The Guardian
Greta Thunberg in Bristol: schools shut as students join climate strike
Teenage activist tells huge crowd: ‘We will not be silenced because we are the change’
Tens of thousands of people, many of them children skipping school, braved heavy rain to join a climate strike headed by Greta Thunberg in Bristol city centre.
The vast crowd fell silent as the 17-year-old activist told them governments were acting like children and so it fell to young people to be “the adults in the room”.
Continue reading...'We will not be silenced': Greta Thunberg joins young climate activists in Bristol – video
Greta Thunberg made an example of Bristol climate activists for delaying plans for a new airport when she spoke at a rally for youth climate strikers before joining their march.
The Swedish environmentalist addressed the crowd of about 25,000 people in the city. Schools closed, lecture theatres emptied and offices shut as people gathered to hear her speak
- Watch Greta Thunberg's climate speech in Bristol – as it happened
- Greta Thunberg in Bristol: schools shut as students join climate strike
Watch Greta Thunberg's climate speech in Bristol - live
Climate activist to address crowd of 25,000 people before taking part in a march through the city
Greta Thunberg is due to address at youth climate strike in Bristol, where schools closed, lecture theatres emptied and offices shut as people gathered to hear her speak.
A crowd of 25,000 people was expected to bring traffic to a standstill in the city. Thunberg is to address the masses before taking part in a march through the city.
Continue reading...Campaigners celebrate Heathrow ruling as 'beginning of the end'
Activists hope appeal court’s decision will mean death of third runway expansion plan
In the bar of the Five Bells pub, campaigners against a third runway at Heathrow were celebrating.
The 400-year-old establishment in Harmondsworth has been at the centre of the fight against the airport’s expansion for nearly 20 years. Under the plans, half of the ancient village would be destroyed, including a number of listed buildings and a small housing estate. The rest would be at the perimeter fence of the new runway, and would be, residents say, uninhabitable due to the thunderous noise and pollution.
Continue reading...Is there anything more Un-American than New York’s plastic bag ban? | Emma Brockes
For the last six months, notices have gone up at the checkouts of most supermarkets in New York warning customers of a forthcoming change. You can’t live in this city without ignoring things. At any given point, avoiding the roaches, the smells and the creeping sense that in 50 years we will be underwater takes up fully 10% of one’s energy. At the top of that list has been the energetic avoidance of actually reading the sign at the checkout informing us that on 1 March plastic bags will be banned – not just subject to surcharge, but outlawed – across the entire state of New York. If the city is unprepared for coronavirus, it is safe to say this is nothing next to the scenes that will greet us on Sunday morning, when people with a weekly shop in their trolleys arrive at the checkout.
It is quite thrilling, not least because banning things runs so contrary to the American idea. More than 23bn plastic bags are used in New York each year, and the planet is dying, but even so, the Bag Waste Reduction Law is so muscular, so big government, that no one can quite believe it is happening. There are a few workarounds. You will still be able to buy paper bags, for 5c each, but stores aren’t required to provide them. And some supermarkets are offering reusable plastic bags. (To qualify as “reusable”, a bag has to be able to carry 22lbs over a distance of 175 feet, which it is pleasing to imagine the bag police trying to test and enforce).
Continue reading...Coke and Pepsi sued for creating a plastic pollution ‘nuisance’
California environmental group says much of the tons of plastic in the oceans can be traced back to the 10 companies they are suing
Coke, Pepsi, Nestle and other large companies are being sued by a California environmental group for creating a plastic pollution “nuisance” and misleading consumers about the recyclability of plastic.
The suit, filed in San Mateo county superior court on Wednesday, argues that companies that sell plastic bottles and bags that end up polluting the ocean should be held accountable for damaging the environment.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on a defeat for Heathrow’s third runway: a welcome precedent | Editorial
A court ruling that airport expansion plans are illegal could be the shock that the system needs
It’s not often that climate activists get to punch the air. News about the environment is alarming far more frequently than it is cheering. So campaigners were understandably jubilant on Thursday when the court of appeal issued its surprise ruling that the government’s plans to build a third runway at Heathrow are illegal.
Not only does the ruling make it increasingly unlikely that the controversial project, approved by the House of Commons in June 2018, will go ahead (Heathrow has said it will appeal, while the government has said it will not). The judges set an extraordinary precedent. This is because they made their ruling on grounds that the policy of expanding the airport is incompatible with commitments made by the government in the Paris climate agreement. While the law says that national policy must take account of the UK’s climate commitments, the 2018 airport statement didn’t.
Continue reading...World may miss carbon targets unless big firms improve – Mark Carney
Bank of England governor warns City about need for businesses to fully disclose climate impact
Businesses must improve how they disclose their impact on the environment or risk failing to meet climate targets, the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, warned the City on Thursday.
Without disclosure rules that allow investors to compare how businesses are meeting the climate challenge, the world risks missing targets to be carbon neutral by 2050, Carney said.
Continue reading...Government won't appeal against third Heathrow runway verdict, says transport secretary – video
The court of appeal has ruled that plans for a third Heathrow runway are illegal on environmental grounds. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the government would not appeal the ruling, as 'our manifesto makes clear any Heathrow expansion will be industry-led'. He said while the government supported airport expansion, it was also committed to net zero emissions by 2050
- Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change
- Heathrow third runway judgment 'bitterly disappointing'
Great Barrier Reef: coral bleaching to worsen unless weather conditions change
Cyclone is temporarily cooling distressed corals but experts say parts of reef that previously escaped bleaching are at risk
The Great Barrier Reef is still at risk of a widespread outbreak of coral bleaching despite a cyclone to the far west helping to temporarily cool stressed corals, according to US and Australian science agencies.
Clearer skies, weak tides and above-average ocean temperatures are combining to create stressful conditions for corals along much of the world’s largest reef system.
Continue reading...The death of Heathrow’s third runway sends a clear message ahead of Cop26 | Leo Murray
The landmark high court judgment will resound around the world and show Britain can lead in tackling the climate crisis
By some strange quirk of fate, it is exactly 12 years to the day since I, alongside fellow climate activists, climbed on to the roof of the House of Commons to protest against plans for a third runway at Heathrow. Today’s high court judgment is a vindication of everything climate activists have been saying for more than a decade: Britain cannot honour its national commitment to tackle climate change at the same time as building a new runway at one of the busiest airports in the world.
To be precise, the court did not quite say this. It ruled that ministers’ failure to take the UK’s climate change commitments into account rendered the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) – which effectively gave the green light to a third runway – unlawful. In order to be lawful, the ANPS would have to be rewritten to include a credible plan for squaring expansion with our commitment under the Paris Agreement to seek to limit global temperature rise to no more than 1.5C. The court was careful to clarify that it has no opinion on whether or not this is possible.
Continue reading...Shenzhen could be first city in China to ban eating of dogs and cats
Officials says move reflects bond between pets and people – ‘the consensus of all human civilisation’ – rather than coronavirus fears
Shenzhen is set to become the first city in mainland China to ban the eating of dogs and cats, if a draft regulation released by the municipal government in a wider push to restrict the consumption of wild animals is approved.
On Monday, China’s National People’s Congress issued an order to ban all consumption of wild animal meat and further restrict the wildlife trade nationwide. The measures are expected to be enshrined in the country’s wildlife protection law later this year.
Continue reading...'I’m constantly putting on a brave face': farmers speak out on mental health
Isolation and bad weather are compounding the strain from what National Farmers’ Union calls the “anti-meat agenda”
When 20-year-old shepherd Ffion Hooson opened up on social media about her recent mental health struggles, she was overwhelmed by the response.
Her father had suffered a stroke, leaving her to run their farm in Denbighshire, North Wales, alone. The responsibility and bad weather had crushed her to breaking point, she said.
Continue reading...Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change
Appeal court says decision to give go-ahead not consistent with Paris agreement
Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s climate change commitments.
The ruling is a major blow to the project at a time when public concern about the climate emergency is rising fast and the government has set a target in law of net zero emissions by 2050. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, could use the ruling to abandon the project, or the government could draw up a new policy document to approve the runway.
Continue reading...A third runway for Heathrow is no way to ‘level up’ Britain | Justine Greening
It’s more than just a local issue. Expansion will stunt growth in the regions, and fly in the face of Boris Johnson’s pledge
On Thursday the high court will rule on a case brought by campaigners against the decision made by Theresa May’s government to allow Heathrow to proceed with its third runway expansion. The decision to expand the airport was both environmentally and economically ill-judged. Obviously, Heathrow Airport Ltd, the company involved, wants the go ahead for its growth strategy – it’s not up to a private company to balance the wider impact of that on the UK economy and people. It’s the government’s job to do that and it has got that balance badly wrong. The Heathrow third runway proposal significantly undermines Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” strategy and it should be stopped.
Of course, it’s a big issue in London – it’s hugely polluting to local communities, causing air pollution in areas that already breach legal limits, extra noise affecting millions of people when they step out of their homes and the obvious public safety risk from extra flights over the most densely populated part of the entire country. Even the Victorians would never have built a national hub airport in such an ill-suited location, surrounded by homes and roads making expansion complex, risky and expensive.
Continue reading...Huge crowds expected for Greta Thunberg visit to Bristol
Police warn of major disruption as activist joins climate strike in city
A huge security operation is being put in place in Bristol for a visit by Greta Thunberg that is expected to attract a crowd of around 25,000, most of them children and young people.
Police and Bristol council officials said there would be significant disruption for the youth climate strike on Friday and warned that they could not be responsible for the care of unsupervised children.
Continue reading...Underwater photographer of the year 2020 winners – in pictures
All the winning images, all the backstories and all the judges’ comments can be found in the The Underwater Photographer of the Year Yearbook
Continue reading...Fine litter louts £500 to protect wildlife, says thinktank
Report also calls for ban on black plastic and an end to bottom trawling at sea
Litter louts should be fined a minimum of £500 as part of measures to protect wildlife, according to a thinktank.
Bright Blue recommends 50 new policies in its report, including banning black plastic and non-flushable wipes, ending UK taxpayer subsidies for wood burning in power stations and outlawing the destructive practice of bottom trawling at sea.
Continue reading...Scathing report into NSW coal seam gas could create new hurdles for Santos Narrabri project
Failure to fully implement 14 of 16 recommendations to regulate CSG extraction could lead to more support for moratorium across NSW
Santos’s coal seam gas project near Narrabri could face further obstacles after a parliamentary inquiry delivered a scathing assessment of the state government’s progress in implementing recommendations to regulate coal seam gas extraction.
A New South Wales legislative council inquiry found that 14 of 16 recommendations from the 2014 report by the chief scientist have not been implemented in full. Half were found to have not been implemented at all.
Continue reading...Killer heat: how a warming land is changing Australia forever
Australia is heating faster than the global average, and extreme heat days are on the rise. Doctors say there’s clear evidence that it’s killing people prematurely
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