The Guardian
'I’m skint – I know why people buy cheap meat’: the truth about being a farmer
From financial struggles to arguing with vegans, Sally Urwin’s new book lifts the lid on farming
Spring in the countryside near Hadrian’s Wall is a scenic season for visitors, all grassy meadows and lambs gambolling in the sunshine. But it’s hard labour for Sally Urwin. The small, cheerful Northumbrian farmer is lambing from 6am to 9pm every day (her husband, Steve, takes the night shift). Her first book, a diary of a year on their 80-hectare (200-acre) farm, has been published, meaning Urwin must also take a bottle-fed lamb to various “scary” literary festivals. Then, looming over every family farm like a particularly black rain cloud, is Brexit.
Farmers have a reputation for looking on the gloomy side of life, but Urwin, 44, is a naturally upbeat person. A Farmer’s Diary combines humour and the stark reality of modern farming, often in the same anecdote, such as the moment the “knacker van”, filled with a pungent pile of dead ewes, drives into their yard just as guests assemble for a wedding party.
Continue reading...Greens blast key part of Labor's climate policy as 'fake action'
Party says allowing heavy polluters to use international permits to meet emissions reduction targets allows companies to ‘keep polluting at home’
The Greens are positioning to torpedo a key element of Labor’s new climate policy in the event Bill Shorten wins the federal election in May, telegraphing strong opposition to heavy polluters using international permits to meet their emissions reduction targets.
The thumbs-down from the Greens, who will likely be the critical Senate bloc post-election in the event of a Labor victory, comes as the politically influential motoring lobby has also signalled it will push back on Labor’s proposal to introduce vehicle efficiency standards for light vehicles that would bring Australia broadly into line with carbon pollutions standards for cars in the US.
Continue reading...Japanese cherry blossom in full bloom – in pictures
Japan’s sakura (cherry blossom) season has officially begun, with crowds flocking to parks to photograph the early blooms
Continue reading...Mutilated dolphins wash up on French coast in record numbers
Activists say 1,100 dolphins found since January - but real figure may be 10 times higher
A record number of dolphins have washed up on France’s Atlantic coast in the last three months, many with devastating injures.
Environmental campaigners say 1,100 mutilated dolphins have been found since January, but the real figure could be 10 times higher as many bodies sink without trace. Activists warn the marine slaughter could threaten the extinction of the European dolphin population in the region.
Continue reading...Japan to oppose new or expanded coal-fired power plants in blow to Australian exports
Australia’s top export market for thermal coal gives further signs of dramatic energy pivot to renewables
Japan’s environment minister has announced he will “in principle” oppose any new plans to build or expand coal-fired power stations, as further signs emerge of a dramatic energy pivot by Australia’s top export market for thermal coal.
Guardian Australia reported in March that Japan had cancelled a large percentage of planned investments in coal-fired power, while Japanese investment vehicles were ditching coal projects and instead seeking to back large-scale renewable projects across Asia.
Continue reading...Alaska judge blocks Trump on Arctic and Atlantic drilling
- April 2017 executive order reversed Obama protections
- Green groups celebrate, justice department declines comment
Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic, a judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.
Related: Ocasio-Cortez says Green New Deal critics are making 'fools of themselves'
Continue reading...'Woefully dirty': government accused over Australia's failure to cut vehicle emissions
Australia has not set efficiency standards, despite years of talking, in contrast to China, India, Japan, US and EU
Cuts to carbon emissions from vehicle efficiency standards have been left out of government projections for meeting Australia’s Paris climate commitments, indicating the policy has been shelved.
The office of the transport minister, Michael McCormack, said the government had not made a decision on “how or when” standards to cut carbon pollution from vehicles might be implemented.
Continue reading...Record numbers of Australia's wildlife species face 'imminent extinction'
Fauna crisis highlights the failure of regional forest agreements, says Wilderness Society
Regional forest agreements have failed in the 20 years since they were established by state governments, says a new report, which reveals that record numbers of threatened forest dwelling fauna and many species are heading towards imminent extinction.
The report, Abandoned – Australia’s forest wildlife in crisis, has assessed the conservation status of federally listed forest-dwelling vertebrate fauna species affected by logging and associated roading and burning across Australia’s regional forest agreement (RFA) regions in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Continue reading...How the lion lost its strength: big cats’ survival at risk as DNA defences dwindle
For more than a century, explorers and settlers have warned about the likely impact of the hunting of lions and other wild animals in Africa. One of the most prescient, Frederick Selous, the inspiration for the character Allan Quatermain in the novels of H Rider Haggard, wrote in 1908 that “since my first arrival in 1871, I had seen game of all kinds gradually decrease and dwindle in numbers to such an extent that I thought that nowhere south of the Great Lakes could there be a corner of Africa left where the wild animals had not been very much thinned out”.
Now researchers have uncovered the impact of that predation on the lion. Lion numbers and range have plunged – but it appears their genetic fitness has also declined. An alarming new study has revealed that lions shot by colonial hunters more than 100 years ago were more genetically diverse than the ones that now populate Africa. The discovery is worrying because it indicates that the species’ fight to survive may be even more difficult than had been previously thought.
Continue reading...‘More plastic than fish’: Greek fishermen battle to clean a cruel sea
The fish market at Keratsini comes alive at night. Under floodlights, crews in rubber waders and boots wash down the decks of boats moored in the harbour, repair nets dangling from cranes, and put on ice the shrimp, calamari, mullet and hake that are their latest pickings.
Recently other things – objects that might never have been pulled from the sea – have also supplemented hauls. “We’re talking about lots of waste, lots of garbage,” says Dimitris Dalianis. “We’re finding it almost everywhere.”
Continue reading...Earth Hour: landmarks to switch off lights to help save planet
UK sites including London Eye and Eden Project take part in WWF event highlighting climate change
More than 100 landmarks across the UK, from Buckingham Palace to Edinburgh Castle, are switching off their lights to mark this year’s Earth Hour.
The lights will go off at famous buildings and structures across the country between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday as part of the international event organised by conservation charity WWF to urge action to save the planet.
Continue reading...Labor to tighten emissions regime as it draws climate battle-lines
Land-clearing and vehicle pollution measures also expected in opposition’s final election offering on climate
Labor is set to unveil a climate policy that will beef up the Morrison government’s heavily criticised safeguard mechanism, creating new pollution reduction requirements for the aviation sector, cement, steel and aluminum, mining and gas, direct combustion and the non-electricity energy sectors.
Currently the safeguard mechanism applies to businesses with direct emissions of more than 100 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent pollution each year, and Labor’s policy is expected to lower that threshold to 25 kilotonnes, which means more sectors and businesses will be covered.
Continue reading...What better replacement for dirty Hazelwood than a windfarm? | Simon Holmes à Court
A plan to generate enough wind power for 200,000 homes hints at a coal valley’s clean energy future
At exactly 5pm on 29 March 2017, Unit 1 of the Hazelwood station reported the last energy generation after 53 years of faithful operation. Hazelwood isn’t the first coal power station to close in recent years — in fact it is one of 13 that closed over a five year period — but, as one of the largest and dirtiest power stations in the country it has become totemic, for both the environment movement and Australia’s coal fetishists.
Now, two years on, fears of mass workforce dislocation — such as the Latrobe Valley suffered when the region’s power stations were privatised in the 1990s — have largely failed to materialise. More than 1,000 jobs have been created in the region and unemployment has dropped from 8% to 5.7%, in no small part due to the efforts of the Latrobe Valley Authority, set up by the state government to help ensure a “just transition” for the workers and local community.
Continue reading...Butterflywatch: hope for the rare white-letter hairstreak
Dutch elm disease caused a catastrophic decline for the butterfly that relies on the elm to feed its caterpillars. But help is at hand
Most butterflies are still hibernating after a reassuringly normal March following the February heatwave. Our five hairstreak species all hibernate in their minuscule eggs, stuck fast to bare branches – a wise and robust strategy. The white-letter hairstreak, a diminutive dark butterfly with a white W on its underside, has declined by 93% since the 1970s because Dutch elm disease has destroyed the trees on which its caterpillars feed.
Related: Rare UK butterfly under threat as elms disappear
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A frog hopping onto a duck, bats hibernating in a fridge and a bee collecting nectar from a cherry blossom tree
Continue reading...Scientists to take 1.5m-year-old ice samples for climate research
East Antarctica drilling project will give snapshot of Earth’s atmosphere and climate
Scientists are planning to extract ice samples from more than 1.5m years ago in a bid to discover more about our ancient climate – and hopefully learn more about our future climate.
The Beyond Epica project plans to extract samples from the bottom of a 2.75km-thick ice sheet in East Antarctica. The ice cores will be the oldest ever drilled for.
Continue reading...EU bans widely used pesticide over safety concerns
Officials say chlorothalonil poses high risk to wildlife and may potentially harm humans
One of the world’s most common pesticides will soon be banned by the European Union after safety officials reported human health and environmental concerns.
Chlorothalonil, a fungicide that prevents mildew and mould on crops, is the most used pesticide in the UK, applied to millions of hectares of fields, and is the most popular fungicide in the US. Farmers called the ban “overly precautionary”.
Continue reading...Survival in Mozambique after cyclone Idai – in pictures
Millions of survivors face dire conditions after the tropical cyclone Idai smashed into Mozambique’s coast, unleashing hurricane-force wind and rain that flooded swathes of the country. More than two million people have been affected in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, where the storm killed 60 and displaced nearly a million people. Hundreds are still missing in Mozambique and Zimbabwe
Continue reading...Can the world quench China’s bottomless thirst for milk?
China’s leaders have championed milk as the emblem of a modern, affluent society – but their radical plan to triple the nation’s consumption will have a huge environmental cost.
By Felicity Lawrence
Beijing-based film-maker Jian Yi, now 43, clearly remembers the arrival of fresh milk in his life. It was an image of it, not the real thing. “It was the 1990s, and I first saw it in an advert on TV. The ad said explicitly that drinking milk would save the nation. It would make China stronger and better able to survive competition from other nations.”
Like most ethnic Han, who make up about 95% of the population, Jian was congenitally lactose-intolerant, meaning milk was hard to digest. His parents did not consume dairy at all when they were growing up; China’s economy was closed to the global market and its own production very limited. Throughout the Mao era, milk was in short supply and rationed to those deemed to have a special need: infants and the elderly, athletes and party cadres above a certain grade. Through most of the imperial dynasties until the 20th century, milk was generally shunned as the slightly disgusting food of the barbarian invaders. Foreigners brought cows to the port cities that had been ceded to them by the Chinese in the opium wars of the 19th century, and a few groups such as Mongolian pastoralists used milk that was fermented, but it was not part of the typical Chinese diet.
Continue reading...Australia's coal export bonanza at risk from China switch, says report
Despite record $278bn export earnings from resources sector, revenues are set to fall with coal under threat from Beijing rethink
Australia’s booming earnings from coal exports could be in jeopardy if China switches to more domestic supply and if port restrictions continue to favour competing exporters, a federal government report has warned.
The country’s energy and resources exports will rake in an extra $20bn to rise to $278bn this financial year, the report by the industry department said, creating a timely bonanza for the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to exploit in next week’s federal budget.
Continue reading...