Around The Web
Alexei Leonov: First person to walk in space dies aged 85
Endangered bandicoots released to new island home in bid to hold off extinction
Eastern barred bandicoots were pushed to extinction on Australia’s mainland by invasive foxes and feral cats
A decades-long fight to save a tiny endangered Australian marsupial – the eastern barred bandicoot – hit a major milestone last night as conservationists released 55 into the dusk of a new island home in Victoria.
Conservationists hope French Island, which is free of the invasive European red fox, will be a perfect spot for the bandicoots, which have never lived on the island before.
Continue reading...Political polarisation over climate crisis has surged under Trump
Revealed: divide exacerbated by fossil fuel industry’s record contribution to Republicans
Donald Trump’s presidency has ushered in an era of unprecedented polarisation between Republican and Democrat lawmakers when it comes to voting on measures to tackle the climate crisis, while the fossil fuel industry now almost entirely favours Republicans in campaign contributions.
The two main US political parties regularly voted along the same lines on clean air and clean water provisions in the 1970s but started to diverge in the 1990s. They now occupy opposite ends of the spectrum, according to data collated by the nonpartisan group the League of Conservation Voters (LCV).
Continue reading...Tory MPs five times more likely to vote against climate action
Boris Johnson among dozens of MPs to record worst possible environmental score in Guardian analysis
Conservative MPs are almost five times more likely to vote against climate action than legislators from other parties, a Guardian analysis of 16 indicative parliamentary divisions over the past decade has revealed.
The Tories also registered many more donations, shares, salaries, gifts and tickets to sporting events from fossil fuel companies, petrostates, aviation companies and climate sceptics, according to declarations made in the parliamentary record of MPs’ interests between 2008 and 2019.
Continue reading...The importance of holding MPs to account on their climate records
The Guardian’s analysis is a guide – to provoke debate ahead of the next election
The Guardian’s analysis of MPs’ climate records relies on two extensive pieces of research.
Politicians were rated from 0% to 100% based on 16 key parliamentary votes that would affect the UK’s carbon emissions.
Continue reading...MPs and the oil industry: who gave what to whom?
A trawl of MPs’ interests shows donations and gifts from fossil fuel firms and climate contrarians
Oil companies, petrostates and climate contrarian thinktanks, businessmen and unions have given at least £5m to MPs over the past 10 years in the form of donations, expenses-paid trips, salaries and gifts.
A trawl through parliament’s register of interests suggests Conservative politicians are far more likely to accept support from such sources.
Continue reading...EU Midday Market Brief
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Oct. 11, 2019
Nobel Peace Prize: Why is it so important?
Badger culls have varying impacts on cattle TB
Badger cull linked to fall in bovine TB in two areas, study suggests
Report on test areas in England hailed by farmers’ union as proof that badger cull works
The culling of badgers in two areas of England has been linked to a marked decrease in new cases of bovine TB on farms, research suggests, bolstering farmers who support the culls.
In Gloucestershire, the incidence of TB cases in cattle was two thirds lower after four years of badger culling than would have been expected from a comparison of similar unculled sites, while in Somerset the rate was 37% lower. In a third area, in Dorset, there was no significant difference.
Continue reading...Extinction Rebellion protesters call on BBC to 'tell climate truth'
Activists block entrance to headquarters of BBC, accusing it of staying silent on crisis
Extinction Rebellion activists have called on the BBC to “tell the full truth” about the climate crisis as they protested outside its headquarters in central London.
Camped outside the main entrance of New Broadcasting House on Friday morning, the protesters held a banner stating: “BBC, your silence is deadly”, and chanted”: “Whose BBC? Our BBC”, and: “BBC, can’t you see, this is an emergency”.
Continue reading...Plastic pollution: How Ibiza is tackling its problem with waste
A working-class green movement is out there but not getting the credit it deserves
They may not get much media coverage but working-class activists have long been environmental heroes
Environmental protests are now frequently reported in the media, and the green movement is, at last, getting the attention it deserves. But most of the focus is on the activities of groups, such as Extinction Rebellion, which are not strongly rooted in working-class organisations and communities.
This is a problem because, if we want to build the broad-based support necessary for a radical transition to sustainability, we must recognise and build on all strands of environmentalism, especially that of the working class.
Continue reading...Revealed: Google made large contributions to climate change deniers
Firm’s public calls for climate action contrast with backing for conservative thinktanks
Google has made “substantial” contributions to some of the most notorious climate deniers in Washington despite its insistence that it supports political action on the climate crisis.
Among hundreds of groups the company has listed on its website as beneficiaries of its political giving are more than a dozen organisations that have campaigned against climate legislation, questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back Obama-era environmental protections.
Continue reading...The obscure law that explains why Google backs climate deniers
Company wants to curry favour with conservatives to protect its ‘section 230’ legal immunity
When Eric Schmidt was asked on a radio show in 2014 why Google was supporting an ultra-conservative climate-denying pressure group in Washington, the then chairman of the internet giant offered an unequivocal response: it was wrong and Google was not going to do it again.
“The consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake and so we’re trying to not do that in the future,” Schmidt told NPR. People who opposed or questioned climate science were making the world “a much worse place”, he added, and Google “should not be aligned with such people”.
Continue reading...Last wolves in Africa: the fragile wildlife of Ethiopia's ravaged parks | Tom Gardner
Wildfires and an encroaching population are threatening grasslands that host some of the world’s rarest species
Conservationist Getachew Assefa points across the valley. “It started close to the mist over there, by the most spectacular viewpoint,” he says. “Almost all the grassland was burnt. All of that plateau and the steep cliff over there.”
Six months after wildfires torched this part of Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains, the scars are healing: heather and grass have returned to carpet the hilltop, brightened by the yellow daisies which bloom after the long rains. On the near side of the valley lie barley fields, rippling in the wind.
Continue reading...Is this the end of household battery storage in Australia?
Strict new standards predicted to make household battery storage "really hard, really complicated and really expensive," and will likely put a massive brake on demand.
The post Is this the end of household battery storage in Australia? appeared first on RenewEconomy.
We thought Australian cars were using less fuel. New research shows we were wrong
Union demands halt to new wind and solar projects in Queensland, but it’s already happened
The influential Electrical Trades Union has demanded that the Queensland government put an immediate halt to all large scale renewable and energy projects until it has put together a “just transition plan” and a detailed energy policy. The demand from the ETU came just days after the Queensland government celebrated reaching 4GW of solar power in...
The post Union demands halt to new wind and solar projects in Queensland, but it’s already happened appeared first on RenewEconomy.
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