The Guardian
Wind power generates 140% of Denmark's electricity demand
Unusually high winds allowed Denmark to meet all of its electricity needs – with plenty to spare for Germany, Norway and Sweden too
So much power was produced by Denmark’s windfarms on Thursday that the country was able to meet its domestic electricity demand and export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden.
On an unusually windy day, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.
Continue reading...Scientists predict huge sea level rise even if we limit climate change
Study of past sea level changes shows coastal communities may face rises of at least six metres even if we limit global warming to 2C, reports Climate Central
Even if world manages to limit global warming to 2C — the target number for current climate negotiations — sea levels may still rise at least 6 meters (20 ft) above their current heights, radically reshaping the world’s coastline and affecting millions in the process.
That finding comes from a new paper published on Thursday in Science that shows how high sea levels rose the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high.
Continue reading...Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years
A newly unearthed missive from Lenny Bernstein, a climate expert with the oil firm for 30 years, shows concerns over high presence of carbon dioxide in enormous gas field in south-east Asia factored into decision not to tap it
ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change – seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial.
The email from Exxon’s in-house climate expert provides evidence the company was aware of the connection between fossil fuels and climate change, and the potential for carbon-cutting regulations that could hurt its bottom line, over a generation ago – factoring that knowledge into its decision about an enormous gas field in south-east Asia. The field, off the coast of Indonesia, would have been the single largest source of global warming pollution at the time.
Continue reading...Threatened Australian wildlife at grave risk from habitat loss, study finds
Habitat loss is seen as the primary threat to at-risk species but recovery plans avoid addressing it and governments have entrenched the extinction process
Successive Australian governments have failed to protect the habitat of the country’s most endangered creatures, with 90% of the 120 most endangered animals having no safeguards to prevent the loss of their homes, a new study has found.
An analysis by environmental groups of the official recovery plans for Australia’s endangered wildlife has discovered that just 12 of the 120 most endangered animals were covered by plans that placed limits on the future loss of their habitat.
Continue reading...Death on the ice: the last expedition of Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo
Arctic activists Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo’s last expedition ended tragically in April when they fell through thinning ice. Fellow environmental campaigner Ruth Dawkins recalls the vital work and warm spirits of her inspirational friends
In April of this year, two Dutch polar explorers, Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo, set off from Resolute Bay in the Canadian Arctic. They were headed for Bathurst Island, a journey of 400km that was due to take around a month. This was part of the Last Ice Survey expedition to gather data about snow and ice thickness for York University, Ontario. They would walk and ski across a region known as the Last Ice Area, where summer sea ice is expected to be most resilient to climate change.
A few days into their trip, when they were still in Resolute Bay preparing for the hard month ahead, Philip found Marc’s sled from a previous unsuccessful expedition being used by a local hunter. In one of the many short voice recordings which they uploaded each day during their journey, Marc talks about what a special feeling it is to be back in the region and how pleased he is to be there with his trusted expedition partner Philip. “That [last expedition] was a failure, but if we make it there this time, it will be a beautiful contrast.”
Continue reading...Solar Impulse lands in Hawaii after longest non-stop solo flight in history
Veteran pilot tested to the limit of endurance on record-breaking solar-powered flight across the Pacific, on the eighth leg of round-the-world journey
A solar plane attempting the world’s first flight around the globe has landed in Hawaii, after breaking the record for the longest non-stop solo flight in history.
Solar Impulse 2, piloted by the Swiss pilot André Borschberg, took off from Nagoya in Japan at 3am on Monday, for the five-day crossing of the Pacific Ocean, the riskiest leg of its journey.
Continue reading...The 'jellyfish invasion' story one newspaper didn't want you to read | Steve Backshall
TV presenter and naturalist Steve Backshall was asked by a British newspaper to write about the ‘invasion’ of jellyfish this summer. But they didn’t like what he had to say, so we’re publishing it here in full instead
While the sunshine may be an unpredictable visitor to UK summer shores, there’s one silly season certainty that you can count on. It’s an invasion striking terror into the hearts of humble Brits, causing widespread panic, forcing terrified tourists to abandon our seas and seek safer foreign waters. Yes, it’s the early summer newspaper headline, designed to get us all terrified of Mother Nature.
Whether it’s false widow spiders that leap from their webs and rot your flesh, vile sunspiders that inject novocaine into our British soldiers, rats the size of cows, man-eating foxes or a lone great white shark travelling across the Atlantic with the sole intent of savaging plucky Cornish surfers, testicle-munching pacu fish set to invade our seas … these genuine news stories have two things in common: they are factual nonsense, and they all contain the message that nature is evil, and she’s out to get you.
Continue reading...Heathrow third runway backing leaves village fearing for its future
Harmondsworth villagers say they will support direct action against any attempt to bulldoze 750 homes if government backs expansion
Community leaders in Harmondsworth, the village that would be largely flattened to make way for a third runway at Heathrow, have reacted with anger at Howard Davies’s recommendation that the plan should go ahead – and alleged they were “deceived” by the government.
Related: Davies report says new runway should be at Heathrow airport - Politics live
Continue reading...North York Moors potash mine gets £1.7bn go-ahead
National park authority backs plan to dig mile-deep shaft under protected moorland and tunnel 16km inland from coast, with promise of 1,000 jobs
A small corner of one of Britain’s most stunning national parks will be dug up to make way for a £1.7bn potash mine after locals were wooed with promises of more than 1,000 jobs – and the idea of restoring the proud mining heritage of the north-east of England.
After a four-year planning wrangle, members of the North York Moors National Park Authority were cheered on Tuesday when they narrowly gave the green light to UK firm Sirius Minerals – via its subsidiary York Potash – to dig a mile-deep shaft under heavily protected moorland overlooking Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay.
Continue reading...Famous baby giant armadillo found dead
After two years of recording the surprising relationship between a baby giant armadillo and its mother, scientists have found the juvenile dead in the Brazilian Pantanal.
For almost two years, Alex the giant armadillo has been the most famous of his little-known and cryptic species. Born in June of 2013, photos and videos of Alex appeared across the global media, including the BBC, National Geographic and Mongabay. From Alex and his mother, Isabelle, researchers learned that giant armadillos are far more parental and familial than long believed.
Two weeks ago, researchers found Alex dead.
Continue reading...Mine expansion threatens NSW town and Aboriginal heritage, says community elder – video
This video was made by the campaign collective, Our Land Our Water Our Future Continue reading...
Lamb with jellyfish gene 'may have been deliberately sent to abattoir'
Lamb genetically modified with jellyfish protein may have been sent from Paris lab to abattoir after dispute between researchers – and ended up on someone’s plate
A lamb born with a jellyfish gene was mistakenly sold for human consumption and probably ended up on someone’s plate, French authorities have said. A dispute between researchers at a highly respected national institute may have been the cause of the animal being deliberately sent to the abattoir last year. Police have now been called in and an inquiry launched into how the lamb could have been passed as fit for human consumption.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that the animal’s mother was a sheep called Emeraude whose DNA had been modified to include a jellyfish gene called Green Fluorescent Protein by researchers at the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) in Paris. Her lamb, Rubis, was born with the gene in the spring of 2014. Although produced for research purposes, Rubis was allegedly deliberately mixed with several other lambs that had not been genetically modified and sent to an abattoir.
The Earth stands on the brink of its sixth mass extinction and the fault is ours
The rate at which vertebrate species are dying far exceeds the norm
Life on Earth is in trouble. That much we know. But how bad have things become – and how fast are events moving? How soon, indeed, before the Earth’s biological treasures are trashed, in what will be the sixth great mass extinction event? This is what Gerardo Caballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and his colleagues have assessed, in a paper that came out on Friday.
These are extraordinarily difficult questions. There are many millions of species, many elusive and rare, and inhabiting remote and dangerous places. There are too few skilled biologists in the field to keep track of them all. Demonstrating beyond reasonable doubt that any single species is extinct is arduous and painstaking (think how long it took to show – to most people, at least – that Loch Ness probably does not harbour a large monster).
Continue reading...Humans creating sixth great extinction of animal species, say scientists
Study reveals rate of extinction for species in the 20th century has been up to 100 times higher than would have been normal without human impact
The modern world is experiencing a “sixth great extinction” of animal species even when the lowest estimates of extinction rates are considered, scientists have warned.
The rate of extinction for species in the 20th century was up to 100 times higher than it would have been without man’s impact, they said.
You're really spoiling us: has Ferrero been wrongly accused over Nutella?
Industry observers including Greenpeace have defended the confectionery firm on sourcing sustainable palm oil after a French minister urged citizens to stop buying its spread
It is not often that government ministers urge their citizens to boycott a specific product. But that is just what the French environment minister Ségolène Royal did with Nutella this week – claiming that the palm oil it is made from contributes to deforestation and does “considerable damage” to the environment.
Cue irritation from the Italian company Ferrero that makes the chocolatey spread and a backlash from Royal’s opposite number in Italy. Industry observers including Greenpeace and WWF also leapt to the defence of the company, pointing out that it has in fact led the industry in cleaning up its act and goes much further than most competitors on responsible sourcing of palm oil.
US west coast toxic algae bloom might be largest ever, say scientists
Researchers on NOAA research vessel begin survey of massive toxic algae bloom recorded in region that has led to shutdown of shellfish harvests, reports the Seattle Times
A team of federal biologists set out from Oregon on Monday to survey what could be the largest toxic algae bloom ever recorded off the west coast.
The effects stretch from central California to British Columbia, and possibly as far north as Alaska. Dangerous levels of the natural toxin domoic acid have shut down recreational and commercial shellfish harvests in Washington, Oregon and California this spring, including the lucrative Dungeness crab fishery off Washington’s southern coast and the state’s popular razor-clam season.
Continue reading...Eastern Cougar extinct, no longer needs protection, says US conservation agency
The US Fish and Wildlife service has called for the eastern cougar to be removed from endangered species list after four-year review confirms their extinction
Eastern cougars that once roamed North America from Canada to South Carolina are extinct and no longer warrant federal Endangered Species Act protections, US wildlife managers have said.
The proposal to remove so-called eastern cougars from the list of endangered and threatened species comes nearly 80 years after the last of those mountain lions was believed to have been trapped and killed in New England, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Continue reading...Polar bears eat dolphins as Arctic warms
Global warming is driving more species further north, scientists say, as polar bears are spotted devouring dolphins for the first time
Norwegian scientists have seen polar bears eating dolphins in the Arctic for the first time ever and blame global warming for the bears expanding their diet.
Polar bears feed mainly on seals but Jon Aars at the Norwegian Polar Institute has photographed dolphins being devoured by a bear and published his findings in the latest edition of Polar Research this month.
Continue reading...Giant great white shark circles diving cage near Guadeloupe – video
My generation does give a damn about climate change, says 14-year-old activist
Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez has been campaigning since he was six. He explains why young people are not afraid to take on the fossil fuel industry
Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez is 14, but has a confidence beyond his years. He carries on his back an organisation that his mother Tamara founded almost 10 years before his birth, created to inspire young people to defend the environment.
Roske-Martinez is its spokesperson, its youth director, and a self-defined eco hip hop artist, activist and change-agent. He raps. He lectures children younger and older than him at schools around the United States. He rallies before state politicians. And he has addressed world leaders in the United Nations.
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