Capacity Market scheme accused of making consumers pay conflicting subsidies for highly polluting plantsA £2.8bn government scheme funded by energy bill payers which aims to keep the lights on in Britain has been condemned as wasteful, expensive and “unfit for purpose†in a damning report.The claims from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) comes on the day that one of the UK’s biggest coal-fired power stations, Ferrybridge, formally closes, with several others threatening to follow.
In addition, vehicles must stay off the road one Saturday a month as the Mexican capital grapples with its worst air-quality crisis in over a decadeAuthorities in Mexico City have temporarily ordered all cars to remain idle one day a week in response to this notoriously smoggy capital’s worst air-quality crisis in over a decade.Until now vehicles have been exempt from the Mexican capital’s “no circulation†rules if owners obtain a holographic sticker from a smog-check centre certifying them as lower-emission. Continue reading...
The Venezuelan government extended the Easter holiday to an entire week this year, and it’s all because of the weather. Although Venezuela is a big oil producer most of its power is produced by hydroelectric generators.The massive Guri dam, one of the largest in the world with a capacity of more than 10GW, provides almost half the country’s hydroelectricity. However, power generation needs adequate rainfall. Continue reading...
The likelihood of achieving a vital part of the UK’s future power infrastructure appears to be waning by the weekAt Port Talbot the government appears to have assumed, even at the eleventh hour, that Tata would not dare to walk away from its UK steel business. It was a bad bet, thus the undignified scramble to get the business secretary back from Australia to explain what government intervention in the steel industry might mean, and cost.But let’s not ignore the other industrial drama involving vast sums, thousands of jobs and a key plank of government strategy. Yes, it’s Hinkley Point, where the UK’s energy policy for the 2020s rests on the premise that French state-backed outfit EDF really will build a £18bn nuclear station in Somerset that will open in 2025 to supply 7% of our electricity. Continue reading...
Despite regular coastal cleanups around the world, the problem of ocean garbage continues. Now, two Australians say they’ve found the solution – the SeabinBy now, reports that our oceans are turning into swirling garbage dumps should come as no surprise. There are some 5.25tn pieces of floating plastic debris in the oceans right now, and it’s estimated that some 8m metric tons of plastic waste enter global waters every year. A researcher recently likened it to lining up five grocery bags of trash on every foot of coastline around the world. The US is adjacent to the largest of the five ocean “garbage patches†– it’s estimated the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which extends from the coast of North America to a few hundred miles off the coast of Japan, contains some 480,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer.Now, two surfers from Australia say they may have the solution. Peter Ceglinski and Andrew Turton have invented a device they call the Seabin, a kind of submersible garbage can that siphons and captures floating debris. Continue reading...
by Ellen Brait in New York and agencies on (#18SC8)
The records will include data on behavior, reproductive success, and skin diseases and will be used to monitor individual health as well as overall trendsEndangered orcas in the inland waters of Washington state will now have individual health records, which researchers hope will help them identify threats to the whales’ health.There are typically 84 whales residing in Puget Sound from spring to fall. These were listed as endangered in 2005 and are both genetically and behaviorally distinct from other killer whales. They use distinct calls to communicate and eat salmon rather than other marine mammals. Because of pollution, lack of prey and disturbance from boats, their numbers have fluctuated in the past few decades. Continue reading...
Gaping Gill is one of the finest natural creations in the UK, ranking with Ben Nevis, Malham Cove or Cheddar Gorge. The recent linking of the Three Counties system – a network connecting Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria – was equivalent to the completion of the Scottish munros or the first polar expeditions.The legal position for access to caves on access land is bizarre and irrational (Cavers want the right to roam taken to a much deeper level, 29 March). You can go into a cave entrance, according to Defra, only as far as the light penetrates. Why not as far as sound might penetrate – or fresh air can be detected? Continue reading...
Italian officials to investigate company’s role in acquisition of disputed oil block jointly owned with energy group EniItalian anti-corruption investigators have opened a formal investigation into Shell’s acquisition of a stake in a $1.09bn (£755m) oil block in Nigeria.
New research factors in collapsing Antarctic ice sheet that could double the sea-level rise to two metres by 2100 if emissions are not cutSea levels could rise far more rapidly than expected in coming decades, according to new research that reveals Antarctica’s vast ice cap is less stable than previously thought.The UN’s climate science body had predicted up to a metre of sea level rise this century - but it did not anticipate any significant contribution from Antarctica, where increasing snowfall was expected to keep the ice sheet in balance. Continue reading...
Union-backed director says plans are ‘not credible’ in new blow to troubled Somerset nuclear power station developmentAn EDF board member has called for the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be postponed, in the latest sign of discord at the top of the French energy company over the troubled project.Christian Taxil said a raft of changes to the Somerset reactor scheme agreed over the past three years significantly raised the risk for EDF, while a promise to commission the plant within 72 months of concrete being poured was “not credibleâ€.
Lucy Lamble reports from southern Africa on the recurring droughts, exacerbated by an unusually strong El Niño, that are causing a severe lack of food
Thirteen sperm whales stranded on the German coast had ingested huge amounts of plastic. They are symbolic of our shocking disregard for marine lifeIn January, 29 sperm whales stranded on shores around the North Sea. The results of the necropsies (the animal equivalent of autopsies) of 13 of those whales, which beached in Germany, near the town of Tönning in Schleswig-Holstein, have just been released. The animals’ stomachs were filled with plastic debris. A 13-metre-long fishing net, a 70cm piece of plastic from a car and other pieces of plastic litter had been inadvertently ingested by the animals, who may have thought they were food, such as squid, their main diet, which they consume by sucking their prey into their mouths.Robert Habeck, environment minister for the state of Schleswig-Holstein, said: “These findings show us the results of our plastic-oriented society. Animals inadvertently consume plastic and plastic waste, which causes them to suffer, and at worst, causes them to starve with full stomachs.†Nicola Hodgins, of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, added: “Although the large pieces will cause obvious problems and block the gut, we shouldn’t dismiss the smaller bits that could cause a more chronic problem for all species of cetacean – not just those who suction feed.†Continue reading...
A recent public hearing in Lancashire highlights the limits of evidence in determining the pros and cons of frackingIn the run-up to Easter, I spent several weeks at Blackpool FC’s Bloomfield Road stadium, watching an appeal hearing unfold into plans to frack two exploratory wells in the Fylde region of Lancashire. On one side of the room sat Cuadrilla, occasionally joined by the North West Lancashire Chambers of Commerce. Lined up opposite were Lancashire County Council, often accompanied by Friends of the Earth and two local grassroots campaigns: Roseacre Awareness Group and Preston New Road Action Group.
The Obama administration is to allow surveying of the seabed using seismic airguns that have been likened to a ‘grenade blast’ for whales and other creaturesThe Obama administration is to press ahead with proposals to allow loud underwater prospecting for oil and gas off the east coast, even though the practice has been likened to being at the “epicenter of a grenade blast†for whales and other marine creatures sensitive to noise.Related: Obama bans oil drilling along Atlantic seaboard Continue reading...
Leading health bodies urge ministers to be ‘properly prepared’ as extreme weather events such as flooding or heatwaves become more commonBritish health systems are unprepared for the “devastating†effects of climate change, leading health bodies have warned.As extreme weather events such as flooding or heatwaves become more common, the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change urged ministers not to “wait for disaster†before acting. Continue reading...
Energy company dismisses ‘unfounded rumours’ that some of its engineers called for at least two-year delay to £18bn projectEDF has insisted that its plans to complete the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset by 2025 remain on track, despite reports that some of its engineers had called for a two-year delay and a redesign.It came as an EDF board member representing senior staff said in a letter to employees that he would vote against the controversial project. Christian Taxil, who represents the managers’ union CFE-CGC, is the first board member to go public with doubts about the project. Continue reading...
Committee asks how Venancio Salas Junior – captain of a large coal freighter –continued to work in Australian waters after three crew died in suspicious circumstancesA captain who was exposed selling guns to his crew and was in charge of a ship where three people died on board was allowed to continue to work in Australian waters, a Senate committee has heard.
Investment in 1,500 new coal plants around the world could be wasted if action on climate change and pollution prevent them from being usedAlmost $1tn of investment in new coal-fired power stations could be wasted if growing concerns about climate change and air pollution leave the plants unused, according to a new report.About 1,500 new coal plants are in construction or planning stages around the world but electricity generation from the fossil fuel has fallen in recent years, the detailed report from the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and CoalSwarm found. In China, existing plants are now used just 50% of the time, coal use is falling and new permits and construction have been halted in half of the nation’s provinces, affecting about 250 plants. Continue reading...
St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Marie Lorraine Martin’s paintings depict the seasons at Cotehele mill in the early 19th centuryFrom the door of the dim church tower, with its window portraying Saint Dominica and her brother Saint Indract, we emerge into the glare of spring sunshine to follow the coffin of our mother who has died, aged 101 years. Overhead, the rooks caw and perch in pairs near refurbished nests; bright celandine and pale primrose gleam around the old slate headstones, and ramsons colonise shade beneath the beech. Towards her burial plot we pass graves of ancestors who were farmers, millers, brewers and market gardeners in this rural parish. Continue reading...
Data shows bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef coincides with record warm ocean temperatures in the regionWhere only a few weeks ago there were swathes of vivid purples, blues and pretty much any other colour you fancy, now there is just grey and white.
Market exploitation of working class people and of the environment adds up to the endangerment of both and, ultimately, us allThe Great Australian Bight is a pristine marine environment. It’s a haven for humpback and sperm whales, blue whales and beak whales. It’s Australia’s most significant seal lion nursery and said to be the world’s most important southern right whale nursery. It sustains huge fishing and tourism industries – and BP is planning to drill it for oil.Yes, that BP - BP of the “Deepwater Horizon†oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010, in which a well exploded and sank, killing 11 people and creating the biggest oil spill disaster in US history. BP of that leak, 1.6km below the ocean surface, that took three months to fix. BP of the 100,000 barrels of oil leaked into the ocean per day, every day, for 87 consecutive days. BP now paying out $US18.7bn in claims to 400 separate local government entities damaged by a disaster that decimated the fishing and tourism industries of the five US gulf states. Continue reading...
Spokeswoman says that ‘problem animal’, nicknamed Spook, faces being killed after second successful escape from the Karoo National ParkA lion that earned the nickname Spook – “ghost†in Afrikaans – after it escaped from a national park in South Africa and eluded searchers for more than three weeks has broken out of the park again.A spokeswoman at Karoo National Park said on Tuesday that a helicopter was searching for the male lion, which was fitted with a satellite tracking collar after last year’s escape and should be easier to trace this time. Continue reading...
Four of seven men accused sentenced to decades in prison for 2013 murder of Jairo Mora, who worked to protect sea turtles with four female volunteersA Costa Rican court has sentenced four men to decades in prison for the 2013 murder of an environmentalist and the rape of four western female volunteers who were with him.The judgment capped a nine-week retrial of seven men accused of killing Jairo Mora, a 26-year-old Costa Rican working to protect sea turtle nests on the country’s Caribbean coast. Continue reading...
Queensland land court rules it does not have power to award costs to either side in challenges to mining permitsAn Indigenous elder who successfully took on the mining entrepreneur “Diamond†Joe Gutnick in the Queensland land court has wound up with a $70,000 legal debt he cannot repay.In a case that could have a chilling effect on future challenges to mines by traditional owners and others, the Kalkadoon elder James Taylor was denied legal costs despite winning a three-year battle for changes to Gutnick’s phosphate project near Mount Isa.
Two vessels carrying 28 crew members towed to Cairns after being intercepted near Lockhart River in Cape YorkTwo Vietnamese fishing boats have been towed to Cairns after they were caught with sea cucumbers in the Great Barrier Reef marine park.The boats, carrying 28 crew members, were intercepted with a large amount of diving gear and what was thought to be illegally caught bêche-de-mer, or sea cucumbers, near Lockhart River in Cape York at the weekend. Continue reading...
The actor worked with local groups to at Mount Leuser National Park, where the ecosystem that helps regulate Earth’s climate faces developmental threatsFresh off a best actor win at the 2016 Oscars during which he made a speech that touched on the consequences of climate change, Leonardo DiCaprio paid a visit to Mount Leuser national park in Sumatra, Indonesia, to lend support to local groups working to preserve the area’s ecosystem.DiCaprio posted a photo from his journey on Instagram, writing that the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is “supporting local partners to establish a mega-fauna sanctuary†in the Leuser ecosystem, a landscape endangered by palm oil plantations, mining, logging and other development threats.
New rules would ban ‘non-subsistence’ killing of bears, wolves and coyotes – some of the ‘most iconic yet persecuted species’– in the state’s 16 wildlife refugesA group of scientists has backed a federal plan to restrict the trapping and gunning down of bears and wolves in Alaska’s wildlife refuges, in the face of bitter opposition from the state government.
From food to clothes, extreme weather events are affecting key industries. As we kick off a new series on extreme weather - tell us what we should cover
A large silverback gorilla tries to attack a zoo visitor through the glass of his enclosure on Saturday. The footage, filmed at Henry Doorly zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, shows Kijito the silverback charging and jumping into the glass when the visitor has his back turned to the enclosure Continue reading...
From tyre chairs to newspaper art, people in Khartoum are finding innovative ways to attempt to tackle the country’s rubbish problemWamda Yousef sits in front of the baskets and plates she’s made out of newspaper.“In the beginning, I thought it was difficult to learn, but gradually I learned to do all these artistic shapes only by [using] newspapers that were left by my aunt – she loves reading newspapers,†Yousef says. Continue reading...
Cochineal insect bred specifically to target the destructive cactus infesting grazing lands in parts of western QueenslandTiny sap-sucking bugs are being unleashed to fight a destructive cactus infesting parts of western Queensland.The cochineal insect was bred in Queensland specifically to target coral cactus, which is wreaking havoc on graziers’ properties. The bug feeds only on the cactus by sucking its sap. Continue reading...
Claxton, Norfolk The cony, as it was originally called, was probably introduced by the PlantagenetsA large grey fur ball bustles suddenly by the path and then stares up with soft black eyes. It shows more curiosity than fear, suggesting this is the first time in its short life that it has met my kind. Certainly it is my first baby rabbit of the spring.You might think that the widespread emergence of these adorable creatures at this season lies behind the tradition of the Easter bunny but, in fact, the two are completely unrelated. The association between the passion of Christ and the festive lagomorph actually originates with the hare. Continue reading...
Flights from Britain to the US could take longer in future because of climate change. The jet stream is expected to become more powerful as the climate warms, and that means flights to America battling against fiercer headwinds.Flights from New York to London, on the other hand, will probably speed up as they ride on the faster jet stream, although this won’t balance the slower flights and a round trip will still be longer. That means more fuel used by the aircraft, more air pollution and possibly higher fares, according to researchers at the University of Reading in a study published in the journal “Environmental Research Lettersâ€. Continue reading...
With the ice cover down to 14.52m sq km, scientists now believe the Arctic is locked onto a course of continually shrinking sea iceA record expanse of Arctic sea never froze over this winter and remained open water as a season of freakishly high temperatures produced deep – and likely irreversible – changes on the far north.
Coast guard officials are training for catastrophe as melting sea ice opens up Northwest Passage allowing liner to cruise with 1,700 from Alaska to New YorkOn 13 April, coast guard officials from the US and Canada will train for a cruise ship catastrophe: a mass rescue from a luxury liner on its maiden voyage through the remote and deathly cold waters between the Northwest Passage and the Bering Strait.The prospect of just such a disaster occurring amid the uncharted waters and capricious weather of the Arctic is becoming all too real. Continue reading...
The greater mouse-eared bat in Sussex should have up to five females in a harem, but his species was declared extinct a quarter of a century ago. Who’d be him?He’s large, big-eared and must be the loneliest creature in the country. For 14 long years, a greater mouse-eared bat has spent each winter in hibernation in Sussex, the only known representative of a species officially declared extinct in Britain in 1990.What’s even sadder is that this small mammal is naturally polygamous, and should cavort with a harem of up to five females. But our greater mouse-eared bat’s best chance of company disappeared when the last known colony of females was thought to be destroyed after a cottage caught fire near Bognor Regis. Continue reading...
Footage posted on Facebook by Queensland couple Mike and Lee-Anne Phipps shows a koala hopping down the middle of a road. Cars had to stop on the Brisbane Valley Highway in Australia on Saturday when the marsupial, rarely spotted on the ground, went for a wander. A police officer helps escort the koala back to the surrounding trees
The editor at large of Country Life celebrates the rebirth of British rural culture over the last 40 years, and selects some of his favourite viewsLife gets better and better. However damp and dismal the weather may be this Easter, don’t let it colour your impression of the countryside. I know that for many people – particularly dairy farmers – life can seem a continual struggle, and the hedgehog is in decline. But let’s lift our eyes. There’s metaphorical sunshine too.That lovely, colourful bird, the goldfinch, is far more numerous than a century ago. Within living memory, the marsh harrier was nearly extinct, but the other day I saw several pairs displaying and hunting over Hickling Broad. These are not straws in the wind. If I consider the world reflected by Country Life when I joined the staff in 1977 until I left it a few months ago, the story is one of dizzying improvement. Continue reading...
Glued to your phone? Need a sense of perspective? One veteran tree-climber argues we should seek salvation in the branches – and reveals his five favourites in LondonTree climbing is a curious form of travel. Ascending, we cross the divide between two worlds, and the people passing beneath us become as separate as fish in an aquarium. Discovering a trunk with a clear path to the crown is enticing as finding a ladder to the moon; this is the essence of climbing, a method of passing between two spheres – the humdrum everyday and the elevated.Putting physical space between ourselves and our daily routines cannot be overvalued. After days spent holding carriage or escalator handrails, touching bark is bracing; like a shock of cold water. No other surface compares to living wood, and climbing brings a feeling of reversion, a step back from a wholly artificial environment. Tree tops are spaces that renew our appreciation for small pleasures, and being aloft magnifies the commonplace: reading a book, talking to a friend or enjoying a cup of airborne coffee. Sitting on a branch provides a kind of momentary amnesia, an immersion in the natural world that allows us to forget street-level worries. The canopy is a place of quiet revelation, and when we sit alone in the greenwood, a new solitude is experienced – not the isolation of an indifferent city but the solace of clear thought. People move through the street looking through a wide-angle lens, hyperaware of peripherals but ignoring the trees growing in their midst. Crossing a road or making a phone call, we are too preoccupied to look up. By climbing trees we can apply a microscope to our surroundings; suddenly the smallest textures of bark and branch captivate our attention. Continue reading...
Herd ‘coming home’ under treaty between North American tribes that seeks to return bison from Canada to MontanaDescendants of a bison herd captured and sent to Canada more than a century ago will be relocated to a Montana Native American reservation next month, in what tribal leaders bill as a homecoming for a species emblematic of their traditions.The shipment of animals from Alberta’s Elk Island national park to the Blackfeet reservation follows a 2014 treaty among tribes in the US and Canada. That agreement aims to restore bison to areas of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains where millions once roamed. Continue reading...
Brean, Bristol Channel As we walked the sand towards Burnham, we made out a strange, black shape in the bayEarlier in the year, our church meeting had to be moved from a farm out on the marsh to higher ground in the village because of flooding. But, generally speaking, we in southeast Somerset, unlike folk down on the watery levels or up on the bleaker Mendips, are fortunate not to be too often seriously threatened by the weather or reminded of the force of the elements.But Brean, on the shore of the Bristol Channel, is a different world – one of wide spaces open to the sky and swept by powerful tides. Continue reading...
The grisly find was made by a resident in the suburb of Lysterfield South, which borders the Churchill national park, south-west of Melbourne’s CBDThree kangaroos, including a foetal joey, have been killed, mutilated and dumped in suburban Melbourne.Related: Kangaroo flatulence research points to new climate change strategy for farmers Continue reading...
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 30 March 1916Wheatears have come; they were nearer than I thought when I last wrote; one, in fact, was seen by a friend in a field at Ashton-on-Mersey on Sunday. On the same day, a correspondent tells me, there were five near Aberystwyth, a place where early wheatears, coasting round Cardigan Bay, are often met with. It is interesting that all the six birds were males, for the cock birds appear to come in advance, as if to spy out the land or test the weather. It is not early for this the first of our true summer birds, for the wheatear is not held back as a rule by weather, although it is generally ready to take shelter from rain or snow in any rabbit burrow or other convenient hole. The south coast shepherds used to take advantage of this habit, making false burrows, really traps, for the nervous birds, which at one time fetched a fair price in the London markets as “ortolans.â€A friend who is staying for a time in North Wales has been much interested in a woodpecker which visits the trees in front of her window. From her description of the bird and its antics it appears to be the smallest and rarest of our three species, the lesser spotted woodpecker. It is about this time that the woodpeckers begin that strange spring call which is caused by rattling rapidly on a bough with the bill. This sound, which carries for a great distance, is called “rattlingâ€; it may be a love call, but it is just as likely that it is a kind of war drumming, a challenge to rivals. Continue reading...
by Associated Press in Washington, Pennsylvania on (#18F29)
Animals believed to have been alive when they were shipped from the Philippines to Pennsylvania in a box supposedly containing T-shirtsTwo dead venomous snakes were found in a package in a western Pennsylvania post office earlier this month, federal authorities said.The box shipped from the Philippines to the Beaver County post office was declared as containing T-shirts, the Beaver County Times reported. Continue reading...
People protest at Marineland in Antibes against conditions that killer whales are kept in following deaths in storm last yearEnvironmental campaigners have said they are taking legal action against a French marine park over the treatment of its orca whales and other animals after a number were killed during a storm.
