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The new legislation would crush the principle of policing by consent in the UK and stifle democratic change

• Kirsty Brimelow is a QC and barrister at Doughty Street Chambers

The timing of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill has generated precisely what it was seeking to minimise: more protests. Police clashed with “kill the bill” protesters in Bristol for the fourth time in a fortnight this weekend, as more than 1,000 people gathered to oppose the new legislation, bringing traffic to a standstill.

Reading the contents of the 300-page bill can feel like being trapped in a 21st-century version of Animal Farm. Though the government says that everyone has equal rights, the bill reflects the subtext of this official line: only as long as citizens pipe down and do as they are told. While it says that “freedom of expression is a cornerstone of British democracy”, the bill proposes amendments giving police greater powers to restrict protests that cause “intimidation or harassment” or “serious unease, alarm or distress” to bystanders.

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Gates has been buying land like it’s going out of style. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nation

Bill Gates has never been a farmer. So why did the Land Report dub him “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get for far less praise for it. That kind of hard work isn’t what made him rich. Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakima territory – for $171m helped him get that title.

In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where I’m an enrolled member. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation!

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The Carbon Trader role is under Product Supply & Trading (PSAT), Singapore and is accountable for all trading activities as it relates to trading of environmental commodities, mainly carbon credits and offsets with primary focus in the Asia Pacific region. The trader is also responsible for connecting the regional activity to the global carbon commodity teams in the US and Europe.

Batteries are a lot faster to permit and build than gas, have dramatically less impact on the environment, and provide a range of other grid services.

The post California to install 1.7GW of battery storage in 2021 to boost grid supply appeared first on RenewEconomy.

UpEnergy brings aspirational products that save energy and improve health within reach of low-income customers. We develop distribution channels that sell efficient and clean technologies, primarily efficient cookstoves. We finance our growth through the generation and marketing of carbon emissions reductions sold in Europe, Asia, and North America.

We now have a great opportunity for a Compliance Manager, who will provide support to bp’s Trading & Shipping (T&S) business in the United Kingdom, in the nature of evaluating, advising, and monitoring bp’s trading and origination activity out of the office.

The Climate Change Branch within the Ministry of Environment is seeking a proactive, knowledgeable, and analytical individual with experience in policy analysis for the role of Climate Change Policy Analyst. Reporting to the Director, Climate Change Policy and Programs, this position will contribute to the development and implementation of provincial climate change policies and programs.

An 800kW solar system installed on the industrial rooftop of a window furnishing company in Sydney will soon supply power to its employees, too.

The post Sydney factory to share excess rooftop solar power with employees appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Group aims to highlight financial sector’s role in climate crisis through escalation in tactics this week

Extinction Rebellion is planning to step up its campaign against the banking system with a series of direct action protests and debt strikes in the coming weeks aimed at highlighting the financial sector’s role in the escalating climate crisis.

Last week the group targeted Barclays Bank’s headquarters in London and the Bank of England as well as high street branches across the UK as part of its Money Rebellion protest.

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Hydrogen could help bring more than half of the world's emissions down to zero, but to reach that potential it needs batteries to fail, new analysis finds.

The post For hydrogen to dominate the low-carbon world, batteries must fail appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Thousands of vermin that plague farms are culled in annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt centred on Alexandra, Central Otago

New Zealand hunters have celebrated a return to tradition this Easter: shooting thousands of rabbits, an introduced species that threatens the country’s biodiversity as well as agriculture.

The Great Easter Bunny Hunt – where hundreds of hunters gather in Alexandra, Central Otago, to make a dent in the regional rabbit population – was held this weekend for the first time since 2017.

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Two German hard coal power stations and one small-scale lignite plant will stop selling electricity by the end of 2021.

The post Three more German coal plants to retire before end of 2021 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

WA is the most affluent and highest per capita carbon emitting state in the world. Its failure to cut emissions will be multiplied by other who will not act because Australia refuses to.

A clean electricity grid is a ‘no net cost’ means of enabling clean transport and  ‘clean green’ production.

The post McGowan government sees gas as WA’s future electricity source appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The vitamin is being studied - but why do some claim evidence is being ignored?

Floodplains are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet – they are biodiversity hotspots. That's in large part due to periodic flooding between different parts of a river-floodplain system. Melissa Parsons, Senior Lecturer, Geography and Planning, University of New England Martin Thoms, Professor of Physical Geography, University of New England Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

There are hundreds of local uprisings against developers – and it’s starting to become a national issue

How many local environment campaigns does it take for the issues they raise to be recognised as part of a national problem? Ten? Twenty, maybe? What about 100? Surely national media and politicians would have taken up the issues by then.

As it turns out, there’s far more than 100 local environmental campaigns going on right now. In just two weeks, more than 280 different groups across the UK have registered on a new National Grassroots Campaigns Map. Rosie Pearson, one of the founders, is astonished: “When we set it up, it was really just to see what’s out there. But we quickly realised there’s a real hunger for sharing information, resources and support. We’re witnessing a huge number of local groups facing the same issues.”

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The British photographer Andy Sewell’s latest project, Known and Strange Things Pass, looks at what lies beneath our online life. Mixing images of the internet’s underwater infrastructure with daily life, it explores the physical and metaphorical entanglement of the ocean and the internet. The V&A museum will exhibit the project this summer

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A long-running dispute over plans to start mining the ocean floor has suddenly flared up.

Panel recommends many household chemicals and pesticides be exempt from scrutiny and agricultural chemicals’ approvals be fast-tracked

Environment and health groups have fiercely criticised proposals to relax the regulation of chemicals and pesticides in Australia, saying they are “totally at odds” with public health and safety expectations.

A “first principles” review by a panel of experts has recommended to the agriculture minister, David Littleproud, that many household chemicals and pesticides should be exempt from scrutiny by authorities, and that approvals for agricultural chemicals should be fast-tracked if they have been licensed by similar authorities overseas.

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• Scientists caution high death rate is outpacing births
• Population of whales estimated at around 360

North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than scientists have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all.

Related: The new humpback? Calf sighting sparks hope for imperilled right whale

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