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'Leader to laggard': the backlash to Australia’s planned marine park cutbacks
Conservation groups produce analysis showing protection for 35m hectares of ocean will be downgraded
More than 35m hectares of “no-take” ocean will be stripped from Australia’s marine parks if plans released by the government go ahead, according to analysis commissioned by conservation groups.
The environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, released plans for 44 marine parks on Tuesday, claiming a “more balanced and scientific evidence-based approach to ocean protection”.
Continue reading...Australia's birds are not being protected by environmental laws, report says
BirdLife says loopholes, exemptions, omissions and powers open to politicisation have been exploited
Some of Australia’s favourite birds are threatened with extinction and Australia’s environmental laws are failing to protect them, a new report by BirdLife Australia has found.
The report identified in the existing laws a slew of loopholes, exemptions, omissions and discretionary powers open to politicisation, each of which have been exploited to allow the decline of birds including the Carnaby’s black cockatoo, the swift parrot and the southern black-throated finch.
Continue reading...Tesla, Fluence to build two big batteries in Victoria
Murray-Darling system under strain as tree plantations increase 41%
Farmers and others in Mildura region are warning trees could be left to wither and die
A huge expansion of irrigated crops in the Mildura region of the lower Murray is threatening to overtake the water available in the river, and has set the scene for a disaster if drought conditions return.
A 16-day heatwave that hit the region this summer exposed the vulnerability of the Sunraysia and western New South Wales regions. During that time, the Murray-Darling basin’s water managers scrambled to meet demand, as the region experienced a run of days over 35C between 16 and 29 January.
Continue reading...As the Libs claim South Australia, states are falling into line behind the National Energy Guarantee
Bulgarians rush to save a phalanx of distressed, frozen storks
Villagers come to the rescue after icy wings ground hundreds of migrating birds
What would you do if you encountered scores of distressed storks covered in ice lying in a snow-covered field? In Bulgaria, people have been taking them home.
A cold snap in the north-east of the country has stranded hundreds of the migrating birds this week, covering their wings in ice and grounding them.
Continue reading...This is just fracking by another name | Letters
The threat that you refer to (National parks land faces new oil threat, campaigners warn, 16 March) actually looms over a great swathe of south-east England, not just national parks. And the plethora of promised wells will not be “conventional” as your article states – at least not in the scientifically accepted meaning of the word. A new, political definition of “conventional” was inserted into national minerals planning guidance in March 2014 by the then Department of Energy and Climate Change. It declared “conventional” all sources of oil and gas in limestone and sandstone. This is not true. Both limestone and sandstone, geologically speaking, can be conventional or unconventional. The scientific divide between the two pivots on permeability – how freely oil or gas can flow through the rocks. And, deep within the shale under the Weald, the thin, muddy limestone layers that are currently the target of oil companies have low permeability. They are unconventional.
It is convenient for the oil industry to be able to claim its drilling to be conventional. To the public, media and planners it makes oil wells seem a more minor issue. But the industry’s plans are major. Precisely because of the low permeability of the target rocks (now muddy limestone, soon no doubt the surrounding shale), there will be a need for a great many wells. You can extract oil only by getting up close to each bit of “unconventional” rock, and dissolving it with acid or cracking it open. Stephen Sanderson, CEO of UK Oil and Gas, said of his plans for Surrey and Sussex: “This type of oil deposit very much depends on being able to drill your wells almost back to back.”
Continue reading...Flooding and heavy rains rise 50% worldwide in a decade, figures show
Such extreme weather events are now happening four times more than in 1980, according to a European science paper
Global floods and extreme rainfall events have surged by more than 50% this decade, and are now occurring at a rate four times higher than in 1980, according to a new report.
Other extreme climatological events such as storms, droughts and heatwaves have increased by more than a third this decade and are being recorded twice as frequently as in 1980, the paper by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac) says.
Continue reading...NSW Labor refuses to approve forestry agreements based on 'out-of-date' science
In wake of Guardian Australia report, Penny Sharpe says regional forest agreements must include climate change as a consideration
NSW Labor has demanded that climate change be on the table as part of a full scientific assessment of the state’s regional forest agreements (RFAs), which are set to expire over the next two years.
Penny Sharpe, opposition environment spokeswoman, said NSW Labor would not sign off on proposed extensions because the government “knows the science underpinning the RFAs is out of date and incomplete”.
Continue reading...Europe faces 'biodiversity oblivion' after collapse in French birds, experts warn
Authors of report on bird declines say intensive farming and pesticides could turn Europe’s farmland into a desert that ultimately imperils all humans
The “catastrophic” decline in French farmland birds signals a wider biodiversity crisis in Europe which ultimately imperils all humans, leading scientists have told the Guardian.
A dramatic fall in farmland birds such as skylarks, whitethroats and ortolan bunting in France was revealed by two studies this week, with the spread of neonicotinoid pesticides – and decimation of insect life – coming under particular scrutiny.
Continue reading...Tell us: what actions will you be taking for Earth Hour?
We want to hear from people around the world switching things off and getting involved in Earth Hour 2018
Global organisers of Earth Hour, a grass roots movement for the environment asking people to switch off electricity for an hour on 24 March, say they hope to energise millions of people and that “every action counts”.
Continue reading...Loopholes in Queensland's new land-clearing laws 'would allow broadscale razing'
Environmental Defenders Office to urge Palaszczuk government to amend proposed laws
The Queensland Environmental Defenders Office says proposed new land-clearing laws in the state leave significant loopholes that would allow broadscale clearing to continue unchecked.
The group will on Thursday lodge a submission urging the Palaszczuk government to amend its proposed vegetation management laws.
Continue reading...A judge asks basic questions about climate change. We answer them
California judge William Alsup put out a list of questions for a climate change ‘tutorial’ in a global warming case
Continue reading...
Come hither... how imitating mating males could cut cane toad numbers
Neoen starts work on next Tesla big battery project in Victoria
Evoenergy successfully trials multiple demand management initiatives
NSW solar tariff cut – reward for slashing power price peaks
Marshall feels blow-back as Tesla battery comments hit raw nerve
Victoria plan to use old mines for pumped hydro heads to next stage
Even business lobbyists say Australia can run on 50% renewables
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