The Guardian
Build it and they will bike: the second Bicycle Architecture Biennale – in pictures
15 projects from nine countries have been selected for the second Bicycle Architecture Biennale, which launches on Monday in Amsterdam
Continue reading...The depressing lesson of west London's lost cycle route
Kensington and Chelsea council has blocked a flagship plan after a campaign based largely on myths
More or less every time a city orders a report into how expanding populations can be moved around in efficient ways that also improve liveability and sustainability, the same answer comes back: active travel – that is, more walking and cycling.
And yet in many of those same cities, when specific plans are introduced to make walking and cycling safer and more pleasant, they face a fierce backlash, which can be sufficiently noisy and disruptive to scupper the schemes.
Continue reading...How you're recycling plastic wrong, from coffee cups to toothpaste
If you don’t clean your recycling, it can harm more than it helps. And that icon with the arrows is virtually meaningless
- This week we’re exploring plastic pollution as part of our six-month Toxic America series. Please support this journalism and help us hit our $150,000 goal
It’s a familiar scene: you stand at the bin, trash in hand, and wonder: “Can I recycle this?”
We tend to throw it in the recycling bin anyway, in the hope that some unknown person, somewhere else, will sort it out. Recyclers call this aspirational recycling, or wish-cycling.
Continue reading...Why the Guardian is taking on America's plastic waste crisis
United States of Plastic, a new series that will run for the rest of 2019, will reveal the global consequences of dependence on a miracle material
- This week we’re exploring plastic pollution as part of our six-month Toxic America series. Please support this journalism and help us hit our $150,000 goal
What happens to your plastic after you drop it in a recycling bin?
According to promotional materials from America’s plastics industry, it is whisked off to a factory where it is seamlessly transformed into something new.
Continue reading...Pumping begins to reduce flood waters in Lincolnshire town
Environment Agency brings in high-volume pumps in a bid to lower water levels in Wainfleet
High-volume pumps are being used to reduce flood waters in a Lincolnshire town where nearly 600 homes have been evacuated.
Police have advised residents in around 590 properties in Wainfleet and neighbouring areas to evacuate amid concerns about flood defences along the river Steeping.
Continue reading...Major global firms accused of concealing their environmental impact
More than 700 companies, including Amazon, Tesco and ExxonMobil, lack transparency, campaign group claims
A $10tn (£7.9tn) investor alliance has accused more than 700 companies, including Amazon, Tesco and ExxonMobil, of failing to reveal the full extent of their impact on the climate crisis, water shortages and deforestation.
The major global companies, with a combined worth ofmore than $15tn, lack transparency over their effect on the environment, according to the intervention by some of the world’s biggest financial names.
Continue reading...Radical action needed to hit UK’s zero-carbon target | Letters
Theresa May is deceiving us, either deliberately or through ignorance, with regard to the goal of reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 (May puts 2050 zero emission target into law, 12 June). This is impossible for any economy based on mass consumption.
Over decades, most British manufacturing has shifted abroad, in particular to Asia where labour is cheap. These items are usually produced with high carbon outputs, with electricity supplied through coal. For an accurate figure of Britain’s emissions, our consumption of goods produced overseas must be included. As Britain’s consumption has increased enormously over the past 30 years, this carbon addition will be substantial.
Continue reading...Cuba’s generosity after Chernobyl | Letters
Millions have watched Chernobyl, the TV series about the 1986 nuclear meltdown, and your coverage has been extensive (Report, 13 June). But an important related story has not had a mention at this time of renewed interest. Following the catastrophe, the tiny island of Cuba stepped forward and cared for over 20,000 young cancer victims from 1989 to 2011, – medical care, schooling, clothing, food, accommodation, playgrounds – all free of charge. A specialised medical facility was opened to the east of Havana, and Cuban doctors travelled to the affected region to treat patients in their homeland.
No other country in the world launched such a massive programme. The Cubans responded – as “an ethical and moral”, not a political question, as it was put at the time, and the programme continued despite changing governments in the Ukraine.
Continue reading...The truth about Chernobyl? I saw it with my own eyes…
Kim Willsher reported on the world’s worst nuclear disaster from the Soviet Union. HBO’s TV version only scratches the surface, she says
There is a line in the television series Chernobyl that comes as no surprise to those of us who reported on the 1986 nuclear disaster in what was the Soviet Union – but that still has the power to shock:
“The official position of the state is that global nuclear catastrophe is not possible in the Soviet Union.”
Continue reading...Hundreds of dolphins have died along Gulf Coast since February, scientists say
At least 279 animals have been stranded, triple the usual figure, and 98% have died, prompting investigation
At least 279 dolphins have become stranded across much of the US Gulf Coast since the start of February, triple the usual number, and about 98% of them have died, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said.
Scientists will investigate whether lingering effects from the 2010 BP oil spill and more immediate effects from low salinity because of freshwater flowing from high rivers and a Louisiana spillway contributed to the deaths, said Teri Rowles, coordinator for Noaa fisheries’ marine mammal health and stranding response program.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson failed to protect biodiversity hotspot, says UN expert
Ocean advocate highlights lack of action over South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands
Boris Johnson did nothing to protect “the most important biodiversity hotspot on the planet,” while foreign secretary, according to the United Nations patron for the oceans.
Lewis Pugh, who in his role raises awareness about the state of the world’s oceans, has worked with three of the rivals in the Tory leadership race – Michael Gove as environment secretary and both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson as foreign secretaries – but highlighted Johnson’s lack of action.
Continue reading...Australia's oldest things: how mind-boggling timelines meet the climate emergency | Jeff Sparrow
They were here before us and should live on long afterwards. With 12 years to avert catastrophe, we need to imagine the aeons to come and consider the creatures that outlive us
Wilbur the tortoise has, in all probability, lived more than a hundred years.
“From his size and weight and general health,” says Adam Lee, a reptile keeper at the Melbourne zoo, “we put him at about 110 but there’s no real way of telling with giant tortoises unless you have them from birth or as a hatchling.”
Continue reading...Two Greenpeace activists arrested as it sends ship to join BP oil rig protest
Group defies court order against Arctic Sunrise supporting occupation of North Sea rig
Police have arrested two Greenpeace activists who had boarded a North Sea oil rig as the environmental group said it was sending its ship Arctic Sunrise to join the protest in defiance of court orders obtained by BP.
The oil firm has taken out injunctions against the ship and the Greenpeace ice-breaker, the Esperanza, forbidding them from supporting a protest on a rig in Scotland’s Cromarty Firth that is now in its sixth day.
Continue reading...Pope Francis declares 'climate emergency' and urges action
Addressing energy leaders, pope warns of ‘catastrophic’ effects of global heating
Pope Francis has declared a global “climate emergency”, warning of the dangers of global heating and that a failure to act urgently to reduce greenhouse gases would be “a brutal act of injustice toward the poor and future generations”.
He also endorsed the 1.5C limit on temperature rises that some countries are now aiming for, referring to warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of “catastrophic” effects if we crossed such a threshold. He said a “radical energy transition” would be needed to stay within that limit, and urged young people and businesses to take a leading role.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A cattle egret, a roving monkey and a curious chipmunk
Continue reading...English nature's 'jewels in crown' threatened by cuts, says watchdog
Natural England chair bemoans budget cuts that have left conservation body ‘massively depleted’
The reserves and protected places that are the “jewels in the crown” of English nature cannot be managed properly because of budget cuts, Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, has said.
The budget for the government’s conservation watchdog has been slashed in half over five years, leaving it “massively depleted”, according to Juniper, the influential former Friends of the Earth campaigner whom the environment secretary, Michael Gove, appointed earlier this year.
Continue reading...Campaigners criticise 'reckless' approval of Adani mine in Australia
Environmentalists say opening up Queensland’s Galilee Basin ignores global climate goals
Environmentalists have described as reckless the decision by the Australian government to grant the Indian mining company Adani the final approvals it needs to start work on a huge coalmine in Queensland.
The project, which received the green light on Thursday to commence initial construction, would open up the Galilee Basin, one of the last known untapped coal reserves on earth.
Continue reading...Power to the people: how Spanish cities took control of energy
The ‘sunshine tax’ is dead, and Barcelona and Cádiz are mounting a renewables revival
After a close fight, Barcelona’s radical mayor, Ada Colau, is expected to take office for a second term on Saturday, vindicating her often-criticised policies, which have included making sure all the city’s municipal buildings and services run on renewable energy.
On the other side of the country in Andalucía, José María González was re-elected as mayor of Cádiz last month having swept to power in 2015 on the same tide that brought Colau to office, with energy as a central issue in his campaign.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion protesters stop rush-hour traffic in London
Lewisham campaigners block three roads into city centre to highlight ‘air pollution crisis’
Environmental protesters stopped traffic on three main roads into central London from the south-east on Friday morning in protest over the “air pollution crisis” in the area.
The protesters, organised by a local chapter of the Extinction Rebellion group, blocked traffic on the A20 near Lewisham station, A205 South Circular in Catford and the A2 in Deptford during the morning rush hour.
Continue reading...Deposit scheme could dramatically reduce plastic waste – report
Analysis says DRS would stop thousands of tonnes of waste entering English rivers and sea
A comprehensive deposit return scheme in England could prevent 6,600 tonnes of plastic waste entering rivers and the sea by 2030, according to an analysis of the government’s proposed waste strategy.
Of the measures being considered by the government to tackle plastic pollution, the assessment by the charity Common Seas reveals that a DRS on all drinks containers, not just small bottles, would have the most dramatic impact.
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