The Guardian
Cockney sparrows living the high life | Brief letters
Kelvin MacKenzie loses his job over “racial slurs” (Report, 10 May). Are we to infer that the nasty abuse of Ross Barkley would have been fine had his grandparents all been indigenous English or European? Is there no need to care about respecting other people and their feelings, so long as no racial or sexual orientation or religious elements lurk somewhere?
Peter Cave
London
• I regularly have sparrows on the balcony of my seventh-floor Barbican flat (Patrick Barkham, Notebook, 9 May). They are from the colony which has lived in Fortune Street Park for several years. The sparrows don’t get on with the goldfinches which inhabit the estate’s wildlife garden. Alas all these birds and small mammals are prey to the resident peregrines. Who needs to live in Norfolk?
Joanna Rodgers
London
Locals dismayed as Trump's EPA gives new life to controversial Alaska mine
- Pebble Ltd Partnership allowed to seek permit to build mine near Bristol Bay
- Environmental activists say gold and copper mine threatens local community
Further legal battles and protesters “standing in front of bulldozers” could be in store in Alaska, after the Trump administration on Friday settled a lawsuit over the proposed development of a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of one of the state’s main salmon fisheries.
Related: Slow-freezing Alaska soil driving surge in carbon dioxide emissions
Continue reading...Disappearing glaciers, orangutans and solar power – 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...US signs treaty to protect Arctic, giving some hope for Paris agreement
Secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, signs a commitment to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to extend scientific cooperation in the Arctic region
Environmental campaigners were given some hope that the US may stick to its commitments under the Paris climate change treaty when Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, signed a commitment to protect the Arctic and extend scientific co-operation.
He was speaking at the end of a meeting of the eight-nation Arctic Council in Alaska, a consultative body dedicated to sustaining the Arctic.
Continue reading...UK farmers call for cross-country pipelines after driest winter in 20 years
Farmers and conservationists warn of water shortage, with ‘water shunting’ from wet north to dry south seen as one solution
Farmers are warning that water may have to be transferred across Britain after an unusually dry winter and spring left more than four-fifths of rivers with too little to support local growers.
Fears of a drought were expected to ease this weekend as scattered showers usher in a more traditional British spring, but wildlife and agriculture industries are bracing for a long, parched summer.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A Sumatran tiger, an alligator and a humpback whale are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Papua's gold families – in pictures
Around 13,000 people live off the tailings of the PT Freeport Indonesia goldmine in Papua. Photographer Vembri Waluyas visited the settlement on the Ajkwa river to document their lives
Continue reading...Narwhals: new footage reveals possible purpose for mysterious tusk – video
Drone footage in Canada captures the behaviour of rarely-seen narwhals which appear to use their long tusks to tap and stun fish, making them easier to catch. Narwhals, a type of whale, live in remote locations, meaning very little is known about them. WWF and Fisheries and Oceans Canada have been working together to monitor the creature to better protect it from industrial development
Continue reading...‘Turn it off’: how technology is killing the joy of national parks
As drones, smartphones other gadgets invade America’s most tranquil trails, many lament the loss of peace and quiet
Andrew Studer was admiring a massive lava fire hose at Hawaii Volcanoes national park when he spotted something unusual: a small quadcopter drone flying very close to the natural wonder pouring hot molten rock.
“There were other visitors sitting out relaxing in somewhat of a meditative state, just trying to enjoy this phenomenon,” said Studer, who recently captured a viral image of a drone hovering near the lava. “I do feel like drones are extremely obnoxious, and I’m sure it was frustrating for some of the people there.”
Continue reading...California swimmers warned about 15 great white sharks – video
Footage from an Orange County police helicopter shows 15 great whites swimming as close at 10ft (3 metres) from shore. The sheriff’s department uses a loudspeaker to advise anyone in the water to exit ‘in a calm manner’
Continue reading...UN issues stamps featuring newly listed endangered species – in pictures
From devil rays to the baobab tree, 12 new stamps mark Cites’ 20th anniversary and highlight some of the animals and plants they help protect through the regulation of international trade
Continue reading...The great wave: debris from the Japanese tsunami – in pictures
Tomohiro Muda photographs artefacts left behind after the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan and damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant – be they boxer shorts or circuit boards
Continue reading...The mill pond mourns Aphrodite's sacred bird
Langstone Mill Pond, Hampshire The swans’ nest lies deserted, the eggs presumably scavenged while the bereaved cob was defending his territory
Almost two weeks have passed since the nesting female mute swan was viciously attacked by dogs and succumbed to her injuries, but it feels as though the mill pond is still in mourning.
Rain tears my cheeks, the water is turbid with suspended silt, and the customary raucous gaggles of mallards, coots and moorhens are conspicuous by their absence. Even the rising chorus of chiffchaffs, Cetti’s warblers and reed warblers is muted.
Continue reading...Water companies losing vast amounts through leakage, as drought fears rise
Customers are being asked to save water, but more than 20% of water is lost before it reaches homes and leakage levels are not declining, Guardian analysis shows
Fears of a drought are rising after an exceptionally dry spell and water companies are asking customers to save water, but the vast amount of water that leaks from company pipes every day has not fallen for at least four years, according to a Guardian analysis.
Furthermore, many companies in the parched south and east of England have been set leak reduction targets for 2020 of zero or even targets that could allow leakages to increase. Critics blame a system where it is “cheaper to drain a river dry than fix a leak” and say it is unfair to place the water saving burden on customers while 20% of all water leaks out before it even reaches homes.
Continue reading...Why has Labour included bees in its manifesto?
Leaked draft says Labour will protect bees by banning all neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been linked to species decline
If you were wondering why bees popped up in the Labour party’s leaked manifesto this week, then here’s the answer.
Since 1900 about 20 bee species have become extinct in the UK and 35 more are now at risk.
Continue reading...Labor split over Great Australian Bight oil drilling
Senate committee fails to make official recommendations after South Australia Labor senator, Alex Gallacher, votes with Liberals
A Labor senator has broken ranks with his party to vote with Liberals in support of oil and gas drilling in the Great Australian Bight, deadlocking a Senate committee investigating the proposal.
The Greens have accused the Labor party of being directly influenced by donations from oil giant Chevron. A long-awaited Senate report into the consequences of opening up the Great Australian Bight Marine National Park for oil or gas production was published on Thursday.
Continue reading...More errors identified in contrarian climate scientists' temperature estimates | John Abraham
A new study suggests there are remaining biases in the oft-corrected University of Alabama at Huntsville atmospheric temperature estimates
Human emission of heat-trapping gases is causing the Earth to warm. We’ve known that for many decades. In fact, there are no reputable scientists that dispute this fact. There are, however, a few scientists who don’t think the warming will be very much or that we should worry about it. These contrarians have been shown to be wrong over and over again, like in the movie Groundhog Day. And, a new study just out shows they may have another error. But, despite being wrong, they continue to claim Earth’s warming isn’t something to be concerned about.
Perhaps the darlings of the denialist community are two researchers out of Alabama (John Christy and Roy Spencer). They rose to public attention in the mid-1990s when they reportedly showed that the atmosphere was not warming and was actually cooling. It turns out they had made some pretty significant errors and when other researchers identified those errors, the new results showed a warming.
Continue reading...US Glacier national park is losing its glaciers with just 26 of 150 left
Warming climate makes it ‘inevitable’ that contiguous US will lose all of its glaciers within decades, according to scientists
It’s now “inevitable” that the contiguous United States will lose all of its glaciers within a matter of decades, according to scientists who have revealed the precipitous shrinkage of dozens of glaciers in Montana.
Warming temperatures have rapidly reduced the size of 39 named glaciers in Montana since 1966, according to comparisons released by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Portland State University. Some have lost as much as 85% of their expanse over the past 50 years, with Glacier national park, site of 37 of the surveyed glaciers, set to lose all of its eponymous ice formations within the next few decades. Of the 150 glaciers that existed in the park in the late 19th century, only 26 remain.
Continue reading...Life as a whale: a humpback's view of the Antarctic – in pictures
‘Whale cams’ and digital tags attached to minkes and humpbacks allow scientists to go below the surface of the Antarctic ocean and experience a day in a life of these ocean giants. The data will help them to understand the animals’ behaviour and the impacts of climate change
• ‘Whale cams’ reveal humpbacks’ habitats – video
Continue reading...Mine rehabilitation security bonds inadequate, NSW auditor general finds
Greens MP responds to damning report, warning taxpayers are left exposed to footing the bill ‘for the huge damage the mining industry is doing to the environment’
Mining companies should be forced to set aside more money for the rehabilitation of mine sites, according to a damning report by the New South Wales auditor general.
While security deposits provided by mining companies have increased from $500m in 2005 to around $2.2bn in 2016 for about 450 mine sites in NSW, the report found the money was still not likely to cover the full costs of each mine’s rehabilitation if the company went out of business or the mine suddenly stopped operating.
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