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UK's dirty air case
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MURKY whale waste may have a silver lining: it could be the unlikely catalyst for ending whaling. The way whale faeces helps maintain fish stocks will take centre stage this week and next at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia. For the first time in the IWC’s 70-year history, delegates will be invited to vote on a resolution acknowledging growing evidence that whales don’t decrease fish populations – the primary excuse for continued whaling by Japan, Norway and Iceland. Whales actually have the opposite effect. Research is revealing that their dung brings nutrients to surface waters, which generates more food for fish by stimulating the growth of
REINHARD DIRSCHER/WATERFRAME/GETTY
Salvation by dung? phytoplankton. These tiny organisms are eaten by krill, which become prey for fish. Phytoplankton also suck carbon dioxide out of the air, helping to limit global warming. Chile submitted the unprecedented resolution for member states to vote on. “This is an exciting new horizon for the IWC,” says Claire Bass of animal advocacy group Humane Society International. “It inspires us to see whales not as resources to be exploited, or as competitors for fish stocks, but as ecologically essential geoengineers.” “It means there will be an increased focus on whale conservation activities rather than concentrating on whaling all the time,” says Sharon Livermore of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
–It’s good for the ecosystem–
UK’s dirty air case THE UK government is being hauled back into court over its failure to tackle air pollution. A group called ClientEarth is asking the High Court to order ministers to come up with a better plan for improving air quality. The case concerns levels of nitrogen dioxide, an invisible gas that mainly comes from road traffic. High levels shorten lives by raising the risk of heart attacks, strokes and respiratory disorders. A 1999 European Union directive setting legal limits for
“Court cases have helped raise public awareness of air pollution and put it on the political agenda” nitrogen dioxide levels came into force in 2010. Six years later, these limits are still being exceeded in many places across Europe, partly because a high proportion of cars run on diesel. In the UK, 37 of the 43 zones the country is divided into breach the limits. ClientEarth, a group of lawyers who use existing laws to 6 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016
protect the environment, first took the UK government to court in 2011. The case was referred to the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2014 that national courts can and should ensure that governments act to bring air pollution below legal limits. It also ruled that governments must do this “as soon as possible”. The case then went back to the UK’s Supreme Court, which in April 2015 ordered the nation’s environment minister to take “immediate action” by preparing and consulting with the public on an air quality action plan as quickly as possible. But little has happened since then, prompting the new case. And ClientEarth is not just suing the UK government. Based on the precedent set by the European Court ruling, it has launched or helped to launch similar actions in Belgium, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. While these legal battles have yet to bring much concrete action, the court cases have helped raise public awareness of air pollution and put the issue on the political agenda.
Spies in the dock BRITISH spy agencies collected data illegally for more than a decade, a court has ruled. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which looks into complaints against GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, said on 17 October that the agencies’ secretive collection and use of bulk data from people in the UK failed to comply with human rights laws until 2015. Bulk communications data has been collected since 1998, and includes information such as the
time and location of a communication, but not the content of the message. Bulk personal data, gathered since around 2006, includes biographical details. “This information reveals a lot about you,” says Camilla Graham Wood from campaign group Privacy International, which put forward the complaints. Although the data collection was ruled to be illegal before 2015, when it was made public, the tribunal found that the agencies’ data collection is now lawful.
China’s testing month in space CHINA has sent a pair of astronauts to live on its experimental new space station for a month. Jing Haipeng, who is on his third mission, and Chen Dong were due to dock with the Tiangong-2 space station on Tuesday evening (GMT). During their 30 days on board, they will carry out 14 experiments. These include a plant cultivation study, a quantum communications experiment and using a gamma-ray burst instrument called POLAR,
which is a collaboration between Chinese, Swiss and Polish scientists. The two astronauts will also test systems and processes in preparation for the launch of the station’s core module in 2018. Two laboratory modules are scheduled to be attached in 2020 and 2022, when the Tiangong station is due to become fully operational. It is considered a stepping stone to a Chinese mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
MURKY whale waste may have a silver lining: it could be the unlikely catalyst for ending whaling. The way whale faeces helps maintain fish stocks will take centre stage this week and next at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia. For the first time in the IWC’s 70-year history, delegates will be invited to vote on a resolution acknowledging growing evidence that whales don’t decrease fish populations – the primary excuse for continued whaling by Japan, Norway and Iceland. Whales actually have the opposite effect. Research is revealing that their dung brings nutrients to surface waters, which generates more food for fish by stimulating the growth of
REINHARD DIRSCHER/WATERFRAME/GETTY
Salvation by dung? phytoplankton. These tiny organisms are eaten by krill, which become prey for fish. Phytoplankton also suck carbon dioxide out of the air, helping to limit global warming. Chile submitted the unprecedented resolution for member states to vote on. “This is an exciting new horizon for the IWC,” says Claire Bass of animal advocacy group Humane Society International. “It inspires us to see whales not as resources to be exploited, or as competitors for fish stocks, but as ecologically essential geoengineers.” “It means there will be an increased focus on whale conservation activities rather than concentrating on whaling all the time,” says Sharon Livermore of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
–It’s good for the ecosystem–
UK’s dirty air case THE UK government is being hauled back into court over its failure to tackle air pollution. A group called ClientEarth is asking the High Court to order ministers to come up with a better plan for improving air quality. The case concerns levels of nitrogen dioxide, an invisible gas that mainly comes from road traffic. High levels shorten lives by raising the risk of heart attacks, strokes and respiratory disorders. A 1999 European Union directive setting legal limits for
“Court cases have helped raise public awareness of air pollution and put it on the political agenda” nitrogen dioxide levels came into force in 2010. Six years later, these limits are still being exceeded in many places across Europe, partly because a high proportion of cars run on diesel. In the UK, 37 of the 43 zones the country is divided into breach the limits. ClientEarth, a group of lawyers who use existing laws to 6 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016
protect the environment, first took the UK government to court in 2011. The case was referred to the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2014 that national courts can and should ensure that governments act to bring air pollution below legal limits. It also ruled that governments must do this “as soon as possible”. The case then went back to the UK’s Supreme Court, which in April 2015 ordered the nation’s environment minister to take “immediate action” by preparing and consulting with the public on an air quality action plan as quickly as possible. But little has happened since then, prompting the new case. And ClientEarth is not just suing the UK government. Based on the precedent set by the European Court ruling, it has launched or helped to launch similar actions in Belgium, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. While these legal battles have yet to bring much concrete action, the court cases have helped raise public awareness of air pollution and put the issue on the political agenda.
Spies in the dock BRITISH spy agencies collected data illegally for more than a decade, a court has ruled. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which looks into complaints against GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, said on 17 October that the agencies’ secretive collection and use of bulk data from people in the UK failed to comply with human rights laws until 2015. Bulk communications data has been collected since 1998, and includes information such as the
time and location of a communication, but not the content of the message. Bulk personal data, gathered since around 2006, includes biographical details. “This information reveals a lot about you,” says Camilla Graham Wood from campaign group Privacy International, which put forward the complaints. Although the data collection was ruled to be illegal before 2015, when it was made public, the tribunal found that the agencies’ data collection is now lawful.
China’s testing month in space CHINA has sent a pair of astronauts to live on its experimental new space station for a month. Jing Haipeng, who is on his third mission, and Chen Dong were due to dock with the Tiangong-2 space station on Tuesday evening (GMT). During their 30 days on board, they will carry out 14 experiments. These include a plant cultivation study, a quantum communications experiment and using a gamma-ray burst instrument called POLAR,
which is a collaboration between Chinese, Swiss and Polish scientists. The two astronauts will also test systems and processes in preparation for the launch of the station’s core module in 2018. Two laboratory modules are scheduled to be attached in 2020 and 2022, when the Tiangong station is due to become fully operational. It is considered a stepping stone to a Chinese mission to Mars by the end of the decade.