Around The Web

Communities in the northern Murray-Darling Basin are hopeful changes to water management in their region will help towns stay alive.

Families v people | Autumnul cheer | Ukip doner | Arctic alarm | Far-right dismay | Front-page gloom

According to the very first words in your front-page story (Chancellor to crack down on letting fees, 23 November) “millions of families” are to be offered relief from spurious letting charges. Funny, I hadn’t realised that the measure was targeted only at families – I guess this must mean that people living alone, house-sharers and childless couples will have to go on paying the fees? Can you please make an effort not to bandy about the word “families” as though it were a synonym for “people”?
Rob Sykes
Oxford

• I was leaning on a gate the other day, looking at the view, trying to figure out why November can often seem the best autumn month. Paul Evans expressed these feelings so beautifully (Country Diary, 23 November). Wonderful!
Nick Spencer
Kington, Herefordshire

Continue reading...

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...

Cut off from the outside world, quake-hit Kaikoura's businesses face uncertainty but vow to hold on.

European research ministers will be asked for just over €400m (£345m) to put a rover on Mars in 2021 when they meet next week in Switzerland.

A newborn Sitatunga calf and an orange-bellied parrot are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Continue reading...

Arctic scientists have reported that the speed at which the northern ice cap is melting risks triggering 19 climate tipping points, with disastrous consequences. It could also affect ecosystems elsewhere on Earth, perhaps irreversibly. The Arctic Resilience Report says it is crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

• Arctic ice melt could trigger uncontrollable climate change at global level
  

Continue reading...

Natural management is ‘vital’ as well as other flood defences says environment secretary, reports The Ends Report

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will spend £15m on natural flood management projects, the environment secretary has announced.

On Thursday, Andrea Leadsom confirmed to parliament that, although flood defences such as concrete barriers are “very important”, natural flood management is “vital” as well.

Continue reading...

Canada has joined a growing list of countries phasing out the most polluting fossil fuel and global demand has fallen. Is this the start of a low-carbon energy era or just a blip in coal’s dominance?

This week Canada joined the growing list of major developed countries saying they will phase out coal power.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of global demand for coal falling last year for the first time in nearly two decades, a development that could presage a new era of lower-carbon energy generation – or merely a blip in the long-term dominance of the highly polluting fuel.

Continue reading...

Airport expansion plans may breach climate change legislation if other sectors do not make big cuts to emissions, warns Committee on Climate Change

Plans to build a third runway at Heathrow may breach the Government’s own climate change legislation if other sectors do not make big cuts to emissions, an independent advisory body has warned.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said it had “concerns” over how the Department for Transport (DfT) had presented its case for expanding the hub in relation to greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue reading...

Ministers deliberately delayed a report showing fracking could affect house prices, health and the environment until after a crucial planning decision, documents reveal

Ministers deliberately delayed a controversial fracking report it was being forced to publish until after crucial council decisions on planning permission, according to newly revealed documents.

The documents also show ministers acknowledged they were open to a charge of double standards, having granted local communities the final say over windfarm applications but overruling fracking decisions.

Continue reading...

Ketton Quarry, Rutland Withered stems of white bryony lash together clumps of little red globes hanging in garlands, and hedges blush with hawthorn berries

The incoming polar air mass and clear night sky produces this year’s heaviest frost. Water crystallises into bristly masses on every surface. The blazing morning sun rapidly scorches most of it away, but in the deepest still hollows of Ketton quarry the thick, white, dusting endures into the afternoon.

Related: Birds and berries: A fertile feast

Continue reading...

Scientists warn increasingly rapid melting could trigger polar ‘tipping points’ with catastrophic consequences felt as far away as the Indian Ocean

Arctic scientists have warned that the increasingly rapid melting of the ice cap risks triggering 19 “tipping points” in the region that could have catastrophic consequences around the globe.

The Arctic Resilience Report found that the effects of Arctic warming could be felt as far away as the Indian Ocean, in a stark warning that changes in the region could cause uncontrollable climate change at a global level.

Continue reading...

Federal and Queensland environment ministers say "significant progress" being made on protecting, improving health of Great Barrier Reef.

Josh Frydenberg says coal ‘vitally important’ after former Great Barrier Reef official calls said its future depended on an end to mining

Josh Frydenberg has defended Australia’s coal industry as “vitally important” days after a former Great Barrier Reef authority chief called for a ban on new mines.

Speaking after a forum on the reef with state and territory ministers in Sydney on Friday, the federal environment minister said other countries would simply “fill the void” if Australia did not export coal.

Continue reading...

AGL offers free 5kW solar system, or battery storage to neighbours of what could be biggest wind farm in Queensland.

A 300MW solar farm – which would be Australia's biggest – planned near NSW town of Armidale, the heart of Barnaby Joyce country.

Australian start-up Power Ledger named as global leader in blockchain technology which has the potential to “rapidly disrupt” the traditional energy market and fast-track the shift to decentralised generation.

Low participation has led to a smaller amount of abatement contracted by the Clean Energy Regulator at the fourth ERF auction.

The deepest denial about climate change rests within Australia’s coal, oil and gas companies; which is ironic given that is where some of the impacts will be most keenly felt.