Category Archives: Environment

‘It’s not as carbon-hungry’: UK’s largest sunlit vertical farm begins harvest

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In a greenhouse in Worcestershire, Shockingly Fresh grows towers of leafy veg for supermarket shelves

The largest naturally lit vertical farm in Britain has begun harvesting and the creators plan to build 40 more.

It looks nothing like a traditional farm, with bright white towers of leafy green vegetables stacked as high as the eye can see. But Shockingly Fresh’s first giant greenhouse, in Offenham, Worcestershire, is harvesting thousands of bunches of pak choi and lettuce destined for supermarket shelves. The farm is suited to a variety of leafy greens, as well as strawberries and herbs.

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Malcolm Turnbull on Murdoch, lies and the climate crisis: ‘The same forces that enabled Trump are at work in Australia’

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Systematic partisan lying and misinformation from the media, both mainstream and social, has done enormous damage to liberal democracies, the former PM writes

The United States has suffered the largest number of Covid-19 deaths: about 600,000 at the time of writing. The same political and media players who deny the reality of global warming also denied and politicised the Covid-19 virus.

To his credit, Donald Trump poured billions into Operation Warp Speed, which assisted the development of vaccines in a timeframe that matched the program’s ambitious title. But he also downplayed the gravity of Covid-19, then peddled quack therapies and mocked cities that mandated social distancing and mask wearing.

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Cop26 corporate sponsors condemn climate summit as ‘mismanaged’

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Exclusive: NatWest, Microsoft and GSK among firms to raise complaint over poor planning and breakdown in relations

Companies that stumped up millions of pounds to sponsor the Cop26 climate summit have condemned it as “mismanaged” and “very last minute” in a volley of complaints as next month’s event in Glasgow draws near.

The sponsors, which include some of Britain’s biggest companies, have raised formal complaints blaming “very inexperienced” civil servants for delayed decisions, poor communication and a breakdown in relations between the organisers and firms in the run-up to the landmark talks.

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Gen Z on how to save the world: young climate activists speak out

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With courage and ambition, those born into the reality of global heating are leading the way in confronting it. Ahead of the crucial Cop26 conference, we talk to young activists around the world. Introduction by author Olivia Laing

When I was 20, I dropped out of university to live on a road protest. I was terrified by the oncoming apocalypse of climate change, and loathed the short-term, environmentally catastrophic logic that prioritised road-building over trees. The data, even in 1997, was clear: human activity was heating the globe, with increasingly devastating effects. Time was short, and a sea change in behaviour was required.

Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since then, and very little has been achieved, thanks in large part to corporate interests invested in maintaining our dependence on non-renewable resources. Far more people understand and accept the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and yet we seem paralysed by despair, caught in a spell of inertia, even as the most lurid of predictions – floods, fires, plagues – come to pass.

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A herd of ‘cocaine hippos’ from Pablo Escobar’s private zoo are being sterilized

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The 80-strong bloat, originally part of the Colombian drug lord’s estate, present an environmental concern as an invasive species

A group of rampant hippopotamuses, introduced by the late Colombia drug lord Pablo Escobar to his private zoo, are being sterilized by the country’s wildlife services, after mounting concern that the 80-strong herd presented a potential environmental disaster as an invasive species.

The so-called “cocaine hippos”, whose number has more than doubled since 2012, were sterilized after worries have mounted over their environmental impact, including a threat to human safety.

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Eco-friendly, lab-grown coffee is on the way, but it comes with a catch

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Beanless brews can cut deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions dramatically – but what will happen to workers in traditional coffee-growing regions?

Heiko Rischer isn’t quite sure how to describe the taste of lab-grown coffee. This summer he sampled one of the first batches in the world produced from cell cultures rather than coffee beans.

“To describe it is difficult but, for me, it was in between a coffee and a black tea,” said Rischer, head of plant biotechnology at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which developed the coffee. “It depends really on the roasting grade, and this was a bit of a lighter roast, so it had a little bit more of a tea-like sensation.”

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Boris Johnson’s climate credibility at stake in run-up to Cop26 summit

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Campaigners fear net zero strategy is being hamstrung by Rishi Sunak, who refuses to provide adequate funding

Boris Johnson faces a significant test of his leadership before the Cop26 climate summit as the chancellor and business secretary are at war over the imminent plan for reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions.

The government is poised to publish its long-awaited net zero strategy on Monday, setting out how the UK will meet its targets to cut CO2 emissions by 78% by 2035 and reach net zero by 2050. This will also include the heat and buildings strategy for insulating draughty homes and phasing out gas boilers, along with a massive expansion of offshore wind, and building electric vehicle charging networks.

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Diplomats in last-ditch effort to bring world leaders to Cop26 table

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As attendance of President Xi of China hangs in balance, UK and US launch frantic round of meetings

The UK, the US and the EU are embarking on a frantic round of climate diplomacy in a last-ditch attempt to bring key countries into a deal on greenhouse gas emissions before the Cop26 climate summit.

Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister who will preside over the talks, has meetings planned with representatives of China after questions were raised over whether the president, Xi Jinping, would attend Cop26 in person, as well as the other G20 big emitters yet to produce plans on emission cuts before the summit, which opens in Glasgow on 31 October.

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‘It comes from bacteria, and goes back to bacteria’: the future of plastic alternatives

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Making a biodegradable material strong enough to replace plastic is a tough task. But scientists are trying to do just that

When people think about plastic waste, they often think of the packaging that swaddles supermarket fruits and vegetables – shiny layers that are stripped away and thrown in the bin as soon as the produce is unloaded at home.

It’s a wasteful cycle that California-based company Apeel says it can help end. The firm has developed an edible, tasteless and invisible plant-based spray for fruits and vegetables that works as a barrier to keep oxygen out and moisture in, increasing shelf life without the need for single-use plastic.

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Students’ solar-powered camper van turns heads on 1,800-mile road trip

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Dutch team designed and built two-person van with kitchen, bed, shower, loo and range of up to 450 miles a day

A team of students from the Netherlands are due to complete an 1,800-mile (3,000km) road trip across western Europe in a solar-powered camper van that they designed and built themselves.

The Stella Vita is designed for two passengers and has a kitchen, sitting area, bed, shower and toilet. Using solar energy alone, the vehicle can cover up to 450 miles on a sunny day, reaching a top speed of 75mph, as well as powering all the inside amenities, a TV and a laptop.

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In Samoa we are born into land, climate change threatens to take it away from us

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Everyone in the Pacific has stories of times the climate crisis hit our lives. For me, it is the birth of my daughter between cyclones

My daughter was born between cyclones.

It was January 2013, and as we drove to the hospital, we passed the wreckage left by Cyclone Evan which had devastated my home island weeks earlier. Evan had been the worst tropical cyclone to hit Samoa in over two decades. There were huge holes in the road. Debris where homes once stood.

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Kenya rejects UN court judgment giving Somalia control of resource-rich waters

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ICJ ruling aggravates fractious relations between two countries and threatens to destabilise restive region

Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has rejected a decision by the UN’s highest court to grant Somalia control of disputed waters in the Indian Ocean, saying it would “strain relations” between the neighbouring countries.

The president accused the international court of justice of imposing its authority on a dispute “it had neither jurisdiction nor competence” to oversee after it delineated a new boundary that gives Somalia territorial rights over a large portion of the ocean, which is thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves. According to the new maritime border, Somalia has gained several offshore oil exploration blocks previously claimed by Kenya.

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Prince William criticises space race and tourism’s new frontier

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Duke of Cambridge says world’s greatest minds need to focus on trying to fix the Earth instead

The Duke of Cambridge has criticised the space race and space tourism, saying the world’s greatest minds need to focus on trying to fix the Earth instead.

Prince William’s comments, in an interview with Newscast on BBC Sounds, will be aired the day after William Shatner made history by becoming the oldest person in space.

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Isn’t it good, Swedish plywood: the miraculous eco-town with a 20-storey wooden skyscraper

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Skellefteå has wooden schools, bridges, even car parks. And now it has one of the world’s tallest wooden buildings. We visit Sweden to see what a climate-conscious future looks like

As you come in to land at Skellefteå airport in the far north of Sweden, you are greeted by a wooden air traffic control tower poking up from an endless forest of pine and spruce. After boarding a biogas bus into town, you glide past wooden apartment blocks and wooden schools, cross a wooden road bridge and pass a wooden multistorey car park, before finally reaching the centre, now home to one of the tallest new wooden buildings in the world.

“We are not the wood Taliban,” says Bo Wikström, from Skellefteå’s tourism agency, as he leads a group of visitors on a “wood safari” of its buildings. “Other materials are allowed.” But why build in anything else – when you’re surrounded by 480,000 hectares of forest?

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Biden officials announce ambitious plan to dot US coastline with wind farms

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  • Farms envisaged on east coast, west coast and Gulf of Mexico
  • Biden aims to generate enough power for 10m homes by 2030

Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration.

The projects are part of Joe Biden’s plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.

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Don’t drink from tap, Canadian city says, as gasoline suspected in water supply

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State of emergency in Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut territory, as officials say they are testing water for petroleum hydrocarbons

Officials in Canada’s northernmost capital have declared a local state of emergency after finding possible evidence of gasoline in the city’s tap water.

Residents of Iqaluit, the capital of the Arctic territory of Nunavut, have been told not to drink, boil or cook with the city’s water.

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Will China’s plan to build more coal plants derail Cop26?

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Analysis: while the short-term consequences are grim, veteran analysts talk of a wobble rather than a fall

China’s decision to build more coal plants is a setback for climate action, but analysts say it could still meet its long-term emission reduction targets and may even have scope to raise its ambition at Cop26 in Glasgow.

In recent days, Beijing has announced a buildup of coal capacity to address the most severe power cuts in a decade, which have caused rolling blackouts in half its provinces.

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Huge leatherback sea turtle stranded on Cape Cod rescued by volunteers – video

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A leatherback sea turtle has been returned to the ocean after becoming stranded on a mudflat in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, US. It took dozens of volunteers from three conservation organisations to free the 270kg reptile. After a health assessment confirmed the disorientated turtle was in good health, it was released to cheers from the crowd of volunteers. The turtle was fitted with a tracking device that will monitor its migration patterns over the next decade


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UK, US, China: how the world’s carbon ‘centre of gravity’ moved over 200 years

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The geographic centre of the world’s carbon emissions used to sit atop the UK. Now it sits squarely over China

A new Guardian visualisation reveals how the “centre of gravity” of global emissions has moved over the past 200 years.

The analysis shows how the geographic centre of the world’s carbon emissions used to sit directly atop the UK before being pulled westwards by the US and back towards the east by the rise of China.

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