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world/2005/nov/04/hurricanes2005.usa | Storm over emergency boss and his wardrobe | As Hurricane Katrina was laying waste to New Orleans, US federal emergency boss Michael Brown had more pressing concerns: his wardrobe. Emails sent on the day the storm struck showed him bantering with a colleague from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cindy Taylor, about his television attire. Ms Taylor wrote: "You look fabulous - and I'm not talking the makeup!" Mr Brown replied: "I got it at Nordstroms. Are you proud of me?" An hour later he added: "If you look at my lovely Fema attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god." | ['world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiewilson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international1'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-11-04T00:02:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2015/jun/18/cutting-windfarm-subsidy-tories | Cutting the onshore wind subsidy is perverse nimbyism | Polly Toynbee | Today, the government fulfils one of its most perverse manifesto pledges – to end the subsidy for onshore wind turbines a year early, in April 2016. This is cavalier and contrary policy-making, designed to please the nimbys in its shire heartlands, regardless of wider energy policy, regardless of climate change. As the Tories plunge ahead with far more expensive, disruptive and unpopular fracking, onshore wind energy is the cheapest of all renewables, and Britain one of the most wind-rich spots on earth. What a long journey Cameron has travelled since the days when he fixed a symbolic turbine on his own roof. This is a very particular political payoff to small groups in key Tory seats, a payback to key climate change-denying windfarm-haters in the Tory press and an appeaser for restless Tory backbenchers after their first EU rebellion. As for the public, polls show two-thirds of people strongly in favour of onshore wind, including in areas where turbines are planned, while only a quarter support fracking. This is another sign of Cameron’s recklessness towards to the union: Scotland was not consulted before this announcement, and yet has 70% of planned windfarm sites. What an odd moment to announce this in-your-face attack on environmentalism on the very day the Pope issues his climate change encyclical, calling it a moral challenge to global indifference. “This home of ours is being ruined and that damages everyone, especially the poor,” he said yesterday. He has triggered a furore ahead of his trip to the US, inflaming Republican climate change sceptics as his encyclical is unequivocal in affirming that climate change is mostly man made, and calls for an end to the use of fossil fuels as a source of energy. Odd timing, too, when we have just had the hottest May on record, according to Nasa’s global temperature data, and the past 12 months have reached record levels. There is, they say, no pause in global warming – it’s a rising staircase instead of a ramp: we are now taking another upward step. An odd day, too, for secretary of state for energy and climate change Amber Rudd’s provocative act, an aggressive riposte to yesterday’s lobby of parliament bringing people from all over Britain, from Polzeath and Aberdeen to press MPs on the urgency of action against climate change. Among those who came were some from the Somerset Levels, including a farmer who talked of her land still suffering from the damage done by the severe floods of the 2013/14 winter when the River Parrett overflowed. In all of Somerset, there is only one wind turbine, due to small groups of protesters. But you might think the proposal of Ecotricity to put up just four turbines in the Parrett valley would have a fair wind. You would think the area had suffered so severely that it would be the obvious place. If not there, then where? I visited the aptly named Black Ditch site, no beauty spot, but a scrubby piece of land beside the busy M5 motorway, by a demolished Royal Ordnance factory. The valley is crisscrossed in all directions by enormous pylons bestriding the countryside, carrying electricity from the nearby Hinkley Point nuclear power station. The turbines would have powered 6,769 homes but they were opposed by a small group and former department for communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles stopped it. In his last year, Pickles blocked 85% of windfarm projects, which lost over £500m in income and 2,000 scarce rural jobs, killing off investment in an industry providing the cheapest renewables. The EU reports that onshore wind is cheaper than coal, gas and nuclear energy when the cost of pollution is factored in, especially the high cost of climate change. But the government will not only stop the subsidy for onshore wind projects, just as it is on the verge of becoming sustainable, but will also now let local councils and residents veto them. The likelihood is that small, vocal groups will stop them, regardless of wider local opinion, let alone national opinion. Renewables UK, speaking for the industry, warns that energy prices will rise as the governments cuts off the cheapest renewable energy supply, chilling future investment. This, remember, was going to be “the greenest government ever” until Cameron changed course and said “cut the green crap” instead. So, here goes the green crap. | ['commentisfree/series/first-thoughts', 'environment/windpower', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/pollytoynbee'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2015-06-18T10:28:55Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2018/jul/26/stockpile-food-no-deal-brexit-dream-on | Stockpile food in the event of a no-deal Brexit? Dream on | James Ball | The government is spending the summer trying to prove to its backbenchers, the public and the EU that it is genuinely prepared for a “no deal” Brexit, and has plans to manage the massive disruption – most would say chaos – that would ensue if the UK and EU failed to secure a deal. It might have any number of reasons for doing this. It could be throwing red meat to its backbenchers, to try to show that a no deal hasn’t been ruled out. It could be trying to influence EU negotiators, either by showing that the UK has plans in place, or by suggesting that the negotiators take the blame for the consequences of no deal. It may even be trying to reassure us that it knows what it is doing. But here’s the problem with any of the above: the government appears to have forgotten to do even the most basic of planning. As ministers admitted on Tuesday that the UK would be making preparations to ensure an adequate supply of food, medicines and even blood in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the newly installed Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, revealed the staggering extent of his ignorance as to what that would entail. “We will look at this issue in the round and make sure that there’s adequate food supplies,” he told the Brexit committee during an extended hearing. “It would be wrong to describe it as the government doing the stockpiling.” The implication of Raab’s comments – especially combined with comments from other ministers – is that it will be the role of industry to stockpile food, and that that is be something they would be able to do. In an interview yesterday evening Theresa May even said the public should find “reassurance and comfort” in the stockpiling. From those comments, you’d think stockpiling food would be easy. It would not. Anyone knowing the very basics of food production – frankly, anyone who has watched an episode of Inside the Factory on the BBC – would know just how difficult it would be for industry to stockpile food. Most UK factories rely on multiple daily deliveries to keep production, which usually runs 24 hours a day, flowing. Within just 18 to 36 hours without deliveries of ingredients, production in almost all of the UK’s food sector (the country’s largest manufacturing sector) would stop. Factories couldn’t just step up production before the Brexit date and store the surplus, either. They no longer have much space to store their product: the UK’s highly efficient supply chains work on a “just in time” basis – factories have just enough storage space to manage about a day’s worth of deliveries, as do supermarket depots and the warehouses in the back of stores. Stockpiling more food would mean industry having to buy or lease vast amounts of extra space, at short notice, and probably at great cost. In practical terms, it would ideally have needed to start spending that money months ago – and it would be serious money. Part of the reason people keep less inventory is that it reduces the amount of money you need to operate. If you increase the amount of stock kept in reserve from a few days’ worth to a few weeks’ worth, businesses across the sector would need five to 10 times the working capital they do now. Who’s going to pay that? Are we going to require an industry that operates on famously thin margins to prepare for this contingency out of its own pocket? What if it refuses? What if it makes these stockpiles, then we cut a deal? This is before we step into many of the extra complexities: food has a habit of going off, for example. Other food takes time to make – nine months for mature cheddar for example. And crops, funnily enough, take time to grow – and can’t be rushed. The UK food sector, like the UK car industry and much of the high-end goods and services economy, is a finely tuned machine, and the sort of disruption we might see in the event of a no-deal Brexit, such as chaos and delays at the border, would result in it grinding to a halt.With their comments – presumably meant to assure us that they have a plan, or at least a clue – May and her ministers have shown us instead how woefully under-prepared we are. Brexit is perhaps the most complex thing the UK has attempted in the lifetime of most of us, and it is being run by people who don’t understand the absolute basics. In 2016, these sorts of concerns were constantly dismissed as “Project Fear”. In 2018, we now know that we have good reason to be afraid. • James Ball is a former Guardian special projects editor, and the author of Post-Truth: How Bullshit Conquered the World | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'politics/politics', 'business/fooddrinks', 'business/business', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/food-security', 'society/society', 'politics/dominic-raab', 'food/food', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesball', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-07-26T08:00:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2014/feb/12/somerset-couple-flood-barrier-efforts-vain | Somerset couple who built huge flood barrier say they fear efforts are in vain | The Webbers' efforts to protect their farmhouse have been valiant. Over the past week they have worked night and day to build an extraordinary barrier made of 2,000 sandbags around their cherished family home. But the murky water has continued to wash across North Moor and they fear it is only a matter of time before they too have to pack their bags and go. They are sad at the prospect but also angry, suspecting they and others like them are being sacrificed to save the town of Bridgwater five miles or so across the moor. "It is like a ticking time bomb," said Lesley Webber. "The water is getting up now. We are just looking at the Levels, and then looking at the sandbags and hoping it keeps it all out. It's horrible. This house is 120 years old and has not flooded at all in that time." Her husband Ian showed where water was beginning to bubble ominously up through the lovely oak floorboards. "I reckon we will be out of here by the weekend. The water level just keeps coming up and up." Mr Webber gazed across to the red brick wall next to the farmhouse's iron gates to try to gauge how fast the water was rising. "It's up another brick today. That's about 4in I suppose." He grew up here in the village of East Lyng and the couple, farmers and machinery contractors, have lived in the house for 19 years, bringing up their two children in the farmhouse. Their daughter Melissa, who is doing her A-levels, has left to stay with friends. "It's not fair to have her here when she has exam pressure," said Mr Webber. Their son James is working in New Zealand. "He has asked if he should come back to help. I've told him he's better off there." The closest the waters have come in the past is the machinery sheds 200 metres from the house. "We are being forfeited to save Bridgwater," said Mr Webber. He believes the construction of new earth mounds closer to the town has forced the water their way. "That feels bloody awful. On one hand I can understand it – lose 60 houses rather than 10,000. But it doesn't help us. Every single person should be treated the same, I think. It's all political. It's about who can shout the loudest." Mrs Webber added: "We knew they were trying to save Bridgwater when they started building the mounds. The water can't escape now they have built those mounds. It needs to run away somewhere. They are sacrificing us to save the towns." She says she could accept it if the Environment Agency came clean about what – in her view – is happening. "Instead you don't get any help or any information and we have just been fire-fighting every day ourselves." The agency insists it is not sacrificing anyone. "The whole concept is to reduce flood risk and not increase the risk for anyone." | ['environment/flooding', 'uk/weather', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-12T19:11:26Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
music/2021/dec/14/music-industry-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-sony-warner-universal | Music industry unites to pledge net-zero emissions by 2050 | A number of the world’s biggest record labels have united to commit to action on their environmental impact. The three major labels – Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group – plus independents such as the Beggars and Secretly groups of labels, Warp, Ninja Tune and more, have signed the Music Climate Pact which will see them pledge “actionable climate targets”. The companies will sign up to one of two existing schemes, Science Based Targets or the SME Climate Commitment, the latter part of the the UN’s Race to Zero initiative. Both schemes require signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, and achieve a 50% reduction by 2030. Under the terms of the pact, the companies have also pledged to collaborate on measuring carbon emissions in the music industry, to help their artists to speak out on climate issues, and to communicate with artists’ fans about how the music industry impacts on the environment. They will aim to work with streaming companies such as Spotify “to obtain data and drive emission reduction projects in a collaborative fashion”. Paul Redding, chief executive of Beggars Group (which includes 4AD, XL, Rough Trade and others), said the signatories will be “pulling in the same direction on sustainability topics” to “carry out the same work, in the same way, at the same time”. The industry is reckoning with issues including the impact of global touring, vinyl manufacturing, and the energy used to power streaming. In October, Coldplay became one of the highest-profile acts to commit to a reduction in emissions, promising a 50% cut for their forthcoming world tour in comparison with their previous one. | ['music/music', 'business/musicindustry', 'culture/culture', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-beaumont-thomas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-12-14T07:01:40Z | true | EMISSIONS |
artanddesign/2022/feb/11/north-koreans-professor-rubbish-sweet-wrappers-south-korea-military-secrets | ‘I can see into the lives of North Koreans’ – the professor who reads washed-up rubbish | On a clear day from the beaches of Yeonpyeong, a tiny South Korean island, you can see the coast of North Korea some 12 km (seven miles) distant. Glance down, however, and you might see something else. Amid the tangle of seaweed and greying driftwood, the chunks of bleached polystyrene and shreds of fishing net, there may lurk bits of brightly coloured plastic. To the untrained observer, these scraps – sweet wrappers, cigarette cartons, instant noodle packets, all covered in oversized script, vivid colours and garish cartoon characters – might only confirm the Yellow Sea as one of Earth’s most polluted marine environments. To the sharp-eyed, however, encoded in the design of these snippets is valuable information about the society from which they originate: North Korea, virtually a closed shop to the rest of the world. The first person to appreciate this was Kang Dong-wan, a professor of politics at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea. Kang has spent the past year collecting 1,414 wrappers from the beaches of some of South Korea’s most far-flung outcrops. Until Covid, he had studied the North from across the demilitarised zone, catching its changing slogans with powerful lenses. When access to his vantage point was closed off, Kang relocated. The Five West Sea Islands were occupied by the South at the end of the war and now form the de facto maritime border between the two countries. Yeonpyeong, the closest island to the North, was the subject of a tit-for-tat artillery barrage in 2010 that left four dead and led to the evacuation of about 80% of the island’s 2,000 residents. “The most surprising thing,” says Kang, speaking from the island where he continues to scour the beaches, “was just how much garbage made it here.” The professor has turned the fruits of his foraging into a book, Picking Up North Korean Garbage in the Five West Sea Islands, which divides the litter into categories: sweets, baked goods, drinks, dairy products, foodstuffs, seasonings, liquor, cigarettes, medical supplies and sundries. “With this rubbish,” he says, “I can see into the lives of North Koreans.” Foremost among the preconceptions shredded by Kang’s scraps is the idea that the country is unsophisticated, that what goods there are are basic. “The packaging is surprising in its refinement,” he says. Perhaps most surprising, he adds, is the way products from the North mirror those of the South. “In a capitalist economy,” he says, “packaging and design are tailored to appeal to consumers.” You might expect things to be different in a repressive communist regime, but Kang believes otherwise: “Not even North Korea can completely ignore the desires of its people.” Take the wrapper for Galaxy Candy with Strawberry Cream Inside, made in the Pyongyang Wheat Flour Factory in North Korea. It is covered in bright drawings and colours, with a cat suspiciously reminiscent of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. This more elaborate packaging reflects recent changes, says Kang, as North Korean producers have developed sleeker branding. This is partially a consequence of reforms that followed Kim Jong-un’s accession in 2011, heralding a liberalisation of the economy. Simultaneously, an increase in smuggling has made North Koreans familiar with products from abroad. This more refined packaging is an attempt to compete. The trash also offers a glimpse into factory conditions, says Kang. Ingredient lists and production dates reveal what North Korea has been able to make itself during the pandemic, and what it is forced to import with its dwindling cash reserves. Packaging, too, will often specify what factory a product was made in. If it’s known to be operated by the military, this can indicate what the North’s soldiers are eating – as many such snacks are, says Kang, “supplied to the military. In general, the public don’t consume them. There is no money.” Even the material itself can hold clues. Newer trash, Kang explains, is often composed of recycled or locally sourced materials, a further indication of the North’s economic state. Perhaps their reasons are green, but it’s far more likely that recycling is being forced on them by scarce resources. Nick Bonner, who has written about North Korean product design, also sees the wrappers as a gauge of the North’s economic plight. “I would imagine over the next few months, as the sanctions bite harder and Covid keeps the border to China closed, there will be less and less garbage for Kang to pick up,” he says. “Sad for him but, more worryingly, a reflection of how tough its food and economic situation is.” In the meantime, however, Kang continues his shoreline vigil, adding to his haul with every new tide. | ['artanddesign/design', 'culture/culture', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'artanddesign/graphic-design', 'world/south-korea', 'world/north-korea', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/waste', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-02-11T09:48:45Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
money/commentisfree/2022/sep/01/the-guardian-view-on-a-fuel-poverty-emergency-inaction-will-not-do | The Guardian view on a fuel poverty emergency: inaction will not do | Editorial | Adding to existing worries about the cost of living, the implications of the latest report from the Institute of Health Equity are deeply alarming. Its author, Prof Michael Marmot, spells out the links between rising fuel poverty and various forms of illness, and warns that the threat is greatest for those who are already least well-off. By January next year, 55% of UK households, or 15 million, are expected to be fuel-poor (though a change in the way this is officially defined in England, and differences with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, make comparisons difficult). Warnings of surging demand at food banks, and a backdrop of acute concern about the growing gap between incomes and prices, make the picture drawn by the report all the bleaker. It predicts worsening respiratory and mental health for children in affected homes, and highlights the increased circulation of viruses and infections, including bronchiolitis, associated with colder temperatures. The contribution of damp and mould to asthma is also pointed out. So are links between poverty, cold, poor housing and mental illness. The risks are not limited to babies and children, although the existence of a window of opportunity in childhood for optimal maturation of the lungs makes the impact on them particularly severe. Respiratory illnesses and asthma affect adults too, and circulatory problems can be worsened by cold. The existing correlation between fuel poverty and other forms of deprivation is also expected to be magnified, since poorer families will be hardest hit by price rises. Another new report, from the Resolution Foundation thinktank, has described the expected fall in living standards as more extreme than that suffered during the second world war, while analysis by the International Monetary Fund shows that the impact of the energy crisis is being felt more unequally in the UK than in any other western European country. These findings reveal gross errors of judgment by the current government and previous ones. Policy failures dating back years include the structure of the UK’s energy market, correctly described by Prof Marmot as “crazy”, and a strategically and environmentally destructive overreliance on gas. Meanwhile, the fact that the UK has the least energy-efficient homes in western Europe should be recognised for the scandal that it is. Along with more recent mistakes, such as the botched outsourcing of a 2020 green homes scheme, David Cameron’s decision to scrap tougher environmental standards for new homes that were due to be introduced in 2016, and the failure to support renewables, stand out. It only remains to be seen how quickly the next prime minister will act, and what form action will take. The favourite to win the Tory leadership race, Liz Truss, has retracted her earlier dismissal of “handouts” and promised a package of support along with tax cuts. Some combination of energy bill caps and payments to those in need will be a first step. But the looming crisis, whose extent and extremity in some vulnerable areas threatens to overwhelm existing services, is more than a price shock. It is an indictment of the party that has governed Britain for the past 12 years, and particularly its failures on housing (the worst energy performance is in the private rental sector, taking into account housing type), benefits (lone-parent households are at highest risk of fuel poverty) and productivity. The tactic of road blockages adopted by last year’s Insulate Britain campaign was arguably misguided, but the prescription was correct. The UK’s old and leaky housing stock needs an upgrade, and has done for years. That millions of UK households now face an even more difficult winter than will be experienced elsewhere is down to years of poor government. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'money/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'politics/politics', 'politics/liz-truss', 'environment/environment', 'money/household-bills', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-09-01T17:57:48Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2016/dec/06/trump-world-climate-change-denial | Why we’re all everyday climate change deniers | Alice Bell | After Donald Trump won last month’s US presidential election, hot takes speedily declared it game over for the planet. But as Al Gore said at the weekend, “despair is just another form of denial”. About this, he is entirely right. Now is not the time to cry into your graphs of melting Arctic sea ice. That only helps the people who profit from delay on climate change. Because climate denial isn’t just something other people do – bad people, sad people, stupid people. It’s not just a niche hobby practised by the president-elect and weirder bits of the internet. It’s mainstream. Yes, there are those marginal, attention-seeking types who see a bit of light climate denial as banter. You know the type, that annoying guy your mate went to uni with, Ukip candidates, embarrassing relatives. Then there are the lonely ones who do it to make friends. There’s a strong social element to a lot of climate scepticism – conversations in comment threads, debates in forums, offline meetups. There’s even climate sceptic fanfic if you know where to look. There are “lukewarmer” types who admit climate change is happening but flail around looking for reasons why we shouldn’t bother to act. They might argue it won’t be that bad, or even that it’ll have positives – see, for instance, most oil executives. Some have a genuine – albeit skewed – love of science. The idea of busting a global warming myth carries the attractive illusion of heroic, outsider genius. It’s not for nothing that a group of Australian sceptics style themselves on Galileo. There’s also a narrow empiricism to the idea that if you can see snow, global warming can’t be real. As Prof Joanna Haigh politely explained to Boris Johnson in response to one of his less-than-rigorous newspaper columns, it’s because scientists are so into empiricism that they bother to look at a load of data – not just what you can see out the window at that moment. But there is an even bigger group than any of the above: the rest of us. You probably agree climate change is happening, have maybe even bothered to cut down on how much meat you eat or bunged Greenpeace a quid or two when Russia locked up those Arctic activists. But most of the time you avoid looking global warming in the eye. In many ways this everyday denial is understandable. Climate change is abstract. We only know about it through vast, complex, global and multi-generational networks of interdisciplinary, highly advanced science. It’s easy for it to drop out of our minds, even if we believe in it. It’s also very scary. A friend who, once upon a time, was the greenest person I knew, hugs her infant son tight and tells me softly, slowly: “I just can’t think about climate change since I had him.” This feels entirely rational to me. But it’s this rather prosaic climate denial that lets the Trumps of the world get away with their more extreme forms. It also lets less extreme politicians and businesses off the hook, helping keep climate change as a low-priority topic. At best it puts the issue to one side, and allows us to imagine that Chinese solar businesses, Elon Musk, Ivanka Trump or some other ethereal hero will save us. At worst, it skips the issue entirely. Not everyone has the luxury of ignoring climate change. People are already feeling it as droughts, wildfires and floods become more common. As temperatures creep ever higher, it’ll hit more and more of us, more and more obviously. Knock-on effects mean that, along with battling fire, water and mud, food will become more scarce. If you don’t spot climate change in the rising tides, you may well feel it in your stomach. This is already happening. Arguably, the way climate change affected crops was a contributing factor in the Arab spring. But here’s the hopeful bit. Climate change happens by degree, and every fraction of a degree celsius matters. Last month’s report saying we’re already 1.2C above pre-industrial levels is bad. But 1.2C is less risky than 1.5C, which is less risky than 2C. This doesn’t let us off the hook. Indeed, the idea that 2C is somehow safe is itself a pernicious bit of climate denial. But there isn’t a single point or temperature at which everything is lost. There will always be something to fight for. A few years ago I saw a climate scientist glumly sitting on a table in a seminar room, swinging his legs, quietly sketching out the vision of the future that kept him awake at night. His picture wasn’t an all-out dystopia where we’ve destroyed humanity. What scared him was a future where we do take action on climate change, but only some. A few rich people live in a comfortable bubble they’ve managed to insulate themselves in, and everyone else is left to battle the storms. Perhaps those lucky few notice the plight of the people they’ve left behind. Or perhaps they insulate themselves from that too. That future is possible. It might even be probable. But it’s not inevitable. We can choose to see climate change, and we can choose to do this before it’s too late. So how can we escape the quagmire of denial? As it turns out, the first step isn’t that hard: just talk about it. To your friends, family, colleagues – even to yourself. By talking about climate change, you’ll make it feel less scary. By talking about it, we’ll unlock solutions. And, crucially, it’s by talking about climate change that we’ll break the silence that allows it to go unnoticed and ignored. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/comment', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/alice-bell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-12-06T06:00:04Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
us-news/2021/dec/12/kentucky-tornado-survivor-candle-factory | ‘Not knowing is worse’: tornado survivor at candle factory awaits news of missing boyfriend | Workers on the night shift at the candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, were part of the holiday rush that was keeping the place going around the clock when a tornado whirled towards the small city and the word went out to “duck and cover”. Autumn Kirks pulled down her safety googles and took shelter, tossing aside wax and fragrance buckets to make room for herself. She glanced away from her boyfriend, Lannis Ward, and when she looked back, he was gone. On Sunday, he was among scores of people missing and feared dead in the rubble of the factory leveled by the record tornado that howled in on Friday night, with the death toll expected to exceed 100 in Kentucky alone. Kirks and others are waiting in a heartbreak of emotional agony for news of their loved ones, even though by late Sunday afternoon no one had been found alive in the wreckage since 3am Saturday. “Not knowing is worse than knowing right now. I’m trying to stay strong. It’s very hard,” she said. The factory is now 15ft deep of mangled steel and there are cars on top of the ruins where the roof was, the state governor, Andy Beshear said on CNN. Kirks said she and her boyfriend were about 10ft apart in a hallway. Suddenly, she saw sky and lightning where a wall had been, and Ward had vanished. “I remember taking my eyes off of him for a second, and then he was gone,” she said. Kirks was at a ministry center where people gathered to seek information about the missing. The pastor, Joel Cauley, said of the disaster scene: “It was almost like you were in a twilight zone. You could smell the aroma of candles, and you could hear the cries of people for help. Candle smells and all the sirens is not something I ever expected to experience at the same time.” Kyanna Parsons-Perez, who was also on shift at the Kentucky candle factory, told the Guardian while sitting in the hospital, how a gust of wind suddenly changed everything. “My ears started popping and I felt my body swaying,” she said of the moments right before “boom, everything fell on us”. She was stuck for three hours in the rubble despite being in a storm shelter deep in the interior. She was trapped by a water fountain, an air conditioner and 5ft of debris. In Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed and two people were killed, the governor, Asa Hutchinson, said workers shielded the residents with their own bodies. | ['us-news/kentucky', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samira-sadeque', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-12-12T21:29:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/blog/2010/feb/03/breakfast-briefing | Breakfast briefing: YouTube's rental experiment, Facebook goes HipHop | • There's been plenty of talk in recent years about YouTube - more specifically whether it makes money, deals with movie studios and potential entry into video rentals. That last idea may be on ice, after figures that suggest that the company made little more than $10,000 during a short experiment in movie rentals. Not exactly chump change (if you can spare $10k, let me know) but certainly a long way from where Google would have wanted it. • Facebook has been doing more work with the open source community of late, but its latest effort sounds pretty interesting: HipHop, a PHP compiler that it says reduces CPU load by an average of 50% (at least for Facebook itself). Actually, it's not really a compiler, but a system that converts PHP into C++ and then compiles it... will it make a real difference to web developers? Or will it only really make a difference to Facebook-style operations? • And it's time for another episode of our Tech Weekly - and apologies to anyone who is iPadded out, but we couldn't ignore the Apple - so we drag along Nick Carr to help us ponder what it all means. We also hear from a top-ranking literary agent on Amazon's tussle with Macmillan. Thirty-three minutes of aural excitement at the click of a button. You can follow our links and commentary each day through Twitter (@guardiantech, or our personal accounts) or by watching our Delicious feed. | ['technology/youtube', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/facebook', 'technology/opensource', 'technology/programming', 'technology/technology', 'technology/blog', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/bobbiejohnson'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-02-03T06:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
news/2015/jun/21/weatherwatch-tea-scotland | Tea – a new national drink for Scotland? | Tea plantations usually conjure up images of steamy hillside estates in India or China, but Scotland now has its own tea farm nestled in the Highland hills of Perth and Kinross. The Wee Tea plantation in Amulree may be thousands of miles from Assam or Darjeeling, but the growing conditions are surprisingly good for tea. Despite its reputation for growing in a balmy climate, the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, can survive temperatures as low as -11C for long periods. And with plenty of rain, good soil and altitude, the Wee Tea plantation is so successful that this year it won the world’s most prestigious tea award, the Salon du Thé in Paris, and has inspired a number of other Scottish growers to start their own plantations. To be honest, Scotland is different from the usual tea-growing regions of the world. For example, Darjeeling lies in the foothills of the Himalayas at around 2,000 metres (6,500ft) high and basks in a largely mild climate. The annual 3,037mm (120in) of rainfall largely comes during the summer monsoon, it is humid and the annual maximum temperature averages 14.7C. Dalreoch Farm, at only 750 metres (2,460ft) high, is slightly cooler and has a mere 917mm (36in) of annual rainfall, although the rains tend to fall 147 days each year and there’s also spring water to keep the ground wet. In fact, growing tea in the UK is not a new idea – Winston Churchill wanted homegrown tea plantations as part of the “Dig for Victory” campaign in the second world war, but he was advised it would take too long to grow the plants. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'uk/scotland', 'food/tea', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-06-21T20:30:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/jan/10/country-diary-wenlock-edge-shropshire-fallen-trees-force-me-on-a-new-path | Country diary: the woods are in disarray after the storm | This is a searching time. Blackbirds examine the ivy berries like jewel thieves. Thrushes poke through the mown grass of the Gaskell recreation ground with all the attention of the forensics team brought in to investigate the Spar robbery last month. The birds are twitchy, fossicking close to the hedge lines in case of attacks by sparrowhawks. Rooks are watchful and jackdaws group-speak up and down from the trees where blue tits, long-tailed tits and great tits work the branches as if picking tiny locks. A nuthatch chisels into a hazelnut to crack its secret. After the snow, after the gales, after Storm Whatshername emerged from a murmuration of thrashing wings to press her lips to the window and blow through the glass like a kazoo, the woods are in disarray. A few big trees have bought it, but mostly it’s the damsons around the old squat lines, blackthorn along lanes and hazel in derelict coppice that cracked and twisted in the winds. Unless someone gets a saw out, paths through woods will be redrawn. Scrambling from a barricade of fallen boughs, I spy a more open way I had not taken for years. I am led on by the sneak and dip of an almost path that joins a thin hoof-line of fallow deer close to a quarry lip. Something blue catches my eye sticking out of a hazel trunk. It’s the plastic flights of an arrow, a stick with a foot-long meat skewer taped to it. Against the tree leans a bow made from an ash branch strung with nylon cord. This is a lethal weapon. I follow the deer-path up a mound of quarry spoil like a tumulus and at its peak is a venerable crab apple, the sun shining through its gauntness on to golden windfalls. I have been foraging, too. I found a colander full of leaves, and in the root holes made by fallen trees a fossil shell and a scapula cut with a blade and incised with teeth marks. With these things in this place found by happenstance, I make a space for whatever is searching. Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/forests', 'environment/birds', 'environment/winter', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulevans', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-01-10T05:30:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/blog/2009/mar/04/climate-change-creationist-denier-sceptic | Climate change creationists | In a previous post I explained why I'm uncomfortable with the phrase "climate change denier". That's not because I don't think the likes of George Will, Sarah Palin and Christopher Booker deny some very well established scientific facts – they do so recklessly and I believe sometimes deliberately. My point is a tactical one of wanting to avoid the link between their position and Holocaust denial. As I argued previously, the denial phrase allows them to claim that the debate around global warming is a purely political argument. It isn't and it is dangerous for that notion to gain any traction. Plus I've seen the phrase "eco-Nazi" repeated too many times on blogs to want to sink to that level of debate. George Monbiot has no intention of making the link with the Holocaust, but he has pointed out that the alternative phrase – climate sceptic – just won't do. The OED defines a sceptic as, "A seeker after truth; an inquirer who has not yet arrived at definite conclusions." This is the opposite of what people like Booker, Bellamy and Tomlinson are. They have their definite conclusion and will defend it against all comers. However, many inconvenient truths might stand in the way. He's correct. The likes of Booker and David Bellamy do not deserve the honourable mantle of "sceptic". So he is right in his challenge to find something better. He is also in good company. President Obama, for example, has used the D word. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences too serious. Also, blogger Mike Greenfyre distinguishes carefully between deniers and sceptics, but also refers to the denialosphere – which I must admit has a certain ring to it. So what can we replace it with? How do you sum up an intellectual stance that has a pre-conceived position that is unyielding to the most compelling evidence; ignores mounting and alarming data from numerous scientific fields backing up the opposing position; and clutches at the most ephemeral of straws that can be twisted to support its arguments? How to capture the sheer head-in-the-sand-fingers-in-the-ears bloody mindedness? Let me give you just one example of this mindset. When the Guardian broke the story in December that 2008 would be a relatively cool year by recent standards, the response was predictable and depressing. Wilfully ignoring the fact that this was the tenth hottest year on record and a scorcher by the standards of Charles Dickens' era, many commentators leapt on the data as incontrovertible proof that climate change has gone into reverse. That was despite the calm words from climate scientists that they had expected 2008 to be a colder blip in the warming trend because of a short term climate phenomenon called La Niña. How on Earth do we sum up such dim-witted obstinacy in a single phrase? Climate change fact-ignorers? A little too cumbersome I think. Climate obfuscators? Better, but still not quite right. Climate change creationists. A suggestion from a friend that I believe sums them up perfectly. Although people have linked the two groups before, as far as I can see no one has used the phrase before. Think about it. They operate in very similar ways. They have a fixed position and ignore evidence that does not fit their case. And they cherry-pick shreds of data that do appear to back them up. They play up the "it's just a theory" debate just like the creationists and they paint themselves as valiant scientific mavericks who are supposedly ignored and vilified by the establishment. Worst of all they have been pushing their own version of "teach the controversy". This dishonest and sterile position has paralysed policy-makers for too long. We must leave it behind. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/blog', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesranderson'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2009-03-04T14:52:45Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/2015/nov/27/amazon-deforestation-report-brazil-paris-climate-talks | Amazon deforestation report is major setback for Brazil ahead of climate talks | Trees covering an area more than seven times the territory of New York City have been cleared in the Brazilian Amazon over the past year, in a major setback for government efforts to combat deforestation. The grim statistics from Brazil’s environment ministry, which were released on Thursday, underscore the growing climate threat posed by deforestation ahead of a United Nations conference in Paris that aims to reduce global carbon emissions. Satellite data revealed that 5,831 square kilometers of land was cut down or burned in the Brazilian Amazon in year to 1 August: a 16% increase on the destruction of the previous 12 months. This is the second acceleration in three years, following almost a decade of impressive declines. That suggests the state’s efforts – which include high-tech monitoring, stiffer financial penalties and boots on the ground – are having a diminishing impact. Going into the Paris conference, that is bad news for Brazil and a worrying trend for the planet. Deforestation accounts for about 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. The increase is the result of weaker government regulation, particularly the relaxation of the Forest Code; dams, roads and other infrastructure projects; the growing strength of the agricultural lobby; and the faltering economy, which is driving more people to illegally log timber and clear land for cattle and crops. Environment minister Izabella Teixeira acknowledged the figures were worse than expected. “It was a surprise, particularly the increase in Mato Grosso,” she said in reference to the state that has long been on the frontline of forest clearance. “Pressure for more logging is again strong and coming from agriculture and livestock activities.” Mato Grosso is the biggest grain producing state in Brazil. Deforestation also rose in Rondônia and Amazonas. These areas have been the focus of operations against illegal loggers by public prosecutors and federal police. But despite a flurry of arrests, investigators admit that the system of monitoring is undermined by corruption and legal loopholes. Government officials stress the overall improvement in the past decade. Average rates of deforestation over the past four years have fallen by 80% compared to the peak in 2004. This is a far better trend than those in Amazonian countries such as Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, or other nations with giant forests, such as Indonesia or Russia. Brazil, which is home to 65% of the Amazon forest, is committed to zero illegal deforestation by 2030, though conservationists say much of the Amazon will have been cleared by then. The impact of deforestation is not limited to carbon emissions. Earlier this month, researchers warned that 57% of the 15,000 Amazonian tree species – including Brazil nut, wild cacao and açai – face extinction at current rates of land clearance. On Friday, international conservation groups called on Brazil to step up its fight against illegal land clearance and to provide better incentives for sustainable production and forest restoration. “One the eve of climate change talks in Paris, these figures provide a stark reminder that the war on deforestation is far from won,” said Damian Fleming, head of Amazon programmes for the World Wildlife Fund. “Deforestation continues to erode the world’s most important biome for biodiversity, and remains a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. The Brazilian government should boost efforts to protect the country’s irreplaceable forests.” | ['world/brazil', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-11-27T18:15:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
books/2020/jul/25/emperors-of-the-deep-by-william-mckeever-review-how-sharks-are-misunderstood | Emperors of the Deep by William McKeever review – how sharks are misunderstood | America’s fear of sharks began in the summer of 1916. During a 10-day period four people were killed in the sea off New Jersey and one seriously injured. According to the conservationist and film-maker William McKeever, “the events triggered mass hysteria and the first extensive shark hunt in history”. The idea of a “deranged, man-eating great white on the loose” had been planted in the American psyche and it would eventually inspire Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel Jaws – which has sold 20m copies – and Steven Spielberg’s famous film. The fallacy that “sharks as a species are nothing more than bloodthirsty man-eaters, apex predators with no other purpose than to kill” is widely believed. The reality is different. In 2018, there were four deaths attributed to a shark attack. The US, which is the country with the most attacks, had one that year. Ants kill 30 people a year there, and bees 478. As McKeever shows, sharks have more to fear from humans than we do from them. We currently kill between 100 and 273 million a year for their meat, skin, fins, liver, cartilage and as collateral damage from tuna fishing, which Greenpeace describe as an “industry out of control”. For every 10 tuna caught, five sharks are killed. According to McKeever, the longline fishing method used to catch tuna (literally a line up to 100 miles long covered with hooks) is “sadistic”: the fishing ships “are truly weapons of mass destruction on the high seas”. In this heartfelt plea to respect the life in our oceans and especially the much maligned sharks, McKeever describes how these “evolutionary marvels” are today facing the gravest threat to their existence in their entire 450m-year history. Their plight should concern us all, for as apex predators these “beautiful and majestic emperors and empresses of the deep” are vital to the health and diversity of the oceans: “Kill the sharks and humankind cripples the seas.” McKeever focuses on four of out some 500 shark species: the mako, tiger, hammerhead and great white, “the ocean’s most mysterious and most misunderstood inhabitant”. He travels the world talking to scientists and conservationists, as well as getting up close and personal with sharks in their own element. In one shocking chapter, he meets Cambodians who escaped from working as slave labour on fishing boats, part of the true cost of supplying the world with obscenely cheap tinned tuna. According to Greenpeace, “slavery at sea is widespread”. McKeever discovers many astonishing facts: the jaw of a tiger shark generates a force of three tonnes per square centimetre, equal to the weight of two cars; great whites travel staggeringly long distances – one was tracked travelling from South Africa to Australia in a straight line, 6,800 miles in 100 days, “the longest known trip of any fish in the world”. But the key message he wants readers to understand is that, despite their fearsome reputation sharks are actually now an extremely vulnerable species. The global population of the great hammerhead has declined by 80% in the last 25 years. They rarely attack humans; only one person has been killed by them in the last 400 years. Sharks are nature’s great survivors, having withstood five extinction events. But numbers of great whites fell by 75% in the last 15 years. Charles Darwin wrote that “the love for all creatures is the most noble attribute of man”. McKeever argues that we need to extend our love to sharks, or one day the oceans will no longer be graced with their unique beauty and grandeur. • Emperors of the Deep is published by Collins (RRP £20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. | ['books/scienceandnature', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sharks', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/pdsmith', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/guardianreview', 'theguardian/guardianreview/saturdayreviewsfeatres', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/review'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-07-25T08:00:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2022/oct/26/iphone-usb-c-lightning-connectors-apple-eu-rules | Apple to put USB-C connectors in iPhones to comply with EU rules | Apple will ditch the Lightning connector on its iPhones, the company has confirmed, after European regulators decided all smartphones should have USB charging as standard in two years’ time. New EU rules require all phones sold after autumn 2024 to use the USB-C connector for their charging ports. The oval-shaped plugs are already standard on other consumer electronics such as e-readers, games consoles, laptops and the vast majority of new Android phones. Apple has already switched much of its product line over to the standard, which can send up to 240W of power and 40Gbps of data over the same cable. Its first laptop to use USB-C to charge was the 12in MacBook in 2015, while iPads began switching from the Lightning connector in 2018. But the company had pushed back against requirements to switch its phones to the standard, saying that “strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world”. Defenders of the Lightning connector have cited its smaller size, and the vast array of Lightning-based adapters and accessories owned by users around the world. The need to replace those cables could lead to a spike in e-waste, despite the stated goal of the regulation being to reduce discarded electronics. Now, Apple’s head of marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiak, says the company is conceding defeat. “Obviously we’ll have to comply, we have no choice,” he told a technology conference in California. But, he argued, it “would have been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive”. Joswiak refused to answer questions on timing, or on whether the company would attempt to make USB-C iPhones an EU exclusive. Given the company’s annual release schedule for iPhones, however, it is likely that either the iPhone 15, expected in September 2023, or its follow-up, expected in September 2024, will be the first to have the connector. “The Europeans are the ones dictating timing for European customers,” Joswiak added. | ['technology/iphone', 'technology/apple', 'business/technology', 'technology/smartphones', 'environment/waste', 'technology/technology', 'world/eu', 'type/article', 'technology/mobilephones', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/tech-scape', 'world/world', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'world/europe-news', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-10-26T15:54:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/mar/28/charity-calls-for-15m-fund-to-tackle-uk-hunger-by-preventing-food-waste | Charity calls for £15m fund to tackle UK hunger by preventing food waste | The government is being urged to introduce a £15m fund to tackle hunger by preventing food which could be eaten from going straight into landfill, animal feed or anaerobic digestion. New figures from the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, reveal that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply chain is redistributed annually to charities. FareShare wants ministers to create a level playing field for food waste, ending the inequality of the current system where producers and farmers bear the costs of sorting and transporting surplus food for human consumption. The public is being asked to support FareShare’s new Feed People First campaign by signing a parliamentary petition calling on the government to introduce a £15m fund to cover transport and storage costs for surplus food. At 100,000 signatures, the subject will be considered for debate in parliament. FareShare currently redistributes about 13,500 tonnes of surplus food every year to nearly 7,000 charities including hospices, homeless shelters, care homes and women’s refuges (including a record amount last Christmas) but its annual target is 100,000 tonnes. Demand for surplus food has soared against a background of growing dependence on food banks and rising homelessness in the UK. FareShare says it has the capacity – and a waiting list of charities wanting help – but needs access to more food. Its solution is a government fund that would cover the costs of storage and transport. Available to any charity or producer that incurs the costs of redistributing food, it would also save charities and other beneficiaries £150m by making free food available to them. “It’s completely wrong that we have a situation where it’s cheaper to send thousands of tonnes of good edible food to anaerobic digestion plants or to animal feed when there are millions of people experiencing food insecurity and regularly skipping meals across the UK right now,” said FareShare chief executive, Lindsay Boswell. The bulk of food waste in the UK comes from households, making up 71% of the total. But manufacturing contributes 17% and hospitality and food service 9%. Seasonal weather fluctuations, order cancellations and overstocking – all unpredictable – create surplus food which manufacturers, distributors and farms were not always in a position to redistribute. Environment ministers are understood to have held informal discussions about giving farmers and food producers financial incentives to encourage them to get waste food onto tables. But FareShare says these need to lead to a level playing field so it’s not cheaper to waste food or turn it into animal feed or energy. | ['environment/food', 'environment/waste', 'food/food', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-03-28T05:01:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/nov/20/air-pollution-cuts-global-average-lifespan-by-nearly-two-years-study | Air pollution cuts two years off global average lifespan, says study | Air pollution cuts the average lifespan of people around the globe by almost two years, analysis shows, making it the single greatest threat to human health. The research looked at the particulate pollution produced by the burning of fossil fuels by vehicles and industry. It found that in many parts of the worst-affected nations – India and China – lifespans were being shortened by six years. The work combined research on the reduced lifespans caused by long-term exposure to particulates with very detailed pollution maps. The impact of toxic air is greater than that of cigarette smoking or HIV/Aids. Michael Greenstone, the director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, who led the work, said: “While people can stop smoking and take steps to protect themselves from diseases, there is little they can individually do to protect themselves from the air they breathe. “The [research] tells citizens and policymakers how particulate pollution is affecting them and their communities, and reveals the benefits of policies to reduce particulate pollution.” The World Health Organization has said 90% of people are exposed to unsafe air, and breathing it in is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more. In October, the WHO’s director general told the Guardian that air pollution is the “new tobacco”. “Despite this epidemic of needless, preventable deaths and disability, a smog of complacency pervades the planet,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The early deaths figure is certain to be an underestimate as it only includes particle pollution and the five most firmly linked causes of death. Early estimates using improved models indicate a total figure of 9 million from particle pollution. New links to health damage are being revealed each month, with children especially affected. Recent work has shown connections to stunted lungs and childhood obesity. The latest work created a measurement called the air quality life index (AQLI), which allows people to find out how much longer they would live if they breathed air that met WHO guidelines, compared to where they live. “Around the world today, people are breathing air that represents a serious risk to their health. But the way this risk is communicated is very often opaque and confusing,” Greenstone said. “We developed the AQLI to address these shortcomings. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists – life expectancy.” People in India would live an average of 4.3 years longer each if their nation met the WHO guidelines. Those in Uttar Pradesh would live 8.6 years longer. In the US, about one-third of the population lives in areas with polluted air, and those living in the most polluted counties could expect to live up to one year longer if the air were clean. In London, the research indicates an average cut in lifespan of four months. The global average reduction in lifespan is 1.8 years – more than the 1.6 years that results from smoking tobacco. Other risks to human health have even smaller effects: dirty water and sanitation cut lifespan by seven months, and HIV/Aids by four months on average. Deaths from war and terrorism equate to a reduction of 22 days in the global average lifespan. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'society/health', 'science/science', 'society/society', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-11-20T15:32:36Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk/the-northerner/2012/jul/10/rain-floods-weather-hebden-bridge | More rain, more floods | More rain is forecast for many of the north's battered and weary communities, with weather maps showing all-day wetness for most of the three regions today and the same to come later in the week for the North West and Yorkshire. The north east looks like the best place to go for a bit of sunshine, or at least dryish ground, before the weekend, but thousands of people elsewhere are going to be much too busy coping with weather damage to contemplate that. The Hebweb in Hebden Bridge, which is chronicling the town's second major flood in three weeks in vivid detail, reports that 25 wagon loads of muck and rubble have alreadt been removed from the town's streets. People who live up steep hills are usually immune from the UK's main types of flooding – rivers overflowing on to valley land or drains backing up – but the sheer force of Monday's torrential outburst swept an estimated 500 tonnes, and more, of debris past Hebden's hillside doors. The roads couldn't take it in places and their tarmac started peeling up, while down in the town the water backed up to well over two feet, made worse by 'bow-waves' from drivers pressing down on the accelerator to try to get through. The Halifax Courier describes how floorboards and silicone were used by Marcus Doyle and Warren Booth at the Yorkshire Soap Company in Market Street to construct a remarkably effective flood barrier around the door. Along with other shopkeepers, they then sallied outside to join neighbours in slowing down the traffic before the A646 finally closed. The Great Yorkshire Show is going ahead despite saturated ground which has greatly reduced parking on the site at Harrogate. The event's website also says laconically: 'Conditions for camping at the show at the present time are poor.' Large crowds are still expected and a huge effort is being made to promote park-and-ride from Plompton Bar on the A661, coach drop-offs and the use of public transport. A fleet of tractors is on hand to help horseboxes and other essential vehicles and extra trains with more carriages, plus additional shuttle buses from Harrogate station are being laid on. More details here. There have been few criticisms so far of the emergency response, compared to previous flood disasters, with the cause – as much as the month's average rain in only three hours in the upper Calder Valley yesterday – beyond the wit of immediate counter measures. But Yorkshire Water faces a challenge in Goole, where the Carr Lane pumping station was flooded out of action and the company initially fudged about whether things had gone seriously wrong. The local Conservative MP Andrew Percy tells the Yorkshire Post that 'putting the shutters up' had damaged credibility, especially as the station failed in similar circumstances last year. There is to be an emergency summit in Goole on Friday, while the station is still being repaired with pressure taken off it by mobile pumps and a three quarter mile bypass of temporary piping. The North West's regional flood and coastal committee is also calling for major investment in improving drainage, after hearing that flood defences erected in the last three years by the Environment Agency almost certainly saved thousands of homes in the region from June's inundation. Although 400 homes in the region were damaged, mostly at Darwen, Croston and Crawshawbooth, at least 4000 were protected safely, which would not have been the case four years ago. Places which benefited included Carlisle, Wigan, Keswick. Cockermouth, Nelson, Barrowford and Rochdale. The reconditioning of culverts is reckoned to have protected another thousand north western properties. The committee's chair Derek Antrobus says: Our hearts go out to those whose lives have been disrupted by floods. We work to reduce risks precisely because we know the terrible impact it can have on people's lives. There is no room for complacency. The flooding in Newcastle should be a major lesson for the urban areas in the North West. Our Victorian drainage systems cannot cope with the volume of rainfall in these big storms. Changing weather patterns mean that heavy rainfall is likely to occur more often and local authorities need to make sure they take their new duties seriously to manage risk from this type of flooding. The floods have also seen Summerbridge primary school in Nidderdale fill with four feet of water after another cloudburst, houses hit in Barnsley, a dogwalker swept into a beck at Harrogate and a pair of boaters rescued from a dinghy on the Don near Doncaster prison. Serious sunshine is unlikely for most of us until towards the end of next week. | ['uk/the-northerner', 'tone/blog', 'uk/weather', 'environment/flooding', 'uk/leeds', 'uk/manchester', 'uk/liverpool', 'uk/newcastle', 'uk/greater-manchester', 'type/article', 'profile/martinwainwright'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-07-10T05:57:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
money/2022/apr/29/tech-expert-energy-vampire-devices | Impact of energy-draining ‘vampire devices’ overstated, says tech expert | As the cost-of-living crisis bites, and households look for any opportunity to cut the bills, headlines suggesting consumers can save hundreds of pounds just by turning off unused chargers have been an appealing prospect. But, experts say, such claims about “vampire devices” are actually more like a zombie statistic. “Things have dramatically improved since those studies were first carried out,” said Craig Melson, an associate director for climate, environment and sustainability at techUK. “Processors are low-power, screens have switched from LCD to LED technology, fridges and washing machines have become more efficient. Technology is just more miniaturised, more efficient, using better processors – and, crucially, they are more adaptable as well.” One recent report from British Gas claimed “Brits could … save an average of £110 per household per year by simply flicking a switch”. The energy provider said 23% of British energy bills were caused by “vampire electronics, those that continue to drain power when left on standby”. But that statistic came from a 2015 report from the US National Research Defence Council, based on analysis of homes in California. “Think about the laptop you used 10 years ago,” Melson says: “That might need a big ugly plug in the middle, a big transformer. By and large, now you can just plug them straight into USB-C: that is much more energy efficient, and there is no need to draw power.” As well as being seven years old and based on another country’s energy, consumers may struggle to make some of the suggested savings: a third of the “always on” electronics identified in the study are “recirculation pumps, fishponds, aquariums, and protected outlets in bathrooms, kitchens and garages.” Consumers who switch off their aquarium at night can save money but their fish may object. Other devices included in the 23% figure are left on because they are intended to run all the time: wifi routers and electric space heaters or air conditioning units increase the electricity used by a home but provide benefits while doing so. More importantly, Melson notes, American consumers are not covered by the array of European regulations that have slashed power use for British consumers. He said: “The eco-design directive, European regulation, has driven design changes across the sector. It’s much more regulated, and business practices have evolved.” The US report that first found the 23% figure even highlights the advantages of European regulation: “The European standard addresses a large portion of the idle load issue highlighted in this study,” the American researchers say. Other claims of “vampire devices” reach even further back. In October, the UK’s Energy Saving Trust claimed a modest £35 saving from turning off devices on standby each year, citing a 2013 report that itself accounted for the energy use of devices including a VCR, largely discontinued in 2004, and a PlayStation 2, first produced in 2000. For consumers who want to save electricity, Melson says, a better focus is to examine the “eco mode” settings on devices such as TVs and games consoles, turning off features such as auto-updates to reduce the standby use further. British Gas did not reply to requests for comment. | ['money/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'money/household-bills', 'environment/energy', 'money/money', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'technology/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-04-29T14:00:22Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/oct/12/tell-us-how-energy-efficient-is-your-new-build-home-in-the-uk | Tell us: how energy efficient is your new-build home in the UK? | We want to speak to people in the UK who live in recently built housing about how energy efficient and low carbon their home is. Whether you are a renter or a homeowner in the UK, if you live in a new-build home – constructed in the last few years - we want to hear about your experience. Is your home well-insulated – or not? What is the impact on you and your bills? How are you affected when the temperatures plummet (or soar?) Have you moved into a recently built home that has a gas boiler, rather than a heat pump? How do you feel about that and having to retrofit when boilers are phased out? Do you have solar panels – and if not, have you tried to upgrade your home? What are the other ways you think your home could be designed to be more efficient? How important to you is it that new housing is designed to be low carbon? This Community callout closed on 3 November 2023. • You can see the article that included respondents to this callout here. • You can contribute to open Community callouts here or Share a story here. | ['environment/environment', 'society/housing', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'campaign/callout/callout-low-carbon-homes', 'profile/guardian-community-team', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | campaign/callout/callout-low-carbon-homes | EMISSIONS | 2023-10-12T08:37:11Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/blog/2014/apr/10/threatened-climate-change-chocolate-coastlines | Stand up for the things we love that are threatened by climate change | Neil Thorns | I don’t usually expect to be picking my way through seaweed, pebbles and assorted debris from the sea when I stroll along the promenade in Brighton, but after the recent storms this is what I found as beach and pavement merged into one. Walking along the seafront is one of the pleasures of living in Brighton, the commute to London is not. Both were disrupted in the storms, although nothing like the misery caused to people on the Somerset Levels and fellow commuters using the main rail link between Devon and Cornwall. All along the south coast thousands of seabirds were washed up dead on the shoreline. We know that these extreme weather events are in line with scientists’ predictions of the impacts of climate change. Now these impacts are being felt on our own doorstep, affecting the everyday things we love and depend on – our homes, our public transport, our coastlines. For a long time organisations concerned about climate change have used the large and looming long-term threats to gain attention on this issue. It has created a good movement for change, but any relevant campaign must move with the times. In 2005 more than 100 faith, environment, development and trade union groups came together in an unprecedented partnership to make a stand on climate, and Stop Climate Chaos was born. Four years later we held The Wave, the biggest climate march this country has ever seen. But fast forward five years and the world has turned, we have had one of the most serious economic crises in history with huge impacts on people all around the world. The rush to pull ourselves back into growth has meant the concerns of the poorest people and the planet have not been top priority. Meanwhile the experts have learnt more about how our land and seas are responding to climate changes and the scientific consensus has strengthened. We knew that people were concerned about climate change and cared about the things which are all around us but that wasn’t being translated into a strong voice within our society; so we realised we needed to talk to people about why. Some surprising things emerged. Many of the people we need to reach – those who care but haven’t turned that concern into action – are turned off by doom and gloom messages about ice caps and apocalypse. They understand the problem, but aren’t motivated to act. So we tried some different approaches, and the one that really resonated was talking to people about the things they love and cherish and which are threatened by climate change. There are so many things close to home that we take for granted that have an uncertain future because of the changing climate. The most important, of course, is our children. But we have been hearing stories about communities in the world’s poorest countries suffering, bees and butterflies whose habitats are being lost, and even chocolate prices soaring due to loss of plantation land in West Africa. These, and many more, stories will be told through our campaign and captured on our website. The strength of this partnership is in its extraordinary depth and breadth. When else would we see the Women’s Institute, Oxfam and Cafod standing shoulder to shoulder with the RSPB, WWF and Unison on one issue? So we have changed the name to celebrate this – we will now be known as The Climate Coalition. We have got big plans from online campaigns and lobbying opportunities to large scale events and public engagement aimed at recapturing the political and media spotlight. We know that we need to change tack if we are to keep up the momentum needed to wean us off fossil fuels. As politics and society has changed, our message has also evolved. We will not be sidelined, ignored, placated or put in a convenient political box – the things we love are just too important. • Neil Thorns is chair of The Climate Coalition and director of advocacy and communications at Cafod | ['environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-04-10T12:12:54Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/2015/jul/08/why-do-rainforests-matter-google-answer | Why do rainforests matter? You asked Google – and here’s the answer | Tim Flannery | Rainforests cover 6% of Earth’s land surface, yet they are home to 50% or more of all land-based species, perhaps half of which remain to be discovered and named by scientists. Relatively few people have experienced pristine, undisturbed rainforest at first hand, but many of those who have are awed by the soaring cathedral of life they find themselves in. The subdued light, the constant temperature and humidity, and often the quiet, add to the awe. The capacity for rainforests to moderate the climate embody the Gaia hypothesis – the concept that the Earth self-regulates to create the conditions to support life. A constant supply of sunlight and water in rainforests has encouraged the proliferation of species. There is a parallel to be drawn between rainforests and great cities. Both require a constant supply of life’s essentials (imagine a city left a week without electricity), and both encourage specialists. The extraordinary diversity of rainforests is without doubt their greatest value to humanity, for it has turned the rainforests into a great natural pharmacopeia. The warmth and humidity below the canopy allow pathogens to abound. If any one species becomes too abundant, disease transfers easily, and it will be ravaged by an epidemic. But the ubiquity of pathogens has also led to a proliferation of physical and chemical defences in every organism that inhabits the forest. As humanity gathers together in ever greater urban aggregations, the need for defences against pathogens grows. Around a quarter of all medicines originate from tropical forest plants, and it’s a fair bet that cures for many of humanity’s present and future ills lie undiscovered below the verdant canopy. Rainforests fulfil other needs. They are the source of much food and other products. From Brazil nuts to bananas, and from rubber to resins, they enhance our lives. They are also vital sources of clean, reliable water, acting as great cleansing filters and sponges which provide a steady source for pristine streams that can flow right through the dry season. The Amazon rainforests store around half of Earth’s available fresh water, and right across the tropics many cities and farms depend on rainforests for their water supplies. But rainforests also play a larger role in the water cycle, in that they create their own rainfall. The rainforest canopy transpires enormous quantities of water. This occurs when the individual leaves open tiny pores, known as stomata, to gain access to the CO2 in the air. While the stomata are open, the plant loses moisture through its leaves, which accumulates over the forest as water vapour, eventually to fall as rain. It’s been estimated that the Amazon creates as much as 80% of its own rainfall. Rainforests are also crucial in the Earth’s carbon cycle. Through photosynthesis, the CO2 the plants absorb from the air is turned into leaves, bark, timber and fruit – indeed all the tissues of living plants. You can think of trees largely as congealed CO2. Up to half of all the carbon stored in land-based ecosystems resides in rainforests, in the form of living organisms as well as soil carbon. One thing rainforests are not, however, is the “lungs of the planet”. Although significant producers of free oxygen (via photosynthesis), they play a far smaller role in producing free oxygen than do single-celled algae in the ocean. Beyond the functional reasons that rainforests are important must be counted the place they hold in our imaginations. Rainforests are so extraordinarily ancient that they allow us, imaginatively at least, to travel in time. Fifty-five million-year-old fossils from the lignite mines of Germany come from plants and animals whose barely altered descendants can be found today in the rainforests of Malaysia. The rainforests of central eastern Australia are even more ancient, telling of a time when the landmasses of the southern hemisphere formed the supercontinent of Gondwana. The harpy eagles of south America and New Guinea are among the world’s most awesome birds of prey. Genetic studies show that they are each other’s closest relatives. Yet neither the south American nor the New Guinean harpy eagle ever stray outside the rainforest, and they have failed to colonise even large, rainforest islands lying near the lands they occupy. They came to occupy their widely separated homes because their ancestors inhabited rainforests that flourished in Antarctica 60 million or more years ago. Not everyone accepts that rainforests are important to humanity and the planet in the ways I’ve outlined above. One Australian I asked thought about rainforests much like Groucho Marx did about future generations – why should I care about them: what have they ever done for me? He thought that rainforests could be put to better use, as timber and croplands. There is no doubt that rainforest timbers bring high prices on markets, nor that there is money to be made in felling them and growing crops. In both instances the great common benefits that rainforests provide are exchanged for private gain for the few. But even that gain is largely illusory. The soils of the rainforest are notoriously infertile, as was inadvertently illustrated in one of the most memorable scenes in the 1972 cult classic Aguirre: The Wrath of God. A beleaguered conquistador, starving, fever-racked, and hallucinating, gazes at a butterfly perched serenely on his finger. In a surreal film steeped in violence and the alien world of the Amazon, the friendly butterfly seems as absurd as the galleon another conquistador sees floating in the treetops. But anyone who has lived in the rainforest knows that visits by the most glorious butterflies is an everyday occurrence. They come to drink our sweat, for the sake of the minerals it contains. Almost all the nutrients in a rainforest are incorporated in the plants and animals that comprise it, so animal sweat is one of the few mineral sources available. Cut, burn and carry them away, and the wealth we gain is as transient as a butterfly’s visit. | ['commentisfree/series/the-autocomplete-questions', 'environment/forests', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/wildlife', 'technology/google', 'type/article', 'profile/tim-flannery'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-07-08T06:00:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
society/article/2024/may/21/reducing-sewage-rivers-seas-public-health-priority-chris-whitty | Reducing sewage in rivers and seas is public health priority, says Chris Whitty | Public health must be central to future investment in a new wastewater system to protect people from waterborne diseases, the chief medical officer for England, Prof Chris Whitty, has said. Reducing people’s risk of coming into contact with human faecal pathogens in untreated and treated sewage discharged into rivers and coastal waters must be a priority, a report by the Royal Academy of Engineering said. Whitty said the creation of a wastewater system in the 19th century had ended the cholera outbreaks and was still one of the great triumphs of public health. There needed to be a similar focus today on the need to protect public health in the management of wastewater systems, alongside protecting the environment and ensuring affordability, he said. “Public waterways are a great resource enjoyed by many children and adults and can have a significant positive impact on our health. Minimising human faecal organisms in fresh water is a public health priority as well as an environmental one,” said Whitty. “Whilst there will always be challenges with the efficient management of sewers and sewage treatment works, this report provides clear technical options for how this can realistically be achieved.” He spoke as South West Water faced criticism for an outbreak of diarrhoea in Brixham, south Devon, and surrounding areas, caused by cryptosporidiosis, a waterborne disease caused by a microscopic parasite in water systems. More than 14,000 households were told to boil their tap water after a faulty valve allowed the parasite to enter the water system. The report was published as sewage alerts were issued for beaches in England and Wales on the first weekend of the official bathing season. It is the first time a comprehensive analysis has been undertaken to examine and reduce public health risks associated with the use of rivers and seas. It highlighted the lack of investment by water companies in maintaining assets within the sewage system. The report called for the government to accelerate the rollout of continuous water quality monitoring for microbiological faecal organisms, and for a review of bathing water regulations to better protect the public. “The deterioration of wastewater assets, growing urbanisation and forecasts for more frequent and intense rainfall events due to climate change will mean increasing pressure is put on our ageing wastewater system,” the report said. While much focus has been given to untreated sewage discharges from storm overflows, treated sewage is continuously discharged into rivers and seas and still contains high numbers of faecal organisms, even after treatment. “We know that public health risks are increased by exposure to high concentrations of faecal organisms,” the report said. There is also significant concern about the development of antimicrobial resistance, particularly in human faecal pathogens. The report calls for short- and long-term measures to reduce the risk of ill-health from contact with wastewater, including untreated sewage released via storm overflows and effluent discharged into rivers and seas after treatment by water companies. It wants to see a review of bathing water regulations to ensure that the necessary testing for microbiological water quality is carried out, to make sure protections are proportionate to the public health risk. The government last week announced 27 new bathing water areas in England, where the water will be tested from May to September. Giving waterways bathing status means the Environment Agency has to test them for pollution during the summer months, putting pressure on water companies to stop dumping sewage in them. Bathing status is no guarantee the waters are safe to swim in, however. Last year, testing by the Environment Agency found that England’s three river swimming areas all had “poor” status due to pollution. The report says incentives should be offered to remove paved-over surfaces, such as patios or paved gardens, and the use of sustainable drainage schemes and other urban greening initiatives. These measures reduce the amount of runoff from towns and cities, which reduces pressure on treatment works, and can cut the amount of sewage discharged into waterways. It also calls for the creation of a wastewater champion to enhance the infrastructure in England. Barbara Evans, a professor of public health engineering at the University of Leeds, said: “Investments in sanitation require national vision and leadership; 150 years ago, the UK committed to eliminating cholera and made the necessary huge investments in our wastewater system; we have reaped the benefit of that vision for our whole lives, and we probably haven’t been sufficiently aware of it. “That investment is reaching the end of its life, and we owe it to our children and our grandchildren to make a new commitment and create a vision of a new wastewater system fit for the future.” Charles Watson, chair and founder of River Action, said: “The lack of any meaningful response from government - whilst record volumes of raw sewage are dumped into rivers, river users across the country get seriously ill and whole towns are forced to boil their drinking water – has been deeply frustrating. The publication of this report is therefore a much welcome development and provides a hugely authoritative new voice in calling for the actions so urgently needed to deal with the country’s disgusting sewage crisis.” • This article was amended on 21 May 2024 to remove a reference to the report having been commissioned by Prof Chris Whitty, which is not the case. | ['society/health', 'business/water-industry', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/waste', 'uk-news/england', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-05-21T06:00:30Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/article/2024/sep/04/phoenix-arizona-100-degrees-heat | Phoenix, Arizona, hits its 100th consecutive day of 100F weather | Phoenix, Arizona, saw its 100th straight day of 100F (37.7C) heat this week. The hottest large city in the United States broke its previous record of 76 consecutive 100F days set in 1993. The relentless streak, which started on 27 May and hit its 100th day on Tuesday, is forecast to persist into next week. An excessive heat warning is in effect through Friday, with temperatures expected to reach 110F (43C) tomorrow. This summer was the hottest one in Phoenix since 1896, when records first began. Latest county data shows that at least 177 people died from heat-related causes so far this year, with 436 under investigation. Last year, Maricopa county saw 645 confirmed heat-related fatalities, enduring 55 days in a row with above 110F temperatures. “Summers in Phoenix are becoming increasingly hotter, with more intense and prolonged heat,” said Shel Winkley, a meteorologist at the non-profit Climate Central. “On average, Phoenix now experiences about 60 days [or] 65% of the summer with extreme heat.” In addition to Arizona, millions of Americans across Nevada and California are facing scorching heat, with the highest temperature expected to peak in the Death Valley national park at 120F (49C). “Temperatures will be running up to 8 degrees above normal for early September,” the National Weather Service Las Vegas office warned in an advisory. Homeless people, children, the elderly, pregnant people and those with chronic medical conditions are at higher risk for heat-related illness. “Consecutive high heat days mean that people in Phoenix don’t get respite at night, especially those who don’t have or can’t afford to run an AC unit as well as those who work outdoors,” said Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist for climate vulnerability at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “I would like the public to understand that this heat is no longer a rare occurrence,” Declet-Barreto said. “It will continue to get worse year after year if we don’t make drastic emissions reductions. We need to decarbonize our energy, industrial, agricultural and transportation sectors. There’s no way around that if we want cities like Phoenix to be livable.” | ['us-news/arizona', 'environment/extreme-heat', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aliya-uteuova', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/extreme-heat | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-09-04T17:26:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/nov/25/country-diary-a-cloud-of-curlews-carries-me-away | Country diary: A cloud of curlews carries me away | Three curlews flush up from the path in front of me. I catch a flash of white, mottled brown, curved bills, but keep on walking. They often wait for the tide to retreat on this patch of coastal grassland close to the mudflats they like to feed on. The mud is submerged now, water stretched over like a second skin. Another group rises from the ground behind the brambles: four, five, six. Then another, and another, until there are 20 in the air. I keep walking. Like the curlews, I am watching the tide. I am not waiting for its retreat but rather to catch it at its tipping point, when the water becomes safe enough to swim in but still rough enough that I can catch the force of the waves and feel, for a moment, swept up. A whoosh of wing stops me as another group takes flight. At first, it seems like clouds of curlews lifting and soaring together, but then the starlings start to differentiate themselves – smaller, darker bodies among white bellies and long bills. Starlings glitter through the curlews’ light feathers. Curlews glide through the starlings’ tremors. Next, it is the sound that separates them. The long creak of the curlew’s cry is like a bow being drawn over a string – a cello, perhaps, out here on the rough grassland – cutting through the starlings’ chatter, until it feels like the bow no longer moves over strings but starlings, as the sound turns to a prolonged trembling that matches their sway. I stand still inside the music. I forget the tide. I forget the waves. I do not need water to be carried away. Curlews are facing such large declines in breeding populations and ranges in the UK that this gathering, though comparatively small, feels like an abundance. As I stand, enveloped by the throng, I ask: what did I do to deserve the curlews? It is a question that hangs in the air for a moment, caught among the pulsing bodies before one final surge carries it away. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/birds', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk-news/devon', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/elizabeth-jane-burnett', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-11-25T05:30:48Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
media/2018/dec/21/bbc-london-headquarters-put-on-lockdown-over-protest-by-climate-change-campaigners-extinction-rebellion | BBC's London HQ put on lockdown over climate change protest | The BBC’s central London headquarters has been put on lockdown due to a protest by climate change campaigners who are demanding it uses its status as national broadcaster to declare a “climate and ecological emergency”. Extinction Rebellion, a direct action group that has recently shut down key London roads, has demand the BBC makes the environment its “top editorial issue”. Broadcasting House was locked down early on Friday afternoon, with BBC staff and guests unable to enter or leave the building while security kept the peaceful but noisy protesters away from the entrance. Extinction Rebellion activists, who are demanding a meeting with the BBC director general, Tony Hall, said the corporation had a duty to broadcast about climate change with “the level of urgency placed on informing the public about the second world war”. The broadcaster Anneka Rice said she was stuck in the BBC reception “with Simon Mayo, Ken Bruce and three policemen” during the protest. Extinction Rebellion also organised protests on Friday at BBC offices in Bristol, Glasgow, Cambridge, Birmingham, Truro, Sheffield, Bangor, and the broadcaster’s Berlin bureau. The campaign group launched two months ago, with a declaration of support from public figures including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who backed a campaign of civil disobedience to draw attention to the threat of climate and ecological change. Since then, Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked bridges and glued themselves to the gates of Downing Street, earning media attention that has allowed the campaign to spread to 35 overseas countries. The BBC has been criticised for its coverage of climate change, especially the decision to give airtime to climate change sceptics such as Lord Lawson, who oppose the scientific consensus. Earlier this year, the head of news, Fran Unsworth, told staff that the corporation had struggled with the topic: “Climate change has been a difficult subject for the BBC, and we get coverage of it wrong too often.” She added: “To achieve impartiality, you do not need to include outright deniers of climate change in BBC coverage; in the same way you would not have someone denying that Manchester United won 2-0 last Saturday. The referee has spoken.” The BBC acknowledged it had received a letter from a “newly formed campaign group” but did not comment on the demand for a meeting with the director general. “The BBC has a proud record of leading the way in sustainability in the media industry and we’ve set out further action including cutting energy use further, eradicating single-use plastic and minimising the impact of necessary travel,” said a spokesperson. “In the last charter period, we reduced our carbon footprint by a third. People can also see the clear impact programmes like Blue Planet II and Dynasties have had on public debate about the impact of humankind on the planet.” | ['media/bbc', 'media/media', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'profile/jim-waterson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2018-12-21T14:20:04Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sustainable-business/total-purchase-arctic-oil-greenpeace-offshore-exploration | Total's purchase of Arctic oil shipment sparks row over offshore exploration | Total has purchased a shipment of Arctic oil from Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, in apparent contradiction to earlier statements made by the French company's chief executive about the potential dangers of offshore oil exploration in the region. A spokesperson for Total said: "Total has bought this cargo to feed its European refining and trading system. Crude oil is an open international market and for many years we [have bought] crude oil from Russia." In 2012 Christophe de Margerie told the Financial Times (paywall) that drilling for oil in Arctic waters was too risky, saying that "a leak would do too much damage to the image of the company" and that "oil on Greenland would be a disaster". However, he also said that offshore gas exploration in the region was much less dangerous; the company is not against Arctic exploration per se, and has onshore oil and gas operations in the region. Greenpeace, however, has criticised the purchase: "Total's decision to buy this oil smacks of real hypocrisy," said Ben Ayliffe, a campaigner for the environmental group. "Its CEO has already pledged not to drill in the icy waters of the far north, and yet he is apparently happy to buy the stuff if Gazprom takes on the risk. Mr De Margerie cannot have his cake and eat it." Total's spokesperson denied any inconsistency. She said: "This is not in contradiction with our position regarding the Arctic. In fact we stand [in] the same position about producing oil in the Arctic: we do not operate in the icepack and we focus primarily on natural gas projects." Ayliffe also raised concerns about the political implications of buying Russian oil. "As this tanker nears Europe the controversy surrounding it increases by the day," he said. "Buying the first shipment of offshore Arctic oil increases our dependence on Russian energy firms and only serves to strengthen president Vladimir Putin's hand in the geopolitical game he's playing. He added: "We must urgently shift away from fossil fuels towards more efficient, clean technologies. This is no longer a purely environmental imperative. It is increasingly crucial to our national security." The oil comes from Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea, which has been the target of several high-profile actions by Greenpeace, including one in 2012 that saw six campaigners occupy the rig, and one last year in which 28 campaigners and two journalists were arrested on charges of piracy and hooliganism. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil', 'world/arctic', 'type/article', 'profile/carly-chynoweth'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2014-04-30T11:58:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/dec/24/latin-america-urges-us-to-reduce-plastic-waste-exports-to-region | Latin America urges US to reduce plastic waste exports to region | Environmental organisations across Latin America have called on the US to reduce plastic waste exports to the region, after a report found the US had doubled exports to some countries in the region during the first seven months of 2020. The US is the world’s largest plastic waste exporter, although it has dramatically reduced the overall amount it exports since 2015, when China – previously the top importer – said it “no longer wanted to be the world’s rubbish dump” and began imposing restrictions. Elsewhere around the world imports are rising, and not least in Latin America, with its cheap labour and close proximity to the US. More than 75% of imports to the region arrive in Mexico, which received more than 32,650 tons (29,620 metric tonnes) of plastic waste from the US between January and August 2020. El Salvador was second, with 4,054 tons, and Ecuador third, with 3,665 tons, according to research carried out by the Last Beach Cleanup, an environmental advocacy group based in California. While hazardous waste imports are subject to tariffs and restrictions, they are seldom enforced and plastic waste intended for recycling – which until January this year was not considered hazardous under international law – that enters importing countries can often end up as landfill, according to a researchers with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia). A Gaia report published in July also predicted further growth in the plastic waste sector in Latin America due to companies in the US and China investing in factories and recycling plants across the region to process the US plastic exports. Some view the practice as a form of environmental colonialism. “The cross-border plastic waste trade is perhaps one of the most nefarious expressions of the commercialisation of common goods and the colonial occupation of territories of the geopolitical south to turn them into sacrifice zones,” said Fernanda Solíz, the health area director at the Simón Bolívar University in Ecuador. “Latin America and the Caribbean are not the back yards of the United States,” Soliz said. “We are sovereign territories, and we demand the respect of the rights of nature and our peoples.” Most of the world’s countries agreed in May 2019 to stem the flow of plastic waste from the developed nations of the global north into the poorer ones of the global south. Known as the plastics amendment to the Basel Convention, the agreement prohibited the export of plastic waste from private entities in the US to those in developing nations without the permission of local governments. But critically, the US did not ratify the agreement, and has been accused of continuing to funnel its waste into countries around the world, including in Africa, south-east Asia, and Latin America. “Regional governments fail in two aspects: the first is inspections at customs because we don’t really know what enters the country under the guise of recycling, and they also fail in their commitments with international agreements such as the Basel convention.” said Camila Aguilera, a spokesperson for Gaia. “And here it is important to see what comes under the types of recycling because recycling is seen as a good thing.” “Countries in the global north see recycling as something to be proud of, forgetting about redesigning the products and reducing waste,” said Aguilera. “It’s very difficult for governments to treat plastic like toxic waste, but that’s what it is.” | ['environment/waste', 'environment/plastic', 'world/americas', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/mexico', 'world/el-salvador', 'world/ecuador', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joe-parkin-daniels', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-12-24T13:21:17Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/tracking-deforestation-supply-chains | Tracking deforestation as it happens | Everyone knows the philosophical puzzle about the tree falling down in a forest: if no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? It doesn't – at least, not in the world of real forests and real deforestation. Lack of accurate, timely data means it can take months for word of large-scale felling to get out. By the time the authorities arrive to investigate, the damage is done. A new global mapping service promises to change all that. Launched today, Global Forest Watch is pitched as the world's first monitoring tool providing 'near real time' data on changes in forest cover. The brainchild of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a US-based environment non-profit, the web-based service is free to access, global in scope and simple to use. "What is new here is that we're taking an enormous amount of complex and very confusing information and making it accessible to everyone, everywhere. You don't need a PhD in astrophysics to understand Global Forest Watch", explained Nigel Sizer, director of WRI's Global Forest Initiative. For data-hungry forest lovers, it's like all their Christmases at once. With the latest satellite data at the touch of a laptop button, users of Global Forest Watch can home in on any corner of the planet and see exactly when and where deforestation is occurring. The pixel definition is so good for some biomes that individual trees can be identified. The tool comes equipped with a set of powerful algorithms developed by Google (one of WRI's key partners on the initiative). The software allows user to cut and splice the information however they like: by forest type, by time period, by logging concession, by protected areas, and so forth. The implications for business are potentially huge as well. Recent years have seen the private sector slowly begin to acknowledge its role in fuelling deforestation. Back in 2010, for instance, the Consumer Goods Forum, which represents over 400 multinational retailers and manufacturers, promised to "mobilise resources" to achieve zero-deforestation by 2020. Although companies would never say as much, achieving these goals without accurate data is nigh on impossible. Nestlé's experience is illustrative. In line with its zero-deforestation goal, the Swiss food and beverage giant set about collating publicly available forest cover data two years ago. What it found was patchy at best, so it put together 20 of its own country-based maps. Compared to the level of detail on the Global Forest Watch portal, Nestlé concedes that its maps (launched only a year ago) are "rudimentary". WRI's new tool represents a "major, major step forward", said Duncan Pollard, Nestlé's head of stakeholder engagement in sustainability. "It is going to change certainly the way we do business", he added. But change it how, exactly? Primarily, in terms of risk management. As WRI's Sizer explained: "If you're a Unilever, say … and you see this (recent deforestation) on a map, you're immediately going to call up the (offending) company and talk about what's going on." It's a view echoed by Ben Vreeburg, director of sustainability at IOI Loders Croklaan, a Netherlands-based palm oil trading firm. Vreeburg insists IOI will use the tool to directly engage suppliers linked to deforestation. On the flip side, IOI will consider shifting procurement to suppliers with clean records. In addition, WRI is talking with individual corporations about integrating its mapping service into their internal procurement systems. The Washington DC-based research institute plans to focus its initial efforts on the supply chains of four commodities with especially strong links to deforestation: palm oil, pulp and paper, beef and soya. Disruptive as the Global Forest Watch may well prove, it's no panacea. 'Near' real-time data is daily in the case of fire-related forest damage, but only annual when it comes to high-definition data on global tree cover loss (though information on the humid tropics is updated on a monthly basis). Companies' own ignorance is the initiative's real Achilles heel, however. Large corporate buyers often have very little knowledge about where their raw materials come from, especially in the case of agricultural commodities. Without that information, it's difficult to know where on the map they should look. IOI's Veerburg acknowledges that lack of traceability marks a major problem. Despite a year-long exercise to map its own supply chain, IOI still doesn't know where 25% of its palm oil purchases come from. Improving supply-side transparency is imperative going forward, he argued: "It is something we must do to improve the image of our industry." WRI's new tool may just chivvy such transparency along a bit. As well as top-down data, the service enables individuals on the ground to share their own information. So a local scientist might choose to post a detailed study of a forest's biodiversity, for example. Equally, an activist campaigner has the ability to upload evidence of labour abuses linked to a plantation. Companies with clean supply chains have nothing to fear, said WRI's Sizer: "If you're illegally burning and clearing in protected areas adjacent to your concessions, however, this is designed to draw attention to that and enable everyone to see." | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/supply-chain', 'profile/oliver-balch'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-02-20T14:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2011/jan/12/mark-kennedy-undercover-police | Mark Kennedy row escalates as German politician steps in | The international row over the unmasking of undercover police officer Mark Kennedy intensified today when a German politician accused him of "operating on the border of illegality". Andrej Hunko, of the leftwing Linke party, said Kennedy worked as an agent provocateur among German anti-fascist groups. He suggested that Kennedy, who visited Germany several times, may have been feeding information to the German police. The move comes amid growing concern that Kennedy, unmasked after the trial of environmental protesters collapsed in Nottingham, was a central figure in the European protest movement, forging links with groups in several countries. Hunko said: "Kennedy wanted to infiltrate anti-fascists, and [act] as an agent provocateur to instigate actions together with them. I suspect, then, that it wasn't Scotland Yard that focused his interest on the 'hot spots' of the German anti-fascist scene. I see proof instead of the opposite: that the German police were involved in the operation of this British agent." Earlier this week, Hunko called on the Bundestag to reveal what the authorities knew about Kennedy's infiltration of German protest groups. Today, he said: "The government has denied the opportunity to disclose information relating to my official question of the government. In view of the continually increasing evidence of illegal activities, I demand that the operations of Kennedy within Germany be illuminated." Similar calls have been made in Ireland, where Kennedy spent some time between 2004 and 2006. Hunko said he knew of at least one case in which Kennedy offered his "help" in Germany. He said: "To an activist living in Germany, Kennedy had offered that when there was a 'Nazi problem', that he could come with 'his friends' to take care of it. Kennedy then expected that the activist should give him hints." Hunko also accused Kennedy of starting sexual relationships with activists and helping to organise the German end of the G8 and G20 protests. The Guardian revealed on Monday how Kennedy had lived deep undercover at the heart of the environmental protest movement for seven years, travelling to 22 countries, gleaning information and playing a frontline role in high-profile confrontations. Hunko's researcher, Matthias Monroy, said he had met Kennedy three times in Berlin over the past nine years. He said Kennedy had been active in Dissent!, an international network of local groups that came together to organise opposition to the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Perthshire, in July 2005. Monroy said Kennedy appeared to have been scouting for information right up to his unmasking: "Last year, one or two months before his true identity was discovered, I know that he sent emails to organisers of other protests asking what the plans were for the G20 summit in France in 2011." The claims echo findings from other activists, who say Kennedy travelled through Europe under his adopted identity as a "freelance climber". This week it emerged that he had been a regular visitor to Ireland, Iceland and Spain. | ['environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'world/germany', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'world/g20', 'world/g8', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'uk/mark-kennedy', 'world/europe-news', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'profile/matthewtaylor'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-12T17:22:16Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
fashion/2023/mar/22/compostable-textiles-australia-world-first-standard-for-composting-biodegradable-fabric-material | Bras fit for burying: Australia to set a world-first standard for composting textiles | Australians could be the first people in the world to confidently compost their worn out clothing, thanks to a campaign led by a lingerie entrepreneur. For the last 18 months, Stephanie Devine of the Very Good Bra has worked with sustainability experts, academics and industry to create a proposal for Standards Australia: a technical specification for compostable textiles. On 21 March, after a period of public consultation, the proposal was accepted by Standards Australia’s production management group. Adam Stingemore, from Standards Australia, said: “While there are global standards for compostability, we are not aware of any specifically for compostable textiles, so we believe this to be a world first.” Covering everything from the size of allen keys to the installation of electrical wiring to food safety to country currency codes, standards are the collectively accepted rules, specifications and procedures that ensure things work the way they are supposed to. They can be set at a state, national or international level. Brooke Summers, of Cotton Australia, who supported Devine’s campaign said a textile composting standard “means a lot to us”. “The scalability of it is just phenomenal,” Summers said. Cotton Australia, the peak body representing Australian cotton farmers, was separately working on projects that repurpose cotton clothing in agriculture. Australians send nearly 227,000 tonnes of textiles to landfill every year, but Summers said on a farm: “Two-and-a-half tonnes [of cotton waste] doesn’t go far at all.” Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Devine’s own attempts to make compostable bras and underwear led her to drive the proposal. Her products met the basic parameters for textile compostability: made from 100% natural fibres, including the threads and labels; with certified organic dyes; elastic made from natural tree rubber and easily removable metal clasps. But when Devine tried to take the garments to commercial composters, they refused to accept them. There was no official standard to prove the clothes would compost safely. Without an accepted standard, putting garments into compost could be hazardous, said Oliver Knox, an associate professor in soil systems from the University of New England, who worked on the proposal. “We don’t really want poly-cotton or polyester labels or threads in the compost,” he said. “Even if they do work their way through the system, they’ll end up basically creating contaminants, micro-plastics and the like.” Certain dyes and waterproof or flame-retardant coatings can also release toxins into the soil, he said. Summers said a standard is essential because “if we’re going to do this at scale, we need some guard rails”. Standards Australia will now enter a development phase, to determine the criteria clothing will have to meet so that mulch quality is not affected. Cotton Australia will be involved in this process, Summers said. Devine said the only way a compostable clothes stream will succeed is if brands actively participate. They must design products that can qualify for the standard, then set up take-back schemes to create pathways from customer to composter. Courtney Holm, of fashion brand A.BCH, said many garments can be “pretty easily” designed for compostability. Brands will have to consider more than just using natural fibres, Holm said. “Certain trims and finishes are nearly impossible to swap out, like zippers that affix metals with plastic zipper tapes, that are then stitched into clothing.” But these can be avoided “by changing the closure design i.e. corozo buttons or bio-elastics”. Knox said the standard was “part of the dream” of circularity. When all avenues for recycling and reuse have been exhausted, people can have the confidence to safely compost clothing in their own back yards. “We don’t need any major technology breakthroughs to compost textiles,” Holm said. “We don’t need heaps of investment or infrastructure especially given the rise of [organic waste bins] across city councils.” Cotton Australia is already working on trials that use shredded cotton clothing as a compost. “It’s so encouraging to see our industry starting to invest in this,” Summers said. Holm described composting as a low-barrier to entry pathway into circular design. “While composting is lower priority to say re-using, repair and remanufacture from a waste hierarchy perspective – it is kind of the most important consideration, given … how it affects the planet,” she said. Stingemore said the initiative is part of Standards Australia’s work to advance the circular economy, in Australia and internationally. After the public consultation period, Standards Australia told Devine the project had received the most support they had ever seen. “We look forward to progressing this proposal,” Stingemore said. “And encourage others to submit proposals for innovative standards and documents that benefit Australian consumers, business and society.” | ['fashion/australia-fashion', 'fashion/fashion', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/australian-lifestyle', 'campaign/email/saved-for-later', 'fashion/lingerie', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lucianne-tonti', 'profile/alyx-gorman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-lifestyle'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-03-21T21:47:54Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/apr/22/killer-whales-seen-in-river-clyde | Killer whales seen in river Clyde | A pod of killer whales has been spotted in the river Clyde apparently hunting seals or porpoises. Images and videos have been posted on social media over the weekend of about half a dozen killer whales, or orcas, between Dunoon and Gourock. Lindsay Moss was on a Western Ferries service on Saturday when they made an appearance. Her footage shows three orcas, including what appears to be a youngster, rising to the surface before disappearing again. Orcas are sociable animals that travel in groups of up to 50. Although they are frequently seen near Arran in the Firth of Clyde, they have not been regular visitors to the upper Clyde for many years, experts say. It is thought they were attracted to the area due to its abundance of food – porpoises and seals. In the UK, killer whales are seen most regularly around the Shetland and Orkney islands. | ['environment/whales', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/marine-life', 'science/animalbehaviour', 'uk/uk', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/biology', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-04-22T13:32:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2017/sep/07/big-oil-must-pay-for-climate-change-here-is-how-to-calculate-how-much | Big Oil must pay for climate change. Now we can calculate how much | Myles Allen and Peter C Frumhoff | As communities in coastal Texas and Louisiana confront the damage wrought by Hurricane Harvey, another hurricane, Irma, fueled by abnormally warm waters, is barreling into the Caribbean and threatening Puerto Rico and Florida. We know that the costs of both hurricanes will be enormous and that climate change will have made them far larger than they would have been otherwise. How much larger? Careful studies will take time but the evidence that climate change is warming ocean waters, increasing both sea level and the risk of extreme precipitation in these regions is well established. On 29 October 2012, when Hurricane Sandy slammed into America’s east coast, a storm surge of more than nine feet caused extensive flooding damage throughout the affected region. Researchers have since determined that the damage from that storm surge was greatly worsened by climate change. Sea level along the East Coast has risen by about eight inches since 1900, as oceans have warmed and expanded in response to rising concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, with subsiding land adding insult to injury. According to one study, sea level rise increased Sandy’s flood damages to property in New York City alone by $2bn – more than $230 per New Yorker. Such costs from storm damage attributable to climate change are just one piece of the story. New York City estimates that it will spend an estimated $19.5bn to prepare for climate change impacts through 2030. And researchers say developing countries most vulnerable to rising seas and increasing extreme weather will need between $140bn and $300bn annually by 2030 to help them cope. Who should pay these costs? In the United States, the default assumption is that costs of climate damages and adaptation should be borne by taxpayers, through flood insurance programs, federal disaster relief funds and the like, as well as by affected individuals, families and private businesses. This assumption is now being challenged in the courts. Lawsuits filed in July by three coastal California communities against ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and other large fossil fuel companies argue that the companies, not taxpayers and residents, should bear the cost of damages from rising seas. They draw on extensive evidence that fossil fuel companies, knowing that their products contributed substantially to climate change, engaged for decades in a coordinated campaign to publicly disparage climate science to avoid limits on emissions. These lawsuits build on a vigorous and growing debate in the court of public opinion and among company shareholders about the responsibilities of fossil fuel giants for their contributions to climate change. This is a debate fueled by high-profile evidence of some companies’ deception, the growing and devastating human and economic costs of climate change, and the recognition that even today fossil fuel companies maintain business models that assume the continued global reliance on their products that would drive heat-trapping emissions and temperatures well above the Paris agreement limits that some of the same companies profess to support. Today, we and several colleagues are publishing a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Climatic Change that shows it is possible for scientific evidence to help apportion responsibility for climate damages among fossil fuel producers. Using a simple, well-established climate model, our study for the first time quantifies the amount of sea level rise and increase in global surface temperatures that can be traced to the emissions from specific fossil fuel companies. Strikingly, nearly 30% of the rise in global sea level between 1880 and 2010 resulted from emissions traced to the 90 largest carbon producers. Emissions traced to the 20 companies named in California communities’ lawsuits contributed 10% of global sea level rise over the same period. More than 6% of the rise in global sea level resulted from emissions traced to ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, the three largest contributors. We have the data needed to link the emissions traced to products sold by a fossil fuel company to a specific share of changes in temperature and sea level rise. Determining who should pay what for climate damages is a social and political question. But this kind of scientific work can help inform public and policy debate over the issue and potentially offers an approach that can help juries and judges to monetize damages in cases like the California communities’ lawsuits. Plainly, companies should not be at liberty to persist for decades in selling products as safe to use when they know they are harmful and have alternatives available to them. Upon learning of the risks of their products, companies could have used their considerable technical and financial resources to greatly accelerate carbon storage and clean energy technologies. Many, even within the fossil fuel industry itself, are arguing they can still change course, but it is hard to justify the immediate cost to shareholders when just using the atmosphere as a waste dump and leaving impacted communities, taxpayers and future generations to deal with the consequences appears to be a risk-free alternative. But, as we found in the 2008 financial crisis, allowing companies to make private profits while society at large underwrites the risk ends badly for everyone. It may take tens to hundreds of billions of dollars to support disaster relief and recovery among Gulf coast communities affected by Hurricane Harvey. ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP have collectively pledged only $2.75m. As scientists further identify the role that climate change has made to exacerbating this tragedy, courts of law and public opinion should judge whether they are paying their fair share. Peter C Frumhoff is the Director of Science and Policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Myles R Allen is Professor of Geosystem Science in the School of Geoography and the Environment, University of Oxford | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'business/exxonmobil', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'us-news/hurricane-harvey', 'business/oil', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/peter-c-frumhoff', 'profile/myles-r-allen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | us-news/hurricane-harvey | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-07T14:00:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/1999/aug/23/2 | Hurricane alert in Texas | Coastal residents braced themselves for Hurricane Bret, which whipped the sea with winds of 140mph and was expected to hit somewhere along the Texas coast yesterday. The National Weather Service posted a hurricane warning for a 220-mile (354km) stretch of the Gulf coast from La Pesca in Mexico to an area between Corpus Christi and Houston. The National Hurricane Centre said yesterday that Bret's centre appeared to be heading for two sparsely populated counties, a region of mostly ranch land along the coast between Brownsville and Corpus Christi. Heavy traffic flowed yesterday morning along Interstate 37 as people headed out of the coastal city of Corpus Christi toward the inland city of San Antonio, said Tom Vinger of the Texas department of public safety. City officials had been told the storm could make landfall yesterday night and in preparation the Texas National Guard called 600 troops to active duty yesterday morning. Forecasters had upgraded Bret to the second-strongest designation of class four on Saturday, as coastal residents stocked up on petrol and groceries. Building supply stores were overrun with people seeking plywood, nails, flashlights and generators. Before the storm's track stretched toward the north, residents and tourists had been ordered to get off popular South Padre Island near Brownsville by 8am local time yesterday, and most had already fled for the mainland Saturday night. The island was pounded by heavy rain yesterday morning and experiencing 30-40mph squalls, according to Ed Cyganiewicz. the mayor of South Padre. | ['world/world', 'us-news/texas', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 1999-08-23T01:48:06Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2014/dec/02/yeb-sano-vocal-critic-west-dropped-lima-climate-talks | Yeb Saño, vocal critic of west, dropped from Lima climate talks | Yeb Saño, one of the most vocal critics of rich countries in international global warming negotiations, has not arrived at the latest UN climate conference in Lima and is believed to have been dropped by the Filipino government as its chief negotiator. The move coincides with the Philippines apparently leaving the ‘like minded developing countries’ (LMDC) group, a powerful bloc of nations regarded by the US and Europe as the main obstacle to a new global agreement. Saño, who has headed the Filipino diplomatic delegation to the talks for three years and is director of the government’s climate change commission, became one of the few iconic figures in the 2012 talks after an emotional speech when he broke down in tears and called on rich countries to act urgently for the climate. At the UN climate summit in Warsaw last year, Saño and 300 other delegates fasted for the duration of the talks when his father’s home city of Tacloban was flattened by Typhoon Yolanda, one of the world’s strongest recorded cyclones. Last month Sano walked 1,000km from the centre of the Filipino capital Manila to Tacloban. As another powerful typhoon developed in the Pacific ocean and headed towards the Philippines this week, neither Saño nor the Filipino government responded to calls. However, a video of Saño was published online on Monday, where he did not explain his absence at the Lima talks but said he would be fasting during the conference because he cared “about the future of this world” and to avert a “climate crisis”. NGOs said his absence was likely to be linked to his growing reputation and to rich countries’ hardening attitude to political opposition ahead of crucial meetings. “[Saño’s absence] has certainly left many wondering if this could be due to pressure being brought to bear on small countries like the Philippines by those whose interests such powerful voices threaten,” said Friends of the Earth UK’s Asad Rehman. Christian Aid’s senior climate change adviser, Mohamed Adow, said: “It is strange that he is not here to join us in Lima. Yeb’s absence is very curious given the significant leadership role he has played at these talks, fighting for the rights of people suffering from climate change. People are scratching their heads as to why Yeb is not on the delegation anymore. He is a ray of light in an often dark process and I hope he has not been excluded from the delegation because some people don’t like the important truth he tells.” Voltaire Alferez, co-ordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas (AKP), a network of more than 40 Filipino organisations working on climate change, said the government should explain why he was not in Lima. “We are at a loss as to why Saño is not present here in Lima. His absence is greatly felt, especially by civil society members who he inspired in Warsaw. They must focus on the negotiations instead of bickering among themselves.” There is a long history of industrialised countries exerting strong pressure on poorer countries in advance of major climate negotiations. Veteran negotiator Bernarditas Muller was “neutralised” ahead of the Copenhagen meeting in 2009 after she was identified as a leading opponent of the US position and dropped by the Filipino government. Muller had gained a reputation as a “dragon woman” who would not yield to intense diplomatic pressure in negotiations. She now represents the Philippines on the Green Climate Fund, a key institution which developed countries have recently pledged $10bn (£6.4bn) to, and which is intended to raise $100bn a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change and to mitigate emissions. The Philippines, a former US colony and important development, trade and security partner to the US, has “a special relationship” with Washington. It receives over $6bn a year in US foreign investment. The LMDC group represents more than 50% of the world’s population and includes China, Venezuela, India and Indonesia. They traditionally negotiate as a group until the last few hours of the talks. The Lima meeting, which has entered its second day, is the last summit before countries expect to sign a binding climate deal next year in Paris. Politicians from over 190 countries will arrive next week to take over negotiations. | ['environment/cop-20-un-climate-change-conference-lima', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/philippines', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-12-02T13:43:28Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
travel/2013/aug/20/chicago-memphis-nashville-expert-q-and-a | Chicago, Memphis and Nashville: travel experts' Q&A | The home of blues, country, soul and Elvis Presley: music lovers will be in their element when travelling in and around Chicago, Nashville and Memphis. You won't go hungry either – with those famous deep-dish pizzas in the Windy City, old-school diners serving comfort food fit for the King, and plenty of southern cooking. Whether you are planning a short city break or an extensive road trip with friends, family or your partner, our panel of local experts are here to help. Based across Illinois and Tennessee, they have amassed a lifetime of tips. You can pick their brains on where to stay, where to eat, where to visit for day trips and how to get to all those places you know from song lyrics. Leave your questions in the comment section below and come back to join us on Wednesday 21 August, between 4pm and 5pm BST (10am CT in the US), when they'll be spilling their insider knowledge. Post a question below, or tweet us your questions at @guardiantravel Meet the experts Karla Zimmerman lives in Chicago and writes about her home base for Lonely Planet, the BBC and many others. She has created the Chicago Free & Frugal app and blogs at mykindoftownandaround.blogspot.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karlazimmerman. Margaret Littman is a Nashville-based writer and editor (littmanwrites.com). She is the author of the Nashville Essential Guide (an iPhone and Android app) and many travel guidebooks, including Moon Tennessee and the upcoming Moon Nashville. Christine des Garennes is an Ilinois-based news reporter and travel writer. She is the author of the Moon guide to Illinois and also runs Midwest by Minivan, a family travel site. Jaime Black is based in Chicago and has been working within its music scene for 15 years, racking up a wealth of know-how on where to catch the best gigs. He is the founder and host of the city's longest-running music-focused podcast, Dynasty Podcasts. Tammy Mercure (tammymercure.com) is a photographer living in Nashville, TN, who has travelled widely in the region. She's particularly clued up on the arts and unusual local events. Questions from readers via Twitter (@Guardiantravel): And we seem to be going multilingual with this Q&A. This reader – and big Elvis fan – in Spain would like to know what the climate will be like in September. Perhaps our experts will also be able to offer some advice on what to pack? We're not sure that our experts will be able to help with the following one, but you never know, they are good. | ['travel/series/road-trips-usa-chicago-to-memphis', 'travel/nashville', 'travel/chicago', 'travel/memphis', 'travel/usa', 'type/article'] | travel/nashville | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2013-08-20T15:16:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
travel/2016/apr/24/chernobyl-ukraine-the-nuclear-option-holiday | Chernobyl, Ukraine: the nuclear option holiday | Standing 100 yards from the husk of Chernobyl’s Reactor Number 4, the click-click-click of the Geiger counter becomes alarmingly insistent. One step closer and it is beeping and flashing. Our guide gives a reassuring smile. “It’s fine,” she says. But she knows we know she would say that. Soon, we are back on the bus and driving away from the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Power Station, better known as Chernobyl. When I first visited, two years after the world’s worst nuclear accident, it took weeks of negotiating with the Soviet authorities to gain access to the plant. Today, busloads of visitors arrive on an almost daily basis. For less than £100, the adventurous can take a one-day tour of the so-called “dead zone”, the contaminated 10km circle drawn around Chernobyl after the accident in the early hours of 26 April 1986. Aside from the frisson of standing yards from the shattered reactor, tours include a visit to an abandoned kindergarten, and the once top-secret Woodpecker “over-the-horizon” Soviet listening station. You can even traipse through the rural shack of a “self-settler”, one of the handful of elderly people living illegally in the dead zone, most of them without electricity or running water. The most bizarre, however, has to be a visit to Pripyat, the ghost city that was home to Chernobyl workers until it was hastily evacuated 36 hours after the accident. In 1988, the city’s public address system was still broadcasting music that drifted eerily through the abandoned streets. Today, those same streets have been reclaimed by the trees that once lined them and there is total silence. Not even the birds sing. Thirty years on, I recall the eek moment when scientists at the nearby research station – now also closed – presented me with a bunch of unnaturally large “Chernobyl roses”. “Get rid of them,” hissed the translator as we walked away. Perhaps I should have worried, too; the same scientists had shown us a bizarre collection of pine saplings grown from the seeds of what became known as the “Red Forest” around Chernobyl after radioactive dust made the trees glow – and they had weird deviations, double centres, needles growing backwards… Holidaymakers rubber-necking the scenes of catastrophes used to be called “disaster tourists”. Today, those helping travellers to beat a path to Chernobyl, Fukushima or Auschwitz prefer to talk of adventure tourism. The Ukrainian authorities refer euphemistically to “education” rather than “tourism”, mindful of accusations they are profiting from tragedy. Although it seems adventurous, the itinerary must be agreed with Chernobyl officials in advance and rigidly stuck to. The zone is punctuated with radiation hotspots and only the reckless wander off the verified and agreed track. Dylan Harris, owner of the British-based Lupine Travel, whose catalogue includes Chernobyl, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Somaliland and Turkmenistan, says he can understand why some might view such trips as “morbid and voyeuristic”. But, he explains, “I genuinely don’t think it’s the reason why most people want to visit these places. I believe it gives a much deeper understanding of what happened there. Everyone has heard about the Holocaust, but nothing can prepare you for the feelings that engulf you on a visit to Auschwitz. “The Chernobyl disaster was a big part of my growing up in the 80s,” he continues. “It was covered extensively in the news. Eastern Europe always felt like another world that could never be visited and therefore always intrigued me.” Timing, says Harris, is important. “A couple of months after the Fukushima disaster, I was contacted by somebody in Japan who offered to set up tours for me around the area. I rejected the idea immediately. It was much too soon to gain any kind of benefit or rewarding educational experience from it. It didn’t sit right with me – it felt totally dark and voyeuristic. Hundreds of people had been killed, lives had been destroyed, homes washed away. It was still completely raw.” Dominik Orfanus of Chernobylwel.com has been running tours to Chernobyl for eight years. Most tourists, he says, are European and male. He says his company gives part of its profits to organisations helping Chernobyl children, and recently bought a cultivator for a group of self-settlers whose old horse had died. “Chernobyl is my passion. I love the place. When we take people around, they can understand what happened, they see how people’s lives changed from one day to the next. We have people tell us the visit changed their values because they realised how fragile life is. There is a big human and emotional side to visiting Chernobyl. It wouldn’t work if we didn’t give something back.” Leaving the zone, there is a moment of high drama as we pass through radiation detectors that appear to be the same ones I saw back in 1988. No alarms sound. The guide says we have probably absorbed less radiation than on a transatlantic flight. “So we won’t glow in the dark?” someone asks. Everyone laughs. Essentials Ukraine International Airlines flies (flyuia.com) from Gatwick to Kiev, from £112 return. BA (ba.com) flies direct to Kiev from Heathrow, from £56 each way. Lupinetravel.co.uk and chernobylwel.com arrange tours to Chernobyl, Pripyat and other areas within the exclusion zone. Prices start from £100 for a day trip, Geiger counter included. British passport holders don’t need a visa for tourist visits. | ['travel/ukraine', 'travel/europe', 'travel/travel', 'environment/chernobyl-nuclear-disaster', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/kim-willsher', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/life-and-style', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-magazine'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-04-24T06:00:09Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/jul/05/put-montreal-cop15-biodiversity-summit-before-qatar-football-world-cup-mrema | Put the planet before football, UN head of Cop15 nature summit tells leaders | World leaders must not let the World Cup in Qatar distract them from a simultaneous nature summit, or they face being embarrassed by the outcome, the UN’s biodiversity chief has warned. This December, delegates will travel to Montreal, Canada, for the UN biodiversity conference, known as Cop15, to negotiate a new set of global goals for nature over the next decade after two years of delays, with the final agreement due to be reached on the eve of the World Cup final on 18 December. Presidents and prime ministers routinely attend the World Cup, but Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, has urged world leaders to remain focused on the nature negotiations, which environmental organisations have warned are in crisis due to the lack of engagement by governments. Cop15 will start just two weeks after the end of the climate-focused Cop27 in Egypt, where countries are expected to announce stronger commitments to limit global heating to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels. The talks in Sharm el-Sheikh are likely to have a significant impact on the tone of the biodiversity summit. “All leaders will have to think twice [about the clash between Cop15 and the World Cup]. You can go to the World Cup but what does it mean if there’s no life beyond that when you come back?” said Mrema. “If they go to Qatar, then they should leave behind appropriate instructions,” she added. “Otherwise they will be embarrassed.” Both climate and biodiversity negotiations have seen significant divisions between the global north and south. During two weeks of talks in Nairobi last month, countries struggled to make progress on the final text, and there was particular disagreement over money to fund the draft targets, implementation of the agreement and “biopiracy”. Speaking to the Guardian from the UN ocean conference in Lisbon, Mrema acknowledged that progress had been slow and said input from governments in the negotiations, which are largely technical at this stage, was required to break the deadlock on big issues. “We really need a political push. Leaders are talking of a transformative, ambitious agreement. If negotiations continue this way, we will probably end up with a framework but it probably won’t be ambitious, innovative or what is expected to really change the loss of biodiversity,” she said. At the G7 last week, the Canadian government said both Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron had discussed Cop15 in meetings with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Despite being hosted in Montreal, the summit will remain under the presidency of China, having been moved from Kunming after the country’s zero-Covid policy made hosting it there impossible. Mrema said the governments would work together to deliver a Chinese Cop15 on Canadian soil. “Canada will lead in terms of ensuring we find a suitable conference venue and have all the facilities in place. But China will continue to lead the substance of the negotiations under their presidency,” she said. Cop15 begins in Montreal on 5 December, with another round of negotiations scheduled before then in an attempt to break the deadlock on major issues in the agreement. The once-a decade nature agreement is scheduled for completion on the final day, 17 December, with attendance from ministers expected in the days leading up to this. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/series/the-road-to-kunming', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'football/world-cup-2022', 'football/football', 'football/world-cup-football', 'sport/sport', 'world/canada', 'world/qatar', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/cop15', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-07-05T05:15:15Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2018/mar/20/patience-wears-thin-for-tathra-residents-as-they-wait-to-return-to-bushfire-ravaged-town | Patience wears thin for Tathra residents as they wait to return to bushfire-ravaged town | Evacuated residents from the New South Wales beach town of Tathra have spoken of the chaos and confusion caused by a lack of official warnings and substandard communications infrastructure, as authorities prepare to allow a staggered return to the bushfire-ravaged seaside village. The Bega showgrounds, about 20 minutes inland from Tathra, continued to act as the nerve centre for hundreds of people displaced by Sunday’s fire. Those gathered in the packed-out hall were still hanging out for scraps of information from the regular briefings from the Rural Fire Service. On Tuesday, authorities apologised for the conflicting advice and misinformation being given to residents by the various organisations involved in the recovery operation. Locals remained stoic and relatively upbeat when Guardian Australia visited the centre on Tuesday. Most were anxious to get back to their homes, and patience was visibly fraying for some. The failure of warning systems and communications infrastructure remained the chief concern of those gathered in Bega. Questions remained about the suitability of phone-based warning systems for areas such as Tathra, where reception is notoriously bad. When the power went out at lunchtime on Sunday, about three hours before the fire front hit, it left little avenue for warnings to be communicated. The dearth of information left many confused and oblivious to the intensity of what was approaching. Tathra resident Neroli Dickson was first alerted to trouble by her teenage son, who came home to tell her there was heavy smoke outside. “And I actually said ‘No if there was an emergency people would be communicating with us. You need to stay calm’,” she said. “And he said come out on the street. I went out and, I hate to admit it, but my 15-year-old might be across it.” Two more residents, Ian Alker and Gary Newton, said they got next to no official warning of the approaching fire. Both received texts from the emergency warning system, but they came only at 3.48pm, well after the fire began to hit Tathra. “There was no reception, my wife was going ‘Where are you? Where are you?’,” Alker said. “She was down at the evacuation point. We couldn’t communicate.” Many residents gathered at the surf club, the most obvious assembly point in the town. But they said there was no one there from the Rural Fire Service to give them further directions. They had no idea if the two roads out of the town were safe. “We just needed a tower so we could communicate,” Dickson said. “That’s all they could have done better I reckon, and that’s an infrastructure issue.” Busloads of residents were taken on grim tours back through the town on Tuesday, although they were not able to get out and into their homes. Authorities were working frantically to facilitate a staged return of residents to parts of Tathra. The town had been divided into zones, and residents were scheduled to be returned once each was deemed safe by the council and emergency services. Residents could be returned as early as Tuesday evening, although officials were reluctant to give any guarantee on the timing, saying the environment was still fluid. Crews were hoping to have the fire, which spread across more than 1,200 hectares, contained by Tuesday afternoon. About 500 people affected by the disaster signed up to Red Cross’s Register.Find.Reunite service on Monday. There were earlier concerns about airborne asbestos, and some properties remained cordoned off while testing was conducted. Authorities were handing out asbestos information sheets to residents at the evacuation centre. Residents were less critical of a perceived lack of hazard reduction work in the lead-up to the fire. News Corp quoted residents critical of the lack of hazard reduction burning in recent years, particularly in national parks around Tathra. But Michael Hergenhan, a Tathra resident, said there had been large-scale burn-offs in recent years. “I remember a big one maybe two years ago, because it smouldered for about four-five days,” he said. Several other residents spoke of seeing recent hazard reduction work around Tathra. Fewer still were concerned about reports the Rural Fire Service had twice rejected the offer of an urban firefighting pumper to help battle a fire in rugged terrain near Tathra. The RFS issued a statement saying the vehicle would not have been able to access the relevant area. “The local NSW RFS duty officer who received the offer of assistance, based on the information they had on the location and terrain, identified that the vehicle would not be able to gain access to the area,” a spokesman said. “As an urban structure firefighting vehicle, the pumper is not suitable for firefighting areas off established roads, and does not have the correct safety equipment to be working in a remote bushland area.” | ['australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/wildfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-03-20T05:59:33Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2010/sep/23/british-firms-worlds-biggest-windfarm | British firms miss out as world's biggest offshore windfarm opens off UK coast | The world's biggest offshore windfarm opened officially today off the UK coast but the company behind the project said that less than 20% of the £900m investment in the project has gone to British firms. The low figure will concern ministers who have portrayed green technology as a growth sector that will help drive a recovery in the UK economy. In his speech to the Liberal Democrat conference on Tuesday, the energy and climate change minister, Chris Huhne, promised a "third industrial revolution" led by green energy. At the official opening ceremony on the P&O ferry the Pride of Burgundy Huhne said he wanted to get Britain out of the "dunce corner" on renewable energy. He also criticised the "frankly atrocious record" on renewables that the coalition government had inherited. The UK is 25th out of 27 in the EU league table on renewable energy. Just 3% of power comes from renewable sources like wind and solar, against a target of 15% by 2020. The biggest single contract for the Thanet farm off the coast of Kent has gone to Vestas of Denmark, the turbine manufacturer that closed its only UK blade-making facility on the Isle of Wight last year. The 20% figure is better than the 10% reported by E.ON and its partners on the London Array scheme – another offshore windfarm – which will open in 2011, but is still an embarrassment to government. "Where we can we have sought to use UK businesses in building the Thanet offshore windfarm and we estimate that nearly 20% of our capital expenditure has been given to businesses in the isle of Thanet and the rest of the UK," said a spokesman for Vattenfall, the company behind the Thanet project. UK firms known to be involved include McNulty on Tyneside which did some engineering work; SubOcean of Aberdeen which laid the subsea power cables; and Noble Denton which did project management on Thanet. And yet the profits available to suppliers to the booming offshore wind sector have more than doubled in recent years with industry estimates saying it cost £1.25m per megawatt (MW) in 2004 now up to £3m per MW today. The higher costs reflect shortages in the supply chain which enable contractors to ramp up prices. The Thanet project's costs had been expected to run to £750m but have escalated, while the even bigger London Array (630MW) is currently expected to cost over £2bn. The lack of British content in the new offshore windfarms is an awkward reality check for successive governments, which have always talked about the number of "green" jobs that will result from renewable investment. But industrialists said this situation would continue until the UK attracted a major turbine-making facility because the blades account for the bulk of the total project cost. Vestas bought a plant on on the Isle of Wight expecting to benefit from onshore wind projects but ended up exporting much of what it produced to America before closing it down and concentrating on research and development. Other big turbine makers such as Siemens and GE are looking at establishing plants in Britain but are reluctant to finally commit themselves until they are sure the deeper offshore projects from the Round Three windfarm licensing will definitely go ahead. They are worried that Huhne's promises will not be delivered at a time of public spending cuts. Still, Thanet is an important milestone for the wind sector in Britain because it marks the point that 5MW of this kind of renewable power has now been installed and is generating carbon-free electricity. The National Grid reported recently that Britain received 10% of its electricity from wind over one 24 hour period. The Thanet farm, will be able to produce 300MW of electricity from 100 turbines - enough to power over 20,000 homes. It will be the biggest offshore facility of its kind until the even larger London Array, which has an eventual goal of 340 turbines, is completed. Thanet will dwarf the nearby Kentish Flats facility off Whitstable, also run by Vattenfall and using similar Vestas turbines. RenewableUK, the wind industry trade body, argues that on average, due to better wind conditions, a wind turbine in the UK generates 50% more electricity than the same wind turbine in Germany. However, Germany already has a total of 21,315 wind turbines installed compared to little over 3,000 in the UK. "Investing in renewable energy will boost our economy by creating new green industries and jobs – the government must ensure adequate funding and make the UK a world leader in tackling climate change." | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/vestas', 'environment/green-jobs', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2010-09-23T10:39:55Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2008/oct/16/japan-food | Dolphin meat bad for the health, say Japanese scientists | Japanese diners who enjoy tucking into dolphin meat are putting their health at risk, as well as courting international condemnation. A new study by two Japanese universities found that residents of Taiji, a whaling town on the Pacific coast, who frequently ate the meat of pilot whale - a member of the dolphin family - have mercury levels 10 times the national average. The hair of three tested residents contained quantities of mercury higher than 50 parts per million [ppm], a level that can lead to neurological problems. Researchers from the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido and Daiichi University's College of Pharmaceutical Studies tested hair samples from 30 men and 20 women from the town between last December and July this year. The average mercury level among the men was 21.6 ppm and 11.9 ppm among women - both about 10 times the national average. Three men with dangerously high levels of mercury said they ate pilot whale meat more than once a month. Tetsuya Endo, a member of the research team, said the residents faced no immediate threats to their health but suggested they cut back on their dolphin and whale meat consumption, according to the Kyodo news agency. Mercury levels halved among people who stopped eating the meat for two months. Last year a study of dolphin meat served in school lunches in the Taiji area revealed mercury levels 10 to 16 times higher than the health ministry's accepted level of 0.4 ppm. The latest warnings come as the town, about 280 miles west of Tokyo, begins its annual dolphin cull. Local fishermen are expected to slaughter around 2,000 of the estimated 20,000 dolphins that will be killed in Japanese coastal waters between now and April. The hunters bang on metal poles to drive pods of dolphins into secluded coves, where they are speared and hacked to death. The few that survive are sold to aquariums in Japan, Europe and the US. Despite international condemnation of the culls, the people of Taiji, where coastal whaling is said to stretch back 400 years, claim the local economy would collapse if coastal whaling and dolphin hunting were banned. | ['world/japan', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'environment/food', 'environment/whaling', 'environment/whales', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-10-16T12:35:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2008/dec/05/nuclear-power-sexy-edf-reactor | Nuclear industry claims it is now 'sexy' but admits to rising costs | Widespread doubts about the ability of nuclear power companies to bring a new generation of reactors on stream at the right time and on budget were raised yesterday within an industry that the UK government is relying on to meet its climate change and energy security goals. EDF, the French power company that has positioned itself as a leading player in the market, admitted that its new European Pressurised Reactor programme at Flamanville in France was already 20% over budget, while delays continue to plague a Finnish facility, the only other new plant under construction in Europe. Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK, which also wants to build two nuclear facilities in Britain, said the 2017 target for a first new UK reactor was "extremely ambitious" and urged ministers to proceed with a new generation of coal plants, such as the controversial Kingsnorth scheme, to fill the growing energy gap. He was talking at a London conference organised by the Nuclear Industries Association, which was told by another top industry figure that although the sector might have a range of problems to overcome, it had recently achieved an extraordinary transformation and was now perceived externally as "sexy". Lady Barbara Judge, chairwoman of the Atomic Energy Authority, highlighted skills shortages and waste disposal as difficulties but felt they could be overcome. "Atomic was a dirty word but now it's certainly a sexy one," she said. But she did warn that the safety of existing plants remained paramount and, while the difficulties for the industry caused by the Chernobyl disaster and Three Mile Island accident had been overcome, they could return. "Everyone knows just one accident [need occur] and the industry will be shut down for 20 years," she said. Golby raised concerns about the shortage of experts at the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, which governs health and safety, and questioned whether 2017 was a realistic date for a new station. A colleague had suggested that atomic power would be available to cook the Christmas dinner that year but he said: "I have a fear it will be humble pie we will be eating rather than turkey." Meanwhile, at an investors' day in Paris, EDF said the reactor being built in Flamanville would cost €4bn (£3.5bn) at 2008 prices instead of €3.3bn, blaming "higher raw material costs and the impact of technical and regulatory evolutions". The new total cost of the electricity generated is €54 a megawatt hour, instead of the €46 announced in 2006. Luc Oursel, president of Areva NP, said despite Flamanville's problems and rising costs and delays at the Olkiluoto site in Finland, nuclear still made commercial sense. He said the lessons learned would help build plants in Britain on schedule. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2008-12-05T00:01:00Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2023/oct/01/observer-view-sycamore-gap-tree-reminder-natures-precarity | The Observer view on the felling of Britain’s famous Sycamore Gap tree | Observer editorial | The sycamore is a tall tree of hedgerows, parklands and woodlands. It came to these islands from Europe, in the 15th or 16th century, and has become naturalised since, as familiar to most of us as the oak and the horse chestnut. Its winged seeds – children think of them as helicopters, but those of a botanical bent know to call them samaras – combined with its determined adaptability, enable it to colonise all kinds of habitats, however harsh or inhospitable. It is a stoical sort of tree: strong, forbearing, reliable. In maturity, the great dome of its branches are cathedral-like, seen from below. Here is beauty, shelter and peace. To adapt Martin Luther King, if it was made from silver or gold, it could not be any more valuable. But the Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian’s Wall was indomitable even by the species’ standards. When the seed from which it grew germinated 300 years ago, George I was still on the throne, Bach was yet to compose the Goldberg Variations, and Sir Christopher Wren’s last great building, the Greenwich Naval Hospital, now the Old Royal Naval College, was barely a decade old. The tree grew on alone and obliviously, the weather no match for it. When nearby members of its family were cut down, perhaps to make hunting easier, it somehow escaped the axe. Its position, hard by the ancient Roman wall in the dip caused by a melting glacier, was striking. It was cradled there: a symbol of pride and resistance to some, a welcome waymark to others. It had been in a movie (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves); it had won awards (Tree of the Year). As the former Conservative MP Rory Stewart said last week, it was the closest thing we had to a sacred tree: venerated, visited, endlessly represented in photographs, paintings and poems. No wonder, then, that after its loss – early on Thursday morning, in an act of meaningless vandalism, it was felled – was experienced by many with grief. In the place where it stood there is a an emptiness that is both literal and metaphorical. It’s not only that in an uncertain world, some element of permanence is gone. Beyond the shock lies guilt. As the writer Robert Macfarlane has suggested, its fall is symbolic of a wider malaise. We care too little for the living world in Britain, a land already dramatically less forested than most in Europe. Nature is under attack. One in six species in the UK is heading for possible extinction. Macfarlane quoted WH Auden: “A culture is no better than its woods.” From the construction of sections of HS2 to the tree-felling councils of, among other cities, Plymouth and Sheffield, it’s clear that we don’t give a damn for our woods. For every tree lover, there is a tree hater. Give him half a chance, and he’ll soon come by, swinging his chainsaw. Some cling to the hope it may be possible to coppice the Sycamore Gap tree, new shoots growing from the base of its trunk. Others talk of replacements – sculpture or saplings. What seems certain is that we must find a way to keep our great trees from harm; in the age of artificial grass and short-termism, local authority protection orders are painfully insufficient. And in the meantime, perhaps that uncommon spot on the borderland between England and Scotland can, in its desolation, come to stand for something. Leave it naked, and its vacancy is both memorial and rallying cry. We should plant a forest in its place, every species from alder to yew, in every town and city, from Aberdeen to Yarmouth. Let the youthful delicacy of these trees, spindly as teenagers, remind us of what we’ve lost, and of the growing precarity of the countryside and the planet alike. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at [email protected] | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/editorials', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'profile/observer-editorials', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-10-01T05:03:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/dec/10/ministers-must-reassure-consumers-feeding-cattle-bovaer-is-safe-says-lady-sheehan | Ministers must reassure consumers feeding cattle Bovaer is safe, says Lady Sheehan | The government must urgently reassure consumers that feed additives given to cattle to reduce methane emissions are harmless, and a vital tool in tackling the climate crisis, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee has warned. Lady Sheehan, chair of the environment and climate change committee of the House of Lords, called on ministers to step up as a row has blown up over the prospective use of the additive Bovaer in British dairy herds supplying Arla, the dairy company. “The government has the evidence it can use” of the product’s safety, she said. “I can see why the government wouldn’t want to throw its weight behind recommending one of the feed additive options out there because there are others, but the government can point to the evidence to date that the FSA has licensed it and has reassured [consumers] that it is safe.” Bovaer is one of a range of additives that are given to cattle to aid digestion and reduce their flatulence, which is a major cause of methane emissions. Cutting methane, a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide, would give the world breathing space in the fight to control temperature rises, many scientists have said. Sheehan told the Guardian it was a pity the row had blown up, as feed additives could play a significant role in tackling methane. “It’s very clear that we have to look at all the options [for cutting methane] and feed additives is one that has been in use now for a good many years,” she said. “The Food Standards Agency in its authorisation process has said that [Bovaer] is safe for human consumption and animals. And it’s very effective in reducing methane emissions.” She said seaweed, willow and maize added to cattle diets were also showing promise in reducing methane, and should be further explored. Arla announced last month it would start trials of Bovaer in the UK, but an online backlash ensued with some people claiming they would boycott the dairy. Arla and the manufacturer of Bovaer, DSM-Firmenich, have been forced to make public statements that the additive – which has been developed over 15 years and was certified by the UK’s food safety watchdog over a year ago – is safe. Sheehan put the row down to “misinformation and disinformation” spread on social media. She added: “The government needs to continue with the trials that it’s doing to stay on top of this, to make sure what the long term effects are.” The Lords environment and climate change committee published a report on Tuesday urging the government to tackle methane as a priority. Close to half of the UK’s methane emissions are from agriculture, and of those nearly 85% come directly from livestock – chiefly cattle – and about 15% from slurry. The committee found feed additives could play an important role, as could selective breeding of cattle. However, the Lords declined to give clear advice on people’s diets, though scientists have said eating less meat is necessary to avoid excess methane emissions. Animal Rising, a campaign group, has attacked Bovaer as a “false solution” as it could encourage people to think they can continue eating meat. Sheehan said: “Personally, I have cut down on red meat consumption … [but] this report isn’t about asking people to eat less meat. This is a holistic view of the different options that are open to farmers to help in the fight to tackle methane emissions.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'environment/food', 'world/food-safety', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-12-10T05:00:34Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2008/nov/16/california-wildfires | Thousands ordered to flee homes as wildfires sweep into Los Angeles | Wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes in southern California yesterday, closing major roads and forcing thousands of residents to escape to safety. The flames swept across a trailer park in Los Angeles, scorching trees and beating back firefighters. 'We have almost total devastation in the mobile park,' said Los Angeles Fire Steve Ruda. 'I can't even read the street names because the signs are melting.' Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles, a day after 111 homes were burnt to the ground in the wealthy community of Montecito north-west of the city. Celebrities such as Michael Douglas and Oprah Winfrey own houses there. The Los Angeles blaze threatened at least 1,000 properties, according to officials. They estimated some 10,000 people were under orders to evacuate. One resident was said to be in a serious condition and four firefighters were treated for minor injuries. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said dry winds from the desert had fanned the fires in the district of Sylmar that had destroyed more homes than any other in the past decade. He urged residents in the area to leave quickly if they were in harm's way. 'This fire can be on you at a moment's notice,' he said. The fires raged on both sides of Interstate 5, the main freeway connecting Los Angeles with the north, and the path of transmission lines bringing power to the city. Two of the five main lines had to be taken down because of damage to a converting station, and a third power line was directly damaged by heat, causing 115,000 customers to be without power for 45 minutes. California's fire season, which traditionally starts in June, has been lengthening and getting worse, according to officials. Los Angeles, which is home to nearly 10 million people, has been largely spared damage this year. In October last year 30 blazes raged across southern California, forcing the evacuation of more than 500,000 people and damaging some 2,000 homes. | ['us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/los-angeles', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiedoward', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2008-11-16T00:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/jun/23/labour-to-deter-investment-in-fossil-fuels-to-address-climate-crisis | Private sector must be forced to invest in ‘green revolution’, says Labour | Labour will back measures deterring investment in fossil fuels as part of a new drive to stop the financial sector from funding global heating, John McDonnell will reveal this week. In the latest attempt by Labour to display its green credentials, the shadow chancellor will use a speech in the City on Monday to commit to using the “full might of the Treasury” to tackle the issue. He will commit the party to forcing the private sector into investing in the “green industrial revolution”. He will announce a review of the financial sector’s role in the climate crisis, looking at “where and how it is causing or exacerbating problems”. It will examine measures preventing financial institutions from “actively contributing to planetary heating or exposing our economy to financial instability”. McDonnell, who has invited Extinction Rebellion, the environmental activist group, to brief his team, will promise to “marshal the resources and levers of power available to the Treasury to fund and drive the climate change emergency programme” under a Labour government. It is the latest sign that Labour is responding to the threat from the Greens, who earned more than two million votes at last month’s European elections, just 300,000 votes behind Jeremy Corbyn’s party. They more than doubled their tally of MEPs in the process. However, while Labour has upped its rhetoric on green issues, there are still few details of what the party would actually propose to do should it win the next election. Labour has committed to the target of reducing carbon emissions to net zero by at least 2050, with McDonnell saying that the party is seeking to bring the target forward. The government has committed to reaching a net-zero target by 2050. It comes ahead of a rally in London on Wednesday 26 June when more than 15,000 people are expected in Westminster to lobby for urgent action on the climate. The event, called the Time is Now, is set to be the largest ever environmental lobby of parliament – and will include schoolchildren, grandparents, nuns, farmers, doctors and surfers. McDonnell will use Monday’s speech to suggest he will implement measures pushing the public and private sectors into investing in technology needed to deal with the climate crisis. “Every one of Labour’s shadow ministerial teams has been charged with producing a programme of action defining their department’s contribution to tackling climate change,” he will say. “With the real prospect of an autumn election, we want to be fully prepared to roll out this climate change emergency programme as soon as we take over the controls of government. “State and private sector resources will be required to invest in the infrastructure of the green industrial revolution envisaged by Labour. This includes the large-scale development of alternative energy sources and a carbon neutral transport system. “Regulation as well as incentives will also be required to divert investment away from fossil fuels and into environmentally sustainable activities.” It is the first in a series of speeches by the shadow chancellor, who has been attempting to set out more of Labour’s economic policy in case a snap election is called later this year. The party is desperate to ensure that its fudged position on Brexit does not doom its chances of securing office. As part of the push, McDonnell will announce an inquiry into the so-called shadow banking system, where borrowing and lending takes place beyond the oversight of regulators. “Much large-scale investment is undertaken in the largely unregulated and opaque shadow banking system,” he will say. “I am launching an independent inquiry into the role and activities of shadow banking in our economy to examine what state intervention may be required to increase the transparency and accountability of this sector to ensure it plays its full role in addressing the climate change emergency that we face.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/labour', 'environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'politics/john-mcdonnell', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/michael-savage', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-06-23T07:59:40Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2022/mar/04/russian-attack-on-ukraine-nuclear-plant-shows-recklessness-and-dangers-of-putins-war-australia-says | Russian attack on Ukraine nuclear plant shows ‘recklessness and dangers of Putin’s war’, Australia says | Australia’s foreign minister has condemned the shelling of a large nuclear power plant in Ukraine, saying it shows “the recklessness and dangers” of Vladimir Putin’s war. The Ukrainian government reported earlier on Friday that the Russian army was “firing from all sides” upon the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest of its kind in Europe – and a fire had broken out. The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, said: “The world condemns that behaviour and Australia strongly so.” Authorities at the plant have since said the facility is secured and “nuclear safety is now guaranteed” but the incident attracted the concern of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said the fire had not affected “essential” equipment. Payne told the ABC: “That just seems to me to absolutely reinforce the complete breach of any aspect of international law, and all aspects of international law, that apply here, of the UN charter, and to reinforce the unlawful behaviour that President Putin is engaged in.” The minister also argued Australian sanctions were starting to have an effect, with $45m belonging to a designated Russian entity currently being “frozen in an Australian financial institution”, although she did not go into details. Payne said the coordination of sanctions among Australia, Europe, the UK, the US, Japan and South Korea was “a very important indicator of that strength of unity globally in opposition to Russia’s appalling actions”. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said he did not believe Putin would be “dissuaded from his murderous acts” in Ukraine, but that should not stop the rest of the world from “tightening the vice” on the Russian leader. Morrison raised “deep concerns” about the close alignment between China and Russia. He told radio station 6PR it was important to send a “very clear message to anyone else, any other autocratic regime, and we know about a few of those in our own region … [to] not take the wrong lesson out of this”. Morrison acknowledged there were differences between Taiwan – the democratically governed island of 24 million people that Beijing claims as its breakaway province – and Ukraine. But he also called for greater preparedness for potential instability in the Indo-Pacific region, after joining an urgently convened virtual meeting with his counterparts from Japan, India and the US – known as the Quad – early Friday morning. The Quad meeting discussed the crisis in Ukraine and “assessed its broader implications” – but the joint statement issued by the four leaders did not include any direct criticism of Russia, and said countries in the Indo-Pacific must be “free from military, economic, and political coercion”. India is particularly keen to keep the Quad focused on the Indo-Pacific, and it has so far abstained from UN votes condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Morrison played down the lack of unity with India on the response to Ukraine, saying he “wouldn’t put them in the same category as China, not even remotely”. The prime minister noted India was calling for an end to the violence, and said Australia needed to “work patiently with our partners”. The New York Times reported this week that senior Chinese officials had told their Russian counterparts in early February not to invade Ukraine before the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The paper cited Biden administration officials and a European official who cited a western intelligence report. China’s foreign ministry vehemently denied the report, denouncing it as “fake news” designed to “divert attention and shift blame, which is utterly despicable”. The foreign ministry also blamed Nato’s eastward expansion and the US administration’s attitude towards Ukraine’s Nato membership for the deterioration of relations with Russia. Payne told 4BC radio it was “ultimately for China” to respond to the reports, but added: “Any collaboration on this illegal, unjustified and unprovoked Russian invasion would be deeply concerning.” The Australian opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, said China had a “particular responsibility” to use its close relationship with Russia to press for an end to the aggression. While the Australian government has rapidly expanded sanctions against Russian political and business figures since last week’s invasion of Ukraine, it has also quietly updated regulations allowing it to target Myanmar’s military junta. The changes take effect on Saturday, more than a year after the coup in Myanmar, and are intended to expand the “toolkit” available to the government. The expanded criteria will allow the government to impose sanctions on current or former members of a range of junta-linked bodies. They include Myanmar’s State Administration Council, which is chaired by commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing. The new regulations are a preparatory step that will make it easier to introduce sanctions against junta figures, but it would still require Payne to make further decisions naming individuals. Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch, welcomed the creation of a “clear pathway to sanction individuals and entities connected to the junta” and urged the Australian government to act “without delay”. “It has a lot of catching up to do with like-minded governments following the coup one year ago,” Pearson said. The Australian government has never ruled out expanding sanctions on Myanmar’s military figures, but it has sought to remain in close coordination with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Leaders in the region have become increasingly frustrated about a lack of progress in implementing Asean’s “five-point consensus” to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. | ['world/ukraine', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'world/europe-news', 'world/russia', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/daniel-hurst', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2022-03-04T05:05:05Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2017/nov/23/air-pollution-deforming-sperm-men | If air pollution is deforming sperm, will men finally take it seriously? | Jenny Jones | There is nothing like the image of deformed sperm to grab the attention of male politicians. The tentative link between male fertility and pollution has been put forward by medics in China and in a world where heterosexual men still make most of the decisions, I hope it makes pollution a personal priority for a few of them. It’s only one bit of research, among hundreds of more definitive studies into proven health conditions linked to pollution, but the world may become a slightly better place as a result. When I was first elected to the London Assembly 17 years ago, we were told that air pollution was yesterday’s issue and the technological solutions were rolling off the production line. I wasn’t convinced and argued that we needed to change our lifestyles by driving less, but very few in the media, or politics, saw this as a priority. That changed as the medical evidence mounted and the technological fix failed to deliver. The number of premature deaths linked to air pollution escalated dramatically, with links to heart disease, dementia, type 2 diabetes, kidney failure, autism, as well as asthma. Air pollution kills, but still we drive. The chancellor’s budget has finally seen us start on the path to phasing out diesel and Philip Hammond clearly sees a future where we are ferried around in driverless, electric cars. It’s a new phase to the technical fix, after the failure of the car manufacturers to stick to EU rules by scamming the tests and fitting defeat devices on their vehicles. Perhaps I’ve grown too cynical, but won’t the middle classes have their driverless cars circling around town while they attend meetings in office blocks with restricted parking? Also, electric vehicles aren’t entirely pollution-free even if charged with renewable energy. What will be done about the particulates (PM 2.5) that come off the tyres and brakes, the tiny grains that get into our bodies and mess with hearts, brains and testicles? As an ex-archaeologist, I am well aware of the link between environmental degradation and the collapse of civilisations. For example, one early theory linked the decline of the Roman Empire with its increasing use of lead pipes. A technology that benefited millions of city dwellers also brought them damage to the brain and nervous system, the stomach and the kidneys. Lead pipes can also cause high blood pressure and other health problems. Sound familiar? According to scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, sperm counts among men in the west have more than halved in the past 40 years and are currently falling by an average of 1.4% a year. The World Health Organization now recognises the problem but hasn’t identified a specific cause. So, it may, or may not, be down to pollution, plastics or pesticides, but I can’t help feeling that we will try our best to ignore any proven causes if they get in the way of modern life. Driving has become an essential human right, like shopping on Black Friday and perfectly shaped vegetables at Christmas. These are apparent signs of progress and civilisation, the fruits of consumer technology designed to make us happy. It is hard to argue otherwise in polite society and as George Monbiot has said, that should make us worried. This consumerism is also fuelling our experiment with climate change, which is a huge gamble with the realities of living on a planet with finite resources. Climate change may seem an abstract idea, far less real than a coughing fit on a polluted London road, but its impacts on our economy and way of life could be as devastating as the impact of a volcanic eruption on the Minoan civilisation – it didn’t end well. So let’s not sigh over disturbing episodes of Blue Planet 2 but do nothing to change our lifestyles. Let’s not consume the news of hurricane devastation with popcorn and fizzy drinks on the side. Humanity must accept that our future wellbeing is irrevocably linked to the planet’s health and perhaps deformed sperm will be the tipping point. • Jenny Jones is a former chair of the Green party | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'society/fertility-problems', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'science/reproduction', 'type/article', 'profile/jennyjones', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-11-23T13:31:27Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2023/jun/11/amazon-plane-crash-colombian-children-survived-on-cassava-and-fruits-family-say | Amazon plane crash children reunited with family after 40 days in jungle | The four young Colombian siblings who managed to survive for 40 days in the Amazon jungle after their plane crashed have been reunited with their family as further details emerged of their astonishing feat of endurance. The children’s grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, who visited them in the Bogotá hospital where they are recuperating, said they were “shattered but in good hands and it’s great they’re alive”. “We were in the darkness, but now dawn has broken and I have seen the light,” he said. Damaris Mucutuy, an aunt, told a radio station the children were fine despite being dehydrated and having insect bites. She said they had also been offered mental health services. The children – aged 13, nine, four and 11 months – are member of the Huitoto people. They were travelling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San José del Guaviare when the plane crashed in the early hours of 1 May. A military sniffer dog found them alive on Friday, after they had spent weeks in an area where snakes, mosquitoes and other animals abound. Valencia said the siblings had survived by eating fariña, or cassava flour, and by using their knowledge of the rainforest’s fruits. “When the plane crashed, they took fariña [from the wreckage], and with that they survived,” the children’s grandfather told reporters outside the hospital, where they are expected to remain for a minimum of two weeks. “After the fariña ran out, they began to eat seeds,” Valencia added. The children appear to owe their lives to the eldest sibling, Lesly, who kept them safely nourished by using the knowledge of the rainforest her mother had passed on to her. “There’s a fruit, similar to passionfruit, called avichure,” said Edwin Paki, one of the Indigenous leaders who took part in the search effort. “They were looking for seeds to eat from an avichure tree about a kilometre and a half from the site of the plane crash.” The timing of their ordeal was in the children’s favour. Astrid Cáceres, the head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, said the youngsters had been able to eat fruit because “the jungle was in harvest”. Gen Pedro Sánchez, who was in charge of the rescue effort, said rescue teams had passed within 20 to 50 metres (66 to 164ft) of where the children were found on a couple of occasions but had missed them. “The children were already very weak,” Sánchez said. “Their strength was only enough to breathe or reach a small fruit to feed themselves or drink a drop of water in the jungle.” The children told officials they had spent some time with a dog, but that it had gone missing. The military was still looking for the dog, a Belgian Shepherd named Wilson, as of Saturday. Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, who joyfully announced the discovery of the children on Friday, met them in hospital on Saturday. The defence minister, Iván Velásquez, told reporters they were being rehydrated and could not yet eat food. “But in general, their condition is acceptable,” he said. An air force video released on Friday showed a helicopter using winches to pull the youngsters up because it was unable to land in the dense rainforest. The military also tweeted pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the smallest child’s lips. The four children were in a Cessna single-engine propeller plane that was also carrying three adults when the pilot declared an emergency because of engine failure. The small aircraft disappeared off radar a short time later and a weeks-long search for survivors began. Two weeks after the crash, on 16 May, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the children were nowhere to be found. Sensing they could be alive, Colombia’s army stepped up the hunt and flew 150 soldiers with dogs into the area, where mist and thick foliage greatly limited visibility. Dozens of indigenous volunteers also joined the search. Soldiers in helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children. Planes flying over the area fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used speakers that blasted a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother telling them to stay in one place. As the search progressed, soldiers found small clues that led them to believe the children were still alive, including footprints, a baby bottle, nappies and pieces of fruit that looked as if humans had taken bites out of them. “The jungle saved them,” Petro said. “They are children of the jungle, and now they are also children of Colombia.” The announcement of their rescue came shortly after Petro signed a ceasefire with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group. In line with his government’s messaging highlighting his efforts to end internal conflicts, he stressed the joint work of the military and Indigenous communities in helping the children. “The meeting of knowledge: indigenous and military,” he tweeted. “Here is a different path for Colombia. I believe that this is the true path of peace.” Petro called the children an “example of survival” and said their saga would “remain in history”. The Associated Press contributed to this report | ['world/colombia', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/americas', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samjones', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-11T12:38:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2012/jun/13/rio-earth-summit-1992-archive | From the archive: Earth Summit: Long and troubled road to Rio | Many of the original aims of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which officially opens today, have already been lost in disagreements between the rich industrialised countries and the developing nations. New international laws which it was hoped would be signed remain statements of principle or have been so watered down that they will have little effect. Nevertheless, many of the thousands of civil servants and junior ministers who have spent months in preparatory meetings around the globe say that solid achievements are enshrined in the agreed texts to come before the 120 heads of state and government who will be present. The issues of environment, development and trade have been brought together and considered in a way never attempted before. The fact that the negotiations on what to do about the problems have often foundered on conflicting interests was predictable, but the participants say that at least everyone is beginning to identify the difficulties and be honest about them. The process that has brought about the opening of the largest conference the world has seen began in Stockholm in June, 1972, when the United Nations Conference on Human Environment put the issues on the international agenda for the first time. Despite progress in tackling some of the problems identified, it was clear to the United Nations 10 years later that the earth's environment was deteriorating and global risks were becoming more acute. In 1983, a World Commission on Environment and Development was established. It concluded that the future of mankind was at risk if unsustainable growth and development continued. The trend of increasing destruction and depletion of resources by industrialised countries would be compounded if copied by the developing world as it struggled to improve its own living standards. The report, commonly called the Brundtland Report, after Norway's prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who chaired the commission, led to a decision by the UN in December, 1989 to hold the Rio conference this year, 20 years after the original one in Stockholm. As a result, an army of civil servants and scientists worldwide were detached from their normal duties to make the initiative a success and provide it with a series of agreements which, it was hoped, would change and for the better the way the world looked at the environment and development. It was agreed that in three areas international conventions would be created to tackle pressing problems. The first was to provide a framework for saving the earth's forests from destruction, the second was to limit the release of polluting gases into the atmosphere to slow the process of global warming, and the third was a bio-diversity treaty intended to save plant and animal species from becoming extinct before they could be studied and their useful properties extracted for man's use. Well before Rio, attempts to complete a forest convention were abandoned amid complicated arguments about sustainable logging, compensation for the Third World for lack of income from felling, and the interference of the industrialised north in the affairs of the undeveloped south. After much negotiation, a convention on climate change has been provisionally agreed, but only after concessions were made to the world's biggest polluter, the United States, which its critics say has watered down the convention so much that it is almost meaningless. The third convention, on bio-diversity, is at present on the rocks after the United States pulled out of it on the eve of the conference over open-ended financial commitments for the industrialised north and over who would own the property rights to genetic discoveries in forest reserves. There remain two other big items on the agenda: the Rio Declaration, a statement of principles about the way the world should be run for the benefit of future generations, and a long and complicated document called Agenda 21. It is in this last document that much of the hope of the conference remains. It details many of the things that governments need to do to make the world a better place. It covers issues such as fairer distribution of the world's wealth, eliminating poverty, improving health, and making the welfare of the environment the first consideration in any development. Gaping holes are visible in this document too: for example, as a result of the Vatican's views, birth control only gets an oblique mention in the phrase "demographic trends". As a result, one of the central questions of the debate - population control - is not addressed. The optimists, not the least of whom are the British, believe that the summit is a starting point on which to build. The pessimists, who include most of the thousands of delegates from environment organisations, say the s ummit shows there is no real political will to solve the problems. No one yet knows how the summit will turn out. There are 14 days for bitter words to be spoken and acrimony to break out, or a chance to lay the foundation of a better future. | ['environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'theguardian/series/from-the-archive', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-06-13T11:41:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2019/nov/06/why-was-the-mets-extinction-rebellion-protest-ban-unlawful | Why was the Met's Extinction Rebellion protest ban unlawful? | The Metropolitan police imposed a blanket ban across London last month prohibiting any assembly of more than two people linked to Extinction Rebellion’s “autumn uprising” action. But two senior judges ruled on Wednesday that the decision to impose the ban, made under section 14 of the Public Order Act, was unlawful. What events led to the high court’s ruling? After eight days of protests and disruption by Extinction Rebellion last month, the Metropolitan police had had enough. A superintendent saw for himself what he felt was serious disruption. Because of that, and crucially, because of the further and perhaps worse disruption he feared would come, he issued an order under section 14 of the 1986 public order act. What is section 14? The act dates from 1986. It allows police to place conditions on public assemblies if they fear serious disruption. The conditions imposed by the Met were a ban on all XR protests and actions in London as part of their autumn uprising. The police treated the campaign of events by XR as one single entity to which the powers under section 14 applied. What did the court decide? In a nutshell, section 14 cannot be used to impose a blanket ban. The act is to manage, not prohibit, protest. Furthermore, the senior officer imposing the conditions on an individual assembly needs to be present, and the officer who made the order, Supt Duncan McMillan, was not. The judges wrote: “The XRAU [extinction rebellion autumn uprising] was not a public assembly at the scene of which Supt McMillan was present on 14 October 2019, so that there was no power to impose a condition under section 14 of the 1986 Act.” In addition, the court found that section 14 could not be used to ban future protests. The high court said: “This means that Supt McMillan purported to impose a condition not only on those public assemblies already in existence, but also on intended future assemblies yet to be held.” So how restricted are the police powers? The judges noted: “It was intended that the protests would cause inconvenience to the general public so that politicians would take notice of and engage with the aims of Extinction Rebellion.” By implication, the court says, if activists want to cause disruption, that in itself is not necessarily unlawful. Police will consider an appeal, and go back to their lawyers to see what powers they can use. More protests are expected. Police order commanders will need to look at those powers and anticipate how to use them so they will not be struck down by the courts if challenged. But the high court in its judgment made it clear the judges were ruling only on limited points around the 1986 public order act and section 14, saying: “We are not concerned in this case with the lawfulness of the arrests of any individuals or the merits of the prosecution or proposed prosecutions of any individuals. “ What are Extinction Rebellion planning in the run-up to the election? This week XR decided on “one or two major actions” in the run-up to 12 December in an attempt to force the climate emergency to the forefront of the campaign. Activists will target iconic buildings in the capital, although protesters say the demonstrations will not cause mass disruption. More “theatrical actions” are expected to be organised by groups around the country. What will the ruling mean for the group’s plans in the longer term? XR is still discussing what the next major “rebellion” might look like – and following the controversial tube protests in October, which risked draining public support, there are differing views. But the high court ruling may mean in future police will be reluctant to impose such wide-ranging restrictions. What might police do next? The judgment noted: “It was common ground that there are powers contained in the 1986 act which might be lawfully used to control future protests deliberately designed to “take police resources to breaking point.” Those powers, in section 14a, requite a much higher standard, authorisation is needed from the home secretary. They are also time-limited. In the longer term, the police and ministers are already talking about changing the law to make it easier to impose conditions. Paradoxically, the embarrassing defeat for the Met may bolster its case with government that the public order laws need updating to cope with modern protest, and that such changes are urgent. Sources say the government has been pressing police to take more robust action. | ['environment/extinction-rebellion', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'uk/police', 'law/law', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/vikramdodd', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-11-06T17:16:09Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
technology/2015/jun/26/worlds-first-commercial-jetpack-next-year | The world’s first commercial jetpack will cost $150,000 next year | After 35 years in development, the world’s first commercially available jetpack will be available next year for $150,000. The Martin Jetpack is made from carbon fibre and aluminium. It eschews the traditional rockets of science-fiction jetpacks, which are powerful but difficult to control, and instead uses fans. A two-litre petrol engine drives two fans either side of the pilot to lift the jet pack and up to 120kgs of human into the air, along with a low-altitude parachute for use should things go wrong. After initial test flights in 2011, an updated version was shown off recently at the Paris airshow. It could fly for up to 30 minutes at speeds as fast as 74 kilometres per hour. Pilots will be able to reach altitudes of 1,000m taking off and landing vertically, meaning rooftops, gardens and parking lots are all viable launchpads. In fact, Martin believes that the jetpack’s ability to land in confined spaces will be its selling point, not aimed at millionaires as an expensive toy, but the emergency services. “I think the first responders will see that as a massive improvement to their capability,” Peter Coker, chief executive of Martin told Reuters. “Naturally for the ambulance service getting to a point of importance of rescuing people in the shortest possible time [is crucial].” The jetpack will ship for emergency services in the second-half of 2016, with a personal version scheduled to be released the following year. New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft recently floated on the Australian stock exchange, seeing a $50m investment from Chinese aerospace company Kuang-Chi Science, valuing Martin at $100m. It began taking orders earlier this year, and has been showing off a simulator of the jetpack at airshows including Paris. • Jetpacks: niche hobby or future transport for the masses? | ['technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'world/air-transport', 'world/world', 'world/newzealand', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-06-26T11:07:12Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2022/oct/31/the-guardian-view-on-lulas-comeback-good-for-brazil-and-the-world | The Guardian view on Lula’s comeback: good for Brazil and the world | Editorial | The remarkable return of the leftwing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for a third term as Brazil’s president is not just good for his country. His victory over the incumbent rightwing extremist, Jair Bolsonaro, is also good for the world. Since Mr Bolsonaro took office in 2019, forest fires and deforestation soared in the Amazon, with the federal government turning a blind eye to illegal logging, mining, cattle-grazing and land-grabbing. Brazil’s rainforest went from a carbon sink to a carbon source. If allowed to continue, the damage to the world’s lungs would have been irreversible – with disastrous effects on global weather systems and food security. Lula, as he is universally known, pledged to reverse his predecessor’s policies that have worsened the climate emergency. The world will breathe more easily as a result. But Mr Bolsonaro only narrowly lost the election. He has, at the time of writing, still refused to concede his defeat. Mr Bolsonaro, who praised dictatorship and torture, may never accept the people’s will. But those who have supported him – from evangelists to political allies – have recognised that the game is up. His reluctance to go quietly may be because he fears ending up behind bars. Presidential immunity and an obliging attorney general have helped shelter Mr Bolsonaro and his politician sons from investigations into longstanding suspicions of embezzlement and corruption. For Mr Bolsonaro, that shield disappears in January. Mr Bolsonaro was nicknamed the “Trump of the tropics” – and he used a similar playbook. Like the former US president, Mr Bolsonaro polarised his divided country by denigrating women, gay people and minorities. He armed his supporters by flooding the country with guns. A pandemic that killed almost 700,000 people helped push poverty numbers to the highest on record and saw him sink in the polls. His answer was to flood the infosphere with fake news, dole out welfare payments and send federal highway police to block roads in pro-Lula areas on voting day. But enough Brazilians returned to Lula, whose last stint in power delivered economic growth and a reduction of inequality. Jailed under the previous rightwing Temer government for alleged corruption, Lula was released and his convictions quashed last year, allowing him to run again. However, Brazil is a very different country from the one he last presided over. When he left office in 2010, Lula’s approval ratings were stratospheric. Now a sizable minority think their once-and-future president is corrupt. Brazil in 2010 was the world’s 7th largest economy – it has now slipped to 13th. The country is marked by rising debts and deepening divides. Brazil’s modest economic recovery is unlikely to last as the world faces a recession that it won’t escape. Lula’s victory cannot eclipse the fact he faces a Congress dominated by self-seeking conservative politicians of the Centrão (“big centre”) – who have been allied with Mr Bolsonaro. The new president will need to strike deals to get legislation passed. Big structural reforms that need changes to the constitution will probably be off the table. Thanks to his environmental policies and his defence of democracy, Lula can count on the support of the world’s leading powers. President Joe Biden has offered to create a $20bn fund for the Amazon once Brazil starts showing results in protecting its rainforests. Under Mr Bolsonaro, Brazil lost its way – and its mind. Lula’s victory shows the country can return to the path of sanity. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/brazil', 'world/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-10-31T19:06:13Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
lifeandstyle/2014/aug/08/to-throw-away-paint-environmental-crime-recycling-colouring-community- | Colouring the community: 'To throw away paint is an environmental crime' | It’s taken 40 litres of emulsion to basecoat the walls. A further 260 litres is needed to paint the murals, which will then be varnished. But the paint comes free. It’s part of the 90 tons of waste paint that a not-for-profit scheme, Bradford Community RePaint collects each year. In a Yorkshire subway, a team of artists are using unwanted paint that may otherwise have been tipped into landfill to create murals and stars with the names of local Bradford celebrities – from the Brontë sisters to boxers – in the Jacobs Well and the National Media Museum subways. Twelve walls show scenes with well-known people and landmarks including Salts Mill, the Wool Exchange and Bradford City Football Club. Bradford City of Film will be celebrated with murals showing highlights of 100 years of filming and a red-painted floor will give it a showbiz look. Karen Hutchinson, project manager for the Bradford Community RePaint scheme says: “Before we came along, these areas were grotty and dull. The team of artists, long-term unemployed people and volunteers are showing what you can do with unwanted paint, a product that’s so often wasted.” Bradford Community RePaint is one of the largest organisations that forms part of a national not-for-profit network called the Community RePaint network, which is, in turn, managed by non-profit Resource Futures. Each scheme works slightly differently but they all collect donations of paint. Some collect it from Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC), while others from the painting trade – end of product ranges at DIY shops, for example – do both. Each scheme then uses, redistributes or sells the paint to community groups and individuals at low cost. As anyone who does their own decorating knows, getting rid of leftover paint isn’t always straightforward. You can take unwanted paint to your local tip but there’s no legislation to say that councils have to accept it. Most do but disposing of it is problematic. While HWRCs have to meet targets to reduce the liquid that goes into landfill, budget cuts can make incinerating paint – a typical method to get rid of it – unaffordable. In fact, the situation has led to people who take paint to HWRCs occasionally being told to solidify it, by mixing it with cat litter or sawdust, so it can then be chucked into landfill. Martin Pearse, manager of the Community RePaint Network says: “Solidifying paint is not the answer. Our research shows that of the 43m litres that come into household waste recycling centres each year, 28m litres of it is reusable. To throw it away is an environmental crime.” Instead, the Community RePaint Network works with HWRCs and collects unwanted paint, from consumers and the paint trade. Each of the 73 schemes runs autonomously and varies in the way they sell or redistribute the paint. Community RePaint Bristol, for example, sells the paint to anyone who comes into its shop. For consumers, it’s priced at £2 a litre. Charities and community groups get it slightly cheaper. The project also runs a furniture scheme, which uses the paint. Volunteers as young as 12 years old, many of whom are struggling in mainstream education, work with a qualified carpenter to upcycle quality pieces of furniture, such as this red Nathan sideboard, painted in Rectory Red by Farrow and Ball, sold on eBay and in the shop. “We’ve had Victorian library tables, 1960s sideboards, and a wardrobe that we recently turned into a garden shed, which we call a Shedrobe,” says Vicky Beckwith, chief executive of ReWork Ltd, which runs the projects. She says the upcycled end appeals to local residents who want quirky pieces and helps raise money. Makala Campbell, a regular buyer says: “I love it because it’s good for the environment and it gives young people a chance. Every room in my house is now kitted out with either their fab makes, or something I got cheap and did up myself with their advice.” At other schemes, you need to be a low-income household or community group to be eligible to buy the paint. Community RePaint Bromley, for example, sells two-litre tins, which is enough to paint a small double bedroom, to those on low incomes for £2.50 and if you can’t do the decorating yourself, they can sometimes help. Community RePaint Bromley painted the kitchen of a housing association tenant Mary Doughty, whose home had been flooded, for instance. They got the paint for free and provided the labour free of charge. Doughty, a pensioner who has limited mobility, says: “The volunteers washed down the walls and repainted the whole room, they did the job quickly and I was thrilled with the result.” Future plans for Community RePaint, which is sponsored by Dulux, include filtering and repackaging unwanted paint into new tins and potentially selling the paint in charity shops. Pearse says: “Reusing unwanted paint solves several key problems. However, it’s a big issue and we know that we’re only touching the tip of the iceberg.” Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? Take a look at this month’s Live Better challenge here. The Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable living. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['lifeandstyle/live-better', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'society/communities', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'artanddesign/painting', 'artanddesign/art', 'society/society', 'uk/bradford', 'environment/landfill', 'type/article', 'profile/joanne-o-connell'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-08-08T10:42:54Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
lifeandstyle/2019/feb/22/brexit-calls-for-a-hollies-singsong | Brexit calls for a Hollies singsong | Brief letters | Until I was 70 I had IBS. I took a food intolerance test and the result revealed an intolerance to lactose (What’s weakening our guts?, G2, 18 February). I gave up dairy products and I’ve never had trouble since. I’ve been fine for the last 20 years. Constipation, which can be a result of food intolerances, causes swelling in the colon which then can lead to diverticulitis. Perhaps if people just got a food intolerance test, they could save themselves a lot of trouble. Kathleen Dallas Gloucester • The case for urgently lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 throughout the UK emerges inescapably from the well-informed, articulate and cogently expressed arguments that we have been hearing from young people over the past few days (Thunberg: ‘EU must double its targets to cut global warming’, 22 February). Thomas Radice London • Never mind Bus Stop/backstop (Letters, 21 February), every time Brexit is mentioned I sing any of these songs by the Hollies: I Can’t Let Go, Stop Stop Stop, Stay or Heading For a Fall. Barry Norman Leeds • After mention of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich (Letters, 22 February) did anyone else immediately think of Theresa May’s multitalented team of Brexit negotiators? Ian Grieve Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal • It’s obvious how the stones of Stonehenge were transported from the Preseli hills to their final resting place: by the ancient method of rock’n’roll (Report, 20 February). Phil Rhoden Kidderminster, Worcestershire • Join the debate – email [email protected] • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-camp', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'music/music', 'culture/culture', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'world/eu', 'politics/article-50', 'uk-news/stonehenge', 'uk/uk', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-02-22T16:34:37Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2008/jul/01/forests.conservation | Map reveals extent of deforestation in tropical countries | A map of the world's tropical forests has revealed that millions of hectares of trees were cut back to make way for crops in recent years. Created from high-resolution satellite images, the map shows the extent of deforestation in the tropics with unprecedented accuracy. Between 2000 and 2005, at least 27.2m hectares (68m acres) of tropical forests were cleared to make way for farming. Almost half of the deforested land was in Brazil, nearly four times more than the next most deforested country, Indonesia, which accounted for 12.8% of cleared land. Scientists led by Matthew Hansen at South Dakota State University created the map to help inform conservationists and politicians about the state of the world's forests. While figures on deforestation are already compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, they are based on unverified estimates submitted by individual countries, and rarely describe where in a country forests are being cleared. Recent estimates by the UN suggest that around 13m hectares of the world's forests are lost to deforestation each year, with South America alone losing more than 4m hectares a year. "We wanted to be able to pinpoint exactly where deforestation was happening, because that gives you much more information for policy makers to act upon," said Fred Stolle is at the World Resources Institute in Washington DC. The scientists collected images taken between 2000 and 2005 by Nasa's Modis satellite network, which photographs the surface of the Earth every one to two days in 500m-wide snapshots. The researchers used the images to identify deforestation "hotspots" in the tropics, and then created a detailed map using a second satellite network called Landsat, which is accurate to within 30m. According to the map, over the five-year period, Brazil lost 3.6% of its forest cover, Indonesia 3.4%, Latin America 1.2%, the rest of Asia 2.7% and Africa 0.8%. The study appears in the US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The map showed that deforestation in Indonesia was largely concentrated in just two regions, and that much of it was peatland. "The peatlands are essentially all carbon, so if you clear it and fire it, an enormous amount of carbon will be emitted into the atmosphere," said Stolle. "Without a precise map, we would not know that level of detail." The researchers hope to produce annual updates of the map to show trends in deforestation. The map is a conservative estimate of deforestation because it only shows where forests have been cut down and not replaced. It does not take into account selective logging, areas where forests have been replanted, or general degradation of forests. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-07-01T09:38:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
politics/2022/mar/24/uk-government-vows-10-fold-increase-in-electric-car-chargers-by-2030 | UK government vows 10-fold increase in electric car chargers by 2030 | The UK government has set a new target to increase the number of electric car chargers more than ten times to 300,000 by 2030 after heavy criticism that the rollout of public infrastructure is too slow to match rapid growth in sales. The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would invest an extra £450m to do so, alongside hefty sums of private capital. Sales of new cars and vans with petrol and diesel engines will be banned from 2030. There were 420,000 pure-electric cars on UK roads at the end of February, according to the comparison website Next Green Car. There were, however, only 29,600 public charge points in the UK on 1 March, according to data company Zap-Map. The £450m local electric vehicle infrastructure fund would focus on charger hubs and on-street chargers, the DfT said. BP also confirmed it would spend £1bn on new UK charger infrastructure as part of its plans to diversify revenues. The company relies overwhelmingly on fossil fuels for its profits, and is under pressure from investors and activists to show how it will reach net zero carbon emissions. Boris Johnson linked the move to electric cars to the push to reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel supplies. Fuel prices have hit record highs with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine expected to add further to a cost of living crisis because of global reliance on its exports of oil and gas. “Clean transport isn’t just better for the environment, but is another way we can drive down our dependence on external energy supplies,” the prime minister said. The car industry has consistently complained that the government is not doing enough to provide chargers, meaning many customers were holding back from buying battery electric cars for fear of being unable to top up. Sales of electric cars made up 18% of new-car registrations in February, according to the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. London and the south-east of England have better access to public chargers than poorer parts of the UK, although many electric car owners are likely to rely on private chargers at their homes. Car industry bosses responded with relief to the government pledge, which added to previous plans to invest £950m in rapid chargers. However, Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, said he wanted binding targets on the charger rollout. “Charging infrastructure must keep pace with the rapid growth of sales of these cars,” he said. “Deployed nationally and at pace, this expansion would give drivers confidence they will be able to charge as easily as they would refuel, wherever they are.” Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: “Whilst great progress has been made, there is still much to do to convince drivers on the number, and importantly reliability, of charge posts.” He said urgent action was also needed to address problems with chargers’ ease of use, which can require separate accounts, and that more work was needed in rural areas to make isolated charging stations feel safer. Access for disabled drivers was also a problem, he said. | ['politics/transport', 'environment/electric-cars', 'business/automotive-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'technology/motoring', 'technology/technology', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2022-03-24T22:30:10Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2022/oct/27/kyiv-facing-sharp-deterioration-electric-supply-russian-strikes | Kyiv facing ‘sharp deterioration’ in electric supply after Russian strikes | Ukrainians living in and around Kyiv have been told of a “sharp deterioration” in the region’s electricity supply after a fresh wave of Russian strikes aimed at sapping public morale as the country’s cold winter approaches. A local energy supplier, Yasno, warned that existing blackouts could last a lot longer than a previously planned schedule of four-hour outages and that the capital already faced an electricity deficit of about 30% or more. Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, said the area, including the capital city, was victim of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s national grid. “A number of critical facilities have been disabled,” he added. Russia has brought Ukraine’s electricity system to a crisis in a little over a fortnight by switching the focus of its missile and drone attacks to power stations and the distribution grid. In its update, Yasno said Kyiv normally consumed 1,000-2,000MW of electricity but now the estimated available power is 600-800MW. Warning that the overnight destruction had been serious, the company said: “We have a sharp deterioration of the energy supply situation.” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously estimated that 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been damaged or destroyed, although the figure is now likely to be greater. Gas and water supplies have also been targeted in attacks that began on 10 October, causing disruption that in some cases will takes years to fix. Although October has been relatively warm by recent standards, the weather turns sharply colder from November and the night-time temperature in many parts of Ukraine can hit lows of -10C (14F) and even -20C. Zelenskiy said on Wednesday night he had held an emergency meeting to discuss the energy situation earlier that day. Politicians, officials and suppliers discussed how to protect sites, repair damage, and to ensure people would still have energy. “Conscious energy consumption is now needed by all Ukrainians. Please choose your own scheme for limiting electricity consumption while there is a shortage in the general power system,” the president added. Ukraine had traditionally enjoyed a surplus of energy but is now facing its most serious civilian crisis since the early phases of the war – with rolling blackouts of several hours becoming normal across the country. People have been reminded to use electricity sparingly in mornings and evenings, and to carefully regulate the use of energy-intensive appliances, while businesses are frequently operating with sharply reduced lighting to save power. In Kyiv, some people in the city’s apartment buildings have started leaving small packages of water and snacks in lifts to be used in case people are unfortunate enough to get stuck inside during a blackout. Three regions around Kyiv, covering the Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr oblasts, would also face a reduced energy supply following the overnight attacks, warned Ukrenergo, the operator of the country’s national grid. Zelenskiy also discussed the situation at Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, near the current fighting in the south of the country, which Ukraine says Russia has mined and could blow up with devastating consequences for settlements downstream as well as further hitting energy supply. Russian sources have indicated that if the 30-metre-high dam across the Dnieper River were to be blown up it would be the work of Ukrainians. Fighting continues about 20 miles north of the dam, with Ukraine trying to advance on Kherson, the only city held by Russia west of the Dnieper. The Ukrainian military said about two dozen Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones had targeted the south of the country after taking off from Crimea. Air defence forces shot down three over the Mykolaiv region, 15 over the Odesa region, and another over the Vinnytsia region, the military said. Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed a Ukrainian military factory producing solid rocket fuel, explosives and gunpowder near the town of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as repelling Ukrainian advances in the east. Separately, a senior Russian government official bizarrely suggested Moscow would have the right shoot down commercial western satellites being used to help Ukraine’s war effort, although it was unclear if it had the capacity to carry out the threat. Konstantin Vorontsov, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, said the use of western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was “an extremely dangerous trend” and he told a UN committee: “Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.” The official did not spell out which suppliers he was referring to. Starlink satellites deployed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company have played a big role in Ukrainian military communications, although relations between the billionaire and Kyiv have soured lately. | ['world/ukraine', 'world/russia', 'environment/energy', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-sabbagh', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-10-27T17:20:03Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/feb/28/solar-already-australias-largest-source-of-electricity-as-rooftop-capacity-hits-20gw-consultancy-says | Solar to soon offer grid more capacity than coal, consultancy says | Australia’s rooftops now boast 20 gigawatts of solar panels and will soon have the capacity to produce more electricity than the country’s entire coal industry, according to the industry consultancy SunWiz. Almost one in three Australian households have solar photovoltaics – or solar panels – the highest penetration in the world. Queensland had the highest share of solar panels installed on dwellings deemed suitable for the technology with an 82% penetration, ahead of South Australia’s 78%, New South Wales’ 51% and Victoria’s 43%. The take-up of solar PV has quickened. It took about 11 years for Australia to reach its first 10GW of capacity, while the second 10GW took just four years, according to SunWiz. Combining the household solar panel capacity with the 11GW of large-scale solar plants, “solar energy is already Australia’s largest fuel source for electrical power in Australia”, according to Warwick Johnston, the managing director of SunWiz. Once AGL Energy closes the remaining units of its 1680MW Liddell coal-fired power station in NSW’s Hunter Valley next month, rooftop solar alone will have more so-called name-plate capacity than Australia’s remaining coal fleet, SunWiz said. That measure refers to the output a device is intended to be able to produce. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Queensland’s relatively sunny climate has encouraged residents there to host 5.2GW of solar PV, with the 1 millionth rooftop solar panel system to be installed soon. NSW is installing the most additional capacity of any state, with almost 100MW being added monthly, SunWiz said. Rooftop solar is often the largest supplier of electricity during the middle of the day, helping to drive demand in the national electricity market to record lows, including during the December quarter. The relative abundance of solar power, though, is creating challenges for large-scale generators, particularly operators of coal plants that struggle to ramp output up and down to meet fluctuating demand. According to a report by Green Energy Markets for the Clean Energy Regulator, the next 10GW of rooftop solar will take just over three years to be installed. Total installations will near 3GW in 2023 and exceed 3.2GW next year, setting a new annual high after the industry recovered from the Covid-related disruptions to supplies from China. Consumers, too, are increasingly focused on the prospect of power prices rising and staying high, according to Tristan Edis, director of analysis at Green Energy Markets. “The price of a system had gone up quite a bit” in 2021-22, at a time when electricity prices had started to drop, Edis said. “And then kind of all hell broke loose with the forward market,” he said, referring to future prices on the electricity market. The Australian Electricity Regulator in May 2022 lifted its default power prices by as much as 20% in a decision delayed by the Morrison government until after the federal election. Since then, the Albanese government has intervened with price caps for coal and gas in a bid to limit the size of further increases. Households that have solar are also increasingly looking to expand or more likely replace older, smaller units, the Green Energy Markets report said. “Upgrades and replacements accounted for 19% of total PV capacity installed in 2022 and we expect that this will increase to 27% by 2027,” the report said. SunWiz’s Johnston said the market for rooftop solar “is not at saturation point – that’s still a long way off”. More households were also taking up larger solar systems particularly if they planned to add batteries or operate electric vehicles. About 15% of solar system installations now also include batteries, he said. The prospects for large-scale solar, though, were not so promising, at least in the near-term. “The pipeline of solar farms under development has dried up, and we expect it to be the worst year for solar farms since Australia started their rollout in earnest in 2018,” Johnston said. The headline on this article was amended on 1 March 2023 to clarify that while solar now has more capacity than other energy sources in Australia, it is not the largest single source of electricity generation. | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2023-02-28T14:00:06Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2014/dec/04/edf-energy-nuclear-reactor-hinkley | EDF Energy to press on with Hinkley nuclear reactor project | EDF Energy expects to give the go ahead before spring for construction of the UK’s first new nuclear reactor for 20 years, despite financial problems at its partner Areva and a warning on the difficulty of such projects. The comments from Vincent de Rivaz, EDF chief executive, came at a nuclear conference where senior industry figures raised fears of a skills and supply chain crunch at the £25bn Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset. De Rivaz admitted that delays at its Flamanville plant in France were a setback, but insisted they would not impact financially on the British project, which is using the same European pressurised reactor (EPR) technology. “We should be under no illusion that building new nuclear plants has never been easy,” he told the Nuclear Industries Association (NIA). “We take the construction risk for Hinkley Point C – not the customers. Let us be clear, the cost of Hinkley Point C has not increased by one penny as a result of the delays at Flamanville.” The EDF executive said volatile oil prices, uncertainty over Russian energy supplies and high hopes for a binding new climate change agreement to restrict carbon emissions underlined the need for new nuclear plants. De Rivaz said legal and other work needed to be completed before EDF could give the final investment decision on Hinkley Point, but he remained confident that a positive decision could be made in the first quarter of 2015. He said discussions with potential new and existing foreign shareholders to the project were continuing. Asked about the problems at Areva, designer of the EPR and shareholder in the Hinkley project, De Rivaz said the French government, which owned the majority of shares in the business, had agreed to support it as a going concern. But the conference also heard from John Hutton, chairman of the NIA, who warned of a “capacity crunch” because the British supply chain would struggle to cope with an upsurge in work from other new build projects as well as existing contracts top keep reactors running or for decommissioning old ones. Andrew Storer, a Rolls-Royce executive, said he was concerned at the lack of facilities for testing nuclear equipment, while Mike Tynan, chief executive of the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Centre, said smaller UK companies in particular could struggle to meet the high standards required for a nuclear safety culture as well as product quality and skills. Meanwhile, the NIA released the results of a YouGov survey of 2,000 people which showed that 45% were in favour of new reactors and 20% opposed. Ten years ago only 35% supported more construction. | ['business/edf', 'business/business', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2014-12-04T13:36:41Z | true | ENERGY |
science/2014/apr/07/search-inca-lost-city-amazon-peru-paititi | Search for Inca 'lost city' in Amazon may endanger indigenous people | A French writer and adventurer plans to explore one of the most remote parts of the Peruvian Amazon in search of a "lost" or "secret city" that may have been built by the Incas, but there are fears that the expedition could endanger the health of isolated tribes that have never been exposed to common human diseases. Thierry Jamin believes that the city, which he calls "Paititi", could lie somewhere in a 215,000-hectare protected area called the Megantoni National Sanctuary in the Cuzco region of south-east Peru. "The magnificent discoveries realised by my group in the valleys of Lacco, Chunchusmayo and Cusirini in the north of the department of Cuzco lead towards a precise zone situated in the national sanctuary of Megantoni," Jamin told the Guardian via email. "Several natives of the forest – Matsiguengas – assert that 'monumental ruins' exist at the top of a strange square mountain. I think that we are very close to officialise the existence of this big archaeological site." According to his website, Jamin is planning a six-week expedition starting in July. He will be assisted by an NGO based in Cuzco that he leads and a group of Machiguengas from a village near the sanctuary. His website describes Paititi, or "Paititi-Eldorado", as the "Incas' secret city" – "one of the most fascinating stories of the Inca mythology", the "biggest archaeological enigma of South America", and the place where the Incas hid "all the treasures of [their] empire" when Europeans invaded. The search for Paititi or an Inca "lost city" has attracted scores of people and considerable controversy ever since the 16th century, with conflicting theories and ideas about where it might be and whether it really exists. But some experts fear that such an expedition would pose a threat to isolated indigenous Nanti people – sometimes called "Kugapakoris" – within the sanctuary. One of the main reasons for the sanctuary's creation 10 years ago was to protect groups of indigenous people who have had little or no contact with outsiders and are extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases because of their lack of resistance. According to the sanctuary's "master plan" for 2007-2011 – a 160-page government document outlining strategies and programmes to manage the area – the 215,000 hectares are divided into a number of "zones" where different activities are permitted. The biggest, most remote zone is in the sanctuary's far east and is called the "Strict Protection Zone" (ZPA). Its first stated aim is to protect "voluntarily isolated indigenous people", with scientific investigation only allowed in "exceptional circumstances". Jamin is keeping the precise destination of the expedition a secret, but told the Guardian he intended to travel up the river Ticumpinia – not the river Timpia where he said there were "numerous Kuga-Pakuri communities". "We don't want to tell anyone about our study zones, nor disseminate the exact locations of the sites we have found," he said. Lelis Rivera, who works for the NGO Cedia and played a key role in the sanctuary's creation, pointed out that the presence of any outsiders in the sanctuary "could cause danger to the people living there" and that entering the ZPA in particular is "completely prohibited" by Peruvian law. "Any people currently living in the upper Timpia or Ticumpinia regions are extremely vulnerable to germ transmission – that's the nature of living in relative social and immunological isolation," said anthropologist Christine Beier from the NGO Cabeceras Aid Project and one of the world's leading experts on Nanti society and history. Jamin told the Guardian that he will apply to the ministry of environment, which oversees management of "protected natural areas", for permission to enter the Megantoni sanctuary. He said he has already applied for permission from the ministry of culture. However, Ramon Rivero Mejia at the culture ministry says it has received no application from either Jamin, any member of his team or the NGO that Jamin presides over. Some experts doubt that Paititi is where Jamin thinks it is. "The Incas conquered territories of the Machiguenga and Piro and built roads, bridges and some fortified settlements, meaning it's possible that in Megantoni some Inca-type buildings and objects will be found," said Martti Parssinen, a Finnish archaeologist and historian who has researched Peru and the Incas for decades. "Nevertheless, Paititi is not there … At first, it was located from the confluence of the Madre de Díos and the Beni rivers toward the east or south, but during the colonial period some Inca refugees probably reestablished it near the present Brazilian Pacaas Novos mountains." Asked by the Guardian why he thinks archaeological remains in Megantoni might be related to the Incas, Jamin said: "We don't know if they're Inca or pre-Inca. One of the objectives of our 2014 campaign will be to establish that." | ['science/archaeology', 'science/science', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'world/peru', 'world/americas', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/david-hill'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-04-07T13:17:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/may/19/eu-plan-for-3bn-trees-in-10-years-to-tackle-biodiversity-crisis | EU plan for 3bn trees in 10 years to tackle biodiversity crisis | The European commission will launch a sweeping effort to tackle the global biodiversity crisis on Wednesday, including a call for 3bn trees to be planted in the EU by 2030 and a plan to better protect the continent’s last primeval forests. The draft policy document, published online by an environmental NGO, admits that to date in the EU, “protection has been incomplete, restoration has been small-scale, and the implementation and enforcement of legislation has been insufficient”. Scientists and environmental groups, commenting on the leaked draft of the strategy, say that while the new goals are welcome and impressive, there is a still distinct lack of tools with which to implement them. “It’s a good and ambitious document, but what is also obvious is the lack of strategy of how to implement it, and a lack of discussion of why previous documents of this type failed,” said Przemysław Chylarecki of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The new strategy calls for nearly one-third of EU land and sea to become protected zones. Currently, 26% of land and 11% of seas are classed as protected areas, but the European commission acknowledges this has not been enough to tackle the degradation of the natural world and threat of extinction to some birds and animals. Environmentalists say even these previous targets for protection have not been met in practice. “The proposed strategy lacks game-changing ideas and instruments for reaching the targets. We already know today that existing frameworks are not delivering, so why should we wait,” said Robert Cyglicki, programme director of Greenpeace in central and eastern Europe. He welcomed the new strategy but said it would be 2024 before it became clear if new binding measures would be adopted, and called for immediate discussions over funding and enforcement mechanisms. Some elements of the programme, such as protecting migratory bird populations, are hard to implement without a global approach, and the paper calls on the EU to intensify efforts to make biodiversity a central part of its diplomacy. It concludes that global efforts to tackle the biodiversity crisis under the auspices of the UN have been “insufficient to halt the loss of the world’s biodiversity”. It will also turn the spotlight on the EU’s €60bn-a-year common agricultural policy, which has been criticised for fuelling a steep decline in nature, with a call for a quarter of the EU’s agricultural land to be organically farmed by 2030. Environmentalists warned the plan’s headline target to plant at least 3bn trees by 2030, “in full respect of ecological principles”, should only be a small part of the solution. “Planting 3bn trees is a really spectacular and visual goal, but it has been shown that planting new trees is not a panacea and doesn’t always help,” said Chylarecki. More important will be the goal to map, monitor and “strictly protect” the EU’s last remaining primeval forests, which have survived in almost every member state, but remain threatened by human activity, such as illegal logging. These older forests provide a natural shield against climate change, but in many countries have been preyed on by logging companies, with national governments either ignoring the situation or lacking the resources to properly police logging. “We believe an integrated approach that also includes smart financial mechanisms and social aspects is the key aspect of a future European biodiversity governance framework,” said Romania’s environment minister, Costel Alexe, who has said he wants to better protect the large area of old-growth forests in the country. César Luena, a Spanish socialist MEP and vice-chair of the European parliament’s environment committee, agreed that the 2030 targets “will need to be covered by legislation to make them binding” on member states. “If the new strategy remains just a collection of ideas, nothing will ever happen,” he said in emailed comments. He said the strategy “seems more ambitious than the previous one but there are still areas for improvement”. Luena said EU member states needed to comply with existing laws, noting that in the last week alone, the European commission launched legal action against 19 governments over failures on EU environmental law – a tally of charges far from unusual in the commission’s monthly round up of infringement proceedings. Sweden and Latvia have been accused of not implementing parts of the EU’s birds and habitats directives, Malta is faulted for not conserving endangered bluefin tuna, while France, Cyprus and Lithuania are said to have neglected to write EU air pollution standards into national law. The EU should also offer funding benefits for those governments serious about hitting targets, said campaigners. “At the EU level we need some sort of financial stimulus that would make it attractive for countries to focus on biodiversity,” said Marta Grundland, a campaigner with Greenpeace Poland. “Right now, I don’t feel it’s a EU priority or a national priority. After climate this is the second biggest threat we are facing, and it’s all connected. If we want to help with the climate crisis we should also tackle the biodiversity crisis.” | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'world/eu', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jennifer-rankin', 'profile/shaun-walker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-19T12:44:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2005/jan/02/tsunami2004.india | Focus: Tsunami catastrophe: The chaos left behind | Indrani Rajadurai lives with her husband and two children in the southern city of Chennai, also known as Madras, capital of Tamil Nadu. She works as regional director for Help Age India. Her immediate family escaped the tsunami as they live inland, but she has lost 15 relatives who lived on the coast. Tamil Nadu was the worst-hit state on the Indian mainland, with almost 7,000 people killed. Here she tells The Observer of the plight of the people she has been trying to help whose families, livelihoods and communities have been destroyed. 'It is very difficult to find the words to describe the situation here. On the seashore, there are many mothers and fathers still sitting on the sand, in the only clothes they own. Some of them look kind of mentally disturbed. They are repeating over and over again the name of their lost sons and daughters. They say, "My daughter, I'm waiting for you. Come soon. Please, come soon." 'Some of them cannot cry any more. They say they have exhausted all their tears. It is a very sad experience. What can you say to console these people? There is nothing. They need aid urgently. But I know that no matter how much help they get, it will never be enough to compensate for their loss. 'In the last week we have had four mobile medical units, which consist of doctors, pharmacists, social workers and volunteers, offering immediate medical services throughout the area. The first priority is to avoid disease. The next stage is to distribute items like rice, oil, utensils, blankets and clothing to people. My organisation is planning to support 6,000 families, but we need help urgently: about £35 will give relief assistance to one person. 'Then, in about one month, we are going to offer counselling to the fishermen. They have lost everything and are too scared to go near the sea now. They are very afraid that the tsunami is going to come again. 'Since the disaster, I have hardly slept or eaten. I have visited all the refugee camps in the area. I have seen many old people with five or six grandchildren. Their own children have gone. They have lost their son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law. When I looked at the small children, I could see a sort of sadness in their eyes and face. I don't know what they would be thinking about their parents, about their future. They did not talk ... All the little children looked so blank, as if they were numb or in a state of shock. 'You cannot separate those children and put them in an orphanage. And you cannot take away the granny and put her in a home. We have got to help them to be with their own families. But it is going to be difficult. How are the grandparents going to live? How are they going to look after themselves and their grandchildren? 'The tsunami has caused unimaginable destruction. On the morning of the 26th, I woke at about 6.30am because my bed was shaking. My daughter came running in and said her cot was rocking. Everyone in the city came out of their buildings. People were calling friends and family all over the country to check they were safe. At this time, we thought it was just a tremor, but then at 8.30am we heard that water had come inside the city and destroyed buildings. We thought the huts on Marina beach had been washed away. Then, gradually, we learned of the awful devastation. In Tamil Nadu about 100,000 people were affected, with 7,000 people killed. 'The Marina beach was very busy that day because it was a holiday. There were lots of people out for a morning walk and lots of children playing. In the Nagapattinum district further down the coast, there is a big Catholic church on the seashore. It is a pilgrimage place and pilgrims from all over Tamil Nadu were in the church. Then the giant wave came. It was about 40 to 60 feet high and it came three times. It all happened so fast, within about 10 minutes. Many people couldn't run. Little children were clinging on to trees crying for help. Lots of fishermen's families were badly affected. Most of them have lost eight or 10 people. 'Fifteen of my relatives have gone. We have seven bodies yet to find. One of my cousin's sons was visiting his parents on Christmas Day. The next day he was riding his bike. He was washed away and could only be recognised by his clothing and a gold ring on his finger because his face and body were so disfigured. He was so happy because he was about to be married. It was an unreal day. A black, black Sunday.' | ['world/tsunami2004', 'world/india', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/focus'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-02T01:06:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2012/sep/18/money-misery-nairobi-dandora-dump | Kenyan rubbish dump offers little money for much misery | Clar Ni Chonghaile | A man with a sack slung over his shoulder trudges up a mountain of rotting rubbish, where Marabou storks perch like mournful sentinels. In the valley below, a woman pulls a jacket from the rubbish and holds it up, appraising it with a critical eye. At Nairobi's Dandora rubbish dump, the working day is in full swing. Men and women pick through a newly arrived truck, looking for plastic, food, clothes, paper and bottles – anything they can sell on or take home to use. Robert Ondika, 27, straightens from sifting through the rubbish with an iron hook. He has been working in Dandora, one of Africa's largest rubbish dumps, for three years and earns between 50 and 500 Kenyan shillings a day (between $0.60 and $6). "We come here to earn our daily bread," he says in Kiswahili. "Here, we touch different things, we could step on something sharp. It is only God who is helping us here." For these foot soldiers in Nairobi's unregulated rubbish business, the work is perilous and the rewards paltry, to say nothing of the discomfort of spending the day in a smoky, stinking wasteland. But for those who live in the neighbourhoods around the dump, it offers survival. That is Dandora's paradox – it is source of life, but also of illness and, occasionally, death. In a report released on Tuesday, Concern Worldwide, Italian development group Cesvi and church group Exodus Kutoka say the dump is "one of the most flagrant violations of human rights" in Kenya. The report says the city council of Nairobi, local government departments and the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) bear legal responsibility for the hazardous living conditions in the slums nearby. The dump, which lies 8km (5 miles) from the city centre, was declared full in 2001, and since then campaigners, including Concern, have sought to have it decommissioned. The report, Trash and Tragedy: The Impact of Garbage on Human Rights in Nairobi City, says the rubbish had polluted the soil, water and air, affecting more than 200,000 people, including up to 10,000 who spend the day seeking treasure from it. Most of them do not wear gloves or masks and many suffer from respiratory ailments, such as asthma. Other conditions that have affected workers include anaemia, kidney problems, cancer and frequent miscarriages. A 2007 study by the United Nations Environment Programme found that at least half the children in surrounding neighbourhoods had heavy metal concentrations in their blood that exceed the minimum level set by the World Health Organisation. Some estimates say around half the workers on the dump are under 18. A site for a new dump was earmarked near Nairobi's international airport, but that idea stalled this year when the Kenya Airports Authority said birds attracted by the rubbish could endanger planes. The Trash and Tragedy report says many workers do not support plans to close the dump, where 850 tonnes of waste are deposited each day. Father John Webootsa, who lives nearby in Korogocho slum, understands this. "It brings money and it brings death," says the Comboni priest, who has campaigned for years to have the 30-acre dump relocated. He organises vocational training and loans for scavengers to help them escape. "We believe this is not a life that human beings should live," he says. "Many [people] have died and others are dying. Others have been burned by the acid, the 'boilers' [contaminated industrial waste barrels] that are there. Beneath that garbage, there are boiling chemicals, and people may be burned if they step on them by accident." Korogocho, which means "crowded shoulder to shoulder" in Kiswahili, appears to have been forgotten by the government. On one of the narrow streets, pigs snuffle among piles of rubbish, just yards from the body of a dead dog. Webootsa says people here feel rejected by society and by the government. "Social amenities are not provided, the government is not here. We do not have a public health facility … there are only two schools, and they were built by us," he says. But the dump is a source of wealth and power for the men at the top of an informal cartel that runs the site. With no government control, there is plenty of room for gangsters to wield their influence. Visitors must organise and pay for "security" to walk around the site and to take photographs. The report says powerful business interests have rallied communities against the decommissioning process. "Most of the anti-decomissioning forces have deeply vested business interests that thrive in the prevailing chaos," it says. The report argues that any solution requires a sea-change in Nairobi, a city of more than 3.5 million people where recycling is non-existent, or ad hoc. "Residents of Nairobi must take responsibility for their waste … a key step is to demand urgent delivery of a safe and comprehensive waste management system, with a functional sanitary landfill," the report says. Concern and its co-authors urge the government to use modern technology to isolate toxic waste in Dandora, and identify a site to build a sanitary landfill. Webootsa stresses that any solution must take into account the thousands working as scavengers. "They don't need the dump. They need the job," he says. "They don't need the rubbish. They will be happy to have a clean environment, they will be happy to breathe clean air, and of course, there has to be a proper livelihood." | ['global-development/global-development', 'environment/waste', 'world/kenya', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/news', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'type/article'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2012-09-18T14:14:46Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
society/2021/aug/31/pfas-toxic-forever-chemicals-air-breathing | Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ contaminate indoor air at worrying levels, study finds | Toxic PFAS compounds are contaminating the air inside homes, classrooms and stores at alarming levels, a new study has found. Researchers with the University of Rhode Island and Green Science Policy Institute tested indoor air at 20 sites and detected the “forever chemicals” in 17 locations. The airborne compounds are thought to break off of PFAS-treated products such as carpeting and clothing and attach to dust or freely float through the indoor environment. Experts previously considered food and water to be the two main routes by which humans are exposed to PFAS, but the study’s authors note that many humans spend about 90% of their time indoors, and the findings suggest that breathing in the chemicals probably represents a third significant exposure route. “It’s an underestimated and potentially important source of exposure to PFAS,” said Tom Bruton, a co-author and senior scientist at Green Science. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 9,000 compounds used to make products water-, stain- or heat-resistant. Because they are so effective, the chemicals are used across dozens of industries and are in thousands of everyday consumer products such as stain guards, carpeting and shoes. Textile manufacturers use them to produce waterproof clothing, and they are used in floor waxes, nonstick cookware, food packaging, cosmetics, firefighting foam and much more. PFAS are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down. They accumulate in animals, including humans, and are linked to cancer, birth defects, liver disease, thyroid disease, decreased immunity, hormone disruption and a range of other serious health problems. A February Guardian analysis of household products found fluorine, an indicator of PFAS, present in 15 items. The chemicals are so widely used that it is difficult to say with precision where all the airborne PFAS are coming from, though the new study also detected their presence in carpets and clothing at some sites. The study, published on Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology, used a new PFAS measurement technique for checking air. It found particularly high levels in several kindergarten classrooms and also checked the supply room of an outdoor clothing store, offices, several university classrooms, university labs and an elevator. A 2017 study found a correlation between high levels of PFAS in the air and in human blood serum, and the new study used modeling that found that kindergarteners were probably exposed to more PFAS by breathing them in than by ingesting the compounds. “This reinforces that as long as there are PFAS in products that we have surrounding us in our homes and in our lives, there’s going to be some amount that ends up in the air, ends up in dust, and we are going to end up breathing it in,” Bruton said. Also notable are the types of PFAS that the study detected. Among the most prevalent was 6:2 FTOH, a compound used in floor waxes, stain guards and food packaging. Industry previously claimed that 6:2 FTOH was safe, but in May the Guardian revealed that two major PFAS producers had hidden studies that suggested that the compounds are highly toxic at low doses in lab animals and stay in animals’ bodies for much longer than was previously known. Science from industry, federal agencies and independent researchers now links 6:2 FTOH to kidney disease, cancer, neurological damage, developmental problems, mottled teeth and autoimmune disorders, while researchers also found higher mortality rates among young animals and human mothers exposed to the chemicals. The new study also found high levels of 8:2 FTOH, a type of compound that major PFAS manufacturers in the US claimed to have phased out of production because it is so dangerous. Its presence suggests that not all companies have phased it out, or that it is in products made in countries where the chemical has not been phased out. “To me, this is one more reason to turn off the tap on PFAS production and use,” said Bruton. | ['society/health', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/pfas', 'profile/tom-perkins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-08-31T11:27:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2023/jul/11/heaviest-rain-ever-causes-deadly-floods-and-landslides-in-japan | ‘Heaviest rain ever’ causes deadly floods and landslides in Japan | Six people died and three others were missing after the “heaviest rain ever” triggered floods and landslides in south-west Japan. The Japan meteorological agency warned residents in Kyushu – one of the country’s four main islands – to stay alert for more landslides, a common hazard in mountainous areas after heavy rainfall. However, the agency on Tuesday downgraded an earlier special warning for heavy rain covering more than 1.7 million people in northern parts of the island. Japan has been hit by unusually heavy rain and powerful typhoons in recent years, raising fears about its vulnerability to the climate crisis. “This is the heaviest rain ever experienced” in the region, said Satoshi Sugimoto, a meteorological agency official. “The situation is such that lives are in danger and their safety must be secured.” The chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said up to six people were thought to have died as a result of heavy rain that caused rivers to burst their banks and disrupted to bullet train services, as well as cutting off roads and water supplies. The prime minister’s office said a taskforce had been set up to coordinate a response. “We have received reports that several rivers have flooded … and that landslides have occurred in various parts of the country,” Matsuno told reporters. “The government is doing its best to get a complete picture of the damage and taking measures while putting people’s lives first.” A 77-year-old woman was confirmed dead after she and her husband were found trapped inside their house, which had been engulfed in mud, in Fukuoka prefecture, local authorities said, adding that the husband had survived. Three other Fukuoka residents died, including one whose car had been washed away by a flooded river. The city of Kurume saw precipitation of 402.5mm in the 24 hours to 4pm on Monday – the highest ever recorded there – the meteorological agency said. A mudslide in the city hit seven houses, burying 21 people. Six were able to escape, while workers extracted nine alive and were working to remove five others. A man in his 70s was later confirmed dead. The body of another man was found next to rice fields near a flooded river, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and public broadcaster NHK. “The rain and gusts of wind were very, very strong, and there was lightning,” said Takashi Onizuka, a 62-year-old resident of a town near Kurume. “It was so horrible.” While Tokyo experienced blistering heat on Tuesday, other parts of the country bore the brunt of the annual rainy season. Scientists say global heating is increasing the risk of heavy rain in Japan. The weather agency said it had already been raining for more than a week in parts of northern Kyushu. Officials in the city of Asakura said they believed the rain had peaked, but warned there was still a risk of flooding. “Water levels in rivers are rising so we are staying vigilant against the possibility of overflowing,” said Takaaki Harano, a local official. Landslides represent a serious risk in Japan, where many homes are built on flat land at the foot of hills and mountains. In 2021, a landslide in the hot spring resort of Atami killed 27 people; and in 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan during the rainy season. With Agence France-Presse | ['world/japan', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/landslides', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-07-11T04:55:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/mar/30/builder-uk-construction-industry-plastic-waste | Builder aims to help UK construction industry kick its plastic habit | A builder from Merseyside has launched a project that aims to remove plastic from the British construction industry within two decades. Neal Maxwell, who has worked in the trade for more than 30 years, co-founded the non-profit organisation Changing Streams after a trip to the Arctic. Appalled by the levels of plastic pollutants in the Arctic Ocean and the often-lethal impact on animals in the polar region, Maxwell and researchers from the University of Liverpool have drawn up a programme that they say could make construction plastic-free by 2040. The sector is the second largest producer of plastic waste in the UK, after packaging. It is estimated the building trade generates 50,000 tonnes of plastic waste each year. Along with the architect Dr Gareth Abrahams from the university’s School of Environmental Science, Maxwell has drafted a charter that they hope could become legally binding. The programme for the construction indusry includes: • the phasing out of paint containing plastic; • the establishment of a “traffic light” guide to warn which paints contain plastic to dissuade DIY consumers from buying them; • the creation of a template house made without plastic; • the end of the use of plastic wrapping for building materials such as bricks and cladding. Maxwell co-founded Changing Streams in 2018 after he and his wife toured the Arctic on a scientific exploration ship. He said: “On board were 20 scientific specialists from all around the world who helped us understand about the environment and the impact global warming and plastic pollution was having. “We were told about the walruses while out in kayaks and learned about their feeding habits and plastic ingestion via clams when in the water. But the moment of truth for me came when we got back to England, when I went on our first food shop at the supermarket to stock up the kitchen again. When I saw row upon row of things covered in plastic it turned my stomach – I had to get out of the shop. “When I got home I realised I had to do something about plastic pollution. And I could only do that in the industry I’ve worked in for over 30 years. That trip and that moment in the supermarket afterwards convinced me that I should try to make my industry plastic-free.” Maxwell said he was even more shocked when he discovered how much plastic was used in the construction business. He and Abrahams hope a “carrot and stick” approach can win over builders, many of whom fear replacing plastic will raise their costs. “We will not only ask government eventually to adopt this as legally binding regulations, but also petition large pension fund providers which finance construction to adopt the charter as well,” Maxwell said. Abrahams says the University of Liverpool aims to construct plastic-free accommodation on its campus, which is undergoing a multimillion-pound rebuild. He said: “One of our projects is to create the first ever plastic-neutral commercially viable house. We want to show the building industry this can be done. And through things like coding paint we can hopefully change consumer behaviour as well.” Maxwell says plastic became widely used in the late 1950s and 60s. “What did we do before [it] was ubiquitous? Pre-plastic, we built houses, factories, offices and buildings without it. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. There are alternatives we have used before and new ones we can invent. “We used to use asbestos throughout our industry before we knew the damage it was doing to our lungs. We know the damage plastic is doing to our planet and other species. Shouldn’t we treat plastic as the new asbestos?” | ['environment/plastic', 'society/plastic-free', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/oceans', 'world/arctic', 'world/world', 'business/construction', 'business/business', 'uk/liverpool', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/henrymcdonald', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-03-30T06:00:17Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2011/apr/12/government-rubbish-waste | The government is talking rubbish on black bag waste | Craig Bennett | News of "victory over the bin police" prompted celebrations in some of the media this weekend. On Monday we were brought down to earth with the shock revelation that the government has failed to re-introduce weekly bin collections. If you believe all you read you'd be forgiven for thinking the world of waste is a rollercoaster of emotions with tensions perpetually running high with fresh outrage around every corner. It's a lot like a Victorian melodrama: The punishing of struggling families! The rats! The armies of residents! The rats! The immoral charges! The rats! The iron-fisted municipal state! The rats! Except that it's not. Despite the best – and most overblown – efforts of some government ministers and certain sections of the press, the move from weekly rubbish collections to more regular recycling has actually gone relatively smoothly. More than 80% of people are happy with their waste collection services and recycling has gone from strength to strength. When it comes to the weekly rubbish collections, Monday's "news" shows that, in this instance, common sense has prevailed. Attempts by ministers to force local councils to re-introduce weekly rubbish collections have failed because the very clear financial and environmental arguments for fortnightly collections have won out. Councils know that fewer bin collections and more recycling helps to cut down on expensive landfill and incineration and saves valuable resources. This leaves more money to pay for other services such as care homes and libraries. The government's own research shows that scrapping fortnightly collections would cost millions and slash recycling rates. They know alternate weekly collections are perfectly hygienic and popular as long as they're accompanied by weekly food waste collections. But it's not just the facts that count here. With local elections round the corner, public perception is critical and our councils' "act of defiance" tells us a lot about who it is they're defying – and it's not the public. If "working families" around the country really were as outraged as we're led to believe, councils might not be so keen to stick to their guns. So where is all this outrage coming from? The website of the often quoted Campaign for Weekly Waste Collections helpfully spells out that bi-weekly collections mean that "in plain terms general refuse will be collected only 26 times a year." The site doesn't reveal who's behind it and how many people it represents. In reality most people are happy to recycle and keen to waste less. And they don't see why their commitment to recycling should be ruined by the small – but very vocal – minority that repeatedly refuse to recycle at all and create a stink about rubbish. The government says it is committed to moving faster and further on recycling and to working towards a zero-waste society. But while councils are standing firm on weekly collections, we're seeing the "greenest government ever" driving backwards on recycling and waste and sneaking through plans to massively increase incineration by calling it renewable energy. Councils are being stripped of their rights to decide their own waste policies and local objections to multi-national incinerator companies are being overruled by Eric Pickles . If the coalition is really serious about tackling our waste mountain it should commit itself to halving Britain's black bag waste by 2020. But when it comes to waste the government is currently talking rubbish. • Craig Bennett is policy and campaigns director at Friends of the Earth | ['environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/craig-bennett'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2011-04-12T15:39:59Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2007/aug/15/ethicalliving1 | Banks are learning to reap rewards from going greener | Whether it's tracing the provenance of the shirt on our backs or asking about air miles required to deliver our coffee, UK consumers are increasingly demanding environmental and ethical awareness from the companies they use. And the same goes for banks and their products. UK banks are making a concerted effort to prove they have as many ethical and environmentally friendly credentials as the companies in the next sector. In fact, they are doing better than several other sectors, according to research by Covalence, a Geneva-based company that tracks the ethical reputation of multinationals. In its 2007 banking industry report, which covers 25 of the largest banks in terms of market capitalisation, Covalence says banks show the second best "ethical quote" reputation score from June 2006 to June 2007 compared with nine other industries, including mining and metals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and oil and gas. Antoine Mach, a Covalence director, attributes the good results partly to the fierce competition within the sector. Ethical standing, he says, "is becoming more and more important for banks as a way for them to differentiate themselves from each other, and so it is used as a competitive factor". And strong competition may have led to Britain's strong performance in the Covalence survey in comparison with its European counterparts. Among the 25 banks analysed by Covalence, HSBC came top, and Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland came fourth and ninth respectively. Lloyds TSB were also rated in the top 20. Banks' efforts to improve their eco reputation is not a new phenomenon, says Simon Propper, managing director of the corporate responsibility and strategy communication consultant Context. In fact, many high-street banks have had environmental policies in place for a number of years. The difference is they are "stepping up their efforts". This change is reflected by the fact the big five - Lloyds TSB, Barclays, RBS, HSBC and HBOS - make it a point to announce their efforts publicly. Carbon Barclays recently issued a Barclays Breathe Card and stated 50% of the profit would go towards projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions; Lloyds TSB has pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% by the end of 2012; HBOS's Green Miles initiative aims to halve the company's rate of travel growth in 2007, and RBS has invested £55m to implement energy-saving measures in its UK properties. But ask the average customer on the high street which bank is the greenest and you are likely to hear HSBC. This is unsurprising, according to Mr Propper. "HSBC was an early mover. Their CEO quickly grasped that this went beyond a [publicity] exercise and would be a strategic issue. They knew it was best to be among the leaders rather than react." HSBC was the first big bank to go carbon neutral in early 2005 and recently announced a $100m (£50m) donation to four environmental charities and groups. Its most recent environmental policy is to offer customers migration to a paperless green current account, which offers discounts on environmentally friendly purchases. But Mr Propper is sceptical about how effective the banks' green initiatives will prove. "They are comfortable talking about energy use and recycling, but they don't know what to do about the bigger issues. It's like a chemical company telling you what a nice garden they have in front of their plant." Sarah-Jayne Clifton, corporate accountability campaigner with Friends of the Earth, is also cynical about the banks's initiatives. "There are a lot of piecemeal initiatives which seem to be motivated by growing environmental consciousness, and if you're cynical you could say it was a ruse to gain market share." Anthea Lawson, campaigner at Global Witness, says that it's all very well banks undergoing green makeovers, but they need to look at all aspects of their business. She says HSBC is a joint arranger in helping the Malaysian timber company Samling sell a 23.3% stake in its business on the Hong Kong stock exchange, which, in her view, is an example of green practice failing to filter through. According to Global Witness, Samling is "notorious for destroying tropical forests and abusing local communities". "So HSBC is helping a logging company to increase its war chest," she says. "While the bank is planting trees to reward its retail customers for requesting online statements, Samling is cutting them down." In response, Francis Sullivan, HSBC's deputy head of group sustainable development and adviser on the environment, says: "Samling have been clients of HSBC for a long time and we are prepared to transact with them because of the progress they've made on good logging and sustainable policy." Mr Sullivan says all of HSBC's forestry clients are required to meet Forest Stewardship Council standards by 2009, when there will be a "review" of relationships. HSBC is not the only UK bank to come under fire. A recent report by the social and ecological justice campaign group Platform stated that provisional figures for 2006 indicated that RBS's emissions were probably greater than Scotland's and that it was "the primary UK bank financing new extraction of the fossil fuels whose use is accelerating the planet's atmosphere towards its climatic tipping point". An RBS spokesman questioned the "integrity" of Platform's report and said RBS did "not recognise a number of the projects mentioned". The spokesman added: "It is absurd to ascribe the blame for emissions for all our lending decisions at the door of RBS. Using this logic we would also have to take into account every car loan and mortgage." For consumers looking for a green and ethical bank, Ms Clifton suggests doing some research to "root out" those banks whose practices may contribute to climate change or environmentally destructive causes. Equally, she says, they should look out for banks making a concerted effort to invest in renewable schemes and support environmentally friendly projects. "It's not unrealistic," she says, "to ask people to be aware." | ['environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'money/ethical-money', 'money/money', 'money/currentaccounts', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-08-15T08:01:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2024/nov/25/pfas-microplastics-toxic | PFAS and microplastics become more toxic when combined, research shows | Few human-made substances are as individually ubiquitous and dangerous as PFAS and microplastics, and when they join forces there is a synergistic effect that makes them even more toxic and pernicious, new research suggests. The study’s authors exposed water fleas to mixtures of the toxic substances and found they suffered more severe health effects, including lower birth rates, and developmental problems, such as delayed sexual maturity and stunted growth. The enhanced toxic effects raise alarm because PFAS and microplastics are researched and regulated in isolation from one one another, but humans are virtually always exposed to both. The research also showed those fleas previously exposed to chemical pollution were less able to withstand the new exposures. The findings “underscore the critical need to understand the impacts of chemical mixtures on wildlife and human health”, wrote the study’s authors, who are with the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. PFAS are a class of about 15,000 compounds typically used to make products that resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and accumulate, and are linked to cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders, birth defects and other serious health problems. Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic that are either intentionally added to products or are shed by plastic goods as they deteriorate. They have been found throughout human bodies, and can cross the blood-brain barrier. Research has linked them to developmental harms, hormone disruption cardiovascular disease and other health issues. Plastic is often treated with PFAS, so microplastics can contain the chemical. Researchers compared a group of water fleas that had never been exposed to pollution with another group that had been exposed to pollution in the past. Water fleas have high sensitivity to chemicals so they are frequently used to study ecological toxicity. Both groups were exposed to bits of PET, a common microplastic, as well as PFOA and PFOS, two of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds. The mixture reflected conditions common in lakes around the world. The study’s authors found the mixture to be more toxic than PFAS and microplastics in isolation. They attributed about 40% of the increased toxicity to a synergy among the substances that makes them even more dangerous. The authors theorized the synergy has to do with the interplay in the charges of microplastics and PFAS compounds. The remainder of the increased toxicity was attributed to simple addition of their toxic effects. Fleas exposed to the mixture showed a “markedly reduced number of offspring”, the authors said. They were also smaller at maturation and showed delayed sexual growth. The effects they observed “significantly advance” the understanding of exposure to multiple chemicals and substances, the authors wrote. “It is imperative to continue investigating the toxicological impacts of these substances on wildlife to inform regulatory and conservation efforts,” they said. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/pfas', 'environment/environment', 'society/health', 'science/science', 'environment/plastic', 'campaign/email/detox-your-kitchen', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tom-perkins', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-11-25T14:00:46Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/dec/20/country-diary-struggle-for-existence-is-woven-into-the-fabric-of-a-wood | Country diary: struggle for existence is woven into the fabric of a wood | Beside this stony track, skirting the edge of woodland, there is an embankment with a solitary rowan locked in an embrace with the twining stem of a honeysuckle. The climber, gripping like a boa constrictor, has twisted a section of the tree trunk into the shape of a corkscrew. The tree and its strangler must have been entwined for at least 15 years. The rowan’s girth has expanded but the climber’s grip has been unrelenting, so the bulging trunk has begun to envelop a section of the honeysuckle stem. In another decade some of it will have vanished inside the tree, which is winning a contest played out at the metronomic pace of cell divisions in the protagonists’ annual increments of growth. Charles Darwin, in the concluding paragraph of On the Origin of Species, used the metaphor of “a tangled bank, clothed in plants of many kinds … dependent on each other in so complex a manner” to encapsulate his ideas of mutual adaptation and evolution. Those words play in my head whenever I pass by this rowan and its opportunistic tormentor. When this honeysuckle seed germinated, the tip of its seedling stem would have moved in slow, ever-increasing circles until it touched the tree sapling and began to coil around it. Climbing was essential because it needed bright light to produce flower buds. Reaching the sunlight, it bloomed with a crepuscular fragrance that drifted through the wood on warm summer evenings, attracting pollinating moths, rewarding them with nectar. Then, when blackbirds came to feed on the scarlet fruits in autumn, they voided undigested seed from a perch above another potential woodland support: the cycle of life was complete. The current catastrophic decline in biodiversity is often charted from a stocktaker’s perspective, as numerical losses from the inventory of life, but the beauty of a species lies not only in its existence, but in the complexity of its interactions with others. Honeysuckle’s struggle for existence is woven into the fabric of a wood, dependent on surrounding trees, insects and birds. As Darwin concluded: “There is a grandeur in this view of life.” | ['environment/plants', 'environment/forests', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/charles-darwin', 'science/science', 'environment/conservation', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-12-20T05:30:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2022/dec/07/sturgeon-told-scotlands-climate-targets-are-in-danger-of-being-meaningless | Sturgeon told Scotland’s climate targets are ‘in danger of being meaningless’ | Nicola Sturgeon has been warned Scotland’s highly ambitious climate targets are “in danger of being meaningless” because her government still has no clear plan to meet them. The UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC), an official advisory body, said the Scottish government would almost certainly miss its world-leading carbon reduction targets for 2030 by a substantial margin, despite Sturgeon’s repeated promises of radical action on the climate. In its annual report on Scotland’s climate strategy, the CCC said there were “glaring gaps” between its ambitions to cut emissions by 75% by 2030 and its success in meeting them. It was failing on farming, building emissions, recycling, peatland restoration and on cutting car use. Lord Deben, the CCC’s chair, indicated growing irritation with the devolved government’s faltering progress, which has been the subject of repeated warnings from the committee. “In 2019, the Scottish parliament committed the country to some of the most stretching climate goals in the world, but they are increasingly at risk without real progress towards the milestones that Scottish ministers have previously laid out,” Deben said. “One year ago, I called for more clarity and transparency on Scottish climate policy and delivery. That plea remains unanswered.” After the CCC’s criticisms last year – days after Sturgeon reiterated her pledges to be a world leader on climate at the Cop26 meeting in Glasgow – Scotland’s net zero secretary, Michael Matheson, said ministers were “resolutely focused” on delivering its promises. Sturgeon also brought the Scottish Green party into government last year and made both its co-leaders ministers, with a pledge to prioritise the climate. The CCC’s latest report repeats many of last year’s criticisms but this time warns the first minister there is an “urgent need” for a dramatically accelerated and detailed strategy to get closer to meeting the 2030 targets. Hitting that target was now “extremely challenging”. Emissions only dropped in 2020 because of the Covid crisis; as things stand, Scotland’s emissions would probably fall by 65% to 67%, leaving the country up to 8 megatonnes of CO2-equivalent short of its legally binding 75% target. It also reported that if the climate impacts of Scotland’s consumption of imported goods and energy was included, the rates were 22% higher a head in Scotland than the UK average, at 13 tCO2e a person in 2018. It found that: Despite pledging to stop the sales of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, sales of electric cars in Scotland had fallen behind England. Scotland’s plans to rapidly decarbonise heating in buildings “were still wholly inadequate” despite recent funding increases. Scottish ministers were failing to tackle high levels of meat and dairy consumption, key causes of CO2 emissions from farming. Scotland was meeting only half its target to restore 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of peatland a year. Scottish ministers were failing to work collaboratively with other UK governments on shared climate strategies. Colin Smyth, Scottish Labour’s net zero spokesperson, said the report left the Scottish government’s “empty rhetoric in tatters. On the three biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – transport, heat in buildings, and land use – the report card on the Green SNP government is a resounding fail, fail, fail.” Matheson said the CCC’s report was “a timely reminder of the scale of the challenge faced by government, industry and civil society”, and said it would influence the government’s forthcoming climate strategy. He insisted the government knew it had to dramatically step up its action. It was spending £1.8bn on decarbonising buildings, on renewables and on free buses for under-22s. “We are now entering the most challenging part of the journey to date, with a need to halve our emissions again within the next eight years,” he said. | ['uk/scotland', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'politics/nicola-sturgeon', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/severincarrell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2022-12-07T06:00:33Z | true | EMISSIONS |
money/2022/oct/11/ovo-energy-owes-me-more-than-2000-for-my-solar-power | Ovo Energy owes me more than £2,000 for my solar power | I have had solar panels on my roof since 2011 and used to receive quarterly feed-in tariff (FIT) payments from SSE Energy. However, since Ovo Energy started managing the payments I have been having problems. For the past nine months I have not received any money despite submitting readings in February, May and August. I have tried phoning Ovo numerous times but its automated message always warns of waits in excess of one hour. I also have written to the company with the automated response from the FIT team advising that at busy times it can take up to four weeks to respond. The three outstanding payments total in excess of £2,000. That money would be very useful to help me pay for the forthcoming increases in gas and electricity bills. I’m sure if I owed Ovo for nine months of gas and electricity it would be in contact. I cannot get through to a human being at the company to resolve this. Can you help? MJ, Wootton Bassett Your letter is one of several I have received about delayed Ovo FIT payments. At the same time you wrote to us you also emailed the Ovo chief executive, Stephen Fitzpatrick, and this did the trick. You were contacted almost immediately by a senior manager who informed you a cheque to cover the February and May payments would be in the post by the end of the week. The delay was blamed on the integration of the SSE business into Ovo (Ovo bought SSE’s energy supply arm in 2019) as the two companies dealt with FIT payments in a different way. Ovo waits until Ofgem has paid it before paying its FIT customers, which takes longer. The company offered a case of wine as a goodwill gesture which you accepted. You are glad to have finally got some answers (and hopefully your cash) out of the company but we don’t think you should be forced to write to the chief executive of a large company to resolve such problems. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at [email protected] or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions | ['money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions', 'money/energy', 'money/household-bills', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/zoewood', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-10-11T06:00:42Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2016/mar/12/german-greens-bucking-rightwing-trend-baden-wurttemberg | How one German region is bucking the rightwing trend by going green | Rightwing populists are on the rise across America and Europe, and, with anti-refugee party Alternative für Deutschland expected to sweep into three state parliaments on Sunday, Germany is no longer an exception. One region, though, is bucking the trend. In Baden-Württemberg, the party expected to gain most from an increasingly polarised political climate is not the anti-refugee populists, but the Green party, which has been strongly supportive of Angela Merkel’s open-borders stance. The incumbent Green state premier, Winfried Kretschmann, who has ruled in a coalition with the Social Democrats since 2011, leads the polls on 32%, three points ahead of his Christian Democrat rival – a historic upset right in the heartland of Merkel’s CDU. A win in one of Germany’s richest states promises to revitalise Europe’s oldest and biggest environmentalist party, which has been wandering in electoral no-man’s land since governing the country in a coalition with the Social Democrats from 1998 until 2005. The political situation in Baden-Württemberg is topsy-turvy in more ways than one. The only thing that stands in the way of a Green triumph is the ongoing struggle of the Social Democrats, traditionally their senior coalition partners. Kretschmann, a white-haired former chemistry teacher with a brush cut, is seen as a closer ally to the German chancellor in the region than her own candidate, Guido Wolf, who distanced himself from Merkel during the campaign by publishing a strategy paper in praise of Austrian-style refugee caps. Kretschmann, by contrast, has said that he spent every day “praying” for Merkel since there was “no one in sight” who could lead Europe out of its current impasse if she were toppled. Conservatives have dismissed Kretschmann as Merkel’s “stalker”. A joint factory visit last Friday was cancelled at short notice. CDU members had complained that it looked like their leader was putting her weight behind the wrong candidate. The Baden-Württemberg Greens largely defy the traditional picture of what their party should stand for. Kretschmann may once have been a former member of the Communist party, but he is also a practising Catholic, fiscally conservative and openly pro-business. The Green’s TV campaign ad in the region opens on its lead candidate in a traditional blue overall, practising carpentry inside his workshop. The film then cuts to Kretschmann in a suit, stepping into a shiny Mercedes Benz – one brand on a list of blue-chip companies such as Bosch and SAP based in the state. Shortly after coming into office in 2011, the 67-year-old had volunteered his own state as a site for the disposal of radioactive waste – a proposal verging on sacrilege in a party that had grown out of the anti-nuclear movement. Even on refugees, the Green party in Germany’s south west doesn’t sing from the usual leftwing songsheet. Unlike the rest of his party, Kretschmann has supported the government’s move to tighten asylum rules for migrants from the West Balkans and North Africa. The Green mayor of Tübingen has gone even further. In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, Boris Palmer called for an end to “unchecked immigration” and “Pippi-Longstocking politics”. In Baden-Württemberg, the Greens have re-interpreted the environmental movement as a decidedly centrist project. The fact that it works may be specific to the region. Apart from being home of the much-cited “Swabian housewife” mentality of fiscal prudence, the area has also produced many of the tech companies building Germany’s new renewable energy infrastructure. Even small communities like Schönau in the Black Forest have bought back their own grid and now run almost 100% on green energy. But a win for Kretschmann’s Mercedes-driving Greens on Sunday would send a signal not just to his party’s headquarters, where the left-leaning Fundi wing and the centrist Realo faction live in uneasy co-existence. Other green movements in the rest of Europe, too, may seek to copy a party that is ecological only to the extent that, as a recent Spiegel article put it, “even the owner of a Porsche Cayenne won’t see a contradiction between his choice of transport mode and his decision in the voting booth”. | ['world/germany', 'world/far-right', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/philip-oltermann', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-03-12T07:00:10Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2018/dec/07/scientists-say-most-diverse-coral-site-ever-seen-on-great-barrier-reef-discovered | Scientists say most diverse coral site ever seen on Great Barrier Reef discovered | A team of researchers says it has discovered the most diverse coral site ever recorded on the Great Barrier Reef. Great Barrier Reef Legacy, a non-profit organisation that conducts research trips on the reef, and scientist Charlie Veron, known as the godfather of coral, have identified the site on the outer reef. In a space no longer than 500 metres, the researchers say they recorded at least 195 different species of corals on a research expedition last month. The group first stumbled upon the site on a voyage last year, and returned in November to conduct studies. “I’ve spent eight years working on the Great Barrier Reef in just about every nook and cranny,” Veron said. “I thought there would be nothing new for me on the Great Barrier Reef.” Veron returned with the group to record the corals and will write a paper on the site. He said it was located in a general area that had been affected by widespread coral bleaching and coral mortality and it would take further work to assess why this particular spot had survived so far. It also appeared to have been unaffected by cyclones and other factors such as crown of thorns that threaten coral health. But he said it was likely just the result of luck, a combination of its location, currents and shielding from clouds. “It’s probably got as near as can be to an ideal physical environment,” Veron said. If its health continues, the researchers say the site could be used for future coral studies and collection. Dean Miller, the Great Barrier Reef Legacy science and media director and leader of the expedition, said there was still a danger that high temperatures this summer could damage the site. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has forecast mass bleaching and coral death could be likely along the entire Great Barrier Reef this summer. Scientists have warned that the recent record-breaking heatwave in Queensland could further increase above-average water temperatures on the reef and heighten the risk of bleaching. Researchers along the reef have already started setting out on boats to begin coral monitoring for the summer. “We just don’t know where and how the bleaching intensity is going to affect different parts of the reef,” Miller said. “Given it appears to have escaped the last two mass bleaching events we have high hopes it will be OK.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'environment/coral', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-12-07T00:59:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2015/dec/04/california-natural-gas-leak-methane-climate-change-old-infrastructure | Massive natural gas storage leak alarms California residents, climate activists | It’s the climate equivalent of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico: the rupture of a natural gas storage site in California that is spewing vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere and is likely to go unchecked for three months. The breach of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage site, near Porter Ranch has forced the relocation of hundreds of families, who complained of headaches, nosebleeds and nausea from the rotten-egg smell of the odorant added to the gas to aid in leak detection. The leak, which was detected on 23 October, now accounts for at least a quarter of California’s emissions of methane – a far more powerful climate-altering gas than carbon dioxide. Already, the ruptured storage facility has released well over the equivalent of 800,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide – about the same amount that would be generated by driving 160,000 cars for a year, according to the California Air Resources Board. Campaigners say the circumstances of the breach are a blot on claims by the US and California to be leading the fight against climate change. A group of residents are suing the gas company and state regulators. “This is a terrible man-made disaster. It is causing massive problems with so much methane being released, and it is going to continue at least until March,” said Richard Mathews, a computer engineer who is running for California state senate from Porter Ranch. “This is going to contribute to a lot of warming. It really is having a terrible effect.” Methane is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a climate-altering gas, in the short-term. Barack Obama this week led off a series of appearances by political leaders at a summit in Paris, intended to underline US commitment to a strong climate deal. The time lag and the scale of the breach brought immediate comparisons to BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11, caused lasting environmental damage to the marine wildlife and environment, and took three months to bring under control. The California breach has caused no serious injury so far, but it is already having a marked global warming effect, campaign groups said. Melissa Bailey, a spokeswoman for the company, said on Friday it could take three or four months to plug the leak. “This is a very unique leak,” she said. “All of our attempts to kill the well haven’t worked.” She said crews had made six attempts to stop the release of methane by pumping fluid into the storage well, which extends to a depth of 8,500ft. She said the relief well was assured of success. “These types of wells are a proven approach to shutting down oil and gas wells. Once cement is pumped in, the gas reservoir is cut off from the leaking well and gas can no longer escape. The new well will not be placed into storage operations. It will only be an observation well to monitor the storage reservoir,” Bailey wrote in an email. However, plugging the well won’t be quick. “The relief well process will probably take three or four months to complete. It takes that long because it essentially involves steering a tool to find a seven-inch pipe, more than a thousand feet away, thousands of feet below ground. Magnetics are used to locate the leaking well,” Bailey said. However, Mathews said that was an overly optimistic estimate, and that heavy rain expected in an El Niño year could slow down those efforts. “It can be days or weeks of probing around at a distance of 8,500ft, drilling to try and hit a seven-inch target and it’s so easy to miss,” he said. The breach of the California storage facility has drawn renewed attention to US ageing natural gas infrastructure, which is vulnerable to such breaches as well as slow methane leaks. The natural gas storage site is one of the biggest such facilities in the western US, and was originally built for the oil industry about 60 years ago. When the oil fields went dry, the infrastructure was repurposed, with the 8,000-foot well used as a storage site. R Rex Parris, who is representing Porter Ranch residents in a law suit against the gas company, said California should outlaw the use of underground injection wells for storage. In addition to the risk of leaks, such as this one, he said the injection wells are a threat to California’s water aquifers. | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oil', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'environment/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2015-12-04T19:24:25Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/feb/17/country-diary-butchers-broom-lily-family | Country diary: a colourful and surprising member of the lily family | We set out for Wick Wood under a bright blue sky, in a clear atmosphere that makes it great to be out and about. It’s bitterly cold. The frost in the air is an unseen presence that bites the nose and ears. There is warmth where the sun breaks through the trees, and the rising mist it creates tempts us to linger, to luxuriate for a moment or two. A few steps on and we’re back into the shade again. The temperature plunges, shards of ice litter the sides of puddles broken by earlier feet, and mosses and ferns are dusted with silver. We press on until we turn into a ride down which the sunlight flows to pick our way through thawed mud and still-iced turf. Early wood spurge are in flower but the most colourful bloom is easily missed. We stop where there are several clumps of butcher’s broom. As Ruscus aculeatus is new to one of my companions, we pause to look more closely. The female flower is tiny – only a few millimetres across – a beautiful formation of three yellow-green petals and three similar sepals, with a reddish-purple centre, that develop in the middle of what appears to be a leaf. These “leaves”, or cladodes, are expanded stems, with needle-sharp spines at their tips, no doubt to protect against predators. Each female flower develops into a cherry-sized scarlet berry, which is why this surprising member of the lily family is sometimes known as knee holly. Spines might deter some predators but here two stems have had most of their cladodes nibbled away. This is my last regular country diary, though I hope to continue contributing occasional ones. I can’t conclude without saying thank you to the Guardian team who have made it possible for me to contribute for the past 15 years – particularly Celia Locks, who first invited me to write, Anne-Marie Conway, the column’s current editor, Eric Hilaire, our picture editor, who has in recent years added photos to the online version, and to the subeditors. Thanks also to all those whose comments on the web have encouraged, occasionally corrected, and sometimes set loose tangential trains of thought. I am immensely grateful to you all. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/plants', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/winter', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/grahamlong', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-02-17T05:30:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2022/jul/05/california-wildfire-electra-fire | California: explosive wildfire more than doubles in size overnight | An explosive wildfire that erupted in California on Fourth of July more than doubled in size overnight, quickly consuming more than 3,000 acres by Tuesday morning. The fast-moving Electra fire, burning through the dried grasses and steep, rugged terrain east of Sacramento has forced hundreds of evacuations and continues to pose threats to critical power infrastructure according to officials with the California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire). What caused the blaze, which ignited in the afternoon, is still under investigation but officials said fireworks or a barbecue could be a possibility. It is just one of dozens burning in the parched American west that is bracing for another intense wildfire season. With months left before wildfire activity typically peaks in the region, more than 4.5m acres have burned across the US – an amount more than double the 10-year average for this time of year, according to the national interagency fire center (NIFC). The Electra fire, which officials said on Monday was “burning at a dangerous rate of spread”, and remains at 0% containment, forced holiday revelers in the area to flee. Roughly 100 people celebrating at a recreation area known as Vox Beach along a river in the area had to seek refuge in a nearby Pacific Gas & Electric Co facility, said Gary Redman, sheriff of Amador country, east of Sacramento. “The trees keep going down,” Redman told the Associated Press late on Monday, explaining why the evacuees had to remain in the facility for hours into the evening. “The whole place is on fire.” Firefighters had to work to clear a path to the facility so that a bus or patrol cars could be brought in to carry people out. They were safely evacuated, along with PG&E employees, about 9.30pm. The utility company said the fire had also affected power for roughly 13,100 customers in parts of Amador county and that several distribution lines had been de-energized to protect firefighters battling the blaze, at CalFire’s request. Along with a high rate of spread, the fire had also exhibited extreme behavior, generating large plumes of smoke that impaired air quality into the foothills and the Sierra. “Throughout California, we are still paying the price of an extended period of drought,” said Jon Heggie, a CalFire battalion chief, describing the stressed state of landscapes that are now more primed to burn. What he called a “recipe for disaster” – the combination of desiccated vegetation and rising temperatures that linger long into the night – are symptoms of the climate crisis that has intensified risk conditions. “The fire behavior we are seeing is not like what we started with in our careers,” he said, adding that the agency has had to rethink how it battles behemoth blazes. While the risks for ignitions now stretch across seasons, they are highest in summer and autumn months in California, when a rainy reprieve is unlikely and vegetation browns quickly, baked by rising temperatures. But the state is not alone in facing these dangers. Scientists with the NIFC highlighted in their most recent outlook that areas of the Pacific north-west, Hawaii and Texas are also among those expected to face increased threats in the coming months. Alaska, which has been hammered by an early onset of unusually hot, dry conditions, has already had more than 2m acres charred this year, breaking records and endangering Indigenous communities. More than 200 fires are burning across the state and forecasters have cautioned that this may only be the beginning of a harrowing summer of fire there. “While this doesn’t guarantee a record fire season this year, it does illustrate how dry conditions are across the state,” officials wrote in an update on 3 July. “It’s also an indicator of how busy firefighters have been so far this season with several months still left to go.” The Associated Press contributed reporting. | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-07-05T19:01:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2024/nov/15/the-guardian-view-on-un-climate-talks-rich-and-poor-nations-can-strike-a-win-win-deal | The Guardian view on UN climate talks: rich and poor nations can strike a win-win deal | Editorial | More than a century of burning coal, oil and gas has fuelled intense heatwaves, prolonged droughts, heavier rains and devastating floods. To prevent even more severe impacts, the UN global climate summit, Cop29, must deliver tangible results to keep global temperature rises below 2C – the limit defined in the 2015 Paris agreement. Achieving this goal means human societies can only emit a finite amount of additional carbon dioxide, known as the world’s “carbon budget”. Developed nations have exceeded their carbon budgets, while developing countries remain within theirs. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for centuries, turning past unchecked fossil fuel use into a costly planetary bill. Between 1870 and 2019, the US, EU, Russia, UK, Japan, Canada and Australia – home to just 15% of the global population – accounted for over 60% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment. This underscores the climate debt that rich nations in the global north owe to poorer nations. This reality – rather than oil and gas lobbying – should focus minds at Cop29 in Azerbaijan, where leaders must forge a new global climate finance plan by next week. Economists estimate that developing nations need $1tn annually by 2030, a figure that reflects the scale of the climate crisis. Yet there is little sign the rich world will contribute its fair share. A stronger, more unified approach is needed. Many of Africa’s environmental NGOs argue that the continent has been sidelined in global industrial shifts, particularly in green industrialisation, due to its lack of a robust manufacturing base and its role as a raw materials supplier. While advanced economies dominate green innovation, Africa faces significant hurdles, including limited technology transfer, expensive financing and weak governance. The economist Fadhel Kaboub, who advises the Kenyan thinktank Power Shift Africa, sees Cop29 as an opportunity to strike a transformative deal – if the global south can unite and negotiate for the technology and resources it needs to reposition itself in the world economy. Prof Kaboub describes the current climate finance model as “economic entrapment”. The evidence is stark: Africa holds 40% of the world’s renewable energy resources but attracts just 2% of global investments. With 20 out of 38 low-income African nations in or near debt distress, high borrowing costs and a shrinking manufacturing base leave the continent dependent on imports for life’s essentials. These challenges span the developing world, demanding grants, technology transfers and debt cancellation. Prof Kaboub says Donald Trump’s return to the White House could be a chance for countries in the global south to cooperate and forge a bold deal: to double their industrial footprint with green growth, powered by western technology, in exchange for critical minerals essential for the rich world’s energy transition. Africa, holding 20% to 90% of global reserves for 11 such minerals, could lead this shift. The outcome? A greener, richer world, with developing nations becoming key markets for foreign goods and services. Mr Trump may find the allure of crafting the “deal of the century” impossible to resist. Others – such as the EU or China – might also be ready to take up such an offer. Cop29 must mark a turning point where developing nations, united, demand a fair and transformative global partnership for a sustainable future. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and neither could the opportunity to reshape the future. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop29', 'world/azerbaijan', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-11-15T17:32:19Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2018/nov/21/amazon-indigenous-groups-propose-mexico-sized-corridor-of-life | Amazon indigenous groups propose Mexico-sized 'corridor of life' | Indigenous groups in the Amazon have proposed the creation of the world’s biggest protected area, a 200m-hectare sanctuary for people, wildlife and climate stability that would stretch across borders from the Andes to the Atlantic. The plan, presented to the UN Conference on Biodiversity in Egypt on Wednesday, puts the alliance of Amazon communities in the middle of one of the world’s most important environmental and political disputes. Colombia previously outlined a similar triple-A (Andes, Amazon and Atlantic) protection project that it planned to put forward with the support of Ecuador at next month’s climate talks. But the election of new rightwing leaders in Colombia and Brazil has thrown into doubt what would have been a major contribution by South American nations to reduce emissions. The indigenous alliance, which represents 500 cultures in nine Amazonian countries, has now entered the fray with its own proposal for a “sacred corridor of life and culture” that would be the size of Mexico. “We have come from the forest and we worry about what is happening ,” said Tuntiak Katan, the vice-president of Coica (Coordinator of the Indigenous Organisation of the Amazon River Basin). “This space is the world’s last great sanctuary for biodiversity. It is there because we are there. Other places have been destroyed.” The organisation does not recognise national boundaries, which were put in place by colonial settlers and their descendants without the consent of indigenous people who have lived in the Amazon for millennia. Katan said the group was willing to talk to anyone who was ready to protect not just biodiversity but the territorial rights of forest communities. Colombia’s initial proposal was smaller and focused only on biodiversity and climate. But government enthusiasm has waned since an election in June in which the rightwing populist Iván Duque took power. Brazil was more sceptical but had previously engaged in ministerial-level talks on the corridor-plan. Its opposition is likely to grow under its new rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who will take power in January. Last month Bolsonaro indicated he would only stay in the Paris climate agreement if he had guarantees ensuring Brazilian sovereignty over indigenous land and the “triple A” region. “136 million hectares of land and the Solimões and Amazon rivers would not be in our jurisdiction because they would be considered essential for the survival of humanity. So I ask you, with that Paris agreement, would we take the risk of giving up the Amazon?” he said at a press conference. This was seen by many as disingenuous because Brazilian sovereignty over the land has never been questioned by other countries, but it echoes a long-held – though unsupported – fear of the Brazilian right about the internationalisation of the world’s biggest rainforest. The indigenous leaders from Coica said they would press ahead with the plan regardless of the changing political situation. They are seeking government-level representation at the UN Convention on Biodiversity and want to ally with indigenous groups and NGOs in other countries. But their political power is weak and many fear they may come under a more violent assault by agribusiness and miners encouraged by the government to move into their territory. Katan said dialogue was the best way forward, but some communities were already preparing to defend their land with their lives. “We know the governments will try to go over our heads. We need a defensive strategy, a communications strategy. This is nothing new for us. We have faced challenges for hundreds of years.” | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/biodiversity', 'world/brazil', 'world/colombia', 'world/ecuador', 'world/americas', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-11-21T12:20:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2019/dec/16/the-guardian-view-on-climate-change-diplomacy-is-boris-johnson-up-to-it | The Guardian view on climate change diplomacy: is Boris Johnson up to it? | Editorial | Next year’s United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) will be held in Glasgow, with Boris Johnson in the chair. It will be the largest gathering of world leaders in Britain since the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics in London, in which Mr Johnson also played a leading role. Unlike the Olympics, conditions are hardly propitious for a successful UN conference in 2020. The COP25 conference in Madrid at the weekend ended with despair about the lack of progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To avoid repeating what was widely criticised as one of the worst outcomes in 25 years of climate negotiations, Mr Johnson will have to display hitherto unknown diplomatic depths. The irony is that he needs a global green deal while pursuing a post-Brexit British trade policy to outcompete the European Union by undercutting green standards. Madrid was a depressing example of how not to do international diplomacy. This is not the fault of Spain, which took over the running of the conference at short notice after Chile, which had been due to host, pulled out following bloody unrest at home. Understandably distracted, Chile’s lack of leadership saw a coalition of states with strong links to fossil fuel industry – the United States, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia – seize the opportunity to undermine the talks. Their success was to render meaningless the summit’s final declaration. This is a snub to science and strikers in a year of unprecedented climate activism. If this climate denialism persists we will pay a heavy price. Under the Paris agreement 190-odd countries have plans which, if implemented, would still see Earth’s temperature rise by 3.2 degrees. Scientists have warn that beyond 1.5 degrees of warming there’s a real risk of extreme heat, drought and floods becoming the norm. Next year countries will have to bridge the gap between the policies now in place and what is required to stop global heating with a round of new, bolder climate pledges. As the impact of the emergency becomes more evident, so does the scale of the challenge ahead. The UN now says that countries must increase their ambitions fivefold. Mr Johnson does not want a rerun of the UN summit in Copenhagen in 2009, which ended in failure amid clashes between 100,000 environmental protesters and Danish police. To ensure that the Glasgow conference passes off smoothly, he will first have to show that he is cleaning up his act at home. At present the government won’t hit carbon reduction targets after 2028, hardly inspiring confidence that the UK will reach net-zero by 2050. This needs more than just a new government department. Mr Johnson’s newfound green zeal can be politically useful: his manifesto promised to spend £6bn on improving the energy efficiency of 2.2m social homes, which may be allocated – brazenly – to the constituencies of new northern Tory MPs. But whatever his own approach, Mr Johnson’s fate is in the hands of others. Most important are US voters who might deliver a Democratic president just days before the Glasgow summit takes place. This would halt the Trump White House’s attempt to withdraw from the Paris agreement. EU leaders hope to strike a bargain with Beijing next September, so efforts to cut emissions remain meaningful even without the US. The Paris agreement has Mr Johnson facing one way on climate, but Brexit has him facing the other way. He will have to choose, perhaps symbolically by cracking down on City financing for dirty coal abroad. The world is not short of ideas to realise climate goals. We urge and encourage the prime minister to secure a global response that matches the scale of the crisis. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop-25-un-climate-change-conference', 'politics/politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'uk/glasgow', 'uk/scotland', 'uk/uk', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-12-16T18:49:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2013/mar/18/china-arctic-mineral-investment | China pours cash into melting Arctic in bid to win influence | At face value, it is not one of the world's most important relationships. When Norway and China fell out two years ago over a Nobel prize awarded to a Chinese dissident, the spat had little wider resonance. But diplomatic relations are thawing as quickly as Arctic ice – and the upshot could be significant for the frigid northern wastes of the planet, which are thought to sit on formidable quantities of mineral reserves. China has been cosying up to Arctic countries as part of its effort to secure "permanent observer" status on the Arctic Council, an eight-country political body that decides regional policy. Norway was initially sniffy at the approaches because of the Nobel row, but appears to have changed its tune before a formal decision in May. Last week, the Norwegian foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, told reporters in Oslo that he strongly supported China's application. The "argument for opening up for more observers in the Arctic Council is that they will then be a member of our club," he said, according to Norwegian media. "Then the danger of them forming their own club will be smaller." "There are not many areas where Norway is important to China at all, but the Arctic is one of them," said Leiv Lunde, director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Lysaker, Norway. China, he added, was beginning to realise that its diplomatic boycott "is not good PR in sort of bolstering the positive image that China wants to bolster as an Arctic player". Currently, 80% of China's imported energy passes through the Strait of Malacca – a crowded, heavily pirated waterway that squeezes past Singapore. Yet over the past few years, melting Arctic ice, a casualty of climate change, has turned the frigid north into a viable shipping route. The newly navigable northern sea route above Russia would cut the distance between Shanghai and northern Europe by 4,000 miles, saving medium-sized bulk carriers about two weeks and £260,000 on each journey. Three years ago, no ships made the voyage. Last year, there were 46. Last August, Chinese scientists aboard a Ukrainian-built icebreaker, the Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, completed the country's first trans-Arctic ship voyage from Shanghai to Iceland. The trip's leader, Huigen Yang, told Reuters this week that Chinese shipping companies, encouraged by the ship's success, may be planning a commercial voyage along the same route as soon as this summer. Scandinavian shipping companies – long an influential force in the region's politics – are also ebullient about the development. "For the producers up north, all of a sudden they have a two-tier market to play on," said Henrik Falck, a project manager at Norway's Tschudi Shipping Company. "They can either ship their cargo to China or the far east, or they can send it to the continent as they are doing today. And the transportation cost is no longer killing the deal." Although China has never announced an official Arctic policy, some fear that its regional economic interests could have military implications. Furthermore, the US Geological Survey estimates that 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas reserves lie above the Arctic Circle, in addition to vast deposits of oil, coal, rare earths and uranium, and experts say that China wants to get in on the ground floor. "The way I see it, very minor investments for China now can warrant very big rewards in the future," said Malte Humpert, founder and executive director of the Arctic Institute in Washington DC. "It's a low risk and obvious choice." One indicator is China's recent interest in Greenland. The vast, self-governing country's parliament is considering approving a $2.3bn (£1.5bn) mining project north-east of the capital, Nuuk, which would be led by the UK-based London Mining plc but supply China with 15m tonnes of iron ore a year. The project, which may kick off this summer, would require a team of 3,000 Chinese workers, adding more than 4% to the country's population of 57,000. Some fear that it would affect Greenland's pristine natural environment, which locals rely on for hunting and fishing. Greenland's prime minister, Aleqa Hammond, who was elected last Tuesday, has promised to assuage these fears by limiting inflows of cheap labour from abroad. "What could the creation of a mine and the arrival of some 3,000 Chinese workers mean to me as an inhabitant of a hamlet? What will it mean to me and my hunting grounds?" she told the Associated Press. Tiny, 320,000-population Iceland may best represent the polarity of Europe's reactions to China's Arctic aspirations. Last year, Icelandic authorities rejected a Chinese billionaire's bid to turn land in the country's barren north into a holiday resort. Some said that the development's proximity to deepwater ports could pose security risks. Yet former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao made Iceland his first stop on his European tour last spring, signing Arctic co-operation agreements with the Icelandic prime minister. China's $250m embassy in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, can accommodate 500 personnel; in contrast the US embassy has a staff of 70. When the Snow Dragon icebreaker docked at the port of Reykjavik last August, the country's president was standing there to welcome the ship. | ['world/arctic', 'world/china', 'world/norway', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/sea-ice', 'environment/poles', 'environment/environment', 'tone/analysis', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathan-kaiman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-03-18T20:28:26Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2014/feb/09/global-warming-pause-trade-winds-pacific-ocean-study | Global warming 'pause' due to unusual trade winds in Pacific ocean, study finds | The contentious "pause" in global warming over the past decade is largely due to unusually strong trade winds in the Pacific ocean that have buried surface heat deep underwater, new research has found. A joint Australian and US study analysed why the rise in the Earth's global average surface temperature has slowed since 2001, after rapidly increasing from the 1970s. The research shows that sharply accelerating trade winds in central and eastern areas of the Pacific have driven warm surface water to the ocean's depths, reducing the amount of heat that flows into the atmosphere. In turn, the lowering of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific triggers further cooling in other regions. The study, which is published in the journal Nature Climate Change, calculated the net cooling effect on global average surface temperatures as between 0.1C and 0.2C (0.2-0.4F), accounting for much of the hiatus in surface warming. The study's authors said there has been a 0.2C gap between models used to predict warming and actual observed warming since 2001. The findings should provide fresh certainty about the reasons behind the warming hiatus, which has been claimed by critics of mainstream climate science as evidence that the models are flawed and predictions of rising temperatures have been exaggerated. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) addressed the warming pause issue in its 2013 climate report, pointing out that the Earth is going through a solar minimum and that more than 90% of the world's extra heat is being soaked up by the oceans, rather than lingering on the surface. Matthew England, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and leader of the research, said that while the solar minimum and aerosol particles have contributed to the slowdown, strong trade winds are the significant factor. "Temperature models have an envelope of uncertainty but it is clear that the last decade has seen a much flatter temperature change compared to the 1980s and 1990s, when the increase was rapid," he said. "We found that the wind acceleration has been strong enough in the past 20 years to pump a lot of the heat into the ocean. Winds accelerated in this period more than at any time in the past century; it really is unprecedented and the models haven't captured it all." The acceleration of Pacific trade winds has been twice as strong in the past 20 years compared with the prior 80 years, cooling the east Pacific and propagating the trend to other parts of the world. The study suggests the warming hiatus could continue for much of the present decade if the trade winds continue; however, should the winds return to their long-term average speeds, rapid warming will resume. "Even if the winds accelerate even further, sooner or later the impact of greenhouse gases will overwhelm the effect," England said. "And if the winds relax, the heat will come out quickly. As we go through the 21st century, we are less and less likely to have a cooler decade. Greenhouse gases will certainly win out in the end." England said it was unclear what has caused the increase in Pacific trade winds, although warming in the Indian Ocean has been cited as a potential trigger. Dr Steve Rintoul, research team leader at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, said the research shows that pauses in the rate of global warming are to be expected. "The oceans have continued to warm unabated, even during the recent hiatus in warming of surface temperature," he said. "Natural variations of the climate system also mean that climate trends estimated over a short period are unlikely to reflect long-term changes. A decade or two of slower or faster warming does not tell us anything about long-term climate change." Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said it is likely the current warming slowdown is only a temporary reprieve from brisk increases in global temperatures. "This new research suggests that when the trade winds weaken again, the planet can expect rapid warming of the surface to resume, as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise," he said. "We don't know what is causing these unprecedented changes, but the implications could be substantial." • This article was amended on 10 February, 2014, to give the correct Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion for the calculation of the net cooling affect on global average surface temperatures. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/ipcc', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-02-10T00:17:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk/2008/dec/06/law | Coastal campaigner wins legal battle to save clifftop property | A 77-year-old retired engineer from Suffolk, known locally as King Canute, yesterday won a two-year high court battle to save his ancestral home from the advancing North Sea. Mr Justice Blair told Peter Boggis that his "human predicament" should take precedence over claims by Natural England that the area beside his home on a remote stretch of East Anglian coastline near Southwold should be designated a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and effectively allowed to erode by sea action to reveal its treasure of ice age fossils. The judicial review ruled that the part of Natural England's designation which affects Boggis's home, the Warrens, was illegal. It has delighted other residents on the sea-threatened eastern coast who are campaigning for greater rights to protect their property. "Mr Justice Blair's judgment lifts a great shadow from my mind and gives hope for the future for those that live by the coast of Britain," Boggis said after the judgment. "We have lived a nightmare in recent years. Inconvenient or not to bureaucracy, the defence of the coast should not be walked away from." Since 1640 the cliffs where he lives have retreated more than two miles. They continue to erode at the rate of several metres a year. After a storm in 2001 scooped 10m of land from the cliff close to the home which Boggis inherited from his grandfather 13 years ago and now shares with his wife, Anna, the engineer and other residents spent hundreds of thousands of pounds building a sea defence from sand, gravel and soil beneath the Easton Bavent cliffs. Over several years he arranged for lorryloads of material to be dumped on the beach and employed digger drivers to form it into a defence. It worked well and absorbed the energy of the waves. Then in June 2006 Boggis discovered that the home-made defences, for which neither planning permission nor an Environment Agency permit had been sought, were considered illegal by Natural England, the government's conservation agency, which had extended an area of special scientific interest. A primary reason for the designation was the presence of Pleistocene-era fossils dating back 1.8m years, buried in the eroding cliff. The area had been an SSSI since 1982, but Natural England wanted to extend it to encompass Boggis's land because the coastline was naturally retreating in that direction. That meant he faced allowing the stretch of coast leading up to his home to erode. "I make it clear that no criticism is intended of Natural England," the judge said. "But without some form of defence the claimants' homes will soon be swept away by the sea, and their very human predicament must be taken account of too." The judge ruled the SSSI designation was "unlawful so far as it applied to the area on the seaward side of the Easton Bavent cliffs where the sea defences are situated and the land behind the cliffs". He remarked on Boggis's "substantial" undertaking along with other members of the Easton Bavant conservation group and on their "resolve to protect their land". He gave Natural England leave to appeal against the decision, but unless that is successful Boggis is now free to rebuild his sea defences, of which only a tenth remain as a result of daily wave action. "This is fantastic news because the government and all its machinery has been directed against coastal communities for a very long time," said Malcolm Kirby, an ally of Boggis and director of Coastal Concern, which is campaigning for the renewal of crumbling sea defences in Happisburgh, north Norfolk. Speaking from the family home while her husband attended the hearing in London, Anna Boggis was equally pleased. "It has been a long, long haul and it means my husband will be able to relax at last." | ['law/law', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/sea-level', 'type/article', 'profile/robertbooth', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2008-12-06T00:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/aug/05/country-diary-simple-farming-measures-bring-in-the-voles-and-nesting-birds | Country diary: Simple farming measures bring in the voles and nesting birds | Andrea Meanwell | In this wet period, we are lucky to have a mostly dry evening for our farm walk at Low Beckside Farm, Mungrisdale. The walk is one of a series of events for people who want to be part of the next generation of farmers here. I have organised the event with the Farmer Network and the Lake District National Park Authority as part of my National Trust role as future farming partnership manager. As well as working on our family farm, both my son Hector and I have full-time jobs elsewhere, meaning our farm work must be done in the early mornings, evenings and weekends. There is a long tradition of farmers with a “side hustle”; looking back in census records I can see many of my ancestors also worked in mines as well as having a farm. Hector works for the Ernest Cook Trust, a charity that owns the farm and provides educational farming opportunities for people in Cumbria. He leads us out into a large parcel of land that he has subdivided by reinstating relic hedgerows that had been lost over time. The hedgerows were planted up over the last winter by Hector and a group of students, made from hawthorn, bird cherry, dog rose and hazel. It has made the space more productive agriculturally, as he can rotationally graze the farm’s flock of hefted Swaledale sheep when they’re not on the fell. The hedges also act as corridors for wildlife – many birds nested in them this spring, and very soon after their creation there was an explosion of vole activity. There are also hares in the field and curlews nesting in the higher ground. The walk turns north, and we look over a large area that, twice in the last 30 years, has failed to drain successfully to make it more productive. It is now going into a Countryside Stewardship agreement and will become a new fen, with a large bund protecting it from run-off containing nutrients. Crucially, this new fen will hold water in the landscape, making it more resilient to flooding. This area has been terribly hit by floods in recent years, most famously Storm Desmond in 2015. Flood walls have been built or started, but we also need to make interventions in the landscape. As we depart, a rainbow appears where the new fen will be. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/farming', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/birds', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/andrea-meanwell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-08-05T04:30:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
music/2018/dec/01/feargal-sharkey-mission-save-our-chalk-streams-water-environment | Feargal Sharkey’s mission to save our chalk streams | Feargal Sharkey, the former frontman of the Undertones, is not a man who is short of opinions. By the time we’ve walked a few hundred metres, he’s discussed the plight of journalism, the destructive monopoly capitalism of Google and Facebook, the state of the music industry and the irrepressible nature of British creativity. But those are not the subjects I have come to talk to him about. We’re walking along the River Lea, one of southern England’s abundant chalk streams. There are, according to Wikipedia, 210 chalk streams in the world, and 160 of them are in England. Sharkey puts the figures slightly higher. The point is, though, according to this keen fly-fisherman, the large majority of them are in a parlous state. As we walk along the Lea valley, heading south from Luton, he points to stretches of grey, stagnant-looking water. “I can tell you – it should not be grey,” he says. “It really shouldn’t.” Sharkey has become something of an expert on chalk streams, and has his own impressive stream of facts and figures. They pour effortlessly from the famously inverted mouth that once sang the lyrics to such classics as Teenage Kicks and My Perfect Cousin, as well his own solo work, such as A Good Heart. If southern England’s rivers flowed like Sharkey’s condemnation of their ecological regulation, then there wouldn’t be much of a problem. He talks about the various agencies tasked with overseeing the health of England’s rivers – the Thames Water Authority, the National Rivers Authority and finally the Environment Agency. “In 42 years a bunch of bureaucrats have generated hundreds and thousands of pages of reports, models, hydrological studies, geological studies, fisheries studies and flow data. The last time I looked there were 39 separate reports about chalk streams in Hertfordshire alone. And yet only 14% of rivers in England reach good ecological standards. What the hell have they been getting up to for the last 42 years?” The way he tells it – with a kind of breathless passion in his still-intact Derry accent – there has been a shocking lack of investment in infrastructure, while demand for water, particularly in southern England, has hugely increased. “In the south of England,” he says, “we have not actually built a new reservoir since 1976.” The result is that water companies are drawing supplies from rivers that can’t cope, leading to drying river beds. They are also using them to deal with excess sewage. He cites the example of Thames Water, which was last year fined £20m for spilling 1.9bn litres of untreated sewage into the Thames. He says the water companies have been fined many times, although not at that scale. But as the judge noted in the Thames Water case, it’s often cheaper to offend than take the appropriate precautions. This is where Sharkey believes the Environment Agency has been far too soft on the water companies, allowing them to shirk their ecological responsibilities time and again. Sharkey honed his disputing skills during his years in the music industry. After he quit performing, he worked for Polydor Records and later headed UK Music, which represented all sectors of the industry. He is now retired and spends a fair amount of his leisure time at Amwell Magna Fishery, Britain’s oldest angling club, some miles further down the Lea. It’s based on a stretch of water that has been fiercely protected by the club from intruders, including the Ministry of Defence and the water agencies. The result is a pristine environment in which trout fishing is possible. But this fishery is a rare exception. The norm is increasingly exhausted rivers with minimal flow and poor management. As we walk past the East Hyde sewage treatment works, whose sign reads “Hello and welcome”, Sharkey takes out his phone and shows me a flow gauge of the river. Its peaks and troughs correspond to treated sewage being pumped into it between 9am and 6pm each day. “Guess what it does to the ecology of the river when you’re increasing the flow by six or seven times the normal amount every 12 hours? You destroy the river. Nothing can establish itself – not weeds, not invertebrates. Why can’t they drip-feed it over 24 hours?” Suddenly I feel like I’m in a Home Counties version of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, with murky goings on with the water company, and a dogged individual in the Jack Nicholson role, busy joining the dots. But the water companies are not the only people Sharkey blames. He says it’s estimated that 5% of homes in London are misplumbed, so that their waste goes into rivers rather than the sewage system. There’s one school in north London, he claims, that dumps 98,000 litres of effluent each day into a local river. He is calling for a complete overhaul of the water regulation business, the building of more reservoirs, a national water plan – rather than separate companies looking after themselves – and a national distribution network. It’s an ambitious list of demands but he says he’s hoping to get the ear of Michael Gove, the environment secretary, a man with a reputation for getting things done. “Whether or not they’re the right things …” he adds dryly. It would be a mistake to write Sharkey off as a former pop star with too much time on his hands. Now 60, he retains the youthful energy and gimlet-eyed focus of those explosive early Undertones performances. He’s got the bit between his teeth and he knows how to get access to powerful people. “We can’t continue this decimation of 85% of the world’s chalk streams,” he insists. “They’re our Amazon rainforest. If it was some other country doing this, the UK would be at the bloody UN shouting and screaming.” At the moment, it’s just Sharkey doing the shouting. But be warned, he’s got some voice. | ['music/feargal-sharkey', 'music/music', 'environment/water', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewanthony', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/focus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-12-01T16:10:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/oct/10/bird-species-extinction-north-america-climate-crisis | Two-thirds of bird species in North America could vanish in climate crisis | Two-thirds of bird species in North America are at risk of extinction because of the climate crisis, according to a new report from researchers at the Audubon Society, a leading US conservation group. The continent could lose 389 of the 604 types of birds studied. The species face threats to their habitats from rising temperatures, higher seas, heavy rains and urbanization. Those at risk include the wood thrush, a well-known songbird, and the Baltimore oriole, the mascot of Maryland’s baseball team. The recognizable common loon could disappear, as could the vibrant mountain bluebird. Bird extinctions are yet another face of the human-caused biodiversity crisis threatening up to a million animal and plant species. A related study from Cornell University last month found the US and Canada lost one in four birds – or 3 billion total – since 1970. “Birds are indicators of the health of our environment, so if they disappear, we’re certainly going to see a lot of changes in the landscape,” said Brooke Bateman, the senior researcher who wrote the report. “If there are things changing with birds we have to understand that the environment is changing for us as well.” Bateman said birds are an excellent lens for viewing environmental destruction, because they are visible and respond quickly. In the 1970s, humans realized the pesticide DDT was dangerous when birds were unable to successfully breed, she noted. Birds pollinate plants, control insects and help forests flourish, so their disappearances could have ripple effects. The report examined 140m records of birds’ current habitats from more than 70 sources, including sightings from birdwatchers. It used climate modeling from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to determine which birds might be forced to relocate. Researchers considered any bird species that would lose much of its range to be at risk of extinction. All 16 of the Arctic bird species studied are highly vulnerable to extinction, for example. The planet has already warmed 1C (1.8F) and is on track to heat up by at least 3C (5.4F) because of the way humans live. In that severe scenario, North America could lose 389 species of birds, or 64%. But if the world can hold heating to 1.5C (2.7F), the number of at-risk birds would decrease to 241 species, or 40%. In either case, bird lovers will notice the difference. Bateman explained that her five-year-old daughter will hear a different baseline of birds than she did herself when growing up. “What I would expect to see with climate change, especially around areas with a lot of people is … a homogenization of species you’re seeing,” Bateman said. | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/birds', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/canada', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/emily-holden', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-10-10T14:01:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/mar/28/a-depressing-failure-to-protect-the-ocean-from-exploitation | A depressing failure to protect the ocean from exploitation | Letter | It’s disheartening and depressing that UN member states couldn’t reach the agreement needed for a treaty to protect biodiversity in the high seas (UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks, 21 March). The longer they can’t agree, the longer the greedy plunder of remote seas continues. And yet the waters and wildlife in the high seas are already protected by international law and have been for 30 years, specifically by articles 117 and 118 of the UN Law of the Sea. Why did the international community not do what it signed up to? If protective law had been put into effect as it should have been, we wouldn’t be facing such a daunting ecological crisis in the ocean today. Nor would we be needing another treaty. Deb Rowan Wright Bristol • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication. | ['environment/oceans', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-03-28T17:19:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/dec/17/rainwater-pfas-us-potentially-toxic-levels-study | Rainwater in parts of US contains high levels of PFAS chemical, says study | New data shows that rainwater in some parts of the US contains high enough levels of potentially toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to possibly affect human health and may, if found in drinking water, in some cases be high enough to trigger regulatory action. PFAS chemicals appear in an array of everyday items, such as food packaging, clothing and carpeting. Chemicals in this family are the subject of the film Dark Water, which chronicles the real-life efforts of a lawyer seeking to hold a polluting factory to account in West Virginia. Estimates pin the number of different PFAS variants at more than 4,700 but federal regulations so far target only two of them: PFOS and PFOA. Some of these chemicals have been known to cause serious health issues such as cancer, and immune system and thyroid problems. Previously it was known that there is widespread PFAS contamination of the nation’s lakes, rivers and groundwater reserves but until recently, researchers were largely in the dark as to whether this family of chemicals could also be ubiquitous in rain. “There were folks not too long ago who felt the atmospheric transport route was not too important,” says Martin Shafer, principal researcher with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The data belies that statement.” During the spring and summer of this year, Shafer and his fellow researchers looked at 37 rainwater samples taken over a week from 30 different sites predominantly near the east coast, though as far afield as Alabama and Washington. They found that each sample contained at least one of the 36 different compounds being studied. While total PFAS concentrations were generally less than 1 nanogram per liter (ng/l), the highest total concentration was nearly 5.5 ng/l in a single sample from Massachusetts. Several samples contained total PFAS levels at or about 4 ng/l. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a health advisory level of 70 ng/l for combined PFOS and PFOA in drinking water. But many states have either proposed or already set significantly lower drinking water standards. Wisconsin, for example, has proposed a preventative action limit of 2 ng/l for combined PFOS and PFOA. Shafer says he suspects PFAS chemicals are entering rainwater through a variety of avenues, like direct industrial emissions and evaporation from PFAS-laden fire-fighting foams. Still, “there’s a dearth of knowledge about what’s supporting the atmospheric concentrations and ultimately deposition of PFAS”, he says. This isn’t the only recent such study of rainwater in the US. Last year, the North Carolina division of air quality began testing near the Chemours facility, which produces the PFAS GenX, and in February of this year, detected levels of GenX in rainwater higher than 500 ng/l. The state subsequently gave the plant the go-ahead to install equipment to significantly reduce air emissions. More than a localized problem, PFAS compounds “are transported significant distances”, explains Brooks Avery, a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, which is conducting its own study of PFAS in air and rainwater. Indeed, these compounds have appeared in the Arctic and in populations of Alaska natives. According to Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, more rainwater research is needed, as well as on “what we are inhaling and ingesti[ng] from house and office dust” contaminated by PFAS. These issues have “not been looked at until very recently”, she says. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/pfas', 'profile/daniel-ross', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-12-17T09:00:45Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/audio/2008/feb/20/environment.weekly.podcast | Environment Weekly podcast: the return of incineration | We look at Energy from Waste facilites - are these just incinerators by another name? We hear from the eight streets across Britain who are competing to be the greenest address in Britain. We visit the UK's first fully fledged ethical retail shop. And we consider Delia Smith's opposition to organic food. Joining us in the studio we have the Guardian's environment correspondent, David Adam, and corporate environment adviser Rob Holdway | ['environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/waste', 'environment/greenbuilding', 'environment/organics', 'environment/food', 'environment/series/environmentweekly', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'food/food', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-02-20T10:37:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
books/booksblog/2015/mar/16/ebooks-app-clean-reader-replace-swearwords | Books without swearwords? There’s an app for that | Do you like your books as they come, clean, or squeaky clean? Because there’s now an app that will let you state your preference, remove profanities from the text of your ebook, and replace them with “clean” alternatives. Clean Reader – “the only e-reader that gives you the power to hide swear words” – sells more than a million ebooks from its online book store. Its app allows users to search the text, and “put a non-transparent ‘highlight’” over anything potentially offensive. The blanked-out word is replaced, when it is tapped, with one judged suitably safe. So in a passage from its online demonstration – “‘Don’t tempt me, you little bastard,’ growled Vyder” – bastard becomes jerk. In a slice of a David Baldacci novel, “Pick up your damn game, Bobby”, becomes “Pick up your darn game, Bobby”. Why? They explain: “If there are books you’ve put off reading because you’ve heard they’re full of curse words, chosen to stop reading some books because you weren’t comfortable with the bad language in them, or if you worry about what’s in the books your children read … then Clean Reader is for you!” Ron Charles of the Washington Post found out more. The app is the brainchild of a mother and father from Idaho, Jared and Kirsten Maughan, who were concerned when their daughter began reading library books with “pretty significant swear words”. They couldn’t find an app that would help them remove the offensive words, so they worked with the Chicago firm Page Foundry to create a “profanity-filtering” programme. “We used several sites to generate our initial database of swear words/phrases,” Jared Maughan says by email. “Since then we’ve had help from a network of readers who send us words we’ve missed. As to which words go in which setting (clean, cleaner or squeaky clean), it’s basically a judgement call on our part. The replacement words can actually be fairly difficult. We have to consider how each swear word/phrase is most commonly used and then what the most appropriate alternate word would be to preserve context. Obviously the app doesn’t always get it right. There are times when the alternate word was chosen with the assumption the profane word was going to be used as a verb and in a particular instance it was used as a noun. But the vast majority of the time the alternate word is either not needed or is a good fit to preserve the general context.” Maughan says the app is going well so far, with the “velocity of downloads … definitely increasing”; there have been downloads in more than 90 countries now. “The original idea came from a conversation with our daughter. So we had young readers in mind when we first started,” he adds. “But as we told others what we were working on, we discovered there were a lot of adults who would rather not see profanity in the books they read. Books are kind of an interesting form of media. There’s no rating system for them. So when you browse through a bookstore you typically have no idea how ‘clean’ a particular book may or may not be unless you’ve heard about it from others who have read it first. So people like Clean Reader because it gives them an option to not see certain words in the books they’ve purchased if they end up being not as ‘clean’ as they’d hoped.” And if an author is concerned about their work being changed? That’s not the reader’s problem, according to a recent blog on the Clean Reader site. “Will some authors be offended that some of their consumers use Clean Reader to pick out most of the profanity in their books? Perhaps. Should the reader feel bad about it? Nope. They’ve paid good money for the book, they can consume it how they want.” At any rate, it’s winning good reviews. “Great app! I’m glad I don’t have to read all the profanity anymore! Great idea!” wrote one user. Another went so far as to say it had “brought me back to reading and loving books again”, adding: “Best app ever!” Not everyone is convinced, however. “Edits inappropriately, doesn’t understand context. [Removes] words that have multiple uses and aren’t necessarily curse words, destroying context in written works. Worthless,” wrote a third user. Unfortunately for profanity-averse readers, no such mechanism yet exists for the physical book, other than shutting your eyes and shouting “lalala” as loudly as you can, every time you get to a word beginning “fu-” or “cu-”. Now I’m off to see what happens to Trainspotting, once Clean Reader cleans up Irvine Welsh’s filthy act. | ['books/ebooks', 'books/booksblog', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'technology/ereaders', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/alisonflood'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-03-16T13:52:25Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2024/mar/14/tiny-forest-roosevelt-island-new-york | The Big Apple gets a tiny forest: 1,000 native plants coming to New York | A tiny forest filled with more than 1,000 native plants will spring up in New York City come April on a 2,700 sq ft plot of land on the southern tip of Manhattan’s Roosevelt Island. It will be the city’s first pocket forest, and supporters say it will bring both the beauty of increased biodiversity and tangible benefits to residents navigating increasingly extreme weather. Pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s, the concept of planting dense, fast-growing trees and shrubs is popular across Asia, Europe, Africa, South America and the Middle East. In the US, cities like Los Angeles; Berkeley, California; Portland, Oregon; and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have created mini forests with native plant species. “Today our cities are concrete on concrete,” Elise Van Middelem, founder of SUGi, a non-profit that will plant species like white oak, Virginia strawberry, New York fern and eastern white pine on Roosevelt Island. “When floods come or it rains really hard, there’s no more permeable surfaces. So one of the benefits [of mini forests] is that they act as sponges.” There is an array of benefits in planting Miyawaki-style forests, including cooling, shade, water and carbon absorption, as well as the restoration of ecosystems that can serve as a home to wildlife such as birds and insects. “Biodiversity is completely linked with the climate crisis,” Van Middelem said. “The array of beauty that comes back where there was nothing is just remarkable.” Planted in soil usually enriched with compost, layers of shrubs and canopy have been shown to grow at a high rate as they compete for sunlight. Once planted, these dense patches of greenery can thrive in small urban spaces without much upkeep. “I’m thrilled about this kind of green infrastructure that actually cools the neighborhood at a time of global warming,” said Manhattan’s borough president, Mark Levine. “We can and should do more of these. I’d like to see the next one in low-income communities of color that have far fewer street trees than wealthier parts of the city.” On high heat days, people of color and low-income residents shoulder the highest burden of heat due to poor air quality and lack of trees and shade, as well as inadequate cooling systems. Based on peak summer temperature assessments, the neighborhood of the south Bronx was 8F (4.5C) hotter than the wealthier areas of the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side. At roughly $200 per 10 sq ft, the cost of the tiny forest in Roosevelt Island is estimated to be $54,000, according to Van Middelem. It will be planted in an unused garden space leased from the city. With more than 300 volunteers and counting, the planting is scheduled for 6 April. | ['us-news/new-york', 'environment/forests', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aliya-uteuova', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-03-14T14:00:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/nov/02/clean-energy-investment-in-australia-fell-by-31-under-tony-abbott | Clean energy investment in Australia fell by 31% under Tony Abbott | Uncertainty over the future of Australia’s renewable energy target under the Abbott government precipitated a 31% drop in clean energy investment in Australia, according to the annual report of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The CEFC’s chair, banker Jillian Broadbent, noted in a foreword to the report that the 2014-15 financial year “saw an all-time record of around US$320bn of global investment in clean energy”. By contrast, “Australian clean energy investment fell by 31%”. “Uncertainty regarding the renewable energy target (RET) has negatively impacted investment in large utility-scale energy projects,” Broadbent said in the annual report, tabled in parliament out of session on Monday. The Abbott government sought to gut the RET shortly after winning the 2013 federal election – triggering a political battle that raged unresolved for months and paralysed new investment in renewables. Abbott also wanted to abolish the CEFC – an organisation he dubbed “Bob Brown’s bank” – but the plan thus far has been blocked by the senate. More recently, the new prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, despite his historically strong support for renewable energy, has refused to say unequivocally that he backs the CEFC. Turnbull told parliament late last month the Coalition did “not support government banks performing roles that can be performed by the private sector”. He acknowledged (the CEFC) had “done some good work, the question is whether it is an appropriate use of government money”. Under new administrative orders following the change of prime minister, the CEFC was transferred to the environment department, and the government has begun to warm up on investments in wind farms and small scale solar. The CEFC chair has used the occasion of the annual report to highlight the achievements of the organisation despite the considerable policy uncertainty, and also underscore the importance of a diverse energy mix for Australia. “It is important that Australia has a range of energy options for the future. Innovation and investment are vital to long-term productivity growth, broadly and particularly in energy,” Broadbent says in the report. “Worldwide, the energy sector is undergoing a transition that will result in a diversity of cleaner and smarter technologies and more distributed generation,” she says. “This presents opportunities and challenges for the Australian economy in our areas of natural competitive advantage, of which renewable energy and innovation are an integral part.” Broadbent reported the corporation made new investments of $484m million during the financial year and “has continued to grow and diversify its portfolio, to a total committed portfolio of approximately $1.2bn as at 30 June 2015”. “All investments are performing to our satisfaction,” she said. She made a pitch for the organisation to continue its work. “The CEFC continues to demonstrate its ability to contribute to the economic transition and diversity of Australia’s energy mix, and to effectively and collaboratively work with a diverse range of businesses and investors.” “Mobilisation of public and private sector investment (into renewable energy, energy efficiency and low emissions technologies) can provide important opportunities for economic growth and productivity in Australia.” Broadbent was also positive about the administrative transfer to the environment portfolio. “We welcome this, and the enhanced opportunity to coordinate with other environment portfolio initiatives and with our responsible ministers.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2015-11-02T08:29:07Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/mar/15/beijing-skies-turn-orange-as-sandstorm-and-pollution-send-readings-off-the-scale | Beijing skies turn orange as sandstorm and pollution send readings off the scale | A massive sandstorm has combined with already high air pollution to turn the skies in Beijing an eerie orange, and send some air quality measurements off the charts. Air quality indexes recorded a “hazardous” 999 rating on Monday as commuters travelled to work through the thick, dark air across China’s capital and further west. Chinese meteorological authorities issued its second highest alert level shortly before 7.30am, staying in place until midday. A broader warning for sand and dust blowing in from the western desert regions was put in effect until Tuesday morning. When Beijing’s realtime air quality index (AQI) showed a reading of 999, Tokyo recorded 42, Sydney 17 and New York 26. Hong Kong and Taiwan recorded “moderate” readings of 66 and 87, respectively. Levels of PM2.5, the small air pollution particles that infiltrate the lungs, were recorded above 600 micrograms in many parts of the city, reaching a 24-hour average of 200 before midday. The World Health Organization recommends average daily concentrations of just 25. The sandstorm blown in from the desert stretching into Inner Mongolia saw concentrations of the larger PM10 particles surpass 8,000 micrograms according to state media. State media reported at least 341 people were reported missing in neighbouring Mongolia, which was also hit by sandstorms, and flights were grounded out of Hohhot in inner Mongolia. On social media several people shared screenshots of other air quality indexes showed readings of more than 9,000, officially “beyond index”. Some residents in Ningxia, in China’s west, said they woke up in the middle of the night feeling as though they couldn’t breathe. One commenter on Weibo joked that they felt like they needed to learn how to ride a camel. Sandstorms are relatively common at this time of year, and usually attributed to winds blowing across the Gobi desert, but long-term residents said they had not seen one of this severity in years. Large-scale deforestation is also considered a factor in the spring dust storms, and China has been trying to reforest and restore the ecology of the region in order to limit how much sand is blown into the capital. Beijing has planted a “great green wall” of trees to trap incoming dust, and tried to create air corridors that channel the wind and allow sand and other pollutants to pass through more quickly. Beijing and surrounding regions have been suffering from high levels of pollution in recent weeks, with the city shrouded in smog during the national session of parliament which began earlier this month. Tangshan, China’s top steelmaking city and a major source of pollution in Beijing and Hebei, said on Saturday it would punish local enterprises for failing to carry out emergency anti-smog measures. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helen-davidson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-03-15T04:51:54Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk-news/2019/aug/28/police-investigate-officer-who-infiltrated-environmental-groups | Police investigate officer who infiltrated environmental groups | A former undercover police officer who infiltrated environmental groups for seven years is under investigation by police for deceiving women into sexual relationships and allegedly leaking secrets. Police chiefs are conducting a criminal investigation into Mark Kennedy, whose covert deployment was exposed principally by one of the women he had deceived. The investigation is examining whether Kennedy conducted “inappropriate sexual relationships” and whether he broke the 1989 Official Secrets Act, according to police. Police chiefs have claimed that undercover officers were not allowed to form sexual relationships with the campaigners they were deployed to spy on. At times, however, police chiefs have displayed a more ambivalent stance and argued that such relationships could be permitted. Kennedy adopted a fake identity for seven years and pretended to be an environmental and leftwing campaigner in a series of groups such as Climate Camp. During his covert deployment, Kennedy formed a number of intimate relationships with women without telling them that he was a police spy. The longest relationship lasted six years. Police have admitted that Kennedy deceived four of these women, who were environmental activists, into forming “abusive and manipulative” long-term relationships. The Met subsequently paid them compensation. Police have also admitted that Kennedy’s managers knew he was deceiving one of the activists, Kate Wilson, into a long-term sexual relationship and allowed it to continue. Kennedy was one of about 140 undercover police officers in two covert units who spied on more than 1,000 political groups in long-term deployments, usually lasting about five years, since 1968. After he was unmasked in 2010, Kennedy hired celebrity publicist Max Clifford to sell his story to the media and arrange a series of interviews with journalists. He had by then left the Metropolitan police. The investigation into Kennedy, codenamed Operation Montrose, started in January 2015 at the request of Scotland Yard. Investigators have interviewed an unidentified individual under caution and six others as witnesses. The investigation is led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and conducted by Metropolitan police officers, as part of a wider internal inquiry into Kennedy’s former unit. Undercover officers in the National Public Order Intelligence Unit infiltrated political movements between 1999 and 2011, when it was shut down following revelations about Kennedy and some of its other members. So far, 20 undercover officers who worked for the two units are known to have had intimate sexual relationships, some of them lasting years, while using fake identities between the mid-1970s and 2010. Police have paid compensation to at least 12 women who were deceived into these relationships. The other unit, known as the Special Demonstration Squad, operated between 1968 and 2008. The Crown Prosecution Service examined the cases of a number of the officers and decided in 2014 that none of them would be prosecuted for sexual misconduct – a ruling that it defended last year when it was challenged in the high court. It is unclear why Kennedy is being investigated over his relationships after the CPS made its decision. The NPCC said it “cannot make a comment at this stage, on the basis that Operation Montrose continues to be a live investigation”. Kennedy declined to comment. | ['uk/mark-kennedy', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'uk/uk', 'uk/police', 'environment/activism', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'law/official-secrets-act', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/robevans', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-08-28T12:21:58Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sport/2023/dec/08/rugby-league-to-lower-professional-tackle-height-over-concussion-risk | Rugby league to lower professional tackle height over concussion risk | Professional rugby league in Britain will lower the legal tackle height to below the armpit from 2025 as part of a sweeping number of recommendations approved by the Rugby Football League designed to make the sport safer for its players and lower the risk of concussion. In total, 44 recommendations made by the sport’s Brain Health and Clinical Advisory Group have been signed off by the RFL, ranging from the trialling of “concussion spotters” at games from next season to the introduction of match limits for professional players, capping the amount of in-game minutes they can play in any 12-month period. The most significant law change is the alteration to the legal tackle height. Currently, any tackle below the neck is deemed legal, with contact to the head resulting in a penalty. But after a high-profile trial this year in which the legal height was lowered to below the armpit in academy fixtures, it has now been recommended and approved that that ruling will become permanent. It will initially be rolled out at community and amateur level from next season before it is also integrated into the professional game at the beginning of the 2025 season. In the trial, across 24 academy fixtures in the summer, tackles around the head and neck regions were significantly reduced. The opening night yielded an extraordinary 57 penalties but, while that figure continued to be high throughout the trial, the number of tackles that included contact with the head went down. That has played a major role in the recommendations from the committee being carried forward, meaning rugby league at professional level will look and feel remarkably different from 2025. The RFL has met players and coaches from all levels throughout 2023 to update them on the plans, and the governing body’s chief executive, Tony Sutton, insists it has the support of key stakeholders and promises the changes have been made to protect the long-term welfare of the sport’s players. “The process will be dynamic and as we learn different things as we go through the process, we’ll make appropriate changes, but they won’t be opinion-based,” he said. The RFL chair, Simon Johnson, added: “We will continue to assess the data so that we can continue to make the game as safe as we possibly can for everybody that wants to play it and to ensure that the cultural change that we require for the game can be introduced.” From the end of next season, all professional players will also be required to take a mandatory four-week off-season, followed by another two weeks of non-contact training, meaning there will be six weeks every year when players are guaranteed to avoid training in full-contact. Furthermore, the RFL will introduce match limits for players to restrict their possible exposure to concussion. Any forward over the age of 22 can play only 2,000 minutes in a 12-month period, while any back can play only 2,400 minutes: the equivalent of 25 and 30 full games, respectively. There will be exemptions and dispensations weighted in, though; for example, if a player goes over that limit in a season, they will automatically be required to play less the following campaign. Stricter punishments for head contact will be introduced, meaning the likelihood of more cards in the early stages of next season. “Concussion spotters”, trained individuals who sit in the stands and inform a bench if a player is displaying possible concussion symptoms, will be trialled at professional games in 2024 in an attempt to protect players. The RFL’s chief medical officer, Chris Brookes, said: “Our clubs and the game have got to show leadership. It’s really important as we move forward that we’re explicit about why we’re doing this and the benefit to the players and the game.” The news of the law changes comes at a time when the RFL is facing a potential legal challenge from more than 100 former players, who contend the sport was negligent in taking reasonable action to prevent them from serious brain injuries. However, the RFL’s director of operations and legal, Robert Hicks, insisted that the prospect of that legal battle had nothing to do with the changes being made. He said: “I just don’t think there’s any point trying to speculate what either the legal or medical basis of that claim is at this stage. But to be very clear here, all these changes are based on knowledge that we now have and not in response to anything that may be happening in the legal claim. We’re being a responsible governing body, reacting and adapting the sport to ensure its long-term health.” | ['sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-recap', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aaron-bower', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-12-08T10:00:48Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/jan/26/indigenous-communities-use-drones-to-protect-amazon-river-dolphins | How drones are being used to protect the Amazon's dolphins | The drone is hovering above the Amazon river, but its battery is running low. André Coelho, the chief pilot, steers it back to safety with skills perfected by playing video games. Long hours practising on Need for Speed have become a surprising asset in the effort to conserve the dolphins that live in the river. Marcelo Oliveira, a conservation specialist at WWF Brazil, stands on the bow of the boat with arms aloft. He plucks the white drone from the air, changes the battery, and swiftly sends it back into the sky. Later, scientists will examine the video it has recorded for signs of the two species of dolphins that inhabit the river: the pink and bulbous boto, and the smaller, prettier tucuxi. Exactly how many live in the basin is a mystery. Some studies have tentatively pointed to a decline of the pink dolphins in specific areas of the Amazon, but both species of dolphins are categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “data deficient”. Scientists at the Mamirauá Institute, based in the remote Amazonian town of Tefé, have teamed up with WWF Brazil to use drones to collect aerial footage of the river. These videos will help plug a data gap; conservationists have found it is difficult to argue in favour of a species you know nothing about. “We need to base everything – all the decisions and everything we push – on hard data and hard science,” says Miriam Marmontel, a scientist at the Mamirauá Institute, when we speak on the institute’s floating base that evening. She believes there are at least 10,000 botos out there, but that the real number could be as high as 100,000. “This data builds slowly. It’s scary because there’s a lot of work going into it and you can’t really say anything. We need to focus on what’s really critical to help us get to a real status that can influence policy. We need numbers, we need information on mortality and reproduction. Those are crucial.” Marmontel’s biggest concern is that dolphins are becoming entangled in the nets of local fishermen. She’s found bodies to prove it – pink corpses floating in the lake with scars caused by gill nets. Scientists have also raised the alarm over fishermen killing botos as bait for piracatinga, a large carrion-eating fish popular in Colombia. Mercury contamination from goldmining is also a concern, as is the Brazilian government’s plan to build dams throughout the Amazon basin. According to a recent paper published in Nature, 140 dams have already been built or are under construction, with plans for a further 428. These would be impassable obstacles to dolphins, isolating communities and decreasing genetic diversity. “The threats are there. They’re just under construction,” says Oliveira. The scientists want to use the information they collect to persuade the IUCN to list the boto and the tucuxi as either “vulnerable” or “endangered”. Funding agencies and governments want urgency and evidence: without an IUCN categorisation, it is difficult to raise the money for protection measures. They hope their drone monitoring will do the trick. During three trips to the Amazon last year, the team has recorded about 70 samples that will contribute to a more accurate estimate of dolphin populations in the Amazon basin. When the team reaches land, they will count the dolphins by examining video footage – a method cheaper, more efficient, and more accurate than counting manually from a boat. To persuade IUCN to update the dolphins’ status, scientists across the South American region are also planning to use satellite tagging, thermal monitoring and ultrasound. Early next year, researchers from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador will meet to combine their monitoring efforts, creating the most accurate database on Amazon river dolphins to date. They plan to present it to the IUCN by the end of 2018. Despite their efforts, the database will still only cover a tiny proportion of the enormous region. Whether the IUCN finds this data sufficient to upgrade the status of the dolphin remains to be seen. | ['environment/dolphins', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'technology/drones-non-military', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-01-26T13:19:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2021/may/19/turkey-to-ban-plastic-waste-imports | Turkey to ban plastic waste imports | Turkey is banning the import of most plastic waste after an investigation revealed British recycling was left to burn or be dumped on beaches and roadsides. Greenpeace visited 10 sites in the southern city of Adana in March. Investigators found waste including British supermarket packaging in waterways, on beaches and in illegal waste mountains. Britain exports more plastic waste to Turkey than any other country since China banned imports in 2018. UK exports to the country increased from 12,000 tonnes in 2016 to 209,642 tonnes in 2020, about 30% of the UK’s plastic waste exports. But Turkey has a recycling rate of just 12%, and investigators found plastic packaging from Tesco, Asda, Co-op, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Marks & Spencer dumped, left in bags or burned. Plastic from retailers such as B&Q, Debenhams, Poundland and Spar was also found. Other European countries have also chosen Turkey as the main receiver of their rubbish. About 241 lorry-loads of plastic waste come to Turkey every day from across Europe, 20 times more than was imported in 2016. UK and EU rules say that plastic waste should not be exported to countries unless it is going to be recycled. On Tuesday night the Turkish government said it would ban imports of most types of plastic waste. A notice from the country’s trade minister removed some polymers from the waste products they would allow into the country. Greenpeace said the ban involved polyethylene (PE) plastic used in 94% of the UK waste exported to Turkey. It includes yoghurt pots, salad bags and plastic film. The UK exported nearly 198,000 tonnes of polyethylene to Turkey in 2020. Detailing the terms, Greenpeace said the restriction applied to high-density polyethylene (HDPE), “for example thick plastic milk bottles, shampoo bottles, detergent bottles”, and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) which includes, along with films, the likes of soft plastic bags. However, standard plastic drinks bottles are among items excluded from the ban. According to Greenpeace, Turkey will still import water bottles and fizzy-drinks bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), along with bottle caps – and some food pots and tubs – made of polypropylene (PP). Sam Chetan-Welsh, political campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “People have been appalled to see images of UK household waste dumped and burned in Turkey. The UK government must put a stop to our plastic waste impacting other countries. We need a complete ban on all plastic waste exports and legislation to make UK companies reduce the amount of plastic they produce in the first place.” • This article was amended on 21 May 2021 to add detail on plastics included and excluded from the Turkish ban, and to note that polypropylene features in bottle caps rather than bottles. | ['world/turkey', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-05-19T15:15:35Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
media/greenslade/2012/may/24/us-press-publishing-downturn | Famous American newspaper to give to daily publication | Updated 5.45pm: One of America's most famous newspaper titles, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, is to end its daily print publication. The paper's publisher confirmed that the newspaper will cease daily publication in the autumn, moving to three days a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. There will also be staff cuts. His announcement followed a story by David Carr in the New York Times, which predicted both events. The ending of daily publication will make New Orleans the largest US city without a daily paper. The Times-Picayune, with a circulation of about 155,000 on Sundays and 134,000 weekdays, will also be the largest American paper to shift to non-daily publication. Carr further reported that the Times-Picayune's long-time editor, Jim Amoss, will leave the paper after assisting in the transition. Two managing editors who were reportedly excluded from meetings in recent weeks will also be leaving. The paper's publisher, Ashton Phelps, announced his own retirement in March. The staff of the Times-Picayune (it's a Spanish coin) were noted for having distinguished themselves during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. After three days of online-only publication, the paper began publishing a print edition, and its follow-up coverage was praised as being deep and meaningful, wrote Carr. The Times-Picayune, which was founded in 1837, was acquired by the Newhouse family in 1962. Sources: New York Times/Poynter | ['media/greenslade', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'tone/news', 'media/us-press-publishing', 'media/downturn', 'us-news/us-news', 'media/newspapers', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'media/mediabusiness', 'type/article', 'profile/roygreenslade'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-05-24T10:54:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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