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London on pollution 'high alert' due to cold air, traffic, and wood burning
Camden, City of London, and Westminster hit 10 out of 10 on index, while pollution levels across UK also peaked
London has been put on “very high” alert as cold and still weather, traffic, and a peak in the use of wood-burning stoves combined to send air pollution soaring in the capital and across swathes of the UK.
According to data from King’s College London, areas of London including Camden, the City of London and Westminster all reached 10 out of 10 on the air pollution index, with many other areas rated seven or higher.
Continue reading...Snow in the Sahara – in pictures
Red dunes turn white as record snowfall blankets desert near town of Aïn Séfra in Algeria
Continue reading...So you want to be a climate campaigner? Here's how
Readers have asked how to get involved after the Guardian’s 24-hour digital event last week. Opportunites abound to make a difference, from setting up an online petition, to joining a local green group, to entering politics
The planet is getting hotter, leaving people hungry and fuelling wars around the world and you want to do something about it. But with a green movement to cater for every age, location, and type of plastic recycling, how do you turn your enthusiasm into action?
We talked to campaigners and politicians to glean their top tips for getting started as a climate activist.
Continue reading...Quentin Willson encouraging the use of electric cars
We’re now breaking global temperature records once every three years | Dana Nuccitelli
Denial and “alternative facts” haven’t stopped the Earth from warming to record-shattering levels
According to Nasa, in 2016 the Earth’s surface temperature shattered the previous record for hottest year by 0.12°C. That record was set in 2015, which broke the previous record by 0.13°C. That record had been set in 2014, beating out 2010, which in turn had broken the previous record set in 2005.
If you think that seems like a lot of record-breaking hot years, you’re right. The streak of three consecutive record hot years is unprecedented since measurements began in 1880. In the 35 years between 1945 and 1979, there were no record-breakers. In the 37 years since 1980, there have been 12. The video below illustrates all of the record-breaking years in the Nasa global surface temperature record since 1880.
Continue reading...Gator aid
Fire of Australia: The return of the world's finest uncut opal
All birds and bluster on the headland
St Bees Head, Cumbria The red sandstone cliffs are home to a reserve that claims to be the largest seabird colony in the north-west
At Cumbria’s most westerly point, I watch two fulmars glide stiff-winged on the wind over the unmanned lighthouse. Guillemots follow suit, as does a razorbill (inappropriately named, for, though similar, their beaks are blunter and thicker). The adjacent red sandstone cliffs, 300ft high, are home to an RSPB bird reserve that claims to be the largest seabird colony in north-west England.
B-o-o-om! “What was that?” asks a startled woman, one of a group tackling Wainwright’s Coast-to-Coast walk. “It’s not the foghorn,” says another walker, consulting a guidebook. “Says here it has long been decommissioned. Maybe it’s wind hitting the cliffs.” She reads from the book: “Wreckers once lured ships below the headland with lanterns, then plundered the wreckage.” They stride on towards Robin Hood’s Bay 14 days and 190-odd miles to the east.
Continue reading...Cambridge scientists consider fake news 'vaccine'
Labor, unions, CEC ridicule Coalition push for RET to be scrapped
2017 to mark “transformational” year for large scale solar in Australia
AEMO hires New York energy reformer as new CEO
Know your NEM: AGL’s cheap wind deal, and falling cost of storage
AEMO appoints new Chief Executive Officer, Ms Audrey Zibelman
France can’t meet its own power demand
Turning point: solar power now cheaper than wind energy
Trump White House distorts energy impacts on wages on first day
Winter reigns over the land: Country diary 100 years ago
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 30 January 1917
The biting east wind played on the swaying wires beside the road, striking notes now melancholy moans, now high-pitched screams; it swept across the mere, lashing white foam from the wavelets; it drove floating ice fragments into the rushes and reeds, scrunching and churning them against the ice-discs which clung to each stalwart stem. The western shore was caked with ice, each grass stem which had caught the splashing waters deep within a transparent icicle; a dead mallard was coated in an icy blanket, driving the hungry rats from the meal they had begun. To the south-east broad shafts, like beams from a searchlight, crossed the sullen clouds which hid the wintry sun, and, beyond, the snow-clad hills of the Derbyshire border faded into the misty horizon. The coots, weary of tossing, chilly waters, fed in a mob on the grass, where they were joined by fifty clonking Canada geese. The hungry redwings searched the frozen fields so unsuccessfully that one bird, separated from its companions, had only energy for an occasional flutter. One felt indeed that
Winter reigneth o’er the land,
Freezing with its icy breath.
Barnaby Joyce won't rule out dumping Renewable Energy Target
Deputy prime minister criticises ‘romantic’ targets set by states as some Coalition MPs call to ditch RET if US pulls out of Paris climate deal
Barnaby Joyce has refused to commit the government to maintain the Renewable Energy Target, after a report that conservative Coalition MPs want to ditch it if the United States pulls out of the Paris climate agreement.
The deputy prime minister ruled out pulling out of the Paris agreement, but criticised “romantic” renewable targets set by states and said MPs were free to think and say what they like about the RET.
Continue reading...The long-tailed tit – successful, adaptable, sociable, and oh so cute
This tiny ball of fluff with an impossibly long tail, has almost doubled in numbers since the 1980s
A brief, high-pitched “see-see-see” sound, followed by the appearance of half-a-dozen tiny balls of fluff, each attached to what looks like a protruding stick. Then, more calls, as these flying lollipops flit from one tree to the next, pause, grab an invisible insect, and then move rapidly on.
Encountering a flock of long-tailed tits on a frosty January day is always a delight. Few other birds so immediately provoke a smile, for few other birds are quite so… well, adorable is the word that most readily to mind. When you discover that – as my friend and fellow nature writer Dominic Couzens puts it – the long-tailed tit is the only small bird that spends Christmas with its family, then their status in the pantheon of cuteness is confirmed.
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