The Guardian
Curbs on fuel pollution ruled out in favour of cheaper options
Environment department says it will no longer consider changes that would provide greatest health benefit
Moves to introduce stringent regulations for Australian fuels have been excluded from the government’s most recent consultation paper in favour of cheaper options that would result in more damage to the environment and public health.
The Ministerial Forum on Vehicle Emissions is considering changes that would reduce emissions from motor vehicles, including regulations that would improve the fuel-efficiency of new cars and limits on pollution levels in fuel.
Continue reading...Invasive species, garden birds and Europe's wolves – 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...In 2017, the oceans were by far the hottest ever recorded | John Abraham
The second-hottest year recorded at Earth’s surface was the hottest in its oceans
Among scientists who work on climate change, perhaps the most anticipated information each year is how much the Earth has warmed. That information can only come from the oceans, because almost all heat is stored there. If you want to understand global warming, you need to first understand ocean warming.
This isn’t to say other measurements are not also important. For instance, measurements of the air temperature just above the Earth are really important. We live in this air; it affects us directly. A great commentary on 2017 air temperatures is provided by my colleague Dana Nuccitelli. Another measurement that is important is sea level rise; so too is ocean acidification. We could go on and on identifying the markers of climate change. But in terms of understanding how fast the Earth is warming, the key is the oceans.
Air pollution linked to ‘extremely high mortality’ in people with mental disorders
A major study in Hong Kong shows the risk of death rises sharply on hazy days, when air pollution is much worse
The risk of death for people with mental and behavioural disorders rises sharply on days when air pollution reaches toxic peaks, a major study in Hong Kong has found.
Researchers analysed a decade of death statistics and revealed a strong link, with the mortality risk rising 16% on the first day of haze and 27% on the second day compared to normal days. If the haze was accompanied by high ozone pollution, the risk of death increased by 79%.
Continue reading...Harmless or vicious hunter? The uneasy return of Europe's wolves
This winter the first wolf in 100 years arrived in Belgium, completing the animals’ return to mainland Europe. But can Europeans relearn how to live alongside the predators?
To some it is a roe deer that eats meat: an adaptable animal capable of living peaceably alongside humans. To others it is a demonic killing machine that ruins farmers – and whose presence is a symbol of the city’s contempt for rural life.
The wolf is on the rise in Europe. This winter it finally reconquered Belgium, the last mainland European country from which it had been absent after decades of persecution.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Sumatran elephants, an injured bear and a wandering wallaby are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Indigenous communities use drones to protect Amazon river dolphins
Drone footage is building up the missing data on dolphin populations that is crucial to ensuring their protection and long-term survival
The drone is hovering above the Amazon river, but its battery is running low. André Coelho, the chief pilot, steers it back to safety with skills perfected by playing video games. Long hours practising on Need for Speed have become a surprising asset in the effort to conserve the dolphins that live in the river.
Marcelo Oliveira, a conservation specialist at WWF Brazil, stands on the bow of the boat with arms aloft. He plucks the white drone from the air, changes the battery, and swiftly sends it back into the sky.
Continue reading...Small birds expected to bounce back in annual UK count
RSPB says successful breeding season and kind weather could see many species faring well in this year’s Big Garden Birdwatch
Blue tits, great tits, greenfinches and chaffinches are set to bounce back into British gardens this winter after a successful breeding season and “relatively kind” conditions.
More than half a million people are expected to spend an hour this weekend spotting birds and other wildlife in the 39th year of the Big Garden Birdwatch, the world’s biggest wildlife survey.
Continue reading...Billions of pieces of plastic on coral reefs send disease soaring, research reveals
A major new study estimates 11bn pieces of plastic contaminate vital reefs and result in infections: ‘It’s like getting gangrene,’ scientists warn
Billions of pieces of plastic pollution are snagged on coral reefs, sending disease rates soaring, new research has revealed. The discovery compounds the damage being done to a vital habitat that already faces an existential threat from the warming caused by climate change.
Scientists examined 125,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific region, home to half the world’s reefs, and found 89% of those fouled by plastic were suffering disease. On plastic-free reefs, only 4% of the corals were diseased.
Continue reading...Air pollution will damage UK health for ‘many years', court told
Government is being sued for third time to act quickly on illegal levels of toxic air
Air pollution will continue to take a heavy toll on people’s health for many years to come unless the UK government is forced once again to improve its action plan, the high court has been told.
Ministers have already had two previous plans declared illegal but environmental lawyers ClientEarth argue that even the latest plan fails to cut widespread illegal levels of pollution in the “shortest possible time”, as required by EU law.
Continue reading...Naked veggies and a ringing rebuke | Brief letters
It is true that we no longer lend out the Ben Nicholsons and Alfred Wallises that Harland Walshaw was lucky enough to choose from as a student (Letters, 24 January), but we do still invite students in to Kettle’s Yard to choose a work of art, which for a small deposit and a modest fee they can hang on their walls for the year. And there are some beautiful works to choose from. We do love to hear the stories from those who enjoyed Jim Ede’s generosity when he was still living here.
Andrew Nairne
Director, Kettle’s Yard
• As I hunted through Sainsbury’s recently for unpackaged vegetables (MPs urge supermarkets to banish plastic waste, 20 January), my route to the nice, clean carrots and leeks – two of the very few naked veggies on display – was blocked by shoppers carefully decanting them into plastic bags.
Vicky Woodcraft
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
Are you a mosquito magnet? Swatting really can deter them, study shows
Researchers have discovered why mosquitoes prefer some people over others – and how a swat teaches them to avoid you
Researchers have found a solution for those plagued by mosquitoes: thrash about, and the insects will learn to give you a wide berth.
While it has long been known that mosquitoes favour some individuals over others – and can shift those preferences when availability is scarce – it was not clear what was behind the switch.
Continue reading...Communities offered £1m a year to host nuclear waste dump
New search for communities willing to host underground site for thousands of years
Local communities around England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be offered £1m a year to volunteer to host an underground nuclear waste disposal facility for thousands of years, as part of a rebooted government programme.
The financial incentive is one way the government hopes to encourage communities to host the £12bn facility, after previous efforts failed in 2013 when Cumbria county council rejected the project.
Continue reading...Why beetles are the most important organisms on the planet | Richard Jones
From the minuscule to the mighty, tree-dwellers to pond-swimmers, millions of beetle species reveal a wealth of information about the world we live in
New network of water refill points aims to reduce England's plastic waste
Free refill points and fountains will be set up in shops, cafes and high streets in every English town and city, under plans announced by the water industry
Consumers will be encouraged to refill their water bottles free of charge in tens of thousands of shops, cafes, businesses and water fountains in England under plans announced by the water industry.
The national scheme aims to fight the growing scourge of waste created by single-use plastic by preventing the use of tens of millions of plastic bottles every year, as well as increasing the availability of quality drinking water.
Continue reading...Country diary: a mighty poplar brought down by old age and the revenge of the wind
Sandy, Bedfordshire: At the tree’s base, an autopsy of its last seconds was written in splits, snaps, rips and a broken heart
When the last storm whipped through our valley it brought down the tallest tree on the river. An old Lombardy poplar, a spire without a church, it belonged to an age when planting poplars was popular. They were the leylandii of their day, for they shot up as fast as rockets and looked like them too. They were often grown in rows as windbreaks, though nobody much thought about old age and the wind’s revenge.
For a day or so after, my eyes clawed at the air, looking for the absent shape of a tower that had been a crow’s nest for a magpie, a labyrinth for tits, a cricked neck. I saw only a wooded ridge, some houses, and sky – so much sky that it snuffed out the memory. For a day or so only, passersby stopped to inspect the toppled giant, as they might view the corpse of a beached whale.
Continue reading...Hundreds of wildflower species found blooming in midwinter
UK survey finds 532 types – far more than older textbooks suggest should be out
It’s been said that spring is coloured by flowers, while the colour of winter is only in the imagination.
Not so for intrepid botanists who discovered 532 species of wildflowers in bloom across Britain and Ireland around New Year’s Day.
Continue reading...Exposing UK government folly of investment in new nuclear | Letters
In 1976, Lord Flowers pronounced that there should be no further commitment to nuclear energy unless it could be demonstrated that long-lived highly radioactive wastes could be safely contained for the indefinite future. Ever since, efforts to find a suitable site for a geological disposal facility have been rejected by communities (Wanted: community willing to host a highly radioactive waste dump in their district, 22 January).
There is, therefore, little evidence to support the government’s claim that “it is satisfied that effective arrangements will exist to manage and dispose of the waste that will be produced from new nuclear power stations”. Deep disposal may be the eventual long-term solution but demonstrating a safety case, finding suitable geology and a willing community are tough challenges and likely to take a long time. The search for a disposal site diverts attention from the real solution for the foreseeable future, which is to ensure the safe and secure management of the unavoidable legacy wastes that have to be managed. It is perverse to compound the problem by a new-build programme that will result in vastly increased radioactivity from spent fuel and other highly radioactive wastes which will have to be stored indefinitely at vulnerable sites scattered around our coasts.
Continue reading...Stuck in first gear: how Australia's electric car revolution stalled
As sceptics fretted over price, range and lack of charging stations, Australia was overtaken by the rest of the world. Now policymakers are being urged to jumpstart the industry
In Elizabeth in South Australia, they stood in a huge line, only three months ago, and spelled out HOLDEN for the helicopters. Thirteen weeks later, after the plant closed and the last car rolled away, the talk began of rejuvenation, a new owner and the promise of the electric.
The proposal, from the British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, to refit the old Holden plant to make electric cars is still just a suggestion, but it has captured the imagination of a country suddenly keen to talk. On Monday, the idea was backed to the hilt by the premier, Jay Weatherill, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union. On Tuesday, the federal energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, said the electric car would do to Australia “what the iPhone did to the communications sector”.
Continue reading...Local people tackle tide of beach plastic in Mumbai
Clean-up has collected more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic since 2015
A beach in Mumbai is looking much cleaner thanks to the efforts of local people to remove a tide of plastic waste that appears on the shore.
A regular group of people, including children, use equipment donated by Bollywood stars to scour a 3km stretch of Versova beach every weekend, and have collected more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic since 2015.
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