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Gardeners using methods like these to protect against gastropods are wasting their time, study shows

Environmentally friendly gardeners who attempt to deter slugs and snails from devouring their vegetables with eggshells or copper tape are wasting their time, according to a study by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Gastropods inflicted the same damage to lettuces protected with five natural methods – eggshells, copper tape, horticultural grit, pine bark mulch and wool pellets – as they did to lettuces left untreated.

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Banned PCB chemicals are still severely harming the animals – but Arctic could be a refuge

At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study.

Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They become concentrated up the food chain; as a result, killer whales, the top predators, are the most contaminated animals on the planet. Worse, their fat-rich milk passes on very high doses to their newborn calves.

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Chemical pollution threatens the long-term viability of the most exposed orca groups.

Five campaigners jailed for their part in the 1990s Twyford Down protests reflect on the sentencing of a group of anti-fracking demonstrators. Plus reaction from Dr Richard Carter

The fracking protesters who were sentenced to over a year in prison this week are to be saluted (Anti-fracking protesters are jailed in landmark decision, 27 September). Unfortunately, the soundbite used by their lawyer, and reported by the Guardian, that “there has been no environmental protester sentenced to jail since 1932”, is simply not true.

We were among the seven campaigners first sentenced to 28 days’ imprisonment in 1993 for protesting against the building of the M3 through Twyford Down. These direct action protests at Twyford Down from 1992 to 1995 kickstarted the modern-day environmental direct action movement from which today’s fracking protests have emerged.

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EU carbon prices lifted above €20 on Thursday, as a stronger auction helped to claw back some of the heavy losses of the previous two sessions.

The spreads between the main EU carbon allowance futures have exploded this week to levels not seen in years, though traders and analysts were at odds over the reasons behind the big moves.

After receiving a custodial sentence, the three men promise they will win battle against fracking

Three environmental activists jailed for their part in an anti-fracking protest have released a video message promising they will win the battle against fracking.

The men became the first to receive a custodial sentence for environmental protests against shale gas extraction this week. Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were given 16 months in prison and Richard Loizou, 31, was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Wednesday after being convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Preston crown court in August.

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Alaska Governor Bill Walker (I) did not rule out implementing a carbon tax in the state during a press conference on Wednesday, which followed his appointed climate change committee calling for such a levy.

HS2 is going to be built through these bats' habitat.

Various energy and trade organisations have asked a US federal court to block California from advancing its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulations on the eve of a final vote, claiming the revised proposal violates the Constitution's dormant commerce clause.

Virginia has floated adopting an initial emissions cap that is more than 15% below its previous proposals, as the state works toward linking with the northeast US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Having now each filed in court their arguments against the Canadian federal carbon price, Saskatchewan and Ontario have revealed their hands and their arguments are weak, writes Nathalie Chalifour, an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars.

PRESS RELEASE Hogan Lovells acted for Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, as lead counsel on the letter of credit financing to support the construction phase of its over AUD$200 million equity investment on behalf of its clients in the first stage of Murra Warra Wind Farm (Murra Warra 1), one of the...

The post Hogan Lovells closes letter of credit financing to support the construction phase of its investment in the Murra Warra Wind Farm appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Simon Hackett made his fortune in the broadband boom and is now the largest shareholder in battery storage maker Redflow. He’s also Australia’s biggest fan of Tesla electric vehicles.

The post The Driven Podcast: Simon Hackett’s chance meeting with young Elon Musk appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A senior carbon and power trader has left US investment bank Citi's London office to join commodities trading house Freepoint, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Erik Solheim, under pressure over frequent flying and rule-breaking, has also now recused himself over wife’s job

The UN’s environment chief, under fire over huge travel expenses and rule-breaking, has been forced leave the UN general assembly in New York early and return to his Nairobi headquarters to deal with the growing crisis.

The problems for Erik Solheim, Norwegian head of the UN Environment Programme (Unep), include the Netherlands becoming the latest nation to withhold millions of dollars in funding until the issues are resolved.

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Japan has released new images from the robot rovers it has deployed to the surface of an asteroid.

Washington man faces prison for role in years-long operation to poach and sell 250,000lb of poorly understood creature

A Seattle-area fish processor who hoped to cash in on China’s appetite for sea cucumber faces years in prison for his role in a $1.5m poaching scheme that rocked an already unstable fishery.

Federal prosecutors claim Hoon Namkoong led a years-long operation to poach and sell sea cucumbers as regulators were cutting the struggling Washington state fishery. Dozens of divers are also implicated in the poaching ring. Namkoong bought at least 250,000lb of stolen sea cucumber taken illegally from waters once rich with the echinoderms.

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A veteran carbon expert has left project developer Sindicatum to pursue other opportunities, Carbon Pulse has learned, several months after the Singapore-based firm sold its US and Asian offset portfolios.

Stronger efforts to cut GHG emissions including triple digit carbon prices should be made to avoid global warming of more than 1.5C without relying on potentially more expensive or risky removal technologies, an analysis found Thursday.