The Guardian
Country diary: field horsetail shoots rise and prepare to swish
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear: This ancient, tenacious plant has already weathered three mass extinctions
Every April, rocket-shaped, yellow, nine-inch reproductive shoots of field horsetail (Equisetum arvense), tipped with small cones, erupt through this patch of waste ground beside Mill Road car park on the bank of the river Tyne. They’ll soon wither, after they’ve released their payload of spores. Then forests of green, corrugated stems and whorls of thread-like leaves, shaped like miniature Christmas trees, will rise from their creeping underground stems.
Continue reading...Toxic air will shorten children's lives by 20 months, study reveals
Global air pollution crisis is taking its greatest toll on children in south Asia
The life expectancy of children born today will be shortened by 20 months on average by breathing the toxic air that is widespread across the globe, with the greatest toll in south Asia, according to a major study.
Air pollution contributed to nearly one in every 10 deaths in 2017, making it a bigger killer than malaria and road accidents and comparable to smoking, according to the State of Global Air (SOGA) 2019 study published on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Coalition's climate solutions fund must last a further five years
The $2bn promised for Australia’s greenhouse gas abatement projects will be spread over 15 years, not 10, Tuesday’s budget revealed
The Coalition plans to spend its $2bn “climate solutions fund” over 15 years, not 10, as promised when it unveiled the rebadged emissions reduction policy in February.
The decision, revealed in Tuesday’s budget, effectively cuts the amount spent per year from $200m to $133m over the life of the fund, which pays polluters to implement greenhouse gas abatement projects.
Continue reading...What we must do to turn the tide on plastic pollution | Letter
This move by the EU (European parliament votes to ban single-use plastics, theguardian.com, 27 March), is certainly a start, but it’s not far enough to only ban certain items and increase recycling promises. We need to ban single-use plastic bottles if we are to start turning the tide on plastic in our environment, and especially the dangers of microplastics in our water supply. As there were more than 480bn plastic bottles made worldwide in 2016, it will soon be the case that stopping using single-use plastics will not be enough.
While there is technology that effectively removes plastics and microplastics from water, which we install to raise money for our causes, we cannot rely solely on “saviour” technologies. In the wake of Blue Planet there were many that seemed to appear on a weekly basis, but these are either in development or simply not ready.
Continue reading...Should we stop using the word ‘cyclist’?
A recent study found many drivers see people who use bikes as less than human. Part of the problem is the language we use
As the repair man rummaged around in my gas oven, I tried to explain something to him about cyclists.
“We ‘cyclists’ are no more a homogenous group than you ‘vannists,’” I said.
Continue reading...Japan's war on whales isn't over – the Australian government must keep fighting | Darren Kindleysides
Australia’s global leadership on whale conservation will be tested as Japanese hunters move to a different hemisphere
Japan’s whaling fleet arrived back at the port of Shimonoseki on the weekend with a barbaric tally of 333 dead whales that are no longer swimming freely in the Southern Ocean.
If the work of the Japanese whalers is anything like last year, more than 100 pregnant females and 50 or so juveniles will have been killed. But from now on, things are different.
Continue reading...Murray-Darling water plan: Labor says it's prepared to override states
Tony Burke says the ailing health of Australia’s greatest river system would be a priority for any federal ALP government
The ALP is preparing to use federal powers under the Water Act and its influence with the two Labor-controlled basin states to drive better environmental outcomes if it wins government in May.
The opposition spokesman on the environment and water, Tony Burke, told Guardian Australia he would immediately convene the ministerial council and outline what he wants to achieve.
Continue reading...France accused of failing to protect endangered birds
Official complaint lodged with EU says rules breached on hunting and trapping
Bird protection campaigners are to lodge an official complaint with the European Union accusing France of breaking rules on hunting and trapping and failing to protect endangered species.
The Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) is using the 40th anniversairy of the EU’s “bird directive”, which outlaws the “massive or non-selective” killing of birds to highlight what it deems cruel and illegal methods.
Continue reading...Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns
Analysis of 50 years of UK data shows woodlands are not havens, while changing emergence times damage nature and farming
Insects have “no place to hide” from climate change, scientists have said after analysing 50 years’ worth of UK data.
The study found that woodlands, whose shade was expected to protect species from warming temperatures, are just as affected by climate change as open grasslands.
Continue reading...Air pollution falling in London but millions still exposed
No breach of annual limits so far in 2019, after 2017’s first breach within five days
Two million people in London are living with illegal air pollution, according to the most recent data. However, nitrogen dioxide levels are falling and could reach legal levels within six years.
In 2017, London saw its first breach of annual pollution limits just five days into the new year and in 2018 it occurred within a month. However, three months into 2019, no such breaches have taken place. In 2016, the last year in which Boris Johnson was mayor of London, there had been 43 breaches by this time.
Continue reading...Butterfly numbers fall by 84% in Netherlands over 130 years – study
European insect populations shrink as farming leaves ‘hardly any room for nature’
Butterflies have declined by at least 84% in the Netherlands over the last 130 years, according to a study, confirming the crisis affecting insect populations in western Europe.
Researchers analysed 120,000 butterflies caught by collectors between 1890 and 1980 as well as more recent scientific data from more than 2 million sightings to identify dramatic declines in the country’s 71 native butterfly species, 15 of which have become extinct over the last century.
Continue reading...'I’m skint – I know why people buy cheap meat’: the truth about being a farmer
From financial struggles to arguing with vegans, Sally Urwin’s new book lifts the lid on farming
Spring in the countryside near Hadrian’s Wall is a scenic season for visitors, all grassy meadows and lambs gambolling in the sunshine. But it’s hard labour for Sally Urwin. The small, cheerful Northumbrian farmer is lambing from 6am to 9pm every day (her husband, Steve, takes the night shift). Her first book, a diary of a year on their 80-hectare (200-acre) farm, has been published, meaning Urwin must also take a bottle-fed lamb to various “scary” literary festivals. Then, looming over every family farm like a particularly black rain cloud, is Brexit.
Farmers have a reputation for looking on the gloomy side of life, but Urwin, 44, is a naturally upbeat person. A Farmer’s Diary combines humour and the stark reality of modern farming, often in the same anecdote, such as the moment the “knacker van”, filled with a pungent pile of dead ewes, drives into their yard just as guests assemble for a wedding party.
Continue reading...Greens blast key part of Labor's climate policy as 'fake action'
Party says allowing heavy polluters to use international permits to meet emissions reduction targets allows companies to ‘keep polluting at home’
The Greens are positioning to torpedo a key element of Labor’s new climate policy in the event Bill Shorten wins the federal election in May, telegraphing strong opposition to heavy polluters using international permits to meet their emissions reduction targets.
The thumbs-down from the Greens, who will likely be the critical Senate bloc post-election in the event of a Labor victory, comes as the politically influential motoring lobby has also signalled it will push back on Labor’s proposal to introduce vehicle efficiency standards for light vehicles that would bring Australia broadly into line with carbon pollutions standards for cars in the US.
Continue reading...Japanese cherry blossom in full bloom – in pictures
Japan’s sakura (cherry blossom) season has officially begun, with crowds flocking to parks to photograph the early blooms
Continue reading...Mutilated dolphins wash up on French coast in record numbers
Activists say 1,100 dolphins found since January - but real figure may be 10 times higher
A record number of dolphins have washed up on France’s Atlantic coast in the last three months, many with devastating injures.
Environmental campaigners say 1,100 mutilated dolphins have been found since January, but the real figure could be 10 times higher as many bodies sink without trace. Activists warn the marine slaughter could threaten the extinction of the European dolphin population in the region.
Continue reading...Japan to oppose new or expanded coal-fired power plants in blow to Australian exports
Australia’s top export market for thermal coal gives further signs of dramatic energy pivot to renewables
Japan’s environment minister has announced he will “in principle” oppose any new plans to build or expand coal-fired power stations, as further signs emerge of a dramatic energy pivot by Australia’s top export market for thermal coal.
Guardian Australia reported in March that Japan had cancelled a large percentage of planned investments in coal-fired power, while Japanese investment vehicles were ditching coal projects and instead seeking to back large-scale renewable projects across Asia.
Continue reading...Alaska judge blocks Trump on Arctic and Atlantic drilling
- April 2017 executive order reversed Obama protections
- Green groups celebrate, justice department declines comment
Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic, a judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.
Related: Ocasio-Cortez says Green New Deal critics are making 'fools of themselves'
Continue reading...'Woefully dirty': government accused over Australia's failure to cut vehicle emissions
Australia has not set efficiency standards, despite years of talking, in contrast to China, India, Japan, US and EU
Cuts to carbon emissions from vehicle efficiency standards have been left out of government projections for meeting Australia’s Paris climate commitments, indicating the policy has been shelved.
The office of the transport minister, Michael McCormack, said the government had not made a decision on “how or when” standards to cut carbon pollution from vehicles might be implemented.
Continue reading...Record numbers of Australia's wildlife species face 'imminent extinction'
Fauna crisis highlights the failure of regional forest agreements, says Wilderness Society
Regional forest agreements have failed in the 20 years since they were established by state governments, says a new report, which reveals that record numbers of threatened forest dwelling fauna and many species are heading towards imminent extinction.
The report, Abandoned – Australia’s forest wildlife in crisis, has assessed the conservation status of federally listed forest-dwelling vertebrate fauna species affected by logging and associated roading and burning across Australia’s regional forest agreement (RFA) regions in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Continue reading...How the lion lost its strength: big cats’ survival at risk as DNA defences dwindle
For more than a century, explorers and settlers have warned about the likely impact of the hunting of lions and other wild animals in Africa. One of the most prescient, Frederick Selous, the inspiration for the character Allan Quatermain in the novels of H Rider Haggard, wrote in 1908 that “since my first arrival in 1871, I had seen game of all kinds gradually decrease and dwindle in numbers to such an extent that I thought that nowhere south of the Great Lakes could there be a corner of Africa left where the wild animals had not been very much thinned out”.
Now researchers have uncovered the impact of that predation on the lion. Lion numbers and range have plunged – but it appears their genetic fitness has also declined. An alarming new study has revealed that lions shot by colonial hunters more than 100 years ago were more genetically diverse than the ones that now populate Africa. The discovery is worrying because it indicates that the species’ fight to survive may be even more difficult than had been previously thought.
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