The Guardian
Yes, electric vehicles really are better than fossil fuel burners
Hans-Werner Sinn’s opinion piece on whether electric cars are as climate friendly as they seem generated a good deal of controversy. William Todts, executive director of Transport & Environment, gives his response
Hans-Werner Sinn is quite the character. This German economics professor’s writings range from the Greek crisis to migration, to German energy policy.
Recently he has discovered a new passion: electric vehicles. Back in April Sinn published a paper claiming electric cars were worse than diesel. The study was roundly criticised for being misleading. Even Germany’s largest carmaker VW felt compelled to publicly contradict the report days after its publication, giving a rare glimpse of its own lifecycle analysis based on company-specific data that shows Volkswagen EVs are better than their diesels.
Continue reading...Archaeologists fear Bolsonaro agenda will kill Amazon civilisation research
Brazil’s president has cut science funding while opening the region to loggers, miners and farmers – putting priceless evidence of ancient cultures at risk
When archaeologists Eduardo Kazuo and Márjorie Lima recently unearthed nine pre-Columbian funerary urns in Tauary – a tiny community in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest – their immediate reaction was “a mix of pleasure and desperation”.
The bulbous vessels – containing human remains and writhing with anthropomorphic painted serpents and monkeys – are the only ones of their kind to be excavated intact.
Continue reading...UN calls for push to cut greenhouse gas levels to avoid climate chaos
Global emissions must fall by 7.6% a year for next decade to avoid crisis, report says
Countries must make an unprecedented effort to cut their levels of greenhouse gases in the next decade to avoid climate chaos, the UN has warned, as it emerged that emissions hit a new high last year.
Carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, also accounting for deforestation, rose to more than 55 gigatonnes, and have risen on average by 1.5% a year for the past decade, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) annual emissions gap report.
Continue reading...Koala factcheck: have the Australian bushfires put survival of the species at stake?
Claims that koalas are ‘functionally extinct’ after the bushfires are overstated. But there are very real threats to their future
Hundreds of koalas have been killed and millions of hectares of their habitat destroyed in the bushfires that have swept across parts of Australia this month.
A recent headline in Forbes alleged the fires had rendered koalas “functionally extinct”, a claim that was repeated widely in Australia and overseas, including by the Daily Mail and news.com.au.
Continue reading...Australia's science academy attacks 'cherrypicking' of Great Barrier Reef research
Senate inquiry told that misrepresentation and selective use of science is dangerous
Australia’s peak scientific institution has told an inquiry into the reliability of Great Barrier Reef science that it is “greatly concerned” over a trend to cherrypick and misrepresent scientific evidence.
In a submission to a Senate inquiry, the Australian Academy of Science’s president, Prof John Shine, wrote that selective use of science and misrepresentations were “dangerous” and would lead to “poor outcomes”.
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: how robins became a symbol of Christmas
With its plumped-up red breast and sweet song, this tiny garden visitor is a British festive favourite
Of all Britain’s birds, none is more closely associated with winter and Christmas, than the robin. But how did this come about?
The species’ association with the festive season can partly be traced to the 19th century when the newly created postal service dressed its workers in red uniforms. The Victorians nicknamed the delivery staff “robins” and the birds eventually cornered the Christmas market, appearing on greeting cards and wrapping paper.
Continue reading...Plants could thrive in salty soils with seed coating technique, study shows
Silk, bacteria and sugar coating could solve growing global problem of saline soil
Coating seeds in silk, bacteria and sugar could help plants to grow in salty soils, researchers have revealed.
Saline soil is a growing problem around the world, particularly in regions with poor quality water for irrigation, and is a serious cause for concern as many important food crops do not grow well in such conditions.
Continue reading...Grouse moor burning and flood prevention | Letter
Ed Douglas is correct to observe that the impact that burning has on how quickly water runs off the moors is contested (Country diary, 22 November).
Anti-shooting activists claim, without merit, that grouse moors are responsible for flooding. Flooding expert Prof Jeremy Purseglove is on record saying there is “no direct evidence that grouse moor management causes flooding” and that “overgrazing and a lack of trees in the catchments are a much greater problem”.
Continue reading...Green groups fear Victorian logging ban may actually endanger some old growth forest
Environmentalists say a Victorian government plan to preserve old growth forest may instead open up currently protected areas
Environment groups have raised doubts about the Victorian government’s promise to protect 90,000 hectares of old growth forest, just weeks after the Andrews government announced a major transition plan for Victoria’s timber industry.
Six organisations, including The Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth and Environment Victoria, have expressed fears that the government will open up some areas currently mapped as old growth to logging.
Continue reading...Rescue effort resumes for 14,000 sheep on sinking ship as noises heard inside
Footage appears to show corpses floating around the capsized vessel, which is likely to have been bound for Libya
Attempts to save some of the 14,000 sheep trapped in a half-sunken boat in the Romanian port of Midia have been resumed, say activists at the scene, after sounds emerged from the ship indicating that some were still alive.
Campaigners are calling again for a ban on live exports from Europe to non-EU countries, after the Queen Hind capsized on Sunday, shortly after sailing out of port. It appears the ship was bound for Libya.
Continue reading...Keystone XL: police discussed stopping anti-pipeline activists 'by any means'
Revealed: records show law enforcement has called demonstrators possible ‘domestic terrorism’ threats
US law enforcement officials preparing for fresh Keystone XL pipeline protests have privately discussed tactics to stop activists “by any means” and have labeled demonstrators potential “domestic terrorism” threats, records reveal.
Internal government documents seen by the Guardian show that police and local authorities in Montana and the surrounding region have been preparing a coordinated response in the event of a new wave of protests opposing the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canada to Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Continue reading...Climate-heating greenhouse gases hit new high, UN reports
Head of World Meteorological Organization says ‘no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline’
The concentration of climate-heating greenhouse gases has hit a record high, according to a report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.
The jumps in the key gases measured in 2018 were all above the average for the last decade, showing action on the climate emergency to date is having no effect in the atmosphere. The WMO said the gap between targets and reality were both “glaring and growing”.
Continue reading...Sea nettles and medusa: a world atlas of jellyfish - in pictures
A comprehensive book catalogues the myriad types of jellyfish around the world
Continue reading...UK development bank accused of failure to safeguard Congolese workers
British-backed plantation firm vows to address claims that underpaid palm oil workers have been exposed to toxic chemicals
The UK development bank has been accused of failing to protect workers from exposure to dangerous pesticides and paying “extreme poverty” wages on palm oil plantations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Human Rights Watch said the CDC group, along with three other European development banks, had failed to properly oversee its investments in Feronia, one of Africa’s largest palm oil companies.
Continue reading...Living near busy road stunts children's lung growth, study says
Research reveals that living in proximity of traffic increases risk of lung cancer by 10%
Living near a busy road stunts lung growth in children and increases the risk of lung cancer, research has revealed.
The analysis by King’s College London is the first to examine a wide range of health conditions linked to living near areas of air pollution from traffic. It compared 13 different health conditions, including heart disease, stroke and bronchitis, across 13 cities in the UK and Poland.
Continue reading...Are electric vehicles really so climate friendly?
EVs produce more CO2 than say diesel – it’s just they emit via the power plant not the exhaust pipe
Germany’s automobile industry is its most important industrial sector. But it is in crisis, and not only because it is experiencing the effects of a recession brought on by Volkswagen’s cheating on emissions standards, which sent consumers elsewhere. The sector is also facing the existential threat of exceedingly strict European Union emissions requirements, which are only seemingly grounded in environmental policy.
The EU clearly overstepped the mark with the carbon dioxide regulation that went into effect on 17 April 2019. From 2030 onwards, European carmakers must have achieved average vehicle emissions of just 59 grams of CO2 per km, which corresponds to fuel consumption of 2.2 litres of diesel equivalent per 100 km (107 miles per gallon). This simply will not be possible.
Continue reading...Scottish Power plans major expansion of onshore windfarms
Renewable energy giant says it expects Tories to reverse their block on onshore generation
ScottishPower has begun plans for a major expansion of onshore windfarm projects across Scotland in anticipation of a government U-turn on support for wind power projects.
The renewable energy arm of the big six power supplier has already considered almost 100 sites for a new generation of windfarm, using a smaller number of more powerful wind turbines to generate clean electricity. Most of the sites are in Scotland, but the company is also considering plots in Ireland.
Continue reading...Solar farms can keep UK’s lights on even at night
Solar farms could soon play a vital role in the energy system 24 hours a day, after a breakthrough trial proved they can even help balance the grid at night. National Grid used a solar farm in East Sussex to help smooth overnight voltage fluctuations for the first time earlier this month, proving solar farms don’t need sunshine to help keep the lights on.
Lightsource BP, the owner of the solar farm, said an inexpensive tweak to the project’s electrical equipment meant it could help balance the grid with only two seconds’ notice. Kareen Boutonnat, the company’s chief operating officer, said: “We have proven that solar plants can play a larger role across the electricity network. But this is only the beginning.”
Continue reading...The five: areas of deforestation
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has increased by almost 30% in just 12 months. A report by Inpe, the country’s space research unit, found that the tropical rainforest lost 9,762 sq km (3,769 sq miles) of vegetation between August 2018 and July 2019. The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world and works as a “carbon store”, slowing the pace of global heating.
Continue reading...Sumatran rhinoceros now extinct in Malaysia, say zoologists
Last of the species in country, a female rhino named Iman, ‘died sooner than expected’
The Sumatran rhinoceros has become extinct in Malaysia, zoologists have announced.
The last of the species in the country succumbed to cancer in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, it was revealed.
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