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The winter of blazing discontent continues in the Arctic
Australia’s leading innovation district now officially known as Tonsley
Why coal-fired power handouts would be an attack on climate and common sense
The evidence suggests the push for government help is an attempt to squeeze money out of unwise investments made at the end of the mining boom
The recent coordinated push for new coal-powered electricity generators in Australia comes as the industry is on its last legs.
The intensified push for government handouts can be seen as a last-ditch attempt for the coal industry to squeeze some money out of the unwise investments it made at the end of the mining boom.
In Australia and the US, sound climate policy is being held hostage by vested interests
We must shift away from a culture of politically motivated climate change denialism to an acceptance of the truly existential threat now facing humanity
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the world’s climate and environment. The inauguration of billionaire property developer and reality TV star Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States has presaged a new Dark Age of climate politics.
In an opening fortnight of controversial executive orders, President Trump has decreed the expansion of major fossil fuel developments including the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, and the neutering of long-standing environmental protections. In addition, he and his leadership team have made it plain they intend to dismantle many of the Obama administration’s climate initiatives and withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. All this runs in direct counterpoint to the rapid decarbonisation required to avoid dangerous climate change.
Continue reading...DNA reveals how pitcher plants evolved to become flesh-eaters
Indonesian illegal gold mining – in pictures
Indonesian miners painstakingly sift through the waste for scraps from the largest gold mine in the world: the Grasberg mine in West Papua
Continue reading...Why climate change is good news for wasps
Their numbers vary enormously from year to year, but warmer weather will provide wasps with more favourable conditions
Several new species of wasp have arrived in Britain with our warming weather, and their larger relative the hornet, once confined to the extreme south, has spread across England.
But how is our common wasp fairing? Most queen wasps still do not survive the winter. However, it is not cold that will have killed them, but spiders or other predators.
Continue reading...Bison return to Banff national park in Canada
The environmental impact of coal and oil | Letters
Last week a Scottish Power executive called for coal to be excluded from the UK’s capacity market scheme (Report, 31 January). Five days later UK coal plants were awarded taxpayer-funded subsidies worth up to £72.8m. With the government’s consultation on phasing out coal-fired power generation by 2025 closing on Wednesday, for coal plant operators it must be like being asked to leave the party while being bought a drink.
Likewise, while CO2 emissions are subject to a carbon price floor, its current level is too low to be effective. Meanwhile, the so-called Transitional National Plan grants UK plants permission to pollute above EU limits. TNP’s “pollution bubbles” are filled with toxic fumes that cause 2,800 premature deaths in the UK every year.
Continue reading...The environment needs billions of dollars more: here's how to raise the money
Australia: there's a lot of it to look after. Thomas Schoch/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Extinction threatens iconic Australian birds and animals. The regent honeyeater, the orange-bellied parrot, and Leadbeater’s possum have all entered the list of critically endangered species.
It is too late for the more than 50 species that are already extinct, including bettongs, various wallabies, and many others. Despite international commitments, policies and projects, Australia’s biodiversity outcomes remain unsatisfactory.
A 2015 review of Australia’s 2010-2050 Biodiversity Conservation Strategy found that it has failed to “effectively guide the efforts of governments, other organisations or individuals”.
Insufficient resourcing is one cause of biodiversity loss. The challenge is impressive. Australia must tackle degradation and fragmentation of habitat, invasive species, unsustainable use of resources, the deterioration of the aquatic environment and water flows, increased fire events, and climate change.
This all requires money to support private landholders conducting conservation activities, to fund research, to manage public lands, and to support other conservation activities conducted by governments, industry, and individuals.
So where can we find the funds?
How much money is needed?We have estimated that Australia’s biodiversity protection requires an equivalent investment to defence spending – roughly 2% of gross domestic product.
Of course, such estimates are up for debate given that how much money is required depends on what we want the environment to look like, which methods we use, and how well they work. Other studies (see also here and here point to a similar conclusion: far more money is needed to achieve significantly better outcomes.
Apart from government funding, private landholders, businesses, communities, Indigenous Australians, and non-government organisations contribute significantly to natural resource management. We were unable to quantify their collective cash and in-kind contributions, as the information is not available. But we do know that farmers spend around A$3 billion each year on natural resource management.
Nonetheless, the erosion of environmental values indicates that the level of spending required to sufficiently meet conservation targets far exceeds the amount currently being spent. The investment required is similar to value of agriculture in Australia.
Conservation doesn’t come cheap.
JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Unfortunately, the concentration of wealth and labour sets a limit to what any given community can pay.
Despite a high GDP per person and very wealthy cities, Australia has fewer than 0.1 people per hectare and a wealth intensity (GDP per hectare) of less than US$2,000 due to the sparse population and income of rural Australia.
Australia’s rural population has declined sharply, from over 18% in 1960 to around 10% today. Other countries (for example in Europe) are not limited to the same degree. Even China has a greater rural resource intensity than Australia.
Rural incomes are often volatile, but environmental investments need to be sustained. The history of Landcare highlights that private landholders have struggled to secure a reliable investment basis for sustainably managing the environment.
Can government pay what is required?If Australia is serious about the environment, we need to know who will pay for biodiversity protection (a public good). This is especially true given that it is not feasible for rural (particularly Indigenous) landholders and communities to invest the required amount.
Will government be the underpinning investor? The federal government’s current spending program on natural resource management was initiated in 2014 with an allocation of A$2 billion over four years.
This was split between the second National Landcare Program, the (now-defunded) Green Army, the Working on Country program, the Land Sector Package, the Reef 2050 plan, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and the Whale and Dolphin Protection Plan.
As well as federal funding, the state, territory, and local governments invest in public lands, bushfire mitigation, waste management, water management, environmental research and development, biodiversity programs, and environmental policies. Local and state government departments together spend around A$4.9 billion each year on natural resource management.
The problem is that government spending on natural resource management can not be significantly increased in the near future due to fiscal pressures and the focus on reducing budget deficits.
Show us the moneyAt a time when Australia is reconsidering many aspects of its environmental policies, we should address the strategy for funding natural resource management.
It should be possible to leverage more private spending on the environment preferably as part of a coordinated strategy. Diverse, market-based approaches are being used around the world.
For example, we could use market instruments such as biodiversity banking to support landholders in protecting biodiversity.
Taxation incentives, such as a generous tax offset for landholders who spend money on improving the environment, can be a very powerful catalyst and could be crucial for meeting environmental investment needs.
Evidence suggests that integrating a variety of mechanisms into a coordinated business model for the environment is likely to be the most efficient and effective approach. But this will not happen unless Australia faces the fiscal challenge of sustainability head-on.
Australia needs an innovative investment plan for the environment. By combining known funding methods and investment innovation, Australia can reduce the gap between what we currently spend and what the environment needs.
Without a more sophisticated investment strategy, it is likely that Australia will continue on the trajectory of decline.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
Europe escalates action against UK for breaching air pollution limits
UK fails to apply environmental law on air quality, water standards, and the conservation of several species, EU review reveals
An EU review has revealed multiple failings by the UK in applying environmental law, on the same day that the commission escalated its action against Britain for breaching air pollution limits.
Britain has been in breach of EU nitrogen dioxide (NO2) limits since 2010, with London overshooting its annual air pollution limit for the whole of 2017 in just the first five days.
Continue reading...Live Q&A: What can we do to help elephants?
Volunteer? Raise money? Be a citizen scientist? Join us Monday 13 Feb at 1 - 2.30pm GMT to talk about what we can all do to help elephants.
In the face of falling elephant populations around the world, it’s easy to feel a little hopeless. But in fact there are a number of things you can do to help - from volunteering to becoming a citizen scientist yourself, to supporting some of the extraordinary organisations out there.
We’re putting together a database of actions to launch next Monday (Feb 13). To mark the launch, we’ll be hosting an online discussion with elephant experts, discussing what everyone can do, and assessing areas where genuine progress is being made.
Terrific Scientific: BBC Breakfast's fizzy bottle rocket flop
Satisfying the thirsty
Repeal without replace: a dangerous GOP strategy on Obamacare and climate | Dana Nuccitelli
House Republicans are explicitly saying that protecting public and environmental health isn’t worth a few jobs or a small cost.
House Republicans have introduced a bill to rewrite the Clean Air Act. The bill, which has 114 co-sponsors (all Republicans), would revise the Clean Air Act such that:
The term ‘air pollutant’ does not include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, or sulfur hexafluoride.
Continue reading...Villagers in Bolivia refuse to be left high and dry by drought – in pictures
Despite January rains heavy enough to cause flooding in some areas, the effects of severe drought continue to be felt keenly in many areas of Bolivia, affecting about 125,000 families. A resourceful village in Mizque province has come up with ways to eke out what little water is available
All photographs by Andrew Philip/Tearfund
Continue reading...Restoring Lake Pedder
Hedgehogs now a rare garden sight as British populations continue to decline
More than half of people surveyed had never seen a hedgehog, once common in UK gardens
The plight of the hedgehog in Britain appears to be worsening, with a new survey revealing a further decline in garden sightings.
The spiky creature was once a common sight, with the population estimated at 30 million in the 1950s. But that has plummeted to fewer than one million today, with a third of this loss thought to have taken place in the past decade.
Continue reading...Waxwings and spruce are Kinder trespassers
Kinder Scout, Peak District Walking along the western escarpment, it feels like the land has been brushed by Arctic exoticism
Driving out of Sheffield, I pass half a dozen men hurrying up and down Manchester Road, pointing long lenses into the glacier-blue sky, like paparazzi, and pull over to see what the fuss is about.
The cause is a flock of exquisite, starling-sized birds, their silky-smooth, dusky-pale plumage flushed with cloudberry amber, their heads topped with a punky crest, and their eyes dark with a warlike black mask. They are ransacking the ornamental rowans lining the road, much to the annoyance of a mistle thrush, which sallies angrily from its berry-laden perch to rebuff the raiders.
Continue reading...Big Oil’s new fashion accessory: “green gas” plants
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