The Guardian
Leaves nearing their end still fly the flag
Sandy Bedfordshire The sycamore’s leaves, free to swing in the gappy canopy, seem to dance in a soundless jig
In the past fortnight, winter has descended into the branches of a big sycamore tree. As if they were the hangers-on at a party, a scattering of leaves are still flying the flag, wearing ready-to-drop yellow. Liberated from the constrictions and crowding of their erstwhile neighbours, they are free to swing in the gappy canopy. As the breeze lifts, they are raised up as one into a rocksteady beat.
Never have the leaves looked so alive as when so close to death. The great pointy-edged plates are picked up wonderfully by the wind as with no other tree around, and seem to dance in a soundless jig.
Continue reading...A poor choice of words to describe rich people | Brief letters
If we are not recycling all our plastic waste, largely because many councils cannot deal with all the variations (Just a third of plastic is recycled, survey shows, 22 November), why are the major supermarkets allowed to keep inventing new wrappings consisting of mixed materials and marked “Not currently recyclable”?
Jean Wood
Hythe, Kent
• In 1970, it wasn’t the work, it was the prospect of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll and escaping from home that was the lure (Our friends from the north, G2, 22 November). Now I crave to return to Liverpool, but London-born husband refuses to go somewhere that’s wetter and colder.
Jennifer Henley
London
Drive, baby, drive: Hammond's autumn statement is more grey than green
The money for new roads and freezing fuel tax overwhelms support for electric cars, further fuelling the nation’s air pollution crisis
Drive, baby, drive - that was the message from chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn budget statement, with more money paving the way to new roads and a freeze on fuel tax.
The problem is the UK already has an air pollution crisis that causes tens of thousands of early deaths – more traffic will only make it worse. Furthermore, rising transport emissions are one of the biggest obstacles to the nation meeting its legal targets for cutting carbon emissions.
Continue reading...Autumn colors across North America – in pictures
As winter finally arrives across the US, we take a look back at the annual dazzling display of color across the continent
Continue reading...UK has second-highest number of deaths from NO2 pollution in Europe
Only Italy has more annual deaths from nitrogen dioxide, according to a report by the European Environment Agency
The UK is second only to Italy in Europe for the highest number of annual deaths from a major air pollutant, a report has found just days after a court gave UK ministers a deadline for drawing up a stronger air quality plan.
The European Environment Agency said the UK had 11,940 premature deaths from nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in 2013. This is down from 14,100 in 2012, but still the second worst in Europe. The toxic gas is mostly caused by diesel vehicles and is linked to lung problems.
Continue reading...The simple, cheap instruments measuring global warming in the oceans | John Abraham
They may be cheap and expendable, but XBTs provide crucial data about the oceans
Earth is warming due to the release of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Scientists are working hard to measure how fast the planet is warming, how much warming has occurred over the past few decades, and how this is affecting coastal areas, ecosystems, and fisheries. By understanding these factors, scientists can better project future climate impacts.
A large component of Earth’s warming involves the oceans, which absorb excess heat. The difficulty of gathering measurements in the oceans is that they are vast, deep, and often hard to reach. It’s also costly. Think about it: if you wanted to take the ocean’s temperature, how would you do it?
Continue reading...The new climate change story must be one of rapid transition
With a reality TV demagogue in power, it’s crucial that we find a story in which people can discern a better future
Climate change is like the type of film director who, having already thrown the audience into seemingly inescapable peril, keeps piling on the jeopardy. The carbon budget to stay below the Paris climate accord’s target of 1.5C of warming is all but used up, and staying below even its lower goal of 2C now requires elaborate leaps of faith.
Continue reading...Keep it in the ground: fossil fuel divestment leaps at universities
43 UK universities have pledged to dump investments in fossil fuels, having accepted the arguments of campaigners
Pretty much all we know about climate change comes from academia, which makes the news of a leap in fossil fuel divestment by universities in the UK particularly important.
On so many issues over the decades, where universities lead, society follows. Now, as I report here, 43 UK universities have pledged to dump investments in fossil fuels, having accepted the arguments of campaigners that funding these companies is both economically and morally bankrupt.
Continue reading...Bolivian water rationing – in pictures
The worst drought in 25 years in Bolivia is affecting at least seven major cities. In La Paz alone, water rationing has hit almost half of the city’s 800,000 inhabitants while, elsewhere, peasants and miners are competing for the use of aquifers.
Continue reading...All the colours of a November evening
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire There is something about the combination of sky-blue, red and black that fascinates me – I don’t understand why
For a moment before dusk, the sky was sky-blue. Like looking into a pool, only overhead, the sky’s edges around its horizons were pale, chalky, blackbird egg blue, deepening through Wedgwood into the above as it thickened ultramarine and darkened inkily towards space.
Oddly, the colour gained more substance as the atmosphere became thinnest, so that light itself was the material of air. From high on the Edge, the blue replaced everything I noticed about the sky: crazy shoals of rooks and jackdaws, arrowheads of geese, wraiths of starlings speeding towards murmurations.
Continue reading...Trump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on ‘politicized science’
Nasa’s Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding as the president-elect seeks to shift focus away from home in favor of deep space exploration
Donald Trump is poised to eliminate all climate change research conducted by Nasa as part of a crackdown on “politicized science”, his senior adviser on issues relating to the space agency has said.
Nasa’s Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding in favor of exploration of deep space, with the president-elect having set a goal during the campaign to explore the entire solar system by the end of the century.
Continue reading...Scientists scale trees in desperate attempt to save orange-bellied parrot
Critically endangered bird – down to just 14 in the wild – not helped by being ‘morons’ with poor survival instincts
Scientists are scaling trees in Tasmania in an attempt to save the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot after the wild population dropped to the “stupidly low numbers” of just 14 individuals.
Three of those wild-born birds are females that have begun the process of selecting nest boxes in Melaleuca, a blustery outpost in the wilderness world heritage area near the southwest tip of Tasmania.
Continue reading...Josh Frydenberg welcomes Trump's vow to lift restrictions on fossil fuel exploration
‘We need more gas,’ Australia’s environment and energy minister says, urging state governments to follow US lead
Australia’s environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has welcomed Donald Trump’s commitment to lift Obama administration’s restrictions on fossil fuel exploration within his first 100 days in the White House, saying the move will be a boon for consumers.
Frydenberg was asked about Trump’s declaration about various executive actions he would take in the opening phase of his presidency during an interview with Sky News on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Justin Trudeau’s giant corporate giveaway | Martin Lukacs
A privatization spree in Canada could cost regular people billions, erode democracy and undermine the fight against climate change
While prime minister Justin Trudeau flogged our public assets last week, he had a soothing message: rest assured, we’ll be well-served by the private sector. Bankers and billionaires lined up to sound a note of confidence. “I think it’s unprecedented,” exclaimed Canada’s top business lobbyist John Manley. “A once-in-a-generation opportunity,” enthused Trudeau’s economic advisory council.
These corporate figures are rubbing their hands because Trudeau is about to put one of our great crises in their hands: the need for historic investment in the country’s infrastructure, for so long the domain of the state.
Continue reading...How Sadiq Khan aims to become London's most cycle-friendly mayor
In response to concerns from the former cycling commissioner, the deputy mayor for transport insists plans are on track
Sadiq Khan is committed to being the most cycling-friendly mayor that the capital has ever had – and is already delivering real results. However, there have recently been a number of inaccurate reports about his plans and I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
Making cycling safer and easier will be a significantly higher priority for Sadiq than it was for the previous administration.
Continue reading...Asian transport projects may thwart efforts to save world's tigers
WWF report states that infrastructure boom could lead to animals’ habitat being carved up, undoing years of progress
Thousands of kilometres of railways and roads planned across Asia risk dismantling progress made to save the world’s last tigers, conservationists have warned.
The WWF said an infrastructure boom in coming years will lead to the construction of 11,000km of new transport projects, carving up the big cat’s habitats and stopping them from travelling across the huge ranges they need.
Continue reading...Flooding around the UK – in pictures
The cleanup begins after a combination of Storm Angus and continued heavy rain have contributed to widespread flooding around the UK since Sunday
Continue reading...China emerges as global climate leader in wake of Trump's triumph
With the US president-elect threatening to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Beijing is to ready to lead world’s climate efforts, reports Environment 360
In one of the more entertaining moments of COP22, the global climate conference held in Marrakech last week, the Chinese vice-foreign minister Liu Zhenmin, gave the absent US president-elect a short lesson in the history of climate diplomacy. Climate change, he explained, was not a Chinese hoax. In fact, long before the issue had been discussed behind the high vermillion walls of Zhongnanhai, China’s contemporary Forbidden City, it had been put on the global agenda by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the 1980s, supported by Ronald Reagan and George Bush (senior).
Mounting international concern led eventually to the Kyoto Protocol, the first global agreement to try to limit climate change, signed by President Bill Clinton subsequently rejected by the US Congress. When President Obama’s administration formally entered the successor Paris Agreement in September this year, the president knew better than to try to seek endorsement from a hostile Congress. Yet the US has been present throughout, as the world grappled with how to distribute the burden of global action to ward off climate catastrophe, although its leadership has been, at best, intermittent. It has tended to resemble a temperamental adolescent, periodically playing the game, but intermittently flouncing off the field, its ball firmly under its arm.
Continue reading...VW shifts focus to electric cars with US expansion plan
German carmaker seeks to revive fortunes after diesel scandal by becoming world leader in clean-energy vehicles
Volkswagen said it wants to be the world leader in electric cars by 2025 as it unveiled a major shift to clean-energy vehicles in the wake of the dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.
The US market, where the pollution crisis first erupted, will play a key role in the revamp, according to VW brand chief Herbert Diess. He announced a “comeback story” for the region, with plans for electric cars to be built in North America from 2021.
Continue reading...Fossil fuel divestment soars in UK universities
Britain leads world in campus action to pull funds from oil, gas and coal companies, due to climate change concerns
The number of British universities divesting from fossil fuels has leaped to 43, a quarter of the total. The surge means the UK leads the world in campus action to pull university funds from oil, gas and coal.
Financial institutions and charities are also divesting and at least $2.6tn (£2.1tn) of assets are covered by such pledges around the world. Scientists have shown that most fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned without dangerous climate change. Campaigners argue this makes fossil fuel companies bad investments on both moral and financial grounds.
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