The Guardian
'A race against time': the beach artist whose sand murals quickly disappear
The California tide soon washes away work by Andres Amador – but for the artist, that is part of the point
With a bundle of three-pronged tools and hand-assembled rakes cast over one shoulder, the artist Andres Amador quietly descends the steep, crumbling dunes arching over a San Francisco shoreline to the beach below.
Scanning the horizon, stopping every so often to smile and pick up smooth stones, he walks until it seems right – until he finds a wide enough stretch of wet sand to serve as his canvas. Soon, it will come to life, etched with the large-scale angles and arches that form his captivating, signature style of Earthscape art.
Continue reading...Labor warns government not to make Adani coalmine decisions before election
Government forced to play down ‘split’ amid reports of Queensland MPs pressuring Coalition over key approvals for Carmichael coalmine
Labor has warned the government against making any major decisions on the Adani coalmine before the election, while Scott Morrison and his environment minister Melissa Price face internal pressure from some Queensland MPs to take action.
While playing down reports of a “split”, government MPs from Queensland, including James McGrath and Matt Canavan have kept up pressure inside Morrison’s office and the party room for key approvals for the Carmichael coalmine, including the ground water plan, to be signed off on as soon as possible.
Continue reading...Coalition modelling not far off Labor's electric vehicle target – despite criticising it
Government modelling for climate policy cuts assumes an electric vehicle uptake of 25-50% of new car sales by 2030
Modelling for the Morrison government’s climate policy assumes electric vehicles will make up between 25% and 50% of new car sales by 2030, a similar figure to the target set by the Labor party, which the Coalition criticised this week.
Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, said “it shows how out of touch the Liberals are even with their own department” when it comes to cutting carbon pollution from transport.
Continue reading...Cold weather takes toll on smaller species in UK birdwatch
Big Garden Birdwatch finds fall in long-tailed tits and wrens after ‘beast from the east’
Almost 1.2 million house sparrows were spotted in British gardens during this winter’s Big Garden Birdwatch but smaller garden birds appear to have suffered from the previous winter’s cold weather.
Long-tailed tits decreased by more than 27% and wrens by 17% in 2019 after bumper years in 2018, according to the RSPB survey. Populations of both species are thought to have been affected by last year’s “beast from the east”: small birds are more susceptible to extreme chilly spells.
Continue reading...So many ways – big and small – to capture carbon | Letters
George Monbiot (The natural world can help save us from climate chaos, 3 April), Greta Thunberg and other signatories (Letters, 3 April) are right. Nature can provide effective options to help tackle climate change. Often there is no need for complicated, expensive and unproven technology. As we know from our work in such countries as Bhutan and Costa Rica, some governments are embracing nature-based solutions where natural forests are managed for their key role in storing carbon and regulating water for clean, green hydropower. Policies and investment need to work with local people and focus on linking nature to infrastructure to help avoid catastrophic climate change, protect biodiversity and cut emissions. The real challenge is to align the politics of change to the actions that are needed. While some countries are doing the right thing, in other places (such as Brazil) the politics is going backwards in deeply troubling ways.
The international community needs to act to support local livelihoods and enable communities to be good stewards of the natural world. Our lives depend on it.
Andrew Norton
Director, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Moran contemporary photographic prize 2019 – in pictures
The MCPP invites photographers to tell a story of how they experience living in Australia. This year, themes of drought, immigration and identity feature heavily in the entries. The winner of the $50,000 prize will be announced on 7 May
Continue reading...Our rare tiny marsupial, hanging on in the mountains – Look at me podcast
When we think of the effects of climate change it’s easy to focus on rising sea levels – but what about the changes happening much higher up? At Mount Hotham in Victoria a unique creature spends months under the snow: Australia’s only hibernating marsupial, the mountain pygmy possum. This tiny animal was once thought extinct. Now, zoos and ski-resorts are doing everything they can to keep it alive, but it faces a changing climate, which may create insurmountable challenges
Continue reading...Climate change group scrapped by Trump reassembles to issue warning
Panel was disbanded after a Trump official voiced concerns that it did not have enough members ‘from industry’
A US government climate change advisory group scrapped by Donald Trump has reassembled independently to call for better adaptation to the floods, wildfires and other threats that increasingly loom over American communities.
The Trump administration disbanded the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment in August 2017. The group, formed under Barack Obama’s presidency, provided guidance to the government based on the National Climate Assessment, a major compendium of climate science released every four years.
Continue reading...Buddleia is a symbol of our national neglect | Adrian Chiles
The purple shrub thrives in dereliction and decay. How much better things would be if it had nowhere to grow
A couple of years ago, I was with a TV director, standing on Soho Road in Handsworth, Birmingham. There was a break in filming while someone faffed around with something. This gave the two of us chance to pause and admire a derelict pub called the Red Lion. It was built at the start of the last century and remains, for all its dilapidation, a magnificent sight.
My colleague pointed at a bush, thriving improbably out of a crack high up in the terracotta facade. “That,” he said, “is a buddleia. It’s incredibly hardy, it can take root anywhere.”
Continue reading...'Laws are so weak': action needed to stop Australia's animal extinction crisis – senators
Existing legislation requires ‘complete overhaul’ to prevent the decline of species, committee warns
A Senate committee examining Australia’s animal extinction crisis has recommended new environment laws to try to halt the decline of threatened species.
The laws, proposed in an interim report by the committee, would include a new, independent national environmental protection authority that would have sufficient powers and funding to enforce compliance with environment law.
Continue reading...Campaign to save oceans maps out global network of sanctuaries
Study creates blueprint to safeguard marine life and enable ocean recovery
Academics have mapped out a network of sanctuaries they say are required to save the world’s oceans, protect wildlife and fight climate breakdown.
The study, ahead of a historic vote at the UN, sets out the first detailed plan of how countries can protect over a third of the world’s oceans by 2030, a target scientists and policy makers say is crucial in order to safeguard marine ecosystems and help mitigate the impacts of a rapidly heating world.
Continue reading...Great Barrier Reef suffers 89% collapse in new coral after bleaching events
Study shows dramatic fall in baby coral numbers but also change in type of coral
The number of new corals on the Great Barrier Reef crashed by 89% after the climate change-induced mass bleaching of 2016 and 2017.
Scientists have measured how many adult corals survived along the length of the world’s largest reef system and how many new corals they produced in 2018 in the aftermath of severe heat stress and coral mortality.
Continue reading...2018 was boom year for renewables despite political chaos, report finds
Clean Energy Australia snapshot shows investment in large-scale projects has doubled to $20bn
Despite Canberra remaining locked in ongoing partisan war about emissions reductions, and Malcolm Turnbull losing the prime ministership after a conflagration about energy policy, 2018 was a boom year for renewable energy, according to the latest Clean Energy Australia report.
The new assessment, to be released Thursday, finds the amount of renewable energy capacity committed in Australia during 2018 increased 260% on 2017, with 14.8 GW underway in 2018 compared to 5.6 GW in 2017.
Continue reading...Edinburgh science festival charity bans fossil fuel sponsorship
Edinburgh Science faced protests from activists for taking money from oil firms
The charity running the Edinburgh international science festival is to ban sponsorship from oil companies including Shell and Total after protests by climate campaigners.
Edinburgh Science said on Wednesday it realised its commitment to educating people on climate change was substantially compromised by accepting money from fossil fuel companies.
Continue reading...Scientists invent 'transparent wood' in search for eco-friendly building material
New material could replace plastic or glass in construction of energy-efficient homes
In an era of glass and steel construction, wood may seem old-school. But now researchers say they have given timber a makeover to produce a material that is not only sturdy, but also transparent and able to store and release heat.
The researchers say the material could be used in the construction of energy-efficient homes, and that they hope to develop a biodegradable version to increase its eco-friendly credentials as an alternative to plastic, glass or even cement.
Continue reading...Plastic in paradise: the battle for the Galápagos Islands' future – video
The Galápagos Islands are supposedly one of the most pristine locations on the planet, but plastic pollution arriving by sea is threatening this unique habitat and wildlife. Leah Green travels to the islands to see how our reliance on plastic is affecting even the most remote of locations, and to see how the archipelago is hoping to lead the worldwide fight against plastic
Continue reading...'Very, very unusual': Australian skink lays eggs, then gives birth to live baby
In world first, Sydney researchers observe lizard’s egg laying and live birth three weeks later from a single litter
Skinks may be much stranger than previously thought after researchers discovered a lizard that laid eggs and gave birth to live young in the one pregnancy.
Researchers at the University of Sydney observed a three-toed skink lay three eggs and weeks later give birth to a live baby.
Continue reading...Let nature heal climate and biodiversity crises, say campaigners
Restoration of forests and coasts can tackle ‘existential crises’ but is being overlooked
• Read the letter from campaigners
The restoration of natural forests and coasts can simultaneously tackle climate change and the annihilation of wildlife but is being worryingly overlooked, an international group of campaigners have said.
Animal populations have fallen by 60% since 1970, suggesting a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way, and it is very likely that carbon dioxide will have to be removed from the atmosphere to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Trees and plants suck carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and also provide vital habitat for animals.
Continue reading...A natural solution to the climate disaster | Letters
The world faces two existential crises, developing with terrifying speed: climate breakdown and ecological breakdown. Neither is being addressed with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from spiralling into collapse. We are writing to champion a thrilling but neglected approach to averting climate chaos while defending the living world: natural climate solutions. This means drawing carbon dioxide out of the air by protecting and restoring ecosystems.
Related: The natural world can help save us from climate catastrophe
Continue reading...Parents around the world mobilise behind youth climate strikes
‘We owe it to our kids’: parents from 16 countries demand urgent climate action
Parents and grandparents around the world are mobilising in support of the youth strikes for climate movement that has swept the globe.
Under the banner Parents for the Future, 34 groups from 16 countries on four continents have issued an open letter. It demands urgent action to fight climate change and prevent temperatures rising by more than 1.5C, beyond which scientists say droughts, floods and heatwaves will get significantly worse.
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