The Guardian
Centrica has donated to US climate change-denying thinktank
Company owned by Centrica gave $20,000 to TPPF, praised by new US energy secretary for opposing ‘hysteria of global warming’
British Gas’s parent company, Centrica, has given tens of thousands of dollars to a US thinktank that denies climate change and is backed by Donald Trump’s energy secretary.
Direct Energy, a US energy company wholly owned by Centrica, donated $20,000 to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) in 2010, according to tax filings.
Continue reading...Powerful symbols chiselled into a shepherd's shelter
Stanage, Derbyshire On a bleak night, with a folk memory of wolves and belief in evil spirits, who wouldn’t need protection?
The long flowing line of Stanage Edge is, for rock climbers, one of the world’s great crags, segmented, like a gritstone worm, into various buttresses and features, each of them named, each providing many different routes to the top, each of those – and there are hundreds – also named.
I am at a buttress at the crag’s southern end known, paradoxically, as Apparent North, near a short tough climb called Hamper’s Hang. I am shrinking inside my jacket against a dismal wet day. I thought I knew this place, having been here as a climber scores of times, but my understanding of it has just been turned on its head.
Continue reading...United states of denial: forces behind Trump have run Australia's climate policy for years | Graham Readfearn
For more than a decade, Australia has been held back by climate science denial and an antipathy towards environmentalism
If you can hear what sounds like a faint drumroll coming from across the Pacific then it’s the sound of millions of jaws dropping on hard surfaces.
President-elect Donald Trump is a phrase journalists are regularly typing into their keyboards. That was jaw dropping enough, even for some Republicans.
Continue reading...Transforming waste into fuel with Australian innovations, from tyres to sugar cane and agave
The emerging biofuel industry is casting the net wide to find solutions to two environmental problems: reducing waste and increasing fuel production
In a world of dwindling resources, waste is one thing in no danger of running out. Each Australian generates more than 2,000kg of waste per year, and around half of that ends up in landfill. But at least some of that waste could be turned into a resource that is both in demand and in decline: fuel.
The global waste-to-fuel industry is considering options as varied as agave, plastics and disused tyres to solve two environmental problems – reducing waste and increasing fuel production.
Continue reading...Weak labelling may allow unethically fished seafood into Australia, Greenpeace says
Exclusive: Warning against sale of seafood from environmentally destructive fishing fleets operating with slave-like conditions
Greenpeace has warned that Australia’s weak labelling laws may be allowing the sale of seafood from environmentally destructive and unethical fishing fleets in south-east Asia.
The group has released the results of a 12-month investigation of Thailand’s ghost fishing fleet, a collection of refrigerated vessels, or reefers, notorious for causing damage to fragile ecosystems and subjecting vulnerable migrant labour to slave-like conditions.
Continue reading...New map reveals shattering effect of roads on nature
Rampant road building has split the Earth’s land into 600,000 fragments, most of which are too tiny to support significant wildlife, study shows
Rampant road building has shattered the Earth’s land into 600,000 fragments, most of which are too tiny to support significant wildlife, a new study has revealed.
The researchers warn roadless areas are disappearing and that urgent action is needed to protect these last wildernesses, which help provide vital natural services to humanity such as clean water and air.
Continue reading...Climate change denial in the Trump cabinet: where do his nominees stand?
Critics argue the president-elect’s picks represent ‘an unprecedented amount of influence from the fossil fuel industry’. Their statements don’t do much to dispel the notion
As Donald Trump assembles his cabinet, one consistent theme has emerged: many of his nominees have expressed doubt about the science of human-caused climate change.
“We’re seeing an unprecedented amount of influence from the fossil fuel industry in Trump’s cabinet,” Jeremy Symons, who works on climate politics for the Environmental Defense Fund. “What’s missing from this cabinet is the balance one would expect to bring the other side to the equation and it really leaves us wondering: who is looking out for us? Clearly the oil companies are well attended, but who’s looking out for us?”
Continue reading...Recycling rates in England drop for first time
Waste companies call for tax on packaging to drive up rates as UK likely to miss EU recycling targets
Recycling rates in England have fallen for the first time ever, prompting calls for a tax on packaging and meaning EU targets are now almost certain to be missed.
The amount of rubbish sent to recycling plants by householders had been steadily increasing for more than a decade, but more recently flatlined for three years. Now new government figures published on Thursday show that the recycling rate in England has dropped from 44.8% in 2014 to 43.9% in 2015.
Continue reading...Nicholas Stern: Donald Trump may not be as bad for the environment as feared
Environmentalists should be alert but not pessimistic over the impact of Trump’s presidency, says the leading climate economist
The impact of Donald Trump’s presidency on the environment may not be as catastrophic as some fear, says leading climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern.
The cross-bench peer said that while it was difficult to predict what Trump would do in office, those worried that Trump’s leadership spelled disaster for the planet should focus on the good things he has said on climate change rather than dwelling on the bad.
Continue reading...One Nation senator joins new world order of climate change denial | Graham Readfearn
Malcolm Roberts attends meeting with Trump EPA transition team head Myron Ebell and other longtime deniers
A key figure picked to prepare the US federal environment agency for life under a Donald Trump administration has met in Washington DC with some of the world’s most notorious and longest-serving climate science deniers, including One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts.
Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), was picked by the now president-elect to lead the Environmental Protection Agency “transition team” back in September.
Continue reading...'The time has never been more urgent': at the world's largest Earth science event
With Trump set to have a ‘chilling effect’ on environmental policy, 20,000 Earth and space scientists met in California to face up to a new responsibility
They argued about moon-plasma interactions, joked about polar bears, and waxed nostalgic for sturdy sea ice.
But few of the 20,000 Earth and climate scientists meeting in San Francisco this week had much to say about the president-elect, Donald Trump – though his incoming administration loomed over much of the conference.
Continue reading...Moss spores seize the day under bare trees
Wolsingham, Weardale With brighter light, mosses can reproduce – with structures of exquisite functional beauty
Today was the worst kind of winter day; short, sunless and cold. It took a real effort of will to leave home and walk muddy footpaths under drizzly skies, but I was glad that I did.
Everywhere there were signs of vigorous, bright green, new growth in the woodlands beside the river bank.
Continue reading...Oceanographers offer clues to Malaysian airlines crash | John Abraham
Deploying drifters and using computer models, oceanographers identified the most likely crash area for flight MH370
No doubt nearly everyone is familiar with the story. In early 2014, Malaysian flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, on a flight to China. The flight disappeared from communication and was never found; despite great search efforts.
It isn’t that there is no evidence of the crash. In July of last year, a portion of a wing was found near Madagascar and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Since then, other debris has been found in the Western Indian Ocean.
Continue reading...EU easing of fishing quotas raises scientists fears dwindling stocks
Ministers accused of ignoring scientists’ recommendations as UK fleets allowed to catch more cod, haddock and sole
British fishing fleets will be allowed to catch greater quantities of cod, haddock and sole next year, after Europe’s ministers approved a new fishing quota that will cheer fish and chip shops but has alarmed scientists concerned over dwindling stocks.
The European Union’s fisheries council reached an agreement in the early hours of Wednesday morning, in what may be one of the last such quota divisions in which the UK takes part if supporters of a hard Brexit have their way.
Continue reading...ASA bans ad to remove pollution filters from diesel cars
Diesel filters cost £1,000 to replace so many garages exploit legal loophole by removing filter letting cars pump out toxic particles
The rogue practice of removing vital pollution filters from the exhausts of diesel vehicles has suffered a blow with the Advertising Standards Agency for the first time banning an advert for the service.
However the number of filterless cars on UK roads, pumping out high levels of toxic particles, remains unknown and air pollution campaigners say the government must investigate and then crack down on the shady practice.
Continue reading...Winter woods seen through the eyes of a buzzard
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire I like these muddy colours in the landscape, but the buzzard sees them far more intensely
A buzzard perches on the high branch of a leafless tree. With its back to me, it looks out on the same scene, but do we see the same thing? I see through the trees to fields chemically enhanced with the vivid greens of new crops. The old landscape under this December sky is a brown study: a mood induced by hedges, ash keys, muddy paths, the woods bare and misty-headed with reddish and purple-brown buds. The subtlety of these colours has a deepening beauty as winter thickens across the land.
This buzzard is a harlequin of browns, greys and whites, and it has been suggested that because of this plumage, colour is relatively unimportant to these predators. I’m always impressed when I see buzzards soaring and they catch the light in the silvery feathers under their wings and their markings glow like bronze and polished wood. But this display is for the benefit of other buzzards, not for me.
Queensland's largest solar farm plugs into the grid a month early
The 20 megawatt plant in Barcaldine is one of first in the country to be funded by Australian Renewable Energy Agency
Queensland’s largest operating solar farm has plugged into the national electricity grid and is set to generate enough power for almost 10,000 households by the end of 2016.
The Barcaldine remote community solar farm, in the state’s central west outback, connected to the national electricity market on Wednesday, more than a month ahead of schedule.
Continue reading...GM delivers first Chevrolet Bolts, sparking electric car price race
General Motors says first units handed over to customers in Fremont, California, where rival Tesla is scheduled to start producing budget Model 3 in 2017
General Motors has delivered its first Chevrolet Bolt electric cars to three customers in Fremont, California, home to rival electric automaker Tesla’s assembly plant.
This allows the Detroit automaker to claim first place in the race to deliver an electric car that can run for more than 200 miles on a charge and has a starting price below $40,000. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised its entry in this new segment, the Model 3, will go into production in July.
Continue reading...Trampoline gives hens a measure of freedom | Brief letters
The “Orwellian” schmoozing of young people in schools along the proposed HS2 route (Report, 12 December) pales into insignificance alongside the efforts of the nuclear industry to ingratiate itself with the community around the Magnox nuclear power station at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex. Some 20 or more years ago Girl Guides staged an enrolment ceremony while standing on the pile cap of the then active nuclear reactor.
Val Mainwood
Wivenhoe, Essex
• The inhabitants of Mata Hari’s home city would not be pleased to read that they live in “Friesland, Holland” (Mother, dancer, wife, spy, G2, 6 December). Friesland, one of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands, has its own language, literature and proud history. North and South Holland are merely two other provinces of the same country. My Frisian husband, having lived in London for over 40 years, recently acquired a second passport. He became a British citizen – not an English one. It’s pretty much the same difference.
Liz Barnes
London
Briton swims Antarctic in campaign for three marine sanctuaries
Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh employs ‘Speedo diplomacy’ to stop overfishing in Antarctic
A British man will plunge into sub-zero waters in the Antarctic on Tuesday to campaign for the creation of three huge marine parks to stop overfishing.
Lewis Pugh is credited with playing an important role in the agreement earlier this year to create the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA) and make fishing off limits in much of the Ross Sea, a bay in the Southern Ocean.
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