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The global conservation charity says it is commissioning an independent review into the claims.

Jeremy Vine and Chris Packham were among those protesting against a property developer’s use of nets in a hedge to keep birds away

A battle broke out at the weekend over a hedge in Lincolnshire. The hedge, near the town of Winterton, was covered in netting by Partner Construction, which has applied for planning permission to build 40 homes on the site. This is standard practice, the developer said, in order to prevent birds from nesting in a habitat that might be damaged if building work begins later in the year.

However, a group of local residents opposed to the development released a video showing birds trapped beneath the nets. Jeremy Vine and Chris Packham shared the footage, and their outrage, on Twitter. Packham said the nets showed “brutal ignorance” of how to look after the countryside, and said, if he were there, he would “rip those nets down”, in a tweet that has since disappeared. According to the Telegraph, some of the offending nets have now gone.

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Receding kelp forests, jellyfish blooms and disruption to fisheries are just some of climate change’s impacts on the ocean

As bushfires raged across Tasmania, Victoria and New Zealand, and north Queensland faced a massive cleanup after unexpected flooding, a different extreme weather event was silently forming in the Tasman Sea over summer.

For the second year in a row, a stubborn high-pressure system over the Tasman Sea was warming the surface of the ocean to above-average temperatures, forming a marine heatwave, wreaking destruction and providing a glimpse of the new ecological order in the marine Anthropocene. Globally marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent and prolonged and affecting biodiversity, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change this week.

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Extreme temperatures destroy kelp, seagrass and corals – with alarming impacts for humanity

The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”.

The damage caused in these hotspots is also harmful for humanity, which relies on the oceans for oxygen, food, storm protection and the removal of climate-warming carbon dioxide the atmosphere, they say.

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One of the UK most successful space entrepreneurs says Brexit will do immense harm to industry.

These women from BirthStrike took the decision because they're so scared for the future of life on Earth.

Wondering how much the Model 3 will cost for Australian buyers? This handy calculator might help.

The post What will a Tesla Model 3 EV cost in Australia? Find out here appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia’s opposition Labor party is positioning itself ahead of the May election as the more ambitious option on climate change, but even they might use the nation’s huge surplus of emission units from the UN Kyoto Protocol period to meet the country's 2030 obligations under the Paris Agreement.

Logging in Poland’s Vistula lagoon described by experts as part of a ‘war on nature’ across the continent’s ancient forests

A logging operation at Poland’s spectacular 55-mile-long Vistula lagoon is casting a “dark omen” of deforestation and biodiversity collapse across Europe’s forests, campaigners say.

Tree felling around the Natura 2000 site is aimed at clearing a path to the Baltic Sea for use by Poland’s navy, to the alarm of Russia. But they are just one front in what some academics describe as a war on nature.

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Dairy boom has coincided with decline in water quality, leaving two-thirds of rivers unsafe for swimming

It has been a classic summer in New Zealand: hot days, barbecues on the beach and lazy afternoon games of cricket. But dozens of beaches, rivers and lakes have been closed to the public owing to pollution from farming.

According to a recent poll, water pollution is now New Zealanders’ number one concern: 82% of respondents said they want tougher protections for waterways, ranking it as a priority above the housing crisis, the rising cost of living and child poverty.

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The Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in northern Brazil is home to 25,000 indigenous people, whose land has been targeted by the country’s rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro

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Several reefs have not recovered from back-to-back bleaching, surveys have found, but others remain in good condition

Coral reefs in the far north of the Great Barrier Reef are showing lasting effects from the mass bleaching of 2016 and 2017 and in some cases their health has declined further, according to fresh surveys by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Preliminary results of surveys by Aims scientists in January show several reefs have not recovered from the back-to-back bleaching, although the agency said some reefs they surveyed were in good condition.

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Scientists want to evaluate the potential effects of sound "hotspots" on marine life.

Emissions fell for sixth year running in 2018, but reductions margins have shrunk

The government has been warned against complacency on climate change action after figures showed a slowdown in the rate of Britain’s carbon emission cuts.

Emissions dropped for the sixth year running in 2018, to 361m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, a level last seen in the late 19th century.

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Of 265 US power plants that monitor groundwater, 242 report unsafe levels of at least one pollutant derived from coal ash

Almost every coal-fired power plant in the US is contaminating groundwater with unsafe levels of toxic pollution, according to the first comprehensive analysis of the consequences of coal ash waste disposal.

Of the 265 US power plants that monitor groundwater, 242 have reported unsafe levels of at least one pollutant derived from coal ash, which is the remnants of coal after it is burned for energy. More than half such facilities report unsafe levels of arsenic, a carcinogen linked to multiple types of cancer, with 60% finding elevated lithium, which is associated with neurological damage.

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Group of 28 climate scientists, academics and energy industry veterans release a joint statement fact checking the federal government's "unbelievably misleading" claims on climate and emissions.

The post Scientists slap down Australia government over fake climate claims appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Regulator confirms leading energy retailers did not bother to meet renewable energy target in 2018, and will make huge profits playing the market over the next three years.

The post Alinta, Snowy, Engie, EnergyAustralia fail to meet renewable energy target appeared first on RenewEconomy.

In the event of a total oil supply chain disruption, Australia’s economy could come to a sputtering halt in just over three weeks. So could renewable hydrogen be the answer?

The post Renewable hydrogen could help solve Australia’s lack of fuel reserves appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Bill Shorten says Coalition relying on ‘technical loophole’ to meet emissions targets but won’t reject using it

Labor is still “taking advice” on whether its climate policies would include carryover carbon credits from the Kyoto protocol to help meet its 45% emissions reduction target by 2030 – a move seen more as an accounting trick than a real-world reduction in carbon.

Countries that exceeded the Kyoto targets are allowed to count the excess when calculating their emissions under the later Paris agreement.

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Beached hoodwinker sunfish, which is two metres long, baffles locals on California beach

A giant sunfish has washed up on a beach in California, the first time this particular species of the animal has been sighted in the northern hemisphere in 130 years.

The sunfish measuring 2.05 metres (6ft 8 in) and weighing several hundred kilograms, or more than 600lb, was found on the beach of the Coal Oil Point Reserve in California.

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