Environment news

• Pacific nations aren’t asking for favours. They just want Australia to meet the moment on climate justice | Tim Flannery

  24-08-2024 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Australia must urgently halt new fossil fuel projects and scale up investment in renewable energies such as solar and windMy first visit to the Pacific Islands was in 1981 and, for two decades, I spent several months each year carrying out biodiversity surveys and conservation work there. Even in the 1980s, Pacific communities were acutely aware of climate change, experiencing it first-hand through rising seas and intensifying storms. Over time, their understanding of the role that climate pollu
  
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• ‘Sip, return, repeat’: US city tackles throwaway cup culture with first-of-its-kind system

  24-08-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From Starbucks to local cafes, Petaluma’s reusable cup project aims to cut down on rampant plastic wasteA line of purple, plastic cups grows longer on the counter at Avid Coffee as Sam Gearhard takes orders at the Petaluma, California, store on a recent weekday morning.The cups might seem unassuming, but they’re part of a groundbreaking new scheme that has the community buzzing. Instead of the single-use paper or plastic cups that Gearhard would usually line up for the barista slingi
  
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• ‘This is the future’: why turbines that float could be the new wave in British wind power

  24-08-2024 16:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Britain is a world leader in fixed coastal installations. But in the deep open sea, where wind speeds are higher, a new generation of farms will be requiredHead 10 miles out from the coast of Aberdeen in Scotland and a cluster of five giant wind turbines spin at a height of 190 metres above the North Sea, quietly generating enough clean electricity to power about 35,000 Scottish homes.This offshore windfarm is dwarfed by the sprawl of turbines rising from the sea along Britain’s east
  
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• Industry acts to head off regulation on PFAS pollution from semiconductors

  24-08-2024 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Chips and Science Act has led to a production boom but experts say it could generate huge amounts of toxic wasteProducers of PFAS chemicals and semiconductors, a key part of most electronics, have formed a group that develops industry-friendly science aimed at heading off regulation as the facilities release high levels of toxic waste, documents seen by the Guardian show.The group, called the PFAS Consortium, was formed during a boom in domestic semiconductor production spurred by the Chips
  
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• Young country diary: A little rewilding goes a long way | Tess

  24-08-2024 12:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Oxfordshire: It’s only a small bit of land, but since it became a conservation area it’s become busy with ladybirds and hoverflies, butterflies and beesAround a year ago, my local parish council decided to rewild a strip of land near my house and turn it into a special conservation area. My mum, who is a councillor, has been putting new native plants in, as well as wildflower seeds and yew saplings. These plants included wood spurge, ragwort, butcher’s broom and lords-and-ladie
  
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• ‘Spectacular bargains’: why now is a great time to buy an electric car in the UK

  24-08-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A secondhand EV is a possibility for many families as the cost of desirable models, including Kias and Teslas, falls to £15,000If your current car is on the way out and you think an electric replacement is too expensive, think again. Three-year-old Tesla Model 3s and Kia e-Niros that will do 250-300 miles on a single charge can now be bought for as little as £14,000.In the last year, forecourt prices for used electric cars have tumbled to the extent that previously unaffordable model
  
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• ‘It could be months or years’: Walsall canal faces long road back to health after chemical spill

  24-08-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Charity is considering removing some of the water and there is also concern over the sediment on the canal floorWhen sodium cyanide leaked into a Walsall canal this month, leading to major incident being declared and miles of the waterway closed off, the Canal & River Trust was working in uncharted territory.The charity is used to fighting pollution in the waterways that crisscross the country, but this type of chemical – and the extreme risk to public health that came with it –
  
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• It’s August 2024 – and our world is at a turning point. Here’s what we should do now | Gordon Brown

  24-08-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  I see looming political and environmental threats – and too few willing to address them. Where is the urgency? The world is on fire. At no time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 has the world looked so dangerous, nor has an end to its 56 conflicts – the highest number since the second world war – seemed so distant and so difficult to achieve.
  Distracted by domestic election campaigns, preoccupied by internal divisions and blindsided by the seismic geopolitical shifts happe
  
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• Resorts on Spain’s Costa Brava struggle with invasion of jellyfish as seas warm

  24-08-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Stings needing medical attention surge by 41% as rising sea temperatures due to the climate crisis boost reproductionCosta Brava resorts in Spain’s north-east are struggling to cope with an influx of jellyfish as rising sea temperatures facilitate reproduction and drive species farther north.Between May and August almost 7,500 people on the Catalan coast sought medical attention for jellyfish stings – a 41% increase on last year. The stings are painful and can have unpleasant consequ
  
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• Gina Rinehart’s latest grab-bag of opinions is more proof billionaires are no smarter than the rest of us | John Quiggin

  24-08-2024 02:00 via theguardian.com
  The mining magnate does away with the constraints of arithmetic, simultaneously demanding lower taxes and more public spendingA striking feature of the age of billionaires in which we now live is that billionaires are more and more inclined to give us the benefit of their opinions. In the past year alone, we’ve had Marc Andreessen’s retro-futurist “Techno-optimist manifesto”, Mark Zuckerberg’s pronouncements on the future of media, and, most recently, a cosy chat be
  
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