What a surprise! The Guardian has the same story as the BBC, even down to an almost identically (and identically inaccurate) headline:

"Huge ‘hot blob’ in Pacific Ocean killed nearly a million seabirds
Thousands of bodies washed up on North America’s Pacific coast
Study finds common murres probably died of starvation"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/16/hot-blob-ocean-seabirds-killed-new-zealand-north-america

"A million seabirds died in less than a year as a result of a giant “blob” of hot ocean water off the coast of New Zealand, according to new research.

A study released by the University of Washington found the birds, called the common murre, probably died of starvation between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016.

Most dead seabirds never wash ashore, so while 62,000 dead or dying murres were found along the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, researchers estimate the total number is closer to 1 million."

The Guardian also fails to explain the extrapolation from 62,000 to one million, presumably because they and the BBC used the same press release without asking any awkward questions.

Interestingly, the article says this, which suggests that what we are talking about is a natural weather phenomenon:

"The blob stems from a years-long severe marine heatwave, believed to be caused by an anticyclone weather system that first appeared in 2013. A weather phenomenon known as El Niño accelerated the warming temperatures beginning in 2015 and, by 2016, the rising heat resulted in water temperatures nearly 11F (6C) above average.

Anticyclones form when a mass of air cools, contracts and becomes more dense, increasing the weight of the atmosphere and the surface air pressure."

It doesn't stop them putting this at the end of the article:

"As the climate crisis escalates...
… the Guardian will not stay quiet. This is our pledge: we will continue to give global heating, wildlife extinction and pollution the urgent attention and prominence they demand. The Guardian recognises the climate emergency as the defining issue of our times."

It's quite clever really (and deeply cynical). The article isn't about climate change, but its positioning makes it look to the casual reader that it is.

"Banning cars from city centres will enable our roads to blossom"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/banning-cars-city-centres-revolution-town-planning

"This urban revolution could precipitate a grand experiment, to show the world how a city with fewer cars can reinvent itself. British town planning has still not come to terms with its category mistakes, performed at the twin altars of internal combustion and architectural modernism in the second half of the 20th century. It has staged no inquiry, there has been no apology for the staggering cost, both financial and communal, it inflicted on urban Britain to make way for cars.

There is no better time to make amends, and no better starting point than Birmingham. The city need no longer be slave to the car."

I like Simon Jenkins, IMO a thoughtful and decent chap. But I think he's barking up the wrong tree. If people can't drive into city centres, they'll abandon them, at least in the short-medium term, IMO.

"BlackRock gets praise for coal divestment. What it really needs is regulation
Ann Pettifor
For the world’s biggest fund manager and its fellow shadow banks, self-policing can never be sufficient"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/blackrock-coal-divestment-regulation-fund-manager

"Germany will pay billions to speed up coal-fired power plant shutdowns
In fight against climate crisis, operators will be compensated for early switch-offs"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/16/germany-will-pay-billions-to-speed-up-coal-fired-power-plant-shutdowns

"Germany will pay its utility companies billions of euros to speed up the shutdown of their coal-fired power plants as part of the country’s efforts to fight climate crisis, the government has said.

The agreement reached between federal ministers and representatives of four coalmining states removes a key hurdle in Germany’s plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades.

Some regions, particularly in the less prosperous east, are heavily dependent on mining lignite, or brown coal. Together with imported bituminous – or black – coal it provides about a third of Germany’s electricity needs but is also responsible for a big share of the country’s carbon emissions.

The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, said that operators of heavily polluting coal-fired power plants in western Germany will receive €2.6bn (£2,2bn) in compensation for switching them off early, while €1.75bn will go to those with plants in the east.

RWE, Germany’s biggest power producer, said it would cut some 6,000 jobs, or nearly a third of its current workforce, by 2030 as the country phases out brown coal as an energy source. It said the compensation offered was less than the €3.5bn hit it estimated it would take, even excluding the expected loss of profits. However, the deal pushed up RWE’s share price by 2%, their highest level in five years.

The compensation for the utilities is on top of €40bn that the government has already promised to coalmining regions to soften the economic blow of abandoning the fossil fuel.

The government said reviews will be carried out in 2026 and 2029 to determine whether Germany can exit coal-fired electricity generation in 2035, three years before the final deadline.

“What we have here is a good agreement for climate protection because it makes clear that we mean it seriously,” the economy minister Peter Altmaier said.

Environmental campaigners criticised the decision, though, noting that the agreement will still mean a new coal-fired plant – Datteln 4 – goes online this year and allow for the expansion of the Garzweiler opencast mine in western Germany, although a nearby forest that has been the target of long-running protests will be spared."

The Guardian doesn't explain where the money is coming from, either.

"Low on emissions, high on ambition: meet generation net zero
From transforming the energy networks to sharing surplus food, young millennials and Generation Z workers are putting the planet at the heart of their careers"

https://www.theguardian.com/the-job-that-cant-wait/2019/dec/10/low-on-emissions-high-on-ambition-meet-generation-net-zero

"Climate change: Greenland's ice faces melting 'death sentence'
By David Shukman
Science editor
3 September 2019"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49483580

Note the date of that story. It's on the front page of the news section of the BBC website just now.

"Microsoft makes 'carbon negative' pledge"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51133811

"Microsoft has pledged to remove "all of the carbon" from the environment that it has emitted since the company was founded in 1975.

Chief executive Satya Nadella said he wanted to achieve the goal by 2050.

To do so, the company will become "carbon negative" by 2030, removing more carbon from the environment than it emits.

It goes beyond a pledge by cloud-computing rival Amazon, which intends to go "carbon neutral" by 2040.

"When it comes to carbon, neutrality is not enough," said Microsoft president Brad Smith."

Wow!

"Germany agrees plan to phase out coal power by 2038"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51133534

"The German government and regional leaders have agreed on a plan to phase out coal-fired power stations by 2038, involving compensation of about €40bn (£34bn; $45bn).

The end date for burning brown coal (lignite) - the dirtiest type of coal - could be brought forward to 2035, depending on the progress made.

Germany has more than 250,000 workers in renewable energy sectors - far more than in the coal industry.

Coal is a big driver of global warming.

The €40bn compensation will target four German states which have lignite mines and coal-fired power plants: Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.

Much of the money will go into new infrastructure projects for coal-dependent areas and retraining workers for new jobs there.

Mines and utilities will also get compensation for the lost production. The compensation for closing coal-fired power stations in western Germany is set at €2.6bn, and for those in the east at €1.75bn.

...Coal currently powers about one-third of Germany's electricity, and more than half of that relies on burning lignite. Germany is the world's biggest lignite producer...."

The story doesn't say where the money is coning from. I'm guessing it's linked to this:

"Brussels’ green cash credentials questioned
Commission faces skepticism over whether its climate funding adds up."

https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-brussels-green-cash-credentials-questioned-frans-timmermans-budget-just-transition-mechanism/

"The European Commission got a rude awakening from its green dreams as critics assailed its financial plans to tackle climate change.

Ursula von der Leyen's Commission on Tuesday unveiled proposals for a €1 trillion, 10-year European Green Deal Investment Plan, intended to help Europe become the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050."

The EU - run by Germans for Germans.

"New steps aim to boost Scots offshore wind supply chain"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-51141761

"The Scottish government has announced steps to boost the number of offshore wind contracts staying in Scotland.

A deal between ministers and Crown Estate Scotland means developers will have detail when Scots firms will be used as part of the leasing process.

The deal came at a summit in Edinburgh attended by trade unions, UK government representatives and industry.

It was called amid concerns about supply chain firms such as Bifab losing out on deals to foreign competitors.

Ahead of the summit, the GMB Scotland union claimed contracts "worth billions" had been lost to overseas firms last year, "costing tens of thousands of Scottish jobs"."

"1: We're doomed!"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment

"Many feel that climate change will destroy the world’s economy, flood cities, cause mass migrations and even cause regional wars, but why is it so difficult for so many of us to engage with it?

In this three-part series Timothy Morton, dubbed ‘philosopher prophet of the Anthropocene’, rethinks our psychological relationship with the climate crisis, and our place in the biosphere.

Morton cuts an unusual figure, an English literature scholar teaching in a Texas university who spends almost as much time in art galleries and performances as he does writing. He draws on Heidegger and pet cats, William Blake and garden centres, psychoanalysis and collaborations with artists and musicians such as Olafur Eliasson and Bjørk.

Most environmental programmes start with a dramatic landscape or a plunge into the depths of the ocean. But we start in Tim’s driveway. If this climate crisis is a trauma, is there a way to reframe it? And what happens to our feelings when we do? ‘This is foetal-position time,’ he says, ‘but it’s on us: dolphins don’t have fingers to turn off the oil pipes.’ Feeling guilty and powerless is not the answer: ‘How come we conned ourselves into thinking that being ecological means we can’t have any fun anymore?’

With contributions from psychotherapist Caroline Hickman, journalist Amy Westervelt, and environmentalists George Monbiot and Hilton Kelley.

Produced by Chris Elcombe
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4."

"2: The Hurricane In Your Cereal Bowl"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment

"Writer and philosopher Timothy Morton continues to share his ideas about our psychological relationship with global warming. Why can it be so difficult for many of us to engage with it? How could we cope better with our feelings about what’s happening so we can get on with something better for our planet?

In this second episode, Morton introduces his concept of hyperobjects - entities like mass extinction, global warming and hurricanes which are 'things', but so massively distributed in time and space that it’s hard to point to them - they can feel like abstractions but are ferociously, catastrophically real.

Morton channels William Blake in a railway tunnel and visits a garden centre to begin to uncover our innate ‘X-Men superpowers’ that we might scale up to planet-level action.

With contributions from Puerto Rican activists Colibrí Sanfiorenzo Barnhard and Anahí Lazarte Morales, Hilton Kelley of the Higher Ground network of flooding survivors in the US, artist Olafur Eliasson, ABC13 Houston weatherman Travis Herzog, psychotherapist Caroline Hickman, and poetry read by Laurie Anderson.

Produced by Chris Elcombe
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4."

"Pacific 'blob' heatwave feared to have killed a million birds"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51140869

"Tens of thousands of seabirds found dead on the west coast of the US in 2015-16 were probably killed by an unprecedented heatwave, scientists say.

Around 62,000 common murres washed up on the coast of the Pacific Ocean but up to a million birds are thought to have died."

That's one heck of an extrapolation, and no explanation is offered for it!

The Lib Dems crashed
Jan 16, 2020 at 4:22 PM TinyCO2

They'll be back! Under a new Leader, campaigning to join the EU, or something.....?

They really need to go back to what they have gained success and support from. Local Government, focused on Local issues. Having dropped "Social Democrat" from their name, it will be difficult to attract support from disaffected Conservative and Labour voters at a national level.

I think that it's the church that is preventing it.

Church bells should be rung throughout the land!

(I admit that getting ringers to get organised to start at 11.00 pm on a Friday, when they would much rather be in the pub.. )

Jan 16, 2020 at 5:03 PM Charly

Is this allowed under EU Rules and Regulations?

Can RLB fake it in a way Corbyn couldn't?

Jan 16, 2020 at 4:22 PM TinyCO2

I don't think RLB is a foregone conclusion, but I think BoJo would rather she was. Winning Momentum's version of an election may mean she has achieved Peak Power already and has hit the revolution limiter.

The recriminations within Labour Constituency Parties are currently being suppressed and screened from the public's view.

For the traditional Labour Party faithful, including MP's, a genuine chance of being elected is more important than Corbyn's failed political dinosaur dogma.

Shouldn't be just Big Ben. Church bells should be rung throughout the land!

( I admit that getting ringers to get organised to start at 11.00 pm on a Friday, when they would much rather be in the pub.... )

The Crowd funding to sound Big Ben at 11pm on Friday 31st of January has topped the £100,000 mark but the target must be met by the Weekend to give time for implementation. If it does not go ahead or does not reach the target the money will be donated to help the heros. I hope they reach their traget if only to be one in the eye for the kill joy Government Officials.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/bigbenbongforbrexit

gc but Brexit will be done at the next election. He won't have that for him and Labour won't have it against. The Lib Dems crashed because, yet again, their members split in both directions.

Under Labout it was hard for the public to believe that Corbyn cared about them at all. It was what destroyed Hillary's chances. Can RLB fake it in a way Corbyn couldn't?

Do you really believe any UK government will wish to suffer angry protests from Tunbridge Wells if it drives the beloved BBC to the wall?

Jan 16, 2020 at 3:05 PM AK

The BBC is too big to fail?
How will BoJo lose out if it does?