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Could Tenbury Wells be the first UK town centre abandoned over climate change?
Worcestershire town has been flooded seven times in past four years and shop owners can no longer afford insurance
In the aftermath of its latest flood, the town centre of Tenbury Wells was a scene of chaos. The main street was caked with a layer of mud, shop windows were smashed and piles of sodden furniture and wares, all ruined, were heaped in the street.
“On Monday when we came in we wanted to leave, lock the doors and just disappear,” said Richard Sharman, the owner of Garlands Flowers. “We’ve lost about £6,000 and we won’t get a penny back. Six weeks ago we lost about £4,000 in a flood.”
Continue reading...International talks on curbing plastic pollution fail to reach agreement
Chair of talks in Busan says progress has been made but ‘a few critical issues’ are unresolved
Negotiators have failed to reach agreement on a landmark treaty to curb plastic pollution, the diplomat chairing the talks has said.
Nearly 200 nations are taking part in a meeting in Busan, South Korea, which is intended to result in a landmark agreement after two years of discussions. A week of talks has failed to resolve deep divisions between “high-ambition” countries seeking a globally binding agreement to limit production and phase out harmful chemicals, and “like-minded” nations who want to focus on waste.
Continue reading...Cruise ships urged to ‘clean up their act’ amid concerns toxic effluent being dumped on Great Barrier Reef
Environmentalists say marine park waste regulations need updating to limit grey water and exhaust chemicals as passenger cruise numbers rise
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Environmentalists and tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef say authorities must enforce stricter pollution standards on cruise liners visiting the world heritage area amid growth in passenger cruise numbers and concern that ships are dumping toxins into the water.
The Whitsunday Conservation Council says the definition of “waste” used to prevent marine discharge on the reef – which dates back to the 1970s – does not restrict discharge from sulphur “scrubbers” that have become commonplace in the shipping industry.
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Continue reading...Community turns ancient oak into single-tree table in Devon woodland
Table to seat 60 being built by local artists and craftspeople in woodland on edge of Dartmoor
A community in Devon has raised £22,555 to turn a 500-year-old oak tree into what they believe will be the longest table ever crafted from a single English oak tree.
The 18 metre-long (59ft) Great Oak Table, capable of seating 60 people, was being built in a small patch of private woodland near Chagford, on the edge of Dartmoor.
Continue reading...Environmental groups demand EPA to start monitoring microplastics in water
Legal petition filed by 170 groups pushes environmental agency to tackle pressing health threat of pollution
A new legal petition filed by more than 170 top environmental groups demands that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin monitoring for microplastics in drinking water, an essential first step to reining in pollution viewed as one of the nation’s most pressing public health threats.
The scale of microplastic water pollution, the extent to which the substance is lodged throughout human bodies, and the many health implications have come into sharp focus in recent years, but the EPA still has not taken meaningful action, public health advocates say.
Continue reading...Wake up and smell the coffee: rising food prices show destabilising impact of climate crisis | Heather Stewart
Policymakers must act as extreme weather events put more pressure on food inflation and production worldwide
Your morning – and afternoon – coffee is the latest staple threatened by climate chaos: the price of quality arabica beans shot to its highest level in almost 50 years last week amid fears of a poor harvest in Brazil.
It follows warnings that orange crops have been wiped out by the catastrophic floods in Valencia, Spain; and the soaring cost of olive oil in recent years, as the southern Mediterranean has sweltered.
Continue reading...Land degradation expanding by 1m sq km a year, study shows
Report calls for course correction to avoid land abuse ‘compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing’
Land degradation is expanding worldwide at the rate of 1m sq km every year, undermining efforts to stabilise the climate, protect nature and ensure sustainable food supplies, a study has highlighted.
The degraded area is already 15m sq km, an area greater than Antarctica, the scientific report says, and it calls for an urgent course correction to avoid land abuse “irretrievably compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental wellbeing”.
Continue reading...Cheaper loans on table to urge UK motorists to EVs, plus cuts in fines for firms
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says there is ‘no route to net zero’ that ignores concerns of businesses after wave of closures
• Jonathan Reynolds: If we delay the UK’s drive for electric vehicles, our rivals will overtake us
There is “no route to net zero” that ignores the real concerns of businesses, a cabinet minister has warned, as the government prepares to reduce financial penalties handed to carmakers not selling enough electric cars.
Ministers are also looking at how cheaper loans could be introduced to help people buy an electric vehicle (EV), after a wave of job losses and closures in which carmakers blamed the onerous fines they were facing.
Continue reading...If we delay the UK’s drive for electric vehicles, our rivals will overtake us | Jonathan Reynolds
The government is determined to work with the car industry to increase take-up, boost jobs and hit emissions targets
• Cheaper loans on table to drive UK motorists to electric, plus cuts in EV fines for firms
The push to electric vehicles is not about a culture war. It is a simple choice. Do we set UK industry up to take advantage of the changes that are coming? Or do we sit it out, allowing our competitors to lap us while we decide whether to change our tyres or not?
The previous government, including the current leader of the opposition, might have been content to play politics with people’s jobs by delaying the deadline for ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. But this government is not.
Continue reading...It’s too late to halt the climate crisis
Nature is going to solve the problem by eliminating the modern human
In response to Ashish Ghadiali’s story last week (“Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown”, Comment, last week), nearly 70 years ago Gilbert Plass coined the term “climate change” in a paper in the journal Tellus.
Most of that 70 years has been spent arguing over the reality of climate change, an argument by vested interests that continues to this day. Meanwhile, global warming has continued to rise due to the burning of fossil fuels. Now, polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, causing sea level rises and threatening the survival of over half the world’s population living on islands and in coastal zones near sea level.
Continue reading...Hydro Tasmania signs off-take deal for $500 million solar project, the first in island state
The post Hydro Tasmania signs off-take deal for $500 million solar project, the first in island state appeared first on RenewEconomy.
CSIRO hails successful road test of lower-cost green hydrogen technology at steel plant
The post CSIRO hails successful road test of lower-cost green hydrogen technology at steel plant appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Eyes of the energy world on Australian vanadium battery tech
The post Eyes of the energy world on Australian vanadium battery tech appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Poor labelling allows ‘massive amounts’ of plastic into Australia’s garden waste, companies warn
Items such as coffee cups and bin liners are wrongly labelled ‘compostable’, leading to calls for governments to impose standards
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“Massive amounts” of plastic contamination is getting into food and garden waste through user error and misleading “biodegradable” labelling, waste industry experts have warned.
Leading figures at some of Australia’s largest waste companies are calling for the government to standardise certification of compostable products, as many bin liners, compostable coffee cups and other material labelled “compostable” or “biodegradable” do not break down into organic matter.
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Continue reading...Masked owls, wild devils and giant crayfish: inside the ancient forests of Tasmania’s Takayna
Teeming with wildlife under lush canopies, this area in Australia’s island state is one of the world’s most remarkable – and one most in need of protection
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Witnessing Takayna/Tarkine is a rare privilege. After I press through metres of the dense, dry shrubs that skirt the forest floor, the rainforest quickly opens into a dewy landscape of verdant greens bathed in golden light. The ground is a ballroom floor, moist to the touch, carpeted in soft mosses and punctuated by broad myrtle trunks. Tiny ferns unfurl towards the canopy, where shafts of sunlight streak through the treetops. It is an overwhelmingly beautiful place.
In a world experiencing an increasingly rapid montage of alarming climate events caused by a warming planet, Tasmania’s Takayna presents an alternate world, one that is primal and untouched by the ravages of industrialisation.
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Continue reading...Study links higher PFAS levels to toxic hazards and limited fresh-food access
Findings highlight how built environment in low-income neighborhoods presents multiple PFAS exposure routes
New research aimed at identifying which US neighborhoods face increased exposure to toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” found those living near “superfund” sites and other major industrial polluters, or in areas with limited access to fresh food, generally have higher levels of the dangerous compounds in their blood.
The study looked at hundreds of people living in southern California and found those who do not live within a half mile of a grocery store have 14% higher levels of PFOA and PFOS – two common PFAS compounds – in their blood than those who do.
Continue reading...INC-5: INTERVIEW – Global criteria needed to steer shift to non-plastic substitutes
INC-5: Indigenous Peoples claim being ‘systematically’ excluded from plastic talks
Bark detective: dog trained to sniff out UK tree disease
Six-year-old spanador called Ivor taught to identify tree fungal-like organism killing trees and shrubs around UK
Sniffer dogs are usually found looking for contraband at airports and train stations, but the UK government is now dispatching trained hounds to find forest-harming pests.
A dog has been used for the first time in the UK to successfully identify tree disease. Researchers from Forest Research used a trained spanador – a cocker spaniel labrador cross – to find the tree pathogen Phytophthora ramorum.
Continue reading...Germany’s carbon contracts for difference scheme faces collapse amid political turmoil -reports
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