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Bee-harming pesticides found in majority of English waterways
Industry groups want CBAM registry to be as transparent as EU ETS
Anti-whaling activist to learn if he will be extradited to Japan within 14 days
Paul Watson, an early Greenpeace member, says his imprisonment in Greenland is a ‘political case’
The anti-whaling activist Paul Watson will learn within 14 days whether he will be extradited to Japan, a court has been told, as his four-month imprisonment in Greenland was extended.
At a hearing in Nuuk on Monday, the capital of the autonomous territory of Denmark, the judge Lars-Christian Sinkbæk said that Watson, who turned 74 today, would continue to be detained in a high security prison pending a decision from the Danish government. Watson’s legal team immediately submitted an appeal to Greenland’s high court.
Continue reading...Euro Markets: Midday Update
A pufferfish: ‘probably nature’s greatest artist’ | Helen Sullivan
The word ‘probably’ will haunt this fish for the rest of its days – a deflating description for a cute, toxic creature
Pufferfish are cute, and most pufferfish are toxic. Like people, they spend their weeks moving between states of puffed up and deflated. Or, really, three states: normal, puffed up and then the hangover after the puffing up. Ironically, the pufferfish toxin, called tetrodotoxin, is deadly because it stops a person’s diaphragm from moving – in other words, it stops you from being able to puff yourself up. And you could see that as a lesson for wanting to eat them in the first place.
You’re wondering what is inside a blown-up pufferfish, how they inflate. Firstly: it is not air, or else they would pop up and out of the water like a balloon in a swimming pool. Also, air is hard to come by down there. They turn themselves into absurd-looking spherical objects by sucking water – something called, grossly, “buccal pumping” – into their extremely elastic stomachs. They don’t have ribs, which helps. This gives predators a fright – but perhaps more to the point, large spheres are hard to swallow.
Continue reading...How can News Corp call its gas splash an ‘exclusive’ and a ‘special report’ when it’s paid for by industry? | Adam Morton
Readers are led to believe a short-on-facts advertorial exhorting government to let companies extract more gas is straight news coverage
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The big news on Monday morning was that the story splashed across the front of News Corp’s biggest-selling tabloid newspapers wasn’t news at all. It was an advertorial paid for by a fossil fuel industry. Not that readers glancing at page one of the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier-Mail or Adelaide Advertiser were let in on this secret.
Instead, they were sold a lie – that the story was straight news coverage, in some cases described as an “exclusive” or a “special report”, on how (in the words of the Courier-Mail) Australia must “step on the gas” as it was the “only way to avoid higher bills, blackouts”.
Continue reading...NT government’s bid to not supply safe drinking water to Indigenous communities is ‘shocking’, lawyer says
Authorities accused of ‘wasting time in court’ rather than working to fix the problem in towns across the Northern Territory
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Lawyers for Aboriginal residents of a remote town in the Northern Territory say it is “shocking and disappointing” that the NT government is trying to overturn a landmark court ruling which found it was legally required to provide them safe drinking water.
The challenge is the latest development in a five-year legal stoush between the NT government and residents of Laramba, an Aboriginal community 205km north-west of Alice Springs, who took the government to court over elevated levels of uranium in their drinking water.
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Continue reading...Country people believe they’re different to city people, but on key issues our views align | Gabrielle Chan
Researchers at ANU found no real difference between the climate opinions of regional and urban Australians. Remember that as we head into the next federal election, with renewable energy on the front line
I have many heritages: Chinese, Irish, Anglo and Japanese among them. I am a journalist. I grew up in the city but have lived in the country for 30 years. How should I define my identity?
Rural life has colonised my writing life. But I would hazard a guess I am not fully accepted as rural in many circles. I am certainly not the mythical bush person of legend.
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Continue reading...‘Living next door to radioactive waste’: Latrobe Valley residents to rally against Coalition’s nuclear plan
Ahead of rally and public hearings, community organiser says ‘risky scheme’ is being pushed for region with no details or consultation
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Community, environment and health groups will rally together against the Coalition’s nuclear proposal for the Latrobe Valley in Traralgon, as public hearings for a nuclear inquiry take place in town on Tuesday.
Adrian Cosgriff, a member of community advocacy group Voices of the Valley who worked in Gippsland’s oil and gas industry before retiring, said the region needed a decent plan for jobs as its coal-fired power stations shut down.
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Continue reading...INTERVIEW: UK developer delivers 105 houses with biodiversity net gain
INTERVIEW: Tech company leverages Amazon’s data centre waste to remove carbon
Trump allies begin attack on EPA and rules protecting US drinking water
With Biden soon to leave the White House, Republicans start an assault on the Environmental Protection Agency
Donald Trump’s allies have fired the opening salvoes of his coming administration’s attack on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency that enforces and regulates laws on air, soil, and water quality among other crucial environmental and health issues.
In a letter from Republican House leadership to EPA the administrator, Michael Regan, Republicans trained their sites on the agency’s scientific integrity policies that are designed to insulate scientists and research from political interference.
Continue reading...Handful of countries responsible for climate crisis, top court told
Vanuatu envoy makes claim as landmark hearing gets under way at international court of justice in The Hague
A handful of countries should be held legally responsible for the ongoing impacts of climate change, representatives of vulnerable nations have told judges at the international court of justice (ICJ).
During a landmark hearing at the Peace Palace in The Hague, which began on Monday, Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change and environment, said responsibility for the climate crisis lay squarely with “a handful of readily identifiable states” that had produced the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions but stood to lose the least from the impacts.
Continue reading...INTERVIEW: Powder to clean up harmful algae promises to quickly remove carbon
Wind, solar and rooftop PV set output records, and send coal and gas plunging to new lows
The post Wind, solar and rooftop PV set output records, and send coal and gas plunging to new lows appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Countries call for binding targets to cut plastic production after talks fail
Group of 85 countries and blocs press for ambition in plastic waste treaty after no agreement was reached in Busan
Binding global targets to cut plastic production must be at the centre of any continuing negotiations to secure the world’s first treaty to tackle plastic waste, a group of 85 countries has said.
Talks in Busan, South Korea, attempting to secure agreement between more than 200 countries on the details of a plastic pollution treaty ended in failure over the weekend.
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