Category Archives: Environment

More than 100 nations take action to save oceans from human harm

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Envoys at Brest summit sign up to measures to tackle fight against illegal fishing and cut pollution

Representatives from more than 100 countries have committed to measures aimed at preserving the ocean from human harm, including stepping up the fight against illegal fishing, cutting plastic pollution and better protecting international waters.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, hosting the high-level session of the One Ocean summit on Friday, said 2022 was “a decisive year, and we should take here, in Brest, clear and firm commitments.”

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Greta Thunberg condemns UK firm’s plans for iron mine on Sami land

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Beowulf Mining ‘hopeful’ for decision on mine in Sápmi despite opposition from activist, UN and Swedish church

A British company has fallen foul of Greta Thunberg, Unesco, Sweden’s national church, and the indigenous people in the north of the country over plans for an open-pit mine on historical Sami reindeer-herding lands.

The clamour of opposition was voiced as Beowulf Mining, headquartered in the City of London, suggested it was “hopeful” of a decision within weeks of a 5 sq mile iron-ore mine in an area where Sami communities have lived for thousands of years.

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Good riddance to the koala bear, Australia’s most useless animal! | First Dog on the Moon

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The best thing about recovery plans is nobody pays any attention except for a few greenists and weary scientists

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Triangle tower: building starts on rare Paris skyscraper decried as ‘catastrophe’

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At 180 metres tall, pyramid-shaped glass and steel skyscraper will be city’s third-highest building

Construction of a 42-floor, pyramid-shaped skyscraper began in Paris on Thursday despite local opposition and objections from environmentalists who have called the project “catastrophic”.

The Triangle Tower (Tour Triangle) will, at 180 metres (590ft), become the city’s third-highest building after the Eiffel Tower, completed in 1889, and the Montparnasse Tower, which opened in 1973.

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Amnesty granted to illegal Spanish strawberry farmers despite protests over damage to wetlands

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Andalucían decision to ‘regularise’ land near Doñana national park attacked by ecology groups

Rightwing MPs in southern Spain have ignored protests from the central government, the EU, Unesco and several ecological groups by voting to grant an amnesty to illegal strawberry farmers who have been tapping water from the aquifer that feeds one of Europe’s largest protected wetlands.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Andalucían regional parliament approved the proposal, which will “regularise” 1,461 hectares (3610 acres) of land near the Doñana national park, thereby allowing farmers who have sunk illegal wells and built illicit plantations on the land to legitimise their operations.

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‘Loophole’ allowing for deforestation on soya farms in Brazil’s Amazon

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Satellite data shows rainforest cleared for cattle and maize on farms growing soya, undermining claims crop is deforestation-free

More than 400 sq miles (1,000 sq km) of Amazon rainforest has been felled to expand farms growing soya in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in a 10-year period, despite an agreement to protect it, according to a new investigation.

In 2006, the landmark Amazon soy moratorium was introduced banning the sale of soya grown on land deforested after 2008. From 2004 to 2012, the clearing of trees in the Amazon fell by 84%.

But in recent years deforestation has climbed steeply, reaching a 15-year high last year – encouraged, campaigners say, by President Jair Bolsonaro’s anti-conservationist rhetoric and policies.

With the moratorium applying only to soya, farmers have been able to sell the crop as deforestation-free, while still clearing land for cattle, maize or other commodities.

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UN rapporteur ‘appalled’ by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine

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Legal and human rights experts condemn decision to find six activists guilty of crimes against mining company

Six Honduran environmentalists have been found guilty of crimes against a mining company, in a case widely condemned by legal and human rights experts.

The activists, from the small community of Guapinol, have been held in pre-trial detention for two and a half years after opposing an iron oxide mine which has polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people.

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Wanted lost species: blind salamander, tap-dancing spider and ‘fat’ catfish

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A Texas-based group has drawn up a new list of as part of its quest to find species lost to science and possibly extinct

A blind salamander, a tap-dancing spider and a “fat” catfish that has been likened to the Michelin man are among a list of vanished species that one US-based conservation group is aiming to rediscover in the wild and help protect.

The Texas-based group, called Re:wild, has drawn up a new list of the “25 most wanted lost species” as part of its quest to find species lost to science and possibly extinct.

This article was amended on 9 February 2022 to clarify that a fungus is not a type of plant.

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Award-winning Vietnamese environmentalist arrested as rights groups fear ‘clamp down’

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Green energy activist Nguy Thi Khanh, recipient of the Goldman prize, is latest activist to be detained on tax-related charges

Nguy Thi Khanh, Vietnam’s first recipient of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize, has been arrested on tax evasion charges.

The founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre was detained last month, but her detention was confirmed by state media on Wednesday.

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Nuclear fusion heat record a ‘huge step’ in quest for new energy source

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Oxfordshire scientists’ feat raises hopes of using reactions that power sun for low-carbon energy

The prospect of harnessing the power of the stars has moved a step closer to reality after scientists set a new record for the amount of energy released in a sustained fusion reaction.

Researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET), a fusion experiment in Oxfordshire, generated 59 megajoules of heat – equivalent to about 14kg of TNT – during a five-second burst of fusion, more than doubling the previous record of 21.7 megajoules set in 1997 by the same facility.

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Can bitcoin be sustainable? Inside the Norwegian mine that also dries wood

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Kryptovault’s operation is part of a fightback against criticism of the famously energy-intensive industry

A line of large blue skips full of chopped wood sit at the back of a site belonging to Norway’s biggest bitcoin mining operation, a 5,000 sq metre warehouse on the outskirts of Hønefoss, a small town 40 miles west of Oslo.

Hot air is being pumped into the 12 skips through bendy corrugated pipes curling out from the warehouse. Despite the snow, it will take a few days for the logs to be dried out, after which a local lumberjack, grateful for the free service, will take them away for sale.

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‘Blue diplomacy’: France summit puts world’s spotlight on oceans

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As One Ocean event in Brest aims to deliver action in areas from pollution to overfishing, activists warn against ‘bluewashing’

Up to 40 world leaders are due to make “ambitious and concrete commitments” towards combating illegal fishing, decarbonising shipping and reducing plastic pollution at what is billed as the first high-level summit dedicated to the ocean.

One Ocean summit, which opens on Wednesday in the French port of Brest, aims to mobilise “unprecedented international political engagement” for a wide range of pressing maritime issues, said its chief organiser, Olivier Poivre d’Arvor.

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Indonesia crocodile freed from tyre after five years

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Dozens of people drag 5.2-metre animal to shore and cut tyre from its neck after it was snared by bird-seller

A wild crocodile in Indonesia that was trapped in a tyre for more than five years has been rescued, freed from its rubber ring and released back into the wild.

Conservation workers have been trying to lure the stricken saltwater crocodile from a river since 2016, after residents of Palu city on Sulawesi island spotted the animal with a motorbike tyre wrapped around its neck.

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Court halts land clearance on edge of protected park in Zambia

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Conservationists welcome interim injunction to stop farm development they say threatens migration of 10 million fruit bats

Conservationists in Zambia have hailed a high court injunction preventing deforestation and commercial agriculture on the edge of Kasanka national park, which they say threatens the world’s biggest mammal migration.

Every October, about 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on the swamps of Kasanka from across Africa and beyond. They feast on fruit in and around the park, one of Zambia’s smallest but under the highest level of protection, dispersing seeds across the continent on their epic journey.

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Skinny spud latte to go? Potato milk hits UK supermarket shelves

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Dairy alternative goes on sale at Waitrose this week, the latest offering in a booming alt-milk market worth £400m a year

First came soya, nut and then oat but the new challenger to the plant milk crown is the humble spud as potato milk arrives on UK supermarket shelves.

Described as “deliciously creamy” and capable of producing the “perfect foam” for a homemade latte or cappuccino, the Swedish potato milk brand Dug goes on sale in 220 Waitrose stores this week.

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Deluge of dog pee and poo harming nature reserves, study suggests

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Urine and faeces creating nitrogen and phosphorus levels that would be illegal on farms, scientists calculate

Dog faeces and urine are being deposited in nature reserves in such quantities that it is likely to be damaging wildlife, according to a new study.

The analysis found that the resulting overfertilisation of the ground with nitrogen and phosphorus by footpaths could reach levels that would be illegal on farmland.

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Tracking echidna poo unearths largest ever sightings of elusive species across Australia

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Researchers and citizen scientists found the animal to be active in every state and territory, even in densely populated cities

Citizen scientists have helped researchers track Australia’s widespread but elusive echidna population – and their poo – to discover the spiny mammal is more the man about town than realised.

Never before considered an “urban” native like common ringtail possums or brush turkeys, their apparent prolificacy in metropolitan areas suggest echidnas should be taken into consideration when establishing biodiversity policies in cities, researchers say.

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Australians ingest a credit card’s worth of plastic a week – so what’s it doing to us?

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Citizen science project mapping microplastics menace in hope of halting spread

Head down to Sydney’s Manly Cove on a weekend, and you might see groups of people crouching diligently on the sand. They’re not searching for shells or bloodworms, but something just as visually striking, not least because it shouldn’t be there: coloured pieces of hard plastic, fragments of polystyrene foam and fibres from fishing line.

For the last three years, a group of volunteers has been surveying the beach each month for microplastics, as part of the Australian Microplastics Assessment Project.

Colloquially known as Ausmap, the citizen science project has collected more than 3.5m pieces of microplastic from more than 300 beaches around the country, ranging from Thursday Island in the north to Bruny Island, off Tasmania’s south-east coast.

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How ‘super-enzymes’ that eat plastics could curb our waste problem

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Nudged along by scientists and evolution, micro-organisms that digest plastics have the potential to create an efficient method of recycling

Beaches littered with plastic bottles and wrappers. Marine turtles, their stomachs filled with fragments of plastic. Plastic fishing nets dumped at sea where they can throttle unsuspecting animals. And far out in the Pacific Ocean, an expanse of water more than twice the size of France littered with plastic waste weighing at least 79,000 tonnes.

The plastic pollution problem is distressingly familiar, but many organisations are working to reduce it. Alongside familiar solutions such as recycling, a surprising ally has emerged: micro-organisms. A handful of microbes have evolved the ability to “eat” certain plastics, breaking them down into their component molecules. These tiny organisms could soon play a key role in reducing plastic waste and building a greener economy.

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‘It’s a rubbish bin’: Parisians fight for the soul of their blighted city

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Angry residents have rallied to a campaign against the ‘trashing’ of the capital. Some blame mayor Anne Hidalgo while others see the protests as a far-right ploy

In the middle of Paris’s third Covid lockdown last March, a hashtag appeared on Twitter with a photo of a lock on the Canal Saint-Martin that runs through the north of the city clogged with litter, plastic bags and bottles.

Images of Paris looking worse for wear are nothing new but, within days, dozens of pictures of overflowing bins, broken pavements and graffiti-covered walls appeared with the same hashtag – #SaccageParis – which roughly translates as Trashed Paris.

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