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Antarctica loses three trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years
Antarctic ice melting faster than ever, studies show
Rate of melt has accelerated threefold in last five years and could contribute 25cm to sea-level rises without urgent action
Ice in the Antarctic is melting at a record-breaking rate and the subsequent sea rises could have catastrophic consequences for cities around the world, according to two new studies.
A report led by scientists in the UK and US found the rate of melting from the Antarctic ice sheet has accelerated threefold in the last five years and is now vanishing faster than at any previously recorded time.
Continue reading...Let’s go with the grain of tidal power | Brief letters
Further to your travel feature on the Greek island of Leros (9 June), may I recommend to your readers Four’s Destiny: A Wartime Greek Tragedy by Michael Powell, a fictionalised account centring on Leros. Powell weaves a clever, powerful story around some fascinating wartime history. We follow four young men, one each from England, Germany, Italy and Greece, as the second world war changes their lives and destinies.
Ruth Samuels
Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire
• Re the proposed Swansea Bay tidal power lagoon (Letters, 11 June), the tidal-powered grain mill on the River Lea at Bromley-by-Bow in London was economic from the 1700s to the 1930s – and without the super-efficient bearings common in today’s machinery. Such small-scale hydro-powered generators (tidal and river) should be all over the country – they’d provide work and be far less expensive than nuclear. But some city slickers won’t be so able to extract their rent from localised generation so it won’t be approved by UK’s present government.
Robin Le Mare
Allithwaite, Cumbria
UK rebuffed over Galileo sat-nav procurement
Doug Ford’s disastrous agenda can be derailed by a massive grassroots movement | Martin Lukacs
The right-wing triumph in Ontario shows the left needs a new populism – backed by street protest and a bold NDP
The guardians of respectable opinion forecast that Doug Ford would never become Ontario’s Premier. Now that he has, they are suggesting his reign might be orderly and painless.
While agreeing with his basic agenda, the Globe & Mail is crossing its fingers that Ford “moves slowly on the public-service layoffs and program cuts…to avoid strikes and social discord.”
Continue reading...What paddleboarding through plastic taught me about our disposables problem
My daughter and I spent a weekend scouring the Salcombe estuary for discarded plastics. What we found proves that a throwaway culture is simply not sustainable
One My Little Pony, two crabbing buckets, five balloons, six balls, seven straws, nine shoes, a dozen coffee cups, 20 carrier bags, 205 plastic bottles and lids, polystyrene and a huge amount of rope. That is just a fraction of what my six-year-old daughter, Ella, and I collected over the course of two days last weekend, as we paddleboarded around the Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary in south Devon, scouring the foreshores of every creek and cove for 22 miles.
Within seconds of setting off from South Sands beach by the mouth of the estuary, we spotted a clear plastic carrier bag floating in the shallows. Marine wildlife could easily have mistaken it for a jellyfish. Ella grabbed it with a litter picker as we paddled past.
Continue reading...Rise in global carbon emissions a 'big step backwards', says BP
Coal rebound and slowing efficiency gains in 2017 suggest Paris goals may be missed, says oil firm
The renewed upward march of global carbon emissions is worrying and a big step backwards in the fight against climate change, according to BP.
Emissions rose 1.6% in 2017 after flatlining for the previous three years, which the British oil firm said was a reminder the world was not on track to hit the goals of the Paris climate deal.
Continue reading...EU lawmakers likely to set clean energy goals above 30% -Arias Canete
How Horizon Power are developing their microgrid capability
Raccoon hailed a hero after Minnesota skyscraper climb
British man disqualified for £7m carbon trading tax evasion
Lightsource BP turns site on Australia residential solar and battery market
China offers glimmer of hope for carbon offset developers
Chepstow celebrates plastic-free status with plastic banner
Councillor calls for sign to be removed from battlements saying it is ‘beyond irony’
A historic town in south Wales has been criticised for celebrating becoming a plastic-free community by hanging a banner made of plastic from a 13th-century gateway.
Chepstow fixed the large banner to the battlements of its town gate after being granted plastic-free status by the green charity Surfers Against Sewage.
Continue reading...Michael Gove appoints UK 'tree champion'
Sir William Worsley is tasked with stopping the unnecessary felling of trees and support plans to plant 11 million trees
The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has appointed a “tree champion” to stop the unnecessary felling of trees and boost planting rates.
Sir William Worsley, chairman of the National Forest Company which oversees the National Forest, has been appointed to support government promises to plant 11 million trees, plus a further 1 million in towns and cities. The move, part of the pledges in the government’s 25-year environment plan, comes after a controversial tree-felling programme in Sheffield.
Continue reading...Mass slaughter of wedge-tailed eagles could have Australia-wide consequences
Are solar panels a middle-class purchase? This survey says yes
Fifth of Britain’s wild mammals ‘at high risk of extinction’
Species including the wildcat and black rat may be lost within a decade while others such as deer are thriving, analysis shows
The wildcat and mouse-eared bat are on the brink, but deer are spreading and otters bouncing back, according to a comprehensive analysis.
At least one in five wild mammals in Britain faces a high risk of extinction within a decade and overall populations are falling, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date.
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