Proposition 30 would raise up to $5bn annually to help buy zero-emission cars, trucks and buses; Newsom calls it a ‘Trojan horse’Two years ago, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.This year, he’s opposing a ballot measure to fund the transition to electric vehicles – siding with Republicans and against fellow Democrats, environmental groups, firefighters and labor unions. Continue reading...
Plants damaged by extreme temperatures are most at risk of disease, Royal Horticultural Society saysSummer’s prolonged droughts and extreme heat have made plants more susceptible to problems such as fungi and insects this coming autumn, the Royal Horticultural Society has warned.Plants stressed or damaged by the heat are most at risk of disease, but the charity’s experts say gardeners should also look out for specific plants that are typically more vulnerable such as tomatoes. Continue reading...
A project to revive the crop, once grown across the Netherlands, is boosting pollinators and a renewed interest in the seedOrganic farmer Kees Sijbenga looks at the sea of white and pale pink blossoms before him. It is mid-July and millions of tiny buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) flowers sway in the wind on the plot he is cultivating in the Dutch province of Drenthe. Sijbenga is delighted that the crop is buzzing with a multitude of insect pollinators. “I’m so happy to be growing buckwheat,” says the third-generation farmer.Sijbenga is one of 23 farmers in the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe in the north-east of the Netherlands who are part of an ambitious, nature-inclusive agricultural project to re-establish buckwheat farming in the country. Continue reading...
Denman glacier in remote part of the continent could become unstable, possibly contributing to more sea level rise than predictedThe Denman ice shelf in east Antarctica is melting at a rate of 70.8bn tonnes a year, according to researchers from Australia’s national science agency, thanks to the ingress of warm sea water.The CSIRO researchers, led by senior scientist Esmee van Wijk, said their observations suggested the Denman glacier was potentially at risk of unstable retreat. Continue reading...
The Maribyrnong River has burst its banks in Melbourne, Forbes and Wagga Wagga residents have fled in NSW and rainfall records have been broken in Tasmania
by Nina Lakhani climate justice reporter on (#64Q9V)
Failure to address country’s abuses will obstruct rollout of meaningful climate action, director of Human Rights Watch saysThe Egyptian regime has successfully silenced the country’s independent environmentalists in the run-up to hosting this year’s UN climate talks, as part of a wider strategy to repress human rights that also threatens to derail meaningful global climate action, according to a leading advocate.In an interview with the Guardian, Richard Pearshouse, environment director at Human Rights Watch, said failing to address abuses by Egypt and other authoritarian regimes will obstruct the rollout of ambitious climate policies needed to transition away from fossil fuels and curtail global heating. Continue reading...
Fossil fuel emissions are the easiest to curb yet plans to expand the sector are in the pipelineMethane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, trapping heat 80 times more effectively over a 20-year period.The amount of methane in the atmosphere is two and a half times pre-industrial levels and increasing steadily. There is little hope of keeping below the 1.5C target unless methane emissions are drastically reduced in this decade. Continue reading...
Ed Miliband criticises Liz Truss’s ‘anti-green-energy dogma’ after plans to ban solar projects revealedLabour has criticised prime minister Liz Truss’s plan to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland and vowed to treble the renewable energy source in its first term.Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, will visit a solar farm on Friday. He is to lay out his opposition to plans by Truss and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, who the Guardian revealed earlier this week are hoping to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land. Continue reading...
There is no mandate for the anti-green agenda of Liz Truss’s governmentThe latest schism to open up in Liz Truss’s cabinet is less surprising than it might have been, had divisions over tax and welfare policies not already emerged. But the decision by the business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, to oppose her publicly over solar energy plans is still a dramatic one that leaves her looking even weaker and more exposed. Having previously stressed his support for fracking, and oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, Mr Rees-Mogg used an article in the Guardian to deny that he opposes green energy. While Ms Truss wants to restrict new solar installations on farmland, Mr Rees-Mogg’s deregulatory fervour extends beyond fossil fuels to renewables as well.Ms Truss’s anti-solar scheme is so ill-judged that all voices raised against it are welcome. But Mr Rees-Mogg’s enthusiasm for new oil and gas means that he must never be mistaken for a friend to green causes. He is right to point out that carbon-intensive imports are just as damaging to the atmosphere as UK-based industries. But while his backing for solar and wind may make him a more consistent free-marketeer than the prime minister – who is against red tape except when it blocks something she dislikes – the risks to the environment from all those like him who champion growth at the expense of nature remain huge. Continue reading...
Farmers have long experience in balancing the needs of food and energy production, says Stuart Roberts. Plus letters from Mark Sullivan, Duncan Forbes and Peter CampionThe new environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, appears to believe that farmers and local communities are unable to make the right choices about which land should be used to produce food and which to produce energy (Ministers hope to ban solar projects from most English farms, 10 October).This is not a new problem for farmers. In the 19th century, my predecessors chose to produce energy on one-third of my farm and food on two-thirds. Without the oats grown on a large part of the farm, we could not have fed the horses enough energy to allow them to help us to produce human food on the rest of the farm. Continue reading...
Fylde council, home to Preston New Road shale gas site in Lancashire, unanimously backs motionA Conservative-led council in Lancashire has voted unanimously to demand the government stick to its manifesto commitment against fracking, and to demand clarity on what constitutes “local consent” for the controversial form of energy extraction.Fylde council is home to Preston New Road, the only site in Britain which has been fracked, by the energy company Cuadrilla. Operations there caused small earth tremors, breaching the regulated limits and prompting the government to implement a moratorium on fracking in November 2019. Continue reading...
by Sandra Laville Environment correspondent on (#64P6Q)
The climate minister says new domestic drilling for oil and gas will help the UK reach net zero by 2050. Is he right?The UK climate minister, Graham Stuart, has urged Britons to support domestic drilling for oil and gas, which he claimed were green policies that would help the country reach net zero by 2050.Do his assertions reflect reality? Continue reading...
Caroline Lucas will table bill which would extend countryside access to woods and green beltPeople across England are right to trespass to stand up for their right to roam, Caroline Lucas has said.The Green MP will table a bill later in October to allow the public to access woodlands and the green belt in the same way they can currently walk on the coast path. Continue reading...
‘We won’t have a world to show our customers if we don’t act soon,’ delegates are told at tourism conferenceThe travel industry has been urged to prove its commitment to sustainability with “rapid decarbonisation” to avoid a climate disaster.James Thornton, chief executive of Intrepid Travel, one of the first carbon-neutral tour operators, warned delegates at the Abta travel convention in Morocco that urgent change was required. Continue reading...
Natural England chief says pledge to stop biodiversity loss by 2030 will not be met if scheme is cutThe government will not meet its commitments to stop biodiversity loss by 2030 if it scraps new payments to incentivise wildlife-friendly farming in England, the head of its nature watchdog has said.Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, told the environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, in a letter this week that if the government did not keep its commitment to move from area-based farm payments to “public money for public goods” – rewarding farmers for work to replenish soil, prevent floods and restore pollinators – it will not meet its legally binding target to halt biodiversity decline by 2030. Continue reading...
A California clinic is one of a growing number of healthcare centers looking to achieve energy independence as environmental challenges increaseIt is not easy to rattle Rosa Vivian Fernandez. The chief executive of a California healthcare clinic, she sees the harsh realities that the low-income, largely Hispanic community served by the clinic faces every day.But when Fernandez traveled to Puerto Rico in 2017 to visit family, she was shocked to see how deeply Hurricane Maria had devastated the island. Continue reading...
Government’s oceans review also presents grim picture of species under threat of extinction including seabirds and mammalsMicroplastics are found in three of every four of New Zealand’s fish, huge portions of indigenous seabirds and marine species are threatened with extinction, and warmer oceans are becoming uninhabitable to native species, a stark new government report on the state of the country’s oceans has found.The ministry of environment’s marine stocktake, released on Thursday, lays out a grim picture of species under threat. It found that 90% of indigenous seabirds, 82% of indigenous shorebirds, 81% of assessed marine invertebrate species and 22% of marine mammal species were classified as threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened with extinction. Continue reading...
Science body’s information on shale gas fracking treads lightly when it comes to naming methane’s role in global heating, despite it being second only to CO2Gas companies have their eyes on the Northern Territory where they hope to frack their way to – in the words of the federal government – a “world-class gas province”.This week, one executive claimed the territory’s Beetaloo Basin held “Australia’s greatest emissions reduction opportunity” – a claim swiftly ridiculed by climate groups. Continue reading...
Huge scale of human-driven loss of species demands urgent action, say world’s leading scientistsEarth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as humans continue to clear forests, consume beyond the limits of the planet and pollute on an industrial scale.From the open ocean to tropical rainforests, the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles is in freefall, declining on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet Report. Two years ago, the figure stood at 68%, four years ago, it was at 60%. Continue reading...
Findings highlight how Endangered Species Act has failed in recovering flora and fauna through its 50 yearsThe Endangered Species Act (ESA) has long been hampered by inadequate resources, leaving the US’s foremost law for protecting plants and animals filled with delays and failures in species recovery, researchers said on Wednesday.The findings, published in the scientific journal Plos One on the eve of the law’s 50th anniversary, helped shed light on why, despite hundreds of species listed, only 54 in the country have fully recovered. Continue reading...
Exposure to spaces such as beaches and rivers leads to greater value being placed in natural settings, study findsChildhood days on the beach or messing around in rivers can have significant lasting benefits for our wellbeing in adulthood, according to a study.It found that exposure to blue spaces – such as coasts, rivers and lakes – as a child made revisiting blue spaces in adulthood more likely, as these adults showed greater familiarity with and placed greater value in natural settings. Continue reading...
Group’s London return comes as Met chief says climate action is not yet so disruptive that he must shut it downSupporters of Insulate Britain have joined Just Stop Oil protesters on the streets of London, as the chief of the Metropolitan police said daily protests by climate activists had yet to reach a legal threshold of causing “major disruption” required for the force to shut them down.Just after 11am on Wednesday, about two dozen members of the group, which shot to fame last autumn with a series of blockades of major London roads, walked into the road outside parliament, sat down and glued themselves to the ground. Continue reading...
While land is subsiding throughout the city, industrial water use has exacerbated the problem in one predominantly Black and Vietnamese areaIn the early 1990s, James Wright lost his family home in New Orleans’ Ninth ward when a new school was built on his block.“They basically took our houses because they gave us very little money for them,” he said. “And most of the people were old Black people who owned their homes.” Continue reading...
Chicken and egg producers call for housing order for poultry and captive birds to be extended across UKPoultry farmers have called for a nationwide housing order to be brought in by the UK government as soon as possible, after an upsurge in bird flu outbreaks in the past month.A compulsory housing order for all poultry and captive birds in Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex came into force on Wednesday. It applies to everyone who keeps birds – both commercial flock keepers and non-commercial premises such as back yards, hobby flocks or pets. Continue reading...
by Sandra Laville Environment correspondent on (#64MXD)
Graham Stuart tells MPs that awarding more than 100 licences for North Sea drilling is a green policyFracking and drilling for new oil and gas in the North Sea is green and good for the environment, Liz Truss’s new climate minister said on Wednesday.Graham Stuart insisted that awarding more than 100 licences to companies for North Sea drilling, covering almost 900 locations, and rolling out fracking across the countryside, were green policies. He told MPs on the environmental audit committee that drilling for new fossil fuels would help the UK reach net zero by 2050. Continue reading...
Study finds chemical companies dodging federal law designed to track how many PFAS plants are pumping into environmentChemical companies are dodging a federal law designed to track how many PFAS “forever chemicals” their plants are discharging into the environment by exploiting a loophole created in the Trump administration’s final months, a new analysis of federal records has found.The Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act put in place requirements that companies discharging over 100lb annually of the dangerous chemicals report the releases to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But during the implementation process, Trump’s EPA created an unusual loophole that at least five chemical companies have exploited. Continue reading...
The PM has united unlikely forces in opposition to moves that make little sense and contradict her own policiesLiz Truss and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, have achieved the almost unthinkable this week, by reportedly moving to ban solar farms from much of England.In doing so, they have even managed to unite the free-market, anti-net-zero Institute of Economic Affairs thinktank with green groups, the energy industry and the Labour party in opposing the plans. Continue reading...
People rush to stockpile bottled water amid emergency measures at reservoirs after record droughtA wave of panic buying has swept Shanghai in recent days, as rumours swirled of drinking water shortages despite assurances from local authorities that supplies remained normal.Record-breaking droughts in China dried up parts of the Yangtze River, and prompted saltwater intrusions into the estuary and depleted reservoirs feeding Shanghai, which sits at the mouth of the crucial river. Caixin media reported on Tuesday that Shanghai authorities had taken emergency measures to secure water supply after the intrusions contaminated two of Shanghai’s four primary reservoirs and forced their temporary closure. Continue reading...
Survival International issues guide calling for reappraisal of terms such as ‘wilderness’, ‘voluntary relocation’ and ‘protected area’Words and phrases commonly found in school textbooks, wildlife documentaries and the media around nature conservation are perpetuating “racist and colonial” myths, according to a new guide.Survival International is calling for an end to the use of everyday language that it says is mired in racism, white supremacy, land theft and violence. The human rights group has published a guide to decolonising conservation terms, including “wilderness”, a word it says has been used to portray lands as empty so that they could be taken, when in fact they belong to Indigenous peoples. Continue reading...
The PM’s vision of growth is part of the class war that is transferring power from Britain’s poorest people to its richestAs a founder member of the anti-growth coalition, I’m delighted to discover how fast it has, ahem, been growing. From small beginnings on the political margins, our grouping, according to the prime minister, now ranges across most political parties, the trade unions, remainers, media pundits, in fact just about everyone in the UK who isn’t a swivel-eyed neoliberal headbanger.For many years, a small band of us “voices of decline” and “enemies of enterprise” who “don’t understand aspiration” have been trying to point out that increments in gross domestic product do not equate to increments in happiness. We have argued that no one wins the human race. We have sought to explain that what mainstream economists call progress is what ecologists call planetary ruin. We’ve contended that infinite growth on a finite planet is a recipe for catastrophe. I hope Liz Truss is right to claim that so many people now accept our arguments.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Trains over Planes report says disruption to commuters would be minimalBanning flights on routes with fast rail connections could cut the UK’s emissions from domestic aviation by a third, a report has found.The report by the thinktank Intergenerational Foundation (IF) found that domestic aviation was responsible for the emission of 2.7 megatonnes of CO in 2019 alone – the equivalent of the annual emissions from 1.7 million petrol cars or the energy to power 700,000 UK homes for a year. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#64MH5)
Luan Nguyen said ‘I jabbed him in the eyes’ after he and friends were stranded for 28 hours after boat sank off Louisiana coastLuan Nguyen and his two friends hoped to do little more this weekend than fish and relax.But their boat trip on Saturday into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico near south-east Louisiana became much more dramatic when the vessel sank and Nguyen found himself having to fight off a shark, before the US Coast Guard finally rescued them after more than a day. Continue reading...
Two-time winning kākāpō absent from annual poll amid concerns the parrot may take the spotlight from less charismatic birdsNew Zealand’s annual bird of the year competition could usher in another round of controversy, with perennial favourite the kākāpō struck from the ballot after twice winning the competition.The fat, flightless and nocturnal parrot is the only species to reign twice as New Zealand’s favourite bird, in 2020 and 2008. This year, however, it will be conspicuously absent, amid concerns that its continued dominance could divert the spotlight from less charismatic candidates. Continue reading...
Prime minister accused of ‘another screeching U-turn’ having previously rejected calls to impose levyRenewable power companies will have their revenues capped in England and Wales, after the government bowed to pressure to clamp down on runaway profits.The announcement late on Tuesday night provoked immediate accusations that Downing Street had performed “another screeching U-turn” – having previously rejected calls to impose a windfall tax on power giants. Continue reading...