Environment | The Guardian

Britain is powerless: its reputation would be in tatters if it cancelled this folly. So now it must look in hope to EDFVincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, once boasted that British customers would be cooking their Christmas turkeys in 2017 with electricity from the proposed new Hinkley Point nuclear power station his firm is contracted to build. That was a time of optimism, and a grandiose claim in keeping with the £18bn grandiosity of the project itself; equivalent in cost to Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Olympics combined.De Rivaz was wrong about that deadline and optimism is now in short supply. Business situations are often described as zero-sum, or win-win. Hinkley Point, already the site of a power station in Somerset, is a rare case where the project could be damaging to both customers and investors. It would saddle British taxpayers with highly expensive power, and risk bankrupting a major French company, whose finances are already shaky. The government should cancel the deal. Continue reading...

Dust plumes, plankton blooms and convective clouds were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last monthAnalysis of data collected by several Landsat satellites suggests that northern Argentina’s Chaco forests face one of the fastest tropical deforestation rates in the world. Continue reading...

Analysis by Green Alliance finds subsidies for fossil fuel generation more costly than simplified system favouring renewablesBuilding more renewable energy capacity with public money would cost less than the current subsidy regime in the UK, a new analysis has found, despite government claims that subsidies are too expensive.Ministers have justified the slashing of some incentives to install solar panels, and ending support for onshore wind, on the basis that subsidising the construction of green energy was adding too much to energy bills. The government does not subsidise renewable generation directly but allows for incentives to some technologies through additions to consumer bills. Continue reading...

Thirlmere, Lake District Since the storm destroyed the A591, there has been no direct road between north and southI board the 28-seater shuttle bus to Grasmere armed with trekking pole. Kids in the priority seats give the thumbs-up as I say: “Stay put. I’m not really disabled.” Though still recovering from a three-year-old hip revision procedure I can’t officially be so classified as I can still walk unaided. We climb Chestnut Hill above Keswick, every seat taken, everyone agog (folk feel like explorers).Since early December, when storm Desmond destroyed the A591 with landslides and floods, there has been no direct road between north and south. Now Stagecoach is once more running its 555 service to Grasmere, linking with double-deckers to Lancaster, with a new temporary route in place along this key Lakeland artery. Continue reading...

Warnings of climate emergency after surface temperatures 1.35C warmer than average temperature for the monthGlobal temperatures in February smashed previous monthly records by an unprecedented amount, according to Nasa data, sparking warnings of a climate emergency.

Chemical giant Dow is testing new software that crunches data to help assign monetary value to the natural world and calculate the environmental impact of its workEveryone agrees that nature has value. It clothes, feeds and shelters us – and provides a spectacular playground. Yet we have never put a value on everything nature offers.Now, environmental and sustainable business consultants want to change that by forcing corporate leaders to take stock of the economic impact of how they manage natural resources. By accounting for this so-called natural capital, the advocates hope to see more businesses adopting practices that are both good for the environment and long term profitability, especially as climate change will further deplete natural resources, causing their values to climb and increase the cost of running business. In a 1997 paper in Nature that first introduced the natural capital concept, the 13 researchers involved pegged the Earth’s worth at $33tn. A 2014 revision raised that figure to $134tn. Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 14 March 1916Scattered raindrops, wind-drifted, struck cool upon my face, and the sun failed to pierce the monochrome clouds, yet it was good to be out of doors and a pleasant change after the snow and sleet. Amongst the old leaves, blackened by long submersion, many little bright green specks appeared; the sycamore seedlings had pushed their curled and folded leaves out of the capsules and through the ground. In a wide drainage ditch, stagnant now, a great cushion of broad marsh marigold leaves had spread since last I visited the wood, and in their centre were the round globes, still green, which with a little encouragement will burst into glorious golden king-cups. Compact little bosses of tiny green needles stud the larch twigs, and amongst the willows the first signs of meadow-sweet are appearing, though the little leaves so far have not reached so high as the down-beaten and withered marsh grasses. Already the lengthening bramble trailers, alive with leaf buds and armed with ever-ready hooks for the unwary foot, make passage through the undergrowth difficult, and the untidy rose patches have shed their last withered fragments and are full of promise of spring foliage. The whole wood, indeed the whole countryside in spite of snow and frosts, is steadily and rapidly awakening. Continue reading...

Last Tuesday was International Women’s Day – a time to remember and celebrate the achievements of women. In Earth sciences many women have made significant contributions to the field, right back as far as the 18th century, when the field was in its infancy. But to this day women are still under-represented. This month I’d like to remember a female geologist who changed our understanding of the planet we live on.In the 1940s women were not allowed to work aboard scientific research ships, but this didn’t prevent Marie Tharp, a freshly qualified draftswoman at Columbia University, from following her interest. Continue reading...

Libya | Education and memory | Maths and cake tins | Hinkley Point | Favourite toys | Double bass playersSo even the US president criticises Cameron over the disastrous war against Libya (Report, 12 March). How relieved he must be that the British media has barely an unkind word to say about the matter.

Environmental lawyers’ group says unlawful Environment Agency permits have dropped important requirementsScores of Britain’s coal-fired power stations, steel plants and iron works will no longer have to maintain a plan to show they will meet air pollution standards under the latest permits issued by the government.ClientEarth, a group of environment lawyers who last year successfully sued the government over air pollution, said the permits deleted a condition that required the plants’ operators to publish air quality management plans and to assess how much they might damage protected nature areas. Continue reading...

The Conservative candidate’s allegation that his main rival threatens the green belt in the capital is thin and contrived but forms part of a larger strategyConservative green policies usually speak first and foremost to peoples’ worries about their own back yards. Zac Goldsmith’s are no exception. The Tory candidate for London mayor has just published his Living Environment Manifesto, a document with many pledges to preserve all that is leafy against the concreting forces of the city’s blooming growth. Top of his list is protecting the green belt, a land use restriction that took its present shape in London some 60 years ago to prevent urban sprawl. Other candidates, including Goldsmith’s chief rival Labour’s Sadiq Khan, say they will to do the same. But coming from Goldsmith this promise carries its own heavy meaning and significance. It seeks to stir some of the deepest and most visceral fears of the Outer London Tory supporters on whom he is pinning his hopes of victory in May.Throughout his campaign so far Goldsmith has been eager to associate himself with his fellow Tory Boris Johnson, whose two mayoral election wins owed much to the backing of Outer Londoners. But he appears to think that Johnson’s lock on green belt security could have been tighter. In his manifesto, Goldsmith notes that the current London Plan, the master blueprint for the city’s spatial development, states that “the strongest protection” should be given to the 22% of land within Greater London’s boundary that is designated green belt but that in “very special circumstances” building on it might be allowed. “As mayor, I will issue new planning guidance, making it unambiguously clear that protected means protected,” Goldsmith writes. Continue reading...

Hunters association questions government data behind temporary ban on hunting secretive and nocturnal big catsFor the first time in decades, hunters with deep pockets will not be able to shoot all of the “big five” game animals in South Africa after the government banned leopard hunts for the 2016 season. Continue reading...

A national forest supervisor has said an Italian company’s commercial plan, opposed by tribal people, was not in the public interest – but the fight is not overPlans for a huge commercial development that would transform a tiny town near the edge of the Grand Canyon have been thrown out by federal officials in a surprise victory for conservation and indigenous interests – but campaigners warn that the world famous natural wonder remains in peril.Tusayan, in northern Arizona, has a few low-key hotels and a population of just 560. Continue reading...

Cows have long been farmed to fuel the fast food market. Now, by turning leather into a seasonal fashion, they are becoming part of fast fashion. Soon we will have to kill 430m every year. Lucy Siegle gets to grips with life without leather (well almost)After months of trotting around with a broken handbag, I finally found somewhere to mend it. It was a basement shop called Clever with Leather in Brighton. The proprietor examined the piece and announced that “cheap yarn” was the problem. He stitched it beautifully and it’s now back in service.Among his heavy-duty machinery for the punching, stitching and repairing of some of the toughest hides known to mankind I spotted a reddish leather embossed bag, such as a New World postman might have carried. It reminded me of the cavernous, buckled handbag my mum once had. This bag (along with her) was a constant reassuring presence at the school gates for the duration of primary school. From it she was always able to produce tissues, change for the bus and hair pins on the occasion of Wednesday night ballet class, like a 1970s Mary Poppins. Continue reading...

Plans to transform region from ‘industrial backwater’ into a ‘new Albion’ would see 45,000 new homes built in next 10 yearsThe Black Country long ago secured its place in the nation’s history as one of the catalysts of Britain’s industrial revolution. If it involved metal, the chances were that somewhere along the production line this sprawling, soot-stained stretch of the West Midlands, boasting an abundance of canals, coalmines, forges, factories and warehouses, played a part in its creation.But while industrialisation brought jobs, it carried a heavy price. For decades, life expectancy was noticeably shorter in the Black Country than in many other parts of the country and the region has found it hard to shake off a reputation for being an industrial backwater where few want to live. Some claim that its myriad smoking chimneys were the inspiration for Mordor, the foreboding, volcanic region in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Continue reading...

Homes in Leicestershire and Derbyshire were affected after the company ‘over-chlorinated’ a reservoir, but the majority now have usable waterMost homes affected by Severn Trent Water’s chlorine crisis will be able to use their water as normal later on Sunday, the company has said.However, 241 homes in the region will continue to be left without usable water. Continue reading...

Towns such as Keswick deserve proper protection from flooding rather than the shabby half-measures on offer at the momentWalk through Keswick, Cockermouth and many other provincial towns and you experience a dislocating feeling that they are out on parole. The apparent solidity of their homes and businesses is transient. The next storm howling in from the Atlantic will send the waters pouring through them again.Floods are no longer freak events but expected inundations. You count yourself lucky in Cumbria if winter passes and you stay dry; as you do in the Thames and Severn valleys, and along the east coast and Scottish Borders. Keswick, which I know best, was flooded in 2005 and again in 2009. In 2012, the Environment Agency built an embankment topped by an “innovative” wall made of glass panels beside the river Greta – a “superb demonstration of design and engineering working together”, its manufacturers boasted. The wall was meant to make flooding a once in 75 year event. It barely lasted three, before floods hit Keswick just before Christmas 2015. Continue reading...

A review of 10,000 lawsuits in the US shows top executives often don’t suffer damage to their reputation when their companies are embroiled in an environmental disaster – in fact, some go on to thriveVolkswagen announced on Wednesday that its top US boss, Michael Horn, would be leaving the company “effective immediately”, six months after the car giant’s global CEO resigned as the emissions cheating scandal became public. But a CEO losing his or her job following an environmental controversy is more the exception than the rule, according to a new study.

Company works to restore supply to thousands of people affected by high chlorine levels in reservoir

The deteriorating refugee crisis in Europe, Maria Sharapova’s positive drug test, International Women’s Day, Paris fashion week – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading...

Jean-Bernard Levy says he believes French state will help secure financial position for £18bn nuclear power station in UK

It’s remotely controlled and costs around £180 – and my husband’s convinced it is worth itEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.This week’s question: Continue reading...

Victory in Baden-Württemberg promises to revitalise Europe’s oldest and biggest environmentalist partyRightwing populists are on the rise across America and Europe, and, with anti-refugee party Alternative für Deutschland expected to sweep into three state parliaments on Sunday, Germany is no longer an exception.One region, though, is bucking the trend. In Baden-Württemberg, the party expected to gain most from an increasingly polarised political climate is not the anti-refugee populists, but the Green party, which has been strongly supportive of Angela Merkel’s open-borders stance. Continue reading...

For all I know, in order to act like Leonardo DiCaprio you have to believe you are ‘fighting climate change’ when you fly by private jetTwo weeks ago I wrote half a line hinting at my belief – no doubt senile and irrational – that the allegedly forthcoming global climate change disaster might still be up for discussion. Hundreds of objectors immediately surfaced through the web, many of them trolls. If I were out to count the percentage of violently angry people among the internet population, it would be easier than fishing with grenades.Several of these choleric experts correctly accused me of not being a scientist. My only field of expertise is the use and abuse of language; but a trained ear for empty rhetoric is what tells me that most of them aren’t scientists, either. People who call carbon dioxide “carbon” know even less about science than I do. Their anger, I suspect, is driven by belief rather than knowledge. Continue reading...

Taxpayers could end up footing the bill for environmental rehabilitation if the troubled business can’t be saved or soldCleaning up Clive Palmer’s nickel plant would cost Queensland taxpayers almost $100m – more than double what was previously thought – according to a new assessment by the state government.Related: Clive Palmer: cartoon villain or possible white knight for Queensland Nickel? Continue reading...

Bradwell, Derbyshire I stopped to watch a buzzard hanging off the windFor years, I’d avoided Brough Lane. The rough track climbs steeply up a ridgeline south of the Hope Valley, but its wild views of Stanage to the northeast and Kinder Scout to the northwest are overwhelmed by the looming presence of Hope’s vast cement works, a structure that is undeniably and colossally industrial – the steroidal elephant in the national park’s bijou living room.Yet I felt a little ashamed of my prejudice. For a start, the works are surrounded by woodland and birds are abundant. There is the village of Bradwell, filling its valley with a tangle of 18th-century cottages and a modern estate. Thanks to cement, it’s a vibrant working community, and a contrast to neighbours more fully absorbed into Sheffield’s commuter belt. Continue reading...

Japan’s emperor and prime minister have led tributes to the 19,000 people who died five years ago when a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the country’s north-east coast and triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Philip Levine says Rubio’s answer at Thursday’s GOP debate ignores reality of sea level rise in places such as Miami Beach, which has spent $100m on sea defensesThe mayor of Miami Beach, one of the US cities most vulnerable to sea level rise, has criticized Marco Rubio after the presidential hopeful said that it’s not possible to “change the weather” or the rising oceans through government regulation.

Jean-Bernard Lévy says nuclear project will not go ahead without more financial backing from French governmentThe boss of the French state-owned company behind the UK’s first new nuclear power station for 20 years has threatened to pull the plug on the £18bn project without further backing from François Hollande’s government.Jean-Bernard Lévy, chief executive of EDF, said he needed more financial support from the Elysée Palace to proceed with construction of the plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Continue reading...

Greenpeace has proposed the establishment of a huge Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Arctic Barents Sea in order to protect vulnerable ecosystems from bottom-trawling (Major British seafood brands linked to fishing in fragile Arctic area, theguardian.com, 3 March). It is praiseworthy that Greenpeace challenges the Arctic countries to sustainably manage the resources found there. Unfortunately, a vast protected area is not the most efficient measure for protecting what needs to be protected.Demersal fish trawls may harm vulnerable benthic biota such as corals. In the Barents Sea there are no coral reefs, but other species are vulnerable to being caught in bottom-trawling. Based on 10 years of scientific monitoring of the Barents Sea, we see that the vulnerability among the benthic communities is not uniform across the area that Greenpeace proposes should be closed. In the Svalbard region of the Barents Sea, two-thirds of survey stations were classified as having low vulnerability to bottom-trawling. Thus full protection of the area would encompass areas that don’t need protection. While it is important to put in place appropriate restrictions, it is not wise to put overly rigorous restrictions on fisheries in the Barents Sea as this would run contrary to the global needs for increased sustainable fishing to help feed a growing global population. Continue reading...

The three-day-long King’s Cup elephant polo tournament kicks off in the Samut Prakan Province of Thailand on Thursday. The event is organised by a charity aiming to provide working elephants with medical attention and the opportunity to participate in the competition, if found physically fit. Money raised goes toward supporting elephant welfare across the country Continue reading...

I apologised under duress. Needless to say there is absolutely no way I would have said sorry had I known Lambert was a spyI met Bob Lambert at my first London Greenpeace meeting in 1985, when I was in my early 20s. We got chatting about animal rights and quickly became friends; he was charismatic and like the older brother I never had. He was someone I could identify with; he was amiable, vegan and believed strongly in animal rights. He’d drop little compliments. One that stands out was at a benefit gig for the Animal Liberation Front in September 1986, at a squat in Islington. I designed the poster and he said, “That looks great. You’re an artist!” I was flattered, and it stuck with me. I now know that spies are trained to tell you things you want to hear.This photograph was taken on World Anti McDonald’s Day. We’d just published a new leaflet entitled What’s Wrong With McDonald’s: Everything They Don’t Want You To Know. I think I contributed one sentence: “Revolution begins in your stomach.” It was the leaflet that led to the McLibel trial – I was one of those sued by McDonald’s in 1990. Continue reading...

Perfectly Imperfect produce will be introduced in 200 stores this week in crackdown on food wasteTesco is stepping up efforts to tackle food waste with the launch of a “wonky veg” range and a pledge to send all unwanted fresh produce to charity by end of next year.The Perfectly Imperfect will initially offer parsnips and potatoes before expanding to include a further 15 types of produce, including carrots and apples, over the next few months. The scheme is launching in about 200 stores from Friday. Continue reading...

Environment Agency says eight pumps capable of handling 30% more water to be installed along river as part of £13m projectThe Environment Agency has said it intends to replace all water pumps around York months after the failure of one led to flooding in large swaths of the city.Eight pumps capable of dealing with 30% more water are to be installed over the next 20 months, the agency said. Continue reading...

African penguin chicks, an Arctic weasel and Australia’s little red flying foxes are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Its claws were in my knees, my neck, my chest. Its jaw stretched over my head from my hairline to the back of my skullI spent most of my early life without direction. Raised in Minnesota, my family was so large – I have six siblings – it felt as if it was survival of the fittest and I began acting up for attention. I had my first beer in kindergarten, my first joint in seventh grade and my first line of cocaine at high school. I was making my parents cry every day. Aged 24, I threw everything in a van and left for Colorado. Three months after arriving, I was broke. To help clear my head, I often hiked through Roxborough state park, about 15 miles south-west of Denver. There are no dogs or bicycles allowed there. It’s just you and your hiking boots. From the top of the mountain the view is breathtaking – mountain ranges as far as you can see. I’d never felt a sense of calm like I did up there.On 30 April 1998, I was 50 yards from the top of the mountain when I saw a long, brown tail poking out from behind a pine tree. There hadn’t been a mountain lion sighting in the park for over a year, but I immediately knew that’s what it was. I froze, watching the tree. The mountain lion’s head would come up and look around, then it would go back to whatever it was eating, its jaws crunching through the bones of its kill. Continue reading...

US-Canadian initiative brightens chances of success for Paris climate agreement and casts Justin Trudeau as Obama’s heir in terms of global climate actionA joint US-Canadian declaration to help spur the transition to a low carbon economy passed the baton of global climate action from Barack Obama to Justin Trudeau on Thursday – and brightened prospects for the Paris agreement.

As transport commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan faced down critics to transform New York with 400 miles of cycling routes, a bike share scheme and the remodelling of Times Square. Any city can do it, she tells Peter WalkerJanette Sadik-Khan, who in alliance with her then-boss, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, arguably did as much to transform the city’s streetscape as anyone in its recent history, recalls an early moment when she wondered whether people were ready for such rapid change.It was August 2008 and the city was experimenting with a so-called summer streets programme, where almost seven miles of central streets were closed off to cars for three Saturday mornings in a row. The idea was not new – Bogotá introduced its equivalent, the Cicloviá, in the 1970s – but it was entirely untested in New York.

Natural defences can reduce flood height in towns by up to 20%, and should be used alongside conventional defences, say scientistsNatural defences, including planting more trees, could be a solution to the country’s flooding problems, according to new research.In a study led by the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton, scientists found that planting trees could reduce the height of flooding in towns by up to 20%.

For the past eight months rubbish has been piling up in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Public outrage over health risks has prompted protest group You Stink to create a parody of an official tourism video by juxtaposing images of Lebanon’s beauty spots with the reality of the country’s waste crisis