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'Grim' outlook in NSW mid-north coast as bushfires continue
Qantas plans zero net carbon emissions by 2050
Heavy rainfall and more flooding forecast for week ahead
More than 140 flood warnings and alerts in place as South Yorkshire villagers evacuate
Further heavy rainfall has been forecast for the UK this week and more flooding is expected as communities already affected struggle to cope.
Seven severe “danger to life” flood warnings remain in place in South Yorkshire in areas along the River Don. The Met Office also issued 41 active flood warnings and 94 flood alerts, and said a weather system moving across Europe would bring a “fair amount” of rainfall to England and Wales.
Continue reading...Another COAG meeting, another limp swing at the waste problem
The difficulty of letting kids go wild | Letters
No one could dispute the Wildlife Trusts’ plea for all children to “have the opportunity to experience the joy of wildlife in daily life” and “to recognise the multiple benefits of nature for children – and ensure that at least one hour per school day is spent outdoors learning and playing in wild places”. (Call for schoolchildren to ‘go wild’ for at least one hour of every day, 7 November).
For the majority of children who go to schools that don’t have immediate access to those wild places, how is this to be achieved? Over the years many schools have established forest clubs and gardening clubs, but these do not and cannot equate with “wild places”. My childhood was spent on Vancouver Island in the 1950s, when we had large gardens that were in themselves wild places. My four children have been raised in Oxford, which certainly allows access to country places and, at Shotover Park, for example, a relatively wild place, at least for some, but not easily or practicably accessible to all.
Continue reading...Inside Market Forces, the small climate group Scott Morrison wants to put out of business
From humble beginnings, Market Forces is now in the crosshairs of the Coalition’s war on environmental boycotts
When Market Forces, a small climate activist group, was singled out as the target of the government’s push to stop environmental campaigns that advocate boycotts of fossil-fuel companies, its leader was briefly taken aback but not disappointed.
“You know you’re doing something right when the Morrison government tries to bring you down,” Julien Vincent, the group’s executive director and founder, says from its base in Melbourne. “It’s unpleasant, but it’s only happening because we are getting results.”
Continue reading...'I had no warning at all': floods submerge Doncaster village – video
Hundreds of homes in Fishlake village have been severely flooded with water from the River Don. Displaced residents were evacuated by rescue workers who accessed the area by boat. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn visited those affected. There are seven severe flood warnings in Yorkshire and Johnson drew criticism for saying they did not need to be escalated to the level of a national emergency
Continue reading...Badger cull activists hit out at cost of shooters' tracking devices
Defra revealed that more than £300,000 of public money has been spent on the devices
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of UK taxpayers’ money has been spent on equipping badger cull marksmen and women with tracking devices so that their movements could be mapped by co-ordinators and police.
Anti-cull activists have criticised the expense, arguing that the cost of the cull should be met by farmers rather than the public purse.
Continue reading...Can laboratories curb their addiction to plastic?
Research scientists have largely gone unnoticed as major users of unrecyclable material. Now some universities are helping them kick the habit
Scientific research is a largely ignored consumer of single-use plastics, with the biomedical sciences a particularly high-volume offender. Plastic petri dishes, bottles of various shapes and sizes, several types of glove, a dizzying array of pipettes and pipette tips, a hoard of sample tubes and vials: they have all become an everyday part of scientific research. Most of us will never use such equipment, but without it, we wouldn’t have the knowledge, technologies, products and medicines we all rely on. It is vital to 21st-century lives, but it is also extremely polluting.
In 2015, researchers at the University of Exeter weighed up their bioscience department’s annual plastic waste, and extrapolated that biomedical and agricultural laboratories worldwide could be responsible for 5.5m tonnes of plastic waste a year. To put that in context, they pointed out that this was equal to 83% of the plastic recycled worldwide in 2012.
Continue reading...Murder of two journalists leads to arrest of Indonesian palm oil boss
Police say businessman masterminded killing of reporters who were helping local people in dispute with his company
An Indonesian palm oil executive has been arrested for allegedly ordering the killing two activist journalists who were mediating a land dispute between his company and local residents.
Maraden Sianipar’s body was found last week in a ditch near a palm plantation in Labuhan Batu in North Sumatra province. Police found the remains of his colleague Maratua Siregar in the same area a day later. Both had been stabbed multiple times.
Continue reading...The flood waters may be receding, but anger rises in weary Doncaster
Driving north on a foggy Saturday morning on the M1, the signs say “Derbyshire flooding”. It sounds like the present continuous tense, ominous and ongoing. Twenty-four hours earlier, the body of Annie Hall, a former high sheriff of the county, had been found. She had been swept away by the River Derwent at Darley Dale, not far from Matlock.
If that fatality lends a tragic note to the floods that hit the east Midlands and northern England on Friday, the streets are awash with many more mundane stories of hardship. Though the flooding has now subsided in most areas, in Doncaster people are still struggling to cope with the aftermath.
Continue reading...Wild spirituality for a warming world
Kangaroo Island: pioneering research examines health of sea lions – in pictures
For the first time, a colony of sea lions in Australia is being treated with a topical anti-parasitic and monitored for health and survival. The research, led by Dr Rachael Gray, from the School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, is investigating the effects of hookworm, environmental pollutants and human-associated bacteria on the mortality of sea lions in the first 18 months of their lives. Photographer Louise Cooper accompanied the team as they set up the trial on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. ‘Populations will continue to decline if we don’t do something to save these charismatic and iconic marine mammals,’ says Gray.
Continue reading...Callum Roberts: ‘Sharks do bite people, they do kill people, but it's more error than intention'
The marine biologist’s new book describes his lifelong love affair with the oceans, and the grave threat undersea life faces
Callum Roberts is professor of marine conservation at York University and was chief scientific adviser on Blue Planet 2. His new book, Reef Life, details a life spent in the oceans studying the marine ecosystem.
How was your first dive?
It was in the north of Scotland, where I grew up. I dived out of Scrabster harbour near Thurso and I had no idea then just how bruised and trashed and scraped the whole sea had become, and how much life had been removed from it over the centuries. I was in a wetsuit that I’d glued together at home. A wetsuit should hug every curve, but this one didn’t. It was bloody cold.
Bloodhound land speed car will be back racing next week
Warren and Booker lead candidates at environmental justice forum
- National Black Caucus of State Legislators hosts event
- Booker defends support for nuclear power
Only six candidates turned out for the first ever presidential forum on environmental justice, at South Carolina State University on Friday night.
Related: Michael Bloomberg: billionaire eyes centre lane in Democratic presidential race
Continue reading...Giant Greta Thunberg mural to watch over San Francisco's downtown
Project by Argentinian artist Andrés Iglesias is poised for completion next week in eco-conscious city
San Francisco, a city that prides itself on its eco-consciousness, will soon have a giant likeness of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg gazing upon its downtown, reminding residents to respect the planet.
The Argentine muralist Andres Iglesias, who signs his art with the pseudonym Cobre, is expected to complete the project in the central Union Square neighborhood by next week, SFGate reported. Cobre also painted a revered mural of the comedian Robin Williams that has since been demolished.
Continue reading...Birds threatened by rapid climate change
How to build affection for city rivers
Senior Policy Analyst on Agriculture & Climate, Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) – Brussels
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