-
Colombia hosted nearly 60 countries at pivotal time on world stage for fight to transition to a clean energy future
Looking out to sea from the grey sandy beaches of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, it is never hard to spot evidence of the country’s thriving fossil fuel export trade. Oil tankers ride at anchor on the horizon and sometimes, locals say, lumps of coal wash up on the shore, blown off the collier ships that carry cargos from the nearby mines.
It was here, on Wednesday evening, that the Colombian government took a bold step to shift its economy – and that of the rest of the world – away from dependence on coal, gas and oil and into a new era of clean energy. With the first ever conference on “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, the host joined nearly 60 countries determined to loosen of the grip of petrostates on the world’s future.
Continue reading...
-
Birdwatching no longer niche, old-fashioned pastime, says RSPB as research shows 47% increase in hobby since 2018
Birdwatching is the second fastest growing hobby for generation Z after jewellery making, according to a multiyear study of more than 24,000 people.
Almost 750,000 gen Zers (16 to 29-year-olds) in Britain regularly enjoy watching birds, a 1,088% increase since 2018, according to research by Fifty5Blue published by the RSPB.
Continue reading...
-
Research conducted at 2022 Commonwealth Games found catering and fireworks were main causes of pollution
This summer, large-scale sporting events will take place, including the men’s football World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but research reveals that such events have unexpected air pollution impacts.
About 6,000 athletes from 72 counties and nearly 3 million people attended the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, making it the UK’s largest sporting event since the 2012 London Olympics. More than 300,000 spectators went to the Alexander Stadium for the athletics events, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
Continue reading...
-
In this week’s newsletter: the European pollen season is now up to two weeks longer than it was in the 90s – just one more way global heating is causing millions to suffer
• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
Here’s a confession that may alarm faithful readers of this newsletter: I am an environment reporter who does not love nature.
Before I get cancelled, yes, I do care about the fate of the natural world – scientists are clear that wrecking it hurts us – but the weird wonders of wildlife have always occupied a smaller place in my heart than those of most people I interview. One reason for that, I realised last week, is that hay fever has seriously dampened the pleasure I get from ambling through forests or squelching through wetlands.
BP profits more than double as oil and gas prices soar in Iran war
Inside Chornobyl: 40 years after disaster, nuclear site still at risk in Russia’s war
Nordic heatwave part of record year that saw temperatures scorch most of Europe, report finds
Continue reading...
-
Observers say pressure on IMO negotiations appears to be linked to countries that have invested heavily in gas
About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the strait of Hormuz, a strip of sea less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, before it was in effect closed by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which sent the price of oil soaring and left an estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 vessels stranded.
Their plight has shone a spotlight on the complex and dirty relationship between shipping and the fossil fuel industry. The sector is one of the most polluting, with most ship engines fuelled by what has been called the dregs of the oil refining process, heavy and carbon-intensive diesel too filthy for any other purpose. Shipping produces about 3% of global greenhouse gases, a portion set to rise as trade globalises further.
Continue reading...
-
Hood Hill, North Yorkshire: From Satanic slip-ups to postwar plane crashes, stories have accumulated on this summit, just one part of an already rich landscape
There’s something special about Hood Hill, I tell my son Lochy as we begin climbing. It’s not just the pleasing symmetry, pointy summit and epic view. Not just that it has intriguing medieval earthworks and weird erratic boulders dumped long ago by wandering glaciers.
It’s more that this hill, and the moor-edge landscape it is part of – including Whitestone Cliff, Lake Gormire, Roulston Scar, various caves, a gap known as the Devil’s Stride and the more recent Kilburn White Horse –seem to spawn stories. We’ve come today on the trail of one recorded by the folklorist Thomas Gill in 1852.
Continue reading...
-
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
Continue reading...
-
Loaded with extras and produced at a cut price, the crossover SUV has overtaken rival cars from US, Japanese and Korean firms
The UK is no stranger to foreign cars. The bestseller lists in recent years have been dominated by the US’s Ford Puma, Japan’s Nissan Qashqai, Korea’s Kia Sportage and occasionally even Tesla’s Model Y.
But in March the top 10 provided a shock: a Chinese car leapt into the lead.
Continue reading...
-
A Canadian social enterprise hopes to help solve the urgent need for retrofits and shortage of skilled workers
John Mava was looking for work when a construction project started behind his house. When he visited the site and saw how different construction was in Canada compared with his native Nigeria, his interest was piqued.
“I said it would be great for me to have knowledge about this,” said Mava, who learned that in Canada, construction uses timber rather than bricks and has a focus on the environment.
Continue reading...
-
Elusive nightingale ‘doing well’ at Northward Hill, Kent, but experts cite concerns around loss of habitat
The dawn chorus at RSPB Northward Hill in Kent is a riot of sound: the melodic robin, the two-tone cuckoo, the whitethroat’s scratchy warble. Even the garbling geese and mooing cows from the neighbouring Thames marshes add to the symphony.
But in late April one energetic singer hogs the limelight. For a few weeks after arriving from West Africa, the nightingale spends the night – and early morning – in complex song. As it searches for a mate and marks its territory, its song is at times as sweet and tuneful as a soul singer, at others as frantic as a car alarm.
Continue reading...
increase font size
Photo: Vivian Grisogono
