The Guardian
The way some pigs are reared is 'upsetting and wrong', say shoppers
Most people willing to swap to supermarkets trying to improve farming standards, survey finds
Shoppers around the world overwhelmingly support high animal welfare standards for pigs, and most would also be prepared to change their supermarket habits in response, an international survey on pork consumption has found.
Seven out of 10 people questioned said they found the manner in which pigs are reared for slaughter on some factory farms “upsetting”, “wrong” or “shocking”, after being shown photographs of some pig-keeping conditions in the online poll. The survey highlighted practices such as sows kept in small cages, antibiotic use, as well as tail-docking, teeth-grinding and castration, sometimes without pain relief.
Continue reading...Scientists accidentally create mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles
The breakthrough, spurred by the discovery of plastic-eating bugs at a Japanese dump, could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis
Scientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles – by accident. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.
The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste dump in Japan. Scientists have now revealed the detailed structure of the crucial enzyme produced by the bug.
Continue reading...Who’s defending Canada’s national interest? First Nations facing down a pipeline | Martin Lukacs
Justin Trudeau is bailing out a Texas oil billionaire. He should be bailing out Canada’s workers and the climate.
Last Saturday, Indigenous leaders stood arm-in-arm in front of the gates of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline worksite in Burnaby, British Columbia.
For weeks before, hundreds of non-native people – environmentalists, federal parliamentarians Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart, even an engineer formerly employed by the Texas oil corporation – had marched to the same place. In each case, police approached, read aloud their violation of a no-go zone, and arrested and shackled them.
Scott Pruitt's $43,000 'privacy booth' violated spending laws, watchdog finds
Purchase of a soundproof booth for EPA chief violates federal law that prohibits spending more than $5,000 on office improvements
An internal government watchdog says the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for administrator Scott Pruitt to make private phone calls in his office.
The Government Accountability Office issued its findings on Monday in a letter to Senate Democrats who had requested a review of Pruitt’s spending.
Continue reading...The plastic tsunami: pollution across Australia's coastlines – in pictures
With Australia’s beaches and oceans covered in rubbish, Tangaroa Blue volunteers spend days trying to clean things up. While these images are not beautiful or professionally taken, they are the harsh reality of the world’s plastic pollution problem.
• ‘Plastic is literally everywhere’: the epidemic attacking Australia’s oceans
Continue reading...Dutch island wants its rabbits to breed like …
Biodiversity concerns prompt emergency plan to use ferrets to round up the few rabbits left
It is not a pastime for which rabbits usually require much encouragement. But a mystery depletion in numbers on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog has led to an emergency effort to coax the local population into breeding … well, like rabbits.
Ferrets are being deployed to chase the reluctant remaining animals out of their warrens and into the hands of conservationists, who are bringing them together, safe from the stress of predators, in the hope that romance will blossom.
Continue reading...The courts are deciding who's to blame for climate change | Dana Nuccitelli
Oil companies? The government? The public? All of the above share the blame.
There are numerous ongoing legal challenges in an effort to determine who’s responsible for climate change. Exxon is under investigation by state attorneys general, cities are suing oil companies over sea level rise costs, and Our Children’s Trust is suing the federal government for failing to protect their generation from climate change. At the heart of these legal challenges lies the question – who bears culpability for climate change and liability for its costs and consequences?
Continue reading...Western Australian shark attack victim taken to hospital by helicopter – video
A man has been bitten by a shark off the coast of Western Australia, prompting authorities to close down the nearby Margaret River Pro international surfing event. The man, in his 30s, was flown to Royal Perth hospital with leg injuries, but was conscious according to a St John Ambulance spokesperson
Continue reading...Hen harrier 'brood management' plan faces crowdfunded legal challenge
Campaign against plan to remove chicks from their nests and rear them in captivity raises £25,000 in four days
A controversial plan to remove the chicks of endangered birds from their nests and rear them in captivity could be challenged in the high court after a crowdfunded campaign raised £25,000 in four days.
Wildlife campaigner and author Mark Avery is leading an application for a judicial review of the hen harrier “brood management” plan, in which chicks will be raised in captivity and released into the wild.
Continue reading...Country diary 1918: joyous narcissi family at Kew Gardens
18 April 1918 Flowers range from the poet’s narcissus to the deepest yellow of the daffodil or the orange-rimmed gold of the small-crowned narcissi
Kew Gardens, April 17
One longs for sunshine to show a visitor the full loveliness of the Gardens at this time, and we have had very little sunshine for a fortnight and more. It is the heyday of the narcissi. We have had some of this joyous family for the past six weeks, but now is the time when they fill the woodland, and when, wherever you turn, the limits of the lawns are outlined with gold. The “woodland walk” is largely composed of beech trees whose quaker-grey stems, often fretted with black, are as yet unrelieved by any green.
Related: Old-fashioned narcissi are part of the fabric of the woodland
Continue reading...The ingenious cyclewear Victorian women invented to navigate social mores
Patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothing
Much has been written about the bicycle’s role as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But far less is known about another critical technology women used to forge new mobile and public lives – cyclewear. I have been studying what Victorian women wore when they started cycling. Researching how early cyclists made their bodies mobile through clothing reveals much about the social and physical barriers they were navigating and brings to light fascinating tales of ingenious inventions.
Cycling was incredibly popular for middle- and upper-class women and men in the late 19th century, and women had to deal with distinct social and sartorial challenges. Cycling exaggerated the irrationality of women’s conventional fashions more than any other physical activity. Heavy, layered petticoats and long skirts caught in spokes and around pedals. Newspapers regularly published gruesome accounts of women dying or becoming disfigured in cycling crashes due to their clothing.
Country diary: wheatears on both sides of their migratory journey
Aigas, Invernessshire and Uganda: Wintering wheatears were abundant in Uganda, looking exactly the same as they do when they arrive in the Highlands
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Shark attack closes Margaret River pro surfing event
Man in his 30s taken to Royal Perth hospital after being bitten on the leg off Gracetown in Western Australia
A man has been bitten by a shark off the coast of Western Australia, prompting authorities to close down the nearby Margaret River Pro international surfing event.
The man, in his 30s, was flown to Royal Perth hospital with leg injuries, but was conscious, St John Ambulance said.
Continue reading...Welcome to Australia's plastic beach – video
How much rubbish could you collect from a suburban beach in 30 minutes? You may find the answer confronting. Guardian Australia joins Paul Sharp and Silke Stuckenbrock from the Two Hands Project to see just how prevalent plastics are on Australia's beaches
Continue reading...'Plastic is literally everywhere': the epidemic attacking Australia's oceans
‘It never breaks down and goes away,’ say scientists struggling to understand the impact of widespread pollution
While heading down the Brisbane river, Jim Hinds once pulled aboard a drunken half-naked man just seconds from “going down for the last time”.
But on this day, like most other days for Hinds, it’s back to the horribly predictable as he launches his boat into the Nerang river on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Continue reading...Iain Reddish obituary
My friend Iain Reddish, who has died aged 72, had a varied career in which he was a parliamentary aide, teacher, public relations officer and sports executive before settling down to be an international environmental lobbyist with Greenpeace for more than a decade.
He joined Greenpeace in 1995, moving to its Amsterdam headquarters, and worked on various projects, including the Save the Whale campaign. By the time he left in 2007, he had visited 149 cities in 38 countries. His final role was as European coordinator for Eurogroup for Animals, an organisation based in Brussels that seeks to improve the treatment of animals throughout the European Union, a job he held until retirement in 2012.
Continue reading...Hidden plastics: just when you thought it was safe to dunk a teabag
Last Tuesday, Waitrose announced plans to remove all disposable coffee cups from their stores by autumn of this year – customers will have to bring a reusable one of their own. Despite their cardboard appearance, coffee cups are actually lined with polyethylene and are hard to recycle. The cups gradually break down to form microplastics, which make their way into our waterways and food supply.
Continue reading...As public pressure grows, Clipper is latest brand to end use of plastic in teabags
The UK’s longest-established Fairtrade tea brand has become the latest to ditch synthetic sealants in its teabags, amid mounting consumer pressure on manufacturers to help cut down on plastic pollution.
Clipper Teas – which champions the unbleached teabag – hopes to introduce a new, fully biodegradable bag free of polypropylene, a sealant used across the industry to ensure bags hold their shape, by the summer.
Continue reading...Government sets aside £60m to fight scourge of plastic waste
Fund to be split into three pots to tackle ocean pollution, research and waste management
The government has earmarked £61.4m from the public purse to fight the rising tide of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
Theresa May announced the fund ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London next week.
Continue reading...British farmers in turmoil as delayed spring plays havoc with growing season
Last year, asparagus growers were harvesting as early as 8 April. This spring, they are not expecting to harvest their open-field crop until the last week of April – a week later than the official start of the season, St George’s Day, 23 April. Welcome to just one of the consequences of Britain’s disastrously delayed spring.
“We have had a very challenging time,” said Guy Smith, vice president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). “March breezed in with the ‘beast from the east’ and went out with the worst bank holiday on record.” For asparagus-lovers there is at least an upside. “The combination has to be right for the crowns to push through,” explained Per Hogberg, of grower Wealmoor. “The air temperature has to be at least 12C, while the soil temperature should be between 8C and 10C. With warmer weather expected, consumers can expect a bumper crop in mid-May,” he said.
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