The Guardian
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.
Continue reading...Python owner was killed by his 8ft-long pet, coroner rules
Dan Brandon kept 10 snakes and 12 tarantulas in his bedroom and was said to be responsible owner
A lover of exotic animals died of asphyxia after his 8ft-long pet African rock python called Tiny wrapped itself around him, a coroner has ruled.
Dan Brandon was found dead by his mother, Babs, in his bedroom in Hampshire, with the python concealed close by.
Continue reading...World's first electric container barges to sail from European ports this summer
Dubbed the ‘Tesla of the canals’, the unmanned vessels will operate on Dutch and Belgian waterways, vastly reducing diesel vehicles and emissions
The world’s first fully electric, emission-free and potentially crewless container barges are to operate from the ports of Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam from this summer.
The vessels, designed to fit beneath bridges as they transport their goods around the inland waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands, are expected to vastly reduce the use of diesel-powered trucks for moving freight.
Continue reading...Remote Amazon tribe hit by mercury crisis, leaked report says
Peru’s Health Ministry found shocking contamination among the Nahua, but hasn’t published its full report
An indigenous people living in one of the remotest parts of the Peruvian Amazon has been struck by a mystery mercury epidemic, according to an unpublished Health Ministry report dated 2015 and 2017 seen by the Guardian.
The Nahua only entered into sustained contact with “outsiders” in the mid-1980s, which led to almost 50% of the population dying mainly from respiratory and infectious diseases. Today, numbering less than 500 people, the vast majority live in a village in the Kugapakori, Nahua, Nanti and Others Reserve established for indigenous peoples in “voluntary isolation” and “initial contact” in south-east Peru.
Continue reading...Tasmania: new find of extremely rare red handfish doubles population to 80
Team of divers spent two days searching a reef, and hope more red handfish will be found
Divers in Tasmania have discovered a new population of red handfish, doubling the known population of the elusive and extremely rare fish and raising hopes that more may be found.
Until last week the remaining population of red handfish, Thymichthys politus, was believed to be confined to one 50m long reef in Frederick Henry Bay near Hobart in south-east Tasmania.
Continue reading...UK opposes strong EU recycling targets despite plastics pledge
Exclusive: government accused of hypocrisy as documents show opposition to urban waste plan
The UK government is opposing strong new recycling targets across the EU despite its recent pledge to develop “ambitious new future targets and milestones”, confidential documents have revealed.
A 25-year environment plan was launched earlier in January by the prime minister, Theresa May, who particularly focused on cutting plastic pollution. The plan, aimed partly at wooing younger voters, says “recycling plastics is critical”.
Continue reading...Murky world of 'science' journals a new frontier for climate deniers | Graham Readfearn
Deniers have found a platform in emerging publications that publish without rigorous review
There’s a new scientific journal you might not have heard of called the International Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences. It says it “supports scientist who sweats for the real innovation & discovery”.
If that’s a little too sweaty for you, then how about another new journal, also called the International Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences?
Continue reading...National Trust to create UK sanctuary for endangered butterfly
Heddon Valley in Devon to be haven for high brown fritillary, supported by lottery funding
A beautiful wooded valley on the Devon coast is to be the focus of a project to save the UK’s most endangered butterfly – the high brown fritillary.
Conservationists believe changes to woodland management, such as the abandonment of coppicing, and climate change have contributed to the steep decline of the large, powerful, fast-flying butterfly over the last 50 years.
Continue reading...Specieswatch: greater tussock-sedge – safe haven and playground
The tall grass is perfect habitat for vulnerable aquatic species
As a child living deep in the country, the greater tussock sedge, Carex paniculata, provided me with both an adventure playground and a guarantee of getting muddy. This ancient grass, which grows in shallow bogs in pillars up to 1.5 metres high (4ft 11in) and about a metre (3ft 3in) across, often has colonies of 20 or 30 plants close together. The childhood game was to climb on top of one without getting your feet wet and jump from one to the next without falling off into the swamp. An added hazard was (and is) that the leaves are narrow and rough – sharp enough if they slip through your fingers to cut through the skin. So most adventures ended with getting muddy and bloody at the same time.
Continue reading...'Blended' finance is key to achieving global sustainability goals, says report
Public and private sector funds must increasingly pool resources to finance larger global sustainability and climate change projects, a new study shows
Tackling climate change and achieving the world’s sustainable development goals will require publicly funded and private sector banks and institutions to be far more willing to join forces to provide “blended” finance to projects, according to a new study.
Blended finance is the term given to the use of public or philanthropic capital to spur private sector investment in projects aimed at achieving the sustainable development goals. Already, this market is worth about $50bn globally, but experts said on Tuesday this sum could double within the next three to four years.
Continue reading...Trump's tariffs on panels will cost US solar industry thousands of jobs
Trump’s decision to impose a 30% tariff will cost the US around 23,000 jobs and risks slowing the growth of clean energy, advocates warn
Donald Trump’s decision to impose a tariff on imported solar panels will cost the US solar industry about 23,000 jobs this year and risks slowing the growth of clean energy that would help address climate change, renewable energy advocates warned.
Trump has imposed a 30% tariff on foreign-made solar cells and modules, with the White House expressing alarm at a huge rise in imported components “spurred on by artificially low-priced solar cells and modules from China”.
Continue reading...Gas field earthquakes put Netherlands’ biggest firms on extraction notice
Government tells 200 companies they have four years to stop sourcing gas from Groningen field after increasingly significant earthquakes
Two hundred of the Netherlands’ biggest companies have been told by their government to stop sourcing fuel from a major Dutch gas field within four years following a series of increasingly significant earthquakes.
Extraction from the Groningen field, one of Europe’s richest sources of gas, is operated in a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, but has been capped in recent years by ministers due to seismic activity in the area.
Continue reading...New global registry of invasive species is 'milestone' in protecting biodiversity
New catalogue is expected to stand alongside the red list as an international means to fight extinction, by helping to stop biological invasions
A world registry of invasive species has been launched amid concerns that governments are not doing enough to tackle the rising threat of globalisation to biodiversity.
The new catalogue – unveiled in the journal Scientific Data on Tuesday – is expected to become a pillar of international efforts to fight extinction alongside the “red list” of endangered species.
Continue reading...Trump imposes steep tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines
Restrictions aim to boost US manufacturing, but critics warn they will slow shift to renewable energy and increase consumer costs
The US president, Donald Trump, has announced steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels, giving a boost to Whirlpool Corp and dealing a setback to the renewable energy industry in the first of several potential trade restrictions.
The decisions in the two “Section 201” safeguard cases followed findings by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that both imported products “are a substantial cause of serious injury to domestic manufacturers,” US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said.
Continue reading...Renewed calls for UK to tackle toxic air ahead of high court hearing
A coalition of experts is asking the government to bring in a new Clean Air Act as ministers prepare to defend current plans in court this week
The government is coming under renewed pressure to introduce a new Clean Air Act to tackle the UK’s toxic levels of air pollution.
Ministers are due back in the high court later this week to defend their current plans which have previously been ruled so poor that they are illegal.
Continue reading...Japan to replace whaling mother ship in sign hunts will go on
Officials say they need a faster ship to evade anti-whaling activists
Japan is to defy Australia and other nations with plans to replace its whaling fleet’s ageing mother ship, showing its determination to continue its annual expeditions to the Southern Ocean.
The country’s fisheries agency is planning to replace the 30-year-old Nisshin Maru with either a new ship or a refitted one bought overseas, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Continue reading...New fountains and bottle-refill points to tackle London's plastic waste
Exclusive: Mayor of London announces scheme to reduce packaging waste and improve access to tap water
A new network of drinking fountains and bottle-refill points is set to be rolled out across London this year as part of a plan to reduce the amount of waste created by single-use plastic, the Guardian has learned.
Twenty new drinking fountains will be installed across London in a pilot scheme starting this summer, while a bottle-refill initiative, in which businesses make tap water available to the public, will be set up across five areas of the capital over February and March. If successful, it will be rolled out to the rest of the city in the summer. Plastic cups, bottles and cutlery will also no longer be available at City Hall under the plans.
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