The Guardian
Henderson Island: a Pacific paradise turning into a plastic trap – video
Thousands of tonnes of plastic have accumulated on the pristine beaches of Henderson Island in the Pacific's Pitcairn archipelago. Along one stretch of 2.5km, an estimated 18 tonnes has piled up over decades, at the rate of several thousand pieces of plastic per day. A team of scientists, conservationists and two journalists from New Zealand’s Stuff.co.nz spent two weeks collecting six tonnes of the rubbish to gain more insight into where it had come from, and how it could be prevented in future.
Continue reading...Henderson Island: the Pacific paradise groaning under 18 tonnes of plastic waste
Rubbish has been washing up on its isolated beaches in the Pitcairn chain at a rate of several thousand bits of plastic a day
Henderson Island, uninhabited and a day’s sea crossing from the nearest sign of civilisation, should be an untouched paradise.
Instead its beaches, which were awarded Unesco world heritage status in 1988, are a monument to humanity’s destructive, disposable culture.
Continue reading...Philippines is deadliest country for defenders of environment
Nation replaces Brazil for first time in annual list of murders compiled by Global Witness
The Philippines has replaced Brazil as the most murderous country in the world for people defending their land and environment, according to research that puts a spotlight on the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
More than three defenders were killed across the world every week in 2018, according to the annual toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness, highlighting the continued dangers facing those who stand up to miners, loggers, farmers, poachers and other extractive industries.
Continue reading...New Acland coalmine caught drilling illegally at 27 sites – and fined just $3,152
Exclusive: Queensland authorities believed penalty – a 20th of the maximum for a single infringement – would serve as a deterrent
One of Australia’s most contentious coalmines, New Acland, was caught drilling 27 illegal bores last year and fined $3,152 by the Queensland government, a figure an environment group has labelled “paltry”.
Documents obtained under Queensland freedom of information laws show the state Department of Environment and Science believed the Darling Downs miner had committed a “major” breach of environmental laws.
Continue reading...UN chief calls for 2050 zero emissions plans – but Australia remains tightlipped
Countries asked to flag plans for net zero emissions by 2050, but so far Australia is only talking about its 2030 target
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has written to all heads of state asking countries to outline their plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but at this stage the Australian government is only engaging on commitments to 2030.
Ahead of a climate action summit in New York on 23 September, Guterres has reportedly asked leaders to flag plans they will set next year for 2030 emissions reduction commitments, and their plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Continue reading...Use safe alternative to toxic lead gunshot | Letter
Scientists and environmental campaigners warn of the dangers of lead ammunition to wildfowl and people
One hundred years ago this week the American ornithologist Alexander Wetmore published a paper reporting numerous incidents of wild waterfowl dying after swallowing lead gunshot, mistaking it for grit which they eat to aid digestion. He concluded that lead poisoning due to eating gunshot was a common occurrence and a “dangerous and usually fatal malady”.
On the same day in 1786, Benjamin Franklin wrote on lead poisoning in humans that “the Opinion of this mischievous Effect from Lead, is at least above Sixty Years old; and you will observe with Concern how long a useful Truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally receiv’d and practis’d on”.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg to sail across Atlantic for UN climate summits
Teenage activist to travel to US on racing yacht to cut environmental impact of travel
Greta Thunberg is to sail across the Atlantic in a high-speed racing yacht next month to attend UN climate summits in the US and Chile as part of a sabbatical year the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist will spend in the US.
“Good news! I’ll be joining the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, COP25 in Santiago … I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II. We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to NYC in mid August,” Greta tweeted. The journey will take two weeks.
Continue reading...North Sea cod at critically low levels, study warns
MSC may have to remove sustainable certification from cod as report calls for catches to be cut by two-thirds
North Sea cod could soon be coming off the menu for environmentally conscious diners as a decision is expected by the end of this month on whether fish populations are too low to support sustainable fishing.
Cod from the North Sea is designated as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which examines fish stocks and certifies those that can support more fishing without significant harm. But that designation is now in serious doubt, as the world’s leading body on the health of fish stocks has warned that the North Sea populations of cod have fallen to critical levels.
Continue reading...Why I'm fleeing Honduras to seek asylum in the US
When a fellow protester against a dam that was polluting our water was killed, I left with my young son on a migrant caravan
I am seeking asylum in the US because of a hydroelectric dam. I fled Honduras fearing for my life after being teargassed and arrested by police when our community resisted a dam which contaminated the water we rely on for drinking, cooking and washing.
Related: Mexican man feared dead after falling into mass of polluted suds
Continue reading...Chile oil spill: 40,000 litres of diesel spilled into sea off Patagonia
Chile’s navy confirmed it was working to mitigate damage caused by the spill at Guarello island
Forty thousand litres of diesel oil has been spilled into the sea in a remote and pristine area of Patagonia, Chile’s navy confirmed on Sunday.
The spillage occurred in the Chilean section of Patagonia – a region that encompasses the southern tip of South America and spans both Chile and Argentina.
Continue reading...The new electricity boom: renewable energy makes staggering leap but can it last?
Australia now has enough projects committed to meet the national 2020 renewable energy target
Thriving doesn’t quite cover it. New data released quietly late last week underscores the staggering pace of growth of renewable energy across Australia.
Nearly 3.5 gigawatts of large-scale clean energy projects were built in 2018. In capacity terms, this is more than twice the scale of Hazelwood, the giant Victorian brown coal plant that shut abruptly a couple of years ago, and it more than tripled the previous record for renewable energy installed in one year, set in 2017.
Continue reading...Putting ecocide on a par with genocide | Letters
Calls for a new Geneva convention to protect wildlife and nature reserves in conflict zones are welcome (Make environmental damage a war crime, say scientists, 25 July). But we should go further. Humanity is waging a veritable war on wildlife and nature every day. We are destroying habitats, changing the climate and persecuting animals that encroach on farmland that was once their home. The pursuit of wildlife for “trophies” to adorn our walls and with which to pose is the cruellest wildlife crime of all. Scientists have warned that “sport” hunting of lions is leading to a loss of genetic diversity that puts their survival at risk. The combined rate of deaths from poaching and trophy hunting is now greater than the birth rate of elephants. Permits are granted to hunters to shoot species that are extinct in the wild and of which just small numbers remain in private collections.
The late Polly Higgins, the acclaimed environmental lawyer, called for ecocide to be considered a crime on a par with genocide. If we are serious about protecting wildlife, world leaders should implement her recommendation. We must also take steps towards abolishing trophy hunting, a “sport” that is as senseless as it is damaging to wildlife. We can begin by banning the import of hunting trophies into Britain, and by calling on Cites at its conference next month to close the loophole that presently allows trophy hunters to shoot endangered species.
John Cooper QC, Rosalind Coward Author, Greenpeace UK board member 2003-11, Eduardo Gonçalves President, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting
Experts call for ban on glass skyscrapers to save energy in climate crisis
Leading architects and engineers are calling for all-glass skyscrapers to be banned because they are too difficult and expensive to cool.
“If you’re building a greenhouse in a climate emergency, it’s a pretty odd thing to do to say the least,” said Simon Sturgis, an adviser to the government and the Greater London Authority, as well as chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects sustainability group. “If you’re using standard glass facades you need a lot of energy to cool them down, and using a lot of energy equates to a lot of carbon emissions.”
Continue reading...How an army of ‘citizen scientists’ is helping save our most elusive animals
Roland Ascroft’s first attempt to become a citizen scientist was nearly his last. The 63-year-old conservationist volunteered to take part in a wildlife monitoring project in 2015 and began by placing a camera trap in the woods opposite his house at New Brancepeth, near Durham. For three weeks he checked every day to see if the device had been triggered by animals moving in front of it, but found nothing had set it off.
“I was about to give up when I moved my camera trap for one last attempt – and found next morning that I had photographed a roe deer in the early morning,” says Ascroft. “I was hooked.”
Continue reading...'Relentless' farmers continue to battle the big dry
Photographer Brook Mitchell revisited families in drought affected areas in NSW a year after his first visit to see how they were faring
Ten months on from when the entire state was declared in drought, patchy rainfall has provided some relief. Yet 96% of New South Wales remains drought affected, with 14.7% of the state classified as being in intense drought. For those in the worst affected areas the situation remains dire. Towns including Dubbo, Tamworth, Armidale, Cobar and Walgett are at real risk of running dry.
Continue reading...Extreme weather has damaged nearly half Australia's marine ecosystems since 2011
CSIRO says dramatic climate events are compounding the effects of underlying global heating
Extreme climate events such as heatwaves, floods and drought damaged 45% of the marine ecosystems along Australia’s coast in a seven-year period, CSIRO research shows.
More than 8,000km of Australia’s coast was affected by extreme climate events from 2011 to 2017, and in some cases they caused irreversible changes to marine habitats.
Continue reading...It's not cricket – but Las Vegas grasshopper invasion is harmless
- Some tourists panicked by Sin City swarms
- State entomologist says wet weather behind migration
Millions of grasshoppers have descended on Las Vegas, causing alarming images and videos to spread on social media and prompting some tourists to panic.
“It was crazy,” one tourist, Diana Rodriquez, told the TV station KLAS. “We didn’t even want to walk through there. Everybody was going crazy. We were wondering, like, what’s going on.”
Continue reading...Most people back drinks bottles deposit scheme, survey finds
‘All-in’ model would mean charge added to plastic, glass, aluminium and steel containers
Almost three-quarters of Britons would support a nationwide deposit return system for plastic and glass drinks bottles and aluminium cans, a survey has found.
The results follow the announcement last week during a speech at London’s Kew Gardens by Michael Gove, then environment secretary, in which he expressed support for a comprehensive deposit return system. In his speech, Gove suggested that “an ‘all-in’ model will give consumers the greatest possible incentive to recycle”.
Continue reading...Black Finch Project: the anti-Adani art campaign – in pictures
More than 1,400 art works featuring the endangered black-throated finch have been sent to Australian politicians in protest against the Carmichael coalmine in Queensland. The campaign, called the Black Finch Project, was instigated by New Zealand-born artist Charlotte Watson, and is intended to highlight the ‘collective grief’ about the plight of the bird, whose habitat is directly threatened by the mine works. Here, some of the contributing artists and members of the public explain why they contributed
Continue reading...Wildfires: blazes rage in Arctic during severe heatwave – video
The Arctic Circle is suffering from an unprecedented number of wildfires in the latest sign of a climate crisis. With some blazes the size of 100,000 football pitches, vast areas in Siberia, Alaska and Greenland are engulfed in flames. The World Meteorological Organisation has said these fires emitted as much carbon dioxide in a month as the whole of Sweden does in a year
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