The Guardian
Venice: historic square deluged by floodwater – video
Footage shows Venice's main square, Piazza San Marco, under inches of floodwater as the city weathers its worst flood since the 1960s.
Two people have died as waters reached up to 1.87 metres and caused millions of euros of damage
Continue reading...Nature photographer of the year 2019 - in pictures
From mystical woodlands to majestic whales, here are the winners and runners-up of this year’s competition. They were recently announced at the Nature Talks photo festival in the Netherlands
UK flooding: residents of South Yorkshire brace for more rain
Heavy rain warning for already wet areas as ex-Tory minister rejects flood defence criticism
Residents of South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are being warned to remain vigilant as more rain is expected in previously flooded areas.
The Met Office issued several alerts for ice, rain and snow across the country on Thursday, while the Environment Agency warned further flooding could occur.
Continue reading...Plastic substitute made of fish waste hauls in UK designer Dyson award
Lucy Hughes, 24, wins £30,000 international prize for compostable MarinaTex
A bioplastic made of organic fish waste that would otherwise end up in landfill – with the potential to replace plastic in food and drink packaging – has landed its UK designer a prestigious international award and £30,000 prize.
Lucy Hughes, 24, a graduate in product design from the University of Sussex, scooped the James Dyson award for her biodegradable and compostable material known as MarinaTex.
Continue reading...Bin chickens carve a warm spot in Australia's heart even as they raid and thieve | Sean Dooley
While the ibis may be trailing in bird of the year, it has made it into the top 10 most commonly seen birds in the Aussie backyard bird count
• Cast your vote in now – poll closes 5pm AEST
We recently took our children to Sydney for the first time. They loved it: the Manly ferry, the Opera House, hanging out on Bondi beach hoping to see some idiot tourist get pulled from the surf by the lifesavers from Bondi Rescue.
But perhaps their most lasting memory was provided by an ibis foraging around Circular Quay. When the first fleet unloaded its scurvy-sickened crew at the same site in 1788, there were very probably no ibis lurking. Their natural home was the wetlands of the Murray-Darling basin. They only started to become regulars in Sydney during the 1950s – perhaps not coincidentally around the time of the great surge in irrigation infrastructure that started sucking water out of the rivers and wetlands of their traditional territory.
Continue reading...Growing demand for SUVs 'could negate electric car benefits'
Global energy watchdog issues warning in climate forecast for the next two decades
The world’s thirst for oil will continue to grow over the next two decades, with climate-damaging emissions climbing until at least 2040, the global energy watchdog has warned, pointing the finger at the growing appetite for gas-guzzling cars.
Growing demand for SUVs in the US, China, Europe and elsewhere could negate all the environmental benefits of the increased use of electric cars, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says. Because of their size, SUVs are harder to electrify than smaller vehicles.
Continue reading...Coalition inaction on climate change and health is risking Australian lives, global report finds
Urgent national action is needed to prevent serious declines in public health from climate change, the multi-institutional Countdown study says
The federal government’s lack of engagement on health and climate change has left Australians at significant risk of illness through heat, fire and extreme weather events, and urgent national action is required to prevent harm and deaths, a global scientific collaboration has found.
On Thursday, international medical journal the Lancet published its Countdown report, a multi-institutional project led by University College in London that examines progress on climate change and health throughout the world.
Continue reading...Climate crisis will affect lifelong health of young, warn doctors
Lancet Countdown tracks impacts of global heating covering disease, wildfires and malnutrition
The climate crisis will determine the lifelong health of today’s children, doctors have warned, noting that global heating was already causing harm.
Children are especially vulnerable and the global team of researchers say rising temperatures mean the bacteria causing deadly diarrhoea will thrive while poorer crop yields could lead to more malnutrition.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson heckled over floods but does not apologise for 'slow response'
Government working ‘round the clock’ to help deluged regions, prime minister says
Boris Johnson declined to apologise over his government’s slow response to the flooding across parts of the north of England, insisting that a huge amount of work was going on to help and compensate victims.
The prime minister faced difficult questions over whether enough had been spent on flood defences in deluged regions of Yorkshire, the east Midlands and Lincolnshire, after giving a speech on how he would give billions of pounds to research and development.
Continue reading...Don valley flooding and a political lesson | Letters
Re recent flooding (Johnson accused of lack of concern amid fears of further rainfall, 13 November), in March 1947, as a bitter, snowy winter gave way to spring, large areas of the Fens flooded. Attlee’s minister of agriculture, Tom Williams, rushed to the area and took personal charge.
He dispatched a thousand troops, sent in hundreds of naval and other pumps, had light-gauge railway tracks laid and brought in amphibious troop carriers to fill in the breaches in river banks. The operation succeeded and Fen cabbages and potatoes saved Britons from hunger that autumn.
Continue reading...Why I'm voting No 1 superb fairy-wren and you should too | Holly Parsons
The lying, the scheming and the intrigue puts storylines on The Bold and the Beautiful to shame
If this was a poll on which Australian bird is featured most frequently on homewares, superb fairy-wrens would win by a mile. Teacups, plates, tea towels and cushions across the country are adorned with their image. The combination of their tiny size (they weigh about the same as a 20c piece), pointing up tail and the way they cuddle together makes them pretty darn adorable. I’m going to argue though that there are many more reasons that you should vote for them in 2019 than simply “they look cute”.
It is not only the public that is drawn to this gorgeously sweet bird. Superb fairy-wrens are actually one of our most well-studied Australian birds (heck I did my PhD on them). The more we learn about them the more we realise that that image of a sweet happy family unit is far from reality.
Continue reading...Air pollution nanoparticles linked to brain cancer for first time
Exclusive: tiny particles produced by motor traffic can invade the brain and carry carcinogens
New research has linked air pollution nanoparticles to brain cancer for the first time.
The ultra-fine particles (UFPs) are produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles, and higher exposures significantly increase people’s chances of getting the deadly cancer. Previous work has shown that nanoparticles can get into the brain and that they can carry carcinogenic chemicals.
Continue reading...UK flooding: army to help recovery effort as more rain forecast
Worst-hit areas of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire likely to bear brunt of further downpours
One hundred army personnel will be deployed to flood-hit communities in South Yorkshire over the next 48 hours as residents prepare for a fresh deluge of rain.
Weather warnings are in place for much of England and part of Wales on Thursday amid fears that those worst affected will be hit for a second time, hampering the recovery effort.
Continue reading...‘Insect apocalypse’ poses risk to all life on Earth, conservationists warn
Report claims 400,000 insect species face extinction amid heavy use of pesticides
The “unnoticed insect apocalypse” should set alarm bells ringing, according to conservationists, who said that without a halt there will be profound consequences for humans and all life on Earth.
A new report suggested half of all insects may have been lost since 1970 as a result of the destruction of nature and heavy use of pesticides. The report said 40% of the 1million known species of insect are facing extinction.
Continue reading...Waves in St Mark's Square as Venice flooded by highest tide in 50 years
High waters peaked at 1.87 metres as the flood alarm sounded across the Italian city of canals
Venice was hit by the highest tide in more than 50 years on, with tourists wading through flooded streets to seek shelter as a fierce wind whipped up waves in St. Mark’s Square.
The exceptionally intense “acqua alta,” or high waters, peaked at 1.87 metres (six feet) as the flood alarm sounded across the Italian city of canals, the tide monitoring centre said.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg to hitch a ride to Europe with Australian YouTube influencers
Swedish climate activist will join Riley Whitlum, Elayna Carausu and their baby, who have been sailing the world for five years
Greta Thunberg will hitch a ride with two Australian sailing YouTubers on her low-emissions voyage from America to the UN climate change conference in Madrid.
The 16-year-old Swedish climate activist had initially been stranded in the United States after the location of the conference was abruptly changed from Chile to Spain at the last minute.
Continue reading...Climate change made extreme heat before 2018 Queensland bushfires 'four times more likely'
Study finds greenhouse gases helped drive the scorching conditions in November 2018 that sparked destructive bushfires
Extreme temperatures that helped drive historic 2018 bushfires in north Queensland were four times more likely to have happened because of human-caused climate change, according to a study to be published next month.
Scorching conditions in November 2018 sparked Queensland’s biggest ever firefighting response as 1,250 fires torched 1.4 million hectares, destroying nine homes and causing widespread impacts across multiple farming industries.
Continue reading...Climate change: do more now or risk catastrophe, warns energy agency
IEA says deep disparity between words and action on climate change risks failing to cap global temperatures
The world’s existing climate policies will not be enough to end the upward march of record energy emissions rising beyond 2040 without a “grand coalition” of governments and investors, according to the global energy watchdog.
The International Energy Agency said carbon emissions from the global energy industry reached a new record in 2018 despite progress in renewable energy in recent years.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg leaves US with simple climate crisis message: vote
Thunberg: ‘My message to the Americans is the same as to everyone – to unite behind the science and to act on the science’
As Greta Thunberg departs the US to sail across the Atlantic for the second time in a few months, she is leaving behind a simple message for those who care about the climate crisis: you must vote.
Related: Giant Greta Thunberg mural to watch over San Francisco's downtown
Continue reading...People doing their bit for fish and moths | Letters
The efforts of campaigners to highlight important issues can often be overlooked by a historical approach that focuses on individuals, often academics or politicians. An example is in the obituary of the biologist Victoria Braithwaite (Obituary, 9 November), which asserts that “until the early 2000s everyone knew that fish do not feel pain”. But almost 20 years earlier, we had produced and started to widely distribute a leaflet called Fish Feel Pain. And of course hundreds of thousands of people were already refusing to eat fish on those very grounds.
In that same era, our group and others were campaigning on a range of other matters – such as traffic pollution, junk food, the arms trade, non-renewable energy, single-use plastics, environmental destruction – which may have seemed marginal at the time but are now acknowledged as mainstream concerns.
Continue reading...