Environment news

• Private equity firms ploughing billions into fossil fuels, analysis reveals

  01-10-2024 18:39 via theguardian.com
  
  US public sector workers’ retirement savings invested in projects that pump out a billion tonnes of emissions a yearPrivate equity firms are using US public sector workers’ retirement savings to fund fossil fuel projects pumping more than a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere every year, according to an analysis.They have ploughed more than $1tn (£750bn) into the energy sector since 2010, often buying into old and new fossil fuel projects and, thanks
  
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• No water, no shade. Life as a roofer in the sweltering Florida heat: ‘It feels like 120F’

  01-10-2024 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Workers struggle with dehydration, fatigue dizziness and headaches – but state laws have stripped their protectionsEvery day, Raquel Atlahua begins her work as a roofer bracing for the blistering sun.On the roof, there is no escape from the direct light and heat, and the temperatures in Florida quickly climb as the day progresses. The high humidity and lack of shade make it feel even hotter, and even more difficult to cool down.This is the first of three stories about the US workers who ar
  
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• As the waters rise, a two year sentence for throwing soup. That’s the farcical reality of British justice | George Monbiot

  01-10-2024 17:31 via theguardian.com
  Why do the mass killers of the fossil fuel industry walk free while the heroes trying to stop them are imprisoned?The sentences were handed down just as Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina. As homes were smashed, trucks swept down roads that had turned into rivers and residents were killed, in the placid setting of Southwark crown court two young women from Just Stop Oil, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, were sentenced to two years and 20 months, respectively, for throwing tomato soup at the gla
  
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• Stretchy dairy cheese now possible without cows, company says

  01-10-2024 13:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Existing plant-based cheeses often fail to deliver the textures that dairy lovers prizeStretchy dairy cheese could now be made without any cows, after the development of yeast strains that produce the crucial milk proteins.The key to the development, by Israeli company DairyX, is producing casein proteins that are able to self-assemble into the tiny balls that give regular cheese and yoghurt their stretchiness and creaminess. Existing plant-based cheeses often fail to deliver the textures that d
  
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• From pristine forest to prison fortress: why Ecuador is sacrificing fragile ecosystems to build jails

  01-10-2024 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As gang violence soars and the country’s jails overflow, Daniel Noboa has vowed to build more high-security facilities in remote areas. But local communities fear for their ancestral lands – and their own safetyWalking along a path his grandfather once used, Donald Cabrera, a villager from Bajada de Chanduy, on the coast of Ecuador, points out different trees and their uses. Talking about the imposing ceibo trees, he praises the fluffy white kapok fibre that falls from their branches
  
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• ‘Pattern of negligence’: a chemical plant fire in Georgia forces tens of thousands to take shelter

  01-10-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The smell of chlorine pervades Conyers as residents say BioLab’s accident was a danger hiding in plain sightFor Vonnetta West the plume of smoke rising in the sky outside her home in the city of Conyers, Georgia, was a sign not just of immediate risk – but a danger that had been hiding in plain sight for years.The plume was the result of an accident at the BioLab pool and spa chemical company in the city of nearly 20,000 residents about 25 miles east of Atlanta. Tens of thousands of
  
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• ‘Nowhere is safe’: shattered Asheville shows stunning reach of climate crisis

  01-10-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The historic North Carolina city was touted as a climate ‘haven’ – a reputation deadly Hurricane Helene left in ruinsNestled in the bucolic Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina and far from any coast, Asheville was touted as a climate “haven” from extreme weather. Now the historic city has been devastated and cut off by Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic floodwaters, in a stunning display of the climate crisis’s unlimited reach in the United State
  
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• Most soft plastic collected for recycling is burned, campaigners say

  01-10-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Everyday Plastic calls supermarket takeback schemes a diversion and says there is too much plastic packagingSeventy per cent of soft plastic collected in supermarket recycling schemes and tracked after collection ended up being burned, an investigation by campaigners has found.By placing trackers inside packages of soft plastic that were collected by Sainsbury’s and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, campaigners found that most of them ended up being incinerated rather than recycled. Co
  
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• ‘We look to the past to move forward’: the ancient method boosting cuttlefish numbers in the Mediterranean

  01-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  A project on Spain’s Costa Brava is reviving dwindling populations of the prized seafood – and keeping small-scale fishers in businessClinging to almost vertical cliffs on the Costa Brava in north-east Spain, the resort of l’Estartit has a dramatic location but the real drama is unfolding under the waves, where an innovative approach to ancient techniques is helping to revive declining populations of prized cuttlefishCuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) are a valuable catch for Spani
  
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• Botanists identify 33 global ‘dark spots’ with thousands of unknown plants

  01-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Kew study reveals areas with at least 100,000 undiscovered plant species – most likely to be under threat of extinctionBotanists have identified 33 “dark spots” around the world where thousands of plant species are probably waiting to be discovered, according to new research.From a palm tree in Borneo that flowers underground to a Malagasy orchid that spends its life growing on other plants, researchers are still making dozens of new species discoveries every year. Continue rea
  
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• Growing a ‘word forest’: the Kenyan teacher trying to save her language from extinction

  01-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The Yaaku people long ago assimilated with the majority Maasai, and few still speak Yaakunte, but there is a new determination to save their culture – and their forest – before it disappearsWords and photographs by Gioia Shah in Kori KoriIn a community centre made of glass bottles, Juliana Loshiro stands before her pupils, a group of village elders. Sitting in a semi-circle, they listen and repeat simple words and greetings in Yaakunte (also called Yaaku), the language of their tribe
  
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• ‘Everything is dead’: Ukraine rushes to stem ecocide after river poisoning

  01-10-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlifeSerhiy Kraskov picked up a twig and poked at a small fish floating in the Desna River. “It’s a roach. It died recently. You can tell because its eyes are clear and not blurry,” he said. Hundreds of other fish had washed up nearby on the river’s green willow-fringed banks. A large pike lay in the mud. Nearby, in a patch of yellow lilies, was a motionless carp. &ldq
  
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• Amid Australia’s chaotic climate politics, the rooftop solar boom is an unlikely triumph | Adam Morton

  01-10-2024 00:39 via theguardian.com
  It’s difficult to overstate how rapidly Australians have embraced solar power – there’s now more rooftop solar than coal-fired power. The key question is what policymakers can learn from its successGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia was a different place in 2011. Julia Gillard’s Labor government, the Greens and a couple of country independents were rewriting the country’s climate policies, including introducing a world-leading carbo
  
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