The Guardian
High court dismisses attempt to block third Heathrow runway
Campaigners had hoped to stop airport expansion, saying it was inconsistent with Paris Agreement on climate change
Campaigners fighting to stop the expansion of Heathrow have failed in their attempt at the high court to block the new runway.
Five judicial reviews were challenging the legality of the government’s decision to allow a third runway at Heathrow airport.
Continue reading...'Location, location, lung disease': pollution ads target property market
Citizen-funded campaign to flag up illegal levels of toxic air to London buyers and renters
A citizen-funded advertising campaign against air pollution will target the property market with billboard slogans including “Location, location, lung disease” and “The neighbourhood’s gone to the docs”.
These will be accompanied by online ads and a website where homebuyers and renters in London will be able to look up levels of toxic air for the property they are considering. The campaign will launch in the capital in late May and there are plans to make it nationwide.
Continue reading...Box jellyfish: Australian researchers find antidote for world's most venomous creature
Jellyfish’s sting carries enough venom to kill more than 60 people
An antidote has been discovered for the world’s most venomous creature, the Australian box jellyfish.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have found an antidote for the sting of the jellyfish – which carries enough venom to kill more than 60 people.
Continue reading...Corbyn to tell MPs: Do your duty, and declare a UK climate emergency
Labour leader urges emissions cuts and boost for renewables in ‘green industrial revolution’
Jeremy Corbyn will urge MPs to take on their “historic duty” over climate change and back a Labour motion calling for the UK to declare a national environmental and climate-change emergency.
Speaking in the wake of climate strikes by young people and the wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the Labour leader will open an opposition day debate on Wednesday by also seeking a so-called green industrial revolution to transform the economy.
Continue reading...Cold-blooded creatures: Matthijs Kuijpers' astonishing closeups – in pictures
Renowned amphibian and reptile photographer Matthijs Kuijpers has released his first book, Cold Instinct. Kuijpers says the aim of the work is ‘for the viewer to abandon the fear and negative thoughts that often surround these animals’. What’s left is the bizarre beauty of these creatures in their simplest form – no backgrounds and no distractions
Continue reading...'Greed took over': the farmers fighting bottled water giants for their water
Water mining is big business in rural Australia but many growers fear for the future of their groundwater
It’s the middle of the night and the roar of a massive truck echoes through the tiny village of Uki in northern New South Wales.
The prime mover, hauling large stainless-steel containers laden with groundwater, is headed north, down narrow country roads, to bottling plants across the border in Queensland.
Continue reading...Water mining: claims bottled water companies illegally extracting groundwater
NSW campaigners say they have footage of water transport trucks operating through the night despite curfew
Lawyers for a northern New South Wales council are investigating claims that bottled water businesses have broken the law with recent groundwater extractions.
Tweed Shire council’s planning and regulation director, Vince Connell, says the council is “carefully considering its legal options” after receiving a large number of “non-compliance” allegations from the public about water extraction businesses.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion and a brief history of civil disobedience | Letters
Much as I share the view that the Extinction Rebellion protesters’ anger over government inaction has catapulted climate change into the spotlight, I think they still have a way to go to meet the claim that it is “the biggest act of mass civil disobedience in the UK for generations” (Extinction activists to stand on ‘climate emergency’ ticket, 27 April).
The House of Commons library collated statistics for me, from the Home Office, of cases taken to the magistrates’ courts of refusal or inability to pay the poll tax. At over 25 million, between April 1990 and September 1993, compared to just over 1,000 climate change protest cases so far which may end up in the courts, the poll tax rebellion still takes some beating. It not only ground the legal system to a halt across the whole country but led directly to the downfall of the prime minister of the day.
Continue reading...Birdsong inspires artists, musicians and poets. The world should listen | Letters
With 40 million fewer birds today than in 1966 (Report, 29 April), the UK is one of the most nature-deprived countries in the world. Nature is falling silent, and the impact on our environment, culture, health and happiness should not be underestimated.
Nature’s influence runs through the fabric of our culture, its creations woven into myth and legend. Birds in particular have been revered in every age. From the Bard to the Beatles and Elgar to Emin, birds have inspired works of music, art, the written and spoken word, while naturalists from Darwin to Attenborough have shared the lives of these remarkable creatures with us, ensuring their status as national treasures for eternity.
Continue reading...London tubes, schools and homes 'face climate change chaos'
The heatwave of 2018 will become the capital’s new normal, claims Green party in report outlining severe daily disruption to capital
Hundreds of schools, hospitals and tube stations in London are at risk of flooding or overheating as the climate crisis accelerates and global temperatures continue to rise, according to a new study.
The report, commissioned by the Green party on the London Assembly, paints a bleak picture of life in the capital as global temperatures increase by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – a conservative estimate based on current projections.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion tells politicians to declare emergency
Activists meet Michael Gove and John McDonnell in push for net zero carbon emissions
Extinction Rebellion activists have met leading politicians including the environment secretary, Michael Gove, and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, in an attempt to persuade the UK government to declare a “climate emergency”.
On Wednesday, the government’s statutory advisers on climate change are expected to set out ways in which the UK can reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, including reductions from transport, heating and energy production.
Continue reading...Chris Packham reveals death threats made in bird-shooting row
Hampshire police investigate intimidation of Springwatch presenter and family
The broadcaster and wildlife campaigner Chris Packham has revealed he and his family received death threats days after dead crows were strung up outside his home.
The BBC Springwatch presenter has been subjected to a campaign of intimidation since the Wild Justice group he co-founded successfully challenged a licensing system that allowed the shooting of 16 bird species, including crows, jays and woodpigeons.
Continue reading...Two-thirds of Britons agree planet is in a climate emergency
Greenpeace poll findings released alongside group’s ‘manifesto’ to slash emissions
Two-thirds of people in the UK recognise there is a climate emergency and 76% say that they would cast their vote differently to protect the planet.
The findings, in a poll commissioned by Greenpeace, come as the group unveiled a detailed “climate manifesto”, listing 134 key actions they say the government should take immediately to ensure the UK hits zero carbon emissions as soon as possible.
Continue reading...Climate change damage to Queensland's world heritage rainforest 'as bad as Great Barrier Reef'
Management authority warns wet topics area is in ‘accelerating decline’ and endemic species under immediate threat
The wet tropics world heritage area in north Queensland has been damaged by climate change in a manner “equivalent” to coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, the area’s management authority has said.
In an extraordinary statement issued on Monday, the authority’s board said the tropical rainforest was in “accelerating decline” and that some of the area’s unique species were at imminent risk of extinction.
Continue reading...Our plastics are designed to degrade in the right conditions | Letter
If the researchers from the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit (Biodegradable plastic bags still intact after three years, 29 April) had been polymer scientists who understood the process of abiotic degradation, they would have understood that an oxo-biodegradable shopping bag contains stabilisers to give the product a useful service life and which could therefore delay the onset of degradation for two years or more depending on how the particular bag was designed.
They would also have understood that oxo-biodegradable bags are not intended to degrade in special conditions such as landfill or when buried deep in soil, but are intended to degrade if they become litter in the open environment on the surface of land or sea with an abundance of oxygen and usually exposed to sunlight.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion and Momentum join forces on climate crisis
Activists to rally at parliament urging government to declare environmental emergency
Momentum, the youth climate strikers and Extinction Rebellion are to unite in protest outside parliament on Wednesday as Labour calls on the Conservatives to declare an environmental emergency in a parliamentary vote.
In the first explicit collaboration between the three groups, a coalition of activists and campaigners will rally in Parliament Square to demand the government backs the plan, first put forward by Extinction Rebellion as the primary demand of the protests that engulfed London over the past fortnight.
Continue reading...Whale in mystery harness harasses Norwegian boats – video
Marine specialists believe this white beluga whale filmed approaching fishing boats in Norway could have received military-grade training by the Russian navy. The whale, which was first sighted near the Norwegian village of Inga, was wearing a strange harness bearing the words 'equipment of St Petersburg'. The fisherman said the whale, which was tame and accustomed to people, attempted to pull ropes and straps from the sides of the boats
Continue reading...Lawyer forced to flee Liberia hopes to return after Goldman prize win
Like other recipients, Alfred Brownell has faced threats and worse defending the environment
Two years ago Alfred Brownell was forced to flee Liberia after a successful campaign against a foreign palm oil plantation led to death threats and intimidation. Today, he hopes to return after being named one of this year’s winners of the Goldman environmental prize.
Like several other recipients of the 2019 award, which will be presented at a ceremony on Monday in San Francisco, the Liberian lawyer risked life and liberty to defend people and wildlife in a region of the world that was until recently remote, but is now encroached upon by powerful business interests.
Continue reading...Bird lovers flock to Berkeley Square as nightingales return
Artists and musicians swoop to save one of UK’s most celebrated but endangered birds
Just as Vera Lynn sang, the voices of nightingales are again being heard in Berkeley Square in central London over the hum of traffic and din of construction work.
The nightingale has virtually disappeared from Britain over the past 50 years, its population plummeting by 93% to fewer than 5,500 pairs. But now a chorus of nightingale events are being arranged by artists, musicians and filmmakers to raise awareness of the plight of one of the country’s most celebrated but endangered birds.
Continue reading...Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts
Fisherman raised alarm after white whale sporting unusual strapping began harassing their boats
Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force.
Fishermen in waters near the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga reported last week that a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness had begun to harass their fishing boats.
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