Feed aggregator

Trump decision to pull US out of Paris climate treaty was sadly inevitable when an ignorant buffoon is guided by self-serving climate deniers, economic nationalists and fossil fuel advocates. But what will Australia do now, given much of its ruling party shares the same view.

Donald Trump made a speech at the White House on Thursday in which he confirmed the US would be withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. Over nearly 25 minutes, Trump argued that the agreement was bad for America, but said he’d be open to renegotiating a deal which was ‘fair to the United States’

• Donald Trump confirms US will quit Paris climate agreement

Continue reading...

• Former president had spent years negotiating for landmark climate accord
• Mitch McConnell: ‘Trump has put families and jobs ahead of leftwing ideology’

Barack Obama led condemnation of his successor’s decision to withdraw from the landmark Paris climate accord, which the former president’s administration painstakingly negotiated over the course of several years.

In a statement released just before Donald Trump officially announced that the US would remove itself from the deal, Obama said the administration had joined “a small handful of nations that reject the future”. He warned that the more than 190 countries that remain participants will “reap the benefits in jobs and industries created”, but he said that US states, cities and businesses “will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.”

Continue reading...

While many species are under immediate threat from illegal trafficking, climate change represents a longer term threat.

Donald Trump announces US will be withdrawing from the Paris climate accord ‘to protect America and its citizens’ and seek a new deal ‘on terms that are fair to the United States... but if we can’t, that’s fine’

• Donald Trump confirms US will quit Paris climate agreement
• Paris climate agreement: Trump withdraws US from global accord – live

Continue reading...

Conditions over the past few years are putting stress on butterfly populations as food sources are diminished, but certain species are thriving

A beautiful creature has fluttered into my path. Well, actually, it landed on the doormat with a resounding thud. The Butterflies of Sussex might sound of limited geographical interest but it’s the best new butterfly guidebook in the country.

Newcomers will enjoy the fascinating anecdotes and beautiful photos by lepidopterist Neil Hulme. Obsessives searching for the elusive purple emperor will gobble up the grid references for the “master trees” around which male emperors congregate shortly after midsummer.

Continue reading...

A compactor at work on Australian landfill. via Wikimedia commons

Since Australia stopped incinerating rubbish in the middle of the 20th century, most of our solid waste has ended up in landfill. Some 20 million tonnes of garbage each year makes its way to hundreds of landfill sites, mostly clustered around our capital cities. This represents about 40% of total waste generation in Australia.

Surprisingly, we don’t know exactly how many landfills exist, where they all are, or how large they are. However, government data suggest that there are around 600 officially registered sites, and perhaps as many as 2,000 unregulated ones, most of them small.

Since the 1990s, the number of landfills in Australia has fallen but the average size has grown. These large sites are increasingly sophisticated and generally run by large private companies. Around 75% of landfilled waste in Australia goes to 38 sites.

What’s in landfill?

Waste in landfills falls into three major categories: household rubbish, commercial and industrial waste, and construction and demolition waste.

The average domestic bin contains 60% organic material, with the bulk coming from food (40%) and garden waste (20%). This is a primary source of landfill gas, mainly methane, which is produced when organic waste decomposes. The methane is collected and combusted using a flare or an electricity generation system. Flaring of landfill gas converts the methane to carbon dioxide, which has a significantly lower global warming potential than methane.

Of course, it’s better to reduce landfill gas in the first place. New technologies in composting and anaerobic digestion can help divert organics from landfill.

In 2013-14, the commercial sector generated 17 million tonnes of waste, representing just under a third of all waste in Australia. Around 7 million tonnes ended up in landfill. The major trends in commercial waste treatment include sourcing separated food and organics collection, and alternative waste treatment as levies and grants increase.

When water passes through toxic or hazardous waste it picks up contaminants and becomes leachate, which can contaminate the surrounding land and water.

Around 40% of Australia’s waste, or some 19 million tonnes a year, comes from construction and demolition. This typically includes timber, concrete, plastics, wood, metals, cardboard, asphalt and mixed site debris such as soil and rocks. However, only 8.5 million tonnes ended up in landfill, as levies in most states make it cheaper to recycle this material.

About 10.5 million tonnes, or 55%, was recovered and recycled in 2008-09 with recovery rates of greater than 75% being achieved by best performing jurisdictions.

How many landfills are in Australia, and where?

We calculate the number of landfills in Australia by looking at national databases like the National Pollution Inventory or the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme. However, while all operating landfills are licensed by their local councils, many regional sites fall below the size threshold where they’re required to report to these programs, or apply for environmental licenses. Therefore, we can’t say exactly how many landfills are in Australia – although someone could find out by calling every local council in the country.

The map below, from the National Waste Management Facilities Database, shows all known waste management, recycling and reprocessing facilities in Australia.

The National Waste Management Database. Click to see larger image.

Queensland reports the most sites, followed by New South Wales and Western Australia. Since lifting dumping levies, media reports estimate that 10% of Queensland’s landfill comes from interstate.

Victoria and Tasmania have a high proportion of large-to-medium sites, while NSW has the most large sites, matching its relatively large population. Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia have relatively high numbers of small sites, reflecting their highly dispersed populations.

The Northern Territory, the only other jurisdiction to not have a landfill levy, generates just 1% of Australia’s waste.

Reported numbers of Australian landfills by jurisdiction. Analysis of landfill survey data 2013 © WMAA and Blue Environment

Most of Australia’s waste goes to a small number of large sites. However, the majority of Australia’s landfills are small, receiving less than 20,000 tonnes of waste per year. The lack of precise national data on these sites is a real problem, as small, unlined landfills can still have major localised impact.

Reported tonnes of waste deposited by landfill size class and jurisdiction. Analysis of landfill survey data 2013 © WMAA and Blue Environment Who’s in charge?

Local councils are responsible for landfills in their areas, but the largest sites in Australia are run by private companies. In jurisdictions with small populations, like Tasmania and the Northern Territory, no private companies operate.

The Woodlawn landfill, 240km southwest of Sydney, gets more waste than any other landfill in Australia.

The Rochedale landfill, 18km south east of Brisbane, was in the countryside when established in the early 1990s. Now surrounded by suburban houses, it highlights the importance of appropriate planning and management of these sites. This is why Adelaide’s largest landfill is located 90km north of the city.

The variety of jurisdictions and operators involved, and their different sizes, suggests that landfills are not consistently managed.

The National Resource Recovery targets encourage private operators to reclaim and divert some of the waste going to landfill. The diversion targets vary from state to state. South Australia and the ACT have the most ambitious targets and are most advanced in meeting them. Queensland, on the other hand, is the furthest from their targets – this is likely to be a consequence of not having a landfill levy.

National Resource Recovery Targets. MSW represents household waste, C&I represents commercial waste and C&D represents construction and demolition waste. Since 2014, Victoria has aimed to maximise diversion without a headline target. MRA Consulting Group, October 2015

Landfills, however, can offer an average 50% methane gas capture during its life. The solid waste in landfills can also be an energy resource in its own right, though this has largely been untapped.

The future of landfills and resource recovery

So what lies ahead? Landfills will remain an integral part of the Australian waste cycle into the foreseeable future. Well managed, best practice landfills provide safe disposal of residual waste and the potential for resource recovery.

We have observed an increase in investment in resource recovery infrastructure, which is possibly driven by rises in landfill levies. But more is needed: the 2016 Infrastructure Australia report did not mention waste or recycling.

In order to provide key integrated infrastructure, governments need to recognise that waste (and its proper management) delivers essential services like electricity or water.

Bernadette McCabe is a member of Bioenergy Australia and is National Team Leader for the International Energy Agency Task 37 Energy from Biogas

William Clarke receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a member of the Managing Board of the International Waste Working Group.

Diocese of Rockhampton, which covers Queensland gas and mining towns, votes to sell coal seam gas and thermal coal assets

The Anglican church in Australia’s largest coalmining region, including the site of Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine, has vowed to renounce interests in fossil fuels.

The Anglican diocese of Rockhampton, which includes central Queensland mining and gas towns across 20 parishes – the largest of which is bigger than Victoria – voted to divest from the likes of thermal coal and coal seam gas at a synod meeting on 20 May.

Continue reading...

The US abandoning the global climate deal brings risks, but the unity of the rest of the world and plummeting green energy costs are reasons for hope

• Live coverage: Trump pulls US out of Paris climate agreement

Will Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change agreement tip the world into fiery catastrophe? The extraordinary unity of the rest of the world’s nations in tackling global warming, allied with the booming green economy, driven by plummeting renewable energy costs, are strong reasons to think not.

Related: Donald Trump confirms US will quit Paris climate deal

Continue reading...

Trump is doing his best to ruin the world for our children and grandchildren

• Live coverage: Trump announces US will withdraw from Paris climate deal

In an inexplicable abdication of any semblance of responsibility or leadership, Donald Trump has announced that he will begin the process to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate treaty, joining Nicaragua and Syria as the only world countries rejecting the agreement. It now seems inevitable that the history books will view Trump as America’s worst-ever president.

If I and my advisors had never learned what Science is or how & why it works, then I’d consider pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord too.

Continue reading...

World’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter will remove itself from global treaty as Trump claims accord ‘will harm’ American jobs

• Live coverage: Trump announces US will withdraw from Paris climate deal

Donald Trump has confirmed that he will withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, in effect ensuring the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases will quit the international effort to address dangerous global warming.

The US will remove itself from the deal, joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries not party to the Paris agreement. There will be no penalty for leaving, with the Paris deal based upon the premise of voluntary emissions reductions by participating countries.

Continue reading...

Reports say US president will ditch the agreement on carbon emissions curbs as world leaders vow to remain committed regardless of Trump’s decision

• Big oil darlings: the 22 Republican senators who urged Trump to withdraw
• The world prepares: China and EU strengthen promise to Paris deal
• And then there were three?: US would join Syria and Nicaragua on ‘no’ list

8.10pm BST

WH chief of staff Reince Priebus is wearing a green tie. Oh the irony. pic.twitter.com/JEPw9gFmz9

Priebus in green. What can it mean? Only one thing. Covfefe.

8.08pm BST

Today is a win for chief strategist Steve Bannon, who with Environmental Protection Administrator Scott Pruitt urged the president to jettison the Paris deal.

Continue reading...

President Trump is due to announce plans to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, US media say.

George W Bush failed in his attempt to block global action on climate change. His mistake – about to be repeated by Trump – was to imagine the UN process was weak

A smell of burning coal fills the chilly air as delegates pile into the conference chamber. Outside, protestors shiver in polar bear suits under threatening skies and forbidding grey concrete; inside, smiles, colourful costumes and a warm glow. Negotiators, politicians, activists who have spent their lives fighting climate change are jubilant. The US has stalled global action on climate change for two full presidential terms, but no longer. In the chamber, at last, the White House meltdown is in full flow.

This is no vision of a future under Donald Trump: it was the disaster and backtracking that marked the end of climate negotiations for his Republican predecessor, George W Bush, in 2008. Then, as now, a US president in thrall to oil interests tried to block international agreement on emissions. Then, as now, doomsayers foresaw a deathblow to the UN climate negotiations. Then, as now, the US economy was drunk on cheap fossil fuels.

Continue reading...

The UN chief joins leaders of the EU and China in stressing the importance of the Paris agreement.

Scientists pick up once again the distortions in space-time resulting from a huge black hole merger.

In 2007, conservationists discovered a new species inhabiting a beach just behind a pub in Granity, New Zealand. But could they save it before erosion and rising waters wiped it off the face of the planet?

Who says village life has to be boring? Granity, New Zealand may be home to less than 300 people, but this lovely seaside village on the western coast of South Island was also – until last year – home to a species found no-where else on Earth. And today, the town has quite the tale to tell.

In 2007 reptile expert Tony Jewell noticed there was something very different about the little lizards that skittered beneath the cobble stones on the beach behind Miners on Sea pub and hotel in Granity. Built in 1892, the pub has a long history of serving nearby mining communities.

Continue reading...

The summer months are officially here for the northern hemisphere, while winter beckons for the south. We’d like to see your wildlife photos

The temperature is up and the sun is out (for now) as June introduces the summer months to the northern hemisphere. For the southern hemisphere all the preparations for winter will now come in handy for the months ahead. So what sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps? We’d love to see your photos of the June wildlife near you.

You can share your June wildlife photos, videos and stories with us by clicking on the blue ‘Contribute’ buttons. Or if you’re out and about you can look for our assignments in the new Guardian app.

Continue reading...

If it pulls out, the US would be the only country to argue that the accord demands too much of signatory nations

The Paris climate pact agreed at the end of 2015 was a historic achievement after more than two decades of failed efforts to reach a global consensus on climate change. It became legally binding about a year later, after countries responsible for 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions had ratified it.

Only two countries have not joined: Syria, which was crippled by war at the time of negotiations, and Nicaragua, which refused to sign up because it considered the deal too weak. Therefore, if the US pulls out on Thursday – as is expected – it would be the only country in the world to argue that the Paris accord demands too much of signatory nations.

Continue reading...

World leaders, businesses, scientists and charities join in urging the US president not to abandon the global accord

World leaders, businesses, investors, scientists and development charities have joined in urging Donald Trump not to withdraw the US from the Paris climate change agreement.

The US president is due to announce his decision at 3pm ET on Thursday and is expected to pull the world’s largest economy, and second greatest polluter, from the global accord agreed unanimously by almost 200 nations in 2015.

Continue reading...