-
The president took swift action upon entering the White House, but recent developments raise concern his agenda has stalled
On his first day at the White House, Joe Biden earned praise for following through on several campaign promises, committing the US to strict climate goals and a greener future. Now, nearly six months into his presidency, several of those commitments are being put to the test, and already, many are falling apart.
A court last week ruled that the Biden administration did not have the authority to unilaterally pause oil and gas lease sales across the US. The decision came alongside news that congressional bargaining over Biden’s climate and infrastructure bill is hitting a wall with Republicans and the administration is now considering a slimmed-down version.
Continue reading...
-
The system would also have very little impact on the environment, in contrast to livestock farming, scientists say
Combining solar power and microbes could produce 10 times more protein than crops such as soya beans, according to a new study.
The system would also have very little impact on the environment, the researchers said, in stark contrast to livestock farming which results in huge amounts of climate-heating gases as well as water pollution.
Continue reading...
-
Australian government ‘stunned’ by recommendation and will strongly oppose draft decision, environment minister Sussan Ley says
The Great Barrier Reef should be placed on to a list of world heritage sites that are “in danger”, according to a recommendation from UN officials that urges Australia to take “accelerated action at all possible levels” on climate change.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says the world’s biggest coral reef system should be placed on the list at the world heritage committee meeting next month.
Continue reading...
-
They may be vine-smothered ruins today, but the lost cities of the ancient tropics still have a lot to teach us about how to live alongside nature
Visions of “lost cities” in the jungle have consumed western imaginations since Europeans first visited the tropics of Asia, Africa and the Americas. From the Lost City of Z to El Dorado, a thirst for finding ancient civilisations and their treasures in perilous tropical forest settings has driven innumerable ill-fated expeditions. This obsession has seeped into western societies’ popular ideas of tropical forest cities, with overgrown ruins acting as the backdrop for fear, discovery and life-threatening challenges in countless films, novels and video games.
Throughout these depictions runs the idea that all ancient cities and states in tropical forests were doomed to fail. That the most resilient occupants of tropical forests are small villages of poison dart-blowing hunter-gatherers. And that vicious vines and towering trees – or, in the case of The Jungle Book, a boisterous army of monkeys – will inevitably claw any significant human achievement back into the suffocating green whence it came. This idea has been boosted by books and films that focus on the collapse of particularly enigmatic societies such as the Classic Maya. The decaying stone walls, the empty grand structures and the deserted streets of these tropical urban leftovers act as a tragic warning that our own way of life is not as secure as we would like to assume.
Continue reading...
-
Exclusive:Environment Agency chair warned minister of ‘real-world impacts’, FOI request reveals
Vital work on river pollution and flood defences is being stopped or cut back because the Environment Agency has been underfunded for years, freedom of information documents reveal.
A shortfall in funding of tens of millions of pounds is having real world consequences for our rivers, according to a letter from Emma Howard Boyd, the chair of the EA, to George Eustice, the environment secretary. The letter was obtained by River Action, a campaigning body, under FOI laws.
Continue reading...
-
C-230 would require government to study effect of pollution and industry on marginalized people but conservatives could sink plan
For generations, marginalized communities in Canada have feared that heavy industry is slowly poisoning their air, land and water.
Related:America's dirty divide: how environmental racism leaves the vulnerable behind
Continue reading...
-
Lake Tanganyika sustains life for millions but ever more erratic weather threatens the entire Congo
For thousands of years, Lake Tanganyika was an exquisite sight that soothed and supported generations of Congolese people. Those living by its shores in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have snoozed in hammocks under the tropical sun, watching their children splash in Africa’s oldest, deepest and longest lake. In the evenings, when boats head out for fishing trips, local people would light campfires on the beaches to fry their catch and dance to rumba.
But in the past two months, storms, torrential rain and flooding have killed at least 13 people and destroyed 4,240 homes and 112 schools along the DRC’s Lake Tanganyika coast. In less than a generation, the stretch from Uvira to Moba, 250 miles long, has become a place of catastrophe for the local people, who are dependent on the lake for food, trade, transport and their livelihood.
Continue reading...
-
Most cities likely to be affected by the pollutant, which is particularly harmful to children’s brains
Toxic lead from petrol that was banned 20 years ago still lingers in the air in London, a study has shown, with researchers saying the legacy of leaded fuels is likely to hang over most cities.
While levels are much lower than at their peak in the 1980s, they remain far above natural background levels. Lead is extremely poisonous and there is no safe amount of exposure. It is of particular concern for children, as it damages their developing brains and ability to learn.
Continue reading...
-
Financial aid ‘critical’ to help developing countries limit fossil fuels – and make Cop26 a success, says UN
The head of climate change at the UN has warned that world leaders are still “far away” from securing a deal to limit the disastrous effects of global heating, with less than five months to go before a key summit in Glasgow.
Time is now running out, said Patricia Espinosa, who was formerly foreign minister of Mexico but now leads the UN on climate policy. She told the Observer that although advances had been made at the G7 meeting in Cornwall last weekend, progress had not been made on honouring past commitments to find $100bn (£72.5bn) a year to help developing countries invest in green technologies.
Continue reading...
-
The National Trust is trying to stop the lichen from dying out in England by moving it to younger trees in the Lake District
If you happen to be walking in the Lake District and see an unusual type of lichen that has been stapled to an oak it will be tree lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria).
Transplanting lungwort from old fallen oaks to younger standing trees by stapling, or using glue and mesh to hold them on, is an attempt by the National Trust to prevent the species dying out.
Continue reading...
Nature Watch