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Plastic waste, bee-harming pesticides and tigers – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...When deciding a nation’s future, politicians play with their food
In the UK and abroad, the political events of the past year prove that politicians are willing to gamble with the health, prosperity, and fate of our food systems.
One of the many things that the past year of political turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic has revealed, is that governments have a questionable relationship with food. As the UK inches towards the completion of Brexit negotiations, and the Trump administration in the US unleashes its budget proposal, a strange kind of disconnect has become apparent: those negotiating their nations’ futures seem not to recognise that a chunk of its security and prosperity depends on how well they manage its food.
In the UK that trend became clear well before Brexit struck, when during the negotiations many pointed out a lack of meaningful discussion about what the split would actually mean for farmers. It didn’t matter enough to be a priority. Until suddenly it did--when we realised we’d have to plug the hole left behind by the European migrants that currently make up roughly 20% of the UK’s agricultural workforce, and who would exit if we ultimately back away from free movement.
Continue reading...Europe's extreme June heat clearly linked to climate change, research shows
Heatwaves that saw deadly forest fires in Portugal and soaring temperatures in England were made up to 10 times more likely by global warming, say scientists
Human-caused climate change dramatically increased the likelihood of the extreme heatwave that saw deadly forest fires blazing in Portugal and Spain, new research has shown.
Much of western Europe sweltered earlier in June, and the severe heat in England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland was also made significantly more likely by global warming. Such temperatures will become the norm by 2050, the scientists warned, unless action is taken to rapidly cut carbon emissions.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A drumming cockatoo, basking sharks and flamingos are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Fukushima nuclear disaster: former Tepco executives go on trial
Three men plead not guilty to professional negligence in the only criminal action targeting officials since the triple meltdown
Three former executives with the operator of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have pleaded not guilty to charges of professional negligence, in the only criminal action targeting officials since the triple meltdown more than six years ago.
In the first hearing of the trial at Tokyo district court on Friday, Tsunehisa Katsumata, who was chairman of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) at the time of the disaster, and two other former executives argued they could not have foreseen a tsunami of the size that knocked out the plant’s backup cooling system, triggering a meltdown in three reactors.
Continue reading...Life along the vanishing shorelines of the Solomon Islands – in pictures
Trees, graveyards and everyday life are being encroached upon by rising sea levels on the Solomon Islands. Local people are trying to adapt
Continue reading...We need more than just extra water to save the Murray-Darling Basin
The Murray-Darling Basin is an incredibly complex ecological system. Mike Russell/Flickr, CC BY-SAAfter a long and contentious public debate, in 2012 Australia embarked on a significant and expensive water recovery program to restore the Murray-Darling Basin’s ecosystems.
Despite general agreement that a certain amount of water should be reserved to restore the flagging river system, the argument continues as to whether this should be 2,750 or 3,200 gigalitres (GL) a year, and how these savings can be achieved.
A recent report by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists argues that there is no conclusive evidence, after five years, that the plan is effective. The report’s authors believe that an extra 450GL of water a year needs to be recovered to save the basin.
There is no doubt in our minds that the Murray-Darling river system is in crisis, and the Basin Plan was vitally needed. But while we broadly agree with the Wentworth Group’s report, it’s a mistake to focus on water volume alone.
Without giving equal attention to improving water quality and building critical ecological infrastructure, it’s possible that increasing river flows could actually harm the Basin.
What are we trying to recover?We don’t really have much information on the state of the basin before industrial development. Most knowledge is more recent, but we do know that from about the 1920s onwards, considerable volumes of water have been removed. Few comprehensive historic records of flora and fauna, let alone water quality, are available.
While knowledge of the state and significance of the ecology of the river systems is scant, there is ample evidence that increased levels of nutrients, salts and, in particular, sediments have adversely affected the wetlands, main channels and associated floodplains.
The records of fish that historically lived in the rivers, billabongs and wetlands also tell a cautionary tale. These wetlands and rivers once teemed with native fish. In 1915, a single scoop of a 10 m seine net would yield more than 100,000 native fish in a single wetland.
There were dozens of species at each site, supporting a burgeoning fishery that was considered inexhaustible.
An example of extreme overfishing of Murray cod in the late 1800s, which caused the first strong declines in the species. Such catches were typical for the period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_cod
Since that time the basin has been extensively developed. The fishing industry expanded, forests were cleared, dams were built, floodplains were blocked by levies, water began to be diverted for irrigation, the demand for drinking water increased and invasive species were introduced. But somewhere over the past 100 years we crossed a threshold where the system stopped being able to support native fish.
Nowadays, visiting the wetlands that were historically packed with native fish (all of which had huge cultural importance to traditional owners), we find mostly invasive species such as carp, goldfish and weatherloach.
In some places, native species that were once abundant have not been seen in 40 years. The formerly productive commercial fisheries, and the livelihoods they supported, have been shut down.
Our native fish are in trouble, and unless urgent action is taken, many face extinction within decades.
Rebuilding a complex systemThe Basin Plan is underpinned by a focus on river volume as the cause of system degradation and subsequent recovery. But the system is much more complex than that. Fluctuating levels of sediments, salts and nutrients drive significant changes, and so regulating river flows – which carry these components from place to place – fundamentally alters the dynamics of main channels and floodplain wetlands.
Over the last century, erosion has filled the rivers in the Murray system with mud. When this water flows into the wetlands, this sediment builds and blocks the light, killing the aquatic plants that support native fish.
Simply increasing the water flow without addressing water quality runs the risk of exacerbating this problem. We therefore argue the first step in river recovery is attending to water quality.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has focused very heavily on the amount of water in the system; partly because speaking in terms of volume is easiest to demonstrate and understand. But the paleoecological record reveals that water quality, at least in wetlands, declined well before human use of water changed the river flows.
So if recovering water volume is a critical target, it is equally important that this water is of good quality. Recent experience with blackwater events, in which oxygen levels drop so low that fish suffocate, highlights this need. Even water of the wrong temperature, known as “thermal pollution”, can cause real harm. Winter-temperature water, for example, can prevent fish from breeding if it occurs in summer. Bad water quality will simply not provide good ecological outcomes.
A century of engineering development has fundamentally changed the basins rivers in a way that does not support native fish or the original ecology in general. Even if the recovered water is of high quality, we will need to take other steps to achieve tangible outcomes. Thus we need “complementary measures”, which augment the benefits of increasing river volumes. These include:
- Mitigating thermal and other pollution to ensure the water temperature and overall quality is adequate,
- Building fishways so that fish can navigate dams and weirs,
- Restocking threatened fish species into areas they are no longer found,
- Controlling carp and other non-native species that now dominate our waterways;
- Building fish-friendly irrigation infrastructure such as screens on irrigation pumps or overshot weirs; and
- Improving habitat through resnagging or controlling harmful practices on flood plains.
Another measure to improve the basin’s waterways, the proposal to release a virulent strain of carp herpes, has raised debate over whether it will neatly solve a major environmental and economic problem or create further issues.
If implemented correctly, these complementary measures are just as important as water recovery and improving water quality for meeting the basin plan’s ecological targets.
Repairing a river system such as the Murray-Darling is incredibly complex, and we must broaden our view beyond simply thinking about water volumes. Some of these extra steps can also provide benefits with less cost to the people who live and work with the water. To achieve this we suggest a staged program of recovery that allows the communities who live in the basin more time to adapt to the plan.
Max Finlayson receives funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Australian Research Council.
Lee Baumgartner works with the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation to investigate the benefits of complementary measures across the basin, including the release of the carp virus.
Peter Gell received funding from ARC to fund previous research into the Murray-Darling Basin. He currently receives funding from the NSW state government for research into wetlands. He is a member of the Greens.
The house that Tateh built ... out of sand-filled plastic bottles
In the Sahrawi refugee camps in the Algerian desert, Tateh Lehbib Braica – aka ‘the crazy bottle guy’ – has built circular houses from waste plastic that protect from wind and sun
A group of women drink tea under the shade of a tent and cast an eye over the construction of an odd, circular house. The half-built dwelling is the brainchild of Tateh Lehbib Braica, 27, an engineer who wanders among the workers.
On the ground lie hundreds of sand-filled, 1.5 litre plastic bottles that serve as bricks. With them, Tateh has found a way to fight back against the harshness of the Algerian desert that is home to 90,000 long-term refugees from western Sahara. It’s not yet that hot, but in summer, when the temperature rises above 50C, it will be impossible to venture out of doors.
Continue reading...Fine motorists idling outside schools to cut air pollution, say health watchdogs
New official guidance also backs planting trees, supporting cycling and encouraging take-up of electric vehicles to tackle crisis that causes 40,000 early deaths a year
Parents who leave their car engines running at the school gate should be fined in order to help tackle the air pollution crisis, according to England’s official health watchdogs.
New guidance from Public Health England (PHE) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) sets out a wide range of measures to cut air pollution, which is at illegal levels in almost 90% of urban areas.
Continue reading...WA garnet miner to build 3MW solar, wind, battery storage plant
Spiky stars of summer's golden gang
Airedale, West Yorkshire Goldfinches bicker among the chromium yellows of gorse and laburnum
It’s been a good year for gorse. Perhaps the dryish winter helped. All across the north of England I’ve seen the plant’s reckless spatters of chromium yellow bristling with the promise of stonechats and whitethroats.
Some trace the origins of the word gorse to an Anglo-Saxon word for wasteland (this, Ulex europaeus, is a species of poor soil and open skies) but others relate it ultimately to the Greek for hedgehog, which is much more satisfying.
Continue reading...Reclink Community Cup is Australia’s first carbon neutral certified community event!
Carbon Market Institute launches the Carbon Marketplace
Another blow to CCS, as EU power giants bow out of Dutch project
Electric vehicle charging networks rolled out across WA, Qld
Energy storage already cost-competitive in commercial sector, finds study
SolarCoin – the cryptocurrency earned by generating solar electricity
NSW Coalition: Time to move on from notion of “baseload”
Trump’s road to ‘energy dominance’ excludes renewables
Wild ducks caught on camera snacking on small birds
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