Urgent climate action must be taken and communities are willing to participate in their own electricity production – if the incentives are rightThe challenge of climate change is global and it demands action on an international scale, such as the Paris Agreement. But a large part of the solution will be local, involving all of us in the way energy is produced and consumed.
Labourers in deprived region complain of poor conditions and say multinational has blocked efforts to form a trade union, allegations denied by FyffesThousands of miles from the supermarkets in the west that they supply with cantaloupes, a community of Honduran melon plantation labourers say they are threatened with dismissal and destitution because they have tried to form a union at their Irish-owned company.The workers – the vast majority of whom are women – are now appealing to US and European consumers to boycott products sold by the fruit multinational Fyffes until it improves working conditions and allows collective bargaining.
High-carbon infrastructures lock planet into irreversible greenhouse gas emissions, says campaign groupBy the end of this decade it may be too late to limit global warming to scientifically guided limits, if the infrastructure built in the next four years is constructed along the same lines as currently planned.
by Jess Gormley Pablo Ganguli and Tomas Auksas on (#23B0N)
An extract from Liberatum’s documentary In this Climate, in which a range of cultural and environmental figures including Noam Chomsky, David Attenborough and Mark Ruffalo respond to the threat of climate change and to the deniers. The full-length film is scheduled for release before the World Economic Forum in January 2017
Coffee production supports 600,000 Kenyan farmers but their livelihoods are being threatened by a spate of robberiesMartin Kamai, a coffee farmer in rural Kenya, was sound asleep when the thieves broke into his warehouse. The 20 armed men jumped the gate, tied up the security guards and escaped with 100 bags of coffee beans – all of Kamai’s harvest.
India wants to encourage more privately owned, small-scale hydropower projects to cut its climate emissions, but questions about environmental impacts remainIn the western Himalayas, the entire village of Hamal is powered by a small hydroelectric plant on the edge of the Shalvi river. It produces enough power to light up 100 homes at a time, ending the village’s once-endemic power cuts.
Gomez the last of the rare pygmy marmosets to be returned to Symbio wildlife park after he was left in a box on a vet’s doorstepA rare miniature monkey has been reunited with its primate family south of Sydney after the group was kidnapped from a New South Wales zoo on Friday night.Ten-year-old Gomez was the last of three pygmy marmosets to be returned to the Symbio wildlife park at Helensburgh after the theft. Continue reading...
Anti-Adani faction among Wangan and Jagalingou people argue supporters of huge Carmichael mine should not be recognised as representativesTraditional owners who took discreet payments of $4,000 each to meet Adani and revive a land use deal for the Carmichael mine should be axed as representatives of their group, it will be argued in the federal court.The case stems from a split within the Indigenous group whose consent is crucial for the planned $16bn mine in Queensland’s Galilee basin to go ahead. Continue reading...
We’ve tied all sorts of ills to a failure to sit down to a hearty breakfast. But research and history show that skipping our granola bowl does not, in fact, harm our healthUntil very recently, common wisdom held that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. We’ve anecdotally tied all sorts of ills to a failure to sit down to a “complete breakfast.†But health research has proven that skipping that fried egg or bowl of cereal does not, in fact, lead to weight gain, health issues or underperformance.Our reverence for breakfast is actually relatively recent. Before the late 19th century in the US, breakfast didn’t have any particular importance ascribed to it. But all that was changed by a small group of religious fanatics and lobbyists for cereal and bacon companies. Continue reading...
Higher sea temperatures have led to the worst bleaching event on record, new study finds, with coral predicted to take up to 15 years to recoverA new study has found that higher water temperatures have ravaged the Great Barrier Reef, causing the worst coral bleaching recorded by scientists.In the worst-affected area, 67% of a 700km swath in the north of the reef lost its shallow-water corals over the past eight to nine months, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies based at James Cook University study found. Continue reading...
Five people have so far been arrested in bitter battle, with Nick Clegg criticising the police for detaining peaceful protestersIt was, said Nick Clegg, “something you’d expect to see in Putin’s Russia, rather than a Sheffield suburbâ€. Council contractors and police had descended on a particularly desirable street in his Hallam constituency under the cover of darkness, “dragged†people out of bed to move their cars and detained peaceful protesters – “all to chop down eight treesâ€, he wrote in a local paper.So far five people have been arrested in relation to a long-running and increasingly bitter battle over the fate of Sheffield’s trees, including a 70-year old emeritus professor and a 71-year-old retired teacher, both women. On Thursday two men will become the first of the city’s tree protesters to appear in court, charged under trade union legislation, following a protest on 2 November. Continue reading...
America’s surprise election is like water on the garden of activism. We stand in solidarity with all those who seek to protect the planet and nurture hopeThis past Thursday was Thanksgiving. A time when we remember a feast, the first Thanksgiving, on Plymouth plantation in the autumn of 1621. The tales of pilgrims from the Mayflower who celebrated the harvest, shared and broke bread with the first Americans, are still used as inspiration and shared with children, teaching them the beauty of gratitude.But it is now widely understood this Thanksgiving story is a fictional history. It was invented to whitewash the vicious genocide wrought upon the native inhabitants of this magnificent continent. Not only did the Europeans try to eradicate native populations, but they made every effort to eviscerate their culture, their language and eliminate them from these coveted lands. Continue reading...
The short answer is no (Is this a war on trees? Notebook, 22 November). As a several decades-long member of the Woodland Trust, I value mature trees and the recreation of ancient woodland, but in respect to Sheffield’s tree-culling, Patrick Barkham has given only a one-sided story, that of the “save all trees†fanatics who forced the council’s hand. In our leafy suburbs many of the trees are over 100 years old and, yes, they do add many benefits to the environment. However, many are huge, forest varieties, unsuitable for the streets in which they were planted. Thus some obstruct pavements and roadways, and their roots have caused ground upheavals of 20cm or more. Some are also reaching old age, with a consequent risk of falling branches.Looking at the wider picture, it thus makes very good sense to cut these down and replant with more suitable varieties as part of the road and pavement renewal scheme, to avoid later more expensive replacement after they have damaged the new roads and pavements. I will be sad to see them go – it’s only a selected few – but very glad to get rid of the potholed roads and lumpy pavements with their tripping hazards. And my children will benefit from the new trees as they mature, as part of a planned tree-management scheme.
Alongside her husband, Doug, Kris McDivitt Tompkins bought up vast swaths of Patagonia to save it from developers. Now, a year after Doug’s sudden death, she explains how their shared vision is close to realityShe was young, spirited and rich. It was the 1970s and Kris McDivitt seemed to come straight from California central casting; the glamorous ski-racing daughter of an oil-industry man who made her fortune as the first CEO of what was to become the billion-dollar outdoor clothing company Patagonia.And then in 1993, aged 43, Kris McDivitt unexpectedly fell in love with Doug Tompkins, the adventure-junkie rock-climber and deep green environmentalist who had co-founded not one but two giant outdoor-clothing companies, North Face and Esprit. Continue reading...
Freshwater fish are out of sight and out of mind for most of the British public. And so are the dedicated band of fishery scientists who look after a resource that indicates the health of our rivers and lakes, and supports angling. Such an individual was my friend John Gregory, who has died aged 67, after a lifelong career in fisheries management.John was born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. His father, Tom, was an engineer at Rolls-Royce in Derby and his mother, Jenny, worked in the local hospital. After graduating in biological sciences from the University of East Anglia, and getting married to Lynden Stratten in 1971, John spent two years as a fisheries officer in the Solomon Islands. Continue reading...
Leaked documents reveal EU pledge to carry out tests deleted from draft as governments come under pressure from carmakersPlans for independent checks of how much pollution new cars emit are being killed off by EU member states, according to leaked documents seen by the Guardian.After the Dieselgate scandal, the European commission proposed empowering its respected science wing, the Joint Research Centre, to inspect vehicles separately from national authorities, which are paid by the car manufacturers they regulate. Continue reading...
Wolf attacks on animals in region around Spanish capital up from 91 to 209 in a year, prompting rise in reimbursement budgetMadrid’s regional government is to double its compensation fund for farmers who lose animals to wolves after a steep increase in fatal attacks in the last year.
by Jan Rocha for Climate News Network, part of the Gu on (#2379G)
Climate News Network: Three main dams supplying water to La Paz and El Alto are no longer fed by Andean glaciers and have nearly run dryThe government of Bolivia, a landlocked country in the heart of South America, has been forced to declare a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought for at least 25 years.Much of the water supply to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, and the neighbouring El Alto, Bolivia’s second largest city, comes from the glaciers in the surrounding Andean mountains. Continue reading...
Carbon Tracker says many plants running at overcapacity but China reluctant to wean itself off coal, fearing unemployment and unrestChina could waste as much as half a trillion dollars on unnecessary new coal-fired power stations, a climate campaign group has said, arguing that the world’s top carbon polluter already has more than enough such facilities.
Coal-fired power plants should be closed in orderly fashion to ensure energy supply is not disruptedA Senate report has recommended that Australia should move completely away from coal-generated electricity, citing economic factors as the primary drivers.It comes about a month after the unplanned closure of Hazelwood, Australia’s dirtiest coal station, and before the expected unplanned closure of several others around the country. Continue reading...
Stamford, Lincolnshire Rock you grasp, fighting its cold indifference. Trees you take hold of, hoist yourself into, embrace, balance onAt the end of last winter I noticed this tree: a slim, high horse chestnut on the edge of my town. In summer its leaves gave it an hourglass shape. September ignited it. October, I showed my daughter its spiky conker capsules and the flawless autumn-shine of what was inside. In November’s first weeks I saw more of the sky through its branches each visit, its presence emaciating, the clarity of its skeleton crisping with every wintering day. Continue reading...
Miniature monkeys at Symbio wildlife park in Helensburgh, south of Sydney. Three pygmy marmosets, including one that was only four weeks old, were stolen late last week. Two Sydney brothers have pleaded guilty to transporting and intending to sell them. Two of the three monkeys have been recovered but a third, 10-year-old Gomez, is still missing• Sydney brothers plead guilty over theft of rare miniature monkeys Continue reading...
Ta’u island in American Samoa will rely on solar panels and Tesla batteries as it does away with diesel generatorsA remote tropical island has catapulted itself headlong into the future by ditching diesel and powering all homes and businesses with the scorching South Pacific sun.Using more than 5,000 solar panels and 60 Tesla power packs the tiny island of Ta’u in American Samoa is now entirely self-sufficient for its electricity supply – though the process of converting has been tough and pitted with delays.
Wefood in Copenhagen has proved a huge success as food waste becomes hot topic worldwideIt may be past its sell-by date, but for many Danes it’s a tasty proposition: surplus food being sold in a Copenhagen supermarket has proved so popular that a second store has been opened.After launching in the district of Amager earlier this year, the Wefood project attracted a long queue as it opened a second branch in the trendy neighbourhood of Nørrebro, this month. Continue reading...
Customers face possibility of higher charges as GB Energy Supply ceases tradingAbout 160,000 UK customers face potentially higher energy bills after a budget supplier closed down, blaming rising energy prices.
Does the Nordic nation deserve its reputation for sustainability?It’s impossible not to feel a bit envious of Nordic nations. Norway, Denmark and Sweden were so accomplished at recycling that by 2014 they had no need for landfill. Just like Nordic prisons, the landfills are empty. Now Denmark even has hygge, a system for living that combines cosiness and chunky knits with sustainability, and an enviable design aesthetic. What’s not to like?But Sweden normally gets the gold star. One of the first countries to implement a heavy tax on fossil fuels in 1991, it now sources almost half its electricity from renewable resources. The ruling coalition (Green and Social Democrat) has just announced plans to slash VAT on repairs to bicycles, clothes and shoes from 25% to 12%, in a big effort to drive sustainability. Continue reading...
Officials check for avian flu at farms surrounding original site as outbreaks of disease reported in Denmark, Finland, Germany and SwedenSome 190,000 ducks were destroyed on Saturday at six farms in the Netherlands following an avian flu outbreak, the country’s first cull in response to an epidemic sweeping northern Europe.Outbreaks of avian flu, primarily the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, have been reported in Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden over the past week. Continue reading...
Engineer corps says the main encampment must be cleared in nine days because of the onset of winter weatherThe US Army has ordered the closure of the main encampment established by activists opposing the Dakota Access pipeline, according to a letter released by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.Citing federal regulations governing public lands, Colonel John W. Henderson of the army corps of engineers wrote to Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault that he was ordering the closure by 5 December. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent on (#230ME)
UK’s biggest coffee chain will take paper cups from any brand at recycling points in all of its storesThe UK’s largest coffee chain Costa Coffee is to launch a recycling scheme in all of its stores to ensure that as many as possible of its own takeaway cups – and those from its competitors – are recycled.In a move designed to reduce the millions of used disposable cups that end up in landfill, the chain’s customers will be encouraged to leave or return them to a Costa store, where they will be stored on a bespoke rack. Costa’s waste partner, Veolia, will transport them to specialist waste processing plants which have the capacity to recycle takeaway coffee cups – potentially as many as 30m a year from Costa alone. Continue reading...
Poppit Sands, Cardigan Often I encounter him fishing here, with an oystercatcher or redshank for company, watching acutely, spearing for small fish and crustaceans.On ebbing or flowing tides, the muddy rhine that curves behind the dunes is a fascinating place. This time of year the estuary throngs with geese. Plangent calls tug at your emotions as they pass in V-formations overhead. Occasionally – all too seldom nowadays – a curlew’s bubbling call pitches to crescendo, then cascades down, the massed choirs of thousands a thing of the past.What memory might the few survivors hold of legions so drastically dwindled away? I harbour a strong belief in the intelligent connection between living creatures, have seen it manifest time and again in the natural world. It gives rise to some odd liaisons and intriguing behaviour. Continue reading...
Official review finds failures in Levy Control Framework and says overshoot will have to be paid for by householdsFormer energy ministers have contributed to an overspend of more than £1bn on renewable power subsidies that consumers will be forced to pay for, a government report has said.The review by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, published on Friday, says “political unwillingness†to curb support for solar and wind power projects has contributed to the cap on green energy subsidies being breached. Continue reading...
Families v people | Autumnul cheer | Ukip doner | Arctic alarm | Far-right dismay | Front-page gloomAccording to the very first words in your front-page story (Chancellor to crack down on letting fees, 23 November) “millions of families†are to be offered relief from spurious letting charges. Funny, I hadn’t realised that the measure was targeted only at families – I guess this must mean that people living alone, house-sharers and childless couples will have to go on paying the fees? Can you please make an effort not to bandy about the word “families†as though it were a synonym for “people�
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
Food and Agriculture Organisation says 330,000 people are on verge of ‘a food security catastrophe’ following sustained drought that has decimated cropsThe severe drought afflicting southern Madagascar has left 330,000 people on the brink of famine, a senior UN official has warned.
by Isabella Kaminski for The Ends Report, part of the on (#22XRS)
Natural management is ‘vital’ as well as other flood defences says environment secretary, reports The Ends ReportThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will spend £15m on natural flood management projects, the environment secretary has announced.On Thursday, Andrea Leadsom confirmed to parliament that, although flood defences such as concrete barriers are “very importantâ€, natural flood management is “vital†as well.
Greg Clark signals post-Brexit policy as Jaguar Land Rover confirms it plans to create 10,000 jobs in the UKGreg Clark, the business, energy and industrial strategy secretary, has said making Britain a world-leading hub for next-generation electric vehicles will be at the heart of the government’s new industrial strategy, providing one of the clearest indications yet of the sectors it wants to focus on in a post-Brexit economy.Clark said the automotive sector, particularly electric vehicles, driverless cars and battery storage, will be a “emblematic area of focus†and is going to be “one of the big features of the world and Britain’s industrial policy during the weeks, months and years aheadâ€. Continue reading...
Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic safeguards 200 jobs with order for 65-metre high steel foundation jacketsThe Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic has won a contract believed to be worth £20m to expand a huge windfarm off the East Anglian coast.Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd has secured the manufacturing of 60 steel foundation jackets for the East Anglia One offshore windfarm, which will safeguard 200 jobs. Continue reading...
Canada has joined a growing list of countries phasing out the most polluting fossil fuel and global demand has fallen. Is this the start of a low-carbon energy era or just a blip in coal’s dominance?This week Canada joined the growing list of major developed countries saying they will phase out coal power.The announcement comes against the backdrop of global demand for coal falling last year for the first time in nearly two decades, a development that could presage a new era of lower-carbon energy generation – or merely a blip in the long-term dominance of the highly polluting fuel. Continue reading...
Airport expansion plans may breach climate change legislation if other sectors do not make big cuts to emissions, warns Committee on Climate ChangePlans to build a third runway at Heathrow may breach the Government’s own climate change legislation if other sectors do not make big cuts to emissions, an independent advisory body has warned.
Ministers deliberately delayed a report showing fracking could affect house prices, health and the environment until after a crucial planning decision, documents revealMinisters deliberately delayed a controversial fracking report it was being forced to publish until after crucial council decisions on planning permission, according to newly revealed documents.The documents also show ministers acknowledged they were open to a charge of double standards, having granted local communities the final say over windfarm applications but overruling fracking decisions. Continue reading...
Ketton Quarry, Rutland Withered stems of white bryony lash together clumps of little red globes hanging in garlands, and hedges blush with hawthorn berriesThe incoming polar air mass and clear night sky produces this year’s heaviest frost. Water crystallises into bristly masses on every surface. The blazing morning sun rapidly scorches most of it away, but in the deepest still hollows of Ketton quarry the thick, white, dusting endures into the afternoon.Related: Birds and berries: A fertile feast Continue reading...
Queensland Resources Council chief executive welcomes decision and tells activists to get out of Adani’s wayAdani’s Carmichael coalmine has passed its latest legal hurdle – the Queensland supreme court has dismissed a challenge against grants of a mining lease and environmental authority for the $21m project in the state’s Galilee Basin.Environmental groups had challenged the move on legal grounds, saying the Queensland government had erred in granting the approvals for the Indian mining group’s huge project. Continue reading...
Josh Frydenberg says coal ‘vitally important’ after former Great Barrier Reef official calls said its future depended on an end to miningJosh Frydenberg has defended Australia’s coal industry as “vitally important†days after a former Great Barrier Reef authority chief called for a ban on new mines.Speaking after a forum on the reef with state and territory ministers in Sydney on Friday, the federal environment minister said other countries would simply “fill the void†if Australia did not export coal. Continue reading...
Opposition leader had earlier pledged to phase out the bags from shopping centres if LNP elected at next state pollThe Queensland government plans to ban single-use plastic bags from 2018 but the public will have its say first.On Friday the environment minister, Steven Miles, released a public discussion paper on the ban of lightweight single-use plastic shopping bags. Continue reading...
It is staggering that in 2016, the hottest year on record, the chancellor can present a budget that has no mention of climate change (Report, 24 November). Indeed, most policies and spending plans are heading in the wrong direction. We have more money for new roads and fracking keeps its subsidy, but cuts to the local authorities who subsidise bus services.The freeze on fuel duty is another backward step and shows that the government cares nothing about climate change, air pollution or public health. Last year saw a record number of vehicles on our roads, especially in rural areas where bus services have been decimated. The government could bring us healthier air and less congestion by raising fuel duty and using the money to reverse the devastating cuts to buses. We need to give people the choice of travelling by public transport, walking and cycling, but that can only happen if we make the polluter pay and use the money raised to invest in things that are good for our health and our environment.
Hurricane makes landfall on Nicaraguan coast just north of border with Costa RicaHurricane Otto strengthened to a category two storm as it made landfall on the sparsely populated Caribbean border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica as an unusually strong late-season event.The US National Hurricane Center said Otto hit land near the town of San Juan de Nicaragua with winds of 110 mph around midday local time. Continue reading...
The claim that Greece may receive an unfair exemption to increase lignite use (Report, 3 November, theguardian.com) is not justified – it is based on misinterpretations:1) Greece is not trying to “revive its lignite-based modelâ€. In fact, retirements of fossil fuel plants in 2014-23 amount to 4,095MW, including 2,671MW of lignite capacity. Continue reading...