Since the Conservatives won a majority in the general election just over three weeks ago, there has been an increase in the number of planning applications submitted relating to hydraulic fracturing.

This observation comes after a marked rise in the share price of many fracking companies since fracking-friendly Amber Rudd was selected as secretary of state for the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

And while fracking did not get a direct mention in the Queen’s speech on Wednesday, it was noted that “measures will be introduced to increase energy security and to control immigration.”

This is because the existing Infrastructure Act, enacted under the Tory-LibDem Coalition, already gives the government all the legal powers it needs to expedite its fracking programme.

Notably, promised provisions to exclude sensitive areas such as national parks, important wildlife sites and groundwater sources from fracking were taken out of the primary legislation, and will be enacted in regulations by the current government – which can now make the protection as weak and ineffective as it wishes.

‘Energy Security’ has often been highlighted as one of the major reasons for pushing ahead with fracking, and this subtle implication could be interpreted as continued support in the push for more unconventional oil and gas extraction in the UK.

Let the applications begin …

Firstly, and perhaps most controversially, is news of Third Energy’s planning application to hydraulically stimulate and test its existing gas well at Kirby Misperton in the Thirsk, Malton and Filey constituency. The application was submitted to North Yorkshire County Council by the energy company on Friday last week.

The area’s recently elected Conservative MP, Kevin Hollinrake, wants to ensure that fracking is safe if it is to get the go-ahead. He took over as the Conservative Party candidate after the incumbent, Anne McIntosh, was deselected last year.

This was controversial at the time, as McIntosh, who chaired the Commons Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs’ Select Committee. was an outspoken opponent of fracking.

In addition, McIntosh did not support the government’s Infrastructure Bill, which contained numerous provisions to expedite fracking. She also demanded that the government’s heavily redacted report on fracking be made wholly transparent for the public.

Third Energy’s other controversial planning application, submitted in September 2014 for two waste water reinjection wells at Ebberston Moor, was due to be discussed by the North York Moors Planning Committee on Thursday 14 May. But discussions have been deferred yet again and it’s likely that they will be debated at some point in June.

East Yorkshire, Notts, planning applications in motion

Meanwhile, in East Yorkshire, Rathlin Energy is seeking approval of plans for a second exploratory oil and gas well at the West Newton site, in Holderness, East Yorkshire.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which remains a Conservative-controlled council following the 2015 local elections, has recommended that the application should be granted to the company but the council’s planning committee will make the final decision on Thursday 4 June.

Many of the people who objected to the application raised concerns about Rathlin Energy breaching environmental permits at their existing drilling site at West Newton.

In North Nottinghamshire, IGas has identified a new site where it wants to explore for shale gas. Nottinghamshire County Council announced on Monday that IGas had asked for a scoping opinion on the site: the first step that needs to be taken before making a full planning application.

According to the press release, the site is off Springs Road, north-east of Misson, in Bassetlaw, near the local authority boundary with Doncaster and North Lincolnshire. IGas is expected to submit a planning application at the end of June.

Fracking London boroughs

Lastly, it was brought to the public’s attention this week that Nick Grealy, the chief executive of London Local Energy, has applied for a hydrocarbon licence in the London Borough of Merton.

As well as Merton, the company has also applied for a licence in North London and other parts of Surrey. Grealy is expecting a response from the government by August this year, and, if successful, the drilling could start at the end of next year.

Local residents may well be alarmed at the prospect, since fracking can give rise to earthquakes – in particular from the re-injection of pollutant-laden waste water, as confirmed last month by the US Geological Survey, an agency of the US Government.

Even a small earthquake in densely-inhabited London could give rise to considerable property damage, for example from broken porcelain and glassware, slipped tiles, falling chimney pots and cracks in masonry and plaster.

Evidence has already emerged, as reported in the Guardian, of house price falls in areas where fracking may take place due to fears over fracking, pollution, heavy traffic, noise and the nuisance of industrial operations taking place in hitherto quiet rural and residential areas.

Ben Lucas is a writer for Desmog.uk. Currently pursuing an Investigative Journalism Master’s degree at the City University of London, he has a particular interest in UK and international politics, economics and environmental issues. Twitter: @benjameslucas.

This article was originally published on DeSmog.uk. Additional reporting by Oliver Tickell.

A new solution has been proposed for the forthcoming crisis of the coral reefs in warming tropical oceans: blot out some of the sunlight.

Scientists from the US, UK and Australia suggest a form of climate engineering called solar radiation management (SRM), which involves pumping fine particles known as aerosols into the stratosphere reflect incoming sunlight.

SRM has already been proposed as a mechanism for cooling the Artic to preserve its sea ice and glaciers, and for wide scale ‘whole earth’ cooling. But the most pressing purpose for the technology may be to save the world’s coral reefs.

If sea temperatures rise just 1°C to 2°C above the normal summer high, something gruesome happens to the coral reefs: they turn white in a process known as ‘bleaching‘.

This is because the high temperatures disupt the usual symbiotic relationship between living coral and the photosynthetic algae that sustains it. The coral expels the colourful algae, turning white in the process. Although the coral does not immediately die, it is deprived of its food supply and weakens, ultimately dying if the water remains hot for a prolonged period.

Even if we reduce emissions, the coral will still need to be saved

Lester Kwiatkowski – a researcher with both the University of Exeter in the UK and the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US – and colleagues have published their findings in Nature Climate Change.

Human-induced global warming because of the burning of fossil fuels and land-based emissions is set to raise temperatures enough by 2050 to bleach and degrade 90% of the world’s coral reefs, they argue – even if we succeeed in reducing emissions, they write:

“Widespread bleaching, affecting >90% of global coral reefs and causing coral degradation, has been projected to occur by 2050 under all climate forcing pathways adopted by the IPCC for use within the Fifth Assessment Report.

“These pathways include an extremely ambitious pathway aimed to limit global mean temperature rise to 2 °C, which assumes full participation in emissions reductions by all countries, and even the possibility of negative emissions.

“The conclusions drawn from this body of work, which applied widely used algorithms to estimate coral bleaching, are that we must either accept that the loss of a large percentage of the world’s coral reefs is inevitable, or consider technological solutions to buy those reefs time until atmospheric CO₂ concentrations can be reduced.”

And after 2050 things are only expected to get worse: by 2100 the entire reef ecosystem will be at risk. So, the authors argue, SRM is the obvious solution: introducing massive quantities of sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect radiation and whiten the skies.

Ecosystem at risk from multiple threats

This would not take away the need to reduce carbon emissions by switching to renewable sources of energy, and protecting terrestrial carbon sources like forests, woodlands, soils and peatlands: rising levels of CO₂ would also weaken corals by acidifying seawater.

“Coral reefs face a dire situation, regardless of how intensively society decarbonises the economy”, says Peter Cox, professor of climate system dynamics at the University of Exeter.

“In reality, there is no direct choice between conventional mitigation and climate engineering. This study shows that we need to accept that the loss of a large percentage of the world’s reefs is inevitable, or start thinking beyond conventional mitigation of CO₂ emissions.”

Dr Kwiatkowski has only lately dismissed at least one ocean geoengineering solution – to cool the sea surfaces by pumping up cold water from the ocean depths – because, in the long run, it might make the climate change crisis even worse.

At least one other group has proposed that some form of solar protection could be an answer, but another has suggested that at least some corals might adapt as they are colonized by algae that are resistant to the higher temperatures.

Coral reefs are the richest ecosystems in the oceans, and 500 million people depend on the living coral and its co-dependants for food, tourist income and coastal protection.

The tropical reefs have bleached before, in extremes of heat, but after a few years have recovered. Whether they could survive both a sustained rise in temperatures and the increasing acidification of the oceans that goes with higher carbon dioxide levels is another matter.

The paper: ‘Coral bleaching under unconventional scenarios of climate warming and ocean acidification‘ by Lester Kwiatkowski et al is published in Nature Climate Change.

Tim Radford writes for Climate News Network. Additional reporting by The Ecologist.

India is currently in the throes of yet another extreme heat event, with the death toll rising past 1,100. The current heatwave began on May 21, with temperatures in many regions exceeding 45C, and reaching 47.6C and beyond.

Extreme heat is expected to continue for at least another week, along with extreme humidity and little rain – forecasters see little chance of the long-awaited monsoon’s arrival until after next weekend.

Delhi has endured seven consecutive days over 44C, the worst extreme heat event recorded in a decade, according to the India Meteorological Department, and faces another week of temperatures around 40C.

Even in the mountain town of Mussoorie close to Nepal, 2,010 m above sea level, temperatures rose to 36C.

Residents of the Indian subcontinent might be acclimatised to heat and humidity, but they too have their heat tolerance limits. So what can this tell us about the future?

What happens in a heatwave?

Despite health warnings of high chances of heatstroke, dehydration and fatality, more than 1,800 deaths have been recorded (as of 30th May), making in India’s second deadliest heat wave ever.

However these figures are expected to escalate. Construction workers, the elderly and young are vulnerable. Taxi drivers stopped work between 11am and 4pm in Kolkata after two died from heat stroke.

The southern regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been most severely affected. Yet these regions are accustomed to high summer temperatures peaking at 45C, but this hot spell is exceeding even their high heat tolerance.

Heat at this level is inescapable. People die in their homes, at work, even in hospitals. The human thermoregulatory system has limits. Our muscles generate heat, which must be shed to the environment to maintain our core temperature of about 36.7C.

Evaporation of sweat helps us keep cool when it is hot, but we can only sweat a few litres per hour, which makes us dehydrated. And when this is not enough to drive sufficient heat loss, our core temperature rises to dangerous levels (my paper on this is under review, not yet in print).

Acclimatisation to heat can only offer limited protection. Avoiding the sun and physical exertion, maintaining hydration, and resting in a cool place are critical to survival in these conditions.

However, serious challenges arise when extreme heat events linger for prolonged periods, as cessation of activities for weeks is often not an option. Societal life cannot grind to a stop. Yet persevering in the heat can be lethal.

Relief for India is not anticipated until the Indian Ocean monsoon makes landfall in the southern state of Kerala. It had been expected to strike this weekend, but now another week’s delay is forecast – and it will take weeks before it reaches the northern half of the country, where intense heat and dry winds have caused severe dehydration on a mass scale.

The number of people affected by this event is staggering. India is home to nearly 1.3 billion souls, one sixth of the world’s population. Every year, India adds more people than any other nation in the world, and some of its individual states are as populous as large nations like Brazil.

In Delhi, India’s second-biggest city, home to nearly 10 million people, electric power has been cut off multiple times as many households run their air-conditioners to their maximum for several hours during the day. Without power, food spoils.

Street food vendors also struggle to prevent spoiling of food, even when recently prepared. Outbreaks of food poisoning spike after heat events, and water security is also a challenge.

Is it climate change?

While we will have to wait for analysis of this heatwave, others have calculated how climate change has affected the likelihood of extreme heat.

Attribution analyses can now detect the climate change finger print. We can now calculate the increased likelihood that specific extreme events are due to anthropogenic forcings, that is, our continually escalating rate of greenhouse gas emissions.

Human influence at least doubled the chances of recent UK events according to the first formal event attribution study, which also made the ominous forecast that severe heatwaves could become commonplace by the 2040s.

Sophie Lewis and David Karoly calculated that there was at least a 2.5 times increase in the odds that Australian extreme heat events are due to human influences to 2005, and a fivefold increase in this risk using simulations for 2006-2020.

On average, India as warmed 0.60C during last 112 years, with Goa and Tamil Nadu in southern India recording the highest increase in monthly mean maximum temperature (0.05C per year) and (0.04C per year) respectively.

Heavy rainfall events are increasing in frequency and low and medium rainfall events are decreasing. This current heat wave was most intense across the southern regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where projected temperature increases by 2100 are lower, compared to the north where changes of up to 4.5C are projected.

The economic costs

Food crops are also highly sensitive to heat. Globally, more than 220 million hectares are annually sown to wheat, making it the most widely grown crop in the world, and a vital global food source.

Preferring relatively cool temperatures, wheat is harvested before early summer. Temperatures above 30C shorten grain-filling duration, interrupt photosynthesis and then slows or stops grain-filling rates. Yields are reduced and nutritional quality is degraded.

Extreme heat exposure, such as the current heat wave will undoubtedly lead to crop losses in India. Two of India’s major crops (wheat and rice) are projected to decline with continued global warming. The economic value of these losses could reach $208b by 2050 and $366b by 2100 (prices in 2010 US$).

In a country where the agriculture sector provides a livelihood source for more than 65% of the population the ramifications of this heat event will be widely felt. Annual incomes lost, food price rises, increases in hunger and malnutrition, which further lowers resilience and increases population susceptibility to disease, and can easily ignite or exacerbate poverty cycles.

In response to the 2010 heatwave and fires around Moscow, Russia ceased grain exports following the massive reduction in yield, and to protect national food security. Global food prices soared. This is becoming a regular phenomenon. Over recent years, heat and drought events have slashed yields in Australia, the US, and Argentina.

The Indian government’s aim is to be self-sufficient in terms of food production. Given these realities, any decline in agriculture production is bound to be costly for the nation.

Climate change can affect well-being in poor economies more than previously shown if its effect on economic growth, and not only on current production, as well as health and wellbeing, and capacity to contribute to society are also considered.

The combination of rapidly expanding population, and increasing extreme heat events reducing food yields suggests a perfect storm is brewing. We can stop this if we want to by mitigating and adapting to climate change. But we must want to. Waiting for someone else do make a difference is condemning us all to a future where these events are commonplace.

We can only hope that negotiators at the UN climate talks in Bonn next week step up to the mark to ensure concerted and effective climate action.

Liz Hanna is Director NHMRC Project: Working in the Heat – Health Risks and Adaptation Needs at Australian National University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Additional reporting (updating weather conditions and forecasts) by The Ecologist.

A statement by Human Rights Watch attributes the dramatic surge in boat people leaving western Burma and Bangladesh to “decades of repression and denial of rights to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority.”

The refugees from both countries are the Rohingya, a Muslim community that originates in Burma but has suffered a succession of discriminatory laws, expulsions and denial of citizenship.

The current round of problems began in 1978 when the Burmese army violently expelled over 250,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh – which forcibly returned many of them soon afterwards.

In 1991, Burmese security forces again violently expelled hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh. A second forcible return followed in 1995.

Burma’s government has refused to accept the term ‘Rohingya’ and refers to them as ‘illegal Bengalis’ – although they have been living in Burma long before the state’s creation. The Rohingya have been denied full citizenship ever since the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law made it “almost impossible for Rohingya to prove their claims to citizenship.”

Standed on the border

Since the explulsions began thousands of Rohingya have lived predominantly in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships along the border, says HRW, “under restrictive conditions that severely curtail their freedom of movement, ability to seek work, and access to basic social services, and curbs on the right to religion.”

Bangladesh current;ly hosts some 30,000 recognized Rohingya refugees in UNHCR camps – but only those that arrived in Bangladesh before 1993. Since then Rohingya have been denied any opportunity to lodge claims in Bangladesh for refugee status regardless of their need for international protection.

Consequently, another estimated 30,000 who are not recognized refugees live in makeshift sites around these camps near Teknaf in Cox’s Bazaar, and another 250,000 to 300,000 undocumented Rohingya live around the area.

Those residing outside the UNHCR-run camp “often face abuse and discrimination from local Bangladesh officials and communities”, according to HRW.

An exodus of small boats

Starting in 2005, small boats carrying Rohingya and Bangledeshi migrant workers started leaving the coast of southern Bangladesh, carrying mostly men to Malaysia to join the migrant worker population there.

These small vessels often came ashore in Thailand, and the refugees then used the existing network of smuggling routes into Malaysia. The number of boats arriving gradually grew, prompting the Thai authorities to take action. In 2009, several ships were towed long distances out to sea by Thai security officials, sparking a major international outcry.

Thailand then changed to a so-called ‘help on’ policy, where officials were ordered to re-provision boats that arrived in Thai territorial waters with humanitarian supplies, refuse them the right to land in Thailand, and direct them south to Malaysia.

But as HRW reports, “this policy later mutated into a policy of corruption and directing arriving boats into the hands of gangs, who then placed the people aboard in jungle camps where they were held and extorted for money before being permitted to travel to Malaysia.”

The exodus has grown to tens of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis, some who are fleeing violence and discrimination, and others who are seeking work.

A recent report by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 25,000 people travelled on boats from Burma and Bangladesh in the first three months of 2015, with an estimated 300 dying of starvation, dehydration, or beatings by smuggling crews, or as a result of fights on board ships.

Fundamentalist Buddhists’ ethnic violence

Sectarian violence between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya and other Muslims erupted first in June 2012. A second round of violence in October 2012, says HRW, “resulted in government-backed crimes against humanity amounting to a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed to drive the Rohingya from urban areas of Arakan State.

“Overall, there were at least 167 deaths and widespread property destruction. There remain over 140,000 internally displaced Rohingya and Arakanese in camps throughout Arakan State.

“Many Rohingya have been receiving only rudimentary and inadequate assistance due to government restrictions and intimidation by Arakanese ultra-nationalists against international aid workers.”

The March-April 2014 census conducted by the Burmese government with assistance from the UN Population Fund did not enumerate people who self-identified as Rohingya. Preliminary results released in August estimated that 1.09 million people were not counted.

In response to the prolonged displacement, the government formulated a draft Rakhine Action Plan, which was disclosed by the media in September 2014, prompting Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, to comment:

“The long-awaited Rakhine State Action Plan both expands and solidifies the discriminatory and abusive Burmese government policies that underpin the decades-long persecution of the Rohingya. It is nothing less than a blueprint for permanent segregation and statelessness that appears designed to strip the Rohingya of hope and force them to flee the country.”

2015: the noose tightens

In 2015, the Burmese government stripped the Rohingya of the right to hold temporary identification cards, so-called ‘white cards’ that gave them the right to vote in the 2008 constitutional referendum and the 2010 nationwide elections, but did not guarantee the full rights of a citizen.

Over 400,000 Rohingya have so far relinquished the cards ahead of the May 31 deadline, with the Burmese government promising some form of ID to be issued in the future if Rohingya self-identify as ‘Bengali’ – and not as ‘Rohingya’ – effectively denying their own ethnic, cultural and religious identity.

“Also deeply troubling”, says HRW, “is the passage of four so-called race and religion laws, which many see as targeting the Muslim minority in Burma generally, and the Rohingya in particular, including the recently passed Population Control Healthcare law, which could be used to limit Rohingya birth rates.

“It is these developments, and the escalated violence against Rohingya since 2012, that has largely fuelled the current exodus.”

Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, commented: “Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia need to agree to never again engage in pushbacks of people stuck at sea, find any remaining boats, bring the people on board to safe ports, and ensure that their rights are respected.

“Just as important, there will be no long-term solution unless Burma ends its rights-abusing and discriminatory policies toward the Rohingya and joins other countries in taking action against smugglers and traffickers who abuse and prey on them.”

Dalai Lama implores Aung San Suu Kyi – ‘Do something!’

Speaking to The Australian newspaper, the Dalai Lama, who heads the greater part of Tibet’s Buddists, implored his fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest for critic­ising Myanmar’s military junta, to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya – a topic on which she has been almost entirely silent.

In his interview, the Dalai Lama revealed that he had already ­appealed to her twice,  in person to stand up for the Rohingya since 2012.