The Guardian
Bolivia approves controversial highway in Amazon biodiversity hotspot
Major 190-mile road will strip national park and home to thousands of indigenous people of its protected status, making it vulnerable to deforestation
Bolivia has given the go ahead to a controversial highway which would cut through an Amazon biodiversity hotspot almost the size of Jamaica and home to 14,000 mostly indigenous people.
President Evo Morales enacted the new law opening the way for the 190-mile (300km) road through the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park, known as Tipnis, its Spanish acronym. The road will divide the park in two and strip it of the protections won in 2011 when a national march by thousands of protesters ended in clashes with the police and forced the government to change its position.
Continue reading...Wildfires across southern European amid scorching heatwave – in pictures
Extreme weather across southern Europe has spawned and fanned numerous wildfires, including at the beach resort of Kalamos near Athens and in central Portugal
Continue reading...Sci-fi nightmares play out beneath the flowers
Dunwich Heath, Suffolk Brilliantly coloured jewel wasps use the living bodies of other insects to nourish their larvae
Much of the basic storybook that supplies the raw materials for horror films and novels seems to me to be derived from entomology. And here, at this place of autumn purple and gold, scattered thinly all along the sandy paths that bisect the billowing tides of flowering heather, was a particular inspiration.
It was a tiny 1cm-long creature that looked as brilliant an insect as I have seen in this country. The mid-thorax, hind legs and head were all glittering turquoise, while the abdomen and front thorax were shining burgundy. The unmistakable colours distinguish a small group that are known as jewel or ruby-tailed wasps (in German they are called Goldwespen, gold wasps), of which there are about 30 species in Britain. The commonest is one I see regularly even about our house, where they burrow into crevices among the loose masonry.
Continue reading...Australian coal-power pollution would be illegal in US, Europe and China – report
Environmental Justice Australia report says Australian coal-fired power plants regularly exceed lax limits imposed on them
Australian coal-fired power stations produce levels of toxic air pollution that would be illegal in the US, Europe and China, and regularly exceed even the lax limits imposed on them with few or no consequences, according to an investigation by Environmental Justice Australia.
The report reveals evidence that operators of coal power plants in Australia have been gaming the systems that monitor the deadly pollution, while others have reported figures the federal government says are not reliable.
Continue reading...Shell and Exxon face censure over claim gas was 'cleanest fossil fuel'
Dutch advertising watchdog’s ruling prompts company to change line to ‘least polluting fossil fuel’ as campaigners welcome action over ‘misleading’ ad
The Dutch advertising watchdog will on Tuesday censure Shell and Exxon for claiming that natural gas was “the cleanest of all fossil fuels” in an advert earlier this year.
It will be the second time this summer that the Netherlands advertising standards board has ruled against the fossil fuels industry, after it slapped down Statoil in June for calling gas a “clean energy” and “low emissions fuel”.
Continue reading...Pesticides could wipe out bumblebee populations, study shows
Neonicotinoid drastically cuts egg-laying by queens, affecting their ability to start new colonies and increasing chances of local extinction, say scientists
A controversial pesticide can potentially wipe out common bumblebee populations by preventing the formation of new colonies, research has shown.
The neonicotinoid chemical thiamethoxam dramatically reduces egg-laying by queen bumblebees, say scientists.
Continue reading...Tagus river at risk of drying up completely
Climate change, dams and diversion bring Iberian peninsula’s longest river, on which millions depend, to brink of collapse
The Tagus river, the longest in the Iberian peninsula, is in danger of drying up completely as Spain once again finds itself in the grip of drought.
Miguel Ángel Sánchez, spokesman of the Platform in Defence of the Tagus, says “the river has collapsed through a combination of climate change, water transfer and the waste Madrid produces.”
Continue reading...Great cliate science communication from Yale Climate Connections | John Abraham
The Yale group led by Anthony Leiserowitz does some brilliant work
This is an unabashed endorsement of an important group. I have no affiliation with them or conflicts of interest. They aregreat, period.
The ability to convey complex climate science to a wide-ranging audience is a golden attribute, something very few can achieve. This characteristic makes the Yale Climate Connections group unique.
Continue reading...Spare a thought for the curlew's sinister, self-effacing cousin
Rye Harbour, East Sussex The omens are bad for the whimbrel, a summer visitor that has all but disappeared from the estuary
Only a few years ago, they used to stage whimbrel walks at Rye Harbour nature reserve. In late summer, these birds, which look like small dark curlew, would stream from estuary to estuary in their thousands, on their way from breeding grounds on Orkney and Shetland to winter on the west African coast.
Now, you’re lucky to see a single one out on the salt marshes amid the wheeling terns and plover, and Rye Harbour has re-branded its walks.
Continue reading...Factory farming in Asia creating global health risks, report warns
Growth of intensive units has potential to increase antibiotic resistance and could result in spread of bird flu beyond region
The use of antibiotics in factory farms in Asia is set to more than double in just over a decade, with potentially damaging effects on antibiotic resistance around the world.
Factory farming of poultry in Asia is also increasing the threat of bird flu spreading beyond the region, with more deadly strains taking hold, according to a new report from a network of financial investors.
Continue reading...Electric cars are not the solution
If we really want to tackle particle pollution we need carbon-free electricity and, even better, walk or cycle over short distances
Will our streets be pollution free when the last petrol and diesel cars are sold in the UK in just over two decades time? Sadly not. This is for two main reasons. First, we will still have diesel lorries and buses. Second, electric cars still release particle pollution into the air from wearing tyres, brakes and road surfaces. Already more particle pollution comes from wear than from the exhausts of modern vehicles.
Related: The polluting effect of wear and tear in brakes and tyres
Continue reading...Rise of electric car solves little if driven by fossil fuels, warns windfarm boss
Dong Energy boss says falling price of renewables means they must power the electric car revolution or the environment will gain only a pyrrhic victory
The rise of electric cars will be a pyrrhic victory for the environment if they are powered by fossil fuels instead of renewables, according to the UK boss of the world’s biggest offshore windfarm developer.
Matthew Wright, the new managing director of Dong Energy UK, said the cost of windfarms at sea had fallen so much that the big issue facing the industry was no longer levels of subsidies but how they integrated with the National Grid and emerging technologies.
Continue reading...Tanzania's ghost safari: how western aid contributed to the decline of a wildlife haven
Lions, elephants and hippos have vanished from Kilombero valley after UK- and US-funded projects helped turn a once-thriving habitat into farmland, teak, and sugar plantations
The long road from Dar es Salaam brings you through sparsely wooded hills and fields to the narrow northern neck of the Kilombero valley. There’s a bend in the road, then the land opens out, suddenly, in front of you.
Along the west side lie the steep-faced Udzungwa mountains, one of the last pristine rainforests in Tanzania. The Kilombero river runs through the red soils of the valley, flooding in November or December and subsiding by June. Down the longer eastern flank rise the Mahenge mountains, and beyond them, invisible, unfurls the vast territory of the Selous game reserve, one of the largest remaining chunks of African wilderness.
Continue reading...The eco guide to optimism
OK, the Sixth Mass Extinction may be upon us, but there are still some reasons to be cheerful
Let’s begin with the bad news. First, Earth Overshoot Day – the point at which the world consumes more natural resources than the planet can renew throughout the year – shifted forward this year to 2 August, putting humanity in the red for longer.
We are starting to unlink greenhouse gas emissions from production and consumption
Continue reading...The war on food waste has a new weapon: a £99 fridge camera
The world’s first wireless fridge camera goes on sale in the UK next month aimed at helping households slash food waste by being able to check exactly what they have in their refrigerator at any time.
As well as taking selfies to be sent to the user, the Smarter FridgeCam and app will also monitor use-by dates and send out automatic top-up reminders to buy more milk, for example. It will also encourage people to eat what they already have – typically festering at the back of the fridge or in the salad box – by suggesting recipes.
Continue reading...Asia’s Harry Potter obsession poses threat to owls
The Harry Potter phenomenon has broken publishing and cinema box-office records and spawned a series of lucrative theme parks. But wildlife experts are sounding the alarm over a sad downside to JK Rowling’s tales of the troubled young wizard. The illegal trade in owls has jumped in the far east over the past decade and researchers fear it could endanger the survival of these distinctive predators in Asia.
Conservationists say the snowy owl Hedwig – who remains the young wizard’s loyal companion for most of the Harry Potter series – is fuelling global demand for wild-caught birds for use as pets. In 2001, the year in which the first film was released, only a few hundred were sold at Indonesia’s many bird markets. By 2016, the figure had soared to more than 13,000, according to researchers Vincent Nijman and Anna Nekaris of Oxford Brookes University in a paper in Global Ecology and Conservation. At around $10 to $30, the price tag is affordable to most middle-class families.
Continue reading...Elephants unchained: 'The day has gone by when this was entertainment'
As our understanding of the minds of our fellow species improves, will we increasingly look back at the way we have treated them in horror and repulsion?
- Photographs by Karine Aigner
Water streams off the edges of her giant ears, runs in rivulets down the wrinkles of her slate-grey skin. She presses her whole head into the hose’s force, the spray welling into her mouth. As she drinks, she rubs her skin against the steel fence, her eyelids drooping luxuriously, her trunk relaxing. If ever I’ve seen a captive elephant happy, it’s Flora this morning.
There are no people laughing or pointing here at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. There are no infants crying, no children arguing. The public are not allowed into the sanctuary, whose unofficial motto is, “Allow elephants to be elephants”: give them the freedom of choice, the freedom of large areas to explore, the freedom from human gawkers (apart from via the online elecams) while still providing the kind of care that comes with a zoo.
Continue reading...A rare jewel of a beetle emerges from the Ouse ooze
River Ouse, North Yorkshire Once so prolific it was turned into sequins, the endangered tansy beetle is clinging on at its Yorkshire hang-out
Sequins are a popular way to bring ethereal pizzazz to an outfit. But back before synthetic bling was mass produced in every shade of fabulous, the source of such dazzle could be ethically dubious but more iridescent still. For Victorian fashionistas a statement collar or cape might have been adorned with the wingcases of thousands of tansy beetles.
Related: York's flood meadows get site of special scientific interest status
Continue reading...World Elephant Day is a reminder of our moral duty to care for nature
Paula Kahumbu: Ending ivory trafficking should be at the heart of a new vision for Africa’s development
Today a life-sized ice sculpture of an African elephant will be placed in Union Square in Downtown Manhattan. Over the course of the day, this massive ice sculpture will gradually melt, symbolizing the alarming rate in which African elephants are continuing to disappear at the hands of poachers.
The event is one of many being organised across the world on 12 August to celebrate World Elephant Day. It is part of the campaign #DontLetThemDisappear launched by Amarula Trust in partnership with the Kenyan NGO WildlifeDirect to raise global awareness of the plight of Africa’s elephants.
Sadiq Khan criticised for backtracking on pledge for London public energy company
Mayor is letting down Londoners by leaving out a manifesto pledge to create a not-for-profit energy company from his new environment strategy, say green groups
Campaigners have condemned the mayor of London’s new environment strategy for falling short by failing to announce the establishment of a publicly owned energy company for Londoners, one of his manifesto promises.
Sadiq Khan published his environment policy on Friday, which aims to turn the capital into a zero waste and zero emissions city by 2050 and ensure that more than half of the city is covered in parks and green spaces in the same time frame.
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