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UK flood defence plans are inadequate, warn scientists
More investment in flood defences and improved planning for future disasters are urgently needed, scientists have warned.
They predict that the number of extreme wet days – which have already increased this century – will continue to rise in the coming decades and will bring even greater devastation than that experienced this month after Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis swept across the country.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg’s mother reveals teenager’s troubled childhood
Greta Thunberg’s extraordinary transformation from a near-mute 11-year-old into the world’s most powerful voice on the climate crisis is revealed today by her mother.
In an emotional account, Malena Ernman describes how her daughter came to be diagnosed with autism, and how activism helped her overcome an eating disorder.
Continue reading...California street shut down after 40,000 bees swarm from hotel
Several people hospitalized in Pasadena after Africanized bees emerge from hotel’s eaves: ‘Something set them off’
A swarm of as many as 40,000 Africanized bees sent several people to hospital and closed a street in California, after swarming from the eaves of a Howard Johnson Inn.
Related: Ursus urbinus: 'elderly' 400lb bear spotted roaming Los Angeles suburb
Continue reading...Getting to zero net emissions in 2050 is going to be tough - but Labor committing to it is a damn good thing | Greg Jericho
It won’t be an easy task, but achieving zero net emissions will have a huge payoff for both the economy and the nation
When we look at the path to zero net emissions by 2050 two things stand out – firstly it is exactly in line with Labor’s old policy of a 45% cut by 2030, and secondly the government’s target of a 26% cut is woefully below what is needed.
This week, Anthony Albanese announced that Labor will commit to achieving zero net emissions by 2050.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg to visit Bristol for youth climate protest
Teenage activist will make her second UK trip in past year to join next week’s event
Greta Thunberg will visit the UK next week to take part in a youth protest in Bristol.
The 17-year-old climate activist, who launched a global youth-based movement when she began a “climate strike” outside Sweden’s parliament in 2018, plans to join protesters on College Green on Friday.
Continue reading...Queensland approves massive 1,200MW wind farm in state pine forest
Queensland gives development approval to wind project of up to 1200MW to be constructed amongst state owned pine forest plantation.
The post Queensland approves massive 1,200MW wind farm in state pine forest appeared first on RenewEconomy.
AGL pulls plug on pumped hydro project shortlisted for ARENA grant
AGL's plans to use an exhausted mine for a pumped hydro project in the Adelaide Hills apparently derailed by its partner's discovery of a new mineral resource.
The post AGL pulls plug on pumped hydro project shortlisted for ARENA grant appeared first on RenewEconomy.
German utility Uniper exits European lignite generation business with Schkopau stake sale
With every flood, public anger over the climate crisis is surging | Gaby Hinsliff
The fossil-fuel companies know they’ll face increased social stigma unless they change
Sometimes it has felt as if the rain might never stop.
These storms have gone beyond the point of simply being storms now, each blurring into the next to create a strangely end-of-days feeling. Everything is freakishly sodden and swollen, and while the rural flood plain on which I live fortunately hasn’t flooded anything like as badly as some, the rivers are rising alarmingly. Yet still the lashing winds and biblical downpours keep coming. Suddenly the 40 Days of Action campaign that Extinction Rebellion (XR) will launch on Ash Wednesday (26 February), encouraging people to reflect on the environmental consequences of their actions in a kind of green Lent, feels ominously well named.
Continue reading...Study finds quarter of climate change tweets from bots
CP Daily: Friday February 21, 2020
Oxford food waste used to help grow more food
US Carbon Pricing Roundup for week ending Feb. 21, 2020
Uncertainty swirls over Republican protest to stop Oregon carbon market bill
EU leaders delay deal on budget that could divert over half of nations’ ETS revenue
Great Barrier Reef could face 'most extensive coral bleaching ever', scientists say
This year’s bleaching likely to be widespread although less intensive than previous outbreaks, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says
The Great Barrier Reef could be about to experience its most widespread outbreak of mass coral bleaching ever seen, according to an analysis from the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But the analysis, seen by Guardian Australia, says while bleaching could hit the entire length of the world heritage-listed reef, the impacts may not be as intense as previous major outbreaks.
Continue reading...Morrison’s roadmap to emissions reduction could turn out to be pap – but it’s not a terrible idea | Katharine Murphy
Some in the government do want to shift on climate policy, but it remains to be seen whether they have the guts
Given the Coalition’s unconscionable track record, it is very, very hard to assume the Morrison government will approach anything in climate change policy from a position of good faith.
But brace yourself, because I’m going to say something that might surprise you. I don’t think it’s dumb for Scott Morrison to be arguing that the Coalition should develop a roadmap before settling on a long-term emissions reduction target.
Continue reading...The Guardian view of Boris Johnson: neglecting the nation | Editorial
He ignores the floods while pursuing immigration plans and an attack on the BBC, which are destructive and divisive. The prime minister does not care
Two weeks after Storm Ciara rolled across Britain and Ireland and a week after Storm Dennis did the same, extensive parts of rural Britain remain under many feet of flood water. Heavy rains in the last 48 hours have prolonged the misery. The floods extend from Surrey to Cumbria, and from the Scottish Borders to the Welsh Marches. The counties in the Wye, Severn, Trent and Yorkshire Ouse watersheds are again hard hit. As the climate crisis deepens, such events are likely to be both increasingly common and increasingly severe.
People are extraordinarily resilient in the face of this kind of emergency. But human hardiness, community solidarity and individual kindness are not enough when floods repeatedly lay waste to homes, livelihoods, land, infrastructure and services. Ultimately it is only the state, both at local and national level, that can ensure the scale of preventive and responsive measures necessary to show that the whole nation is committed to enabling diverse ways of life to continue with reasonable security.
Continue reading...UK carbon unit sales to resume as planned, as ICE publishes 2020 auction calendar
The Guardian view on the blue whale’s comeback: an ocean’s glory restored | Editorial
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” Captain Ahab’s splenetic, dying declaration of defiance, as Moby Dick destroys his whaling ship and sends it below the waves of the Pacific Ocean, is among the most famous passages in Herman Melville’s extraordinary novel.
In reality, such triumphs of the hunted over the hunter were a fantasy in the brutal world of industrial whaling. The biggest cetacean of them all, the blue whale, had all but disappeared from the Southern Ocean by the time a ban on hunting it was introduced in 1967.
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