The Guardian
$1 billion to clean up the oil in Peru’s northern Amazon
Over four decades of exploration and extraction have caused an environmental and health crisis in indigenous communities
Who is going to clean up Peru’s northern Amazon after decades of companies spilling oil and dumping billions of barrels of toxic production waters? Certainly not US company Occidental which ran the biggest concession, Lot 1-AB, until 2000, nor, it would seem, Petroperu, which ran the other major concession, Lot 8, until 1996 and operates the rusty, leaking North Peruvian Pipeline to this day.
Nor Pluspetrol, a company founded in Argentina and now registered in the Netherlands which took over both Lot 1-AB and Lot 8, if its actions to date are anything to go by. Nor the China National Petroleum Corporation, which bought 45% stakes in both concessions in 2003. Nor the subsidiary of a Canadian company now called Frontera Energy which, in 2015, when Lot 1-AB’s name was effectively changed to Lot 192, bought 100% of operations in a two year temporary contract.
Continue reading...Study finds human influence in the Amazon's third 1-in-100 year drought since 2005 | John Abraham
Deforestation and climate change appear to be amplifying droughts in the Amazon
If you are like me, you picture the Amazon region as an ever lush, wet, tropical region filled with numerous plant and animal species. Who would imagine the Amazon experiencing drought? I mean sure, if we think of drought as “less water than usual,” then any place could have a drought. But what I tend to envision with respect to drought is truly dry.
People who work in this field have a more advanced understanding than I do about drought, how and why it occurs, its frequency and severity, and the impact on natural and human worlds. This recognition brings us to a very interesting paper recently published in Scientific Reports, entitled Unprecedented drought over tropical South America in 2016: significantly under-predicted by tropical SST [sea surface temperature]. So, what did this paper show?
Why do endangered right whales keep dying off the coast of Canada?
Researchers are racing for answers after at least 10 deaths of north Atlantic right whales, marking the deadliest year since tracking began
Researchers are scrambling to figure out why one of the world’s most endangered whale species is dying in “unprecedented” numbers, after at least 10 north Atlantic right whales have been found floating lifelessly off the coast of Canada.
The first whale carcass was reported in early June. Within a month, another six reports came in, leaving researchers reeling. This week, after several carcasses washed up on the shores of western Newfoundland, Canadian officials confirmed that the number of whale deaths had risen to at least 10, making 2017 the deadliest year for the marine mammal since researchers began tracking them in the 1980s.
Continue reading...Inscrutable all-seeing dragonfly overhead
Hamsterley Forest, Weardale Their visual sensitivity challenges us and their ability to track small fast objects is unparalleled
Much of Hamsterley forest lay in deep shadow and the scent of conifer resin hung in the still air between the spruces. No one had passed this way this morning; there were intact spiders’ webs stretched across the path high above Spurleswood beck.
And there we found a female golden-ringed dragonfly, Cordulegaster boltonii, clinging to rushes, still grounded by the lingering chill of the night. It’s the largest and, with its jet-black and yellow markings, the most startling, dragonfly species in the north Pennines.
Continue reading...Ministers must support farmers to save wildlife from 'damaging uncertainty'
National Trust chief says seamless transition in funding is vital post-Brexit to protect countryside from short-termism
British farmers are returning to intensive measures that deplete wildlife and damage the environment as a vacuum in government policy leaves them facing an uncertain future after the Brexit vote, the director general of the National Trust is warning.
In an outspoken message to ministers, Dame Helen Ghosh says action is needed now to create a seamless transition of subsidies and green incentives for farmers after the UK leaves the EU in order to avoid creating a decade of uncertainty in the countryside.
Continue reading...Climate change to cause humid heatwaves that will kill even healthy people
If warming is not tackled, levels of humid heat that can kill within hours will affect millions across south Asia within decades, analysis finds
Extreme heatwaves that kill even healthy people within hours will strike parts of the Indian subcontinent unless global carbon emissions are cut sharply and soon, according to new research.
Even outside of these hotspots, three-quarters of the 1.7bn population – particularly those farming in the Ganges and Indus valleys – will be exposed to a level of humid heat classed as posing “extreme danger” towards the end of the century.
Continue reading...Australia's shortage of climate scientists puts country at serious risk, report find
Climate science workforce needs to grow by 77 positions over the next four years, according to report prompted by CSIRO redundancies
Australia has a critical shortage of climate scientists, leaving it at serious risk of not delivering essential climate and weather services to groups like farmers, coastal communities and international organisations, a report has found.
The report into the nation’s climate science capability by the Australian Academy of Science found the climate science workforce needed to grow by 77 full-time positions over the next four years, with 27 of those positions urgently required.
Cheshire East council admits air pollution data was falsified
Council apologises for ‘serious errors’ in air quality readings over three years and says it is reviewing planning applications
A local authority has admitted its air pollution data was deliberately manipulated for three years to make it look cleaner.
Cheshire East council apologised after “serious errors” were made in air quality readings from 2012 to 2014.
Continue reading...'Incredible': night herons breed for first time in UK
Two recently fledged night herons have been seen at Westhay Moor nature reserve, Somerset, which suspects climate change drew their parents north
Night herons are among the most mysterious of birds, and for the first time in recorded history they have been spotted breeding in the UK.
Long-distance photographs captured the adult pair and one of their two offspring at the Westhay Moor national nature reserve, run by Somerset Wildlife Trust. The young birds have recently fledged, having been born either on Westhay Moor or the nearby Avalon Marshes.
Continue reading...Jaws checking: curious shark puts GoPro in mouth – video
Video from Dr Greg Skomal shows the moment a curious white shark took a GoPro camera in its mouth. The fish, seen off the Monomoy national wildlife refuge in Massachusetts on Monday, is believed to have been 12ft (3.6 metres) long. Skomal works for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy
Continue reading...Ralph Steadman's critters on the edge of extinction – in pictures
Animals across the globe are struggling to survive the perils of the Anthropocene era. Writer and environmental campaigner Ceri Levy introduces the much-loved artist’s portraits of these embattled beasts
- Buy Critical Critters at the Guardian Bookshop
- An exhibition of Ralph Steadman’s signed prints from the book will run at the Goldmark Gallery from 2 September
- Ralph Steadman, Ceri Levy and poems about climate change – books podcast
McArthur basin fracking emissions would dwarf Carmichael's, says researcher
Researcher says emissions from fracking in the basin could be ‘far bigger than everything you’d get’ from the proposed Queensland mine
Fracking the McArthur basin could release four to five times as much greenhouse gas emissions as the proposed Adani Carmichael mine, a leading researcher has said.
Tim Forcey, a chemical engineer with 30 years experience in the petrochemicals industry, appeared before a Northern Territory inquiry on Wednesday, also giving evidence that a gas shortage on the east coast was highly unlikely.
Continue reading...Italian Dolomites bank on 'bike only' days to boost cyclotourism
Ski resort of Alta Badia enters the craze for cycling sportives allowing amateurs to experience closed-roads settings
A ski resort in Italy is experimenting with closing sections of its mountain roads in an effort to become a mecca for road cyclists during the summer season.
Alta Badia in the Italian Dolomites has hosted three “bike only” days this summer to boost its cyclo-tourism credentials and capitalise on the trend for closed-roads sportives.
Continue reading...Dancing demoiselles rise from their watery world
Attingham, Shropshire Over centuries people have watched with wonder these almost unreal, too bright, too quick insects
The banded demoiselles are dancing like laser lights over the river Tern. There is something CGI about these creatures: too bright, too quick, too beautiful to be real.
The banded demoiselle is large for a damselfly, small for a dragonfly; a 40mm long emerald-cobalt pin with gauzy wings marked with the indigo fingerprints of when they were plucked from the water, or so it seems.
Continue reading...The wider effects of ending farm subsidies | Letters
Polly Toynbee (The Tories are split over farming. It’s hard not to gloat, 1 August) raises important issues. Subsidies were intended to lower food prices and increase discretionary income for manufactured products. The subsidy fills the gap between production costs and farm-gate prices, which were lowered by imports and by allowing food-chain “efficiencies” resulting in domination by the supermarkets. The inflexibility of EU-wide subsidies resulted a few years ago in tiny farm incomes, despite substantial investment in farms. This, combined with oppressive and chaotic management of subsidies by Defra, resulted in support for Brexit. Loss of subsidies will result in the closure of most affected farms that cannot subsidise themselves with non-farming income. Perhaps the price of rural holidays will have to increase.
You also report increased suicide rates amongst Indian farmers due to climate change (Farmers’ suicides linked to climate, 1 August), but suicides in response to agricultural depression are not uncommon in UK, either. Meanwhile, BNP Paribas is buying Strutt and Parker (Report, 1 August), famous for major land sales. French bankers clearly see a growing opportunity in selling distressed UK farms. Buyers will keep huge areas under common management, regardless of local land quality and ecosystems. Merged farms will need to use large suppliers, while smaller suppliers will go out of business. Small rural communities and dedicated local infrastructure will become unsustainable, reducing opportunities for tourism or even online businesses. Changes to subsidies will affect far more people than just farmers and will need to be considered very carefully.
Huw Jones
St Clears, Carmarthenshire
A brief history of bearded cricketers | Letters
It is disappointing to see such a large price rise from British Gas (Report, 1 August), but let’s not slam these suppliers for being greedy. They’re inefficient and outmoded – and it’s customers who pay the price. Energy doesn’t have to be this expensive, as proven by the dozens of newer suppliers with lower costs and better service. The only way to fix the broken energy market and the stranglehold of the big six is with the urgent introduction of an energy price cap which will benefit all families.
Greg Jackson
CEO, Octopus Energy
• While you note that England cricketer Moeen Ali’s hat-trick to win the Oval Test broke several records (Sport, 1 August), you fail to mention an important one. He became the first England cricketer with a beard ever to take a Test hat-trick. The best that had been previously managed was a moustache, and that was Billy Bates in 1883.
Keith Flett
London
Over 1,000 people killed in India as human and wildlife habitats collide
Elephant and tiger territories are shrinking as India’s growing population encroaches on wild spaces causing an increase in fatalities
A deadly conflict is under way between India’s growing population and its wildlife confined to ever-shrinking forests and grasslands. Data shows that about one person has been killed on average every day for the past three years by roaming tigers or rampaging elephants.
Statistics released this week by India’s environment ministry reveal that 1,144 people were killed between April 2014 and May 2017. That figure breaks down to 426 human deaths in 2014-15, and 446 the following year. The ministry released only a partial count for 2016-17, with 259 people killed by elephants up to February of this year, and 27 killed by tigers through May.
Continue reading...Utilities companies won't let you sell your own solar power. Why not?
The electric utility sector is broken – but the transformation we need will be virtually impossible so long as a handful of wealthy elites are calling the shots
A new report from the US-based Energy and Policy Institute last week found that investor-owned utilities have known about climate change for nearly 50 years – and done everything in their power to stop governments from doing anything about it.
From their commitment to toxic fuels to their corrosive influence on our democracy to their attempts to price-gouge ratepayers, it’s long past time to bring the reign of privately-owned electric utilities to an end.
Continue reading...Meat industry blamed for largest-ever 'dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico
A new report shows toxins from companies like Tyson Foods are pouring into waterways in the gulf and surrounds, causing marine life to leave or die
The global meat industry, already implicated in driving global warming and deforestation, has now been blamed for fueling what is expected to be the worst “dead zone” on record in the Gulf of Mexico.
Toxins from manure and fertiliser pouring into waterways are exacerbating huge, harmful algal blooms that create oxygen-deprived stretches of the gulf, the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay, according to a new report by Mighty, an environmental group chaired by former congressman Henry Waxman.
Continue reading...Wildlife on your doorstep: share your August photos
Whether basking in sunshine in the northern hemisphere or fighting cooler temperatures in the south, we’d like to see the wildlife you discover
Wherever you are in the world and however professional or amateur your photography set up, we would like to see your images of the wildlife living near you.
Related: Otters, geese and grebes: your photos as the Wetland Trust turns 70
Continue reading...