The Guardian
Brexit to slash farmland prices by up to a fifth, forecasts say
Decades-long boom in agricultural land prices will cease as EU subsidies are axed
Brexit will slice nearly one-fifth off the value of Britain’s commercial farms according to forecasters, bringing to an end the decades-long boom in agricultural land prices as EU subsidies are withdrawn.
Property experts Savills said farmland was likely to be the worst-hit sector in the entire UK residential and commercial property sector – faring even worse than shuttered high street shops – as common agricultural policy subsidies are withdrawn.
Continue reading...Female penguins 'get stranded more because they travel further'
Longer journeys may exhaust females, say scientists tracking birds off South American coast
Every year, thousands of Magellanic penguins get stranded along the coast of South America – but puzzlingly, about 75% of those that get stuck are female. Now scientists say they have worked out what is behind the gender imbalance: the females migrate further north than males.
Magellanic penguins finish breeding in Patagonia in February, and during the subsequent winter months head north, reaching as far as Brazil, in search of anchovies. But every year thousands become stranded, with many airlifted to safety onboard military aircraft.
Continue reading...Jellyfish sting more than 5,000 holidaymakers on Queensland's coast
An invasion of bluebottles on Queensland’s Gold and Sunshine coasts led to thousands being treated
More than 5,000 people were stung by bluebottles on Queensland’s Gold and Sunshine coasts over the weekend as weather drove a wall of jellyfish onto the shore.
Conditions eased on Monday but remnants of the bluebottle armada (the correct term for a bunch of bluebottles) still dot the beaches and more than 200 people were treated for stings, mostly at the Sunshine Coast.
Continue reading...The end of coffee: could Australia save the world's beans?
Climate change may devastate the globe’s major coffee-growing regions through extreme weather events – but Australia could be the solution
If a future of relentless fires, droughts, superstorms and rising sea levels makes you feel like you need a strong caffeinated beverage, there is some bad news: climate change is coming for the world’s coffee beans.
Greg Meenahan, the partnership director at the non-profit institute World Coffee Research, puts it this way: “Demand for coffee is expected to double by the year 2050 and, if nothing is done, more than half of the world’s suitable coffee land will be pushed into unsuitability due to climate change. Without research and development, the coffee sector will need up to 180m more bags of coffee in 2050 than we are likely to have.”
Continue reading...Outback regeneration at Bon Bon station reserve – a picture essay
The property is within the traditional lands of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara people and was bought 10 years ago by Bush Heritage
It’s day two of my visit and the suspense is killing me as we slowly walk towards the last of the pitfall traps we are checking that day. A plastic drum that has been buried in the ground with its rim at surface level is metres away, the small trap a form of passive collection used during ecology studies. As she steps over the small fenceline that draws the animals in, elation washes over Kate Taylor’s face – there’s a painted dragon, bright blue and green. One of two managers of Bon Bon station reserve in the Australian outback, she hasn’t seen one of these small lizards for years. She gently picks it up as it wraps its claws around her index finger. The lizard barely reaches her second knuckle. Its colours are so vibrant and it feels like we just won the lottery.
Continue reading...Senate crossbench gave renewables $23bn boost by thwarting Abbott's plan
Exclusive: Decisions by Labor and crossbench to save clean energy agencies encouraged investment, report says
The Senate’s decisions to stop Tony Abbott abolishing clean energy agencies helped create renewable energy projects worth $23.4bn, a new report says.
The Australia Institute says decisions taken by Labor and the crossbench between 2013 and 2015 to save the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) have now secured $7.8bn in public funding and investment for clean energy.
Continue reading...London nurseries to get air purifiers after toxic air concerns
Mayor Sadiq Khan says toddlers’ exposure to air pollution is ‘inexcusable’
A group of state-run nurseries in London are to be given air filtration systems as concern grows about the impact of the UK’s toxic air on some of the capital’s youngest and most vulnerable residents.
Five nurseries have been selected for the purifiers in the first wave, with 20 nurseries being audited to measure the extent of toddlers’ exposure to the potentially deadly particles from vehicles.
Continue reading...'Oh gosh!' Sushi king pays record price for bluefin tuna – video
A record $3.1m (£2.4m) has been paid for a giant bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year. It was paid by sushi tycoon Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain
London's ultra-low emission zone: good or bad idea?
Campaigners say it will cut pollution, but opponents claim it will hit poor people hardest
“I’m just really glad the ULEZ is coming. Children’s lungs can’t wait,” says Jemima Hartshorn, a Brixton resident who helped set up campaign group Mums For Lungs.
Continue reading...'Appalling' toilets and rule-breaking as US shutdown hits national parks
Deaths reported at several sites amid staffing shortages, as local teams lend a hand at Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and elsewhere
Human waste by the side of a busy road in Yosemite. Overflowing toilets in the Grand Canyon. The Rocky Mountains inaccessible because of unplowed roads.
And in all these places, ordinary people stepping in to try to save some of America’s most revered landmarks from being overrun.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Rescued turtles, piggybacking toads and a sadly missed rhino feature in this week’s gallery
Continue reading...Greater Manchester tells fracking firms they are not welcome
City region’s move deals blow to industry amid wider discontent in regions
Greater Manchester will effectively ban fracking as part of its effort to become carbon neutral by 2038, in a setback for the controversial industry.
The region’s mayor, Andy Burnham, said the combined authority would put planning measures in place that create “a presumption” against fracking for shale gas.
Continue reading...No-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for UK farmers, warns NFU
Union boss Minette Batters says tariffs would price British farms out of export market
The UK’s farmers face a profound crisis in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and there is dangerous ground ahead even if a deal is agreed, according to the head of the National Farmers’ Union.
Minette Batters, the union’s first female leader, is determined to be cautiously positive about Brexit, for which a majority of farmers voted. “We have to embrace the future … and make sure we have a goal and a plan,” said Batters, who declined to reveal how she voted in the referendum.
Continue reading...Caroline Lucas urges parliament to 'seriously consider' tax on meat
Exclusive: Green MP will tell Oxford Farming Conference UK must prioritise sustainability
Parliament must “seriously consider” levying a tax on meat to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help to render the farming industry carbon neutral, the Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, is urging.
She will say on Friday that a meat tax in the UK could be offset for more sustainable meat producers, such as organic livestock farmers, through more money for sustainable agriculture schemes.
Continue reading...Let’s make 2019 the year of a green new deal | Letters
The counter to Larry Elliott’s gloomy economic projections for 2019 (For those inclined to pessimism, the new year offers plenty to be worried about, 31 December) is to be found in his earlier article making the case for countries to put their economies on an “environmental war footing” (We’re back to 1930s politics: anger and, yes, appeasement, 20 December).
To deliver this will, however, require that people be convinced that they will benefit and that there is the money to pay for such a transformation.
Continue reading...Keeping US national parks open during the shutdown is a terrible mistake | Jonathan B Jarvis
A former park service director says leaving parks open without key staff is equivalent to leaving the Smithsonian open with priceless artefacts unattended
When I was a ranger at Crater Lake national park in the 1980s, the average snowfall at headquarters was 500in a year, and snow could accumulate at 2in an hour. One of my jobs as ranger was to shovel out the fire hydrants every day, so that if there was a fire in the hotel, headquarters or housing, we’d be able to fight it. Our maintenance staff plowed roads for safe visitor access and rangers patrolled on skis, regularly performing rescues. This was all part of ensuring that, in accordance with the National Park Service’s founding charter, the parks are “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations”.
Leaving the parks open without these essential staff is equivalent to leaving the Smithsonian museums open without any staff to protect the priceless artefacts. Yet as a result of the government shutdown, which furloughed most park staff, this is what has happened. It is a violation of the stewardship mandate, motivated only by politics. While the majority of the public will be respectful, there will always be a few who take advantage of the opportunity to do lasting damage.
Continue reading...Searching for scrap in Guatemala City – in pictures
Workers known as guajeros descend daily to search for recyclable items at one of the biggest rubbish dumps in Guatemala City. Hundreds carry out the work, which is dangerous due to mudslides and collapses but can earn them nearly twice the minimum daily wage
Continue reading...New lithium hydroxide factory in Western Australia wins federal approval
Plant set to boost local jobs and supply growing global demand for lithium, which is used in renewable energy storage
Earthworks for a new lithium hydroxide factory in Western Australia are expected to begin this month after the $1bn project received federal environmental approval.
The plant owned by the world’s largest lithium producer, the US chemical company Albemarle, was approved by the WA government in October and is estimated to create up to 500 jobs in construction, with another 100 to 500 operational jobs once it is operational.
Continue reading...'What is the sea telling us?': Māori tribes fearful over whale strandings | Eleanor Ainge Roy
New Zealand’s whale whisperers worry that manmade changes in the ocean are behind the spike in beachings
Whale whisperer Hori Parata was just seven years old when he attended his first mass stranding, a beaching of porpoises in New Zealand’s Northland, their cries screeching through the air on the deserted stretch of sand.
Seven decades later, Parata, 75, has now overseen more than 500 strandings and is renowned in New Zealand as the leading Māori whale expert, called on by tribes around the country for cultural guidance as marine strandings become increasingly complex and fatal.
Continue reading...'Ditch cling film and switch to soap': 10 easy ways to reduce your plastics use in 2019
Guardian environment correspondent Sandra Laville explains why we can’t recycle our way out of the plastics problem, and suggests ways to reduce your footprint
Plastic has become perhaps the most demonised material of the last 12 months, as the scale of pollution in the oceans becomes increasingly apparent.
With dire predictions that if nothing is done there will be more plastic in the seas by weight than fish by 2050, it has become evident that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic problem.
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