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Detection of ‘abundant’ magnetite particles raises concerns because of suggested links to Alzheimer’s disease

Toxic nanoparticles from air pollution have been discovered in human brains in “abundant” quantities, a newly published study reveals.

The detection of the particles, in brain tissue from 37 people, raises concerns because recent research has suggested links between these magnetite particles and Alzheimer’s disease, while air pollution has been shown to significantly increase the risk of the disease. However, the new work is still a long way from proving that the air pollution particles cause or exacerbate Alzheimer’s.

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John Harris provides, as usual, an excellent piece on what is wrong with British politics (Politics can’t heal until politicians stand clear of the revolving door, 3 September). However, former politicians and functionaries moving to lucrative jobs in the private sector and people from the private sector moving to less lucrative but influential positions in government is neither new nor a particularly British or European malady. What is missing from Harris and sadly from the Guardian in general is the recognition that this is how capitalism works at home, and is a key feature of how capitalism works globally.

How often do we hear the plea from politicians, functionaries, and corporate executives exposed for questionable practices that they were “doing nothing wrong”. In the strictly legal sense this is often correct, but it only highlights how capitalism and the state work hand in hand. Corporate sponsorship of the Paris climate change meetings is only the most important of recent manifestations of this phenomenon, in this case not only helping to explain why people around the world appear to be losing faith in conventional politics, but also why so little is done to get to the roots of why fossil-fuelled capitalist globalisation has been allowed to put the very existence of the planet at serious risk.
Leslie Sklair
London

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IUCN report warns that ‘truly staggering’ rate of warming is changing the behaviour of marine species, reducing fishing zones and spreading disease

The soaring temperature of the oceans is the “greatest hidden challenge of our generation” that is altering the make-up of marine species, shrinking fishing areas and starting to spread disease to humans, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of ocean warming.

The oceans have already sucked up an enormous amount of heat due to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, affecting marine species from microbes to whales, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report involving the work of 80 scientists from a dozen countries.

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Much of Earth's life-giving carbon could have been delivered in an asteroid collision about 4.4 billion years ago, a theory suggests.

Ice taken from a retreating Alpine glacier is moved into a freezer at the start of a mission to store it permanently in Antarctica.

Ice taken from a retreating Alpine glacier is moved into a freezer at the start of a mission to store it permanently in Antarctica.

Giant storms that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines have grown 50% stronger in the past 40 years due to warming seas

The destructive power of the typhoons that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines has intensified by 50% in the past 40 years due to warming seas, a new study has found.

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Europe's comet lander Philae, last seen in November 2014, has been identified in new pictures from the Rosetta probe.

Fans of the panda are celebrating its removal from the endangered list – and it’s not the only species to have been pulled back from the brink

The most famous thing about pandas, apart from them spending all day eating bamboo and not having sex, is how endangered they are. However, the animal has just been moved off the “endangered” species list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Although the giant panda is still considered “vulnerable”, its population is much healthier – there are thought to be 1,864 adults, and although there isn’t a definitive number of cubs, the total population now exceeds 2,000. It is, noted the IUCN report, “a positive sign confirming that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective”. Few conservation measures have been as intensive or high profile. The work included increasing the number of panda reserves, protecting forests (such as reforestation and banning logging in panda habitats) and creating “corridors” so isolated wild panda populations can mix and strengthen the gene pool. Anti-poaching patrols, and moving humans out of reserves also helped. Pandas are still at risk, particularly from a reduction in bamboo availability due to climate change, but it shows conservation efforts pay off. Here are some other animals that have been brought back from the brink:

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Freddie Mercury is honoured with an asteroid named after him to mark what would have been his 70th birthday.

Letter from 36 MPs urges Theresa May to redirect billions of pounds of post-Brexit subsidies towards environmental and public services

Dozens of Conservative MPs have written to the prime minister, Theresa May, urging her to shift billions of pounds of post-Brexit farm subsidies towards protecting and improving the environment.

The 36 MPs, including former environment ministers, also urge May to maintain the strong protection for wildlife and water provided by EU directives. During the EU referendum campaign, farming minister George Eustice campaigned for the leave camp and said the directives were “spirit-crushing” and “would go”.

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Human skulls and other artefacts found aboard the Tudor shipwreck, the Mary Rose, are being exhibited online for the first time.

Authority’s recommendations will ‘sanction further delay’ with ‘serious consequences’ for Australia, minority report says

Despite its brevity, the dissenting report from two members of the government’s supposedly independent Climate Change Authority has landed with a dull and uncompromising thud.

Last week the CCA published its report advising the government what it should and shouldn’t do in the wake of the Paris climate agreement. In short, the report recommended the government keep the chief pillars of its current policies, but make a few tweaks here and there.

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Researchers have captured images of an extremely rare white southern right whale calf off swimming with its mother off the coast of Western Australia.

The fossilised skeleton of a 170 million-year-old Jurassic predator discovered on the Isle of Skye is being unveiled in Edinburgh.

A selection of images which document a family common weasels throughout the seasons scoop the top prize this year.

Winning images are chosen from thousands of entries in fifteen separate categories including a special film category for Wildlife in HD Video and two junior categories to encourage young people to connect with nature through photography. For more information see the awards website.

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Mosques across Morocco will be fitted with solar energy systems in government scheme to boost clean energy awareness

Six hundred “green mosques” are to be created in Morocco by March 2019 in a national consciousness-raising initiative that aims to speed the country’s journey to clean energy.

If all goes to plan, the green revamp will see LED lighting, solar thermal water heaters and photovoltaic systems installed in 100 mosques by the end of this year.

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When President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping announced their countries’ ratification of the Paris climate agreement ahead of last weekend’s G20 meeting in Hangzhou, they boosted its chances of coming into force by the end of this year, some 12 months after the deal was brokered last December.

To enter into force, the Paris Agreement requires ratification by at least 55 nations which together account for at least 55% of global greenhouse emissions. It will then become legally binding on those parties that have both signed and ratified it. These thresholds ensure that the deal has broad legitimacy among states, but are also low enough to limit the opportunities for blocking by states that may oppose its progress.

Aside from China and the United States – the world’s two largest emitters, which together produce 39% of the world’s emissions – another 24 countries have ratified the agreement.

To get over the threshold, it now only needs the support of a handful of major emitters like the European Union (a bloc of 27 countries producing some 10% of global emissions), India, Russia or Brazil. Ratification by countries such as Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom (each of which contributes about 1.5% of emissions) would also contribute significantly to this momentum.

A new impetus

The contrasts with earlier times could not be greater. Although the Paris Agreement’s predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, was finalised in 1997, it was resoundingly rejected by the US Congress. Its main objection was that the treaty did not impose emissions targets on developing countries, including China and India.

This blocking, predominantly by the United States (although Russia also stalled for eight years), delayed its coming into force until early 2005. Even after that, the United States – by far the world’s largest emitter at the time – continued trenchantly to oppose it for another decade.

Political turbulence around Kyoto stymied the development of a coherent global approach to greenhouse-gas reduction for more than a decade. This contributed significantly to the debacle at the 2009 climate negotiations in Copenhagen, where the United States and China were visibly at loggerheads.

After Copenhagen, a new approach began to evolve – one that better reflected the emissions contributions of fast-emerging economies. This included an inclusive, voluntary approach in which both developed and developing nations nominated their own preferred emissions targets.

These elements, enshrined in the Paris Agreement, were attractive to the United States and China. Moreover, as a treaty carefully crafted to allow countries to draft their own national mitigation commitments and to permit the use of existing laws, the Paris Agreement did not need to be passed by the US Congress. It could be approved by President Obama alone.

It has been widely observed that the recent level of cooperation on climate politics between China and the United States has counterbalanced growing tensions between the competing superpowers in other spheres, such as trade and geopolitical influence (especially in the South China Sea). The unprecedented joint announcement on climate change in November 2014 indicated the two nations' mutual resolve to reach a deal. The joint ratification ceremony last weekend further consolidates this narrative of unity of national purpose on global warming.

Such cooperation has helped Obama cement his legacy with regard to action on climate change and provides an opportunity for China to ameliorate perceptions of its nationalistic unilateralism on other issues.

It also underscores the urgency of bringing the Paris Agreement into force. The treaty as it stands is largely aspirational – it is a promissory note, promising that everyone will ramp up their ambition together, rather than setting an ambitious course from the outset.

Its overarching goal of holding global warming to well below 2℃ and as close as possible to 1.5℃ can only be met if parties revise and toughen their national commitments. (Presently, aggregate commitments will lead to warming of 3℃ and possibly higher.)

However, the agreement contains mandatory mechanisms for ratcheting up collective action. For instance, it requires parties to strengthen their national targets every five years. Increasing funding transfers to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation will be propelled by its coming into force.

Both these elements are urgent if they are to be effective.

Australia left as a laggard

The US-China announcement not only increases the momentum for ratification, but also increases pressure on Australia. With the Kyoto Protocol, Australia loyally supported the United States and refused to ratify until 2007. This time, similar recalcitrance is likely to be met with strong international disapproval.

However, ratification is only the beginning. Australia will then be required to revise and toughen its targets for 2030 and beyond. Its weak 2030 mitigation target is accompanied by policies inadequate to meet this goal.

The Paris Agreement, once in force, will require a more robust Australian target to be announced by 2023 at the latest. This in turn will further highlight the gap between current and sufficient implementation measures.

The US-China ratification announcement is the next step along a path that must see Australia climb – or be dragged – out of its current climate policy torpor.

Peter Christoff 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.

Dissenting CCA members call for "proper" emissions target, coal closure, as Frydenberg reads from Abbott songbook.

The Chevin, Otley, West Yorkshire The most prolific plants spring up to monstrous heights and otherwise orderly places become twisted and tangled

There is a point every summer where the pastoral dream of the English countryside turns feverish, almost psychedelic. The most prolific plants spring up to monstrous heights and otherwise orderly places become twisted and tangled. In Yorkshire’s gritstone country, these individual takeovers feel like a conspiracy, as if the armies of entropy are silently massing, taking up positions ready for some coordinated coup of the countryside.

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