Scotland Yard believes environmental activist group will launch two weeks of ‘disruption’ in the capital before ChristmasJust Stop Oil is expected to begin two weeks of action from Monday and has accused the government and police of “groundhog day” rhetoric over crackdowns on protesters.Scotland Yard said on Sunday that it believes the environmental activist group will launch two weeks of “disruption” in London in the run-up to Christmas. Continue reading...
Chemicals giant wants to produce zero-carbon electricity to power planned hydrogen systems at Grangemouth refineryIneos, the chemicals company owned by the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has held exploratory talks with Rolls-Royce on nuclear technology that could eventually be chosen to provide zero-carbon energy to the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland.A deal between Ineos, one of the UK’s biggest privately owned companies, and FTSE 100 engineer Rolls-Royce could help Ineos with the tricky task of decarbonising the giant refinery, while also providing Rolls-Royce with an early customer for a new technology it hopes will transform its prospects. Continue reading...
E.ON reports up to 15% drop as Grant Shapps writes to firms saying customers cutting back on energy use should not face direct debit riseBritons have cut their gas and electricity use by more than 10% since October in the first evidence of the impact of the energy crisis on household habits, according to two of Britain’s biggest suppliers.E.ON, Britain’s second-largest supplier, and the owner of Utility Warehouse have reported “double-digit” declines in recent weeks. Continue reading...
Calls for construction on Museum of the 20th Century to be halted until energy efficiency issues addressedA vast modern art museum under construction in Berlin has been castigated by conservation experts and architecture critics for its poor environmental credentials, as the energy crisis intensifies scrutiny of the efficiency of new buildings.The Museum of the 20th Century, designed by the Swiss star architects Herzog and de Meuron, is intended to propel the German capital into the top tier of world cities for modern art, competing with New York’s Moma and London’s Tate Modern. Continue reading...
Jake Berry is latest senior MP to urge prime minister to amend de facto block on new projects in EnglandRishi Sunak is embroiled in a growing rebellion over his ban on new onshore windfarms as the former Conservative chairman Jake Berry became the latest senior MP to announce he would join an effort to overturn the policy.The former cabinet minister said he would support the former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke, who has tabled an amendment to legislation going through parliament demanding the current moratorium on new developments be lifted. Continue reading...
The country has been told the chances of power cuts are low, but demand for old-school wax lighting is hotGermans are seeking comfort in the warm yellow glow of open flames this Christmas, as a revival of festive traditions coupled with blackout fears make candles the target of the latest stockpiling frenzy.On Sunday, many German households will follow tradition to light the first of four candles on their Adventskranz wreath, which is typically laid on or hung above the dining-room table. Continue reading...
Tory MP becomes latest member of party to get behind push to drop moratorium with reports Michael Gove also supports moveThe president of the Cop26 climate summit Alok Sharma has become the latest Conservative party MP to support lifting the ban on new onshore windfarms.Sharma has joined his former boss Boris Johnson, who nominated him for a peerage, in backing an amendment to government legislation in an attempt to drop the moratorium on onshore wind. Continue reading...
Russian attacks cut off essential power to the stations last week, forcing all four of them into high-risk mitigation proceduresThere are growing fears that Russia’s relentless targeting of Ukraine’s electricity grid will threaten the safety of the country’s nuclear power plants, in the wake of an unprecedented emergency shutdown on Wednesday.Petro Kotin, the president of Ukraine’s nuclear power company, Energoatom, said that all safety mechanisms had worked as intended on Wednesday, but two generators were damaged in the process, delaying the restart of two reactors. Kotin said repeated shutdowns caused by more Russian missile attacks could cause extensive damage, with a potentially severe impact on Ukraine’s power supply and possibly on nuclear safety. Continue reading...
Former prime minister says US and Europe will pay biggest share of loss and damage fund, but China must tooChina must pay into a new fund for poor countries stricken by climate-driven disaster on the basis of its high greenhouse gas emissions and large economy, the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has said.“America and Europe will have to provide most, but China will have to contribute more too,” he told the Guardian. Continue reading...
Under-fire water firms, criticised for their part in the scandal, have pointed the finger at the authorities in newly revealed lettersWater company bosses have blamed UK government inaction for a lack of progress in stopping sewage pollution, newly revealed letters show.According to data from the Environment Agency, sewage has been dumped into the seas and rivers around the UK more than 770,000 times over the course of 2020 and 2021 – the equivalent of almost 6m hours. Continue reading...
Cites treaty, adopted in 1963, protects more than 500 species, many exploited by unsustainable or illegal tradeAn international wildlife conference has moved to enact some of the most significant protections for sharks, songbirds and scores of turtles, lizards and frogs.The meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) ended on Friday in Panama. Along with protections for more than 500 species, delegates at the UN wildlife conference rejected a proposal to reopen the ivory trade. An ivory ban was enacted in 1989. Continue reading...
Herds burgeon on reservations as Native tribes seek to re-establish balance after historical slaughter by European settlersPerched atop a fence at Badlands national park, Troy Heinert peered from beneath his wide-brimmed hat into a corral where 100 wild bison awaited transfer to the Rosebud Indian Reservation.Descendants of bison that once roamed North America’s Great Plains by the tens of millions, the animals would soon thunder up a chute, take a truck ride across South Dakota and join one of many burgeoning herds Heinert has helped re-establish on Native American lands. Continue reading...
by Mark BrownNorth of England correspondent on (#6671Q)
Tourist spot made famous by Ruskin, Turner and Wordsworth may be washed away if £1m is not found for repairsAn unspoiled, spirit-enhancing countryside view celebrated by the 19th-century critic and poet John Ruskin as one of the most beautiful in the world is under threat unless £1m can be raised.It was after a visit in 1875 that Ruskin described the view over the River Lune from the churchyard of St Mary’s in Kirkby Lonsdale as “one of the loveliest in England, therefore in the world”. Continue reading...
Three-year scheme to provide up to £15,000 for middle-income households will start in April 2023The business secretary, Grant Shapps, will announce a plan next week to offer grants of up to £15,000 to middle-income households to make homes more energy efficient, according to reports.The scheme, called “eco plus”, will run from April and target middle-earners to enable them to fund work on their homes such as installing cavity-wall insulation or smart heating controls. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#666XB)
Mayor says ultra-low emission zone has been ‘transformational’ and expansion will benefit 5m more peopleLondon’s ultra-low emission zone will be expanded across the entire capital from next August, a move that the mayor said would bring cleaner air to 5 million more residents.Drivers of older, polluting cars will have to pay £12.50 a day to use their vehicle across Greater London from 29 August 2023. Continue reading...
Wildcat expert recruited by Wildlife Trust with view to reintroducing animal currently found in remote parts of ScotlandWildcats could be released in England for the first time in hundreds of years as the Wildlife Trusts recruit an expert to help introduce them back into the wild.After being hunted to extinction, the European wildcat is now the UK’s rarest native mammal. They are larger than the domestic cat, which are bred from the wildcats of Africa. It has not been spotted in southern England since the 16th century, but now it looks possible that the animal will be found stalking the landscape once more. Continue reading...
The world’s biggest single-building pig farm has opened in Hubei province, but critics say it will increase the risk of larger animal disease outbreaksOn the southern outskirts of Ezhou, a city in central China’s Hubei province, a giant apartment-style building overlooks the main road. But it is not for office workers or families. At 26 storeys it is by far the biggest single-building pig farm in the world, with a capacity to slaughter 1.2 million pigs a year.This is China’s answer to its insatiable demand for pork, the most popular animal protein in the country. Continue reading...
Mammals were downgraded from endangered to threatened in 2017, even as pollution and habitat loss drive starvationThe deaths of almost 2,000 manatees in Florida’s coastal and inland waterways over the last two years has provoked an alliance of environmental groups to demand an urgent reclassification of the species to officially endangered.The advocates, led by the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, insist the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) made a critical error in 2017 by prematurely downgrading the status of the giant aquatic mammals from endangered to merely threatened. Continue reading...
The story of the damage done to the world’s biodiversity is a tale of decline spanning thousands of years. Can the world seize its chance to change the narrative?The story of the biodiversity crisis starts with a cold-case murder mystery that is tens of thousands of years old. When humans started spreading across the globe they discovered a world full of huge, mythical-sounding mammals called “megafauna”, but by the end of the Pleistocene, one by one, these large animals had disappeared. There is no smoking gun and evidence from ancient crime scenes is – unsurprisingly – patchy. But what investigators have learned suggests a prime suspect: humans.Take the case of Genyornis, one of the world’s heaviest birds, which was more than 2 metres tall and weighed in excess of 200kg. It lived in Australia until, along with many other megafauna, it went extinct 50,000 years ago. In North America, giant beavers weighing the same as a fridge and an armadillo-like creature called a glyptodon, which was the size of a small car, existed until about 12,000 years ago, when they, too, went extinct. In all, more than 178 species of the world’s largest mammals are estimated to have been driven to extinction between 52,000 and 9,000BC. Continue reading...
The number of bears in the Italian Alps is gradually increasing after a successful rewilding project that involved bringing bears from Slovenia. Photojournalist Luca Rotondo visited Trentino to take a look at what was happening Continue reading...
Nature’s cycle disrupted by summer heatwave and ‘exceptionally mild’ autumn, with dormant plants bursting back to lifeAmong the yellow and brown clumps of fallen leaves and the skeletal frames of deciduous trees this autumn are some surprising finds: green shoots and bright flowers.Recent mild temperatures and wet conditions have encouraged some plants that should be going into dormancy for the winter to burst back into life, experts have said, with possible disruptive effects on nature’s cycles. Continue reading...
As part of an attempt to rid Stewart Island of the rodents, children as young as five have taken part in a rat catching competition, with remarkable resultsIn a tiny school on the southern-most tip of New Zealand, the children are lining up their kill.Big brown rats with long tails, their stomachs caked in blood. Smaller rats, stiff from the refrigerator, tails in a tangle. Continue reading...
Conservationist says if world leaders do not go to the summit a strong deal to halt and reverse nature loss is at riskChris Packham is urging the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to attend a key nature summit to protect the planet for the sake of his great-grandchildren because we are “very close to the point of no return”.The Cop15 biodiversity summit being held in Montreal from 7-19 December is the nature equivalent of the recent Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, with governments from all over the world expected to agree targets to halt the destruction of the natural world. But world leaders are not expected to attend the once-in-a-decade meeting where the next 10 years of targets will be agreed. Continue reading...
About 20 Conservative MPs want to end longstanding de facto block on new wind farms in EnglandBoris Johnson and Liz Truss have joined a growing Tory backbench rebellion against Rishi Sunak’s refusal to allow new onshore wind projects in England, in another challenge to the levelling up bill.The former prime ministers are among about 20 Conservative MPs to have signed an amendment tabled by Simon Clarke, who served as a minister under Johnson and Truss, that would end the de facto ban on new onshore wind that has been in place since 2014. Continue reading...
Broadcaster says looking after pigs is ‘really hard work’ and that food prices should be twice as highJeremy Clarkson has said people in the UK “do not pay enough for their food” and that prices should be double what they are.The 62-year-old presenter, who bought an Oxfordshire farm in 2008, made the comments as he spoke about the difficulties in producing food. Continue reading...
Decades after the world’s biggest otter disappeared from the country, a kayaking trip revealed a lone male swimming in the Bermejo River“This really is a big animal,” says Sebastián Di Martino, conservation director of Rewilding Argentina, emphasising the “giant” in giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis). “It can be 1.7 metres long … the biggest otter in the world.”Until its recent rediscovery, the giant otter was feared extinct in the country as a result of habitat loss and hunting. “Family groups were last seen in the 1980s in the Misiones province of north-eastern Argentina,” Di Martino says. “In the Bermejo River, the last sightings occurred 130 years ago, in 1898.” Continue reading...
by Presented by Gabrielle Jackson with Lenore Taylor on (#6664S)
For years the majority of Australians have been shut out of the electric vehicle market. But after Labor passed a bill that will phase out public support for petrol-based hybrids, electric cars are finally poised to become cheaper and more accessible.In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about the new electric car discount, and the road to zero emissions vehicles.Read more: Continue reading...
This year’s temperatures would have been virtually impossible without climate crisis, scientists sayMore than 20,000 people died across western Europe in this summer’s heatwaves, in temperatures that would have been virtually impossible without climate breakdown, figures show.Analysis of excess deaths, the difference between the number of deaths that happened and those expected based on historical trends, reveals the threats posed by climate change-induced global heating, scientists said. Continue reading...
Forestry Commission response to freedom of information request reveals only 15 convictions in a decade under its regimeFewer than 1% of alleged illegal tree felling cases reported to the Forestry Commission have ended in a successful prosecution over the past 10 years in England.The Forestry Commission received 4,002 reports of trees being destroyed without a licence from 2012-13 to 2021-22. Continue reading...
Residents of Woburn near Boston subjected to attacks and intimidation by group of wild turkeys – and especially KevinIt’s the time of year when millions of turkeys across the US might justifiably fear for their safety, but in one Massachusetts town the birds have turned the tables, ganging up to “terrorize” residents with pecks, kicks and loud clucking.People in Woburn, north-west of Boston, have been subjected to a barrage of attacks and intimidation by a group of five wild turkeys, with the situation forcing some to take up improvised weapons and residents reporting being trapped in their homes. Continue reading...
Kingfisher says sales of loft insulation roll more than double while smart thermostats rose by nearly a thirdThe B&Q owner, Kingfisher, has reported higher sales as fears over higher gas and electricity costs boosted demand for energy-efficient products including insulation roll and smart thermostats.The retail group, which also owns the hardware trade supplier Screwfix, said customers who invested in a raft of energy-saving DIY products helped increase group sales by 0.6% to £3.3bn in the three months to October. When stripping out the impact of the weaker pound, sales were up 1.7%. Continue reading...
Objections to active travel infrastructures are now picking and choosing data to fit the narrativeI’m starting to wonder if anyone is ever going to make an honest argument against cycling and walking infrastructure again. They do exist. People used to say things like “I want to drive and park wherever I like”, or “why should cyclists and pedestrians inconvenience my much more important car journey?”.Those are still the basic objections, but these days most prominent opponents realise that it sounds a bit politically incorrect. You need some higher public interest ground, however shaky, to pitch your tent on. Continue reading...
President orders Ministry of Environment and Forestry to launch investigation over contractor’s licence for removing treesThe Kenyan government has halted the transportation and export of Kilifi baobabs to Georgia and ordered an investigation into how a foreign contractor received permission to transport the ancient trees out of the country.Kenya’s president, William Ruto, ordered the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to investigate whether Georgy Gvasaliya had the proper licence to take the trees out of Kenya under the Nagoya protocol, an international agreement that governs the conditions for the export of genetic resources, which has been incorporated into Kenyan law. Continue reading...
Report exposes scale of human waste discharges into UK waters, including potentially illegal ‘dry spills’Water companies have been releasing sewage on to beaches and in rivers even when it is not raining, according to a report from Surfers Against Sewage.Sewage spills are only supposed to happen under exceptional circumstances; when it is raining so heavily that the system cannot cope with the amount of water and effluent being spewed at once. Continue reading...