The Guardian
Washing up yourself is good for the soul | Letters
I have to take issue with Jo Steranka (How you can do your bit in the war against climate change, Letters, 18 October). Dishwashers are typically much more efficient than hand washing in terms of energy and water consumption. Research carried out by Christian Paul Richter (Usage of dishwashers: observation of consumer habits in the domestic environment, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2011) on 200 households in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Britain, found that households with a dishwasher used on average 50% less water and 28% less energy per cleaned item than households that didn’t own a dishwasher. Even so, a higher degree of sustainability was identified because 20% of dishwasher cycles were not fully utilised and 52% operated at a temperature that was higher than necessary.
Furthermore, Jo Steranka states that “opinion pieces don’t help if they don’t offer practical solutions”; er, has she tried digging up a paved garden? Getting around a city (that isn’t London) without a car? Not buying new clothes until the old ones wear out? Get real, Jo! (Although I do agree about buying local produce and turning off the lights at bedtime – are there people who don’t?)
Continue reading...Bottle it up: the car park that lets drivers pay in plastic
A scheme at one Leeds’ CitiPark hopes to encourage recycling by giving motorists a 20p parking voucher for every bottle they bring in
It seems a great idea: take plastic bottles along to a car park to recycle, help rid the world of plastic pollution and get money off the cost of parking. This is the scheme running at the Leeds Merrion Centre CitiPark. For a month-long trial period, the company will collect every plastic bottle of at least 500ml brought into the car park. The bottle will be recycled and the motorist will get a 20p car parking voucher for each one. The process itself is quite straightforward: hand them to the attendant for a discount before paying. But will it catch on?
“It’s been going really well,” says parking attendant Richard Bedford. “One chap came in with 30 bottles. He only needed 15 to pay for his parking, so he’s bringing the rest back next week.” Apart from such isolated success stories, though, the car park isn’t exactly besieged by bottle-laden motorists when I arrive. Bedford estimates an average day’s take at 10 to 20 bottles, but behind him is a full crate, and he says hundreds have been recycled so far.
Continue reading...'Headless chicken monster': deep-sea cucumber seen in Southern Ocean for first time
Creature filmed off east Antartica using technology developed by Australian researchers
A deep-sea cucumber known as a “headless chicken monster” has been filmed in the Southern Ocean for the first time using camera technology developed by Australian researchers.
The creature was filmed off east Antarctica and it is the first time the species has been seen in the area.
Continue reading...Minister’s claim badger cull cuts cattle TB is attacked by experts
Government claims that the controversial badger cull is reducing tuberculosis rates in cattle have been undermined by a group of leading vets and animal welfare experts who have shared data that, they say, confirms it has made no difference.
Last month the farming minister George Eustice said: “Reductions in TB cases in Somerset and Gloucestershire are evidence that our strategy is delivering results.” But the group, which includes Iain McGill, the former government vet who helped expose the BSE cover-up, Adam Grogan, head of wildlife at the RSPCA, and Mark Jones, head of policy at the Born Free Foundation, disagrees.
Continue reading...Tasmanian salmon should be off the menu for now, says conservation group
Fish eaters advised to ‘Say No’ due to environmental concerns surrounding Tasmania’s salmon farming industry
It’s one of Australia’s – and the world’s – favourite fish but Tasmanian Atlantic salmon should be off the menu for now, according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, publishers of Australia’s independent sustainable seafood guide.
On Wednesday, the AMCS downgraded the farmed fish’s rating from an amber “Think Twice” to a red “Say No” due to ongoing environmental concerns. The previous review was in 2015.
Continue reading...Minor earthquakes detected near fracking site in Lancashire
One tremor was magnitude 0.3, the level beyond which experts say fracking has to proceed with caution
A series of small earthquakes have been detected in Lancashire close to the site where major fracking operations began this week.
The British Geological Survey, which provides impartial advice on environmental processes, recorded four tremors in the vicinity of the energy firm Cuadrilla’s site on Preston New Road near Blackpool on Friday.
Continue reading...‘We'll have space bots with lasers, killing plants’: the rise of the robot farmer
Tiny automated machines could soon take care of the entire growing process. Fewer chemicals, more efficient – where’s the downside?
In a quiet corner of rural Hampshire, a robot called Rachel is pootling around an overgrown field. With bright orange casing and a smartphone clipped to her back end, she looks like a cross between an expensive toy and the kind of rover used on space missions. Up close, she has four USB ports, a disc-like GPS receiver, and the nuts and bolts of a system called Lidar, which enables her to orient herself using laser beams. She cost around £2,000 to make.
Every three seconds, Rachel takes a closeup photograph of the plants and soil around her, which will build into a forensic map of the field and the wider farm beyond. After 20 minutes or so of this, she is momentarily disturbed by two of the farm’s dogs, unsure what to make of her.
Continue reading...£7m crowdfunding bid for Orkney tidal energy turbine launches
Scheme launched by ethical investment platform Abundance offers 12% interest
A “green” investment that pays 12% interest and involves putting your money into a major tidal energy project was launched this week.
But that high rate indicates this is a great deal riskier than putting your money into a high street savings account, with no compensation if things go wrong. So this is not one for the risk-averse.
Continue reading...Plastic recycling industry's problems costing councils up to £500,000 a year
Chinese ban on waste imports is significantly affecting UK councils’ ability to collect and recycle plastic
Major problems in the plastic recycling industry are costing local councils in England up to £500,000 extra a year, as they struggle to deal with the continuing fallout from import bans imposed by countries who are no longer able to take the UK’s waste.
A survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) revealed nearly half of councils who responded (52) say China’s ban is having a significant impact on their ability to collect and recycle plastic, due to rising costs. Fourteen councils across the country say their recycling costs have increased by an average of half a million pounds a year, in part because of rising processing charges per tonne.
Continue reading...Benny the beluga whale forces firework display postponement
Council in Kent told that disturbing the whale would breach wildlife law
It has attracted plenty of spectators during its stay. But Benny the lost beluga whale, who took up residence in the Thames last month, may end up leaving the crowds disappointed after it was announced that a fireworks display would have to be postponed to protect him.
About 15,000 people were expected to gather for the annual bonfire night celebrations in Gravesend, Kent, on 2 November to see a display set off from a barge on the river.
Continue reading...UK is endangering people's health by denying their right to clean air, says UN
World body urges Conservative government to ‘step up and show leadership’ on the air pollution crisis
The UK government is putting the health of millions of its citizens at risk by failing to tackle the country’s air pollution crisis, according the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and the environment.
David Boyd said people’s right to breathe clean air was being violated in the UK and warned the crisis was responsible for up to 50,000 deaths – and devastating the lives of “many millions” more in towns and cities across the country.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A 1,000-metre spider web and a hellbender devouring a snake are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...The Highway Code review is good news for cyclists but should just be the start
Close passing and dooring are serious concerns but there is more to be done to make our streets safer and cleaner, from funding boosts to road planning
The announcement of a Highway Code review for walking and cycling is a forward step for active travel and road safety. It may not be the millions of pounds of investment needed, but it’s a start.
The Department for Transport (DfT) review will cover issues such as how to safely overtake cyclists, guidance on preventing car-dooring of cyclists, and giving pedestrians and cyclists the right of way at side roads.
Continue reading...Save your energy – use a dishwasher | Brief letters
Invisible women | Energy efficiency | Car-free holidays | Flu jab | Welsh drama
Re your article (The invisible women, G2, 17 October), as an ex-architect turned design and technology teacher (childcare issues), I contacted the publishers of our A-level textbook to explain that Ray Eames was not the brother of Charles but his wife. Of course, when the next edition was published the same misconception was repeated.
Pat Makinson
Ramsgate, Kent
• Jo Steranka states: “Get rid of your dishwasher – it wastes energy and water” (Letters, 18 October). In fact, a dishwasher uses much less energy and water (as little as one-sixth, with modern machines) than washing by hand. The belief that anything that makes life easier must be worse for the environment is built on unfortunate moralistic foundations.
Colin Ferguson
London
UK plastic waste imports to Turkey boom – but at what cost?
Uncontrolled imports spark ‘garbage dump of the world’ fears in Turkey and raise fears over how much is ending up in landfill
Itinerant garbage pickers run down the hilly streets of Istanbul, their trolleys packed with plastic and other waste.
Their haul is a boon for the recycling industry in Turkey. “We collect 80% of the waste from the streets,” said Recep Karaman, head of the street waste collectors association.
Continue reading...UK recycling industry under investigation for fraud and corruption
Exclusive: Watchdog examining claims plastic waste is not being recycled but left to leak into rivers and oceans
The plastics recycling industry is facing an investigation into suspected widespread abuse and fraud within the export system amid warnings the world is about to close the door on UK packaging waste, the Guardian has learned.
The Environment Agency (EA) has set up a team of investigators, including three retired police officers, in an attempt to deal with complaints that organised criminals and firms are abusing the system.
Continue reading...'This is just the beginning': freed activists return to fracking site
Trio of activists freed from prison after appeal get hero’s welcome at site of anti-fracking protest
On Thursday morning, the day after being released from prison, three environmental activists who became the first people to be jailed for an anti-fracking protest in the UK returned to the Preston New Road fracking site near Blackpool.
Related: I’m out of jail after my fracking protest. But justice has not been done | Simon Roscoe Blevins
Continue reading...The Human Signature: Edward Burtynsky's Anthropocene – in pictures
Burtynsky’s unsettling large-scale images of industrial-scale extraction, urbanisation and deforestation reveal humanity’s devastating impact on the planet
- The exhibition will run at Flowers Gallery London from 17 Oct - 24 Nov
'Horrific' footage reveals fish suffocating to death on industrial farms in Italy
An Italian NGO has published footage taken on intensive fish farms that appears to reveal troubling practices in an industry that so far has largely gone unregulated.
Shocking footage of intensively farmed fish has emerged in Italy which raises questions about working practices on aquaculture farms for supermarket produce, and which has sparked fresh calls for regulation.
Unlike mammals, fish have almost no legal protections in the EU and the images, secretly filmed in 2017 and 2018, represent the first investigation into Europe’s “factory farms” for fish.
Continue reading...Minister backing fracking drive has never visited shale site
Energy minister Claire Perry, who has defended fracking, admits she has ‘not yet had the opportunity’ to visit any site
The minister spearheading the UK’s renewed push for fracking has admitted she has never been to a shale gas well.
In the week that fracking restarted in the UK for the first time in seven years, the energy minister, Claire Perry, revealed to a fellow Conservative MP that she had not yet had the chance to visit a shale site.
Continue reading...