A carbon crime or bright new future? For nearly four years, a fierce debate raged over demolishing the site’s high-rise flats
For nearly four years, a fierce debate raged over the future of the Wyndford estate in Glasgow, dividing residents and sparking wider national controversy. Was the demolition of its high-rises an environmental travesty or the first step toward much-needed regeneration?
The dispute began in November 2021, days after the city hosted the UN climate conference Cop26, at which politicians and businesses promised to curb wasteful building destruction. Yet residents of Wyndford soon found leaflets on their doorsteps heralding a “bright new dawn” – one that involved the demolition of all four high-rise blocks on the estate. The decision set off years of protests, legal challenges and community divisions.
The four high-rise blocks of the Wyndford estate one week before demolition. Three blocks were demolished by controlled explosion on 23 March – the block on the left will be brought down floor by floor because of its proximity to other homes on the estate
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/24/2025 - 07:00
Exclusive: RSPB and National Trust among groups saying rhetoric from Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer at odds with public sentiment
Nature charities with a combined membership of about 8 million people are pressing the prime minister and chancellor to stop demonising wildlife and to urgently strengthen environmental protections in new planning laws.
Organisations which are household names, such as the RSPB, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts, are calling on MPs to back amendments to the planning and infrastructure bill to end what they say is the scapegoating of nature for the failures of the planning system. They say the anti-nature rhetoric employed by Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer, who has labelled environmental objectors as “blockers”, is at odds with public sentiment.
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03/24/2025 - 06:46
H5N1 virus found in single animal in Yorkshire but risk to general public is very low, say experts
Bird flu has been detected in sheep for the first time in the world, UK experts have announced, although they stress the risk to livestock and the general public is low.
The H5N1 virus was detected in a single animal in Yorkshire, England, after routine testing that was carried out because the flock was kept on a site where avian influenza had previously been found in birds. No other sheep in the flock was found to be infected.
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03/24/2025 - 05:03
Handbook outlines practical ways faith organisations can ‘speak truth to power’ to help protect planet
Christians around the world are being encouraged to take legal action against polluters and those who finance them.
In a new climate justice handbook, the World Council of Churches sets out practical ways faith organisations can help protect young people and future generations from the climate crisis.
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03/24/2025 - 02:53
Twenty-three people hospitalised with fire ant stings amid an increase in reports of the highly invasive pest in south-east Queensland
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Twenty-three people have been hospitalised with serious fire ant stings amid a surge in reports of the invasive pest in the aftermath of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and a new $24m package targeting suppression of the insect.
The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has received notifications of 60 serious red imported fire ant (Rifa) stings in south-east Queensland since 1 March, with 23 serious enough to warrant hospital care. Separately, a puppy stung to death 15 months ago was reportedly the first pet killed in Queensland by the ants.
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03/23/2025 - 21:57
Party’s full caucus endorsed legislation on Monday morning after three meetings, meaning it can go before parliament this week
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Labor’s bid to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry from legal challenge over its impact on the endangered Maugean Skate is one step closer, amid unease about the government’s commitment to environmental protection.
In a sign of internal angst, sources told Guardian Australia that Labor’s environment caucus committee needed three meetings between Friday and Sunday night to finally reach agreement on the legal intervention.
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03/23/2025 - 21:26
Energy expert Tony Wood says there is no evidence to support the policy pledge
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The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has declared energy prices will be cheaper under a first-term Coalition government that plans to increase gas supply, without providing modelling and acknowledging significant “capacity constraints”.
The Coalition has announced it will fast-track the approval of Woodside’s North-West Shelf gas project and offer subsidies to existing gas plants. Unspecified red tape will be removed and the “national interest” test in the environmental approval process would also be amended to give greater weight to economic and social benefits.
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03/23/2025 - 14:05
Measures blocking companies involved in modern slavery from receiving public money could be overturned
Measures that would have blocked companies found to have used forced labour in any part of the state-owned Great British Energy supply chain from receiving public money could be overturned this week.
Labour MPs are being whipped on Tuesday to throw out the clause that was inserted into the energy bill in the House of Lords in February.
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03/23/2025 - 13:30
BYD, a Chinese carmaker once dismissed by Tesla’s CEO, claims to have outpaced western rivals with charging tech that’s as fast as filling petrol engines
Tesla’s boss, Elon Musk, once thought the idea that China’s BYD could compete with his company was laughable. In 2011, he smugly dismissed the Chinese carmaker as unimpressive, its products unattractive and its technology “not very strong”. He’s not laughing now – and not just because Tesla’s stock has plummeted amid a boycott by motorists protesting against his embrace of far-right politics. More pressingly, Mr Musk, like other western carmakers, has been outpaced by BYD.
Last week, the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer unveiled new charging technology that, it says, is capable of delivering 400km (249 miles) of driving range in just five minutes – as quick as filling up a petrol car. The system, released next month, will be fitted in two EVs, priced from 270,000 yuan (£29,000) – comparable to Tesla’s most affordable model in China. Yet BYD claims to quadruple Tesla’s kilometres-per-minute charging rate. Technological supremacy at a competitive price may help to explain why BYD now sells seven times as many cars in China as Tesla.
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03/23/2025 - 09:00
Exclusive: Australia’s top green organisations suspend anti-nuclear power ads to fund campaign against Labor’s move to protect salmon industry
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Australia’s leading environment organisations have abruptly suspended advertising campaigns attacking the Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power and are instead funding ads accusing Anthony Albanese of signing “the death warrant” of an endangered species.
The shift from criticising Coalition to Labor policy on the cusp of an election campaign was agreed by the bosses of green groups – including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace and WWF Australia – at what campaigners described as an emergency meeting on Saturday.
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