The Guardian
Balkan countries unite in a war on waste
Trash activists from former war-torn countries formed some of the world’s largest cross-border civic movements against rubbish and pollution
Balkan countries once divided by war, nationalism and religion have been quietly uniting to confront a common foe: rubbish.
Under the rubric of the Let’s Do It campaign, Albanian and Kosovar activists jointly cleared their border area and the polluted Lake Vermica last April, in a Wombles-style campaign that has involved more than 5% of Albania’s population, and 7% of Kosovo’s.
Continue reading...The best and worst of worlds in my Kenya
Paula Kahumbu: When will we learn that wildlife conservation is part of wealth creation and not an obstacle to it?
Three days spent in Samburu Reserve to celebrate World Elephants Day with 91 children from Kenya’s poor neighbourhoods, slums and rural areas were probably the most moving experience of my life.
A team of staff, interns and volunteers from my NGO WildlifeDirect put on an ambitious three-day programme of discovery, play and learning for the children. The children experienced a real safari, in a four-wheeled-drive vehicle. They camped for the first time in their lives. They met wild animals in the wilderness of Samburu, and talked to rangers and scientists involved in wildlife conservation.
Continue reading...Young rabbit considers us as a threat
Wenlock Edge The rabbit we watched watching us was taking its sentry duty seriously, and had the makings of a dominant adult – if it survived long enough
All ear and eye, the rabbit was as alert as an exclamation mark. It remained still and watchful, as if it thought it was invisible when in fact its attention was so intense it seemed as obvious as a warning beacon in an otherwise languid August afternoon.
The young rabbit was assessing the distance of this particular threat – two people and a dog – the distance to the burrow in the hedge, an escape route across the field, the position of the other rabbits, other potential threats from land and sky.
Continue reading...UNHCR's 'Blue Dot' hubs
In response to the increasing number of women and children fleeing the war in Syria, UNHCR has set up a number of special support centres, also known as “Blue Dot” hubs, along the route through Greece and the Western Balkans specifically catering to their needs.
Continue reading...Investors controlling $13tn call on G20 leaders to ratify Paris climate agreement
Investors say countries that move first will attract investments and call for regulators to force disclosure of climate-related risks
A group of 130 institutions that control US$13tn of investments have called on G20 nations to ratify the Paris agreement this year and accelerate investment in clean energy and forced disclosure of climate-related financial risk.
Countries that ratified the Paris agreement early would benefit from better policy certainty and would attract investment in low-carbon technology, the signatories said in a letter before the G20 heads of government meeting in September.
Continue reading...Microplastics should be banned in cosmetics to save oceans, MPs say
Environmental audit committee calls for ban after hearing that microbeads harm marine life and enter the food chain
Cosmetics companies must be banned from using plastic microbeads in scrubs, toothpaste and beauty products because of the marine pollution they are causing, say a group of MPs.
Members of the environmental audit committee have called for a ban within 18 months after hearing that trillions of tiny pieces of plastic are accumulating in the world’s oceans, lakes and estuaries, harming marine life and entering the food chain. About 86 tonnes of microplastics are released into the environment every year in the UK from facial exfoliants alone, they were told.
Continue reading...Swimming with dolphins could be banned – so they can get a good night's sleep
In Hawaii, large numbers of tourists disturb nocturnal spinner dolphins, which continue moving while they snooze
The federal government is proposing a ban on swimming with dolphins in Hawaii – a move that may crush the dreams of many tourists, but will allow the marine mammals to finally get a good day’s sleep.
The proposed rule would bar people from swimming or approaching within 50 yards of the Hawaiian spinner dolphin. The dolphins are an increasingly popular attraction for tourists, who pay for chartered tours of the bays the dolphins frequent.
Continue reading...Storms devastate monarch butterflies' forest habitat in Mexico
- Rain cold and high winds destroy 133 acres of trees west of Mexico City
- March storms killed 7% of monarchs and added to habit loss by tree-felling
Storms earlier this year blew down more than a hundred acres of forests where migrating monarch butterflies spend the winter in central Mexico, killing more than 7% of the monarchs, according to conservationists.
Rain, cold and high winds from the storms caused the loss of 133 acres (54 hectares) of pine and fir trees in the forests west of Mexico City, more than four times the amount lost to illegal logging this year. It was the biggest storm-related loss since the winter of 2009-10, when unusually heavy rainstorms and mudslides caused the destruction of 262 acres (106 hectares) of trees.
Continue reading...Obama tells flood-ravaged Louisiana residents: ‘You are not alone’ – video
Barack Obama visits Baton Rouge on Tuesday, telling residents affected by historic flooding that the country will continue to support them and help them rebuild their lives. Obama also takes a dig at Donald Trump, saying ‘this is not a photo op issue’ . The floods have killed at least 13 people and damaged tens of thousands of homes
Continue reading...Sunrise to sunset: stunning timelapse video of America's national parks
In honor of the National Park Service’s centennial this week, the Guardian has compiled scenes from around the country. President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service 100 years ago. From coast to coast, Hawaii to Maine, the beauty, nature and scope of US national parks are breathtaking
Continue reading...The political crusades targeting national parks for drilling and exploitation
Hailed as ‘America’s best idea’, the parks are hugely popular with the public but face political efforts to lift federal protection and allow private development
“It’s easy to feel besieged here,” said Wendy Ross, superintendent of the Theodore Roosevelt national park. Ross’s park, named after the “conservationist president” who helped to keep America’s natural treasures unspoiled, is surrounded by oil and gas drilling that has transformed the landscape.
Related: 100 years of America’s national parks – in pictures
Continue reading...Share your encounters with elephants
As part of a new series on elephant conservation we’d like to hear about your experiences with the world’s largest land mammal
Over the next year we’re going to be covering the plight of elephants around the world. The numbers of these beautiful animals – now our largest land mammal – have been in steep decline for a century and now face more serious challenges than ever, due to poaching, habitat destruction, and conflict with man.
Please help with our coverage by getting in touch and telling us your own stories, encounters and campaigns. Are you a wildlife campaigner in Asia? A grassroots activist in Africa? Whoever you are, we want to hear from you about your own encounters with elephants.
Badger cull protesters change tactics in response to expansion
Demonstrators focus on driving up policing costs as anti-bovine TB programme expanded across south-west England
Protesters against the badger cull in England have said they plan to change tactics by undertaking direct action to drive up policing costs, following reports of an expansion of culling to new areas.
The BBC has reported that the cull will be extended to five new areas in south-west England – south Devon, north Devon, north Cornwall, west Dorset and south Herefordshire – where badger shooting will begin in early September as part of government efforts to eradicate bovine TB.
Continue reading...Neither Coalition nor Labor emissions reduction targets are good enough, says climate body
Climate Institute report says negative-emissions technology is imperative because risks of global temperature reaching 2C are ‘unmanageable’
Australia will blow its carbon budget with either the Coalition’s emissions reduction targets, or those suggested by the Labor opposition, highlighting the urgent need for negative-emissions technology, analysis commissioned by the Climate Institute shows.
“Everyone is just now beginning to work out the implications of the 1.5C goal, and how hard it is to get to it,” said John Connor, chief executive of the Climate Institute.
Continue reading...Sea Shepherd will keep harassing Japanese whaling boats despite US court ruling
Conservation group says it is committed to upholding Australian federal court ruling banning the slaughter of whales in the Australian sanctuary
A United States court ruling preventing conservationists from attacking Japanese whaling boats will not stop the annual protection campaign in the Southern Ocean.
The Japanese Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that a settlement declaring the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was “permanently enjoined from physically attacking the [Japanese] research vessels and crew and from navigating in a manner that is likely to endanger their safe navigation”.
Continue reading...The London rail network's Energy Gardens - in pictures
Energy Gardens is a pan-London community garden project where reclaimed land alongside overground train stations and track is cultivated by local community groups. Up to 50 gardens will be created across the rail network.
Continue reading...Deadly desert: working in 60C heat – in pictures
Unforgiving temperatures of up to 60C (140F) beat down on these saltminers on a daily basis. The mines, situated in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, stretch across 38,000 sq miles and at their lowest point are more than 300ft below sea level. Joel Santos travelled to capture the area’s dry, brutal beauty
Continue reading...Fear of the light: why we need darkness | Amanda Petrusich
Every civilisation we know of has devised a system – scientific, religious, what have you – to make sense of the night sky. The mystery of what’s up there, where it came from, and what it means has been inherited and puzzled over for generations. Those questions may be the most human ones we have.
Due to pervasive light pollution – glare from excessive, misaimed and unshielded night lighting – 80% of Europe and North America no longer experiences real darkness. For anyone living near a major metropolis, a satellite image of the Milky Way seems abstract: we understand it to be a document of something true, but our understanding is purely theoretical. In 1994, after a predawn earthquake cut power to most of Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory received phone calls from spooked residents asking about “the strange sky”. What those callers were seeing were stars.
Continue reading...Stung by a wasp while clearing poppies
Allendale, Northumberland There are a lot of wasps about this year – I know of at least six nests around the garden
The ladybird poppies, fire-engine red with jet black centres, had flopped in the rain, their flimsy petals scattered across the path. Cutting back the plants, it took me a moment to process what was happening. A flurry of insects was circling my head and arms from a disturbed wasps’ nest. I was shocked by the intensity of pain from a sting on the end of my nose. Swabs of vinegar helped neutralise its alkalinity, but my cheek quickly swelled.
There are a lot of wasps about this year. I know of at least six nests around the garden. The entrance to one is in a stone wall, another under the bargeboard of a shed. One was found when thistle-bashing in the field, a fourth when clipping a box hedge.
Continue reading...Why air conditioning is a vicious circle
Pumping heat from our cars and buildings into the outside world adds to climate change, increasing the need to stay cool
Air conditioning was a luxury in Britain 40 years ago, but the long hot summer of 1976 changed that. The scorching heat that summer lasted two months and most people sweated it out indoors with only open windows and electric fans for ventilation. After that, air conditioning no longer seemed so extravagant and its popularity soared.
Air conditioners consume huge amounts of energy, though, and that’s adding to climate change. The US uses as much electricity to keep buildings cool as the whole of Africa uses for all its electrical needs. That power largely comes from polluting power stations, adding to the warmer climate.
Continue reading...