Composted Reads: clean ups, clothing consumption, flash floods, global warming a.o.

The good news

‘It gets your stomach churning’: the team wading through nappies to clean up Bali’s waterways Every week, the Sungai Watch staff don waders and gloves and plunge into the waterways around the Indonesian island of Bali, where they have strung up their big plastic barriers. Along with volunteers, they work their way through the heaps of waste that has built up against the barriers, stuffing it into rubbish bags and slowly, steadily, clearing the filth. The work is gruelling, and yet there is deep satisfaction, even if just temporarily, in watching the rivers open up again. “You do get used to it, strangely enough. But you always need at least a few minutes to adapt as you go into a river.” ‘This hasn’t been done before’: can tech elites build their own city – and win over the sceptics? California is facing daunting housing problems, challenges that Metcalf, a respected urban planner, believes can only be addressed with bold action. Australians should cut clothes shopping by 74% for the climate – here are three ways to get started To combat global heating, people in wealthy countries need to stop buying so many clothes. Australians buy more cheap fashion than any other wealthy nation, according to the Berlin-based thinktank Hot or Cool Institute, and need to reduce their clothing consumption by 74%.

Underground hydrogen discovery raises hopes for clean energy Deposit of natural hydrogen could be the largest ever found and enough to meet global demand for two years The rare butterfly quietly retaking London and beyond One of the most elusive and nationally scarce butterflies is quietly retaking London and the Thames corridor. The brown hairstreak is a beautiful, ginger-streaked insect that usually lurks unseen in the treetops in late summer. It is easier to find the hairstreak’s minuscule white eggs than to find the butterfly – but only now, in midwinter, when the sea-urchin-like ova can be found on the bare branches of blackthorn, which thrives in hedges and copses on clay soils. Three new looks, no new clothes – my secondhand styleover The rise of secondhand fashion has powered a new breed of industry insider who is laser-focused on pre-loved clothes. Stylists who work exclusively with secondhand buys, personal shoppers who know all the tricks of the trade from where to go to how to spot a bargain – these are the new numbers to have on speed dial. The bad news

UN expert condemns UK crackdown on environmental protest A severe crackdown on environmental protest in Britain with “draconian” new laws, excessive restrictions on courtroom evidence and the use of civil injunctions is having a chilling impact on fundamental freedoms, the United Nations special rapporteur has said. As the world faces a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, environmental protesters were acting for the “benefit of us all” and must be protected, Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, said on Tuesday. Flash floods inundate homes in San Diego: ‘It’s never been that bad’ A furious rainstorm unleashed record levels of rain on communities across San Diego county end of Janyary, inundating homes and overturning cars. Hundreds of people had to be rescued from flooded areas as the San Diego River surged over its banks, fueled by downpours that left the city grappling with the fourth wettest day in history. Arctic zombie viruses in Siberia could spark terrifying new pandemic, scientists warn Humanity is facing a bizarre new pandemic threat, scientists have warned. Ancient viruses frozen in the Arctic permafrost could one day be released by Earth’s warming climate and unleash a major disease outbreak, they say. The upper layers of the planet’s main reserves – in Canada, Siberia and Alaska – are melting as climate change affects the Arctic disproportionately. According to meteorologists, the region is heating up several times faster than the average rate of increase in global warming. However, it is not melting permafrost directly that poses the most immediate risk, added Claverie. “The danger comes from another global warming impact: the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. That is allowing increases in shipping, traffic and industrial development in Siberia. Huge mining operations are being planned, and are going to drive vast holes into the deep permafrost to extract oil and ores. “Those operations will release vast amounts of pathogens that still thrive there. Miners will walk in and breath the viruses. The effects could be calamitous.”

First penguins die in Antarctic of deadly H5N1 bird flu strain With confirmed or suspected cases in two Antarctic penguin species, researchers fear highly contagious virus could rip through colonies. Researchers have previously raised alarm about “one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times” if bird flu reached remote Antarctic penguin populations. The birds are currently clustering together for breeding season, meaning the disease could rip through entire colonies if it continues to spread through the region.
‘Grossly irresponsible’: UK hands out 24 new North Sea oil and gas licences Britain has handed major oil companies the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea as part of the government’s mission to extend the life of the ageing oil and gas basin. The North Sea regulator said 17 oil companies, including Shell and BP, were granted licences in the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea and West of Shetland areas to “provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.
Domestic wood burners having a deadly impact in outside areas Scientists are starting to count the health cost of heating our homes with wood. One study, in Canberra in Australia, has found that deaths from everyday exposure to smoke from wood burners is comparable with those during the unprecedented “black summer” bushfires of 2019/2020. Prof Sotiris Vardoulakis, part of the research team and director of the Healthy Environments and Lives (Heal) National Research Network, described winter in the city: “When I take my two boys to play basketball outdoors in winter, or when we walk the dog before dinner, there is always a smell of wood smoke in the air.” Vardoulakis and his team found that wood-heating was causing up to a quarter of the particle pollution in Canberra. Combining this information on the health harm from air pollution, they estimated that between 17 and 63 deaths were attributable annually to wood smoke in the Australian Capital Territory, which has a population of about 450,000.