Around The Web

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

What China's Chang'e-4 mission could tell us about the far side of the Moon.

California’s ARB withdrew its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) amendments from the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for an undisclosed reason ahead of the regulations final approval and implementation.

Changing climate policy is proving almost impossible but major global action on the environment has been done before.

California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) and RGGI allowances (RGAs) saw little activity over the holiday break as CCAs are expected to remain rangebound in the near term while RGAs could see further boosts from colder weather and amendment approvals.

Studies show the presence of natural living things in homes improve wellbeing. So why not have your own version of a Christmas tree all year round? Cris Brack, Associate professor, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Scientists overcome a natural restriction in plants that could boost yields from important food crops.

Richard Murphy and Colin Hines suggest a number of ways that revenue could be raised to fund energy efficiency in all buildings, renewables and local transport systems

The counter to Larry Elliott’s gloomy economic projections for 2019 (For those inclined to pessimism, the new year offers plenty to be worried about, 31 December) is to be found in his earlier article making the case for countries to put their economies on an “environmental war footing” (We’re back to 1930s politics: anger and, yes, appeasement, 20 December).

To deliver this will, however, require that people be convinced that they will benefit and that there is the money to pay for such a transformation.

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Massachusetts finalised its post-2020 RGGI Model Rule changes shortly before the end of 2018, leaving only three states left to approve the alterations.

European carbon prices plummeted by almost 7% on Thursday, with traders dumping length on what market participants said was a myriad of contributing factors.

China has successfully landed on the far side of the moon, but that is not the limit of its ambitions.

A former park service director says leaving parks open without key staff is equivalent to leaving the Smithsonian open with priceless artefacts unattended

When I was a ranger at Crater Lake national park in the 1980s, the average snowfall at headquarters was 500in a year, and snow could accumulate at 2in an hour. One of my jobs as ranger was to shovel out the fire hydrants every day, so that if there was a fire in the hotel, headquarters or housing, we’d be able to fight it. Our maintenance staff plowed roads for safe visitor access and rangers patrolled on skis, regularly performing rescues. This was all part of ensuring that, in accordance with the National Park Service’s founding charter, the parks are “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations”.

Leaving the parks open without these essential staff is equivalent to leaving the Smithsonian museums open without any staff to protect the priceless artefacts. Yet as a result of the government shutdown, which furloughed most park staff, this is what has happened. It is a violation of the stewardship mandate, motivated only by politics. While the majority of the public will be respectful, there will always be a few who take advantage of the opportunity to do lasting damage.

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A former carbon trader at PetroChina’s London desk has joined Engie as head of carbon and power trading in the Greater China region.

Workers known as guajeros descend daily to search for recyclable items at one of the biggest rubbish dumps in Guatemala City. Hundreds carry out the work, which is dangerous due to mudslides and collapses but can earn them nearly twice the minimum daily wage

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Do we need a new frame of reference to truly understand our environmental emergency?

Plant set to boost local jobs and supply growing global demand for lithium, which is used in renewable energy storage

Earthworks for a new lithium hydroxide factory in Western Australia are expected to begin this month after the $1bn project received federal environmental approval.

The plant owned by the world’s largest lithium producer, the US chemical company Albemarle, was approved by the WA government in October and is estimated to create up to 500 jobs in construction, with another 100 to 500 operational jobs once it is operational.

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New Zealand’s whale whisperers worry that manmade changes in the ocean are behind the spike in beachings

Whale whisperer Hori Parata was just seven years old when he attended his first mass stranding, a beaching of porpoises in New Zealand’s Northland, their cries screeching through the air on the deserted stretch of sand.

Seven decades later, Parata, 75, has now overseen more than 500 strandings and is renowned in New Zealand as the leading Māori whale expert, called on by tribes around the country for cultural guidance as marine strandings become increasingly complex and fatal.

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Guardian environment correspondent Sandra Laville explains why we can’t recycle our way out of the plastics problem, and suggests ways to reduce your footprint

Plastic has become perhaps the most demonised material of the last 12 months, as the scale of pollution in the oceans becomes increasingly apparent.

With dire predictions that if nothing is done there will be more plastic in the seas by weight than fish by 2050, it has become evident that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic problem.

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

New images of Anak Krakatau, which erupted last month and caused a deadly tsunami, are revealed.