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Labor fires back at Adani Australia CEO over foreign investment claims
Tanya Plibersek rejects Jeyakumar Janakaraj’s claim Bill Shorten casting doubt on future foreign investment
Labor has rejected claims it is destabilising Australia’s ability to attract investment through its growing scepticism of the controversial Adani Queensland coalmine.
Following moves by Labor to distance itself from Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine, the Adani Australia chief executive, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, told the Weekend Australian that Labor’s attacks on the project had cast doubt on Australia’s ability to remain an attractive destination for capital.
But the deputy opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, said none of Labor’s criticism should harm Australia as an investment destination.
Continue reading...Nigeria's soil-free salad farm
The Great Barrier Reef from the sky – in pictures
Photographer Joshua Smith’s latest project, The Reef, is an aerial exploration of his experience with Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. Smith’s hope is to raise awareness of Australia’s connection with the reef and the impact humans have on it. The series is the the fifth instalment of Down Under from Above, a captivating film and aerial photo series sharing unique perspectives of Australian landscape while highlighting the importance of preservation
Continue reading...Carillion links put fracking firm’s scheme in doubt
A controversial plan to start fracking for shale gas in rural North Yorkshire has been thrown into doubt amid mounting concerns over the finances and management of the company behind the scheme.
In a move that has encouraged anti-fracking protestors, energy secretary Greg Clark has ordered the start of drilling at Kirby Misperton to be put on hold pending an investigation into the “financial resilience” of Third Energy.
Continue reading...The barren desert preparing astronauts for life on Mars
Report warns of dire future for Coral Triangle reef fish
Popular species like grouper and wrasse could be gone from dining tables in decades as trade drives wild populations to the brink of collapse.
The US$1 billion a year Live Reef Fish for Food Trade (LRFFT) is threatening the future of key reef predator species like grouper, coral trout and Napoleon wrasse, according to a recent study.
The study - published by WWF, the Swire Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and ADM Capital Foundation - urges swift action towards regulating an industry that’s decimating stocks of these species across the Coral Triangle, threatening poor communities that rely on the fishery for their livelihoods.
Continue reading...First images of creatures from Antarctic depths revealed
Photographs of rare species from unexplored area of Antarctic seabed highlight need to protect life in one of the most remote places on the planet
The images below are the first of creatures found in a previously unexplored region of the Antarctic seabed offering a fascinating glimpse of life in one of the most remote and pristine places on the planet.
Continue reading...Country diary: finely dressed gadwall has an air of austere decency
Airedale, West Yorkshire: Neck held straight, upright and officer-like, the drake appears dressed in close-fitted tweeds, a fine houndstooth of tan and grey
I don’t know a bird book that has much to say about the gadwall (Anas strepera). Generally this unobtrusive winter duck is compared with the more common mallard, and comes off worse: smaller (just), duller (much), either shriller (the duck) or coarser (the drake) in quack. But like many a winter bird – think of the intricate copper-trimmed scalloping of a starling’s non-breeding plumage – the gadwall repays a little close attention.
Continue reading...How to evolve your dragon
How to evolve your dragon
Rocket man
Bolivia's lonely frog: Scientists race to find mate for Romeo
Federal penalties against polluters at lowest level in a decade under Trump
Figures released by the EPA show that 115 crime cases were opened in 2017, down from a peak of nearly 400 in 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement activity against polluters has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with the first year of the Trump administration seeing a sharp drop in fines for companies that break environmental rules.
Figures released by the EPA show that 115 environmental crime cases were opened in the 2017 financial year, down from a peak of nearly 400 in the 2009 financial year, which was largely under the Obama administration.
Continue reading...Lack of migrant workers left food rotting in UK fields last year, data reveals
Exclusive: Brexit fears and falling pound left fruit and vegetable farms short of more than 4,000 workers, with senior MPs warning of a ‘crisis’
Fruit and vegetable farms across the UK were left short of thousands of migrant workers in 2017, leaving some produce to rot in the fields and farmers suffering big losses.
Continue reading...Ozone layer, farm antibiotics and mutant crayfish – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...Asteroid set for 'close' 43,300 mile flight past Earth on Friday
Getting a grip
The week in wildlife – in pictures
Galápagos marine iguanas, feeding penguins and a camouflaged owl are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...War on the wildest places: US bill may open pristine lands to development
Wilderness study areas are more wild and untouched than national parks. But a Republican proposal threatens this unique terrain, environmentalists say
The Big Snowy Mountains wilderness study area in Montana represents 91,000 acres of the wildest land left in America. Viewed from a limestone bluff high in a timbered gulch, no houses are visible. No transmission lines or roads interrupting the expanse of green. No smoke curling up from cabin stovepipes.
Continue reading...The bird market of Kabul – in pictures
A visit to the narrow lane of Ka Faroshi bird market brings comfort to war-weary Afghans
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