Around The Web
Should Australia recognise the human right to a healthy environment?
Calling citizen scientists: more data needed to protect echidnas
These masters of disguise are some of the world’s oldest surviving mammals, but they are threatened by habitat loss, traffic and feral cats – and they need our help
They may be one of the world’s oldest surviving mammals – around for at least 25m years – but scientists don’t know much about echidnas. Now researchers believe the remaining Australian population may be threatened and they need citizen scientists’ help to save them.
Related: 'Fantasy documents': recovery plans failing Australia's endangered species
Continue reading...National Farmers' Union elects first female president
Minette Batters becomes first woman to hold top job since NFU was founded in 1908
The National Farmers’ Union has elected Minette Batters as the first female president in the organisation’s 110-year history.
Batters, a Wiltshire beef, sheep and arable farmer who has also diversified her business into weddings and catering, was previously the NFU’s deputy president.
Continue reading...High court rules UK air pollution plans 'unlawful'
Government loses third court case as judge says approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas is ‘not sufficient’
The government will have to do more to tackle illegal levels of air pollution after a high court judge ruled its current plans are “unlawful”.
Mr Justice Garnham told the London court on Wednesday the approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas was “not sufficient”.
Continue reading...Government loses clean air court case
Tasmanian tiger 'joeys' revealed in 3D
Red tape in the meat industry? It's the difference between life and death
Without regulations that scrutinise food standards and trade deals, we cannot trust the safety of the food on our plates
It should come as no surprise that the global meat industry is a major source of disease and crime. We are talking about a substance of animal origin, inherently alive with risky micro-organisms, necessitating expensive traceability and investment to make it safe, and worth hundreds of billions of dollars in global trade.
But in the UK, regulation is increasingly underfunded. Meat inspection services have been slashed over the past decade in favour of greater industry self-regulation, favouring private assurance schemes and meat companies being given fewer inspection if they can show general compliance. This might sound sensible until you look back over recent history and realise that it has been some highly reputable companies that have been the source of bad meat news, and that it was a spot-check random inspection that uncovered the Russell Hume case. Without robust regulation and independent checks, food scandals are too often the result. And the picture is the same all over the world, as the global demand for meat increases rapidly as wealth increases, government seeks to reduce ‘red tape’ and more people adopt western, meat-heavy diets.
Baby Belle, the hand-reared rhino
Country diary: no miners emerge from the dark to break the peace today
Luckett, Tamar Valley: Vegetation hides the extensive spoil heaps and the midday sun gilds catkins on sprawling hazels
On the north side of Kit Hill, remnants of last night’s hail lie beside the steep road leading to the old mining settlement of Luckett. A solitary stack in a field above Deer Park Farm used to vent poisonous arsenic fumes from works in the valley below; down there, beside abandoned mine workings, dilapidated single-storey dwellings have been mooted as a mining museum.
Continue reading...SA backs second renewables-to-gas hydrogen plant, in Tonsley
Meet the latest organisation to achieve carbon neutral certification
Frydenberg fumes as Weatherill does the vision thing on renewables and storage
Carnegie to build renewable micro-grid on old Holden site in Elizabeth
Emissions Reduction Fund Safeguard Mechanism consultation paper released
Emissions Reduction Fund Safeguard Mechanism consultation paper released
Climate change 'will push European cities towards breaking point'
Study highlights urgent need to adapt urban areas to cope with floods, droughts and heatwaves
Major British towns and cities, including Glasgow, Wrexham, Aberdeen and Chester, could be much more severely affected by climate change than previously thought, according to new research.
The study, by Newcastle University, analysed changes in flooding, droughts and heatwaves for every European city using all climate models.
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