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Let’s get rid of litter, one piece at a time | Letters
What can we do about litter? It spoils our streets and countryside and ends up being washed out to sea, polluting our oceans. It frustrates and saddens many of us, and no one seems to know what to do about it. As soon as it is cleared up it reappears in a never-ending cycle. So here’s an idea: how about launching a positive-spirited national network to link together people who undertake to pick up just one piece of litter every time they go out (Andrew Mayers: I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It’s lonely but worth it, 4 July)?
Why might this work where other approaches have failed? Because it is such a small easy thing for each person to commit to, but if many people did it the cumulative results could be surprising. Being a lone litter-picker can feel like being Sisyphus, doomed to push his boulder up the hill again and again. If each person knew they were part of a network doing the same thing, results would begin to be seen.
Continue reading...I had that Queen Victoria in the back of my electric cab… | Brief letters
How welcome to see an electric taxi, and we should hail it by all means (Financial, 12 July). But is it the first? Far from it, apparently. Electric taxis first appeared in London at the end of the 19th century, but the “hummingbirds”, as they were known, were very quickly hounded off the road by their horse-drawn rivals. The London Electric Cab Company, which built them, went bust. See Rethink by Steven Poole, reviewed by you July 2016, bought by me July 2017.
David Beake
Budock Water, Cornwall
• Yet again a government department pits public sector workers against taxpayers, as though these are two distinct groups (May under fire as teacher pay held at 1%, 11 July). I fear that as public sector pay becomes more and more eroded, many will indeed find themselves paid below the threshold to start paying tax – could this be the ultimate aim of this damaging cap?
Deirdre Burrell
Mortimer, Berkshire
'The island is being eaten': how climate change is threatening the Torres Strait
In Boigu, part of Australia but just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, roads are being washed into the sea
Torres Strait residents face being forced from their homes by climate change, as their islands are lost to rising seas.
On Boigu Island, the most northerly inhabited island in Australia, just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, the community’s cemetery faces inundation and roads are being washed into the sea. A seawall installed to protect the community is already failing.
Continue reading...Coke's recycled plastic bottle scheme criticised as PR spin by green groups
Drinks giant’s proposals to reduce plastic waste are unambitious and vague, say some enviromental groups
Coca-Cola’s plan to reduce the millions of plastic bottles that end in the world’s oceans every day has been criticised by environmental groups as unambitious “PR spin”.
The world’s biggest drinks brand, estimated to produce more than 100bn plastic bottles every year, raised its 2020 target for the amount of recycled plastic used in its bottles from 40% to 50%.
Continue reading...Green groups call for overhaul of repeal bill to safeguard environment after Brexit
Campaigners from organisations including Greenpeace, the National Trust and Friends of the Earth highlight major risks to environment if EU protections are dropped or diluted
Environmental campaigners with 8 million members between them are putting forward key amendments to the repeal bill to be published on Thursday to tackle the threat of Brexit leaving huge gaps in environmental protection in the UK.
Campaigners from organisations including the RSPB, Client Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, and Friends of the Earth, are highlighting the major risks to the environment if the spirit and letter of EU law and the ability to enforce it, is not rolled over into the repeal bill.
Continue reading...London's first dockless hire bike scheme launches
Obike have become the first dockless hire bike company to launch in the capital, following similar schemes in Manchester and Cambridge
London’s first dockless hire bikes were launched on Wednesday morning in the first phase of what is expected to be a rapid rollout of the machines by Singapore-based company Obike to cities all across the UK.
Obike – not to be confused with Mobike, which launched in Manchester exactly a month ago – delivered 400 of its bikes to the London borough of Tower Hamlets today, and intends to roll out thousands more across the city before the end of the month, at a rate of hundreds per day.
Continue reading...Protester hit by van at Cuadrilla's Lancashire fracking site – video
A video posted to YouTube shows a protester at Preston New Road fracking site in Lancashire being knocked down by a van leaving the drilling area. Following the incident police have beefed up security, providing 24/7 monitoring around the site, which has long been a focal point of anti-fracking protests
Continue reading...Every little recycled yoghurt pot helps – but how best can you help save the planet?
A new study has crunched the numbers on efforts to fight climate change, from skipping holidays to ditching our cars. Here’s a guide to the (not always) easy ways to be green
It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of new coal mines and shrinking rainforests in distant countries, but we also know that being green starts at home. We do what we can, right? But what really helps, and what is a drop in a warming ocean? A study by the Universities of Lund, Sweden, and British Columbia, Canada, has crunched the numbers and the results are intriguing. Bottom line: every little recycled yoghurt pot helps, but the environmental impacts of our actions vary massively. Here’s a cut-out-and-keep (and then, you know, recycle) guide to a greener you.
Continue reading...Splitting the atom
Critic of renewable power to head government energy costs review
Selection of Oxford University economist Dieter Helm may be controversial because of his criticism of wind and solar power
An academic who is a vocal critic of the costs of renewable power has been selected by the government to head a landmark review of the cost of energy in the UK.
Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, has been chosen by the Department for Business, Industrial and Energy Strategy (BEIS) to carry out the review, the Guardian has learned. The Conservative manifesto promised the resulting report would be the first step towards “competitive and affordable energy costs”.
Continue reading...Police beef up security at Lancashire fracking site after protester is hit by van
Cuadrilla drill site to be monitored 24/7 as Green MEP renews calls for reviewing guidance to police officers on how to deal with anti-fracking protests
Security is being beefed up at a fracking site in Lancashire after a protester was hit by a van on Monday.
A Youtube video posted immediately after the incident shows the protester, dressed in grey and black, trying to block a white van leaving the Preston New Road drill site.
Continue reading...Do the oceans need new rules?
Vast iceberg splits from Antarctic ice shelf – video explainer
A giant section of the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic peninsula has broken off, unleashing a 5,000 sq km iceberg – about a quarter of the size of Wales
One of largest icebergs ever recorded breaks off Antarctic ice shelf
Giant iceberg splits from Antarctic
Janet Rice on Vehicle Emission Standards
Agriculture v Mining: a partial win for farmers on the Liverpool Plains
New approved conservation advices
Swansea tidal lagoon review head Charles Hendry 'hopeful'
Musk bags first Model 3, as Australia implodes over car emission standards
Australia needs to cut electricity sector emissions by 60% by 2030
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