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40°C in August? A climate expert explains why Australia is ridiculously hot right now
Police acting as ‘private security’ for Drax power station, say climate activists
Greenpeace among 150 groups expressing outrage after preemptive arrests led to cancellation of protest camp
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have accused police of acting as “private security” for the UK’s biggest carbon emitter after dozens of preemptive arrests forced the cancellation of a climate protest camp near Drax power station.
In a statement signed by almost 150 groups, they called the operation against activists who had spent months planning the camp near the wood-burning power station “an unreasonable restriction of free speech”.
Continue reading...Minister seeks legal settlement in case of South Africa’s imperilled penguins
Dion George says avoiding extinction of African penguin is his objective, and settling case aimed at stopping fishing around major colonies will help
South Africa’s new environment minister has said he wants to stop African penguins from going extinct by taking measures including settling a case brought by two environmental charities to stop fishing around the birds’ major colonies.
BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCOB) said they want an extension of no-fishing zones around six beaches and islands where the penguins breed, after failing to reach an agreement with fishing industry groups demanded by the previous minister.
Continue reading...Caribbean islands hope UN court will end ‘debt cycle’ caused by climate crisis
Countries hope big emitters will take more financial responsibility for emergency relief and damage claims
The outcome of an international court case on climate change obligations could strengthen the legal position of Caribbean islands claiming damages from developed countries after natural disasters, lawyers say.
Brought to the international court of justice (ICJ) by the UN general assembly, the case seeks clarification on what states can be held liable for in relation to climate change.
Continue reading...Bacteria helping to extract rare metals from old batteries in boost for green tech
Team at University of Edinburgh using microbes to recycle lithium, cobalt and other expensive minerals
Scientists have formed an unusual new alliance in their fight against climate change. They are using bacteria to help them extract rare metals vital in the development of green technology. Without the help of these microbes, we could run out of raw materials to build turbines, electric cars and solar panels, they say.
The work is being spearheaded by scientists at the University of Edinburgh and aims to use bacteria that can extract lithium, cobalt, manganese and other minerals from old batteries and discarded electronic equipment. These scarce and expensive metals are vital for making electric cars and other devices upon which green technology devices depend, a point stressed by Professor Louise Horsfall, chair of sustainable biotechnology at Edinburgh.
Continue reading...Pacific nations aren’t asking for favours. They just want Australia to meet the moment on climate justice | Tim Flannery
Australia must urgently halt new fossil fuel projects and scale up investment in renewable energies such as solar and wind
My first visit to the Pacific Islands was in 1981 and, for two decades, I spent several months each year carrying out biodiversity surveys and conservation work there. Even in the 1980s, Pacific communities were acutely aware of climate change, experiencing it first-hand through rising seas and intensifying storms. Over time, their understanding of the role that climate pollution plays in worsening these impacts has deepened, leading to a highly organised movement to limit pollution from big coal and gas exporters such as Australia.
As the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) approaches, Australia must urgently align with the position of its Pacific neighbours and take decisive action to reduce climate pollution further and faster.
Continue reading...Industry acts to head off regulation on PFAS pollution from semiconductors
The Chips and Science Act has led to a production boom but experts say it could generate huge amounts of toxic waste
Producers of PFAS chemicals and semiconductors, a key part of most electronics, have formed a group that develops industry-friendly science aimed at heading off regulation as the facilities release high levels of toxic waste, documents seen by the Guardian show.
The group, called the PFAS Consortium, was formed during a boom in domestic semiconductor production spurred by the Chips and Science Act that has led to $825bn in investment aimed at shoring up the industry.
Continue reading...Push to identify ‘priority ponds’ in UK that are refuges for plants and animals
Freshwater Habitats Trust is asking citizen scientists to help find ponds that support declining species
More than one in five ponds in the UK could be designated as “priority habitats” but only about 2% have been identified so far, experts say.
Priority ponds are recognised as being the highest-quality water spaces for freshwater wildlife, often providing a last refuge for plants and animals that have been lost from surrounding areas. The designation can help preserve ponds threatened by proposed construction and other landscape changes.
Continue reading...It’s August 2024 – and our world is at a turning point. Here’s what we should do now | Gordon Brown
I see looming political and environmental threats – and too few willing to address them. Where is the urgency?
The world is on fire. At no time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 has the world looked so dangerous, nor has an end to its 56 conflicts – the highest number since the second world war – seemed so distant and so difficult to achieve.
Distracted by domestic election campaigns, preoccupied by internal divisions and blindsided by the seismic geopolitical shifts happening beneath our feet, the world is sleepwalking into a “one world, two systems”, “China v America” future. And the cooperation needed to firefight is proving so elusive that even now, an international agreement to prepare for and prevent global pandemics remains beyond our grasp. Nor, even up against the existential problem of climate change (the planet is on course for a temperature increase of 2.7C above pre-industrial levels), can many hold out hopes that Cop29 in Azerbaijan will be equal to the challenge. At a time when global problems urgently need global solutions, the gap between what we need to do and our capacity – or, more accurately, our willingness – to do so is widening by the minute.
We are at a global turning point, not just because crises are multiplying far beyond the very public tragedies of the Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, but because in a year when nearly half the world has gone to the polls, few political candidates have been prepared to acknowledge the altered geopolitical landscape. For three seismic shifts that are bringing to an end the unipolar, neoliberal hyperglobalised world of the last 30 years make a total rethink essential.
Gordon Brown is a former UK prime minister; he will give a keynote lecture at the Edinburgh international festival on Sunday 25 August
Continue reading...Great Britain on track to generate record levels of summer solar power
Forecasts suggest June-to-August output will exceed the high recorded in 2022 despite relatively poor weather
Great Britain is on track to generate record levels of solar power this summer, according to expert forecasts, as the government pushes forward plans to triple the country’s solar energy capacity by the end of the decade.
Solar power output between June and August is likely to climb by almost a quarter compared with the same period last year.
Continue reading...Resorts on Spain’s Costa Brava struggle with invasion of jellyfish as seas warm
Stings needing medical attention surge by 41% as rising sea temperatures due to the climate crisis boost reproduction
Costa Brava resorts in Spain’s north-east are struggling to cope with an influx of jellyfish as rising sea temperatures facilitate reproduction and drive species farther north.
Between May and August almost 7,500 people on the Catalan coast sought medical attention for jellyfish stings – a 41% increase on last year. The stings are painful and can have unpleasant consequences for anyone with compromised immunity.
Continue reading...Fresh warning on fire ants in Queensland as suppression efforts struggle to halt spread
US specialist on invasive species says the densities of the destructive pest are approaching what he has seen in Texas
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Parts of Queensland have as many fire ants as Texas – a hotbed of the uncontrolled infestation that costs the US billions of dollars each year, an expert has warned
Dr Robert Puckett is an American specialist on invasive ant species and he’s followed Australia’s efforts to eradicate fire ants since they were discovered in Brisbane 23 years ago.
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Continue reading...‘Humanity is failing’: official report warns our chance to save the Great Barrier Reef is fast closing
South Dakota Supreme Court reverses lower court decisions on CO2 pipeline
US-led initiative outlines how corporates can decarbonise value chains
Gina Rinehart’s latest grab-bag of opinions is more proof billionaires are no smarter than the rest of us | John Quiggin
The mining magnate does away with the constraints of arithmetic, simultaneously demanding lower taxes and more public spending
A striking feature of the age of billionaires in which we now live is that billionaires are more and more inclined to give us the benefit of their opinions. In the past year alone, we’ve had Marc Andreessen’s retro-futurist “Techno-optimist manifesto”, Mark Zuckerberg’s pronouncements on the future of media, and, most recently, a cosy chat between Elon Musk and Donald Trump (whose billionaire status is often touted but remains questionable). In most cases, the main effect has been to demonstrate that, however good they are at making money, billionaires are no smarter than the rest of us when it comes to politics or the ordinary business of life.
Australia’s richest billionaire by far is Gina Rinehart, who has massively multiplied the already substantial fortune she inherited from her father, the late Lang Hancock (Rinehart claims she inherited more debts than assets). Like Hancock, who spent decades on the rightwing fringe of Australian politics, Rinehart has never been shy about expressing her opinions.
Continue reading...Speculator migration to 2025 extends in CCAs, compliance keeps building RGGI net length
Melbourne zoo welcomes rare southern white rhino calf to the world
New male baby of near-threatened species born at Werribee open range zoo to be named in public competition in coming weeks
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A very large bundle of joy was quietly delivered to a Melbourne zoo last Sunday as a southern white rhino gave birth to a male calf.
Mother Kipenzi, 11, and father Kifaru, 15, welcomed their 60kg baby into the world in the early hours of 18 August, Werribee open range zoo announced.
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Continue reading...European banks penalise polluting companies with higher interest rates -report
India should consider ban on microbeads in personal care products, researchers say
Type of microplastics used in skin exfoliators and banned in UK and US found in 45% of Indian products studied
India should consider a ban on microbeads in personal care products, in line with many other countries in the world, say researchers.
Microbeads are a type of microplastic used in cosmetic products to exfoliate the skin. After a public uproar when the plastics were highlighted in Europe a decade ago, they were banned in the Netherlands in 2014, with many other countries following, including the US in 2015 and the UK in 2018.
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