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28 Democrats have signed on to an all-night speechathon to try to push Congress to take up climate change

Suzanne Goldenberg

Guardian Australia: NSW says it will not bow to pressure to halt gas operations after Santos was fined $1,500 for contaminating groundwater

Oliver Milman

Letter to Guardian calling for regulator is signed by opponents of expansion as well as advocates of growth at London airport

Noise levels at Heathrow and other airports should be regulated by an independent ombudsman, according to an unlikely alliance of critics and supporters of the airport's expansion.

The coming together of the two sides over the most contentious issue facing the west London airport in particular is also seen as a breakthrough in the political row over its future. The fresh initiative is spelt out in a letter to the Guardian, whose signatories include Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP for Richmond Park and a fervent opponent of expansion. Other signatories include Tim Yeo, the chairman of the energy and climate change select committee, the Green MP Caroline Lucas, and the directors of the Back Heathrow and Let Britain Fly campaigns, which support expansion.

Advocates of the initiative believe it could break the logjam of mistrust between residents and the airline industry. The business group London First advocated the appointment of an aircraft noise ombudsman in the autumn, and has been slowly building support from interested parties including the London assembly, Virgin Atlantic and the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign.

The letter to Guardian argues an independent ombudsman could have "a fundamental role in further establishing trust and confidence, thus bringing about a fair and reasonable balance between increasing demand for flights and noise control".

The idea, requiring primary legislation, was strongly supported in principle by the interim report of the Davies commission into airport expansion, to which the government is due to respond in the next few weeks. The purpose of the ombudsman would be to work collaboratively with all interested parties to report on noise in an open, transparent and intelligible manner, and "to deal with noise limitation problems fairly and sustainably".

The body would have to report to parliament, and its precise terms of reference and enforcement powers would be critical to the body being useful and generally supported. Some argue that its powers should be limited to naming and shaming airlines that fail to follow its advice. Currently the only legislation affecting aircraft noise covers night flights, while the Civil Aviation Authority, funded by airlines and airports, monitors aircraft noise at Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted. Heathrow has a noise team to handle complaints but the reasons for its decisions are largely opaque.

In a joint statement given to the Guardian, the airline industry and environmental campaigners said: "For most, who do not live near to a major airport, air travel is exclusively defined in terms of the considerable economic or social benefits which it brings; their experience of aircraft noise is an ambient sound somewhere up in the sky. On the other hand, for those who live near major airports, aircraft noise can be an imposition. The time has come to adopt a fresh approach, to restore trust and give them the confidence that their legitimate grievances are being addressed.

The initiative comes as London First, Let Britain Fly and Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan) come together on Tuesday to hold their joint conference on aircraft noise. Gavin Hayes, the director of Let Britain Fly, a campaign group funded by the airline industry, said: "It's vitally important to do everything possible to enhance the quality of life of all of those who live around Britain's airports. There is a golden opportunity to ensure that aircraft noise is managed more effectively, progressively reducing it and the number of people it affects."

John Stewart, chair of Hacan, welcomed the initiative as "the first time that organisations from all points of the spectrum in the debate on aircraft noise have co-operated in this way to find solutions. That debate has for many years been challenging, complex and, regrettably, fraught. We believe that the time has come for a fresh start to efforts to break the deadlock."

There are currently disputes over the basics of aircraft noise with opponents of Heathrow claiming the Davies commission is basing its plans on an out-of-date survey that suggests communities do not become annoyed by overhead flights if they are below a 57 decibel benchmark, a finding based on a contested survey conducted in 1982.

An ombudsman could be responsible for advising on how best to compensate those experiencing noise, the best means of monitoring noise, and where possible to reduce or mitigate it. The ombudsman would also publish airlines' noise performance, disseminate noise mitigation best practice and mediate in disputes between airlines and residents. It would also advise on the noise consequences of proposed changes to flight patterns, and in some version be given powers to fine airlines that fail to follow advice.

A similar body has existed in Australia since 2010, and in France since 2009. The French authority has powers to impose fines on airlines and lists all such fines, and the reasons for them on its website.

Other signatories to the Guardian letter include Dr Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge, Stephen Joseph chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham and a possible Labour candidate for the London mayoralty, Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, Philippa Roe, the Conservative leader of Westminster city council, Valerie Shawcross , Labour London assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark, Henry Smith, the Conservative MP for Crawley, and John Stewart, chairman of Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise.

• Air transport
• Heathrow third runway
• Airline industry
• Travel and transport
• London
• Heathrow

Patrick Wintour
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Air travel, and the aircraft noise that accompanies it, have become an integral part of modern life, but perceptions of aircraft noise vary greatly, mainly depending on where it is experienced.

For most people, who do not live near to a major airport, air travel is exclusively defined in terms of the considerable economic or social benefits that it brings. On the other hand, for those who live near major airports, aircraft noise can be an imposition. The time has come to adopt a fresh approach, to restore trust and give people the confidence that their legitimate grievances are being addressed.

We believe that the establishment of an independent aircraft noise ombudsman, set up at arm's length from government and the industry, could play a fundamental role in further establishing trust and confidence, thus bringing about a fair and reasonable balance between increasing demand for flights and noise control.

Building on the common ground and goodwill built up among the interested parties, the ombudsman would collaborate with all of them to report on noise in an open, transparent and intelligible manner, and to deal with noise limitation problems fairly and sustainably.

We therefore call on the government and politicians of all colours to work collaboratively with all stakeholders on designing, and thereafter the early establishment of, an independent aircraft noise ombudsman to further enhance and protect the welfare of people living near airports.

Stephen Alambritis leader, Merton council
David Amess MP Con, Southend West
Tony Arbour AM Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow
Jennette Arnold AM Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest
Bob Blackman MP Harrow East
Mark Boleat chair, policy and resources committee, City of London Corporation
David Brazier cabinet member for transport and environment, Kent county council
Robert Buckland MP Con, South Swindon
Sir Steve Bullock Mayor of Lewisham
Muhammed Butt Leader, Brent council
Jim Cunningham MP Lab, Coventry South
Tom Copley AM London-wide
Brenda Dean Lab, House of Lords
Andrew Dismore AM, Barnet and Camden
Jim Dobbin MP Lab, Heywood and Middleton
Len Duvall AM leader of Labour group, Greenwich and Lewisham
Roger Evans AM deputy chairman of the London Assembly, Havering and Redbridge
Stephen Fry chief executive, Hounslow Chamber of Commerce
Zac Goldsmith MP Con, Richmond Park
Robert Gray director, Back Heathrow
Rt Hon Sir Alan Haselhurst MP Con, Saffron Walden
Gavin Hayes director, Let Britain Fly
Dr Julian Huppert MP Lib Dem, Cambridge
Darren Johnson AM chair of the London Assembly
Jenny Jones AM leader, Green Group at the London Assembly
Stephen Joseph chief executive, Campaign for Better Transport
David Lammy MP Lab, Tottenham
Mike Langan chair, Hillingdon Chamber of Commerce
Lisa Lavia managing director, Noise Abatement Society
Caroline Lucas MP Green, Brighton Pavilion
Caroline Nokes MP Con, Romsey and Southampton North
Steve O'Connell AM Croydon and Sutton
Lib Peck leader, Lambeth council
Roger Reed deputy leader, South Buckinghamshire district council
Philippa Roe leader, Westminster city council
Ben Rogers, director, Centre for London
Andrew Rosindell MP Con, Romford
Sir Bob Russell MP Lib Dem, Colchester
Dr Onkar Sahota AM Ealing and Hillingdon
Valerie Shawcross AM Lambeth and Southwark
Henry Smith MP Con, Crawley
Nicholas Soames MP Con, Mid Sussex
John Stewart chair, Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise
Jeremy Taylor chief executive, Gatwick Diamond Business
Baroness Valentine chief executive, London First
Joan Walley MP Lab Stoke-on-Trent North
Tim Yeo MP Con, South Suffolk
Professor Xin Zhang professor of aircraft engineering, University of Southampton

• Air transport

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Senators scheduled to speak through night seek to ‘make climate change an issue in 2014’

Suzanne Goldenberg

Langstone, Hampshire: Newts use scent to navigate their way to water and the pond lies just beyond the cats' run

The garden security light flickered on. My cats were staring intently at something on the patio. They padded forward. Bimble cocked his head and watched as Teddy tentatively patted it with his paw. It twitched and both cats sprang into the air, their tails fluffed out like bottlebrushes.

I ran outside expecting to rescue a slug, snail or disoriented moth, but the creature cast a dragon-shaped shadow – it was a smooth newt. This part of the garden is enclosed for the cats, and the pond lies just outside the boundary of their run, but the newt's migratory path evidently involved crossing the exposed patio rather than taking the less risky route across the lawn and through the bog garden. Newts use scent to navigate their way to water. Studies have shown that they show high breeding-site fidelity, frequently returning to their natal pond. It wasn't the first time I had come across a newt shambling across the patio under the cover of darkness, and I wondered if this was perhaps the same individual I encountered last March.

I gently slid my fingers underneath the newt's body and coaxed it into my hand where it clung to my palm with tacky toes. Its skin felt cool and velvety to the touch, like a sea-smoothed pebble. Its upper body was olive green, with a pair of parallel dark stripes running from the neck to the tip of the tail on either side of its spine. Its underparts were cream with a flush of orange on its belly and a sprinkling of black spots. The muted colouration suggested that it was a female, although immature males lack the undulating crest sported by males in breeding condition and can resemble females in colour and pattern.

I carried the newt through the gate and slipped it into the pond. With a flick of its tail it powered through the water and disappeared into a tangle of fleshy flag iris rhizomes.

• Animal behaviour
• Spring
• Rural affairs

Claire Stares
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Hairdressers have often played a key role in spreading information. A new study evaluates whether they could also help raise consumer awareness about the environment

Hairdressers of the world: rise up and lead humanity away from its environmentally destructive path!

Such a call to action may not be as far fetched as it sounds. Aside from therapists, hairdressers arguably get more personal with their customers than any other professional – and therefore may be able to influence their behaviour.

In fact, billions of people regularly get haircuts and, in the process, come into contact with key environmental issues, ranging from water and energy use to toxic chemicals.

So it is not such a great surprise to find that studying the opportunity for barbers and stylists to lead behavioural change has been backed by a £100,000 ($160,000) grant from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The Southampton Management School's Denise Baden, who carried out the research, points out that peer-to-peer influence within established networks can be a powerful force for environmental change, especially when those promoting behaviour change are not the usual suspects.

"It is hard to think of an occupation which involves more general conversation with a wide variety of people, and which involves behaviours so relevant to people's everyday routines, than hairdressing," she says. "Importantly, hairdressers are not seen as a sub-cultural group and therefore are in a position to influence mainstream practices."

Hairdressers have already played a role in disseminating health information to the public in developing countries. The UN Population Fund, in collaboration with UNAIDS Secretariat, identified barbershops and beauty salons in Guyana as information hubs to disseminate information about HIV prevention, for example.

But putting good ideas into practice is never as easy as it sounds.

For one thing, Baden points out that hairdressers are not the type of people who would normally be in the vanguard of any sort of revolution.

"Early adopters of social innovations characteristically have more years of formal education, greater rationality, higher IQ, higher aspirations and higher status occupations than late adopters," she points out. "None of these attributes are typical of hairdressers. Therefore it is unsurprising that our pilot research found no examples of hairdressers taking the lead on sustainability innovations."

In fact, the study found that the majority of hairdressers are not at all excited, at first glance, about the opportunity to become environmental champions and are unlikely to become more proactive simply as a result of receiving relevant information.

Referring to a Green Salon Makeover workshop organised for hairdressers, the report states: "It was an extremely time consuming process to recruit hairdressers … and many who were interviewed did not actually choose to attend, thus such an intervention is only likely to affect that proportion of hairdressers that value new learning opportunities."

Among those who did attend, the most environmentally friendly practices they reported engaging in is recycling and the use of energy-efficient light bulbs, "although most hairdressers reported they were too dull".

Apart from one organic salon, none of the hairdressers appeared aware of how they might be affecting their customers' hair-care practices in their homes and of the impact they could have as a result of educating their customers. Also, apart from a few enquiries about products' potential to trigger allergies, most hairdressers said it was rare for customers to enquire about eco-friendly or ethical products and practices.

So did the workshop change behaviour? Nearly three quarters of the attendees said they recognised their current hairdressing failed to set a good example to customers in terms of environmental impacts, and 78% believed it would be easy to model more positive environmental behaviours.

"Hairdressers believed a key part of the service they provided was to introduce a little luxury and pampering and this was seen as incompatible with reducing product use," according to the study.

However, in discussions, hairdressers came up with ways to resolve this dilemma, such as by massaging conditioner into the scalp for a longer time instead of applying a second shampoo, the report stated.

"Further, as discussions progressed, it was apparent that what was good for the hair was the same as what is good for the environment and utility bills," according to the report. "For example, chemicals, lots of water use and heat, as well as being bad for the environment can strip oils from the hair, cause irritation and negatively affect hair condition."

The main conclusion of the research is that hairdressing colleges could do far more to embed sustainability into their training programmes.

The study quotes one particular hairdresser who wrote in her feedback: "So the question for me came down to did I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

"Taking that approach has given me more pride in my work and in my profession as a whole. I no longer feel like 'a blonde with scissors', I feel like a professional who is making a difference."

• Sustainable living
• Ethical business

Jo Confino
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See You at The Show Tonight....

MONDAY MARCH 10th ( Mikey's Birthday!!)
With support from The Sierra County Arts Council & Sid Bryant Wonderland: An Evening of Unusual Auditory Experiences
@ 7PM -  Portland, OR based East Forest A unique electro-acoustic musical project that combines melodic-ambient soundscapes, ethereal vocals, and 100% original field recordings to create a genre bending visionary listening experience. This music has a foundation in ancient and modern "sound healing techniques," that humbly hope to put a few cracks in the hypnotic spell of our modern life and help each of us discover a sense of self through introspection. East Forest has shared stages and worked with individuals and artists ranging from Deepak Chopra, Elena Brower, Shiva Rea to Moby.
@ 8PM San Francisco, CA band Foxtails Brigade performs in T or C for the 2nd time.  The San Francisco Chronicle describes them as, “Arresting music marked by unaffected whimsy, dreamy imagery and insinuating melodies.” 
Where: Grapes Gallery 407 Main St., Truth or Consequences, NM  Cost: $12.00, $8.00 to Sierra County Arts Council Member

Marvin Brandt had objected to a plan by the US government to extend a public trail on abandoned railroad across his land

Farming is obscure and cooking has become a spectator sport for many, but restoring lost traditions is possible

For most of the past half century, many of us didn't know – and didn't care to know – how or where our food was produced. For many, food came from the grocery store or restaurant, not from the ground.

In the USA, The Food Network draws more viewers than any other cable news channel, but people are cooking less than ever. The time it takes the average American to prepare dinner is now less than half the length of a Hell's Kitchen episode. Cooking has become a spectator sport, with people watching TV chefs battle it while they grow ever-distant from the farmers who produce their food. The loss of culinary skills and regular meal times mean 40% of American meals are solitary, and eating with friends and family has become the exception rather than the norm.

Globally, famers are aging. Their average age in sub-Saharan Africa and the USA is 56. Youth, in rich and poor countries alike, don't consider agriculture a viable career. Those that choose it often feel forced into farming because they have no other options.

But now, the growth in farmers' markets and increasing interest in local food and food transparency is not only bringing people closer to producers, but creating excitement around cooking skills and conviviality. Here are 10 projects connecting eaters and producers, encouraging youth to choose agriculture, bringing people together over food and restoring lost culinary traditions.

1. Developing Innovations in School and Community Cultivation – Uganda

Teaching pupils about indigenous crops, founders Edward Mukiibi and Roger Sserunjogi have partnered with Slow Food International to strengthen relationships between young people and food. As well as improving diets and agricultural techniques they've helped reignite a vibrant cooking culture and local food knowledge.

2. Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYF2) – USA

KYF2 local markets provide opportunities for new farmers, diversified sales for experienced farmers and retail for small businesses, and allow consumers to learn about the origin of their food. Strengthening regional food systems, fostering healthy eating and empowering consumers are the United States Department of Agriculture's goals.

3. Tackling the Agriculture-Nutrition Disconnect – India

Agriculture employs more than half of India's workforce and yet pervasive undernutrition endures, especially among the young. With the long-term goal of building a nutrition knowledge and innovations network in India, this International Food Policy Research Institute programme, provides an information-sharing platform for nutrition, health, agriculture and education stakeholders.

4. Fresh! From Finland

This campaign encourages the use of local foods in schools, teaches children about food origins, and educates Finland and the world in appreciating Finnish food. Parents are urged to enjoy food with their children, with the aim of raising a new generation of eaters who think of food as a vehicle for connection and gathering.

5. The Center for Foods of the Americas – Latin America

Much like language, culinary tradition must be practiced to be retained. This team preserve Latin American cuisine, traveling through the 21 countries cataloguing ingredients, dishes and street food for future generations.

6.  Manna From Our Roof – Italy

Federica Marra wants to bring young people closer to the food system and shorten the field-to-fork loop. Using urban roof gardens young people own the process, from growing methods and energy supplies to harvesting and taking the product to market.

7. The Prettiest Kitchen Gardens – Hungary

By encouraging Hungarians to grow food, not just flowers, this new initiative revives the forgotten popular kitchen garden traditions.

8. The Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities – USA

Created by a group of Oaxacan mothers, who were worried about their children forgetting native recipes – and the consequential health problems they observed. They publish recipes, consult, run workshops and classes to preserve and stengthen indigenous food culture.

9. The European Council for Young Farmers – Europe

Giving a voice to young farmers and promoting a youthful and innovative agricultural sector is the Council's aim. Through exchange programmes, training and protecting agricultural and cultural traditions, they work to support young farmers and strengthen rural areas.

10. USAID Kenya Dairy Sector Competitiveness Programme

With a focus on youth and women, this project encourages farmers to develop dairy skills and grow their income throughout the value chain. Transferring knowledge from older farmers, as they retire, to Kenya's youth, is seen as critical.

These projects are especially important in the International Year of Family Farming. Farmers are more than just producers, they're the stewards of indigenous foods and traditional cooking practices as well as entrepreneurs, who deserve to be recognised for their capacity to improve local economies and raise incomes in both developing and industrialised nations.

We all benefit by reconnecting with our food, farmers and farming. What other projects would you add to this list?

Danielle Nierenberg is a co-founder and President of Food Tank, and an expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues.

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• Sustainable living
• Sustainability
• Farming

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Senior adviser to Tokyo Electric Power says controlled release into sea is much safer than keeping contaminated water on-site

A senior adviser to the operator of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has told the firm that it may have no choice but to eventually dump hundreds of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Speaking to reporters who were on a rare visit to the plant on the eve of the third anniversary of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, Dale Klein said Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco] had yet to reassure the public over the handling of water leaks that continue to frustrate efforts to clean up the site.

"The one issue that keeps me awake at night is Tepco's long-term strategy for water management," said Klein, a former chairman of the US nuclear regulatory commission who now leads Tepco's nuclear reform committee.

"Storing massive amounts of water on-site is not sustainable. A controlled release is much safer than keeping the water on-site.

"Tepco is making progress on water management but I'm not satisfied yet. It's frustrating that the company takes four or five steps forward, then two back. And every time you have a leakage it contributes to a lack of trust. There's room for improvement on all fronts."

Tepco's failure to manage the buildup of contaminated water came to light last summer, when it admitted that at least 300 tonnes of tainted water were leaking into the sea every day.

That revelation was followed by a string of incidents involving spills from poorly assembled storage tanks, prompting the government to commit about $500m (£300m) into measures to contain the water.

They include the construction of an underground frozen wall to prevent groundwater mixing with contaminated coolant water, which becomes tainted after coming into contact with melted nuclear fuel deep inside the damaged reactors.

Tepco confirmed that it would activate an experimental wall at a test site at the plant on Tuesday. If the test is successful, the firm plans to build a similar structure almost 2km in length around four damaged reactors next year, although some experts have questioned its ability to use the technology on such a large scale.

Klein, too, voiced scepticism over the frozen wall solution, and suggested that the controlled release of treated water into the Pacific was preferable to storing huge quantities of it on site.

But Tepco, the government and nuclear regulators would have to win the support of local fishermen, and the release of even treated water would almost certainly draw a furious response from China and South Korea.

"It's a very emotional issue," Klein said. "But Tepco and the government will have to articulate their position to other people. For me, the water issue is more about policy than science."

Tepco is pinning its hopes on technology that can remove dozens of dangerous radionuclides, apart from tritium, internal exposure to which has been linked to a greater risk of developing cancer.

Klein, however, said tritium does not pose the same threat to heath as bone-settling strontium and caesium, and can be diluted to safe levels before it is released into the sea.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant's manager, Akira Ono, said the firm had no plans to release contaminated water into the Pacific, but agreed that decommissioning would remain on hold until the problem was solved.

"The most pressing issue for us is the contaminated water, rather than decommissioning," he said.

"Unless we address this issue the public will not be assured and the evacuees will not be able to return home.

"We are in a positive frame of mind over decommissioning the plant over the next 30 to 40 years, But we have to take utmost care every step of the way because errors can cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people."

Currently about 400 tonnes of groundwater is streaming into the reactor basements from the hills behind the plant each day. The plant has accumulated about 300,000 tonnes of contaminated water, which is being stored in 1,200 tanks occupying a large swath of the Fukushima Daiichi site.

Eventually Tepco hopes to have enough space to store 800,000 tonnes, but fears are rising that it will run out of space sometime next year because it can't keep up with the flow of toxic water.

Fukushima three years on

For visitors and workers alike, the journey to the plant begins at J-Village, a former training complex for the Japanese football team that now serves as the Fukushima cleanup's logistical base.

During the 20-minute bus ride through neighbourhoods still bearing the scars of the earthquake and tsunami, there were signs that decontamination work is making modest progress.

Atmospheric radiation levels are falling, leading the authorities to partially lift evacuation orders in neighbourhoods on the edge of the evacuation zone.

Some of Fukushima's 100,000-plus nuclear evacuees are now permitted to return to their homes during the day, but radiation levels are still too high for them to make a permanent return.

In the town of Naraha, where atmospheric radiation hovered around 2 microsieverts an hour on Monday – the official decontamination target is 0.23 microsieverts an hour – large black bags filled with radioactive soil cover fields once used for agriculture, where they will remain until agreement can be reached on a permanent disposal site.

Part of a railway line running along to coast is due to reopen in the spring, although stretches of track that pass through the most contaminated areas are expected to remain closed for years.

Inside Fukushima Daiichi, reporters were reminded of the frantic attempts by a small group of Tepco engineers to save the plant from an even greater catastrophe in the hours after its power supply was knocked out by a towering tsunami three years ago.

In the control room for reactors 1 and 2, both of which suffered meltdowns, one worker's attempts to record water levels by scribbling them on to a disabled control panel are still visible.

None of the unnamed men, who had to work by torchlight, are still at the site: some have retired, but most had to leave because they quickly reached their lifetime radiation dose limit.

"It is difficult to describe what that time was like for those workers," said Kenichiro Matsui, a Tepco official. "They worked tirelessly to save the reactors. They had a real sense of mission."

• Fukushima
• Japan
• Nuclear power
• Japan disaster

Justin McCurry
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This outsized book beautifully accomplishes what I thought impossible: it makes those already-adorable Atlantic puffins even more lovable.

In a world populated by ten thousand or so bird species that come in a range of sizes and colours and occur in a variety of places, one species truly stands tall in people's imaginations: the diminutive Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica -- which is only as tall as a paperback novel (or if you read e-books, this bird would be shorter than your kindle).

Although most people have never seen a puffin in real life, nearly everyone recognises them instantaneously. That's remarkable, considering that these mysterious birds are not visible most of their lives. They live somewhere far out at sea for most of the year, coming to land for just a few months to nest in earthen burrows dug into steep cliffs on desolate craggy islands. Yet, in view of this iconic little bird's popularity, it's surprising that there are few books out there intended to educate the puffin fan club about its life and habits.

Well, okay, there is one such book: The Secret Lives of Puffins by Dominic Couzens [Christopher Helm/Bloomsbury Natural History, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US].

This charming 176-page hardcover is filled with so much life history information that almost everyone will learn something by reading it. The author also includes anecdotes that give the reader the feeling that she is there too:

Puffins would doubtless always be popular with people, given their colourful and singular appearance. However, it surely helps that some of the places where they breed are open maritime landscapes, scenic, bracing and spectacular, rather than buildings, or trees or farmland. [...] To see them in the wild, therefore, is to embark on an adventure, often a boat trip, or a long walk or drive along remote tracks, away from civilisation. Puffin places are vivid and colourful, subject to the whims of violent weather: they instill awe and wonder, and a sense of wildness. Visits to such locations leave you with far more than just an encounter with a bird. [p. 54]

In general, the writing is accessible and clear although it would have benefitted from some careful editing: for example, the author has an annoying fondness for the word "obviously" (which appears 3 times in just one paragraph on p. 27, for example).

The full-colour photographs, by award-winning wildlife photographer Mark Sisson, are superb. Although Mr Sisson has neither invaded the birds' nest burrows nor followed them far out to sea, he has captured some enchanting images of puffins doing puffin-y things, like sleeping (p. 75) and sticking out its tongue (p. 11). Also included are pictures of the breathtaking (p. 96 & p. 117) and dramatic (p. 42 & p. 64) places where these birds nest in the UK.

A combination of a coffee-table book and a species monograph, this outsized book beautifully accomplishes what I thought impossible: it makes those already-adorable puffins even more lovable. The hundreds of lavish full-colour photographs will appeal to puffin lovers of all ages, and the book will enlighten and delight those who love birds and those who are inspired by stunning nature photography.

• Dominic Couzens is a British birder, author and journalist. He contributes regularly to Bird Watching and BBC Wildlife magazines; and is a professional field trip guide. He has written more than 20 books, including The Secret Lives of Garden Birds, which was selected by The Guardian as one of the best wildlife books of 2004; The Secret Lives of British Birds, which was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best wildlife books of 2006, and The Secret Lives of Garden Wildlife, which was named as one of best new nature books of Spring 2008 by The Times. He resides in Dorset, UK, with his wife and two young children.

• Mark Sisson is an award-winning nature photographer whose work is regularly published in a wide variety of books and journals such as BBC Wildlife, Birds and The Countryman. He also co-owns and runs the leading wildlife photography holiday and workshop business, Natures Images, teaching others how to pursue wildlife photography in a responsible and enthusiastic manner. He resides in the small market-town of Newport in Shropshire, UK.

GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She's very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

• Birds
• Birdwatching
• Natural England
• Animals
• Zoology
• Biology
• Children and teenagers
• Science and nature

GrrlScientist
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Thousand-strong orange army brings teamwork, imagination and willpower to round-the-clock job to get line reopened by 4 April

Lee Haberfield, a giant of a man from the Rhondda valley in south Wales, paused for a moment from his work in the spot that has earned itself the rather sinister nickname "the hole" to reflect on how much he and his fellow railway workers have achieved over the past five weeks.

"When we arrived, it was like something out of a disaster movie. It's been a battle to say the least. But I've really enjoyed working here," he says.

Haberfield reckons there are two premier construction jobs in the world at the moment – the race to finish the football World Cup stadiums in Brazil and this one, the repairs to the train line that hugs the Devon coast at Dawlish after the devastation of the great storm of 4 and 5 February. "You'll always be able to look back at this and say you were there and you helped fix it," he says.

Haberfield is a member of the 1,000-strong "orange army" that has been working night and day to fix the hole, the 100-metre breach in a section of sea wall that supported the mainline track from London to the far south-west of Britain – and dozens of other less spectacular but nonetheless tricky breaks along a 3.7-mile stretch.

Network Rail (NR), the owner and operator of Britain's railway infrastructure, has announced that it is expecting the line to re-open on 4 April – a huge relief to residents and business people whose lives have been disrupted by the break in the line and a vital boost for the region's tourism industry before the Easter holidays.

The repair work to the line, which is costing around £15m, has been a triumph for imaginative thinking and teamwork. In the early days the first job was making sure that another Atlantic storm heading Devon's way did not cause more damage to the main breach. One early idea was to rush in a rail-mounted concrete spraying machine that had been specially built to repair a tunnel in Devon and was standing idle. It shored up the sea wall, prevent further devastation and may have helped save houses that were teetering on the edge.

Another was the decision to drop a row of shipping containers in front of the seawall, each filled with 70 tonnes of rubble, to act as a temporary breakwater as more bad weather came in.

But then came the setback of the Valentine's Day storm, which washed away another hunk of sea wall, leading to the prospect of the line remaining closed until mid-April, a disaster for businesses in Cornwall and west Devon, which are losing millions of pounds a day because they are cut off. Plymouth alone estimates it is losing up to £5m a day.

More innovative engineering came to the rescue. The Dawlish team brought dozens of concrete motorway crash barriers and interlinked them to form two "frames" in the hole. They have so far poured 5,000 tonnes of concrete into the frames to build the sea wall back up to track level.

Patrick Hallgate, NR's route managing director, said he was confident this new structure, which is connected to the bedrock, will not be going anywhere any time soon. "An unfortunate event like the one experienced at Dawlish shows how important the railway is to the region's people and its economy," he says. "I hope our efforts to restore here show how seriously we treat that responsibility."

The planned re-opening on 4 April will not be the end of the story.

Phase two will be to make the line along the Devon coast – six miles of it – more resilient. Possible schemes include reshaping the wall so it repels waves more effectively or building a break out to sea. "Those sort of schemes go well beyond railway engineering," Hallgate says. Closing the line is not an option. NR has a responsibility to maintain a line to south Devon – and the seawall protects 7,500 homes in Dawlish. There would also be an outcry if one of the most attractive stretches of rail in the world (designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1846) was lost.

The third phase will be to identify a backup route. NR has come up with five options, including reopening an inland line, and will report to the government this year.

South Devon is just one spot that Network Rail has to worry about. Almost 300 sections of tracks have been flooded this year and it will cost £170m for the repairs. With extreme weather becoming more common, organisations including the Institution of Mechanical Engineers are calling for a fundamental rethink of how vulnerable infrastructure is protected. But for now at Dawlish it is all about getting the line reopened.

The project is not out of the woods. In the past few days a crack has appeared in the sandstone cliffs above the line at Teignmouth and thousands of tonnes of material may have to be removed in the coming days and weeks. NR is still confident that the work will be completed by 4 April though.

There are 300 workers on site every day – including 100 by night. Work ranges from the technical – such as fixing cables (a link between the stock exchanges in New York and London was one of those cut during the storms) – to the backbreaking. At the moment teams are "packing and jacking" – fixing ballast into the tracks – by hand fork because sections are too fragile to bear the weight of machinery.

Chris Warburton, an agent for construction contractor Amco, said he is loving the job, despite having been separated from his family in Cheshire for long periods over the past month. "It's a privilege to work on a line that was created by one of the greatest engineers of all time. Brunel's work has lasted 150 years. We just hope that ours lasts another 150."

• Weather
• Flooding
• Transport
• Network Rail
• Rail transport
• Engineering
• Construction industry

Steven Morris
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Progress towards providing decent toilets worldwide has been slow, with major health implications. Join us to discuss how to improve sanitation, Thursday 13 March

Roughly one in three of the world's population – approximately 2.6 billion people – remain unable to access proper sanitation facilities. Lack of infrastructure for toilets, waste disposal and clean drinking water, creates a cycle of poor hygiene with serious health implications – 700,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, according to WaterAid.

Despite some movement towards better sanitation and access to water outlined in the millennium development goals, progress in this area has been stubbornly slow, particularly in areas such as southern Africa. Many argue sanitation has fallen victim to a lack of political will to boost public spending on basic services and a failure to take on the "taboo" of toilets. The consequences of this negligence extends past health to impact on gender, education, poverty reduction and dignity.

With World Water Day (22 March) and a high level meeting at the World Bank (11 April) set to draw attention to the issue over the next month, can we hope to see more commitment to providing sustainable sanitation? And once the will is there, what is the most effective and transparent way for donors and governments to allocate their money? Where are the best examples of innovative technology in the provision of toilets and how do we ensure that these solutions reflect the environmental, cultural and infrastructural needs of specific communities?

Join us on Thursday 13 March from 1-3pm GMT to discuss these issues with our expert panel.

The live chat is not video or audio-enabled but will take place in the comments section (below). Get in touch via globaldevpros@theguardian.com or @GdnGlobalDevPro on Twitter to recommend someone for our expert panel. Follow the discussion using the hashtag #globaldevlive.

• Global health innovation
• Live Q&As
• Sanitation
• Health
• Global health
• Development finance
• Policy and advocacy
• Access to water

Holly Young
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The electric car is being reborn as a cost-efficient vehicle perfect for short, one-person trips for delivery and home-care services – and if it takes off, cities will need new policies to deal with it

A new car recently made an inconspicuous debut, not in Detroit but in Jena, Germany. With zero CO2 emissions and low energy consumption, the Colibri will be the greenest car on the market when it goes into commercial production this year, its makers say.

"But we don't market the Colibri as a green vehicle,"adds Thomas delos Santos, CEO of Innovative Mobility Automobile, the company behind the car. "Who wants to buy a vehicle just because it's green? Cost efficiency is what people care about."

At €10,000 (£8,270) plus a monthly battery fee, the Colibri is inexpensive. But perhaps more importantly, its design turns city driving on its head. What started out as "basically a three-wheel bike", as delos Santos describes it, now has a motor and a chassis. But though it seats a tall man and has space for shopping bags in the boot, the Colibri still measures just 2.75 x 1.30 metres. The seat functions much the same way as race-car seat: it raises itself when the driver gets in and out of the car, then lowers itself when she or he starts driving.

"It doesn't fulfil everyone's needs, but it provides safety and comfort," delos Santos explains. "It's perfect for well-defined one-person city trips like delivery services, utility companies, and home-care services." He has a point: many cars clogging city streets belong not to families, who might need the additional space for other trips, but to businesses dispatching one employee plus equipment. Innovative Mobility Automobile is marketing the Colibri – named after the world's smallest bird – to such firms as well as to car-sharing companies.

Early next year, the Colibri will be joined by the Hiriko, another zero-emissions one-seater. And the equally tiny (2.5 x 1.5 metre) car, developed by researchers at the City Science Intiative at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and manufactured by a Basque consortium, has an even more unorthodox feature: it can be folded, buggy-style, when parked. "People in the auto industry say, 'Why would you want to fold a car? It's more expensive,' " reports Dr Ryan Chin, one of the MIT team's leaders. "But it allows you to use less space for parking, and parking plays a huge role in cities today. Cars like the Hiriko can help cities reclaim parking space and use it for things like bikes, parks and sidewalk cafés."

Three folded Hirikos fit into one parking space, but Chin's team isn't stopping at small: it's envisioning a system where the Hirikos are parked at charging stations around the city and available to anyone in much the same way as city-run bike schemes. "The market for shared vehicles is very small right now, less than 1% of the total market, so auto-makers don't see a financial reason to develop shared cars," notes Chin. "But as the world grows denser, we have to have a new model for shared vehicles."

According to Andrew Farah, chief engineer for Chevrolet Volt, GM's popular electric car, the market is seeing the rebirth of the electric car: "We had them in the past, but they died out because gasoline was so cheap. Now they're being brought back, but the question is, how do you gain customer acceptance?" The Volt with its backup petrol option, he says, is a "perfect bridging strategy. We're building a market." GM plans to expand its range of electric vehicles and is working with utility companies to build a recharging system. VW, meanwhile, recently unveiled Nils, a zero-emission one-seater similar to the Hiriko.

The paradox, of course, is that the new, tiny, environmentally virtuous vehicles can easily lead to city streets being even more clogged. Cities will not just need new charging stations but also new policies.

• Technology and innovation
• Sustainability
• Electric, hybrid and low-emission cars
• Carbon emissions
• Travel and transport
• Ethical and green living
• Motoring

Elisabeth Braw
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GWPF has released a biased report on the subject of climate sensitivity, but it acknowledges the dangerous path we're on

The UK anti-climate policy advocacy group Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has published a report written by Nic Lewis and Marcel Crok claiming "the IPCC hid the good news" regarding climate sensitivity (how much the climate will warm in response to the increased greenhouse effect). Lewis is an amateur researcher and retired financier who has published a few papers estimating climate sensitivity, and Crok is a freelance science writer.

The report itself is essentially a commentary and includes no new information. It boils down to Lewis and Crok trying to make the case that climate sensitivity is on the lower end of the IPCC estimated range. The report represents a very selective and biased review of the scientific literature on the subject. Recent papers by Gavin Schmidt and Drew Shindell at NASA, not considered in the GWPF report, entirely contradict its conclusions, for example. As climate scientist Steven Sherwood described it,

"The report is standard cherry-picking. It offers no new evidence not already considered by the IPCC, relying very heavily on a few strands of evidence that seem to point toward lower sensitivity while ignoring all the evidence pointing to higher sensitivity."

However, the good news is that the report is consistent with the 97 percent expert consensus on human-caused global warming. It acknowledges that global warming will continue as long as humans continue increasing the greenhouse effect, and merely suggests that future warming will be toward the lower, slower end of the IPCC estimates. As climate scientist Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading also noted,

"Remarkably for a report published by the GWPF, the authors agree with mainstream climate scientists that significant further warming is expected ... It is great to see the GWPF accepting that business-as-usual means significant further warming is expected. Now we can move the debate to what to do about it."

That being said, the conclusions of the report are poorly justified. There are several approaches used to estimate the sensitivity of the global climate to the increased greenhouse effect. Lewis and Crok make their case for why only the methods that yield lower estimates are valid, but when considering the full body of available evidence, their arguments don't hold water.

Paleoclimate Studies

Paleoclimate studies attempt to estimate climate sensitivity based on the global energy imbalances and associated temperature responses from climate change events in the geologic record. The most robust study of this type was done by the PALEOSENS team, published in Nature in 2012. This study evaluated past climate changes over the previous 65 million years, considering nearly two dozen investigations of many different geological time periods.

The study estimated that during past large climate events, global surface temperatures warmed between 2.2 and 4.8°C in response to an energy imbalance equivalent to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This range is consistent with IPCC estimates (1.5 to 4.5°C), and mostly inconsistent with the lower estimates preferred by GWPF (1.25 to 3°C).

The GWPF report has very little discussion of paleoclimate sensitivity estimates. They just say that these studies don't tightly constrain the possible climate sensitivity range, and past climate states are different than current and future climate states, so "little weight can be put on the palaeoclimate estimates." While there is some truth to these critiques, entirely disregarding the results of these studies is simply not justifiable.

In summary, paleoclimate studies provide one line of evidence that supports an equilibrium climate sensitivity between about 2 and 4.5°C, and the GWPF justification for dismissing these estimates is weak.

General Circulation Models

Climate models (general circulation models or GCMs) provide another method by which to estimate climate sensitivity. The physics of the climate system are input into very detailed climate models, which can then estimate how the global temperature will respond to various influences. The results can give us projections of future global warming under a variety of scenarios, and also give us an estimate of the global climate sensitivity. Most GCM equilibrium climate sensitivities range between 2 and 4.5°C, consistent with paleoclimate estimates.

Lewis and Crok argue that the GCMs used in the 2014 IPCC report don't include the latest estimates of the cooling effects from aerosol pollution, which have been revised downwards, and argue this means the models are overly sensitive. However, according to climate modeler Gavin Schmidt of NASA, this is incorrect.

"Their logic is completely backwards. Climate model sensitivity to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is intrinsic to the model itself and has nothing to do with what aerosol forcings are. In CMIP5 there is no correlation between aerosol forcing and sensitivity across the ensemble, so the implication that aerosol forcing affects the climate sensitivity in such 'forward' calculations is false ... The spread of model climate sensitivities is completely independent of historical simulations."

In fact, Schmidt recently published a study noting that about half of the models used in the latest IPCC report don't include indirect aerosol effects (for example via their influence on cloud formation), and those indirect effects accounted the main change in the IPCC aerosol influence estimates. Schmidt's paper also showed that when accounting for the most recent estimates of solar, aerosol pollution, and El Niño influences on the climate, models actually do a better job estimating temperature changes, contrary to the GWPF report argument.

In summary, GCMs provide another line of evidence that generally supports an equilibrium climate sensitivity between about 2 and 4.5°C, and the GWPF justification for dismissing these estimates is incorrect.

'Instrumental' Estimates

The method preferred by the GWPF report, and that which Lewis has used in his own papers, involves estimating climate sensitivity using a combination of recent instrumental temperature data, less complex climate models, and statistics. A few studies using this approach since about 2012 have begun yielding climate sensitivity estimates toward the lower end of the IPCC range.

The challenge with this 'instrumental' method of estimating equilibrium sensitivity is that it's based on 'transient' measurements of an unbalanced climate. There is currently a global energy imbalance, and reaching a new equilibrium state will take over a century. Therefore, estimating equilibrium climate sensitivity based on measurements of a climate that's out of equilibrium requires making some significant assumptions. However, several recent studies have suggested that these assumptions may not be correct, and that the conclusions of these 'instrumental' studies therefore may not be reliable.

None of these papers or concerns with 'instrumental' climate sensitivity estimation methods are mentioned in the GWPF report. Instead, the report argues that this approach provides the only reliable method for estimating climate sensitivity, and that all other methods that produce higher estimates (e.g. paleoclimate and GCMs) are wrong.

However, an important new paper just published by Drew Shindell at NASA reconciles the difference between the climate sensitivity estimates in these varying approaches, but not in the direction advocated by the GWPF report. Shindell, who along with Nic Lewis was a co-author on one of the 'instrumental' method papers cited heavily in the GWPF report, notes that studies using this approach have assumed that the global mean temperature response to all influences is equal. His study investigates this assumption by comparing GCM temperature responses to greenhouse gases with their responses to aerosols and ozone.

As it turns out, the climate is most sensitive to influences in the northern hemisphere at high latitudes, in large part because these are amplified by changes in Arctic sea ice. The forcing from aerosols and ozone isn't globally uniform, but instead focused more in the northern hemisphere high latitudes. Hence it results in a relatively larger temperature response than an equally strong influence from greenhouse gases, which are well mixed throughout the atmosphere.

When assuming equal sensitivity to all forcings, Shindell estimates a climate sensitivity almost identical to the GWPF estimates. However, when Shindell accounts for the more sensitive temperature response to aerosols and ozone, the new results are consistent with the higher end of the IPCC climate sensitivity range, and inconsistent with the lower GWPF estimates.

Accounting for Cloud and Water Vapor Observations

The GWPF report also notes that changes in cloud cover in a warming world are a key to determining climate sensitivity. On this topic the report merely claims, "Observational evidence for a positive cloud feedback is weak, at best." However, there have been several studies comparing observed changes in cloud cover to cloud simulations in climate models. These have shown that GCMs with lower climate sensitivity tend to inaccurately represent observed cloud changes, which are more accurately captured by higher sensitivity models.

These studies were also omitted from the GWPF report, but they provide yet another line of evidence for high and against low climate sensitivity.

Climate Policies are Insufficient in Any Case

The GWPF report concludes by complaining that by not emphasizing the lower climate sensitivity estimates, the IPCC has "inadequately informed" policymakers about the state of the science. However, from a policy standpoint, we're not doing nearly enough to reduce emissions even in the best case scenario advocated by the GWPF report.

Moreover, as detailed above, the full body of scientific evidence suggests that climate sensitivity is relatively high. Even if you believe the GWPF report is right, there's a good chance it's not. Proper risk management therefore mandates that we must take action to mitigate the threat of dangerous climate change.

In any case, the full body of evidence is firmly against the conclusions of the report. The authors merely dismiss or ignore the research that doesn't support their desired conclusion, and overlook the shortcomings of the research that does.

• Climate change
• Climate change scepticism
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• Pollution
• Climate change

Dana Nuccitelli
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Cosmetics chain is replacing the iridescent mineral with a synthetic alternative

More on this: Mineral make-up boom raises fears over ethical extraction

The high street cosmetics chain Lush has committed to removing all traces of mica from its products over concerns that it is unable to guarantee that the mines which extract the product are free from child labour.

The announcement came after the store chain was contacted by the Guardian, investigating how cosmetics producers are trying to clean up the mica supply chain. Charities and NGOs working in India, where the mineral is mined, argue that mica is extracted by organisations whose certification of ethical practice through an audit process cannot be guaranteed.

Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, said: "Audits take individual samples of working conditions and often miss bigger issues. There's also the problem that evidence of child labour is frequently hidden during these audits, as these processes are open to corruption."

Mark Constantine, a co-founder of Lush, said the chain would usually request spot checks on its suppliers to be assured about local practice, but the area in which mica is mined is too dangerous for visitors to arrive unaccompanied. This means that Lush is unable independently to guarantee that child labour is not used on the sites that supply the mineral to the store.

Constantine said concerns had first been raised some years ago, but Lush had thought assurances by audit would be enough. It has now reconsidered its policy in the light of recent concerns.

"It made us all run around and ask, what are we going to do then? Why are we using it?" he said. Lush has not set a date by which the mineral will be eliminated from all its product lines, but is already using synthetic replacements where possible.

"We have been moving across to synthetic mica on things like the bath bombs. Really, we would like to be able to get a mica that was mined correctly. At some stage, the whole industry should take responsibility for that."

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• Mining
• Mining
• Child labour
• Ethical business
• Corporate social responsibility
• Makeup

Hannah FearnHuw Nesbitt
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The market for mica, a mineral used in beauty products, is growing fast but India's export industry remains unregulated

More on this: Lush to remove mica from all products over child labour fears

After media reports of alleged links between cosmetic makeup and illnesses including cancer, discerning consumers have switched to mineral cosmetics in an attempt to find a more natural beauty alternative. Many of these mineral products contain mica, a glittery substance used in blusher, eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara, lipstick and foundation.

Today the main source of this material is India, which accounts for 60% of global production and possesses an industry that is estimated to have grown by 8.5% during the last two years.

Nonetheless, concerns about the safety of the country's mica supply chains are increasing. According to the Australian newspaper The Age, child labour is endemic in India's mica mining business and 86% of the country's mica exports in 2010-2011 were unregulated.

Presented with this evidence, British cosmetic brand Lush, which uses mica from India in its handmade products, was shocked. "That's appalling," says co-founder Rowena Bird. "I became aware of this issue a few years ago, which is why we require our suppliers to issue a certificate declaring that its mica production is free of forced labour of all kinds. Of course, such declarations are based on trust, but now that this issue has been raised again, we will discontinue the use of mica in our products."

The obstacles Lush encountered in establishing an ethical source of mica are affecting the entire cosmetics industry. Many companies rely on assurances from their distributors to ensure their mica supply chains are free from child labour. However these guarantees are difficult to assess, since they are often not subject to external evaluation.

One solution is social auditing. Through consistent checks undertaken by external parties, suppliers of mica can provide evidence to prove they do not use forced labour. Recently, L'Oreal's mica supplier in India, Merck, has undertaken such steps. Since 2007 it has employed human resource consultants Environmental Resource Management to carry out monthly assessments of its mines.

Aidan McQuade director of Anti-Slavery International, is not convinced by this method. "Audits take individual samples of working conditions and often miss bigger issues," he says. "There's also the problem that evidence of child labour is frequently hidden during these audits, as these processes are open to corruption. And, since audits are not designed to look for specific problems – as an investigation would – they are arguably engineered to ignore them."

Merck is also working in partnership with NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Campaign) to create 'child-friendly villages' in mica-sourcing Indian communities, helping to reduce the level of child labour in these areas. Fellow cosmetics giant Esteé-Lauder has also been involved with BBA, and claims that its affiliation with the National Resources Stewardship Circle – a commercial council promoting responsible sourcing for the beauty industry – is prompting a collaborative resolution to problems in the supply chain.

"By introducing the NRSC to our work with BBA we've been able to involve several cosmetics companies to the project too," says Esteé Lauder spokesperson Anna Klein. When asked the exact amount of financial investment they had made, Klein says: "For us, it's not about the financial investment we've made but about the human investment."

Anti-Slavery International believes such partnerships are beneficial but can be self-serving. "Unless Esteé Lauder is investing at least 1% of their pre-tax profits into this scheme, it's a token gesture," says Aidan McQuade. "However, the way we could start fixing this problem is if the UK government included compulsory reporting of forced labour as part of its anti-slavery legislation. That way, it could also make companies responsible for labour abuses in their supply chains in the same way they have through similar reforms to corporate bribery."

McQuade may be right. The issue of child labour is so endemic that reforms to one sector alone cannot overturn the practice. In 2010, the International Labour Organisation estimated that 215 million children around the world are forced to work. The organisation has spearheaded efforts to eradicate child labour by encouraging its members to adopt a minimum working age. Despite this, companies still have no legal obligation to conform to its suggestions.

Bird agrees that there is a culture of wilful ignorance in the supply chains of many western industries. "The beauty industry turns a blind eye to lots of things, but it's not the only one using mica," she says. "It's also used in paint, mobile phones and has many industrial uses. It's also sourced in other places with similar supply chain issues such as China and Africa. The point is, however, that once you're aware of these things, it's up to you to do something about it."

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• Supply Chain
• Child labour
• Ethical business
• Mining
• India
• Corporate social responsibility
• Slavery

Huw Nesbitt
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11 March marks the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The nearby city of Koriyama recommended, shortly after the disaster, that children up to the age of two should not spend more than 15 minutes outside each day

UN special rapporteur on the right to food champions agroecology as sustainable alternative to existing framework

The existing food system has failed and needs urgent reform, according to a UN expert who argues there should be a greater emphasis on local food production and an overhaul of trade policies that have led to overproduction in rich countries while obliging poor countries – which are often dependent on agriculture – to import food.

In his final report (pdf), Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, offers a detailed critique of an industrial system of agriculture that has boosted food production over the past 50 years, yet still leaves 842 million – 12% of the world's population – hungry.

"Measured against the requirement that they should contribute to the realisation of the right to food, the food systems we have inherited from the 20th century have failed," he told the UN human rights council. "Of course, significant progress has been achieved in boosting agricultural production. But this has hardly reduced the number of hungry people."

The right to food is defined as the right of every individual to have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food that is produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for future generations.

De Schutter, professor of law at the University of Louvain, Belgium, was appointed rapporteur in 2008, during a sharp rise in global food prices, and has had plenty of time to diagnose what ails food systems. A major culprit, he says, is the "green revolution", which boosted agricultural production through the use of high-yielding plant varieties, irrigation, mechanisation and subsidised fertilisers and pesticides. The flipside, however, was an extension of monocultures (wheat, maize, soybean), a loss of agrobiodiversity, accelerated soil erosion and pollution of fresh water from the overuse of chemical fertilisers.

A potentially devastating effect of industrial-scale agriculture has been the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, which represent 15% of total manmade emissions. Climate change will affect future agricultural productivity, he warns.

"Under a business as usual scenario, we can anticipate an average of 2% productivity decline over each of the coming decades, with yield changes in developing countries ranging from -27% to +9% for the key staple crops," says the report.

The increasing demand for meat is another area of concern. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that annual meat production would have to reach 470m tons to meet projected demand in 2050, an increase of about 200m tons from 2005-07.

"This is entirely unsustainable … Demand for meat diverts food away from poor people who are unable to afford anything but cereals … Continuing to feed cereals to growing numbers of livestock will aggravate poverty and environmental degradation," says De Schutter, who urges governments to discourage meat consumption where it has already reached levels that are more than enough to satisfy dietary needs. He is optimistic that public attitudes towards meat will change in rich countries, but less so about attitudes in emerging economies such as China, where eating meat is akin to a status symbol.

As an alternative to existing systems, De Schutter champions agroecology, a range of techniques including intercropping, the use of manure and food scraps as fertiliser and agroforestry (planting trees). This approach would not only be more environmentally friendly, but would contribute to more diverse diets and improve nutrition. Although easier to implement on smaller-sized farms, agroecology is also applicable to large farms.

Other measures to improve the system would be to abandon mandates for biofuels and cut down food waste in rich countries and post-harvest losses in poor countries.

Changes to support small-scale farmers in poor countries – access to land, support for local seed banks, storage connection to makers – must be accompanied by reform in rich countries, where the farming sector has become highly dependent on subsidies – $259bn in 2012. This has encouraged the expansion of the food processing industry thanks to cheap inputs and facilities such as silos and processing plants.

"Large agribusiness corporations have come to dominate increasingly globalised markets thanks to their ability to achieve economies of scale and because of various network effects … the dominant position of larger agribusiness corporations is such that these actors have acquired, in effect, a veto power in the political system."

De Schutter says he is not completely opposed to agribusiness as it is incredibly efficient in connecting consumers and producers far away from each other.

"It is not desirable to get rid of agribusiness," he says. "It is incredibly efficient, connecting far away consumers and producers, and many needs can only be satisfied by agribusiness. But we need alternative systems to serve different needs. There is an imbalance, as there has been a priority on large-scale farming and underinvestment in local food markets. It is more realistic to have different systems co-exist. Brazil shows you can have huge, efficient farms along exemplary family farms, but you do need high-level political commitment to small farms and a participatory tradition."

De Schutter sees possibilities for change. Rebuilding local food systems, for instance, would decentralise food systems, making them more flexible and creating links between cities and rural hinterlands. He cites urban agricultural initiatives in Montreal and Toronto, Canada, Durban, South Africa and Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where "family farmers" are encouraged to feed urban populations.

At the national level, governments should encourage investment in local food packaging and processing industries. Social protection schemes should be established, says De Schutter, offering a social safety net to protect vulnerable families from falling into poverty. Globally, meanwhile, states should limit excessive reliance on international trade and build capacity to produce the food needed to meet consumption needs, with an emphasis on small-scale farmers.

"The expansion of trade has resulted in the luxury tastes of the richest parts of the world being allowed to compete against the satisfaction of the basic needs of the poor," says De Schutter.

As for the power of agribusiness corporations, states should use competition law to check the abuse of power. "This requires having in place competition regimes sensitive to excessive buying power in the agrifood sector, and devising competition authorities with mechanisms that allow for affected suppliers to bring complaints without fear or reprisal by dominant buyers."

• Food security
• Hunger
• Environmental sustainability
• Sustainable development
• Farming
• United Nations

Mark Tran
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