Become a guest editor of the Guardian US during climate week 2020This September, the Guardian is teaming up with Covering Climate Now and some of the world’s leading news organizations to highlight the issue of climate change in the 2020 elections with a first-time voter takeover. The aim is to amplify the voices of a generation of Americans whose lives will be profoundly shaped by the climate crisis – and highlight what’s at stake in the election for young voters. Continue reading...
Poor quality data means the problem isn’t taken seriously enough warn its authorsMillions of wild animals are trafficked within and out of Brazil every year, a new report has found, with its authors warning that a lack of good quality data means the country’s illegal wildlife trade is not taken seriously enough, with grave consequences for biodiversity.“The information is very dispersed,” said the lead author, Sandra Charity, a biodiversity consultant who wrote the 140-page study with Juliana Ferreira from Freeland Brasil, a non-profit group combating the trade. Produced by wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, it called for a national strategy to combat the lucrative business. Continue reading...
Operator says UK can tap carbon capture and renewables to help meet UK’s targetsCarbon emissions from Britain’s electricity system could turn negative by as early as 2033 if the UK uses carbon capture technology alongside more renewable energy to reach its climate targets, according to a report from National Grid.The electricity network operator on Monday set out its vision for an “emissions negative” grid that would include 30m electric vehicles on UK roads, and 8m heat pumps used to replace gas boilers in energy-efficient homes. Continue reading...
System of overhead cables and adapted lorries could pay for itself within 15 yearsThe UK could eliminate the majority of the carbon dioxide emissions from road freight by installing overhead charging cables for electric lorries on “e-highways” across the country, a report by government-funded academics suggests.The plan for a so-called electric road system would cost £19.3bn and put all but the most remote parts of the UK within reach of the trucks by the late 2030s, with the potential for the investment to pay for itself within 15 years, according to the report by the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. The centre is backed by government research grants and industry partners including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and John Lewis. Continue reading...
New sprawling development near Phnom Penh could prompt environmental catastrophe, including for the capital’s water systemsThe destruction of critically-important wetlands by politically-connected developers in Cambodia threatens to flood more than one million Phnom Penh residents, ruin the city’s wastewater system, force hundreds of families from their homes, and trigger environmental devastation, a new report has warned.The sprawling Tompoun/Cheung Ek wetlands, just south of Phnom Penh, play a vital role in sustaining the Cambodian capital, acting as a natural store of 70% of its rain and wastewater and providing livelihoods for the more than 1,000 families who live, farm and fish in the area. Continue reading...
Mark Butler asks auditor general for investigation into how company invited to apply for grant two days after securing itLabor has requested an auditor general investigation into how Shine Energy secured $4m for a feasibility study into a coal-fired power station at Collinsville in north Queensland with an application two days after the grant was publicly announced.Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, has written to the auditor general requesting an inquiry into the supporting reliable energy infrastructure program, which Guardian Australia revealed resulted in “specific guidelines” drawn up for a one-off grant to the company. Continue reading...
by Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent on (#56611)
Widespread illegal dumping during lockdown prompts outrage among communitiesThe pile of abandoned tyres looms higher than a house and blocks the full width of the road in an industrial estate in Drumchapel, west of Glasgow city centre. Spiked with other incongruous debris, including children’s toys and a Zimmer frame, this week the city council began the task of proper disposal, an operation expected to cost thousands of pounds.“I’ve never seen outrage like it,” said local Scottish Labour councillor Paul Carey, in regards to the community response to this “industrial scale” fly-tipping. “Locals are really concerned about the environmental impact as well as the immediate hazard. It’s in the middle of a residential area and if it went on fire you’d have toxic fumes right across their homes,” he said. Continue reading...
Enormous overhaul will have to defeat opposition from fossil-fuel lobbyists and residents unhappy with nearby turbinesJoe Biden’s $2tn plan to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from the US electricity grid within 15 years has been applauded by climate campaigners, but the enormous overhaul will have to pick its way through a minefield of community as well as lobbyist opposition.Related: New Yorkers vote in special contest to reimagine famous Brooklyn Bridge Continue reading...
Trademarks registered double in a year as supermarkets and restaurants eye fast-growing sectorThe number of trademarks registered for new vegan food and drink products in the UK more than doubled to a record high last year.Latest figures reveal that companies successfully applied for 107 trademarks in 2019 for everything from ice cream to meat-free burgers – a 128% increase on the 47 recorded in 2018 – as consumer demand for vegan alternatives continued to soar. Continue reading...
State Liberal Matt Kean calls on his federal counterpart to drop opposition to an independent environment protection authorityThe New South Wales environment minister has called on the Morrison government not to “smash through” changes to national conservation laws and to drop its opposition to an independent environment protection authority.In a significant intervention from a Liberal government minister, Matt Kean questioned his federal counterpart’s rush to introduce draft laws to change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act while a major review was still under way, saying it was more important to get the detail right. Continue reading...
Chief executive Ashley Dodd’s dream ‘is to become a big player in the power industry’. But Queensland politicians question whether more coal-fired power is neededAshley Dodd had big plans for his startup solar company, Shine Energy.“The dream is to become a big player in the power industry,” Dodd told the Koori Mail in 2017. Continue reading...
Shadow energy minister says state has ‘plenty of power’ and party is not proposing any government investment in new coal-fired powerThe proposed Collinsville coal-fired power station is being backed by “big mining companies” and the Queensland Liberal National Party won’t fund the project, the party’s energy spokesman has said.Michael Hart told a renewable energy forum in Brisbane on Thursday, organised by Solar Citizens and conservation groups, the LNP would not support any government investment in the controversial proposed power project. Continue reading...
Despite flood planning efforts hundreds have been killed and millions hit as third of land is submerged by non-stop rainBangladesh could be plunged into a humanitarian crisis as it undergoes the most prolonged monsoon flooding in decades while it is still recovering from the effects of super-cyclone Amphan.Despite the UN has lauding its new initiatives for early intervention aimed at preparing communities for crisis, 550 people have been killed and 9.6 million affected by the disaster in Bangladesh, Nepal and north-eastern India, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Continue reading...
Treasury and business committees to question whether policies will help or hinder sustainable recoveryMPs plan to scrutinise the government’s green economic plans and industrial strategy to test whether they are still fit for purpose in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.The government will face two separate inquiries into its plans, by the Treasury and business department parliamentary select committees, to question whether its existing policies will help or hinder sustainable post-pandemic economic growth. Continue reading...
Muir, who helped spawn the environmental movement, made derogatory comments about Black and Indigenous peopleThe Sierra Club has apologized for racist remarks its founder, naturalist John Muir, made more than a century ago as the influential environmental group grapples with a harmful history that perpetuated white supremacy.Michael Brune, the group’s executive director, said Wednesday it was “time to take down some of our own monuments” as statues of Confederate officers and colonists are toppled across the US amid a reckoning with the nation’s racist history following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#562XK)
Current and planned waste-cutting efforts will reduce volume only by about 7%, say researchersPlastic waste flowing into the oceans is expected to nearly triple in volume in the next 20 years, while efforts to stem the tide have so far made barely a dent in the tsunami of waste, research shows.Governments could make drastic cuts to the flow of plastic reaching the oceans through measures such as restricting the sale and use of plastic materials, and mandating alternatives, but even if all the most likely measures are taken it would only cut the waste to little less than half of today’s levels, the analysis found. Continue reading...
Meeting to consider federal bid to quickly overhaul conservation act and plans to contain localised coronavirus outbreaksLeaders will discuss a proposed overhaul of environmental approvals, and consider the latest on the Victorian outbreak of Covid-19 infections, when Scott Morrison meets premiers and chief ministers for Friday’s fortnightly national cabinet.The discussion about environmental regulation, characterised by federal officials as a status update, follows the release this week of a long-anticipated interim review of the national environmental framework that found Australia’s environment was in an unsustainable state of decline and laws set up to protect unique species and habitats were ineffective. Continue reading...
The fishery is buffeted by the climate crisis and other problems but the coronavirus pandemic has opened a new front“If I’m not fishing, I’m working on gear or my boat. Or meetings involving fishing. It’s what I eat, sleep and breathe,” lobsterwoman Julie Eaton tells me.Eaton lives on Deer Isle, and fishes Penobscot Bay – a deep blue inlet of the Gulf of Maine, dotted by working waterfronts, rocky islands, wooden schooners and lobster buoys. I ask her what it’s like to start lobster season. Continue reading...
Great American Outdoors Act allocates $9.5bn over the next five years for previously neglected park maintenanceThe US Congress has approved a sweeping, long-awaited bill to continuously fund national, state and local parks – a major boon to conservation and one of the few pieces of significant legislation the government has been able to agree on in a divisive election year.The Great American Outdoors Act, passed on Wednesday afternoon, allocates $9.5bn over the next five years for previously neglected park repairs. And it sets up $900m a year to acquire land for conservation and continue maintenance. Continue reading...
Worldwide study finds Australia among nations with highest shark numbers, but 34 out of 58 nations have half what was expectedDestructive and unsustainable fishing has caused a crash in shark numbers across many of the world’s coral reefs, upsetting the ecological balance of the critical marine ecosystems, a major study has found.A network of remote underwater cameras across 58 countries found sharks were “functionally extinct” at almost one in five of the 371 reefs studied over four years. Continue reading...
Scientific breakthrough could lead to phasing out of badger culling to tackle diseaseField trials of a cattle vaccine for bovine tuberculosis have been given the go-ahead as part of moves to phase out badger culling to tackle the disease.The trials are due to get under way in England and Wales to accelerate deployment of a cattle vaccine for TB by 2025, the government announced on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Decades of research has made it clear that current setback distances – in states where they exist – are inadequate to protect public healthAshley Hernandez was in middle school when her family moved into its first house, in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. For years, her undocumented parents had moved around in search of steady work, gone without meals, rented out too-small apartments. Finally they had a place of their own, with three bedrooms and even a yard.“My parents were really excited about that American dream that we’d always talked about,” Hernandez said. Continue reading...
No one had tested positive via nasal swabs, but researchers’ investigation tells a different storyYosemite national park officials suspect that hundreds of visitors this summer may have had Covid-19 thanks to an unorthodox approach – testing sewage.The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that the county health department has been collecting untreated wastewater flowing from the idyllic Yosemite Valley for testing. Prior to this effort, according to the Chronicle, no one had tested positive for the virus through nasal swab testing at the park’s health clinic. Continue reading...
Microfibres from fishing lines and nets and materials from textiles discovered in 67% of seabed-dwelling sharksMicroplastics and synthetic microfibres from clothing have been found for the first time in the guts of sharks that live off the UK coast.Scientists examined the stomachs and intestines of 46 seabed-dwelling sharks that had been caught as bycatch by Penzance-based hake fishing trawlers. Continue reading...
Scientists are putting dwarf chameleons through their paces in a series of speed and endurance challenges to study how the species is adaptingThe tension is palpable. The first athlete is placed on the starting line and the official timer, Dr Anthony Herrel, resets the stopwatch on his smartphone. Once given the go-ahead, Dr Krystal Tolley tickles the yellowy-green chameleon’s tail and the two-inch reptile springs into action. About 10 seconds later, after reaching the end of the 1-metre dowel in a season’s best time, it returns to the resting area and the next competitor is given a chance to strut its stuff.In the coming days, 120 Knysna dwarf chameleons (Bradypodion damaranum) – male and female, from forest habitats, gardens and parks – will be put through their paces in a series of speed and endurance challenges that the scientists refer to as the Chameleon Olympics. They will run on horizontal and vertical dowels of varying diameter; have the strength of their bite and gripping forces measured in newtons, and be tested on their ability to thermoregulate along a course that has a temperature gradient. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#560HP)
Industry group says Britain’s climate goals may be doomed without heating overhaulThe installation of new gas boilers must be banned from 2025 or the UK’s net-zero climate target will be “doomed”, according to a high-level commission convened by the CBI.The ban would apply to conventional gas boilers, but hybrid or hydrogen-ready boilers would be allowed under the business organisation’s recommendations, which were developed in collaboration with energy industry leaders. Continue reading...
Traditional owners were suing environment minister in the federal court over areas of significant Aboriginal culture heritage in the Liverpool PlainsThe Gomeroi people have lost their legal bid to protect significant areas of Aboriginal cultural heritage within the footprint of the Shenhua Watermark open-cut coalmine on the Liverpool Plains in north-west New South Wales, but said they will fight on a new front.Gomeroi custodian Dolly Talbott was suing the environment minister, Sussan Ley, in the federal court, alleging Ley made an error of law in deciding not to make a declaration to protect the Aboriginal heritage. Continue reading...
Authorities have warned of poor air quality in central and northern parts of the state due to Gold, Hog and Mineral firesWildfires burning in rural north-eastern California have prompted evacuations and injured two firefighters, fire officials in the state said.Two firefighters were injured Monday while battling the Gold fire, which erupted on Monday in Lassen county and has burned several hundred acres. Continue reading...
The Morrison government promises draft laws to change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act next monthConservationists have criticised a Morrison government plan to rush through legislation implementing new environmental approval rules, warning they will be too vague and will not improve wildlife protection.The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has promised draft laws to change the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act will be introduced to parliament next month, before a review of the legislation has been concluded. Continue reading...
An analysis of 93m US homes found that the most energy intensive dwellings are found in Maine, Vermont and WisconsinThe homes of wealthy Americans are major engines of the climate crisis, research has found, with the United States’ most affluent suburbs generating as much as 15 times the greenhouse gas emissions as nearby, poorer districts.An analysis of 93m homes in the contiguous US found that the most energy intensive dwellings, per square foot, are found in Maine, Vermont and Wisconsin, while the least energy intensive are located in Florida, Arizona and California. Continue reading...
Critics say environmental protection system falls ‘shockingly short’The vast majority of complaints to a hotline designed for the public to report offences such as fly-tipping and pollution did not result in any sanction, it has been revealed.Data from a freedom of information request submitted by the Liberal Democrats shows just 3.6% of complaints about pollution, fly-tipping, oil spills, fish kills and other environmental damage last year resulted in penalties for those responsible. Continue reading...
Influential climate campaigner says Gulbenkian rights award gave her ‘more money than I can begin to imagine’Greta Thunberg has been awarded a Portuguese rights award and promptly pledged the €1m ($1.15m) prize to groups working to protect the environment and halt climate change.“That is more money than I can begin to imagine, but all the prize money will be donated, through my foundation, to different organisations and projects who are working to help people on the front line, affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis,” the Swedish teenager said in a video posted online on Monday. Continue reading...
Jobs could be created in three years with a focus on 12 areas including large-scale renewable energy and electric vehicle networksNearly 80,000 jobs could be quickly created through a stimulus plan that aims to rebuild the Australian economy from recession while tackling the climate crisis, an analysis commissioned by the Climate Council says.The report by the consultants AlphaBeta says 76,000 positions could be created over three years through nearly $22bn of combined public and private investment. It focuses on 12 areas including creating large-scale renewable energy projects, restoring degraded ecosystems, better dealing with organic waste, retrofitting inefficient public buildings and expanding electric vehicle networks. Continue reading...
Government accused of hypocrisy for backing scheme while claiming to be leading on climateThe UK government could face a legal battle after offering more than $1bn in financial support to help build a gas project in Mozambique despite its commitment to tackling the climate crisis.Under the deal, UK taxpayer funds will be used to help develop and export Mozambique’s gas reserves, in one of the largest single financing packages ever offered by a UK credit agency to a foreign fossil fuel project. Continue reading...
Divers and biologists trying to free whale caught in illegal netting near island of SalinaThe Italian coastguard is struggling to free a sperm whale caught up in illegal fishing netting off the coast of one of Sicily’s Aeolian islands.A team of divers and biologists have been working for more than 48 hours to help the whale close to the island of Salina. The whale’s huge size and agitated state has made the operation more challenging. Continue reading...
Biden rode a wave of establishment endorsements to the nomination this spring. But it’s progressive ideas that might carry him to the presidencyOn Tuesday, Joe Biden did something unprecedented for a Democratic candidate assured of nomination: he moved left. In a speech delivered from Wilmington in his home state of Delaware, Biden unveiled the most ambitious clean energy and environmental justice plans ever proposed by the nominee of a major American political party. The plans, which the Biden campaign described to reporters as “the legislation he goes up to [Capitol Hill] immediately to get done,” outline $2tn in investments in clean energy, jobs and infrastructure that would be carried out over the four years of his first term.Forty percent of these investments would be directed to communities of color living on the toxic edge of the fossil fuel economy – communities that have also been among the most devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Biden proposes to pair these investments with new performance standards, most notably a clean electricity standard that would transition the United States to a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. Continue reading...
Review of EPBC Act finds protection laws are ineffective and recommends sweeping changes, including developing legally enforceable national environmental standardsAustralia’s environment is in an unsustainable state of decline and laws set up to protect unique species and habitats are ineffective, a major review of the national environmental framework has found.The interim report from the review of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act recommends sweeping changes, including the establishment of a set of legally enforceable national environmental standards that set clear rules for environmental protection while allowing for sustainable development. Continue reading...
Three decades after 13 were flown in by jet from Spain, there are nearly 2,000 breeding pairs of red kites across the countryIn July 1990, 13 red kites had to be flown by British Airways jet from Spain before they could grace the skies of the Chilterns.Thirty years on, nearly 2,000 breeding pairs of red kites display their distinctive forked tails as they soar over virtually every English county, in what has been hailed as one of the most successful reintroduction projects in the world. Continue reading...
Nigel Lawson’s thinktank is pushing dirty energy on the continent with the greatest capacity for creating clean fuelThe power of climate science denial in the UK, thankfully, has been in retreat over the past decade. Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) may still boast a prime Westminster address, but its influence has waned. In fact, its decline aptly mirrors the fortunes of the coal industry, including US titans such as Peabody Energy, which saw its share price plunge 99% between 2008 and 2016 before filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.With countries rightly phasing coal out of their energy mix, the GWPF has turned its sights on Africa to peddle its misinformation about the merits of burning fossil fuels. It has published a new report, derisively titled Heart of Darkness: Why Electricity for Africa is a Security Issue, and launched a glossy website for “energy justice”, which uses the language of climate justice campaigners to try to undermine renewable energy. Continue reading...
Ou Hongyi, who took part in the #FridaysforFuture protest, says she has been told she cannot return to school unless she stops her activismTakes initiative. An independent thinker. Engages in study outside of the curriculum. Cares deeply about her community and the world around her. Stands up for her convictions and beliefs.These are all qualities that would appear to make Ou Hongyi a suitable candidate for studying at her dream institution of Harvard University. Continue reading...
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