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The climate crisis lawyer talks about the Extinction Rebellion protests and why the government must take action on the environment

Farhana Yamin is an environmental lawyer who, over the past three decades, has worked on a number of international treaties, including the Paris climate agreement. She has represented small island nations threatened by the effects of global heating and recently took part in the Extinction Rebellion protests.

How did you become politically interested in the environment?
When I was about 20, 22 and qualifying as a lawyer. It was just before the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. I was already working for the small island states in the climate negotiations. And the climate change convention was adopted and the biodiversity convention was adopted. So all of these agreements were supposed to have sorted out the problem. It was a time when I was very optimistic about what law could do.

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Letter to senior figures urges them to use their power to influence public opinion on climate change

Environmental activists Extinction Rebellion have turned their fire on the advertising industry in a public letter, encouraging it to use its expertise in manipulating public opinion for good or risk mass public protests against it.

Speaking to the Guardian, one of the authors of the letter, which was written by Extinction Rebellion members with decades of experience of the advertising industry, said the group was not “singling out advertising, as we previously disrupted fashion week and are systematically challenging all industries who have the platform, influence and skills to tackle this epoch-defining crisis but are failing to do so in any meaningful way”.

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As part of efforts to tackle global heating, grants will be available for planting and three years’ care

More than 130,000 trees are to be planted in English towns and cities over the next two years as part of the nation’s battle against global heating.

The environment secretary, Michael Gove, will announce on Sunday that grants for the plantings will be made available through the Urban Tree Challenge Fund.

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Australia’s right-wing Coalition government pulled off a surprise win in Saturday’s federal election, remaining in office to put an end to opposition plans to increase the nation’s emissions reduction ambitions and set up a CO2 baseline-and-crediting scheme for major emitters.

Now that the Coalition has won the federal election, how will it meet its campaign promises on taxes, the environment, education, health and infrastructure? Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Fellow in Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University Miranda Stewart, Professor, University of Melbourne Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute Phillip O'Neill, Director, Centre for Western Sydney, Western Sydney University Stephen Duckett, Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Experts agree that global heating of 4C by 2100 is a real possibility. The effects of such a rise will be extreme and require a drastic shift in the way we live

Drowned cities; stagnant seas; intolerable heatwaves; entire nations uninhabitable… and more than 11 billion humans. A four-degree-warmer world is the stuff of nightmares and yet that’s where we’re heading in just decades.

While governments mull various carbon targets aimed at keeping human-induced global heating within safe levels – including new ambitions to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 – it’s worth looking ahead pragmatically at what happens if we fail. After all, many scientists think it’s highly unlikely that we will stay below 2C (above pre-industrial levels) by the end of the century, let alone 1.5C. Most countries are not making anywhere near enough progress to meet these internationally agreed targets.

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Election result hangs in the balance. The career of Tony Abbott has ended, while the Coalition cling to hopes of retaining power.

The post Election Night Update: Abbott booted out, climate and energy policy sits on a knife-edge appeared first on RenewEconomy.

If data is the new oil, are data centres the new oil rigs?

Project hopes to identify best habitats for extraordinary creature more endangered than giant panda – and shed light on mysterious breeding location

“That one is definitely over five years old, it could be eight to 10 years old,” shouts Dr Peter Walker, as a writhing 50cm long eel is scooped out of the River Tone near Taunton in Somerset. “This year or next I would expect this one to be on its merry way.”

The European eel makes an extraordinary 6,000km (3,728-mile) journey to the Sargasso Sea in the north Atlantic to spawn, from where its larvae travel all the way back. Now scientists hope a new project may shed light on this still mysterious part of eels’ lifecycle, which could provide crucial help in protecting the species.

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There are 55 nuclear power plants being built today. Some countries are embracing nuclear. Others are shutting down their nuclear facilities. We assess the future of nuclear power.

The idea that you cannot kill any animal is "fatally flawed" as a conservation concept, scientists argue.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Oregon’s Joint Committee on Carbon Reduction approved a WCI-modelled carbon market bill on Friday on a party-line vote after more than three months of debate, moving the legislation one step closer to a full floor vote in the Democrat-controlled state.

The blood-sucking parasites have been around for at least 115 million years, according to a recent study.

The Government of Manitoba is seeking a qualified candidate to fill the position of Director, Stakeholder Relations and Reporting within the new Climate and Green Plan Office. The Climate and Green Plan vision is to become Canada’s greenest, cleanest and most climate resilient province.

Governments of the world need to act. It’s time to speak to our planet with kindness before it’s too late

All the raspy-voice myna birds have come here, to this old swamp, where the ghost swans now dance the yellow dust song cycles of drought. Around and around the dry swamp they go with their webbed feet stomping up the earth in a cloud of dust, and all the bits and pieces of the past unravelled from parched soil. The Swan Book, by Alexis Wright.

A dense haze of smoke crawled over Melbourne and embraced us for a day in its lonely pilgrimage, inviting us to contemplate its mourning rite, its long prayer.

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Governments held up work this week on near-term emission reductions measures for international shipping until later in the year while tightening standards for new vessels that are largely being met anyway.

This week how climate is shifting what and where we grow our food; and farmers in Tasmania argue burning off could have prevented the extent of the devastating summer fires.

A US appeals court turned down a biofuel trade group’s motion on Friday to temporarily halt 2018 compliance waivers under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), but the organisation's related lawsuit against the EPA’s accelerated use of these exemptions will continue.

All around us and within, water is an intimate, essential part of our lives. What would we do if water lost her way?