Christiansen said the group will triple spending on sustainability to 3bn Danish kroner (£350m) a year by 2025 while promising not to pass on higher costs to consumers. • This article was amended on 3 October 2023. An earlier version said that Lego would triple spending on sustainability to $3bn (£2.45bn) instead of 3bn Danish kroner (£350m). | ['lifeandstyle/lego', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'lifeandstyle/toys', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jem-bartholomew', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-09-24T22:40:34Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2020/jun/29/cooking-up-a-solution-to-ugandas-deforestation-crisis-with-mud-stoves | Cooking up a solution to Uganda’s deforestation crisis with mud stoves | People are “constantly cutting down trees”, says Badru Kyewalyanga, as he squelches his bare feet into a thick paste of mud in Mukono, central Uganda. “But they have nowhere else to get firewood. The deforestation rate here is very high.” With only 10% of Uganda’s rural population connected to the electrical grid, there is little option but to burn wood, leading to one of the worst deforestation rates in the world. Every year, 2.6% of the country’s forests are cut down for fuel, agriculture, and to make way for population growth. If things stay as they are, Uganda will lose all its forest cover in less than 25 years, the country’s National Environment Management Authority says. The mud currently being mixed by Kyewalyanga’s feet is a crucial, if unlikely, ingredient in his fight to tackle Uganda’s climate crisis on a local level. Over the next few hours it will be transformed from an indistinct mess into an energy-saving cooking stove. When finished, it will reduce the amount of wood needed to cook by half. Reminders of the project’s significance are not hard to find; the village overlooks a valley almost completely devoid of trees. Through his work as a scout leader, Kyewalyanga has grown accustomed to similar scenes across Mukono district. It was seeing the consequences first hand that inspired him to act. “Before, we would have two seasons a year that would get a lot of rainfall. But because of cutting down trees, this has changed. Now, sometimes we get one season [of rain], and a lot more droughts. The dry season is now longer than the wet season,” says Kyewalyanga. The knock-on effect of deforestation has been severe across the country, leading to irregular dry seasons, prolonged periods of drought and unpredictable heavy rainfall. In May, deadly floods wrought havoc in Kasese, western Uganda, destroying homes, schools and farms. The region saw similar floods in December, and experts have pointed to excessive tree clearing in highland areas, such as the Rwenzori mountains, which has left the soil loose and unable to retain water. Crop failures have become increasingly common, not just in Mukono, but all over the country. Frustrated by a lack of government action in Mukono, Kyewalyanga began to build the stoves in 2017, after learning the technique from a group of American volunteers. The key is in their simplicity: using only natural ingredients of mud, water and straw – all of which are accessible to most rural Ugandans – they cost nothing to make. They are also fast and easy to construct. In fact, they are literally thrown together. Fist-sized balls of mud are pelted into the ground to form the body of the stove. This technique forces out unwanted air, making the stoves one solid mass and preventing cracks. As the stove takes shape, it is moulded around the trunk of a matooke tree, a banana-like plant common across Uganda, which has been cut and arranged to form the ventilation chambers, combustion chamber and chimney. Over the two-week period it takes for the mud to harden, the trunk will rot away, clearing the chambers for use. For the final touch, a chimney is fitted to the wall allowing the acrid woodsmoke to escape. Besides reducing the amount of wood used, the stoves provide huge health benefits. The inside walls of Christine’s kitchen are charred black with smoke; cooking for a family of six is starting to take its toll on her health. After seeing Kyewalyanga building a stove for her neighbour, she was keen to get one for herself. “It disturbs me very much. I have health problems because of the smoke. Hopefully, it will help me get rid of my respiratory illness,” she says. According to Kyewalyanga, respiratory health issues are common among women in Mukono. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that 4.3 million global deaths a year are a result of indoor air pollution. Working with his scout troop, and a mixture of local and international volunteers, Kyewalyanga has built around 100 stoves over the past three years, but many more are needed. “These stoves are really important because they slow the rate at which trees are used,” says Brian Batto, a young volunteer from Mukono. “In the long run, we’re trying to combat climate change. It’s important to come up with these solutions [ourselves].” This article is part of a series on possible solutions to some of the world’s most stubborn problems. What else should we cover? Email us at theupside@theguardian.com | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/series/the-upside', 'world/uganda', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-06-29T10:46:13Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2009/nov/27/picasso-10-10-climate-competition | Win a genuine Picasso with the official 10:10 climate campaign competition | Do you fancy owning a Picasso for £10.10? The 10:10 climate change campaign (which the Guardian supports) is offering a chance to win an original Picasso linocut, printed in five colours. All you have to do is answer a question about Picasso's work and buy a ticket (each priced at £10.10). Correct entries will be drawn at random on 31 January and all proceeds will go to the 10:10 campaign. Click here to enter. Copenhagen climate summit Next week, we publish our comprehensive guide to the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen – a meeting that has been described as the most important international summit since the second world war. The supplement is your authoritative guide to what's at stake, which countries matter and what a deal will mean for the planet – and its free in Monday's Guardian. | ['environment/series/greenlight', 'environment/10-10', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/art', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'culture/culture', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesranderson'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-11-27T10:29:13Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2010/sep/30/uk-renewable-energy-production-drops | UK renewable energy production falls for second time in 2010 | The UK has suffered a second fall in renewable energy production this year, raising concern about the more than £1bn support the industry receives each year from taxpayers. The drop in electricity generated from wind, hydro and other clean sources in the first half of 2010 could also be a setback to the coalition government's promise that the UK could help lead a "third industrial revolution" and create a low-carbon economy. The DECC today said lower than expected wind speeds and rainfall led to a 12% fall in renewable electricity generated between April and June, compared to the same period in 2009. This setback follows a smaller but still notable decline between January and March, again compared to last year. With a sharp drop in output from nuclear power stations as well, greenhouse gas emissions from each unit of electricity generated will inevitably have risen, at a time when the UK has pledged to cut such pollution, and is pressing other countries to do the same. The renewable energy figures are likely to prompt criticism of the government's energy policies from all sides. Supporters want ministers to increase funding for green industry so more wind farms are built, reducing the risk of seasonal set backs; critics will say the government should instead increase support for energy efficiency, nuclear power or cleaner forms of burning fossil fuels. With speculation mounting that the government is considering cutting the feed-in tariff subsidy for small-scale renewable equipment, 69 industry figures and other experts will tomorrow publish an open letter to the government warning such a move would "shatter" confidence and put future investment "in mortal peril". However, Robert Gross, director of the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College London, said it was too soon to react to the drops in renewables, pointing out that other electricity sources were also vulnerable to short-term problems, such as fluctuations in supply and prices of fossil fuels and technology shutdowns at nuclear reactors. Risks were not likely to arise until renewable sources made up more than 25-35% of electricity supply, when the UK would need back up from one or more of the several options: new gas plants, better connections to mainland Europe, better demand management so more electricity was used at off-peak times, and better technology to store surplus energy for peak times, said Gross. The DECC also suggested the government was not yet planning to change its policies, which included direct support of £265m from 2000-2009, and about £1bn indirect subsidies for large installations through 'renewable obligation certificates' in 2008-9. "Wind energy is home-grown, low-carbon and adds diversity to our energy mix," said a department statement. "The intermittent nature of wind means that we do need alternative back-up generation, for when wind speeds drop. But for most of the time it will be possible to generate significant amounts of electricity from wind, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuels we need to consume." The latest energy statistics for the second quarter of 2010 show total energy production in the UK was 9.2% lower than the same period last year, while final energy consumption was 1.8% higher. Among the different fuels, output from oil and coal fell, while only gas increased its output, by 7.1%. It was a similar picture for electricity alone: coal power stayed steady at about 23% of electricity supplied, nuclear output fell by 23% to 15.8%, and gas production rose by more than 10% to over half of all electricity. Chris Huhne, the climate secretary, repeatedly chastised the previous government for putting the UK in 25th place among the 27 European Union countries for renewable energy, a ranking based on 2008 figures. However, last week RenewableUK, the industry lobby group, said the UK was "on course" to meet its commitment to reach 15% of all energy – including at least 30% of electricity – from renewable sources by 2020. Responding to today's figures, a spokesman for the group said: "Clearly we need to deploy more renewable devices if we expect to get more in the energy mix. Hydro and wind power will vary from year to year, as do other technologies, but we know that they can and do contribute significant amounts of electricity. "Hydro is one the world's oldest and most widespread energy technologies, and wind power has shown its mettle across Europe. If we don't write off nuclear energy on the basis of [its latest] fall, why would we write off hydro, or even wind, which is now the UK's largest source of renewable energy?" Louise Hutchins, climate campaigner for Greenpeace, said: "At the moment it [renewable energy] is a very small share in electricity and small fluctuations in weather can have an impact on the percentage of supply. When we have a lot more renewable energy there will be a lot more stability." | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliettejowit', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2010-09-30T17:08:02Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2011/oct/12/japan-bid-revive-tourism-fukushima | Japan offers free return flights to revive tourism after Fukishima disaster | Seven months after much of its north-east coast was destroyed by a tsunami, Japan is attempting to revive tourism by offering free return flights to 10,000 foreign visitors. Japan's tourism agency said the programme, which will begin in April, is expected to cost more than 1bn yen (£10m), equivalent to about 10% of its budget request for next year. Applicants will be asked to outline their travel plans and answer questions about post-disaster tourism in Japan, recently named favourite long-haul country by readers of the Guardian and Observer in the newspapers' annual travel awards. Tokyo won favourite city for the second year in a row. The successful applicants will receive free return air tickets, but must pay for their accommodation and other expenses. Tourism to Japan dropped dramatically after the 11 March disaster, which left almost 20,000 people dead or missing and triggered the worst nuclear accident in the country's history. In April, international visitor numbers stood at 296,000, according to the Japan national tourism agency (JNTO), down 63% on 2010; by August they had recovered to 547,000, down 32% on last year. "The Asian market has been showing the fastest recovery, with visitors to Japan from south-east Asia having already bounced back into positive growth by month on 2010," said Mamoru Kobori, the JNTO's executive director of marketing and promotion. "Within Europe, the UK is leading the way in picking up the number of visitors to Japan." Kobori said the agency had already invited more than 1,000 journalists and travel industry executives in an attempt to reassure the world Japan is a safe destination. "[We want them] not to just take our word for it, but to come and see for themselves how the Japan of today offers as memorable and diverse a travel experience as ever," he said. The agency hopes the programme will boost spending, particularly in regional economies: spending by visitors dropped by 47% in the three months after the disaster compared with last year. Tourism officials concede many international visitors are still deterred by the continuing Fukushima nuclear crisis and the yen's rise to a record high against the dollar. Before the disaster, officials had set a target of attracting 30 million foreign visitors a year, a goal that appears well out of reach, at least for the next few years. If its budget request is approved in March, the agency will start accepting online applications the following month, and select the candidates by early summer. | ['world/japan', 'travel/japan', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/world', 'travel/travel', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-10-12T09:37:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
football/2015/dec/09/carlisle-united-community-rallies-round-flood-hit-football-club | Carlisle united: community rallies round flood-hit football club | Bride-to-be Sophie Watters was inconsolable when she saw pictures of Carlisle United’s submerged stadium on television – and not only because she’s a huge fan of the club. Watters, 28, and her fiancé Richard Cakans, 38, were due to have their wedding reception at Brunton Park this Saturday. But those plans now lie in ruins thanks to Storm Desmond. Speaking as teams of volunteers helped clear debris from the devastated stadium on Wednesday, Watters said she was “gutted, devastated” that her big day had been ruined. “It was perfect. I’d planned it in four weeks so I could get back to my business and then this happens,” she said. Watters and her fiancé still plan to marry on Saturday, although a replacement reception venue has been near impossible to find, with most places either hit by power cuts or already booked for Christmas parties. In spite of it all, she said, the club had been great. “I’m here to help them because they’ve helped us,” Watters said, donning heavy duty gloves to help lift sodden objects from the stadium. “I woke up on Sunday morning and my fiancé’s sister texted him to say it [the stadium] was under water,” she said. “Everything’s up the wall at the minute. We don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. Obviously the wedding is still going to go ahead but we’re still unsure about the venue.” Dozens of volunteers helped club staff shift debris including televisions, washing machines, benches, tables and gym equipment as the full scale of the devastation inside the stadium became clear. The club’s medical room lay in tatters when journalists were shown the ruin on Wednesday morning. In Carlisle’s home dressing room, sodden football kit was strewn across the muddy floor. In the stadium tunnel, whose walls were lined by an 8ft high silt mark, the pitch was still under standing flood water. The volunteers were responding to a callout for help posted on Carlisle United’s Twitter account on Tuesday evening, hours after 15 of the club’s players took to the streets around the stadium to help clear houses in one of the worst-hit parts of the county. Large parts of Warwick Road, Carlisle’s main artery where the stadium is based, was under 8ft of water until late on Monday. Lynne Carruthers, 53, a lifelong Carlisle fan, said she was motivated to help because she personally had escaped the worst of Storm Desmond. “I’m just here to support the Carlisle community, it’s a tragedy for the county. I couldn’t believe it had happened again. Just horrendous,” she said. “It’s not a very well-off club and I’ve been very lucky, that’s why I feel I need to do something.” Lee Fearn, 30, the club’s fitness and conditioning coach, was heaving ruined equipment out of the stadium gym on Wednesday morning with the help of about 30 volunteers. The state of the stadium was “much worse” than he had expected, he said. “Pretty much everything from the gym is destroyed,” he said. “The last time it happened up here you see the pictures on television and newspapers but they disappear after a week or so. “Maybe naively you see the water disappear and you don’t really think anything more of it, but you can just see the magnitude of the operation that’s going to have to take place now. It’s going to take months and months to repair.” Fearn, who joined Carlisle two seasons ago, also felt the pain of the floods at home, when the house he shares with his girlfriend near the stadium was swamped. He was getting updates on the situation at home throughout Saturday but it was only on returning to Cumbria from Sunday’s FA Cup win at Welling that the scale of the floods hit home. “We’re just the same as everyone else in the area, everything’s ruined. It’s heartbreaking to see but there are families that are a lot worse off – families with young kids, coming up to Christmas, it’s the worst time of the year,” he said. Fearn said he hoped the crisis would spur the club on this season like it did in 2005, when Carlisle were promoted out of the non-league conference in spite of a flood-hit year. They currently sit sixth in League Two, seven points behind the leaders. “It’s been heartbreaking but at the same time we’ve found a bit of solidarity. If we can take that onto the pitch it might even, in a perverse way, benefit us,” he said. Heavy rain is forecast to return to Cumbria later with up to 12 hours of rainfall and further flooding possible. The Environment Agency said up to 58mm (2.3in) of rain could fall on Wednesday evening into Thursday, potentially hampering the recovery of the areas worst hit at the weekend. However, any flooding would not be of the same magnitude as that caused by Storm Desmond, which saw thousands of people evacuated from their homes and many more without power for days. | ['uk-news/storm-desmond', 'football/carlisle', 'uk/carlisle', 'football/football', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/josh-halliday'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-09T14:11:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2017/sep/11/agl-to-deliver-plan-to-avoid-energy-shortage-if-liddell-power-station-closes | AGL to deliver plan to avoid energy shortage if Liddell power station closes | AGL will give the Turnbull government a plan within 90 days detailing how it will supply the electricity market with reliable power when the ageing Liddell coal plant retires in 2022. The public commitment came after a meeting between the AGL chief executive Andy Vesey, the prime minister, and senior government ministers, in Canberra on Monday, where the company was asked to take a proposal to the board to either sell the plant, or keep it open for another five years. In a statement issued after the meeting, the company made it clear it had agreed to the government’s request to take a sale or extension proposal to the board very reluctantly. “I was asked to take to the AGL board the government’s request to continue the operation of Liddell post 2022 for five years and/or sell Liddell, which I agreed to do,” Vesey said in a statement. While acknowledging it would manage a proposal to sell or extend Liddell’s operating life up to the board – the company also made it clear it was inclined to stick with a previously telegraphed plan to develop gas peaking plant, pumped hydro and batteries, as well as a demand response, to deal with the shortfall in NSW once the plant closes. Vesey said the company did not see new development of coal as “economically rational, even before factoring in a carbon cost”. In a pointed observation, AGL said it was complying with the government’s Finkel review requirements to give advanced notice when it intended to close power plants. “AGL is meeting one of the 49 recommendations in the Finkel report that have been accepted by the Commonwealth government,” Vesey said. “The long notice period we have given reflects our commitment to managing carbon risk for shareholders and avoiding the volatility created by recent sudden withdrawal of capacity.” The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, hailed the meeting a success, and he told reporters the company had not made any request for government assistance in the development of alternatives, like gas and renewables, to replace Liddell’s capacity. Frydenberg said AGL’s alternative plan for power to replace the electricity supplied by Liddell “would be firm dispatchable capacity and have no adverse impact on consumers both in terms of price and the reliability of the system.” The government has indicated there would be buyers for Liddell in the event AGL was prepared to sell, and Delta Electricity, a company headed by the coal barons Trevor St Baker and Brian Flannery, has expressed an early interest. The meeting with AGL came as the Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, acknowledged earlier on Monday that ongoing subsidies for renewable energy were “essential” if the government was to comply with Australia’s international climate commitments. The National party’s federal conference this past weekend passed a motion calling for subsidies for renewable energy to be phased out within five years, but Joyce said on Monday his party would chart its own path. Joyce said he would be guided by the federal conference, but not “instructed by it” and he said his view was Australia needed to comply with the commitments we gave in the Paris agreement. He said the National party would formulate its own position on the clean energy target recommended by the chief scientist in his review of the national electricity market, and then would work out how to come to a common proposition with the Liberal party on the government’s energy policy. Joyce characterised coalition with the Liberals as “a business arrangement”. The government has also asked the Australian Energy Regulator to examine the bidding practices of New South Wales power generators, responding to reports that generators have been selling their electricity in manner which inflates spot prices. In a statement, the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, said the request to the regulator is an extension of a project already underway examining behaviour by bidders across the national electricity market following the closure of Hazelwood power station earlier this year. The regulator will report to the energy council of the council of Australian governments in November. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'business/agl', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2017-09-11T10:03:54Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2014/sep/08/zero-deforestation-poverty-jonathon-porritt-prince-charles | Why zero deforestation is compatible with a reduction in poverty | Jonathon Porritt, the environmentalist, last week attacked fellow Greens who back the ambition of “zero deforestation”’. He accused colleagues of “absolutism”, holding back development, perpetuating poverty and even colonialism. He suggested that the aim of stopping deforestation is simplistic and unrealistic. His comments help mark an important fork in the road in the 40-year battle to save the tropical rainforests and highlight the choice that companies and countries have as they approach the complex question of sustainability. That fork is seen in two distinct schools of thought: those who back the idea of eliminating forest loss from supply chains and development, and those who see no choice but to trade off environmental goals against development ones. This is not to say that those in the first camp never expect another tree to be cut or that those in the second say all the forests should be sacrificed for economic growth. The real question is about the overall end point and the strategy adopted to reach it. No serious environmentalist I know is blind to the dangers of environmental policies perpetuating poverty. They seek ways to achieve development while keeping key ecosystems intact. To this extent, zero deforestation is not anti-development but very much in the sprit of sustainable development. It’s a strategy increasingly embraced by some of the world’s largest companies, and especially those in the food and agriculture sectors. In 2010, the Consumer Goods Forum, a grouping of hundreds of the world’s largest brands, made a commitment to “mobilise resources … to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020”. Companies that have taken more explicit stances on this include global giants such as Nestlé, Danone, Unilever, Asia Pulp and Paper, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources. The latter two are major players in the palm oil industry and have adopted leadership positions that will hopefully soon be followed by others, such as Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby, a company advised by Porritt’s consultancy Forum for the Future. Sime has resisted calls to adopt a zero deforestation goal and is among those bankrolling a new study into the carbon emissions that result from forest loss. While such an investigation might be helpful in reminding us of the huge carbon emissions and economic damage caused by forests loss (never mind impacts on local livelihoods, disruption of water cycles and destruction of wildlife – which it apparently will not cover), it might be more productive for Sime to instead review existing studies that show how it is possible to reduce forest loss while increasing food output. Work looking at how to do that gives clear steers as to how best to proceed. The detail will vary from place to place but a combination of planting on restored degraded land, supporting smallholders to increase their productivity, and reducing waste between growers and the market are among the key strategies. Major companies say that such approaches can be combined to produce more food without further forest encroachment. That development can be achieved at the same time as reducing forest loss is not in doubt. Take the case of Costa Rica. During the mid 1980s the country was engaged in mass deforestation but then took the historic step of seeing its forests as worth more intact than when converted to cattle pasture. By seeing other values, including for water (which powers hydroelectric dams) and for tourism, the country invested in forest conservation and restoration while at the same time achieving economic growth. The result 30 years later was a doubling in forest cover while at the same time also doubling GDP. More recently, Brazil, the country with more tropical rainforest than any other, broke the historic link between high forest loss and growing agricultural output. There are about 20m hectares of degraded land in Brazil so the potential exists for producing still more food with zero forest loss, if only the emphasis is on improving soils rather than cutting trees. A range of policy tools could move food producers in that direction, so can international supply chains that demand zero deforestation. And then we should remember that the promise of development from deforestation has often not materialised, including in Liberia where Sime is seeking to expand its palm oil operations. Reports from groups working in that country say that plantations carved over recent years into natural forests have caused more conflict and destitution than prosperity. The fork in the road for the forests is based on a clear choice: go for the concept of zero deforestation through sustainable rural development and farming, or continue with the old fashioned narrative of “trade-offs”. Having spent many years at the frontline in the battle for the last rainforests, I’m very clear which path I’ll take. Read more stories like this: What’s the role of business in preventing deforestation? - live chat ConAgra’s palm oil commitment: saving forests and reducing greenhouse gases Advertisement Feature: Giving smallholders a seat at the table The supply chain hub is sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'guardian-professional/sustainability', 'tone/comment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/palm-oil', 'uk/prince-charles', 'type/article', 'profile/tonyjuniper'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-09-08T06:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2015/jun/10/waetherwatch-hambling-california-dreaming-project-drought-aquivers | Weatherwatch: California Dreaming | California’s four-year drought is the worst in the state’s history and wide-ranging restrictions on water use came into effect at the start of June. In the longer run Californians will need to find new ways of managing their water supply. Rainwater can be captured with dams to create reservoirs, but there is an alternative approach, that of groundwater banking. River water is diverted into shallow pools, known as recharge ponds, where it soaks through the ground and replenishes aquifers. Recharge ponds have proved successful in the San Joaquin valley, with banked water being extracted from the aquifers, below ground level, via wells. San Joaquin county is extending the scheme, to catch rain water directly by surrounding flat areas of farmland with an earth wall or berm about 60cm (2ft) high. Winter storms are an important source of water, and such walls stop the water from escaping and turn the field into a recharge pond. Known as the Dream project (demonstration, recharge, extraction and aquifer management) the scheme is starting with a series of two-acre trial plots. These require the right sort of porous soil, but the project need not interfere with other activities, such as growing grapes. Aquifers do not lose water through evaporation like reservoirs, and the technique is far cheaper than desalination. Climatologists suggest that Californian rainfall is increasingly likely to arrive in short intense bursts. The existing infrastructure may not be ideal for handling these, but a system of recharge ponds should work like a dream. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'global-development/access-to-water', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-06-10T20:30:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2015/jul/31/we-can-stop-shells-disastrous-arctic-drilling-but-only-if-we-join-together | We can stop Shell's disastrous plan to drill in the Arctic. But only together | Daphne Wysham | Shell is putting corporate profits ahead of our future in its determination to drill in the Arctic. Our elected leaders, most of whom are beholden to corporate interests, won’t act. That’s why some environmentalists are willing to put their lives on the line if need be to stop this insanity. On Tuesday, Portland “kayaktivists” – activists on kayaks – and Greenpeace workers converged near the drydock to prevent MSV Fennica, Shell Oil’s damaged ice-breaker, from making its way to the Arctic. If it reaches its destination, the ship will pave the way for Shell drilling in a virgin territory. Fennica was in Portland for repairs to a gash in its hull, which it only became aware of when water started leaking into the ship. This carelessness is not surprising. The Department of Interior has stated that there is a 75% chance of an oil spill in the Arctic once drilling commences, a spill which experts say would be virtually impossible to clean up, posing unacceptable risks to indigenous peoples and the marine environment. In order to prevent Fennica from reaching its destination, a handful of “kayaktivists,” made up of members and allies of the Portland-area Climate Action Coalition – including 350PDX, Portland Rising Tide and my group, the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network – blocked its exit point on the Willamette River. Greenpeace activists surprised us in the early morning hours Wednesday when they rappelled down ropes from the St John’s Bridge overhead, their orange and yellow banners waving in the breeze. As the Fennica began to sail, a reporter from a local radio station called on my cell and asked: “It’s looking like the Fennica is approaching the climbers and the kayakers, what is your Plan B?” I responded by saying: “There is no Plan B, just as there is no Planet B”, adding “We have no intention of moving until President Obama rescinds the permit for Shell to drill in the Arctic.” Shell’s plan to commence drilling in this untouched region — made possible thanks to rapidly melting ice – comes at a time when Nasa’s former top climate scientist says we may see at least 10 feet of sea level rise by 2050 due to climate change. Thursday was one of the hottest days this summer. The extreme weather – which is killing record quantities of salmon in rivers around the Northwest — was just another reason why we were prepared to stay as long as required. After two days of protests, the Fennica turned around. It was a hard-won victory and already short-lived. On Thursday, the police were moving in to extract the climbers. Some kayaktivists have already been arrested. We know that this is not the end. Shell will try again to get its ice-breaker into the Arctic. But we hope that this blockade may just be the “human tipping point” that stops all the new drilling and new fossil fuel infrastructure now. Portland’s ongoing and powerful resistance to the shipping of coal and oil by rail, as well as tar sands mining equipment by road, has shown us that people won’t stand by as the planet continues to experience weather extremes. That’s why activists here and across the Northwest will continue to act as a chokepoint in the transport of dirty coal, oil and gas from coal, oil, gas and tar sands to our east and north – the carbon content of which, once burned, could well exceed the Keystone XL pipeline five times over. We can do it, but not alone. Join us. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/activism', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'environment/environment', 'business/oil', 'world/protest', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/daphne-wysham'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2015-07-31T10:45:01Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2010/nov/29/david-cameron-green-commitment-cancun | Letters: David Cameron must live up to his green commitments | In the runup to world leaders meeting in Cancún today for the next round of talks on climate change (Rich world 'holding humanity hostage' over climate change, 27 November) the silence from politicians and the press was deafening. We held a meeting in our local ward to discuss cutting carbon emissions, sustainable lifestyles and action on global climate change. Seventy-six people came along. We were shocked to hear from Caroline Lucas MP that 12 MPs – that is less than 2% of our elected representatives – were in the House of Commons for the debate leading up to Cancún. The UN recently reported that "a continued failure to tackle climate change was putting at risk decades of progress in improving the lives of the world's poorest people" (Report, 5 November). There are upheavals in the world economy, but the solutions need to be put alongside our overwhelming responsibility in the west to stop overusing our share of the world's resources. Currently it looks as if the "greenest government ever" (David Cameron, 14 May 2010) will be remembered for ignoring the bigger picture and leading us blindly into rising world temperatures from which there will be no return. Sarah Gorton Brighton • It is a bitter irony that as the world prepares to meet in Mexico to tackle climate change, the coalition government could be about to backslide on tackling emissions at home (Cameron's coal plant emissions promise goes up in smoke, 24 November). Unabated coal in the UK belongs in the history books, and the recent cancellation of the building of a new coal plant at Kingsnorth appeared to herald the start of a new – cleaner, greener – dawn. However, we would be deeply concerned if the government's proposals on reforming the electricity market did in fact turn back the clock and return us to the dinosaur days when dirty industries acted unchecked. Giving the go-ahead for a new generation of dirty coal will exacerbate global warming and threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of the world's poorest people, already on the frontline of climate change. We urge David Cameron to nail his green credentials to the mast and stick to his pre-election pledge to champion a more progressive energy policy which will lead to a reduction rather than an increase in the limit on emissions. Barbara Stocking Chief executive, Oxfam | ['environment/cancun-climate-change-conference-2010', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/mexico', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'politics/davidcameron', 'politics/politics', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2010-11-29T00:05:11Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
tv-and-radio/2015/apr/20/hunters-of-the-south-seas-review-bajau-sharks | Hunters of the South Seas review: ‘a lovely, touching, very human little film’ | The Bajau people of Indonesia used to be nomadic, living on boats, following the fish, only coming ashore to exchange their catch for fresh water, rice and vegetables. Now around 1,500 of them live on Sampela, an extraordinary wobbly stilted village sticking improbably out of the ocean. Ha, I put up a stair gate in our house the other day. Sampela makes a mockery of stair gates. The kids live and play on precarious walkways nearly three metres above the ocean; one slip and they’re in. Mind you, Bajau babies can probably swim when they’re born. They’re basically half-dolphin. Will Millard – an affable Englishman with an excellent grasp of Indonesian and a camera that he points at the Bajau and at himself, selfie-filming at arm’s length – is there for three weeks in Hunters of the South Seas (Sunday, BBC2), staying with a man named Kabei and his family. Kabei is old-school Bajau, a spear fisherman; he can dive to ridiculous depths and stay down there for about half a day. He does this thing where he stands on a coral outcrop with his speargun, looking about the place as if he was on top of a mountain on the land, with land gravity. I think it’s mainly for Will’s camera, but it looks incredibly cool. I’d certainly do it if I could. Even Kabei’s 75-year-old dad can catch fish 15 metres down. Next to them, Will, with his snorkel and flippers, is more puffer fish than dolphin. Handy with his camera though. The underwater fishing scenes are balletic in their beauty. On land – well, stilts – Will helps out, plays with the kids (especially disabled Lobo), gets involved. He’s the perfect house guest. Not forgetting to document an extraordinary community at a difficult time. It’s difficult because of dwindling fish stocks, illegal, big-boat poaching, exploitative neighbours in the nearby village who look down on the Bajau (literally, from their snooty pier into the tiny Bajau canoes) and give them next to nothing for their fish. Now some of the Bajau children are turning their backs on the sea, and going to school. School! Over spearfishing, are they mad? Well no, not when their way of life, their very existence, is so uncertain. There’s a threat from sharks too – land sharks, loan sharks. A couple of men come every week from the mainland, offer them cash loans at exorbitant rates, exploiting their innocence. The Bajau have only dealt with money for a generation or two; how are they supposed to get on top of compound interest? Their debts spiral out of control while the sharks get fat. The entire mood of Sampela changes, darkens, when they arrive, in their helmets. Motorbike helmets! Who do they think they are, The Stig? Wonga Stigs? It’s to protect them from the sun they tell Will when he asks them. “Bollocks,” he says, in English. They’re scared of being bashed over the head, though greed wins out over fear. They are right to be afraid. It wouldn’t take much – a push, pass the spear gun, feed them to the actual sharks or grind them up for the Chinese market. Mmm, loan shark soup. Then an entire village – suddenly debt free – goes into collective lockdown. Sharks? What sharks? Not that I’m suggesting it, by the way, Bajau readers. Will becomes passionately involved with his hosts. He clearly adores them and they adore him, and trust him. It’s dead sad when it’s time to go. “I’m going to cry,” he says, doing the rounds of the family. Hell, me too I think. A lovely, touching, very human little film. Also quite cheap, I imagine, just one bloke with a camera; great telly doesn’t alway mean massive budgets. Next week he’s with another community from around those parts: people who still hunt whales, with harpoons. Call me Will. That’s going to throw up conflicting emotions – save the whale, save the whalers. Controversy ahead, I reckon. In For The Love of Cars (Channel 4, Sunday), hard man Phil Glenister and car man Ant Anstead are saving a beast of the road, an Aston Martin DBS. Not the loveliest vintage Aston, or the most valuable, but it’s their Aston, after they’ve shelled out £37,500 for an old wreck in a barn. Then it’s to work – blasting, welding, blokey-bantering, spraying, tuning, unholstering, another coat of banter – until they’re got a beautiful shiny new-again boys’ toy. Which Philip blasts down a runway, chuckling, almost maniacally. Almost like he’s auditioning for another part, a certain presenting job that recently became available over on the BBC. | ['tv-and-radio/series/tv-review', 'culture/television', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'environment/fishing', 'culture/culture', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/conservation', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/samwollaston', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/tvandradio'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-04-20T06:00:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/dec/21/diverting-aid-to-fund-waste-collection-will-save-lives-and-clean-the-ocean-says-charity | Diverting aid to fund waste collection will save lives and clean the ocean, says charity | The British government should divert hundreds of millions of pounds from its aid budget to help developing countries clear up their waste and reduce marine plastic pollution, a charity has said. The development charity Tearfund is in talks with senior government figures, and hopes to persuade ministers to increase the spending on waste and rubbish collection in the developing world from a few million pounds to hundreds of millions a year. Environment secretary Michael Gove has spoken recently of how he has been left haunted by the scale of marine plastic pollution exposed on Blue Planet 2 and is urging more of the UK’s development budget to be spent helping countries tackle plastic waste. Tearfund argues the impact of increasing spending will be huge, tackling a public health crisis in developing countries created by waste mountains and contributing to reducing plastic pollution of the oceans. The British government contributes less than 0.3% of its £13bn aid budget – less than £39m – to rubbish and waste management in developing countries. Tearfund is pressing for donor nations across the world to increase spending to 3%, which would amount to around £390m a year for the UK, but which the charity says would have a major impact on reducing marine litter. Joanne Green from Tearfund said many developing countries were trying to tackle plastic waste but did not have systems in place to deal with the scale of the problem. The charity helps support community groups in Brazil and Nigeria who are trying to tackle a growing plastic waste mountain that affects their health and life expectancy. “In Africa 12 countries have attempted to implement plastic bag bans, for example, and so far only Rwanda has really managed it successfully. It shows there is a desire there and a realisation of the problem, because waste in developing countries is going through the roof. It is expected to double in the next 15-20 years primarily because of increased consumption, and as developing countries adopt western-style disposable economies: “But they don’t have the waste management systems in place to deal with it. This is a major cause of marine litter.” A recent study revealed that 90% of marine plastic pollution comes from 10 rivers which are all in developing countries; two in Africa and eight in Asia. The report found that the more waste in an area is not disposed of properly, the more plastic ultimately ends up in the river and eventually the sea. More than 8m tonnes of plastic enters the oceans each year and plastic fibres have been found in drinking water around the world. Much of the increased plastic waste is from bottled water products. The Guardian revealed that a million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, the vast majority bottled water, and consumption will increase to more than half a trillion by 2012. “The waste creates huge health issues in developing countries because a lot of it is burnt,” said Green. She said 270,000 people a year die from respiratory diseases related to burnt waste. Other health problems were caused by waste plastic clogging up drains and rivers, causing life-threatening diseases. Green said increased spending on supporting developing countries to clear and recycle their waste plastic, would improve local health and reduce marine pollution. “At the moment very little aid is spent globally on waste, and it is a problem which is growing hugely as a middle class develops in many countries,” she said. “The development community has not caught up with this and donor countries have not caught up with this; it is a public health crisis.” Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, has been in meetings with NGOs, as part of efforts to stem the flow of marine litter. Gove is expected to back a plastic bottle deposit scheme in the new year as part of a plan to improve recycling rates. A spokeswoman for the Department for International Development, which manages 74% of the aid budget said: “The environment secretary and international development secretary are working together to see what more we can do in this area. “Their departments have a strong record of work on the environment and development – and tackling marine pollution is a good example of where we can apply the government’s joint strengths. “The issue will be on the agenda for next year’s Commonwealth Summit being held here in the UK, and that will provide a further opportunity to show global leadership in tackling this critical issue.” This article was amended on 22 December 2017. Due to a miscalculation in the editing process, the recommended increase was described as hundredfold instead of tenfold. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/plastic', 'global-development/aid', 'type/article', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-12-21T15:21:11Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
lifeandstyle/2011/feb/13/victoria-beckham-dress-kate-middleton | Victoria Beckham in the running to design a dress for Kate Middleton | When Victoria Beckham launched her fashion label two and a half years ago, she would never have been allowed to get away with the clothes she showed Sunday at New York fashion week. The loose cashmere draping, the austere shapes and the downright difficult hemlines would have vexed both critics and potential customers alike. "I've had to wait until now to do this," she admitted. "People just wouldn't have understood it before." But after five successful seasons, her critics silenced and recession-defying balance sheets, Beckham can take her designs in whatever direction she likes. Her style of catwalk presentation has proved influential. Her front-row side commentary and more intimate shows have inspired other designers in New York to scale back this season. Sunday's commentary began with a self-deprecating joke "I'm miked-up, but don't worry: I'm not singing," she said. A neat trick which brought her audience on side and then allowed her to explain the technicalities of the designs – for example, one swing dress consisted of more than four metres of draped fabric. Her label now has enormous reach. Beckham revealed that Kate Middleton's people have requested a selection of dresses from her previous collection. If all goes well, she will be able to boast a royal seal of approval. Beckham and Simon Fuller, her partner in the label, are playing the long game in building the brand. Each season they add a new element. At first, it was just dresses – and only 400 were produced in total. Then, last season, came bags, and now, for the first time, winter coats . The new collection was all about loosening up. "I want to give women the freedom to look beautiful and to feel comfortable," said Beckham. The design style is, by her own admission, very personal. On Sunday, the designer, five months pregnant, was wearing a loose cashmere-draped dress that had the ease and comfort of an oversized, if incredibly deluxe, scarf. As a result, baby No 4, who is set to make an appearance in early July – but whose sex may be discovered as early as next week, according to the designer – was subtly disguised. But this was a not a collection conceived with one eye on maternity chic. Beckham admitted that she had designed it before she discovered that she was pregnant. Although her creations were not heavily corseted, this was the only piece that she could actually wear. "I'm looking forward to wearing more from the collection once I've had the baby," she admitted. There are four coat designs – all with sleek, skinny arms. One was bright red with a giant buckle at the neck. Another was pleated, another mid-calf length. So-called desert brights, such as saffron and deep magenta, featured heavily, as did pleated double crepe dresses. The most striking was a deceptively simple A-line in vivid red with a deep V at the back. "There's always one that looks simple but is a nightmare to do," she explained. With each new element added to the collection, demand is still outstripping supply. This not only builds up the brand step by step, but it ensures that there is something new to focus on in terms of the customer and the critics.Both Beckham and Fuller have form in brand building. They won't be tempted to rush. E-commerce and standalone boutiques have been mentioned as future ambitions, not immediate concerns. This approach is clearly working. Despite being a fledgling label, last autumn Beckham was nominated for her first British Fashion Award alongside industry giants such as Mulberry and Burberry. The bags, which carry four-figure price tags, are selling "phenomenally well". Figures from November show that orders for the dress collection are up 64% on last year. | ['fashion/new-york-fashion-week', 'fashion/victoria-beckham', 'uk/monarchy', 'uk/duchess-of-cambridge', 'fashion/fashion', 'us-news/us-news', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'fashion/new-york-fashion-week-autumn-winter-2011', 'fashion/dresses', 'fashion/fashion-weeks', 'type/article', 'profile/imogenfox', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | fashion/new-york-fashion-week-autumn-winter-2011 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-02-13T20:56:04Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2013/sep/27/ipcc-climate-report-six-things-learned | IPCC climate report: six things we've learned | • Scientists are more certain than ever that humanity is to blame for rising temperatures. The head of the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation, Michel Jarraud, said "it is extremely likely that changes in our climate system in the past half century are due to human influence." The report says: "Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system." • Concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased to levels that are unprecedented in at least 800,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels is the main reason behind a 40% increase in CO2 concentrations since the industrial revolution. • We're likely to surpass rises of 2C by 2100, the threshold of warming that governments have pledged to hold temperatures to, and beyond which dangerous consequences including drought, floods and storms are expected. "What is very clear is we are not" on the path to keeping temperatures below 2C, said Thomas Stocker, one of the co-chairs of today's report. Global temperatures are likely to rise by 0.3C to 4.8C by the end of the century, the report said. • Sea level rises are coming. "Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century," says today's report, by a further 26-82cm by 2100, but Stocker said "there is no consensus in the scientific community over very high sea level rises". • Scientists said claims that the rate of temperature rises in the last 15 years has slowed did not affect the big picture, and temperatures are going up in the long-term. Climate trends "should not be calculated for periods of less than 30 years," said Stocker. • The amount of carbon the world can burn without heading for dangerous levels of warming is far less than the amount of fossil fuels left in the ground. "The IPCC carbon budget to stay below 2C is 800-880 gigatonnes of carbon (GTC). 531 GTC had already been emitted by 2011. So we have 350 GTC left, which is much less than the carbon stored in fossil fuel reserves," notes our correspondent Fiona Harvey. | ['environment/ipcc', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'tone/resource', 'environment/cop-19-un-climate-change-conference-warsaw', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-09-27T12:58:38Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2009/dec/18/gordon-brown-plan-b-copenhagen | Gordon Brown hints at 'plan B' if Copenhagen talks remain unresolved | The UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, tonight held out the prospect of presenting his own slimmed-down agreement if the UN climate talks in Copenhagen remained unresolved by the end of the evening. Brown's statement came as diplomatic sources gave a heavy steer that China was the major stumbling block to a deal. The prime minister told reporters "there is still a lot of work to be done" to secure any international deal on climate change and said the remaining knots to be undone were whether or not China would agree to calls for the monitoring of its efforts to cut carbon emissions; and whether a long-term goal should be to limit temperature rises to 2C. The Chinese are sensitive to calls for monitoring of each country's efforts to meet commitments. Brown refused to rule out the possibility of the talks continuing into tomorrow, saying he would only make his mind up after the third meeting of 30 leaders he was about to join. He said he had prepared a back-up up plan involving talks between a smaller group of nations in the event that the latest session failed to break the impasse. Officials suggested Brown would convene a smaller group of countries and ask them to sign up to a "plan B". This might include the proposals on the $100bn fund for climate protection which he said there was a "good deal of agreement surrounding". An official said a plan B was possible: "There are not thousands of variables in this, there are a handful. It is only the 2050 target and the issue of how to verify [emission cuts countries pledge]." There was a suggestion the possible plan B might have very weak requirements on transparency. Brown was speaking to reporters after the day's second session and before he was about to re-enter for a third. With biro marks on his shirt, he said he thought the set of measures on the table amounted to a reduction to just below 50 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon levels - if left unchecked there would be 55 Gt of carbon in the atmosphere by 2020. "We have made substantial progress on the issue I have been charged with," he said, "There are two issues that are still outstanding. They are issues that have got a lot of work to be done on." Sources suggested China was the stumbling block as it emerged Chinese premier Wen Jiabao was very offended by president Obama's speech to the conference earlier in the day when Obama made a point of reminding the delegates that America was the second largest polluter. The White House confirmed Obama was attempting to meet premier Wen in his hotel shortly - at 7pm local time - to discuss issues of verification . The premier had not attended meetings between leaders for the duration of his visit to Copenhagen. Number 10 sources said Brown might also ask Brazilian president Lula to broker an agreement with China since the two are members of the Bric Bloc - Brazil, Russia, India and China. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/unitednations', 'politics/gordon-brown', 'politics/politics', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/allegrastratton'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-12-18T18:46:13Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2008/jun/24/endangeredhabitats | Another view: Ecologist Sue Hartley on The Happening | In The Happening, nature strikes back at mankind by releasing a toxin from trees that causes people to commit suicide. Plants release a great number of volatile compounds. If you walk through a pine forest, or sniff herbs, you're smelling them. And we've known for a long time that there are mind-altering substances in plants such as cannabis and the peyote cactus, but these are not airborne - or at least not until you smoke the cannabis. The Happening suggests, correctly, that vegetation can react to attack. For instance, there are some plants that protect themselves from herbivores trying to eat them by releasing volatile compounds to attract wasps - which then attack the herbivores. And some plants communicate with their neighbours. Alder trees have a kind of early warning system: the compounds they release when damaged by herbivores signal nearby trees to turn on their own natural defences. However, these airborne signals don't go very far. For small plants, the furthest a signal can travel is 15 to 30 centimetres. From trees, it's perhaps 10 metres - but that's still not enough to provoke an epidemic. The wind dilutes the releases rapidly, so the characters in the film should probably have welcomed a gust of wind, rather than run away from it. People are very keen on the idea of some kind of unified force of nature, a "Gaia force" that keeps the world in balance; but there is no real evidence for this. We are damaging the planet and wreaking havoc through our destruction of natural habitats. But I don't think we should worry about a backlash from trees. They're more likely to hurt you by falling on your car in a storm. There is a tiny grain of scientific truth in The Happening, diluted by a massive amount of utter fantasy. · Sue Hartley is a professor of ecology at the University of Sussex. The Happening is out now. | ['environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'film/film', 'environment/plants', 'science/science', 'culture/culture', 'film/sciencefictionandfantasy', 'tone/reviews', 'science/biology', 'culture/series/another-view', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/arts'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-06-23T23:01:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2017/jun/29/the-guardian-view-on-tackling-our-plastics-problem-dont-bottle-it | The Guardian view on tackling our plastics problem: don’t bottle it | Editorial | Invention is the mother of necessity, warned Thorstein Veblen. So packaged water is now seen as essential by many, and a million plastic bottles are produced every minute worldwide, as the Guardian series Bottling it has revealed. In the UK, consumers pay up to 1,000 times more than they do for tap water for a potentially less safe product. But the true cost is not to our pockets. Most of these bottles are not recycled; instead we waste energy, choke landfill sites and contaminate our seas. By 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic than fish, research suggests. Marine life is suffering, and perhaps human health too as minute pieces of plastic end up on our plates. This is a global problem and the answers will vary accordingly. But the essentials are: using fewer bottles, recycling those that are consumed, and ensuring new bottles contain more recycled material. Clean and readily available tap water is needed – particularly important in Asia, which is leading the surge in use – and pressure on producers. Consumers, as well as government and business, have their part to play. Simple measures can have a striking impact: the UK’s 5p tax on plastic bags has led to an estimated 80% fall in use. No great inventiveness is needed. And tackling our plastic addiction is unquestionably necessary. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/water', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-06-29T19:20:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2009/mar/05/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack-sri-lanka-cricket-team | Photofits of gunmen in attack on Sri Lankan cricket team released | Pakistani authorities issued sketches today of four of the gunmen who ambushed Sri Lanka's cricket team on Tuesday as criticism mounted of the police's handling of the attack. Seven policemen and the driver of a bus carrying match officials were killed in the attack, part of which was filmed by a local television station. Some of the 14 gunmen were shown strolling away from the scene in central Lahore after the attacks. Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, later said that officials knew who was behind the attacks, but he declined to name them. "We have identified the people who did the operation. We have made arrests, we are chasing them," he told a news conference. He did not elaborate, but said more details would be released in the next few days. Police issued sketches of four of the men based on eyewitness accounts, amid conflicting reports of the progress of the investigation. "The sketches were made from the accounts of a car owner and a rickshaw driver. They appear to be 25 to 30 years old," city police inspector Asif Rashid told Reuters. One police official denied that anyone had been questioned over the attacks. But Salahuddin Niazi, the police official heading the investigation team, said several people had been arrested. "We got some strong clues and leads, and several suspects are in our custody and raids are currently under way to capture more people on information gleaned from some of the detainees," he said. Yesterday Pakistani officials reacted angrily to claims made by the former England batsman turned match referee Chris Broad, who was caught up in the attack, that the police fled the scene. But today the Lahore commissioner, Khusro Pervez, admitted in an interview with Pakistan's Dawn TV that the gunmen should have been challenged by "back-up police support which didn't arrive". He also conceded that the attacked exposed "very vivid" security lapses. "It's correct that we were forewarned. There were many pieces of information which came to us," he added without elaborating. Seven players, an umpire and an assistant coach were wounded in the attacks, which occurred despite government pledges to give the Sri Lankan team the same level of protection as a head of state. Pervez added: "All convoys are provided [with] outer cordons, but in this case the outer cordon did not respond or it was not enough. The vehicles used for escorting the Sri Lankan convoy were not adequate." Pakistan's opposition leader, Mushahid Hussain, said: "The security system in Pakistan under this regime has collapsed because this government is too busy doing other things, they are too busy in their quest for power." Broad, who was travelling in a minibus in the same convoy as the Sri Lankan team bus when the attackers opened fire, said: "There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere. They had clearly left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks." His concerns were echoed by the Sri Lankan team captain, Mahela Jayawardene, who said of the gunmen: "They were not under pressure, nobody was firing at them." Simon Taufel, one of the umpires involved, told reporters on his return to Australia: "The gunfire … just kept going. We thought, when's it going to stop? Who's going to come and save us, how are we going to get out of here? I was expecting a bullet." Pakistan has a web of extremist networks, some with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, that have attacked foreign civilians in an attempt to destabilise the government and punish it for supporting the invasion of Afghanistan. The Lahore assault bore similarities to November's terrorist attack in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai. The Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba has been blamed for that attack, in which 10 gunmen targeted hotels, a Jewish centre and other sites, killing 164 people. Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today denied involvement in Tuesday's attack. | ['world/pakistan', 'world/srilanka', 'world/world', 'world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'tone/news', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'type/article', 'profile/matthewweaver'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-05T11:39:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/apr/28/country-diary-witnessing-a-smooth-newt-in-attack-mode | Country diary: Witnessing a smooth newt in attack mode | Claire Stares | The recently relined pond is looking barren. I’ve replaced the rampant yellow flag irises and marsh marigolds with less invasive species of vegetation, but the immature plants are dotted like islands across an expanse of black butyl liner. Despite their propensity to migrate back to their natal pond, I was concerned that the smooth newts (Lissotriton vulgaris) would abandon this aquatic desert for a more verdant breeding site. Happily, they were undeterred. A few days after I refilled the pond, I spotted two males lazing in the shallows, and by the following evening, they’d been joined by another male and two gravid (pregnant) females. Previously, any pockets of open water were blanketed in frogbit, the miniature waterlily-like leaves obscuring my view of life in the depths. The only indicators of the newts’ presence were rising air bubbles or the occasional glimpse of a tail breaking the surface. They’re still hiding in crevices or free-floating clumps of hornwort during the day, but now, as the light fades, they emerge into open water, which has allowed me to witness the males’ captivating belly-flashing, tail-fanning courtship displays for the first time, and also to gain an insight into the species’ feeding ecology. I knew that smooth newts fed on freshwater snails but had always wondered how they managed to breach the armoured shells. One morning, I noticed that the largest of our great pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) – a distinctive individual that I often spot grazing on a semi-submerged, algae-slicked boulder – had an injured mantle and shell aperture. Presuming that it had survived a bird attack, I thought no more of it – until dusk, when I spotted a robust 10cm-long female newt lurking in the snail’s vicinity. Darting forward, the newt clamped her jaws around the snail’s soft body and vigorously shook it. Newts swallow their prey whole and have blunt vomerine teeth, designed for grasping rather than tearing or chewing, so although it was reminiscent of the “kill shake” displayed by dogs and wolves, the newt was actually trying to dislodge the mollusc from its shell rather than dispatch it. But her eyes were bigger than her stomach and, realising her error of judgment, she released her hapless victim. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/amphibians', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/claire-stares', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-04-28T04:30:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
science/blog/2007/aug/22/climateprotestpolicing | The heavy hand of the law | I was reporting last week on the Climate Camp at Heathrow airport, writes Tristan Farrow. After a week of communal eco-living, democratic decision-making, and two days of protests targeting the BAA (British Airports Authority) and energy companies, let's take stock of what the demonstration achieved. The police may congratulate themselves for 'successfully' containing protesters, but I think I could have done a better job just with some sheep dogs. The Guardian's environment editor and I were stopped and searched walking through a field because "we don't know that you haven't just come from the protesters' camp", said the officer in charge of the police line guarding one access route to the BAA site. Press cards are suspect too. Two days earlier, I was stopped and quizzed at the nearby Hatton Cross underground station after interviewing a woman who was searched when she asked policemen for directions to the climate camp. When there is a threat of violence, most would agree to trade-in the privacy of their bags and pockets for the safety from knives and sticks. Football fans accepted that equation long ago. The line that police tread is a fine one, but last weekend they leapt right over it. Friendly bobby community policing this wasn't. An unsettling precedent police set was the routine use of section 44 of the Terrorism Act to stop and search protesters. This says that police can search and detain people without any evidence of involvement in terrorist activity. But when does protecting the public turn into haranguing, and haranguing into harassing? With the camp at 1km from the airport and with the highest per capita population of vegetarians, it seems a hard case to make that the camp tents were harbouring terrorists. And none of the rioters of G8 fame that 'intelligence' promised us showed up. Last Sunday, police had no difficulty encircling and herding any group of protesters that gathered near the BAA offices. A few tried tried to break out but were quickly clobbered back by truncheons and punches from perspex police shields. In one incident, 20 officers in riot gear "subdued" two rag-clad protestors who were already lying prostrate on the forecourt. Truncheons soon came out and one of the protesters began bleeding as his leg was cut open. The riot police ringed the empty BAA building, while a wider cordon of police surrounded the grounds, coralling hundreds of protesters in the car park. One angry British Airways stewardess said that the police were "behaving as if they have al-Qaida in there". A legal observer was told by police to join the protesters and thrown head-first into the fray when she refused. Compare the behaviour of the Heathrow protestors with something like the Leeds music festival, a venue infamous for turning ugly. One festival-goer described an event in 2005: "People were throwing alcohol onto fires, tents were ablaze. It went on through the night and police were having a hard time controlling it. There, police don't have horses and certainly no riot gear. But at events like the climate camp where people don't really want to hurt others and have a worthy cause, the police are armed like they are terrorists." Which makes me wonder: what should policing priorities be? Heavy-handed treatment of peaceful protesters in front of an empty building, or events known for loutish behaviour where police are out of their depth? | ['environment/climate-camp', 'science/blog', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/climate-camp | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2007-08-22T09:48:04Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sustainable-business/tripzero-startup-green-travel-industry | TripZero: A lean startup tries to "green" the travel industry | About seven years ago, a publishing executive named Eric Zimmerman heard a speech by Eric Corry Freed, the author of a book called Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies. Freed talked about the responsibility that business has to protect the environment, and the stories we will tell our children about what we did. "Have you ever sat in the audience and felt someone was talking just to you?" Zimmerman asks. "That was one of those moments." Zimmerman was moved. He did a deep energy retrofit on his home in Carlisle, Massachusetts. He put solar panels on his roof. He stopped outsourcing his company's printing to China, and he helped to create an industry brand called Green Edition that sets standards for sustainability in book publishing. It wasn't enough. About a year ago, Zimmerman, 48, left his job to start a company called TripZero that offsets the carbon emissions generated when people travel by plane, train, car or bus – at no cost to the traveler. A lean startup – "The company is me," Zimmerman says – TripZero is tackling one of the most intractable problems in corporate sustainability: the carbon footprint of travel and tourism. Global travel is a huge business. A billion tourists traveled the world during 2013, and the industry generated about $2.1tn in direct global contribution to GDP from business and leisure trips, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). But, despite the best efforts of hotels and airlines to position themselves as green – and, yes, hotel owners, we get it that you don't want to wash the towels and sheets every day, for whatever reason – the carbon emissions of all of the big hotel chains and airlines are growing along with their business. As Zimmerman puts it: "The triple bottom line and travel haven't exactly walked hand-in-hand." To be sure, once hotels and airlines have invested in efficiency, they can't do much to decouple their footprint from their growth. Sharply reducing their carbon emissions will require a decarbonized electricity sector, aviation biofuels and close to net-zero energy buildings, none of which are on the immediate horizon. In the meantime, TripZero hopes to attract eco-conscious travelers, along with NGOs and small businesses, to its internet-based booking platform. How it works Through a partnership with Expedia, Zimmerman has built an online travel agency with access to millions of hotel rooms at guaranteed low prices. Those hotels pay commissions to TripZero for attracting customers. A portion of the commissions is then deployed to buy carbon offsets, for such projects as the largest native-species reforestation campaign in Chile's history, a forest protection project in Kenya, wind turbines for Indiana schools and a methane capture project on a Pennsylvania dairy farm. The offsets are certified by reputable third parties, including the Verified Carbon Standard http://www.v-c-s.org/ and the Green-e Climate Standard. Hotels and airlines have long invited their customers to pay a few dollars extra for offsets, but these come at no cost to the traveler. "If we can make it free, then we've really got something," Zimmerman says. TripZero doesn't book air travel because the commissions aren't big enough. Even so, it's easy to imagine how TripZero's margins can get squeezed. Its business model works well for, say, a solo traveler going from Washington to New York by train and booking a luxury hotel. The commission far exceeds the cost of offsetting the emissions. By contrast, a family of four flying from Denver to Orlando and staying in a low-cost motel generates plenty of emissions but not enough of a commission for Trip Zero to offset their footprint. In that case, Zimmerman says, TripZero will make up the difference. "We will offset 100% of the travel we say we are going to offset," he promises. His challenge now is to attract customers. He's planning to do a lot of direct marketing and to invite his early adopters to spread the word about TripZero. Inspire your friends and change the world, the company promises. "I have a daughter who is six," Zimmerman says, "and in 10 years I get to tell her a good story – I hope." | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/small-business', 'tone/blog', 'sustainable-business/innovation', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'travel/travel', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/values-business', 'profile/marc-gunther'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-04-15T15:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
politics/2020/oct/04/farmers-call-on-uk-government-ban-chlorinated-chicken | Farmers call on UK to commit in law to ban chlorinated chicken | The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has called on the UK government to make a legal commitment to ban chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef from supermarket shelves. In advance of new agriculture legislation, the NFU president, Minette Batters, said she was not demanding that imported chickens should luxuriate in “10ft-high straw beds” but that the UK’s high standards of animal welfare should be imposed on imports. “We’ve had so much talk about chlorinated chicken. The thing is, if we don’t put a marker in the sand, if government doesn’t put a red line down in the agricultural bill, that allows secondary legislation on any day of the week effectively to change it. You have to put that marker down and say: ‘No, you know, we’re going to stick by our word today,’” she said. In an exchange with the international trade secretary, Liz Truss, at the Conservative party conference, Batters called on the government to support the Curry amendment to the agriculture bill, which returns to the House of Commons on 12 October. Lord Curry’s amendment is designed to give the recently assembled trade and agriculture commission (TAC) a stronger role in scrutinising trade deals. Truss came under repeated fire over the lack of perceived scrutiny in parliament for trade deals from the government’s food tsar, Henry Dimbleby, who called for full parliamentary scrutiny, including evidence and witness accounts to select committees of all post-Brexit trade deals. He has also called on Truss to put a health expert on the TAC before the nation’s bus stops and billboard are “covered in ads for Hershey bars”. “Our diets are already one of the worst in the world, and we do not want to make it any worse,” he said. Truss rejected the accusation of secrecy and said all signed trade deals would go before an independent trade commission chaired by the SNP’s Angus Brendan MacNeil, who was not a “government patsy”. They would also be subject to an impact assessment process to analyse economic and social consequences, and their report would go before parliament and be debated. Under the so-called Crag process it could be blocked indefinitely if there were an objection. She also said industry players would be consulted in confidence on key elements of trade deals. The tariff offer from the US was about to be shared with “trusted” advisory groups from 11 sectors under non-disclosure agreements. | ['politics/trade-policy', 'politics/conservative-conference-2020', 'politics/toryconference', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/liz-truss', 'environment/farming', 'politics/tradeunions', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'world/food-safety', 'food/chicken', 'uk/uk', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'business/internationaltrade', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisaocarroll', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-10-04T12:22:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development-professionals-network/2014/jul/03/e-waste-computers-dell-recycle | Dell e-waste director: don't ban secondhand computers | Why is e-waste an environmental problem? When recycling infrastructure is in place, e-waste is not an environmental problem. The problem arises when it is not treated correctly and this is a problem in developing countries. Despite having highly effective informal networks for recycling, there is often no effective treatment for waste. The most predominant way of dealing with e-waste is to burn it to extract its valuable materials. This causes environmental and health problems. At Dell we are working towards the environmentally-sound management of obsolete electronics. Through our Take Back programme we are working to ensure e-waste is collected and reused rather than discarded and burned. Is the depiction of developing countries as 'dumping grounds' for e-waste accurate? The view that developing countries are dumping grounds for e-waste is changing. If you look at the volumes of e-waste in Africa, it is not always the big brand technology companies that are doing the importing, even though it may be their products that end up as waste. Increasingly it is local importers in developing countries who are buying and importing second-hand electronic products from companies in other regions. Developing countries are actually generating more and more of the e-waste themselves. Do you think a lack of regulation is behind the problem? Latin America and Africa are the main regions that remain unregulated. The big challenge is that there is a lot of e-waste regulation in developing markets, but it is very uncoordinated. When we talk to governments in Africa, one of the things we say is don't reinvent the wheel. Countries just need to tweak legislation so it works for their economy. The second issue is that the necessary infrastructure to support the legislation is often absent. Although you see these horrible pictures of sprawling e-waste in developing countries, not all of these countries have it in a volume that is going to encourage a big recycler to invest in building the necessary infrastructure. This is why we are saying they should work towards regional solutions. Through our work in east Africa we are seeing the first developments in infrastructure happening in Kenya. Let one country, such as Kenya, be the recycling base for other countries. Are there any issues around using the term 'waste'? The first thing I say when I speak at conferences is to say we have to stop talking about waste as 'waste' and start talking about it as a resource. In many developing countries, particularly those in Africa, the growth of the IT sector is key to development. People are looking for affordable solutions to bridging the digital divide. In Nigeria, we are providing IT access to children via a series of mobile solar classrooms, made from old shipping containers. Many people depend on recycling and sorting e-waste for an income. How do you balance the regulation with the possibility of job loss? We feel it is incredibly important that we recognise these jobs and try to formalise the work. The solution is starting out with embracing the informal sector – training those workers and teaching them how to handle e-waste properly. The idea is that you establish the view that all e-waste has value not just the valuable material that comes from burning it. Instead of only being paid for things like copper, informal workers would get paid for everything they collect. We trialled this in Mombasa and in a week collectors were happy to stop burning e-waste. What is the biggest misunderstanding about e-waste? The big misconception is that the best way of dealing with e-waste is to try and stop the waste coming in to a country, rather than focusing on solutions. We've seen a lot of countries ban the import of secondhand products thinking that they are getting 'waste'. This has a serious negative impact. Uganda has formally recognised the impact of this legislation on their ability to bridge the digital divide. Our commitment is still not to ship waste, but the most important thing for those countries is solutions. As long as there is a solution for waste, it can be managed: you can create value and you can create jobs. Jean Cox Kearns is the director of compliance at Dell. Follow @JeanCoxKearns on Twitter. Read more stories like this: • 12 ways to tackle global waste • Untouchable to indispensable: the Dalit women revolutionising waste in India • Life in Sodom and Gomorrah: the world's largest digital dump - in pictures Join the community of global development professionals and experts. Become a GDPN member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['working-in-development/working-in-development', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'technology/technology', 'global-development-professionals-network/policy-advocacy', 'world/africa', 'tone/interview', 'technology/dell', 'environment/recycling', 'global-development-professionals-network/leadership', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'global-development-professionals-network/series/climate-change', 'profile/holly-young'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-07-03T11:42:35Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/apr/03/early-cherry-blossoms-bloom-washington-dc | Early cherry blossoms in Washington DC point to climate crisis | Spring has sprung in America’s capital, bringing with it a resplendent bloom of white and pink cherry blossoms that is one of the city’s grandest annual traditions. But this year, as Washington DC’s residents embrace a relative return to normal after a tumultuous year marked by the coronavirus and civil unrest, the earlier-than-anticipated bloom may point to yet another looming crisis: climate change. Unusually warm weather in Washington accelerated the bloom cycle of the National Mall’s 3,800 cherry trees, causing the blossoms to pop days ahead of schedule in what experts say is a new normal that will make their arrival increasingly difficult to predict. “Empirical data shows the peak bloom date for the cherry trees is occurring earlier than it did in the past,” said Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service. Washington’s cherry trees now reach peak bloom about six days sooner than they did 100 years ago. At the same time, weather station measurements in the US capital show the temperature has increased by 1.6C (2.88F). “Since heat breaks dormancy in flowering trees, earlier cherry blooming is consistent with heating caused by climate change, although research has not yet examined all of the potential factors that could have caused the earlier blooming,” Litterst said. The trees at the Tidal Basin reached their flowery peak on 28 March, according to the park service, which defines “peak bloom” as the day when 70% of the Yoshino cherry blossoms open. On 4 March, the park service predicted peak bloom would fall between 2 April and 5 April. “The Yoshino cherry trees have reached peak bloom after temperatures well above average for much of the last week sped us through the final stages of the blossom cycle,” the agency wrote on Instagram. It added that the warm weather propelled the cherry blossom buds through the final stages of their six-stage cycle, advancing them from peduncle elongation – stage 4 – to peak bloom in just four days. “The four days from peduncle elongation to peak is the fastest the trees have moved through the last two stages in the last 30 years (matched in 2015),” the agency wrote. Peak bloom often occurs between the last week of March and the first week of April, but exceptionally warm or cool temperatures can shift the timeline. This year, peak bloom was reached four days ahead of the 30-year-average date of 1 April. In 2020, peak bloom arrived on 20 March, the earliest since 2012 when it also occurred on that day. The blooms are tied for the third earliest on record. In 2018, peak bloom did not arrive until 5 April following wicked windstorms and a late-season snow. Washington’s bloom came just two days after the cherry blossoms in Kyoto reached peak bloom on 26 March, the earliest in nearly 70-years of formal record keeping – and possibly ever. “We can say it’s most likely because of the impact of the global warming,” Shunji Anbe, an official at the observations division at the Japan Meteorological Agency, told the Associated Press. The annual spectacle in Washington typically draws as many as 1.5 million visitors to the Tidal Basin, but the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically reduced crowd sizes for a second year in a row. Local officials are urging visitors to wear a mask and practice social distancing. To discourage crowds, the park service limited access to the Tidal Basin during the bloom and urged residents to avoid the area altogether and enjoy the blooms remotely. The Trust for the National Mall is hosting a live stream of the cherry blossoms. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/washington-dc', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lauren-gambino', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-04-03T09:00:33Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/aug/13/europes-rivers-run-dry-as-scientists-warn-drought-could-be-worst-in-500-years | Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years | In places, the Loire can now be crossed on foot; France’s longest river has never flowed so slowly. The Rhine is fast becoming impassable to barge traffic. In Italy, the Po is 2 metres lower than normal, crippling crops. Serbia is dredging the Danube. Across Europe, drought is reducing once-mighty rivers to trickles, with potentially dramatic consequences for industry, freight, energy and food production – just as supply shortages and price rises due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bite. Driven by climate breakdown, an unusually dry winter and spring followed by record-breaking summer temperatures and repeated heatwaves have left Europe’s essential waterways under-replenished and, increasingly, overheated. With no significant rainfall recorded for almost two months across western, central and southern Europe and none forecast in the near future, meteorologists say the drought could become the continent’s worst in more than 500 years. “We haven’t analysed fully this year’s event because it is still ongoing,” said Andrea Toreti of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. “There were no other events in the past 500 [years] similar to the drought of 2018. But this year, I think, is worse.” He said there was “a very high risk of dry conditions” continuing over the next three months, adding that without effective mitigation drought intensity and frequency would “increase dramatically over Europe, both in the north and in the south”. Germany’s Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) said the level of the Rhine, whose waters are used for freight transport, irrigation, manufacturing, power generation and drinking, will continue dropping until at least the beginning of next week. On Friday the water at the critical Kaub marker 50km downstream from Mainz – which measures navigability, rather than the water depth – fell below 40cm, the level at which many shipping firms consider it is no longer economical for barges to operate. It could fall to nearer 30cm over the next few days, the BfG has said. Many barges, which carry coal for power plants and vital raw materials for industrial giants such as steelmaker Thyssen and chemical giant BASF, are already operating at about 25% capacity to reduce their draft, raising shipping costs up to fivefold. A vital part of northwest Europe’s economy for centuries, the 760 miles (1,233km) of the Rhine flow from Switzerland through Germany’s industrial heartland before reaching the North Sea at the megaport of Rotterdam. A total halt in Rhine barge traffic would hit Germany’s – and Europe’s – economy hard: experts have calculated that a six-month suspension in 2018 cost around €5bn (£4.2bn), with low water levels forecast to cost Germany 0.2 points of economic growth this year. While the EU has said boosting waterborne freight by 25% is one of the bloc’s green transition priorities, Germany is now working to divert it to rail and road – although between 40 and 100 trucks are needed to replace a standard barge load. France’s rivers might not be such key freight arteries, but they do serve to cool the nuclear plants that produce 70% of the country’s electricity. As prices hit all-time highs, power giant EDF has been forced to reduce output because of the drought. Strict rules regulate how far nuclear plants can raise river temperatures when they discharge cooling water – and if record low water levels and high air temperatures mean the river is already overheated, they have no option but to cut output. With Europe’s looming energy crisis mounting and the Garonne, Rhône and Loire rivers already too warm to allow cooling water to be discharged, the French nuclear regulator last week allowed five plants to temporarily break the rules. In Italy, the flow of the parched Po, Italy’s longest river, has fallen to one-tenth of its usual rate, and water levels are 2 metres below normal. With no sustained rainfall in the region since November, corn and risotto rice production have been hard hit. The Po valley accounts for between 30% and 40% of Italy’s agricultural production, but rice growers in particular have warned that up to 60% of their crop may be lost as paddy fields dry out and are spoiled by seawater sucked in by the low river level. In the protected wetlands of the river’s delta, near Venice, its high temperature and sluggish flow have reduced the water’s oxygen content to the extent that an estimated 30% of clams growing in the lagoon have already been killed off. Low river levels and high water temperatures can prove fatal to many species. In Bavaria, the Danube reached 25C last week and could hit 26.5C by mid-month, meaning its oxygen content would fall below six parts per million – fatal for trout. Freight on the 2,850km of the Danube has also been heavily disrupted, prompting authorities in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria to start dredging deeper channels while barges carrying mainly fuel for the power generators wait to advance. Even Norway, which relies on hydropower for about 90% of its electricity generation, has said the unusually low levels of its reservoirs may ultimately oblige it to limit power exports. | ['environment/rivers', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jonhenley', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-13T14:09:42Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2012/dec/28/britain-pulling-plug-flood-defences | The rain falls – while the government pulls the plug on flood defences | John Vidal | Should the weather over the next three months be anything like normal, we are on course for Britain's soggiest winter since records began. In England, it is already the wettest year. Even people who like to deny climate change and wish to sweep away planning rules now understand that floods can strike almost anywhere at any time. Waterlogged homes are a regular feature of British life. This year caps more than a decade of inundation. In 2012, 7,500 homes have been ruined, with one in six properties at risk, villages stranded and great swaths of farmland sitting under water. In 1998 more than three times the average monthly rainfall fell in a few days at Easter. In 2000 York, Shrewsbury, Lewes, Uckfield and Maidstone were devastated. In 2005, 2008 and 2009 Cumbria, the north-east and the Midlands all copped it. In 2007, 44,600 homes were flooded. After the 2007 floods, civil servant Michael Pitt produced an independent report that came up with 92 pretty sensible recommendations covering prediction and warning, prevention, emergency management, resilience and recovery. Successive governments fully accepted them, but the latest progress report shows that, after five years of promises, only 43 measures have been fully implemented. Nevertheless, the Environment Agency tells us we are better at coping. Flood forecasts are more detailed and in-depth, more people are warned by text or email, and since 2007, 486 new flood defence schemes have been completed across England and Wales, protecting an extra 259,500 homes. That sounds impressive, but what the agency cannot say is that annual investment in flood defences is falling. Until it was severely embarrassed by October's floods in north Wales, the shortsighted, ecologically illiterate Treasury had actually cut spending on defences by £95m a year, forcing the abandonment or postponement of hundreds of mainly low-cost, much-needed schemes. And, while Pitt proposed local authorities should take more responsibility for flooding in their areas, the much-needed restructuring of a complex, outdated protection system has been fatally undermined by George Osborne slashing their grants. Even with the extra £120m, to be spent over some time, announced four weeks ago, this government is spending less on defences than Labour was in 2008, the year after the worst floods in 60 years. Matters are only likely to get worse. The new fast-track, stripped-down planning system will be mostly in the hands of business, cash-strapped communities and local authorities, who, in the absence of strategic oversight, are expected to make it easier for developers to build in flood plains. Roughly 10% of all new building applications are each year approved against the Environment Agency's explicit flood advice, and in 2010 almost 9,254 new homes were built in danger areas. Meanwhile, the government has delayed for two years the mandatory adoption of more porous drainage systems that delay water getting into rivers and greatly reduce surface water flooding. And to add insult to the injuries of an estimated 100,000 families who have had their homes and properties flooded in the last decade, the insurance industry now wants to wash its hands of any obligation to insure the riskiest properties. From June 2013, there will be a free market for flood insurance which is likely to lead to at least 200,000 homes becoming uninsurable and possibly uninhabitable. That would be like the whole of Leeds having no cover. With more extreme weather predicted, and given that the state's first role is to protect its citizens, the government has no option but to invest in better drainage systems, tighten planning, and increase support to councils. Not only science, but common sense, demands it. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/weather', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-12-28T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/jan/30/million-ponds-wildlife | Million Ponds project aims to restore number of freshwater sites to pre-industrial levels | Jeremy Biggs stomps through the ice, plunges his net in and shakes it vigorously in the chill water, churning up silt, broken reeds and shards of frozen pond. He tips the debris into a white tray and everybody gathers around. At first the melee looks simply dirty, then tiny flecks begin to dart and squiggle, and minute legs and tissue-thin wings start to show. Biggs, Pond Conservation's director of policy and research, identifies whirligig beetles, the pea-sized curl of a keeled ramshorn snail, a louse-like water slater, mayflies, freshwater shrimp, water-beetles, and a lentil-sized pea muscle. This artificially created small patch of water by a kink of the Thames near Oxford is now one of the richest ponds in the country, says Biggs. It is home to one-fifth of pond species in Britain, and new plants, insects, crustaceans, amphibians and other animals turn up every season. So successful has the Pinkhill site been that it is to become a model for an ambitious plan to double the number of ponds in England and Wales from 500,000 to 1m. Ponds have long been the poor relation of freshwater - dipped in by children, but largely ignored by grown-ups and scientists. Partly as a result, maps and government surveys suggest that in the last 150 years the number of ponds in Britain has halved. Of those that have survived, eight out of 10 are now damaged by falling water tables, pollution running off farmland, roads and urban areas, and invasion by alien species. Charles Darwin speculated that all life might have started in a "warm little pond", and experts now estimate two-thirds of all freshwater species live in these little pools. At the same time, more threatened freshwater species in Britain live in ponds than in rivers or lakes, and globally the international conservation body (IUCN) has warned freshwater biodiversity is "extremely threatened ... possibly more so than other systems". The Million Ponds Project, to be launched next month, aims to restore the number of ponds back to pre-industrial, pre-intensive agriculture levels. It also wants to improve water quality to protect the most threatened species and create more robust habitats to survive the stresses of global warming. Research from the US also suggests the world's 290m ponds absorb more carbon than the oceans. Biggs says: "They are wonderful, full of life. They are a place you can get close to nature. They are mysteries because you don't know what you are going to find. A lot are aesthetically pleasing as well: the view over water, there's something deep about that." Pond Conservation designed and dug out 40 ponds at Pinkhill next to the Farmoor reservoir in the early 1990s. The pools range in size from a metre squared - the smallest a pond can be before it becomes a puddle - up to a third of a hectare, and are fed by rain and groundwater, or a mixture. No soils or sediments were added, and the only plants brought in were willow and reeds to screen the perimeter. Now they are home to 85 species of wetland plants and 165 different invertebrates, including many less common species. The incomers have travelled over land from the river and reservoir, on the wind, and with birds. In spring, little ringed plover, terns, newts and toads will appear among the feathery common reeds, spiky hawthorn and rushes. Biggs says they were helped by natural wetland habitat already on the site, but mostly attributes their success to design ideas pioneered by the charity: in particular, good ponds need clean water, preferably not from rivers or streams which are mostly polluted; are ideally close to other wetland habitats so new species can colonise easily; and offer a variety of water types, soils, plants, and habitats. Among the most important features are gradually sloping shores, because half of all freshwater species live in the "draw-down" zone between the winter high-water mark and summer low-water mark, says Biggs. "This [Pinkhill] is the spiritual home of the project, where we tried out all these things," he says. The Million Pond campaign is a 50-year project, but the charity has raised £3m for the first 5,000 new ponds in the next three years,., including a large grant from the Tubney Charitable Trust. It will advise partners who will do the digging, including wildlife charities, the Environment Agency, and the Ministry of Justice and the Defence Estates, which want to put ponds in at prisons, firing ranges and training grounds. In spring it will also launch a Garden Pond campaign to expand on the already 2m more ponds kept by home owners, although these cannot count towards the 1m target if they are in the boundaries of private properties. "People should see the changes in five to 10 years," says Biggs. "They should see places where there are good ponds, that should be noticeable ... or we won't have succeeded." Ten most common pond species Plants Soft-rush (Juncus effusus) Creeping bent (Agrostis stolonifera) – this is a grass, usually overlooked but around almost every pond Common duckweed (Lemna minor) Floating sweet-grass (Glyceria fluitans) Invertebrates Pond olive mayfly (Cloeon dipterum) Large Red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) The wandering snail (Radix balthica) Corixa punctata – one of the 30 or 40 lesser water boatman species that don't yet have English names Agabus bipustulatus – a medium sized black diving beetle that doesn't yet have an English name Amphibians Common frog (Rana temporaria) Smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) – note Latin name recently changed Ten most rare pond species (in descending order of 'rareness') Tadpole shrimp Spangled water beetle Starfruit Brown galingale Fairy shrimp Lesser silver water beetle Tassel stonewort Three-lobed water-crowfoot White-faced darter dragonfly Natterjack toad Great crested newt | ['environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/water', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliettejowit'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-01-30T17:16:56Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2023/mar/18/two-new-species-of-yeast-named-after-bruno-pereira-and-dom-phillips | Two new species of yeast named after Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips | Scientists in Brazil have found two new species of fermenting yeasts and named them after journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira, the two men murdered last year in the Amazon rainforest. The discovery came from four isolates of the Spathaspora species, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. Both species are able to convert d-xylose into ethanol and xylitol, a kind of natural sweetener that could be used for diabetics or for other biotechnological applications, said Carlos Augusto Rosa, one of the study’s authors. Rosa said that even though the Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the planet’s biodiversity, much of it remains undiscovered and that percentage is even higher in the field of yeasts. Between 30% and 50% of all new yeast micro-organisms found in the Brazilian regions where he and his colleagues work are new to science, he said. “Hence the importance of research in this area and also of Bruno and Dom’s efforts to preserve the region’s biome,” Rosa said. Naming the species after the two late figures “recognises, values and pays tribute to the pair for their work in defence of the environment”, he said. The research paper reported that the two yeasts were obtained from rotting wood collected in two different sites of the Amazonian forest in the state of Pará. “The name Spathaspora brunopereirae sp nov is proposed to accommodate these isolates,” it says. “The other two isolates were obtained from a region of transition between the Amazonian forest and the Cerrado ecosystem in the state of Tocantins. The name Spathaspora domphillipsii sp nov is proposed for this novel species.” The paper was authored by 11 microbiologists working jointly from three universities in Minas Gerais state, Tocantins state, and Western Ontario, Canada. Phillips and Pereira were murdered in June last year while they were travelling down a river in the Javari Valley, near Brazil’s border with Peru. Phillips, a former freelancer for the Guardian and the Washington Post, was working on a book about sustainable development in the Amazon and Pereira, a longtime advocate for indigenous rights, was with him as a guide and local activist. Four men are in jail accused of ordering or participating in the crime. Phillips and Pereira join a long list of famous people to have plants or animals named after them. Thousands of new species are identified every year and those who discover them often give them novel names. Beyoncé was given the honour after the discovery of an Australian horsefly; a blood-sucking crustacean parasite was christened Gnathia marleyi in tribute to reggae star Bob Marley; and a beetle was named after environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg in 2019. In 2001, scientists named a species of mushroom Spongiforma squarepantsii after the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. | ['world/dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira', 'world/world', 'science/science', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/andrew-downie', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-03-18T21:18:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/oct/31/revealed-a-third-of-england-vital-flood-defences-are-in-private-hands | Revealed: a third of England’s vital flood defences are in private hands | A third of England’s most important flood defences are in private hands, an investigation has found, with more than 1,000 found to be in a poor state and some at risk of “complete performance failure”. Private owners cannot be forced to make upgrades to the defences, which can involve bills of hundreds of thousands of pounds. The government admits it can only “encourage” third-party owners to do maintenance, though the Environment Agency can carry out emergency repairs if there is a risk to people, property or environment, and try to bill the freeholders afterwards. Data obtained under freedom of information laws by Unearthed, the investigative arm of Greenpeace UK, and shared with the Guardian, show that privately owned assets classed as “high consequence” are twice as likely to be in a poor condition as those maintained by the Environment Agency, with 8% or 1,109 of private defences rated as sub-par. The defences range from flood walls or embankments to weirs and piers, though many are outfall pipes or culverts – enclosed watercourses that run underneath roads, railways or other property. Some are owned by major landowners such as the crown estate or Network Rail. Others run under private houses and businesses, often unnoticed until something goes wrong. In 2014 a father and son in Waterlooville, Hampshire, were faced with a £150,000 bill to repair a culvert that went underneath their properties. High-consequence flood defences are the most important because they “contribute to managing flood risk in a location where the consequence on people and property of an asset failing is high”, according to the Environment Agency. Defences are inspected and then rated from condition 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “very good”. Four is “poor”, with “defects that would significantly reduce the performance of the asset”, and 5 is “very poor” – “severe defects resulting in complete performance failure”. There is no public record of who owns or maintains private flood defences in England, and local authorities are often unaware. To build a partial picture of private ownership, Unearthed took Environment Agency data and overlaid it with data from the Land Registry and other sources. Kirklees council in West Yorkshire, which dealt with bad flooding during Storm Ciara in 2020, said it did not know who owned the 23 privately owned defences in its area that were rated as poor or very poor. The local authority in Carlisle, which has seen repeated flooding in recent years, said the same about the 30 poorly rated private defences in the city. Even when local authorities do know the owners, they cannot compel them to carry out repairs. “All we can do is ask nicely,” said James Mead, a flood and water manager at Sheffield city council, who said he contacted private owners by looking on Google Maps and cross-referencing with Environment Agency data. Some 29 defences rated poor or very poor across England are on land owned by the crown estate, the Queen’s property manager. A spokesperson said the estate did not own the defences nor did it have responsibility for their upkeep, but did not respond when asked who was responsible. “Where flood defences have been installed by third parties on crown estate land we will always work with the relevant authorities to offer any assistance we can to ensure they are able to access and maintain as required,” the spokesperson said. Last year the National Audit Office said the Environment Agency’s plan to beef up England’s flood defences was being undermined by a lack of coordination between the various bodies tasked with maintaining them. With increased flooding one of the greatest risks facing the UK as a result of the climate crisis, this year the government announced £5.2bn to build 2,000 new flood and coastal risk management schemes. Private defence owners will not be eligible to receive any of this money. The Environment Agency estimates that 5.2m homes and businesses in England are at risk of flooding and that about 700 properties are vulnerable to coastal erosion over the next 20 years. An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We routinely inspect both Environment Agency and third-party flood assets. Repairs are prioritised where there is threat to lives and livelihoods. We work closely with third party asset owners to encourage them to undertake repairs. “Since 2015, more than 300,000 homes have been better protected from flooding on time and on budget. We’ve also made extensive preparations for the winter months, with thousands of frontline staff ready to respond to a flooding incident should it occur.” Olivia Blake, the shadow flooding minister, said the government must do more to make sure private defences are up to scratch. “As our winters get wetter, the climate emergency will put flood defences under greater strain,” she said. “The government must act to ensure there are clear responsibilities and adequate measures in place so that any flood defences which are privately owned and critically important to the protection of the public are properly inspected and maintained.” | ['environment/flooding', 'uk-news/land-ownership', 'environment/environment-agency', 'uk-news/england', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenpidd', 'profile/joe-sandler-clarke', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-10-31T12:00:26Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
travel/shortcuts/2013/aug/18/germany-first-guerrilla-gardener | Germany's first guerrilla gardener | This month marks 52 years since the night in August 1961 that the East German government erected a wall that would encircle West Berlin, cutting it off from the East of the city and East Germany. The wall may have gone, but a small triangle of land in Bethaniendamm, a street in West Berlin's alternative Kreuzberg district, is a lasting reminder of that era. Flanked by two roads and close to a dirty canal, the spot marks the victory of one man over the East German authorities. When the wall went up, this scrap of East Germany ended up on the wrong side. Marooned on the West but owned by the East, the area became a dumping ground. West Berlin resident Osman Kalin seized the land in 1982 and spent weekends clearing it. On it now stands the home he built from scraps of rubbish, and a garden that has become a buzzing tourist destination. Three decades later, the ramshackle building covered in brightly coloured graffiti may not look like much to some, but it is on this rough-looking spot that this original guerrilla gardener created his own vegetable patch. Kalin was unaware that the land he had proudly occupied belonged to East Berlin. The pensioner now has Alzheimer's, but Detlef Kämmer, a neighbour and a resident in the area for more than 60 years, recalls that soon after Kalin started digging up the soil, he was visited by East German border guards. They came through a door in the wall to confront him about the tunnel they thought he was building to the East. Kalin simply "gave them vegetables," as a way to placate them, says Kämmer. People were pleased with the towering flowers Kalin grew on the plot. "There were sunflowers in his garden that hung over the top of the [Berlin] wall," adds Kämmer. "He just cleaned away the rubbish and grew tomatoes." | ['world/germany', 'world/world', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/features', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2013-08-18T17:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2023/apr/09/its-again-time-to-tackle-reckless-water-firms-just-like-in-the-19th-century | It’s again time to tackle reckless water firms, just like in the 19th century | Letters | At the launch of her department’s cleaner water plan (Thérèse Coffey accused of ‘throwing in the towel’ over sewage scandal, 4 April), the environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, suggested that to overcome the water pollution crisis we would have to return to the “natural state of our rivers from the year 1840”. This is ironic, as it was then that the limits of privatised water services were becoming increasingly clear. Rather than being in some kind of “natural state”, British rivers were being polluted on an industrial scale in the early 19th century, and private water companies were one of the main culprits, especially in London. Like today, water companies behaved recklessly, paying out big dividends to investors rather than investing in infrastructure, and the consequences were devastating. In the capital, a series of cholera epidemics and increasing water activism eventually resulted in water services being brought under public control. The current crisis demands a similar response. But the Conservative government remains wedded to privatisation and the Labour opposition is too timid to argue for nationalisation. We will all pay a heavy price for this, as water companies continue to pollute our rivers and place private profit over the public good. Dr Geoff Goodwin London • At long last we now have some true, proven, huge numbers illustrating what is happening on ministers’ watch concerning something we all care about (Starmer accuses government of ‘turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer’, 31 March’). Raw sewage: 1.75m hours of it pouring into our rivers and seas last year in 800-plus locations every day. Water companies are to be given 25 years by the government to sort it out. This will cost the nine companies £56bn, which sounds a lot, except that it is only £2.24bn a year. A small figure for the polluter to pay for the huge damage being wrought on this government’s watch. Who is ultimately responsible for this huge, foul, stinking, unhealthy mess – the polluting water companies or the Tories, whose former ministers privatised the water industry, or both? John Robinson Lichfield, Staffordshire • You state in your report that water companies have been “consistently accused of failing to take action”. What people are failing to take account of is that these sewage dumps are their action. Even with fines levied, they can “justify” their action as financial expedience. It is much cheaper for them to dump the untreated sewage than to clean it. Enough is enough. Pete Lavender Nottingham • Water companies discharging sewage into rivers is only part of the problem caused by privatisation of the water industry. Public sewers in our towns are no longer maintained. Our house has a Victorian sewer running across the corner of our front garden. It is clearly shown on maps as a public sewer that we have no access to. Adjacent land was sold to a property developer by the council to construct a house. The sewer was blocked by debris, causing a void under our drive and pavement and road. All our services disappeared into the void, making the house uninhabitable. While homeless, we were told that we had to pay for repairs to the sewer and damage to the developer’s wall. We were sent a bill for approximately £65,000. We had spent our life paying for our house and we will never recover from the trauma caused by the privatisation of the water industry. Pauline Morbey Macclesfield, Cheshire • So the environment secretary is planning to remove the current cap of £250,000 on fines against water companies because they still haven’t cleaned up their act (pun intended). It’s a disgrace that such a low limit exists when it has been obvious to the whole country for many years that water companies have been paying more attention to maximising dividends than investing in sewage processing infrastructure. Over £50bn has been paid out in dividends over the past 20 years, while raw sewage has been pumped into our rivers and inshore waters. Privatisation was certainly a good move for shareholders; but alas not for fish, wildlife, swimmers and tpublic health. It is outrageous that criminal charges have not been sought against the greedy and uncaring board members. Paul Garrod Portsmouth • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section. | ['environment/water', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment-agency', 'business/utilities', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-04-09T17:23:20Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2017/mar/15/dutch-elections-greenleft-jesse-klaver | GreenLeft proves to be big winner in Dutch election | The big winner of Wednesday’s election – and now the largest party of the Dutch left for the first time – was GreenLeft, headed by 30-year-old Jesse Klaver, hailed by his enthusiastic supporters as the “Jessiah”. With more than 95% of votes counted, the party – formed 25 years ago by a merger of communists, pacifists, evangelicals and self-styled radicals – boosted its MPs from four to 14 after a storming campaign by Klaver. “This is a fantastic result for us, a historic victory,” said the party chairwoman, Marjolein Meijer. The result showed there was “very fertile ground in the Netherlands for change and a positive and hopeful story”, she said. “For us this is just the beginning.” The party celebrated its historic advance with a tweet showing a gif of Kermit the Frog dancing for joy. Sometimes compared to Canada’s youthful prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Klaver – who has a Moroccan father and a mother of Indonesian descent – said on polling day that the left’s answer to the far right’s rise in Europe was to stand up for its ideals. “What I would say to all my leftwing friends in Europe: don’t try to fake the populace,” he said. “Stand for your principles. Be straight. Be pro-refugee. Be pro-European. We’re gaining momentum in the polls. And I think that’s the message we have to send to Europe. You can stop populism.” The Netherlands’ youngest ever party leader, Klaver built a strong following on social media through small Meetup events after taking over GreenLeft’s leadership in May 2015. His rallies were among the campaign’s largest, including an Amsterdam meeting that drew more than 5,000 people – plus 5,000 more following live on Facebook. His TV debates were also widely regarded as triumphs. In one debate watched by 1.6 million viewers, Klaver told his far-right, anti-Islam rival Geert Wilders that it was rightwing populism, not Muslim immigration, that was undermining Dutch culture and traditions. “The values the Netherlands stands for – for many, many decades, centuries actually – its freedom, its tolerance, its empathy … [the populists] are destroying it,” he said during one campaign interview. “It’s terrible when people are born in the Netherlands have the feeling they are not part of this society and it is not something to be proud of, but something to be ashamed of. And I want to change that.” GreenLeft was not the only non-mainstream party to prosper in an election that featured a record 28 parties. Also faring well were: the Party for the Animals, which is forecast to have five MPs in the 150-seat parliament; Denk, aimed mainly at the Turkish and Moroccan community, which is in line for three seats; and the Eurosceptic Forum for Democracy, with two. | ['world/netherlands', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/mark-rutte', 'profile/jonhenley', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2017-03-16T10:46:19Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sustainable-business/2014/jul/07/israel-palestine-west-bank-myanmar-sodastream-gap-intel-conflict | From Israel to Burma: businesses dodge hurdles in conflict zones | Scarlett Johansson’s appearance in a Super Bowl advertisement for SodaStream last January pitted the actress squarely against Oxfam — the charity for which she’d been an ambassador for eight years — over its opposition to trade with Israeli settlements in occupied territories. The resulting controversy embroiled all three parties, ultimately ending the relationship between Johansson and Oxfam and served to highlight the difficulties for businesses navigating investments in politically challenging regions. SodaStream, an Israeli company that employs 500 Palestinian workers at higher rates than the Palestinian Authority's minimum wage, didn’t respond to repeated requests for an interview. But CEO Daniel Birnbaum called the contentious plant “a pain in the ass” when he spoke with the Israeli daily Haaretz in January. “We will not throw our employees under the bus to promote anyone’s political agenda,” he told the newspaper. “[I] just can’t see how it would help the cause of the Palestinians if we fired them.” Balancing the needs of workers with unstable or delicate political situations and economic imperatives can be tricky. And several international brands have suffered withering criticism and financial setbacks as a result of trying — and sometimes failing — to thread that needle, particularly in the volatile Israeli settlements. Pampers, Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands and others have been targets of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which boycotts Israeli businesses to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories. Last year, in response to concerns from the Dutch foreign ministry, several Dutch businesses cancelled contracts with Israeli businesses. The casualties included a partnership between water utility Vitens and its Israeli counterpart Mekorot. The foreign ministries of the UK and France also recently issued their own advisories against business investment in the region. Lessons from Gap and Intel The Middle East isn’t the only challenging region for companies, of course. As the first US retailer to begin sourcing from Burma after sanctions were lifted and military rule ended, American clothing retailer Gap was concerned with similar hurdles. To forestall criticism and firm up its long term business goals, Gap took several steps early on to ensure its relationships in Burma remained ethical: engaging an independent NGO to monitor working conditions at factories, for instance, and closely monitoring the country’s delicate political climate. The company has also engaged structural safety engineers and fire safety experts to inspect the working environments, and partnered with nonprofit CARE International to offer an advancement program for women. “[W]e understand that we have a responsibility to ensure that our vendors provide a safe, healthy and fair workplace for garment workers,” says Courtney Wade, a Gap spokesperson. Wade says Gap spent a year consulting with NGOs, trade unions and others before deciding to enter the Burma market. “We also recognize the challenges we and other responsible companies will face as Myanmar re-enters the global community and renews its commitment to democracy,” she says. While any investment in politically and socially difficult environments brings risk, the approaches of companies like Gap suggest there may be a way forward for businesses looking to realize economic opportunities without raising ethical concerns. American computer chip manufacturer Intel, long a leader in socially and environmentally conscious initiatives, funds a number of social and educational programs throughout Israel as well as the disputed territories in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. These include a clubhouse in Ramallah to give low-income children access to technology, and programs to help girls do well in science, technology and math. “We use programs there just like we do anyplace else,” says Intel corporate spokesperson Chuck Mulloy. “We’re apolitical — we don’t get involved — but we do things consistently. Throughout the Middle East, including Israel, we apply the same sort of rules as we do throughout the world.” Plenty of gray area Even with a neutral stance and progressive programs in place, however, challenges remain. While none of Intel’s five Israeli plants are located outside of the Green Line, the internationally-recognized demarcation line established in 1949, it has still been targeted by BDS supporters for its significant investment in Israel. Mulloy says the decision to locate there stretches back 40 years, but a similar decision today would take into account the availability of a trained labor force, infrastructure and its reliability, cost of business, political climate and the “fundamental question” of whether or not the community welcomes the investment. Oxfam, for instance, acknowledges that settlements do employ a number of Palestinians, but say they still lack access to the social benefits and higher wages that employees within Israel have. Other criticisms allege employers in settlements contribute to the legitimization of the occupation, restricting access to water and markets, and effectively robbing Palestinians of their livelihoods and their choice in where to work. “At the end of the day, the settlements are illegal under international law, are an obstacle to peace, and make life a lot more difficult for Palestinian communities,” says Alun McDonald, Oxfam’s spokesperson in the region. “The fact they take people’s land and resources — and then offer them a job they only take because they have no other choice — doesn’t then make that OK.” But in the absence of a long-term political solution, short-term economic stability will almost always win. Palestinian workers interviewed by various publications during the brouhaha between Oxfam and Scarlett Johansson were generally supportive of the SodaStream plant’s continued operation, citing a lack of alternative job prospects. “If SodaStream closes, we would be sitting in the streets doing nothing,” one Palestinian man told the Christian Science Monitor. Lynda Brendish is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, specializing in sustainable business, media and technology. The social impact hub is funded by AngloAmerican. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['sustainable-business/engaging-employees', 'business/business', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'world/israel', 'film/scarlettjohansson', 'world/palestinian-territories', 'world/oxfam', 'type/article', 'tone/features'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-07T11:52:51Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2010/sep/10/fly-tipping-england | Fly-tipping rates fall in England | Fly-tipping has declined in England in the past year, according to new government figures (pdf) which suggest that tougher action by local authorities against perpetrators is paying off. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has revealed that the number of incidents of illegally dumped waste in England fell by nearly one-fifth (18.7%) to 947,000, following a 9% decrease the previous year. In total, there were 2,460 prosecution actions carried out in 2009-10, of which 97% achieved a successful outcome such as a fine. The figures are the latest from Flycapture – the national database of fly-tipping incidents and enforcement action which was set up by Defra, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association to record the volume of incidents and cost of illegally dumped waste dealt with by local authorities. Environment minister Lord Henley said: "We're encouraged by the efforts being made by local authorities to tackle fly-tipping but there is no room for complacency. A total of nearly 947,000 incidents is unacceptable by any standards and fly-tipping is clearly still a significant problem. We must all work together to stamp out this continuing blight on our neighbourhoods." Of the other findings, nearly half (49%) of all fly-tips cleared by local authorities took place on public roads and highways – a 21% reduction on the previous year. And one-third (33%) occurred on council land and footpaths and bridleways - a 20% reduction on the previous year. Individuals appear to be responsible for much of the illegal tipping, with 58% of all rubbish cleared recorded as being the size of a car boot-load or a small van. And 63% of fly-tips dealt with by local authorities involved household waste including food. The estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in this period was £45.8m - a reduction of £9.2m compared to 2008-09. Local authorities increased their enforcement actions in 2009-10 by 2.3% on 2008-09, which also involved higher costs. It is estimated that local authorities spent £19.1m on enforcement action against fly-tipping in 2009-10 (an increase of around 4.3% over 2008-09 expenditure). The improvements were welcomed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which has highlighted the problems of fly-tipping through its Stop the Drop campaign, spearheaded by its president, Bill Bryson. In the past Bryson has said: "Fly-tipping in particular is a scandal and what is almost as much a scandal is that people are getting away with it." Samantha Harding, CPRE's Stop the Drop campaign manager, said of the latest figures: "These results show that councils are making real progress in the fight against fly-tipping. They show that a consistent approach to dealing with fly-tipping through prevention and enforcement can lead to real savings to the public purse. With councils now facing budget pressures we hope that they will not stop their drive to end fly-tipping but step it up as a way to cut costs in the long run." But she said the statistics were only part of the overall picture, as they only cover fly-tipping on public land: " The £45.8m bill for dealing with fly-tipping would be significantly higher if you added the costs incurred by farmers and other private landowners who have to clear up fly-tipping at their own expense." Helen Bingham, spokesperson from anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy said: "Fly-tipping makes our communities look neglected and the cost of clearing dumped waste is still too high. Places strewn with old sofas, fridges and bin bags feel run down and have a negative impact on the people who live and work there.There are recycling centres across the country and many councils offer a collection service. There is no excuse for fly-tipping." | ['environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'society/localgovernment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'uk/ukcrime', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rebeccasmithers'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2010-09-10T11:03:18Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/sep/29/have-all-the-slugs-slithered-up-north | Have all the slugs slithered up north? | Brief letters | Contrary to your report (Slug numbers appear to shrivel after UK heatwave, 27 September), either West Lothian has a particularly conducive microclimate or there has been a recent northwards migration of slugs, perhaps prompted by Kwasi Kwarteng’s bungled fiscal intervention. When I let Mabel, our border terrier, out first thing this morning, she was spoilt for choice, as among the veritable spaghetti junction of trails on the garden path, I counted 17 active slugs ready for her to investigate. Phil Murray Linlithgow, West Lothian • I remember being taught at school as part of Tudor history that in the reign of Henry VII the penalty for speculating against the King’s currency was having your hand cut off (Report, 26 September). Prof John Galloway Croxley Green, Hertfordshire • Using percentages rather than figures (Letters, 28 September) reminded me of the generous gift in the mid-1980s when Wales doubled the firefighting capacity of its twinned country, Lesotho. It sent a fire engine. Stephen Bibby Silchester, Hampshire • Re catchphrases of the year, 2022 has delivered “special military operation”. I also recommend, for its brevity, the term mentioned in Aditya Chakrabortty’s article: “shitcoin” (This is Truss and Kwarteng’s crisis, not yours – but you’re already a lot poorer because of them, 28 September). Val Mainwood Wivenhoe, Essex • I read that the Tory conference slogan this year is “Getting Britain Moving”. This may be difficult for those attending with rail strikes scheduled for 1 and 5 October. Tony Meacock Norwich • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. | ['environment/invertebrates', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/politics', 'uk/wales', 'business/currencies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-09-29T15:45:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2015/oct/30/vast-amazon-wildfire-destroys-forest-in-brazil-and-threatens-uncontacted-tribe | Vast Amazon wildfire destroys forest in Brazil and threatens uncontacted tribe | Brazilian rangers, firefighters and indigenous communities are battling against a wildfire that has blazed for two months and devastated some of the last Amazonian forest in the northern state of Maranhão, including part of the territory of an uncontacted tribe. The fire – which has spread across 100km at its peak – is thought to be the biggest in Indian territory for decades and has prompted the local government to declare a state of emergency. It comes amid rising tension between indigenous “forest guardians” and illegal loggers, prompting speculation among officials and environmentalists that the blaze may have been started deliberately. According to Greenpeace, the fire has already consumed 45% of the 413,000-hectare (1m acre) Indigenous Territory of Arariboia, despite the efforts of 250 firefighters. Worst affected are the 12,000 people from the Guajajara ethnic group, whose communities have been surrounded by flames. There are also fears for the approximately 80 members of the Awá-Guajá, an uncontacted tribe. The state government has declared emergencies in the surrounding indigenous territories of the Geralda Toco Preto, Canabrava Guajajara, Governador, Krikati, Lagoa Comprida, Bacurizinho, Urucu, Juruá, Porquinhos and Canela. Local reports indicate that the Ka’apor and Alto Turiaçu people have also been affected. “This is certainly the biggest fire we have seen in recent years,” said Gabriel Zacharias, the fire combat coordinator of Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources). Almost all of Maranhão’s forests have been cleared. Those that remain are on indigenous lands or in nature reserves. Loggers enter these areas illegally, cut down trees and then launder the timber for sale to the UK and other foreign markets. Such degradation of the forest increases the vulnerability to fire. Efforts to prevent illegal logging have also raised tensions. Last week an Ibama ranger was shot in a confrontation with loggers during a fire combat operation. Indigenous forest guardians have also been involved in several confrontations. The cause of the fire remains unknown. Zacharias said it was likely to have been either an arson revenge attack on indigenous groups who have fought back against loggers, or a fire set by loggers to clear a route to denser parts of the forest. Funai (the National Indian Foundation) has reportedly earmarked 461,000 reais ($120,000) to fight the blaze, which they hope to get under control by next week. Once they succeed, conservationists say the government needs to provide extra assistance to indigenous communities who have lost much of the forests that they depend upon. “It was shocking to note the enormous scale of the destruction and realise that the Guajajara and Awa-Guajá are the main victims of this tragedy,” said Danicley de Aguiar, of Greenpeace’s Amazon campaign. “In addition to the elimination of fire, the main concern is to ensure the survival of these people. Many areas were destroyed which means hunting will be more difficult, so the Indians will have serious difficulties to get food. Once the fire is controlled, it will be necessary for the government to closely monitor the situation.” Additional reporting by Shanna Hanbury | ['world/brazil', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'world/wildfires', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-10-30T10:30:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2006/may/17/tsunami2004 | Asian nations stage tsunami drill | More than two dozen Pacific and Asian nations took part today in a huge exercise involving a mock tsunami warning. The idea was to practice new alerts systems and safety drills that are being developed to try and avoid a repeat of the massive losses of life caused by Asia's calamitous tsunami at the end of 2004. Today's mock tsunami warning set off alarms from Guam to Singapore and sent many people, including Filipino villagers, rushing to higher ground. A similar exercise was held yesterday and the tests have been conducted during a period when several real earthquakes have hit the region. A quake centred just north of New Zealand yesterday triggered a real, though minor, tsunami that only affected unpopulated islands. While no damage or injuries were reported, the quakes that struck in the last 48 hours - the largest measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale - served as a reminder of how seismically volatile the Pacific Rim can be. In the 2004 disaster, waves hit a dozen nations and left 216,000 people dead or missing, many of them because they were not forewarned of the danger. At the start of today's test, emails and faxes were sent and alarms sounded in monitoring stations in the participating nations to signal a mock 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of the main northern island of Luzon in the Philippines. Yesterday officials simulated a scenario in which a 9.2 magnitude quake hit Chile, triggering a tsunami that would have affected much of the Pacific Ocean region. In the coastal village of Buhatan in the Philippines today, church bells clanged the alarm that sent nearly 1,000 residents streaming from their homes and heading for a designated hill that was considered high enough to protect them in the event of a tsunami. Just after dawn, village leaders used a stone and a hammer to ring the bells of a small church, signalling the start of the test. People then streamed out of their homes, tugging along children and struggling to carry bamboo mats, hammocks, sacks of rice, coffee pots and roosters. In Malaysia, meanwhile, about 400 villagers living along the coast of Sabah state on Borneo were evacuated as part of the drill. Malaysia's meteorological service said it received simulated earthquake and tsunami alerts from the Pacific tsunami warning centre in Hawaii and Japan's meteorological agency early Wednesday. Pablo Torrealba, a UN development programme official who observed the drill, praised the enthusiastic response and close coordination among local officials. "The message is that you need two combinations: well-coordinated national institutions and prepared communities. The combination will help to save lives," he said. In Japan, Yuji Nishimae, an official at the meteorological agency, said the exercise went as planned. The major participants in yesterday's tests were Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Australia, the United States, Canada and several Pacific islands. Today, the main participants included the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Russia, China and several Pacific islands. | ['world/world', 'world/tsunami2004', 'type/article'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-05-17T13:15:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2007/jun/11/ethicalliving.business | Ikea shines low-energy light on environmental concerns | How many Ikea employees does it take to change a light bulb? Nearly 10,000, but the light bulbs will have to be low energy and supplied free of charge. As part of its strategy to improve its environmental credentials, the Swedish furnishing group plans to give each of its 9,600 British employees six low-energy light bulbs, which it will replace for nothing once they stop working after about five years. Ikea is spending an initial £45,000 on the project, which will also involve giving out environmental advice and information as part of the bulbs' packaging. The company said the bulbs could save more than £400,000 a year on the total energy bills of the British workforce, with each pack of six estimated to save about one tonne of CO2 over their lifetime - equivalent to five flights between London and Edinburgh. "Every new worker will also get a pack of bulbs as part of their package when they join the company," said Charlie Browne, environment manager at Ikea UK. "We have been taking measures to save energy at our stores and we also have an obligation to educate our co-workers." The company has also made moves to cut emissions and source products from sustainable suppliers. Ikea has set a target for all its outlets across the world to be supplied with 100% renewable energy for electricity and heating by 2012, and at the same time it hopes to reduce overall energy consumption by a quarter. The company has also set up a scheme for the collection and disposal of the low-energy light bulbs. "The bulbs do contain mercury so they are not a panacea," said Mr Browne. "We are aware we have to look at different ways of doing these things in future." More initiatives are to be announced by Ikea shortly. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/business', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'type/article', 'profile/nickfletcher', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-06-11T22:51:23Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2014/nov/20/uk-to-give-720m-to-help-poor-countries-cope-with-climate-change | UK to give £720m to help poor countries cope with climate change | The UK will give £720m to an international fund to help poor nations cope with climate change, the Guardian can reveal. The UK commitment is greater than that of Germany or France and is only surpassed by the US and Japan. The deadline for contributions to the UN’s green climate fund (GCF) is Thursday and achieving its $10bn target is seen as a vital step towards rich and poor nations sealing a deal to tackle global warming in 2015. The donation comes at a sensitive time in domestic UK politics. The parliamentary byelection in Rochester is expected to see the Conservatives lose the seat to the UK Independence Party (Ukip), which wants to slash overseas development aid, as do some backbench Conservative MPs. Earlier in the week, the prime minister, David Cameron, betrayed his anxiety over the issue by repeatedly stressing that the funding was not new money, but had already been set aside for the purpose. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem energy and climate change secretary, told the Guardian: “A little-Englander approach, an isolationist approach, is going to be a disaster for the people of Britain. Climate change does not recognise borders.” Experts warned recently that global warming would affect health, business and food production in the UK, with a senior military figure also warning that armed forces would be unable to provide global security if climate change went unchecked. “There is a huge amount at stake,” said Davey. “Anyone who has followed the UN negotiations knows the poorest and most vulnerable countries on the planet are looking to developed countries to help them survive climate change. If we do not do this, I don’t think we will get a global deal. It is as simple as that.” He said: “[Critics] do not realise the vital work this money is for. This is about saving lives and we have a duty to do this.” Examples, he said, were helping low-lying nations cope with rising sea levels and subsistence farmers cope with failing crops. The contribution to the GCF will come from an existing UK climate aid fund, which will spend £3.9bn from 2011 to 2016. Asked why the UK was offering the equivalent of $1.13bn, more than the $1bn pledged each by Germany and France, Davey said the UK would only pay the extra if other countries came forward to contribute. “We are doing that to encourage others to give,” he said. So far, 14 other nations including Mexico and South Korea have contributed to the GCF, bringing the total with the UK contribution to about $9bn. Australia, led by the climate sceptic Tony Abbott, has refused to give money to the GCF. Meena Raman, from the NGO Third World Network and an official observer on the GCF board, said: “Given the scale of the challenge at hand for developing countries, the UK contribution is very small.” She said the £10bn likely to be pledged for the GCF for the period 2015-18 was “backsliding” compared to the ambition in 2009, which was for $10bn a year. Subsequent UN talks have set a goal of $100bn a year by 2020, she said. Sir David King, the UK foreign secretary’s special representative for climate change, told the Guardian last week that the billions spent by the UK on overseas climate aid were “critically important” to creating the trust between nations required to seal a global deal. Sweden has pledged $0.5bn to the GCF and Isabella Lövin, international development minister, said: “The GCF is not a charity; it is an investment for our collective future, for a secure world.” | ['environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/ed-davey', 'politics/ukip', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-11-20T00:01:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/richard-adams-blog/2010/jun/16/bp-gulf-oil-spill-compensation | BP agrees to pay $20bn into Gulf oil spill fund | Richard Adams | Under intense pressure from the White House, BP has agreed to contribute $20bn into a special fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil spill. The terms of the deal were being thrashed out in a tense meeting between six BP executives, including chief executive Tony Hayward, and administration officials in the White House. The deal would allow BP to spread the $20bn in payments over several years, to allow the company to survive, according to a report in the New York Times. BP had made a preliminary agreement to pay the sum before the White House meeting today, but many details remain to be finalised as the meeting stretched out for over three hours. President Obama also took part for 20 minutes at the start of the meeting. It was Obama's first face-to-face confrontation with Hayward and BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg since the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began 57 days ago. Vice President Joe Biden, attorney general Eric Holder, Admiral Thad Allen and five cabinet members also attended. The deal will be officially announced by President Obama when he makes a statement in the White House's Rose Garden later this afternoon. The $20bn sum will be paid into an account to be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, a mediation lawyer who is best known for overseeing compensation payments to families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The 9/11 compensation programme totaled $7bn and took three years to complete. BP's decision to co-operate with the White House in setting up the $20bn fund will be a welcome reprieve for the Obama administration, which has struggled to assure the American public that it is managing the crisis since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and set off what has become the worst oil spill in US history. The administration's more aggressive response brought rare praise from a senior Republican. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley said while Obama had been "too late taking charge" of the crisis, "it looks to me like, based on his speech last night, his meeting with BP right now, that he's doing that." Wall Street reacted to news of the deal with a slight improvement in BP's share price. BP shares had fallen to their lowest price in 14 years during morning trading, to $29.58, before a rally pushed the price above $31 as news of the $20bn deal circulated. Suzanne Goldenberg, the Guardian's US environment correspondent, reports that in his televised address last night, Obama had vowed to press BP over compensation for individuals and businesses affected by the spill: Obama said in his speech that he would press BP officials to put billions of dollars in an independently managed fund to handle claims for lost revenue from workers and businesses in the Gulf. He also tried to redirect public attention to energy reform, but offered no specifics on how this would be achieved. "This fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent third party," Obama said. | ['us-news/richard-adams-blog', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'business/bp', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/oil-spills', 'environment/oil', 'environment/blog', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/richardadams'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-06-16T16:30:00Z | true | ENERGY |
news/2015/sep/30/weatherwatch-taiwan-china-typhoon-dujuan-australia-rain | Typhoon gives Taiwan a gigantic battering | Taiwan faces a big clear-up after Typhoon Dujuan, which killed at least two people, injured more than 300, displaced thousands and left nearly half a million without power. On Monday night Dujuan made landfall in north Taiwan with wind speeds exceeding 150mph along the island’s east coast. It was accompanied by torrential rain triggering multiple landslides. The heaviest rain was in north-east Taiwan in the mountainous Wulai district where more than 90cm (35in) fell – nearly a third of the country’s annual rainfall. Dujuan is the 21st typhoon of the season. It developed from a tropical depression to a category 4 typhoon before it reached Taiwan, where it weakened, becoming a tropical cyclone as it moved into mainland China. On Tuesday afternoon a severe thunderstorm hit Brisbane, Australia. It had moved towards the coast bringing with it 10,000 lightning strikes that hit the city in less than two hours. The storm moved across the city in the afternoon producing dark skies, hammering hail, torrential rain and gusty winds, and cutting the power to more than 4,500 properties, as well as causing flight delays and road accidents. Last Friday may have been a warm autumn day for most in the UK, but in Fairbanks, Alaska, winter arrived early with a blanket of snow. On average Fairbanks gets about 5cm of snow in September; last Friday more than 15cm was measured at Fairbanks International Airport, making the third heaviest September snow-day on record. Wintry weather looks set to continue in Alaska, with up to 30cm of snow forecast for this week. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/taiwan', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'world/china', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-09-30T20:29:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/jan/08/for-burrumbuttock-hay-runners-end-of-1860km-charity-run-is-in-sight | Truckies 'thrilled' as Pauline Hanson joins 1860km charity hay run | More than 120 trucks carrying 4,500 bales of hay are completing a 1,860km journey from NSW to Queensland to bring respite – and some homespun political advice from Pauline Hanson – to drought-stricken farmers. The Burrumbuttock Hay Runners, a charity convoy led by organiser Brendan “Bumper” Farrell and accompanied by Hanson, was due to arrive on Friday evening in Ilfracombe, central Queensland, after a two-day journey from Darlington Point in regional NSW. The hay run, the biggest since Farrell made the first with a single truckload in 2014, is the culmination of five months of logistical work. It will deliver fodder and other supplies to some of Queensland’s drought-affected cattle stations, some of which missed out on this week’s drenching rains. Contacted by Guardian Australia, Farrell said he was running “about three hours behind” and was unable to comment. But in remarks made to local Queensland media in the lead-up to the run, Farrell said it was about keeping people on the land despite the chronic lack of rain in much of central Queensland. “If we don’t give them hay and let the third and fourth generation farmers know there’s people who care, they’re going to be walking off the farms left, right and centre,” he said. Farrell said the run was “keeping the dream alive”. Hanson, who is seeking to re-enter parliament, has travelled with the truckers the length of their run from NSW to Queensland. “This is all political,” she told Guardian Australia during a refuelling stop. “The farming sector feels like they’re totally forgotten by politicians. Overregulation, control of the water and the sell-off of the land, importing of goods and products – this is destroying the farming sector in Australia.” She said she had “promoted it, done some fundraising for it, and all the truckies are so thrilled to have me on board”. But they were “furious” with agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce, she said, predicting that if he came it was likely to be for publicity alone. She “definitely” wanted to represent rural Australia, she said, and pointed to suicide and water rights as important issues for farmers. “This is another reason why when I was an MP I was on the road,” she said. “I can relate to people in the bush. This has been going on since I was last in parliament – this issue has not gone away, if anything it’s gotten worse.” Hanson would pay farmers to dig more dams and said charging for water use was unconstitutional. “Everyone knows there’s something drastically wrong in this country,” she said. “Unless you’re involved in politics and understand the legislation you just wouldn’t know why.” A spokesman for agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce, who is on leave, said in a statement: “The Queensland government is providing freight subsidies for fodder and water for stock, as well as for stock moving to and from agistment. “Since coming to government we have invested more than $669m in assistance and support for Australian farmers and rural communities experiencing drought and other hardship.” The state and federal governments also provided concessional drought loans to farmers, he said. The hay run has garnered support from locals along the route, who have donated food, fuel and other supplies to Farrell and his team. Caltex Australia donated $10,000 in fuel towards the $250,000 needed to get the trucks to Queensland. And commenters on the runners’ Facebook page cheered the convoy on as “Aussie legends” while getting stuck into the “shiny bums” in Canberra, including the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. “You’re making such a huge difference, better than politicians with their yadda yadda yadda! Can’t feed nothing with that!” one commenter wrote. | ['environment/drought', 'australia-news/queensland', 'business/cattles', 'science/agriculture', 'australia-news/barnaby-joyce', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'type/article', 'australia-news/pauline-hanson', 'profile/adam-brereton'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-01-08T06:19:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2017/sep/10/hurricane-irma-survivors-tell-of-utter-devastation-on-caribbean-islands | Hurricane Irma: survivors tell of 'utter devastation' on Caribbean islands | Residents of the British Virgin Islands say they have witnessed scenes of “unbelievable” devastation caused by Hurricane Irma, and warned of widespread looting and a shortage of water and shelter for those left homeless by the storm. Irma severed links with the outside world and left thousands of tourists and local people desperate to escape after it pounded islands along the north-eastern edge of the Caribbean. However, the islands were spared another battering on Saturday when Hurricane Jose had “markedly less” impact than first feared. Irma wrought extensive damage after it hit the isolated islands of St Barts, St Martin, Anguilla and the British and the Virgin Islands group, leaving 22 people dead. “We are all safe but in a state of shock,” said Natalie Drury, a resident of the British Virgin Islands. “We desperately need help as soon as possible. Food, water, shelter. I’m extremely concerned about health and safety – there is sewage absolutely everywhere.” Drury, who lives who lives with her husband on Tortola, the biggest and most populous of the British Virgin Islands, told the Guardian she was in a “state of disbelief” about the destruction she has witnessed. “I can’t believe my eyes. I can’t even begin to describe the utter devastation around. It feels like nothing is left,” she said, adding that only concrete buildings, some of them badly damaged, were still standing. “It’s worse than anyone could have imagined. The country is going to need some serious help. I have no idea how many people have died. We were told yesterday it’s gone up to 10, but obviously that’s all rumours. Nobody knows yet.” The house in which Drury and her husband have sought shelter has no phone or Wi-Fi connections. The couple were hoping to return to their home, which they had not seen since Irma hit the island, and check on their neighbours. “We will grab anything of any value as looting has already begun,” Drury said. “The town has been emptied, every shop has been looted.” She and her husband are staying in another house that has become a place of refuge for several people who have lost everything. “We now have 11 people, one baby and seven dogs,” Drury said. The pleas for relief came amid criticism of the British government’s response to the disaster. On Saturday, the foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, announced a package of £42m ($55m) for the relief effort in the British territories of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Turks & Caicos. “The UK government is doing everything it possibly can to help those affected by the hurricane,” Johnson said. About 500 British troops have been sent to the area of the Caribbean hit by Irma, with the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, saying that the relief operation was “well under way”. Marines, engineers, medics and specialists, including army and RAF personnel have been deployed in the region. The area endured more high winds on Saturday as Jose, a category 4 storm, passed through, closing airports and halting emergency relief efforts by boat. However, France’s meteorological agency said on Sunday that Jose had “markedly less” of an impact on the French islands of St Martin and St Barts than anticipated. The agency had issued its highest warning, saying the Category Four Hurricane Jose could become a “dangerous event of exceptional intensity”. But “there’s not a cloud in the sky”, one AFP reporter at the scene said. “Thanks to a passage which was further away than anticipated, the effects on the territory were markedly less,” the meteorological agency said. The US national hurricane centre had warned on Saturday that Jose was nearing category five strength – the highest rating for a storm – bringing fears of more destruction for islands in the eastern Caribbean such as Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla days after they had taken the full brunt of Irma. But the forecasters said on Sunday that Joe was “gradually weakening” as it moved away from the northern Leeward Islands. The government of Antigua discontinued the tropical storm warning for Barbuda and Anguilla. | ['world/hurricane-irma', 'world/hurricane-jose', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/british-virgin-islands', 'world/turks-and-caicos-islands', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | world/hurricane-jose | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-10T03:58:04Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/sep/01/10-10-couple | 10:10: The couple - 'We're not eco-warriors' | Reducing your household CO2 emissions needn't involve investing in renewable technology. For Tracey and Colin Todhunter, and their daughter Nicola, it's all about the low-hanging fruit. Based in Ashton Hayes, the Todhunters have already reduced their CO2 emissions by 28.4% in the past three years. And according to them, it wasn't in the least bit difficult. "We're not eco-warriors, we are just ordinary people that wanted to be in control of how we use our energy," says Tracey. "About four years ago we decided to do something serious about our lifestyle." So they got rid of the car, installed low-energy bulbs, insulation and draught-proofing, and a year-and-a-half ago they bought a wood-burning stove. "We haven't bought any wood since then, we forage it all from around the village," she says. "So one of the biggest savings has been in gas consumption because we just don't use the central heating, just about an hour a day during the winter." The streets of cities, towns and villages are often strewn with waste wood that would otherwise end up in landfill if you know where to look. Losing the car wasn't a big deal, says Tracey, since most of the time they both work from home and when they do need to travel they take public transport. They also tend not to fly. In fact the only flight they have taken in the past ten years was when Colin needed to go to Europe for work. This alone ended up pushing their 2007-2008 emissions up by 11% for that year. For Tracey, whose family lives in the US, this means she rarely ever sees them. But not that long ago that was the norm for people with family in far flung parts of the world, she says. "That's what the phone, the internet, Skype and video conferencing is for." "Water is another big part of your carbon footprint that many people don't even consider," says Tracey. So instead of baths they take quick showers and use a bowl when they wash up, reusing the water afterwards on the vegetable patch. "We haven't got a water meter yet but it's on the list." Other measures include bulk-buying and having it delivered, and avoiding air-freighted products. "I read my papers online from Monday to Friday with the weekend papers ending up on the compost." And when they are not using appliances, such as the computers she and Colin use for work, they regularly go round unplugging anything that's not in use. Doing this and keeping track of it with an Owl electricity monitor helped to bring their consumption down by 20% in the first year alone, she says. None of these measures have been difficult to endure, says Tracey. "We don't really think of it in terms of the energy we use, but the resources we have available," she says. "It just made perfect sense to us about how we live our lives and spend our money. And there does seem to be more money at the end of the month." CO2 reduction 2006-2008 Electricity: 20% reduction in first year Gas: ###% reduction Air travel: 0% (they don't fly, so no reduction) Measures Wood-burning stove, insulation, draught-proofing, low-energy bulbs and getting rid of the car. Economical use of water, use of public transport, virtually never flying and unplugging appliances. • This article was amended on 3 September 2009. The original described Ashton Hayes as a Cheshire village of about 1000 people that aims to become the first carbon neutral community. This has been corrected. | ['environment/10-10', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/duncangrahamrowe'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-09-01T09:05:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
uk-news/2023/aug/04/oyster-festivals-shell-recycling-to-help-last-native-bed-in-scotland | Oyster festival’s shell recycling to help last native bed in Scotland | Organisers of next month’s Stranraer oyster festival have promised to recycle the shell of every mollusc consumed at the three-day event to help grow the last remaining wild, native oyster bed in Scotland. With about 12,000 oysters consumed last year, the circular collection scheme will ensure that this year’s shells are returned to the protected bed on the shores of Loch Ryan, a few miles north of Stranraer. This reduces waste from the festival and also creates valuable shell habitat for young oysters. The native variety, Ostrea edulis, has been almost wiped out in UK waters by overfishing and seabed trawling. Scotland’s only dedicated oyster festival, now in its fifth year, also marks a deliberate reinvention for the former ferry terminal which struggled after services to Ireland were relocated six miles up the loch to Cairnryan more than a decade ago. Romano Petrucci, chair of Stranraer Development Trust, which runs the festival, says the annual event has had a huge impact on Stranraer’s economy – generating almost £5m since it began in 2017 – and its identity. “It’s a way of leaving behind the anger and frustration that the boats had moved up the road,” he said. “The irony is that for years, oysters were growing a mile away from Stranraer, then being shipped 700 miles down south to be cleaned, then taken to Harrods and the Ritz in London.” When he first had the idea of doing something to promote the local native oyster bed, he asked the first 50 locals who came into his harbour-side cafe if they realised it was nearby: 49 didn’t know anything about it. With oysters usually marketed as a high-end delicacy, Petrucci was insistent that the festival should be for everyone. “We’ve made it clear we’re a working-class community and there’s no way oysters are going to be out of reach for anyone at the festival. So those seven that you’d spend £70 on in Harrods, you can pay £6 or £7 for in Stranraer.” He’s also clear that “there’s no requirement to like oysters to enjoy the festival”, with children’s activities, music and other local produce on offer, “but every year more people are coming from further afield because they do like oysters”. The recycling scheme was prompted by local suggestions about how to make the festival greener, and a recognition that Scotland’s last wild, native oyster fishery is not just nationally important but crucial for the species. Replacing the shells in the bed, which has been sustainably managed by Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Company since 1996, provides the oyster larvae with the solid structure they require to settle and grow. Native oysters are considered ecosystem engineers, says Tristan Hugh-Jones, director of the fishery, because they help maintain marine ecosystems by filtering water and providing habitat for coastal wildlife. “When oysters grow in number is generally good for local biodiversity,” he said. With the bed’s oyster numbers estimated at 60m, Loch Ryan oysters are now being used in restoration projects elsewhere the UK and Europe. | ['uk/scotland', 'food/oysters', 'food/seafood', 'uk/uk', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'food/food', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/libbybrooks', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-08-04T14:00:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2023/mar/19/mass-felling-trees-england-cities-countryside | From city centre to riverside idyll, the massacre of our sylvan treasures has to stop | Henry Porter | Last Wednesday morning, the people of Plymouth woke to a scene on the city’s Armada Way that looked very much like a landscape ravaged by war, trees felled and uprooted as if by artillery shells. And the shocking part was that the felling of more than 100 trees was plotted in secrecy and executed at night by the very people who are meant to love their city, protect its environment, and honour the wellbeing and wishes of its inhabitants – the local council. No surprise in that, you may say, but what happened in Plymouth was a singular example of bad faith, a betrayal and an act of contempt towards Plymouth’s citizens. The damage done to the environment and to trust is unlikely to be reversed for many years. The trees are gone and all the council’s pleading about mitigation, modernisation and bringing growth to the city will do nothing for the loss of habitat or to the unspoken daily pleasure that thousands upon thousands of people will have taken from the changing seasons in Armada Way. More than 16,000 people signed a petition to save the trees. They might as well not have bothered. The Conservative council leader, Richard Bingley, and his party were plainly always going to ignore them. It is a familiar pattern. In a report by Sir Mark Lowcock into the mass felling of Sheffield’s street trees published this month, he reveals how the clueless misunderstanding of a tree survey led to a years-long battle between Sheffield city council and residents who were desperate to save 17,500 trees that meant so much to them. Between 2016 and 2018, there were 40 protests and 41 arrests. The Labour council lied, deceived the high court, considered killing trees by ring barking and descended to a place where only its chopping down trees and its lunatic need to prevail mattered. It is the raw material for a story by Richard Powers or Margaret Atwood and it goes on everywhere. In Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, a beautiful line of limes was recently taken down for a road expansion scheme. Euston Square, in London, has just lost its plane trees to HS2, which, by the way, is responsible for an appalling toll of mature trees, particularly oak, across the land. I felt this stomach-churning loss the other day when my brother Michael messaged me with pictures from the village where we grew up. A local farmer had just levelled all its poplars and willows because of health and safety concerns – for which reason, of course, every tree in the open countryside, like these, might be felled. It’s a bitter loss but not as severe as that experienced by those in cities where trees are landmarks filled with meaning and connect people to the seasons and nature in ways that are rarely grasped by men such as Bingley, who, to be candid, probably can’t tell his ash from his elbow. Arguments of necessity, whether for road schemes, health and safety or new homes, always win. But we’ve surely reached the point where the need for trees cannot be dismissed as mere sentiment. As David Attenborough’s current Wild Isles series reminds us, nature is in crisis. Flying insects have fallen by as much as 60% in the UK in 20 years. The bird population is in catastrophic decline, with some species suffering losses of 70% to 95% across the past 50 years (sparrow, corn bunting, willow tit, spotted flycatcher, starling and turtle dove). In 20 years, the number of species on my bird feeders is down by between 50% and 60%. The crisis is happening in real time, in front of our eyes. We need much stronger controls on tree felling and mechanisms to ensure that city dwellers can properly defend their trees when they feel minded. Trees should be given the listed status of archaeological sites and beautiful buildings, and this should be inviolate. And we need to get angry, angrier than we have ever been, to persuade local politicians and bureaucrats of their duty to us and to nature. Perhaps there is nowhere better to start than at Cambridgeshire county council’s meeting this Tuesday, when the Lib Dem-Labour coalition considers the plans for the Cambourne-Cambridge busway, which, at a price of £200m, will carve through green-belt land, irreversibly damaging the landscape, the calm of a US servicemen’s cemetery and, crucially, the unique habitat of Coton Orchard. The Coton Orchard, bought by Albert Gazeley in 1996, is very special. With 1,000 trees, some planted a century ago, it is one of the largest and oldest orchards in the country and has a unique ecosystem of insects, birds and flowers, which cannot be replicated in what councils like to term “mitigation”. There is simply no mitigation to the kind of destruction proposed. The proposed route of the off-road busway ends at the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge. There could be no grimmer irony if this wasteful scheme is greenlit. Let the Coton Orchard be! Henry Porter is a writer and journalist specialising in liberty and civil rights | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'society/localgovernment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'society/society', 'environment/forests', 'cities/cities', 'uk-news/cambridge', 'uk/plymouth', 'uk/sheffield', 'uk/transport', 'uk/hs2', 'type/article', 'profile/henryporter', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-03-19T10:00:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2008/jul/15/copyright.filesharing | Cory Doctorow: Lessons from the bloody war on spam | Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. For example: say you're an entertainment executive looking to stop some incredibly popular kind of online information transmission – infringing music copyright, say. Where would you look to find a rich history of this kind of online battle? Why, the Spam Wars, of course. Where else? Electronic spam has existed in one form or another since 1978. For 30 years, networks have served as battlefield in the fight between those who want your mailbox filled with their adverts and those who want to help you avoid the come-ons. The war against spam has been a dismal failure: there's far more spam today than ever before, and it grows more sinister by the day. Gary Thuerk's 1978 bulk email advertisement for a new Digital Equipment model (widely held to be the first spam) was merely annoying and gormless. Today, the spam you receive might hijack your computer, turning it into a spyware-riddled zombie that harvests your banking details and passwords and uses its idle resources to send out even more spam. It might encrypt your files and demand anonymous cash transfers before unlocking them. It might be a front for a Spanish Prisoner scammer who will rob you of every cent you and your loved ones have. And (practically) everyone hates spam. It's not like copyrighted music, where millions of time-rich, cash-poor teenagers and cheapskates are willing to spend their days and nights figuring out how to get more of it in their lives. In the Spam War, the message recipients are enthusiastic supporters of the cause. Let's have a look at some of the spam war tactics that have been tried and have been found wanting. Content-based filters These were pretty effective for a very brief period, but the spammers quickly outmanoeuvred them. The invention of word-salads (randomly cut/pasted statistically normal text harvested from the net), alphabetical substitutions, and other tricksy techniques have trumped the idea that you can fight spam just by prohibiting certain words, phrases or media. Unintended consequence: It's practically impossible to have an email conversation about Viagra, inheritances, medical conditions related to genitals, and a host of other subjects because of all the "helpful" filters still fighting last year's spam battle, diligently vaporising anyone who uses the forbidden words. Blacklisting Anti-spam groups maintain blacklists of "rogue" internet service providers and their IPs – the numbers that identify individual computers. These are ISPs that, due to negligence, malice, error, or a difference of opinion on how to best block bad actors, end up emitting a lot of spam to the rest of the internet. Again, this worked pretty well for a short period, but was quickly overwhelmed by more sophisticated spammers who switched from running rogue email servers to simply hijacking end users' PCs and using them to send spams from millions of IPs. Unintended consequence: IP blocking becomes a form of collective punishment in which innocent people are punished (blocked from part or all of the internet) because one person did something naughty, and none of the punished had the power to prevent it. A single IP can stand in for thousands or even millions of users. The blacklists are maintained by groups whose identity is shrouded in secrecy ("to prevent retaliation from criminal spam syndicates") and operate at Star Chambers who convict their targets in secrecy, without the right of appeal or the ability to confront your accuser. Allegations abound that blacklisters have targeted their critics and stuck them in the black holes merely for criticising them, and not because of any spam. Blocking open servers Email servers used to to be set up to accept and deliver mail for anyone: all you needed to do to send an email was to contact any known email server and ask it to forward your message for you. This made email sending incredibly easy to set up and run – if your local mailserver croaked, you could just switch to another one. But these servers were also juicy targets for spammers who abused their hospitality to send millions of spams. A combination of blacklisting and social pressure have all but killed the open server in the wild. Unintended consequence: It's infinitely harder to send legitimate email, as anyone who has ever logged into a hotel or institutional network and discovered that you can't reach your mailserver any more can attest. And still the spam rolls in: legitimate users lack the motivation and capacity to learn to send mail in a block-ridden environment, whereas spammers have the motivation and capacity in spades. There have been other failures in the field, and a few successes (my daily spam influx dropped from more than 20,000 to a few hundred when my sysadmin switched on something called greylisting). But these three failures are particularly instructive because they represent the main strategic objectives of the entertainment industry's copyright enforcement plans. Every legislative and normative proposal recapitulates the worst mistakes of the spamfight: from Viacom's demand that Google automatically detect copyright-infringing videos while they're being uploaded; to the three-accusations-and-you're-offline proposal from the BPI; to the notion in the G8's Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement of turning copyright holders into judge, jury and executioner for what content can travel online and who can see it. The Spam Wars have shown us that great intentions and powerful weapons can have terrible outcomes – outcomes where the innocent are inconvenienced and the guilty merely evolve into more resistant, more deadly organisms. | ['technology/technology', 'technology/digital-music-and-audio', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/spam', 'technology/email', 'technology/internet', 'technology/series/digitalwrongs', 'tone/comment', 'law/law', 'type/article', 'profile/corydoctorow'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-07-15T11:51:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
community/2016/nov/21/are-you-affected-by-storm-angus-and-flooding-in-the-uk | Are you affected by Storm Angus and flooding in the UK? | A series of weather warnings issued across the UK are forcing communities to ready themselves for more possible flooding, with some areas in southwest England already underwater. Heavy rain is forecast to continue in south-west England, parts of northern England and Wales with around 20-30mm of rain expected to fall in a three- to six-hour period in places with as much as 40-60mm possible through the whole of Monday. Andy Page, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said Devon was likely to be most affected: “Although the more persistent rain should clear from Devon by early afternoon, heavy and possibly thundery showers are likely to follow” If you’ve been affected by flooding or extreme weather in any part of the UK we’d like to hear from you. How have you been preparing? Perhaps you have experienced travel disruption or are without power or water? You can share videos and images of your experiences by clicking the ‘Contribute’ button or by filling in our form below. Though we’d like to hear from you, your safety and security is most important. When responding to this assignment, please make sure you put your safety and the safety of others first. Extreme weather events can be very unpredictable and carry very real risks. | ['community/series/community', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/bristol', 'uk/wales', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-readers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-11-21T11:25:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
society/2005/jan/27/internationalaidanddevelopment.indianoceantsunamidecember2004 | UN backs call to accredit aid agencies | The UN today backed a call from Oxfam to develop an accreditation system for aid agencies working in the tsunami disaster region. Oxfam made the proposal following its claim that some aid agencies were hampering relief efforts because their staff lacked appropriate skills and were failing to consult local communities about the help they needed. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), based in Geneva, agreed it was a good idea to introduce an accreditation system for aid agencies and other non-governmental organisations working in disaster areas. The OCHA, which helps to coordinate humanitarian relief efforts between international aid agencies and national governments, said anything that improves such coordination was welcome. A spokeswoman said: "Why not have a system if it improves the coordination so long as it doesn't hinder the delivery of assistance." The office agreed with comments made by Oxfam that some small organisations and individuals working alone in the tsunami region lacked experience of disaster relief. But the spokeswoman said: "In any major emergency or natural disaster there are a lot of small charitable groups or NGOs who arrive with no experience, but who want to help. Sometimes they are more of a burden than a help but we have to see where we can fit them in. "We do our best to get these people on board. It is not a criticism of them because these people are full of goodwill." The Disasters Emergency Committee, the charity umbrella organisation that manages national relief appeals and distributes the money to its charity members, said the Oxfam report raised important concerns. Brendan Gormley, the DEC chief executive, said: "Effective delivery of aid is, of course, vitally important, and Oxfam's stress on local consultation has proven essential in past emergencies." But he said the specific criticisms made by Oxfam about the relief effort were better dealt with by the individual members of the DEC. Oxfam's comments about the competence of some of the relief agencies in the tsunami disaster zone appear in its report called Learning the Lessons of the Tsunami: One Month On. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/tsunami2004', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/debbieandalo'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-27T10:36:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2022/may/25/more-floods-forecast-for-australias-east-as-la-nina-weather-pattern-lingers | More floods forecast for Australia’s east as La Niña weather pattern lingers | The breakdown of the La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific has stalled while a key Indian Ocean climate driver is tilting towards its wetter phase, making it more likely that eastern Australia will face more heavy rain and floods. Just as the Bureau of Meteorology released a special climate report on the extreme rainfall and flooding that hit parts of south-eastern Queensland, northern New South Wales and the region around Sydney in February and March, its fortnightly report on climate influences pointed to the big wet extending for months to come. The La Niña event, already in its second year, could yet persist into a third. The expected dissipation of the pattern has not progressed in the past two weeks, and two of the seven models used by the bureau project that the La Niña will last through winter. Out west, the Indian Ocean dipole is forecast by all climate models to enter its negative phase in coming months. That phase of the dipole – which gauges the relative differences of sea-surface temperatures across the ocean – increases the chances of above-average winter-spring rainfall for much of Australia. It also lifts the odds of warmer days and nights for northern Australia, according to the bureau. The prospect of wetter than normal conditions for the east coast in particular will prompt fears of further floods. Catchments remain damp and dams are full, so it won’t require significant bursts of rain to cause more flash flooding and damage. The bureau’s special climate report detailed how a series of low-pressure systems this year caused severe flooding in Lismore, Brisbane and other regions. More than 50 sites in south-eastern Queensland and north-east NSW collected more than one metre of rain in the week to 1 March alone, the report said. The Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment to Sydney’s west and north recorded its wettest nine- and 14-day stints in records going back to 1900 for those periods up to 9 March. Karl Braganza, national manager of the bureau’s climate services, said the events were exceptional because of their duration. To get such large multi-day rainfall totals, “you either have to have very slow-moving systems or quasi-stationary systems”, Braganza said. “Particularly for the Brisbane event, that system just stayed in place for a very extended period of time.” The report described the intense rainfall as “some of the most significant on record”. Near Gympie, north of Brisbane, one rain gauge collected 424mm in the 24 hours to 9am on 23 February. The Brisbane city gauge recorded 792.9mm in the six days to 28 February, equivalent to almost four-fifths of the annual average at the current site of just over one metre. The highest daily total was 228.4mm on 27 February, a record for any month at the current Brisbane site. Each of the three days from 26 to 28 February topped 200mm. Rainfall in the Brisbane River catchment exceeded all records over one to seven days for the last week of February, including during the devastating January 1974 floods. The difference this time, though, was the construction of the Wivenhoe dam, which partly serves as a flood mitigation reservoir, in 1984. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning North-eastern NSW copped similarly biblical amounts of rain as the system shifted southwards. For the three-day period ending at 9am on 1 March, five flood-warning sites exceeded one metre of rainfall. “The catchments of the Tweed, Brunswick, Richmond and Wilsons rivers had seven-day average rainfalls that were 37% to 61% above previous records,” the report said. “Rainfall in this region was especially intense at one- and two-day timescales, with the Wilsons River catchment average rainfall exceeding previous records at both timescales by more than 200mm.” Lismore, located on the Wilsons, was inundated when the river peaked at a record 14.4 metres on 28 February, overtopping the riverbank levee (10.6 metres) with flood waters. The previous record flood level was 12.27 metres in February 1954. For the Sydney region, heavy rainfall landed on already saturated soils, full reservoirs and swollen rivers, particularly during the week of 3-9 March. That quickly led to flash flooding as local stormwater and drainage systems were overwhelmed, with thousands of residents evacuated. “Observations show that there has been an increase in the intensity of heavy rainfall events in Australia,” the report said. “The intensity of short-duration (hourly) extreme rainfall events has increased by around 10% or more in some regions in recent decades, with larger increases typically observed in the north of the country.” | ['australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/la-nina', 'environment/oceans', 'australia-news/sydney', 'australia-news/brisbane', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-05-24T23:00:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/jun/12/ecopolis-china-billionaire-worlds-tallest-building-six-months | The Chinese billionaire with six months to make the world's tallest building | “It's always said that the solution to environmental problems starts at the grass roots level,” says Chinese billionaire Zhang Yue, sitting in his office in Changsha, central China, in a building modelled on the Palace of Versailles. Out of the window extends a long ceremonial avenue, lined with ornamental box hedges and cypress trees, terminating in a replica of the Great Pyramid at Giza. “I think that's a mistake. Rich people recognise environmental problems first. How can you wake up if your living standard is very poor? Only the richest of the rich, the smartest of the smart, the greatest of the great, wake up first.” Zhang would know about such things. He was the first man in China to own a private jet, having made his millions selling air conditioning units, but at the age of 54 has now renounced his material possessions in favour of saving the planet. And his answer? Building the tallest building in the world in the fastest possible time: Sky City, a vertical metropolis of homes and hotels, schools and hospitals – along with indoor farms capable of feeding 20,000. To be finished by the end of this year, he hopes. His crusade is brought to life in vivid detail in a new documentary by Finnish film-maker Anna-Karin Grönroos, showing at the ICA next week, which pitches his sky-high ambitions against an eco-plan of a very different kind. Wandering the verdant Mentougou valley outside Beijing, looking like a lost Father Christmas, we meet the white-bearded Eero Paloheimo, a 77-year-old Finnish professor who has devoted the last 10 years to trying to realise his lifelong vision for a clean-tech “Eco Valley” in Europe, to no avail. “It's all that red tape and bureaucracy that makes it so slow,” he bemoans. “But when I come here, it just takes a month to get off the ground.” Like many before him, he has tasted the dizzying pace of development of China, the can-do march of the bulldozers and cranes, and found it irresistible. What fails in Europe will surely work in China. “In crises, democracy is too slow a method,” he adds, giving the impression of a man who knows his time is running out. “And we are facing an urgent crisis.” Drenched with pathos, the documentary follows the trials and tribulations of these two men, giving fascinating glimpses behind the scenes of the Chinese eco gold rush. There are already 200 so-called eco-city projects underway across the country, in a fast-paced scramble to house the billion people that will be living in cities within the next 15 years. And savvy businessmen like Zhang know that's where the money – and the all-important state approval – is going to come from. We follow the bumbling Paloheimo as he attempts to win approval for his grand plan, attending conferences and trade shows and grappling with the Chinese way of doing business, like someone trying to use chopsticks for the first time. He presents fly-through animations of sparling white blobs emerging from the hillsides like futuristic fungal growths, a wealth-bringing zero-carbon Silicon Valley about which the local villagers couldn't be more excited. Zhang, meanwhile, battles with the inevitable suspicion with which the international press receives a plan for the tallest, most environmentally-friendly building, built in less than a year, by an air-con tycoon who has never erected anything more than 30 storeys. “There are rumours on the internet calling Sky City a bluff,” he tells a colleague in a heated meeting, as they plot a lavish launch party to win the support of politicians and suppliers. “People don't trust us anymore. Therefore we need to convince them with a ceremony.” The saga ends just as the Sky City project begins on site, with a lavish ground-breaking party that has all the pomp and ceremony of a project that is doomed to remain a rendering. Sure enough, just a few weeks later, construction was suspended when the authorities declared it lacked the proper permits – not to mention the concerns over elevator design and fireproofing, wind-loading and ground subsidence. Paloheimo, meanwhile, is confronted by a shock-dose of reality that could be seen a long time coming. Like finding the mythical end of the rainbow, it seems that those chasing the Chinese eco dream are all too often left to discover it is nothing but a flimsy mirage. • Ecopolis China screens at the ICA in London on 17 June, 8.45pm, followed by a Q&A with director Anna-Karin Grönroos. | ['artanddesign/architecture-design-blog', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'film/film', 'film/documentary', 'culture/culture', 'world/china', 'culture/ica', 'cities/cities', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'type/article', 'profile/oliver-wainwright'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-06-12T13:23:17Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/aug/04/record-coral-cover-on-parts-of-great-barrier-reef-at-risk-from-global-heating-scientists-warn | Record coral cover on parts of Great Barrier Reef, but global heating could jeopardise recovery | Marine scientists monitoring the Great Barrier Reef say they have recorded the highest levels of coral cover in 36 years in the north and central areas, but warned any recovery could be quickly overturned by global heating. The Australian Institute of Marine Science’s annual long-term monitoring report says the fast-growing corals that have driven coral cover upwards are also those most at risk from marine heatwaves, storms and the voracious crown-of-thorns (COTS) starfish. Global heating is accepted by scientists as the reef’s biggest long-term threat. Earlier this year, unusually hot ocean temperatures caused the first ever mass bleaching during a La Niña year – a natural climate phase that should have given corals a respite. The first ever mass bleaching on the reef was recorded in 1998, but since then corals were hit in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 and again earlier this year. The prognosis for the reef’s future under climate change, the report said, was one of increasingly frequent and longer-lasting marine heatwaves, with the ongoing risk of COTS outbreaks and tropical cyclones. “Mitigation of these climatic threats requires immediate global action on climate change,” the report said. Dr Mike Emslie, who leads the Australian Institute of Marine Science monitoring program, told the Guardian: “The fact that we have had four bleaching events in the last seven years and the first one in a La Niña year is really concerning.” Surveys are carried out by towing divers over reefs at a standardised rate, recording corals, bleaching levels, COTS and the number of coral trout and sharks. About half of the 87 reefs surveyed for the report were carried out before the most recent bleaching event unfolded in February and March this year. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “The effects of the 2022 mass bleaching event are still unfolding, and its impact will only be known over the coming months,” the report said. Aerial surveys carried out in March by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority covered 750 individual reefs. The fast-growing acropora species of branching and plate-like corals that were pushing coral cover up were also preferred prey for COTS, he said. In the northern parts of the reef, the monitoring data showed coral cover averaged 36% – a record high, with the lowest levels in the region at 13% recorded in 2017. Coral cover averaged 33% in the central area – another record high compared to the 2019 low of 14%. In the southern region, the average coral cover dropped from a 2021 estimate of 38% to 34%. While bleaching was widespread across the reef in February and March, Emslie said the heat stress had not reached levels likely to cause corals to die. “To get at the impacts [of the latest bleaching] we won’t know until we do in-water surveys over the next few weeks. “But bleaching does have sublethal affects and will affect the physiology of the corals because while they bleach they have been starving.” He said there was evidence that even when corals did not die from bleaching, the phenomenon could reduce their ability to reproduce, slow their growth and make them more susceptible to coral disease. He said it could take a year or more for those sublethal effects to become apparent. As bleaching events were happening more often, future bleaching events could “reverse the observed recovery in a short amount of time”, he said. The most recent mass bleaching coincided with a UN monitoring mission to the reef that had been requested by the Morrison government as it attempted to fight a recommendation to place the reef on a list of world heritage sites in danger. The status of the reef will be discussed at the next world heritage meeting, but a date has not yet been set after a scheduled June meeting was cancelled due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia was due to host the meeting. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/coral', 'environment/fish', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-03T17:30:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/blog/2009/sep/23/sarkozy-climate-summit | Sarkozy's big idea to save the world from global warming: another conference | Hu Jintao and Barack Obama got the main headlines from the UN climate change summit, but spare a moment for Nicolas Sarkozy. Even on a day of high rhetoric, nobody quite matched Sarkozy's intensity in chastising world leaders for failure to deal with the potential catastrophe that lies ahead. "We are on the road to failure," he said. "Time is not on our side." So what's his big idea to stop global warming, or in Sarkozy's own words, "transcend the role playing, the empty speeches, the petty diplomatic games" that have deadlocked negotiations? Another summit, in November, just before the Copenhagen negotiations of the major developed countries that between them produce 80% of the world's emissions. And the creation of a new international organisation to deal with climate change. That will stop the speechifiers in their tracks. And the creation of a new international environmental organisation — which presumably would get rid of the bureaucratic infighting. Sarkozy such a new world body was needed to monitor any agreement that would come out of Copenhagen." From the diplomats huddled within the shrine to modernist architecture that is the UN, there was little immediate enthusiasm for Sarkozy's big idea. But nobody was willing to publicly reject the notion either. Denmark's Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said simply: "We haven't discussed the Sarkozy proposal in detail." But it is now widely conceded that world leaders will need to apply themselves directly if there is going to be a meaningful agreement at Copenhagen. The question is whether they will want to do it Sarkozy's way. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/hu-jintao', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-09-23T17:48:58Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
food/2019/jul/31/uks-cherry-industry-bounces-back-after-20-year-hiatus | UK's cherry industry bounces back after 20-year hiatus | The UK’s cherry industry, which nearly collapsed 20 years ago, has bounced back with predictions of a bumper harvest this year. Cheap imports and high production and labour costs decimated the sector, but British growers are now set to produce about 6,500 tonnes of cherries – double the 3,168 tonnes picked in the UK last year and the highest for nearly 50 years. Tesco says production is once again thriving and is now so strong that – along with Waitrose – the supermarket no longer needs to import the fruit during the British season in order to meet customer demand. The UK season is notoriously short – from mid-June to mid-September, with late-season cherries coming from Scotland. Production hit rock bottom in 2000 when the entire British cherry industry produced a paltry 559 tonnes, and with supermarkets stocking cheaper fruit from Spain, Turkey and the US. Now more and more British growers are enjoying better yields by using dwarf root stock, grafted on to new tree varieties. These produce smaller trees which can be grown in plastic tunnels, creating a microclimate with temperatures similar to the Mediterranean. Picking can be done more efficiently by workers on foot rather than on ladders. Tesco cherry buyer Jordon Watson said: “Not only is the industry back on track after a long hiatus, but the quality of the fruit this year is first-class with soft flesh, ripe with juice and an unrivalled sweetness and taste.” Sarah Neaves, whose family farm supplies Tesco with cherries, was one of the first British growers to plant the new smaller trees. “Over the last 10 years we have planted approximately 40,000 and, coupled with polytunnels to protect the orchard, this has revolutionised our farm,” she said. Another key move from Tesco has been to take an early ripening variety called Merchant, which has helped extend the British season by several weeks. “British cherry growers are continuing to innovate and invest in new varieties and techniques every year to increase the reliability of the once incredibly volatile crop,” said Matt Hancock, chair of Love Fresh Cherries (part of the British Summer Fruits industry body), “meaning growers can adapt better to often unpredictable weather in the UK.” David Matchett, head of food policy at Borough Market, said: “Cherry is the quintessential English stone fruit, however its short season means that most folks’ experience of it will be from an eastern European variety, which has been frozen, preserved, glacéed or concentrated. “This is missing out on one of nature’s finest flavours – if life is a bowl of cherries, then these would have been hand-picked that morning from a Kent orchard.” | ['food/fruit', 'business/fooddrinks', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'food/food', 'business/retail', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-07-31T05:00:45Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2019/may/29/malaysia-to-send-up-to-100-tonnes-of-plastic-waste-back-to-australia | Malaysia to send up to 100 tonnes of plastic waste back to Australia | The Malaysian government will send back up to 100 tonnes of Australian plastic waste because it was too contaminated to recycle, but will not yet name the companies responsible. On Tuesday, Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, announced that 3,000 tonnes of waste, sent from around the world, would be returned because it was either rotting, contaminated, or had been falsely labelled and smuggled in. Recycling sent from Australia, Yeo said, included plastic bottles that were “full of maggots”. Australia and many developed countries export a large amount of their recyclables to other countries to process. Last year, the largest receiver, China, threw Australian recycling into crisis when it introduced new standards that ruled out 99% of what Australia used to export. Since then, waste management companies have found new markets in other countries, many in south-east Asia. But on Tuesday, Yeo said Malaysia had become a “dumping ground” for rubbish that was harming its environment. Up to 60 containers of subpar recycling would be returned to their country of origin “without mercy”, she said. Some were so contaminated they could not be recycled, while others had been illegally shipped in, or mislabelled. “Malaysia will not be the dumping ground of the world,” Yeo said. “We will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we can’t be bullied by developed countries. “What the citizens of the UK [and other countries] think they have sent for recycling are actually being dumped in our country … Malaysians have a right to clean air, clean water and a clean environment to live in, just like citizens of developed nations.” Malaysian authorities have not yet finished inspecting all the waste, but they have already identified rubbish to return to the UK, the US, Japan, China, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Bangladesh and France. Yeo revealed that two containers of PET plastics from Australia were among them. However, an official with the Malaysian environment department said they were not ready to name the Australian companies that sent them. “What we have right now is still under investigation,” the official said. “The investigation for the containers we are going to send back is at its final stage, but we can’t yet reveal the names of the exporters.” On Tuesday, Yeo said the Malaysian government was working on a list of the companies responsible. “We have found a few companies from different countries, and we are compiling a list of these so-called ‘recycling’ companies. We will send the list of these names to the respective governments to take further action.” Jane Bremmer, the co-ordinator of Zero Waste Oz, said Australian waste management companies were taking “a colonising approach” instead of adequately taking care of waste. “It is unethical for Australia to send its non-recyclable, residual waste … to be burnt in cement kilns in other countries, effectively escaping Australian regulatory responsibility,” she said. “We dump our waste on the environment or on vulnerable communities, or export it to developing countries in the Asia-Pacific … Our national waste and recycling policies have for decades been based on export to poor countries while we failed to develop genuine domestic recycling infrastructure.” Last week, the Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, made a similar announcement that it would return 69 containers of 1,5000 tonnes of waste to Canada. The waste had been illegally shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014, and Canada had already agreed to accept the waste back. But after a delay in the process, Duturte ordered his government to potentially leave it in Canada’s territorial waters, as part of an escalating diplomatic row. | ['world/malaysia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/naaman-zhou', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-05-29T07:30:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2017/sep/17/press-regulator-censures-mail-on-sunday-for-global-warming-claims | Press regulator censures Mail on Sunday for global warming claims | Claims in the Mail on Sunday that global warming data had been exaggerated in order to secure the Paris climate change agreement have been criticised by the UK’s press regulator. The Independent Press Standards Organisation censured the newspaper for publishing a story in early February that was flawed in key aspects. The news story suggested that data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the world’s gold-standard sources of weather and climate research, had been treated in such a way as to suggest greater warming than had really occurred. The research hinged on the “pause” in global warming that had been seized on by dismissers of climate change as evidence that the concerns of mainstream scientists had been overblown. The so-called pause or hiatus has long been a contentious issue in climate science. The outlier year of 1998 was exceptionally hot, owing to a strong El Niño, and these record temperatures were not surpassed for several years. This allowed sceptics to claim that global warming had stopped until 2013. However, as mainstream scientists pointed out, the years following 1998 still exhibited an upward temperature trajectory compared with the long-term average, so while the upward march of temperatures was slightly slower, and some years were cooler than others, talk of a “pause” that suggested an end to global warming was misleading. NOAA published research shortly before the Paris climate change negotiations suggesting the pause was less than had been claimed. Subsequent research backed up NOAA’s findings. The Mail on Sunday article alleged that the NOAA had taken data that was “unverified” and used it to suggest the pause had not happened. Ipso ruled that the Mail on Sunday had “failed to take care over the accuracy of the article and had then failed to correct these significantly misleading statements”. Further, a graph published with the article that purported to show large differences between NOAA’s published data and data on warming from other sources was found to be wrong, owing to the newspaper’s “failure to plot the lines correctly”. Some of these examples were deemed to constitute breaches of the editorial code to which newspapers sign up. David Rose, the author of the original story, frequently writes on global warming, often reporting on sceptics’ views on climate science. He is a respected journalist and won the British Press Awards’ prestigious reporter of the year title for 2015. He writes frequently on issues such as police corruption and miscarriages of justice. Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, pursued the Ipso claim against the newspaper. He said: “Fake news stories about climate change are a significant threat to the public interest in the UK, US and other countries. The expert community must continue to fight back against the deluge of propaganda from climate change deniers.” He said several other media outlets had repeated the false claims, and they had even been cited in a letter to NOAA from a leading committee chairman in the US Congress. He called the Ipso ruling “a significant victory”. A spokesman for the Mail on Sunday said: “The subject of the rate of climate change is fiercely debated, with reputable scientists taking positions on both sides. The Mail on Sunday has published articles that challenge some widely held opinions. The complainant in this case is a professional spokesman for two academic institutions involved in the debate. He has complained to the press regulator on three previous occasions about our articles on climate change, but those complaints were rejected.” The spokesman added: “This newspaper is fully committed to the principle of independent press regulation and is a member of Ipso. We are disappointed with this finding, but we accept it and are publishing the adjudication with prominence in the newspaper and online.” Not all of the complaints made by Ward against Rose’s article were upheld, and some of those upheld reflected narrow technical points, for instance over the archiving of data. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/paris-climate-agreement', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'media/mailonsunday', 'media/associated-newspapers', 'media/dmgt', 'environment/environment', 'media/media', 'media/national-newspapers', 'environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris', 'media/ipso', 'type/article', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2017-09-17T14:37:45Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2005/jul/18/india.tsunami2004 | Parents try to reverse tsunami legacy | As tears roll down her cheeks Sintamani Shankar, 25, stares blankly into the picture of her six-year-old son, Pannerselvam. "It is all that is left of him. The tsunami took him. But there is nothing, not even a picture of my daughter left for me to remember." On that Sunday morning last December, the killer waves found many of the children in Nagapattinam at their homes just metres from the sea, rather than at a safer distance, at school. Almost a third of the 6,000 people who died in this fishing village were children. "My son and daughter were playing on the beach. I only heard the sound, like an aeroplane. I never thought it was the sea. But afterwards my children were gone forever," says Sinatmani, sitting outside her temporary shelter in Keechankuppan relief camp. Like so many bereaved mothers in Nagapattinam, which lies on the shoreline of India's Tamil Nadu state, Sintamani had been sterilised as part of a government-sponsored family planning scheme aimed at cutting India's soaring population growth. But local authorities have announced that the state will pay for surgery to reverse the operations, bringing fresh hope for tsunami-affected families consumed by the thought they would never have children again. Sintamani had the "recanalisation" operation last month. "I want a child of my own. Just one is enough." Her husband says the couples' lives "have been empty without kids". In Tamil Nadu, many mothers were advised by doctors to undergo sterilisation after their second or third child, and there were cash incentives for those who did so. A mother who decided after two girls to undergo surgery received 20,000 rupees (£250). Anandi Kumar, 25, had her sterilisation undone just 20 days ago after losing her three sons in December. Outside her tin shack given by the government, Anandi says family planning was something she had always believed in. "I thought three kids was enough. But I never knew that something could take all of them at once. Now am I not sure about these operations." The surgery, known as a tubectomy, involves cutting a woman's fallopian tubes and then tying or closing them to prevent pregnancies. When reversed, in a recanalisation, the tubes are simply reconnected. Although the success rate can be as low as 70%, there has been a rush for the reversals. Part of the reason is a cultural resistance to adoption. "My relatives would not allow me to adopt a child. They preferred that I had my own," says Vairam Shekar, who lost her three children in the tsunami, and is waiting to be "reconnected". J Radhakrishnan, Nagapattinam's district collector, was feted by Bill Clinton when the former US president visited to see how the area was recovering this year, and is seen as the driving force behind the recanalisation scheme. He says adoption is a "solution for a different set of problems". "In Nagapattinam we are faced with a very acute psycho-social issue," Dr Radhakrishnan says. "The mindset of people was that they were not only traumatised because they had lost their children but also because they were incapable from having children. Undoing the surgery was really the best answer." Officials also point out that the bureaucracy surrounding adoption, designed to protect vulnerable children from unsuitable parents, means that it takes a minimum of a year to adopt in India - too long for many of the grieving parents. The surgery to reconnect the tubes is expensive by Indian standards, about 25,000 rupees - the equivalent of £315. Tamil Nadu, a state of 60 million people, has one of India's more successful family planning programmes. At present each woman in the state gives birth to two children on average, much below the comparable all India figure of 3.1. But the tsunami has revealed the downside of such progressive policies, leaving many angry at being robbed of the right to have children, albeit in extreme circumstances. "I never wanted for my wife to have family planning surgery," says Laxman Shekar, Vairam's husband. "My wife did it and I was angry. Because of the tsunami we have to have another surgery to undo this. We have been cursed." K Thilagam, the gynaecologist in Nagapattinam hospital, admits that local people were "initially very angry with us". "They blamed us but now they have calmed down. We have performed more than 30 operations so far and another 120 people have signed up." Doctors say they were merely implementing a policy which has proved effective in a country which has struggled to contain a rising population. Medical staff are already considering whether there may be a case for in vitro fertilisation for older women who have lost their children. "It is being actively considered. After one year, if the recanalisation fails, then we will think about IVF," says G Venkatachalam, director of Nagapattinam hospital. | ['world/world', 'world/india', 'world/tsunami2004', 'type/article', 'profile/randeepramesh'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-07-17T23:01:27Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/oct/26/great-barrier-reef-forecast-warns-entire-system-at-risk-of-bleaching-and-coral-death-this-summer | Great Barrier Reef forecast warns entire system at risk of bleaching and coral death this summer | Mass bleaching and coral death could be likely along the entire Great Barrier Reef this summer, according to a long-range forecast that coral experts say is “a wake-up call” for the Australian government. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has forecast a 60% chance that the entire Great Barrier Reef will reach alert level one, which signals extreme heat stress and bleaching are likely. The forecast period covers November 2018 to February 2019 and the risk extends to the southern Great Barrier Reef, which escaped the mass mortality seen in the middle and northern parts of the reef in 2016 and 2017. “This is really the first warning bells going off that we are heading for an extraordinarily warm summer and there’s a very good chance that we’ll lose parts of the reef that we didn’t lose in the past couple of years,” said marine biologist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland. “These are not good predictions and this is a wake-up call.” Hoegh-Guldberg said it was particularly worrying that the long-range forecasts were already showing high chances of bleaching and mortality before March, which is the main month of the year for bleaching events. He said if the models proved accurate it would mean the entire Great Barrier Reef would be damaged by climate change and coral populations would trend towards very low levels, affecting the reef’s tourism and fishing industries and the employment they support. “To really have the full picture we’re going to have to wait for those projections that cover the main part of bleaching season,” he said. “Given sea temperatures usually increase as we get towards March, this is probably conservative.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent 1.5 degree report warned coral reefs were especially vulnerable to climate change. At even 1.5 degrees of warming it estimated the planet would lose 80% of its coral reefs. At 2 degrees they would all be wiped out. The government has backed coal power in defiance of the IPCC’s call for a phase-out by 2050. But Hoegh-Guldberg said the projection and warning from the NOAA was “very consistent with what the IPCC 1.5 degree report told us.” “It’s extremely important that politicians and our leaders stand up and make the changes we need to make so we don’t tread down an even more dangerous path,” he said. The environment minister, Melissa Price, said “like many Australians, I deeply share concerns about the health and resilience of our world heritage listed-Great Barrier Reef.” “We acknowledge that climate change has an impact on the reef,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons that Australia is working with other countries to tackle climate change through the Paris agreement, and we will deliver on the commitment to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.” Price said that of the $443m the government had given in a grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, $100m would go towards reef restoration and coral recovery. The most recent quarterly emissions data published by the government shows Australia’s emissions are increasing. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/coral', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-10-26T02:16:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/aug/17/eco-friendly-periods-mooncup | Toxin-free, easy to use and eco-friendly: What's not to like about the Mooncup? | Jill Tunstall | Every year, in Britain alone, a staggering 1bn tampons and sanitary towels are used and disposed of – many ending up in the sewerage system. If that figure gives you a PMT-type headache consider this: the average woman – if such a woman exists – uses 11,000 sanitary items during her lifetime, spending around £90 a year. It may be tempting to suggest you look away now if you're at all squeamish about this subject, but that squeamishness, it seems, serves the large sanitary protection manufacturers very well and the environment very badly. While we avoid talking about it, many of those towels, tampons and liners, with all their attendant plastic applicators and stayfresh perfumes, are being flushed unthinkingly down the toilet. Next time you do that, spare a thought for those whose job it is to manually scrape this sort of junk out of liquid sewage before it enters treatment plants, so that it can then be sent to landfill. There are eco-friendly alternatives, however. The Mooncup is one of them. A silicone cup that collects menstrual blood, it's washable, reusable and about as green as you can get. Its growing popularity means it is no longer the preserve of hippy health shops. Boots now stock them in all their stores, you will find them on eBay and they're available to order from Amazon. According to Mooncup, medical research dating back as far as 1918 has found that the pesticides used in growing the cotton for tampons, and the bleach to make them white, can be absorbed into the body. It's only when I come to try the Mooncup that I realise my relationship with Tampax tampons, which began when I was an unquestioning teenager 30 years ago, is my longest-held brand loyalty. But the Mooncup, on paper at least, makes far more sense. It contains none of those bleaches or toxins and it won't cause toxic shock syndrome (TSS). There are 30 cases of this potentially fatal build-up of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus in the UK each year and half are linked to tampon use. Two or three women die of TSS every year with teenage girls most at risk because they tend to change their tampons less frequently than they should. Ever read the leaflet in your box of Tampax? I have now and even it suggests using a pad instead of a tampon at least once a day. "You can also essentially eliminate the risk of menstrual TSS by not using tampons," it adds ominously. The Mooncup, which has been around for around 70 years in one form or another, has no history of TSS. It will, however, save you loads of money, last for years and take up hardly any room in your luggage. The £20 cups come in two sizes relating to age and whether you've had children or not. What, then, is not to like? I'm not squeamish and I think it's the name that's put me off as much as anything but I take the plunge and order one. A squidgy eggcup with a stem for removal, and the website address embossed handily around the edge, arrives. It looks like a piece of the plumbing system, which, I suppose, it is. I have a couple of practices and while at first it seems alarmingly springy, within a very short time I'm whipping it in and out and feeling very proud of myself. You can also turn to YouTube for help. Then it was time to use it for real. And you know what? It was fine. More than fine, actually. It was really interesting. "Oh, so it's only that much blood and that consistency," I found myself musing. I even felt I'd been cheated of this information about what my body produces, all these years. It didn't leak or get stuck and I honestly couldn't feel it. For the first time in aeons I didn't suffer a single stomach cramp. Mooncup's manufacturers put this down to the lower position of the cup in the vagina and the fact that it is non-absorbent and doesn't soak up natural secretions, as conventional tampons do. The Mooncup's capacity is much greater than the most super-absorbent tampon so it can even cope on those days when you need 12 hours in bed. A couple of months down the line it has reduced the headstress I'd been suffering brought on by what I thought were heavy periods. In fact, I realise now, it was just the tampon's inability to cope, rather than my body's fault, and I haven't used a single back-up liner. Yes, there's a bit of faffing about with washing when you come to empty it every six or eight hours but you don't even need to do that. If you haven't any water to hand a quick wipe with loo roll is OK. Removal, on the other hand, involves some fairly undignified suction noises. But that's a very small price to pay for something that significantly contributes to reducing your ecological footprint and makes the whole period palaver more tolerable. I've also given the washable tampon-like Sea Pearls, made of sustainably harvested sea sponge, a whirl. They're slightly scratchy, and after the certainty of the Mooncup, I think I'll pass. Of course, says my sister, a Mooncup convert of several years, when I relate all this back to her, but if you want to do the real hippy thing you should empty the blood from your Mooncup onto your compost heap. She hasn't gone that far. And neither will I. But, with equal certainty, I can say the Mooncup's here to stay. | ['environment/ethical-living', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-08-17T12:28:58Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2021/feb/18/nationals-nuclear-push-shows-coalition-energy-policy-chaos-labor-says | Nationals' nuclear push shows Coalition energy policy 'chaos', Labor says | Anthony Albanese has accused the Coalition of “more chaos” in energy policy, after the Nationals in the Senate announced new amendments to a government bill in favour of nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. On Thursday the entire Nationals Senate team led by Bridget McKenzie and Matt Canavan announced they would seek amendments to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation bill to allow it to invest in the two technologies. It follows an amendment put forward by former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, attempting to allow the CEFC’s grid reliability fund to invest in new coal-fired power plants, which has already been rejected by the deputy Liberal leader, Josh Frydenberg. Guardian Australia understands the CEFC amendments put forward by Joyce and the Senate Nationals did not go through their party room. By front-running the debate the Nationals backbench could further destabilise the leadership of Michael McCormack, who Joyce has said must sharpen policy differences with the Liberals to ensure electoral success. On Thursday McCormack attempted to ride out the division by offering qualified support for the backbenchers’ ideas. A spokesperson for McCormack said: “It is important that consideration is given to the amendments that have been put forward. “We have always said a diverse energy mix is needed to ensure the lowest possible power prices for Australian families and businesses.” Frydenberg said that McCormack had proven a “very resilient” Nationals leader and the Liberals and Nationals had worked “very effectively” as a coalition. Frydenberg said energy policy was a “complex area” and he had “scars” from his time in the portfolio, in reference to Liberals threatening to cross the floor over Malcolm Turnbull’s national energy guarantee. “There are lots of different views,” he told reporters. “And the great thing about being a member of parliament is you have an opportunity to air your views.” The energy minister, Angus Taylor, is yet to say how he will handle the revolt. Although the Liberals are generally opposed to new coal power plants, the nuclear amendment will likely prove more tricky given many Liberal backbenchers have expressed they want the separate ban on nuclear power in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to be lifted. A survey conducted by the Australian found support for this from 48 Coalition backbenchers, including Liberal MPs Andrew Laming, John Alexander and Gerard Rennick. McKenzie told reporters in Canberra the Senate team want to be “positive contributors” by putting forward the ideas, and pointed to federal and state conference motions in favour of nuclear power and local branch support when asked if they were official policy. McKenzie said the deputy prime minister was “well aware” they would present the amendments, and confirmed they’ve also had discussions with Taylor. McKenzie said “the Nationals party room are – generally – I’m sure if you rung them all [you’d find] they’re very, very keen to make a positive, progressive contribution to the energy and emissions debate”. The Joyce amendment has received support from some Nationals MPs including Llew O’Brien and George Christensen. Albanese said that he is “not a supporter of nuclear energy in Australia because it doesn’t stack up. “There have been numerous reports, occasionally you’ll get opinion pieces … suggesting this, and no serious propositions have ever come forward on it,” he told reporters in Canberra. “What we’re witnessing here is just a part of the chaos that is the Coalition when it comes to energy policy with their 22 energy policies.” He noted the CEFC debate had been adjourned, suggesting the government “can’t debate its own legislation because it can’t agree with itself on what should happen”. “It’s more chaos.” Liberals including Trent Zimmerman, Ted O’Brien and Rowan Ramsey told the Australian although they support lifting the ban on nuclear power they believe the government should not legalise the energy source without bipartisan support. Canavan told reporters it was important “not to prejudge the views of Australians on these issues”. The former resources minister noted that residents of Kimba in South Australia had voted 60% in favour of a nuclear waste dump in a plebiscite. “If we can get to that level of support for a waste facility, I don’t think it’s beyond us to – in other communities … find support.” Canavan said that the population of Gladstone and its local member, Ken O’Dowd, were in favour of nuclear power as a means to sustain local manufacturing. “I know some Australians won’t support it – and that’s fine too.” The Australian Conservation Foundation warned parliament against changing the investment rules of the CEFC ACF campaigner, Dave Sweeney, said “talking up nuclear and new coal-fired power plants is a dangerous distraction from facing up to Australia’s very real energy challenges and choices”. “There is nothing clean about the fuel behind the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters, which produces waste that remains radioactive for tens of thousands of years,” he said. “There is no such thing as clean coal and the CEFC wouldn’t be considered a trusted investment partner if it was expected to invest in this outdated, dirty technology.” “No country in the world is choosing to set up a nuclear industry from scratch. When it comes to climate action, nuclear power is a dead end.” Experts including Ziggy Switkowski have warned nuclear power is not realistic in Australia for at least a decade, and that neither large scale nor small modular reactors are likely to deliver a commercial return. | ['australia-news/national-party', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2021-02-18T01:47:53Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2020/oct/24/small-increases-in-air-pollution-linked-to-rise-in-depression-finds-study | Small increases in air pollution linked to rise in depression, finds study | Small increases in people’s exposure to air pollution are linked to significant rises in depression and anxiety, according to the first such study of UK adults. The researchers found that an incremental increase in nitrogen dioxide, largely produced by diesel vehicles, heightened the risk of common mental disorders by 39%. For tiny particle pollution, which comes from burning fuels, and brake and tyre dust, the risk rose by 18%. The scientists also found that people living in places with higher levels of particle pollution were twice as likely to experience mental health problems as those in the least polluted areas. The researchers acknowledged that other factors were important for mental health, such as genetics and childhood experiences, but added that, unlike these, air pollution could be prevented. The study followed more than 1,000 adults in south-east London over five years, but the results are relevant for cities and towns across the world. In the UK, almost every urban area has particle pollution levels above the World Health Organization guidelines, and around the globe 90% of people breathe dirty air. “Air pollution is not the only factor that may have an impact on the presence of mental disorders, but it is a preventable one,” said Dr Ioannis Bakolis, a lecturer at King’s College London who led the research. “Introducing measures to reduce air pollution may represent a rare and potentially impactful primary health measure for the prevention of psychiatric disorders.” Dr Ian Mudway, a lecturer at Imperial College London and part of the research team, said rates of mental health disorders were known to be higher in urban areas, with suggested causes including deprivation and lack of green space. “But the amazing thing with this study is that when you control for all of those other features of the urban environment and socioeconomic factors, the air pollution signal remains. It’s a very robust finding,” he added. The World Bank has estimated that air pollution costs the global economy $5tn (£3.8tn) a year but this includes only the well-known damages caused to heart and lungs by dirty air. “There is now an increasing body of evidence suggesting air pollution isn’t great for the brain either,” Mudway said. “We may actually have been underplaying the adverse effects of air pollution on our health from cradle to grave.” Recent research has linked dirty air to increased suicides and indicated that growing up in polluted places increases the risk of mental disorders. Other research found that air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence and is linked to dementia. A global review in 2019 concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ in the human body. The Bakolis-led research is published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, and used standard questionnaires to assess the mental health of people in the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth over five years. It used data on individuals to take into account factors including age, socioeconomic status, neighbourhood deprivation, and frequency of drinking, smoking and exercise. The research improved on previous work by estimating air pollution levels every 20 metres across the area, meaning homes on busy roads could be distinguished from those on back streets. The study also took account of noise levels, which can be hard to separate from air pollution because traffic influences both. The average NO2 levels in the boroughs varied from 24 to 83 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³), but the study found a rise in exposure of just 3 units increased the risk of common mental disorders by 39%. Small particle pollution ranged from 9 to 23 µg/m³ and a 5-unit increase led to the risk of mental health problems rising by 18%. Epidemiological studies cannot prove a causal link between air pollution and mental health problems and scientists cannot experiment on people. But a broad range of psychiatric conditions have been linked to inflammation in the body , including the brain, and recent work has shown tiny air pollution particles lodged in the brain are associated with molecular damage. The latest study is important, and accounted for a long list of other factors that may affect mental health, said Prof Antonio Gasparini, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. But he said the broad definition of mental health used mad it difficult to assess potential causal links. “More studies are needed before offering [health] recommendations,” he added. Prof Anna Hansell, at the University of Leicester, said the research was interesting and carefully conducted. She also said more studies using different statistical techniques were needed to confirm the findings. “However, there are already urgent grounds to reduce air pollution due to its association with chronic disease and premature deaths,” Hansell said. She added that regular exercise, even in polluted places, benefits mental and physical health. “People should act, not only worry,” said Bakolis. The evidence of air pollution’s harm was now strong enough that people should ask their elected representatives for more action, he added. Mudway, who is raising a young family in central London, said he walked as much as possible and chooses less polluted routes. | ['environment/pollution', 'society/mental-health', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-10-24T06:00:16Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2012/dec/30/weatherwatch-records-temperature-cold | Weatherwatch: Statistically, February is the cruelest month | December has shown how rapidly British weather can change, with five days of sharp frosts and freezing fog in the middle of the month and then, less than 24 hours later, relatively warm but raining. Much depends on the direction of the wind: north and east is generally cold and dry, west and south comparatively mild but often windy and wet. Long-term statistics give averages, and are therefore useless when predicting what the weather will be like on any particular day. Although January and February are on average the coldest months in any year, the temperature can vary daily between 15C and minus 10C depending on the direction of the wind and absence of a warm blanket of cloud. But taking averages over the past 130 years, the 10 coldest days are spread out between 3 January and 20 February. Half of these days are in the first half of January. But then there is a gap and February 13, 14, 17, 18 and 20 are bunched together, making that the coldest week of the year. The coldest day is 17 February with an average minimum of 0.8C and maximum of 6.7C. It is interesting that in central England the average low never drops below freezing point. However, the extremes of weather on "the coldest day" show the quixotic nature of the British climate. February 17's lowest recorded temperature – minus 23.9 – was in 1879, at Aviemore in Scotland; the warmest – 17.4C – was in 1878 at Llandudno in north Wales. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-12-30T22:00:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2006/aug/28/depravedindifferenceayeara | Depraved indifference: a year after Katrina | Over ten years ago I started a short story I could never finish. It was called Depraved Indifference, and to make a long short story short, it was meant to describe the general state of modern social life.* In the intervening decade or so any doubts I might have had that this was an accurate description have, sadly, completely evaporated. When the horror that was Katrina unfolded in front of us all on television, depraved indifference seemed to be a perfect description of the regime that didn't want to interrupt its vacation or restaurant dinners. On the other hand, for once, most, if not all Americans were anything but indifferent. Pity, if not exactly empathy, flowed freely, as did contributions to a variety of relief funds. For once, an amazingly large percentage of white Americans seemed willing to entertain at least the notion that daily life here in the land of the white and home of the rich was savagely unfair to the black and the poor. (If only because the violently horrific racism of the whole situation was so impossible to avoid as it played out hour after hour on our TV screens, whatever the "looter"- crying media was saying) For once, it seemed, the truly depraved indifference of the monsters who claim to lead the country, to be responsible for it's safety and well being, to be the government of, by, and for the people was finally revealed to all for what it was. Surely, surely, SURELY many, if not all, of us felt, surely these vile liars, thieves and murderers would finally be held accountable for some, if not all, of their crimes. Well, a year later, their precious poll numbers are certainly down for the count. Brownie (the former director of the Federal Emergency Management, Michael Brown) has had to find another high paying job. But everyone else from the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, on up, through George Bush, and all the way to Dick Cheney at the top are still in place, still waging their criminal war against Iraq, still arming and encouraging Israeli butchery, still bamboozling everyone from Fox News to the New York Times with their bullshit about Iran and "the terrorists" being a threat to "us." Meanwhile the poor and black people of New Orleans are still out of their homes, out of jobs, out of luck. And the American People? "Depraved Indifference" rules the land once more. * I've since learned that Gary Indiana succeeded at writing a novel with the same title, with, I gather, a similar intention, but no similarity in story. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremypikser'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-08-28T08:41:51Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/blog/young-people-sustainability-pressure-business-government | Cutting carbon: it's time to listen to the younger generation | Trewin Restorick | Imagine the UK has fallen under the control of a highly efficient dictatorship. Reassuringly the dictator has introduced only one new rule which is that every person has a strict carbon ration. Overnight the new regime has somehow installed magic meters to measure our use. Puzzled, we have a shower aware the meter is ticking. The meter speeds up when we tuck into our bacon sandwich – are bacon butties really that carbon intensive? The drive to work inevitably hits the meter, but we hadn't accounted for the empty home diminishing our carbon allowance due to sloppy use of those heating timers. In just five hours the inevitable happens and the meter hits zero. The lights, our computer and the heating all shut down. We can't buy food and have to walk home to a dark, cold house. We can't even listen to the news to find out what is happening. The enormity of our dictator's rule hits home. We realise that fundamentally our lifestyle and economy has to change entirely. It sounds ridiculous, but is it far-fetched? UK legislation states by 2050 we have to cut carbon emissions by 80%. We have just 39 years to achieve this colossal level of change, a change easily within the lifespan of young people. Has anybody prepared them for this change? Do schools explain the scientific necessity? Are they gaining the skills needed to flourish in a radically different jobs market? Are they aware of lifestyle and dietary implications? Most crucially, has anyone talked to them about this very different sort of future? Global Action Plan believes that the answer is no. Politicians talk about the 80% target without detailing the ramifications. They talk about choice and fairness, but don't seem to extend these principles to our children. Is it morally justifiable for the current generation to be profligate with carbon realising that the burden of our abundance will mean austerity for our children? Alarmed by the unfairness, Global Action Plan invited 3,000 young people to develop their own vision for a sustainable future. Their interest, innovation and desire to get involved has been refreshing. The younger generation paint a picture of an aspirational lifestyle where cities provide safe environments for walking and cycling, where local space and roofs are used as community food growing areas, where there is a real desire to embrace science and engineering and where renewable energy is the norm. We wondered whether the committed 3,000 young people who created the vision were a self-contained green ghetto and whether their less involved peers would ridicule their thoughts. So we commissioned YouGov to undertake a survey of 1,000 other young people to get their views on the vision. To our surprise the level of support, awareness and endorsement was incredibly high. The desire to harvest natural resources, to be less car dependent, to generate our own energy, to grow our own food and to volunteer more in the community was shared by the vast majority. The majority were also in favour of carbon taxes and population control policies. More young people were accepting than opposed to GM food although almost a third were undecided. Unsurprisingly the areas of most contention were around eating less meat and dairy or having limited air travel. Through the vision - which is called the "Greenprint to 2020" - and the following research, the young people set out a clear challenge to businesses and government. They see businesses as being crucial in this change. They feel companies should better educate their customers, shift to low carbon production, help us to cope with higher food demands by wasting less, stimulate local production and provide incentives for people to change. A clear agenda was also set out for government. Young people do not feel it is being honest about the seriousness of the problem. It is not setting an example of leadership and is not making it easy for people to live more sustainable lifestyles. Global Action Plan is already working with young people, connecting them with businesses who see the benefit of collaborative projects which help turn their vision into reality. But the vision will require the support and engagement of many more companies and the government. We realise that this will be difficult in the current economic times, yet we believe that this challenge has to be addressed. The slower we act now, the more painful the transition to a low carbon economy will be for our children. The vision the young people have created may seem idealistic but all of it is technically achievable. The only thing stopping us getting there is the lack of vision from the government, insufficient engagement from the vast majority of the corporate sector and a lack of awareness of the severity of the changes needed from voters. We are determined to change things and persuade business and government to start listening to their future customers, employees and voters. Trewin Restorick is CEO of Global Action Plan This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/blog', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/blog', 'sustainable-business/low-carbon', 'type/article', 'profile/trewin-restorick'] | sustainable-business/low-carbon | EMISSIONS | 2011-02-23T16:14:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2012/dec/07/greenland-ice-melting-arctic-wildfires | Smoke from Arctic wildfires may have caused Greenland's record thaw | The freak melt of the Greenland ice sheet last summer may have been forced by smoke from Arctic wildfires, new research suggests. Satellite observations, due to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Friday, for the first time tracks smoke and soot particles from tundra wildfires over to Greenland. Scientists have long known that soot blackens snow and ice, reducing its powers of reflectivity and making it more likely to melt under the sun. But the satellite records, due to be presented by the Ohio State University geographer Jason Box, go a step further, picking up images of smoke over Greenland at the time of last summer's extreme melt. Greenland experienced its most dramatic melting since satellite records began last July, with virtually the entire ice sheet showing signs of a thaw over the course of four days. Box oversaw the Greenland portion of Noaa's annual report on the Arctic, which was released earlier this week and was in Greenland around the time of last summer's extraordinary melt. The thaw was due to the warming atmosphere caused by climate change, as well as local weather conditions over Greenland including clear bright skies and a lack of fresh snow cover. But Box said scientists are now beginning to identify another important cause for melting: smoke and soot particles, darkening the surface of the Greenland ice sheet. Earlier research found a 7% decline in Greenland's reflectivity over the past decade. Under warming, ice crystals lose their jagged edges, becoming more rounded with reduced areas of reflectivity. But the true extent of the loss could be much greater once the smoke from forest fires is factored in. "Soot is a very powerful absorber. Very small increases in soot content have big increases in solar absorption," Box said. In its annual Arctic report, released this week this week, the premier scientific agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, warned greener and warmer conditions due to climate change were making the tundra more fire-prone. When soot from those fires settles over the ice, it captures the sun's heat. "That's why increasing tundra wildfires have the potential to accelerate the melting in Greenland," Box said. Box and his team used Nasa satellites to spot large fires which burned for several days in Labrador last summer, and computer models to anticipate smoke trajectories. They then used satellite imaging to detect sooty aerosols, or smoke clouds, directly over Greenland. "We are tracking the fires from source to sink, the place where the smoke is depositing on the ice sheet. The scan can verify that the smoke is making it to its destination," Box said. He said he planned to return to Greenland in the early summer of 2013 to take samples from the ice sheet in a crowd-sourced expedition, the Dark Snow project. "We saw complete surface melting of the ice sheet for the first time in observation. Would that have happened without the wildfire soot of 2012?" Box said. "We don't know. We have got to get up there and make those measurements." | ['environment/sea-ice', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/greenland', 'world/world', 'world/arctic', 'environment/environment', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'science/science', 'tone/news', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/poles', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-12-07T14:25:20Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2021/sep/01/shell-on-street-ev-charge-points-2025 | Shell aims to install 50,000 on-street EV charge points by 2025 | Shell has announced its aim to install 50,000 on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging points in the UK over the next four years, in an attempt to provide a third of the network needed to hit national climate change targets. Earlier this year, the energy company acquired ubitricity, a leading supplier of local authorities’ on-street EV power points, with a network of 3,600 chargers in lamp posts or bollards. The paucity of on-street charging in urban areas has been seen as a significant obstacle in the government’s drive to phase out fossil fuel vehicles in favour of electric cars. The sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2030 in the UK. Shell will entice local authorities by offering to meet the upfront costs of installation that are not covered by government grants, subject to commercial terms. The government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles currently pays 75% of the installation cost. According to a National Audit Office report into reducing carbon emissions from cars, more than 60% of urban households in England do not have off-street parking, with the number rising to 68% for social housing. Shell’s UK chair, David Bunch, said: “It’s vital to speed up the pace of EV charger installation across the UK and this aim and financing offer is designed to help achieve that. We want to give drivers across the UK accessible EV charging options, so that more drivers can switch to electric.” The transport minister, Rachel Maclean, said the announcement was “a great example of how private investment is being used alongside government support to ensure that our EV infrastructure is fit for the future”. The UK Committee for Climate Change’s progress report to parliament in June recommended as a priority there should be 150,000 public charge points in operation in the UK by 2025 to ensure they would be widely available across the country. Shell has targeted global growth from 60,000 charge points today – including on fuel station forecourts and commercial premises - to about 500,000 by 2025. BP had previously stolen a march in the UK electric charging business, after snapping up Chargemaster in 2018. The oil company, which has been regularly targeted by climate crisis campaigners in recent years, has pledged to invest heavily in greener businesses and become net zero by 2050. This week Extinction Rebellion activists glued themselves to the Science Museum in London in protest against Shell’s sponsorship of an exhibition about greenhouse gases. | ['business/royaldutchshell', 'business/business', 'business/oil', 'environment/electric-cars', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/series/green-streets', 'uk/uk', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'society/localgovernment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2021-09-01T05:01:21Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2017/oct/06/climate-change-in-the-caribbean-learning-lessons-from-irma-and-maria | Climate change in the Caribbean – learning lessons from Irma and Maria | As a Caribbean climate scientist, I am often asked to speak about how climate change affects small islands. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, one of two category five storms to batter the eastern Caribbean in just a week, three words resonate in my mind. The first word is “unfamiliar”. Scientific analysis shows that the climate of the Caribbean region is already changing in ways that seem to signal the emergence of a new climate regime. Irma and Maria fit this pattern all too well. At no point in the historical records dating back to the late 1800s have two category five storms made landfall in the small Caribbean island chain of the eastern Antilles in a single year. The intensification almost overnight from a tropical storm to a category five hurricane and the devastating intensity that lingered for several days are also unfamiliar, even to a region that is used to seeing hurricanes. Alongside other emerging climate patterns, there is a strong case to be made that there is something unfamiliar about the Caribbean’s climate today. We are seeing repeated and prolonged droughts, an increase in the number of very hot days, intense rainfall events causing repeated localised flooding, and rising sea levels that are consuming the beautiful beaches on which tourism in our region depends. The problem with unfamiliarity is that daily existence in the Caribbean is built on familiar patterns of climate. Our economies are premised on industries and sectors that are extremely sensitive to climate variations, such as tourism and agriculture. In a year that follows expected patterns and pulls no surprises, we see favourable economic growth and improvements in our quality of life. Even when we’ve seen bad weather, we have always had a certain familiarity with the limits of how bad it can be. Until now, newer infrastructure in the Caribbean has largely withstood the ravages of hurricanes and tropical storms, as their design has accounted for the upper bounds of extreme weather experienced in the past. Irma and Maria threw out the notion of planning and preparedness based on the expected and the familiar. Their ferocity destroyed even the strongest evacuation shelters and brought devastation of catastrophic proportions to our tiny islands. Just as climate change is heralding in an era marked by the unfamiliar, we need a paradigm shift in our approach to development planning in highly vulnerable regions. The second word that comes to mind is “unprecedented”. A business-as-usual scenario without global action suggests that by the end of the current century, the Caribbean region will warm a further 2-3C over the 1C already seen in the last century. We project annual rainfall amounts will decrease by up to 40%, posing a significant challenge to already water stressed islands. Projections also show sea levels rising by 1-2 metres, far exceeding the rise already recorded. Most frighteningly, given our experience in the last few weeks, is the expectation that we will see more of the strongest tropical Atlantic hurricanes (though not necessarily more overall). Cumulatively, the science of projections suggests that the region’s climate will be altered beyond recognition. This is to say, it will be outside the bounds of our lived experience to date. It will not just be unfamiliar at times, it may be unprecedented all the time. The stocktaking is hardly complete from Irma and Maria. Yet for Barbuda and Dominica at least, the setback to their economies will be measured in years. The initial estimates for rebuilding are staggering. Perhaps even more heartbreaking is the loss of those things that are economically unquantifiable. The drastic reductions in living standards, especially for the most vulnerable, that will continue for months to come. The loss of irreplaceable culture and cultural assets, the mental anguish and loss of lives, the loss of biodiversity, and the destruction of “island life” as we know it. The small island of Barbuda, for the first time in 300 years, has no human inhabitants. They were all evacuated after the devastation wreaked by Irma and in anticipation of Jose and Maria. This seems to portend the challenge that climate change represents for the Caribbean region – a challenge that becomes more acute as the era of the unprecedented is ushered in faster than the region can prepare for its onset. Finally, the third word that comes to mind is “urgent”. Admirably, although the Caribbean islands are minuscule emitters of greenhouse gases, they have made bold commitments regarding future use. But in the end, the future viability of the region is premised on collective global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is for this reason that the Caribbean and other small island and developing states have argued for a limit to global warming of 1.5C. It is this message that must reach the global community when they see the images of Irma and Maria. For those in the Caribbean, the lessons are all too clear. • Dr Michael Taylor is a physicist based at the University of the West Indies | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'weather/caribbean', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricane-maria', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | world/hurricane-maria | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-10-06T10:43:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2018/feb/13/share-your-questions-for-scientists-aboard-an-antarctic-expedition | Share your questions for scientists aboard an Antarctic expedition | Antarctic exploration brings challenges, but also surprises that can often seem out of this world – according to those lucky enough to experience the adventure. We’d like you to share your thoughts, and questions, as Guardian journalists report direct from the region as part of a Greenpeace expedition. The organisation will be monitoring the impact of krill fishing on whales and other creatures, and how climate change is affecting the world’s oceans. Travelling aboard the Arctic Sunrise is reporter Matthew Taylor, who will be putting some of your questions to scientists and experts and using the responses in his reporting in the coming days. Get involved You can share your questions with our journalists, and the experts on the Greenpeace expedition, via our encrypted form below. Leave contact information and we’ll let you know how your question will be addressed and by whom. If you are having trouble using the form, click here. | ['world/antarctica', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-readers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-02-13T15:30:35Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
media/greenslade/2016/aug/04/paul-dacre-energy-daily-mail-hydro-power-plant | How Paul Dacre will benefit from energy levy his paper has opposed | Paul Dacre, the newspaper editor, has been highly critical of the renewable energy levy on household bills. Paul Dacre, the Scottish land owner, is about to reap the benefits of that levy as a renewable energy producer. According to The Herald, Daily Mail editor Dacre “stands to earn over £15m over the next 20 years” from a hydro scheme on his Highland estate. Dacre’s family owns the 17,000-acre Langwell Estate, north of Ullapool in Wester Ross, where a 1.2 mega-watt hydro power plant is under construction and due for completion in the autumn. The £4.25m scheme involves increasing the size of an existing dam on Loch a’Crois and a replacement footbridge along with buried pipelines. Dacre is one of the directors of the business, DHG Hydro - billed as “one of the largest privately owned hydro-electric developers” in the UK - which applied for planning permission to build the scheme. The Herald article claims that Dacre’s family share from the scheme should double the £2.45m they paid for the estate in 2009. The Mail has a long record of opposing green taxes. Among many leading articles critical of the levies were these in July 2011, in October 2013 and, most recently, in April 2016. At the time of writing, the Mail had not responded to a request for a comment from Paul Dacre. | ['media/greenslade', 'media/media', 'media/pauldacre', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'media/dailymail', 'uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'media/national-newspapers', 'media/newspapers', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'tone/news', 'profile/roygreenslade', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-media'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-08-04T11:55:23Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2017/feb/02/packaging-plastics-pollution-recycling-unilever-dove-marks-spencer | M&S and Unilever promise plastic redesign to cut waste | The wide array of plastic cartons, trays and films developed to keep products intact and food safe are often too complex to recycle – with grave environmental consequences. According to a recent report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, “without fundamental redesign, about 30% of plastic packaging will never be reused or recycled.” And that means ever more plastic into landfill, and into our oceans. Researchers are working on all kinds of alternatives, including shopping bags made from shrimp shells, which a team from Nottingham University believes could ease pollution of Egypt’s water supply. Everything from milk to mushrooms has been touted as a replacement for conventional plastic’s oil base: Dutch sugar producers, for instance, say increased sugar beet production could feed an emerging bioplastics industry. But while materials of the future are in development, experts are calling for urgent action on plastic packaging now. More plastic than fish “Just 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally, one third ends up in the natural environment and if current trends continue, by 2050 our oceans could contain more plastics than fish, by weight,” says Rob Opsomer, lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new plastics economy initiative. “We need to fundamentally rethink the way we produce, use and recover plastics, redesign plastic packaging and adopt common standards.” Some firms are starting to do that. Consumer goods giant Unilever, whose brands include Dove, Magnum and Surf, has pledged to make all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. At present the company estimates that 70% of its plastic packaging is recyclable. Part of its strategy is to improve recycling technology. Finding a way to process multi-layered sachets, for example, which are used for fluids and powders, and constitute the largest proportion of non-recyclable plastic packaging, is one priority. The company also plans to redesign some of its packaging. Until now, Unilever has focused on so-called lightweighting, or reducing the overall amount of plastic used in specific pieces of packaging. By inserting a foamed layer into Dove body wash bottles, for example, it claims to have cut plastic content by 15%. The company’s record is not entirely positive, however. Last year it was one of several brands criticised by the Recycling Association for failing to use recycling labels consistently. UK supermarket M&S, like other retailers, uses a lot of plastic packaging. But it now says it plans to develop one recyclable, plastic polymer for use across all its plastic packaging. “We know there’s an issue with customers being a little confused about what you do with different types of plastic: from the tray with your meat to the light films around vegetables,” says Kevin Vyse, senior packaging technologist and innovation lead. “With plastic, we are giving them a lot of things to do and certain local authorities don’t even want to handle multiple plastics.” What’s stopping change? Vyse reckons M&S might be able to switch to a single polymer for all its recyclable plastic within three or four years, but admits that redesign is a challenge. “Plastic is incredibly valuable in delivering food through supply chains and keeping it fresh,” he says. “The challenge is lightweighting to a point where we might be in danger of creating food waste [...] If you get too light, the plastic will also deteriorate before it gets to the recycling process and you start getting leakage.” The plastics problem may improve as regulatory pressure grows: last week, as part of its Circular Economy Package, the European Parliament approved a target to recycle at least 70% of waste by 2030. However, Opsomer cautions that economic constraints are still a major barrier to change. “Black packaging coloured with the carbon black pigment, for example, is often unrecyclable but remains prevalent due to branding and cost reasons,” he says. His initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, of which Unilever is a partner, seeks to create a coalition of industry players to rethink the future of plastics. Jenna Jambeck, associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia, says cooperation is key. “If industry can collaborate on this,” she says, “there can be economy of scale incentives.” Sign up to be a Guardian Sustainable Business member and get more stories like this direct to your inbox every week. You can also follow us on Twitter. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'business/unilever', 'business/marksspencer', 'environment/oceans', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'business/retail', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/senay-boztas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-02-02T05:30:21Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/economics-blog/2013/dec/18/fracking-shale-gas-stagnation | Can fracking shatter stagnation? | The developed world is slowly emerging from the Great Recession, but a question lingers: how fast and how far will the recovery go? One big source of pessimism has been the idea that we are running out of investment opportunities – and have been since before the 2008 crash. But is that true? The last big surge of innovation was the internet revolution, whose products came onstream in the 1990s. After the dotcom collapse of the early 2000s, speculation in real estate and financial assets – enabled by cheap money – kept western economies going. The post-2008 slump merely exposed the unsoundness of the preceding boom; the mediocrity of the recovery, coolly considered, merely reflects the mediocrity of previous prospects. The risk now is that a debt-fuelled asset spike merely perpetuates the boom-bust cycle. The economist Larry Summers has reintroduced the term "secular stagnation" to describe what awaits us. By the mid-2000s, Summers argued at a recent International Monetary Fund conference, the average prospective return on new investment in the United States had fallen below any feasible reduction in the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate. That remains true today. We may be in a permanent liquidity trap, in which nominal interest rates cannot fall below zero, but the expected rate of return to investment remains negative. Unconventional monetary policies, such as quantitative easing may inflate a new generation of asset bubbles, but the underlying problem – negative returns to new investment – will not have been solved by the time the next crash comes. So the problem is poor investment prospects. Why? In the 1930s, the economist Alvin Hansen argued that opportunities for new investment in already-rich countries were drying up. Investment growth had depended on population growth, technological innovation and westward expansion, he said. With the closing of the frontier and static populations, growth would depend on innovation. But future innovation would require smaller inputs of capital and labour than in the past. In other words, the returns to capital were bound to fall as it became more abundant relative to population. In this situation, full employment could be maintained only by running continuous fiscal deficits. John Maynard Keynes held a different view. In 1945, he wrote to TS Eliot: "[T]he full employment policy by means of investment is only one particular application of an intellectual theorem. You can produce the result just as well by consuming more or working less. Personally, I regard the investment policy as first aid … less work is the ultimate solution." Developed countries' strong postwar investment performance dispelled fear of secular stagnation. But this occurred after a world war that had created huge pent-up demand for new equipment, transport infrastructure and household appliances, together with a military-industrial complex that armed the west during the cold war. The real rate of return to capital may have started to decline by the early 1970s; productivity growth certainly has slowed since then. Some crucial changes in the political economy of western capitalism in the 1980s can also be viewed in this light: the rise of neoliberal ideology, the growing inequality of wealth and incomes, the increase in structural unemployment, the growth of financial services, globalisation, the invention of post-cold war threats to sustain military spending, and so on. The question today is whether a new upsurge of investment will come to our rescue. Optimists point to the shale-energy revolution in the US. The McKinsey Global Institute has identified shale energy as a "game changer" for the world economy, estimating that it could boost America's GDP by as much as 4% ($690bn) [£420bn] a year and add 1.7m permanent jobs to the labour market by 2020. From 2007 to 2012, North American shale-gas production grew at an average annual rate of over 50%. As a result, the share of shale gas in America's overall gas production rose from just 5% in 2007 to 36% in 2012. With the share of imports in US natural-gas consumption dropping from 16.5% in 2007 to 11% in 2010, America is on the path to energy self-sufficiency. Likewise, a September 2013 report by IHS concludes that midstream industries, such as transportation, and downstream industries, such as manufacturing and chemicals, are also receiving a huge stimulus. As a result of the shale-energy boom, "over $216 billion in total will be invested in the midstream and downstream oil and gas industries" from 2012 to 2025, it predicts. Nearly 380,000 of the 2.1m jobs shale-related industries generated in the US in 2012 were created in these areas. Beyond this, the most dramatic impact of shale oil and gas on the economy has been the fall in energy prices. In the US, the price of natural gas has fallen to $4 a MMBtu, from $13 in 2008, boosting household purchasing power. IHS estimates that in 2012 developments in the shale-energy industry increased households' real disposable income by more than $1,200. The shale revolution thus represents a huge stimulus for America in terms of investment, exports and reductions in energy costs. I am in no position to judge either the quantitative impact of shale energy on the US economy – and, via growth there, on the rest of the world – or to comment on its geopolitical consequences or net effect on carbon emissions. But it does seem to me that contemporary apostles of secular stagnation like Summers and Paul Krugman at least ought to be taking the shale-energy revolution into account. • Robert Skidelsky, a member of the House of Lords, is professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013 | ['business/series/project-syndicate-economists', 'business/economics-blog', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/shale-oil', 'business/imf', 'tone/comment', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/robertskidelsky'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2013-12-18T15:53:29Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2022/oct/02/cubans-protest-over-power-outages-four-days-after-hurricane-ian | Cubans protest over power outages four days after Hurricane Ian | Four days after Ian, a category three hurricane, protests have sprung up at different points in Cuba over the lack of electricity after the storm. Alex Bandrich, 35, a graphic designer with his chihuahua, Richi, in hand, was at a protest with more than 100 people on a main road of the well-heeled Vedado neighbourhood on Saturday night. “I haven’t had light in my house for the last five days,” he said. “I’ve lost food, although I kept some at a friend’s place [with power], and I’ve had to take my daughter to my mother-in-law’s place.” Given the stress that people without power are under, the atmosphere at the Vedado protest was calm. Police didn’t interfere with the protest, there were no arrests. Instead, the state opted to send officials, accompanied by party members, to talk with protesters. María Perez, who identified as a regular citizen, said she had come to talk to protesters to defend “the revolution”. “Every time I think the social project that we have created is in danger, I will be here,” she said. Still protesters’ tactics were creative, creating a quandary for the state: there were reports that people lined up in the street to block traffic outside the capital’s main baseball stadium; in east Havana, others put rocks outside a bus station, saying they wouldn’t allow transport to run until the power came back. State authorities say that power – which went out across Cuba after Hurricane Ian – was mostly back in the capital as of Friday afternoon. Since the hurricane, protests have also been reported in the western city of Matanzas and the eastern city of Holguin. On Thursday and Friday night there was no internet in Cuba. It was not clear whether this was coordinated by the government in order to make protests more difficult to organise (as has happened before) or whether the internet blackout was a result of power failure caused by the storm. The internet was mostly functioning Saturday night. The Cuban government regularly tries to distinguish between “legitimate” protests by upstanding citizens, and “counter-revolutionary” protests, typically backed by the US, which imposes sanctions on the country. While the former is enshrined in the country’s 2019 constitution, the government says it will not tolerate the latter. The distinction, however, often breaks down in practice. | ['world/cuba', 'us-news/hurricane-ian', 'world/world', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ed-augustin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | us-news/hurricane-ian | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-10-02T09:52:27Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/nov/02/wales-black-mountains-valleys-chartists-limestone-quarry | A buffer between two worlds | Delicate light touches the tops of the Black Mountains, and papery ash leaves littering the narrow road outside Llangattock form swirling eddies in the vortex dragged by a passing car. It is good to be back in border country. I feel my body unclench, the autumn atmosphere a potent tonic. The Llangattock Escarpment is a three-mile-long outcropping of the limestone which buffers the red sandstone of the agricultural Black Mountains from the coal measures of the (post-) industrial South Wales Valleys. The cultures corresponding to each are close physically but worlds apart politically. It is a striking study in geopolitics, in how culture grows from the ground, as affected as crops by the bedrock beneath; as if socialism and strikes thrive in certain soils. Llangattock’s limestone was once quarried and hauled over Mynydd Llangatwg to the ironworks at Nantyglo, starting point for the 1839 Newport Rising. As I wander among the grassed-over scars, it seems remarkable how quickly nature equalises archaeology; it wouldn’t take a huge leap of imagination to see these industrial spoilheaps as neolithic cairns (which can also be found here). The caves dotting Mynydd Llangatwg were used as furtive weapon caches by the Chartists, a lost political tribe who spoke in a powerful tongue we seem to have forgotten. Nature has suffered us at Llangattock, but has also had help. The updraft at Craig y Cilau, at the escarpment’s western edge, is occupied by a wonderful wealth of birdlife, testament to conscientious conservation effort. A kestrel is pinned to the wind, searching for prey in periglacial boulder streams. Two sparrowhawks sail so close I could hit them with a pebble if I were so inclined. Red kites make long, elastic wingbeats between endless glides. And there is a whiplash flash of a peregrine, closely dogged by a raven. It also hosts botanical treasure. The lesser whitebeam grows almost exclusively here. In 1947 its fragile existence was threatened by army practice in the area, but Labour MP Tudor Watkins intervened in the Commons, and the former miner saved the trees from the mortars. Today they cling to their cliff-perch, bright with berries, oblivious survivors of tumultuous times. • This article was amended on 5 November 2015 to correct the spelling of Mynydd Llangatwg. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'uk/wales', 'environment/autumn', 'environment/birds', 'environment/forests', 'environment/mountains', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/carey-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-11-02T05:30:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2020/feb/15/alok-sharma-cop26-success-climate-change | Alok Sharma can make Cop26 a success – but does he have the will? | Chaitanya Kumar | The wait is over for the new president of the all-important United Nations climate conference (Cop26) in Glasgow in November. Alok Sharma is set to take on this high-octane diplomatic role while also juggling the immensely powerful job of leading the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Some may see this as a herculean task, but the BEIS secretary is in a unique position to lead the charge in tackling the climate emergency. His portfolio now includes not just delivering net-zero carbon in the UK but also convincing the world to follow suit. Reportedly turned down by former Conservative heavyweights David Cameron and William Hague, the Cop26 presidency had been in a state of limbo. The sacked president, Claire O’Neill, warned of a serious leadership gap in her departing missive to Boris Johnson. Having a cabinet minister now leading the charge is welcome, but the new minister’s voting record on climate does not instil confidence. He has voted against support for carbon-capture projects and taxing polluting vehicles and dirty power stations, among other things. Cop26 is a different kettle of fish, and making it a success is vital to tackling climate change. In 2019, Cop25 ended in disappointment, as rich nations failed to enhance their carbon-cutting commitments or raise more money for countries struggling to cope with climate impacts. A similar outcome in Glasgow will mean inaction until 2025, and we simply cannot afford that. The new Cop26 president and the UK government face a major diplomatic task over the next few months to persuade high carbon-emitting nations, such as China and India, to commit to greater cuts, while getting the EU, US and other rich countries to meet the pledge made a decade ago to raise $100bn a year in climate finance. Existing contributions from all the nations combined put us on a path to increasing average global temperatures by 3.2C by 2100, while the Paris accord commits nations to a pathway of well below 2C. This will be the ultimate test of the conference in November. Every tenth of a degree makes a huge difference to the lives and livelihoods of millions at the frontline of climate change. The success of this conference will rely heavily on manoeuvring the full force of the UK’s diplomats and climate attaches from around the world, who will work with negotiators of key countries to secure necessary commitments and concessions. Working closely with the EU and other high-ambition partners will be vital to shift the position of China and India, in particular, as long as the diplomacy respects their need for greater finance and technology to bring millions of their citizens out of poverty and pursue a clean development strategy. Both nations made clear at the UN climate summit last year that any request for further emission cuts from them needs to be backed by substantially greater finance. The new Cop26 president has his work cut out. As the former secretary of state for international development, Sharma hosted environment ministers from around the world to gear up for Cop26 and focused his department’s attention on climate-change adaptation overseas, indicating perhaps his and his party’s growing interest in this issue. But Whitehall may have bitten off more than it can chew as it tries to secure post-Brexit trade deals by the end of the year while also striving to make a success of the climate conference. The two goals aren’t incompatible, as the UK’s climate targets are set in domestic law and a trade deal will not affect that. However, if the past three years have taught us anything, it’s that the government has a very limited capacity to deal with policy questions unrelated to Brexit. The BEIS department itself is responsible for making sure British businesses adjust to the post-Brexit trade regime, as well as emissions targets. The only way to achieve that now is to centre climate change in trade negotiations and support businesses in their low-carbon transition. Leadership at home is also vital if we are to inspire the major economies of the world to cut carbon emissions. The recent announcement to end the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 was important, but it was relatively low-hanging fruit. Tougher decisions will have to be taken on cutting carbon from our homes and our large industries such as steel, and getting the UK on track to net-zero. As BEIS secretary, it’s within Sharma’s gift to take these difficult, but necessary, decisions. For now, however, to be taken seriously as a credible host, Sharma needs to put forward a bold, revised carbon target for 2030 (as required by the UN, with advice from the Committee on Climate Change) with a clear policy pathway to meeting it. The next 10 years of action are what matters to make or break our chances of avoiding a climate catastrophe. How the minister uses the full power of his combined roles to achieve this green transformation at home while urging the same overseas is yet to be seen. Any outcome of a Cop conference reflects largely on the host, and Sharma has a massive responsibility to make a success of it. • Chaitanya Kumar is head of energy and climate policy at Green Alliance | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'politics/alok-sharma', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/chaitanya-kumar', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-02-15T09:00:01Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk/2009/mar/13/stop-stansted-loses-legal-battle | Stop Stansted Expansion group loses legal battle | Campaigners have lost their legal battle to block the expansion of Stansted airport. The Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) group opposed proposals for an additional 10 million passengers a year to use the single, existing runway at Britain's third largest airport. The group's lawyers accused the government of unlawfully "steamrollering these plans every step of the way". But a high court judge, Sir Thayne Forbes, dismissed the legal challenge today and said criticisms of the way the matter had been handled were "unjustified and without substance". The SSE campaign director, Carol Barbone, said: "This high court action was never simply about winning or losing. Our primary concern was to ensure that our main battle against a second Stansted runway was not prejudiced by the wording of the original decision." The judge refused permission to appeal, but it is still open to SSE lawyers to ask the court of appeal itself to hear their case. The group was ordered to pay the government's legal costs from the high court hearing up to a limit of £20,000. A Department for Transport spokesman welcomed the court's decision, adding: "Runway capacity in the south-east is scarce so we believe it is right best use is made of the existing runway at Stansted." Stansted's commercial and development director, Nick Barton, said its plans had been endorsed by a full and independent public inquiry and a recommendation for approval by the planning inspector. "As a result, this is a very good day for the millions of people who need and want to fly to visit their friends and family, go on well-earned holidays or travel on business. It's also great news for the thousands of people who work at the airport, and the countless number of businesses that depend on Stansted right across the region, especially given the current economic conditions we are all facing." The airport's owner, BAA, wants to open a second runway in 2017, if it secures planning permission. The scheme was sanctioned by ministers in 2003 and has been sent to a public inquiry, which starts next month. The Tories are opposing the move and are looking at ways of overturning planning permission if it is awarded by the inquiry. | ['uk/transport', 'politics/transport', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'uk/uk', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/politics', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jennypercival'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-03-13T10:59:59Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2020/jan/17/wollemi-pines-time-travellers-from-a-different-australia | Wollemi pines' survival shows what humans can do when determined | Imagine if more than a quarter of a century ago, the bushwalker David Noble had not stumbled across the stand of Wollemi pines and they had remained undiscovered. The trees survive in three stands in just one remote canyon in a massive wilderness to Sydney’s north-west. Until they were found, they were a species clinging to the edge of the precipice of extinction – just one disaster away from vanishing. A quarter of a century for a species with a lineage going back to the age of dinosaurs is not even a fraction of a millionth of a blip. And given the monumental effort that has gone into saving this desperately endangered wild population it is highly likely that had they not been found in 1994, then the past few months would have seen them wiped out without anyone ever knowing they still existed. The miracle of their discovery has become the miracle that has saved them – for now. I remember the day in a Sydney newsroom almost 20 years ago when an editor at the paper where I worked at the time heard that I was writing a book about the Wollemi pines. Even though the trees’ discovery in 1994 made news on front pages around the world, my boss walked over to my desk, looked me in the eye and said: “No one is going to read a fucking book about a tree.” Implicit in what he said was that no one cared about Wollemi pines enough to read a book about them. How wrong he was, was demonstrated this week as dramatic news emerged that the trees had been saved from the firestorm of the vast Gospers Mountain fire and people rejoiced. To see the photos of the ribbon of green of the Wollemi pines, surrounded by the charred towering clifftops and ridgelines, was a rare moment of joy and relief for a community that has watched so much destroyed during the past few months. When I visited the canyon in 1997 I was taken in by helicopter wearing a blindfold and then abseiled into a deep and dark prehistoric environment that was absolutely soaked and waterlogged. At the time it seemed impossible that such a place would ever burn. Now it seems impossible that it didn’t. The Wollemi pine has been a story that has captured people’s imaginations. It is a tale of high adventure and academic excellence. First, there was a dramatic canyoning exploration trip that led to its discovery, then scientific detective work to determine exactly what that 40-metre-tall tree found by Noble actually was, followed by the quest to understand how it survived unnoticed, so close to Sydney. Perhaps the significance of the discovery was best captured by a quote given to me by the then director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Carrick Chambers, on the day the discovery was announced: “This is the equivalent of finding a small dinosaur alive on Earth.” What Chambers was alluding to and that most people don’t realise is that Wollemi pines are time travellers from a different Australia, from a warmer and wetter planet. Their history stretches back more than 100m years and they have survived natural climate change that has seen temperatures swing dramatically and sea levels rise and fall by hundreds of metres, multiple times. The trees tell the story of almost unimaginably deep time. Once, instead of gum trees, Gondwana – of which Australia was a small part – was covered in immense forests of Wollemi pines and their close relatives. These ancient trees deposited so much pollen that it is still found as fossils around the southern hemisphere, retrieved by geologists who find evidence of the trees in cores, from places like Bass Strait, that are kilometres thick. Then, 10m years ago, the trees begin to vanish from the fossil pollen record and two million years ago they disappeared altogether, indicating that the climate had shifted in a way that made their widespread survival untenable. Since then, as the planet shifted towards icier, colder, drier conditions, any surviving populations of the trees would have slowly shrunk, become separated and forced to retreat into the last refuges of wet deep rainforest canyons. After people arrived in Australia and widespread burning was practised, their fate was sealed to imprisonment in a single deep gorge. It is hard, after this week, to consider the remaining original Wollemi pines as wild. Only intensive water-bombing, the installation of emergency irrigation and the intervention of determined firefighting has allowed them to survive until the next threat. The trees are now dependent on us for their survival. And it’s not just our efforts to protect the canyon where they survive, it is also about the research that has seen millions of trees cultivated and sold commercially around the world. It is about the creation of back-up populations in other similar canyons in the greater Blue Mountains. It is also about the ongoing effort to keep the location of the trees secret and protected from fungal pathogens. The fact that out of this catastrophe, Wollemi pines have become a symbol of survival and all that is good about what we can do when we are determined to protect something, shows that all is not lost as human-made climate change tightens its grip. James Woodford is the author of The Wollemi Pine: The Incredible Discovery of a Living Fossil from the Age of the Dinosaurs, Text Publishing | ['australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'australia-news/sydney', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/james-woodford-australia', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-01-16T16:30:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/the-northerner/2013/nov/20/blanchard-northumberland-relics-miners-battles | Country diary: Blanchland, Northumberland: Relics of lead miners' battles with water and weather | The sound of water gurgling in drainage ditches accompanied us along the last section of our walk, down to the hamlet of Shildon. Managing water has been a challenge on these fells since mineral deposits were first discovered. Early miners dammed water, then released a torrent to wash away surface rubble and expose lead veins, a technique with the onomatopoeic name of "hush" mining, echoing the sound of flood water sweeping down hillsides. Later, adits penetrated the fells, and shafts were sunk, but, as miners burrowed deeper, flooding in their underground labyrinth grew worse, so much so that by the beginning of the 19th century John Skottowe, a local mine owner, needed something more efficient than waterwheel-driven pumps to maintain production. Which was why, as we neared Shildon, we could see a Cornish-style engine house and chimney looming through a gap in the trees. Completed in 1807 and housing a Boulton and Watt steam engine, Skottowe's investment introduced West Country tin mining best practice into this Northumbrian valley. It should have solved his flooding problems, especially since he had ample fuel from his Durham coal mines, but by the middle of the century water-driven pumps had been reinstated; steam had been defeated by the struggle to haul coal into this remote valley along narrow roads that were often impassable in winter. The engine house was converted into workers' accommodation, locally known as "Shildon Castle", but the lead industry declined and miners drifted away to goldfields in Australia and America; a community of more than 150 in the mine's heyday withered away. We stood in the roofless ruins, shivering in an icy wind that blew through the slit in the wall through which the engine's rocking beam had once protruded, and tried to imagine the hiss of steam, the gentle swish of a piston, the slurp of pumps and the radiant heat of a coal-fired boiler. For those who worked here, this must once have been the most comforting place to be on a cold November day. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk-news/northumberland', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'uk/the-northerner', 'type/article', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2013-11-20T20:59:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/aug/28/bikes-activism-climate-camp | Why bicycles are a must-have for modern civil disobedience | Peter Walker | When the location of this year's Climate Camp protest was finally revealed on Wednesday, the first activists to arrive were a select group in rented vans, tasked with setting up tripods and fencing off a section of the land at Blackheath, south-east London. But shortly afterwards, the first influx of protesters taking part in the "swoop" on the site from a series of meeting points around the capital was a contingent of around 150 people, all riding bicycles. They – with me in tow – had spent about 90 minutes pedalling en mass around central London, awaiting word on where the camp would be. It's a fair bet these days that whenever there is an environmentally based protest, particularly in an urban area, a gang of cyclists will be involved somewhere or other. In fact, bikes are becoming a must-have element of all sorts of modern civil disobedience. Many of these bike-based actions are making a point about transport and cycling issues: Critical Mass, the group celebration of taking over a city's streets with bikes is a good example, and is held regularly in dozens of places around the world (it's on tonight in London if you're in town). There are exceptions: last year activists from one Indian political party staged a bike rally to protest, somewhat counterintuitively, against a rise in fuel prices. And there is the long-established, if still baffling to some, practice of naked bike rides. So what is it that makes the bicycle and the demonstration such good companions? To me, there are two factors at play. Firstly, if you're in a group, there is something undeniably liberating about riding around a city surrounded by cyclists. I've never been on a Critical Mass ride, so going to Blackheath was a strange sensation – no longer a vulnerable solo rider lined up against the massed metal forces of the motorised traffic, I was part of an entity too big to ignore or shove unthinkingly into the kerb. Second, if you're a solo campaigner in an urban environment then the bike is the mode of transport most guaranteed to get you to your protest on time and – perhaps more important still – give you the best chance of slipping away from pursuing authorities. When I worked for another news organisation in Beijing I'd regularly pedal to meetings or protests, nipping down narrow lanes to shake off the unmarked police cars, which routinely trail foreign journalists in China. There is, of course, a catch for protesters: the police – at least in parts of the UK – have noticed this and now send officers out on bikes of their own. Some of the police riders look noticeably fitter and keener than they once did. Perhaps it's just a matter of time before we see Bullitt-style car chases around our cities – but this time on bikes. | ['lifeandstyle/cycling', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/blog', 'environment/activism', 'environment/climate-camp', 'world/protest', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'environment/bike-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/peterwalker'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2009-08-28T15:12:49Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
politics/2023/jul/25/greek-island-holiday-michael-gove-foreign-office-travel-advice-rhodes | Michael Gove to holiday on Greek island as he says travel to region is safe | It is still safe for tourists to travel to Rhodes in line with UK government advice, a cabinet minister has said, who added he was planning to holiday on another Greek island next week. Michael Gove was speaking amid continued scrutiny of the Foreign Office’s categorisation of the wildfire-stricken island and pressure for it to change to enable tourists to get a refund for their trips through their travel insurance. Flights have been taking back some of the 10,000 British tourists stranded on the island, where wildfires have been burning out of control in its mountainous interior and threatening some resorts. “We do need to support the Greek government in dealing with the situation in Rhodes. My heart goes out to those who are affected. But I think the advice is clear. If you follow the Foreign Office advice, it is safe,” said Gove. The minister, who said he believed travel companies had behaved responsibly, told Times Radio: “I think it is the case that … the fires have been restricted to one part of the island.” Gove said he was planning to holiday on the Greek island of Evia next week, telling Sky News: “In fact, I’m due to go on holiday, God willing, to Greece in just over a week’s time, not to Rhodes but to another island and I’m looking forward to going.” The island has been among parts of Greece where wildfires have broken out. Of the dozens of wildfires that broke out across the country at the weekend, one of the most serious was on Evia, where people living in four southern villages were told by authorities to evacuate to a town. Pressure on the government has continued from Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrats, who said on Monday that Rhodes should be added to the “red list” of places to which the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel. “Many families are unable to make a claim against their insurance – leaving them paying the penalty for deciding not to fly out to the island,” said Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson. Travel firms that continue to fly tourists to Rhodes were accused of “profiteering” by a senior Conservative on Monday, who backed calls for a change in the official travel advice. “I know there is a statutory duty for the government to get British citizens home if they are in trouble, but travel companies have to live up to their obligations rather than making profits from flights carrying tourists out, and then stepping away and letting the government sort out how to get them home in some cases,” said Alicia Kearns, the chair of parliament’s foreign affairs select committee. | ['politics/michaelgove', 'world/wildfires', 'world/greece', 'world/extreme-weather', 'uk/uk', 'politics/foreign-commonwealth-and-development-office', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/benquinn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-07-25T08:12:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2021/nov/02/we-will-be-homeless-lahore-farmers-accuse-mafia-of-land-grab-for-new-city | ‘We will be homeless’: Lahore farmers accuse ‘mafia’ of land grab for new city | It has been called Pakistan’s answer to Dubai, a brand new multitrillion-rupee development of towering skyscrapers, futuristic domes and floating walkways. But Ravi Riverfront City, described as the “world’s largest riverfront modern city” also faces accusations of rampant land grabs by prime minister Imran Khan’s government, which has championed the project. Hundreds of thousands of farmers who could never afford to live in the modern urban utopia are now at risk of eviction. As well as the human cost of the development, being built on a 40,000-hectare (100,000-acre) site adjacent to Pakistan’s megacity of Lahore, many fear it will wreak environmental devastation to the Ravi river, currently undergoing ecological restoration, and surrounding forests. According to the government, the new city will be an alternative to London and Dubai for Pakistani and foreign tourists, create millions of jobs and alleviate pressure on land in Lahore. Khan has been supportive of the project, describing it as “essential” for Pakistan’s development. The government says $8bn (£5.8bn) in foreign money has now gone into the project with the biggest investors coming from China. However last month, a Lahore high court judge found “gross irregularities” in the Ravi riverfront project and said it would benefit land developers. To oversee the implementation of the city, the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Ruda) was established last year. But in a move that opponents described as “draconian and unprecedented”, the government bestowed complete legal immunity to Ruda so that no lawsuit or legal challenge could be filed against the project or anyone working on it. The government has also applied Section 4, which means it can legally acquire any land for public purposes, even though Ravi Riverfront will be a commercial enterprise. In recent months, thousands of farmers and residents on the land where the city is to be sited have gathered to voice their opposition. The Punjab state government responded by pressing charges against 90 of the protesting farmers. Of the 41,000 hectares (102,271 acres) the government will acquire on behalf of the private developers, 85% is agricultural land occupied by almost a million farmers, labourers and business owners. Many claim that the government is refusing to pay market value for farms, instead declaring their land almost worthless. “The government is snatching our land for urban development and displacing us from farms we have occupied for centuries,” says Chaudhary Mahmood Ahmed, 65, a fourth-generation farmer whose land lies within the 46km-long stretch of the river where the new city will be built. Ahmed says 50 people depended on his farm for their livelihoods and compared the actions of Imran Khan’s government to those of the East India company, the British trading company that notoriously colonised parts of India in the 18th and 19th centuries. “They are snatching land from poor people,” he says. “It is unacceptable to us.” Muhammad Munir is among those who have been growing potatoes and livestock feed for decades. He says the area’s farmers are essential to supply the 13 million people of Lahore with fruit and vegetables, as well as 70% of the city’s milk. Munir says: “The government has been declaring our fertile lands as barren so that they can snatch them from us for pennies. We would die and kill for our lands. This is a life and death situation for us.” Many speak bitterly of land being snatched away to benefit Pakistan’s elite. “The government is taking the roof from over our head. They are offering so little as compensation,” says Bushra Bibi, 65, who lives with her five children in a one-room flat on designated Ravi Riverfront land. “We cannot rebuild a house with this tiny amount we will be given. We will become homeless.” While the project was first conceived by a previous government in 2013, it was declared impractical and dropped. An initial feasibility study found it would be almost impossible to supply enough water to the development without $3bn in new infrastructure. But with Pakistan’s economy nose-diving and the government keen for projects to boost recovery, the Ravi Riverfront project was picked up again by Khan’s administration two years ago and given the green light. Mian Mustafa Rasheed, head of the Ravi Urban Development Victims Committee, says it is a plan solely for “industrialists and the land mafia who have close ties to Khan’s government”, and alleges that the authorities “have been threatening people individually to stop them protesting against the project”. The government and Ruda did not respond to multiple requests for comment. However, speaking to Pakistan newspaper Dawn, Ruda chief executive officer Imran Amin said that “we have started implementing the compensation package prepared specially for the landowners and affectees of the country’s first and biggest urban project”. The true environmental impact of the project is still not known as no assessment has been carried out. WWF-Pakistan has already submitted a challenge to the project, stating that the plans to “concretise the natural floodplain of the river” was in “clear violation” of the recommendations of the Ravi River Commission, a body with a legal mandate from the high court to restore the natural ecology of the river. “Lahore is already famous for its pollution but if they build this Ravi Riverfront development next to it, pollution will just double,” says Rafay Alam, a lawyer and environmental activist. “It is just so absurd.” | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/pakistan', 'world/imran-khan', 'cities/urbanisation', 'cities/cities', 'environment/land-rights', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/shah-meer-baloch', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-11-02T07:00:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2008/sep/24/britishenergy.edf.nuclear | EDF to buy British Energy for £12.4bn | Britain's plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations received a major boost this morning when French energy giant EDF finally agreed to buy British Energy in a £12.4bn deal. Taxpayers will also get a windfall as the government owns 36% of British Energy having stepped in to rescue the firm in 2002. Assuming shareholders approve the deal, EDF will be in a prime position to develop the UK's nuclear power industry. The government hopes to build several new nuclear generators around the UK to solve the looming energy crisis, and British Energy's eight sites are seen as likely locations. "We are delighted that the British Energy board has unanimously accepted this offer," said the EDF chairman, Pierre Gadonneix. "This paves the way for investment in the UK." British Energy currently produces 15% of the country's power. Its shareholders rejected an earlier £12bn bid in early August, which left the government's energy policy facing crisis. EDF has now agreed to pay 774p a share, with an alternative of 700p plus a new "nuclear power note" linked to the future performance of the generating company. However, it is understood that some shareholders may not support the takeover. Shares in British Energy jumped 6% to 767p this morning, up 43p. More details of the proposal will be released later today at a Paris press conference. EDF is expected to hand back several of British Energy's sites to the government, who could then sell them on to rival energy companies. British Energy runs eight UK nuclear sites with adjacent land on which reactors could be built: Dungeness B in Kent, Hartlepool, Heysham 1 and 2 in Lancashire, Hinkley Point B in Somerset, Hunterston B in Ayrshire, Sizewell B in Suffolk and Torness in East Lothian. The group also owns a coal-fired power station at Eggborough, north Yorkshire. Shortly after the deal was announced Centrica, owner of British Gas, revealed that it is in talks to acquire a 25% stake in British Energy from EDF. At one stage Centrica was a potential buyer of the whole company, but struggled to put together a cash bid. With wholesale prices so high, the company is keen to produce more of its own energy rather than having to buy it in. | ['business/britishenergygroup', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/france', 'business/mergers-and-acquisitions', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'profile/graemewearden'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2008-09-24T07:53:17Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/feb/10/london-woman-takes-legal-action-to-block-edmonton-incinerator | London woman takes legal action to block Edmonton incinerator | A woman from north London is taking legal action against her local council to try to block the construction of a 700,000-tonne-a-year rubbish incinerator. Dorothea Hackman, 69, a church warden and head of the Camden civic society, is the claimant in a judicial review challenging the decision to award the £755m contract to replace and extend the electricity from the waste incinerator in Edmonton, one of the country’s poorest areas. “It’s sort of like buying a bigger digger for these boys,” she said. “I’ve just bought a bigger digger for my two-year-old grandson, he was ecstatic. This is what the Edmonton incinerator reminds me of. They’ve got one that pollutes, and should be replaced, but what it should be replaced with is a state-of-the-art recycling centre.” The Edmonton incinerator, which opened in 1971, is the oldest in the UK, and one of the oldest in Europe. It currently burns about 500,000 tonnes of rubbish a year, but is due to reach the end of its life in 2025. Opponents have fought a rearguard action in an effort to stymie the replacement project since planning permission was granted in 2017. But the board of the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), the publicly owned consortium that runs the incinerator, agreed in December to a contract with Acciona, a Spanish firm, to build the plant. In a pre-action letter to the NLWA, Hackman claims its board, which is made up of representatives from seven local councils, were not given the full facts on which to decide on the contract. A report by the authority misled councillors about the scale of the pollution from the proposed incinerator, Hackman’s letter claims, with the 28,000-tonnes-a-year figure given amounting to a fraction of the 683,000 tonnes implied by the independent carbon screening report on which it was based. Councillors were also misled, according to the letter, on the plant’s readiness for carbon capture and sequestration technology, and by the claim that installing such machinery would “likely make the facility carbon negative”. “On 16 December, the NLWA met in Camden and they were given disinformation,” Hackman said. “They were led to believe that carbon capture could happen, and there is basically no provision for it.” The proportion of the UK’s household waste that goes to landfill has plummeted since the beginning of the century. But while Britons now recycle about three times as much, growth in recycling has been flat for a decade. The gap has been filled by incineration. Across the UK last year, 41% of waste was recycled, and 48% was burned; in London, the worst performing region, 64% was burned. “We [in London] are currently recycling less than 30%,” Hackman, a retired teacher, who has lived in Camden for 45 years, said. “Areas without incinerators in the UK already recycle 60%, and that can be improved.” Hackman and fellow activists point to research suggesting incineration can cause a range of ill-effects to the health of people living nearby. In December a cross-party group of MPs said incinerator expansion should be halted immediately to protect human health and cut carbon emissions. There are 90 incinerators across the UK, with 50 more planned. Hackman said: “Above all we need to stop manufacturing plastic, we can’t keep on with the plastic; we’ve got to, and we should, stop it. At the moment we are burning plastic for our heat and energy and I can’t think of anything more insane. We would be better off burning coal.” NLWA says the plant “exceeds statutory requirements” and “will be the safest and cleanest in the UK”, while supplying electricity for up to 127,000 homes and heating 50,000. The consortium has pointed to an analysis by Imperial College London researchers, funded by Public Health England, that found no link between exposure to emissions from municipal waste incinerators and infant deaths – an effect cited by opponents. The development also includes £100m of new recycling centres – “London’s largest public investment in recycling facilities for decades”, NLWA says – which are intended to help achieve a recycling rate for the area of 50%. A NLWA spokesperson said it stood by the validity of the decision to enter into the contract with Acciona. “We are entirely satisfied that the decision our members took … was the right one and was properly taken,” the spokesperson said. “This is a world-class infrastructure project that presents the best environmental, technical and economic solution to the treatment of waste in north London.” | ['environment/incineration', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'uk/london', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-02-10T11:40:28Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security | Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief | Britain and other countries face a collapse of their economies and loss of culture if they do not protect the environment better, the world's leading champion of nature has warned. "What we are seeing today is a total disaster," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. "No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon. The future of the planet now depends on governments taking action in the next few years." Industrialisation, population growth, the spread of cities and farms and climate change are all now threatening the fundamentals of life itself, said Djoghlaf, in London before a key UN meeting where governments are expected to sign up to a more ambitious agreement to protect nature. "Many plans were developed in the 1990s to protect biodiversity but they are still sitting on the shelves of ministries. Countries were legally obliged to act, but only 140 have even submitted plans and only 16 have revised their plans since 1993. Governments must now put their houses in order," he said. According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago. Around 15% of mammal species and 11% of bird species are classified as threatened with extinction. Djoghlaf warned Britain and other countries not to cut nature protection in the recession. In a reference to expected 40% cuts to Britain's department of the environment spending, he said: "It would be very short-sighted to cut biodiversity spending. You may well save a few pounds now but you will lose billions later. Biodiversity is your natural asset. The more you lose it, the more you lose your cultural assets too." He urged governments to invest in nature. "If you do not, you will pay very heavily later. You will be out of business if you miss the green train." Mounting losses of ecosystems, species and genetic biodiversity is now threatening all life, said Djoghlaf. In immediate danger, he said, were the 300 million people who depended on forests and the more than 1 billion who lived off sea fishing. "Cut your forests down, or over-fish, and these people will not survive. Destroying biodiversity only increases economic insecurity. The more you lose it, the more you lose the chance to grow. "The loss of biodiversity compounds poverty. Destroy your nature and you increase poverty and insecurity. Biodiversity is fundamental to social life, education and aesthetics. It's a human right to live in a healthy environment." Djoghlaf lambasted countries for separating action on climate change from protecting biodiversity. "These are the two great challenges. But the loss of biodiversity exacerbates climate change. It is handled by the poorest ministries in government, it has not been mainstreamed or prioritised by governments. Climate change cannot be solved without action on biodiversity, and vice versa." The UN chief said that children were losing contact with nature. "We are moving to a more virtual world. Children today haven't a clue about nature. Children have not seen apple trees. In Algeria, children are growing up who have never seen olive trees. How can you protect nature if you do not know it?" A major UN report in the impacts of biodiversity loss that will be launched in October is expected to say that the economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change. It will say that saving biodiversity is remarkably cost-effective and the benefits from saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination, medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, are between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species that provide them. • You can watch Ahmed Djoghlaf speaking in a panel discussion at Kew Gardens on biodiversity loss on CNN on 25th August. | ['environment/series/biodiversity-100', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'world/unitednations', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'environment/nagoya', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-08-16T16:21:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/jan/22/space-to-breathe-somerset-house-london-air-pollution-exhibition-jarvis-cocker-voyage-planet-chih | Bringing a breath of fresh air to the UK’s polluted cities | Featuring a sturdy leather head-strap and mask, two large tubes and a transparent backpack containing a small potted plant, designer Chih Chiu’s response to crowded, polluted cities is stark. “My initial idea was to separate an individual from the public space,” he says. Titled Voyage on the Planet and originally created by Chiu for his BA final project in China in 2013, the work is set to take to the streets in Space to Breathe, a two-day exhibition based at Somerset House, central London, that is hoping to propel the issue of air pollution and public health into the limelight. Kitting out visitors with the apparatus and taking them on to the Strand, Chiu, now a joint student at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, hopes the sight of the people donning the otherworldly masks will shake the city out of its complacency. “When all of us are sharing this polluted air, but none of us has a reaction to it, we feel nothing [is] really seriously wrong,” he says. “But when people start to have a reaction to the polluted air, like wearing this [mask], we start to [pay] attention.” It is time we did. Amid a growing crisis in cities around the world, air pollution in parts of London smashed through the annual limit in the first week of this year. And with poor air quality linked to dementia, heart attacks and strokes, it is taking its toll on public health. “What people really struggle with is the dislocation in time,” says Ian Mudway, lecturer in respiratory toxicology from the environmental research group at King’s College London. “The exposures you have now could produce effects in 20, 30, 40 years’ time,” he adds, pointing out that air pollution is estimated to cause around 40,000 premature deaths a year in the UK alone. A collaboration between curators Shrinking Space, scientists from the environmental research group at King’s College London and Cape Farewell, an organisation that pioneers the use of art to promote cultural changes to tackle climate change, Space to Breathe is an energetic mix of art, science and entertainment. Among the weekend’s highlights, which includes a DJ set by former Pulp frontman, Jarvis Cocker, visitors will be able to don virtual reality headsets to take a tour around the Strand with the project Energy Renaissance. A 360° video, the experience explores how the area could be transformed through interventions ranging from tree planting to urban wind turbines and zero-emission buses. Taking the ideas further, the weekend will encompass a set of panel discussions, with representatives from the Greater London Authority, the British Lung Foundation and Tidal Lagoon Power, the company behind the mooted Swansea Bay project, to share their views on the air pollution crisis and how to tackle it while, perhaps more creatively, a pollution-removing bench designed by Airlabs will be exhibited on the river terrace. Also on show is a specially commissioned installation by sound artist Wesley Goatley based on six months’ worth of air pollution data gathered by instruments in the area surrounding Somerset House. The aim, says Goatley, is to offer visitors an innovative way to explore pollution data, while pushing back against the perception that such figures and statistics are only for specialists. Entitled Breathing Mephitic Air, the experience involves a 360° soundscape with three different components of air pollution – nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide and particles known as PM10s – depicted by different sounds. These sounds, the rush of traffic, a catalytic converter and the sound of a refinery are themselves linked through their relationship to a metal intricately involved in the problem of air pollution: platinum. The sounds, notes Goatley, rise and fall in volume with the levels of the pollutant they represent, while the apparent direction of sound mimics the direction and speed of the wind when the data was recorded. “There is a very firm connection between what you hear and what the data says – you can kind of read the data through the sound,” he says, adding that the data is also depicted dynamically through a visual display. But Space to Breathe is not only about raising awareness of air pollution: it’s also an attempt to put the public back in control. Scientists will be offering visitors the chance to try out some of the latest real-time pollution-monitoring technology, as well as revealing how web-based apps can be used to plan journeys and dodge pollution hotspots. “We will get people not just to think about what the pollution is on the day, but to actually have a perception of what their long-term exposures are likely to be,” says Mudway. The hope, he adds, is that the experience will galvanise visitors into action, from the way they navigate cities to the cars they choose to drive, and even encourage them to lobby those in power for change. Andy Franzkowiak, a creative producer of the exhibition from Shrinking Space, agrees. “Every single person can make a difference,” he says. Space to Breathe takes place at Somerset House, London WC2, on 28 and 29 January | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/exhibition', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'science/science', 'society/health', 'politics/health', 'society/society', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/nicola-davis', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/discover', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-01-22T07:00:23Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2021/oct/08/noisy-protest-avoid-climate-catastrophe | Only noisy protest makes politicians take action to avoid climate catastrophe | Fatima Ibrahim | The home secretary, Priti Patel, announced a string of new measures this week to restrict protests deemed to cause “noise and nuisance”. But such things have long been necessary features in fights for social change. They can stop destructive plans in their tracks or help shift public opinion. Noise and nuisance are among the few ways to actually force politicians to listen. With the clock ticking on the climate crisis, the defining issue of our lifetime, many would say causing a nuisance is not only necessary, but a rational response to the inaction it is met with by our leaders. Disruptive action on climate issues has worked to force change in the past. In 2008, activists descended on the site of a proposed new coal-fired power station in Kent, the first in the UK in 30 years. A crowd of 100 people quickly grew to more than 1,000. It, too, triggered repressive policing practices, and while it upset some local people in the process, the camp successfully delayed the project and ultimately ensured it didn’t take place at all. It was a pivotal moment that sounded the death knell on new coal projects in the UK and helped push the national conversation towards renewable energy. Around the same time, activists had set up camp next to Heathrow airport protesting at plans to build a third runway. Thousands joined the protest, resulting in round-the-clock media coverage. The fight against the third runway inspired creative actions and continues today. From stopping planes to creating a sustainable mini eco village on the site of the proposed runway, protesters made the third runway a defining climate issue in the UK. It has burdened successive governments, defined mayoral elections and resulted in a lengthy legal battle. In 2011, oil and gas company Cuadrilla suspended test fracking operations near Blackpool after they were thought to have caused earthquakes in the area. However, for many the first time they heard about fracking was in 2013, when grandmothers banded with schoolchildren and environmental campaigners to condemn local fracking sites. Things peaked when a fracking test site at Balcombe in West Sussex was blockaded that summer. A week of actions culminated in mass arrests including that of Green party MP Caroline Lucas. For years, similar blockades took the battle to the fracking industry, until in 2019 the government did a U-turn, withdrawing its support and announcing a moratorium. In recent years disruption has played a huge role in animating public anger and dismay at the government’s lack of ambitious climate action. The sobering Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in late 2018 prompted schoolchildren to strike in their thousands. At the same time, Extinction Rebellion brought huge parts of London to a standstill. This wave of disruption galvanised public concern, leaving the government scrambling for an adequate response. Soon after, it passed a bill committing the UK to net zero emissions by 2050 – the first country in the G7 to do so. Parliament also declared a climate emergency and the UK’s first Climate Assembly was established. Direct action isn’t the only thing that makes change happen, but very few of these changes would have happened without it. While governments may eventually wind down fossil-fuel use, how quickly they do it and who stands to gain or lose from this transition are still to fight for. We could tackle the climate crisis in a way that puts power into the hands of communities, delivers millions of new green jobs, affordable and accessible public transport, and warm homes to tackle fuel poverty. The alternative is a slow transition that at worst misses the window to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown, and at best leads to millions of job losses, increases inequality by pushing the cost on to working people, and reserves any benefits for corporations and wealthy individuals. That’s where a new wave of disruptive, solutions-based campaigns come in. Youth activist groups such as the Sunrise movement in the US are holding sit-ins in the offices of Democratic party leaders, while Green New Deal Rising here in the UK is doorstepping politicians to put them on the spot about how we should tackle this crisis. With time we may see these actions as defining moments that changed the trajectory of the fight against climate change. For those who criticise direct action, not only have many interventions been successful, but polling shows 71% of people say they haven’t had their lives disrupted at all by protest in the past three years. Given the changes protesters seek to instigate, which can deliver positive outcomes for people across society, it’s no wonder that many climate protests eventually receive majority public support. This is true not just for climate protesters but in the history of social change. From the Suffragettes to the anti-apartheid movement, people who took disruptive action are now considered to have been on the right side of history, despite often widespread opposition in their time. Fatima Ibrahim is the co-founder and co-director of Green New Deal Rising | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/protest', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/fracking', 'politics/priti-patel', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/fatima-ibrahim', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2021-10-08T13:15:05Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2013/nov/12/trees-palm-oil-logging | Saving trees from palm oil logging at Center Parcs | "Does a tree feel cold in winter? Does he know he has to wait for the spring?" wonders Jean Henkens. Working as a biologist for Center Parcs for the past 30 years, saving plants and trees from all over the world for their jungle-like indoor swimming pool complexes, he knows the answers are yes, and yes. From Sumatra to Peru, Henkens travels the world to save trees earmarked for destruction as virgin tropical rainforest is burned to make way for lucrative but environmentally costly palm oil plantations. "I am one of the fighters against the green oil mafia in Indonesia and Africa. I am very against that because it's slavery for the people – they are promised a lot before and the concessions that go to people who are incredibly rich already. They are making the people poor and they are making the soil poor." Henkens cultivates contacts with local people, governments and the WWF, who tell him which areas are being targeted – then he arranges for suitable trees to be rescued – dug out by hand, taken to a nursery he sets up in preparation for the new arrivals and cared for until they are ready for transportation and replanting at one of Center Parcs' European locations. Opposing the companies profiting from palm oil is a risky business. "They shoot at us sometimes. The last trip was very dangerous. We had to escape. A Chinese company hired some security people who were very against me. I escaped from Sumatra into Malaysia, but even there I was not safe. I had to leave Malaysia in 24 hours because they were looking for me, and even in Europe in some places I am not safe." Why bother, then? "I have to do it, it's my job." But it's more than his job, it's Henkens' life. "I don't have a family. I always have the feeling it is my company. I act always as if it is mine." Henkens only takes small cuttings and seeds from virgin jungle, while all the mature plants and trees come from land on the brink of destruction, and would be dead were it not for his intervention. When the trees arrive in their new home, under the glass dome of one of Center Parcs' subtropical swimming paradise (or "Aquamundo" as it's more concisely referred to in Europe), Henkens' empathy for trees teamed with his scientific knowledge allows him to track how the tree – he always refers to them as "he" - reacts to such a shock. "I can notice that he is curious. I can see under the microscope, his leaves, that he is afraid for the first time. The water is a little bit cold and the soil is different. I look four days later and the first roots are discovering." Henkens' work has given the Center Parcs its distinctive look, and the tropical trees wrenched from their homes thousands of miles away seem to thrive in the steamy 30C heat. The trees Henkens planted in the oldest UK Center Parcs at Sherwood Forest 26 years ago are still going strong. But do the screaming children flinging themselves down waterslides – or their parents – realise the significance of small slice of jungle that surrounds them? Henkens believes fervently that they do. Regardless, the plants grow on, pumping out enough oxygen for 300 people, dampening down excess noise and turning a building into a landscape. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/palm-oil', 'environment/environment', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/conservation', 'tone/features', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'type/article', 'profile/janeperrone'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-11-12T07:01:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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