The Guardian
Green Investment Bank’s assets must be protected | Letters
The Green Investment Bank is a real success story. Publicly owned, it has helped fund innovative new smart green technologies to fight climate change and attracted capital to UK infrastructure.
It is widely rumoured that Australian investment bank Macquarie is set to purchase the bank (Is May being green about Macquarie? 10 January). Yet, it makes absolutely no sense to sell it off, least of all to a company with Macquarie’s record of buying assets, stripping them, paying itself huge dividends and selling off what’s left. It has a similarly been criticised over its tax strategy. Press reports suggest Macquarie is already making plans to offload projects and assets after it has taken control of the bank, and the government would be powerless to do anything about it if the deal goes through. In last Wednesday’s exchange in the House of Commons, where I flagged up my concerns about Macquarie, the minister also refused to rule out investment in fracking projects by the future owner of the bank.
Continue reading...Parts of United States are heating faster than globe as a whole | John Abraham
A new study shows the Northeast USA will reach the dangerous 2°C warming threshold faster than most of the rest of the planet
Global warming obviously refers to temperature increases across the entire globe. We know the Earth is warming, we know it is human-caused, we have a pretty good idea about how much the warming will be in the future and what some of the consequences are. In fact, when it comes to the Earth’s average climate, scientists have a pretty good understanding.
On the other hand, no one lives in the average climate. We live spread out north, west, east, and south. On islands, large continents, inland or in coastal regions. Many of us want to know what’s going to happen to the climate where we live. How will my life be affected in the future?
An object lesson in thrush hunger
Rockland, Norfolk It’s not uncommon to see two fight over fruit for minutes on end, each lunging alternately at the other
Our neighbours grow apples commercially and their five acres supply both the community in autumn and the thrushes during winter. Recently I fulfilled a long-held promise to erect a hide and watch the birds among the windfalls there. First I had to gather several barrowfuls of my own, which was itself a memorable exercise. While I raked the wasp-mined Bramleys my boots mulched down the flesh, sending up a sweet foetor and leaving geometrically patterned cakes of apple mud underfoot.
Once I’d tipped 100lb of fruit in a sunlit heap by the hide, I retired to steep the whole scene in silence, before returning next day.
Continue reading...Australia should invest in coal power to reduce emissions, minister says
Economists and energy analysts question environmental and economic case for Matt Canavan’s coal push
Research touted by the resources minister that reportedly suggests Australia can rely on coal to meet emissions reduction has been attacked by experts and appears to have been misreported.
The Australian reported on Tuesday that research conducted by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science – and commissioned by Matt Canavan, the federal minister for resources – showed Australia could cut its emissions by 27% if it replaced its existing coal power stations with the more efficient “ultra-supercritical” technology.
Continue reading...Trump warming to reality of climate change, says senior Chinese official
Beijing’s chief climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, talks down fears that joint leadership shown by China and the US will be reversed under new president
China’s chief climate negotiator has attempted to calm fears that Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House will spell disaster for the fight against climate change.
Trump, who has dismissed climate change as “bullshit” and a Chinese hoax, will become the first climate sceptic to occupy the highest office in the US when he is sworn in on Friday.
Continue reading...Leopard shark makes world-first switch from sexual to asexual reproduction
Leonie the shark astounds researchers by producing live hatchlings after being separated from her mate in 2012
A leopard shark in an Australian aquarium has reproduced asexually after being separated from her mate.
It is the first reported case of a shark switching from sexual to asexual or parthenogenetic reproduction and only the third reported case among all vertebrate species.
Continue reading...Giant alligator strolls past tourists in Florida – video
A video posted by Kim Joiner to Facebook shows an enormous alligator crossing in front of a group of tourists waiting with their smartphones ready
Continue reading...Australia's bees and wasps revealed to be as dangerous as its snakes
More than half of deaths from bites and stings between 2000 and 2013 the result of anaphylactic shock, analysis shows
Of all Australia’s venomous animals, bees and wasps pose the biggest threat to public health, causing more than twice the number of admissions to hospital as snake bites and the same number of deaths.
The first national analysis of 13 years’ data on bites and stings from venomous creatures has found that just over one-third (33%) of almost 42,000 admissions were caused by bees and wasps, compared with 30% by spiders and 15% by snakes.
Continue reading...How airlines can fly around new carbon rules
Aircraft are gradually becoming more fuel efficient, but that’s not happening fast enough to keep up with the boom in flying
The world’s airline industry adds to climate change. It burns the equivalent of more than 5m barrels of oil a day, adding up to around 2.5% of all carbon dioxide pollution, in addition to nitrogen oxides, soot and water vapour, which place an even bigger burden on the world’s climate.
Aircraft are gradually becoming more fuel efficient, but that’s not happening fast enough to keep up with the huge boom in flying – since the 1970s, global air traffic has doubled in size roughly every 15 years. Flying is still cheap and budget airlines make it even more attractive, partly thanks to an international agreement reached in 1944 that prohibits tax on aviation fuel for international flights.
Continue reading...We need a Ladybird book of climate change deniers | Patrick Barkham
My twins are “studying” Jack and the Beanstalk, and I’ve just packed them off to school with my battered copy of Ladybird’s Well-Loved Tales.
I’ve collected a few old Ladybirds from car boot sales because they are beautiful and nostalgic, hailing from a time when truths were simpler and there was faith in the future. My favourite is The Story of Newspapers, a Ladybird Achievements Book that is testimony to the speed of terrifying technical obsolescence – and welcome progress. A drawing of a newsroom where all 14 journalists are men shows the past wasn’t always lovely.
Continue reading...Oslo temporarily bans diesel cars to combat pollution
Norway’s two-day city centre ban angers motorists who were encouraged to buy diesel vehicles in 2006
Oslo will ban diesel cars from the road for at least two days this week to combat rising air pollution, angering some motorists after they were urged to buy diesel cars a few years ago.
The ban will go into effect on Tuesday on municipal roads but will not apply on the national motorways that criss-cross the Norwegian capital. Better atmospheric conditions are expected on Thursday. Motorists violating the ban will be fined 1,500 kroner (£174).
Continue reading...UK wave power far too costly, warns energy research body
ETI says technology is 10 times dearer than other low carbon power sources and UK should prioritise tidal stream
An embryonic industry trying to harness the UK’s waves to generate clean electricity has been dealt a significant blow by a warning that the technology is too costly.
Wave power devices being tested in Cornwall and at Orkney are 10 times more expensive than other sources of low carbon power and need a radical rethink, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) said.
Continue reading...New studies show Rex Tillerson is wrong about climate risks | Dana Nuccitelli
The remaining climate change uncertainties point toward higher risks and greater urgency for action
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State – and until recently the CEO of ExxonMobil – Rex Tillerson was given a confirmation hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. In his testimony, Tillerson accepted the reality of human-caused global warming and that “The risk of climate change does exist and the consequences of it could be serious enough that action should be taken.”
While he accepted the problem exists, Tillerson nevertheless proceeded to downplay its risks, saying:
Continue reading...China's booming middle class drives Asia's toxic e-waste mountains
Sharp rise in discarded electronic goods is generating millions of tonnes of hazardous waste, putting pressure on valuable resources and the environment, study shows
Asia’s mountains of hazardous electronic trash, or e-waste, are growing rapidly, new research reveals, with China leading the way.
A record 16m tonnes of electronic trash, containing both toxic and valuable materials, were generated in a single year – up 63% in five years, new analysis looking at 12 countries in east and south-east Asia shows.
Continue reading...The geological oddity that is Sarn Wallog
Cardigan Bay, Ceredigion Made up of rounded cobbles graded in size, this ‘causeway’ looks beguilingly like the work of our ancestors
The amount of ice on the narrow footpath came as a surprise. Hidden from the sun on the south side of the valley, it had probably accumulated over a number of days – along with the layered, crusted frost on the nearby vegetation. Few people seemed to have walked this stretch of the Wales coast path recently; a fox crossing the track ahead and a briefly perched buzzard both seemed shocked to see me.
As I reached the footbridge above the beach at Wallog, I folded away my heavily used Ordnance Survey map and consulted its nautical equivalent. While OS maps provide only scant information about the space beyond the coast, admiralty charts give detailed data on the underwater landscape – in this case the geological oddity that is Sarn Wallog.
Kitesurfer has close encounter with great white shark – video
This video taken from a drone shows travel blogger Isabelle Fabre’s close encounter with a great white shark while kitesurfing off the West Australian coast. Fabre explains that she initially thought the shadow under her board was from her kite, and then that it was a dolphin. ‘I heard Cyril shouting “Shark! Isabelle, get out!” He saw everything through the drone and he thought I was done’
Continue reading...Frydenberg criticises Japan after whale slaughtered in Australian waters
Environment minister says government ‘deeply disappointed’ after Sea Shepherd photos show minke whale killing in Antarctic sanctuary
The federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has criticised Japan following the release of photographs allegedly showing the slaughtering of protected whales inside Australia’s Antarctic whale sanctuary.
Frydenberg’s statement came as conservationists called for tougher action from Australia.
Continue reading...The politics of harsh winters
In the past, extreme weather and disastrous harvests have proved socially divisive. We have been warned, say climate researchers
In the winter of 1432-33 people in Scotland “had to use fire to melt the wine before drinking it” ran a line in the research about the coldest decade of winters in the last 1,000 years.
Short of real temperature readings, descriptions of such incidents and records of rivers and lakes freezing over for months at a time, tree rings and ice cores are what climate scientists have to use to trace weather extremes of the past.
Continue reading...Climate change: 90% of rural Australians say their lives are already affected
Overwhelming majority believe they are living with the effects of warming and 46% say coal-fired power should be phased out
Ninety per cent of people living in rural and regional Australia believe they are already experiencing the impacts of climate change and 46% believe coal-fired power stations should be phased out, according to a new study.
A poll of 2,000 people conducted by the Climate Institute found that 82% of respondents in rural and regional Australia and 81% of those in capital cities were concerned about increased droughts, flooding and destruction of the Great Barrier Reef due to climate change, and 78% of all respondents were concerned there would be more bushfires.
Continue reading...Barrage of questions for Swansea Bay tidal lagoon | Letters
You report (Tidal lagoon power is ‘reliable and affordable’, 13 January) that the Swansea Bay scheme “would be the first of its kind in the world”. In France, the Rance estuary plant has been operating since 1966. In Canada, in the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world, the plant at Annapolis Royal has been operating since being opened by Prince Charles in 1984. However, the French have no firm plans for more such plants and the Canadians have abandoned them altogether. In Canada, a major consideration has been the devastating impact on fish stocks.
It seems to me that the major objective of the proposal might be to extract taxpayer funding for no useful purpose, and the government needs to study the proposals very carefully to ensure we do not end up with a number of very large white elephants in the Severn estuary.
Ian Brittain
Owermoigne, Dorset