Category Archives: Environment

‘It’s terrifying’: the English village overwhelmed by landfill stink

Posted on by

For miles around Walleys Quarry in Silverdale, people have reported waking up in the night struggling to breathe

It may have been labelled the country’s smelliest village but it is much more than a bad stench making life miserable for the residents of Silverdale in Staffordshire.

For miles around Walleys Quarry landfill near Newcastle-under-Lyme, people have reported waking up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe, with itchy eyes and sore throats. Those with asthma have had their medication increased, and some have reported nosebleeds.

Continue reading...

Officials suspect Goiat the bear of Catalan livestock attacks

Posted on by

Val d’Aran regional government in Spain believes there are ‘several indications’ animal is responsible

Experts are analysing samples taken from the scenes of four recent attacks on livestock in northern Catalonia to determine whether they herald the return of a brown bear called Goiat who has become notorious for his depredations.

Goiat, who was brought to the region from his native Slovenia in June 2016 as part of an EU project to consolidate the bear population in the Pyrenees, is loathed by many farmers in and around the Val d’Aran because of his taste for sheep, goats and horses.

Continue reading...

California declares drought emergency across vast swath of state

Posted on by

Majority of counties now under emergency declaration as California faces extensive dry spell and dwindling water supply

California has expanded a drought emergency declaration to a large swath of the nation’s most populated state amid “acute water supply shortages” in northern and central parts of California.

The declaration, expanded by Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, now includes 41 of 58 counties, covering 30% of California’s nearly 40 million people. The US drought monitor shows most of the state and the American west is in extensive drought just a few years after California emerged from a punishing multiyear dry spell.

Continue reading...

At least 1m people facing starvation as Madagascar’s drought worsens

Posted on by

People eating termites and clay as UN says acute malnutrition has almost doubled this year in south

Madagascar’s worst drought in 40 years has left more than a million people facing a year of desperate food shortages.

The south of the island will produce less than half its usual harvest in the coming months because of low rains, prolonging a hunger crisis already affecting half the Grand Sud area’s population, the UN estimates.

Continue reading...

David Hockney on joy, longing and spring light: ‘I’m teaching the French how to paint Normandy!’

Posted on by

While enjoying an idyllic lockdown in France, the 83-year-old artist has created perhaps his most important exhibition ever – offering hope to an injured world

‘I think it looks terrific,” says David Hockney. “It’s all on one theme, isn’t it? And there’s not many exhibitions like that, really, a show all about the spring.” The 83-year-old artist is taking a look around his new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London for the first time. He seems happy with it – and rightly so, for it is hypnotic and ravishing. But while I am getting a sneak preview in person, Hockney is here only virtually, his face appearing on two screens, one a giant TV, the other a small laptop.

He is at home, at what he calls his “seven dwarves house” in Normandy, wearing a red, black and white check jacket, a checkerboard tie, a blue-green pullover and round, gold-framed glasses. His kaleidoscopic choice of clothing, challenging the very limits of the video call’s bandwidth, is as vibrant and beguiling as the canvases hanging around us. Hockney has not just painted spring; he has come dressed as it.

Continue reading...

‘The next decade will be all about heat’: can Athens head off climate crisis?

Posted on by

Mayor overseeing a green regeneration in city where temperatures can already surpass 40C

Like every Athens mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis is acutely aware of the illustrious heritage of one of the world’s oldest cities. After all, he says, it is busts of Pericles and his mistress Aspasia that adorn the entrance of the neoclassical town hall. From the windows of his cavernous office, he can glimpse the Parthenon through the jumble of concrete buildings and antennas.

But Bakoyannis prefers to talk about the present, not least his plans for fountains, parks and trees – antidotes to the afflictions of more modern times.

Continue reading...

Not cricket? Scientists suggest bamboo bats are a match for willow

Posted on by

Researchers create bat with similar performance from what they say is cheap and sustainable material

Cricket has been bowled a googly by scientists who have suggested the traditional willow used to make bats could be replaced by bamboo to increase their sustainability and boost the sport’s reach.

“Willow has been the principal material for cricket bats for centuries,” said Dr Darshil Shah at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study.

Continue reading...

Are there too many people? All bets are off

Posted on by

For decades, scientists and economists have been making wagers about the outcome of human population growth. Now, more than ever, their speculations need to be taken seriously

In 2011, when the global population hit 7 billion, economist David Lam and demographer Stan Becker made a bet. Lam predicted food would get cheaper over the next decade, despite continuing population growth. Becker predicted that food prices would go up, because of the damage humans were doing to the planet, which meant that population growth would outstrip food supply. Becker won and, following his wishes, Lam has just written out a cheque for $194 to the Vermont-based nonprofit Population Media Center, which promotes population stabilisation internationally.

$194, about £140, equates to the amount by which a basket containing five food types – oils and fats, cereals, dairy, meat and sugar – and worth on average $1,000 in the decade to 2010, increased in price over the following decade, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index (FFPI) and allowing for inflation.

Continue reading...

On my radar: Fiona Shaw’s cultural highlights

Posted on by

The award-winning actor on the genius of Fritz Lang, the human cost of Homer’s Iliad and where to find the best live music in Ireland

Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1958, Fiona Shaw studied philosophy at University College Cork before training at Rada. Her stage roles have ranged from Sophocles to Shakespeare, Beckett to Brecht; she has won two Olivier awards and directed theatre productions and operas including Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. She has also appeared in numerous films, including My Left Foot and the Harry Potter movies, and television series such as True Blood and Killing Eve, for which she won a Bafta. Her latest film role is in Ammonite, a romantic drama about fossil hunter Mary Anning, now streaming and in cinemas from 17 May.

Continue reading...

Labor renews calls for national integrity commission over Sydney airport offsets

Posted on by

Mark Dreyfus says corruption watchdog needed to investigate government buying $30m in offsets related to new airport

Labor has strengthened its call for a national integrity commission, saying it is needed to investigate the Morrison government’s purchase of more than $30m in environmental offsets related to the development of the western Sydney airport.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, made the call after the New South Wales transport department referred its purchases of $50.6m in offsets from the same western Sydney properties to the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation.

Continue reading...

‘They’re chilling’: endangered condors take up residence outside California woman’s home

Posted on by

More than 15 rare birds, whose population is at about 160 in the state, showed up at Cinda Mickol’s home – and they’ve made a mess

Giant California condors are rare – but not at Cinda Mickols’ home.

More than 15 condors, an endangered bird whose population hovers at around 160 in the state and under 500 in the US, have recently taken a liking to Mickol’s house in Tehachapi – and they’ve made quite a mess.

Continue reading...

Liechtenstein prince accused of shooting Romania’s largest bear

Posted on by

Environmental groups say Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein shot bear, named Arthur, in a protected area

Environmental groups have accused a prince from Liechtenstein’s royal family of shooting and killing the largest bear in Romania, in contravention of a ban on the trophy hunting of large carnivores.

The Romanian NGO Agent Green and the Austrian NGO VGT alleged in a statement that the bear, who was called Arthur, was shot in March in a protected area of the Carpathian Mountains by Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein.

Continue reading...

Floating ‘Wall-E’ scarecrow stops seabirds diving into fishing nets

Posted on by

Googly-eyed device to be tested in gillnet fisheries after study finds it deters long-tailed ducks

Scarecrows may be outstanding in their field, but now scientists have created an unusual floating version that could help reduce the number of vulnerable seabirds caught by fishing nets.

The device, known as a looming-eyes buoy (LEB), and developed in collaboration with engineers from Fishtek Marine, was trialled in Küdema Bay, Saaremaa island, Estonia, on long-tailed ducks. It uses bright eyespots and looming movements to act as a natural deterrent, preventing seabirds from diving into gillnets – vertical nets used in small-scale fisheries in many countries.

Continue reading...

Giant wood moth: ‘very heavy’ insect rarely seen by humans spotted at Australian school

Posted on by

Mammoth moth which can have 25cm wingspan found by builders working on Queensland primary school

A giant moth with a wingspan measuring up to 25cm has been found at a Queensland school next to a rainforest.

Builders found the giant wood moth, the heaviest moth in the world, while constructing new classrooms at Mount Cotton state school.

Continue reading...

Why won’t this giant oil pipeline reveal its secret backers?

Posted on by

Expansion will stretch hundreds miles and is fiercely opposed by numerous groups – but despite repeated calls the Canadian government has not forced the pipeline reveal its insurers

Nestled in the harbors of Vancouver, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation has lived for thousands of years within an inlet set against the mountain views of the Pacific north-west.

But across the water from Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s reserve, less than 2km away, or a little over a mile, is a jarring juxtaposition: an industrial terminal for the large Trans Mountain oil pipeline.

Continue reading...

Melting ice reveals first world war relics in Italian Alps

Posted on by

Accelerating retreat of glaciers in Lombardy and Trentino Alto-Aldige reveals preserved history of ‘White War’

The soldiers dug the wooden barracks into a cave on the top of Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10,154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass. For the next three-and-a-half years, the cramped, humid space was home to about 20 men from the Austro-Hungarian army as they fought against Italian troops in what became known as the White War, a battle waged across treacherous and bitterly cold Alpine terrain during the first world war.

Fought mainly in the Alps of the Lombardy region of Italy and the Dolomites in Trentino Alto-Adige, the White War was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global warming started to reveal an assortment of perfectly preserved relics – weapons, sledges, letters, diaries and, as the retreat of glaciers hastened, the bodies of soldiers.

Continue reading...

Air pollution spikes may impair older men’s thinking, study finds

Posted on by

Even short, temporary increases in airborne particles can damage brain health, research suggests

Temporary rises in air pollution may impair memory and thinking in older men, according to research that indicates even short-term spikes in airborne particles can be harmful to brain health.

Scientists found that the men’s cognitive performance fell following rises in air pollution during the month before testing, even when peak levels remained below safety thresholds for toxic air set by the World Health Organization and national regulators.

Continue reading...

‘Decades ahead of his time’: history catches up with visionary Jimmy Carter

Posted on by

A new film rejects the popular narrative and recasts the former president, 96, as hugely prescient thinker, particularly on climate change

When I reach Jimmy Carter’s grandson by Zoom, he answers wearing a Raphael Warnock campaign T-shirt. Jason Carter is a lawyer and politician himself, mid-40s, animated and well-read, with blue eyes reminiscent of his grandfather’s. He’s just got off the phone with his 93-year-old grandmother, Rosalynn. It’s a special day; Joe Biden is on his way to the Carter house in Plains, Georgia.

“My grandfather has met nearly everyone in the world he might want to,” Jason Carter says. “Right now, he’s meeting with the president of the United States. But the person he’d say he learned the most from was Rachel Clark, an illiterate sharecropper who lived on his family’s farm.

Continue reading...

Iguanas with chips: Florida seeks solution to invasive reptile problem

Posted on by
  • ‘Tag day’ initiative opposed by some owners of exotic pets
  • State official ‘proud that Florida is looked at as a leader’

From Key West’s high-summer Hemingway Days, in which bearded hopefuls vie for the title of best Papa lookalike, to the annual hunt for the elusive (and imaginary) skunk ape, Florida is renowned for its calendar of curiosities.

Related: Toilet-invading iguanas among invasive species now banned in Florida

Continue reading...

Could you wear a dress for 100 days?

Posted on by

When Emma Beddington took part in a challenge to wear the same dress for 100 days, she wasn’t expecting to feel the positive force of sisterhood alongside a few neat cleaning hacks

Could you wear the same thing for 100 days? I could, because I don’t care about clothes. I do not like how they look on me, a 46-year-old woman whose hobbies are cake and sitting still, so I stick to navy or green trousers in summer and black trousers in winter, coupled with plain tops and jumpers. I suppose that could be chic, or ingenious, a Zuckerberg-esque Silicon Valley hack, but it’s neither. It’s just a bit depressing.

Sometimes my best friend sends me links to clothes she likes – slinky silk dresses, pretty tops – and I say, “I can totally imagine you in that.” I can, but I can’t imagine myself in anything other than my tedious uniform. My ugly jumpers and toothpaste-stained trousers are “hate dressing” I fear, a widely reported pandemic phenomenon in which you wear things you do not even like as a sort of fabric protest against the general awfulness of everything.

Continue reading...