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news/datablog/2010/jul/27/wikileaks-afghanistan-data-datajournalism | Wikileaks' Afghanistan war logs: how our datajournalism operation worked | Well, we always wanted stories from data: now we've got it. In spades. With bells on. The Wikileaks' Afghanistan war logs are a fantastic victory for investigative data basedjournalism, not only here at the Guardian but at the New York Times and Der Spiegel too. It's also datajournalism in action. What we wanted to do was enable our team of specialist reporters to get great human stories from the information – and we wanted to analyse it to get the big picture, to show how the war really is going. It's been a busy month for those of us who work with data at the Guardian; this is how we got here. It was central to what we would do quite early on that we would not publish the full database. Wikileaks was already going to do that and we wanted to make sure that we didn't reveal the names of informants or unnecessarily endanger Nato troops. At the same time, we needed to make the data easier to use for our team of investigative reporters: David Leigh, Nick Davies, Declan Walsh, Simon Tisdall, Richard Norton-Taylor. We also wanted to make it simpler to access key information for you, out there in the real world – as clear and open as we could make it. The data came to us as a huge excel file – over 92,201 rows of data, some with nothing in at all or were the result of poor formatting. Anything over 60,000 rows or so brings excel down in dramatic fashion – saving takes a painfully long period of time (tip number one – turn automatic saving off in preferences…). It doesn't help reporters trying to trawl through the data for stories and it's too big to run meaningful reports on. Fortunately, after COINS, huge datasets hold no fear for us. Harold Frayman, who with John Houston regularly wrestles data from PDFs and other formats for the Datablog – built a simple internal database. Reporters could now search stories for key words or events. Suddenly the dataset became accessible and generating great stories became easier. The data was well structured (you can read more about how that structure worked here) ie, events were categorized, sometimes more reliably than others. We also started filtering the data to help us tell one of the key stories of the war: the rise in IED (improvised explosive device) attacks – home-made roadside bombs which are unpredictable and impossible to fight. This dataset was still massive – but easier to manage. There were around 7,500 IED explosions or ambushes (an ambush is where the attack is combined with, for example, small arms fire or rocket grenades) between 2004 and 2009. There were another 8,000 IEDs which were found and cleared. We wanted to see how they changed over time – and how they compared. The result is the data below – which shows us: • IED attacks over time • Where they happened by region • Casualties data recorded in the database The casualties data brought its own challenges – it was often inaccurately compiled and incomplete – we've added Nato-recorded casualties too, to test the veracity of the data and you can see how they vary. But this overview data doesn't convey the enormity of the thousands of explosions. One particular period – the three days in the run-up to last year's presidential election saw over 100 IEDs explode. Imagine living with that every time you set off in a truck down the road? This is where developer Daithí Ó Crualaoich came in. He helped us map the lats and longs of every event – not only that but produced an editable map (vectored, the designers call that). And then graphic designer Paul Scruton could make that beautiful for the newspaper (you can download it from Scrib'd below). Conveying that information online is a different skill – Alastair Dant (with Igor Clark's help) created two interactives for the site: • An interactive guide to all the IEDs, working from a spreadsheet with the geodata on (with design work from Paddy Allen and Mark McCormick) • An interactive 'front page' to our selection of 300 key events. Those key events were selected by the investigations team as being particularly interesting – Alastair's guide helps you navigate around them, each one clicking through to a page created by Harold (with key developing work by Daithi and Lisa van Gelder) where users can read the full report. We wanted to make as much of the raw data available as we could and we've published some large datasets: • The full set of significant incidents chosen by Guardian specialists • The IED attacks data It's inevitably the case that the work the helps shape a story is less interesting than the story itself. But in the future, as more and more of these datasets are released, these are skills that journalists will have to grapple with. As Roy Greenslade wrote yesterday: The emerging form of disclosure through the internet, pioneered so successfully in the past couple of years by Wikileaks, deserves our praise and needs to be defended against the reactionary forces that seek to avoid exposure. Have we published enough? Inevitably not. Have we started to make sense of an incredibly complex dataset? We hope so. Now it's your turn. Can you help us make more sense of the raw info? Download the data • DATA: download the summary data Can you do something with this data? Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group or email us at [email protected] World government data • Search the world's government datasets • More environment data • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter | ['world/the-war-logs', 'news/datablog', 'tone/blog', 'world/afghanistan', 'technology/technology', 'technology/blog', 'media/investigative-journalism', 'media/media', 'media/new-york-times', 'media/theguardian', 'media/national-newspapers', 'politics/freedomofinformation', 'technology/free-our-data', 'help/insideguardian', 'media/wikileaks', 'world/war-logs', 'tone/graphics', 'type/data', 'type/graphic', 'type/article', 'profile/simonrogers'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-07-27T11:12:59Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2016/mar/21/seaworld-orca-captive-breeding-programme | We forced SeaWorld into the orca U-turn. What shall we do next? | Patrick Barkham | At the end of 2013, I interviewed Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director of Blackfish, a documentary about SeaWorld keeping orcas in captivity. It had quite an impact, not least that human attractions such as US stadium rockers Heart and Willie Nelson declined to play at the theme park in Orlando. Cowperthwaite said she naively used to take her children to SeaWorld as a treat and had begun the film simply to examine how we relate to large predators. The story she unravelled about Tilikum, a male orca at SeaWorld that was involved in the deaths of three people, turned her into an inadvertent activist. It has politicised millions more. Despite widening ripples from Blackfish, it was still business as usual for SeaWorld in 2013. Its third-quarter profits soared to $120m and SeaWorld told me emphatically it would not stop keeping the whales in captivity. Two-and-a-bit years on, it has flipped more spectacularly than any show-bound cetacean. SeaWorld last week announced the end of its captive orca breeding programme and has promised to stop theatrical shows with performing orcas. Attendances and profits have plummeted because Americans have accepted the premise of Blackfish: you too would turn a little psychotic if you were imprisoned in a bath tub all your life. SeaWorld’s attempt to put a positive spin on stopping breeding orcas is pure chutzpah. Its breeding programme is probably doomed by a combination of regulation (Californian authorities last year refused redevelopment plans for its San Diego site unless it stopped breeding orcas) and the fact that its virile male, Tilikum, appears to be dying. The new world is not perfect – its remaining orcas could remain captive for decades because they can’t be released into the wild and SeaWorld is resisting calls to place them in protected sea pens – but it has been changed, by a film and its audience’s reaction. One can despair about halting the exploitation of species that make big money for powerful companies, but here is proof of consumer power. What shall we change next? Emperor of Milton Keynes I went on a journalistic expedition last week to the most distinctive and most maligned community in Britain: Milton Keynes. It is full of surprises, not least that a place so negatively perceived by outsiders, who trot out those cliches about roundabouts and concrete cows, is actually adored by its inhabitants. The residents of MK (as they call it – think football’s MK Dons) are surprising too. The purple emperor is a rare and elusive butterfly that usually lives in ancient oak woodlands. Last summer it turned up in the middle of MK – a perfect symbol of our most ambitious and successful new town becoming an accepted part of the British landscape. If it’s fit for an emperor, surely MK’s 50th birthday next year is an ideal moment for the Queen to grant it the city status it deserves. Come, friendly caterpillars Inspired by the landscaping of Milton Keynes (which was conceived as a forest city), I’ve just planted 150 shoots of sallow in my garden. I’m hoping these will grow into an interesting thicket for my toddlers. They might just lure a passing purple emperor, whose caterpillars feed on the shrub. Britain’s 22m gardens cover an area larger than Somerset, which is why Butterfly Conservation has launched a new online survey so we can record our garden butterflies. Butterflies constantly confound expectations. Now that I’m rewilding my once-lifeless garden, I’m hoping to be surprised. | ['commentisfree/series/notebook', 'us-news/seaworld', 'environment/whales', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-03-21T16:46:43Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2022/nov/10/weatherwatch-spicier-arctic-ocean-water-rising-temperatures-sea-ice | Weatherwatch: ‘spicier’ Arctic Ocean is causing alarm | Oceanographers sometimes classify seawater as either “spicy”, meaning warm and salty, or “minty”, when it is cooler and has a lower salt content. Temperature and salinity are important factors because of their effect on the density of seawater. Cold water is heavier and tends to sink, which can drive large-scale movement. This contributes, for example, to the well-known El Niño oscillation off South America. Salty water is also denser, and again tends to sink. These two effects may cancel each other out though, so spicy water, which is warmer but saltier, can have the same density as cooler but fresher minty water. In some sea areas, such as the Bay of Bengal, salty and minty bodies of water with the same density swirl against each other. Understanding the mixing process is important because it affects the temperature at the surface, a key factor in the formation of seasonal monsoon rains. There is concern that the Arctic Ocean is becoming spicier because of climate change. Previously, water density in this region was determined largely by the salt levels. Rising temperatures may lead to spicy intrusions and warm water persisting at the surface and not mixing with minty water below. This could have a profound effect on the formation of sea ice and accelerate its disappearance. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/arctic', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/sea-ice', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/sea-ice | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-11-10T06:00:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/jun/07/funding-needed-for-climate-disasters-has-risen-more-than-800-in-20-years | Funding needed for climate disasters has risen ‘more than 800%’ in 20 years | The funding needed by UN climate disaster appeals has soared by more than 800% in 20 years as global heating takes hold. But only about half of it is being met by rich countries, according to a new report by Oxfam. Last year was the third costliest on record for extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and wildfires with total economic costs estimated at $329bn, nearly double the total aid given by donor nations. While poor countries appealed for $63-75bn in emergency humanitarian aid over the last five years, they only received $35-42bn, leaving a shortfall that Oxfam condemned as “piecemeal and painfully inadequate”. As diplomats sit down in Bonn on Tuesday for the first session of climate talks on “loss and damage” – costs related to all climate destruction – Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB’s chief executive, described the finance gap as “unacceptable”. He said: “Rich countries are not only failing to provide sufficient humanitarian aid when weather-related disasters hit. They are also failing to keep their promise to provide $100bn a year to help developing countries adapt to the changing climate, and blocking calls for finance to help them recover from impacts such as land that’s become unfarmable and infrastructure that’s been damaged. “Wealthy countries like the UK need to take full responsibility for the harm their emissions are causing and provide new funding for loss and damage caused by climate change in the poorest countries.” Campaigners point out that the UK actually cut aid to climate disaster-struck countries before last autumn’s Cop26 conference in Glasgow. Rich nations blocked attempts at the Cop to set up a financial mechanism to cover claims for loss and damage, an issue that will resurface in the Bonn talks. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change chief, Patricia Espinosa, said on Monday that the time had come to address loss and damage issue “in an open, constructive and respectful manner”. The Cop president, Alok Sharma, declined to comment but a British government spokesperson said: “Cop26 marked a significant advance in action on loss and damage, we look forward to this momentum being maintained.” In a sign that the issue has risen up the global agenda, a G7 foreign ministers’ statement last month nodded to loss and damage for the first time, while Germany’s new climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, suggested a new “global shield” for climate as a possible solution. The percentage of official development assistance (ODA) moneys used for climate spending barely changed last decade, even as the sums required by catastrophe-hit countries were rocketing. In 2017, extreme weather was cited as a “major” factor in the majority of UN humanitarian appeals for the first time, the Oxfam report said. By 2021, it was a “major” or “contributing” factor in 78% of all such appeals, up from 35.7% in 2000. The UN expects a further 40% increase in climate disasters by 2030 but the human and financial cost from extreme weather is already mounting. More than half a million people have abandoned their homes in Somalia’s worst drought for 40 years, Save the Children said on Monday. A quarter of a million people died during the country’s last famine in 2011 – half of them children under five years old. Severe climate-related droughts are also continuing to spread in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, while South Sudan suffers a fifth year of extreme flooding. The four countries are collectively responsible for just 0.1% of current global emissions, compared with the 37% emitted by rich and industrialised countries, Oxfam said. “The report’s findings are stark,” said Madeleine Diouf Sarr, the chair of the Least Developed Countries bloc at the UN climate talks. “We emit almost nothing, but in our group of countries there are islands sinking, landslides burying homes, hospitals being washed away by catastrophic weather events. Rich countries have historic[al] responsibility for this crisis, why shouldn’t they contribute to cleaning up the mess?” Asad Rehman, the director of War on Want, added that the report showed “the brutal reality of a climate apartheid that is unfolding before our eyes”. “Rich countries are committing arson on a planetary scale and refusing to stop pouring more oil and gas on the fire they started. But when faced with the bill for the damage they have caused they claim to have empty pockets,” he said. “It’s a deadly response shaped by a colonial mentality that for 500 years inflicted injustice and inequity, with the lives of those with black or brown skins in poorer countries deemed less valuable to those of western citizens.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'world/oxfam', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/arthurneslen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2022-06-07T06:00:05Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2021/nov/13/the-problem-with-fixing-the-climate-with-trees-were-going-to-need-a-bigger-planet | We’re going to need a bigger planet: the problem with fixing the climate with trees | As the United Nations Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow winds down, many world leaders and corporate boards are embracing an increasingly popular idea to solve climate change: trees. The United Arab Emirates – one of the biggest oil producers in the world – promised to plant 100m mangroves by 2030. India said it aims to plant enough trees to cover a third of its land area with forests. Earlier this month the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, announced a $1bn fund towards planting trees, “revitalizing” grasslands in Africa and restoring landscapes across the US. And at the start of the conference, more than 100 countries pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. “These great teeming ecosystems – these cathedrals of nature – are the lungs of our planet,” Boris Johnson said, exalting the effort. Trees and forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, are indeed crucial to slowing global heating. But environmental groups and climate change researchers say there’s a serious problem with overrelying on such pledges: there just isn’t enough land on Earth to plant enough trees to soak up all the carbon that big polluters keep spewing into the atmosphere. To achieve “net zero” by 2050 using “land-based” carbon removal methods – a category that includes tree-planting, reforestation projects and land management techniques that help lock more carbon in soil – “would require at least 1.6bn hectares of new forests, equivalent to five times the size of India or more than all the farmland on the planet”, a recent analysis by Oxfam found. The oil company Shell would need to use 28.6m hectares (70.7m acres) of land – an area roughly the size of Italy – to offset 35% of its emissions by 2050 using such techniques, the report found. Ethiopia would need to use 50–60% of its land to meet current offset goals, Switzerland could need more than 830,000 hectares, and the EU could need up to 90m hectares. “Nature and land-based carbon removal schemes are an important part of the mix of efforts needed to stop global emissions, but they must be pursued in a much more cautious way,” said Nafkote Dabi, the climate change lead for Oxfam International. The idea of harnessing trees to solve the global climate crisis has long been appealing. In the US, tree-planting schemes have broad, bipartisan support, with 90% of Americans favoring planting about a trillion trees around the world to absorb carbon emissions, according to a 2020 Pew survey. As Mark Benioff, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce, put it last year after promising funds to plant 100m of them: “Nobody is against trees.” The growing enthusiasm for such planting schemes was bolstered by a 2019 study in Science, which estimated that 900m hectares of available land around the world could hold more than a trillion more trees, which could be harnessed in the fight against global heating. But critics soon pointed out that the study made flawed assumptions about what land was “available” for tree planting, how many trees that land could hold, and how much carbon those trees could take in. The journal published five responses outlining concerns, one of which concluded: “The emerging global political myth of massive tree planting and restoration as a panacea for global warming requires an unrealistically large area” – far more than the study suggested. At worst, tree planting schemes – beyond being ineffectual – can harm or displace vulnerable communities. In Pakistan, a “Billion Tree Tsunami” project launched in 2014 destroyed the pasturing lands of nomadic Gujjar goat-herders. “Conservation appears to be promoting further marginalization,” wrote Usman Ashraf, a political ecologist who documented the impacts of the project in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. As the zeal for tree planting projects grows, so does the backlash against them. Last week, Indigenous activists at Cop26 called carbon offset schemes “a new form of colonialism”. And before walking out of a conference event on offsets, activist Greta Thunberg urged attendees: “Stop greenwashing.” | ['environment/forests', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/maanvi-singh', 'profile/rashida-kamal', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-social-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/east-coast-features'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-11-13T06:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2016/jan/04/barbados-bust-holiday-shame-environment-agency-philip-dilley-flooding | Barbados or bust? Why we shouldn’t holiday-shame public figures | Archie Bland | Over the last few years, the kindergarten of British public life has firmly established its naughty step: the hearings of its esteemed select committees. A powerful mechanism for accountability though these hearings undoubtedly are, their in-built tendency to scapegoat (of course the shiny fat cat declining to answer the question is responsible for all the world’s ills, and of course it’s a pleasure to watch him squirm) does sometimes seem more appropriate for investigations into who hid the Lego than complex matters of public policy. This week, in keeping with the classroom tradition, Environment Agency chairman Sir Philip Dilley will appear before the environment, food and rural affairs committee to answer a question of national significance: What He Did On His Holidays. As the floods submerged much of the north of England over Christmas, Sir Philip was subjected to the fury of some parts of the press for the sin of having gone to the Caribbean. He had been spending his winter break at the holiday home he built in Barbados, and the committee wants to talk to him about what he was doing there. If he brings in the best sea shells he found on the beach, perhaps the MPs will put up a wall display. There’s no doubt the Environment Agency handled the question of Sir Philip’s whereabouts horribly. Not many people will have read an initial statement saying that he was “at home with his family” and understood that to mean “4,000 miles from York”, even if his wife is Barbadian. We should note, too, that Sir Philip can only blame himself for his current bind, having given an interview soon after he took the job in 2014 in which he criticised previous incumbent Chris Smith’s tardy visit to the Somerset Levels after floods there and acknowledged that “there is a sort of figurehead position that is crucial for perception”. All the same, just because Sir Philip has walked into this trap doesn’t mean we should rejoice in its setting. For one thing, he’s not the chief executive of the Environment Agency, he is its chairman, and whatever display of macho predecessor-belittling he indulged in two years ago, he should no more be involved in overseeing operations than Roman Abramovich should be in the Chelsea dugout. For another, the fuss – especially if it is to be given the imprimatur of parliamentary finger-wagging – is just another blow to the now fond-seeming idea that a position of public prominence should be tolerable for any normal person, as Jeremy Corbyn discovered to his cost when he had the temerity to go to Malta despite Labour being in a bit of a pickle. Holiday-shaming is now de rigueur for public figures unless they are willing to doggedly chew on a pork pie in Skegness for a fortnight, ideally having as crap a time as possible, so that if anything bad happens anywhere else they won’t automatically look like a member of the oligarchy. You may take this point and still feel that Sir Philip deserves no sympathy, so badly did he mishandle the situation. But even if you take that view, you should hope that the select committee doesn’t waste too much of its time on his whereabouts when it grills him on Wednesday – or on the more significant but still ultimately tangential question of how much he and his senior colleagues are paid, or how much they spend on chairs for staff. The Environment Agency’s budget for maintaining flood assets has not been cut by 14% because it occasionally buys new office furniture; the fact that twice as many households will be at significant risk of flooding in 20 years is not because Sir Philip spent his Christmas somewhere dry. Any political rhetoric that aids that misdirection is a disservice to the taxpayer. And any MP who indulges in it this week can expect a particularly keen eye on their own holiday plans in the year ahead. | ['commentisfree/series/first-thoughts', 'environment/environment-agency', 'environment/flooding', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/archie-bland'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-01-04T12:03:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2020/mar/09/tories-brexit-phoney-test-patriotism-mary-beard | Under the Tories, expertise has been replaced by a phoney test of patriotism | Nesrine Malik | If the period between the referendum and leaving the EU was when the seeds of a new political culture were sown, the season since the general election last December is when they have borne fruit. Downing Street’s consolidation exercise has not only extended to the purging of ministers who refuse to become vassals of No 10. It has weaponised the Brexit mandate it received by in effect turning the EU into a loyalty test. Based on who passes it, the Tories can then impose limitations on who has the right to assume government-vetted jobs, and how those jobs are fulfilled. In an episode right out of a cold war movie, last week it emerged that classics scholar Mary Beard was blocked by Downing Street from becoming a British Museum trustee last year. Whitehall sources told the Observer the decision was made because of Beard’s pro-European views, ones that she had felt free to express on social media and are shared by half the country. But the country in which she lives has changed. The social media walls have ears. A Kremlin-style monitoring of those with EU sympathies stalks public figures. Whether her views have any bearing on her ability to do the job is neither here nor there. Even the job of protecting the public has been affected. The coronavirus outbreak too has fallen victim to the obsession with blocking anything EU-related, no matter whether it could cost lives. Downing Street is now locked in a row with the Department of Health over access to the EU pandemic early warning system. No 10 is allegedly preventing the department from attending meetings with EU officials to coordinate a response to the crisis. The reason for this reckless politicisation of a medical emergency is that it would risk giving the EU leverage in negotiations. Strengthening Britain’s position against the EU will happen literally over our dead bodies. Soon, there will no criteria for how a public interest role is filled other than the candidate’s fealty and acquiescence to the control centre of a government that has put ideological loyalty above professional ability. Consider Alok Sharma, the secretary of state for business and new, UK-appointed president of the vital UN climate conference in Glasgow at the end of this year. Yet he has voted against setting decarbonisation targets, and has opposed incentives for renewable energy, and requiring the energy industry to have a carbon capture and storage strategy. Under Johnson’s government of vassals, the ability to do a job well seems to have become a disqualifying feature, lest someone’s vocational excellence and integrity undermine their pliancy. It was only a matter of time before “having enough of experts” turned into blocking those experts from doing their jobs – whether to make our lives safer, or our cultural life richer. It’s hard to keep up with all the ways the country’s political culture has deteriorated over the relatively short period since the referendum. The language of betrayal and treachery, at first a shock on the front pages that pronounced British judges “enemies of the people”, quickly became normalised as the withdrawal agreement negotiations turned into a sort of war re-enactment. Brexit became not a matter of bloodless negotiation with a large trading bloc, where both parties naturally wanted to maximise their positions, but an exercise in national chest-thumping as EU technocrats looked on bemused. The false binary of British or European was created. A new traitor, the “citizen of nowhere”, was identified. If they were not 100% with us, they must be against us. Britain prevailing and making a success of Brexit became a matter of believing, of having faith in your country: even the act of questioning or worrying about the future became suspect. Some of it we can laugh at. Nonsense about “patriotic breakfasts” the British negotiating team ate this month before talks began reveals only the juvenile pettiness of Tory HQ. We can be almost entertained by the awkward patriotic virtue-signalling of Conservative MPs sipping good old English cuppas. Rishi Sunak, of Winchester, Oxford and Stanford, and only recently of Yorkshire when he became an MP just five years ago, tweeted a picture of himself with the caption: “Quick Budget prep break making tea for the team. Nothing like a good Yorkshire brew.” But the rest isn’t funny. And any hope that it would subside with the delivery of Brexit, that the fever would break once it became clear that there was no conspiracy to thwart the “will of the people”, has disappeared with Johnson’s new government. In fake “patriot games”, he and Cummings have built a team around themselves that is more fortress than government, in a party that has barricaded itself against the country and against Europe. We should call things what they are. As we slip further into a dark timeline, being pro-EU is no longer simply a defunct remain position, it is a way for the Tories to sort people into us and them. This is authoritarianism. And it has to be challenged. We ignore culture-war skirmishes at our peril. Every flag-waving gimmick, every stunt, every media swipe at an elected “bureaucrat” for doing their job leads to this. It is no longer limited to a conflict between leavers or remainers, or internecine scuffles within the government itself. Loyalty tests are now determining whether we receive vital information from our closest neighbours on a pandemic, and who sits on the boards of public institutions. They may seem like separate isolated, containable incidents. But that’s what we always say about the first stages of a spreading virus. • Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist • This article was amended on 12 March 2020 to remove an incorrect reference to Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'politics/conservatives', 'tone/comment', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'politics/dominic-cummings', 'politics/politics', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'type/article', 'profile/nesrinemalik', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-03-09T07:00:02Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sport/2023/feb/01/delilah-welsh-rugby-union-choirs-banned-from-singing-tom-jones-hit | Bye, bye, bye Delilah: Wales rugby choirs banned from singing Tom Jones hit | The Welsh Rugby Union has ordered the 1968 Sir Tom Jones hit Delilah to be removed from its Principality Stadium choirs’ song list on the eve of the 2023 Six Nations. The pop song about a jealous lover stabbing his unfaithful paramour has been lustily sung by Welsh fans and become something of an alternative sporting anthem. But with the WRU reeling from allegations of a “toxic” culture and misogyny the governing body has responded to claims that it promotes violence against women by banning it. The song includes the lyric: “She stood there laughing/I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more.” A Principality Stadium spokesperson said: “Delilah will not feature on the playlist for choirs for rugby internationals at Principality Stadium. “The WRU removed the song from its half-time entertainment and music playlist during international matches in 2015. Guest choirs have also more recently been requested not to feature the song during their pre-match performances and throughout games. “The WRU condemns domestic violence of any kind. We have previously sought advice from subject matter experts on the issue of censoring the song and we are respectfully aware that it is problematic and upsetting to some supporters because of its subject matter.” Delilah, written by Barry Mason and with music by Les Reed, was released in 1967 and sung by Jones. The international hit went on to win a coveted 1968 Ivor Novello award, peaking at No 2 in the UK charts in March of that year. Along with another of Sir Tom’s 60s hits, the Green, Green Grass of Home, it has been a supporters’ favourite in the pre-match rituals of Welsh internationals down the years. The ban is bound to raise hackles among the game’s followers and news of the RFU’s action brought a caustic response from one Wales international, Louis Rees-Zammit. The 21-year-old wing posted on Twitter: “All the things they need to do and they do that first …” The acting Welsh Rugby Union chief executive, Nigel Walker, has warned the future of the game in Wales is at stake over the allegations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia that have rocked the organisation. Allegations of a “toxic culture” at the WRU were aired in a television documentary last week, resulting in the resignation of the chief executive, Steve Phillips, on Sunday. An independent taskforce is to be set up to tackle the allegations, with Sport Wales – a Welsh government-funded body – advising on the make up and remit of the panel. The Six Nations begins in Cardiff on Saturday when Warren Gatland’s Wales side host Ireland. Wales also face England at the Principality Stadium this year. • This article was amended on 2 February 2023 to remove a reference to Wales as a “principality”. | ['sport/wales-rugby-union-team', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/welsh-rugby-union', 'sport/six-nations-2023', 'sport/sixnations', 'sport/sport', 'music/tom-jones', 'campaign/email/the-breakdown', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/andymartin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/wales-rugby-union-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-02-01T15:31:15Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
uk/the-northerner/2012/aug/13/yorkshire-bogs-north-york-moors-walsham-moor-sphagnum-grouse | A tale of two bogs | Prepare to be bogged down. We have news both good and possibly unsettling about Yorkshire's bogs. The good news first, seeing as how we are all still glowing with Olympic afterburn. Work has finished successfully on the first, £170,000, phase of a Forestry Commission project to restore one of England's most fragile and threatened areas of bog and mire on the North York Moors. As you can see from the main photograph, the site is in the lee of the Fylingdales early warning base, whose looming pyramid replaced the more delicate trio of domes which Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described in his Buildings of England as: Three perfect white globes of great size on three perfect black plinths in the grandiose, undulating silence of the moor. The geometry of the space age at its most alluring and most frightening. The bog is May Moss, part of Langdale forest, and it is reckoned to date back nearly 9000 years in its watery, muddy state. That was at risk because of conifers planted after the Second World War to restore UK timber resources which had been depleted by military demands. At the rate of £1 a tree, in terms of a grant from the SITA trust, 170,000 of these have now been removed, with additional help from the North York Moors national park. Prolonged extraction of moisture through their roots has already eased with noticeable effect. Plants such as sphagnum moss and bog rosemary are starting to flourish again, along with dragonflies and many other less striking but ecologically valuable insects. Brian Hicks, an ecologist with the Forestry Commission says: We have restored 150 hectares of the bog, twice as much as originally planned, by removing trees and blocking drainage channels to help the site retain rain water. The signs are encouraging with the return of vegetation to areas cleared of trees. Despite appearances this is a living habitat with about a metre of new peat being laid down every 1,000 years. Bogs may not have the profile of rainforests or ancient woods, but ecologically they are just as important. The restoration was also an exciting process technologically, using huge excavators which are capable of ripping apart and mulching a conifer in a few seconds. Unlike some of those used in laying the M62 motorway on a raft across Moss Mire on the Pennines, none of these were swallowed up by the bog. Liverpool university has also installed discreet sensors to monitor new water flows. Moor ditch blocking is now being carried out by the Yorkshire Peat Partnership while vegetation is surveyed by National Park volunteers guided by York-based PLACE Education and Research Centre. Hicks says: Another major gain from restoring May Moss is that it is acting like a giant sponge, retaining water for longer and alleviating the severity of flooding downstream in vulnerable areas by reducing surging run-offs during storms or very wet periods. This links the project to the second Yorkshire bog to be in the news, at Hebden Bridge, where devastating flood damage in June has highlighted the issue of Walsham Moor, where drainage and vegetation burning to create ideal conditions for grouse shooting have caused a major storm. The Guardian covered the dropping of legal action against the moor's owners by Natural England in March, and on Friday the Northerner ran a post about a weekend protest march and the launch on Sunday night in Hebden Bridge of the national Ban the Burn campaign. Walk and launch went well and you can read about them in detail on the a very good blog here. There will shortly be a Ban the Burn Facebook page and other points of contact. Addressing the campaigners, environmental scientist Dr Aidan Foley made the same point which Hicks is making over on the North York Moors: I think one of the most important things for people to realise is not only that they can do something about this problem to improve the management of the catchment, the solution to the problem is very simple. It involves filling in the drains on the moors and alllowing them to revegetate. Filling them in lifts the water table, which means that there's greater storage much higher up the catchment. That changes the vegetation again to what it should be, that is sphagnum moss-based. And that's simple and straightforward. But potentially expensive. Meanwhile, all the different views are being added to a review of evidence about moorland and upland management by Natural England which should finish by the end of the year. | ['uk/the-northerner', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/blog', 'travel/yorkshire', 'environment/national-parks', 'uk/hunting', 'environment/birds', 'environment/flooding', 'books/nikolaus-pevsner', 'education/universityofliverpool', 'type/article', 'profile/martinwainwright'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-08-13T11:42:45Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2014/sep/11/tropical-forests-illegally-destroyed-commercial-agriculture | Tropical forests illegally destroyed for commercial agriculture | Increasing international demand for palm oil, beef, soy and wood is fuelling the illegal destruction of tropical forests at an alarming rate, according to new analysis that suggests nearly half of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of unlawful clearing for commercial agriculture. The report, by the Washington-based NGO Forest Trends, concludes that 71% of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012 was due to commercial cultivation. Of that deforestation, 49% was caused by illegal clearing to make way for agricultural products whose largest buyers include the EU, China, India, Russia and the US. The global market for beef, leather, soy, palm oil, tropical timbers, pulp and paper – worth an estimated $61bn (£38bn) a year – resulted in the clearance of more than 200,000 square kilometres of tropical forest in the first decade of the 21st century, the report says. Put another way, an average of five football fields of tropical forest were lost every minute over that period. As well as having “devastating impacts” on both forest-dependent people and biodiversity, the destruction of tropical forests for commercial exploitation has, according to the study, released an estimated 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon each year – equivalent to a quarter of the EU’s annual fossil fuel-based emissions. The study, Consumer Goods and Deforestation, says two countries – Brazil and Indonesia – account for 75% of the total area illegally cleared over the period. The countries are leading producers of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, which is used in cosmetics and household goods; soy, used in animal feed; and wood products destined for packaging. It suggests that at least 90% of deforestation for agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon is illegal, mainly because the legal obligation to preserve a percentage of natural forest in large-scale cattle and soy plantations was ignored. The report does, however, concede that much of the damage was done before 2004, when the Brazilian government embarked on a successful drive to reduce deforestation. The NGO estimates that 80% of the deforestation in Indonesia was illegal, with most of it cleared for palm oil and timber plantations. Similar patterns were seen in other parts of Latin America and Asia, as well as in Africa. According to the study, 90% of the licences granted to clear millions of hectares of forest in Papua New Guinea were issued through corrupt or fraudulent means, while in Bolivia the production of soy – 75% of which is exported – has been the chief driver of illegal deforestation in its Amazon region. It suggests that almost 40% of palm oil, 20% of soy, nearly 33% of tropical timber, and 14% of beef traded internationally comes from land that had been illegally razed. “We’ve known that the production of agricultural commodities is a principal driving force behind deforestation, but this is the first report to show the outsize role that illegal activities play in the production of hundreds of food and household products consumed worldwide,” said Michael Jenkins, the president and CEO of Forest Trends. He said that although increased agricultural production would be needed to meet the demands of the emerging global middle class, the world needed to wake up to the effect it was already having on tropical forests. Jenkins added: “Urgent action is needed to help countries where these agricultural products are being grown, both for governments to enforce their own laws and regulations, and for businesses aiming to produce commodities legally and sustainably.” If the trend is to be reversed, says the report, governments, corporations and investors will need to act quickly and in partnership. It urges producer countries to simplify land laws – and make sure they are respected by investors. It calls on consumer countries to ensure that the goods they buy have been legally and sustainably sourced. Companies, meanwhile, ought to make sure they buy and trade only legally produced commodities and refuse to do business in countries where legality cannot be guaranteed. The report’s author, Sam Lawson, said allowing commodities from illegally cleared land “unfettered access” to international markets was undermining tropical countries’ efforts to enforce their own laws, adding: “Consumer countries have a responsibility to help halt this trade.” | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/indonesia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/samjones'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-09-10T23:01:24Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global/2018/oct/05/i-never-believed-there-could-a-be-tsunami-palu-survival-and-loss-indonesia | 'I never believed there could be a tsunami': Palu tells of survival and loss | Amirullah, 55, was having a late afternoon nap in his home on Palu bay when the earthquake shook him awake. In the lounge his seven-year-old granddaughter was watching cartoons. She was so close to the screen that the 7.5-magnitude quake caused the television set to crash down on her head. “I told my wife to grab her and run first, and that I would stay and help my cousin,” said Amirullah, recounting the disasters that hit Palu, on Sulawesi island in Indonesia, last Friday. His cousin, 70, who was experiencing an episode of gout, needed his help. As the ground continued to shake they managed to reach the car, but it would not start. That was when the first tsunami struck – just five to 10 minutes after the quake hit – sending them up the street in a powerful whoosh and then back toward the house as the water receded into the next massive wave. Amirullah, tall and fit, grabbed hold of his roof on the slide back and yanked himself and his cousin up on to the tiles. Maruni, his wife, had jumped into the car of a fleeing stranger, while his 12-year-old nephew, Riswan, who had been praying at Arqam mosque, survived by clinging on to a coconut tree. Each personal experience would be shared two days later when the family was reunited, but while on the roof Amirullah thought he would never see them again. He chose the roof because he thought that if he died it would be easier for his wife to find him, rather than “washed up by a tsunami, God knows where”. From there he had a clear view over the sea, to the left the Donggala regency and to the right, Talise beach in Palu. He stood in horror and awe as tsunami waves from each side met in the middle, and twice more smashed down. The first of three waves was clear, but the second and most powerful one was muddy. Amirullah estimates that it reached six metres in height; Indonesia’s disaster agency said it could have been traveling at 250mph (400km / h). When movement in the Palu Koro fault caused last Friday’s quake, there was no official warning on the ground that a tsunami could follow. Straddling multiple tectonic plates, earthquakes are common in Indonesia. But residents in Palu say they are shocked a tsunami hit their bay, first smashing into Donggala on the western tip and then barrelling into Palu’s usually calm waters. “I never believed there could be a tsunami here. Palu is on a bay, not open sea,” says Maruni,shaking her head and fighting back tears. The 50-year-old returned to her house for the first time on Friday morning, a week after the quake and tsunami flattened parts of the coastline, killing more than 1,571 people. Less than a mile from her home the Ponulele Bridge lies semi-submerged; left and right the view is one of devastation. “It’s just crazy. Crazy,” says Maruni, as she searches through the rubble of her home for important documents – land titles, school certificates, family photos. Driving along the coastline the seemingly fickle nature of the damage is striking, swaths are flattened, while some buildings stand untouched. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the disaster agency spokesman, said high-resolution satellite data showed how Palu’s topography dictated how far the tsunami penetrated inland. When the wave met rivers, he said, it reached a mile and a half inland. In other areas, blocked by hills, it only reached as far as 2,000ft. But everywhere you go in Palu there are stories of loss and survival, each with their own set of dramatic and strange details. In the village of Loli Dongo on Donggala’s coast, Suriyani was knocked to the floor by the earthquake while she was praying. She ran up the hill behind her when she saw the sea was bubbling, and then watched as the tsunami hit her house below. Descending in the morning, she noticed the trail of beached tropical fish on top of the rubble. On Talise beach, the annual Palu Nomoni cultural festival was meant to be in full swing last Friday night. In an attempt to explain the incomprehensible destruction, some have blamed the traditional animist rituals, such as throwing a live goat and flowers into the water to appease the sea gods, that residents say were a part of the festival. They believe God is punishing them for diverging from Islam, the dominant religion in Indonesia. Last year, the festival was followed by a devastating storm; at the time, local Islamic leaders said the event should have been banned. This year, the festival is a marker for devastating loss. A week after the disaster, a few angry signs haand appeared around a horse statue on Talise beach that allude to the perceived wrath from above. Scrawled on one in big silver letters is “we reject Satan worshippers”. When the earthquake and tsunami hit, a group of dancers from the festival were performing, swallowing fire and swirling around to a quick drum beat, said Setyo Wibowo, a nearby shop owner. On Friday, Setyo was still searching for his daughter and daughter in-law who were on the beach for the festival. All the dancers, he noted, are also missing. | ['world/world', 'tone/features', 'world/indonesia-tsunami', 'world/indonesia', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/tsunamis', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/natural-disasters', 'global-development/global-development', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-lamb', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/indonesia-tsunami | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-10-05T14:10:43Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
law/2021/jun/24/uk-introducing-three-laws-that-threaten-human-rights-says-un-expert | UK introducing three laws that threaten human rights, says UN expert | Boris Johnson’s government is introducing three pieces of legislation that will make human rights violations more likely to occur and less likely to be sanctioned even as averting climate catastrophe depends on these rights, the UN special rapporteur for human rights and the environment has said. “These three pieces of legislation are shrinking civic space at a time when the global environment crisis demands that people’s voices be heard,” said David Boyd. He was referring to the policing bill, which proposes changes to enforcement and sentencing, the covert human intelligence sources bill, which protects undercover state agents from prosecution for crimes, and plans to weaken judicial review, the process to challenge ministerial decisions, including on the environment. These developments are “counter to the direction we need to be going in” at a time when the “right to the freedoms of assembly, association and expression are absolutely critical to environmental progress”, said Boyd. “One of the fundamental rights in jeopardy is access to justice and the changes to judicial review are a threat to that basic right,” he said. He was speaking after campaign group Not1More wrote to the UN urging intervention to protect the rights of peaceful protesters in the UK. Not1More said each piece of legislation would make “people who wish to access their democratic right to peaceful protest more vulnerable to undue restrictions, arbitrary detention and/or invasive policing”. The London-based group urged the UN to call for “accountability and no extension to police powers to curtail or break up protests or temporary encampments, and an end to violence against peaceful protesters”, which it says is increasing in the UK. New police powers to break up unauthorised temporary encampments would enable them to remove peaceful protesters from woodland protection camps near the HS2 rail development, and “residing in an unauthorised encampment would become an offence punishable with three months’ imprisonment or a fine up to £2,500”, it said. In a recent report to the UN with law firm Global Diligence LLP, Not1More documented 400 incidents of police allegedly using unwarranted aggressive behaviour to deter protesters against shale fracking and the HS2 line. It claimed police had violated protesters’ rights under international law, targeted people based on gender and disability and endangered lives, citing last year’s tunnel eviction in Euston. Boyd said he could not immediately verify those incidents but “any attack on any vulnerable population paints a disturbing picture”. “If you put this in the context of the global environmental crisis, the people trying to push us to address this crisis deserve our full support – it is in the public interest,” he said. “Protest is not the first thing that people do – taking part is a desperate act in a desperate time when we face desperate environmental challenges.” Referring to the recent moratorium on logging after protests on Vancouver Island, Canada, he said: “We have seen this again and again – protests have the impact we need. “The global picture is quite nuanced in terms of countries increasing repression – but the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 75 years old and it’s troubling when a country as wealthy and powerful as the UK is not moving in this direction.” He said: “There will have to be a backlash. If people see the UK government as increasingly repressive, at some point they will throw it out. These actions are counterproductive – we saw this in the US, where a terrible, repressive government has been replaced with an administration that in many ways is pro-human rights and pro-sustainability.” A government spokesperson said: “The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. Our proposed measures are in line with human rights legislation and in no way curtail on the right to protest. “Public order legislation is out of date, these new measures will balance the rights of protesters with the rights of others to go about their business unhindered. They will achieve this by enabling the police to better manage highly disruptive protests which have costs millions to the taxpayer and causes misery to businesses and local communities.” | ['law/human-rights', 'world/protest', 'uk/uk', 'law/law', 'uk/police', 'law/criminal-justice', 'world/surveillance', 'technology/data-protection', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jo-griffin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-06-24T14:58:20Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
uk-news/2021/oct/15/royals-weigh-in-on-green-issues-ahead-of-cop26-climate-conference | Royals weigh in on green issues ahead of Cop26 climate conference | As the UN Cop26 climate conference approaches, members of the royal family have increasingly been weighing in on green issues. The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William have all made comments in support of taking more urgent action on the climate crisis in the past few days. At the opening of the Welsh parliament on Thursday, the Queen was overheard saying it was “really irritating” when global leaders talk but do not take action on climate breakdown. Speaking to the Duchess of Cornwall and Elin Jones, the parliament’s presiding officer, the Queen said that although she would be at Cop26, she still did not know who would be attending the conference. She said: “Extraordinary isn’t it. I’ve been hearing all about Cop … still don’t know who is coming. No idea. “We only know about people who are not coming. It’s really irritating when they talk, but they don’t do.” The comments come after her grandson, Prince William, criticised the space race and space tourism, saying the world’s greatest minds need to focus on trying to fix the Earth instead. The Duke of Cambridge, who was interviewed about the climate crisis ahead of his inaugural Earthshot prize awards, said: “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.” He also warned those due to attend the Cop26 summit, where world leaders will gather in Glasgow at the end of the month, against “clever speak, clever words but not enough action”. “I think for Cop to communicate very clearly and very honestly what the problems are and what the solutions are going to be, is critical,” he said. “We can’t have more clever speak, clever words but not enough action.” On Monday, Prince Charles said businesses needed to do more to tackle climate emergency, saying that while governments can bring billions of dollars to the effort, the private sector has the potential to mobilise trillions of dollars. Warning about the threat of the climate crisis to the planet, he told the BBC: “I mean it’ll be catastrophic. It is already beginning to be catastrophic because nothing in nature can survive the stress that is created by these extremes of weather.” He added that, in an effort to become more green, he had converted a 51-year-old Aston Martin to run on “surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process”. Charles and William are expected to speak at the conference, while the Queen will also attend. | ['uk/monarchy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'uk/queen', 'uk/prince-william', 'uk/prince-charles', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/robyn-vinter', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-15T15:10:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
film/lostinshowbiz/2012/nov/01/lindsay-lohan-hurricane-sandy | If we all thought like Lindsay Lohan, we could have halted Hurricane Sandy | Lost in Showbiz is pleased to note the wide variety of responses to Hurricane Sandy from America's celebrities. At one extreme, there was hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who lambasted Mayor Bloomberg for making insufficient provision for New York's homeless: "They're fucked, it's terrible." At the other there was Nicole "Coco Marie" Austin, mammiferous wife of rapper Ice-T, who posted an online video of herself in New Jersey, jiggling her surgically enhanced breasts at the incoming storm. But Lost in Showbiz's favourite celebrity reaction came via Lindsay Lohan, who before the storm hit took to Twitter to complain: "WHY is everyone in SUCH a panic about hurricane? STOP projecting negativity! Think positive and pray for peace!" Lost in Showbiz salutes Hollywood's own answer to Michael Fish, steadfast in the belief that a Category 2 hurricane can be diverted from its course if people would just buck and think nice thoughts. | ['film/lindsay-lohan', 'lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-news', 'film/film', 'lifeandstyle/celebrity', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/alexispetridis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-11-01T19:15:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2024/jan/21/uk-needs-ambitious-green-plan-keep-up-allies-labour-frontbencher | UK needs ambitious green plan to keep up with allies, says Labour frontbencher | Britain needs its own ambitious green investment plan to keep up with its allies, a Labour frontbencher has said, amid an increasingly bitter row over whether Keir Starmer should stick to his £28bn pledge. Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, said the UK should come up with a version of Joe Biden’s $369bn (£290bn) Inflation Reduction Act, which has provided support to a range of technologies including electric cars and renewable power. Speaking from Davos, Reynolds warned that the UK risked losing business to the US if it did not commit to a significant plan of its own, even as some around the Labour leader said it would risk damaging the party in the polls. As Labour officials race to finalise the main manifesto commitments in time for its 8 February deadline, the fate of its green prosperity plan remains one of the main unanswered questions. Reynolds’s comments will bolster the arguments of those who have urged Starmer not to drop it in the face of a sustained Conservative attack. Reynolds said Biden’s act was “probably the most significant disruption to investment capital markets in 40 years – a greater impact than the pandemic and the global financial crisis … we’ve got to respond to that. We’ve got to increase our competitiveness, we’ve got to understand there’s a huge offer there from the US.” Labour officials will meet this week to discuss the £28bn promise, and further meetings are planned between shadow ministers in the coming weeks. Some in the shadow cabinet believe the policy, launched in 2021, should be ditched given that the UK faces much higher borrowing rates and Labour is desperate to avoid making unfunded spending commitments. However, others say the policy is the party’s main economic and environmental offer to voters and that dropping it will only intensify accusations that Starmer cannot be trusted to keep his promises. Like Reynolds, they make the point that the UK could lose business to the US if it fails to come up with its own version of the US act. “What’s so significant about the Inflation Reduction Act is, they have recognised that if you just do it in the cheapest way … that’s going to be Chinese,” he said. “This [the act] has been a huge disruptor, sucking away from Europe a whole range of exciting companies and technologies.” Reynolds said the precise sum mattered less than what it was being spent on. “We’ve the same view as Rachel [Reeves] and the [shadow] Treasury on this,” he added. His words echo the recommendations of a group of leading economists, who said in a paper on Monday that Britain should invest £26bn a year in the low-carbon economy rather than using the money for tax cuts. David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, said over the weekend the party was sticking to the policy, after a report in the Sun that it would be dropped. But he added it would not spend the full £28bn if economic circumstances did not allow it. Matt Wrack, the head of the Fire Brigades Union, told the Guardian the public would be at risk if a Labour government did not follow through on its investment promises, given the increasing number of floods and wildfires to which his members are having to respond. “If Labour doesn’t spend this money, it will put our members at risk. But it will also put communities at risk, especially in areas which are at risk of wildfires or major floods,” he said. “It will increase the strain on the fire service and the risk to firefighters.” Among those making the decision over the party’s green policies are two shadow cabinet ministers whom Starmer has asked to “bomb-proof” the manifesto so that it does not fall apart in an election campaign. The Labour leader has asked Jonathan Ashworth to see how the proposals will withstand media and opposition attacks, and Lucy Powell to check whether they will be able to form coherent legislation. Their roles mirror that played by David Miliband for Tony Blair before the 1997 election, when the young policy chief was tasked with making sure that the party had not made any promises that it could not defend from opposition criticism. If Powell and Ashworth sign off individual policies, they will be checked by Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, to see if they have been costed, before getting the final signoff from Starmer. Ravinder Athwal, the Labour leader’s policy director, is in charge of writing the manifesto. Shadow cabinet ministers have been told to have their headline policy proposals ready by 8 February, even if finer details need to be ironed out at a later date. As policy officials continue to wrangle over the fate of the £28bn green plan, Reynolds said the party remained committed to “a degree of public investment and bringing in private investment”. But he also warned against making short-term decisions that could have negative long-term consequences. “Growing up in the north-east in the 1980s, I know what getting a transition wrong looks like. This is about getting it right,” he said. | ['politics/labour', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'environment/green-economy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/larryelliott', 'profile/john-collingridge', 'profile/kiran-stacey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2024-01-22T10:22:50Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2019/oct/21/renewable-energy-to-expand-by-50-in-next-five-years-report | Renewable energy to expand by 50% in next five years - report | Global supplies of renewable electricity are growing faster than expected and could expand by 50% in the next five years, powered by a resurgence in solar energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) found that solar, wind and hydropower projects are rolling out at their fastest rate in four years. Its latest report predicts that by 2024 a new dawn for cheap solar power could see the world’s solar capacity grow by 600GW, almost double the installed total electricity capacity of Japan. Overall, renewable electricity is expected to grow by 1,200GW in the next five years, the equivalent of the total electricity capacity of the US. “This is a pivotal time for renewable energy,” said the IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol. “Technologies such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind are at the heart of transformations taking place across the global energy system. Their increasing deployment is crucial for efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, reduce air pollution, and expand energy access.” The Guardian reported earlier this month that a renewable energy revolution could end the world’s rising demand for oil and coal in the 2020s, decades ahead of forecasts from oil and mining companies. Renewable energy sources make up 26% of the world’s electricity today, but according to the IEA its share is expected to reach 30% by 2024. The resurgence follows a global slowdown last year, due to falling technology costs and rising environmental concerns. However, Birol warned that the role of renewables in the global energy system would need to grow even faster if the world hopes to meet its climate targets. The report said growing climate ambitions in the European Union and the US played the biggest role in driving the IEA’s forecasts higher, but it will be China which leads the way in rolling out wind and solar energy projects. The IEA expects solar energy to play the biggest role in jumpstarting fresh growth in global renewable energy because falling costs are already below retail electricity prices in most countries. The cost of solar power is expected to decline by a further 15% to 35% by 2024, spurring further growth over the second half of the decade. The appetite of energy-hungry businesses and factories is expected to be the biggest driver of the solar power boom as company bosses exploit falling costs to help cut their energy bills. But the number of home solar panels is also expected to more than double to reach around 100m rooftops by 2024, with the strongest per capita growth in Australia, Belgium, California, the Netherlands and Austria. Even after the “spectacular” growth expected for solar over the next five years, panels will cover only 6% of the world’s available rooftops, leaving room for further growth. “Renewables are already the world’s second largest source of electricity, but their deployment still needs to accelerate if we are to achieve long-term climate, air quality and energy access goals,” Birol said. He warned that although the potential for solar power was “breathtaking” the rapid rollout could disrupt electricity markets unless regulators and utilities adapt. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/business', 'environment/hydropower', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/wave-tidal-hydropower', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2019-10-21T05:00:23Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2012/jun/15/rio20-voice-dhaka-bangladesh | Rio+20: A voice from Dhaka, Bangladesh | To meet the development goals, a human rights-based approach, gender equality, decent work, and environment and ecological protection should be at the heart. Since 1992, the global economy has become more accumulative and centralised, which goes against the principles of sustainable development goals. A series of crises such as climate, food, power, energy and financial emerged due to overexploitation of natural resources, overconsumption and the capitalist nature of the economy. Most of the world's resources are in the hands of around 5% of the richest people. Thus, in the past two decades, marginalisation – the rich and poor divide – has increased. So, the development goals must assert social and economic equality, and environmental protection. The green economy cannot solve the problem until the current architecture is changed. Bangladesh has made economic progress with constant GDP growth of 6% in the past few years, but the rich and poor divide has increased and climate change becomes an issue that makes life more vulnerable than before. Rio+20 must deal with how the international leadership comes to a consensus to resolve the crises and help the south, as they committed [to do] earlier, under the millennium development goals. A forward-looking vision for post-2015 should be at the core of discussions in Rio to deal with the unfinished business of commitments that global leaders made before. | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'tone/interview', 'global-development/series/global-development-voices', 'type/article'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-06-15T09:21:12Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/apr/27/united-nations-40-per-cent-planet-land-degraded | UN says up to 40% of world’s land now degraded | Human damage to the planet’s land is accelerating, with up to 40% now classed as degraded, while half of the world’s people are suffering the impacts, UN data has shown. The world’s ability to feed a growing population is being put at risk by the rising damage, most of which is caused by food production. Women in the developing world are particularly badly affected as they often lack legal titles to land and can be thrown off it if conditions are tough. Degraded land – which has been depleted of natural resources, soil fertility, water, biodiversity, trees or native vegetation – is found all over our planet. Many people think of degraded land as arid desert, rainforests maimed by loggers or areas covered in urban sprawl, but it also includes apparently “green” areas that are intensely farmed or stripped of natural vegetation. Growing food on degraded land becomes progressively harder as soils rapidly reach exhaustion and water resources are depleted. Degradation also contributes to the loss of plant and animal species and can exacerbate the climate crisis by reducing the Earth’s ability to absorb and store carbon. Most of the damage by people has come from food production, but consumption of other goods such as clothes also makes a big contribution. Much of the degradation is most visible in developing countries, but the root cause of overconsumption happens in the rich world, for instance in the increasing consumption of meat, which takes far more resources than growing vegetables, and fast fashion, which is worn briefly then thrown away. Without urgent action, degradation will spread further. By 2050, an area the size of South America will be added to the toll if current rates of harm continue, according to the Global Land Outlook 2 report. Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of the UN convention to combat desertification, said: “Land degradation is affecting food, water, carbon and biodiversity. It is reducing GDP, affecting people’s health, reducing access to clean water and worsening drought.” Restoring degraded land can be as simple as changing farming methods to terrace and contour farming, leaving land fallow or planting nourishing cover crops, practising rainwater harvesting and storage or regrowing trees to prevent soil erosion. Many farmers fail to take these steps owing to pressure to produce, lack of knowledge, poor local governance or lack of access to resources. Yet for every $1 spent on restoration, the UN calculates a return of between $7 and $30 in increased production and other benefits. Thiaw called for governments and the private sector to invest $1.6tn in the next decade to restore to health about 1bn hectares of degraded land – an area about the size of the US or China. This would amount to only a small proportion of the $700bn a year spent on subsidies to agriculture and fossil fuel, but would safeguard the planet’s soils, water resources and fertility. “Every single farmer, big and small, can practise regenerative agriculture,” he told the Guardian. “There are a panoply of techniques and you don’t need hi-tech or a PhD to use them.” Thiaw said: “Modern agriculture has altered the face of the planet, more than any other human activity. We need to urgently rethink our global food systems, which are responsible for 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use and the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.” About half of the world’s annual economic output, or about $44tn a year, is being put at risk by land degradation, according to the report. But the economic benefit of restoring degraded land could amount to between $125tn and $140tn a year, which would be about 50% more than the $93tn recorded global GDP for 2021. The Global Land Outlook 2 report, only the second such report published, has taken the UN five years to compile with 21 partner organisations and represents the most comprehensive database of knowledge of the planet’s land yet. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/food', 'environment/farming', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-04-27T13:00:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
books/2021/aug/26/penguin-classics-launches-new-canon-of-environmental-literature | Penguin Classics launches ‘new canon’ of environmental literature | From Greta Thunberg to James Lovelock, publisher Penguin Classics has come up with a “new canon” of the environmental literature, which it believes has “changed the way we think and talk about the living Earth”. The move is part of a growing trend in publishing for books focused on the climate, whether from big hitters such as David Attenborough or Bill Gates, whose How to Avoid a Climate Disaster was out in February, or so-called “cli-fi”, climate fiction, from writers including Richard Powers and Jenny Offill. Penguin’s Green Ideas series capitalises on this appetite, collecting 20 short books it believes constitute “the classics that made a movement”, by “visionary thinkers around the world [who] have raised their voices to defend the planet”. Nobel peace prize winner Wangari Maathai is included with her exploration of the power of trees and why humans destroy the forests that keep us alive; Rachel Carson for her revelations about how man-made pesticides have destroyed wildlife; George Monbiot for his call for humanity to wake up to the destruction of the planet; and Naomi Klein for her look at how deregulated capitalism is waging war on the climate. Ranging across art, literature and gardening to technology and politics, Penguin believes that each title, extracted from longer works, “deepens our sense of our place in nature”, and that together they can “point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world”. The publisher came up with the idea for the series in the wake of publication of Thunberg’s No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. “Greta had raised the temperature of the global conversation – suddenly we were talking about a crisis rather than just climate ‘change’ – and there was a clear and growing hunger for more environmental ideas,” said editor Chloe Currens. Penguin set out to “trace the emerging environmental canon”, moving from Aldo Leopold’s A Sand Country Almanac (1949) – the forester and conservationist’s meditation on the US’s wildlands is included in the series – to Carson’s Silent Spring, which exploded into public consciousness in the 60s, and on into the present day. “The 20 books we chose struck us as quite obvious starting points for the series, in terms of their originality and their impact,” said Currens. “But there’s such an abundance of important and stimulating environmental writing that the list couldn’t be exhaustive.” Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is included for her guide towards a more reciprocal, grateful and joyful relationship with the earth. Kimmerer said that she was “deeply honoured that my words will stand in the company of my literary heroes”. “This series feels like a collective expression of love and grief for the living world and could not be more important in this moment of peril,” said the author. “I view my writing as an act of reciprocity with the land, a way of returning in some small way, the gifts that have been shared with me. The Indigenous worldview offers approaches to healing our relationship with land, which is a counterweight to the dominant materialist worldview. It is both ancient and urgent and I am grateful that it is illuminated here.” Kimmerer hopes her essays “will work as medicine for a broken relationship with land, healing us from the illness of species loneliness and human exceptionalism that the western worldview has produced”. Amitav Ghosh, included in the series for an exploration of how our collective imaginations fail to grasp the scale of environmental destruction, said he was “very glad” to be included. “In my book I make the case that climate change is fundamentally a problem of culture, and I try to pinpoint the precise reasons why this subject is difficult to address within the traditional boundaries of modern literature,” he said. Jared Diamond’s contribution to the series explores how the remote civilisation on Easter Island destroyed itself by exploiting its own natural resources. “Why does the story of Easter Island society’s collapse so rivet our attention?” said Diamond. “Because Easter’s deforestation and collapse were so complete; because Easter was the most isolated human society on Earth, so its collapse was thus purely for environmental reasons, there being no other humans around to complicate the interpretation; because Easter’s fate may prove to be a metaphor for the fate of our modern Earth society, as isolated in space as Easter is isolated in the Pacific Ocean; and because of another metaphor: that some people nevertheless deny Easter’s clear story, just as some people deny the clear risks facing our modern world.” Penguin hopes to add to the series. “It’s a growing, evolving ecosystem of great ideas,” said Currens. “I hope that the series will be used by readers as a way of engaging with some of the key ideas in modern environmental thought – that it will offer an accessible path through the vibrant, urgent, and perhaps occasionally overwhelming wider world of ecological writing.” • This article was amended on 26 August 2021. Wangari Maathai was a woman, not a man as a previous version suggested. | ['books/books', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'books/publishing', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'books/essays', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alisonflood', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2021-08-26T07:00:42Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
business/2021/oct/19/drax-dropped-from-index-of-green-energy-firms-amid-biomass-doubts | Drax dropped from index of green energy firms amid biomass doubts | Drax has been booted from an investment index of clean energy companies as doubts over the sustainability of its wood-burning power plant begin to mount within the financial sector. The FTSE 250 energy giant, which has received billions in renewable energy subsidies for its biomass electricity, was axed from the index of the world’s greenest energy companies after S&P Global Dow Jones changed its methodology. The exit from the S&P Global Clean Energy Index is a blow to Drax, which has vowed to become the world’s first “carbon-negative” energy company by the end of the decade. It comes amid growing scepticism about its green credentials after the financial services firm Jefferies told its clients this week that bioenergy was “unlikely to make a positive contribution” towards tackling the climate crisis. Drax was once one of the largest coal power generators in Europe before it converted four of the generating units at its North Yorkshire site to burn biomass instead. It received more than £800m in government subsidies and tax breaks to support the conversion last year, and could expect billions more in the future. The company claims that burning biomass to generate electricity is “carbon neutral” because the emissions from incinerating wood pellets are offset by the carbon dioxide absorbed when the trees they are made from grow. By using new technology to capture the carbon emissions from the biomass power plant, the company could effectively create “negative carbon emissions”, according to Drax. However, the Jefferies equity analyst Luke Sussams said bioenergy was unlikely to make a positive contribution to climate action because of “uncertainties and poor practices” in some parts of the timber industry regarding the sources of wood, forest management practices, supply chain emissions and high combustion emissions. “We argue that bioenergy production is not carbon neutral, in almost all instances. This casts doubt on whether bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a net-negative emissions technology. The widespread deployment of BECCS looks challenging,” he said. The interventions by S&P Global Dow Jones and Jefferies are some of the first blows struck by a financial sector against the bioenergy sector, which has long been criticised by green groups. The S&P Global Clean Energy Index also dropped a French biomass generator, Albioma, which, like Drax, has used wood chips to replace coal in its power plants. Despite the growing concerns, Susamms expects the UK government to continue allowing Drax to rake in billions in subsidies to support its plans. Drax’s share price has climbed by more than 4.5% to 540p a share this week. Its BECCS plans could cost British energy bill payers £31.7bn over 25 years and would “not deliver negative emissions” after accounting for the full carbon footprint of biomass in the power sector, according to the climate thinktank Ember. Phil MacDonald, Ember’s chief operating officer, said: “Scientists are increasingly raising concerns that it cannot be relied upon to reduce emissions – and financial institutions are starting to signal that they don’t think it’s clean or green either.” Drax sources about two-thirds of its biomass from the south-eastern states of the US via ocean tankers, which are major emitters, and recently struck a £420m deal to triple its biomass capacity by acquiring the Canadian wood pellet manufacturer Pinnacle Renewable Energy. “It’s time for the UK government position on biomass to catch up with the evidence – so that investors are encouraged to instead invest in technologies which have been scientifically proven to reduce carbon emissions,” MacDonald said. A government spokesperson declined to comment. A Drax spokesperson said its biomass “meets the highest sustainability standards” and that the “science underpinning carbon accounting for bioenergy” was “crystal clear”. The spokesperson added: “The world’s leading authority on climate science, the UN’s IPCC, is absolutely clear that sustainable biomass is crucial to achieving global climate targets, both as a provider of renewable power and through its potential to deliver negative emissions with BECCS.” • This article was amended on 5 January 2022. Drax is in the FTSE 250 index, not the FTSE 100 as stated in an earlier version. | ['business/draxgroup', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/biomass-and-bioenergy', 'business/financial-sector', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-10-19T05:00:16Z | true | ENERGY |
money/2023/jan/31/paying-smart-meter-owners-to-use-less-electricity-may-harm-poor-peoples-health | Paying smart meter owners to use less electricity may harm poor people’s health | Letters | Smart meter owners will be grateful recipients of payments from National Grid if they reduce their electricity consumption at peak times during the current cold spell (Households in Great Britain to be paid to use less electricity: how does it work?, 23 January). While this might help keep the lights on, the risk is that low-income households who are already not consuming as much energy as they need to protect their welfare will take the opportunity to boost their income at the expense of their health – using the money to eat rather than heat. However, there is a potential stick to go with this carrot and that is the option of charging consumers more for electricity at peak times. This will only be possible when all consumers have smart meters. It is proving hard enough to convince consumers to install them without downsides becoming apparent. As with the current scheme, power demand will be reduced at peak time. However, instead of giving consumers money to do this, they will be penalised if they do not and the welfare consequences in terms of increased excess winter deaths, already far too high, will be serious. The sensible course would be to prohibit use of high prices to reduce electricity demand at peak times. Steve Thomas Emeritus professor of energy policy, University of Greenwich | ['money/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/energy', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/environment', 'money/household-bills', 'money/money', 'society/poverty', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-01-31T18:24:14Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/nov/10/country-diary-old-knobbley-a-tree-of-twisted-branches-and-even-twistier-myths | Country diary: Old Knobbley – a tree of twisted branches and even twistier myths | The air in Furze Hill Woods is tinged with the sweet smell of the nearby maltings factory, a reminder of Mistley’s industrial past. Most of the woodland’s leaved inhabitants are around 70 years old, but among them stand icons of living history – ancient oaks, naturally sculpted over hundreds of years, distended and hollowed, each one more remarkable than the last. One notable tree has stood here for 800 years, having taken anchor around the time King John signed the Charter of the Forest. Affectionately named Old Knobbley, thanks to its bulbous, lumpy appearance, its trunk is 9.5 metres wide (more than twice its height) and is topped by wizened branches. Its battle scars are many and visible – the pockmarked patches of woodworm that give way to soft decaying wood; the charred crown where a fire ravaged its already delicate trunk; the great belly that has naturally cleaved to expose the heartwood. Round the back, a trail of smoothed, shining bark leads into its boughs. This path, carved out by the hundreds of hands and feet that have clambered up into its limbs, is mostly used today as a photographic opportunity or to ignite a childhood sense of wonder, but local legend suggests it may once have saved the lives of innocent men and women. The notorious 17th-century witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins lived nearby and made his name torturing those accused of witchcraft to extort false confessions, leading to the deaths of hundreds. Village folklore suggests some of the accused sought refuge in Old Knobbley, desperately scrambling up its trunk to escape Hopkins and his men. In truth, this is fairly unlikely, but the stories that we weave about trees help us to build connections with them. Trees are our protectors, healers and compasses. We find solace in their branches; their stoicism brings us peace in times of strife, and it is comforting to think of the eccentric Old Knobbley offering sanctuary to those at their most desperate. Today it offers a different kind of refuge – a home for fungi, invertebrates and birds. And for us, it offers a link to our past and the chance to connect with one of nature’s greats. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/alexandra-pearce-broomhead', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-11-10T05:30:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2016/nov/15/climate-protection-donald-trump-must-fight-now | Every climate protection is in Trump's crosshairs. We must fight now | Annie Leonard | Since election day, the public rejection of Donald Trump and his politics has been vast. Now, as the reality of his impending presidency settles in, those of us who reject the racist, misogynist, anti-environmentalist agenda he promises to usher in are left with one, glaring course of action: we have to organize and mobilize. When it comes to climate change, Trump wants to slash EPA funding, withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, stop funding clean energy research and expand fossil fuel extraction on federal lands, including doubling down on coal. He is surrounding himself with fossil fuel industry insiders, like Myron Ebell and Harold Hamm, who want to roll back the hard-won gains made under the Obama Administration. But US election results don’t change the science or the reality of climate change. So here’s how we need to work together to minimize the potential climate impacts of a Trump presidency. First, Barack Obama is still in office, and there is still time to make progress for people and the planet. He could begin by suspending the permits for the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and ordering a full Environmental Impact Study with comprehensive tribal consultation. Stopping the pipeline is an unprecedented rallying point for indigenous people across the country, who are calling on the US government to observe its own treaties and the rights and sovereignty of native communities. But it would also eliminate a transport option for fracked oil from the Bakken shale, which the world simply does not need. Oil markets already have plenty of supply, the oil would greatly contribute to climate change when we know we need to be transitioning to a renewables-based economy, and the only people who would benefit work in the fossil fuel industry. You can call on the president to act quickly by joining the millions who have signed a petition, coming out to one of these solidarity events on 15 November or, if you can find the time or resources, donating to or even joining the water protectors at Standing Rock. Second, we need to build more local democratic power for the climate movement. States and even municipalities can have a lot of sway over the direction America goes. For instance, a ballot initiative that won in Colorado on election day, sponsored by the oil and gas industry and funded by millions of its dollars, enacted a statewide policy that will drastically limit citizens’ power to democratically regulate or ban fracking in their towns. Americans concerned with protecting themselves and future generations from the worst effects of climate change must push back against these efforts, drafting, campaigning for and organizing around legislation and local lawmakers who will stand up to the oil and gas industry. And we must actively oppose those who don’t. In the aftermath of the election, local movement power in our communities is going to be critical. Volunteer, start initiatives, find meetings and get to know organizers and activists near you. Find reasons to interact face to face with allies. Check in with neighbors and friends, ask how they are doing and how you can support them. Or make a donation to an organization you care about. Where democracy has been usurped by industry influence and Trumpist politics, we are going to have to be creative and courageous with our minds, time, and bodies. If Trump’s administration makes good on its threats to boost destructive sectors like coal, oil and gas, the climate movement will need to peacefully but significantly escalate its resistance. There will be no shortage of ways to get involved, including nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience against infrastructure and the leasing programs of the Department of Interior. I take hope from remembering that the fight for climate justice is global. The momentum Obama gave us may drop off, but many other nations are still leading. Private sector giants – from Apple, to Tesla, to Ikea – are building successful businesses around renewable energy. Cities across the US and all over the world are independently stepping up to become climate champions. Greenpeace and the big, beautiful, global climate movement will not stop fighting for our collective future. We’ll protest peacefully, empowered by millions, and we’ll do our part to build a stronger, intersectional progressive movement that will be here to lead when Trumpism fails to deliver. Whatever comes next, it’s vital to acknowledge that Trump’s election has millions of people justifiably feeling scared for their physical safety and future. He and his surrogates spent months threatening immigrants, women, people of color, Muslims and the differently-abled community, among many others. We must all begin by re-committing ourselves to protecting and caring for each other, especially by rallying behind the groups and communities targeted by Trumpism. We are going to get through this. Through courage, action and persistence we will win in the long term for people and the planet. It’s a scary time for all of us, but that’s all the more reason to do this together. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/annie-leonard', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2016-11-15T12:00:16Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
housing-network/2012/may/02/sustainability-complex-homes-assets-build | Sustainability is complex - our homes are more than assets | There is a lot that is commendable about Tony Hutchinson's article arguing that retrofitting in housing is too expensive, and we should demolish and start again. It serves as a warning that we can get carried away with a specific solution to a problem – that of energy use and carbon emissions linked to domestic housing stock. There is a great deal of common sense in his outline assessment of the business case for whether to retrofit or not. However, in playing devil's advocate on one side we risk some loss of traction in shifting the argument in the other direction. Firstly, while a sound business case is an excellent starting point for a commercial investment decision, what we're actually talking about are people's homes, with all the social, cultural and political meaning that holds. Business case or no, 66% of the UK's properties are owner occupied. Turfing owners out of their period homes and demolishing them while new builds designed to PassivHaus standards are constructed, while technically feasible, would be something akin to political suicide for the government that implemented the policy. Meanwhile if we demolish the 7m homes that might be uneconomic to retrofit, do we have the capacity to replace them? The UK has consistently failed to hit new-build targets and even at the peak building rate of the last decade, we only managed some 185,000 new homes in 2006. If we start to demolish at the rate required to address our emissions targets, we would create a major challenge for the construction industry. Hutchinson also highlights the risks of quality for retrofit; there are equivalent issues of quality that have the potential to create a gap between "as designed" and "as built". Skills and quality are an issue for the construction industry full stop. Finally, if carbon is our goal, what does this mean for the demolition of all of this stock? Where do all the materials go? What is the embedded carbon of this demolition and new construction? I am in full agreement with the final point that we need to understand the costs and benefits in a clear and logical way. As Hutchinson says: "Of course there are a range of intangible factors around the social consequences of clearance and demolition and the loss of aesthetically pleasing buildings." However, I would disagree they are intangible to the people who live in those homes and communities. If we are going to build rational models of cost and benefit we should accept that places and communities, while inconveniently difficult to put a price on, have huge value to people. The decision to retrofit or demolish should do more than relegate these ideas to the status of "intangible assets". Sustainability is complex. When we build business models that try to address all the issues in the time frames required, we often fail. Whatever the models tell us, new build or retrofit, moving towards a low-carbon built environment is a major task. Dr Will Swan is a senior lecturer in retrofit at the University of Salford This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Join the housing network for your chance to share your ideas and expertise with colleagues | ['housing-network/housing-network', 'housing-network/housing-network-blog', 'housing-network/sustainable-housing', 'housing-network/practice', 'housing-network/development', 'housing-network/housing-management', 'tone/blog', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'society/housing', 'society/communities', 'type/article'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-05-02T13:42:44Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2024/oct/15/mysterious-white-blobs-canada-beaches-experts-marine-scientists | Mysterious gooey blobs washed up on Canada beaches baffle experts | They are slimy on the outside, firm and spongy on the inside and surprisingly combustible. And in recent months, they have been washing up on the shores of Newfoundland. The depths of the Atlantic have long held mysteries, but the riddle of the mysterious white “blobs” spotted on the beaches of the eastern Canadian province has baffled both residents and marine scientists. Broader attention was first drawn to the blobs by a post on the Beachcombers of Newfoundland and Labrador Facebook group, a 40,000-member page largely devoted to the collection of sea glass. A man named Philip Grace uploaded an image of a pale, gooey mass, which he compared to the dough used to make toutons, a Newfoundland fried delicacy. Grace’s post about the blobs, which he said ranged in size from “dinner plate right down to a toonie [the Canadian two-dollar coin]”, prompted a frenzy of possible explanations – paraffin wax, sea sponges, mould and ambergris – none of which withstood closer scrutiny. Dave McGrath, a resident of Patrick’s Cove, was on the beach when he spotted “hundreds, just hundreds of them” scattered in the sand. “They looked just like a pancake before you flip it over, when it has those dimpled little bubbles. I poked a couple with a stick and they were spongy and firm inside,” he said. “I’ve lived here for 67 years and I’ve never seen anything like this, never. “They sent the Coast Guard over and I asked them how bad it was. They told me they had 46km [28 miles] of coastline littered with this stuff and had no idea what it was,” said McGrath. “Is it toxic? It is safe for people to touch?” The gooey shapes aren’t the first blobs to excite locals. In 2001, residents discovered the Fortune Bay “Blobster” sea monster that had washed ashore – a ragged and oozing white mass. Months later, however, researchers at Memorial University of Newfoundland concluded it was part of a decomposing sperm whale corpse. These new blobs don’t appear to be linked to whales, despite commenters in the Beachcombers group suggesting they could be “whale boogers”, “whale sperm” or “whale vomit” – all of which have been ruled out. McGrath speculated that the substance could be discharge from ships travelling to and from the Come By Chance refinery, 80km north of Patrick’s Cove. Federal scientists have also been on the case but have produced few leads. So far, they know more about what it’s not than what it is. It’s not a petroleum hydrocarbon, a petroleum lubricant or a biofuel. A full battery of tests could take months. “An answer would be nice. It’s not often you find something that stumps people who know this place and these waters,” said McGrath. Until then, one local had a (possibly touton-inspired) suggestion to those curious about what the blob might be: “Fry it up, put some molasses on it, let us know how it was.” | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oceans', 'world/canada', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/leyland-cecco', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-10-15T09:54:49Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2012/nov/30/hurricane-sandy-hits-us-consumer-spending | Hurricane Sandy hits US consumer spending | Spending by American consumers was hit by superstorm Sandy and fell in October for the first time in five months, suggesting the economy slowed in the fourth quarter. The US commerce department reported that consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of US economic activity, dropped 0.2%, following September's 0.8% increase. Sandy hit car sales but analysts pointed out that the drop in spending also reflected broader weakness. Household disposable income dipped 0.1% last month after being flat in September. Even so, the saving rate nudged higher, to 3.4% from 3.3%. "The upshot is that although both incomes and spending will probably bounce back in November, the underlying trend is weak," said Paul Dales, senior US economist at Capital Economics. Consumer spending is likely to suffer more in coming months as the country hunkers down for tax rises and spending cuts. The planned measures to bring the government deficit under control – the "fiscal cliff" – could drain $600bn (£373bn) from the economy early next year unless Barack Obama and US Congress agree a less severe plan. While the economy grew at an annual rate of 2.7% in the third quarter compared with 1.3% in the previous three months, much of the boost came from robust government spending and companies building up stocks. This is likely to have faded in the final three months of the year, although growth could pick up again in the New Year when post-Sandy rebuilding gets under way in the north east. | ['business/useconomy', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'business/economics', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-11-30T19:17:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2014/sep/16/texas-proposes-rewriting-school-text-books-to-deny-manmade-climate-change | Texas proposes rewriting school text books to deny manmade climate change | Texas has proposed re-writing school text books to incorporate passages denying the existence of climate change and promoting the discredited views of an ultra-conservative think tank. The proposed text books – which come up for public hearing at the Texas state board of education on Tuesday – were already attracting criticism when it emerged that the science section had been altered to reflect the doctrine of the Heartland Institute, which has been funded by the Koch oil billionaires. A report from the Texas Freedom Network and the National Centre for Science Education on Monday found a number of instances where the proposed texts rejected recognised science. In the proposed 6th grade texts, students were introduced to global warming amid false claims that there was scientific disagreement about its causes. “Scientists agree that Earth’s climate is changing. They do not agree on what is causing the change,” the passage reads. It quotes two staffers at the Heartland Institute who are not scientists. However, as the analysis noted, there is no scientific disagreement about the causes of climate change. The report said the entire section was misleading. “Scientists do not disagree about what is causing climate change, the vast majority (97%) of climate papers and actively publishing climatologists (again 97%) agree that human activity is responsible,” the report said. The NCSE experts also took issue with the prominence given over to Heartland. The views of a fringe were given greater prominence than the findings from the thousands of scientists contributing to the United Nations’ blockbuster IPCC reports on climate change on the opposite page. Minda Berbeco of the NCSE said that the disinformation was a disservice to a new generation of Texans who will have to deal with climate change. “Climate change will be a key issue that future citizens of Texas will need to understand and confront, and they deserve social studies textbooks that reinforce good science and prepare them for the challenges ahead,” she said in a statement. Kathy Miller, the president of the Texas Freedom Network, suggested that the proposed text books had been deliberately aligned with the political ideology of the rightwing Tea Party. A majority of Republicans in Congress deny the existence of global warming or oppose action on climate change. The NCSE reviewers also found disinformation on climate change in the proposed 5th grade text books. The passage reads: “Some scientists say it is natural for Earth’s temperature to be higher for a few years. They predict we’ll have some cooler years and things will even out.” But the centre said that was incorrect. “We are not aware of any currently publishing climatologists who are predicting a cooling trend where ‘things will even out.’” The reviewers said the proposed 6th and 8th grade texts also contained false statements on the causes for the thinning of the ozone layer. | ['environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/science', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2014-09-16T11:31:04Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2022/jan/14/feed-supplier-to-uk-farm-animals-still-linked-to-amazon-deforestation | Feed supplier to UK farm animals still linked to Amazon deforestation | A major supplier of animal feed is still buying soya and corn from a farm linked to deforestation in the Amazon, despite having pledged to clean up its global supply chains. Cargill, a giant agricultural multinational that sells feed to British chicken farms, buys crops from a farm growing soybeans on deforested land in the Brazilian Amazon. An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Greenpeace Unearthed, Repórter Brasil and Ecostorm uncovered Cargill’s links with the Brazilian supplier farm, Fazenda Conquista. The farm in the Brazilian Amazon was responsible for eight sq km of deforestation since 2013, with multiple forest fires recorded in 2020. Its trading with Cargill includes supplying soya, and the farm has signed a deal to deliver 5,700 tonnes of corn to the company this year. It is not known whether the crops in question were grown on a recently deforested part of the farm. The findings raise questions about Cargill’s due diligence process. The company has pledged not to buy soya beans from land deforested in the Amazon after 2008, and last year committed to moving faster to eliminate “commodity-driven deforestation”. But Cargill has also been repeatedly linked to deforestation. In 2020, the Bureau and Unearthed reported 800 sq km of deforestation and 12,000 fires since 2015 on land used by Cargill soya suppliers in the Cerrado, another protected biome in Brazil. The company exports thousands of tonnes of Brazilian soya to the UK each year for use in animal feed. Campaigners said the findings highlighted the hidden environmental costs of cheap meat. “Meat chickens are the most intensively farmed animals in the UK with over a billion slaughtered each year,” Lindsay Duncan, the campaigns manager at World Animal Protection UK, said. “The growing demand for cheap chicken leads to the growing demand for soy, causing large-scale deforestation and devastating environmental degradation, which destroys the natural habitats of millions of wild animals.” As much as 80% of all soya grown across the world is fed to livestock. The UK imported about 3.5m tonnes of soya beans in 2019, with roughly half of that ending up in chicken feed. About a quarter of the UK’s imported soya comes from Brazil, and the vast majority of that is traded by Cargill. Cargill said: “We are committed to eliminating deforestation from our supply chains in the shortest possible time, and we are accelerating our efforts.” Responding to the findings about Fazenda Conquista, the statement continued: “If fire has been used and has impacted the native forest or any irregularity is confirmed, we will take the appropriate measures.” The state of the land in question before 2013 is disputed: Fazenda Conquista’s management said in a statement that the farm had permission from the local environmental agency to carry out a “controlled burn” on the land because it had originally been deforested in the early 1980s. However, satellite imagery shows that the forest had been regrowing since then, and Brazil’s deforestation monitoring programme flagged the clearing in 2013 as deforestation. The local environment agency, Sema, confirmed it had authorised a burn on the farm in 2012 to clear pasture with some degree of regeneration. But the agency said no licences for full deforestation inside the farm had been authorised, and admitted that although it had lacked high-resolution satellite imagery prior to 2019 to identify real-time deforestation, a recent analysis suggested there had been deforestation within the property. Sema said it would investigate further. In an independent analysis of satellite imagery, the NGO Aidenvironment also deemed the land to have been deforested. This year the farm will be blacklisted under the Soy Moratorium, a voluntary industry agreement that bars the trade in soya beans on Amazon land deforested after 2008. The Working Group for Soya, which oversees the moratorium, said it had identified an area of deforestation that had been sown with soya in the last planting season. A reporter from the Bureau visited the farm this year and saw soya beans growing on the land. Destruction of the Amazon rainforest has serious consequences for the climate, with experts fearing the biome might soon cross a “tipping point” at which it begins to shift from lush rainforest into a drier savannah, releasing large quantities of stored carbon into the atmosphere. According to Brazil’s space agency, Amazon deforestation soared 22% over the 12 months to July last year. Major British food companies have adopted “zero deforestation” certification schemes to tackle the problem but “dirty” soya linked to deforestation continues to enter supply chains. | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/farm-animals', 'environment/farming', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/andrew-wasley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-01-14T08:00:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/nov/19/drowning-in-waste-australia-recycled-just-16-of-plastic-packaging-last-year | ‘Drowning’ in waste: Australia recycled just 16% of plastic packaging last year | Australia is failing to meet its own plastic reduction targets, with just 16% of plastic recovered last year despite more than half of packaging found to be easily recyclable, a new report shows. The latest progress report released by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (Apco) found plastic recycling has flatlined since a voluntary plan was implemented in 2017. The Australian Marine Conservation society plastics expert Shane Cucow said the report should be a “sharp wake-up call” for the federal government and business sector. Australia has set targets for 70% of plastic packaging to be recycled or composted by 2025, and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging to be phased out. However, the report found that with the current recycling upgrades in place, Australia will be able to recycle only 36% of plastics annually by 2025. Of 1.1m tonnes of plastic packaging placed on the market last year, only 179,000 tonnes were recovered. Products with recycled plastic content also remain low, accounting for just 3% of plastic packaging on the market. Cucow said that despite many domestic companies touting sustainability, Australia was still “asleep at the wheel” in responding to the growing problem of plastic waste. “We’ve been encouraged by moves to ban key single-use plastics, and investments to build new recycling infrastructure, but it is still too little too slowly when it comes to plastic packaging,” he said. “One thing is abundantly clear: if we keep on the way we are, we’ll never make it past the halfway point as the tidal wave of plastic continues to fill up our oceans and our landfills.” Cucow said voluntary targets weren’t working and greater incentives and penalties were needed to encourage companies to increase recycling uptake, particularly among soft plastics. About 4% of soft plastics, commonly used for food packaging, were being recycled in Australia despite it being the most lethal consumer plastic for ocean wildlife. “There’s simply not enough demand for recycled plastic because virgin plastic is cheaper and easier to obtain,” Cucow said. “It’s time for the Australian government to level the playing field with a levy on virgin plastic and mandated targets for recycled content. “It’s also high time all the big product manufacturers took responsibility for the environmental devastation their packaging is causing … Australia is drowning in a sea of plastic.” Boomerang Alliance director Jeff Angel said the report was a “shocking indictment” of the voluntary nature of Australia’s recycling targets and mandatory targets were needed to reach the 70% plastic-packaging recycling goal. ‘’The bright spots on banning single-use plastic items and accelerating recovery of drink containers under container deposit schemes are the direct result of legislation, not APC action,” he said. “The report repeats more of the same mantra about voluntary action to develop more plans, encourage investment and collective action. These are just words. Government needs to step in to stop the waste, protect the environment and get the packaging industry on the path to quick results. “The packaging covenant has missed too many goals and should not be given another chance. We’ll give them credit for admitting failure and being transparent but that must mean they join with us to craft an effective regulatory response now, rather than wait till 2025.” Apco chief executive Brooke Donnelly said the report showed that if Australia was to achieve its 2025 national packaging targets, “we all need to do more and the time to act is now”. “We have seen fantastic progress so far towards the targets, but … the gaps identified in the report require significant attention and we need to see a wholesale collaborative effort from actors across the supply chain,” she said. “It’s absolutely critical that businesses across every industry sector engage with this report and discuss within their organisations how they will work to address these gaps.” | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/caitlin-cassidy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-11-19T03:21:47Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2019/nov/06/italy-to-school-students-in-sustainability-and-climate-crisis | Italy to put sustainability and climate at heart of learning in schools | Italy is to become the first country in the world to make sustainability and climate crisis compulsory subjects for schoolchildren. State schools will begin incorporating the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development into as many subjects as possible from September, with one hour a week dedicated to themes including global heating and humans’ influence on the planet. Other subjects, including geography, mathematics and physics, will also be taught from the perspective of sustainability, announced Lorenzo Fioramonti, Italy’s education minister. “The entire [education] ministry is being changed to make sustainability and climate the centre of the education model,” said Fioramonti, a former economics professor who was criticised earlier this year for encouraging students to miss school to take part in climate protests. “I want to make the Italian education system the first education system that puts the environment and society at the core of everything we learn in school.” Fioramonti, a member of the pro-environment Five Star Movement, is the government’s most vocal supporter of green policies and has previously come under fire for proposing taxes on airline tickets, plastic and sugary foods in order to generate funds for education and welfare. However, the government’s 2020 budget, presented to parliament this week, included a tax on both plastic and sugary drinks. Fioramonti said that despite initial opposition to his ideas, the government seemed increasingly invested in greener policies. “I was ridiculed by everyone and treated like a village idiot, and now a few months later the government is using two of those proposals and it seems to me more and more people are convinced it is the way to go.” Surveys have shown that up to 80% of Italians back taxing sugar and flights, but industry producers oppose the plastic tax, arguing the “measure penalises products, not behaviour, and only represents a way to recover resources, while placing huge costs on consumers, workers and businesses”. Fioramonti’s proposals have also come under direct fire from Matteo Salvini, Italy’s climate science-denying former deputy prime minister, whose far-right League voted against almost all key climate proposals in the last parliament. However, Fioramonti said his ministry would stand strong against the opposition. “I want to represent the Italy that stands against all the things that Salvini does,” he said. “We have to build a different narrative and not be afraid of saying something Salvini may not like, because that’s why we exist.” | ['global-development/global-education', 'global-development/sustainable-development-goals', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'world/italy', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kate-hodal', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-11-06T12:25:14Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
politics/2020/sep/09/green-party-re-elects-co-leaders-sian-berry-and-jonathan-bartley | Green party re-elects co-leaders Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley | The Greens leadership partnership of Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley has been re-elected for a further two-year term, with the pair immediately promising to push for radical policies amid the changes brought by coronavirus. Saying Labour under Keir Starmer had “completely vacated” the political space for innovative and bold policies, Berry and Bartley said the urgent economic response to Covid had shown the possibility of rapid change, and the need for policies like universal basic income. Berry and Bartley, who took over from the previous leadership combination of Bartley and Caroline Lucas after easily winning the 2018 leadership election, took 49% of first-preference votes, the party said in a statement. The race for the leadership of the Greens in England and Wales was also contested by Rosi Sexton, a Green councillor in Solihull, who is a former mathematician and elite-level mixed martial arts fighter. She won 27% of the votes. A third candidate, Shahrar Ali, a former deputy leader of the Greens, took 24%. The party’s deputy leader, Amelia Womack, was re-elected for a fourth term. Berry and Bartley oversaw highly successful local and European elections in May last year. They also led the party to an increased share of the vote in December’s general election, though the focus on Brexit and a squeeze by the two main parties meant its 2.7% vote share remained lower than the 3.8% recorded in 2015. After their re-election, Bartley said the Covid-19 pandemic and the interventionist government response to it showed how society could be transformed at speed, with the furlough job retention scheme :”very clearly setting a precedent for a basic income and shorter working weeks”. He told the Guardian: “People were questioning, is it possible? And we’ve seen that a lot of it is possible. In the face of a crisis – and we’d say coronavirus is part of the wider climate and ecological emergency – things have to change rapidly, and we’ve seen that they can.” Berry said the need for Green policy ideas was all the greater given the current trajectory of Labour: “They’ve become managerial, top-down, there’s some worryingly authoritarian things coming from Keir Starmer. No matter how much competence there is, that’s not leadership.” Bartley added: “I struggle to think of one major intervention that he’s made. Where is it? There’s no memorable moments.” This shift by Labour, he said, meant the Greens were becoming the “political expression” of popular protest movements calling for environmental and racial justice Bartley and Berry are both councillors in London. Berry is also a member of the London assembly, and is the party’s candidate for the mayoral elections, postponed from May because of coronavirus. Lucas, the party’s sole MP and still its best-known figure, spent two years as joint leader with Bartley, but decided in 2018 to step back, in part to focus on her Brighton Pavilion constituency, but also to spread the focus to other people in the party. Lucas became the Greens’ first leader in 2008 after the party dropped its previous system of two “principal speakers”. She was replaced as leader by Natalie Bennett in 2012, but returned in 2016alongside Bartley. The Greens re-elect their leader, deputy leader and those in a series of other senior posts every two years. | ['politics/green-party', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'politics/sianberry', 'politics/jonathan-bartley', 'uk/wales', 'politics/wales', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-09-09T09:44:49Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2023/mar/23/tax-perks-driving-surge-in-number-of-suvs-and-larger-vehicles-on-australian-roads-experts-say | Tax perks driving surge in number of SUVs and larger vehicles on Australian roads | The surge in popularity of larger vehicles in Australia has been driven by tax perks that incentivise buying SUVs, utes and other 4WDs instead of less-polluting smaller-sized cars and sedans, transport experts argue. SUVs accounted for more than 50% of new vehicles sold in Australia last year, a share which has almost doubled over the past decade. The uptick has prompted calls to tackle the trend by limiting tax incentives, building bus lane-style narrow lanes and more parking spots exclusively for small cars. The transport and cities director at the Grattan Institute, Marion Terrill, said tax rules for businesses and employees were subsidising the costs of buying a car and many saw this as an opportunity to upgrade. “When you subsidise the purchase, people probably take some of that benefit as a cash saving, but we also see people who see it as a way to get a more expensive vehicle and, often, more expensive means larger.” Terrill points to two tax incentives that she believes are behind the surge in sales of larger vehicles: the instant asset write-off for businesses, and the car concession in the fringe benefits tax. For businesses, including tradies and sole traders, the instant asset write-off scheme allows for the cost of a vehicle to be deducted from a business’s taxable income in the current financial year, as opposed to having to depreciate it over several years. For vehicles that can carry less than one tonne or seat less than nine people, the instant asset write-off limit is smaller – capped at $64,741 in the 2022-23 financial year. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup However, a $150,000 threshold applies for vehicles that can carry more than one tonne or seat nine or more people, regardless of whether such a high payload carrying capacity is required by the business. Terrill also identifies fringe benefits tax – designed to tax nonmonetary forms of income – and the rise of salary sacrificing programs for employees that tax cars at a concessional rate. She said by making cars cheaper through such programs, Australians could buy more expensive cars with their salaries and were jumping at the chance to upgrade. Additionally, heavy vehicles such as utes, vans and 4WDs, which can carry more than one tonne, are exempt from fringe benefits tax. Terrill also noted that electric vehicles are exempt from fringe benefits tax, which came into effect last July. While acknowledging electric vehicles should be encouraged from an emissions reduction perspective, Terrill pointed out the vehicles still contribute to accidents and congestion, and believes there is no shortage of demand. She has called on the Albanese government to introduce an emissions ceiling for vehicles instead. More broadly, Terrill said the government should remove tax rules that incentivise purchasing larger cars over smaller cars. “Big cars have all sorts of negative implications for the community,” she said. “They need more fuel to power them, so there’s more emissions and more exhaust pipe pollution which is toxic. They’re also more congesting and take up more space on roads.” Greater SUV uptake reduced road safety for other users, she said. “People will say they feel safe when riding up in one, that they can see more, but everyone else in a small vehicle is less safe. And it’s much less safe for pedestrians when there are a lot of large SUVs.” Terrill said Australia’s road design had made upgrading to SUVs easy. Australia’s standard parking spots were based on allowing a 1979 Ford Falcon to comfortably park – a model which Terrill described as a roomy car. This had allowed larger vehicles to park with ease. “We’ve got wide roads and large parking spots compared to many countries – we’re much more like the United States than we are Japan. “It would be quite easy for governments to tweak the incentives, not only to stop giving tax advantages that make buying bigger vehicles cheaper, but also to send lots of little signals that if you want to run a great big vehicle it won’t be convenient in densely populated areas.” Terrill said creating more small car-only parking spots was “a great idea”, but also believed introducing “much narrower lanes when building new roads” would send a signal that would encourage uptake of smaller cars, much like carpool and bus lanes. “It’s important we nudge people the other direction away from larger vehicles.” | ['australia-news/transport', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/environment', 'environment/electric-vehicles-australia', 'environment/electric-cars', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/elias-visontay', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-03-22T14:00:30Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2019/jul/21/science-helps-us-to-produce-cheap-and-plentiful-food | Science helps us to produce cheap and plentiful food | Letters | Caroline Lucas (Farming with nature helps wildlife, and humans too, Journal, 18 July) accuses agrochemical companies of “seeking to undermine the transition to environmentally friendly farming”. This statement could not be further from the truth. We are on the brink of the next agricultural revolution; advances in science and agricultural technology are helping to ensure a supply of plentiful and affordable food while reducing the impact on the environment. Our member companies play a critical role in supporting farmers on this journey by providing biological, seed-breeding, data, robotics and pest management solutions that go beyond chemicals. To help fight climate change, we aim to be as productive as possible on the land we have. By using crop protection products, farmers are able to maximise the productivity of existing farmland, resulting in more land for nature. An organic and low-yield farming system would require more land to be brought into production for yield levels to be maintained, having significant impacts on nature. Indeed, researchers from Cambridge University recently found that high-yielding farming delivered better outcomes for biodiversity, compared with low-yielding systems. The RSA Food Farming and Countryside Commission report warns that climate change will continue to cause diet-related ill-health, yet scaremongering about pesticides is only likely to exacerbate the problem, discouraging consumers from making healthy choices by making them fearful of conventionally produced fresh fruit and vegetables without reason. Sarah Mukherjee CEO, Crop Protection Association • Caroline Lucas, in opposing high output farming, risks the very outcomes she rails against. She is wrong to claim that farmers who neither control the seasons nor the weather do not work with nature. She is also wrong to suggest that modern farming contributes to an unhealthy diet. In the past, some farming practices have been damaging, but it is also the case that modern farming is rapidly adopting more sustainable production systems and continues to deliver many benefits – not least a wide variety of good-quality, affordable food. It speaks volumes that the RSA report she cites is silent on the issue of food prices. She implies that under her proposals food would remain affordable. Having worked on these issues for more than 40 years, my calculations suggest that if we adopted her approach to farming the cost of food and drink for a household with two children would rise by about 20%. Has she considered the social consequences for the 8 million Britons living in food poverty? Some of the largest increases in price would be for fresh vegetables and fruit. As for social equality, her manifesto would see a severe reduction in livestock populations, resulting in only the rich enjoying meat in their diets. Independent research is clear; the only way to solve the trilemma of delivering affordable food, a more sustainable farming industry, and mitigating climate change is to adopt the fruits of science and technology to increase output per hectare. Séan Rickard Newton Blossomville, Bedfordshire • Garden Organic, the UK’s leading charity supporting organic growing and gardening, strongly endorses Caroline Lucas’s article. Lucas urges the need for agroecology and, by definition, organic approaches to growing (and gardening), which will address all the key issues raised in the RSA report. Private gardens, allotments, school gardens, playing fields and community growing spaces amount to over half a million hectares of land in this country. This gives enormous opportunities for ordinary people to contribute to these recommendations, and help save our country’s wildlife. Not using pesticides, encouraging biodiversity and feeding the soil life are all tenets of organic growing. This is not simply the responsibility of the farming community. We can, and should, all make a difference. James Campbell Chief executive, Garden Organic • 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 | ['environment/pesticides', 'food/food', 'tone/letters', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-07-21T16:29:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/feb/13/hot-on-the-trail-of-cold-fusion-as-a-solution-to-the-climate-crisis | Hot on the trail of cold fusion as a solution to the climate crisis | Letter | Tim Flannery (The age of the megafire is here, and it’s a call to action, Journal, 7 February) writes: “As far as swift climate action is concerned, all good choices have gone up in smoke”. That may not be the case, however. There has been abundant support by now for the claim made by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in 1989 to have observed nuclear fusion at ordinary temperatures, but the hope that such a fossil-fuel-free process might contribute usefully to energy production has not been fulfilled because it is very unpredictable, and we do not as yet know the conditions needed to produce large amounts of energy. Suitably funded research on a large scale might lead to a resolution of this issue. Prof Brian Josephson Emeritus professor of physics, University of Cambridge • 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 | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2020-02-13T18:36:23Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2023/jul/25/mediterranean-is-hotspot-for-climate-change-says-greek-pm | Both pilots die after plane crashes while fighting Greek wildfires | Two Greek pilots have died after their water-bombing plane crashed into a hillside while attempting to fight the wildfires ravaging the country. The water bomber, a Canadair CL-215, hit a hillside in Evia in the battle to extinguish flames near a village outside Karystos. Greece’s air force, which owns the plane, later announced that both pilots had died in the crash. Aviation experts said the aircraft had been flying low to target the conflagration when its right wing clipped a tree and it began spinning out of control. The armed forces immediately announced three days of mourning in honour of the two men. A third man was found dead on Tuesday, and a “DNA test will be needed to confirm if this is a shepherd that was missing since Sunday”, according to Konstantina Dimoglidou, Greek police spokeswoman. The news came as the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said the Mediterranean was a “hotspot for climate change” as more tourists boarded repatriation flights home. After a dip on Monday, temperatures were expected to reach 46C in some areas on Tuesday and weather models suggest the heatwave will be the longest on record in Greece. “We have a difficult summer ahead of us,” Mitsotakis said as his cabinet assembled on Tuesday to discuss the wildfires ravaging the country. “I will say what is evident: that in front of what the whole planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean, which is a hotspot for climate change, there is no magic defence. If there were, we would obviously have enforced it.” For eight days, fires fuelled by the heat and fanned by high winds have raged across Greece, tearing through virgin forests on islands including Rhodes, Evia and Corfu, decimating land in the Peloponnese and triggering mass evacuations by officials desperate to get people out of harm’s way. In the south of Rhodes, where blazes resurged on Tuesday, almost 20,000 people, primarily holidaymakers, had to flee hotels over the weekend in the biggest operation of its kind ever in Greece. Mitsotakis said “things will become worse”, citing the higher temperatures, dryness and strong winds that have been hallmarks of the heatwave. Wednesday and Thursday would be particularly difficult, he said. “Perhaps now we have more means, more human resources, are better prepared, but we know this battle will always be difficult as we are already experiencing the effects of the climate crisis,” he said. “The next few days … will be especially difficult and that’s why we should all obviously remain on absolute alert.” In Rhodes, 266 firefighters backed by 55 fire brigade vehicles, two water-bomber planes and two helicopters were trying to contain blazes on Tuesday. Fires had rekindled on Corfu and evacuation orders were being sent to at least two villages after civil protection authorities said the conflagration was burning out of control. In Evia, scene of some of the worst infernos in living memory in 2021, at least seven villages have been evacuated, and firefighters rushed to douse flames that had encroached on communities in the hills above the coastal town of Karystos. Temperatures are expected to drop from Thursday, possibly by as much as 8C. As many as 10,000 Britons are said to be stuck in Rhodes, where most tourists have been housed in makeshift evacuation centres since being moved from fire-hit areas. On Monday, airlines began operating repatriation flights to take people home. Mitsotakis insisted this week that Rhodes would remain “the flagship of tourism” in Greece, where the industry accounts for roughly 25% of GDP. He said Greeks who had seen their lives upended and their properties and businesses destroyed would be compensated. | ['world/greece', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/wildfires', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenasmith', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-07-25T13:27:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2013/nov/20/fukushima-clean-editorial | Fukushima: coming clean | Editorial | Like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island or any other major nuclear accident, Fukushima Daiichi will be with us for decades to come. The entire plant is being decommissioned, a clean-up they reckon could take 40 years. After a disaster of these proportions, when three reactors suffered meltdowns after being hit by a giant tsunami, nothing its operator does or says today is taken at face value in Japan. The ability of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) to handle the build-up of toxic water used to contain the melted cores is being questioned as never before, after a string of water and radiation leaks and one incident in which six men were doused with contaminated water. The embattled company faces plummeting morale, a shortage of skilled labour, insufficient funds – all exacerbated, according to some, by a refusal to accept outside help. For all this, it is worth reading what Naomi Hirose, Tepco's latest president, had to say in an interview with the Guardian. What happened at Fukushima, he said, was a lesson to the world: "Try to examine all the possibilities no matter how small they are, and don't think any single counter-measure is foolproof." In hindsight, one tiny detail, such as waterproof seals on doors, would have saved everything. Is the unthinkable being thought as Britain plans for a new generation of reactors? Fukushima prompted the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation to conduct a safety review in which Mike Weightman, its chief inspector, concluded there were no fundamental safety weaknesses, although his report identified 38 areas for improvement. Is the review, as the independent nuclear analyst John Large maintains, a whitewash? Would UK reactors, as he contends, not survive an hour without power? Documents released under freedom of information rules showed that all eight coastal nuclear locations in the UK, including Hinkley Point, were at risk of flooding and coastal erosion, which would worsen with climate change. The point here is not whether we need nuclear power. It is whether the nuclear industry in Britain is learning from disasters. Is it coming clean about all the risks associated with the venture? The pressure to produce the answer that confirms the consensus view is intense. Fukushima prompted Japan to close all 50 nuclear power plants. Little surprise that at the UN climate talks in Warsaw, Japan, which is the world's fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gas, slashed plans to reduce emissions from 25% to 3.8% on 2005 figures. Hiroshi Minami, Japan's chief negotiator, said that with no nuclear power, Japan has to lower its "ambition level" on greenhouse gases. In the short term, Japan is trapped, as are we all, in a vicious circle of greenhouse gas dependency and worsening climate change. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/fukushima', 'world/world', 'world/japan', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'tone/editorials', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-11-20T22:06:10Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2016/jul/28/nuclear-critics-condemn-government-for-pushing-through-hinkley-point-c | Nuclear critics condemn decision to give Hinkley Point C project go-ahead | Nuclear critics are rounding on proponents of the giant Hinkley project – arguing that it has been negotiated in secret, is technically flawed and possibly unbuildable, and will condemn Britain to centuries of massive, unnecessary costs. “It beggars belief that this government, which prides itself on pinching the pennies, plans to spend tens of billions on Hinkley Point – the most expensive white elephant in British history,” said the Green MP Caroline Lucas on Thursday after the EDF board gave it the go-ahead. “It seems its commitment to inflexible, outdated, unaffordable power production knows no bounds.” Paul Ekins, professor of resources at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, said: “At a total cost to consumers of nearly £30bn, Hinkley now represents appalling value for money. If built, it will force cheaper renewables off the system for much of its subsidised life.” Meanwhile, Greenpeace chief scientist Doug Parr questioned the competence of French energy firms EDF and Areva to build and implement the project. “This is a one-off project which can barely be afforded and which will lead nowhere,” he said. “There are serious questions over the competence and capacity of a company to build a project which will have safety liabilities that stretch centuries into the future.” Parr said that Hinkley would increase the chances of nuclear proliferation and greatly increase Britain’s high-level nuclear waste. “Over its lifetime Hinkley will produce waste equivalent to 80% of all the waste so far produced in the UK in terms of radioactivity,” he added. “Protecting, guarding and maintaining this highly dangerous spent fuel on site for up to 200 years will be a massive challenge. The government has no plans for what it will do with it.” Jonathon Porritt, the former head of the government’s sustainable development commission, said there were serious flaws in a similar reactor being built at Flamanville in France. “There is the increasingly likely possibility that the steel reactor vessel EDF has constructed for the EPR at Flamanville may be so seriously flawed as to require it to be broken out of the reactor building for repairs,” he said. “This would be an unbelievably expensive and time-consuming process.” Legal experts warned that the project would still have to overcome court challenges. Karla Hill, Client Earth’s director of programmes, said the proposed deal with EDF was “less than visionary and centralises the UK’s power production even more when the government should be creating a decentralised energy system for the future. What is more, state support for this project is the subject of two ongoing legal cases.” Paul Dorfman, a senior researcher at UCL’s Energy Institute, said: “UK taxpayers and electricity consumers will be locked into paying for the coming Hinkley debacle long after the current EDF board and UK government decision-makers are dead and buried. “There is no way that Hinkley can deliver power by 2025, which is already eight years later than originally promised. And it is costing many more billions in subsidies than initially thought.” Mike Childs,head of research and science at Friends of the Earth, said the negotiations had “been done in secret, with no transparency”. He said any deal to go ahead with Hinkley would be “a barking mad decision. At a time when renewable costs are tumbling and the costs of EDF’s other projects are soaring, we are tying our hands to a contract that runs far into the future at well over the odds.” But many nuclear experts welcomed the EDF board’s decision. “This is excellent news for Britain – and in particular for the UK nuclear industry,” said Paul Howarth, chief executive of the National Nuclear Laboratory. “Hinkley Point C will be an important element in the UK’s drive to provide clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity to homes and businesses for generations to come.” Mark Wenman, a lecturer in nuclear engineering materials at Imperial College London, said: “The UK needs to remain committed to reducing CO2 emissions and Hinkley C, if built on time, would provide secure low-carbon energy just when we need it. “Although other nuclear projects have been delayed in Europe, this provides the opportunity to show that big infrastructure projects can be delivered in the UK.” Other nuclear experts were more cautious and warned of escalating costs. “The amount of subsidy consumers will pay for the project could be many times higher than originally envisaged if low electricity prices continue,” said Jim Watson, director of the UK Energy Research Centre. “Hinkley’s 10-year lead time means that it cannot address some of the more immediate challenges faced by the UK electricity industry.” John Radcliffe, an energy researcher at the University of Birmingham, said EDF’s decision came as no surprise. “There was simply too much at stake for British and French governments to let this deal unravel.” | ['uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'uk/uk', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-07-28T18:58:13Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/oct/07/solar-schools-project-threatened-by-renewable-energy-cuts | Solar schools project threatened by renewable energy cuts | A charitable project that has installed more than 1,000 solar panels on schools in England and Wales will close next summer if government proposals to cut support for renewable energy go ahead. Campaigners said on Wednesday that the “solar schools” project run by environmental charity 10:10 would become unsustainable under government proposals to dramatically cut the feed-in tariff for householders and communities who install solar panels on rooftops. Michael Gove took to a school rooftop in Barnes last year as then education secretary, promoting solar panels as a “sensible choice” for schools that could financially benefit them and engage pupils in environmental issues. The Department for Education said it would promote solar on schools. Amy Cameron, campaign manager at 10:10, described the planned 87% cut to the solar incentive scheme as “nonsensical”. “The messages coming out of the government don’t make sense. One of the key aims of the feed-in tariff was supposed to be around public engagement and nowhere is this more true than in schools. Schools say that is has opened the doors to educate both pupils and adults about energy and climate change,” she told the Guardian. Schools already registered now face a race to fundraise and install the panels before the year in which they can take advantage of the current rates expires. 10:10, which has supported 81 schools with the project, says it is now turning away interested schools. Plans to also support the deployment of solar panels on mosques are now very likely to be shelved. It is estimated that the average school could earn £8,000 annually from switching to solar. Friends of the Earth say that installing panels on every school in the country would save carbon emissions equivalent to taking 110,000 cars off the road. On Monday, children from Fox primary school in west London, which inspired the set-up of solar schools in 2011, delivered a petition to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), asking them to reconsider the cuts for larger installations. The school’s 100 solar panels provide for almost all of the school’s electricity demand. Executive headteacher, Paul Cotter, said: “It simply cannot be the right decision to block more schools from benefiting from solar power. We have big roofs, lots of daytime energy use - and children whose futures depend on a rapid switch to clean energy. Yet that is exactly what will happen if the government goes through with these cuts.” Campaigners and industry have warned that the changes to the feed-in tariff could lead to thousands of job losses and stifle the uptake of solar power. A Decc spokesperson said: “Our priority is to keep bills as low as possible for hardworking families and businesses, while reducing our emissions in the most cost-effective way. The government’s support for solar has driven down the cost of the technology significantly and we delivered more than the promised subsidy amount to the industry. Our action will protect existing investment whilst providing value for money for bill payers.” | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'education/schools', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'education/education', 'environment/feed-in-tariffs', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/emma-e-howard'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2015-10-07T05:01:01Z | true | ENERGY |
news/datablog/2012/dec/07/carbon-dioxide-doha-information-beautiful | How Many Gigatons of Carbon Dioxide? The Information is Beautiful guide to Doha | The climate change talks in Doha are emitting a gigaton of graphs, statistics and numerical predictions. We've scooped all the numbers together and condensed them into a single diagram. It lays out the perils and potential effects of our global CO2 habit - and the urgency to balance our "carbon budget". The Data While simple, the graphic is based on tonnes of the latest research and calculations. See it all in this dataset: http://bit.ly/CO2gigatons. Sources Carbon Tracker Initiative, International Energy Agency (IEA), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 (PDF), NASA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Research Council (PDF), Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, World Bank (PDF), European Commission Joint Research Centre (PDF), our own calcs Credits Concept & design: David McCandless Research: Miriam Quick, Ella Hollowood Additional design: Kathryn Ariel Kay, Paulo Estriga About Us We are InformationIsBeautiful.net, dedicated to visualising information, ideas, stories and data. Twitter @infobeautiful. The updated 2nd Edition of our book of infographic exploria, is called Information Is Beautiful. (HarperCollins 2012). In the US, the book's called The Visual Miscellaneum More data More data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Development and aid data • Search the world's global development data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? • Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group • Contact us at [email protected] • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter • Like us on Facebook | ['news/datablog', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/cop18-doha-climate-change-conference', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/davidmccandless'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2012-12-07T08:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
sport/2020/mar/08/huge-mcg-crowd-turns-up-for-world-t20-final-but-anger-at-disgusting-tv-decision | Huge MCG crowd turns up for World T20 final but anger at 'disgusting' TV decision | Attendance records tumbled at the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup final, with 86,174 fans turning up to watch Australia beat India and win their fifth title at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but the decision by Channel Nine to broadcast such a momentous match on its secondary channel prompted criticism in some quarters. The concerted marketing campaign to #FilltheMCG on International Women’s Day paid off as numerous milestones were reached at the stadium, although the figure fell agonisingly short of the world record for a women’s sporting event. 75,000 tickets were sold in advance of the match, and with on-the-day turn-ups, that figure swelled beyond 85,000. But the figure was shaded by the 90,815 who attended the 1999 Fifa Women’s World Cup final at California’s Rose Bowl. “It’s a gamechanger,” retired Australian great Alex Blackwell said on ABC Grandstand. “I think it sets the standard or the bar as high as possible for the next sporting event – men or women – in this country that you would fill the stadium wherever that might be.” Sporting events across the world have recently been cancelled or postponed due the coronavirus outbreak, but this match was not under threat and any fears about the spread of the virus were not in evidence at the MCG. Otherwise, conditions were ideal for a massive crowd. The match featured the hosts against the sport’s biggest draw, with prematch entertainment provided by pop superstar Katy Perry. Even Melbourne’s unpredictable weather did its bit, gracing the occasion with clear skies, in contrast to a damp semi-final day in Sydney. Despite missing the overall record for a women’s sporting event, the crowd at the MCG passed a host of other benchmarks. The total beats the estimated 80,000 who watched Australia win the 1997 ODI World Cup final in Kolkata, the previous record for a women’s cricket match. The Australian record for a standalone fixture was also smashed, beating the 53,034 figure for fans at the 2019 AFLW grand final at the Adelaide Oval. The previous highest crowd for a Women’s T20 World Cup final was 12,717 in 2009. But while there was plenty to celebrate at the venue there was room for criticism elsewhere. Channel Nine were castigated by AFLW pioneer Susan Alberti for broadcasting the final on their secondary channel Gem to avoid a scheduling clash with the six o’clock news and Married At First Sight. “I think it is disgusting it is going to be on Gem and not on the main channel,” Alberti was reported to have said at an MCG function. | ['sport/womens-world-t20-2020', 'sport/australia-women-s-cricket-team', 'sport/womens-world-twenty20', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'sport/australia-sport', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/guardian-sport', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-sport'] | sport/womens-world-t20-2020 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-03-08T10:00:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2017/jan/12/almost-75-of-japans-biggest-coral-reef-has-died-from-bleaching-says-report | Almost 75% of Japan's biggest coral reef has died from bleaching, says report | Almost three-quarters of Japan’s biggest coral reef has died, according to a report that blames its demise on rising sea temperatures caused by global warming. The Japanese environment ministry said that 70% of the Sekisei lagoon in Okinawa had been killed by a phenomenon known as bleaching. Bleaching occurs when unusually warm water causes coral to expel the algae living in their tissues, causing the coral to turn completely white. Unless water temperatures quickly return to normal, the coral eventually dies from lack of nutrition. The plight of the reef, located in Japan’s southernmost reaches, has become “extremely serious” in recent years, according to the ministry, whose survey of 35 locations in the lagoon last November and December found that 70.1% percent of the coral had died. The dead coral has now turned dark brown and is now covered with algae, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The newspaper said the average sea surface temperature between last June and August in the southern part of the Okinawa island chain was 30.1 degrees centigrade – or one to two degrees warmer than usual – and the highest average temperature since records began in 1982, according to the Japan meteorological agency. The ministry report follows warnings by the Coral Reef Watch programme at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that global coral bleaching could become the “new normal” due to warming oceans. Experts said that bleaching had spread to about 90% of the Sekisei reef, a popular diving spot that covers 400sq km. A similar survey conducted in September and October last year found that just over 56% of the reef had died, indicating that bleaching has spread rapidly in recent months. | ['world/japan', 'environment/coral', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/marine-life', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-01-12T04:22:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/nov/15/only-official-bathing-spot-on-thames-fails-tests-for-bacteria-linked-to-sewage | Only official bathing spot on Thames fails tests for bacteria linked to sewage | The only official bathing water area on the River Thames has failed tests for bacteria associated with sewage pollution, data shows. A section of Wolvercote Mill Stream, at Port Meadow, two miles outside Oxford, was designated as an official bathing area in April after a campaign by local people. Bathing water sites have to be tested from May to September by the Environment Agency, and grassroots groups across the country are pushing for their rivers to be made bathing water areas to force water companies to stop discharging raw sewage into rivers. The waters are given a classification of excellent, good, sufficient or poor, based on the tests. But the data from the first bathing water season indicates E coli and intestinal enterococci are present at levels higher than it is safe to swim in. In the case of intestinal enterococci, the levels were more than twice the recommended amount. The results from the EA, published on Tuesday, mean that the swimming site is likely to receive a poor classification when the official status is given later this year. Claire Robertson, Oxford Rivers Project officer at Thames21, said: “We are disappointed, but not surprised, by these results at Wolvercote, given that Thames Water released untreated sewage into the rivers around Oxford for 5,600 hours in 2021 and given our results from citizen science testing last year.” She said there were no clear plans from the water company to upgrade treatment works at Cassington or Stanton Harcourt. Robertson said the bathing water site had only four more years to achieve a “sufficient” or higher designation at Wolvercote, otherwise it could be de-designated. Thames Water says it plans to halve raw sewage spills by 2030. But Robertson said: “This is not nearly fast enough for the swimmers and paddlers at Wolvercote, many of them families with young children, nor for the wildlife and plants that call this part of the Thames their home. We need action now. “We’re looking forward to hearing where they plan to put in upgrades so we can swim safely at Wolvercote, and how the Environment Agency can support and enforce these improvements.” Tim Harris, an associate with the Rivers Trust who led a study of popular swimming areas of the Thames in 2021, said: “Overall the largest contributor to the bacterial levels at this site is untreated and treated sewage effluent from Thames Water’s assets. Therefore, it has come as a great surprise that there are no plans yet put forward to upgrade the sewage treatment works and sewage network within the local area affecting the bathing site.” The campaign to make Port Meadow a bathing site was backed by the city council and the MP Layla Moran. Under the government’s storm overflow reduction plan, water companies have to improve all overflows discharging raw sewage into or near every designated bathing water by 2035. But the plan has been criticised by environmentalists as too little too late, and is being challenged in court. In the House of Lords on Monday, the Green party peer Jenny Jones pressed the government on why water companies have not yet produced plans for dealing with raw sewage releases, as required under the government plan. “The water companies have already had all the money they needed for infrastructure improvements and they didn’t use it for that, they gave it in dividends to their shareholders,” she said. “So could I suggest [Lord Benyon] instruct Ofwat to ensure that no dividends are paid until further notice … and large bonuses to senior executives, until this problem is fixed and water companies stop pumping out sewage into our chalk streams, our rivers and on to our beaches.” Lord Benyon, minister for the environment, said there were very strict new conditions set by the water regulator, Ofwat, on how water companies rewarded senior staff and shareholders. He said there was an absolute imperative driven by the regulator and the government to reduce massively the effect of storm overflows. He said Ofwat had written to water companies to make clear their plans so far lacked both ambition and sufficient evidence to support the positions they had taken. He added that the water companies had an extra two months to come up with better plans. Richard Aylard, sustainability director at Thames Water, said: “We have committed to reducing the annual duration of sewage discharges into rivers by 50% across the Thames Valley by 2030 and have planned substantial investment in our local sewer network to reduce the need for untreated discharges, including a major expansion at Witney sewage treatment works in Oxfordshire. “After a successful trial in the Oxford area, we’re finalising the provision of live alerts from all 468 permitted locations across our region by the end of 2022. We’re clear it’s completely unacceptable for any untreated sewage to enter rivers, whether it’s permitted or not. Stopping discharges altogether will take time and sustained investment. However, each step we take on this journey is a move in the right direction.” | ['environment/rivers', 'environment/water', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/oxford', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-11-15T07:00:17Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2018/apr/24/toronto-van-attack-facebook-post-may-link-suspect-with-incel-group | Toronto van attack: Facebook post may link suspect to misogynist 'incel' subculture | Shortly before a rented van ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 and wounding 14 others, a short and cryptic message was posted on the Facebook account of Alek Minassian, the man accused of carrying out the attack. The post referred to another mass killer – Elliot Rodger, who shot dead six people and wounded 13 others in Isla Vista, California, in 2014 – and said that the “incel rebellion has already begun. We will overthrow all the Chads and the Stacys”. Minassian’s Facebook account has since been deleted and police have yet to suggest a motive for the attack, but the post appeared to connect the alleged killer with the so-called “incel” movement, which has made collective sexual frustration the basis for a deeply misogynistic online subculture. Incel stands for “involuntary celibate”, and the people who identify with the label are almost exclusively male. On incels.me, the subculture’s leading online forum, an incel is described as someone who “can’t have sex despite wanting to”, and is thus also denied the pleasures of relationships. (In incel lingo, sexually successful men are known as “Chads”, and attractive women are called “Stacys”). Self-identified incels have used the internet to find anonymous support and develop an ideology whose central belief is that the modern world is unfairly stacked against awkward or unattractive heterosexual men. Incel websites argue that society is set up so that some men have numerous sexual partners, others have none and women get to take their pick in what is often described as a “sexual marketplace”. Such theories are often buttressed with half-understood theories about evolution, psychology and genetics. And at their heart is a belief that denying men sex is unjust. As in other reactionary subcultures that reject consensus liberal beliefs, those who take on the incel creed are said to have taken “the red pill” – referring to the scene in the science fiction movie The Matrix where the protagonist chooses to leave his illusions behind. Frequently such ideas lead to a generalized bitterness towards women. Indeed, the big incel hubs are often viciously misogynistic and regularly feature calls for rape or other violence. Even the free speech bastion Reddit was forced last year to ban the largest incel subreddit for inciting hate (another subreddit, incelTears, continues to chronicle the excesses of incel culture online). Some with this mindset take it upon themselves to commit horrendous violence. In videos and a manifesto, the Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger justified his own mass homicide in 2014 by presenting it as revenge for his own romantic rejections, and the fact that at 22, he was still a virgin. Rodger was subsequently adopted by some incels as a hero, and being made into the quasi-ironic figurehead for a “beta uprising”, when sexually unsuccessful men would engage in armed revolt against all of the Chads and Stacys. Behind the layers of irony and disavowal, then, some incels have constructed a kind of violent, insurrectionary rhetoric from romantic failure and the belief that they are owed sex. It’s possible that this mindset has influenced another lonely man in Toronto to commit mass murder. The nature of social media still leaves some room for doubt as to whether the message is genuine, or whether it was really posted by Minassian – and internet trolls have previously misled the media following mass killings with false claims. Moderators on incels.me were quick to disavow him. One post said Minassian “has never posted on Incels.me. As far as we are concerned, no one on the forum heard of him before these latest news.” But elsewhere on the site, some users appeared to be defending the attacker. One post castigated other forum users for their squeamishness under the title, “most of you guys are all talk”. | ['world/toronto-van-incident', 'world/canada', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/wilson-jason', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | world/toronto-van-incident | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-25T07:54:51Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/feb/14/valentines-day-chocolates-may-not-be-the-greenest-way-to-show-your-love | Valentine's Day chocolates may not be the greenest way to show your love | A box of chocolates may not be the most environmentally friendly way to show your love this Valentine’s Day, a report published today claims. The cocoa in chocolate products is probably driving deforestation across the globe, according to new research by the environmental campaigning organisation Mighty Earth. Following an investigation by the Guardian and Mighty Earth that showed that cocoa was driving deforestation in West Africa, the group mapped cocoa-producing regions in Indonesia, Peru, Ecuador and Cameroon, and found a high risk that cocoa is driving deforestation there as well. Mighty Earth collected cocoa import-export data and maps of regions where cocoa is grown and layered it over maps of deforestation between 2000 and 2016. They found that there was large-scale deforestation in the four countries they focused on, and they said what had happened to West African forests could happen worldwide if the industry did not change. Etelle Higonnet, the lead researcher, said: “The Ivory Coast and Ghana stand as a cautionary tale of what could happen in other countries where cocoa is spreading, if the industry does not reform its practices.” The chocolate industry has expanded quickly in recent years, feeding a growing global demand for chocolate. In national parks and forest reserves in Ivory Coast, the Guardian found that swathes of trees had been cleared to plant cocoa, and that thousands of people were living and farming there under the noses of the authorities whose supposed job it was to protect them. After the publication of the Guardian’s investigation and Mighty Earth’s report last September, 23 of the world’s biggest chocolate companies along with the governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast signed up to no new deforestation in West Africa. But far fewer said they would commit to deforestation-free cocoa worldwide – although two of the top producers, Olam and Hershey’s, said they would. | ['environment/ethical-living', 'environment/deforestation', 'food/chocolate', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/valentines-day', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ruth-maclean', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-02-14T00:01:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/may/05/solar-mwangabora-evans-wadongo-lamps-climate-change | Cheap solar lamps help villagers keep their health, and cut emissions | In Kenya, where less than a quarter of the 45-million population has access to electricity, a solar lamp project is helping rural communities save money on expensive and harmful fuel while reducing carbon emissions. The Use Solar, Save Lives initiative was set up in 2004 by Evans Wadongo, 29, an engineer who experienced the dangerous effects of kerosene lamps growing up in a western Kenyan village. Studying close to an open flame, he was exposed to kerosene smoke, notorious for provoking breathing and vision defects, which left him with permanent eye problems. Determined to make a difference, Wadongo designed an alternative – a simple, sun-powered lantern dubbed a MwangaBora, which means “good light” in Swahili. The lamp is cleaner and greener, and also cuts costs. “For a family that earns two dollars a day, kerosene takes about 30-40% of their daily income. If they’re able to save that, it really makes a big difference,” says Wadongo. The lamps are made from locally sourced scrap metal and fragments of solar panels that charge a battery-powered LED light, while a USB port can be built into the base, offering an easy way to charge phones and radios. Instead of importing solar technology from a mass producing country such as China, groups of young people are trained to manufacture the lamps. These are then given to women’s groups, who use the money they save to set up small businesses such as poultry farming or beekeeping. “When women have their own income, they spend it on their families and the whole community benefits,” says Wadongo. Winning an international Seed award in 2011 helped the organisation to circulate lamps around the country – there are now more than 50,000 MwangaBora used in Kenya alone. Fundraising exhibitions featuring the lamps have taken place in New York and at the Pavilion of Art and Design in London, and Wadongo was named as one of CNN’s top 10 heroes in 2010. At the 2012 London Olympics, he was selected as one of four torchbearers for Kenya. Despite these accolades, and donations from around the world, Wadongo says that financing the project is a challenge due to its long-term nature. Each lamp costs $25, which covers materials, training and distribution. The women’s groups can use money from their successful businesses to buy more lamps, creating a micro-finance system. “We want to make sure that in every community we get into, we leave them not only with lamps but with increased income levels,” he says. The project has already taken off in Uganda and Wadongo is looking to further expansion. “We still have a whole lot of work to do in Kenya. By 2018, we want to be working in at least five countries in sub-Saharan Africa and have a million people benefiting from our program. Eventually we want to be able to do the same in South America, for example.” And the impact could be global. Solar power saves lives by reducing the risk of fire caused by open flames and by improving villagers’ economic and educational prospects, but also by helping to save the planet, says Wadongo. “Burning one litre of kerosene produces 2.6kg of CO2, so with more than a billion people worldwide using it every day, you can imagine how much is emitted into the environment.” | ['environment/series/observer-tech-monthly-climate-change-special', 'science/science', 'tone/features', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'world/kenya', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'profile/katie-forster', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly/observer-tech-monthly'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2015-05-05T06:30:07Z | true | ENERGY |
film/2023/jun/14/elemental-reimagine-wildfire-review-terrifying-extreme-weather-and-how-to-stop-it | Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire review – a deep dive into California’s destructive blazes | As the intense Canadian wildfires continue to make headlines, engulfing New York City in toxic orange smog, this timely and informative documentary seeks to change the way we think about these increasingly hazardous ecological events. Featuring footage from recent natural disasters, including the historic 2018 Camp fire in northern California, the opening places viewers in the heart of the inferno. Bright red flames lick through every inch of the ground, leaving behind a trail of burning wreckage, and waves of smoke turn the morning sky pitch-black. The sight is terrifying, almost surreal, yet Elemental also aims to debunk outdated myths about wildfires, regularly regurgitated by mainstream media and even forest management departments. An eclectic cohort of experts, who include academics, fire deputies and environmental volunteers, break down long-held misconceptions in a systematic and easy-to-understand fashion. For instance, for decades, logging new plantations has been a favoured method of fire prevention. In reality, however, maintaining old natural forests proves more effective at slowing down the spread of a wildfire as well as shielding populated areas from firestorms. Among the expert voices are those of the Indigenous Yurok tribe, who had adhered to these methods for generations before colonialism altered how fire was perceived. Far from an unruly monster, the use of fire to regulate the growth of a forest can, in fact, foster greater biodiversity. Impressive in terms of analysis, Elemental is slightly hampered by the narration from David Oyelowo, whose sonorous vocal timbre occasionally dampens the urgency of the issues at hand. A popular trend among nature docs, recorded voiceovers from high-profile actors can be a way to attract more attention. In this case, however, it might have been sufficient to let the subject speak for itself. • Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire is released on 13 June on digital platforms | ['film/film', 'film/documentary', 'world/wildfires', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'culture/culture', 'film/david-oyelowo', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/phuong-le', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-06-16T11:26:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/dec/05/australias-delays-on-palm-oil-labelling-hastening-deforestation-and-orangutan-deaths | Australia's delays on palm oil labelling 'hastening deforestation and orangutan deaths' | Environmentalists have warned that Australia’s repeated delays on mandatory palm oil labelling are allowing deforestation and the destruction of orangutan habitats to continue unabated. A proposal requiring palm oils to be specifically listed on food labels has now been under consideration by Australian and New Zealand ministers for more than five years. The changes would prevent palm oil from being listed generically as “vegetable oil”, helping to inform consumers, limit demand for unsustainable palm oil products, and reduce the devastating impact that plantations have on rainforests and orangutan habitats, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. The proposal again came before the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation late last month, but any decision was put off until at least April. The Zoos Victoria chief executive officer, Jenny Gray, who is leading one of several concurrent palm oil campaigns, said she was confused about what additional information the ministerial council was seeking. “We know we’re losing a thousand orangutans a year at the moment, so if we delay for another year, that’s more habitats destroyed, that’s more orangutans impacted by this,” Gray said. “Longer delays, it really is unclear why we would want to do that when this is such an urgent issue,” she said. The decision on palm oil labelling is wrapped up in a broader review of labelling laws, which began in 2009. In 2011, an expert panel, led by former Labor health minister Neal Blewett, recommended that added sugars, oils or fats be individually labelled. The ministerial forum made some progress at its meeting late last month, splitting its consideration of palm oil from other labelling changes. Blewett told Guardian Australia he thought the process had been “fairly slow”, but said the labelling reforms were complex and presented plenty of issues for stakeholders to “fight over”. “It’s been fairly slow, I’ve got to say. And I’ve not been following it closely because I’ve not been involved in the later debates,” he said. He said he had recommended mandatory palm oil labelling on health grounds, because it was arguably not as healthy as other vegetable oils. Deforestation and habitat destruction, he said, were environmental concerns and couldn’t really be considered in the labelling process. “The value side issues… you can’t start laying down rules for those,” he said. “What you can do is get the market to work effectively so that companies will feel the need to, when they list vegetable oils, find it necessary to say that they haven’t got palm oils.” The move faces opposition from the food industry, represented by the Australian Food and Grocery Council. A council spokesman said many Australian companies had already begun using only sustainably sourced palm oil in their products. He said that created a risk palm oil labelling would confuse consumers, who would be unable to tell sustainable and unsustainable products apart. “The problem is there is low understanding of [certified sustainable palm oil] and consumers may confuse products that use responsibly sourced palm oil with those that don’t,” he said. “We want to encourage companies to make the substantial investment in CSPO, but potentially lumping CSPO and non-CSPO products under one label may act as a disincentive.” A survey commissioned by Zoos Victoria found 84% of Australians and 92% of New Zealand consumers supported the initiative. The labelling of palm oil, which is high in saturated fat, is also supported on health grounds by the Australian Medical Association. The European Union implemented specific oil labelling in 2014, and the United States and Canada have adopted similar measures. The EU’s experience, according to Gray, showed that the costs to industry were negligible. She said it may actually be more costly for companies to maintain two different labelling regimes; one for Australia and another for the EU or US. “It’s easy to say we don’t want change because it would cost us, it would be really good to see how they would quantify that,” Gray said. “Then to give the consumer the choice, I think people are happy to pay a few extra cents to know that they’re buying a sustainable product.” The ministerial forum will meet again on 28 April. | ['environment/palm-oil', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'world/asia-pacific', 'business/fooddrinks', 'world/indonesia', 'world/malaysia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-12-05T05:15:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/apr/27/new-homes-in-poorer-areas-of-england-and-wales-face-undue-future-flood-risk | New homes in poorer areas of England and Wales face undue flood risk | A disproportionate number of homes built in disadvantaged neighbourhoods over the past decade will end up in high flood-risk areas as a result of climate breakdown, a study has revealed. According to a report from the Grantham Research Institute, without further action the share of homes built between 2008 and 2018 that will be considered at high risk of flooding by the 2050s is expected to increase from 5% to 7% under a 2C warming scenario, or 14% under a “high-end warming scenario”. The figures for disadvantaged neighbourhoods are 9% and 21% respectively. The study, led by Viktor Rözer and Swenja Surminski, used data from Ordnance Survey to examine the flood exposure of new-build properties and the socioeconomic development of neighbourhoods. Rözer said: “My motivation to do this work focuses on how climate change is not only about reducing carbon emissions but also about adapting to the impact of it. “There’s a lot of missed opportunities with homes. Once they are built they will be there for decades or often hundreds of years. That’s something worth looking at. How do the neighbourhoods look when they are built and how will they be affected by climate change?” Surminski said: “The biggest challenge that the UK is facing is flooding, so this research is trying to understand what are the social but also the economic implications of flooding. Where we build and how we build is a key issue.” About 120,000 new homes have been built in flood-prone areas of England and Wales over the past decade. The researchers say an increase in mortgage defaults and foreclosures in affected areas is also likely, which could have a negative effect on property prices and investment in already-disadvantaged areas. Surminski said: “Flooding is actually the one sort of natural hazard where we actually have quite a few options in terms of managing it. The key thing is what can you do to protect your own home. “There are more community-level things like urban drainage, or making sure flood protection is adequate. There are nature-based solutions too, like planting more trees. “We know that climate change is already having an impact, but that this will also increase going forward. It really is important that people also understand what this means in terms of where they live. “Some people might actually have financial means to protect their homes, but for others in poorer areas, they will have to rely on government support and their council. We just need to be careful that we’re not creating huge social inequalities of climate change.” | ['environment/flooding', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'society/poverty', 'uk-news/england', 'uk/wales', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rhi-storer', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-04-27T12:09:49Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/aug/30/rampant-destruction-of-forests-will-unleash-more-pandemics | Rampant destruction of forests ‘will unleash more pandemics’ | Scientists are to warn world leaders that increasing numbers of deadly new pandemics will afflict the planet if levels of deforestation and biodiversity loss continue at their current catastrophic rates. A UN summit on biodiversity, scheduled to be held in New York next month, will be told by conservationists and biologists there is now clear evidence of a strong link between environmental destruction and the increased emergence of deadly new diseases such as Covid-19. Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of farming and the building of mines in remote regions – as well as the exploitation of wild animals as sources of food, traditional medicines and exotic pets – are creating a “perfect storm” for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people, delegates will be told. Almost a third of all emerging diseases have originated through the process of land use change, it is claimed. As a result, five or six new epidemics a year could soon affect Earth’s population. “There are now a whole raft of activities – illegal logging, clearing and mining – with associated international trades in bushmeat and exotic pets that have created this crisis,” said Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation at Duke University. “In the case of Covid-19, it has cost the world trillions of dollars and already killed almost a million people, so clearly urgent action is needed.” It is estimated that tens of millions of hectares of rainforest and other wild environments are being bulldozed every year to cultivate palm trees, farm cattle, extract oil and provide access to mines and mineral deposits. This leads to the widespread destruction of vegetation and wildlife that are hosts to countless species of viruses and bacteria, most unknown to science. Those microbes can then accidentally infect new hosts, such as humans and domestic livestock. Such events are known as spillovers. Crucially, if viruses thrive in their new human hosts they can infect other individuals. This is known as transmission and the result can be a new, emerging disease. An example of such events is provided by the HIV virus, which in the early 20th century spread from chimpanzees and gorillas – which were being slaughtered for bushmeat in West Africa – to men and women and which has since caused the death of more than 10 million people. Other examples include Ebola fever, which is passed on by bats to primates and humans; the swine flu epidemic of 2009 and the Covid-19 virus, which was originally passed to humans from bats. “When workers come into rainforests to chop down trees they don’t take food with them,” said Andy Dobson, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University. “They just eat what they can kill. So that exposes them to infection all the time.” This point was backed by Pimm. “I have a photograph of a guy slaughtering a wild pig deep in the Ecuadorian jungle. He was an illegal logger and he and his fellow workers needed food so they killed a boar. They got splattered with wild pig blood in the process. It’s gruesome and unhygienic and that is how these diseases spread.” However, not every emerging disease is caused by a single, major spillover event, stressed zoologist David Redding, of University College London. “In places where trees are being cleared, mosaics of fields, created around farms, appear in the landscape interspersed with parcels of old forest. “This increases the interface between the wild and the cultivated. Bats, rodents and other pests carrying strange new viruses come from surviving clumps of forests and infect farm animals – who then pass on these infections to humans.” An example of this form of transmission is provided by Lassa fever, which was first discovered in Nigeria in 1969 and now causes several thousand deaths a year. The virus is spread by the rodent Mastomys natalensis, which was widespread in Africa’s savannahs and forests but now colonises homes and farms, passing on the disease to humans. “The crucial point is that there are probably 10 times more different species of viruses than there are of mammals,” added Dobson. “The numbers are against us and the emergence of new pathogens inevitable.” In the past many outbreaks of new diseases remained in contained areas. However, the development of cheap air travel has changed that picture and diseases can appear across the globe before scientists have fully realised what is happening. “The onward transmission of a new disease is also another really important element in the pandemic story,” said Professor James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University. “Consider the swine flu pandemic. We flew that around the world several times before we realised what was going on. Global connectivity has allowed – and is still allowing – Covid-19 to be transmitted to just about every country on Earth.” In a paper published in Science last month, Pimm, Dobson and other scientists and economists propose setting up a programme to monitor wildlife, reduce spillovers, end the wildlife meat trade and reduce deforestation. Such a scheme could cost more than $20bn a year, a price tag that is dwarfed by the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has wiped trillions of dollars from national economies round the world. “We estimate that the value of prevention costs for 10 years to be only about 2% of the costs of the Covid-19 pandemic,” they state. In addition, reducing deforestation – which is a major source of carbon emissions – would also have the benefit of helping the battle against climate change, add the researchers. “The rate of emergence of novel disease is increasing and their economic impacts are also increasing,” states the group. “Postponing a global strategy to reduce pandemic risk would lead to continued soaring costs. Society must strive to avoid the impacts of future pandemics.” | ['environment/environment', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'world/epidemics', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/farming', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'world/ebola', 'environment/farm-animals', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-08-30T06:03:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2016/oct/18/australia-should-urgently-improve-whistleblower-protection-un-expert-says | Australia should urgently improve whistleblower protection, UN expert says | The Australian government should urgently review the Border Force Act’s secrecy provisions and improve protections for whistleblowers in the immigration detention system, a United Nations special rapporteur has said. The UN independent expert Michel Forst made the recommendation while launching a report that concludes that Australian governments have effectively gagged civil society advocates with secrecy laws, funding cuts and restrictive contracts that prevent them speaking up about human rights abuses. Civil society groups including Save the Children have welcomed the preliminary findings, which Forst presented in Canberra on Tuesday after a two-week visit meeting human rights defenders. Forst said Australia had “hundreds of secrecy laws that unnecessarily restrict access to government information”, including the Border Force Act and state anti-protest laws. These formed part of “mounting evidence of a range of cumulative measures” putting pressure on civil society groups and increasing the disparity between Australia’s commitments to the rule of law and its practice. In particular, Forst singled out secrecy in the immigration portfolio, changes denying environmental advocates legal standing, cuts to community legal centres and gag clauses preventing advocacy by non-government organisations receiving grants. “The immigration department has gone to extraordinary lengths to curb whistleblowers, public servants or contractors, to share information in the public domain about serious human rights abuses in offshore detention centres,” he said. The Border Force Act contains a section criminalising the making of an “unauthorised disclosure” about conditions in detention camps, punishable by two years in prison. Forst said aspects of the law that related to freedom of expression should be reviewed and the public interest disclosure framework “substantially strengthened … to ensure effective protection to whistleblowers”. He said he was “astounded” at “frequent public vilification of rights defenders by senior government officials” to discredit and intimidate them. Media and businesspeople had “contributed to stigmatisation”, he said. “Even the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Prof Gillian Triggs, faced government intimidation and public questioning of her integrity, impartiality and judgment after the commission’s inquiry into the child harm in immigration detention.” High-profile whistleblowers such as Dr Peter Young, the former head of mental health for International Health and Medical Services, and Paul Stevenson, a traumatologist who worked on Nauru and Manus, have faced heavy recriminations for speaking out about abuses in offshore detention. They, and others, have lost jobs, been publicly vilified and, in some cases, had their communications monitored, and police investigations launched into their activities. Friends and colleagues have been telephoned and harassed by police, seeking information about private conversations. Wilson Security even took the extraordinary step of hiring a private investigator to “aggressively” pursue the sources of stories in the Guardian and other media outlets. Forst said contractors such as Save the Children had been subjected to raids and egregious allegations of misconduct, removed from operations and had their personal and professional reputations targeted by politicians and media. He said many activists spoke of an atmosphere of fear and censorship, and several defenders preferred not to meet with him for fear of retaliation. Access to justice was restricted by clauses preventing appeal against immigration decisions, and reported attempts by the government to grant officers in detention centres immunity from criminal and civil liability. The head of policy and public advocacy at Save the Children Australia, Mat Tinkler, told Guardian Australia Forst’s conclusions were “absolutely right”. “The regime of secrecy on offshore processing means Australian taxpayers don’t have the opportunity to judge [its] merits ... they don’t have all the facts on the table,” he said. “It forces staff to face an invidious choice: to face prosecution, or speak out about egregious child rights violations when nothing is being done to remedy them.” Tinkler welcomed the recommendation to review the Border Force Act, noting that although there had been no prosecutions Forst found it had a chilling effect. He said Save the Children had “a well-documented history of being attacked for being the messenger of bad news”. It had resulted in the “absence of a rights-based organisation providing support to vulnerable people in detention”, Tinkler said. Forst noted that the government had introduced a bill to prevent individuals or organisations that have engaged in environmental activities in the past two years from challenging decisions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The government had used “vitriolic language” to describe those bringing legal challenges, calling them “radical green activists” engaged in “vigilante litigation”. Forst complained of “drastic defunding of peak bodies” including the total defunding of the Environmental Defenders Offices and the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. Gagging clauses prevented organisations that received government funding from “doing any form of advocacy, which is contrary to the principle of a free and democratic society”, he said. An Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner, Basha Stasak, welcomed the UN rapporteur’s findings that environmental campaigners had been “vilified” for legitimate legal action. She called on the government to “take on board the recommendations that environmental groups have a legitimate interest in decision making and in the courts” and withdraw amendments to deny them standing and deprive them of tax-deductible status. On Tuesday, Triggs told the Senate legal and constitutional affairs legislation committee that there had been “a real slipping back in our commitment to the rule of law and fundamental freedoms” in Australia. Forst said the degradation of protections for civil society could be “reversed and improved” and called on the government to adopt a national action plan on human rights. He will present a final report with his findings and recommendations to the UN human rights council in 2017. The government will be given an opportunity to comment on the factual aspects of the draft report before its final submission. Forst’s visit will be followed by a visit from a special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants in November and in 2017, who will report on conditions in offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru. | ['australia-news/australian-immigration-and-asylum', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/activism', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/unitednations', 'law/human-rights', 'australia-news/gillian-triggs', 'law/law', 'world/protest', 'type/article', 'profile/paul-karp', 'profile/ben-doherty', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2016-10-18T05:06:01Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2004/dec/12/windpower.renewableenergy | Islanders scorn £6m windfarm windfall | The green energy revolution has been hailed as the salvation of the Hebridean island of Lewis, combating climate change while promising hundreds of jobs, millions of pounds' worth of income and an end to rural poverty. But at dusk yesterday, in what has become an increasingly militant campaign, protesters torched a giant 30ft model turbine as a symbol of public odium against plans to build the world's biggest onshore wind farm. Around 100 protesters cheered as the tips of the four 10ft blades were set alight. 'It is not a wind farm they are proposing, it's a wind factory,' said Murdo Maclean, a local crofter. He was referring to an application, lodged last month, to build 234 turbines, each 140 metres (460ft) high - more than one and a half times the height of Big Ben - across a 40 kilometres (25 miles) swathe of peat and moorland in the north-west of the island. 'This is a gesture to show what we want to happen to the turbines if they do come and it is to represent our burning anger,' said Catriona Campbell, a teacher who helped set up the campaign group Moorland Without Turbines. 'We are so sad and devastated that our own council could ever have dreamt that we would have wanted this sort of thing blighting our landscape and destroying the natural heritage. 'People have never been consulted about these developments. Our political leaders seemed to assume it would be OK by us. But it's not.' The demonstration came as it emerged that the Scot tish Wildlife Trust had officially objected to the proposals, joining what is expected to be one of Scotland's longest-running and most acrimonious environmental disputes. Stuart Hay, the SWT's policy and campaigns officer, said the organisation had not objected to a wind farm for five years, but felt compelled to because of its location. 'SWT only object to wind farms in exceptional circumstances, where there is a clear and pressing danger to wildlife,' he said. 'In this case, we felt duty bound to act. The Lewis Peatlands are a unique asset recognised internationally for their natural qualities and wildlife. They are like the crown jewels and they deserve the highest level of protection.' The SWT joins the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who say the plan would wreck the habitat of thousands of endangered birds. The government's own conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, is yet to formally adopt a position on the Lewis wind farm. The organisation's role will be critical because if it does object it will be virtually impossible for ministers to avoid calling a public inquiry. The plan is backed by local politicians, Calum MacDonald MP and Alasdair Morrison MSP. It is expected to be supported by the local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, which has publicly stated its support for establishing the area as the renewable energy capital of Europe. There is also support from some crofters who would be in line for a handsome reward. Iain MacIver, a local crofter and factor of the Stornoway Trust, which owns part of the land affected, said although there was a visual impact, it was a price worth paying. 'During the construction phase, there will be more than 300 jobs created plus an additional 350 over its 25-year lifetime. In addition, it will provide an annual income to the Western Isles of between £6 million and £8m per year. Our island has long suffered from depopulation. This project could reverse that.' David Hodkinson, director of Lewis Wind Power, a joint venture between British Energy and London-based energy firm Amec, said steps had been taken to minimise the impact on birds and the landscape, adding that the project would play a vital role in developing the Western Isles as Europe's leading centre for renewable energy. A decision from the Scottish Executive is expected next year. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'environment/green-economy', 'type/article', 'profile/lornamartin', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2004-12-12T01:11:49Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2007/apr/04/notallapplesaregreen1 | Not all Apples are green | Screen break: an electronics recycling centre in Switzerland. Photographer: Walter Bieri, AP/Keystone. Electronics manufacturers are going greener every year - but some still lag far behind. And the worst of all. The iconic Apple. It came last in a new survey published by Greenpeace for its policies on recycling and the use of toxic chemicals. Tens of millions of tons of electrical and electronic goods are thrown away every year. They are an environmental and health hazard because of the toxic chemicals they contain. A lot of this toxic waste is shipped to China and India where the electronic goods are broken up, often by children, to recover the scrap. The only solution is for manufacturers to remove the toxic chemicals and accept responsibility for taking back their products at the end of their life. The EU is beginning to deal with this problem, but globally there are no regulations. The processes used to manufacture and dispose of everyday technologies, such as PCs and mobile phones, are traditionally notorious for being wasteful and damaging. But there are signs that some electronic goods are on their way to becoming "greener". The latest Greenpeace guide to greener electronics, which ranks 14 top manufacturers of PCs and mobile phones in order of their impact on the environment, shows that most companies have committed to greener processes, with many following those commitments up with action. Developments involve eliminating the use of the most hazardous chemicals, developing recycling policies and financing take-back, reuse or recycling of end-of-life products. There are real signs that such commitments are becoming increasingly common across the industry. Most companies now score above average points on the ranking guide, with only five companies failing to meet the average of five points. The top-ranked brands have adopted a precautionary chemical policy by committing to eliminate the use of the most hazardous chemicals in their products. They have acknowledged that, as producers, they bear individual responsibility for financing the take-back and responsible reuse or recycling of their own-brand discarded products. Lenovo, Nokia and Sony Ericsson have the top three spots with progressive approaches to their use of chemicals as well as the disposal of their electronic waste. Dell comes in fourth. In sharp contrast, Apple is awarded the last place, because the company has made absolutely no improvements to its policies or practices since the ranking was first released last year, in stark contrast to most of its major competitors. Lenovo, the Chinese PC manufacturer, has jumped from the bottom spot up to its current first place having made strong policy commitments. The company also offers take back and recycling in all the countries where its products are sold. It seems companies are more likely to respond to competition than pleas of conscience. By turning the spotlight onto top electronics companies, challenging them to outrank their competition, the Greenpeace guide to greener electronics succeeds in motivating companies to improve their chemicals and waste policies. At the beginning of this year, Michael Dell of Dell Computers led the way at the Consumer Electronics Fair in Las Vegas when he proclaimed: "I challenge every PC maker to join us in providing free recycling for every customer in every country ... all the time - no exceptions." Apple users, meanwhile, were disappointed at their annual MacWorld show in San Francisco. CEO Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone with a great publicity flourish, but ignored pleas to make Apple more eco-friendly. Apple users or potential buyers can check out the Greenpeace campaign here. The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is available at www.greenpeace.org.uk. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'technology/apple', 'environment/waste', 'technology/technology', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'type/article', 'profile/johnsauven'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-04-04T12:30:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2014/mar/07/weatherwatch-rain-maker | Weatherwatch: Rain maker | Australia is famously known as a land of "droughts and flooding rains". With no significant rainfall for two years over much of Queensland and New South Wales, the description is as apt as ever. A few determined individuals have always been willing to challenge nature however, and in 1882, John Henry "Professor" Pepper advertised a demonstration of "Rainmaking, or tapping the clouds" with rockets, cannon and a gigantic steel-framed kite. Pepper, a celebrated English science lecturer, staged the demonstration at Eagle Farm racecourse outside Brisbane. He was using the same principle as modern rainfall forcing, filling clouds with particles to promote raindrop formation. But there were some difficulties. The kite was supposed to carry a landmine up to the clouds, but was too heavy to get more than 30m off the ground. The rockets went off haphazardly, and one narrowly missed the crowd. Then some boys sabotaged a cannon by filling the barrel with loose gunpowder. The cannon exploded, sending fragments flying. Amazingly, nobody was hurt, and the audience was thoroughly entertained. Inevitably, the press mocked the failed attempts at rainmaking, driving Pepper to announce that he was giving up on weather modification. "I shall leave to others the honour and expense of trying to do good by gently persuading the clouds to drop fatness," he said. A week later, the drought was broken by torrential rains. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-03-07T21:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2021/sep/17/australia-considered-buying-nuclear-submarines-from-france-before-ditching-deal-peter-dutton-says | Australia considered buying nuclear submarines from France before ditching deal, Peter Dutton says | Australia considered buying nuclear-powered submarines from France, which could have saved money and avoided France’s rage at the existing $90bn project being scrapped. This week the federal government announced its decision to instead source nuclear submarine designs from the United States or the United Kingdom, and build at least eight submarines in Adelaide. French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, described it as a “stab in the back”. Australia has spent about $2.4bn on the French project so far, and may have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for leaving the contract. In the competitive evaluation process for the project, Naval Group (then DCNS) was pitching a conventional version of its existing nuclear submarines, but made it clear nuclear versions were on offer. The chief executive, Herve Guillou, said in 2016 that “if, in 2050, Australia wants a nuclear submarine, they can design a nuclear submarine”. The 2050 date was on the understanding that Australia would need time to develop a sovereign nuclear capability, but that is not a necessary prerequisite to building nuclear submarines, as the Aukus deal has shown. Earlier reports suggested Australia could switch to nuclear as early as 2030, and that the French option was initially chosen because it could switch to a nuclear version. The Australian Financial Review reported at the time that cabinet ministers and defence officials were discussing the idea. The 2016 Defence White Paper made it clear that the submarine acquisition program would be a “rolling build” that could change along with technological and strategic developments. A review in the late 2020s would be conducted to consider any changes, an opening many saw as a chance to switch to nuclear-powered submarines. At the time, the then defence minister, Marise Payne, ruled it out but on Friday the current defence minister, Peter Dutton, said they had considered the French version alongside the US and the UK options. “We looked at what options were available to us. The French have a version which was not superior to that operated by the US and the UK,” Dutton said. The government has consistently described the Naval Group submarine as “regionally superior”. A spokesperson for Dutton said the French nuclear technology had to be removed and reinserted, while the US reactor didn’t. “The US tech has evolved and is far more superior to the point where the reactor is sealed and put into the submarine for the life of the submarine.” US reactors last for 33 years, the lifespan of the submarine. The French Barracuda submarines use non-weapons-grade uranium and need to be refuelled every 10 years. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute chief executive, Peter Jennings, said he spoke to Guillou about the nuclear idea back in 2016, and thinks the government should have considered it. “This was a conversation government should have had in a more strategic way six years ago, and they failed to that,” he said, adding that he now supports the Aukus deal. “I’ve always said we should think about nuclear, but I think the relationship with France and the government failing to make the case about why we are engaging in this [Aukus] project has been a disaster. “We can only hope that doesn’t happen with the new one.” | ['australia-news/australian-military', 'australia-news/peter-dutton', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/france', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/aukus', 'profile/tory-shepherd', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2021-09-17T06:54:06Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2018/apr/06/working-less-safe-cash-free-upside | Should we be working less, and how safe is going cash-free? | New technologies are often touted as the solutions to our problems, as well as decried as the cause of all manner of social ills. We are told that increasing automation of jobs will mean more of us spending less time working, with ever greater responsibility handed over to software, sensors and the cloud. This week we visited some experimental projects that could offer a glimpse of our future, to see how people are grappling with the possibilities and problems of technological innovation. Reducing our working hours, while ensuring sufficient pay and essential services, is often floated as the best model for boosting productivity. It is also a seemingly inevitable byproduct of the rise of the robot worker. In New Zealand, our reporter Eleanor Ainge Roy visited a company trialling a four-day work week while still paying its employees the same, an experiment that is being closely watched around the world. Did employees and management agree on how it was going? Digital payment systems have long been promoted as a cheaper, safer alternative to cash. Physical money creates logistical expense and security risks for individuals and businesses, while its anonymity can be exploited by criminals operating on a larger scale. Sweden has enthusiastically embraced a world without cash, with merchants increasingly refusing to accept physical money. But a small but growing group of Swedes are raising the alarm about the implications of going fully cash-free, as David Crouch discovered. In England, where the number of rough sleepers has risen 169% in the past decade, Rachel Obordo visited startups that are harnessing the power of digital crowdfunding platforms to give homeless people a chance to rebuild their lives. What we liked: This deep dive by the Arizona Daily Star on the causes of and solutions to Arizona’s “foster care crisis”, and this New York Times report on a progressive approach to tackling violence. Also in the Times, this comparison of how different countries handle student debt was enlightening. And we enjoyed this interview with Africa Check’s deputy editor about fact-checking and fake news. What we heard: 44 hour weeks might have been OK when you could go home and your spouse has done the housework and cooked the meals etc but now that both partners usually work, they have to get home and do all the housework and the kids and the meals, and it’s too stressful. Commenter Canprof writing below the line about four-day work weeks Where was the upside? In Mumbai, where a mass cleanup of Versova beach led to hatchlings from a vulnerable turtle species appearing for the first time in decades. And in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, which spreads into Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. The three countries signed a declaration agreeing to protect the area. If there is a story, innovation or everyday hero you think we should report on, write to us at [email protected] | ['world/series/the-upside-weekly-report', 'world/world', 'world/newzealand', 'world/sweden', 'world/europe-news', 'money/work-life-balance', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/crowdfunding', 'world/asia-pacific', 'money/money', 'technology/technology', 'money/work-and-careers', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/aidan-mac-guill', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-special-projects'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-04-06T09:23:27Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2020/feb/12/triple-whammy-hits-push-australian-rivers-crisis | 'Triple whammy': drought, fires and floods push Australian rivers into crisis | Australia’s rivers are being hit by a “triple whammy” of impacts that will have serious and long-term effects on species and could push some to extinction, according to experts. Drought, bushfires in river catchments and now widespread heavy rain in the east of the country have created a cascade of impacts on fish, invertebrates and platypus. Prof Ross Thompson, a freshwater ecologist at the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology, said: “There’s a real risk of losing species that we have not even gotten around to describing yet.” In New South Wales, thousands of fish have died in recent weeks in the Murray-Darling Basin and in coastal areas. Some of the mass fish kills were likely caused by the drought, while in other parts of the state ash flowing into rivers from bushfire areas has been blamed. Low flows have caused a fish kill in the Brodribb River in Victoria’s East Gippsland, the ABC reported, with contractors pulling 1,200kg of dead fish from the water. Sudden downpours running over parched river beds can stir up sediments that are carried downstream. Ash and mud washing into rivers from burned landscapes can increase bacteria growth in the water, which in turn starves the fish and other organisms of oxygen. Thompson said: “The reality is that this combination of events have not been experienced by our fauna before, so the risk of things being extinct or being dramatically reduced is high.” Thompson has studied the impacts of previous droughts and bushfires on freshwater systems. When the millennium drought broke, Thompson said, the downpours acted as “another disturbance” to species, rather than a welcome relief. “Floods that come after droughts have really big impacts on aquatic biota,” he said. But with this summer’s addition of the extensive bushfires in river catchments, “we have a triple whammy this time”. He said a study around the Murrumbidgee river after Canberra’s fires of 2003 had shown just how much sediment could be released into rivers from burnt catchments. “There were pools in that river that were 5m deep that got completely filled in,” he said. Sediment tended to smother food sources that were on the river beds. Thompson was particularly concerned about species such as the stocky galaxias – the subject of a rescue effort in the Kosciuszko national park – and the endangered Macquarie perch. He said a broader concern was that rivers might not get the 30 or 40 years they needed to recover before the next big disturbance. Asked if climate change was playing a role, he said: “The combination of drought, increased intensity of fires and extreme rainfall events, particularly in summer, is entirely consistent with what we have been modelling and predicting.” On the Macleay river, near Kempsey, hundreds of thousands of fish died after heavy rain upstream flushed ash and debris into the river, turning it into what one local described as “runny cake mix”. One ecologist said it could take decades for the Macleay river to recover from the event. Prof Fran Sheldon, of the Australian Rivers Institute, said adding so much ash and sediment into the rivers turned them into the aquatic equivalent of “deserts” because the bacteria sucked the oxygen from the water. “Most organisms can’t survive so they just disappear.” Prof Max Finlayson, of the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University, told Guardian Australia that while the individual impacts on rivers such as floods, droughts and bushfires were “not new phenomena”, it was the combination of impacts – together with the scale of the fires – that was “the big difference”. “We have hammered these streams and lakes and they’re already under pressure from land clearing, development, pollution and [changes to] flows. The remnant populations [of species] are now subjected across a large area to a bigger threat. It’s extending the problems in a big and nasty way. “Some of these fish are under a lot of pressure with remnant populations in isolated places. In any one area we would, in any one year, lose populations anyway, but if you lose them over a large area then it’s the actual species that’s at risk.” Prof Lee Baumgartner, also at Charles Sturt University, said he had been in more than a dozen teleconference calls with fellow freshwater scientists and the No 1 issue was the impacts on rivers from bushfires. “Everyone is very concerned about it,” he said. There had been rescue efforts of individual species, he said, that could provide an insurance policy for some species. Even if only one or two of the longer-lived fish survived, they were able to lay thousands of eggs at a time. Sheldon, Baumgartner and Finlayson all told Guardian Australia that studying the state of the rivers and how they respond to the current crisis would be critical for informing conservation efforts in coming years. Sheldon said: “Understanding the recovery is going to be very important for us as we manage these rivers into the future.” Finlayson added: “Right now there’s not a lot we can do. But we will be in the same situation again next year. We need to assess which areas should be prioritised and why – that is about our biodiversity values and human-use values. “We need actions, not just talk. We are at high risk of not just losing populations but whole species. Once we lose them, they are gone.” | ['environment/series/environmental-investigations', 'environment/rivers', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'environment/drought', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/water', 'australia-news/murray-darling-basin', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-02-12T03:04:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2007/apr/25/trashtalk | Trash talk | Wheelie bins. Photographer: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images A load of rubbish. That's what the Daily Mail clearly thinks of the prospect of fortnightly refuse collection. The Local Government Association (LGA) on the other hand, thinks that alternate weekly collections actually reduce rubbish by encouraging us all to recycle. It released figures showing that, where councils offer weekly collections the average recycling rate is 7% lower, at 23%, than those areas with fortnightly pick ups. The Daily Mail calls weekly rubbish collection "one of the state's most fundamental obligations", one which improves sanitation and keeps vermin populations at bay. The Telegraph has also highlighted public health concerns about the rising levels of bacteria and fungal spores in the air around decaying refuse. The LGA has emphasised the financial and environmental benefits of fortnightly pick-ups: if recycling rates reached 30% across the country taxpayers would save around £22m annually and landfill would be reduced by 1.2m tonnes. Many think this could be a major issue in next week's local elections. So, what do you think? Is weekly rubbish collection a basic right for taxpayers, or are there benefits to fortnightly pick-ups? | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'politics/politics', 'world/italy', 'commentisfree/series/openthread', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-04-25T12:30:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2019/jan/17/what-role-does-nuclear-power-play-in-uk-and-what-are-alternatives | What role does nuclear power play in UK and what are alternatives? | What role does nuclear play in the UK today? Britain’s old nuclear power stations supply about a fifth of electricity supplies and are a key part of the energy system. However, their share of the mix has been gradually shrinking as renewables have grown and energy demand has fallen. More significantly, seven of the eight nuclear sites will have shut by the end of the 2020s as they reach the end of their lifetime, with only Sizewell B in Suffolk continuing to operate. The government has also committed to shutting the country’s last seven coal plants by 2025 at the latest. How many nuclear power plants will be built? So far the only nuclear project to be given the go-ahead is EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C, a 3.2GW plant in Somerset, which will power about 6m homes when complete. The power station is officially due to begin supplying electricity to the grid in 2025 but similar projects in Finland and France have run many years over schedule. EDF has already warned the plant may not be generating until 2027. Originally there were concrete plans for five nuclear plants in the running to meet the UK’s new nuclear ambitions. But three of those – Moorside, Wylfa and Oldbury – have been shelved. That leaves the 3.2GW Sizewell C in Suffolk, led by EDF and backed by the Chinese state firm China General Nuclear Power (CGN), and the 2.3GW, Chinese-led Bradwell B in Essex, which EDF has a one-third stake in. What is the government doing to make nuclear plants happen? The government negotiated a guaranteed price for power for 35 years with EDF for Hinkley. Hitachi was trying to do the same, with the additional support of the government taking a multibillion-pound stake, but could not make the numbers work. Attention will turn to a new method of financing known as the regulated asset base (RAB) model, which the government plans to give more details on this summer. The RAB approach would mean a regulator setting fixed costs and fixed returns for a nuclear developer, to overcome the huge upfront cost of nuclear plants and years-long delay for investors reaping a return. What are the alternatives to new nuclear? If new nuclear plants do not materialise it will pose a challenge to tough carbon targets for 2030. It is unlikely to threaten energy supplies, given the speed with which gas plants and windfarms could be built. The main technology that has the scale to fill the nuclear gap is offshore wind power. More inshore windfarms and solar power would also help. The intermittent nature of those technologies could be addressed to a degree by more batteries and other storage, imports and technologies such as demand side reduction. That results in big energy users – and maybe one day homes – reducing their electricity consumption at peak times in return for a financial incentive. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'business/hitachi', 'business/toshiba', 'business/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2019-01-17T14:06:22Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2010/mar/11/independent-inquiry-nuclear-power-stations | Academics demand independent inquiry into new nuclear reactors | Pressure on the government to organise an independent inquiry into a new generation of nuclear power stations will intensify today with a call for action from a group of 90 high-ranking academics, politicians and technical experts. The huge lobby says the "climategate" email scandal and other events have shaken public trust in the scientific governance of environmental risk, making a wider assessment of nuclear power more important than ever. Paul Dorfman, an energy policy research fellow at Warwick University who has been coordinating support for an inquiry, said more debate was needed for a decision on nuclear to have full democratic backing. "The kind of consultation we have had so far has been flawed and inadequate. The government has put the cart before the horse by wanting endorsement before either the design of the reactor and the way waste will be treated has been decided. There is a democratic deficit here that needs correcting," he said. Nuclear consulting engineer John Large, another campaign signatory, agreed. "The public consultation has been a failure because the appropriate information has not been made available for the public to make a proper assessment of the benefits and risks," he said. "We need Ed Miliband [the energy and climate change secretary] to organise an independent inquiry as he is entitled to do under the justification regulations," he added. These two critics are standing alongside a long list of academics, such as Jerome Ravetz of Oxford University and Mark Pelling of King's College London, as well as MPs including Simon Hughes of the Liberal Democrats, Michael Meacher from Labour and Jane Davidson, the environment minister in the Welsh assembly. A "justification" process is a requirement under European Union law but Miliband will himself be able to decide whether he needs an inquiry or not. He is believed to want to take this step as soon as possible so that new nuclear power stations could come on stream in 2017, in time to meet an expected energy shortage. The Department of Energy and Climate Change was unable to comment on the matter last night. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'politics/edmiliband', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-03-11T00:05:08Z | true | ENERGY |
film/2024/nov/14/billy-molly-an-otter-love-story-review-a-pleasure-of-a-film-about-an-unlikely-bond | Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story review – a pleasure of a film about an unlikely bond | This rather lovely film tells the story of a man called Billy Mail, and his otter – a pup he rescued after spotting it half-starved on the pontoon bobbing in the Atlantic at the bottom of his garden in Shetland. Billy called the otter Molly, and started feeding it. On the voiceover his wife, Susan, says Molly took over their lives, and she’s not kidding. By the end of the film, Molly is living in a handbuilt miniature bothy in the garden, dining on haddock; we get to feast on Shetland’s epic scenery, beautifully shot by wildlife cameraman and National Geographic photographer Charlie Hamilton James. Otters are apparently extremely shy, so Molly must be desperate, Billy reasoned when he found her in March 2021. He bought a book about otters, which was no help at all trying to raise a pup, so he made it up as he went along. “I felt a bit daft sometimes,” he says over footage of himself filling a tub with brightly coloured plastic balls for Molly to play in. But, like a good mummy otter, his plan was to get Molly to the point where she could go it alone and survive the winter. Susan wonders if the relationship flipped from Billy keeping Molly going to the other way round. The couple both talk briefly about Billy’s grief at not having had children, leaving him with a lasting sense of loss; director Hamilton James is polite in respecting their privacy, and doesn’t prod. There’s a twist coming when a bruiser of a male otter shows up. But really, this is a film of gentle pleasures, watching the couple’s house gradually becoming otter crazy. A novelty mug on the kitchen drainer reads: “You’re my otter half.” I pitied the couple’s longsuffering dog, frequently filmed nosing a ball forlornly, clearly feeling dejected and ignored. • Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story is on Disney+ now and National Geographic from 15 November | ['film/film', 'film/documentary', 'environment/wildlife', 'uk/scotland', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/cathclarke', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-11-14T07:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/shortcuts/2019/feb/25/what-russias-green-snow-reveals-about-the-rise-of-pollution | What Russia's green snow reveals about the rise of pollution | Don’t eat yellow snow has always been good advice. To that we can now add warnings against green, pink, orange and black snow, as new evidence of our trashing of the planet is now being etched out on the most pristine of environments – our dwindling snow caps. A spate of incidents in Russia has grabbed internet attention. Residents of Siberian towns watched with dismay as the snow around them turned green and black, with toxic emissions forcing some to wear masks. These seem to be connected to local factories, with a chrome plant in particular behind the green snow, and, as protests gather pace, the Putin government has come under pressure. Snow pollution is not new. Campaigners have been warning for years of the dangers of dark snow, – black, brown and grey streaks across the ice that can be clearly seen from the air above Arctic regions – because of its effects on climate change. Dark snow is stained by black carbon, AKA soot – unburnt particles released by the combustion of fossil fuels in coal-fired power plants, factories and other sources, and carried to the ice caps on the wind. When soot falls on white snow, it is not only an aesthetic disaster: reflective snow and ice enhance the earth’s albedo ((the ability of a surface to reflect sunlight), bouncing light and heat back into space, but dark snow absorbs heat instead, accelerating global warming. Eliminating soot could slow climate change, helping to reduce temperatures by up to 0.5C. Snow is sometimes stained by natural phenomena. Chlamydomonas nivalis algae can make it appear pink or red, an effect documented by scientists since the 19th century. Orange snow spreading across eastern Europe last year may have been from particles of dust and sand from the Sahara, though pollution was a more likely cause of orange snowfalls in Siberia a decade earlier. As far as eating snow goes, don’t try the white stuff. Researchers in Canada found in 2017 that melting urban snow releases a cocktail of toxic chemicals, largely from car exhausts, trapped in the snow from polluted air. Snow in its beauty has always exercised a hold over our imaginations, symbolising purity and transcendence, harking back to a mythical state of innocence. As the snow around us stains black, grey, brown, green and the rest, there could hardly be a more potent emblem of our runaway global problem with pollution. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'news/shortcuts', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-02-25T16:26:48Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2022/apr/05/apple-iphone-pegasus-spyware-nso-group-israel-jordan | Victim’s iPhone hacked by Pegasus spyware weeks after Apple sued NSO | New evidence has revealed that an Apple iPhone was successfully hacked by a government user of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in December, weeks after the technology giant sued the Israeli company in a US court and called for it to be banned from “harming individuals” using Apple products. A report published on Tuesday by security researchers at Front Line Defenders (FLD) and Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto found that phones belonging to four Jordanian human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists were hacked by government clients of NSO – which appear to be Jordanian government agencies – from August 2019 to December 2021. The news appears to show that Apple users could still be vulnerable to surveillance by NSO’s government clients, even after the company sued NSO last November. At the time, Apple said it was filing suit against NSO and its parent company to “hold them accountable” for the “surveillance and targeting of Apple users”. It followed the identification of an exploit by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto that allowed users of NSO to infect iPhones with the company’s Pegasus spyware through a vulnerability in its iMessage function. Apple said at the time that the vulnerability had been patched. “The fact that the targeting we uncovered happened after the widespread publicity around Apple’s lawsuit and notifications to victims is especially remarkable; a firm that truly respected such concerns would have at least paused operations for government clients, like Jordan, that have a widely publicised track record of human rights concerns,” the report by FLD and Citizen Lab said. Jordan’s National Center for Cyber Security “categorically denied” the findings of the report. “These allegations are baseless, and Jordan has not cooperated with any agents with the aim of spying on citizens’ phones or censoring their calls,” it told the Associated Press. An NSO spokesperson had no comment on the findings, but said that the monitoring of dissidents, activists and journalist activists by any client would amount to a “severe misuse” of its product. Once Pegasus is successfully deployed against a user, it can hack any phone, intercept messages and emails, view a user’s photographs and location, and turn the mobile into a remote listening device, allowing an NSO customer to listen in on conversation held in proximity to the phone. NSO has said it investigates serious claims of abuse and that it does not know how its government clients use its spyware. It has said Pegasus is only meant to be used against serious criminals and terrorists. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The report by FLD and Citizen Lab named three Jordanians whose phones they said were hacked using Pegasus, including a human rights defender named Ahmed al-Neimat, who is currently in prison for a case related to protests at al-Salt state hospital, where lack of oxygen is alleged to have killed several Covid-19 patients. The researchers found that human rights lawyer Malik Abu Orabi, who represents al-Neimat and other activists, was hacked at least 21 times between August 2019 and July 2021. A third target, Suhair Jaradat, is a human rights defender and journalist focused on women’s issues in the media. The researchers found that Jaradat had been sent text messages and WhatsApp messages with links to Pegasus spyware. The WhatsApp message, the researchers said, impersonated a popular anti-government Twitter user in Jordan. The researchers’ findings were peer-reviewed and confirmed by Amnesty International’s security lab. The latest news comes as NSO appears to be locked in battle with the managers of Berkeley Research Group, a consultancy that took over management of the fund that owns NSO last year. BRG is engaged in litigation in London with the previous owners of the fund, and claimed new details about its allegedly frayed relationship with NSO. A witness statement filed by Finbarr O’Connor, the managing director of BRG in New York, alleged that cooperation from NSO’s management has been “virtually non-existent” since it began managing the fund that owns the Israeli company. O’Connor also said that BRG is “still not in possession of information” sufficient for it to understand “historic actions” by NSO that resulted in the Biden administration placing NSO on a commerce department blacklist. NSO did not respond to questions about BRG’s claims. The allegations raise questions about corporate oversight of the company’s executive managers in the wake of last year’s publication of the Pegasus project, an investigation into NSO by Forbidden Stories, a journalistic collaboration that included the Guardian. The Pegasus project reported dozens of cases of individuals who were hacked or targeted by NSO’s government clients, including journalists, activists and government officials. In O’Connor’s witness statement, the BRG executive said that he understood that NSO had undertaken efforts to identify potential US based investors early in 2021, but that the effort had been “halted as a result of the Pegasus Project”, which he said “negatively impacted investor interest”. NSO did not respond to a request for comment in connection to that claim. The company separately faced a new lawsuit in France by a French-Palestinian human rights defender named Salah Hammouri, who, with the International Federation of Human Rights and the Human Rights League, is suing NSO for violating privacy rights in France. An investigation by FLD published in November found that the mobile phones of Hammouri, whose Jerusalem residency status has been revoked, and five other Palestinian human rights defenders were hacked using Pegasus, NSO’s signature spyware. FLD’s findings were independently confirmed with “high confidence” by technical experts at Citizen Lab and Amnesty International’s security lab, the world’s leading authorities on such hacks. At the time, an NSO spokesperson said it could not confirm or deny the identity of government customers but that it does not operate products itself and is “not privy to the details of individuals monitored”. | ['world/surveillance', 'technology/hacking', 'world/israel', 'world/jordan', 'world/world', 'technology/technology', 'world/middleeast', 'technology/apple', 'technology/computing', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stephanie-kirchgaessner', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-04-05T19:25:39Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2022/sep/22/activists-subvert-poster-sites-aviation-ad-industries-airline-emissions-climate-crisis | Activists subvert poster sites to shame aviation and ad industries | As Kate, 23, walked out of Seven Sisters station, in Tottenham, north London, she noticed an airline advertisement attracting unusual attention. “I was on my way back home, I was coming out of the station, and I saw two people taking pictures of the billboard,” she said. “I thought at first it was just a normal airline ad, so I just walked past. Then I did a bit of a double take.” Art activists have filled more than 500 advertising sites across Europe with satirical artworks highlighting how flying is fuelling the climate crisis – and the role of the advertising industry in helping cover it up. In recent days, at sites in London, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield and Brighton, and 11 other European cities, activists have pasted over the usual paid-for adverts with artworks highlighting the climate trashing effects of the aviation industry. The billboard in Seven Sisters was one – an artwork created by Michelle Tylicki. It showed the view across an outstretched aircraft wing as it soared through the sky – above landscape ablaze with raging wildfires. “Fly responsibly? Creating a less sustainable future,” its slogan read. In the bottom right corner was the logo of Dutch airline KLM. “Currently being sued for greenwashing,” it added. The airline is facing legal action over adverts that campaigners say are misleading. As well as KLM, posters pasted up by activists have targeted the airlines Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways, Ryanair (restyled as “Ruinair”), EasyJet, SAS Airlines, ITA Airways and Etihad, and the industry body Iata. They highlight the large carbon footprint of flying, that the majority of flights are taken by a tiny fraction of the total population, and that airlines have missed all but one of the industry’s self-imposed sustainability targets. All but one of the sites were used without permission, a spokesperson said, by activists and artists from the anonymous Brandalism group and the Subvertisers International network across Europe. Videos shot by the group showed activists wearing hi-vis vests and Covid-style face masks working in broad daylight with telescopic ladders. Tona Merriman from Brandalism said: “The allure and glamour of high-carbon lifestyles such as frequent flying has been purposefully crafted by the advertising industry and shows no signs of relenting – despite one of the hottest summers on record. “Advertising agencies such as Ogilvy, VCCP, Dentsu, DDB Munchen need to consider their role in driving up emissions for airlines they work for such as British Airways, Easyjet, KLM and Lufthansa. We call on employees in those firms to refuse work for high carbon clients.” Kate, who preferred not to give her surname for work reasons, said she was impressed by the bold campaign. “I think because I did such a double take about it, probably a lot of other people will experience that too, and I think it sticks in your mind more,” she said. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/activism', 'media/advertising', 'media/media', 'environment/airline-emissions', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'artanddesign/art', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-09-22T14:26:37Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2018/mar/15/uk-car-industry-must-pay-up-for-toxic-air-catastrophe-super-inquiry-finds | UK car industry must pay up for toxic air 'catastrophe', super-inquiry finds | The car industry must pay millions of pounds towards solving the UK’s toxic air crisis under the “polluter pays” principle, according to an unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs. The MPs call the poisonous air that causes 40,000 early deaths a year a “national health emergency” and are scathing about the government’s clean air plans. These judged illegal three times in the high court, with the latest plan condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors. The government must bring forward the 2040 date by which sales of conventional diesel and petrol cars are to be banned, to match the ambition of other nations which have set dates around 2030, the 49 cross-party MPs concluded. They also accused ministers of avoiding tough action for “political convenience”. “The government’s latest plan does not present an effective response to the scale of the air quality catastrophe in the UK,” said Neil Parish MP, chair of the environment food and rural affairs committee, which joined with the health, transport and environmental audit committees in undertaking the inquiry. “Real change will require bold, meaningful action.” Andrew Selous MP, acting chair of the health committee, said: “It is [very] concerning that children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing health conditions are most at risk. Action must be taken to combat this national health emergency.” The report concludes: “The government cannot continue to put public health at risk. It needs to require the automobile industry to contribute to a new clean air fund, following the ‘polluter pays’ principle, on a scale that adequately compensates for the health costs of diesel pollution.” The report found the overall cost of air pollution to the UK is £20bn per year. After the dieselgate scandal in 2015, when Volkswagen was exposed as having cheated emissions tests in the US, the company agreed to pay out $15bn. Subsequently, it emerged that almost all diesel cars were emitting far more toxic nitrogen dioxide on the road than in lab-based regulatory tests. In Germany, VW, BMW and Daimler are now contributing €180m to a €1bn clean air fund. In contrast, VW in the UK has paid nothing in compensation, despite transport minister Jesse Norman stating in December: “We strongly believe [VW] vehicle owners should be compensated.” Neither have carmakers pledged money for a clean air fund, despite Norman stating: “An active role in this transition [to a low-emission future] by manufacturers is essential to restore trust in the industry.” “There are 6.5m dirty diesel cars and vans on the UK’s roads that spew toxic fumes with no effective controls,” said Greg Archer, clean vehicles director at campaign group Transport & Environment. “It is time the car industry either cleans up the emissions or pays up for others to do so. It is shameful that in the UK the industry is allowed to do nothing.” Rosie Rogers, at Greenpeace, said: “So far the car industry has managed to shake off its responsibility for the pollution crisis. The public was mis-sold highly polluting diesel cars [and] it’s high time manufacturers felt the heat. Contributing to a clean air fund is a good start.” Environmental lawyers ClientEarth inflicted the three legal defeats on ministers, and head of UK public affairs, Simon Alcock, said the MPs’ report was a landmark: “It highlights the lack of national leadership by successive governments to tackle this public health crisis – it was supposed to be resolved over eight years ago.” Mike Hawes, chief executive of motor industry trade body SMMT, said: “The UK automotive industry is investing billions in technology and other measures to help address the challenge. A clean air fund worth £220m has already been set up by government [and] in addition, vehicle manufacturers are funding scrappage schemes themselves to get the older vehicles off the road.” The UK government has set 2040 as the date for the end of diesel and petrol car sales, but the devolved government in Scotland has pledged to do so by 2032. The Netherlands will prohibit internal combustion engine cars by 2030 and India is considering the same date. “People who live in the UK deserve clean air just as much,” said Rogers. A government spokesman said: “Air pollution has improved significantly since 2010, but we recognise there is more to do and will set out further actions through a comprehensive clean air strategy later this year.” Other recommendations in the MPs report include a new legislation to enshrine the right to clean air in UK law after Brexit and a national health campaign to highlight the dangers of air pollution. The report said: “The debate on air quality is too often cast as a war against motorists, when in fact regular car users are among the worst affected. Pollution levels are often higher inside cars than on the street.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/transport', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-03-15T06:01:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2013/aug/25/weatherwatch-krakatoa-explosion-tsunami-disaster-dust-sunsets | Weatherwatch: Krakatoa – death, destruction and dust | The loudest explosion in history struck 130 years ago when Krakatoa erupted. On 26 August 1883 the volcano blew up and the following day collapsed in four gigantic explosions that were heard 3,000 miles away, with shockwaves registering on barometers around the world. And the energy of those eruptions was estimated to be 10,000 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Thousands of people were killed in the surrounding area from the eruptions, but the biggest death toll was from vast tsunamis unleashed by the volcano's collapse. All told, an estimated 36,000 people were killed, although recent figures calculate over 100,000 died. As sulphur dioxide and dust shot 50 miles high into the stratosphere, they cast a blanket around the world that cooled the Earth and plunged weather patterns into chaos. The dust also turned skies into fantastic colours, with scarlet sunsets and vivid afterglows. In London, the evening sky in November 1883 turned such an intense red that people thought there was a huge fire and called out fire engines. In Norway, blood red sunsets are thought to have inspired Edvard Munch's surreal sky in The Scream, as he wrote at the time: 'clouds like blood and tongues of fire hung above the blue-black fjord and the city.' The dusty atmosphere also made the sun and moon turn blue or green, and in 1884 another phenomenon, the Bishop's ring, appeared, as bluish-white, bronze and brown circles enveloped the sun. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'world/volcanoes', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-08-25T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2017/may/26/zara-hm-step-up-instore-recycling-tackle-throwaway-culture | Zara and H&M back in-store recycling to tackle throwaway culture | When you walk into a high-street shop, you’re probably looking to snap up a bargain, not get rid of an old jumper. But clothing retailers and brands are increasingly asking shoppers to dump their cast-offs in store. Britain alone is expected to send 235m items of clothing to landfill this spring, the majority of which could have been re-worn, reused or recycled. Major retailers are coming under pressure to tackle the waste. In response, brands including H&M and Zara are stepping up in-store recycling initiatives, which allow customers to drop off unwanted items in fashion “bins” in high-street shops. While companies such as Adidas and luxury group Kering – the owner of brands including Alexander McQueen and Gucci – agreed at this month’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit to set 2020 targets for garment collection. The idea is to boost textile collection and recycling rates, and reduce needless waste to landfill. But if the same companies continue to drive high levels of consumption – some are launching up to 24 new clothing collections every year – can in-store recycling be more than a tokenistic gesture? H&M says it has collected about 40,000 tonnes of garments since launching its scheme in 2013, which it passes on to its partner recycling plant in Berlin. What can’t be reused is downcycled into products like cleaning cloths or insulation fibres. Nike too has a long-running collection scheme, Reuse-A-Shoe, which sees 1.5m worn out trainers per year collected in store or by post and sent to facilities in Tennessee and Belgium to be ground up into material for sports and playground surfaces. But corporate enthusiasm for such schemes appears to be growing: H&M wants to increase collection to 25,000 tonnes a year by 2020, says Catarina Midby, its UK and Ireland sustainability manager. Tactics include advertising campaigns, vouchers and educating employees who can inform customers about the scheme. Zara, which started installing collection bins during 2016 in stores across Europe, says it will soon have completed installation in all of its stores across China. The Inditex brand is donating the collected clothing to charities including the Red Cross. Bad habits are hard to change Despite growing investment, however, consumer behaviour is proving hard to change – a recent survey by Sainsbury’s suggested three quarters of householders in Britain chuck old clothes out with their household waste. Cyndi Rhoades, founder of recycling technology company Worn Again, hopes the growing prevalence of high-street collection schemes will kickstart behaviour change around textiles much in the way that it’s now widely understood paper and plastic can be recycled. “It’s part of the wider communication campaign to consumers to say – whether it’s rewearable or not, whether it’s returned in store, to charity shops or textile banks – clothing can be recycled.” Some observers, however, question the ability of in-store recycling to effect real change. As part of a wider strategy to increase resource-efficiency, such schemes can be valuable, says Dilys Williams, director of sustainable fashion at the London College of Fashion. But in isolation, she warns they could “encourage a guilt-free consumption attitude where customers think it’s a good idea to buy and wear (or not) in ever increasing amounts without thought for clothing’s inherent precious value in terms of people and resources.” What happens to recycled clothes? Collecting clothes is only half the battle, says Rhoades; what happens after they are collected is just as important. Current mechanical recycling of natural fibres like cotton and wool results in shorter, lower quality textile fibres that can’t be used again in clothes. Instead, they are used to make lower value products like cleaning cloths, which may eventually end up incinerated or in landfill. Rhoades would like to see more brands investing directly in the tech companies pioneering a more circular model, where raw materials in clothes are recaptured and returned into the fashion supply chain at a competitive price. “There is very little venture capital for research and development [and] without brands playing an active role in financing, these solutions will not make it to market,” she says. Jade Wilting, project coordinator of the Circle Textiles Programme at social enterprise, Circle Economy, agrees that brands have responsibility to fund the infrastructure and technology needed for more efficient solutions, but says a cultural shift is also needed. Even if the solution to recycle clothes into new clothes appeared overnight, Wilting says we would still have to question why we consume at the rate which we do. Buying fewer clothes would not only help the environment, but also enhance our wellbeing, says Williams. “After the initial ‘thrill of the till’ at bagging a bargain, our satisfaction quickly fades to feelings of guilt,” she says. “The expectation is to keep up with the ever-changing trends, refreshing our wardrobe every few weeks, but studies have proven that far from bringing us happiness it can actually make us feel empty.” Sign up to be a Guardian Sustainable Business member and get more stories like this direct to your inbox every week. You can also follow us on Twitter. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'fashion/fashion', 'environment/recycling', 'fashion/h-and-m', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'fashion/fashion-industry', 'fashion/zara', 'business/nike', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'fashion/sustainable-fashion', 'profile/hannah-gould', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-05-26T06:00:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2017/apr/05/clear-air-plans-wont-punish-drivers-of-older-diesel-cars-pm-promises | Clear air plans won't punish drivers of older diesel cars, PM promises | Theresa May says she will not punish drivers of older diesel cars who were encouraged to buy the polluting vehicles under the Labour government. A crackdown on the vehicles to tackle poor air quality has been announced by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, with drivers of polluting vehicles facing £24-a-day charges to drive in central London from 2019. But the prime minister said motorists who were urged to switch from petrol to diesel under Tony Blair’s government would be taken into account in future plans. It came after the courts ruled that the government must publish updated clean air plans by 24 April to meet EU quality limits, which are not being met in areas across the country. May, currently touring the Middle East, said: “In relation to the issue of diesel cars, obviously we will be producing a new air quality plan. We’ve been required to do that by the courts. “Decisions will be taken when we produce that plan – obviously we will take final decisions as to what we do. But I’m very conscious of the fact that past governments have encouraged people to buy diesel cars and we need to take that into account when we’re looking at what we do in the future.” Patrick McLoughlin, the then transport secretary, said in June last year that it had been a mistake for Gordon Brown to slash taxes on diesel. Brown, the then chancellor, reduced duty on low-sulphur fuel in 2001, which contributed to an increase in annual diesel car registrations from 3.45m to 8.2m. A government report published in April 2016 showed that diesel cars being sold in the UK emit an average of six times more nitrogen oxide in real-world driving than the legal limit used in official tests. All but the newest diesel cars will face a £12.50 charge to drive in the planned ultra-low emissions zone under Khan’s plans. Diesel cars that are more than four years old in 2019 and petrol cars that are more than 13 years old will face the charge 24 hours a day, year-round, in an attempt to cut air pollution. With the congestion charge during weekday hours, the total fee for the most polluting cars to drive through the heart of London will be £24. Buses, coaches and HGVs that do not meet the emissions standards will have to pay £100. The zone will apply to all vehicles except black cabs. | ['environment/pollution', 'business/automotive-industry', 'uk/uk', 'politics/theresamay', 'politics/politics', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/marc-walker', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-04-04T23:17:18Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2020/oct/15/rio-f1-racetrack-plans-add-fuel-to-brazil-deforestation-row | Rio F1 racetrack plans add fuel to Brazil deforestation row | Locals say anteaters, caimans, capybaras, and a 4-metre boa constrictor have all been seen near Rio de Janeiro’s Camboatá Forest recently. The 200-hectare (494-acre) forest is an island of wildlife in a city of 6.7 million people, and local prosecutors say it is home to 21 endangered species including black-backed tanager birds and the cloud-fish, a tiny orange creature whose eggs survive in dried-out water holes and hatch when the rains return. But most of Rio’s last flatland area of sub-tropical Atlantic Forest and its 180,000 trees will be demolished if plans go ahead to build a new Formula One racetrack over it. Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has presided over soaring levels of Amazon deforestation and fires, supports the plan. Environmentalists have slammed the project and Formula One’s current champion, Lewis Hamilton, has also spoken out against it. “There is a global crisis with deforestation,” Hamilton said recently. He also pointed out that Brazil already has the famous circuit at Interlagos in São Paulo: “The world doesn’t need a new circuit,” he said. The forest is fresh and quiet, a clear contrast from the nearby blue-collar suburban neighbourhoods of Guadalupe and Deodoro. Felipe Candido, 44, a Guadalupe resident who since 2011 has run the SOS Camboatá Forest campaign, pointed out a majestic thicket of bamboo as the breeze rustled the trees. “You notice how the temperature is cooler here?” said Candido, who works in administration at a school. “A forest is not just made of trees. There is a whole ecosystem here.” The forest acts as a pitstop for birds travelling between forests on the horizon. Candido said it should be turned into a reserve people can use. But the pressure is on for Rio Motorpark, a consortium led by US holding Rio Motorsports, to take Brazil’s annual grand prix from its rival track in São Paulo – a prize Bolsonaro could then rub in the face of the São Paulo state governor, João Doria, a bitter rival. There’s a “99% chance, or more, of us having Formula One in Rio de Janeiro from 2021,” the president said last year after meeting the Formula One chief executive, Chase Carey. Earlier this month, a leaked letter from Carey to Rio’s interim governor, Cláudio Castro, said the deal had been made to host the grand prix in Rio, but that environmental licences were still outstanding. But controversy is swirling around the licensing process. The forest belongs to the federal government. It has been controlled by the Brazilian army since 1907 and was ceded to Rio by the government after the city gave up its old racetrack for installations for the 2007 Pan-American games and 2016 Olympics – many of which have only been used sporadically since. The Brazilian army has bases across this region and still patrols the forest, one reason it has not been occupied by favelas that have grown up nearby. Rio Motorpark commissioned an environmental impact report – a necessary step in getting the licences required for construction to start. Its initial report included just nine of the forest’s endangered species, and technicians originally missed out the cloud-fish, added in a supplementary study after campaigners complained. They also ruled out four other alternative locations for the racetrack without the same rich wildlife – reportedly without actually visiting them. Rio state prosecutors believe the racetrack contravenes a 2006 law protecting Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and said Rio Motorsports, which won the concession for the track without an environmental licence, had failed to prove there were no better options. Its environmental impact study “presents omissions and inconsistencies”, the prosecutor Gisela Pequeno said, and the company “did not demonstrate satisfactorily” there was no risk to endangered species. The federal prosecutor Daniel Prazeres raised similar doubts. While the Brazilian businessman JR Pereira, who is behind the project, has vowed no public money will be used, he has yet to explain where its R$697m (£95m) investment is coming from. “This causes me a certain apprehension,” Prazeres said. In an email, a spokeswoman for Rio Motorpark said the location had been chosen by Rio city hall, and that the project would create 3,000 jobs when it was being built, 7,000 indirect jobs when staging Formula One and other events and races, and generate R$2.1bn in economic impact. “Nor is information correct that there will be environmental damage resulting from the project, which is supported by a robust programme of mitigating and compensatory measures,” she said. These include replanting trees and rescuing threatened species. In 2019 Pereira told Piauí magazine the “secondary vegetation” in Camboatá did not, in fact, constitute a forest. He said he was considering building apartments on the 47.1% of the land he keeps under the concession. The consortium has since committed to no development, the spokeswoman said – instead a large area will be used for “conservation and preservation practices”. “The investment is being defined by way of international funds and big sponsors interested in promoting Formula One in Rio de Janeiro,” she said. Rio Motorpark has talked up the economic benefits the racetrack will bring to the low-income Guadalupe neighbourhood. But the environmental impact report says there will be just 155 full-time jobs. And opinion appeared divided in Guadalupe, with some hopeful for jobs and others worried about losing the forest. “There are lots of trees, there is room for the racetrack … it’s a great idea,” said shopkeeper Pedro Ribeiro, 68. “It will remove a place rich in nature that’s special for Brazil,” said auxiliary nurse Rosane Paiva, 51. “There are many other places to put it.” | ['world/rio-de-janeiro', 'world/brazil', 'sport/formulaone', 'sport/lewis-hamilton', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'sport/motorsports', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/dom-phillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-10-15T13:07:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/may/18/air-pollution-linked-to-huge-rise-in-child-asthma-gp-visits | Air pollution linked to ‘huge’ rise in child asthma GP visits | A “huge” increase in the number of visits to doctors by children with asthma problems occurs after a week of raised air pollution, according to a study. The number of inhaler prescriptions also increases significantly. Dirty air is already known to increase hospital treatment for severe asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. But the new research is the first using clinical data to show increased illness among the much bigger number of people who seek treatment from their GP. The researchers said children were the most severely affected by the raised air pollution, but there were increases in GP consultations and inhaler prescriptions for people of all ages. Overall, they said, the study demonstrates that air pollution, particularly from diesel vehicles, affects whole communities. The researchers called for action to cut air pollution and said pollution warnings could be used to help those at risk to prepare for episodes of increased dirty air. The research was conducted in south London over five years and analysed more than 750,000 respiratory consultations at GPs and inhaler prescriptions. The average level of particle pollution in Lambeth during the study period was 21 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m3). The researchers found that when this pollution was raised by 9 µg/m3 for a week, the number of child consultations for asthma and respiratory infections went up by 7.5%. For nitrogen dioxide pollution, the average level was 51µg/m3, and a rise of 22µg/m3 was linked with consultations rising by 6%. “These are huge increases,” said Mark Ashworth, at King’s College London, who led the research. “We’d expected much smaller associations. This is a very large shift of the dial and has never been shown before.” Children are already among the most frequent visitors to GPs and respiratory problems are one of the most common reasons for consultations, he said, so these percentage rises mean a large number of extra visits. Furthermore, Ashworth said: “We think these headline figures are a substantial underestimate.” This is because the GP data was only available from Monday to Friday and during surgery hours, so consultations at weekends or in the evening were not included in the data. “We all have in our minds the case of Ella Kissi-Debrah,” Ashworth said. “If only we’d had this evidence then.” A landmark ruling by a coroner in December found that air pollution was a cause of death of the nine-year-old girlin south London in 2013. “We now have confirmation that diesel-related air pollution is linked strongly to respiratory illness that is bad enough to see the GP,” Ashworth said. “That’s got to be a call to reduce diesel pollution.” Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, Ella’s mother and clean air advocate for the World Health Organization (WHO), said: “I keep on saying daily how so many are affected like Ella. Diesel must be phased out as soon as possible – the health impacts are terrible. We can’t have a generation of children on inhalers. Health professionals must continue to speak up as their voice is critical. The coroner’s April report on the prevention of future deaths said the UK’s legal limits for particulate pollution should be halved, to be in line with WHO guidelines. He also said better warnings on air pollution levels should be provided to the public and that medical staff should be trained to give patients more information on the dangers of dirty air. Privacy safeguards mean that large datasets of clinical data from GPs are rare but the new study, published in the journal Environmental Health, used Lambeth DataNet, which provides anonymised information on 1.2 million patients. Data on respiratory consultations and inhaler prescriptions from 2009–2013 were compared with fine-scale air pollution data to reveal the links. The researchers took account of other factors, including the weather and levels of deprivation. Air pollution levels have reduced since the study period, but NO2 levels remain illegally high in many urban areas and particle pollution is frequently above WHO guidelines, though there is thought to be no safe limit. “It is not just a few severely affected people who are going to be hit by particulates and NO2,” said Ashworth. “It’s a large proportion of people who are vulnerable. Therefore, anybody taking asthma inhalers is going to have a degree of vulnerability and needs to be prepared.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'society/asthma', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'politics/health', 'society/health', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-05-18T11:00:50Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/mar/16/inaction-over-clean-air-zones-and-bottled-water-cannot-continue | Inaction over clean air zones and bottled water cannot continue | Letters | The government needs to step up and provide clear messaging and leadership on charging clean air zones (Car industry should pay for UK’s toxic air, inquiry says, 15 March). About 40,000 premature deaths a year are attributable to air pollution; inaction simply cannot continue. The government’s own evidence identifies charging clean air zones as the most effective way to reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide in the shortest time possible. Despite this, they continue to be presented as a last resort, with little support given to the local authorities that are left to decide whether to implement them. The government should mandate charging clean air zones in areas where legal limits of air pollution are being broken. Reducing all vehicular traffic in towns and cities is the best way to protect people’s health from the harmful effects of air pollution. Electric vehicles still release fine particulate matter, caused by the wear and tear of tyres and brake pads, which gets into our respiratory system and contributes to early death. Investing revenue from clean air zones in safe walking routes, cycling infrastructure and public transport is the best way to make the UK’s air breathable for us all. Holly Smith Policy coordinator, Living Streets • Four parliamentary committees have come together to push for a new Clean Air Act. Geraint Davies MP in the Commons and myself in the Lords are bringing forward draft bills to lay out what the government needs to do. We need clean air to be a human right and with Brexit happening in the next two years, we need to urgently create an independent, environmental enforcement agency. I believe that we need a citizens’ commission to help people take the government and corporations to court if they fail in their responsibilities to public health and the environment. The loss of European commission oversight with Brexit is a threat to existing environmental protections and an opportunity to create something stronger in its place. Jenny Jones Green party, House of Lords • I was very surprised to see your article about the health issues of around 10 nanograms of microplastics in an average bottle of water (Tests find hundreds of tiny plastic particles in brands of bottled water, 16 March). Given the recent nerve agent attacks, it’s worth noting that the lethal dose of polonium – one of the most toxic substances known – is about 50 nanograms. The presence of microplastics in water is alarming from an environmental perspective, but plastic is very close to non-toxic, so there is no way that this level of microplastics constitutes any significant direct threat to health. Most absurdly of all, bottled water in plastic bottles comes with about a billion times more plastic in the bottle itself, than in microplastics, and there are very real health concerns associated with chemicals potentially leaching from the bottles themselves. Brian Lowry Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Canada • Join the debate – email [email protected] • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/transport', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/politics', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'politics/article-50', 'world/eu', 'environment/water', 'environment/plastic', 'world/russia', 'uk/uk', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-03-16T16:36:52Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2011/sep/25/weatherwatch-sunshine-kew-gardens | Weatherwatch: Measuring sunshine with a burning glass | Holding a magnifying glass over a piece of paper can concentrate the sun's rays sufficiently to start a fire. This, carried out in a controlled scientific way, is known as the burning glass method of measuring sunshine hours, in use for 150 years. The standard burning glass works when the sun is 3 degrees over the horizon, so to operate effectively the device has to be in a big open space with no obstructions. Over a long period this has proved problematical. Experience shows that what appeared to be statistically alarming reductions in sunshine hours have been caused by nearby trees growing. In central London reductions in sunshine between 1858 and 1874 amounted to 2.2% a year, but this appeared to be caused by increases in smoke from factories and fires. At Kew Gardens in London, the reverse happened. Sunshine increases in the 1960s were put down to stringent measures against air pollution. The hours of sunshine increased at weekends when industry was closed and decreased in mid-week. All this has made measuring radiation and its effect on climate change very difficult. But two unobstructed sunshine measuring stations, at Stornoway in Outer Hebrides and Valentia in south-west Ireland, do show reductions in sunshine hours over more than 100 years. Stornoway has a tiny minus 0.293 hours a year and Valentia a significant annual minus of 2.425 hours. The reasons for this difference are still unexplained. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'science/sun', 'science/kew-gardens', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-09-25T22:05:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/blog/2009/jul/29/yahoo-microsoft-photos-what-are-they-saying | Yes, Yahoo and Microsoft did a deal. But what do the photos mean? | You'll have noticed that Microsoft is now going to be powering Yahoo's search. Well, it will be once the deal is done. To celebrate, the two companies set up a joint website to announce it. And hey, just so that things look tickety-boo, they stuck some stock photos at the top of the page. Because, you know, a corporate announcement just doesn't look right unless it's got a picture of a man pointing at a screen and a woman happily receiving a pile of papers from a man. Now, please, let's have your captions. We've hotlinked the photos; now tell us what the people in them are saying. Relevant to Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, search and advertising, please. For example, No.1: Her: "oh, great! thanks for those search results - I'll type them into the results window right away." No.2 (OK, even I'm at a loss to know what the connection between a happy mother and daughter - childminder and girl? - is to Yahoo/Microsoft.) No.3 Him: "According to that book by my keyboard, this answer is wrong. Someone on the internet is wrong." Oh, come on, you can do far better. Have at them. | ['technology/blog', 'technology/technology', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'technology/yahoo', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/charlesarthur'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-07-29T16:17:51Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/2018/jan/09/michael-gove-takes-on-the-throwaway-culture-of-plastic-bottle-waste | Plastic bags charge set to be extended to small shops in England | The 5p charge for plastic bags is expected to be applied to small shops under government plans to be unveiled by Theresa May this week as she seeks to tackle Britain’s “throwaway culture”. In a major speech on the environment, the prime minister will promise to hold consultations on removing an exemption that allows retailers with fewer than 250 employees to continue to give out free bags. The levy on supermarkets and other large retailers resulted in a 90% decline in use, with nine billion fewer plastic bags being used. Such an extension would come alongside other measures to crack down on plastics pollution after Gove said he was “haunted” by images of the damage done to the world’s oceans shown on David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II TV series. May and Gove briefed cabinet ministers on Tuesday, ahead of the speech that will mark the publication of the government’s 25-year plan, that will include a focus on single-use plastics. The prime minister “said the government had a clear belief in ‘conserving what is good, and standing against the profligate use of resources – whether it be public money or natural resources’,” according to her official spokesman. May’s plan would be focused on the idea of becoming “the first generation to leave the natural environment in a better state than we inherited”. Gove told colleagues he was determined to tackle “the throwaway culture that plastics encapsulate” with a series of new initiatives on Thursday, the spokesman added. “The environment secretary also said that he was working collaboratively with the secretary of state for international development to look at using aid money on the environmental agenda, such as reducing pollution by plastics.” Gove arrived for the meeting carrying a reusable coffee cup made of bamboo fibre, after being criticised for previously turning up with a single-use takeaway option. Worries about overuse of 2.5bn disposable coffee cups each year has already been raised by campaigners, and the environmental audit committee has called for a 25p “latte levy” to be charged on top of the price of a hot drink. The environment secretary is understood to be considering proposals to encourage retailers to use fewer types of plastic and to get councils to adopt a standardised recycling policy. The current patchwork of regimes means many types of plastic are not collected from households. Together, the two measures are intended to ensure that a greater proportion of the packaging used in the UK can be recycled. In the November budget, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced plans to investigate new taxes on single-use plastic items. Ministers are also considering a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and other drink containers. | ['politics/michaelgove', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'politics/theresamay', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anushkaasthana', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-01-10T08:19:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2020/jul/06/coalition-announces-190m-plan-to-divert-10m-tonnes-of-waste-from-landfill | Coalition announces $190m plan to divert 10m tonnes of waste from landfill | The federal government will devote $190m towards new recycling infrastructure, as it looks to divert more than 10m tonnes of plastic, paper and glass waste away from landfill. The funding, which will be contingent on state and territory governments and industry groups matching the federal contribution, is part of a newly launched Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) that the Morrison government hopes will generate $600m in investment. Both Labor and the Greens have expressed concern at the RMF, arguing the funding won’t stop production of problematic materials in the first instance and calling for regulatory reform. In addition to the $190m, the federal government will also spend $24.6m on improving waste data to better track recycling targets, as well as $35m towards implementing its commitments under the National Waste Policy Action Plan – which include waste export bans, plans to increase domestic demand for recycled materials and a national resource recovery target of 80% by 2030. However the first deadline as part of the proposed waste export ban has been pushed back, which the government claims is a result of a Covid-19 induced legislative backlog. As a result, legislation to enact the bans will be introduced sometime later this year, beginning with a ban on exporting glass waste from 1 January 2021, which had originally been planned to take effect from the second half of 2020. The timeframes for other bans – on exporting mixed plastics from 1 July 2021, tyres from 1 December 2021, single resin and polymer plastics from 1 July 2022, and paper and cardboard from 1 July 2024 – are unchanged. The announcement of the RMF comes after the national plastics summit in March when Scott Morrison outlined an overhaul of Commonwealth procurement rules to increase demand for recycled products, as part of the government’s new recycling policy. The government has made reducing plastic waste the focus of its environment policy, with Morrison telling a UN climate summit last year his government would drastically reduce plastic pollution. Monday’s announcement of the RMF comes as the government is due to release an interim report from the independent review of Australia’s national environmental laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, led by the former competition watchdog chair, Graeme Samuel. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the RMF was made contingent on state, territory and industry matching the investment because “we need manufacturers and industry to take a genuine stewardship role that helps create a sustainable circular economy”. “As we cease shipping our waste overseas, the waste and recycling transformation will reshape our domestic waste industry, driving job creation and putting valuable materials back into the economy,” Ley said. “Australians need to have faith that the items they place in their kerbside recycling bins will be re-used in roads, carpet, building materials and a range of other essential items. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remodel waste management, reduce pressure on our environment and create economic opportunity,” she said. The assistant minister for waste reduction and environment, Trevor Evans, said “our targeted investment will grow Australia’s circular economy, create more jobs and build a stronger onshore recycling industry”. Labor’s assistant environment spokesman Josh Wilson criticised the government for how long it took to introduce the scheme. “Unfortunately today’s announcement is belated action on one part of that integrated picture. It does not address the critical area of regulatory reform … And there is still no detail on how demand for recycled content will be supported through meaningful procurement targets and related mechanisms,” he said. “We look forward to further detail about the funding and especially the timelines,” Wilson said. Greens waste and recycling spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson took the criticism further, saying the RMF “just won’t work”. “All the money in the world isn’t going to fix the waste crisis if we don’t improve the way we recycle. This means stopping the problem at its source: we need to stop producing so much waste and invest in a ‘circular economy’.” He criticised the government’s preference for “voluntary schemes”, and called for a ban on single-use plastic products. “The recycling crisis is a quality crisis - we need to improve the quality of the material that is going into the recycling process to begin with,” he said. The government has recently been forced into finding new solutions to manage Australia’s waste and recycling, after governments including those of Indonesia and Malaysia announced they would return recycling that had been “contaminated” with unrelated waste. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/sussan-ley', 'environment/plastic', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/elias-visontay', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-07-06T03:20:36Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/jun/29/us-hunting-lobby-spent-1m-on-fight-to-delay-uk-trophy-import-ban | US hunting lobby spent £1m on fight to delay UK trophy import ban | The US hunting lobby has spent £1m putting pressure on the government to delay the trophy import ban, a new report by MPs has found. Boris Johnson promised to ban the imports of these trophies three years ago, but the legislation has still not gone through parliament. Because of the delay, the Conservative MP and animal welfare campaigner Henry Smith has put forward his own private member’s bill to ban imports of hunting trophies. A new report from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on banning trophy hunting has detailed the lobbying efforts of international hunting groups. The report found that the US-based hunting lobby group Safari Club International (SCI) spent £1m on a campaign to change the minds of MPs and the British public about a ban on imports of endangered species’ body parts. SCI is the world’s biggest trophy hunting group. It awards prizes to its members for killing large numbers of endangered animals. Founded in the 1970s, it is one of the biggest corporate donors to politicians’ campaigns in the US, and calls itself “the leading defender of the freedom to hunt”. The APPG report found the SCI funded a Facebook page called Let Africa Live, which posted claims such as: “The UK is about to destroy local economies in Africa.” Although the page insinuated it was created by local groups in African countries, an investigation found it was funded by SCI from a pot of money called the Hunter Legacy 100 Fund. The campaign eventually had its page shut down by Facebook, whose head of security said: “The people behind this network attempted to conceal their identities and coordination.” The Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, chair of the APPG, said fierce lobbying had alerted the government that this could be a “contentious” issue. He added: “The government, if something is contentious, always pleads for more time, but we need to get on with it. The US gun lobby has been lobbying like mad … Safari Club International has put a considerable amount of pressure on the government. “I have my own calls with the prime minister. I think he is broadly committed to putting this legislation through, but it needs to be done without worrying about this lobbying.” Earlier this year there was a fierce row in the Conservative party, with ministers saying Johnson was close to scrapping the ban after campaigning from the shooting and hunting lobby. At the time, the British Association of Shooting and Conservation welcomed the news, saying a ban would damage conservation. Supporters of trophy hunting say that funds raised by the practice are needed to fund conservation efforts and support local economies. The APPG report says that lion, elephant and rhino numbers have increased in Kenya, where trophy hunting is banned, while lion numbers also recovered strongly in Zambia and Zimbabwe after temporary trophy hunting bans. The primate expert Jane Goodall told the APPG: “Trophy hunters kill for pleasure. They destroy animals for bragging rights, to demonstrate their supposed fearlessness and courage. The hunting lobby will work hard to preserve the status quo. If we want to maintain our reputation as an animal-loving nation, all hunting trophies should be banned. Time is of the essence. Many of the species killed by trophy hunters are close to extinction.” A Defra spokesperson said: “We are committed to banning the import of hunting trophies from thousands of endangered and threatened species. This ban will be among the strongest in the world, leading the way in protecting endangered animals. And we welcome the private member’s bill, led by Henry Smith MP.” An SCI spokesperson said the deleted Facebook page was made by a contractor, not by club management. They said: “The truth is that in a misguided effort, and unbeknownst to SCI, a sub-contracted vendor took unauthorised action by using falsified social media accounts. While it is regrettable that they betrayed the trust of the hunting community by unnecessarily resorting to questionable tactics, the information the vendor conveyed regarding hunting and conservation is verifiably true and is made no less relevant by unsound methods of distribution.” | ['environment/hunting', 'politics/lobbying', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-06-29T05:00:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/bike-blog/2014/may/02/high-tech-visible-protected-blaze-fly6 | The high-tech battle for cyclists to stay visible on the roads | Peter Walker | In sensible cycling cultures like the Netherlands, riders are generally free to pootle about in relative safety, not obliged to be constantly aware of the next potential, looming hazard. In the UK and many other places it’s very different – which is why those on two wheels are fighting back with technology. Such aids come in two camps, which you can broadly term the protective and the retributive. The former tends to be devices to make a rider more visible on the road, for example the almost absurdly light and high-powered LED lights which have made the night-cyclist’s life so much easier in recent years. The others are generally cameras, intended mainly to provide evidence of wrongdoing by other road users. I’ve been trying out two particularly cutting edge gizmos, both financed through the ubiquitous crowd-funding site Kickstarter, currently awash with cycling devices. One is protective, while the other manages to combine the two. Of course, neither is a real substitute for segregated bike lanes but while I wait – and wait, and wait – for those I'll try almost anything. First to be clamped to the bike was the Blaze, a front light also featuring a laser which shines a shimmering image of a green bike symbol onto the road in front of you. A what, you say? Well, that was my initial thought. But the tiny London-based company says the system helps tackle the most common way people are knocked off their bikes, when someone turns across them. The theory goes that drivers who might not see your bike might well see your laser alter ego/vanguard, which can be beamed a varying distance ahead of you, depending on how you angle the light on your handlebars. The project raised £55,000 on Kickstarter (see its video promo below), so plenty of others buy into the concept, and Blaze's website has a number of glowing testimonials. Personally, I’m less convinced as to its efficacy, at least not in an already light-congested city. I could not positively attest to any drivers being more cautious after seeing the laser image, and my instinct is that few people tend to scan the road surface itself so much as a foot or so above it. The main effect I noticed was some confused pedestrians as I waited at lights – a couple stepped forwards and back over the laser image, like puzzled cats – and comedy double takes from fellow cyclists as the ethereal, floating bike appeared ahead of their front wheel, heralding my looming presence. The Blaze is, undoubtedly, beautifully made, lovely to look at and does what it does very well. And if you’re convinced by the safety argument then the hefty £125 price tag (the next batch ships in May) could be worth it. But if you’re a sceptic you’ve got a pricey 300-lumen front light. My current front light is also 300 lumens but half the weight and about about a third of the price. I admire the Blaze, and the company’s ambition, and I wish them all the best. But I remain to be fully convinced. Next on the bike was the Fly6, a rear light featuring a built-in HD camera able to record four hours of footage. The Perth, Western Australia-based creators also put the project on Kickstarter and swiftly raised about £150,000 (its video promo is also at the bottom). I’ve never been the type of commuter who pedals around with a camera attached to my helmet – as a look if feels a bit Robocop, almost very slightly aggressive – but I found the Fly6’s camera footage fascinating. There’s something oddly compelling watching your commute roll by on a rearview angle. At least one, anyway. And just for you. The main purpose, of course, is to picture anyone who, God forbid, hits you from the rear or, say, overtakes too closely. Here the camera works very well – the angle is wide and the picture clear enough to read number plates, even (some of the time) at night. Couple this with a helmet camera and you're a rolling episode of Police, Camera, Action! The video at the top of this page shows two thankfully uneventful snippets of my own commute, one by day and the other after dark (they're Camberwell and Elephant and Castle respectively, in case anyone wonders). The light itself is seems slightly less bright than the tiny one I usually use – I don’t have an official lumens figure for the Fly6 – but has a distinctive and highly visible circular flash pattern, while the unit straps pretty easily to most seatposts. At US$135 (around £80) it’s not especially cheap, but neither prohibitively pricey. I’m personally not convinced of the need to record every journey, but I can understand why some cyclists do. Unlike the Blaze it doesn’t have that slight sense of a solution in search of a problem. From that starting point the Fly6 is clever, robust and extremely well-designed. Do I wish all this deployment of technology wasn't necessary? Of course. Is it necessary? Well, that's up to you. In that context, are these clever inventions? Most certainly. | ['environment/bike-blog', 'lifeandstyle/cycling', 'world/road-safety', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/peterwalker'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-05-02T10:08:05Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2013/oct/29/stick-with-carbon-pricing-labor | Labor should stick with carbon pricing, national secretary tells party colleagues | Labor’s national secretary, George Wright, has urged his parliamentary colleagues to persist with carbon pricing, declaring that the policy positions the party on the right side of history, climate science and economics. Wright used a frank campaign postmortem at the National Press Club on Tuesday to express his view that Labor – having “bled” on the carbon pricing issue – should stick with the policy during the transition to opposition. He said Labor party members felt strongly that Labor should hold the line on carbon pricing. “We are on the right side of history on this argument, we are on the right side of science on this argument, we are on the right side of economics on this argument and on the right side of preserving for the long term our living standards,” Wright said in response to a question about whether the party should fight, or accept the new government’s agenda on this issue. He argued that the response to Tony Abbott’s proposed repeal of Labor’s clean energy package was a matter for the shadow cabinet, but he added: “We are on the right side [of this argument] and I think we should stay there.” Wright’s public advice to Labor’s parliamentarians comes as the opposition is determining how to respond to the repeal proposal once parliament sits. Labor went to the election promising to end the fixed-price period of the carbon regime, and move more quickly to an emissions trading scheme with a cap on emissions and a floating price. Post-election, senior party figures have insisted publicly that carbon pricing remains a key part of the agenda, although internal views are mixed. No decisions have yet been taken by senior ministers about how to proceed on specifics. Returning to the topic of the election campaign, Wright told the press club that Labor had fared better in September under Rudd’s leadership than it would have without the leadership change. However, he said “in retrospect” Rudd should have gone to the polls sooner because the initial honeymoon which put Labor back in contention against Abbott could not, in the end, be sustained. He also paid tribute to Julia Gillard’s toughness, and said history would be kinder to the former prime minister than the contemporary reading. That said, he spoke of having frank conversations with her about the state of Labor’s poor opinion polling before Labor switched back to Rudd. He said he had given her his assessment “straight”, and she had deserved to “get it straight”. Wright said the 2013 campaign was certainly not perfect, but the ALP had held it together; he also argued that the infrastructure and campaign apparatus built up behind the defeat would sustain the ALP during opposition, and through a period of rebuilding. He pointed to advances behind the scenes in micro-targeting, direct communications, digital campaigning and the crowdsourcing of micro donations as “green shoots” – institutional bedrock for election campaigns in the future. “We live to fight another day, and fight we will,” Wright said. He said Labor could shrug off the defeat and get back into government quickly if it hit pause on the “indulgence” and “navel gazing” of the past several years. Caucus would need to be serious about changing a culture that put self-interest before the interests of voters and supporters. His critique was direct. Wright joked that a strong interest while a university student in “gothic horror” had equipped him well for a management role in the ALP. He said the internal culture would not be changed by public admonishment by either himself, or by the new Labor leader, Bill Shorten – by “finger waving”. “It can only be addressed by people realising that we’re actually there to represent something more than ourselves,” he said. Wright said the point wasn’t that Labor lost an election in 2013 – the point was Labor had lost government. He made a comparison with the Whitlam government, which he said had not lost the policy argument; the policies were welcome, and endured. It had lost the competency argument with the public. Wright also praised his Liberal party counterpart, Brian Loughnane’s disciplined orderly campaign, and also backed his recent call for reform of the Senate voting system. He said Labor would “absolutely support” an inquiry by the joint standing committee on electoral matters in the wake of a federal election which delivered stronger than usual micro-party representation in the Senate due in large part to intricate preference swaps. “I think it does need to be looked at,” Wright said. | ['environment/carbon-tax', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-10-29T05:43:50Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2015/dec/23/country-diary-wenlock-shropshire-evans-yew-fog-rock-ravens-time | Floating in the fog free of meaning, a timeless yew | A yew tree looms in the fog, a brooding presence hovering in space above the cliff, not of this world. One of a cluster of wild yews, old and stunted from growing out of limestone and an obstinacy that refuses to recognise time as we measure it, this tree floats free of meanings we impose. Also free and unbidden, the fog settles like a mood over the Edge. It is myopic, melancholic, a dark humour yet strangely comforting. Recent storms have shredded the last leaves from the ash trees; saplings rise like bones and the old ones bear dangles of ash keys as if a flood tide had washed them there. Even the last golden oaks in the dale have been snuffed out by gales and their skeletons form an inner architecture of the fog down there. Krr-krr-krr: a raven makes rapid calls flying through the mizzle and is crossed by another with gulping hiccup cries. This crossing of ravens, ominous in the fog, resonates with the crossing of something beyond ourselves, something wild in the days around the solstice. But it’s just another muffled, disembodied idea, a spectre floating about in the fog. Apart from distant traffic drone there is little sound other than wood pigeons fleeing the ivy rigging of trees, their wings like wet rags on glass. Even the robins are quiet, as birds wrap themselves in their own mists. Now, from the rock, through the yew tree on the cliff top, threading among white lichen, green stonecrop, coppery grass, inside the orbs of moss spore capsules, themselves encased in raindrop baubles, another time is coming, another reality as distant from us as that which moves in the fog. This rock has known hundreds of millions of years, so the difference between the evergreen, ever living yew tree and the ephemeral raindrops on moss is trivial. What does a year mean to them? “Damp dark days before Christmas,” shudders a neighbour hurrying home up the street. Yet these are wonderful times, shifting through long nights and murky days, between years and seasons. These are damp dark days of metamorphosis, when one time’s reality dissolves into a mysterious fog of transformation into another. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'uk/weather', 'environment/birds', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'science/geology', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulevans', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-12-23T05:30:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2011/jul/01/climate-data-uea | Oxford academic wins right to read UEA climate data | An Oxford academic has won the right to read previously secret data on climate change held by the University of East Anglia (UEA). The decision, by the government's information commissioner, Christopher Graham, is being hailed as a landmark ruling that will mean that thousands of British researchers are required to share their data with the public. The ruling also marks a victory for critics of the UEA and its Climatic Research Unit in the "climategate" affair. It comes at the end of a two-year rearguard action by UEA climate scientists to prevent publication of their "crown jewels", an archive of world temperature records collected jointly with the Met Office. Jonathan Jones, physics professor at Oxford University and self-confessed "climate change agnostic", used freedom of information law to demand the data that is the life's work of the head of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, Phil Jones. UEA resisted the requests to disclose the data, but this week it was compelled to do so. Graham gave the UEA one month to deliver the data, which includes more than 4m individual thermometer readings taken from 4,000 weather stations over the past 160 years. The commissioner's office said this was his first ruling on demands for climate data made in the wake of the climategate affair. Critics of the UEA's scientists say an independent analysis of the temperature data may reveal that Phil Jones and his colleagues have misinterpreted the evidence of global warming. They may have failed to allow for local temperature influences, such as the growth of cities close to many of the thermometers. But Jonathan Jones, who is not a climate scientist, said he thought "the most significant features of this decision are the precedents that have been set". The commissioner is likely to rule more generally in favour of public access to scientific data. Under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act, public bodies such as universities have to share their data unless there are good reasons not to. But when Jonathan Jones and others asked for the data in the summer of 2009, the UEA said legal exemptions applied. It said variously that the temperature data were the property of foreign meteorological offices; were intellectual property that might be valuable if sold to other researchers; and were in any case often publicly available. But in a damning verdict, Graham said suggestions that international relations could be upset by disclosure were "highly speculative", and "it is not clear how UEA might have planned to commercially exploit the information requested." Jonathan Jones said this week that he took up the cause of data freedom after Steve McIntyre, a Canadian mathematician, had requests for the data turned down. He thought this was an unreasonable response when Phil Jones had already shared the data with academic collaborators, including Prof Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. He asked to be given the data already sent to Webster, and was also turned down. So he appealed to the information commissioner. "I am extremely concerned about the apparent pattern of secrecy and evasion," he said. "My sole aim [in pursuing the case] is to help restore climate science to something more closely resembling scientific norms." The UEA said: "We have nothing to fear from scrutiny; we are committed to openness and transparency in our research... and we fully intend to make all data publicly available as soon as possible." | ['environment/hacked-climate-science-emails', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'education/higher-education', 'education/universityofeastanglia', 'education/education', 'politics/freedomofinformation', 'politics/politics', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/fredpearce', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2011-07-01T14:49:03Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
world/2012/jun/29/colorado-wildfires-federal-funds-obama | Colorado wildfire region to get federal recovery funds as Barack Obama arrives | Barack Obama declared Colorado a major disaster ahead of his visit to the now fatal wildfire in Colorado Springs on Friday, freeing up federal funds for the response effort. Fire officials said ahead of his arrival they were now making "great strides" in controlling the wildfire, which exploded out of the foothills earlier this week destroying nearly 350 homes and forcing more than 30,000 to flee. But they confirmed the first fatality in the fire, with the discovery of human remains in the Mountain Shadows neighbourhood, one of the most severely burnt districts. There were reports of another person missing from the same home. The fatality – and emotional scenes on Thursday night as residents got their first official notice their homes were destroyed – cast a sombre moment on a day when fire officials were confident they now had the upper hand over a wild and unpredictable fire. Evacuation orders were lifted on a number of areas, and normal operations resumed at the air force academy, a portion of which had been evacuated because of the wildfire. Fire officials said they hoped to lift more evacuation orders later on Friday though residents would not be able to return permanently to neighbourhoods until electricity and other services was restored. "We made great strides yesterday. We were able to up our containment to at least 15%, and 15% is a lot," said Jerri Marr of the US forest service. "We feel with a lot of confidence, based on the weather, that we are going to be able to up that number by the end of the day. We are going to make a lot of progress. Some 1,100 firefighters were now working to beat back the wildfire behind containment lines. The effort got additional aerial support on Friday in the form of four more US air force C-130s. The planes have been dropping thousands of gallons of bright orange flame retardant on the containment lines. Some fire officials were so hopeful as to suggest the wildfire could be entirely contained within a few days. For others, however, the ordeal is just beginning. Hundreds of residents got their first definitive confirmation on Thursday night that they had lost their homes in the wildfire. "We had seen some pictures, but the meeting, and seeing so many others in the same situation, just made it all seem real," said Rebekah Largent. Her family was renting their apartment in the Mountain Shadows neighbourhood. But she said she lost her wedding dress and the rocking chair she used to put her baby to sleep. The White House said Obama's visit was intended to offer some support to families in a similar predicament, as well as to thank firefighters who are struggling against record wildfires. The funds announced on Friday will be used to help the state cope with the aftermath of the fire, and also include job and psychological counselling, the White House said. But the visit to a battleground state just months before the elections was politically sensitive. Local television is already running blanket campaign ads. Colorado Springs, because of the air force base, is seen as a Republican stronghold. Local officials were insistent that the security preparations for Obama's visit, which was to include a tour of affected areas and visits with firefighters, would not distract from that progress. "Colorado Springs does not have the assets to help with the presidential visit," Steve Cox, an adviser to the city's mayor told reporters. He said there would be limited road blocks and no interruption in airborne fire operations because of the visit. | ['us-news/colorado-wildfires', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'us-news/colorado', 'tone/news', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | us-news/colorado-wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-06-29T17:22:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/sep/06/government-to-issue-temporary-work-visas-to-help-uk-fruit-farmers | Brexit: farmers criticise temporary agricultural worker visa scheme | A new government visa scheme for agricultural workers has been criticised by farmers and fruit growers for not going far enough to plug the gap blown open by Brexit. The new scheme will be capped at just 2,500 a year as part of a two-year trial announced by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, and the home secretary, Sajid Javid, on Thursday. While welcomed as a step in the right direction, farmers’ associations say it barely addresses the needs of British summer fruit and vegetable growers, who employ 60,000 workers a year, mostly from eastern Europe. Many are now required all year round because of the boom in the sector. “To have any effect in terms of supporting our successful industry, (a desire much-stated in the release) around 10,000 are needed now – not 2,500 – this number will have little effect on the current shortages UK farms are facing as we speak. The proposal represents a 4% increase in a shrinking workforce, said Nick Marston, the chairman of British Summer Fruits. His view was echoed by Ali Capper, the chair of the National Farmers Union’s horticultural and potatoes board and chair of the English Apples and Pears umbrella growers group. She described it as a “fantastic” start but said it was not nearly ambitious enough. “We need more than 11,500 seasonal workers by 2021 to keep pace with a crop that is set to grow. Right now, the pilot permits us to recruit 2,500,” she said. “This is simply not enough and our growers are already struggling to recruit workers." Farmers, and particularly summer fruit growers, have been protesting that they are already facing shortages this year, with the prospect of food rotting in the fields after Brexit. Under the pilot scheme, non-EU migrant workers will be able to work on farms for six months and then leave the country. Gove said he had listened to the “powerful arguments” of farmers that the pilot would “ease the workforce pressures” and promised to review its results to look at how best to continue supporting fruit and vegetable farms. “From lettuce in East Anglia to strawberries in Scotland, we want to make sure that farmers can continue to grow, sell and export more great British food,” he said. The initiative is a direct replacement for a previous seasonal agricultural workers scheme (Saws) that was scrapped in 2013 after additional eastern European countries joined the EU, providing farmers with ample labour. Marston said 21,250 workers were allowed into the country under the old Saws scheme but that the British summer fruits market boomed so much there were still shortages of 21,000 staff a year, even after the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU, which gave farms unfettered access to labour across the EU. “The British berry industry is a great success story. We are nearly 100% self-sufficient for a long period of the year, and we need this level of support if we are to continue to thrive and grow,” said Marston. “Whilst we appreciate the need for government to manage the scheme, we would ask for further clarification on how they see this moving to a sustainable longer-term solution that can provide for the shortage in labour we are already dealing with,” he said. Marston said rivals to Britain such as Germany had already addressed big shortages, issuing visas for 60,000 Ukrainians in 2018, for example. The National Farmers Union told the environment secretary this year that a new visa scheme was “mission critical”. Javid said the pilot scheme would “ensure farmers have access to the seasonal labour they need to remain productive and profitable during busy times of the year”. He said he was committed to “having an immigration system that reduces migration to sustainable levels, supports all industry and ensures we welcome those who benefit Britain”. Soft fruit growing is one of the few areas in which Britain is entirely self-sufficient, producing all raspberries and strawberries consumed in the country and contributing £2bn to the economy in 2016. The pilot, which will commence in spring 2019, will run until the end of December 2020 and will be monitored closely by the Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. | ['environment/farming', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'food/fruit', 'science/agriculture', 'politics/michaelgove', 'world/eu', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'world/europe-news', 'food/food', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisaocarroll', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-09-06T13:05:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2016/jan/28/melbournes-south-east-braces-for-dangerous-thunderstorm | Melbourne's south-east braces for dangerous thunderstorm | Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs were bracing for a very dangerous thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon as emergency services continued to mop up millions of dollars worth of damage caused by one-in-50-year flash-flooding in Geelong on Wednesday. The storm cell was detected on the weather radar at 12.50pm and hit Melbourne at 1.20pm. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warned that the storm could bring flash-flooding, damaging hail stones and winds gusting up to 90km/h for areas around Port Phillip Bay, including the city itself, reaching out to Western Port and as far north as Kilmore. The warning said conditions would be particularly dangerous in Frankston, Pakenham and the Mornington Peninsula in the city’s south-east. A severe thunderstorm warning was also issued for central Victoria and south-west areas of Gippsland, from Seymour all the way to Traralgon. Rod Dickson, a senior forecaster with the bureau, said rainfall was not expected to match that seen in Geelong on Thursday, where 42.4mm – more than the area’s January average – fell in little over an hour. “We are expecting the rainfall accompanying these thunderstorm today to cause some sort of flash-flooding, but not to those extreme levels,” Dickson told Guardian Australia. A severe thunderstorm warning was also issued for much of Tasmania on Thursday afternoon, with reports of extreme conditions in the midlands. The bureau warned of heavy rainfall and large hailstones, with flash flooding a possibility, in a large area stretching between Hobart and Launceston. More than 150 homes were flooded in the Geelong downpour and 18 people had to be rescued by emergency services. About 3,000 insurance claims were lodged in less than 24 hours for storm and flood damage in Geelong, according to the Insurance Council of Australia. It is yet to put a dollar figure on the loss but Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons said it would cost “millions”. “No doubt there’ll be millions and millions of dollars worth of damage, there’s no question about that,” Lyons told the ABC. Lyons said Johnstone Park, in the city centre, resembled a lake after the downpour, with water up to 10 metres deep and over the height of the bandstands. “Trees were going through people’s homes. It was very bad ... if we had ... another couple of hours of that, there is absolutely no question in my mind the carnage would have been absolutely worse,” he said. The Insurance Council said most of the claims were for vehicle damage, because the storm hit during the mid-afternoon rush. Avalon, between Geelong and Melbourne, recorded a one in 100-year rain event with 72mm falling during the day and 53.8mm in just 30 minutes. Dickson said the storm system was expected to continue moving east on Thursday night and Friday, before petering out over the Bass Strait. A different storm system is expected to hit Sydney on Friday, bringing damaging winds and yet more January hailstones. “There’s quite a favourable atmospheric set-up for severe thunderstorms on both days so there’s quite a good chance that at least some of these thunderstorms would have become severe by the time they reach Sydney,” bureau forecaster Rebecca Kamitakahara said. | ['australia-news/melbourne', 'weather/melbourne', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'weather/index/australasia', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-01-28T03:40:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2015/dec/10/tim-cook-defends-apple-iphone-smart-battery-case-hump | Tim Cook defends Apple iPhone Smart Battery Case, says it's not a 'hump' | The reason the Apple Smart Battery Case has a bulbous lump on the back of it is because you shouldn’t need it on all the time, according to chief executive Tim Cook. “You know, I probably wouldn’t call it ‘the hump’,” said Cook – immediately making it forever known as a the hump. He said it’s so obvious because Apple considers the battery to be a backup device, something that you might need occasionally, not all the time. “If you’re charging your phone every day, you probably don’t need this at all. But if you’re out hiking and you go on overnight trips ... it’s kind of nice to have,” Cook told Mashable. Given Apple’s iPhone is notorious for its battery, with many users needing to charge their smartphones at least once during the day to make it through to bedtime, Cook might not be using his iPhone as much as other users if it lasts a day. Even Apple’s latest iPhone, the 6S, which has a smaller battery than the last one because otherwise it would be heavier, more cumbersome and less “compelling”, according to Apple’s head of design Jony Ive, will not last a day per charge when brand new. And why has the case caused such a strong reaction, with users declaring it hideous? “If you make this solid all the way across, in order to get it on, you’d find it very difficult to get it on and off,” said Cook. “So the guys had this great insight to put the bend in along with making it a smart case.” Other accessories from long-standing battery case makers such as Mophie have form-fitting solid backs and come in two pieces, allowing the smartphone to slide in and out. To get the iPhone 6S into Apple’s Smart Battery Case users have to bend the top part of the case to slide the phone in, the longevity of which has yet to be proven. Many users have seen the release of a battery case by Apple as an admission that the company has not produced a phone with a long enough battery life, asking the question why Ive and team simply didn’t just put a bigger battery in it in the first place. iPhone 6S review: a very good phone ruined by rubbish battery life New smartphone battery can charge to 48% in five minutes | ['technology/apple', 'technology/tim-cook', 'technology/technology', 'technology/iphone', 'technology/iphone-6', 'technology/iphone-6s', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/mobilephones', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-12-10T11:09:43Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
technology/2014/jul/14/zepp-sensor-tennis-raquet-mounted-app-review | Zepp sensor review: a racket-mounted app that can improve your tennis | THE GOAL As an average club player whose progress has stalled since I stopped being coached about a year ago, Zepp's pledge to "reveal your playing style and help identify ways to improve" was enticing. Although I can hit confidently on both sides, only my forehand can really damage opponents, so I was eager to see what the Zepp sensor – which "captures, measures and analyses your swing in three dimensions and records 1,000 data points a second" – had to say about my backhand. THE METHOD The 28x28mm sensor is in a rubber mount that stretches over the end of the racket handle. As you swing, it captures data and relays it via Bluetooth to an app on your phone. It's simple to set up and turn on, and after 15 minutes of hitting followed by an hour-long match I have my first data. I'm told that I hit 426 shots, with 64% forehand, 32% backhand and 4% serve, and was "active" for 20 minutes. The stats are displayed in a pie chart and clicking on forehand or backhand reveals the percentage that were hit flat, topspin or slice. I was surprised to find only 8% of my backhands had topspin, compared with 10% slice and 81% flat. Although there's nothing wrong with a flat backhand, topspin gives you greater margin for error, so it was useful to discover how few of my double-handers carry the desired spin. The other thing Zepp measures is power, with a graph showing fluctuations in forehand, backhand, serve and smash during the session. Predictably, serve is identified as my most powerful stroke (I didn't hit any smashes) and backhand my tamest. Of greater interest are the spikes and dips in power through the match. Thirty minutes in, I discover, I played a backhand as powerful as any serve. But without knowing the context in which the stroke was made (was it a simple put-away or a drive from the baseline?) or the end result (did I win the point? Did I net it? Did I hit it out of the park?), the data frustrates as much as it enlightens. And this is the problem with Zepp: disconnected from knowledge of the rallying shots, unforced errors and outright winners that make up a point (not to mention the countless strokes when the ball is not actually in play), the data tells only a partial story. THE VERDICT There's a peculiar pleasure in poring over facts and figures about how you performed on court, and anyone who likes to hit the ball hard will relish the opportunity to compare their power levels with those of their opponent. But in its current incarnation, Zepp Tennis is essentially a means of indulging idle curiosity – a sophisticated way of confirming failings in your game you already knew existed. Zepp can't tell the difference between a winner and a shank, a brilliantly constructed point and a rally of mis-hits. Until there's a way of recording the significance of each stroke, the data this app collects will be of limited value. | ['technology/gadgets', 'technology/apps', 'sport/tennis', 'lifeandstyle/fitness', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'sport/sport', 'technology/technology', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/philip-adams', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly', 'theobserver/observer-tech-monthly/observer-tech-monthly'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-07-14T05:00:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/2016/jun/06/election-2016-greens-want-fair-price-solar-power-better-access-grid-electricity-clean-energy | Greens want 'fair price' for solar power and access to grid for all | The Greens want to regulate the electricity system to ensure a “fair price” is paid for solar-generated electricity and ensure a “legal right” to connect to the grid by forcing energy companies to prove they cannot connect a consumer. The Greens’ clean energy policy would put $192m for solar into schools, establish a solar ombudsman who would enforce a “right to solar” for renters and force energy companies to write-down pole and wire assets. The Greens would also put $5m into an information campaign to promote the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s (CEFC) schemes to support households and businesses installing solar with no upfront costs. The policy, to be launched on Monday by the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, and MP Adam Bandt would force a “fair price” to be paid by energy companies. Solar homes and businesses would be protected from fees and charges “likely to be imposed by electricity networks clawing back their diminishing revenues as our electricity system decentralises and consumers become empowered”, the policy says. In New South Wales, the generous five-year state government-subsidised scheme pays up to 60 cents per kilowatt – depending on the time of contract – until December. More than 146,000 NSW households which signed up to the scheme will revert to a market price of about 6 cents in January 2017. In Victoria, solar households and small-scale wind turbine generators are currently on a flat 5.2-cent-a-kilowatt-hour tariff for power sold to the grid. The Greens policy also calls for a national standard on connection to the electricity grid to “fast-track” renewable energy in Australia. The Greens want a fee structure and a timeframe for commercial and domestic connections, with guidelines for potential connections and a right to appeal decisions of network companies when applications for connections are refused. The Greens have already released a policy calling for 90% of energy generated from renewables by 2030. The party would also establish a new $500m government authority – RenewAustralia – to plan and drive the transition to a new clean energy system. It would also create a $250m Clean Energy Transition Fund to assist coal workers and communities with the transition. | ['australia-news/australian-election-2016', 'australia-news/australian-greens', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'profile/gabrielle-chan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-06-05T20:02:20Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2011/nov/13/wales-australia-four-nations | Wales 14-56 Australia | Four Nations match report | Ignore the final scoreline. This was another grand effort by the Four Nations minnows Wales and a fitting farewell to international rugby for their captain, Lee Briers, who tried every trick and clearly relished every minute of this last game, against the mighty green‑and‑golds. Australia did not look so formidable when they trailed 8-0 to two Briers-inspired tries after 13 minutes and were still behind late into the first half. But there was plenty to admire in the way they made their class, pace and power tell with 10 tries in 35 minutes after that, with Cooper Cronk scoring a hat-trick and his half-back partner, Johnathan Thurston, plundering 20 points from a try and eight goals. England will not make the mistake of taking any notice of the uncharacteristically sloppy opening in their preparations for the Four Nations final next Saturday. That early 8-0 scoreline was probably the most improbable in international rugby league since Briers last had the Australians on the ropes in the 2000 World Cup semi‑final, when he was in his early twenties. He was at his impish best again here, spotting a gap behind the line to create the opener for Rhys Williams with a perfectly weighted kick and then floating another out to the right where Elliot Kear continued his excellent tournament with a quality finish. Australia were half-hearted and incoherent, paying the penalty for a relaxed preparation that bordered on arrogance, as their players were allowed to scatter around Europe after the win at Wembley last week. Cameron Smith, the tough Melbourne hooker who took over as captain with Darren Lockyer resting a sore shoulder ahead of his swansong next Saturday, reduced the deficit with an acting-half surge after 24 minutes. But Wales were still leading in first-half stoppage time, until reality bit in the form of a rapid-fire double by Cronk. Even after further tries by Daly Cherry-Evans and Darius Boyd, the latter removing any doubts that he is a highly capable full‑back replacement for the injured Billy Slater, Wales managed a last act of defiance through their unrelated James boys, Aled tipping down another Briers kick for Jordan to score. Briers added the conversion to become the third player to score 100 points for Wales, following his coach, Iestyn Harris, and the great Jim Sullivan. Australia then cut loose with further tries from Thurston, Greg Inglis, Jharal Yow Yeh and Brett Morris, plus Cronk's third. But how Wales, and Briers, and a decent Wrexham crowd, had enjoyed themselves nonetheless. Wales Jones; Kear, Webster, Roets, Williams; Briers (capt), White; James, Budworth, Kopczak, Beasley, Bracek, Flower. Interchange Lennon, Divorty, James, Dudson. Australia Boyd; Yow Yeh, Lawrence, Inglis, Morris; Cronk, Thurston; Galloway, Smith (capt), Shillington, Watmough, B Scott, Parker. Interchange Cherry-Evans, Gallen, M Scott, Thaiday. Referee P Bentham (England) | ['sport/four-nations-2011', 'sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'sport/australiarugbyleague', 'sport/four-nations', 'sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/sport', 'tone/matchreports', 'sport/australia-sport', 'type/article', 'profile/andywilson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news'] | sport/wales-rugby-league-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-11-13T20:35:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2020/jul/09/banks-and-pension-funds-among-investors-bankrolling-meat-and-dairy | Banks and pension funds among investors bankrolling meat and dairy | Banks, investors and pension funds have poured billions into the world’s largest meat and dairy companies over the past five years, a new report has found. It compares the environmental impact of “‘big ag” to that of big oil. The report, published on Thursday, said private financial backing for the world’s 35 largest meat and dairy companies totalled an estimated $478bn (£380bn) between January 2015 and 30 April this year. The financing came in the form of loans, bonds and share ownership from the likes of BNP Paribas, Barclays, HSBC, Prudential UK, Standard Life Aberdeen, Legal & General and UK pension funds, including the Universities Superannuation Scheme and the Railways Pension Scheme. Scientists have repeatedly expressed alarm over the environmental impact of large-scale food and dairy production and are calling for a transformation of the global food system. They say the current model is responsible for up to 30% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of freshwater use, with huge reductions in meat-eating essential to avoid climate crisis. The report by the UK-based campaign group Feedback describes meat and dairy production as a “fundamentally extractive business model” propped up by “vast flows of private finance”. It adds: “There is no version of industrial animal agriculture that is compatible with climate justice and a zero-carbon future.” Feedback’s executive director, Carina Millstone, said the environmental and biodiversity damage from intensive meat and dairy production was “as bad if not worse” as that of major oil and gas companies. Dr Tara Garnett, an Oxford University food systems analyst, said “a sole focus on individual consumption practices” was totally inadequate. She called the funding and production of intensive animal protein to provide cheap food “a systemic problem created and maintained by powerful financial interests and by absent, unhelpful and damaging governance”. Better to be involved and influential, argue financiers Feedback’s report found that over the past five years HSBC had loaned Brazilian meat companies Marfrig and Minerva more than “$1.8bn and as of April 2020 held shares to the tune of $9m in JBS”. JBS, Marfrig and Minerva have been linked to cattle practices that lead to Amazon deforestation. An HSBC spokesperson said the bank took its “agricultural commodities policy very seriously” and regularly assessed clients “for commitment to sustainable business practices”. Its agriculture products policy “sets our minimum standards related to the impact on forests from palm oil, soy, rubberwood and cattle farming”. BNP Paribas, the report points out, has a net-zero deforestation commitment yet Feedback found it was the largest lender to the top 35 animal protein companies. A BNP Paribas spokesperson said it was difficult to comment without seeing all the data but the bank “regularly strengthens its policies linked to at-risk sectors, ie in the sectors of palm oil, wood pulp and agriculture, to meet the bank’s commitment to zero net deforestation”. Barclays, said the report, was a “prolific funder of US agribusiness”, providing an estimated $5bn since 2015 in loans and underwriting to companies such as meat producers Tyson Foods and Cargill. A Barclays spokesperson said it was a “longstanding supporter of the agriculture sector”, that it used its “expertise to support the diversification of the sector”, and that it had made “a firm commitment to align our entire financing portfolio to the goals of the Paris agreement”. Many financiers argue that it is better to be involved and influential. Asked about its Marfrig investment, a Standard Life Aberdeen spokesperson said that in the past 12 months it had “spoken with Marfrig management twice, specifically on sustainability issues”. A Prudential UK spokesperson said that it was actively engaging with Amazon fire and deforestation issues and sent a document explaining specific strategies with Marfrig and Minerva Foods. Separately, Minerva Foods said in a statement that despite the challenges of indirect cattle supply chains, it has been part of the Indirect Suppliers Working Group since 2015 and acting to improve risk management. JBS has said it takes a zero-tolerance approach to deforestation in its supply chain. Pension funds were also singled out for criticism in the report, with Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), often known as the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund, listed as one of the largest shareholders in meat and dairy corporations. Line Aaltvedt, spokesperson for Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the GPFG fund, said it had regular dialogues with Brazilian soya and meat companies and with banks in Latin America and south-east Asia about lending policies to any companies that contributed to deforestation. At a UK level, the report found that the Universities Superannuation Scheme and the Railways Pension Scheme invest in Hormel, which produces Spam. A spokesperson confirmed by email that RPMI Railpen, the railway pension scheme’s asset manager, had an interest in Hormel Foods. The email said that as a “responsible asset owner” it believed “companies with robust corporate governance structures” were more likely to perform better financially over the long term. Railpen, it added, was part of a global investor engagement run by investor group FAIRR that encourages the world’s largest food companies to move away from an overreliance on animal proteins. The Universities Superannuation Scheme said it was actively engaged in Hormel’s animal welfare benchmarking but admitted there was work to be done on its carbon footprinting. | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/environment', 'science/agriculture', 'environment/farming', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/banking', 'environment/meat-industry', 'environment/food', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/sophie-kevany', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-07-09T06:30:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/feb/10/london-woman-takes-legal-action-to-block-edmonton-incinerator | London woman takes legal action to block Edmonton incinerator | A woman from north London is taking legal action against her local council to try to block the construction of a 700,000-tonne-a-year rubbish incinerator. Dorothea Hackman, 69, a church warden and head of the Camden civic society, is the claimant in a judicial review challenging the decision to award the £755m contract to replace and extend the electricity from the waste incinerator in Edmonton, one of the country’s poorest areas. “It’s sort of like buying a bigger digger for these boys,” she said. “I’ve just bought a bigger digger for my two-year-old grandson, he was ecstatic. This is what the Edmonton incinerator reminds me of. They’ve got one that pollutes, and should be replaced, but what it should be replaced with is a state-of-the-art recycling centre.” The Edmonton incinerator, which opened in 1971, is the oldest in the UK, and one of the oldest in Europe. It currently burns about 500,000 tonnes of rubbish a year, but is due to reach the end of its life in 2025. Opponents have fought a rearguard action in an effort to stymie the replacement project since planning permission was granted in 2017. But the board of the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), the publicly owned consortium that runs the incinerator, agreed in December to a contract with Acciona, a Spanish firm, to build the plant. In a pre-action letter to the NLWA, Hackman claims its board, which is made up of representatives from seven local councils, were not given the full facts on which to decide on the contract. A report by the authority misled councillors about the scale of the pollution from the proposed incinerator, Hackman’s letter claims, with the 28,000-tonnes-a-year figure given amounting to a fraction of the 683,000 tonnes implied by the independent carbon screening report on which it was based. Councillors were also misled, according to the letter, on the plant’s readiness for carbon capture and sequestration technology, and by the claim that installing such machinery would “likely make the facility carbon negative”. “On 16 December, the NLWA met in Camden and they were given disinformation,” Hackman said. “They were led to believe that carbon capture could happen, and there is basically no provision for it.” The proportion of the UK’s household waste that goes to landfill has plummeted since the beginning of the century. But while Britons now recycle about three times as much, growth in recycling has been flat for a decade. The gap has been filled by incineration. Across the UK last year, 41% of waste was recycled, and 48% was burned; in London, the worst performing region, 64% was burned. “We [in London] are currently recycling less than 30%,” Hackman, a retired teacher, who has lived in Camden for 45 years, said. “Areas without incinerators in the UK already recycle 60%, and that can be improved.” Hackman and fellow activists point to research suggesting incineration can cause a range of ill-effects to the health of people living nearby. In December a cross-party group of MPs said incinerator expansion should be halted immediately to protect human health and cut carbon emissions. There are 90 incinerators across the UK, with 50 more planned. Hackman said: “Above all we need to stop manufacturing plastic, we can’t keep on with the plastic; we’ve got to, and we should, stop it. At the moment we are burning plastic for our heat and energy and I can’t think of anything more insane. We would be better off burning coal.” NLWA says the plant “exceeds statutory requirements” and “will be the safest and cleanest in the UK”, while supplying electricity for up to 127,000 homes and heating 50,000. The consortium has pointed to an analysis by Imperial College London researchers, funded by Public Health England, that found no link between exposure to emissions from municipal waste incinerators and infant deaths – an effect cited by opponents. The development also includes £100m of new recycling centres – “London’s largest public investment in recycling facilities for decades”, NLWA says – which are intended to help achieve a recycling rate for the area of 50%. A NLWA spokesperson said it stood by the validity of the decision to enter into the contract with Acciona. “We are entirely satisfied that the decision our members took … was the right one and was properly taken,” the spokesperson said. “This is a world-class infrastructure project that presents the best environmental, technical and economic solution to the treatment of waste in north London.” | ['environment/incineration', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'uk/london', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-02-10T11:40:28Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2022/mar/14/sun-cables-giant-northern-territory-solar-project-gets-210m-funding-boost | Sun Cable’s giant Northern Territory solar project gets $210m funding boost | The $30bn plan to build a giant solar farm in northern Australia to power Darwin, Indonesia and Singapore has moved a step closer to reality with billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest contributing to a $210m capital raising. The investment brings to about $250m the money raised to build a 17-gigawatt solar plant on a cattle property at Newcastle Waters, midway between Alice Springs and the Northern Territory’s capital. The project would be a 12,000 hectare solar precinct with 17-20 GW solar generation and 36-42 GWh energy storage to enable 24/7 dispatchable electricity near Elliott, in the Northern Territory. The funding “will take us all the way through to the financial close of the Australia-Asia PowerLink”, David Griffin, Sun Cable’s chief executive, said. “It will also allow us to accelerate development of our broader portfolio,” he said. “Our mission is to supply renewable electricity from resource-abundant regions to growing load centres at scale.” The company plans to explore other “multi-gigawatt” solar plants both in Australia and elsewhere, including other intercontinental power links, based on the know-how developed over the past four years, Griffin said. More details were likely to be announced “some months from now”. “Some of our subsequent projects will also rely on [technology] very similar in concept to the first project,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunities in this area … but certainly we have more projects emanating from Australia as well.” Griffin said there was no connection between Sun Cable’s plans, and the recent hostile takeover bid by Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures and Canadian asset manager Brookfield of AGL Energy. The two suitors dropped their bid a week ago after AGL rejected a revised offer that valued AGL at just under $8.5bn, although AGL itself is not certain the two won’t be back for another tilt. Sun Cable, declined to provide a breakdown of the contributions from Grok and Forrest’s Squadron Energy to the $210m raising, adding only that the original investors took up their full entitlements. Staff, who now number 80, also joined the list of shareholders, Griffin said. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “We’re just really stoked to close this round,” Griffin said. “It’s a really significant number and puts us in a really strong position.” Cannon-Brookes said the fundraising brought Australia “one step closer to realising our renewables exporting potential”, while developing a blueprint for other projects. “We can power the world with clean energy and Sun Cable is harnessing that at scale.” “Sun Cable’s vision will transform Australia’s capability to become a world-leading generator and exporter of renewable electricity and enable decarbonisation. I’m proud to be a cornerstone investor in Sun Cable, its team and its vision,” Forrest said. Squadron Energy and Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries were approached for comment. The latter had a big week, landing Guy Debelle, the current deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia to be its chief financial officer. Debelle, who had been considered to be a frontrunner to replace current central bank governor Philip Lowe, will help steer the company’s plans to produce 15m tonnes of hydrogen produced by renewable energy a year by 2030 for global markets. “Climate change has a broad-ranging impact on Australia, both in terms of geography and in terms of Australian businesses and households,” Debelle said in a statement after his surprise exit from the RBA. “Australia has been an energy exporter for many decades,” he said. “Australia is also endowed with resources that have the potential for us to continue to be an exporter of energy – but renewable rather than emissions-intensive fossil fuels.” Debelle’s now former boss, RBA governor Lowe, told a banking conference on Friday investors wanted a plan on how Australia would transition to a less carbon-intensive economy. “They want to know what the opportunities Australia has and they want to talk about the risks that we have as well,” Lowe said, noting Debelle had resigned “to participate in those opportunities”. Institutions such as the RBA and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority were working on a framework to help markets measure, manage and price the risks as Australia shifted out of fossil fuels, he said. These included assessing climate vulnerability. “We need to provide the people who want to make capital decisions with information, and it needs to be quality information,” Lowe said. “Australia [can] seize the fantastic opportunities we have in this area. That’s a huge challenge for the future.” | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/andrew-forrest', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2022-03-13T16:30:34Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2020/feb/29/john-lewis-launches-hand-me-down-clothing-drive | John Lewis launches hand-me-down clothing drive | John Lewis is tackling fashion waste by launching a hand-me-down drive with extended name labels attached to children’s coats that can be easily amended by parents. The department store chain is introducing organic cotton labelling inside its own-brand children’s coats so the new owner can cross out the name of the last person and write a new name. Coats have been chosen to test this labelling because they have a long life and are often the most costly garment for parents. A new slogan – “Wear it, love it, hand it down” – is also appearing on all cardboard labels attached to the retailer’s entire ranges of own-brand babywear and childrenswear. Baby and childrenswear represent a disproportionate amount of the thousands of tonnes of clothing in landfill because children quickly outgrow their clothing, typically moving up seven sizes in their first two years. As well as the high cost and limited lifespan, mass production of garments places huge pressure on the environment through waste, water consumption and carbon emissions. Britons bin about 300,000 tonnes of clothing a year. Caroline Bettis, the head childrenswear buyer at John Lewis, said: “We’re proud of the quality of our clothes and want them to have a really long life and be handed down again and again. “We hope these new labels will help to grow the culture of handing down clothes which can be worn again by other children.” The retailer will also from next week further extend its fashion “buyback” trial covering any worn and unwanted clothing from its customers – including underwear and old socks – to five more stores and a Waitrose branch. In an initiative first trialled at its Oxford store, customers who bring back unwanted womenswear and menswear brands stocked at John Lewis & Partners will receive £3 per item, up to a maximum of three items, off any purchase made that day. To take part customers need to have a John Lewis loyalty card. Among other high-street clothing recycling initiatives, the fashion retailer Monsoon has also introduced a “Love. Wear. Recycle” label. In another solution to the high turnover of barely worn babygrows and vests, families are saving time and money by renting or hiring clothing “bundles”. Subscribers pay a monthly subscription to companies such as Bundlee and Belles and Babes which offer ethical-branded, age-appropriate clothes and receive new outfits in the post. The clothes, washed, ironed and ready to be worn again, are sent back when the child has outgrown them, with another bundle arriving soon after. • This article was amended on 29 February 2020. An earlier version incorrectly described the John Lewis “buyback” initiative being trialled in six stores and a Waitrose branch as involving home collection. The text has been changed to correctly describe the scheme. | ['business/johnlewis', 'fashion/fashion', 'environment/recycling', 'business/business', 'business/retail', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-02-29T00:01:30Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2022/mar/22/beetaloo-traditional-owners-yet-to-be-consulted-on-production-of-fracking-gas-senate-inquiry-hears | Beetaloo traditional owners yet to be consulted on production of fracking gas, Senate inquiry hears | The Morrison government failed to follow through on a promised $2m to facilitate consultations with traditional owners over its controversial plan to allow fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, an inquiry has heard. The federal government has handed fracking companies tens of millions of dollars to accelerate exploratory drilling in the basin as part of its “gas-led recovery” from the pandemic, despite evidence that exploiting the region’s gas would drive up Australia’s emissions by 13%. Before production can take place, consent must be secured from traditional owners across the vast area that makes up the Beetaloo. The Northern Land Council, tasked with liaising with traditional owners, told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday that it had been promised $2m from the Morrison government to help it consult over the Beetaloo plan. The money, promised in the last federal budget, had so far failed to materialise, the inquiry heard. In fact, the NLC said it had not even received a draft grant agreement for consideration. “We don’t yet have a funding agreement, we have not yet received a draft agreement for our consideration,” Greg McDonald, the council’s branch manager for resources and energy, said. “This was an announcement that was made at last year’s federal budget, and that’s where the NLC first heard about it, when that public announcement was made.” Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy said: “So we’re coming up to the next budget of the Morrison government, and you’re still waiting on this money, is that right?” McDonald responded: “That’s correct.” Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The NLC told the inquiry it had already secured consent for exploratory drilling to be conducted in parts of the Beetaloo Basin, but was yet to consult on production more broadly. The inquiry heard that consent was at odds with opposition from a number of traditional owners, including those giving evidence to the Senate inquiry on Tuesday. Ray Dimakarri Dixon, a Mudburra man and traditional owner in the Beetaloo, said the fracking threatened his land and had prompted serious concerns about water, sacred sites, the environment, and his connection to country. “Fracking uses a lot of chemicals underground and that’s what we are worried about,” he told the inquiry. “This is going to contaminate the water and it’s going to make it bad for our children. It doesn’t matter where we are. It doesn’t matter where we live, what colour, what race, what tribe we are. The water is very important for us … it’s life.” “I think we shouldn’t have fracking in our country. They’re using our water. They’re using our sand. It’s going to destroy our future, our culture, everything that we have.” Lock the Gate, an environmentalist group opposed to fracking, on Tuesday released an analysis of the impact of current and proposed exploratory drilling projects in the Beetaloo, based on the environmental management plans released by proponent companies. It found the exploration activities will use 2,272m litres of water and more than 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The gas industry peak group, Australian Petroleum Exploration and Production Association, told the inquiry that opening up the Beetaloo would create thousands of jobs and increase the supply of gas to both domestic and export markets. “This is both an export and domestic opportunity,” APPEA chief executive, Andrew McConville, said. The inquiry heard concerns about the way traditional owners were treated during consultations over fracking. GetUp’s first nations justice director, Larissa Baldwin, said there were instances where traditional owners were not afforded due and proper process, despite fracking companies claiming they had secured consent through the NLC or Central Land Council. “We’ve heard from traditional owners time and time again that on many occasions there has been no process of informed consent,” she said. “Meetings without translators provided, no detailed description of what will occur, where they will drill and [conduct] production, no information about the long-term impact and the risk to water, health, and cultural heritage.” “The communities are not willing to trust these companies on their words.” Later on Tuesday, cattle baron Pierre Langenhoven, the director of Rallen Australia, said he did not believe pastoralists and the gas industry could share the basin, saying there was not enough water for the two. “This season we got half the rain we got last year, so already we are starting to muster ... we are trying to prepare for the dry,” he said. “The [gas] industry does not care if there is a drought or not because for them the water is limitless.” Rallen has six cattle stations in the NT with 70,000 head of cattle in the Beetaloo Basin. It has spent $200m over the past four years developing the properties. “The cattle industry in the NT is very different to any other. It is a very fragile system. People just think you put the cattle out in the bush and pick them up twice a year – that is not the case,” he said. With Australian Associated Press | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/northern-territory', 'environment/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2022-03-22T03:40:15Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2024/dec/22/exclusive-photographs-reveal-first-glimpse-of-uncontacted-amazon-community-massaco | Photographs reveal first glimpse of uncontacted Amazon community | Remarkable images taken by automatic cameras in the Brazilian rainforest reveal an isolated community that appears to be thriving despite pressure from ranchers and illegal encroachment into the Amazon. The pictures, of a group of men, offer the outside world its first glimpse of the community – and give further evidence the population is growing. The group is known as the Massaco after the river that runs through their lands, but no one knows what they call themselves, while their language, social fabric and beliefs remain a mystery. Despite unrelenting pressure from agribusiness, loggers, miners and drug traffickers, the Massaco have at least doubled since the early 1990s – to an estimated 200 to 250 people – according to the Brazilian National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai), which has been working for decades to protect the territory. Funai placed the cameras at a spot where it periodically leaves metal implements as gifts, a practice used to dissuade uncontacted people from venturing into farms or logging camps to get tools – as has happened in the past with tragic consequences. Photos of Massaco settlements have been captured previously during Funai expeditions into areas that satellite imagery confirmed had been abandoned. Years of such indirect observation meant the Massaco were known to hunt with bows that are three metres long, and to move their villages around from season to season within the forest. They discourage outsiders by planting thousands of foot and tyre-piercing spikes in the ground. “Now, with the detailed photographs, it’s possible to see the resemblance to the Sirionó people, who live on the opposite bank of the Guaporé River, in Bolivia,” says Altair Algayer, a government agent with Funai who has spent more than three decades protecting the Massaco’s territory. “But still, we can’t say who they are. There’s a lot that’s still a mystery.” Despite the demographic catastrophe of Indigenous populations caused by centuries of non-Indigenous occupation and worsening environmental devastation, population growth among isolated peoples is a trend across the Amazon. In 2023, the science journal Nature revealed growing populations along Brazil’s borders with Peru and Venezuela. Satellite images showed larger cultivated plots and expanded longhouses. Specialists have also seen evidence in the forest of similar growth among nomadic communities that do not plant crops or build large structures visible from space. One such group is the Pardo River Kawahiva, overseen for Funai by Jair Candor, in Mato Grosso state. “Today, we estimate there are 35-40 people. When we started working here, in 1999, there were about 20,” Candor said. This bucking of a global trend of cultural loss and disappearing languages has been accomplished by the innovative public policy of not initiating contact – which was pioneered by Brazil in 1987 after decades of government-led contact killed more than 90% of those contacted, mostly from disease. Since then, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia have adopted versions of the approach. There are 61 confirmed groups living in the Amazon and Gran Chaco region, with a reported 128 not yet verified by authorities, according to a draft report by the International Working Group of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact. The report’s author, Antenor Vaz, was one of the first to implement no-contact in Massaco in 1988. He said Brazil has excelled in developing best practices in the field but has no law specifically protecting isolated peoples. “Peru and Colombia have robust legislation,” said Vaz. “In Brazil and other parts of the continent, the steamroller of agribusiness and other predatory forces are prevailing over laws and Indigenous rights.” Neighbouring Indigenous communities are playing a role in protecting their more isolated peers. Examples include the Manchineri along the Peru-Brazil border in Acre state, the Amondawa in Rondônia and the Guajarara at the basin’s other extreme in the eastern state of Maranhão. In the Javari valley – which has 10 confirmed uncontacted communities, the most of any Amazonian Indigenous territory – Beto Marubo, a representative of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari valley, and local leaders set up a patrol team in 2021, which won the UN Equator Prize. While Indigenous-led legal action has also helped the cause. However, to honour the land rights of isolated peoples, as required by Brazil’s constitution, and to put logging, gold, fish, soya bean and coca planting off limits, means proving the people are there. Marubo said that the first argument for those interested in grabbing forest areas is to negate the existence of inhabitants. “The principle strategy for invaders and anyone with an interest in the lands where isolated peoples live is to deny they exist.” Funai operates with chronically insufficient funds and a small group of unarmed field staff. They face risk including all-too-genuine death threats, like those directed at Bruno Pereira, murdered in 2022, along with journalist Dom Phillips. And while some isolated peoples are thriving, others are dwindling in territories overrun by outsiders. “These peoples have a right to live, to their land, and chosen lifestyles, but respecting the rights of isolated Indigenous peoples is also fundamental to preserving tropical forests,” said Paulo Moutinho, co-founder of the Institute for Environmental Research in the Amazon. • This piece is published in conjunction with O Globo. John Reid is the co-author of Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet. Daniel Biasetto is the content editor at the Brazilian daily O Globo. They were supported on this series by a grant from the Ford Foundation. | ['global-development/series/uncontacted-people', 'global-development/series/southern-frontlines', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-12-22T05:00:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/oct/16/country-diary-its-clipping-week-at-the-stables | Country diary: It’s clipping week at the stables | Cal Flyn | Autumn on Orkney is an understated affair. There are very few trees, so there’s no fiery foliage for us. Instead, it is a season marked by sideways rain, sodden fields and cancelled ferries. The mud starts now, and only deepens as the months go on. At the stables, there is a flurry of activity as we rush to get the heavyweight rugs ready for use: fishing them out of musty lockers and shaking off the worst of last year’s mud, hosing them down, reapplying waterproof sprays. This week is clipping week, an annual affair when the yard is abuzz with electric shears and wind-blown clumps of hair in brown, grey, black and dun tumble down the aisle and gather like leaves in damp corners. The horses’ winter coats came in almost overnight. One moment they were as sleek and shining as conkers, the next they were fluffy hill ponies lathering with sweat every time they broke into a trot. All this extra hair is excellent all‑weather insulation, but it causes problems for horses in regular exercise. Those in light work can be relieved with a neat little “bib” clip, wherein the hair is cut away in a band from throat to breast. Busier horses will need something more businesslike, a “trace” clip, for example, where the neck and belly are trimmed away, leaving backs and loins hairy. Robbie, my Connemara, has a full clip, but we leave the hair on his legs as protection from the elements and rub oil into his hair at intervals to stop mud from irritating the skin. (“Mud fever”, an uncomfortable form of dermatitis, can arise in prologued wet conditions.) But clipped horses need to be rugged, especially when they’re out in wild island gales. So here we are: spraying, mending, patching, getting things in order. I have mixed feelings. Autumn meets a return to cold feet, wet leather, riding in the dark. But it also means haynets, straw beds, warming hands under rugs. When I turn Robbie out, I find his field mates huddled in the shelter, tightly packed and unusually cordial disputes settled until spring, or until the sun comes out at least. Time to hunker down. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/farm-animals', 'lifeandstyle/horses', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/cal-flyn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-10-16T04:30:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/jun/15/record-temperatures-global-heating | Fears of hottest year on record as global temperatures spike | Global temperatures have accelerated to record-setting levels this month, an ominous sign in the climate crisis ahead of a gathering El Niño that could potentially propel 2023 to become the hottest year ever recorded. Preliminary global average temperatures taken so far in June are nearly 1C (1.8F) above levels previously recorded for the same month, going back to 1979. While the month is not yet complete and may not set a new June record, climate scientists say it follows a pattern of strengthening global heating that could see this year named the hottest ever recorded, topping 2016. There has been “remarkable global warmth” so far in June, confirmed Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation arm, which said that the first few days of the month even breached a 1.5C increase compared with pre-industrial times. This is probably the first time this has happened since industrialization, the agency said. The long-term warming conditions caused by the burning of fossil fuels will probably receive a further pulse of heat via El Niño, a naturally recurring phenomenon where sections of the Pacific Ocean heat up, typically causing temperatures to spike across the world. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said El Niño conditions are now present and will “gradually strengthen” into early next year. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said human-caused warming will be exacerbated by an event that typically adds between 0.1C to 0.2C (0.18F to 0.36F) to the overall global temperature. “The global surface temperature anomaly is at or near record levels right now, and 2023 will almost certainly be the warmest year on record,” said Mann. “That is likely to be true for just about every El Niño year in the future as well, as long as we continue to warm the planet with fossil fuel burning and carbon pollution.” Mika Rantanen, a Finnish meteorologist, said that the spiking heat so far this month was “extraordinary” and that it was “pretty certain” it would result in a record warm June. This year has already seen severe, record heatwaves roil places from Puerto Rico to Siberia to Spain, while blistering heat in Canada helped spur huge wildfires that blotted the skies above New York City and Washington with toxic smoke last week. According to an update issued by Noaa on Wednesday, the world had its third warmest May in a 174-year temperature record last month, with North America and South America both having their hottest May ever recorded. Noaa is more circumspect about the prospects of an annual heat record in 2023, placing the odds at about 12%, but has said it is almost certain the year will rank in the top 10 warmest and is very likely to be in the top five. In May, the World Meteorological Organization warned that global temperatures will probably soar over the next five years, fueled by El Niño as well as emissions, with a new record hot year almost guaranteed during this period. There is also a good chance the average temperature will exceed 1.5C (2.7F) beyond pre-industrial times, a key threshold agreed by governments at which point heatwaves, droughts, flooding and other climate impacts become significantly worse. While people are feeling the heat on land, an even more remarkable burst of warmth is occurring in the seas, with Noaa confirming a second consecutive month of record high ocean surface temperatures in May. Excess heat in the oceans, which cover 70% of the globe’s surface, influences overall global temperatures, as well as warping fish populations, bleaching coral reefs and driving coastal sea level rises. “The oceans have been warming steadily but we are now seeing record temperatures which is certainly alarming given we are expecting El Niño to strengthen,” said Ellen Bartow-Gillies, a climate scientist at Noaa. “That will undoubtedly have an impact on the rest of the world.” Bartow-Gillies said Noaa had not yet processed its temperature data for June but that it appeared the elevated heat will continue this month, although El Niño will not be a major factor until later in the year. “We are off to a pretty warm start to the year, it’s not unprecedented, but we could be getting even warmer due to El Niño,” she said. Regardless of whether 2023 ends up the hottest ever recorded, scientists caution that the escalating impacts of the climate crisis are now starkly evident and will not be slowed until greenhouse gas emissions are radically cut. “Without stronger emission cuts, the changes we are seeing are just the start of the adverse impacts we can expect to see,” said Natalie Mahowald, an atmospheric scientist at Cornell University. “This year and the extreme events we have seen so far should serve as a warning.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2023-06-15T07:30:26Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2023/jul/20/labor-native-forest-logging-environment-action-network-lean | Labor faces internal fight over native forest logging despite emissions pledge | Labor has significantly beefed up its commitment to reduce emissions in the gas industry but still faces a fight at its national conference over “weak” policies on native forest logging. Labor’s Environment Action Network (Lean) has now signed up 294 branches for its push to end native forest logging and broad-scale land clearing, but both policies were omitted from the draft national platform distributed to delegates on Monday. Felicity Wade, a Lean convener, said that means it will take the environmental protection issues to the conference floor in August in Brisbane, despite recognising the platform was “much stronger” on climate and energy than in the past. The draft platform, seen by Guardian Australia, states that “Labor recognises that gas and methane are powerful greenhouse gases and the gas industry must contribute its share of emissions reductions to achieve net zero emissions by 2050”. “The federal Labor government will ensure the gas industry plays its role in achieving net zero emissions, including through the safeguard mechanism.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup In March Labor passed the safeguard mechanism with Greens support due to a deal putting hurdles in the way of new fossil fuel projects, but still faces a significant challenge from the minor party to ban all new coal and gas. The platform says Labor “will ensure that Australian gas is available at affordable prices to Australian households and industry” including through “reforms around gas supply, pipelines and storage”, but does not say whether this will be done by supporting new gas fields. But the draft removes a reference in the 2021 platform to addressing the “environmental and climate change impacts of land clearing in the nation’s environmental laws in order to address biodiversity loss and climate change”. Wade said that references to opposing native forest logging and land clearing are “either absent or very, very weak”. Wade said Lean “expects the party to respond” to 294 branches that have called to end native forest logging and clearing, describing it as “a clear call from a large chunk of the membership”. In the climate, environment and energy security chapter Labor commits to “lead Australia to become a renewable energy superpower” including becoming a “major clean energy exporter”. “Labor acknowledges that the world’s climate emergency is Australia’s jobs opportunity.” The platform commits Labor to “holding the increase in global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels”. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) acting national secretary, Michael Wright, said the platform was a “big step forward” but it is clear that to hit environmental targets “we obviously need to pick up the pace”. The ETU will use conference to start a discussion on whether Australia needs an equivalent of the US Inflation Reduction Act to keep up with the “mind-boggling” rollout of renewables in the US, he said. Wright said it is clear “the energy transition at this point is basically baked in, in the sense that fossil fuels will be priced out”. But his union had nudged Labor to make bigger commitments on the transition because “it’s a question of pace, the impact on communities and … seizing opportunities that arise”. “We had 8.5 years of Coalition governments working against the energy transition, but during that period 12 coal power stations shut with no assistance to those communities.” In June seven teal independents, the Greens, independent MP Andrew Wilkie and influential crossbench senator David Pocock all called on Tanya Plibersek to end native forest logging in New South Wales and Tasmania as part of upcoming environmental law reform. The call follows Labor MP Josh Burns urging the government to “act to save our precious natural environment and native wildlife” ahead of the Victorian budget, which will end native forest logging from 2024. The Australian Forest Products Association chief executive, Joel Fitzgibbon, told Guardian Australia that the industry is aligned with government on “addressing climate change and building sovereign capability”. “A healthy forest is a worked forest and our sustainable forest practices – which harvest and replace just six trees in every 10,000 – are world’s best,” he said. “Our plantation estate is shrinking and if we can’t secure a sustainable volume of native product here, then the gap will be filled by imports from jurisdictions which do not meet our environmental or labour standards. “We’ll continue to work with governments to ensure we are striking the right balance.” | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/biodiversity', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-19T15:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/2020/nov/11/un-warns-of-impact-of-smart-borders-on-refugees-data-collection-isnt-apolitical | UN warns of impact of smart borders on refugees: ‘Data collection isn't apolitical’ | Robotic lie detector tests at European airports, eye scans for refugees and voice-imprinting software for use in asylum applications are among new technologies flagged as “troubling” in a UN report. The UN’s special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Prof Tendayi Achiume, said digital technologies can be unfair and regularly breach human rights. In her new report, she has called for a moratorium on the use of certain surveillance technologies. Achiume, who is from Zambia, told the Guardian she was concerned about the rights of displaced people being compromised. She said there was a misconception that such technologies, often considered “a humane” option in border enforcement, are without bias. “One of the key messages of the report is that we have to be paying very close attention to the disparate impact of this technology and not just assuming that because it’s technology, it’s going to be fair or be neutral or objective in some way.” She cited the example of pushback against Donald Trump’s effort to build a wall between the US and Mexico. “You see that there isn’t a similar sense of outrage when digital technologies are deployed to serve the same function … if you actually look at some of the statistics, and if you look at some of the research, which I cite in my report, it turns out that border deaths have increased in places where smart borders have been implemented.” She also raised concerns about the ways in which humanitarian agencies are engaging with surveillance. The report notes that in Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) requires returning refugees to undergo iris registration as a prerequisite for receiving assistance. While the UNHCR has justified the use of this technology as a way to prevent fraud, “the impact of processing such sensitive data can be grave when systems are flawed or abused”, the report said. Last year the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) partnered with Palantir Technologies, a data mining company. Palantir’s role, valued at approximately $45m (£34m), is to provide software and supporting services to the WFP’s data governance of 92 million aid recipients. “Data collection is not an apolitical exercise,” notes Achiume’s report, “especially when powerful global north actors collect information on vulnerable populations with no regulated methods of oversights and accountability.” Covid-19 has also accelerated “biosurveillance” – focused on tracking people’s movements and health. Biosurveillance has everyday uses, such as the “track and trace” app in the UK, but there are concerns about the regulation of large-scale data harvested from populations. One example is the “Covi-Pass”, a health passport developed by Mastercard and Gavi, a private-public health alliance, that is reportedly due to be rolled out across west Africa. The UN report highlighted the implications of such passports for freedom of movement, “especially for refugees”. Petra Molnar from the Refugee Law Lab in Toronto said it was clear that the pandemic was increasing digital rights violations. “State responses to the pandemic are exacerbating the turn towards biosurveillance, with refugees and people on the move acting as communities on which to test various interventions and fast-track tech development,” she said. Molnar, who contributed to the UN rapporteur’s report, has noted the dehumanising impact of some technologies on displaced people in her own research. One asylum seeker she spoke to in Belgium said the amount of personal data he’d given up made him feel, “like a piece of meat without a life, just fingerprints and eye scans”. “Our conversations with refugees and people crossing borders show how little attention is being paid to the lived experiences of people who are at the sharp edges of these high-risk technological experiments,” said Molnar. The intersection of technology and human rights violations were highlighted in a recent investigation into the European border agency Frontex, which allegedly witnessed pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea via some of its assets, including drones. Konstantinos Kakavoulis from Homo Digitalis, a Greek organisation focused on digital rights, said technologies often outpaced the legal framework. “There is no clear regulation for the use of drones or body-worn cameras by the Greek police,” he said. “The police have signed a contract for the provision of a facial recognition software with Intracom Telecom, a Greek company, without receiving the opinion of the Greek data protection authority.” He added: “Apart from the insufficiency of legal safeguards, we also lack transparency; and this is not only remarkable, but highly problematic.” Achiume said that until the impact of surveillance technologies on human rights could be understood, use of such technologies should be halted. “Until we can understand and mitigate those harms, there should just be a moratorium on them.” • This article was amended on 18 November 2020. Following publication Palantir contacted us to clarify that its role with the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) does not involve data sharing and that all data remains under the control of the WFP. | ['global-development/series/human-rights-in-focus', 'global-development/migration', 'global-development/global-development', 'technology/technology', 'world/refugees', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'global-development/human-rights', 'world/world', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'technology/data-protection', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katy-fallon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-11-11T07:15:31Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
news/2015/aug/16/weatherwatch-humid-weather-ants-flying-mating | Weatherwatch: Muggy enough for mating | Ants swarm on hot humid days when thousands of males and females take the one flight of their lives and find a mate on the wing. The warm conditions seem to give ants the best chance to get airborne, and find a partner. When the females fall back to earth after mating and seek a home in which to found a colony the humidity is supposed to help soften the earth so the queens can disappear underground and avoid predators. These new queens live for a decade or more producing hundreds of thousands of workers while the male, having done his duty, drops dead. How this mating ritual is coordinated between otherwise unconnected ant nests of the same species on the same day remains a mystery. There must be some method of mass communication but it has yet to be understood and it clearly is not foolproof. A large number of nests can swarm and then a few days later when the same weather conditions recur other sets of colonies, apparently of the same species, go through the same routine. The ants’ mating flights do not go unnoticed by other species and provide a spectacular feeding opportunity for some birds, particularly insect eaters like martins, anxious to fatten up their second brood for the long autumn migration. One surprising group of predators last week was dozens of seagulls. They were swooping through the swarming ants eating as many as possible. These birds, 80 miles inland, had probably never seen the sea, but will apparently eat anything, including ants. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/insects', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-08-16T20:30:04Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/2014/may/20/heston-blumenthal-rockstar-chefs-books-sales-bloomsbury-masterchef-harry-potter | Heston Blumenthal and 'rockstar chef' books help stir sales for Bloomsbury | The chief executive of Bloomsbury has hailed "chefs as rockstars" after a surge in sales of titles from Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc and MasterChef helped cook up bumper results for the publisher. Bloomsbury was also buoyed by the continuing boom in digital sales, which rose 21% to £12.2m in the year to 28 February, although e-books still account for just 12% of total sales. Nigel Newton, the Bloomsbury chief executive, hailed a "spectacular year" for its adult division that saw revenues climb 12.6% to £49.9m. Underlying operating profit grew 46% to £5.4m. Newton praised the "phenomenal success" of Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food, as well as reliable big names such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Raymond Blanc and MasterChef. He added that the adult division was also boosted by new titles, including Khaled Hosseini's And the Mountains Echoed and Samantha Shannon's debut novel The Bone Season. Bloomsbury's total revenues grew 11% to £109.5m, pre-tax profit remained flat at £9.5m. The company's academic and professional division saw revenues rise 11% to £32m, while operating profit fell 13% to £4.5m. Newton said the company is expecting a solid year, with new titles from authors including Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood and a major marketing campaign to support the launch of illustrated editions of Harry Potter. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. | ['media/mediabusiness', 'business/bloomsbury', 'books/publishing', 'business/business', 'media/media', 'technology/ereaders', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'food/heston-blumenthal', 'food/chefs', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'media/digital-media', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/marksweney'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-05-20T12:22:07Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2000/aug/27/tracymcveigh.helenasmith | Warning to tourists as blazes spread | British tourists escaping a miserable summer risk facing some of the worst wildfire outbreaks the world has seen. This weekend a state of emergency was declared in Greece as thousands of firefighters and volunteers were joined by military personnel from Israel to step up efforts to extinguish blazes that have left at least seven people dead and dozens more injured. Other southern European countries, including Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and the French island of Corsica, as well as the western states of America, are fighting thousands of fires sparked by high temperatures. Yesterday the Greek government appealed for international help amid fears that increasing wind speeds would fan the flames in the next few days. 'It's a warlike situation out there,' said government Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis. Villages have been evacuated over the past 48 hours, with the government calling states of emergency around the border and in the central Peloponnese. In America, fires have already claimed six million acres. Fourteen firefighters have been killed. The Foreign Office advises travellers to affected countries to be 'sensible'. | ['world/world', 'world/wildfires', 'type/article', 'profile/tracymcveigh', 'profile/helenasmith'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2000-08-27T00:20:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2005/sep/05/hurricanekatrina.usa1 | Neighbouring states struggle to cope with influx of people | Some of the cities and states neighbouring New Orleans have warned that they are struggling to absorb the hundreds of thousands of exhausted refugees pouring in on buses, planes and trains in need of shelter, food, clothing, medical help and work. At least 220,000 of the evacuees have crossed into Texas, many of them vowing never to return to New Orleans and its surrounding areas. The biggest concentration of people, about 25,000, are massed inside the Houston Astrodome, where the clean and hospitable conditions contrast with the squalor and fear inside the Louisiana Superdome that many left behind. The last 300 Superdome refugees were evacuated on Saturday. Some of the cities and states across the region are beginning to struggle to absorb the new arrivals. Houston has reached its limits and is shipping people to other smaller cities. Rick Perry, governor of Texas, warned on Saturday that the state was nearing its capacity to take in people. He called the migration "the largest influx of refugees in American history". Dallas officials, housing up to 15,000 in its Metroplex stadium, have urged emergency services to not send more evacuees. In San Antonio, where evacuees are being housed in two warehouses, a former air force base and a disused Levi's factory, officials are asking for more federal funds to help pay for the humanitarian effort. The American Red Cross is operating 275 shelters in nine states and said it has more on standby as the sheer scale of the catastrophe that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people continues to unfold, creating a diaspora of former New Orleans residents. Elsewhere, buses carrying 2,000 refugees crossed into Oklahoma on Saturday on route to national guard barracks, with preparations being made for a further 3,000. Arkansas officials said that they believed there were at least 50,000 refugees in the state. Tennessee's governor, Phil Bredesen, said nearly 13,000 people were being sheltered in his state, including 10,000 who have made the 350-mile journey to Memphis. Thousands of others have gone to Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Arizona and South Carolina. The federal government has chartered three Carnival cruise line ships for six months that will dock in Galveston, Texas, this week to provide shelter for as many as 7,000 people. Some evacuees said they had begun looking for jobs and apartments and hoped to begin again in their new cities. "I'm not going back. I'm going to rebuild in Dallas," Thomas Washington, 46, who arrived in a caravan of cars carrying 26 people, told the Associated Press. In another sign that evacuees were beginning to put down roots, the state board of education in Illinois said 35 Katrina refugees had enrolled in local schools. Maryland said that at least seven counties had been contacted by refugees who wanted to enrol as students. Countless other people are being housed temporarily in churches and private homes. Websites have sprung up, such as Craigslist.com, which are carrying dozens of adverts from families offering rooms Military aircraft, as well as commercial carriers flying on mercy missions, are being employed to get people out of Louisiana. The first rail services from New Orleans resumed at the weekend, carrying 650 people to Dallas. | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/texas', 'type/article', 'profile/davidteather'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-05T01:17:48Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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