The Guardian
'It was hell': Spanish cocaine raid adds to shipboard misery for 4,000 cows
Terrible conditions witnessed onboard livestock ship travelling from Colombia to Egypt suspected of being a cover for trafficking
When the Neameh sailed out of Colombia on 4 May, it should have been a routine shipment: just over 4,000 cows, on their way to Egypt, an important hub for the global trade in live animal exports.
But accusations of cocaine smuggling and a police raid of the ship lengthened the journey.
Continue reading...Only two-thirds of UK bathing waters rated excellent in EU survey
Latest data puts Britain near bottom of Europe’s league table for bathing water quality
Swimmers itching to take advantage of the easing of lockdown to have their first sea bathes or wild swims of the summer should pick their spot wisely: only two-thirds of the UK’s bathing waters are of excellent quality, according to the latest data, putting Britain near the bottom of Europe’s league table for bathing water quality.
Most of the rest of the UK’s beaches were of good or sufficient quality last year, with fewer than one in 20 judged to be poor, in the annual survey by the European Environment Agency.
Continue reading...Commonwealth nations to protect coral reefs with satellite technology
Countries to use high-resolution images to monitor health of marine resources
Commonwealth countries are to gain free access to satellite technology that will help them monitor and protect their endangered coral reefs from threats such as climate breakdown, overfishing and pollution.
Commonwealth countries hold nearly half of the world’s remaining tropical coral reefs, with 47 out of the 54 member countries having a coastline. Nearly half of them are islands or groups of islands, which face particular threats from the climate crisis, and for whom coral reefs are often vital protections against storms as well as fish nurseries and tourist attractions.
Continue reading...Pinkest flamingos fight the hardest for food, scientists learn
Bright plumage linked to aggression when squabbling with rivals
The pinkest flamingos are also the most aggressive when it comes to squabbling over food, scientists have found.
Research from the University of Exeter also suggests bright pink plumage to be an indicator of good health in lesser flamingos.
Continue reading...Teenager’s collection of 37,000 tadpoles turns her into a TikTok star
Hannah McSorley’s videos prove a big hit online and lead to deal with influencer agency
“TikTok tadpole influencer” is not a career path that Hannah McSorley would have been told about at school. In lockdown, however, with her GSCEs on hold, the 17-year-old has turned a time-honoured pastime – collecting frogspawn – into a potentially lucrative online empire.
McSorley’s hypnotic daily videos of her tens of thousands of tadpoles have attracted 535,000 followers on TikTok as @.baby.frogs, leading to a deal with a US influencer agency.
Continue reading...Omission of air pollution from report on Covid-19 and race ‘astonishing’
Failure to consider dirty air as a factor in higher death toll among ethnic minorities wholly irresponsible, say critics
The failure to consider air pollution as a factor in the higher rates of coronavirus deaths among minority ethnic groups is “astonishing” and “wholly irresponsible”, according to critics of a Public Health England review.
The PHE report released on Tuesday confirmed the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people from ethnic minorities but did not mention air pollution. Minorities in the UK, US and elsewhere are known to generally experience higher levels of air pollution, and there is growing evidence around the world linking exposure to dirty air exposure to increased coronavirus infections and deaths.
Continue reading...The Fed deserves the praise for America’s jobs turnaround. But Trump benefits
The political obituaries of Donald Trump were all prepared. At the end of a week that has seen American cities convulsed by protests over the killing of George Floyd, the president would be faced with an increase in unemployment worse than anything seen in the Great Depression.
Well, it didn’t turn out like that. The US economy actually created 2.5 million jobs in May and the unemployment rate went down rather than up. The consensus among analysts was that it would shed 7.5 million jobs, a colossally wrong call. And a deeply significant one.
Continue reading...Surfer dies after shark attack in northern New South Wales
A 50-year-old man has died after being bitten by a shark while surfing at Casuarina Beach near Kingscliff in the NSW northern rivers region
A 50-year-old man has died after being bitten by a shark while surfing near Kingscliff in northern NSW.
A Surf Life Saving NSW spokesman told Guardian Australia the man died while surfing at Salt Beach at about 10.30am on Sunday morning.
Continue reading...Renewable energy stimulus can create three times as many Australian jobs as fossil fuels
Government spending on clean energy would deliver 100,000 new jobs, EY assessment finds
Stimulus programs backing clean energy as a path out of recession would create nearly three times as many jobs for every dollar spent on fossil fuel developments, according to a financial consultancy analysis.
The assessment by professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) says a government focus on renewable energy and climate-friendly projects to drive the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic could create more than 100,000 direct jobs across the country while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading...Do you want beautiful, sustainable and safe tall buildings? Use wood | Rowan Moore
A ban on constructing with timber is one of the more misguided responses to Grenfell
You don’t have to be an expert in construction to know that wood burns. You might also recall that parts of London were destroyed in the Great Fire because they were made largely of wood, after which they were rebuilt in brick and stone. So it will seem a reasonable reaction to the Grenfell disaster that the government banned timber (along with other combustible materials) from the exterior of residential buildings more than 18 metres high.
This ban started in 2018, with the promise to review it. Now it is proposing both to continue and extend it so that it covers buildings more than 11 metres high, and uses such as hotels as well as blocks of flats (in England only – Scotland and Wales have slightly different arrangements). Better, you will probably think, to be safe than sorry. But there’s a cost to this caution, which is that it will impede one of the most promising recent innovations in building.
Continue reading...'Selling off the future’: Trump allows fishing in marine sanctuaries
Administration opening areas off New England coast up to commercial fishing, a move experts say will hurt the environment
Donald Trump is easing protections for a large marine monument off the coast of New England, opening it to commercial fishing.
But ocean experts caution that the rollback to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monument will hurt the environment and won’t help fishermen who are struggling during the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn to find buyers for what they already catch.
Continue reading...UK butterfly season off to unusually early start after sunniest of springs
Experts say abundance of both common and rare species cause for celebration and concern
Record-breaking sunshine has encouraged midsummer butterflies to emerge unusually early, with dozens of species appearing a month before their usual flight season.
Butterflies that usually fill meadows and woods in July, including the ringlet, the marbled white, dark green fritillary and the silver-washed fritillary have been widely spotted during the sunniest spring since records began in 1929.
Continue reading...Covid-19 relief for fossil fuel industries risks green recovery plans
Over $500bn is going to high-carbon industries undermining goals of Cop26 climate talks
The failure of governments and central banks to set out a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis is threatening to derail vital UN climate talks aimed at staving off global catastrophe, campaigners have warned.
On Friday, the UK and the UN attempted to revive the stalled Cop26 climate talks, with a coalition of businesses committing to a Race for Zero, signing up to reduce their emissions to net zero by mid-century. Close to 1,000 businesses have joined the campaign, including household names such as Rolls-Royce and the food and drink majors Nestlé and Diageo.
Continue reading...NSW government abandons plan for air pollution policy after five years of planning
Communities and advocates decry ‘backflip’ after years of planning for statewide framework to reduce toxic air
The Berejiklian government has abandoned a long-held commitment to adopt a statewide policy on air pollution after years of planning that included a state summit on the issue.
The decision to drop a standalone clean air strategy has sparked anger from communities living near major sources of pollution, such as coal-fired power stations, who say without an overarching strategy they can have no confidence their air quality will improve.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on Brazil and the Amazon: don’t look away | Editorial
The world cannot afford to let the coronavirus pandemic distract us from the destruction of the rainforest
A consensus that international cooperation is required to limit the danger from global heating has existed for decades. The success of the rearguard action against this knowledge, led by fossil fuel interests, is a catastrophe whose full extent is yet to unfold. Central bankers are now demanding that a “whole economy transition” must follow the pandemic if the world is to avoid the extreme disruption that temperature rises of 4C would bring.
Arguably, the chaos unleashed by coronavirus has made such a future seem less remote, and action to prevent it more necessary. The risk is that the virus will have the opposite effect: focusing minds on the threat right now rather than the one that can be ignored for a few more years.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including hugging sloths and a lost whale
Continue reading...Tree mapping app blossoms as city-dwellers seek out nature in lockdown
Record traffic for TreeTalk sparks global interest as users reconnect with the species that line their streets
An online mapping tool featuring the location and species of more than 700,000 trees in London has had a fiftyfold increase in visitors to its site since the coronavirus lockdown measures were put in place.
The founders of TreeTalk, which creates a walk specific to a user’s location and identifies trees on the route, say an increase in people spending more time at home getting to know their natural surroundings has led to a surge in interest. There are now calls to bring the app to other cities in the UK and abroad. TreeTalk is currently discussing a proposal with an east coast city in the US, while cities in Australia and India have also expressed interest.
Continue reading...Mines are hotspots for spread of Covid-19, study finds
- About 4,000 mine workers infected in 18 countries
- Virus spread to indigenous communities near mines
- Coronavirus – latest global updates
Mining sites in Canada, the US and around the world have become hotspots for the spread of coronavirus, and approximately 4,000 mine workers in 18 countries have tested positive, according to a report by an international coalition of non-profit groups.
Related: Canada: minister says Covid-19 lockdown a 'great time' to build pipeline
Continue reading...Meat giants selling to UK linked to Brazil farms in deforested Amazon reserve
Greenpeace report shows cattle indirectly sold to JBS, Marfrig and Minerva came from protected Serro Ricardo Franco park
Three international meat companies have indirectly sourced cattle from farms that deforested a unique, protected Amazon reserve, a new report from Greenpeace has found – and two of them later sold meat from the area to the UK.
The revelations come as the Brazil-based companies involved, JBS, Marfrig and Minerva, are under increasing pressure to come clean about their Amazon supply chains. They are now known to have broken commitments made to Greenpeace and Brazilian federal prosecutors more than a decade ago.
Continue reading...World Environment Day: Celebrating the UK’s precious biodiversity
To mark World Environment Day, WWF has selected some snapshots of UK nature and wildlife – from land and ocean species to breathtaking plant life – in an attempt to raise awareness of the ongoing fight for our world and its vital biodiversity, the threat to which is both an urgent and existential concern.
Continue reading...