Around The Web

The myth that not enough has been done to manage bushland to mitigate bushfire risk has persisted

As disastrous bushfires continue to grip much of the country, causing loss of lives and homes, claims persist that not enough has been done to manage bushland to mitigate fire risk.

One frequent claim is that the “locking up” of national parks has somehow contributed to the increased bushfire risk this season, rather than prolonged dry and hot weather and the influence of climate change.

Continue reading...

California regulator ARB has narrowed its probe of a Michigan-based WCI dairy farm offset project to two issues, down from five previously, according to emails seen by Carbon Pulse.

The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, including long-eared owls and an injured koala

Continue reading...

EUAs climbed to a four-day high above €25 early on Friday, though prices retreated amid mixed technical signals and a more stable energy complex.

Failure to end investment ‘would be a betrayal against life itself’, say climate activists

• Greta Thunberg and others: ‘At Davos, we will tell the tycoons to dismantle the fossil fuel economy’

Greta Thunberg and fellow youth climate campaigners are demanding that global leaders immediately end the “madness” of huge ongoing investments in fossil fuel exploration and enormous subsidies for coal, oil and gas use.

The 21 young activists are also calling on the political and business leaders who will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos to ensure investment funds dump their holdings in fossil fuel companies.

Continue reading...

Company wants to build on 1.6-hectare area of Rotary Wood in Pinewoods forest

One of Britain’s best-known bottled water companies is proposing to extend its bottling plant, which would lead to the loss of huge areas of woodland in a Yorkshire spa town.

Harrogate Spring Water wants to expand its operations and build on a 1.6-hectare (four-acre) area of woodland.

Continue reading...

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

Vegetation is expanding at high altitudes across the Himalayas - including the Everest region.

In this waking nightmare, the Trump administration has filled the parks department with anti-public land sycophants

• We’re expanding our public lands project this year. Help us raise $1.5m to support our groundbreaking reporting on the environment and much more in 2020.

Under this administration, nothing is sacred as we watch the nation’s crown jewels being recut for the rings of robber barons.

For more than 100 years, professional management of our national parks has been respected under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Yes, they have different priorities, the Democrats often expanding the system and the Republicans historically focused on building facilities in the parks for expanding visitation. But the career public servants of the National Park Service (NPS), charged with stewarding America’s most important places, such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the Statue of Liberty, were left to do their jobs.

Continue reading...

Amid mounting threats posed by privatization, energy extraction and climate change, we’re devoting new resources to our public lands journalism

• Help us raise $1.5m to fund our journalism in 2020

Public lands are facing threats like never before. Seasoned superintendents have been shuffled around the country to force their retirement. Ancient cacti are being plowed up to make way for a border wall. Mention of climate change has been suppressed.

These attacks are outlined by none other than Jon Jarvis, the head of the National Park Service under Barack Obama, in a Guardian op-ed co-authored with his brother, Destry. “These are not random actions,” the Jarvises conclude. “This is a systematic dismantling of a beloved institution.”

Continue reading...

Falling energy-related emissions and increased offset supply in 2019 and 2020 could shift the South Korean emissions market back to long later this year and ease pressure on near-record high CO2 allowances, analysts said Friday.

In the freezing and windswept Changthang Plateau, nestled between the Himalayas and the Karakoram mountains, traditional goat herders practise an arduous and dying trade

At an altitude of 5,100m (17,000ft), where winter temperatures can fall to -40C, it is hard to believe anyone or anything can survive. The vast ice desert of the Changthang plateau, situated between the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges, is the highest permanently inhabited plateau in the world and home to an extremely hardy and rare breed of goat: the Changra.

The altitude, freezing temperatures and harsh bitter winds in this unforgiving mountainous region stimulate the growth of the goats’ supersoft undercoat. The fibres measure a mere 8-10 microns in width, making it about 10 times finer than human hair and eight times warmer than sheep wool. This luxurious fibre is known the world over as pashmina, the softest and most expensive type of cashmere wool in the world.

Continue reading...

10 January 1989: As well as cost, Labour’s energy spokesman warns about the risk of nuclear accidents

Tony Blair, Labour’s energy spokesman, yesterday launched a new assault against the flotation of the electricity industry by declaring that the sale of nuclear power will be “the most expensive mistake in the history of privatisation”.

Speaking on the eve of the Electricity Bill starting its committee stage in parliament and today’s long awaited Department of Energy publication of the ‘licences’, Mr Blair added that the Government faces “a potential bill running into billions of pounds”.

Continue reading...

Photographer and resident of Mallacoota Rachael Mounsey has documented the horrors of the fire that hit Mallacoota on New Year’s Eve, destroying an estimated 100 houses. People were forced to seek refuge on the beach and holidaymakers were told to get in the water if the raging fires got too close. Later the navy would organise mass evacuations. Mounsey sent her children to safety but chose to stay behind and document the plight of the town and its people

Continue reading...

As Australia picks up the pieces after the fires, we must understand the unique grief Aboriginal people experience from a loss of country. Bhiamie Williamson, Research Associate & PhD Candidate, Australian National University Jessica Weir, Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University Vanessa Cavanagh, Associate Lecturer, School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of Wollongong Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

There is alarm at the speed that stony coral tissue loss disease is killing the Caribbean reef.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Impact of increase in shrubs and grasses not yet known but scientists say it could increase flooding in the region

Shrubs and grasses are springing up around Mount Everest and across the Himalayas, one of the most rapidly heating regions of the planet.

Related: 1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages, study shows

Continue reading...

Utah Republicans have included funding in the state’s upcoming budget for a lawsuit challenging the legality of California’s cap-and-trade programme and emissions performance standard, but final approval is still months away, a government spokesperson told Carbon Pulse.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices surged to begin the new year on higher demand from speculators, while RGGI allowances (RGAs) inched up on thin volume.