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Moment protesters throw soup at Mona Lisa in Paris – video
Two environmental protesters hurled soup on to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, calling for 'healthy and sustainable food'. The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged. Gallery visitors looked on in shock as two women threw the yellow-coloured soup before climbing under the barrier in front of the work and flanking the splattered painting. One of the two activists removed her jacket to reveal a white T-shirt bearing the name of the activist group Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response)
Continue reading...If the National Trust can be captured by a fake grassroots group, what public institution is safe? | Stewart Lee
Restore Trust’s insidious campaign to get its preferred candidates on to the body’s board could set a dangerous precedent
Ah! The turning of the seasons! Once it was always early summer, as swifts swooped from gables, when the private limited company Restore Trust would announce the “anti-woke” candidates it hoped to parachute on to the National Trust board. As the elephant hawk-moths emerged in the simmer dim, Restore Trust would unveil would-be guardians of our heritage such as the evangelical Christian Stephen Green, who has supported the death penalty for some homosexuals in Uganda, and the pliable biographer Andrew Gimpson, who is even worse, having described Boris Johnson as “a statesman of astonishing political gifts… impelled by a deep love of his country and a determination to serve it to the uttermost of his powers”. I wouldn’t trust Gimpson with a single Jammie Dodger, let alone our national scones. Either way, Restore Trust’s declaration of war on the woke National Trust has become an annual event as comforting, in its own way, as the once reliable blooming of the daffodils. But suddenly, like that yellow splash of colour, it seems to happen earlier every year.
Nostalgia is an illness. But it always seemed important to my mother that the daffodils were out by my birthday in the first week of April. Perhaps, because my earliest birthdays were skewed by the uncertainties of orphanages and foster homes, it mattered to her that something as permanent as the daffodils, and by association the apparently endless cycle of seasons, should mark the anniversary of my arrival on your Earth. I still think of all daffodils as mine, and resent Wales’s cultural appropriation of my flower. Especially when it already has the leek, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Pot Noodle’s “too gorgeous” Peter Baynham.
Stewart Lee appears with Celya AB, Fern Brady, Rob Brydon, Rob Delaney, Kevin Eldon, Rosie Holt, Athena Kugblenu and Nish Kumar in Belter for the Shelter, in aid of Hackney Night Shelter, at the Hackney Empire, London, on 1 February
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Continue reading...Trading platform to list Terrasos biodiversity credits
*Environmental Markets Correspondent, Carbon Pulse – Latin America
Icon of the Seas: World's largest cruise ship to set sail from Miami
To get to net zero, we may have to sell off the UK’s future
The cost of decarbonising is vast. Something like the privatisations of the 80s may be needed to raise enough funds
If Labour forms the next government, as polls suggest, it must provide the private sector with the kind of incentives that will lift investment in Britain’s economy, making it more productive and environmentally friendly. Joe Biden has done it for the US. Why not Keir Starmer in the UK?
Transforming the economy will come at an outsize cost. Worse, it’s an escalating cost that is way beyond the public finances of Britain and possibly even the EU.
Continue reading...Thinning of forests thickens carbon stocks, study finds
Greta Thunberg joins protest against expansion of Hampshire airport
Farnborough airport submits plans to increase number of flights amid calls for a ban on private jets
The climate activist Greta Thunberg has marched alongside local residents and Extinction Rebellion activists to protest against an airport’s expansion plans.
Farnborough Airport Ltd has submitted a planning application to Rushmoor borough council to increase the number of flights from 50,000 to 70,000 a year. The Swedish climate activist joined the march from Farnborough town centre, in Hampshire, to Farnborough airport.
Continue reading...Glens, lochs and isles battle to be Scotland’s next national park
Glen Affric in the Highlands has joined more than 10 rivals in bidding to gain the new status – and the benefits that go with it
Glen Affric in the Highlands is home to deer, ospreys, otters and one of Scotland’s largest Caledonian pine woods. Often described as one of the country’s most beautiful glens, its scenic landscapes and diverse wildlife are such that it is protected as a national nature reserve.
Now, local community groups have launched a bid for it to become Scotland’s third national park, in a race which has so far seen more than 10 other areas also submit their interest.
Continue reading...Trading platform to list Terrasos biodiversity credits
‘We can’t engineer our way out of this’: how to protect flood-hit Severn Valley
Tens of millions have been spent on human-made defences over the years, but the impact of the climate crisis means flooding is inevitable
When Jo Bloom saw the monitoring station on the River Severn above Shrewsbury register water levels of 6.5 metres as Storm Henk struck in early January, she began preparing for the worst. Bloom, who runs the Bewdley Flood Group, a local initiative to disseminate information to the community, was crouched over her computer checking Environment Agency alerts on river levels as the storm battered southern and central Britain, bringing with it heavy rain on to already saturated ground.
“We have had one peak, we are all watching Crew Green gauge above Shrewsbury, which is 10cm off its 2000 record level,” she told the flood group.
Continue reading...RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2024: Your pictures
CP Daily: Friday January 26, 2024
New York officials detail preliminary analysis of impacts from statewide cap-and-invest
US pauses LNG export approvals
Speculators slash North American carbon market holdings across the board, CFTC reports WCA after four-week gap
Climate Action Reserve adopts forestry protocols in Guatemala, Panama
Why Tanya Plibersek must save the eastern curlew from the wetland-wrecking project at Toondah Harbour | Kelly O’Shanassy
It’s time to stand up for nature and say no to the projects that damage the wildlife and places we love
Imagine being an endangered migratory bird that is hardwired to fly 10,000km every year, from a coastal wetland in Victoria or Queensland to Arctic Siberia, and back again.
Then imagine being that bird, returning exhausted after your epic flight from the northern hemisphere, to find your wetland feeding grounds have been turned into an industrial facility.
Continue reading...Farmers block motorway near Paris in wave of nationwide protests – video
Farmers across France have been using tractors to create road blocks in a wave of protests. Major French motorways were blocked near Paris and Bayonne, close to the Spanish border. Farmers said anger was growing for several reasons. Many feel abandoned in the face of the climate crisis, with droughts and severe weather conditions, but there is also fury at impossibly low prices for their products, the difficulty of red tape, complex environmental norms, and green policies – such as on water use – which they say are affecting profits. Further protests took place in Germany and Romania ahead of the European elections in June
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