The Guardian
Climate and economic risks 'threaten 2008-style systemic collapse'
Environmental and social problems could interact in global breakdown, report says
The gathering storm of human-caused threats to climate, nature and economy pose a danger of systemic collapse comparable to the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new report that calls for urgent and radical reform to protect political and social systems.
The study says the combination of global warming, soil infertility, pollinator loss, chemical leaching and ocean acidification is creating a “new domain of risk”, which is hugely underestimated by policymakers even though it may pose the greatest threat in human history.
Continue reading...Biggest offshore windfarm to start UK supply this week
High hopes for Hornsea One as developer says its output could fill the gap left by nuclear
An offshore windfarm on the Yorkshire coast that will dwarf the world’s largest when completed is to supply its first power to the UK electricity grid this week.
The Danish developer Ørsted, which has installed the first of 174 turbines at Hornsea One, said it was ready to step up its plans and fill the gap left by failed nuclear power schemes.
Continue reading...What polar bears in a Russian apartment block reveal about the climate crisis
Arctic bears are being driven off their normal migration routes and into human habitation. We should feel pity – and fear
Russian islands declare emergency after mass invasion of polar bears
Polar bears prowling around a children’s playground. Polar bears lumbering along the corridors of apartment blocks and offices. Polar bears descending on a sleepy Russian town in their dozens.
To state the obvious: polar bears should not be wandering into human habitation, and certainly not in these numbers. That they are doing so in Belushya Guba shows how they are being driven off their normal migration routes and hunting trails by a changing climate. This has long been predicted – with the Arctic heating twice as fast as the rest of the planet, winter temperatures are rising and the sea ice – which is the primary habitat of polar bears – is shrinking.
Continue reading...The barefoot engineers of Malawi – in pictures
Eight women from rural Malawi travelled to India to train as solar engineers. Now they are lighting the way for their communities, in a country where just 10% of households are powered by electricity
Photographs by Peter Caton/VSO
Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
Exclusive: Insects could vanish within a century at current rate of decline, says global review
The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.
More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.
Continue reading...Why are insects in decline, and can we do anything about it?
Answers to key questions about the global insect collapse
Many scientists think the current worldwide annihilation of wildlife is the beginning of a huge loss of species on Earth. It has happened five times in the last 4bn years, as a result of meteorite impacts, long ice ages and huge volcanic eruptions. But this one is the result not of natural causes, but of humanity’s actions.
Continue reading...On rooftops and in tunnels, city farms lead food revolution
Only the Northern line tube trains rumbling through tunnels overhead provide any clue that Growing Underground is not a standard farm.
The rows of fennel, purple radish and wasabi shoots could be in almost any polytunnel, but these plants are 100 feet below Clapham High Street and show that urban agriculture is, in some cases at least, not a fad.
Continue reading...Blight fight: the story of America’s chestnuts offers hope for British trees
An inspiring US campaign to restore the mighty chestnut to its eastern forests points the way to saving at-risk species in the UK
If you move south through the US Appalachian region, between New York and Georgia, you get a feel for what Bill Bryson described in A Walk In The Woods as “mile after endless mile of dark, deep, silent woods”. Chestnut country once occupied some of the most spectacular wooded landscapes in the world, from the Shenandoah valley and the Catskills to Tennessee’s Smoky mountains. It is deep-gorge and clear-river country, where an understory of vibrant dogwood gives way to an imposing hemlock, a tulip tree or an exhilarating view. But something is amiss. When I visited last autumn, these woods would have been littered with fallen nuts from the magnificent American chestnut (Castanea dentata) – but for the blight that erased 4 billion trees from the landscape.
Just under a century ago, the American chestnut disappeared from the vast eastern forests of the US. A broadleaf of immense size and distribution, the chestnut suffered catastrophic decimation by the inadvertent introduction of an Asian blight, Cryphonectria parasitica. The blight arrived in 1904, on ornamental Japanese chestnut trees imported to furnish New York’s expanding Bronx zoo. Infection swept north and south, and by the 1950s the great “redwood of the east” – whose fruit was relied upon by herbivores such as the wild turkey, bluejay and red squirrel – all but vanished, a tragedy considered one of the greatest ecological disasters to hit the world’s forests. Thankfully, however, the story did not end there: following a monumental conservational effort, the chestnut now stands on the brink of return.
Continue reading...Can 'agritecture' make cities self-sufficient? – in pictures
Roca London Gallery’s latest show explores real-life projects and products helping city buildings grow food and reuse waste. The exhibition runs 9 Feb to 18 May
All images courtesy of Roca London Gallery
After the fire: signs of life amid the ashes – in pictures
The 2018 Menai fire in Sydney ravaged 2,400 hectares of bushland. Alan McFetridge has captured landscapes and objects left in its wake in a haunting series of photographs
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Rescued flamingo chicks, angry ibex and Californian elephant seals in this week’s gallery
Continue reading...'I feel very angry': the 13-year-old on school strike for climate action
Holly Gillibrand is skipping class to join pupils around the world in pushing for urgent measures
Until recently, Holly Gillibrand was like any other schoolchild, keen on the outdoors, football and rock climbing, inspired by the stunning surroundings of her secondary school at the foot of Ben Nevis.
But for the past five Fridays, while hundreds of her fellow students file into class, she has stood outside Lochaber high school in Fort William in the Highlands to take strike action.
Continue reading...UK pupils to join global strike over climate change crisis
Thousands of pupils to walk out of lessons amid growing concern over global warming
The school climate strikes that have led to tens of thousands of young people taking to the streets around the world over recent months are poised to arrive in the UK next Friday.
Thousands of pupils are expected to walk out of lessons at schools and colleges across the country amid growing concern about the escalating climate crisis.
Continue reading...UK trawlers ignoring ban on discarding edible fish at sea
Lords say government failing to act as industry blames non-compliance on ‘flawed design’
Public backing for a ban on discarding edible fish at sea has been thwarted by the reluctance of the fishing industry and the government to put an end to the wasteful practice, the House of Lords has found.
Discards were officially banned in January, after a five-year phase-in period, but the practice appears to have continued, with the government failing to take action, said a Lords EU energy and environment subcommittee report.
Continue reading...Hawaii could soon ban killing sharks in pioneering law
The proposal, which protects any shark or ray in state waters, could be the first of its kind in the US
Sharks could soon become more numerous in Hawaii waters — and advocates say that’s a good thing.
Lawmakers in Honolulu advanced a proposed ban on killing sharks in state waters on Wednesday, after receiving hundreds of calls and letters of support from around the country. The law, which would provide sweeping protection for any shark, rather than a select species, could be the first of its kind in the United States.
Continue reading...Tasmania's lakes among most contaminated in the world
Mining and waste dumping has badly polluted the lakes, including those in the Wilderness World Heritage Area
Metal contamination levels in some of Tasmania’s lakes are among the highest in the world, a new study has found, while those within the state’s Wilderness World Heritage Area have also been badly polluted by mining.
The Australian National University study found atmospheric metal contaminates from historic mining activities in Queenstown and Rosebery in Tasmania had “contaminated most of the Wilderness World Heritage Area”.
Continue reading...Townsville flood inquiry announced, as up to 300,000 cattle die in western Queensland
Premier distances herself from decision to open Ross River dam floodgates, which sent water into Townsville suburbs
The Queensland government has announced an inquiry into the historic flooding in Townsville, as evidence mounts that local authorities failed to anticipate the extreme nature of the recent record rainfall.
The independent inquiry will look into “key preparedness and response elements” to the storms that dumped more than one metre of rain on Townsville in less than a week.
Continue reading...Scientists find some fish can ‘recognise themselves’ in mirror
Wrasse passes intelligence test in disputed study, challenging ‘vacant’ reputation of fish
They are often said to have a three-second memory, but the brain power of fish has been considerably underestimated, according to scientists who found some fish can recognise themselves in the mirror.
Related: Talking animals: we aren’t the only species capable of speech …
Continue reading...Plastic waste: UK should not pass buck to world's poorest, say MPs
UK must deal with plastic waste on its own soil, says group calling for export ban
A cross-party group of MPs is calling for a ban on the export of plastic waste over concerns the UK is passing the buck to the world’s poorest people to clean up its rubbish.
MPs have tabled an early day motion to highlight growing concerns first raised by the National Audit Office that millions of tonnes of plastic waste sent abroad for recycling may be being dumped in landfill.
Continue reading...John Harvey obituary
My friend and colleague John Harvey, who has died aged 80, was not only an expert in ocean physics, but also a keen climber and outdoor activity leader.
In 1968 John was among the first group of lecturers in the interdisciplinary school of environmental sciences at the recently established University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich. There he taught physical oceanography to generations of students.
Continue reading...