The Guardian
On the ledge: life goes on for butterflies in Mumbai – in pictures
With his regular haunts closed because of Covid-19, Mumbai photographer and naturalist Rizwan Mithawala turned his lens on his windowbox, capturing the life cycle of visiting red pierrots
Continue reading...Britain still failing on climate crisis, warn advisers
Committee urges that companies must meet green standards to qualify for Covid-19 corporate bailouts
Ministers are bracing themselves for a powerful new rebuke from the government’s own advisers over the nation’s inadequate response to the climate crisis. In its annual progress report, to be published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change will lambast continuing failures by the government to tackle the issues of overheating homes, flash floods, loss of biodiversity and the other threats posed as our planet continues to overheat dangerously.
Last year, the committee complained that no areas of the UK’s response to the climate crisis were being tackled properly. “The whole thing is run by the government like a Dad’s Army,” said the committee’s chairman, Lord Deben.
Continue reading...Even the oil giants can now foresee the end of the gasoline age
Coronavirus has dealt the fossil-fuel industry the biggest single blow in its history, and it is clear that 2020’s plummeting demand for oil and gas is no mere flesh wound. The global Covid-19 crisis may have already triggered a terminal decline for big oil.
BP’s decision last week to reset its oil price forecasts for the next three decades was the latest tremor in a seismic shift for the industry. Its forecasts of a $75-a-barrel oil price over the next 30 years were scrapped in favour of an average price of $55. The watershed decision wiped more than $17bn from the value of its business at a stroke and could mean many of its untapped oil reserves will remain in the ground.
Continue reading...Endangered smoky mouse, feared wiped out during bushfires, found alive in Kosciuszko national park
Sighting of critically endangered native rodent ‘a very happy moment’ for conservationists
The critically endangered smoky mouse has been discovered alive and well in the Kosciuszko national park after it was feared the native species had been wiped from the area during the summer bushfire crisis.
Motion-sensor cameras set up over the last five weeks have recorded images of the mouse at seven burnt-out sites in southern New South Wales.
Continue reading...Chief scientist joins calls for Australia to dramatically boost energy efficiency
Alan Finkel calls saving electricity the ‘best form of generation’ as groups push for efficiency measures to lead economic recovery
Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, has warned the country is not doing enough to lift energy efficiency, and described measures to save electricity as the “best form of energy generation you could possibly ever hope to have”.
Speaking in his role as chair of a panel advising the Morrison government on a low emissions technology statement, Finkel told an industry seminar that Australia had ongoing issues with energy efficiency and productivity, and noted a national energy productivity plan, agreed by federal and state energy ministers in 2015, did not appear on a list of national climate and energy policies.
Continue reading...'Tipping point': Greta Thunberg hails Black Lives Matter protests – video
Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: 'It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.'
Continue reading...‘It's like pea soup’: poultry farms turn Wye into wildlife death trap
Phosphate-rich runoff from free-range chickens is causing the spread of algal blooms that devastate the river’s ecosystem
The beauty of the River Wye has been acclaimed for centuries. “If you have never navigated the Wye, you have seen nothing,” wrote the travel writer William Gilpin 250 years ago. And its reputation still makes it a magnet for visitors who regularly vote it one of the country’s most beautiful rivers.
But conservationists have warned that the Wye, which meanders south from the craggy peaks of mid-Wales to the lush pastures of the Severn estuary, is today under serious threat – and from an unusual source. They say the pollution from increasing numbers of free-range poultry farms near its banks is now seriously damaging the river.
Continue reading...Texas’s cactus cops battle to save rare desert beauty from smuggling gangs
Special agents in America have busted a smuggling ring on the US-Mexico border, but their haul is not drugs or the immigrants that President Donald Trump rails against with his “big beautiful wall”.
These smugglers were trafficking something all together less high profile – so-called “living rock cactus” that grows uniquely on the arid plains of Big Bend national park in Texas.
Continue reading...'Tipping point': Greta Thunberg hails Black Lives Matter protests
People are realising ‘we cannot keep looking away from these things’, says climate activist
Greta Thunberg has said the Black Lives Matter protests show society has reached a tipping point where injustice can no longer be ignored, but that she believes a “green recovery plan” from the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough to solve the climate crisis.
Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: “It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.
Continue reading...Researchers capture drone footage of African 'tree lions' in conservation study – video
Researcher Alexander Braczkowski spent a year monitoring and filming lions in the Queen Elizabeth conservation area in Uganda.
In just-published results, Braczkowski found the area’s lions are in a precarious state, with the home ranges of males much larger than previously estimated – suggesting they are having to travel farther to find food.
Braczkowski got a special permit to use aerial photography and slowly got the lions used to the drones over time. The result has been valuable research into the big cat, as well as some incredible imagery
Continue reading...Climate crisis threatens future of global sport, says report
Study says heatwaves, fires and floods, and rising sea levels pose major threat over coming years
The rapidly accelerating climate crisis threatens the future of major sports events around the world, according to a report that also says the global sporting industry is failing to tackle its own emissions.
The study found that in the coming years nearly all sports – from cricket to American football, tennis to athletics, surfing to golf – will face serious disruption from heatwaves, fires, floods and rising sea levels.
Continue reading...Whale-watching boat noise found to disrupt mother and calf resting times
Researchers say as engine noise went up, humpback whale mothers’ breathing rate increased and they swam faster
Repeated noise from whale-watching boat engines could be affecting humpback mothers and their calves while they stop to rest on their long migrations to the Antarctic, a study has found.
Researchers found as engine noise went up, humpback whale mothers spent less time resting, their breathing rate increased and they swam faster.
Continue reading...Marinus Link could send clean energy across Bass Strait, but its future is uncertain
While the $3.5bn project will quadruple the amount of electricity sent across Bass Strait, a final investment decision still remains three years away
In a connected world, with scientists warning rapid emissions cuts are needed to address the climate crisis, the Marinus Link reads as an elegant solution.
A proposed 1,500 megawatt undersea electricity cable between Burnie, in north-west Tasmania, and Gippsland in Victoria, it would quadruple the amount of electricity that can be sent in either direction across Bass Strait.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including bears in the UK and a chops-licking fox in Russia’s far east
Continue reading...The whales are moving up Australia's east coast: tell us about your best 'spot'
Where do you go to watch migrating humpback and southern right whales? And what was your closest encounter?
In a year desperately in need of good news, the oceans have delivered.
The spectacular white whale known as Migaloo is believed to have been spotted off the New South Wales coast, partway through his annual journey from Antarctica to Queensland.
Continue reading...Pollutionwatch: air quality benefits of lockdown continue
There was an average decrease of 31% in nitrogen dioxide levels on London’s roads
The start of the UK lockdown brought news of reduced air pollution. Did it last?
Measurements from London show that initial improvements in nitrogen dioxide from traffic continued into April and May. Compared with the first 11 weeks of 2020 before lockdown, there was an average decrease of 31% on the capital’s roads. Greatest reductions were in central and inner London and followed improvements from the Ultra-Low Emission Zone.
Continue reading...Trump administration will not regulate rocket fuel chemical in drinking water
EPA claims federal government, states and public water systems have already taken steps to reduce perchlorate levels
US environmental regulators have decided they will not put restrictions on perchlorate – a rocket fuel ingredient known to harm fetal brain development – in drinking water.
The Environmental Protection Agency argued that the federal government, states and public water systems have already taken proactive steps to reduce perchlorate levels.
Continue reading...Claims major projects are being delayed by environmental 'lawfare' dismissed in new research
GreenLaw study finds public interest litigants are not abusing court processes to disrupt developments
Claims that major developments are being regularly held up because of legal challenges to environmental approvals have been dismissed in new research.
The research by GreenLaw, a research and policy group run by law students at the Australian National University, conducted an empirical review of public interest litigation in the federal court on environmental matters over the past decade.
Continue reading...Climate crisis poses serious risks for pregnancy, investigation finds
- Air pollution and heat exposure linked to negative outcomes
- Researchers discover ‘pretty scary health burdens’
More than a decade of overwhelming evidence links air pollution and heat exposure with negative pregnancy outcomes in the US, according to a new review of dozens of studies.
The investigation, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, identified 57 studies since 2007 showing a significant association between the two factors and the risk of pre-term birth, low birth weight and stillbirth.
Continue reading...Environmental justice means racial justice, say activists
Coronavirus has emphasised health, social, economic and environmental inequalities facing BAME people
Tackling systemic racism is fundamental to achieving environmental and climate justice, according to leading activists, as Covid-19 disparities and the global uprising against police brutality lay bare the ramifications of racial inequalities in every sphere of life.
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