The Guardian
Have you been affected by the drought in Australia?
We’d like to hear from people who’ve been affected by the drought in New South Wales and other states in east Australia. Share your experiences
A record dry spell has caused the worst drought in 100 years in parts of eastern Australia. Farmers with livestock in parts of New South Wales have been some of the most affected as low rainfall and a dry winter have depleted the grass needed to feed livestock.
Farmers are having to buy expensive feed to keep animals alive and the extra costs are putting some livelihoods at risk. The NSW government recently approved an emergency drought relief package of $600m, at least $250m of which will cover low-interest loans to assist eligible farms. Though the package has been welcomed there are concerns among farmers that it’s not enough.
Continue reading...Labour pledges to reinstate Agricultural Wages Board
Jeremy Corbyn to announce policy that aims to raise rural workers’ living standards in areas of high inequality
Labour has pledged to improve the pay and conditions of rural workers in England by reinstating the Agricultural Wages Board, which was abolished five years ago.
Jeremy Corbyn will announce the policy on Sunday at the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, which commemorates the history of trade unionism and agricultural workers’ struggle for fair pay.
Continue reading...Two new peacock spiders identified in Western Australia
Biologist Jürgen Otto and colleagues have named two species of the extraordinarily colourful dancing spiders
It is only a few millimetres in size, performs a dance as part of a courtship ritual and has striking coloured markings on its back that “look like a pharaoh’s headdress”.
But when biologist Jürgen Otto first spotted the peacock spider species he has named Maratus unicup, he didn’t immediately recognise how special it was.
Continue reading...'Double wrap it for convenience': excessive plastic packaging - in pictures
We asked, you answered – and there was no shortage of examples of excessive plastic packaging across Australia shared via Guardian Witness
Continue reading...Nine activists defending the Earth from violent assault
On a planet of billions, nine represent the strong minority battling murder in the global corruption of land rights
Individually, they are stories of courage and tragedy. Together, they tell a tale of a natural world under ever more violent assault.
The portraits in this series are of nine people who are risking their lives to defend the land and environment in some of the planet’s most remote or conflict-riven regions.
Continue reading...Smart meters to save UK households only £11 a year, report finds
Report by MPs and peers says predicted benefits of scheme ‘likely to be slashed further’
Government predictions of the savings smart meters will generate for consumers are inflated, out of date and based on a number of questionable assumptions, a group of MPs and peers has said.
They also said the rollout of smart meters risked going over budget, was past its deadline and must be reviewed immediately.
Continue reading...'We have become guardians': Turkey's accidental forest protectors
Birhan Erkutlu and Tuğba Günal wanted to ‘get away from it all’ but are now leading a campaign to protect rivers and trees from hydropower plants
Birhan Erkutlu and Tuğba Günal moved into the forests of Antalya to get away from it all. They wanted a natural, peaceful life free of capitalism, consumer culture, social media, the internet, even electricity. Fate had other plans.
Fourteen years on, the two artists are now figureheads of a campaign to protect rivers and trees from a cascade of hydropower plants. Their tweets and Facebook posts attract hundreds of thousands of followers. They use drones to expose wrongdoing. And they have overcome threats, warning shots and a hostile political culture to lobby successfully for the creation of a new protected area.
Continue reading...'God wants you to act on what's in front of you': enforcing conservation law in the Coral Triangle
Robert Chan risks his life to stop poachers and powerful developers destroying precious marine life in the Philippines
Confiscated bottles of cyanide, fishing dynamite and more than 600 chainsaws decorate the office of Robert Chan , leader of arguably the world’s most effective direct-action eco-vigilante organisation.
The Palawan NGO Network Incorporated risk their lives to protect reefs and coastal forests in the Coral Triangle, a global hotspot for marine biodiversity and violent environmental crime.
Continue reading...'We had no plans for violence': Indian campaign against toxic smelter turned deadly
Fatima Babu’s decades-long campaign against a toxic copper smelter in Tamil Nadu says the cost of victory was too high
For 24 years, Fatima Babu struggled to galvanise the citizens of Tuticorin in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu against the toxic threat posed by the Sterlite Copper smelter. Often working thanklessly and sometimes alone, she filed lawsuits, organised workshops and gave interviews to raise awareness.
The English professor-turned-activist hoped that people would eventually rally to the cause, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine how quickly opinion could change or how violently the authorities would respond.
'You will never run from death': shot by poachers in Uganda
Ranger Samuel Loware’s life is under constant threat in his efforts to conserve wildlife from heavily armed guerillas
The bullet that pierced the shoulder of Ugandan ranger Samuel Loware had already taken one life and could easily have added his. The shell was fired by a Sudanese poacher trying to flee back over the border with contraband meat from the Kidepo Valley national park.
Loware had been tracking the fugitive - one of a band of heavily armed raiders - from the early morning with the help of a local villager. As the two pursuers approached a gully, the poacher opened fire from behind a tree trunk that had been pushed down by an elephant. One shot passed through the chest of the villager into the body of the ranger, who was returning fire.
'I thank god I am alive': standing firm against mineral extraction in South Africa
Nonhle Mbuthuma is battling for her community’s right to say no to the exploitation of their territory in a hangover of the apartheid era
As a child, Nonhle Mbuthuma would wake up in her family’s thatched hut listening to the waves crashing on South Africa’s Wild Coast , then go and play on the sand dunes, head off to school or help her parents cultivate sweet potatoes and bananas on the family plot.
Today, she can rarely stay in the same place for any length of time and is more likely to be keeping her ears alert to signs of danger. At times she needs bodyguards or goes into hiding.
Continue reading...'I tended to the bodies': attacked by the Philippine army
Villagers massacred amid conflict between indigenous community and coffee plantation
When the soldiers opened fire on Datal Bonglangon village, there was first confusion, then terror, then grief. But Marivic Danyan – one of the younger, quieter members of the community – decided to be strong. Reluctantly, heartbreakingly strong.
The young T’boli woman had been preparing lunch when her remote, indigenous community on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao was peppered with gunfire. One bullet ripped into the wooden wall beside her. Another pierced the corrugated tin roof.
'A hitman could come and kill me': the fight for indigenous land rights in Mexico
Nurse-turned activist Isela Gonzalez lives with bodyguards and constant threat in her fight against destructive economic interests
Not all land defenders fight in remote forests and coastlands. Some take the battle to the centres of power: to courtrooms, parliament buildings and corporate headquarters. The veneer of urban civility may be glossier here, but the struggle is no less dangerous. In some cases, it can be worse.
Isela Gonzalez has been threatened more times than she can remember by university-educated men in suits, whose business interests – in logging, mining, agriculture and narcotics – are challenged by her work as director of Alianza Sierra Madre to protect indigenous land rights in Mexico’s western Sierra Madre.
Continue reading...'This is a last hold-out': Son of a murdered farmer in Colombia
Ramón Bedoya says his father, a land activist, was shot by local paramilitaries in league with agribusiness and narcos who fill the void left by Farc rebels
The bullet-proof 4x4 is speeding through the countryside of western Colombia with two armed bodyguards, reggaeton is blasting out from the speakers, banana trees flit past the reinforced windows and the protected passenger – a threatened, recently bereaved 18-year-old campesino (poor farmer) – is explaining from bitter personal experience why he thinks Netflix’s Narcos TV series is trash.
“It glorifies killers,” says Ramón Bedoya. “Drug dealers and paramilitaries. These are the type of people who murdered my dad.”
Continue reading...'They should be put in prison': battling Brazil's huge alumina plant
In Brazil, Maria do Soccoro Silva is leading Amazonian forest people against alleged land-grabbing, corruption and pollution
A warning voice on the telephone, a home intrusion, a punch in the face, a pistol barrel prodded against the ear.
The intimidation of Maria do Socorro Silva has come in many forms since she began defending her Amazonian home against the world’s biggest alumina refinery and its local government backers.
Continue reading...Country diary: birds cherrypick their share of fruit
St Dominic, Tamar Valley: This year’s exceptional cherry harvest has seen our feathered friends gorge on maturing fruit
Abundant fruit reflects the sun as we pick cherries in the cool of evening. The spreading trees in James and Mary’s orchard of traditional varieties provide oases of shade among dried-up grasses and help protect the shallow roots from drought; despite the hot weather, rustling leaves remain fresh and bright green.
A few weeks ago, pigeons and jackdaws flocked here to gorge on maturing fruit, breaking off new shoots and littering the ground with wizened stones. Since these birds left for alternative venues and feasts of ripening grain, the remaining fruit has become plump and juicy, tasting sweet and slightly tart, as delicious as that of ancestor trees. These were common in the valley’s widespread orchards during the 18th and 19th centuries, with only a few surviving until the 1980s.
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: heatwave brings death and civil unrest
The dry and hot summer of 1911 drove Londoners to paddle in the Serpentine while, in the north, mills closed for lack of power
The long hot summer of 1911 is credited with changing fashions, with women shedding whalebone corsets and brassieres becoming the rage. Edwardian aristocrats are said to have taken up nude tennis at their country estates, although at the ever more crowded seaside resorts men and women still used bathing machines towed into the sea. The sexes were kept segregated in case any flesh was exposed.
Continue reading...Seagull rage: why humans and birds are at war in Britain
Name: Seagull rage.
Prevalence: High in coastal areas.
Continue reading...Climate campaigners lose high court battle over carbon target
Charity had argued the government was in breach of international obligations under the Paris agreement
Environmental campaigners have lost their high court challenge against the government over its policy for tackling climate change.
The charity Plan B Earth brought legal action against the government’s stance on the 2050 carbon target, set out under the Climate Change Act 2008.
Continue reading...Ibis that was extinct in wild taught to migrate by following aircraft
Birds bred in captivity led on three-week migration south from Germany by human ‘foster parents’
Leaning out of an ultralight aircraft, Corinna Esterer turns toward a flock of peculiar black birds soaring just a few metres away. “Come, come ibis,” she yells through her megaphone. Drawn by Esterer’s voice, the birds dart to the aircraft, and follow it to a field overlooking Lake Constance in southern Germany. Once on the ground, the ibis flock to Esterer. To the birds, the young woman is their parent.
For more than 300 years, the northern bald ibis has been extinct in the wild in central Europe, with small populations surviving only in zoos. But recently, it has celebrated a slow but steady comeback thanks to human foster parents who have shown the birds how to migrate south by leading the way in ultralight aircraft.