Around The Web

As part of the Studies Program, the research associate will support the work of the Senior Fellow for Climate Change Policy.

The Energy and Environment Team leads on all energy and climate policy issues, working to advance UK objectives in the US. An internship with the team would provide an exciting opportunity to gain experience of energy and climate research and analysis, and would aid the team at a time when climate engagement is a top priority for the UK Government in the run up to hosting COP26.

Organization: Germanwatch Position: Policy Advisor, International Climate Policy Duty Station: Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany Deadline for Application: 3 November 2019

More than 240 conservation scientists have penned an open letter to the Prime Minister warning of 'alarming' declines in biodiversity across Australia.

Huge gum tree plantations shelter big koala populations, but when the trees are cut down the koalas flood into nearby habitat. Kita Ashman, PhD candidate in koala conservation, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The New Zealand robin has learnt to hide left-over food for later consumption, and it turns out that male birds with the best spatial memory have the greatest breeding success. Rachael Shaw, Rutherford Discovery Fellow, Victoria University of Wellington Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Guardian and Birdlife Australia spent weeks refining the list for the poll

• Cast your vote in bird of the year 2019 here

Fifty birds. Eighteen days. Only one winner.

Bird of the year is back. In partnership with Birdlife Australia, the Guardian is running a poll to determine which of our feathered friends is considered No 1 in the eyes of the Australian public.

Continue reading...

The 2017 Guardian/Birdlife Australia poll was a fight to death between the ibis and magpie. In this year’s vote, will attention stay focused on the common urban birds or will it turn to one of the threatened species on the list: the western ground parrot, the eastern curlew, the black-throated finch or Carnaby’s black cockatoo? If your favourite is not included in the shortlist of 50, you can add it. The first round of voting is open until 8 November. The second round will be a runoff between the top 10 and final winner will be announced on 15 November

• Photographs and descriptions courtesy of Sean Dooley and Birdlife Australia

Continue reading...

More than 240 conservation scientists sign open letter warning PM that 17 Australian native species face extinction in next 20 years

More than 240 conservation scientists have called on Scott Morrison to drop his opposition to stronger environment laws and seize a “once-in-a-decade opportunity” to fix a system that is failing to stem a worsening extinction crisis.

With the federal government due to this week announce a 10-yearly legislated review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, the scientists have signed an open letter to the prime minister urging him to increase spending and back laws to help protect the natural world from further destruction.

Continue reading...

First analysis of the environmental impact of the Munich festival reveals emissions cost

For the millions of people who descend on Munich for the annual booze-drenched bash, Oktoberfest is a celebration of beer, bands and bratwurst.

But as the dust settles for another year on the world’s largest folk festival, and die Bierleichen return to the land of the living, environmental scientists have released the first analysis of methane emissions from the 16-day party.

Continue reading...

Growth centred in US and China, with slowdown in Sweden attributed to Greta Thunberg

Almost 8,000 new private jets are expected to be bought by multinational companies and the super-rich over the next decade, each of which will burn 40 times as much carbon per passenger as regular commercial flights, according to a report by aviation firm Honeywell Aerospace.

About 690 new business jets are expected to take to the skies in 2019, a 9% increase on 2018, as businesses and the wealthy refresh their fleets with fancy new models released by three of the world’s biggest private jet manufacturers.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s gung-ho claims may be wide of the mark, but scientists pursuing the holy grail of energy generation are taking giant steps

“They are on the verge of creating commercially viable miniature fusion reactors for sale around the world,” Boris Johnson told the Conservative party conference earlier this month – “they” apparently being UK scientists. It was, at best, a rash promise for how nuclear fusion might make the UK carbon-neutral by the middle of the century – the target recommended by the Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government. “I know they have been on the verge for some time,” Johnson hedged. “It is a pretty spacious kind of verge.” But now, he assured his audience, “we are on the verge of the verge”.

It’s a familiar and bitter joke about nuclear fusion as an energy source that, ever since it was first mooted in the 1950s, it has been 30 years away. Johnson’s comments had the extra irony that Brexit could merely add to that distance.

Continue reading...

Scott Morrison's claims that Australia is leading the world in per capita installation of renewables is not true.

The post Morrison’s claim of an Australian gold in per capita renewables is not true appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Actress Jane Fonda was arrested alongside fellow actor Ted Danson at a climate protest.

Over the past decade more than 12,000 valuable artefacts have been found.

Whatever the result, the communities on SA’s Eyre peninsula are split over the issue – and will be for some time

After four years of speculation and three years of consultation, the small towns of Kimba and Hawker in South Australia have begun the final stage of a process that has divided neighbours and placed these otherwise forgotten communities on the national map.

On 7 November, the Kimba district council will announce the result of a month-long vote on whether its residents support the construction of a nuclear waste facility at one of two proposed sites. On 11 November a similar vote will open for the Flinders Ranges council over a third proposed site at Wallerberdina.

Continue reading...

Eco groups and global treaty blamed for delay in supply of vitamin-A enriched Golden Rice

Stifling international regulations have been blamed for delaying the approval of a food that could have helped save millions of lives this century. The claim is made in a new investigation of the controversy surrounding the development of Golden Rice by a team of international scientists.

Golden Rice is a form of normal white rice that has been genetically modified to provide vitamin A to counter blindness and other diseases in children in the developing world. It was developed two decades ago but is still struggling to gain approval in most nations.

Continue reading...

Concerns have been raised over how a government established watchdog will enforce new green targets.

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

Dean of Science Emma Johnston laments at the unsustainable nature of the world we’ve created.