The Guardian
Environmental defenders being killed in record numbers globally, new research reveals
Exclusive Activists, wildlife rangers and indigenous leaders are dying violently at the rate of about four a week, with a growing sense around the world that ‘anyone can kill environmental defenders without repercussions’
• See the names of all defenders who have died so far this year here. Read more from the project here.
Last year was the most perilous ever for people defending their community’s land, natural resources or wildlife, with new research showing that environmental defenders are being killed at the rate of almost four a week across the world.
Two hundred environmental activists, wildlife rangers and indigenous leaders trying to protect their land were killed in 2016, according to the watchdog group Global Witness – more than double the number killed five years ago.
Continue reading...Environmental and land defenders killed in 2016: the full list
200 people were killed while defending the environment or land in 2016, with Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines among the countries with most deaths
• Read more from the environmental defenders project here. You can see the names of those who have died so far this year here
Anowarul Islam (Angur)
The defenders: recording the deaths of environmental defenders around the world
This year, in collaboration with Global Witness, the Guardian aims to record the deaths of all people killed while protecting land or natural resources. At the current rate, about four defenders will die this week somewhere on the planet
Continue reading...Environmental and land defenders killed in 2015: the full list
185 people were killed while defending the environment or land in 2015, with Brazil, Nicaragua and the Philippines among the countries with most deaths
- Read more from the environmental defenders project here. You can see the names of those who have died so far this year here
José Antônio Dória dos Santos (Zé Minhenga)
Continue reading...Environmental defenders: who are they and how do we decide if they have died in defence of their environment?
Global Witness uses an extensive network of local contacts and other techniques to gather evidence every time a defender is reported as killed. Because so few killings happen in populous places, very few make the official list
• Read more from the environmental defenders project here. You can see the names of those who have died so far this year here
Who are land and environmental defenders?
Continue reading...Sri Lankan navy saves wild elephant found in ocean – video
A wild elephant struggling at sea is found by the Sri Lankan navy, off the country’s northeast coast near Kokkilai. Divers were sent to tie ropes around the animal before it was safely pulled to shore. Elephants use their trunks as a natural snorkel but cannot stay too long in the water because they use up too much energy
Continue reading...Blue whale skeleton replaces dinosaur at Natural History Museum - timelapse video
The Natural History Museum has replaced its much-loved dinosaur skeleton in the Hintze Hall, affectionately known as Dippy, with a huge blue whale skeleton. The whale was first displayed in 1939 in the museum and now proudly stands in the museum’s central space
- Watch the full clip on the Natural History Museum’s social media
- So long, Dippy: museum’s blue whale seeks to inspire love of living world
Have-a-go heroes: the women saving elephants in their free time
With one elephant killed every 25 minutes, the poaching crisis continues. But with the commitment and activism of a growing global network – dominated by women – laws and attitudes around the world are changing
If dedication and hard work were all it took, Maria Mossman would have saved every last elephant by now. Despite having two children, aged five and seven, and a part-time job for a large corporation, she also spends 35 to 40 hours a week as an unpaid activist. It was even more time when the children were younger. “I used to come home from work at about 4pm and then sit on my computer, networking with other groups and activists until two o’clock in the morning,” she recalls.
Mossman, 41, got heavily involved in elephant activism in 2013. As well as founding Action for Elephants UK (AFEUK), she’s one of the key organisers of the global elephant and rhino marches. “It’s really hard work,” she says. “Really stressful. Just before the marches you say: ‘We’re not going to do this again.’ And as soon as one is over you start planning the next one.”
Continue reading...Hot hairstreaks drop to earth for a lime lolly
Chicksands Wood, Bedfordshire The butterflies were scuttling quickly on crooked legs, like crabs, between lime fixes
These are the dog days of the birdwatcher’s year, the muted lull when most things of interest melt into the undergrowth to moult. Avid birders look for substitutes with wings, and often turn to butterflies. Woods such as Chicksands offer an opportunity to see one of the rarest – given binoculars, sun, stillness, a cricked neck and an ocean of luck.
Even before Dutch elm disease brought a collapse in its population, the white-letter hairstreak would not have been an easy spot.
Continue reading...Turning the climate crisis into a TV love child of Jerry Springer and Judge Judy | Planet Oz
As a Trump appointee pushes for televised slanging match, a New York magazine cover story sparks a different debate – should we talk about how bad global warming could actually get?
In the United States, people who refuse to accept even some of the basic tenets of climate science are calling for a heated debate.
“Who better to do that than a group of scientists … getting together and having a robust discussion for all the world to see,” the boss of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, told Reuters.
Continue reading...Monkey selfie photographer says he's broke: 'I'm thinking of dog walking'
David Slater has been fighting for years over who has the copyright to photos taken by monkeys using his camera, and says he’s struggling as a result
As a US appeals court heard arguments Wednesday over whether or not a monkey can own the copyright to a “selfie”, the man whose camera captured the image watched a livestream of the proceedings from his home in Chepstow, Wales.
David Slater, the human photographer, could not afford the airfare to San Francisco to attend the hearing. He also cannot afford to replace his broken camera equipment, has no money to pay the attorney who has been defending him since the crested black macaque sued him in 2015, and is currently exploring other ways to earn an income.
Continue reading...Liberal MP says people will die of cold because renewable energy drives up fuel prices
Labor criticises ‘appalling intervention’ by Craig Kelly, who is chair of backbench energy committee
Renewable energy will kill people this winter, Craig Kelly, the chair of the Coalition’s backbench environment and energy committee has claimed.
Kelly, a Liberal backbencher, said the deaths would be caused by people not being able to afford to heat their homes in winter. He blamed rising fuel costs on the government’s renewable energy target.
Continue reading...Let’s get rid of litter, one piece at a time | Letters
What can we do about litter? It spoils our streets and countryside and ends up being washed out to sea, polluting our oceans. It frustrates and saddens many of us, and no one seems to know what to do about it. As soon as it is cleared up it reappears in a never-ending cycle. So here’s an idea: how about launching a positive-spirited national network to link together people who undertake to pick up just one piece of litter every time they go out (Andrew Mayers: I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It’s lonely but worth it, 4 July)?
Why might this work where other approaches have failed? Because it is such a small easy thing for each person to commit to, but if many people did it the cumulative results could be surprising. Being a lone litter-picker can feel like being Sisyphus, doomed to push his boulder up the hill again and again. If each person knew they were part of a network doing the same thing, results would begin to be seen.
Continue reading...I had that Queen Victoria in the back of my electric cab… | Brief letters
How welcome to see an electric taxi, and we should hail it by all means (Financial, 12 July). But is it the first? Far from it, apparently. Electric taxis first appeared in London at the end of the 19th century, but the “hummingbirds”, as they were known, were very quickly hounded off the road by their horse-drawn rivals. The London Electric Cab Company, which built them, went bust. See Rethink by Steven Poole, reviewed by you July 2016, bought by me July 2017.
David Beake
Budock Water, Cornwall
• Yet again a government department pits public sector workers against taxpayers, as though these are two distinct groups (May under fire as teacher pay held at 1%, 11 July). I fear that as public sector pay becomes more and more eroded, many will indeed find themselves paid below the threshold to start paying tax – could this be the ultimate aim of this damaging cap?
Deirdre Burrell
Mortimer, Berkshire
'The island is being eaten': how climate change is threatening the Torres Strait
In Boigu, part of Australia but just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, roads are being washed into the sea
Torres Strait residents face being forced from their homes by climate change, as their islands are lost to rising seas.
On Boigu Island, the most northerly inhabited island in Australia, just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, the community’s cemetery faces inundation and roads are being washed into the sea. A seawall installed to protect the community is already failing.
Continue reading...Coke's recycled plastic bottle scheme criticised as PR spin by green groups
Drinks giant’s proposals to reduce plastic waste are unambitious and vague, say some enviromental groups
Coca-Cola’s plan to reduce the millions of plastic bottles that end in the world’s oceans every day has been criticised by environmental groups as unambitious “PR spin”.
The world’s biggest drinks brand, estimated to produce more than 100bn plastic bottles every year, raised its 2020 target for the amount of recycled plastic used in its bottles from 40% to 50%.
Continue reading...Green groups call for overhaul of repeal bill to safeguard environment after Brexit
Campaigners from organisations including Greenpeace, the National Trust and Friends of the Earth highlight major risks to environment if EU protections are dropped or diluted
Environmental campaigners with 8 million members between them are putting forward key amendments to the repeal bill to be published on Thursday to tackle the threat of Brexit leaving huge gaps in environmental protection in the UK.
Campaigners from organisations including the RSPB, Client Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trust, and Friends of the Earth, are highlighting the major risks to the environment if the spirit and letter of EU law and the ability to enforce it, is not rolled over into the repeal bill.
Continue reading...London's first dockless hire bike scheme launches
Obike have become the first dockless hire bike company to launch in the capital, following similar schemes in Manchester and Cambridge
London’s first dockless hire bikes were launched on Wednesday morning in the first phase of what is expected to be a rapid rollout of the machines by Singapore-based company Obike to cities all across the UK.
Obike – not to be confused with Mobike, which launched in Manchester exactly a month ago – delivered 400 of its bikes to the London borough of Tower Hamlets today, and intends to roll out thousands more across the city before the end of the month, at a rate of hundreds per day.
Continue reading...Protester hit by van at Cuadrilla's Lancashire fracking site – video
A video posted to YouTube shows a protester at Preston New Road fracking site in Lancashire being knocked down by a van leaving the drilling area. Following the incident police have beefed up security, providing 24/7 monitoring around the site, which has long been a focal point of anti-fracking protests
Continue reading...Every little recycled yoghurt pot helps – but how best can you help save the planet?
A new study has crunched the numbers on efforts to fight climate change, from skipping holidays to ditching our cars. Here’s a guide to the (not always) easy ways to be green
It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of new coal mines and shrinking rainforests in distant countries, but we also know that being green starts at home. We do what we can, right? But what really helps, and what is a drop in a warming ocean? A study by the Universities of Lund, Sweden, and British Columbia, Canada, has crunched the numbers and the results are intriguing. Bottom line: every little recycled yoghurt pot helps, but the environmental impacts of our actions vary massively. Here’s a cut-out-and-keep (and then, you know, recycle) guide to a greener you.
Continue reading...