The Guardian
As Nobel prize winners, we demand Justin Trudeau stop the Teck Frontier mine | Nobel prize winners
All new projects that enable fossil fuel growth are an affront to our state of climate emergency. It is a disgrace Canada is considering them
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland,
The year 2020 has already become one defined by devastating impacts of climate change. While we celebrated the ambition of countries – including Canada – that demanded the enshrinement of 1.5C in the Paris climate agreement, it is increasingly clear that even this is a compromise with deeply tragic implications for the world’s climate-vulnerable regions.
Continue reading...Himalayan wolf lopes towards recognition as distinct species
Animal’s unique adaptation to low-oxygen life can be basis for protection, say researchers
Wolves living in the Himalayas are to be recognised as a subspecies of the grey wolf, with researchers predicting that the animals will soon be declared a unique species.
The wolves surviving at high altitudes in Nepal and on the Tibetan plateau possess a genetic adaptation to cope with the lack of oxygen which is not found in any other wolf, a study reports.
Continue reading...When the storms hit, will Johnson and co help you? It’s the new postcode lottery | Jonathan Watts
This government’s response to the climate crisis appears to be: some of you will have to fend for yourselves
As British high streets and farm fields lie under water this week, Boris Johnson has repeatedly been urged to put on his wellies, go out and listen to flood victims.
So far though, his response has been more about tin ears than rubber boots: during Storm Dennis the prime minister was reportedly holed up in a 17th-century mansion in the Kent countryside.
Continue reading...House coal and wet wood to be phased out by 2023 to cut pollution
Wood burning stoves and coal fires are the single largest sources of PM2.5
The sale of the most polluting fuels burned in household stoves and open fires will be phased out from next year to clean up the air, the government has said.
Plans to phase out the sale of house coal and wet wood have been confirmed as part of efforts to tackle tiny particle pollutants known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into lungs and the blood and cause serious health problems.
Continue reading...The government's sudden passion for climate technology is newfound and insincere | Simon Holmes a Court
The call for technology before action is a specious distraction designed to paper over the plan to take no action
If you’re committed to the Paris agreement – to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees – then at a minimum, logically, scientifically, you’re committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
So far, at least 77 countries have committed to the target, as has every state and territory in Australia. The fact that prime minister Scott Morrison is pushing back hard against the calls for such a target sends yet another strong signal that his government still denies the need to tackle climate change.
Continue reading...Flood insurance cover does not protect thousands of new homes
Thinktank says 70,000 new builds in high risk areas are not covered by government-backed scheme
Tens of thousands of families who bought new homes in flood-risk areas are facing “crippling” financial costs, as they are ineligible for cover under a government-backed insurance scheme, a study has found.
Research by the liberal conservative thinktank Bright Blue found that 70,000 homes had been built on land at the highest risk of flooding in England since 2009, including 20,000 that were not protected by flood defences.
Continue reading...Colorado River flow shrinks from climate crisis, risking ‘severe water shortages’
Millions of people rely on the 1,450-mile waterway as increasing periods of drought and rising temperatures reduce flow of river
The flow of the Colorado River is dwindling due to the impacts of global heating, risking “severe water shortages” for the millions of people who rely upon one of America’s most storied waterways, researchers have found.
Increasing periods of drought and rising temperatures have been shrinking the flow of the Colorado in recent years and scientists have now developed a model to better understand how the climate crisis is fundamentally changing the 1,450-mile waterway.
Continue reading...Rajendra Pachauri obituary
To stave off the worst impacts of the climate crisis – already being felt in the form of extreme weather, fires and floods – we have only about a decade to cause greenhouse gas emissions to peak and then fall rapidly. That we know this is largely thanks to one global organisation, a loose collection of hundreds of academics around the world that has amassed our knowledge of the climate for more than 30 years.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, convened in 1988 by the UN and the World Meteorological Organization, is made up of the world’s leading experts on climate science, who draw on thousands of academic papers to prepare comprehensive assessment reports about every five to seven years. Those reports are the gold standard, representing the summation of our knowledge of how the climate system works, and how we are affecting it.
Continue reading...Meat company faces heat over ‘cattle laundering’ in Amazon supply chain
Brazil’s JBS says it can’t trace the origins of all stock, as concern grows over deforestation linked to beef industry
The world’s biggest meat company has frequently been accused of links to deforestation. Now JBS is facing growing pressure from Brazilian politicians and environmentalists to address the information gaps and transparency failings in its supply chain.
Critics say these deficiencies mean JBS is unable to ensure it does not buy cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation over a decade after promising to do so.
Continue reading...Grouse moors owners threaten government with legal action
Ministers were planning to ban environmentally harmful practice of burning old heather
Owners of large grouse moors threatened to take legal action against government ministers who had started developing plans to ban repeated heather burning, Whitehall documents have disclosed.
The landowners issued the threat after ministers started working on producing a law to ban them from carrying out the environmentally damaging practice on their moorland estates. The old heather is burned to expose new shoots – a source of food for grouse, whose numbers are boosted. The estates then charge people who want to shoot grouse.
Continue reading...Fates of humans and insects intertwined, warn scientists
Experts call for solutions to be enforced immediately to halt global population collapses
The “fates of humans and insects are intertwined”, scientists have said, with the huge declines reported in some places only the “tip of the iceberg”.
The warning has been issued by 25 experts from around the world, who acknowledge that little is known about most of the estimated 5.5 million insect species. However, enough was understood to warrant immediate action, they said, because waiting for better data would risk irreversible damage.
Continue reading...Great Barrier Reef on brink of third major coral bleaching in five years, scientists warn
If ocean temperatures don’t drop in the next two weeks, heat stress could tip reef over into another widespread event
The Great Barrier Reef could be heading for a third major coral bleaching outbreak in the space of five years if high ocean temperatures in the region do not drop in the next two weeks, scientists and conservationists have warned.
Heat stress is already building across the world’s biggest reef system, with reports of patchy bleaching already occurring. But a major widespread event is not currently taking place.
Continue reading...'They define the continent': nearly 150 eucalypt species recommended for threatened list
Scientists’ call follows national assessment that finds gum trees in Western Australia wheat belt suffering worst rate of decline
An iconic Western Australian eucalypt, known for the size of flowers, is among almost 150 eucalpyt species scientists have recommended be listed as threatened under national environment laws.
The eucalyptus macrocarpa, commonly known as mottlecah, has the largest flowers of all eucalypt species. The bright red flowers can measure up to 10cm in diameter.
Continue reading...Climate crisis to AI: why firms and governments must change mindset | Mohamed El-Erian
As climate, privacy, globalisation and demographic developments accelerate, adjustments are needed
Firms and governments must increasingly internalise the possibility – indeed, I would argue, the overwhelming probability – of an acceleration of four secular developments that influence what business and political leaders do and how they do it. Decision-makers should think of these trends as waves, which, especially if they occur simultaneously, could feel like a tsunami for those who fail to adapt their thinking and practices in a timely manner.
The first and most important trend is climate change, which has evolved from a relatively distant concern, on which there is ample time to take remedial action, to an imminent and increasingly urgent threat.
Continue reading...Ghost glaciers: the transcendent Anthropocene – in pictures
Peter Funch’s latest photo-book, The Imperfect Atlas, explores human impact on the environment by using a technique invented at the height of the industrial revolution – RGB tri-colour separations
Firms making billions from ‘highly hazardous’ pesticides, analysis finds
Use of harmful chemicals is higher in poorer nations, according to data analysed by Unearthed
The world’s biggest pesticide companies make billions of dollars a year from chemicals found by independent authorities to pose high hazards to human health or the environment, according to an analysis by campaigners.
The research also found a higher proportion of these highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) in the companies’ sales in poorer nations than in rich ones. In India, 59% of sales were of HHPs in contrast to just 11% in the UK, according to the analysis.
Continue reading...Australian CEOs must rupture the political stagnation to lead the charge on climate action | Sam Mostyn
Zali Steggall’s bill is pragmatic and responsible and a goal we can all work towards to reduce our carbon emissions
The unprecedented, devastating bushfires that engulfed Australia – from even before our summer began – have forever disrupted our usually laconic and relaxed memories of Christmas and New Year.
Those memories are instead marked by anguish, anxiety, grief and consternation about our future.
Continue reading...Thousands of feral horses to be removed from Kosciuszko national park after bushfires
NSW government says relocation the priority but will not rule out some brumbies may be killed during largest removal of horses in park’s history
About 4,000 feral horses will be removed from Kosciuszko national park in New South Wales as part of an emergency response to protect the alpine ecosystem after large areas were devastated by bushfires.
The move would be the largest removal of horses in the park’s history, said the NSW environment minister, Matt Kean.
Continue reading...NSW government drops forestry privatisation plan after bushfires devastate plantation
Deputy premier John Barilaro says the government’s priority is ‘getting new trees in the ground and strengthening the industry’
The New South Wales government won’t proceed with privatising Forestry Corporation’s softwood plantation business after an unprecedented bushfire season.
The government decided to forgo a long-term lease of the business after a five-month investigation which took into account recent damage to the state’s forestry assets.
Continue reading...The toxic air we breathe: the health crisis from Australia's bushfires
For months, Australians breathed air pollution caused by bushfire smoke that was up to 26 times above levels considered hazardous to human health. The long-term impact could be devastating
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