The Guardian
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.
Continue reading...Green Brexit, air pollution ultimatum and a lonely gannet – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...Green Brexit is impossible to guarantee, say Tory MEPs
Exclusive: Leaked document says it will be impossible to ensure current environmental and food safety standards are kept in Britain or the EU
Conservative MEPs have said Brexit will make it “impossible” to guarantee that current environmental standards can be maintained in Britain or the EU.
A leaked document seen by the Guardian also calls for “the closest possible working relationship” between the EU and UK after Brexit, and for a “no regression clause” in future British trade deals.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Golden monkeys, whooper swans and a giant tortoise are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Almost four environmental defenders a week killed in 2017
Exclusive: 197 people killed last year for defending land, wildlife or natural resources, new data reveals. In recording every defender’s death, the Guardian hopes to raise awareness of the deadly struggle on the environmental frontline
The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure projects.
The toll of 197 in 2017 – which has risen fourfold since it was first compiled in 2002 – underscores the violence on the frontiers of a global economy driven by expansion and consumption.
Former national monuments shrunk by Trump to be opened for mining claims
Presidential order reduced protections for land once part of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments
Hundreds of thousands of acres of land that were part of two US national monuments shrunk by Donald Trump are being opened Friday to mining claims for uranium and other minerals.
It is a symbolic step in a broader conflict over the fate of America’s public lands, on which Trump hopes to encourage greater access for extractive industries.
Continue reading...Nigel the lonely gannet surrounded by concrete birds on Mana Island – video
Nigel the lonely gannet, who spent much of his time surrounded by concrete birds on Mana island, has died. Conservation officers lured Nigel to the island off New Zealand with the imitation gannets in the hope of encouraging a colony to settle on the reserve
Continue reading...Wildlife on your doorstep: share your February photos
As 2018 enters its second month we’d like to see your photos of the wildlife you’ve discovered where you live
What sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps this month? We’d like to see your photos of the February wildlife near you, whether you’re a novice spotter or have been out and about searching forcreatures great and small for years.
Related: Has spring come early where you live? Share your pictures
Continue reading...Country diary: where sparrows go when they vanish at dusk
Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Trying to find enough shelter to keep warm and conserve energy without increasing the risk of attack is a juggling act for a small bird
The torchlight cut through the dark, searching the canopy of a tall cedar as it swayed in the last gusts of the storm. A splash of white 15 metres up caught my attention: bird droppings, bright against the dark bark. Just above it, a wood pigeon was resting cosily against a jackdaw. A cock pheasant turned its head to observe me, that russet and red enhanced by the torch beam.
Continue reading...Brazil's Pantanal - the world's biggest wetland: in pictures
To celebrate World Wetland day, WWF is highlighting its work in the Pantanal, the world’s biggest wetland. This pristine environment in South America supports a rich variety of wildlife and plants, while its enormous water reserves are vital for the 8 million people who depend on the Pantanal’s fresh water, fish, climate control and tourism.
Continue reading...Pollutionwatch: wood burning worsening UK air quality
Global studies show that when wood stoves are replaced, particle pollution falls sharply
A new study shows how home wood burning is worsening air quality in UK towns and cities. Wood burning is adding between 24% and 31% to the particle pollution emitted in Birmingham and London. Many people think that this is a harmless form of heating, but it is often hard to see the impact of a pollutant until it is taken away.
Related: Toxic air pollution particles found in human brains
Continue reading...Miners receive twice as much in tax credits as Australia spends on environment
Exclusive: Analysis shows federal and state environment spending cut while industry awarded $2.5bn in fuel tax credits
Mining companies will receive more than twice as much in fuel tax credits as the Turnbull government will spend on environment and biodiversity programs this financial year, an analysis has found.
Coalmining companies alone are expected to get more back than the diminishing funding allocated to the federal environment department.
Continue reading...It's not okay how clueless Donald Trump is about climate change | Dana Nuccitelli
We’ve come to accept Trump’s ignorance, but it’s often dangerous
Donald Trump has decimated all presidential norms to such a degree that it’s now difficult to feel alarmed or outraged when he inevitably breaks another. It was difficult to raise an eyebrow when the story broke that Trump paid off a porn star to remain silent about their affair, which happened just after his third wife had given birth to his fifth child, because it’s Donald Trump – of course he did.
Likewise, when Trump made a number of grossly ignorant and wrong comments about climate change in an interview with Piers Morgan last week, my first reaction was ‘it’s Donald Trump – of course he did.’
Continue reading...India's farmed chickens dosed with world's strongest antibiotics, study finds
Warning over wider global health impacts after findings reveal thousands of tonnes of colostin - the ‘antibiotic of last resort’ - are being shipped to India’s farms
Chickens raised in India for food have been dosed with some of the strongest antibiotics known to medicine, in practices that could have repercussions throughout the world.
Thousands of tonnes of an “antibiotic of last resort” – only used in the most extreme cases of sickness - are shipped to India each year to be used, without medical supervision, on animals that may not require the drugs but are being dosed with them nevertheless to promote the growth of healthy animals.
Has spring come early where you live? Share your pictures
Get involved in our project mapping the change in UK seasons: tell us if you’re seeing an early spring near you
Has spring sprung early where you are? Are you already noticing changes to the appearance or behaviour of flora and fauna in gardens, window boxes or local wild spaces? If so, we’d like to hear about it for a project mapping what appears to be a trend of shorter winters in the northern hemisphere.
Related: Spring flowers in autumn, birdsong in winter: what a freak year for nature
Continue reading...‘Silver bullet’ to suck CO2 from air and halt climate change ruled out
Scientists say climate targets cannot be met using the technologies, which either risk huge damage to the environment or are very costly
Ways of sucking carbon dioxide from the air will not work on the vast scales needed to beat climate change, Europe’s science academies warned on Thursday.
From simply planting trees to filtering CO2 out of the air, the technologies that some hope could be a “silver bullet” in halting global warming either risk huge damage to the environment themselves or are likely to be very costly.
Continue reading...Country diary: this is the season for fern sex
Durham city: Minute male capsules on the prothallus burst open, releasing sperm with whiplash tails that swim frantically towards the egg cells
Since humans first began to pile stone upon stone to build walls, and later learned to stabilise them with mortar, plants have taken root in the crevices. They are often ephemeral opportunists, growing from seeds distributed by birds, but for some spleenwort ferns that naturally colonised bare limestone cliffs the crumbly alkaline cement of the manmade alternative offers almost unlimited opportunities.
Continue reading...EU measure demands rise in public fountains to cut bottle waste
Directive seeks better access to safe drinking water to reduce use of throw-away containers
The EU is to oblige national governments to provide greater access to drinking fountains, encourage restaurants to offer free tap water, and raise the standards required of suppliers, as part of a move to clamp down on plastic waste and improve the health of Europeans.
Related: Bottled water is a nonsense. Just ban it and fill our towns with drinking fountains | Sonia Sodha
Continue reading...