The Guardian
Edinburgh University divests from all fossil fuels
Move makes it the largest university fund in the UK to ditch all coal, oil and gas holdings, following a long student campaign
The University of Edinburgh is dumping all its fossil fuel investments, making it the largest UK university endowment fund to be completely free of all coal, oil and gas holdings.
The decision was announced on Monday and followed a long student campaign. More than 60 UK universities have now divested from fossil fuels, with the University of Sussex the latest to make the move.
Continue reading...Humans need to become smarter thinkers to beat climate denial | Dana Nuccitelli
A new paper shows that climate myths consistently fail critical thinking tests
Climate myths are often contradictory – it’s not warming, though it’s warming because of the sun, and really it’s all just an ocean cycle – but they all seem to share one thing in common: logical fallacies and reasoning errors.
John Cook, Peter Ellerton, and David Kinkead have just published a paper in Environmental Research Letters in which they examined 42 common climate myths and found that every single one demonstrates fallacious reasoning. For example, the authors made a video breaking down the logical flaws in the myth ‘climate changed naturally in the past so current climate change is natural.’
SkyPixel aerial photography contest winners 2017 – in pictures
SkyPixel has announced the winners of its annual aerial photography competition and the results are breathtaking. The contest, which ran from October to December, received more than 44,000 submissions from people in 141 countries, across the categories of landscape, portrait and story. The grand prize was awarded to Florian Ledoux, a photographer from France, who captured a polar bear jumping across ice floes in Nunavut, Canada
Continue reading...I got 'doored' while undertaking on my bike. Was it my fault?
Helen Pidd was cycling through stationary traffic when a passenger opened his door into her path
As soon as the car door hit me I thought: finally. After cycling regularly for 15 years it always seemed something of a miracle that I had never been knocked off.
My second instinct was to feel sheepish. Was it my fault?
Continue reading...Ozone layer not recovering over populated areas, scientists warn
While the hole over Antarctica has been closing, the protective ozone is thinning at the lower latitudes, where the sunlight is stronger and billions of people live
The ozone layer that protects people from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation is not recovering over most highly populated regions, scientists warned on Tuesday.
The greatest losses in ozone occurred over Antarctica but the hole there has been closing since the chemicals causing the problem were banned by the Montreal protocol. But the ozone layer wraps the entire Earth and new research has revealed it is thinning in the lower stratosphere over the non-polar areas.
Continue reading...UK built half of Europe's offshore wind power in 2017
Capacity is growing fast and turbines getting bigger – some almost as large as the Shard
Britain accounted for more than half of the new offshore wind power capacity built in Europe last year, as the sector broke installation records across the continent.
Continue reading...'Everything is made into a political issue': rethinking Australia's environmental laws
Public should be given a greater say on development plans, experts say
Environmental lawyers and academics have called for a comprehensive rethink on how Australia’s natural landscapes are protected, warning that short-term politics is infecting decision-making and suggesting that the public be given a greater say on development plans.
The Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law has launched a blueprint for a new generation of environment laws and the creation of independent agencies with the power and authority to ensure they are enforced. The panel of 14 senior legal figures says this is motivated by the need to systematically address ecological challenges including falling biodiversity, the degradation of productive rural land, the intensification of coastal and city development and the threat of climate change.
Continue reading...Asda joins wave of supermarkets pledging to cut plastic waste
Series of measures includes reducing plastic in its own-brand packaging by 10% – but does not go as far as cutting it out altogether
Asda has become the latest supermarket to join the war against plastic by pledging to reduce it “wherever” it can, including slashing the amount in its own-brand packaging by 10% in the next 12 months.
In a series of measures, Asda promised to scrap 5p carrier bags in all stores by the end of the year, switch 2.4m plastic straws used in its cafes to paper and introduce reusable drinks cups in its shops and cafes by the end of 2019.
Continue reading...What the saviour of London’s pigeons taught me about the problem with plastic
Decades ago, the late writer and critic Naomi Lewis spent hours on the streets rescuing birds tangled in nylon thread. She should have been a warning sign of the horrors to come
Not knowing what to do with myself and my bad temper in my 30s, I went to a creative writing class at City Lit, a London-based adult-education college. The teacher looked odd – about 70, she was always dressed in black, her hair was grey and a little wild and she seemed to have dusted her face in flour, some of which speckled her black clothes.
But there was something magical about Naomi Lewis. She was full of enthusiasm, thrilled by the efforts of her class. She would sit at the end of our square of tables, always cheery, and call out excitedly: “So good! So much of interest!”
Continue reading...Leading ivory trade investigator killed in Kenya
Esmond Martin, whose groundbreaking investigations contributed to the fight against elephant poaching, died after being stabbed at his home in Nairobi
A world-renowned ivory investigator whose detailed reports contributed to the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade has been killed at his home in Kenya, police said on Monday.
Esmond Martin, 75, died after being stabbed at his house in the Nairobi suburb of Langata on Sunday afternoon.
Continue reading...Big business, not taxpayers, should pay to clean up plastic waste | Geraint Davies
Plastic is destroying our oceans, yet big corporations are still being given money to produce cheap plastic. It’s time for polluters to pay for the damage they cause
A six-year-old boy, Harrison Forsyth, provided us with a much needed wake-up call last week. He called on the boss of Aldi to protect our oceans:
“Dear boss of Aldi, I have watched this programme called Blue Planet 2 and I have seen that the plastic in the sea is making the animals sick and die.
Continue reading...Labor weighs Adani options as Canavan says Australia needs to 'get these jobs going'
Coalition pressures Queensland government to back Aurizon proposal to build rail link
Labor has inched closer to resolving its stance on the controversial Adani coalmine as the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan, declared he was looking at alternatives to open up the Queensland coal basin and “get these jobs going”.
With federal parliament resuming for the new political year on Monday, the shadow cabinet was expected to discuss policy options on Adani after the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, toughened his rhetoric substantially against the north Queensland mine.
Continue reading...Why are politicians getting away with bike lane claims based on hearsay? | Laura Laker
Peers use evidence-free anecdotes and cabbie hearsay to claim cycle lanes cause congestion – shouldn’t we demand a higher standard?
A number of peers have attempted to defend unsubstantiated claims that cycle lanes cause congestion and air pollution, apparently echoing anecdotal evidence from their own observations, taxi drivers and the rightwing press. These claims tend to go unchallenged and are allowed to shape the political debate – but this has to stop.
In a House of Lords debate on air pollution on 15 January, the prominent scientist and Labour peer Lord Robert Winston questioned the government over journey times for motor traffic before and after cycle lane construction, saying idling or slow-moving engines pollute more at slow speeds.
Continue reading...Whale and shark species at increasing risk from microplastic pollution – study
Large filter feeders, such as baleen whales and basking sharks, could be particularly at risk from ingesting the tiny plastic particles, say scientists
Whales, some sharks and other marine species such as rays are increasingly at risk from microplastics in the oceans, a new study suggests.
Continue reading...Country diary 1918: spring-like weather stirs the blood
5 February 1918 The sap is running, forcing on new life. In the withy bed the hares in couples, weeks before their proverbial date for madness, dodge round the clumps, while a ‘joyous clamour’ rises from the mere
The gay cock chaffinch, in smart, nuptial garments, rattles out repeated challenges to a distant rival, who strives to answer in as sprightly terms; it began to sing here three days ago at least. The blackbird this morning pipes airs and variations with such skill and finish that we can hardly realise that he has only just begun to sing.
The spring-like weather, which has brought out the semi-wild snowdrops in a Cheshire wood, has dotted the yellow crocuses about our gardens, awakened the sleepy bees and sent them to the winter aconites, has stirred their blood.
Continue reading...People have been leaving their marks on these rocks since the bronze age
Ilkley, West Yorkshire: The Cow and the Calf have become monuments to our longing to anchor ourselves in the world
On the horizons surrounding Wharfedale, snow, sky and space are warring in spectacular ways; white clouds roll over the white moors like billows of steam, vaporising the distinction between both, and the sun occasionally provides episodes of dazzling icy brightness. Winter’s sorcery has turned Rombald’s Moor into a convincing impression of blizzard-swept Arctic tundra a few miles from the middle of Bradford. Undeterred, the weekend visitors are out in force around the great millstone grit forms of the Cow and Calf above Ilkley.
Like many of the tors, outcrops and escarpments dotting the gritstone Pennines, this imposing crag and its smaller counterpart together act as a natural gathering point for the surrounding civilisation. Climbers climb them; children instinctively recognise them as venues for play; adults stride to the lip of boulders and strike noble poses for phone cameras. Spend any time people-watching at the nearby Brimham Rocks, Almscliffe Crag or the Chevin and see further evidence of how we are innately drawn towards wild rock formations.
Continue reading...Murray-Darling basin plan fails environment and wastes money – experts
Scientists and economists issue urgent warning that $4bn plan is not improving basin health
A group of prominent scientists and economists has issued a stark warning to the nation’s politicians: the Murray-Darling basin plan is failing to achieve environmental goals and is a “gross waste” of money.
The group of seven economists and five scientists with deep expertise in the river are meeting on Monday morning in Adelaide to issue what they are calling the Murray-Darling declaration.
How Bill Gates aims to clean up the planet
It’s nothing much to look at, but the tangle of pipes, pumps, tanks, reactors, chimneys and ducts on a messy industrial estate outside the logging town of Squamish in western Canada could just provide the fix to stop the world tipping into runaway climate change and substitute dwindling supplies of conventional fuel.
It could also make Harvard superstar physicist David Keith, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and oil sands magnate Norman Murray Edwards more money than they could ever dream of.
Continue reading...Adani coalmine won't get federal rail funding, Liberal minister says
Concessional $900m loan cannot proceed without Queensland government approval, Karen Andrews says
The Adani Carmichael coalmine will not receive federal funding from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for a vital rail line, a Turnbull government minister has said.
The announcement by Karen Andrews on Sunday is a major blow to Adani, which has sought a $900m concessional loan for rail to link the Carmichael mine to port – and could spell the end of the project entirely if it can’t secure private finance.
Continue reading...Country diary: laying our friend to rest in the woods
Boduan, Pwllheli: A woodland burial reminds us that nature is the mirror and foundation for every resurrection myth
My dear old friend loved birds. They brought her joy. I’d spent many peaceful hours in her garden room, keeping her company, watching the nuthatches, woodpeckers, goldfinches and siskins at her bird table during these recent years of illness patiently borne. She died in the last minutes of the old year, at the age of 88. A woodland burial was arranged at Boduan Sanctuary. Waxy-white clumps of snowdrops reflected in the hearse’s paintwork as she left her home for the last time.
At the sanctuary wood’s car park we lifted her into a sturdy rustic cart with iron-rimmed wheels. On the narrow path into the wood, one of these ran over my foot. I imagined the quip this lively, humorous woman would have lanced my way, and changed position to push from the back. We held straps to lower her into the grave, and as we did so the sun’s barred rays threaded through the trees, traversed her wicker coffin, and illuminated the moss and the pale trunks of the silver birches.
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