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Recycled packaging 'may end up in landfill', warns watchdog
UK's plastic waste may be dumped overseas instead of recycled
Millions of tons of plastic sent abroad for recycling may be being dumped in landfill
Millions of tons of waste plastic from British businesses and homes may be ending up in landfill sites across the world, the government’s spending watchdog has warned.
Huge amounts of packaging waste is being sent overseas on the basis that it will be recycled and turned into new products. However, concerns have been raised that in reality much of it is being dumped in sites from Turkey to Malaysia.
Continue reading...Earth's resources consumed in ever greater destructive volumes
Study says the date by which we consume a year’s worth of resources is arriving faster
Humanity is devouring our planet’s resources in increasingly destructive volumes, according to a new study that reveals we have consumed a year’s worth of carbon, food, water, fibre, land and timber in a record 212 days.
As a result, the Earth Overshoot Day – which marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate – has moved forward two days to 1 August, the earliest date ever recorded.
Continue reading...Remembering Antarctica's nuclear past with 'Nukey Poo'
Sanjeev Gupta: Coal power is no longer cheaper – and we'll prove it
The British billionaire investing in South Australia believes renewables are the future of energy, because it makes economic sense
The British billionaire who rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration and is spending more than $2bn on clean energy and green steel developments in regional South Australia says most Australians are yet to grasp that solar power is now a cheaper option than new coal-fired electricity.
Sanjeev Gupta, an industrialist whose family-owned GFG Alliance group of companies has been credited with resurrecting Britain’s steel industry, says he considered investing in coal generation in the state’s Upper Spencer Gulf after buying Arrium’s steel mill last year but found solar backed by “firming” storage technologies made better economic sense.
Continue reading...Collie council votes against cheaper solar because “we should be burning more coal”
Wave of plastic hits Dominican Republic
Protection for dolphins and seabirds ‘weaker under Brexit plans’
Protection for dolphins and seabirds will be weaker under government plans for Brexit than if Britain stayed in the EU, according to a new analysis by environmental groups.
Under the EU’s Seabird Plan of Action, the fishing industry is obliged to eliminate “bycatch”, where boats accidentally catch seabirds, dolphins and other species. Under laws set out in environment secretary Michael Gove’s white paper on fisheries, they would need only to implement “practical and effective risk-based mitigation”.
Continue reading...The Gaia hypothesis revived
Have you been affected by the drought in Australia?
We’d like to hear from people who’ve been affected by the drought in New South Wales and other states in east Australia. Share your experiences
A record dry spell has caused the worst drought in 100 years in parts of eastern Australia. Farmers with livestock in parts of New South Wales have been some of the most affected as low rainfall and a dry winter have depleted the grass needed to feed livestock.
Farmers are having to buy expensive feed to keep animals alive and the extra costs are putting some livelihoods at risk. The NSW government recently approved an emergency drought relief package of $600m, at least $250m of which will cover low-interest loans to assist eligible farms. Though the package has been welcomed there are concerns among farmers that it’s not enough.
Continue reading...Labour pledges to reinstate Agricultural Wages Board
Jeremy Corbyn to announce policy that aims to raise rural workers’ living standards in areas of high inequality
Labour has pledged to improve the pay and conditions of rural workers in England by reinstating the Agricultural Wages Board, which was abolished five years ago.
Jeremy Corbyn will announce the policy on Sunday at the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, which commemorates the history of trade unionism and agricultural workers’ struggle for fair pay.
Continue reading...Two new peacock spiders identified in Western Australia
Biologist Jürgen Otto and colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily colourful dancing spiders
It is only a few millimetres in size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.
But when biologist Jürgen Otto first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he didn’t immediately recognise how special it was.
Continue reading...'Double wrap it for convenience': excessive plastic packaging - in pictures
We asked, you answered – and there was no shortage of examples of excessive plastic packaging across Australia shared via Guardian Witness
Continue reading...Nine activists defending the Earth from violent assault
On a planet of billions, nine represent the strong minority battling murder in the global corruption of land rights
Individually, they are stories of courage and tragedy. Together, they tell a tale of a natural world under ever more violent assault.
The portraits in this series are of nine people who are risking their lives to defend the land and environment in some of the planet’s most remote or conflict-riven regions.
Continue reading...Smart meters to save UK households only £11 a year, report finds
Report by MPs and peers says predicted benefits of scheme ‘likely to be slashed further’
Government predictions of the savings smart meters will generate for consumers are inflated, out of date and based on a number of questionable assumptions, a group of MPs and peers has said.
They also said the rollout of smart meters risked going over budget, was past its deadline and must be reviewed immediately.
Continue reading...'We have become guardians': Turkey's accidental forest protectors
Birhan Erkutlu and Tuğba Günal wanted to ‘get away from it all’ but are now leading a campaign to protect rivers and trees from hydropower plants
Birhan Erkutlu and Tuğba Günal moved into the forests of Antalya to get away from it all. They wanted a natural, peaceful life free of capitalism, consumer culture, social media, the internet, even electricity. Fate had other plans.
Fourteen years on, the two artists are now figureheads of a campaign to protect rivers and trees from a cascade of hydropower plants. Their tweets and Facebook posts attract hundreds of thousands of followers. They use drones to expose wrongdoing. And they have overcome threats, warning shots and a hostile political culture to lobby successfully for the creation of a new protected area.
Continue reading...'God wants you to act on what's in front of you': enforcing conservation law in the Coral Triangle
Robert Chan risks his life to stop poachers and powerful developers destroying precious marine life in the Philippines
Confiscated bottles of cyanide, fishing dynamite and more than 600 chainsaws decorate the office of Robert Chan , leader of arguably the world’s most effective direct-action eco-vigilante organisation.
The Palawan NGO Network Incorporated risk their lives to protect reefs and coastal forests in the Coral Triangle, a global hotspot for marine biodiversity and violent environmental crime.
Continue reading...'We had no plans for violence': Indian campaign against toxic smelter turned deadly
Fatima Babu’s decades-long campaign against a toxic copper smelter in Tamil Nadu says the cost of victory was too high
For 24 years, Fatima Babu struggled to galvanise the citizens of Tuticorin in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu against the toxic threat posed by the Sterlite Copper smelter. Often working thanklessly and sometimes alone, she filed lawsuits, organised workshops and gave interviews to raise awareness.
The English professor-turned-activist hoped that people would eventually rally to the cause, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine how quickly opinion could change or how violently the authorities would respond.
'You will never run from death': shot by poachers in Uganda
Ranger Samuel Loware’s life is under constant threat in his efforts to conserve wildlife from heavily armed guerillas
The bullet that pierced the shoulder of Ugandan ranger Samuel Loware had already taken one life and could easily have added his. The shell was fired by a Sudanese poacher trying to flee back over the border with contraband meat from the Kidepo Valley national park.
Loware had been tracking the fugitive - one of a band of heavily armed raiders - from the early morning with the help of a local villager. As the two pursuers approached a gully, the poacher opened fire from behind a tree trunk that had been pushed down by an elephant. One shot passed through the chest of the villager into the body of the ranger, who was returning fire.
'I thank god I am alive': standing firm against mineral extraction in South Africa
Nonhle Mbuthuma is battling for her community’s right to say no to the exploitation of their territory in a hangover of the apartheid era
As a child, Nonhle Mbuthuma would wake up in her family’s thatched hut listening to the waves crashing on South Africa’s Wild Coast , then go and play on the sand dunes, head off to school or help her parents cultivate sweet potatoes and bananas on the family plot.
Today, she can rarely stay in the same place for any length of time and is more likely to be keeping her ears alert to signs of danger. At times she needs bodyguards or goes into hiding.
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