The Guardian
Boom in renewables weakens fracking's case in UK, says Tory MP
Chair of policy committee also points to action to extract more North Sea gas and oil, suggesting support for shale gas is cooling
The case for fracking in Britain has weakened because of government action to extract more oil and gas from the North Sea and meteoric growth in renewable power, according to a Conservative MP tasked with developing the party’s energy policy.
James Heappey said the new rules on tax relief for offshore oil and gas fields announced in last week’s budget could change the energy landscape.
Continue reading...The eco guide to yoga
Mindfulness helps us deal with the stress of climate trauma, and seek solutions. Make sure your kit’s sustainably sourced and exercise outside
Daily yoga sessions were the unexpected hit at the recent Cop23 climate talks in Bonn. Delegate demand was so high that the organisers (the Indian delegation) ran out of mats.
Yoga is an accessible route to mindfulness, and a crucial tool for exposing environmental emergency
Continue reading...Great Barrier Reef coral-breeding program offers 'glimmer of hope'
Project, which could help restore damaged coral populations, has seen success in the Philippines
Scientists have stepped in as environmental matchmakers by breeding baby coral on the Great Barrier Reef in a move that could have worldwide significance.
Coral eggs and sperm were collected from Heron Island’s reef during last November’s coral spawning to produce more than a million larvae.
North Atlantic’s greatest survivors are hunted once more
After decades of recovery, right whales are now under threat from industrial fishing
One of the more hopeful ecological stories of recent years – the slow restoration of numbers of the North Atlantic right whale – has taken a disastrous turn for the worse. Marine biologists have found their population has plunged abruptly in the past few years and that there may now only be around 100 reproductively mature females left in the sea. Many scientists fear the species could soon become the first great whale to become extinct in modern times.
The principal cause for the North Atlantic right whale’s precipitous decline has been the use of increasingly heavy commercial fishing gear dropped on to the sea bed to catch lobsters, snow crabs and hogfish off the east coast of North America. Whales swim into the rope lines attached to these sea-bed traps and their buoys and become entangled. In some cases hundreds of metres of heavy rope, tied to traps weighing more than 60kg, have been found wrapped around whales. “We have records of animals carrying these huge loads – which they cannot shake off – for months and months,” said Julie van der Hoop, of Aarhus University in Denmark.
Continue reading...Mexico creates vast new ocean reserve to protect 'Galapagos of North America'
Fishing, mining and new hotels will be prohibited in the ‘biologically spectacular’ Revillagigedo archipelago
Mexico’s government has created the largest ocean reserve in North America around a Pacific archipelago regarded as its crown jewel.
The measures will help ensure the conservation of marine creatures including whales, giant rays and turtles.
Continue reading...Illegal logging, Autumn budget key points, and consumer waste – 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...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Brown bears, grey seals and an errant crocodile are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Amazon tribe saves plant lore with ‘healing forests’ and encyclopedia
In a bid to safeguard knowledge the Matsés in Peru have been planting “medicinal agroforestry” plots and written a 1,044-page two-volume book.
The seven indigenous Matsés elders were slowly meandering through the forest. They were explaining how different trees and plants are used for medicinal purposes, exchanging stories about how they had acquired their extraordinary knowledge and put it to good use. There were memories of an encounter with a jaguar and someone’s father struck by some kind of pain in the eye - “not conjunctivitis!” - while claims were made for successfully treating women haemorrhaging, snake-bite, a swollen leg and constipation.
The forest we were in was actually more of a garden - or “healing forest” or “medicinal agroforestry” plot - planted late last year by six young Matsés men under the expert guidance of elder Arturo Tumi Nëcca Potsad. “There are all types [of trees and plants] here,” Arturo told the Guardian, holding a spear made of peach palm and looking about him. “About 100 types, 3,000 plants.”
Continue reading...Black Friday to cause spikes in air pollution and plastic waste, warn environmentalists
The shopping frenzy will see 82,000 diesel delivery vans on UK streets, with plastic toys and electronic goods among the most popular purchases
The online shopping frenzy of the Black Friday weekend will see 82,000 diesel vans and trucks on UK roads, raising concerns of air pollution spikes on residential streets as more than £7bn of purchases are delivered.
In the UK online shoppers are expected to spend up to £1.35bn today alone, according to analysts at IMRG, the UK’s online retail association. Plastic toys, games and electronic goods are among the most sought after items in the biggest weekend of shopping in Britain and the US, with environmentalists and health experts warning that it will add to the mountain of plastic waste and increase air pollution.
Continue reading...Experience: I am a kayaktivist
It can be dangerous – we get close to moving supertankers. Then there’s the worry about how private security will react
My first political epiphany concerned the world trade protests in 1999. I was 17 and had a feeling globalisation was a good thing – until I realised it was about money and economics, not people and culture; so in the early 2000s I joined some anti-globalisation protests in Quebec.
Several years later, I heard about kayaktivism. I’d kayaked before, and been an activist, but never married the two. My first kayak protest was in Quebec’s Saint Lawrence estuary in 2014. TransCanada wanted to build a supertanker port in a beluga whale nursery. Our mission was to kayak to a boat doing seismic testing, unfurl a banner and take a picture. It wasn’t about stopping the boat, but drawing attention to what was happening.
Continue reading...New high-speed trains go slow on provision for cyclists
The new service by Great Western Railway has reduced bike space, a troublesome booking system and fails to meet the needs of disabled, elderly or less mobile cyclists
Great Western Railway’s (GWR) new high-speed Intercity Express trains made headlines last month with their gaffe-filled launch that saw new trains temporarily taken out of service after several on-board malfunctions, on a service that arrived 41 minutes late, with the transport secretary on board.
There could be more bad news down the line for those travelling with cycles, with the prospect that bike space on the new trains is reduced to zero at times, and those who have not booked a bike ticket told they won’t be able to board at all, whether there is free bike space or not.
Continue reading...Blood flows and rivers run dry as Honduras prepares to go to the polls – in pictures
With the country poised for Sunday’s elections, the murder of environmentalists in Honduras is being directly linked with water and food shortages, violence and migration. Photographer Sean Hawkey visited what has become a frontline of climate change conflict
Continue reading...Country diary: the remains of harlequin ladybirds suggest predation by a rodent
Cavenham Heath, Suffolk The woodland reveals beetles both common and rare, and a surprising pile of ladybird wings
Blue sky, still air and the winter sun have lifted the heavy overnight frost. Cavenham Heath contains one of the largest blocks of heathland and acid grassland in the south-west Breckland, but the path from the car park starts in a predominantly birch woodland. Tearing a weathered birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) from a standing trunk, I fumble through its white flesh. It is shot through with burrows and in places under the pale leathery skin it is dry and powdery, while elsewhere the fungus retains a tough marshmallow consistency.
Continue reading...Queensland farmers suspected to have defied tree clearing controls in 'deforestation frenzy'
Native vegetation was home to several threatened species and was in a Great Barrier Reef catchment
Queensland farmers are suspected of having defied rare federal government intervention and cleared a large swath of land without commonwealth approval, according to conservationists.
The native vegetation was in a reef catchment, meaning the clearing could worsen pollution on the Great Barrier Reef. Government-commissioned studies show it provided habitat to several threatened species.
Continue reading...Alleged illegal land clearing in reef catchment – video
Drone footage shows the aftermath of allegedly unlawful clearing, about 70km south-west of Cairns. The area is thought to be habitat for several threatened species, and is in a reef catchment, meaning the clearing could worsen water quality on the embattled Great Barrier Reef.
Continue reading...Where have all our insects and birds gone? | Letters
With regard to David Marjot’s letter about lost insects in Surrey (18 November), we too have noticed a sharp decline in insects over the last 10 years in south Wales, but there are no neonicotinoids used in the area. In fact, as he noted in Surrey, spiders were the first to disappear. However, Dakar Pro, a commercial preparation of RoundUp, is sprayed on city pavements to eradicate weeds. Have any other readers had similar experiences?
Rosemary Mason
Swansea
• I am in need of an answer. We have had the best crop of apples from our (very) old Cox’s Pomona tree in the nearly 50 years we have been here – reason, no insect damage. We have seen almost no wasps: every year we have at least one nest in the loft, garden store, ground, but not this year. We have practically no small birds coming to the bird table – the food I put out goes to the pigeons, the one robin and a few passing tits – where are they all? There have been few hoverflies, few houseflies and no bluebottles. Is it the pesticides, sprayed over the nearby agricultural land, is it the plethora of red kites happily soaring above, or the hornets seen for the first time a couple of years ago?
Continue reading...Floods in north-west England prompt criticism over missing defences
Cumbria MP says government is dragging its feet, as torrential rain causes flooding in area hit by Storm Desmond in 2015
Torrential rain has forced dozens of families from their homes and caused disruption across the north-west of England, prompting a local MP to accuse the government of dragging its feet over £25m of flood defences promised two years ago.
Lancaster and the nearby village of Galgate were the worst-affected areas, with 70 people rescued by firefighters and 27 people evacuated from their homes as rivers burst their banks and drains overflowed. Emergency services said they received 500 flood-related calls and attended 100 incidents in Lancashire overnight.
Continue reading...Could octopus DNA reveal the secrets of west Antarctica’s ice sheet collapse?
Understanding what happened to the ice sheet will be key to knowing what the future holds for global sea levels
There are a lot of scientific eyes on west Antarctica right now, for some pretty obvious reasons.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) holds a lot of water – enough to push up sea levels around the world by 3m or so.
Continue reading...Farmland bird decline prompts renewed calls for agriculture overhaul
Official figures show a 9% decline between 2010-15 in birds living and breeding on the UK’s farmland
Birds living and breeding on the UK’s farmland have seen numbers decline by almost a tenth in five years, official figures show.
Farmland bird populations have declined by 56% since 1970, largely due to agricultural changes including the loss of mixed farming, a switch to autumn sowing of crops, a reduction in hay meadows and the stripping out of hedgerows.
Continue reading...London cannot bid for national clean air funding, mayor says
Sadiq Khan says capital will not be included in the chancellor’s £220m clean air fund despite having 40% of the most polluting roads in England and Wales
London cannot bid for a £220m clean air fund announced in the budget – despite being home to 40% of the most polluting roads in England and Wales, Sadiq Khan revealed on Thursday.
Giving evidence to the Commons joint inquiry into air quality, the mayor of London revealed he was lobbying the government to support a £515m London-based two-year diesel scrappage scheme.
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