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US, EU ink methane pact in push to help get COP26 climate summit back on track
New Zealand is not as clean or green as we think – plastic waste is creating a crisis | Lizzy Carmine
Ignorance about plastic recycling has tricked us into guilt-free consumption – decision makers have to give us sustainable options
Growing up my school lunches were covered in plastic wrapping, like those of many of my schoolmates. I was taught from a young age to pick up my rubbish and recycle, and I trusted the recycling systems in place especially because New Zealand streets were so clean. Years later, I saw a video on Facebook of a turtle with a straw in its nose, but I knew Kiwis weren’t to blame, our rubbish systems were too sturdy. Ignorance is bliss, and ignorance is the cause of the world’s plastic pollution crisis.
The illusion was shattered for me when I watched For The Blue, a documentary by Project Blue, a group of young ocean enthusiasts from Aotearoa, who travelled across the globe to investigate the world’s plastic-waste crisis – only to find themselves back in clean, green New Zealand experiencing the effects of the global plastic epidemic in their own back yard. During their visit to a once pristine area in the South Island, they found plastic trash strewn across the land, after the Fox river breached a closed landfill on its banks.
Continue reading...Rich countries not providing poor with pledged climate finance, analysis says
Developed country governments will reportedly fail to provide $100bn a year for the next four years
Rich countries will continue to miss a longstanding pledge to provide poor countries with $100bn a year in climate finance for the next four years, new analysis suggests on the eve of a crunch meeting of world leaders at the UN on Monday.
The promised cash is seen as essential to gaining support from developing countries for a global climate deal to fulfil the 2015 Paris agreement, with only six weeks go before vital UN climate talks, called Cop26, to be hosted in Glasgow this November.
Continue reading...Yes, Australia is buying a fleet of nuclear submarines. But nuclear-powered electricity must not come next
Carbon market veteran joins BP to originate voluntary projects in Americas
COMMENT: Is the EU carbon price rally over?
Devon teenager plans cycle to Glasgow for Cop26 climate summit
Jessie Stevens, 16, hopes to deliver speech to UN conference in November after completing 570-mile ride
Unable to afford the extortionate train fare and refusing to fly, a 16-year-old environmental campaigner has decided to cycle 570 miles to the Cop26 summit in Glasgow – and has invited the public to join her for the ride.
Jessie Stevens, from Newton Abbot in south Devon, wants to attend the climate conference in November to “bring youth representation to a conversation often dominated by older voices”.
Continue reading...Science can rescue farming. Relaxing gene editing rules should be the start | Nick Talbot
As the UK prepares to approve genome editing, a leading food scientist argues it should also ease up on GM crops
Empty shelves in supermarkets have reminded us that our food supply is rather more fragile than we thought. Indeed, who would have believed that in 2021 we need a cabinet minister responsible for the supply of food? Whatever the reasons for the situation, this might be a sign of the future. Ensuring food security in the long term could prove much more challenging than our short-term problems. Even amid the pandemic, it is hard to ignore the floods, wildfires and hurricanes occurring with ever-increasing ferocity. The climate emergency now feels very real and doing nothing is no longer an option.
I study plant diseases, many of which are serious threats to humankind. The rice blast fungus, my main obsession, destroys enough rice each year to feed 60 million people. We are already seeing the effects of climate change with new plant diseases moving rapidly around the world and need new disease-resistant crops to combat these threats.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson to call for climate action at UN assembly
Australian renewables hit record share of 59.8 per cent on main grid on Sunday
Renewables reach a record share of demand in Australia's main grid on Sunday, with wind and solar alone providing 57 per cent just before noon.
The post Australian renewables hit record share of 59.8 per cent on main grid on Sunday appeared first on RenewEconomy.
SpaceX: Inspiration4 amateur astronauts return to Earth after three days
The link between climate change, seaweed and ice cream
‘I don’t think many people know they exist’: how mistaken identity threatens the Baudin’s cockatoo
The black cockatoo is nearly identical to its neighbour, the Carnaby’s. And that’s a problem for protecting the endangered species
- The Guardian/BirdLife Australia Bird of the Year poll for 2021 will begin on 27 September
In the early 1830s, the painter Edward Lear was painstakingly illustrating a black cockatoo, based on a specimen collected by French explorer Nicholas Baudin in the south-west of Western Australia in 1804.
The image, which would become the holotype for the Baudin’s cockatoo, was published in Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots (1832). Back in Lear’s time it was believed that the Baudin’s was the only species of white-tailed black cockatoo. Another white-tailed black cockatoo, called the Carnaby’s, was classified as a subspecies. But more than a century later, scientists began to believe the differences between the two birds were far too significant for them to be considered one species; they breed differently, don’t eat the same food and occupy different habitats. The Carnaby’s was declared a separate species in 1979.
Continue reading...‘Like nothing in my lifetime’: researchers race to unravel the mystery of Australia’s dying frogs
After asking for public help with their investigations, scientists have received thousands of reports and specimens of dead, shrivelled frogs
In the middle of Sydney’s lockdown, scientist Jodi Rowley has been retrieving frozen dead frogs from her doorstep.
Occasionally one will arrive dried and shrivelled up in the post.
Continue reading...Want to save the Earth? Then don’t buy that shiny new iPhone | John Naughton
Apple has just unveiled the latest all-singing, all-dancing iteration of its handset, but perhaps you should resist the hype
On Tuesday, Apple released its latest phone – the iPhone 13. Naturally, it was presented with the customary breathless excitement. It has a smaller notch (eh?), a redesigned camera, Apple’s latest A15 “bionic” chipset and a brighter, sharper screen. And, since we’re surfing the superlative wave, the A15 has nearly 15bn transistors and a “six-core CPU design with two high-performance and four high-efficiency cores”.
Wow! But just one question: why would I buy this Wundermaschine? After all, two years ago I got an iPhone 11, which has been more than adequate for my purposes. That replaced the iPhone 6 I bought in 2014 and that replaced the iPhone 4 I got in 2010. And all of those phones are still working fine. The oldest one serves as a family backup in case someone loses or breaks a phone, the iPhone 6 has become a hardworking video camera and my present phone may well see me out.
Continue reading...Ed Miliband: honour promises on jabs to poor countries to save Cop26 deal
Labour’s shadow business secretary says the government must ‘rebuild trust’ after a series of missteps on way to climate summit
Boris Johnson should set out plans to provide Covid-19 vaccinations to all developing countries to achieve a global climate deal, Labour’s shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, has urged.
Only 2% of the population of developing countries have been inoculated, despite promises by rich nations. Ensuring the rest have access to vaccines would build trust with the poor world which is lacking, Miliband said, ahead of the vital UN Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.
Continue reading...Scientists investigate hundreds of guillemot deaths on UK coastline
Seabird carcasses discovered along Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Scottish shores, with many more found emaciated
Several hundred seabirds have been found dead along the coasts of north-east England and Scotland, while many have been discovered emaciated.
The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), which is investigating the cause of the deaths, said the majority of the birds were guillemots.
Continue reading...Climate change: Should green campaigners put more pressure on China to slash emissions?
Coalition proposes to scrap recovery plans for 200 endangered species and habitats
Environment groups decry protection ‘downgrade’ that would affect Tasmanian devil, whale shark and Kangaroo Island glossy-black cockatoo
The Morrison government has proposed scrapping recovery plans for almost 200 endangered species and habitats including the Tasmanian devil, the whale shark and the endangered glossy-black cockatoo populations on Kangaroo Island, one of the worst-affected areas in the 2019-20 bushfires.
Environment groups have decried the move as a backward step less than 12 months after a statutory review of Australia’s national environmental laws found successive governments had failed to protect the country’s unique wildlife.
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