The Guardian
David Bellamy obituary
Botanist, environmentalist and broadcaster who communicated his love for the natural world to millions of viewers and listeners
The botanist David Bellamy, who has died aged 86, fired the imagination of millions of television viewers with the beauty and complexity of the natural world – and our impact upon it. For a generation, his instantly recognisable facial features, surrounded by white hair and matching beard, became synonymous with energetic, vibrant and thoroughly compelling explanations of how our world works. His enthusiasm for his subject, delivered in a style and voice that were as distinctive as his face, held viewers enthralled.
The warmth and honesty with which he delivered his subject brought environmental issues to life. Shows such as Bellamy on Botany (1973), Bellamy’s Britain (1975) and Bellamy’s Backyard Safari (1981) allowed him to develop his trademark attention-grabbing methods, such as surfacing from a pond or river, head covered in foliage, as he explained deposition of silt, say, or the process of photosynthesis. Such eccentricity made him a natural target for imitation, notably by Lenny Henry, which he took in good humour and even appeared to relish, appearing on his TV show, as well as many children’s programmes and chat shows.
Continue reading...EU leaders meet to try to agree on carbon neutrality by 2050
Greenpeace activists unfurl climate emergency banner on Brussels venue before event
European leaders meeting at a summit in Brussels will make a new attempt to set the European Union on course for carbon neutrality by 2050, in a test of the bloc’s credibility on the climate emergency.
Hours before EU leaders were due to arrive on Thursday, Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner on the side of the summit venue warning of the climate emergency.
Continue reading...The race to lay claim on the Bering Strait as Arctic ice retreats
Melting sea ice is prompting fevered dreams of ever-easier access, and a renewed jockeying among Arctic nations for status, profit and ownership
I could not keep my eyes off the graves, could not stop staring at them even as I walked away, turning repeatedly to look over my shoulder at them as I slogged my way across the gravel-strewn shore of Beechey Island until they disappeared from view.
It was profoundly saddening to contemplate their presence on a low-lying, windswept outpost of the Canadian Arctic, to imagine the fear and loneliness those buried here must have felt as they faced death in the harshest of conditions, thousands of miles and a world removed from their homes. And yet, they were the lucky ones, the first casualties of an expedition that vanished 173 years ago while searching for the fabled Northwest Passage between Atlantic and Pacific, whose remaining members met their doom after their ships became frozen in never-yielding sea ice, who perished one by one waiting for a summer that never came.
Continue reading...Reach ‘peak meat’ by 2030 to tackle climate crisis, say scientists
Reducing meat and dairy consumption will cut methane and allow forests to thrive
Livestock production needs to reach its peak within the next decade in order to tackle the climate emergency, scientists have warned.
They are calling for governments in all but the poorest countries to set a date for “peak meat” because animal agriculture is a significant and fast-growing source of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Continue reading...Queensland school runs out of water as commercial bottlers harvest local supplies
Parents have been told to consider keeping Tamborine Mountain state school students at home, while trucks take local water to bottling plants for companies including Coca-Cola
The Tamborine Mountain state school has run out of water, even as water miners in the Gold Coast hinterland are sending millions of litres to commercial bottling operations.
Trucks sent by the Queensland government carrying emergency supplies to the school, including Mount Tamborine bottled water, have been passing trucks heading in the opposition direction taking local water to bottling plants for beverage giants such as Coca-Cola.
Continue reading...Fossils suggest how whales found their swimming style
New species discovery could offer insights into how they came to move using tails
It sounds like a Rudyard Kipling story but fossil-hunters say they have new clues as to how the whale came to move.
Whales as we know them today evolved over millions of years from terrestrial creatures to semi-aquatic animals to fully aquatic species, with forelimbs becoming flippers, the fluked tail developing and well-developed hind legs – once used for swimming – lost over time.
Continue reading...Conservative road to climate catastrophe | Letters
Brexit doesn’t matter. Jeremy Corbyn’s likability doesn’t matter. What matters above all is that the planet that is our only home remains habitable. Australia, California and Amazonia are on fire, the Victoria Falls are a mere trickle, the oceans are deoxygenating, the thawing Arctic tundra is belching methane. In Europe, once-thriving Alpine ski resorts are left to rot for lack of snow, and here in the UK flooding is starting to become endemic. Catastrophic feedback loops, points of no return, are inevitable unless we change our way of living quickly.
Labour is the only major party with viable plans to tackle this. Their Green New Deal would be good for the planet’s health and ours too. Investment in green technologies like wave and tidal power will provide us with unlimited clean energy. The expertise and equipment of this technology could be exported around the world, creating jobs and wealth for us.
Continue reading...Australia's use of accounting loophole to meet Paris deal found to have no legal basis
Climate Analytics suggests Australia has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cuts
Australia’s plan to use an accounting loophole to meet its commitment under the Paris climate agreement has no legal basis and suggests it has reneged on a pledge to make deeper emissions cuts once a global deal was reached, a new report says.
An analysis by Climate Analytics, a Berlin-based science and policy institute, found there were no grounds for Australia to claim credit towards its Paris emissions target for having beaten targets under its predecessor, the Kyoto protocol.
Continue reading...Almost two-thirds of Australia's coal-fired generation will be out by 2040, Aemo says
Rooftop solar capacity to double or even triple to replace existing thermal generation, new assessment by the energy market operator predicts
Australia’s ageing coal-fired power plants could be shuttered earlier than expected if competition from renewable generators and carbon budgets render them uneconomic, according to a new assessment by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Aemo will, on Thursday, publish a new draft integrated system plan which snapshots the unfolding revolution underway in Australia’s energy market. The energy market operator predicts rooftop solar capacity will double or even triple, providing up to 22% of total energy by 2040.
Continue reading...Mystery as hundreds of starlings found dead on road in Anglesey
Welsh police ask government experts to examine birds after ‘very strange’ discovery
Police are investigating the discovery of several hundred dead starlings on a road in Anglesey.
More than 200 birds were found near Llyn Llywenan in Bodedern on Tuesday afternoon, with several others on hedges on the side of the road but none in the nearby fields.
Continue reading...European Green Deal will change economy to solve climate crisis, says EU
Everything from travel to air quality has been looked at in order to create ‘a growth that gives back’
Nearly every major aspect of the European economy is to be re-evaluated in light of the imperatives of the climate and ecological emergency, according to sweeping new plans set out by the European Commission on Wednesday.
The comprehensive nature of the European Green Deal – which encompasses the air we breathe to how food is grown, from how we travel to the buildings we inhabit – was set out in a flurry of documents as Ursula von der Leyen, the new commission president, made her appeal to member states and parliamentarians in Brussels to back the proposals, which would represent the biggest overhaul of policy since the foundation of the modern EU.
Continue reading...On the front line of the climate emergency – in pictures
As COP25 takes place in Madrid, this collection of photographs from Getty Images highlights the climate crisis around the world, from Greenland’s melting ice sheets to rising seal levels in Alaska and Louisiana, the forest fires in the Amazon and Indonesia and the impact of forests and the Lobster fishery in Maine
Continue reading...Don't invest in Brazilian meat, warn deforestation campaigners
Open letter signed by Global Witness and Greenpeace Brasil cautions potential investors on risk of deforestation in supply chains of JBS and Marfrig
An international group of 30 non-profit groups published an open letter on Wednesday warning investors considering buying shares in two Brazilian meat giants of their exposure to deforestation.
Billions of dollars of shares held by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in JBS and Marfrig – two of the world’s biggest meat companies – will reportedly go on sale next year. The letter says that both companies have been linked to destruction of the Amazon forest – where deforestation soared this year while fires reached a nine-year record. BNDES declined to comment.
Continue reading...'It's my generation’s future': the voteless young climate activists
Many activists who are too young to vote are working hard to get message across to those who can
Although school prevents him from campaigning as much as he would like, Hasan Patel has been spending every weekend canvassing for Labour during the campaign.
This week he’s just finished his exams and is off door-knocking in Kensington, then Chingford and Woodford Green, both marginal seats and high on Labour’s list of priorities. At 16 years old, Patel can’t vote himself, so he’s keen to utilise his skills where they’ll be of most use.
Continue reading...Sydney climate protest: thousands rally against inaction amid bushfire and air quality crisis
Protesters wore face masks, asking the government to act on the role global heating had on the longer and more devastating bushfires
Thousands of people have rallied in Sydney to protest against inaction on the climate crisis, after months of bushfires and hazardous smoke in New South Wales and Queensland.
On Tuesday, the level of dangerous PM2.5 particles in Sydney’s air was as high as 10 times normal, and fires have burnt through nearly 3 million hectares of land across NSW and Queensland this season.
Continue reading...EU aims to stir global action with pledge on climate crisis
Brussels sets goal to halve emissions by 2030 and become first climate-neutral continent by 2050
The EU will attempt to revive the world’s flagging attempts to tackle the climate crisis with a historic proposal from Brussels to halve emissions by 2030, and reach net zero carbon by mid-century.
Wednesday’s announcement is seen as the vital first step towards gathering a “coalition of ambition” among key countries to fulfil the pledges of the 2015 Paris agreement, which is in danger of languishing amid deadlocked UN talks.
Continue reading...Farmers in NSW's Bylong Valley fear for water and prime land if coalfields developed
State’s powerful advisory body has recommended development of Wollar and Hawkins-Rumker coalfields
Farmers and activists in NSW’s Bylong Valley say they are concerned about the damage to water quality and prime agricultural land in the area if development of two coalfields is given the green light by the state government.
The NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro, has confirmed to locals Guardian Australia’s report in October that the state’s powerful advisory body for strategic release has recommended opening up for development two coalfields in the area: Wollar and Hawkins-Rumker.
Continue reading...Almost a quarter of eucalypt trees found to be threatened with extinction
Some 134 species of eucalypts had drops in numbers of at least 30% and the endangered Rose Mallee declined by more than half
A global assessment of all 826 known species of eucalypt trees – of which some 812 grow only in Australia – has found almost a quarter are threatened with extinction.
The figures are revealed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s update of its “red list” of threatened species.
Continue reading...Australia ranked worst of 57 countries on climate change policy
Thinktank report deems Morrison government ‘an increasingly regressive force’
Australia is the worst-performing country on climate change policy, according to a new international ranking of 57 countries. The report also criticises the Morrison government for being a “regressive force” internationally.
The 2020 Climate Change Performance Index, prepared by a group of thinktanks comprising the NewClimate Institute, the Climate Action Network and Germanwatch, looks at national climate action across the categories of emissions, renewable energy, energy use and policy.
Continue reading...Angus Taylor sidesteps Australia’s carryover credit plan at UN climate talks
Energy minister tells governments gathered in Madrid ‘technology is central’ to reducing emissions
Angus Taylor has touted investments in technology as central to fighting climate change in Australia’s official address to UN climate talks, but sidestepped the country’s controversial plans to use a carbon accounting loophole to slash its Paris climate target.
The emissions reduction and energy minister told the world’s governments gathered in Madrid that the Paris climate agreement “sent a powerful signal to the world that countries are serious about climate action.”
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