The Guardian
Third Heathrow runway would be bad for the whole UK | Letters
We are writing to you regarding Heathrow and the hidden costs that we believe need to be explored.
Lots of promises have been made to lots of people in different parts of the country about the extra domestic routes they can expect if a third Heathrow runway is built. It’s all part of a divide-and-rule strategy which glosses over the health impacts of worsening noise and air pollution in south and west London while cheerily talking up the prospects of improved internal connections from an expanded hub airport.
Continue reading...Rain or shine: new solar cell captures energy from raindrops
New device is designed to prevent power output plummeting when the sun isn’t shining – but practical application is still some years off
A solar panel that can generate electricity from falling raindrops has been invented, enabling power to flow even when skies cloud over or the sun has set.
Solar power installation is soaring globally thanks to costs plunging 90% in the past decade, making it the cheapest electricity in many parts of the world. But the power output can plummet under grey skies and researchers are working to squeeze even more electricity from panels.
Continue reading...Krill fishing poses serious threat to Antarctic ecosystem, report warns
Greenpeace finds industrial fishing taking place in the feeding grounds of whales and penguins, with vessels involved in oil spills and accidents
Industrial fishing for krill in the pristine waters around Antarctica is threatening the future of one of the world’s last great wildernesses, according to a new report.
The study by Greenpeace analysed the movements of krill fishing vessels in the region and found they were increasingly operating “in the immediate vicinity of penguin colonies and whale feeding grounds”.
Continue reading...Country diary: a woodland walk to the dawn chorus
Wiggonholt Common, West Sussex: The nuthatch hops around, searching the ground, before launching high into a tree above me, where it starts to sing
Dawn passes barely perceptibly in the damp darkness of the wood. Rain is falling, dripping through the canopy, forming thin, cold cascades of droplets pattering on the mud below. I turn a corner and stop – a nuthatch is drinking from a pool on the track, raising its pointed bill to gulp down the water. With its black eye-stripe, blue-grey back and bright orange underparts, the bird is a flash of colour in the grey woodland.
When it has finished drinking, the nuthatch hops around, searching the ground, before launching high into a tree above me, where it starts to sing, trilling loudly. It interrupts its song now and again to hammer the bark with its bill, digging up grubs and insects. After swallowing, it sings again, my presence barely disturbing its routine.
Continue reading...Greens electric car push: end sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030
Tax on luxury fossil fuel cars to fund expansion of Australia’s charging network
The Greens have proposed introducing mandatory fuel efficiency standards, ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and imposing a four-year 17% tax on luxury petrol and diesel cars as part of an electric vehicle policy announced on Tuesday.
Under the proposal Australia would adopt a mandatory fuel efficiency standard of 105g of CO2 a kilometre by 2022, three years earlier than a proposal being considered by the federal government.
Continue reading...Microplastic pollution in oceans is far worse than feared, say scientists
A study reveals highest microplastic pollution levels ever recorded in a river in Manchester, UK and shows that billions of particles flooded into the sea from rivers in the area in just one year
The number of tiny plastic pieces polluting the world’s oceans is vastly greater than thought, new research indicates.
The work reveals the highest microplastic pollution yet discovered anywhere in the world in a river near Manchester in the UK. It also shows that the major floods in the area in 2015-16 flushed more than 40bn pieces of microplastic into the sea.
Continue reading...Burning coal may have caused Earth’s worst mass extinction | Dana Nuccitelli
New geological research from Utah suggests the end-Permian extinction was mainly caused by burning coal, ignited by magma
Earth has so far gone through five mass extinction events – scientists are worried we’re on course to trigger a sixth – and the deadliest one happened 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian geologic period. In this event, coined “the Great Dying,” over 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species went extinct. It took about 10 million years for life on Earth to recover from this catastrophic event.
Scientists have proposed a number of possible culprits responsible for this mass extinction, including an asteroid impact, mercury poisoning, a collapse of the ozone layer, and acid rain. Heavy volcanic activity in Siberia was suspected to play a key role in the end-Permian event.
Continue reading...Country diary: the first farmers did not go in for squared-off plots
Chew Valley, Somerset: these unruly fields are what we call ‘ancient countryside’ and its pattern may go back to neolithic times
When we first visited Folly Farm some 30 years ago this 250-acre plot was up for sale. Gates were hanging from their hinges, the hedges were rampant and the pastures were waist-deep in flowers; the 20th century did not appear to have happened yet, nor even the 19th.
These unruly fields were carved from the land, not drawn by a ruler – the first farmers did not go in for squared-off corners as they hacked into the wildwood. The landscape historian Oliver Rackham called this “ancient countryside” (as opposed to the regular fields of “planned countryside” formed by the enclosures) and its pattern may go back as far as the neolithic period.
Continue reading...Saving the yellow-eyed penguin – a photo essay
Photographer Murdo Macleod visits New Zealand’s South Island where conservationists are seeking to protect the endangered yellow-eyed penguin from predation, disease and habitat destruction
At the end of the day, having avoided being bitten on the flipper by a barracouta or chewed by a shark, a shy yellow-eyed penguin prepares to come ashore and make its bed in the bush. Emerging from the surf, he scans the apparently empty sandy strip with his beady eye for signs of danger. Though he is a swift swimmer, he is fettered by his stumpy legs when ashore. But he grows confident as he comes close to the dense brush.
Then the unexpected happens: eight dark figures spring from three different locations and sprint toward the hoiho – or “little shouter” as the yellow-eyed penguin is known in Māori. He has been bushwhacked like this before and offers only token resistance. “Oh no, not again!” he may have thought.
Continue reading...Garden bird feeders help spread disease among wild birds
Some previously rare illnesses are becoming epidemics in some bird populations, scientists say
Garden bird feeders are contributing to the spread of serious diseases among wild birds, scientists have warned, causing previously rare illnesses to become epidemics in some populations.
Poor garden feeder hygiene, droppings accumulations and stale food are promoting the transmission of illnesses between garden birds as the animals repeatedly congregate in the same location, coming into contact with species they would not usually interact with in the wild.
Continue reading...Saving the albatross: 'The war is against plastic and they are casualties on the frontline'
Following his shocking photographs of dead albatross chicks and the diet of plastic that killed them, Chris Jordan’s new film is a call to action to repair our broken relationship with planet Earth
We are living in a plastic age and the solutions may seem glaringly obvious, so why aren’t all 7.6 billion of us already doing things differently? Shocking statistics don’t guarantee effective change. So what’s the alternative? American photographer and filmmaker Chris Jordan believes the focus should be on forcing people to have a stronger emotional engagement with the problems plastic causes. His famous photographs of dead albatross chicks and the colourful plastic they have ingested serve as a blunt reminder that the planet is in a state of emergency.
While making his feature-length film Albatross, Jordan considered Picasso’s approach: “The role of the artist is to respect you, help you connect more deeply, and then leave it up to you to decide how to behave.”
Continue reading...Country diary 1918: golden-green willow branches
16 March 1918: lighted by early sunshine, the great willows show the first extended view of spring
Surrey, March 14
Great willows, tall and broad almost as beeches, stand about the lane which leads from the river bank up to the scarred downs. Lighted by early sunshine they show the first extended view of spring. Long, delicate branches droop yards. All are golden-green; they fill the eye with new colour as they wave in a strong wind, while larks soar toward the sky and a chaffinch sings lightly on the straggling bramble. This, too, is speckled with young shoots; the quicks are budded on their southern side; lords and ladies away in the spinney have leaves that lap across hazel roots where the woodman has been at work; even the moss upon felled ash trees is fresher. Flowers are more abundant on the primroses; these last keep their bloom a long time. A clump marked in a quiet corner of the wood in mid-February still bears the same flowers – intervening frosts have scarcely touched the edge of their petals.
Related: 100 years ago: Rabbits burrow into willow tree
Continue reading...Krill found to break down microplastics – but it won't save the oceans
Digestion of plastic into much smaller fragments ‘doesn’t necessarily help pollution’, Australian researchers say
A world-first study by Australian researchers has found that krill can digest certain forms of microplastic into smaller – but no less pervasive – fragments.
The study, published in Nature Communications journal on Friday, found that Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, can break down 31.5 micron polyethylene balls into fragments less than one micron in diameter.
Continue reading...Fukushima 360: walk through a ghost town in the nuclear disaster zone – video
Please note: Apple/IOS mobile users should view within the YouTube app
What happens to a town that has been abandoned for seven years after a nuclear meltdown? Greenpeace took former residents and a 360-degree camera into the radiation zone north of Fukushima to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011. The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people along the north-east coast of Japan and forced more than 150,000 others living near the plant to flee radiation. Some of the evacuated neighbourhoods are still deemed too dangerous for former residents to go back.
Continue reading...Can Queensland Labor end broadscale land clearing, as promised?
Green groups welcome proposed changes to land-clearing law but there are still reasons to doubt they are enough to halt the crisis
Last week, the Queensland government tabled a highly anticipated bill seeking to implement its promise to “end broadscale clearing in Queensland”.
Queensland is responsible for more tree clearing than the rest of the country combined, so making good on that promise would go a long way to halting Australia’s growing land clearing crisis.
Continue reading...Will Labrador make you switch energy suppliers?
Startup claims to automatically switch smart-meter users three times a year and save them £300
A device that plugs into a home broadband router and automatically switches supplier when cheaper deals become available is set to revolutionise the home energy market.
The launch of Labrador comes as more and more people are changing their energy companies.
Continue reading...Fukushima 360: walk through a ghost town in the nuclear disaster zone – video
What happens to a town that has been abandoned for seven years after a nuclear meltdown? Greenpeace took former residents and a 360-degree camera into the radiation zone north of Fukushima to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011. The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people along the north-east coast of Japan and forced more than 150,000 others living near the plant to flee radiation. Some of the evacuated neighbourhoods are still deemed too dangerous for former residents to go back.
Continue reading...Big firms push to overturn uranium mining ban near Grand Canyon
Companies say mining poses scant threat but conservation groups say ban should remain until environmental risks have been fully explored
The US mining industry has asked the supreme court to overturn an Obama-era rule prohibiting the mining of uranium on public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon.
Related: Trump official under fire after granting broad access to mining and oil firms
Continue reading...Weatherwatch: how to maximise the power from mighty blades
Engineers are working on turbine blades that automatically adjust to high wind pressure and will stand up to strong winds and turbulent gusts
Wind turbine blades are getting ever larger and producing more power, but fluctuations in wind speed mean they are not always efficient. Blades can now be 85m long (and will be longer in the future) and they swing through an area the size of four football pitches. The wind speed will vary at the top and bottom of each rotation. The blades also have to be robust to withstand the pressure of high winds. Even so, in the worst weather operators sometimes need to angle the blades away from the wind and turn the turbines off to avoid damage. Then they lose production altogether.
Related: Mersey feat: world's biggest wind turbines go online near Liverpool
Continue reading...UK defies EU over Indonesian palm oil trade, leaked papers show
UK is pushing for a deal that would boost imports linked to deforestation despite EU moves to ban unsustainable palm oil, diplomatic papers reveal
The UK is defying EU institutions to push for a hike in nominally “sustainable” Indonesian palm oil imports which have nonetheless been linked to deforestation, leaked documents show.
The European parliament is currently trying to force a ban on EU biofuels using palm oil, which have driven deforestation and contributed to the loss of 150,000 orangutans in Indonesia since 2002.
Continue reading...