The Guardian
Guardian Live: Freeing the Arctic 30
Greenpeace activists Frank Hewetson, Alex Harris and Phil Ball spent 100 days in a Russian prison after protesting against Arctic oil exploration. At a Guardian Members’ event they told the dramatic story of their imprisonment and release
By all accounts, the violent storming of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship by Russian commandos in September 2013 and the subsequent jailing of the 30 activists and journalists on board, facing a 15-year sentence for piracy, was a terrifying and devastating experience.
At a Guardian Live event, activists Frank Hewetson, Alex Harris and Phil Ball (in the audience), were joined by Ben Stewart – Greenpeace’s head of media at the time and author of a new book describing the events, Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg.
Continue reading...A 40-metre fatberg? That’s not even London’s worst …
You can run but you can’t hide … or flush your toilet. Yep, it’s the return of the fatberg, a monstrous blob of congealed fat, waste, and wet wipes coming soon to asewer near you. Especially if you happen to live in west London. This week’s culprit is a 40-metre bruiser removed from under the leafy streets of Chelsea and weighing as much as five Porsches. The latest fatberg was so big-boned it broke a 70-year-old sewer pipe, leaving Thames Water with a £400,000 repair bill.
It wasn’t even the area’s worst. In 2013, “Britain’s biggest berg”, weighing 15 tonnes and as long as a double-decker bus, was found in Kingston upon Thames, and last year a fatberg the size of a Boeing 747 was discovered under the streets of Shepherd’s Bush. It’s only a matter of time before a fatberg as mighty as the Titanic herself bursts out of the manholes on High Street Ken and starts ransacking the place, Slimer-from-Ghostbusters style.
Continue reading...Earth Day quiz: tried the Google Doodle version? Now try the Guardian's
• Join the Guardian's climate campaign, Keep it in the Ground
Which year was the first Earth Day?
1960
1970
1980
Who founded the first Earth Day in the US?
Gaylord Nelson
Al Gore
Amory Lovins
When did Margaret Thatcher first warn in a Royal Society speech about the dangers of global warming?
1981
1985
1988
What level of warming do international negotiators regard as the threshold for dangerous climate change?
1C
2C
3C
Which pair won a Nobel prize in 2007 for their efforts to tackle climate change?
Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri
David Cameron and Rajendra Pachauri
Yvo de Boer and Rajendra Pachauri
How much of proven fossil fuel reserves need to stay under the ground to stay below 2C?
Around two thirds to three quarters
Around a tenth
Around a third
In which European city is a major UN climate summit being held in November and December this year?
Bonn
Geneva
Paris
The UN climate science panel said with what % certainty that climate change is manmade?
75%
85%
95%
Who was the author of an influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change?
Stanislav Stern
Nicholas Stern
Todd Stern
Which two charitable organisations is the Guardian asking to divest from fossil fuels?
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust
The Ford Foundation and J. Paul Getty Trust
The Church Commissioners for England and W.K. Kellogg Foundation
4 and above.
Thanks for taking part. Have you joined the Guardian climate change campaign, Keep it in the Ground? <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">Join more than 180,000 people here</a>
7 and above.
Thanks for taking part. Have you joined the Guardian climate change campaign, Keep it in the Ground? <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">Join more than 180,000 people here</a>
10 and above.
Thanks for taking part. Have you joined the Guardian climate change campaign, Keep it in the Ground? <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">Join more than 180,000 people here</a>
Continue reading...Conservationists turn tiny New Zealand island into bold wildlife experiment
Big things are happening on Rotoroa, a new sanctuary for endangered species that aims to create a whole new ecosystem
Rotoroa Island, off the coast of New Zealand is tiny, at just 82 hectares (200 acres), but don’t let its diminutiveness fool you: big things are happening here. Over the past few years the island has become the site of a quiet, but grand, conservation experiment. What would happen if you populated an island with a whole suite of endangered species, some of which were never found there to begin with? And what would happen if you didn’t fence the island off and keep pesky humans out, but let people – school groups even – tramp through the grounds?
Across most of our planet, truly wild, unmanaged places are a thing of the past.
Continue reading...Britain's beekeepers told to be alert for arrival of Asian hornets
Vespa velutina, which preys on honey bees, is already spreading rapidly across mainland Europe and could pose a serious risk to the UK’s apiculture
Beekeepers have been told to be alert for invading hornets that have killed six people in France and could pose to serious risk to Britain’s honey bees.
The Asian hornet, which preys on honey bees, is spreading rapidly across France and other parts of mainland Europe, and there are fears its arrival in Britain is only a matter of time – particularly in light of the unusually warm spring weather.
Continue reading...World's mountain of electrical waste reaches new peak of 42m tonnes
The biggest per-capita tallies were in countries known for green awareness, such as Norway and Denmark, with Britain fifth and US ninth on the UN report’s list
A record amount of electrical and electronic waste was discarded around the world in 2014, with the biggest per-capita tallies in countries that pride themselves on environmental consciousness, a report said.
Last year, 41.8m tonnes of so-called e-waste – mostly fridges, washing machines and other domestic appliances at the end of their life – was dumped, the UN report said.
Continue reading...Robot reveals inside Fukushima nuclear reactor – video
Out of plaice: popular UK fish at risk from rising temperatures
Study predicts dinner favourites plaice and lemon sole facing severe depletion and rapid warming of North Sea already forcing haddock out of British waters
Some of the UK’s most popular fish may be driven from the North Sea, and the UK’s dinner plates, by rising temperatures, scientists warned on Monday.
Fishmonger favourites plaice, lemon sole and haddock are being pushed out of their traditional feeding grounds by rapidly warming sea temperatures. The waters of the North Sea have warmed by 1.3C in the past 30 years, four times faster than the global average. Since the 1980s landings of cold-adapted species have halved.
Continue reading...New style of UK electricity pylon launches
National Grid begins construction on T-pylons, designed to have less impact on the landscape, in Nottinghamshire
They’ve marched tirelessly across the country for the last century, a 90,000-strong army of steel sentinels carrying electricity across hill and vale, gracefully suspended from their spindly frames. But now, the classic British pylon is facing extinction, thanks to a newcomer on the block: the whiter-than-white T-pylon, unveiled this week by the National Grid.
Designed by the Danish architecture and engineering firm Bystrup, the new pylon looks a bit like a ski lift mast adorned with two dangly diamond earrings, which hold three cables either side of the central pole.
Continue reading...Permafrost 'carbon bomb' may be more of a slow burn, say scientists
Carbon dioxide from thawing Arctic permafrost is likely to be released gradually, rather than in a catastrophic eruption as previously predicted - but impact of emissions will still be great, new research suggests
The ‘carbon bomb’ stored in the thawing Arctic permafrost may be released in a slow leak as global warming takes hold, rather than an eruption, according to new research.
Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) found previous predictions of a catastrophic release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as permafrost thaws may have been overstated.
Continue reading...Daily Express weather warning: beware a shower of extreme inaccuracy
Easter 80F heatwave? Or 10 inches of snow? Why are we offered such absurd predictions from the Daily Express? It’s time for a real weather report ...
There is bullshit, utter bullshit and Daily Express headlines. Reading the paper on Wednesday 1 April, I hadn’t the faintest idea which stories were supposed to be serious and which were April fools.
As the website expressbingo.org.uk points out, the paper has only about 12 front pages:
Continue reading...New energy storage plant could 'revolutionise' renewable sector
Flywheel plant being built in Ireland with potentially unlimited storage capability could solve the problem of clean energy supply shortfalls when there is insufficient sun or wind
Foundations for an energy storage plant in Ireland that could “revolutionise” the integration of renewable power into electricity supplies will be laid within weeks.
The plant will use a motor-generated flywheel to harness kinetic energy from the grid at times of over-supply. This will then be released from submerged turbines at times of supply shortfalls.
Continue reading...Captain deliberately sank illegal fishing vessel, claim Sea Shepherd rescuers
Conservationist group’s four-month pursuit of Thunder ended off west Africa, with the captain cheering and applauding as the boat went down, say rescue crew
After one of the longest aquatic pursuits in history, a vessel wanted for illegal fishing lies wrecked nearly 4km beneath the water off west Africa.
The vessel, Thunder, had been stalked by the Bob Barker, operated by the conservationist group Sea Shepherd, since 17 December. The two ships played a game of cat and mouse for 110 days, across 10,260 nautical miles through the Southern, Indian and Atlantic oceans, before the pursuit came to an end in the waters off São Tomé on Monday evening.
Continue reading...Fukushima disaster radiation detected off Canada's coast
Trace amounts of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 detected in samples collected off the coast of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island in British Columbia
Radiation from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has for the first time been detected along a North American shoreline, though at levels too low to pose a significant threat to human or marine life, scientists said.
Trace amounts of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 were detected in samples collected on 19 February off the coast of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island in Canada’s British Columbia, said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Ken Buesseler.
Continue reading...UK's most endangered butterfly back from the brink
The critically endangered high brown fritillary had its best summer in a decade in 2014, with numbers rising 180% in a year thanks to conservation efforts
The most endangered butterfly in Britain enjoyed its best summer for a decade last year after highly focused conservation efforts on its 30 remaining sites.
Continue reading...First ozone hole found over Arctic: from the archive, 31 March 1995
Meteorologists and atmospheric chemists have watched in alarm as a similarly explosive mixture to the Antarctic vortex has been assembled in the Arctic
For the first time, scientists have detected a ‘hole’ in the ozone layer over the Arctic and northern Europe.
Ozone, a form of oxygen, acts as a high-altitude atmospheric screen against cancer-causing ultraviolet light. But at some altitudes this spring, levels have been 50 per cent below any previously observed.
James Rebanks, Twitter’s favourite shepherd: ‘Sheep farming is another form of culture, just like Picasso or punk’
“Be careful,” says James Rebanks. “She’s only just had puppies, and she’s very protective of them. She might give you a nip.” The mother to whom a wide berth must be given is his sheepdog Floss, tucked in the corner of the living room in Rebanks’ farmhouse feeding her 10 pups. The dad, Tan, his other sheepdog, is studiously avoiding his huge new family. An absentee father after just four days. Call canine social services.
It’s 8.30am on an intermittently bright early spring day in the Lake District – “a bonny day”, Rebanks’ father-in-law, Ian, calls it later, when a sudden hailstorm subsides. Rebanks’ wife, Helen, is getting his two young daughters ready for school; three-year-old son Isaac is playing with his model sheep; Rebanks himself is preparing for his morning’s work: feeding his 450 sheep, most of which are pregnant with lambs. He’s taking me along for the ride. He is riding a quad bike; I’m in a small trailer filled with hay being pulled along behind. It is not a glamorous assignment.
Continue reading...Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change
Founding family of the US oil empire Exxon, begged the company to give up climate denial and reform their ways a decade ago – but attempts at engagement failed
Members of the Rockefeller family tried to get ExxonMobil to acknowledge the dangers of climate change a decade ago – but failed in their efforts to reform the oil giant.
In letters, lunch meetings, and shareholder resolutions, the descendants of John D Rockefeller, founder of the oil empire that eventually became Exxon, sought repeatedly to persuade the company to abandon climate denial and begin shifting their business towards clean energy.
Continue reading...Cat litter blamed for $240m radiation leak at New Mexico nuclear waste dump
Cat litter used to absorb liquids in a barrel of nuclear waste was the wrong type, sparking a chemical reaction and a subsequent radioactive leak
A radiation leak at an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico was caused by “chemically incompatible” contents, including cat litter, that reacted inside a barrel of waste causing it to rupture, scientists said on Thursday.
The US Energy Department report on last year’s radiation accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad showed that a drum of waste containing radioisotopes like plutonium was improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe before arriving for disposal.
Continue reading...UK's biggest plastic milk bottle recycler on brink of collapse
Chairman of Closed Loop Recycling admits company is nearing administration as it feels dual effects of oil price drop and supermarket price war
Britain’s biggest recycler of plastic milk bottles is facing possible collapse after being squeezed between a slump in global oil prices and a supermarket price war.
Closed Loop Recycling, based in Dagenham, could be forced to call in administrators within days because clients have cut back on buying recycled plastic.
Continue reading...