The Guardian
The five: things you need to know about locusts
The insects have been swarming across East Africa in numbers not seen for decades – and the phenomenon may be more common in the future
Last week, the UN issued a warning about the numbers of desert locusts currently swarming through much of East Africa; they have now reached Uganda and Tanzania. The outbreak is the largest for decades and has already devastated crops in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, countries with fragile food security. The problem is not confined to Africa, with swarms also occurring in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Continue reading...There is always hypocrisy in politics – but it can be good for the nation | Greg Jericho
From climate change to the budget, we see politicians pretend they think something then do the opposite
You don’t need to observe politics for too long before realising that hypocrisy is the natural scent of the politics.
It is a stench that pervades much of what is said and policy that is enacted. There are two particular types – the hypocrisy where politicians pretend they care about something and then do nothing, and the one where they pretend to think something and do the opposite.
Continue reading...Christiana Figueres on the climate emergency: ‘This is the decade and we are the generation’
The leader of the 2015 Paris accord talks about her new book, The Future We Choose, and why it’s crunch time for humanity
• ‘The only uncertainty is how long we’ll last’: the worst case scenario for 2050
• ‘Air is cleaner than before the Industrial Revolution’: the best case scenario for 2050
Christiana Figueres is a founder of the Global Optimism group and was head of the UN climate change convention when the Paris agreement was achieved in 2015.
Your new book is called The Future We Choose. But isn’t it too late to stop the climate crisis?
We are definitely running late. We have delayed appallingly for decades. But science tells us we are still in the nick of time.
‘Air is cleaner than before the Industrial Revolution’: a best case scenario for the climate in 2050
The Future We Choose, a new book by the architects of the Paris climate accords, offers contrasting visions for how the world might look in thirty years (read the worst case scenario here)
• Christiana Figueres, author: ‘This is the decade and we are the generation’
It is 2050. We have been successful at halving emissions every decade since 2020. We are heading for a world that will be no more than 1.5C warmer by 2100
In most places in the world, the air is moist and fresh, even in cities. It feels a lot like walking through a forest and very likely this is exactly what you are doing. The air is cleaner than it has been since before the Industrial Revolution. We have trees to thank for that. They are everywhere.
Continue reading...‘The only uncertainty is how long we’ll last’: a worst case scenario for the climate in 2050
The Future We Choose, a new book by the architects of the Paris climate accords, offers two contrasting visions for how the world might look in thirty years (read the best case scenario here)
• Christiana Figueres, author: ‘This is the decade and we are the generation’
It is 2050. Beyond the emissions reductions registered in 2015, no further efforts were made to control emissions. We are heading for a world that will be more than 3C warmer by 2100
The first thing that hits you is the air. In many places around the world, the air is hot, heavy and, depending on the day, clogged with particulate pollution. Your eyes often water. Your cough never seems to disappear. You think about some countries in Asia, where, out of consideration, sick people used to wear white masks to protect others from airborne infection. Now you often wear a mask to protect yourself from air pollution. You can no longer simply walk out your front door and breathe fresh air: there might not be any. Instead, before opening doors or windows in the morning, you check your phone to see what the air quality will be.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion protest at Gatwick and London fashion week
Activists aim to raise awareness of sustainable design and the need to reduce emissions from flights
Activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) blocked traffic outside a London fashion week venue on Saturday and also staged a protest at Gatwick airport.
Dozens of demonstrators prevented traffic from passing through a busy intersection leading to the Strand in Westminster, where the fashion trade show was being held.
Continue reading...Climate summit calls for urgent action after Australia's fire-hit summer
Forceful declaration calls for governments to set short-term zero emissions target to avoid catastrophic warming
The megafires of Australia’s summer “are a harbinger of life and death on a hotter Earth”, a climate summit has said in a forceful declaration for urgent and dramatic climate action.
The Climate Emergency Summit, held in Melbourne this week and of which Guardian Australia was a partner, released a declaration saying the warming world was a clear threat to Australian society and civilisation.
Continue reading...Drought, bushfires and rainstorms turn Australian rivers black – video
Ash, along with other detritus, from Australia's fierce bushfire season is being washed into rivers by heavy rainfall, depriving the rivers of oxygen, killing fish and turning the waters an inky, silty black
Continue reading...PM must prioritise climate or Cop26 will fail, say leading figures
IEA welcomes appointment of Alok Sharma but others worry about nature of his dual role
Boris Johnson must put the climate crisis at the top of his government’s agenda if crunch UN talks this year are to be a success, leading international figures have told the Guardian.
Alok Sharma was appointed on Thursday as the business secretary and president of Cop26, the UN talks on the climate crisis to be held this November in Glasgow. Some climate experts are concerned that he won’t be able to stand up to governments reluctant to make strong commitments to cut greenhouse gases, while at the same time supporting British businesses struggling in the turmoil of Brexit.
Continue reading...Flying high, not getting high: the poppy-eating cockatoos of Tasmania are no opiate addicts
Scientists say it’s the poppies’ fat and protein, not their narcotic alkaloids, that keep the birds coming back for more
Tasmanian farmers have reported their poppy crops are being ravaged by cockatoos, but experts say it is likely that it is a taste for the fatty seeds, and not an addiction to opiates, that is attracting the birds.
Tasmanian farmer Bernard Brain told the ABC on Tuesday that flocks of about 300 white cockatoos had decimated his harvest by ripping capsules from his poppy flowers and eating them, leading him to believe that the native birds were addicted to the alkaloid found in the seed.
Continue reading...Is disunity in politics really death any more? I'm not so sure | Katharine Murphy
If you were a political scientist, you might wonder if some of these internal differences within the major parties are irreconcilable
I’ll get to the divisions on coal and climate afflicting both of the major parties shortly, but before we arrive there I want to ask a bigger question about disunity, one I’ve been carrying around with me since election night last year. Forgive this indulgence, I need to get this off my chest.
Politics watchers will know that prime ministers and opposition leaders intone with all the sobriety of an undertaker that “disunity is death”. People in my line of work tend to amplify that line dutifully, not because we are ciphers, but because it appeared to be true – one of those truisms so true it required no rebuttal.
Continue reading...'A moment of complete despair': last population of Macquarie perch wiped out in NSW river carnage
Fisheries managers arrived too late to save more of the endangered species as heavy rain washes ash into NSW rivers, robbing fish of oxygen
Luke Pearce had arrived at Mannus Creek for a three-day mission to rescue the Murray-Darling Basin’s last population of Macquarie perch.
For 10 years Pearce had visited this spot on the edge of the Snowy Mountains that, just weeks earlier, was ravaged by fire. There had been rain and the creek was flowing fast.
Continue reading...School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
In UK, students march on first anniversary of nationwide protests by young people
Striking students have joined Valentine’s Day rallies across the world as the protest movement attempts to ratchet up pressure on governments and companies before crunch UN climate talks in Glasgow later this year.
In London, the young demonstrators held banners proclaiming “Roses are red, violets are blue, our Earth is burning and soon we will too” and “Climate change is worse than homework” as they marched through Parliament Square on Friday to mark the first anniversary of nationwide climate strikes in the UK.
Continue reading...EU spending tens of millions of euros a year to promote meat eating
Campaigns to promote consumption of pork and veal labelled ‘indefensible’ in light of health and climate concerns
The EU has been accused of an “indefensible” approach to human health and the climate crisis in spending tens of millions of euros each year on campaigns to reverse the decline in meat eating and trying to rebut so-called “fake news” on the mistreatment of animals bred for food.
Campaigns range from those designed to counter official warnings about the risk of cancer from eating red meat, to improving the public image of veal products said to be crucial in “deriving value from young male calves” superfluous to the dairy industry.
Continue reading...School strikes give me hope, says head of Friends of the Earth
Outgoing charity chief Craig Bennett says next generation ‘could not be more exciting’
The school strikes movement will ensure an exciting and dynamic future for environmental activism for decades to come, the outgoing head of Friends of the Earth has said, as students across the globe leave classrooms on Friday to demand political action on the climate crisis.
Speaking on the first anniversary of the movement in the UK, Craig Bennett said it was grassroots activism, not centralised politics, that was leading to change.
Continue reading...Rajendra Pachauri, former IPCC head accused of sexual harassment, dies aged 79
Environmentalist was in charge when UN climate change panel shared 2007 Nobel peace prize but career was marred by harassment claims
The Indian environmentalist Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, under whose leadership a UN climate change panel shared the 2007 Nobel peace prize, has died after recent heart surgery. He was 79.
Pachauri’s death was announced late on Thursday by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a research group he headed until 2016 in New Delhi.
Continue reading...Rubbish mixtape: fan reunited with cassette 25 years after losing it
Stella Wedell astounded to spot tape in exhibition of art made out of plastic marine debris
A music fan has been reunited with a cassette tape she lost while on holiday 25 years ago after it washed up on a beach hundreds of miles away.
Stella Wedell was 12 when she took the tape on a Spanish holiday to listen to songs by the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Shaggy and Bob Marley on her Walkman.
Continue reading...Hot on the trail of cold fusion as a solution to the climate crisis | Letter
Tim Flannery (The age of the megafire is here, and it’s a call to action, Journal, 7 February) writes: “As far as swift climate action is concerned, all good choices have gone up in smoke”.
That may not be the case, however. There has been abundant support by now for the claim made by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in 1989 to have observed nuclear fusion at ordinary temperatures, but the hope that such a fossil-fuel-free process might contribute usefully to energy production has not been fulfilled because it is very unpredictable, and we do not as yet know the conditions needed to produce large amounts of energy. Suitably funded research on a large scale might lead to a resolution of this issue.
Prof Brian Josephson
Emeritus professor of physics, University of Cambridge
Earth just had hottest January since records began, data shows
- Average global temperature 2.5F above 20th-century average
- Antarctic has begun February with several temperature spikes
Last month was the hottest January on record over the world’s land and ocean surfaces, with average temperatures exceeding anything in the 141 years of data held by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Related: Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record
Continue reading...Deepwater Horizon disaster had much worse impact than believed, study finds
- Effects of 2010 BP oil spill were 30% larger than calculated
- Satellite images unable to detect full extent of pollution in Gulf
The environmental impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico a decade ago was much worse than previously believed, according to a new study.
Related: Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life
Continue reading...