The Guardian
Facebook video spreads climate denial misinformation to 5 million users | Dana Nuccitelli
Facebook is still struggling to contain its fake news problem
Marc Morano is the real-world fossil fuel industry version of Nick Naylor. His career began working for Rush Limbaugh, followed by a job at Cybercast News Service where he launched the ‘Swift Boat’ attacks on 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. In 2006, Morano became the director of communications for Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who is perhaps best known for throwing a snowball on the Senate floor and calling human-caused global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
Thus it’s unsurprising that in 2009, Morano began directing fossil fuel-funded think tanks designed to cast doubt on the reality of and dangers associated with human-caused global warming. As he admitted in Merchants of Doubt, Morano frequently embodies the strategy of climate denial known as ‘fake experts’:
Continue reading...UK theme parks to offer half-price entry in exchange for used plastic bottles
Legoland and Thorpe Park among the attractions that have joined Coca-Cola in a trial offering instant incentives for recycling
Visitors to some of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions are to be offered half-price entry in exchange for used plastic drinks bottles, as part of a trial starting on Wednesday which gives instant incentives for recycling.
In a tie-up between theme park operator Merlin and drinks giant Coca-Cola, a series of so-called “reverse vending machines” will be installed outside the entrances of Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Legoland.
Continue reading...Country diary: bandit birds keep these glorious gardens wild
Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys: The crows live a parallel existence as shrine animals, stealing tributes from visitors, essential to the life of the place but overlooked
Two young crows, beaks agape, sat quietly on the stump of a beech tree I cut down on the eastern bank below the castle walls in the late 1970s. The crows waited for a parent to turn up with the remains of a sandwich nicked from the cafe down the garden. They were living a kind of parallel existence as shrine animals, dark creatures in the garden’s gloriously vivid displays of flower, stealing tributes from visitors, essential to the life of the place but overlooked.
Cultural places in the public view have a wild private life. Behind the care and hard work that sustains a garden like this and gives it aesthetic qualities that people from all over the world come to experience, there is a wild life that grounds it in place and provides an ecological context for the cultural. Much of this life, once persecuted for its wildness, is now celebrated as wildlife but crows retain that outsider, transgressive character. However beautiful the garden is, crows reveal a secret bandit territory. Common and dark, they are almost invisible and yet nonetheless tutelary.
Continue reading...South Australia on track to meet 75% renewables target Liberals promised to scrap
Liberal energy minister, who inherited policy criticised as a mix of ‘ideology and idiocy’, says he’ll ensure it does not come at too high a price
South Australia’s energy minister says the state is on track to have 75% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 – the target set by the former Labor premier Jay Weatherill and once rejected by his Liberal government.
And Dan van Holst Pellekaan pledged to ensure it does not come at too high a price.
Continue reading...California wildfires partially shut down Yosemite at peak of tourist season
National park, which gets more than half a million visitors in July alone, sees section closed amid dangerous air quality
Yosemite national park has been partially closed as wildfires continue to sweep across California this week. Fueled by dry conditions and high temperatures, smoke has settled over the popular tourist destination, causing unsafe conditions for visitors and workers, prompting officials to issue a temporary closure and evacuate the remaining tourists beginning Wednesday at noon.
National Park Service representatives announced at a public meeting Tuesday that the iconic Yosemite valley, as well as the Wawona area, would be closed temporarily until air quality conditions improve.
Continue reading...Specieswatch: European hornets visit our pond in the heatwave
European hornets have moved north with climate change, but are generally less aggressive than common wasps
In a drought, all sorts of wildlife gets attracted to a garden pond since there are few other sources of water nearby. Regular visitors are wasps, the largest of which is the European hornet, Vespa crabro, which dwarfs common wasps because it is twice the size, at 25mm long.
According to the experts it is less aggressive than the common wasp, but carries a substantial sting – so requires respect. Although once confined to the extreme south of Britain because it was too cold further north, climate change has allowed hornets to extend their range as far north as Scotland, and they are now common in the Midlands and central England.
Continue reading...(Voracious consumption) x (rising population) = planetary crisis | Letters
Blaming China for climate change is a clearcut case of “yellow peril” hysteria (Letters, 12 July). On average, a person in China consumes less than half of the emissions of a person in the US (7.2 tonnes per capita annually compared with 16.5 tonnes). So why all the finger-wagging at China? There’s a blatant mistake recurring in carbon politics. Yes, as a nation, China emits the most carbon dioxide, but an astronomical volume of these emissions are to manufacture our goods in the west. Is it fair to maintain a voracious level of consumption in the US and UK while blaming China for producing the goods that we’re consuming? Don’t look at emissions in isolation. Look at them in tandem with consumption, and then we’ll see where to place the burden of blame. Also, China’s investments in renewables have caused the costs to plummet, from which the entire world can now benefit. China invests more than $100bn in domestic renewables every year – more than twice the level of the US, and more than the US and the EU combined.
Marcus Nield
Climate Change Adaptation Unit, UN Environment, Nairobi, Kenya
• Your article (23 July) accurately sums up the excellent work done by the Global Footprint Network regarding our depletion of the planet’s ability to support us. What, unlike GFN themselves, the article did not acknowledge is that the number of people consuming those resources is a critical, if not the critical, driver of the unfolding crisis. In 1970, our global population was less than half of the 7.6 billion we have presently. In 1970, Earth Overshoot Day fell on the 29 December: in 2018, on 1 August. Can anyone credibly claim that those two changes are not linked?
Continue reading...Cuadrilla gets go-ahead to start fracking at Lancashire site
Energy minister issues first permit since new regulatory regime introduced
Shale gas firm Cuadrilla has been given the green light by the government to start fracking at a well in Lancashire, after the energy minister issued the first fracking permit since a new regulatory regime was introduced.
Fracking is expected to begin in late August or early September at the Preston New Road site, between Blackpool and Preston, which has been the focus of 18 months of protests since work on the site started.
Continue reading...Beavers released in Forest of Dean as solution to flooding
Hope is that pair of beavers build dams that help hold back water and improve biodiversity
Four hundred years after the beaver was hunted to extinction in the UK, two of the mammals are being reintroduced on to government land in an English forest as part of a scheme to assess whether they could be a solution to flooding.
Two Eurasian beavers were being released on Tuesday into their new lodge within a large penned-off section of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
Continue reading...Trump officials may allow 'shaker machines' to search arctic refuge for oil
Seismic testing plan would cause irreparable harm to Alaska national wildlife refuge, biologists say
The Trump administration has announced it is considering a proposal to conduct seismic testing for oil and gas in the Arctic national wildlife refuge, the largest such preserve in the US.
If the plan moves forward, vehicles with “shakers” – diesel-powered equipment that sends tremors through the landscape – will be deployed along Alaska’s northern coastal plain in an effort to map underground hydrocarbon deposits.
Continue reading...Mary Robinson launches new feminist fight against climate change
Former Irish president’s initiative kicks off with podcasts pairing her with comedian Maeve Higgins
Women around the world who are leading the fight against climate damage are to be highlighted by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and UN high commissioner, in the hopes of building a new global movement that will create “a feminist solution for climate change”.
Perhaps more revolutionary still, the new initiative is light-hearted in tone, optimistic in outlook and presents positive stories in what the originators hope will be seen as a fun way.
Continue reading...Post-Brexit green watchdog must have teeth, MPs demand
Committee says body that takes on environment oversight role needs powers to hold government to account
A new environmental watchdog with powers to hold the government to account must be set up after Brexit to ensure protections are kept in place, an influential group of MPs has said.
The environmental audit committee (EAC) on Tuesday also called for targets on air, water, soil, biodiversity and other issues to be legally binding and subject to five-yearly reports, in a similar way to the carbon budgets produced by the Committee on Climate Change under the 2008 Climate Change Act.
Continue reading...Republican lawmaker pitches carbon tax in defiance of party stance
Representative Carlos Curbelo has proposed a tax on carbon dioxide emissions but Republicans are expected to block it
A Republican lawmaker has proposed the US introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, in a departure from the party’s decade-long hostility toward any measure aimed at addressing climate change.
Carlos Curbelo of Florida, considered a moderate GOP member of Congress, said a carbon tax would avoid “saddling young Americans with a crushing environmental debt” and expressed his belief that “this bill or legislation similar to it” will become law one day.
Continue reading...Rising temperatures linked to increased suicide rates
Scientists warn the impact of climate change may be as large as economic recessions, which are known to increase self-harm
Rising temperatures are linked to increasing rates of suicide, according to a large new study. The researchers warn that the impact of climate change on suicides may be as significant as economic recessions, which are known to increase rates of self-harm.
The links between mental health and global warming have not been widely researched but the new work analysed temperature and suicides across the US and Mexico in recent decades. It found that the rate of suicide rose by 0.7% in the US and by 2.1% in Mexico when the average monthly temperature rose by 1C.
Continue reading...UK electric car drivers face paying more to charge at peak times
Ofgem outlines measures to ensure more drivers can use the electricity network
British electric car drivers face having to pay more to power their car if they refuse to shift their charging to off-peak times, in a move designed to lessen their burden on the electricity network.
There are currently 160,000 plug-in cars on UK roads but rapid growth means their impact on the energy system must be managed carefully, said energy regulator Ofgem.
Continue reading...Garden photographer of the year: macro winners – in pictures
International photographic competition, which runs in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, awards special prize for the best close-up images
Continue reading...Scientists detect a human fingerprint in the atmosphere's seasonal cycles | John Abraham
In the troposphere, scientists detected a human-caused signal in the seasonal cycle
We know that humans are causing Earth’s climate to change. It used to be that “climate change” mostly referred to increasing temperatures near the Earth’s surface, but increasingly, climate change has come to mean so much more. It means warming oceans, melting ice, changing weather patterns, increased storms, and warming in other places.
A recent study has just been published that finds ‘fingerprints’ of human-caused warming someplace most of us don’t think about – in the higher atmosphere. Not only that, but these scientists have found changes to the seasonal climate – how much the temperature varies from winter to summer to winter – and the changes they found matched expectations.
War on Waste returns: Craig Reucassel dishes dirt on recycling crisis
Host of ABC sleeper hit of 2017 reflects achievements of season one, and what still needs to change
Who would have thought a show about garbage could be so compelling?
The success of last year’s sleeper hit War on Waste was a happy surprise to its presenter, Craig Reucassel, and the team behind the ABC TV show – not least because of how responsive audiences were to many of its suggestions. Sales of reusable coffee cups shot up, worm farm suppliers struggled to keep up with demand and the #BantheBag campaign helped to spur supermarkets to get rid of single-use plastic bags.
Continue reading...‘We’ve suffered enough’: Durham locals fight new open-cast coal mine
The Banks Group mine is going ahead despite fears it will devastate the local environment
From the end of her garden June Davison can see and hear the heavy machinery stripping away the valley. Soon there will be explosions and dust to add to the 12 hour thrum of engines as the coal is stripped from below the earth.
After 40 years of local opposition that has helped keep this area of the Derwent valley in County Durham untouched, open-cast mining has begun between the villages of Dipton, Leadgate and Medomsley, once home to a deeply entrenched mining community around what was South Medomsley colliery.
Continue reading...Country diary 1918: a word of support for the ragwort
23 July 1918 This beautiful weed attracts the summer brood of tortoiseshell butterflies just out from the chrysalis
The ragwort, a really beautiful weed, is out along the lane sides, but, perhaps thanks to women’s labour, is not over-abundant in our local fields. In Wales, where the fields are seldom as clean as they are in Cheshire, big rank ragworts and thistles dot the pastures, and often rise above the crops. The ragwort attracts the summer brood of small tortoiseshell butterflies just out from the chrysalis, but these showy flies visit it for its sweets and not as a food plant for the caterpillars. No one can class the tortoiseshell amongst destructive insects, for it feeds upon the common nettle, and thus helps to destroy a troublesome and prolific weed.
Related: Damned as dangerous but ragwort is full of life
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