The Guardian
UK innovators get £4.3m to develop space-based solar power
Minister says technology to collect energy and beam it to Earth could help boost UK’s energy security
UK universities and tech companies are to receive £4.3m in government funding to develop space-based solar power.
The technology, which collects energy from the sun using satellite-mounted panels and beams it to Earth, had huge potential to boost the UK’s energy security, the UK’s energy security secretary, Grant Shapps, said.
Continue reading...Detection dogs taught newt tricks in bid to improve conservation
Springer spaniel trained to recognise scent of great crested newt with 87% success rate from distance of 2 metres
From terrorists to drug traffickers, detection dogs are trained to sniff out the most elusive of offenders. Now a springer spaniel called Freya has taken up the scent of another slippery species: the great crested newt.
Sheltering in underground burrows and rocky crevices, these warty amphibians are a protected species under rules overseen by Natural England. Boris Johnson previously complained that newt-counting delays had become “a massive drag on the prosperity of this country” because building developers must search for, and move them, before construction projects can begin.
Continue reading...Illegal reintroductions of rare butterflies to UK ‘a risk to other species’
Conservation scientists warn releases of rare or extinct species may spread diseases and harm attempts to save other butterflies
“Ridiculous” illegal reintroductions of rare or extinct butterflies to new sites in Britain risk introducing disease, damage attempts to save species and jeopardise well-planned releases, conservationists have warned.
Conservation scientists spoke out after black-veined whites, which fell extinct in Britain 100 years ago, reappeared on a nature reserve near Croydon.
Continue reading...Be angry about the wildfire pollution – but be angry at the right people | Kate Aronoff
A poisonous haze made the air over New York temporarily more hazardous than any other place on Earth. Thank fossil fuel billionaires
Who’s responsible for the poisonous haze that blanketed the north-east this week, that turned the sky eerie shades of yellow and orange and made the air over New York City more hazardous – for a time – than in any other place on Earth?
The smoke is from the unprecedented wildfires that, first sparked by lightning, have been raging for weeks in Nova Scotia and Quebec; more than 450 are now burning across Canada. More than half of those are considered “out of control”. That ferocity is thanks in large part to the kinds of unusually warm and dry conditions that rising temperatures are making more common. Winds from a low pressure system then fanned the flames and sent them southward.
Continue reading...Yorkshire Water boss’s decision to forgo bonus labelled ‘hollow’ by union
Nicola Shaw, who made the announcement due to public anger over sewage in rivers, is in line for a windfall of more than £1m from her previous role
The boss of Yorkshire Water’s decision to forgo her annual bonus due to public anger over sewage pollution of rivers has been labelled a “hollow” gesture by a leading union, after it emerged that she was already in line for a windfall of more than £1m from a previous role.
Nicola Shaw, who joined from National Grid last year, will receive share awards worth £1.3m from the energy network operator next month under a long-term incentive plan initiated in 2020, according to its annual report released last week.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on the Arctic: threatened by Putin’s war | Editorial
Geopolitical fallout from the conflict in Ukraine is threatening an environmentally crucial region
As the cold war thawed in the 1980s, the frozen high north of the planet was a leading beneficiary of more conciliatory times. Speaking in Murmansk in 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev called for an end to military competition in the Arctic, and a new focus on preserving its unique ecosystem. “The community and interrelationship of the interests of our entire world,” said the Soviet leader, “is felt in the northern part of the globe, in the Arctic, perhaps more than anywhere else.”
Mr Gorbachev’s words paved the way for a cross-state consensus around the idea of “Arctic exceptionalism” – an agreement that in an environmentally crucial region, where Europe, North America and Asia meet, geopolitical rivalries should be put to one side. Since 1996, the Arctic Council, comprising the eight Arctic states including Russia, has embodied that spirit of cooperation. It is yet another disastrous consequence of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine that it is now at risk.
Continue reading...Goodbye Mr Fabulous, the giant cuttlefish who let us into his world and changed ours for the better | Kate Ahmad
We will miss our tentacled friend, who brought Sydneysiders together and sparked talks about ocean conservation
Mr Fabulous was the name bestowed upon him. He was a giant cuttlefish (scientific name Sepia apama) and he was the king of Cabbage Tree Bay. This huge, alien-looking cephalopod had attracted many visitors to the small marine reserve at Sydney’s Manly beach; they were enthralled by his flashing rainbow colours and flamboyant tentacles.
He measured about 1 metre in length, and he did not mind posing for an underwater camera, or 10. There were sometimes other smaller cuttlefish around, but none of his size or vibrancy. His image is all over Instagram and he even featured in the pic of the week competition of a national news site. Mr Fabulous was a legend.
Continue reading...Urge to soothe markets may blunt Labour’s edge on Tories
Scaling back of green prosperity plan reflects a possibly costly desire to project fiscal stability
Dread of the financial markets is part of the Labour party’s DNA. This primal fear has been passed down the generations. Ramsay MacDonald, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan were all battle-scarred from their vain attempts to defend the pound.
Even though the signs point to a big Labour victory at the next election, the mood at the top of the party remains cautious. For months, Rachel Reeves has been on a charm offensive in the City, sending out a message to the bond dealers and currency traders that she will take no risks with the public finances.
Continue reading...‘Things not going well’: plan to return cheetahs to India under fire after six die within months
Project to reintroduce big cat to the wild set back by loss of adults and cubs at reserve
A controversial attempt to reintroduce cheetahs to the wild has suffered a major setback after three adults and three cubs died over the past eight months.
The deaths have led to criticisms of Project Cheetah, a £4.8m international scheme that involved moving 20 animals from Africa to India’s Kuno National Park earlier this year. Some conservationists say not enough space was reserved for the cheetahs while others complained that the project was set up too hastily.
Continue reading...A tale of two cities: Paris proves that you don’t need skyscrapers to thrive | Rowan Moore
There’s a story that sections of the British commentariat have liked to tell for some time, about the differences between London and Paris. The French capital, it says, is over-regulated and over-taxed, nice to look at, good for weekend mini-breaks, but stagnant, frozen, a museum piece. Its British counterpart, in this reading, is thrusting, dynamic, creative, global, open for business.
The contrast plays out on their respective skylines. Paris, after a flirtation with tall buildings that has led to two or three controversial projects scattered about the edge of its centre, last week reimposed old rules that ban buildings above 37 metres (121ft). London’s planning continues to be a free-for-all, with raucous clusters of towers sprouting not only in the City and around Canary Wharf, but also less-central locations such as Vauxhall, Tottenham and Lewisham, even in commuter towns outside the city limits, such as Woking.
Continue reading...Ignoring the science: we do it at our peril – over Covid and the environment | Observer letters
Why wasn’t the science followed during Covid-19 (Editorial)? For the same reason we aren’t following the science to tackle the existential crises we are facing – short-term economic and political considerations. We are literally destroying our home, yet industrial farming – a leading driver of both climate and biodiversity crises – is being ignored.
We’ve had flailing attempts to address these challenges, with a timid attempt at reforming farming subsidies, a disowned national food strategy, and trade agreements that are willing to sell out our own farmers for low-welfare, climate-wrecking imports. At international summits, the role of industrial farming in the climate crisis has been given woefully limited attention.
Continue reading...Risk of hot summer in UK is more than twice normal figure, forecasters warn
There are no signs yet that last year’s 40C will be breached again, but meteorologists predict such peaks could become the norm
Temperatures have soared above 30C for the first time this year – and meteorologists forecast the chance of Britain experiencing a hot summer is now 45% – 2.3 times the normal figure.
The warning leaves the nation braced for a possible repeat of last year’s record-breaking heatwave which triggered wildfires, disrupted rail transport, closed schools, led to thousands of premature deaths and saw temperatures break the 40C record in the UK for the first time.
Continue reading...Concern over Loch Ness low water levels amid UK dry spell
Fishery board reports shrinkage in size of River Ness as water scarcity alert issued for parts of Scotland
Concern has been raised about the water levels of Loch Ness and the River Ness amid the protracted dry spell affecting Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Brian Shaw, the director of Ness District Salmon Fishery Board, said there had been a dramatic shrinkage in the size of the River Ness. He told the BBC: “These conditions are not normally good for angling.
Continue reading...EPA sued over pesticide-coated seeds’ ‘devastating impacts’ on US wildlife
Environmental groups’ lawsuit seeks to force tighter regulation of neonicotinoids on seeds that pollute soil, water and air
Environmental groups are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency over pesticide-coated seeds they say have “devastating environmental impacts” and are spread largely without regulatory oversight.
The suit alleges the neonicotinoid seeds are now spread on about 150m acres (61m hectares) of US farmland and up to 95% of the pesticide on the seed sheds, polluting nearby soil, water and air. The seeds are so dangerous to wildlife that just one can kill a bird, the groups note.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg takes part in her last school strike for climate
As activist graduates from school, she says she will still protest on Fridays as ‘fight has only just begun’
After what began as a solo protest in Sweden five years ago and grew into a movement with millions of children across the world participating, Greta Thunberg has taken part in her last “school strike” protest as she graduates from school.
The protests, which led to many climate activist movements across Europe, the US and Australia, are known as Fridays for Future or School Strike for Climate.
Continue reading...Ministers warned England set to miss wildlife and biodiversity targets
Exclusive: Natural England chair Tony Juniper says government must work quickly to reconcile farming and nature
England will not meet its biodiversity targets at current rates, the chair of Natural England has said, as he accused ministers of moving too slowly to regenerate nature.
Tony Juniper, who has been in post at the government’s nature quango since 2019, said ministers were not on track to meet species abundance targets, which have been criticised by wildlife charities as “embarrassingly poor”.
Continue reading...Smoke in the air as Australia’s fire crews prepare for the return of El Niño
Climate change has lengthened fire seasons and limited chances for hazard reduction burns, leaving authorities racing the clock before risky weather hits
Last week, people living around Darwin and Brisbane could see and smell the smoke in the air. It’s an experience that will be mirrored across the country in the coming weeks as fire authorities and land managers carry out hundreds of controlled burns.
Climate change has already lengthened Australia’s fire seasons, with higher temperatures driving an increase in riskier fire weather.
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Continue reading...The Guardian view on broken Britain: it won’t be fixed with the status quo | Editorial
State-led public investment is needed to repair a decade of cuts. Labour should say so, not cleave to failed orthodoxies
The gap between the political narrative and life as experienced by the average voter is widening dramatically. The United Kingdom faces serious economic, environmental and social crises that will deepen without shifts in policy. Yet there is little sense of impending doom among the country’s politicians.
A decade of upheaval has produced not radical change, but a renewal of a failed consensus. This suits the Conservative party, which, after 13 years in power, offers the dead weight of bankrupt intellectual habits. However, Labour’s U-turn over one of its rare transformational policies, to spend £28bn a year from day one of being in office on green investment, leaves it looking pusillanimous and complacent about its poll lead.
Continue reading...‘Nowhere is safe now’: wildfire smoke brings climate crisis home to Americans
With the Empire State Building and the Lincoln Memorial blotted out, the US is experiencing the climate catastrophe first-hand
The unnerving sight of New York City’s skies turning a dystopian orange from wildfire smoke is just the latest in a barrage of recent distress signals that life in the US is starting to fray under the relentless pressure of the climate crisis, experts have warned.
On Wednesday, New York held the dubious title of having the worst air quality in the world, with Detroit in second place, as plumes of smoke from hundreds of fires in Ontario and Quebec were carried south by a stiff breeze.
Continue reading...Labour doesn’t need to sabotage its green prosperity plan – just to cost it clearly | John McDonnell
The argument that markets will react badly to borrowing doesn’t wash – Rachel Reeves has to be open about using taxes
- John McDonnell was shadow chancellor from 2015 to 2020
Today, Rachel Reeves announced that she is delaying plans to borrow £28bn a year for a green prosperity fund under a Labour government. There may be some influential people in the Labour party who never supported the plan in the first place – maybe because it looked so much like the 2019 manifesto. And now, perhaps as a result, we’re seeing any excuse being used to undermine it.
The argument being put forward is that the bond markets will react to Labour’s borrowing in the same way they responded to Liz Truss’s fantasy budget. This would make the necessary borrowing too expensive to deal with, and anyway, it’s impractical to spend on that scale in the early years of a government.
John McDonnell has been the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. He was shadow chancellor from 2015 to 2020
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