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RSPB calls for emergency shooting ban during bird flu outbreak
Shoots cause stress for migratory species such as Svalbard barnacle goose, whose numbers are down 38%
The RSPB has called for an emergency shooting ban after an “unprecedented” outbreak of bird flu that has left wildfowl populations in “catastrophic decline”.
Migratory geese that overwinter on the Solway Firth, which stretches between Scotland and Cumbria, are being hardest hit, with a 38% decline in the Svalbard barnacle goose breeding population from winter last year.
Continue reading...Euro Markets: Midday Update
Thailand turns to crocodile meat as pork prices rise – in pictures
Crocodile meat began to grow in popularity in Thailand when pork prices surged after a shortage caused by the spread of African swine fever. Wichai Roongtaweechai, who owns a farm and a restaurant specialising in crocodile meat, says he has seen sales of crocodile meat go up by 70%
Continue reading...Georgia scientist shooting was 'senseless act'
Waterbird baby boom expected early in 2022
*Carbon Market Correspondent, Carbon Pulse – Remote (Australia/New Zealand)
Carbon Project Admin & Compliance Officer, Sydney – Corporate Carbon
Carbon Management Lead, Viva Energy Australia – Melbourne
Indonesian forestry agreement made only paltry contribution to climate targets, study says
Australia’s best performing wind and solar farms in 2021, and the leading states
Victoria topped the states for wind and solar output in 2021, but it's another state that hosts the best performing projects.
The post Australia’s best performing wind and solar farms in 2021, and the leading states appeared first on RenewEconomy.
What would you pay for? RenewEconomy wants your feedback
What sort of content could attract a premium? RenewEconomy would like to know your thoughts.
The post What would you pay for? RenewEconomy wants your feedback appeared first on RenewEconomy.
How this little marsupial's poo nurtures urban gardens and bushland (and how you can help protect them)
Dozens of questions on climate and energy policies go unanswered by Morrison
Senate estimates questions, relating to the Morrison government's climate and energy policies, remain unanswered and are weeks overdue.
The post Dozens of questions on climate and energy policies go unanswered by Morrison appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Fortescue buys Williams Engineering in major push into battery storage
Fortescue snaps up engineering offshoot of legendary F1 racing team, as it looks to battery storage to cut emissions in heavy transport and other hard to abate sectors.
The post Fortescue buys Williams Engineering in major push into battery storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.
5 ways climate change boosts tsunami threat, from collapsing ice shelves to sea level rise
Farmers’ tree dilemma: if we plant woodland, will we take a cash hit?
Four years after a new post-Brexit payments system was promised by ministers, confusion leaves bid to improve biodiversity in limbo
Farmers are putting off planting trees because of the uncertainty surrounding the government’s plans for subsidies based on protecting nature, delaying the UK’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stem the drastic decline in farmland wildlife.
New farm payments are expected from 2024, under the post-Brexit subsidy regime the government has promised, but farmers fear if they plant trees now they will not get the credit for it when the new schemes start. Meanwhile, they face potentially losing their existing subsidies if they switch to more tree-planting now.
Continue reading...How do we make the move to electric cars happen? Ask Norway | John Naughton
Two-thirds of all new cars bought by Norwegians last year were electric. Turns out you just need a government with a clue
I’ve just been standing for 10 minutes at a moderately quiet junction near where I work in Cambridge. During that time I’ve seen six electric vehicles (EVs) – three VW ID.3s, a Nissan Leaf, a Nissan white van and a Renault Zoe. Three years ago, if I’d been standing at the same spot, I’d have seen precisely zero such vehicles. And what that brought to mind was Ernest Hemingway’s celebrated reply to the question: how does one go bankrupt? “Two ways,” he said. “Gradually, then suddenly.”
Something similar is going on in relation to adoption of EVs in Britain. The hockey-stick graph is common in consumer technologies. We saw it in the early years of mobile phones, when text messaging was ignored by adults as an inferior form of email. But when pay-as-you-go tariffs arrived and teenagers could have phones, SMS use suddenly shot skywards. The arrival of kids represented a tipping point – a point in time when a group rapidly changes its behaviour by widely adopting a previously rare practice.
Continue reading...Tax on parking: UK cities to impose levy on cars in bid to cut pollution
Leicester politicians hope levy on local firms will help cut pollution in city
Councils across the UK are using radical strategies to cut the number of polluting vehicles on their streets in response to the climate emergency.
Leicester city council hopes a new charge on workplace parking will improve air quality, fund public transport and incentivise walking and cycling.
Continue reading...‘We’re basically starting from zero’: Restoring Finland’s river ecosystems
Rewilding teams are facing a huge task to encourage the return of wildlife after decades of damage by the forestry industry
Chopping down trees is not how most people would expect a river restoration project to begin, but Janne Raassina – who is expertly using a chainsaw to take down four or five earmarked trunks around the Särkkäjoki River in remotest eastern Finland – explains that the rotting wood will be hugely useful to the ecosystem.
“This is a huge buffet for insects, and it’s something that has been missing in our nature for 100 years,” he says. “We are creating the food chain from scratch.”
Continue reading...Walking and cycling must be made safe in England. Here’s our plan to do just that | Chris Boardman
My mother was killed by a driver while I was campaigning for safer cycling. Now I’ve helped create a national travel strategy
A little over a decade ago my daughter Aggie asked me a question that changed the path of my working life. She asked: “Can we ride to the park?” It wasn’t her question that altered everything, it was my answer – which was: “No.”
We live in a typical northern seaside town, and the park in question was – I know because I measured it later – 549 metres away, a distance that takes a little over one minute to ride. I, an ex-Olympic cyclist, didn’t feel I could keep my daughter safe on our roads for one minute. And that felt very wrong. It wasn’t what I wanted for her, and it wasn’t the place I wanted to live. So I decided to do something about it.
Chris Boardman is the interim commissioner of Active Travel England
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