Safe at last? View from Naraha – the first Fukushima community declared fit for humans
Four and a half years after a tsunami triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, people have returned to live in the area Entering the living room of Kohei and Tomoko Yamauchi’s house in Naraha is a disconcerting experience. Above the tatami-mat floor, the shelves are lined with rows of kokeshi […]
El Niño could leave 4 million people in Pacific without food or drinking water
Papua New Guinea drought has already claimed two dozen lives and looming El Niño weather pattern could be as severe as in 1997-98, when 23,000 people died Two dozen people have already died from hunger and drinking contaminated water in drought-stricken Papua New Guinea, but the looming El Niño crisis could leave more than four […]
Half of UK butterfly species show numbers up on last year
Experts feared butterfly numbers would plummet in wet summer weather but nationwide count shows some improvements on 2014 Butterflies did better than feared in the wet and miserable weather across much of the UK in July and August, experts have said. More than half of the 20 species recorded by the public in the Big […]
The fisherman's dilemma: Country diary 100 years ago
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 15 October 1915 How do fish get up a mountain? A correspondent who has been fishing on the Eden asks a curious question; and I doubt if my answer will please him or other sportsmen. On the banks of the river and the land near rabbits were so […]
Series of small earthquakes hit near Oklahoma crude oil storage hub
Tremors follow two plus-4.0 magnitude quakes in state on Saturday State geological survey has said wastewater injection could trigger quakes A series of small earthquakes have been recorded across northern Oklahoma, following two moderate earthquakes in the area on Saturday. The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that nine quakes ranging in magnitude from 2.5 to […]
The moving story of plate tectonics
Today no-one doubts that the Earth’s surface is made up from a moving jigsaw of tectonic plates. Primary school children learn that South America was once connected to Africa, and that India’s collision with Asia pushed up the Himalayas. In hindsight plate tectonics seems obvious, and yet just 60 years ago the prevailing view was […]
Ineos buys 12 North Sea gas fields for £490m
The fields, bought by the chemicals group from a Russian billionaire, provide 8% of the UK’s gas Chemicals group Ineos has bought 12 North Sea gas fields in a $750m (£490m) deal that comes as the British oil and gas industry fights a severe downturn. Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, has bought […]
Radioactive wreckage: inside Fukushima's nuclear exclusion zone – in pictures
Supermarket aisles strewn with packets. A school blackboard covered with notes for an unfinished lesson. Cars tangled with weeds in an unending traffic jam. These are eerie pictures from inside the 20km exclusion zone around Fukushima nuclear plant, which went into meltdown after a tsunami and earthquake struck Japan in March 2011. Photographer Arkadiusz Podniesinski […]
California brings in strict limits on use of antibiotics in livestock farming
Move comes amid concern that overuse of drugs is contributing to rising numbers of life-threatening human infections from ‘superbugs’ California has brought in the strictest government standards in the US for the use of antibiotics in livestock production. Related: Resistance isn’t futile – how to tackle drug-resistant superbugs Continue reading… Source: Guardian Environment
The Observer view on the Tory renewable energy policy | Observer editorial
Government cuts to solar-power subsidies are shortsighted and irresponsible The Conservative party has spent much time mocking Labour for being out of touch on business issues, particularly Jeremy Corbyn’s support for rail and possibly energy nationalisation. But George Osborne seems much more at home tickling the tummies of huge, state-owned companies in China and France, […]