Around The Web

Global Witness figures show last year was the deadliest for environment and land campaigners since 2002

Three environmental activists were killed per week last year, murdered defending land rights and the environment from mining, dam projects and logging, a campaign group said on Monday.

In 16 countries surveyed in a report by Global Witness, 185 activists were killed, making 2015 the deadliest year for environment and land campaigners since 2002.

Continue reading...

Solar-powered plane sets off from JFK airport on the transatlantic leg of its record-breaking flight to promote renewable energy

The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft set off from New York’s JFK airport early on Monday, embarking on the transatlantic leg of its record-breaking flight around the world to promote renewable energy.

The flight, piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, is expected to take about 90 hours - during which Piccard will only take short naps - before landing at Spain’s Seville airport.

Continue reading...

Improvements to ocean temperature measurements are making good measurements great

I have often said that global warming is really ocean warming. As humans add more heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, it causes the Earth to gain energy. Almost all of that energy ends up in the oceans. So, if you want to know how fast the Earth is warming, you have to measure how fast the oceans are heating up.

Sounds easy enough at first, but when we recognize that the oceans are vast (and deep) we can appreciate the difficulties. How can we get enough measurements, at enough locations, and enough depths, to measure the oceans’ temperatures? Not only that, but since climate change is a long-term trend, it means we have to measure ocean temperature changes over many years and decades. We really want to know how fast the oceans’ temperatures are changing over long durations.

Continue reading...

Research has found that despite having excellent quality water, 40 per cent of Sydneysiders don't drink water straight from the tap.

Solar Impulse 2 sets off from New York to cross the Atlantic, one of the toughest stages of its attempt to fly around the globe using solar energy.

From deep inside caves to the bottom of the ocean, wildlife photographer Danté Fenolio seeks out the creatures that don’t want to be found

Continue reading...

Documents seen by Guardian show that the commission’s in-house science service told it in 2010 that tests had uncovered what researchers suspected to be a ‘defeat device’

The European commission was warned by its own experts that a car maker was suspected of cheating emissions tests five years before the VW emissions scandal.

A documents cache seen by the Guardian show that the commission’s in-house science service told it in 2010 that tests had uncovered what researchers suspected to be a “defeat device” that could cheat emissions tests.

Continue reading...

Working group on investment responsibility argues it is better to keep investments in oil and gas companies, rather than divest £5.9bn endowment

The University of Cambridge has rejected calls to divest its £5.9bn endowment from fossil fuels, as students, academics and the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams have called for.

In a report on Friday, the university ruled out future investments in coal and tar sands, although it currently has no direct holdings in either, and only negligible holdings in coal by investments managed externally.

Continue reading...

Two shipwrecks have been uncovered, the Zephyr, near Bream Creek, and a new wreck at the Friendly Beaches at Freycinet National Park.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 20 June 1916

June 19.
Deep purple marsh orchids pushed their sturdy, densely-packed heads through the damp turf, and graceful white flowers hung from the upright stalks of the wintergreens. These were in the level spaces between the dunes, but on the sand itself the pink-flowered bindweeds were out, trailing up the slopes and striving to hold the shifting grains. Good as the bindweed is, it is less effective than the restharrow, whose sticky leaves were dusted with blown particles though its matted roots held firm enough, firmer even than the marram grass, actually planted to stop the shifting of the sand.

Blue butterflies enjoyed the sunshine, settling to close their bright wings when a cloud obscured the sun, and lizards lay basking, but not sleeping, almost invisible upon the sand. Predatory tiger beetles, green gems, quartered the slopes like sporting dogs, then rising, whisked down wind to the next dune; and large, metallic-coated flies, their prey, dropped on the warm sand for a moment, ready to dart off sideways from even the shadow of the foe. The ringed plover whistled plaintively as it strove to lure us from the neighbourhood of its nest, now flying, now running swiftly to attract our attention, but the noisy redshanks, well dubbed “yelpers,” kept up an incessant din as they rapidly flew round and round, or passed above, yelping hard, with quivering wings and expanded, wedge-shaped tails.

Continue reading...

The willow warbler, easily confused with other visitors, breeds throughout Britain, from Cornwall to Shetland

What’s the commonest summer visitor to our shores? The swallow perhaps, or the swift? The house martin, or the blackcap?

Actually it’s the willow warbler – a bird not all that many people have heard of, let alone heard. Yet the silvery, shivery song of this tiny, leaf-like sprite is the accompaniment to the burgeoning of spring – from the Isles of Scilly in the south to Shetland in the north.

Continue reading...

This week’s decision by four Australian Catholic orders to divest fully from fossil fuels can be interpreted as a direct response to the encyclical on the environment, issued by Pope Francis almost exactly a year ago.

The amounts of money managed by these Australian groups may be modest, but the announcement is part of the launch of a much wider initiative by the Global Catholic Climate Movement, which aims to encourage Catholics to reconsider their investment options, on both an individual and organisational level.

The movement will be holding seminars and provides an online divestment hub to encourage Catholics to take their money out of fossil fuels and promote reinvestment in low-carbon technologies.

The papal view

A year ago, Pope Francis was very clear in his assessment of the fossil fuel industry. His encyclical warned of the dangers of climate change, arguing that:

…technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay.

He also noted that “politics and business have been slow to react in a way commensurate with the urgency of the challenges facing our world”, and stressed:

Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth.

It is only a small step from this position to argue that continued investment in fossil fuels, which profit from activities that damage the natural environment, cannot be morally justified. As Bill McKibben, founder of the campaign group 350.org which strongly advocates divestment, puts it:

If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage.

The same sentiment was echoed in a 2015 statement by Catholic bishops from all continents in response to the encyclical. The bishops called on the world to:

…put an end to the fossil fuel era … and provide affordable, reliable and safe renewable energy access for all.

Practical steps

What does this Catholic divestment drive mean in practice? Contrary to popular imagination, the Catholic Church is not a monolithic command structure controlled by the Pope. It consists of hundreds of thousands of organisations, all relatively autonomous: dioceses, religious orders, lay organisations (such as the St Vincent de Paul Society), charitable and social welfare bodies, educational bodies, superannuation institutions, insurance groups and so on.

All have bank accounts and many have investment portfolios of one type of another. While their funds might vary from thousands to many millions of dollars, the total amount of money within the church as a whole is very substantial.

In my experience, Catholic bodies are also quite tribal. For example, while many other religious bodies in Australia and internationally – including Anglican, Uniting Church, Presbyterian, Quaker and Jewish groups – have divested, Catholic bodies have been slow to take the first step within their own denomination. Each has been waiting for some other Catholic organisation to take the lead.

That is why the recent announcement by four religious orders in Australia is so important, in symbolic terms if nothing else. They have taken the lead where others have been hesitant.

The focus in Australia will now shift to bodies such as Catholic dioceses, Catholic Church Insurance and Catholic Super. All of them operate under investment guidelines that are consistent with the church’s teaching on various matters. So, for example, they would not invest in firms that produce contraceptives.

Given the Pope’s strong position on climate change, the onus is firmly on these organisations to show how they are responding constructively to his teaching. Saying it is “too hard” is not a responsible option.

Any institution as long-lived and as large as the Catholic Church will have accumulated significant assets over the 2,000 years of its existence. This wealth is used to fund activities in welfare, international aid, health care, education and pastoral support around the world. In more recent times it has been used to fund the church’s liabilities in relation to the sexual abuse scandals that have engulfed it.

It is naïve and simplistic to argue that the church should not be wealthy. What is at issue here is where this wealth is invested. While Pope Francis has made no explicit statement on divestment, many in his church are now poised to respond to his environmental message by reassessing their investments in fossil fuels.

Neil Ormerod is married to Thea Ormerod, president of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) which is campaigning for divestment among religious bodies in Australia.

Interview with environmental activist Victor Zambrano on his work protecting the Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios

The World Travel and Tourism Council predicts that travel and tourism’s “total contribution” to Peru’s GDP will exceed 11% by 2026, but how well, in the long-term, is Peru protecting its best tourist assets? Among foreign tourists easily the most popular destination in the country’s lowland Amazon region is the 274,000 hectare Tambopata National Reserve (TNR) - yet it currently stands invaded by gold-miners.

The TNR is in the Madre de Dios region in the south-east of Peru. Over 632 bird species, 1,200 butterfly species, 103 amphibian species, 180 fish species, 169 mammal species and 103 reptile species make it one of the most biodiverse places in the world, according to the Environment Ministry, but those numbers don’t compare to the gold-miners. According to Victor Zambrano, president of the TNR’s Management Committee and the recently-announced winner of the 2016 National Geographic Society/Buffett Award for Leadership in Latin American Conservation, there are 8,000 miners in the reserve itself and more than 35,000 in its buffer zone.

Continue reading...

World heritage site of St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, is suffering a dramatic fall in species due to warming seas

A fundraising appeal to help preserve St Kilda, the acclaimed world heritage site off the west coast of Scotland, has begun after research showed catastrophic crashes in seabird numbers linked to climate change.

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is asking for donations to help fund the £270,000-a-year costs of conserving the once-populated archipelago, which sits in the Atlantic 41 miles west of the Outer Hebrides.

Continue reading...

Government is accused of pouring money away with payments to companies including Shell and Drax

The government has handed out almost £30m to Shell and other companies for work on carbon capture and storage (CCS) despite scrapping their projects that could have played a role in beating climate change.

The payments, revealed in a written parliamentary answer, come as the UK government is about to host the international Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum even though it has just mothballed a £1bn CCS research programme.

Continue reading...

British astronaut Tim Peake has said he is elated to be back on earth after six months onboard the international space station.

As one of our best-loved charities, the RNLI attracts enormous public support. But is it making life difficult for Britain’s independent lifeboat crews?

It’s a sunny day on the Isle of Wight. Mark Birch is building an extension for a local shop when his pager goes off. He scans the device briefly then turns and starts running. His colleagues are not surprised. They’re used to it. Within minutes he arrives at the local lifeboat station in Sandown on the southeast coast. Soon he and his two crew are at sea, powering towards Culver Cliff, where two swimmers, men in their 30s, are trapped against the rocks by a heavy swell.

It’s a tricky operation to steer the rigid inflatable boat close enough without it, too, being smashed against the rocks. Mark has to bring it in quickly then hover, balanced carefully at 90 degrees to the swell. The crew hoist one man out and Mark swings the boat round for the other before turning for home. With both men delivered safely to the emergency services, the boat is rehoused, washed and prepared for the next incident. Within two hours Mark is back at the building site.

Continue reading...

Single-use packaging is still normal practice, but every reusable receptacle saves about 100 disposable versions

I recently bought a set of top-of-the-range reusables. For coffee I got a KeepCup (keepcup.com), which fits neatly under any coffee machine, ensuring baristas don’t hate you during the morning rush. For water, famously available for free from a tap, I bought a Jerry Bottle (jerrybottle.com) and to add bubbles, a SodaStream (sodastream.co.uk) – each carbonator displaces 40 bottles.

For every reusable receptacle you bring into your life, you save about 100 disposable versions. Plus, I’ve made new friends. When I bring my KeepCup to the coffee stand people want to know where I got it. Single-use packaging is so normalised – the average UK household gets through 500 plastic bottles a year – that it turns out you have to re-make the case for reusables quite often.

Continue reading...

President Barack Obama draws attention to the dangers of climate change while on a visit to Yosemite National Park in California.

Swarming mayflies, a black-naped monarch and beached whales are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Continue reading...