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Trailblazer in science journalism

Andrew Veitch, who has died aged 70, was one of those journalists with a sustained talent for self-invention: a talent driven by enthusiasm, curiosity and a generous sense of responsibility. It took him to Channel 4 News as science correspondent, covering health and environment stories, as well as the occasional international crisis, and then from 2003 to BBC World, working as a freelance producer, writer and presenter of documentaries made by Rockhopper Productions.

However, Andy started in print, joining the Guardian in 1971. He became a subeditor in the features department – taking the reporter’s typewritten prose and the photographer’s printed pictures and composing them into finished newspaper pages to be steered through a complex process of hot metal production – but metamorphosed into a medical correspondent.

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Conservationists urge countries to give imperilled species the highest level of protection at the global Cites summit opening on Saturday to prevent them becoming extinct in the wild

A global wildlife summit opening on Saturday is a “do or die” moment for endangered animals around the world, say conservationists, from iconic species such as elephants and lions to lesser known, but equally troubled, creatures such as devil rays and the psychedelic rock gecko.

The summit in Johannesburg brings together 181 nations to crack down on wildlife trafficking, currently a $20bn-a-year criminal enterprise, and to ensure the legal trade in food, skins, pets and traditional remedies does not threaten the survival of species. The member nations of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will vote on proposals to toughen or loosen trade bans and regulations for over 500 species.

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Two skeletons have been discovered in a London graveyard which could change our view of the history of Europe and Asia.

A dozing brown bear, hungry badger and a very hairy caterpillar are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Non-binding vote for 55% cut in CO2 emissions will require closure of remaining five plants and ensure country meets its Paris climate commitments

The Dutch parliament has voted for a 55% cut in CO2 emissions by 2030, which would require the closure of all the country’s coal-fired power plants.

The unexpected vote on Thursday night by 77 to 72 would bring the Netherlands clearly into line with the Paris climate agreement, with some of the most ambitious climate policies in Europe.

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Expansion of fossil fuel extraction amounts to ‘climate denial’, says thinktank Oil Change International, but observers argue some additional oil and gas could be safe. Climate Home reports

The world’s working coal mines and oil and gas fields contain enough carbon to push the world beyond the threshold for catastrophic climate change, according to a report released on Thursday.

If all the existing fuel were to be burned, projects currently operating or under construction could be expected to release 942Gt CO2, said the report by US-based thinktank Oil Change International (OCI).

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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

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Norway’s recent decision to destroy 70% of its tiny endangered population of wolves shocked conservationists worldwide and saw 35,000 sign a local petition. But in a region dominated by sheep farming support for the cull runs deep

Conservation groups worldwide were astonished to hear of the recent, unprecedented decision to destroy 70% of the Norway’s tiny and endangered population of 68 wolves, the biggest cull for almost a century.

But not everyone in Norway is behind the plan. The wildlife protection group Predator Alliance Norway, for example, has campaign posters that talk of wolves as essential for nature, and a tourist attraction for Norway.

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There are currently over 60 major hydroelectric dam projects in the Amazon. The third largest project is the Belo Monte on the Xingu River, Brazil, which has already displaced 20,000 indigenous and riverine people. Aaron Vincent Elkaim documents the story of the Munduruku tribe, who are fighting against the industrialisation of this region

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Researchers on north-west coast of Alaska startled to discover Caspian terns an incredible 1,000 miles further north than species had been previously recorded

Eyebrows would be raised if American crocodiles, found on the southern tip of Florida, decided to relocate to New York’s Fifth Avenue or Moroccan camels suddenly joined the tourist throng outside Buckingham Palace in London. Yet this is the scale of species shift that appears to be under way in Alaska.

In July, researchers in Cape Krusenstern national monument on the north-west coast of Alaska were startled to discover a nest containing Caspian terns on the gravelly beach of a lagoon. The birds were an incredible 1,000 miles further north than the species had been previously recorded.

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Making the accord legally binding is not enough to guarantee the world keeps warming within agreed limits. That will take much more - not least ending our reliance on fossil fuels

In a rare show of international unity, more than 30 countries this week declared their plans to translate into national laws the Paris agreement on climate change.

As a result, by the end of this year, or soon after, the accord should come into effect and become binding under international law.

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Sean Dooley is an author, the Editor of Australian Birdlife Magazine, a bird-watcher and a keen tweeter.

Flu carried by migratory birds poses a risk to penguins living in Antarctica, scientists warn.

Marshwood Vale, Dorset Workers grab their prey in flight, and dismember it, discarding all but the meaty thorax before returning to the nest

On the way upstairs, I hear a deep, droning buzz, loud as a distant engine. Then the sound of crashing as something collides weightily with the lampshade. Sudden silence. Where has it gone? Ah, there she is, resting on the wall by the bed, banded abdomen poised and pulsing, brown legs spread, one antenna delicately patting the wallpaper. Vespa crabro vexator, the European hornet subspecies found south of a line running from the Severn to the Wash.

Unlike bees and wasps, hornets fly both day and night, preying on moths and insects. They are attracted to light and, if we leave the bedroom window open on warm autumn evenings, they tumble inside. We have to turn off the exterior sensor-activated security light completely, otherwise it will be on all night as they dive-bomb the bulb, their bright bodies illuminated gold like sparks from a bonfire.

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Consumer advocates stunned by energy rule-maker that vetoes a proposal that could encourage local generation and storage, and save more than a billion dollar. They accuse the rule-maker of being stubborn and out of touch, and not for the first time.

A report in the Financial Times claims that Apple is negotiating a possible purchase of McLaren Technology Group.

Survey finds households wasting up to $1,100 of food each year with problem worst in capital cities

Australians waste $10bn of food annually with “excitable” Generation Y consumers the worst offenders, according to a new report.

The RaboDirect Financial Health Barometer 2016 Food and Farming Report found that households wasted up to $1,100 worth of food each year, or 14% of their weekly groceries, with one in four Gen Y consumers saying they threw out up to 20% of their weekly groceries.

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The failure of a gas generator in Western Australia affected more people for a longer period than an outage in South Australia last year. So where were the Murdoch headlines?

The preliminary results are in for a national citizen science project looking into which bird species are visiting backyard bird feeders.

Australia’s offshore petroleum industry regulator is set to rule next week whether to grant oil giant BP’s application to drill in the Great Australian Bight.

But BP’s environmental plan, released last week, suggests that the company’s proposed plan for dealing with a blowout displays less urgency than would be expected in some other parts of the world.

If a blowout does occur, BP proposes to cap it with a piece of equipment known as a capping stack. These devices did not exist at the time of BP’s Gulf of Mexico blowout in 2010, when a capping strategy had to be developed on the run, which is why it took 87 days to cap that well.

Since then, capping stacks have been designed, constructed and located strategically around the world. For its proposed operations in the Bight, BP would have access to a capping stack in Singapore. It would take up to 35 days to bring this stack to the Bight and cap the well.

The company has rejected the suggestion that a capping stack be located locally. It claims that the time needed to transport the device from Singapore to the Bight is not a critical issue. In its earlier environmental plan, released last October, BP said that capping a blowout would require significant preparatory work, by which time the Singapore capping stack would have arrived.

Yet the idea of spending more than a month to plug a flowing well hardly seems compatible with avoiding major environmental damage. According to BP’s own estimate, oil from a spill in the Bight could reach the shore in as little as nine days.

A recent exercise in the Gulf of Mexico shows that a blowout could be capped in 15 days, using a locally available capping stack. In this respect, BP’s estimate of the time it would take to cap a blowout is a long way short of industry best practice.

Whether or not travel time from Singapore is the critical issue, it is worth noting that there are five different capping stacks available for use in the Gulf of Mexico and three for use in UK waters. The expectation is that these stacks could be on site within 24-48 hours.

Note also that new rules imposed by the US regulator for drilling in the Arctic require that a capping stack be located within 24 hours' travel time of the drill site. If the Arctic justifies this level of protection, why not the Bight?

Drilling a relief well

Should the capping strategy fail for any reason, BP has a backup plan for stopping the flow. This is to drill a relief well to intersect the blowout well below the sea floor and “kill” it by pumping it full of heavy fluid or cement.

The question this raises is: where would BP find a spare drilling rig to carry out this operation? After the Montara blowout off Western Australia in 2009, a suitable drilling rig was located near Singapore. But this rig would have been no use in the deep water of the Bight.

Oil companies operating in Australian waters have a memorandum of understanding among themselves to provide a suitable drilling rig in an emergency. Yet it remains unclear how easy it would be for another company to release a rig quickly for this purpose. As such, BP has assumed that it will take up to 149 days to acquire an appropriate rig, drill a relief well and plug the blowout.

The new Arctic regulations require that a relief rig be available nearby, to guarantee that a relief well can be drilled before winter sea ice moves in. The situation in the Bight is not as constrained by the seasons, but even so, 149 days seems an unacceptably long time to plug a well.

The Gulf of Mexico blowout was stopped in 87 days, during which time it inflicted damage worth at least A$40 billion. Who knows what the toll would have been if it had lasted almost twice as long?

Protecting the shore

Finally, BP has various strategies for reducing the amount of oil reaching the shoreline in the event of a spill. These include using dispersant chemicals, both subsea, at the point of release, and on the sea surface. The company puts particular emphasis on subsea dispersal, but recognises that this strategy would also be subject to delay.

It estimates that subsea dispersal would begin within 10 days “where that is possible”. This can never be a fully effective way to prevent coastal pollution, because BP’s modelling suggests oil would begin arriving on the coast in less time than this.

BP has also noted that traditional methods of containment and recovery of oil using booms and skimmers “are not expected to provide significant benefit” in the open ocean.

What seems more likely in the event of a spill is that the company will find itself fighting a last-ditch battle against the oil as it approaches sensitive parts of the shoreline, and where this fails it will implement shoreline and oiled wildlife clean-up.

It is difficult to forecast any other scenario, given the time frames described in BP’s own documents. Its published response plan gives no guarantee that an oil spill in the Bight would not reach the shoreline and damage the environment.

Experience elsewhere in the world suggests that these timelines can be tightened. The question for the regulator is whether BP has reduced the risk to a level that is “as low as reasonably practicable”.

It is by no means obvious that the answer is yes.

Andrew Hopkins is the author of Disastrous Decisions: The Human and Organisational Causes of the Gulf of Mexico Blowout.

Andrew Hopkins 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.