‘Queen of trash’ and employees arrested over Sweden’s ‘largest environmental crime’

Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent
Thu, 28 December 2023 

Photograph: Anna Ringstrom/Reuters

Eleven people have been charged by a Swedish court in what is being billed as potentially the country’s worst environmental crime in half a century.

NMT Think Pink – a previously celebrated waste management company known for its trademark pink rubbish bags – is accused of illegally burying and dumping tens of thousands of tonnes of waste at 21 sites across 15 municipalities around Sweden, in what prosecutors described as a “very serious crime”.

Harmful levels of arsenic, dioxins, lead, zinc, copper and petroleum products were found during the investigation. Three years ago, parts of Stockholm were shrouded in smoke caused by a fire in an abandoned rubbish heap run by the company.

At the centre of the case is successful entrepreneur Bella Nilsson – who previously crowned herself the “queen of trash” and has since changed her name to Fariba Vancor – and her ex-husband, Thomas Nilsson.

They are accused of handling significantly more rubbish than permitted and illegal management, allegedly causing several fires and exposing nearby residents to toxic waste. All of the accused deny wrongdoing.

At a hearing at Värmland district court in Karlstad on Thursday, five people – including Vancor and Nilsson – were charged with serious environmental crime, one with aiding and abetting serious environmental crime and five with environmental crime.

Court documents show that the five charged with serious environmental crime were accused of managing waste “in a way that caused or could cause pollution that was or had been harmful to human health, animals or plants”.

They are accused of storing waste “at various properties in Sweden unsorted, crushed, ground and/or without adequate protective measures”, transporting it between properties and burying waste or using it as filler material, wrapping it in bales and relinquishing control over the waste.

Senior prosecutor Anders Gustafsson said the preliminary investigation, which is 45,000 pages long, “is the largest environmental crime in Sweden in terms of scope and organisation”.

The trial is expected to take several weeks and involve an estimated 150 witnesses.

An investigation into eco-crime is also under way. Senior prosecutor Linda Schön said that at one site alone, 48,000 tonnes of waste had been stored.

“The scary thing about environmental toxins is that many times we don’t see the effects immediately, but it is the next generation that has to pay the price,” she said.

According to an estimate by the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, at least 200,000 tonnes of waste have allegedly been dumped by the company, though the true amount could potentially be much higher.

Think Pink is accused of carrying out Sweden’s worst environmental crime since the company BT Kemi buried barrels of poison in southern Sweden in the 70s.

UK

Opinion

How should Keir Starmer take on 2024? By looking back a century to Labour’s first government

Martin Kettle

THE GUARDIAN
Wed, 27 December 2023

Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

Next year’s general election will be the 22nd in Britain’s postwar history. Only a handful of these can be described as pivotal. Three stand out: Clement Attlee’s Labour victory in 1945, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative win in 1979 and, more debatably, Tony Blair’s Labour landslide in 1997. Boris Johnson’s 2019 win might have been a fourth, but it has proved a lurch into a cul-de-sac. Today we may possibly be on the threshold of another of these rare change-making elections. Scepticism about that prospect is sensible.

As time passes, individual elections cease to echo with shared meaning as they once did. There is, though, one more pivotal general election that ought to resonate today. It took place exactly a hundred years ago this month. And it still makes three relevant calls on today’s politics.

In ascending order of importance, these calls are: as a catastrophically mistaken piece of general election timing; as the election that produced the most hung of all the hung parliaments in the UK’s democratic era; and, by far the most important of all, as the election that produced Britain’s first ever Labour government.

Britain has never experienced an election like the one that took place on 6 December 1923. It was wholly unnecessary. The Conservatives had won a large majority only 12 months previously under Andrew Bonar Law. He then retired because of terminal cancer. His successor, Stanley Baldwin, wanted a policy U-turn in favour of protectionist tariffs on imports, so called another election to win a mandate.

The result was disastrous for the Tories. They were reduced to 258 MPs, with Labour now on 191 and the divided Liberals 158. Only a coalition or a minority government was now viable. The opposition parties would not support the Tories, but would not form a coalition themselves. A minority government beckoned in a hung parliament.

But a minority government of which party? The Tories were the largest party but had just been voted out. The next alternative was no longer the Liberals, but Labour. For six weeks over Christmas, Baldwin hung on, only to be defeated by 72 votes when parliament finally met. On 22 January 1924, Ramsay MacDonald became prime minister in Britain’s first Labour government.

The Britain of 1924 was in so many ways another country compared with the Britain of 2024. The new prime minister was the illegitimate son of a Moray ploughman. The Russian revolution was seven years old. “Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama [Queen Victoria] died,” wrote George V in his diary. “I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour government.”

There had never been a government made up of industrial workers either. Nor one containing a woman, the Somerset shop worker Margaret Bondfield. The new colonial secretary was a Welsh engine driver. The home secretary a Glaswegian iron moulder. Three ministers had worked in the coalmines. Many of Britain’s traditional rulers were genuinely terrified. Some of them were determined to ensure that it failed.

If Keir Starmer becomes prime minister, his move into Downing Street will be smoother than MacDonald’s. In particular, he will hope to govern with the majority that MacDonald lacked. Starmer will look to govern for years, not the mere months that the first Labour government inevitably and rightly expected before it was brought down in October 1924.

Starmer would also inherit a British state that is more comfortable with the rule of law and with checks and balances than the UK of a century ago. His patriotism would not be questioned, as MacDonald’s was in the wake of his opposition to the first world war. He would expect the full loyalty of the military, the police and the security services. MacDonald could not do the same.

But there would be many parallels with 1924, too. Labour in 2024 would take power amid government austerity and in the wake of a pandemic. It would be determined to win the trust of the financial markets and to make an ethical mark in foreign policy. It would be under internal pressure to make a material difference for the poor. The unions would want a shift in workplace power. Housing reform would be a priority. And there would be battles between those who believe governing and re-election to power is the priority, and those who are more comfortable in opposition, condemning Labour leaders as betrayers of the socialist faith.

Unlike MacDonald the pioneer, however, Starmer would lead a party that now knows it is not Britain’s natural party of government. He would know, as MacDonald could not, that the breakthrough of 1924 did not usher in a century of Labour rule. It was to be a Tory century, and it still is. Labour has governed for 33 of those years, and produced six prime ministers, only three of whom have won general election overall majorities. The Conservatives’ figures are 67 years, 14 prime ministers and 10 overall majority winners.

Related: Keir Starmer tells Labour frontbench to ready policies for spring election

Labour’s centenary as a governing party is nevertheless an anniversary to be taken seriously by all who will follow the fortunes of a possible Starmer government. Expect a clutch of books, including Peter Clark’s The Men of 1924, Jon Cruddas’s A Century of Labour and David Torrance’s The Wild Men, all written with wit and commendable succinctness and most featuring photos of the now all but forgotten Labour figures who first trod the corridors of power: Arthur Henderson, JR Clynes, Jimmy Thomas, Philip Snowden and MacDonald himself.

If nothing else, the centenary is an opportunity to resume the work begun by David Marquand’s 1977 biography, and restore MacDonald to the position he deserves as a major Labour leader. He was a fundamental part of Labour’s still unfolding and often contradictory story. He should no longer be dismissed merely as a traitor to the cause who, in 1931, formed a government with the Tories and whose name can barely even be mentioned in the party’s long journey from Keir Hardie to Keir Starmer.

But the centenary is worth more than that. It is a chance to understand the deeper reasons that underpin Labour’s defeats and difficult decades. It is an occasion to ask, again, whether the strands that Cruddas sees as crucial to the Labour experience – the ethical, the welfarist and the liberal – can be reconciled more creatively in the future than they have been in the past. It is a moment to try again to clarify what Labour’s governing objectives actually are and should be.

And it is a very timely opportunity to reiterate the advice of Henry Drucker when he wrote in his book Doctrine and Ethos in the Labour Party that Labour’s doctrinaires of both left and right “would be better employed rethinking their doctrines than trying to win the party to what are, by now, rather threadbare ideas”. Hopefully, it may also not be too late.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

Heavy election defeat could lead to Tory lurch to right, analysis shows

Peter Walker Deputy political editor

The Guardian
Thu, 28 December 2023 

Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK parliament/AFP/Getty Images

A catastrophic election defeat could lead to the parliamentary Conservative party tilting towards the populist right, Guardian analysis has indicated.

A projection of the seats the Conservatives would retain if there was a further two percentage point swing to Labour before election day, using data from Electoral Calculus, shows that about 40% of the remaining MPs would come from this wing of the party.

In less calamitous defeats – scenarios based on current polling levels, and on a situation where there is a two percentage point swing in favour of the Tories – the proportion would be nearer to 30%, roughly where it is now.


The analysis came amid talk of the Tories mulling over holding a general election in May. The speculation was spurred this week by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announcing an earlier-than-usual date for his spring budget. The Labour party has welcomed the rumour.

The raw Electoral Calculus data also shows how, unless the polling improves, the Conservatives could lose huge numbers of seats. If an election were held with polling as it is now, the projection suggests the Tories would plummet to just 125 MPs, down from 365 in 2019. A 2% swing in their favour would bring the number to 175 – but a 2% shift away would leave the party with just 72 MPs.

It is in this last scenario that the dominance of the populist right would be strongest, both in terms of numbers but also by the metric of which leading MPs from each wing remain.

Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman, seen as the frontrunners to succeed Rishi Sunak from the party’s populist right, have such safe seats that they would keep them under any scenario. But in the worst case for the Tories, only Hunt and James Cleverly would survive as big-name centrist Conservatives.

Penny Mordaunt, seen as another contender from the centrist wing, would not keep her seat under any of the three Electoral Calculus scenarios used for the study.

While such judgments are necessarily subjective, the Guardian based the numbers on MPs known to be members of hard-right or culture war-sympathetic factions – such as the Common Sense Group and New Conservatives – or to have regularly expressed such views.

Other key caveats to the analysis include the impact of boundary changes, and how in some seats either a candidate has not yet been selected or is not yet an MP and thus, in almost all cases, their ideology cannot be gauged. This covers between 15% and 20% of the post-election MPs, depending on the results.

Much could depend on those new MPs, but over time the Conservative party has edged closer towards the sort of populism embraced by European hard-right leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, as illustrated by the turnout of Tories at May’s National Conservatism conference in London.

Arguably the safest expectation is that a post-Sunak contest would end up as a bitterly fought battle between the party’s right and centre. Given that the final choice would be made by members, who tend to be further to the right than the parliamentary party, it is possible they would, as with Liz Truss, choose someone who does not inspire complete confidence among MPs.

Martin Baxter, the chief executive of Electoral Calculus, said under the current polling consensus the Conservatives would end up with fewer than 200 seats.

He said: “This analysis shows that the party will still be split between its left and right wings, and it will still face an existential question about what it stands for. The right would still be a minority, so continued conflict would be a real possibility.”

David Jeffery, a senior British politics lecturer at the University of Liverpool, co-authored a study earlier this year that looked at similar projections showing which Tory MPs could emerge from a defeat. This pointed to other big changes, such as a potential near wipeout of the party’s northern-England MPs.

Jeffery said this project concluded that the most likely scenario was division. “The core finding was that if Rishi Sunak or a leadership contender is hoping that, post-defeat, the Conservative parliamentary party is going to skew one way or the other, then that is their mistake. Really, it’s going to be as divided as it is now,” he said.

“There will be some pressure on the party to regroup in a defeat, but this might be optimistic. Normally, you’re united in office and then you come apart in opposition, but the Conservatives have been fighting each other in office.”

UK

Supercell thunderstorm hits Lancs after lightning and 'tornado' across north west


Sarah McGee
Thu, 28 December 2023 

Supercell thunderstorm sweeps across Lancashire, after "localised tornado" 

in Tameside

 (Image: PA/Met Office)

A supercell thunderstorm has moved across Lancashire, after the same type of storm is thought to have resulted in a tornado that damaged homes in Greater Manchester.

The thunderstorm is moving east across Morecambe Bay and may bring hail, frequent lightning and gusty winds to parts of Lancashire, according to the Met Office.

Coastal areas of the county appear the be the worst affected by the storm with 48mph winds expected in Morecambe.


Across East Lancashire it is still set to remain wet and windy, with wind speeds expected to reach 41mph.

The Met Office said a supercell thunderstorm crossed Greater Manchester on Wednesday night and that it had a “strong rotating updraft”, which suggests “a tornado at the surface was likely”

Around 100 properties were damaged by what police called a “localised tornado” in Stalybridge, Tameside, and residents in the badly hit village of Carrbrook told of the states of “absolute disaster” houses were in.

The news of a supercell thunderstorm moving across Lancashire comes as the Met Office reported the “worst” of Storm Gerrit has cleared away as of Thursday afternoon.

The named storm caused power outages and widespread travel disruption.

Meteorologist Alex Burkill said in a Thursday afternoon forecast: “It is still a windy blustery picture for many of us as we go through the rest of today.

“Likely to be some gales, perhaps even severe gales, in some exposed spots and hefty showers; could be some hail, some sleet mixed in with these across parts of Scotland in particular.”

He added that the blustery and showery picture continues overnight and into Friday with winds expected to ease slightly across most of the UK.

A further bout of “very strong winds” and a spell of “intense rain” is expected on Saturday before more unsettled weather with “blustery, showery conditions likely as we go through New Year’s Eve”, the meteorologist said.

“Numerous reports” of damage to property in Stalybridge were made to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) at around 11.45pm on Wednesday, and the force declared a major incident due to the “severity” of the damage caused and the potential risk to public safety.

No injuries were reported but many residents were forced to leave their homes.

‘Localised tornado’ damages 100 properties as Storm Gerrit sweeps UK

Ellie Ng, George Lithgow and Rachel Vickers-Price, PA
Thu, 28 December 2023 

A “localised tornado” damaged around 100 properties in Greater Manchester as Storm Gerrit swept the country, with thousands of homes remaining without power and travellers likely to face continued disruption.

The storm brought heavy snow across parts of Scotland which, along with high winds and heavy rain, damaged electricity networks in the country as fallen trees, branches and other debris brought down power lines.

It also wreaked havoc on the travel network on Wednesday with a string of train operators – including ScotRail, LNER and Avanti West Coast – suspending and terminating some services, as well as advising customers not to travel.

A “localised tornado” is believed to have caused “significant damage” to homes in Stalybridge, Tameside.

“Numerous reports” were made to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) at around 11.45pm on Wednesday, and the force declared a major incident due to the “severity” of the damage caused and the potential risk to public safety.

No injuries were reported but many residents were forced to leave their homes.

The ‘localised tornado’ ripped off roofs and brought down walls (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Tameside Council said about 100 properties were evacuated after the “mini tornado” hit areas of Carrbrook and Millbrook.

A spokesperson said: “It is believed everyone affected made arrangements to stay with family and friends overnight.

“Our officers have been out all night and continue to be out today clearing debris, fallen trees and making roads, footpaths and other areas safe.”

Chief Superintendent Mark Dexter from GMP said: “This incident has undoubtedly affected numerous people in the Stalybridge area with many residents displaced from their properties during the night.

“Our highest priority is keeping people safe which is why we are advising those who have been displaced not to return or enter their properties which have significant damage until they have been assessed by structural engineers.

“I would also like to urge members of the public to avoid the area where possible and take extra care when travelling in vehicles on the roads in Stalybridge and the surrounding areas, due to debris in the road.”

Roof damage in Stalybridge caused by Storm Gerrit (Richard McCarthy/PA)

Hayley McCaffer, 40, who lives in Carrbrook, told the PA news agency that some of her neighbours’ houses “are an absolute disaster” with missing rooves and “squished” cars.

She and her partner are not sure when they can get back into their home.

Patricia Watkinson, another Carrbrook resident who was away in Norfolk when gusts swept through the village, has been told by a neighbour that apart from a “dangling” aerial her home appears undamaged.

But the 83-year-old told PA that her neighbour’s shed “is gone”.

Authorities in Greater Manchester were also called on Wednesday to weather incidents amid reports of a possible tornado in Dukinfield and Mossley.

Tameside Council opened a reception area at Dukinfield Town Hall to cater for any displaced residents.

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation said a detailed site investigation would need to be undertaken before it can confirm the damage was caused by a rare British tornado.

Meanwhile, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said that as of 11am on Thursday, supplies had been restored to some 34,000 customers, with around 7,700 left without power.

Director of corporate affairs Graeme Keddie told BBC Radio Scotland many of those properties are in north-east Scotland and Shetland.

“One of the main impacts we’ve seen is around access to faults, so blocked roads, flooding in fields, and issues with snow,” he said.

“We’re very hopeful that that will ease today but that has meant our teams on the ground have been saying that (in) the time it would take to fix two or three faults they have only been able to fix one, but we are hopeful of further progress today as weather conditions have eased.”

He added that power may not be restored for some customers until Friday, particularly those who live in heavily affected or rural areas.

Police Scotland confirmed the A9 has fully reopened in both directions and is “passable with care” after snow blocked the road between Drumochter and Dalwhinnie in the Highlands.

Inspector Michelle Burns, from the force’s road policing unit, said: “Conditions for travel in the affected areas may be hazardous and extra caution should be exercised by all road users.”

Scotland’s rail network experienced widespread cancellations and delays with a train driver’s cabin hit by a falling tree. No-one was injured.

(PA Graphics)

ScotRail has suspended multiple train services until further notice to allow for safety inspections to be carried out.

Avanti West Coast, which operates services on the West Coast Main Line, said on Thursday morning that a tree falling on overhead wires between Rugby and Lichfield Trent Valley means some lines are blocked, extending journey times for services from London Euston towards the North West, as trains are diverted through the Midlands.

Ferry operator DFDS said its sailings between Dover and France are delayed due to strong winds in the Channel.Passengers are being advised to check in as normal and are being put onto the first available sailing.

Heathrow Airport cancelled 18 flights on Wednesday because of air traffic control restrictions including routes from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey and Manchester as well as to Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid and Paris.

Storm Gerrit also brought plenty of rain, with the Great Langdale Valley in the Lake District recording 80mm – nearly half the usual 178mm monthly rainfall for December, the Met Office said.

The fastest recorded wind gusts were 86mph at Inverbervie in Aberdeenshire, 84mph at Fair Isle in Shetland, and 83mph at Capel Curig, north Wales, the forecaster said.

‘Localised tornado’ rips roofs off houses as Storm Gerrit sweeps across UK

Rebecca Ann Hughes
Thu, 28 December 2023 

‘Localised tornado’ rips roofs off houses as Storm Gerrit sweeps across UK


A ‘localised tornado’ has severely damaged homes in Greater Manchester as Storm Gerrit batters the UK.

Thousands of people are also without power and travel has been plunged into chaos across the country.

Scotland has experienced heavy snowfall as well as high winds and torrential rain.

Electricity outages have been caused by falling trees and branches bringing down power lines.

Tornado damages houses in the UK

The ‘localised tornado’ is reported to have caused ‘significant damage’ to around 100 properties in Stalybridge in Tameside.

Roofs were ripped off houses, walls collapsed and trees were brought down.

“This incident has undoubtedly affected numerous people in the Stalybridge area with many residents displaced from their properties during the night,” said Chief Superintendent Mark Dexter of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

The GMP received ‘numerous reports’ late on Wednesday evening and declared a major incident due to the severity of damage and the possible risk to public safety.

The force said there have been no reports of injuries but many people were forced to flee their homes.

“Our highest priority is keeping people safe which is why we are advising those who have been displaced not to return [to] or enter their properties which have significant damage until they have been assessed by structural engineers,” Dexter added.

“I would also like to urge members of the public to avoid the area where possible and take extra care when travelling in vehicles on the roads in Stalybridge and the surrounding areas, due to debris in the road.”
Scotland loses power as Storm Gerrit hits

Areas of Scotland have been left without power as the storm sweeps the country. Around 16,000 properties are waiting to be reconnected.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) have been working to restore connections but say engineers are battling winds of up to 130 km/h in some coastal areas.

‘Unpredictable and dangerous': What is human activity doing to sand and dust storms?

The company has managed to restore power to 25,000 homes so far.

“The widespread extent of the damage, the ongoing adverse weather conditions, and the challenges accessing faults due to fallen trees, flooding and road closures, together mean that full network restoration will take time,” an SSEN spokesman said.

“Some customers in rural areas may be off supply for up to 48 hours.”

Was Storm Gerrit caused by climate change?

The Scottish Green party has said climate change could be the blame for the storm.

"[It is] clear we are suffering ever more severe weather as the climate crisis worsens," the party said.

It added that "we must ensure we can adapt and act accordingly."

Though it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly how much of a role climate change played in generating the tornado, environmental experts have warned that climate change could make storms worse.

What causes a tornado and when was the last one in the UK?

As a 'localised tornado' was believed to have hit Manchester during Storm Gerrit, Yahoo News UK looks at the science behind tornados.

Ellen Manning
Updated Thu, 28 December 2023 

Police declared a major incident as roofs were torn off houses and trees uprooted in Stalybridge amid what people think was a tornado. (Getty)

Properties were left damaged and people forced to leave their homes after a "localised tornado" passed over Greater Manchester during Storm Gerrit on Wednesday.

Greater Manchester Police said it received "numerous reports" about the 'tornado' at around 11.45pm in Stalybridge, Tameside on Wednesday, declaring a major incident due to the "severity" of the damage caused and the potential risk to public safety.

No injuries were reported but many residents were forced to leave their homes, with those whose properties had suffered significant damage urged not to return until they had been given the all-clear by structural engineers.

Chief Superintendent Mark Dexter, from Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said: "This incident has undoubtedly affected numerous people in the Stalybridge area with many residents displaced from their properties during the night. Our highest priority is keeping people safe which is why we are advising those who have been displaced not to return or enter their properties which have significant damage until they have been assessed by structural engineers.

Police declared a major incident as roofs were torn off houses and trees uprooted in Stalybridge amid what people think was a tornado. (Getty)

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation said a detailed site investigation would need to be undertaken before it can confirm the damage was caused by a tornado.

The Met Office said a supercell thunderstorm – which can cause a tornado – had crossed Greater Manchester on Wednesday night with a "strong rotating updraft". A spokesperson said: "Damage reported from the area would be consistent with a small-scale tornado and radars picked up a feature that could be a tornado. The meteorological conditions in the area also support the possible development of a tornado in the area. Around 30 tornados are reported a year in the UK, though they often occur where there are little to no impacts or are very short-lived features."
Recommended reading

Tornadoes in the UK are surprisingly common and no one knows why (The Conversation)


Rare tornado-like phenomenon spotted over Suffolk (East Anglian Daily Times)


UK weather: Tornado damages homes and cars in Surrey (Sky News)

What is a tornado and what causes one?

Tornadoes are vertical funnels of rapidly spinning air. They often come from supercells - large thunderstorms with winds that are already in rotation. According to National Geographic, around one in a thousand storms becomes a supercell, and one in five or six supercells spawns off a tornado.

A tornado forms when warm, humid air collides with cold, dry air. The denser cold air is pushed over the warm air, usually producing thunderstorms. The warm air rises through the colder air, causing an updraft.

If winds vary sharply in speed or direction, that updraft starts to rotate, called a mesocycle. As that mesocycle draws in more warm air from the moving thunderstorm, its rotation speed increases and water droplets from its moist air form a funnel cloud which continues to grow and eventually drops down from the cloud to touch the ground - at which point it becomes classified as a tornado.

People were forced to leave their homes amid the "localised tornado". (Getty)

The tornado then moves across the surface causing severe damage or destruction to objects in its path. Tornado size and intensity vary greatly, the Met Office says, with a typical tornado 20-100m wide at the surface, lastings for a few minutes and with a track of around a mile (1.6km). Tornado damage is localised; limited by the track of the tornado.

Around 30 tornadoes a year are reported in the UK, according to the Met Office, which are typically small and short-lived, but can cause structural damage if they pass over built-up areas.

When was the last tornado in the UK?

Tornadoes are tracked by the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), which categorises them using a scale measuring their intensity based on wind speed, track length, track width and track area.

The scene from the air of Alder Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, after a tornado in 2005. (Getty)

The most recent tornado in the UK was in Birmingham in July 2005, measuring T6 on the TORRO scale, causing £40m of damage - reportedly the costliest tornado if not the strongest. A tornado that hit Gunnersbury in London in 1954 was stronger, measuring T7 on the scale.

Accoridng to TORRO, the most intense tornado on record for the UK was in 1666 when a tornado passed through Lincolnshire, measuring T8-9 with a reported maximum track width of 200m and a track length of 5km.

Zero onshore wind plans submitted in England since de facto ban was ‘lifted’


Helena Horton Environment reporter
Wed, 27 December 2023 

Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

No new plans for onshore wind have been accepted in England since the government claimed it had “lifted” the de facto ban, new analysis reveals.

Renewable energy organisations warned at the time that this was likely. Despite the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, having changed planning rules introduced in 2015 by the then prime minister, David Cameron, to stop onshore wind projects being blocked by a single objection, they still face higher barriers than every other form of infrastructure, including waste incinerators.

Analysis of the government’s renewable energy planning database shows that no applications for new onshore wind projects have been submitted since the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, claimed that the government would overturn the onshore wind ban in September 2023.

At the time, the National Infrastructure Commission advised the government to go further and restore onshore wind to the government’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects process, which would encourage more applications.

The government rejected this recommendation and said the measures announced in September were enough.

Analysis by Carbon Brief estimates that if onshore wind had continued to be built at the same rate it was in 2017 – before the ban started to come into effect – 7GW of onshore wind would have been built. This would have knocked £5.1bn off energy bills, or £182 for each UK household, in the year from July 2022 to June 2023.

Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, said: “As predicted, the government’s futile planning tweaks amounted to absolutely nothing and the de facto ban is still well and truly in place. Why would a developer risk putting their cash behind a project that remains beholden to woolly guidelines and the unworkable decisions made by some local councils?

“Onshore wind is the cheapest, quickest and greenest way to produce energy. Ramping up production would lower energy bills, slash emissions and bolster the UK’s energy security. We should be building them everywhere it makes sense to generate. But as things stand, you’ve got more chance of spotting a flying pig than a new onshore windfarm in the UK.”

Ed Miliband, the shadow energy secretary, said a Labour government would end the effective ban on onshore wind.

“Every household in Britain is paying higher energy bills because of Rishi Sunak’s staggering failure to end the onshore wind ban,” he said. “The Conservatives have artificially inflated energy bills, and make the UK’s energy system dependent on fossil fuel dictators, because they ludicrously oppose cheap, clean power for our country.

A spokesperson for the levelling up department said: “We’ve updated the national planning policy framework to make it easier and quicker for onshore wind projects to come forward, where there is local support. These changes will need time to take effect but will ultimately pave the way for more projects while ensuring that the views of the community are taken into account.”

Climate change has caused ‘chaos’ for UK nature in 2023

Danny Halpin, PA Environment Correspondent
Tue, 26 December 2023 at 5:01 pm GMT-7·3-min read

Climate change is causing “chaos” for UK nature because of rising average temperatures, changing seasons and increasingly unpredictable weather, the National Trust has said in its annual review.

It is almost certain that 2023 will be the hottest year on record and probably in the last 120,000 years, with the Met Office forecasting 2024 to be hotter still.

The UK has already warmed by more than 1C above the pre-industrial average, leading to winters shortening and summers lengthening.


Extreme heat and drought is becoming more common and this year the UK recorded its hottest June, with the river Derwent in the Lake District, traditionally one of England’s wettest areas, drying out for the third consecutive summer.

This was followed by intense storms in the autumn, which caused widespread flooding.

High winds and waves battered the southern shoreline with one area in Dorset seeing 15 years of erosion in a day.

Ben McCarthy, head of nature and restoration ecology at the National Trust, said: “The shifting weather patterns we’re seeing in the UK, particularly with the warmer temperatures we’re experiencing, is continuing to upset the natural, regular rhythm of the seasons, causing stress to wildlife and making it more susceptible to pests and disease.

“This loss of predictability causes chaos for the annual behaviours of animals in particular, but can also impact trees and plants.”

Shorter winters mean there are fewer cold snaps to kill off tree pests such as the oak processionary moth, which has been spreading north from its traditional home in the Mediterranean.

Shorter winters encourage hazel dormice to wake from hibernation sooner, making them spend more energy (James Beck/National Trust/PA)

It also makes hibernators like dormice wake up earlier, meaning they use more energy than they would normally, and red deer rut later in the year, which results in calves being born in the summer instead of spring – so they lose time to grow and put on fat for the winter.

Mr McCarthy said: “It’s these baseline changes that we’re seeing that are really worrying and what we should be taking more notice of, particularly when combined with extreme weather events, which makes things even more challenging.”

National Trust rangers and gardeners are mowing grass later in the year due to warmer, wetter conditions, while some shrubs have been budding early, exposing them to cold snaps while depriving insects of nectar in the summer.

There were also algal blooms and low water levels as early as January in the Lake District and also in Port Stewart, Northern Ireland, over the summer.

Magnolia campbellii was found blooming in November this year when it usually does so in January (Hilary Daniel/National Trust/PA)

East Anglia and Cornwall spent over a year in drought conditions after the extreme heat of 2022.

Keith Jones, national climate change consultant at the National Trust, said: “When you consider the extreme temperatures and heatwaves that have devastated parts of Europe and other countries this year, we have been extremely fortunate.

“We were just 1,000 miles away from experiencing a second year of serious drought and record-breaking temperatures which would have had huge consequences for nature, people and food production.

“But we can’t allow ourselves to be lulled into any sense of false security.

“In the near future we are likely to experience a combination of drought and high temperatures as well as high rainfall and flood – and we need to get ready for this new norm.

“Water is going to be key – not having enough and also not too much.”

Why This Iconic English Tree Is Facing Particular Pressure From Climate Change

Kate Nicholson
Thu, December 28, 2023 

Large mature English oak tree, Quercus Robur

The National Trust has warned that an iconic English tree is already struggling due to climate change.

Yes, the English oak, which pops up repeatedly throughout our national history, is said to support more life than any other native tree species in the UK and creates one of the hardest timbers on the planet, is under strain due to our shifting climate.

In fact, climate change is exacerbating a phenomenon already known as acute oat decline, caused by a non-native pest.

The oak processionary moth damages the tree’s foliage and increases its susceptibility to other diseases – and climate change means the pest is sticking around for much longer these days, due to shorter winters.

John Deakin, head of trees and woodland at the National Trust “cold snaps [are] just not long enough to kill off diseases such as oak processionary moth, whose caterpillars infest oak trees, leaving them vulnerable to other threats.”

And the moth’s spread northwards through Europe away from their traditional home in the Mediterranean “is a tangible consequence of our warming climate,” Deakin added.

Deakin explained that growing any new trees – not just oak – is especially difficult in periods of drought, too, with up to 80% of saplings dying in some areas of the country.

While experts have devised techniques using wood mulching and sheep fleeces to help keep moisture in the soil and prevent grass growth, they are now looking at how trees will need different environments in the next 50 years.

For instance, beech trees and woodlands – typically found in the south – may soon only suit the north of England.

Deakin explained: “Our traditional thinking of where certain species like English oak and Sessile oak may thrive geographically is also likely to change as we are already seeing the huge impact of Acute Oak Decline on English oak in the south east and midlands, previously their stronghold, now being compromised.”

Ben McCarthy, head of the Trust’s nature and restoration ecology, also noted that shifting weather patterns in the UK mean many trees were constantly under stress.

Sometimes they can end up producing too much berries and nuts, without the chance to “rest”.

And while these are “incremental shifts”, these changes build up over a decade to cause serious changes in our wildlife.

McCarthy said: “It’s these baseline changes that we’re seeing that are really worrying and what we should be taking more notice of, particularly when combined with extreme weather events, which makes things even more challenging.”

Meanwhile, the national climate change consultant at the Trust, Keith Jones, said the UK must not be “lulled into any sense of false security” when it comes to our weather.

“We are likely to experience a combination of drought and high temperatures as well as high rainfall and floods – and we need to get ready for this new ‘norm’,” Jones explained.

As tree species face decline, ‘assisted migration’ gains popularity in Pacific Northwest

The Canadian Press
Thu, December 28, 2023



PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) —

As native trees in the Pacific Northwest die off due to climate changes, the U.S. Forest Service, Portland, Oregon and citizen groups around Puget Sound are turning to a deceptively simple climate adaptation strategy called “assisted migration.”

As the world’s climate warms, tree growing ranges in the Northern Hemisphere are predicted to move farther north and higher in elevation.

Trees, of course, can’t get up and walk to their new climatic homes. This is where assisted migration is supposed to lend a hand.

The idea is that humans can help trees keep up with climate change by moving them to more favorable ecosystems faster than the trees could migrate on their own.

Yet not everyone agrees on what type of assisted migration the region needs — or that it’s always a good thing.

In the Pacific Northwest, a divide has emerged between groups advocating for assisted migration that would help struggling native trees, and one that could instead see native species replaced on the landscape by trees from the south, including coast redwoods and giant sequoias.

“There is a huge difference between assisted population migration and assisted species migration,” said Michael Case, forest ecologist at the Virginia-based Nature Conservancy.

Case currently runs an assisted population migration experiment at the Conservancy’s Ellsworth Creek Preserve in western Washington.

Assisted population migration involves moving a native species' seeds, and by extension its genes, within its current growing range.

By contrast, assisted species migration involves moving a species well outside its existing range, such as introducing redwoods and sequoias to Washington.

A third form of assisted migration, called “range expansion,” amounts to moving a species just beyond its current growing range.

Case’s project involves testing whether breeds of native Douglas fir and western hemlock from drier parts of the Pacific Northwest can be used to help western Washington forests adapt to climate change. He says the Nature Conservancy is focusing on population migration because it has fewer ecological risks.

“Whenever you plant something in an area where it is not locally found you increase the risk of failure,” Case said. “You increase the risk of disturbing potential ecosystem functions and processes.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and Columbia Insight, exploring the impact of climate on trees in the Pacific Northwest.

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Population migration is the only form of assisted migration currently practiced nationwide by the Forest Service, according to Dr. David Lytle, the agency’s deputy chief for research and development.

“We are very, very cautious and do not engage in the long-distance movement and establishment of plant material outside and disjunct from the historic range of a species,” said Lytle.

The Forest Service is pursing assisted population migration because it’s likely to have few if any “negative consequences” to ecosystems, he said.

Douglas Tallamy, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, said one potential negative consequence of species migration is the possibility that native caterpillars might not eat the leaves of migrated nonnative tree species. Because caterpillars feed birds and other animals, this could lead to disruptions to the food web.

This could happen if the City of Portland migrates oak species from places to the south, Tallamy noted. “Oaks are the most important plant for supporting wildlife that we have in North America,” he said, “but when you move them out of range, the things that are adapted to eating them no longer have access to them.”

The City of Portland’s Urban Forestry program is currently experimenting with the assisted migration of 11 tree species, including three oak species to the south: California black oak, canyon live oak and interior live oak.

Asked via email about potential ecological disruptions Portland’s City Forester & Urban Forestry Manager Jenn Cairo responded: “We use research from universities, state and federal sources, and local and regional field practitioner experience.”

Another advocate for species migration is the Puget Sound-based, citizen-led PropagationNation. The organization has planted trees in several parks in the Seattle area and has the ambitious goal of “bringing a million coast redwoods and giant sequoias to the Northwest,” according to its website.

The PropagationNation website also recommends planting redwoods in areas where native western red cedar, western hemlock, Sitka spruce and big leaf maple already grow.

Western red cedar, western hemlock and big leaf maple have all seen die-offs and growth declines in recent years tied to climate.

Philip Stielstra, PropagationNation’s founder and president, and a retired Boeing employee, declined to comment for this story.

David Milarch, founder of the Michigan-based Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, which has supplied PropagationNation with redwoods and sequoias, says his trees aren’t intended to replace Pacific Northwest native species.

“All we are doing is extending the range (of redwoods and sequoias) north in the hopes that they will still be here in 100 to 200 years and not join the list of trees that are going extinct,” said Milarch.

Robert Slesak, research forester at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, runs the Forest Service’s Experimental Network for Assisted Migration and Establishment Silviculture, or ENAMES project, which oversees population migration sites in Washington, Oregon and California.

Slesak called moving redwoods north a “risky proposition.” He said he has serious concerns about both assisted species migration and assisted migration efforts that lack experimental rigor.

“Widespread assisted species migration without a lot of experimental results to guide it is risky,” said Slesak. “Everyone knows we need to do some kind of action related to climate, but there’s a real risk of making it worse.”

Nevertheless, with the effects of climate change increasing, it’s a risk increasingly being assumed by public and private groups around the Pacific Northwest.

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Nathan Gilles is a science writer and journalist based in Vancouver, Washington.

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Columbia Insight is an Oregon-based nonprofit news website covering environmental issues affecting the Pacific Northwest.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Nathan Gilles, Columbia Insight, The Associated Press

 

Tesla Buyers Left Waiting as Australia Sends “Biohazard” PCTC Back to China

Australian officials told the car carrier to make a "U turn" back to China due to an infestation of insects (Hyundai Glovis file photo)

PUBLISHED DEC 28, 2023 2:46 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

Buyers of Tesla’s electric vehicles in Australia have been expressing their frustrations online as they have been left waiting for a car carrier transporting their vehicles to reach port. The consumers have become experts at tracking the movement of the Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) Glovis Caravel (20,400 dwt) which can transport approximately 6,500 vehicles as it has made repeated approaches to Australia but now is on its way back to China.

Having made their car purchases as early as August, some buyers are saying online they had been given an anticipated delivery date of October only to have it delayed some said twice. One says they have now been told to expect their car sometime before the end of January, or possibly they will receive an alternate vehicle. One buyer writes they just got a reassigned, different VIN for their vehicle. While there is no official explanation, speculation centers on the dreaded Chinese “stink bug” or some equally invasive insect as causing the problem.

An Australian reporter for the Daily Mail writes they saw an email informing buyers that the ship was being sent back to Shanghai for “further processing prior to re-entering an Australian port.” The newspaper writes that buyers are being told that Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry refused the vessel permission to continue its deliveries due to a biohazard. 

Australia has some of the strictest rules and enforcement designed to prevent non-native species and invasive pests from entering the country. Pests hitching a ride or insects laying eggs on containers or other shipboard structures is a well-known problem with authorities around the world regularly inspecting ships and arriving cargo.

AIS data shows the Glovis Caravel, registered in Panama, arrived at Brisbane, Australia at the end of October after a month’s voyage from China. She docked in Brisbane twice, once in mid-November and a second time at the end of the month. Most of the time the vessel however was being held offshore with buyers looking wantingly at the position data while the newspaper reports the crew was attempting to fumigate the vessel. 

The Glovis Caravel departed Australia early in December and now shows she will be arriving back in China early next week. It is unclear if they were able to unload some vehicles in Brisbane, but port calls in Melbourne and Port Kembla were canceled with the product scheduled for delivery to those ports taken back to China.

According to the Daily Mail, this is not the first time a “biohazard” has delayed the delivery of Tesla vehicles. The news outlet says a year ago another vessel had a similar issue with the deliveries being delayed from late December into February 2023.

It is not the first time this car carrier which is part of a fleet of 80 ships operated by Hyundai Glovis has had problems with an infestation of insects. Arriving in Auckland, New Zealand in February 2018, an inspection before the Glovis Caravel docked turned up 600 stink bugs with at least a dozen of the noxious insects still alive. Despite the fact the vessel was sealed, New Zealand authorities ordered it to depart for fumigation before it would be permitted to dock. Officials told reporters at the time it was the fourth cargo ship they had sent away in recent weeks due to an infestation of invasive insects hitching a ride along the vessel’s cargo.

White House Adds Nearly 400,000 Square Miles to U.S. Continental Shelf

VIOLATION OF THE LAW OF THE SEA 

THE U$ DID NOT SIGN

The primary additions are in the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean (Dept. of State)

PUBLISHED DEC 25, 2023 3:34 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Last week, the White House added nearly 250 million acres to the United States' maritime claims, completing the largest administrative expansion since the establishment of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in 1983. 

With the stroke of a pen, the Biden administration quietly added 385,000 square miles of seabed in the Pacific, Atlantic, Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean to an "extended continental shelf" territorial claim. The majority is off the coast of Alaska, and follows after Russia expanded its own demands for territorial recognition in Arctic waters. 

The largest single piece of the expansion is located north of Prudhoe Bay, covering areas of the seabed known as the Chukchi Shelf and the Canada Basin. The latter lies outside the "shelf" portion of the continental shelf: the Canada Basin has an average depth of about 12,500 feet, about two miles deeper than the common hydrographic definition of a continental shelf. (UNCLOS has a different definition of the shelf's edge.)

Deep-sea mining is one reason to expand the claim, according to maritime law expert Prof. James Kraska.

"The US continental shelf has some 50 hard minerals required for the New Economy," said Kraska, a professor of international maritime law at the US Naval War College. "[It] contains nodules rich in strategic minerals and rare earth elements needed for everything from green energy to the semiconductors that drive Artificial Intelligence. The US announcement on the US extended continental shelf (ECS) highlights American strategic interests in securing these hard minerals."

Kraska noted that the U.S. is not a party to UNCLOS, and therefore cannot petition the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to validate American maritime claims. In the absence of Senate ratification of UNCLOS, the government has to fall back on making continental shelf claims unilaterally - and will have to resolve any possible disputes with other states on an ad-hoc basis. 

 

U.S. Navy Divers Recover Wreckage From Downed Aircraft off Japan

Hardhat diver goes over the side from USNS Salvor to search the wreck of the downed Osprey (USN)

PUBLISHED DEC 27, 2023 7:17 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

The U.S. Navy has recovered a substantial part of the wreckage of the V-22 Osprey that crashed off the coast of Yakushima Island, Japan according to Japanese media. 

Multiple Japanese outlets obtained photos and videos of the salvage ship USNS Salvor returning to port with tarpaulin-covered debris on the back deck. Visible items include an apparent propeller and engine protruding from underneath the cover. According to Japanese paper Yomiuri Shinbun, the salvaged debris also includes a segment of the fuselage where the crew was seated. 

Civilian-crewed USNS Salvor is equipped for hardhat diving and the recovery of heavy loads from the seabed, and has been deployed for aircraft salvage projects before. A team from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One deployed with Salvor to conduct the underwater search and rigging work.  

On Nov. 29, a Japanese fisherman notified the Japan Coast Guard that an aircraft was in trouble off Yakushima. One of the engines appeared to be on fire, he reported. Five minutes later, the plane disappeared off tracking radar. 

According to the U.S. Air Force, the aircraft was a CV-22 Osprey from a special-operations squadron at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, where the U.S. military maintains a large presence. 

None of the eight crewmembers aboard are believed to have survived the crash, and seven bodies have been recovered to date. 

The salvage operation is expected to continue, with a focus on search and recovery. "The primary combined Japan-U.S. effort is to locate and recover our eighth airman,” the U.S. Air Force said in a statement.

USNS Salvor off Yakushima (USN)

Multiple crashes involving the Osprey have occurred over the course of the aircraft's history, causing more than 60 fatalities (including deaths during testing). The aircraft has significant performance advantages over helicopter designs, but it is known to have problems with a complex clutch assembly, which can result in loss of control if it malfunctions. Statistically, it has a relatively low mishap rate for a military aircraft - about three problems per 100,000 flight hours - but its large passenger payload and unusual design have ensured that fatal Osprey crashes receive outsize attention. 

Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Congressman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) have asked the Pentagon to review the safety of the V-22 Osprey aircraft. The Department of Defense has initiated a stand-down for Osprey operations across all service branches pending the outcome of an investigation, with a limited exception for emergency Marine Corps operations in the Red Sea.

 

China Aims to Dominate the "Green" Shipbuilding Market

File image courtesy CSSC

PUBLISHED DEC 28, 2023 4:38 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

China's industrial and economic regulators have issued a new seven-year plan to dominate the "green" shipbuilding market, building on Chinese dominance in the conventional shipbuilding market. 

Chinese yards build half the world's merchant tonnage, about 38 million dwt per year, and the sector has been growing rapidly. According to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the powerful National Development and Reform Commission - the government's economic planning agency - cleaner shipbuilding is an "inevitable" way forward for the industry's further development. 

By 2025, MIIT wants to see Chinese industry develop better supply-chain solutions for green shipbuilding; secure a faster pace of adoption for alternative fuel ships; and achieve a 50 percent share of the global market for LNG and methanol-fueled newbuilds. MIIT also wants to accelerate R&D on methanol and ammonia-powered propulsion, liquid hydrogen carriers, and the development of fuel cell power and other novel options.

The agency also wants China's shipbuilders to cut their carbon emissions intensity and their energy intensity. It wants to set up a carbon-management and green supply chain management system, and to encourage more digitalization in the shipyard workflow (a major source of efficiency gains). Since all of these improvements take money, MIIT called for more support for green shipbuilding from financial institutions.

At the back end of ship lifecycle, MIIT wants to promote industrialized shipbreaking in drydock and slipway facilities, once a Chinese specialty. The most popular and lucrative alternative, beaching, should be "strictly prohibited," MIIT said. 

Alternative-fueled merchant ships currently account for about one percent of the world's global fleet, according to BIMCO, but this number is expected to increase as more methanol and LNG-powered vessels enter operation. This will be big business for shipyards: about a third of the current orderbook and more than 40 percent of deadweight capacity in the global orderbook is dual-fuel capable or ready.