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July) Days of Rage – George Monbiot

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System change is – and has always been – our only realistic means of defending the living planet.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 19th July 2022
Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Everyone knows, however carefully they avoid the topic, that, beside it, all the topics filling the front pages and obsessing the pundits are dust. Even the Times editors still publishing columns denying climate science know it. Even the candidates for the Tory leadership, ignoring or downplaying the issue, know it. Never has a silence been so loud or so resonant.

East Antarctic glacier melting at 70.8bn tonnes a year due to warm sea water | Antarctica | The Guardian

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East Antarctic glacier melting at 70.8bn tonnes a year due to warm sea water

Denman glacier in remote part of the continent could become unstable, possibly contributing to more sea level rise than predicted
Lisa Cox
The Denman ice shelf in east Antarctica is melting at a rate of 70.8bn tonnes a year, according to researchers from Australia’s national science agency, thanks to the ingress of warm sea water.
The CSIRO researchers, led by senior scientist Esmee van Wijk, said their observations suggested the Denman glacier was potentially at risk of unstable retreat.
The glacier, in remote east Antarctica, sits atop the deepest land canyon on Earth. It holds a volume of ice equivalent to 1.5m of sea level rise.
Until relatively recently, it was thought east Antarctica would not experience the same rapid ice loss that is occurring in the west. But some recent studies have shown warm water is reaching that part of the continent too.

Multimillion-pound UK road scheme facing legal action on climate grounds | Road transport | The Guardian

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Isabella Kaminski

A legal challenge has been launched against a road scheme that opponents say clashes with climate goals.
Changes aimed at improving car journeys between Milton Keynes and Cambridge by upgrading junctions and building a 10-mile dual carriageway on the A428 between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet were approved in the summer. The scheme, estimated to cost £810m-£950m, is listed in the government’s growth plan for accelerated delivery.
But Transport Action Network (TAN) filed for judicial review at the end of September, arguing the Department for Transport (DfT) was wrong to only assess emissions from the scheme against the national carbon budget.
Instead, the climate campaign group points to professional guidance from the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, which recommends using sectoral, regional and local carbon budgets to contextualise a project’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Third of Brits want to cycle more, many to cut their fuel spending | road.cc

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Nearly four in 10 adults are planning to cycle more to cut their fuel expenditure, new survey suggestsPlenty of Brits are considering tackling their fuel spending by taking more journeys by bike, with as many as 30 per cent excited to rediscover two-wheeled journeys, according to a study by online cycling retailer Chain Reaction.

The research published in the Independent newspaper saw 2,000 adults surveyed, finding that nearly four in 10 are planning to cut their fuel spend by cycling more of their journeys.
Nearly half (48 per cent) wanted to cycle more than they currently do, with 30 per cent excited to rediscover the joy of cycling, and 44 per cent after more exercise and 40 per cent seeking more fresh air.

Motorists Switching To Bicycle Or Train For One Car Trip Make Big Reduction In Emissions, Say Studies – forbes.com

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Carlton Reid
Switching just one leisure journey per week to train could result in a 28.4% reduction on total journey carbon emissions, reports a study focused on the U.K. produced for train operations company LNER, and across one year could result in a 16.6% reduction of annual leisure travel emissions. 
A separate report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that if one in five urban residents swapped just one car journey to cycling each day, it would cut emissions from all car travel in Europe by 8%. 
LNER’s report, released October 13, was produced by experts from University College London (UCL) Energy Institute. On average, carbon emissions from cars are three times higher than that of a train, meaning the “collective power of one small change could be a monumental shift,” states LNER. 

From brown bears to grey wolves, Europe’s persecuted carnivores are bouncing back | Sophie Ledger | The Guardian

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Sophie Ledger

In the latest of what can often seem like the “final nails in the coffin” of biodiversity across Europe, we heard in recent weeks that UK environmental protection is under threat. But while the global scale of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss remain alarming, vital new research, which I helped lead, shows there are also heartening examples of European wildlife bouncing back from the brink.
For the past two years, we at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology, along with colleagues at BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council, have been investigating the fortunes of 50 European wildlife species over the past 50 years, from humpback whales to Iberian wild goats to white-tailed eagles. Each of these species are incredible comeback stories, and researching how they have recovered has been a refreshing and inspiring endeavour – the Eurasian beaver and European bison, for example, have both increased in average relative abundance by more than 16,000% since 1960.

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