The Guardian
87 bird crime incidents last year and just one conviction, says RSPB
True scale of persecution of birds of prey such as buzzards and owls is likely to be higher
Birds of prey were shot, poisoned, trapped or illegally killed in 87 confirmed incidents in 2018 that led to just one successful conviction, according to the RSPB’s annual Birdcrime report.
This persecution of raptors including peregrines, buzzards, red kites and owls is the tip of the iceberg, with many more birds vanishing in mysterious circumstances, according to data from satellite-tagged birds and other intelligence.
Continue reading...The air conditioning trap: how cold air is heating the world
The warmer it gets, the more we use air conditioning. The more we use air conditioning, the warmer it gets. Is there any way out of this trap?
On a sweltering Thursday evening in Manhattan last month, people across New York City were preparing for what meteorologists predicted would be the hottest weekend of the year. Over the past two decades, every record for peak electricity use in the city has occurred during a heatwave, as millions of people turn on their air conditioning units at the same time. And so, at the midtown headquarters of Con Edison, the company that supplies more than 10 million people in the New York area with electricity, employees were busy turning a conference room on the 19th floor into an emergency command centre.
Inside the conference room, close to 80 engineers and company executives, joined by representatives of the city’s emergency management department, monitored the status of the city power grid, directed ground crews and watched a set of dials displaying each borough’s electricity use tick upward. “It’s like the bridge in Star Trek in there,” Anthony Suozzo, a former senior system operator with the company, told me. “You’ve got all hands on deck, they’re telling Scotty to fix things, the system is running at max capacity.”
Continue reading...Wedge-tailed eagles among 120 native birds found dead in Victoria after suspected poisoning
The native birds, including 76 wedge-tailed eagles, hawks and falcons, will be tested to determine the cause of death
About 120 native birds have been found dead after suspected poisoning in northeastern Victoria.
Officers from the environment department found the birds, including 76 wedge-tailed eagles, hawks and falcons, during raids on a property near Violet Town this week.
Continue reading...Adani mine would be 'unviable' without $4.4bn in subsidies, report finds
Exclusive: Carmichael mine set to receive subsidies, favourable deals and tax concessions over 30 years
Australian governments will give $4.4bn in effective subsidies to Adani’s Carmichael coal project, which would otherwise be “unbankable and unviable”, a new analysis has found.
The report, by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, concluded that the project would benefit from several Australian taxpayer–funded arrangements – including subsidies, favourable deals and tax concessions – over its 30-year project life.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg tells Trump to 'listen to the science' as she arrives in New York - video
‘Everyone always asks me about Donald Trump,’ Greta Thunberg said in her press conference after arriving in New York following her journey on a yacht across the Atlantic. ‘I say “Listen to the science” and he obviously does not do that’, she continued, speaking to a cheering crowd.
The 16-year-old Swedish activist had travelled to the city to attend a UN summit on zero emissions after refusing to fly because of the carbon emissions caused by planes
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg sails into New York waters after crossing Atlantic – live news
Crowds in New York await Sweden’s teenage environmental campaigner, who will set foot on dry land after her zero-carbon journey by yacht
7.20pm BST
Water, water everywhere around New York City, where we are waiting for Greta Thunberg’s arrival breathlessly (literally, actually, as the wind has dropped, my colleague downtown tells me, which will affect her ability to enter the marina in lower Manhattan under sail).
6.55pm BST
When Greta Thunberg was setting sail from Plymouth (in England, not New England) on August 14, my colleague on the spot that day, the Guardian’s global environment editor Jonathan Watts, reported that the activist didn’t intend to talk to with US president Donald Trump, even were the opportunity to present itself.
Continue reading...Global heating brings Mediterranean butterfly to the UK
Long-tailed blues and eggs seen in large numbers but are unlikely to survive the winter
A fast-flying migratory butterfly from the Mediterranean is appearing in large numbers across southern England this summer as a result of global heating, experts say.
More than 50 long-tailed blues and hundreds of the butterfly’s eggs have been discovered in recent weeks, which is likely to result in an unprecedented emergence of the butterfly in Britain later this autumn.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion to take over Manchester street in climate protest
XR says 750 people will occupy Deansgate in protest at city’s climate crisis contradictions
Hundreds of climate protesters plan to occupy one of Manchester’s busiest streets for four days this weekend to expose the “huge contradictions” of a city region that has declared a climate emergency while planning to massively expand its airport.
The Extinction Rebellion group says that from 10am on Friday at least 750 people have pledged to take over part of Deansgate, a popular area for shopping and entertainment that has illegal levels of air pollution.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg sees land ahead as she approaches New York
Swedish climate activist nears end of her Atlantic crossing on zero-carbon yacht
Greta Thunberg is likely to arrive in New York soon after crossing the Atlantic in a zero-carbon yacht.
“Land!! The lights of Long Island and New York City ahead,” the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist tweeted on Wednesday.
Continue reading...NSW plan to stave off 'fish Armageddon' a Band-Aid solution, experts warn
Agriculture minister hopes ‘Noah’s ark’ plan will prevent severe fish kills, but critics accuse Nationals of tending to ‘self-inflicted wound’
The New South Wales government says it is planning a $10m “Noah’s ark”-style plan to stave off a “potential fish Armageddon” facing the state this summer, but critics say the Coalition is sticking a Band-Aid on a gaping self-inflicted wound.
The Berejiklian government’s plan aims to combine better research and increased breeding with fish rescue operations to save some of the state’s native fish from a forecast ecological disaster as the drought drags on.
Continue reading...New Zealand bans swimming with bottlenose dolphins after numbers plunge
Conservation research shows humans are ‘loving the dolphins too much’ in Bay of Islands region
The New Zealand government has banned tourists from swimming with bottlenose dolphins in an attempt to save the struggling species.
According to the department of conservation [DoC] research has shown that humans were “loving the dolphins too much” and human interaction was “having a signifiant impact on the population’s resting and feeding behaviour”.
Continue reading...Mitsubishi invests in UK company to bring off-grid solar to Asia
Japanese conglomerate backs solar utility BBOXX to expand service in south Asia and Africa
A British energy firm lighting up homes in Africa with pay-as-you-go solar power has secured £40m to extend its reach to Asia with the help of Japan’s Mitsubishi.
The conglomerate has taken a stake in off-grid solar company BBOXX through the start-up’s latest funding round, which will power the Africa-focused company deeper into Asia.
Continue reading...Specieswatch: leathery sea squirt, the knobbly invader from Korea
In Korea they are eaten steamed, but in Britain, where they arrived in 1952, they are seen as a menace
Seaside trippers gazing into harbours over the bank holiday might have wondered about the rather ugly creatures, about 16cm long, commonly seen attached to rocks, ropes and the hulls of boats. This is an invasive species known as the leathery sea squirt, Styela clava.
Styela clava arrived in Southampton in 1952 on the hulls of warships returning from the Korean war and from there, they spread around the UK’s coasts.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson's words on UK battery sector 'not matched by action'
Open letter calls for changes to policies sector says threatens to hold green economy back
Boris Johnson’s support for Britain’s “world leading” battery sector risks being undermined by government policy, according to the industry.
A coalition of trade groups and technology firms have written an open letter to the Guardian that calls for urgent changes to policies they say threaten to hold the sector back.
Continue reading...A record hot summer burned the first fruit of my apple tree – and left a bad taste in my mouth | Anthony N Castle
We grow things, invest, make decisions today to benefit the future. But has the climate emergency put an end to that?
There is an apple in my imagination, a memory. I can still picture the first moment I saw it in the scorching dusk, the first fruit of a tree my partner and I had planted just two years before. The sapling had taken root in the loamy clay of our garden and grown upwards over two hot summers and two dry winters. Now, it was bearing fruit, not yet ripe, and rough to the touch, but an apple nonetheless. The first of many.
We had planted the tree for the children we didn’t yet have, knowing it could come to bear fruit as they grew. It was an investment in our environment for the good of our children, an investment in their future, but we found that apple among the stones of the garden bed not long after. It had fallen, burned on the branch, scorched on one side.
Continue reading...Great Barrier Reef expert panel says Peter Ridd misrepresenting science
Panel head Ian Chubb compares ‘roadshow of Dr Ridd’ to tobacco industry strategy defending smoking
An expert panel led by the former chief scientist Ian Chubb has warned ministers that controversial scientist Peter Ridd is misrepresenting robust science about the plight of the Great Barrier Reef, and compared his claims to the strategy used by the tobacco industry to raise doubt about the impact of smoking.
The warning, in a letter to the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, and the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, follows Ridd launching a lecture tour in which he has repeated his claim that farmland pollution does not significantly damage the natural wonder.
Continue reading...Near-total ban imposed on sending wild African elephants to zoos
Cites, the global wildlife trade regulator, approves ‘momentous’ decision after EU adds loophole
The regulator of global wildlife trade has decided to impose a near-total ban on sending African elephants captured from the wild to zoos.
After a heated debate at a meeting of parties to the convention on international trade in endangered species (Cites) in Geneva on Tuesday, the member countries approved a proposed text after a revision by the European Union included some exceptions to the ban.
Continue reading...Government rhetoric on green energy needs to be matched by action
Innovation is transforming the way we generate and consume power, with future energy needs being met through subsidy-free renewables balanced by on-site battery storage.
The government has set out strong ambitions for the UK to be a world leader in flexible generation, most recently through the plans for a new Smart Export Guarantee.
Continue reading...Brazilian Amazon deforestation surges to break August records
1,114.8 sq km cut down this month, the same area as Hong Kong – on top of damage from fires
Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has hit the highest August level since the current monitoring system began in 2015, underscoring concerns about the weakening of forest protection under President Jair Bolsonaro.
The world’s biggest terrestrial carbon sink lost 1,114.8 sq km (430 sq miles) – equivalent to the area of Hong Kong – in the first 26 days of this month, according to preliminary data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency. The data does not include damage caused by fires currently sweeping parts of the Amazon.
Continue reading...Tell us how you have been affected by the Amazon fires
We want to hear from people living or working on the frontline of the fires destroying forests in Brazil, Bolivia and across the region
Smoke from wildfires burning in the Amazon shrouded São Paulo in darkness earlier this month. The clouds covering the megacity, almost 2,000 miles from the fires, made it impossible for residents and the rest of the world to ignore the destruction taking place.
As international leaders, environmental groups and activists condemn Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro for weakening rainforest protections, we want to hear from those who have witnessed and been directly affected by these fires – in the Amazon and across the region.
Continue reading...