id stringlengths 16 182 | title stringlengths 6 152 | body stringlengths 284 6.92k | tags stringlengths 50 917 | extracted_from_tag stringclasses 177 values | category stringclasses 10 values | date stringdate 1998-09-29 21:43:09 2024-12-31 13:00:45 | use bool 1 class | label stringclasses 10 values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
sustainable-business/2014/jul/21/uk-business-corruption-poor-countries | How UK business enables corruption in poor countries | UK professionals are acting as enablers for corrupt deals in developing countries. It happens in a number of ways and involves a range of industries, including law, banking and accountancy. For example, a corrupt state official from a developing country may seek out the services of a UK-based solicitor or accountant to process their spoils and, importantly, confer legitimacy to their actions. British professionals working in less regulated markets may encounter corruption or suspicious transactions when arranging business deals, or those in the UK could unwittingly handle the proceeds of illicit transactions. There are concerns that corrupt foreign public officials use the British housing, luxury goods and private education markets to launder stolen funds. For example, after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, questions were raised over his son’s £10m Hampstead house complete with swimming pool and cinema. There are shocking case studies of corrupt deals that lose poor countries significant proportions of their annual spending budgets. The amount lost to the DRC in five suspicious mining deals, for example, was equivalent to their total health and education budget (pdf). These transactions undermine the money that the UK government rightly spends on overseas development assistance. Fixing this problem and the broader issue of illicit financial flows would allow poorer countries to benefit from properly resourced public services and richer ones to spend less on aid. As parliamentarians with an interest in international development, our job is to scrutinise the government’s approach to ending global poverty and this includes the global and international impact of corruption. Last month a network of MPs and peers campaigning on international corruption came together with representatives of relevant industries to discuss how to prevent UK professionals becoming involved in illegitimate business. The speakers highlighted the variety of challenges they face. For example, as UK firms expand into emerging economies with weaker anti-bribery and corruption legislation, British professionals are often required to uphold standards that go beyond local law and expectations. Tanya Barman, head of ethics at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, pointed to industry codes of conduct that require staff to go above and beyond even UK law. By upholding such standards, British professionals have the opportunity not only to prevent corruption, but to act as role models for good business practices internationally. To support staff, organisations must demonstrate a proactive commitment to anti-bribery and corruption embedded at all levels. This can be created through high-quality training and consistent internal communications. Some businesses have also been vocal in supporting private sector transparency initiatives as a preventative measure. Greater transparency over procurement processes, promoting open contracting and requiring extractive firms to declare payments to governments all help create a climate where openness is the default. Companies such as Base Titanium, BHP Billiton and Adaro have all stated their support for greater transparency, knowing it will allow them to spend less time dealing with the substantial risks associated with opaque business practices and protect their staff from the severe penalties that can occur when things go wrong. Creating an environment within organisations that encourages and protects whistleblowers is also key. The Solicitors Regulatory Authority highlighted its own independent whistleblowing helpline that receives hundreds of calls each year, the reports from which are then used to target their investigative resources. Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) can likewise be important. These are alerts filed by company staff to alert law enforcement about the suspicious activity of a client or customer. Yet for employees to raise concerns and for businesses to genuinely create the environments that encourage them to do so depends on the belief that escalating an issue will have real impact. Some argue that the UK’s relevant law enforcement agencies are insufficiently equipped both in terms of training and resources to take action effectively. Somewhat surprisingly then, for a meeting hosted by parliamentarians in parliament, our conclusions were not about passing further legislation. As a group, MPs and peers often want to fix problems with new laws, but our discussions highlight the importance of enforcing those already in place. We will continue to draw attention to this issue with policymakers and while we do, urge all British businesses to play their part in preventing corruption. Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel describes it as one of the single biggest obstacles to eradicating global poverty. UK professionals should take advantage of, and pride in, the important role they have in fighting this problem worldwide. Catherine McKinnell MP and Anas Sarwar MP co-Chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption. They tweet @APPGAntiCorrupt. 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', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'society/society', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'sustainable-business/governance', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/catherine-mckinnell'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-21T06:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
food/2023/jul/13/next-phase-brexit-bad-for-diet-health-wealth | Here comes the next phase of Brexit – and it will be bad for our diet, health and wealth | Jay Rayner | They keep telling us to move on; to accept that Brexit is done. The problem is, Brexit isn’t done with us. It isn’t a single disabling event. It’s a degenerative disease, and here comes the next stage. On 31 October, after four postponements to get infrastructure in place, the UK will finally introduce checks on fresh and chilled food imports. The EU has already introduced its checks, which come with a vast amount of paperwork and significant costs. The impact on the export of fruit from the UK to the EU has been dramatic, reducing the value from £248.5m in 2021 to £113.8m by 2023, a drop of more than 50%. Now it’s going to work the other way. EU producers of meat products wishing to export to the UK will have to employ a vet to certify their goods, which will cost up to €700 a time. All sectors will have to employ agents for data entry compliance which could add another €200. They will have to train themselves on the paperwork. Then, come January, there’s the border inspection charge of up to £43 for each consignment regardless of whether it’s physically inspected or not. Faced by all of this, thousands of small producers from across Europe who have kept this country supplied with a fabulously diverse range of quality products will simply decide it’s not worth the trouble. They’ll sell elsewhere. The quality of our lives will be diminished. Cue the eye-rolling. Why should we care whether you will have less access to artisan sheep’s milk cheeses, or lovingly made charcuterie? Or, as it was put in a sarcastic tweet by Nick Timothy, the ace political strategist who had to resign from Downing Street over his disastrous stewardship of Theresa May’s 2017 election campaign: “Younger voters might not know this but Britain simply didn’t have food before 1973.” Put aside the fact that Timothy wasn’t born until 1980. He’s missing the point. EU membership vastly improved the quality of our diet and with it, our lives. It allowed unfettered access to a massive market, including the products that underpin the rightly lauded Mediterranean diet. We ate better. Any policy which means we will eat worse, that our lives and opportunities are less good than once they were, is surely a terrible thing. Of course, there are bigger problems right now. There’s a cost of living crisis, exacerbated by Brexit. The economy is stunted by Brexit. Obscene numbers of people are using food banks. The nation’s physical health is suffering because we don’t have the money to invest in the NHS, partly because of Brexit. But we can hold more than one thought in our head at the same time. We should see all of this as a continuum; as symptoms of a disease eating away at the body, one vital system at a time. Plus, this issue is not restricted to the deli end of the food market. The Fresh Produce Consortium recently warned that the new border rules would add delays and millions in costs at a time of already acute food inflation. The British Retail Consortium, which represents the supermarkets, agrees. “New checks will add to the various cost pressures retailers are facing at a time when the cost of living is already high.” And for what? The Brexit deal could have included an agreement to recognise each other’s food standards. That’s what lay at the heart of the EU project. But the UK wanted the freedom to do trade deals with third countries, allowing in products with lower standards than the EU permits. Hence, these disastrous checks. Yes, Brexit is done. Yes, it’s happened. But no, I won’t move on. It’s a bloody mess. | ['food/food', 'food/series/happy-eater', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'uk/uk', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/jayrayner', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/foodmonthly', 'theobserver/foodmonthly/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-food-monthly'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-13T11:00:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
media/greenslade/2010/sep/20/wikileaks-usa | Demonstrators to call for release of soldier in Wikileaks case | Rallies will be staged in 21 US cities this week calling for the release of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking military secrets to the public. Manning allegedly passed on the video known as "collateral murder" that showed American troops shooting civilians from a helicopter in Iraq in July 2007. The dead included two employees of the Reuters news agency. Though the actions depicted in the video amount to violations of the Geneva Conventions (aka war crimes), none of the soldiers have been prosecuted. Manning, who faces 52 years in prison, is also being investigated for allegedly leaking the "Afghan war diary" documents that were posted on Wikileaks and reported by The Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel. Marjorie Cohn, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, argues that if Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should be honoured as a hero for exposing war crimes. In a separate development, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been told he is not obliged to remain in Sweden even though prosecutors are however continuing to investigate rape allegations against him. Assange's lawyer, Björn Hurtig, said: "I have been told that there is no arrest warrant against him." Assange has said the allegations against him are part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his website, and that he will stay in Sweden to prove his innocence. Sources: HuffPo/The Local | ['media/greenslade', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'media/wikileaks', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/the-war-logs', 'media/julian-assange', 'world/iraq', 'world/afghanistan', 'world/sweden', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/war-logs', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/roygreenslade'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-09-20T08:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan-hits-philippines | Typhoon Haiyan: three die as category 5 storm hits land | At least three people have been killed and another seven injured as typhoon Haiyan – thought to be the strongest recorded storm ever to hit land – barrelled through the Philippines with winds up to 195mph (315km/h) and waves as high as 5 metres (19ft). The category 5 storm, which made landfall early on Friday in Eastern Samar province, has blown towards Boracay island after pummelling the central islands of Samar and Leyte where it toppled power lines, knocked out communications, caused landslides and left streets flooded. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and thousands more have fled their homes as Haiyan has torn apart buildings and left whole provinces in the dark and without any telecommunications. Experts are predicting "catastrophic damage" as a result of the super-typhoon. With speeds at landfall of 195mph and gusts of up to 235mph, Haiyan – the Philippines' 25th typhoon so far this year – is believed to be stronger than the world's last strongest tropical cyclone, hurricane Camille, which was recorded in the US at 190mph in 1969. Initial reports indicate that two people were killed after being struck by power lines, another by lightning and possibly one more from a falling tree. The final toll is expected to climb much higher as many of the areas so far damaged are inaccessible to aid or communication, said Mathias Eick of the European commission's humanitarian aid department (Echo), who spoke to the Guardian from Manila. "It could take a few hours for the authorities to get to villages and communities in the more rural and isolated areas, and there could be such damage that we fear heavy losses," Eick added. Around 12 airports have been closed – including those in the tourist islands of Palawan and Boracay – and schools and offices shut, with roughly 1 million people in shelters scattered around 29 provinces. Haiyan's powerful winds could potentially blow off the roofs of storm-proof buildings and suck out their walls due to the sheer force of its energy, experts have said, with an estimated 12 million people at risk. "There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind," said meteorology expert Jeff Masters. "The wind damage should be the most extreme in Philippines history." The 600km-wide storm – which is called Yolanda in the Philippines – ripped iron roofs off buildings and threw trees across roads, cutting out power to entire provinces, particularly around the storm's eye in Eastern Samar province. "We've been hearing from my colleagues in [the city of] Tacloban that they've seen galvanised iron sheets flying just like kites," Mai Zamora, of the charity World Vision, told the BBC. "It's actually all around the roads now. The roads are flooded in Tacloban." President Benigno Aquino III said three cargo planes, 20 navy ships and 32 military planes and helicopters were on standby for rescue operations and to provide relief. "No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," he said in a televised address. While Haiyan will not hit Mania directly, the capital has been put on low-level alert, with a heavy rain expected around 6pm, said Eick. "People have been allowed to go home early from their offices and have been stocking up on food, because they're afraid this rain will lead to flooding," he added. Experts believe most of the damage to come from the typhoon's resulting storm surge. On Bohol island, which was hit by a 7.3-magnitude earthquake last month that killed 200 people, residents have been waiting out the typhoon in the dark, without power or water supplies, said Jackie Pinat of Catholic aid agency Cafod. "Many people on the island lost their homes in the earthquake, and many structures are unsafe," she said. "Most people in the coastal villages around Maribojoc are still in designated evacuation centres." Typhoon Bopha in 2013 destroyed much of the southern islands, killing about 1,100 people and causing over $1bn worth of damage. Haiyan is expected to lessen by Saturday as it moves across the South China Sea towards Vietnam. | ['world/typhoon-haiyan', 'world/philippines', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-hodal'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-11-08T12:25:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2013/may/21/oklahoma-tornado-republicans-federal-aid | Republican pair opposed Sandy aid – but it's 'totally different' for Oklahoma | Oklahoma senators Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe are in a difficult position as attention turns to disaster relief for those affected by the tornado in Moore. Coburn and Inhofe have a record of vehement opposition to federal funding for disaster relief, and both opposed last year's $60.4bn aid bill for victims of Hurricane Sandy. But they don't seem to have a problem with federal funding for residents of their state. The Republican pair have sought to draw distinctions between the federal aid Oklahoma might receive and the funding they opposed for New Jersey and New York. On Tuesday morning Inhofe said tornado aid was "totally different" from Hurricane Sandy aid, the Washington Post reported. The Sandy aid was filled with pork, he told MSNBC. There were things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there and putting roofs on houses in Washington, DC. Everyone was getting in and exploiting the tragedy taking place. That won't happen in Oklahoma. While Coburn told the Government Executive that "there's a legitimate role" for federal relief. Where Fema can add resources that supplement those that are already there in Oklahoma, they should. They have some expertise that most states can't afford to have, and they're applying that expertise—whether it be search and rescue dogs or mortuary help. They have a long line of things—so there's a legitimate role. What we have to see is what's the total damage outside the lives that are impacted, how much is covered by insurance and how much help does Oklahoma need. A spokesman for Coburn confirmed on Monday evening that the senator will seek to ensure any additional federal funding for tornado disaster relief is offset by cuts elsewhere, the Huffington Post noted. "That's always been his position," spokesman John Hart said. "He supported offsets to the bill funding the OKC bombing recovery effort." Inhofe and Coburn opposed the Hurricane Sandy Fema bill, and Coburn released a statement, along with Arizona senator John McCain, criticising the aid package for its "wasteful spending". Even before that, the senators opposed a 2011 bill which would have provided $7bn funding to Fema when the agency looked set to run out of cash. Their noted opposition to Fema meant Inhofe and Coburn have come in for criticsm. Inhofe, in particular, found himself criticised on Twitter after he asked people to pass on a message of prayer. "The devastation in Oklahoma is heartbreaking. Please join me and #PrayforOklahoma. Spread the word." | ['us-news/oklahoma', 'us-news/oklahoma-city-tornado', 'us-news/republicans', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/us-politics', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-gabbatt'] | us-news/oklahoma-city-tornado | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-05-21T17:16:43Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2021/mar/18/storm-system-triggers-severe-weather-and-tornadoes-in-us | Storm system triggers severe weather and tornadoes in US | A storm system crossing the central US has caused an array of severe weather across several states in recent days. It instigated an early start to the tornado season in the Texas Panhandle, with numerous tornadoes reported south of Amarillo on 13 March. Two tornadoes on the ground from the same camping site at the Palo Duro Canyon state park resulted in several camper vans being overturned, but no injuries were reported due to the sparseness of the area affected. The same storm system was also responsible for heavy snowfall through Colorado and Wyoming over the weekend bringing accumulations of up to 65.5cm (25.8 inches), recorded in Cheyenne. Denver international airport shut down all runways on Sunday due to heavy to moderate snow during the day alongside blustery winds. Elsewhere across northern Colorado, power outages affected about 40,000 customers on Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, in Europe, a period of settled weather has given way to much more unsettled conditions across the north-west of the continent, bringing strong winds. These winds combined with spring sunshine led to a near-record-breaking level of renewable energy production, with Germany reaching 61.2GW for a time on 12 March, remarkably close to the record of 61.4GW on 26 August 2020. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'us-news/us-weather', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/tornadoes', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-03-18T06:00:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/jan/25/uk-whale-strandings-why-did-they-happen | UK whale strandings: why did they happen? | Is it possible that more than five whales from this pod have died? Five young male whales have now been found dead – in Hunstanton, Skegness and Wainfleet, all around the shallow waters of the Wash. But 12 other whales were washed up on the Wadden Islands archipelago off the coast of Germany and the Netherlands earlier this month. And more deaths may come: at least one further sperm whale was sighted off the Norfolk coast last week. Are the numbers of whale strandings increasing? Sperm whale strandings in UK waters remained steady at one a year during the 20th century but suddenly leapt to about seven a year in the 1980s, according to Peter Evans, director of the Sea Watch Foundation charity. Since then, they have stabilised at about six a year. Sightings have also increased – even allowing for more people looking – which may be good news. Since whaling was banned, the number of large males in their southern Atlantic strongholds may have increased, pushing out juvenile males. These young males head north, enter the North Sea between Scotland and Norway, and unfortunately find this shallow sea a natural trap – difficult to navigate and short of food. More humpback whales have been found stranded in Britain since 1986, when hunting them was banned. What has caused these sperm whale strandings? These sperm whale strandings are the worst off the English coast since records began in 1913. Andrew Brownlow, from the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, helped perform necropsies on the dead whales in the Netherlands. In their 170-metre-long intestine (one of the longest of any creature), he found some squid beaks and monkfish bones, showing that the whales had eaten and were not completely starving. Two whales also contained fishing line and hooks, suggesting they had nabbed fish from a fishing boat’s “long line” (a more environmentally friendly form of fishing). This would not be fatal but if the British whales also have fishing lines, it’s strong evidence that they all belong to the same “bachelor pod”. If they were not starving, did we inadvertently kill them? The Dutch whales examined by Brownlow were not victims of a ship strike or entanglement in fishing nets. “But some things would never leave a pathological legacy, such as if they were startled and disorientated by noise,” said Brownlow. What about noise from naval exercises or sonar? “If there was a massive naval exercise off the coast of Norfolk at the weekend I would be hugely suspicious but as far as I can tell, that’s not the case,” says Brownlow. Four large bombs exploded underwater by the Royal Navy killed 19 pilot whales off Scotland in 2011 but scientists point out that the navy is less likely to undertake significant exercises in midwinter. Rob Deaville, project manager of the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, the environment department-funded organisation, which investigates whale deaths, said they would be seeking more information from the Ministry of Defence about possible military exercises. The North Sea is full of windfarms and oil rigs. Could these have disoriented them? No, says Peter Evans. The noise from pile-driving during windfarm construction can affect marine mammals such as porpoises but once they are established they probably help cetaceans by creating fish-rich artificial reefs. What’s the most likely cause of death? The bodies of the Skegness whales were too badly decomposed to provide as much information as the pathologists had hoped but Deaville said there was little in their intestines apart from a few squid beaks, suggesting the whales were hungry and dehydrated. According to Deaville, they were alive when they were stranded in the shallow tidal waters of the Wash, which he said was “about as perfect a cetacean trap as you could design”. The weight of their own bodies then caused their internal organs to collapse and fail. Who owns the whales now? King Edward II decided whales would be a “royal fish” in a statute of 1324 and these mammals remain the property of the crown. The Receiver of Wreck is the crown’s agent responsible for deciding whether to claim the animal. In reality, responsibility for its disposal lies with the local authority – for Skegness, this is the East Lindsey district council in Lincolnshire. In the Netherlands, the whales were taken to be dumped at sea, but this was not successful and they had to be brought on shore again. Whale carcasses are sometimes put in landfill; their flesh may also be dispatched for rendering at an abattoir. What happens to the bodies now? Deaville and his colleagues have removed teeth, muscle and blood for further scientific study to assist our understanding of these little-known mammals. “Although it’s a tragic event, it’s a chance to study them and hopefully we will learn more about them,” said Deaville. “There’s an awful lot that still needs to be done but stranding science does give us a window into what is going on out there.” | ['environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'uk-news/norfolk', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-01-25T18:50:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2006/may/17/water.uknews2 | Norwegian water shipments may ease drought | Converted oil tankers could ship water to parched south-east England from Norway and Scotland if drought conditions worsen, Britain's biggest water company said yesterday. Richard Aylard of Thames Water said emergency planners were investigating whether obsolete single-hulled tankers could be cleaned and equipped to transport millions of gallons of water by sea, a more practical method than trying to move it by land. He said: "It's not impossible. It would be an extraordinary thing to do, but if we get into an extraordinary situation we have to look at extraordinary measures." He added the scheme would be "very much a last resort" and that it was better to use existing supplies more wisely. Suggestions that water could be piped from elsewhere in the UK or sent along the canal system were unrealistic because of high pumping costs, Mr Aylard told a meeting at the London assembly. Unlike gas and electricity, water cannot be compressed or converted to a form easily transported over large distances. Road tankers would be unable to transport enough water to make a significant difference, Mr Aylard said. Thames Water's ongoing hosepipe ban has cut demand for water by 2%. The company, which supplies water to 8 million people across London and the south-east, will decide today whether to ask the government for an emergency drought order, which would give it the power to restrict all non-essential uses of water. The Environment Agency has urged the firm to apply for a drought order, but Mr Aylard said it was concerned about the possible impact. "Once we start moving to a non-essential-use ban and drought orders, we start to really impact on people's livelihoods and we need to look very carefully at that before bringing in restrictions," he said. Window cleaners, car wash employees and others thrown out of work by more severe restrictions could be found jobs fixing leaks or working in water companys' customer service centres, he suggested. Robert Runcie, Thames regional director for the Environment Agency, said more stringent measures would be needed across the region if rainfall did not increase. He said: "Our concern is that, if it is left for too long, then an emergency drought order would be required and then a full sweep of draconian measures would come into play." Following the granting of a drought order to Sutton and East Surrey Water, the agency said there was a "real risk" of standpipes being introduced in south-east England this year. Two other water companies, Southern and Mid-Kent, have applied for similar orders. The agency warned the drought in the south-east, following two dry winters, was spreading to parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. A hot, dry summer could see restrictions being introduced in the east of England and the south Midlands. Reservoir levels in Wales and the south-west could also drop quickly this summer. Even the heavy rain forecast for this week will make little difference because ground water levels are so depleted. | ['environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/drought', 'type/article', 'profile/davidadam'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-05-17T09:37:31Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2014/mar/28/energy-companies-sign-deal-farmers-no-to-coal-seam-gas | Energy companies sign deal allowing NSW farmers to say no to coal seam gas | Energy companies Santos and AGL have signed an agreement with farmers in NSW that will allow landholders to refuse coal seam gas activities on their properties. The deal will allow a farmer to say no to coal seam gas and bar entry to gas companies if permission is explicitly refused. The agreement, the first of its kind between gas firms and landholders, also seems to indirectly reference environmental protesters by condemning “bullying, harassment and intimidation” of farmers who have agreed to coal seam gas on their properties. According to the text of the agreement, “the parties will uphold the landholder's decision to allow access for drilling operations and do not support attempts by third party groups to interfere with any agreed operations”. The deal, signed at the NSW parliament, involves Santos, AGL, NSW Farmers, Cotton Australia and the NSW Irrigators’ Council. The ability of coal seam gas companies to drill on farmers’ land without consent has become a contentious issue in many rural communities in NSW and Queensland. Santos has recently been targeted by a series of protests from people unhappy with its operations in the Pilliga rorest in NSW. Opponents of coal seam gas extraction claim that it endangers vital groundwater supplies, as well as violating the rights of landholders. Gas companies dispute both of these assertions, insisting that they never force their way on to properties. Santos said that the agreement “further recognises” its position that it does not drill without landholder consent. “In NSW, we already have more than 40 land access agreements,” said Peter Mitchley, Santos’s NSW general manager. “It is important that all members of the community also respect the rights of landowners to work with industry and have us on their land.” Michael Fraser, managing director of AGL, said the company had always “listened with respect” to farmers, adding “AGL is proud of our close relationships with farmers and signing the new agreed principles reflects that we will continue to respect their wishes”. Mitchell Clapham, of NSW Farmers, said the agreement was a “significant win” for farmers, establishing in writing how gas companies should operate. Earlier this week, the NSW government announced a six-month freeze on new applications for coal seam gas exploration licences, to allow an audit of existing licences. The fee for a licence will rise from $1,000 to $50,000. NSW farmer Phil Laird, part of the Lock the Gate coalition that has fought a bitter battle against the spread of coal seam gas extraction, said the deal was a “cautious step forward”. “This is an agreement between the management of two companies and we’d like to see actual root and branch reform,” he told Guardian Australia. “It’s a good start but we want to see actual legislation to allow farmers to lock their gates. This is what the companies have said has been their policy all along, so restating that is hardly an historical agreement. “I think they are trying to turn the tide of bad news flowing against them for the past week or so.” | ['environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/mining', 'environment/mining', 'environment/gas', 'world/gabon', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2014-03-28T06:56:39Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/mar/15/tasmanian-devils-slash-population-of-brushtail-possums-that-overwhelmed-maria-island-australia | Tasmanian devils slash population of brushtail possums that ‘overwhelmed’ tiny island | The introduction of Tasmanian devils to Maria Island halved the population of brushtail possums, according to new research that suggests restoring top predators to ecosystems could help limit the number of overabundant prey. In 2012, the carnivorous marsupials were introduced to the island off the east coast of Tasmania to create a geographically isolated insurance population free from devil facial tumour disease. Australian researchers have tracked the impact of the introduction on brushtail possums, finding that “possum abundance fell by more than 50% across Maria Island as a whole”. Prior to the devils’ introduction, brushtail possums – which had been introduced to the island in the 1950s – had expanded beyond their usual habitat and had become “a pretty significant predator”, according to study co-author Prof Christopher Johnson of the University of Tasmania. “The place was sort of overwhelmed with possums. They were living in open grasslands a long way from trees,” Johnson said. “They were preying on seabirds – in fact, there were possums living in seabird burrows and coming out at night … and pulling [short-tailed shearwater] chicks out and killing them.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Brushtail possums are considered omnivores, but in most parts of their geographic range they primarily eat foliage, Johnson said. “They den in tree hollows and they feed in the tree canopy … They will come to the ground to feed but typically they don’t go very far from a tree.” A founding population of 28 Tasmanian devils was released on Maria Island in 2012 and 2013, growing to an estimated 100 animals by 2016 – the island’s predicted maximum capacity. Combining data from population surveys and GPS tracking of individual possums, the researchers found that the devils brought about the almost complete disappearance of possums from open grasslands and population decline in dry forest areas. Possum populations “remained stable in wet forests”. Within five years of the devils being introduced, surviving possums were restricted to forest habitats and using tree hollows as den sites, the team found. “In one sense, this is a story of what devils do to possums,” Johnson said. “But it’s also an instance of a bigger story about how predators can control the niche that is occupied by other species. “Predator introductions are pretty rare things still and because the ecological effects of predators in most cases unfold over long periods of time, there really aren’t very many examples like this one.” Johnson described Maria Island as a test case for other devil introductions. “If someone got serious about introducing devils on to the mainland of Australia, where they used to exist, you would need pretty good data on the impacts of devils on the ecosystem,” he said. “We’ve really proved in this case … that if management of possums was the goal, we could say that it worked and we could do it again.” In 2021, a BirdLife Tasmania survey found introduced devils had wiped out little penguins from Maria Island, which had been home to 3,000 breeding pairs of the flightless bird a decade earlier. Previous research conducted by the University of Tasmania scientists also found the devils decimated colonies of the island’s short-tailed shearwaters. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. | ['environment/tasmanian-devils', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/tasmania', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/donna-lu', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-03-15T00:00:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2022/jun/24/toyota-recalls-its-first-electric-car-amid-fears-the-wheels-could-fall-off | Toyota recalls its first electric cars amid fears the wheels could fall off | Toyota has been forced to recall 2,700 of its first electric vehicles because of concerns the wheels could fall off, in a blow to the world’s largest carmaker’s belated attempt to launch a battery-only car. The global recall affects the Japanese manufacturer’s bZ4X sports utility vehicle, its first effort at a pure battery electric vehicle (EV), after the manufacturer found a problem with the bolts that connect the wheels to the chassis. It is investigating whether the components need to be replaced. “Until the remedy is available, no one should drive these vehicles,” the company said in a statement. Toyota has been the world’s largest carmaker by sales for the last two years, ahead of Volkswagen. However, unlike its German rival it has not embraced all-electric technology to the same extent, aiming instead to keep producing orthodox fossil fuel vehicles as well as hybrid electric vehicles that combine a battery with an internal combustion engine. The company argues that more customers will be able to buy hybrid vehicles until the network of electric chargers improves, while still achieving cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. EVs, and possibly some driven by hydrogen fuel cells, will then allow it to go “beyond zero”, hence the “bz” in its first electric car’s name. However, Toyota faces pressure to provide models for markets such as the UK that will ban all new internal combustion engines after 2035, despite lobbying by Toyota and others. Its different strategy makes it a conspicuous outlier among the large carmakers, who were spurred into investing in electric car production by the dieselgate scandal, and Tesla, the US carmaker run by Elon Musk, which pioneered building battery cars at scale. Toyota said in December it would spend $35bn (£28bn) on developing its own EVs, with an aim of making 30 models available by 2030 and quickly catching up with rivals as sales of electric vehicles soar in some of the world’s key markets. Electric cars are much more mechanically simple than those with internal combustion engines, and so are likely to require fewer visits to mechanics over their lifetime. However, they also tend to be heavier because of the dense batteries. Christian Stadler, a professor of strategic management at Warwick business school, said: “Toyota can count itself lucky that this recall has nothing to do with the electrical capability of the car. That would have been far more damaging, given that the bZ4X is the company’s first mass-produced all-electric vehicle.” | ['business/toyota', 'business/automotive-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/electric-cars', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'technology/motoring', 'world/world', 'world/japan', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2022-06-24T12:15:55Z | true | EMISSIONS |
money/2018/nov/06/will-we-ever-be-able-to-get-rid-of-paper-receipts | Will we ever be able to get rid of paper receipts? | You diligently recycle, you carry a reusable coffee cup and you have sworn off plastic straws. Yet your wallet is stuffed with crumpled scraps of paper recording all manner of recent (and ancient) transactions: the couple of quid at Tesco, the £50 from a cash machine last week, that pricey pair of shoes from a year ago. Every year the UK pumps out 11.2bn paper receipts. What many of us probably don’t realise – as Wired flagged on Tuesday – is that at least half of them can’t be recycled; they are printed on what is known as “thermal paper” and coated with a potentially toxic substance called bisphenol A (or a substitute, BPS). The advice is that we should send thermal paper receipts to landfill, not the recycling bin. Is this mountain of unrecyclable paper necessary? The rapid growth of contactless payments means many retailers don’t even offer you a receipt any more. Yet if you are paying with cash, there may be no other way of acquiring a record of your purchase. Increasingly, instead of saying “Receipt’s in the bag”, shop assistants have been asking: “Can we email you your receipt?” On the face of it, this is a welcome trend – less potentially toxic paper produced and discarded. But, of course, once that retailer has your email address, you will simply be swapping that pile of paper scraps for a mountain of digital inbox detritus. And what if that email receipt never arrives, and your pricey new shoes fall to bits a week later – or, worse, you are accused of shoplifting? At least those of the old school have a receipt to wave righteously. It might be in decline, but we won’t be seeing the last of the paper receipt any time soon. Remember the plans to kill off another arguably outdated piece of paper – the cheque? In 2009, it was announced that cheques were going to be phased out – by last Wednesday, in fact. But that prompted a huge row, forcing a humiliating U-turn by the body representing banks. Any plot to kill off paper receipts would probably be met with a similar outcry from many older people, charities and digital refuseniks. | ['money/money', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/patrickcollinson', 'profile/rupertjones', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-11-06T18:11:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2023/sep/19/european-governments-railways-road-building-report-motorways-funding-rail | European governments shrinking railways in favour of road-building, report finds | European governments have “systematically” shrunk their railways and starved them of funding while pouring money into expanding their road network, a report has found. The length of motorways in Europe grew 60% between 1995 and 2020 while railways shrank 6.5%, according to research from the German thinktanks Wuppertal Institute and T3 Transportation. For every €1 governments spent building railways, they spent €1.6 building roads. “This is a political choice,” said Lorelei Limousin, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace, which commissioned the report. “We see the consequences today with the climate, but also with people who have been left without an alternative solution to cars.” The report found the EU, Norway, Switzerland and the UK spent €1.5tn (£1.29tn) between 1995 and 2018 to extend their roads – but just €0.93tn (£0.8tn) to extend their rail networks. In the four years that followed (2018-21), the average gap in investment in rail and road decreased from 66% to 34%. During that time, seven countries invested more in rail than roads – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the UK – while the rest spent more on roads than rail. Dr Giulio Mattioli, a transport researcher at the Technical University of Dortmund, who was not involved in the study, said: “Most European countries have been actually encouraging car use by investing large amounts of public money into expanding motorway infrastructure.” In the public and political debate, Mattioli added, small investments into bike lanes and railways were heavily scrutinised while investments in roads were taken for granted. “This absolutely needs to change if we are to meet climate mitigation targets in the transport sector.” The report found motorways grew most in Ireland, Romania and Poland, and least in Lithuania, Latvia and Belgium. In 15 of the 30 countries studied, the lengths of motorways more than doubled over the 25-year period. At the same time, the report found, European governments had shut down more than 2,500 train stations since the mid-90s. They also closed about 8,523 miles (13,717 km) of regional passenger railway lines. As a rough estimation, the researchers said, 4536 miles of these lines could be reopened “relatively easily”. The EU plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the end of the decade from 1990 levels but has failed to make any headway in its transport sector. Road transport was responsible for three-quarters of the sector’s emissions in 2020. Only in 2029 will domestic transport emissions drop below 1990 levels, the European Environment Agency found last year. Emissions will continue to rise from planes and ships that travel between the EU and other parts of the world. Greenpeace called on governments to move money away from roads and towards railways, public transport, cycle lanes and pavements. It also demanded an end to all new motorways and airports. Limousin said: “To help people shift from cars to public transport, which is really key to cut the emissions of transport, we need to make the infrastructure fit for that challenge. We need the government to stop closing train lines and stations, reopen those which have been closed and that we can easily reopen … and massively increase the public funding in real solutions.” A handful of European countries have introduced cheaper public transport tickets to encourage people to shift from cars to trains, trams and buses. In Germany last summer, the government introduced a €9-a-month ticket for local and regional public transport, which it later raised to €49 a month. Mattioli said: “The €9 and €49 German tickets have given many the impression that people would shift to public transport if it were cheaper. But levels of service and infrastructure networks are much more important for modal shift. So I think we should be talking less about fares and a lot more about infrastructure.” | ['world/rail-transport', 'politics/transport', 'world/europe-news', 'business/rail-industry', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'environment/environment', 'world/road-transport', 'business/business', 'uk/transport', 'world/world', 'politics/politics', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ajit-niranjan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-09-19T00:01:42Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2019/sep/24/jair-bolsonaro-says-deceitful-media-hyping-amazon-wildfires | Jair Bolsonaro says 'deceitful' media hyping Amazon wildfires | Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched a cantankerous and conspiratorial defense of his environmental record, blaming Emmanuel Macron and the “deceitful” media for hyping this year’s fires in the Amazon. In a combative 30-minute address to the UN general assembly, Bolsonaro denied – contrary to the evidence – that the world’s largest rainforest was “being devastated or consumed by fire, as the media deceitfully says”. “Our Amazon is larger than the whole of western Europe and remains virtually untouched – proof that we are one of the countries that most protects the environment,” Bolsonaro claimed. About 17% of the Amazon has been destroyed over the last 50 years with some scientists fearing the rainforest could reach an irreversible tipping point if that rises to 20% or 25%. Brazil’s international reputation has been put through the wringer since the notoriously outspoken populist took office in January, with Bolsonaro locking horns with a succession of world leaders, including the French president, Emmanuel Macron. With Brazil battling to repair its overseas image after the Amazon fires crisis, some observers had expected Bolsonaro to strike a softer note at the UN summit. Instead, Brazil’s president went on the offensive, starting his speech with a Trumpian excoriation of socialism and concluding with an obscure broadside against the leftist “ideological thought systems” he alleged had invaded Brazilian schools, universities, homes and even souls. “With these methods, this ideology has always left a trail of death, ignorance and misery, wherever it has gone,” Bolsonaro said. At the heart of Bolsonaro’s speech – which Brazilian fact-checkers said contained nine falsehoods and five imprecise claims - was a lengthy counter-attack against domestic and international criticism of his highly controversial vision for the Amazon and Brazil’s indigenous communities. “Any country has problems. But the sensationalist attacks we suffered from the large part of the international media over the fires in the Amazon awakened our patriotic feelings,” he said, accusing foreign critics of questioning Brazil’s sovereignty over the region in a disrespectful and “colonialist” manner. That line was a clear jab at Macron with whom Bolsonaro is locked in a long-running diplomatic feud that escalated last month after the French president urged international action over the Amazon fires and Bolsonaro responded by insulting Macron’s wife. Bolsonaro reiterated pledges to reduce the size of protected indigenous territories and to open such areas up to commercial mining. “Brazil now has a president who cares about those who were here before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500. Indians don’t want to be poor landowners living on rich soils – especially the richest soils on Earth,” he said. Bolsonaro claimed the foreign NGOs and governments who opposed that view did so because they themselves had their eyes on the mineral wealth and biodiversity within Brazil’s indigenous reserves. In an attempt to portray himself as a friend of Brazil’s indigenous communities Bolsonaro invited a rare indigenous supporter, Ysani Kalapalo, to attend his address and donned an indigenous necklace after arriving in New York. But Sônia Guajajara, one of Brazil’s best-known indigenous leaders, dismissed Bolsonaro’s attempt to pose as an indigenous defender as a farce. “This is an attempt to trick the world and show he has support. But … it is another of his big lies. It doesn’t matter what image he wants to project. What matters are his actions – which the world whole is seeing,” she said. In a statement, the Brazilian Climate Observatory NGO said: “As expected, Bolsonaro’s speech … has doubled down on division, nationalism and on ecocide … Bolsonaro’s policies bring an immediate risk to all humankind.” | ['world/brazil', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/emmanuel-macron', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-09-24T16:59:47Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/mar/11/greta-thunberg-climate-protest-blocking-swedish-parliament | Greta Thunberg joins climate protest blocking Swedish parliament | Greta Thunberg has accused Sweden of being “very good at greenwashing” as she staged a protest along with about 50 other activists outside her home country’s parliament. The activists – who she said were acting as a group of concerned, largely young individuals rather than representing a particular organisation – sat outside the main entrance to Sweden’s government buildings in Stockholm on Monday morning in an attempt to stop politicians from getting to work. The action came on a high-stakes day for the Swedish government, with the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and numerous key figures in Brussels for its official flag-raising ceremony outside Nato headquarters after becoming members last week. The 21-year-old climate activist said: “Sweden is unfortunately not unique in completely ignoring the climate crisis, not treating it as an emergency at all. But actively trying to greenwash, deceive and lie in order to make it seem like they are doing enough and that they are moving in the right direction, when in fact the exact opposite is happening.” She added: “Sweden in particular is very good at greenwashing and framing themselves as a climate leader, when we have very high emissions per capita if we include all our emissions, including consumption based and biogenic emissions etc and especially if we look at historic emissions. So we are not a climate leader at all.” The Swedish government, a centre-right coalition run by the Moderate party and dependent on the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, has faced heavy criticism in recent months over how it plans to reach its agreed climate goals with policies that are expected to greatly increase emissions. All over the world, Thunberg said, “people seem to be physically incapable of focusing on several things at the same time”. She added: “We need to be able to tackle the climate crisis in a way that addresses all the other root causes as well and make sure that we have a just transition.” The aim of Monday’s protest against the climate crisis and the people that it is killing, Thunberg said, was to highlight how “the people in power are ignoring the most affected and activists and young people and the science”. She accused politicians of instead “prioritising short-term economic profits”, which she said was “sacrificing human life and the planet in the name of greed”. She said this type of protest marked a first for Sweden, although similar actions had happened in other locations around the world. “The climate justice movement has for decades tried to get our message across and scientists and the most affected people have been sounding the alarm for even longer than that,” she said. “But the people in power have not been listening, they have been actively ignoring and silence those speaking out.” Climate scientists were also in attendance at the demonstration to show their support. Swedish police, who are understood to be at the protest, have been contacted for comment. | ['environment/greta-thunberg', 'world/sweden', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/miranda-bryant', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2024-03-11T11:37:12Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2014/may/09/gladstone-dredging-project-not-consistent-with-best-practice | Gladstone dredging project 'not consistent with best practice' | A dredging project at Gladstone harbour which coincided with the deaths of a large number of fish was deficient in its decision making and construction, a report instigated by the federal government has found. An independent review, ordered by environment minister Greg Hunt, found aspects of the design and construction of a “bund” wall, which aimed to prevent dredged sediment leaking into the harbour of the Queensland port, “were not consistent with industry best practice”. The report says the location of water-monitoring sites and record-keeping practices were “inadequate”, with a confusingly complex oversight regime from state and federal governments. The review was launched to analyse concerns that the bund wall had leaked sediment into Gladstone harbour between June 2011 and July 2012. Gladstone is next to the world heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef. According to the report, there was a “lack of coordination between the jurisdictions, particularly on compliance monitoring – a critical issue given that the main regulator for the western basin strategic dredging and disposal project was the Queensland government. “With the benefit of hindsight, some actions taken by both Australian and Queensland governments and the proponent in the delivery of the western basin strategic dredging and disposal project were less than optimal.” The Gladstone Ports Corporation was given the responsibility of removing 48m cubic metres of sediment from the seabed to expand the harbour so that large ships could enter it. The dredged spoil was to be contained by the bund wall, but the review found the wall was not designed or constructed to the highest standard. Environmentalists and local fishers have blamed the dredging project for poisoning and killing marine life, including turtles, crabs and fish. Gladstone fish markets, the main fish retailer in Gladstone, now has to import fish from elsewhere in Queensland after noticing pus and lesions on fish caught in the harbour. The Queensland government has blamed flooding, rather than dredging, for the rise in toxins in the harbour. The review recommends key steps be taken to ensure bund walls are secure, water-quality plans are properly managed and the public is better informed about work being undertaken. Hunt said he would respond fully to the report on 1 July but he would adopt as many of the recommendations as possible. “I am advised these issues affecting the bund wall have been resolved and do not present an ongoing threat to the environment,” he said. “I am confident that these findings will help improve environmental practices and regulation going forward.” The campaign director of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Felicity Wishart, said the failures of the dredging operation in Gladstone were “deeply alarming”. “Clearly this report highlights the fact that the government and the ports corporation has put massive industrial development ahead of the environment,” she said. “We’ve seen constant denial of the problems despite clear and obvious evidence. How on earth can the community trust the government or ports corporation to undertake any development alongside the reef? This is a systemic, cultural failure of process.” Wishart said there should be a full inquiry into the impact of Gladstone dredging, beyond the failure of the bund wall. Last week Unesco expressed concern about dredging and dumping at Abbot Point, further up the Queensland coast near Bowen. On Thursday, experts at the international symposium on sea turtle biology and conservation in New Orleans passed a resolution calling on Australia to halt all industrial development beside the Great Barrier Reef until a management plan for sea turtles has been implemented. “To allow dirty energy companies to industrialise this critical nesting and feeding haven for sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef will push these vulnerable marine animals ever closer to the brink,” said Teri Shore, program director of Turtle Island Restoration Network in California. | ['environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-05-09T02:58:41Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/blog/2024/oct/18/icc-womens-t20-world-cup-2024-australia-women-cricket-lose-south-africa-semi-final | Australia’s dominance ends at Women’s T20 World Cup but shock defeat can spark a new era | Megan Maurice | In the 15th over of South Africa’s innings in the first semi-final at the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup, Annabel Sutherland dismissed Laura Wolvaardt for 42, with Tahlia McGrath taking the catch at mid-off. So subdued was stand-in captain McGrath’s reaction that it initially appeared that the umpire had called a no-ball. A lacklustre high five with Sutherland confirmed Wolvaardt was indeed out, but McGrath knew that it was simply too little, too late. It was a moment that encapsulated the match, with disappointment and frustration written all over the faces of the Australians time and again as they tried to find a foothold with which to get themselves out of trouble. It was a performance we are unaccustomed to seeing from the three-time reigning champions, often touted as one of the world’s most dominant sporting teams. While not every victory in recent times has been commanding from start to finish, the nature of the team has meant they have almost always been able to recover and find a way out of danger. If the top order fails, the middle order steps up. If the run rate is slow, they have powerhitters down to No 9 who can accelerate late. If the batters don’t quite scrape together an insurmountable total, the bowlers take early wickets. If an opponent starts to put together a big score, there are innumerable bowling options for the captain to turn to. Many will point to the loss of captain Alyssa Healy to injury for this game as a key to their downfall and there is no doubt it was a great loss. Could Healy have elevated the run rate from the start of the innings to put Australia in a stronger position? Could she have better anticipated the outside edge from Wolvaardt’s bat in the third over that sailed past Beth Mooney’s gloves to the boundary for four? These are moments that could have changed the game and swung momentum in Australia’s favour. Australia’s greatest strength has always been that they do not need to rely on one player. In many international teams, an opponent needs only to shut down one or two players to gain control of a match. Australia’s immense batting, bowling – and even wicketkeeping – depth means that this is usually not the case. The loss of Ellyse Perry for the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup final was one of the most talked about moments of the tournament, with questions over whether Australia could triumph without her. The remainder of the team answered that question unequivocally with their now-famous 85-run victory. Healy is undoubtedly important, but the team will not be using her absence as an excuse for the loss to South Africa in the UAE. The eyes of the world will quickly turn to the second semi-final between New Zealand and the West Indies to find out who will meet South Africa in the final. The decider already promises to be a game-changer for women’s cricket as the chasing pack show signs of closing the gap on the three highest-ranked teams in Australia, England and India. But for the top-ranked Australia, the inevitable question is – what now? On the face of it, that question may not even require an answer. Cricket is an unpredictable game. Even the most dominant teams lose games and it was perhaps unfortunate that particular game happened to be a semi-final of a major tournament. Throw in the loss of the captain and it becomes even simpler. Get back to full strength and continue with business as usual. However, the Australian team has a culture that demands excellence. Questions will be asked and answers sought. Consideration will be given to team balance and plans to cover unexpected losses of key players. Earlier this year, Australia toured Bangladesh to play a six-match series against a much lower ranked team without taking any uncapped players. When coach Shelley Nitschke was asked about this decision, she cited T20 World Cup preparation (the tournament was scheduled to be played in Bangladesh before being moved to the UAE) as a key reason why the selectors had opted for an experienced squad. But with this unexpected loss, it is worth asking whether short-term succession planning should have been higher on the agenda. The Australian team has been so strong for so long that it has been hard to hold the selectors accountable – domestic players can dominate the WNCL and WBBL for multiple seasons and not even appear to be in consideration for the national team. Even within the squad, there could have been opportunities for Healy to take a back seat and hand over the gloves. While Mooney keeps regularly in domestic competitions, the chance to keep to the specific bowling plans of her Australian teammates in match situations would have been incredibly valuable experience. While this shock loss is disappointing for the Australian team and its fans, it could be the spark for greater accountability, as well as a refresh in selection strategy and game tactics. And while the team would have certainly preferred to be holding the trophy aloft, in the long run this loss could lead the team to even greater heights. | ['sport/womens-t20-world-cup-2024', 'sport/australia-women-s-cricket-team', 'sport/women-s-t20-world-cup', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/australia-sport', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/sports-au', 'sport/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/megan-maurice', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-sport'] | sport/womens-t20-world-cup-2024 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-10-18T00:00:07Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
technology/2015/sep/11/ruby-tandoh-tests-baking-kitchen-gadgets | Tried and tested: Ruby Tandoh on baking gadgets | My favourite-ever kitchen gadget is a £1.50 small aluminium fish scaler in the shape of a turbot which I have never actually used to scale a fish but have cherished as a much loved back-scratcher. I’ve never been much good at finding the right tools for the job. I’ve had other more productive forays into the world of kitchen gadgetry since, but good products are hard to find. Most gizmos were one-trick ponies, used once and then dutifully retired to kitchen graveyard at the back of the under-sink cupboard with the bundt tin and the juicer. Others, like the Egg Master and my hog-shaped jelly mould, are delightful grotesques designed to be gleefully revered and never, ever sullied by actual use. Some things have wriggled their way past my curmudgeonly, anti-gadget reticence, though, to find a niche in my utensil drawer and even a place in my heart. Alongside the old-fashioned favourites that I know will always serve me well – a couple of heavy cake tins, a battered old wooden spoon, basic electronic kitchen scales – there are sturdy plastic dough scrapers and silicone baking moulds, a loyal oven thermometer and a coffee-grinder that’s made me everything from icing sugar to spice mixes. They’re tools that align with the simple kind of cooking that I enjoy. I’d never used an iPad before last month and my most shameful confession is that until recently I thought that app was short for Apple, so I can’t claim any authority as a gadget expert. What I do know though is cooking – when it’s better to get your hands dirty and when it’s OK to delegate to your supporting cast of mixers, blenders and machines. If a change-averse, technology neophyte can get with the times and come to terms with, even see the good in, this new generation of kitchen gadgets – then so can you. Thermomix thermomix.co.uk, £925 If you’re looking for a kitchen gadget with the horsepower, heft and expense of a small car, you’re in luck. The Thermomix TM5 is sold as an all-in-one powerful food processor and with functions ranging from chopping and whisking to pureeing, kneading, weighing and grinding it lives up to that promise. Its heating capability is impressive, too, making a custard smoother than any I’ve had before. But this jack-of-all-trades feels clumsy. The touch screen display is crude compared with even the most basic recipe apps. And in its eagerness to do everything, the Thermomix leaves you powerless: my only hands-on involvement is via a plastic spatula thrust into a hole in the lid, stabbing in the dark for the joy of cooking I just lost. VERDICT Usefully, but joylessly, consolidates all your kitchen gadgets into one. Looks like a spaceship. Lékué Kit BreadMaker lekue.com, £30 When so much of baking relies on pricey tins and specialist ingredients, bread’s refreshing for its cheap no-frills experience. Surprisingly for a gadget, this breadmaker fits well alongside that less is more philosophy. It’s an all-in-one piece of kit: mix, knead, prove your dough in the silicone bowl, then fold the mould into a rugby ball shape to cradle the bread as it bakes. Because it hugs to the bread during baking, it creates the steamy conditions for a great rise and crust. The one-bowl concept also means much less washing up than usual, which I’ll admit earned it my vote. You’re limited when it comes to the size and shape of your loaf, though, and it’s only oven safe up to 220°C, so crusty baguettes and the like are out of the question. VERDICT Handy, compact and easy to use. Not one for serious bread-heads, though. Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin ocado.com, £15.49 This is the first gadget to catch my technology-averse eye: a simple wooden rolling pin, satisfyingly heavy in beech wood, with a handy ruler guide along the length. Its selling point, and presumably the justification for that price tag, is a set of multi-coloured rings on each end, setting the body of rolling pin at an adjustable 2, 4, 6 or 10mm height from the work surface. When I test it out on a batch of buttery cookies, it rolls them to perfectly uniform thickness so they later bake to an even golden brown, rather than the thick-and-thin, doughy-then-burnt patchwork I’m used to. For anyone as clumsy as I am, it’s a joy to have that kind of precision within your grasp. I kind of like it. VERDICT A good-looking rolling pin if ever I saw one. Helpful if you’re prone to heavy-handedness with your pastry: it’ll make a Mary Berry of you yet. DROP KITCHEN SCALE getdrop.com, £79.95 I spend 10 minutes trying to peel the weighing platform off this when I first get it, so sure am I that there must be some display screen or some button that I’m not seeing. But this is a different generation of kitchen scale. Designed to be used with an iPad, it’s completely naked, sending its readings via Bluetooth to be displayed instead in the requisite Drop Kitchen app (downloadable for free). I’m impressed at what the scales can do when used with the in-app recipes: you can scale up or down depending on how much of an ingredient you have to hand and make easy substitutions. If you go off-road with your own recipes though, the Drop scale is just a scale and without the iPad, it’s not even that. VERDICT Exquisitely designed and perfectly intuitive, but sadly unusable as a standalone set of scales. | ['technology/series/tried-and-tested', 'technology/gadgets', 'food/baking', 'technology/technology', 'tone/reviews', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tv-and-radio/the-great-british-bake-off', 'type/article', 'profile/ruby-tandoh', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly/observer-tech-monthly'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-09-11T07:02:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
artanddesign/2023/jun/07/the-news-from-a-mozambique-landfill-site-mario-macilaus-best-photograph | The news from a Mozambique landfill site – Mário Macilau’s best photograph | There’s a giant landfill site near Maputo, Mozambique’s capital city, that covers 42 acres and rises to 15 metres in height. Young men roam it hoping to find things that are either valuable or can be recycled. These people play an important role in the local economy but they are marginalised by Mozambican society. When I started thinking about photographing the tip roamers, people warned me it would be dangerous: they are “uncivilised”, they said, they would steal my camera, attack me, even kill me. At the beginning of any project, I do lots of research. I need to understand a place and its people, establish contacts who can introduce me to new communities, and build trust with whoever I’m photographing. I don’t work like a photojournalist: I’m not tied to strict deadlines. I like to spend time with the people I photograph. We eat together, play games, get used to each other, so that by the time it comes to shooting, they’re comfortable. Working in the dump was a challenge. It was another world and I was well out of my comfort zone. But I saw it as a privilege. You’re relating to people whom society has judged and excluded. I was a first-hand witness to their lives. The series began in 2015 and took form over several years. I exhibited it, but I didn’t feel like the project was fully over, so I went back a year or two later to see how things had changed. The passage of time fascinates me. I never planned to shoot anything the day this was taken. I was just heading back to the site to see some of the people I had got to know. Early one morning, this guy recognised me and ran over to greet me. There was a broken screen on the ground and he had the idea that he should put his head inside it, like a TV news anchor. He was really enthusiastic – jumping in and out of the screen, mimicking someone presenting the morning news. He was calling the shots. I always try to show the people I photograph the final shot – sometimes as prints, sometimes on my phone or computer. When I showed this guy his image, he laughed a lot. I like to use photography to draw people’s attention to things they’re missing, be it environmental issues, working conditions, or human rights abuses. My own upbringing was not always easy, but it helped me relate to people from different walks of life. I grew up in Mozambique with my mother and two sisters. I was the eldest and the only man in the family, so I was expected to contribute from a young age, and from the age of eight I would go out to look for food and make money where I could. My mother didn’t go to school and couldn’t read. She couldn’t speak Portuguese, which became the official language of Mozambique, so I had to help her communicate. When she got her first mobile phone, she couldn’t use it. She gave it to me so I could keep in touch with people on her behalf. One day, I met a guy with a camera. He knew I was interested in photography and asked if I wanted to buy it. I decided to make a trade: the phone for the camera, and a little cash on top. When I got home, I lied and told my mum someone stole the phone. My earliest photographs were black and white, but once I started working for commercial clients – usually magazines and NGOs – I started shooting in colour. Black and white makes for a stronger connection, though, and I returned to monochrome. It makes an image timeless, almost like a memory. I don’t see my work as documentary photography. I see it as a tool for social intervention. It reveals different things about life, our environment, working conditions, humanity and human rights. I want it to provoke us to think about how we live and how we make decisions. This work is political. • Mário Macilau: On Faith is at Ed Cross Gallery, London, 14 June to 5 August. Mário Macilau’s CV Born: Maputo, Mozambique, 1984. Trained: Self-taught. Influences: Willem de Kooning, Samuel Beckett, Ernest Cole, Santu Mofokeng. High point: “Being invited to be a part of the Venice Biennale in 2015.” Low point: “I was deeply affected by the Covid crisis, as the culture sector was shut down and there were a lot of limitations. But I stayed on my path and became stronger.” Top tip: “Photography is like any profession: you need to do it with love, discipline and dedication” | ['artanddesign/photography', 'artanddesign/series/mybestshot', 'world/mozambique', 'artanddesign/art', 'environment/waste', 'world/africa', 'society/socialexclusion', 'culture/culture', 'environment/recycling', 'society/poverty', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'campaign/email/art-weekly', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/edward-siddons', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/arts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-production'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-06-07T14:00:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2017/dec/06/oliver-schmidt-jailed-volkswagen-emissions-scam-seven-years | Oliver Schmidt jailed for seven years for Volkswagen emissions scam | A senior Volkswagen executive was sentenced to seven years in prison by a US court on Wednesday after being found guilty of concealing software used to evade pollution limits on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles. Oliver Schmidt, a German national who was the general manager in charge of VW’s environmental and engineering office in Michigan, had pleaded guilty to his part in the cover-up and argued he was “misused” by VW in its attempts to circumvent US emissions tests. But at the sentencing in Detroit judge Sean Cox sided with the prosecution. “It is my opinion that you are a key conspirator in this scheme to defraud the United States,” Cox told Schmidt in court. “You saw this as your opportunity to shine … and climb the corporate ladder at VW.” Schmidt read a written statement in court acknowledging his guilt and broke down when discussing his family’s sacrifices on his behalf since his arrest in January. “I made bad decisions and for that I am sorry,” he said. Alongside the sentence Schmidt was fined $400,000. Both the jail term and the fine were at the top end of sentencing guidelines. Schmidt, who oversaw emissions at VW’s office in Michigan from 2012 to early 2015, met with key California regulators in 2015 but did not disclose the rogue software. The government said he later misled US investigators and destroyed documents. Schmidt’s lawyers argued that his role only heated up in 2015, years after others at VW hatched the scheme, which violated the Clean Air Act. “The defendant has a leadership role within VW,” federal officials said. “As a consequence of that role, he was literally in the room for important decisions during the height of the criminal scheme.” VW pleaded guilty as a corporation in March and agreed to pay billions of dollars in fines. Schmidt, who had returned to Germany, was arrested in Florida in January after attempting to return home from a vacation following the filing of an FBI complaint. He is the highest-ranking VW employee to be convicted in the scheme in the US and the chances that the US authorities will prosecute more senior VW executives are slim as most are in Germany, which is unlikely to extradite its citizens to stand trial in the US. | ['business/vw-volkswagen', 'us-news/michigan', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-crime', 'business/automotive-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dominic-rushe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-business'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-12-06T22:08:28Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2016/jan/28/edf-hinckley-point-nuclear-reactor-contractors | EDF tells contractors to restart work on Hinkley Point, report says | EDF has told contractors at Hinkley Point to restart “unconstrained spending” in anticipation of the £18bn nuclear plant obtaining the final green light within days. The instructions to suppliers, reported by the industry magazine Building, comes despite EDF’s unwillingness to press the last investment button at a board meeting on Wednesday. The state-owned French group delayed the decision after last-minute pressure from its investors and unions over the cost of the scheme, but contractors in Somerset are being told to restart work, which stopped in April last year. A source told Building: “EDF used the words ‘unconstrained spending’ to the supply chain to get the project moving. By ‘unconstrained’ they mean ‘we’re going to go on as if a decision has been made’.” Another source said: “EDF asked us ‘if we release the budget to you, what will you do with it?’ We told them what we would do with it, and they said ‘get your plans ready to start spending this’.” But the company, which is 85% owned by the French government, is reported by the financial daily Les Echos to be leaning on ministers to help with the demands of financing Hinkley, even though the Chinese have promised to take a 33% stake. EDF had earlier let it be known that it wanted to reduce its stake in all the existing British reactors it owns from 80% to 50% by bringing in other private investors. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has made clear that it does not want to increase its holdings from 20%. Despite all this, the EDF chief executive, Jean Bernard Lévy, has twice within the past week reiterated his belief that the company is ready to proceed with Hinkley Point. The company is now believed to be aiming for 16 February, when a board meeting and the reporting of annual financial figures are scheduled. The Department of Energy and Climate Change said it is still confident of a positive decision. EDF is already struggling to cope with a raft of extra demands that have been imposed on it, most recently the takeover of its financially troubled engineering partner Areva. EDF has also been told to upgrade its 58 nuclear plants in France in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident in Japan, at a possible cost of £40bn, when it is burdened with a £28bn debt mountain. In addition, there have been delays and cost overruns at another EDF new-build project in Flamanville, northern France. Flamanville and Hinkley would use the same European pressurised reactor technology. Another European scheme involving these reactors, at Olkiluoto in Finland, is also10 years behind its target opening time. Despite the delays, a market source said suppliers – which include heavyweight contractors Kier, Laing O’Rourke and Bouygues – will already be “gearing up” to deliver the work following the instruction from EDF. The source told Building: “The indications [EDF is] giving suggest they just want to get on with the project. They haven’t secured any additional funding. They’re telling people to get on with it now and hoping they can fix the balance sheet later.” | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-01-28T19:00:52Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/cif-green/2009/sep/01/88-months-2010-carbon-cuts | 87 months and counting … | Andrew Simms | It could be the premise for a zeitgeist science-fiction thriller about global warming. Secrets, lies, and breathless chases along corporate corridors. Millions of pounds at stake, and ultimately millions of lives too. The UN suspends an auditor at the heart of a mechanism key to the success of the international climate change treaty. In another country, a multimillion carousel fraud in the carbon emissions trading market leads to a swoop on homes in London and the south-east, and multiple arrests. A new police force is launched to investigate corporations suspected of being big greenhouse gas polluters. This could be earnest, adrenaline-pumped entertainment, the next Syriana. But all these things are real and were revealed over the past few months. One of the more gruesome ways in which wildlife conservationists can tell the health of animal populations, like otters or badgers, is by how many roadkill get found. If more are found, it means there are more around and, ironically, must be doing well. It's a risky analogy, but if organised crime is now taking the market for cutting carbon seriously, perhaps we are finally getting somewhere. Or, it could mean that, like so many other markets revealed in recent times to be flawed, the carbon markets are badly designed and in a mess. But, in the UK, it could be that the phoney war over reducing emissions is finally about to end, and we will begin to get serious. Because today a new, bold and simple campaign is being launched. It has one target: to cut emissions in the UK by 10% during the year 2010. Ten per cent in 2010 sounds quite catchy, but why those figures, and why is this important? For years the government has resisted taking action on climate change that the science says is necessary. The excuse, though untested, is always that the public won't support it – as if we're all eager to hasten our own collective demise. Now the opportunity is here for individuals and organisations to do something that is about more than changing light bulbs. If successful, it could be the biggest experiment yet by a society set on positively determining its own future. A 10% cut is in line with what the science suggests should be an annual target for a country such as the UK. It's not to be sniffed at, but an economy entering a period of rapid transition throws up as many opportunities as it does challenges. We may fear change, but all the evidence shows that we are a highly innovative and adaptive species capable of dealing with it. Expecting individuals alone to save the climate simply by making choices in the marketplace is not working. That much has become a commonplace. The necessary options are typically unavailable, either due to price or practicality. When sewage disposal in 19th century London was left to individuals in the marketplace, the result was open cesspits, cholera and typhoid. There was a good reason for officialdom to mandate a new infrastructure that separated sewage from drinking water, and oversaw one of the public engineering triumphs of the age. Perhaps the problem is that we cannot smell carbon dioxide. It was the Great Stink of 1858 that finally pushed parliament to pass an act that would allow for the large but necessary investment needed to realise Joseph Bazalgette's vision for a new sewage system. It took only eight years to connect most of London. The government had to hold its breath back then, in more ways than one, before it took action. But who, afterwards, would go back to how things had been before? Today they can make a leap of reason again over short-sighted intransigence, by joining the 10:10 pledge. It shouldn't be necessary for campaigns such as 10:10 to cure the government of timidity. But, with just 87 months left before odds on avoiding runaway warming shift badly against us, real leadership is, at least, coming from somewhere. Politicians are running out of excuses. If they don't want to skulk as the bad guys in the background of the global warming movie, they should come and join the carbon reduction party. 87 months and counting ... Each month Andrew Simms is analysing how much closer the world has moved to catastrophic climate change. Read his previous blog here | ['commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/series/100-months-to-save-the-world', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/10-10', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewsimms'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-09-01T11:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2021/jan/21/building-a-green-economy-could-stop-nightmare-degradation-of-amazon-aoe | Building a green economy could stop ‘nightmare’ degradation of Amazon | The Amazon will be transformed into a “highly degraded nightmare” unless a sustainable biodiversity-based economy develops which properly values ecosystem services and products produced by the rainforest, a leading scientist has warned. Prof Thomas Lovejoy, the “godfather of biodiversity”, said if agro-industrial economic developments such as cattle farming, palm oil production and mining continue, the rainforest’s hydrological cycle will be “in tatters”, with global weather systems severely disrupted. Turning this around will require an innovative green economy which monetises the food, medicines, aquaculture and climate regulation the forest provides, said Lovejoy, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation and president of the Amazon Biodiversity Centre. “Is [biodiversity] to be locked away for the amusement of science with no practical value? It has in fact contributed substantially to human wellbeing in ways that simply are not tracked or entered into human accounting,” he wrote in an essay published by the Royal Society. The piece was commissioned by Cambridge University professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, who is submitting a report to the UK Treasury on the true value of ecosystem services provided by nature, and wanted clarity on the situation in the Amazon rainforest. His report is part of a trend to put a financial value on nature in order to prevent its destruction. It’s shortsighted not to put a price on nature, according to Lovejoy, a US scientist who has studied the Amazon for more than 50 years. “Conservation efforts have not been inconsequential – and they haven’t failed totally – but they really have focused on the conservation, and they haven’t spent enough time helping people understand the value,” he said. “There are some people who don’t like doing that. They object to putting a price on nature, or whatever it is. And I think that’s actually a very shortsighted way of thinking about it, because all it’s doing is recognising some of the value. And if you don’t recognise value, then it’s very logical for those mythical beasts called ‘decision makers’ to just value it at zero.” For decades the Amazon has been deforested because it has not been seen as offering much in the way of economic opportunities except as a place from which to extract resources, Lovejoy argued. The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said that ecological reserves “hinder development”. Under his leadership deforestation has reached a 12-year high. “The current Brazilian government tends mostly to see the forest and its biodiversity as of little value compared to economic activities like cattle, soy or mining.” Lovejoy wrote. “In contrast, the Amazon’s highest value is in development that is based on forest biodiversity, and in maintaining the hydrologic cycle for the Amazon and the South American climate system. “A future Amazon that has not benefited from a thoughtful biodiversity-based development trajectory will be but a pale shadow of what the early explorers encountered,” he added. “Dieback will lead to a hydrological cycle in tatters, stranded hydroelectric facilities, largely failed fisheries, marginal urban economies and impacts on continental climate … the Amazon will be transformed from an Eden into a highly degraded nightmare.” The part that is least recognised is how new insights into biology can have practical applications for human wellbeing, he said. Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre describes the Amazon as one of biodiversity’s “greatest showrooms” with “incalculable” molecular substances with specific and usable functions, most of which are still unknown to science. For example, a tropical Amazonian viper, the fer-de-lance, inspired the discovery of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors which have extended the lives of millions of people by controlling blood pressure. Curare – a muscle relaxant used in surgery – is still harvested directly from the Amazon. “Nobody ever stops to figure out where this all comes from. And it really comes from what all living things are about, which is adapting to various conditions in their environment and solving biological challenges,” said Lovejoy. “Almost every human society values libraries, but they never think of nature as this gigantic living library, which has not only all the accumulated information and solutions to date, but the new ones that they’re basically inventing on a daily basis.” The insurance firm Swiss Re has estimated that more than half of global GDP – $42tn (£32tn) – depends on high-functioning biodiversity. The World Economic Forum lists biodiversity loss as one of the five biggest risks over the next decade and experts say financial institutions are increasingly aware that biodiversity regulation is coming. Already 17% of the Amazon has been deforested and research has suggested 20-25% deforestation would trigger the “tipping point” at which the rainforest would start to transition into savannah. This crucial moment was generally thought to be decades away, but a paper in the journal Nature Communications last year suggested that 40% of the existing rainforest is already on the brink of transitioning. “You can actually see the beginnings of a tipping point, it’s not some theoretical model,” said Lovejoy. He estimates we have five or 10 years to reverse deforestation. “You actually see changes in tree species from those that are predominantly adapted to very wet conditions to ones that are adapted to drier conditions. So I think it’s right here and now,” he said. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'global-development/global-development', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phoebe-weston', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-01-21T11:30:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/sep/06/six-farmers-shot-dead-over-land-rights-battle-in-peru | Six farmers shot dead over land rights battle in Peru | Six farmers have been shot dead by a criminal gang who wanted to seize their farms to muscle in on the lucrative palm oil trade, according to indigenous Amazon leaders in Peru. Local leaders in the central Amazon region of Ucayali say the victims were targeted last Friday because they had refused to give up their land. A police report seen by the Guardian details how the farmers’ bodies were found early on Saturday dumped in a stream near the Bajo Rayal hamlet where the men had lived. “It was a night-time ambush. They bound them by their hands and feet, then they killed them and threw them in a river,” Robert Guimaraes, president of the local indigenous federation Feconau, told the Guardian by phone. The police report says most of the men had shotgun wounds to the neck and at least one was found bound by the hands and feet. An eyewitness told the police the victims were attacked by up to 40 armed men who had their faces covered. “We have received death threats from the same land trafficking gang,” Guimaraes said. “We are afraid for our families and we are asking the state for protection.” “These peasant farmers have paid the price for the inaction of the state and the local authorities in tackling land trafficking,” he added, warning that the nearby Santa Clara de Uchunya community had also been threatened by land traffickers. Guimaraes accused the local agricultural authority of handing out falsified land titles and said it also bore “direct responsibility” for the crime. A local investigation alleges former officials colluded in the falsification of land titles which were then sold to highest bidder. “Everything points to regional government people being involved in trafficking land,” said Jose Luis Guzmán, an environmental prosecutor in the Amazon region which is plagued by illegal logging. Julia Urrunaga, Peru director for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said: “The lack of clarity and consistency of land titling in the Peruvian Amazon has long been a ticking bomb for violent social conflict.” After four years of investigations into land-grabbing and large scale agribusiness projects, the EIA had uncovered “chaos, abuses, violations of indigenous and local community rights as well as violations of environmental and forestry laws,” Urrunaga said. “All of this with impunity in an environment dominated by corruption that ends up favouring large scale investors,” she added. Observers fear the emergence of palm oil will fuel a new surge in land grabbing, violence and deforestation. Yet the Peruvian government is promoting expansion, claiming its cultivation will not threaten forests. At a UN climate change summit in September 2014, Peru signed a $300m (£191m) deal with Norway to reduce net deforestation to zero by 2021. More than 120 environmental and land defenders have been killed around the world in 2017 so far, with many of the deaths linked to deforestation and industry. | ['environment/series/the-defenders', 'environment/land-rights', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/environment', 'world/peru', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/palm-oil', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-collyns', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-09-06T17:04:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/mar/20/four-select-committees-launch-joint-inquiry-uk-air-pollution-crisis | Four select committees launch joint inquiry into UK air pollution crisis | MPs from four influential committees are coming together to launch a joint inquiry into the scale and impact of the UK’s air pollution crisis. In an unusual development, the environmental audit committee, environment, food and rural affairs committee, health committee and transport committee will hold four sessions to consider mounting scientific evidence on the health and environmental effects of toxic air. Dr Sarah Wollaston, the health committee chair, said poor air quality was “affecting the health of millions of people across the UK”. “Our joint inquiry will include an examination of the scale of the harm caused and the action necessary to tackle it,” she added. Last month, the Guardian revealed the risk to children’s health posed by air pollution, identifying 802 educational institutions in London where pupils as young as three are exposed to illegal levels of air pollution. The government says toxic air causes up to 50,000 early deaths – 9,000 of them in the capital – and costs the country £27.5bn each year. The government’s own statistics show 38 out of 43 UK “air quality zones” breach legal limits for air pollution and last year the high court ruled ministers must cut the illegal levels of NO2 in dozens of towns and cities because their current policies to improve air quality were so poor they were unlawful. The government has to announce its new plans before 24 April and the inquiry will examine whether these proposals go far enough to cut pollution “not only to meet legal limits but also to deliver maximum health and environmental benefits”. Mary Creagh, chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “The UK courts have twice found that the government has failed to deal with our air pollution problem properly. Now ministers will face unprecedented scrutiny in parliament to ensure they finally step up to the mark to ensure adults, and children in particular, do not have their health damaged by filthy air.” Much of the most dangerous pollution comes from diesel vehicles and there is growing pressure on the government to introduce a diesel scrappage scheme to encourage people to swap polluting diesel vehicles for cleaner alternatives. Louise Ellman, chair of the transport committee, said the UK economy depends on an “efficient and flexible transport system” but added: “Emissions from vehicles are a significant problem and the standards that governments have relied on have not delivered the expected reductions. We will be asking what more can be done to increase the use of cleaner vehicles as well as to encourage the use of sustainable modes of transport.” Neil Parish, chair of the environment, food and rural affairs committee, said the joint inquiry was unprecedented. “The solutions to cleaning up our air are not the responsibility of just one minister. That’s why we have taken the unprecedented task of convening four select committees so we can scrutinise the government’s efforts from every angle and look for holistic solutions that are good for health, transport and the environment.” | ['environment/pollution', 'society/health', 'environment/environment', 'uk/transport', 'politics/transport', 'politics/politics', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-03-20T14:52:58Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/nov/25/how-can-we-stop-using-soya-soy-linked-to-deforestation | How can we stop using soya linked to deforestation? | Who uses soya and why? Nearly all soya is used by the farming sector as a livestock feed for chickens, pigs and other animals. The biggest users are chicken producers; soya makes up around a quarter of the diet of birds. It has been the cheapest source of protein poultry available to farmers since the ban on meat and bonemeal after BSE. Soya remains key to producing fast-growing, low-priced chickens. Can’t they use alternatives to soya? Alternatives such as lentils or other legumes are more expensive and less available to farmers. Some poultry farmers have been experimenting with adding black soldier fly larvae to the diets of their birds, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimating that insects could replace between 25 and 100% of soymeal for chickens. However, at present insects are seen as a supplement, rather than a replacement, for soya. “[Soya is] our achilles heel. It’s the best pound for pound source of protein so it’s hard to convince farmers to move away from it,” chicken farmer Charles Mears told the Guardian last month. Soya is a smaller part of the diet of other farmed animals and appears to be easier to replace. For example, dairy farmers supplying M&S recently eliminated their use of soya, replacing it with rapeseed oil and sugar beet. Is it possible to buy soya that isn’t linked to deforestation? The vast majority of soya is grown in Argentina, Brazil and the US, which between them account for 80% of global production. Two of those countries – Argentina and Brazil – have serious risks of deforestation in soya production, and also provide most of the soya used by UK farmers. There is a small but growing supply of soya produced in Europe, but it is not yet competitive with producers in the Americas. It is currently more profitable for European farmers to grow alternative crops to soya. The main sources of organic soya are China, India, the US and Russia. What are retailers doing to eliminate links to deforestation? Retailers are linked through their supply chains to deforestation because they buy meat and dairy products from UK farmers who use soya. In response to pressure, they have come out with a variety of policies that attempt to limit or eliminate links with deforestation. Most of them do this by committing to ensuring that their suppliers only use “responsibly-sourced” soya, relying on a range of certification schemes to deliver on this. There is no internationally-agreed definition of responsibly- or sustainably-sourced soya. Instead it is left to individual private certification schemes such as the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, which states that it guarantees zero deforestation and zero conversion in its certified soya production. But such schemes have different tiers of certification. The most basic tier involves buying offsets for soya in their supply chain. The money goes to support farmers producing soya responsibly, but the soya in the supply chain is not necessarily responsibly-sourced. Aldi and McDonald’s are among companies that say they use credits. The next tier up works on the basis of what is known as “area mass balance”. Certified soya is mixed up with non-certified soya, but the amount of certified soya is tracked. So while the actual soya you buy may not be certified, you create a market for certified ‘responsibly sourced’ soya by buying it through this tier. Tesco has said all of its soya will be covered by this tier by the end of 2020. The highest tier is buying only segregated soya, which means the soya comes from a certified source and is kept separate from other non-certified soya throughout its journey along the supply chain to farmers. Sainsbury’s has said it will work with its suppliers of fresh chicken, pork, eggs and aquaculture to only source area mass balance or segregated soya by 2023. Waitrose has set the same target for its suppliers by the end of 2020. What is the government doing to tackle the use of soya and deforestation? The UK government has agreed to introduce new rules requiring companies to prove they have checked for risks of illegal deforestation in their supply chains. Companies would also be banned from sourcing commodities, including soya, that have not been produced in line with the laws of countries where they originate. A consultation on the proposals concluded last month. Details about the due diligence that firms will have to undertake to ensure products are deforestation-free have not yet been announced. It is also unclear if compliance with local laws would be enough to guarantee that soya has no links with deforestation. In Brazil, for example, president Jair Bolsonaro has disputed data on deforestation and called for further development of the Amazon region. “The only way supermarkets and fast food companies will actually achieve deforestation-free supply chains is by reducing the amount of meat they sell, not by replacing soya with other feeds, or by paying certification schemes,” said Anna Jones, head of forests at Greenpeace. “Feeding plant proteins to animals to produce meat is hugely inefficient and uses far more land across the world than we have to spare.” | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'world/argentina', 'uk/uk', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/tom-levitt', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-11-25T15:00:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2020/aug/06/peter-dutton-confirms-australia-could-spy-on-its-own-citizens-under-cybersecurity-plan | Peter Dutton confirms Australia could spy on its own citizens under cybersecurity plan | Peter Dutton has confirmed the government’s $1.6bn cyberstrategy will include capability for the Australian Signals Directorate to help law enforcement agencies identify and disrupt serious criminal activity – including in Australia. By rendering support to the Australian federal police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the cybersecurity and intelligence agency would for the first time be able to target Australians, although Dutton maintains ASD won’t be able to do so directly. Dutton said law enforcement agencies would target terrorists, paedophiles and drug traffickers operating in the dark web – promising proposed new powers will apply “to those people and those people only”. Details of the new powers – which will require legislation – are not contained in the strategy, which says only that the government will “ensure law enforcement agencies have appropriate legislative powers and technical capabilities to deter, disrupt and defeat the criminal exploitation of anonymising technology and the dark web”. ASD powers have been a source of controversy for the government, after the AFP raided News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst’s home in June 2019 over a news report suggesting the home affairs department was seeking power for ASD to spy on Australians. Dutton had claimed the story was nonsense despite publicly confirming its substance. On Thursday, Dutton told reporters in Canberra ASD has “a very unique set of powers” and is “the very best in the business” in operations such as stopping terrorist attacks. More recently ASD had disrupted scam attacks seeking passwords and other information targeting Australians financially during the Covid-19 pandemic, he said. “We could have developed that capacity in the Australian federal police. The decision we took was that would be a duplication of that effort. “It would take years to ramp up, and the threat from these cyber actors is here and now. “What we’re proposing here is that the Australian federal police, with the ACIC, with a warrant from the court, knowing that somebody operating a server, whether it’s in Seattle or Sydney, if they’re targeting Australian citizens … [the agencies] would be able to target that paedophile network, regardless of where they are in the world.” Dutton said target servers and syndicates were mostly offshore but it was “appropriate” for ASD to help protect Australians. Law enforcement agencies would be able to “tap into” ASD’s capabilities but “the power only applies to … the Australian federal police and ACIC, not the ASD,” he said. The Australian has reported the ASD will be prevented from collecting information but will be able to provide technical capability advice to assist police execute computer access warrants to identify suspects and disrupt criminal activity. Dutton will also reportedly gain powers to direct the ASD to protect infrastructure from cyber attacks. The home affairs minister did not confirm or deny these aspects of the legislative package when asked on Thursday. Dutton said the new capabilities would be exercised only in relation to people “alleged to be committing very serious offences”. “If you’re a paedophile you should be worried about these powers, if you’re a terrorist … if you’re committing serious offence in relation to trafficking of drugs, of ice, for example, that’s being pedalled to children, you should be worried about these powers as well. “The reality is people are trying their best to groom kids online and … people are trading gun parts on the dark web and it cannot be a lawless space. This law applies to those people and those people only.” The prime minister, Scott Morrison, confirmed that the $1.6bn for the cyber strategy was mostly made up of the $1.3bn announced but not all allocated in June. The package includes $470m to expand Australia’s cybersecurity workforce with 500 new jobs created within the ASD, and $125m to double the AFP’s cyber enforcement capacity by 100 officers and expand the remit of the ACIC. On Thursday the shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, and shadow assistant cybersecurity minister, Tim Watts, said Labor would “consider the detail of the government’s strategy, including any legislative proposals” but chose to attack the Coalition’s track record rather than the policy. “The Morrison government needs to get their own house in order, too – 70% of commonwealth agencies have failed to implement basic cybersecurity measures according to the auditor-general,” they said. | ['australia-news/australian-security-and-counter-terrorism', 'technology/cybercrime', 'technology/cyberwar', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/espionage', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-08-06T06:10:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2018/aug/31/sick-to-my-stomach-dolphin-and-penguins-locked-in-derelict-japan-aquarium | 'Sick to my stomach': dolphin and penguins locked in derelict Japan aquarium | Anger is mounting in Japan after a dolphin, 46 penguins and hundreds of fish were found to have been abandoned for months in a derelict aquarium. Animal rights campaigners have warned that the marine animals could die if they are not rescued from the Inubosaki marine park aquarium in the Pacific coastal town of Choshi north-east of Tokyo. The plight of Honey, a female bottlenose dolphin, as well as scores of Humboldt penguins and hundreds of fish and reptiles, has triggered outrage following reports that they were abandoned when the facility closed seven months ago. Images taken from outside the marine park in March this year show the solitary dolphin languishing in a tiny pool. In another photograph, dishevelled-looking penguins can be seen perched on a structure near what appear to be piles of loose concrete. The marine park closed at the end of January following a dramatic drop in visitor numbers blamed on the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan’s north-east in March 2011. Reports said employees of the marine park were feeding the animals, although it is unclear how they are sourcing food and how much they have left. It is possible that the park still has large stocks of frozen food or that employees are purchasing fresh fish in Choshi, a fishing port. Animal rights campaigners have been refused entry to the facility, while local authorities have been unable to contact its private owner, Inubosaki Marine Park. Calls to the park’s owner went unanswered. “I am worried that Honey will die if this situation continues,” Akiko Mitsunobu, head of aquarium issues at the Animal Rights Centre Japan, told the Guardian. “Lately she has just been repeating the same movements – dipping her head in and out of the water – and is showing definite signs of stress. “ Despite claims by the prefecture’s public health centre that the dolphin and penguins are being properly cared for, Mitsunobu said they needed to be seen by animal welfare experts who can offer a second opinion. Sachiko Azuma, a representative of Japanese animal rights group Peace (Put an End to Animal Cruelty and Exploitation), said the former operator’s silence left her fearing the worst. “As a group that handles animals, they have a responsibility to explain what they intend to do with Honey and the other animals,” she said. “Compared to a year ago you can see that her condition has deteriorated. It’s impossible to say that she’s healthy.” Peace has launched a postcard campaign calling for Honey to be rescued, while the animals’ plight prompted a wave of criticism on social media. “This makes me so sick to my stomach,” one Twitter user wrote in a post with the hashtag #SaveHoney. “Animals deserve much better than this.” Another wrote: “I beg the authorities to get in close contact with each other and push ahead with this.” By last week, the marine park had received more than 800 emails and letters demanding that the animals be moved to a new home. The Mainichi Shimbun reported that the operator had been in talks with another aquarium about transferring Honey and the penguins but had abruptly ended negotiations and refused to respond to enquiries from the Choshi town government. Local officials are not legally entitled to enter the facility without permission and cannot compel the owner to relocate the animals, the newspaper said. Honey was taken to the marine park in 2005 after being captured in Taiji, a town on the Pacific coast that drew international criticism after its hunts were featured in the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. In 2015, the Japan Association of Zoos and Aquariums agreed to stop buying dolphins from Taiji after it was threatened with expulsion from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (Waza). The move came after the Guardian revealed that Waza had been targeted in a court action launched by the conservation group Australia for Dolphins, which accused it of being complicit in the hunts by failing to take decisive action against Japanese aquariums. Aquariums in Japan voted to stop buying live specimens from Taiji to avoid expulsion, but a facility in the town quit Jaza in protest, and local fishermen have vowed to continue the hunts. In a typical hunt the fishermen pursue pods of dolphins across open seas, banging the top of metal poles that extend beneath the water to confuse their hypersensitive sonar and driving them into a narrow cove. Some are killed for their meat, which is sold in local supermarkets and restaurants, while the most attractive specimens are selected for sale to aquariums and sea parks. The animal rights centre said it feared that Honey could be recaptured if she was returned to waters off Taiji. Instead, it is demanding that she be sent to a sanctuary that closely resembles her natural habitat. Mitsunobu said Honey’s plight “reflects the lack of awareness people in Japan generally have about animal welfare and keeping animals in captivity. Aquariums and marine parks are still seen as places for families to have a fun day out. “The issue has been complicated by the fact that it is connected to the Taiji dolphin hunts, but for now this is about the need to do something to help Honey before it is too late.” | ['world/japan', 'environment/dolphins', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-08-31T01:12:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/apr/27/east-australia-one-of-11-areas-account-for-80-of-world-forest-loss-by-2030 | East Australia one of 11 areas to account for 80% of world forest loss by 2030 | Eastern Australia is one of the world’s 11 deforestation hotspots that together will account for 80% of global forest loss by 2030, a new report has warned. Between 3m hectares and 6m hectares of rainforest and temperate forest, mainly stretching across New South Wales and Queensland, could be lost between 2010 and 2030 on current trends, according to the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Forests report. This deforestation is part of a wider loss that could reach 170m hectares of forest worldwide by 2030 in 11 key areas, including the Amazon, Borneo, Sumatra, the Congo Basin and East Africa. Ten of the 11 areas are found in the tropics and contain some of the greatest biodiversity in the world, including animals such as tigers, orangutans and gorillas, as well as Indigenous communities. About 70% of the eastern forests of Australia have already been cleared or disturbed, with just 18% of the area under any sort of protection, the WWF report states. Australia’s forestry loss has primarily been caused by land clearing for livestock, with unsustainable logging and mining also blamed for tree felling. WWF said the watering down of environmental protections by the previous LNP government in Queensland led to a sharp rise in land clearing, with 275,000ha torn down in the past financial year – a tripling of vegetation loss rates since 2010. While the new Labor state government has promised to reverse this loss, the New South Wales government is set to amend land-clearing protections, despite pledging $100m to protect the state’s threatened plants and animals. “We are deeply concerned about NSW,” said Dermot O’Gorman, chief executive of WWF Australia. “These are laws that have been shown to have been effective in saving hundreds of thousands of animals, so it’s important that biodiversity continues to be protected. “Maintaining forest protections is vital at state level. We’ve lost the large majority of the eastern Australian forest, which means the remaining forests are even more important to maintain. “If business as usual continues, we will see more Australian species disappear, as well as the continuing decline of our water, topsoil and local and regional climate.” O’Gorman said he welcomed the Australian government’s funding of efforts to slow deforestation in places such as Indonesia – where huge tracts of forest have been cleared to make way for palm oil plantations – but that some domestic policy decisions, such as the failed attempt to strip world heritage protection from part of Tasmania’s forests, was “unhelpful”. The WWF report recommends a range of policies for the areas set to suffer deforestation, such as sustainable forest management practices, removing harmful agricultural practices, expanding protected areas and strengthening land rights for Indigenous people. | ['environment/deforestation', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-04-27T20:07:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2023/jul/18/aboriginal-owners-and-energy-investors-team-up-in-plan-for-3bn-green-hydrogen-plant-in-wa | Aboriginal owners and energy investors team up in plan for $3bn green hydrogen plant in WA | A unique partnership between three traditional owner groups and a major clean energy investor is promising to establish a $3bn green hydrogen project in the far north of Western Australia. In what could be one of Australia’s biggest clean energy projects, more than a million solar panels will power electrolysers to produce 50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year. The East Kimberley Clean Energy project will be unveiled at the Australian renewable energy industry’s annual summit in Sydney on Tuesday. A new company – Aboriginal Clean Energy – will develop the ambitious project near the town of Kununurra. Three Indigenous groups will each have an initial 25% share in the company alongside climate crisis investment and advisory firm Pollination. The head of projects at Pollination, Rob Grant, said the company structure engages traditional owners as true collaborators, developers and beneficiaries, and represented a “just, ambitious and achievable vision” for clean energy projects in Australia. The feasibility and capital raising for the project is still to be completed, but Grant said the partnership was hoping to start construction in late 2025, with the first hydrogen produced by late 2028. The project will look to use renewable energy from an existing hydroelectric facility near the Ord River to turn all the green hydrogen into 250,000 tonnes of green ammonia each year for agricultural fertilisers to be sold in Australia and for export. The plan includes a new 120km pipeline to store and transport green ammonia to the “export ready” port of Wyndham. Grant said the region provides sunlight, clean water and renewable energy – the main components needed for green hydrogen, which is extracted from water by electrolysis. Ammonia production is currently heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Producing green ammonia from green hydrogen would be a major step to decarbonising the food supply chain. Traditional owner groups MG Corporation, the Kimberley Land Council and Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation will each own 25% of the company. The conventional model for major projects on Indigenous land in Australia sees developers seeking permission from native title holders with the payment of royalties. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup “Those agreements usually come at the end of projects and historically they have been distributive, rather than inclusive,” Grant said. Grant said the new project’s ownership structure turned that old approach on its head and represented a “just, ambitious and achievable vision for Australia’s clean energy future”. Aboriginal Clean Energy’s share in the project will probably dilute once agreements are reached with investors and industrial partners. But having a partnership approach with traditional owners would be an attractive prospect for investors, Grant said, as it reduced the risk of future problems with land use agreements and other approvals. This would reduce the risk for investors and shorten the development schedule. The chief executive of Kimberley Land Council, Tyronne Garstone, said for Australia to meet its international cilmate commitments, “a lot of the projects will have to happen on Indigenous land”. He said at the heart of the Aboriginal Clean Energy partnership is that traditional owners will have the opportunity to have equity in the company to ensure there are “flow-on benefits”. Garstone pointed to the “tragedy” of Jukkan Gorge where Rio Tinto blew up a 46,000-year-old cave site as they expanded an iron ore mine. “We can’t just keep going along with the same processes that we have followed through the dirty energy revolution that have delivered a pittance to traditional owners. We need something radically different.” The planned 900MW solar farm – which if built today would be the biggest in Australia – and the hydrogen production facility, will be built on MG Corporation freehold land. The executive chair of MG Corporation, Lawford Benning, said all of the company’s activities must be “sustainable, intergenerational” and aim to “connect culture and land”. “A focus on First Nations economic empowerment has led groups like ours to reject the historic passive engagement model of receiving royalties for agreeing to give up control of our lands.” | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/hydrogen-power', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'environment/solarpower', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2023-07-17T15:00:31Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/jun/14/battery-benefits-questioned | Battery benefits questioned | Letter | Jillian Ambrose (Report, 11 June) claims that a 50MW battery system is a “significant step”. But how significant a step does not depend upon the instantaneous energy output in megawatts. Most significantly, it depends on how long it can keep this energy flow going. So the relevant measurement, to compare with rival systems, would be in MW hours (which are what we pay for in our electricity bills). David Miller (Emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at UCL), London • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/scottish-power', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/utilities', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-06-14T15:36:36Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2022/oct/14/weather-tracker-following-the-path-of-hurricane-julia | Weather tracker: following the path of Hurricane Julia | Throughout last week, a storm was brewing – Tropical Storm Julia, to be precise. Forming as a tropical depression, Julia spent its days getting stronger as it progressed from the north Atlantic through the Caribbean Sea. By Saturday evening, the National Hurricane Centre in the US had declared Julia a category 1 hurricane, defined as a cyclone with wind speeds above 74mph (119km/h). Eight hours later, at 3.15am local time, Julia made landfall in Nicaragua, battering the east coast with sustained wind speeds of 85mph and a strong storm surge. Crossing the country, Julia returned to its tropical storm status with heavy rain and 70mph winds before entering the Pacific Ocean. Julia travelled north-west along the Pacific coast of El Salvador and Honduras before making landfall and dissipating in Guatemala on Monday. Rainfall totals widely covered 75mm-100mm, with local areas approaching 150mm. In Julia’s wake, the death toll stands at 25, the majority caused by the heavy rainfall on already saturated soils, which led to floods, mudflows and landslides across Central America. The remnants of Julia have formed Tropical Storm Karl in the Gulf of Mexico, soon to head southwards towards Mexico. Meanwhile, southern and eastern Australia experienced extremely wet, windy and cold conditions this week as deep area of low pressure off the south coast pushed frigid polar air across the country. The cold front associated with the low pressure system swept eastwards throughout Wednesday, Thursday and Friday bringing intense thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. Flash flooding affected the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, with people being evacuated in some areas of each state. Rainfall totals over a 24-hour period reached more than 100mm in several towns across Victoria and New South Wales by Thursday morning. Great Lake East in Tasmania recorded 319mm in the 36 hours up to 9pm on Thursday. Further high totals were expected to be reported into Friday as the main rain band pushed through. By Friday evening the worst of the rain should have cleared away, but as floodwater drained into rivers and canals the threat of floods continued. | ['world/hurricanes', 'world/nicaragua', 'world/el-salvador', 'world/honduras', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/series/weather-tracker', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-10-14T09:58:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2010/oct/12/rspb-conservation-funding | RSPB calls for new measures to raise conservation funds | New funding – including a levy on new homes, taxes on gardeners and farmers, and payments by businesses for natural services such as clean water – is needed to meet targets to protect and restore nature, the UK's biggest conservation charity says today. Hundreds of millions of pounds a year are already needed to meet the gap between the funds and need for conservation, and this is likely to get worse after government spending cuts expected later this month, says the RSPB. The report, Financing nature in an age of austerity, is a warning that ministers cannot rely on David Cameron's "big society" to take over conservation work the government cannot afford unless new measures to raise money are brought forward. The Guardian has revealed, for example, that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has considered a proposal to sell or give away nature reserves which it can no longer afford to maintain - but charities say they cannot afford the upkeep, especially with a fall in their donations, legacies and grants. "Financing will be critical to meeting biodiversity goals in the future," says the RSPB's head of sustainable development, Martin Harper, in the report's introduction. "If we do not fund nature, we will continue to miss our environmental goals, and leave a world for our children that is more impoverished than the one we enjoyed." The UK, Europe and world leaders have all failed to meet targets to halt or slow biodiversity loss by this year, with latest figures showing one in four of the UK's more threatened species and more than 40% of endangered habitats are declining. The UK has already agreed to a new European target to stop and restore damage by the end of the new decade, and new global targets are expected at a major meeting in Nagoya, Japan later this month. The new government has promised to be the "greenest ever", and the coalition agreement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties specifically pledged halt biodiversity loss, restore habitats, protect new areas at sea, and increase environmental taxes. However a consultants' report on protecting priority species and habitats has already warned there is a shortfall in funds of £275m a year, on top of which are the expected costs of promised marine protection areas, restoring sites of special scientific interest and other programmes, says the RSPB. The charity says it has identified four areas for raising more money for conservation: • Conservation credits, under which developers would fund restoration work to "offset" damage done, or a simpler scheme to levy an average £500 one-off charge on new homes to compensate for the "land take"; • New taxes on specifically damaging practices such as peat removal (which alone could raise £66m-£165m a year assuming gardeners did not switch to other products), and fertilisers and pesticides; • Encouraging more companies, individuals and other non-government organisations to pay for conservation, using a range of measures from regulations and eco-labels to public education; • Getting more private organisations to pay for "ecosystem services", such as a company paying farmers to use fewer chemicals to reduce the cost of clean water. Some ideas could be enacted quickly - such as new taxes and regulations - while others might need some years to develop, such as private finance for ecosystem services, Harper told the Guardian. Schemes such as conservation off-sets, which Conservatives have previously supported, would need to be compulsory, or take-up would not be high enough, said Harper. The government's "rhetoric" on conservation had been very encouraging, said Harper, as well as the statement by environment secretary Caroline Spelman that biodiversity would be her top priority. However he acknowledged that some of the suggestions would be unpopular with elements in the Conservative party who wanted less state intervention, and given concern about new taxes in a recession. Individuals though would be "very much led by the regulatory climate and by the way in which businesses are operating", and most businesses, in turn, would need more encouragement to take care of and nurture natural resources like clean air and water the mostly enjoy for free, said Harper. "We can ask the public to do more, we hope for that, but if that's not sufficient we need new [government] incentives," he added. | ['environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/water', 'environment/farming', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliettejowit', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-10-12T06:00:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
weather/2009/jun/20/weatherwatch-radford-weather | Weatherwatch | In 1646, an English party, crossing the Alps, fell into a costly argument with some resentful villagers, and "glad we were to escape as we did. This was cold entertainment, but our journey after was colder, the rest of the way having ben as they told us cover'd with snow since the Creation; no man remembered it to be without; and because by the frequent snowing the tracts are continualy fill'd up, we passe by severall tall masts set up by guide travellers, so as for many miles they stand in ken of one another like to our beacons," records the Diary of John Evelyn, edited by William Bray in 1879. "In some cases where there is a cleft between two mountains the snow fills it up, whilst the bottome being thaw'd leaves as it were a frozen arch of snow, and that so hard as to beare the greatest weight; for as it snows often, so it perpetualy freezes, of which I was so sensible that it flaw'd the very skin of my face." There is drama when a pack horse slides down "a frightfull precipice" and a "choleriq cavalier" is all for shooting the poor beast on the spot. The horse slides a great distance but the travellers find it unharmed much further on, and haul it free. "With lusty rubbing and chafing, he began to move," says Evelyn. "All this way, affrited with the disaster of this horse, we trudg'd on foot, driving our mules before us; sometimes we fell, sometimes we slid thro' this ocean of snow, which after October is impassable." | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/timradford', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-06-19T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2022/jul/29/england-begin-commonwealth-games-netball-title-defence-with-easy-victory | England begin Commonwealth Games netball title defence with easy victory | England shook off early jitters to get their Commonwealth Games title defence off to a winning start with a 74-22 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on Friday. A nervous start, marred by several shooting errors, were eventually brushed aside as the Roses found their rhythm in front of an approving home crowd. Shooting at just 43% in the first quarter, Helen Housby, who scored the winning shot in 2018, looked off the beat as the post repeatedly denied her in the opening stages. Forced to turn to the slightly more reliable hands of goal shooter Jo Harten, the continuing flow of gains from the Roses’ defending end enabled England to lead 15-6 at the end of the quarter. Upsetting a home team with a title to defend was always going to be a tough ask for the Calypso Girls, who are without two of their best shooters in Samantha Wallace and Khalifa McCollin for the tournament. But the mountain got even harder for them to climb when a resolute Roses returned to court for the second quarter ready to persuade anxious onlookers they were not overawed by the occasion. An eight-goal goal run at the start of the next 15 minutes set the tone for the rest of the game as England wrestled control away from Trinidad and Tobago who, to their credit, were unrelenting in disrupting the Roses’ attacking structures. But their own sloppiness became their downfall as England’s defenders continued to capitalise on the loose balls falling their way. Starting goalkeeper Geva Mentor and local hero Layla Guscoth began by keeping their opposition shooters to single digits at the end of each quarter, which was a feat dutifully maintained by those who came on to replace them. Taking advantage of the growing scoreline gap in England’s favour head coach Jess Thirlby rolled out the changes, giving all 12 of her squad a chance to get a feel for the court and the home crowd. It was ultimately an unsurprising decision given the edginess that defined the first 10 minutes. Among the substitutions it was Commonwealth debutant Eleanor Cardwell who emphatically threw her hand up for a starting seven position with her ice-cold composure. As soon as she entered the court the shooter took on the bulk of the scoring load and with lethal accuracy; putting up all 30 of her shots on the first time of asking. Cardwell’s performance will leave something for Thirlby to chew on as her clean sheet sits in stark comparison to that of Harten and Housby, who finished the game on 83% and 67% respectively. But when it came to their nervy starts the England coach maintained her confidence in her players. “On balance, it’s a good start. It’s a great settler,” said Thirlby after the game. “It would be easy to get derailed by a few uncharacteristic missed shots from Jo and Helen. They’re not rookies, they’ll fix that up. “Overall, we’ll be pleased but a little bit of healthy dissatisfaction as well so that keeps us spurred on to elevate that performance. It was brilliant to get all the girls out. We had five Commonwealth debutants there.” Mentor, who is competing in her sixth Games, added: “We were leaking a lot of energy just with nerves and anticipation. But it was great to get out there.” England have six more games to win if they are to become back-to-back Commonwealth champions, starting with Malawi on Saturday. | ['sport/commonwealth-games-2022', 'sport/commonwealth-games', 'sport/england-netball-team', 'sport/netball', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/chloe-merrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/england-netball-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-07-29T14:44:40Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/2020/dec/01/three-quarters-of-australians-back-target-of-net-zero-by-2030-guardian-essential-poll-shows | Three-quarters of Australians back target of net zero by 2030, Guardian Essential poll shows | Public support for action on climate change is higher now than it was at the peak of the catastrophic bushfires last summer, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, which shows a strong majority supporting a net zero target by 2050. The latest survey of 1,034 voters has 81% support for the Morrison government adopting a net zero emissions target by 2050 – which is a 10 point increase in the level of voter support for the policy recorded back in January. The survey suggests a majority of voters would favour stronger climate action earlier, with 75% of the sample supportive of setting a net zero target by 2030 rather than mid-century, which is an 11 point increase since January. Public support is also there to ban political donations from fossil fuel companies (72% support, up from 62% in January), and 87% of the sample say they would support accelerating the development of new industries and jobs that are powered by renewable energy (up from 81% during the fires). The survey also indicates a majority would support a policy of requiring mining companies to fund bushfire hazard reduction (80% support compared with 68% support in January). While support for adopting the net zero target by mid-century is higher among people who identify as Labor and Greens voters in the sample, that policy is also supported by 75% of people identifying themselves as Coalition supporters. The survey indicates Australian women support meaningful climate action more than men, especially regarding setting a zero-carbon pollution target for 2030 (81% to 69%) and setting the same target for 2050 (83% to 78%). While the survey suggests climate action in Australia is now a cause with strong majority support, some issues remain controversial. Australians remain divided about whether we should be opening new coalmines (49% support new mines and 51% oppose them) and whether the fossil fuel industry should get taxpayer subsidies (42% support and 58% oppose this). Public attitudes on coal are more static than on climate action. Compared with the sentiment captured in Guardian Essential earlier this year, more people now think the government should let the coalmining industry and coal-fired power plants continue operating as long as they are profitable – but not subsidise them or support the expansion of the industry (47% to 52%). In February, 32% of the sample thought the government should be working to shut down mines and coal-fired power plants as soon as possible, and that’s remained steady (31% in November 2020) within the poll’s margin of error, which is plus or minus three points. When it comes to power prices, voters were also asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “It doesn’t matter how electricity is generated, as long as prices don’t go up, and the supply is secure”. Nearly half of the sample agreed with the statement (47%) and about a third (29%) disagreed. Men were more likely to strongly agree with the statement than women (30% to 18% respectively). Coalition voters were also more likely to agree compared with other voting cohorts (55% to 43% Labor, 23% Greens and 48% minor party voters). Voters were asked questions about their support for climate action in this fortnight’s survey because the Morrison government is starting to warm up gradually to the idea of net zero – a noticeable shift in language that accompanied Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election in the United States. For much of 2020, the Coalition ignored persistent entreaties from environmentalists and major business groups to adopt a target of net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, and to use the economic recovery from Covid-19 to lock in the transition to low emissions. The prime minister never ruled out adopting a net zero target but created the impression the government wasn’t interested – an impression reinforced by the government’s declaration that it would pursue a “gas-led recovery” after the pandemic. But Morrison now says Australia wants to “reach net zero emissions as quickly as possible” – although he is continuing to say he won’t adopt the target unless he can explain the pathway and quantify the costs. As well as warming up on net zero, Morrison signalled to business leaders last week his government may not need carryover credits from the Kyoto era to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target, because he was “confident our policies will get this job done”. Official government emissions projections released in December last year found the country was not on track to meet its 2030 target submitted under the Paris climate agreement unless it used the credits, and Australia has been criticised internationally for using Kyoto-era accounting to meet its commitments rather than concrete abatement. But Morrison’s positioning ahead of the release of new emissions projections this month suggests the updated forecasts will show the 2030 target can be reached without carryovers. Government figures released on Monday showed Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 3% in the year to June because of the Covid-19 shutdown, the ongoing impact of drought and an influx of cheap solar and wind power. | ['australia-news/series/the-guardian-essential-report', 'australia-news/essential-poll', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-11-30T16:30:01Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2019/aug/27/brazilian-amazon-deforestation-surges-to-break-august-records | Brazilian Amazon deforestation surges to break August records | Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has hit the highest August level since the current monitoring system began in 2015, underscoring concerns about the weakening of forest protection under President Jair Bolsonaro. The world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink lost 1,114.8 sq km (430 sq miles) – equivalent to the area of Hong Kong – in the first 26 days of this month, according to preliminary data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency. The data does not include damage caused by fires currently sweeping parts of the Amazon. After an even greater surge in July, the country has now experienced the two worst months recorded by the Deter-B satellite system, which was put in place in 2015 to provide short-term alerts to forest rangers. Scientists warn this year’s clearcutting of forest is now likely to pass 10,000 sq km for the first time in a decade, raising concerns that Brazil is slipping back towards the dark years of 1995-2004. After annual peaks of over 25,000 sq km around the turn of the century, the government put in place tighter controls, stricter penalties and more efficient monitoring that helped slow deforestation by 80%. This success won Brazil credit around the world as an environmental leader, but the gains have steadily been eroded in the past five years and accelerated rapidly in the last four months. Since taking power at the start of the year, Bolsonaro has downgraded environment protection efforts and made clear that he supports miners, farmers and ranchers above indigenous communities and other forest dwellers. Last month, he fired the head of the National Institute for Space Research, saying the deforestation figures were misleading. Environmentalists say these actions are consistent with the president’s campaign promises to open up the Amazon. “The August data from Deter is hardly surprising,” said Claudio Angelo of Climate Observatory, an NGO coalition of environmental groups. “The current Brazilian government was elected precisely with the promise of dismantling the policies and governance structures that prevent deforestation, and they are duly delivering on it.” “Brazil has since 2004 had a plan for preventing and controlling deforestation in the Amazon. That plan is locked up in a drawer at the environment ministry, which shut down the office in charge of implementing it.” The Deter satellite figures are updated every few days and are considered preliminary, but they are usually a guide to the longer-term trends. More detailed annual figures are released towards the end of the year, after the National Institute for Space Research has calculated data from the more powerful Prodes satellite system. While the deforestation data is only for clearcutting and does not include fire damage, the two issues are often intertwined. Forests near cleared areas tend to be drier and more vulnerable to flames. Farmers and speculators also often use fire to clear land, either to raise its value or to prepare it for crops. Politics and government policy are not the only drivers of forest destruction. US president Donald Trump’s trade war with China has also added to the pressure on the forest because Brazil has made up much of the gap in soy exports. The European Union’s recent deal with the South American trade bloc Mercosur is also likely to increase demand for beef, much of which is from cattle raised on land in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-27T16:14:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/2020/jul/27/resistance-to-the-environmental-sect-is-a-cornerstone-of-bolsonaro-rule-brazil | Resistance to the 'environmental sect' is a cornerstone of Bolsonaro's rule | It is not just meat companies in Brazil that are under pressure over rising deforestation and widespread fires in the Amazon. The government has been forced to react after international investors and CEOs of Brazilian companies have protested, and now its own environmental officials have joined the chorus. But its response is hobbled by a deep distrust of global heating, fed by a far-right ideology reluctant to admit that the climate emergency has a human cause. Brazil’s foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, has warned that climate change was a plot by “cultural Marxists” and President Jair Bolsonaro made a campaign promise to pull Brazil out of the Paris climate accord before reluctantly backing off. The international community has fought back, with Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Norway’s Storebrand Asset Management, leading a group of 29 investors with $3.7tn under management who warned that rising deforestation and the dismantling of environment agencies was “creating widespread uncertainty about the conditions for investing”. Virtual meetings with Brazil’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, environment minister Ricardo Salles and leaders of the Brazilian congress have since been described as “positive”. “The vice-president expressed that the government is committed to keeping deforestation to a historically minimum level,” Saugestad said. “This represents a start of the dialogue.” But he added: “Of course we need to see action on the ground.” Mourão runs Brazil’s Amazon Council and heads up an army operation to counter deforestation and fires. He is sometimes presented as a more moderate counterpoint to the fire and brimstone of his boss, Bolsonaro. But in July last year, Mourão told the Guardian during an event that climate change was “being discussed … if this is a seasonal change, as has already happened in the history of Planet Earth, or if it is something that came to stay”. Salles called the climate crisis “secondary” in 2018. In a cabinet meeting this April – a video of which was released by a supreme court judge – Salles recommended the government use media attention on the Covid-19 pandemic to weaken environmental regulations – exactly what environmentalists had argued the government was already doing. Last September, during an interview with foreign journalists, finance minister Paulo Guedes told the Guardian that “there is still a precarious scientific basis” to climate change science. Such radical views do not sit well with everyone in that group of 29 nervous international investors. “All countries will have to react to the way the international investment community sees things,” said Eric Pedersen, head of responsible investment at Nordea Asset Management. “If that is really what they think then they are really quite alone in the international community.” Bolsonaro is unlikely to care very much. He has long made controversial statements about the Amazon and what he sees as European interest in exploiting, not preserving it. He shows no signs of moderating his position. Last July, he responded to rising deforestation by sacking the head of Brazil’s Space Research Institute, the government body in charge of monitoring deforestation. After the highest number of fires since 2010 raged through the Amazon last August and caused an international storm, Bolsonaro falsely accused actor Leonardo DiCaprio of giving money to set it on fire. He said Brazil was being unfairly criticised over rising deforestation because of commercial interests, an accusation he provided no evidence for. “Europe is an environmental sect,” he said. Agriculture minister Tereza Cristina repeated the accusation the same month. “There is an orchestration there abroad against Brazil,” she said, citing tensions over the trade deal between Mercosur, the South American trade bloc, and the European Union, which countries like Austria have signalled they will not ratify. The Brazilian government does have a plan to fight deforestation, as Cristina noted. It involves regularising the land titles of as many as 97,000 small properties, some of which have been there, she argued, since Brazil’s military dictatorship encouraged Amazon migration in the 1970s. Mourão told foreign reporters on 15 May that land ownership confusion was a major cause of deforestation. “[If] we don’t know who owns the land, we can’t bring them to justice,” he said. But environmentalists disagree. They say regularising so many land titles, many of which were the result of invasions of public or protected land, means rewarding land grabbing. And current legislation already allows land occupied until 2011 to be regularised, said Brenda Brito, a land specialist and researcher at the Amazon non-profit group Imazon. In fact, Brazil already knows who is behind much of its Amazon deforestation, she said – even though many fines are ignored. A study published in May by MapBiomas – a non-profit group of universities, NGOs and technology companies that studies the Amazon – found over three quarters of deforestation alerts in 2019 overlapped with property with an owner registered on a self-declaratory system. The government argues that developing the Amazon will provide jobs and prevent people struggling to escape poverty from destroying the forest for wood, minerals and land. In May, Mourão said Brazil needed international help to develop into a “new economic model for the 21st century. It has to include biodiversity, innovation and a great deal of technology to reach its full potential,” he said. Last Tuesday, over 600 employees of Ibama wrote an open letter to the organisation’s president, Mourão, as well as the president of Brazil’s supreme court and congress leaders, stating: “Even though other government measures to generate jobs and income in the Amazon region can’t be left aside, without firm action against environmental crimes, the destruction rates of the Amazon forest will not decrease.” Staff at the agency are banned from talking to the media. Key officials have been sacked for essentially doing their jobs and attacked by Bolsonaro for burning equipment belonging to loggers and miners as they are legally mandated to do. | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/meat-industry', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'environment/food', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/dom-phillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-07-27T14:00:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/jan/22/leeds-loses-out-on-extra-government-money-for-flood-defences | Leeds loses out on extra government money for flood defences | The city of Leeds, submerged by devastating floods in December, has failed to win any new funding for better flood defences after environment secretary Liz Truss met the city’s MPs. A Guardian analysis of planned flood defences in Leeds shows that a £180m scheme that was delayed and heavily downsized following government funding cuts in 2011 covered areas of the city submerged by recent flooding. A smaller £45m plan is now going ahead but unlike the original scheme it does not cover the hard-hit Kirkstall Road area and will not be completed until 2017. Furthermore, the new plan is only intended to protect against heavy rainfall expected once in 75 years, not the more extreme one-in-200 year event under the original plan. Truss met the MP’s on Wednesday and Rachel Reeves, Labour MP for Leeds West, said: “It was just incredibly frustrating.” Reeves had asked for £3m for a feasibility study into a larger project and then a commitment to building it. “[Truss] said she needs to go away and find the money, but there’s no money in her budget, or the Environment Agency’s, to do a feasibility study, let alone a flood defence scheme at the moment,” Reeves told the Yorkshire Post. “We came out of the meeting with a commitment but I could say I’m going to take someone for lunch, but if I haven’t got the money to pay for it, it’s a vague commitment.” The Yorkshire Post’s editorial said: “The betrayal of Leeds is unforgivable.” After the meeting, Truss said: “I held a very constructive meeting with Leeds MPs to discuss what more can be done to protect the city and surrounding areas. We are fully committed to ensuring Leeds is properly protected from flooding. In the light of recent events, the Environment Agency will start work immediately with local partners on scoping work on further protection for the wider area which will lead to a full feasibility study.” Kerry McCarthy, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, said: “This is an embarrassment for David Cameron. His government failed to prepare and protect against climate change and, despite his claim that ‘money was no object’, his government cut funding for flood protection schemes. That short-termism has cost Leeds and other areas dearly. The government must drop its complacency over the need for climate change adaptation.” The Environment Agency (EA) spends the money allocated to it by the government. A Guardian analysis of EA plans over the last six years reveals how the planned Leeds scheme was delayed and downgraded. The EA plan for 2010-11, based on funding set in the final year of the last Labour government, indicated that £58m towards the £180m scheme would be spent by 2014-15. The scheme was intended to boost flood protection across a broad swathe of Leeds, encompassing 12 postal districts: LS1, LS2, LS3, LS4, LS5, LS9, LS10, LS11, LS12, LS13, LS18 and LS26. But capital spending on flood defences was cut by 27% by David Cameron’s government in 2011-12 and the scheme was put on hold until 2013-14. In that year, Leeds City Council agreed to make a multi-million pound contribution and a new smaller scheme began, with the EA spending £7.8m that year on embankments at Woodlesford, to the east of the city centre. The project was then estimated at £50.5m. Another £15.2m was spent the following year, 2014-15, with the end date set as 2017. The EA pending plan for the current year, 2015-16, now sets the project cost at £45m. The parts of the original 2010 scheme that would have provided protection to the Kirkstall road area would now cost a further £60m but is not part of the hard-pressed EA’s current plans which run to 2021. The £45m scheme that is going ahead will run for 4.3km along the river Aire between Leeds train station and Thwaite Mills, involving weirs and embankments. Once completed, Leeds City Council says it will protect the city centre, 3,000 homes and 500 businesses against flood events expected once every 75 years, as well as protecting 300 acres of development land and 22,000 jobs. Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Guy Shrubsole said: “Cuts to flood defences are a false economy – prevention is better than cure, and costs less than mopping up after every flood strikes. It’s disturbing that, as climate change worsens flood risk, defence schemes like these are being downgraded to offer lower levels of protection. The government needs to fundamentally rethink its flood defence strategy.” Earlier in January, Greg Mulholland, the Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West reminded Richard Benyon, who was flooding minister when the original £180m Leeds scheme was cut, that Benyon had called it “a Rolls-Royce” scheme “where a reasonably priced family car might serve some of the purpose”. Mulholland said: “Sadly, [Benyon] was wrong at the time and now we are paying the price. The damage done to Leeds by not having a scheme is considerably more than it would have cost.” But Benyon accused Mulholland of “historical revisionism”. He said: “The [£180m] scheme would have eaten into the budget of whoever was in government, and taken flood defences away from other communities.” | ['environment/flooding', 'uk/leeds', 'world/natural-disasters', 'politics/liz-truss', 'environment/environment-agency', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'politics/politics', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-01-22T14:27:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2011/mar/22/poverty-matters-roundup-japan-earthquake | Japan earthquake, World Water Day and Libya | Liz Ford | The devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan and caused panic in surrounding areas has been the top news item on the Global development site. Three days after the quake, on 11 March, we reported that 91 countries had promised aid to the Japanese government (the number increased daily), and published details of which NGOs had launched emergency appeals for donations. Whether NGOs should have launched these appeals was debated on our Talk point later that week. We had a report from Tuvalu on how the low-lying Pacific island state responded to a tsunami warning following the earthquake. The expected tsunami did not hit, but the warning prompted debate about how the county would have coped if it had. We also reported on the concerns raised among Asian states that the earthquake would result in Japan cutting its aid budget. And on our development data page, we pulled out figures on the impact of major natural disasters over the past decade from the 2010 World Disasters Report. Elsewhere on the site To mark World Water Day, Sophie Trémolet blogs on the importance of wise investment if we want to improve access to water supplies and improve sanitation around the world. Following the UN's authorisation of military action against Libya, Ross Mountain argues that governments' humanitarian efforts must remain impartial, while Jonathan Glennie blogs on how military intervention could help development efforts in the country. Meanwhile, John Vidal travels to the remote region of Gambella in Ethiopia to speak to foreign investors who are exploiting opportunities to lease land from the government. Coming up on the site Twenty years after the first camp was set up in Dadaab, in Kenya, we'll be looking at life in the world's largest refugee complex in words and pictures. We'll be featuring in a gallery some of the inspirational women whose pictures were uploaded in our Flickr group, where we collected messages for UN Women. Next week we will be recording our monthly podcast, which will look at the hot topic of microfinance. Look out for other blogs and features on the subject. And we'll be blogging on a new report, Finding Frames, initiated by Oxfam and supported by the UK Department for International Development, exploring ways to re-engage the UK public with global poverty. The report is due to be published on Monday. Multimedia Video: Ethiopia's land rush: Feeding the world John Vidal reports from Ethiopia's remote Gambella region, where foreign investors are pouring in to exploit land the government has cleared of people Gallery: India launches massive campaign to eradicate polio Finally, polio may be driven out of India. In just five days in late January, 2.5 million government workers, assisted by foreign NGOs, visited 68m homes and vaccinated 172 million children. Just 42 cases were recorded in 2010 – a drop of 94% in a year. Gallery: Japan earthquake: Relief efforts begin International teams help in Japan's post-earthquake and tsunami rescue and relief work What you said: Some of the best comments from our readers Commenting on Madeleine Bunting's blog on "cash on delivery" models of delivering aid, albertcornercrew wrote: Does it not show just how opaque the money trail is? A very simple idea will become obscured with bureaucracy, obfuscation and possibly corruption and misappropriation of the funds. On Misha Hussain's blog on the call by Bangladesh's midwives to get more men into delivery rooms, Mauryan wrote: I fully agree that men have to participate through the whole process, all the way through child birth and beyond. It will help change their minds and will help women in the long run. On Claire Melamed's blog looking at ways to find out what poor people value, SNeppo wrote: I hail any initiative that focuses on more effectiveness of sustainable development. But I keep wondering why in the developed world there's such a fixation on helping the poor in underdeveloped countries. I'm sure endeavours to do so have improved the life of many (individuals), as you say. But what have been the effects on a larger scale? Highlights from the blogosphere Africa is on the brink of a take-off claims Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank's chief economist for Africa in a recent video post. As well as canvassing opinion on whether now is the time to be optimistic about Africa's development prospects, he also wants feedback on the use of video in his blog. Duncan Green reviews Charles Kenny's optimistic new book on why global development is succeeding. Green describes the book as "good 'pop economics'", with killer facts, but suggests Kenny "goes over the top in places". Women for Women founder Zainab Salbi looks back over the last 100 years to see what's been achieved for women's rights. | ['global-development/series/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'profile/lizford'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-03-22T13:19:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/blog/2011/apr/19/climate-change-act-green-coalition | Threat to Climate Change Act is final nail in coalition's green credentials | Luciana Berger | It is nearly five years to the day since David Cameron posed for his photo opportunity with the huskies at the Arctic Research Station at Ny Alesund in Norway. He told us then to "vote blue, go green". That the government is open to scrapping all 227 of the UK's environmental protections shows just how far his green mask has slipped. Among the safeguards under threat as part of the 'red tape challenge' is the Climate Change Act, the first of its kind in the world. Introduced by Labour, it places a duty on the secretary of state to ensure that the net UK carbon account for greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than in 1990. The last Labour government put at the heart of its plans for Britain's future a transition to a low-carbon economy. The Climate Change Act was vital to that strategy. The binding targets ensure that departments set out a clear roadmap for carbon reduction, and this in turn gives businesses the certainty they need to invest. The prime minister says that the process is about scrapping legislation that is a burden to industry. If that's the case then why is the act included on the list at all? After all, the emission targets have had support from across the business community; the CBI said it combined "the two things we really need: long-term clarity on policy direction and flexibility in its delivery". It's why 10 of the UK's largest firms recently wrote to Cameron urging him to take up the recommendations made by the committee on climate change to extend the UK's reduction targets beyond 2020. Cameron says the responsibility will be on ministers to fight to save individual legislation. This is extremely worrying. There are already grave concerns that energy secretary Chris Huhne is becoming the most ineffective minister in Whitehall. Why hasn't he already made a public statement in support of the act and given the low-carbon sector the reassurance it needs? A secretary of state must be a strong voice around the cabinet table, pushing their priorities over those of other departments. After nearly a year in the job, Chris Huhne's record is looking less than impressive. He lost his fight with George Osborne over when the green investment bank will be able to borrow, meaning that green businesses will have to make do with a government fund until at least 2015. This will only exacerbate Britain's fall under this government's watch, from third to 13th in world green technologies investment, as was highlighted in the recent report from the Pew Environment Group. He threw the solar industry into chaos after announcing an early review of feed-in tariffs and slashed incentives for community solar projects. Carbon capture and storage projects two, three and four are delayed. Worries are being raised over his plans for electricity market reform. The energy bill is significantly behind schedule in parliament. And now he's allowed the prime minister to put our entire carbon reduction strategy up for review. Climate sceptics are lurking ready for any excuse to derail our green future. The Campaign to Repeal the Climate Change Act group has already launched a petition. If the prime minister wants to have any green credentials, he needs to come out and tell us that the Climate Change Act is here to stay. He has exempted issues of national security from his review. In 2009, William Hague argued that climate change was an issue of national security, so why isn't that the case now? The fact that Cameron is prepared to consider abandoning legally binding targets tells us what we already know; his claim to be 'the greenest government ever' is completely false. • Luciana Berger MP is shadow minister for energy and climate change. | ['environment/green-economy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/davidcameron', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-04-19T15:42:24Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2022/sep/21/gunnedah-residents-criticise-flood-response-as-region-braces-for-more-rain | Gunnedah residents criticise flood response as region braces for more rain | Residents of Gunnedah on the New South Wales Liverpool Plains are appalled by the lack of preparation, warnings and response from authorities to Sunday’s Namoi River flood, as they brace for another deluge. Julie Shields, who lives on the north-west end of Bloomfield Street, started the Gunnedah Flood Information and Support Facebook group last December, after being disappointed in the response to Gunnedah’s November 2021 flood. On the Saturday before this week’s flood, she said: “I heard the SES was door-knocking, but we didn’t see them once.” “The only time I saw them was Saturday afternoon, they stopped up from our house in a ute. “They didn’t get out and ask, ‘Are you all right?’ – they just turned around and left.” Shields lives with her mother, Kim Shields, who has been tracking local flood levels ever since she experienced her first flood, a month after moving to Gunnedah in 1984. Kim Shields knows that if the Namoi River levels reach 7.5 metres, their block will be flooded. This week’s flood peaked at 8.16 metres on Sunday morning. “We had our first flood in July 1984,” she said. “And from then I thought, well, I’ll write down what’s happened.” Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter The Shields criticised Water NSW for what they said was poor and inaccurate information on stored water levels, as well as keeping the upstream Keepit Dam at capacity even after the last flood. Guardian Australia searched Water NSW’s real-time data page on 20 September and found Keepit Dam’s capacity was showing as 101% on Saturday 17 September. “We probably need to look into Water NSW first; the handling of dams, why they need to keep them at 100%,” Julie Shields said. In a statement, Water NSW said it “had reduced Keepit Dam to 96.6% of capacity in preparation for the larger-than-forecast rain event expected last Thursday, even with continued inflows from previous rainfall”, saying releases did not exceed 30GL/day while taking inflow of 45GL/day. According to Water NSW, it continued releases during this week’s flood, but its modelling shows 70% of the 102GL/day flow at Gunnedah came from “naturally occurring downstream tributaries”, and it said it is working the with Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) to monitor weather and project dam inflows. Julie Shields wanted to restart the conversation on Gunnedah getting a levee system, a plan that has been discussed since 2000. Downstream Wee-Waa, with its existing levee, was comparatively unaffected by the floods. “We only need half a levee just to hug the river,” she said, adding it could direct flood waters to uninhabited areas around the town’s sale yards. Erin and Michael Edmunds live on Talibah Street and were stranded for four days without running water during the November floods. Michael Edmunds, a full-time carer to two intellectually disabled sons, was livid the SES acting deputy zone command, Craig Ronan, told regional newspaper the Northern Daily Leader that no homes had been affected on Sunday. The Edmunds’ house had a small amount of water in a front room, but a house in town belonging to another family member was inundated. “Sunday morning, to see the story, ‘Gunnedah Comes Through Major Flood Unscathed’ – that was offensive,” Michael said. “I just saw red when I saw that article. What a joke. Like, they ignored us after the last flood, didn’t give us accurate information.” The Leader later edited the article after being contacted by the Edmunds, and issued an apology. Michael said the SES drove down their street and issued a warning to two neighbours, both in elevated houses, but didn’t warn his family or other residents. “They didn’t come here,” he said. “They drove down to the street here, turned around and went back to town.” Erin said she called the SES hotline and was told they were not at risk. The Edmunds are still waiting on assistance promised to them for the November floods when the water in their house was “knee high”, but state efforts seem to be focused on Lismore, they say, and the $1,000 assistance payment only applies to floods after February 2022. NSW SES western zone commander, chief Supt David Monk, said the SES has been providing support to the Gunnedah community throughout the current flood, with volunteers door-knocking, sandbagging and responding to all requests for assistance. “Since the last storm season, NSW SES has implemented a number of improvements,” a spokesperson said. “The NSW SES has trained additional incident management personnel and has increased its surge capacity for call taking during emergencies. “The NSW SES is undertaking a transition to the new nationwide Australian warning system, bringing the agency in line with a nationally consistent framework for emergency warnings.” The Shields and Edmunds families are braced for further flooding, with the BoM predicting a 100% chance of rain on Wednesday. Tom Plevey is a freelance writer based in Tamworth Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community | ['australia-news/series/the-rural-network', 'campaign/email/the-rural-network', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/series/rural-network', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-rural-network'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-09-21T06:19:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/aug/03/magnolia-species-lost-to-science-for-97-years-rediscovered-in-haiti | Magnolia species lost to science for 97 years rediscovered in Haiti | A conservation team has rediscovered a native magnolia tree in a forest in Haiti for the first time since it was lost to science in 1925. Boasting pure white flowers and uniquely shaped leaves, the northern Haiti magnolia (Magnolia emarginata) was found originally in the forest of Morne Colombo, which has since been destroyed by deforestation. It was considered endangered and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, and its discovery has sparked new hope for the potential rewilding of Haiti’s forests. As a result of the rapid decline of forest space – only 1% of the country’s original forest remains – many native plants now only grow in inaccessible mountains or ravines. Suspecting that the magnolia could survive in elevated habitats, a team from the Haiti National Trust travelled to Massif du Nord, Haiti’s longest mountain range, in search of the elusive plant. On the third day of the expedition, the team spotted one tree and took the first photos ever captured of the plant. They soon discovered 16 flowering trees in various stages of development, along with juvenile plants in the early phases of growth. These discoveries, they say, suggest that even more of the species could be found in the area. Once they had identified the trees, they collected samples for DNA analysis and plan to return in late autumn to collect seeds. The Haiti National Trust has successfully cultivated four other native magnolia types across the island of Hispaniola, which also includes the Dominican Republic. They hope to use their experience to help local communities contribute to restoration efforts and eventually start a nursery. Eladio Fernández, communications director for the Haiti National Trust and leader of the expedition, shared the optimism that the discovery of this once-lost species has ignited. He said: “Despite the bleak state of the country’s degraded forests, it still harbours species like this that are found nowhere else in the world, giving us the opportunity to save them.” | ['environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/haiti', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-03T09:22:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/2021/sep/27/paraguay-severe-drought-depletes-river | Paraguay on the brink as historic drought depletes river, its life-giving artery | In the shadow of towering grain silos that line the bank of the River Paraná, South America’s second-longest waterway, Lucas Krivenchuk stands watching workers rush to load a barge with soybeans. “Twelve barges had to leave today, but only six will make it out: there’s no time, the water’s dropping too fast,” said Krivenchuk, general manager of the Trociuk private port in southern Paraguay. “It’s the first time that any have left in two months.” The Paraná River, which winds through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, has dropped to its lowest levels in 77 years as a severe drought that began in late 2019 continues to punish the region. Experts say the climate crisis and deforestation may be intensifying the phenomenon. The river experienced a temporary rise as Brazil released water from hydroelectric reservoirs for urgent electricity production but levels are rapidly falling. The drought has threatened water supplies in Argentina, driven up energy prices in Brazil, and helped drive rampant wildfires across the region. Paraguay, which has no coast and relies on its rivers for countless social, environmental, and commercial services, faces dire strain. “Paraguay is a landlocked country, and the river is an artery in its body that it depends on to live,” said Krivenchuk. Juan Carlos Muñoz, director of Paraguay’s National Shipping and Ports Administration Body (ANNP) said river transport is central to an economy primarily based on genetically modified soy exports. “We export commodities with zero added value: totally raw materials. River transport is by far the cheapest way of reaching international markets,” he said. The world’s third-largest river fleet moves 96% of Paraguay’s international imports and exports along two great waterways, the Paraná and the Paraguay, to and from ports in Argentina and Uruguay. The Paraguay River, which flows past Muñoz’s office in the capital Asunción, has dropped to its lowest ever level, further than the previous all-time low reached in 2020. With costs escalating, Muñoz said the shipping sector faces a loss of 20% of revenue – $100 million – for the second year running despite dredging initiatives. The government – which declared a state of emergency on the Paraná in July – has already raised the alarm over rising prices of imported products. Roger Monte Domecq, hydrology professor at the National University of Asunción, said that while cyclical droughts are normal in the Paraná Basin, there is increasing evidence that human-driven factors intensify the crisis. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that there’s an impact on the climate, which affects conditions all across the region,” he said. Monte Domecq said more studies were required to ascertain the exact impacts of global heating and extremely high levels of deforestation and land-use change seen across the region, especially in the Amazon where the water cycle which feeds precipitation in the Paraná Basin is being disrupted. The CAF–Development Bank of Latin America lists Paraguay as the country most vulnerable to the climate emergency in South America. It has also seen enormous deforestation. Only 7% of the Atlantic forest that until recent decades covered the country’s east remains, and the western Chaco forest faces some of the world’s highest deforestation rates. Deforestation has principally been caused by state-propelled soybean and cattle ranching booms; both sectors that are now struggling to export their products downriver. And there is no end to the drought in sight, said Monte Domecq: no significant rains are forecast for coming months and the weather phenomenon known as La Niña – which brings dry weather to the Paraná Basin – is looming. Downriver from Port Trociuk in the fishing town of Ayolas, fisherman Claudio Domínguez described excruciating economic difficulties for ordinary families as he gathered bait in the shallows. “There are barely any fish … really nothing. It’s been like this for four months,” he said. Fishers are making ever-longer journeys – involving escalating fuel costs – in the hope of a catch. Just upriver from Ayolas, production of electricity at the mighty Yacyretá dam, which Paraguay shares with Argentina, is also affected. Yacyretá and Itaipú – an even larger dam on the Paraná shared with Brazil – produce almost all Paraguayan electricity and according to the government, Itaipú has come close to shutting down due to the low waters. Mercedes Canese, energy consultant and former deputy energy minister, said that, while Paraguay is not suffering energy shortages – it uses only a small portion of its energy from the two giant dams – it is losing an important part of $1.57bn in yearly exports of excess energy to its giant neighbours. And as the water shortages cause Brazilian energy prices to soar, many Paraguayans say that a historical injustice is being deepened. Paraguay is obliged by treaty to sell excess energy from the Itaipú dam to Brazil at cost price, a condition that economist Miguel Carter calculates cost Paraguay $75.4bn from 1985 to 2018. “Prices in Brazil are sky-high, but Paraguay can’t sell its energy at market prices,” Canese said. “We’re talking about a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.” On Ayolas’s beach, Claudio Domínguez points to a wet line in the sand indicating the Paraná’s level just hours before. He cleans his bait and hurriedly prepares for an all-night fishing trip that he hopes will not be unrewarded – as so many others have been. In the town square, a singer serenades the crowd with Oración del Remanso, a folk song about Paraná fishers, during a festival that evening: “Christ of the fishing nets, don’t abandon us.” “Everything depends on the river. We all depend on it,” Domínguez said. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/paraguay', 'environment/drought', 'world/americas', 'environment/environment', 'environment/water', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/william-costa', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-09-27T09:00:36Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/charities-social-enterprise-invest-responsibly-trust-bannatyne | Charities and social enterprises: invest responsibly or lose public trust | It will be forever known as the Bannatyne Moment. In December 2013 the BBC's Panorama looked at investments in the charity sector. Comic Relief was among a small number of big charities which invested its reserves in funds linked to alcohol, arms and tobacco. One of the most memorable scenes saw Dragons' Den's Duncan Bannatyne doorstepped by the makers of the programme. Bannatyne, a trustee of Comic Relief at the time, was first bewildered and then brusque as he suggested that he had no idea that these investments were being made and would have disapproved if he had known. Since then, Comic Relief has held its own internal investigation and decided on a new ethical investment policy. It should be robust, led as it was by charity investment stalwart John Kingston. And this is good for Comic Relief. But what about the rest of the UK's charities and social enterprises? Are they confident that they know how their organisations invest their reserves, their deposits or their pension funds? Are they insured against a Bannatyne Moment of their own? Are many charities investing in alcohol, arms or tobacco? On this issue, charities are caught in a dilemma between good trusteeship and the demands of sound finance. On the one hand, trustees must try to make the most of donations given in good faith by the public. Accepting significantly lower returns would be bad for the causes they support through their work. On the other hand it's clear that, in an age of global capitalism, investments in good causes – or at least not in bad ones – are a key part of a charitable mission. There's a risk that charities might directly harm their beneficiaries by their decisions on where to invest. The Charity Commission has published a guidance document – CC14 as they call it – to try to help. And it does state clearly that ethical investment can be part of the charity mix. Yet it isn't clear how far it can stand in the way of financial return. There are still several problems that bedevil the area. First, investment decisions are often taken at the operational level. They are complex and require specialist knowledge. Charity chief executives often delegate them to their finance officers, or their finance and audit committees. And this is perfectly good practice – until it causes a Bannatyne Moment. If the finance officer does their job well and protects the bottom line, rather than doing the job of a chief executive, and if they look at the matter in the whole, the money may not end up where the charity's mission would demand. Second, there is the problem of complexity. The ethical and responsible investment marketplace is large, complex and growing. There is $12tn under global management worldwide in 'ethical' stocks, and $34tn subscribing to the UN Principle of Responsible Investment (UNPRI). Many of these investments may or may not be aligned with the missions of a particular charity. One woman's investment in farming in the developing world, is, after all, another woman's investments in Outspan oranges in Apartheid-era South Africa. Furthermore, we might say that a charity dedicated to improving the lot of dogs and cats shouldn't invest in vivisection, but should they also be proscribing themselves from investing in tobacco? Ultimately, this is about the public's trust. Charities and social enterprises are ethos-driven, mission-driven groups who come together to make a difference. They are valued, trusted institutions – according to Ipsos MORI polling guru, Ben Page – and must treat that trust with care. As long as there is still disagreement and confusion about investment powers and duties, there will be a danger of charities losing public trust. In Cambridge this month, students and residents launched a joint "town and gown" effort to protest against the University's investment policies. The Charity Chief Executives' body, ACEVO, has recently set up a commission to help all charities and social enterprises devise and apply a responsible investment strategy. We want to ensure charities get proper guidance and don't find themselves in a similar position – or worse yet, facing a Bannatyne Moment of their own. The question of charity investments and how they are decided and communicated might sound procedural, but it is growing in the public consciousness and it will not go away. Asheem Singh is director of Public Policy at ACEVO, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations The finance hub is funded by EY. 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', 'sustainable-business/ethics', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/corporate-governance', 'tv-and-radio/dragons-den', 'tone/blog', 'sustainable-business/social-investment', 'sustainable-business/social-enterprise', 'sustainable-business/social-enterprise-blog', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/finance', 'profile/asheem-singh'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-05-28T14:41:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2012/may/21/agenda-for-rio-20 | Agenda for Rio+20 | The case made by Caroline Spelman (Britain is rising to the challenge of greening our economy, is woefully inadequate. We urgently need to redefine the way we measure economic growth. Green conservatism as mediated by George Osborne sees the natural environment as detached from the wider economy, when it underpins it. Natural capital must be conserved or transformed into other forms of capital – social, intellectual or physical – if we are to achieve economic growth that is genuinely sustainable. Rio+20 next month is an opportunity to redefine the model of economic growth for a century where the global population reaches 10 billion. I would encourage Mrs Spelman to read her own department's natural environment white paper before she boards the plane to Rio. It includes a commitment to embed the value of natural capital into the government's accounting framework. She needs to encourage other governments to adopt this approach; but she can only do so if she understands it herself. Barry Gardiner MP Ed Miliband's special envoy on climate change and the environment | ['environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'tone/letters', 'politics/caroline-spelman', 'politics/economy', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'politics/politics', 'business/economics', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-05-21T20:00:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
technology/2015/feb/24/pebble-time-smartwatch-kickstarter-colour-screen | Pebble Time: smartwatch maker returns to Kickstarter with colour-screen model | Pebble, the company that ignited the smartwatch market with its $10.3m (£6.7m) crowdfunding campaign in 2012, has returned to Kickstarter with a new device called Pebble Time. The new version has a colour e-ink screen, a claimed battery life of seven days, and is 20% thinner than Pebble’s previous smartwatches. It can also track its wearer’s activity with a built-in accelerometer like a fitness band. Pebble Time’s crowdfunding campaign went live at 3pm GMT, and hit its $500k funding goal 17 minutes later. It then became the fastest Kickstarter campaign to hit $1m in 30 minutes and $2m in 58 minutes. It will cost $159 (£103) for 5,000 “early bird” backers, although its regular price once it launches in May will be $199 (£129). The device is one of only very few smartwatches that will work with multiple smartphones, rather than just being restricted to Android or iPhone, such as, respectively, Android Wear smartwatches or the upcoming Apple Watch. While Pebble’s new device also includes a microphone for dictating voice replies to messages, its key feature – if it delivers on its promise – will be the week-long battery life. As a comparison, the best Android Wear watches manage three days, while the Apple Watch is expected to need a nightly recharge. Unlike those devices, though, the Pebble Time has no touchscreen. Instead, it will be controlled by three buttons on its side to scroll through text and activate functions. Pebble has sold more than 1m smartwatches since its first model in 2012, and now has over 6,500 third-party apps and watch faces available, including apps for music playback and controlling smart-home devices. | ['technology/smartwatches', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'technology/kickstarter', 'technology/crowdfunding', 'technology/internet', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-02-24T15:22:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2010/jun/01/billions-wiped-bp-market-value | Billions more wiped from BP's value as shares plunge on oil spill failures | Shares in BP plunged as much as 20% at one stage today – wiping another £14bn off the company's market value – after the oil producer failed over the weekend to stop its catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has now lost £44bn of its value since 20 April, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. By 2.30pm the shares had staged a partial recovery from early lows of 420p, after their biggest fall in 18 years, but were still trading 14% lower at 423.1p. City experts believe the combination of the continuing leak and the prospect of huge future legal costs and political damage in the US could be disastrous for the company. Dougie Youngson, oil analyst at Arbuthnot, said: "This situation has now gone far beyond concerns of BP's chief executive Tony Hayward being fired, or shareholder dividend payouts being cut – it's got the real smell of death. This could break BP. "Given the collapse in the share price and the potential for it to fall further, we expect that it could become a takeover target – particularly if its operating position in the US becomes untenable." Hayward has come under fire in the US for his handling of the crisis and drew further criticism when he appeared make an insensitive remark when asked about the impact of the spill. "I'm sorry. We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused their lives. There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I'd like my life back," he said. BP's next move to stop the leak involves deploying remote-controlled submarines to carry equipment and cut small pipes 5,000 feet (1,524m) below the surface of the water, ahead of placing a containment cap over the leak. It should take four days to complete, although the spill could worsen before then. BP has spent almost $1bn (£700m) so far attempting to plug the leak, but said it was "too early" to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident. The total bill could rise to as much as $12bn, according to UBS. The new strategy is the company's "best option", Hayward said in a statement today. Tony Shepard, an analyst at Charles Stanley, said: "With the prospect of several more months of pollution, BP and the oil industry will come under increasing pressure. This environmental catastrophe will have global implications for the whole industry in terms of new deepwater drilling regulations." The company has received as many as 30,000 claims, mostly from businesses in the US states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, which involve loss of earnings or bereavement suffered by families of the 11 workers killed when the rig caught fire. Speculators rushed to buy protection against a potential default of BP credit, sending its price to $170,000 to protect $10m of debt – a $68,000 jump from the previous day, according to Markit. Investors demand a premium of 148 basis points on average to buy BP's bonds over government debt, according to Bloomberg News. That's almost double the 77-basis point spread on notes sold by industrial companies with similar credit ratings. | ['business/bp', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil-spills', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'business/tony-hayward', 'type/article', 'profile/elena-moya'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-06-01T16:00:53Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/may/16/wind-power-overtakes-nuclear-for-first-time-in-uk-across-a-quarter | Wind power overtakes nuclear for first time in UK across a quarter | Britain’s windfarms provided more electricity than its eight nuclear power stations in the first three months of 2018, marking the first time wind has overtaken nuclear across a quarter. The renewable energy industry hailed the milestone as a sign the UK was well on its way to an electricity system powered by cheap, domestic green energy. Across the first quarter, wind power produced 18.8% of electricity, second only to gas, said a report by researchers at Imperial College London. At one point overnight on 17 March, wind turbines briefly provided almost half of the UK’s electricity. Wind power helped during the cold snaps, too, supplying 12-43% of electricity during the six subzero days in the first three months of the year. Two nuclear plants were temporarily offline for routine maintenance, while another was shut because of seaweed in the cooling system. While wind together with solar supplied more power than nuclear in the final three months of 2017, thiswas the first time wind has managed the feat alone. Dr Rob Gross, one of the authors of the Drax Electric Insights report, said: “There’s no sign of a limit to what we’re able to do with wind in the near future.” The opening in December of a new power cable between Scotland and north Wales also helped unlock electricity from Scottish windfarms, some of which would normally be turned off to help National Grid cope. The Western Link connection has drastically cut the amount of money paid by National Grid to windfarm owners for that curtailment. The company paid £100m in 2017 for curtailment. This year payments are already down by two-thirds. Emma Pinchbeck, the executive director at industry group RenewableUK, said: “It is great news for everyone that rather than turning turbines off to manage our ageing grid, the new cable instead will make best use of wind energy.” News of the quarterly milestone came as MPs said UK emissions targets were threatened by government policy changes, which had caused a collapse in clean energy investment since 2015, including a 56% fall in 2017. Mary Creagh, Labour MP and chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “Billions of pounds of investment is needed in clean energy, transport, heating and industry to meet our carbon targets. But a dramatic fall in investment is threatening the government’s ability to meet legally binding climate change targets.” Separately, the spending watchdog concluded that £23bn spent on a government subsidy scheme for low-carbon heating had been poor value for money and did not deliver its aims. The public accounts committee said the renewable heat incentive had “wildly optimistic” goals and that the government failed to understand what consumers wanted. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2018-05-16T05:01:39Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2005/sep/06/hurricanekatrina.usa1 | Money and motorcars - the difference between safety and despair | People living in the path of Hurricane Katrina's worst devastation were twice as likely as most Americans to be poor and without a car - factors that may help explain why so many failed to evacuate as the storm approached. An analysis of census data shows that the three dozen hardest-hit neighbourhoods in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had a disproportionate amount of ethnic minority residents and had incomes $10,000 (£5,427) below the national average. The analysis showed: · Median household income in the most devastated neighbourhood was $32,000, or $10,000 less than the national average · 20% of households in the disaster area had no car, compared with 10% nationwide · Nearly 25% of those living in the hardest-hit areas were below the poverty line, about double the national average. About 4.5 % in the disaster area received public assistance; nationwide, the number was about 3.5% · About 60% of the 700,000 people in the three dozen neighbourhoods were from an ethnic minority. Nationwide, about one in three Americans is from a racial minority · One in 200 American households does not have adequate plumbing. One in 100 households in the most affected areas did not have decent plumbing, which, according to the census, includes running hot and cold water, a shower or bath and an indoor toilet. · Nationwide, about 7% of households with children are headed by a single mother. In the three dozen neighbourhoods, 12% were single-mother households. The disparities were even more glaring in large, urban areas. One of the worst-hit neighbourhoods in the heart of New Orleans, for example, had a median household income of less than $7,500. Nearly three of every four residents fell below the poverty line, and barely one in three people had a car. There is a similar picture in Mississippi. In one Pascagoula neighbourhood, where 30% of residents are minorities, more than 20% live in poverty. In Alabama, where Katrina was not as severe, one of the hardest-hit areas was a downtown Mobile neighbourhood, where the median household income is barely $25,000 and one in every four residents lives below the poverty line. | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-05T23:03:55Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2011/dec/04/whales-new-species-britain | Whales, dolphins, seals: newcomers crowd into British waters in pursuit of their prey | The waters around the British Isles could soon be home to several new species of mammals as a rising number of foreign visitors are being reported around our coasts. Experts believe the rare sightings of cetaceans from tropical climes could mean sea creatures are scouting for new territories to settle as global warming takes effect on sea temperatures. Animals from the tropics, including the dwarf sperm whale, the pygmy sperm whale, and the Fraser's dolphin have all made recent appearances here, and the Cuvier's beaked whale, another warm-water species, has been recorded increasingly regularly in the west of Britain. The melon-headed whale, a squid-loving relative of the killer whale, has been seen in the Channel, off the coast of Brittany. Before too long we may see giants such as the 16-metre grey whale nudging into deep water around Cornwall and into the Irish Sea. "We are now seeing a number of species far from home, and they probably will continue to recur with increasing frequency," said Peter Evans, director of the Sea Watch Foundation. "Several are normally found off west Africa. For the moment they tend to be seen at times of year when our sea temperatures are at their warmest. Whales and dolphins can cope with a wide range of temperatures but their fish and squid prey tend to be more constrained, and their ranges are extending significantly northwards." He said cetaceans would follow their favourite food, and many species rare in colder waters just a decade ago had moved into British seas. This autumn a dwarf sperm whale was spotted in Mounts Bay, Cornwall, while a pygmy sperm whale, its close relative, was found beached on Seil island, near Oban. "They were both very big surprises: they are rarely seen even where the populations are known to exist," said Evans. "If the fish are extending their range, as we know many are, then the whales and dolphins will follow. Anchovies, for example, were really quite scarce in the North Sea 10-20 years ago. Now they are widespread and may be why the common dolphin is now a regular in the North Sea. "The behaviour of different fish, if they shoal or don't shoal, for example, requires a fair bit of understanding, so once a species has learned a feeding strategy they will follow rather than learn a new technique for a new prey." Evans believes we may soon see a visitor that disappeared from the Atlantic in the 17th century – the grey whale. "They migrate up the west coast of north America, from Mexico and California up to the Arctic and, of course, could go no further. But now the Northwest Passage is open it is very possible they may cross the North Atlantic. "A grey whale was seen last year off the coast of Israel and off Barcelona this year. Such a remarkable appearance in such a strange location reinforces the pattern we are seeing." Twenty-nine species of dolphin and whale have been recorded this century in British or Irish territorial waters. The common dolphin, striped dolphin, minke whale and humpback whale are among those species where numbers sighted have increased since 1980. But it is not just the whales moving north into warmer seas; we are also seeing mammals coming down from colder climes. Bearded seals from the Arctic have been seen off the coast of Fife, east Scotland, said Callan Duck, a senior research scientist at the Scottish Oceans Institute at St Andrews University. "The change in climate and the food chains is definitely having an impact in the species we are seeing, but I think you have to remember to factor in how much better we are at spotting and recording these mammals. Good digital cameras are really accessible now, and so everybody has the opportunity to identify what they have seen – so the whole process of reporting sightings is much more accurate and efficient." | ['environment/whales', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/tracymcveigh', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-12-04T00:04:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/blog/2011/may/12/nuclear-japan-frugal-energy | How nuclear disaster forced Japan to be frugal with energy | Jonathan Watts | Japan's decision not to build more nuclear reactors is understandable given the explosions and leaks at the Fukushima power plant. But how will the country make up the massive energy shortfall? Prime minister Naoto Kan says supply can be sustained by investing more in renewables like wind, solar and geothermal. But there is a far simpler, cheaper and cleaner solution: use less power. As I learned on a trip to Tokyo and Tohoku last week, this is already happening. In the wake of a disaster that knocked out six reactors, Japan's businesses and people have been forced to scale back their electricity consumption. To conserve power, the utilities scheduled rolling power cuts, but many have not been necessary because considerable energy has been saved simply by promoting frugality. In shopping malls and stations, many automatic doors and escalators have been switched off, which means – shock, horror – that people are forced to push open doors and walk up stairs (there are still elevators for wheelchairs). In several places, neon signs and restaurant lights have been dimmed from their normal blazing levels. (I recall one of the first Japanese textbooks I used in the 1990s boasting the country's eateries had the brightest lighting in the world, which was apparently a sign of modernity). In the places I dined this time, the lower wattage created a mood that was moody rather than gloomy. Convenience stories – which do not usually close for even a minute a year – have scaled back business hours so they do not burn as much energy through the quiet night hours. Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara has joined criticism of the country's 5.5m vending machines, which use several nuclear reactors' worth of electricity to keep soft drinks refrigerated and coffee hot twenty-four hours a day. He said they may be switched off in the summer, when hundreds of millions of air conditioners put peak pressure on the grid. Several Japanese friends entered the spirit of conservation by not leaving the television on in the background, switching off lights in empty rooms and wearing extra layers of clothing rather than turning up the dial on the heating. All basic stuff, but the results are impressive. One woman I met estimated her monthly electricity bill had fallen to 11,000 yen, compared to 18,000 during the same period last year. "This disaster has given us a better understanding of electricity use," office worker, Aki Taniguchi told me."Japanese people have grown accustomed to a convenient life of vending machines and 24-hour stores, but I now feel that was not real." It remains to be seen whether such fragality is a blip or a trend. Japan tightened its energy belt during the oil shocks of the 1970s and then – thanks largely to nuclear power – returned to a path of ever greater electricity consumption, albeit used more efficiently than in Europe, the US or China. There will be a partial return to normality, but my guess is the cuts this time will be longer lasting. In Fukushima, many people have turned against nuclear power, which has ruined their livelihoods. Renewables might make up the gap, but that will need time, land and money that Japan will struggle to find after a disaster and an economic crisis. While my colleagues, George Monbiot and Damian Carrington have discussed which forms of energy are most desirable, I think Japan's disaster should also prompt us to look more closely at how much energy we use. In a previous blogpost, I have speculated that we are in or approaching the era of "Peak Human", with regards to the size of our population and consumption of resources, after which both will fall back to sustainable levels. That could still lead to qualitative improvements in our lives, but most of us are reluctant to accept quantative limits. Disasters, such as the one at Fukushima, remind us we may not have a choice. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'world/japan', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'tone/blog', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2011-05-12T10:41:23Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/oct/24/pollutionwatch-european-air-quality-map-exposes-dangers | Pollutionwatch: European air-quality map exposes dangers | The European Environment Agency has shed fresh light on the continent’s air quality. Following the prevailing winds from west to east there is a clear gradient, with the cleanest air in the countries first in line for fresh Atlantic winds. Geography has an impact too: the Alps and Apennines trap air pollution in Italy’s Po Valley, making it one of the worst-hit areas. Southern Europe’s strong sunlight leads to chemical reactions between pollutants to produce the hardest-hit areas for ozone at ground level, affecting health and crops. One of the clearest divides comes from a political policy. Travel from Germany to coal-dependent Poland and there is a big increase in particle pollution and cancer-causing polycyclic hydrocarbons. Diesel traffic makes our largest cities the worst places for nitrogen dioxide. The large number of vehicles that passed tests but emitted much more exhaust when driven on our roads mean London and Paris, as well as most cities and towns across the continent, are almost a decade late in complying with legal limits. Air pollution progress has nearly stalled. With more than 400,000 early deaths annually from air pollution in the EU28, there are significant opportunities to improve our health, environment and economy by aggressively tacking the problem at source. | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-10-24T20:30:06Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/jan/15/london-put-to-shame-by-new-york-fossil-fuel-divestment | London ‘put to shame’ by New York fossil fuel divestment | London has been put to shame by New York’s decision to divest city pension funds from fossil fuel companies, according to climate campaigners who accuse the mayor, Sadiq Khan, of fudging a similar promise he made during his election campaign. Global efforts to drive investment away from oil, gas and coal were given a major boost last week when the biggest city in the US announced plans to sell off its $5bn holdings in fossil fuel assets and sue the world’s most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming. As the home of Wall Street, this had enormous symbolic value and added to the momentum provided last year by divestment proposals from the Norwegian central bank (which runs the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund), and the World Bank’s promise to end funding for oil and gas extraction. The mayor of London - the world’s other great financial centre - has also pledged action. In his manifesto, Khan said he would “take all possible steps to divest the London Pension Fund Authority (LFPA) of its remaining investments in fossil-fuel industries by 2020.” City Hall has quietly sold off about half of its fossil fuel assets, but divestment campaigners complain that London’s policies are muted, ambiguous and full of loopholes that could be copied by other institutions. “While progress is being made in the UK, the New York announcement puts some of the commitments, especially London’s to shame and shows what’s possible with good leadership,” said Danielle Paffard of 350.org, the NGO that has spearheaded the global divestment campaign. “Khan has chosen an approach which essentially lets fossil fuel companies off the hook - both with weak exclusion criteria and by refusing to celebrate and make a political statement with it - while appearing to have ticked off one of this environmental manifesto promises.” Frustration was evident in November, when environmental activists from Switched on London and Divest London disrupted Mayor’s Question Time to protest at the fact that London still has fossil fuel assets worth £69m and its actions are half-hearted. City Hall says this criticism is unfair because London pension fund investments in fossil fuel companies have dropped from £130m in 12 months to £69m in 2016-17, which contrasts to the $5bn still invested by New York. “In London the mayor is delivering one of the strongest and most ambitious divestment plans of any world city, as he promised in his manifesto,” said a spokesperson for the Mayor of London. He will ensure the LFPA honours his commitment to divest from fossil fuel industries and implements all necessary divestment by 2020.” However, the boldness of the move by New York - which follows similar actions in Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen and Sydney - puts pressure on London to set a more ambitious example for other authorities and institutions in the UK. Local authorities hold more than £16bn of shares in fossil fuel companies, but with a handful of exceptions - such as Southwark and Waltham Forest - few have promised to divest. Momentum is mixed elsewhere. One-third of UK universities have divestment policies. The Catholic Church has shed record amounts on holdings in fossil fuels and several Church of England bishops have called for investment to be pulled from ExxonMobil because it misled the world about climate change. Debates continue among many major investors with critics of divestment arguing a shift away from fossil fuels can be technically difficult, financially challenging or less effective than remaining in shareholders meetings and trying to influence policy from the inside. The UK government is due to remove one major legal obstacle this year by ending “fiduciary obligations” on pension companies to maximise investment returns. Instead they will be allowed to make decision that that “mirror members’ ethical concerns” and “address environmental problems”. Campaigners hope the pledge by New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, to use the city’s “loud voice and deep pockets” in the fight against climate change will inspire cities, towns, universities, churches and companies to follow suit. | ['environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground', 'uk/london', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'us-news/new-york', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-01-15T16:41:29Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
media/2010/jul/25/julian-assange-profile-wikileaks-founder | Julian Assange profile: Wikileaks founder an uncompromising rebel | Julian Assange is self-consciously an individual. He thinks in his own way, primarily as a physicist, having studied pure maths and physics at university in Australia where he grew up. So, for example, explaining his decision to found Wikileaks, he starts with his interest in the physics of a small release of energy triggering a much larger release; asks what small actions might release energy for "just reform"; identifies the role of information and observes the restriction on the amount of information flowing into the system; and sees Wikileaks as a mechanism "to maximise the flow of information to maximise the amount of action leading to just reform". He also acts in his own way. Other people carry laptop computers; he carries a desktop machine in a rucksack on his shoulder. He will stay up all night, fingers flittering across the keyboard, and then suddenly crash out fully clothed in the nearest chair when everybody else is getting up. He is interested in "doing things that are not trivial or meaningless – making the most of your time". He reckons he is genetically predisposed to rebel. His parents met at a demonstration against the Vietnam war. His father, a lover of motorbikes who became an architect, taught him that "a generous, capable man protects victims and doesn't create them". His mother, as a teenager, rode her horse into city hall to protest against the closing of pony trails, and later took off on a motorbike for Sydney where she survived as a painter, actor and artist's model. Assange's whole lifestyle is independent. At the age of 39, he has no home. Carrying his computer and a second rucksack with clothes, he moves wherever the cause takes him, usually arriving with no idea where he will sleep, a habit formed in childhood, when his mother's new career running a travelling theatre company saw him pass through 37 different schools. In his late teens, he says he was part of the computer underground, working on early versions of the internet, hacking into the email of the power elite. An attempt to settle down to life as a university physicist ended, he says, when he discovered academic mathematicians and physicists were selling their discipline to military and intelligence agencies. He denounced them in a paper, "On the Take and Loving It", and set out to create a website as uncompromising as himself. | ['media/julian-assange', 'media/wikileaks', 'world/afghanistan', 'media/media', 'world/freedom-of-speech', 'politics/freedomofinformation', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'tone/profiles', 'world/the-war-logs', 'world/war-logs', 'type/article', 'profile/nickdavies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-07-25T21:33:18Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2011/jan/17/bp-risks-rewards-russia | Risks and rewards for BP in Russia | Why has BP formed a partnership with Rosneft when it has its own Russian subsidiary, TNK-BP? Like all of the oil majors, BP is finding it harder to access new oil and gas reserves. They are either physically difficult to reach (in deep water or contained in oil sands, for example) or are located in countries that are off limits (like most of the Middle East and, increasingly, Russia). BP had hoped that the US would drive future growth but, after the Gulf of Mexico spill, the oil industry faces tougher regulation and it will take years for BP, in particular, to regain trust. Partnering Rosneft gives BP the exclusive right to explore an area in the Russian Arctic the size of the North Sea. Having the Kremlin as a backer is also likely to ward off any unwelcome takeover bids and could blunt any anti-BP backlash in the US. Is this deal risky for BP? Yes. BP has had a rough ride in Russia in the past. In the 90s it lost almost $500m after buying a stake in a company that was seized by the outfit with which BP went on to form TNK-BP. Two years ago, President Putin, left, landed TNK-BP with a £495m back tax demand, while in 2008, BP's Russian partners ousted Bob Dudley – now BP group chief executive – as head of the subsidiary in a struggle for control. Why does Rosneft need BP? BP's reputation has taken a hammering after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but it still has the expertise that Rosneft and other Russian companies lack to explore for oil and gas in harsh offshore conditions. Rosneft is also likely to be more comfortable dealing with a company such as BP, which is used to operating in Russia, warts and all. What does the alliance mean for TNK-BP? BP is riding roughshod over its agreement with TNK-BP that the British company can pursue opportunities in Russia only via that venture. BP believes its best bet in Russia lies with Rosneft, not TNK-BP. The company insists that the prediction by its top executive in the country, David Peattie, of a Kremlin-backed carve-up of TNK-BP are out of date. But the omens for TNK-BP and its Russian backers do not look good. | ['business/bp', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'environment/oil', 'environment/environment', 'world/russia', 'world/vladimir-putin', 'world/world', 'tone/analysis', 'world/europe-news', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'type/article', 'profile/timwebb', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2011-01-17T20:46:04Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2007/apr/28/plasticbags.frontpagenews | Welcome to Modbury. Just don't ask for a plastic bag | Modbury is the quintessential small West Country town. Set in a hollow among rolling Devon hills just a few miles from the sea, it has 760 households, a high street, three churches, a primary school, several pubs, two takeaways, a surgery, a small supermarket and 40 or so small shops. Not much happens in Modbury. Some say the last time the peace was disturbed was in 1643 when Roundheads and Cavaliers fought in its streets. But a revolution of another kind will take place on Monday. At 8am it will become the first plastic bag-free town in Europe. Spurred by environmental fervour and growing concern about the 100bn or more plastic bags thought to be littering the world and clogging the seas, the town's 43 traders have unilaterally declared their independence from the plastic bag and have pledged to no longer sell, give away or otherwise provide them to anyone in Modbury for a minimum of six months. No one knows knows how much it will cost them or the town, or indeed whether Modburians and the holiday-makers who visit the town will rise in revolt. But from now on, if you buy olives from Adam in the deli, a steak from Simon the butcher, or a sweet and sour from Phil in the Chinese, they will come wrapped in corn starch paper. Helen in the ironmongers, Sue in the gallery and Sarah in the gift shop are moving to cotton. If tourists nip into the Co-op for ice cream, they will be given a cloth bag. Modbury will be full of biodegradable, organic, fairtrade, unbleached, recycled carrier bags of every description - except plastic. So committed are the retailers that they have commissioned 2,000 official Modbury bags, which could soon be collectors' items. Made in Mumbai, India, they will sell for £3.95. The idea of a plastic bag-free town comes from Rebecca Hoskins, a young Modbury-born-and-raised wildlife camerawoman who went to the Pacific last year to film marine life for the BBC but experienced horrendous plastic bag pollution. "It really affected me," she said. "I have never cried behind a camera before. I'm not a blubby person. But it broke my heart to see animals entangled in plastic, albatrosses dying in plastic, dolphins trailing plastic and seals with their noses trapped in parcel tape roll. The sea is now like a trash can and the plastic is there for ever. It doesn't go away for hundreds of years. What I witnessed was just so unnecessary. All this damage is simply caused by our throwaway living." She returned to Devon, went diving and found the seas there also full of plastic. "So I booked the Modbury art gallery, invited all the traders and showed them my film. At the end they all said they would give up plastic bags." "It was very moving," said Sue Sturton from the Brownston art gallery. "I thought people would turn a blind eye to something happening as far away as Hawaii. But I was wrong. We have a responsibility here. People go to the beaches here and we as shopkeepers are just handing out plastic shopping bags." "She massaged us. But it didn't need much," said Jane, who runs the St Luke's hospice charity shop which is turning to paper and cloth bags. The other traders are buying bags for her to use in wrapping customers' purchases. "I think it could work elsewhere, but this is definitely not a normal town at all." "They've got it now," said Ms Hoskins, who gave up her film work two months ago to concentrate on turning the town plastic bag-free. "It seems to have really brought people together. The shops have sent all their unused plastic bags to Newcastle where they are being made into plastic chairs, and they have all set up plastic bag amnesty points where people can bring in the hundreds of bags that they keep under the kitchen sink. Now it's just a question of seeing if people accept it. We are all trembling now. To be a pioneer is pretty scary." | ['environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-04-28T14:14:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2024/mar/07/empowering-female-cotton-farmers-could-boost-climate-resilience | Empowering female cotton farmers could boost climate resilience | Letter | Women in rural areas experience systematic inequality, and climate change is widening the gender gap (Financial toll of climate crisis hitting women harder, UN says, 5 March). In global cotton production, for example, women are a significant contributor, but their work is labour-intensive and undervalued. They disproportionately shoulder the burden of the farm and domestic work while gender norms limit their inheritance rights and access to finance, training and the markets. Inequalities in cotton farming remain a pressing challenge, but also a missed opportunity. Supporting female farmers to be more gainfully involved in value chains can increase yields and economic gain. Training in climate-smart farm practices can also support them in mitigating the effect of catastrophic weather. While businesses and social enterprises cannot change policies and social norms overnight, we can help break the cycle by providing tailored support for women around sustainable farming. Apparel companies can start by equipping female farmers in their supply chains with more sustainable practices such as crop diversification to promote climate resilience and output. Furthermore, we need to unleash rural women’s potential beyond farming through financial and health awareness programmes. It helps create a ripple effect that benefits not only female farmers, but also their children and communities. As observed by our Women in Cotton research, women receiving such support report increased self-esteem and confidence, higher household living standards and investment in children’s education, health benefits and improved social standing. The UN data is a stark reminder of how social, economic and environmental issues are intrinsically linked. This week’s International Women’s Day is an opportunity to remind all of us in the apparel industry that supporting women in the cotton supply chain secures benefits that go beyond the farm, contributing to a more ethical and sustainable sector. Alison Ward CEO, CottonConnect | ['society/women', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'world/international-womens-day', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-03-07T18:39:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2022/mar/29/nsw-government-approves-377-grants-for-flood-hit-business-despite-receiving-8000-applications | NSW government approves just 377 grants for flood-hit business, despite receiving 8,000 applications | The New South Wales government has approved fewer than 400 disaster relief grants for flood-ravaged northern rivers businesses, despite receiving almost 8,000 requests for help since applications opened almost a month ago. After the state’s north was left reeling by weeks of devastating floods, the government announced grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses to help pay for cleanup costs, repairs, replace damaged stock and to lease temporary premises. But one month on, less than 5% of the grant applications – or just 377 of the 7,965 received by Resilience NSW – have been approved by the state government. Fewer still have been paid out. Funds have been released for 267 applications, worth about $3.9m. The government has rejected more applications than it has approved, with the emergency services minister, Steph Cooke, blaming the delay on flood-hit business owners providing “incomplete and missing” documentation. The state government has rejected 657 bids for relief, worth $12.15m. Almost 2,900 applications worth $46.9m are still being assessed, while Resilience NSW is waiting on more information from applicants in 3,298 applications worth $62.2m. Byron Shire mayor, Michael Lyon, said there was “massive need” for business relief grants across his shire, where towns like Mullumbimby were hit hard, and the broader northern rivers region, particularly in Lismore. Lyon said the state government must explain why it is taking so long to assess applications, given the immediacy of the need. “There’s no doubt about the need, we’ve had several CBD areas in the northern rivers, I know Mullumbimby was badly affected, and there’s a lot of businesses that actually have businesses from home, in places like Ocean Shores,” he said. “I would suggest that there is definitely a need in our shire and lots of other shires. It would be very interesting to find out why there are so many delays. Approve or reject, yes, but [for them to be] outstanding, that’s not really good enough.” The grants are intended for small businesses and not-for-profits that were directly damaged in the floods and plan to re-establish themselves in the same region. The money can pay for a range of work, including cleaning, safety inspections and debris removal, and can be used to buy materials and equipment needed to immediately resume trading, or replace cars, damaged stock or internal fittings. Cooke said that the government had been processing about 400 applications a day, and would increase the number to 640 over the coming week. “Around three-quarters of applications received so far are incomplete and missing key documentation,” she said. “Service NSW is working with customers who have lost documentation in the floods to progress their applications as quickly as possible.” Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning While payments of up to $15,000 are available on the basis of quotes of estimates, larger grant applications require businesses to provide evidence they have already spent the money. The Ballina Greens MP, Tamara Smith, said those restrictions were “absolutely cruel”. “What I find bizarre is that you now have a whole class of business who can’t apply because they don’t have $35,000 on hand and, of the people who can muster it, there are these delays in paying the money out,” she said. “It’s a lot of bureaucratic bungling that people just cant afford.” Murwillumbah district chamber of commerce president, Rebecca Whan, said the delays in processing the grants were “pretty concerning, to say the least”. Whan said some business owners in flood-hit Murwillumbah had just $14 in their bank accounts. She knew of local business owners taking on work as part of clean-up crews to bring in enough income to keep their businesses alive. The cash grant was the first step in rebuilding, she said, and re-opening for many businesses would “simply not occur in many cases” without it. “There are a lot of emotions and it’s very distressing for a lot of them,” she said. “If you’ve got financial stress on top of everything else, it just breaks the back of people at the moment.” She said the grants were time-critical for many businesses, as delays to cleaning and the removal of debris allowed mould to spread, creating a health risk and raising the prospect of buildings being deemed uninhabitable. The delays meant many towns ran the risk of having empty shopfronts “for months on end”, which will create a ripple effect throughout the CBDs that could last years. “People need a glimmer of hope,” she said. | ['australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'profile/michael-mcgowan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-28T16:31:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/askjack/2008/apr/03/popupbillsriseagainwithpl | Popup bills rise again, with Platte's film site | By accepting the terms of a website, I have unwittingly agreed to their contract of business. Is there any way out of this? The firm is Platte International Ltd, and their trap is getfilmsnow.com. Or should I just pay the £30 and walk away? Name withheld I've looked at the site. It tells you what the deal is up front, and you can cancel during the trial period. You are not billed until day four of your monthly subscription, which seems fair -- always assuming cancellation works properly and the site's invasive software is removed. The terms and conditions are explicit, and they are spelled out here, so it's up to the buyer to beware. Some readers may already know that Platte Media has taken over our old "friends" at MBS (What MBS did after popups for porn: films ... with popup bills, March 27). MBS took a very unpleasant approach to making sure it got paid, by repeatedly putting intrusive popups on the user's screen. This approach has been reviewed by the Office of Fair Trading, which has not done anything to stop it (OFT accepts undertakings from Micro Bill Systems Ltd). This reader responded: "I have paid Platte their £30 and they have removed their software, but I have to say that I found reading their terms so disquieting and downright sinister that I will not be able to relax for months." There is an MBS Victims Forum, but the best approach is not to become a victim. Remember, clicking a download button can be hazardous to your wealth. | ['technology/askjack', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'profile/jackschofield'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-04-03T00:12:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
science/2019/sep/06/weatherwatch-the-hurricane-maker | Weatherwatch: the hurricane maker | The US National Weather Service forecast ten to 17 named storms with wind speeds of over 74mph this hurricane season (June to November), compared to 15 last year. There have only been four so far but they come in clusters; in 2008 four hurricanes formed in the week of 25 August and none in the three following weeks. One reason for clustering is the Madden-Julian Oscillation or MJO, a pattern of rising and sinking air which circles the globe eastward in equatorial regions at about 11mph. This produces weather in cycles of 45 to 60 days. The MJO’s two-week enhanced phase increases rainfall and decreases vertical wind shear, the difference in wind speed with altitude. Both these factors help in hurricane formation, and the combination means that major hurricanes are five times as likely to form during the enhanced phase of the MJO. In the suppressed phase of the MJO, sinking air reduces the likelihood of thunderstorms forming or growing, as these feed on moisture rising upwards from the sea. The MJO is only one factor in hurricane formation. The sea temperature, moisture levels and existing winds also play a part. Hurricanes are inherently unpredictable, but understanding effects like the MJO may help us anticipate their formation and respond in good time. | ['science/meteorology', 'world/extreme-weather', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/hurricane-dorian', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-09-06T20:30:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2016/jul/25/tumblr-katie-couric-verizon-yahoo | From Tumblr to Katie Couric, here's everything Verizon just bought from Yahoo | Verizon has acquired Yahoo in an all-cash deal for $4.83bn. The buy-out, which only covers Yahoo’s “core web business”, is an ignoble end for one of the original giants of the web: it places the value of the company, with more than 10,000 employees, at just half that of Finnish developer Supercell, the maker of the popular Clash of Clans mobile game. But perhaps the most surprising thing is quite how much Verizon is getting for its money. If you have an image of Yahoo at all, you probably know it as a search engine (now actually powered by Microsoft’s Bing, and before that by Google) and a listings site (originally a literal hand-created directory of good sites on the internet, now more focused on the company’s news aggregation service). But for those who haven’t kept tabs on Yahoo’s continued struggles to reinvent itself, the company is now sprawling, with fingers in almost every pie a web firm could want. Here is just some of the bang Verizon’s getting for its buck. Your teenaged posts from 2009 The Velvet Underground of social networks, Tumblr is the site that everyone cool is on, but no one with money seems to care about. Founded in 2007 by then 21-year-old David Karp, and bought by Yahoo in 2013, the site lies somewhere between blogging platform, social network, and image board. It lets users create fully fledged blogs (heck, Yahoo announced the Verizon deal on its own Tumblr), but with a smattering of networking tools that allowed it to grow as a platform for individual communication as much as broadcasting missives to the world. Since it was acquired, Tumblr has been kept relatively separate from the Yahoo mothership, a choice which pleased the site’s largely young, counter-cultural userbase (half its users are under 25). It also means that, without really noticing, Verizon has just bought a social network with more monthly active users than Twitter for almost a third the cost. Oh, and it got the entirety of Yahoo for free alongside. Your pictures from 2005 Before Yahoo bought and ignored Tumblr, it bought and ignored Flickr. The image-hosting site, founded by a group that would go on to create the enterprise chat company Slack, was launched in 2004 and bought by Yahoo in 2005. Flickr offered free, high-quality image hosting for 200 images, and users could pay to host an unlimited number on the site. Compared with the image-hosting sites available options at the time, it was miles ahead, but the site also had a thriving photography community, sharing tips on how to take better pictures and promoting fair use and re-use of images through creative commons licenses. But the site failed to adapt to the mobile revolution. Official apps came too late, and were updated too rarely, which allowed more phone-focused startups to dominate the smartphone photography scene. Instagram in particular came to gain from Flickr’s fumble. Despite a few app updates that added in features missing from the start, Flickr never again regained the lead, although its community still numbers in the millions. Your emails from 1999 You may not know many people who use it, particularly if you’re based outside of the United States, Yahoo Mail is one of the biggest webmail services in the world. The service has steadily evolved since its launch in 1997, as Rocketmail, the webmail service of business directory firm Four11. It was acquired that same year by Yahoo, and rebranded soon after, but the transition was a rocky: most notably, the company started charging for client access, requiring free users to visit the site through their browsers. Since then, the service has gone through rapid iteration, with major new redesigns launching in 2002, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015. But none were able to bring the big guns against the site’s major competitors: first Microsoft’s Hotmail, and later Google’s Gmail. Even so, the service has led the way in a number of features, becoming one of the first to introduce password-free logins for casual users with Yahoo Key in 2015 (which texts a one-time password to a pre-registered phone number), and enabling end-to-end encryption for power users that same year. Katie Couric and David Pogue Under the chief executive, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo tried to parley its dominance of the old web – chiefly through the millions of users who still have the site set as their homepage – into dominance of old media. Two emblematic hirings of that period were ABC News anchor Katie Couric and New York Times columnist David Pogue, who both joined Yahoo in 2013. But while Yahoo News is a massive force in online media, with more readers than any other news site according to stats firm Quantcast, the prestige hirings never quite gelled with the wider company. Its attempts to push video content hard culminated with the company buying the rights to make the sixth series of the sitcom Community, before eventually closing the division that made it entirely. And what it hasn’t bought … The Verizon deal is so low-valued in part because it includes Yahoo’s core business, but not its investments in other companies. Two of those investments in particular are left out of the deal: the company’s stakes in Yahoo Japan and “China’s Amazon”, AliBaba. Those stakes, combined, are worth around $40bn, according to Reuters. And just to illustrate the dire straits Yahoo was in before the buyout: its market cap, which included its cash pile and those $40bn investments, was just $37bn. In other words, investors valued Yahoo’s core business at around minus three billion dollars. So selling to Verizon for almost $5bn is actually a fairly good deal. | ['technology/yahoo', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'technology/internet', 'technology/mergers-acquisitions', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-hern'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-07-25T15:13:31Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
uk-news/2016/aug/08/china-warns-uk-relations-historical-juncture-hinkley-point-liu-xiaoming | China warns UK relations are at 'historical juncture' over Hinkley Point | China has said that its relations with the UK are at a “crucial historical juncture” amid doubts over the future of the controversial Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. The intervention by the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom comes after the British government’s decision last month to delay final approval of the project, which is receiving major financial support from China. “If Britain’s openness is a condition for bilateral co-operation, then mutual trust is the very foundation on which this is built,” Liu Xiaoming wrote in an article for the Financial Times, in which he placed the project at the centre of Britain’s evolving trade relationship with China. “Right now, the China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more. I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point – and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly.” The prime minister Theresa May is thought to have ordered a delay owing to concerns about the role of China General Nuclear, which has a one-third stake in the Hinkley project. Comments by May’s chief of staff, Nick Timothy, last year have led to claims that the delay has been prompted by concerns that Chinese state-owned companies were being allowed to invest in sensitive infrastructure. While not specifically addressing those concerns, Liu said that “security” was central to the debate surrounding the project, adding that the UK has “a state-of-the-art supervision regime and legal system”. The article comes in the wake of wider doubts about the future of the close relationship with China that David Cameron and George Osborne had heavily promoted. The ambassador, who said that Chinese companies have invested more in the UK than in Germany, France and Italy combined over the past five years, concluded by stating that it “has not been easy for China and the UK to have come this far”. “As long as both sides cherish what has been achieved and continue to expand and deepen our co-operation across the board, bilateral relations will maintain their strong momentum and work for the wellbeing of both the Chinese and British people,” Liu said. Meanwhile, French unions have said that the decision by energy firm EDF to invest in Hinkley Point should be declared invalid. Three unions at the French state-owned firm said senior board members knew the British government was considering delaying its final decision on Hinkley, but nothing was said before last month’s vote on whether EDF should back the project. Jean-Bernard Lévy, the chairman and chief executive of EDF, wrote to board members last week, saying he knew about the delay before the board met to approve building and co-funding the first British nuclear site in a generation. Just hours before a signing ceremony was due to take place at the site in Somerset May quashed hopes that Hinkley would go ahead by putting off government approval until early autumn. Unions said they believed some board members knew of the likely delay, meaning the board’s approval – by 10 votes to seven – should be overturned. “Our three unions denounce this information asymmetry,” they said in a joint statement. “They therefore consider that the board’s Hinkley Point decision, taken on the basis of incomplete information, is null and void.” The unions, CGT, CFE-CGC and FO, said the UK government’s supposed desire for a swift resolution had been cited by EDF’s leadership as a key reason to vote in favour of the project. The moderate CFDT union, which also represents EDF employees, did not sign the statement. But Lévy told executives he believed May only wanted a few more days, and EDF said he had not been aware of any plan to push back the decision to autumn. EDF said it knew at the time of the boardroom vote only that a signing ceremony planned for the day after the meeting was to be delayed. “Reading the entire internal email sent on 2 August by the chairman and CEO of EDF to members of the executive committee confirms unambiguously that when the company’s board of directors was held, EDF and its chairman had no knowledge of the intention of the British government to conduct a further review of the Hinkley Point project,” EDF said. “All that was known before the press statement issued by the British government on July 28 was that the signing ceremony originally proposed for Friday, 29 July, would be postponed. “This potential date of signature had not been confirmed, and therefore had not been communicated either to the board nor the market. There was therefore no requirement to communicate its postponement.” | ['uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'world/china', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'environment/energy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/edf', 'politics/theresamay', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/benquinn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-08-08T22:31:10Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2020/mar/08/companies-to-invest-12-billion-pounds-in-electric-vehicles | UK companies to invest £12bn in switch to electric vehicles | British companies are expected to spend more than £12bn switching their fossil fuel vehicles for clean electric versions over the next two years. A survey found that nearly half of UK businesses are planning to invest in chargeable cars and vans in advance of the government’s ban on sales of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. The Treasury is expected to accelerate the trend in this week’s budget by signalling an end to a decade of freezes on fuel duty for millions of drivers, as part of plans to meet tougher climate laws. Sales of electric vehicles are climbing quickly but official figures show that they still accounted for only 2% of new car registrations last year. The uptake of low-emissions driving is a key pillar of the government’s plans for cutting carbon emissions to virtually zero by 2050 to end the UK’s contribution to the climate crisis. Cars make up slightly less than a fifth of the UK’s total carbon footprint, a proportion that has risen in recent years in part thanks to the popularity of energy-hungry SUVs. Rachel Maclean, the transport minister, said: “It is encouraging to see UK businesses investing in electric vehicles and embracing greener technology to decarbonise our transport network. “Businesses having confidence in electric vehicles is crucial to end the UK’s contribution to climate change and improve air quality for all.” More than a third of companies say the government’s looming ban on petrol and diesel cars has made them bring forward plans to shift to clean driving, according to a survey by the owner of British Gas. The same proportion of companies told Centrica that access to ultra-low emissions driving zones was also a factor in their decision. Alan Barlow, managing director at Centrica’s business solutions division, said: “There is clear recognition among UK businesses of the increasingly important operational role electric vehicles can play in meeting decarbonisation goals. But concern is still widespread over how to finance this change, particularly for those with large petrol and diesel fleets.” More than two-thirds of companies said they were discouraged from investing in electric vehicles by the cost of new cars and vans, and concerns over a spike in their energy bills. Barlow said companies intending to switch to electric vehicles would be able to limit their bills by investing in solar panels and battery packs, or smart software that automatically charges vehicles at night, when energy prices are at their lowest. | ['uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'politics/transport', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-03-08T09:34:31Z | true | EMISSIONS |
money/2022/apr/07/uk-energy-strategy-may-take-years-to-bring-down-bills-says-kwarteng | UK’s energy strategy may take years to bring down bills, says Kwarteng | Boris Johnson’s new energy strategy could take up to five years to start shaving money off people’s bills, the business secretary has admitted, as the prime minister announced a drastic expansion of nuclear reactors. Kwasi Kwarteng said the plan for cutting reliance on imported energy in the wake of spiralling prices caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was more of a medium-term way to ramp up homegrown energy production. Johnson declared that the long-delayed energy security strategy meant “nuclear is coming home” – but the review declined to set targets for onshore wind and committed to continuing the exploitation of North Sea oil and gas. Days after 22 million people were hit by the energy price cap rising by 54%, Kwarteng suggested it would be years until the benefits of the strategy would be felt by consumers. “The strategy is more of a medium-term three, four, five-year answer,” the business secretary told Sky News. “I think it’s really important that we get an energy strategy that means we can have more security and independence in the years ahead. “We want to have security of supply, we want to live in a world where we’re not dependent on what Russian policy is, but we have more control over energy sources here in Britain.” The cost of offshore wind had decreased enormously in the past 10 years, Kwarteng said, adding: “Some of these benefits can happen quite quickly. But we need to start the planning process and the strategy now. And that’s what this security strategy is all about.” The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, attempted to intervene in the cost of living crisis at the end of March, but was accused of not doing enough to help struggling households expected to face the biggest fall in living standards since modern records began in the 1950s. At the heart of this week’s energy strategy was nuclear, and a commitment by the government to more than triple the amount of nuclear energy generated so that 25% of all Britain’s electricity comes from atomic energy. In a social media video to promote the strategy, Johnson said: “In the country that was the first to split the atom, the first truly to harness its power to light our homes and drive our factories, we will once again lead the way. “Nuclear is coming home. So instead of a new reactor every decade we will have a new reactor every year. “For years, governments have dodged the big decisions on energy, but not this one. We’ve got the ambition, we’ve got the plan and we are going to bring clean, affordable secure power to the people for generations to come.” Labour accused Johnson and Kwarteng of being “too weak” to follow through on their previously planned hopes to drastically increase the amount of onshore wind production because of hostility from Tory backbenchers. Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said a significant majority of people supported onshore wind. Pat McFadden, the shadow Treasury chief secretary, also said Kwarteng’s comments about the time it would take for the energy strategy to start to bring down energy bills showed the government had “no plan to immediately address their cost of living crisis”. He reiterated Labour’s call for a one-off windfall tax on “the booming profits of oil and gas giants – which would reduce household bills by up to £600”. | ['money/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/kwasi-kwarteng', 'money/household-bills', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/windpower', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aubrey-allegretti', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2022-04-07T10:16:24Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2011/jun/22/honeybees-decline-over-winter | Experts puzzled by big decline in honeybees over winter | Honeybee populations declined by 13.6% over the winter, according to a survey of beekeepers across England. Losses were most severe in the north-east, where the survey recorded a loss rate of 17.1%. Experts worry that the declines will affect plant productivity. There are also concerns that the declines, along with drought conditions in some areas, will mean less English honey this year. Martin Smith, president of the British Beekeepers Association, which carried out the survey, said: "If this was measured against similar losses in livestock it would be seen as disastrous and there would be great concern on the knock-on impact of food prices." Beekeepers are puzzled by the decline because the cold winter and early spring should have favoured bees. They stay "clustered" tightly in their hives when it is cold and dry, saving energy for spring foraging when the temperature rises about 12C. However, there is good news that the rate of colony loss has slowed. Four years ago, one in three hives was wiped out. Beekeepers suspect that poor nutrition is a likely cause of weakness in adult bees that makes them succumb to diseases spread by a parasitic mite. "The varroa mite is the number one reason why people lose bees, so the government needs to increase research to cure diseases caused by varroa," said Smith. "But a colony that has a good source of pollen and nectar will go into winter stronger and better able to fend off disease." The association is calling on everyone who has a garden, however small, to plant bee-friendly plants this summer. "It is really important that there are flowering nectar-rich plants around in August, September and October to provide the nutrition that's needed so the bees can top up their stores of honey in the hive to see them through winter," said Smith. A campaign being launched next week to save all bees, spearheaded by Sam Roddick and Neal's Yard Remedies, pins the blame for the decline on pesticide. It will start a petition to hand to Downing Street in October to ban the use of a class of pesticides that has been implicated in bee deaths across the world. Roddick said: "These neonicotinoid pesticides penetrate the plant and indiscriminately attack the nervous system of insects that feed off them, disorientating bees, impairing their foraging ability and weakening their immune system, causing bee Aids. On current evidence, Italy, Germany and Slovenia have banned some varieties. In the UK, it's up to the people to show the government that if there is any doubt that they are contributing to bee deaths, we need to ban them." A spokesman for the government's National Bee Unit said: "The UK has a robust system for assessing risks from pesticides and all the evidence shows neonicotinoids do not pose an unacceptable risk when products are used correctly, but we will not hesitate to act if presented with any new evidence. " He added: "Although we're pleased the BBKA's seen fewer overwintering losses, bees continue to be affected by pests, diseases, and the weather. Amid a range of initiatives, we're training beekeepers, researching varroa mite controls, and improving the availability of medicines." | ['environment/bees', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/insects', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/alisonbenjamin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-06-22T18:16:56Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2013/may/05/renewable-energy-self-sufficient-local-brittany | Brittany villages blazing a trail in energy self-sufficiency | Jacky Aignel, the leader of Saint Gouéno council in Brittany, looks at the cranes hoisting blades to the top of a wind-mast: "We've been waiting so long for this," he sighs. The wind turbine is finally nearing completion, the result of a lengthy struggle by this small locality in Côtes d'Armor. The Enercon E53, with a rated capacity of 850kW and the first of a series of seven, is no ordinary beast. It is the result of a clever financial package that allows local residents to invest in the scheme and aims to invest the benefits in the local economy. The co-operative investment company Cigale was established in 2008, and there are now 127 individuals who collectively own a 30% share in the venture. But the participatory windfarm is just one aspect of the energy policy being deployed by Mené district council, which represents Saint Gouéno and six other nearby localities (overall population 6,500). In this largely rural area you can see a wood-fired boiler at Le Gouray, fed by nearby forests and powering a collective central-heating network, then the Geotexia methanisation plant at Saint Gilles du Mené, followed by an oil mill and biofuel production unit at Saint Gouéno, and finally a house fitted with solar panels at Plessala. All these facilities should help Saint Gouéno towards its goal of being energy self-sufficient by 2025. To do so it needs to produce enough energy to cover its current consumption of 22,000 tonnes of oil equivalent (Toe), (slated to drop in the future, if the council's energy-saving policies deliver). Now that energy diversification is a topic of national debate in France, Le Mené is increasingly cited for its mix of renewables and decentralised production, with policymakers from all over the country visiting to see how it is done. It all started in 1999 when a group of pig farmers hatched a project to build a methanisation plant to digest their output of slurry, using a fermentation technique that turns pig manure into methane gas. This prompted broader debate on energy. "This is one of the poorest parts of Brittany," says Aignel. "As a farmer I try to be as self-sufficient as possible and I was well aware cheap energy wouldn't last for ever." Wider economic concerns also played a part. The local economy depends heavily on a large abattoir, operated by Kermené, a subsidiary of the Leclerc supermarket chain, which employs 2,500 people. Local policymakers began to wonder whether there might be scope for diversifying into energy. In 2005 they visited Güssling, an Austrian village that had been working on energy self-sufficiency for 15 years. "We came home convinced that with waste, biomass resources, wind and sun we could diversify the economy alongside Kermené, enabling us to create some qualified jobs," says Michel Fablet, the leader of Le Gouray town council. Together the council and residents joined forces, assisted by Marc Théry, the former CEO of a large company, and decided to launch 10 energy projects, which have gradually taken shape. But at times it was an upward struggle. "All the layers of local government made decision-making a very slow process," Aignel explains.Nor did the rules set by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (France's investor-protection watchdog) facilitate the task of funding a co-operative wind farm. Agrofuel and fertiliser lobbies tried to prevent the oil mill and methanisation plant getting off the ground. Another difficulty was bringing local residents on board. "We held meetings in each village," says Fablet, "but it wasn't really a crowd-puller. Other topics which concern everybody, like housing, work much better." Perhaps saving energy in the home will stir their interest. "But it's much more difficult to save 2,000 Toe on energy consumption than to build a windfarm," Théry says. The economic climate is a further obstacle. "We aim to renovate 90 houses, to reduce consumption by a third," says Fablet. "Subsidies will pay for 60% of the outlay, the rest will be covered by interest-free loans, but many cannot even afford such loans." Progress has been made. "The best part is not all this gear, it's the human contact, all the new connections we've built," says Dominique Rocaboy, a pig farmer and head of the methanisation plant. This story appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/biomass-and-bioenergy', 'environment/environment', 'world/france', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/herve-kempf'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2013-05-05T09:00:03Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2012/aug/30/allendale-northumberland-after-flood | Country diary: Allendale, Northumberland: After the flood, the view from the bridge feels dizzyingly different | The entrance to the old wood is by a stile set into a drystone wall, three weighty slabs that are slippery and glistening after the rain. Dense sponges of moss blur the outline of the wall, its spine half tumbled in many places. Heavy raindrops fall from a leaning ash tree that makes the footpath uneven with its muscular roots. It's just a short step to a wooden bridge that spans the burn, a stream changed irrevocably by yesterday's flash flood. As I near the bridge something feels wrong. It is no longer seen in dim and leafy shade. There below, across the stream, a strong young beech has come crashing down, its double trunk resting on a new island of boulders, the water split on either side into two small falls. Creamy spume is caught in the branches where the leaves are already turning brown from being pummelled and bruised. Its bulky rootball, torn from the muddy bank to block part of the flow, is a rufous network of thick and fine roots that crisscross like a net to catch stones and earth. Behind it, the high bank is now exposed, sheer, dark grey and slimy, with broken ferns flopping over its top edge. The crown of the tree, resting on the opposite side, is still incongruously green, muddled among young hazels in a chaos of interlaced branches. What was familiar is now unfamiliar. The streambed has been remodelled, shifted, revealed, so that I no longer recognise its patterns. A whole bank of shingle has been thrown up on one side as the water has forged a deep channel below the other bank. The massive dressed stone where dippers liked to stand has been swept away like an ephemeral piece of flotsam. Tombstone chunks of rock have pale clean surfaces, free from algae and accumulations of silt. In this world made new, the view from the bridge feels dizzyingly different but the light-filled clearing opened up by the fallen beech is now ready for new saplings to take root. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/susie-white', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-08-30T19:59:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/blog/2011/jun/16/share-photos-value-nature | Share your photos of what you value about nature | Adam Vaughan | What do you value about nature? That's what we want you to show us, using a photograph - be it a species of wildlife, a particular landscape or one of the many 'ecosystem services' that nature provides to us for free, such as providing clean air and water. We'll feature the best in a unique exhibition at the World Forum on Enterprise and Environment 2011 in Oxford this June, as well as on guardian.co.uk, and maybe the print edition of the Guardian too. Guardian readers have already shared photos of swans, song sparrows, forests, landscapes, bees and more: Woods Ladybirds Miner bee Grand canyon Manatee Now add yours to the Flickr group - we'll pick the best on Friday 17 June. Former chief scientist Sir David King says of our photo-sharing project: Providing solutions for the future while at the same time protecting the future is paramount and I am delighted that the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment is working with the Guardian in launching a display of photographs from readers that capture the greatest moments of nature and biodiversity. | ['environment/world-forum-on-enterprise-and-the-environment', 'environment/blog', 'tone/blog', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-06-16T09:52:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2020/sep/25/weatherwatch-did-marco-set-the-scene-for-hurricane-sally | Weatherwatch: did Marco set the scene for Hurricane Sally? | Last week Hurricane Sally caused havoc along the US Gulf Coast. In what’s turning out to be an exceptional hurricane season (looking set to rival 2005’s record-breaking 28 named Atlantic storms), it turns out that Sally’s last minute ferocity may have been fuelled by Hurricane Marco three weeks previously. Back in October 2018 Hurricane Michael became the strongest storm on record to make landfall on the Florida Panhandle. This category 5 hurricane took everyone by surprise: intensifying rapidly and resulting in 16 fatalities and $25bn in damage. Brian Dzwonkowski, from the University of South Alabama, and colleagues, analysed the conditions that preceded Michael and found that the scene was set five weeks earlier, when tropical storm Gordon powered through, churning the water on the tropical shelf and removing the cool bottom layer. Their research, published in Nature Communications, shows that warm weather then reheated the upper ocean, creating the fuel to intensify Michael. And without the cool bottom layer there was nothing to slow Michael down. Coupled hurricanes and heatwaves like these are likely to become more frequent in a warming world, but understanding how they interact will help forecasters to improve predictions of storm intensity and decide when evacuation is necessary. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/extreme-weather', 'science/meteorology', 'us-news/hurricane-michael', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/florida', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-09-25T20:30:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2015/may/13/lily-drone-personal-videographer-selfie | Lily: the $499 'selfie drone' that's your personal videographer | “Camera. Reinvented.” claims the website for Lily, the latest consumer drone to capture people’s attention. Although “selfie drone” seems to be a more popular phrase among the media covering its launch. Yes, in 2015 we have drones to take selfies for us, because maintaining the perfect duckface while tapping a touchscreen button are sorely testing humanity’s multi-tasking capabilities. Actually, that’s a little unfair on Lily, which is an interesting spin on the drone formula. Its schtick is that owners will be able to throw it in the air then go about their business, while the device follows them shooting high-definition video and photographs. Sadly (for potentially-amused bystanders) this doesn’t involve sprinting along the road in terror as a whirring hunk of metal zips towards your head like a modern, budget remake of North by Northwest. Instead, Lily is pitched at skiers and snowboarders, athletes and other active types: a hovering alternative to strapping a GoPro camera to their helmets, with the benefit of shooting footage of them, rather than just a first-person viewpoint. Lily can shoot 1080p HD video at 60 frames-per-second or 720p video at 120 frames-per-second for slow-motion action, as well as 12-megapixel still photographs. It takes two hours to charge and can then stay in the air for 20 minutes before needing to be plugged in again. The device will fly a maximum of 15m and a minimum of 1.75m above its owner’s head, to avoid accidents, with an average speed of 15 miles per hour. Those owners will wear a tracking device to ensure that Lily follows them, with the device hovering in place and trying to recover the signal if it loses the wearer, before landing “smoothly” – an action also taken if it runs out of battery. Lily’s manufacturer has opened pre-orders for the device at $499 (£319), with buyers charged immediately rather than when it ships, which the company says “helps us reduce risk”. The price will rise to $999 (£638) once it goes on sale. The company was founded by a group of graduates from Berkeley University in California who’d been tinkering with robots. “Our passion for personal robotics led us to believe that there is a better way to capture and share the world around us,” explained chief executive Antoine Balaresque on Medium. The company does not expect Lily to spark privacy arguments. “Lily is always pointing at you and less than 100ft from you. Also, Lily’s motors make noise,” explains its FAQ, in response to a question about spying on neighbours. “So other people will most likely notice Lily and quickly figure out where you are. You are better off climbing up a tree and using binoculars.” | ['technology/drones-non-military', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'technology/photography', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stuart-dredge', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-05-13T10:46:25Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global-development-professionals-network/2015/sep/22/meet-the-human-rights-lawyers-challenging-big-corporations | 'It's a noble struggle': the human rights lawyers taking on big corporations | I have spent the last year speaking to lawyers working at a grassroots level all over the world to understand their experience of protecting the vulnerable from corporate abuse. It’s been part of the work to build a lawyers’ directory for the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, which aims to help victims of abuse across the world find legal assistance. From the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand to Russia, we have heard heart-wrenching stories of victims being denied justice as lawyers themselves become targets of abuse. But we have also heard stories of unabated determination and powerful collaborations. We often associate corporate legal accountability with high-profile out-of-court settlements in UK or US courts, like the $83m settlement by Shell earlier this year for its role in Nigerian oil spills. However, there are lawyers on the ground all over the world helping affected people challenge abuse by companies and obtain justice. Their work is crucial, but often not widely publicised. These lawyers use the tools available to them to make companies accountable for human rights abuses. They include domestic legislation – tort, administrative and criminal law – as well as international and regional conventions. But often these legal tools are not fit for purpose, allowing companies to act with impunity. In response, lawyers use existing laws resourcefully and challenge unjust legislation to forge a path towards justice. Non-judicial mechanisms offer some opportunities to bring complaints to companies but as Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba, executive director of AfreWatch (Democratic Republic of Congo) points out, these routes produce a recommendation “which is pretty weak in terms of arriving at a satisfactory result for the victims”. The strategic and creative approaches these lawyers take with lawsuits means they often act as more than lawyers – they are also activists, defenders, mediators, campaigners and community leaders. But even getting to the point where a lawyer is asked to take on a case is a challenge. Several lawyers stressed that people are generally unaware of their rights, of relevant legislation, and of the way to use these tools, making them unable to stake a claim in an effort to uphold their rights. Even when they are aware, the duration and financial cost of launching legal proceedings deters many from seeking justice. In most cases, plaintiffs do not have the financial resources to pay a lawyer, and legal aid does not exist for corporate accountability cases. Lawyers, therefore, may receive no remuneration for their hard and hazardous work. It is often thanks to external funding that they can help plaintiffs in their quest for justice against corporations, but this support rarely covers all their needs. “We only have four lawyers working for us and often we need to ask others for help, but we cannot compensate them,” says Sor Rattanamanee Polkla of the Community Resource Centre in Thailand. When a case makes it to the courts the process is often marred by dysfunctional judiciaries in which judges lack training on how to deal with business and human rights cases. Often, these issues are simply not seen as a priority among the plethora of cases presented to courts. Without judicial independence, victims of abuse involving companies may never obtain justice, especially in large infrastructure or extractive projects where those companies receive major concessions from the government. “National authorities hold shares in the companies or play a protective role in exchange for a personal interest they have in them … Those in power, in Africa generally speaking, have nothing to do with common people. Economic interests prevail over other interests,” argues Nkumba. After the coup in Thailand last year, Polkla was targeted by the military, who attended her community meetings and told her to obtain official permission for gatherings. “The military seems more interested in protecting the development projects than the Thai people,” she says. Like many human rights defenders, these lawyers are subject to increasing legal harassment, including defamation lawsuits filed by companies. Human rights defender Febi Yonesta of LBH Jakarta (Indonesia) described them as “a weapon used by anyone who wants to silence us”. And risks do not just come through legal avenues. “There is no lack of threats – intimidation, attacks on one’s physical integrity, arrests. I have been threatened more than once,” says Nkumba. So what kind of changes do these lawyers ask for? At the domestic level, reforms are needed to allow class action lawsuits, and NGOs should be able to participate in legal proceedings. They also argue that creating criminal liability for companies would widen participation and open new avenues to justice. The international community must also share information on corporate human rights abuses globally. Polkla pointed out that foreign investors can help pressure companies into dialogue with lawyers and communities regarding allegations of abuse. Regional blocks such as the African Union and the European Union can also be more active in supporting and protecting lawyers working on corporate accountability. Yonesta says that the international community can help lawyers like him with funding support to ensure continuous advocacy and capacity-building. These lawyers want companies to understand that profit-making shouldn’t come at the expense of human rights, a consideration that should be mainstreamed into their activities. When tensions arise with communities or workers, it is vital that companies are open to dialogue with them and their legal representatives, which can help prevent lawsuits. Collaboration remains crucial – with the communities and individuals they represent, civil society organisations, governments and lawyers themselves – to push for accountability and explore new routes to justice, but also to protect themselves from the growing risks they face as they undertake this work. There is strength in numbers. As Foromo Frédéric Loua, a human rights lawyer from Guinea says: “I hope that other lawyers will join me in what I believe is a very noble struggle.” Elodie Aba is a legal researcher at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. | ['working-in-development/working-in-development', 'law/law', 'business/corporate-governance', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-09-22T07:00:13Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2018/jan/09/china-solar-highway-thieves-steal-panels | Daylight robbery: thieves steal chunk of China's new solar highway | Thieves in China have vandalised a newly opened solar highway, less than a week after the road was christened with much fanfare. The one-kilometre stretch of road in the eastern city of Jinan consists of solar panels under a layer of transparent concrete, allowing cars to drive over the photovoltaic cells. But just five days after it opened on 28 December, workers found a 1.8-metre section had been removed by thieves. Reports of the heist did not emerge until this week. Workers on the project suspected the burglars stole the panel in an attempt to duplicate the technology, since the materials themselves were inexpensive, according to local media. The concept of roads incorporating solar panels into the road has existed for years, but only recently have cities begun to build test projects. A solar bicycle path opened in Amsterdam in 2014 and a village in France opened a one-kilometre solar road in 2016. Those projects were plagued by high costs, and the highway section in China, which covers two lanes and an emergency lane, faced similar obstacles. The road cost about 3,000 yuan (£340) per square metre, according to an expert interviewed by state broadcast CCTV. Before the highway even opened there had been several attempts to steal components and technology, an employee at Shandong Pavenergy, the road’s developer, was quoted as saying. Unknown men often wandered around the construction site and took photos of the project. “Even after the project is done, people are still stealing,” he said. “It’s very upsetting.” The one-kilometre section of highway can generate up to 1m kilowatt-hours of power a year, enough to power about 800 homes, according to state news agency Xinhua. China has the most installed solar capacity at 78.1 gigawatts, almost double second place Japan. | ['world/china', 'environment/solarpower', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/energy', 'world/world', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/benjamin-haas', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2018-01-09T04:21:17Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/apr/10/people-who-blame-sickness-on-windfarms-may-be-bypassing-doctor | People who blame sickness on windfarms 'may be bypassing doctor' | The office of the national windfarm commissioner is concerned people are not going to the doctor because they are incorrectly attributing symptoms of illness to windfarms. Commissioner Andrew Dyer published his first report to the Australian parliament on 31 March which revealed the office had received 90 complaint between November 2015 and 31 December 2016. Complainants cited health conditions including “sleep disturbance, headaches, earaches, ‘pounding’ in the ears, tinnitus, tachycardia, high blood pressure, sight impairment, diabetes, chest-tightening, nausea and general fatigue”, which they blamed on both audible and low-frequency noise, “including infrasound, emanating from turbines”. Because complainants gave only “anecdotal evidence” it was difficult to establish causality with the windfarm’s operations, the report noted. It expressed concern that complainants may fail to seek medical advice “due to the possibly incorrect assumption” that a nearby windfarm was to blame. But the report also noted that the presence of a windfarm or concerns about a proposed one could cause stress, annoyance or anxiety that could, in turn, result in health conditions. When relating to a proposed windfarm, that pressure could extend for several years. “Debate continues around the world as to whether a windfarm causes physiological harm to residents living in its vicinity,” the report noted. It recommended that state and federal governments should continue to assess research, pointing to two studies funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council that were announced last year. Of the 90 total complaints, 46 were about nine operating windfarms, most in Victoria; 42 were about 19 proposed windfarms, most in New South Wales. A total of 67 complaints had been closed by the office, mostly because relevant information was supplied to the complainant, or they chose not to progress the matter. Among them were two complaints that did not specify a windfarm. The remaining 23 matters were “at various stages of the complaint-handling process”. The report did not specify how many people had made the 90 complaints. Guardian Australia has sought clarification from the commissioner’s office on this point. Of the 28 proposed and operating windfarms that complaints had been received about, Dyer had visited 17, and some multiple times “due to complainant activity”. There was no mention of the office’s budget or expenditure in its first report. The most common issues related to noise from turbines and health impacts, with many complaints raising more than one issue. Dyer’s role was independent and aimed to resolve complaints with “fact and evidence-based information”. It was reported that he had engaged with more than 500 stakeholders to 31 December 2016. The role of national windfarm commissioner was established when Tony Abbott was prime minister for an initial period of three years, for renumeration of $205,000 a year. The environment minister at the time, Greg Hunt, announced Dyer’s appointment in October 215. In February last year, Dyer said half the complaints his office had received pertained to windfarms that had yet to be built. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/health', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/elle-hunt', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2017-04-10T02:15:25Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2018/mar/27/huawei-p20-pro-smartphone-three-cameras-full-body-screen | Huawei says three cameras are better than one with P20 Pro smartphone | Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone is the P20 Pro, which has not one, not two, but three cameras on the back. The new P20, and the larger, more feature-packed P20 Pro, launched at an event in Paris that indicated the Chinese company is looking to match rivals Apple and Samsung and elevate the third-largest smartphone manufacture’s premium efforts. The P20 has a 5.8in FHD+ LCD while the larger P20 Pro has a 6.1in FHD+ OLED screen, both with a notch at the top similar to Apple’s iPhone X containing a 24-megapixel selfie camera. They both have a fingerprint scanner on the front but no headphone socket in the bottom. The P20 and P20 Plus are also available in pink gold or a blue twilight gradient colour finish that resembles pearlescent paint found on some cars – a first, Huawei says, for a glass-backed smartphone. The P20 has an improved version of Huawei’s Leica dual camera system, which pairs a traditional 12-megapixel colour camera to a 20-megapixel monochrome one, as used on the recent Mate 10 Pro. But the P20 Pro also has a third 8-megapixel telephoto camera below the first two, producing up to a 5x hybrid zoom – which Huawei says, enables the phone to “see brighter, further, faster and with richer colour”. “When I first heard that Huawei’s new flagship device was going to have three rear-facing cameras I was sceptical,” said Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight. “But it feels like the company has added meaningful features rather than gimmicks, including the five-times telephoto zoom, excellent low light, long exposure performance and crisp black and white pictures the dedicated monochrome lens offers.” Huawei has also improved its built-in AI system for the camera, which recognises objects and scenes, pre-selecting the best of 19 modes for the subject. “Master AI gets you the right skills for the right modes,” said Steve Lai, senior director for marketing at Huawei. “You might have the best paint and brushes, but you can’t produce Monet’s artwork without Monet’s knowledge.” Huawei’s AI will also help people straighten photos and zoom in or out to assist with composing group shots. The company is also pushing its new AI-powered stablisation for both photos and videos, which Huawei says solves the problem of wobbly hands in long-exposure night shots. The P20 and P20 Pro both have Huawei’s Kirin 970 processor, AI co-processor, 128GB of storage and 4GB or 6GB of memory respectively, but only the P20 Pro is water resistant to IP67 standards. “One of the biggest pieces of feedback we had was that people wanted a larger battery [than last year’s P10], so we took that feedback and put in a large battery in the very slim device,” said Lai. Huawei’s other large battery smartphone, the Mate 10 Pro, manages two days between charges, so the company has high hopes for the P20 Pro. Both smartphones will ship with the company’s EMUI 8.1 software, based on Android Oreo 8.1, making them one of the first devices outside of Google’s Pixel 2 smartphones to do so. “The P20 Pro is testament to Huawei’s ambition in the smartphone market, consistently improving the design, capabilities and appeal of its smartphones year on year. “I’m certain that the current smartphone market leaders Apple and Samsung will be looking over their shoulders at Huawei as a looming threat in the high-end mobile phone market. That said, Huawei still has a long way to go with regards the awareness and reputation of its brand in western markets – to me this is the biggest competitive advantage rivals currently still have.” Huawei Mate 10 Pro review: say hello to two-day battery life | ['technology/huawei', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/android', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-03-27T13:30:18Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/2019/may/20/extinction-rebellion-activist-european-elections-daze-aghaji | 'We can make a stand': the Extinction Rebellion activist hoping to be an MEP | Few prospective MEPs will be in the middle of their first year undergraduate exams when hundreds of millions of people across Europe go to the polls later this week. But 19-year-old Londoner Daze Aghaji believes now is the time for her generation to make a stand. “We are at a turning point,” says Aghaji. “This generation can take leadership and make this change happen or we are facing a genuinely terrible future – so I am trying to do something, to be part of a new politics, part of the new world I want to see.” Aghaji, who is studying history and politics at Goldsmiths University in south London, is standing as a Climate and Ecological Emergency Independent (CEEI) in Thursday’s European elections. The teenager – who has her sights set on breaking open the political system for the next generation, and maybe a new job as one of Europe’s youngest ever MEPs – is one of nine Extinction Rebellion activists who are standing as independents under the CEEI banner. The teenager is a ball of energy, conviction and warmth as she discusses her campaign over a cup of tea in a south London cafe. “Obviously it would be super cool to win a seat and I would make sure I made it count if that happens,” she says. “But to be honest the likelihood of me winning is pretty small.” When asked how she is managing to combine studying for exams and campaigning, she shrugs: “It is pretty full on. The course is amazing and this – well, this is a lot of work and stress on top of that.” After a brief pause, she adds: “But if not now, then when? What am I going to tell future generations – ‘I knew but I had other things to do, I was a bit busy?’” Born in north London, Aghaji started life in a small one-bedroom flat in Tottenham that she shared with her parents and two siblings. Aged 11, she went away to boarding school after her mum’s Afro-Caribbean restaurant took off. There, she fell in love with nature – and developed a vague but persistent concern that the natural world was struggling. “We are facing the breakdown of everything that we take for granted,” says Aghaji, who is a veteran of the school climate strikes as well as the Extinction Rebellion protests. “This is a chance to help create something really amazing. How could I let that pass by? Aghaji believes there is much more at stake in this week’s elections beyond who wins. The evidence of the scale and severity of the climate emergency is growing. Last year, the UN’s leading scientists warned that there were just 12 years to limit climate catastrophe. Earlier this month, another UN report warned that the widespread collapse of ecosystems was putting humanity itself at risk. Just last week it emerged that the Antarctic ice is melting much faster than previously feared. “I am here as a young black woman because I want to open that space, I want to show other young people from different backgrounds that we can make a stand, that we can seize this moment and make a difference. It is our future that is on the line.” A recurring critique of Extinction Rebellion and other environment movements has focused on their lack of diversity, both in terms of race and class. Aghaji, who says that since her mother’s restaurant took off she became part of a “new middle class” acknowledges there is a problem. “There is such an image here of black people not being involved in environmental stuff but if you look more globally then not only are they involved, they have been leading on this stuff for decades … We need to break that stigma of it being so white [in the UK].” She says the climate crisis is “an issue of class, of race, of age”, with “the poorest being hit the worst”. To get that message across, the CEEI has been holding workshops and events on housing estates across London – where seven out of the nine candidates are standing. “We are really trying to get out there into communities … starting conversations with people … people you wouldn’t see as ordinary environmentalists, but the reaction has been amazing, people really do care.” Over the past few months Aghaji says there has been a breakthrough in public understanding of the climate emergency, helped by the success of Extinction Rebellion, the school strike movement and the BBC’s David Attenborough documentary Climate Change – The Facts. And she says the younger generation – many even younger than her – are a growing source of hope and inspiration. “You can feel the soul, the passion running through the young people that are involved. Looking at the school strikes, I am happy that they are the next generation because they get this and they are on it … you don’t need to tell them how bad it is because they already know.” However, she acknowledges the challenges are huge. The climate crisis is not, she says, simply an environmental issue, it will have devastating consequences if unchecked, from food shortages to resource wars, the collapse of political and social systems to mass movements of people. But as she finishes her tea she insists there is still time to act. “I am a hopeless romantic,” says Aghaji with a smile. “This is a huge moment for this generation. If we get this right we can look back in 20 or 30 years and say we did a good job. We still have the chance to create something exciting out of this moment but that window is closing.” | ['politics/2019-european-parliamentary-elections', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/politics', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'uk/uk', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/interview', 'tone/features', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-05-20T10:00:37Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2018/jun/06/pumped-hydro-projects-unveiled-as-tasmania-bids-to-be-battery-of-the-nation | Pumped hydro projects unveiled as Tasmania bids to be 'battery of the nation' | Pumped hydro projects generating energy at twice the scale of the much-vaunted Snowy 2.0 scheme will be identified across Tasmania on Wednesday, with modelling suggesting the proposal could deliver thousands of jobs between now and 2028. The Turnbull and Hodgman governments will confirm that 14 pumped hydro sites have been earmarked across the state with a combined potential generation capacity of up to 4,800 megawatts. The projects add to Tasmania’s “battery of the nation” concept – a plan to double the state’s renewable energy capacity by developing pumped hydro energy storage, building windfarms and upgrading existing generation assets. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Under the plan, renewable energy would be exported to the mainland if a planned second interconnector goes ahead. During his visit to Tasmania, the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, is also expected to unveil support for a windfarm project in the marginal seat of Braddon, which is one of the seats being contested in the so-called “super Saturday” byelection contests. The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has been campaigning in the seat over the past few days. In April the Turnbull government allocated $2.5m to a feasibility study examining the possible replacement of the Tarraleah power station, and the viability of separate pumped hydro projects, including four adding about 2,500MW hours, which would nearly double the capacity of Tasmania’s hydro system. Pumped hydro storage works by pumping from a lower reservoir into a higher reservoir when energy is cheap and then dropping the water downhill through a turbine to create electricity when energy is expensive and in high demand. Frydenberg said in a statement before Wednesday’s announcement that identifying the optimal sites, “along with the business case study for a second Tasmanian interconnector”, would improve the affordability and reliability of the national electricity market. “The next step for the 14 high potential sites is a 12-month pre-feasibility assessment, including surveying to the highest available accuracy, modelling of both the market and water resource and identifying environmental, cultural and social impacts,” the energy minister said. Funding to identify the Tasmanian sites was provided through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Thirty potential sites were identified, with 14 lake sites classified as high potential. The federal and state governments have also jointly funded the business case for the second interconnector, to the tune of $20m. Economic modelling conducted as part of the “battery of the nation” proposal suggests it would create up to $5bn in new investment and 3,000 regional jobs. | ['environment/hydropower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/tasmania', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/tasmania-politics', 'australia-news/josh-frydenberg', 'environment/windpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2018-06-05T22:22:48Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2009/oct/21/adobe-photoshop-elements-8-mac | Technophile | Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac reviewed | There's a lot of packaging involved with the latest version of Adobe's Photoshop Elements for Mac (version 8, and no, I don't know what happened to version 7, either). One great big cardboard box contains the usual slimline DVD holder and a couple of bits of paper, one of which is a moderately useful getting-started guide. That's one of the improvements on the previous version, when we grumbled about the lack of useful documentation in the box. Another improvement is a slightly faster install time: 15 minutes instead of 20. It's still a sucky routine, though – double-click the DVD icon, find the installer app, double-click that. Come on, Adobe, it's time you joined the rest of the world and your Mac apps could be dragged into the Applications folder. Anyway, the good news is that it works with Snow Leopard – I had a momentary "oh hell, what if it doesn't" wibble. It does. So what else is new? Elements 8 has acquired some of the tricks that full-fat Photoshop did in CS4, including intelligent resizing, which means you can stretch/squash an image without distorting it. And there's cosmetic surgery – you can whiten teeth with, yes, the toothbrush tool. More usefully, it's now reasonably easy to remove unwanted elements from photographs. If you've since ditched a boyfriend who appears in all the pictures from last Christmas, he can be airbrushed from history in just six steps. And you can create composite images: so if Aunt Edna looked more than a little squiffy on one too many champagne cocktails in some of those Christmas shots, you can save her blushes by transposing a shot taken before her third Singapore sling. As on previous versions, the image management application Bridge is included, and it too has gained a few tricks. You can flip through images in full-screen mode, rating them as you go. You can also create PDFs and web galleries in Bridge – there are several templates available, including a Flash gallery. It runs pretty fast on my 18-month-old MacBook Air, which, with its 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM is not the speediest and newest machine on the planet, opening and handling images across my wireless network impressively well. So that's a good thing. And there is an awful lot happening under the hood – you could spend weeks tinkering and playing with everything Adobe stuffs into this package. But is it just too much bang for your buck? Will you ever really get to grips with everything? The price is hefty – the full version if you buy it direct from Adobe's website is £74.75; and all the tabs, options and sliders are daunting even for an experienced user. If you've got version 6, don't rush to upgrade. If you've got a family member with a shiny new Mac, good photographic knowledge and bags of enthusiasm (plus you've got deep pockets), Elements 8 is a fantastic gift. Pros: Lots of clever new tricks gained from the CS4 version of Photoshop, runs well on older Macs and works with Snow Leopard Cons: Expensive, daunting interface http://bit.ly/elements8mac | ['technology/series/technophile', 'technology/photography', 'technology/apple', 'technology/software', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/technology', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/katebevan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/technologyguardian', 'theguardian/technologyguardian/technology'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-10-21T14:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/article/2024/jun/22/this-queensland-farmer-lost-half-his-sheep-in-a-bloody-attack-but-was-it-wild-dogs-or-rogue-pets | This Queensland farmer lost half his sheep in a bloody attack – but was it wild dogs or rogue pets? | On the picturesque foothills of the Great Dividing Range, west of Brisbane, sheep graziers Jim and Debbie Dieckmann woke up to a massacre. “The further I walked the more I saw, dead ones, others trying to get up with punctured lungs, their guts hanging out, udders torn to pieces,” Jim says. “It’s gut wrenching, it brings you to tears sometimes.” In the early hours of the morning, almost all of their sheep were mauled by dogs. Once infection set in, the death count rose to 34 – about half their flock. It’s the deadliest attack by “wild dogs” – a catch-all term describing any canine roaming wild, including dingoes – that Jim has seen in 50 years of sheep grazing, and in this region, he says, and it’s getting worse. The Dieckmanns used to run a commercial sheep property further west but down-sized to a smaller block (and flock) a few years ago. They now have one of a growing number of smaller land holdings subdivided from larger blocks that have popped up on Australia’s eastern seaboard as tree-changers flock to the regions for a slice of country life. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter According to Greg Mifsud, the national wild dog management coordinator at the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, that trend is contributing to a “breakdown of coordinated management programmes that kept those dog populations under control”. Smaller holdings are less inclined to practise “wild dog” management, or are often too small to legally bait or shoot dogs on their property, Mifsud says. “We are now seeing dogs moving into areas and causing more harm,” he says. This shift in land ownership is also bringing more domestic dogs into rural areas, whose owners may be unaware of the risks of letting their dogs wander. Mifsud says tree-changers need to be aware of the “additional responsibilities of dog ownership” that come when living near farmland. Debbie and Jim found a myriad of paw prints too large to be a dingoes after the attack, and they say the profile of the bites, mostly on the sheep’s necks, suggest they came from a pack of rogue domesticated dogs. That distinction between a domestic dog and dingo is an important but often difficult one to make, says the Deakin University professor of wildlife and conservation, Euan Ritchie. “We need to make sure we attribute the cause to the right source,” he says. “Because that’s obviously influencing policy with regards to dingoes.” That policy – wild dog control, which costs the economy an estimated $302m annually in management and agriculture losses – has proved highly contentious in Australia, splitting opinions among conservationists and First Nations peoples, challenging government departments, and differing from grazier to grazier. The debate’s latest battleground is in Victoria, after the state government put an end to the killing of dingoes in the state’s north-west to save the species from localised extinction. That makes it the first state to protect dingoes on private land. The announcement was welcomed by conservationists, First Nations peoples and animal rights groups, but drew strong criticism from the Victorian Farmers Federation who say it will lead to more attacks on livestock. Its president, Emma Germano, says rural communities have been “blind-sided” by the announcement and are “completely unprepared”. In another incident in Victoria, a farmer will face court next month for allegedly shooting two domestic dogs on his property that were attacking his sheep. Meanwhile, reforms passed in South Australia last month increased penalties for owners of dogs that cause injury or death to another animal or person from $2,500 to a maximum of $25,000. How the issue is defined is contentious too. Conservationists are calling for the term “wild dog” to be dropped, after research found the majority of wild canines are purebred dingoes, rather than cross-breeds of introduced species as previously thought. But for graziers, this distinction is for the most part irrelevant, says Stephen Tully, the sheep, wool and goat president of Queensland’s peak farming lobby group, Agforce. “Dingoes and wild dogs can’t cohabitate with small livestock, it’s as simple as that,” he says. Tully, a sheep grazier in western Queensland, says exclusion fencing, trapping and coordinated baiting have kept dog populations at a “maintenance level”. Ritchie says research shows non-lethal approaches are a more effective and humane way to manage dingoes. Queensland grazier Bruce McLeish has used guard donkeys to protect his flock. He says they significantly reduced the number of sheep killed by dogs, but are “not a cure, just another tool to try to minimise losses”. Maremma sheepdogs are another popular guardian animal, but Mifsud says they can be a problem on smaller land holdings. “Their incessant barking just drove neighbours nuts,” he says. On the Dieckmann’s property, Jim has been feeding the surviving sheep hay in a small holding paddock while he extends the dog-proof fence around the entire property. Exclusion fencing can keep sheep safe but is costly and prohibits the movement of native wildlife through an area, Debbie says. “They aren’t always greeted favourably within the community, but if your livelihood depends on keeping the animals out, what can you do?” Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community | ['australia-news/series/the-rural-network', 'australia-news/rural-australia', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'australia-news/series/rural-network', 'profile/aston-brown', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-rural-network'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-06-22T00:00:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/apr/04/british-farmers-want-basic-income-to-cope-with-post-brexit-struggles | British farmers want basic income to cope with post-Brexit struggles | Farmers are calling for the government to grant them a universal basic income, saying the post-Brexit agriculture subsidy scheme has left many poorer. Delays to the sustainable farming schemes put in place after the UK left the European Union, to replace the common agricultural policy (CAP), have meant that in England many farmers have been left out of pocket. The new regime initially suffered from low subscription rates, and the government has underspent hundreds of millions from the £2.4bn farming budget each year due to lack of sign-up. Scotland and Wales have different farming schemes, and Northern Ireland has not yet set up its new scheme due to Stormont not having sat for two years. In Wales, there have been protests over plans to ask farmers to set aside 20% of their farms for nature and tree planting. Government projections and independent analysis have shown that the new nature payments schemes will not plug the gap left by the lack of EU subsidies for most farmers. The nature schemes were never meant to replace the CAP payments exactly, and instead are aimed at paying farmers to provide public goods. Now, at least 100 farmers have signed up to a new campaign group, BI4Farmers, to ask for a universal basic income (UBI) for all farmers in Britain. The campaigners said that farmers across the UK were “basically kept afloat” by EU subsidies and now risk going out of business. Analysis by the organic farming group Riverford has found that half of farmers surveyed said they may go out of business due to post-Brexit trade deals, uncertainty over farming payment schemes and rising costs. Jo Poulton, the BI4Farmers coordinator, said: “British farmers are overworked and underpaid but the Brexit process presents an ideal opportunity to change this. “A basic income for farmers would guarantee an adequate income, improving access to time off and reasonable working hours and making entering a career in farming affordable for new entrants.” Sustainable farming groups have also shared their support for a UBI for farmers to enable to them to experiment with nature friendly farming methods such as using fewer pesticides without sacrificing their income. Will White, sustainable farming campaign coordinator at Sustain, said: “Universal basic income could be an important safety net for farm workers and small new entrant growers, providing financial security that liberates them to pursue agro-ecological practices without the looming pressure of financial survival. “When paired with better funding for environmental land management schemes, UBI has the potential to significantly bolster the agricultural sector’s overall resilience. Looking into radical yet promising solutions like this is essential. We support a deeper exploration of how basic income policies could work in the UK context and are watching this campaign with interest.” Ruth West, a cofounder of the Oxford Real Farming Conference, added: “Concerned citizens, farmers in dire straits, policymakers and all those who care about a fairer food system should get onboard and help move this practical, doable plan to the next phase. “BI4Farmers presents us with a golden opportunity for a sustainable farming future. It’s an opportunity we must not miss.” | ['environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/england', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-04T05:00:09Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2020/dec/15/fishing-boat-washes-up-in-japan-almost-10-years-after-it-was-lost-in-tsunami | Fishing boat washes up in Japan almost 10 years after it was lost in tsunami | A fishing boat has reappeared on the shores of Japan almost a decade after it was swept out into the Pacific – and possibly as far as the west coast of the United States – by a huge tsunami that killed thousands of people and triggered a nuclear disaster. The tiny boat was found off Hachijo island earlier this month, nine years and nine months after it disappeared into the ocean off Kesennuma, a town 650km [403 miles] to the north. The March 2011 tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0-earthquake, killed more than 18,000 people and destroyed a large swathe of coastline. A local fishing cooperative confirmed that the 5.5-metre fibreglass boat had once belonged to the Kesennuma fishing fleet after checking its registration number, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. The large quantity of coral found attached to the boat’s interior has prompted speculation about where it had drifted to before ending up on Hachijo, located about 300km south of Tokyo. One local expert cited by the Mainichi said it could have been swept across the Pacific to an area near the US west coast, after which it was taken to south-east Asia on the north equatorial current, which flows east to west. The north-flowing Kuroshio current could have then brought the vessel “home” to Japan, the expert added. Many items of debris made the long journey across the Pacific after the tsunami, whose height and power contributed to the reactor meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In April 2012, just over a year after the triple disaster, a couple living on Middleton island in the Gulf of Alaska found a soccer ball whose markings identified it as belonging to a school in Iwate, one of three prefectures that were hardest hit by the tsunami. The same month, a US coastguard sank a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska that had drifted from Japan, after deeming it a hazard to shipping. In May that year, a Harley-Davidson lost in the tsunami washed up on a Canadian island about 6,430km away. The rusty motorcycle was found in a large white container, and its owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, was identified through the its number plate. | ['world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/japan', 'world/world', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-12-15T05:03:53Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2018/aug/14/fighting-for-coal-while-supporting-farmers-thats-like-screwing-for-virginity | Fighting for coal while supporting farmers? How's that for logic | Peter Lewis | Back in the days when we thought the world would be obliterated in a nuclear conflict, there was a coarse metaphor to describe the build-up of arms in the name of deterrence. It was along the lines of “fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity”.* Australian politics is currently gripped by a similar logic inversion, with the elected representatives of drought-affected farmers going to the barricades to fight for coal. Seriously. Today in the Coalition party room National party MPs, including their fallen leader, set a government owned coal-fired power station as their price for supporting the government’s admittedly deficient framework to manage the transition to a lower carbon economy. They did so with a belligerent disregard for the warnings of scientists that the ongoing reliance on coal as an energy source is a key driver of the sorts of extreme weather events that are right now threatening the livelihoods of their constituents. Wiped of the technical speak and acronyms, the scenario is stark. The government will only support an energy market transition if it means burning more coal. Like screwing for virginity. Of course, there is no mention of the drought in these deliberations – that is another line item on the agenda where the National party plaintively demands more taxpayer funds to support the drought-affected farmers; surely humanity’s most worthy welfare recipients. An argument that the drought and energy debate shouldn’t be connected is shielded by the fig-leaf that when there is a tragedy – bushfire, flood or drought – there is something blasphemous about “politicising” an act of God by pointing to the scientific consensus that human-induced climate change is a factor. That quaint little convention though seems to be coming to an end, with growing numbers of citizens who endure these unnatural disasters willing to speak out. We saw it after the Tathra bushfires and more recently the Queensland drought. The Greens have been copping it for some time for making the link; now opposition leader Bill Shorten, fresh from a trip to the drought affected areas, is weighing into the story too – making the link explicit while seconding a motion from the PM in support of drought victims. According to this week’s Essential Report those prepared to draw the link and reflect the zeitgeist; a majority of people think the link is likely, just a quarter think it unlikely. Those most likely to think it is linked to climate change were unsurprisingly Greens voters and Labor voters. Coalition voters were more tightly split while it was only supporters of the conservative minor parties who dismiss the link. University educated and younger voters are also more likely to join the dots (go figure). What these findings suggest is that even as the Coalition attempts to compartmentalise the energy debate from the drought, the public won’t give them that luxury. This is not to say there is ill will towards the farmers; there is strong public support for government subsidies. But what is notable in a separate question is the other really popular government subsidy is for the renewable sector, the very energy sources the Neg will disadvantage. Australia’s last major drought was in 2007 and it was a game-changer for conservative climate politics. It was the moment when the impacts of climate change became real and the then prime minister John Howard was forced to reluctantly discard his scepticism and accept an emissions trading scheme under the weight of public expectation. Ever since then the Coalition policy has been driven by political pragmatism, doing just enough to meet the demands of the day. Howard later recanted his commitment, Turnbull traded in his resolve for political power while Tony Abbott has now bizarrely claimed to have been bullied into action. With another drought now setting an external context for energy policy, the Nationals desperately tried to portray today’s meeting as being about energy prices, energy security, anything but the actual point of the exercise. But in turning a blind eye to the long-term impact of their actions they open themselves up to the accusation that they have sold out their people in the name of their passionate, yet unrequited, love of coal. The Nationals are violating the very people they claim to have fidelity for. They are screwing for virginity. * Just to pre-empt the comments section, yes, Reagan sent the Soviet Union bankrupt through the build-up of nuclear arms. And yes, the Big One never blew. But today there are estimated 15,000 nuclear warheads with new regimes joining the nuclear club on a regular basis. The world doesn’t feel that peaceful. • Peter Lewis is the executive director of Essential and a Guardian Australia columnist | ['australia-news/series/the-guardian-essential-report', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/essential-poll', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/peter-lewis-australia', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-08-14T03:27:44Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
film/2011/mar/28/james-cameron-avatar-2-brazil | James Cameron plans Avatar 2 training trip to Brazilian rainforest | It may not be Pandora, the lush moon of his blockbuster film Avatar, but according to James Cameron, the Brazilian rainforest is the next best thing. Speaking at a sustainability forum last week, the Canadian director said he wanted to bring the cast of the film's forthcoming sequels to south America to learn about "the natives and what real life in the jungle is like". Cameron added: "Avatar is a film about the rainforest and its indigenous people. Before I start to shoot the two films I want to bring my actors here, so I can better tell this story." The film-maker was in Manaus, Brazil for the second International Forum on Sustainability, which also played host to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton. The ex-California governor and his former Terminator director introduced a number of debates on sustainability. On Wednesday, Cameron reportedly took Schwarzenegger to the Xingu River, a region previously threatened by the planned construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric damn in nearby Brasilia. Cameron has spoken out in the past against the project, which is on hold after being blocked by a Brazilian judge last month on the grounds that it had failed to meet environmental requirements. "I introduced [Schwarzenegger] to some of the indigenous leaders whom I met last year," said the director. On Thursday, Cameron met five members of the Amazonian Caiapo tribe, including chief Raoni, at a restaurant with a small group of journalists. Raoni had earlier baptised him with the name Krapremp-ti, meaning "man who is friend of the jungle". Cameron said: "If I had met the Caiapos before making Avatar, I would certainly have made a better film." He plans to shoot a 3D "experiential" documentary about the plight of the region's people and their battle against Belo Monte. The film-maker revealed in January that Avatar parts two and three would be shot back to back and released in December 2014 and 2015. He said a certain amount of the profits from the series would go to environmental causes. | ['film/film', 'film/jamescameron', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/brazil', 'film/arnold-schwarzenegger', 'film/sciencefictionandfantasy', 'culture/culture', 'tone/news', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'film/avatar', 'type/article', 'profile/benchild'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-03-28T11:29:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2022/jul/25/bunnings-and-kmart-halt-use-of-facial-recognition-in-stores-as-australian-privacy-watchdog-investigates | Bunnings and Kmart halt use of facial recognition technology in stores as privacy watchdog investigates | Kmart and Bunnings have paused the use of facial recognition technology in their stores, amid an investigation from Australia’s privacy regulator. Consumer group Choice last month revealed Bunnings and Kmart were using the technology – which captures images of people’s faces from video cameras as a unique faceprint that is then stored and can be compared with other faceprints – in what the companies say is a move to protect customers and staff and reduce theft in select stores. The two companies are now being investigated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) over their use of the technology and whether it is consistent with privacy laws. Bunnings managing director Mike Schneider confirmed an AFR report that the company had informed the OAIC that Bunnings had stopped using the technology. Schneider accused Choice of “mischaracterising” the issue, stating that the technology was used only to detect when a person who has been banned from Bunnings stores enters a store. “When we have customers berate our team, pull weapons, spit, or throw punches – we ban them from our stores. But a ban isn’t effective if it’s hard to enforce,” he said. “Facial recognition gives us a chance to identify when a banned person enters a store so we can support our team to handle the situation before it escalates.” Schneider said regular customers did not have their images retained in the system. The technology, however, needs to scan the face of every customer entering the store to check against the database of banned customers. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The technology was already temporarily switched off in Bunnings stores as the company moves to a new system. A spokesperson for Kmart also confirmed it had also ceased using the technology. “We have temporarily stopped the use of this technology in our small number of trial stores given the commencement of the OAIC investigation,” the spokesperson said. Kmart believes the use of the technology for “preventing criminal activity such as refund fraud” is appropriate and subject to strict controls, the spokesperson said. Choice’s consumer data advocate, Kate Bower, welcomed the decisions but said the technology should be stopped permanently. “Choice eagerly awaits the information commissioner’s decision on whether Kmart and Bunnings have breached the Privacy Act in their use of facial recognition technology. This will be a landmark decision that will guide the use of controversial facial recognition technology in Australia.” It comes as 17 retail chains have told Choice this week they don’t use the technology in their stores, and have no plans to introduce it. Those retailers include Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Target, Big W, Myer, David Jones, Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Vintage Cellars, Liquorland, Rebel and Officeworks. The Good Guys earlier paused its use of the technology after preliminary inquiries from the OAIC and said at the time: “The Good Guys take the confidentiality of personal information extremely seriously and remains confident that the trial complied with all applicable laws.” | ['technology/facial-recognition', 'world/privacy', 'business/retail', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-taylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-07-25T05:38:16Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/sep/20/signs-of-the-times-the-best-climate-strike-placards | Signs of the times: the best Australian climate strike placards | Laughing in the face of looming apocalypse, Friday’s climate strike brought out the best in dark Australian humour. While many signs were deadly serious, teens are nothing if not witty and they came armed with memes and pop culture references. From classic “roses are red” poems to quips such as “I’ve seen smarter cabinets in Ikea,” the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out across the country got creative. Some referenced the prime minister’s earlier criticism that students should stay in school, returning sledges in style. Others drew on long memories to rework the “where the bloody hell are you” slogan Scott Morrison so kindly gifted the nation when he ran Tourism Australia, or noted the lack of jobs, beer and Engadine Maccas on a dead planet. But the message across it all was clear: it’s up to governments to take serious action against this threat to our survival. All the keep cups in the world won’t negate the impact of new coal mines, and pretending the climate isn’t changing won’t work either. As many a sign said: “Denial is not a policy.” Or in the words of another, picturing ScoMo holding his infamous lump of coal: “Break up with your girlfriend. I’m bored.” | ['environment/school-climate-strikes', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helen-davidson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/school-climate-strikes | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-09-20T08:49:11Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
media/pda/2009/jan/06/bbc-iplayer | iPlayer users notch up 8m requests in Christmas week | The BBC's statistics for the iPlayer this Christmas aren't too surprising, but the online catch-up service has clearly established itself as a mainstream alternative to scheduled TV. Wallace and Gromit's A Matter of Loaf and Death was, of course, the most popular show and contributed to 8m programme requests to the iPlayer in the seven days between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Doctor Who came in second, Top Gear's Vietnam odyssey third and Gavin and Stacey's Christmas special was fourth. Blackadder Rides Again is at a disappointing 14 in the list, but us Blackadder faithful tuned in on the night, probably as we couldn't bear to wait for it... There were 41m requests for programmes on the iPlayer during the whole of December, up from 35m in November, and the total number of requests for both downloads and streamed catch-up reached 271m for the whole of 2008. The BBC's future media and technology director, Erik Huggers, wasted no time is claiming this proved 2008 was the year of iPlayer. "The service evolved dramatically throughout its first 12 months," he said. "We've just introduced downloading for Mac and Linux users, and a special version of BBC iPlayer for CBBC - and the innovation will continue in 2009." The top 20 for Christmas week: 1 Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death 2 Doctor Who: The Next Doctor 3 Top Gear series 12 episode 8 (Vietnam) 4 Gavin and Stacey Christmas special 5 The Royle Family: The New Sofa 6 EastEnders 26.12.08 7 Outnumbered series 2 episode 7 8 EastEnders 25.12.08 21:00 9 EastEnders 29.12.08 10 EastEnders 25.12.08 20:00 11 Mock the Week series 6 episode 13 12 Have I Got News for You Christmas special 2008 13 EastEnders 30.12.08 14 Blackadder Rides Again 15 The 39 Steps 16 Top Gear series 9 episode 3 17 Never Mind the Buzzcocks series 18 episode 4 18 EastEnders 24.12.08 19 Survivors episode 6 20 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special 2008 | ['media/pda', 'media/bbc', 'media/iplayer', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'media/digital-media', 'technology/television', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'media/online-tv', 'media/video-on-demand', 'type/article', 'profile/jemimakiss'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-01-06T15:03:15Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/apr/29/budget-earmarks-500m-to-mitigate-great-barrier-reef-climate-change | Budget earmarks $500m to mitigate Great Barrier Reef climate change | The Turnbull government will allocate $500m to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef. The funding, to be unveiled on Sunday and confirmed in the May budget, follows a recent study finding that 30% of the reef’s corals died in a catastrophic nine-month marine heatwave in 2016. The government will partner with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in a $444m agreement to tackle crown-of-thorns starfish, reduce pollution and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The government will increase funding for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Department of the Environment and Energy by $56m to expand environmental management and compliance operations. • Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Both of the major parties are currently focused on winning hearts and minds in Queensland, with the state’s marginal seats likely to determine the outcome of the next federal election. The Coalition has been criticised by environment groups for not acting fast enough to protect the reef, and the government’s support for the Adani coalmine has also been controversial both locally and nationally because of its potential impact on the reef. In January Guardian Australia revealed that millions of dollars of commonwealth money was being handed to tourism-linked groups for reef protection, despite official advice recommending against the projects, or repeatedly finding them to be failing. Earlier this year, the head of the United Nations environment program warned the battle to save the world’s coral reefs was at “make-or-break point”. Erik Solheim said governments needed to intensify concrete actions including limiting greenhouse gas emissions, plastic pollution and impacts from agriculture. In a statement issued in advance of Sunday’s announcement, the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the new funding was an investment in the health of the reef and the tourism jobs dependent on it. “Like reefs all over the world, the Great Barrier Reef is under pressure,” Turnbull said. “A big challenge demands a big investment – and this investment gives our reef the best chance.” Turnbull said the reef restoration science associated with the funding would be shared internationally and with Pacific neighbours. “As a highly respected philanthropic organisation, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has a strong fundraising track record, and will seek corporate contributions to further enhance this work,” the prime minister said. The funding package includes $201m for improving water quality with changed farming practices such as reduced fertiliser use, $100m for reef restoration science, $58m to combat the crown-of-thorns starfish, $45m for community engagement, including drawing on Indigenous traditional knowledge for sea country management, and $40m for monitoring reef health. The study on coral mass mortality, published in Nature and led by Terry Hughes, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies – published in April – examined the link between the level of heat exposure, subsequent coral bleaching and ultimately coral death. It found that 29% of the 3,863 reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef lost two-thirds or more of their corals. It said “initially, at the peak of temperature extremes in March 2016, many millions of corals died quickly in the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef over a period of only two to three weeks”. “These widespread losses were not due to the attrition of corals that slowly starved because they failed to regain their symbionts. Rather, temperature-sensitive species of corals began to die almost immediately in locations that were exposed to heat stress.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/coral', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-04-28T20:25:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/oct/22/electric-cars-to-get-green-number-plates-in-new-government-plan | Electric cars to get green number plates under government plan | Green coloured number plates will be issued for electric cars under government plans to encourage drivers to buy zero-emission vehicles. The government said the new licence plates would make the least polluting cars easily identifiable and help their drivers benefit from incentives such as free parking or access to clean air zones. A consultation has been launched on the proposals, modelled on a scheme in Canada which appeared to push up electric car sales. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “Green number plates are a really positive and exciting way to help everyone recognise the increasing number of electric vehicles on our roads. “By increasing awareness of these vehicles and the benefits they bring to their drivers and our environment, we will turbo-charge the zero-emission revolution.” The Department for Transport said the green number plates would provide a useful visual identifier for local authorities pushing schemes for zero-emission vehicles, potentially allowing them to use bus or other priority lanes. The plates would retain black lettering but on a green background, although the design could be modified to a simple green stripe or blob after the consultation. The government’s behavioural insights team (Bit) said the distinctive plates would make people aware of fellow drivers’ decisions to drive greener vehicles. Elisabeth Costa, a senior director at Bit, said: “The number of clean vehicles on our roads is increasing but we don’t notice, as it’s difficult to tell clean vehicles apart from more polluting ones. Green number plates make these vehicles, and our decision to drive in a more environmentally friendly way, more visible on roads. “We think making the changing social norm noticeable will help encourage more of us to swap our cars for cleaner options.” The government has said it wants to ban the sale of fossil-fuelled cars after 2040, as part of its Road to Zero strategy, although hybrids are currently exempted. Shapps has said he would push for a 2035 deadline instead. The consultation will seek views on what types of vehicles should be included in the green plate scheme. Hybrids and electric cars were both included in the scheme in Ontario, Canada, which introduced green plates almost a decade ago, allowing drivers to use lanes otherwise reserved for high-occupancy vehicles. The UK government is also currently consulting on whether all new homes with parking space should have mandatory electric car charge points built in. | ['environment/electric-cars', 'politics/transport', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'technology/motoring', 'uk/transport', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2019-10-21T23:01:45Z | true | EMISSIONS |
politics/2019/sep/24/labour-unveils-83bn-state-windfarms-plan-before-key-climate-vote | Labour unveils £83bn state windfarms plan before key climate vote | Labour is promising to build dozens of new state-owned offshore windfarms, at a cost of £83bn in public and private money. The plan comes as members prepare to debate the climate emergency at their party conference in what could be a fierce contest between heavyweight unions and grassroots campaigners. On Tuesday, delegates will be asked to vote on the party’s target to cut the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero. Two motions are to be put to members, one with a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2030 – which would be much more stringent than the government’s current target of net zero by 2050 – and one backed by the GMB union, which does not set a date. The motions emerged from the “compositing” process after 128 constituency parties sent climate-related motions to the conference. The 2030 motion came from the pressure group Labour for a Green New Deal and has the support of several smaller unions. Both motions could pass. Lauren Townsend, trade unionist and spokesperson for Labour for a Green New Deal, said: “Delegates have a clear choice: they can vote to lead the way on climate, responding to youth strikers’ calls for a 2030 decarbonisation target, or they could vote for a motion which risks leaving Labour with the least ambitious climate target of any major party.” The party leadership is focusing its efforts on the “green industrial revolution”, its strategy for reviving the economy, creating high-quality jobs and tackling the climate emergency, spearheaded by the shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey. She pointed to the proposals for new offshore windfarms as a prime example of how the strategy would work. The new farms, which would provide electricity for 57m homes, were needed because the construction of new turbines by the private sector was too slow, despite falling costs, she said. The profits from the power generation would be reinvested to benefit coastal communities and tackle the climate emergency. Public ownership would ensure jobs and revenue stayed in the UK, she added. “[We can] learn from countries such as Norway and Sweden by owning what is already ours,” she said. “By taking a stake in offshore wind, we can collectively benefit from the profits, investing them back in our held-back coastal communities. Instead of jackets for windfarms in Scotland being made in Indonesia, we’ll bring those jobs back to Fife.” Labour would invest £6.2bn from its proposed £250bn national transformation fund in the new windfarms, along with a matching amount from the regional energy agencies which would replace the renationalised National Grid. The remaining £70bn would be sought from private sector investors, and the new windfarms would be 51% owned by the public. A projected £600m to £1bn a year in profits would go to coastal communities for amenities such as harbour fronts, parks, leisure centres and libraries, with the remainder invested in improvements to the energy system and measures to combat global heating. Other “green industrial revolution” proposals include a £3.6bn national network of electric vehicle charging stations, solar panels for low-income and social housing tenants, and a programme of insulation for fuel-poor households. Sue Ferns, senior deputy general secretary at the Prospect union, said: “This focus on how to drive up low-carbon generation while lowering costs and encouraging quality unionised UK jobs is welcome. It is essential that we retain the jobs and skills that we have in traditional [power] generation and create new jobs – a strong government role could be central to delivering that.” Businesses have been more cautious on the green industrial plan. James Diggle, head of energy and climate change at the CBI employers’ organisation, said: “Firms will welcome the Labour party making growth in low-carbon technologies and green jobs a priority. The emphasis on increasing renewable energy is backed by the business [community]. To meet net zero emissions by 2050 we need ambitious policy. Labour’s proposals to invest in energy efficiency, introduce a zero-carbon homes policy and support uptake of low-emission vehicles all support this ambition.” But he added: “In the huge push to reach net zero as fast and as cost-effectively as possible, renationalisation will disrupt the investment needed across water, rail and energy that all contribute to reducing emissions.” | ['politics/labour-conference-2019', 'politics/labourconference', 'politics/labour', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/energy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2019-09-24T05:00:36Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2014/mar/06/eric-pickles-double-standards-fracking-windfarm | Eric Pickles guilty of 'double standards' over energy planning applications | The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, is guilty of "double standards" because of the much greater local scrutiny applied to windfarm applications compared to fracking plans, according to a green energy boss. Greater consultation with local communities is demanded for wind turbine plans and, while wind applications are dealt with at a local level, shale gas plans go to the more distant county councils. "Eric Pickles has become an outspoken advocate of localism, insisting that local voices are heard on planning decisions regarding wind power," said Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity. "Yet local voices are being completely bypassed when it comes to shale gas fracking. This is a clear double standard." Onshore windfarms have become highly controversial, particularly in rural constituencies and since 100 Conservative MPs wrote to David Cameron in 2012, demanding planning rules were changed to enhance "the chances of local people defeating unwanted onshore windfarms" and that the subsidies were "dramatically cut". Since then, subsidies have been cut and tougher planning rules have been introduced. But communities minister Kris Hopkins told the Guardian he "made no apologies" for the changes to planning guidance. Vince said the lighter scrutiny being applied to fracking projects makes it far harder for opponents to submit objections. In January, Pickles overruled the recommendation of the planning inspector and rejected an appeal by Ecotricity for a four-turbine windfarm on the Somerset Levels. There is only one turbine in the entire county. Under rules developed by Pickles's Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), companies wanting to erect even a single turbine of more than 15 metres tall must conduct a "pre-consulation" with local communities before submitting the planning application. This requires the majority of local residents to be informed of the plan and given details of where to submit complaints. Pre-consulation is not required for fracking projects. Once an application is submitted, wind power developers must allow at least 28 days for public consultation for any farm of more than 50MW, while just 14 days is required for shale gas plans. Furthermore, wind turbine applications are made to local authorities but fracking applications go to the Mineral Planning Authority (MPA), which in England is the county council or unitary authority. DCLG guidance on shale gas applications state: "MPAs should give great weight to the benefits of minerals extraction, including to the economy, when determining planning applications." "Pickles said 'no should mean no' when it comes to wind projects but I think he is afraid to give the same local people a say on fracking," Vince said. "Ministers seem to be running scared of their own localism agenda, their own Frankenstein's monster. Local people should have a say on fracking, but these decisions are put in the hands of the obscure Minerals Planning Authority." Ecotricity has pledged not to invest in or supply gas from fracking to its customers and on Thursday said it would make a donation to the local anti-fracking group of a new customers' choice, if they switched to the company. Hopkins said: "Inappropriate wind turbines can be a blot on the landscape, harming the landscape and heritage for miles around. We make no apologies for changing planning guidance to ensure that these issues are properly taken into account. Both mineral extraction and wind power are handled through a locally led planning process in line with established practices." In January, a parliamentary committee reported that DCLG had rushed through a pro-fracking planning reform without proper scrutiny and despite overwhelming public opposition. The change means individual homeowners will no longer be notified of a planning application to drill or frack under their house. DCLG had allowed only six weeks for public consultation, not the 12 weeks usually required for "new and contentious" policies, but received 155 responses opposing the change and just seven in favour. Caroline Lucas, Green party MP, said: "It's disgraceful that ministers are denying local residents the right to be notified directly when they're affected by shale gas drilling. Fracking is a dangerous, dirty and unnecessary technology that is completely incompatible with our obligations to tackle climate change and the government knows very well that public opposition to fracking is growing." Planning experts have previously described DCLG planning guidance on fracking as biased. James Taylor, at law firm Simmons & Simmons, told trade magazine Planning Resource: "The way the document reads, it could be seized upon by anti-frackers as unduly biased. It pulls together pre-existing advice but puts the most positive spin possible." | ['environment/energy', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/planning', 'politics/eric-pickles', 'society/communities', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2014-03-06T06:30:00Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2012/oct/14/mandate-america-green-new-deal | Give us a mandate for what America needs: a Green New Deal | Jill Stein | President Obama and Governor Romney are talking a lot about how they're going to save the economy. But it doesn't take a genius to recognize that what they're saying is only talk. The debates are an opportunity for them to broadcast campaign promises, but where is the accountability, when past promises have already been left in the dust? Romney's fairytale features tax breaks for the wealthy, deregulation and more dirty energy. He promises 12m new jobs, but has no plan to get us there. His track record demonstrates off-shoring, not job creation here at home. Meanwhile, Obama's plan points to General Motors as the model of where we need to go. But GM was bailed out by taxpayers and then went on to slash workers' wages while padding CEO salaries. Obama says he'll create 1m manufacturing jobs by 2016, but these are all low-wage, insecure jobs with poor benefits. Both Romney and Obama promise to slash public spending on education, healthcare, job training, social security and the environment. And both are calling for corporate income tax cuts. These policies are not only bad for working families, they're killers of economic growth. That's because capitalism doesn't work when capital doesn't move. And capital doesn't move when our government promotes the hoarding, rather than the redistribution, of capital. In the short term, policies that favor Wall Street make a few people very rich, but in the long term, those same policies create massive inequality that cause Wall Street – and the rest of us – to crash. It's time to take Wall Street out of the driver's seat and to free the truly productive segments of working America to make this economy work for all of us. This is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Why not use a similar strategy to FDR's for getting us out of it? Under the New Deal of the 1930s, unemployment rates were substantially reduced, and millions of jobs were created. For this reason, I propose a Green New Deal for the 2010s, which – unlike the doomed-to-fail proposals of Obama and Romney – is proven to work. The Green New Deal will create 25m jobs by implementing nationally funded, but locally controlled, direct employment initiatives. These would offer public-sector jobs that can be "stored" in job banks in order to take up any slack in private-sector employment. The Green New Deal protects the right to quality healthcare, to be achieved through a single-payer Medicare-for-all program; a tuition-free, quality, public education system from pre-school through college; decent affordable housing, including an immediate halt to all foreclosures and evictions; and the right to accessible and affordable utilities including heat, electricity, phone, internet and public transportation. The Green New Deal also provides grants and low-interest loans to grow green businesses and cooperatives, with an emphasis on small, locally-based companies that keep the wealth created by local labor circulating in the community – rather than being drained off to enrich absentee investors. We will redirect public research funds away from fossil fuels and other dead-end industries and toward sustainable energy systems such as wind, solar and geothermal. We will invest in sustainable, nontoxic materials, closed-loop cycles that eliminate waste and pollution, and organic agriculture, permaculture, and sustainable forestry. Most importantly, under the Green New Deal, we will build a financial system that is open, honest and stable, and a political system that protects the rights of voters, not the political parties and their corporate funders. Most Americans agree that the policies of the Green New Deal are exactly what we need. Yet, many voters remain afraid to vote their values. We've all been told to vote against politicians, not for policies. And the result has been, year after year, that the politics of fear has delivered everything we were afraid of: expanding war, the meltdown of the economy, and the dismantling of our civil liberties. Our society is at a breaking point: we may not survive four more years of Wall Street rule. We must answer the politics of fear with the politics of courage. The Commission on Presidential Debates has attempted to monopolize the discourse and limit our choices. But the debate about America's future that matters most is the debate that takes place within each of us. Our country desperately needs a Green New Deal. A vote for me is a mandate for those policies, not only in November, but for the months and years to come. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'us-news/us-elections-2012', 'tone/comment', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/democrats', 'us-news/republicans', 'us-news/mittromney', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/usdomesticpolicy', 'world/world', 'business/useconomy', 'business/usemployment', 'business/useconomicgrowth', 'business/globalrecession', 'business/financial-crisis', 'business/business', 'us-news/us-political-financing', 'type/article', 'profile/jill-stein'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-10-14T11:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2023/apr/07/when-it-comes-to-rubbish-we-cant-let-litterers-off-the-hook | When it comes to rubbish, we can’t let litterers off the hook | Letters | Leila Taheri’s article is interesting, and she is right, up to a point (I lead a litter-picking group, but I will always defend litterers. This is why, 3 April). There is certainly far too much single-use rubbish created, and manufacturers should be incentivised to produce less. Since they are motivated to seek the cheapest option (eg disposable versus returnable bottles), it is up to the government to create economic rules that favour “reduce, reuse, recycle”. It should also review how disposal is funded. Costs are incurred when following the proper disposal route, and these can be considerable. This provides an incentive to fly-tip, and discourages the provision of bins (the owner/operator has to pay). Litter clearing is the other side of the coin. Public bodies, both local and national, need to give greater priority to this – look at the state of roadsides. The money for this has to come from somewhere and, in principle, should be raised when items are made and sold. Where I disagree with the author is in exculpating litterers. The decision to drop litter, whatever one’s circumstances, is a personal choice; littering is not confined to those who are hard-up. The common characteristic of wilful litterers, rich or poor, is selfishness – “my convenience, grievance or whatever is all that matters”. However, I agree that merely ranting against litter is unproductive, and if one doesn’t like to see it, then one should get out there and help pick it up (I do). More power to Taheri for doing that. Peter Janes West Harptree, Somerset • I read with interest Leila Taheri’s article about how much to blame those who litter. I help local litter volunteers and the amount of rubbish chucked out of car windows into the hedges and verges along my local lane is truly atrocious. The vast majority of the rubbish is made up of discarded glass and plastic bottles, and aluminium cans. When I lived in Germany, I never saw this kind of litter anywhere, and there was a good, simple reason. Germany has had an excellent deposit return scheme (DRS) and recycling system for over 25 years. All supermarkets have machines that take glass and plastic bottles and aluminium cans in return for a voucher that you redeem at the till. Even if somebody throws one of these items into a hedge, it wouldn’t be there for long because every kid knows it’s worth 25 cents. Environmental groups in Britain campaigned hard for two decades for something similar here, but the current government dragged its feet because it is in the pocket of the big drinks companies and supermarkets. In 2019, it finally announced that a DRS would go ahead; it then took two years for a consultation, then another two years to hear the outcome. Now, we hear that it won’t be introduced until after the next election – and it won’t even include glass bottles. All those who voted for the present government should admit their share of blame for the dismal state of our country. Edmund Wood Gillingham, Dorset • I organise our village litter pick and we are invariably disheartened by the amount of rubbish we find and do get angry about it, so when I read Leila Taheri’s article, I thought it was the Guardian’s April fool’s joke two days late. So when I see a delivery bloke chucking his can out of his van window I shouldn’t think him a lazy, inconsiderate slob, he is just feeling “alienated, disconnected and excluded”. Colin McRae Great Dunmow, Essex • Leila Taheri’s article was infuriating. How patronising to suggest that people shouldn’t be expected to use a bin because of “society”. Litterers disgrace themselves and this planet, and they are a very, very long way down my list of people to feel sorry for. I’m sure the heron that choked to death would agree. Helen Clutton Bristol • 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/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-04-07T16:31:07Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2024/oct/31/whale-poop-ocean-diversity-biologist-joe-roman | I’m obsessed with whale poop: ‘It can be neon green, bright red – or even sparkle’ | I first encountered whale poop 30 years ago while I was working on a right whale research project. On one of my first days on the water, in the Bay of Fundy, in eastern Canada, we came upon a feeding male right whale with mud on its head – or bonnet – a sign that it had been feeding at the bottom of the bay. It had come up to breathe and rest. Just before it dived in again, it released this enormous faecal plume. There were gallons of poop in that water. It looked like red floating bricks. The smell was overwhelming. Some whale poop smells like brine and seawater, but with right whales, there’s a strong smell of sulphur. If you get that poop on your clothes, you have to throw them away. You’re never going to wash it out. I didn’t know it then, but that faecal plume would later spark my global search for whale faeces, from Iceland to Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii. Since then, I’ve learned that whale faeces can tell us not only about the diet of a whale, but also about their hormones and reproductive status. It can reveal the whale’s stress levels, gut microbiome and genetic lineage. It even allows us to look at the level of mercury and pollution in the ocean – everything from microplastics to parasite loads. Ambergris, which is formed in the hindgut of sperm whales when they digest squid beaks, is rare and extremely valuable. Since the 1970s, its trade has been restricted in many countries. But in the past, it was used to make perfumes, which were worn by Elizabeth I, Charles I and Casanova. Whale faecal plumes can be neon green or bright red. At times, they sparkle with silver scales, like the sun glinting on the water. Every whale defecation is unique. As for the smell, the poop of right whales is the strongest and foulest but I love the smell now. It helped set the course for my research career. Two years after I saw whale poop for the first time, I took my first class in marine ecology and learned about one of the most important processes in the ocean, especially in carbon sequestration: the biological pump. Phytoplankton, or algae, only grow near the surface of the ocean, where there is enough light for photosynthesis. Animals such as krill and copepods feed on it there and they are eaten by fish and even whales. When this phytoplankton dies or is consumed, some of those nutrients are removed from the atmosphere and can sink to the bottom of the ocean. In this way, the biological pump plays an important role in moving carbon to the deep sea. But I remember sitting there in class that day, thinking: there’s something missing here. Right whales often feed at depth and poop at the surface, so they’re likely bringing important nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and iron back up to the surface. That set me off on the idea of a “whale pump” – which we’ve since discovered does the opposite of the biological pump. It pumps nutrients back up to the surface. These nutrients can get picked up by phytoplankton and go through the entire ocean food chain. This is important because one of the justifications for whaling in Japan, Norway and Iceland is that whales eat “our fish”, therefore if there are too many whales, there will be a decline in fisheries. The whale pump demonstrates it’s more complicated than that – and that the presence of whales in the ocean might actually increase fish populations. As well as helping us to understand the state of the present ocean, whale poop gives us a glimpse into the past ocean and what it was like when there were hundreds of thousands of whales in the sea. If we can restore whales and the nutrient pathways that historically existed through their poop, it could help support more biodiversity in the ocean. As told to Donna Ferguson Joe Roman is a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont and author of Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make our World, and Whale | ['environment/series/why-i-m-obsessed-with', 'environment/whales', 'environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'education/research', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/donna-ferguson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-10-31T08:00:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
music/2014/jan/29/pete-seeger-hudson-river-new-york | Pete Seeger's greatest legacy? Saving New York's Hudson river | Pete Seeger's greatest legacy after a long life filled with music and activism may have been saving the Hudson river, according to those who worked with him to save the waterway. “The Hudson was saved by a lot of people,” said Robert Kennedy Jr, who has sued industry for polluting the river as an environmental lawyer for the Waterkeeper Alliance. He said he had known Seeger for 30 years. “But for a lot of us, Pete was the first guy. He started the train, and we all jumped on the moving train.” Seeger's environmental activism didn't stop with the river. Last September, he put in a surprise appearance with Willie Nelson and Neil Young at a Farm Aid benefit. He added an extra verse to his anthem “This land was made for you and me” by singing: “This land was made to be frack-free.” The folk singer also campaigned for the shutdown of the ageing Indian Point nuclear reactor. But it was the Hudson river – close to where Seeger lived in a log cabin he built himself in the 1940s – that was the main focus of his activism. The river was a raging sewer when Seeger set out to save it in the 1960s, a liquid dump for industries that grew along its banks, full of PCBs from the electrical industry, sewage discharges, pesticides, and other contaminants. The main traffic was cement and oil barges. The public largely stayed away. Local lore has it the chemical stew was so potent and so toxic it was seen as a cure for bore worms and other parasites feeding off wooden hulls. Sailors from the Caribbean would reportedly come up to cleanse their boats. Seeger, with his late wife, Toshi, built his own 19th-century wooden sloop, the Clearwater, and as he sailed the river, he began asking commercial fishermen to work with him to bring the river back. The boat would later turn into an environmental organisation, which remains active today. His genius was in recognising that the salvation of the river could come from grassroots activism, Kennedy said. “He didn't go to Albany and lobby. He didn't go to Washington, and he didn't go to court. He used his guitar and his voice and his joyful manner to summon people,” he said. The strategy turned on reminding people of the Hudson's history as a major water way, and an important fishery. Seeger walked the banks of the river, talking to locals and trying to persuade them that it would one day be possible to swim in the Hudson again. He wrote a song about the river called Sailing Up My Dirty Stream: “Some day, though maybe not this year / My Hudson river will once again run clear.” And remarkably, the effort to save the Hudson worked. Under public pressure, PCBs were banned in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency designated a 200-mile stretch of the Hudson as a clean-up site. In 2001, the EPA embarked on another monumental project to dredge the river for sediment contaminated by PCBs. That project is ongoing. “Pete saw the Hudson as an emblem of some of the failures of our democracy because it was taken over by large corporations who were using it as a conveyor for disposal,” Kennedy said. “But he always pointed out that the constitution of New York state said the Hudson was owned by the people of New York state,” he went on. “He used to say the Hudson river belongs to all of us.” | ['music/pete-seeger', 'music/music', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/environment', 'environment/activism', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-politics', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-01-29T18:48:42Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2017/oct/12/supermarkets-stop-using-plastic-packaging-former-asda-boss-andy-clarke | Supermarkets must stop using plastic packaging, says former Asda boss | The former boss of Asda is calling for supermarkets to stop using plastic packaging saying billions of pounds of investment in recycling has failed to resolve the world’s plastic proliferation crisis. Andy Clarke, CEO of one of Britain’s biggest supermarket chains for six years, said the only solution was for retailers to reject plastic entirely in favour of more sustainable alternatives like paper, steel, glass and aluminium. “Go into any supermarket in the country and you will be met by a wall of technicolour plastic,” Clarke said. “Be it fruit and veg or meat and dairy, plastic encases virtually everything we buy. “Regardless of how much is invested in Britain’s recycling infrastructure, virtually all plastic packaging will reach landfill or the bottom of the ocean sooner or later. Once there, it will remain on the earth for centuries. “It is vital that the UK packaging industry and supermarkets work together to turn off the tap.” Efforts to recycle more plastic and “a neverending stream of initiatives” – many of which Clarke oversaw while at Asda – has failed to stem the plastic flow and it is clear a more radical approach is needed, said Clarke, who stood down as Asda CEO last year. “We want a future for our grandchildren which is as far as possible plastic-free,” he said. “We also know that consumers want the same thing and with heightened public awareness of the dire consequences of unfettered plastic pollution, they are fully in support of the industry’s efforts to make a meaningful change.” Clarke said supermarkets should create plastic-free aisles to cater for their customers’ demands and to showcase the wealth of alternatives to plastic including innovations like grass paper. He also backed the campaign A plastic planet as a measure to spread the use of alternative packaging. The world’s plastic binge shows no signs of halting. A Guardian investigation this year established that consumers around the world buy a million plastic bottles a minute and plastic production is set to double in the next 20 years and quadruple by 2050. In the UK less than a third (29%) of the 5m tonnes of plastic used each year is recovered and recycled. Across the world more than 8m tonnes of plastic leaks into the oceans and a recent study found that billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic. Clarke said he has witnessed how much supermarkets have done to try to promote recycling, investing billions to try to increase the amount of recycled plastic they use, but still these measures have failed to reduce the scale of plastic pollution. Attempts to use thinner plastic milk bottles containing more recycled material at Asda, he said, led to bottles bursting and creating more food waste. In the end the supermarket went back to the original bottles. “Unlike materials like aluminium and glass, plastic packaging cannot be recycled ad infinitum. Most items of plastic packaging can only be recycled twice before they become unusable,” he said. Clarke highlighted a Populus poll earlier this year which showed four out of five people questioned were concerned about the amount of plastic packaging thrown away in the UK and 91% wanted plastic-free aisles in supermarkets. He called for Asda and other supermarkets to use the host of new products coming on the market to cut plastic pollution. “Despite more than a decade of concerted supermarket action on this issue, globally we are still dumping in excess of 8m tonnes of plastic in the ocean each year,” said Clarke. “We have been able to recycle plastic for decades yet it remains a scourge on the planet. Recycling will never offer a durable solution to the plastic crisis – we simply have to use less plastic in the first place.” Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Tisha Brown said: “With ocean plastic pollution ending up in everything from sea salt to sea gulls to our seafood, and many shoppers frustrated with the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging they encounter at their local supermarket, now would be a very good time for Asda, or any supermarket, to give shoppers the option of opting out. “The great thing about a plastic-free isle is that it could encourage innovation in packaging many different products, and save environmentally minded consumers the hassle of hunting for environmentally friendly choices across the store.” Between 5m and 13m tonnes of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and other organisms, and by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish, according to research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year. Last August, the results of a study by Plymouth University reported plastic was found in a third of UK-caught fish, including cod, haddock, mackerel and shellfish. | ['environment/plastic', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/asda', 'environment/recycling', 'business/retail', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-10-12T16:12:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/us-news-blog/2012/aug/27/how-tropical-storm-isaac-matches-against-hurricane-katrina | How tropical storm Isaac matches up against hurricane Katrina | Harry J Enten | UPDATE: As of the National Hurricane Center's 5pm report, tropical storm Isaac's maximum sustained winds are at 70mph. The storm is forecast to become a low-end category 2 storm by landfall, with 100mph winds, slightly greater the previously expected 90mph. But that is still 20mph less than Katrina's wind speed. [ends] Tropical storm Isaac has left minimal damage in southern Florida, but is churning on a path towards New Orleans. Landfall is expected Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Not surprisingly, the allusions to 2005's hurricane Katrina have already begun, but let's talk about some critical differences it has with Katrina right now, and the forecast for Isaac going forward. 1. Strength As of 2pm Monday, Isaac is about 280 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi river. The minimum pressure is 984 millibars. That's not particularly high; I've tracked many winter storms with lower central pressure. At this same point in Katrina's run, minimum central pressure of 935 millibars. The relative difference between 984 and 935 is greater than what you would normally see between a high-pressure and low-pressure system. Katrina's dropped even further upon landfall on the Louisiana/Mississippi border, to 920 millibars. You can expect Isaac's pressure to drop as well as it approaches Louisiana, but it will almost certainly never come close to 935 millibars, let alone 920. There is too much mid-level dry air being introduced into the system. Dry air may fuel fires, but it kills hurricanes. 2. Wind speed Isaac's maximum sustained winds are 65mph. That's nothing to scoff at, but it'll need to pick up by 10mph in order to earn designation as a category 1 hurricane. Katrina had category 4 wind speeds of 145mph at this point in its journey. Just the differential between Isaac's and Katrina's wind speed, 80mph, is equivalent to the power of a category 1 hurricane. Katrina's winds did drop to a somewhat weaker category 3 storm, with 120mph winds upon landfall. Isaac's are expected to strengthen to about 90mph (a high-end category 1). This 30mph difference between Katrina and what's predicted for Isaac is very significant. Here's how the official Saffir-Simpson scale defines a category 1: "very dangerous winds will produce some damage … [including] damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters … power outages that could last a few to several days." The definition of a category 3 is much more dire: "devastating damage will occur … many trees will be snapped or uprooted, blocking numerous roads. Electricity and water will be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes." One facet of Isaac that could worsen the damage is that the storm is expected to move relatively slowly. Isaac's wind field is also wider than what we normally see, so that will also create longer periods of moderately high winds. I should also note that wind strength is one of the more difficult elements to predict of a tropical storm. 3. Rainfall The slow forward movement of Isaac is also likely to produce rain in quantities comparable to Katrina. We're looking at rainfall totals generally between 6 and 12 inches, but maximum amounts are likely to exceed that considerably. If we're talking about 15 inches or more over this wide area, then that will lead to a lot of flooding. New Orleans may escape the brunt of it, but the seaside towns of Alabama and Mississippi will not be so lucky. A look at Katrina finds the maximum rainfall was very similar to Isaac's, but the peak quantities were, if anything, slightly lower. Katrina's maximum rainfall was also slightly to the west. 4. Storm surge If it were only rain, Hurricane Katrina might have joined a list of memorable storms but not once-in-a-lifetime events. What wreaked havoc on New Orleans was the breach of levees due to high storm surge aided by strong winds. Storm surge for Isaac is expected to be a maximum of 11-13ft above normal tide level, with most of the central Gulf coast dealing with 5-10ft. That's certainly nothing to be complacent about, but it doesn't hold a candle to Katrina. The maximum storm surge for Katrina was 25-28ft above normal along the Mississippi coast, with 10-20ft along the Louisiana coast. Part of the blame for New Orleans' levee failure during Katrina was because of negligent upkeep. Everything we hear out of Louisiana is that the levees are better-designed and ready for Isaac. Conclusion The obvious comparisons between Isaac and Katrina have been made by many. While the storms are bound to affect the same general area, there are critical differences. Isaac is a weaker storm that should have less wind force and storm surge than Katrina, and about equivalent rainfall totals. Isaac's expected category 1 status at landfall is not apocalyptic, but strong enough to carry a significant risk of damage, and tropical storm force winds exceeding 39mph are expected to begin by early Tuesday morning in New Orleans. We should also expect tornadoes on the outer bands of Isaac. Preparations for the storm should be made now if they haven't been already. | ['world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/louisiana', 'weather/neworleans', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'us-news/news-blog', 'tone/blog', 'us-news/new-orleans', 'us-news/hurricane-isaac', 'type/article', 'profile/harry-j-enten'] | us-news/hurricane-isaac | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-08-27T20:02:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2021/aug/26/former-scottish-greens-leader-criticises-disappointing-agreement-with-snp | Former Scottish Greens leader criticises ‘disappointing’ agreement with SNP | A former leader of the Scottish Greens has attacked the deal the party struck with Nicola Sturgeon’s government for failing to take tougher action on North Sea oil, marine protection and taxation. Robin Harper, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens from 2004 to 2008, said the agreement was “absolutely packed with vague promises” and was disappointing because it compromised too much on core policies. His criticism came after the party confirmed that its current co-leaders, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, would be given ministerial seats next week if its members back the deal at the weekend. In what would be the first ministerial roles for Green politicians in the UK, one would be tasked with decarbonising the Scottish transport system and homes, and the other with working on green employment, energy and the natural environment. It is likely, however, that the agreement will come under heavy criticism from Scottish Green activists during a special party conference hurriedly organised on Saturday to ratify the deal. Activists are expected to challenge Harvie and Slater over the failure to set an end date for North Sea oil extraction, weaknesses in combating illegal fishing and anxieties about the Scottish National party’s record on transgender rights. Some activists have also criticised the deal’s support for a centrally controlled national care service, because it undermines Green commitments to local democracy. Harper, who became the UK’s first Green parliamentarian when he won a seat in the first Scottish parliament in 1999, said he was “really sad” there was no commitment to replace the council tax with a more equitable local taxation system in the next five years. He said the Scottish Greens had campaigned for a land value tax for decades. Other activists confirmed that the deal’s lack of action on local government finance was a concern. The deal proposing a citizen’s assembly on local tax reform. “There’s lots and lots of words, but you don’t get any real sense of direction from the document,” Harper said. Harvie said the deal was “transformative” and urged the party’s 7,500 members to support it. “With Greens in government we would be able to deliver positive change like tackling Scotland’s emissions, protecting nature, advancing tenants’ rights, bringing forward overdue equalities legislation and delivering an independence referendum,” he said. Harper said he agreed the deal should be ratified despite its flaws, and that it would give the Greens valuable experience in government, making it more likely that the party could form a full coalition government after the 2026 Holyrood elections. In the run-up to Saturday’s conference, Scottish Green party MSPs and officials have held a series of briefings with activists to answer questions about the compromises and omissions in the deal in an effort to defuse criticism before Saturday’s vote. Some activists believe Sturgeon’s agreement to reform Scotland’s gender recognition laws within the next 12 months to increase the rights of trans people, and a new pledge to ensure trans medical procedures are included in the 18-week NHS waiting time target, have placated potential critics. After the first minister confirmed she wanted a deal with the Greens in June, party activists wrote an open letter claiming that the SNP had “little to no respect for trans people”. The SNP has been deeply split over gender recognition policies in Holyrood and Westminster, and SNP parliamentarians have alleged that planned reforms undermine women’s rights. Many policies set out in the deal fall short of the manifesto commitments with which the Greens won a record eight seats in May’s Holyrood elections. SNP leaders say the agreement will allow the Scottish government to press on with gradually upgrading the A9 and A96 trunk roads into dual carriageways over the next decade, proposals opposed by the Greens during the election. Many Green party activists believe that the Scottish government should explicitly oppose the 170m barrel Cambo oil development off Shetland, which has yet to be licensed by UK ministers. To the dismay of climate campaigners, Sturgeon refused to do so two weeks ago and instead called for a new UK-wide strategy to subject North Sea licences to tougher climate tests. Harvie and Slater argue that the deal has forced the SNP to significantly shift ground in key areas and will put billions of pounds into significant improvements on social housing, zero carbon homes, active travel, and decarbonising the Scottish rail and transport system. | ['uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'politics/scotland', 'politics/nicola-sturgeon', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'profile/libbybrooks', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-08-26T12:52:30Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk-news/2020/mar/02/uk-flooding-residents-east-yorkshire-struggle-recover-snaith | UK flooding: residents in east Yorkshire struggle to recover | The situation in flooded areas of east Yorkshire continues to be chaotic, with residents in the town of Snaith being offered temporary accommodation as far as 46 miles away. Courtney Marshall, 17, who is pregnant, lives in the town’s worst-hit area, around George Street, with her boyfriend and their one-year-old son. The family had settled into a privately rented home three weeks ago, but on Monday were offered a one-bedroom flat in Hull by East Riding of Yorkshire council. Marshall’s father, Alistair Hannah, 63, who also lives in Snaith, lamented the fact his daughter might be moved so far away from the rest of her family at such a stressful time, saying: “They’ve never been to Hull in their lives.” The council confirmed 24 properties in Snaith and 69 in East Cowick had flooded since the River Aire overflowed last week. A few doors down George Street, Kevin Lorryman was already planning to demolish his home after the sewage-infused flood water almost submerged the entire bungalow. “I don’t want to go in there, dry it out, give it a lick of paint. I want to protect the property from this ever happening again,” said the 56-year-old, speaking at the town’s sport’s hall, which is being used as an emergency refuge centre. Lorryman, who was wearing a top and jacket picked up from donations at the hall, said the last few days had been such a whirlwind he had forgotten what day it was. The home he had shared with his wife, Catherine, their daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren, began to flood by just a couple of inches on Wednesday morning, but a day later the water had reached the gutters. “At that point I was just a blubbing wreck,” said Lorryman. Most of their belongings were lost, with the couple managing to save only a few family photographs and a handful of clothes. “I wanted to go in and get the children’s toys,” he said. “But my wife told me if I went back in I would be killed.” The family are currently staying in their towable caravan elsewhere in Snaith but are hoping to move into a rental property on Wednesday. Across the road, neighbours Steve, 58, and Geraldine Lister, 57, had fared better in the flood – with their house only filling by a few inches. They are staying in a room above the Brewer’s Arms pub in the town. Although they are yet to find out how long it will be before recovery works begin on their street, the retired couple were in good spirits. Without the luxury of being able to lounge in their own home, they have been out in Snaith every day, including popping into St Laurence Priory church – another refuge centre – for tea and a chat with other affected residents. | ['uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amy-walker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-03-02T19:21:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/blog/audio/2011/apr/21/focus-podcast-nuclear-fukushima-chernobyl | Guardian Focus podcast: The nuclear debate after Fukushima and Chernobyl | Last month's tsunami and earthquake in Japan caused serious damage to the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, a crisis which has brought the nuclear debate back to the table. Science correspondent Ian Sample explains what happened. The rights and wrongs of nuclear power are also in the public eye because it's the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in what is now Ukraine. In this podcast, James Randerson asks what lessons we have learned from nuclear accidents, and whether the UK should press on with its nuclear programme. For the debate he's joined by environmental journalist and Guardian columnist George Monbiot, who's recently put the cat among the pigeons on the Guardian's comment pages; anti-nuclear campaigner and author Helen Caldicott; and former government advisor and professor of nuclear safety at the University of Central Lancashire Laurence Williams. Listen to the debate and leave your comments below. | ['world/series/guardian-focus-podcast', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/blog', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/chernobyl-nuclear-disaster', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'world/japan', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-04-21T11:19:00Z | true | ENERGY |
books/2017/mar/14/ebook-sales-continue-to-fall-nielsen-survey-uk-book-sales | Ebook sales continue to fall as younger generations drive appetite for print | Readers committed to physical books can give a sigh of relief, as new figures reveal that ebook sales are falling while sales of paper books are growing – and the shift is being driven by younger generations. More than 360m books were sold in 2016 – a 2% jump in a year that saw UK consumers spend an extra 6%, or £100m, on books in print and ebook formats, according to findings by the industry research group Nielsen in its annual books and consumer survey. The data also revealed good news for bricks-and-mortar bookshops, with a 4% rise in purchases across the UK. While sales through shops increased 7% in 2016, ebook sales declined by 4%. It is the second year in a row that ebook sales have fallen, and only the second time that annual ebook sales have done so since industry bodies began monitoring sales a decade ago. In 2015, the Publishers Association found that digital content sales had fallen from £563m in 2014 to £554m, while physical book sales HAD increased from £2.74bn to £2.76bn. The Bookseller also discovered a similar result, finding in its own report about the five biggest general trade publishers in the UK – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – that their ebook sales collectively fell 2.4% in 2015. The shift was attributed to the explosion in adult colouring books, as well as a year of high-profile fiction releases, including The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. “Readers take a pleasure in a physical book that does not translate well on to digital,” the Publishers Association report read. But Nielsen’s survey of 2016 attributed the increase in print sales to children’s fiction and to younger generations preferring physical books to e-readers. A 2013 survey by the youth research agency Voxburner found that 62% of 16- to 24-year-olds preferred print books to ebooks. The most popular reason given was: “I like to hold the product.” While Nielsen found that 50% of all fiction sales were in ebook format, only 4% of children’s fiction was digital. Steve Bohme, research director at Nielsen Book Research UK, who presented the data on Monday ahead of this year’s London book fair, said young people were using books as a break from their devices or social media. “We are seeing that books are a respite, particularly for young people who are so busy digitally,” he said. “Over the last few years we have seen a return to favouring print, partly from what is really successful, this year being non-fiction and children’s books,” he said. While adult colouring books were popular in 2015, last year saw books about healthy cooking and the latest Harry Potter sell well – which Bohme noted are “books that tend to translate better in the print form”. The Nielsen survey contained another first: mobile phones and tablets overtook e-readers as the most common device used to read ebooks, with readers favouring multifunctional devices over dedicated e-reader brands such as Kindle and Nook. While ebook sales had plateaued, Bohme said it was important to remember that the figures were still higher than they were five years ago, holding a 25% share in 2016, compared with 26% in 2015 and 18% in 2012. The average ebook price increased to £7. Bohme said ebooks sales would continue to decline in 2017, barring a new development in e-reader technology. “One thing we’ve seen is that when print sales surge, industry confidence in the print increases. If publishers are confident, they can have huge success,” he said. “If we have a couple of years of that success story, print sales will keep going up.” | ['books/ebooks', 'tone/news', 'culture/culture', 'books/publishing', 'books/books', 'technology/ereaders', 'technology/technology', 'technology/kindle', 'technology/gadgets', 'society/youngpeople', 'type/article', 'profile/sian-cain', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-03-14T11:10:28Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.