The Guardian

The principle of restorative justice (Glasgow University to pay £20m in slavery reparations, 24 August) also applies to the issue of climate change. I am of a generation that has profited hugely (knowingly or not) from the careless use of fossil fuels. Reports on the Amazon fires just serve to emphasise the urgent need to take action to eliminate carbon emissions and absorb carbon already in the atmosphere.

Reparations in this case are due to the younger and future generations and should start with us “silver rebels” sharply curtailing our emissions and joining with Extinction Rebellion in the collective (international) efforts to eliminate emissions in the next decade, through which many of us elderly hope to live. The “silver rebels” might have less to lose if arrested in the cause. The Guardian’s daily carbon counter will show us how we are all doing.
Daniel Scharf
Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Orkney Distillery aims to be the first producer powered by hydrogen and renewable energy

A craft distillery in Scotland could become the greenest gin and whisky producer in the world as part of the government’s plans to cut industrial climate emissions.

The Orkney Distillery has secured a slice of the government’s £390m fund to help develop low-carbon technologies that could reduce carbon emissions from industry. It hopes to use the funds to become the first gin distillery in the world to run on hydrogen made from renewable energy rather than liquid petroleum gas.

EPA will reverse standards to install controls to curb leaks of methane, a potent pollutant contributing to the climate crisis

The Trump administration is rolling back requirements that oil and gas drillers correct leaks of methane – a potent heat-trapping pollutant contributing to the climate crisis.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the proposal Thursday, against the wishes of some major oil companies.

‘Leaders know that more eyes are on them, much more pressure is on them,’ says Swedish activist in Guardian interview

Unprecedented pressure exerted by young activists will push world leaders to address the unfolding climate crisis, even with a recalcitrant US under Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg has told the Guardian.

Thunberg, the teenager whose school climate strikes have ignited a global youth-led movement, said that her journey to New York on a solar-powered yacht was symbolic of the lengths young people will take to confront the climate crisis.

After four years of leading volunteer beach cleans in the west of Wales, Alan Cookson is quitting because of the insurmountable plastic problem around Britain’s coastlines. We join him as he leads his last beach clean to find out why he believes we need to change our approach in the fight against plastic pollution

'Like mopping up a flood': throwing in the towel over beach plastic pollution

The 16-year-old climate activist arrived in New York on Wednesday in a zero-carbon emissions sailing boat, completing her 15-day voyage from Britain to take part in a UN climate summit. 'It was a bit rough sometimes but it went incredibly well, and I didn't feel seasick, so I was extremely lucky,' she told reporters

• 'Let's do it now': Greta Thunberg crosses Atlantic and calls for urgent climate action

Expert who led 2006 review says ban on nuclear should be lifted, but much more overseas evidence is needed on small modular reactors

It will be about a decade before it is clear whether small nuclear reactors are suitable for Australia and would take about 15 years to bring a plant online if a decision was made to build one, one of the country’s leading experts has said.

But Ziggy Switkowski, who headed a 2006 review of nuclear power for the Howard government, said the technology had no chance of being introduced unless Australia had a coherent energy policy.

Faced with state indifference to their plight, the indigenous community is fighting back

• Xikrin people fight back against Amazon land-grabbing

True scale of persecution of birds of prey such as buzzards and owls is likely to be higher

Birds of prey were shot, poisoned, trapped or illegally killed in 87 confirmed incidents in 2018 that led to just one successful conviction, according to the RSPB’s annual Birdcrime report.

This persecution of raptors including peregrines, buzzards, red kites and owls is the tip of the iceberg, with many more birds vanishing in mysterious circumstances, according to data from satellite-tagged birds and other intelligence.

The warmer it gets, the more we use air conditioning. The more we use air conditioning, the warmer it gets. Is there any way out of this trap?

On a sweltering Thursday evening in Manhattan last month, people across New York City were preparing for what meteorologists predicted would be the hottest weekend of the year. Over the past two decades, every record for peak electricity use in the city has occurred during a heatwave, as millions of people turn on their air conditioning units at the same time. And so, at the midtown headquarters of Con Edison, the company that supplies more than 10 million people in the New York area with electricity, employees were busy turning a conference room on the 19th floor into an emergency command centre.

Inside the conference room, close to 80 engineers and company executives, joined by representatives of the city’s emergency management department, monitored the status of the city power grid, directed ground crews and watched a set of dials displaying each borough’s electricity use tick upward. “It’s like the bridge in Star Trek in there,” Anthony Suozzo, a former senior system operator with the company, told me. “You’ve got all hands on deck, they’re telling Scotty to fix things, the system is running at max capacity.”

The native birds, including 76 wedge-tailed eagles, hawks and falcons, will be tested to determine the cause of death

About 120 native birds have been found dead after suspected poisoning in northeastern Victoria.

Officers from the environment department found the birds, including 76 wedge-tailed eagles, hawks and falcons, during raids on a property near Violet Town this week.

Exclusive: Carmichael mine set to receive subsidies, favourable deals and tax concessions over 30 years

Australian governments will give $4.4bn in effective subsidies to Adani’s Carmichael coal project, which would otherwise be “unbankable and unviable”, a new analysis has found.

The report, by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, concluded that the project would benefit from several Australian taxpayer–funded arrangements – including subsidies, favourable deals and tax concessions – over its 30-year project life.

‘Everyone always asks me about Donald Trump,’ Greta Thunberg said in her press conference after arriving in New York following her journey on a yacht across the Atlantic. ‘I say “Listen to the science” and he obviously does not do that’, she continued, speaking to a cheering crowd.

The 16-year-old Swedish activist had travelled to the city to attend a UN summit on zero emissions after refusing to fly because of the carbon emissions caused by planes

Crowds in New York await Sweden’s teenage environmental campaigner, who will set foot on dry land after her zero-carbon journey by yacht

7.20pm BST

Water, water everywhere around New York City, where we are waiting for Greta Thunberg’s arrival breathlessly (literally, actually, as the wind has dropped, my colleague downtown tells me, which will affect her ability to enter the marina in lower Manhattan under sail).

6.55pm BST

When Greta Thunberg was setting sail from Plymouth (in England, not New England) on August 14, my colleague on the spot that day, the Guardian’s global environment editor Jonathan Watts, reported that the activist didn’t intend to talk to with US president Donald Trump, even were the opportunity to present itself.

Long-tailed blues and eggs seen in large numbers but are unlikely to survive the winter

A fast-flying migratory butterfly from the Mediterranean is appearing in large numbers across southern England this summer as a result of global heating, experts say.

More than 50 long-tailed blues and hundreds of the butterfly’s eggs have been discovered in recent weeks, which is likely to result in an unprecedented emergence of the butterfly in Britain later this autumn.

XR says 750 people will occupy Deansgate in protest at city’s climate crisis contradictions

Hundreds of climate protesters plan to occupy one of Manchester’s busiest streets for four days this weekend to expose the “huge contradictions” of a city region that has declared a climate emergency while planning to massively expand its airport.

The Extinction Rebellion group says that from 10am on Friday at least 750 people have pledged to take over part of Deansgate, a popular area for shopping and entertainment that has illegal levels of air pollution.

Swedish climate activist nears end of her Atlantic crossing on zero-carbon yacht

Greta Thunberg is likely to arrive in New York soon after crossing the Atlantic in a zero-carbon yacht.

“Land!! The lights of Long Island and New York City ahead,” the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist tweeted on Wednesday.

Agriculture minister hopes ‘Noah’s ark’ plan will prevent severe fish kills, but critics accuse Nationals of tending to ‘self-inflicted wound’

The New South Wales government says it is planning a $10m “Noah’s ark”-style plan to stave off a “potential fish Armageddon” facing the state this summer, but critics say the Coalition is sticking a Band-Aid on a gaping self-inflicted wound.

The Berejiklian government’s plan aims to combine better research and increased breeding with fish rescue operations to save some of the state’s native fish from a forecast ecological disaster as the drought drags on.

Conservation research shows humans are ‘loving the dolphins too much’ in Bay of Islands region

The New Zealand government has banned tourists from swimming with bottlenose dolphins in an attempt to save the struggling species.

According to the department of conservation [DoC] research has shown that humans were “loving the dolphins too much” and human interaction was “having a signifiant impact on the population’s resting and feeding behaviour”.

Japanese conglomerate backs solar utility BBOXX to expand service in south Asia and Africa

A British energy firm lighting up homes in Africa with pay-as-you-go solar power has secured £40m to extend its reach to Asia with the help of Japan’s Mitsubishi.

The conglomerate has taken a stake in off-grid solar company BBOXX through the start-up’s latest funding round, which will power the Africa-focused company deeper into Asia.