The Guardian
Naomi Klein: 'Trump is more like the schlock doctrine' – video
Naomi Klein tells Owen Jones that Donald Trump’s administration is using a ‘new formula’ for pushing through its agenda. Rather than the disaster capitalism she outlined in her book The Shock Doctrine, Klein says the Republican party is using Donald Trump’s ‘mental instability, out-of-control ego and general man-babyness’ to distract from their policies, which are ‘savaging’ environmental standards and already-inadequate financial regulations
An extended version of this interview is available on Owen Jones’s YouTube channel
Government held back greenhouse gas emission data for more than a month
The quietly released details confirm previous analysis done for the Guardian, which revealed a bigger rise in emissions than projected
Australia’s official greenhouse gas data, showing a continued increase in emissions, was quietly published on a government website on Friday, after internal government correspondence showed it had been held back from release for more than a month.
The figures broadly confirm independent analysis done exclusively for Guardian Australia by consultants at NDEVR Environmental, published last month. Those projections proved about 98% accurate, with emissions rising by even more than was projected.
Continue reading...How climate scepticism turned into something more dangerous
Doubts about the science are being replaced by doubts about the motives of scientists and their political supporters. Once this kind of cynicism takes hold, is there any hope for the truth? By David Runciman
Last month Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. For his supporters, it provided evidence, at last, that the president is a man of his word. He may not have kept many campaign promises, but he kept this one. For his numerous critics it is just another sign of how little Trump cares about evidence of any kind. His decision to junk the Paris accord confirms Trump as the poster politician for the “post-truth” age.
But this is not just about Trump. The motley array of candidates who ran for the Republican presidential nomination was divided on many things, but not on climate change. None of them was willing to take the issue seriously. In a bitterly contentious election, it was a rare instance of unanimity. The consensus that climate is a non-subject was shared by all the candidates who appeared in the first major Republican debate in August 2015 – Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Mike Huckabee and Trump. Republican voters were offered 10 shades of denialism.
Continue reading...Elon Musk announces Tesla's plan to build world's biggest lithium ion battery in South Australia – video
The billionaire founder of Tesla announces the building of the 129MWh battery to store renewable energy in South Australia, and confirms his pledge to deliver it within 100 days or it will be free. Musk tells reporters the project will not be without technical challenges, given it will be the largest battery installation in the world ‘by a significant margin’
Continue reading...The first butterfly of the day is the rare wood white
Meeth Quarry, Devon I’m prepared for disappointment. Then the sun works its magic, teasing winged life from the undergrowth
The entrance is easy to miss: an understated wooden sign roughly halfway along the main road traversing Devon north to south. From the turning beside an abandoned rail station a quiet lane that once shuddered under the weight of heavy diggers leads to a car park at Meeth Quarry where I join 20 or so Devon Wildlife Trust members for a field trip.
While the others may have come to enjoy the variety of flora and fauna thriving at this relatively new nature reserve, I have one species on my mind – a delicate national rarity that endured here as the land about it was torn apart.
Continue reading...Texas companies penalized in less than 3% of illegal air pollution cases – report
Figure underscores need for federal oversight as the Trump administration seeks to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and roll back rules
Texas companies involved in illegal air pollution releases were penalized by the state in fewer than 3% of all cases,according to a new report.
The figure underscores the need for strong federal oversight in a period when the Trump administration is seeking to slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and roll back rules, said Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).
Continue reading...Early sightings hold promise for butterfly spotters
Last summer was the fourth worst since scientific monitoring began in 1976, but let’s be delighted and count these small blessings
I don’t want to jinx it so I’m only whispering but, shhh, we may be blessed with a half-decent butterfly summer. Last week, I saw a purple emperor, tipsy on sap from an old oak, lurching around a meadow on a deeply overcast day that normally only brings out the ringlets and meadow browns.
Like most of our 59 native butterflies, the midsummer-loving purple emperor has emerged ten days earlier than usual. On the exuberant rewilded farmland of Knepp Castle, West Sussex, there are more emperors flying than anywhere else in the country. This iridescent beauty inspires great obsession and its leading devotees, Matthew Oates of the National Trust and Butterfly Conservation’s Neil Hulme, spotted 148 emperors in one day last week. That’s extreme butterflying.
Continue reading...British strawberries could cost 50% more because of Brexit, MPs told
Prospect of seasonal labour crisis prompts calls for introducing new scheme to ensure UK farms have enough workers to pick fruit and veg
The price of British strawberries could rise by 50% if ministers fail to plug growing gaps in seasonal labour which are expected to get worse after Brexit, MPs have heard.
The prospect of a £3 punnet of strawberries was raised by MPs as they called for a new seasonal agricultural workers scheme to be introduced by next year – or sooner – to stop the shortage of EU labour becoming a crisis.
Continue reading...Hong Kong authorities seize 'record' ivory haul
Officials say world’s ‘largest ever’ seizure of about 7.2 tonnes of ivory has an estimated street value of $72m
Authorities in Hong Kong have announced what they say is the world’s largest ever seizure of about 7.2 tonnes of ivory tusks with an estimated street value close to $72m.
If the size of the haul is verified, it will replace the current record held by Singapore for a seizure of 7.138 tonnes of ivory tusks in 2002.
Continue reading...What Nottinghamshire’s bee-eaters tell us about conservation and big business
Exotic migrants to the UK have set up home in a quarry owned by a sand mining company – an industry that is destroying wildlife habitats worldwide
At the end of June some exotic migrants flew into the country who have been enthusiastically welcomed by the Daily Mail. Following a hazardous journey from southern Europe a gang of seven bee-eaters have set up home in a desolate quarry in Nottinghamshire.
But while their presence is an inspiring example of the benefits of free movement, their choice of a quarry owned by Mexican minerals multinational Cemex raises some difficult questions about the relationship conservation has with big business.
Continue reading...Manchester Mobike review – better than London's 'Boris bikes'
A week after the Chinese bike sharing scheme hit Manchester, the Guardian’s North of England editor Helen Pidd is already hooked
I was sceptical about Manchester’s new hire bikes, fearing they would all end up at the bottom of the Ship Canal.
Yet just a week after Chinese firm Mobike plonked 1,000 silver and orange two-wheelers on the streets of Manchester and Salford, I’m already a convert. Yes, there have been a few glitches with the app (you’re supposed to be able to reserve a bike for 15 minutes but I haven’t been able to for a few days), and I’ve no idea what those messages say that they’ve sent me in Chinese. But Mobikes are significantly better than London’s hire bikes, or any I’ve tried in other cities across the world. Here’s why:
Continue reading...Badger bovine TB vaccinations resume but cull numbers still set to rise
Charities have obtained supplies of the vaccine following a shortage last year but the government’s vaccination programme won’t resume until 2018
Wildlife charities have resumed vaccinating badgers against bovine TB after a global shortage of the vaccine caused it to be suspended last year.
But more badgers than ever before are set to be culled this summer as Wales follows England in introducing a targeted cull in a bid to reduce bovine TB.
Continue reading...The dark side of wildlife tourism: thousands of Asian elephants held in cruel conditions
Elephants are being exploited to entertain tourists in south-east Asia, and kept in harsh conditions, says a new report from an animal rights NGO
Thousands of elephants being used for entertainment across Asia are kept in cruel, abusive conditions fuelled by the growing tourism industry, World Animal Protection has found.
Three out of four elephants surveyed in south-east Asia’s popular tourist destinations are living in harsh conditions where they are being used for rides, with mostly steel or wooden saddles, and tied in chains less than three metres long.
Continue reading...A storm, then strong scents, steam and snails
Egglestone, Teesdale For some, rain came as a blessed relief after days of drought and the downpour coaxed snails out to graze
The storm faded away to a distant rumble of thunder over the hills, taking with it the sticky heat of the past few days and leaving us shivering, in wet clothes, under a sheltering oak.
As we emerged, so did the insects. I watched a shield bug ease itself around the edge of a leaf back into the light, picking a path between wobbling water droplets. Spiders abseiled between grass stems, repairing webs. Within a few minutes bumblebees were at work again, shaking rain from water-laden bramble flowers.
Continue reading...Theresa May to discuss Paris accord with Donald Trump at G20
PM will use summit meeting with US president to say climate change agreement doesn’t need renegotiation
Theresa May will raise the issue of climate change with Donald Trump this weekend when the pair meet for the first time since she lost her majority in the general election. They will talk at the G20 summit in Hamburg, which runs on Friday and Saturday.
The two leaders will hold a formal bilateral meeting, at which the prime minister plans to tell the US president she does not believe the Paris climate change agreement needs to be renegotiated.
Continue reading...China presents Germany with two giant pandas – video report
Chinese president Xi Jinping officially presents two giant pandas to Berlin’s zoo on Wednesday. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the bamboo-munching newcomers would be special ambassadors for the two countries. The pandas, Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, landed in Berlin on June 24 and have been settling in at the zoo since then, out of public view.
Continue reading...Tasty solution to the signal crayfish problem | Brief letters
The word “earn” has become meaningless in today’s society, the word “get” being far more appropriate. In the same spirit, please could I urge you to refrain from repeating the misleading use of “worth” when referring to individuals and their personal wealth (Front page, 4 July). Mike Ashley is apparently “worth” £2.2bn – not to me he’s not.
Deirdre Burrell
Mortimer, Berkshire
• Carey Davies’s Country Diary (3 July) about the American signal crayfish in our rivers was interesting, but omitted to include one way of reducing their population: eating them. Fortunately George Monbiot has already provided information on how to do this (Monbiot cooks up revenge on invasive signal crayfish, 30 September 2009). Just make sure it’s not our (now very rare) native species.
Copland Smith
Manchester
Loan to Adani by infrastructure fund could be unlawful, says former clean energy head
Oliver Yates says any taxpayer money facilitating the proposed Carmichael coalmine carry reputational risks for the government
Any loan the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif) gives to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine project would likely be unlawful, according to the former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which operated under an almost identical mandate.
Naif, which was set up to give $5bn of concessional loans to support the development of northern Australia, operates under an investment mandate that includes a clause saying it “must not act in a way that is likely to cause damage to the commonwealth government’s reputation, or that of a relevant state or territory government”.
Continue reading...Hopes of mild climate change dashed by new research
Planet could heat up far more than hoped as new work shows temperature rises measured over recent decades don’t fully reflect global warming already in the pipeline
Hopes that the world’s huge carbon emissions might not drive temperatures up to dangerous levels have been dashed by new research.
The work shows that temperature rises measured over recent decades do not fully reflect the global warming already in the pipeline and that the ultimate heating of the planet could be even worse than feared.
Plan bee: parliament to produce honey to sell in shop and give to dignitaries
Parliamentary triangle is ideal for bees because Canberra’s centre is relatively free from pollution and has a good range of plants
It is a fact that Canberra has its fair share of honey-tongued politicians but parliament is about to produce its very own product.
Three beehives have been installed in the grounds around Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra to produce honey for sale in the shop and to give as gifts for visiting dignitaries.
Continue reading...