The Guardian
Farmers urge better preparation for 'the next drought’ as Labor suggests war cabinet
National Farmers’ Federation calls for a ‘new approach’ for future dry spells
Farmers are calling on the government to develop a new drought policy that ends an “ad hoc” and reactive approach to drought, saying government efforts to date have been a national failure.
The National Farmers’ Federation signed off on a drought policy framework on Wednesday, calling for a “new approach” for future dry spells, while saying the plan would not address the current situation facing farmers.
Continue reading...Flights of fancy: 10 ways to imagine our way out of the climate crisis
From the ‘food belt’ co-ops of Liège to Tooting’s pop-up village green and London as a giant park: environmentalist Rob Hopkins’ book looks at imaginative local initiatives for a better, sustainable life
It’s not easy to be a happy environmentalist, but Rob Hopkins might have found a way. In 2005, together with a group of friends in Totnes, Devon, he co-founded what became known as the Transition movement. It seeks to make the world a sustainable place to live, not through protest or resistance, but simply by looking at where you live and making it sustainable. “It’s not that difficult, actually,” he says.
In Totnes, they connected neighbours to share unused gardens. They planted fruit and nut trees in public spaces and bought their own mill. They are now building 27 sustainable homes. And Totnes is just one of the 992 initiatives all over the world that now make up the movement.
Continue reading...'It's a crisis, not a change': the six Guardian language changes on climate matters
A short glossary of the changes we’ve made to the Guardian’s style guide, for use by our journalists and editors when writing about the environment
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In addition to providing updated guidelines on which images our editors should use to illustrate the climate emergency, we have updated our style guide to introduce terms that more accurately describe the environmental crises facing the world. Our editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, said: “We want to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue”. These are the guidelines provided to our journalists and editors to be used in the production of all environment coverage across the Guardian’s website and paper:
Related: The urgency of climate crisis needed robust new language to describe it | Paul Chadwick
Continue reading...Australia wasted decades in climate denial – and must break free of the mire of misinformation | Lenore Taylor
Guardian Australia editor says we can be a superpower of the post-carbon world economy if we set aside the self-defeating culture war
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Australia’s climate “debate” has been bogged in a culture war for decades. What should be a straightforward discussion of scientific fact and possible responses has instead become a mire of misinformation and denial that has paralysed policy, clogged investment, increased power prices and delayed change.
National greenhouse gas emissions have risen every year since soon after the abolition of the carbon price in 2014, yet the prime minister stands on the international stage and insists Australia is “doing our bit on climate change and we reject any suggestion to the contrary”.
Continue reading...Why the climate crisis is the most crucial story we cover in America | John Mulholland
The Guardian US editor explains how one of the big surprises in moving to America has been the media’s approach to the climate crisis. Here’s how the Guardian hopes to ignite the conversation here – with support from you
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In the 18 months I’ve lived in America, as editor of the Guardian’s US edition, this country has been hit by a string of natural disasters.
Related: How do we rein in the fossil fuel industry? Here are eight ideas
Continue reading...Today we pledge to give the climate crisis the attention it demands | Katharine Viner
The Guardian’s editor-in-chief explains why support from our readers is crucial in enabling us to produce fearless, independent reporting that addresses the climate emergency
At the Guardian we believe the climate crisis is the most urgent issue of our times. And we know that Guardian readers are equally passionate about the need for governments, businesses and individuals to take immediate action to avoid a catastrophe for humanity and for the natural world.
Today the Guardian is making a pledge to our readers that we will play our part, both in our journalism and in our own organisation, to address the climate emergency. We hope this underlines to you the Guardian’s deep commitment to quality environmental journalism, rooted in scientific fact.
Continue reading...The Guardian's climate pledge 2019
Today, we are making a public pledge to ourselves and our readers, that we are committed to taking responsibility for our role - both journalistically and institutionally - on how to impact the climate crisis we are facing.
Continue reading...Little progress made in tackling air pollution in Europe, research says
European Environment Agency found levels of fine particulate matter stalled after decades of reductions
Little progress has been made on tackling air quality in Europe, new research shows, despite public outcry in many countries and increasing awareness of the health impacts of pollution.
Levels of the dangerous fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, which can lodge deep in the lungs and pass into the bloodstream, appear to have reached a plateau across Europe, after more than a decade of gradual reductions. The results come from the European Environment Agency’s Air Quality in Europe 2019 report, published on Wednesday, which collates data taken from thousands of monitoring stations in 2017.
Continue reading...Wildlife photographer of the year 2019 winners – in pictures
Hailing from the Chinese province of Qinghai, Yongqing Bao has won the prestigious wildlife photographer of the year 2019 title for his image The Moment, which frames the standoff between a Tibetan fox and a marmot. A powerful frame of both humour and horror, it captures the drama and intensity of nature.
The images will go on display at the Natural History Museum in London from 18 October, before touring internationally
Continue reading...Black smoke scandal in Manchester: work of the abatement society - archive, 16 Ocotber 1913
16 October 1913: A switch to cooking by gas instead of coal prevents tons of soot each day being discharged into the atmosphere
There are now in use in Manchester over 100,000 gas stoves. Fixed in the kitchens and sculleries of suburban Manchester, they are preventing the discharge of something like ten tons of soot a day into our atmosphere. The price of gas has recently been reduced from 2s. 3d. to 2, if the bill be paid in good time. In Sheffield it is 1s. 6d., and it might be nearer 1s. 6d. than 2 in Manchester but that the Gas Committee have to contribute £50,000 a year in relief of rates.
The Smoke Abatement League and their friends regard this as a tax on those Manchester citizens who are public-spirited enough – or sensible enough – to cook by gas instead of coal. In the annual report of the Manchester branch of the League, figures are given for two manufacturing firms, one of which has a bad chimney and the other a good one. The firm with a bad chimney uses 60 tons of coal a week at 13s. a ton to produce a given result. The firm with a good one gets the same result, with 30 tons of coal at 11s. The engines are the same in both cases, and the firm with the bad chimney pays £39 a week for coal, the firm with a good one, £16. 10.
Continue reading...Humpback whales recorded using huge fins to forage
Researchers notice whales’ unusual feeding behaviour in south-east Alaska
Humpback whales have been captured on film herding shoals of fish into their cavernous mouths with their oversized pectoral fins.
Marine biologists recorded the extraordinary feeding behaviour for the first time off the coast of Alaska, where the whales lurk around salmon hatcheries that release juvenile fish into the sea.
Continue reading...Plantwatch: plan for spaceport raises fears for Scottish peat bog
Satellite launch site would be next to blanket bog that plays vital role in climate fight by storing carbon
A new rocket launch site has been proposed in the far north of Scotland to send small satellites into space. The plan is for a £17.3m spaceport on the A’Mhòine peninsula in Sutherland, a site chosen because it is so remote and surrounded by water and open countryside in case a rocket launch goes wrong.
But the proposed site is next to protected peatland, part of the Flow Country of northern Scotland, the largest blanket bog in Europe, estimated to store 400 million tonnes of carbon, which is vital in the fight against climate breakdown. A report this year by a team of researchers was critical of the development, saying: “The damage caused by the construction and operation of the spaceport will lead to the further destruction of this Highland ‘wild land’.”
Continue reading...Drought funding used for music festivals, cemetery upgrades and a virtual gym
While many shires use grants for water infrastructure projects, Labor questions if money should go directly to farmers
Music festivals, cemetery upgrades, public toilets and a virtual gym are among the hundreds of projects to receive federal grants under the government’s signature Drought Communities Program.
As the government fends off criticism of its national drought response, a Guardian Australia analysis of $100m in grants awarded under the program in 2019 shows that while many shires have used the grant program for water infrastructure projects, much of the funding has been spent on events, the purchase of equipment and maintenance work.
Continue reading...'Barbaric' tests on monkeys lead to calls for closure of German lab
Shocking footage shows conditions ‘clearly breach’ EU standards on animal welfare, say campaigners
An animal testing laboratory in Germany that subjected monkeys to “barbaric” treatment and kept unwell dogs in squalid conditions is under investigation amid calls for its closure.
Undercover footage at the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology (LPT) near Hamburg published by Cruelty Free International and Soko Tierschutz shows technicians with metal prongs grabbing macaque monkeys by the neck. The monkeys are restrained by braces during testing. The footage also shows primates being handled “violently” by technicians: in one incident a monkey has its head smacked against a door frame.
Continue reading...How older people became the heroes of Extinction Rebellion
Protest hits its mark when campaigners look as ordinary as possible, such as the platoons of grandparents swelling the ranks of Extinction Rebellion. Cameras seek out the picturesque – the luminously dreadlocked, tie-dyed stereotype. Although few and far between, they let the rightwing press dismiss the whole huge global uprising as “not people like us”.
But anyone who was on Saturday’s London march or joined this week’s protests has seen how the great majority are unphotogenic “normals” of all ages, with battalions of those well past retirement. Nor are there many of the usual bothersome far-left groupuscules trying to hijack a mighty, mainstream event.
Continue reading...Don't blame meat for the climate crisis, say European livestock farmers
An EU without farmed animals would see a loss of biodiversity and spark a rural exodus, new campaign group claims
Meat and farmed animals are wrongly blamed for the climate crisis without considering their benefits for society, argues a new campaign launched by the livestock industry in Europe.
Billboards appeared this week in Brussels metro stations together with a social media campaign #meatthefacts. The adverts are being funded by European Livestock Voice, which is backed by organisations representing EU farmers, foie gras producers and the fur and leather industry.
Continue reading...Concerns as EU bank balks at plan to halt fossil fuel investments
Last-minute lobbying forces delay to ambitious move by European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has balked at a proposal to halt new investments in fossil fuels, raising concerns that Germany and other nations are plotting to water down what would be one of the financial sector’s most ambitious climate moves.
The EIB, the largest public bank in the world, announced this year that it would end lending to new gas projects, having already curtailed funding for coal and oil. This would free up more money for renewable energy developments. The details of the plan were expected to be confirmed by a board meeting of EU finance ministers on Tuesday but last-minute lobbying has forced a postponement.
Continue reading...Police clear Extinction Rebellion protesters from Trafalgar Square overnight – video
The Metropolitan police cleared Extinction Rebellion protesters from Trafalgar Square after banning them from demonstrating anywhere in London by issuing a revised section 14 order on Monday. It said 'any assembly linked to the Extinction Rebellion "autumn uprising" … must now cease their protests within London' by 9pm.
On Twitter, XR’s London branch said the clearing of protesters from the square was 'an outrage'. Protests continued in the capital on Tuesday despite the risk of arrest
- Police ban Extinction Rebellion protests from whole of London
- Extinction Rebellion activists defy London-wide protest ban
Extinction Rebellion activists defy London-wide protest ban
Actions continue after Met police order end to protests across the capital
Extinction Rebellion climate protesters have promised to continue their mass civil disobedience campaign in London despite a city-wide ban on their demonstrations announced late on Monday night.
Hundreds of police officers moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s camp in Trafalgar Square on Monday night.
Continue reading...No Straight Lines in Nature - in pictures
Over the past 10 years, David Bebber has photographed for World Land Trust, capturing their crucial conservation projects across the globe that protect threatened natural habitats through land purchase. This exhibition brings together a collection of work from both personal projects and his time photographing WLT sites, which couple together on the theme of environmental celebration.
- No Straight Lines in Nature at theprintspace Gallery 17 October - 4 November