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Beavers’ dams have created more places for water voles to hide from predators and hopefully flourish, say experts

Beavers reintroduced to a Scottish rainforest 15 years ago may have created the right habitat for the area’s endangered water voles to flourish.

The voles, once abundant in Scotland but now one of the country’s most threatened native animals, could thrive in the “complex boundary between water and land” that beavers have created in Knapdale in Argyll and Bute since their reintroduction there in 2009.

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If Australia is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the Coalition needs to stump up with a plan to decarbonise the entire economy. Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Massless batteries may allow wind turbines to store their own excess energy in blades, or make battery-powered planes a reality.

The post Swedish startup promises “massless” carbon fibre battery for wind blades, EVs and aircraft appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Latest levelised cost of energy report from US investment firm Lazard finds large-scale solar and wind significantly cheaper than coal and gas. Nuclear, meanwhile, just keeps getting more expensive.

The post Wind and solar power half the cost of coal and gas, one-third the cost of nuclear, says Lazard appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The government’s priorities are shifting towards adaptation to protect communities, jobs and industries. But the longer we wait to cut emissions, the more the costs of climate change will compound. Nathan Cooper, Associate Professor of Law, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

While political priorities may shift following the 2024 European elections, the science remains clear: Europe must maintain momentum towards achieving its climate objectives, the EU’s scientific advisors said in a note to newly-elected MEPs on Monday.

New Zealand emissions trading scheme observers have raised concerns with the government’s consultation process on its controls and settings, saying the lack of detail on key points makes it difficult to understand the coalition’s intentions. 

Genex gets FIRB approval for the bid by J-Power, and lodges an EPBC application for its big Kidston wind farm.

The post Japanese energy giant gets FIRB tick for Genex bid, lays out plans for big wind project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are being increasingly adopted to address urban environmental challenges in cities across the Global South, but significant obstacles remain, particularly in the areas of policy alignment and community participation.

Taking more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by stashing it in the ocean seems like a good idea, but it could backfire if tiny marine animals called zooplankton get extra hungry. Tyler Rohr, Lecturer in Southern Ocean Biogeochemical Modelling, IMAS, University of Tasmania Ali Mashayek, Professor, University of Cambridge Sophie Meyjes, PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Britain may be chilly, but from Greece to India, people are dying due to record temperatures. The death toll will grow without urgent action

While Britons don jumpers and complain about the unseasonable cold, much of the world has been reeling due to excessive temperatures. India has been in the grip of its longest heatwave in recorded history, with thermometers hitting 50C in some places. Greece closed the Acropolis in the afternoon last week as temperatures hit 43C; never has it seen a heatwave so early in the year. Soaring temperatures in the Sahel and western Africa saw mortuaries in Mali reportedly running short of space this spring, while swathes of Asia suffered in May.

Mexico and the south-west of the US have also endured blistering conditions; it was particularly shocking to hear Donald Trump pledge again to “drill, baby, drill” at a rally that saw supporters taken to hospital with heat exhaustion. These bouts of extreme weather are increasing as the climate crisis worsens. Although the El Niño weather pattern contributed to heatwaves over the last 12 months, they are becoming more frequent, extreme and prolonged thanks to global heating. By 2040, almost half the world’s inhabitants are likely to experience major heatwaves, 12 times more than the historic average.

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You don’t have to wear a floral wreath or take milk baths to adhere to a modern goddess philosophy

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

When I am on deadline, nothing yet defrosted for dinner, and the washing is hanging on the clothesline in the rain, I find it hard to connect to my inner goddess. If I turn to the internet for advice, I’m presented with yet another to-do list.

To embrace my goddess self, I must love myself, eat healthy, exercise, take a milk bath, wear flattering-yet-practical clothes, adorn my hair with floral wreathes and fix its frizziness with an avocado. I must use “natural looking” makeup, maintain a healthy skincare regimen, always be kind yet assertive, lead by inspiring …

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Meteorologists warn that heat will spread east through the week, with ‘heat dome’ expected to trap high temperatures

Millions of Americans are facing “dangerously hot conditions”, the National Weather Service said, with a heatwave set to hit the midwest and north-east US from Monday.

Michigan, Ohio and western Pennsylvania were all under heat warnings starting Monday, with alerts in place until Friday evening. Meteorologists warned that the heat will spread east through the week, with a “heat dome” expected to trap high temperatures across New York, Washington DC and Boston.

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This forest is our home, our existence and our children’s future. Politicians who can’t resist selling it for oil cash will feel the strength of the Waorani people

In 2019 I helped lead a movement that defeated the Ecuadorian government’s plans to auction half a million acres of Waorani territory in the Amazon to oil companies. We showed in court that the government had violated its legal obligation to obtain free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities. We won a moral and legal victory on behalf of our ancestral home in that moment – or so we thought. Now, however, Ecuador’s president plans to plough through that legal judgment and recommence oil drilling on nearby Indigenous lands. He obviously hasn’t reckoned with the strength and tenacity of the Waorani people.

In winning that landmark legal case, we protected pristine rainforest lands, Indigenous autonomy and our planet’s climate from further deforestation. We protected our homes, our children’s future and the forests where I grew up playing with my siblings and pet monkeys, learning to garden and make fresh chicha, and where my people still live today. No more destroying our lives, homes and forests to pump the blood of our ancestors from beneath the soil.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Guardian investigation reveals vast gap in outdoor space and lists the top 10 schools with the most of all

• Revealed: private schools have 10 times more green space than state schools
• Analysis: Green space better for young brains than we realised
• How England’s top private schools came to own 38,000 acres of land

A handful of schools, the Guardian’s analysis has found, have campuses that stretch over hundreds of acres. So what, exactly, do the 10 largest schools (by area) offer their lucky students?, and how do they go about sharing their grounds with other children?

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Guardian investigation finds pupils at England’s wealthiest schools have much greater access to land, with implications for mental health

• Analysis: Green space better for young brains than we realised
• How England’s top private schools came to own 38,000 acres of land
• Beagling, golf and jolly hockey sticks: outdoor life at England’s largest private schools

Children at the top 250 English private schools have more than 10 times as much outdoor space as those who go to state schools, an exclusive Guardian analysis can reveal.

A schoolboy at fee-charging Eton has access to 140 times more green space than the average English state school pupil, the analysis found. Experts condemned the “staggering” and “gross” inequalities.

The average student at one of England’s top private schools has access to approximately 322 sq metres of green space, whereas the average state school student has access to about 32 sq metres of green space: a ratio of 10:1.

Eton students enjoy the largest area of land of all the schools in the country, with its schoolboys having access to 4,445 sq metres per pupil an area, 140 times larger than that available to the average state school student. Some of that land is also accessible to the public.

The private school campuses include tennis courts, golf courses, rowing lakes, swimming pools, equestrian centres, wilderness areas, and remote camping lodges.

In contrast, some state schools have little or no green space at all for their students.

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Scottish Highlands campaign has raised two-thirds of £300,000 target for footpaths on An Teallach. But more is needed to protect people and environment

One of Scotland’s most impressive and recognisable mountains will have its walking paths restored after hillwalkers and charities clubbed together to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mountaineering Scotland and the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (Oats) launched a campaign last May to raise £300,000 for essential path repairs on An Teallach in Wester Ross, in the north-west Highlands, asking walkers and climbers to “give the hill a few quid”. The It’s Up to Us campaign has announced that £218,000 has already been donated.

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State government fast-tracks approval for a 150 MW solar project, the first of up to 3 gigawatts (GW) of wind, solar and storage projects proposed by indigenous land owners.

The post Approval fast tracked for first of huge solar and wind projects to power giant iron ore mines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia's biggest solar farm enjoyed a highly profitable first quarter of the year.

The post Australia’s biggest solar farm has a highly profitable first quarter after construction delays appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A BBC investigation finds England's clean air zones raised more than £150m last year.