The Guardian
More people heading to court to spur action on climate change, study finds
- Study by UN and Columbia finds ‘proliferation’ of cases instigated by citizens
- Lion’s share of court cases are in US but number also growing around the world
Governments around the world are increasingly being challenged in court to do more to combat the threat of climate change, with litigation ranging from a group’s attempt to stop an airport runway in Austria to a Pakistani farmer suing his government over its failure to adapt to rising temperatures, a new study has found.
Related: Trump treading water over climate change deal, says deputy UN chief
Continue reading...How plastic took over the world in 50 years | Letters
Is anyone cheered by your report of the extent and intensity of plastic pollution (38 million pieces of plastic waste found on uninhabited South Pacific island, 16 May)? The plastics industry, perhaps? It is, after all, a sign of how much they have changed the world. I recall my first encounter with a transparent plastic bottle, 50 years ago this year. I also recall the “information” films, sponsored by firms such as BP and Shell, and widely shown in schools at the time, extolling the benefits that plastic brings. The industry put petroleum byproducts to good use. It was cheap. It was scientific. It was new. It was innovation. Today, the ideology of innovation is every bit as powerful. The future, we are told, belongs to the “disruptive innovators” – Uber and their ilk. They make billions, but neither political nor economic systems have evolved ways of dealing with or costing the havoc they cause. Plastic was the disruptive technology of its day: half a century later, we know the mess will never be cleared up. We also know that those – animal and vegetable – who pay the price will not be those who squirrelled away the profits. It is time society found a way of holding innovation and innovators to account.
Professor John Holford
Nottingham
• In your article, the plight of Henderson Island shows very visually the direct impact people are having on nature – even in the places that we consider to be most special. As a Unesco world heritage site, the island is considered to have outstanding universal value, but despite their protected status, nearly half of natural world heritage sites are facing serious threats, from poaching and illegal fishing to harmful industrial activity. Urgent action needs to be taken to protect these precious areas, which is why WWF has launched a global campaign, Together, Saving Our Shared Heritage, to safeguard these sites. The threats to our planet are now so great that wildlife populations are disappearing at an alarming rate. Current predictions are that wildlife numbers will have declined by 67% between the 1970s and the end of this decade unless urgent action is taken. We are all responsible for the future of our planet.
Chris Gee
Head of campaigns, WWF-UK
'My worst nightmares are coming true': Europe's last primeval forest on 'brink of collapse'
Polish government is accused of pushing Białowieża forest ecosystem to point of no return with state-sanctioned logging in Unesco world heritage site
Scientists and environmental campaigners have accused the Polish government of bringing the ecosystem of the Białowieża forest in north-eastern Poland to the “brink of collapse”, one year after a revised forest management plan permitted the trebling of state logging activity and removed a ban on logging in old growth areas.
Large parts of the forest, which spans Poland’s eastern border with Belarus and contains some of Europe’s last remaining primeval woodland, are subject to natural processes not disturbed by direct human intervention.
Continue reading...UK bathing water ranks next from last in EU beach table
20 sites fail safe bathing criteria stoking fears UK will once more be ‘dirty man of Europe’ after Brexit
The UK is second bottom in a league table ranking EU countries on the quality of their bathing water, stoking fears that the “dirty man of Europe” could be on his way home after Brexit.
96.4% of British beaches were found safe to swim in last year, but 20 sites failed the assessment in the annual survey by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) released on Tuesday. Only Ireland had a higher percentage of poor quality bathing waters at 4%.
Continue reading...Australian Conservation Foundation vows to pursue all avenues to stop Adani loan
Environmental group warns it will take legal action against Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility directors if funding granted for rail line
The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned it will pursue all avenues, including possible legal action, to stop a concessional loan being granted to a rail line associated with the controversial Adani coalmine.
The ACF’s president, prominent businessman Geoff Cousins, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday the environmental group would “pursue [directors of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif)] through whatever means possible” in the event the Naif granted the rail project a loan.
Continue reading...Tourmalet to tarte aux pommes: savouring the French Pyrenees by bike
If Tour De France climbs without time pressure or panniers sounds appealing, investigate this bespoke cycling holiday in the French Pyrenees
What kind of cyclist are you? A superfit obsessive with high-end equipment, up for the toughest races? Or a potterer along county lanes, limiting yourself to 20 miles a day, treating cycling as a gentle route to the next pub? If you’re somewhere in between – but fitness can vary considerably, because you are time-poor – then this trip could be for you.
Perhaps you also want to taste Europe’s finest cycling, tackle the Tourmalet, or other classic cols, but don’t want to carry panniers, or worry about bike repairs, agonise over routes or scour websites for the best-value restaurants and hotels. You want to enjoy cycling as a pure, challenging experience, but go at your own pace, stop for lunch, take photographs, and feel that you can have that extra glass of wine at the end of the day.
Continue reading...The Great British Bee Count – in pictures
Up to 15,000 people took part in the 2016 Great British Bee Count, recording 383,759 bees, some of which are pictured here. This year’s annual count has begun and will run until 30 June 2017
- Download the free app to help monitor and learn more about the endangered bee population and get tips for bee-friendly planting
Trump treading water over climate change deal, says deputy UN chief
Amina Mohammed says president seems to be avoiding making decision on whether US will renege on historic agreement
The UN’s deputy secretary general has accused President Donald Trump of “treading water” over a decision on the future of the Paris climate change agreement, on which the fate of millions of people depend.
Amina Mohammed told the Guardian she was hopeful the US would not renege on the deal signed last year, but that Trump appeared to be avoiding a public declaration after taking such a hard line during his campaign for the White House.
Continue reading...Hunting for moths in the night garden
Allendale, Northumberland I linger, hoping to see a flicker of wings before leaving the trap to work its magic
The night garden is brilliantly lit by the full moon of the moth trap’s bulb. Shadows are thrown deep into the drystone walls and the hawthorn branches show bright against the dark fields. Shading my eyes against the UV light, I linger, hoping to see a flicker of wings before shutting the door and leaving the trap to work its magic.
Once a week I record which species are drawn to the light, my first year of contributing data to the Garden Moth Scheme. This became a national project in 2007 and the fluctuations it shows are a valuable indicator of environmental change. The colour-coded Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Waring, Townsend and Lewington, covers 896 species, illustrated in their natural resting positions. These are the macro moths – there are a further 1,550 or so micro moths, which sometimes makes identification a challenge.
Continue reading...Will coal seam gas save Narrabri, or destroy it? – video
In the first of a series of videos on critical issues confronting regional Australia, Gabrielle Chan investigates the proposed Narrabri gas project in New South Wales. The oil and gas company Santos proposes 850 wells in the Pilliga and some locals see the opportunity for jobs. But others warn of the potential damage to the land and the water supply. Now it’s up the NSW government to decide
In Narrabri, everyone has a stake in the farming v mining fight
Continue reading...CSG's last stand? In Narrabri everyone has a stake in the farming v mining fight
In the first of a series of investigations into issues facing regional Australia, we report on how locals in a north-western New South Wales town are bracing to learn the fate of the state’s last coal seam gas project
Country towns are, by their nature, conservative. Change happens slowly and traditions are not discarded easily.
The conservative thinker Edmund Burke wrote that we must act as trustees of the world – what he called “temporary possessors and life renters”, rather than its “entire masters”.
Continue reading...White House proposes slashing funds to clean up toxic sites despite EPA's pleas
EPA plan to focus on hazardous areas that pollute air and water, often near low-income communities and minorities, was dashed by president’s budget proposal
Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt’s vow to shift the agency back towards the “vital” work of dealing with toxic sites that pollute air and water has been dashed by a White House budget plan that would slash funding for the clean-ups.
Donald Trump’s 2018 budget plan proposes severe cuts to clean-up programs targeting some of the most toxic sites in the US, which are invariably situated near low-income communities and minorities, despite a push by the EPA to prioritize these hazardous areas.
Continue reading...留住大象，哪怕为了这些“功利”的理由
大象的DNA里可能藏着抗击癌症、延年益寿的秘密，哪怕为了人类自身，我们也该好好对待大象。(翻译：子明/chinadialogue)
现在或许正是大象种群最黑暗的时代。中国正在取缔国内象牙贸易，欧盟也将着手对付象牙走私，但偷猎者们还在继续他们的血腥交易。与此同时，森林正遭到破坏，象群的迁徙路线被截断，人类和大象之间围绕土地、食物和水源的竞争愈演愈烈。
所以，现在必须让大家明白：保留大象的生存空间对人类自身益处多多。并且人类根本不需要特别做什么，大象自会找到自己的领地。
Continue reading...Trump's Fox News deputy national security advisor fooled him with climate fake news | Dana Nuccitelli
What does it say about the Trump administration that the president was fooled by a dumb, long-debunked climate myth?
As Politico reported, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, KT McFarland, gave him a fake 1970s Time magazine cover warning of a coming ice age. The Photoshopped magazine cover circulated around the internet several years ago, but was debunked in 2013. Four years later, McFarland put the fake document in Trump’s hands, and he reportedly “quickly got lathered up about the media’s hypocrisy … Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it”.
Continue reading...My month with California’s conspiracy theorist farmers
Tammi Riedl and her partner believe ‘chemtrails’ are damaging our health. They prove conspiracies have gone mainstream – and aren’t just for the right wing
Standing between beds of golden beets and elephant garlic in the garden of Lincoln Hills, a small organic farm in Placer County, California, Tammi Riedl looks up and points to a stripe of white haze running across a cloudless blue sky.
“See that?” she asks, raising her eyebrows. “What do you think that is?”
Continue reading...Adani rail line to Abbot Point not a priority, says Infrastructure Australia
Agency says it has not received a submission on the rail line from Queensland government and has not conducted any cost-benefit analysis
Infrastructure Australia has not identified a proposed rail line linking the controversial Adani coalmine with the Abbot Point port as a priority, and it has not consulted the body which is expected to stump up a concessional loan.
The chief executive of Infrastructure Australia, Philip Davies, told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday that the rail line – which has been pushed assiduously by the federal resources minister, Matt Canavan – was not “something we’ve currently identified” as a priority project.
Continue reading...Lancashire's poster-place for the access revolution
Clougha Pike, Forest of Bowland Once forbidding and forbidden, ringfenced for shooting, this is still a secret, silent place
Find a big map and you’ll see there’s a monstrous, heart-shaped blank in the middle of north-west England. You’ve passed it probably, but the big roads skirt it with such circuitous subtlety you don’t notice you’re orbiting something. For years, unless you paid to shoot things, it might well have remained more a brooding feeling than a sight, its extent out of view beyond this brow or that.
But then wildest Bowland became the poster-place for the second access revolution. The first was Kinder Scout, for its trespass in 1932,which legitimised the case for national parks. Bowland epitomised the unfinished business: the Countryside Rights of Way Act.
'Recycling in Australia is dead in the water': three companies tackling our plastic addiction
Only a small proportion of plastics consumed in Australia is collected for recycling, but it’s what happens after that that could make a difference
There’s no escaping plastic in modern life. In Australia, more than 1.5m tonnes of the crude oil derivative is consumed each year, not including plastics imported in finished products or their packaging. And most of this ends up on a centuries-long path to degradation in landfill or the world’s waterways and oceans. One recent sobering analysis has estimated that by 2050, the weight of plastics in the oceans will match that of fish.
Reducing consumption by avoiding the use of disposable plastic shopping bags, for instance, and reusing plastic containers are important waste-reduction measures. But what role does recycling play?
Continue reading...Cock-of-the-rock rules the roost in Peru's Manu cloud forest
We had come to see one of the greatest bird spectacles in the world: the courtship display of the Andean cock-of-the-rock
Our guide unlocked the wooden door. “Here” he announced to his still sleepy audience “are the keys to paradise.” José Antonio has probably used this line before, but none of us was complaining. For as dawn broke over the Manu cloud forest, in the heart of Peru, we were assembling on a wooden platform perched on the edge of the mountainside. We had come to see one of the greatest bird spectacles in the world: the courtship display of the Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus).
Cocks-of-the-rock (note the pedantic plural) are very striking birds indeed. About the size of a collared dove, though much plumper, they sport a prominent crest, which they use to intimidate their fellow males, and attract females, in the avian equivalent of the red deer rut.
Continue reading...Time for the oil industry to snuff out its flares
The World Bank reckons the 16,000 flares worldwide produce around 350m tonnes of CO2 each year, causing untold harm
The emission of air pollution from traffic in our cities is the last step for a fuel that produces air pollution at every stage of production, often starting with flaring at a distant oil well. The World Bank estimates that the 16,000 flares worldwide produce around 350m tonnes of CO2 each year.
Black carbon from sooty flames adds to the problems, especially across the northern hemisphere where it darkens arctic and mountain snow encouraging melting. The flared gas is also a wasted resource.
Continue reading...