The Guardian
Microplastics found in human stools for the first time
Study suggests the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chain
Microplastics have been found in human stools for the first time, according to a study suggesting the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chain.
The small study examined eight participants from Europe, Japan and Russia. All of their stool samples were found to contain microplastic particles.
Continue reading...Severe thunderstorm covers Rome in hail and floods - video
A severe hailstorm hit Rome on Sunday evening, bringing a dramatic end to a long spell of hot weather and covering the streets of the Italian capital in hail and floodwaters.
Drivers found themselves stranded in high waters, while the runoff poured into underground stations. The temperature around the city dropped by 10C during the storm.
An area of low pressure moving south from northern Europe to Italy over the weekend brought disruption to most of the country, with other Italian cities – such as Milan and Palermo – experiencing floods as well.
Continue reading...UK’s plastic waste is a burning issue | Letters
In August, exchequer secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Tackling the scandal of plastic pollution is one of our top priorities.” But it’s now confirmed what many have long suspected, that the UK recycling industry is riven with corruption (Report, 19 October) and only now is government dimly aware of the problem. Taxing coffee mugs and plastic straws, and placing a charge on plastic bags are commendable actions, but in the face of ever-increasing plastic production, single-use or not, are minuscule and potentially token. In addition to stamping out the illegal export of waste and reducing single use plastic at source, a radical upheaval of domestic recycling is required. Local authorities pay waste management companies to collect, sort and, hopefully, recycle domestic plastic waste. Yet they only recycle a proportion of it and ship the rest abroad. Much ends in landfill or in the oceans. The council tax we pay for these destructive processes could be better deployed.
With rapid progress now being made on carbon capture, home and industrial-based pyrolysis (waste to energy), and other plastic-to-fuel processes, there is a strong case to stockpile plastic that is difficult to recycle or contaminated. In compacted or granulated form at 10% of its previous volume, it can be stored for future use as feedstock for negative emission energy production and other innovative uses. We used to have grain mountains and wine lakes. Why not temporary plastic mountains?
Patrick Cosgrove
Chapel Lawn, Shropshire
Trump thinks scientists are split on climate change. So do most Americans | Dana Nuccitelli
There’s a 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming, but most Americans are unaware
When queried about the most recent IPCC report, Republican lawmakers delivered a consistent, false message – that climate scientists are still debating whether humans are responsible. The previous IPCC report was quite clear on this, attributing 100% of the global warming since 1950 to human activities. As Nasa atmospheric scientist Kate Marvel recently put it, “We are more sure that greenhouse gas is causing climate change than we are that smoking causes cancer.”
Donald Trump articulated the incorrect Republican position in an interview on 60 Minutes:
Continue reading...P&O cruise ship dumped 27,000 litres of waste on Great Barrier Reef, Senate hears
Australian Maritime Safety Authority report says food waste and grey water spill occurred on 26 August
A P&O cruise ship spilled 27,000 litres of food waste and grey water into the Great Barrier Reef marine park in August, a Senate estimates hearing has heard.
The Greens senator Larissa Waters told the hearing a report from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority – which is investigating the incident – had been supplied to her anonymously.
Continue reading...'Headless chicken sea monster' filmed off Antarctica – video
The deep-sea cucumber that resembles a headless chicken has previously only been filmed in the Gulf of Mexico. But scientists have filmed Enypniastes eximia with underwater cameras in the Southern Ocean off east Antarctica for the first time.
• ‘Headless chicken monster’: deep-sea cucumber seen in Southern Ocean for first time
Continue reading...'Ultra rapid' electric car charging network coming to Australia
Chargefox stations will allow drivers to charge electric vehicles in just minutes
Drivers travelling between Australia’s major cities could soon charge their electric vehicles in just 15 minutes with a super-fast network being rolled out across the country.
The 21 sites on highways between Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane will be powered entirely by renewable energy. Sites are also planned for Western Australia.
Continue reading...FareShare's surplus food redistribution saves UK £51m a year
Charities tackling hunger could save Britain £500m a year if they had capacity, finds report
The collection and redistribution of edible food by the UK’s largest charity tackling hunger – and that would otherwise go to waste – saves the UK economy some £51m every year, according to an independent report published on Monday.
If FareShare and other charities in the sector were able to scale up their capacity in order to handle half of the surplus food available in the UK supply chain, the value back to the state could be as much as £500m per year, it claims.
Continue reading...Plastic straws and cotton buds could be banned within a year
Michael Gove unveils consultation on move to cut pollution and protect oceans
Plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds could be banned within a year under government plans to cut pollution, Michael Gove is to announce.
Launching a consultation on the proposals on Monday, the environment secretary will cite the success of the 5p charge on single-use plastic bags, which led to an 86% drop in their use at major supermarkets.
Continue reading...Look after the soil, save the Earth: farming in Australia's unrelenting climate
Former governor general Michael Jeffery says soil health and regenerative farming is essential for security and carbon emissions
From the red soil of his hometown in the Western Australian outback town of Wiluna, Michael Jeffery very nearly became a farmer.
He opted for being a soldier instead, serving in Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam, where he was awarded the Military Cross and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After a distinguished military career, he served as governor of his home state of Western Australia and governor general of Australia – who represents the Queen, Australia’s head of state.
Continue reading...Washing up yourself is good for the soul | Letters
I have to take issue with Jo Steranka (How you can do your bit in the war against climate change, Letters, 18 October). Dishwashers are typically much more efficient than hand washing in terms of energy and water consumption. Research carried out by Christian Paul Richter (Usage of dishwashers: observation of consumer habits in the domestic environment, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2011) on 200 households in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Britain, found that households with a dishwasher used on average 50% less water and 28% less energy per cleaned item than households that didn’t own a dishwasher. Even so, a higher degree of sustainability was identified because 20% of dishwasher cycles were not fully utilised and 52% operated at a temperature that was higher than necessary.
Furthermore, Jo Steranka states that “opinion pieces don’t help if they don’t offer practical solutions”; er, has she tried digging up a paved garden? Getting around a city (that isn’t London) without a car? Not buying new clothes until the old ones wear out? Get real, Jo! (Although I do agree about buying local produce and turning off the lights at bedtime – are there people who don’t?)
Continue reading...Bottle it up: the car park that lets drivers pay in plastic
A scheme at one Leeds’ CitiPark hopes to encourage recycling by giving motorists a 20p parking voucher for every bottle they bring in
It seems a great idea: take plastic bottles along to a car park to recycle, help rid the world of plastic pollution and get money off the cost of parking. This is the scheme running at the Leeds Merrion Centre CitiPark. For a month-long trial period, the company will collect every plastic bottle of at least 500ml brought into the car park. The bottle will be recycled and the motorist will get a 20p car parking voucher for each one. The process itself is quite straightforward: hand them to the attendant for a discount before paying. But will it catch on?
“It’s been going really well,” says parking attendant Richard Bedford. “One chap came in with 30 bottles. He only needed 15 to pay for his parking, so he’s bringing the rest back next week.” Apart from such isolated success stories, though, the car park isn’t exactly besieged by bottle-laden motorists when I arrive. Bedford estimates an average day’s take at 10 to 20 bottles, but behind him is a full crate, and he says hundreds have been recycled so far.
Continue reading...'Headless chicken monster': deep-sea cucumber seen in Southern Ocean for first time
Creature filmed off east Antartica using technology developed by Australian researchers
A deep-sea cucumber known as a “headless chicken monster” has been filmed in the Southern Ocean for the first time using camera technology developed by Australian researchers.
The creature was filmed off east Antarctica and it is the first time the species has been seen in the area.
Continue reading...Minister’s claim badger cull cuts cattle TB is attacked by experts
Government claims that the controversial badger cull is reducing tuberculosis rates in cattle have been undermined by a group of leading vets and animal welfare experts who have shared data that, they say, confirms it has made no difference.
Last month the farming minister George Eustice said: “Reductions in TB cases in Somerset and Gloucestershire are evidence that our strategy is delivering results.” But the group, which includes Iain McGill, the former government vet who helped expose the BSE cover-up, Adam Grogan, head of wildlife at the RSPCA, and Mark Jones, head of policy at the Born Free Foundation, disagrees.
Continue reading...Tasmanian salmon should be off the menu for now, says conservation group
Fish eaters advised to ‘Say No’ due to environmental concerns surrounding Tasmania’s salmon farming industry
It’s one of Australia’s – and the world’s – favourite fish but Tasmanian Atlantic salmon should be off the menu for now, according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, publishers of Australia’s independent sustainable seafood guide.
On Wednesday, the AMCS downgraded the farmed fish’s rating from an amber “Think Twice” to a red “Say No” due to ongoing environmental concerns. The previous review was in 2015.
Continue reading...Minor earthquakes detected near fracking site in Lancashire
One tremor was magnitude 0.3, the level beyond which experts say fracking has to proceed with caution
A series of small earthquakes have been detected in Lancashire close to the site where major fracking operations began this week.
The British Geological Survey, which provides impartial advice on environmental processes, recorded four tremors in the vicinity of the energy firm Cuadrilla’s site on Preston New Road near Blackpool on Friday.
Continue reading...‘We'll have space bots with lasers, killing plants’: the rise of the robot farmer
Tiny automated machines could soon take care of the entire growing process. Fewer chemicals, more efficient – where’s the downside?
In a quiet corner of rural Hampshire, a robot called Rachel is pootling around an overgrown field. With bright orange casing and a smartphone clipped to her back end, she looks like a cross between an expensive toy and the kind of rover used on space missions. Up close, she has four USB ports, a disc-like GPS receiver, and the nuts and bolts of a system called Lidar, which enables her to orient herself using laser beams. She cost around £2,000 to make.
Every three seconds, Rachel takes a closeup photograph of the plants and soil around her, which will build into a forensic map of the field and the wider farm beyond. After 20 minutes or so of this, she is momentarily disturbed by two of the farm’s dogs, unsure what to make of her.
Continue reading...£7m crowdfunding bid for Orkney tidal energy turbine launches
Scheme launched by ethical investment platform Abundance offers 12% interest
A “green” investment that pays 12% interest and involves putting your money into a major tidal energy project was launched this week.
But that high rate indicates this is a great deal riskier than putting your money into a high street savings account, with no compensation if things go wrong. So this is not one for the risk-averse.
Continue reading...Plastic recycling industry's problems costing councils up to £500,000 a year
Chinese ban on waste imports is significantly affecting UK councils’ ability to collect and recycle plastic
Major problems in the plastic recycling industry are costing local councils in England up to £500,000 extra a year, as they struggle to deal with the continuing fallout from import bans imposed by countries who are no longer able to take the UK’s waste.
A survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) revealed nearly half of councils who responded (52) say China’s ban is having a significant impact on their ability to collect and recycle plastic, due to rising costs. Fourteen councils across the country say their recycling costs have increased by an average of half a million pounds a year, in part because of rising processing charges per tonne.
Continue reading...Benny the beluga whale forces firework display postponement
Council in Kent told that disturbing the whale would breach wildlife law
It has attracted plenty of spectators during its stay. But Benny the lost beluga whale, who took up residence in the Thames last month, may end up leaving the crowds disappointed after it was announced that a fireworks display would have to be postponed to protect him.
About 15,000 people were expected to gather for the annual bonfire night celebrations in Gravesend, Kent, on 2 November to see a display set off from a barge on the river.
Continue reading...