The Guardian
As global heating threatens Pacific island life, their Indigenous languages will die too | Anastasia Riehl
As the climate crisis forces migration, so native tongues wither, too. But it’s not too late to intervene
Rising sea levels already pose an existential threat to the populations of Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and other low-lying Pacific atolls. In these places, however, it is not just homes, crops and community cohesiveness that are at risk: it is Tuvaluan, Kiribati and Marshallese – the languages native to these islands.
The impact of the climate crisis on languages may be new, but the relationship between language and climate is old. As humans populated the Earth, climate and geography were enormous factors in where they settled and flourished. The equatorial region, with its consistent temperatures, predictable rainfall and abundant agricultural opportunities, was particularly agreeable.
Continue reading...AstraZeneca pledges to plant and maintain 200m trees globally by 2030
Drugmaker’s $4oom offsetting scheme aims to combat climate change and biodiversity loss caused by deforestation
The boss of Britain’s biggest drugmaker, Pascal Soriot, has warned that the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are damaging the planet and human health, as it announced a $400m (£310m) plan to plant 200m trees by 2030.
The offsetting scheme is one of the biggest tree-planting programmes globally. In 2020, AstraZeneca pledged to plant and maintain more than 50m trees by the end of 2025, with 10.5m trees of 300 different species planted so far across Australia (in collaboration with Aboriginal people), Indonesia, Ghana, the UK, the US and France.
Continue reading...Sea levels: the worst-case scenario is already here! Taylor isn’t doing A SINGLE show at the Antarctica Walrusdome | First Dog on the Moon
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Dolphins, whales and seals being failed by UK government policy, MPs say
UK urged to use trade deals as bargaining tool to protect marine mammals
Dolphins and other marine mammals are being failed by the UK government, MPs have said, as they call for ministers not to sign trade deals without considering cetacean welfare.
The UK has poorer protections for dolphins, whales and seals than other countries, a report by the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee has found.
Continue reading...I looked for happiness in the world’s most contented nation – and learned the importance of pessimism | Lucy Pearson
Yes, Finland has nature and saunas in abundance. But more important is an attitude I’ve found lacking in the UK
When I was invited to take part in a masterclass in happiness on the shores of Finnish Lakeland, a few of my friends expressed their surprise. But, Lucy, said one, you’re one of the happiest people I know. What are you hoping to learn from the Finns? I suppose she had a point. I’ve always been one of those annoying, glass-half-full people – not the most obvious choice for a four-day trip designed to teach me why Finnish people are consistently rated the happiest in the world. But, ever the optimist, I gladly accepted.
We Britons have about 60 words for happiness: blissfulness, ecstasy, pleasure, delight … The list is as varied as it is surprising, given that we only just scraped into the top 20 happiest countries in the world this year. Finns, who have been named the happiest nation for the sixth year running, are either onnellinen or iloinen. The latter roughly translates as joyful or glad: you might be iloinen that you’re heading off on holiday. Onnellinen, on the other hand, speaks to the notion of being content with your life, rather than describing a fleeting feeling.
Lucy Pearson is a freelance writer, book blogger and host of The Bondi Literary salon
Continue reading...High costs deterring UK legal challenges to protect environment, NGOs say
Report by RSPB, ELF and Friends of the Earth say even cases with good prospects of success are being abandoned
Prohibitively high costs are pricing individuals and community groups out of bringing legal challenges to protect the environment, major NGOs say.
A joint report by the RSPB, the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) and Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, says cases raising concerns about loss of green space, wildlife habitat and the climate crisis have been abandoned because of fears about costs, even when they have good prospects of success. It suggests the number of environmental judicial review applications may have halved in a decade.
Continue reading...‘We could lose our status as a state’: what happens to a people when their land disappears
Small island countries press for guarantees as rising sea levels risk leaving their citizens stateless
Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves.
The Pacific Islands Forum, which represents many of the most vulnerable countries, has invited international legal experts to consider this question and begun a diplomatic campaign to ensure that political statehood continues even after a nation’s physical fabric is submerged.
Continue reading...Current heatwave across US south made five times more likely by climate crisis
Latest ‘heat dome’ event over Texas and Louisiana, plus much of Mexico, driven by human-cause climate change, scientists find
The record heatwave roiling parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mexico was made at least five times more likely due to human-caused climate change, scientists have found, marking the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world.
A stubborn ridge of high pressure has settled over Mexico and a broad swath of the southern US over the past three weeks, pushing the heat index, a combination of temperature and humidity, to above 48C (120F) in some places.
Continue reading...Destruction of world’s pristine rainforests soared in 2022 despite Cop26 pledge
An area of primary rainforest the size of Switzerland was felled last year suggesting world leaders’ commitment to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 is failing
An area the size of Switzerland was cleared from Earth’s most pristine rainforests in 2022, despite promises by world leaders to halt their destruction, new figures show.
From the Bolivian Amazon to Ghana, the equivalent of 11 football pitches of primary rainforest were destroyed every minute last year as the planet’s most carbon-dense and biodiverse ecosystems were cleared for cattle ranching, agriculture and mining, with Indigenous forest communities forced from their land by extractive industries in some countries.
Continue reading...‘Mind-boggling’ palm that flowers and fruits underground thrills scientists
New species named Pinanga subterranea as Kew botanists admit they have no idea how its flowers are pollinated
A new-to-science palm species has been discovered in Borneo with the remarkable ability to flower and fruit underground. How the rare palm – named Pinanga subterranea – has survived is a mystery, as most plants have evolved to develop their flowers and fruit above ground to facilitate pollination and the dispersal of seeds.
“Pinanga subterranea is the only known species of palm to flower and fruit below ground,” said Dr Benedikt Kuhnhäuser, a future leader fellow at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who was part of the research team that collected specimens and ascertained that it was a new species. “Flowering and fruiting below ground is mind-boggling and seemingly paradoxical because they appear to prevent pollination and dispersal. We now know bearded pigs eat and disperse Pinanga subterranea’s fruits, but we’ve yet to find out how and by whom the flowers are pollinated.”
Continue reading...Gorillas, jaguars and other wildlife vulnerable to human activity even in nature reserves
Research finds tropical mammals suffer impact of deforestation even if they live in protected areas
Wildlife sanctuaries fail to fully protect tropical animals from harmful human activities, a major study has found.
Mammals including the jaguar, the mountain gorilla, and the Sunda pangolin were all found to be affected by human activities, even when they resided in the depths of a nature reserve.
Continue reading...Shipping emissions could be halved without damaging trade, research finds
Findings come as nations gather in London to discuss new carbon levy
Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping could be halved by 2030 without damaging trade, new research has found, as countries prepare to meet to discuss a potential new tax on carbon produced by ships.
Emissions from maritime transportation amount to about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and there are few alternatives to the cheap, heavy and dirty diesel oil used by ships.
Continue reading...Curious humpback whale swims alongside kayaker off Bondi beach in Australia – video
A drone pilot captures footage of a humpback whale following a kayaker near Bondi beach. Up to 50,000 whales are expected to pass Australia’s east coast during the annual migration from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef. Humpback whales were removed from Australia's threatened species list last year after a significant increase in numbers, from just 1,500 at the height of the commercial whaling industry to an estimated 40,000
Young humpbacks ‘full of beans’ as whale-watching season takes off in Sydney
Humpbacks spotted having whale of a time at underwater ‘day spa’ off Gold Coast
‘Coastal squeeze’: the fight to save shoreline habitats from rising tides
Seawalls are causing intertidal habitats to vanish as ocean levels increase. But eco-entrepreneurs say artificial rockpools and crevices can save wildlife
The rain has just stopped falling when Nigel George walks down to the beach in Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight. He crosses the coastal road and descends a concrete stairway, a sheen of sand covering its lowest steps. The place is quiet, with only a few walkers animating the shoreline.
He’s here to inspect a wooden groyne – a kind of jetty, designed to prevent erosion – which stretches out into the sea and towards France. The groyne has been fitted with a series of small, basin-like, rough concrete, structures. George peers inside one: a congregation of limpets, barnacles, seaweed, and a single sea snail peer back at him.
Continue reading...Misting fans and cooling canal swims: China’s north bakes in record heatwave – in pictures
Residents seek respite from the heat as temperatures above 40C (104F) have been recorded for a third consecutive day in Beijing for the first time
Continue reading...Farmers on frontline as Dutch divided by war on nitrogen pollution
Government’s buyout scheme is meeting fierce resistance from farmers in Netherlands
Veal farmer Wim Brouwer sits on his terrace, an “emergency” red flag flying outside and his laptop open on a page revealing he is one of the Netherlands’ peak polluters, due to the nitrogen excreted each year by his 1,360 calves.
His business sits in one of the most intensively farmed parts of Europe’s most intensively farmed country, a huge exporter with more than 110 million livestock, including cattle, chickens and pigs.
Continue reading...‘A symbol of what humans shouldn’t be doing’: the new world of octopus farming
Plans for the world’s first commercial octopus farm are well advanced – just as science discovers more about this curious, intelligent and affectionate animal. Can it be done ethically?
The sterile boardroom, much of it taken up by a lengthy white table, is at the heart of the sprawling building in northern Spain. The corporate chatter that fills this room these days, however, is dominated by the scene playing out one floor below, where about 50 adult male octopuses are in a tank the size of a budget hotel room.
A handful of the octopuses – the fifth generation to be born in this Spanish multinational’s concrete-and-glass office and research centre – skim through the shallow waters, some brushing up against each other while others tuck into the tank’s barren corners. A low-intensity light casts a pale glow as researchers lay the groundwork for one of the world’s most controversial endeavours: the first commercial octopus farm.
Continue reading...Labour must do no more backsliding on commitments to create a green economy | Andrew Rawnsley
They’ve talked the bold talk. Sir Keir Starmer regularly claims that a government led by him will transform the UK into “a clean energy superpower”. Rachel Reeves declares that she will be “Britain’s first green chancellor”. Ed Miliband, the shadow cabinet’s most ardent champion of the green industrial revolution, proclaims that Britain can be a winner in “the biggest transformation of the global economy in 300 years”.
Talking is a whole lot easier than doing. When the crunch comes, when a Labour cabinet faces the horribly tough choices that are going to confront them in power, will their fine words turn out to be little more than hot air?
Continue reading...We don’t have to be overwhelmed by climate anxiety. Feel the pain, then act | Susie Orbach
It doesn’t matter which week we choose. There is always a climate emergency; an emergency we can close our ears and eyes to. Two weeks ago, it was the blanketing of New York in a cloud of smoke from Canada. Last week, Beijing recorded the hottest June since records began. All over the world, sea levels rise. Drought or flooding ensues. And the loss of habitats and species. We can get frightened and find it hard to hold the knowledge of what is occurring.
As filmmaker Josh Appignanesi shows in his new film My Extinction, which will be released on 30 June, allowing himself to feel the real-time effects of climate change is uncomfortable. Appignanesi, who recycles yet makes car commercials, turns the camera on himself as his climate concerns start to make him feel disgruntled. He feels put out and inconvenienced. And he ends up getting far more involved in climate work than he’d ever thought possible.
Continue reading...Fast-growing BYD launches Dolphin EV, Australia’s cheapest electric car. Here’s how it compares
Latest vehicle from Build Your Dreams, which in less than a year has become our second-biggest electric vehicle seller, has a starting price of $38,890
Many Australians haven’t heard of BYD, the Chinese brand now selling the country’s cheapest new electric car.
BYD, or Build Your Dreams, is the biggest threat to Tesla globally and has garnered a cult-like following that’s translating to sales success locally.
Continue reading...