The Guardian
Protecting the planet for future generations | Letters
The protests led by Extinction Rebellion remind us that there are more pressing problems than Britain’s withdrawal from the EU (Of course these protests are inconvenient. They are designed to disrupt us, Editorial, 11 October).
Exploitative capitalism has sacrificed our wellbeing – and much of the planet’s resources – on the altar of unlimited growth, binding the hands of those yet to be born.
Continue reading...Cuadrilla says it is not planning to abandon fracking in Lancashire
Green campaigners cheered removal of drilling equipment at weekend but firm to press on
Cuadrilla is not abandoning its fracking ambitions in Lancashire and still plans to apply for an extension to its shale gas campaign, the company has said.
The company hopes to apply to Lancashire county council to extend drilling at the Preston New Road site beyond a 30 November cut-off point. Work had been suspended in August after the location recorded its largest ever tremor and Cuadrilla hopes to lodge its appeal once a review of the quake is completed.
Continue reading...How do we rein in the fossil fuel industry? Here are eight ideas
Individual action alone won’t solve the climate crisis. So what political changes might help?
Individual actions, such as flying less or buying electric cars, are helpful, but they will be futile without collective political action to slash emissions on a corporate, national and global scale. Politicians need to feel this is a priority for the electorate. That means keeping the subject high on the agenda for MPs with questions, protests, emails, social media posts, lobbying by NGOs and most of all through voting choices. Politicians need to know the public is behind them if they are to take on the petrochemical industry.
Continue reading...Rise of renewables may see off oil firms decades earlier than they think
Pace of progress raises hope that fossil fuel companies could lose their domination
The world’s rising reliance on fossil fuels may come to an end decades earlier than the most polluting companies predict, offering early signs of hope in the global battle to tackle the climate crisis.
The climate green shoots have emerged amid a renewable energy revolution that promises an end to the rising demand for oil and coal in the 2020s, before the fossil fuels face a terminal decline.
Continue reading...Rabbi, 77, arrested at Extinction Rebellion's Bank of England protest – video report
About 100 climate activists from Extinction Rebellion protested on Monday in the City of London, sitting in the road outside the Bank of England from 7am. Police arrested a number of people, including Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, of the Finchley Reform Synagogue. 'We are in a period of enormous catastrophic breakdown and, if it takes an arrest to try to find ways of helping to galvanise public opinion, then it is certainly worth being arrested,' he said before being taken away.
Eden Project to begin drilling for clean geothermal energy
Cornwall council and EU will fund scheme to tap into ‘hot rocks’ beneath attraction
A plan to heat the giant biomes of the Eden Project and, eventually, neighbouring communities by tapping into the “hot rocks” beneath the Cornish attraction has moved a step closer.
The Eden Project announced on Monday that it had secured the funding to begin drilling for clean energy next summer.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion activists stage protest at Bank of England
‘Day of disruption’ in City of London targets financial firms profiting from climate crisis
Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked a major junction in London’s financial district, as the movement switched its focus towards companies funding and profiting from the climate emergency.
About 100 demonstrators walked into the roundabout outside the Bank of England in the City and sat down in the road at 7am on Monday.
Continue reading...'The smell will knock you off your feet': mass mussel die-offs baffle scientists
As the backbone of the river ecosystem because they control silt levels and filter water, mussels are facing a mysterious affliction
Each fall since 2016, wildlife biologist Jordan Richard has returned to the same portion of the Clinch River in Tennessee, braced for the worst – tens of thousands of newly dead mussel shells gleaming from the surface of the water.
The mass die-off isn’t recognizable at first. But once Richard sees the first freshwater mussel, which look quite different to their marine cousins of moules frite fame, he scans the river and finds another every five to 10 seconds.
Continue reading...Indigenous Mapuche pay high price for Argentina's fracking dream
Community tell of devastating environmental impact on land where their animals grazed
The roar of the burning gas well could be heard almost a mile and a half away, from atop the high plateau where Albino Campo Maripe stood, looking down at the orange flames lapping the earth in the distance.
When he was a child, the 60-year-old Mapuche chief used to ride there bareback. Those days are gone for ever. The once-pristine landscape is now dotted with fracking wells and the white patches of land cleared for even more.
Continue reading...How fracking is taking its toll on Argentina's indigenous people – video explainer
An oil fire burned for more than three weeks next to a freshwater lake in Vaca Muerta, Argentina, one of the world’s largest deposits of shale oil and gas and home to the indigenous Mapuche people. In collaboration with Forensic Architecture, this video looks at the local Mapuche community’s claim that the oil and gas industry has irreversibly damaged their ancestral homeland, and with it their traditional ways of life
Continue reading...Boa constrictor may be 'at large' in western Sydney after huge snake skin found
Residents warned following discovery of ‘freshly shed’ skin at the Cascades Estate in Silverdale
Residents in a western Sydney suburb have been warned an adult boa constrictor may be “at large” after a huge, “freshly shed” snake skin was discovered on a property.
The dangerous serpent – they have an average length of 3m – may be roaming the Cascades Estate residential complex in Silverdale.
Continue reading...Air miles should be axed to deter frequent fliers, advises report
UK climate body says policy would target heavy users but not penalise occasional flyers
Air miles schemes should be axed as they encourage jetsetters to take extra flights in a bid to maintain “privileged traveller status”, according to a report commissioned by the government’s climate change advisers.
An “escalating Air Miles Levy” should also be introduced to rein in the number of trips taken by frequent flyers, without penalising those taking an annual holiday, with the income raised to be invested into low-carbon aviation technology.
Continue reading...High court to hear challenge to total ban on ivory trading
While antique traders argue otherwise, campaigners say removing ban would hamper global efforts to fight poaching
The high court will hear an attempt to block a total ban on ivory trading this week, ahead of the imminent Brexit deadline and amid fears from conservationists that any change could revitalise elephant poaching.
Antique traders, who argue that sales of “cultural heritage” objects have no impact on the market for illegally-plundered tusks, are challenging the government over the 2018 Ivory Act which attracted cross-party support.
Continue reading...Divestment works – and one huge bank can lead the way | Bill McKibben
On 15 October, the European Investment Bank meets to decide its policy on fossil fuels. The hand of history is on its shoulder
Millions of people marched against climate crisis over the past two weeks, in some of the largest demonstrations of the millennium. Most people cheered the students who led the rallies – call them the Greta Generation. But now we’ll start to find out if all their earnest protest actually matters.
Related: EIB plans to cut all funding for fossil fuel projects by 2020
Continue reading...War on plastic waste faces setback as cost of recycled material soars
Europe’s manufacturers face $250m-a-year hit as rising demand drives up price
The battle to reduce Europe’s plastic waste could become a quarter of a billion dollars more expensive every year as the cost of recycled plastic soars.
In recent months, the price of recycled plastic flakes, used to make goods from soft drink bottles to glitter, has become more expensive than virgin plastic for the first time.
Continue reading...Don’t frack with us: meet the victorious activist ‘Nanas’ of Lancashire
After almost 1,000 days camping out in a field near Blackpool and obstructing fracking operations, the ‘Nanas’ have seen off energy company Cuadrilla. James Cartwright meets the fearless female activists behind the yellow pinnies
While the world applauds the child protesters taking to the streets, fewer eyes are on their mums and grandmothers, whose activism is altogether quieter. In August 2014, gangs of older women in yellow tabards and headscarves started to become a common sight on Preston New Road in Lancashire. They call themselves the “Nanas”, though not all are grandmas. They took the name as a nod to trust, family and tea, leaning into stereotypes of northern matriarchy. Their first project was to capture a field under planning application by Cuadrilla, a UK fossil fuels company seeking exploratory drilling rights for shale gas. They hopped over the fence, set up tents and claimed squatters’ rights, staying for three weeks. By the time they left, the Nanas had earned the support of 14,000 local residents and appointments at Manchester’s High Court, and their action, along with that of other campaigners, led to Lancashire County Council rejecting Cuadrilla’s fracking application, a decision later overturned by the then secretary of state, Sajid Javid.
In the years since, the Nanas have mounted an often good-humoured war of attrition against Cuadrilla, whose drilling has caused tremors in the area. At the Bell Mouth, the entrance to the Preston New Road site, they sing, dance, knit, pray, read poems and monologues, and obstruct fracking activity wherever possible. They even have their own stage show and samba band. And every Wednesday, dressed in white, they stage a call for calm at a site where tensions between protesters and police often erupt into violence.
Continue reading...Top investment banks provide billions to expand fossil fuel industry
Exclusive: analysis reveals lenders provided $700bn to expand sector since Paris climate pact
The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show.
The financing has been led by the Wall Street giant JPMorgan Chase, which has provided $75bn (£61bn) to companies expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration, according to the analysis.
Continue reading...Firms ignoring climate crisis will go bankrupt, says Mark Carney
Bank of England governor warns of financial collapse linked to climate emergency
Companies and industries that are not moving towards zero-carbon emissions will be punished by investors and go bankrupt, the governor of the Bank of England has warned.
Mark Carney also told the Guardian it was possible that the global transition needed to tackle the climate crisis could result in an abrupt financial collapse. He said the longer action to reverse emissions was delayed, the more the risk of collapse would grow.
Continue reading...Images offer glimpse into life of endangered Florida panther
Carlton Ward’s photographs chart survival struggle of one of America’s last remaining big cats
The discovery of a female Florida panther lying with a broken leg on a verge outside the town of Naples, south of Tampa, triggered a widespread rescue dash.
Conservationists, who had previously fitted a tracking collar to the animal, were aware she had recently given birth. The kittens would not survive long on their own, they realised, and so an urgent search for them was launched.
Continue reading...Eyes on the skies: young birdwatchers take flight
More and more young people are feeling the thrill of fresh air, flashing wings and the sound of birdsong
Look up! Is that a kestrel? A swallow? Take note. These sightings are getting rarer. A recent RSPB report blamed the climate crisis for dwindling bird numbers in the UK. But as the number of birds decreases, the number of young bird enthusiasts in the UK is on the rise. Birdwatchers have long endured an unfair reputation for being anorak-sporting “twitchers”, lumped into the same category as their equally derided cousins, the trainspotters. But times have changed. Now, as a young person, it is becoming acceptable – cool, even – to show the world the mental and physical benefits of getting outside and observing wildlife.
Today, young “birders” are using social-media platforms to form positive communities and share their sightings and experiences. Amusingly, most of it happens on Twitter, where birders pledge allegiance to certain species in their bios and discuss rare species with some of the world’s foremost experts. They use apps and spreadsheets, often photographing their finds and uploading pictures to their social channels instantly. Instagram accounts have been created. WhatsApp groups have formed.
Continue reading...