Washington state agriculture department to eradicate nest of Asian giant hornets, which can ‘slaughter’ a beehive in hoursA third Asian giant hornet nest was discovered in Washington state, a day after entomologists discovered a second.Related: 'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight Continue reading...
Fire in Andalucía region rages for sixth day having already forced evacuation of thousands of peopleAlmost 1,000 firefighters and emergency workers are battling one of the most intractable Spanish wildfires in recent years as the blaze rages for a sixth day, after devouring at least 7,400 hectares (18,285 acres) of land in the southern region of Andalucía and forcing the evacuation of more than 2,600 people.On Sunday, 260 members of Spain’s military emergencies unit were deployed to help tackle the fire, which began last Wednesday in the mountainous Sierra Bermeja above the resort town of Estepona, and which now has a perimeter of 53 miles (85km). Experts hope the rain forecast across much of the country on Monday will help extinguish the blaze. Continue reading...
University of California, Davis study claims to be the first to document personality in golden-mantled ground squirrelsAnimal researchers in California have discovered human-like personality traits in squirrels that anybody watching one raiding nuts from a bird table could probably have guessed: they are bold, aggressive, athletic and sociable.Related: How a Tahoe refuge saved owls, coyotes and raccoons from wildfire Continue reading...
Last year, there were a record 227 killings globally. It is our duty to keep resisting the insatiable forces that led to their deathsEach year, we learn more about the climate crisis. The data flows: ever-rising heat, unprecedented deforestation, record rainfall. And once a year, we also learn more about the human impact of the crisis too, as data is released on the killings of land and environmental activists, the very people highlighting and protesting at the breakdown of our climate. As Global Witness’ annual report reveals, in 2020, that number rose to a record 227 killings worldwide.
Eight months after Francisco Vera was targeted on social media, no arrests have been made. But he continues to campaign for the wildlife he lovesEver since someone threatened to kill her 12-year-old son, Ana Maria Manzanares says life has felt like Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.In January, Francisco Vera was sent anonymous death threats on Twitter after the young environmentalist called for better access to education for children during the Covid-19 pandemic. The news caused outrage in Colombia and made headlines around the world. President Iván Duque pledged to find the “bandits” that sent the message. Eight months later, nobody has been arrested. But the fear and anxiety have not gone away. Continue reading...
Water companies let raw sewage into English waters more than 400,000 times in 2020, Environment Agency data revealsOne of the first complaints lodged with the post-Brexit environmental watchdog accuses the government and Ofwat of failing to enforce the law to stop water companies from routinely discharging raw sewage into rivers.The office for environmental protection (OEP) is being asked to investigate why water companies have been able to continually fail to meet duties placed on them by law to treat sewage. The secretary of state for the environment, George Eustice, and the financial regulator, Ofwat, had failed to enforce the law, the complaint said. Continue reading...
Supermarket says it aims to remove 40m a year from deliveries and in-store collectionsWaitrose is aiming to eliminate 40m single-use plastic bags a year by removing them from deliveries and in-store collections.“Bags for life”, which cost 10p, will also be pulled from all major stores and replaced with a 50p reusable bag that is said to be twice as durable, and is made from recycled materials as well as being fully recyclable. Continue reading...
Wind, solar and tidal projects will compete for contracts, including funding for onshore schemesRenewable energy developers will compete for a share in a £265m subsidy pot as the government aims to support a record number of projects in the sector through a milestone subsidy scheme later this year.Under the scheme, offshore wind developers will compete for contracts worth up to £200m a year, and onshore wind and solar farms will be in line for their first subsidies in more than five years. Continue reading...
Figures from Global Witness for 2020 show violent resource grab continued unabated despite pandemicMurders of environment and land defenders hit a record high last year as the violent resource grab in the global south continued unabated despite the pandemic.New figures released by Global Witness show that 227 people were killed in 2020 while trying to protect forests, rivers and other ecosystems that their livelihoods depended on. Continue reading...
Demand follows confirmation by inquiry that undercover officer was planted in campaign HQ from 1981 to 1984A leading anti-nuclear campaign has called on a public inquiry to conduct a thorough examination of how undercover police officers infiltrated its movement at a time when it powerfully challenged government policies.The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) issued its demand after the inquiry, led by the retired judge Sir John Mitting, confirmed that police planted an undercover officer, John Kerry, in its headquarters between 1981 and 1984. Continue reading...
TUC report says producers that don’t clean up operations will wither and die as rivals blaze trail towards carbon net zeroUp to 660,000 jobs will be at serious risk if the UK continues to fall behind other countries in the amount it invests in green infrastructure and jobs, according to an alarming study published on Saturday.Coming just two months before Boris Johnson’s government hosts the United Nations Climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, the report by the TUC makes clear that the impact on employment in the UK as a result of jobs moving “offshore” to countries in the vanguard of green investment and technology will be particularly acute in the UK’s industrial heartlands in the north-west, Yorkshire and the Humber. Continue reading...
Locals in the host city are being asked to offer a warm welcome to indigenous delegates visiting for Cop26In October, Calfín Lafkenche of the Mapuche people of Patagonia, on the southernmost tip of Chile, will embark on an 8,000-mile journey across the Atlantic. He won’t be the only one taking such a trip; indigenous people from Peru’s highest mountains will walk for eight hours to board day-long flights, while those from the deepest Amazon will travel for two days to board a canoe bound for their nearest town. Their ultimate destination? Glasgow.These are just some of the indigenous communities journeying across the globe to make their voices heard for the first time at Cop26, the UN climate change conference taking place in Glasgow from November. Continue reading...
The Scandinavian country faces a crisis of conscience on the eve of electionsNorway goes to the polls on Monday in parliamentary elections that are forcing western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer to confront its environmental contradictions.Climate issues have dominated the campaigning since August, when the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its starkest warning yet that global heating is dangerously close to spiralling out of control. Continue reading...
The former EPA scientist is among five who have come forward alleging that the agency has become deeply corruptedThe US Environmental Protection Agency is failing to protect children by ignoring poisons in the environment and focusing on corporate interests, according to a top children’s health official who will testify this week that the agency tried to silence her because of her insistence on stronger preventions against lead poisoning.“The people of the United States expect the EPA to protect the health of their children, but the EPA is more concerned with protecting the interests of polluting industries,” said Ruth Etzel, former director of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP). The harm being done to children is “irreparable”, she said. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5PDZ4)
Motion will be seen as rebuke to party leader Nicola Sturgeon, who pledged to establish national firm in 2017Scottish National party members backed a call for a state-run energy company to be set up on the second day of their autumn conference, four years after leader Nicola Sturgeon first pledged one. The move will be seen as a direct rebuke to the leadership’s failure to make good on the promise.On Saturday activists overwhelmingly supported a motion demanding the creation of a Scottish national energy company, which first minister Nicola Sturgeon first promised in October 2017 at a previous conference. Continue reading...
Campaigners say Sadiq Khan’s support for a four-lane road under the river is at odds with his environmental aimsBurrowing deep under the Thames, Silvertown tunnel is scheduled as the first new road link across the capital’s river for 30 years. But, the four-lane highway, due to be completed in 2025, is about to become the focus of environmental protests in the lead-up to the Cop26 global climate summit in Glasgow in November.Preliminary construction work has begun and tunnelling is due to begin next spring, but campaigners insist it is not too late to halt the £1bn-plus engineering project and are planning protests at both ends of the tunnel later this month. Continue reading...
According to reports, plans will be abandoned in light of backlash from southern voters and MPsThe government is reportedly backpedalling on its commitment to overhaul planning laws in order to accelerate infrastructure projects with a target of building 300,000 homes a year in England.Part of the government’s “Project Speed”, the new planning laws were announced in the Queen’s speech with the target of modernising and simplifying the system and increasing the number of homes being planned by more than a third. Continue reading...
World’s largest conservation summit since Covid-19 brought 4,000 people to Marseille to showcase issues and solutions from coral reefs to land protectionAt times in Marseille’s early autumn sun, pre-pandemic life felt tantalisingly close at the world’s largest conservation gathering since Covid began. Scientists presented the latest research on nature – in-person – to colleagues they had not seen for months or even years.Amid the excitement of 4,000 people meeting face to face at the IUCN’s world conservation congress in the French port city, with more participating online, there was broad agreement that conservation is experiencing a moment of opportunity, despite obvious challenges, and that essential work has not stopped under lockdowns. Continue reading...
• Student campaigners: ‘Activism works, plain and simple’• University president cites need to decarbonize economyHarvard will divest itself from holdings in fossil fuels, the university’s president, Lawrence Bacow, announced late on Thursday.Harvard Management Company, which oversees the university’s vast endowment of almost $42bn, has already been reducing its financial exposure to fossil fuels and has no direct investments in companies that explore for or develop further reserves of fossil fuels, Bacow said in a message posted on the university’s website. Continue reading...
Campaigners are dismayed that so much of the clay slurry could have been lost during constructionHS2 has lost vast amounts of a potentially highly polluting substance in an aquifer during the construction of the high-speed rail link, it has emerged.Environmental campaigners have raised concerns about the impact of this on the water supply. Continue reading...
Exclusive: revelations come amid rising concerns over government’s plans to meet net zero targetUK government ministers have held private meetings with fossil fuel and biomass energy producers roughly nine times as often as they met companies involved in clean energy production, despite the increasing urgency of meeting the government’s climate targets.Analysis by DeSmog, the environmental investigation group, of publicly available data shows that ministers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) held 63 private meetings – with one company present, along with ministers and advisers – with fossil fuel and biomass energy producers between 22 July 2019 and 18 March 2021. Continue reading...
Alpine Kea with damaged beak teaches himself to use pebbles for grooming, in a first under scientific observationBruce, a disabled alpine parrot from New Zealand, may just be one of the most unique birds in the world. He comes from good stock – the Kea, the only alpine parrot, is considered to be among the most intelligent birds. When they aren’t dismantling tourists’ cars, stealing passports or occasionally killing sheep, they are known to weigh up probabilities to help them make choices.Related: Hear be kiwis: New Zealand celebrates as distinctive cry of iconic bird returns Continue reading...
Travelers, tour guides and service workers share how years of record-high tourism levels are reshaping popular destinationsOn a two-lane road leading to Acadia national park’s picturesque Bass Harbor head lighthouse, traffic has come to a standstill. A row of cars wait to enter the parking lot, with one local turning around altogether to try again on a less crowded day.Visitors have flooded national parks this summer as Covid-19 regulations eased throughout the US. The National Park Service reported that half of recreation visits are occurring within just 5% of all parks, with significant congestion concentrated in the most popular 12 to 15 high-profile destinations. Continue reading...
Fixating on ‘net zero’ means betting the future of life on Earth that someone will invent some kind of whiz-bang tech to draw down COThe world has by and large adopted “net zero by 2050” as its de facto climate goal, but two fatal flaws hide in plain sight within those 16 characters. One is “net zero.” The other is “by 2050”.These two flaws provide cover for big oil and politicians who wish to preserve the status quo. Together they comprise a deadly prescription for inaction and catastrophically high levels of irreversible climate and ecological breakdown. Continue reading...
Motion at Marseille summit wins global support for warning of permanent biodiversity loss and unknown effect on ecosystemA motion calling for a ban on deep-sea mining has been adopted in Marseille at the world’s biggest biodiversity summit since the pandemic, after an overwhelmingly supportive vote by governments and civil society groups.Related: Deep-sea ‘gold rush’: secretive plans to carve up the seabed decried Continue reading...
Price of durum wheat up by 90% after drought devastates harvest in Canada, one of the biggest producersShoppers can expect to pay more for their pasta in coming months amid shortages of its key ingredient following a disastrous growing season.A scramble for durum wheat has pushed the price up nearly 90% this summer after drought and soaring temperatures hit farms in Canada, one of the biggest producers. Continue reading...
New carbon capture technology should be welcomed. But weaning the world off coal, oil and gas is what matters mostThe switching on of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage plant, in Iceland, is a glimmer of hope in a bleak climate landscape. The amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by this new machine will be tiny: 4,000 tonnes a year, which is equivalent to that produced by 870 cars. Still, the project brings a step closer the possibility that significant amounts of carbon dioxide could, one day, be removed from the atmosphere.The significant risks that such technological developments carry must be addressed head-on. The danger is that they are a displacement activity from the massive and necessary task of reducing and then eliminating emissions (with any residual emissions offset or, if carbon capture technologies are scaled up, removed). This distraction need not be deliberate, although fossil fuel producers have consistently undermined climate action by promoting the idea that technological solutions will eventually make calls to decarbonise obsolete. Continue reading...
Scheme that uses locally harvested woodchip to heat homes of retired sailors yields biodiversity benefitsA low-carbon co-operative that heats the homes of retired sailors has helped one of Britain’s rarest butterflies return to a nearby wood.Springbok Sustainable Wood Heat Co-operative is a unique scheme using woodchip harvested from woodland within yards of 49 households in Surrey to provide heating and hot water. Continue reading...
Dutch farmers could be forced to sell land and reduce the amount of animals they keep to help lower ammonia pollutionDutch politicians are considering plans to force hundreds of farmers to sell up and cut livestock numbers, to reduce damaging ammonia pollution.After the highest Dutch administrative court found in 2019 that the government was breaking EU law by not doing enough to reduce excess nitrogen in vulnerable natural areas, the country has been battling what it is calling a “nitrogen crisis”. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#5PB9X)
Activists say almost 2,000 people on waiting list for place to stay owing to lack of affordable accommodationScotland-based climate campaigners have condemned “the most exclusionary Cop ever”, as they reveal a waiting list of nearly 2,000 delegates and activists who were still seeking affordable accommodation for November’s summit in Glasgow.The Cop26 Homestay Network, which was launched in May, and is described by organisers as a “non-corporate Airbnb”, aims to match local hosts from across the central belt of Scotland with visiting climate change campaigners, scientists and non-governmental organisations. Continue reading...
Widespread use of chemicals that can harm wildlife means French state has failed to protect the country’s flora and fauna, say NGOSThe French government is being threatened with court action by two NGOs who accuse it of failing to meet its obligations to protect nature.Notre Affaire à Tous and Pollinis have issued an ultimatum to the French state for failing to tackle the biodiversity crisis by implementing adequate laws and regulations. The announcement was made at the IUCN world conservation congress in the French port of Marseille and will be followed by a civil disobedience rally. Continue reading...
Offshore energy boom in China will grow world’s windfarm capacity by more than 12GW in 2021Windfarm installations are expected to double to record global levels this year, after a short-lived Covid-19 slowdown, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).The group’s annual report found that the world’s offshore windfarm capacity grew by 6.1GW last year, down slightly from a record 6.24GW in 2019, but would rebound to more than 12GW in 2021 powered by an offshore wind boom in China. Continue reading...
Operators say the Orca plant can suck 4,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the air every year and inject it deep into the ground to be mineralisedThe world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock has started running, the companies behind the project said on Wednesday.The plant, named Orca after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes that look like shipping containers. Continue reading...
Defence ties will also be on the agenda when Marise Payne and Peter Dutton meet with their American counterpartsThe Morrison government is expected to come under further pressure over climate policy when the foreign minister and the defence minister meet face-to-face with their US counterparts in Washington next week.Marise Payne and Peter Dutton flew out of Australia on Wednesday evening bound for Indonesia, the first stop in a two-week trip that will also include meetings with counterparts in India and South Korea. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey in London and Daniel Hurst in Canberr on (#5P9ZA)
UK-Australia deal also criticised for allowing import of beef produced to lower standardsGreen campaigners have criticised the UK government for apparently removing references to the temperature goals of the Paris climate agreement from a prospective trade deal with Australia.According to Sky News in the UK, the trade deal – which was agreed in principle in June – was set to contain references to the Paris goals of limiting global heating to 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration to a lower limit of 1.5C. Continue reading...
by Jen Osborne in Fairy Creek and Leyland Cecco in To on (#5P9YC)
At least 866 arrested since April, as police condemned for violence against protesters defending Vancouver Island’s ancient forestsA string of protests against old-growth logging in western Canada have become the biggest act of civil disobedience in the country’s history, with the arrest of least 866 people since April.The bitter fight over the future of Vancouver Island’s diminishing ancient forests – in which activists used guerrilla methods of resistance such as locking their bodies to the logging road and police responded by beating, dragging and pepper-spraying demonstrators – has surpassed the previous record of arrests set in the 1990s at the anti-logging protests dubbed the “War in the Woods”. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5P9YD)
Analysis shows future is bleak for fossil fuel industry with trillions of dollars of assets at stakeThe vast majority of fossil fuel reserves owned today by countries and companies must remain in the ground if the climate crisis is to be ended, an analysis has found.The research found 90% of coal and 60% of oil and gas reserves could not be extracted if there was to be even a 50% chance of keeping global heating below 1.5C, the temperature beyond which the worst climate impacts hit. Continue reading...
Defra denies claim and says culled animal has ‘TB-like lesions’ and awaits further investigationsA fresh row has broken out between the owner of Geronimo the alpaca and the government over the results of an initial postmortem examination of the culled animal.Lawyers acting for Helen Macdonald have said the preliminary gross postmortem findings, reviewed by veterinary surgeons, are negative for visible lesions typical of bovine tuberculosis (TB). Continue reading...
by Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent on (#5P9P2)
PfP and MoneyPlus cease trading as power prices reach record highs, leaving 100,000 customers without a supplierThe record energy market surge has claimed its first casualties after two UK suppliers collapsed, leaving almost 100,000 customers without an energy supplier.Related: Gone with the wind: why UK firms could miss out on the offshore boom Continue reading...
‘New alliance with equal rights’ needed, say indigenous delegates at IUCN biodiversity conferenceIndigenous voices on the environment are finally being heard as Marseille hosts a global biodiversity summit, with a call to protect 80% of the Amazon, as well as a “counter conference” highlighting the conservation movement’s historic violation of people’s rights.For the first time in its seven-decade history, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is including indigenous peoples as full voting members in their own right, rather than under the NGO category. Dozens of indigenous meetings are happening at the summit – which occurs every four years – with representatives from 23 organisations. Continue reading...
Spending watchdog says home insulation drive was fatally rushed and missed chance to cut heating bills and create jobsA “botched” scheme to insulate England’s draughty homes collapsed after six months because officials rushed its design, put in place an undeliverable timetable, and failed to heed industry warnings, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.The National Audit Office (NAO) blamed the government for scuppering the opportunity to help households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, reduce carbon emissions, and create tens of thousands of jobs by rushing the flagship scheme. Continue reading...
These sleek and slender birds have lost their bright spring plumage and will soon leave for sunnier climesIn spring, yellow wagtails (Motacilla flava) are so bright they look like flying lemons – or, as a birding buddy of mine memorably described them, “like an effing canary”.But now, at the start of autumn, the juvenile bird I’m watching is far less conspicuous. Olive-brown above, buffish-yellow below, he almost blends in with the muddy earth, churned up by the cattle among which it feeds. Continue reading...
Subsidiary of Empire Energy, which has close ties to the Liberal party, would be given $21m under drilling programThe federal minister for resources and water, Keith Pitt, will press ahead on plans to open up the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory to fracking by giving taxpayer money to oil and gas companies despite a legal challenge to the government’s program.Under the proposed Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program, Imperial Oil and Gas – a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Energy that has close ties to the Liberal party – would be given $21m. Continue reading...