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technology/2019/aug/14/major-breach-found-in-biometrics-system-used-by-banks-uk-police-and-defence-firms | Major breach found in biometrics system used by banks, UK police and defence firms | The fingerprints of over 1 million people, as well as facial recognition information, unencrypted usernames and passwords, and personal information of employees, was discovered on a publicly accessible database for a company used by the likes of the UK Metropolitan police, defence contractors and banks. Suprema is the security company responsible for the web-based Biostar 2 biometrics lock system that allows centralised control for access to secure facilities like warehouses or office buildings. Biostar 2 uses fingerprints and facial recognition as part of its means of identifying people attempting to gain access to buildings. Last month, Suprema announced its Biostar 2 platform was integrated into another access control system – AEOS. AEOS is used by 5,700 organisations in 83 countries, including governments, banks and the UK Metropolitan police. The Israeli security researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar working with vpnmentor, a service that reviews virtual private network services, have been running a side project to scans ports looking for familiar IP blocks, and then use these blocks to find holes in companies’ systems that could potentially lead to data breaches. In a search last week, the researchers found Biostar 2’s database was unprotected and mostly unencrypted. They were able to search the database by manipulating the URL search criteria in Elasticsearch to gain access to data. The researchers had access to over 27.8m records, and 23 gigabytes-worth of data including admin panels, dashboards, fingerprint data, facial recognition data, face photos of users, unencrypted usernames and passwords, logs of facility access, security levels and clearance, and personal details of staff. Much of the usernames and passwords were not encrypted, Rotem told the Guardian. “We were able to find plain-text passwords of administrator accounts,” he said. “The access allows first of all seeing millions of users are using this system to access different locations and see in real time which user enters which facility or which room in each facility, even.” “We [were] able to change data and add new users,” he said. This would mean that he could edit an existing user’s account and add his own fingerprint and then be able to access whatever building that user is authorised to access, or he could just add himself as a user with his photo and fingerprints. In the paper about the discovery provided to the Guardian before being published by vpnmentor on Wednesday, the researchers said they were able to access data from co-working organisations in the US and Indonesia, a gym chain in India and Sri Lanka, a medicine supplier in the United Kingdom, and a car parking space developer in Finland, among others. The researchers said the sheer scale of the breach was alarming because the service is in 1.5m locations across the world and because, unlike passwords being leaked, when fingerprints are leaked, you can’t change your fingerprint. “Instead of saving a hash of the fingerprint (that can’t be reverse-engineered) they are saving people’s actual fingerprints that can be copied for malicious purposes,” the researchers said in the paper. The researchers made multiple attempts to contact Suprema before taking the paper to the Guardian late last week. Early Wednesday morning (Australian time) the vulnerability was closed, but they still have not heard back from the security firm. Suprema’s head of marketing, Andy Ahn, told the Guardian the company had taken an “in-depth evaluation” of the information provided by vpnmentor and would inform customers if there was a threat. “If there has been any definite threat on our products and/or services, we will take immediate actions and make appropriate announcements to protect our customers’ valuable businesses and assets,” Ahn said. Rotem said the problem wasn’t unique to Suprema. “It’s very common. There’s literally millions of open systems, and going through them is a very tedious process,” he said. “And some of the systems are quite sensitive.” He said supply chain vulnerabilities – where a company uses a third-party company for a service that doesn’t have appropriate security – was common but often some of the vulnerabilities discovered were with Fortune 500 companies. Rotem said he contacts around three or four companies per week with similar issues. Earlier this year, Rotem pointed out a substantial flaw in Amadeus’s flight booking system. “Mistakes happen, and the real test is how you handle them,” Rotem said. “If you have a security team that can respond quickly and efficiently it’s good enough. If you have a security team that will send a legal team to threaten you, well, it’s less efficient. “And this happens quite a lot. It’s unpleasant for someone to point out you have a vulnerability or weakness. Some people take it as an opportunity to fix it and some people are offended by it for some reason.” | ['technology/data-computer-security', 'technology/data-protection', 'technology/biometrics', 'technology/technology', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-taylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-08-14T07:11:17Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2019/jun/21/oregon-senator-walkout-patriot-groups-vow-to-protect-republicans-who-fled-state | Oregon senator walkout: 'patriot' groups vow to protect Republicans who fled state | Members of rightwing “patriot movement” groups have vowed to protect Republican senators in Oregon who have walked out of the state legislature in order to try and block the passage of climate legislation. The move by the state senators – some of whom are believed to have fled to neighboring Idaho – was aimed at denying Democrats a quorum for passing landmark climate legislation. The proposed new Oregon law resembles California’s sweeping new “cap and trade” legislation. After Oregon’s governor authorized state police to bring the 11 Republican senators back to the state house rightwing groups have said they will rally to their defense – raising the prospect of a potentially dangerous confrontation. Figures aligned with the “patriot movement” group of organizations offered assistance to the rogue senators, though it was not immediately clear if this cooperation was welcomed by them. On Facebook, Paul Luhrs, who claimed to be the Linn County lead for the Oregon III%, a patriot movement group, announced that the organization has “vowed to provide security, transportation and refuge for those senators in need”. Luhrs added, “It has come to our knowledge that nearly all senators are currently safe in Idaho with no chance of extradition.” Asked via Facebook messenger whether the group was in touch with any senators, Luhr responded, “me personally, no”. Asked if the III% was in touch with any senators, Luhrs declined further comment. A Facebook event called “Rally to Take the Capitol” promised an all-weekend rally outside the state house. The event used a threat by Republican state senator Brian Boquist to resist police as a rallying cry for the event. Some 150 people had indicated they would attend at the time of writing. One of the main organizers, John Parker Jr, is a longtime patriot movement activist, and is a former Republican party official in Marion county. On the event page, Parker described Oregon as a “fascist dictatorship”, said he was “holding hands and saying how angry we are at an empty building on a weekend”, and claimed to be in direct contact with at least one Oregon senator. Parker did not immediately respond to requests for a comment about the event. A senate Republican spokesperson said that “the senators are not with militias and are not accepting their help”. However, Oregon Republicans have previously courted elements of the patriot movement. In 2017, Multnomah county Republican chair, James Buchal, raised the prospect of having members of the Oath Keepers and the III% provide security for Republican events. Multnomah Republicans later voted to use such groups for security. The Republicans have so far defied requests to return to their jobs. Boquist told reporters the police should “send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.” Boquist did not immediately respond to requests for a comment. A Republican spokesperson would not comment on Boquist’s remarks, but did confirm senators had left Oregon. On the governor’s deployment of police, the spokesperson said, “True to their word, Oregon Democrats are following through with their continued threats on Oregon senate Republicans”. The spokesperson argued that the cap and trade scheme should be put to a ballot, saying, “Oregonians should have a right to vote on this legislation that will put Oregon jobs and businesses at serious risk with significant fuel cost increases.” Oregon state police meanwhile emphasized a non-confrontational approach to resolving the impasse. In a statement, OSP said it “is utilizing established relationships to have polite communication with these senators”. The statement continued: “While we obviously have many tools at our disposal, patience and communication is, and always will be, our first, and preferred, option.” Republicans in Oregon are faced with Democrat supermajorities in both houses and have repeatedly deployed a tactic of absenting themselves from the senate, thereby denying Democrats the necessary 20 senators for voting on legislation, including a business tax for public schools, laws tightening vaccine exemptions and gun laws. In a statement announcing the deployment of state police, Oregon governor Kate Brown said, “It is absolutely unacceptable that the senate Republicans would turn their back on their constituents who they are honor-bound to represent here in this building.” At a news conference on Thursday, Brown said, “Senate Republicans failed to show up, and failed to do their jobs.” A spokesperson for the governor told the Guardian that the decision to deploy police “is unusual, but the request is unusual”. Oregon’s constitution says that lawmakers can be “compelled” to attend the house, and a statute allows the legislature, together with the governor, to call upon police to enforce criminal laws. | ['us-news/oregon', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/wilson-jason', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2019-06-21T21:51:07Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/blog/2011/mar/24/nuclear-boy-fukushima-cartoon | Nuclear boy: explaining Fukushima with a cartoon | With several million YouTube views in Japanese and translated versions (above), the Nuclear boy cartoon has become possibly the world's most viewed ever exploring the metaphor of a boy with a sick stomach to represent a stricken nuclear power plant. It may sound kooky, perhaps excessively so, but when you put it in the context its creators intended - to explain the crisis at Fukushima to Japanese children who may not understand spent fuel pools and containment vessels - such concerns fade away. The Nuclear boy character was created by Japanese artist Hachiya Kazuhiko. He posted it to Twitter, where one follower turned it into a comic strip that a third person then animated, according to reports. The story is quite simple: Nuclear boy is sick and people are worried he is going to have a really big poo (as the translation puts it). He had people scared when he let out a loud bang - thankfully it turned out to be neither a poo or "that stinky" - so he needs to given medicine until he gets better. For Nuclear boy that medicine is cooling sea water and boron. Nuclear boy is compared to Three Mile Island boy ("a lot of passed gas but no poo") and Chernobyl boy (who "literally pooped in the classroom"). Its message not to worry is incidentally one shared by our very own George Monbiot. So Nuclear boy – informative, educational and also very very Japanese. | ['world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'film/animation', 'world/japan', 'news/blog', 'tone/blog', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/simonjeffery'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-03-24T16:13:00Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2022/mar/31/coal-seam-gas-company-arrow-energy-fined-1m-for-breaching-queenslands-land-access-rules | Coal seam gas company Arrow Energy fined $1m for breaching Queensland’s land access rules | The Queensland government has fined coal seam gas company Arrow Energy $1m for breaches of land access rules over four years, after an investigation into allegations the company drilled diagonally beneath farmland without notifying the landholders. The fine is among the most significant non-compliance penalties ever issued to a resources company in Queensland. Groups that have raised concerns against the rapid spread of the coal seam gas wells in Queensland’s farming communities say the penalty is a “small start”, but that landholders’ rights to object to gas drilling must now be strengthened. The investigation began last year after farmers in the Darling Downs discovered Arrow Energy – a joint venture between global giants Shell and PetroChina – had drilled “deviated” wells from neighbouring properties and underneath their land. State authorities have spent more than 10 months assessing allegations that such activity was done in breach of land access rules, which required formal entry notices and for landholders to be notified. Queensland law classifies directional drilling as a “preliminary activity”, generally allowing companies to drill under private land without a prior agreement in place but regulations require them to notify the landholder before starting. Relationships between farmers and the gas industry in the area have become fraught, to the extent the GasFields Commission Queensland issued a statement calling on the state government to take “immediate action” to conclude its investigation and resolve “coexistence” issues. In a statement, the Queensland resources minister, Scott Stewart, said the $1m fine was for breaches of the land access framework by Arrow between 2018 and 2022. “The significance of this penalty takes into account Arrow’s indiscretions,” Stewart said in a statement. “As a government, we make no apologies for holding businesses to account if they do the wrong thing. “Queensland’s resources framework promotes the coexistence of landholders, regional communities, and industry, however coexistence is a fragile concept, and it needs to be nurtured by all parties to be truly sustainable. “Arrow Energy has acknowledged it has made mistakes in the past and in more recent times the company has taken tangible steps towards fostering genuine coexistence with landholders impacted by their operations. “A line will now be drawn under this historical behaviour for industry and the focus from now on is ensuring that this doesn’t happen again.” Stewart said the GasFields Commission is also investigating the issue of coal seam gas-induced subsidence, its potential impact on farming operations and the adequacy of the existing regulatory framework. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Guardian Australia has reported on concerns that Queensland law ascribes no environmental value to farmland, and that landholders have little recourse in the event coal seam gas drilling causes subsidence on their properties. Lock the Gate, a group of conservationists and farmers opposed to gas extraction, said the fine was unlikely to act as a deterrent, noting the wealth of Arrow’s parent companies. Shell posted a profit of more than $19bn this year. The group said the fine was a “small step” but that more needed to be done to hold the industry to account. “This is ultimately just a slap on the wrist for a massive multinational company like Shell/PetroChina,” said Lock the Gate’s Queensland spokesperson, Ellie Smith. “Minor changes to company procedures won’t fix this. Farmers want an unequivocal right to say no to mining on or under their land and Queenslanders want the farms that produce their food and fibre protected and prioritised over short-term, damaging gas.” In a statement, Arrow Energy said it accepted the decision and penalty. “We recognise we made mistakes in the earlier implementation of the deviated wells model,” the statement said. “We have acknowledged this publicly and made substantial improvements to our operations. “We remain deeply committed to continually improving the way we engage with all landholders.” | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/farming', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'environment/coal-seam-gas', 'environment/gas', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-03-31T08:44:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/2014/oct/24/coders-san-francisco-hackathon-app-environment | Coders in San Francisco hack out ideas for apps with meaning | Crowdsourcing is being used to help solve some of today’s most pressing social and environmental problems. Take education. A few years ago, Nokia and UNESCO teamed up with the Pearson Foundation to crowdsource ideas to use mobile phones for overcoming barriers to learning. US non-profit Code for India, meanwhile, encourages coders to gather for intensive, day-long competitions to come up with development-focused apps. Described as “Peace Corps for geeks”, the idea is the brainchild of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Karl Mehta. Earlier this year, BeMyApp, an events organiser for professional developers, organised something similar in San Francisco. Around 100 computer coders, designers and “idea generators” from across the Bay area took up an invitation to join a weekend-long “hackathon” in late January. The idea behind the CloudCamp Social Good Hackathon event was simple: to come up with software applications that have a “social good impact and make a difference in people’s lives”. The event, which was sponsored by tech companies Intel and HP, invited participants to brainstorm around four focus themes: environmental protection, community enhancement, educational improvement and better health and fitness. Participants came up with an initial pool of 31 ideas, which the competitors narrowed down to 15 by popular vote. Up for grabs was a $5,000 and $4,000 cash prize for first and second place, respectively. Runners-up stood to win HP laptops and other in-kind rewards. The solutions had to be built using OpenStack, a cloud operating system, with the judges looking for excellence in execution, scalability, innovation and impact. Experts from BeMyApp were on hand throughout the weekend to give tips and advice to the competitors. While the competition element of the event appealed to participants, the prizes themselves were “completely secondary”, according to Neil Mansilla, a software expert who attended the event. Instead, the over-riding motivation for most people was the chance to work on “meaningful projects”, he says. Top prize went to a software platform for food banks to optimise the distribution of food called Feedjoy. The winning idea also included an “intelligent food donation bin” that could send real-time information to the food bank to further improve its efficiency. Other ideas singled out by the judges included: Sign Up for Good, a software platform to facilitate volunteering; GiveShelter, a mobile app that helps you help the homeless; and ImagineYou, another mobile app, this time to help young women envision themselves as adults in a science-related profession. Other recent examples of crowdsourcing for good include the CleanWeb Hackathon in New York, the Hackathon for Social Good, the HP Hackathon in India and the Social Innovation Hackathon organised by Peace Corps and the University of California, Berkeley. Read more stories like this: Why rivals like PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Unilever and P&G are joining forces Business and academia join forces to tackle UK food security Advertisement feature: Unilever seeks innovative startups for sustainable living hack The sustainable living hub is funded by Unilever. 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/series/sustainable-living', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/collaboration', 'technology/intel', 'technology/crowdsourcing', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/oliver-balch'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-10-24T16:18:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
us-news/2019/aug/26/donald-trump-suggests-nuking-hurricanes-to-stop-them-hitting-america-report | Trump suggests 'nuking hurricanes' to stop them hitting America – report | Donald Trump has reportedly suggested on more than one occasion that the US military should bomb hurricanes in order to disrupt them before they make landfall. According to US news website Axios, the president said in a meeting with top national security and homeland security officials about the threat of hurricanes: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” Quoting unnamed sources who were present at the meeting, Axios report that the response from one official was “We’ll look into this.” On Sunday, the White House declined to comment on the Axios report. “We don’t comment on private discussions that the president may or may not have had with his national security team,” it said. On Monday, from the G7 summit in France, Trump passed comment of his own. “The story by Axios that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching shore is ridiculous,” he tweeted. “I never said this. Just more FAKE NEWS!” Axios reported that Trump raised the same issue on another occasion with a senior administration official. This conversation was apparently recorded in a 2017 national security council memo which used the term “nuclear” in reference to the conversation. Axios quoted a senior official who defended Trump’s ability to ask tough questions: “His goal – to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland – is not bad. His objective is not bad.” Shortly after Trump came to power National Geographic published an article pointing out how frequently the idea of nuking hurricanes has been raised over the last few decades. “It’s an appealing thought,” it said, “especially when, during hurricane season, we’re annually reminded of the immense destruction wrought by these storms. “And it’s probably why, every year for the past six decades, government agencies have received missives from concerned citizens, urging preemptive attacks against hurricanes using nuclear weapons.” In the article, Nuking Hurricane: The Surprising History of a Really Bad Idea, the magazine pointed out that the response from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was: “Needless to say, this is not a good idea.” | ['us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/trump-administration', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-08-26T11:04:36Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2016/jun/03/nigel-farage-pro-brexit-flotilla-thames-eu-referendum-leave-campaign | Nigel Farage to lead pro-Brexit flotilla up Thames | Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, is to lead a flotilla of fishing trawlers up the Thames to central London to call for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, in a mass protest timed to coincide with prime minister’s questions. The flotilla of at least 35 boats – including huge herring and mackerel trawlers from the north of Scotland as well as smaller vessels from English ports – is being organised by Scottish skippers, who set up the pro-Brexit Fishing for Leave campaign several weeks ago. The organisers hope the flotilla, which is reminiscent of go-slow protests by hauliers and taxi drivers, will arrive at Tower Bridge by high tide on 15 June, about an hour after the final PMQs before the referendum on 23 June. The vessels, expected to include small inshore fishing boats and trawlers from English ports including Newlyn and Ramsgate, are to gather off Southend in Essex at dawn before sailing up the Thames. The number of boats is limited by Thames navigation and safety rules, the organisers said, but Farage predicted the event would be “big, visual and dramatic”. John Buchan, treasurer of Fishing for Leave, said he hoped the flotilla would be greeted by scores of pro-Brexit MPs and activists, as well as Farage, who revealed his involvement on LBC radio. The Ukip leader said: “One thing I can promise you is you are about to hear a lot about the fishing industry. “On 15 June I will be boarding a small trawler in Southend-on-Sea at 5am and we will catch the flood tide. There will be 60 boats in a flotilla coming up the Thames and we will arrive outside the Palace of Westminster at midday. “It will be big, visual and dramatic. The demand will be clear: we want our waters back.” Buchan said: “It’s the last prime minister’s questions before the recess and I think high tide is about an hour after David Cameron sits down. So I would imagine that every Brexit MP who stands up [in PMQs] will have a fisheries question to ask.” Farage met Fishing for Leave organisers when he addressed a rally with the pro-Brexit UK fisheries minister, George Eustice, at a fisheries exhibition in Aberdeen last Friday. Buchan said they were still in discussions with skippers of the UK’s largest trawlers, the 65- to 70-metre pelagic vessels based in Shetland and north-east Scotland, to ensure some were able to make the five-day return voyage. He said the fuel costs of the round trip were very high given the skippers would have no catch to sell after the voyage. Most are tied up on the quayside as the mackerel and herring seasons are over. Fishing for Leave argues that its industry would be better off if the UK left the EU but had the same status as Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands during fisheries quota talks. He said the current system meant the UK was one of half a dozen EU nations in those negotiations, and was unable to represent itself and its own interests. “If we got Brexit, the same meeting would happen but there would be an EU commissioner, a Scottish minister but also a UK minister sitting there too. That is critical. It’s an absolute no-brainer for fishermen.” During last year’s election campaign when Farage promoted Ukip’s fisheries policy in Grimsby, Greenpeace accused the Ukip leader of hypocrisy. It said Farage had only attended one of 42 meetings while he was a member of the European parliament’s fisheries committee, and failed to take part in three votes to reform the common fisheries policy. But there is a deep split on the issue within the wider fisheries and seafood sector. While the vast majority of trawlermen are thought to back leave, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, the official representative body, has taken a neutral stance on the referendum. Industry leaders worry that if the UK were to leave the EU a UK government could quite easily use British fishing stocks as a bargaining chip, rather than honour the current promises being made by Brexit campaign leaders to fight hard for the industry. The EU system allows UK boats to trade their quotas and catch more as a result. “The size of our industry with regards to the rest of the economy leads me to fear that we will have many a fight on our hands to get ministers to act in a way which will be beneficial to us,” said one senior source. Sources also said the Dutch and Icelandic conglomerates that own the deep water fishing fleet based in Hull, which is British registered and crewed, wanted the UK to remain in the EU. The largest firms in the Scottish salmon farming industry, which earns more than £630m – about 50% more than the £426m that the UK seagoing fleet is worth for Britain’s GDP – want to remain in the UK as it relies heavily on the EU single market. The largest of the salmon farming companies, Norwegian-owned Marine Harvest, said it opposed Brexit, as do specialist seafood producers such as Northern Ireland’s £3m-a-year eel-harvest industry. | ['politics/eu-referendum', 'environment/fishing', 'politics/nigel-farage', 'politics/ukip', 'world/eu', 'environment/food', 'environment/marine-life', 'uk/uk', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'world/europe-news', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-06-03T10:06:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
money/2009/may/27/justice-community-groups | Community groups struggle to secure environmental justice | Residents from Peacehaven have spent the past five years fighting the development of a £300m waste treatment site in the middle of their community on the edge of the South Downs, recently designated a national park. They object to plans for an industrial processing plant, which will deal with 95m litres of waste from 250,000 people (mostly residents of Brighton) daily, being carried out on their doorstep. The film above follows their attempts to prevent planning permission for the development, dubbed "The Battle of Poohaven" by the local press. But shortly after the film was shot the locals were forced to admit defeat: the high court rejected their attempt to challenge, by judicial review, East Sussex county council's decision to allow Southern Water to develop the site, and the residents had run out of money to fund their case. John Hodgson, leader of the protest group PROUD (Peacehaven Residents Opposed to Urban Development) said this week: "Our lawyers advised us there was no more legal aid available, so if we had lost we would face the costs. And they could have been as much as £50,000. We couldn't afford that." It is a familiar story for resident groups up and down the country when the local planning system fails them and the courts are their last chance. Head of legal at Friends of the Earth (FoE), Phil Michaels, says: "Legal costs are used as a litigation weapon to silence campaigners." If you apply to court for a judicial review, as happened in Peacehaven, then you bear the risk of having to pick up the tab for the other side's legal costs. "That can be the public authorities' costs but also, in some cases, the developers' costs," Michaels says. "Those costs are going to be very significant indeed." In "bog standard" planning cases the costs might be £10,000, but in the majority of environmental challenges "you are looking at tens of thousands and in some cases well over £100,000," Michaels says. Pressure situations In a recent campaign against the London borough of Hillingdon for failing to stop pollution from a coffee factory, locals were threatened with costs of £28,000 for simply applying to the court for permission to make a challenge. "Whilst it is unlikely that our client would have been ordered to pay all, it did have a chilling effect and added to fund-raising pressures, which led them to withdraw," Gita Parihar, the solicitor at FoE who helped them with their legal aid application, says. Paul Stookes, a lawyer who represents the Peacehaven residents, cites the recent case of Frank Morgan and Cathy Baker, neighbours who live close to a compost site in Publow, near Bristol. They complain of smells emanating from the site which are so bad Morgan claims to be stuck in his home "like a prisoner". They are also concerned about the dangers of bio-aerosols being released into the air. Morgan and Baker were landed with a £25,000 legal bill after being granted an injunction to stop the site, which was later overturned. They were not backed by legal aid, but the claim was funded thorough legal expenses insurance contained in a household insurance policy. The high court judge Mr Justice Sullivan highlighted the case in a report last year, Ensuring access to environmental justice in England and Wales, which found that only the "very rich or very poor" could afford to fight environmental schemes. In March, the court of appeal overturned the costs order and the case is now going to a full trial. Stookes argues that these are the cases the government has committed itself to protecting by signing the Aarhus convention more than a decade ago. Under this the government promised to make sure ordinary members of the public who wish to pursue environmental challenges should have access to legal redress that were "fair, equitable and not prohibitively expensive". FoE's Michaels argues there are "very particular problems with legal aid" and the bringing of environmental cases, not least that public funding is only available to individuals and not community groups or environmental non-governmental organisations who might be better placed to fund challenges. "In some cases the group can put forward one of their members who might happen to be financially eligible, but that comes with a whole range of usual problems. Is there somebody in the group eligible for legal aid? The threshold for legal aid is pretty tight," says Michaels. Even then the Legal Services Commission often asks for a contribution to cover the other side's legal costs. In the case of Peacehaven the legal action was taken in one person's name, and the contribution asked for and raised by the people of Peacehaven for the judicial review was £5,000. Although a sizeable sum, FoE says it is a low figure. The community dug deep to cover the amount, only to be forced to call it day when the stakes were raised even higher. | ['money/series/the-justice-gap', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'society/communities', 'society/society', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/jonrobins'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-05-26T23:05:05Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2015/oct/20/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-first-worker-diagnosed-cancer | Fukushima nuclear disaster: first worker diagnosed with cancer linked to cleanup | A 41-year old man has become the first worker at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to be diagnosed with cancer that officials recognise as being linked to his work there after the March 2011 disaster. The unnamed man, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in January 2014 after feeling unwell, spent a year working on reactor buildings that were badly damaged after a magnitude 9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck Fukushima and other parts of Japan’s north-east coast on 11 March 2011. The disaster caused a triple meltdown at the nuclear plant, where so far almost 45,000 workers have been involved in a cleanup and decommissioning effort that is expected to cost billions of dollars and take about 40 years. Tuesday’s announcement by Japan’s health ministry will come as a blow to Fukushima’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), and could frustrate government efforts to encourage people to return to communities nearby that have been declared safe. Media reports said the man, an employee of one of the myriad contractors employed by Tepco, helped install covers on two damaged reactor buildings between October 2012 and December 2013. He was diagnosed with leukaemia while still in his 30s. A health ministry official said the man had worn protective gear while at the plant and would be awarded compensation to cover medical costs and lost income. “While the causal link between his exposure to radiation and his illness is unclear, we certified him from the standpoint of worker compensation,” the official said. Three other plant workers suffering from cancer are awaiting confirmation that their illnesses are linked to the accident, which sent large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and forced the evacuation of more than 150,000 residents, most of whom are still unable to return to their homes. Tepco said it could not comment on the decision to approve the worker’s compensation claim. “We would like to offer our condolences to the worker,” a Tepco spokesman said. “We will continue to reduce the radiation dose of the working environment and manage thoroughly workers’ exposure to radiation.” Before his diagnosis the man had been exposed to 16 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation at Fukushima and a further 4 mSv during three months he spent at another nuclear plant in 2012. Compensation insurance is awarded to workers after exposure to 5 mSv in a year, according to the ministry. According to Tepco, 21,000 of the 45,000 people who have worked at Fukushima since the disaster were exposed to more than 5 mSv of radiation between March 2011 and the end of July this year. More than 9,000 have received a dose of at least 20 mSv, and six have been exposed to more than 250 mSv. “A dose of 100 mSv per annum is very high, and 250 mSv would be unconscionable,” said Dr Ian Fairlie, an independent consultant on radioactivity in the environment. “Clearly what is happening at Fukushima Daiichi is that thousands of temporary workers are being exposed to high radiation levels, then dismissed when their dosimeters reach the limit.” The man’s exposure to relatively low amounts of radiation – lower, even, than those deemed safe enough for residents to return to their homes – could prompt a rethink of the government’s push to promote the resettlement of displaced Fukushima evacuees. Experts are divided on whether low doses of radiation, below a threshold of 100 mSv, can be linked to cancer. “This is a landmark decision from the viewpoint of workers’ rights, and it’s probably just the tip of the iceberg,” Shinzo Kimura, associate professor of radiation and hygiene at Dokkyo Medical University, told Agence France-Presse. He said the decision to recognise the man’s cancer as radiation-related, despite his relatively low dose, was “an alarm bell” for the government. Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at Imperial College London, said she was surprised by the health ministry’s decision to recognise the diagnosis as linked to radiation exposure while working at Fukushima. “Given the low doses that the workers were exposed to, the increased risk is very small at these doses, and it would be very difficult to be certain that this was due to radiation and not to other factors that cause leukaemia,” Thomas said. “At these doses, the other factors are a more likely cause of the man’s illness.” Anti-nuclear campaigners said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Japanese authorities had been premature in saying there would be no discernible impact on health from the disaster. “This is a massive blow to the IAEA, which stated in September of this year that no discernible health effects due to the exposure to radiation released by the accident are to be expected,” Greenpeace Japan said. Jan Vande Putte, a radiation expert with Greenpeace Belgium, said: “The statement from the IAEA that there would be no discernible health effects from the Fukushima disaster was clearly premature. “The impacts both from the initial releases and from the ongoing nuclear crisis have yet to be fully seen, as the historical example of Chernobyl demonstrates. Greenpeace calls on the IAEA and the Japanese authorities to retract their unsubstantiated and unscientific statement. The workers on-site and the citizens of Fukushima are suffering from the consequences of this nuclear disaster. Denying this reality is both dismissive of their suffering and undermines their fight for justice for themselves and their families.” There has been a significant spike in the rate of thyroid cancer among children and young people living in Fukushima at the time of the accident, but local medical authorities claim the increase is owing to the use of sensitive equipment and the unusually large number of people being tested, and is not the result of radiation exposure. That claim was challenged recently by Toshihide Tsuda, a professor at Okayama University, whose study found that cases of thyroid cancer among Fukushima children are 20 to 50 times higher than among children elsewhere in Japan. | ['environment/fukushima', 'world/japan', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/energy', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2015-10-20T15:10:03Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2020/feb/27/australia-ease-to-86-run-win-over-bangladesh-at-women-t20-world-cup | Australia ease to big win over Bangladesh at Women's T20 World Cup | The Australian women’s team finally put in a performance befitting their home-favourite status at the Twenty20 World Cup with an 86-run win, although it came at the expense of an under-resourced and overwhelmed Bangladesh team. The opening bats Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney took control from the outset, piling up an Australian record partnership for the format with 151 runs. Australia finished on 189 for one with Healy the only wicket to fall for 83 from 53 balls, while Mooney batted through the innings for 81 from 58. Bangladesh were never in the hunt, with some late run-outs reducing them to 103 for nine. For Australia it was a welcome night of everything going smoothly, after an opening-round stumble against India had been followed by nearly dropping another game to Sri Lanka in a nervous and unconvincing display in Perth. But after the captain, Meg Lanning, won the toss and chose to bat in an evening match in Canberra, Australia never looked back. The true wicket and fast outfield at Manuka Oval suits big scores, and for a while it looked like Healy and Mooney would knock off the tournament record of 169 that England’s Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver had set against Thailand only the day before. Healy set the tone with four boundaries in her first eight balls, regularly lashing through a strong off-side field against the opening bowlers before starting to advance and hit down the ground against the spinners. By the eighth over she had raised a half-century by launching her third six of the innings, all from the unfortunate Khadija Tul Kubra, to the pleasure of a crowd in excess of 5,600. For a few overs Mooney took the lead, advancing to loft drives down the ground and over cover, moving to her own 50 after some desperate bat-swinging saved her from a stumping off Rumana Ahmed on 47. On they went until the end of the 17th over. A century for Healy wasn’t to be, the opener reaching for a wide ball from Salma Khatun but lifting the spinner to Sanjida Islam at point. That wasn’t much salve for the burn, though, as Ashleigh Gardner came out to help loot the wicket-taker’s final over for 16, thanks in large part to Nahida Akter parrying a possible catch for six, leaving Khatun with a night’s work of one for 39. Gardner finished with 22 from nine deliveries, the perfect job with so few balls to spare. A battered Bangladesh team managed to find enough composure that Shamima Sultana and Murshida Khatun held out the opening salvoes, but Australia’s swing expert Megan Schutt got them both in the fourth over, including a dream delivery that coasted in from wide over the wicket to take the former’s leg stump. Fargana Hoque batted through to the penultimate over for 36, taking a particular liking to the bowling of Annabel Sutherland with some fine straight drives, but Sutherland picked up a wicket at the other end, as did Nicola Carey and Jess Jonassen. Schutt returned to have Fargana Hoque caught behind with her last ball of the night, then the 20th over saw a team hat-trick with another Jonassen wicket and two run-outs. Bangladesh survived the final ball to make it through the innings with a triple-figure score and without having been bowled out, but that was where the positives ended. Bangladesh’s tournament is now all but over, winless with two matches to play, while Australia could still be knocked out at the pool stage if they lose to New Zealand on Monday. Their net run rate, though, got a huge boost from the Bangladesh win, taking them well ahead on that front after the Kiwis lost to India earlier the same day. “We weren’t really focused on that other game today at any point,” said Healy after play. “There was a bit of talk about it on the bus before we arrived, but it was always going to happen, both pools are really wide open at the minute, and there’s probably going to be three sides that are pushing for the top two. To get that result tonight was fantastic against a side that’s really unknown to us. It probably allowed us to think about ourselves for a chance and just get out there and play how we wanted to.” The word “unknown” was not dismissive. This was the first time Australia and Bangladesh had played in any form of women’s cricket. The Bangladesh men last visited Australia for a Test tour in 2003, when Steve Waugh was captaining Australia, and a one-day tour in 2008. One of the biggest financial players in world cricket should be doing more to assist the game’s future in Bangladesh, where the next generation of boys has just won the Under-19 World Cup. For today though, those in the halls of power would have had eyes trained on their own affairs. Their women’s team is out of the hole it dug. The New Zealand game remains a must-win, but at least the Australians are in charge of what happens next, rather than facing a chance of being squeezed out by other results. The quest for a huge crowd at the final is still alive. | ['sport/womens-world-t20-2020', 'sport/womens-world-twenty20', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/australia-women-s-cricket-team', 'sport/australia-sport', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/geoff-lemon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-sport'] | sport/womens-world-t20-2020 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-02-27T13:02:22Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
science/2016/aug/18/how-typhoon-sank-kublai-khan-weatherwatch | How a typhoon sank Kublai Khan | In August 1281, the celebrated Kublai Khan, Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, sent a fleet to invade Japan. But – as with a previous invasion attempt in 1274 – he failed to prepare adequately for the weather. The vast invasion force, with more than 4,000 ships carrying 140,000 troops, sailed from Korea and China. The Japanese were not only outnumbered but outgunned, as the Mongols had novel weapons including exploding arrows and grenades. However, the Japanese defenders proved tenacious, and the invaders could not get a firm foothold on shore in Kyushu. Then a major typhoon struck. Wishing to avoid being stranded in hostile territory, the invading soldiers re-embarked and tried to sail through the storm. Some ships collided with each other, others were blown on to rocks. Most of the army drowned. Survivors who washed up on Japanese soil were hunted down by the defending samurai. The invasion was defeated, and only a few hundred ships returned to port. In Japan, the typhoon was taken as a sign of heavenly favour, and was known as the “divine wind” – Kamikaze in Japanese. Powerful typhoons are rare in Kyushu, and some have suggested that the storm was exaggerated. However, researchers looking at lake-bed sediments in the area have found indications of a major inundation that dates to the right period. In addition, analysis of timbers from the invasion ships suggests they were poorly constructed, and would not have survived a typhoon. | ['science/meteorology', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/world', 'science/archaeology', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-08-18T20:30:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2017/mar/05/online-advertising-social-media-facebook-google-youve-been-ad | Bad news for online advertisers – you’ve been ’ad | John Naughton | There is, alas, no such thing as a free lunch. The trouble with digital technology, though, is that for a long time it encouraged us to believe that this law of nature had been suspended. Take email as an example. In the old days, if you wanted to send a friend a postcard saying: “Just thinking of you”, you had to find a postcard and a pen, write the message, find a stamp and walk to a postbox. Two days later – if you were lucky – your card reached its destination. But with email you just type the message, press “send” and in an instant it is delivered to your friend’s inbox, sometimes at the other end of the world. No stamp, no expense, no hassle. It is the same with using the cloud to store our digital photographs, browse the web, download podcasts, watch YouTube Lolcats, look up Wikipedia and check our Facebook newsfeeds. All free. Well, up to a point. Most of us eventually tumbled to the realisation that if the service is free, we are the product. Or, rather, our personal data and the digital trails we leave on the web are the product. The data is sliced, diced and sold to advertisers in a vast, hidden – and totally unregulated – system of high-speed, computerised auctions that ensure each user can be exposed to ads that precisely match their interests, demographics and gender identity. And this is done with amazing, fine-grained resolution: Facebook, for example, holds 98 data points on every user. Welcome to the world of “surveillance capitalism”. Still, consider the benefits for advertisers. Once upon a time, advertising was like carpet bombing. You paid a lot of money to put ads in newspapers and magazines or on television and billboards, but it was all hit and miss: you could never be sure what worked. As a US department store magnate, John Wanamaker, once said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” But when Google and then Facebook arrived, all this apparently changed. The technology deployed by these outfits could ensure that only people likely to be receptive to particular messages would be shown those messages. Wanamaker’s heirs could be sure that their advertising dollars were hitting the spot. And on this foundation, Google and Facebook (and, for a while, Yahoo) made money like it was going out of fashion. It was, as the cliche puts it, a win‑win situation. And so the advertisers’ money, diverted from print and TV, cascaded into the coffers of Google and co. In 2012, Procter & Gamble announced that it would make $1bn in savings by targeting consumers through digital and social media. It has got to the point where, according to last week’s Financial Times, 2017 will be the year when advertisers spend more online than they do on TV. Trebles all round, then? Not quite. It turns out that the advertising industry is beginning to smell a rat in this hi-tech nirvana. In a speech to the annual conference of the Internet Advertising Bureau in January, the Procter & Gamble boss, Marc Pritchard, said this: “We have seen an exponential increase in, well… crap. Craft or crap? Technology enables both and all too often the outcome has been more crappy advertising accompanied by even crappier viewing experiences… is it any wonder ad blockers are growing 40%?” But the exponential growth in crap is not the biggest problem, he said. Much more worrying was the return of the Wanamaker problem: how many people are actually seeing these ads? Perhaps what he had in mind was an advertising industry investigation that suggested around a third of online ads may be “seen” not by humans but by bots. Pritchard regards the hidden machinery of surveillance capitalism as “murky at best and fraudulent at worst. We need to clean it up and invest the time and money we save into better advertising to drive growth.” So here’s version 2.0 of the Wanamaker problem: the US industry is throwing astonishing amounts of money at online advertising and yet the growth rate of the industry is anaemic and nobody knows how effective online advertising really is. “Some might say,” said Pritchard, “we’re squandering this wonderful gift of technology.” They might. But eventually people will ask: what’s the rate of return of online advertising? Who’s benefiting from this vast, opaque, unregulated, unmonitored and ultimately user-hostile online auction system? Part of the answer may be glimpsed in the share prices of Google and Facebook. But mostly it’s to be found in the profits of the data-brokers, cookie monsters, trackers and other corporate creatures that lurk in the shadows cast by the internet giants. And they’re not talking. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'media/advertising', 'technology/series/networker', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'tone/features', 'technology/facebook', 'media/socialnetworking', 'technology/google', 'technology/big-data', 'media/digital-media', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/johnnaughton', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/discover', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-03-05T09:00:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2021/oct/31/eco-anxiety-over-climate-crisis-suffered-by-all-ages-and-classes | Eco-anxiety over climate crisis suffered by all ages and classes | A clear majority of people believe that climate change will have a more significant effect on humanity than will Covid-19, which has already claimed about five million lives worldwide, according to a new poll conducted ahead of the Cop26 summit being held in Glasgow this weekend. The survey, carried out as part of a study into “eco-anxiety” by the Global Future thinktank in conjunction with the University of York, also finds that concern about global warming is almost as common among older and working-class people as it is among those who are young or middle-class. Overall, 78% of people reported some level of eco-anxiety. The authors of the report say that their findings should serve as a warning to politicians who may believe that worries about the climate emergency are confined to younger, middle-class and metropolitan voters. The YouGov poll of more than 2,100 people found that 56% believe the implications of climate change will be greater for the world than will those of the coronavirus pandemic, with a majority of all age groups and social classes holding this view. Similarly, climate change is considered a top global priority among people of all age groups and backgrounds, and across all regions of the UK. Despite this widespread concern about the climate crisis – with some 42% of middle and upper-class people reporting high eco-anxiety against 39% of working-class voters – people lack faith in political leaders to act. Some 31% of those questioned believe that the Cop26 summit will have little or no effect, 32% think it will have a moderate effect, while only 18% think it will have a big effect. The polling found that the biggest difference in levels of eco-anxiety was not between rich and poor or young and old, but between men and women. Some 45% of female participants reported high levels of worry about climate change compared with 36% of men. Rowenna Davis, author of the report and director of Global Future, said: “Everyone – rich and poor, young and old, north and south, men and women – is suffering eco-anxiety. Therefore, some cynical politicians who seek to use wedge issues like petrol prices to divide the public are not only wrong, they are also making a strategic error. “Whoever hopes to win the next election will need to win the ‘red wall’. This will mean responding to concerns these voters actually hold rather than perceptions of them. From our research, this must include a meaningful response to climate change.” Pavlos Vasilopoulos, politics lecturer at the University of York, added: “These findings contest commonly held views that the environment is only an issue for the southern middle class. Instead, climate change appears to be becoming more similar to issues such as unemployment or crime, which are recognised as priorities by the majority and are used to evaluate government performance.” | ['environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'type/article', 'tone/polls', 'tone/news', 'profile/tobyhelm', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-31T07:45:21Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
science/2008/apr/28/scienceofclimatechange.biodiversity | Perfect harmony: The Gaia theory | Earth is a perfect planet for life but, according to Gaia theory, this is no coincidence. From the moment life first appeared on Earth it has worked hard to make Earth a more comfortable place to live. Gaia theory suggests that the Earth and its natural cycles can be thought of like a living organism. When one natural cycle starts to go out of kilter other cycles work to bring it back, continually optimising the conditions for life on Earth. Named after the Greek Earth goddess, Gaia, the theory was developed in the 1960s by scientist Dr James Lovelock. At the time, Lovelock was working for Nasa, looking at methods of detecting life on Mars. The theory came about as a way of explaining why the Earth's atmosphere contains high levels of nitrogen and oxygen. Initially, Gaia theory was ignored, and then later ridiculed by scientists such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen J Gould. However, in recent times stronger evidence for the theory has emerged and Gaia has started to gain support. The theory helps to explain some of the more unusual features of planet Earth, such as why the atmosphere isn't mostly carbon dioxide, and why the oceans aren't more salty. In its early years Earth's atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide - the product of multiple volcanic burps. It wasn't until life arrived that the balance began to change. Bacteria produced nitrogen, an inert gas, and photosynthesising plants produced oxygen, a very reactive gas. Ever since that time, about 2,500m years ago, Earth's atmosphere has contained significant amounts of nitrogen and oxygen, supporting life on this planet. The nitrogen helps to keep things stable, preventing oxygen levels from climbing too high and fuelling runaway fires. Meanwhile, the oxygen supports complex life. Gaia also helps to explain how the oceans are kept in balance. Rivers dissolve salt from rocks and carry it to the ocean, yet ocean salinity has remained at about 3.4% for a very long time. It appears that the salt is removed again when water is cycled through cracks on the ocean floor. This process keeps the oceans' salinity in balance and at a level that most lifeforms can tolerate. These processes are not thought to be conscious ones, or to favour any one life form over another. Gaia theory simply maintains that Earth's natural cycles work together to keep the Earth healthy and support life on Earth. Lovelock argues that humans have now pushed Gaia to her limit. In addition to filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, we have hacked our way through the "lungs" of the planet (the rainforests) and driven many species to extinction. He thinks we are heading for a very warm world, where only polar regions are comfortable for most life forms. Eventually, he suspects, Gaia will pull things back into check, but it may be too late for the human race. Explainer: Feedback loops Feedback loops often appear to keep the planet in balance. One good example of this is the way in which atmospheric carbon dioxide is kept in check. Carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere by volcanoes, and removed by the weathering of rocks (encouraged by bacteria and plant roots in the soil). When it reaches the sea, the dissolved carbon dioxide is used by tiny organisms, known as coccolithophores (algae), to make their shells. When coccolithophores die they release a gas - dimethyl sulphate - which encourages the formation of clouds in the atmosphere. When atmospheric carbon dioxide levels become too high, coccolithophores get busy, locking up more carbon dioxide in their shells and pumping dimethyl sulphate into the atmosphere when they die - producing clouds which reflect back sunlight and help the Earth to cool. Conversely, if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels become low, coccolithophores reduce their activity. Over the past 200 years mankind has greatly increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and recently there has been evidence that algal blooms in the ocean are increasing. Could Gaia be trying to correct our mistake? | ['science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/geology', 'science/controversiesinscience', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sciencecourse', 'theguardian/sciencecourse/earth'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-04-27T23:01:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2013/mar/13/laos-campaigner-abduction-activist-community | Laos campaigner's abduction sends shockwaves through activist community | Sombath Somphone was snatched on a busy street in Laos' capital Vientiane last December, while police officers looked on. The 60-year-old was stopped by police in his 4x4, but two people in plain clothes bundled him into another vehicle and he has not been seen or heard of since. The police and other government authorities state they had no part in his abduction and do not know where he is. The nature of Sombath's disappearance has shocked local environmental activists and non-governmental organisations. He is a highly respected community worker and green campaigner, and worked for more than 30 years on grassroots community activity including consulting for Unicef, where his wife also worked. He founded the Participatory Development Training Centre, which educates rural Laotians in everything from fish farming to rice milling and microcredit to recycling household waste. In 2005, he won the Ramon Magsaysay award for social activists, often called the Asian Nobel prize. Colleagues in the NGO community fear that his abduction represents the beginning of a state crackdown on dissenting voices. His wife, Shui-meng Ng said: "I believe that he is still alive but I do not know in what condition. He is in need of daily medication for prostate cancer. He has not received his medication since his disappearance." She remembers the day of his disappearance. "We normally go out in the same car, but that Saturday I had to go first. I took the car, and Sombath took the jeep." They met later to go home for dinner. "I drove my car in front, and he drove behind me." So far, so normal. They became separated when Sombath was stopped at a police checkpoint. "After that, I did not see his car. I thought nothing about it. I went home. When he did not return, I called his phone, but it was switched off. I thought it had run out of battery. By around midnight, I started to worry. We went out looking for him. We went to the hospitals. Next morning, we reported to the police." Then she had an idea that led to evidence which threatens to undermine Laos's attempts to portray itself as a Communist country undergoing political reform. She asked to see CCTV footage on the police computers, recorded it on her phone and put it online. It shows Sombath being stopped, a motorcyclist turning up and taking his vehicle, and then Sombath being abducted and driven away in a white 4x4 with flashing lights. Complicit or perhaps fearful, the police do not intervene. Shui-meng said: "We never suspected anything like this. But Vientiane is very small, and if people want to follow us or find out where we are, it is easy." Despite the disturbing evidence of the CCTV footage, state authorities blame "business rivals", even though he has no business. His friends in Laos' international community believe his trouble began when he organised a high-profile meeting of Laos community leaders. The Asia-Europe People's Forum took place just before Laos played host to a summit of heads of state from Europe and Asia – an outward sign that Laos was throwing off years of isolation and socialist dogma. The forum had official approval. It was opened by the deputy prime minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, widely regarded as a liberal. Sombath encouraged delegates to speak freely. One working group discussed land grabbing, a hot topic in the country. According to foreign observers at the meeting, one woman said her ethnic group did not want to be turned into labourers on a rubber plantation. But then the facade of state liberalism seemed to crack. The woman, who activists have requested is not named for her own safety, was attacked by government officials who were filming speakers and taking notes. Days later, officials visited her home village. In an atmosphere of intimidation, Sombath approached his government counterparts in organising the meeting to solve the crisis. Anne-Sophie Gindroz, the Laos director of Helvetas, a Swiss-based agricultural development NGO who had organised the land workshop, wrote to foreign donors underlining the "serious constraints on freedom of expression" in a country where "there is little space for meaningful democratic debate". The government read her letter and, on 7 December, the ministry of foreign affairs wrote to her boss in Zurich accusing her of waging an "anti-government campaign". She was given 48 hours to leave the country. Eight days later, after returning from Burma, Sombath disappeared. The US state department, UN human rights commission, fellow recipients of the Magsaysay award and many others have pleaded with the Laos government to find and release Sombath. But so far there is no sign. Supporters fear the police, while supposedly trying to find Sombath, are trying to dig up dirt on him. Shui-meng said they had visited his village, asking about his drinking and whether or not he holds an American passport .He does not, although he was educated in the US and has many foreign friends. Shui-meng said: "I do not fear any threat to my own safety. I plan to stay until I get Sombath back safely. We have worked together for 30 years to improve Laos people's wellbeing and livelihoods. We have done nothing wrong. We have done everything openly and in full public view, and have abided by the law of the land." • This article was amended on 15 March 2013. It originally stated that police sent CCTV footage of Sombath Somphone's abduction to his wife. In fact she recorded the footage on her phone while watching it on a police computer. This has been corrected. | ['environment/activism', 'world/laos', 'environment/environment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'law/human-rights', 'tone/news', 'law/law', 'environment/land-rights', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/fredpearce', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2013-03-13T23:03:22Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
business/2018/may/22/monsanto-trial-cancer-weedkiller-roundup-dewayne-johnson | Landmark lawsuit claims Monsanto hid cancer danger of weedkiller for decades | At the age of 46, DeWayne Johnson is not ready to die. But with cancer spread through most of his body, doctors say he probably has just months to live. Now Johnson, a husband and father of three in California, hopes to survive long enough to make Monsanto take the blame for his fate. On 18 June, Johnson will become the first person to take the global seed and chemical company to trial on allegations that it has spent decades hiding the cancer-causing dangers of its popular Roundup herbicide products – and his case has just received a major boost. Last week Judge Curtis Karnow issued an order clearing the way for jurors to consider not just scientific evidence related to what caused Johnson’s cancer, but allegations that Monsanto suppressed evidence of the risks of its weed killing products. Karnow ruled that the trial will proceed and a jury would be allowed to consider possible punitive damages. “The internal correspondence noted by Johnson could support a jury finding that Monsanto has long been aware of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicides are carcinogenic … but has continuously sought to influence the scientific literature to prevent its internal concerns from reaching the public sphere and to bolster its defenses in products liability actions,” Karnow wrote. “Thus there are triable issues of material fact.” Johnson’s case, filed in San Francisco county superior court in California, is at the forefront of a legal fight against Monsanto. Some 4,000 plaintiffs have sued Monsanto alleging exposure to Roundup caused them, or their loved ones, to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Another case is scheduled for trial in October, in Monsanto’s home town of St Louis, Missouri. The lawsuits challenge Monsanto’s position that its herbicides are proven safe and assert that the company has known about the dangers and hidden them from regulators and the public. The litigants cite an assortment of research studies indicating that the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicides, a chemical called glyphosate, can lead to NHL and other ailments. They also cite research showing glyphosate formulations in its commercial-end products are more toxic than glyphosate alone. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen in 2015. Monsanto “championed falsified data and attacked legitimate studies” that revealed dangers of its herbicides, and led a “prolonged campaign of misinformation” to convince government agencies, farmers and consumers that Roundup was safe, according to Johnson’s lawsuit. “We look forward to exposing how Monsanto hid the risk of cancer and polluted the science,” said Michael Miller, Johnson’s attorney. “Monsanto does not want the truth about Roundup and cancer to become public.” Monsanto has fiercely denied the allegations, saying its products are not the cause of cancer. The IARC finding was wrong, according to Monsanto, as are studies finding glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides like Roundup to be potentially carcinogenic. Monsanto points to findings by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory authorities as backing its defense. “Glyphosate-based herbicides are supported by one of the most extensive worldwide human health and environmental effects databases ever compiled for a pesticide product,” Monsanto states on its website. “Comprehensive toxicological and environmental fate studies conducted over the last 40 years have time and again demonstrated the strong safety profile of this widely used herbicide.” A company spokeswoman did not respond to a request for additional comment. How the Johnson lawsuit plays out could be a bellwether for how other plaintiffs proceed. If Johnson prevails, there could be many more years of costly litigation and hefty damage claims. If Monsanto successfully turns back the challenge, it could derail other cases and lift pressure on the firm. According to the court record, Johnson had a job as a groundskeeper for the Benicia unified school district where he applied numerous treatments of Monsanto’s herbicides to school properties from 2012 until at least late 2015. He was healthy and active before he got the cancer diagnosis in August 2014. In a January deposition, Johnson’s treating physician testified that more than 80% of his body was covered by lesions, and that he probably had but a few months to live. Johnson has improved since starting a new drug treatment in November but remains too weak sometimes to even speak or get out of bed, his attorneys and doctors state in court filings. Monsanto’s lawyers plan to introduce evidence that other factors caused Johnson’s cancer, to challenge the validity of the science Johnson’s claims rely on, and to present their own experts and research supporting safety. The company has an EPA draft risk assessment of glyphosate on its side, which concludes that glyphosate is not likely carcinogenic. Carey Gillam is a journalist and author, and a public interest researcher for US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group. | ['business/monsanto', 'us-news/california', 'business/business', 'society/health', 'society/cancer', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/farming', 'science/agriculture', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/carey-gillam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-05-22T10:00:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2014/jan/08/heavy-rain-floods-snow-weekend-met-office | Heavy rain returns, flood risk remains and snow on horizon by weekend | Communities across storm-battered England and Wales were warned on Wednesday of the risk of yet more flooding as another band of heavy rain hit the UK and water levels in rivers continued to rise. A severe weather warning issued by the Met Office for the south-west of England and parts of the Midlands and Wales remains in place Thursday with up to 40mm of rain expected to fall in a few hours in some places. Forecasters predicted colder weather and the possibility of snow over the next few days. A spokesman for the Met Office said that by the weekend temperatures were likely to drop to normal for the time of year, bringing a risk of frost, fog and even wintry showers in some parts next week. The death toll since the stormy weather began just before Christmas increased to eight after an elderly cyclist fell as he tried to make his way through floodwater in the village of Wytham, near Oxford, at noon Wednesday. The man, who was not named, was airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital in a serious condition but later pronounced dead. The Environment Agency (EA) said the risk of flooding would continue all week as water drained into rivers and streams. It is particularly concerned about the Avon through Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset, the Stour in Dorset, the Parrett in Somerset and the Severn through the Midlands. Communities along the river Thames throughout Surrey, Berkshire and Oxfordshire are also at risk. The EA has deployed temporary defences in Osney, near Oxford, Purley in Berkshire and Guildford, Surrey and its teams are on standby to deploy temporary defences along the river Severn. In another of the worst-hit places, Somerset, the county council announced an extra £250,000 of funding to help those affected by the floods. This will include a £50,000 hardship fund to go to those struggling to cope. Cabinet member David Hall said: "We really understand how traumatic it is when your home, business or community suffers flooding and we want to act quickly to help. The £50,000 is a one-off hardship grant and is vital money for people to help in a crisis. We did this last year and it was very well received by those in need. We believe it is right in the current situation to help once again." The Conservative-controlled council will press central government and the EA to plough more money into flood prevention. | ['uk/weather', 'environment/environment-agency', 'uk/met-office', 'world/snow', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/wales', 'society/localgovernment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'society/emergencyplanning', 'type/article', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-01-08T20:15:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2023/aug/17/hawaii-fires-maui-schools-search-death-toll | Head of Maui emergency agency resigns after defending not sounding sirens | The head of the Maui emergency management agency, who has been under fire for not activating disaster sirens during last week’s wildfire response, resigned on Thursday, citing health reasons. Richard Bissen, the Maui mayor, accepted the resignation of Herman Andaya, the county of Maui announced on Facebook. “Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said. As the wildfire death toll rose to 111 on Wednesday, Andaya defended not sounding sirens as flames raged. “We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Herman Andaya, Maui emergency management agency administrator, said at a news conference, using the Hawaiian directional term that can mean toward the mountains or inland. “If that was the case then they would have gone into the fire.” There are no sirens in the mountains, where the fire was spreading downhill. The system was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island, and its website says they may be used to alert for fires. Meanwhile, public schools on Maui started the process of reopening and traffic resumed on a major road, in two signs of recovery after wildfires demolished the historic town of Lahaina . More than a week after the deadliest blaze in recent US history raged through the island, search crews continued to scour the ruins of Lahaina in an effort to recover bodies. With nearly 40% of the towns searched, officials expect the death toll to mount but not catastrophically. At the town’s different schools, crews started cleaning up ash and debris and testing air and water quality. At least three schools untouched by flames in Lahaina are being assessed after sustaining wind damage, the Hawaii department of education superintendent, Keith Hayashi, said. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but overall the campuses and classrooms are in good condition structurally, which is encouraging,” Hayashi said in a video update. “We know the recovery effort is still in the early stages, and we continue to grieve the many lives lost.” Displaced students who enroll at those campuses will be able to access services such as meals and counseling, Hayashi said. The education department is also offering counseling for family members and staff. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) said it had opened its first disaster recovery center on Maui, “an important first step” toward helping residents get information about assistance, the Fema administrator, Deanne Criswell, said. Criswell said she would accompany Joe Biden on Monday when he visits to survey the damage and “bring hope”. But Beyond the decision to not use sirens, state and local officials have faced public criticism over shortages of available water to fight the fire and a chaotic evacuation that saw many trapped in their vehicles on a jammed roadway as flames swept over them. Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, is angry that residents were not given earlier warning to get out and that officials prematurely suggested danger had passed. He pointed to an announcement by Bissen, on 8 August saying the fire had been contained, “instilling a false hope in residents of Lahaina”, when hours later the fire exploded. That, he said, lulled people into a sense of safety and adds to the mistrust that he and others have over officials’ efforts now. At the news conference, Bissen and the Hawaii governor, Josh Green, bristled when asked about that mistrust and how they can assure the public they will do all that is needed to help the community rebuild. “Did mistakes happen? Absolutely,” the governor said, later adding: “You can look here to see who you can trust,” referring to the police, fire, emergency and Red Cross officials standing behind him. On Wednesday, Green addressed another major concern of residents, vowing to protect local landowners from being “victimized” by opportunistic buyers when Maui rebuilds. Green said he instructed the state attorney general to work toward a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina, even as he acknowledged the move would probably face legal challenges. “My intention from start to finish is to make sure that no one is victimized from a land grab,” Green said at a news conference. “People are right now traumatized. Please do not approach them with an offer to buy their land. Do not approach their families saying they’ll be much better off if they make a deal. Because we’re not going to allow it.” Locals have feared that a rebuilt town could become even more oriented toward wealthy visitors. Many in Lahaina struggled to afford life in Hawaii before the fire. Statewide, a typical starter home costs over $1m, while the average renter pays 42% of their income for housing, according to a Forbes Housing analysis. That’s the highest ratio in the country by a wide margin. The 2020 census found more Native Hawaiians living on the mainland than the islands for the first time in history, driven in part by a search for cheaper housing. Hotels and condos “that we can’t afford to live in – that’s what we’re afraid of”, said Lahaina native Richy Palalay. The cause of last week’s fires remains under investigation. But Hawaii is increasingly at risk from disasters, with wildfire rising fastest. | ['us-news/hawaii-fires', 'us-news/hawaii', 'us-news/us-wildfires', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-08-18T01:41:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2020/jun/03/australian-government-youtube-videos-promoting-logging-should-be-taken-down-greens-say | 'Look up at the trees, think about wood': government logging ad uses images of pristine native forests | A government promotion for the forestry industry that encourages Australians to “look up at the trees, think about wood” should be taken down after a recent federal court ruling on native forest logging, the Greens say. The department of agriculture paid a production company $94,875 last year to produce a series of videos aimed at promoting Australia’s logging industry as environmentally sustainable. The videos appear on the department’s web page and YouTube and have been distributed through the forestry industry and state governments but have not been used as part of a broader advertising campaign. One three-minute video, “Australian Forestry – planning for tomorrow, today”, features expansive shots of pristine native forests and close-ups of koalas. It describes timber as a “material so versatile, so extraordinary that if it didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it”. The videos were made to cover all aspects of the logging industry, both native forest logging and plantations. The narrator of the three-minute video says the industry uses cutting-edge technology and is committed to a sustainable future “where every tree we use is regrown and replaced”. “With this infinite capacity for renewal and its incredible variety of uses, it’s no wonder we call wood the ‘ultimate renewable’,” she says. The video says the industry is committed to forest stewardship and protecting wildlife and the environment. “So next time you look up at the trees, think about wood and everything we use it for,” it concludes. “And remember the forests it comes from, and the people who care for them. Australian forestry, planning for tomorrow, today.” A second video features interviews with forestry workers and public servants. Recent responses to written questions from the Greens senator Janet Rice show the former department of agriculture and water resources commissioned the videos as “one tactic” in a range of communication activities meant to develop a “new narrative” for the forestry industry. “The video/s are planned to help initiate this discussion, and to disrupt the negative messaging and imagery of forestry that is commonly portrayed in, for example, the media,” a request for quote document states. The document says the project is a “hearts and minds product” with “wow factor” that showcases sustainably managed forestry in Australia. It suggests animation or CGI could be incorporated to show the regrowth of well-managed Australian forests. “Did you know that some species of fauna and flora require disturbance such as a wildfire event to regenerate and grow,” the document says. “When completed under the right conditions, a native forest harvesting operation can replicate a wildfire event.” Rice said the videos ignored the “scientific reality” of the environmental damage caused by native forest logging and were “propaganda”. She compared the videos to the Australian Minerals Council’s “Little Black Rock” campaign for coal and said the material featured no footage of native forest logging actually happening. “They are extraordinary. They would be worthy of something the Chaser would produce. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious,” she said. “If it was the industry producing and paying for them that would be one thing. But not our taxes at work, our government doing it. It’s outrageous really.” Rice said she was concerned the videos made no distinction between native forest logging and logging that was managed in plantations. She said much of what was in the videos could be applied to plantation logging – which accounts for almost 90% of Australia’s timber industry – but not to ongoing native forest logging in states including Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. Last week, the federal court ruled that logging by VicForests in Victoria’s central highlands had breached state and federal environmental laws, including laws meant to protect threatened species. Justice Debra Mortimer delivered a 444-page judgment that found VicForests had breached the code of practice in its regional forestry agreement and, as a result, was not exempt from national environmental laws. She found past and planned logging would significantly affect the vulnerable greater glider and the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. The judgment was scathing of numerous practices undertaken by VicForests and described the state-owned logging agency as having “insufficient regard” for greater glider habitat. Rice said in light of the judgment and the recent bushfire disaster the agriculture department should take the videos down. “It’s clearly an inaccurate depiction of the impact of the forestry industry on our forests,” she said. “Think about it, that $100,000, it could have been put towards an under-funded recovery plan and species issues that we haven’t properly funded.” An agriculture, water and environment department spokesperson said the total project had six videos and seven social media cutaways that were intended to “raise awareness of the Australian forestry industry and forests as a sustainably managed resource”. “The videos refer to current sustainable forestry practices. The videos also highlight that with innovation and new technology the forest industry is continually looking at ways to improve,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson added “on average every tree harvested by the Australian forestry industry is regrown”. The federal government has said it is carefully considering the implications of last week’s federal court decision. Final orders have not yet been issued and VicForests and Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, which brought the case, are due to make submissions later this week. Amelia Young, the national campaigns director for the Wilderness Society, said there was one aspect of the videos she agreed with – “that Australia’s forests are amazing places”. But she said the “oft-touted ‘wood is the ultimate renewable’” fell short of reality. “The reality is that extracting wood from our native forests to the detriment of our unique wildlife, our water catchments and clean air is strip mining forest ecosystems,” she said. “The recent, landmark case against VicForests which found VicForests’ logging operations break both state and federal environmental laws – and significantly impact our endangered species – lays bare the extraordinary greenwash our taxpayers’ dollars have funded on behalf of the logging industry.” | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-06-02T17:30:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2016/mar/25/climate-change-action-imperfect-data-epa | In the fight for climate action, data isn't always your friend | Ruth Greenspan Bell | When anyone wishes to support – or defeat – a given position, the sturdiest method is to generate data to predict its consequences. Advocates generate reams of numbers to substantiate their preferred outcome. I would be an idiot to argue against numbers as part of the toolbox to help us understand difficult challenges. But numbers can be misleading, especially if you don’t know how they were derived. Bear in mind these are numbers that purport to predict the future. This is especially true when it comes to climate change, where numbers paper over a lot of philosophy and assumptions. We are wading in to an uncertain climate future, yet many experts are happy to offer fascinatingly precise-looking numbers telling us exactly what to expect and how to act. On the one hand, the numbers from opponents of climate action show, say, how the House of Representative’s 2009 Waxman-Markey bill or the EPA’s Clean Power Plan regulation will kill jobs. Whatever their accuracy, their immediacy feeds the election-to-election perspective of most elected officials despite longer-term evidence that the earth is warming, and that this warming will have dire consequences. But even those who support climate change action and have the numbers to prove it aren’t necessarily doing us a favor. Their elaborate cost-benefit models calculate the “real” costs imposed by warming to decide what warrants action – and by definition, what does not. They come up with specific figures that can be spent without running the economy into the ground, where the benefits of action exceed the costs. The sheer impossibility of writing a model that can capture every potential impact of climate change means that modelers decide what to quantify – and what not to. Among their choices are damage to agriculture, forestry, water resources, energy consumption, sea level, ocean acidification, ecosystems and health. On top of that, the model should – but often does not – account for a dynamic unfolding process including the possibility of abrupt, catastrophic changes. Each decision requires an assigned number. There is a tendency to steer away from parts that are really hard. These are often, as risk-perception researcher Paul Slovic says, the indirect consequences of unexpected events. Some models assume that agriculture can tolerate temperature swings of 30.6F above and below historical levels, or that it is easy for farmers to adjust to warming by modifying tilling, irrigation, planting and harvesting decisions. The result is a neat-looking package on what is reasonable to spend to control emissions. One used by the US government gave its blessing to spending $42 in 2020 to eliminate a metric ton of carbon dioxide and $69 for 2050. Meanwhile, the last time carbon emissions were as high as they are now, dinosaurs roamed the Earth. There are actually economists whose math advises us not to worry about climate change because the US will benefit (in part because most people prefer warm to cold weather). Or that ocean acidification is OK because a massive extinction of marine life will likely occur over many generations of people who will increasingly grow up without experiencing what has been lost. When models steer the climate conversation, it inverts priorities in two ways: it allows the modelers to decide which climate damages are important and which are not – and how to value them. And it diverts attention from the real issue – what level of risk we are willing to tolerate. But there are other ways to formulate policy. One was offered by 11 retired admirals and generals who advise that climate change “should be addressed now because [it] will almost certainly get worse if we delay.” Policy rooted in risk would balance math with unfiltered science, arguing for acting now and spending more. It would front-load the response rather than leave it to future generations. After all, it is hard to see how anyone down the road might replace the Greenland ice sheet once it’s melted. We think about risk every day when we consider crossing a busy street or purchasing insurance against the outside chance of being hit by disease or a devastating fire – all risks we can easily imagine. A risk approach for climate policy would put front and center the science telling us that humans are releasing carbon at a rate unprecedented during the past 66m years with “unforeseeable” changes to the earth on the horizon rather than instant-gratification-based policymaking. Another, better approach to climate change is to recognize that there is no single answer. Numbers provide clues, but it is critical to understand where they came from. Facing the existential threat of climate change, humanity and policymakers cannot afford simplistic answers, developed in defiance of scientific truths. We must always question the numbers before us. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/ruth-greenspan-bell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-03-25T12:00:17Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2020/oct/25/investors-fear-therell-be-no-bright-post-covid-dawn-for-oil-majors | Investors fear there'll be no bright post-Covid dawn for oil majors | The oil market may have heaved itself out of the darkness of “Black April” but investors are far from convinced that major oil companies will walk away unscathed from the coronavirus pandemic. Royal Dutch Shell and BP will both face investors this week with quarterly financial results that will deliver profits well below those achieved a year ago, against a backdrop of tumbling share prices and rising Covid infections across major economies. On Tuesday, BP is expected to report an underlying loss of $120m for the last quarter, according to analysts’ estimates. This would be a major improvement on its underlying loss of $6.7bn in the second quarter, following heavy writedowns on the company’s exploration business, but would still be well below the $2.3bn third-quarter profit reported in 2019. BP’s announcement will come days after its share price fell below 200p a share for the first time since 1994, and months after the company cut its dividend for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and set out plans to cut 10,000 jobs. In the same week, Shell is expected to reveal a modest underlying profit, of $146m, for the third quarter, according to analysts, after plunging to a loss of $18.4bn for the second quarter. This is still a fraction of the $4.76bn profit recorded in the same quarter last year, and follows the company’s decision to cut 9,000 jobs and reduce the dividend for the first time since the second world war. This trend is expected to be followed across the world’s oil companies, tracking the fragile and uncertain recovery of global oil markets amid a second wave of coronavirus infections. The price of oil reached an average of $43 a barrel in the third quarter – stronger than the average of $30 a barrel in the second quarter, when US oil prices fell below zero for the first time in April – but still well below the $62 a barrel price that prevailed in the third quarter a year ago. Oil industry investors may have already weathered the darkest days of the pandemic, but in recent months it seems to have dawned on many that there is a very long road ahead – and that a full oil industry recovery may never happen. Many experts believe that the heavy hit to demand for oil during the pandemic may mean it is years before market prices recover to $50 a barrel. BP’s own global energy forecasts suggest that oil demand may never recover from the impact of coronavirus on the global transport industry, heralding a sooner-than-expected existential decline for fossil fuels. The company’s energy outlook report seemed to underline the importance of BP’s plans to reduce production of oil and gas by 40% over the next decade while investing billions in renewable energy to transform it from oil major to modern energy company. But in investors’ eyes the oil industry’s battered balance sheets don’t look in good shape for fuelling a green energy transition. BP’s shares have languished at 25- year lows for the past month, taking its £41bn market cap to less than a third of what it was a decade ago, following its failed bid to move “beyond petroleum” in the early 2000s. The company’s market value has been topped by offshore wind developer Ørsted, once known as Danish state oil company Dong Energy, which has a market valuation of £49.6bn on the Copenhagen exchange. Its valuation has doubled in the past two years after it switched from fossil fuel investments to renewable energy a decade ago. Ørsted is a stark reminder of what might have been possible for other oil companies had they seized the opportunity to invest in the nascent renewables industry, and may prove a formidable rival for the favour of investors, too. | ['business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'business/bp', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/business', 'business/series/observer-business-agenda', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/business', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-10-24T23:05:37Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2020/apr/23/why-few-britons-pick-fruit-on-our-farm | Why few Britons pick fruit on our farm | Letter | Re your article (‘Just not true’ we’re too lazy for farm work, say frustrated UK applicants, 20 April), we run a small soft fruit farm in Kent and have had about 700 applications for 50 places. There are a number of reasons we are not taking all UK workers. Our season runs from May to October, but many UK applicants will go back to their old jobs as soon as they start up again, leaving us with not enough labour to pick the crop. For physical distancing reasons we are minimising the number of people on the campsite, so we only have room for those who have worked for us before, but we are keen to recruit local people and have been in touch with many. In the past we had a high dropout rate with UK workers. I think we all understand that the main reason seasonal work is unattractive is that bills must be paid year-round. Many people also seem to think that, because we employ foreign workers, we somehow pay less than the legal minimum. All our workers are paid at least the national living wage and some will earn well above that. We would like to be able to pay more, but as labour is at least 50% of our overall costs this would mean a large rise in retail prices for fruit. Andrew Chesson Manor Farm, Ightham, Kent | ['environment/farming', 'business/fooddrinks', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'money/money', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/environment', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'business/economics', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-04-23T17:22:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2023/jul/16/should-i-worry-about-ticks | Should I worry about ticks? | As arachnid superorders go, ticks are pretty evolutionarily successful. They’ve been around for at least 100 million years in one variety or another, with their main party trick – hanging around until they can latch a host to feed on – working on thousands of different animals across almost endless environments. But how concerned should you be about them in the UK? You won’t miss the blood they take, but they can cause a variety of unpleasant conditions in their hosts – and there’s some evidence that their population is growing. Just so we’re all on the same page, there are at least 900 species of ticks currently operating across every continent – some targeting seabirds and lizards, others cattle or dogs. Ticks sense vibrations and body heat, and will find a good place to wait for a host, then latch on to it, finding a patch of skin where the animal’s blood vessels run close to the surface and where it’s hard to be scratched away. At this point, it digs in and inserts its barbed, tubular mouthpart – sometimes secreting attachment “cement” to make itself harder to remove. In between slurps, it squirts saliva into the wound, containing a protein that prevents the host’s blood from clotting. It’s this saliva that causes a lot of tick-related issues, not only by transmitting pathogens, but by countering the host’s own bodily responses in ways that can be harmful. Shutting down pain receptors and the immune system is helpful for ticks, for example, but for hosts, it can lead to serious problems. “Lyme disease, probably the condition most strongly associated with ticks, is a bacterial infection, which might affect as many as 5,000 people each year in the UK,” says Dr Tim Brooks, head of the rare and imported pathogens laborator (RIPL). “The most common symptom is a spreading, bulls-eye rash at the site of the tick bite, which typically develops up to a month after being bitten, but other symptoms include a non-specific flu-like illness, a facial droop, nerve pains and numbness or tingling in the hands or feet.” More recently, ticks have also been found in the UK carrying tick-borne encephalitis, or TBE, which can cause a range of diseases, from a completely asymptomatic infection or mild flu-like illness, all the way to severe infection in the central nervous system such as meningitis or swelling of the brain. More information about symptoms can be found on the NHS website. TBE has been prevalent in many parts of the world, including several European countries, but was first detected in ticks in England in 2019. Cases in humans in the UK have been – so far – thankfully rare. In 2017, former England rugby captain Matt Dawson had to undergo heart surgery after a tick bite. So, is there more cause for concern now? It’s tough to say. “Since data collection began in 2005, there has been a general trend of increasing cases of laboratory-confirmed Lyme disease,” says Brooks. “That rise may be due to a combination of increased awareness as well as improved surveillance, and better access to diagnostics – but it may also be related to increased potential for encounters with ticks due to changes in wildlife populations and habitat modification that may have resulted in changes in tick distribution across the country.” At the same time, ticks don’t move around much by themselves, and this works in your favour if you’re trying to avoid them. “The most common UK tick species, the deer/sheep ticks, survive in many habitats, but prefer moist areas with dense ground level vegetation, which can be found in woodland, grassland, moorland, heathland and some urban parks and gardens,” says Brooks. “They don’t fly or jump. They wait on vegetation for a host to pass by, and then climb on – so while walking in green spaces, consider wearing clothing that covers your skin to make it more difficult for ticks to access a suitable place to bite, using insect repellent such as DEET and wearing light-coloured clothing so that you can easily spot ticks and brush them off.” It’s also not disastrous if one does manage to sink its fangs – well, mouthpart – into you. “On average, approximately 4% of ticks are infected with the bacteria that can cause Lyme disease in England and Wales,” says Brooks. “But the presence of the bacteria in a tick doesn’t automatically mean that the person will be infected, especially if the tick is removed promptly.” After spending time outside, it’s worth giving yourself and your pets – or children – a once-over for ticks: data from the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Tick Surveillance Scheme shows that adults are commonly bitten on the legs, while children are commonly bitten around the head or neck. If you do find an unwanted passenger, removing it with a tick removal tool or fine-tipped tweezers can mitigate the risk of infection. And, if you start to experience symptoms, remember that rashes only occur in roughly two-thirds of cases of Lyme disease: contact your GP for antibiotics to fend it off. Try not to use ticks as an excuse to stay on the beaten track, however. Research suggests there are enormous benefits to getting out in nature, with forests, in particular helping to mitigate everything from anxiety to depression. Ticks might have made an evolutionary success of sitting around snacking for most of the time, but you don’t have to. | ['lifeandstyle/series/should-i-worry-', 'environment/insects', 'environment/wildlife', 'society/health', 'environment/environment', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/joel-snape', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-production'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-16T14:00:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2023/jun/05/tributes-paid-to-dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira-a-year-on-from-their-deaths | Tributes paid to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira a year on from their deaths | Indigenous leaders, politicians and friends and relatives of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have paid tribute to the two men on the anniversary of their murders in the Brazilian Amazon. The British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert were ambushed and killed on 5 June 2022 while travelling by boat through the remote Javari valley region. On Monday, hundreds of supporters gathered in cities including Rio, Belém in the Amazon, and the capital Brasília to remember their lives and the causes they cherished. “The best way to honour them is to ensure their struggle wasn’t in vain,” the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, declared as his government announced details of its plans to halt Amazon deforestation by 2030. Phillips’s widow, Alessandra Sampaio, fought back tears as she spoke of her bereavement during an event on Copacabana beach. “The truth is I lost the love of my life. I wish I wasn’t here giving interviews. I don’t want any of this. I’d like to go back to the simple life I had with Dom. We wanted to grow old together and this was stolen from me, it was stolen from my family and my friends – all because of greed and the previous government’s deliberate lack of control [in the Amazon],” she said. Ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s dismantling of Indigenous and environmental protections was widely blamed for soaring deforestation and creating the lawless backdrop against which last year’s murders occurred. But Sampaio – who is preparing to launch the Dom Phillips Institute focused on the defence of Indigenous communities and the environment – said she was determined to continue her husband’s fight for the Amazon. “I feel so angry but I try not to focus on this. I’m trying to move forwards and do what’s possible in Dom’s name to promote conservation,” she said, calling for greater government efforts to protect the Indigenous activists battling to protect their ancestral lands from illegal miners, poachers and drug traffickers. “It’s intolerable that Indigenous people are still under threat and are still being killed. When will this stop? Wasn’t the death of Dom and Bruno enough?” Sampaio said. More than 3,500 miles away in the Amazon, Indigenous activists travelled to the spot on the Itaquaí River where Phillips and Pereira were killed to erect two white crosses paying tribute to the men. “The idea is to mark … the place where they were murdered … to ensure it’s never forgotten,” Carlos Travassos, an Indigenous specialist who is helping carry on Pereira’s work, said in a recent interview. At the presidential palace in Brasília, top politicians and diplomats paid tribute to Phillips and Pereira at an event marking World Environment Day attended by Lula. Lula said he was determined to change the impression the world had been given of the Amazon after last year’s crimes as “a lawless land on the brink of destruction which posed a huge threat to the battle against the climate emergency”. The environment minister, Marina Silva, remembered how the men were “barbarously murdered … defending a cause that the state should have been defending” during Bolsonaro’s environmentally devastating administration. “Exactly one year ago, this crime shocked the world and exposed the fragility of an Amazon that had been surrendered to organised crime [groups] that tear down the forest and kill anyone who crosses their path to defend the forest and its native peoples,” Silva said. Silva remembered how one of Lula’s first acts after taking over from Bolsonaro in January was to create the ministry of Indigenous peoples, in order to halt “the atrocities” committed against Brazil’s native peoples. Beto Marubo, a prominent Javari leader who is among those who has received death threats, attended the Rio memorial and said he was encouraged to see people around the world championing the causes Pereira and Phillips have come to represent. But Marubo voiced disappointment that the Javari valley had yet to witness an emphatic intervention from Lula’s new leftwing government. A floating federal police base has been installed in Atalaia do Norte, the port town nearest to the entrance of the Javari valley Indigenous territory, but activists say little else has been done. “We thought that by now we’d have the army, the federal police and the navy working together in the region … but we don’t. And the same issues … that caused the deaths of Dom and Bruno persist,” said Marubo, who worked with Pereira for more than a decade. “Indigenous leaders are still being threatened … outsiders continue to invade the Indigenous territory. Absolutely nothing has changed,” Marubo said, adding: “We aren’t interested in [the government’s] good intentions. We want to see things happen.” On the eve of Monday’s commemorations, it emerged that federal police had charged the alleged leader of a “transnational criminal organisation” with masterminding last year’s murders. Ruben Dario da Silva Villar is accused of being the boss of an illegal poaching network that pillaged the waterways and forests of the Javari valley territory – and whose activities Pereira was trying to thwart by training Indigenous patrol teams. The indictment said evidence gathered by police suggested “the steps of Bruno and Dom were being monitored by the criminal organisation” in the days leading up to the crime. Speaking on Copacabana beach, Marubo vowed Indigenous activists would continue struggling in Pereira’s name. “It’s matter of honour, of ethics and commitment to the cause,” he said, urging journalists to do the same by travelling to the Amazon to cover Indigenous issues. “Dom gave his life for this,” Marubo said. | ['world/dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/world', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-05T21:30:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2010/nov/20/ben-goldacre-bad-science-nuclear | How to make people 'love' nuclear power | Ben Goldacre | I like nerdy days out: like going to the nuclear bunker at Kelvedon Hatch with its sign on the A128 in Essex saying "secret nuclear bunker this way". Last month, eight of us commissioned a boat to get on to a rotting manmade second world war sea-fort in the middle of the ocean through Project Redsand, the restoration scheme. A couple of weeks earlier, Mrs Bad Science and I travelled to Dungeness, where a toytown narrow-gauge railway takes you to the base of a magnificent, enormous and terrifying nuclear power station. I tell you this, because I should declare an interest. I quite like nuclear power stations, not just because they're clever, or even because I regretfully concede they might be one of our least bad options for power. I secretly like nuclear power stations because they remind me, in the way nostalgia makes us pine for things we disliked at the time, of a childhood in the early 1980s when I believed that I would die in a nuclear holocaust. Which leads me on to the energy company EDF, which last month conducted a poll on whether people near Hinkley Point nuclear power station would like it to be expanded. The BBC dutifully reported the results. "EDF survey shows support for Hinkley power station," ran the headline. "Six in 10 people support a new power station at Hinkley." Polls like this convince locals, and politicians. But Leo Barasi at the blog ClimateSock has diligently obtained the original polling questions from ICM, and what he has found is a masterclass in how to manipulate answers to a single question. Respondents are set into the frame with a simple starter: "How favourable or unfavourable is your opinion of the nuclear energy industry?" Then things heat up. "To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: nuclear energy has disadvantages but the country needs nuclear power as part of the energy balance with coal, gas and wind power." As Leo says, this is structured in a way that makes it harder to disagree. "It appear reasoned: taking on board the downsides of nuclear before drawing a measured conclusion that it's a necessary evil to produce a greater good." As a result, only 13% disagree, but the whole audience is gently nudged. Then locals are asked a whole series of branching questions, forcing them to weigh up the positive and negative impacts a new power station would have on the area. People who think it would be positive are asked to also weigh up the negative, and people who think it would be negative are asked to weigh up the positive factors, and everyone is asked to say why they think what they think. Then, in a killer move, they're asked: "How important, if at all, do you consider a new power station at Hinkley to each of the following? To the creation of local jobs? To the future of local businesses?" And take a moment to reinforce those concerns: "Why do you say that?" Finally, after being led on this thoughtful journey, and immediately after mulling over the beneficial economic impact it would have in their community, the locals are asked if they're in favour of a new nuclear power station. It's the results of this, the final question, that are reported in the press release and headlines. To me it seems clear that this long series of preceding questions will guide people down a path of thinking about a nuclear power station in a very different way to how they normally would. It's a line of reasoning, and that might make sense if you were trying to advocate a kind of structured decision making, but it is very unlikely to produce results that reflect local views. That's partly because we're all a bit thoughtless, in the real world, and follow our gut in odd ways; but partly because the penultimate question is "do you want your children to be unemployed?" rather than "are you all secretly terrified we might cock up and give you cancer?". I still quite like nuclear power stations, but more than that, as ever, I salute the PR industry for finding new and elaborate ways to muddy the waters and I salute the nerds who bust them for it. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'science/series/badscience', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'tone/comment', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'media/marketingandpr', 'media/media', 'science/science-scepticism', 'type/article', 'profile/bengoldacre', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-11-20T08:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
politics/2022/mar/09/keir-starmer-says-pms-failed-energy-policy-is-causing-bills-to-rocket | Keir Starmer says PM’s ‘failed energy policy’ is causing bills to rocket | Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of presiding over a “failed energy policy” that is resulting in rocketing bills, as he called for the government to invest in nuclear and renewable energy sources and insulate homes to reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas. The Labour leader used prime minister’s questions to repeatedly link the impact of the invasion of Ukraine to the cost of living crisis, an issue where many Conservative MPs want to see more robust action from ministers. Starmer called for more direct help to cut energy bills, including a windfall tax on oil companies, but also demanded urgent action to reduce reliance on hydrocarbons, including an end to a de facto ban on new onshore wind projects. Johnson argued against a windfall tax and said existing efforts to help with energy bills were generous. Starmer responded with derision, saying: “I don’t think the prime minister understands the mess he’s in.” The government, Starmer said, should be “starting a new era of energy policy, never again at the mercy of a dictator”, including more nuclear power, “sprinting” for more renewables, and rapid moves to insulate homes. “So why is the prime minister offering the same failed energy policy that cast us into the security crisis and allowed bills to rocket?” Starmer asked. Johnson argued the government had already introduced “unprecedented measures” to help with bills, including a one-off £200 loan to offset energy costs and £150 for some households towards council tax. Johnson dismissed the idea of a windfall tax, saying: “The net result of that would be to see the oil companies put their prices up yet higher, and make it more difficult for them to do what we need them to do … and that is divesting from dependence on Russian oil and gas. That is the way forward for this country – it is to take a sober, responsible approach.” But Starmer noted that average energy bills were due to rise by £700 in April, with the £200 loan not arriving till October, by which point bills were likely to rise another £1,000. “It’s a total mess,” Starmer said. “So I ask again: when is the prime minister going to force the chancellor to U-turn?” After Johnson ruled out the idea of a windfall tax on the high profits from oil companies assisted by rising prices, Starmer said the prime minister was “protecting energy profits, not working people”. The Labour leader said: “Britain can’t afford another crisis like this. We need to improve our long-term energy security. That starts with supporting new nuclear and renewables.” The government had, he said, “effectively banned new onshore wind”, asking: “Will the prime minister relax planning laws, end the block on onshore wind, and stop supporting policies that make us so dependent on foreign gas?” Saying that the UK had the least energy-efficient housing stock in Europe, Starmer called for an “urgent national mission” to insulate homes, saying this could save households £400 a year in bills. “All the government has is a failed policy,” Starmer said. “Taking all their announcements together, it will take 75 years to deliver the upgrades that we need. That’s a lifetime, when we need urgent action. When is the prime minister going to get on with it?” Johnson argued that the UK was “the Saudi Arabia of wind power”, and blamed the lack of new nuclear power on Labour governments, which were last in power in 2010. | ['politics/pmqs', 'business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'money/energy', 'world/russia', 'world/ukraine', 'money/household-bills', 'politics/labour', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'politics/politics', 'environment/energy', 'politics/conservatives', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'uk/uk', 'business/energy-industry', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2022-03-09T13:42:21Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2024/dec/03/santos-accr-greenwashing-case-net-zero | Santos calls alleged greenwashing case a ‘biased retelling’ of its net zero aspirations | Santos says the alleged greenwashing case against it represents a “biased retelling” of the company’s net zero roadmap and climate reports. Neil Young KC, representing Santos, presented the company’s closing arguments in the federal court on Tuesday, in response to allegations of greenwashing by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR). The landmark case, which began on 28 October, was the first to challenge the veracity of a company’s net zero plan, and test whether corporations could be held legally accountable for their climate reports and strategies. According to the ACCR, Santos misled investors by positioning itself as a “clean fuels company” with a “clear and credible pathway” to net zero emissions by 2040, that the company failed to disclose the emissions associated with hydrogen production and that use of the term “zero emission hydrogen” was false and misleading. In his closing address, Young argued the ACCR’s case ignored years of work by Santos in the lead-up to the company’s 2020 investor briefing and annual report and its 2021 climate change report, which were the focus of the court case. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email For example, Santos was looking into large-scale carbon capture and storage hubs and a hydrogen business prior to 2020, he said, driven by the role of the technologies in addressing greenhouse gas emissions and Santos’ competitive advantage in pursuing them. Santos’ climate targets and strategies – to reduce emissions by 26% to 30% by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2040 – represented a statement of “present intention” and “not a promise or prediction”, Young said. The company had reasonable grounds to think that its 2040 net zero targets “might be achieved”, he said, but were inherently uncertain due to their dependence on future markets, regulations and technologies. ACCR has a right of reply on 6 December, once Santos has concluded its closing arguments, with a decision in the case to follow. ACCR was asking the court to make declarations that Santos had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, and for injunctions prohibiting Santos from engaging in deceptive conduct in future and forcing it to issue a corrective notice about the environmental impacts of its operations. | ['australia-news/santos', 'environment/series/australian-climate-and-environment-in-focus', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'campaign/email/breaking-news-australia', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/petra-stock', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-12-03T04:38:31Z | true | EMISSIONS |
business/2019/dec/04/scottish-power-build-solar-panels-windfarms | Scottish Power plans to build solar panels beside windfarms | Scottish Power plans to squeeze more renewable electricity from its onshore windfarms by covering the ground beside the turbines with photovoltaic panels and batteries. The wind power firm has applied for permission to build its first solar power projects beneath the blades of its existing windfarms in Cornwall, Lancashire and Coldham. Scottish Power says it hopes to include solar panels in the vast majority of its future onshore windfarms across Scotland and Ireland, depending on whether the ground conditions are suitable for panels. Keith Anderson, Scottish Power’s chief executive, said: “Every green megawatt of electricity will be crucial if we stand any chance of hitting net zero in 2050. This means squeezing the absolute maximum potential out of every clean energy project that we consider.” The Guardian revealed last month that Scottish Power had kicked off plans for an expansion of onshore windfarm projects across Scotland in anticipation of an expected government U-turn on support for wind power projects. The company’s renewable energy division has considered almost 100 sites in Scotland and Ireland for a new breed of windfarm that uses fewer powerful turbines and can be fitted with solar panels and batteries. In some cases, adding 10MW panels and 10MW of energy storage could double the green energy capacity of small windfarm sites. “In the UK and Ireland the perfect of blend of clean power from onshore renewables should include a mixture of clean energy technologies,” Anderson said. “The costs for building wind, solar and batteries have reduced considerably in recent years, and they complement each other very well. They perform best at different times of the day and at different times of the year.” Scottish Power is developing more than 1,000MW of new onshore wind capacity, however the UK will need to build at least this capacity of onshore wind every year for the next three decades if it hopes to meet its 2050 climate targets, according to the Committee on Climate Change. Anderson said: “In the next 18 months I believe hybrids will be the new normal for all renewable energy developers.” | ['business/scottish-power', 'business/business', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/utilities', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'environment/solarpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2019-12-04T17:08:40Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2016/jun/15/climate-change-victoria-aims-to-generate-25-of-electricity-via-renewables-by-2020 | Climate change: Victoria aims to generate 25% of electricity via renewables by 2020 | The Victorian government has revealed renewable energy targets that would see 25% of the state’s electricity generated by renewable energy by 2020, saying investors have “lost faith” in the national target. Ernst and Young and the Climate Council released a report on Wednesday that said 50% renewable electricity by 2030 would boost employment by almost 50% more than the current trajectory towards 34% renewables by 2030. Currently, about 14% of Victoria’s electricity comes from renewable sources. Victoria’s minister for energy, environment and climate change, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the target would be raised to 40% by 2025, as she made the announcement at the Ararat windfarm on Wednesday. She said it was anticipated that by 2025 up to 5400 megawatts of new large-scale renewable energy capacity would have been built in Victoria, representing an estimated $2.5bn of investment. About 4,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector would be created during the expected peak year of construction in 2024, she said, and there would be a roughly 12% reduction in electricity sector greenhouse emissions by 2034-35. “Investors have lost faith in the national target but we are restoring the confidence needed to invest,” D’Ambrosio said. The premier, Daniel Andrews, said that the world was shifting to renewable energy and that Victorians expected their government to do the same. “It creates jobs, drives growth and protects our environment, and Victorians want to be at the forefront of that,” he said. Andrews also announced an auctions scheme under which project developers would compete to be the lowest cost provider and successful bidders would be given long-term contracts to support their projects, providing certainty for investors. Separate auctions will be held for large-scale solar projects and will begin in early 2017. The chief executive of Environment Victoria, Mark Wakeham, said the ACT government successfully ran similar auctions to guarantee the construction of renewable energy projects. “Across the whole country, the renewable energy industry was damaged by the [Coalition] government’s slashing of the federal renewable energy target,” he said. “This is the kick-start we need for new projects and job creation across Victoria.” The targets will be enforced in legislation expected to be introduced into parliament later this year and form a key part of Victoria’s renewable energy action plan, also to be released later this year. The national coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance, Andrew Bray, said a single windfarm project could “regenerate an entire region”. “Windfarms create jobs and attract new investment in the parts of our country that need them most,” he said. “Workers lost their jobs, and businesses were harmed by attacks under the Abbott government. The industry is finally turning a corner, and communities around Australia are impatient to see new projects get up in their region.” | ['australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/energy-industry', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/melissa-davey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-06-15T03:16:40Z | true | ENERGY |
weather/2009/jun/08/weather | Weatherwatch | The Met Office's new computer - housed in two buildings in Exeter, each the size of a football pitch - will, staff claim, make short-term weather forecasting more accurate and assist calculations about climate change. It will not be fully operational for some months so only time will tell whether the Met Office will become more reliable. Whatever the improvement, it will be a long time before country folk stop using the behaviour of animals and plants for both long- and short-range forecasting. For example, some still claim that when donkeys start to bray a spell of settled weather is about to end and cocks crowing in the evening herald rain, which more or less amounts to the same thing. One of the most charming of these amateur weather forecasting techniques is recorded in the 1955 Observer's Book of Weather. An unnamed naturalist claimed his pet toad was a more reliable forecaster of the weather than his barometer. "When a spell of warm, dry weather is approaching, the toad will take up position on the shady side of the garden (but not if it is a short one day spell); when it is about to turn colder, he will fix himself up on the sunny side; when rain is on the way, he will move along to a ledge below the study window." This forecasting method has other advantages because toads eat unwanted garden pests. Unfortunately, the book is short on tips on how to tame a suitable toad. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-06-07T23:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2016/jun/03/paris-river-seine-floods | Paris floods: 'There's something terrifying about it' | “Incredible, that’s all I can say,” muttered Catherine, a publishing editor, as she stared dumbfounded at the river water that had swallowed up the busy road running along the banks of the Seine near her Paris apartment. Roads and picturesque cobbled walkways in the French capital have disappeared, submerged by a vast expanse of brown river water carrying an unusual assortment of debris including logs, big wooden planks and a metal sign from a boat-club in its angry, swirling current. The rain-swollen Seine, which has spilled over on to embankments in many places in Paris, peaked at 6.07 metres on Friday night, its highest level in more than 30 years. Rising water lapped at the tops of traffic lights and trees, road signs for speed cameras poked out above the water, and a ticket office for the city’s river bus, Batobus, was submerged almost up to its roof. Large crowds, including awestruck local children with their parents, gathered along bridges to peer at this ominous but fascinating river-swell, which has transformed the Paris landscape. It was eerily quiet. All water traffic on a river normally jammed with tourist cruises, barges and cargo was suspended because there was no room for boats to fit under bridges. Only the dinghies of the river police were occasionally sighted. While the river is not expected to rise high enough to submerge Paris’s city centre, residents living near the Seine were urged to clear their basements. Two gyms were opened to accommodate homeless people who would normally find shelter on barges in the city. The fast, churning current hinted at the difficulties and misery the swollen river has left in its wake. Evacuations More than 20,000 people have been evacuated in France since the weekend and around 19,000 homes were without power on Friday. At least two people have been killed in flooding across the country, including a man on horseback who died on Thursday after being swept away by a swollen river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre. The body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100 years. The French environment minister, Ségolène Royal, said she feared more bodies would be found as waters receded in villages in central France. “There’s something terrifying about it,” said Martine Lyon, 80, a photographer who had lived in Paris for 50 years. She stood on the Île Saint-Louis, the island in the middle of the Seine in Paris, peering at the swirling water. “There’s a sadness, something troubling about this,” Lyon said. “The sky is so grey and terrible, trains aren’t running due to strikes, the river is so high, it seems like such a cumulation of things.” The spectre of Paris’s great flood of 1910, when the river poured into tunnels, sewers and drains, forcing Parisians to evacuate their homes and use makeshift footbridges, still looms large in the city’s narrative. In 1910, the river swelling reached more than eight metres, but, although those heights would not be reached now, to witness the Seine this high in Paris is something that is very rare to see in a lifetime. Bernard Oriol, a retired engineer, was among crowds looking at the rushing river water near Notre Dame cathedral. “It’s spectacular and we might never see it like this again,” he said. “It has changed the landscape. You never see water this close to Notre Dame.” He also felt he’d never seen so many tourists as hundreds crammed into the square opposite Notre Dame. “With the cruise boats all cancelled, everyone is on tourist buses or queuing for Notre Dame to get out of the rain,” he said. On the quay at Saint-Michel, a sign saying the commuter station was closed because of flood risk was being photographed by tourists. The RER C train line which normally carries 500,000 passengers a day along the banks of the Seine and out towards Versailles has been closed. Similarly, the Saint-Michel Métro station had shut after water began to seep in at various places. Masterpieces saved The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, which sits on the river bank, closed so staff could remove priceless artworks from its underground reserves as a precaution against flood damage. The Musée d’Orsay, which holds the world’s greatest collection of impressionist masterpieces, on the opposite bank of the Seine, will stay closed until Tuesday to move artworks from its lowest floor. The national library closed its François Mitterrand site on the riverbank as a precaution and staff at the French parliament hastily removed archives from its basement on the edge of the river. Paris’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, whose staff have held crisis meetings, said there was no risk to the population but warned it would take time for the water levels to recede. John and Wendy Eyre, retired lawyers from Adelaide in Australia, had come to the river from their holiday rental apartment to watch the water levels rising. Standing in the drizzle on the Louis Philippe bridge near Paris’s city hall, Wendy said: “It’s really something. We didn’t expect flooding on the Seine.” The Eyres, who decided not to cancel their long planned trip after the Paris attacks in November, had lost money when rail strikes disrupted their journey from Lyon to Paris last week. They found themselves standing on one of the most romantic riverscapes in the world, watching logs floating past in the rain. “You just have to get on with enjoying your holiday,” they said. | ['world/paris', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/france', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/notre-dame', 'profile/angeliquechrisafis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-06-04T06:26:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/aug/11/us-government-biden-carbon-capture | Experts fear US carbon capture plan is ‘fig leaf’ to protect fossil fuel industry | The US energy department has announced it is awarding up to $1.2bn to two projects to directly remove carbon dioxide from the air, a fledgling technology that some climate experts worry will distract and undermine efforts to phase out fossil fuels. The process, known as direct air capture, does not yet exist on a meaningful scale, and the move was being seen as the US government taking a big bet coming after July was confirmed as the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. Countries are not cutting planet-heating emissions enough to avoid disastrous global warming of 2C, or more, above pre-industrial times. This shortfall means that planting forests and developing machines that can suck carbon directly from the air will be required to remove billions of tons of greenhouse gases, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recently warned that carbon capture was “no free lunch” and that countries should be wary. The most recent IPCC report was published in March and warned it was “now or never” to take action on emissions with the world on the brink of irrevocable damage. Reacting to the news of the US investments by the Biden administration on Friday, some experts were worried the technology was being used as a “fig leaf” by the fossil fuel industry. The projects selected for energy department backing are Project Cypress, which will be built in Calcasieu parish, Louisiana, and the South Texas DAC Hub, which is planned for Kleberg county, Texas. Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary, talked up the potential of the technology in a press conference call. “If we deploy this at scale, this technology can help us make serious headway toward our net-zero emissions goals while we are still focused on deploying more clean energy at the same time,” she said. Shannon Boettcher, professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon, said direct air capture technologies are not yet cost effective, but are worth some investment in research and development. Claire Nelson, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said moving away from fossil fuels and producing the things we need without emissions are the most important ways to address the climate crisis. But the scale of change needed makes direct air capture necessary as another tool. “In order to have direct air capture ready at the scale we need it by 2050, we need to invest in it today,” she said. However other experts said the investments were a mistake. “This money could be so much better spent on actual climate solutions that would be cutting emissions from the get go,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a group that publicizes climate solutions. He cited energy efficiency and lowering emissions from agriculture, transportation, electricity generation as better approaches. “What worries me and a lot of other climate scientists is that it potentially creates a fig leaf for the fossil fuel industry … the idea that we can keep burning stuff and remove it later,” Foley added. The Biden administration delivered a historic climate bill last August though the president’s record on the climate has been undercut by his aggressive giveaway of oil and gas drilling leases on public land, including the controversial Willow oil project in Alaska. | ['environment/fossil-fuels', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/biden-administration', 'us-news/joebiden', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2023-08-11T16:27:48Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2016/sep/22/soil-carbon-storage-not-the-climate-change-fix-it-was-thought-research-finds | Soil carbon storage not the climate change fix it was thought, research finds | Hopes that large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide could be buried in soils appear to be grossly misplaced, with new research finding that the ground will soak up far less carbon over the coming century than previously thought. Radiocarbon dating of soils, when combined with previous models of carbon uptake, has shown the widely assumed potential for carbon sequestration to combat climate change has been overestimated by as much as 40%. Scientists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) found that models used by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assume a much faster cycling of carbon through soils than is actually the case. Data taken from 157 soil samples taken from around the world show the average age of soil carbon is more than six times older than previously thought. This means it will take hundreds or even thousands of years for soils to soak up large amounts of the extra CO2 pumped into the atmosphere by human activity – far too long to be relied upon as a way to help the world avoid dangerous global warming this century. “A substantial amount of the greenhouse gas that we thought was being taken up and stored in the soil is actually going to stay in the atmosphere,” said study co-author Steven Allison, UCI associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and Earth system science. Soil is the largest land-based reservoir of carbon on Earth, absorbing it from trees and vegetation as they die and decay. The IPCC calculated that should the mass deforestation of recent centuries be completely reversed, around 40 parts per million (ppm) of CO2, from the current 400ppm levels, could be removed from the atmosphere. Other studies have shown large amounts of carbon could be soaked up with changes in agricultural practices. But the University of California work, published in the journal Science, went beyond the models to explicitly date radiocarbons, one of the two carbon isotopes. “It will take a very long time for soil to soak up the carbon, there is a timescale mismatch in terms of climate change,” said Yujie He, a UCI postdoctoral scholar and lead author of the study. “The soil will eventually be a large carbon sink, but it won’t be present in the next century.” Nations have agreed to limit global temperature increase to 2C compared to pre-industrial times, in order to prevent a dangerous shift in the climate that will lead to more heatwaves, extreme weather and ruinous sea level rise as glaciers melt and seawater expands. An international aspiration to cap the rise to 1.5C, seen as crucial to the viability of low-lying nations, already appears to be slipping out of reach. As-yet undeveloped technology, such as geo-engineering of landscapes, carbon capture from power plants or direct removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, may be required even if emissions are radically cut. But the prospect of adapting soils so they suck up more carbon is “unlikely”, especially in the short-term, according to He. “I don’t think we can increase that absorption ability, so we may want to make more proactive action to mitigate climate change, such as cuts to fossil fuel emissions, for example,” she said. | ['environment/soil', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-capture-and-storage | EMISSIONS | 2016-09-22T18:00:18Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2012/jun/30/colorado-springs-red-zone | Living in Colorado's red zone: 'It's a week to burn your house down' | Fire officials in Colorado Springs have long worried about the potential for an out-of-control wildfire within city limits. This week that scenario materialised, as the blaze that started in Waldo Canyon killed one person and gutted an estimated 347 homes, making it the most destructive wildfire in Colorado's history. It was the result, said fire officials, of two distinct trends: the rising number of wildfires in recent years, and the growing number of people living in high-risk fire zones. "This is something we have been talking about for 21 years," the city's deputy fire chief, Tommy Smith, told reporters. As of now, the focus shifts towards ensuring such a tragedy never happens again, Steve Cox, a former fire chief and adviser to the Colorado Springs mayor, said. "We want to change something in the equation so we don't end up with the same thing that we have now." But it could require reversing a major demographic trend. Over the last 20 years, quarter of a million people have moved into Colorado's red zones, areas seen as most at risk for wildfires. More than 1.1 million Coloradans now live in red zones across the state, an investigation by the independent I-News Network found. In some areas, such as those to the north and west of Colorado Springs that were hit hard by the fire, about 90% of homes are in red zones. At the same time, wildfires are increasing across the west, because of a prolonged drought, due in part to climate change, and past land management practices. Other states are experiencing a similar spike in fires in the red zone. More than 1,600 homes were lost to wildfires in Texas last year. California also has a record of heavy losses. Now, some officials have warned, it could be Colorado's turn. "When you look at the example of California and some of the wildfires they have had, Colorado Springs has got it right now," said Cox. Colorado now experiences about 2,500 fires a year, or about five times as many as 50 years ago, the investigation found. Residents are drawn to those areas, new neighbourhoods built in forested foothills like those that burnt in Colorado Springs, in large measure because of the rugged terrain. Over the years, housing developments have climbed higher up the foothills west of Colorado Springs. But the steep hills and the narrow canyons, which concentrate winds that can fan a fire, are a nightmare for firefighters. Protecting homes in the red zone has grown increasingly expensive over the years – and it puts the lives of more firefighters at risk. In Colorado Springs, as in other cities, fire officials have worked with home owners to try to cut down on those risks. The city banned cedar shingles, requiring new homes to be built with asphalt or tile roofs. Homeowners were urged to clear their property of potential fuels, by spacing out trees or sweeping up pine needles that fall to the ground. The city fire department carried out evacuation drills, including areas affected in the current fire. It set in place an early warning system – which by all accounts appeared to work in this week's wildfires. Even so, fire prevention in the danger zone is slow and difficult work. Getting people to re-adjust their idea of a dream house in the mountains surrounded by forests is an immense challenge – but some firefighters argue that it is crucial. Cox was reluctant on Friday to touch on the issue of zoning laws, which would put stricter limits on putting houses in red-zone areas. But many fire experts believe that is what is required. "I personally think if you are going to live in red zone areas you should have to have defensible space," said Shane Wolfe, a firefighter who was involved in suppressing New Mexico's wildfires last month. "That beautiful deck with all those trees – it is essentially just a week to burn your house down. You should have to take responsibility if you are going to live in those areas." | ['us-news/colorado-wildfires', 'us-news/colorado', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | us-news/colorado-wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-06-30T16:47:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2012/sep/14/japan-end-nuclear-power | Japan plans to end reliance on nuclear power within 30 years | Japan has announced plans to end its reliance on nuclear power within 30 years, in a historic policy shift prompted by the triple meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. The move to close all 50 of the country's functioning reactors by around 2040 marks a dramatic change of course by a country that had previously championed atomic energy, putting Japan alongside Germany and Switzerland, which also turned away from nuclear power following the disaster. Japan, the world's third biggest user of nuclear power before the disaster, had planned to increase nuclear's share of the energy mix to 50% by 2030. But the country's attachment to nuclear power was severely weakened after the Fukushima accident sent radioactive materials into the ocean and atmosphere, contaminated the food and water supply, and forced the evacuation of 160,000 residents. "Based on facing the reality of this grave accident and by learning lessons from the accident, the government has decided to review the national energy strategy from scratch," read a policy document released on Friday. "One of the key pillars of the new strategy is to achieve a society that does not depend on nuclear energy as soon as possible." The decision comes after two months of public consultations and the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations Japan has ever seen. Local media reports said the cabinet had already agreed to approve the panel's recommendation, with a formal announcement expected soon. The plan calls for renewable energy to comprise about 30% of Japan's future energy mix – an eightfold rise from 2010 levels – and the development of sustainable ways to use fossil fuels. In the short-term, however, the shift will force Japan to increase its already heavy dependence on oil and natural gas, calling into question its ability to reach internationally agreed CO2 emissions targets. "This is a strategy to create a new future," a policy statement said, after key ministers finalised the decision on Friday. "It is not pie in the sky. It is a practical strategy." The report says Japan should aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 20% from 1990 levels and to reduce energy consumption through greater efficiency by about 10% from 2010 levels. Environmental campaigners welcomed the decision, but said the phase-out should have come much earlier. "The government's strategy involves a nuclear phase-out nearly two decades later than needed," said Kazue Suzuki, Greenpeace Japan nuclear campaigner. "It also provides clarity for the business community that renewable power, not nuclear, is the future. "For too long Japan's leaders have ignored their people and gambled the health, safety and economic stability of every citizen on nuclear power, and as the people of Fukushima continue to suffer, so does the rest of our country. This announcement must become law, otherwise it will be seen as nothing but lip service to buy votes before the coming election." The report does not specify how the expensive shift to renewables would be funded, or how to minimise the environmental impact of greater fossil fuel use. The prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, will be hoping that the decision boosts support for his unpopular administration ahead of a general election expected in November. Recent opinion polls showed most Japanese preferred a phase out over two other options proposed by the government that gave nuclear a limited role. "We are only at the starting line," Noda said. "Now we are going to begin an extremely difficult challenge. No matter how difficult it is, we can no longer put it off." However, if, as many expect, Noda's party is replaced by a more conservative administration after the next election, there is no guarantee that the no-nuclear policy will survive. Japan was briefly without nuclear power earlier this year after all 50 working reactors were closed for safety checks. No restarts were permitted until the reactors passed stress tests introduced in the wake of the Fukushima crisis and gained the approval of local authorities. The move away from nuclear has caused concern among Japan's allies. Japan provides nuclear technology expertise to companies in the US, while France and Britain, which reprocess its spent nuclear fuel, have sought assurances that it will continue to accept high-level radioactive waste created by reprocessing. In June, Noda approved the restart of two reactors in western Japan amid fears that the country would experience power cuts during the summer. He has come under sustained pressure from business leaders not to abandon nuclear, amid warnings that power shortfalls and the high cost of renewables could stifle production and derail attempts to kick-start the country's export-led economy. But some analysts said a serious shift towards renewables could benefit the economy. "A total exit from nuclear is positive for the economy, on balance," said Andrew Dewit, a professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. "It incentivises Japan's political economy to focus on efficiency and renewables. Japan lags in both these areas and they offer the greatest opportunities for growth." The phase-out will be achieved by retiring reactors, which were built between the early 1970s and 2006, when they reach the end of an agreed 40-year life span. The report said, however, that some could be restarted before they are closed permanently provided their safety is confirmed by a new regulatory body. "We will launch all possible policy measures to achieve a nuclear-free society by the 2030s," the report said. "Until the total phase-out we will only use nuclear reactors that are confirmed safe." | ['world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/fukushima', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2012-09-14T15:05:57Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2019/aug/29/hurricane-dorian-florida-declares-state-of-emergency | Hurricane Dorian: Florida braces for what may be biggest storm on east coast since 1992 | Florida is bracing for what could be the biggest hurricane to hit the state’s east coast in more than a quarter of a century, as Hurricane Dorian threatened to make landfall at the weekend with winds potentially in excess of 130mph. Florida governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for every Florida county. Donald Trump issued a video Thursday warning that the storm “could be an absolute monster”. The National Weather Service said Dorian, which was building strength east of the Bahamas, would become a major hurricane on Friday afternoon. The winds from the storm were expected to arrive on the Florida coast on Sunday morning, in the middle of the Labor Day holiday weekend. If Dorian lands as a category 4 storm, it could be the most powerful hurricane to affect the east coast of Florida since Hurricane Andrew roared ashore in 1992, causing devastating damage and killing 65 people. In 2004, Hurricane Frances arrived in Florida as a Category 2 hurricane, killed 37 in Florida and wreaked damage costing billions. Trump has canceled his forthcoming trip this weekend to Poland as the storm approaches. Millions of Floridians on Friday were stockpiling water, food, fuel and materials such as plywood to board up properties. They have been advised to track the storm closely. Florida has called 2,500 National Guard troops into action and put a further 1,500 on stand-by as the hurricane spins off the south-western shore, roaring north-west towards the Bahamas and strengthening overnight into Friday, with winds of 105mph and gusts up to 125mph. On Friday morning it was a category 2 hurricane out in the ocean and is increasingly likely to be a category 4 when it makes landfall, indicating winds over 130mph. Forecasting maps modeling the path of the hurricane showed a good chance that it may hit Miami or further north, including Palm Beach or Orlando, but experts emphasized on Friday morning that it was too early to be certain and that this storm is very unpredictable. It was announced on Thursday that the vice-president, Mike Pence, will travel to Poland in the president’s stead. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s citizens breathed a sigh of relief this week at having avoided major damage from Hurricane Dorian, after it had been on a path this week to hit the US island territory directly. DeSantis urged residents to take precautionary measures including stockpiling water, canned food and other emergency supplies. “Dorian could be a major hurricane,” DeSantis tweeted. “All Floridians on the east coast should have seven days of supplies, prepare their homes and follow the track closely.” Georgia, another state potentially in the storm’s path, also declared a state of emergency for 12 counties nearest the state’s coastline. Governor Brian Kemp said the storm “has the potential to produce catastrophic impacts to citizens” throughout the south-east coastal region of the United States. One predicted track has the storm on course to hit Palm Beach county in southern Florida, the location of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. According to the Tampa Bay Times the president’s ocean-front property, often referred to as “the winter White House”, lies within the so called “cone of uncertainty”– the potential range of paths the hurricane could take. DeSantis said he had spoken on the phone with Trump, who pledged support. The hurricane center advised that heavy rains from the storm were expected to occur over portions of the Bahamas, Florida, and elsewhere in the south-eastern US “later this week and into early next week”. | ['world/hurricanes', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/puerto-rico', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricane-dorian', 'profile/joannawalters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricane-dorian | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-08-30T14:02:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2019/jan/03/extinction-rebellion-activists-court-manchester-protest-blocked-traffic | Extinction Rebellion activists in court after Manchester protest | A group of environmental activists have appeared in court after they were arrested at a Extinction Rebellion protest in Manchester last year. The eight environmental activists were charged with wilful obstruction of the highway after they blocked traffic for 80 minutes by sitting down at the junction of Oxford Road in the city centre on 24 November 2018. During the protest, the defendants briefly stood up to allow an ambulance to pass through the road. They pleaded not guilty at Manchester magistrates court on Thursday morning. The defendants, who were all in attendance, are Stephanie Luckman, 20, from Leeds; Mina Jaff, 21, from Leeds; Pernina Jacobs, 21, from Lancaster; Ceri-Beth Miseroy, 20, from Manchester; Anna Oakes-Monger, 23, from Lancaster; Jeremy Harrison, 55, from Manchester; Elizabeth Haughton, 23, from Manchester and Adam Haigh, 19, from Manchester. The defence solicitor Carol Mellor said that while the defendants did not dispute they had blocked a public highway, they believed their actions were in line with their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association under the Human Rights Act. She added: “Part of their argument is that this is necessary to bring people’s attention to climate change.” Mellor also said footage of the protest did not match up with police statements made after the arrests. The defendants, who only spoke during the hearing to confirm their identities, sat in the dock and in the public gallery, while the remaining six seats were taken up by supporters. The district judge, Sam Goozée, said the defendants were unlikely to face prison. A magistrates trial will take place on 30 April, 1 May and 2 May, and all eight protesters have been bailed. A venue has yet to be confirmed as Goozée said a room with a larger capacity was likely to be needed to accommodate the defendants. The police officers who made the initial arrests will give evidence on the first day of the trial. | ['uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'profile/amy-walker', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-01-03T14:08:41Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
uk-news/2021/feb/09/hs2-heavy-machinery-could-destabilise-euston-protest-tunnels | HS2: heavy machinery 'could destabilise Euston protest tunnels' | Heavy machinery such as cherry pickers being used in the vicinity of the Euston tunnel could destabilise it, says a safety expert who has raised a number of concerns about the way the eviction of the HS2 protesters is being carried out. Peter Faulding, who has worked in specialist rescue for a number of decades, is advising the legal team for the protesters in the case now being brought by Dr Larch Maxey, 48, one of the activists in the tunnel against HS2 in the high court on behalf of all of the activists in the Euston tunnel. The activists are occupying an extensive tunnel network in front of the central London station to protest about work on the HS2 high speed rail link which it is planned will go into the station. They argue that building the rail link is causing significant environmental damage to ancient woodland. They say they also want to raise awareness about the broader climate emergency facing the planet. Faulding is concerned that the protesters are not being provided with a multi-gas detector to monitor levels of oxygen, carbon monoxide and methane. He is also worried that the activists are not being given efficient means of communication with the eviction team in the event they would need to alert them to any emergency that occurs during the eviction process. Faulding expressed doubt about whether the National Eviction Team (NET), which is carrying out the eviction for HS2, have the requisite skills to conduct the highly specialised tunnel eviction. HS2 sources said NET are contracted by the High Court Enforcement Group with whom HS2 has a contract. They added that the contract was awarded on a competitive basis and the eviction team have the required skills to undertake the work they are contracted to do. New Civil Engineer reported last November that 253 companies and public bodies including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have signed gagging orders relating to some aspects of HS2’s work. An HS2 Ltd spokesperson said: “As we continue to develop HS2 we regularly engage with local authorities and share with them work at an early design stage. Non-disclosure agreements during the planning phase help to avoid placing homes and businesses in unnecessary blight, protect commercially sensitive information, and help protect the personal information of those potentially affected by any proposed changes.” Faulding said an earlier court order said that HS2 should carefully consider his expert opinions. But he said he has not been granted access to the tunnel so that he can inspect the eviction process and offer a view. “The court order did not require HS2 to give Peter Faulding access to the site. At present Larch Maxey is in contempt of court for not complying with the court order,” said the HS2 spokesperson. In a statement posted on LinkedIn, Richard Jordan, chief security and resilience officer at HS2, said: “Planning for this operation began at the start of December last year, some eight weeks before we were due to take possession of the site. A 167-page operational plan was produced by our contractors which contained 32 detailed risk assessments. This plan was independently reviewed twice by security professionals, HS2 Ltd and also twice by safety professionals before the operation was approved.” The case is due to be heard in the high court on Tuesday. The environmental activists have urged people to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency bill, which is due to have a short debate in parliament on the same day as the hearing. | ['uk/hs2', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'uk/london', 'uk/rail-transport', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dianetaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-02-09T07:00:05Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global-development/poverty-matters/2013/sep/19/world-failed-ecuador-yasuni-initiative | The world failed Ecuador on its Yasuní initiative | Juan Falconi Puig | It was with a heavy heart that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa recently announced the end of the pioneering Yasuní ITT initiative. Six years ago, the president, with great enthusiasm, announced this proposal at the UN. Ecuador would leave the vast oil reserves underground in the Yasuní national park. These constitute 20% of the nation's oil deposits. The country would forgo half of these oil revenues – at the time worth $3.6bn – if it received the other half through international compensation based on donations placed in a UN administered trust. This compensation had an environmental and economic logic: it created a fair payment for the generation of an environmental service. The decision to withdraw this groundbreaking proposal has understandably attracted much comment. But some of this gives a misleading impression, failing to address the real reasons my government was forced to take this decision. The Yasuní proposal was always based on the principle of co-responsibility in the battle against climate change. A battle that Ecuador takes very seriously. My country's new constitution, passed in 2008, is the first in the world to recognise legally enforceable rights of nature. Under the Yasuní initiative, Ecuador, a developing country and a marginal polluter, would share in its responsibility to the planet. But governments and others in the developed, and more polluting, countries would also share in theirs. Without international political will to give the financial support, the Yasuní initiative was never going to succeed. Tragically, it was the fundamental reason it did not. Despite strenuous efforts by the Ecuadorian government, including establishing a secretary of state devoted to this scheme, the financial backing fell way short of the widespread expressions of support. In fact, just 0.37% of the target was provided by international donors. This made the scheme unworkable. The Ecuadorian government would have had to forgo nearly 100% of the oil revenue. That was never the proposal. This failure of the international community touches on the wider issue of justice in the battle against climate change. What level of responsibility should be taken by the developed nations that have most contributed to the problem of climate change and are most able to tackle it? And what by the less developed nations? Clearly, a just solution would see the more developed nations bare proportionally more of the responsibility? Yet Ecuador was not asking for this, and certainly not for charity, with the Yasuní initiative. This does not bode well for future discussions on creating a just and realisable international framework to fight climate change. Critics who readily dismiss these financial arguments fail to address the serious matter of under-development in Ecuador. How can a poorer country like Ecuador gain the resources to ensure its population has access to the basic necessities of health, education, food and housing? Great strides have been taken in recent years to improve Ecuador's human development indices. Nonetheless, ongoing poverty reduction efforts are essential. UN figures show 32% of Ecuadorians remain in poverty – and this affects more than half of those living in rural and indigenous communities. Other indices show that more than one-third of the population live in housing that has inadequate water and sewage facilities, while one in five children suffers from chronic malnutrition. Not acting to tackle poverty and underdevelopment will damage the environment as communities engage in illegal logging and as sewage pollutes the waters. The decision to exploit oil in Yasuní needs to be understood in this socio-economic context. Ecuador needs these revenues to help the transition of its economy away from commodity exploitation and to a more diversified and high-value one based on knowledge, including bio-knowledge. This is the aim of Ecuador's national plan for good living. As the Yasuní national park comprises more than 1m hectares and just 0.1% of it will be affected by the decision, there will not be widespread destruction to it. The dilemma facing Ecuador was whether to maintain 100% of Yasuní and have no resources, or to leave 99.9% of Yasuní untouched with billions for Ecuador to invest in much needed human development. Sadly, on Yasuní the world failed to show the will needed. We cannot afford the world to fail on other proposals. • Dr Juan Falconi Puig is Ecuador's ambassador to the UK | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/ecuador', 'environment/oil', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'tone/blog', 'type/article'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2013-09-19T13:08:16Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2024/feb/02/lobby-group-calls-for-pokies-venues-to-be-exempt-from-facial-recognition-and-biometric-data-laws | Lobby group calls for pokies venues to be exempt from facial recognition and biometric data laws | A lobby group for Australian clubs has called for some of the country’s biggest poker machine venues to be exempt from new laws so it can store biometric data for several years and use facial technology to identify gambling addicts. Tough restrictions on the collection, use, storage and destruction of biometric data – including facial recognition technology – have been proposed as part of the development of the federal government’s digital identity scheme, in an effort to improve privacy and protect sensitive information. Clubs Australia has expressed concern the tougher restrictions could undermine some harm reduction measures now in place, including a requirement to stop people from gambling if they are listed on a self-exclusion register. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Most clubs in South Australia already use facial recognition technology to detect people listed on the register. Many venues in Queensland and New South Wales are also using the software, despite concerns from privacy advocacy groups. The federal government’s overarching system will ultimately – subject to legislation passing the parliament – interact with the state ID systems, bringing about changes to the way they currently operate. In a submission to the government’s consultation process, Clubs Australia accepted that stricter rules were an “important step to protect people’s privacy”. But it called for “flexibility” to ensure facial recognition technology could be used to enforce gambling exclusions. “Where a venue uses facial recognition technology to identify excluded patrons, the club must retain sensitive biometric information to assist one-to-many matches,” the Clubs Australia submission said. “It is important that the legislation and instruments giving affect to the digital ID scheme enables clubs to retain this information where necessary.” “One-to-many” matching occurs when a search is conducted to match a face against other images in a large database. The new legislation would ban this practice unless used by authorised immigration or national security officials. Lauren Perry, a responsible-technology policy specialist at the University of Technology Sydney’s Human Technology Institute, did not support a carve-out for clubs and was concerned about the call for one-to-many matching. “Allowing pubs and clubs to retain sensitive biometric information for longer than is currently allowed by the digital ID bill would impact everyone who enters the venue,” Perry said. “This is not just going to impact the small amount of people who have self excluded”. Lizzie O’Shea, the chair of Digital Rights Watch, said she would need more information from Clubs Australia before being convinced an exemption was necessary. “[That would include] information about how facial recognition technology is being used and whether there are alternatives, whether they have best-practice cybersecurity safeguards in place, and whether there are strict rules around purpose limitation on the use of the information and technology,” O’Shea said. “It is important that gambling venues uphold their obligations to support people who wish to self-exclude. However, the use of biometric information, including facial recognition technology, is controversial for a reason. It has problems with accuracy and the data required to use it is obviously highly sensitive.” Wesley Mission’s chief executive, Stu Cameron, who is a member of the NSW government’s expert advisory panel on gambling, said the use of facial recognition technology was not needed. “A cashless card would form the basis of the most effective self-exclusion system available,” Cameron said. “One card linked to every machine that a user might seek to self-exclude from, making the current push for facial recognition technology absolutely redundant. “Privacy concerns, misidentification, data misuse and lack of independent oversight characterise the use of facial recognition technology in Australia to the extent that the Human Rights Commission has called for a moratorium on its use in law enforcement situations, like preventing money laundering.” | ['australia-news/gambling-australia', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'technology/technology', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/privacy', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/henry-belot', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-02-01T14:00:25Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/nov/04/netherlands-introduces-car-free-sundays-archive-1973 | Netherlands introduces car-free Sundays - archive, 1973 | Holland saddle-sore but fume free Richard Norton-Taylor, Amsterdam 5 November 1973 The Dutch proved today that they could be as phlegmatic as the British ever were. As the government’s ban on Sunday driving came into force, motorways were abandoned, and queues at bus stops were long. Empty taxis were parked in rows at the ranks. The Government’s initiative was widely welcomed, and it is not difficult to see why. At the busy crossroads where yesterday I waited an hour for a breakdown van to come and mend my car, the sound of bicycle bells and rusty – and not so rusty – wheels purring almost delicately took the place of angry drivers blowing their horns and impatiently revving their engines. There were, of course, authorised exceptions to the ban apart from public transport; fire engines, ambulances, doctors, dentists, veterinary surgeons, foreign tourists, and tradesmen who had to get their food to markets, restaurants and hotels. But in Amsterdam, still western Europe’s leading centre for hippies, it was entirely appropriate that the police in the best of faith allowed the bearded long-haired driver to take a group of foreign hippies on a tour of the city in his psychedelic bus. “It’s very nice, after all,” said the long-haired police corporal with his limited English. The Dutch are also thrifty and by this evening only a dozen motorists In Amsterdam and a handful in The Hague had been fined for breaking the regulations. Television crews from Germany, Belgium, and Sweden were busy taking shots of middle-aged couples sharing a single bicycle taken from the back of the garage. A cabaret group leader was less fortunate; he could take his equipment to another town for a show tonight, but the rest of his group had to go by public transport. A French couple who had hired a car with local number plates also expressed dismay when they were told that they had to walk – or use public transport. But the police enjoyed recounting how they stopped a car at three this morning (when the ban came into force); the car drove off at speed, the police took to the chase and finally caught two Yugoslavs who had chosen just the wrong hour to steal a vehicle. Under the emergency 1939 Distribution Law, which the government has reenacted, those who break the ban on driving can face fines of up to £17,500 or a maximum prison sentence of six years. However, police today were fining those few culprits they saw about £17. Some Dutchmen were looking ahead to the heart of winter and potential cuts on domestic fuel consumption. They blamed the government for “provoking” the Arab oil producers into their boycott of the Netherlands by its reputedly pro-Israeli stand. This is a land of countless cyclists – they enjoy priority on the roads and at junctions over cars. In addition there are an estimated six million mopeds as against three million cars. Yet as the standard of living rises, so car-driving is becoming a sport as in all other west European countries. Perhaps the success of the government’s initiative today can be put down partly to what one Dutchman referred to as “the element of Calvinism” that still has a place somewhere in the souls of his countrymen. And those churchmen who still scorn any activity on the Sabbath could thank the Arabs for helping them in their task. | ['world/netherlands', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'theguardian/series/from-the-archive', 'profile/richardnortontaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/research-and-information'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-11-04T11:17:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
science/audio/2008/jun/16/science.weekly.podcast | Science Weekly podcast: solar power, carbon capture, and light conversion | This week, the Science Weekly team discuss solar power, light conversion and clean power as we hear from Dan Nocera, the MIT professor who believes chemistry can solve the energy crisis. If you're interested in more of what he has to say, his full half-hour conversation is this week's Science Extra podcast. Oh, and if you want to admire his beard, head here. Also in the show, Alok Jha tells us why scientists are calling for greater investment in carbon capture technologies. Ian Sample gives the lowdown on Nasa's new giant Glast telescope and tells us why it's now safe to go back in the water. Meanwhile, Nell Boase ponders extreme gardening and describes the oldest viable seed in the world. Finally, Leonard Mlodinow, theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology and author of The Drunkard's Walk, explains how randomness rules our lives. Post your comments on the blog or on our Facebook Wall. | ['science/science', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'science/series/science', 'type/audio'] | environment/carbon-capture-and-storage | EMISSIONS | 2008-06-16T11:45:51Z | true | EMISSIONS |
global-development/2012/jun/15/rio20-voice-manzini-swaziland | Rio+20: A voice from Manzini, Swaziland | If you look at the millennium development goals not one of them is unaffected by climate change. When I was growing up, the summer rains in Manicaland would start in August or September and end in April. Now the rains come in November or December. They are very heavy and they end around February. My parents have not had a maize harvest for five years. They are only managing to grow groundnuts and millet now. When boreholes dry up around October, you start to have sanitation issues, like cholera or diarrhoea. When rivers dry up because the rains are late, livestock die and children are kept out of school. In rural Zimbabwe people pay school expenses – fees, books and uniforms – by selling their cattle. When families have no cattle, children are kept out of school. This aggravates the Aids situation because teenage girls hang around the shops and have sex with strangers for $10. That is when they get HIV. You cannot address sustainable development or start talking about solar energy until people have something to eat. That is why HIV educators in Zimbabwe now travel with the people handing out food aid. They say "now you have food, let us talk about condoms or about the importance of diet when taking your anti-retrovirals". | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'tone/interview', 'global-development/series/global-development-voices', 'society/aids-and-hiv', 'type/article'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-06-15T09:26:57Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk/2010/jun/18/buncefield-fire-oil-company-guilty | Buncefield fire: Oil storage firm found guilty of safety breaches | A company controlled by Total and Chevron has been found guilty of host of grave safety failures that led to the Buncefield oil depot explosion and the largest fire in peacetime Europe. Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited (HOSL), which was owned by the oil conglomerates, was found guilty of failing to prevent major accidents and limit their effects, it was revealedtoday. The guilty verdict followed one of the most complex corporate criminal trials of its kind and is a major blow for Total, the major shareholder. It will also intensify global concern over the safety practices of international companies. BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, is under unrelenting pressure over safety lapses suspected to have caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, the cause of the largest offshore oil spill in US history. The Buncefield blast on 11 December 2005 had a magnitude of 2.4 and the subsequent plume which drifted across Europe was visible from space. The destruction at the depot came after a huge vapour cloud ignited when 250,000 litres of petrol leaked from one of its tanks. The explosion injured 43 people, destroyed homes and businesses and could be heard 125 miles away. Prosecutors said it was miraculous that there were no fatalities, a fact largely attributed to the accident happening early on a Sunday. The jury of 11 men and one woman were told that the environmental damage caused was still not known. The eight-week trial at St Albans crown court saw a range of criticisms of HOSL and Total UK, which had three out of five directors on the company's board and employed most of the staff on site. The court heard how there was no proper management chain at Buncefield, a failure to abide by baseline "good practice guidance", "insufficient awareness" of the potential for an accident and no system for investigating near misses. Andrew Langdon QC, prosecuting in the Buncefield case on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive and Environment Agency, told the court that employers could have done much more to ensure staff could perform their jobs better at the site, near Hemel Hempstead. "Supervisors didn't get much help or protection in what they did. They didn't get any risk assessments worth their name – pretty essential you might think – how the tanks should be filled, how they should be emptied, what happens with all these considerations," he said. Training manuals were found to be out of date and there was found to be a "degree of fatigue" among the supervisors tasked with keeping the depot safe. Contracts with companies who worked onsite were found to be insufficiently clear, with contractors unsure of lines of responsibly. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, the judge who presided over the case, summarised there had been "a large number of failures with systems and procedures on site". HOSL was found guilty on Wednesday, but the verdict could not be reported until today, when the company's lawyers brought the trial to a premature end by pleading guilty to additional charges relating to the causing of pollution to enter controlled waters underlying the vicinity around Buncefield. Total, which owned a 60% stake in HOSL and previously admitted three health and safety breaches in connection with the explosion, and Chevron could be made to pay huge fines levied against HOSL when the company is sentenced next month. The charges carry unlimited fines, and the penalties could run into millions. Among the other companies implicated in the trial were the British Pipeline Agency, which admitted two charges relating to environmental damage. Yesterday also saw guilty verdicts brought against two other companies linked to the Buncefield site. TAV Engineering, a Surrey-based company, designed a crucial safety-switch that should have alerted staff at the site that an oil tanker was over-flowing but failed. Motherwell Control Systems 2003, which had a maintenance contract for the site and installed and looked after the switch, was found guilty of the same charge on Wednesday. Motherwell Control Systems went into liquidation shortly after the disaster before reappearing at a nearby address "under another guise", the court heard. The Health and Safety Executive and Environment Agency said in a statement: "When companies put workers and members of the public at risk and cause environmental damage we will prosecute. When the fire tore through the Buncefield site, these companies had failed to protect workers, members of the public and the environment. "The scale of the explosion and fire at Buncefield was immense and it was miraculous that nobody died. Unless the high hazard industries truly learn the lessons, we may not be that fortunate in future." | ['uk/buncefield', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/paullewis', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-06-18T20:13:30Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2020/sep/05/us-west-coast-heatwave-california | More than 200 campers rescued from California lake as wildfires spread | More than 200 people have been airlifted to safety after a fast-moving wildfire trapped them in a popular camping area in California. The wildfires sent people fleeing as a brutal heatwave pushed temperatures into triple digits in many parts of the state. “We’re completely trapped. There’s fire on all sides, all around us,” said Jeremy Remington, as he stood on a beach surrounded by fire in the Mammoth Pool Reservoir in a video posted on Twitter. Remington was later airlifted to safety, local news reported. The fire trapped campers Saturday at a reservoir in the Sierra National Forest. The blaze was 0% contained on Sunday afternoon, while nearly 15,000 firefighters were battling some two dozen fires across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). The California Office of Emergency Services said Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters were used for the rescues that began late Saturday and continued overnight. At least two people were severely injured and 10 more suffered moderate injuries. The wildfire burning near Shaver Lake broke out Friday evening. Crews worked through the night, but by Saturday morning authorities issued evacuation orders for lakeside communities and urged people seeking relief from the Labor Day weekend heat to stay away from the popular lake. “Adjust your Labor Day weekend plans. Access to Shaver Lake is completely closed to the public due to the #CreekFire,” the Fresno County sheriff’s office tweeted after announcing evacuation orders for campsites and communities by the lake. The blaze exploded on Saturday, jumped a river and compromised the only road into the Mammoth Pool Campground, national forest spokesman Dan Tune said. Tune said the campers were told to shelter in place until fire crews, aided by water-dropping aircraft, could gain access to the site. Tune said he didn’t know how close the fire was burning to the campsite. “All our resources are working to make that escape route nice and safe for them,” he said. The lake is surrounded by thick pine forests and is a popular destination for boating and fishing. Bone-dry conditions and the hot weather fueled the flames. “Once the fire gets going, it creates its own weather, adding wind to increase the spread,” Tune said. Meanwhile in southern California, fire in the foothills of Yucaipa east of Los Angeles prompted evacuation orders for eastern portions of the city of 54,000 along with several communities, including Oak Glen, Mountain Home Village and Forest Falls. And in eastern San Diego County, fire officials warned a fire near Alpine was burning at a “dangerous rate of speed.” The San Diego county sheriff’s department issued a voluntary evacuation order on Sunday afternoon as the Valley Fire raged unchecked. The fresh blazes come as the state, which has been dealing with weeks-long wildfires, faced record-high temperatures over the Labor Day weekend. The temperature reached 121 degrees F (49 C) on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles County, a record for the National Weather Service office that covers the metropolitan area. “This is a very dangerous situation. Heat can really creep up on you quickly,” said Eric Boldt, an NWS meteorologist in California, on Twitter. Cal Fire said nearly 12,500 firefighters were battling 22 major fires in the state. Despite the heat, firefighters were able to contain two major fires in coastal Monterey County. California has seen 900 new wildfires since 15 August, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes. The blazes have burned more than 1.5m acres (2,343sq miles). There have been eight fire deaths and nearly 3,300 structures destroyed. The heat wave was expected to spread triple-digit temperatures over much of California through Monday. Officials urged people to conserve electricity to ease the strain on the state’s power grid. Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, warned customers Saturday that it might cut power starting Tuesday because of expected high winds and heat that could create even greater fire danger. Some of the state’s largest and deadliest fires in recent years have been sparked by downed power lines and other utility equipment. The NWS is recommending that people stay inside where there is air conditioning during the hottest times of the day, but the pandemic has forced many places that offer the relief of air conditioning, including malls and public libraries, to close. Cooling centers have opened around Los Angeles to provide the public with places to avoid the heat with social distancing requirements and capacity limits. Temperatures in California have been rising over the last decade, with deadly consequences that many experts link to the global climate crisis. Air quality in the state is some of the worst in the country as heat leads to increased smog, which can damage lungs and increases respiratory and heart diseases. Heatwaves also lead to serious cases of dehydration, heatstroke and heart attacks, which can ultimately lead to death. During an extreme heatwave last month, so many people cranked up their air conditioning to try to stay cool that the state agency that oversees much of the power grid turned off power for hundreds of thousands of customers. | ['us-news/california', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lauren-aratani', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-09-06T16:25:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/feb/18/el-nino-has-passed-peak-strength-but-impacts-will-continue-un-warns | El Niño has passed peak strength but impacts will continue, UN warns | The El Niño that caused record temperatures, drought and floods over the last year has passed its peak strength but will continue to have humanitarian impacts for months to come, the UN has said. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the event, which plays havoc with weather systems around the world, was still strong and its impacts on communities in southern Africa, the Horn of Africa and Central America were becoming increasingly apparent. El Niño is a global climate phenomenon that occurs every few years when a huge warm patch of water forms in the western tropical Pacific Ocean, affecting rainfall from the the western US and South America to Africa, India, Indonesia, and Australia. The UN World Food programme warned earlier this week that 100 million people were facing food and water shortages as a result of the El Niño. The WMO said that although the current episode was closely comparable in strength with the record event of 1997-98, it was too early to say whether the 2015-16 El Niño was the strongest ever. The agency’s confirmation that the peak has passed follows similar recent announcements by national science agencies. The WMO’s new secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said: “In meteorological terms, this El Niño is now in decline. But we cannot lower our guard as it is still quite strong and in humanitarian and economic terms, its impacts will continue for many months to come.” He added: “Parts of South America and east Africa are still recovering from torrential rains and flooding. The economic and human toll from drought - which by its nature is a slowly developing disaster - is becoming increasingly apparent in southern and the Horn of Africa, Central America and a number of other regions.” In a joint statement, the UN’s World Food programme, the European commission, the US government’s Famine Early Warning System and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Thursday that staple food harvests across much of southern Africa would be badly hit throughout 2016. “Much of southern Africa has experienced significant delays in planting and very poor conditions for early crop development and pasture regrowth. In many areas, planting has not been possible due to 30 to 50-day delays in the onset of rains and there has been widespread crop failure,” said the agencies. South Africa, the breadbasket of the region on which many southern African countries depend for food imports in times of drought, this week issued a preliminary forecast of maize production for the coming harvest of 7.4 million tonnes, a drop of 25% from the already poor production levels of last season and 36% below the five-year average. “Seasonal [weather] forecasts are predicting a continuation of below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures across most of the region for the remainder of the growing season. The combination of a poor 2014-15 season, an extremely dry early season (October to December) and forecasts for continuing hot and drier-than-average conditions through mid-2016, suggest a scenario of extensive, regional-scale crop failure”, said the FAO. El Niño has played a key part, along with climate change, in driving global temperatures to record levels in 2015 and January 2016. The WMO said the current episode would likely fade away during the second quarter of 2016. | ['environment/elnino', 'environment/environment', 'environment/drought', 'environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/africa', 'world/americas', 'environment/food', 'global-development/famine', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-02-18T10:43:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/may/19/eu-plan-for-3bn-trees-in-10-years-to-tackle-biodiversity-crisis | EU plan for 3bn trees in 10 years to tackle biodiversity crisis | The European commission will launch a sweeping effort to tackle the global biodiversity crisis on Wednesday, including a call for 3bn trees to be planted in the EU by 2030 and a plan to better protect the continent’s last primeval forests. The draft policy document, published online by an environmental NGO, admits that to date in the EU, “protection has been incomplete, restoration has been small-scale, and the implementation and enforcement of legislation has been insufficient”. Scientists and environmental groups, commenting on the leaked draft of the strategy, say that while the new goals are welcome and impressive, there is a still distinct lack of tools with which to implement them. “It’s a good and ambitious document, but what is also obvious is the lack of strategy of how to implement it, and a lack of discussion of why previous documents of this type failed,” said Przemysław Chylarecki of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The new strategy calls for nearly one-third of EU land and sea to become protected zones. Currently, 26% of land and 11% of seas are classed as protected areas, but the European commission acknowledges this has not been enough to tackle the degradation of the natural world and threat of extinction to some birds and animals. Environmentalists say even these previous targets for protection have not been met in practice. “The proposed strategy lacks game-changing ideas and instruments for reaching the targets. We already know today that existing frameworks are not delivering, so why should we wait,” said Robert Cyglicki, programme director of Greenpeace in central and eastern Europe. He welcomed the new strategy but said it would be 2024 before it became clear if new binding measures would be adopted, and called for immediate discussions over funding and enforcement mechanisms. Some elements of the programme, such as protecting migratory bird populations, are hard to implement without a global approach, and the paper calls on the EU to intensify efforts to make biodiversity a central part of its diplomacy. It concludes that global efforts to tackle the biodiversity crisis under the auspices of the UN have been “insufficient to halt the loss of the world’s biodiversity”. It will also turn the spotlight on the EU’s €60bn-a-year common agricultural policy, which has been criticised for fuelling a steep decline in nature, with a call for a quarter of the EU’s agricultural land to be organically farmed by 2030. Environmentalists warned the plan’s headline target to plant at least 3bn trees by 2030, “in full respect of ecological principles”, should only be a small part of the solution. “Planting 3bn trees is a really spectacular and visual goal, but it has been shown that planting new trees is not a panacea and doesn’t always help,” said Chylarecki. More important will be the goal to map, monitor and “strictly protect” the EU’s last remaining primeval forests, which have survived in almost every member state, but remain threatened by human activity, such as illegal logging. These older forests provide a natural shield against climate change, but in many countries have been preyed on by logging companies, with national governments either ignoring the situation or lacking the resources to properly police logging. “We believe an integrated approach that also includes smart financial mechanisms and social aspects is the key aspect of a future European biodiversity governance framework,” said Romania’s environment minister, Costel Alexe, who has said he wants to better protect the large area of old-growth forests in the country. César Luena, a Spanish socialist MEP and vice-chair of the European parliament’s environment committee, agreed that the 2030 targets “will need to be covered by legislation to make them binding” on member states. “If the new strategy remains just a collection of ideas, nothing will ever happen,” he said in emailed comments. He said the strategy “seems more ambitious than the previous one but there are still areas for improvement”. Luena said EU member states needed to comply with existing laws, noting that in the last week alone, the European commission launched legal action against 19 governments over failures on EU environmental law – a tally of charges far from unusual in the commission’s monthly round up of infringement proceedings. Sweden and Latvia have been accused of not implementing parts of the EU’s birds and habitats directives, Malta is faulted for not conserving endangered bluefin tuna, while France, Cyprus and Lithuania are said to have neglected to write EU air pollution standards into national law. The EU should also offer funding benefits for those governments serious about hitting targets, said campaigners. “At the EU level we need some sort of financial stimulus that would make it attractive for countries to focus on biodiversity,” said Marta Grundland, a campaigner with Greenpeace Poland. “Right now, I don’t feel it’s a EU priority or a national priority. After climate this is the second biggest threat we are facing, and it’s all connected. If we want to help with the climate crisis we should also tackle the biodiversity crisis.” | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'world/eu', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jennifer-rankin', 'profile/shaun-walker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-19T12:44:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2019/sep/04/bahamas-reels-hurricane-dorian-damage-cost-hundreds-millions | Hurricane Dorian destruction set to cost Bahamas 'up to billions' | The destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas could cost “hundreds of millions, if not billions” of dollars to repair, according to the deputy prime minister, as aerial images showed whole neighbourhoods destroyed. With the death toll climbing to seven and scores more still missing, helicopters operated by the US Coast Guard among others were delivering emergency supplies to residents on the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, the two worst hit locations in the Caribbean nation’s north. “It’s total devastation. It’s decimated. Apocalyptic,” said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a local hurricane relief group, after flying over the Abaco Islands. “It’s not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again.” She said her representative on Abaco told her there were “a lot more dead”, though she could not provide numbers as bodies were still being gathered. Images on local media showed bodies being put on a truck, and there were fears others may have been washed out to sea during the storm surges that inundated the islands. According to reports early on Wednesday, some people remained stuck on rooftops waiting to be rescued. The death toll is expected rise in the coming days. As the storm diminished from a powerful category 5 and moved on towards the US coast, the full scale of the damage started to be revealed, with airports underwater and whole residential neighbourhoods smashed by winds that reached 185mph and pounding waves. Initial assessments suggested that thousands of buildings had been damaged, some beyond repair, while people took shelter in cramped attic spaces to escape the rising flood waters. Aerial and satellite images showed flood waters covering much of the northern islands. The health minister, Duane Sands, said Dorian left the main hospital on Grand Bahama unusable, while the hospital at Marsh Harbour on Abaco was in need of food, water, medicine and surgical supplies. He said crews were trying to evacuate up to seven kidney failure patients from Abaco who had not received dialysis since Friday. The Red Cross spokesman Matthew Cochrane said more than 13,000 houses, or about 45% of the homes on Grand Bahama and Abaco, were believed to have been severely damaged or destroyed. UN officials said more than 60,000 people on the islands would need food, and the Red Cross said about 62,000 would need clean drinking water. “What we are hearing lends credence to the fact that this has been a catastrophic storm and a catastrophic impact,” Cochrane said. The Bahamas deputy prime minister, Peter Turnquest, said it would require “hundreds of millions, if not billions” to rebuild Abaco and Grand Bahama, adding that the government would be making an international appeal for financial help. “We have had catastrophic damage to both the public and private infrastructure that will take hundreds of millions, if not billions, to fund recovery and reconstruction,” Turnquest said. “With approximately 70% of the homes underwater, we anticipate tremendous social and economic dislocation and disruption in the short term. The mental health of those who have endured this monster storm is a priority concern of the government.” The Bahamas’ prime minister, Hubert Minnis, told a press conference he anticipated more deaths and predicted that rebuilding would require “a massive, coordinated effort”. “We are in the midst of one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history,” said Minnis. “No effort or resources will be held back.” “Marsh Habour has suffered, I would estimate, in excess of 60% damage to their homes,” said Minnis. “The Mud, as we know, has been completely destroyed or decimated,” he added, referring to a shantytown known as the Mud and the Peas. Five US Coast Guard helicopters were running shuttles to Abaco, and British naval personnel from RFA Mounts Bay also joined the rescue effort. Elsewhere Bahamians used jetskis and boats to get to safety, and even a huge bulldozer, which cradled children and adults in its digger as it churned its way through deep waters. “We don’t want people thinking we’ve forgotten them ... We know what your conditions are,” Tammy Mitchell of the Bahamas’ National Emergency Management Agency told ZNS Bahamas radio station. | ['world/hurricane-dorian', 'world/bahamas', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterbeaumont', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-09-04T11:51:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2006/aug/29/hurricanekatrina.usa | Bush takes 'full responsibility' for Katrina response | George Bush today said he took "full responsibility" for the US government's poor response to Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast a year ago today. The storm killed 1,900 people, more than 1,500 in New Orleans, where Mr Bush made his comments on the anniversary of the worst natural disaster in US history. The delayed rescue efforts at the time shocked America. Mr Bush admitted today that the "hurricane brought terrible scenes that we thought we would never see in America". He also conceded that the government "fell short" at "all levels". "I take full responsibility for the federal government's response." But he insisted that lessons had been learned and he promised more aid to New Orleans and the wider area. "The debris is getting clear," he said. "I simply could not imagine an America without the crescent city." Mr Bush also paid tribute to the rescue efforts that were made. "People looked up to the skies for deliverance, and then they saw the choppers come." Earlier today, Mr Bush met the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, and attended a service at St Louis cathedral in the French Quarter. In the aftermath of the disaster, the president stood by the cathedral and admitted that his administration had failed to respond adequately. The White House hopes regeneration of the Gulf Coast will erase the damage done to Mr Bush by the sluggish official reaction to the storm. Earlier this month, an AP-Ipsos poll revealed that 67% of Americans disapproved of his handling of the disaster. Officials said the purpose of Mr Bush's trip was not to dwell on the disaster but to highlight rebuilding efforts, thank volunteers and celebrate community spirit. However, frustration at the state, local and federal response in New Orleans - which still has no master rebuilding plan - remains intense. Only 50% of the city has electricity, half of its hospitals remain closed and violent crime has risen. Less than half the population has returned since the storm, with tens of thousands of families living in trailers and mobile homes, and insurance settlements mired in red tape. Last year, Mr Bush promised to help fight poverty in the area. Proposals included the Gulf Opportunity Zone, which would give more than £5bn in tax breaks to developers of low-income housing, small businesses and individuals. However, worker recovery accounts - which were meant to help storm victims find work by paying for school, job training and childcare - did not materialise. Neither did the Urban Homesteading Act, which had been intended to provide the poor with sites on which to build self-financed homes. | ['us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-08-29T19:06:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2009/aug/24/green-list-best-worst-environment | The green list: from bikes to patio heaters, what's best – and worst – for the planet | They may be a simple way to keep you warm on an autumn evening in the back garden or offer the shortest travel time to a well-earned holiday, but patio heaters and short-haul flights are among the least ethical goods and services of the past 20 years, according to a survey of leading politicians and green campaigners. A list of perceived environmental evils that also includes the standby on your television set and the complex international framework for carbon offsetting has been garnered from those at the forefront of the environmental movement by Ethical Consumer magazine. But the "most hated" innovations, which apparently threaten a green future and therefore should be banned, are balanced by suggestions for the most ethical products of the last 20 decades. The rise of cycling, the Fairtrade movement and the Eurostar links between London, Brussels and Paris all win plaudits. The vision of the best and worst emerges as part of the magazine's 20th birthday celebrations, for which it invited nominations from environment secretary Hilary Benn, political opponents, climate camp activists and a number of campaign groups. For Benn, success in a British campaign to get the bluefin tuna added to the international list of endangered species would stop the fishing industry wiping it out, while he, like others of those questioned, endorses the Fairtrade movement – "a brilliantly simple idea that builds a relationship between the farmer and the person buying the product". Greg Barker, his Conservative opposite number, backs the already planned EU ban on incandescent light bulbs, while hoping that the generation of mercury-based low-energy bulbs will soon be superseded by LED products, and commends smart electric meters, which "have the power to revolutionise people's relationship with the energy they use". Lib Dem Simon Hughes says that locally grown food will help Britain significantly reduce food miles, and he says getting rid of the standby facility on TVs and other electrical appliances could save almost 1m tonnes of carbon emissions each year. London mayor Boris Johnson refuses to suggest a product or service that should be banned, believing "in carrots rather than sticks", and promotes instead his plans for a cycle hire scheme in the capital and incentives for recycling waste. But his nomination for best ethical product is the development of electric cars, adding: "I am completely blown away by the rapid development of the technology behind them." The choices from Climate Camp activists make up a single entry in each category – but there is therefore a triple suggestion for best product, "ideas and time; something I made myself; the bicycle". And there are two suggestions for bans, carbon offsets ("Nature doesn't do bailouts") and flights powered by agrofuels, "a blatant example of greenwash". Other candidates for a ban range from private health insurance, "a creeping threat to the integrity of public health systems around the world" according to John Hilary, of War on Want, and battery-farmed animal products, nominated by Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association. Other hated technologies nominated include patio heaters – "It's just so pointless heating the open air," said Andy Atkins, of Friends of the Earth – and coal-fired power stations, for their "devastating role" in climate change, according to Jason Torrance, of the transport charity Sustrans. The wind-up torch is the most ethical product, according to Helen Starr-Keddie of Action for Sustainable Living. "Real nappies" save a lot of money and waste going to landfill, said Caroline Fernandez of the Women's Environmental Network. Eurostar's nomination comes from Greenpeace's Ben Stewart, for challenging "Britain's addiction to flying". | ['environment/ethical-living', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesmeikle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2009-08-23T23:05:54Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2012/apr/18/german-toilet-flushing-water-conservation | Germany's careful toilet-flushing is a drop in the water-conservation ocean | Hanna Gersmann | While Britain frets about the drought, Germany can't get enough of saving water. Germans are good at saving water, so good in fact that they have created a problem for their canalisation system: many pipes are clogged with grease, excrement and leftovers because they aren't being flushed sufficiently with water. Especially in the summer, gutters in German cities can reek horribly. In some parts of the country, water suppliers even have to flush their pipes artificially with hundreds of thousands of litres of water. We Germans have always been keen to be best in class when it comes to saving water. Our toilets have a special water-saver button for flushing after you have a wee, we switch off the tap when we brush our teeth, we try hard not to splash too much when we wash our cars. Last year Germany only used 124 litres of water per head per day – down from 144 litres in 1991. In Britain the current figure is 150 litres. That might be very impressive on Germany's part, and shaming on Britain. But the real question is whether small gestures like that really make a difference. In the long run, the few drops you save when drinking, cooking, flushing or washing up are of little importance. It is products, not activities that waste most water. Making a a 200g bag of crisps uses 135 litres, a beefburger 2,400 and a steak 4,000. A cotton T-shirt gulps up 4,100 litres, a brand new car as much as 450,000. Of course you can argue with the details here – there are always slightly greener alternatives. But you can't argue much with the so-called water footprint which shows how carelessly we treat Earth's most valuable resource. On average, every person on this planet is responsible for an incredible 1.4m litres of water usage per year: that's 8,600 bathtubs with 160 litres of water each. Ninety per cent of this is employed in agriculture: that's where proper water-conservation needs to happen. But apparently politicians care little to do anything about it, be it in London, Berlin or Brussels. It's quite possible that there will be more frequent drought warnings in the future. National governments will have to find ways of dealing with the problem. The first step might have to be a fight with the farmers, industrialists and lobbyists, and not just those on their doorstep. And there are plenty of proposals on the table that politicians should consider: be it a water tax, whereby those who used rivers to cool their factories will have to cough up, using agricultural subsidies as rewards for careful water usage, or a water limit across the industry. Instead, environment secretary Caroline Spelman seems to be focusing on telling ordinary people to have fewer baths. Her German counterparts, who pride themselves on their teacher's-pet reputation, are no better in that respect, by the way. Angela Merkel may have listened to environmentalist concerns once she realised that popular opinion in Germany was against nuclear power. But she doesn't look keen to boost her green credentials any further. It's the same across the globe: politicians like giving people the feeling that they are doing something good for the environment when they turn off their taps. But sadly that's not enough. In the long term, feel-good environmentalism won't save the planet. • Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/hanna-gersmann'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-04-18T11:34:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2008/sep/11/law.climatechange | Paul Kingsnorth: Paul Kingsnorth on Kingsnorth coal-fired power station | It's been an unsettling year to be a Kingsnorth. Blessed with a surname which for most of my life people have found it impossible to spell, I'm suddenly all over the news. But not in a good way. I keep hearing that Kingsnorth is filthy and destructive and should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to expand. Everywhere I turn, people are talking about fighting Kingsnorth, stopping Kingsnorth or shutting down Kingsnorth (shutting up Kingsnorth I'm more familiar with). Thousands of angry hippies have been converging on wet fields threatening to chain themselves to bits of Kingsnorth. There are even "stop Kingsnorth" T-shirts. Maybe this is how it feels to be Ian Huntley. Still, even I was impressed when six Greenpeace activists managed to climb up the inside of the main chimney of the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent last October. Once at the top, they abseiled down the side and began daubing a giant and unequivocal message to the government on it. The message was intended to be "Gordon, bin it!" Unfortunately the police managed to serve an injunction on them by helicopter halfway through the process, so the message ended up as the rather less impressive "Gordon". A chimney named Gordon might seem more like a Turner prize contender than one of the obvious turning points in the long, uphill battle to prevent climate change. But a turning point it may turn out to be, for after an expensive and extremely detailed trial at Maidstone crown court, the six climbers were yesterday found not guilty of causing criminal damage, despite the fact that they had openly admitted to doing so. The reason, unlike the case for the defence, was simple. The jury had decided to accept the climbers' case that the damage they did was justifiable if it helped prevent the undeniably greater damage that would be done by climate change. This is not the first time that a jury has accepted a "lawful excuse" defence in a criminal damage case – but it is the first time it has happened in relation to climate change. It will doubtless make Gordon (the prime minister, not the chimney) nervous as he contemplates whether or not to go-ahead with a new coal plant at Kingsnorth; a decision which will ultimately decide whether or not the UK has any chance of meeting its targets to reduce its climate-changing emissions, and on which the cabinet apparently remains split. Whether or not the court decision leads to a rash of similar protests elsewhere remains to be seen. Whether it ultimately helps to stop climate change – if that is even possible given the point we've reached and the demands of our resource-greedy global economy – remains to be seen too. But what it maybe could do – and certainly should do – is bring home to the UK, where we still all have our heads stuck firmly in the sand, the connection between action and consequence. The court in Maidstone heard from James Hansen of Nasa, one of the world's leading climate experts, that the carbon dioxide emitted daily by Kingsnorth could be responsible for the extinction of up to 400 species. They heard that properties just down the road from Gordon the chimney, on the Kent coast, were already suffering from sea level rises. They heard from Inuit leader Aqqaluk Lynge about how Inuit houses were already sliding into the sea. They decided that such things justified the criminal damage that the climbers had done. In other words, they accepted the connection between powering British homes and the rapidly-altering global climate. The difficulty with the climate change narrative has always been how big it is. The idea that turning on your kettle helps to drown polar bears has never really sunk in with many people at any level beyond the theoretical. Maybe – just maybe – the Kingsnorth verdict, with the full weight of the law backing it up, will make that link clearer in our minds. If it does, perhaps all that persecution will have been worth it. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'law/law', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/kingsnorth', 'tone/comment', 'environment/coal', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'type/article', 'profile/paulkingsnorth'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2008-09-11T16:30:01Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/feb/18/heathrow-runway-protest | Leo Hickman: Airport expansion protests set for take-off | The ever-growing coalition of protest against airport expansion rolls up outside Downing St tomorrow. The Campaign Against Climate Change march will set off from Westminster tube station at 5.30pm under the banner of "the green future versus the Brown past". But a much smaller, counter protest will be taking place at the same time. At first it looks like a lame spoof, but the recently formed Modern Movement says it will be arguing for airport expansion to go ahead. "The extension of flying to millions of people has been a liberation," says its flyer. "Most of us can now afford to go on holiday and welcome the cheapening of air travel allowing us to fly abroad. The development of aviation infrastructure is crucial to allow ever more people to fly. This is why Modern Movement is holding a counter-demonstration at the same time as the anti-aviation groups to show our support for airport expansion and urge on the building of the third runway at Heathrow." After just a cursory look around its website, it soon becomes apparent that the Modern Movement is yet another sanctuary (like Spiked, Living Marxism, Institute of Ideas, Manifesto Club etc etc) for the former members and ideological descendants of the Revolutionary Communist party and their "the progress of mankind must never be interrupted or hindered, like, ever" views. As a result, the literature put out by this new incarnation reads much like the kind of pamphlets put out by the Futurists in the early 20th century (a reference I'm sure they would revel in): Our time is valuable and shouldn't be wasted on slow commuter transport or endless queues, traffic jams and delays. Faster journeys will free up more time for us to work and play. We need a more efficient, better connected transport network. No one should be made to feel guilty about saving time by flying. Our holidays are too short as it is! The most illuminating part of the website, though, is the list of committee members (most of which are in some way affiliated with the Institute of Ideas). Here's the bio for Helen Birtwistle, who is the press officer for the Institute of Ideas: Helen has travelled to Japan, Thailand, India and Malaysia, but has also had some of her favourite holidays on piss-ups in Ibiza, hen-dos in Prague and weekend breaks in Europe; luxuries she can afford thanks to cheap flights. It's all fairly harmless, tongue-in-cheek stuff aimed at taking the rise out of the anti-expansionists' aims, but followers of Campaign Against Climate Change haven't taken it lying down and have gate-crashed a discussion going on about the Modern Movement over at the Climate Resistance, an online hang-out for climate change sceptics. All sides share one piece of common ground, though: at least they still have the right to protest. Well, for the time being at least. | ['environment/activism', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'tone/blog', 'environment/heathrow-third-runway', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/blog', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'world/air-transport', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2009-02-18T15:22:44Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2022/jul/27/country-diary-a-jungle-of-seaweed-a-busy-spider-crab-a-bobbing-seal | Country diary: A jungle of seaweed, a busy spider crab, a bobbing seal | With golfers on the cliff above giving me slightly odd looks, I struggle into my wetsuit and negotiate my way across a few slimy yards of seaweed-smothered rock. I happened upon this spot after wandering over from the busy Ty Coch beachside pub. A rocky cove called Borth Wen, it was all but deserted, with mini-islands of igneous rock poking out of the water, creating a naturally sheltered bay – a promising place for a bit of aquatic exploration. I push myself out into the cool Atlantic water and look down through my goggles. Being a landlubber, my occasional forays into marine ecology always feel exhilaratingly exotic. I find myself swimming above a sun-dappled seafloor carpeted in aquatic life, mostly comprising marine algae in all its strange, fascinating forms. Huge “tentacles” of Himanthalia elongata, sometimes called “sea spaghetti”, brush against my skin and softly tangle around my feet in a way that feels disconcertingly alive. Monstrous heads of oarweed (Laminaria digitata) cling to the rocks, their dark brown fronds waving in the current like serpents. As the water deepens, the life grows in scale. I appear to have entered a forest of kelp: an order of large seaweed algae that can form dense, wildlife-rich underwater “jungles”. A small school of silvery fish scurries among the towering algae, a large spiny spider crab works its way across a rock and a sea trout lurks in the green depths. I look up from this weird, wild world for a moment. On the coast above, people stroll past on the way to the pub and the golfers are pushing their trolleys around on manicured grass. Then I notice what looks like a small rock protruding from the water nearby. The rock bobs up and down, which seems strange, then turns its whiskered head towards me. I find myself looking into the fellow mammalian eyes of a grey seal. The animal stays there for a good few minutes, seemingly unfazed by the awkward interloper in its realm, before resuming its business in the underwater world. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/marine-life', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/environment', 'uk/wales', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/pubs', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/carey-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-07-27T04:30:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/dec/13/green-tariffs-what-are-they-and-why-do-they-matter | Green tariffs: what are they and why do they matter? | Why are we talking about green tariffs? Cutting carbon places costs on some industries, particularly those that rely heavily on fossil fuels at present, such as steelmaking, or that emit carbon as part of their processes, such as cement and concrete production. This places governments that have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a dilemma. What is the dilemma? The question they face is how do to bring down carbon dioxide without putting their industries at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. If one government forces its heavy industry to cut carbon while another does not, companies based in the country with lax regulations will be able to undercut those in the cleaner countries with cheaper products. This may mean firm move to laggard countries to benefit from its lower prices, a process known as carbon leakage. It can also mean that the cheaper goods sell in larger numbers, emitting more carbon in the process, so there is no overall reduction in carbon going into the atmosphere, while the industries in the cleaner countries suffer without benefit to the climate. How can this be prevented? Governments can impose costs or other barriers to imports. These trade regulations are known as carbon border taxes, carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs) or green tariffs. These mean that imports of certain products, such as steel, aluminium or chemicals, would be subject to taxes that would raise the price of the imports, creating a level playing field between countries where industries are subject to carbon regulations and those where they are not. Is there not an easier way? It would be much simpler to have a global carbon price, which would be levied on all companies per tonne of CO2 produced as a result of their operations. Discussions on a global carbon price have been going on for at least two decades but without result, and the world no longer has time to wait for a perfect solution. Scientists say we need to halve emissions in the next decade to stay within 1.5C of warming. That means governments must act now, and many see CBAMs as the most effective way. Who is going to have a CBAM and who will be affected? The EU made the first moves to a CBAM in the early hours of Tuesday morning, agreeing to place carbon reporting requirements on sectors including iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium, electricity and hydrogen. If the still provisional deal is passed, a trial phase will begin from next October. Before the Ukraine war, Russia would have been considered a key target for CBAMs from many countries, including the EU, the UK and the US. But the Ukraine war has meant Russia is now subject to more stringent rules and sanctions based on its aggression, so CBAMs (for now at least) are less relevant in that context. In general, the countries most likely to face green tariffs are those with big fossil fuel consumption and large export-focused heavy industries, such as China, Australia, Turkey, and India. It’s possible those countries could retaliate with tariffs of their own, sparking a trade war; or they could complain to the World Trade Organisation, where the proposals might become mired in years of legal wrangling. All of this sounds very theoretical, what will be the impact on me? Governments hope that most people will feel little impact. CBAMs are likely to affect only a small number of products, and any price increases that result are likely to be absorbed by the companies as far as possible rather than passed on to consumers. Central banks are hoping that current high rates of inflation will ease next year, giving more scope to use CBAMs without price-raising impacts. The danger is that if a trade war erupts, a wide range of products could be caught up in it, which could lead to shortages for consumers or price rises in the shops, but that is still unlikely. On a positive note, the impacts could be beneficial, if countries and industries become greener as a result. | ['environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'business/internationaltrade', 'business/business', 'business/economics', 'business/global-economy', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2022-12-13T13:57:21Z | true | EMISSIONS |
news/2011/dec/23/weatherwatch-corinth-henry-miller | Weatherwatch: The day before Christmas in Corinth | It is the day before Christmas, and an American is in Corinth with Lawrence Durrell. The weather is dubious; heavy rains may set in. In the light of a wintry afternoon, the site takes on a prehistoric aspect. Once among the ruins, first impressions change. "Every minute that passes sheds a new lustre, a new tenderness upon the scene. Durrell was right, there is something rich, sensuous and rosy about Corinth. It is death in full bloom, death in the midst of voluptuous, seething corruption," writes Henry Miller in The Colossus of Maroussi (1941). He enjoys the pillars of a Roman temple "rooted to the earth, like the legs of an elephant stricken with amnesia. Everywhere this lush, overgrown, over-ripe quality manifests itself, heightened by a rose-coloured light flush from the setting sun. We wander down to the spring, set deep in the earth like a hidden temple, a mysterious place suggesting affinities with India and Arabia. Above us is the thick wall which surrounds the old site. A marvellous atmospheric duet is taking place in the sky; the sun, which has become a ball of fire, is now joined by the moon, and in the flood of swiftly-shifting harmonies created by the conjunction of these two luminaries, the ruins of Corinth glow and vibrate with supernatural beauty. Only one effect is withheld – a sudden rain of starlight. The way back leads through another world, for in addition to the darkness, there is a mist rising from the sea." | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/timradford', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-12-23T22:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2019/aug/22/tesco-promises-to-ban-brands-that-use-excessive-packaging | Tesco promises to ban brands that use excessive packaging | Tesco has pledged to step up its efforts in the battle against single-use plastic with measures that include banning brands using excessive packaging from Britain’s largest supermarket chain. Dave Lewis, Tesco’s chief executive, said the company would “reserve the right not to list” products with too much non-recyclable packaging from next year onwards, in an article published on theguardian.com. Tesco gave suppliers a list of preferred materials in May 2018, but is now planning to turn up the pressure as public awareness of the environmental harm caused by plastic packaging grows. “We can’t overlook the fact that for too long, packaging on consumer goods has been excessive,” Lewis wrote. “We have all looked at the settled contents of a cereal packet and puzzled over the comparative size of the bag and box. Or opened a bag of crisps and wondered why the packaging is twice the size of the contents.” In its latest annual report Tesco said 13% of packaging on its own-brand products was hard to recycle, such as the black plastic used in microwaveable meals; this will be eliminated by the end of this year, Lewis said. He added that Tesco was working with branded suppliers to do the same. Tesco has itself been the subject of criticism over its packaging in the past, but any improvements could have major implications for Britons’ plastic waste. Lewis said scrapping the plastic used to package tins in multipacks alone would save 490 tonnes of plastic a year, and it could prevent the sale of more than 50m plastic beer can binders. The supermarket is trialling measures to reduce waste at its Extra store near Cambridge. Lewis, who took over the supermarket in 2014 and has since initiated severe cost-cutting, pledged to roll out the most effective measures across the retailer’s 2,658 British stores. Tesco’s move comes amid a growing public backlash against plastic packaging that has spurred the government to implement a single-use plastic bag levy and consider policies such as mandatory deposit return schemes for bottles. Other major supermarkets have trialled processes that could reduce packaging. Morrisons and Waitrose have both tested refill stations to allow customers to buy packaging-free goods, including pasta, wine and cleaning materials. Iceland last year pledged to eliminate all plastics in its own-brand products within five years. Tesco is also trialling the Loop scheme, which aims to dramatically increase packaging reuse. Loop, run by recycling firm Terracycle, has signed up other large partners, including consumer goods firms Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Mondelēz. Supermarkets and food companies in the UK have been spurred into action by government plans to introduce the “polluter pays” principle in its approach to waste. New rules, currently under consultation, could force private companies, including supermarkets, to pay as much as £1bn a year more towards the UK’s recycling infrastructure – up from about £70m now. Lewis called for the government to take a national approach to recycling in order to standardise processes. Households currently face confusing variation in the quality of recycling services, which can result in products being sent to landfill that would be recycled under a different local authority in houses in the next street. National recycling rates have plateaued at about 45% since 2013, according to government figures. Lewis wrote: “Today, recycling rates vary across local authorities from 65% to 14%. Without a national infrastructure, industry efforts to improve the recyclability of materials used in packaging will not have the impact we need.” • Sign up to the daily Business Today email here or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk. | ['business/tesco', 'business/business', 'business/retail', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/packaging', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-08-22T05:00:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/may/25/country-diary-a-thunderstorm-ushers-in-a-new-season-infused-with-vitality | Country diary: a thunderstorm ushers in a new season infused with vitality | This May morning is warm, wet and still simmering with the energy of last night’s thunderstorm. Mountains of cumulonimbus tower above the valley. Lush, white-blooming banks of ramsons steam in the sun, smelling like garlic broth. Hazy clouds of hyacinth fragrance waft across the old railway line from patches of bluebells. A newly flowering hawthorn catches my nose with its ripe, lurid smell. With a world of fresh vegetation bursting open, aromas are uncorked everywhere, and walking along a path is like sampling a menu of commingling flavours: peppery, citrusy, sappy, earthy. After a slow, arctic spring, the storm has announced a new season, and now everything seems suddenly brighter, infused with an almost tropical ripeness and vitality. I find myself in a sliver of woodland which I often stroll through. Near the edge of town, and sandwiched between a cul-de-sac and a bypass, it is a bit of marginalia that, without any oversight I am aware of, has blossomed into an unlikely green hideaway. Spindly paths wind through ivy-covered beech, rowan, hazel and hawthorn, and an exuberant, tangled understorey of nettles, wild garlic, cow parsley and greater stitchwort. The fresh foliage of the beeches fills the canopy with bright splashes of lemony light, and a wren fires out a deluge of notes from somewhere in the midst of it all, king of this little jungle, a temperate bird of paradise. I am in the middle of a little green reverie when something makes me turn my head. There is a woman looking at me from over a fence belonging to a house next to the trees, and a man hovering in a doorway behind. “Just wondering what you’re doing,” she says, in an accusatory tone. I give a terse reply, conveying enough annoyance for them to leave me alone. The exchange leaves a sour taste; a brush with the sort of suburban suspicion that assumes the motivation for standing in some greenery must be odd or untoward. I come away thinking, not for the first time, that we don’t place enough value on places that are nowhere special. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/plants', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/spring', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/carey-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-05-25T04:30:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/jan/13/cargo-ship-rescued-after-breakdown-to-prevent-it-drifting-into-great-barrier-reef | Cargo ship rescued after breakdown to prevent it drifting into Great Barrier Reef | Marine conservationists have warned of the dangers posed by increased shipping through the Great Barrier Reef after a cargo vessel broke down and had to be towed to avoid drifting into the reef. The 132-metre Thor Commander, an Antigua and Barbuda flagged vessel carrying a load of copper ingots, experienced mechanical difficulties on Sunday and issued a call to be rescued. The Thor Commander was drifting about 30km north-east of the Perkins Reef, 380km north-east of Gladstone. It had left Chile, bound for Townsville. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) sent a tug from Gladstone to tow the vessel to prevent it ploughing into the reef. The tug, which arrived on Tuesday morning, was assisted by a Chinese merchant vessel, the Xinfa Hai. Amsa said the damaged ship was successfully diverted away from the reef. “It will now be slowly towed back to Gladstone,” an Amsa spokeswoman told Guardian Australia. “We are happy with the result and have systems in place when this sort of thing happens.” The Australian Marine Conservation Society said the incident highlighted the risks posed by the amount of shipping going through the Great Barrier Reef due to greatly increased exports of coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG). “We are very glad that the crew are safe and that we have narrowly avoided a disaster in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area,” said Felicity Wishart, reef campaigner at the AMCS. “But we are also deeply concerned that the state government wants to increase the number of cargo ships travelling through the reef every year, increasing the risk of a disaster.” Wishart said that the current total of 4,000 ships crossing the reef each year would rise to 7,000 by 2020 if proposed port expansions in Queensland, including Abbot Point, Gladstone and Cairns, go ahead. “We now have the added risk of massive LNG ships loaded with highly dangerous cargo from Gladstone moving in the same waters as massive coal ships,” she said. “It only takes one ship to have an accident to cause irreparable damage to the reef and the $6bn tourism industry that relies on it.” There is an automated system that requires ships traversing the reef to identify themselves and explain their route to port to authorities. A new two-way shipping route, the longest in the world, was established in December to ensure ships keep clear of the thousands of reefs and islands that make up the ecosystem. Amsa and the mining industry maintain that reef shipping is well regulated and accidents are extremely rare. But conservationists say the expected increase in shipping traffic could lead to a repeat of an accident in 2010 when the 230m Shen Neng 1 hit a reef near Great Keppel Island. The Chinese-registered ship ruptured its fuel tanks and released about four tonnes of fuel oil into the reef’s waters. A 3km scar left along the reef from the accident has yet to fully recover in some places. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/marine-life', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'environment/oceans', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-01-12T23:12:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/article/2024/jul/09/hurricane-beryl-ocean-temperatures | Hurricane Beryl supercharged by ‘crazy’ ocean temperatures, experts say | Hurricane Beryl, which slammed into Texas on Monday after wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, was supercharged by “absolutely crazy” ocean temperatures that are likely to fuel further violent storms in the coming months, scientists have warned. Beryl left more than 2m people without power after making landfall near Houston as a category 1 storm, after having rampaged through the Caribbean as a category 5 hurricane, with wind speeds reaching 165mph (265km/h), killing 11 people. There has never been a category 5 Atlantic hurricane this early in the year before, with most major storms forming closer to September. Beryl, however, rapidly accelerated from a minor storm to a category 4 event in just two days. This deadly intensification was aided by unusually hot ocean temperatures along much of Beryl’s path, scientists say, with seawater heated by the climate crisis helping provide the storm with extra energy over the past 10 days. “Beryl would be astounding to happen anyway, but for it to form in June is completely unprecedented,” said Brian McNoldy, a climate scientist at the University of Miami. “It’s just remarkable to see sea temperatures this warm. “I don’t think anyone would expect an outlier like this to happen, it exceeded expectations. With a climate-change influenced ocean, we are making extreme storms like this more likely to happen.” While ocean temperatures around the world have been steadily marching upwards as the planet heats due the burning of fossil fuels, the past year has been “off the charts”, according to McNoldy. Last year was the ocean’s hottest on record, with marine heatwaves sweeping 90% of the globe’s oceans. This surge in heat has barely paused, with sea surface temperatures records tumbling every single day for 12 months in a row until March. A slice of the tropical Atlantic stretching from Central America to Africa called the main development region is the main spawning area for most hurricanes and this stretch has been “amazingly warm” in recent weeks, McNoldy said. In places across the northern Atlantic, temperatures have been as much as 5C (9F) above normal in the past month. Ocean temperatures in the region typically peak in September or October but the extra heat has delivered such conditions unusually early this year. “In the Caribbean Sea it has actually been warmer than its usual peak since mid-May, which is absolutely crazy,” said McNoldy. “If the ocean already looks like it’s the peak of hurricane season, we are going to get peak hurricanes.” Temperatures across much of the Gulf of Mexico, meanwhile, are “essentially as warm as bathtub water”, said Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane expert at AccuWeather. “Those warm waters are at the surface, and they extend hundreds of feet down. Warm waters act like jet fuel for hurricanes, and it won’t take long for temperatures to rebound in the wake of Beryl.” The persistently elevated ocean temperatures portend a potentially disastrous hurricane season, with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration forecasting eight to 13 hurricanes until November, up from the usual seven. The onset of the periodic La Niña climate conditions could further propel such storms. “Beryl is a worrying omen for the rest of the season,” McNoldy said. “This won’t be the last of these storms.” While climate change isn’t necessarily increasing the overall number of hurricanes, scientists have found evidence that storms are now becoming fiercer, gaining in strength quicker and even moving more slowly. Hurricanes are drawing their power from warmer oceans, while also unleashing more severe bouts of rainfall due to the extra moisture held in the Earth’s atmosphere due to global heating. Rising ocean heat poses new threats in terms of damaging hurricanes – some scientists have called for a new “category 6” classification to be added to storms above 192mph – but also to the vast network of life, including humanity, which depends on the marine expanse that covers 70% of the planet. Oceans are soaking up vast quantities of human-created emissions and heat, which is shielding people on land from even worse temperature rises but also warping fish populations, dissolving away coral reefs and shellfish, robbing the seas of oxygen, and potentially upending foundational ocean currents. Such dramatic changes to the oceans will have an extraordinary legacy beyond individual human lifespans, scientists warn. “The time scale of the oceans is not as fast as the atmosphere,” Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, said earlier this year. “Once a change is established, I would say it’s almost irreversible in time scales that go from centennial to millennial.” | ['world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/caribbean', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-07-09T10:00:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2021/jan/07/gene-editing-of-crops-and-livestock-may-soon-be-permitted-in-england | Gene editing of crops and livestock may soon be permitted in England | Gene editing of crops and livestock may soon be permitted in England for the first time under a consultation launched by the government on Thursday. Ministers said changing the current strict rules, which originate from the EU and make gene editing for crops and livestock almost impossible, would bring widespread benefits to consumers and farmers, including healthier food, environmental improvements and better animal welfare. But some environmental and animal welfare groups raised concerns that loosening the rules could lead to lower animal welfare, for instance if the technology was used to promote faster growth over animal health, or to enable livestock to be kept in crowded conditions. Gene editing involves cutting and splicing sections of DNA within a single genome to bring about changes that were previously possible only through lengthy selective breeding of plants and animals. This is a different process from genetic modification, which involves introducing DNA from one species into another, and which will continue to be subject to a near-total ban. George Eustice, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, said: “Gene editing has the ability to harness the genetic resources that mother nature has provided, in order to tackle the challenges of our age. This includes breeding crops that perform better, reducing costs to farmers and impacts on the environment, and helping us all adapt to the challenges of climate change.” Through gene editing, crops could be developed that require fewer pesticides or fertilisers, or which have enhanced nutritional properties. For instance, tomatoes that can lower blood pressure have recently been licensed for sale in Japan. Animal genes could also be edited in ways that would allow the breeding of livestock that was resistant to key diseases, which would reduce the need for antibiotics and so the likelihood of developing resistant superbugs. However, Peter Stevenson, chief policy adviser at the campaigning group Compassion in World Farming, said the ways in which livestock had been bred for profitable traits in the past suggested the development of gene editing would be harmful to animals. He pointed to genetic selection for broiler chickens, whereby the fast growth rates gave rise to leg abnormalities and lameness, and in laying hens, selecting for high egg production caused osteoporosis, leaving the hens vulnerable to bone fractures. Breeding animals resistant to diseases would only encourage farmers to stock them more intensively, he added, leading to overcrowding and lower animal welfare. “This is pushing us down the industrial farming route,” he warned. “It is entrenching an antiquated system of farming that we would do better to abandon.” Gareth Morgan, head of farming at the Soil Association, said: “We question the speed with which the government is using Brexit to pursue a deregulatory agenda in this area. It is vital that citizens and farmers who do not wish to eat or grow gene-edited crops or animals are offered adequate protection.” Prof Gideon Henderson, chief scientist at Defra, said the government had made clear its commitment to upholding animal welfare standards: “The motivation for this is not lowering animal welfare standards – it’s about the benefits.” Gene editing has been made possible through the development of tools such as Crispr-Cas9, which allows scientists to finely target sections of DNA, to remove or change them, or to turn certain genes on or off. Developed in 2012, Crispr is cheap and has become widely used among scientists. But in 2018 the European court of justice controversially ruled that gene editing was essentially the same as genetic modification and should be subject to the same tight rules. GM crops are subject to a near-total ban in the EU, though a few have received permits. Henderson said allowing gene editing in England should not affect trade in agricultural products with the EU, the biggest market for British farmers. “It will have to be taken into consideration in our exports to the EU – there are ways for gene-edited crops to be labelled, so they can be targeted to markets where we can sell,” he said. “It will not impede trade and may enhance it significantly in some cases [with other countries].” Many scientists welcomed the government consultation, which will run for 10 weeks until 17 March. Huw Jones, professor of translational genomics for plant breeding at Aberystwyth University, said: “We need food and agriculture, but we also need it to stop harming the planet. A combination of better land management and better crops can do that. In its simplest form, gene editing is merely a speedier way to find the genetic variation made by natural processes.” Mick Watson, professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, said: “As well as improving animals’ ability to respond to disease, gene editing could also be used to create fitter, healthier animals with higher standards of animal welfare. [This] could place cutting-edge technology at the heart of UK livestock improvement.” The National Farmers’ Union also welcomed the consultation, to be set out in detail on Thursday during the online Oxford Farming Conference. Tom Bradshaw, vice-president of the NFU, said: “New precision breeding techniques such as gene editing have the potential to offer huge benefits to UK farming and the environment and are absolutely critical in helping us achieve our climate change net-zero ambition.” | ['science/gene-editing', 'environment/environment', 'science/genetics', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'politics/george-eustice', 'uk-news/england', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-01-07T06:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/mar/09/scientists-seek-publics-help-to-map-plastic-on-uk-beaches | Scientists seek public's help to map plastic on UK beaches | Food wrappers, fishing nets, bottles, straws and carrier bags are among the top 10 plastic items littering British beaches, according to new research. An interactive map of the UK published Friday to coincide with British Science Week highlights the most common and unusual plastic pollution of the coastline. Among the most found items were plastic bottles, straws, plastic fishing line and food container lids. But researchers from the British Science Association and the charity The Plastic Tide also found lavatory seats, tampons and toys. Using aerial photos of UK beaches and drone technology, the charity is surveying shores from the Isle of Mull in Scotland to west Cornwall for plastic detritus. The public is being asked to help scientists chart plastic pollution by tagging items captured by the drone. The BSA hopes to get more than 250,000 images tagged by members of the public, who will be helping to build a tool that can understand not only where plastics and marine litter come from, but determine the kind of material and the volume. Peter Kohler, founder and director of The Plastic Tide, said: “Marine creatures die each year through starvation due to eating plastic that stays in their stomach making them feel full. “It is estimated that we eat up to 11,000 pieces of microplastics a year, and if nothing is done to tackle the issue of plastic in our oceans, it’s estimated that there will be 80m metric tonnes of plastic going in to the sea a year by 2025. “The good thing, though, is everyone has the opportunity to be part of the solution. Helping identify rubbish on the Plastic Tide site will be one invaluable way of helping to keep our beaches clean.” Three thousand items of litter from 30 UK beaches were analysed. Plastic rope and small net pieces topped the list of the most common items, while plastic from food packaging made up 21% of all rubbish littering the coast. The 10 most common items found on UK beaches 1. Plastic rope/small net pieces (37%) 2. Plastic or foam fragments (29%) 3. Plastic food wrappers (7%) 4. Plastic bags (5%) 5. Plastic bottles (4%) 6. Fishing lures and lines (4%) 7. Container caps (3%) 8. Fabric pieces (2%) 9. Plastic jugs or containers (1%) 10. Straws (1%) | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-03-09T06:01:28Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2020/sep/16/advice-to-government-contradicts-coalition-claim-over-liddell-coal-plant-closure | Advice to government contradicts Coalition claim over Liddell coal plant closure | A Morrison government claim that new electricity generation is urgently needed to replace New South Wales’s Liddell coal plant is not backed by a taskforce report commissioned to assess the impact of its closure. In a speech on Tuesday, Scott Morrison said the government had estimated 1,000 megawatts of new dispatchable electricity generation capacity would be needed to replace Liddell, which owner AGL has announced will close in early 2023. The prime minister said the government would give the private sector until the end of April 2021 to reach final investment decisions on that amount of power, and would step in if others did not. The taxpayer-owned Snowy Hydro is developing plans to build a gas generator nearby at Kurri Kurri. On Wednesday, the government released the advice it received in April from a taskforce set up in conjunction with the NSW government to assess the impact of Liddell’s closure. The taskforce does not find that 1,000MW of additional dispatchable electricity would be needed. It listed a range of energy committed and probable projects that it found would be “more than sufficient” to maintain a high level of power grid reliability as Liddell shut. They include confirmed upgrades to AGL’s Bayswater coal plant in NSW’s Hunter region, transmission links with Victoria and Queensland, and expected battery and gas projects that were then in the advanced stage of planning. It is consistent with Aemo last month finding only an additional 154MW would be needed in NSW by 2023 to meet the electricity grid’s strict “reliability standard”, and that well in excess of that amount of new power capacity had since been announced. The taskforce recommended that if the federal and NSW governments believed more needed to be done to ensure grid reliability as coal plants closed, then they should work with other states to develop a national policy framework to address the issue. It also suggest governments focus on developing “demand-side measures”, including improved energy efficiency and demand response measures that pay consumers and businesses to reduce consumption at peak times. The taskforce does not back the Morrison government’s longstanding push, dropped only recently, for AGL to either keep Liddell open beyond 2023 or sell it to a new operator. It found it was not likely to be commercially viable due to the investment needed to keep it operational and purchase coal supplies. It warned an extension of its life could undermine the business case for other investments. The taskforce found Liddell’s closure was likely to increase average wholesale electricity prices, but not as significantly as the rise experienced when Victoria’s Hazelwood plant shut in 2017. It stressed the modelling of prices was indicative only, and not certain. In its response, the Morrison government said it accepted six of the taskforce’s recommendations, but it would “not risk the affordability, reliability and security of the NSW energy system on the hope sufficient investment in like-for-like capacity could eventuate”. It said the 1,000MW “dispatchable investment target” was based on modelling carried out for the taskforce. The modelling has not been released. Richie Merzian, climate and energy director at the Australia Institute, said the report confirmed there was no basis for the “arbitrary” 1,000MW target. “In fact, the report finds only around 215MW of new dispatchable power is needed when Liddell closes, and that private projects that would provide over four times that amount of dispatchable energy have already been publicly announced,” he said. The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said the report found a mix of renewable energy, storage and some gas, as proposed by the industry, was a cheaper option to replace Liddell than gas-fired electricity. He accused the government of sitting on the report since April, and hiding the modelling behind it because it did not support its “plan for a massive gas-fired overreach”. He call for the modelling to be released. The NSW energy minister, Matt Kean, said he supported the federal government’s decision to replace Liddell, rather than extend its life. “We need to replace our ageing power plants before they close with the lowest cost new forms of generation,” he said. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'business/gas', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'business/business', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/coal', 'business/agl', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-09-16T09:02:20Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2019/apr/10/environment-department-spent-4300-on-dinner-for-energy-companies | Environment department spent $4,300 on dinner for energy companies | Australia’s environment agencies spent $175,000 of taxpayers’ money on lavish meals and wine in a six-month period, including a $4,302 dinner to host energy industry representatives. New figures provided to a Senate committee reveal the details of roughly 45 catered functions billed to the taxpayer by the environment department, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Clean Energy Regulator. The spending, made in the last half of 2018, came as the Coalition cut critical areas of the environment department, including the biodiversity and conservation division – a move experts fear will hamper Australia’s ability to protect threatened species. The Department of Environment and Energy spent $39,224 on catering, including a $2,500 banquet for 20 people, including 11 departmental staff, at decorated Canberra restaurant the Ottoman in September. It also spent $4,302 on a dinner for public servants and 23 members of the “energy sector group”, an energy industry consultative body, at Hotel Realm, a five-star luxury hotel in the capital. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority spent $1,430 on a “chef’s signature banquet” for its board members, senior officers and three “external guests” at Wild Duck restaurant in Canberra. The dinner included $501 in taxpayers’ money on wine, including $225 on three bottles of shiraz from a leading local winery, Clonakilla. Visiting royalty weren’t so lucky. Prince Albert of Monaco and his party were guests of the reef authority during a brief trip in November. They were given $140 worth of sandwiches from Sandwich Express in Townsville. All up, the authority spent $10,459 on catering in a six-month period, including $1,664 for an event on Magnetic Island. The Clean Energy Regulator threw a $3,760 industry dinner at the Glasshouse in Hobart, including $1,575 on drinks. The party included 10 “industry stakeholders”, as well as the regulator’s board, staff and Tasmanian government officials. The regulator is a statutory authority that sits independently and separately from the environment department, as is the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. A spokesman for the environment minister, Melissa Price, said the spending was “reasonable and proportionate”, particularly given the breadth of the portfolio and its work on the international stage. “Any departmental spending on catering goes through a rigorous approval process, to ensure it is legitimate and clearly linked to our policy and program aims,” the spokesman said. “Catering can play a legitimate role in the delivery of government business.” Staffing levels had also remained relatively consistent across the environment department, the spokesman said. “The Department expects to see average staffing levels rise in the future, in line with delivery of recently announced measures,” he said. It is not unusual for government departments to spend considerable amounts on catering. The Department of Home Affairs faced criticism earlier this year for spending more than $450,000 on wining and dining in 2017-18, including $60,000 on a single dinner. It was also revealed that the attorney general’s department and its portfolio agencies had spent more than $160,000 on catering in the same period. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission spent more than $50,000. This story was amended on 16 April 2019 to clarify the number of departmental staff – 11, rather than 20 – at the Ottoman banquet. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/environment', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/canberra', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-04-10T07:41:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2016/mar/15/marshall-major-ii-bluetooth-headphones-battery-life-sound-wireless | Marshall Major II Bluetooth headphones: they last for ages and sound great too | British audio brand Marshall has taken its first steps into the wireless headphone world with a brand new version of its Major II, which is claims has over 30 hours of battery life. Classic Marshall styling Marshall headphones have a pretty distinctive style, referencing the amplifier stacks for which the company is famed: square, black ear cups with Marshall’s textured pattern, white logo and a basic, retro look. I think they’re quite attractive as headphones go, and are much more slim and subtle than most others, but the vintage feel won’t suit everyone. The ear cups are held in place by thin wire arms and a flexible padded headband, covered with more fake leather texture. There are a few nice brass accents here and there. They are on-ear, rather than over-ear headphones. The small square pads press on your ear rather than cover them, sitting quite tightly on your head. The phones feel relatively light when on and don’t move around when you go about your day. Like any on-ear headphone they start to pinch a little for extended listening sessions, but they’re more comfortable than many I have tried. The band is also much more comfortable than some on-ear competitors, with a nice soft-touch covered foam padded strip sitting on your head. When not in use they can fold up to be quite compact, but don’t fold flat for travel. They feel pretty robust too, which means they should last well. Some lighter headphones feel a bit flimsy. Controls and connectivity There are only two buttons on the headphones. One is the power button on the right ear cup that also puts the headphones into pairing mode when pressed twice while on. The other is a button-cum-joystick on the corner of the left ear cup. The small metal nub can be pressed in to pause or play a track, up or down to adjust volume or side to side for skipping tracks. It’s a very satisfying way to control your music with a reassuring click and works better than most other single-button controls I’ve seen on Bluetooth headphones. Like most other Bluetooth headphones, the Major IIs also take a standard headphones cable, should the battery run out or you want to easily listen to something on a computer. But more interestingly, you can use that cable to play music to something else, using the headphones as a Bluetooth receiver. It means you can share whatever you’re listening to with a friend using a standard headphones cable, as you might want to on a plane, train or in the office. The headphones support apt-X for higher quality Bluetooth connections, if your smartphone supports it, but the standard Bluetooth connection was solid throughout my testing. Isolation and sound The closed cups manage to block out a reasonable amount of background noise, despite being on-ear, and keep it from leaking out for all but the loudest listening, which is good because the Marshalls are tuned to be loud. They focus on bass and the mid-range, with quite a deep and direct sound for relatively small on-ear headphones. They suit rock music best, making listening quite a heavy experience, perfectly suited to tracks such as Eric Clapton’s Layla, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit or Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water. On something like Alicia Keys Fallin’ they tend to accentuate the double bass and drums to the detriment of the vocals. Having said that, they take a good stab at something like Blue Sky Black Death’s Can’t Take it With Me or even Luciano Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma, making them decent all-rounders for their size. Battery Marshall reckons the Major IIs will last 30 hours between charges, and I think they might be slightly underestimating that. I charged them and ran them for at least three hours in a working day for three weeks and they’re still going, which I reckon puts it well over 30 hours. That makes them a set of wireless headphones you can simply charge and forget. If the battery does run out you have the cable to connect with as a backup. Price The Marshall Major II Bluetooth headphones cost £130, which puts them at the low end of premium wireless headphones. Plantronic’s BackBeat Sense on-ear headphones cost £130, while other headphones with similar battery life and sound quality cost upwards of £150. Bowers & Wilkins P5 Wireless cost £330, for instance. Verdict Marshall’s first attempt at Bluetooth headphones are very good. They’ve got a loud and proud sound signature, which won’t suit every musical taste, but they sound great when fed driving music and even sound pretty good with ambient music. The battery life is truly great too, with well over 30 hours between charges making them very easy to live with. Most Bluetooth headphones that sound as good and last as long as these usually cost a lot more, making the Major IIs excellent. The only downside is they pinch a bit for long listening, which pretty much all on-ear headphones do. Pros: great sound, very loud, good isolation, excellent battery life, easy to connect, great controls, fold up for transport, relatively compact, sturdy Cons: won’t suit all music genres, on-ear design pinches after a couple of hours, vintage design with fake leather texture won’t be for everyone Other reviews Five of the best Bluetooth headphones to break free of cables Plantronics BackBeat Sense review: light, long-lasting and great sounding Bluetooth headphones Bowers & Wilkins P5 Wireless headphones review: top-notch sound that comes at a price | ['technology/headphones', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/digital-music-and-audio', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'technology/bluetooth', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-03-15T08:00:08Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
science/2021/nov/17/plantwatch-why-it-shouldnt-be-trees-v-trains | Plantwatch: why it shouldn’t be trees v trains | Trees and railways have never really got on with each other. In the days of steam engines, trees alongside railways were cut down to prevent engines sparking fires. Once steam engines were scrapped, the vegetation grew back and more than 6m trees became established alongside Britain’s rail network. However, every autumn led to “leaves on the line” disruption and trees sometimes toppled on to railway tracks in high winds. There led to intense criticism of Network Rail, which then felled many trees, destroying valuable habitats. Three years ago, John Varley published “Valuing Nature”, an independent review of how Network Rail manages its vegetation. This recommended that trees and plants growing beside the railways should be treated as assets not problems. They should be seen as valuable habitats for wildlife, creating ribbons of nature alongside the 20,000 miles of Britain’s railways. Instead of felling trees haphazardly, they could be selectively felled to improve habitats, native species planted to suit the right locations, and railways would still benefit from trees reducing flooding risks and stabilising slopes from landslides. Network Rail then set out plans to achieve a net increase in biodiversity by 2035 – a big pledge that needs considerable effort. | ['science/series/plantwatch', 'science/science', 'uk/rail-transport', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulsimons', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-11-17T06:00:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2007/may/29/japan.conservation | Anti-whaling lobby accuses Japan of 'needless provocation' | Japan has been accused of "needless provocation" after it offered to spare endangered humpback whales in its Antarctic hunt later this year in return for approval to kill a limited number of whales in Japanese coastal waters. Leading opponents of whaling dismissed yesterday's offer, which came on the opening day of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. "Japan may have underestimated the extent to which the hunting of humpbacks will be seen as a deeply provocative action by the people of New Zealand," Chris Carter, New Zealand's conservation minister, told reporters. "I'm asking Japan to drop humpback ... as a gesture of goodwill to the New Zealand people." Australia, which depends on humpbacks as the main attraction of its thriving whale-watching industry, also condemned the Japanese proposal. "It is calculated to undermine dramatically the standing, the affection, the relationship between the Australian and the Japanese people," said Australia's environment minister, Malcolm Turnbull. "It is a needless act of provocation." Despite the furious response from its opponents in the IWC, Japan said it had not given up hope of securing agreement to allow it to hunt a small number of minke whales off four coastal towns, with the meat used exclusively for local consumption. "We are open-minded for dialogue, and we might come up with a big package that will satisfy all members," said Joji Morishita, Japan's deputy whaling commissioner. "But we are very keen to see our small-type coastal whaling proposal progress." The IWC grants five-year permits to conduct indigenous hunts to communities with a strong tradition of subsistence whaling, which are up for review during the four-day meeting. Greenland and Russia are among those to have asked for permission to expand their coastal hunts. But Alaska's request to continue killing 41 bowhead whales a year through to 2012 could put US delegates at odds with their natural allies in the anti-whaling bloc. Ted Harvest, a Republican senator from Alaska, said the native Alaskans had every right to continue the hunts. "It is more than a right," he said. "It is an absolute necessity which affects absolutely every facet of their well-being. To deny this history would jeopardise their way of life." Critics said Japan's quest to conduct subsistence whaling was tantamount to a return to commercial hunting, which was banned by the IWC in 1986. In recent years it has persuaded several island nations – often with promises of huge aid packages for their fishing industries - to join the IWC and vote in favour of a return to commercial whaling. Although Japan is a long way off achieving the 75% majority it needs to overturn the ban, it won a moral victory at last year's meeting in St Kitts when a motion condemning the moratorium passed by a single vote. This year it managed to add only landlocked Laos to the anti-ban bloc while Australia, Britain and other anti-whaling nations have brought several new allies, including Greece and Croatia, into the IWC fold. Mr Turnbull called on Japan to stop passing off as scientific research the annual slaughter of more than 900 mainly minke and fin whales in the Southern Ocean. "The scale of Japan's scientific whaling program, which gets bigger every year, is clearly far beyond anything that could reasonably be regarded as necessary for scientific research," he told ABC radio in Australia. "You don't need to kill whales to do research into them. Australia is a world leader in non-lethal research into whales." · Read Justin McCurry on the waning appetite for whale meat in Japan and join the debate on our food blog | ['environment/environment', 'world/japan', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/whaling', 'world/world', 'environment/whales', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'environment/hunting', 'profile/justinmccurry'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-05-29T15:17:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/may/19/dolphins-can-recognise-each-other-by-taste-of-their-urine-study-finds | Dolphins can recognise each other by taste of their urine, study finds | Dolphins are able to recognise one another by the taste of their urine, a study has found. Researchers at the University of St Andrews have discovered that the mammals can recognise friends and family members without seeing or hearing them. This unique sense of taste allows dolphins to tell between their peers through their urine and other excretions. In order to find this out, Prof Vincent Janik, director of the Scottish Oceans Institute, and his colleagues Jason Bruck and Sam Walmsley tested how dolphins reacted to urine samples from different individuals. According to the study published in the journal Science Advances, the sea creatures were far more interested in urine from animals they recognised than ones they did not know. Janik, the lead author, said: “Dolphins explored urine samples for longer if they came from known animals or when they were presented together with the dolphin’s unique and distinctive signature whistle, an acoustic identifier that works like a name.” The dolphins in the study were from the Dolphin Quest resorts in Hawaii and Bermuda, where their “day job” is swimming with tourists. They live in natural seawater in their social groups so were ideal to study. By training animals to give urine samples when needed, the scientists were able to create a collection that was used across facilities to present known and novel tastes to dolphins. Due to this finding, the researchers believe dolphins have a different experience of taste to other mammals. Janik added: “We still know very little about how the sense of taste works in dolphins. Other studies have shown that they lost a lot of the common tastes that we find in other mammals such as sour, sweet, umami or bitter. But they have unusual sensory cells on their tongue that are probably involved in this detection of individual tastes of other animals.” | ['environment/dolphins', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-05-19T11:03:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/1999/oct/18/3 | Hurricane lashes southern US | Hurricane Irene lashes a street in Palm Beach, Florida, before heading last night for North Carolina, bringing the prospect of more flooding to the storm-weary state. So far Irene has been blamed for at least seven deaths - two people in Cuba and five near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who were electrocuted by downed powerlines. After drenching Cuba's tobacco fields and destroying buildings in Havana, the storm hit the US on Friday, rolling ashore 75 miles south-west of Miami. Officials reported sustained winds of more than 75mph - just above the threshold for a hurricane. Projections from the national hurricane centre put the ragged eye of the storm north-east of Charleston by yesterday afternoon. A hurricane warning was in effect from Savannah, Georgia, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. As the North Carolina governor, Jim Hunt, declared a state of emergency, officials considered evacuations and warned that it would not take much rain to raise rivers in the eastern part of the state above flood level. Irene's winds could also threaten the camps housing people left homeless a month ago by the floods brought by Hurricane Floyd. • The mayor of Miami-Dade, Alex Penelas, said Florida's crop damage could reach $100m (£60.6m). "It seems about every piece of farm land is literally under water," he said. AP | ['world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 1999-10-18T01:04:35Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/poverty-matters/2011/feb/04/climate-climate-refugees | Climate change not expected to lead to mass cross-border migration | John Vidal | Alarming predictions by the UN, charities and some environmentalists that between 200 million and 1 billion people could flood across international borders to escape the impacts of climate change in the next 40 years are unrealistic, distract from the real problems and could actually impoverish vulnerable people, new research suggests. Case studies from Bolivia, Senegal and Tanzania, three countries extremely prone to climate change, show that people affected by environmental degradation rarely move across borders. Instead, they adapt to new circumstances by moving short distances for short periods, often to cities. "The studies give no reason to think that environmental degradation linked to climate change will result in large flows of international migrants," says Cecilia Tacoli, a senior researcher with the International Insititute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London. "People affected by environmental degradation rarely moved across borders. Instead they moved to other rural areas or to local towns, often temporarily," she says. "This kind of migraion," says Tacoli, "is a positive response by people being affected by desertification, soil degradation, disrupted rainfall patterns and the changes in temperature associated with climate change." Dire predictions of waves of forced climate change "refugees" have been made for more than 20 years. In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that its greatest single impact might be on human migration – with millions of people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption. Since then, Lord Stern, Christian Aid and environmentalists like Norman Myers predict that by 2050 between 200 million and 1 billion people could be displaced primarily because of environmental degradation linked to climate change. In fact, says Tacoli, non-environmental factors largely determine the duration, destination and composition of migrant flows. "Temporary migration is more likely to be directed towards urban centres, and increasingly towards smaller towns. Young people also move to towns, with boys as young as 14 going to work in construction and services such as watchmen," she says. Far from being a loss to local economies, Tacoli found that when people do move internationally they often invest back in their home regions, strengthening the economy and actually reducing people's vulnerability to climate change. "Both the relatively common internal migration and the relatively rare international migration can support poor people who are at risk from climate change," she says. "Migration is part of the solution, not part of the problem as many people think." "There is a danger," she says, "that alarmist predictions will backfire and result in policies that marginalise the poorest and most vulnerable groups. Governments often view migrants as a problem and either provide little support or actively discourage them from moving." Unfortunately, most governments and international agencies tend to see migration as a problem that needs to be controlled instead of a key part of the solution. "In doing so, they are missing opportunities to develop policies that can increase people's resilience to climate change. Policymakers need to redefine migration and see it as a valuable adaptive response to environmental risks and not as problem that needs to be tackled," says Tacoli. "We need rational, realistic responses to climate-change, not knee-jerk reactions that create new problems and increase vulnerability." | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'tone/blog', 'environment/ipcc', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-02-04T13:19:18Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
science/political-science/2015/oct/09/how-can-science-policy-help-to-deliver-the-global-goals | How can science policy help to deliver the global goals? | A flurry of commitments are being made this year that will shape the world over the next fifteen years, including the agreement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN conference of parties (COP) on climate change in Paris, and the leaders’ declaration from the last G7 Summit on phasing out fossil fuels by the end of the century. Throughout 2015, the sustainable development agenda is high on international and national agendas, creating a window of opportunity. Central to this are the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which were formally endorsed at the United Nations last month. The SDGs provide a positive and inspiring roadmap towards a just and sustainable society. They aim to tackle a wide range of social issues (including poverty, health, education, gender, and inequality) as well as environment and resource issues (such as water, food and energy security, climate change, oceans and biodiversity) in an integrated way. However, more work is required to identify how such ambitious goals can be realised. Recently a group of thirty-two scientists from twenty-three countries met for a week-long workshop in Italy, hosted by the International Council for Science, International Social Science Council and Future Earth. One of the main messages to emerge from the meeting was the need for more effective linking of science to policy in the unfolding debate around the global goals. Science needs to inform the design and monitoring of the SDGs and offer technical and social solutions. It must also support the implementation of these solutions. This means going beyond offering skilled and appropriate scientific advice – which remains crucial – by finding ways in which scientists can collaborate with policymakers and other stakeholders to jointly frame problems, generate new knowledge, and make that knowledge relevant to specific contexts. Our workshop identified three crucial elements to this more collaborative model: translation, trade-offs and transparency. New science is required to translate goals from the abstract global level, to the national level, and to practical local levels. While broad goals such as “end poverty everywhere” and “promote peaceful and inclusive societies” are laudable, they need to be contextualised. They will mean different things in Addis Ababa, La Paz or Dhaka than in London or New York. What actions will be required in these and other cities to deliver on the SDG vision? Robust science advice is needed to support implementation pathways and identify tangible solutions. Translation is also crucial to ensuring policy coherence, so that the global goals are in line with existing national targets and policies. The SDGs need to be translated into actionable agendas, which will require strong participation by the scientific community. There is real potential for mutual benefits across multiple SDGs, as work towards one goal may be beneficial for others. Two-plus-two could equal a lot more than four. For example, providing better education (goal 4) will help to address poverty (goal 1), gender equality (goal 5), inclusive employment (goal 8), foster innovation (goal 9), and promote peaceful societies (goal 16). However, there is also a risk of trade-offs and tensions between some of the SDGs. Within a suite of 17 goals and 169 specific targets, it is inevitable that some might conflict. For example, there maybe tensions between achieving food security to end hunger (goal 2) while simultaneously protecting water resources (goal 6), halting biodiversity loss (goal 15), and addressing climate change (goal 13). The science community has to play a central role in identifying mutual benefits that can accelerate progress, as well as potential trade-offs. Innovating in response to these (not just technically, but also politically and socially) is a thorny challenge that science must contribute to across societies, as part of the implementation process for the SDGs. Transparency is also required. Providing advice to policymakers regarding SDG implementation is a core role for the science community. However, as Roger Pielke Jr. has argued, there are different ways that this can be done, including as a science arbiter, issue advocate, or as an “honest broker” of policy alternatives. These are all likely to be needed, especially honest brokers, given that the SDGs are embedded in complex social and political contexts. Scientists need to be aware of their role in policy processes, and savvy in the face of political arguments that will inevitably arise. Another less obvious role for scientists is contributing to ongoing dialogue across societies about the SDGs. The path to implementation will be complicated and messy, with a mix of good and bad news, such that technical results might be difficult to communicate. The science community should support public knowledge about the SDGs and their implementation over time. This means looking beyond academic papers to engage people and civil society more directly in these debates. The scientific community has helped to generate the current momentum for sustainable development and the SDGs. By linking evidence to policy in timely, thoughtful and sensitive ways, scientists can now contribute to the task of implementation. It’s not just up to the politicians whether the SDGs succeed or fail; this is a responsibility that we, as early career scientists, all share. This article was co-authored by Florian Koch (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany), James Patterson (University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), Nicholas Cradock-Henry (New Zealand Landcare Research), Kathryn Bowen (University of Melbourne/Australian National University), El Mostafa Jamea (MENA Renewables and Sustainability Institute, Morroco), Tiina Häyhä (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden), Jess Vogt (Indiana University, United States) and Fabiana Barbi (State University of Campinas, Brazil). They were part of a group of early career scientists who participated in an ICSU, ISSC and Future Earth workshop on science, policy and the SDGs, in May 2015. | ['science/political-science', 'science/series/science-blog-network', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'global-development/sustainable-development-goals', 'science/science-policy', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-10-09T13:55:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2012/mar/02/virginia-court-sceptic-access-climate-emails | Virginia court rejects sceptic's bid for climate science emails | The two-year legal pursuit of the climate scientist, Michael Mann, by Virginia's climate-sceptic attorney general ran into a dead end at the state supreme court on Friday. The court rejected Ken Cuccinelli's demand for Mann's email, research notes, and even handwritten memos from his time at the University of Virginia, ruling that the official did not have the legal authority to demand such records. The decision was seen as a victory for academic freedom, and a personal embarrassment for Cuccinelli, who had hoped to use his high-profile campaign against the climate scientist to raise his political profile ahead of a run for governorship. Cuccinelli, who dismisses the existence of climate change, has spent two years pursuing Mann through the courts, demanding access to his correspondence with dozens of researchers at other institutions and to grant applications for an investigation into possible fraud. Mann left the University of Virginia in 2005, and now works at Penn State University. Mann said in an email that he was pleased that the legal campaign was over. But he added: "It's sad that so much money and resources had to be wasted on Cuccinelli's witch hunt against me and the University of Virginia, when it could have been invested, for example, in measures to protect Virginia's coastline from the damaging effects of sea-level rise it is already seeing." He also noted that Cuccinelli had continued the investigation, even after the inspector general of the National Science Foundation dismissed the allegations against him. As the author of the iconic "hockey stick graph" showing a sharp rise in warming in the 20th century, Mann has long been a target of those who deny the existence of climate change, who accuse him of manipulating data. Such accusations multiplied after emails to and from Mann were made public as part of a batch released without authorisation from the University of East Anglia's climate research unit. Mann was cleared of wrongdoing by several investigations. But that did not appear to make an impression on Cuccinelli, who went to court repeatedly to demand the university turn over Mann's correspondence. His persistence was seen as an assault on academic freedom. The University of Virginia also resisted the attorney general's demands. "We applaud the high court for reaffirming that Cuccinelli didn't have a legal leg to stand on in his pursuit of Mann's and other scientists' private correspondence," said Michael Halpern, program manager of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Academic institutions have the responsibility to protect their faculty's ability to discover new things about our world without fearing harassment. Nobody should expect the rough drafts of their work to be subject to the same level of scrutiny as their published research." It is not entirely clear how Cuccinelli will respond. The attorney general is planning to run for governor in 2013, and he showed no sign of regret in his response to the decision on Friday. "From the beginning, we have said that we were simply trying to review documents that are unquestionably state property to determine whether or not fraud had been committed," his office said in a statement. "Today, the court effectively held that state agencies do not have to provide state-owned property to state investigators looking into potential fraud involving government funds." | ['environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'science/science', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'us-news/virginia', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-politics', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2012-03-02T18:01:48Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
uk/davehillblog/2009/jan/19/boris-greenpolitics | Jenny Jones AM talks about Boris Johnson and greening London | She's been a Green Party AM since the GLA began, found Ken Livingstone was a man she and her colleagues could do business with and is as yet unable to say the same of Boris Johnson. As well as elaborating on all that, she talks about cycling, climate change, buses, congestion, what a Green-led London would be like and makes a brilliant attempt at answering one of my more unreasonable questions. Also, hear me say "velo" instead of "velib". (I was concentrating on my levels, OK?) | ['uk/davehillblog', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/london', 'tone/blog', 'politics/blog', 'politics/green-party', 'politics/politics', 'politics/jenny-jones', 'type/article', 'profile/davehill'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-01-20T18:12:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2021/aug/02/tesla-big-battery-fire-in-victoria-burns-into-day-three | Tesla big battery fire in Victoria under control after burning more than three days | A large blaze at Victoria’s “big battery” project has been brought under control by firefighters after burning for more than three days, allowing investigators to begin examining the site. A Tesla battery bank caught fire while it was being set up in Moorabool on Friday morning, and then spread to a second battery. The fire burned throughout the weekend and into a fourth day, before it was declared under control just after 3pm on Monday. Fire crews will remain at the site for the next 24 hours “as a precaution in case of reignition” and will take temperature readings every two hours, the Country Fire Authority said. Investigations into how the fire started will soon begin with multiple agencies involved, including Energy Safe Victoria, WorkSafe, police and the CFA. The 300MW battery project is being produced by French renewable energy giant Neoen and was registered with the energy market operator on 28 July. Neoen Australia managing director Louis de Sambucy told AAP its own “physical inspections and investigations are now underway”. CFA incident controller Ian Beswicke said the fire had been particularly challenging due to the complex nature of the battery site. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “This is the first mega pack fire that’s ever happened in the world, is our understanding,” he said. “They are difficult to fight because you can’t put water on the mega packs … all that does is extend the length of time that the fire burns for.” Firefighters have taken advice from experts including Tesla, the battery’s creators, and UGL, who are installing the battery packs. “The recommended process is you cool everything around it so the fire can’t spread and you let it burn out,” Beswicke said. The site is slated to become the biggest battery in the southern hemisphere and forms part of a state government push to transition to renewable energy. But the fire has sparked calls for the government to conduct its own probe into what happened before pressing forward. “If Labor’s renewable energy solutions go up in flames even before they’re fully operational – what hope do Victorians have that this government will be able to effectively manage the renewable energy transition?” shadow energy minister Brad Rowswell said. A Victorian government spokeswoman said “full and comprehensive” investigation into the fire was underway by several agencies. “This will span investigations into the basis of the fire, how it started and to ensure the site is safe as a workplace,” she told said. Neoen Australia said there were no injuries to workers and confirmed the site had been disconnected from the grid with no impact to electricity supply. | ['australia-news/victoria', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'technology/tesla', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-08-02T09:07:55Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/feb/13/nsw-land-clearing-prosecutions-down-80-in-three-years | NSW land-clearing prosecutions down 80% in three years | Prosecutions in New South Wales for illegal land clearing have dropped by 80% in the past three years, according to data released under freedom of information laws. The information, obtained by the NSW Labor opposition, shows the Berejiklian government claims not to have any information about how much clearing has occurred under new laws that came into force in August 2017 aimed at making land clearing easier. And despite the NSW government having information about earlier clearing from the 2015-16 period, it has refused to release it until April 2018 “or when [the] final version of the document is submitted for approval”. The NSW Coalition government scrapped three pieces of legislation aimed at protecting native vegetation and wildlife in NSW (the Native Vegetation Act, the Threatened Species Conservation Act and the Nature Conservation Trust Act), and replaced them with a single piece of legislation, the Biodiversity Conservation Act. The move was welcomed by farming lobby groups, who wanted fewer controls on land clearing, but was lambasted by scientists and conservation groups, with warnings that broadscale clearing rates could double as a result. The legislation followed laws introduced in Queensland, which created “self-assessable codes”, allowing landholders to decide whether or not clearing required approval. Law changes in Queensland in 2012 caused land clearing there to skyrocket, and it now amounts to almost 400,000 hectares a year. The newly released documents show that in the four months after those laws came into force in NSW, not a single prosecution for illegal land clearing had begun. In the first seven months of 2017, before the new laws took effect, one prosecution was started. There were two prosecutions started in 2016-17, another two the previous year. That is a sharp drop on 2014-15, when 10 prosecutions began. “Every warning about the impact of these land-clearing laws is coming to pass right under the noses of a government which is wilfully allowing this environmental vandalism to continue,” said Penny Sharpe, the NSW Labor spokeswoman for environment and heritage. “As the chainsaws and bulldozers roar across NSW, failure to prosecute shows that those illegally clearing know they have nothing to fear. “Like water theft, the NSW government is failing our environment, choosing to back the thieves and illegal clearers over farmers and other landholders doing the right thing,” Sharpe said. The Nature Conservation Council CEO, Kate Smolski, called for the urgent release of data on land-clearing rates in NSW. “February 25 marks six months since those laws took effect, but the public still remains in the dark about the harm that they are causing,” Smolski said. “Lax land-clearing laws are a matter of life and death for wildlife. They degrade our soils and water supplies and are driving species to extinction, yet in NSW the public has no idea how many native animals are dying.” “The government has the technology to report on habitat destruction within days but refuses to do so, presumably because it knows the public would be horrified and demand that strong protections be restored.” A spokewoman for the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage said land-clearing rates were “constantly monitored to ensure that environmental safeguards are not exceeded”. She also said reports of illegal land clearing had not changed significantly despite the drop in prosecutions. “Calls to Environment Line regarding alleged unlawful clearing have remained relatively consistent for the three-month period prior and post the commencement of the new Biodiversity Conservation Act,” she said. “OEH investigates all reports of alleged unlawful land clearing … OEH encourages people with specific information about alleged unlawful clearing to report the details to Environment Line on 131 555. “The government has provided additional funding for compliance activities – including 15 new compliance and regulation staff over the next four years.” The NSW minister for environment and heritage, Gabrielle Upton, has been contacted for comment. | ['environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/gladys-berejiklian', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-02-13T03:49:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2024/oct/10/margo-kingston-arrested-nsw-anti-logging-protest-ntwnfb | Retired journalist Margo Kingston arrested at NSW anti-logging protest after allegedly locking on to machinery | Retired journalist Margo Kingston was arrested at a community protest in the mid-north of New South Wales on Thursday after she locked on to machinery to protest logging operations in endangered greater glider habitat. Kingston and another activist who protested alongside her are the 13th and 14th people arrested since forestry operations recommenced at the Bulga state forest last week. The former Sydney Morning Herald journalist and author of the book Not Happy, John, about former prime minister John Howard, lives in the region and is a member of the community Save Bulga Forest group. “I’m taking this action to protect this beautiful and biodiverse forest which is full of koalas and greater gliders,” she said before her arrest. “I am way out of my comfort zone here, it is very confronting to lock yourself to a machine like this, but if I wasn’t here, this habitat would be being decimated.” The NSW Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said most of the state’s cross bench was calling for the government to end native forest logging. “We are looking at some of the most upstanding members of our community putting their lives on hold, putting their bodies on the line and they’re pleading with our premier to take this seriously,” she said of the protests. “Premier Minns is going to have to wake up to what’s happening. He cannot go on thinking it’s OK to ruin the public forest estate.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Kingston has used her social media over the past year to document community efforts to protect the region’s forests from logging. She has participated in citizen science efforts with other residents of the area, including the former federal Treasury secretary Ken Henry. Residents have spent months spotlighting for den trees used by endangered greater gliders, which they then register on the NSW government’s biodiversity database, BioNet. Logging is not permitted within 50 metres of known greater glider den trees. A NSW police spokesperson confirmed the arrests and said both protesters had been released on strict bail conditions to appear before Taree local court on 26 November. “Police requested two women – aged 65 and 68 – to move on from the location; however, the younger woman had allegedly locked herself on to a piece of machinery,” they said. “She was removed from the machinery by police before both women were arrested and taken to Taree police station.” Earlier on Thursday, veteran forest campaigner and NSW Dunphy environmental award-winner Susie Russell appeared in court after she was denied bail on Wednesday night following her arrest for locking on to machinery. She has now been released on bail. Russell, who criticised the federal and state governments this week for their stance on native forest logging, said campaigners’ actions were not just for the Bulga region but also for other, smaller communities in mid- and northern NSW where endangered habitat is scheduled for logging. She called for a halt to all operations in public forests while an independent panel reviewed native forestry in NSW. Russell said she hoped the review would find Bulga state forest and other areas like it were important environmental refuges, and that the Minns government would move to protect them. “This is your one crack to do something, to leave a legacy that you can be proud of,” she said. The Forestry Corporation of NSW said this week trained ecologists had undertaken nocturnal surveys for gliders and dens at Bulga state forest and put exclusion zones in place. The agency said more than 50% of the area would be set aside and not harvested, more than required under the operations approval. Comment has been sought from the government. | ['australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/protest', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'world/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-10-10T06:54:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/may/07/pollutionwatch-breathtaking-views-vanish-build-better-coronavirus | Pollutionwatch: breathtaking views will vanish unless we build back better | Many of us will have noticed differences in traffic noise and air pollution during the lockdown. Startling images have come from India where, for the first time in a generation, the Himalayas have been visible more than a hundred miles away. Something similar happened in the UK in 1921 when coal shortages during a miner’s strike led to newspaper reports of distant landmarks being visible as never before. In the UK we too have been able to look up at clearer blue skies, less impeded by air pollution and not crisscrossed by aircraft contrails. This helped Germany to break a solar power record. In Beijing, air pollution controls for the 2014 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting also brought a return to blue skies. The term “APEC blue” emerged in Chinese social media and was nominated as Beijing’s top environmental phrase for the year. Later it took on a tinge of sadness, to mean something wonderful, but brief. One woman posted about love on social media, “He’s not that into you – it’s just an APEC blue!” Rather than let this time be forgotten, the United Nations and environmental campaigners are urging governments to “build back better, to invest in the future not the past”, to ensure that our global recovery has sustainable legacy. | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-05-07T20:30:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2006/nov/07/naturaldisasters.japan | Nine dead in Japanese tornado | The deadliest tornado ever recorded in Japan tore through a remote northern town today, killing nine people. Another two dozen people were injured by the tornado, which knocked out electricity to hundreds of homes and flipped over cars in the town of Saroma, on the island of Hokkaido. Local television showed a scene of devastation, with a wide swath of collapsed buildings, badly damaged cars and utility poles strewn across streets. Many of the victims were construction workers building a tunnel near the town, officials said. Tornados are relatively rare in Japan. The Central Meteorological Agency, which has been monitoring tornado-related deaths since 1961, said the worst tornado previously recorded in the country was just two months ago, when three people were killed on the southern island of Kyushu. The agency said it was studying data to determine the strength and cause of the tornado. Local television networks estimated that, judging from the damage, it was one of the strongest to hit Japan since the second world war, with wind speeds of 70 metres per second [156 miles per hour]. A local woman, Keiko Takeda, told the national broadcaster NHK that the skies suddenly darkened over the town and, when she opened her window, winds were swirling outside. "It was very strong, but it was over very quickly," she said. Other witnesses said there may have been two tornados, and that after hitting the town they veered off into the surrounding hills. According to a fire department official, the tornado hit Saroma shortly after 1pm (0400 GMT). Some 600 homes suffered a blackout and phone communications were disturbed, police and town officials said. A Hokkaido police spokesman said one woman was listed as unconscious at a hospital. A total of 52 people - 45 construction workers and seven residents from damaged homes nearby - were taking shelter at a town gymnasium tonight, a Hokkaido government official said. Forty buildings were either totally or partially destroyed. Hokkaido is the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. Saroma, which has a population of 6,244, is approximately 620 miles north-east of Tokyo. | ['world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/japan', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/tornadoes', 'type/article'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-11-07T17:42:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2021/sep/27/quentin-bone-obituary | Quentin Bone obituary | My friend Quentin Bone, who has died aged 89, was an outstanding marine zoologist whose publications on how fish swim made him a leader in this field while still in his 30s. His 1966 paper comparing and contrasting details of fine structure, innervation and performance of the two very different sorts of muscle that drive a fish through water, became a citation classic. His jointly authored Biology of Fishes (1982) is now in its third edition. Born in Hampstead, north London, Quentin was the eldest child of the muralist Mary Adshead and painter Stephen Bone, art critic for the Manchester Guardian in the 1950s, and grandson of the artist Sir Muirhead Bone. Quentin might well have become an artist himself, but as a schoolboy he went on countryside walks with his father, who was “rarely unable to name any flowers or insects we found”, and this led him to adopt a career in biology. From Warwick school, he went on to St John’s College, Oxford, graduating in 1954 with a first in zoology and comparative anatomy. He started his research work with a year as occupant of the Oxford “table” at the Naples Zoological Station, home to living examples of the amphioxus, a primitive fishlike creature, and its larvae. Returning to Naples as a prize fellow at Magdalen College, he produced clear, concise published papers that were presented for a DPhil in 1960. Quentin’s first job, from the age of 27, as a government scientist at the Marine Biological Association’s laboratory on Plymouth Hoe, Devon, was effectively also his last. It gave him more freedom than most research posts, introduced him to top visiting scientists, and allowed frequent foreign travel. On mandatory retirement at the age of 60, he became an emeritus research fellow. More than a third of his publications date from that period. First and foremost a naturalist, Quentin displayed a restless curiosity – combined with an irrepressible playfulness that he used to hide behind – disciplined by the need to make evolutionary sense of what he observed. In 1974 he joined his friend and contemporary George Mackie at the Friday Harbor marine laboratories in Washington, where Mackie had pioneered work on the swimming of jellyfish. The next years saw the two of them at Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the south of France, investigating the behaviour of gelatinous tunicates. The recordings obtained from these small marine animals, early offshoots from our own line of evolution, provided answers to such fundamental questions as how the chain of individuals making up a colony of translucent salps swim as one. In 1984 Quentin was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He was awarded the zoological medal of the Linnean Society in 1999 and the Frink medal of the Zoological Society in 2003. In 1958 he married Susan Smith; they had met at the wedding of the modernist architect Oliver Hill. An accomplished artist, she died earlier this year. They are survived by their four sons, Matthew, Oliver, Alexander and Daniel, and by 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild. | ['science/zoology', 'environment/marine-life', 'science/biology', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'education/oxforduniversity', 'education/higher-education', 'education/education', 'uk/plymouth', 'type/article', 'tone/obituaries', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-09-27T19:22:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2018/apr/12/jack-laugher-commonwealth-gold-annie-last-moutain-biking-womens-hockey | Laugher lands second Commonwealth Games gold despite fitness concerns | Jack Laugher’s rivals must worry about what he could achieve at full fitness after the Englishman won a second Commonwealth gold medal despite, by his own admission, not being in peak condition. The diver comfortably won the 3m springboard title after emerging victorious on the 1m board despite struggling to recover from a plethora of injuries in the build-up to the Games. He is also well poised to make it a hat-trick of gold medals alongside his partner Chris Mears in the 3m synchronised event in which they are the Olympic champions. Laugher finished with 519.40 points, ahead of Canada’s Philippe Gagné and James Connor of Australia, to improve on the silver medal he won at Glasgow four years ago. “I’m really proud, especially coming off of Glasgow and a heart-breaking second place,” he said. “I’ve worked really hard with my strength and conditioning team, my diving coach and my physios, to get me in great shape for here. I’m still struggling, I’m not back to full fitness. It wasn’t a great build‑up, but to have a great competition and a great start to the international season, I’m really happy.” Laugher’s girlfriend, Lois Toulson, won bronze in the 10m individual event, moreover. The day started well for Team England’s women as Annie Last took gold ahead of a compatriot, Evie Richards, in the mountain biking. Last overtook Richards before the 9km mark in the 27km race, going on to win in 1:18.02. It was a first senior title for the 27-year-old, who has deferred her medical studies to pursue a cycling career. She showed promise as a youngster with eighth place at the London Olympics before sustaining injuries and failing to qualify for Rio four years later. “It was absolutely amazing,” she said of her gold. “The race went really smoothly. My legs were good and it all just came together.” But the England Women’s hockey team, which contains many of the personnel who won gold for Great Britain in Rio with a penalty shootout victory, did not fare so well this time. They were defeated in the semi‑final by New Zealand, who triumphed 2-1 in the penalty shootout. England will now play India in the bronze medal match on Saturday. | ['sport/commonwealth-games-2018', 'sport/diving', 'sport/hockey', 'sport/commonwealth-games', 'sport/sport', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/martha-kelner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/commonwealth-games-2018 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-12T17:40:17Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/aug/09/e-waste-from-drop-offs-outside-officeworks-exported-possibly-breaching-treaty | E-waste from drop-offs at Officeworks exported, possibly breaching treaty | Electronic waste dropped at government-approved recycling points at Officeworks stores was allegedly exported to developing countries, potentially breaching a global waste treaty, a non-government organisation has said. The US-based Basel Action Network (Ban) – which embeds GPS units inside discarded electronics and monitors them – said in a report to be released on Thursday that two LCD monitors the organisation placed at Officeworks’ “Bring IT Back” drop zones in Brisbane were tracked to an area of Hong Kong’s New Territories known for “e-waste trafficking”. One of the monitors was later “re-exported to an e-waste processing facility” in Thailand, where Ban investigators said they observed plumes of smoke from burning circuitboards falling out over local crops of rice, castor beans and mangos. Australia, China and Thailand are signatories to the Basel convention, a global treaty that places strict controls on the export of e-waste between first world countries and non-OECD nations. Officeworks’ managing director, Mark Ward, said the company was “disappointed in the findings of the report”. “We’re working with our supplier, who has government accreditation, to ensure that e-waste collected in our stores is recycled safely and appropriately,” he said. “Complying with all relevant laws and customs and maintaining the highest levels of ethics and integrity are central to how we do business and who we do business with. We would never knowingly illegally or unethically dump waste.” The company is a participant in the Drop Zone recycling program, which is a “government-approved recycling program of the national television and recycling scheme”, according to the Drop Zone website. A link to these “industry-run coregulatory recycling arrangements” features on the Department of Environment and Energy website. In September and October, 2017, Ban investigators deployed 35 old computers, printers and monitors embedded with GPS trackers to drop zones in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. It then monitored the trackers over the course of a year. In Hong Kong, investigators found the site where the two exported devices ended up. It had been cleaned out, and Ban said it believed the facility was a temporary staging area where e-waste was then re-exported. They tracked the second device to a large factory in Tambon Khao Khan Song, Thailand, where e-waste was seen being crudely broken apart, with chemical and smelting techniques used en masse to extract gold and copper. The NGO said investigators observed sludge that resulted from chemical acid stripping being dumped into an “onsite sludge pond and this, combined with the open dumping of ashes and slags from the smelter, was certain to contaminate the groundwater”. “The reason [exporting e-waste to developing countries without government approval is] … illegal is because of what happens in the developing world, where the management of the waste is so horrific, highly polluting and dangerous to the workers,” Jim Puckett, Ban’s founder and director, told Guardian Australia. “That was the case we observed about a week and a half ago in Thailand.” In addition, the United Nations-funded report said the tracking devices indicated that another five devices – which were placed at drop zones run by companies other than Officeworks – ended up in landfill in Australia. Puckett said the Australian government should be more vigilant about drop zone recycling programs. He said Ban had used the Department of Environment and Energy website to identify which drop zones to leave the GPS-embedded e-waste. “I don’t think they’re checking that these companies are really doing the right thing with it,” he said. “A lot of them ended up in landfill and then two were exported … it’s quite a lot of volume if you extrapolate the numbers.” Puckett said if the proportions were correct – two in every 35 devices were exported – it would represent 16,000 tonnes of e-waste. “This is hazardous waste. It shouldn’t be going to [landfill or being exported].” • This article was amended on 13 August 2018 to add Jim Puckett’s full name and title. | ['environment/recycling', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/luke-henriques-gomes', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-08-09T01:57:51Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/sep/26/carmakers-can-drive-the-net-zero-transition | Carmakers can drive the net zero transition | Brief letters | Re the delay in banning new petrol cars (Report, 20 September), is there any reason why car manufacturers cannot carry on with their plans to be all-electric by 2030? I don’t think there can be an obligation on a manufacturer to produce particular goods in a market economy, so if they stop producing petrol cars, we won’t be able to buy them. Annabel Gibb York • Can you please stop referring to the “Truss era” (Junking green policies, junking investment: scorched-earth Conservatism is all Sunak offers now, 22 September). The word “era” describes a long period of time, when Liz Truss had the briefest of tenures as prime minister. The more accurate phrase is the “Truss error”. David Edwards Hulme Stockport, Greater Manchester • Re the power of music (Letters, 21 September), for weeks I had been trying to engage with a deeply disturbed patient, only to be subjected to verbal abuse. One day, I played her a video recording of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs that I had made from the Proms. The patient fell silent, then burst into tears and from that moment, the door had been opened to a valuable therapeutic relationship. Dr Allan Dodds Nottingham • There has been plenty of discussion of the words but no reference to the tune of the UK national anthem (Letters, 22 September). It is dreary, boring, and without musical merit. To hear what a fine, stirring and uplifting national anthem tune can sound like, listen to La Marseillaise. Mac Burnell Leeds • When signing off letters, I’ve always been fond of using “With all due respect”, leaving the possibility that no respect is due and therefore none is given (Letters, 17 September). Luke Howard London • 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/electric-cars', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'politics/liz-truss', 'music/music', 'music/classical-music-and-opera', 'politics/politics', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'technology/motoring', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-09-26T16:38:57Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2019/mar/21/cyclone-idai-satellite-images-show-extent-of-flooding-around-beira | Cyclone Idai: satellite images show extent of flooding around Beira | New satellite images of the Mozambican port city of Beira have revealed the vast scale of flooding, as rescuers race to reach tens of thousands of people trapped by flood waters from Cyclone Idai. European Space Agency images show a huge new inland “lake” measuring about 80 miles by 15 miles (125km by 25km). A large number of people in and around Beira who sought refuge on rooftops and trees are still waiting to be rescued a week after the cyclone struck. As flood waters recede, the priority is to deliver food and other supplies to people on the ground rather than take people out of affected areas, although that is also happening, Mozambique’s land and environment minister said. “Yesterday we had counted 15,000 people that still need rescuing today – 15,000 people who are in bad shape,” Celso Correia told reporters. “They are alive, we are communicating with them, delivering food, but we need to rescue them and take them out. Our biggest fight is against the clock.” Cyclone Idai lashed Beira with winds of up to 105mph (170km/h), before moving inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi, flattening buildings and threatening millions of lives. An estimated 200,000 people in Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe are likely to need urgent food aid for the next three months, the World Food Programme said. “It looks like the situation in Chimanimani – the hardest hit district in Zimbabwe – is very bad. Some 90% of the district has been significantly damaged,” a spokesman told a news conference in Geneva. There have been at least 139 Idai-related deaths in Zimbabwe and 56 in Malawi. The latest death toll of 217 in Mozambique is likely to rise much further as rescuers continue to find bodies. “The situation is still critical,” Correia said. Gerald Bourke, the regional communications officer at the World Food Programme, said the affected area was one of the most densely populated in Mozambique and rescuers still did not know how many people remained trapped. People clinging to trees were trying to avoid snakes that also fled the flooding, he said. Aerial images released by Mozambique’s disaster relief agency, the INGC, showed survivors packed together on top of high buildings in Buzi district, which is the worst affected area. Travis Trower, who runs Rescue South Africa, an NGO involved in the air rescue efforts, described the scene arriving by road from Vilanculos to Buzi shortly after the cyclone struck. “I have never seen water rise so fast,” he said. “We were about 80km from Vilanculos where we came across this village. Everyone was in the trees and the women were throwing their babies to us. When we went back the next day, only the treetops were visible. The whole village had gone. “There is huge urgency now to get to people. Given the size of the lake we are seeing on the satellite images we need to ask where are the people who live there.” Beira, now a large island in the flooded plains, remains a scene of widespread damage, with large numbers of fallen trees and power lines, shattered windows and little electricity. More than 150 sq miles in the region are flooded and in some places the water is six metres (19ft) deep. At least 600,000 people have been affected, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ranging from those whose lives are in immediate danger to those who need other kinds of aid. About 37 basic reception centres, mainly schools that can hold between 100 and 1,000 people, have been set up around Beira. The Guardian understands UN agencies are considering building two reception camps to accommodate 400,000 people, which would make providing food and health services easier. “There’s a need for almost everything,” said Caroline Haga, an emergency communications specialist with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in Beira. • The Disasters Emergency Committee has launched an appeal for people affected by Cyclone Idai. To donate, visit dec.org | ['world/cyclone-idai', 'world/mozambique', 'global-development/humanitarian-response', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterbeaumont', 'profile/ruth-maclean', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-03-21T12:16:21Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2015/dec/03/coalminer-with-first-case-of-black-lung-in-60-years-is-still-exposed-to-coal-dust | Coalminer with first case of ‘black lung’ in 60 years is still exposed to coal dust | A coalminer diagnosed with the first case of “black lung” in Australia in more than 60 years worked in an underground mine for six years after early signs of the disease were missed in a medical examination. The central Queensland man, one of four cases this year of pneumoconiosis, a disease previously thought to have been eradicated from the mining industry, still works in a coal-washing facility where he is exposed to dust, according to a union official. The shock return of pneumoconiosis among workers in Queensland’s underground coalmines, revealed in state parliament this week by mining minister Anthony Lynham, has blindsided mining companies and prompted the government to threaten closures of mines breaching regulations on dust levels. Lynham has commissioned an urgent review by Monash University experts of failures in the mining department’s health monitoring system, which have left hundreds of thousands of miners’ X-rays unchecked. Professor Malcolm Sim, the head of Monash University’s occupational and environmental health research division, told Guardian Australia he would travel to Queensland next Wednesday to confirm terms with the government. “We’re keen to get that review under way as quickly as possible,” he said. The mining department has admitted to a national shortage of experts qualified to to detect black lung in X-rays. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) understands there have been no such experts in Queensland for at least 15 years, during which the state’s coal industry boomed. The union has called for a public inquiry amid suspicions that a 1983 report, in which a former director of industrial medicine identified 75 suspected cases of black lung, was covered up. The re-emergence of black lung has been linked to exposure in underground mines, of which there were 13 operating in Queensland in 2013-14, according to the mining department. They were run by some of the industry’s global giants – Anglo American Australia (three), Glencore (three), BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (two), and one each by Peabody Energy, Rio Tinto and Vale, along with Caledon Coal and Ensham Resources. Stephen Smyth, the Queensland president of the CFMEU, said the crucial first step was to determine how widespread the disease was. Of the four people diagnosed with black lung, three are believed to be still working in the industry and the other is a retired miner whose exposure to dust came some years ago in Ipswich. Smyth said the union first learned of the disease’s re-emergence around May, when the central Queensland miner was diagnosed. In 2009, the man was given a clean bill of health after three medical assessments, including a chest X-ray. A US expert this year re-examined the 2009 X-ray. “He picked up within 30 seconds that this poor bastard actually had the early onset of black lung in 2009, which was not picked up in Queensland,” Smyth said. “[The company] took him out of the underground and put him up in the wash plant. He obviously needs a permanent job to keep going and he’s still being exposed to dust in the workplace. “It is outrageous, really outrageous, that they put him back to work in a dusty place. “The system failed him. The back-up system of the X-ray being sent to the mines department to be reviewed by expert people failed him because they sat in boxes collecting dust. “The regulator themselves have failed because they haven’t ensured a safe workplace with dust levels.” Mining department documents show that in 1983, the former director of industrial medicine, Mannie Rathus, reviewed 7,907 X-rays and of 499 “abnormal” scans found 75 with signs of black lung, the ABC reported. Rathus’s report has never been made public. Smyth said the previous suspected cases of black lung had “been hidden for a long time”. “Someone in [the department] or higher up in the bureaucracy must have known about that report for one; secondly, that they didn’t have the appropriate people to read X-rays and the fact they had a backlog of 100,000 X-rays not processed. “To me it lies squarely at the feet of the regulator [the mining department] and the coal companies and the government. Someone knew about it.” Smyth said the union would “welcome any government action” on dust levels in underground mines, which he claimed were routinely in breach of the regulations. A spokeswoman for BHP said it was “not aware of any current employees that are affected” by black lung. She said BHP was “working with government authorities to understand more about this issue” but had complied with “all the statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to health checks on our employees”. A Glencore spokesman declined to comment. Neither Rio Tinto nor Anglo American Australia responded to questions. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/coal', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/health', 'society/health', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-12-03T02:17:30Z | true | ENERGY |
news/article/2024/jul/25/how-artificial-intelligence-is-revolutionising-weather-forecasting | How AI is revolutionising weather forecasting | In the past year, something of a revolution has hit the world of weather forecasting as artificial intelligence-based weather forecasts have come to the fore. Traditional weather forecasting methods rely on creating a digital three-dimensional grid that replicates as closely as possible the state of the atmosphere at the start of the forecast. Once this “initialised state” is determined, complex equations are used to predict how the state of the atmosphere will evolve in the hours and days ahead. For decades, much research has gone into improving these forecasts, focusing on getting the starting point right, increasing vertical and horizontal resolution of these grids, and, of course, making refinements to the equations. The new generation of AI weather forecasts take a completely different approach, learning from analysing years of initialised data instead of using equations. AI tools are statistical models, so they hunt for patterns in initialised data over the last few decades and then use this to make predictions. Despite the lack of physical equations, they are remarkably accurate and can be run in a fraction of the time of the traditional methods. In the world of commodity trading, where accurate forecasting is a key determinant for speculating on the price of food, energy or raw materials, the agility these new models offer in tailoring forecast horizons, and speeding up the time it takes to create a forecast have been embraced by traders and analysts looking to gain an advantage. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-07-25T05:00:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2021/oct/23/california-storm-atmospheric-river-flooding | US west coast braces for ‘atmospheric river’ as huge storm brews | A huge Pacific storm is poised to unleash conditions known as an “atmospheric river”, with torrential rains and strong winds putting about 10 million people at risk of flash floods in parts of northern California this weekend. The incoming tempest has raised fears of mudslides, especially in areas charred during record-setting wildfires this summer. Some parts of the Pacific north-west, including coastal Oregon, are also expected to see heavy rains and winds, the Bloomberg news website reported. Much of the Bay Area around San Francisco could see 3-3.5in of rain, with up to 8in expected at higher elevations in the region, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The region could see wind speeds from 20-25mph , with gusts potentially hitting 60mph at higher elevations. “A HIGH Risk of excessive rainfall is in effect for portions of northern California tomorrow,” the National Weather Service said in a tweet on Saturday, explaining that the storm “will produce rainfall of 8-10in in the region, leading to significant and life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, particularly over burn scar areas.” The storm, now off the coast of Washington state, is referred to as an “atmospheric river”. Such storms are characterized by “narrow bands of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere emerging from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, cruising more than two miles above the sea”, and the average atmospheric river carries in excess of 20 times the amount of water brought by the Mississippi River, but as vapor, CNN explained. The weather service said that many of the US west’s mountain ranges would see “heavy snowfall” through Monday, with several inches of snow expected in the northern Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and Cascades mountains. Snowfall could exceed 2ft in the highest Sierra peaks. The severe storm comes amid California’s drought crisis. The state is seeing its second-driest year on record, spurring Governor Gavin Newsom to expand the drought emergency declaration statewide earlier this week. Global heating has exacerbated weather extremes, including heightening the potential for sudden shifts from arid conditions to sweeping downpours, with such conditions becoming more common. “Wherever the storms hit shore on the west coast is where the heaviest precipitation occurs, and that can be very beneficial in areas that often don’t have enough water – and we have the drought going right now,” Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told CNN. “And then there are times when there’s too much and it can create flooding,” Ralph said. “A few of these storms really make the difference over the course of the year.” | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/oregon', 'us-news/washington-state', 'us-news/california-drought', 'environment/drought', 'us-news/us-weather', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'us-news/west-coast', 'profile/victoria-bekiempis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-10-23T21:45:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk/2009/feb/01/john-swinney-scotland-renewable | Finance secretary, John Swinney, vows thousands of 'green' jobs | The Scottish government is to announce a blueprint to create thousands of new "green" jobs as part of its economic recovery plan. Finance secretary John Swinney will tomorrow outline specific proposals on how it plans to encourage the creation of "new, low-carbon industries in energy production, energy efficiency and sustainable transport". A recent report, commissioned by the government into the benefits of different forms of renewable energy developments in the Western Isles, identified onshore wind energy as being the greatest economic and community benefit. When coupled with wave and tidal energy production plants the government is convinced investment in renewable energy will create a wealth of jobs in new technologies. Negotiations under way with Danish company Welcon over a £50m proposal to turn the Kintyre peninsula around Campbeltown into a world leader in offshore wind turbine manufacturing and create hundreds of jobs within two years. Last week it was announced that the government would allow the energy company Npower to build one of the largest wave-driven power stations off the Isle of Lewis, creating at least 70 jobs. | ['uk/scotland', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'politics/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'politics/john-swinney', 'profile/paulkelbie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2009-02-01T00:01:00Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2019/oct/28/labor-questions-angus-taylors-explanation-to-parliament-over-false-figures | Labor questions Angus Taylor's explanation to parliament over false figures | The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, has queried whether the energy minister, Angus Taylor, has misled parliament in his answers about an altered document that was used to attack the climate record of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore. Taylor has been under sustained pressure to explain how an altered page of the City of Sydney’s annual report was sent by his office to the Daily Telegraph, which wrote a critical story effectively accusing the lord mayor of being a hypocrite on climate change. The document, which was also quoted in a letter Taylor sent to Moore and the Telegraph, showed spending on travel by councillors in excess of $15m. This was many times the figures that actually appear in the 2017-18 annual report. The issue is continuing to dog the government. At Monday’s council meeting Moore did not mention Taylor or the document but on the ABC’s 7.30 report she said: “We would have spent most of our time in the air [to achieve those figures]. You would think the minister would have thought, that’s crazy. But he didn’t.” Attending an announcement on energy policy with the prime minister, Taylor again faced questions on the altered document and whether he has apologised to Moore as he said he would on Friday. “I have made a statement and I have said in that statement that I will send her a letter,” Taylor said. “I don’t have anything more to add to that today. We’ll be sending the letter this week.” How the numbers came to have been altered has been a matter of furious speculation and questions in parliament. Taylor has admitted the figures were wrong but maintains his office did not forge the council document. The opposition says it is potentially a criminal offence to use a forged document to influence a public official in their duties and has referred the matter to the New South Wales police. The opposition has now submitted three freedom of information requests to Taylor, to his department and to the prime minister’s office asking for documents relating to the altered document as well as talking points that would likely have been produced in the aftermath, after the Guardian broke the story. The requests could also reveal if the prime minister had any prior knowledge of the planned attack on Moore using the Telegraph. The Guardian has also lodged an FOI request, while the Greens and the opposition have combined to require Taylor’s Department of the Environment and Energy to front a Senate estimates committee which will be reconvened in November. Albanese said the latest scandal that has engulfed the energy minister showed he was distracted from the urgent task of reducing Australia’s emissions. “This is a national energy minister without a national energy policy or framework, who’s distributing documents that he has conceded are fraudulent and not correct to the Daily Telegraph in order to attack a mayor,” he said. “It’s about time the Morrison government got someone as energy minister who can do their day job,” he said. “Quite clearly, minister Taylor isn’t interested in doing that, and how he explains his misleading of parliament last week is beyond my comprehension. “There’s very serious consequences for that, and he needs to reconcile what he told parliament with what the facts are with regard to this document,” he said. | ['australia-news/angus-taylor', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'australia-news/clover-moore', 'australia-news/liberal-party', 'australia-news/sydney', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'profile/anne-davies', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2019-10-28T09:43:57Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/article/2024/aug/16/country-diary-on-a-thundery-windless-day-aerial-plankton-hang-in-the-summer-heat | Country diary: On a thundery, windless day, aerial plankton hang in the summer heat | Phil Gates | An early walk before the day becomes too hot. Thunderstorms are forecast. Distant wheat fields shimmer in a heat haze laden with insects small enough to be wafted aloft on columns of warm air: winged aphids, tiny black staphylinid beetles, and thrips, which we called “thunder bugs” when I was a child. After several days of stifling heat, spear thistles spill soft cascades of plumed seeds, trapped among needle-spined leaves until convection currents tug them free. For a moment they hang in the still air, whiskery plumes struggling with gravity until rising thermals carry them away. Flowering has finished for much of the flora of this grassy hillside. Hawkweeds, ragwort and sow thistle seeds, each a cypsela with a pappus of silvery hairs, are drying in the sun, waiting for a ride on a breeze. Of all these aeronauts, goat’s beard (Tragopogon pratensis) surely has the most beautiful seed head, like a dandelion but as big as a tennis ball. Their ripe seeds separate at the slightest touch, but the plant parachutists under their filigree canopies are too heavy to stay aloft for long on this windless morning. Such is the lottery of airborne seed dispersal: some sink to earth after mere yards, others conquer new pastures on windy days. At the bottom of the hill, beside the footpath, sun and a seed pod are performing a trick that recalls magic from childhood, more than 60 years ago. In the last day of summer term, our village primary school invited a magician who was a wizard at paper cutting; folding, snipping and pulling out the concertinaed pleats to reveal a row of dancers: a trick to take home for the long summer holiday. On this dusty verge, broad-leaved willowherb (Epilobium montanum), a dainty wayside weed, is withering in the heat. As its pods dry, they split from their tips into four segments that gradually arch backwards, teasing out serried ranks of tiny seeds that briefly cling by the tips of their satin plumes, until a zephyr sends them dancing into the blue to join the rest of today’s aerial plankton. And then, from beyond a towering bank of cumulonimbus on the horizon, a ta-da drum roll, the distant rumble of thunder. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary • Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 (Guardian Faber) is published on 26 September; pre-order now at the guardianbookshop.com and get a 20% discount | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/seeds', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/plants', 'environment/insects', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/walking', 'environment/summer', 'travel/county-durham', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-08-16T04:30:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2017/jul/11/tesla-renewables-environmental-risks-elon-musk-battery-south-australia | Tesla shows us how to think big on renewables, but there’s a long road ahead | Sam Hardy | Tesla gave the world two glimpses of the future last week. First, the company confirmed its long-awaited Model 3 would hit the market this summer. Once it reaches the forecourts it will be the first genuinely affordable, fully electric vehicle (EV) on offer to consumers. The Model 3 is projected to be the stalking horse for an EV market that will boom over the next decade. That in itself will have a profound effect on carbon emissions and energy use. Yet this was only one half of the renewables story last week. The real news of interest came out of South Australia. On Friday the state government announced that Tesla had won a bid to install the world’s largest grid-scale battery, which will store power generated by a major new wind farm. The battery itself is essentially no different from the one in a smartphone that allows extended usage without powering up – now think of that same battery on an industrial scale. When it comes online in December the facility will store around 129 megawatt-hours of energy, enough to power 30,000 homes. The announcement was a PR coup for South Australia and couldn’t have come soon enough. The state has emerged as a global leader in renewable energy with its capital, Adelaide, in the running to become the first city on Earth to reach carbon-neutral status. Yet this has come at a cost. Last year South Australia was hit with a massive power outage, with almost the entire state losing power. Dystopian pictures of a major global city in complete darkness put Adelaide on the map for all the wrong reasons and also acted as powerful ammunition for renewable energy critics – not least in the federal government – to claim that South Australia’s pivot from fossil fuels to renewables was putting the state’s citizens at risk. The Tesla deal aims to address this weakness. The great problem for renewable energy has been storage. How can energy generated from unpredictable sources such as solar and wind be stored so that it can then be dispersed during spikes in demand? Until recently battery technology simply didn’t deliver the capacity needed. That was until a series of breakthroughs in the lithium-ion battery. It now has the ability to store and disperse energy over extremely long periods of time – a feature that has already fuelled a revolution in consumer technology, enabling tablet and smartphone usage and now, finally, allowing the roll-out of electric vehicles that have a range similar to their petrol-powered equivalents. The technology is now being ramped up to power cities, and Adelaide will be the test bed for this next renewables revolution. Speaking to Reuters about the announcement, Ian Lowe, a professor of science at Australia’s Griffith University said: “Cost-effective storage of electrical energy is the only problem holding us back from getting all of our power from wind and solar … this project is a significant innovation to demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale storage.” And the world is looking on. The scale of the project (the battery facility will dwarf the world’s current largest battery storage facility in California) plus the prodigious ability of Elon Musk to get people talking about his company’s projects mean that its success or failure will go a long way to deciding how our cities power themselves in coming decades. Musk himself has upped the stakes further by confirming a claim made earlier this year that if Tesla can’t get the plant up and running within six months it will complete the project for free, exposing the company to a potential “$50m” loss. But a growing number of countries think the lithium-ion gamble will pay off. The UK government has already announced new subsidies for grid-scale battery storage facilities and several other countries are doing the same. But this progress is not without risk. Lithium-ion battery technology is not perfect and demand for the raw materials that make up the batteries will likely create supply challenges and price spikes. And the construction of the lithium-ion battery itself comes with serious environmental and social challenges. Most lithium-ion batteries consist of a varying mix of lithium, graphite, manganese, cobalt and nickel – all of which have problems in production. Graphite and nickel have considerable environmental issues, whereas cobalt – the pivotal ingredient in enabling long-life batteries – is sourced predominantly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has serious social challenges associated with it, including child labour. Analysts accept there is a long way to go in improving these supply-chain issues but progress is coming. Responsible sourcing groups such as RCS Global are working with major battery makers and electronics companies to map battery supply chains and ensure the materials that make up the products are ethical and sustainable. Apple has also played a critical role here: its responsible sourcing practices for its phones, tablets and other products have been widely seen as the new standard bearer that all electronics producers are now looking to follow. The genius of Musk and Tesla is their ability to make everything from electric cars to sustainable cities and space travel seem not only conceptually possible in the future but tangible and possible right now. Equally the South Australian government’s willingness to double-down on renewables and prove that genuinely carbon-neutral economies can be delivered has pushed other, larger regional and national governments to explore similar projects. The partnership between the US tech giant and the relatively small but increasingly innovative Australian state could just work and provide the evidence that renewables on a macro scale are viable. No doubt all but one of the leaders at last week’s G20 summit would be receptive to that argument. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'technology/tesla', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'technology/elon-musk', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'technology/technology', 'australia-news/south-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/sam-hardy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-07-11T14:21:02Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/audio/2008/feb/19/tech.weekly.podcast | Tech Weekly podcast: Video Bloggers and Alternative Realities | Aleks Krotoski, Jemima Kiss, Charles Arthur and Bobbie Johnson are back for another Tech Weekly, this week with a look at entertaining technologies. Ahead of a bigger article in this Saturday's Weekend magazine, Bobbie discusses video blogging with Alex Albrecht from Diggnation, Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing and zefrank. The makers of the Torchwood alternative reality game tell us how they put it together, and the complications of tieing an online game into a major television series. Moo.com take a ride in the elevator to make a pitch, and there's the latest in the HD-DVD and the Yahoo takeover sagas. There's your blog comments too. Don't forget to: > Tell us what you think at tech@guardian.co.uk > Post a message on the blog about this week's programme... > Join our Facebook group | ['technology/technology', 'media/digital-media', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'media/blogging', 'technology/internet', 'media/television', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'technology/sony', 'technology/bluray', 'technology/series/techweekly', 'technology/startups', 'business/business', 'tone/interview', 'tone/news', 'tv-and-radio/torchwood', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-02-19T18:45:38Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/article/2024/jul/31/really-special-farm-near-london-to-be-rewilded-to-enable-new-housing-in-essex | ‘Really special’: Farm near London to be rewilded to enable new housing in Essex | It was once woodland where Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king, rode in pursuit of deer. Over recent decades, the hillside with a panoramic view of London has become arable fields, pony paddocks and a Christmas tree plantation. But now Harold’s Park, a 200-hectare (500 acre) farm just north of the M25 on the edge of the capital, is to be rewilded and returned to something like the tangled wood pasture once enjoyed by King Harold. Ancient oak pollards will be allowed to spread their acorns, old hedges will sprout into the fields, field drains will be broken up and ponds restored, helping invertebrates, wildflowers and birds and people rediscover the hillside, which enjoys spectacular views of the London skyline from the Shard to Wembley stadium. “It’s really very special,” said Ivan de Klee, head of natural capital at Nattergal, the rewilding company that has bought the historic farm between Waltham Abbey and Epping Forest. “The proximity to London is a major attraction. You can see the City, an enormous centre of wealth towering above the rest of the capital. We want to engage those corporates in thinking about nature but we can also see the rest of London, which is by no means wealthy, with children lacking access to nature. We’ll be thinking about how we can engage children with new access to nature as well.” According to de Klee, the intensively-farmed land is relatively ecologically degraded but still contains wild elements that will speed up nature recovery. “Harold’s Park is ripe for rewilding,” he said. “We were pleased to find an ancient woodland, several ponds, a scattering of smaller fields, and a selection of unkept hedges – all of which will give us a great start to re-establishing natural processes. Notable species such as the crested newt, smooth newt, greenfinch, cuckoo and jay have also been recorded on site, with expectations of many more to follow.” The last crops on the fields will be harvested this year. Of criticism that rewilding takes up valuable food-producing land, de Klee said that most of the farm was only ploughed up during the second world war and was never efficient food-producing land: the clay soils were relatively unproductive, sodden with water in winter and concrete-hard in summer. “Much of the farmland around here is producing ponies. Nobody’s eating those for their breakfast,” said de Klee. Instead of Christmas trees and wheat, the farm’s major new income stream will come from biodiversity net gain (BNG) payments. These rules require all new housing and nationally significant infrastructure to deliver a 10% uplift in biodiversity. If developers cannot be “nature positive” where they are building, they must purchase credits from similar landscapes relatively nearby, where nature will be restored. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, has spoken in support of BNG, and restoring nature at Harold’s Park will enable new housing elsewhere in Essex. For local people, there is relief that the farm itself will not become a housing estate. Sophie Cowdy, a local artist, said: “I was filled with joy when I learned Harold’s Park had been purchased for nature restoration. I was concerned that the site would be used for housebuilding and the existing biodiversity on the site would be destroyed.” It is the third farm bought by Nattergal, which was co-founded by Charlie Burrell, the owner of the rewilded Sussex estate Knepp, with the aim of attracting private investment to nature recovery. Other potential benefits of rewilding Harold’s Park include purifying water from springs that ultimately feed the Thames and reducing flooding downstream by storing more water in new wetlands. “We want it to be full of wet flushes of rush and dragonflies,” said de Klee. “Water is life. We’ve spent the last 100 years draining our land to get water out to sea as fast as possible. We want to reverse that process.” Nattergal plans to open the land to more people, with paid and volunteer jobs to rewild the farm. The barns will become an education hub for schools and corporate partners and a basecamp for volunteers, and could also house local eco-businesses. The land is being surveyed using panoramic cameras and AI to identify all the vegetation and track the nature gains over time. Peter Schwier, climate tsar for Essex county council, said: “Creating a 500-acre rewilding site in Nazeing aligns with our ambitious target of transforming 30% of Essex into wild and nature areas. We look forward to working with a forward-thinking nature restoration company to support the council’s wider climate action agenda, which will help nature to recover, reduce flooding, lock up carbon, and introduce local people to, and enthuse them about, these important issues.” Archie Struthers, chief executive of Nattergal, and formerly of BlackRock and Standard Life Aberdeen, said: “Nature is in crisis, and the UK is not currently on track to meet its 30% by 2030 nature targets. With investment from the private sector and the sale of BNG units, we can scale our operation and ultimately our nature recovery impact.” | ['environment/rewilding', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/essex', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-07-31T05:00:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/apr/26/number-of-uk-homes-installing-rooftop-solar-panels-highest-in-over-seven-years | Number of UK homes installing rooftop solar panels highest in over seven years | The number of households installing rooftop solar panels reached its highest level in more than seven years in the first months of 2023 as energy-bill payers turned to renewable energy to guard against spiralling costs. Industry figures show that more than 50,700 households installed arrays between January and March, more than double the number in the same months last year and the highest figure since late 2015. The rooftop solar panels installed in the first quarter between them account for 265 megawatts of power, or half that of a typical coal-fired unit. Gareth Simkins, a spokesman for Solar Energy UK, said the number of installations has climbed steadily in recent years as households have become increasingly aware of the benefit to household bills and concerned about the environment. “In the last year, solar installations have been driven by the energy crisis. The war in Ukraine has driven energy bills higher and there has been a greater awareness that solar panels can help to save on costs,” he said. The competition watchdog launched an investigation last year into the domestic green power and insulation industry over concerns that households were not being treated fairly as they scrambled to cut energy bills. The Competition and Markets Authority said it was “concerned about the potential for poor practices, such as making misleading claims about potential cost savings, product performance and suitability”. The boom in new rooftop solar units, recorded by installers registered to the UK’s micro-generation certification scheme (MCS), was also more than double the number of installations reported during the first quarter of 2019, which marked the end of the government’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) subsidy scheme. Solar installations reached a peak in late 2015 as households rushed to take advantage of lucrative government payments through the FiT scheme, which were cut by 65% from early 2016. The scheme was closed entirely in 2019. The Labour party accused the government of “actively dismantling” the UK’s solar industry after its decision to close the scheme without a replacement led to a collapse in installations and caused many smaller firms to go bust. Despite the recent boom, only 4.4% of the UK’s electricity is generated from solar, compared with 35.9% from gas and 23.3% from wind, according to figures from National Grid. The MCS gathers data from certified installers of rooftop solar panels, home batteries and heat pumps. It recorded its highest number of home batteries for the quarter with 351 systems installed, half the total number of installations by accredited installers to date. The actual figures for the installation of rooftop solar panels and batteries are likely to be higher than the MCS tally, which does not include work undertaken by unaccredited installers. | ['environment/solarpower', 'money/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'money/household-bills', 'money/money', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2023-04-26T16:54:37Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2009/apr/28/bp-solar-profits-slump | BP solar profits slump | BP has reported a slump in sales of solar panels and falling profits at its alternative energy division. Overall, BP group profits fell by almost two-thirds in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year. The company mainly blamed lower oil prices and higher taxes at its Russian subsidiary TNK-BP. Earlier this month the oil group said it was axing 620 jobs at its solar energy division in the US and Spain because of an oversupply of solar equipment in the market and the recession. The job cuts are equivalent to more than a quarter of the workforce. BP said today its solar sales during the quarter would generate 15MW of power, down from 34MW in the same period in 2008. BP said this reflected "ongoing weak demand in the market". Losses from the unit, which covers its alternative energy operations – also including wind farms and biofuels – totalled $800m (£547m). That compares with $193m of losses in the same period last year, although the unit now includes more overhead costs than it did before. Overall, BP reported profits today of $2.39bn (£1.64bn) in the first three months of this year, down from $6.23bn a year ago. It blamed the fall in the price of oil, which fluctuated between $35 and $50 a barrel during the quarter; a year ago a barrel cost more than $100. With profits also lower than in the last three months of 2008, when BP made $2.59bn, the company is now planning to spend less on finding and developing new oil and gas reserves. It warned it would spare less than $20bn for capital expenditure this year, down from an earlier target of $20bn-$22bn. The cut in spending could have long-term consequences for BP's growth. It is not clear which projects will be affected by the cutbacks, but environmentalists are likely to welcome them, given the controversy over projects such as BP's recent investment in oil sands in Canada. Shareholders will receive a dividend of 14 cents a share, the same as in the last quarter and nearly half a cent more than a year ago. Earlier this year, Shell angered environmentalists when it said it was scrapping investment in solar and wind power to focus on developing biofuels and carbon capture and storage. The former chief executive Lord Browne rebranded BP as "Beyond Petroleum" signalling that the group would seek to expand beyond fossil fuels. But the current chief executive Tony Hayward is thought not to share his predecessor's enthusiasm for renewables. BP's total wind capacity stands at 678MW, almost four times the amount it had built this time last year. A spokesman declined to comment on plans to build any more wind farms. | ['business/bp', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/oil', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'environment/oil', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/graemewearden', 'profile/timwebb'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2009-04-28T16:12:35Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2024/sep/26/hurricane-helene-storm-surge-explainer | What is a storm surge, and what is the threat from Hurricane Helene? | Life-threatening storm surges as high as 20ft (6 meters) are expected on Florida’s coast when Hurricane Helene makes landfall late on Thursday. The governors of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia have declared emergencies in their states. In Florida, the huge storm surges from the initial landfall have been prominent in the warnings from officials, who described Helene as an unusually large storm with a wind field extending 275 miles (440km) from its center. “A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20ft above ground level, along with destructive waves,” the National Weather Service warned on Wednesday evening. “Preparations to protect life and property should be completed by early Thursday before tropical storm conditions arrive.” What is a storm surge? As a hurricane approaches a coast, the churning winds force ocean water up on to land; atmospheric pressure from the storm also helps squeeze the water ashore. The shallower the continental shelf, the higher the threat of a dangerous surge. The water may take a couple of days to fully subside. Water is heavy – about 1,700lb, or 770kg, to a cubic yard (0.76 cubic meters) – and it can move fast in a surge, sweeping people to their deaths, throwing about boats and vehicles, and pulverizing structures. Six inches of fast-moving water is enough to knock over an adult, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) says. Surges become even more dangerous as they coincide with high tide. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused storm surges of over 25ft on the Mississippi coastline. The NHC says many of the 1,500 people killed lost their lives, directly or indirectly, due to the storm surges. What will Hurricane Helene’s impact be? A powerful storm surge can cause long-term damage by sweeping away roads, eroding beaches and contaminating land with saltwater, harming wildlife and agriculture. As well as the “catastrophic” storm surges from Hurricane Helene on Florida’s Gulf coast, it is expected there will be damaging winds, rains and flash floods hundreds of miles inland across much of the south-eastern US. Early on Thursday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said the effects of the storm would depend on its track, though widespread power outages and damage to infrastructure, including power lines, roads and structures, are possible. “Power outages will likely last days, if not weeks, near where it makes landfall,” the NWS said on Thursday. Driving on roadways and tree branches falling on homes were the two biggest hazards during storms, said the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, at a news conference in Tallahassee. “It will likely be dark by the time this storm passes,” DeSantis said. “Do not try to do any work in the dark. You don’t know what hazards are out there. The sun is going to come out. You’re going to have time to take stock of this.” US airlines had cancelled more than 1,000 flights by midday on Thursday. Airports across affected regions such as Tampa international, Orlando international and Fort Lauderdale international have also put out posts on X warning travelers of potential delays or cancellations. The North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, warned residents in western and central counties to prepare for heavy rain and “potentially catastrophic flooding”. Cooper said the mountains also likely will see landslides, river flooding and debris flows. And cities not necessarily in Helene’s direct path, like Charlotte and Asheville, could see flash flooding, he said. How is the climate crisis a factor? As greenhouse gases help trap heat in the atmosphere, they are also helping supercharge the oceans with record-breaking temperatures. The heat in the Gulf of Mexico, where many of these storms develop, has been abnormally high and this extra heat acts as a sort of jet fuel for hurricanes, quickly turning them into major storms. Researchers have found that since 1970s, the number of storms escalating into category 4 or 5 hurricanes, with winds of at least 131mph (210km/h), has roughly doubled in the North Atlantic. “If you look back in time, historically, storms intensified at a slower rate than they do now,” said Phil Klotzbach, a researcher at Colorado State University who specializes in hurricane forecasting. What will the long-term costs be? The costs of extreme weather linked to the climate crisis keep on rising. In the US last year there were a record number of 28 disasters that each cost at least $1bn. Hurricane Helene will be the fourth hurricane to make landfall in the US this year and the second major hurricane to hit the state of Florida this year. In August, Hurricane Debby, a category 1 storm, brought power outages and flooding to the north-western part of the state. • This article was amended on 27 September 2024. The storm surges over 25ft in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina were on the Mississippi coastline and not in New Orleans. | ['world/hurricanes', 'us-news/florida', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/south-carolina', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'us-news/state-of-georgia', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/explainers', 'us-news/hurricane-helene', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-09-26T17:57:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/blog/audio/2011/feb/21/science-weekly-podcast-shai-agassi-jeff-hoffman-yeast | Science Weekly podcast: Electric cars, the space shuttle and yeast | Shai Agassi, CEO of sustainable transport firm Better Place, looks ahead to a world no longer dependent on oil - and why he thinks the UK isn't going to be overrun by electric cars any time soon. We never get bored of speaking to people who have been into space. As the shuttles prepare for their final lift-offs, we ask former Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman whether they would have been scrapped if Challenger and Columbia were still flying. Jeff has just presented a documentary on the BBC World Service, The Last Chance to Fly the Space Shuttle. If like us you love hearing tales from people who have been into space, listen to our interview with Jeff in full in the latest Science Weekly Extra podcast. It should automatically download to this podcast feed. And to finish this show, a song ... about yeast ... the sex life of yeast actually. Artist Gethan Dick teamed up with six biomedical students from University College London to make songs about their research. The album's called Trying and Trying and Trying. WARNING: this music contains strong language. Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed). Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers: The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist Political Science by Evan Harris Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science. Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com. Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group. We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive. | ['science/series/science', 'science/blog', 'science/nasa', 'science/space-shuttle', 'science/space', 'science/science', 'science/microbiology', 'science/biology', 'environment/electric-cars', 'environment/oil', 'environment/environment', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2011-02-21T00:12:00Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/article/2024/sep/10/cheetos-carlsbad-caverns-national-park | US cave system’s bats and insects face existential threat: discarded Cheetos | A full bag of Cheetos, discarded by a subterranean visitor to the Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns national park in New Mexico, has led the US National Park Service to issue a warning that discarded food could have a “huge impact” on the cave’s delicate and at-risk ecosystem. “At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing,” the park said in its post about the garbage that was recently discovered there, threatening the balance of the unique cave system environment. “The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi,” officials wrote. “Cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.” The park says that eating and drinking anything other than plain water attracts animals into the cavern, home to 17 bat species numbering between 400,000 and 800,000, including the Brazilian free-tailed bat, that have so far avoided the white-nose syndrome that has been devastating US bat colonies. The park said rangers spent 20 minutes removing molds and foreign debris from surfaces inside the cave. The discarded bag of Cheetos, the parks said, had introduced microbial life and molds that were not part of the natural ecosystem and were “completely avoidable”. The delicacy of cave ecosystems is well known due to their dependence on limited food sources and being acutely susceptible to disruption from human activity. The parks service reminded visitors in a follow-up post about the principle of “leave no trace” to disposing waste. “Contrary to popular belief, the cave is NOT a big trash can,” it said. But rangers, it continued, still pick up trash. “Sometimes this can be a gum wrapper or a tissue, other times it can unfortunately mean human waste, spit or chewing tobacco.” The post pointed out that every step that a visitor to the cave makes leaves a fine trail of lint, “but other impacts are completely avoidable. Like a full snack bag dropped off-trail in the Big Room. To the owner of the snack bag, the impact is likely incidental. But to the ecosystem of the cave it had a huge impact.” | ['us-news/newmexico', 'environment/national-parks', 'environment/waste', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/edwardhelmore', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-09-10T15:53:48Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2015/dec/28/from-paraguay-to-the-us-australia-to-spain-el-nino-brings-christmas-chaos | From Paraguay to the US, Australia to Spain, El Niño brings Christmas chaos | Weather and climate are, of course, very different things. But the sheer concentration of extreme weather events around the world over the Christmas period has lent yet more weight to the idea that the world’s climate is changing, even if the effects are currently exacerbated by the effects of El Niño. Thousands of homes in the north of England have been affected by severe flooding, some for the second or even third time in the past few years. In South America, where El Niño flooding has been been responsible for at least eight deaths, more than 144,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Paraguay, at least 20,000 in Argentina and several thousand in Uruguay and southern Brazil. The floods were caused by heavy rains and bulging rivers over the last several days and come at the beginning of the southern hemisphere’s summer months. That means evacuees were also dealing with heat, humidity, mosquitoes and snakes that thrive in swamp-like conditions. Climate experts said on Monday that the current El Nino was the strongest ever measured. “It is probably the most powerful in the last 100 years,” said Jerome Lecou, a climate expert at the French weather service Meteo France told Agence France-Presse, noting that accurate measurements have only existed since the mid-20th century. El Ninos, which emerge every four to seven years on average and run from October through to January, are triggered by a shift in trade winds across the Pacific around the equator. Warmer surface water that normally accumulates in the eastern Pacific moves to the west, leading to heavier rainfall along the west coast of the Americas and drier-than-usual conditions in Australasia and southeast Asia. In Australia, a major bushfire on Christmas Day destroyed 116 homes, with many more in the Wye River area now uninhabitable. Bushfires have also hit parts of Western Australia, where temperatures have been above 40C. Flash-flooding has caused havoc in north-west Queensland, while in the Northern Territory, a woman died after her car got caught in floodwaters that forced the evacuation of almost 500 people and brought saltwater crocodiles into remote communities. But there has been plenty more taking place globally in the way of weather that is various in exceptional ways. At least 43 people have now died in a massive storm system which passed across much of the central and southern US, bringing featuring deadly tornadoes in Texas, flash-floods in Oklahoma and blizzards in New Mexico. Among the dead were four foreign soldiers posted to a central Missouri military base. Governors in both Missouri and New Mexico declared states of emergency. In the Texan city of Garland, 20 miles north of Dallas, a tornado with winds of up to 200 miles per hour killed eight people, damaged 600 houses and businesses and lifted vehicles off roads. “It’s total devastation,” said Garland police spokesman Pedro Barineau. A spokesman for the US National Weather Service noted that while tornadoes are common in the spring and summer, tornadoes of this velocity and size occurring in winter months and in metropolitan areas are “very rare.” At least 13 people in Illinois and Missouri died when they attempted to drive their cars through flooded waterways and were washed away. The storms contrast with weather in the northeastern US where unusual warmth has held off the arrival of winter. Meanwhile, southern California is coping with the remnants of its own December wildfires, which torched more than 1,200 acres north of Ventura. The blaze was sparked by high winds which disrupted power lines in an oil field, forcing dozens of homes to be evacuated. With the fires almost out, officials were worried that rain could now cause landslides on the bare hills. “Gravity’s going to take it where it wants to go,” said Ventura County fire captain, Mike Lindbery. “And where it wants to go is down on the highway, across the railroad tracks and right into whatever is in its way.” There have also been unseasonal winter wildfires in northern and central Spain, which has seen notably warm weather in recent weeks. Spain’s agriculture ministry deployed three water-dropping planes on Sunday to battle fires in the northern region of Cantabria and another plane was dispatched to the central region of Castile and Leon. The head of the regional government of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla, said winds of 50mph were fuelling dozens of wildfires, calling the situation an “absolute emergency”. The government in the neighbouring region of Asturias said 20 wildfires were burning within its boundaries, including eight which firefighters had under control. A helicopter battling a fire in Asturias crashed on Wednesday, killing the pilot. | ['world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/spain', 'environment/elnino', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/paraguay', 'environment/flooding', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'world/wildfires', 'world/europe-news', 'weather/index/australasia', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'world/argentina', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'profile/edwardhelmore', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-28T23:00:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2021/oct/31/australias-net-zero-plan-could-cost-far-more-than-the-20bn-allocated-angus-taylor-suggests | Australia’s net zero plan could cost far more than the $20bn allocated, Angus Taylor suggests | The Coalition’s “technology not taxes” plan for net zero emissions by 2050 could cost taxpayers much more than the $20bn allocated by the Morrison government. The emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday that more will need to be spent beyond 2030 to reach the target. He confirmed the “run rate of the money we are spending over the next decade is what we would expect into the future”, as further spending on research, development and carbon credits would probably be needed. The comments come as Scott Morrison defended Australia’s opposition to language in a draft G20 communique committing nations to “phase out and rationalise” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 and to curb coal power. As the G20 summit moves into its final day, some countries are seeking strong language around combating the threat of global heating in the final communique of the Rome summit as a positive harbinger for the Cop26 in Glasgow. The United Nations-led climate summit begins in Scotland on Monday. The British prime minister Boris Johnson, who is the host of the gathering, has urged leaders to come to Glasgow with serious commitments. On the eve of the summit, Johnson warned that a failure to act could prompt “very difficult geopolitical events”, including mass migration and global competition for food and water. According to an early draft copy of the G20 communique obtained by the Reuters news agency, leaders were working towards a statement at the conclusion of the summit that will reaffirm a commitment to “phase out and rationalise” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 and to curb coal power. The draft communique said leaders will “do their utmost” to avoid building new unabated coal plants. But it adds the phrase “taking national circumstances into account”. It also characterised achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 as an issue of “key relevance”. Morrison signalled on his arrival in Rome that Australia would have a significant problem with communique language hastening the demise of the coal industry. China and India are also among the countries said to be opposed. The prime minister was asked whether Australia’s resistance to the G20 communique language would make life more difficult for his friend Johnson, who has campaigned to make Cop26 a success. Without engaging on the detail, which he said was “being worked through by the sherpas”, Morrison declared individual countries were entitled to pursue their own interests. “There is quite a large group of nations that hold similar concerns about this and we will see where this lands in the next few days,” Morrison told reporters. Asked whether the G20 communique should state that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 should be a common aspiration, Morrison said: “We’ll speak for ourselves.” Morrison said Johnson had welcomed Australia’s commitment to net zero emissions, and he said Australia’s technology driven approach to emissions reduction was gaining traction, particularly in developing countries. Taylor won’t detail full cost of net zero plan Taylor said that “the whole purpose of the plan is to avoid imposing costs on Australians” by spending $20bn by 2030 on technologies including clean hydrogen, low-emissions steel and aluminium, soil carbon and carbon capture and storage. Asked for the full cost to 2050, Taylor said that “future governments will allocate as they see fit into the 2030s and 2040s” but the government expects that the same “run rate” of spending is “what we would expect into the future”. Despite the cost of at least $20bn, or up to $60bn implied by his answer, Taylor claimed that “taxpayers are not paying anything, we are not raising taxes”. Taylor confirmed the plan includes an extra $2bn to be spent on carbon offsets through the rebadged emissions reduction fund, citing the “potential for high-integrity offsets with our neighbours in the Pacific”. Taylor confirmed he had spoken in Rome to Mathias Cormann, the former finance minister who in his new role as head of the OECD has called for Australia and others to adopt a carbon price. He said there was “absolutely no plan” to change Australia’s 2030 target, as voters had endorsed the 26-28% reduction at the last election. Officials say Morrison will use Cop26 to pursue new measures ensuring that developing nations have the opportunity to reduce their emissions through technology. Meanwhile, acting prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, confirmed elements of the Nationals net zero deal including: counting carbon credits as farm income for improved tax treatment; a regional future fund of unknown size; and excluding scope three emissions from the target. Joyce told Sky News scope three emissions – which could count coal burned overseas to the Australian target – were “basically double counting”. He said the future fund was intended to create a “parallel income that is growing” as thermal coal exports are “toning down or fading off”, ensuring “people … can go from one mining job to another mining job”. Morrison has signed Australia up to a net zero target, and that commitment will be expressed in the current nationally determined contribution under the Paris agreement. But the focus of the Glasgow summit is ambition in the short and medium term, with a number of countries upgrading their 2030 targets. Under pressure from the UK and the US, the prime minister explored upgrading the Abbott-era 2030 target, but the Nationals vetoed that proposition. Morrison has ruled out taking a new 2030 target to voters at the next federal election. | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'environment/environment', 'world/g20', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'world/world', 'australia-news/angus-taylor', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-31T03:34:34Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2014/may/08/lloyds-insurer-account-climate-change-extreme-weather-losses | Lloyd's calls on insurers to take into account climate-change risk | Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest and biggest insurance market, has for the first time called on insurers to incorporate climate change into their models. The call to action comes a day after a landmark US report, named the National Climate Assessment, which has warned that climate change is wreaking havoc across the US. Lloyd's says damage and weather-related losses around the world have increased from an annual average of $50bn in the 1980s to close to $200bn over the last 10 years. The 326-year-old insurance market, whose members write insurance business worldwide, believes the time has come for a formal call on the industry to take into account various climate-change scenarios to avoid unpredictable losses to businesses. What the industry describes as extreme weather events have increased in number and severity as the global climate system has altered, causing more and bigger hurricanes, typhoons and heatwaves around the world. In the UK the main climate-change related risk is flooding. Typhoon Haiyan, which last November swept across south-east Asia, especially affecting the Philippines, was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded. The year 2011 was the most expensive on record for natural disasters, with insured losses costing the industry more than $126bn. Superstorm Sandy caused $35bn of insured losses two years ago, making it the second costliest hurricane in US history after hurricane Katrina in 2005. A new report by Lloyd's, which consulted the world's largest catastrophe modelling firms, says a 20cm rise in the sea level at the southern tip of Manhattan Island increased Superstorm Sandy's surge losses by 30% (up to $8bn) in New York alone. The 840-page National Climate Assessment, published this week, was described by John Holdren, the White House science adviser, as the "loudest and clearest alarm bell to date signalling the need to take urgent action to combat the threats to Americans from climate change". Trevor Maynard, head of exposure management and reinsurance at Lloyd's, said: "Climate change is very much here to stay. Hurricanes are getting stronger worldwide, and especially over the north Atlantic … At the moment we are heading for a rise of four degrees [in temperatures] by the end of the century." He said that increased threats ranged from property damage to political risk – such as the implications for food security – and the economic impacts. It could mean the insurance industry would need to hold more capital to protect against increased risk, he said. Maynard said that while insurers typically arrange insurance cover for a stretch of one year, planners and building constructors would need to look ahead to the next 40 to 50 years. Maynard said: "There is every indication that [storms] will get more extreme as the temperature rises." He noted that the report by Sir Nicholas Stern on the economics of climate change concluded that it was cheaper "to avoid it". Lloyd's made a £516m loss in 2011 after paying out the largest catastrophe claims on record – caused by earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, storms in the US, and floods in Thailand and Australia. The area flooded in Thailand was the size of Birmingham and it remained under water for a couple of months. Since this year Lloyd's has been run by Inga Beale, who became chief executive of the company in January. The organisation, which started in a coffee house in 1688 where merchants insured ships and has evolved into a group of about 80 competing insurance syndicates, has insured a large range of items, from Keith Richards' fingers to satellites, as well as provided cover for homes and companies. | ['business/lloydsoflondon', 'business/insurance', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'business/economics', 'world/natural-disasters', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-05-07T23:01:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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