Representatives at industry gathering in Houston launch attack on the speed of transition to clean energyLeaders of the world’s biggest oil companies have used an industry gathering in Houston to launch an attack on the speed of transition to clean energy, claiming a badly managed process could lead to “insecurity, rampant inflation and social unrest”.Executives from oil companies including Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, and US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron publicly described the shift towards clean energy alternatives as “deeply flawed”. They called for fossil fuels to remain part of the energy mix for years to come despite global efforts for an urgent response to the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Perhaps Kwasi Kwarteng can explain how people will make calls in the future when telephone connections will rely on broadband, writes Geoff ThomasKwasi Kwarteng urged those still without electricity to call 105, the emergency power cut phone number (Report, 1 December). Perhaps he could explain how in the future, when BT has completed the conversion of the telephone network to an all-digital one, this will be possible when vast areas will be without mains power for days on end as now, and your telephone connection will depend on your broadband connection? Will BT still have battery or generator backup that keeps the current service working in power cuts? Will mobile phone stations have such emergency power backup on every facility? I have seen no answers to these questions.

In 1479 beetles were put on trial for ‘creeping secretly in the earth’If you hold a Christmas beetle – small, brown, mechanical – in the palm of your hand, it moves as though under a spell. The spell commands it to keep walking, to burrow its surprisingly strong legs endlessly forwards, like the end of the year growing steadily nearer and just as steadily receding.In Europe, Christmas beetles are called “cockchafers”. In the year 1478, they appeared in a French court to stand trial on the charge of having been sent by witches to destroy the laity’s crops (and jeopardise the church’s tithes). Continue reading...

Blockade Australia says 26-year-old climate activist had been living in the car when she was arrested in Newcastle

The Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, the most endangered of six species found in US waters, were flown to MississippiForty endangered sea turtles injured when the water off Massachusetts cooled down so quickly that they couldn’t swim away are being nursed back to health at the Mississippi Aquarium, having been flown there by a volunteer pilot group, Turtles Fly Too.All were Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, the world’s smallest sea turtles and the most endangered of six species found in US waters, the aquarium said. Continue reading...

Food and Agriculture Organization says most plastics are burned, buried or lost after useThe “disastrous” way in which plastic is used in farming across the world is threatening food safety and potentially human health, according to a report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.It says soils contain more microplastic pollution than the oceans and that there is “irrefutable” evidence of the need for better management of the millions of tonnes of plastics used in the food and farming system each year. Continue reading...

Leaders say Adani Group, a major operator of coal mines, is responsible for land destructionIndigenous leaders on the frontline of the climate crisis are calling on the Science Museum to cancel its sponsorship deal with a company they say is responsible for widespread destruction in their homelands.Leaders from communities in Australia, India and Indonesia warned that the museum’s new agreement with Adani Green Energy, whose parent company Adani Group is a major operator of coal mines and coal-fired power stations, is legitimising its “destructive coal expansion activities”. Continue reading...

Department sources say emergency authorisation of neonicotinoid Cruiser SB likely to be announcedThe UK government may be about to approve the use of a controversial bee-killing pesticide, wildlife groups fear.Sources inside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) say that, after pressure from the sugar beet industry, an emergency authorisation of the neonicotinoid Cruiser SB is likely to be announced in the coming weeks. Continue reading...

Two generations of energy workers discuss how their family has responded to the climate emergency• Are you a fossil fuel industry insider? We want to hear from youWhat do you do when your family has deep ties to the oil and gas industry, yet all agree that burning fossil fuels is accelerating the climate crisis?For one family, the fossil fuel industry’s role in stoking the climate emergency is more than just a dinner table debate. It’s their legacy. Andy and Wendy met in the 70s while working as engineers for Exxon. They spent decades working in oil and gas while raising their children.Andy, 65, retired engineer,Wendy, 62, retired engineerLiz, 33, environmental safety managerDara, 35, Liz’s husband and engineerJames, 31, IT consultant Continue reading...

Businesses, unions and green groups say ministers must ensure all policies are compatible with climate targetsBoris Johnson should set up a new cross-government initiative on reaching net-zero emissions, and subject all government policies to tests to ensure they are compatible with the climate target, businesses, unions and green campaigners have said.Ministers should review current policies in the next few months and use the result to present a new national plan on the climate crisis before the next UN climate meeting in November 2022, the leaders urged. The UK retains the presidency of the UN climate talks until then, having hosted the Cop26 climate summit last month. Continue reading...

Prediction for 2021-22 comes despite flooding and rain damage in the country’s east

Fire at warehouse storing beauty products caused large quantities of chemicals to enter canal, killing plantsSince early October, residents of Carson, California, have been sickened by a noxious smell coming from the Dominguez Channel that has been likened to “a rotten egg” or “the stench of death”. Now, officials have pinpointed a cause: a fire at a warehouse that stored beauty and wellness products.South Coast Air Quality Management District, the agency tasked with investigating the foul stench, said on Friday that the large warehouse fire, which began on 30 September and took several days to extinguish, caused vast amounts of chemicals to flow into the 15-mile canal. That spurred a die-off of plants living in the waterway, which in turn produced huge amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a flammable and colorless gas that can be harmful to human health. Continue reading...

Kristina Keneally expresses support for every school to require all staff to ‘live out and profess’ its values

Wayne Hsiung’s trial on theft and trespass charges could set a legal precedent for the ‘right to rescue’ agricultural livestockOn a rainy night in February, 2018, animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung sneaked into a small scale North Carolina farm and, depending on your perspective, either stole or rescued a baby goat. The maneuver was highly risky – on a live stream, Hsiung tells his audience what awaits: an electric fence, barking dogs and armed security guards, according to the farm’s website.Undeterred, Hsiung and his co-conspirators filled their pockets with dog treats and broke into the Sospiro farm, owned by farmer Curtis Burnside. Continue reading...

Ted Hughes felt the soon-to-be minister for economy and climate was ‘on the same wavelength’The man who will spend the next four years trying to bring about a green transformation of Germany’s coal-hungry industry once faced another daunting challenge in a previous, less publicly exposed career: translating the most controversial poems in recent British history from English into German.As Germany’s next vice-chancellor and minister for economy and climate, Green party co-leader Robert Habeck will be one of the most powerful politicians not just in Germany but Europe, overseeing a new super-ministry that will span general economic policy, renewable energy and the expansion of the country’s electricity grid, with a mooted budget upwards of €10bn. Continue reading...

Reefs from Seychelles to South Africa may become functionally extinct due to global heating and overfishing, study findsAll coral reefs in the western Indian Ocean are at high risk of collapse in the next 50 years due to global heating and overfishing, according to a new assessment.From Seychelles to the Delagoa region off the coast of Mozambique and South Africa, the reef systems are at risk of becoming functionally extinct by the 2070s, with a huge loss of biodiversity, and threatening the livelihoods and food sources for hundreds of thousands of people. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Consortium of energy firms and universities says underground storage of hydrogen can also be investigatedExhausted oil and gas wells would be turned into the UK’s first deep test sites for burying carbon dioxide next year, under plans from a consortium of universities and energy companies.There are hundreds of active onshore oil and gas wells in the UK. But as they come to the end of their lives, some need to be redeployed for trials of pumping COunderground and monitoring it to ensure it does not escape, the group says. The test wells could also be used to assess how hydrogen can be stored underground. Continue reading...

Annastacia Palaszczuk brings forward Qld border reopening; Steven Marshall ‘very concerned’ by Omicron as SA records four Covid cases; Perth stripped of Ashes series finale; Victoria records 1,073 new cases and six deaths, NSW records 208 cases, ACT six; Katherine lockdown extended as NT records one case; Australia could be renewables ‘superpower’ but has wasted time, Chris Bowen says.This blog is now closed

Chris Bowen says party’s stance is not negotiable as Morrison claims a vote for Labor is a vote for ‘Greens targets’

Artist Steuart Padwick says the child’s arms reach across Glasgow with a simple, positive messageA new public sculpture that calls for optimism about humanity’s response to the climate crisis has been installed in a park once home to Glasgow’s last working coalmine.The Hope Sculpture, featuring an androgynous child placed more than 20 metres high, has been erected on the bank of the Clyde as a permanent reminder of Glasgow’s role as host of the Cop26 climate summit in November. Continue reading...

Decision to reject Dendrobium plans has been reversed despite potential damage to drinking water

OR-93 traveled further south than any wolf had in a hundred years. Even after death, he continues to inspireThe young gray wolf who took experts and enthusiasts on a thousand-mile journey across California died last month, ending a trek that brought hope and inspiration to many during a time of ecological collapse.The travels of the young male through the state were a rare occurrence: he was the first wolf from Oregon’s White River pack to come to California and possibly the first gray wolf in nearly a century to be spotted so far south. Continue reading...

Heatwaves kill more people in Australia than all other natural disasters combined, and some experts believe naming them might help reduce deathsCalifornia has become the latest jurisdictions to set up a system that would categorise and name heatwaves like cyclones or hurricanes, raising questions about whether Australia should adopt a similar system to reduce heat-related deaths.Following the recent example of Greece and the city of Seville in Spain, authorities in California will introduce a bill in January to develop the ranking system. Continue reading...

Even species ‘superbly adapted’ for Australia’s harsh conditions suffered, with up to 60% of trees dying in some areas

Climate campaigners claim the government is giving billions of pounds in subsidies to oil and gas producersEnvironmental campaigners will this week ask the high court to rule that the government’s fossil fuel strategy is unlawful, in a case that could undermine the UK’s claim to be leading the fight against climate change.The campaigners will argue that the government is effectively subsidising oil and gas production with billions of pounds in handouts, which conflicts with its legal duty to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Continue reading...

Exxon and other fossil fuel companies are running podcast ads that suggest they are taking aggressive climate action. Climate experts call them greenwashingIf you’re a regular listener of the New York Times podcast The Daily, you would have heard an ad for ExxonMobil’s carbon capture investments more than once in November.The ad – which coincided with the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow – told listeners that carbon capture technology could remove more than 90% of CO emissions from “carbon-intensive industries” and that the company was working to “deploy this technology at scale”. It gave the sense of an oil company tackling the climate crisis with technology that could solve it – and quickly. Continue reading...

Grouse moors are not known for being friendly places for birds of prey – but the Swinton estate has a fresh attitudeIn the trees beside the heather-clad, snow-smattered moorland is an elusive creature that to some conservationists is as mythical as a unicorn: a gamekeeper looking after endangered birds of prey.“Two hen harriers coming in now,” said Gary Taylor, head keeper on the Swinton estate in North Yorkshire. Taylor is sitting in a hide he built himself overlooking one of the country’s best hen harrier roosting sites – in the middle of his boss’s grouse moor. Continue reading...

Researchers say conservative estimate shows importance of wooded areas to wellbeing, with street trees also beneficialWalks taken by people in UK woodlands save £185m a year in mental health costs, according to a report.Spending time in nature is known to boost mental health, but the report by Forest Research is the first to estimate the amount that woodlands save the NHS through fewer GP visits and prescriptions, reduced hospital and social service care, and the costs of lost days of work. The research also calculated that street trees in towns and cities cut an additional £16m a year from antidepressant costs. Continue reading...

Key Honolulu aquifer may also be at risk as residents say they face stomach pain and headachesCheri Burness’s dog was the first to signal something was wrong with their tap water. He stopped drinking it two weeks ago. Then Burness started feeling stomach cramps. Her 12-year-old daughter was nauseous.“It was just getting worse every day,” said Burness. Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Britain won’t convince anyone else to ditch fossil fuels when it won’t do so itselfDoes the decision by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to pull out of the Cambo oilfield mark the end of oil and gas investment in the North Sea? For the planet’s sake, one would hope so. However, it may be more realistic to see Shell’s act as a first victory in a longer war to keep hydrocarbons in the ground. Campaigners say that there are dozens more offshore oil and gas fields coming up for approval in the next three years. To keep the climate safe and limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, none ought to go ahead. Oil majors have lost the battle for public opinion in Scotland and this has dramatically altered the calculations for the ruling Scottish National party, which for decades ran on oil. Without supportive politics, and with the science against them, oil majors – this time – bowed out.Despite that, and despite brandishing its credentials as a climate champion at Cop26 in Glasgow last month, the UK government still wants extractive industries to suck the seabed dry. Rather than joining an alliance of nations – led by Denmark and Costa Rica, and including France and Ireland – which have set an end date for oil and gas production and exploration, Boris Johnson will allow companies to keep exploring the North Sea for new reserves. Continue reading...

Industry sources say Siccar Point will struggle to find new partner to take on Shell’s 30% stake in oilfieldShell’s decision to back out of plans to develop the Cambo oilfield could sound the “death knell” for new large-scale North Sea projects, industry figures say, as the UK’s tougher climate agenda prompts oil companies to retreat from the ageing oil basin.Sources said Shell’s project partner, the private equity-backed Siccar Point, would struggle to find another partner to take on Shell’s 30% stake in the new oilfield, which has provoked outrage among green campaigners. Continue reading...

Court complaint outlines scheme to generate millions in wasteful equipment expenditures in New York, Connecticut and MaineA cybersecurity company filed a $110m lawsuit in New York this week, accusing the Spanish global energy company Iberdrola and its US subsidiary Avangrid of bid rigging and racketeering.The 72-page federal court complaint outlines an elaborate scheme by Iberdrola executives to generate millions of dollars in wasteful equipment expenditures in order to turn a profit from its utility customers in New York, Connecticut and Maine. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including sunbathing monkeys, a pygmy possum and a new home for white rhinos Continue reading...

Dame Vivian Hunt warns of overproduction at summit attended by Tommy Hilfiger and Kris JennerThe fashion industry is facing a waste and overproduction crisis if it continues on its current trajectory, one of the UK’s leading economic experts has warned.Dame Vivian Hunt, a managing partner at the consulting firm McKinsey and Company, said “fashion has a long way to go to demonstrate its commitment to achieving net zero emissions”. Continue reading...

Judgment rules company can blast sound waves in search for oil along South Africa’s eastern coastlineRoyal Dutch Shell will move ahead with seismic tests to explore for oil in vital whale breeding grounds along South Africa’s eastern coastline after a court dismissed an 11th-hour legal challenge by environmental groups.The judgment, by a South African high court, allows Shell to begin firing within days extremely loud sound waves through the relatively untouched marine environment of the Wild Coast, which is home to whales, dolphins and seals. Continue reading...

Electric cars will make up just 4% of American sales in 2021, compared with 9% in China and 14% in EuropeThe Biden administration, in the midst of a major push to encourage the take-up of electric vehicles, has been provided a sobering reminder of how badly the US is lagging in the adoption of zero-emission cars.The White House has set a goal for electric vehicles to make up 50% of all new car sales by the end of this decade in order to slash planet-heating emissions and help avert disastrous climate change. Continue reading...

Critically endangered grasslands on Melbourne’s outskirts should be immediately protected, parliamentary inquiry says

Airline signs deal with UK refinery but questions remain over sustainable aviation fuel’s net zero credentialsBritish Airways has signed a deal for aircraft fuel made from recycled cooking oils and other household waste to be produced at scale in the UK and to be in use as early as 2022 to help power its flights.The airline revealed on Thursday evening it had reached the agreement with a refinery in north Lincolnshire to purchase thousands of tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which it said would add up to the equivalent of 700 transatlantic flights on a Boeing 787 with net zero carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Green campaigners welcome oil giant’s decision not to go ahead with controversial project off ShetlandShell has pulled out of a controversial new oilfield off the Shetland Islands, plunging the future of oil exploration in the area into doubt.Shell, which was planning to exploit the field along with the private equity-backed fossil fuel explorer Siccar Point, cited a weak economic case as its reason for deciding not to go ahead with the project. Continue reading...

Landmark ruling says mining permits issued in Los Cedros protected area breach Ecuador’s constitutionEcuador’s highest court has ruled that plans to mine for copper and gold in a protected cloud forest are unconstitutional and violate the rights of nature.In a landmark ruling, the constitutional court of Ecuador decided that mining permits issued in Los Cedros, a protected area in the north-west of the country, would harm the biodiversity of the forest, which is home to spectacled bears, endangered frogs, dozens of rare orchid species and the brown-headed spider monkey, one of the world’s rarest primates. Continue reading...

Research adds to growing evidence of the health benefits associated with natural environmentsLiving near green space could reduce the physical and psychological symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), researchers have found.A first-of-its-kind study of more than 1,000 women aged 18 to 49 living in cities in Norway and Sweden found that women who across their lifetime live in neighbourhoods with more green space are less likely to experience PMS symptoms than those living in less green neighbourhoods. Continue reading...

La Niña brings more than just rain to eastern states, as some unwanted visitors begin venturing into people’s homes

Australian Energy Market Operator says risks of insufficient supply during summer peak load periods remain despite La Niña bringing cooler temperatures

Only water required for health and safety will be allowed as drought continues to grip the stateWater agencies in drought-stricken California that serve 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland won’t get any of the water they have requested from the state heading into 2022 other than what’s needed for critical health and safety, state officials announced on Wednesday.It’s the earliest date the department of water resources has issued a 0% water allocation, a milestone that reflects the dire conditions in California as drought continues to grip the nation’s most populous state and reservoirs have dropped to historically low levels. Continue reading...

National Trust rangers predict record year as they begin count of grey seal pups“This is what it’s all about,” said Richard Bevan, beaming. “To see this many seals when 10 years ago there would not have been any.”Bevan is a zoologist surveying the shore of Inner Farne island off the coast of north Northumberland. As far as the eye can sea there are about 100 female grey seals and their dependant pups. In the water hopeful males splash about, none more obvious than a dominant bull with a roman nose and scar. “We’ve called him Pacino,” said a ranger. Continue reading...

Legal team faces daily threats as it works to protect displaced families from landowners, ecosystems from mining and indigenous groups from oil companiesJulia Figueroa never leaves her house without security. She travels with two bodyguards and an armoured vehicle. Her home and office are watched around the clock. She carefully monitors any devices that might contain compromising information about her clients.As the director of the Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers Collective Corporation (CCALCP), threats to her life are a daily occurrence. The all-female group of lawyers provides legal representation to small-scale farmers and indigenous communities affected by the armed conflict in Colombia. Their work includes defending displaced peoples and victims of state crime, but also defending environmental rights, including fighting mining companies that seek to extract resources, often at the expense of the local water supply and the surrounding environment. Continue reading...

Thacker Pass is rich in lithium deposits but is also a place of historical and cultural significance to the Paiute peopleOn a windy afternoon in northern Nevada, where her family has lived for generations, Daranda Hinkey stood before one of the largest lithium deposits in the world – the place where, as she puts it, “there’s so much lithium it makes people foam at the mouth,” she says.The area is known as Peehee Mu’huh – or Thacker Pass – and while it could be a lucrative resource for companies hoping to cash in on the electric vehicle revolution (lithium can be used to power rechargeable batteries), Hinkey and her peers say large-scale mining operations could irreversibly damage one of her community’s most sacred sites. Continue reading...

As Cop26 president, UK must act on meat, fossil fuels and overseas aid, says Climate Change CommitteeThe UK must “walk the talk” on climate action over the next 12 months, which will be critical in tackling the climate emergency, according to an assessment of the Cop26 summit by the Climate Change Committee.The UK has one of the most ambitious 2030 emissions targets in the world, according to the government’s official advisers, but it does not have all the policies in place to deliver it. Continue reading...

Environmental groups say scheme falls far short of farming reforms promised after BrexitFarmers will be paid for looking after England’s soils for the first time from next year, when the first stage of the government’s new support payments begins.Environmental groups criticised the measures as puny and accused ministers of failing in their promises to use the UK’s departure from the EU to strengthen environmental protections and reduce the damaging impacts of farming. Continue reading...