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In February Dave Mackay guided Virgin Galactic's space craft to almost 56 miles (90km) above earth.

Report calls for change of priorities and culture to avert catastrophic biodiversity loss

Governments need to ramp up investment in nature restoration and raise the tax burden on companies that degrade wildlife, according to recommendations made to the G7 group of rich nations.

The proposals are part of a growing debate on how to radically change humanity’s relationship with nature in the wake of a new UN mega-report that showed an alarming decline in the Earth’s life-support systems.

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There is no joint declaration by Arctic nations as the US criticises climate change wording.

A 92-million-year-old dinosaur provides evolutionary insights on the evolution of the tyrannosaurs.

Undercover footage by activists has exposed brutal treatment for one batch of young calves being trucked to the Netherlands to be sold as veal

Irish calves as young as two weeks old are being beaten, kicked and punched, according to secretly filmed footage.

Campaigners followed more than 5,000 calves on 23 livestock trucks from Ireland to the French control post at Tollevast, where animals are supposed to find rest and feed under EU laws.

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Studying fireflies helped scientists increase light extraction in LEDs by more than 50%

Ex-archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams welcomes plans for fully costed proposals

The former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has welcomed an “urgent change” by Cambridge University, after it agreed to provide fully costed plans setting out how it could divest multibillion-pound endowments from fossil fuel corporations.

The university’s management accepted a motion, known as a grace, which urged Cambridge to “set out fully the advantages and disadvantages, including the social and political ones”, of divestment from global coal, oil and gas companies.

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The Beijing municipal government has pushed back the annual compliance deadline for its emissions trading scheme by a month after partly shutting down the allowance registry for an upgrade.

From native species to Indigenous land management and water efficiency: Australia’s role in the extinction crisis

A devastating new UN report shows the planet is in serious danger from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems. Here we look at 10 of the key points from the report – and their relevance for Australia.

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German non-profit media organisation CORRECTIV has coordinated 35 newsrooms across Europe to open the lid on the €5 billion carousel fraud that shook the EU carbon market to its core nearly a decade ago, finding that tax authorities are still pursuing or have reached settlements with a number of major investment banks and brokers.

There had been fears the plant could go extinct, after a Spanish variety escaped into the wild.

Exclusive: Company pursues approvals based on original plans for 60m-tonne megamine

Adani has refused to commit to the size of its “scaled-down” Carmichael coal project and is still pursuing final approvals based on plans for a 60m-tonne megamine in central Queensland.

The Queensland government has confirmed that while Adani announced last year it intended to build a much smaller mine, the Indian company has filed no formal plans on that basis.

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A small finch has stalled the multi-million-dollar Carmichael mine. Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University April Reside, Researcher, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

RenewEconomy reaches a significant milestone, and announces the addition of Michael Mazengarb to the reporting team.

The post RenewEconomy hits 40 million milestone, expands reporting team appeared first on RenewEconomy.

ESB releases proposed amendments to the National Electricity Rules for the implementation of the Retailer Reliability Obligation. Is half a NEG better than none at all?

The post ESB releases design for retailer reliability obligation – will half a NEG cut it? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Exploitation and predatory pricing drove the transformation of the US beef industry – and created the model for modern agribusiness. By Joshua Specht

The meatpacking mogul Jonathan Ogden Armour could not abide socialist agitators. It was 1906, and Upton Sinclair had just published The Jungle, an explosive novel revealing the grim underside of the American meatpacking industry. Sinclair’s book told the tale of an immigrant family’s toil in Chicago’s slaughterhouses, tracing the family’s physical, financial and emotional collapse. The Jungle was not Armour’s only concern. The year before, the journalist Charles Edward Russell’s book The Greatest Trust in the World had detailed the greed and exploitation of a packing industry that came to the American dining table “three times a day … and extorts its tribute”.

In response to these attacks, Armour, head of the enormous Chicago-based meatpacking firm Armour & Co, took to the Saturday Evening Post to defend himself and his industry. Where critics saw filth, corruption and exploitation, Armour saw cleanliness, fairness and efficiency. If it were not for “the professional agitators of the country”, he claimed, the nation would be free to enjoy an abundance of delicious and affordable meat.

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Insects are ‘the glue in nature’, says Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, underpinning the food and water we rely on

Humanity must save insects, if not for their sake, then for ourselves, a leading entomologist has warned.

“Insects are the glue in nature and there is no doubt that both the [numbers] and diversity of insects are declining,” said Prof Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. “At some stage the whole fabric unravels and then we will really see the consequences.”

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Big generator bidding over summer shatter myth of cheap "base-load", as rising coal and gas costs send prices to record highs, and rooftop solar reduces demand.

The post Rising coal and gas costs push Australia electricity prices to record highs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Horses can stand on three legs and rest the other leg. They can change the leg they rest so that all of their legs get a chance to have a break. Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Nearly a million species face extinction if we do not fundamentally change our relationship with natural world, according to world’s largest assessment of biodiversity.

The post ‘Revolutionary change’ needed to stop global extinction crisis appeared first on RenewEconomy.