Feed aggregator

The small fire and heatwave prone town of Tarnagulla got together, applied for funding and co-produced a resilience action plan so they're better prepared for the next disaster. Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

From workers’ rights to hormones in beef, voters expect our politicians to regulate big business just as Brussels did

“Take back control” worked wonderfully well as a campaign slogan. It infuriated Remainers while Leavers struggled to specify any European Union rule that they would change should they be able to do so. However, Dominic Cummings knew all too well it was the idea of control, rather than the question of what to do with it, that mattered most to Leave voters. The latter was a problem for later.

Later has now arrived. The UK has indeed reclaimed its sovereignty. As a result, we will now have to come to decide what kind of country we aspire to be in terms of broader regulatory terms. The available evidence suggests that the government won’t find it as easy to keep on the right side of public opinion when exercising its new-found power as it did when it demanded control.

Continue reading...

MPs’ unfounded claims about the US Capitol attack and Covid treatments pale next to the granddaddy of misinformation

Nasa announced this week that 2020 – a year which included a La Niña event normally associated with lower temperatures – was the hottest year on record. It was also the week in which the Morrison government used racist tropes to distract and excuse conspiracy statements made by its MPs.

Related: 2020 was hottest year on record by narrow margin, Nasa says

Continue reading...

Supporters insist that storage technology is not a costly mistake but the best way for UK to cut emissions from heavy industry

Engineers and geologists have strongly criticised green groups who last week claimed that carbon capture and storage schemes – for reducing fossil fuel emissions – are costly mistakes.

The scientists insisted that such schemes are vital weapons in the battle against global heating and warn that failure to set up ways to trap carbon dioxide and store it underground would make it almost impossible to hold net emissions to below zero by 2050.

Continue reading...

The four main engines for Nasa's new "megarocket" are to be fired in unison for the first time.

Critics condemn ‘callous betrayal’ after Trump officials set in motion transfer of Oak Flat to Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton

As one of its last acts, the Trump administration has set in motion the transfer of sacred Native American lands to a pair of Anglo-Australian mining conglomerates.

The 2,422-acre Arizona parcel called Oak Flat is of enormous significance to the Western Apache and is now on track for destruction by what is slated to be one of the largest copper mining operations in the United States.

Continue reading...

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

US President-elect Joe Biden (D) is unlikely to prioritise a federal carbon pricing plan despite the Democrats now controlling the Senate, while the executive and legislative branches may work in tandem to advance other decarbonisation policy goals, a panel heard Friday.

Regulated entities unwound their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings for the fifth straight week as speculators bolstered their positions by roughly the same amount, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Analysts have raised their forecasts for EU carbon allowances in 2021, though most don’t see prices rising this year much beyond this month’s record high.

Two participants in the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) market have filed or sought to intervene in lawsuits that allege a Texas-based commodity shop violated contractual obligations to deliver biofuel credits (RINs), bringing the total number of involved parties to four.

EUAs dropped to below €32 on Friday, falling further amid continued losses to the energy complex and cancelling out gains since new year that had pushed carbon to record highs.

A California oversight committee urged regulator ARB to address the WCI carbon allowance surplus to ensure the state hits its long-term climate goal, while continuing calls to alter industrial allocation and the design of quarterly auctions.

The US EPA indicated Friday that it will solicit public feedback on requests to waive or reduce 2019 and 2020 biofuel blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) brought forth by small refiners and oil-state governors last year.

A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will be most effective if the EU reinvests revenues into R&D for low-carbon technologies and clinches multilateral deals with trade partners, according to a report released this week.

A New York-based environmental trader has joined an multinational investment firm after spending the past decade at a RGGI compliance entity.

Hostile dispute over trophy hunting fuelled by ‘myths driven by emotion and morality that ignore critical facts’

Leading scientists have warned that global conservation is being undermined by celebrity power after they suffered death threats and abuse in a hostile dispute over trophy hunting.

Groups such as the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting and Born Free are pressuring the UK and US governments to ban trophy hunting, with support from many famous names, much of the public and more than 150 MPs across the political spectrum.

Continue reading...

Call for world leaders to act in wake of French extradition case that turned on environmental concerns

Air pollution does not respect national boundaries and environmental degradation will lead to mass migration in the future, said a leading barrister in the wake of a landmark migration ruling, as experts warned that government action must be taken as a matter of urgency.

Sailesh Mehta, a barrister specialising in environmental cases, said: “The link between migration and environmental degradation is clear. As global warming makes parts of our planet uninhabitable, mass migration will become the norm. Air and water pollution do not respect national boundaries. We can stop a humanitarian and political crisis from becoming an existential one. But our leaders must act now.”

Continue reading...

Experts say council funding shortfalls mean many old landfills not being dealt with appropriately

Hundreds of landfills around the UK containing hazardous waste are located beneath green spaces, schools and housing, analysis of official data has found.

Experts say authorities are “setting themselves up for a large sequence of nasty surprises” if the toxic substances were to escape, with council funding shortfalls meaning many sites are not being dealt with appropriately. The contents of hundreds of sites remain unknown even to the Environment Agency (EA).

Continue reading...

Thought at first to be a racing pigeon posing a biosecurity risk, Joe could be free as a bird after suggestion of mistaken identity

Australia’s Department of Agriculture is making inquiries after the American Pigeon Racing Union claimed that Joe, a pigeon that was thought to have travelled to Australia from the US, is actually a fraud – a revelation that may well save his life.

The public rallied to the defence of Joe after Australian agricultural authorities said he would be euthanised to prevent the risk of diseases from the US being transmitted to Australian native birds.

Continue reading...