The Guardian
Queensland coalmines named and shamed for dust monitoring failures
Four mines operated by Glencore and Anglo could be prosecuted or even shut down, minister tells state parliament
Four underground Queensland coalmines operated by Glencore and Anglo American could be prosecuted or even shut down for failing to properly monitor dust levels.
Anthony Lynham, the state’s mines minister, has named and shamed the companies in parliament, warning that they risked severe penalties for failing to meet monitoring obligations designed to protect workers from dust-related diseases such as black lung.
Continue reading...Silicon Valley billionaire loses bid to prevent access to public beach
Court decision is blow to Vinod Khosla and other wealthy landowners seeking to buy renowned beaches, making public land private
A California court has ordered a Silicon Valley billionaire to restore access to a beloved beach that he closed off for his private use, a major victory for public lands advocates who have been fighting the venture capitalist for years.
An appeals court ruled Thursday that Vinod Khosla, who runs the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures and co-founded the tech company Sun Microsystems, must unlock the gates to Martins Beach in northern California by his property.
Continue reading...Tourism industry funds research trip to most damaged part of Great Barrier Reef
EXCLUSIVE: Unprecedented scientific expedition funded by private tourism company is designed to unlock secrets of surviving coral
A scientific research expedition funded by the tourism industry will undertake the first significant underwater study of remote northern sections of the Great Barrier Reef, which were severely damaged by recent coral bleaching.
Nonprofit organisation Great Barrier Reef Legacy will launch a 21-day research trip on a 32-metre charter boat, offering at least 10 free spaces to scientists, including Charlie Veron, known as “the godfather of coral”.
Continue reading...Australia faces potentially disastrous consequences of climate change, inquiry told
Former defence force chief decries Australia’s response to climate challenge as a ‘manifest failure of leadership’
Military and climate experts, including a former chief of the defence force have warned that Australia faces potential “disastrous consequences” from climate change, including “revolving” natural disasters and the forced migration of tens of millions of people across the region, overwhelming security forces and government.
Former defence force chief Adm Chris Barrie, now adjunct professor at the strategic and defence studies centre at the Australian National University, said in a submission to a Senate inquiry that Australia’s ability to mitigate and respond to the impacts of climate change had been corrupted by political timidity: “Australia’s climate change credentials have suffered from a serious lack of political leadership”.
Norway's push for Arctic oil and gas threatens Paris climate goals – study
Noway’s role as the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporter undermines its efforts to cut emissions at home, says NGO report
Norway’s plan to ramp up oil and gas production in the Arctic threatens global efforts to tackle climate change, according to a new study.
The research says 12 gigatonnes of carbon could be added by exploration sites in the Barents Sea and elsewhere over the next 50 years, which is 1.5 times more than the Norwegian fields currently being tapped or under construction.
Continue reading...Scientists hope to breed Asian ‘unicorns’ – if they can find them
Conservationists see only one hope for the saola: a risky captive breeding programme
In 1996, William Robichaud spent three weeks with Martha before she died. Robichaud studied Martha – a beautiful, enigmatic, shy saola – with a scientist’s eye but also fell under the gracile animal’s spell as she ate out of his hand and allowed herself to be stroked. Captured by local hunters, Martha spent those final days in a Laotian village, doted on by Robichaud.
Since losing Martha, Robichaud has become the coordinator of the Saola Working Group (SWG) at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has dedicated his life to saving this critically endangered species – and believes the best chance to achieve that now is through a captive breeding programme.
As the skylarks fall silent, an ultrasonic din begins
Sandy, Bedfordshire As the birdsongs of day fade out, the bat detector stirs into unheard action
The sun had risen over fields of oats and gone down on a prairie of stubble, yet still the skylarks sang. Though the world beneath their wings had been transformed, they continued exulting or lamenting in twilight overtime. I listened to two, three, or many voices intermingling at the fading of the day, but whether they sang in the sky or gave their evening show from the ground, I could not tell.
Other voices came too, though intermittently. Restless flocks of geese seeking rest crisscrossed between land and lakes. Numbering no more than a dozen at a time, they passed low overhead, their wings making a fuzzy buzz. The birds were muted but not mute; single birds made bleating calls that to me were riddled with anxiety at the approach of night.
Continue reading...UK named as world's largest legal ivory exporter
A new trade analysis reveals the scale of Britain’s role in the international ivory trade
Britain was the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory between 2010 and 2015, a breakdown of records held by the Convention on international trade in endangered species (Cites) has revealed.
Not only did the UK export more ivory than anyone else to Hong Kong and China – which are considered smuggling hubs for “blood ivory” - it also sold on 370% more ivory than the next highest exporter, the USA.
Continue reading...The right language to protect the natural world | Letters
George Monbiot’s call to reconsider how we name things (Forget ‘the environment’. Fight for our living planet, 9 August) is a timely contribution to a confusing world. But one word that both he and the majority of online contributors have ignored is “prosperity”. That, after all, is why humans engage in economic activity: they believe it will make things better. There is, however, a fundamental problem with the way we have arranged our economic affairs. By treating the natural world as an infinite thing, “external” to the economy (except as a never-ending supply of resources) we have built a massive endeavour to take natural resources and make them into things that are then disposed of, generally after a fairly brief period of human enjoyment.
Everyone I speak to readily accepts that under this system the planet must eventually “run out”, but they cannot see an alternative to “prosperity”. The conversation we need to have is not how we name things but how we do things.
Continue reading...Monsanto continued selling PCBs for years despite knowing health risks, archives reveal
Company refutes legal analysis of documents suggesting it ignored risk to human health and environment long after pollutants’ lethal effects were known
Monsanto continued to produce and sell toxic industrial chemicals known as PCBs for eight years after learning that they posed hazards to public health and the environment, according to legal analysis of documents put online in a vast searchable archive.
More than 20,000 internal memos, minuted meetings, letters and other documents have been published in the new archive, many for the first time.
Continue reading...‘Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of world's biodiversity’
Interview with UN Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
Today is the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, numbering an estimated 370 million in 90 countries and speaking roughly 7,000 languages. To mark it, the Guardian interviews Kankanaey Igorot woman Victoria Tauli-Corpuz about the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which she calls “historic” and was adopted 10 years ago.
Tauli-Corpuz, from the Philippines, was Chair of the UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues when the Declaration was adopted, and is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this interview, conducted via email, she explains why the Declaration is so important, argues that governments are failing to implement it, and claims that the struggle for indigenous rights “surpasses” other great social movements of the past:
Continue reading...Flash floods hit east coast of England
East Riding of Yorkshire and north-east Lincolnshire among areas hardest-hit with severe downpours expected to slowly move south
Heavy rain has brought flooding to a stretch of the east coast of England, and further severe downpours are expected.
Flash flooding hit towns and villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire and north-east Lincolnshire. There was 3ft (1 metre) of standing water in parts of Withernsea and further flooding in the Grimsby and Immingham areas.
Continue reading...Purple streaks of thistles garnish the sodden fields
Wenlock Edge Rain hardens summer’s lushness and the vivid knapweed seems loaded with the uncanniness of the season
On the windmill meadow, above a green rind of grasses and below their fidgety seedheads in the rain is the dotty purpling of knapweed.
The jet stream divides August in Europe. As the south swelters in life-threatening temperatures, this side of the shower curtain is cool, wet and, after Lammas Day, thistly.
Continue reading...Glencore's Wandoan coalmine wins approval from Queensland government
Decision enrages environmental groups, with Lock the Gate calling it a ‘very dark day for farming’ in the state
Glencore’s multibillion-dollar Wandoan coalmine proposal has been granted mining leases years after it was shelved amid falling commodity prices and a ramped-up global response to climate change.
On Tuesday Queensland’s natural resources and mines minister, Dr Anthony Lynham, approved three 27-year leases covering 30,000 hectares for the first stage of its $7bn mine near Roma.
Continue reading...Bristol zoo gives rare spiders a leg-up with breeding programme
More than 1,000 of the endangered species, which come from one island off Portugal, have hatched in captivity in a world first
In what is believed to be a world first, one of the rarest spiders has been bred in captivity at Bristol Zoo Gardens. More than 1,000 Desertas wolf spiderlings, classed as critically endangered, have hatched. Keepers hand-reared some from tiny eggs as they are so precious. At birth, they measure 4mm across, but they will grow to 12cm, with a 4cm body.
The species is found in a single valley on Deserta Grande, one of the Desertas islands near Madeira, Portugal. There are about 4,000 adults left in the wild and it is hoped that some of the spiderlings can be returned to their home.
Continue reading...Paris climate deal: US tells diplomats to dodge foreign officials' questions
Secretary of state Rex Tillerson directs staff to make clear US wants to help other countries use fossil fuels, diplomatic cable shows
US diplomats should sidestep questions from foreign governments on what it would take for the Trump administration to re-engage in the global Paris climate agreement, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters.
The cable, sent by the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, to embassies on Friday, also said diplomats should make clear the United States wants to help other countries use fossil fuels.
Continue reading...Dam it! How beavers could save Britain from flooding
Since their trial reintroduction in Devon, the animal’s engineering skills have reduced floodwater and created a paradise for local wildlife. Should we bring them back for good?
At a secret location in the rolling pasture of west Devon lies a marshy patch of farmland protected by £35,000-worth of solar-powered electric fencing. This isn’t to keep people out but to restrain the tree-chomping, river-damming residents of these three hectares. Outside the fence is a typical small valley, with a trickle of a stream, willow thickets and pasture grazed by cattle. Inside the enclosure, the tiny stream has been blocked by 13 dams, creating pools and half-metre-wide canals. These have been built by Britain’s newest wild mammal, the beaver, which uses its waterways like we do – to transport goods. And as the beavers have coppiced trees, the willow thicket has been replaced with sunny glades of wild flowers – marsh thistles, watermint, meadowsweet – which dance with dragonflies and butterflies.
“The beavers have transformed this little trickle of a stream into a remarkable, primeval wetland,” says Mark Elliott, lead beaver project officer of Devon Wildlife Trust, which released two beavers here in 2011. “This is what the landscape would have looked like before we started farming, and it’s only six years old. That’s the amazing thing.”
Continue reading...打压盗猎盗伐，别小看了旅游业的本事
当野生动植物的存亡关系到当地居民切身利益时，他们就会成为野生动植物的最佳保护者，约翰·斯坎伦写到。
随着全球游客人数不断增长，旅行者们钟情于探索地方文化和观赏野生动植物，寻求更为丰富、更新奇的个人体验，以野生动植物为基础的旅游业正在全球范围内迅速升温。而这也促使我几年前决定从法律事业的苦海中暂时抽身，申请了6个月的无薪假期，和妹妹一起背上行囊走上了南美之旅。欣赏亚马逊雨林、伊瓜苏瀑布、马丘比丘等地的自然美景，了解保护这些美景的当地人，改变了我的一生。
联合国世界旅游组织估计，全球7%的旅游与野生动植物旅游相关，并以每年3%的速度增长，而且增长率在世界遗产地等地区还要高得多。世界自然基金会的一份报告显示，全球自然遗产中有93%支持娱乐和旅游活动，91%提供就业机会。据说在伯利兹城，超过50%的人口以珊瑚礁相关的旅游和渔业为生。
Continue reading...Sandpipers are already on their way south
Pulborough Brooks, West Sussex The sun is slowly dropping towards the horizon and the air is cooling. The sandpipers are still feeding, making the most of this important stopover site on their route
Ripples flow across the golden grass as the stems bend back and forth in the breeze. A pair of common blue butterflies – the male sky blue, the female rusty brown – dance over the field. It’s quiet, apart from the tinkling of parties of goldfinches flying over, and the relentless buzz of crickets and grasshoppers rising up from the ground alongside the footpath.
I follow the track around the field and into the woods, and walk uphill to the Hanger, the viewpoint that looks out over the pools and channels of the brooks. Two young grey herons battle over the fishing rights to their small pool, raising the crests on their heads, holding their wings wide and barking sharp “frarnk” calls. Finally one gives way and heaves itself into the air, flapping slowly into the distance.
Continue reading...Australian teen just 'unfortunate' to be attacked by meat-loving sea fleas
It’s safe to go back in the water, says marine biologist who identified the miniature attackers as lysianassid amphipods
The “meat-loving” marine creature that ate at the legs of a Melbourne teenager has been identified as a flesh-eating sea flea, known as a lysianassid amphipod.
Marine biologist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith said the creatures, which left 16-year-old Sam Kanizay with significant bleeding from his legs, were a small, scavenging crustacean that usually fed on dead fish or sea birds.
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