The Guardian
David Tayler obituary
My friend and colleague David Tayler, who has died aged 53, was a geographer, geologist and passionate conservationist who devoted his life to connecting people with landscapes. Through this he changed countless lives. Most of his career was spent in the Yorkshire Dales, running conservation, education and outreach projects.
Born to John, a local government worker, and his wife, Margaret (nee Tyler), a teacher, in Maidenhead, Berkshire, he attended the local comprehensive, Desborough school (now Desborough college). There, particularly on geography and geology field trips, he developed a lifelong affinity with landscapes, wildlife and botany. He never lost that early sense of joy and wonder at the natural world and a desire to inspire it in others.
Continue reading...Tanzania gallery: the struggle for life without water at the Nyarugusu Dispensary
At Nyarugusu in the Geita district in north-west Tanzania, life is a constant struggle, one that is made infinitely harden by the absence of running water. Photographer Sameer Satchu travelled to the area and recorded these images of daily events at a medical facility, the Nyarugusu Dispensary, for Water Aid
Continue reading...Country diary: cliffs, clouds and wild, wet views
Cei Newydd/New Quay, Ceredigion Waterfalls flowed wide and white on to the foreshore, shedding excess water from the landscape
The steep path up to the headland was scoured to the bedrock by the recent storms, with banks of debris built up at the breaks of slope like shoals in a stream. Long grass at the margin was flattened and the turf had been peeled back from the edges of the rock by the passage of water.
Recent rain, a series of startlingly abrupt and intense showers, had made me wonder whether a walk on the coast path was a good plan – but the view northwards along the coast more than justified the risk of a soaking.
Continue reading...Groceries code adjudicator deserves more power | Letters
Farmers at home and those in developing countries are waiting with bated breath for the government to rule on expanding the role of the groceries code adjudicator, Christine Tacon. Ms Tacon has wielded her ombudsman role to impose sanctions on supermarkets for failures to play fair with suppliers – and her firm hand is bringing results. But many farmers growing food for our tables still fall foul of unfair practice.
Late cancellations to orders – the equivalent of ordering a meal only to walk out as it arrives at the table – leave piles of unwanted fruit and veg rotting on compost heaps instead of filling our shopping baskets. Ahead of the government’s call for evidence we interviewed banana farmers who received late order changes four weeks out of five, leading to additional costs in an industry notorious for tight margins and difficult working conditions. Late payments also cost farmers money. One group of UK dairy farmers has found itself out of pocket by up to £14,000 per farm since 2015 because of a two-week delay to payments imposed on them by their milk purchaser.
Continue reading...Cameroon palm oil campaigner arrested in crackdown on activists
Nasako Besingi has been jailed after opposing a US-funded palm-oil plantation and supporters say this is linked to Cameroon’s ‘anglophone crisis’
A prominent campaigner against palm oil plantations has been arrested amid a growing crackdown on environmental and human rights activists in Cameroon, according to local lawyers and NGOs.
Nasako Besingi, who has led opposition to a US-funded 73,000 hectare farm in a biodiverse rainforest, is among more than 100 individuals who have been detained during an escalation of tension between the predominantly French-speaking authorities and the country’s large English-speaking minority.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Bearded tits in Norfolk, rutting deer in Dublin, and a hungry polar bear in Alaska are among our pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Food security, giant rats and carbon emissions – 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...Wood-burning stove ban will not be enforced against householders
Focus of London mayor’s proposed ban will be on educating owners not to burn wood during bad air quality episodes
Sadiq Khan’s proposed ban on wood-burning stoves in the most-polluted areas of London will not be enforced against householders and will only be in operation at certain times of the year.
Under the mayor of London’s plans, the stoves would be occasionally banned from use in zones in the capital from 2025 and UK-wide laws blocking the sale of all but the newest, cleanest stoves from 2022 would be brought in earlier.
Continue reading...Selfies, storage and tiny nuclear bunkers: alternative uses for your wood-burner
Sadiq Khan wants to reduce air pollution – and one of the worst offenders is the wood-fired stove. But is there any other use for your Scandi-inspired heater?
In a blow targeted straight at the city’s middle-class heart, Sadiq Khan is trying to ban some wood-burning stoves from London. To reduce air pollution, he is seeking powers to prohibit the burning of wood in any areas that suffer from poor air quality. However, there are 1.5m wood-burning stoves in the UK, and that number is increasing by 200,000 annually. So, if you have a wood-burning stove that you can’t use any more, what are you supposed to do with it? Some thoughts.
• Use it to burn something less harmful to the environment than wood. Polystyrene perhaps?
Continue reading...'Our desire for goods is at the heart of this': Why Bruce Parry wants us all to live more sustainably
In his new documentary, the explorer joins Borneo’s Penan tribe to see what the world’s indigenous people can teach us about our own survival and that of the planet
Bruce Parry has made a career out of going native. The Royal Marine-turned-celebrity explorer may not yet be as fully-fledged an institution as David Attenborough, but if the British public were to nominate anyone to paddle up a crocodile-infested creek, tuck into a wriggling dinner or liberate their mind with shamanistic drugs, Parry would surely rank near the top.
So it is worthy of note that this affable and – until now – mainstream film-maker has been forced to part ways with the BBC for his latest project, a documentary that stresses environmental defence begins on the home front.
Continue reading...We are all at risk from poisonous mercury. It's time to take action
Mercury is found in household items from beauty products to electronics, and even in food. Without proper safeguards our health is in danger
Mercury is far more pervasive than most people realise, and we have no idea how many people are at risk. It can be found in everything from mascara and dental amalgam to thermometers and skin whitening creams – and that’s before it reaches the food chain.
There is no safe level of exposure, and everyone is at risk when mercury is released without safeguards. Children and newborn and unborn babies are most vulnerable, along with populations who eat contaminated fish. Studies have shown that children as far afield as Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia and Greenland all suffer cognitive impairment from eating fish containing mercury.
Continue reading...Methane emissions from cattle are 11% higher than estimated
Bigger livestock in larger numbers in more regions has led to methane in the air climbing faster than predicted due to ‘out-of-date data’
Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from livestock are larger than previously thought, posing an additional challenge in the fight to curb global warming, scientists have said.
Revised calculations of methane produced per head of cattle show that global livestock emissions in 2011 were 11% higher than estimates based on data from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
Continue reading...Country diary: the house party's over for our wood mice
Welburn, North Yorkshire Neighbourly etiquette precludes releasing our captives near another house, and compassion compels me to avoid roads
While we were on holiday recently, our home became the venue for an unsanctioned party. It probably started with one or two acquaintances, a few nibbles. But word got around, as it does. The first we knew of the ensuing orgy was the smell in the kitchen, the ureic perma-damp stink I associate with concrete-floored public toilets.
Our house is highly permeable to small mammals. On moving in we found dozens of bank vole skeletons in the loft. Two shrews once drowned in a nappy bucket and another morning we found a baby rabbit camped under a bookcase. Sometimes bats appear in the kitchen.
Continue reading...Air pollution: Sadiq Khan calls for ban on wood-burning stoves
London mayor cites figures showing that the home stoves, used in 16% of households, produce up to a third of all the capital’s fine-particle pollution
Wood-burning stoves could be banned in some areas to combat air pollution under proposals by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Khan has written to Michael Gove, the environment secretary, to request extra powers to improve air quality in the capital, including measures to tackle solid-fuel burning and construction pollution. The proposed measures include minimum emissions standards for vessels on London’s waterways and heavy construction machinery like diggers and bulldozers.
Alarm as study reveals world’s tropical forests are huge carbon emission source
Forests globally are so degraded that instead of absorbing emissions they now release more carbon annually than all the traffic in the US, say researchers
The world’s tropical forests are so degraded they have become a source rather than a sink of carbon emissions, according to a new study that highlights the urgent need to protect and restore the Amazon and similar regions.
Researchers found that forest areas in South America, Africa and Asia – which have until recently played a key role in absorbing greenhouse gases – are now releasing 425 teragrams of carbon annually, which is more than all the traffic in the United States.
Continue reading...Sussex chemical haze: MPs criticise decision to curtail investigation
Concern grows that cause of toxic plume last month, which left 150 people seeking hospital treatment, may never be known
MPs have criticised a decision to wind down an investigation into the mysterious chemical haze that caused Sussex beaches to be evacuated and left dozens of people reporting sore eyes and breathing problems.
Victims of the incident, after which 150 people sought hospital treatment, expressed alarm that they may never know the cause of the toxic plume that gave them sore throats for weeks after it drifted on to Birling Gap and other beaches on 27 August.
Continue reading...Monsanto banned from European parliament
MEPs withdraw parliamentary access after the firm shunned a hearing into allegations that it unduly influenced studies into the safety of glyphosate used in its RoundUp weedkiller
Monsanto lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament after the multinational refused to attend a parliamentary hearing into allegations of regulatory interference.
It is the first time MEPs have used new rules to withdraw parliamentary access for firms that ignore a summons to attend parliamentary inquiries or hearings.
Continue reading...Dirty laundry a powerful magnet for bedbugs, study finds
To sleep tight and dodge the bedbug’s bite, pack away worn clothes to avoid spreading the insects, which are attracted to human scent, travellers advised
After a long day of sightseeing in a foreign city, you might be tempted to kick off your socks, sling your sweaty T-shirt across your hotel room room and flop down on the bed. Think again.
Dirty laundry acts as a powerful magnet for bedbugs, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports has found. Its authors have warned that a failure to securely pack away clothes while travelling may explain why populations of biting parasites have soared during the past decade.
Continue reading...Satellite eye on Earth: August 2017 – in pictures
Greenland wildfires, deforestation and tropical storm Harvey are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last month
Tropical storm Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico on 24 August. This geocolor image appears differently depending on whether it is day (right of the image) or night (left).
Continue reading...Climate and energy are becoming focal points in state political races | John Abraham
The latest example, Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Otto has a strong clean energy proposal
As soon as Donald Trump won the presidential election, people in the US and around the world knew it was terrible news for the environment. Not wanting to believe that he would try to follow through on our worst fears, we held out hope.
Those hopes for a sane US federal government were misplaced. But they are replaced by a new hope – an emerging climate leadership at the state level and a continuation of economic forces that favor clean/renewable energy over dirty fossil fuels. In fact, it appears that some states are relishing the national and international leadership roles that they have undertaken. Support for sensible climate and energy policies is now a topic to run on in elections.
Continue reading...