This month’s environmental summit opened as our planet wilts under the impact of climate crisis. Here we examine five key areas and assess what success – if any – was achieved in EgyptA key Cop27 goal was to strengthen emission pledges made at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow. These are needed to ensure global heating is limited to 1.5C. No such commitments have been made in Egypt and most observers now conclude the world is destined to heat beyond this limit. Continue reading...
Residents rally over scheme they believe will benefit only bicycling students and donsIn 1381, a mob sacked university buildings and burned books in the town square, shouting: “Away with the learning of clerks!” More recently, battle lines have been drawn over plans to build homes on green belt land and attempts to ban wild swimming in the river Cam.Now, tensions between town and gown are rising again in Cambridge. This time, it’s over proposals to introduce a £5 congestion charge on weekday car journeys to the city, with a protest march to Parker’s Piece common planned for 27 November. Continue reading...
Consumers get the chance to buy leftover meals, expiring or misshapen food at discount prices, and aim to encourage consumers to effect policy change in their communitiesIf food waste were a country, it would be the third-highest greenhouse-gas emitting nation behind the US and China. That’s because 40% of all food grown in the world goes uneaten each year, according to a World Wildlife Fund report from last year. And when food ends up in landfills, it produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases.So it’s no surprise then that apps designed to combat food waste – by giving consumers the opportunity to purchase leftover, expiring or misshapen food at discount prices – have become increasingly popular in recent years. Some of these apps have millions of users in the US, and are growing internationally. TikTok users often post videos of the food they have salvaged from restaurants through the apps, and a Reddit community with more than 12,000 members shares photos of their hauls. Continue reading...
‘Thermal effect’ of high-neck jumpers and scarves will save electricity during energy crisis, says governorThe governor of Tokyo has urged people to wear a turtleneck this winter to stay warm and reduce energy consumption.Yuriko Koike said wearing turtleneck jumpers could help reduce energy bills. Continue reading...
Independent scientists raise concerns about apparent industry influence and distortions of the science in WHO guidelinesMore than 110 scientists and regulators worldwide are raising a public alarm over what they label “weak” PFAS drinking water limits proposed by the World Health Organization, which they charge used shoddy science and “arbitrarily” dismissed hundreds of studies linking the “forever chemicals” to serious health problems.Some further alleged the process of developing the guidelines was corrupted by industry-aligned consultants aiming to undercut strict new PFAS limits proposed in the US, and weaken standards in the developing world. The chemicals have been called “forever chemicals” due to their longevity in the environment. Continue reading...
by Ruth Michaelson and Patrick Greenfield on (#660C0)
Kingdom’s Cop27 announcement of new storage hub part of pattern of delaying fossil fuel transition, experts saySaudi Arabia is bolstering years of negotiation tactics designed to stymie vital climate negotiations with a focus on carbon capture technologies that experts say risk delaying a meaningful transition from fossil fuels.The kingdom, which is the world’s second largest oil producer, accounting for roughly 15% of global output, announced plans at Cop27 in Egypt for what it labelled the “circular carbon economy”, in partnership with the national oil company, Aramco, which recently reported $42.4bn in profit. Continue reading...
by Bibi van der Zee and Patrick Greenfield on (#65Z58)
The European Union has backed a loss and damage fund, one of the key demands of developing countries at the climate talksThis liveblog is now closedThe low-lying Pacific island of Tuvalu has been reacting to the EU’s proposal on “loss and damage”. Its finance minister, Seve Paeniu, called for support for phasing out all fossil fuels, language so far missing from the draft Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.He described the EU position on loss and damage as a “breakthrough”. Continue reading...
Climate action group believes US is blocking progress on global heating by rejecting payments to poorer countriesThe US has been named the “colossal fossil” of the Cop27 climate talks by campaigners who criticised the country for its intransigence in providing support to developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis.The “award”, unveiled at a ceremony featuring a person dressed as a dinosaur, is an annual event staged by Climate Action Network International to shame the countries deemed to be blocking climate progress. Continue reading...
It’s a miracle that any one of us is alive today. Those with the power to grant that miracle to future generations chose not toThe chances of any one person being born were calculated by the life coach Dr Ali Binazir. He multiplied the probability of your parents meeting, mating and conceiving by the chances of a particular sperm and egg fusing; of all your human and hominid ancestors reaching reproductive age; and of all them successfully reproducing. He arrived at a figure of one in 10 to the power of 2,640,000. In other words, a 10 followed by 2.6m zeros. It’s an unimaginable, miraculous number. Yet here we are.The chances of being alive right now, as a member of one of the first generations to know the path it is on, and one of the last that can change it, must add several more zeros to this crazy number. The chances of being the president or prime minister of your nation at this critical moment … well you get the idea.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
It is not enough to professionally communicate the science of climate change. This is not a matter of rationality.The role of science communication is to counter wilful ignorance. I don’t mean the deliberate placing of blinkers over the eyes or rose-coloured glasses on the nose. I mean the facts that are inconsistent with the pleasant stories we tell about ourselves, our species, our future. I mean the delusions we live by because they are enjoyable, help keep us sane and motivated, and those cultivated by vested interests to hoodwink us into putting their greed ahead of the public good.Science develops inconvenient facts through the best form of knowledge production we have. It’s not flawless; it’s messy and human. Continue reading...
Overfishing and a lack of regulation is pushing sharks to extinction – now a global body is hoping to better protect themCountries at the world’s biggest wildlife summit have voted for the first time to regulate the trade that kills millions of sharks every year to feed the vast appetite for shark fin soup.In what marine conservationists have hailed as a landmark decision, parties at the 186-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or Cites, voted to limit or regulate the commercial trade in 54 shark species of the requiem family, including tiger, bull and blue sharks which are the most targeted for the fin trade. It will require countries to ensure legality and sustainability prior to authorising exports of these species. Continue reading...
The writer Nicola Chester views the Berkshire hill close to her village home as a focal point of belonging and guardianship towards natureHigh on a ridge above the village of Inkpen in the North Wessex Downs, a gibbet looms like a sentinel. “Every time you come up, you just have to give it a pat. It’s the most grisly thing,” laughs Nicola Chester. The gibbet was used to display the bodies of two murderous lovers in 1676. Since then, the centuries have seen the gibbet brought low by lightning, political vandalism and rot, only to be resurrected each time with oak trees felled from the same estate.Chester titled her award-winning nature memoir, On Gallows Down: Place, Protest and Belonging, after the macabre structure, and the hill that takes its name. “It’s a beacon for home, but also a ‘sending off’ place. A hotspot for migrating birds. A gathering place for stories and a conduit for protest. From it, you can see every chapter of my book, and all the places I’ve ever lived,” she says. Continue reading...
The government’s approval will open the market for a food praised for being more efficient and environmentally-friendlyThe US government has cleared the way for Americans to be able to eat lab-grown meat, after authorities deemed a meat product derived from animal cells to be safe for human consumption.The US food and drug administration (FDA) will allow a California company called Upside Foods to take living cells from chickens and then grow them in a controlled laboratory environment to produce a meat product that doesn’t involve the actual slaughter of any animals. Continue reading...
Community members and campaigners have hailed the move as a win for vulnerable marine ecosystem and wildlifeCanada has rejected a mine expansion project in the Arctic after years of uncertainty and fierce protest, in what community members and campaigners say is a win for the vulnerable marine ecosystem and wildlife.Baffinland Iron Mines’ planned expansion to its Mary River site would have seen it double output to 12m tonnes of iron ore. To bring the ore to market, the mine also said it needed to build a 110km railway to a port near the community of Pond Inlet as well as doubling its shipping. Continue reading...
Four dams on California-Oregon border to be decommissioned on Klamath River, which fish use to reach spawning groundsA US agency seeking to restore habitat for endangered fish gave final approval on Thursday to decommission four dams straddling the California-Oregon border, the largest dam removal undertaking in US history.Dam removal is expected to improve the health of the Klamath River, the route that Chinook salmon and endangered coho salmon take from the Pacific Ocean to their upstream spawning grounds, and from where the young fish return to the sea. Continue reading...
The most significant step came in last year’s Glasgow Cop26 when countries reached a pained consensus supporting a ‘phase down’ of coal powerYou could be forgiven for thinking getting rid of fossil fuels might be the easy point of agreement at a global summit to address the climate crisis. But you would be wrong. Instead, the issue has become a major point of contention as the Cop27 conference in Egypt staggers into its final stage.Despite vast amounts of evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there has never been formal agreement at climate talks that the world should reduce fossil fuel use. The most significant step in that direction came in last year’s Glasgow pact, which reached a pained consensus supporting a “phase down of unabated coal power”. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey, Patrick Greenfield and Adam Morton i on (#65YGA)
With only one full day of official talks left, there are no clear agreements on key issues including funding for loss and damageThe UN secretary general, António Guterres, has flown to the attempted rescue of troubled climate talks in Egypt, warning of a “breakdown in trust” between rich and poor governments that could scupper hopes of a deal.He urged countries reaching the final day of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh to find common ground. “There has been clearly, as in past times, a breakdown in trust between north and south, and between developed and emerging economies,” he said. “This is no time for finger pointing. The blame game is a recipe for mutually assured destruction.” Continue reading...
Egypt foreign minister Sameh Shoukry says delegates are shying away from taking ‘difficult political decisions’. This live blog is closedAs global politicians face difficult discussions on the draft over the coming hours, public opinion appears to be supportive of the idea that richer countries should pay loss and damage finances for climate action in poor countries.Damian Carrington, our environment editor writes: A significant majority of people in the UK think the country has a responsibility to pay for climate action in poorer and vulnerable countries, an opinion poll conducted for the Guardian shows.No details of a fund on loss and damage financing for poorer countries“Welcomes” the fact that parties agreed for the first time to include “matters related to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage” on the summit agenda.No call for a phase down on all fossil fuelsStresses the importance of exerting all efforts to meet Paris Agreement goal of holding global average temperature to well below 2C and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C
Campaign group says industry is cruel to sheep and wool is more environmentally damaging than most synthetic fibresIt is jumper season, but your common or garden woollies may soon be a thing of the past: the animal rights group Peta has launched a competition this week to find a vegan alternative to wool that comes with a $1m (£860,500) prize.The Vegan Wool Challenge Award promises the prize money to the first person or company to develop a material that convincingly resembles sheep wool in its texture, functionality and appearance, and has a major clothing brand invest into the material. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#65YDR)
Meat-rich wet food causes eight times more emissions, giving some dogs the same carbon footprint as a humanWet cat and dog food is far more environmentally damaging than dry pet food, according to a new study. It found that wet food results in eight times more climate-heating emissions than dry food.The analysis found that a wet food diet for a typical dog resulted in an “ecological pawprint” for the animal that was the same as for its human owner. There are estimated to be 840 million cats and dogs in the world and, with numbers rising, the impact on the environment of feeding them is under increasing scrutiny. Continue reading...
The label on a specimen of Afzelius’s crab simply said ‘Sierra Leone’. But it was enough for an expedition to track it down along with another ‘lost’ freshwater crabTracking down rare species believed to be extinct is never easy, but when Pierre A Mvogo Ndongo travelled to Sierra Leone in January 2021 to search for “lost” species of land-dwelling crabs, the feeling of looking for a needle in a haystack was particularly powerful due to the size of the “haystack”. For one of the species, Afzelius’s crab (Afrithelphusa afzelii), last seen in 1796, the only clue was the label on a specimen that simply said: “Sierra Leone.”Mvogo Ndongo’s expedition was primarily looking for the rainbow-coloured, land-dwelling Sierra Leone crab Afrithelphusa leonensis, lost to science for 65 years and thought to be possibly extinct – one of the species on wildlife charity Re:wild’s 25 “most wanted lost species” list. He also hoped – but never expected – to find, Afzelius’s crab (Afrithelphusa afzelii). Continue reading...
World faces ‘stark reality that there is no safe limit of global warming for coral reefs’, says researcherYou don’t have to travel far from the sprawling convention center that’s staging the UN climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to see what’s at stake. This coastal resort town is fringed by an ecosystem seemingly facing worldwide cataclysm from global heating – coral reefs.As negotiators haggle over an agreement that may or may not maintain a goal to restrain global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the nearby corals face a more brutally unyielding scenario. Continue reading...
Calls for crackdown on hunt safety during trial of Julien Féral, who shot dead man outside home near ToulouseA hunter who shot dead an Anglo-French man after allegedly mistaking him for a wild boar has gone on trial accused of manslaughter.Morgan Keane, 25, was hit in the chest as he was cutting wood outside his home in a village north of Toulouse, in south-west France, two years ago. Continue reading...
Gleaning, the act of harvesting unused or surplus produce and distributing it to food insecure people is one solution to the interconnected challenges of hunger and food wasteAs the Mar Vista Farmers Market in Los Angeles came to an end, a small team of volunteers in bright orange aprons handed out large cardboard boxes to be filled with unsold heirloom tomatoes, apricots, berries, green peppers, lettuce and eggplants that would have otherwise gone to waste. After being weighed and cataloged, the boxes were stacked into neat piles and picked up by three local organizations that serve people in need.The event was hosted by the North Hollywood, California-based Food Forward. Founded in 2009, the non-profit aims to fight hunger and prevent food waste by rescuing surplus produce from backyards, public orchards, farmers markets and the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market. The group gleans and donates an average of 250,000lb of food each day to more than 340 hunger relief partners throughout 12 California counties, six adjacent states and tribal lands, feeding 150,000 people their five daily servings of fruits and vegetables in the process. Continue reading...
Met Office says conditions likely to be ‘atrocious’ for much of UK with snow expected in HighlandsHeavy rain across Britain overnight has inundated roads and caused “treacherous” conditions for commuters, leaving some cars stuck in flood water.Much of the UK faced weather warnings until midday on Thursday, with the Met Office issuing yellow warnings for heavy rain. Train cancellations and delays were also expected. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#65XQ3)
Exclusive: Funding from rich countries is critical issue at Cop27 and poll shows many think UK has duty to provide itA significant majority of people in the UK think the country has a responsibility to pay for climate action in poorer and vulnerable countries, an opinion poll shows.The issue of rich, polluting countries providing substantial funding to developing countries is central to the UN’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt. Experts have warned that, without the flow of many billions of dollars to help cut emissions and cope with increasingly severe environmental impacts, there will not be the trust needed for the combined global action required to beat the crisis. Continue reading...
Prosecutor says official from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was arrested en route to a conference on protecting endangered speciesEight people in the US have been charged with smuggling endangered monkeys, including a Cambodian wildlife official arrested while travelling to a conference on protecting endangered species.The group – consisting of the Cambodian official, a colleague in that country’s wildlife agency and six people connected to a Hong Kong-based company – were involved in breeding long-tailed macaques for scientific and academic research, supplying them to labs in Florida and Texas. Continue reading...
Boardrooms around Australia will be noting what shareholders can do if you don’t take climate change issues seriouslyMike Cannon-Brookes and his collaborators have succeeded in sending shock waves throughout the boardrooms of major companies around Australia. His campaign, via shareholder activism, has resulted in a mass clean-out of the board of directors of Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, AGL Energy. Perhaps more importantly it has resulted in AGL management substantially accelerating their exit out of coal.AGL’s decision to close Loy Yang A power station by 2035 probably helped precipitate the decision of the Victorian Labor party (facing an election on 26 November) to commit to seeing all coal power closed by 2035, and an expansion of renewable energy to 90% of the state’s power supply. Continue reading...
Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace have projected a film about energy costs on to Rishi Sunak's Yorkshire mansion. The video, which was projected from a nearby parked van, features images and voiceovers illustrating the cost of living crisis and the struggle many people face this coming winter with rising fuel prices. Sunak, who was in Bali for the G20 world leaders' conference at the time of the stunt, has told households to 'be careful' about their energy use to help reduce bills this coming winter. Polling commissioned by Greenpeace from Survation found that 64.6% of people in the UK have had to make cuts to other spending because of rising energy bills