The announcement that new megacity Xiongan will be built near Beijing is the latest attempt to take pressure off China’s biggest metropolises. Can it work?Wu Shuhua sells flowers from the back of her bicycle in the pleasant, tree-lined streets of Shanghai’s Xuhui district. Originally from a village in neighbouring Jiangsu province, Wu came to the wealthy eastern city for its abundant economic opportunities.But it isn’t easy to make it big in Shanghai without education or connections. There are many flower sellers in the city – two other regulars work the same street – and most days Wu positions her bike on a strategic corner and waits patiently for customers. Continue reading...
Rothiemurchus, Strathspey Rustlings and flittings amid the calls hint at the rich biodiversity of the moor and pine forestTo me, at least, the Highlands dishes up its treats in small portions. On the first morning I stepped out of the lodge and heard the clucking undulations of a springtime black grouse somewhere to the south-east. I followed the noise but didn’t see him.Instead the sparse pine forest offered up a bright pair of crossbills. Their “fools’ colours†– him in red, her in green – were crisp in the early light. Continue reading...
Chairman Peter Coates says company’s plan is ‘consistent with good value’, but experts call it ‘a breathtaking failure to come to grips with a world in transition’The oil and gas company Santos has admitted its business plans are based on a climate change scenario of a 4C rise n global temperatures, at odds with internationally agreed efforts.Its chairman, Peter Coates, made the comments at an AGM in Adelaide on Thursday, telling shareholders it was “sensible†and “consistent with good valueâ€. Continue reading...
As CO2 levels rise, controversial techniques including carbon capture and storage, enhanced weathering and reforestation may be solutionsIn the 2015 Paris climate agreement, 195 nations committed to limit global warming to two degrees above pre-industrial levels. But some, like Eelco Rohling, professor of ocean and climate change at the Australian National University’s research school of earth sciences, now argue that this target cannot be achieved unless ways to remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are found, and emissions are slashed.
Class action on behalf of asthma suffers may still go ahead over repeated failure to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxideLawyers are taking a class action against the government over its repeated failures to clean up illegal levels of air pollution, the Guardian can reveal, as ministers publish a long-awaited plan to reduce diesel emissions.The unprecedented legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers paying out significant compensation for allowing the nation’s air to exceed legal limits for so long. Continue reading...
Challenged by climate change, our most secretive butterfly could soon be getting a helping hand if a new campaign takes offRecent very butterfly-unfriendly icy winds remind me of an insect that endures horrendous weather every summer. The mountain ringlet is our only montane butterfly, meaning that you have to climb a mountain – or at least 400 metres up a Lake District fell – to see it.Some mountain ringlet caterpillars may live for two years so slowly do they grow, chewing grass in the most capricious British conditions, while the butterfly itself only survives for a few days in June and July. Continue reading...
Survey shows 41% of people support bank’s decision to rule out funding Adani’s Queensland mine, with only 14% against, as the resources minister vows to switch banks
Arrival of a female wolf, that trekked 500km from Germany, means the pack could have cubs by springA wolf pack is roaming wild in Denmark for the first time in more than 200 years after a young female wolf journeyed 500km from Germany.Male wolves have been seen in Denmark since 2012 and the new female could produce cubs this spring in farmland in west Jutland after two wolves were filmed together last autumn. Continue reading...
Ecologist and conservationist who helped save the threatened grey partridgeDick Potts, who has died aged 77, did more to bridge the gap between conservationists, farmers and the game shooting fraternity than any other figure. He combined his training as a scientist, his background as a farmer’s son and his passion for birds to help save the threatened grey partridge.From small beginnings in a Portakabin on a farm in West Sussex in 1968, Dick developed a long-term study into the ecology of the partridge, one of Britain’s most distinctive farmland birds. Even then, numbers of this attractive gamebird were beginning to fall and Dick was charged with finding out why. Continue reading...
Dozens of flights are reported cancelled and residents urged to stay indoors to avoid breathing in dangerous particlesA putrid, nicotine-shaded mist loomed over Beijing on Thursday after a massive sandstorm slammed into the Chinese capital bringing the latest “airpocalypse†to this smog-choked city.Dozens of flights were reportedly cancelled at Beijing’s airport, the world’s second busiest, and authorities urged residents to stay indoors after levels of PM10, a tiny inhalable particle linked to a variety of lung complaints, soared to above 2,000 micrograms per cubic metre. Continue reading...
Sunderland plant to produce new and recycled batteries from electric cars to serve as home energy storage unitsBatteries that have powered electric cars around the UK will get a second life providing energy storage for households, with the launch this week of a British-made home battery to rival the one made by Elon Musk’s Tesla.The cells will be made by the Japanese car-maker Nissan in Sunderland, where its popular Leaf electric car is built, and sold in partnership with the US power firm Eaton. Buyers will be able to choose cheaper, used batteries that are no longer fit for electric car use, or pricier new ones. Continue reading...
Thin film technology is touted as a gamechanger for the solar panel market, but it’s not without drawbacksSpray on, printable and other new thin film technology looks set to provide a major boost to the global solar market.Currently being developed by researchers and a small number of companies, the new film materials offer the potential of lighter and cheaper manufacturing. Continue reading...
After Trump’s revival of the Keystone XL pipeline project, some communities along its route are getting ready to fight back. Others see the US president keeping his promise to ‘make America great again’. The Guardian drove along the proposed route of the pipeline, through three red states – Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska – to hear what those who will be affected have to say about it
The Jali Ardhi, or ‘care for the land’ project, studies the impact of soil erosion on Maasai communities and their grazing lands. Photojournalist Carey Marks captures the changing landscape, its people – and the challenges they face
Wolsingham, Weardale We were about to give up when we spotted the first morel, its convoluted, toffee-coloured, cap not much larger than a golf ballEvery winter this gently sloping bank on the outside of a bend in the Wear is swept clean by flood water. When spring arrives buried plant life reasserts itself through layers of sandy silt deposited when the river has swirled through the alders.First the snowdrops spear through the surface. Last time we passed this way yellow star of Bethlehem flowers had appeared among emerging wild garlic leaves. On this day, less than a month later, the vegetation was a waist-high mosaic of butterbur, sweet cicely, ground elder and cranesbill leaves. Continue reading...
Facts, truth and opinion, always at the heart of journalism, are now the cause of an existential crisis over why it existsRight after the election of Donald Trump, a man widely considered a fake and a fool by many of its writers, the New York Times issued an extraordinary statement promising to “strive always to understand and reflect all political perspectivesâ€.In April, amid criticism that the Times, along with others in the mainstream media, had ignored the concerns of the American masses, the paper appointed a conservative columnist known for controversial views on climate change, race and gender. Welcoming Bret Stephens, the opinion page editor said that Times’ subscribers “want their views to be challenged.†Continue reading...
A growing number of restaurants and pubs are listening to environmental campaigners and taking a stand against plastic strawsWhen the boss of UK pub chain Oakman Inns, Peter Borg-Neal, was shown a YouTube video (warning: graphic content) of a turtle in obvious pain as a plastic straw is removed from its nostril, he reflected on his company’s own straw consumption: 100,000 per month.At least that was the figure until last week, when the company announced it was restricting the use of plastic straws across its 17 pubs and called on other businesses in the hospitality sector to follow suit. Customers at Oakman Inns will no longer receive a straw automatically, but a supply will be available for those that specifically ask for one. Continue reading...
After Trump’s revival of the Keystone XL pipeline project, some communities along its route are getting ready to fight back. Others see the US president keeping his promise to ‘make America great again’. The Guardian drove along the proposed route of the pipeline, through three red states – Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska – to hear what those who will be affected have to say about it
Queensland environment department says it is considering action against mining giant with fines of up to $3.8m possibleAdani faces a possible multimillion-dollar fine for environmental breaches over floodwaters released from its Queensland coal port after Cyclone Debbie.The Queensland environment department said it would consider “compliance action†against Adani over discharges of water containing more than eight times the level of sediment allowed from Abbot Point terminal. Continue reading...
Environmental consultant says light-touch approach is leading to record levels of waste crime, costing £600m a yearRegulatory failings are contributing to fly-tipping and waste crime costing more than £604m a year, according to an investigator who was able to license a dog as a rubbish collector.A report by an environmental consultancy, Eunomia, says “systematic failure†to regulate the more than 180,000 waste carriers, brokers and dealers is leading to record levels of crime. Continue reading...
Arrival of hundreds of poor tribesmen seeking grazing lands for their cattle has triggered outbreak of violence in LaikipiaEarly one morning last week, Richard Constant drove across the 24,000-acre ranch that he part-owns on a high plateau in central Kenya to discover what remained of his home.In March, Constant’s friend and business associate Tristan Voorspuy, a British army officer turned safari operator, had been shot dead on his horse while inspecting the damage caused by armed herders who had driven tens of thousands of cattle on to the ranch. Continue reading...
Wenlock Edge We have lost so many old orchards here that this young tree will hopefully encourage future plantingTo misquote the old Andrews Sisters song about a May Day wedding: “I’ll bewitch you, in apple blossom time.†Apple blossom has powerful emotional, cultural and ecological significances, each of which is inseparable in these woozily psychedelic days of spring.
Matt Canavan accuses bank of conflict of interest over policy to limit lending for coal projects to ‘existing coal-producing basins’Matt Canavan has redoubled his attack on Westpac – accusing the bank of a conflict of interest over financial links to the Newcastle port – as a direct competitor to future coalmines in the Galilee basin.“This stinks to high heaven,†the resources minister told the ABC in response to the bank’s new policy to limit lending for new thermal coal projects to “existing coal-producing basinsâ€. Continue reading...
Around 20 eastern black rhinos are being moved to Akagera national park from South AfricaAround 20 endangered eastern black rhinos are returning in an “extraordinary homecoming†to Rwanda after the species disappeared from the country 10 years ago, the African Parks organisation has said.
by Damian Carrington, environment editor on (#2N3Q3)
Adult whale Lulu was one of UK’s last resident pod and had never produced a calf, probably because pollutants in her blubber had caused infertilityOne of the highest concentrations of toxic pollutants ever recorded in a marine mammal has been revealed in a Scottish killer whale that died in 2016.The adult whale, known as Lulu, was a member of the UK’s last resident pod and a postmortem also showed she had never produced a calf. The pollutants, called PCBs, are known to cause infertility and these latest findings add to strong evidence that the pod is doomed to extinction. Continue reading...
Leaving Euratom treaty without new deals would have dramatic impact on Hinkley Point C and other stations, says NIAThe UK nuclear industry has issued its strongest warning yet to ministers on the problems it faces if the government is unable to strike new international atomic power deals during Brexit talks.Failure to put in place alternative arrangements to replace the existing European nuclear treaty, Euratom, which the UK is quitting as part of the article 50 process, would have a “dramatic impact†on Hinkley Point C and other new power stations around the country, the industry said. Continue reading...
May brings the joys of spring for the northern hemisphere while winter is a step closer for the southern hemisphere. We’d like to see your wildlife photos
Business committee says leaving EU means exiting European atomic power treaty, which could ‘threaten power supplies’The future of Britain’s power supply has been jeopardised by Brexit and the government must act urgently to ensure nuclear power stations stay open, MPs have warned.The influential Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee said that any gap between the UK leaving a European atomic power treaty and entering into secure alternative deals would “severely inhibit nuclear trade and research and threaten power suppliesâ€. Continue reading...
by Rowena Mason Deputy political editor on (#2N2FR)
No 10 strategy to cut premature deaths could include scrappage scheme for highly polluting diesel vehicles and clean air zonesA draft plan to tackle air pollution will finally be published within the next week, after No 10 said it would not challenge a court ruling forcing the government to release information before the election.Theresa May’s official spokesman said the government would not appeal against the high court judgment, which rejected attempts by ministers to keep the policy under wraps until after the poll. This means the government will have to publish its draft air-quality plan before 9 May, but No 10 said it wanted to wait until after the purdah period for the local elections was over on Thursday. Continue reading...
A terrible new white paper tries to make the case that carbon pollution isn’t dangerousAlthough Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has been among the biggest proponents of withdrawing America from the Paris climate agreement (using bogus ‘blame China’ arguments to make his case), climate deniers have been unhappy with him. That’s because Pruitt doesn’t want to challenge EPA’s carbon pollution endangerment finding – he thinks it would be a lost cause. A group of contrarian scientists released a white paper trying to pressure him to attack the finding anyway. Continue reading...
Ron Merkel tells high court laws not designed to protect businesses but to stop environmental protestsThe “true purpose†of Tasmanian anti-protest laws is not to protect businesses but to stop political communication such as environmental campaigns, Bob Brown’s lawyers have told the high court.On Tuesday the high court held the first day of the full hearing of Brown’s challenge to the controversial Tasmanian anti-protest laws after he was arrested in January 2016 at Lapoinya state forest near Burnie in Tasmania’s north-west. Continue reading...
Part one: In Montana, Native Americans fear a leak could destroy their way of life, but local politicians worry about the threat of protesters above all else
After Trump’s revival of the pipeline project, some communities along its route are preparing to fight back while others see a promise kept by the US president to ‘make America great again’. The Guardian drove along the proposed route of the pipeline through three red states – Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska – to hear what those who will be affected have to say about it
When a drilling platform is scheduled for destruction, it must go on a thousand-mile final journey to the breaker’s yard. As one rig proved when it crashed on to the rocks of a remote Scottish island, this is always a risky businessIt was night, stormy, and the oil rig Transocean Winner was somewhere in the North Atlantic on 7 August 2016 when her tow-line broke. No crew members were on board. The rig was being dragged by a tugboat called Forward, the tethered vessels charting a course out of Norway that was meant to take them on a month-long journey to Malta. Within the offices of Transocean Ltd, the oil-exploration company that owned the rig, such a journey might have been described with corporate seemliness as an “end-of-life voyageâ€; but in the saltier language heard offshore, the rig was “going for fucking razorblades†– for scrap, to be dismantled in a shipbreaking yard east of Malta. In that Atlantic storm, several thousand miles from her intended destination, Winner floated free.The 33-year-old rig had never moved with so little constraint. Winner was huge – 17,000 tonnes, like an elevated Trafalgar Square, complete with a middle derrick as tall as Nelson’s Column, her four legs the shape of castle keeps; all this was borne up in the water on a pair of barge-sized pontoons – and its positioning had always been precisely controlled. While moored, she was held in place by eight heavy anchors. At other times, she was sailed with a pilot at the helm as if she were any other ship. When contracted to drill in the North Sea, as she had been since the 1980s, boring into the bedrock for hidden reservoirs of oil, Winner’s anchors and underwater propellers worked together with her on-board computers to “dynamically position†her – that is, keep her very still. The men and women who formed Winner’s crew – drillers and engineers and geologists and divers and cleaners and cooks, most of them Norwegian – imagined this rig to have a character that would resist such checks. They nicknamed her Svanen, or Swan, because to them she was both elegant and unyielding. Scheduled as she was for destruction, Winner could not have chosen a better moment to bolt. Continue reading...
Claxton, Norfolk Once the nest building instinct has been unleashed it is remarkable how lavish their designs can beIt is wonderful to walk down the lane on to the marsh and see how, despite April’s refrigerated interlude, spring is building still. In some cases, this is literally true, not just the hawthorn hedges, which are fattening up with fresh leaves and blossom, but also the jackdaws, whichjourney back and forth with great gobbets of moss and cattle hair in their beaks. Some are so front-loaded with construction materials that one wonders how they see to navigate.Corvids are generally great architects, and once the instinct has been unleashed it is remarkable how lavish their designs can be. The standard rook nest is a rough 15cm-deep stick platform, but recently I have come across some where the foundations are in a deeply forked situation. They have gone on until these twisting columns of sticks, which are known as “castlesâ€â€™, are more than a metre tall.
Bush Heritage Australia will try to replicate the tiny outback fish’s natural spring habitat in the hope of thwarting its nemesisIn a tiny patch of the Australian outback, a living link to a continent’s ancient past is holding out against a modern day-invader.Just. Continue reading...
Proposals to raise legal limits of sulfur dioxide by more than 12 times linked directly to sale of US-owned smelter in the AndesIt’s a fairly common tactic in Peru to issue a significant or potentially controversial decision or resolution when you hope no one is paying attention. 24, 26 or 31 December, for example. The Environment Ministry (MINAM) recently adopted that ploy by releasing, just before the Easter week holiday, proposals to dramatically roll back certain air quality standards across the country.The draft National Environmental Quality Standards for Air propose maintaining the maximum legal limits for nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, lead and benzene, but doubling the limit for some particulate matter. Most startling, they propose increasing the limit of sulfur dioxide by more than 12 times. Continue reading...
Twitchers charter planes to North Ronaldsay island hoping to spot first red-winged blackbird ever recorded in EuropeIt is a small brown bird with no ostentatious marking and unremarkable to the untrained eye. But a single female American blackbird spotted on a remote island in the Orkneys has prompted birdwatchers to charter planes, drive through the night and catch ferries to in the hope of catching a glimpse of it.More than 15 planes have landed on North Ronaldsay in the past two days, and dozens of birdwatchers have arrived by boat, since news spread that the first red-winged blackbird ever spotted in Britain – and indeed in Europe – had landed on this distant Scottish outpost.
People who habitually feed birds as well as cafes and restaurants that improperly dispose of food to be hit with £80 fineSeaside residents and holidaymakers who feed seagulls could be fined under new council powers in an effort to stop the birds attacking people for food.People who feed the often aggressive birds could be hit with an £80 fine as part of public space protection orders (PSPOs) issued by East Devon district council. Continue reading...
Company is latest foreign publicly owned entity to join lucrative UK market with plan to sell energy from windfarms to big businessA state-owned Swedish company has become the latest European firm to enter the UK’s lucrative energy market, as Britain’s appeal to continental power suppliers shows no sign of abating after the Brexit vote.Vattenfall, which is 100% controlled by the Swedish government, is launching its first foray into UK energy supply as it joins a competitive field of European players including France’s EDF, German-owned E.ON and Npower, and Spanish-backed Scottish Power. Continue reading...
by Katharine Murphy and Joshua Robertson on (#2MY4Y)
Labor leader says project ‘all well and good’ if it clears regulatory hurdles after shadow minister casts doubt on viabilityThe Labor leader, Bill Shorten, is continuing to welcome the jobs that would be created if the controversial Adani coalmine proceeds, despite the shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, saying over the weekend it would be a “miracle†if the project went ahead.Shorten told reporters on Monday that, if the Adani project cleared all the regulatory hurdles, “then all well and goodâ€. Continue reading...
Otley, West Yorkshire It ran around the back of our house, connecting it to the fields via a conduit of green shadowsMid-run, I suddenly stop by the inconspicuous entrance. I have passed it many times, but the thought to revisit never occurred until now. As an adult, with my sense of scale expanded, perhaps it had acquired a sort of invisibility, vivid in the memory but overlooked in the present.You might refer to it as a ginnel. You might even, depending on where you grew up, know it as a gennel, a guinnel or a jennel; a yard, a 10-foot or a close; a chare, a chure or a chewar; a jitty, a jigger or an ennog. Continue reading...