Bees stung by ‘climate change-linked’ early pollination
Climate change could be affecting pollination by disrupting the synchronised timing of flower opening and bee emergence from hibernation, suggests new US-based research. Declining numbers of bees and other pollinators have been causing growing concern in recent years, as scientists fear that decreased pollination could have major impacts on world food supplies.
Previous studies have focused [...]
Britain’s bumblebees at risk of extinction because of inbreeding
The University of Stirling study found that isolated populations of a rare bumblebee on a remote Scottish island are more susceptible to disease because of a lack of genetic diversity. The research could have implications for other rare insects and animals struggling to survive in nature reserves or zoos.
Conservationists said that the results showed the [...]
Governments must ramp up action to ward off looming water crisis, UN report warns
With competition on the rise between humans and other species for the world’s limited water supplies, governments must take environmental issues into consideration when drafting laws on the use of water to avert an impending water crisis, cautions a new United Nations report.Although more than two-thirds of the planet is covered in water, only 2.5 [...]
The rise and rise of water shortage
Over the past 2000 years, population increase has been four times more significant than climate change in the rise of water shortage. That’s according to researchers from Finland and The Netherlands, who have analysed population growth, climate data and water-resource availability.
“Moderate water shortage first appeared around 1800, but it commenced in earnest from about 1900 [...]
In India the granaries are full but the poor are hungry
India’s grain warehouses are bursting at the seams and sacks of rice and wheat lie rotting in the open for lack of storage space. These government-managed stocks are for offsetting a fall in agricultural production in the event of drought or floods, but are also meant for sale to the poorest segment of the population [...]
Congolese chimpanzees face new ‘wave of killing’ for bushmeat
They are some of the most myusterious apes on the planet that according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. But according to an 18-month study of remote human settlements deep in the Congolese jungle, chimpanzees are being subjected to a “wave of killing” by bushmeat hunters.
The scientists who [...]
Syria: Photos reveal devastation of a years-long drought
On a dusty, rocky plain patches of dried grass try to poke through. A couple of makeshift tents, composed of scraps of material flapping insecurely in the wind, attract the eye while two swaddled figures can be seen talking in the background. Utterly exposed and barren, a feeling reinforced by the black and white photographer Doha Hassan, [...]
US company plans to ship fresh water from Alaska to India
Photo: Dipak Kumar/Reuters
Imagine an oil tanker plowing through the ocean, hauling valuable cargo from resource-rich nations of the world to the countries that need it: but instead of oil, the tanker holds millions of gallons of fresh water.
It’s not a vision from some futuristic film or doomsday novel, but the present-day intention of companies trying [...]
UN calls special meeting to address food shortages amid predictions of riots
Two years after the last food crisis, when prices surged by nearly 15% in the UK, food inflation is back. Soaring global food prices have prompted City and food industry experts to warn that the cost of the weekly shop is set to rise by up to 10% in the coming months. As in 2008, [...]
Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuels
The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK’s commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil. A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU [...]
Now meat price surge raises fear of food inflation
Freakish weather conditions and soaring demand from China, Brazil and other fast-emerging economies have pushed meat prices around the world to a 20-year high. International food prices have risen to their highest in two years, shooting up five per cent between July and August. Wheat is up by more than 50 per cent since May. [...]
Tibetan nomads struggle as grasslands disappear from the roof of the world
Like generations of Tibetan nomads before him, Phuntsok Dorje makes a living raising yaks and other livestock on the vast alpine grasslands that provide a thatch on the roof of the world. But in recent years the vegetation around his home, the Tibetan plateau, has been destroyed by rising temperatures, excess livestock and plagues of [...]
Wheat sends food prices up: FAO Food Price Index climbs five percent in August
Surging wheat prices drove international food prices up five percent last month in the biggest month-on-month increase since November 2009, FAO announced. The FAO Food price Index (FFPI) averaged 176 points in August, up nearly nine points from July, FAO said in its latest update on the global cereals supply and demand situation. The increase [...]
UK biofuels ‘falling short’ on environmental standards
The Renewable Fuels Agency says it is disappointed that the vast majority of biofuels sold on UK forecourts do not conform to environmental standards. The body said fuel suppliers were meeting legally binding volume targets but some were falling “well short” on achieving voluntary green standards. But since biofuels have had to be mixed into [...]
Afghanistan eyes wheat price amid import needs
Afghan authorities are keeping a close eye on world wheat prices as they seek to boost strategic stocks ahead of winter and ensure that demand is met as some traditional suppliers halt exports. Afghanistan is among the most vulnerable countries in the world for food supply, according to the Food Security Risk Index 2010, compiled [...]
Friends of the Earth urges end to ‘land grab’ for biofuels
Photograph: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters
European Union countries must drop their biofuels targets or else risk plunging more Africans into hunger and raising carbon emissions, according to Friends of the Earth (FoE). In a campaign launching today, the charity accuses European companies of land-grabbing throughout Africa to grow biofuel crops that directly compete with food crops. Biofuel companies [...]
Good Companies Guide: easing the planet’s growing pains will help business to profit
A few diehards in the City still think sustainability is just for sandal-wearers. But how we deal with the major ecological and social challenges facing the world will have enormous implications for the global economy and for the prospects of the UK’s leading companies. It will also have an impact on the pension savings and [...]
Coffee threatened by beetles in a warming world
The highlands of southwestern Ethiopia should be ideal for growing coffee. After all, this is the region where coffee first originated hundreds of years ago. But although coffee remains Ethiopia’s number one export, the nation’s coffee farmers have been struggling.
The Arabica coffee grown in Ethiopia and Latin America is an especially climate-sensitive crop. It requires [...]
Niger: Small steps towards a sustainable future
Nigerien women have an average of seven children. Photo: Catherine Lune-Grayson, IRIN
The population of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, is growing at an unsustainable rate, according to the authorities and civil society groups. If current growth rates of 3.3 percent per year remain unchanged, by 2050 Niger’s population will have reached [...]
How to feed the world
The world is planting a vigorous new crop: “agro-pessimism”, or fear that mankind will not be able to feed itself except by wrecking the environment. The current harvest of this variety of whine will be a bumper one. Natural disasters—fire in Russia and flood in Pakistan, which are the world’s fifth- and eighth-largest wheat producers [...]
Russia counts the cost of drought and wildfires
The extreme heatwave, which caused a severe drought and wildfires in Russia, might be over, but both officials and consumers are now busy calculating its cost and trying to work out its consequences. Russian deputy economy minister, Andrei Klepach, said earlier this week that the drought would take up to 0.8% off this year’s economic [...]
Seeing a Time (Soon) When We’ll All Be Dieting [Book review]
Fifty years ago, a billion people were undernourished or starving; the number is about the same today. That’s actually progress, since a billion represented a third of the human race then, and “only” a sixth now. Today we have another worry: roughly the same number of people eat too much. But, says Julian Cribb, a [...]
UN: Food Insecurity in Kyrgyzstan to Grow Worse
Two youths, ethnic Russian Maxim, 9, and Kyrgyz Sumat, 10, left, walk through debris as they search for food in the ransacked market in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan. Photo: AP
The United Nations says more than one-quarter of the households in Kyrgyzstan do not have enough food, and that the problem is expected to get worse in [...]
Securing water resources in rural Kenya
Lack of rainfall can lead to poverty, food shortages, disease and gender inequality in rural areas. Climate change may further exacerbate the situation. Managing water resources better might help communities adapt to future climate change but this requires understanding of the hydro-climatic system in a given area. For example, we need to better understand how [...]
Europe’s coasts: reconciling development and conservation
In some cases it was their sheer beauty that led to development, in others economic potential. Whatever the causes, coastal regions today host almost half of the inhabitants of EU countries with a sea border. They host homes and workplaces, industries, holiday destinations and recreation areas. With an immense variety of habitats, ranging from salt-adapted [...]
Africa has the means to feed itself but does it have the support – and the will?
By: Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, chief executive officer of Fanrpan
One week from now, 200 agricultural experts from across Africa and around the world will meet in Namibia at the annual regional food security policy dialogue of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (Fanrpan) to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing [...]
Plantation linked to junta is ‘destroying’ Burmese tiger reserve
The site of a village in the reserve that has been razed for cash crops
The world’s largest tiger reserve, in the wilds of northern Burma, is being rapidly eroded as a businessman with links to the junta replaces trees with cash crops, according to a report published yesterday. The Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve in Kachin [...]
We’ve gone into the ecological red
Climate scientists believe extreme weather events like the recent flooding in Pakistan will become more frequent. Photograph: Mohammad Sajjad/AP
At the weekend, Saturday 21 August to be precise, the world as a whole went into “ecological debt”. That means in effect that from now until the end of the year, humanity will be consuming more natural [...]
Britain prepares for mackerel war with Iceland and Faroe Islands
Photograph: H Taillard/Corbis
It’s summer, and off the coast of Britain anglers are enjoying a blue-grey abundance of mackerel. Barbecued, smoked, or baked in cider, this firm favourite provides a seasonal guilt-free treat, certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). But in a dispute echoing the cod wars of the 1970s, Britain and the [...]
Africa’s ambitious return of ancient rice
One by one, Ali Kassim pulls out the weeds that have grown in his rice paddy. It’s surprisingly rare in Africa, but he is cultivating African rice - once close to extinction after it was pushed aside centuries ago for a higher-yield imported Asian variety.
Researchers hope to see more and more farmers like Kassim, who [...]
Resource wars: the global crisis behind a hostile takeover battle
BHP Billiton’s £28bn hostile bid for Canada’s Potash Corporation sets the scene for one of mining’s biggest takeover battles. But this is more than a clash between multinationals intent on self-aggrandisement.
Certainly, the usual arguments are wheeled out by the predator about diversification, synergies and the prospect of fatter profits, while the target company complains about [...]
Syria grapples with surging population
Ibrahim Issa, a jovial Syrian taxi-driver who wears a blue robe over an ample belly, has nine children from two wives. He plans to marry a third wife soon. He says it is up to Allah whether more children arrive, and not for him to interfere, say, by using contraception. Like all Damascus taxi-drivers, he [...]
Good Riddance to the Population Explosion: Keys to Prevent Unsustainable Growth
Every day, about 350,000 people are born and 150,000 die. Run this loop for a few decades, and the United Nations projects that we’re on track to increase global population by about one-third by 2050.
Most of that growth will happen in the poorest countries on Earth. Despite their poverty, those two billion people will add to [...]
Earth Overshoot Day: a day to forget or a day to remember?
Photo: AFP
How best to communicate the various environmental crises – climate change, loss of biodiversity and habitats, resource depletion, watercourse contamination, to name but a few – facing us today?
It’s an open question aired frequently by environmentalists. Do you repeatedly present to the world the stark future we face if we continue to ignore these [...]
Afghanistan and African nations at greatest risk from world food shortages
Pakistan’s devastating floods highlight how climate change is having “a profound effect on global food security”. Photograph: Horace Murray/Reuters
Soaring commodity prices and natural disasters in Russia and Pakistan have combined to put African nations and conflict-ridden countries such as Afghanistan most at risk from food shortages, according to a report released today. Sharp price rises [...]
How to ensure food security
This summer has been brutal. More than 1,200 people have lost their lives in China as a result of torrential rain and landslides; millions more have lost their homes and seen their farms inundated - and this on top of the worst drought in the south-west of the country earlier this year. We (World Food [...]
On the frontline of climate change
Getty Images
Irrigated by one of the world’s mightiest river systems, the Murray-Darling Basin yields nearly half of Australia’s fresh produce. But the basin is ailing, and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited continent, its main foodbowl could become a global warming ground zero. The signs are already ominous: in the Riverland, [...]
UK: Rising price of hay drives rise in theft
The rising price for hay is driving a new crime wave of ‘hay rustling’ leaving farmers with no feed for animals over the winter. Around the country bales have been stolen from the side of the road, barns, outhouses and even from occupied stables. Farmers said the cost of hay has risen from the usual [...]
Soaring temps cause mass coral killing in Indonesia: study
A dramatic spike in ocean temperatures off Indonesia’s Aceh province has killed large areas of coral and scientists fear the event could be much larger than first thought and one of the worst in the region’s history. The coral bleaching — whitening due to heat driving out the algae living within the coral tissues — [...]
UN launches decade-long drive to combat desertification
The United Nations today unveiled a decade-long push to raise awareness and mobilize action to fight desertification, which threatens the livelihoods of more than 1 billion people in 100 countries. Desertification is defined as the degradation of drylands, which comprise more than 40 per cent of the world’s land surface and are home to 2.1 [...]
Mankind is using up global resources faster than ever
Think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) look at how much food, fuel and other resources are consumed by humans every year. They then compare it to how much the world can provide without threatening the ability of important ecosystems like oceans and rainforests to recover. This year the moment we start eating into nature’s [...]
Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050
Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world’s leading scientists report today. But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, [...]
Price of red meat likely to push more people towards vegetarian diet
Fish is likely to become a larger part of the British diet because it is one of the few foodstuffs that has fallen in price in recent years, research suggests. The price of fish has fallen by eight per cent over the past three years as the cost of meat has surged by 10 per [...]
Russia ban on grain export begins
Russia has imposed a ban on grain exports until the end of the year, after a severe drought and a spate of wildfires devastated crops. Russia is one of the world’s biggest producers of wheat, barley and rye, and the ban is likely to see bread prices rise in places like the Middle East. The [...]
Livestock farmers hit by rising wheat price
Photo: Getty Images
Rising wheat prices are are threatening the trade of livestock farmers, according to Peter Kendall, the president of the National Farmers Union. He says the current record price of wheat is good news for crop farmers but a serious concern for those who feed their animals grain.
Six weeks ago, there was a global [...]
Biggest relocation in China since Three Gorges
China’s growing thirst for water is driving one of the world’s biggest mass relocations, with 440,000 people leaving their homes to make way for a huge man-made canal project to channel water to drought-prone Beijing. An advance party of 499 villagers were moved yesterday from their homes near Wuhan in Hubei province, China’s heartland, in [...]
Water meters will save wildlife
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has warned that a third of river catchments were facing damage as a result of too much water being taken out of them. Following a summer which has seen drought and water shortages leading to hosepipe bans in some areas, the charity is calling on the Government and water companies [...]
Indonesia: APP says audit shows deforestation claim untrue
Indonesian paper firm Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) on Wednesday released an audit it said showed allegations it destroyed rainforest were baseless and invalid.The audit marks the latest chapter in an increasingly bitter dispute between environmentalists and the plantation industry over Indonesian forests, which trap huge amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gases.
French retailer Carrefour said last [...]
Now Britain and Iceland go to war over the mackerel
The European Union could impose trade sanctions against Iceland or stop its ships from entering EU ports in an emerging “mackerel war”. In an echo of the 1970s “Cod War” when British gunboats were sent to ward off Icelandic trawlers in disputed waters, the EU has warned it will take “all necessary measures” to protect [...]
Hotter nights threaten food security - rice at risk
Production of rice — the world’s most important crop for ensuring food security and addressing poverty — will be thwarted as temperatures increase in rice-growing areas with continued climate change, according to a new studyby an international team of scientists. The research team found evidence that the net impact of projected temperature increases will be [...]
Hydroelectric dams pose threat to tribal peoples, report warns
Photo: Xan Rice for the Guardian
Giant hydroelectric dams being built or planned in remote areas of Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Peru and Guyana will devastate tribal communities by forcing people off their land or destroying hunting and fishing grounds, according to a report by Survival International. The first global assessment of the impact of the dams [...]
Food inflation is a rumble that won’t go away
Is the era of cheap food coming to an end? With wheat prices jumping 20pc last week after the failure of the Russian harvest, fears of an imminent food shock have once again emerged. Things aren’t as bad as they seem. The current steep jump in prices is likely to be temporary - but the [...]
Water funds tempt investors with booming growth
Funds that invest in water are booming, as investors shun volatile credit and equity markets and commodities that have already reached dizzying heights. Global water indices have gained about 9% so far this year against a 4% drop in the FTSE 100 index, according to Guardian research. Water funds have grown to more than 100 [...]
Links between health and farming have to be acted on before it’s too late
The strong and complementary connections between agriculture and health seem obvious: farms should grow nutritious produce to improve health, and healthy employees make better farm labourers. But these links have long been neglected during discussions on global trade and international development. Today the realities of the interactions between agriculture and health across the world are [...]
Global wheat production forecast to be lower than expected – UN
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has cut its global wheat production forecast for 2010 due to the impact of poor weather on crops in recent weeks, but allayed fears of a new food crisis, noting that current stocks should be adequate. The global wheat production forecast is now expected to be 651 [...]
Pakistan: Floods send food prices higher
Women outside a store in the town of Mianwali, in the northwestern part of Punjab Province, stand in mud up to their shins - mud left behind by floodwater which has now begun to recede - waiting to buy wheat flour, but are annoyed by the small quantities being doled out. “They are selling just [...]
Wheat prices soar in Russia drought
Wheat prices have hit a two-year high as Russia cut its grain harvest forecast by millions of tonnes following its worst drought for decades. The harsh weather has destroyed one-fifth of the wheat crop in Russia, which is currently the world’s third major exporter of the grain. Alexander Belyayev, the deputy agriculture minister, said this [...]
Hunger stalks Niger children
About 900,000 children in the West African state of Niger are on the brink of malnutrition, according to the UN. The UN’s World Food Programme is calling for urgent help to get food aid to areas in the country that have suffered years of failed crops due to drought. Charity organisations operating in Niger are providing food aid to many, [...]
Is Africa’s wildlife being eaten to extinction?
We’ve all heard how the illegal trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn and other high value products is threatening Africa’s wildlife. However, the impact of these products is dwarfed by the trade in bushmeat, defined as meat from Africa’s wild animals traded for human consumption. According to the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, the hunting of [...]
Brazilian company accused of killing 280,000 sharks for fins
Joshua Haviv
A conservation watchdog Monday accused a Brazilian company of illegally fishing 280,000 sharks which were killed to feed Asia’s appetite for sharkfin. The Environmental Justice Institute, a Brazilian group, lodged a suit against seafood exporter Sigel do Brasil Comercio demanding 800 million dollars in environmental damages.
“As we can’t put a value on life, we [...]
Food crisis in the Sahel: unlearned lessons
A catastrophe is about to unfold for millions of the world’s poorest people. It happened five years ago, and this time the international aid agencies were in place when the early warning lights started flashing. But it is nonetheless happening all over again. More than 10 million people in the eastern Sahel, in some of [...]
Australia agriculture faces climate upheaval: scientist
Land available for agriculture in Australia, one of the world’s largest food exporters, is in danger of shrinking because of climate change, a leading scientist said on Tuesday. More grain was also likely to be grown in the north as climate change cuts production in the drier south with more marginal areas turned over to [...]
Insects could be the key to meeting food needs of growing global population
A Chinese woman selling scorpions on stick waits for customers at a stall in Beijing, where the delicacy is fried in cooking oil. Photograph: Claro Cortes/Reuters
Saving the planet one plateful at a time does not mean cutting back on meat, according to new research: the trick may be to switch our diet to insects and [...]
US food waste worth more than offshore drilling
More energy is wasted in the perfectly edible food discarded by people in the US each year than is available in oil and gas reserves off the nation’s coastlines. Recent estimates suggest that 16 per cent of the energy consumed in the US is used to produce food. Yet at least 25 per cent of [...]
New Cassava Varieties Promise Food Security in Zanzibar
Millions of cassava farmers in eastern and central Africa are in distress from viral cassava diseases that are sweeping across the region and ravaging their crops. But their counterparts on the popular tourist island of Zanzibar are undergoing a quiet revolution using new disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties that were introduced three years ago.
The four varieties, [...]
Farmland birds at lowest ever level
Lapwing numbers have falled by 12 per cent in the last year. Photo: Jean-Paul Ferrero
The 19 bird species most commonly found in the British countryside, like wood pigeon, skylark and rooks, have declined by more than 50 per cent since 1966. Conservationists blamed the cold winter and modern farming practices that mean there are [...]
World’s largest fish under threat of extinction
Giant Mekong Catfish, weighing 292kg that was caught by local fishermen in Chiang Khong, northern Thailand Photo: EPA
The construction of a particular dam in northern Laos would disrupt the migration of four of the world’s top ten largest freshwater species to crucial spawning grounds, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said. In its [...]
The legal perils of ‘grow your own’
Tending the plants at the Lewes Road community garden, which is set to be destroyed. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian
A line of police officers is facing protesters at the gate to the community garden. In the road behind the police, a giant mechanical grabber and a smaller orange digger waits. The mood is unhappy, [...]
Spain sees temperatures rising 3 to 6 degrees by 2100
Spanish daytime temperatures will rise by an average of between 3 and 6 degrees Celsius by 2100, and rainfall will tumble to 15-30 percent of recent levels, according to forecasts on Tuesday by the Met Office. The Met Office said it produced the forecasts in order to plan for the impact of climate change. “Madrid [...]
Pollution makes quarter of China water unusable
Almost a quarter of China’s surface water remains so polluted that it is unfit even for industrial use, while less than half of total supplies are drinkable, data from the environment watchdog showed on Monday. Inspectors from China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection tested water samples from the country’s major rivers and lakes in the first [...]
Is agriculture the next big investment thing?
Hedge funds, with billions of pounds in assets, are recklessly gambling on food prices, with speculators driving massive price volatility that threatens the most vulnerable people on the planet. That’s the view of the World Development Movement (WDM), which issued a damning report this week arguing for a regulatory clampdown on hedge funds and banks [...]
UN agency highlights potential of jatropha plant as energy source for the poor
Jatropha, a wild plant that grows well in dry areas on degraded lands and can be processed into biofuel, has potential as a low-cost energy source for poor farmers, according to a new United Nations report, which adds that further research is still needed on this crop. The report by the Food and Agriculture Organization [...]
Kalahari Bushmen to appeal against court ban on well in game reserve
The Kalahari Bushmen are to appeal against a decision by the Botswana high court forbidding them to use a well in the central Kalahari game reserve, one of the driest regions in the world, a spokesman announced today. The Bushmen, Africa’s oldest inhabitants, won a ruling in 2006 against eviction from the game park, hailed [...]
Indonesia survey finds many unaware orangutan protected
A quarter of villagers living near orangutans in Indonesia’s Kalimantan province are not aware the rare primates are protected and say orangutans have been killed in their village, said a new survey released on Wednesday. Only a handful of orangutans are left in the wild, mostly in forests on Indonesian provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan, [...]
UK seas cleaner but getting warmer and higher: government
Britain’s coasts have become cleaner but sea levels and temperatures are rising due to climate change, a government report said on Wednesday. The five-year study by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) examined how climate change has affected sea levels and temperatures, species in the sea and pollution. The report includes evidence [...]
Access to clean water is most violated human right
On 28 July, for the first time ever, the general assembly of the United Nations will hold a historic summit on the human right to water. It will consider and debate a resolution supporting the right to “safe and clean water and sanitation” that was presented on 17 June by Pablo Solon, the Bolivian ambassador [...]
Veggieworld: Why eating greens won’t save the planet
If you’re a typical westerner, you ate nearly 100 kilograms of meat last year. This was almost certainly the costliest part of your diet, especially in environmental terms. The clamour for people to eat less meat to save the planet is growing ever louder. “Less meat = less heat”, proclaimed Paul McCartney in the run-up [...]
British seas: More fish, cleaner and greater biodiversity, says Defra
Thousands of holidaymakers heading to British beaches this summer will be cheered by a major government report into the state of the UK’s seas. Coastal waters are getting cleaner, fish stocks are improving and species diversity in estuaries is increasing, according to the most authoritative examination ever carried out of UK seas. But while the [...]
British meat and dairy is destroying rainforests
Photo: Getty
Huge swathes of rainforest are being destroyed every year to grow animal feed for British factory farms, according to new research. More than 350,000 hectares of rainforest, twice the size of the Yorkshire Dales, is being chopped down to grow soy beans, most of which are genetically modified (GM). The animal feed is then [...]
China scores big results on UN millennium goals
China’s balanced development is helping it achieve the goals it set at the beginning of the millennium, said a representative of the United Nations. “With development its priority, China has set its own goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way,” said Silvia Morimoto, deputy country director of United Nations Development Programme [...]
Climate change threatens poverty fight, report warns
Climate change threatens to undo years of work to tackle poverty in developing countries, a report warned today. The study by Forum for the Future and supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) said strong, urgent action was needed in poor countries to address the impacts of climate change alongside efforts to boost economic [...]
10 ways vegetarianism can help save the planet
The average British carnivore eats more than 11,000 animals in their lifetime, each requiring vast amounts of land, fuel and water to reach the plate. It’s time to think of waste as well as taste
If we really want to reduce the human impact on the environment, the simplest and cheapest thing anyone [...]
Letters: Perspectives on global population
Consumption is unsustainable
Scratch the surface of any environmental problem and population growth and unsustainable levels of consumption are the root cause (report, 12 July). We are already in breach of the planet’s capacity to support 6.8bn people, with over 1bn people without access [...]
When a Billion Chinese Jump by Jonathan Watts
A man collects dead fish in Donghu lake in Wuhan Photograph: STR/AP
It’s always wise to be careful what you wish for. When China was poor and communist, its government disdained consumption and castigated the evils of capitalism, while in the west we argued that happiness lay in the joy of stuff. [...]
Last six months second driest in the UK in 96 years, say scientists
River flows have dropped to their lowest levels in 50 years, hundreds of fish have died and reservoirs are drying out, figures show
The last six months have been the second driest recorded in the UK in 96 years, with river flows in some areas at their lowest levels in 50 years and [...]
We must reap the benefits of palm oil, but manage the environmental costs
From the margarine we eat to the wheels on our cars to the shampoo in our showers, palm oil is everywhere. That’s why we must strive to make it sustainable, says Caroline Spelman, secretary of state for the environment
We all like to think we have the power to make our own ethical [...]
Hosepipe ban looms for north-west England
United Utilities say measure is needed to maintain ‘essential supplies’ in reservoirs during driest conditions since 1929
Millions of homes in north-west England face a hosepipe ban from Friday as water bosses struggle to save water as a drought takes hold.
The restrictions include Liverpool and Manchester but do not cover an area [...]
Fussy eaters - what’s wrong with GM food?
With the world’s food security facing a looming “perfect storm”, GM food crops need to be part of the solution, argues Professor Jonathan Jones. In this week’s Green Room, he wonders why there is such a fuss about biotechnology when it can help deliver a sustainable global food system.
A billion humans [...]
Calling for an ‘old-fashioned’ green revolution
Using “good old-fashioned” farming techniques will help deliver a sustainable green revolution in Africa, says Tensie Whelan. In this week’s Green Room, she warns that failure to protect biodiversity, water supplies and forests could spell disaster for the continent.
I have seen many ways in which farmers in Africa have increased [...]
Driest first six months in 80 years
Britain has experienced the driest first six months of the year for more than 80 years. Met Office figures showed the average rainfall across the country was 356.8mm, making it the driest start to the year since 1929 and the second driest in a century. The long-term average for January to June is 511.7 mm.
The [...]
How Europe’s agriculture can boost biodiversity
Intensive farming has long been a major cause of biodiversity decline in Europe. The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) new short assessment examines Europe’s efforts to strike a balance between producing sufficient food and maintaining agro-ecosystems that are rich in biodiversity above and below ground.
Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) plays a key role in halting biodiversity [...]
Balancing the weights of poverty and population
Image: Slapbcn/Flickr
The 21st century began on an inspiring note: The United Nations set a goal of reducing the share of the world’s population living in extreme poverty by half by 2015. By early 2007 the world looked to be on track to meet this goal, but as the economic crisis unfolds and the outlook darkens, [...]
The other oil spill
Early on April 21st 2008, Greenpeace activists dressed as orang-utans stormed Unilever’s headquarters in London. Similar raids took place at the multinational’s facilities on Merseyside, in Rome and in Rotterdam. Furry protesters scaled buildings, occupied production lines and unfurled banners. Many read: “Unilever: Don’t Destroy the Forests”. Dove, one of the company’s best-known brands, was [...]
Conservationists warn of hay meadow decline
“Constable? Turner? Give me a hay meadow any day,” says Tony Bullough as we get our first glimpse of New House Farm. And the National Trust warden has a point - the fields surrounding this small farm are a glorious sight.
Perched in a small valley near the village of Malham, in the Yorkshire Dales, the [...]
Giant salmon will be first GM animal available for eating
Usually Atlantic salmon do not grow during the winter and take three years to fully mature. But by implanting genetic material from an eel-like species called ocean pout that grows all year round, US scientists have managed to make the fish grow to full size in 18 months. They hope that the sterile GM salmon [...]
Battle for the Nile as rivals lay claim to Africa’s great river
Simon Kitra’s back garden looks out over the world’s second-largest freshwater lake. His front lawn opens onto the world’s longest river. If the 20-year-old Ugandan fisherman needs reminding of where his tiny island is, he can look up to the pink obelisk on the hillside, marking where the British explorer John Hanning Speke, sextant in [...]
Greenland wins back right to kill humpback whales
Greenland has won back the right to hunt humpback whales for the first time in a quarter-century after it threatened to leave the world’s top whaling body if other nations reject its ancestral traditions. “We cannot wait any longer,” Ane Hansen, Greenland’s Minister for Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture, said just before the consensus vote by [...]
How ‘zero-grazing’ is set to bring US-style factory farming to Britain
Photo, Graham Barclay
A battle is under way in the British countryside to fight off plans for massive factory farms that would house thousands of animals in industrialised units without access to traditional grazing or foraging. Plans for three large-scale units in England have encountered fierce resistance from campaigners who say they would cause extra noise, [...]
Aboriginal film decries threat to ancestral customs from water scarcity
A Ngarrindjeri “smoking ceremony” Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP
The drought that has affected the Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia for several years has not only been a disaster for farming. The indigenous communities have also seen changes in the environment that endanger their ancestral customs, and though the rain has returned, concern for the future has taken [...]
Fish farming set to grow as demand for food rises
Despite two decades of hardship, war and a loss of markets, Matko Jasprica has kept his Croatian fish farm alive and now hopes to start exporting sea bass and sea bream to the European Union. It’s just as well, because officials and researchers say fish farming, known as aquaculture, is set to become the world’s [...]
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