Feed aggregator

Dramatic footage shows the unusual phenomenon as lava flows through a crack in a sea cliff.

Can the government convince the Senate cross bench to pass company tax cut measures in full?

Wenlock Edge This sycamore isn’t native either, and neither are the people who planted them, or who look at them now

The squirrels look as though they make everyday life into a game; they have the kind of mischievous intelligence once attributed by folklore to hidden, supernatural creatures such as fairies, elves, goblins and the like. These grey and ginger squirrels are tricky. To some people they are a delight to watch; to others they are an anathema, interlopers blamed for the demise of the native red squirrel.

A group of half a dozen – I imagine them as a family or tribal gatherers – are foraging for seeds under a big old sycamore. It’s a bit parky, the frost only just going off will soon return with the breath of darkness when the sun, all syrupy gold at the moment, slides behind trees.

Continue reading...

From small-scale traders to a company processing hundreds of tonnes of e-waste, we explore Nairobi’s relationship with a burgeoning waste stream and visit the people turning it into a resource

Continue reading...

Native Americans vow legal action as the go-ahead is given to complete the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Australia's electricity grid looks likely to progress more systematically to a cleaner more secure future thanks to Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel. Here's why...

It’s 2017 and we have a lot to look forward to in the electricity sector this year. Eight key issues require our attention.

NSW set to double its solar capacity after CEFC stumps up $150m to fast-track financial close of 110MW of solar projects.

Three recent news items tell the story that a game-changing decline in the cost of grid storage is happening much faster than anticipated.

PM tells National Press Club energy is "a key debate" in 2017 parliament. Here are Malcolm Turnbull's key comments on the subject.

Australian researchers say their discovery could significantly lower the material's cost to produce.

Conservationists say the nets are killing too many dolphins and turtles.

Queensland government-owned Ergon Energy Retail inks another solar PPA, this time for 12 years with FRV's 100MW Liliyvale Solar Farm.

Scientists in China say they have produced cloned cattle with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis.

As renewables are used as a political football, investors and energy companies are getting on with the job, with major Asian investor group Equis announcing 200MW of 'battery ready' solar projects in Australia, with plans for another 1000MW in the near future.

E/One sets new standard in safe and environmentally sound production of utility energy storage.

When keen bushwalker Jon Marsden-Smedley first started telling people of his plan to rid southwest Tasmania's coast of sea spurge—an invasive weed—he was told he was dreaming.

The coal, oil and gas industries have raised 'lots of dark money' for Scott Pruitt, President Trump's pick as head of the US EPA, says Earth Justice.

Oil and gas concession overlaps 1.3m hectare “protected area” inhabited by indigenous peoples in “isolation”

One of the almost 100 resolutions adopted by the World Conservation Congress (WCC) held in Hawai’i in September 2016 was that “protected areas” such as national parks should be “no go” for mining, oil and gas operations, agriculture, dams, roads and pipelines. Another resolution was that indigenous peoples’ territories overlapped by “protected areas” should be recognised and respected, calling upon International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) members, non-member States and others to do so.

While it might not seem particularly significant or startling to demand that “protected areas” should be, er, protected from such damaging activities as oil operations, and while WCC resolutions aren’t legally-binding on anyone, such calls do urgently need to be made. Take as an example Peru, the country that, according to the IUCN, established more “protected areas” than any other in 2016. Undoubtedly its most important conservation achievement in recent years has been the creation of the 1.3m hectare Sierra del Divisor National Park, although approximately 40% is included in an oil and gas concession ultimately controlled by a Canadian-headquartered company, Pacific Exploration and Production.

Continue reading...

‘Silent pandemic’ of air pollution affects UK children and there is no indication protection against toxic waste will be retained after Brexit

Air pollution is a crisis that “plagues” the UK, particularly children, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes.

Baskut Tuncak, who was appointed by the UN human rights council and completed a 15-day mission to the UK on Tuesday, said there was an “urgent need for political will by the UK government to make timely, measurable and meaningful interventions”.

Continue reading...