The Guardian
Vietnamese smallholders help end deforestation – photo essay
In the foothills of Vietnam’s Annamite mountains, hundreds of small forest owners are joining forces to produce sustainable acacia used in furniture around the world. With much of the country’s plantations owned by individuals, expanding the approach may be the best chance for saving forests in the Greater Mekong
All photographs: James Morgan/WWF
“It all starts with the seedlings!” says Le Thi Thuy Nga (left), the manager of Tien Phong forestry company in central Vietnam’s Thừa Thiên-Huế province. “All of ours are propagated from the ‘mother tree’ kept by the Academy of Forest Sciences in Hanoi. With a 99% survival rate, they effectively double overall plantation productivity.”
Continue reading...A village in slow peril on the sea
Hallsands, South Devon New grass on old roofs, confusing ruined masonry with cliffs – this is what natural reclamation looks like
The sound is gulls, silence, the thin chatter of house martin chicks in lintel-nests. And the sea below, though at all tides it is a breathing, rather than a pervasive growl. By day you see Start Bay arcing many miles beneath the cliff. By night the lighthouse softly lights every sou’western-facing wall with a slow, silent rhythm.
Benign. But then, not. This coastline restlessly resists permanence, even on human clocks, and the sea that will be the end of this place. Again.
On a single night a century ago, Hallsands fell into the sea. The natural defences protecting the coast from winter storms had been pillaged and dredged for decades by industrialists: the shingle beach, the Skerries Bank. Pleadings from subsisting villagers were ignored or shushed. Then, on 26 January 1917, the waves clawed the village from the cliffs.
Surrey meadow slowly comes to life: Country diary 100 years ago
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 28 July 1917
SURREY, JULY 26
At daybreak this morning a white mist was so thick as to dim out the sight of the cattle in the meadow. They came lowing to the gate, waiting to be milked, and, passing through when it was open, were lost in the lane just as birds began to rustle in the hedge. Then the light spread and made the tall ragwort glisten – yellow colour seemed to shine everywhere. The stems of goatsbeard straightened, the fringes of nuts in clusters appeared of a new pale green, a farm boy clambered into the copse and came out whistling with a big bunch stuck in his button-hole, a pair of jackdaws flew noisily from an oak and went down to the village to search in the vegetable gardens.
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Continue reading...Linear parks and the drive to ease congestion
If building new roads and fast traffic lanes does not cut traffic, can it work the other way round?
You would think that ending a traffic restriction would improve journey times, but the sudden termination of Jakarta’s high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes had the opposite effect. To use these lanes drivers required two passengers, but a trade in hiring people bought the lanes to an abrupt end last year. The traffic could spread across all lanes, but journey times and congestion increased. In fact, traffic worsened over the whole network almost immediately. Even on roads with no HOV lanes, at times when the lanes had not operated, delays increased by up to two minutes per km. The US embassy measures air quality from its roof in Jakarta. It is too early to see the changes, but we can be sure that it did not get better.
La #piétonnisation de la rive droite, une mesure juste et pertinente. #Pollution #Transports #Santé #RivesdeSeine https://t.co/N5mKXTWX1j pic.twitter.com/xQTe6UEN3l
Continue reading...On the tail of the uncommon lizard
They are widespread in the British Isles and could be found almost anywhere, but often aren’t, which is a bit of a mystery
The common lizard, Zootoca vivipara, is at its most numerous and active at this time of year. In late July it is giving birth to between three and 11 young at a time. They emerge from an egg sack that breaks during birth or immediately afterwards. That is why it is sometimes called viviparous lizard, meaning bearing live young, an unusual trait in reptiles.
Viviparous might be a better name in any case, as this lizard is not common at all in many places and some people may go for years without seeing one.
Continue reading...Drop in wind energy costs adds pressure for government rethink
Tories urged to look at onshore windfarms which can be built as cheaply as gas plants and deliver the same power for half the cost of Hinkley Point, says Arup
Onshore windfarms could be built in the UK for the same cost as new gas power stations and would be nearly half as expensive as the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, according to a leading engineering consultant.
Arup found that the technology has become so cheap that developers could deliver turbines for a guaranteed price of power so low that it would be effectively subsidy-free in terms of the impact on household energy bills.
Continue reading...The lynx effect: are sheep farmers right to fear for their flocks?
Plans to bring the wild cats back to Northumberland have prompted concerns from farmers, but – from beavers to red kites – rewilding in the UK has generally been a success
More than a millennia has passed since lynx roamed Britain, and now the Lynx UK Trust – a community interest company formed in 2014 by conservationists and scientists – wants to reintroduce them into Kielder Forest in Northumberland. The trust’s plans have received opposition from the National Sheep Association, which says: “The consultation process adopted by Lynx UK Trust appears flawed and misleading.”
Related: Campaigners seek to reintroduce Eurasian lynx to parts of Britain
Continue reading...Robot shows suspected melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima reactor – video
An underwater robot has captured images of what is believed to be suspected debris of melted nuclear fuel inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Locating and analysing the fuel debris is crucial for decommissioning the plant, which was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami
Continue reading...Fukushima: robot images show massive deposits thought to be melted nuclear fuel
Robot spots suspected debris of melted fuel for first time since 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant
Images captured by an underwater robot on Saturday showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan’s destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant.
The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 1m on the bottom inside a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima’s Unit 3 reactor, said the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Continue reading...Disturbing proximity of a red kite's nest
Comins Coch, Aberystwyth I was looking forward to seeing the ramshackle structure for myself. Then the anxiety began
A month or so ago, a friend casually mentioned that they thought red kites were starting to nest near their house. Very near, in fact; actually in the garden. Even in the hills beyond Tregaron, where kites wheel and dive in such abundance as to be almost unworthy of comment, having a nest within view of your kitchen window is unusual.
On the boundary of the property, the crook of a sycamore tree provided an apparently suitable spot for the pair to set up home; occasional bulletins told of the progress, albeit slow and halting, of nest building. It seemed the birds were in no great hurry – limiting their activity to the odd twig or two each day – but eventually they had assembled a slightly ramshackle structure that managed to support the weight of a sitting bird.
Continue reading...Norfolk playing catch-up in the anti-littering stakes | Brief letters
Gosh! How clever we have all become. Fifty years ago, only the top 2% of the population went to university and about 10% of them got firsts, so 0.2% of the population. Now, 30% go to uni, and 25% of them get firsts (Number of UK degree students receiving firsts soars, theguardian.com, 20 July), making 7.5% of the population. The universities say there is no grade inflation so we must be more than 30 times cleverer! Impressive or what?
Rob Symonds
Birmingham
• How refreshing, considering the Guardian’s stance on attitudes at the BBC, to find that of the 13 saints in your Wordsearch grid (20 July), just one is female, and that AnneMarie Ciccarella is “a fast-talking 57-year-old brunette” (The long read, 18 July). Do you need to know my hair colour to print this?
Alison Robinson
Seer Green, Buckinghamshire
Mega farms, palm oil and plastic pollution – 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...Michael Gove’s green dream: like Brexit, the reality awaits
Gove’s vision for the environment is undoubtedly ambitious but it is at odds with much government action – making it real will be a gargantuan task
Who knew? Environment secretary Michael Gove, arch Brexiter and seen just months ago grinning and thumbs up in eco-villain Donald Trump’s lair, turns out to be – in words, at least – a deep green.
His first major speech railed against “corporate greed and devil-take-the-hindmost individualism”, “extractive and exploitative political systems” and the “selfish agenda” of vested interests.
Continue reading...Pepsico, Unilever and Nestlé accused of complicity in illegal rainforest destruction
Palm oil plantations on illegally deforested land in Sumatra – home to elephants, orangutans and tigers – have allegedly been used to supply scores of household brands, says new report
Pepsico, Unilever and Nestlé have been accused of complicity in the destruction of Sumatra’s last tract of rainforest shared by elephants, orangutans, rhinos, and tigers together in one ecosystem.
Plantations built on deforested land have allegedly been used to supply palm oil to scores of household brands that also include McDonald’s, Mars, Kellogg’s and Procter & Gamble, according to a new report.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A pod of pilot whales, nesting storks and a clan of hyenas are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Cross-party group of MPs call on Gove to adopt clean air bill
Sixty-five MPs have written to the environment secretary urging him to include the measures in his new strategy to tackle the air pollution crisis
A cross party group of MPs is calling on Michael Gove to adopt a clean air bill in his new strategy to tackle the crisis of air pollution in the UK.
Sixty five MPs have written to the environment secretary as he prepares to address the most pressing issue in his intray – a demand by judges for a new air quality strategy by 31 July to cut illegal levels of pollution from diesel vehicles.
Continue reading...Undercover police target London drivers who pass too close to cyclists
Drivers who fail to give cyclists enough space when overtaking will be pulled over, and officers will explain how to overtake cyclists safely
London’s police force has launched a new initiative to tackle drivers who pass cyclists too closely, using plain clothes officers.
From Friday, the Space for Cyclists initiative will be carried out by UK’s only cycle-mounted police command, the Met’s cycle safety team, after months spent adapting the tactic for London’s roads from a West Midlands Police initiative, introduced last year.
Continue reading...Organic forces take over Brontë's land of secrets
North Lees, Derbyshire The site of the old smelting works felt wholly reclaimed, and as the rain ended the air filled with insects and soon after wrens
The rain started as I crossed the pasture above North Lees Hall, the model, it is widely accepted, for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre. It’s a house the author visited more than once, staying with her friend Ellen Nussey in nearby Hathersage, and the intertwining of the names – thorn being an anagram of north and lee derived from the Anglo-Saxon for field – coupled with the detailed description Brontë gives, are persuasive.
Continue reading...Australia's marine parks face cuts to protected areas
Big reductions in no-take marine protected areas are being considered, going beyond those recommended by an earlier federal government review
Australia’s marine protected areas look set to be slashed by the federal government, with plans announced for cuts that go beyond those recommended by a review commissioned by the previous Abbott government.
Draft management plans released by the Director of National Parks on Friday propose that large areas of Queensland’s Coral Sea, as well as off the coast of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, will lose or have their protection downgraded, to make way for expanded long-line fishing and seafloor trawling – which have been shown to damage the conservation value of the oceans.
Continue reading...All hell breaks loose as the tundra thaws
A recent heatwave in Siberia’s frozen wastes has resulted in outbreaks of deadly anthrax and a series of violent explosions
Strange things have been happening in the frozen tundra of northern Siberia. Last August a boy died of anthrax in the remote Yamal Peninsula, and 20 other infected people were treated and survived. Anthrax hadn’t been seen in the region for 75 years, and it’s thought the recent outbreak followed an intense heatwave in Siberia, temperatures reaching over 30C that melted the frozen permafrost.
Long dormant spores of the highly infectious anthrax bacteria frozen in the carcass of an infected reindeer rejuvenated themselves and infected herds of reindeer and eventually local people.
Continue reading...