The Guardian
Urban mountains: Shenzhen's green rooftop project – in pictures
The Chinese megacity of 12 million people is crowded, polluted, and vulnerable to flooding. A rooftop garden is using plants to make stormwater work for the city, and to improve the livelihoods of residents
Continue reading...Man uses surfboard to fight off shark at Ballina on NSW north coast
Surfer, 43, in hospital after attack at Shelly beach near Ballina on Wednesday morning
A man has used his surfboard to fend off a shark after being attacked in waters off Ballina on the New South Wales north coast.
The 43-year-old was bitten on his calf at Shelly beach about 7am on Wednesday and is being treated at Lismore hospital, NSW police said.
Continue reading...BHP Billiton facing £5bn lawsuit from Brazilian victims of dam disaster
Action launched in Liverpool against Anglo-Australian mining company after 2015 tragedy that killed 19 people
The worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history has triggered one of the biggest legal claims ever filed in a British court.
The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton is being sued for about £5bn by Brazilian victims of the Samarco dam collapse in Mariana three years ago.
Continue reading...Taxing red meat would save many lives, research shows
The cost of bacon and sausages would double if the harm they cause to people’s health was taken into account
Taxing red meat would save many lives and raise billions to pay for healthcare, according to new research. It found the cost of processed meat such as bacon and sausages would double if the harm they cause to people’s health was taken into account.
Governments already tax harmful products to reduce their consumption, such as sugar, alcohol and tobacco. With growing evidence of the health and environmental damage resulting from red meat, some experts now believe a “sin tax” on beef, lamb and pork is inevitable in the longer term.
Continue reading...Is the wind turbine really a 'new apex predator'?
The presence of wind turbines can reduce the number of birds and lizards in an area, a new study has found. Should we start tearing the farms down?
Name: wind turbines.
Age: Early examples date to the 7th century.
Continue reading...Oxford-Cambridge expressway would be illegal, warn MEPs
Plans for a road through wildlife-rich areas break EU laws and send a worrying message ahead of Brexit, say MEPs
Government plans to build an Oxford-Cambridge motorway over some of the UK’s most biodiverse nature reserves break EU laws and should be put on hold, according to a cross-party group of MEPs.
Up to a million homes could be built in the planned conurbation link-up which would carve across some of the UK’s richest floodplain habitats such as the Otmoor Basin and Bernwood forest.
Continue reading...UK renewable energy capacity surpasses fossil fuels for first time
Renewable capacity has tripled in past five years, even faster growth than the ‘dash for gas’ of the 1990s
The capacity of renewable energy has overtaken that of fossil fuels in the UK for the first time, in a milestone that experts said would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
In the past five years, the amount of renewable capacity has tripled while fossil fuels’ has fallen by one-third, as power stations reached the end of their life or became uneconomic.
Continue reading...Victorian man dies after being attacked by shark in the Whitsundays
The 33-year-old was bitten in Cid Harbour in the same waters where two tourists were mauled in September
A man who was attacked by a shark in Cid Harbour in the Whitsundays has died in hospital.
The 33-year-old Victorian man had been on a charter boat with friends on Monday and had gone paddle boarding and then swimming, police said, before he was bitten about 5.30pm.
Continue reading...Ozone layer finally healing after damage caused by aerosols, UN says
Upper layer above northern hemisphere should be completely repaired in 2030s
The ozone layer is showing signs of continuing recovery from man-made damage and is likely to heal fully by 2060, new evidence shows.
The measures taken to repair the damage will also have an important beneficial effect on climate change, as some of the gases that caused the ozone layer to thin and in places disappear also contribute to warming the atmosphere. Phasing them out could avoid as much as 0.5C (0.9F) of warming this century.
Continue reading...Sighting of sperm whales in Arctic a sign of changing ecosystem, say scientists
Rare sighting in the Canadian Arctic leads to concern they could become trapped as winter approaches
A rare sighting of sperm whales in the Canadian Arctic is the latest sign of a quickly changing ecosystem, say scientists.
Brandon Laforest, a marine biologist with the World Wildlife Fund, and guide Titus Allooloo were working on a project monitoring the effect of marine traffic on the region’s narwhal population when they spotted the pair of large whales just outside Pond Inlet, a community at the northern tip of Baffin Island in September.
Continue reading...Environment department accused of Brexit ‘panic’ after urgent staff demand
Leaked memo shows managers were given 24 hours to name 75 staff to be redeployed to work on a no-deal scenario
The environment department has been accused of “panic” over Brexit after a leaked document revealed the emergency redeployment of staff to prepare for a no-deal scenario.
Managers at the Environment Agency (EA) were given just 24 hours to name 75 staff to be sent to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). In September, the National Audit Office said Michael Gove’s department will not be ready for a no-deal Brexit, with meat and dairy and chemicals exports especially threatened.
Continue reading...Lion poaching: the brutal new threat to Africa’s prides
The big cats are horribly easy to kill with poisoned meat, allowing poachers to hack off their faces and paws – but rangers are now on their trail
• Warning: this article includes graphic images some readers may find disturbing
“That’s fresh, just a few hours old,” says Kris Everatt, pointing at a clear print of a lion’s paw in the hot dust. “It’s the ghost pride.”
The print is female. A bigger male print is soon spotted, also leading towards a precious water hole, then a smaller one. “A cub, less than two years old,” he says.
Continue reading...Air pollution: everything you should know about a public health emergency
It isn’t just car fumes that fill our urban centres with particles. Why is air pollution on the rise, who does it affect most – and what can we do about it?
Nothing is more vital to life than breathing: in a lifetime, about 250m litres of air passes through your lungs. Yet walk along a busy city street and you will inhale something like 20m particles in a single lungful.
Continue reading...Childhood obesity linked to air pollution from vehicles
Research suggests first year ‘critical window’ in which toxic air can increase weight gain
Early exposure to air pollution from vehicles increases the risk of children becoming obese, new research has found.
High levels of nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted by diesel engines, in the first year of life led to significantly faster weight gain later, the scientists found. Other pollutants produced by road traffic have also been linked to obesity in children by recent studies.
Continue reading...Government faces new legal challenge over plans to speed up fracking
Opponents say revised definition of fracking will allow energy firms to bypass planning rules
The government is facing a fresh legal challenge to its proposals to fast-track new fracking sites by loosening planning regulations.
Ministers said this summer they would drop the requirement for shale gas wells to obtain planning permission by designating fracking sites as national infrastructure projects.
Continue reading...David Attenborough: too much alarmism on environment a turn-off
Sir David Attenborough, the world’s most famous wildlife storyteller, believes repeated warnings about human destruction of the natural world can be a “turn-off” for viewers – a comment that is likely to reignite the debate about whether the veteran broadcaster’s primary duty is to entertain or educate.
Ahead of the launch of Dynasties, a new five-part BBC documentary series, the presenter of Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II said the impact of habitat loss, climate change and pollution were evident everywhere, but sounding the alarm too often could be counterproductive.
Continue reading...The artist putting rubbish to visionary use – in pictures
“I wanted to give trash a second chance,” says Cyrus Kabiru, 34, who makes art – including highly decorative eyewear – out of wires, pins, bottle tops and other detritus he finds on the streets of Nairobi and around the world. Kabiru, who grew up in a Nairobi slum, started making glasses as a child. “I tried to get my dad to buy me a pair. He was like, ‘I can’t, maybe you design your own.’” There was no shortage of materials, with one of the largest dumping grounds in Nairobi next door. Kabiru began turning junk into spectacles. This caught people’s imagination; now he travels the world showing his art (he also makes bicycles and masks out of waste material) and giving talks on creativity. None of his “glasses” has lenses. “They’re not for seeing better; they’re for seeing different,” he says.
This crab could save your life - if humans don't wipe it out first
The Horseshoe crab outlived the dinosaurs but is no match for medicine’s hunger for its blood
Few people in the world are aware their wellbeing may one day depend on a blue-blooded crab that looks like a cross between the facehugger from Alien and a gigantic louse. Fewer still realise this ancient creature now faces its greatest threat in more than 450m years.
The American horseshoe crab outlived the dinosaurs and has survived four previous mass extinctions, but is now menaced by the pharmaceutical industry, fishing communities, habitat loss, climate change and, most recently, choking tides of red algae off the east coast of the United States.
Continue reading...'The most intellectual creature to ever walk Earth is destroying its only home'
Introducing the Guardian’s new series The Age of Extinction, the renowned primatologist describes the dramatic vanishing of wildlife she has witnessed in her lifetime – and how we can all play a vital role in halting its destruction
During my years studying chimpanzees in Gombe national park in Tanzania I experienced the magic of the rainforest. I learned how all life is interconnected, how each species, no matter how insignificant it may seem, has a role to play in the rich tapestry of life – known today as biodiversity. Even the loss of one thread can have a ripple effect and result in major damage to the whole.
I left Gombe in 1986 when I realised how fast chimpanzee habitat was being destroyed and how their numbers were declining. I visited six chimpanzee range states and learned a great deal about the rate of deforestation as a result of foreign corporations (timber, oil and mining) and population growth in communities in and around chimpanzee habitat, so that more land was needed for expanding villages, agriculture and grazing livestock.
Continue reading...Stop biodiversity loss or we could face our own extinction, warns UN
The world has two years to secure a deal for nature to halt a ‘silent killer’ as dangerous as climate change, says biodiversity chief
The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction, warns the United Nation’s biodiversity chief.
Ahead of a key international conference to discuss the collapse of ecosystems, Cristiana Pașca Palmer said people in all countries need to put pressure on their governments to draw up ambitious global targets by 2020 to protect the insects, birds, plants and mammals that are vital for global food production, clean water and carbon sequestration.
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