The Guardian
Energy firms plan UK's first carbon-neutral 'industrial cluster'
Humber drive aims to shrink carbon footprint of UK’s most polluting industrial zone
Energy companies have ignited multibillion-pound plans for the UK’s first carbon-neutral “industrial cluster” in the Humber.
An alliance of companies including National Grid, Drax and Norway’s state energy company, Equinor, are leading a campaign to shrink the carbon footprint of Britain’s most polluting industrial zone.
Continue reading...Australia cleared 7.7m hectares of threatened species habitat since introduction of environment act
More than 90% of the land cleared was not referred to the federal government for assessment
More than 7.7m hectares of habitat have been cleared since the introduction of Australia’s national environment act, according to new research that finds 93% of land cleared was not referred to the federal government for assessment.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Queensland and two NGOs – the Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF Australia – warns that Australia’s high extinction rate will increase “without a fundamental change” in how environment laws are enforced.
Continue reading...'It can kill you in seconds': the deadly algae on Brittany's beaches
Activists say stinking sludge is linked to nitrates in fertilisers from intensive farming
André Ollivro stepped carefully down the grassy banks of an estuary in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, not far from his beachfront cabin. The pungent smell of rotting eggs wafting from decomposing seaweed made him stop and put on his gas mask. It was a strange sight in what is usually a tourist hotspot.
“You can’t be too careful,” said the 74-year-old former gas technician, who is leading the fight against what has come to be known as France’s coastal “killer slime”.
Continue reading...Marine heatwave hits Pacific, raising fears of a new hot 'blob'
Phenomenon could be as damaging as ‘the blob’ that caused algae blooms and killed sea lions several years ago
The ocean off the western coast of North America is five degrees Fahrenheit hotter than usual after warming at an unusually rapid rate, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
It has been dubbed the “north-east Pacific marine heatwave of 2019”.
Continue reading...Brexit is stalling Britain from taking vital action on climate crisis, says expert
Baroness Brown warns country’s world-class resources must be better used to cope with global heating
Britain has one of the world’s best capabilities for dealing with the climate crisis but is failing to make use of it. That is the stark view of leading expert Baroness Brown, a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change. “We have the ingredients to do good things in response to climate change but are not making use of them,” she warned last week.
Brown, who chairs the CCC’s adaptation sub-committee, said little progress had been made in planning to protect farmland and wildlife from intense storms and changing weather systems, or tackle health threats from rising heat – with grim short-term political consequences.
Continue reading...Thousands more badgers face cull as number of killing zones surges
Up to 50,000 badgers could be killed this year under the government’s controversial culling scheme – nearly double the number of last year and three-quarters of the total killed since the cull began six years ago, campaigners claim.
The increase is caused by a predicted expansion in licensed culling zones – areas where farmers can exterminate badgers, which are blamed for spreading TB in cattle.
Continue reading...Nuclear power station could destroy wildlife haven I’ve loved since childhood
Naturalist Stephen Moss was 13 when he first saw the RSPB reserve in Minsmere, Suffolk. Now he fears plans for Sizewell C could wipe it out
Minsmere and I go back a long way. I can still remember the thrill of my first visit, in 1973, when I was just 13 years old. Later, I made my very first wildlife programme there, with Bill Oddie. And most recently, I presented live programmes from the reserve on the BBC’s red button for Springwatch.
So naturally I am worried that this unique place could be ruined by the proposed building of Sizewell C nuclear power station, a few hundred metres down the coast. And I’m not the only one. My colleague Chris Packham, who like me first went there as a teenager, has called on EDF Energy to ensure that it safeguards Minsmere and its wildlife, now and in the future.
Continue reading...Brexit deadline piles pressure on UK farmers to export surplus
No deal would drastically curtail access to EU while entry to Africa would come at price
Farmers across the UK are scrambling to finish their harvests and ship their surpluses abroad before the Brexit deadline of 31 October, when a no-deal departure would force them to abandon European markets in favour of Africa.
There has been a relatively good harvest of wheat and barley this year after the rollercoaster weather of 2018, when a freezing spring followed by a record-breaking heatwave wrought havoc. “Exports have continued at a strong pace since the first weeks of August,” said David Eudall, the head of arable market specialists at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
Continue reading...'Ding dong, it's time': dancing tarantulas emerge in droves to mate in western US
Males have begun their walkabout seeking a mate (and hoping not to get eaten) – and this year has seen a big turnout
Gaggles of tarantulas are emerging from their burrows across the western US on a quest to mate, hunting for love in prairies, foothills and a garage belonging to Kim Kardashian West.
From August to October, the eight-legged crawlers go on a walkabout for a once-in-a-lifetime foray to find a partner. The phenomenon is now occurring on a unusually large scale from northern California to Colorado and Texas, shining a light on the arachnids’ remarkable mating behavior, which can involve dancing and cannibalism.
Continue reading...Old technology can solve a modern crisis | Letters
Your report on electric bin lorries powered by energy from household waste (5 September) that are being trialled by Sheffield and Westminster councils suggests that this may be a world first for local authorities.
This may well be the case in the 21st century, but Sheffield also claimed to be the first to do this back in 1915. Electric refuse collection vehicles were not uncommon in the early decades of the 20th century, and one manufacturer claimed to have 50 local authority customers for its vehicles.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A sleepy Bolivian peccary, fading British heather and a migrating heron in Turkey
Continue reading...Phosphate fertiliser 'crisis' threatens world food supply
Use of essential rock phosphate has soared, but scientists fear it could run out within a few decades
The world faces an “imminent crisis” in the supply of phosphate, a critical fertiliser that underpins the world’s food supply, scientists have warned.
Phosphate is an essential mineral for all life on Earth and is added to farmers’ fields in huge quantities. But rock phosphate is a finite resource and the biggest supplies are mined in politically unstable places, posing risks to the many countries that have little or no reserves.
Continue reading...Rare two-headed snake nicknamed 'Double Dave' is found in US
Baby timber rattlesnake in New Jersey has two fully formed, independently working heads
Scientists have named a rare two-headed snake Double Dave after it was found in a forest in the US state of New Jersey.
The baby timber rattlesnake was discovered last month by environmentalists from the Herpetological Associates group, who study endangered and threatened reptiles.
Continue reading...The Austrian football stadium with a forest on the pitch – in pictures
‘For Forest – The Unending Attraction of Nature’ by Klaus Littmann has transformed the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt into Austria’s largest public art installation
Continue reading...Seven tonnes of marine plastic pollution collected on remote Arnhem Land beach
Water bottles, cigarette lighters and fishing nets were among garbage found on Djulpan beach, Sea Shepherd says
Further evidence that plastic does not discriminate as it spreads across the planet: the marine conservation organisation Sea Shepherd said it is washing up in large quantities on a remote Australian beach.
Sea Shepherd joined Indigenous rangers in picking up more than seven tonnes of marine plastic pollution on a two-kilometre stretch of Djulpan beach, in northeastern Arnhem Land.
Continue reading...BHP board plays down investor demands to leave groups including Minerals Council
BHP says shareholder resolution to leave industry groups at odds with climate stance is unnecessary, as review is under way
BHP’s board has rejected as unnecessary a shareholder resolution requiring it to suspend its membership of organisations, including the Minerals Council of Australia, that are at odds with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
The miner said the resolution, backed by investors including tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and a group of pension funds, was not needed because, as the Guardian has previously reported, it is already reviewing its membership of industry bodies.
Continue reading...Oil and gas companies undermining climate goals, says report
Biggest fossil fuel extractors warned they risk wasting $2.2tn ‘in a low-carbon world’
Major oil and gas companies have invested $50bn (£40.6bn) in fossil fuel projects that undermine global efforts to avert a runaway climate crisis, according to a report.
Since the start of last year, fossil fuel companies have spent billions on high-cost plans to extract oil and gas from tar sands, deepwater fields and the Arctic despite the risks to the climate and shareholder returns.
Continue reading...Amazon fires are 'true apocalypse', says Brazilian archbishop
Erwin Kräutler says he expects next month’s papal synod to denounce destruction of rainforest
The fires in the Amazon are a “true apocalypse”, according to a Brazilian archbishop who expects next month’s papal synod at the Vatican to strongly denounce the destruction of the rainforest.
The comments by Erwin Kräutler will put fresh pressure on Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, following criticism from G7 leaders last month over the surge of deforestation in the world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink.
Continue reading...After bronze and iron, welcome to the plastic age, say scientists
Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research shows
Plastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.
Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age.
Continue reading...Memories of a dark and polluted Thames | Brief letters
King’s Cross Central | HS2 | River Thames | Van slogans
I was pleased that the developer of the King’s Cross area will stop using facial recognition equipment (Report, 3 September). Of course, if Camden council had paid heed to the local objectors in 2004 and 2005, it would have adopted all the roads and public footpaths on the site and could have prevented the installation of this surveillance. By the way, the development is called King’s Cross Central, not King’s Cross, which is an area of London in two boroughs with a large and diverse population. It was a bit of a shock to read in your report that “King’s Cross is owned by a consortium…”
Diana Shelley
London
• Larry Elliott is right to call for the first phase of HS2 to start with connecting northern cities with each other rather than with London (Business view, 4 September), but it is essential that such a programme should include the north-east.
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords