The Guardian
'Stable' Antarctic ice sheet may have started collapsing, scientists say
Southern Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet losing ice 8,500 times the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza every year, satellite data shows
A vast slab of Antarctic ice that was previously stable may have started to collapse, according to new analysis of satellite data.
Research published in the journal Science on Thursday found the Southern Antarctic Peninsula (SAP) ice sheet is losing ice into the ocean at a rate of 56 gigatons each year – about 8,500 times the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza. This adds around 0.16mm per year to the global sea level.
Continue reading...A climate change poem for today: Doggerland by Jo Bell
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate change
The land bridge connecting Great Britain to mainland Europe during the last Ice Age was gradually flooded by rising sea levels around 6,500 BC. It was discovered in 1931 when a Norfolk trawler dredged up an unexpected artefact.
Out from Cromer in an easy sea, Pilgrim Lockwood
cast his nets and fetched up a harpoon.
Twelve thousand years had blunted not one barb.
An antler sharpened to a spike, a bony bread knife
from a time of glassy uplands and no bread:
Greetings from Doggerland, it said.
Harlequin ladybirds declared UK's fastest invading species
World’s most invasive ladybird is consolidating its presence in the country and is responsible for the decline of seven native species, scientists say
Harlequin ladybirds have been declared the UK’s fastest invading species after reaching almost every corner of the country in just a decade.
The cannibalistic ladybirds were first realised to have reached the UK in 2004 when they were seen in Essex and have since spread as far afield as the tip of Cornwall and the Shetland Islands, making it the fastest alien invasion of the UK on record. Grey squirrels, American mink, ring-necked parakeets and muntjac deer are advancing at a rate far behind them.
Continue reading...The Svalbard seed vault: safeguarding the world's crop varieties – video
Wales launches £25m underwater kite-turbine scheme
Anglesey renewable energy project to generate enough electricity to power 8,000 homes
A unique renewable energy scheme involving underwater “kite-turbines” is being launched off the coast of north Wales.
As part of the £25m project, 20 turbines will be anchored off Anglesey and when fully operational should generate enough electricity to power 8,000 homes.
Continue reading...Icelandic plan to ship whale meat to Japan angers environmentalists
Campaigners say scheduled export of 1,700 tonnes of fin whale meat, set to be eaten by Japanese diners, flouts conservation agreements
Environmentalists have reacted angrily to a controversial planned shipment of fin whale meat to Japan by an Icelandic whaling company, saying it flouted international conservation agreements.
The Icelandic whaling company Hvalur HF plans to ship 1,700 tonnes of whale meat via Luanda in Angola, repeating a similar controversial delivery of 2,000 tonnes last year which sparked protests along its route.
Continue reading...Where there is oil and gas there is Schlumberger
It’s ubiquitous in fossil fuel operations across the world, has more staff than Google, turns over more than Goldman Sachs, and is worth more than McDonald’s – yet you won’t have heard of it. Meet the oil world’s most secretive operator
In the dying hours of a high-level conference on the banks of the Thames late in April, two oil executives are sitting patiently waiting on faded leather chairs in the lobby of a five-star Tower Bridge hotel, briefcases, architects’ plans and a folded flipchart pad at their feet.
Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF
‘Shocking’ revelation finds $5.3tn subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments
Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of $5.3tn (£3.4tn) a year, equivalent to $10m a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF calls the revelation “shocking” and says the figure is an “extremely robust” estimate of the true cost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.
Continue reading...The real story behind Shell's climate change rhetoric
In the first of an investigative series into the fossil fuel giants from which we are calling on Gates and Wellcome Trust to divest, we reveal Shell’s pursuit of ever riskier reserves is at odds with its own forecasts for dangerous global warming
A man of Ben van Beurden’s power and reputation for blunt speaking is capable of silencing a ballroom packed with his boisterous peers. When the chief executive of Shell rose to address an industry gathering in a London hotel, a respectful hush descended.
Disappearing Lake Powell underlines drought crisis facing Colorado river
As water levels plummet to 45% in America’s second-largest reservoir, new islands appear – and fears grow for a waterway that serves 40 million people
The Colorado river and its tributaries took a hundred million years or two to carve the Glen Canyon out of the pink and scarlet sandstone which marks out the American southwest.
Its myriad gorges, sheer cliffs and towering spires remained a largely hidden secret. Prehistoric peoples farmed part of the canyon and Navajo Indian communities built camps close to the river, but few modern Americans ventured there besides explorers until the canyon disappeared under a man-made wonder, the vast Lake Powell, with the construction of Glen Canyon dam half a century ago.
Continue reading...Antarctic ice shelf will fall apart, says Nasa – video
A climate change poem for today: Extinction by Jackie Kay
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate change
We closed the borders, folks, we nailed it.
No trees, no plants, no immigrants.
Continue reading...Sellafield nuclear waste storage safety limit relaxed following accident
Amount of radioactive waste that can be kept in tanks allowed to breach legal limits to help cope with backlog caused by an accident in November 2013
Safety limits on the storage of some of the world’s most dangerous nuclear wastes at Sellafield in Cumbria have been relaxed after an accident knocked out a treatment plant.
The government’s safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), has permitted the private company that runs Sellafield to breach legal restrictions on the amount of hot, high-level radioactive waste that can be kept in tanks. The limits are likely to be exceeded by up to 350 tonnes between April 2014 and July 2016.
Continue reading...Don’t panic! How to escape a swarm of bees
Towns in southern England are being beset by noisy hordes of honeybees in search of new homes. Here’s what to do if you get caught by the buzz
“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams,” said Henry David Thoreau, who clearly knew what he was talking about. Swarms of honeybees have appeared in Salisbury, Marlborough and Chichester, and the growing fashion for amateur beekeeping may be to blame. So, are middle-class novices not looking after their hives properly, causing their bees to go rogue?
A swarm happens when a hive becomes overcrowded, a new queen appears and the old queen and a gang of around 20,000 go on the run. They head for temporary lodgings while scout bees look for somewhere safe to settle.
Continue reading...England's water voles in desperate decline
Invasive American mink is wiping out species once found abundant in English waterways, analysis by Canal and River Trust show
English waterways could lose one of their most charismatic and once widespread residents as water voles succumb to the invasive American mink, records released by the Canal and River Trust show.
Between 1970 and 1999, water voles were found on 269 of the 2,000 miles of waterways managed by the trust. But since the turn of the century, their range dropped by almost 50% to 141 miles.
Continue reading...India's Asiatic lion population rising
Census finds 27% increase in number of endangered lions found in their only habitat in the world – the Gir forest of Gujarat
Wildlife experts have welcomed census figures showing India’s population of endangered Asiatic lions has increased in the last five years in the western state of Gujarat.
Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel said officials counted 523 lions, up 27% from the last census conducted in 2010 in Gir sanctuary, the last habitat for the big cats globally.
Continue reading...Starfish suffer mysterious and gruesome demise along west coast
The cause of the most deadly sea star epidemic in recorded history remains unclear, but experts believe it may be a poorly understood ‘wasting’ disease
It is a gruesome death. First the legs shrivel up, followed by lesions. Then the legs inch away and finally detach. The victim continues to deteriorate until it is nothing but a plot of sticky goo.
This is the thoroughly unpleasant way by which scores of sea stars, also known as starfish, have perished along the North American west coast in the most deadly epidemic to hit the iconic echinoderms in recorded history.
Continue reading...Will Tesla's home battery really transform our energy infrastructure?
Powerwall leads the way in solving the problem of energy storage, but the $3,000-plus price raises questions about its economic viability
“The goal is complete transformation of the entire energy infrastructure of the world,” Tesla founder Elon Musk told reporters as he launched the electric car company’s new home power storage battery on Thursday.
“This is actually within the power of humanity to do. It is not impossible.” Electricity storage is the “missing link” in weaning the economy off fossil fuels, said the entrepreneur with characteristic understatement.
Continue reading...One in six of world's species faces extinction due to climate change – study
New analysis reveals likely impact of global warming on plants and animals if we fail to take action, and comes ahead of crunch climate talks in Paris
In pictures: Animals and plants that could be lost because of climate change
One in six of the planet’s species will be lost forever to extinction if world leaders fail to take action on climate change, according to a new analysis.
The stark warning on the scale of global warming’s impact on animals and plants comes just months before nearly 200 governments meet for UN climate talks in Paris in an attempt to forge a global deal on cutting carbon emissions.
Continue reading...Shell lobbied to undermine EU renewables targets, documents reveal
Weak renewable energy goals for 2030 originated with Shell pitch for gas as a key technology for Europe to cut its carbon emissions in an affordable way
Shell successfully lobbied to undermine European renewable energy targets ahead of a key agreement on emissions cuts reached in October last year, newly released documents reveal.
At the time of the emissions deal, the European commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said: “This package is very good news for our fight against climate change.” He added: “No player in the world is as ambitious as the EU.”
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