The Guardian
Fishing communities in Asia seek net gains after Bali summit – in pictures
Experts recently gathered in Bali to develop regulations that will help small-scale fishing operations and their sustainable methods thrive in our overfished seas. In this series of images, photojournalist Paul Hilton visits fishing communities in Asia where locals work in harmony with their environment
Continue reading...How could the UK-US trade deal affect your food? – Q&A
Chlorinated chicken is the tip of the iceberg. Current EU standards cover everything from conditions for battery hens to antibiotics use in farms, and they are all up for negotiation
The international trade secretary Liam Fox has been in the US for the preliminary stages of thrashing out a trade deal to take effect after the UK leaves the EU. He was asked about the trade in food and agricultural products, which is likely to form a key plank of any deal. Fox on Monday refused to rule out allowing imports of chlorinated chicken, which is banned under EU regulations. Then Michael Gove, secretary of state for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stepped in on Wednesday morning to say that the UK would not permit imports of chlorinated chicken under any new trade rules.
Continue reading...Government's air quality plan is cynical headline-grabbing, say critics
Michael Gove’s pledge to ban new petrol and diesel cars in 23 years is not enough to tackle health crisis now, say campaigners
Michael Gove’s new air quality plan has been criticised for failing to take enough immediate action to stop people dying from pollution, while promising to ban petrol and diesel cars in 23 years’ time.
The long-awaited document contains a pledge to stop new petrol and diesel cars being sold after 2040, as well as measures to encourage councils to tackle pollution hotspots and a limited scrappage scheme for the most polluting older vehicles.
Continue reading...Tell us what it is like to drive an electric car or van where you live
The UK plans to ban diesel and petrol vehicles from 2040. With the future looking electric we’d like to hear your driving experiences
From 2040, Britain plans to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans as part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan.
Amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health, the government said the move is needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health.
Climate change threatens ‘Himalayan Viagra’ fungus, and a way of life
Valuable fungus, prized as a reputed aphrodisiac, is disappearing due to warming temperatures, reports Climate Home
A Himalayan fungus used in Chinese medicine, which underpins the livelihoods of communities of harvesters in Nepal, is under the threat due to climate change.
Harvesting the Cordyceps sinensis fungus, called ‘yarsha gumba’ in Nepal, provides a livelihood for Himalayan dwellers. The fungus fetches up to Rs 2,800,000 (£20,000) per kg in raw form. During the peak season of yarsha collection, locals drop everything to pursue fungus hunting, including their usual profession. Even schools remain closed during yarsha collecting seasons.
Continue reading...Trump pulled out the oil industry playbook and players for Paris | Benjamin Franta
The fossil fuel industry used the same arguments, and even the same people, to block climate policies in the 1990s. We must not let this happen again.
Since President Trump announced on June 1 that the U.S. would cease implementation of the Paris Agreement, pundits have argued about whether the American pullout will truly affect greenhouse gas pollution one way or another, since, after all, the Paris Agreement was not legally binding to begin with.
We don’t know the future, but we do know the past, and here’s something we shouldn’t miss: we’ve seen this before. The same arguments used by President Trump - and even the same people he cited - were used by the oil and gas industry to block climate policies throughout the 1990s, including the United States’ implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. The playbook from twenty years ago is back, and this time we must be ready for it.
Horses and rabbits make lucky escapes from New Zealand floods – video report
A group of horses caught in a flooded river make a run for it after heavy rains in New Zealand’s South Island over the weekend. Three wild rabbits also managed to escape floods by hopping on to the backs of some sheep. Videos courtesy of fergs3374 and Kyla Jasperse
Continue reading...Loved to death: Sequoia national monument faces wildfires and logging
As the Trump administration continues to roll back protections on public lands, timber industry advocates are pushing to reduce federal defenses for California’s giant trees
For the largest living things standing on the planet, California’s giant sequoias have an unassuming, almost gentle, aura to them. The recognizable cinnamon-colored bark is soft and fibrous. Its cones are modest. When cut down, the trees tend to shatter and won’t produce reliably sturdy timber.
These majestic plants have a lineage stretching back to the Jurassic period but fears over their future have prompted a somewhat counterintuitive plan presented to the Trump administration – in order to save the giant sequoias, some say, their surrounding area must be stripped of protected status.
Continue reading...Man arrested for smuggling king cobras to the US in crisp canisters
California man faces up to 20 years in prison after the three live snakes were illegally shipped from Hong Kong
A man has been arrested on federal smuggling charges after customs officers intercepted a shipment with three live king cobras hidden inside potato chip canisters that were being mailed to his California home, US prosecutors said.
Rodrigo Franco, 34, was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles on a charge of illegally importing merchandise. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Continue reading...Ireland's staggering hypocrisy on climate change
The national climate policy is a greenwash – the country is certain to miss its 2020 emissions target and still handing out drilling licences
On the face of it, Ireland appears to be acting on climate change. Last year it appointed its first ever “climate action minister”, and in June it outlawed onshore fracking. What’s more, the telegenic new taoiseach Leo Varadkar dedicated much of the first day of his Cabinet retreat to discussing climate change.
Last week Varadkar introduced Ireland’s first national mitigation plan (NMP) in more than a decade, and said that addressing climate change would “require fundamental societal transformation and, more immediately, allocation of resources and sustained policy change.” If success could be measured simply by repetition – the word “sustainable” appears no fewer than 110 times in the NMP – Ireland would undoubtedly be among the world’s leading countries.
Continue reading...Pegas reborn: Romania's communist bicycle returns with oomph and style
A proletariat era symbol gets a modern makeover as a nostalgic nation warms up to its iconic bike brand
In communist Romania, almost every child had a Pegas bicycle. In a country cut off from the outside world, the state-owned company’s distinctive bikes were all people knew. However, with the violent end of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s reign in 1989, all that changed.
Continue reading...Captive by Jo-Anne McArthur: plight of animals in captivity – in pictures
McArthur’s book of photographs puts the spotlight on ethics of zoos around the world. Accompanied by essays by Born Free Foundation’s Virginia McKenna and philosopher Lori Gruen, the images and stories are also shared online through A Year of Captivity. Images from both projects will be exhibited at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre from 7 to 10 September
Continue reading...Damned as dangerous but ragwort is full of life
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire A fantasia of hoverflies, solitary bees, bumblebees, butterflies and beetles feed on ragwort
Ragwort makes fields of gold, and to walk in them feels far more transgressive than a bucolic stroll through wheat or barley. Unlike the pale, safe, beige of ripening cereal crops, the ragwort is bold as brass. Unlike the slim pickings in the stashes of mice (and men), the ragwort swarms with life.
The insects, and those creatures who feed on them, are harvesting a crop that is toxic to humans yet the antidote to the intensive agriculture that harms insects.
Continue reading...Call for action to protect Scotland's endangered capercaillie birds
Survey finds Highlands population has halved since 1990s, believed to be because of climate change and human activity
Conservationists have called for action to protect the capercaillie, one of Scotland’s rarest and most treasured birds, after data showed its population had fallen 50% in just over two decades.
An extensive field survey of capercaillie breeding grounds in the Highlands estimated a population of only 1,114 birds between 2015 and last year, compared with an estimate of 2,200 between 1992 and 1994.
Continue reading...Mega-farms’ devastating effects go far beyond the chicken shed | Letters
The “unnoticed” expansion of mega-farms raises serious concerns about farm animal welfare and our food system (Mega-farms transforming UK countryside, 18 July). Even less visible is the air pollution generated by intensively housed animals and the devastating impact it is having on nearby wildlife.
At high concentrations, such as from these mega-farms, ammonia and other nitrogen emissions cause direct damage to lichens, mosses and other plants, including bleaching and discolouration.
Continue reading...Solar energy and moonshine politics | Brief letters
Did I invent the solar panels scheme which paid a generous feed-in tariff to install panels on your roof? I think I may also have imagined a green deal which was so advantageous that nobody much took it up. I fear this new initiative (UK ‘on verge of clean energy revolution’, 25 July) is going to place a similar strain on my mental faculties when it vanishes without trace under the label “green crap”.
Murray Marshall
Salisbury
• Paul Brownsey (Letters, 24 July) takes a negative view of civil partnerships that is not shared by many same-sex and heterosexual couples, who view them as a way of conferring the same legal and financial protection that is provided by marriage, without taking on board all the religious and societal baggage of that institution. As such many see them as superior rather than inferior to marriage.
John Mills
Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
Google enters race for nuclear fusion technology
The tech giant and a leading US fusion company develop a new computer algorithm that significantly speeds up progress towards clean, limitless energy
Google and a leading nuclear fusion company have developed a new computer algorithm which has significantly speeded up experiments on plasmas, the ultra-hot balls of gas at the heart of the energy technology.
Tri Alpha Energy, which is backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has raised over $500m (£383m) in investment. It has worked with Google Research to create what they call the Optometrist algorithm. This enables high-powered computation to be combined with human judgement to find new and better solutions to complex problems.
Continue reading...Vote in the Observer Ethical Awards 2017
Vote in the Observer Ethical Awards, now in their 11th year. You can vote in as many or as few categories as you like using the form below.
Continue reading...Trump proposes scrapping Obama-era fracking rule on water pollution
Bureau of Land Management says it is moving to discard 2015 regulation as it duplicates state rules and ‘imposes unjustified costs’ on oil and gas industry
The Trump administration has proposed scrapping an Obama-era rule that aimed to ensure fracking for oil and gas does not pollute water supplies.
Related: Pennsylvania nuns oppose fracking gas pipeline through 'holy' land
Continue reading...Alien species invasions and global warming a 'deadly duo', warn scientists
Foreign animals and plants can cause huge damage, with the march of Argentine ants in the UK a new example of how climate change is boosting the threat
Invasions by alien species and global warming form a “deadly duo”, scientists have warned, with the march of Argentine ants in the UK a new example. The public are being asked to be on alert for invaders such as the raccoon dog and Asian hornet, as eradication can be near impossible after a species becomes established.
As trade and human travel has become globalised many thousands of species have crossed oceans or mountain ranges and become established in new regions, with some causing “invasional meltdown” and over a trillion of dollars of damage a year.
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