Feed aggregator
Virginia publishes revised RGGI proposal, as controversy threatens governor’s tenure
Climate change: Warming threatens Himalayan glaciers
Tasmania is burning. The climate disaster future has arrived while those in power laugh at us | Richard Flanagan
Scott Morrison is trying to scare people about franking credits but seems blithely unaware people are already scared – about climate change
As I write this, fire is 500 metres from the largest King Billy pine forest in the world on Mt Bobs, an ancient forest that dates back to the last Ice Age and has trees over 1,000 years old. Fire has broached the boundaries of Mt Field national park with its glorious alpine vegetation, unlike anything on the planet. Fire laps at the edges of Federation Peak, Australia’s grandest mountain, and around the base of Mt Anne with its exquisite rainforest and alpine gardens. Fire laps at the border of the Walls of Jerusalem national park with its labyrinthine landscapes of tarns and iconic stands of ancient pencil pine and its beautiful alpine landscape, ecosystems described by their most eminent scholar, the ecologist Prof Jamie Kirkpatrick, as “like the vision of a Japanese garden made more complex, and developed in paradise, in amongst this gothic scenery”.
“You have plants that look like rocks – green rocks – and these plants have different colours in complicated mosaics: red-green, blue-green, yellow-green, all together. It’s an overwhelming sensual experience really.”
Continue reading...'Among the worst in OECD': Australia's addiction to cheap, dirty petrol
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries CEO says improving quality of high sulphur fuel could offer 5% improvement on CO2 emissions ‘overnight’
Australia’s cheap, dirty petrol ranks among the worst of the OECD nations, yet the peak industry body representing Australian petrol refiners has rejected the criticism, saying the industry should be given until 2027 to adjust to stricter regulations.
Paul Barrett, the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Petroleum, hit back at critics who have described Australian petrol as low quality thanks to its sulphur content.
Continue reading...Europe's most deprived areas 'hit hardest by air pollution'
Exposure to particulate matter and ozone highest in poor eastern European states, says study
Europe’s poorest, least educated and most jobless regions are bearing the brunt of the air pollution crisis, according to the first official stocktake of its kind.
Nearly half of London’s most deprived neighbourhoods exceeded EU nitrogen dioxide (NO2) limits in 2017 compared with 2% of its wealthiest areas.
Continue reading...Edward Goff obituary
My friend Edward Goff, who has died aged 73, was a real dairy farmer producing real food. He stood at the forefront of the organic farming revolution in the UK.
He set about converting his farm, Hindford Grange, in Shropshire, in 1983, long before most farmers had even heard of organic production. Relying largely on clover to provide the fertility for forage and growing cereals and fodder beet, he developed a self-sufficient farm providing virtually all the feed for his 70-strong dairy herd. I worked with him as an adviser over the years.
Continue reading...Larsen ice shelf: Mission to explore uncovered Antarctic ecosystem
Government's fracking policy will cause energy crisis, says UK's richest man
Ministers are playing politics with the country’s future, says Ineos boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe
The UK’s richest person has launched an attack on the government’s fracking rules, accusing ministers of policies that will cause an “energy crisis” and “irreparable damage” to the economy.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of petrochemicals firm Ineos, pledged four years ago to start a UK fracking revolution but the company has been bogged down in planning battles and is yet to drill or frack a single well.
Continue reading...Climate change: Blue planet will get even bluer as Earth warms
A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed, finds report
Even radical climate change action won’t save glaciers, endangering 2 billion people
At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people.
Even if carbon emissions are dramatically and rapidly cut and succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5C, 36% of the glaciers along in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range will have gone by 2100. If emissions are not cut, the loss soars to two-thirds, the report found.
Continue reading...The shutdown is over. Can Joshua Tree recover?
Off-road drivers and vandals damaged the fragile ecosystem, prompting fears it could take ‘300 years’ to bounce back
As Ethan Peck’s boots crunch through the desert sands, he stops to point out tracks on the side of the trail: not coyote or other wildlife, but dog prints. “It’s just sad that people would do this,” says Peck, who owns Joshua Tree Adventures and has lived in the area for seven years. “You’re not allowed to hike with your dog in any national park.”
Related: Joshua Tree national park 'may take 300 years to recover' from shutdown
Continue reading...Swansea tidal lagoon plan revived – without government funding
Firm hopes to build scheme within six years after ministers rejected it for being too costly
The backers of a pioneering project to harness energy from the tides off the Welsh coast have rebooted the scheme and believe they can build it without the help of government.
With the recent failure of two major nuclear projects, attention has turned to alternatives to fill the low-carbon power gap, with developers of windfarms and small nuclear plants among those vying for government support.
Continue reading...Rising temperatures to make oceans bluer and greener
Scientists say effects of global warming on ‘phytoplankton’ will intensify the colours
The blues and greens of the ocean will become even bluer and greener by the end of the century as a result of global warming, scientists have found.
Researchers say the colour changes are down to the effect of climate change on populations of tiny water-dwelling organisms, known as phytoplankton, that convert sunlight into chemical energy through photosynthesis, as well as effects on levels of other colourful components of the oceans.
Continue reading...Program Officers/Senior Program Officers, Verra – Washington, DC
Manager, Program Operations, Verra – Washington, DC
Program Officer, Verra – Washington, DC
Project Manager, Climate Strategies – London
Charity calls for court to livestream Heathrow third runway challenge
Streaming case online will raise awareness of climate change, barrister argues
A high court challenge to the government’s controversial plan for a third runway at Heathrow could be opened up to a mass audience through livestreaming for the first time if judges accept a legal argument.
Although the supreme court has transmitted its hearings since 2009, photography and recording of court proceedings elsewhere are strictly controlled by the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which only permits cases in the court of appeal to be broadcast.
Continue reading...