Liquidators are challenging rehabilitation order, arguing available money should be spent on worker entitlements, leaving taxpayers with cleanup billThe Queensland government may use its new power to pursue executives of Linc Energy for the cost of cleaning up its failed underground coal gasification site if the fallen company’s coffers are used up paying out employee entitlements.Liquidators of Linc are challenging in court an environmental protection order (EPO) for the company to fund rehabilitation of alleged serious contamination of farmland around its trial plant near Chinchilla, west of Brisbane. Continue reading...
With the potential to curb urban congestion, could a successful trial scheme in Morocco act as a launchpad for borrowing bikes across the whole continent?Moroccans claim you can identify someone as a true Marrakech local if they own a bicycle. The streets of this north African city were once full of ardent cyclists, but in recent decades they’ve been overtaken by scooters and cars that swarm the city’s congested roads.Now, French bike company Smoove, is trying to revive Marrakech’s biking culture — and boost sustainable transport — by launching Africa’s first fully functioning bike share scheme in the city. The launch coincided with the start of the COP22 climate conference in the city.
Photographer Richard Jones’s Energy+Notion project tells the story of energy in Wales, from the remnants of coal mining that shaped its towns and landscapes to the new windfarms springing up where the mines once stood. The project was conceived in collaboration with the Arts Council of Wales.• These photos feature as part of a touring digital installation and photo exhibition. The next venue is Blackwood Miners’ Institute, November 24 and 25 Continue reading...
Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire Perhaps it is a human-sized story – that after 400,000 days on Earth, the Major Oak is still full of lifeAlthough British place names make frequent reference to different tree species, there can be few road signs giving directions to a single specimen. Nor can there be many English woods more steeped in story than Sherwood Forest.I found a few incidental tales even as I walked up to the Major oak. There were fairy bonnet mushrooms painting their way across a dead stump like Lowry crowds through Salford. There were some last wasps around a waste bin, and wood pigeons so glutted on acorns their crops bulged. A robin laced its sad song among the birches, but sadder still was a bench with the following inscribed across its seat: “Abby Louise Hucknall – Missed So Much.†An emotional counterpoint came amid much open-armed laughter from the children playing along a Halloween-themed trail. Continue reading...
The ABC reports a New South Wales agency dropped an investigation after Nationals MP Kevin Humphries said it was ‘too explosive and not warranted’There are calls for an inquiry into the connections between the farming industry, the National party and decisions by the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage over allegations the agency dropped a land-clearing investigation after intervention from a Nationals MP.The NSW government is expected to pass legislation within days making the clearing of native vegetation easier, by allowing farmers to do so without approval in many cases. Continue reading...
A survey of 600 global companies released at the Marrakech climate change conference shows they are still not doing enough to mitigate water risksDroughts, water scarcity and stricter environmental regulations cost businesses a reported $14bn (£11bn) this year, up from $2.6bn in 2015. Yet companies still aren’t doing enough to protect themselves from water risks, according to a new report.Compiled by environmental non-profit CDP and released Tuesday at the climate summit in Marrakech, Morrocco, the report approached more than 1,200 of the largest listed companies around the world in sectors exposed to water risk. Just over 600 responded, meaning the $14bn figure is likely to be hugely underreported. Continue reading...
Herbivorous tropical fish in the remains of a kelp forest in northern New South Wales, Australia. A University of NSW study found the disappearance of kelp from waters near Coffs Harbour coincided with a 0.6 degree temperature rise that had the ‘truly catastrophic’ effect of attracting increased numbers of hungry fish• Destruction of kelp forests by tropical fish shows impact of ocean temperature rises Continue reading...
The Australian wave energy company’s new hub is the world’s largest and most advanced for developing offshore renewable energy technologyCarnegie Wave Energy’s offshore energy-generating infrastructure is purposefully inconspicuous. Its patented CETO buoys, which resemble large circular tanks, are tethered to an anchor in the seafloor and remain fully submerged, out of sight.It’s a design feature that prioritises long-term survival in the ocean over efficiency in converting energy, says Michael Ottaviano, Carnegie’s managing director. Continue reading...
An exceptionally rapid melt this summer has led to unusually high water temperatures in the Arctic Sea, slowing the progress of fresh ice formationResidents of the Alaskan city of Barrow (due to change its name to Utqiaġvik on 1 December) would normally be looking out across a frozen harbour by now, but this year the sea is reluctant to freeze.Barrow’s average temperature for October 2016 was a balmy -1C, significantly warmer than the long-term average of around -8C. And over the North Pole the air has been a full 10C warmer than average of late. Continue reading...
Deforestation near Coffs Harbour coincided with 0.6C temperature rise, which had ‘catastrophic’ effect of attracting fishHerbivorous tropical fish have destroyed kelp forests in northern New South Wales, showing that even small increases in ocean temperature can lead to kelp deforestation, an Australian study has found.The University of NSW study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, found that the disappearance of kelp from waters near Coffs Harbour coincided with a threefold increase in the number of tropical fish in the region. Continue reading...
Calls for a tax on meat and dairy products (Report, 8 November) are misguided and would increase, not decrease, overall emissions from agriculture. Instead we should improve production systems by taxing nitrogen fertiliser and pesticides, the underlying causes of environmental damage associated with food systems.Something close to mass hysteria has developed in relation to cattle and other ruminants since the publication in 2006 of Livestock’s Long Shadow, by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. This report and its successor in 2013 are both flawed and misleading. They conflate the emissions from the destruction of virgin land in South America, the root cause of which is not chicken production, but our insatiable demand for vegetable oils, with the actual emissions from ruminants. They also failed to balance this by including emissions from the conversion of land to grow crops for human consumption, or the carbon sequestration associated with the planting of forests in parts of the world, such as the UK, that was taking place at the same time. Continue reading...
Sydney Renewable Power Company to sell 519 shares after International Convention Centre deal to buy all electricity producedThe company responsible for Australia’s biggest CBD solar installation has invited public investment, making it the first community renewables project in Australia with a public share offering.Sydney Renewable Power Company’s 520kW solar installation on top of the new International Convention Centre in Darling Harbour is the size of 12 tennis courts and will generate enough electricity to power about 100 homes each year. Continue reading...
With solar capacity up 577% since 2011 and wind energy surging, Trump’s pledges to abolish clean energy measures could have ‘major consequences’A huge shift to clean energy is under way in the US but the election of Donald Trump as president means progress could be reversed unless cities and states do more, energy experts have warned.
While prestigious routes are well-maintained, smaller footpaths under the care of local councils are suffering from budget cuts - and it’s these we need the mostThe largest ever survey of footpaths in England and Wales has found that almost half are in need of improvement, with a tenth of the 140,000-mile network in serious disrepair. For anyone, like me, who considers a decent yomp a staple of any good weekend, those results won’t seem in the least bit surprising.Of the 59,000 problems reported by the 3,250 citizen surveyors who took part in the Ramblers’ Big Pathwatch, a third were for missing signposts that can quickly turn a pleasant country stroll into an epic trudge as the detours mount up. But most were for obstructions, like barbed wire and collapsed bridges, or footpaths made impassable by flooding and overgrowth that would likely force you to abandon your walk altogether. Continue reading...
Study finds floods, storms and droughts cost global economy $520bn a year and highlights need to tackle climate changeFloods, earthquakes, tsunamis and other extreme natural disasters push 26 million people into poverty each year and cost the global economy more than half a trillion dollars in lost consumption, the World Bank has said.A bank study of 117 countries concluded that the full cost of natural disasters was $520bn (£416bn) a year – 60% higher than any previous estimate – once the impact on poor people was taken into account. Continue reading...
by Jeta Xharra for Prishtina Insight and Karl Mathies on (#21HMN)
ClimateHome: Failings on the part of the bank contributed to ‘real and often severe harm’ to villagers around the Sibovc mine, says leaked reportThe World Bank broke its own rules and contributed to the suffering of hundreds of Kosovans who were forced from their homes to make way for a coalmine, a leaked report reveals.The giant state-owned Sibovc mine has swallowed communities as it expanded. It would supply the only coal power plant on earth the World Bank is considering backing. Continue reading...
by Culturunners and Sara Lafleur-Vetter on (#21HK6)
Native Americans fear that the Dakota Access oil pipeline – a $3.7bn project that would carry crude oil from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to a refinery in Patoka, Illinois – would contaminate sacred lands and their water supply from the Missouri river. Here, protesters at a camp near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation give their views on what the election of Donald Trump might mean for their campaign Continue reading...
An investigation reveals the social media site is acting as a shopfront for a multimillion dollar trade in animal parts, centred in a small village outside HanoiWildlife traffickers from a small, sleepy village in Vietnam are using Facebook to offload large amounts of illegal ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts, an investigation has revealed.
World Meteorological Organisation figures show global temperature is 1.2C above pre-industrial levels and will set a new high for the third year running2016 will very likely be the hottest year on record and a new high for the third year in a row, according to the UN. It means 16 of the 17 hottest years on record will have been this century.The scorching temperatures around the world, and the extreme weather they drive, mean the impacts of climate change on people are coming sooner and with more ferocity than expected, according to scientists. Continue reading...
Rural white men support Trump and oppose stopping climate change; the opposite is true of urban minoritiesThe world is shocked that America elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. Exit polls show that the country is sharply divided on Trump along the same lines as its sharp divisions on climate change.Political ideology was the single strongest determining factor in the election. 90% of Republicans voted for Trump, while 89% of Democrats voted for Clinton. Ideology is also the primary factor associated with acceptance or denial of human-caused global warming, as climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe explained eloquently in this video: Continue reading...
Rights campaigners call for Pizza to be permanently returned to birthplace saying shopping centre conditions unsuitableAnimal rights groups have called for the permanent return home of “the saddest polar bear in the worldâ€, who will be temporarily moved from a shopping mall aquarium in southern China during an upgrade.The three-year-old female bear, named Pizza, has become a focus of global attention since Hong Kong-based Animal Asia posted in July an online video of the bear lying on her side in a glass enclosure in Guangzhou. Continue reading...
Chief medical officer for England Prof Dame Sally Davies to carry out study into health impacts of tiny particles of plastic consumed by fishThe government is to conduct an investigation into the impact on human health of microplastic particles found in shellfish and other marine animals.
Premier Jay Weatherill says Indigenous people will have final say even if public backs dump in referendumSouth Australia’s proposal for a high-level nuclear waste dump in the state’s north will go to a referendum, the premier, Jay Weatherill, has announced, but only if it has bipartisan support.The government has been considering the proposal following a recommendation by a royal commission into the nuclear fuel cycle that found the state could reap billions of dollars by storing waste from other countries. But the royal commission found public and political support for the dump was essential if it was to go ahead. Continue reading...
But while increase in emissions has been halted, CO2 concentrations in atmosphere still at record high and risingGlobal carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have seen “almost no growth†for a third consecutive year, according to figures released as world leaders begin to arrive in Marrakech for a UN climate summit.Related: Donald Trump presidency a 'disaster for the planet', warn climate scientists Continue reading...
Latest Cedex report says October had the biggest proportion of renewables of any month since data made availableAustralia’s renewable energy sector hit a record in October, with 21.7% of electricity in the national electricity market coming from renewables, according to the latest Cedex report.That represents the biggest proportion of any month since the data was made available by the Australian Energy Market Operator in 2005, according to the report from the engineering consultants Pitt&Sherry and the Australia Institute. Continue reading...
Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk Today, however, I cannot be a hermit. There are stick-swinging children, scurrying woodlice and cross-looking treecreepersWhen modern life seems too much, I dream of living in the woods. I’ll be a mad, feral woman eating hazelnuts and tending a fire obsessively. It’s this specific wood where I would go, with its deciduous mix of ash, oak and chestnut, its sandy badger sett, wild garlic, bluebells in spring, and the clear, fast-flowing water of the gravel-bottomed stream. Known as Fox’s Grove, it’s just a few miles from the centre of Norwich.
Hospitality operators are realising sun, wind and water can do more than just attract tourists – they can power the resorts themselvesWhen it comes to the carbon impact of holidays, the focus has long been on the journey, not the destination.
Former staff members face up to five years in prison if convicted of lapses at Queensland coal gasification siteFive former Linc Energy executives have been charged by the Queensland government with breaching environmental law over the operation of its underground coal gasification site in Chinchilla.In September the former chief executive Peter Bond was charged with three indictable offences and last week was summonsed on two additional charges of failing to ensure the company complied with the state’s Environmental Protection Act.
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 17 November 1916The bracken is past its best, withered to a dull, uninteresting brown; its crippled stems, stiff and splintering, prick painfully as we wade through the wood where so short a time ago the fronds were breast-high. The ferns vary in autumn beauty according to their kind, some remaining dark green when their tips are curled and dead, grey or almost black; the osmunda, however, rightly named royal, increases in beauty as it ages. It is now a splendid golden orange, a wonderful colour when the sun’s rays, somewhat rarely, light it up.Amongst the beeches the dappled fallow deer, rustling through the leaf-drifts, slowly approach the carriage-drive through the park, but immediately they reach the gravel bound rapidly across. The bucks, full-antlered, call the does, as if urging haste; their voices are a strange mixture of bleat and grunt. These bucks are still excited by recent nuptial contests, but the successful ones have collected and retain their harems. After racing over the road the herd at once slows down to a walk on feeling grass beneath the feet, and the bucks and does alike pass on with a light, elastic gait. It is curious that semi-domestic animals should be so nervous when crossing a man-trodden pathway, for they pay little attention to passers-by when they are feeding a few yards away. Continue reading...
Host of Brave Wilderness YouTube channel travels around world trying to get animals and insects to bite him – and give viewers a ‘vicarious experience’One of Coyote Peterson’s most popular YouTube videos shows him writhing around in agony on the ground. He’s just been stung by a tarantula hawk, a giant wasp that is considered to have the second most painful sting of any insect.For the first 15 seconds Peterson is unable to speak. He just screams and grabs at the dirt. Continue reading...
Designing clothes for people with disabilities – such as wounded veterans – is attracting fashion school students, but far fewer mainstream brandsCaitlin Robbins always struggled to find clothes for her dad that didn’t make him look and feel frumpy. As someone with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease – which impacts people’s ability to walk, talk, and ultimately, to breathe – her dad wanted comfortable and tailored options. But most of the clothes she could find that didn’t restrict his movement, such as pants with an elastic waist and pullover tops, only made him look awful.“My father was always particular about fashion; he wanted to look nice and dignified,†says Robbins, a fashion design student. “I wanted to design him outfits to be visually different, functional but still stylish.†Continue reading...
Fossil fuel executives and climate change skeptics, including former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, feature among the candidates for key environmental rolesThe future of America’s basic environmental protection has been thrown into doubt, with a host of fossil fuel executives and climate change skeptics set to get key roles in Donald Trump’s new administration, including a potential return to political life for Sarah Palin.
The absence of climate change as a leading topic in the election was a failure of the media – and it’s now their responsibility to get Americans talking about itImagine the world was facing upheaval on a scale not seen during modern civilization, a change that would imperil the world’s great cities by the rising seas and snuff out species at at the fastest rate since the dinosaurs disappeared. Then imagine you were a journalist, had repeated chances to ask the next president of the United States about this and decided to not do so.The apparent failure of the media during the presidential election has been multifaceted and fiercely debated. But the absence of climate change as a leading topic in the election of Donald Trump is perhaps the single greatest rebuke to the idea that power should be held to account for the benefit of this and future generations. Continue reading...
The president-elect wants to bypass the theoretical four-year procedure to exit the accord, according to a Reuters sourceDonald Trump is looking at quick ways of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement in defiance of widening international backing for the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Reuters has reported.
Activists and scientists at UN climate talks in Marrakech now fear a change in US policyAs news of Donald Trump’s victory reached Marrakech on Wednesday, the many thousands of diplomats, activists, youth and business groups gathered in the city for the UN’s annual climate conference were left in shock and disbelief that the US could elect a climate-change denier as president.Some of the younger activists were in tears. “My heart is absolutely broken at the election of Trump,†said Becky Chung, a delegate for youth advocacy group SustainUS from California. Continue reading...
Writer and cannabis consultant David Bienenstock reflects on a night of progressive marijuana legislation – in the face of regressive everything elseI spent the biggest election day in cannabis history streaming live from the roof of High Times headquarters in Los Angeles. I’d rolled nine joints in advance of going on the air – one for each state voting on legalization (adult use, or medicinal) – and vowed to smoke them all, on camera, if and when each ballot initiative passed. Needless to say, as a longtime marijuana journalist, and author of a book called How to Smoke Pot (Properly), I was hoping to get really, really blazed by the end of the night.
The president-elect is a political novice whose energy plan doesn’t account for the economic reality of coal and renewable energyAs the world struggles to absorb the implications of Donald Trump’s unexpected victory in the US general election, no one is facing the future with more trepidation than those working on clean energy, clean transportation, climate and the environment. Hillary Clinton had promised to build on Obama’s substantial progress in this area; now they worry that it may be reversed, and then some.What does the future hold, under a Trump government, and how worried should we be? Continue reading...
Airedale, West Yorkshire Far from being robust birds, these visitors from Scandinavia can suffer terribly when the temperature dropsThe little grebes have changed into their smart off-season outfits – smoky-brown, with a dark cap worn low on the brow – and moved upriver, westward, to winter with us. The quickening of the current has brought a dipper down from the river’s higher reaches. In a hawthorn that overhangs the water, redwings gorge on the dull red fruit.These aren’t the first redwings I’ve seen this season: since the turn of October they’ve been skipping through high overhead in threes and fours and fives, calling seep, seep. The warden, hunkered in the adjoining meadow on autumn “vismigging†(visible migrant) duty, pointed out to me their distinctively irregular wingbeats. Continue reading...
Lawyer Michael Berkman has been involved in a slew of court fights against the likes of Adani and next faces a political clash against Labor’s Steven MilesOne of Queensland’s leading exponents of what miners and conservative politicians brand environmental “lawfare†has been thrust into the role of trying to win what the Greens consider their most winnable seat at the next state election.Michael Berkman – a lawyer at the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland who has played a key role in a slew of court battles against Adani, Gina Rinehart’s Alpha Coal and New Acland Coal – will be the Greens candidate for the inner Brisbane seat of Mount Coot-tha. Continue reading...
EU concerns are growing that some oil-rich nations that have not yet ratified the deal could now try and slow action on reducing emissionsConcerns are mounting that Donald Trump’s victory could embolden some fossil fuel-rich countries to try unpicking the historic Paris climate agreement, which came into force last week.Saudi Arabia has tried to obstruct informal meetings at the UN climate summit in Marrakech this week, and worries are rife that states which have not yet ratified the agreement could seek to slow action on carbon emissions. Trump has called global warming a hoax and promised to withdraw the US from the Paris accord. Continue reading...
Government divisions over approach to climate change plan are bridged, but targets will be reviewed in 2018 to consider their impact on industryGermany’s coalition government has reached an agreement on a climate change action plan which involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050, a spokesperson said on Friday.The plan, which will require German industry to reduce its CO2 emission by a fifth by 2030, and Germany’s energy sector to reduce emissions by almost a half, will be reviewed in 2018 with a view to its impact on jobs and society. Continue reading...
Donald Trump’s win could be catastrophic for the world’s climate, as well as international diplomacy, as American leadership is transformedThis November is likely to have profound implications for climate change – but not in the way that was anticipated just a week ago. The Paris climate deal came into force on 4 November but Tuesday’s election of Donald Trump as US president casts an ominous shadow over the agreement and the chances of avoiding dangerous global warming.Trump is a highly erratic figure, so predicting his actions can be problematic. But we do know that he wants to withdraw the US from the Paris accord, which aims to keep the global temperature increase below a 2C threshold, that he believes climate change to be a “hoax†and that Barack Obama’s warning that global warming is a threat on a par with terrorism was “one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard in politics.†Continue reading...
Leading scientists say the climate denier’s victory could mean ‘game over for the climate’ and any hope of warding off dangerous global warmingThe ripples from a new American president are far-reaching, but never before has the arrival of a White House administration placed the livability of Earth at stake. Beyond his bluster and crude taunts, Donald Trump’s climate denialism could prove to be the lasting imprint of his unexpected presidency.
From Hong Kong’s tiny subdivided flats to the migrant crisis, this year’s photography and sustainability award shortlist explores the theme of space from all perspectives
Langstone, Hampshire The newly attached, unfed, arachnids were red-brown and as tiny as sesame seeds, the fully engorged ones like glossy grey pearlsHedgehogs that have had a hind leg amputation can struggle to groom themselves, so are more likely to harbour ectoparasites. I had noticed that Sweetpea, my resident hedgehog, had been flailing her shortened leg as she tried to scratch using her phantom limb. But it was still a shock to spot her emerging from her nest with one side of her body studded with ticks. They clustered in the folds of her right ear and along her right flank, where the coarse skirt of fur met the quill line.Related: Specieswatch: Ixodes ricinus (tick) Continue reading...
George Christensen has endorsed Craig Kelly’s view that Donald Trump’s election means the agreement is ‘cactus’The energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has rejected his environment committee chairman Craig Kelly’s assessment that the Paris agreement on climate change is dead with Donald Trump as president.But just an hour after Frydenberg’s comments, the high-profile conservative backbencher George Christensen backed in Kelly’s view that the agreement was “cactusâ€. Continue reading...