The Guardian
'Extreme' fossil fuel investments have surged under Donald Trump, report reveals
Sharp rise globally in the dirtiest fossil fuel investments reverses progress made after the Paris agreement, with tar sands holdings more than doubling in Trump’s first year in office
Bank holdings in “extreme” fossil fuels skyrocketed globally to $115bn during Donald Trump’s first year as US president, with holdings in tar sands oil more than doubling, a new report has found.
A sharp flight from fossil fuels investments after the Paris agreement was reversed last year with a return to energy sources dubbed “extreme” because of their contribution to global emissions. This included an 11% hike in funding for carbon-heavy tar sands, as well as Arctic and ultra-deepwater oil and coal.
Continue reading...Amazon priest who championed land rights for Brazil's poor is arrested
- Father Amaro Lopes is follower of Dorothy Stang, killed in 2005
- Extortion, land invasion and sexual harassment charges considered
Brazilian police have arrested a priest in the Amazon who championed the rights of smallholders against powerful agricultural interests.
Father Amaro Lopes is the best-known follower of the American-born nun, Dorothy Stang, who was murdered in 2005 in a killing orchestrated by landowners during a dispute that continues today.
Continue reading...Bottle and can deposit return scheme gets green light in England
Consumers to receive small cash sum for returning plastic, glass and metal drinks containers
All drinks containers in England, whether plastic, glass or metal, will be covered by a deposit return scheme, the government has announced.
The forthcoming scheme is intended to cut the litter polluting the land and sea by returning a small cash sum to consumers who return their bottles and cans.
Continue reading...Specieswatch: spring ice has made life hard for the common frog
Many common frogs were trapped under ice in early March and some inevitably died
The common frog Rana temporaria is having a difficult spring. The extreme cold at the beginning of March trapped many under ice. A lot continued to breathe through their skin, but after several days some died from lack of oxygen. The survivors then got breeding under way in many ponds, only for another three-day cold snap to halt proceedings. Some ponds still have no spawn, while in others the adults have already left piles of jelly to take their chance.
Related: How to make your garden frog-friendly
Continue reading...David Cobham obituary
David Cobham is best remembered for his classic films on British wildlife, including the 1979 cinema feature Tarka the Otter and his 1972 TV programme The Vanishing Hedgerows, the first explicitly environmental film broadcast by the BBC.
Cobham, who has died aged 87, made The Vanishing Hedgerows for the corporation’s prestigious strand The World About Us. Presented by the author Henry Williamson, it was a powerful elegy to Britain’s disappearing farmland wildlife, with shocking scenes showing the fatal effects of pesticides on birds.
Continue reading...Campaigners call on UK retailers to stop stocking Antarctic krill products
Greenpeace wants health shops like Boots to follow the lead of Holland & Barrett and ditch products that threaten the pristine waters home to penguins, seal and whales
Campaigners are calling on high street retailers to stop stocking health products containing krill that have been caught in the pristine waters of the Antarctic.
The Guardian reported earlier this month on the threat industrial krill fishing poses to animals like penguins, whales and seals.
Continue reading...Elephant seen 'smoking' in southern India – video
Footage of an elephant blowing ash has baffled wildlife experts, who say they've never seen behaviour like it before. The video released by the Wildlife Conservation Society may be an example of zoopharmacognosy, animal self-medication
Continue reading...Labor and Greens fail in first attempt to disallow Coalition's marine park plans
Parties have the option of redrafting the disallowance and resubmitting it as soon as Wednesday
A first attempt by Labor and the Greens to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week has failed in the Senate after the government flipped the order of business and brought on the chamber debate.
The Turnbull government on Tuesday night pulled its proposal to lower the tax rate for big business to 25% and abruptly changed the order of business in the Senate to force consideration of Labor’s disallowance motion on the marine parks.
Continue reading...Call for post-Brexit trade deals to safeguard against invasive species
Conservation charities estimate cost of dealing with predators at £2bn a year, and warns this may spiral without strong prevention measures
Invasive species such as Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish and New Zealand flatworms must be subject to stronger safeguards after Brexit, a group of conservation charities has urged, or the cost of dealing with them may spiral.
They fear that future increased international trade outside EU rules could threaten further invasions, while the status of safeguards under potential trade deals could be put in doubt.
Continue reading...Hotting up: how climate change could swallow Louisiana's Tabasco island
With thousands of square miles of land already lost along the coast, Avery Island, home of the famed hot sauce, faces being marooned
Avery Island, a dome of salt fringed by marshes where Tabasco sauce has been made for the past 150 years, has been an outpost of stubborn consistency near the Louisiana coast. But the state is losing land to the seas at such a gallop that even its seemingly impregnable landmarks are now threatened.
The home of Tabasco, the now ubiquitous but uniquely branded condiment controlled by the same family since Edmund McIlhenny first stumbled across a pepper plant growing by a chicken coop on Avery Island, is under threat. An unimaginable plight just a few years ago, the advancing tides are menacing its perimeter.
Continue reading...Country diary: conflicted by the regimented lines of coppicing
Barford Wood and Meadows, Northamptonshire: Yes, the trees have established beautifully, but a randomness to the planting pattern would be more aesthetically pleasing
Again the landscape is etched with snow. The footpath to Barford Wood and Meadows from Rushton village crosses first under the Midland mainline, emerging on to a wide and exposed field where the chilled wind bites, before passing over the Corby branch line and on to the nature reserve; a tapering wedge of land, bound on the west by the railway and by the thundering A43 on the east.
Continue reading...Victoria calls on federal government to fund fresh reviews of forestry agreements
A row between state and federal ministers has thrown Victoria’s long-term native forest logging agreements into disarray
The future of long-term native forest logging agreements in Victoria is uncertain because of a row with the federal government over the need to carry out fresh scientific assessments.
Three of Victoria’s regional forest agreements (RFAs) – in east Gippsland, the central highlands and the north east regions – were extended on Monday on a short-term basis, to 31 March 2020.
Continue reading...Plans to mine 6.2bn tonne Queensland coal deposit quietly revived
Site owner appears to have no employees or premises and its phone is disconnected
Plans to mine a 6.2bn-tonne coal deposit in north Queensland have been quietly revived, despite the failed sale of the project last year and the collapse of an associated company.
Guardian Australia understands that Wilton Coking Coal made two applications to the Queensland government for coal production permits in the Bowen basin in January.
Continue reading...Hydrogen-powered transport key to climate targets, says Shell
Oil firm says gas could account for 10% of global energy consumption by end of century
Planes and trucks powered by hydrogen will be a crucial part of efforts to cut carbon emissions to safe levels, according to oil giant Shell.
For the first time, the Anglo Dutch firm, which is facing calls by activist shareholders to take stronger action on global warming, has mapped out how the world could hit the Paris climate deal’s target of keeping temperature rises below 2C.
Continue reading...Land degradation threatens human wellbeing, major report warns
More than 3.2bn people are already affected and the problem will worsen without rapid action, driving migration and conflict
Land degradation is undermining the wellbeing of two-fifths of humanity, raising the risks of migration and conflict, according to the most comprehensive global assessment of the problem to date.
The UN-backed report underscores the urgent need for consumers, companies and governments to rein in excessive consumption – particularly of beef – and for farmers to draw back from conversions of forests and wetlands, according to the authors.
Continue reading...What to do if you hit a pothole while cycling
The UK’s pothole problem is getting worse and cyclists risk serious injury if they hit one. Here’s what to do if you find one and how to claim compensation if needed
The UK’s pothole problem is bad and getting worse, with a recent report by Alarm revealing 24,000 miles of road will need essential maintenance in the next year. While hitting one in a car may mean a trip to the garage, if you are cycling the outcome can be far worse.
A BBC 5 Live questionnaire found half of almost 5,000 cyclists had suffered a pothole-related accident, with 1,516 injured as a result, 207 of those seriously. More than 10% of respondents said they missed work because of a pothole crash, and 31% were put off cycling. This survey was backed up by a mass freedom of information report from Cycling UK, which revealed cycling pothole crash compensation claims to councils in England and Wales are 10 times higher than motoring claims because of the higher risk of personal injury.
Continue reading...Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States | John Abraham
Wind, solar, and storage could meet 90–100% of America’s electricity needs
In order to combat climate change, we need to rapidly move from fossil fuel energy to clean, renewable energy. The two energy sources I am most interested in are wind and solar power; however, there are other sources that have great potential.
Some people doubt how much wind and solar can supply to a country’s electricity grid. This is a particularly challenging question to answer in part because both solar power and wind power fluctuate in both space and time. We all know solar panels work well during the day, when the sun shines – they don’t work so well at night. And wind turbines only send electrons when the wind is blowing.
Yosemite's secretive Starbucks: cafe opens in park, to delight and dismay
A new Starbucks provides convenience and caffeine to visitors, but to many it represents a trend of commercialism and 25,000 people petitioned to stop it from opening
Continue reading...Sadiq Khan accuses ministers of stalling over post-Brexit environment watchdog
Mayor of London and green groups call for swift action after new research suggests government cuts are putting wildlife protections under threat
Sadiq Khan has accused ministers of stalling over the setting up of a new tough environmental watchdog body post Brexit.
The mayor of London spoke out as research by the country’s leading environmental bodies suggested protections to wildlife, water and air quality are under threat because of budget cuts of more than 55% over the last eight years.
Continue reading...Dairy’s ‘dirty secret’: it's still cheaper to kill male calves than to rear them
Dairy farms need female cows to produce milk but with little demand for male calves many farmers can’t afford to keep them beyond birth
The number of male calves being killed straight after birth is on the rise again, despite efforts by the dairy industry to end the practice known as ‘the dirty secret’.
A Guardian analysis shows that it can cost a farmer up to £30 per calf to sell it on for beef or veal, while early disposal costs just £9. A growing number of farmers feel compelled to take the latter option, with 95,000 killed on-farm in the most recent set of figures.