The Guardian
Sideline staples in the Guardian to save the planet | Letters
May I ask all those readers who want their Guardian stapled (How the humble stapler came to one reader’s aid, 28 May) to consider the ecological effects of ther preference. The Guardian comes on weekdays in three sections, one part only using two staples. Given a circulation (ABC) of 142,318, the Guardian already thus uses 284,636 staples Monday to Friday. Each one is roughly 3cm long. So for every weekday the Guardian itself uses over 8.5km of steel. I don’t have a set of scales to weigh anything less than a quarter of an ounce, but that’s a hefty reel of steel every day. Bet you it’s Chinese, too, and most will end up as rust.
So, green-thinking Guardian readers: join the campaign to banish the staple and help save the planet. Take responsibilty for your pages, grasp the sides fully and say no to staples. You know it makes sense.
John Loader
Leyburn, North Yorkshire
The week in wildlife – in pictures
Blue-throated bee-eaters, a baby anteater and a dehydrated fruitbat are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Greenpeace activists abseil into Total's AGM – video
Four Greenpeace activists climb down into Total's AGM to protest against the oil company’s plans to drill in the mouth of the Amazon and French Guiana. The abseilers descended as the Total chief executive, Patrick Pouyanné, began his presentation, while many people protested outside the venue
Continue reading...Antibiotic apocalypse: EU scraps plans to tackle drug pollution, despite fears of rising resistance
Leaked documents reveal discarded proposals to ward off antibiotic resistance through closer scrutiny of drug firms
The EU has scrapped plans for a clampdown on pharmaceutical pollution that contributes to the spread of deadly superbugs.
Plans to monitor farm and pharmaceutical companies, to add environmental standards to EU medical product rules and to oblige environmental risk assessments for drugs used by humans have all been discarded, leaked documents seen by the Guardian reveal.
Continue reading...The New York pigeon – in pictures
Andrew Garn is a native New Yorker who grew up surrounded by the city’s ubiquitous pigeons. For over a decade he has photographed, rehabilitated and observed the birds, documenting the entire spectrum of their development from newborn “squeakers” to fully fledged adults. The New York Pigeon: Behind the Feathers by Andrew Garn, with text by Emily S Rueb and Rita McMahon, is published by powerHouse Books
Continue reading...The festival putting Edinburgh on the international cycling map | Kim Harding
It’s not perfect, but the city has ambitious plans for cycling, and the Festival of Cycling offers a chance to celebrate progress
In theory, Edinburgh might not look like the perfect city for cycling. Apart from the weather there are the (in)famous hills, then there’s the … (add your own excuses here.) But things are changing.
Currently the city council is committing 10% of its transport budget to cycling, a first for a UK city, as well as introducing 20mph speed limits across a large area. And in September, Edinburgh will finally be getting its own bikeshare scheme, which will include a proportion of e-bikes to help beat the hills.
Country diary: the hollow hills of legend
Bronkham Hill, Dorset: The wind pours larksong over the humps and bumps of a bronze age barrow cemetery
The sound of chiffchaffs shouting in the woods falls away as I follow the South Dorset Ridgeway upwards to the high chalk. The way is starred with white stitchwort running through clumps of shocking-pink campion and the last of the bluebells.
Continue reading...Dutch fishermen to sail fleet into Amsterdam in wind turbine protest
Workers say they are taking action in response to vast amount of windfarms being constructed in their waters
The Netherlands may be the land of the windmill, but fishermen are planning a major protest on Saturday against the Dutch government’s latest wind turbine construction in the North Sea, with an armada of fishing boats sailing into Amsterdam.
After alighting from at least 15 boats at the back of Amsterdam’s central station, it is understood that hundreds of fishermen will march to the capital’s Damrak canal, where they will upend bags of small fish deemed too small for sale by the EU, and cover them with red dye.
Continue reading...Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock - it provides just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet.
The new research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and still feed the world. Loss of wild areas to agriculture is the leading cause of the current mass extinction of wildlife.
Continue reading...Mountain gorilla population rises above 1,000
New total represents an increase of 25% since 2010 in its central African heartland
It is one of the most recognisable animals in the world and one of the most endangered, but a new census reveals the surviving mountain gorilla population has now risen above 1,000.
This represents a rise of 25% since 2010 in its heartland of the Virunga Massif in central Africa. It also marks success for intensive conservation work in a region riven by armed conflict, and where six park guards were murdered in April.
Continue reading...Romania breaks up alleged €25m illegal logging ring
Security forces launch raids linked to deforestation in the Carpathian mountains, home to some of Europe’s last virgin forest
Romania’s security forces have mounted a series of raids to break up an alleged €25m illegal logging ring, in what is believed to be the largest operation of its kind yet seen in Europe.
Officers from Romania’s Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) swooped on 23 addresses – including factories owned by the Austrian timber group Schweighofer Holzindustrie, according to local press reports.
Continue reading...Tell us how you are rewilding or improving nature in your area
We’d like to hear about – and see pictures of – the small things you are doing to encourage nature where you live
Naturalist Patrick Barkham wrote in the Guardian this week about the principles of rewilding – stepping back and allowing natural processes to occur, and encouraging wild plants and insects.
Related: How to rewild your garden: ditch chemicals and decorate the concrete
Continue reading...'Chronic inaction': call for planning overhaul as population growth threatens biodiversity
Melbourne bird species decreased in proportion to density of human occupation
The outskirts of Melbourne are a maze of newly-paved culs-de-sac. Freestanding homes twist in on each other, filling the footprint of their small street blocks.
On the other side of the road, short wooden stakes have been tied with fluorescent tape to mark out the next development.
Continue reading...Margaret Atwood: women will bear brunt of dystopian climate future
Booker prize-winning author predicts climate reality will not be far from scenarios imagined in her post-apocalyptic fiction
Climate change will bring a dystopian future reminiscent of one of her “speculative fictions”, with women bearing the brunt of brutal repression, hunger and war, the Booker prize-winning author Margaret Atwood is to warn.
“This isn’t climate change – it’s everything change,” she will tell an audience at the British Library this week. “Women will be directly and adversely affected by climate change.”
Continue reading...Mind your beeswax: global price surge leaves bearded Australians in a tangle
Australia is one of the few countries in the world where hives are free of the debilitating varroa mite
The soaring price of Australian beeswax could be bad news for local beard owners – and good news for scammers – as demand for high-quality beeswax heats up.
New uses for the wax – from cosmetics to food wraps – and the comparative health of Australia’s bees have driven the export price of Australian beeswax up in the global marketplace.
Continue reading...Rise of the ultra-cyclists: a new breed of riders go the distance
With no spectators, no bags of freebies and no medals, the 400km London-Wales-London ride provides a welcome antidote to overblown sportives
“Cycling far?” asks a woman in the bakery as a group of us queues for coffee and sausage rolls, as well as an all-important receipt to prove we passed through Tewkesbury.
Increasing numbers of cyclists are getting bored with 100-mile sportives and looking for something else
Continue reading...Reprieve for Abbott's booby after Christmas Island mining expansion ruled out
Coalition says proposed phosphate exploration would have had unacceptable impact on wildlife, including endangered sea bird
The Turnbull government has knocked back a controversial phosphate exploration proposal on Christmas Island “because it is likely to have significant and unacceptable impacts on matters protected under national environment law”.
Phosphate Resources Limited – the owners of a phosphate mine on Christmas Island – had proposed to clear 6.83ha of land and undertake exploration drilling along 44 survey lines in an effort to determine the extent of the additional phosphate resources on Christmas Island.
Continue reading...Country diary: summer's lagging in the woods
Comins Coch, Ceredigion: Meadow grasses and flowers have grown in abundance, but the trees have been slow to green
In the pasture beside the lane, dandelions have already set seed, their spherical heads intact and waiting for the right gust of wind to break the seeds free and disperse them across the village like invading paratroopers. The meadow grasses and wild flowers have grown rapidly in confused abundance, but the crown of the oak tree across the field remains more defined by the framework of branches than by new foliage. Possibly the sudden drop in temperature that preceded the late snow selectively stalled development.
Further uphill the old meadow was marked by fresh molehills among the rushes and the lady’s smock, showing where these stolid hunters have been clearing and extending their shallow runs. The activity of their favoured prey, earthworms, is triggered by rising temperature and an attractive level of soil moisture – conditions that have apparently been satisfied.
Continue reading...Uncomfortable truths about the control of predators | Letters
There is growing anecdotal evidence that the fox population in lowland rural Britain is in sharp decline (Is Britain’s fox population in decline?, Shortcuts, G2, 23 May). This is not because they are short of food, and thus in need of feeding on roadkill by Chris Packham or anybody else.
Professor Stephens of Durham University is right that “fox populations appear to have dropped specifically within the past 15 or 20 years”, ie since the enactment of the ban on fox-hunting in 2004. Nor is he wrong when he suggests that “people who were enthusiastic about hunting would often encourage fox populations”. More accurately, this means that they provided habitat (which benefited all wildlife), observed a closed season to allow foxes to breed and rear their cubs in peace, and practised a method of culling that encouraged survival of the fittest and removed the surplus numbers required to maintain a level population. The existence of hunts also acted as a deterrent to those wishing to shoot foxes indiscriminately and all year round with rifles which have significantly increased in accuracy and range over the past 15 years.
Continue reading...How to rewild your garden: ditch chemicals and decorate the concrete
There are several ways to embrace nature – no matter the size of your plot
Rewilding excites people with its images of wolves and ambition to return entire landscapes to nature as humans withdraw after centuries of domination. But the grandeur of rewilding can also make the concept seem remote or irrelevant to people living ever more urban lives.
To declare we are rewilding our garden, or window box, is probably a contradiction in terms and risks cheapening this important conservation concept. But there are principles of rewilding – stepping back and allowing natural processes to occur, and encouraging wild plants and insects – which we can all embrace. The most relevant rewilding idea for us urban beings? Let go, and reduce our micromanagement of whatever small patch of earth we own, rent or enjoy and influence.
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