by Carl Meyer for Canada's National Observer and Emil on (#5HDE1)
Expansion will stretch hundreds miles and is fiercely opposed by numerous groups – but despite repeated calls the Canadian government has not forced the pipeline reveal its insurersNestled in the harbors of Vancouver, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation has lived for thousands of years within an inlet set against the mountain views of the Pacific north-west.But across the water from Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s reserve, less than 2km away, or a little over a mile, is a jarring juxtaposition: an industrial terminal for the large Trans Mountain oil pipeline. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#5HDE2)
Rise is a 0.2C improvement on previous forecast but still substantially above goal of Paris climate agreementNew climate targets announced by the US and other rich nations in recent weeks have put the world on track for global heating of about 2.4C by – the end of the century, research has found.That is a 0.2C improvement on the previous forecast of 2.6C, but still substantially above the Paris goal of holding temperature rises to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration to limit heating to 1.5C. Continue reading...
Analysis: greater use of bikes can help tackle emissions in the capital, but can the would-be mayors deliver?After a year in which lives, homes and jobs were lost to a global pandemic, why does cycling matter? One of the London mayor’s major mandates is transport. Cycling and walking are a key part of that, not least while many people are avoiding public transport or working from home.If people switch from public transport to driving, Transport for London (TfL) forecasts a huge rise in motor traffic and a corresponding surge in pollution. With road transport accounting for 20% of London’s emissions, providing alternatives to private cars is key. Continue reading...
by Angela Giuffrida in Stelvio national park on (#5HD8Q)
Accelerating retreat of glaciers in Lombardy and Trentino Alto-Aldige reveals preserved history of ‘White War’The soldiers dug the wooden barracks into a cave on the top of Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass. For the next three-and-a-half years, the cramped, humid space was home to about 20 men from the Austro-Hungarian army as they fought against Italian troops in what became known as the White War, a battle waged across treacherous and bitterly cold Alpine terrain during the first world war.Fought mainly in the Alps of the Lombardy region of Italy and the Dolomites in Trentino Alto-Adige, the White War was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global warming started to reveal an assortment of perfectly preserved relics – weapons, sledges, letters, diaries and, as the retreat of glaciers hastened, the bodies of soldiers. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#5HD8P)
Green Alliance says 16,000 jobs could be created in areas facing most severe employment challengesSome of the areas of Britain worst hit by the jobs crisis brought on by the pandemic are also those with the highest potential for green job creation, a report says.About 16,000 new jobs could be created in restoring nature and planting trees in areas where unemployment is set to soar when the government’s furlough schemes end, according to the report from the Green Alliance thinktank. These include urban areas where people have little access to green space, as well as coastal areas and “red wall” areas that were Labour strongholds in the north of England. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5HD65)
The tiny creatures are the ‘unsung heroes’ that keep soils healthy and underpin all life on landPesticides are causing widespread damage to the tiny creatures that keep soils healthy and underpin all life on land, according to the first comprehensive review of the issue.The researchers found the measured impacts of farm chemicals on earthworms, beetles, springtails and other organisms were overwhelmingly negative. Other scientists said the findings were alarming, given the importance of these “unsung heroes”. Continue reading...
Confirmation comes as questions raised over controversial Snowy Hydro project in Hunter ValleyEnergy Australia has confirmed it will proceed with a new 300MW peaking power plant in the Illawarra in New South Wales capable of using a blend of green hydrogen and natural gas, as officials faced questions about a controversial Snowy Hydro project in the Hunter Valley.Confirmation that the Energy Australia project will proceed follows a threat from the Morrison government to intervene in the market to ensure there are not shortfalls once the ageing coal-fired power plant at Liddell in the Hunter Valley closes in 2023. Continue reading...
by Jasper Jolly and Kalyeena Makortoff on (#5HD33)
Lenders including Barclays and HSBC provided services and loans worth £21.9bn in 2019British banks’ financial support for companies involved in the coal industry has risen since the 2015 Paris agreement, despite their pledges to wind down financing for a sector seen as a significant obstacle to tackling global heating.UK lenders provided loans and underwriting services worth $30.3bn (£21.9bn) to companies that sold or burned coal, or provided coal industry services, during 2019, the latest year for which complete data is available, according to research by the campaign groups Reclaim Finance and Urgewald. That represented a significant increase compared with $21.5bn in financing provided in 2016. Continue reading...
Temperatures expected to be 15F above average on Monday and Tuesday in drought-desiccated Sacramento areaDry, hot weather and strong winds have triggered a “red flag” fire warning for parts of northern California, the first time the National Weather Service has issued such a warning for the region in the month of May since 2014.Temperatures in northern California and the Bay Area are expected to peak 15F above average on Monday and Tuesday, with 20- to 35mph wind gusts expected in some parts, prompting the NWS to warn of dangerous fire conditions in the Sacramento region. The red flag warning is expected to expire after 11am Tuesday. Continue reading...
Environmental Protection Agency proposes rule to cut production and import of HFCs in the US by 85% over the next 15 yearsThe US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has moved to restrict the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), extremely powerful planet-heating gases found in refrigerators and air conditioning units that are the target of an international push for phasing out.In the first move by Joe Biden’s administration to directly cut a greenhouse gas, the EPA has proposed a rule to drastically reduce the production and import of HFCs in the US by 85% over the next 15 years. The step is a significant one as Biden seeks to cut total US emissions in half by the end of the decade. Continue reading...
Community groups are revitalising retail units in often moribund high streets to help people and planetDozens of familiar high street retail units across England and Wales, including Homebase, River Island and William Hill have been converted into climate emergency centres – community hubs “for the benefit of people and planet” – after changes in shopping habits or the Covid pandemic left them sitting empty.As hundreds of councils declare a climate emergency, owners of vacant premises have the option to reduce their business rates payments by up to 100% through leasing the property for community benefit to a not-for-profit or charitable organisation, such as a climate emergency centre (CEC). Continue reading...
Six out of 10 polls published in past two weeks put Greens ahead of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic UnionA green wind of change is blowing through Germany’s political landscape as a poll-of-polls on Monday puts the Green party above Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) only five months before national elections.The aggregate poll, published by Pollytix Strategic Research, puts the Greens in the lead for the first time since June 2019. Continue reading...
Global phenomenon known as river piracy demands urgent adaptation from ecosystems and people who rely on their flowAs glaciers around the world recede rapidly owing to global warming, some communities are facing a new problem: the sudden disappearance of their rivers.River piracy, or stream capture, is when water from one river is diverted into another because of erosion or, in this case, glacier melt. Continue reading...
Unique species in ‘the world’s most biodiverse desert’ are at risk from a warming planet and the lucrative plant poaching tradeIn May 2020, 10mm of rain fell at Sendelingsdrif Rest Camp in South Africa’s most north-westerly corner. After enduring nine years of almost zero rain, Pieter van Wyk, a 32-year-old self-taught botanist who heads up the Richtersveld national park’s nursery, was elated to see several species flower for the first time in almost a decade. The rain, including 200mm on the nearby mountains, was a welcome respite for the world heritage site’s flora and fauna.His joy, however, was short-lived. While the rain gave a temporary lease of life to some annuals and bulbs in the |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld transfrontier park, it did little to alter the fact that scores of species, especially large succulent plants such as aloes, are in peril. A study to be published by Van Wyk and others shows that 85% of the population of the distinctive Pearson’s aloe (Aloe pearsonii) – endemic to the Richtersveld – has been lost in the past five years, having been a stable presence for the previous four decades. Continue reading...
Worried researchers hold ceremony for Clark glacier to illustrate how climate crisis is eroding icepacksThe funeral was a suitably solemn affair. The small casket was placed on a table covered in a black drape, a maudlin yet defiant speech quoted a Dylan Thomas poem, a moment’s silence was held.Inside the casket, however, was not a body, but a vial of meltwater from Clark glacier in Oregon, once an imposing body of ice but now a shrivelled remnant. Continue reading...
Long-awaited strategy includes plan to power all government-owned schools and hospitals with renewables by 2025The Victorian government has promised to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, in an announcement of long-awaited climate targets that outstrip commitments made by the Morrison government.The plan, announced on Sunday, will see Victoria power all government-owned enterprises, including schools and hospitals, by renewables by 2025. Continue reading...
More than 12,000 deaths have already been attributed to glacial lake outburst floods worldwideAn increasing number of people are being threatened by flooding caused by glacial lakes bursting, scientists have warned.As the planet warms and glaciers recede, meltwater accumulates and forms lakes, often as a result of ice or moraine acting as a dam. Since 1990, the volume, area and number of these glacial lakes has increased by 50% globally. When these lakes become too full there is a risk that they may breach or overflow, releasing huge volumes of water and causing catastrophic flooding. Continue reading...
An almost unbelievable future is at hand, and Britain is well placed to lay claim to a stake in itThe Apollo 11 space mission captured our imaginations in 1969. And it was achingly evocative to hear the recordings of Michael Collins, who died last week, talk about how looking at Earth from space rammed home just how precious our planet is.Last week also marked three other milestones for space. A record $8.7bn has been raised by venture capitalists in the last year to support companies in commercial opportunities from space; France’s Eutelsat joined the UK as a shareholder in the satellite communications company OneWeb; and China launched the first part of its own space station to host three “taikonauts”. We are moving beyond the wonder of watching Collins’s colleagues, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walk on the moon to something transformational. Continue reading...
Head of the Kunming biodiversity summit asks nations to review destructive support for fishing, agriculture and other industriesBillions of pounds of environmentally harmful government subsidies must be redirected to benefit nature, the United Nation’s biodiversity chief has said, before the restart of negotiations on an international agreement to set new targets for protecting nature.Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said states must review and adapt support for agriculture, fishing and other industries that are driving the destruction of the natural world, and adopt policies that meet human needs while also conserving the health of the planet. Continue reading...
by Graham Readfearn Photography: Isabella Moore on (#5HAS3)
Col Faulkner, 68, owns the only house in Wollar that hasn’t been bought up by US-based miner PeabodyBev Smiles usually turns up at least an hour before the start of any functions at Wollar’s community hall – a spot for many a dance and committee meeting over the years.“We have to get in early with leaf blowers to get an inch of dust off the floor – every surface in the hall is black,” Smiles says. “That’s what people’s kitchens are like.” Continue reading...
by Edward Helmore in Buchanan, New York on (#5HAJ1)
The power station on the banks of the Hudson has no place in the state’s plans switch to renewables but critics say in the short term it means lost jobs and increased emissionsAmerica’s energy past and future was on display on Friday at Indian Point, a nuclear plant 25 miles north of New York City that has been producing electricity since 1962.Related: Don't believe hydrogen and nuclear hype – they can’t get us to net zero carbon by 2050 | Jonathon Porritt Continue reading...
A recent spate of deaths in the region has caused concern, but scientists say it may not be a sign of catastropheThe 45ft carcass lay belly-up in the surf at Fort Funston beach, just south of San Francisco, drawing a small crowd of hikers and hang gliders. The stench lingered on the evening breeze as seabirds circled the animal, a juvenile fin whale.The whale was the fifth to wash ashore in the area this month. The other four were gray whales – giant cetaceans who migrate an astounding 11,000 miles each year from Alaska to Baja and back – all found on beaches near the city over a span of just eight days. Continue reading...
Mountain glacier melt contributes more than a quarter of extra volume to the world’s oceans, disrupting ancient cycles of creation“If glaciers are what you are after, that’s the place for you.” The speaker was an prospector passing through Fort Wrangell, Alaska, in 1879. The subject was a remote bay, flanked by rugged walls of ice and filled with floating bergs. The listener was the Scottish-American environmental philosopher John Muir, who needed no further encouragement to set out in a canoe soon after with a large stock of provisions, blankets and a determination to visit the frozen wonderland.It was October. Winter was approaching. The territory ahead was largely uncharted. His five travelling companions – four members of the Hoonah Tlingit people and a missionary – were warned the dangers were so great they would never return. Muir was undeterred. “The icy regions burned in my mind,” he noted. “I determined to go ahead as far north as possible.” Continue reading...
A novel lawsuit is taking advantage of a local ‘rights of nature’ measure passed in November in effort to protect wetlandsA network of streams, lakes and marshes in Florida is suing a developer and the state to try to stop a housing development from destroying them.The novel lawsuit was filed on Monday in Orange county on behalf of the waterways under a “rights of nature” law passed in November. It is the largest US municipality to adopt such a law to date. Continue reading...
Mass weighing equivalent of 250 cars not expected to be cleared until June, says water companyEngineers are working around the clock to clear a “monster” fatberg 1km long which is clogging a sewer in Birmingham.The blockage is not expected to be removed until June, water services company Severn Trent said in a statement, adding that the fatberg was about four miles east of the city centre, in Hodge Hill. Continue reading...
Wood stoves and open fires a big source of PM2.5, identified by WHO as most serious air pollutant for human healthRestrictions on the sale of coal, wet wood and manufactured solid fuels that can be burned in the home have come into force in England as the government attempts to cut air pollution.Wood-burning stoves and open fires can still be used from 1 May but must be fuelled by cleaner alternatives, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. Continue reading...
National Trust to slow Goldrill Beck in Ullswater Valley, allowing nature to mitigate stormsA river in the Lake District is getting its curves back in order to reduce the risk of flooding, with storm damage and landslides set to become more widespread in the national park by 2060.Homes and businesses in the Ullswater valley have been devastated by floods in recent years. Storm Desmond in 2015 saw houses and hotels submerged, bridges collapsed and key infrastructure undermined. Continue reading...
Commercial beekeepers in the US say counterfeit honey from Asia is forcing down prices and pushing them to financial collapseImports of cheap, fake honey from Asia are pushing American beekeepers to financial collapse, according to a lawsuit.Thousands of commercial beekeepers in the US have taken legal action against the country’s largest honey importers and packers for allegedly flooding the market with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of counterfeit honey. Continue reading...
International team of researchers also found that deforestation rose nearly four-fold in 2019The Brazilian Amazon released nearly 20% more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past decade than it absorbed, according to a startling report that shows humanity can no longer depend on the world’s largest tropical forest to help absorb manmade carbon pollution.From 2010 through 2019, Brazil’s Amazon basin gave off 16.6bn tonnes of CO2, while drawing down only 13.9bn tonnes, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change. Continue reading...
NSW mine’s owner Whitehaven Coal allowed to buy extra properties for offsets in what’s being called a ‘lukewarm’ victoryEnvironmental activists have dropped a legal challenge to Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek coalmine in New South Wales after a new agreement on environmental offsets was approved in what has been described as a “lukewarm victory”.South East Forest Alliance and its legal representative, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), say the decision vindicates community members who accused Whitehaven of not acquiring enough critically endangered land to compensate for destroying habitat. . Continue reading...
State officials will truck the young fish to the ocean, with the waterways they use to travel downstream historically lowCalifornia officials will truck more than 15 million young salmon raised at fish hatcheries in the state’s Central Valley agricultural region to the Pacific Ocean because projected river conditions show that the waterways the fish use to travel downstream will be historically low and warm due to increasing drought.Officials announced the huge trucking operation on Wednesday, saying the effort is aimed at ensuring “the highest level of survival for the young salmon on their hazardous journey to the Pacific Ocean”. Continue reading...
Indigenous leaders are suing the Canadian government for not providing clean water – and ministers admit they have failedCurve Lake First Nation, a forested community in southern Canada, is surrounded on three sides by fresh water.But for decades, residents have been unable to safely make use of it. Wary of crumbling infrastructure and waterborne illness, the community instead relies on shipments of bottled water. The community’s newly elected chief, aged 34, has lived her whole life without the guarantee of clean water flowing from the tap. Continue reading...
Study finds more relatively warm water is reaching Thwaites glacier than was previously understoodAn Antarctic glacier larger than the UK is at risk of breaking up after scientists discovered more warm water flowing underneath it than previously thought.The fate of Thwaites – nicknamed the doomsday glacier – and the massive west Antarctic ice sheet it supports are the biggest unknown factors in future global sea level rise. Continue reading...
The president has touted the benefits of a boom in electric cars – but as states move to phase out new polluting vehicles his administration is pressed to go furtherJoe Biden’s administration, seeking deep cuts to planet-heating emissions, is facing pressure to take a previously unthinkable step: declare the end of the internal combustion engine in the US.Washington state has moved to call time on the age of gasoline and diesel cars, with the legislature passing a goal that new car sales be only zero-emission vehicles from 2030, including out of state purchases that are then imported. The legislation now awaits to signature of Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat who previously ran for president on the climate crisis platform. Continue reading...
There are ambitious new goals in the US and UK. But governments also need to decarbonise the economy and rethink how it’s plannedLast week was a critical time in the global response to the climate emergency: the US vowed to cut its emissions by at least 50% by 2030, while the UK government committed to reducing emissions by 78% by 2035, relative to a 1990 baseline. Both announcements were important steps that reflected the significance of one particular tool in climate governance: the target. From the legally binding targets in the UK’s Climate Change Act (2008) to those of the 2015 Paris agreement, targets define a sense of direction and signpost of ambition. Alone, however, targets are not enough. We need more than just targets to transition to a post-carbon future. We need planning.Despite what free-market economists may suggest, markets are not “free”, nor do they emerge spontaneously. They are created and sustained by governments, laws and political institutions, which plan how they operate and whose interests they serve. What’s more, the global economy, far from being organised by the anarchy of competition, is itself structured by institutions with vast planning power. Targets may dominate the headlines, but it’s these institutions of planning that are central to the climate struggle. Continue reading...
Three claimants in their 20s say their rights to life have been breached because of inadequate roadmap to solve emergencyThe UK is being taken to court by three young people who claim their human rights are being breached by the government’s failure to act decisively on the climate crisis.Adetola Stephanie Onamade, Marina Tricks and Jerry Amokwandoh, all students in their early 20s, will on Saturday ask for a judicial review of government actions to cut national carbon emissions. Continue reading...
A team of scientists discovered tens of thousands of barrels containing what is believed to be chemical wasteThe discovery of tens of thousands of underwater barrels containing what scientists believe to be chemical waste has raised alarm and reopened scrutiny into a history of toxic dumping that persisted off the California coast into the 1970s.A team of scientists announced this week that they had found more than 25,000 containers, many of which they believe to be DDT waste, which has been linked to cancer and disease in humans and mass die-off events in the natural world. The barrels cover a seafloor area double the size of Manhattan off the coast of the Santa Catalina Island, near Los Angeles. Continue reading...
Operator says it may need to spend £350m over two years to repair cable damage caused by seabed rocksThe Danish wind power firm Ørsted has warned that up to 10 of its giant offshore windfarms around the UK and Europe will need urgent repairs because their subsea cables have been eroded by rocks on the seabed.The renewables firm, which is behind plans to build one of the world’s largest offshore windfarms off the coast of Grimsby, told investors it might need to spend up to DKK3bn (£350m) over the next two years to repair the cables. Continue reading...
Photovoltaic ground installation part of move to increase capacity close to where it’s most needed, in citiesBarcelona city council has installed Spain’s first photovoltaic pavement as part of the city’s drive to become carbon neutral by 2050.The 50 sq metres of non-slip solar panels, installed in a small park in the Glòries area of the city, will generate 7,560kW a year, enough to supply three households. Continue reading...
Environmental protesters cleared of aggravated trespass at newspaper printing plant last yearThree more Extinction Rebellion protesters have been acquitted for their part in demonstrations that blockaded newspaper printing plants last year.Katie Ritchie-Moulin, 22, Harrison Radcliffe, 21, and Luca Vitale, 22, were among 81 people arrested outside printers in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, and Knowsley, Merseyside, on 4 September. Continue reading...
Congressional Democrats move to reinstate regulations designed to limit potent greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fieldsCongressional Democrats are moving to reinstate regulations designed to limit potent greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas fields, as part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to tackle climate change.The Senate approved a resolution Wednesday that would undo an environmental rollback by Donald Trump that relaxed requirements of a 2016 Obama administration rule targeting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. Continue reading...
Peter Gleick argues there’s an urgent need to reshape our relationship to water: ‘There is enormous untapped potential for conservation’California is once again in a drought, just four years after the last dry spell decimated ecosystems, fueled megafires and left many rural communities without well water.Droughts are a natural part of the landscape in the American west, and the region has in many ways been shaped by its history of drought. But the climate scientist Peter Gleick argues that the droughts California is facing now are different than the ones that have historically cycled through the Golden State. Continue reading...
Sipekne’katik chief Mike Sack says his First Nation plans to open a lobster fishery in Nova Scotia in defiance of government rulesAfter a violent clash over lobster fishing on Canada’s east coast last year, a First Nations chief says he will request United Nations peacekeepers to keep his people safe on the water this summer – predicting tensions will reach a boiling point.When the Sipekne’katik First Nation sought to harvest lobster outside of the fishing season defined by federal authorities, commercial harvesters launched a series of protests that turned physical when traps were removed, harvesters assaulted and lobster pounds vandalized. Continue reading...
Environment | The Guardian