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The eco guide to taking action in 2017
All too often environmentalism is about stopping doing something, but maybe it’s time to be more active and start doing something instead?
I wonder if Nike would loan me its famous brand slogan as a motto this year. After all, Just Do It is much more motivating than Just Don’t Do It – the traditional ethical living response…
Until now. Who can fail to be cheered by the way the Divest movement has just done it? Starting only four years ago with a smattering of universities, the Divest-Invest network recently reported that the value of organisations committed to ditching their holdings in fossil fuels is now greater than the value of all listed oil and gas companies.
Continue reading...As British tourists take to the seas, giant cruise ships spread pollution misery
From the upstairs windows in Colin MacQueen’s house there isn’t a view of the sea but he can clearly see the ships. Docked in the port, less than half a mile away, they tower over the roofs of flats and houses. “They are colossal,” he said. “These cruise liners are much bigger than the container ships. They use as much fuel as whole towns.”
The view is pretty spectacular. But it’s what he cannot see that worries MacQueen. Like many cities across the UK, Southampton has such poor air quality it breaches international guidelines, and while the government and local authorities are looking to take action on cars, maritime fuel – the dirtiest and most polluting of all diesels – is on no one’s radar. Not only do the giant cruise liners churn out pollutants at sea, they also keep their engines running when they are docked in places like MacQueen’s home town.
Continue reading...How warming seas are forcing fish to seek new waters
Rising sea temperatures are pushing shoals hundreds of miles from native grounds
Scottish fishermen have uncovered an intriguing way to supplement their income: they have added squid to the menu of marine creatures they regularly pull from the sea. A species normally associated with the warmth of the Mediterranean, rather than the freezing north, may seem an odd addition to their usual catches of cod and haddock. Nevertheless, squid has become a nice little earner for fishing boats from Aberdeen and the Moray Firth in recent years.
Related: What will be the big environment events in 2017?
Continue reading...Prince William charity urges UK to back ivory trade ban
The environment secretary Andrea Leadsom is under increasing pressure to make good on a Tory manifesto commitment to ban the UK ivory trade after China announced it would close down its domestic ivory market.
Conservation organisations, including a charity championed by Prince William, say that by allowing the trade to continue the UK is fuelling the annual slaughter of thousands of rhinos and elephants. A recent study suggested that the UK is now the third-largest supplier of illegal ivory items to the US.
Continue reading...Ecuador’s leading environmental group fights to stop forced closure
NGO Acción Ecológica responds to the government’s attempt to close the organization down
Members of one of Latin America’s most well-known environmental organisations, Acción Ecológica, are fighting for their survival against a controversial attempt by Ecuador’s government to shut them down.
The move by the government came six days after violence between soldiers, police and indigenous Shuar people opposed to a proposed giant Chinese-run copper mine in Ecuador’s south-eastern Amazon region, and just two days after Acción Ecológica had called for a Truth Commission to be set up to investigate events there. The attempt to close the organisation has sparked severe criticism from UN human rights experts and outrage from numerous civil society organisations in Latin America and elsewhere.
Continue reading...China's ivory trade ban: how to make it work
Elephants will only be safe when decisive action is taken against the ivory traffickers who have been operating under the cover of the legal trade
China’s decision to ban all trade in ivory by the end of the year has been widely hailed as a game changer by environmentalists in China itself and across the world. There is no doubt that this is very welcome news.
Many commentators have also pointed out that this new Chinese policy is also motivated by self-interest. China has rapidly growing economic and political interests in Africa and hopes to improve its image on the continent by responding to pressure from its African allies to reduce demand for ivory among Chinese consumers. If protecting elephants is in China’s self-interest—and if African leaders care enough about them to put pressure on China to change its policies—that is also welcome news.
Continue reading...Prey silence for the peregrine falcon
Udale Bay, Cromarty, Highlands Rapid wings took the peregrine high, and it wheeled, looking for any movement below
The tide was starting to ebb as I raised two of the windows in the RSPB hide. This meant I could not only see the mass of birds on the saltmarsh but also enjoy the music of their various calls. They seemed to be trying to decide just when to leave for the mudflats and the food that would be exposed for them by the departing tide.
Curlews walked around looking superior on their long legs, drake wigeon whistled in their inimitable fashion, and the black and white plumage of the several shelduck stood out in contrast to the brown and grey camouflage of the waders.
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Moving Pictures
Alone, China's ban on ivory could make life worse for elephants
China has ordered all its legal ivory carvers and traders to get of the business by the end of the year. But it will have to do more if it really wants to stop poaching
China’s ban on ivory trading and processing has been hailed as a monumental step on the path to saving elephants from extinction. But if China does not simultaneously tackle its much larger illegal trade in ivory, the ban could perversely make it more lucrative for the poaching gangs who massacre Africa’s elephants and ship their tusks to Asia.
The number of legal businesses being shut down is relatively small. The plan, announced on 30 December by China’s central government, will close “a portion” (the Guardian understands it will be roughly half) of its 34 licensed carving factories and 130 retailers before the end of March 2017. The rest will be forced shut by the end of the year.
Continue reading...'Elephants are not the only victims': the lament of China's ivory lovers
For years China’s ivory carvers and collectors have been blamed for elephant poaching. Now their government is banning the ivory trade. How do they see their future?
In a tiny workshop at his home in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong, 84-year-old Au Yue-Shung shows me an ivory carving he has been working on for months. Measuring just 5x10 inches, Nine Sages in Mount Xiang depicts the 9th-century poet Bai Juyi and eight of his peers in full creative flow in Henan province, far from the imperial court that Bai once served. The point of the story is that the sages tried to maintain their integrity by staying close to nature and art, and away from the ugly politics of the time. This is a piece that Au created for himself rather than a client. It is his statement about life after going through many ups and downs.
Born during the Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s, Au joined Guangzhou’s Daxin ivory carving factory at the age of 13 as an apprentice. With only one year’s formal education and with no one caring to teach him, he taught himself drawing and carving in his spare time. Unable to afford drawing paper, he drew on toilet paper. His gift was soon recognised and by the late 1960s he had become a key carving artist at Daxin. Later, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, he decided that he had had enough of the political and artistic repression.
Continue reading...History of Australian farming: the 1960s
'Larsen C' iceberg about to break off Antarctic shelf – video
Scientists predict that a giant iceberg is about to break off from the Antarctic shelf after the sudden expansion of a rift which has been growing steadily for a decade. Several ice shelves have cracked up around northern parts of Antarctica in recent years, including the Larsen B that disintegrated in 2002
Continue reading...Best of A Big Country
How do we fix air pollution? It's simple but it needs political will
We know diesel vehicles are the key culprit, but when it comes to both long-term solutions and emergency measures the govenment has been asleep at the wheel
Cutting toxic levels of city air pollution to safer levels is simple, but not easy – it requires resolve. Yet, despite the key culprit in the UK being well known – diesel vehicles – the government has been asleep at the wheel for years.
Levels of nitrogen dioxide have been illegally high across much of the UK since 2010. In 2015 86% of major urban areas broke annual limits. Cutting this pollution means choking off diesel emissions and there is a wide range of effective measures available.
Continue reading...Air pollution, owl cafes and 25 years of UK wind 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...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A swimming baby elephant, diving penguins and jumping impalas are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Brixton Road breaches annual air pollution limit in five days
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