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Paper reveals scientists’ concerns that single-species carbon plantations threaten native flora and fauna, while delivering negligible benefits
Monoculture tree-planting schemes are threatening tropical biodiversity while only offering modest climate benefit, ecologists have said, warning that ecosystems like the Amazon and Congo basin are being reduced to their carbon value.
Amid a boom in the planting of single-species plantations to capture carbon, scientists have urged governments to prioritise the conservation and restoration of native forests over commercial monocultures, and cautioned that planting swathes of non-native trees in tropical regions threatens important flora and fauna for a negligible climate impact.
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Rightwing thinktank Civitas mistakenly cost onshore wind power 10,000 times higher than reality and claimed bill would be £4.5tn
A report that hugely overestimated the cost to the UK of reaching net zero emissions has been retracted by the rightwing thinktank that published it.
The Civitas pamphlet published on Thursday claimed to offer a “realistic” estimate of the cost – £4.5tn – and said “the government needs to be honest with the British people”. However, factual errors were quickly pointed out after publication.
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Ideas include making a memorial bench using the timber, seeing what the stump does and planting a forest
There is a big hole at Sycamore Gap on the route of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland after a 300-year-old tree was chopped down. Many are mourning the loss of the world-famous tree but amid the gloom, ideas are flooding in about what to do next. A stone circle, a sculpture of the tree, or a metal replica where it fell have all been floated, and one man even went to a local garden centre and planted a young sapling himself, although this was removed by the National Trust. Here are some of the options.
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Rapid attribution study finds storm 10-20% wetter after city experienced a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours on Friday
The unmistakable influence of the climate crisis helped cause New York City to be inundated by a month’s worth of rain within just a few hours on Friday, scientists have warned, amid concerns over how well the city is prepared for severe climate shocks.
A new rapid attribution study, released by scientists in Europe, has found that the type of storm seen on Friday is now 10-20% wetter than it would have been in the previous century, because of climate change.
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Bleaklow, Derbyshire: The ancient Barrow Stones reveal so much on close inspection, if you unleash your inner whim
It is one of the laws of Homo vehiculus, the wheel-dependent subspecies of our kind, that if you find a roadless patch in Britain you can have the place to yourself. Almost. We were happy to share the whole day on Bleaklow – a name that speaks volumes by itself – with five others. And two of them were at some other, undetermined gritstone edge, on a far horizon.
Our hearts, however, were for the Barrow Stones, the monolith group below Bleaklow Hill and surely the most beautiful in an area not short of such monuments. They’re about an hour’s slow grind across the moors that were traditionally shooting terrain. Despite the map indicating shooters’ butts and a cabin, we heard the distant sounds of a single red grouse during the entire visit, suggesting that both the bird and its followers could fade away in a near future.
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Restore Trust wants its members elected to the charity’s governing council to rid it of its ‘woke agenda’
The National Trust has raised concerns about “political pressure” and defended its right to lobby on nature amid a renewed campaign by a self-styled “anti-woke” group seeking to recruit Conservative MPs to its cause.
The leadership of the UK’s largest charity is facing a fresh challenge at its annual meeting next month from the right-leaning Restore Trust group, whose candidates tried but failed to win seats on the National Trust’s 36-strong governing council last year.
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Exclusive: Bosses who signed letter eight years ago now highly critical of PM’s plans to roll back net zero policies
Business leaders who warned against Ed Miliband in 2015 have now turned on Rishi Sunak, criticising the prime minister’s plans to roll back net zero policies.
Some of Britain’s top entrepreneurs have told the Guardian that the plans have caused uncertainty for business, reduced the country’s international standing and punished investors who made early decisions on net zero based on the original timeline.
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Even if the 2050 goal is still met, postponing action – as the UK has done – will cause more heat and damage
Postponing action and taking a slower route to net zero emissions by 2050 will worsen the climate crisis even if the goal is still reached by that date, the new chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned.
Prof Jim Skea also said that approving new oil and gas fields only increased the already large amount of reserves that will have to be kept in the ground if global heating limits are to be reached.
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Upgrades and plans for 30,000 new jobs depend on adding up to £156 extra a year on bills
Water companies are facing a backlash from campaigners after revealing they will ask customers to pay for a record £96bn investment to fix raw sewage leaks, build new reservoirs and reduce leaks.
The main water and sewerage companies want the regulator, Ofwat, to approve their spending plans for 2025-30, which they say amount to almost doubling the investment into providing clean water, protecting the environment and securing future water resources.
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Kieran Chapman, 27, says removal of young sycamore he planted at site of historic felled tree is ‘devastating’
A man who planted a sapling at the site where the Sycamore Gap tree previously stood at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland has said it is “devastating” that it has been removed.
The National Trust dug up the young sycamore planted by 27-year-old Kieran Chapman metres away from the stump of the historic tree, which was illegally felled overnight on Wednesday.
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