Category Archives: Environment

UK climate minister received donations from fuel and aviation companies

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Exclusive: Graham Stuart received £12,000 towards campaign from fuel distributor and aviation consultant

The UK climate minister – who recently stated not all fossil fuels were the “spawn of the devil” – received campaign donations from one of the largest fuel distributors in the UK as well as an aviation consultant and recruiter, it has emerged.

Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, was appointed climate minister by Rishi Sunak in September. He has responsibility for net zero strategy and low carbon generation, and is the Commons lead for clean heat.

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Adani’s Queensland coalmine cited in US investor’s claims of ‘biggest con in corporate history’

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Scathing allegations, which company rejects as ‘baseless’, will hamper access to Wall Street but surging coal price will ease burden, experts say

The ability of Adani Group to raise money will be curbed after scathing allegations in a report by an activist US short-seller, although surging coal prices that underpin the Indian conglomerate’s contentious Queensland operations will help alleviate some pressure, analysts say.

Adani, which operates the Carmichael coal and rail project via its rebranded subsidiary Bravus, is the target of US investment firm Hindenburg Research, which alleges the company has engaged in a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme”.

A private company called Carmichael Rail and Port Singapore Holdings with ties to Adani paid A$147m for unspecified “work in progress” assets from the Australian operations, without a detailed description.

The same private company paid A$155m for the right to use the rail facilities at the Queensland operation.

The private Carmichael company also received A$100m from an Adani subsidiary to pay off debt.

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Azerbaijan sues Armenia for wartime environmental damage

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Case brought under Bern convention on nature may set precedent for destruction of biodiversity in war

Azerbaijan has launched a landmark legal challenge against Armenia for allegedly destroying its environment and biodiversity during nearly three decades of occupation of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

An international tribunal will consider evidence of widespread environmental destruction during the conflict between the two nations, including deforestation and pollution, and will be asked to order Armenia to pay reparations.

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Bangkok air pollution prompts advice to work from home

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Thai capital’s already bad air made worse by forest fires and burning on farms

People in Bangkok have been advised to work from home and wear face masks due to air pollution that has worsened to unhealthy levels.

Officials urged people to use public transport rather than private cars for commuting, and said the authorities would seek to reduce sources of pollution such as outdoor burning and construction activities. Face masks would be distributed to vulnerable people, Bangkok authorities said.

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Unusual sightings of the Asian koel in Melbourne raise mysteries for migration researchers

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Increase in reports of the koel and its loud mating call south of its usual territory may be attributable to climate change, scientists say

Climate change may be one reason why the so-called devil bird – known for its incessant late-night mating call – has become more common in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, according to researchers.

The koel, a migratory bird, usually arrives in Australia from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to breed from late September to early October, when the male will sing his advertising call day and night to attract a female.

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Celebrities call on UK banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coalfields

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Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance add their voices to Richard Curtis’s Make My Money Matter campaign

Famous names including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance have joined activists and businesses in calling on the UK’s big five banks to stop financing new oil, gas and coal expansion.

Make My Money Matter, a campaign set up by Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, director and Comic Relief co-founder, has written to the chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds to urge these banks to “stop financing fossil fuel expansion”.

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Endangered shark sold as flake in South Australia fish and chip shops, study finds

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Calls for better food labelling as investigation claims that only around one-third of fish is flake, with served species including rare narrownose smooth-hound

Fish and chip shop customers in South Australia are eating threatened and imported shark species labelled as “flake” with less than a third of servings meeting seafood labelling standards, according to an investigation by the University of Adelaide.

The Australian Fish Names Standard says only two types of shark – gummy shark and New Zealand rig – should be sold as flake in Australia.

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Thames Water’s real-time map confirms raw sewage discharges

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Effluent in Gloucestershire river pinpointed by digital map as water companies accused of routinely pumping out waste to rivers

The market town of Fairford, nestling in the Cotswold hills, is perhaps best known for its church, which has the only complete set of mediaeval stained glass windows in England.

But thanks to a more modern phenomenon, an interactive digital map produced by Thames Water, the Gloucestershire town, with its traditional honey coloured limestone houses, is becoming better known for its continuous, gushing, raw sewage overflow.

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Jair Bolsonaro accused of acts of genocide against Amazonian group

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Brazilian president says predecessor emboldened wildcat miners which led to wrecked forests and disease and death among Indigenous people

Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon, amid public outrage over a humanitarian catastrophe in the country’s largest Indigenous territory.

Lula visited the Amazon state of Roraima on Saturday to denounce the plight of the Yanomami, whose supposedly protected lands have been plunged into crisis by government neglect and the explosion of illegal mining.

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Climate crisis and neglect threaten Spain’s saffron crop

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Growers fear a perfect storm for a tradition that has long bound rural communities together

A sharp wind shunts clouds across the low and endless skies of La Mancha as Carlos Fernández stoops to pluck the last mauve flowers of the season from the cold earth. Their petals, which stain his index finger and thumb blue, enclose an almost weightless prize whose crimson threads are treasured in Spain and across the world.

But despite the prices his crop fetches, and the weighty comparisons those prices inevitably invite, the life of a saffron grower is not without its trials, travails and frustrations.

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Landmark deals give Indigenous key role in Canada resource projects

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YQT community signs unprecedented agreement with coal company giving Indigenous leadership ‘veto’ on proposed project

Two landmark deals in western Canada could reshape the role of Indigenous nations in resource development projects, placing greater power in the hands of groups that have long been excluded and signalling a possible shift in how industry and governments negotiate with communities on the frontlines of environmental degradation.

In recent years, a string of fierce battles over pipelines have put a spotlight on the fractious nature of resource extraction projects, often pitting First Nations communities against powerful companies.

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Thousands march across Dartmoor to demand right to wild camp

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More than 3,000 people protest on estate of Alexander Darwall after his court victory ends right to wild camp in England

More than 3,000 people joined one of the UK’s largest ever countryside access protests on Saturday on the Dartmoor estate of a wealthy landowner who won a case ending the right to wild camp in England.

Groups of walkers, families, students and local people arrived by foot, shuttle bus and bike to the small Dartmoor village of Cornwood throughout the morning and then thronged for hours along moss- and ivy-draped lanes up on to the rugged, boulder-strewn moorland owned by the Conservative party donor and hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall.

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Is it time to turn western Sydney into a city of fountains? It might help beat the heat

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A combination of water technologies and cool building materials are more effective at tackling urban heat than greenery, a study has found

The secret to more livable, cooler Australian cities may lie with the ancient Romans and a network of fountains like the Trevi and those in Piazza Navona, a new report on tackling urban heat has found.

Rome has a network of 2,000 fountains which draw huge crowds daily to enjoy their cooling effects in the dense city.

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Delight as dolphins spotted in New York’s Bronx River

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Encouraging sign for river that suffered as dumping ground for waste from nearby factories

Dolphins have been spotted frolicking in New York City’s Bronx River, an encouraging sign of the improving health of a waterway that was for many years befouled as a sewer for industrial waste.

A pair of dolphins was seen gliding through the river’s waters on Monday, the New York City parks department confirmed, near a small park in the city’s Bronx borough. The Bronx river rises north of New York City and cuts through the Bronx before terminating in the East River, the estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.

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Labour’s Rachel Reeves aiming to be ‘Britain’s first green chancellor’

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Frontbencher to call for more help with energy bills for householders and to promise massive green power programme

Rachel Reeves has said she wants to be “Britain’s first green chancellor” ahead of a speech in which she will call on ministers to extend relief on energy bills and promise that Labour will reduce these in the longer term with a massive green power programme.

Addressing the Fabian Society conference on Saturday, the shadow chancellor is to argue that investment in renewable energies, plus a huge programme to retrofit insulation to homes – part of Labour’s flagship £28bn-a-year investment in climate measures – could save households up to £1,400 off annual bills each year.

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Colombia announces halt on fossil fuel exploration for a greener economy

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The minister for mines, Irene Vélez, told world leaders the country will shift away from fossil fuels to begin a sustainable chapter

Colombia’s leftwing government has announced that it will not approve any new oil and gas exploration projects as it seeks to shift away from fossil fuels and toward a new sustainable economy.

Irene Vélez, the minister for mines told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the time had come for the Andean nation to move away from its reliance on oil and gas and begin a new, greener chapter in the country’s history.

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Missing Mexican environmentalists’ families accuse mining company

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Relatives denounce transnational Ternium over case of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and Indigenous leader Antonio Díaz Valencia

Relatives of two missing Mexican environmentalists are pointing the finger at a transnational mining company which they claim is responsible for environmental destruction and violence in the rural community, and may have links to the criminals who abducted their loved ones.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a renowned human rights lawyer, and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in the state of Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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Wood banks emerge as vital source of heat while US gas bills still on the rise

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Wood banks distribute firewood to people in need as the average US gas bill goes up by 28% this winter

Inflation may be going down in the US, dropping to 6.5% from last month’s 7.1%, but the cost of keeping a home warm this winter is still on the rise. The average gas bill will increase by 28% this winter compared to last, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration.

In some places across the country, people are returning to a surprising source of heat to keep costs down: wood. In areas where wood is more widely available and used for heating – such as forested parts of New England – wood banks are emerging as a vital way to stay warm this winter.

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People exposed to weedkiller chemical have cancer biomarkers in urine – study

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Study measured glyphosate in urine and found high levels associated with signs of oxidative stress

New research by top US government scientists has found that people exposed to the widely used weedkilling chemical glyphosate have biomarkers in their urine linked to the development of cancer and other diseases.

The study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that high levels of the pesticide were associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA.

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What a crock: second Stradbroke Island crocodile sighting confirmed as dugong

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After hours of debate among locals, Queensland’s acting premier Steven Miles declared that rangers had spoken

Queensland’s acting premier has shut down speculation of a second crocodile sighting on North Stradbroke Island, also known as Minjerribah, revealing rangers had declared new footage taken on Friday as showing a dugong.

After reports of a “credible” crocodile sighting on Wednesday, 400km south of its usual habitat range, the island was again in a frenzy on Friday as residents swarmed to One Mile jetty to catch a glimpse of something moving through the water.

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