The Guardian
'Fine to flush' label for wet wipes to aid fight against fatbergs
Logo drawn up by water firms aims to ensure only wipes that degrade properly are flushed
The fight to eliminate “fatbergs” is to receive a major boost with the launch of a universal standard for wet wipes, clarifying which can be safely flushed down the toilet.
Manufacturers of wipes will be able to use a “fine to flush” symbol on their packaging – drawn up by the water industry – provided they pass stringent tests. The logo aims to reassure consumers that the products do not contain plastic and will break down in the sewer system instead of clogging up sewers and contributing to fatbergs.
Continue reading...Taiwan's Guidebook of Marine Debris – in pictures
The environmental education association Re-Think has launched The Guidebook of Marine Debris to highlight the 101 most commonly found plastic items washed up on Taiwan’s beaches. From Hello Kitty toys to cigarette lighters from thousands of kilometres away on the Midway Islands, Re-Think photographed the items in a bid to educate young people on the extent of the problem. The project took a year to complete with the help of beach clean-up volunteers around Taiwan and the Society of Wilderness.
The oldest piece of waste was a military food pack found in Kinmen dated 1988. It still carried the slogan: “Unite against the Communists and promote love for our compatriots.”
Continue reading...Mexican fishermen attack Sea Shepherd vessel protecting vaquita porpoise
- Two dozen boats douse conversation vessel with gasoline
- As few as 15 vaquita may remain in Gulf of California
The Sea Shepherd environmental group has published video showing an attack by about two dozen small fishing boats on the group’s vessel Farley Mowat in Mexico’s Gulf of California.
The fishermen in the Gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, oppose environmentalists trying to protect the vaquita marina, the world’s smallest and most endangered porpoise.
Continue reading...Warming oceans likely to raise sea levels 30cm by end of century – study
Seawater temperature is rising faster than predicted, which is likely to worsen extreme weather events around the world
The world’s oceans are warming at a faster rate than previously estimated, new research has found, raising fresh concerns over the rapid progress of climate change.
Warming oceans take up more space, a process known as thermal expansion, which the study says is likely to raise sea levels by about 30cm by the end of the century, on top of the rise in sea levels from melting ice and glaciers. Warmer oceans are also a major factor in increasing the severity of storms, hurricanes and extreme rainfall.
Continue reading...Trade in ivory from extinct mammoths could be banned
Proposal is intended to protect African elephants from being poached for their tusks
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could gain protected status in an unprecedented attempt to save the African elephant from the global ivory trade.
If approved, the protection of the mammoth under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) could prove vital in saving its modern relatives. The proposal by Israel would close a loophole that enables the trafficking of illegal elephant ivory under the guise of legal mammoth ivory, which is almost identical in appearance.
Continue reading...A meat tax need not hit the poor | Letters
The academic evidence is quite clear on a number of fronts that meat production and consumption worldwide need to change (MPs should ‘seriously consider’ meat tax, says Lucas, 4 January). Health gains from reducing red and processed meat consumption are well documented. Study after study has shown unnecessary risks and costs associated with raised meat consumption. Meat adds to the burden of non-communicable disease. Its production is a key driver of antimicrobial resistance. Somehow the scale of meat consumption must be reversed.
We do not underestimate the political complexity. Swathes of the UK are rough land where sheep and cattle are raised. UK farmers operate on tight margins and receive too low a proportion of the money made from food. The much-reviled common agricultural policy actually keeps many afloat. But the hard facts are clear: the UK, like all rich countries, needs a transition to more sustainable diets from sustainable food systems. Low meat and dairy consumption, and more plant-based diets, are the future. This implies significant land use changes that could be beneficial: lower greenhouse gas emissions and water and biodiversity stress.
Continue reading...EU under fire after lifting threat to ban Thai seafood imports over illegal fishing
Reversal of disciplinary process condemned as campaigners claim Thailand has failed to address labour abuses
The EU has been accused of sending out the wrong message after removing Thailand from a list of countries failing to tackle illegal fishing.
Campaigners claim that the European commission’s decision this week to lift Thailand’s “yellow card”, in place since April 2015, gives consumers an “illusion that violations of fishers’ rights are not still occurring”.
Continue reading...'Take heed of science': minister urged to drop new coal-mining plans
Druridge Bay project makes mockery of UK’s goal to phase out coal by 2025, say critics
A wild stretch of Northumberland beach has become the ultimate testing ground of the government’s much-vaunted commitment to phase out coal by 2025, according to campaigners.
On Friday, James Brokenshire, the minister for communities and local government, will start examining whether to allow a local coal mining company, Banks Group, to extract three million tonnes of coal from 250 hectares of land behind the sand dunes of Druridge Bay, in a project that will extend beyond the government’s own deadline for the end of coal.
Continue reading...Dog food made from insects to go on sale in UK for first time
Globally pets consume 20% of meat and fish, a figure insect pet food could help to reduce
The UK’s first dog food made from insects goes on sale this week, which its manufacturers say could help reduce the environmental damage caused by the massive volumes of meat routinely fed to dogs and cats.
Globally, pets consume about 20% of the world’s meat and fish, a number set to rise with the trend for consumers to feed them human-grade meat. Pet food is also estimated to be responsible for a quarter of the environmental impacts of meat production in terms of use of land, water, fossil fuels, phosphates and pesticides.
Continue reading...Australia had third-warmest year on record in 2018
Bureau of Meteorology says average temperature was 1.14C above average for 1961-1990, making 2018 slightly warmer than 2017
Last year was Australia’s third-warmest year on record, with every state and territory recording above average temperatures in 2018.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement, the nation’s average temperature last year was 1.14C above the average for 1961-1990, making 2018 slightly warmer than 2017.
Continue reading...'It's a nightmare': Americans' health at risk as shutdown slashes EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency has been cut to a skeleton staff, meaning work to ensure clean air and water is left undone
The US government shutdown has stymied environmental testing and inspections, prompting warnings that Americans’ health is being put at increasing risk as the shutdown drags on.
More than 13,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are not at work, with just 794 people deemed essential staff currently undertaking the agency’s duties.
Continue reading...Shutdown hits American farmers already hurt by China trade war
Closure of agriculture department offices could not have come at a worse time for farmers awaiting emergency federal aid
Just as American farmers thought Donald Trump had rescued them from the economic consequences of his trade war with China, along came the government shutdown.
Related: American farmers fear being caught up in Trump's trade wars
Continue reading...'Bloody disgrace': '100-year-old' fish die in Darling River – video
Menindee resident Dick Arnold and grazier Rob McBride show their dismay at the hundreds of thousands of native fish that have been killed along a stretch of the Lower Darling River in New South Wales in a second major incident. 'This is nothing to do with drought, this is a manmade disaster'
Continue reading...Joshua Tree national park to close after trees destroyed amid shutdown
Maintenance and sanitation problems also reported 18 days after government shutdown furloughed the vast majority of park staff
For 17 days, a host of volunteers and a skeleton staff kept the trash cans and toilets from overflowing at Joshua Tree national park.
But on Tuesday, 18 days after the federal government shutdown furloughed the vast majority of national park staff, officials announced that vandalism of the park’s distinctive namesake plants and other maintenance and sanitation problems will require closure starting Thursday.
Continue reading...Warning deadly Irukandji jellyfish heading further south as number of stings surge
Twenty-two people have been hospitalised this summer with Irukandji stings, which can cause brain haemorrhages
The deadly Irukandji jellyfish is likely to spread further down Australia’s east coast as temperatures warm, an expert says, after twice as many Queenslanders were stung by the species this season than usual.
Twenty-two people have been hospitalised this summer with Irukandji stings – which are so severe they can cause brain haemorrhages and a debilitating sensation of impending doom, known as Irukandji syndrome.
Continue reading...Solar panel users to be paid for excess power – but will need to wait
People who instal solar from April will have to give away surplus until scheme launches
Households with solar panels are to get a guaranteed payment for excess electricity they export to the grid – but there will be a hiatus when people are expected to give it away for free.
Energy minister Claire Perry said on Tuesday she would legislate for a new market that will make energy firms compete to offer solar homes the best price for any unused energy they export.
Continue reading...Caroline Lucas calls for action in Brighton recycling row
Green party MP presses Veolia to accept more plastic waste
The recycling company Veolia has been accused of refusing to adapt a 30-year contract to allow Brighton and Hove council to collect more plastic waste as local authorities struggle to meet a national target of 50%.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said the company had refused requests to change the contract. As a result, attempts by the city to increase the collection of plastic waste had failed.
Continue reading...Bath Abbey to be heated using water from city's hot springs
Project to utilise the quarter of a million gallons of hot water that flows through Roman baths begins
Work to install eco-friendly heating in Bath Abbey using hot water from the city’s Roman baths is beginning.
Contractors are surveying the great Roman drain, which carries steaming water from Bath’s hot springs to the River Avon, as part of a project to use the springs to warm the nearby abbey that starts on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Carbon emissions up as Trump agenda rolls back climate change work
Last year’s 3.4% jump in emissions is the largest since 2010 recession and second largest gain in more than two decades
A new analysis shows US greenhouse gas levels are increasing as the Trump administration unravels efforts to slow climate change.
Carbon emissions rose sharply last year, increasing 3.4%, according to new estimates from the economic firm Rhodium Group. That year’s jump in emissions is the biggest since the bounce back from the recession in 2010. It is the second largest gain in more than two decades.
Continue reading...Sixty-four-metre 'fatberg' discovered in English seaside resort
Eight weeks needed to remove mass of fat, oil and wet-wipes from sewer in Sidmouth, Devon
A block of hardened fat, oil and wet-wipes longer than six double-decker buses has been discovered in a sewer metres from the sea in a popular Devon resort town.
It will take workers eight weeks to cut up and remove the 64-metre “fatberg” from the sewer beneath The Esplanade in Sidmouth.
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