The Guardian
By poplar demand: the 2019 European Tree of the Year contest – in pictures
Voting is open throughout February for the ninth European Tree of the Year contest, organised by the Environmental Partnership Association and featuring entrants from 15 countries
Continue reading...'The beginning of great change': Greta Thunberg hails school climate strikes
The 16-year-old’s lone protest last summer has morphed into a powerful global movement challenging politicians to act
Greta Thunberg is hopeful the student climate strike on Friday can bring about positive change, as young people in more and more countries join the protest movement she started last summer as a lone campaigner outside the Swedish parliament.
Related: Teenage activist takes School Strikes 4 Climate Action to Davos
Continue reading...Emissions reduction fund could be used to upgrade 40-year-old coal-fired power plant
The owners of the Vales Point power station, which produces 6.9m tonnes of emissions annually, want to extend operations by 20 years
The emissions reduction fund, which is at the heart of the Morrison government’s climate change policy, could be used to help pay for an upgrade at a 40-year-old coal-fired power plant after its owners successfully applied to register under the scheme.
In a step that underscores the political divide over emissions policy, Vales Point power station in New South Wales was registered in August for a proposal to improve some of its turbines. It is the first stage in it being allowed to bid against land owners and other businesses for climate funding.
Continue reading...Meal kits cut food waste but packaging is a problem, study finds
Deliveries ‘almost always’ use more energy than buying ingredients from supermarket
Home delivery meal kits can slash food waste by more than two-thirds, but suppliers need to switch to reusable packaging to make them environmentally friendly, researchers say.
Tailor-made meal kits save waste by providing people with precise amounts of fresh ingredients for chosen recipes, meaning leftovers are minimised and less food goes off before people have a chance to use it.
Continue reading...Trump administration condemned over delaying action on toxic drinking water
EPA to spend at least another year considering whether to restrict toxic chemicals found in drinking water
Environment advocates have condemned Trump administration plans to spend at least another year considering whether to restrict toxic chemicals increasingly found in drinking water across the country.
The chemicals – known as PFOS and PFOA – are found in nonstick pots and pans, food packaging, and firefighting foam sprayed in drills on military bases. They seep into soil and groundwater in areas where they are manufactured and used.
Continue reading...Oil firm aims to extend Dorset coast drilling despite marine life risk
Environment groups oppose licence for Corallian Energy extractions along protected coastline running to March
An oil company drilling off the Dorset coastline is attempting to extend its licence into the spring, challenging the conditions imposed to protect the sea’s many sensitive wildlife species.
Corallian Energy has set up a rig visible from the protected coastline and in close proximity to 58 marine and coastal protected areas. Sensitive and protected species offshore include bottlenose dolphins, seahorses, rays and breeding populations of seabirds including sandwich terns and little terns.
Continue reading...Headteachers in a bind as pupils prepare to go on UK climate strike
Unions urge pupils not to walk out of class but some schools may adopt relaxed attitude
School leaders are having to wrestle with their consciences over pupils joining the nationwide climate strike to be held on Friday afternoon, caught between their duties as teachers and instincts as educators.
Thousands of the more than 8 million school pupils in the UK are expected to walk out of lessons to show their concern about the threat of escalating climate change.
Continue reading...'Highly irresponsible': Senate calls for Great Barrier Reef Foundation to return money
A Senate inquiry into the $443m grant to private foundation calls for termination of partnership
A committee examining the government’s decision to award $443.3m to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation has recommended unspent funds from the controversial grant be returned to the commonwealth and reserved for future reef projects.
The final report, tabled in the Senate on Thursday, calls the awarding of the grant last year “a highly irresponsible decision, hastily concocted by relevant ministers” and calls for a fresh review of the structure of all government funding meant to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Continue reading...To avoid environmental catastrophe, everything must change | Letters
It is not just the insects that are in serious decline, but also the entomologists who study them (Plummeting insect numbers threaten collapse of nature, 11 February), both in terms of promoting and conserving beneficial species and combating pests. In 2016, I had an article published in the scientific literature entitled Insect biology – a vulnerable discipline?, highlighting the good that insects do as well as the bad, and how necessary research is on insects, but also how this has been eroded for many years by reductions in both government and industrial funding.
For example, Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, where I spent most of my career, used to have a thriving entomological research community working on various aspects concerning the role of insects in the agroecosystem. However, especially since the early years of this century, most of this vital work has been terminated due to severe cutbacks in funding, with very few projects surviving. In my view, considering the importance of insects as described in your article, renewed funding is urgently required to continue such essential exploration of insect science in all its diversity.
Hugh Loxdale
Honorary visiting professor, School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff
The mind-blowing life of the gateway bee – Look at Me podcast
When you think about bees you probably thinking about honey, hives and yellow and black stripes, but these traits aren’t present in the majority of Australian bees. The bee you usually think of is the European honey bee. Yet Australia actually has more than 2,000 species of natives bees. In this episode of Look at Me we find out about the amazing life of a hardworking single mother, the blue-banded bee
Continue reading...Buy organic food to help curb global insect collapse, say scientists
Urging political action on pesticide use is another way to help stem ‘collapse of nature’
Buying organic food is among the actions people can take to curb the global decline in insects, according to leading scientists. Urging political action to slash pesticide use on conventional farms is another, say environmentalists.
Related: Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
Continue reading...Academics back UK schools' climate change strikes
More than 200 sign letter to the Guardian saying pupils right to be angry at inaction
More than 200 academics have voiced their support for this week’s school climate strikes, in which thousands of young people are expected to take to the streets in towns and cities across the UK.
The academics, including almost 100 professors, say the “tragic and desperate facts” of the unfolding climate breakdown – and the lack of meaningful action by politicians – leave young people with little option but to take matters into their own hands.
Continue reading...'Uniquely American': Senate passes landmark bill enlarging national parks
Bill sets aside more than 1m acres of new wilderness and conservation areas including rivers in California and Utah
Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks are to be enlarged, and stunning river landscapes in California and Utah will be protected, under new legislation that passed the US Senate on Tuesday.
In all the public lands package sets aside more than a million acres of new wilderness and conservation areas in western states.
Continue reading...Wildlife Photographer of the Year: the Lumix people's choice winner – in pictures
David Lloyd’s Bond of Brothers, a heartwarming image of an affectionate pair of male lions, has been crowned the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Lumix people’s choice award. The picture, among 25 shortlisted for the 2018 competition, can be seen at the Natural History Museum in south-west London until 30 June
Continue reading...Fracking firm Cuadrilla loses planning appeal for second UK site
Communities secretary James Brokenshire cited traffic issues in rejecting plans for four wells
Campaigners have welcomed the government’s decision to reject a planning appeal by shale gas firm Cuadrilla to frack at a second site in Lancashire, capping a week of bad news for the industry.
James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, said he was turning down the appeal for planning permission to develop four fracking wells in the Fylde area because of traffic concerns.
Continue reading...Labour to set out plans to decarbonise UK and fulfil green jobs pledge
Party says Labour government would tackle climate change by starting economic revolution
Labour is to set out how the UK can move swiftly to a decarbonised future to tackle the unfolding climate crisis and put “meat on the bones” of its promise to create hundreds of thousands of high-skilled, unionised green jobs.
Trade unionists and industry leaders will come together with academics, engineers and public institutions to build detailed regional plans setting out the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Continue reading...Tudder: the Tinder for cattle helping cows meet their ideal bull
How do they swipe right with their hooves? Can sheep get involved? And, crucially: is this for real?
Name: Tudder.
Age: Brand new.
Continue reading...Electric cars are already cheaper to own and run, says study
Petrol and diesel vehicles cost more over four years in UK and four other European nations
Electric cars are already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel alternatives in five European countries analysed in new research.
The study examined the purchase, fuel and tax costs of Europe’s bestselling car, the VW golf, in its battery electric, hybrid, petrol and diesel versions. Over four years, the pure electric version was the cheapest in all places – UK, Germany, France, Netherlands and Norway – owing to a combination of lower taxes, fuel costs and subsidies on the purchase price.
Continue reading...Solar energy sector lost 8,000 jobs in US last year, but future looks bright – report
Despite second consecutive year of declines, report concludes the long-term outlook for solar energy production is positive
The solar energy sector lost 8,000 jobs in the US last year, the second consecutive year of declines, hit by uncertainty over the Trump administration’s energy and trade policies and a 30% tariff on imported solar panels, according to a report released on Tuesday.
But according to the Solar Foundation the future is still bright for solar. Despite the two-year dip, solar employment has grown 159%, from just over 93,000 to more than 242,000 jobs in all 50 states over the past nine years and the report concludes the long-term outlook for solar energy production is positive.
Continue reading...Nearly a fifth of the EU's budget goes on livestock farming, says Greenpeace
Europe urged to promote diets lower in meat and dairy and restrict animals to grass-based systems to free land for crops
Nearly a fifth of the EU’s total budget – more than £24bn of taxpayer money – goes to support livestock farming across Europe, according to new research by Greenpeace.
At a time when scientists are calling for significant reductions in meat consumption, the report’s authors say taxpayers’ money should be redirected away from grain-fed, industrial animal farming.
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