Many blue flag beaches were covered in waste, and Brighton was among the worst-hit, Lib Dem report shows
England’s most celebrated beaches faced 8,500 hours of sewage dumping last year, new figures show.
Many beaches with blue flag status– an international mark of recognition that a beach is deemed safe and has good water quality – were found to have been covered in waste over the last 12 months.
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Prime minister pays tribute to Yunupingu
Prime minister Anthony Albanese has paid tribute to the Yolŋu man Yunupingu, one of the most significant Indigenous figures in history and a former Australian of the year, as “an extraordinary leader”.
He was one of the greatest of Australians.
An extraordinary leader of his people, respected right across Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia.
I said to him that I was serious, that we would do it.
Today we mourn with deep love and great sadness the passing of our dearly loved father Yunupiŋu.
The holder of our sacred fire, the leader of our clan and the path-maker to our future.
The loss to our family and community is profound. We are hurting, but we honour him and remember with love everything he has done for us.
We remember him for his fierce leadership, and total strength for Yolŋu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. He lived by our laws always.
Yunupiŋu lived his entire life on his land, surrounded by the sound of bilma (clapsticks), yidaki (didgeridoo) and the manikay (sacred song) and dhulang (sacred designs) of our people. He was born on our land, he lived all his life on our land and he died on our land secure in the knowledge that his life’s work was secure.
He had friendship and loyalty to so many people, at all levels, from all places.
Our father was driven by a vision for the future of this nation, his people’s place in the nation and the rightful place for Aboriginal people everywhere.
In leaving us, we know that Dad’s loss will be felt in many hearts and minds. We ask you to mourn his passing in your own way, but we as a family encourage you to rejoice in the gift of his life and leadership.
There will never be another like him.
In time we will announce the dates for bäpurru (ceremonies) that will see him returned to his land and to his fathers. These ceremonies will be held in North Eastern Arnhem Land.
We ask the media to respect our grieving space over the coming weeks as we put together ceremonial arrangements to honour Dad.
Instead of flowers, we invite those of you who were touched by Dad’s fire to share with us your personal recollections and memories of his life. This will lift our spirits.
UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-related emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical
Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.
Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed product can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.
Continue reading...Colleagues and students query role of Jody Freeman, who won prestigious research grant despite sitting on ConocoPhillips board
An eminent Harvard environmental law professor’s links to the fossil fuel industry are under scrutiny from colleagues and students after she was awarded a prestigious research grant to investigate corporate climate pledges.
Jody Freeman, founding director of Harvard’s environmental and energy law program and former Obama-era White House advisor, is a paid board member of ConocoPhillips – a Fortune 500 American multinational oil and gas company that was ranked the 13th most polluting in the world by a Guardian investigation in 2019. The firm’s controversial Willow drilling project in Alaska was recently approved by the Biden administration.
Continue reading...Rangers work to avoid repeat of last year’s devastating losses in breeding seabird colonies on the islands off the Northumberland coast
The Farne Islands will not open to visitors this spring in anticipation of bird flu once again ravaging breeding seabird colonies, after an “unprecedented” spate of deaths last year.
The rocky outcrop of islands off the coast of Northumberland has been looked after by the National Trust since 1925 and there are no previous records of so many endangered seabirds dying at once. More than 6,000 carcasses were picked up last year, which is believed to be the tip of the iceberg compared with how many birds would have died in total.
Continue reading...Lib Dems call for Thérèse Coffey to resign after raw discharges sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year
Keir Starmer has accused the government of “turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer”, as data showed raw discharges were sent into English rivers 825 times a day last year.
Private water companies have been consistently accused of failing to take action, and the Environment Agency admitted there were more than 300,000 spillages into rivers and coastal areas in 2022, lasting for more than 1.75m hours.
Continue reading...Men staged protest in City of London in October 2021, which included one gluing head to road to block traffic
Four climate protesters, including a man who glued his head to the road in order to block traffic in central London, have escaped jail terms.
Matthew Tulley, 44, Ben Taylor, 38, George Burrow, 68 and Anthony Hill, 72, staged a protest between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street in the City of London on 25 October 2021. They were convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Inner London crown court. All four represented themselves.
Continue reading...Tests show recycled concrete could safely be used in new buildings in war- and quake-stricken country
Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.
Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.
Continue reading...Peter and Jane Harris were also ordered to pay almost $500,000 in legal costs after two unsuccessful appeal attempts
Two prominent New South Wales irrigators have been ordered to pay more than $500,000 in fines and legal costs for illegally taking almost 2bn litres of water from the Barwon-Darling River system in 2016.
Cotton farmers Peter and Jane Harris were fined $60,000 in a judgment handed down by the land and environment court on Tuesday for taking 1,896.17 megalitres from the Barwon River, at the head of the Darling River, between 22 and 27 June 2016 in contravention of the conditions of the relevant water licence.
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Continue reading...Environmentalists question high grade given to JBS and accuse it of deforestation in the Amazon and under-reporting emissions
The award of an A-minus sustainability grade to the world’s biggest meat company has raised eyebrows and kicked off a debate about the rating system for environmental and social governance.
Brazilian meat company JBS has previously been linked to deforestation in the Amazon, where its slaughterhouses process beef from ranches carved out of the Amazon, Cerrado and other biomes. But in the latest Climate Change Report by the influential rating organisation CDP, the multinational got a grade of A- for its efforts to tackle climate change – up from B in the previous assessment – and was given a “leadership” status award.
Continue reading...Backlash prompts companies to give residents option of keeping natural gas rather than joining pilot project
Energy firms will no longer force people in a village in Cheshire to stop heating and cooking with natural gas and swap to lower-carbon hydrogen after a local backlash to a planned government-backed pilot.
British Gas and Cadent had been prepared to cut off gas supplies to nearly 2,000 homes in the village of Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port on the south bank of the Mersey, as part of their proposals to create the UK’s first hydrogen-fuelled village.
Continue reading...UK’s 1,000-page plan criticised as doing ‘little to boost energy security, lower bills or meet climate goals’
The UK’s new energy plan unveiled on Thursday is a missed opportunity full of “half-baked, half-hearted” policies that do not go far enough to power Britain’s climate goals, according to green business groups and academics.
The 1,000-page strategy has been criticised by many within Britain’s green sectors who fear the country could surrender its leading role in climate action because of the government’s “business as usual” approach to delivering green investments.
Continue reading...Deal between Labor government and Greens requires total emissions from big industrial sites to come down, not just be offset
Australia’s parliament has passed the country’s most significant emissions reduction legislation in more than a decade after the government won backing from Greens and independent MPs for a plan to deal with pollution from major industrial sites.
After weeks of closed-door negotiation, a deal was brokered between the Labor government and Greens, a minor party with 15 parliamentarians, that included legislating an explicit requirement that total emissions from major industrial facilities must come down, not just be offset.
Continue reading...UK tops all league tables for highly polluting form of travel, with a flight taking off every six minutes last year
The UK is the private jet capital of Europe, with more flights than anywhere else on the continent, analysis has found.
Last year, a private jet set off from the UK once every six minutes, putting the country ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to the extremely polluting form of travel. Many of these journeys have been called “polluting and pointless” by Greenpeace, as they are so short they could have easily been taken by train – and in one case, cycled in 30 minutes.
Continue reading...Group of Swiss women and French ex-mayor suing their governments in first such cases heard by rights court
The governments of Switzerland and France have been accused of breaching the human rights of their citizens by not acting decisively enough on climate change, at a landmark legal hearing in Strasbourg.
A panel of judges at the European court of human rights heard petitions from a group of Swiss women and a French former mayor seeking to bolster climate action in their countries. Although climate litigation has spread quickly around the world, these are the first such cases to be heard by the ECHR.
Continue reading...Minister says aim is to ‘safeguard our nation’s heritage’ but campaigners say artificial meat holds promise
The Italian government has approved a draft law that would ban food grown in laboratories, including artificial meat, as it seeks to “safeguard our nation’s heritage”.
Under the ban, which needs to be passed in both houses of parliament, those who produce, export or import food grown from animal cells would face fines of up to €60,000 and risk having their manufacturing plants closed.
Continue reading...Commission appointments must be signed off by the governor general. Follow live
Sorry – I am told by a couple of senators that it was “technically” 4.13am.
So expect to see a few bleary-eyed senators in the coffee lines this morning.
Continue reading...Pacific nation is sponsoring resolution that will ask ICJ to rule on consequences for climate inaction
Last month, twin cyclones tore through Port Vila, the capital of the Pacific nation of Vanuatu. The category-four storms left corrugated iron roofs crumpled like leftover wrapping paper, flooded the streets with waste-ridden mud, cut residents off from water and electricity for several days, and sent many fleeing to hastily established evacuation centres.
Devastation of this sort is becoming more common throughout the Pacific, where rising sea levels are leaving shorelines increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather made more intense by climate change.
Continue reading...Residents show skepticism to officials insisting tap water is uncontaminated after chemical spill in the Delaware River
Residents in Philadelphia and nearby have been buying bottled water after a chemical spill upstream in the Delaware River in neighboring Bucks county, despite officials latest advisory insisting tap water was safe to drink at least up to midnight Monday.
The concerns came after a leak late Friday evening at the Trinseo Altuglas chemical facility in Bristol Township spilled between 8,100 and 12,000 gallons of a water-based latex finishing solution into the river, Bucks county health officials said Sunday.
Continue reading...Berlin secures concessions over future use of e-fuels after going back on agreement struck last year
EU ministers are expected to approve a draft law on emissions standards for cars on Tuesday, after reaching a deal with Germany over the weekend that ended a damaging row over a key part of Europe’s green deal.
Pascal Canfin, a French centrist MEP who chairs the European parliament’s environment committee, said an EU law that all cars sold from 2035 must produce zero emissions “will be voted unchanged, including by Germany” on Tuesday.
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