The Guardian
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...Critic of renewable power to head government energy costs review
Selection of Oxford University economist Dieter Helm may be controversial because of his criticism of wind and solar power
An academic who is a vocal critic of the costs of renewable power has been selected by the government to head a landmark review of the cost of energy in the UK.
Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, has been chosen by the Department for Business, Industrial and Energy Strategy (BEIS) to carry out the review, the Guardian has learned. The Conservative manifesto promised the resulting report would be the first step towards “competitive and affordable energy costs”.
Continue reading...Police beef up security at Lancashire fracking site after protester is hit by van
Cuadrilla drill site to be monitored 24/7 as Green MEP renews calls for reviewing guidance to police officers on how to deal with anti-fracking protests
Security is being beefed up at a fracking site in Lancashire after a protester was hit by a van on Monday.
A Youtube video posted immediately after the incident shows the protester, dressed in grey and black, trying to block a white van leaving the Preston New Road drill site.
Continue reading...Vast iceberg splits from Antarctic ice shelf – video explainer
A giant section of the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic peninsula has broken off, unleashing a 5,000 sq km iceberg – about a quarter of the size of Wales
One of largest icebergs ever recorded breaks off Antarctic ice shelf
Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children
Next best actions are selling your car, avoiding flights and going vegetarian, according to study into true impacts of different green lifestyle choices
The greatest impact individuals can have in fighting climate change is to have one fewer child, according to a new study that identifies the most effective ways people can cut their carbon emissions.
The next best actions are selling your car, avoiding long flights, and eating a vegetarian diet. These reduce emissions many times more than common green activities, such as recycling, using low energy light bulbs or drying washing on a line. However, the high impact actions are rarely mentioned in government advice and school textbooks, researchers found.
Continue reading...Butterfly signals a pause, for reflection
Wenlock Edge: Shropshire It’s easy to see how the comma butterfly got its English name, but devilishly hard to work out where the French one came from
I crept up on the butterfly as its wings flexed, pumping like delicate bellows, as it took in salts from dried dog urine. For a moment I thought it might be a fritillary – the upper sides of the wings were a rich orangey-brown with complex dark markings, the kind of colour unique to the old slide transparencies of Agfa film.
Then it detected my presence and flew up powerfully, manoeuvred in a seemingly random pattern, and settled on a leaf of yellow flag iris. I could see by the shape of its wings, like holes clipped from the edges of a bus ticket, that it wasn’t a fritillary but a comma butterfly.
Auto industry fights back at plan to cut cars' greenhouse gas emissions
Australian Automobile Association argues government plan will cost consumers more but government says petrol savings will offset any rise
The Australian car industry has tried to kill any government move to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars, arguing it would increase the cost to consumers and contradicting comprehensive government modelling.
The government plans to introduce emissions standards for new cars, releasing a series of proposed targets in discussion papers and seeking input from industry and other stakeholders.
Continue reading...Energy economics group says export market for Australian coal will decline
Office of the chief economist projects market will grow by 8.7% by 2022, but Institute for Energy Economics says this is based on out of date analysis
As Australia mulls the building of its biggest-ever export thermal coal mine, its biggest foreign buyers look set to reduce their consumption, driving down the price of Australian coal, and the profitability of its mines.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan together buy about 30% of the world’s exported thermal coal, including 70% of Australia’s export coal.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government inaction leading to increased pollution on Barrier Reef, says WWF
Huge spike in Queensland land clearing destroys ecological communities and habitat of threatened species, according to analysis
The federal government is allowing the huge spike in land clearing in Queensland to destroy threatened ecological communities, the habitat of threatened species and increase pollution on the Great Barrier Reef by failing to enforce environmental law, according to analysis by WWF.
Following the weakening of land clearing laws in Queensland in 2013, the rate of clearing there has tripled to almost 300,000 hectares each year.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson backs 'all-out ban' on ivory sales
Foreign secretary confirms government’s pledge, despite absence from manifesto
A total ban on ivory sales in the UK could still be introduced by the British government, foreign secretary Boris Johnson has said, signalling a possible U-turn that has been welcomed by conservationists.
In their 2015 manifesto the Conservatives promised to “press for a total ban on ivory sales”. But the pledge was quietly taken out of this year’s Tory manifesto, sparking anger among conservation organisations, which say that by allowing the trade to continue, the UK is fuelling elephant poaching.
Continue reading...