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‘Why am I still being punished?’: how a 1996 law makes it harder for former drug felons to get food in the US
Some states have still been using versions of the welfare reform clause that imposes lifetime bans on assistance for the formerly incarcerated
When Eugene Glover was released from prison in the summer of 2017 he believed he was starting a new chapter in his life, and leaving an old one behind him. After serving more than 14 years behind bars for a drug felony conviction, Glover moved into a halfway house and applied for food assistance.
Continue reading...Solar start-up 5B nabs AGL’s future business strategist as new technology chief
AGL's head of future business strategy takes key role at a 5B, whose Maverick solar solution is marked for the world’s biggest solar project.
The post Solar start-up 5B nabs AGL’s future business strategist as new technology chief appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Rain fell on Greenland's ice sheet for the first time ever known. Alarms should ring | Kim Heacox
Climate scientists believe that if Greenland continues to rapidly melt, tens of millions of people around the world could face yearly flooding and displacement by 2030
Many people believed he couldn’t do it. Ski across the Greenland ice sheet, a vast, unmapped, high-elevation plateau of ice and snow? Madness.
But Fridtjof Nansen, a young Norwegian, proved them wrong. In 1888, he and his small party went light and fast, unlike two large expeditions a few years before. And unlike the others, Nansen traveled from east to west, giving himself no option of retreat to a safe base. It would be forward or die trying. He did it in seven weeks, man-hauling his supplies and ascending to 8,900ft (2,700 meters) elevation, where summertime temperatures dropped to -49F (-45C).
Continue reading...Climate activists are being killed for trying to save our planet. There is a way to help | Bill McKibben
Last year, there were a record 227 killings globally. It is our duty to keep resisting the insatiable forces that led to their deaths
Each year, we learn more about the climate crisis. The data flows: ever-rising heat, unprecedented deforestation, record rainfall. And once a year, we also learn more about the human impact of the crisis too, as data is released on the killings of land and environmental activists, the very people highlighting and protesting at the breakdown of our climate. In 2020, that number rose to a record 227 killings worldwide.
Every time, the data hits me like a blow to the face. I’ve spent much of my life as an environmental activist and journalist, and so if I haven’t actually met the people sadly on this list, I’ve met hundreds exactly like them. Strong local people, attached to place and community, seeing their role in defending terrain and ancestral territory. Every person like this around the world is at risk.
And they are at risk, in the end, not so much because of another local person who pulls the trigger or plunges the blade; they’re at risk because they find themselves living on or near something that some corporation is demanding. Like Fikile Ntshangase, the South African grandmother who led a spirited campaign against a coalmine in KwaZulu-Natal province and was shot dead in her home last year. Or Óscar Eyraud Adams, the indigenous activist who, during Mexico’s worst drought in 30 years, vocally advocated for his community’s right to water, as the authorities denied them and granted corporations ever more permits. Oscar was shot dead in Tecate last September.
The demand for the highest possible profit, the quickest possible timeline, the cheapest possible operation, seems to translate eventually into the understanding, somewhere, that the troublemaker must go. The blame rarely if ever makes its way back up to a corporation’s HQ. But it should. Especially since the people who inhabit these places never really share in the riches produced there: colonialism is still running strong, even if it’s dressed up with corporate logos or hidden with offshore bank accounts.
Continue reading...New carbon fund targets New Zealand forests
Rooftop solar sends minimum demand to record low in coal dependent NSW
Rooftop solar sends operational demand to a record low in NSW, the state grid with the heaviest dependence on coal.
The post Rooftop solar sends minimum demand to record low in coal dependent NSW appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Government failing to stop sewage discharge into English rivers, says charity
Water companies let raw sewage into English waters more than 400,000 times in 2020, Environment Agency data reveals
One of the first complaints lodged with the post-Brexit environmental watchdog accuses the government and Ofwat of failing to enforce the law to stop water companies from routinely discharging raw sewage into rivers.
The office for environmental protection (OEP) is being asked to investigate why water companies have been able to continually fail to meet duties placed on them by law to treat sewage. The secretary of state for the environment, George Eustice, and the financial regulator, Ofwat, had failed to enforce the law, the complaint said.
Continue reading...Australian and global fossil fuel giants make $1 trillion bet against global climate efforts
Australian and global oil and gas companies continue to pour huge amount of investment growing their production, defying global climate targets, new report finds.
The post Australian and global fossil fuel giants make $1 trillion bet against global climate efforts appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australian solar innovator backed by Cannon-Brookes claims world efficiency record
Australian solar start-up founded in a garage and backed by billionaire investors included Mike Cannon-Brookes, claims new world solar efficiency record.
The post Australian solar innovator backed by Cannon-Brookes claims world efficiency record appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Tesla calls for a 20 gigawatt storage target for Australia
Tesla calls for storage target of 20GW to help ensure enough dispatchable capacity is build to support a grid dominated by wind and solar.
The post Tesla calls for a 20 gigawatt storage target for Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Fitzgibbon’s departure will free Albanese to take climate fight to Morrison
Labor's coal contrarian Joel Fitzgibbon to leave parliament, just as Albanese promises to be in lockstep with the US on climate policy.
The post Fitzgibbon’s departure will free Albanese to take climate fight to Morrison appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Humpback whale ‘megapod’ feeding frenzy filmed off Australia's NSW coast – video
A 'megapod' of about 150 humpback whales has been filmed feeding off the New South Wales coast near Bermagui. This is believed to be the second time a pod of this size has been filmed in Australian waters. Footage courtesy of Sapphire Coastal Adventures and David Rogers
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Continue reading...China’s State Council backs carbon futures, reiterates support for offsets
Ex-BP carbon trader joins Singapore-based emissions desk
Epuron pushes forward with huge wind farm in north Queensland
Epuron moves forward with what would be the biggest wind farm in northern Queensland, close to what was the state's only wind farm for nearly 20 years.
The post Epuron pushes forward with huge wind farm in north Queensland appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Record number of environmental activists murdered
UK to offer £265m in subsidies for renewable energy developers
Wind, solar and tidal projects will compete for contracts, including funding for onshore schemes
Renewable energy developers will compete for a share in a £265m subsidy pot as the government aims to support a record number of projects in the sector through a milestone subsidy scheme later this year.
Under the scheme, offshore wind developers will compete for contracts worth up to £200m a year, and onshore wind and solar farms will be in line for their first subsidies in more than five years.
Continue reading...Murders of environment and land defenders hit record high
Figures from Global Witness for 2020 show violent resource grab continued unabated despite pandemic
Murders of environment and land defenders hit a record high last year as the violent resource grab in the global south continued unabated despite the pandemic.
New figures released by Global Witness show that 227 people were killed in 2020 while trying to protect forests, rivers and other ecosystems that their livelihoods depended on.
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