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Paula Kahumbu: The proposal to put a railway through Kenya’s iconic wildlife sanctuary raises issues that should concern us all

The Kenyan Ministry of Transport has announced that it is moving forward with its plans to build a standard gauge railway (SGR), linking Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa, that will cut through Nairobi National Park.

Nairobi is one of the world’s fastest growing cities. It is also unique in encompassing, within its precincts, a major national park that supports lions, rhinos, and other large wild animals. Despite its modest size, the biological diversity of Nairobi National Park is greater than that of some entire countries. It is also a sanctuary of global significance for some endangered species, notably the black rhinoceros.

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Traffic noise is associated with an increase in hypertension cases, according to research from five European countries

People living near noisy roads could have a bigger risk of high blood pressure, a new study suggests.

Meanwhile, long-term exposure to air pollution can also increase a person’s risk, experts found.

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Ladle Hill, Hampshire The spindles are brave impressionist paintings among the ash and crab apple

In an almost silent late afternoon I have descended steeply through the thickly wooded path on a spur of the downs. The only sound is that of a blackbird. It has chosen, as is its habit, the very best notes in the very finest order to punctuate just such a dark autumn afternoon. It is indeed as if, as Edward Thomas wrote in The South Country, it “gathers up all the low-lit beauty into one carol”.

Emerging from beneath the canopy I take a moment to notice the great smears of unlikely tropical colour among the trees lining the chalky path. Delicately spectacular, there are few more exotic-looking things than a spindle tree in full autumn decoration. This is especially so when it’s nestled in among the damp beech woods.

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New report says coal is no solution to poverty, but Malcolm Turnbull is using the fossil fuel industry slogan to try to curb environmental groups and to shore up his increasingly shaky leadership.

As solar module prices crash, Deutsche Bank report suggests some of China's Big Six PV makers could struggle to survive.

US liquid metal battery storage start-up in talks to set up Australian R&D team, and possibly a manufacturing hub too.

The debate around renewable energy is becoming mainstream as Australians grapple with issues such as large-scale power outages and the rising cost of domestic power.

The multi-trillion-dollar ‘big crash’ could start as soon as 2023, Bloomberg warns, and ratings agency Fitch agrees it could happen sooner than anyone expected.

Prime minister defends fossil fuel as part of Australia’s energy mix as critical Senate bloc opposes ‘green lawfare’ changes

Malcolm Turnbull has declared coal will be part of Australia’s energy mix for “many, many, many decades to come” as a critical Senate bloc expressed opposition to so-called “green lawfare” changes designed to limit the legal standing of conservation groups in court proceedings.

Turnbull made the bullish observation about coal during a radio interview in Brisbane on Tuesday morning, arguing that the effort to “strangle the Australian coal industry is not going to do anything to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions”.

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Earth is distinguished from all other known planets by the presence of a warm, salty ocean that covers over 70% of its surface. The ocean puts food on the table, provides jobs, and underpins trillions of dollars of economic activity worldwide.

In a new report for the WWF, we looked in particular at how Melanesia’s ocean economy is fairing. Melanesians - the people of Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - have a strong social and cultural dependency on the sea.

Faced with looming global challenges such as climate change and food security, the region is a now at a crossroads.

Why is Melanesia’s ocean important?

Based on conservative estimates, the annual “gross marine product” of the Melanesian region – the equivalent of a country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) – is estimated to be at least US$5.4 billion. This is broadly equivalent to the combined GDPs of Fiji and the Solomon Islands, making it the third largest economy in the region.

Melanesia’s ocean assets, including fisheries and marine habitats, as well as “services” such as coastlines and carbon absorption, are valued at a minimum of US$548 billion.

Ocean assets provide a range of valuable goods and services, including food and raw materials, income, energy, tourism, recreation, cultural practices, protection from storms, and climate regulation. Maintaining healthy ocean assets is therefore vital for the future of the Melanesian region.

However, it is becoming increasingly clear that Melanesia’s ocean and its precious assets are under mounting pressures. These changes will have implications for the environment, food security, employment and the well-being of human communities both within the region and beyond.

In some isolated circumstances, eroding the ocean assets of Melanesia may lead to short-term benefits for certain places and people. However, any positive changes are likely to be short lived and specific to one country or another. For instance, declining catches for some species of tuna are already predicted for Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands by 2035.

Climate change will add to the challenge. Future climate projections include rising air and sea surface temperatures, increases in annual and seasonal rainfall, increasing intensity of tropical cyclones, rising sea levels and increasing acidity of the ocean.

Reports of coral bleaching, fish kills and severe Tropical Cyclone Winston that affected the Melanesian region this year, coupled with high rates of sea-level rise are a clear reminder of the difficulties the region faces amid a rapidly changing climate.

Melanesia at the crossroads

Melanesian leaders are now faced with two pathways for the management of its marine resources and securing ecological and economic prosperity.

The first is the current trajectory of increasing pressure on ocean assets coupled with inadequate policy and/or action. This pathway will lead to a degraded future in which opportunities for the inhabitants of the Melanesian region will be significantly diminished.

The second trajectory is to move towards a sustainable and inclusive blue economy. Such an approach will ensure that coastal assets contribute to the true prosperity and resilience of the Melanesian region long into the future.

The oceans and coastal ecosystems are vital to life on Earth, and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without the services the oceans provide will be challenging, if not impossible.

While Goal 14 focuses specifically on the ocean, a sustainable and inclusive blue economy will incorporate and build strategies that are important to meeting many of the other SDGs. This priority is interlocked with other international priorities, such as achieving a safe climate through the recent Paris Agreement.

It would also provide social and economic benefits for current and future generations by contributing to food security, reducing poverty, livelihoods, income, employment, health, safety, equity and political stability.

In addition, it would also restore, protect and maintain the diversity, productivity, resilience, core functions and intrinsic value of marine ecosystems – the natural capital upon which its prosperity depends.

Ways forward

Pacific leaders have already generally acknowledged the importance of working together across the region.

Examples include work on inshore fisheries management and sustainable development.

There have been some successes such as the Vessel Day Scheme, which limits the number of days that fishers can fish, and community coastal management such as locally managed marine areas. These are helping to guide spatial planning and integrate conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.

In light of Melanesia’s eroding ocean asset base, the new report acknowledges the commitments already made and sets out a clear set of measures that Melanesian leaders can adopt. These build on traditional environmental stewardship to protect the region’s natural coastal and ocean assets.

While our new report puts the spotlight on Melanesia and presents an economic case for greater management, the perspectives are equally applicable to the Pacific region as a whole, given that the ocean connects the island nations, rather than separates them.

The economic analysis for this report was led by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

This article was coauthored by John Tanzer (Oceans Leader WWF International), Kesaia Tabunakawai (Representative WWF-Pacific), and Paul Gamblin (Oceans Communications WWF International).

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg undertakes research on coral reef ecosystems and their response to rapid environmental change, which is supported primarily by the Australian Research Council (Canberra), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Washington, D.C.), Catlin Group (London), and Great Barrier Reef Foundation (Brisbane). He not receive salary for writing this article.

Tyrone Ridgway does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Application on ecological sustainability – call for public comments open from 26 October 2016 until 24 November 2016

Jade Fitzpatrick says reports of attacks often make them sound ‘bigger and scarier’ and he will be surfing again within days

Jade Fitzpatrick is still in shock a day after escaping the jaws of a 2.7-metre great white off the New South Wales north coast, but he says reporting of attacks should be kept in perspective and netting beaches is not the solution.

The 36-year-old surfer suffered three puncture wounds to his upper thigh when his surfboard bore the brunt of the attack off a beach between Suffolk Park and Broken Head near Byron Bay on Monday morning.

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Target has reached 147.5 MW of solar capacity, installing 69 MW in the first nine months of 2016 alone.

Emissions Reduction Fund Land and sea transport method variation released for public consultation. Consultation period closes 21 November 2016

Emissions Reduction Fund Land and sea transport method variation released for public consultation. Consultation period closes 21 November 2016

You may have heard the statistic that we waste about a third of the food we buy. What you might not have heard is that there are now many animals that actually depend on this food waste.

Geoff Cousins is a former Howard government advisor and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation and says all Australians should be able to have their day in court over the country's natural resources.

The Prime Minister has expressed concern over 'systematic, well-funded' environmental campaigns targeting developments such as the Adani coal mine in Queensland.

Farmers markets are one way to find local produce. Farmers market image from www.shutterstock.com

Being a “locavore” means choosing food that is grown locally, and is one way that you can help ensure there is more food to go around.

To feed the predicted nine billion people in the world in 2050, the world will need to produce 70-100% more food. This unprecedented increase in food production will require substantial changes in soil management, land cultivation, and crop production.

This cannot be achieved without technological advances that increase crop yield and reduce the need to use nitrogen-based fertilisers. The question is how this can be achieved sustainably, while also tackling climate change.

This is where “eating local” comes in.

What is eating local?

The primary reason why eating local is good for the planet is the reduction in energy resources required for transport and storage. Generally, the further a food has travelled from “paddock to plate”, the greater its impact on the environment. This is because of fuel used in transport and increased greenhouse gas emissions used for refrigerated storage.

The mode of transport matters too. Transporting food by air generates 177 times more greenhouse gases than shipping it.

The global food system lets us eat food from all over the world, all year round. But food miles impact adversely on the nutritional quality of fresh foods, and on the environment.

Yet while eating foods grown close to where we live makes planetary sense, farmers markets and foods grown more sustainably (organically) often carry a price premium, and seem to be targeted to a trendy and wealthy demographic.

The lack of a definition of “eating locally” also raises questions of how to incorporate organic and fair trade produce within the larger sustainability movement, and how to support developing nations.

Global supply chains place great demands on ecosystems and natural resources, and large distances between where food is produced and consumed is often seen as evidence of an unsustainable food system. However, this is not always as straightforward as it appears.

Take the case of seafood. Australia is in the enviable position of having been ranked in the top five countries for fisheries management and the majority of commercial fish stocks in Australia are assessed as sustainable.

However, 72% of seafood consumed in Australia is imported. Surprisingly, there is little difference between the carbon footprint of meals made using imported seafood compared with those of three domestic wild-caught fish.

10 tips for eating local

So given that eating local can be tricky, here are 10 tips:

1: Become familiar with foods that are grown or produced locally and what time of the year they are available. Seasonal food guides are available from some fruit markets and online such as one developed for south-east Queensland.

2: Look for local farmers markets, community gardens, food co-operatives and community supported agriculture schemes. Green Connect is one example of a community-supported agriculture scheme operating in the Illawarra region of New South Wales. In some states such as Tasmania, a thriving food tourism culture may encourage consumers to eat locally but this concept has not been replicated in other parts of the country.

3: Grow your own fruit and vegetables and keep chickens in your own backyard, or get involved in your local community garden, and trade produce with neighbours.

4: Read the labels of packaged foods. The new “Made in Australia” labelling on foods makes it easier to determine where the food (and its individual components) has been grown, processed and packaged.

Australia’s origin labelling can help choose food produced closer to home. Australia government

5: Choose less processed foods. Generally, the more processed a food is, the more energy and water it requires in the production process. Replace junk food with fresh fruit, nuts and vegetables.

6: Take the Eco Friendly Food Challenge and get some friends to join you.

7: Cook meals using fresh ingredients rather than purchasing ready-made meals.

8: Ask your food retailers and manufacturers about the origin of the food you are buying. Locate fruit and vegetable retailers, butchers, delicatessens and fishmongers who sell food produced locally.

9: Limit your intake of alcohol and purchase locally-grown alcohol with the lowest food miles possible. If you enjoy a particular beer or wine, contact the manufacturer to learn about their environmental policies and to advocate for more environmentally friendly production methods.

10: The Fair Food Forager app allows you to search for food outlets that adhere to fair and sustainable practices.

Creating consumer demand for more locally and sustainably produced food is being led not only by food champion Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, but also by our very own Australian Youth Food Movement, whose organisers are passionate about improving the food supply for future generations.

Karen Charlton receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, University of Wollongong, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, and has completed consultancies for the Australian Meals on Wheels Organization.

Amy Carrad receives PhD funding support from University of Wollongong. Amy is a volunteer for the Youth Food Movement.

Australian radio hosts broadcasts show critical of climate ‘alarmists’ from Cairns before launching the Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef website

A new Great Barrier Reef conservation site has been launched by the Australian broadcaster Alan Jones, who has declared that climate change was a hoax and said the reef was “fine”.

Experts, including the federal government, agree that climate change is the biggest threat facing the reef.

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