Feed aggregator
Endangered frog dads travel 7,000 miles to 'give birth'
Endangered frogs born at London zoo after rescue mission in Chile
Group of Darwin’s frogs threatened by chytrid fungus thrive in specially built room that mimics their natural habitat
Dozens of endangered froglets have been born at London zoo after conservationists launched an emergency mission to rescue members of the species from a remote national park in Chile.
Researchers rushed to Tantauco Park on the southern tip of Chiloé Island after tests confirmed that the lethal chytrid fungus had reached the nature reserve and threatened to wipe out some of the last remaining populations of Darwin’s frogs.
Continue reading...Australian govt defers nature positive bills until after election
Arctic geoengineering project shuts down over ecological risks, financial challenges
Demolition should be the last resort for Melbourne’s 44 public housing towers – retrofit and upgrade instead
Carbon crediting for peatland rewetting may overestimate climate benefits -study
Airport expansion puts the government on the flight path to years of trouble and strife
On top of the added levels of noise and air pollution, there’s the non-trivial matter of demolishing hundreds of homes, diverting several waterways and rerouting a long stretch of the M25
Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has illuminated the “fasten seat belts” sign. Not only have Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves run into severe turbulence over Heathrow, the flight deck deliberately steered the Labour plane into storm clouds. That’s an interesting choice for a government that was already buffeted by serious unpopularity and it’s a choice that a lot of their own party are struggling to explain to themselves. Anger about the chancellor’s new commitment to back the expansion of the London airport and others is mingled with bewilderment. A lot of Labour people are scratching their heads trying to work out why she wants to burn political capital on a hugely contentious project that couldn’t possibly be complete until long after she’s done at the Treasury and Sir Keir is gone from Number 10.
It was her choice and his. She didn’t have to make airport expansion the centrepiece of her keynote speech about growth. The prime minister, if his title means anything, could have stopped his chancellor had he wanted to. One consequence of the fury about the subject is that it diverts attention from her more welcome thoughts about how to boost Britain’s growth-starved economy.
Continue reading...Tax on UK incinerators may push councils to send more waste to landfill
Government scheme to penalise pollution from burning rubbish won’t ensure more is recycled, consultants warn
Councils may be forced to send more rubbish to landfill or export it overseas because of a new pollution tax set to be imposed on the UK’s network of waste incinerators.
There are already more than 60 energy-from-waste incinerators across the UK and the Observer revealed in December that as many as 40 new plants are in the pipeline. Many local councils have supported the policy of burning waste, which is cheaper than sending it to landfill.
Continue reading...How can a new runway at Heathrow be good for the planet? | Observer letters
A West End play reveals the way in which powerful vested interests brought about the demise of the climate protocol
In his review of the play Kyoto (“The Kyoto climate treaty is hailed on stage, but reality tells a different story”, Focus), Robin McKie rightly points out that the world is failing dismally to effectively get a grip on the climate crisis.
Richer countries that were part of the Kyoto bloc – mostly European nations – put in place extensive policies to implement the treaty’s legally binding targets: the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act, widely emulated across the world, is one example. Climate laws multiplied after 1997. All countries with targets met them, renewables spread much more quickly than expected, and emissions in the Kyoto bloc fell by over 20%, at least partly because of these policies.
Continue reading...Delayed monsoon and a stalled tropical low: what’s behind north Queensland’s record-breaking floods
Nasa needs saving from itself – but is this billionaire right for that job?
Reeves’s Heathrow third runway report was commissioned by London airport
The chancellor is under fire after a study cited as evidence for expanding the terminal to boost the UK’s economic growth was ordered by Heathrow itself
Rachel Reeves was facing criticism on Saturday night as it was confirmed that a report she cited as evidence that a third runway at Heathrow would boost the UK economy was commissioned by the airport itself.
Experts and green groups also challenged Reeves’s view that advances in the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) had been a “gamechanger” that would substantially limit the environmental damage of flying, saying the claims were overblown and did not stand up to scrutiny.
Continue reading...Campaigners hail ‘important victory’ in protection of England’s national parks
Minister says there was error when Manningtree station car park extension was approved under last government
Campaigners have celebrated an “important victory” in a closely watched case that will determine whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.
Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of Essex and Suffolk, home to increasingly rare species including hazel dormice and hedgehogs. Within it is Manningtree station, where the train operator Greater Anglia built an extension to the car park to cope with increased traffic.
Continue reading...‘This is sacred land’: an off-grid Wales community battles to keep their home
Legal action has begun to remove the tenants after the 80-acre site was sold to be turned into a healing retreat
Lunch around the huge sycamore and oak table in the farmhouse kitchen of the off-grid Brithdir Mawr community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales is a warm, gentle affair.
Members of the housing co-operative share soup made from leeks and potatoes grown in the gardens, served with crumbly goat’s cheese from its own herd, all washed down with mugs of mountain spring water.
Continue reading...Labour warned it risks losing support for net zero if costs not spread fairly
Exclusive: Chief climate adviser calls on Starmer to make ‘strong, confident’ case for green UK that public can buy into
Ensuring that the costs of decarbonisation are shared fairly across society must be a top priority for ministers or they risk losing public support for net zero, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves should be making a “strong, confident” case for decarbonisation as an engine of economic growth, according to Emma Pinchbeck, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, the independent statutory adviser.
Continue reading...