The illusion of clean mining waste
Multiple sources over several decades have described the Sydvaranger iron mine’s waste products, most of which end up in a nearby fjord, as ‘clean sand,’ a definition it increasingly doesn’t fit. So why does it keep resurfacing?
No, dear government spokesperson, we aren’t talking on background
EDITORIAL No, dear government spokesperson, we aren’t talking on background Giving statements on the record is the entire point of a press office. Halftone by alicia_mb on Freepik. by Jay Richardson 7 September 2023 In the past four months, the sonification has received two separate emails from UK government press officers containing detailed statements headed […]
Fairphone 5 parts won’t be backward compatible with Fairphone 4
E-WASTE Fairphone 5 parts won’t be backward compatible with Fairphone 4 The Fairphone 5 (left) is very close in shape to the Fairphone 4 (right), but not quite close enough. by Jay Richardson1st September 2023 The fifth generation of Fairphone’s ultra-repairable smartphone, Fairphone 5, will not contain any parts compatible with the previous generation, the […]
A.S. Francis is writing Black history, like it or not
A.S. Francis is writing Black history, like it or not Students of African history and anticolonial resistance found themselves fighting their own university after it silently cancelled their course and fired their supervisor. by Jay Richardson31 August 2023 On 16 June this year, Dr Claudia Tomlinson earned her PhD. She became the first graduate of […]
Mining waste disposal in fjord could resume under new ownership at Sydvaranger iron mine in northern Norway
Norway’s Environment Directorate said existing fjord disposal permits cover four million tonnes per year of finely ground rock and process chemicals, which the CEO of a company set to acquire the mine described as “inert.”
German and Norwegian authorities did not investigate possible violations of Crimea export ban in 2017
A German public prosecutor said any investigation would have been restricted by the need for co-operation from Russian authorities.
Did the Met Police fabricate noise complaints?
Against expert legal advice, police evicted dozens of people from a shelter in east London on 1 June, after reportedly soliciting noise complaints from locals.
Algae in the Mediterranean
Local authorities in Naples deemed two beaches unsafe for bathing after routine tests found twice the safe quantity of E. coli bacteria in their seawater.
652 Hikvision devices operated by local councils in Cambridgeshire
Big Brother Watch called the “vast quantity” of surveillance devices “deeply alarming.”
Glencore says the quiet part out loud
The mining giant’s CEO expressed “concern” that European investors might put environmental, social, and governance concerns over profits.
“You, our Prime Minister, are simply uninterested.”
Also, the Pacific Islands Forum continues a diplomatic effort to safeguard states’ legal status amid sea level rise.
Vanuatu’s clout at the UN and the EPA’s weakness in Louisiana
Washington D.C. wasn’t the only place with a hyperactive court this week.
Two steps forward, one step back
The Environmental Protection Agency was the love of my life until it made Louisiana state attorney Jeff Landry mad.
Police violence gathers pace in Paris
Also, the acute toxicity of Iraq’s water shortages.
On WeChat and tickles
Also, who’s afraid of Shanita Tums?
Nadine Dorries’ constituents aren’t happy (allegedly)
Also, an Al Jazeera report on unexploded American munitions in central Vietnam.
In Pictures / Cambridge’s 73 Hikvision and Dahua surveillance cameras
Local authorities in Cambridge operate at least 73 Hikvision and Dahua surveillance cameras, many more than previously reported.
Cambridge’s “public space surveillance cameras” from company implicated in Uyghur genocide
Hikvision CCTV cameras are located through Cambridge city centre. The company has long been criticised by MPs and campaigners on security and human rights grounds, and senior government ministers want the cameras banned from the UK.
From The Understory / Alice Boyd’s immersive debut EP
The acclaimed sound artist talks theatre, field recording, and ecological metaphysics.
Heinali’s ‘Kyiv Eternal’ / Billowing timbres meet glittering field recordings
’Kyiv Eternal‘ has more emotional force than it has sense of place, but its beauty comes from blending the two.
Mine tailings / New images reveal massive scale of Førdefjord’s potential hypersedimentation
3D models of the 250 million tonne underwater waste deposit approved by Nordic Mining’s environmental permits show that, transposed over London, the discarded tailings would cover an area from Farringdon to Waterloo.
“Never before heard by humans” / Alice Boyd’s ‘From The Understory’ single
‘Separation’ deftly mixes plant electrode data with a compelling musical current.
European agency will publish findings on mining waste disposal within months
The EFTA surveillance authority is expected to report on the legality of submarine tailings disposal under EEA law.
The Independent has a ‘bins’ section
For serious news coverage of bins, the Independent is hard to beat.
Larry Summers and the Toxic Memo
Larry Summers said he didn’t write the memo and should have reviewed it more closely. Critics argued the memo said the quiet part out loud.
Sounds like a book
David George Haskell’s Sounds Wild and Broken (2022) seeks to establish sound as a new vital sign for the environment. It takes on more than it bargained for.
Calder Hall and British-American nuclear diplomacy
On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, at Sellafield, on the western coast of Cumbria. The two Windscale Piles preceded it in 1950 and ‘51. Both produced plutonium-239 for early British nuclear weapons.
Sediment leaks into Førdefjord from faulty silt curtain at Nordic Mining’s Engebø site
Nordic Mining admitted that it had no backup silt curtain and had so far failed to fix the leak in a leaked email on Friday evening. The incident puts further pressure on the company after a major investor sold its stake over environmental concerns.
Sounds of the Bog and the Apocalypse
A bog’s curious, ordinary, delicately explosive sounds belong in our narratives of climate crisis just as much as landscapes of epic disaster.
Cassant et sec: Londres dans la vague de chaleur
La pelouse spacieuse d’un parc est-londonien, atteignant 37 degrés Celsius, se transforme en vide aride.
A southern English forest in pictures and sounds
For all the stories and statistics, woods can become distant from everyday life. Micheldever Wood is a mixed broadleaf-conifer woodland in Hampshire that contains many of the signature characteristics of a British forest.
Why do we need data sonification?
Data sonification is data display using any sound that isn’t speech, offering new and inclusive ways to interact with d
London flood locations in pictures
As much as we tried to capture the shock of last year’s events in Halfway to Atlantis: Remembering the 2021 London floods, there wasn’t space to explore the surroundings of each flood location. This photo series gives them a little more context from other angles, and from nearby streets. As we wrote in the anniversary […]
Floodlines: Rain sounds recomposed
Rain makes some of the world’s best-loved sounds. They’re even better coming from a giant plywood recorder.
Halfway to Atlantis: Remembering the 2021 London floods
One year on from some of London’s most severe surface flooding, comparative photography can help us trace the cycle of shock, cleanup, and forgetting that surrounds environmental disasters.
London’s heat wave in sounds and pictures
At 40 degrees Celsius, London transforms.
July 2022 in sounds and pictures
the sonification’s best photos and field recordings from July 2022.
Brittle and dry: London in the heat wave
At 37 degrees, the airy lawns of an East London park have dried into arid emptiness amidst a potentially lethal heat wave.
Protest isn’t noise
When you describe the sound of protest as “noise” you deny its democratic function—and admit how much it bothers you.
UK rainfall variability: It never rains but it pours
In an era of disastrous storms and constant fear over coastal defences and flooding, you might expect rainfall to show reliable, multi-decade, climate-influenced patterns. Or at least to swing wildly, as seasonal temperatures do. The actual picture is incredibly complex: precipitation is in fact trending in certain directions and swinging wildly at the same time. […]
A field guide to open secrets
Getting to know a place takes time, even with methods like a randomised sound survey. It also takes the courage to throw away your map.
A robin’s song to hurt your ears
A tiny robin’s song in the dawn chorus approaches frequencies at the limits of human hearing.
Singing ‘chiffchaff’ by numbers
There’s much more to a chiffchaff than meets the ear.
“Asbestos dust everywhere”: Nordic Mining illegally releases carcinogen
The safety violation marks the start of a multi-decade mining project that plans to deposit toxic waste in a protected salmon fjord.
Silence and chaos and birds in between
A dawn chorus contains so much joyful chaos: that’s what makes it a chorus. For pure density of sound, most green spaces at dawn in springtime could give Piccadilly Circus a run for its money.
Tall tree, loud robin
What makes new recordings worthwhile is that they can tell us about our environment by showing how birds interact with it. With that in mind, today’s birdsongification features the humble robin.
Marsham Street’s parliament of trees
A London Plane tree stands outside the Home Office building on Marsham Street during protests against the government’s new asylum policy.
Cherry blossom, Highbury Fields
Highbury Fields was bought for a public park in 1885 while various speculators developed the surrounding area into housing. Most of the park’s avenues are lined with London Plane trees.
Plane seed pods, King’s Cross
Planes are actually quite easy to grow from seed if you’re so inclined, and resists pests and diseases much better than sycamores.
Birch, Clissold Park
Birches probably appeared amongst the first trees in the UK after the last ice age: they spread quickly and grow well in a wide range of soils, including heathland and moorland. They improve biodiversity when mixed into conifer plantations, which now contribute most new woodland planting in the UK. Birch is particularly common in Scotland, […]
