Environment
Trump Administration Auctions Arctic National Wildlife Refuge To Oil Drillers
After a three-year push, the Trump administration has opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leases. It's a scramble to lock in drilling before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Insect populations suffering death by 1,000 cuts, say scientists
‘Frightening’ global decline is ‘tearing apart tapestry of life’, with climate crisis a critical concern
Insect populations are suffering “death by a thousand cuts”, with many falling at “frightening” rates that are “tearing apart the tapestry of life”, according to scientists behind a new volume of studies.
The insects face multiple, overlapping threats including the destruction of wild habitats for farming, urbanisation, pesticides and light pollution. Population collapses have been recorded in places where human activities dominate, such as in Germany, but there is little data from outside Europe and North America and in particular from wild, tropical regions where most insects live.
Continue reading...Chinese nuclear firm told it must resolve Bradwell safety issues
Disposal of radioactive waste is one of six issues to be addressed before plant in Essex can go ahead
The Environment Agency has told the Chinese nuclear developer behind plans to build a new reactor in Essex that it must resolve at least six safety issues before it can move forward.
The issues identified by the environment watchdog in its early assessments of the plans for the site at Bradwell-on-Sea include concerns over how China General Nuclear Group (CGN) will dispose of radioactive waste.
Continue reading...Case of manatee with 'Trump' etched into back under investigation
- Mutilated aquatic mammal spotted at spring in Florida
- US Fish and Wildlife Service appeals for public’s help
Federal wildlife officials in Florida are reportedly seeking information on the perpetrators of an attack on a manatee, which apparently had the word “Trump” scraped into its back.
Related: Florida manatee deaths up 20% as Covid-19 threatens recovery
Continue reading...More than 50 countries commit to protection of 30% of Earth's land and oceans
Coalition says promise is key to preventing mass extinctions and ensuring clean air and water
A coalition of more than 50 countries has committed to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife.
The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, which includes the UK and countries from six continents, made the pledge to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans before the One Planet summit in Paris on Monday, hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Continue reading...Harmful effects of wood burners need further study | Letter
In response to articles on the risk of air pollution from wood-burning stoves, Simon Tate tested his own, but was surprised at the results
As an owner of a wood burner, your articles (Wood burners triple harmful indoor air pollution, study finds, 18 December; Avoid using wood burning stoves if possible, warn health experts, 1 January) caused great concern. We live in a rural area and would struggle without our stove. But according to a Sheffield University study, we are endangering our health by flooding our lounge with levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that may far exceed the World Health Organization’s safe limit of 25 micrograms per cubic metre. I purchased a £200 air quality monitor, convinced that it would confirm that there was a problem with PM2.5 levels. I was therefore astonished to discover that our wood burner had no effect on PM2.5 levels, even when the door was opened for refuelling. For reference, I lit a match and the PM2.5 level shot up to 165 micrograms per cubic metre.
We only burn wood and kindling that contain less than 20% moisture. We operate the stove at optimum temperature by using a stovepipe thermometer and spent as much on the flue as the stove. More in-depth research is needed before conclusions can be drawn about whether all wood burners cause indoor air pollution.
Simon Tate
Leyburn, North Yorkshire
Macron tells Idris Elba he will invite young Africans to summit, not leaders
French president vows to overhaul France-Africa event to help mobilise Africa’s young people
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to invite young Africans rather than their political leaders to a key France-Africa summit in a video call with the actor Idris Elba.
The Élysée Palace said Elba, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ international fund for agricultural development, had asked to speak to the French leader. The Guardian was the only newspaper invited to attend the discussion at the Élysée, which marked the start of the One Planet biodiversity summit in Paris.
Continue reading...The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret – podcast
The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale. By Oliver Balch.
Continue reading...Prince Charles urges businesses to sign Terra Carta pledge to put planet first
Magna Carta-style project aims to ‘bring prosperity into harmony with nature’
Prince Charles is urging businesses to invest in the health of the planet and people at the launch of a sustainable finance charter backed by several international institutions.
Evoking the history of Magna Carta, the Prince of Wales is launching the Terra Carta – the Earth charter – that will ask signatories to agree to almost 100 actions to become more sustainable by 2030.
Continue reading...Trump Regulator's Rule Would Force Banks To Lend To Gun-Makers And Oil Drillers
The Trump administration is trying to force banks to make loans to gun-makers and to finance payday lenders. Critics call the move bizarre. It's opposed by watchdog groups and banks.
(Image credit: Elaine Thompson/AP)
Green economy plans fuel new metals and energy 'supercycle'
Chinese growth and plans for post-Covid recovery powering commodities boom, say analysts
The global economy could be on the brink of a new commodity “supercycle” as governments prepare to use a green industrial revolution to kickstart growth following the coronavirus pandemic.
The price of commodities, such as energy and metals, have reached record highs in recent weeks despite the ongoing spread of Covid-19 and are expected to climb further as countries embark on plans for a green economic recovery.
Continue reading...Shareholders push HSBC to cut exposure to fossil fuels
Europe’s second-largest financier of fossil fuels faces a vote to ramp up its climate commitments
HSBC could be forced to slash its exposure to fossil fuels – starting with coal – from next year, after an influential group of investors filed a shareholder vote urging the bank to ramp up its climate commitments.
Fifteen pension and investment funds are pushing HSBC to reduce the loans and underwriting services offered to clients which rely heavily on fossil fuels within a timeline consistent with Paris climate goals.
Continue reading...Wild deer set to wreak havoc in UK woodlands as venison demand plunges
Unmanaged animals from Britain’s largest herds for 1,000 years are no longer needed with restaurants in lockdown
Unmanaged wild deer herds could soon pose a threat to woodlands and important wildlife habitats in Britain because the commercial market for venison has collapsed during the pandemic.
Many in the game industry as well as conservationists fear too few deer are being culled to keep the estimated two-million-strong wild herd, the largest for 1,000 years, at a sustainable size.
Continue reading...‘There’s a red flag here’: how an ethanol plant is dangerously polluting a US village
Situation in Mead, Nebraska, where AltEn has been processing seed coated with fungicides and insecticides, is a warning sign, experts say
For the residents of Mead, Nebraska, the first sign of something amiss was the stench, the smell of something rotting. People reported eye and throat irritation and nosebleeds. Then colonies of bees started dying, birds and butterflies appeared disoriented and pet dogs grew ill, staggering about with dilated pupils.
There is no mystery as to the cause of the concerns in Mead, a farming community so small that its 500 residents refer to it as a village and not a town.
Continue reading...Government breaks promise to maintain ban on bee-harming pesticide
Farmers ‘relieved’ as chemical sanctioned for emergency use, despite EU-wide ban backed by UK
A pesticide believed to kill bees has been authorised for use in England despite an EU-wide ban two years ago and an explicit government pledge to keep the restrictions.
Following lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and British Sugar, a product containing the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam was sanctioned for emergency use on sugar beet seeds this year because of the threat posed by a virus.
Continue reading...Capitol attackers have long threatened violence in rural American west
Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers have threatened federal employees and institutions that steward public lands
When the full story of the 6 January storming of the US Capitol building is told, historians will have to make sense of what might seem an odd footnote. The two most prominent rightwing militia groups that participated in the mob onslaught on Congress – the Three Percenters, based in Idaho, and the Oath Keepers, based in Nevada – cut their teeth in obscure corners of the American west, where for close to a decade they have threatened violence against federal employees and institutions that steward the nation’s public lands.
Related: 'It was just a free-for-all': my day photographing the Capitol attack
Continue reading...Norway's electric car drive belies national reliance on fossil fuels
Two-thirds of sales at end of 2020 were battery electric vehicles despite dependence on oil and gas drilling
Norway became the first country to sell more electric cars than petrol, hybrid and diesel engines put together last year, new data shows, with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounting for two-thirds of sales in the final months of 2020.
Norway has one of the world’s most ambitious green targets, planning to phase out sales of all new fossil-fuel vehicles by 2025, five years earlier than the UK.
Continue reading...Bill Gates joins Blackstone in bid to buy British private jet firm
Gates’ Cascade Investment fund teams up with US private equity firm on offer for Signature Aviation
Bill Gates has joined a £3bn bidding war to buy the world’s largest private jet operator just as he prepares to publish his new book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
Cascade Investment, the fund that manages much of Gates’s $134bn personal fortune, announced on Friday it had teamed up with US private equity firm Blackstone in a bid for British private jet operator Signature Aviation.
Continue reading...Remembering Nature Writer Barry Lopez
Lopez, who died Dec. 25, won the 1986 National Book Award for Arctic Dreams, an account of his travels in the far north over a period of four years. Originally broadcast in 1989 and 2013.
22 disasters, 262 dead, $95bn in damages: US saw record year for climate-driven catastrophes
Report shows US was battered by punishing extreme weather on both the east and west coasts in 2020
The US was battered by a record number of weather and climate-driven disasters in 2020 as extensive wildfires scorched the west, hurricanes in quick succession pummeled the east and extreme heat swept across the heart of the country, a new federal government report has shown.
A total of 22 major disasters, defined as each causing at least $1bn in damage, swept the US last year, six more than the previous record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
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