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environment/2019/feb/14/uk-pupils-climate-change-strike-headteachers-unions-schools | Headteachers in a bind as pupils prepare to go on UK climate strike | School leaders are having to wrestle with their consciences over pupils joining the nationwide climate strike to be held on Friday afternoon, caught between their duties as teachers and instincts as educators. Thousands of the more than 8 million school pupils in the UK are expected to walk out of lessons to show their concern about the threat of escalating climate change. Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman and a former science teacher, said she will be joining a rally in Oxford and urged school leaders to accommodate pupils who join the protests. “As a former teacher I absolutely understand the frustrations that teachers and schools may have with these strikes. However, I would describe this as a teachable moment,” said Moran, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon. “I hope schools, colleges and universities see this in the positive light it is meant and equally hope those students act sensibly with making sure adults know where they are and making up the missed work.” But the National Association of Head Teachers, which last week offered some support for those joining the strike, gave a more hard-headed assessment to its members as the day of the action approached. “Pupils should only be out of school in exceptional circumstances. Whilst NAHT supports the right of young people to express themselves, first and foremost, pupils should be in school during term time,” the union said. “While a school leader’s role is to ensure children attend school, are kept safe and receive a good quality of education, it is right that individual school leaders can decide how best to respond to any proposed protest by students in their school on Friday.” Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said young people were right to be concerned about climate change but warned that teachers had genuine safeguarding issues to consider. “It’s not appropriate for pupils to just walk out of school. The young people organising this are potentially putting themselves and others at risk by simply walking out of school,” Keates said. “Teachers take their responsibility for pupils welfare during the school day seriously and while they may have sympathy for the cause will not be able to condone pupils just walking out. “A well-planned, accessible demonstration of young people at a weekend or during a holiday would enable thousands to participate and be a powerful protest.” The Department for Education’s guidance says unauthorised absences must be recorded as part of safeguarding, but gives room for headteachers to approve absences in “exceptional circumstances”. The organisers have written form letters for the parents of those wanting to take part, which argue that protesting qualifies as civic engagement and climate change is an exceptional circumstance. With the strike taking place on the final day before half-term holidays in many parts of England, some schools may adopt a relaxed attitude. But others have already informed their students any absence will be noted as unauthorised. Geoff Barton, a former secondary school headteacher who now leads the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “While we understand the strength of feeling over the very important issue of climate change, we would urge pupils against walking out of school on Friday. “It is extremely disruptive for a school to have to deal with unauthorised absences and pupils will be missing out on important learning time.” The day of action follows the example of Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Swedish schoolgirl who began protesting outside her country’s parliament in August. Her solo effort has since grown and spread to countries around the world including Germany and Australia. In a letter to the Guardian, more than 200 UK academics said they offered “full support” to the school strikers. “They have every right to be angry about the future that we shall bequeath to them, if proportionate and urgent action is not taken,” it said. | ['environment/activism', 'education/schools', 'education/teaching', 'education/school-attendance-and-absence', 'education/education', 'world/protest', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'teacher-network/teacher-network', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/school-climate-strikes', 'profile/richardadams', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/school-climate-strikes | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-02-14T11:31:21Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2018/apr/27/all-australian-packaging-to-be-sustainable-by-2025-coag-agrees | All Australian packaging to be sustainable by 2025, COAG agrees | The Turnbull government and states have agreed that all Australian packaging should be reusable, compostable or recyclable by 2025 at the latest, but face accusations they are not moving quickly enough to fix a recycling industry crisis triggered by a Chinese ban on imported plastic waste. The 2025 target was the only specific goal set at a meeting of federal and state environment ministers in Melbourne on Friday. But there was broad agreement that governments would ensure the use of more recycled materials in building roads and other construction projects, and that work would be done to improve recycling capacity within Australia. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, said recycling and waste were urgent issues and the meeting had adopted a comprehensive plan that would cut the amount of food and packaging that ended up as waste. On the 2025 target, he said: “This is an important step forward and will have a real positive impact on our environment.” But the target was dismissed as inadequate by the Australian Council of Recycling and the Australian Local Government Association. The latter’s president, David O’Loughlin, said the key measure was how much waste was reused, composted or recycled, not how much could be. “Just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it will be recycled. It needs to be profitable,” he said. O’Loughlin gave the example of polystyrene, which he said could be recycled but it would not be profitable. He said it should no longer be produced. Recycling material, much of it collected from kerbside household bins, has been stockpiled in several states since January, when China tightened restrictions on the amount of contamination allowed in shipments of recyclable plastics to a level industry leaders say cannot be met. There are about 200 stockpiles of recyclable waste in Victoria alone. Previously, about 35% of Australia’s recyclable plastics and 30% of paper and cardboard had been sent to China. The closure of that processing option left councils scrambling for other options at a significantly higher cost. Frydenberg said as well as other solutions the commonwealth would continue to invest in “waste-to-energy” projects – effectively burning rubbish for electricity. Through its clean energy agencies it has spent more than $200m on 30 projects, but none are fully developed. Asked why the federal government had not provided immediate funding to help state and local governments deal with stockpiles, Frydenberg said the states were already taking action and it was primarily their responsibility. “What we need to do is turn this into an opportunity for Australia by building our long-term sustainable recycling industry. That’s the positive – that was the focus of our energy today,” he said. The Victorian environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the meeting had made progress on a national solution to the problem, but she was disappointed the federal government had not offered immediate financial support. She said waste-to-energy projects had a place at the end of the waste stream, using what was left after maximum value was drawn from products created using recycled material. O’Loughlin said that while he felt the target was inadequate, the meeting had taken solid steps to set up a sustainable industry. But he said it would be difficult for councils to cope in the short term. He called on the states to spend funds raised through landfill levies to help address the problem. The chief executive of the Australian Council of Recycling, Peter Shmigel, said the meeting was a start but agreed the 2025 target was not ambitious enough. “They’ve acknowledged these themes but need to move more quickly,” he said. “It is happening in Europe. Why is Australia the poor cousin?” Greens spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson, who this week released a $500m national recycling plan, said the meeting would not give the waste industry the certainty it needed to invest in upgrading infrastructure. He said the 2025 target was no more than global packaging companies were already proposing. “[It] won’t touch the sides of the recycling crisis,” he said. “At best, it might deal with the currently unrecyclable coffee cups and foil chip packets, but at worst it gives an impression that the government is actually acting when the opposite is the case.” Ministers agreed to hold a teleconference on the issue in June before meeting again later in the year. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-04-27T09:02:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk/2012/aug/30/rain-chaos-summer-wettest-years | Heavy rain causes chaos as summer confirmed as wettest in 100 years | Forecasters have confirmed what many suspected: summer 2012 in England and Wales has been the biggest washout for a century. The Met Office said it had been the one of the dullest on record, one of the coolest, and the soggiest since 1912. As if to illustrate the point, Cumbria was hit by heavy rain and flash flooding on Thursday, , forcing people to leave their homes and causing a train carrying about 100 passengers to derail. A landslide is thought to have caused the derailment of the two-carriage train, which was travelling towards Sellafield nuclear plant. No injuries were reported. While the month is not quite over, Met Office figures up to 29 August make grim reading. Not only has this summer experienced just 399 hours of sunshine, it has also been cool, with a mean temperature of 14C (57F), some 0.4C below the long term average. The Met Office does not expect summer rainfall (currently at 366.8mm) to exceed the 384.4mm seen in the summer of 1912, and Scotland has escaped relatively lightly with 357mm. This will come as cold comfort to millions of Britons who have endured the damp weather. It is shaping up to be the fourth wettest summer since records began in 1727. Torrential rain on Wednesday night forced people in Cumbria from their homes and about 20 elderly men and women were moved to an emergency shelter at Egremont market hall after a power cut. Egremont and the Calder valley were the worst affected parts of west Cumbria, with 15mm of rain recorded in just 15 minutes at Calder Hall, and a total of 52mm recorded between 10pm and 4am on Thursday. Passengers on the derailed train were on their way to work at Sellafield when it ran into the landslip at 6.45am. Despite the large amount of mud and debris on the tracks, the train stayed upright. Alan Isles was on board. He described how fellow travellers screamed out as the train hit the landslide, sending debris flying over the carriages. Isles, from Workington, said: "As we were coming round a corner, there was no deceleration at all and we suddenly felt a large impact. A lot of people screamed out as the train derailed and many were disorientated. We were worried about rolling over, but luckily we didn't. The staff were great and took control straight away." A second train sent to the scene to transport the stranded passengers to Sellafield also encountered a landslide and had to return to Nethertown. Passengers were escorted to the nearest road for their onward journey. Network Rail said the derailment, about a mile south of St Bees station, happened in a remote area with no easy road access. Engineers spent the day removing rubble and carrying out repairs. There will be an investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch. Following the severe weather, Cumbria fire service said it received more than 100 calls for help, mainly involving requests for sandbags. A spokesman said: "Some people have had to be evacuated and many have made their own way out of their flooded houses." Cumbria police said drains were unable to cope after the river Ehen and several becks in the Egremont area burst their banks. Emma Jane Taylor said floodwater began entering her St Bees home shortly before midnight on Wednesday. "We've had heavy rain here before, but it's never been this bad. I alerted some neighbours, but within 30 minutes it was through my front door and coming up through my floorboards. At the moment you can paddle across my floor." Earlier this week the rear of a four-storey house in Egremont collapsed into the river Ehen after heavy rain. Forecasters say Friday will bring largely dry and fine weather for England and Wales, turning cloudier in the north and west later. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'world/landslides', 'type/article', 'profile/helen-nugent', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-08-30T16:54:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2020/jan/23/greta-thunberg-told-to-study-economics-by-us-treasury-secretary-steven-mnuchin | Greta Thunberg clashes with US treasury secretary in Davos | Donald Trump’s treasury secretary has clashed with Greta Thunberg after responding to the activist’s call for immediate fossil fuel divestment by telling the 17-year-old to go to college and study economics. In an attempt to slap down the climate emergency movement, Steven Mnuchin pretended not to know who Thunberg was, before dismissing her concerns as ill-informed. Asked whether calls for public and private-sector divestment from fossil fuel companies would threaten US growth, Mnuchin jibed: “Is she the chief economist? Who is she, I’m confused” – before clarifying that he was joking. “After she goes and studies economics in college she can come back and explain that to us,” Mnuchin added, at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Thunberg, 17, responded by tweeting a graph from a UN report showing how the world’s remaining carbon budget will be used up by 2027 unless global emissions are curbed. “My gap year ends in August, but it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up,” she pointed out. Mnuchin’s comments expose the huge gulf that still exists between climate activists and the White House. Pressed on the climate emergency, Mnuchin insisted that environmental issues are “clearly complicated”. He said: “When I was allowed to drive I had a Tesla. I drove in California. I liked it. “But nobody focuses on how that electricity is made and what happens to the storage and the environmental issues on all these batteries.” He also claimed the US was showing leadership in tackling emissions – but through its private sector rather than government. President Trump believes in clean air and water, and a clean environment, Mnuchin insisted, but also believes that more attention should be paid to the environmental damage caused by China and India. People who call for divestment should remember there are “significant economic issues, issues with jobs”, he continued. “Many economies are transitioning to more efficient and cleaner energy. That doesn’t have to be all renewables.” Angela Merkel, though, spoke warmly about the work of the new generation of climate activists. “The impatience of our young people is something that we should tap,” the German chancellor said. In a special address to the WEF, Merkel called for more international cooperation to tackle climate change. “I am totally convinced that the price of inaction will be far higher than the price of action,” she declared. Thunberg has used this week’s gathering in Davos to push for radical change on the climate emergency. She called for an immediate exit from fossil fuel investment, an end to subsidies for the industry and a halt to investment in fossil fuel exploration and extraction by companies, banks, institutions and governments. “You might think we’re naive but if you won’t do it, you must explain to your children why you’ve given up on the Paris agreement goals and knowingly created a climate crisis,” she told delegates on Tuesday. Mnuchin’s comments clearly show the White House has yet to heed the call. The US labour secretary, Eugene Scalia, called for a balanced approach. The energy sector has been an important source of jobs and fully divesting from fossil fuels would also harm US pensioners, he said. On Tuesday, Trump told Davos that delegates should be optimistic. “To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers,” he said. | ['business/davos-2020', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'business/business', 'business/davos', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graemewearden', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-01-23T18:44:10Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
uk-news/2020/feb/24/uk-weather-snow-threatens-travel-disruption-as-flood-alerts-continue | Flood risk from swollen rivers across England as more rain expected | Serious flooding from swollen rivers will threaten parts of England for several days, the Environment Agency has warned as adverse weather continues to cause disruption. The EA’s warnings came as more than 250 schools were closed across northern England on Monday because of heavy snow and rain. Rainfall is expected to continue along the rivers Severn, Wye, Ouse and Trent, while two severe danger-to-life flood warnings were issued for Ironbridge and Shrewsbury in Shropshire, both along the Severn. There were 105 warnings, meaning that flooding is expected, and 207 alerts meaning flooding is possible, also in force across England after a third weekend of downpours that started with Storm Ciara and continued with Storm Dennis. In Wales, there were 14 flood warnings in force and 28 alerts. The railway line between Bridgend and Cardiff Central remained blocked on Monday after flooding, with trains also unable to tun between Aberdare and Pontypridd due to track damage to a three-mile section. No public transport was running to the mid-Wales town of Welshpool. The Met Office warned of ice in Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of northern England on Tuesday morning. Caroline Douglass, the director of incident management at the EA, said: “Groundwater levels across parts of Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Sussex are continuing to rise and will lead to more flooding impacts later in the week. “We have seen our third weekend of exceptional river levels and stormy weather. With the effects of climate change, we need to prepare for more frequent periods of extreme weather like this. People need to be aware of their flood risk, sign up to flood warnings, make a flood plan and not to drive or walk through flood water.” The wet weather was contributing to record-high river levels, and England had endured more than 141% of its average February rainfall so far, the Environment Agency said. It warned the country needed to brace itself for more frequent periods of extreme weather because of the climate crisis. The Met Office has forecast a week of widespread showery weather, while a warning for ice covering Scotland, Northern Ireland and much of northern England remains in force until 10am on Tuesday. Downing Street defended Boris Johnson’s continued absence from flooded areas, with officials insisting it was important not to “distract” from the ongoing effort to deal with the problem. The prime minister has been receiving “regular updates” about the situation, while the environment secretary, George Eustice, is “rightly” leading the government’s response, said No 10. The head of the EA is to warn that some communities may have to move in the coming decades to avoid the growing threats posed by river or sea flooding and coastal erosion. Sir James Bevan will tell the World Water-Tech Innovation Summit in London on Wednesday that, while banning all development on flood plains was realistic, such building should only be undertaken where “there is no real alternative”. He will say that rebuilding work following floods must improve defences against future inundations, not simply replace damaged buildings. Across County Durham more than 150 schools, colleges, nurseries were shut on Monday because of inclement weather. In North Yorkshire, 52 schools either started late or remained shut until Tuesday, while in Cumbria 39 did not open. In Northumberland, 27 schools were closed and in Leeds, 14 schools started late to allow students and staff more time to get in. Roads were blocked across the region as vehicles got stuck in the snow. Cumbria county council said “significantly more” snow than predicted had fallen in parts of the county but that gritting crews were out in challenging conditions to clear roads. In Bishop Auckland, Durham police asked residents not to join a search after reports that a person may have gone into the River Wear near the Newton Cap Viaduct. “Conditions near the river are particularly hazardous and we would request people stay away from the area for their own safety,” the force tweeted. While the extreme weather should settle down over Tuesday and Wednesday – accompanied by a notable dip in temperatures – the Met Office said further heavy rain was expected on Friday. The bleak outlook follows more than a fortnight of downpours and flooding. Contrary to some reports, the weekend’s storms have not been named by the Met Office. | ['uk/weather', 'world/snow', 'environment/flooding', 'campaign/callout/callout-bad-weather-uk', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kevin-rawlinson', 'profile/helenpidd', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-02-24T10:18:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/article/2024/may/29/data-breach-exposes-details-of-25000-current-and-former-bbc-employees | Data breach exposes details of 25,000 current and former BBC employees | The BBC has launched an investigation after the details of more than 25,000 current and former employees were exposed in a data breach. The corporation’s pension scheme wrote to members on Wednesday to say their details had been stolen in a data security incident that it was taking “extremely seriously”. A spokesperson for the pension scheme said the details of about 25,290 people had been affected. The BBC said it had seen no evidence that the incident was a ransomware attack – a type of hack commonly used by organised cybercrime groups to steal large amounts of personal data. The BBC has one of the biggest occupational pension schemes in the UK, with more than 50,000 members. In its email to those affected, the pension scheme did not explain how the breach had happened, beyond saying that private records had been “copied from an online data storage service”. The data leaked includes the name, date of birth and sex of members, their home address, national insurance number and an indication that they are a member of the BBC pension scheme. The pension scheme said the breach did not include any bank details, financial information, telephone numbers, email addresses, usernames or passwords, or any sensitive health information. The incident has been reported to the UK’s privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and the Pensions Regulator. The email from Catherine Claydon, chair of the BBC Pension Trust, said: “We take this incident extremely seriously and we want to reassure you that we and the BBC have taken immediate steps to assess and contain the incident. “Please be reassured that we have responded quickly and that the source of the incident has been secured. “We are working at pace with specialist teams internally and externally to understand how this happened and take appropriate action. “As a precaution, we have also put in place additional security measures and continue to monitor the situation.” The BBC said there was currently no evidence that the private information had been misused but said this was being monitored. It advised members to “be vigilant for any activity that seems unusual”. In a statement, a BBC pension scheme spokesperson said it “sincerely apologised” to members and added: “We want to reassure members that the BBC has responded quickly and that the source of the incident has been secured. “We are working at pace with specialist teams internally and externally to understand how this happened and to monitor the situation. “As a precaution, additional security measures have also been put in place.” Although the nature of the attack remains unclear, it is the second known data breach to have been suffered by the BBC in under a year. Last June, the corporation was one of a number of companies, including British Airways, Boots and Aer Lingus, to be affected by a mass hack believed to have been carried out by a Russian-speaking organised cybercrime group. A spokesperson for the ICO said: “BBC Pension Trust has made us aware of an incident and we are assessing the information provided.” | ['media/bbc', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/cybercrime', 'technology/internet', 'media/media', 'technology/technology', 'money/pensions', 'campaign/email/tech-scape', 'money/money', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-05-29T15:22:40Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2024/jan/23/exxonmobils-attempt-to-silence-activist-investors-should-be-a-warning-to-shareholders | ExxonMobil’s attempt to silence activist investors should be a warning to shareholders | ExxonMobil is “committed to responsibly meeting the world’s energy needs”, according to the corporate blah blah, but it is clearly not committed to allowing its shareholders to express their own opinions on the “responsibly” bit of the boast. The US oil company is off to court in Texas to try to block a vote on a resolution tabled by Follow This, a Dutch green activist investor group that would like Exxon to move faster (a lot faster) on reducing emissions. Exxon has an argument of sorts, one might say, in that Follow This tabled similar-sounding resolutions at the last two annual meetings and neither passed. Some 27.1% of shareholders aligned with the rebels in 2022 and 10.5% last year. Why go through the same process again, the company will argue. And, since last year’s meeting at Exxon contained 13 shareholder motions in total, haven’t US regulators allowed agendas to become overcrowded? Yet the company’s legalistic stance looks absurd in at least three ways. First, Follow This is not an obscure two-bob outfit: its resolution to be heard at Shell’s annual meeting this year is being supported by 27 mainstream investment houses, including Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager. Whether Exxon likes it or not, the group represents a meaningful strand of climate opinion in the investment world. The grownup approach would surely be to make a counter-argument and let shareholders decide, just as Shell et al do. Anything else looks like a grubby attempt to avoid scrutiny. Second, the thrust of the Follow This motion merely calls on Exxon to do what most other members of the big oil club have already done and set some targets to reduce scope 3 emissions, meaning those generated by the consumption of its products. If Exxon’s board is determined to stand out by resisting such commitments, it would surely be in its own interests to seek annual validation from its owners. Third – and most obviously – Exxon could probably expect to win again. Yes, the company was humiliated in 2021 when a small hedge fund called Engine No 1 managed to get three of its own candidates voted on to the board, but rebellions (sadly) tend to succeed only when share prices are low, which is not the case at Exxon currently. Why is the company taking such a hard-headed approach? One suspects its real motive may be corporate America’s wider resentment of the growing number of shareholder resolutions being tabled these days. Exxon may see itself as striking a blow for a board’s right to manage without outside interference, especially on climate matters. That is the point at which Follow This’s struggle to be heard should concern all shareholders, whether they agree with the proposal at hand or not. Voting rights matter, and ought to be defended as a basic way to hold cocooned boards to account. The occasional real-world confrontation with the members of the awkward squad is a useful corrective. When the activist in this case could command 27% support – a minority, yes, but not a tiny one – as recently as two years ago, it ought to be seen as outrageous that Exxon thinks it can waft away dissent by running off to court. It would be a useful development if big fund managers rallied to Follow This’s defence. The right to table a climate proposal at an oil company is basic stuff. | ['business/nils-pratley-on-finance', 'business/exxonmobil', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/environment', 'business/corporate-governance', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/nilspratley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-01-23T18:29:40Z | true | EMISSIONS |
football/2022/may/10/aubameyang-araujo-collapses-concussopn-barcelona-celta-vigo | Aubameyang scores twice but Araújo collapses in Barcelona’s win over Celta | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s two goals earned Barcelona a 3-1 home win against Celta Vigo but the victory was marred by a sickening injury to Ronald Araújo. The defender was taken off the field in an ambulance after clashing heads with his Barça teammate Gavi and collapsing in the 61st minute. The Uruguay international “has suffered a concussion and has been taken to the hospital to undergo further testing,” the club said on Twitter. Araújo appeared to be conscious as he was taken from the Cap Nou pitch in an ambulance after nearly eight minutes of treatment from doctors. “Good news he is conscious and aware now and the doctors told us he will be fine,” Xavi told Movistar Plus after the game. Barcelona sealed a victory that puts Xavi’s side on course to secure a spot in the lucrative Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia with a second-place finish in La Liga. Memphis Depay opened the scoring in the 30th minute with a one-touch finish following brilliant individual play by Ousmane Dembélé on the right wing. Aubameyang extended the lead with a close-range strike from a rebound and scored again four minutes after the break, after more fine play from the resurgent Dembélé, who looked like being forced out of the club only a few months ago. Iago Aspas scored Celta’s consolation goal a minute later, after Marc-André ter Stegen mishandled a pass inside his own box and gifted the ball to the striker, who had an empty net at his disposal. With two games left and Real Madrid already crowned champions, Barcelona are second on 72 points. They are seven points clear of third-placed Sevilla, who have one game in hand and will host relegation-threatened Mallorca on Wednesday. | ['football/laligafootball', 'football/barcelona', 'football/celtavigo', 'football/europeanfootball', 'football/football', 'sport/sport', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/guardian-sport', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-05-10T22:31:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
uk-news/2020/sep/04/hs2-site-new-injunction-bars-protesters-west-london | New injunction bars protesters from HS2 site in west London | HS2 has been granted a new injunction barring environmental protesters from land in west London where work on the high-speed rail link is being carried out. The high court ruling in HS2’s favour came as the company announced the formal start of the project. Preparation work has been taking place since 2017. The injunction on the site in Colne Valley, Hillingdon, was granted on a larger area than previously, and the ruling has also paved the way for a trial to examine issues relating to protest on the HS2 site more fully rather than allowing HS2 to continue applying for interim injunctions as it has done until now. HS2 has made a series of successful injunction applications to the high court to bar protesters from parts of the site. In the latest, 33 protesters were accused of trespassing on HS2 land and interfering with the company’s work in a variety of ways, including climbing over or cutting fences, climbing trees and sitting on machinery. Protesters have been at the site since October 2017 and continue to raise concerns about the destruction of ancient woodland and damage to animals and plants. Tom Roscoe, a barrister for HS2, told the court: “We say that the pattern of unlawful conduct [by protesters] is as intense as ever.” He said HS2 had consent from the Environment Agency to carry out various works that the protesters had raised concerns about. Thirteen of the protesters gave evidence via video link at the hearing, focusing on concern for the destruction of the natural environment in the Colne Valley and disquiet about the behaviour of the contractors towards them. Paul Powlesland, a barrister representing one of the protesters, Mark Keir, branded HS2 security as “lawless thugs” in relation to the eviction of protesters from a garage they were occupying in the area. Protesters told the court that sledgehammers were used in the eviction. Elliott Cuciurean, a 22-year-old protester, told the court he had received a third-degree burn to his thumb and that he had seen HS2 contractors “breaking people’s noses” and assaulting people. “One of the security guards ended up driving a mile down the road with me on the windshield,” he told the court. Dr Larch Maxey raised concerns about a blurring of boundaries in the role of the National Eviction Team, also known as High Court Enforcement Group, who carry out high court orders to remove people from property and also provide security for HS2. “I have had conversations with them where they have introduced themselves as high court officers. But they still go around when they are not enforcing a writ acting as high court officers,” Maxey said. David Holland QC, sitting as a deputy high court judge, acknowledged that while High Court Enforcement enforced injunctions ordered by the high court, it was not an agent of the high court when providing security for HS2. Maxey pleaded with the court for recognition of the depth of the climate emergency. “We are in a dire existential crisis. My entreaty is to take cognisance of the science and consider how we as a species grapple with it. The political system that has given us this emergency is not up to the job of dealing with it,” he said. Holland acknowledged in his ruling that the HS2 project was a controversial one. He said the protesters were acting “not from any immediate self-interest but rather because of their genuine and passionate concern for the environment and their genuine fear that the activities of the claimants on the site risk causing irreparable harm to it.” He said he was not in a position to take a view on whether the National Eviction Team had used unreasonable force on any particular occasion, and even if it had then this would not be a defence to the application for an injunction. Powlesland said: “It is good news that the court has decided that HS2 cannot continue to have an interim injunction lasting years into the future without actually having to go to a trial and substantiate the allegations it makes against the earth protectors who it has named in the injunction. “However, it is deeply disappointing that the court held that even if HS2’s agents from the National Eviction Team have acted violently or even unlawfully, that would not be grounds to refuse them an injunction. It undermines the rule of law to have injunctions from the high court being enforced by those who hold themselves out to be high court enforcement officers, but who behave in a thuggish and lawless manner.” A spokesperson for HS2 said: “We are pleased that the injunction covering HS2 works at Harvil Road has been extended by the high court. These protests are a danger to the safety of the protesters, our staff and the general public, and put unnecessary strain on the emergency services.” The spokesperson added that getting people out of cars and planes and on to more trains would help in the battle against climate change. | ['uk/hs2', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'uk/rail-transport', 'uk/transport', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dianetaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-09-04T11:21:58Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2017/sep/17/beware-nuclear-industrys-fake-news-on-being-emissions-free | Beware nuclear industry’s fake news on being emissions free | Letters | I wholeheartedly agree with much of your editorial (14 September), as the economics of new nuclear is weaker than ever at a time when renewables are coming in cheaper year on year. You point out the crisis in the funding of renewables and we could not agree more. The UK desperately needs to reboot financial support for decentralised energy in order to maximise long-term benefits for all. Councils, in particular, are calling for the restoration of feed-in tariffs and other support that has been instrumental in the creation of innovative, local, low-carbon energy schemes, Passivhaus-accredited buildings, and energy efficiency programmes for dealing with the scourge of fuel poverty. While the dramatic cost reductions in offshore wind are to be welcomed, it has to be joined with renewed support for decentralised energy projects, approval for tidal energy schemes and the resumption of support for solar and onshore wind. The government must see that the energy landscape has changed dramatically. An energy review and reboot is urgently required. Cllr David Blackburn Vice-chair, UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Authorities • Your incisive editorial makes many strong points, not least highlighting the exigencies of potential security compromises and terrorism vulnerabilities of the planned new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point. But there is a fatal flaw in the argument you set out. The editorial asserts: “Nuclear power has a trump card: it is a zero-carbon technology which delivers a continuous, uninterrupted supply.” This is demonstrably untrue. On the latter point, you only have to consult the published operating record of reactors to see this is an unsustainable claim. All reactors have lengthy planned outages (shutdowns) for operational reasons; some have significant unplanned outages due to operational failures; and in the extreme case of post-accident safety prudence, such as in Japan, their 54 reactors were all closed for years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster – and became hugely expensive “stranded assets”. On alleged zero-carbon status of nuclear plants, you repeat a similarly erroneous assertion made in your editorial of 1 October 2005 (Pre-empting debate), where you wrote: “The big advantage of nuclear generation is that it does not produce environmentally degrading emissions in the way that fossil fuel generation does.” You printed my response to this assertion (There is nothing green about Blair’s nuclear dream, 20 October 2005) in which I set out the various ways the carbon footprint of nuclear power is substantial, if the whole “cradle-to-grave” nuclear fuel chain (uranium mining, milling, enrichment, fuel production, in-reactor fuel irradiation, storage and final long-term management) is properly calculated. I pointed out that the nuclear industry’s proponents, such as those gathered at last week’s World Nuclear Association jamboree in London, are fond of spreading fake news such as describing nuclear energy as “non-carbon emitting”. It is about time this dangerous falsehood was confined to the dustbin of history. Dr David Lowry Senior research fellow, Institute for Resource and Security Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA • With reference to your editorial, we are used to electricity being on tap. That will continue when we are recharging our car batteries in the years ahead. Accordingly, there is a requirement for a significant fraction of our supply to come from a source that is independent of wind and sun. Battery storage on the scale required is a pipe dream. Nuclear power is the obvious solution. To reject it in principle would be absurd, especially in view of our nuclear heritage. There is a better solution available than that pursued by our current planners. It is to build the remaining nuclear plants with CANDU-type reactors, pioneered by the Canadians. These run on any nuclear fuel and use heavy water as moderator. A heavy-water plant could be built and fed by off-peak renewables, of which tidal power would be ideal. In effect, this provides a solution to the energy storage problem – electricity is “stored” in the form of heavy water. David Hayes Formerly of the Central Electricity Generating Board, Bristol • Re your article Cheap, fast wind turbines are leaving nuclear behind (12 September) and your editorial: an even more persistent myth than nuclear being cheaper than renewables is its supposed usefulness in providing a reliable supply of electricity. Base load nuclear, as it is referred to, is incapable of increasing or decreasing its output in response to the daily fluctuation in demand. This is a significant drawback, given that peak daytime demand is twice that at night. During the day, nuclear has to be supported by gas or coal plants, in almost the same way as wind and solar. So much for nuclear’s green credentials, locking us in to the emission of greenhouses gases indefinitely. Dr Fred Starr London • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'tone/letters', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/gas', 'business/gas', 'environment/coal', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2017-09-17T17:52:18Z | true | ENERGY |
lifeandstyle/2016/mar/30/kitchen-gadgets-review-can-do-cut-above-ordinary-can-openers | Kitchen gadgets review: Can-Do – a cut above ordinary can openers | What? The Can-Do (£13.50, johnlewis.com) is a circular blade and cog fixed to a plastic disc. When clamped to the upper rim of a can, the cutting device orbits the drum until its upper surface is severed. Why? Anything a can can do, Can-Do does better. Look, it’s a can opener, what do you want? Well? Modern life can feel like a treadmill of novelty variation, like Comic Relief red noses for a less good cause. I guess artificial lungs and contactless cards and slipper socks are OK. But sometimes I find myself pouring milk into a single-serve, waxed-paper porridge pouch – containing mostly sugar and crack cocaine, I think – and the “fill to here” line makes me feel singularly depressed. Is all the good stuff invented already? Innovation may be a double-edged concept, but this week I found a double-edged cutting device that successfully reinvents the wheel – or, at least, the circle. It’s a space-saving can opener, shaped like a mini air-hockey paddle with the volume of a scone. Do we need it? Well, traditional can openers are awful. They’re large and cumbersome, like outmoded Victorian obstetrics equipment. They hold a certain fascination – the meshed teeth on the head are like the exposed face of a monstrous nematode – but they’re the ugliest thing in the kitchen. At best, they’re reminiscent of pruning shears. Can-Do is pretty. Operation is familiar, too, with the piercing clench and the rotating screw. But it sits neatly above the can, the handle built in, with no arms. The design is elegant, so petite and curvy. You could call it the Kylie Minogue of can manipulators, but women-to-cookware comparisons are a hot-button issue. Speaking of hot buttons, this has one, which pops out when Can-Do is locked on. After cutting, the severed head is gripped in place; press the button and the lid is flicked disdainfully into the bin. You never handle the sharp edge by hand – a nice touch, literally. It’s easy to clean, simple, space-efficient and affordable. The name is a bit Scrappy-Doo for my liking, but it’s a pun, so I approve. Can-Do has more class than the Ucas handbook, and opens a can of whoop-ass on everything else around. Any downside? I went looking for cans to test this on; they all have ring-pulls nowadays. Counter, drawer, back of the cupboard? Counter, with planted flag. Was not the humble Sherpa Everest’s true conqueror? 5/5 | ['lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/homes', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/rhik-samadder', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-03-30T11:32:22Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2020/may/10/uk-travel-industry-warns-against-nightmare-of-two-week-quarantine | UK travel industry warns against 'nightmare' of quarantine | Britain’s travel industry has warned that a lengthy quarantine period for all people arriving in Britain from abroad would be a “nightmare” that would badly hurt a sector already in meltdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The prospect of a period of quarantine, being imposed “on people coming into this country by air”, was outlined by the prime minister in his Sunday night address. It sparked alarm from the travel industry and the aviation sector, while the farming industry, which faces a severe shortage of seasonal workers, will also be affected. Employers’ groups also fear that other areas that rely on travel, such as professional services and education, will suffer severe disruption. The quarantine period is part of the government’s strategy to relax some of the lockdown measures that were introduced to slow the spread of coronavirus. Boris Johnson did not say when the quarantine requirements would take effect, or how long people would be required to isolate. However, there has been speculation it is likely to be 14 days. Steven Freudmann, chairman of the Institute of Travel and Tourism, said: “The travel industry is already in meltdown, so it’s not an exaggeration to say that a 14-day quarantine imposed on all overseas arrivals in the UK would have a devastating impact. “Who is going to book a city break in Paris or Barcelona or even a week on the Mediterranean, only to face a 14-day isolation period on their return? Which employers are going to grant a month’s holiday to those taking a two-week break? It’s a bad dream turning into a nightmare!” Mass quarantine upon arrival has been implemented in other countries, such as Germany, but not in Britain until now. The measure is expected to be introduced by June and imposed on all except those coming from Ireland. Passengers will have to give an address where they will self-isolate. Fines and deportation will be among the possible punishments for breaking the rules. Those in quarantine are expected to face spot checks on compliance. Last week, Wizz Air became the first airline to announce that it would re-start holiday flights from Luton airport to Portugal in mid-June and to Greece in July, in the hope that Covid-19 travel restrictions will be lifted. The cruise operator Carnival has announced plans to return to the sea in August with a limited service. Freudmann, a former president of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), said a quarantine period would have been far more effective if it had been imposed earlier, at the same time as the lockdown, in the last week of March. “This is definitely a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.” The aviation sector was first to sound the alarm at the prospect of a quarantine period over the weekend. Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said a quarantine would have a “devastating impact” on the UK aviation industry and on the wider economy. The Association of British Travel Agents said: “Any new measures should be proportionate, led by the best possible medical and scientific advice, and able to swiftly adapt to take into account any changes in this advice.” The Institute of Directors (IoD) also expressed concerns about passenger quarantine, which it warned would affect many businesses beyond tourism. “Limiting the spread of the virus is paramount, but quarantine for travellers further emphasises the need for a longer-term strategy for restarting tourism and international trade,” said Edwin Morgan, the IoD’s director of policy. “Travel is clearly crucial for tourism, but it has a wider importance for business, particularly for an economy like the UK, where many of our successful exports are things like professional services and education, which normally involve travel. Clearly, businesses have adapted as best they can to using digital tools, but a lot of international trade still requires people moving across borders. The outlook for exporters and importers is hugely challenging.” The CBI, which represents British businesses, called on the government to ensure that health checks and border regulations were consistent with its trading partners, as well as time-limited and kept under regular review. Quarantine would also exacerbate the shortage of seasonal workers at Britain’s farms. Tom Bradshaw, vice-president of the National Farmers’ Union, said farms currently only had 20%-25% of the usual seasonal workforce of 70,000 to 80,000 – their worst shortage ever – as they had been unable to recruit temporary workers from Eastern Europe because of the Covid-19 crisis. The industry has launched a “Pick for Britain” campaign in the hope that people on furlough or students would fill the gap. Many people had come forward, Bradshaw said, but farmers remained worried. While farms needed a secure labour supply, many of the new recruits wanted flexible hours and might not be able to adapt to the monotonous work of fruit or vegetable picking, day in, day out, he said. | ['world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'campaign/callout/callout-coronavirus', 'travel/travel', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'politics/politics', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-10T16:46:13Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/jun/11/windfarms-may-have-potential-health-impacts-tony-abbott-says | Tony Abbott agrees windfarms may have 'potential health impacts' | Tony Abbott finds windfarms visually awful and agrees they may have “potential health impacts”, and says the deal on the renewable energy target was designed to reduce their numbers as much as the current Senate would allow. Speaking to the Sydney radio host Alan Jones – a long-term windfarm critic – the prime minister said: “I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things … when I’ve been up close to these windfarms not only are they visually awful but they make a lot of noise. “What we did recently in the Senate was to reduce, Alan, capital R-E-D-U-C-E, the number of these things that we are going to get in the future … I frankly would have likely to have reduced the number a lot more but we got the best deal we could out of the Senate and if we hadn’t had a deal, Alan, we would have been stuck with even more of these things … “What we are managing to do through this admittedly imperfect deal with the Senate is to reduce the growth rate of this particular sector as much as the current Senate would allow us to do.” He said the RET had been “put in place in the late days of the Howard government” and “knowing what we know now I don’t think we would have done things this way, but at the time we thought it was the right way forward”. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the comments would create investor uncertainty. “There’s Tony Abbott at it again,” he said. “Now he’s anti-windmills. “Renewable energy is part of Australia’s current energy mix … When you’re the leader of Australia you don’t always have the chance to, I think, just have thought bubbles. You’ve got to create investment certainty. What will the renewable energy investors in wind power now think, knowing Australia is run by a bloke who says he doesn’t like windmills?” Members of the Association of Australian Acoustic Consultants told an inquiry into wind turbines on Wednesday that several studies had found no perceivable physical reaction to so-called infrasound from windfarms, as claimed by some residents living close the them. In a report released in February, the National Health and Medical Research Council also concluded that “there is currently no consistent evidence that windfarms cause adverse health effects in humans”. When the Coalition came to government the RET required 41,000 gigawatt hours of energy to be delivered from renewable sources by 2020. The government immediately commissioned a self-professed climate sceptic, Dick Warburton, to undertake a review. This recommended drastic reductions to the RET but after a furious public and industry backlash the government was forced to enter negotiations with Labor and the Senate crossbench to reach a compromise. After lengthy talks they agreed that the RET be cut to 33,000GWh, with exemptions for energy-intensive industries such as aluminium. But the environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the resources minister, Ian Macfarlane – who brokered the deal on the RET with Labor – insisted its primary aim was not to reduce the amount of renewable energy built, or to reduce the number of windfarms, but to prevent the industry from failing to reach the original target, which would then trigger a penalty price that would force power prices up. “The critical part here is the potential for doubling what’s been installed over the last 15 years within half a decade and that’s a very good outcome for the environment, it’s a good outcome for the sector, but it means it will be done in a way that it can actually build rather than the risk of not achieving and then falling into a de facto, massive penalty carbon tax of $93 per tonne which nobody wants to see,” Hunt said in an interview in March. In 2014, also speaking to Alan Jones, the treasurer, Joe Hockey, said he found wind farms “utterly offensive”. “Can I be a little indulgent?” he said. “I drive to Canberra to go to parliament and I must say I find those wind turbines around Lake George to be utterly offensive. I think they’re a blight on the landscape.” A Friends of the Earth renewables spokesman, Leigh Ewbank, said the prime minister’s comments proved the government’s energy policy was ideologically driven. “The prime minister admitted to Alan Jones that his government has actively sought to stifle the wind energy sector … the prime minister’s admission proves once and for all that his government’s energy policy is ideologically driven,” Ewbank said. And he suggested Abbott “defer to the experts” on the issue of windfarms and health. “There are now 24 reviews by credible bodies, such as the Australian Medical Association, that show wind energy is clean and safe.” Andrew Bray, national coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance, said continual government interference in renewable energy came at a cost. “It deprives regional communities of economic opportunities they should be enjoying now and holds Australia back from becoming the renewable energy powerhouse we should be,” he said. Labor’s environment spokesman Mark Butler said the prime minister’s “stunning admission” that “his goal was to put an end to the renewable energy industry confirms [his] utter lack of foresight”. “It’s gobsmacking that Australia’s prime minister can be so short-sighted, and so out of touch,” Butler said. “Tony Abbott is an embarrassment and this will not help Australia’s participation in the negotiations at the upcoming Paris conference.” The Greens senator Larissa Waters said: “We sort of knew this was his view but he came right out and said it this morning. This is a prime minister who does not like clean energy.” | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'media/alan-jones', 'australia-news/greg-hunt', 'australia-news/joe-hockey', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2015-06-10T22:47:35Z | true | ENERGY |
local-government-network/2012/oct/22/live-discussion-using-data-effectively | Live discussion: using data to understand your residents | Councils collect data all day long, but how much of it do they store, analyse and use to inform the way public services are designed? Big questions over how accurate data collected through the census – one of the main sources of local government data – actually is have recurred for years. Councils in cities such as London argue that the census is an underestimate of true figures and does not reflect the many tourists who visit each day, nor the speed at which people move in and out of the area. The census isn't the only means of data collection, but issues over how data is stored and shared across a single authority, let alone between councils and their partners, can present problems for authorities that are trying to better understand the people they serve. One of the irritants for staff working on the government's troubled families initiative is that the Department for Work and Pensions doesn't share all the relevant data held on local residents with councils, making their job much harder. There are some good examples of local government getting it right, including Birmingham council, which has developed a civic dashboard for a clear picture of all the data it holds and what it means for the authority. With the amount of information councils regularly collect in departmental silos, imagine what could be achieved if the dots were joined up. Join our panel from midday on Wednesday to discuss how local government uses data to understand their residents and deliver public services. We'll be talking about pooling information, encouraging citizens to share their details, storing data safely and what local government could learn from other sectors tackling the same questions. Post your comments and questions in advance now and join us in the comment thread below this piece from midday to debate with our panel. Panel Gary Rawlins is public sector sales manager of Q Associates Ltd, a UK-based integration specialist providing technical IT solutions to corporate and public sector clients. Ben Darlington is a director of the Netword Corporation, who provide loGo_net analysis, profiling and behaviour change technologies to local authorities throughout the UK. Matt Skinner is a design and change lead at Futuregov managing a range of projects. Matt previously worked for Lambeth council as a policy, equalities and performance officer where he supported the development of the council's open by default approach to data. Mark Harris is leading the SAS UK initiative in local government and has over 12 years' experience of working with public sector organisations, covering local and central government, health and post-16 education. Ben Unsworth is senior performance and research manager at Surrey county council. Adrian Short is lead designer at Headline Data where he works with government and business to make data more useful. Local government projects include a spending data app, an API for London cycle hire, a library service API and an augmented reality aggregator for local news and information. Diarmid Swainson is assistant director of performance at Lambeth borough council Tom Smith is director at OCSI, helping public and community organisations to improve services by making data, information and analysis accessible and engaging. This live discussion is designed and managed by Guardian Professional to a brief agreed with our partners SAS. Join the local government network for news, views and the latest jobs direct to you | ['public-leaders-network/public-leaders-network', 'society/localgovernment', 'technology/data-visualisation', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'public-leaders-network/local-government', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-mccann'] | technology/data-visualisation | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2012-10-22T13:14:16Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
music/2010/nov/13/kanye-west-cancels-today-bush | Kanye West cancels Today performance over interview 'set up' | Kanye West has cancelled an appearance on Today, the popular US morning news programme, to protest a perceived slight against him when he was interviewed earlier this week on the same show about his claim in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that George Bush "doesn't care about black people". The US rapper had been due to perform on 26 November but cancelled after what he described as a "set up" during an appearance on the show, broadcast by America's NBC television network. West used his Twitter page yesterday to publicise his decision, saying: "I'm not performing on the Today Show for obvious reasons. I'm so happy the world got to see just a small piece of 'the set up'." The dispute stems from his comment after the 2005 hurricane that the US government was slow to respond because Bush, president at the time, "doesn't care about black people". Largely black areas in and around New Orleans were devastated by the disaster. Bush referred to West's criticism in his recently released memoirs and told Today interviewer Matt Lauer: "I resent it. It's not true. And it was one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency." The former president's remarks were widely regarded as having been some of the most emotional comments made by him during a lengthy interview that covered topics including the September 11 attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Katrina disaster. When Lauer interviewed West on the programme on Wednesday to discuss Bush's reaction, the hip-hop artist appeared to back down from his criticism, saying: "I would tell George Bush in my moment of frustration I didn't have the grounds to call him a racist." But West grew agitated when producers played video during the interview, including silent video of Bush's interview with Lauer. "I didn't need you guys to show me the tape to prompt my emotion," West said. Lauer then asked West about an incident during last year's MTV video music awards ceremony when he grabbed the microphone to protest an award for the country-pop singer Taylor Swift, which he said should have gone to the R&B superstar Beyonce. When Today played video of that incident with the sound at low volume, West said: "How am I supposed to talk if you're going to run this thing while I'm talking?" "Please don't let that happen again. It's like ridiculous." He later complained on Twitter about how he was treated, calling the display of the video disrespectful. Lauer has defended the use of video as standard television practice. | ['music/kanyewest', 'music/music', 'culture/culture', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/twitter', 'tv-and-radio/us-television', 'culture/television', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'us-news/george-bush', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/benquinn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-11-13T00:02:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-01-12T23:12:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/article/2024/aug/02/morrisons-trials-raising-temperature-of-its-freezers-to-save-energy-and-money | Morrisons trials raising temperature of its freezers to save energy and money | Morrisons is testing out raising the temperature of its freezers by 3C in the first move by a UK supermarket to depart from a long-held industry standard, in order to save energy and money. The Bradford-based chain said it would increase the temperature on appliances in 10 of its stores to -15C from -18C, the industry standard set almost 100 years ago and left unchanged. The 10 stores taking part in the trial are geographically spread across the country, from Scotland to the south of England, to test the concept in areas with different weather patterns and supply routes before an intended wider rollout. The move is backed by the owner of the UK’s biggest frozen foods brand, Birds Eye, which is part of the Move to Minus 15°C Coalition of companies which also includes the logistics firms DP World and Blue Water, and the bacon seller Danish Crown. Pressure is growing for an industry shift. A report for the Cop28 climate crisis conference last year, by academics at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, forecast that an increase of just 3C in freezer temperatures across global supply chains could save the equivalent of 8.6% of the energy consumed in the UK and reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 3.8m cars off the road. A recently published 18-month study by the owner of Birds Eye, Nomad Foods, with the food science and technology organisation Campden BRI, found turning freezers to -15C from -18C can reduce energy consumption by between 10% and 11%, without any noticeable impact on the safety, texture, taste or nutritional value of food. Morrisons, which has been struggling to compete in the grocery market since a debt-fuelled takeover nearly three years ago, said the cost savings could help it keep down prices for shoppers and contribute to its ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions from its own operations by 2035. Ruth McDonald, the corporate services director at Morrisons, said: “The standard temperature for the storage and transport of frozen food today looks like it is simply a convention from nearly 100 years ago. “We now have vastly better freezers and modern technology and monitoring that gives us a precise picture of frozen food temperatures throughout the supply chain.” Thomas Eskesen, the chair of the Move to Minus 15°C Coalition, which Morrisons has now joined, said: “To have a large UK retailer like Morrisons on board is an important step forward.” Stefan Descheemaeker, the chief executive of Nomad Foods, said: “We know from our study that increasing the temperature at which we store frozen food can significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Establishing an end to end frozen industry alliance, to put our findings into action, will be the key to unlocking widespread change.” | ['business/morrisons', 'business/retail', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'business/fooddrinks', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarahbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-08-02T06:00:26Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans/2013/nov/15/undercover-police-and-policing-uk-uncut | Police criticised and ridiculed over operation to spy on students | Guardian Undercover Blog | Police chiefs have received a hefty dose of criticism, and ridicule, since it was revealed that one of their officers attempted to persuade an activist to spy on Cambridge University students. As the Guardian disclosed here yesterday, a policeman approached a young activist and tried to recruit him as an informant. Instead, the activist decided to expose the surveillance with the help of a concealed camera. He recorded a meeting with the officer who said he wanted information about students, groups such as UK Uncut and Unite Against Fascism, and anti-fracking demonstrators. A series of clips from the secret footage can be seen here, here, here, here and here. Cambridge University did not want to comment, saying that it was a matter for the police. Cambridgeshire Police has only said :"Officers use covert tactics to gather intelligence, in accordance with the law, to assist in the prevention and detection of criminal activity." Today my colleague Hugh Muir takes an acerbic look at how "the secret snoopy state seeks to monitor the legitimate activity of those who might ask questions of it." Here's a selection of what others have said. The Cambridge University Student Union said they were "alarmed" and found it "absurd". They added :"Tactics such as these are not only intrusive, they also waste time targeting groups which are involved in making important and positive change in our society. We condemn the actions of the police in this matter and hope the Government will look critically at the use of surveillance measures by UK security forces." Cambridge Defend Education, an anti-cuts campaign named as a potential target of the infiltration, said :"The police will go to any lengths to gain 'intelligence' on activist groups, including deceiving women into long-term intimate relationships. It is telling that the police regard their activities as completely legitimate and legal, reflecting their crucial role in enforcing austerity policies through both violent and covert repression of those who oppose them." Rachel Wenstone, deputy president of the National Union of Students, said : "This revelation is an absolute scandal. This is yet another example of the questionable tactics that undercover police officers have taken in recent years to infiltrate campaign groups and extract information.We now need to know just how widespread this practice is." She added : "To group the activities of hardworking students' unions within the same realm as those of the English Defence League is grossly offensive." The covertly-recorded footage had shown that the police officer also wanted information about the EDL, but recognised that the activist was on the wrong side of the political divide to provide those details. Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, condemned the infiltration of "anti-fracking or educational campaign groups, where there is zero suspicion of any wrongdoing" as "a gross abuse of surveillance powers." "Coming after attempts to discredit the family of Stephen Lawrence and undercover officers fathering children with activists this episode makes clear why the police should not be able to approve their own undercover surveillance operations. Judicial oversight is essential if these kinds of abuses are to be prevented. "Were it not such a stark reminder of the weak oversight of police intelligence operations you'd be forgiven for thinking this was the plot for a student film, albeit inspired more by David Brent than James Bond." "There should be a full, independent inquiry into the activities of this unit and I will be writing to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to ask that they investigate." Jules Carey, a solicitor at Tuckers' law firm representing several campaigners taking action against the Metropolitan Police over the alleged behaviour of undercover officers, said of Cambridgeshire Police: "The force has clearly lost its way. There can be no justification in a democracy for attempting to deploy informants into student groups and protest organisations. The force should be seeking to uphold the fundamental right to protest, not taking cynical steps to undermine it". Isabella Sankey, director of policy for human rights campaigners Liberty, said: "After the scandalous infiltration of grieving families and environmental movements, police now set their sights on student activism. "That any group which dares to dissent is apparently fair game should alarm anyone committed to proportionate policing and democracy itself. Proper judicial checks on police surveillance are badly overdue - Parliament must take responsibility and act." | ['uk/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'tone/blog', 'uk/uk-uncut', 'uk/ukcrime', 'world/surveillance', 'uk/lawrence', 'law/uk-civil-liberties', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'profile/robevans'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2013-11-15T15:07:17Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
weather/2009/feb/16/weatherwatch-weather | Weatherwatch: 16 February 2009 | Vast numbers of people owned their own skates in the 19th century because every winter there were opportunities to use them. In the countryside water meadows were flooded to make safe rinks and people paid landowners a penny to skate on them. But even by Victorian standards February 1855 was exceptional. The average temperature for the whole month recorded at Greenwich in London remained below freezing, at -1.2C, and -4.3C at night. This led to the spectacle of hundreds of skaters passing through the quarter-mile long tunnel on the Grand Union Canal from Regent's Park to Paddington. Massive icicles hung down from the roof and people whistled and screeched to imitate express trains. There were fears for the safety of this weight of people in the middle of a tunnel that would not normally freeze. On February 18 the police were deployed to stop the fun but as the Illustrated London News reported, the authorities relented the following day and the amusement continued without mishap. The magazine carried a drawing of people skating and walking their dogs on the frozen Thames. For those who earned their living on the rivers and in the harbours of Britain this weather meant serious hardship. River traffic in London was stopped, putting 50,000 out of work. Coastal docks were also affected, for example Sheerness in Kent was iced up, making movement of craft impossible and in Liverpool 15,000 dockers were laid off. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2009-02-16T00:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2015/apr/30/inverurie-hair-salon-gets-greener-and-more-profitable | Inverurie hair salon gets greener and more profitable | All the hair clippings from Élan Hair Design, in Invururie town centre, are swept up and sent – along with other biodegradable waste – to local farms for composting. In 2012, Élan carried out a £250,000 green refurbishment plan, introducing new processes that made the company the most eco-efficient salon in the UK, it claims. Run by Gordon and Lorna Milton, their two daughters and 13 staff, the salon has won 16 awards for its environmental work, gained steady revenue growth and a 25% rise in customers. The salon uses photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, has solar-thermal panels and an air-source heat pump to provide energy for hot water, and LED lighting that consumes 80% less electricity than before. Energy-saving motion detectors and low-temperature radiators have been installed; new basins cut water use by 64%; a specialist eco-cleaning system uses only cold water; and the company uses compostable towels. Included in the salon’s refit were carbon-neutral furniture and bacteria-resistant floor tiles, made from 40% reconstituted materials. Élan has refused to sit back. In 2014 it implemented an action plan endorsed by the Carbon Trust that has helped cut carbon emissions by 90%, the equivalent of 110 tonnes. Lately it has cut a further 4% carbon emissions thanks to the Energy Saving Trust’s transport review, by replacing its company car with a plug-in hybrid vehicle. As a result, the business saved 81% in costs as well as 3.14 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Élan has also completed level two of the Green Tick scheme, designed to monitor businesses against the Scottish environmental management system BS 8555:2003. Green innovation runs through the business and its supply chain. Élan works with suppliers who share its passion to source recyclable products – including Aveda bottles and packaging made from post-consumer waste. It also works in partnership with One Stop Waste Solutions which sorts and recycles the salon’s waste. This means that 95% of general waste is being diverted from landfill, while contaminated packaging, gloves and specialist materials, such as aluminium foil and empty colour tubes, batteries and waste electronic and electrical equipment are separated. Since the initial work was completed in March 2012, turnover has increased steadily and sales rose by another 10% to £412,533 in the year to September 2014. Moreover, going the green way has reduced costs and resource consumption. Electricity, for example is down by more than £6,000 a year to £787 – a drop of 762% - and water use by 82%. The Miltons share their experience with other salons, businesses, colleges and government officials and recently made a presentation at the Green EcoNet conference in Brussels. Their salon is used as an example by the Carbon Trust and Energy Savings Trust. | ['sustainable-business/series/sustainability-case-studies', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/carbon-case-studies', 'sustainable-business/series/guardian-sustainable-business-awards-shortlist-2015', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures'] | sustainable-business/series/carbon-case-studies | EMISSIONS | 2015-04-30T09:38:37Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2023/nov/05/former-fracking-site-could-lead-uks-renewable-revolution | Former fracking site could lead UK’s renewable revolution | A former fracking site in the North Yorkshire village of Kirby Misperton, once a lightning rod for environmental protests, may soon be a new frontier in Britain’s clean energy revolution. For the first time in the UK, an abandoned gas well could begin a second life as a source of geothermal energy. It is a far cry from its beginnings as a highly contested site where frackers hoped to tap fresh reservoirs of gas trapped in layers of shale beneath the earth’s surface. In 2016, Third Energy was granted permission to carry out fracking at an existing well but its plans were ultimately thwarted by a government moratorium on using the technology in the UK. The transformation is being led by CeraPhi Energy, made up of a team of former oil and gas veterans who plan to use their expertise in drilling for fossil fuels to harness the potential for renewable energy lying dormant beneath the earth’s surface. After 30 years in the fossil fuel sector, Karl Farrow founded the company in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The plan, he said, was to bring together people with deep expertise in the oil and gas industry to unlock a new source of clean energy. “The first thing we did when we got the keys to the gates was to invite the leaders of the local anti-fracking groups around to see what we were planning for the site,” he said. “I think many of them see this project as a kind of closure. We’re doing something positive here. So all their work in trying to prevent fracking is now likely to lead to clean energy as a result.” For the company it was a “natural transition” to reuse their existing drilling expertise and infrastructure to tap the renewable energy below. Drilling for fossil fuels and drilling for geothermal is “virtually identical”, Farrow said. “The only difference is that you’re effectively extracting a renewable energy source rather than a fossil fuel.” Typically, harnessing geothermal energy involves drilling a borehole to depths of about two to three miles, to flow cold water at low pressures through the hot rocks beneath the Earth’s surface. Then, a second borehole returns the warm water to the surface where it can be used to heat homes and businesses or generate electricity. Unlike fracking there is very little environmental risk. The well is sealed and the water lines operate in a closed loop system meaning there is no exposure to the subsurface. “Think of pushing a test tube into some sand. It creates a completely sealed environment,” Farrow said. The Kirby Misperton project is at its final testing phase: so far the results have proven Farrow’s theories and engineering calculations. In some cases he says they were better than expected. His team had anticipated temperatures of 90 degrees Celsius at the base of the wells, but instead recorded temperatures of 110 degrees. Farrow hopes to share the findings with the community, local authorities and government bodies to make the case for Britain’s geothermal potential. “In the next few months we will hopefully start developing the site and wells into real projects,” he said. Ultimately, Farrow expects the heat captured from geothermal wells to be used in local heat networks used to warm blocks of flats, schools, hospitals, office parks or leisure centres. “I think it’s the only direct competitor in respect of gas heating,” Farrow said. “I think it could honestly make up 15-20% of the energy mix for heat going forward, if not more.” To date, major oil companies have treated geothermal as “a bit of a science project” but Farrow believes the world is now moving towards a “geothermal decade”. CeraPhi has nine potential geothermal projects in the UK, but Farrow says the burgeoning industry still needs a push for government to accelerate the pace at which it can play a role in decarbonising heating. The UK’s early steps into geothermal energy include a project in Seaham, County Durham, which will use water from mineshafts to heat 1,500 new homes, and a scheme at the Eden Project in Cornwall, which generates heat to warm Eden’s indoor rainforest and Mediterranean biomes as well as offices, kitchens and greenhouses. Geothermal energy offers a potential source of clean heating – but also a serendipitous economic boost for many of the areas that the government has found are in the greatest need of new investment as part of its levelling up plan. Research by the University of Durham has found these include Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough, East Lindsey, Hartlepool, Northumberland and Bassetlaw, which all appear in the top 10 of the index used by government to identify local authority areas in need of levelling up. Other areas well-suited to producing geothermal heat and electricity include Newcastle upon Tyne, North East Derbyshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Nottingham. In theory, the UK has enough geothermal energy trapped underground to heat every home for a hundred years. Even by conservative estimates that account for realistic commercial and logistical limits, geothermal energy could help the UK to cut its imports of fossil fuels and rely only on the North Sea for its gas. “Geothermal still has a very low profile,” he said. “It needs to come out of the shadows into the light.” | ['environment/geothermal', 'business/business', 'environment/fracking', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'uk-news/north-yorkshire', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-11-05T12:22:24Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/dec/15/city-allotments-could-be-as-productive-as-conventional-farms-research-finds | City allotments could be as productive as conventional farms, research finds | City allotments have the ability to rival the productivity of conventional farms, according to new research. A two-year pilot study by the University of Sussex found that volunteer urban growers in Brighton and Hove were able to harvest 1kg of insect-pollinated fruit and vegetables per sq metre in a season – which researchers said put their yields within the range of conventional farms. The project, which analysed the yields of 34 “citizen scientists” growing fruit and vegetables on their allotments, gardens and balconies, found that despite limited pesticide use they were each able to grow an average of £550 worth of produce between March and October. Of the total figure, £380 of it was from insect-pollinated produce - such as squash, courgettes, blackberries, tomatoes, apples and beans – weighing an average of 70kg. Berries were the most attractive crop to pollinators, the study found. Across the two-year period, volunteers recorded more than 2,000 pollinating insects among their crops. The most common were bees, which accounted for 43% of all flower visits. Dr Beth Nicholls, who led the study, which is as yet unpublished and yet to be peer-reviewed, is due to present her findings at Ecology Across Borders conference on Wednesday. She said: “The growing was surprisingly productive. And some people were harvesting a lot more than that – up to 10kg per sq metre. And this is just in insect-pollinated crops, so it’s an underestimation really.” Participants were provided with calculators which told them how much it would cost them to buy the food they were growing at the supermarket and how dependent their yield was on insect pollination. Nicholls, who is a pollination ecologist, said the growers used less pesticides than conventional farming techniques – they were used in under 10% of pest cases – and that the most common pests were slugs, snails and aphids. The worst-affected produce was soft fruit and beans. She said the study demonstrated the value of urban food production and how it could be used to reduce food deserts by growing food “closer to where people are” while also reducing food miles and transportation costs. There are 10,435 allotments in the UK, spanning 7,920 hectares, according to 2019 figures from the Office for National Statistics. A recent survey by the Association for Public Service Excellence, due to be published next week, found that 37% of councils report more than 1,000 people on waiting lists for allotments and over a third of councils are looking to increase their allotment provision amid a huge rise in demand during the coronavirus pandemic. Following fears over food insecurity after Brexit, Nicholls said more could be done in the UK to use urban spaces to produce food and incorporate shared plots into new housing developments. “The UK imports approximately £8bn of fruit and vegetables each year, but our results show that green spaces in cities, such as allotments and community gardens, could play an important role in meeting that demand at a local scale.” Nicholls is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Calcutta in Kolkata who are looking at urban food production in India. “In a world of increasing urbanisation in both the developing and developed worlds, producing food in and around cities has the potential to improve both nutritional and health outcomes, alleviate poverty and simultaneously provide habitat for wildlife and create sustainable cities.” | ['environment/farming', 'lifeandstyle/allotments', 'environment/pesticides', 'science/food-science', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/science', 'environment/insects', 'environment/bees', 'type/article', 'profile/miranda-bryant', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-12-15T07:00:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2024/apr/06/xz-utils-linux-malware-open-source-software-cyber-attack-andres-freund | One engineer’s curiosity may have saved us from a devastating cyber-attack | John Naughton | On Good Friday, a Microsoft engineer named Andres Freund noticed something peculiar. He was using a software tool called SSH for securely logging into remote computers on the internet, but the interactions with the distant machines were significantly slower than usual. So he did some digging and found malicious code embedded in a software package called XZ Utils that was running on his machine. This is a critical utility for compressing (and decompressing) data running on the Linux operating system, the OS that powers the vast majority of publicly accessible internet servers across the world. Which means that every such machine is running XZ Utils. Freund’s digging revealed that the malicious code had arrived in his machine via two recent updates to XZ Utils, and he alerted the Open Source Security list to reveal that those updates were the result of someone intentionally planting a backdoor in the compression software. It was what is called a “supply-chain attack” (like the catastrophic SolarWinds one of 2020) – where malicious software is not directly injected into targeted machines, but distributed by infecting the regular software updates to which all computer users are wearily accustomed. If you want to get malware out there, infecting the supply chain is the smart way to do it. So what was the malware discovered by Freund designed to do? Basically to break the authentication process that makes SSH secure and thereby create a backdoor that would enable an intruder remotely to gain unauthorised access to the entire system. Since SSH is a vital tool for the safe operation of a networked world, anything that undermines it is really bad news – which is why the cybersecurity world has been on high alert in the past week. Those running the different flavours of Linux that are in use across the world have been alerted to the dangers posed by the two rogue updates. So stable door bolted, and hopefully no horses missing. None of this would have been true, though, if Freund hadn’t been so hawk-eyed and inquisitive. “The world owes Andres unlimited free beer,” observed one security expert. “He just saved everybody’s arse in his spare time.” In some ways, the story of how the malware got into the updates is even more instructive. XZ Utils is open-source software, ie software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify and enhance. Much open source is written and maintained by small teams of programmers, and in many case by a single individual. In XZ Utils, that individual for years has been Lasse Collin, who has been with the project since its inception. Until recently he was the person who had been assembling and distributing the updates of the software. But it seems that in recent years the grind of maintaining such a key piece of software had become more onerous, and he is also reported to have had health problems. (We don’t know for sure because he decided a while back to take a sabbatical from the online world.) But according to security expert Michał Zalewski, about two years ago a developer “with no prior online footprint” and calling himself Jia Tan appeared out of the blue and started making helpful contributions to the XZ Utils library. “Shortly after the arrival of ‘Jia’,” Zalewski continues, “several apparent sock puppet accounts showed up and started pressuring Lasse to pass the baton; it seems that he relented at some point in 2023.” And it seems that the two malware-infected updates were released by this Jia character. So now the plot thickens. Cybersecurity experts are clearly taking the attack seriously. “The backdoor is very peculiar in how it is implemented, but it is really clever stuff and very stealthy,” a well-known South African security guru told the Economist. Even more interesting is the existence of a concerted online campaign to persuade Lasse Collin to pass control of XZ Utils to “Jia Tan”. This particular guru suspects that the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service behind the SolarWinds penetration of US government networks, might even have played a role in the attack. Who knows? But two clear lessons can be drawn from what we know so far. The first is that we have constructed a whole new world on top of a technology that is intrinsically and fundamentally insecure. The second is that we are critically dependent on open-source software that is often maintained by volunteers who do it for love rather than money – and generally without support from either industry or government. We can’t go on like this, but we will. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make complacent. What I’ve been reading How to-talitarian How could Trump actually turn the US into a fascist state? Robert Reich outlines Trump’s five-stage plan on his Substack. The consequences of Conservative government What have 14 years of Conservative rule done to Britain? You know the answer, but Sam Knight gives some useful detail in a New Yorker essay. Our priceless planet Why capitalism can’t solve the climate crisis – Prof Brett Christophers explains in Time magazine. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/series/networker', 'technology/opensource', 'technology/software', 'technology/computing', 'technology/internet', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/technology', 'technology/cybercrime', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/johnnaughton', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/discover', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-04-06T15:00:04Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2005/jan/27/tsunami2004.internationalaidanddevelopment28 | G2 tsunami stories: The forensic scientist (UK) | Dr Chris Maguire, 48, senior manager with Britain's Forensic Science Service in London One of my specialities is disaster victim identification. I've been working with the Association of Chief Police Officers' emergency planning group for mass-fatality incidents, so I've been involved as an adviser to them and to the Home Office in the current situation. I've been involved in organising the deployment of two of my colleagues to Thailand and China to help in the international DNA profiling effort. Their role will be as part of the international group working with the Chinese, at their invitation, essentially providing quality assurance. Then I had a meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. These things, unfortunately, will happen again, and obviously we want to make the best of the learning experience. We're putting processes and procedures in place in the event of the next incident. There will be one, whether it's a mass-fatality incident abroad involving UK citizens or something happening in the UK; a natural disaster, a terrorist attack or a train crash. | ['world/tsunami2004', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-27T09:53:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/blog/2005/jul/29/extremeevents | Twister again | Extreme events like the tornado that devastated a Birmingham suburb yesterday are more common than you might think, writes Oliver Usher. Experts reckon as many as 120 could strike the UK each year. Joseph Holden, a weather scientist at Leeds University says: "They're way more common than we think. It's only when they hit an urban area that they get reported." The majority aren't detected because they are far smaller than the huge twisters common in the USA, and they often hit remote regions. While the diameter of the twister that hit Birmingham was some 30m, those across the Atlantic can be many hundreds of metres wide. The Met Office records about 30 tornadoes in the UK each year, compared with around 300 recorded each year in the US. How does one form? "Typically it's when you've got very warm, moist air, which you get in summer, mixing with cold, typically polar air," Holden says. When combined with large, flat areas of land (like the American Midwest, or East Anglia and Lincolnshire in Britain) the strength of the storm builds. Britain is less flat than the Midwest, meaning that the storms are not as strong. Holden explains that British tornadoes are generally narrow and don't travel very far. They are also less strong. "But that's not to say the ones in the UK aren't severe," he adds. Indeed, the Birmingham tornado uprooted trees and demolished houses. But yesterday's twister seems unusual. Tornadoes usually form on flat land in the countryside, rather than among the tall buildings of a city. People in the UK don't expect tornadoes so often underestimate the risk they pose. Surprisingly, forecasters can easily spot the sort of conditions that form tornadoes. Although they can't yet accurately calculate exactly where and when twisters will strike, forecasters can issue warnings across a region such as the Midlands. Holden says climate change will increase the vigorous mixing of warm and cold air that causes tornadoes, making them more common. The number of twisters striking Britain's own tornado alley, it seems, is set to rise. | ['news/blog', 'uk/uk', 'tone/blog', 'world/tornadoes', 'uk-news/industrial-action', 'type/article'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-07-29T14:13:57Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2014/nov/03/climate-change-ipcc | Six ways you can help stop climate change | Bibi van der Zee | Hiding behind the sofa definitely isn’t the best course of action, but it might be the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating the latest round of immense and frightening findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It’s important to read carefully though. Its new report also tells us that solutions are available, even affordable – so what is one small human being to do? Here, to get you started, are a few suggestions. 1. Talk about climate change Yes, that’s right, just talk. Over the past few years we’ve talked less and less about this subject, according to the Climate Outreach and Information Network (Coin), and as a result we’re all underestimating the amount of support there is out there for climate change policies. “Most people think that about half the population is opposed to renewables, for example,” says Adam Corner of Coin. “In fact about 70-80% are in favour. If we start having conversations about this we can really build up a bedrock of support for this subject.” (The organisation 10:10 has been running its massively cheering It’s Happening thread with this in mind - have a look.) 2. Take a look at your diet Just throwing away less food and eating less meat means you can make a significant dent in your carbon footprint. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations did some sums last year and worked out that if food wastage was a country, it would be the third highest carbon emitter globally after the US and China. You don’t need to give up meat completely, just reduce the amount you eat, or even just try cutting out the steaks. One calorie of steak requires 160 times more land than a calorie of potato, a study showed earlier this year, and meanwhile we are subsidising the whole meat industry to the tune of billions of pounds, as Vicki Hird of Friends of the Earth points out in her Atlas of Meat. 3. Reclaim the streets A joyful development in global public policy in recent years has been a move away from road-building, towards handing back streets and spaces to pedestrians and cyclists. For example, Auckland – which has the highest ownership of cars per capita in the world and used to be known as the City of Cars – has been implementing a “shared street policy” to encourage pedestrians, which has had an extremely positive public response. In fact this is happening all over the place, and it comes in many forms. In the UK you can join your local Playing Out group to shut down your street for an afternoon so that the children can take over, or you can talk to the charity Sustrans, which helps people travel by foot, bike or public transport, about some amazing local traffic calming initiatives. You can also support cycle campaigns; despite a huge amount of activism on this front recently, cycling in the UK declined last year, but proper infrastructure could quickly change that. Working towards long-term infrastructure change is a positive long-term contribution, and also makes us feel better about the issue in the short-term. 4. Change to LED lightbulbs These are the new wave of energy-saving bulbs, and they’ve come on a long way from the blue-tinged alien life forms they once were. You can now buy them in a spectrum of colours and they save on average about £40 a year compared with all-halogen bulbs. And this is just the start. A whole-house energy audit may ensue … There are hundreds of useful tips at the Energy Savings Trust. 5. Get involved with a community energy project There is something tremendously satisfying about the idea of reclaiming control of our energy from the “big six” energy companies, even if only partially. “It pays so many dividends simultaneously – carbon, environmental, economic and social,” says Ed Gillespie of Futerra. Nick Dearden of the World Development Movement says we should be learning from the success of Germany’s Energiewende programme, which gives “more power to communities and ‘ordinary people’ to control systems of renewable energy production and distribution”. This community model really is working in Germany and here in the UK the Solar Schools project is a great starting point. Studies show that after raising money for solar panels for their local school the majority of people feel closer to their community, and are far more likely to get solar panels themselves. 6. Lobby your MP Pop along to WritetoThem.com and drop your MP a line asking what they are doing and saying about climate change. You don’t have to be an expert – just let them know you’re out there. But if you want to go a step further, the Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, suggests asking them whether they support the energy bill revolution, for example, a campaign to step up the greening of our national housing stock. Corner says: “If MPs don’t hear about these subjects from constituents, they don’t know that you care about it.” Telling your MP that this is an issue that you are passionate about, and are following closely, gives them motivation to be more active in Westminster. That’s six ideas, but there are so many other exciting possibilities. What are you currently doing to address climate change – and what do you think is the most important change you can make as an individual? | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/ipcc', 'world/world', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/green-politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/bibivanderzee'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-11-03T18:19:45Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2023/nov/29/native-forest-logging-ban-tasmania-report-carbon-credits | Native forest logging ban in Tasmania could save state $72m, pro-market thinktank says | Ending native forest logging in Tasmania and valuing the state’s centuries-old trees as carbon storage could save the state at least $72m, according to a report by a pro-market thinktank. The analysis by the Blueprint Institute, to be launched on Wednesday, recommends the state government immediately stop subsidising its forestry arm, Sustainable Timber Tasmania, and announce logging will end in mid-2025. The institute said the Tasmanian government and opposition should work with the federal government to introduce a “robust carbon methodology” that allowed the state to generate carbon credits by stopping logging and introducing conservation measures. It estimated CO2 sequestration in Tasmania’s forests could be worth $345m and provide a net benefit to the state of $72m after the cost of a transitional package for the timber industry was factored in. The institute’s chief executive, David Cross, said the economic potential of using native forests for carbon sequestration and tourism far exceeded the value of logging. “The taxpayer should not be subsidising environmental degradation to indulge the anti-competitive, protectionist fantasies of a small number of individuals with outdated and romanticised views of an industry,” he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The report is likely to be contentious with both the forestry industry, which is backed by the Liberal and Labor parties, and with local conservationists, who argue logging should be stopped on environmental and economic grounds, and the decision should not depend on carbon credit revenue. Both groups are represented among 120 delegates at a three-day forestry economics congress organised by the Museum of Old and New Art to address the question: what is the value of Tasmania’s forests? Academics continue to challenge the integrity of Australia’s carbon credit scheme. More broadly, critics of nature-based carbon credits say they are used to justify emissions from fossil fuel operations, not reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Tasmanian environment organisations say the state should follow Victoria and Western Australia in phasing out native logging next year without allowing forests to be used to offset ongoing pollution. The Australia Institute has launched a campaign arguing “turning Australia’s forests into carbon offsets for the fossil fuel industry will only mean more pollution and more climate change”. The Blueprint Institute’s report relies in part on modelling by Australian National University environmental law professor Andrew Macintosh, a damning critic of how the domestic carbon credit system has been managed, but a supporter of using markets to help protect and restore nature. The institute said the assumptions it used deliberately overstated the costs and minimised the benefits of stopping native forest logging. When it took a less conservative approach it found the net benefit of ending the practice could be as much as $936m. It recommended the state meet future timber demands by expanding plantations, and introduce incentives to boost private investment in tree farms. It was sharply critical of Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s “unusual and declining transparency” compared with other state forestry agencies, and said it was likely to be deterring private investment in plantations. The Tasmanian forestry minister, Felix Ellis, said he had not seen the report, but he was not surprised Blueprint had recommended an end to native forestry as it had made similar recommendations in Victoria and New South Wales. He said the “reality is that plantation timber alone is not sufficient to meet Australia’s timber needs”. “Ending sustainable native forestry will not reduce our nation’s timber needs. It will almost certainly lead to increased timber imports from jurisdictions with weaker environmental protections than our own,” Ellis said. A Labor Environment Action Network report this year said 88% of timber produced in Australia came from plantations and just 12% from native forests. It cited government data showing few tree farms have been planted since 2010 and the total plantation area was falling. The Mona forestry congress has been convened by artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele, the wife of museum owner David Walsh, who said she became interested in economics when she bought a house in New Orleans and discovered a 100-year-old oak tree in the back yard. She said she realised the tree hadn’t been factored into the selling price and decided “valuing nature seems a topic worth investigating”. A report by the Australia Institute to be released at the congress said forestry accounted for just 1% of Tasmania’s jobs and its economic importance to the state had been overstated. It said 97% of forestry on privately owned land was already in plantation timber. The Australia Institute’s Tasmanian forests spokesperson, Vanessa Bleyer, said the report showed the “long-held myth that we need native forest logging for the survival of regional towns in Tasmania” was a fallacy given many places had already economically diversified. | ['australia-news/tasmania', 'environment/environment', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-11-29T00:00:24Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2021/may/03/california-wildfire-drought-red-flag-warning | Parts of California see May red flag fire warning for first time since 2014 | Dry, hot weather and strong winds have triggered a “red flag” fire warning for parts of northern California, the first time the National Weather Service has issued such a warning for the region in the month of May since 2014. Temperatures in northern California and the Bay Area are expected to peak 15F above average on Monday and Tuesday, with 20- to 35mph wind gusts expected in some parts, prompting the NWS to warn of dangerous fire conditions in the Sacramento region. The red flag warning is expected to expire after 11am Tuesday. Peak fire season in California usually runs from the summer through autumn. But strong winds and exceptionally warm weather this spring have created critical fire conditions in a drought-desiccated landscape that has been primed to burn. The conditions have stoked small grass fires across parts of northern California in recent days. And in southern California, the state’s fire agency, Cal Fire, has been working to contain a 5,100-acre wildfire near San Diego. About 500 residents and many farm animals in the backcountry were evacuated. Responders have also contained smaller fires in the San Joaquin Valley, in the state’s north-central region. The climate crisis has intensified droughts throughout the region in recent years, and bone-dry soil and vegetation have helped kindle more intense, destructive wildfires. This year, large swaths of California, including most of the north, the length of the Sierra Nevada mountains, much of southern California and the Mojave desert, have seen their driest wet seasons in more than 40 years. Due to global heating, the state is also warmer than it was during its deep drought in the late 1970s, or during the last extreme drought that ran from 2011 to 2017. Last month, state leaders announced that they would allocate $536m to hire more firefighters, improve forest management efforts, thin out fire-fueling vegetation and make homes more fire-resistant. The sweeping plan came after the state saw five of the six largest fires in state history last year. Experts are expecting the coming year to bring more major fires. “The parts of the state that have seen the most severe snow and rainfall shortages are the ones that you expect to see the highest fire risk,” Chris Field, climate scientist at Stanford University, told the Guardian last month. “But there are always lots of unknowns that determine the way in which the actual fire season will unfold.” Drought conditions across much of the US west have also provoked premature wildfires in the south-west. New Mexico’s first major wildfire of the year was ignited last week, and firefighters are still working to contain the 1,200-acre fire that ripped through the dry Hualapai Mountains in western Arizona more than a week ago. | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural--disasters', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/maanvi-singh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-05-03T18:58:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
books/2019/may/02/greta-thunberg-speeches-published-no-one-is-too-small-to-make-a-difference | Greta Thunberg's speeches to be rushed out as a book | The collected speeches of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who began the worldwide school strike for the environment in 2018, will be released as a book next month. Penguin, which is also rushing out a handbook from Extinction Rebellion, will publish No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, a selection of 11 of Thunberg’s key speeches, all written by her. It will be published on 6 June as a £2.99 paperback. The first speech in the book was given three weeks after Thunberg’s first climate strike in August 2018, the most recent in the UK parliament last month. “My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 16 years old. I come from Sweden. And I speak on behalf of future generations,” the teenage Nobel peace prize nominee told MPs. “We children are not sacrificing our education and our childhood for you to tell us what you consider is politically possible in the society that you have created … We children are doing this to wake the adults up. We children are doing this for you to put your differences aside and start acting as you would in a crisis. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.” The book takes its title from a speech Thunberg made at the COP24 UN climate talks. Penguin described her as “the voice of a generation facing the full force of climate catastrophe … quiet, angry and unafraid, speaking truth to power.” And after winning it at a publisher auction, Penguin will also release Scenes from the Heart later this year, a family memoir written jointly by her mother, the opera singer Malena Ernman, her sister Beata Ernman, her father Svante Thunberg and Greta herself. All of the family’s earnings from both books will be donated to charity. “It will be the story of the family and how they have been able to support Greta,” said commissioning editor Chloe Currens. Greta Thunberg was diagnosed with Asperger’s and selective mutism “a few years ago and rather than railing against that and trying to make her ‘normal’, they chose to support her when she said she wanted to do something about climate change.” Currens said that Thunberg had “already galvanised millions of children and adults around the world, and she’s only just getting started”. “She calls for change at the highest level – and because her message is so urgent, and so essential, we are working to make it available to as many readers as we can, as quickly as we possibly can. This little book will document an extraordinary, unprecedented moment in our history, and invite you to join in the fight for climate justice: to wake up, spread the word, and make a difference,” said the editor. There will be no foreword to the speeches. “We want to facilitate her voice, not interfere as publishers,” said Currens. “She is an incredibly clear-eyed child, speaking to adults … This is an invitation to get up and join in. There is hope in these pages, not just doom and gloom.” When asked about the environmental sustainability of producing a printed book, Penguin said that it was committed to printing all of its books on “FSC certified paper, one of the greenest possible options” by 2020, and that the book would be printed in the UK. “There is of course more we need to do help combat the climate crisis, and we are committed to supporting Greta Thunberg’s efforts to spread this message far and wide,” it said. | ['books/publishing', 'books/books', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'books/scienceandnature', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alisonflood', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-05-02T11:01:01Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2021/jun/07/climate-crisis-to-shrink-g7-economies-twice-as-much-as-covid-19-says-research | Climate crisis to shrink G7 economies twice as much as Covid-19, says research | The economies of rich countries will shrink by twice as much as they did in the Covid-19 crisis if they fail to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions, according to research. The G7 countries – the world’s biggest industrialised economies – will lose 8.5% of GDP a year, or nearly $5tn wiped off their economies, within 30 years if temperatures rise by 2.6C, as they are likely to on the basis of government pledges and policies around the world, according to research from Oxfam and the Swiss Re Institute. The economies of G7 nations contracted by about 4.2% on average in the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic losses from the climate crisis by 2050 would be roughly on the scale of suffering a similar crisis twice every year, according to the research. The UK’s economy would lose 6.5% a year by 2050 on current policies and projections, compared with 2.4% if the goals of the Paris climate agreement are met. Other nations will be hit much worse, including India, whose economy will shrink by a quarter owing to a 2.6C temperature increase, while Australia will suffer a loss of 12.5% of output, and South Korea will lose nearly a tenth of its economic potential. The leaders of the G7 countries – the UK, the US, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy – and the EU will meet in Cornwall on Friday to discuss the global economy, Covid-19 vaccines, taxes on business, and the climate crisis. The modelling by the insurance firm Swiss Re took account of the forecast direct impacts of climate breakdown, including extreme weather such as droughts and floods, as well as the effects on agricultural productivity, health and heat stress. Jerome Haegeli, group chief economist at Swiss Re, said: “Climate change is the long-term number one risk to the global economy, and staying where we are is not an option – we need more progress by the G7. That means not just obligations on cutting CO2 but helping developing countries too, that’s super-important.” He said vaccines for Covid-19 were also a key way to help developing countries, as their economies were hit hard by the pandemic and would need help to recover on a green path, rather than through boosting fossil fuels. The insurer found that policies and pledges by governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were still inadequate to meet the goals of the Paris agreement. As well as hosting the G7 summit, the UK will host vital UN climate talks, called Cop26, this November in Glasgow. Ahead of Cop26, the UK is calling on all countries to come forward with tougher pledges on carbon in order to meet the Paris targets of limiting global heating to well below 2C, and preferably no more than 1.5C, above pre-industrial levels. The lower limit is increasingly imperilled, as greenhouse gas emissions are forecast to jump sharply this year, by the second highest leap on record, owing to the rebound from the Covid-19 recession and increasing use of coal. Danny Sriskandarajah, the chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: “The climate crisis is already devastating lives in poorer countries, but the world’s most developed economies are not immune. The UK government has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the world towards a safer, more liveable planet for all of us. “It should strain every diplomatic sinew to secure the strongest possible outcome at the G7 and Cop26, and lead by example by turning promises into action and reversing self-defeating decisions like the proposed coalmine in Cumbria and cuts to overseas aid.” The record of Boris Johnson’s government has come under close scrutiny in the run-up to the G7 and Cop26 meetings. Leading figures in climate diplomacy have said the prime minister must “get a grip” of the UN talks in order to ensure their success, as rows over a proposed new coalmine, the decision to slash overseas aid from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP, and issues such as new oil and gas licences for the North Sea, the scrapping of the green homes grant and of incentives for electric vehicles, and airport expansion, have all undermined the government’s green credentials. Overseas aid has been the key sticking point for many, described as a diplomatic disaster when the success of Cop26 hinges in part on the UK persuading other rich nations at the G7 summit to come up with far higher pledges of financial assistance to the developing world, to help poor countries cut their emissions and cope with the impacts of climate breakdown. Dozens of Conservative rebels are planning to try to force the government to back down on the aid cuts in a key vote on Monday. The row, and the rise in Covid cases from new variants of the virus, threaten to overshadow what Johnson had hoped would be an uplifting meeting celebrating the success of vaccines, and laying the groundwork for a successful Cop26 in Glasgow this November. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/g7', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'business/global-economy', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'environment/environment', 'environment/paris-climate-agreement', 'environment/climate-aid', 'world/world', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'world/oxfam', 'tone/news', 'business/economicgrowth', 'type/article', 'environment/green-politics', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/climate-aid | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-06-07T06:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2013/sep/21/climate-change-ipcc-fossil-temperature | Climate change: IPCC cites global temperature rise over last century | Global surface temperatures have risen by almost a degree in the last century. Sea levels have risen, while snow and ice cover has dropped significantly. Coral reefs are being destroyed and weather patterns are becoming wilder and less predictable. And the major cause of this climatic mayhem is now clear. It is the work of humans, who are burning ever increasing amounts of fossil fuel and have raised carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by 40% in the past 250 years. That is the stark conclusion of the draft version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fifth assessment report – prepared by more than 200 leading scientists over the past two years – which will form the core of climate talks in Stockholm this week. It is the IPCC researchers' most confident statement to date of the perils facing our world. According to the report, more than half a trillion tonnes of carbon – from coal, oil and gas – have now been burned in factories, cars and homes and dumped in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. Burning a further half a trillion tonnes would add a further degree centigrade to global temperatures, it adds. Such is the rate of fossil fuel burning, which is spiralling across the planet, that a second half a trillion tonnes is likely to be consumed in a few decades. The result could be catastrophic. A further jump in temperatures could trigger events that would accelerate global warming: by releasing plumes of the greenhouse gas methane from the thawing Arctic tundra and destroying polar ice caps that play a role in reflecting solar radiation back into space. Global warming could then start to spiral out of control. Politicians and senior civil servants will this week quiz scientists about their analysis of the dangers that our world faces. No substantial changes are likely to be made to its wording, however. A scientific consensus is close to agreement – and it will make hard reading for those who reject the idea that global warming is a real danger. In the past, these climate change deniers have insisted that variations in the sun's energy or fluctuations in cosmic rays could be behind the global warming that has been observed in recent decades. Both suggestions are dismissed out of hand by the new report. In addition, scientists have tackled the apparent recent slowing of global warming observed by meteorologists around the globe. According to the new IPCC report, temperatures rose by about 0.15C a decade for the latter half of the last century. Since 1998, however, that rise has been reduced to only 0.05C. The observation has been seized upon by global warming deniers who say it is evidence that climate change is slowing down and may halt. But experts reject this claim. In fact, satellite measurements of the solar radiation entering the atmosphere, compared with the radiation being reflected back into space, show there has been no change in the rate of Earth's warming. Most researchers believe that changes in sea currents may be taking heat deep into oceans. "The heat is still coming in, but it appears to have gone into the deep ocean and, frustratingly, we do not have the instruments to measure there," said Professor Ted Shepherd of Reading University. "Global warming has certainly not gone away." This point was backed by Professor Myles Allen at Oxford University. "We have examined the forecasts made by climate scientists over the past three decades and they have been absolutely spot on in terms of predicting subsequent levels of global warming," he said. "Our climate models are robust and working well." In addition, the new report has tackled the issue of sea level rises – which was ducked in the IPCC's previous report in 2007 – and concludes that they could reach almost a metre by 2100. In the following century, those rises could reach three metres, it adds, inundating cities built on coastal regions round the world. The report also highlights the striking rate at which sea ice has disappeared from the Arctic. This is shrinking at a rate of between 3.5% and 4.1% every decade. "Satellite measurements began 35 years ago and show dramatic reductions have continued since then," said Professor Jonathan Bamber of Bristol University. Nor is this a recent phenomenon, he added. "One recent study found a way to assess sea ice cover in the Arctic over the past 1,600 years. At no point in that time were levels found to be as low as they are today. The current drop is probably the handiwork of human beings." | ['environment/ipcc', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-09-21T19:59:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2016/oct/05/climate-change-hurricane-matthew-sea-level-rise | Hurricanes will worsen as planet warms and sea levels rise, scientists warn | Major storms such as Hurricane Matthew, which has slammed into Haiti and is now headed towards the US, will grow in menace as the world warms and sea levels rise, scientists have warned. Hurricane Matthew is already feared to have caused seven deaths after it hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, bringing 145mph winds, pounding rain and storm surges to coastal communities. The category 4 storm, the strongest hurricane to hit Haiti in 50 years, is expected to surge northwards towards Florida’s east coast and up the south-eastern US coast by the weekend. It follows September’s Hurricane Hermine, which was the first hurricane to hit Florida in nearly 11 years. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s prediction of a “near-normal” Atlantic hurricane season is still on track, scientists have pointed to Hurricane Matthew as the sort of fierce lashing that will become more common due to climate change. There was previously far more certainty among climate scientists over the increase of temperatures than trends in hurricanes, but government officials are now confident enough to say there has been a “substantial increase” in Atlantic hurricane activity since the 1980s, with the destruction set to ratchet up further as the world warms. “We expect to see more high-intensity events, category 4 and 5 events, that are around 13% of total hurricanes but do a disproportionate amount of damage,” said Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The theory is robust and there are hints that we are already beginning to see it in nature.” Hurricanes draw their energy from the ocean, which is currently acting like a sponge for the extra heat accumulating in the atmosphere due to human activity. Warming is thereby supercharging hurricane wind speed, with increased moisture delivering buckets of extra rain to affected areas. Parts of Haiti are expected to get 3ft of rainfall from Hurricane Matthew. Some studies have found that while the number of hurricanes may dip slightly in the future, the most destructive events will actually increase. “There will be subtleties with hurricane frequency – it’s likely the most intense ones will increase, while it’s unclear what the weak or moderate ones will do,” said James Done, a project scientist and Willis fellow at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research. “The message is that hurricanes that do occur in the future, the major ones, will be stronger. Category four and five hurricanes could double or triple in the coming decades.” But while the wind speed may be climbing, it won’t, on its own, prove the greatest killer. The seas are rising at their fastest rate in 2,800 years, with water disproportionately piling up on the east coast of the US. Storm surges and flooding caused by hurricanes will be fueled by this heightened sea level, posing a growing threat to life and limb. “Storm surges and flooding are big killers, so this is a big worry,” Emanuel said. “If Hurricane Sandy occurred 100 years earlier it may not have flooded lower Manhattan because the sea was about 1ft lower in 1912. “We expect another 3ft in sea level rise by the end of the century, so we should expect steadily increase damage. People moving to the coast really need to be aware of climate change.” | ['world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricane-matthew', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-10-05T10:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2010/jun/16/obama-bp-spill-compensation-fund | BP bosses arrive at White House for crucial talks with Barack Obama | BP executives entered the White House for their hour of reckoning with Barack Obama today, 58 days after the explosion in the Gulf put the future of the oil company and the president in peril. The stakes of the meeting with the BP chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, chief executive, Tony Hayward, and two other company officials are high for Obama after the near-universal panning of his Oval Office address on the crisis last night. The outcome is equally critical to BP. Television footage showed the executives parading across the West Wing lobby towards their meeting. Commentators called the entrance "a perp walk". Latest government estimates suggest the volume of oil from the gusher in the gulf is up to 60,000 barrels a day – 60 times higher than the earliest estimates. Obama said in his speech that he would press BP officials to put billions of dollars in an independently managed fund to handle claims for lost revenue from workers and businesses in the Gulf. He also tried to redirect public attention to energy reform, but offered no specifics on how this would be achieved. "This fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent third party," Obama said. Senate Democrats have demanded BP put $20bn into the fund. A successful outcome from today's encounter is critical for Obama, who was under fire from Democrats as well as Republicans for failing to rise to the challenge of America's worst ever environmental crisis. Nearly six in 10 Americans want BP to pick up the tab for all losses in the spill, even if it means putting the company out of business, a Gallup-USA Today poll found. In addition, 71% of Americans think Obama has been too soft in his dealings with the oil company. Reaction to Obama's address was brutal. Television pundits attacked his 18-minute speech, in which he said he was laying down a battleplan for containing the spill and restoring the Gulf, as too late in the crisis and woefully lacking in specifics. "I thought it was a great speech if you've been on another planet for 57 days," said Keith Olbermann, the unabashedly liberal MSNBC host. Lynn Sweet, who has chronicled Obama's rise since his early days in Chicago, wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times: "He looked awkward and robotic." She added: "Obama said the right things for the situation – but deeds and accomplishments matter, not words. For starters, the underwater gusher is either contained or it is not. And right now it is not." Sarah Palin, as might be expected, was even more scathing, saying Obama had blundered by waiting until today to meet BP officials. She said she would have called on the Dutch government and other countries for technical help. "An Oval Office address is a terrible thing to waste and I think he wasted," said Ari Fleisher, a White House press secretary for George Bush. "It's too late for Barack Obama." The New York Times in an editorial welcomed Obama's pledge to use all his powers to fight the spill, but noted: "Obama and his team will have to follow through‚ with more energy and dedication than they have shown so far." Environmentalists had been looking to Obama to make a strong push for climate change proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put a price on carbon that are stalled in the Senate. There were some reports this morning that the original wording had been watered down. Obama made no specific reference to the bill. He did not even utter the words "global warming" or "climate change". But Republicans still accused him of trying to exploit the crisis to advance his energy agenda. "Somehow he thinks he can use the tragedy in the Gulf as a reason to pass cap-and-trade," said James Inhofe, the Oklahoma senator who has dismissed global warming as a hoax. "There is no relationship between the oil spill and cap-and-trade." | ['environment/bp-oil-spill', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/oil-spills', 'business/bp', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/business', 'us-news/us-news', 'business/tony-hayward', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-06-16T13:50:57Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/jun/09/civilisation-depends-on-animals-time-we-recognised-their-true-value-aoe | Our entire civilisation depends on animals. It’s time we recognised their true value | Tony Juniper | Asked to consider the value of animals, many people’s first thought would be about money. During the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, the price of dogs became a popular talking point. Others might think of the less tangible, but also very real, value they place on their relationships with companion animals, especially pets such as cats and dogs. Fewer would immediately consider the ways in which our entire civilisation rests on animals. The fact is, though, that our society and economy are embedded in a natural system that is maintained by the activities of animals, and without them, we would not be here. Animals are vital to the functioning of the biosphere in innumerable ways. Their interactions with plants, fungi and microbes sustain the conditions on which we, along with all other life, depend. For example, the great whales that sit at the pinnacle of marine food webs are linked to some of the most fundamental processes that shape conditions in our world. They eat other marine creatures, including krill, and in the process take nutrients from deeper water to be released via their faeces into the ocean, where they fertilise blooms of planktonic algae. As the plankton grow, they extract carbon from the atmosphere and release oxygen as a byproduct, keeping carbon dioxide concentrations in check and replenishing oxygen at a level that sustains animal life. Those same photosynthetic plankton, powered by sunshine, are at the base of the food webs that feed the rest of marine animal life, including fish and, ultimately, whales. Some plant plankton also release a gas called dimethyl sulphide, an important contribution to cloud formation, which sustains freshwater security on land. Tropical rainforests are another vast and vitally important system that removes carbon from the atmosphere. While we tend to think first of their trees, these complex ecosystems are held together by pollinating insects, a kind of animal glue. The myriad plants that inhabit these moist, warm forests are nearly all pollinated by bees, wasps, ants, butterflies and beetles (and some by birds and bats). Rainforest plants produce fruits, animals eat them and, in the process, move seeds around the forests. Pollinator and seed-dispersing relationships are a key, if undervalued, aspect of the carbon cycle and the climatic stability necessary for human societies and economic wellbeing. Rainforests also play a vital role in global water security, working as colossal pumps, pouring billions of tonnes of evaporated water into the atmosphere every day – 25bn from the Amazon alone. In the air, that water travels in what have been called “sky rivers”: streams of vapour that can deposit rainfall thousands of miles away, watering croplands that sustain food for humans. It is easy to miss the fundamental role of animals, large and small, in enabling all this. Many creatures also have more specific values for us. Most of the food plants we grow are dependent on animal pollination, mostly by wild insects. In recent decades, we have become obsessed with chemical pest control, but songbirds, bats and beneficial insects such as ladybirds bring billions of dollars worth of value each year in controlling aphids, caterpillars and other insects that consume or spoil crops. New drugs to treat HIV infection have been derived from frogs that live in forests and eat insects; butterflies’ wings have inspired more efficient photovoltaic technology. This reminds us how natural selection offers solutions to many of the challenges we face. Our relationship with animals also has a bearing on our exposure to disease. For example, before a steep decline in the 1990s, there were about 40 million vultures in the Indian subcontinent, playing a vital ecological role in clearing up rotting carcasses. Then the population crashed – traced to the widespread use of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac to treat livestock. As a result, the 12m tonnes of flesh these birds ate each year was available for other scavengers. India’s feral dog population rocketed as the vultures declined, which led to thousands more deaths from rabies. The more we learn about the relationships between humans and other life on Earth, the more it is apparent that we are embedded in a web of connections that have fundamental bearings on our wellbeing and security. In our modern disconnected society, this truth is too often overlooked. The value of animals is conceived as first and foremost transactional, either in terms of market prices or utilitarian value (for example, as food). If our civilisation is to survive and thrive, we must shift our collective perspective away from being primarily a self-centred species, with demands that must be met and interests that must be served, to seeing ourselves as part of a wider natural system in which we have responsibilities towards other lifeforms. This is not only an ethical agenda but a question of survival, for if we wish to continue living on Earth, our life-support systems must be protected and repaired. One way to address the crisis of perception is to foster reconnection with the web of life that sustains us. For many people, especially those in urban areas, meaningful contact with nature can be rare. Solutions can be found, for example, through teaching about nature in schools; creating allotments where people can grow food; fostering wilder spaces for recreation in and around cities; and encouraging active transport outside with walking and cycling routes in green settings. We humans are as much creatures of nature as the birds and bees. Remembering that in our day-to-day lives will help to restore our largely broken relationship with the rest of creation and benefit not only animals, but us too. Tony Juniper is chair of Natural England. This is an edited version of one of 19 essays titled What Have Animals Ever Done for Us? brought together by the RSPCA. Each calls for an urgent re-evaluation of humankind’s relationship with animals | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/whales', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'environment/environment', 'business/economics', 'business/business', 'tone/comment', 'profile/tonyjuniper', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-06-09T05:15:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/nov/02/cop26-joe-biden-lambasts-china-absence | Joe Biden lambasts China for Xi’s absence from climate summit | Joe Biden launched a stinging attack on China on Tuesday for the failure of the country’s president, Xi Jinping, to show up to the Cop26 UN climate summit, and failing to show leadership on the climate crisis. The US president said it was a “big mistake” that his Chinese counterpart had chosen not to attend the summit, where more than 120 world leaders have spent the last two days discussing ways to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C. “We showed up,” Biden told a press conference, speaking before world leaders departed, to leave the floor to their ministers and officials for two weeks of tense negotiations. “They didn’t show up … It is a gigantic issue and they just walked away,” he said, also criticising Russia and Vladimir Putin. “How do you do that and claim to have any leadership mantle?” China delivered a plan for emissions reductions on the eve of the conference that many analysts found disappointing. Under the plan, the world’s biggest emitter would cause emissions to peak by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060, targets it had already set more than a year ago and which if not improved will make it difficult for the world to stay within 1.5C, the threshold beyond which scientists warn some of the impacts of climate breakdown will become irreversible. Earlier in the day, Biden made a point of rejoining the “high ambition coalition” of developed and developing countries that ensured the 1.5C limit was included in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, reinforcing calls for big emitters to do more to cut carbon this decade. Biden added, however, that he did not seek conflict with China and indicated he could take a softer stance if China stepped up with more measures on the climate. “This is competition, not conflict,” he said. “[Tackling the climate crisis] is an economic opportunity.” Biden’s words at his final press conference reflect a hardening stance towards China more generally at the talks, from developed countries who want the world’s second biggest economy to go further, especially on phasing out coal, and developing countries who fear the 1.5C goal will slip out of reach without action to halve emissions this decade. China’s head of delegation at Glasgow, the veteran official Xie Zhenhua, was also in a forthright mood earlier in the day, accusing developed countries of having failed the rest of the world, by failing to cut emissions fast enough and by failing to provide the developing world with $100bn a year in climate finance, which has long been promised, to help poor countries cut emissions and cope with the impacts of extreme weather. China does not receive climate finance but sees itself as a champion of developing country interests. He defended China’s use of coal, saying building a limited number of new plants was necessary to bridge the gap while China updated its energy grid for more renewables, adding that the new plants were highly efficient and replaced old, inefficient plants that were being decommissioned. But he said that he had spoken extensively to John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, and to the UK’s Alok Sharma, who is president of the talks. He said those conversations had been “highly constructive”. Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said: “At Biden’s press conference we saw the whiplash of his rhetoric on climate in action. First he asks Opec to pump more oil, then describes his worry about the horrors of climate change. “To set his climate ambition straight, it would be profound and game-changing for him to return to Washington and declare a national climate emergency to halt crude oil exports. That’s just one of the tools Biden has to take transformative action on climate without Congress. Biden sounds just as worried as the rest of us, but he has power unlike anyone else’s. For the sake of us and the planet, he has to use it.” Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, delivered an upbeat assessment of the prospects for a deal at the conference that would keep the 1.5C goal within reach, despite having warned at the weekend that the chances were slim. | ['environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'us-news/joebiden', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-11-02T21:35:51Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2023/jun/29/richard-cochrane-obituary | Richard Cochrane obituary | My brother, Richard Cochrane, who has died aged 49 of motor neurone disease, was a passionate advocate for renewable energy – equal parts inventor, teacher and champion for the natural world. He lived by his values: to make the world a better place for future generations and inspire others to do so too. Even as a teenager at University College school in London, he was a keen environmentalist and enjoyed inventing and studying design and technology. Richard was born in London, at the hospital where our father, John Cochrane, was a surgeon. Our mother, Caroline (nee Potten), was also a doctor, as were many other members of the family, but we were always encouraged to follow our own paths. At Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied engineering, Richard worked and played hard, designing and flying paragliders, coaching the college women’s rowing eight and leading mountaineering expeditions in the Alps. After a period with Max Fordham engineers, he went to Darwin College, Cambridge, to study, and then teach, a master’s programme at the Martin Centre for Sustainable Buildings and Cities. In the mid-2000s Richard co-founded the low carbon building services engineering firm XCO2, and quietrevolution, a company developing and marketing an elegant helical vertical-axis wind turbine he had invented. Seven of these wind turbines were showcased at the London 2012 Olympics. Richard had a rare ability to take complex issues and make them accessible to a broad audience as a gifted, dedicated and much-loved teacher. His lifelong vocation was to teach and inspire others. In 2013 he became a professor at the University of Exeter, where he ensured his undergraduate and postgraduate students of renewable energy gained hands-on engineering experience in real-life projects to become champions for the future. Richard led the way as a vital force behind the university’s ambitious carbon net-zero plan. He was endlessly generous with his skills and knowledge. He was often to be heard in the national media speaking out on the importance of radical progress in renewable energy and was a galvanising force for positive change at the local level. He worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to inspire and co-ordinate community action to deliver low-cost renewable energy projects, plant hundreds of trees and enhance the protection of local land and marine habitats that he loved. Richard married Sarah May, and had three children, Emily, Tristan and Jamie, creating a beautiful eco home for them in Cornwall. After the divorce and his diagnosis with motor neurone disease, he continued to dedicate himself to his family, his students and the many environmental and community projects he had catalysed. He fought with remarkable cheerfulness and optimism to maintain his health, buoyed by his happy new relationship with Felicity Notley, a colleague from the university, and was still working until the week before his death. A devoted father, son and uncle, my brother is survived by his children, our parents and me, and Felicity. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'theguardian/series/otherlives', 'education/universityofexeter', 'environment/windpower', 'tone/obituaries', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2023-06-29T09:47:23Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2009/may/26/solarpower-renewableenergy | Concentrated solar power could generate 'quarter of world's energy' | Solar power stations that concentrate sunlight could generate up to one-quarter of the world's electricity needs by 2050, according to a study by environmental and solar industry groups. The technology, best suited to the desert regions of the world, could also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and save millions of tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Concentrating solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto water. This produces steam that can then turn turbines and generate electricity. It differs from photovoltaics, which use solar panels to turn sunlight directly into electricity and can operate even on overcast days. CSP only works in places where there are many days with clear skies and is a proven, reliable technology. At the end of 2008 CSP capacity was around 430MW, and worldwide investment in the technology will reach €2bn (£1.8bn) this year, according to Sven Teske of Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. He said investment could increase, under a relatively moderate scenario, to €11.1bn by 2010 and provide 7% of the world's generating capacity by 2030. By 2050 investment could reach €92.5bn, creating almost 2m jobs by 2050 and saving 2.1bn tonnes of CO2 every year. "Due to the feed-in tariff in Spain and a few schemes in the US, this technology is actually taking off and we wanted to highlight that we have a third big technology to fight climate change — wind, photovoltaics and now CSP," said Teske. Spain is leading the field on CSP: more than 50 solar projects in the country have been approved for construction by the government and, by 2015, it will generate more than 2GW of power from CSP, comfortably exceeding current national targets. Spanish companies are also exporting their technology around the world. Environmentalists argue that many countries in the "sun-belt" around the equator would benefit from CSP technology — including desert regions in the southern United States, north Africa, Mexico, China and India. The new study, carried out by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPACES group, looked at three scenarios of future growth in CSP. The first was business-as-usual reference scenario that assumed no increases at all in CSP; the second continued the CSP investments seen in recent years in places such as Spain and the US; while the advanced scenario was most optimistic, removing all political and investment barriers to give figures for the true potential of CSP. Under the third, most optimistic, scenario there could be a giant surge in investments to €21bn a year by 2015 and €174bn a year by 2050, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. In this case, solar plants would have installed capacity of 1,500GW by 2050 and provide 25% of the world's electricity capacity. Even in the second scenario, which sees only modest increases, the world's combined CSP capacity could reach 830GW by 2050, representing up to 12% of the world's energy generation needs. Teske acknowledged that these estimates were far higher than official figures from the IEA. It says that by 2050, CSP would provide only0.2% of global power generation. But Teske added that the IEA analysis does not assume any increases in production capacity in the next few decades, hence CSP forms a very small part of the overall energy mix. The new report also said that CSP technology was improving rapidly, with many new power plants fitted with storage systems for steam so that they could continue to operate at night. In addition it said the cost of the electricity produced , currently at €0.15 to €0.23 a kilowatt, would fall to €0.10-€0.14 by 2020 if governments continued to support the technology with incentives such as feed-in tarriffs. | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/deserts', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/spain', 'tone/news', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2009-05-26T15:57:00Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2012/mar/15/wind-turbines-lyveden-new-bield | Wind turbines: are they an eyesore? | Open thread | A "Tudor treasure" is threatened by the relentless march of windfarms, looming above it like the aliens from The War of the Worlds, according to the Daily Mail. The extent to which the rather grim ruins of Lyveden New Bield constitute a "treasure" is open to debate, however. Some might argue that the clean, graceful lines of the planned wind turbines spruce up the view considerably. As windfarms become increasingly common in the British countryside, we'd like to know whether you think they're a blight on the landscape. Perhaps some of the gangly creatures have made their home near you, changing familiar views. What's your experience of them? • Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree | ['commentisfree/series/openthread', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2012-03-15T13:44:57Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2019/oct/28/california-wildfires-kincade-fire-getty-power-outage | California wildfires: violent winds fuel Kincade blaze as Getty fire burns in LA | California firefighters raced against time on Monday to bring a raging wine country wildfire under control amid a lull in the weather, with warnings that the extreme winds fueling fires across the state could pick up again soon. Violent winds of up to 100mph helped the Kincade fire, currently the largest burning in the state, to double in size over the weekend. The fire has scorched nearly 75,000 acres, destroyed more than 120 structures, and forced an unprecedented evacuation of more than 185,000 people in the area. In the south of the state, a blaze broke out in the early morning near the Getty art museum in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, hailed “a lot of amazing heroes” while warning residents to heed evacuation warnings. “If you have an evacuation notice and you are still in your home, leave. We have seen tragedies before ... get your loved ones and your pets and go,” he said. No deaths from either blaze were reported, but a firefighter was seriously injured in the wine country fire in Sonoma county. The winds wound down Monday morning but forecasters predicted the respite would be brief. The Weather Channel reported that the state would see a third round of fire danger on Tuesday and southern California could see its highest winds yet. Meanwhile, more than 2 million people remained without electricity, after the state’s largest utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric, shut off power over the weekend to prevent its equipment from sparking blazes. PG&E said it was slowly restoring power to customers, but it warned that more deliberate blackouts were possible in the coming days because of the new round of high winds in the forecast. Roughly 741,000 homes or businesses were still without power on Monday afternoon, according to the company. In Los Angeles, the Getty fire broke out at 1.34am local time near the museum and the 405 Freeway, in dry brush. The Getty Center said its museum grounds remained safe as of Monday morning, with the fire burning to the north and west of the property. The art was also protected by “state-of-the-art technology”, the center said, adding, “The safest place for the art and library collections is inside.” The Getty fire forced the evacuation of the NBA star LeBron James and the former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the Terminator star tweeting that his neighbors should flee when ordered: “If you are in an evacuation zone, don’t screw around. Get out.” The flames also threatened Mount St Mary’s University, a local college, and a spokeswoman said all 450 students were evacuated to the university’s campus near downtown. The region is no stranger to destructive fires. In 2017, the Skirball fire destroyed six Bel Air homes, valued at roughly $20m. Last week, the nearby Pacific Palisades fire also damaged several multimillion-dollar homes near the beach. There are more than a dozen fires burning across the state, and with no rain in the forecast and more winds, the outlook in the coming days is grim. “This is when we have the most potential for large and damaging fires,” said Thom Porter, chief of the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire). “All of California is in play right now.” The high winds expected in southern California could help spread the Getty fire if firefighters in Los Angeles are not able to contain it by the time the winds pick up. And conditions could complicate efforts to extinguish the still-burning Kincade fire, which as of Monday morning was only 5% contained. The National Weather Service predicted that southern California could see the highest winds of the season, with its peak expected on Wednesday and gusts of up to 80mph in the mountains. High winds, low-humidity and dry vegetation can be a deadly combination for wildfires. Conditions statewide made California “a tinderbox”, said Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for the California department of forestry and fire protection. For residents in both north and south, fleeing wildfires has become a way of life. In the city of Santa Rosa, some residents have only just returned to homes destroyed by the 2017 northern California fires, which killed 44 people, when they were forced to flee the Kincade blaze. Coffey Park, a dense neighborhood in north Santa Rosa, is still deep in the midst of rebuilding. With smoke from the fire bearing down over the weekend, many Coffey Park residents had evacuated. But on Sunday, one woman stood in the doorway of her home that she recently, finally finished rebuilding after wildfires in 2017. She covered her face with her hands. “I’m not leaving again,” said Debbie, who decline to give her last name. “This time I’m gonna stay and I’m gonna burn in my house.” PG&E, which was driven into bankruptcy because of legal claims over its role in several deadly wildfires in recent years, admitted on Monday that despite the outages, its power lines might have started two smaller fires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has also said its transmission lines may have been responsible for the Kincade fire. The utility has been roundly criticized for its handling of the blackouts, the first of which came early in October. And in a new, 230-page report made public on Monday, PG&E acknowledged “significant shortcomings”, admitting that its communication with customers and agencies was inadequate. With heavy smoke spilling out over the Bay Area on Monday, commuters noticed a new trend: a growing number of area residents donning air masks that can help filter particles floating in the smoky air. Experts recommend that residents limit their time outdoors, but the thousands of people forced to sleep outdoors as a result of the housing crisis don’t have that luxury. A local organization, Mask Oakland, has been organizing volunteers to hit the streets and hand out air masks to the homeless. | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'business/pacific-gas-and-electric-company', 'world/natural-disasters', '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 | 2019-10-28T23:33:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2016/oct/14/el-salvador-world-bank-tribunal-dismisses-oceanagold-mining-firm-250m-claim | World Bank tribunal dismisses mining firm's $250m claim against El Salvador | An international tribunal has dismissed a multinational mining company’s demand that the government of El Salvador pay $250m (£205m) in compensation for refusing to allow it to dig for gold in the tiny Central American country where the slogan, “No to mining, yes to life” has become a national rallying cry. The tribunal, which ruled that OceanaGold’s case was without merit, also ordered the firm to pay the Salvadoran government $8m to cover the majority of the country’s legal costs. “For the people of Cabanas who have been fighting to defend their environment, it is mission accomplished,” said El Salvador’s attorney general, Douglas Meléndez Ruiz. “It is an important step for the country to have been victorious in this lawsuit.” While an OceanaGold statement expressed disappointment at the verdict, the outcome was celebrated by civil society groups from El Salvador to Canada, although they questioned why the ruling in a case dating back to 2009 had taken so long. Bernardo Belloso, president of the Association for the Development of El Salvador, part of a national roundtable opposed to metallic mining, said the ruling “vindicates our right to determine our own development path”. But he added: “This is a law suit that should never have been allowed. The millions of dollars that El Salvador has spent in legal costs could have been used to strengthen badly needed social programmes in our country.” The verdict marks the culmination of more than seven years of deliberations, largely behind closed doors, at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). In 2009, the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim – since acquired by the Australian-Canadian mining firm OceanaGold – filed a case at the centre claiming that El Salvador had unfairly refused to grant it a concession to start digging at its El Dorado mining project. The company said the government had encouraged it to spend “tens of millions of dollars to undertake mineral exploration activities” near the central Salvadoran department of Cabañas, only to withhold necessary permits once valuable deposits were discovered. At the same time, the firm sued El Salvador alleging the loss of potential profits. The sum sought by the company, which was revised several times over the course of the dispute, at one point exceeded $300m – almost twice the $158m in international aid that El Salvador received in 2014. El Salvador, where almost a third of the population lives under the national poverty line, spent more than $12m on its legal defence. It maintained throughout the case that OceanaGold failed to meet regulatory requirements for the requested permits. The country said OceanaGold lacked crucial environmental permissions, did not hold the rights to much of the land required for its project, and failed to submit a final feasibility study. The ICSID case against El Salvador is one of hundreds that corporations have filed against governments under the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, a mechanism enshrined in thousands of international trade and investment treaties and some domestic laws. The system has become a flashpoint for opposition to the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and Europe, which would further extend the reach of ISDS. Jen Moore, Latin America programme coordinator at MiningWatch Canada, said: “This ruling is a relief, but it is not a win. This already costly suit should never have been able to take place. For seven years, it has put a chill on policymaking that could respect the decision of Salvadorans to prohibit metal mining and protect local communities and the environment.” Too many corporations, she added, have used the ISDS system to “bully governments and undermine local opposition to mining given its devastating impacts, and this must stop”. Meera Karunananthan, a water campaigner for the Council of Canadians, said the case against El Salvador should serve as a cautionary tale. “Salvadoran movements have been pushing for bold initiatives addressing the country’s environmental challenges, including a more robust water policy and a permanent ban on metal mining, but these policy proposals have been stalled under the threat of this lawsuit,” she said. “As long as the country is forced to adhere to trade and investment rules that enabled the lawsuit in the first place, it will be extremely challenging for Salvadorans to maintain their sovereignty over environmental and social policy.” Manuel Pérez-Rocha, an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, said: “The fact that it took more than seven years to release the ruling, and that a country with so many economic difficulties like El Salvador has had to pay millions for its defence, is immoral and shows the complete discretion with which these tribunals sponsored by the World Bank, and its infamous ICSID arm, operate.” OceanaGold said in a statement that it had inherited the dispute when it acquired Pacific Rim and had always sought an amicable resolution that “would benefit all parties”. The statement added: “The company believes that a modern resource industry that operates in a safe and sustainable manner and within internationally recognised best practices has the potential to unlock a sustainable and multi-decade development opportunity for the Republic of El Salvador. However, the company recognises that the Government will need to take positive and definitive steps towards establishing a stable business environment if it wishes to attract foreign investment to establish this opportunity.” | ['global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/governance-and-development', 'world/el-salvador', 'global-development/global-development', 'global-development/transparency-and-development', 'environment/mining', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'business/worldbank', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/claire-provost', 'profile/matt-kennard', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2016-10-14T20:59:18Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2023/may/16/ministers-calling-for-facial-recognition-technology-in-police-bodycams | Ministers looking at body-worn facial recognition technology for police | Ministers are calling for facial recognition technology to be “embedded” in everyday policing, including potentially linking it to the body-worn cameras officers use as they patrol streets. Until now, police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been limited to special operations such as football matches or the coronation. Prof Fraser Sampson, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, said the potential expansion was “very significant” and that “the Orwellian concerns of people, the ability of the state to watch every move, is very real”. The government’s intentions were revealed in a document produced for the surveillance camera commissioner, discussing changes to the oversight of technology and surveillance. It said: “This issue is made more pressing given the policing minister [Chris Philp] expressed his desire to embed facial recognition technology in policing and is considering what more the government can do to support the police on this. Such embedding is extremely likely to include exploring integration of this technology with police body-worn video.” Sampson confirmed its accuracy as did a Home Office spokesperson, with the document summarising a government-organised meeting held last month to discuss the technology. Body-worn video was brought in to capture evidence, and interactions between officers and the public. The small cameras can currently capture video in high definition and it is technically possible to link them to live facial recognition (LFR), a system that matches the biometrics of people’s faces against those held on a watchlist. Sampson said: “A camera on an officer walking down the street could check the faces against a watchlist of suspects. They could check hundreds if not thousands of people while on duty. “The technology will be capable of doing many things, not all of which the public would want. In China the algorithm can pick up ethnicity. “It will be able to estimate age; some manufacturers claim it can estimate someone’s mood or state of anxiety.” Sampson said the rules for LFR until now were not devised by parliament, but interpreted in a hurry after authorities including the police lost court cases over the use of the technology. He said: “If the use is unconstrained then no one is in any position to give guarantees about what comparisons LFR is making, what conclusions it is drawing and what the consequences are for you. Policing is based on consent and trust and confidence is vital to policing.” He added: “The Orwellian concerns of people, the ability of the state to watch every move, is very real and that needs to be addressed in any future regulatory framework about the state’s use of this technology.” A Home Office spokesperson said the government backed greater use of facial recognition. “The government is committed to empower the police to use new technologies like facial recognition in a fair and proportionate way. Facial recognition plays a crucial role in helping the police tackle serious offences including murder, knife crime, rape, child sexual exploitation and terrorism.” Emmanuelle Andrews of Liberty, which opposes any use of LFR, said: “If the government is intent on rolling out Big Brother-style facial recognition technology, subjecting more and more people to this invasive practice, it infringes the right to go about our lives without being surveilled and monitored by the police.” Police believe live facial recognition could be the next big leap in fighting crime, essentially industrialising the spotting of wanted people. Lindsey Chiswick, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for facial recognition, said: “As the exploitation of technology and data increasingly benefits society, it is right that policing also considers how new technology can help to prevent crime in an effective, well-governed and proportionate way. “With transparency, accountability and appropriate standards, we believe the use of emerging technology can help policing tackle crime and ultimately keep communities safe.” The Met used LFR at the coronation resulting in one arrest from 68,000 faces scanned, figures show. Three sites were set up, with LFR cameras close to the Savoy and Bridge Street in Westminster, which scanned nearly 38,000 faces and produced no alerts against a list of 10,451 people police regarded as suspects. An LFR camera set up in Piccadilly scanned 30,633 faces, produced two alerts, one of which led to an arrest and one of which led to no further action. The Met data claims there were no false alerts. The Met did not say what the arrest was for. The academic expert Pete Fussey questioned the amount of human and technical resources required for the one arrest, and the scale of human rights infringement involved: “These statistics raise legitimate questions over the proportionality of such tactics given the established legal principle that the human rights of all those whose faces are scanned are engaged, whether they are wanted by the police or not.” The Home Office says a new bill that would abolish the role of the surveillance camera commissioner simplifies “the oversight of police use of biometrics and surveillance cameras”, making it easier for “police and public” to understand. Others say it would lead to less oversight just as the dangers of the technology become greater with its widespread use. Sampson disagreed with the government: “There is a difference between simplification and abolition.” | ['uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'world/surveillance', 'world/privacy', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/vikramdodd', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-05-16T17:28:34Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2021/oct/23/christmas-bin-collections-in-uk-at-risk-as-lorry-drivers-quit | Christmas bin collections in UK at risk as lorry drivers quit | Households are being warned of a “Christmas crisis” in bin collections as drivers quit their jobs for better pay working for supermarkets and food hauliers. Bin lorry drivers are being offered pay deals worth as much as £40,000 a year to switch to jobs in the food industry. One council in Lancashire said last week it had lost almost half of its drivers in the last three months. Residents in councils from Devon to London to Peterborough have already seen some collections suspended or delayed. There have also been complaints about overflowing bins and missed rounds in areas affected by staff shortages. Bin lorry drivers earning about £25,000 a year can boost their salaries by more than 60% by going to work for supermarkets, food hauliers or online retailers. Jacob Hayler, executive director of the Environmental Services Association, the trade body representing the UK’s waste management industry, said there was a vacancy rate for driving jobs of about 15% among waste contractors. He called for the government to include HGV drivers among the list of shortage occupations and increase the number of lorry driving tests to avoid a “Christmas crisis”. He said. “The UK is short more than 100,000 HGV drivers, resulting in disrupted collections that will only come under greater pressure as we near Christmas – when waste volumes typically rise by 30%.” The latest figures from the Local Government Association workforce survey show bin services in more than half of councils which responded in England and Wales were being disrupted by staff shortages. Ribble Valley council in Lancashire said last week that six of its 13 drivers had resigned and it was struggling to fill the posts. Stephen Atkinson, leader of the council, said: “We are maintaining a full service, but are seeing a huge turnover in drivers.” Council leaders in Devon warned there were vacancy rates of up to 20% for bin lorry drivers. Alistair Dewhirst, deputy leader of Teignbridge council in south Devon, said the council had 11 vacancies in its team of 52 drivers in its waste collection service and councils were competing with supermarkets and their suppliers for drivers. He said: “There has always been a risk of drivers being poached, but we’ve never seen anything like this. We’re also having to collect more waste because of people working at home. ” Councils in Devon, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Cambridgeshire have suspended garden waste services. Haringey council in north London said last week that its waste collections may be delayed by up to 72 hours “due to the effects national HGV driver shortages [have] on our operations”. Croydon council in south London has told residents of the “severe” impact on waste collection services because of driver shortages, informing residents their refuse teams “will get to you as soon as possible”. Nadia Sawalha, the actor, who lives in south London, tweeted earlier this month: “Croydon council!! Massive bills from you and only one of my bins has been taken?!! Where am I supposed to put my rubbish???” Another resident in Croydon tweeted: “The local service is failing & residents are left with overflowing bins/awful smells.” Two of the biggest council waste services contractors, Amey and Veolia, are now offering signing-up bonuses of £1,500 to recruit drivers for council waste collection services. Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, which represents some of the major firms involved in refuse collection and recycling, said: “The shortage of heavy goods drivers is having a profound impact. If you’re a driver you can go to the highest bidder and that is often the supermarket hauliers. It’s driving up costs for everyone.” David Renard, leader of Swindon council and LGA environment spokesperson, said councils were working with the government to support more training. He said: “Fast-inflating HGV driver salaries in the private sector risks exacerbating issues in the public sector, with the rises potentially creating a retention as well as a recruitment problem for councils and their contractors.” A spokesperson said the government had increased capacity for HGV driving tests. “We are moving to a high-wage, high-skilled economy and the government is encouraging all sectors to adapt and make employment more attractive to UK domestic workers through offering training, careers options and wage increases.” | ['business/supply-chain-crisis', 'world/road-transport', 'society/localgovernment', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jon-ungoed-thomas', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-10-23T15:00:44Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2007/dec/21/windpower.useconomy | Production falls short of target, warns wind turbine firm | Clipper Windpower, the Aim-listed, US-based wind turbine manufacturer, yesterday warned that only a handful of its turbines will contribute to this year's earnings. Clipper had previously said revenues from 35 of the 125 turbines produced at its plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, would be recognised in this year's figures. Yesterday, however, it said commissioning delays meant only eight turbines, which were produced late in 2006, would be counted. Revenues and gross profits from the balance would be taken in 2008, the company said. The turbine maker, listed on the London junior market two years ago, said it expected production in 2008 would meet the 311 firm orders for its turbines. It also said the energy group AES had ordered 50 of its turbines for delivery in 2009. James Dehlsen, chairman and chief executive, said the company was producing at "the low end" of a range of 20 to 30 wind turbines a month. The explosion in demand for wind power has left some companies struggling to fulfill orders. Vestas Wind Systems, the world's biggest turbine builder, recently said it was taking up to 15 months to source vital equipment because of low manufacturing capacity. It expected the problem to persist for several years. Clipper, which had previously announced it had suffered problems in the drivetrains on its Liberty turbines, said it was reinforcing turbine blades to ensure they lasted the 20-year design life. "The company has dealt with turbine and production 'teething' issues expeditiously and with thoroughness, strengthening the relationship with existing customers," Clipper said in a trading update. It said information on costs of the remediation and reinforcement work would be given next month. Last night Clipper shares closed up 3.5p at 691p. At its current market price the company is valued at more than £740m. | ['business/useconomy', 'business/marketturmoil', 'business/business', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/markmilner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2007-12-21T10:30:29Z | true | ENERGY |
science/political-science/2015/mar/16/climate-politics-does-the-ipcc-have-a-future | Climate Politics: Does the IPCC Have a Future? | With the upcoming Paris climate negotiations in December this year (COP21) and the decisions beginning to be made about the next (6th) IPCC Assessment, both international climate policy and climate science are at a crossroads. I believe the IPCC must continue to offer scientifically rigorous, yet policy-neutral, assessments of climate change knowledge. That is why I am standing for election as the next IPCC Chair and I explain my reasons below. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the main organization informing policy-makers about the state of climate change science. Now that the human influence on the climate system has been deemed ‘clear’ by IPCC and that a long-term goal has been agreed (reduce emissions so that global mean warming would stay below 2°C, or possibly 1.5°C, above the pre-industrial level), humanity knows it must stop ignoring the ‘inconvenient truth’ of climate change. The debate has shifted from a scientific one 40 years ago to a very political one today, involving economic interests, geopolitics, different priorities given to environment or development, and a clash between short-term and long-term visions. The IPCC mandate is to assess, in the most rigorous, inclusive, and transparent way, the ‘scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation’. Does a body such as IPCC still serve a purpose in this context? Yes. I am convinced that IPCC has an essential mandate, more important than ever. For 20 years, the world has tried to finesse the scientific evidence of climate change. Precious time has been lost to engage in sufficiently ambitious mitigation and adaptation policies under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The room for manoeuver is very limited to avoid the ‘severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts’ that the IPCC has warned about in its last Report. Adaptation has the potential to reduce some risks. But it cannot reduce all of them, especially if the international climate stabilization targets, which require net global emissions reduced to zero well before the end of this century, are not met. When manoeuvring a vehicle in limited space, one must be very well informed about both the surrounding risks and the available options. This is what the IPCC must do, and continue to do, in a scientifically rigorous, but policy-neutral, way: assess the risks, the options and the processes for reaching decisions. But the IPCC must do so in an even more inclusive manner than in the past, involving more scientists from developing countries in particular. It must encourage all authors to work better across disciplinary boundaries. The next assessment by the IPCC must ensure the best team spirit, with a sense of accountability and ownership that is shared by all. For the IPCC to be relevant, it must also continue to improve its communication with policymakers and with the public. This is an area I am proud to have contributed to as Vice-chair in charge of designing the implementation plan for the IPCC Communication strategy. The IPCC products need to be more accessible, more readable, and translated into different languages faster. The IPCC should make more effort to reach out to different audiences, seek greater transparency in how it works and show more responsiveness on social media. It should consider new partnerships with other organisations to address specific audiences. To make sure all of this happens during the next assessment cycle, the IPCC needs a strong leader, a team builder, who dedicates herself or himself full time as IPCC Chair (see my platform). Having worked as a climate scientist for the last 35 years, I am lucky that my University will allow me to take that unpaid full-time position if I am elected, and continue to pay my salary. I shall be speaking about the future of the IPCC at King’s College London, at 6.30pm on Thursday, March 26th. I look forward to meeting the UK scientific community and stakeholders at this event and to listening to their comments and suggestions about the future of IPCC. Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Candidate IPCC Chair (Vice-Chair for now), Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium (@JPvanYpersele) | ['science/political-science', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'science/science', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris', 'type/article'] | environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-03-16T11:08:13Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2006/feb/18/2 | Investors rush into mining stocks after Lonmin confirms bid approach | Platinum miner Lonmin, the rump of the late Tiny Rowland's former Lonrho empire, yesterday fuelled the stock market's bid frenzy by admitting it is in early takeover talks. Lonmin, valued at £3bn before yesterday and on course for entry into the FTSE 100 index, saw its shares surge 25% as investors bet that a bid would have to be worth at least £4bn to succeed. Its statement was prompted by a rise in its share price and reports in this newspaper of a potential predator. The group refused to identify the possible bidder, but Gold Fields of South Africa, Barrick Gold of Canada or Xstrata, the Swiss-based group which is listed in London, are regarded by City analysts as the most likely. Lonmin's statement, stressing that talks are at "a very preliminary stage" and an offer might not materialise, ran to just three sentences but added billions to the value of mining companies. A £4bn takeover would be seen by the market as a sign that insiders think the commodities boom, which has pushed the prices of many metals to their highest levels for years, is not yet close to a peak. Anglo American, like Lonmin concentrated in South Africa, was the biggest beneficiary, up 6% to £21.45. Xstrata, also with heavy exposure to that country, was 3.4% higher at £16.36. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto improved about 2.5% and impact was felt at two of the FTSE 100's more exotic firms - copper miners Kazakhmys of Kazakhstan and Antofagasta of Chile, both up more than 3%. Lonmin owns four platinum mines in South Africa, the world's largest producer, and booming prices for all commodities in the past few years have vastly improved their profitability. The main demand is from the car and jewellery industries and the group itself has been bullish on the platinum price, now at a 25-year high. "I wouldn't be surprised if the price continues to move upward," said chief executive Brad Mills last November when reporting an 11% rise in pre-tax profits. He said then that the group, the third-largest platinum miner in South Africa, would aim to lift production to a million ounces a year. At that rate, is reserves would last about 80 years. The bulk of Lonmin's platinum interests were bought by Rowland in the 1960s, near the outset of a 30-year career in which he built Lonrho into a diverse conglomerate and a vehicle through which to pursue a series of business vendettas, most famously over Harrods with Mohamed Al Fayed. The South African platinum interests were one constant in Lonrho. When Rowland was finally ousted in 1997, after being outmanoeuvred by his one-time ally and recruit Dieter Bock, the company split into two. Lonrho kept all the mining interests and Lonrho Africa took all other assets. Rowland's successors waited less than a year after his death in 1998 to distance themselves from his legacy by giving the core company the unimaginative name of Lonmin. Though it has often contemplated expansion away from platinum, that metal has helped to turn the company into a stock market star as investors warmed to South African assets. | ['business/marketforceslive', 'business/business', 'business/african-barrick-gold', 'environment/mining', 'business/lonmin', 'type/article', 'profile/nilspratley'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2006-02-18T01:31:00Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2023/oct/03/guardian-youth-gambling-call-out | Are you an Australian parent or teacher concerned about youth gambling? Share your story with us | It’s easier than ever for children to gamble from their smartphones and laptops, and as a Guardian Australia investigation has found, children as young as 10 are getting hooked. Children and teenagers are less cognitively mature than adults, less able to assess risk, and more susceptible to perceiving ads as entertaining – especially when the advertising is endorsed by celebrities and influencers. High schools are grappling with children betting on apps and laptops when they should be socialising or learning, and it has been described in the medical literature as “a neglected and worsening public health issue”. Young people addicted to gambling are entering adulthood depressed, anxious, unable to concentrate, and dealing with relationship issues and debt. This Community callout closed on 30 October 2024. You can see the articles this callout contributed to here. You can contribute to open Community callouts here or Share a story here. | ['australia-news/series/the-youth-gambling-crisis', 'australia-news/gambling-australia', 'australia-news/australian-education', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'campaign/callout/aus-series-youth-gambling-in-australia', 'profile/guardian-community-team', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-investigations'] | australia-news/series/the-youth-gambling-crisis | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-10-02T14:00:14Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2018/oct/02/cyber-racism-uk-black-history-month-website-attacked | 'Cyber-racism': UK Black History Month website attacked | The UK Black History Month website has been brought down by hackers for a second time in 24 hours in what its editors believe to be a case of “cyber-racism”. The website, which includes resources for schools and details of forthcoming events, first fell prey to a cyber-attack at 8.45am on Monday. Its IT team worked through the night and the site came back online on Tuesday morning, but was attacked again. It was again restored on Tuesday afternoon, but the website’s editors warned that further attacks were possible. Patrick Vernon, the editor of Black History Month magazine, said the initial attack was tracked to an IP address in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. He said: “Our website is the most popular in the UK on black history. I think it was done deliberately to ensure the content’s not available or accessible. I believe as a result of the Windrush scandal, there’s been a real interest in black history. “People are now speaking about the black experience in a more public way than a few years ago, and whoever has done this wants to stop it. It’s very clear, I think. What we are experiencing now is part of a wider context of cyber-racism.” The Black History Month website is online throughout the year, but interest peaks in October, when it contains listings of thousands of commemorative events and a print magazine produced to mark the occasion is uploaded on to the website. Vernon said: “We thought initially it was because Black History Month was trending, because there has been a lot of interest on social media and in newspapers, including the Guardian. It is very clear that it has been targeted by hackers in the UK. We don’t know who it is, but it’s clear whoever they are picked on us yesterday deliberately [on the first day of Black History Month].” Visitors to the website were greeted with the message: “The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit. Please try again later.” Vernon said the attacks had not yet been reported to police because the priority was to work with the site’s IT team to get the website up and running again. The former Hackney councillor, who has campaigned on behalf of the Windrush generation, said the incidents had to be seen in the light of a rise in racism being directed against Asian and black people online, which he said he had personal experience of. Vernon also cited the fact that in the run-up to last year’s general election, the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, received almost half of all the abusive tweets sent to female MPs, according to research by Amnesty International. This year’s Black History Month has attracted significant attention, not just because of the Windrush anniversary, but also because campaigners have complained that a number of councils have scrapped the name, describing it instead as a celebration of all ethnicities, leading to accusations of appropriation. | ['uk/blackhistorymonth', 'world/race', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'technology/cybercrime', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'society/society', 'technology/hacking', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/haroonsiddique', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-10-02T12:02:12Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2010/oct/12/rspb-conservation-funding | RSPB calls for new measures to raise conservation funds | New funding – including a levy on new homes, taxes on gardeners and farmers, and payments by businesses for natural services such as clean water – is needed to meet targets to protect and restore nature, the UK's biggest conservation charity says today. Hundreds of millions of pounds a year are already needed to meet the gap between the funds and need for conservation, and this is likely to get worse after government spending cuts expected later this month, says the RSPB. The report, Financing nature in an age of austerity, is a warning that ministers cannot rely on David Cameron's "big society" to take over conservation work the government cannot afford unless new measures to raise money are brought forward. The Guardian has revealed, for example, that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has considered a proposal to sell or give away nature reserves which it can no longer afford to maintain - but charities say they cannot afford the upkeep, especially with a fall in their donations, legacies and grants. "Financing will be critical to meeting biodiversity goals in the future," says the RSPB's head of sustainable development, Martin Harper, in the report's introduction. "If we do not fund nature, we will continue to miss our environmental goals, and leave a world for our children that is more impoverished than the one we enjoyed." The UK, Europe and world leaders have all failed to meet targets to halt or slow biodiversity loss by this year, with latest figures showing one in four of the UK's more threatened species and more than 40% of endangered habitats are declining. The UK has already agreed to a new European target to stop and restore damage by the end of the new decade, and new global targets are expected at a major meeting in Nagoya, Japan later this month. The new government has promised to be the "greenest ever", and the coalition agreement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties specifically pledged halt biodiversity loss, restore habitats, protect new areas at sea, and increase environmental taxes. However a consultants' report on protecting priority species and habitats has already warned there is a shortfall in funds of £275m a year, on top of which are the expected costs of promised marine protection areas, restoring sites of special scientific interest and other programmes, says the RSPB. The charity says it has identified four areas for raising more money for conservation: • Conservation credits, under which developers would fund restoration work to "offset" damage done, or a simpler scheme to levy an average £500 one-off charge on new homes to compensate for the "land take"; • New taxes on specifically damaging practices such as peat removal (which alone could raise £66m-£165m a year assuming gardeners did not switch to other products), and fertilisers and pesticides; • Encouraging more companies, individuals and other non-government organisations to pay for conservation, using a range of measures from regulations and eco-labels to public education; • Getting more private organisations to pay for "ecosystem services", such as a company paying farmers to use fewer chemicals to reduce the cost of clean water. Some ideas could be enacted quickly - such as new taxes and regulations - while others might need some years to develop, such as private finance for ecosystem services, Harper told the Guardian. Schemes such as conservation off-sets, which Conservatives have previously supported, would need to be compulsory, or take-up would not be high enough, said Harper. The government's "rhetoric" on conservation had been very encouraging, said Harper, as well as the statement by environment secretary Caroline Spelman that biodiversity would be her top priority. However he acknowledged that some of the suggestions would be unpopular with elements in the Conservative party who wanted less state intervention, and given concern about new taxes in a recession. Individuals though would be "very much led by the regulatory climate and by the way in which businesses are operating", and most businesses, in turn, would need more encouragement to take care of and nurture natural resources like clean air and water the mostly enjoy for free, said Harper. "We can ask the public to do more, we hope for that, but if that's not sufficient we need new [government] incentives," he added. | ['environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/water', 'environment/farming', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliettejowit', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-10-12T06:00:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/sep/14/federal-environmental-oversight-costs-vastly-overstated-analysis-finds | Federal environmental oversight costs 'vastly overstated', analysis finds | The Coalition’s bid to speed up environmental approvals for developments such as mines and ports will not save businesses as much money as claimed and will weaken protection for vulnerable species and ecosystems, according to a new report. The analysis, by WWF-Australia and the Australia Institute, comes as the federal government presses ahead with plans to devolve environmental oversight of projects to the states, despite the move being blocked in the Senate last year. The House of Representatives voted on Monday to allow states to handle the so-called “water trigger”, which is used to scrutinise the impact of mining upon groundwater supplies. The government hopes to hand over all environmental assessments and approvals to the states in a “one-stop shop”, a move it says will simplify and speed up decision making. The federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, has said national oversight of projects “adds complexity and costs”, adding “we can cut red tape and streamline approvals, and importantly, we can do it without compromising high environmental standards”. An analysis by Hunt’s department estimates that businesses will save $417m a year by not waiting for federal, as well as state, approval for projects. An additional $9m in administration costs will be saved by not having to deal with two different application forms, according to the government. This stance has been backed by the Minerals Council of Australia and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, which have both bemoaned economically damaging delays to coal and gas projects. “The industry does not seek to remove or diminish environmental standards or safeguards,” the MCA,’s chief executive, Brendan Pearson, wrote to MPs. “Rather, the minerals industry seeks only to create a more streamlined process in meeting environmental outcomes through the removal of unnecessary and costly duplication.” But this argument has been challenged by WWF, which attacks industry justification for the move as being based upon “woefully inadequate economics”. Its analysis argues that delays and costs are vastly overstated, with many of the approvals processes happening concurrently. It also points out that the $417m saving estimate assumes that all proposed projects will immediately proceed, when many are scrapped owing to unfavourable economic conditions. “Teenagers view the cost of waiting until they turn 16 before learning to drive as a ‘delay cost’,” it states. “Most parents view this delay as a necessary risk mitigation strategy, while the wider community enjoys the obvious benefits of not having 14-year-olds driving cars. “Most of the [mining industry] documents reviewed here take the teenagers’ point of view. Worse, much of the economic assessment is also of teenage standard.” The report adds that mining lobby groups have slanted their arguments to favour their members, rather than the national interest, and points out that very few projects have been rejected under the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. “If passed, these amendments will limit our ability nationally to protect the places and iconic creatures Australians love,” said Dermot O’Gorman, chief executive of WWF-Australia. “The $417m in cost savings quoted by the government to justify the one-stop shop cannot be taken seriously because the government’s own modelling is completely flawed. It deceptively overstates delay timeframes and includes projects which failed to even get off the ground.” | ['environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/greg-hunt', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/water', 'environment/coal', 'environment/gas', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/wwf', 'business/co-operative-group', 'type/article', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-09-14T02:30:14Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2017/may/01/state-owned-swedish-firm-vattenfall-enters-uk-energy-market | State-owned Swedish firm Vattenfall enters UK energy market | A state-owned Swedish company has become the latest European firm to enter the UK’s lucrative energy market, as Britain’s appeal to continental power suppliers shows no sign of abating after the Brexit vote. Vattenfall, which is 100% controlled by the Swedish government, is launching its first foray into UK energy supply as it joins a competitive field of European players including France’s EDF, German-owned E.ON and Npower, and Spanish-backed Scottish Power. Vattenfall has already made inroads in the UK by building several windfarms, including a North Sea project near Aberdeen and Wales’ largest onshore windfarm which is due to complete next year. Now, in what Vattenfall has described as a vote of confidence in post-referendum Britain, the firm will sell its renewable power from the windfarms direct to big business customers. “Long term we don’t see that this [Brexit] as changing the basic prerequisite for doing business together. We find the UK to be an attractive market for us now and going forward, and we will continue to invest in the market,” said Vattenfall executive Anna Borg. Vattenfall follows established European players such as EDF and E.ON but also Danish state-owned Dong Energy, which sells its wind power to corporate clients, and Dutch firm Eneco, which supplies business customers such as Heineken and Unilever. France’s Engie is also attempting to muscle in on the consumer market and trying to woo households with a tariff that tracks wholesale power prices. . Borg said European power companies are attracted to the UK market because of two fundamentals: tight margins between energy supply and demand which means a constant appetite for new entrants; and the UK’s legally enshrined climate targets, which will remain when the UK leaves the EU and ensure demand for energy generated by renewables or nuclear. The combination, she said, means the government will support investment in new plants and will require energy from low-carbon entrants. Vattenfall believes its portfolio of renewable power and the confidence instilled by dealing with an established player will help it win over corporate customers wanting to burnish their green credentials. Borg said Vattenfall is a state-owned company which has been around for 100 years and is here to stay. Vattenfall’s decision to sell its German coal business last year to focus on green energy also showed it was capable of transforming, Borg added. While Vattenfall is not yet naming its first customers, it said it was in talks with UK retailers, manufacturing industries and data centre operators. Borg would not be drawn on whether the Swedish firm was considering making a play for the consumer market, which is dominated by six big energy suppliers, four of which are owned by European energy companies. “It’s too early to say. We will see what opportunities arise,” she said. However, the prospect of price caps being imposed on household energy bills, as promised by Theresa May’s Conservative party, would not deter Vattenfall. “In general of course, price regulation is complicated and difficult in a market that is supposed to be deregulated. But we are used to managing a lot of regulatory issues in all the market we operate in, so it doesn’t change our willingness,” said Borg. Vattenfall has invested £3bn in the UK since 2008, and from next year will operate around 1GW of wind power, enough to power 650,000 homes. Experts said the company’s established standing would place it in a strong position. Robert Buckley, an analyst at Cornwall Energy, said: “It’s a big strategic move for them but they are following a well-trodden path. There is a demand out there from the business supply market for the kind of product that they have to sell.” The fact the power was generated by windfarms would help too, he added. “The green side is attractive to some. Some companies have very strong corporate social responsibility objectives.” Cornwall said Vattenfall is the 50th business-to-business energy supplier in the UK. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/windpower', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'world/sweden', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-05-01T08:00:24Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/may/25/federal-court-overturns-water-approval-for-adanis-carmichael-coalmine | Federal court overturns water approval for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine | A key approval for Adani’s Carmichael coal project has been overturned by the federal court, which ruled the federal government made a “legal error” in the way it assessed and approved plans for the miner to pump 12.5bn litres of water a year from a Queensland river. The court case – brought by the Australian Conservation Foundation – challenged the government’s decision not to apply the “water trigger” to its assessment of Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme. The trigger is an element of Australia’s environmental law that demands the government assess the water impacts of all large coalmines and coal seam gas proposals. A delegate for the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, had previously justified a decision not to apply the water trigger on the basis that the specific proposal – whose purpose was to supply water to the Carmichael mine – was not itself a coalmining development. The federal court decision says that reasoning is in error. Adani said its activities – including the ongoing construction of the mine and its future operation – will not be impacted by the decision. Concerns have previously been raised about whether it has sufficient supplies to support water-intensive construction and mining activities without access to the North Galilee Water Scheme. The court’s decision effectively sends the matter back to the environment minister – for a third time – to decide whether to apply the water trigger. The ACF has previously won a court challenge that argued the federal government decision was made without proper consideration of public submissions. Environment groups said Ley must now apply the trigger, which would require a thorough assessment of Adani’s plans. The ACF says the decision also “reaffirms the legitimacy” of the trigger as a safeguard in Australian environmental law. “This is a great win for the protection of water on our dry continent from coalmining and coal seam gas extraction,” said the ACF’s chief executive officer, Kelly O’Shanassy. “It’s a win for regional communities and farmers who depend on reliable flows of river water in our drought-prone landscape. “It will set a new precedent that essential infrastructure for coal seam gas and large coalmining projects must be assessed under our national environment law. O’Shanassy said the decision raised doubts about the viability of the Adani mine without access to its expected water source. “Without the [water scheme], it’s hard to see how Adani has enough water to operate its mine. “We expect the federal government to properly apply the law.” In a statement, Adani said it would “carefully consider the judgment” and its future options, but said the project would continue. “Regardless of today’s court judgment, construction on the Carmichael mine and rail project is well under way, and importantly, the North Galilee Water Scheme project is not required for these construction activities,” a spokeswoman said. “We have also secured water for the operational phase that does not require the North Galilee Water Scheme. “For the avoidance of doubt – today’s decision will not have any impact on the construction or operation of the Carmichael mine.” O’Shanassy said the federal court’s decision would also “apply to other potential water sources for the Carmichael mine”. | ['environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/water', 'business/adani-group', 'business/mining', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/coal', 'environment/mining', 'law/law-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2021-05-25T02:47:38Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/jul/25/solar-energy-and-moonshine-politics | Solar energy and moonshine politics | Brief letters | Did I invent the solar panels scheme which paid a generous feed-in tariff to install panels on your roof? I think I may also have imagined a green deal which was so advantageous that nobody much took it up. I fear this new initiative (UK ‘on verge of clean energy revolution’, 25 July) is going to place a similar strain on my mental faculties when it vanishes without trace under the label “green crap”. Murray Marshall Salisbury • Paul Brownsey (Letters, 24 July) takes a negative view of civil partnerships that is not shared by many same-sex and heterosexual couples, who view them as a way of conferring the same legal and financial protection that is provided by marriage, without taking on board all the religious and societal baggage of that institution. As such many see them as superior rather than inferior to marriage. John Mills Stoneleigh, Warwickshire • As we commence week three with the problem of three starter letters in the Codeword (Letters, 21 July), I have found a workable solution: after a short delay while he finds his glasses, him indoors will Tipp-Ex (other brands available) out the superfluous letter and I can enjoy Codeword at its previous challenging level. Sorted. Marilyn Hulbert Bath • It appears the editors of the Daily Telegraph have been tuning in to your correspondence and are so desperate to improve circulation that they offer two puzzles on a Saturday, and have reduced the number of clues from three to two. Jeremy Scroxton Thames Ditton, Surrey • In view of Dick Van Dyke’s apology for his atrocious cockney accent (Letters, 24 July), maybe the BBC could better use some of Chris Evans’ wages to employ real Americans to replace the hackneyed accents generally on offer in the afternoon dramas. John Peachey Bognor Regis, West Sussex • I don’t mind how much Chris Evans and Graham Norton are paid (Report, 24 July). I mind how irritating they are. Michael Cunningham Wolverhampton • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/solarpower', 'uk-news/civil-partnerships', 'media/theguardian', 'media/dailytelegraph', 'film/dick-van-dyke', 'media/bbc', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/marriage', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'media/media', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2017-07-25T18:00:52Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/nov/18/making-homes-greener-isnt-nanny-statism | Making homes greener isn’t nanny-statism | Letters | I wanted to believe Keir Starmer would make Cop29 the moment he made good on his earlier green promises (Editorial, 12 November). In one sense, he didn’t disappoint, stating that he would oversee a cut in emissions of 81% by 2035 on 1990 levels. Great. But how? Essentially decarbonising the grid but “not telling people how to live their lives”. As a retrofit project coordinator working in social housing, I fear this means Starmer is following his predecessor Rishi Sunak down the route of “we still care about net zero, we just don’t want it to cost votes from landlords or make people think they will have their gas boilers forcibly ripped out” (the latter was never on the cards, new boilers just wouldn’t have been installed). This matters because 20% of UK carbon emissions come from domestic properties. If we don’t tackle our draughty and leaky housing stock – the worst in western Europe – we will never reach net zero by 2050. We need to be retrofitting 1.5 homes a minute. But this isn’t just a game of carbon accountancy. Nor is it about pleasing the “tofu-eating wokerati”. Retrofitting homes cuts emissions and makes them warmer in winter and cooler in summer. It prevents people dying from temperature extremes, reduces the amount the NHS spends on chronic health conditions and saves families money on their fuel bills. The physical and financial benefits of retrofit are experienced immediately by both residents and the Treasury. It’s a great shame that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have bought into the rightwing narrative that cutting emissions on a household level equates to a nanny state controlling and diminishing quality of life. I’ve witnessed the exact opposite through my work. Charlie Chamberlain Norwich • Keir Starmer’s pledge to cut carbon emissions by 81% by 2035 would be a lot easier if he brought back the feed-in tariff for small-scale electricity producers and unlocked millions of pounds of investment in green energy from individuals – on their own roofs. Empowering people to invest, with guaranteed payments for the electricity they produce, is a win-win for the country. The cost is borne by individuals while the nation gets the benefit. Pay a small premium over the cost of the power they generate, and millions will invest. These micro-generators can come online immediately without waiting years for National Grid upgrades, and, best of all, it would cost the exchequer virtually nothing. Alastair Nisbet Dorchester, Dorset • 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/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/cop29', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'politics/labour', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2024-11-18T17:25:19Z | true | ENERGY |
science/2021/oct/18/no-change-to-australias-2030-emissions-reduction-target-as-scott-morrison-focuses-on-net-zero-deal | No change to Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction target as Scott Morrison focuses on net zero deal | The Morrison government has all but ruled out increasing Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction target despite sustained diplomatic pressure from key allies, including the United States and the United Kingdom. While stepping back from a significant attempt to increase the Abbott-era 2030 target after an effective Nationals veto on Sunday, Scott Morrison was more pointed on Monday about landing a net zero target ahead of the looming Cop26 in Glasgow. The prime minister told Liberal party MPs net zero would be a cabinet decision, and it would be expressed as a nationally determined contribution under the Paris agreement. The prime minister’s reference to cabinet is an implicit warning that any ministers who disagree with a net zero commitment will need to consider their positions. Morrison also warned there would be price to pay if Australia failed to join allies in embracing a 2050 target. About six of the Nationals’ 21 MPs have expressed opposition to signing up to the target: Matt Canavan, Llew O’Brien, Keith Pitt, Sam McMahon, George Christensen and David Gillespie. But while some are implacably opposed, both Liberals and Nationals sound increasingly confident a deal will be reached in the coming days. Negotiations were continuing on Monday afternoon about an accompanying package expected to include regional job creation initiatives and infrastructure projects. The Nationals deputy leader, David Littleproud, told the ABC while some MPs had staked their claim against the plan, “the majority of the room want to work pragmatically through this”. The former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, urged his colleagues to get on with it. McCormack told Guardian Australia agreement needed to be reached this week. “I don’t think we can really delay it any further. Because we are not holding anyone to ransom, or holding a gun to anyone’s head, we are not doing that,” he said on Monday. “We will go through it carefully and methodically and come up with what we feel we need to do for the regions,” the former party leader said. “People are worried about regional jobs going and the cost of power and those energy intensive industries like manufacturing and mining.” Victorian MP Darren Chester echoed that view during a meeting of the Nationals party room on Monday, telling colleagues it was not in their practical or political interests to draw out any negotiation with the Liberals. He said it would be best to determine a set of principles informing a regional support package, and if they were met, adopt the commitment. Morrison’s goal of including a 2050 net zero target as part of Australia’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) appears at odds with the text of the 2015 Paris agreement. According to the agreement, NDCs are supposed to be updated in five-year cycles. The current cycle is focused on 2030. Countries also agreed to consider submitting long-term low-emissions development strategies, which many have translated into a plan to reach net zero by 2050. But those strategies were meant to be separate and additional to the shorter-term goals set as part of an NDC. As Morrison tracks towards the Glasgow climate conference in a fortnight, the government is expected to release new emissions projections in coming days that will forecast over-achievement on the Abbott-era 2030 target of a cut of between 26% and 28% on 2005 levels. A recent report by researchers at Climate Analytics said it was likely the new projections would forecast that emissions would fall by between 30% and 38% by 2030 – well beyond the current government’s target. The US and the UK, and a number of business and investor groups have also urged the government to increase ambition for 2030. But Barnaby Joyce made it clear on Sunday any formal increase in the 2030 target was off the table, and Morrison confirmed that in question time on Monday, telling the house he would be in a position “to advise the Cop26 of our success in meeting and beating that target … when I’m there in a few weeks time”. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Labor pressed Morrison on whether a commitment to net zero by 2050 meant the government would now need to achieve a 43% emissions reduction target by 2030 – as Angus Taylor, the energy and emissions reduction minister, had contended last year when attacking Labor for signing up to net zero. The prime minister said that was not the case, because emissions reductions between now and 2050 would not be “linear”. Liberal MPs were briefed on Monday about a 2050 roadmap Taylor has developed with input across the government. According to MPs present at the meeting, Taylor said coal exports would start to decline from 2025, but international demand for gas would continue until 2040. MPs expressed a range of views. The Liberal senator Gerard Rennick said he was opposed to net zero, and a handful of other Liberals were also lukewarm. But a majority of Liberals either support net zero, or the mid-century goal and a higher 2030 target. | ['science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/national-party', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'profile/sarah-martin', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-18T08:36:33Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
news/2017/aug/08/gravity-of-a-wet-summer-for-garden-bird-chicks | Gravity of a wet summer for garden bird chicks | During the dog days of August, when the whole country can be blanketed in muggy heat, it’s easy to believe that all our garden birds have disappeared. Of course they are still around; it’s just that in normal summers they don’t need to visit bird tables so much because there is food available elsewhere. But not every summer is quite so easy. Five years ago, in 2012, it was a very different story. The RSPB survey called Make Your Nature Count threw up worrying results, revealing a nationwide dearth of baby birds. In previous surveys fledgling blackbirds had been seen in almost half of all gardens, but in 2012 numbers fell to just 37%. Likewise, numbers of robin chicks were lower, the young seen in less than a fifth of the gardens watched, down from almost a quarter the year before. And young song thrushes, a once common species now increasingly scarce, were seen in just 4% of the gardens surveyed. Behind this lack of baby songbirds was without doubt the weather. Summer 2012 started off cool, wet and unsettled, and June was the wettest month on record. This coincided with the peak time when baby birds were in the nest, and needed constant feeding by their parents if they were to survive and fledge. Given that a pair of blue tits must bring back up to 10,000 caterpillars for their chicks, even a short spell of unseasonably cold and wet weather can mean disaster. Fortunately, this summer has so far been a good one, weather wise, both for the garden birds and us. • This is Stephen Moss’s 500th Weatherwatch, since his first column in 1992. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/birds', 'environment/rspb-make-your-nature-count', 'environment/rspb', 'environment/summer', 'uk/weather', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-08-08T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/dec/20/plastic-pollution-mariana-trench-deepest-point-ocean | Plastic pollution discovered at deepest point of ocean | The deepest point on Earth is heavily polluted with plastic, scientists have discovered, showing how pervasively the world has been contaminated. The researchers plumbed the depths of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, near Challenger Deep, the lowest place on the face of the planet. They found the highest levels of microplastics yet found in the open ocean, compared with surveys from elsewhere in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans. “Manmade plastics have contaminated the most remote and deepest places on the planet,” said the Chinese researchers. “The hadal zone is likely one of the largest sinks for microplastic debris on Earth, with unknown but potentially damaging impacts on this fragile ecosystem.” Other recent studies have demonstrated the reach of human impacts into the Mariana Trench, with “extraordinary” levels of pollutants being found there and plastic being found in stomachs of deep sea creatures. Microplastics have also been found in Swiss mountains, tap water and human faeces. Many millions of tonnes of plastic pour into the oceans every year, but where all the pollution ends up is not well known. The researchers from the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering in Hainan collected bottom water and sediment samples from 2,500m down to 11,000m below sea level. By comparison, Mount Everest is 8,850m above sea level. The analysis, published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters, found that the concentration of microplastics increased as the sample sites descended the trench. At the bottom, they reached a maximum of 2,200 pieces per litre in sediments and 13 pieces per litre in water. The researchers said the microplastics in the trench were likely to come from the industrialised nations in east Asia, including China and Japan. The trench is a narrow, V-shaped abyss and therefore traps sinking particles. Earthquakes are relatively common in the trench and these may help shake sediments down into the trench, the researchers said. Most of the microplastics were fibres a few millimetres long, most likely from clothing, bottles, packaging and fishing gear. Polyester was the most common plastic in the sediments and polyethylene terephthalate, used for bottles and clothing, was most frequent in water samples. Microplastics have been shown to harm sealife, which is already being damaged by overfishing and climate change. The researchers said: “Further work to evaluate the impacts of microplastics on fragile hadal ecosystems is urgently needed.” | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-12-20T15:01:19Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2012/feb/06/offshore-wind-turbine-british-industry | Offshore wind turbines set to benefit British industries | British industries from boat-building to concrete, and electric cabling to gearbox manufacturing are in the line-up to benefit from the construction of thousands of offshore wind turbines, if new plans go ahead. A group representing the UK's offshore wind industry on Monday adopted a target of ensuring that more than half of the supply chain for offshore windfarms is sourced from the UK. At present, less than a third of the value of the goods and services needed to construct offshore wind farms actually originates in the UK. The adoption of the new target came as the UK's wind industry faced its fiercest ever assault, from a group of more than 100 Tory MPs calling on the government to cut subsidies for onshore windfarms. Their campaign, in the form of a letter to the prime minister, marked the first crisis for the incoming energy and climate change secretary, Ed Davey, after taking over from Chris Huhne on Friday. Huhne resigned when it was announced he would face criminal charges over an alleged driving offence. "The UK has created the world's biggest offshore wind market and that should be attracting manufacturers and support companies," said Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer at Scottish Power and co-chair with the energy minister, Charles Hendry, of the Offshore Wind Developers' Forum. "This is a massive opportunity. There has been a lot of investment in offshore wind in the UK, but very little in UK suppliers." The size of the potential market runs to many billions – the government estimates that at least £200bn in investment will be needed in the whole energy sector by 2020, to overhaul the UK's creaking grid infrastructure, bring power stations up to European standards and meet renewable energy and emissions targets. Outlining the wider benefits of offshore wind, Anderson pointed to Belfast, where the harbour is being redeveloped as a hub for offshore windfarm construction, at a cost of about £50m. The work will create 150 jobs in construction, as well as requiring about 1m tonnes of stone from local quarries, which will create hundreds more jobs. "It is the first dedicated harbour upgrade for offshore wind," Anderson said. Under European Union laws, the government would not be allowed to specify that a certain amount of the supplies for offshore wind should be homegrown. However, this initiative is technically one that has come from the industry itself, so it is permissible for the government to endorse it. But critics pointed out that the target of sourcing more than half of supplies from the UK had no deadline attached, and represented "more of a vague aspiration" than a concrete plan. "It's a nod in the right direction of a strategy, but what is the strategy?" asked one person involved with the industry, who could not be named. • Get the Guardian's environment news on your iPhone with our new app. You can also join us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/business', 'business/construction', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2012-02-06T17:49:46Z | true | ENERGY |
media/2006/sep/25/bbc.hurricanekatrina | Spike Lee's Katrina film to air on BBC4 | BBC4 has acquired the exclusive UK television rights to film-maker Spike Lee's feature-length documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The four-hour long When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts won the best documentary award at the Venice Film Festival, where it received its world premiere earlier this month. As well as revisiting the hours leading up to the devastating storm, the HBO documentary tells the personal stories of those in New Orleans who lived through the disaster. Lee's film also explores the "underbelly of a nation where the divide along race and class lines has never been more pronounced". The documentary is structured in four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the events that preceded and followed Katrina's catastrophic passage through New Orleans in late August last year. When the Levees Broke will be screened on BBC4 as part of the international documentary strand Storyville, although a spokeswoman said no decision had yet been taken as to when it would air or whether it would be screened in one go. When it first aired on HBO at the end of last month, it was screened in one four-hour block. The film is Lee's third feature-length collaboration with HBO, following 1997's Oscar-nominated 4 Little Girls and 2002's Jim Brown: All-American. "It's fantastic that the channel has acquired such a powerful film by a world-class film-maker. It's no surprise that Spike Lee has created such a sharp, original and definitive take on an appalling disaster and its aftermath," said Janice Hadlow, the BBC4 controller. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['film/spikelee', 'media/media', 'media/bbc', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'media/television', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'media/bbc4', 'type/article', 'profile/leighholmwood'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2006-09-25T07:22:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2008/may/15/forests.brazil | Fears for Brazil rainforest after environment minister quits | Fears for the future of the world's biggest tropical rainforest grew yesterday, after the sudden resignation of Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva. Environmentalists had seen Silva, 50, who was born in the Brazilian Amazon, as an important ally in the fight against the destruction of the country's rainforest, 20% of which they believe has been destroyed. In her resignation letter to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president, on Tuesday, Silva said her decision was the result of difficulties she was facing in "pursuing the federal environmental agenda". She said her efforts to protect the environment had faced "growing resistance ... [from] important sectors of the government and society". Two other top environmental officials, including Bazileu Margarido, the president of Brazil's environmental agency, Ibama, also resigned. Sérgio Leitão, the director of public policy for Greenpeace in Brazil, said Silva had taken her decision because of pressure from within the government to relax laws outlawing bank loans to those who destroyed the rainforest. "The government has now made it clear that the idea of development at any cost is what will win out," Leitão said. He added: "The government loses a great deal of credibility with this because she was a species of guarantor of its good [environmental] intentions." Silva, who was born and grew up in the west Amazonian state of Acre, was renowned as a staunch ally of the rainforest. A former domestic maid, she became engaged in politics during the 1980s. In 1994, aged 36, she was elected the youngest member of Brazil's senate. After the election of Lula, in 2002, she became the country's environment minister. With deforestation on the rise, environmentalists saw her as a crucial supporter in the battle against the devastation caused by chainsaws. In 2004, Silva told the Guardian she hoped that "by learning from history, we can find an equation that will enable us to balance the need to preserve and the need to develop". Yet many of her years in power were spent at loggerheads with agricultural and business lobby groups, who argued that environmental preservation was holding back the economy. As a result of her opposition to the construction of hydroelectric dams and roads in the Amazon and her attempts to combat illegal deforestation, Silva became a hate figure to many Amazonian ranchers. Leitão said Silva's resignation signalled that her attempts to reconcile environmental protection with development had been "definitively defeated". Carlos Minc, a co-founder of the Green party in Brazil, was last night named as Silva's replacement. | ['environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/tomphillips', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-05-15T00:53:09Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2016/mar/25/belgium-steps-up-security-at-nuclear-sites-in-wake-of-attacks | Belgium steps up security at nuclear sites in wake of attacks | Belgian authorities have stepped up security at nuclear sites but safety officials said there was no concrete element to suggest a specific threat against the country’s reactors or plants. Secret video footage of a senior Belgian nuclear official was found in November at the home of a Belgian man, Mohamed Bakkali, suspected to be part of the logistics network for November’s Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The 10-hour video, shot by a hidden camera in a bush, showed a senior nuclear official coming and going out of his home in the Flanders region. Belgian investigators have not said whether the video suggested any specific threat to an individual or to a nuclear site. The inquiry is ongoing. Bakkali has been in prison since his arrest in November and investigators are looking at whether he had links to the Bakraoui brothers who blew themselves up in this week’s suicide-bomb attacks on a Brussels airport and metro station which killed 31 people. “There is no element today that suggests a concrete threat to nuclear sites,” a spokesman for Belgium’s Federal Agency for Nuclear Control told the Guardian. He said safety precautions had been put in place in recent months because “we can’t ignore the terrorist threat”. Four access passes authorising people to enter Belgian nuclear sites were revoked from workers with access to the Tihange nuclear power station in Huy last week. But this was before the 22 March attacks on Brussels airport and metro, and was part of a routine and ongoing monitoring of staff, not linked to the terrorist threat, the agency said. After Tuesday’s attacks, the nation was put on high alert. All non-essential staff were sent home from nuclear plants at Tihange and Doel and military presence was increased at the sites. Earlier this month, the government had deployed 140 soldiers to guard nuclear sites. About 60% of Belgium’s electricity comes from seven reactors at Tihange and Doel plants. Doel, in eastern Flanders, is situated in the most densely populated area of any power station in Europe. Since last year’s attacks on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris, increased security measures have been in place around nuclear sites Belgium and France. In France, where nuclear protection had been stepped up after the 9/11 attacks in the US, more than 80% of electricity is generated by the country’s 58 nuclear reactors – the world’s highest ratio. About 630,000 people in France are thought to living within six-miles of a nuclear site. Increased safety procedures in Belgium include system controls, screening who has access to the site, and strengthening the security in and around the site. Belgian police are continuing to investigate a mysterious case of sabotage at part of the Doel power station in 2014. No explanation for the sabotage has yet been put forward. In 2014, Belgian media reported that Ilyas Boughalab, 26, who was tried in absentia for his part in a “jihadi” recruitment network in Antwerp, had worked for three years as a technician for a sub-contractor with access to some areas the Doel nuclear plant. He died in Syria after leaving in 2012. | ['world/brussels-attacks', 'world/belgium', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'world/paris-attacks', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angeliquechrisafis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-03-25T14:13:32Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/mar/11/nsw-to-go-it-alone-on-vehicle-emissions-standard-to-avoid-becoming-dumping-ground | NSW to go it alone on vehicle emissions standards to avoid becoming 'dumping ground' | Plans are in the works for New South Wales to go it alone on vehicle emissions regulations after nearly two decades of inaction by the federal government. The details were revealed after a draft copy of the New South Wales 2020-2030 Clean Air Strategy, outlining proposals for stricter regulations around noxious emissions and CO2 standards for vehicles sold within the state, was leaked to the media. While the document raises concerns about pollution caused by wood-fired heaters in regional areas, its most ambitious proposal is for a plan to “harmonise” the state’s vehicle emissions regulations with European standards and encourage the uptake of electric vehicles. The New South Wales minister for environment, Matt Kean, declined to comment about any specifics as the strategy was still subject to cabinet processes. “Any changes NSW proposes to the national vehicle emission standards would only apply to new cars that are already available overseas. More importantly, cleaner vehicles are more fuel efficient, saving motorists money at the bowser,” Kean said. “I will always advocate for policies to stop NSW being used as a dumping ground for the world’s dirtiest vehicles.” While the plans have yet to be officially released in their final form, any New South Wales push to pass CO2 emissions standards may force the hand of the federal government. The move signals an evolving states-based approach on the issue of fuel efficiency and emissions regulations after decades of inaction by federal Labor and Liberal governments. After four years of consultation, the Morrison government released its “future fuels” strategy paper in February that was immediately slammed as a “do nothing“ document for rejecting stricter fuel efficiency standards. Should Victoria follow suit and introduce a plan to harmonise its fuel efficiency and emissions regulations with Europe, the country’s two largest regional economies would be covered by a stricter regulatory standard than that at a federal level. Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning was contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline. Australia’s loose attitude on noxious and CO2 emissions has made the country an outlier within the global vehicle market. Thanks to the regulatory black hole the country has become a dumping ground for thirsty petrol and diesel vehicles that are becoming increasingly difficult to sell elsewhere. The idea of state governments acting independently met a mixed response from industry bodies such as the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries. Its chief, Tony Weber, said that his organisation supported stricter emissions and fuel quality standards for Australian vehicles, but leaving it up to the states risked creating a patchwork of regulations across the country that would be bad for business. “In an ideal world we would have a CO2 target,” Weber said. “We believe there should be a CO2 target and that it should be at a national level. “We can’t have every state and territory going off on a whim. This needs to be handled at a federal level. That’s why we’ve put in a voluntary standard for our members which represents the manufacturers of 99% of vehicles sold in this country.” His comments were echoed by the Australian Automotive Dealer Association chief executive, James Voortman, who said it was up to the federal government to ensure a consistent standard. “I can’t blame the NSW government for doing this if they think this is the right way to go,” Voortman said. “The question of fuel efficiency standards has been looked at by Labor governments, Liberal governments and for a number of reasons they’ve decided not to act. “We’ve seen the manufacturers themselves have signed up to a voluntary vehicle emissions standard. “So it’s something our manufacturers support and it’s something dealers support, and we’re increasingly noticing that it’s something customers want. If you take a close look there’s another story about the growth of hybrid vehicles, that’s been the standout over the last 12 months. So the demand is there.” | ['environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/electric-cars', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/transport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/royce-kurmelovs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-03-11T05:32:14Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2009/mar/09/litter-report-recycling-incentives | Litter report calls for introduction of recycling incentives | Retailers are today facing calls to introduce deposit schemes that offer customers a financial incentive to recycle their waste, as part of a drive to reduce litter and impose greater fines on those responsible. The recommendation is one of the centrepieces of a new report from think tank The Policy Exchange and the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which also calls for the creation of as nationwide body to co-ordinate anti littering policy and wider roll out of bins. The report estimates that levels of litter have risen six fold since the 1960s and now cost council tax payers £500m a year in clean up costs. Writing in the foreword to the report, Bill Bryson, President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, urges the government and retailers to roll out a nationwide deposit scheme, similar to those found in other countries, which would provide people with a financial incentive to ensure bottles and other materials are recycled. "Bottle deposit schemes are working well in New York State, slashing litter levels and boosting recycling," he wrote. "Another 10 or so US states operate similar systems, as do South Australia and European countries such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden. All report significantly increased recycling rates." He added that the introduction of such a scheme in the UK was a "no-brainer" that polls show would enjoy 80 per cent public support and would help the UK bolster recycling rates that still lag behind those in Europe. Ben Caldecott, head of Policy Exchange's environment and energy unit, said that evidence from the New York scheme showed that deposits had helped to reduce consumer litter by 80 per cent since its introduction in 1983. "We know what works from abroad… and we know there are simple, cheap measures like the provision of more bins that can easily and quickly be put in place," he said. "Taking a few simple steps would reduce the clean-up costs that local authorities currently face." The report follows a similar study earlier this year from the Keep Britain Tidy lobby group, which called on fast food companies to step up efforts to cut litter and reduce packaging levels. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/series/guardian-environment-network', 'type/article'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-03-09T18:10:48Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/women-in-tech-female-representation | Women in tech: why female representation matters | Rewind to one afternoon in 2006 and I'm at my first academic conference about computer games. I've been a technology journalist for a decade, a veteran of countless tech events on both a grand and small scale and this is the first time in 10 years I've had to queue for the loo. "Ah," I think to myself as I wait my turn, "this is where all the women are." The men make the technology, while the women think about it. However, any suggestion that the consumer and software technology industries are demographically stratified is an overwhelming understatement. The industry does little to help itself: networking socials in strip clubs; "booth babes" at trade events – scantily clad models swamped by hungry geeks; the misogynistic-toned "brogrammer" culture that's making women uncomfortable with questionable recruitment tactics, and perks such as bring-a-girl-to-the-office-days. There's a virtual absence of anyone with an XX chromosome on prestige panels at the biggest conferences of the industry calendar, and that's just the stuff the public sees. This isn't encouraging for the young women who excel at computer science and maths in school. The drop-off for more advanced study in these areas among women is astonishing. At GCSE and A-level girls achieve better grades than the boys, yet those women who do pursue computing to higher education find themselves in classes where 82% of students are men. In 2005, women made up 24% of computer science students. By 2010, that figure had dropped to 19%, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. A 2012 report from Creative Skillset found that only 29% of the interactive media industry in the UK is female, and the majority hold positions in art and design and communications rather than engineering. Educators have been gnashing their collective teeth to figure out why. The best explanation, from years of analysis and interviewing, is that computing is not viewed as a girls' sport. Young women aren't exposed to computing, or steered in that direction by parents, peers or career counsellors. Recent headlines about gender pay gap disparities won't help matters. Yet the technology industry is not without impressive female role models. Three of the most powerful tech companies in the world are headed by women: Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, is on a mission to encourage women to "lean in" to business challenges to make it to the top; Yahoo!'s chief executive is Marissa Mayer, who held executive positions at search giant Google after starting her ascent as the first female engineer in the company. And the president and chief executive of IBM, Virginia Rometty, graduated with honours from Northwestern University with a double major in computer science and electrical engineering. The employment problem has real-world implications when you consider that these are the people who are building the technology that we use to navigate and make sense of the world. How can systems like Google and Facebook be fully informed about what we want and need when there's little to no input from 52% of the world's population? Let me explain. A newspaper article includes a headline that attracts the reader. Most people would understand that certain interviewees have been chosen to fulfil certain roles, certain fonts have been chosen to draw attention and certain words have been included to drive a point home. We know this because we are taught literacy in schools. A city is designed by an architect to filter us through it in certain ways: a community centre or park is a place to gather while a business district needs to facilitate efficient communication. These are just a few of the subconscious but built-in linguistics of our physical environments. A software engineer performs exactly the same type of role. They are our guide through the modern world of information and communication. He (or she) builds an invisible world to direct our sightlines to particular sources or people. Yet because only half the demographic understands or is involved in the application of these digital linguistic tools, users' worldviews are filtered by a myopic architecture. Different perspectives yield positive commercial results, and so there's impetus to employ and train a diverse workforce. In 2004, game designer Sheri Graner-Ray published the book Gender-Inclusive Game Design, aimed at inspiring the male-dominated world of twitch-and-war game developers to consider alternative audiences. Graner-Ray's secondary objective was to get girls playing games, and therefore get them educated in the architectural language of the design process. In the 10 years since, the proportion of women in engineering and design in the computer games industry has increased to its highest level since 2004. Graner-Ray alone cannot be credited with this, but her gender-inclusive suggestions have found their way into many mainstream games, providing hands-on understanding of the grammar. There is a long way to go before there is parity between the genders in the technology industry. But every baby step made has a tiny effect on the representational content of the diverse audience that uses software and hardware. Developers are known to develop solutions for themselves. So let's get more kinds of people inside – and let's fill up those women's loos. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'careers/technology-careers', 'lifeandstyle/women', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'technology/technology', 'business/technology', 'technology/startups', 'games/games', 'tone/features', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'sustainable-business/series/technology-and-innovation', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'profile/alekskrotoski'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-03-06T07:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk-news/scotland-blog/2015/sep/24/goodbye-to-cockenzie-power-station-a-cathedral-to-coal | Goodbye to Cockenzie power station, a cathedral to coal | The end is nigh for Cockenzie power station in East Lothian. At 12 noon on Saturday, the distinctive twin chimneys will buckle and fall; a second explosion will bring down the steel turbine hall. Nothing can save them now: all that’s left to do is make our lament and find a good spot to watch the spectacle. It is not often that an entire landscape changes with the press of a button, but when the dust finally settles over Port Seton, the view east from Edinburgh will reveal an even horizon. Some will see this as an overdue improvement. Others, however, will measure the loss – something that’s difficult to put into words and, as a consequence, something that has never quite been translated into the planning process. There are, of course, good reasons for the demolition. The plant is functionally dead, and a building designed in the late 1950s and opened in 1967 to turn coal into electricity isn’t readily adaptable to anything else (Tate Modern is the exception that proves the rule). To leave the stacks standing, shorn of their turbine halls, would be a melancholy sight, and ultimately quite expensive. Yet people really like them. Flying into Edinburgh or coming north on the A1: there they are. You know you’re home. A photo from Portobello beach is given depth by their sentinel presence; very Instagrammy. None of that, however, has turned into a movement to keep them. Dublin, on the other hand, has found that its relationship with Poolbeg power station at Ringsend is more than just utilitarian. Though the plant itself is partially closed, its iconic chimneys have now been added to its record of protected structures. That kind of sentiment never got much traction in Cockenzie’s case, in part because the only forum was a public local inquiry, five years ago, to consider a replacement gas power station that was never even built. Historic Scotland didn’t raise any concern about the heritage value of the building (no. 45 in Prospect’s top 100 best modern Scottish buildings); that left the ground clear for Scottish Natural Heritage to recommend removal. They ‘serve no functional purpose’ said Scottish Natural Heritage of the chimneys, so demolition ‘presents an improvement to the visual amenity of the area’. I don’t agree. One of my favourite views of Cockenzie power station is from the bus stop on Edinburgh’s North Bridge. From this distance of ten miles, the stacks have a delicate appearance; unlike the other monuments that clamour for attention on the city skyline you have to actively look for them. Waiting for the 45 bus, I have often marvelled at the line of aerial structures that starts with the stone tributes to Scott and Nelson, takes in the fly-swat lighting towers of Meadowbank stadium, through the concrete goal posts of Cockenzie and ends with the eccentric megalomania of the Hopetoun monument on Byres Hill, Haddington (“to the memory of the Great and Good John, Fourth Earl of Hopetoun by his affectionate and grateful tenantry”. Yeah, sure). There is nothing obvious to connect these monoliths, yet on a map they resemble a trend line on a scatter graph, an unexpected sequence of the pompous and the pragmatic. But it’s disheartening if the only high structures that endure are those built for aristocrats. Twenty-first century planning will doubtless protect the monuments to Scott-land, British naval supremacy and feudal power, while ordinary examples of public architecture remain harder to defend. Who now remembers Glasgow’s magnificent Tait Tower? Inverkip and Methil chimneys are gone. The Red Road flats and Longannet will surely follow. In 1903 the Austrian art historian Alois Riegl identified what he called ‘unintentional monuments’: those constructions that over time acquire a cultural value of a kind entirely unintended by their architects. Sir Robert Matthew, Scotland’s pioneering modernist, would surely have been surprised that his Cockenzie design ever became more than its basic utility. Function, after all, was quite enough. But nor could he have expected that after 800 years of Scottish coal, these towers would mark its end. Yes, it was a dirty business but it fuelled Enlightenment, industry and empire. It made Scotland modern. That’s why the loss of Cockenzie matters. So the towers are visually intrusive? Damn right. They certainly intrude on an understanding of social history that prefers the distant triumphs of Scott and Nelson over the many communities that were near broken by the miners’ strike 30 years ago. More sensitive planning could have seen these stacks teach our grandchildren about forms of solidarity and engineering that for now lie deeply buried in our climate contrition. They could have been memorials to the anthropocene. That’s not to be. Our view will soon be clearer and cleaner. At 149 metres tall, each chimney measured only one sixth of the depth of the coalfields beneath them. That’s the sort of memory that will fade as future generations gaze, uninterrupted, at the glories of viscounts and earls. | ['uk/scotland-blog', 'uk/scotland', 'artanddesign/architecture', 'environment/coal', 'artanddesign/modernism', 'uk/uk', 'uk/edinburgh', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/fraser-macdonald'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-09-24T06:30:01Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/jun/28/cop15-lack-of-political-leadership-leaves-crucial-biodiversity-summit-in-peril-aoe | Cop15: lack of political leadership leaves crucial nature summit ‘in peril’, warn NGOs | UN biodiversity negotiations have reached crisis point due to a lack of engagement from governments, leading NGOs have warned, three years after experts revealed that Earth’s life-support systems are collapsing. Last week, countries met in Nairobi for an extra round of talks on an agreement to halt the human-driven destruction of the natural world, with the final targets set to be agreed at Cop15 in Montreal. Governments have never met a target they have set for themselves on halting the destruction of nature despite scientists warning in 2019 that one million species face extinction, and that nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. While world leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson have underscored the importance of the summit, which only takes place once a decade, the biodiversity negotiations have seen substantial divisions between the global north and south over money, proposals to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030, and implementation of any agreement. The Africa group warned it would not sign off the final post-2020 global biodiversity framework unless it includes a target on digital biopiracy. In an open letter published on Monday, environmental groups including Greenpeace, Avaaz, the Campaign for Nature and the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity said progress on the final deal was not being made, and the talks lacked high-level political engagement. In the run-up to any Cop, negotiations are largely handled by technical specialists in the initial phases, with ministers typically getting involved at the end of talks. The letter calls on the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and government ministers to inject political leadership into the process and avert disaster at Cop15 in Montreal in December. China will oversee the event as president after its zero-Covid policy forced organisers to move the summit earlier this month. “Negotiations have become stagnant, and the post-2020 global biodiversity framework is in peril,” the letter reads. “Countries had once pointed to Cop15 as an opportunity to deliver a global deal for nature and people, similar in significance to the Paris climate agreement, but there is a notable absence of the high-level political engagement, will and leadership to drive through compromise and to guide and inspire the commitments that are required.” During six days of talks last week, negotiations saw little agreement among countries over the final text, which includes draft targets on eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies, reducing pesticide use, and action on invasive species in an effort to cut extinction rates. Scientists warned again in 2020 that the sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating. A further round of pre-Cop15 talks has been scheduled in the days before the summit, which starts on 5 December and concludes on 17 December, the day before the football World Cup final. If adequately funded and implemented in full, the agreement could see major changes to global agricultural practices and extractive industries, both major drivers of the eradication of wildlife and natural ecosystems. It had been hoped that countries would use the extra round of talks in Nairobi to hammer out points of division ahead of Cop15. Yet one negotiator, speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity, said they left the talks seeing more division. “When the meeting ended yesterday, everyone was really frustrated. Many people were expecting to move forward, at least on some of the targets. It should be a wake-up call and might raise awareness among ministers that they need to find a way out of this conundrum,” they said. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the UN’s biodiversity head, urged governments to work together on the agreement ahead of Cop15 to help reach consensus. “I call upon the parties, in the next months, to vigorously engage with the text, to listen to each other and seek consensus,” she said. Basile van Havre, a co-chair for the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD) negotiations, said he was not as negative as others about the state of talks but agreed that ministerial input was important. “People came prepared. Delegates worked really hard and there was no blocking. The challenge we have is that there are a lot of difficult issues. “We made progress but we are not where we need to be. We need ministers to get involved and give negotiators technical mandates to advance,” he said. Top talking points from Nairobi A quiet China When delegates travel to Montreal this December, Beijing will still hold the presidency of the much delayed Cop, even though it will be hosted from Canada, not Kunming as originally planned. China has so far played a largely passive role in negotiations and did so again in Nairobi. African scepticism on 30x30 Several world leaders have put forward proposals to protect 30% of land and sea as a key target of the agreement. But many African countries have indicated that the goal will not make the final text without a substantial financial commitment from the wealthy global north. Brazil accused of undermining talks At the end of the talks on Sunday, Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, accused Brazil of “actively working to undermine the negotiations”. Cop15 could become another chance for Bolsonaro to add to his destructive environmental legacy. • This article was amended on 15 December 2022 to include the photographer’s name, Mike Muzurakis, in the credit for the main image. | ['environment/series/the-road-to-kunming', 'environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'world/kenya', 'world/africa', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/cop15', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'profile/peter-muiruri', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-06-28T10:54:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2023/feb/09/famous-australian-beaches-vulnerable-to-severe-coastal-erosion-caused-by-la-nina | Famous Australian beaches vulnerable to severe coastal erosion caused by La Niña | Some of Australia’s most famous beaches, including the tourist hotspot Noosa, are increasingly vulnerable to coastal erosion caused by successive years of La Niña, with experts voicing fears for local biodiversity. Beaches along Australia’s south-east coast erode substantially during prolonged La Niña events, a study analysing four decades of satellite imagery has suggested. The research comes amid warnings that erosion along Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, after three consecutive La Niña years, is significantly affecting local biodiversity. Dr Javier Leon, a senior lecturer in physical geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast, has been monitoring the shoreline between Noosa’s Main Beach and Coolum. He estimated that over the last three years on average the shoreline has retreated by about 20 metres, while the sand dunes have receded between 7m and 10m and vertically eroded by 2m to 3m. Usually, some turtle nesting occurs along that stretch of coast between November and January – “30 or so every year”, Leon estimates. “This year there have been no nests.” “I’m assuming that it is because the beach and dunes have been eroded so there’s no place where turtles can [make] their nests,” he said, noting that there had been nesting activity further south, where beaches were less eroded. “If you were to leave a coastal system by itself, the beach would move a lot. The real problem is when you have infrastructure behind, or even worse, on those dunes.” Leon cited Main Beach and Maroochydore as particularly vulnerable areas. The Queensland analysis is in keeping with the findings of satellite research that studied more than 8,300km of coastline along the Pacific basin, looking at the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on wave-dominated sandy beaches. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Enso oscillates between warm El Niño, cold La Niña and neutral phases as a result of differences in sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Of the Australian coastline analysed, the researchers found that between 1984 and 2022, 48% of beaches experienced significant erosion during La Niña years. “That signal is very clear in south-east Australia,” said the study’s first author, Dr Kilian Vos of the University of New South Wales. The erosion during La Niña was linked to a 7% increase in wave power and sea level changes, Vos said. Conversely, El Niño was associated with an accumulation of sand across 75% of beaches analysed. Enso appeared to have the opposite effect on the other side of the Pacific, resulting in the accretion of sand on to beaches during La Niña years along the west coast of the Americas. “Enso is very asymmetric,” Vos said. “El Niño events are very intense and very short, while La Niña events are rarely as strong but they last much longer. “Beaches kind of have a memory. If there have been many storms in the past year, the beach will be eroded and will take a long time to recover.” He pointed to 2012-13 as an example, when the most extensive erosion in Australia was recorded. That year the Enso was in the neutral phase, but it followed two consecutive years of strong La Niña conditions. “This highlights how El Niño and La Niña can trigger prolonged erosion phases on sandy coastlines,” the study’s authors wrote. The researchers studied only wave power but not the direction from which the waves arrived along the coast. Leon, who was not involved in the study, said along Australia’s east coast waves tended to hit the beaches from a south-east direction, but “La Niña usually means more waves from the east”. “As soon as you get too many easterly waves, then a lot of those beaches are not used to it, so they are prone to erosion,” he said. “That’s what we’ve observed in the last three years.” Anthropogenic climate change would further complicate the natural cycle of coastline changes, Leon added. “The projections are that for the east coast of Australia, regardless of La Niña or El Niño, we will see waves shifting anti-clockwise, meaning they will come more and more from the east – because of climate change.” The research was published in the journal Nature Geoscience. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/la-nina', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/elnino', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/oceans', 'australia-news/sunshine-coast', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'type/article', 'profile/donna-lu', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-02-09T16:00:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2019/jan/09/london-underground-air-pollution-report-concerns-northern-line-particulates | Report sparks concerns over poor air quality on London Underground | Fresh concerns over air quality on the London Underground have been raised after researchers found that the concentration of particulate pollution in tube stations was up to 30 times higher than beside busy roads in the capital. Air pollution experts have called for more analysis of the possible harmful effects of the underground’s particulates. In a report, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) warned Transport for London (TfL): “Given that there is strong evidence that both long- and short-term exposure to particle pollutants in ambient air are harmful to health, it is likely that there is some health risk.” Tests found that the Northern Line had the highest concentration of PM2.5 (tiny particles linked to health problems) with the air on platforms at Hampstead station – the deepest on the tube network at 60 metres (200ft) below ground level – recording an average 492 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3) of air, compared with an annual average of 16 μg/m3 from a roadside monitoring site in the capital. The hitherto unpublished findings from air quality experts at King’s College London were included in the report from COMEAP, commissioned by TfL. It said the London Underground was affected more than any other subway system due to its age and the depths of its tunnels. Passengers are exposed to the same concentration of particulates in an hour on the tube as they are during a full day above ground in ambient London air, the committee found. For road users, it estimated that an equivalent bus journey, typically taking two and a half times as long, would expose a passenger to a third of the pollution. The committee said further investigation was required into the toxicity of the dust breathed in by tube passengers, which is heavier and more metal-based than the smaller, carbon-based particles in the air above ground. However, Prof Frank Kelly, chair of COMEAP, said people should continue to use the tube given the relatively short time spent underground and lack of evidence of harmful effects. He said: “We’ve got all this information about the health impacts of the particles above the surface. Below ground, we know we have a higher mass but of a different type – we don’t yet have the research into the level of the toxicity, and hence the heath risk. “You’re down there for a short period of time – passengers should just use the tube as usual until we have better understanding of the risks.” TfL has accepted the recommendations in the report and will carry out further monitoring and testing of dust samples. While the tube operates well within the Health and Safety Executive specified limits, it has set an “informal target” to limit exposure to dust. It expanded its cleaning regime in 2017 with “magnetic wands” to reduce dust at 46 stations, but a specialist tunnel-cleaning train was scrapped as unviable in 2014. Peter McNaught, director of asset operations at TfL, said: “We are committed to maintaining the cleanest air possible for our staff and customers when using the tube.” Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly transport committee, said more monitoring of dust and air pollution was vital: “We need to fully understand the health risk facing passengers and staff from being exposed to high levels of particulate matter.” | ['uk/london-underground', 'environment/air-pollution', 'uk/tfl', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'uk/rail-transport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-01-09T19:36:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/blog/2015/feb/17/privatisation-uk-woodlands-happening-by-backdoor | Privatisation of UK woodlands is happening by the backdoor | Mark Avery | Four years ago the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, told the House of Commons that she was ditching the coalition government’s plans to privatise the Forestry Commission (FC). “I’m sorry. We got this one wrong, but we have listened to people’s concerns,” she said. But if you go down to the woods today, you may have a big surprise, because privatisation of our woodlands appears to be proceeding by the back door. One of my local woods, Fineshade wood in east Northamptonshire, is owned by me, and you, and every other taxpayer, as it is owned by the Forestry Commission (FC), a non-ministerial government department. The wood is a mixture of ancient woodland (defined as having existed continuously since 1600), semi-ancient woodland and some more modern plantation. Fineshade wood is described by the FC as “rich semi-natural native woodland”. It has dormice (a European protected species), adders (quite possibly the largest population in the East Midlands), slow worms (one of few Northamptonshire sites), great-crested newts (another European protected species), purple emperor butterflies (a national rarity) and a good selection of woodland birds including the rare nightjar. It’s also a nice place to go for a walk, and yes, people take their dogs walking there too. Despite its wildlife, landscape and wider social value, the FC believes that Fineshade wood is the right place to plonk down 70 luxury holiday cabins, extra roads, and a sewage treatment plant. These would be built and managed by Forest Holidays, a company largely owned by venture capitalists, Lloyds Development Capital, in which the FC (ie you and me) has a small and diminishing holding. The development will be considered by East Northants Council on Wednesday evening. The ecological assessment of the site carried out by Forest Holidays is woefully inadequate. It has been criticised by wildlife organisations including the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB, both of whom strongly object to the proposal. A single visit, at the wrong time of year, discovered evidence of dormice (which certainly inhabit the wood) but proper surveys have not been done. The sewage treatment plant is destined for prime dormouse habitat. The standard of the bird surveys “fell well short of what we would advise any developer to carry out”, the RSPB said. Remember, this development is planned for our forests, on land owned by us (the FC) and yet the FC has allowed the developer (in which it owns a stake) to put inadequate ecological information into the planning system. The Independent Panel on Forestry, set up after the government volte face on woodland privatisation, wrote: “We propose that the public forest estate should remain in public ownership and be defined in statute as land held in trust for the nation.” Luxury holiday cabins, funded by venture capitalists, and secured on a 125-year lease from the public, that will destroy the very ecological interest of one of our woods, falls very far short of that aim. What is planned at Fineshade is privatisation by the back door. Why aren’t the bodies that screamed about forest privatisation fighting this proposal with equal vigour? Forest Holidays has nine existing developments, all on FC land, some of which, especially that in the Forest of Dean, raise serious ecological concerns. It plans another 75 holiday cabins on FC land at Houghton, West Sussex, in the South Downs National park, which raises similar concerns according to the Hampshire County Council’s ecologist. Are our forests safe in the FC’s hands? Some think not and have launched a petition to fight the plans. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/forests', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/birds', 'environment/environment', 'politics/caroline-spelman', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tone/blog', 'profile/mark-avery'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-02-17T13:03:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/aug/16/edinburgh-limits-pupil-climate-strike-approval-to-once-a-year | Edinburgh limits pupil climate strike approval to once a year | Young activists have vowed to keep protesting in Edinburgh despite the city council saying it will only authorise pupils to miss school once a year to attend climate strikes. Pupils have been attending protests on Fridays outside the Scottish parliament on an ad hoc basis after the council granted permission in March. On Friday, however, the council’s education, children and families committee approved a motion by the Scottish National party-Labour coalition to limit authorised absences to one day. Activists had asked the council to support pupil participation in the continuing global movement started by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. The council insisted it would not punish children for taking part in subsequent strikes but it said parental consent would be required. Edinburgh’s education convener, Ian Perry, said: “We support the young people making their voices heard regarding climate change as it is one of the most important issues that’s facing the world. However, there needs to be a balance struck and if we allow pupils more than one absence the issue is that they could be regularly missing school which affects their education.” Sandy Boyd, a member of Scottish Youth Climate Strike, said the decision was disappointing but added: “I’m still confident that our movement won’t be deterred by it. The council is short-sighted if it thinks one strike a year is enough to make this change. This movement will not stop and we’ll keep striking no matter what.” With Scottish secondary school pupils returning from the summer holidays this week, strikers moved their regular Friday action from Holyrood to the council’s offices at lunchtime, with about 30 young people congregating. Boyd said: “These actions are happening on a weekly basis, but authorisation is good on big dates like September 20 and 27 because lots of people want to come out [for the global climate strikes] and it allows them to come out feeling safe, and that they won’t be reprimanded.” | ['environment/school-climate-strikes', 'uk/edinburgh', 'uk/scotland', 'education/schools', 'education/secondary-schools', 'education/primary-schools', 'education/education', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/libbybrooks', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-08-16T17:29:56Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2010/apr/11/appalachian-coal-mine-massey | Appalachians yield a familiar tale of corporate dereliction | Some forms of tragedy have their own rituals of grief. None more so poignantly, perhaps, than that of an Appalachian coal mine disaster. It is an area of America much akin to the old valleys of South Wales. It is mountainous, materially poor but rich in local culture, and the coal mines have dominated life there for many decades. So when news broke last week of a dreadful explosion that killed at least 25 miners and trapped others, the story felt as familiar as it did sad. Families and communities mourned together. Congregations prayed, vigils were held and the dead were buried. Rescuers tried to reach the missing. An equally familiar piece of this mournful tableaux was the emergence of distressing details surrounding the Massey corporation that owns the mine. It would be nice one day to have the media examine a coal company and find that it operated safely, professionally and ethically in all its dealings. But, as usual, that was not the case. The Upper Big Branch Mine had been either fully or partly closed 61 times in 2009 and 2010, mostly for health and safety violations, according to the local Charleston Gazette newspaper which got hold of Labour Department documents. In fact, more than 1,300 citations had been issued against the mine in the last five years. Indeed, Massey got two citations for safety violations on the very day of the disaster. That sounds shocking. But no one familiar with the history of coal mining in West Virginia could be surprised. The mining corporations that dominate the state's economy have a huge say in what happens there. Just look at Don Blankenship, Massey's chief executive. He once spent three million dollars to help get a judge elected to a West Virginia court ruling on a Massey-related case. He also told an ABC news reporter: "If you're going to start taking pictures of me you're liable to get shot." He is a famous union-buster and proudly sceptical of environmentalists. He can afford to pretty much do as he pleases. West Virginia, and the rest of Appalachian coal country, is dreadfully poor and has a virtual industrial monoculture. The mines are a rare source of good, well-paid jobs. Few can afford to turn them down or lobby to get them improved. As Lorelei Scarbro, a daughter, granddaughter and wife of coal miners, told CNN: "We are all being used by an outlaw industry and corrupt politicians and we are all driven by fear." Those sentiments are as old as the industry itself. Nor do they appear likely to change, no matter how many disasters lie in the future. | ['us-news/us-news', 'business/mining', 'environment/coal', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/paulharris', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/seven-days'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2010-04-10T23:05:07Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2014/may/08/prince-charles-backs-plan-to-kill-grey-squirrels | Prince Charles backs plan to kill grey squirrels | Prince Charles has backed plans to kill grey squirrels to protect the UK's "much-loved" native reds. Under a "squirrel accord" agreed at Dumfries House, the prince's stately home in Scotland, government, forestry officials and some conservationists agreed to undertake a renewed push to reduce grey numbers "through targeted and sustained action". Owen Paterson, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, told the meeting: "Red squirrels are a much-loved, but threatened, part of British wildlife. I fully support this accord and endorse the need to work together to revive our iconic red squirrel population, and encourage the planting of new broadleaved woodlands." There are around 5 million greys in the UK, with numbers of reds estimated at 120,000-140,000 – 75% of which are in Scotland. Reds have decreased massively in number since a Victorian banker introduced a pair of greys after returning from a business trip in America. Greys carry a poxvirus that is deadly to reds, and are stronger and larger too. The Prince of Wales, whose office confirmed he endorsed the accord, has previously written letters saying action is needed to "'drive out the greys". He is the patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, a charity campaigning to stabilise and increase red numbers. Charles Kinnoull, the charity's chairman, told the Guardian the meeting had an air of "optimistic determination". "If something's being wiped out because of the overabundance of another, you need to take action. It's been a very torrid few decades [for the reds]." He said the main way of controlling greys was by trapping them in cages and then "humanely disposing" of them. "It's the only real economic way of doing things. If you set out with a gun you could be waiting around for hours." Grey squirrels also damage trees by stripping bark – such ring-barking can cause trees to die from that point up. A survey of members of the Royal Forestry Society put greys as a greater threat to broadleaved trees than damage from deer and diseases such as ash dieback. Simon Lloyd, development director at the Royal Forestry Society, said: "Grey squirrels have caused immense damage in woodlands by stripping bark, sometimes killing the trees and often to an extent that few will ever reach their full environmental or timber potential." The accord, which is also supported by Scottish Natural Heritage, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Scottish government, and the Forestry Commission, says that: "Grey squirrels need controlling because of the economic, social and environmental damage that they cause and their adverse impact on red squirrel populations which are part of the natural heritage of the British Isles and need protection." Chris Packham, the BBC presenter and naturalist, told the Guardian he believed work on developing a vaccine to make reds immune to the poxvirus was the only longterm solution. "Our chance to fully eradicate grey squirrels passed at some stage in the 1920s or 30s. The economic damage they do is limited and localised, such as to tree nurseries. Regarding their control, this should be strictly focused on the specific areas where they actively transmit the pox virus to the reds for the simple reason of costs alone. Killing greys where they do not threaten crops or infect reds is a complete waste of mone , time and energy - it's pointless vandalism," he said. A spokesman for the charity Animal Aid condemned the accord and said: "Claims that they are trying to ‘save’ the red squirrel is disingenuous as reds are not endangered but are actually plentiful across their range. There are ways to help protect red squirrels. Establishing them on islands, changing forest planting and supplementing their feed could all help the much-loved animal, without harming the greys." | ['environment/invasive-species', 'environment/conservation', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/prince-charles', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-05-08T16:02:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/2022/jan/28/logging-threatens-cambodia-indigenous-people-says-amnesty | Illegal logging threatens Cambodia’s indigenous people, says Amnesty | Rampant illegal logging of protected forests is threatening the cultural survival and livelihoods of indigenous people in Cambodia, according to Amnesty International. Members of the Kuy people, one of the largest of Cambodia’s 24 indigenous groups, told Amnesty how deforestation in two protected forests, along with government restrictions on access have undermined their way of life and violated their human rights. More than 6,200 hectares (15,300 acres) have been deforested across Prey Lang and Prey Preah Roka protected forests in 2021, according to a report published on Friday. Cambodia has experienced one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, losing about 64% of its tree cover since 2011, according to the report. Richard Pearshouse, Amnesty International’s head of crisis and environment, said: “Rampant illegal logging in Cambodia is posing an existential threat to the country’s remaining primary forests, and the indigenous peoples who depend on them for their livelihoods, their culture and their spiritual practices. “Cambodia’s approach to conservation is characterised by official corruption and a complete disregard for indigenous people’s rights. If the Cambodian authorities don’t change course soon, the country’s protected forests will be illegally logged into oblivion.” The report, based on interviews with 20 community activists protecting the two forests, which are home to significant Kuy populations and contain protected wildlife sanctuaries, said Cambodian authorities were failing in their duty to protect indigenous people’s rights by not adequately policing the areas. Embedded corruption in the government and within the police is fuelling the illegal logging trade, and posing a risk to some of the country’s most important remaining forests, it said. Community members described government officers receiving bribes from timber traders and loggers in return for ignoring illegal activities, said Amnesty. One local activist told the organisation: “The big problem is that the authorities… are only interested in collecting money.” The activist added they had “tried many times” to tell provincial office officials about logging and given them photos and other evidence. “They go to investigate it – but they only investigate it to collect money from the loggers.” Illegal logging activities have had a devastating impact on the Kuy people’s livelihoods. They collect resin from trees, which is sold and used domestically for low-grade lighting and commercially for boat caulk, paints and varnishes. Loggers have targeted resin trees for timber production. Thyda (not their real name) told Amnesty that about 70% of resin trees had been lost in Prey Preah Roka in recent years. “Many people from outside … come and steal our trees when we are not in the forest – especially during the rice season when we are planting saplings or harvesting rice … Sometimes in one day, 30 or 40 resin trees will be cut.” The report also documented how grassroots activists were prevented from carrying out forest patrols to document illegal logging. Ministry of environment officials said the restrictions were allowed under Cambodian law; this is challenged by Amnesty. Neth Pheaktra, secretary of state and spokesperson of Cambodia’s ministry of environment, rejected Amnesty’s claims as “baseless”. He said Kuy people “have full rights to patrols allowed by law and get full cooperation from Ministry of Environment’s forest rangers and authorities”. He added: “The ministry of environment is very glad to emphasise that the large scale of natural resource offences in the protected areas including Prey Lang and Prey Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuaries are no longer occurring, but there are still small scales of illegal logging.” Amnesty International has previously documented how Cambodian authorities have denied environmental activists access to the rainforests, and how their ban on community patrols allowed illegal logging to continue unchecked. | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'global-development/conservation-and-indigenous-people', 'world/cambodia', 'global-development/human-rights', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/amnesty-international', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarah-johnson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-01-28T09:54:23Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2022/mar/04/heartbreaking-australias-east-coast-reels-from-worst-floods-in-living-memory | ‘Heartbreaking’: Australia’s east coast reels from worst floods in living memory | When Jenni Metcalfe returned to her Brisbane home to survey the damage as the nearby river peaked, water had already risen a metre up the back wall. There was nothing she could do. “I sat in the gutter and watched it and cried,” she said. The east coast of Australia has been battered by more than a week of torrential rain, as communities begin to survey the wreckage of fatal flash flooding that has left townships looking like war zones. South-east Queensland and the north coast of New South Wales have borne the brunt of the “one in-1,000 year” catastrophic weather conditions, which have claimed at least 17 lives. Residents in the regional city of Lismore in north-eastern NSW are still reeling from the worst flooding in its history, which sent huge areas of the regional city underwater with the cleanup likely to last months, if not years. More than 700mm of rain fell in just 30 hours during the worst of the floods on Monday, forcing hundreds of the town’s 43,000 residents to scramble onto their rooftops and wait to be rescued by emergency services crews. Four of the dead were in Lismore, people who were trapped in flooded homes or swept away while trying to escape. A number of the city’s residents remained missing. Among the devastation have been stories of heroism and kinship. World championship surfers Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson spent Tuesday ferrying stranded residents and distributing supplies on their jet skis at badly hit Tumbulgum on the north coast of NSW. Emergency services volunteers saved dozens of elderly trapped in their homes and facilities, using boogie boards and dinghies to pull residents through windows and ferry them to safety. Others spent hours locating and mustering hundreds of livestock that were swept away in flood waters causing devastating losses for farmers already hit by drought and past flooding events. If lucky, the occasional cow turned up on beaches or rooftops. As the cleanup in Lismore began on Thursday, a harsh sun strengthened the stench of mud and sewage on the main street as business owners returned to their ruined shops where flood waters had crept up to the ceiling. Mark Bailey was one of them, forced to wade through a pile of ruined goods and furniture he estimated was worth $5m amassed at the front of his collectibles store, The Penny Man. “Everything in there’s fucked,” he told Guardian Australia, holding an album of vintage East German stamps that were dripping brown and unsalvageable. “I’m not mad at anyone in particular, every shop has a different story along here,” he said. “We won’t be reopening here, and I would be surprised if half of the street ever does.” Many businesses that went underwater, including Bailey’s, were uninsurable given their proximity to riverbanks and flood-prone areas. The cleanup had barely begun in large parts of south-east Queensland when residents were again forced to take cover due to more storms. The “rain bomb” that battered the capital city of Brisbane and surrounds until Monday killed 10 people and damaged more than 17,000 homes and businesses. Some 739mm of rain fell in just four days – nearly 75% of the annual average. On Friday, all schools in south-east Queensland closed except for children of essential workers in anticipation of further “extremely unstable” storms. That the floods hit the same week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report on the climate crisis, warning extreme weather events including floods were wreaking increasing damage, did not go unnoticed. The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, warned Queenslanders were living through “unprecedented times”, a sentiment echoed by the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet. “I’ve lived in Brisbane essentially all my life and I haven’t seen storms and floods like this all being thrown at us at once,” she said. While flood waters in some parts of the country begin to recede, many Australians brace for another wave of water as the storm regroups and moves south towards Sydney. A sense of frustration and fatigue has set in. Some, like property owners in the lowlands of Richmond, north-west of Sydney, are still rebuilding from the last catastrophic floods that struck in March 2021. Many have yet to received promised government assistance. Pharmacist Skye Swift, who made headlines when Fanning ferried her to her chemist shop to distribute essential medicines to her community, is exhausted reflecting on the road to come. Telecommunications outages were hampering the recovery effort, and supermarkets were grappling with potential weeks-long shortages of fresh produce amid a burgeoning supply crisis. Swift told Guardian Australia the good news stories, the solidarity, was “beautiful, but not enough at the end of the day”. “We’ve now got weeks and months of rebuilding,” she said. “And how do you rebuild when you don’t have any money, a job? “It’s the aftermath that gets missed, that’s the heartbreaking part … it’s going to be a long road.” | ['australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/caitlin-cassidy', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-04T06:28:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/feb/22/farmers-toughest-times-generation-england-wales- | Farmers in England and Wales ‘face toughest times in a generation’ | Food producers have said the challenges they face are “the toughest in a generation” as members of the National Farmers’ Union met for their annual conference after the first full year of Brexit. Farmers from England and Wales gathered in Birmingham on Tuesday, against the backdrop of huge upheaval in agriculture, with labour shortages caused by Brexit and Covid, an ongoing pig cull and the transition to life beyond the EU’s subsidy scheme. The day opened with a blistering attack on ministers from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president, Minette Batters, who accused the government of having no post-Brexit plan and of showing a “total lack of understanding of how food production works.” Her views were echoed by farmers speaking from the floor of the conference. Sam Godfrey, a pig farmer from Lincolnshire, said it was the “toughest time” he had known in 14 years on the family farm, while his father said he had not seen such challenging conditions since the 1970s. Godfrey, who has a herd of 6,500 sows, said pigs were still backing up on their farm, as abattoirs continued to take fewer animals to slaughter each week than planned. This is despite the family having invested £50,000 in converting buildings into extra space to house their pigs. “We have some spare capacity,” Godfrey said. “But we have never had a situation where it was this prolonged.” The NFU estimates that 200,000 pigs are backed up on farms in England, and are unable to be taken to slaughter as a result of labour shortages at abattoirs. Meanwhile, 40,000 healthy animals are thought to have been culled, and have not entered the food chain. Batters told the conference she had received a “heart-breaking” email from a family, who did not want to share their name, who had been producing pigs for more than 50 years. “They have taken the decision to cull 4,700 sows,” she said. Their son had hoped to enter the family business after completing an agriculture degree but had been forced to find another job. The government recently announced an immediate review of fairness in the pig industry supply chain and extended measures to support pig producers, including permitting foreign butchers to travel to the UK on temporary visas, longer working hours at processing plants and a scheme allowing producers to store carcasses for several months before processing. However, ministers have stopped short of providing financial support to affected pig farmers, in contrast with Scotland, Northern Ireland and some EU countries. One agricultural company, Thanet Earth, which grows tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in glasshouses in Kent, said it had lost £320,000-worth of produce in 2021, when crops could not be picked at the right time to sell to its primary customers. “Some of it went to charity, but it hits us as a loss because it is a low-margin industry,” said Robert James, technical director of Thanet Earth. “The impact of not having access to labour.” Others warn that some smaller growers may leave the industry if they are unable to get enough workers to pick their crops. “We don’t know until we get into the summer whether we will get the workers we need,” said Philip Pearson, group development director at APS Produce, the UK’s largest tomato grower. The company requires 1,000 seasonal workers each year. “What this is going to mean is more imported food.” Producers say post-Brexit visa quotas are holding them back. The government has kept the number of seasonal worker permits at the 30,000 people allowed in 2021, resisting calls for a significant increase. | ['business/fooddrinks', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'business/business', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'environment/environment', 'environment/meat-industry', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'world/europe-news', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joanna-partridge', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-22T18:49:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/article/2024/jun/24/the-nature-march-had-a-huge-turnout-so-why-didnt-it-make-bigger-news | The nature march had a huge turnout – so why didn’t it make bigger news? | Zoe Williams | When Just Stop Oil covered Stonehenge with orange cornflour last week, Keir Starmer was called upon to decry the act, which he dutifully did, even though anyone with even a very slight knowledge of geology will know that the marks won’t last. But that wasn’t what the Labour leader was being asked. Rather, the question was whose side was he on, between “respectable” people and disruptive ones? A respectable person, who cares about the environment – and this, in theory, is all respectable people, because to not care about the survival of everything you love would make you unhinged – shouldn’t throw things in protest, they should peacefully march. Happily, they did: 100,000 of them at the weekend, fighting for nature. It made some news reports; it didn’t make the bulletins. No radio host gave over their phone-in to the question of whether or not this sort of thing should be allowed. This is the new conundrum of public protest; the only way to be talked about is if you’re demonised. Grab yourself a “hate march” moniker because one person got arrested, and you’ll get all the coverage of your wildest dreams, but it will be unjust, because that one person was actually a counter-protester, and there are more arrests at your average football match. Without that, though, your protest will leave no ripple, so you’d be much better off throwing some soup at a Van Gogh, which will whip up outrage for months, even though there was glass covering it, and it’s really no big deal. Hannah Arendt posited that authoritarian governments love sparking protests, because they create the spectacle of the “ungovernable other” which justifies ever harsher government. People discussed that a lot directly after Trump was elected in 2016 – when women took to the streets, all over the world, wasn’t that just giving him exactly what he wanted? Did the crocheted vulva hats keep him awake at night? Or was he somewhere between unperturbed and triumphant? Everything, from peaceful protest to direct action, has the same purpose: in the face of a peril or outrage that’s important, do something. Don’t do nothing. The more it annoys people, the more attention they’ll pay, and we can argue for ever over whether negative attention is worth more, less or the same as positive attention. But just as an aside to news creators everywhere, when you prioritise the destructive over the peaceful – even just to heap noisy shame upon it – you’re proving what you decry: that orange flour is the only way to get noticed. • Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'uk-news/stonehenge', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/zoewilliams', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-production'] | environment/just-stop-oil | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2024-06-24T16:56:14Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2024/jan/04/australia-solar-power-panel-installation-data-uptake-energy-prices | Australian homes three times more likely to have solar panels than a pool as energy prices surge | Quarterly installations of new solar panels reached a record at the end of 2023, with Australian households more than three times as likely to have a photovoltaic system as a back yard swimming pool. Households and businesses added 921 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity in the December quarter, according to SunWiz, an industry data group. The tally took new rooftop solar capacity to about 3.17GW for all of last year, up 14% on 2022 and trailing only 2021’s record for annual installations of just over 3.23GW when installers were making up for Covid-related disruption. The final quarter or 2023 also included Australia’s two busier months for solar installations, with November clocking up 329MW and December 321MW. It also included the biggest single day when more than 26MW were added on 21 December. Warwick Johnston, SunWiz’s managing director, said the industry was poised to “start off strongly in 2024” as consumers raced to shield themselves from high electricity prices. In addition, a “global oversupply has driven down the price or new panels”, he said. Small-scale solar installations – covering systems or 100 kilowatts or narrower – have been the fastest-growing part of the renewable energy sector for some time. By contrast, large-scale solar and wind farms were not being built at the pace needed to replace ageing coal-fired power stations, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) warned last month in a major report. More than 3m Australian homes had solar panels on their roofs, with annual growth of 12% over the last five years, Aemo said. That capacity meant rooftop solar was now capable of meeting almost half of underlying electricity demand across the national energy market in the middle of a sunny day. At the end of last year, rooftop solar was at times meeting all of South Australia’s power demand and two-thirds of Victoria’s, Aemo said. Johnston said part of the increase in solar PV capacity was coming from households increasing the size of the units they bought. The average system reached almost 10.5kW, SunWiz’s data showed. The fall in cost of new panels, combined with increases in power prices of a quarter or more in the last year, meant the payback period for new systems had now dropped below five years for residential users. For commercial users, panels will pay off their costs in about 5.3 years as of the end or 2023, SunWiz said. While final figures are still to be tallied, households probably added about 60,000 home batteries in 2023, or a fifth more than in the previous year, Johnston said. Consumers were looking to soak up the excess solar energy their rooftop systems were generating during the middle of the day, he said, noting that states such as Victoria were paying just three cents per kilowatt-hour fed back into the grid. | ['environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-01-04T05:23:50Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2009/nov/22/security-cover-up-nuclear-plants | Security 'cover-up' at nuclear plants | The government is refusing to provide details on five separate security breaches at Britain's nuclear power stations last year. The breaches have prompted accusations that ministers are suppressing damaging information at a time when they are attempting to sell the idea of more nuclear power stations. Earlier this month, 10 new sites in England and Wales were approved. The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told MPs that nuclear was a "proven and reliable" energy source. But the latest annual report from the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS) has prompted questions about the measures being taken to protect the country's ageing plants. The report states that nuclear operators must disclose "events and occurrences which may be of interest from a security point of view". It notes: "Five reports were made which warranted further investigation and subsequent follow-up action." According to government guidelines, such incidents include "any unauthorised incursion on to the premises", "any incident occurring on the premises involving an explosive or incendiary device", "any damage to any building or equipment on the premises which might affect the security of the premises", "any theft or attempted theft of any nuclear material" and "any theft or attempted theft, or any loss or unauthorised disclosure, of sensitive nuclear information". The incidents are a cause for concern due to the heightened security threat, with al-Qaida terrorists thought to be targeting nuclear plants around the world. There are also claims that al-Qaida has attempted to procure radioactive materials abroad. Last year, western intelligence services, including MI5 and MI6, successfully blocked 16 attempts to smuggle plutonium or uranium, according to reports. In all cases the materials were believed to be destined for terrorist groups. Earlier this month an independent MP, Dai Davies, tabled parliamentary questions demanding that the government detail the nature of the five security breaches. But the energy minister, David Kidney, cited "national security reasons" in declining the request. Kidney said providing any more details would be in breach of government guidelines that "prevent the disclosure of sensitive nuclear information that could assist a person or group planning theft, blackmail, sabotage and other malevolent or illegal acts". Dr David Lowry, a nuclear policy consultant who specialises in security issues, attacked the refusal to provide further details. "Three years ago, the OCNS's annual report recorded eight breaches in information security, and at that time the nuclear security regulator was prepared to reveal that these included 'the theft of laptops from parked vehicles' and 'inappropriate transmission of restricted information over the internet'," Lowry said. "Now we have the minister responsible for nuclear security refusing to disclose any of the five reportable security incidents. Does this indicate they are much more important than hitherto, or does it reflect an acute atomic insecurity by ministers because they are trying to sell the claimed benefits of new nuclear plants to a sceptical public?" | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'uk/uksecurity', 'politics/edmiliband', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiedoward', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-11-22T00:06:37Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2016/aug/15/kew-gardens-in-race-to-collect-and-preserve-madagascars-seeds | Kew Gardens in race to collect and preserve Madagascar's seeds | Scientists are racing against time to create a backup of Madagascar’s famously rich and varied flora in a British seed bank before it is lost forever. The Indian ocean country is known as a biodiversity hotspot with 13,000 plant species, 90% of which are unique to the island and found nowhere else on Earth. But while its forests are still yielding species new to science, they are increasingly under pressure from farmers who see the forests as their only resource. Many people live on less than a dollar a day and poverty has got worse since aid was cut off following a military coup seven years ago, leading to widespread forest clearance. “It’s getting worse and worse [the slash and burn clearances], the poverty in Madagascar is increasing,” said Solofo Eric Rakotoarisoa, a team leader in Madagascar for Kew Gardens. Rakotoarisoa leads half a dozen forays into the country’s wilds each year, which often take several days to reach and can involve overcoming submerged roads as rivers flood, to collect seeds of threatened and economically important plants. “It’s getting to the point where it’s really obvious the forests are disappearing,” he warned. Once his team of 20 has methodically sorted and labelled the seeds of aloes, baobabs and other plants, they are quickly flown via DHL to the UK for safeguarding at Kew’s millennium seed bank. Nestled in the bucolic grounds of Wakehurst Place, a country house in West Sussex, the bank is an ultimate insurance policy for the world’s wild plants, with an underground vault worthy of James Bond to keep them safe. Kew aims to bank 25% of the world’s plants by 2020, and is at 13% so far. Of those in the freezer already, 1,800 species are from Madagascar but botanists think a total of 6,000 of the island country’s 13,000 plants could successfully be dried and stored here. The other 7,000-odd are recalcitrant seeds, including those of palms from humid forests in the east of the country, which do not survive the drying and freezing process. “It’s a race against time, picking these things up for the seed bank. It’s insurance against extinction,” said Stuart Cable, head of the Kew Madagascan Conservation Centre. He estimates that around 70% of Madagascar’s plants are endangered. Here in air-conditioned labs in the English countryside, technicians are sorting through more than 100 seeds recently delivered from Madgascar. On arrival, each bag gets a serial code and barcode before the seeds begin their journey toward the freezer. Seeds are cut and handpicked from seed heads, sieved, cleaned and x-rayed with a £60,000 machine to see how healthy and viablethey are. Designed for hospital use, the machine’s system asks for the seed’s patient name and gender when they’re logged. Moisture is the enemy at the bank. “If we put a damp seed into the freezer it will die,” says Tim R Pearce, conservation partnership coordinator for Africa at Kew, as he stands in a drying room where moisture is sucked out until the seeds reach the gold standard of 15% relative humidity. Once suitably desiccated, they are sent downstairs to the vault, which is protected by reinforced concrete and considered bombproof and plane-crash-proof. Here they are stored at -20C in jam jars with metal clasps, ready to be germinated and returned to the wild in the future. Eventually, Rakotoarisoa and Cable hope that the rest of Madagascar’s plants will join them in the bank’s cold storage. The next phase of the seed collection involves a big scaling-up of Kew’s efforts, using a £200,000 project to create an army of people in rural communities to help collect seeds and conserve forests in Madagascar. | ['world/madagascar', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plants', 'science/kew-gardens', 'science/science', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-08-15T07:00:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2021/jun/16/uk-talks-build-battery-gigafactories-electric-cars-lg-samsung-government | UK in talks to build battery ‘gigafactories’ for electric cars | The UK government has held talks with six manufacturers about building “gigafactory” electric car battery plants as part of its efforts to improve the prospects of the British automotive industry. The US carmaker Ford and the Korean electronics conglomerates LG and Samsung are among the companies that have had early-stage discussions with the government or local authorities, it is understood. They add to talks over possible investment by the Japanese carmaker Nissan, as well as two efforts by smaller startups, InoBat and Britishvolt. The talks were first reported by the Financial Times. Politicians including the prime minister, Boris Johnson, as well as automotive industry insiders, are hopeful the UK can protect jobs in the sector by securing investment from private companies in “gigafactories” – the name dreamed up by the Tesla boss, Elon Musk, for very large battery factories. Estimates from the Faraday Institution, a government-backed body, suggest the UK will lose out on 100,000 jobs without gigafactories, as carmakers switch from the petrol and diesel vehicles that constitute the vast majority of British automotive output. Attracting investment has so far proven difficult. Britishvolt is the only company that has made public its plans to open a UK battery factory, in Blyth, Northumberland, but it must still raise enough capital to build the plant as well as finding customers. The chosen Britishvolt site would be close to Nissan’s Sunderland factory, which already produces batteries for its Leaf electric cars. Nissan has discussed a plan that that would see production quadruple by 2024. A government source cautioned that some of the talks about possible investment were still at an early stage. Ford is considering where to source batteries for its new Transit Custom van models. The company stopped production of cars in the UK in 2001, but makes engines for Transits at its Dagenham plant, which are then shipped to Turkey. One option under consideration is to duplicate that relationship but with batteries, the Financial Times reported. Exports from Dagenham could benefit from the site’s inclusion in the Thames freeport, which offers a range of tax breaks to companies who invest. A spokesperson for Ford said a decision on battery sourcing would be made closer to the new model’s launch in 2023. Another contender for a UK battery site is the West Midlands, traditionally the heartland of UK carmaking. Coventry-based JLR, owned by India’s Tata, has not yet disclosed its plans for longer-term battery sourcing. InoBat Auto is reportedly in talks about a site at Coventry airport for which the West Midlands Combined Authority has secured pre-emptive planning permission. LG and Samsung were approached for comment. InoBat declined to comment. | ['business/automotive-industry', 'environment/electric-cars', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/ethical-living', 'technology/motoring', 'politics/politics', 'business/ford', 'technology/lg', 'technology/samsung', 'business/nissan', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-06-16T17:13:56Z | true | EMISSIONS |
sport/2020/feb/26/womens-t20-world-cup-england-thailand-match-report | Heather Knight's brilliant century propels England to win over Thailand | England got their Women’s T20 World Cup campaign back on track in convincing fashion against Thailand in Canberra on Wednesday, after Heather Knight struck her maiden Twenty20 hundred in a record 98-run win. “I’ve holed out in the 90s in domestic T20 cricket a few times so it’s really pleasing to finally get three figures,” the captain said. “We were gutted after the performance the other day [against South Africa] so it’s nice to bounce back.” Knight’s partner for most of the England innings was Nat Sciver, with the pair sharing a 169-run partnership, the highest for any wicket at a Women’s T20 World Cup. Sciver brought up a 45-ball half-century, her second in as many matches this tournament. “We wanted to extend the partnership because that’s what we haven’t done so far in the World Cup – we haven’t had those big partnerships,” Knight said. “It’s sometimes tricky, those games against countries that you’re expected to win, they’re not always the easiest to go out and win, so I’m delighted we’ve put in a really strong performance.” Having helped England to amass a total of 176 for two, Sciver then chipped in with two wickets in the 14th over, severely denting Thailand’s chase – they ended on 78 for seven. In truth Thailand, who freely admit they are a bowling side, never looked as if they would get close to the required runs. Their efforts fizzled out in the face of some excellent fielding by a resurgent England, including a direct‑hit run‑out from Anya Shrubsole. Only the opener Natthakan Chantam showed any resistance, with 32 off 53 balls before being trapped lbw by Sophie Ecclestone. “It was a challenging game for us but we tried to do our best on the field,” the Thailand captain, Sornnarin Tippoch, said. “We’re always trying to improve on the aggressive side of our game. In T20 the nature of the game is trying to get runs on the board so we’ll need to work hard on our batting game.” After their disastrous first outing against South Africa at the Waca, the change of location from Perth to Canberra appeared to benefit England: Knight in particular relishes batting at the Manuka Oval. After she was forced to defend her team’s strategy of playing eight batsmen in the pre‑match press conference, the captain’s innings – the highest score by an England player at a Women’s T20 World Cup – could be interpreted as an act of defiance, though it was helped along by a number of full tosses from the inexperienced Thai bowlers. Her knock came at a crucial time. Thailand had given England a scare after Amy Jones was stumped without scoring off the second ball of the day, advancing down the wicket to the off‑spinner Nattaya Boochatham. Jones’s opening partner, Danielle Wyatt, then fell for a golden duck, driving into the hands of a diving the cover fielder to leave England seven for two in the second over. The ever-reliable Knight and Sciver, though, calmed fraying English nerves with a partnership that began sedately with nurdled singles, before a significant push in the 13th over. Ironically it seemed to be the near-run‑out of Sciver that signalled the change of pace: advancing down the pitch from the non-striker’s end, she was sent back by Knight and had to dive to avoid the incoming throw from Tippoch at cover. With the very next ball Knight brought up her 1,000th T20 international run sweeping Ratanaporn Padunglerd for six over backward square leg. From there, the pair never looked back. “We went in to a bit of a tricky situation – two down quite quickly,” Knight said. “It was about trying to stay calm. It could have been quite easy to panic in that situation – we had to try and rebuild and get the platform to go again at the end. Once we got what we knew was going to be a good total, we decided to have a bit of fun, take the game on, and try and hit some boundaries.” England return to the Manuka Oval on Friday for their next group match against Pakistan, another must-win game if they are to guarantee progression to the semi-finals. Their performance on Wednesday will be a significant fillip to those hopes. | ['sport/womens-world-t20-2020', 'sport/england-women-cricket-team', 'sport/womens-world-twenty20', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/australia-sport', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/raf-nicholson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/womens-world-t20-2020 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-02-26T06:54:49Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2024/apr/14/ways-to-solve-a-crisis-in-our-national-parks | Ways to solve a crisis in our national parks | Letters | It is of deep concern to see the core funding for national parks fall, and it is widely known that the UK has a considerable challenge to tackle nature depletion and the biodiversity crisis (National parks in England and Wales failing on biodiversity, say campaigners, 9 April). There should be an overhaul of how parks are funded to emphasise these issues, and how actions by all interest groups, from landowners to tenant farmers, can be supported towards positive outcomes and maintaining livelihoods. There is excellent work being carried out by some organisations within our national parks. Wild Ennerdale and Wild Haweswater represent excellent coordinated efforts among wider stakeholders to tackle historic biodiversity depletion and work towards sustainable agroecology. Cairngorms Connect is working with many stakeholders towards a holistic ecological restoration in the Cairngorms national park, including large-scale peatland restoration. The North York Moors national park, via its woodland grant schemes, is embarking on woodland establishment on a large scale, bringing potential for many ecosystem benefits, including biodiversity gains. As a researcher in this area, I am proud to work with some of these organisations to learn how to best implement these approaches for biodiversity gain and sustainable rural livelihoods, and we should be using these, and the many other projects as inspiration for much wider work across our national parks and beyond. Dr Robert Mills University of York • 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/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-14T16:22:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
music/2012/dec/04/eric-clapton-chris-martin-lineup | Eric Clapton and Chris Martin join 12.12.12 lineup | Eric Clapton and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin have been added to the lineup for 12.12.12, next week's telethon for victims of superstorm Sandy. The New York concert will be broadcast to more than one billion viewers worldwide, organisers revealed on Monday. 12.12.12 will "take over" American TV on 12 December, with 34 channels broadcasting the gig. The benefit will also be shown by outlets such as MTV International, Belgium's RTL and Telehit-Televisa. Producers have secured online distribution through YouTube, AOL and MySpace, and the broadcast will even make its way to China, airing via the National Basketball Association. In New York, London and Paris, the event will be shown on Clear Channel's massive digital billboards. Clapton and Martin complete a lineup that includes many of music's biggest names: Bruce Springsteen, the Who, Paul McCartney, Kanye West, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, Eddie Vedder, Billy Joel and Dave Grohl. Tickets are now available for the concert at Madison Square Garden; they start at $150 (£93). Proceeds from the show will go to the Robin Hood Relief Fund for Sandy victims in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Robin Hood generally funds smaller non-profit organisations who distribute food, blankets, generators and other essential services. As winter begins to set in, thousands of homes still remain without power. 12.12.12 is a joint project by Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, the Madison Square Garden Company and the Weinstein Company. The same partners produced a 2001 telethon for victims of the 9/11 attacks, raising more than $30m (£19m) with performances by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Jay-Z, David Bowie, and the Who. | ['music/music', 'music/popandrock', 'music/ericclapton', 'music/coldplay', 'culture/culture', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/world', 'us-news/new-york', 'society/charities', 'society/voluntarysector', 'society/society', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/seanmichaels'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-12-04T10:51:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2012/jul/01/amazon-highway-peru-tribes-risk | New Amazon highway 'would put Peru's last lost tribes at risk' | A fierce row has broken out over a controversial plan to drive a road through pristine Amazon rainforest, imperilling the future of some of the world's last uncontacted tribes. The 125-mile (200km) road would pass through the Alto Purús national park in Peru, connecting a remote area to the outside world but opening up the most biologically and culturally important area of the upper Amazon to logging, mining and drug trafficking. Opponents of the plan fear it will threaten the existence of uncontacted tribes such as the Mashco-Piro. The first detailed photographs of members of the tribe made headlines around the world earlier this year after they were spotted on a riverbank. The majority indigenous population of the region appears to be largely united in its opposition to the road, which would run parallel to the Brazilian border, connecting the towns of Puerto Esperanza and Iñapari. Conservationists warn it would cause irreparable harm to the environment and the area's people. But the road has the support of many mixed-race settlers – or mestizos – who make up roughly one fifth of the region's population. With the Alto Purús currently accessible only by plane, they believe that the road would improve their quality of life, bringing lower prices for fuel and food and creating profitable development opportunities. The campaign to build the road has been led by an Italian missionary, Miguel Piovesan, who claims that indigenous people are being kept isolated and denied the chances for development available to the rest of the population. He first proposed the road in 2004, around the time the Peruvian government announced that the Alto Purús was to become the country's largest national park. Piovesan's plan's met with little initial enthusiasm, but his long and determined campaign, using his own radio station and parish website, has been so successful that the country's Congress is now due to debate a bill to allow construction to start. Piovesan has been scathing about his opponents, particularly international organisations such as Survival International and the WWF, which he accuses of profiting from keeping the tribes in isolation. "These international organisations gain money because they present themselves as the saviours of the Indians, this is what it's all about. So if the Indians evolve, they [the NGOs] lose their business," he said on a recent radio show. Last week he told the Observer that the reality was that the indigenous people were being kept in a condition of "captivity and slavery incompatible with the true ecology". But Piovesan's opponents suspect that he is more interested in gaining access to potential converts for his church. Reports from Peru say that he has denied the existence of the uncontacted tribes. The main indigenous organisation in Puerto Esperanza, Feconapu, has demanded that the Vatican remove the priest, accusing him of insulting and humiliating the native population. One indigenous leader, Julio Cusurichi, warned that building the road would amount to "ethnocide" of the uncontacted tribes. According to the last census, in 2007, there are only about 3,500 people living in the region, including eight known tribes and an unknown number of uncontacted Indians living in the Madre de Díos territorial reserve. The 6.7m-acre national park is also home to wildlife including jaguar, scarlet macaw and giant river otter. The Upper Amazon Conservancy, which works with the indigenous population, has been one of the most vocal critics of the road. Its director, Chris Fagan, accused the road's supporters of short-sighted greed and said the majority of the population were vehemently opposed. "They depend on the forest and rivers for daily sustenance. They see the highway as just the latest example of mestizo greed and exploitation – of rubber, their religion, animal skins, mahogany, and now a highway accessing their homelands," he said. "It will ruin one of the wildest and culturally important places on Earth. Will reason or greed prevail?" Rebecca Spooner, Survival International's Peru campaigner, said building the road would devastate entire peoples: "These uncontacted tribes live either side of the Peru-Brazil border. Building this road through their forest tramples over their rights, imposing so-called 'development' upon them. Congress has the opportunity to step in before it's too late. This road should not be approved." The issue of access to areas inhabited by uncontacted tribes came to the fore in January when the Observer exposed the plight of the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman Islands, whose women and girls were being persuaded to dance semi-naked for tourists in return for gifts of food. Last month India's government finally took action to end the abuse, introducing a law to create a 5km buffer zone around the Jarawa's reserve and making breaches of the law punishable with up to seven years in jail. But in a sign that Delhi has a fight on its hands to protect the tribe, the Andaman administration responded by instructing its police force to think very carefully before taking any action against settlers living around the buffer zone. | ['world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/peru', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/forests', 'world/americas', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'type/article', 'profile/gethin-chamberlain', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2012-06-30T23:03:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/aug/23/blueprint-for-emissions-reduction-major-industry-policy-changes-needed-for-australia-to-reach-net-zero | Blueprint for emissions reduction: major industry policy changes needed for Australia to reach net zero | Greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s industrial sites have risen 24% since 2005, and need to be addressed now if the country is to have a chance of reaching net zero by 2050, a new report says. The Melbourne-based think tank Grattan Institute has released a blueprint to reduce emissions from major industry, citing government projections that without action they are expected to stay around current levels until 2030. It recommends policy changes such as improving Australia’s failing “safeguard mechanism”, creating an “industrial transformation future fund” similar in design to the national green bank, and expanding state energy savings schemes. The report found an economy-wide carbon price backed by support for technology development would be the most efficient way to cut emissions, but deemed this “politically out of reach” and focused on policies the institute believed could be introduced under either the Coalition or Labor. It was released as the Morrison government invited industry to have its say on the design of a promised new “safeguard crediting mechanism”, which it says will help big energy-using businesses adopt new technologies to cut costs and emissions. The emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, said the new mechanism – which was flagged last year following a review of the government’s climate policies headed by former Business Council of Australia president Grant King – would award carbon credits to industry for “transformative abatement projects”. If successful, it could address criticisms of the operation of the safeguard mechanism, which was introduced under Tony Abbott to place a limit on industrial emissions, but that in practice has allowed companies to repeatedly increase pollution without penalty. Critics have expressed concern it could lead to big emitters receiving government handouts for little public benefit if not well designed. The government allocated $279.9m in the May budget to the new mechanism. The industrial sector, not counting electricity generation, is responsible for 31% of Australia’s emissions. That proportion has grown as annual industrial emissions leapt from 130m tonnes in 2005 to 162m tonnes in 2019. The increase was mostly driven by an expansion of gas and coal exports. Government projections released in December suggested industrial emissions were expected to still be at about the 2019 level in 2030. Scientists, political leaders and diplomats have said global emissions need to be cut roughly in half by then for the world to be on track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement. Tony Wood, Grattan Institute’s energy and climate change policy director, said every decision the industrial sector made would have repercussions on emissions lasting decades. Governments needed “to send the right signals”, he said. “Current policies place little to no downward pressure on emissions, nor do they encourage development of new low-or-zero-emissions industrial capacity,” he said in the report. “From now on, every decision to renew, refurbish or build an industrial asset potentially locks in emissions for the coming decades. Getting these decisions right will be critical for reaching net zero.” The Grattan report broke down industrial emissions into three main groups – fugitive emissions that escape during fossil fuel extraction, emissions from burning coal, gas and petroleum products, and emissions released during chemical reactions in manufacturing plants. While Australia has thousands of industrial facilities, the overwhelming majority of today’s industrial emissions are from 194 large facilities covered by the safeguard mechanism. The report recommended transforming the safeguard. It said companies should be set emissions limits – known as baselines – that reflected their current pollution, not inflated estimates of what it could be, and the baselines should be reduced over time consistent with emissions targets. It said there should be no exemptions and any new facilities should be given baselines substantially lower than the current industry average. Companies should be financially rewarded for emitting below their baseline, but only if the baseline was challenging to meet based on current output, it said. Taylor said in a statement on Sunday that the King review had recommended the government establish a system in which companies could receive carbon credits for emissions cuts below their baseline, and it would now start consultation with industry on how to best implement it and “maximise co-investment”. The Grattan report also recommended the creation of a transformation future fund to offer loans for the replacement of industrial assets with low-emissions alternatives. The fund could be similar to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, but would not be required to earn a return on loans and would draw on both government and private-sector money. For small and medium-sized industrial facilities, it suggested expanding and coordinating existing state energy efficiency schemes, and encouraging use of instant asset write-off to replace older polluting technology with newer and cleaner versions. Wood said reaching net zero would require an “unprecedented pace of asset replacement and renewal, starting now”. The Grattan report said there was significant economic opportunity for Australian industry if the country acted to expand the export of minerals critical in low-emissions technology. If the country maintained its current global market share, exports of copper, nickel, lithium, graphite and cobalt would by 2050 bring in double the revenue earned today through coal exports. The Grattan Institute report is one of five the organisation is publishing before the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. A report on transport emissions in July recommended phasing out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 if Australia was to have any chance of reaching net zero by 2050. It said it could be achieved by gradually tightening a new emissions limit imposed on light vehicles, and suggesting getting rid of stamp duty for electric cars would cut their price by 6.5%. Like industrial emissions, transport emissions have risen significantly since 2005, the benchmark year against which the Morrison government has pledged to cut emissions. | ['environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/angus-taylor', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-08-22T17:30:41Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2017/mar/03/children-lungs-air-pollution-diesel | Traffic pollution must be fixed: our children’s lungs demand it | Penny Woods | Few things are as precious as our children’s health. That’s why the research commissioned by the mayor of London on the amount of schools in areas with illegal levels of toxic air is so troubling. The findings expose the severe problems with air pollution in London. But it’s not just a problem for Londoners. Safe air pollution levels are being breached across Britain. And children are the ones who are most vulnerable. Worryingly, this study drives home the extent to which their lung health is genuinely in danger. Why? This is due, in part, to the immaturity of children’s respiratory and immune systems. Children’s lungs are still growing and air pollution can stunt that growth. Evidence has shown that children growing up in polluted areas are four times more likely to have poor lung growth. Children with smaller lungs are more likely to have health problems in later life. From links to asthma, chronic chest problems and emerging evidence of the impact on children’s mental and cognitive health: pollution is bad for children. The UK’s air quality is more than a hot topic; it’s a public health crisis. The negative health effects need to be given far greater prominence. Research shows that if a baby is exposed to air pollution in the womb, it can alter its lung development. If it is exposed to a lot of air pollution, it can also lead to premature birth and low birth weight. For the rest of us, short-term exposure to dirty air can cause irreparable damage to the lining of our lungs, coughing and wheezing. The irritation to our respiratory system can leave us feeling out of breath. Long-term exposure can lead to a reduction in lung function. There is now a growing body of evidence that there is an increased risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The statistic that is becoming well known is that it contributes to approximately 40,000 early deaths a year. So what is causing the high levels of pollution that we are now frequently experiencing? Over the past 30 years, pollution levels have actually improved, but there are still illegal levels in many towns and cities. Since 1970, thanks to changes in power generation and industry, emissions of nitrogen oxides have declined 69%, while emissions of particulate matter (small particles that can get lodged in our lungs) are down nearly 73%. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a serious problem with air pollution. What has changed is an increase in vehicle usage, and the amount of diesel used on the road. This means traffic emissions have become the major source of pollution in urban areas, where the majority of the population lives. The World Health Organization has classified diesel as a class one carcinogen. What this means is that over a lifetime it increases the risk of getting lung cancer in a similar way to inhaling tobacco smoke. Reducing diesel vehicles has to be part of the solution if we’re going to bring pollution down to safe levels. We need to prioritise getting older, more polluting diesels off the roads. The British Lung Foundation believes diesel needs phasing out, but for this to happen much more investment is needed in cleaner and alternative transport options. What’s frustrating is that the majority of diesel owners bought their cars thinking they were healthier and cleaner. Plus, the tax system continues to provide incentives to buy diesel cars. We hope the chancellor will address this, and introduce a scrappage scheme to encourage people to switch from diesel to cleaner fuel. I’ve planted plenty of worries for parents and teachers – indeed, for all of us – but there are practical steps everyone can take to protect their lungs. In the most polluted places, or when we’re experiencing a severe reduction in air quality, avoid walking along main roads, steer clear of rush-hour traffic and always carry any medication with you. On the school run, look for alternative routes that avoid busy traffic areas. Cycling and walking, where it’s practical to do so, is the best option for healthy lungs. A major issue is the lack of available data and information on air pollution. We need more monitors in places such as schools, providing accurate information to help parents and teachers make practical choices around their health. We hope the chancellor will take bold action next week, creating incentives to reduce diesel vehicles on our roads. It will be a step in the right direction, but it won’t be enough on its own. We still need a new Clean Air Act, with fair and ambitious targets to reduce pollution levels. Our children’s lungs demand it. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/comment', 'society/children', 'society/health', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/penny-woods', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-03-03T12:48:50Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
travel/2001/jan/03/netjetters2000sam.netjetters | From: Deirdre (3 Jan) | When you're changing money in Bali, be really careful; each time my husband and I changed money we were short changed by about £20. Visit Ubud if you want a bit of culture - the art and crafts and restaurants are great (and cheap) - and make sure you visit the monkey forest! If you're staying for longer than a night in Bangkok, I recommend forking out a bit more cash to stay in a decent place - it's extremely hot and humid and you will definitely need air conditioning if you want to sleep - and stay as near to the centre as you can as you won't be able to get around easily! The traffic is bad, the transport iffy (apart from the sky train which is brilliant and cheap) and you can't walk any where for too long because of the humidity - you will exhaust yourself. Try to stay somewhere near the skytrain stations as this is the most convenient way to travel. However, you'll have to take a tuk-tuk at night because it's such a laugh! When you're in Singapore - (our honeymoon last year followed almost exactly the same itinerary as yours!) - try not to spend all your time in the city - the countryside is absolutely spectacular and hardly ever mentioned for some reason. Also, definitely visit the Night Safari - it is a wonderful experience. | ['travel/netjetters2000sam', 'travel/netjetters', 'travel/travel', 'travel/netjettersblog', 'type/article'] | travel/netjetters2000sam | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2001-01-03T19:45:49Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/article/2024/may/25/solar-batteries-australia-renewable-energy-costs-tips | Thinking of getting a solar battery? Consider these things first | Doosie Morris | Like any emerging technology, personal solar storage in the form of “batteries” has been enthusiastically debated and tested by those able (and interested enough) to get into the nitty-gritty. But for those who don’t have the time, energy or inclination to give themselves a crash course in the shifting sands of the Australian energy market, the solar battery landscape can feel impenetrable. Start looking into solar batteries and you’ll soon find yourself in a quagmire of technical specifications; talk of kilowatt hours, feed-in tariffs, congestion and curtailment and head-wrecking calculations. While the complex mechanisms of energy production, consumption and commerce might make quick sense to some, for many solar punters trying to figure out how to make best use of the excess energy generated by their rooftop arrays, the comparisons and calculations (not to mention the cost) can feel overwhelming. So how do you know if a battery is right for your household? There may not be a simple answer but there is some consensus on how the battery-curious should tackle the question. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Step 1: make your home energy efficient Rob McLeod, policy and advocacy manager at Renew, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in helping people make their homes more sustainable, says the first thing people need to do is make sure their home is as energy efficient as possible. “There’s no point in having a big battery system while you’re still using gas, for example.” McLeod says people are much better off approaching their energy consumption in a way that is “integrated and holistic” and that installing a battery is the last piece of that puzzle. He recommends people who own their own homes start with a professional energy audit. He insists that this puts people in the best position to reduce consumption and “soak up” any solar energy they are already generating during daylight hours to reduce overflow. Once your home is operating as efficiently as possible, including having a solar setup, it is likely that you will have some energy to spare. With solar buyback rates plummeting, and even going into the negative, that’s when the real questions about storage begin. Step 2: consider your motivation Chris Barnes, the household product category manager at Choice, thinks the first thing people should be asking themselves is about motivation. “Doing it because you’re interested in the technology, because you want to protect yourself against blackouts, because you hate energy companies,” he says is a very different proposition from getting a battery to save money. “It’s not a no-brainer, cost-wise.” “If you’re on a flat-rate tariff at the moment [the battery] probably wouldn’t pay for itself.” But with time-of-use tariffs becoming increasingly common, Barnes says that if you’re being savvy about how you utilise energy during the day, a battery has the potential to make some economic sense. For now. “It’s quite a complex calculation,” he says “and it can vary a lot over the years”. Barnes estimates in an ideal scenario the current payback period on most batteries to be six to 10 years. But he cautions that even if you do all your homework now and the sums add up today, things can change: “If you’re looking 10 years down the track, who knows what power rates are going to be?” Step 3: be patient Given the mercurial nature of the National Energy Market (NEM), consumers risk wasting a lot of time (and money) optimising a system that suddenly doesn’t work for them. Dr Asma Aziz, a senior lecturer in power engineering at Edith Cowan University, urges patience. “At this point, customers don’t have any control. It is in the hands of utility companies,” she says. But she’s confident that in the coming years, as policies are ironed out and the technology advances, the cost benefit analysis will change dramatically in consumers’ favour “There’s no rush, I think now is a time to wait and see.” Step 4: look at other alternatives Alternatives to personal batteries are also emerging. The federal government has announced a $200m program installing 400 community batteries across the country to help absorb surplus rooftop solar from 100,000 homes and distribute it, even to those who don’t have solar themselves. But not everyone is convinced they’ll deliver on their promise to make good use of excess solar while driving prices down. With so many factors at play and an infoscape best suited to energy hobbyists, McLeod says he can understand why everyday consumers might throw their hands up. But he points out that if it’s all too much and you really want to avoid wasting your surplus, electric vehicles operate on the same principle and can be used to soak up excess solar energy during the day. Australia’s cheapest EV (which is comparably priced to a top-of-the-line Corolla) can hold nearly five times the recommended minimum storage of a household battery. Ultimately the consensus is that getting into the solar battery game is not for the faint of heart or light of pocket. Doing one’s homework is essential but at this stage even the most well researched purchase could prove financially unviable. “People shouldn’t rule it out … but it is still a bit of a gamble.” Barnes says. While everyone the Guardian spoke with agreed batteries were well worth researching, investing remains speculative. | ['australia-news/series/change-by-degrees', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'type/article', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'tone/features', 'campaign/email/five-great-reads', 'campaign/callout/callout-installing-a-battery-at-home', 'profile/doosie-morris', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2024-05-24T15:00:03Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/apr/03/edinburgh-science-festival-charity-bans-fossil-fuel-sponsorship | Edinburgh science festival charity bans fossil fuel sponsorship | The charity running the Edinburgh international science festival is to ban sponsorship from oil companies including Shell and Total after protests by climate campaigners. Edinburgh Science said on Wednesday it realised its commitment to educating people on climate change was substantially compromised by accepting money from fossil fuel companies. The charity said the oil industry “is not moving fast enough” to cut greenhouse gas emissions, adding that “climate change is without doubt an urgent threat of unprecedented magnitude”. Edinburgh Science has taken money from Total and Exxon to pay for its “Generation Science” tours of Scottish schools, promoting science as a career in classrooms, as well as from Shell and the Scottish Oil Club. Climate activists had warned Edinburgh Science it faced protests during this year’s festival, which starts this weekend. Protesters believe the festival does not do enough to educate visitors about the threats posed by climate change. The Scottish Oil Club was targeted by Extinction Rebellion activists last month when it held its annual dinner at the National Museum of Scotland, leading to 14 activists being charged. The Edinburgh international festival dropped BP as a sponsor in 2017. One science festival event for families this year involves teaching children how to find and drill for oil, inviting participants to construct a scale-model drilling rig. In contrast, this year’s Edinburgh medal for scientific achievement is being awarded as part of the festival to Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change. Edinburgh Science said: “With the issues of climate change ever present and urgent, we feel increasingly compromised by the conflict between accepting sponsorship from fossil fuel companies and programming events that scrutinise the main causes of climate change. “The UN intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) calls for a dramatic and immediate reduction in the amount of fossil fuels consumed if we are to keep global warming to no more than 1.5C. “Whilst we see change happening in the oil and gas sector and appreciate that the demands on them are complex, we are of the view that the sector is not moving fast enough to meet the IPCC targets and that there is a conflict between their behaviour and the underlying science.” Tara Wight, a spokeswoman for the campaign group Science Unstained, said the charity’s decision was welcome. “By being associated with science outreach events, fossil fuel companies aim to clean up their image and present themselves as responsible organisations that are in alignment with scientific consensus on climate change. “Sponsoring educational and cultural organisations is a cheap and effective means of improving their public image while continuing to destroy the earth.” | ['environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/edinburgh', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'science/science', 'business/business', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-03T11:13:09Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
uk-news/2015/jul/09/levy-on-renewables-a-boost-to-fracking | Levy on renewables a boost to fracking | Letters | As renewable energy producers have pointed out, the removal of their exemption from the climate change levy in Wednesday’s budget is likely to drive them from profit into loss, and thus put many of them out of business (Cuts for renewable producers, help for polluters, Budget supplement, 9 July). But isn’t that exactly the hidden policy intention? George Osborne is an enthusiastic supporter of fracking, and wants to restart nuclear power construction in the United Kingdom. How else can he force energy consumers – us, the public – to choose the more expensive fracking and nuclear energy options over cheaper wind and solar unless he first destroys the renewable energy sector? Joseph Nicholas London | ['uk-news/budget-2015-july', 'uk/budget', 'uk/uk', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2015-07-09T18:33:20Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/apr/17/great-barrier-reef-extreme-coral-bleaching | Extreme coral bleaching could spell worst summer on record for Great Barrier Reef, authority says | The Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of what could be its worst summer on record with a widespread and extreme coral bleaching event coming on top of floods, two cyclones and outbreaks of coral-eating starfish, according to an official Australian government report. The “summer snapshot” report released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science said: “Compared [with] previous summers, cumulative impacts have been much higher this summer and a widespread bleaching event is still unfolding.” The report says 39% of 1,080 individual reefs surveyed from the air had experienced either very high (61-90% coral cover bleached) or extreme (more than 90%) levels of bleaching. Such high levels had been observed on reefs in all three regions of the park, which is a world heritage-listed natural wonder, but the most heat stress had occurred in the south. The reef marine park, covering an area the size of Italy and including 3,000 individual reefs, is in the middle of a fifth mass bleaching in only eight years driven by global heating, with at least 10% of corals affected on 73% of reefs. US government scientists confirmed this week that a fourth planet-wide coral bleaching event was under way, with many reefs in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans bleaching. Dr David Wachenfeld, reef research program director at Aims, said: “We have seen [coral] mortality from flooding, from cyclones and from heat stress.” Wachenfeld said while levels of heat stress had been at record levels on some parts of the reef, it would be many months before a clearer picture emerged of how many corals had died. In-water surveys are ongoing. A separate report released by Aims said southern parts of the reef had experienced the highest levels of heat stress ever seen on the satellite record. “Over all the sources of potential stress across the whole reef, yes, the exposure this summer is really high in most places,” said Wachenfeld. “The critical question is, how will that play out over the next year?” Two cyclones moved across northern parts of the marine park this Australian summer, raising concerns. Cyclones generate wave action that can damage and kill corals, as well as causing flooding in-land which can push freshwater, sediment and nutrients back out on to reefs near the shore. Some corals had died as a result, the report said. An outbreak of the native crown-of-thorns starfish had also occurred in the southern section of the reef. The marine park authority has a program to anticipate and cull the starfish which, under an outbreak, can eat coral faster than it can grow. Wachenfeld said: “Climate change is the by far the greatest threat to coral reefs globally and it’s a growing threat – and, not withstanding the objectives of the Paris climate agreement, we continue to emit greenhouse gases more than we used to.” Australia is one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels – in particular coal and gas – in the world. On Wednesday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, visited a gas export hub in the Queensland city of Gladstone, on the coast next to the reef, to mark the 1,000th gas shipment from the site. Dr Roger Beeden, the reef authority’s chief scientist, said it was too early to know if this summer would be the worst the reef had seen, “but it’s really significant”. “This cumulative story is really important and across most of the reef we will see consequences,” he said. Prof Terry Hughes, a coral bleaching expert at James Cook University in Queensland, said the evidence showed “this is the most widespread and most severe bleaching event on record”. Data from the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch shows the amount of heat stress accumulated on reefs around the world, using a measure called degree heating weeks. Hughes, who has extensively studied previous bleaching events, said the NOAA data showed areas across the marine park – from Lizard Island in the north to Cairns and Port Douglas in the central area and the Whitsundays, Heron Island and Lady Elliot Island in the south – had seen heat stress between 9 and 12 DHWs. “That’s lethal levels of heat exposure at tourism hotspots along the length of the GBR and we have never seen anything like that,” he said. Anne Hoggett, co-director of the Australian Museum’s Lizard Island Research Station, said about 80% of the shallow Acropora corals that are known as staghorn and plate-like corals had already died. She said: “It’s absolutely shocking. This has not ended yet and it remains to be seen how bad it will be.” In July, the World Heritage committee is due to decide if the Great Barrier Reef should be placed on a list of sites in danger. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/coral', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-17T03:45:47Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/mar/29/labor-vows-full-scientific-assessment-of-logging-agreements | Labor vows 'full scientific assessment' of logging agreements | Federal Labor is promising to revisit and fix any logging agreements with state governments that are not based on “proper, independent and full scientific assessments”. In a pledge that could have implications for the rollover of nine agreements due to expire in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia over the next three years, the shadow minister for agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon, and shadow minister for environment and water, Tony Burke said; “Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA [regional forestry agreement] outcomes as part of the agreed framework. “This includes all relevant science, including climate science and impacts on threatened species,” the ministers said in a joint statement. It comes after Guardian Australia revealed federal and state ministers had discussed legal concerns that extensions to logging agreements might be invalid when based on old scientific assessments. NSW Labor has accused the state and federal governments of “unnecessary rush” in rolling over three RFAs in NSW based on “out-of-date science”. The RFAs were negotiated by the commonwealth and states in the 1990s to better protect forest biodiversity and expand national parks and other protected areas, while at the same time providing “long-term stability” to forest industries by guaranteeing timber supply. The documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that the environmental and scientific reviews conducted 20 years ago for each RFA region will not be revisited, in part for cost reasons. The Victorian Labor government is arguing with Canberra about the need for new scientific assesments of five Victorian RFAs which are due to expire in March 2020, after short-term rollovers this week. The assistant agriculture minister, Anne Ruston, has refused a Victorian request for $23m to fund new “studies, data collection and assessment activities” before the RFAs are extended on a long-term basis. In recent email responses to constituents writing with concerns about the rollover of the RFAs, Burke said: “Labor has supported regional forest agreements [RFAs] as a way to manage forests. If RFAs are not delivering, this is something Labor will address in government. “Labor will also look closely at the Turnbull government’s proposed national forestry plan. It is disappointing that, since taking office in 2013, the Coalition government still lacks a viable, definitive plan to truly deliver the important protections Australia’s native forests need”. The NSW minister for lands and forestry, Paul Toole, said in a statement: “A scientific assessment of all relevant matters is being undertaken jointly by the NSW and the commonwealth, and will take into account all new knowledge and contemporary issues that have emerged since the RFAs were originally established. “NSW has already committed resources to this process. A robust assessment will be completed in time to inform development of new RFAs”. The Victorian minister for energy environment and climate change, Lily D’Ambrosio, said:“We stand with federal Labor in supporting the need for the modernisation of regional forestry agreements. “Our government is leading the way in ensuring RFAs are brought up-to-date to reflect modern forest science, climate change and the needs of local communities”. The WA environment minister, Stephen Dawson, said in a statement: “The matter of WA’s RFA is currently being considered by the WA government.” In a statement supplied to the Guardian on Wednesday, Joel Fitzgibbon and Tony Burke said: “Labor takes evidence-based science seriously, as we do the benefits and jobs that a sustainable forestry industry brings.” “That is why Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA outcomes as part of the agreed framework. This includes all relevant science, including climate science and impacts on threatened species.” | ['environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/tony-burke', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gregg-borschmann', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-03-29T00:26:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/nov/07/obama-climate-change-us-election-president | What does Obama's victory mean for action on global warming? | Damian Carrington | What does a second term for Barack Obama as US president mean for action on climate change? The short answer is that some action is now at least conceivable. It would not have been under Mitt Romney, whose statement that the president's job was not to stop the sea rising was hideously exposed by the inundation of New York and New Jersey by the surge of superstorm Sandy. So far, so good. But what action can we expect from Obama, at home and abroad? First, the good omens. Climate change was cited in his victory speech, albeit among 2000 other words: "We want our children to live in an America that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet." A second-term President is unencumbered by the need to seek re-election, meaning - in theory - he is free to be bold. Furthermore, it is a clear advantage to have a president who understands the threat climate change leading the world's biggest historical polluter in the make-or-break year of 2015. That is when the globe's nations must finally hammer out an international deal to combat global warming. If, as some rumours suggest, John Kerry will be his new secretary of state, then he will have an able and motivated ally in clinching an agreement to cut carbon emissions. Domestically, the good omens are that Obama is well placed to continue his drive to control greenhouse gas emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency, support low-carbon energy and to push through better regulation for the shale gas exploitation which has made the US the world's biggest gas producer. However, the bad omens are substantial. In 2009, Obama decided climate change was not a winning issue for him and a climate silence descended. He no longer needs to win the White House, but he has to win many other battles, not least reducing the US's stupendous debt and its high unemployment rate. With the House of Representatives in Republican hands, pushing through any legislation will require bi-partisan support. Remember, Obama's carbon cap and trade bill died on Capitol Hill. There must be a real risk that action on climate change becomes a bargaining chip that Obama trades for GOP support on economic issues, particularly given the widespread judgement that he has spectacularly failed to win over opponents in the past. Another poor omen is that the power of money in US politics remains unchallenged. The vast sums thrown at politicians at every level by the vested interests in the fossil fuel industry will continue to block progress. And what happens domestically directly influences what happens in the rest of the world. International efforts to tackle climate change have fallen so far due to a lack of trust on all sides: why should we cut our emissions if we're not sure you are going to do the same? The way to build that trust is by showing action on the ground at home. A US carbon tax has been talked about as an alternative to the cap-and-trade bill, but there seems next to no prospect of this overcoming Republican opposition. Obama's re-election means he can end his climate silence and continue his bits-and-pieces approach to tackling American emissions. But he probably needs to bring more than that to the international negotiating table if the US is to galvanise the slow struggle towards a global deal. To me, the odds on him doing that seem low. Perhaps, chillingly, it will take more searing heatwaves and superstorms to strike to prompt Obama into serious action. But low odds are better than no odds, and that's what a President Romney would have meant. | ['environment/damian-carrington-blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/us-politics', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-11-07T13:15:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
news/2022/aug/25/weatherwatch-how-hyper-local-forecasts-can-improve-safety-on-mountains | How hyper-local forecasts can improve safety on mountains | In late May 2021, 172 runners set out to tackle a 100km ultramarathon in north-west China. By the next day 21 of the runners had been killed by hypothermia after an unexpectedly intense storm brought freezing temperatures, strong winds and hail to an upland section of the course. Weather forecasts had predicted a cold front, but had not captured how extreme the conditions would be. There are no meteorological stations in the area and survivor reports are subjective, but now a new hyper-local weather model – using topographic data at tens of metre resolution rather than kilometres – indicates that the intense wind and rain caused temperatures to drop by 6.7°C. Taking the blizzard-like conditions into account and the effect of wet clothes on body temperature, the study – which is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres – estimates that runners would have experienced an apparent temperature of -10°C. Storms like this are common at high altitudes on mountains like Everest, and while rarer at lower elevations, their sudden arrival makes them particularly dangerous. The researchers suggest hyper-local weather models can improve forecast accuracy for mountain events, where steep mountain slopes generate highly localised effects on wind, rain and temperature at a scale too small to be picked up by conventional weather forecasts. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'world/china', 'lifeandstyle/running', 'lifeandstyle/ultrarunning', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-25T05:00:04Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2015/dec/31/spain-ancient-olive-trees-threat-garden-ornaments | Spain's ancient olive trees under threat from market for garden ornaments | They have witnessed – and withstood – much of Spain’s rich history; their thick, gnarled branches steadily supplying olives to a changing roster of Romans, Moors and Christians. But recent years have seen Spain’s thousand-year-old olive trees face one of their biggest threats to date: a growing demand for unique garden ornaments that has led to the trees being uprooted and transported around the world, from northern Europe to the US and the United Arab Emirates. “We’re losing some of the biggest and oldest trees of Europe,” said César-Javier Palacios of Madrid’s Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente Foundation. The foundation, dedicated to honouring the memory of one of Spain’s best-known naturalists, recently launched a campaign to try and keep these trees in Spain. In the past two decades, dozens of companies have sprung up across Spain to feed a robust international demand for ancient olive trees. Palacios says the financial incentive was big, with the oldest trees commanding as much as €40,000 (£30,000) on the international market. But the journey is precarious. “Many of them die on the journey,” he said. “And those that don’t die, instead of living maybe another 1,000 years, they may only live another 50 or 100 years.” A petition launched by his organisation calling on the EU to protect the trees has received more than 140,000 signatures. “Just like 150 years ago, rich north Americans came to Spain to buy Roman shrines for next to nothing and take them back, stone by stone, we’re again allowing the same plundering of our natural heritage,” reads the petition. The worst part, said Palacios, was that while France and parts of Italy had passed laws to curb the sale of olive trees, in most of Spain the practice remained perfectly legal. “Here it’s the same as if you were selling your car,” he said. Spain regulates the export of antique cars or historically relevant artworks, recognising their significance to Spanish heritage. “But on these gigantic trees that are unique in the world, there are no limitations,” said Palacios. “These trees are part of our natural heritage, yet we treat them as if they were sculptures, or lampposts, that we can take from one place and put in another.” The trees are becoming increasingly common imports in Germany, where a 400-year-old tree with a trunk of up to 70-inches can sell for as little as €1,500. Buyers such as Karl-Heinz Maier, from the village of Willsbach, north of Stuttgart, see the trade as an ecologically friendly alternative to travel. “I no longer need to get on a plane [to see them],” Maier told Agence France-Presse as he showed off his 400 and 120-year-old trees, wrapped in thick plastic and fibre mattress to survive the cold German winters. “I can stay at home and enjoy my olive trees. It’s better for the environment.” Palacios is hoping the EU will recognise the trees as living history, giving the foundation a starting point from which to try and convince Spanish politicians to do more to protect them. “Imagine someone digging up an ancient yew from a churchyard in the UK and transporting it to a house in Abu Dhabi,” he said. “Nobody would stand for that.” The region of Valencia is the only place in Spain that has sought to temper the growing trade. In 2006 a law was passed that banned the sale of trees that are more than 350 years old or 6 metres (20ft) in diameter. The restrictions have forced many in the region to find creative alternatives to selling the trees. In the province of Castellón, an outdoor museum invites tourists to tour more than 900 olive trees, all of them more than a thousand years old. Others have take a cue from the world of wine, where the diminished yields of older vines are increasingly valued for their distinct qualities. In the mountainous zone of Maestrat, the olives from the tangled branches of 437 ancient olive trees – the oldest is said to be 3,000 years old – are pressed to create El Mil extra virgin olive oil. Sold around the world, the olive oil retails for more than €250 per litre. The initiatives in Valencia stand in stark contrast to the region of Andalusia, whose rolling hectares of olive trees have made Spain the biggest olive oil producer in the world. Lured by fast profits and encouraged by the higher yields produced by younger trees, many farmers have been quick to sell their ancient olive trees. “Today Andalusia has barely any olive trees that are more than 100 years old,” said Palacios. The campaign has found support in unexpected places. The Olive Tree, an upcoming film by the Spanish director Icíar Bollaín, explores the emotional cost of losing these status symbols. The fictional story follows a young Spanish woman as she criss-crosses Germany, determined to find her family’s thousand-year-old olive tree after its sale leaves her grandfather heartbroken. The sale of olive trees was a metaphor for Spain’s construction boom, Bollaín told El País during filming earlier this year. “It’s a very concrete way to address something very complex, the speculation with something as basic as a tree and the little respect paid to something that has been in the ground for so long and has been a source of health, wellbeing and pleasure,” she said. The message is at the heart of Palacios’s campaign. “These are some of the oldest living beings we have on Earth,” he said. “They’ve spent thousands of years in one spot and should be left there.” | ['world/spain', 'environment/forests', 'culture/culture', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/conservation', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/ashifa-kassam', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-12-31T09:17:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2009/sep/16/shipwreck-waste-mafia-italy | Shipwreck may hold radioactive waste sunk by mafia off Italian coast | Italian ministers and officials were today holding urgent consultations following the discovery of an unmarked wreck that prosecutors believe was used by the mafia to sink radioactive waste. As a ship carrying equipment for detecting marine pollution headed for the site of the sunken vessel, an investigator said up to 41 others may have been used to dump toxic and nuclear material on the seabed. A former top mobster said he had personally shipped other waste to Somalia and that the traffic could have led to the death of a well-known Italian reporter. On Saturday a robot operating 480 metres below sea level sent back murky images of a wreck detected several months earlier by environmental officials. Among other things, they showed two crushed drums protruding from the bows, which appeared to have been blown out in an explosion. The image and the position of the ship – 11 miles off the coast at Cetraro in south-western Italy – coincided exactly with an account given to prosecutors three years ago by Francesco Fonti, a former boss of the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia of Calabria. Fonti said he and others had used explosives acquired in Holland to sink three vessels in the Mediterranean. The one off Cetraro was carrying nuclear waste from Norway, he said. His clan had received the equivalent of almost £100,000 for disposing of it. A prosecutor involved in two investigations in the 1990s said last weekend's discovery had "all the appearances of being a confirmation" that organised criminals had dumped waste at sea. Nicola Pace, now chief prosecutor at Brescia, near Milan, said the inquiries had unearthed evidence of the "deliberate sinking of 42 ships with cargoes of waste, including radioactive waste", but were frustrated by an absence of tangible proof. Bruno Giordano, the prosecutor who ordered the robot search, said: "No one can any longer maintain the ships aren't there." But he added that he would await proof that the wreck was that of the MV Kunski, the vessel identified by Fonti. Marine experts said the sunken ship was about 330 feet long and appeared to have been constructed 40 or 50 years ago. Fonti told the daily Il Manifesto he believed that Ilaria Alpi, a TV journalist, and her cameraman were shot dead in 1994 because they had seen toxic waste unloaded in the Somalian port of Bosaso. | ['world/italy', 'world/world', 'environment/waste', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'world/organised-crime', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnhooper', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-09-16T17:44:35Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2022/mar/08/the-guardian-view-on-plastics-a-treaty-could-stem-the-tide | The Guardian view on plastics: a treaty could stem the tide | Editorial | There is no data on global plastic pollution that is equivalent to the regular measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. But as with greenhouse gases, the recent news has been nearly all bad. In 1950, worldwide production of plastics stood at 2m tons per year. In 2020, it was 367m tons (down from 368m the year before due to the coronavirus pandemic). An increase this enormous is hard to visualise. But the 8.8m tons of plastic waste that is estimated to enter the world’s marine environment each year is the equivalent of a rubbish truck filled with plastic being tipped into the sea every minute. So the agreement struck by 173 countries at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi last week was a huge relief. At last, something is going to be done multilaterally about a problem that no government can solve on its own. Without the legally binding treaty that will be negotiated over the next two years, it was hard to see where progress would come from. The announcement was only the beginning of a long and fraught process. The pollution and destruction of nature are material phenomena. As with cutting emissions (or failing to), fine words about plastics are no use unless they are accompanied by strong actions, including mechanisms to ensure reductions in consumption. Plastic pollution is closely linked to economic growth, and changing our way of life will not be simple. But as a statement of intent, and proof that multilateral cooperation to protect our shared environment is still possible, the agreement is more than welcome. Like global heating, plastic pollution is a matter of social justice issue as well as conservation, with people in poor countries suffering disproportionately. As with emissions, the richest countries and companies are the worst culprits. Research for the US federal government last year found that Americans now generate about 42m tonnes of plastic waste a year – more than all European Union member countries combined. Another report found that 20 companies are responsible for producing 55% of the world’s plastic waste. Some are the same companies responsible for fossil fuel production, since plastics are made from petrochemicals. Efforts to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and television footage of plastic waste in an albatross’s nest, have imprinted themselves on public consciousness in countries where these reports have been widely seen. But policymakers’ efforts to tackle the plastic problem have been limited to waste management, including the bans on plastic waste imports imposed by China and other countries, and restrictions in many countries on the sale of single-use plastic items such as bags. Such measures can have localised effects, and influence attitudes and behaviour. But they have not touched the source of the problem: the total amount of plastic waste in the world is predicted to almost quadruple by 2050 and the oil industry is heavily invested in expansion, partly as a means of coping with reduced demand in other areas, as people switch to greener technologies. This has to change. In the words of oceans campaigner Christina Dixon, the “plastics tap must be turned off”. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-03-08T18:38:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2019/sep/20/weatherwatch-the-superbolt-lightning-season-is-approaching | Weatherwatch: the superbolt lightning season is approaching | Summer is often a time for spectacular lightning, but a new study reveals that the most powerful lightning bolts strike during northern hemisphere winter. Unlike conventional lightning, “superbolts” are most common over water with hotspots over the Mediterranean and north-east Atlantic. The World Wide Lightning Location Network uses data from about 100 globally distributed lightning detection stations to pinpoint the location and size of lightning strikes. The largest bolts, known as superbolts, release more than 1,000 times more electrical energy than the average bolt. About one in every 250,000 lightning bolts is a superbolt. Studying data gathered between 2010 and 2018 the researchers discovered that superbolts do not fit the usual patterns associated with lightning. Their findings, published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, show they are more common in the northern hemisphere, occur over water and are most likely between November and February. A map of strikes neatly outlines the coast of the UK, along with Scandinavia and much of western Europe. The causes of the superbolt timing and pattern remain mysterious, though the researchers speculate that sunspots or cosmic rays might play a role. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/extreme-weather', 'science/meteorology', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-09-20T20:30:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/article/2024/aug/24/australia-recycling-guidelines-rules-rubbish-bins | How to be an expert tosser: know when to recycle and when to chuck it out | Recycling can feel daunting. Even for those of us passionate about making sure household items go into the correct bin, wrapping your head around all the little “rules” can be intimidating. There’s the worry that if you get it wrong the entire batch will be thrown out, and there can be doubts over what to do with things such as aluminium foil or bottle caps. But now there’s hope the recent reemergence of soft plastic recycling in Australia will spark more people to dispose of recyclables correctly. For those who feel time-poor, confused about what is recyclable or wish others would recycle better, I’ve gathered some expert tools and tips designed to improve the chances that plastics, cans, bottles and other items don’t wind up in a landfill. What’s recyclable and what’s not? The Australasian Recycling Label on the back of a product usually confirms whether it’s recyclable yet doubts often persist about some items. Lottie Dalziel, a sustainability expert and founder of the social enterprise Banish, has devoted her life to helping people become better at recycling. She urges people to consider the “credit card rule” when unsure or dealing with mixed materials: items made of recyclable materials (eg hard plastic, non-lined cardboard) are recyclable if they are larger than a credit card. If they are any smaller they can contaminate a batch during processing. (You can roll foil into a ball until it’s large enough.) “My biggest piece of advice for people is ‘if in doubt throw it out’,” says Dalziel. “You actually do more harm than good putting something you’re not entirely sure of in your recycling bin.” Banish also has a recycling and disposal program called Brad for those random household items you aren’t sure about (plastic bread bag closures, bottle top lids, toothpaste tubes) and they will upcycle them into useful (and cute) objects such as colourful pens or bowls. Tips for the time-poor Sustainability requires time, but there are ways to improve efficiency around recycling. RecycleSmart is a company offering two options to help time-poor people deal with recyclables. Their app offers a guide to the best disposal method for each item while their Power Pickup service (which operates in most capital cities) takes it one step further: you can book online in advance for RecycleSmart to collect items right from your doorstep. You don’t even need to be home on pickup day. Overcoming lack of motivation “Recycling doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make an impact.” Have you had these thoughts or come across these excuses before? The environmental organisation Clean Up Australia focuses on the positive impact recycling can have. “If we get it right at the kerbside bin and put the right things in and keep unrecyclable items out, they do get recycled,” says the organisation’s chair, Pip Kiernan. They recommend the Recycle Mate app, which “allows you to scan any item using your phone camera and advises you what to do with it, based on where you are located and the rules for that area”, Kiernan says. The Recycle Mate app is particularly useful “for those more confusing items like sports shoes, blister packs, paint, electronics etc”, she says. Kiernan is also a fan of the Greenius website tool, which tells you what can go in the recycling bin depending on where you live. Greenius also offers games and activities for kids to make recycling fun. And there’s one other place recycling can make an impact: your wallet. “Every state and territory in Australia with the exception of Tassie, which is due to launch later this year, has its own Container Deposit Scheme where you can exchange containers for a 10c refund,” Kiernan says. Getting friends, neighbours or colleagues on board You’re having coffee at a friend’s house and they casually toss a recyclable milk container into their rubbish bin. You would never have guessed this person doesn’t recycle. What do you say without offending? According to Dalziel, “One of the most important things is to create a supportive environment. You don’t want to scare your friends into inaction.” With a recycling-hesitant housemate, Dalziel found it worked to have a “?” box. “If I wasn’t around they’d put items into the box and I would sort it out myself.” If she ran into the housemate later, they could have a chat about it – but a friendly one. “It’s not about pointing out everything that someone is doing wrong but it’s about providing small and simple tips on how to recycle better,” adds Dalziel. If your workplace is tossing recyclables, perhaps they would be interested in EcoBins – attractive, colour-coded recycling bins made from recycled polypropylene for workplaces, specifically designed to help busy people figure out what goes where. Kiernan echoes the importance of sharing advice in a non-aggressive way: “We know from research that over 90% of Australians believe recycling is important,” she says. “Most people are receptive to making changes to ensure more of their waste gets recycled. Share your simple tips, reassure them that recycling is happening and that we can all help boost recycling and give materials a second life, rather than ending up in landfill.” Rachel Signer is a writer originally from the US, now based in South Australia. She is author of the memoir You Had Me At Pét-Nat, and publisher and founder of Pipette Magazine | ['australia-news/series/change-by-degrees', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/rachel-signer', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-08-23T15:00:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2012/jun/14/rio20-photo-message-earth-summit | Rio+20 photo challenge: what's your message for the Earth summit? | Next week, 20 years after the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, politicians, businesses, activists, NGOs and more will meet again for Rio+20. The UN describes the conference as "a historic opportunity to define pathways to a safer, more equitable, cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all". What does this mean to you? What message do you want to send to the summit? Perhaps you care about education and sanitation like Steven above? Maybe you think decent jobs are the key, or that urbanisation means our cities must be the focus? We'd love to see your messages from around the world submitted to our Flickr group. We'll feature some of our favourites on guardian.co.uk and maybe in the print version of the Guardian as well. For inspiration, take a look at these brilliant galleries of readers' global education messages or messages to UN Women. Maybe you have a broad hope for your life and family like Isaac. Or maybe you want to send a message about one of Rio+20's seven priority areas – decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness. We want your messages in pictures submitted to Flickr, or to development@guardian.co.uk if you have any problems. Please note, by posting your pictures in this group, or sending them to us in response to this request, you agree to let us use them on our site and potentially in the newspaper (copyright remains with you at all times, and you will be credited). We're looking forward to seeing your pictures. | ['global-development/series/development-talk-point', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/jaz-cummins'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-06-14T10:16:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2021/aug/27/worker-shortages-leave-uk-farms-with-70000-surplus-pigs | Food industry proposes ‘Covid recovery visa’ after warnings of surplus pig cull | Britain’s food and drink industry is calling on the government to introduce a “Covid-19 recovery visa” to recruit overseas workers to ease disruption in the food supply chain, amid warnings from UK pig producers that healthy animals may be culled because of a labour shortage. Trade associations representing all areas of the UK’s food chain – including the National Farmers’ Union, the Road Haulage Association, the Food and Drink Federation and the British Meat Processors Association – have sent a report to government, urging ministers to act to ensure continuity, quality and choice in Britain’s food supply. The organisations are proposing a special one-year visa that would allow workers to be recruited for jobs such as HGV drivers, butchers, chefs and other food industry workers. They want the seasonal worker pilot scheme, which issues permits for non-UK nationals to work as horticulture labourers on farms, made permanent and expanded beyond the current 30,000 annual intake. Food and drink organisations are on average missing 13% of their workforce, according to the report, resulting in an estimated half a million vacancies across the sector. Tom Bradshaw, the vice-president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said: “Businesses throughout the supply chain in a wide variety of roles are really feeling the impacts of the workforce shortages.” He added: “A short-term Covid recovery visa, alongside a permanent seasonal workers scheme, would be an effective and, frankly, vital route to help the pressing needs of the industry today. It would also give us time to invest in the skills and recruitment of our domestic workforce, helping to provide long-term stability”. Ian Wright, the chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, said: “Without fast action the labour challenges will continue. If they do, we can expect unwelcome consequences such as reduced choice and availability for consumers, increased prices, and reduced growth across the domestic food chain.” The cross-industry report comes as the National Pig Association (NPA) warned that as many as 70,000 pigs that should have already been taken to slaughter are stranded on UK farms. The excess number of pigs on UK farms is growing by 15,000 each week, according to the NPA,with about a quarter fewer leaving for slaughter than would be expected in normal times. Animals ready for slaughter but stuck on farms require feeding and housing, causing financial difficulties for farmers. These large pigs are growing by about a kilogram a day, the NPA says, with many becoming too large for the slaughterhouses to handle. “For the second time in under a year the pig sector is facing some really tough choices, which we shouldn’t have to be taking, as demand for British pork is still strong,” said Zoe Davies, the chief executive of the NPA. “If government doesn’t take action, perfectly healthy pigs will end up being destroyed and wasted and more pork will have to be imported from the EU.” Meat-processing plants were first hit by a shortage of workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the eastern European workers employed in the sector returned to their home countries and have not come back. Davies said farmers were struggling to find space for the surplus animals. “I am getting calls every day from members saying we are in a mess,” she said. “People are using cattle sheds, temporary accommodation outdoors, anything they can do to alleviate the pressure on farm, but there just doesn’t seem to be an end” Britain’s meat-processing industry, which is two-thirds staffed by non-UK workers, is missing about 15% of its workforce of about 95,000 people usually employed in the sector, according to the British Meat Processors Association. | ['environment/farm-animals', 'business/business', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'business/fooddrinks', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joanna-partridge', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-08-27T15:09:57Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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