The Guardian
Plants before pandas: the young botanist tackling extinction in his own backyard – video
Almost as rare as the plants he protects, 24-year-old Josh Styles is not your average botanist. In 2017 he founded the North West Rare Plant Initiative, a conservation project in his local region. His aim is to resurrect 44 plant species that are extinct or threatened with extinction in the area, aiding biodiversity and battling the climate crisis. Richard Sprenger went to meet him in his natural habitat – the sand dunes and peat bogs of north-west England – to see the impact his work is having and find out why, when the Amazon rainforest is on fire, it still matters
- We are supporting four charities this year that are harnessing the power of nature of the climate crisis, just like Josh in this video. Click here to donate
Western Australia shark attack victim Gary Johnson was an experienced scuba diver
The president of the Esperance Dive Club was attacked off Cull Island, in an area notorious for shark attacks
An experienced scuba diver killed by a white shark off Western Australia’s southern coast was at home in the ocean and believed if he ever was attacked he would be unlucky, his grieving wife says.
Gary Johnson had just entered the water when he was attacked about 1pm on Sunday near Cull Island, close to West Beach in Esperance.
Continue reading...Why Irish data centre boom is complicating climate efforts
Surge in processing industry will increase Ireland’s already too high carbon emissions
Inside Digital Realty’s Dublin data centre, racks of shiny black servers throb and whirr as unseen fans cool machines that steadily process unending data.
It operates 24 hours a day from the business park, sited on a former orchard, and the data joins a digital torrent in an underground fibre ring network that sweeps around the Irish capital and connects to undersea cables – the physical backbones of the digital world.
Continue reading...Counting Whales From Space: scientists and engineers plan hi-tech effort
- New England Aquarium partners with local firm
- Project could help work to save endangered right whales
An aquarium and an engineering firm in Massachusetts are working on a project to better protect whales – by monitoring them from space.
The New England Aquarium, based in Boston, and Draper, a firm based in nearby Cambridge, say new and higher-tech solutions are needed in order to protect whales from extinction. So they are using data from sources such as satellites, sonar and radar to keep a closer eye on how many whales are in the ocean.
Continue reading...Cutting battery industry's reliance on cobalt will be an uphill task
Electric cars and consumer electronics use mineral mined in exploitative conditions in Congo
Followers of Elon Musk are used to big claims on Twitter. The social media habits of the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire have landed him in legal hot water on multiple occasions. But for the battery industry one boast stands out: a tweeted pledge to remove an obscure mineral mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the next generation of Tesla’s electric cars.
Batteries are the key component in the electric car revolution that Tesla kickstarted, and each one contains cobalt. Yet concerns about human rights abuses and child labour have prompted a dual effort to cut the amount of cobalt used in batteries and to clean up complex global supply chains.
Continue reading...Fukushima unveils plans to become renewable energy hub
Japan aims to power region, scene of 2011 meltdown, with 100% renewable energy by 2040
Fukushima is planning to transform itself into a renewable energy hub, almost nine years after it became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident for a quarter of a century.
The prefecture in north-east Japan will forever be associated with the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011, but in an ambitious project the local government has vowed to power the region with 100% renewable energy by 2040, compared with 40% today.
Continue reading...Britons reach Africans’ annual carbon emissions in just two weeks
Research for Oxfam shows inequality between footprints of people in UK and in countries including Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi
The average British person will have emitted more carbon dioxide in the first two weeks of this year than a citizen of any one of seven African nations does in an entire year.
This is the key finding of an Oxfam project, published on Sunday, which discovered that someone in the UK will take just five days to emit the same carbon as someone in Rwanda does in a year.
Continue reading...Environmentally friendly electric cars: the pedestrian’s enemy?
They are symbols of environmental friendliness, but electric cars could be making environments increasingly unfriendly to pedestrians. Inaudible engines and obstructive charging systems are putting people with disabilities or pushchairs at risk, according to road safety campaigners who say that pedestrians are paying a hidden price for the green revolution.
Dave Taylor, a resident in the London Borough of Ealing, contacted the Observer after reading an article on charging electric vehicles. “My photo of the car with the charging cable across the pavement highlights a very real issue that is not being addressed,” he says.
Continue reading...Lethal algae blooms – an ecosystem out of balance
Toxic formations across the US and the Baltic are part of a worrying trend linked to the climate crisis and farming methods
On 3 August 2014, residents of Toledo, Ohio, woke to the news that overnight their water supply had become toxic. They were advised not only to avoid drinking the water, but also touching it – no showers, no baths, not even hand-washing.
Boiling the water would only increase its toxicity while drinking it could cause “abnormal liver function, diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, numbness or dizziness”, read a statement from the City of Toledo, warning residents to “seek medical attention if you feel you have been exposed”.
Continue reading...Tougher penalties needed to curb surge in fly-tipping, say councils
Illegal dumping has surged by 50% since 2012 but powers to issue big fines are going unused
Fly-tipping has increased by 50% in the last six years, prompting councils to call for much bigger penalties for offenders.
More than a million incidents of illegal rubbish dumping were recorded in the financial year 2018-19, which cost councils £58m to clean up. Most incidents involved household waste being jettisoned from cars or vans by the side of a road.
Continue reading...'Silent death': Australia's bushfires push countless species to extinction
Millions of animals have been killed in the bushfires, but the impact on flora and fauna is more grim even than individual deaths
Close to the Western River on Kangaroo Island, ecologist Pat Hodgens had set up cameras to snap the island’s rare dunnart – a tiny mouse-like marsupial that exists nowhere else on the planet.
Now, after two fires ripped through the site a few days ago, those cameras – and likely many of the Kangaroo Island dunnarts – are just charred hulks.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg changes Twitter name to Sharon after quiz show error
Actor Amanda Henderson answered ‘Sharon’ to Thunberg-related question on Celebrity Mastermind – and the teen activist loved it
Greta Thunberg has been mocked and called many names since becoming the world’s most famous climate activist.
Related: Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, from baby beavers to a coyote on camera
Continue reading...Jakarta floods: cloud seeding planes will try to break up heavy rain
Dozens dead in Indonesian capital and surrounds as role of global heating is acknowledged in ‘extreme’ event
Indonesia will carry out cloud seeding to try and prevent further rainfall over the capital, Jakarta, and surrounding areas the death toll reached 43 on Friday amid flash floods and landslides.
With more rain forecast, two small planes were readied to drop sodium chloride to break up potential rain clouds in the skies above the Sunda Strait with a bigger plane on standby, said Indonesia’s technology agency.
Continue reading...Want to lose weight? Lose the car
A long-term resolution to leave the car at home could help waistlines as well as the environment
Since 2011 Beijing has controlled traffic growth by allocating new licence plates in a bimonthly lottery. There is less than a one in 500 chance of getting a plate in each draw but winning might not be as wonderful as it first seems.
The impact of increased motorised travel extend beyond air pollution. In the UK the total distance walked each year dropped by 30% between 1995 and 2013, and the distance cycled in England and Wales in 2012 was just 20% of that in 1952 – but these changes have been slow and are difficult to study.
Continue reading...Science can help us adapt to climate change, but first we have to admit it is happening
Research from a now defunded Australian adaptation centre has found social barriers are the biggest obstacle to effective action
Talking to a fourth-generation grazier west of Townsville a few years ago, Prof Stephen Williams says he “made the mistake” of mentioning climate change.
“He said it was bullshit, but we kept talking,” the James Cook University ecologist says.
Continue reading...The plastic polluters won 2019 – and we're running out of time to stop them
Further steps have been taken to clean up beaches and seas in 2019 – but much more needs to be done
The beach at Muncar on the island of Java was revolting. The 400-yard wide, mile-long stretch of sand was feet deep in foul-smelling sauce sachets, shopping bags, nappies, bottles and bags, plastic clothes and detergent bottles. Bulldozers had cleared away and buried some of the huge mat of plastic and sand two years ago, but every tide since then had washed up more rubbish from the ocean, and every day tonnes more plastic was washed down the rivers from upstream towns and villages. Now it was fouling the fishing boats’ propellers.
“We fear for the future,” one elderly woman said. She remembered Muncar only a decade ago as one of the most picturesque towns in Indonesia and a tourist hotspot. “If it carries on like this we will be buried in plastic. We have no choice but to throw plastic into the rivers. Now we are angry. Something must be done,” she said.
Continue reading...As Americans send back millions of holiday gifts, there's a hidden environmental cost
More people make ‘free returns’ each year, contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions – and many items end up in landfills
Millions of Americans will head post office this month, unwanted holiday gifts in hand. But while it may be convenient to return that ugly sweater from your mom, that ease comes at a huge cost to the environment.
The United Parcel Service (UPS) predicts that it will process a record 1.9 million returns on 2 January, which it has dubbed National Returns Day. More than half (55%) of Americans said they planned on returning unwanted holiday gifts within a month of receiving them, according to a survey published by the National Retail Federation.
Continue reading...Alan Christie obituary
My brother-in-law Alan Christie, who has died aged 68 after suffering from a heart condition, was a proponent of corporate social responsibility and for many years the director of community affairs at Levi’s. He helped to pioneer work that set the tone for the way in which multinational businesses funded efforts to combat Aids.
At Levi’s from 1988 to 2004, he expanded the company’s grant funding programme to support early projects to beat Aids and to promote education about Aids/HIV, particularly in southern Africa.
Continue reading...Australia bushfires: Scott Morrison defends his government's climate policies – video
Scott Morrison acknowledged the link between reducing emissions and protecting environments against worsening bushfire seasons, but despite mounting criticism maintained his government's current policies struck the right balance. Speaking at his first press conference since 29 December, the Australian prime minister said he understood people's frustrations but urged them to remain calm
- PM Scott Morrison defends climate policies and asks Australians to be 'patient' over fires
- NSW state of emergency declared as 17 missing in Victoria bushfires – as it happened