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Public consultation: Draft EPBC Act referral guidelines for the vulnerable Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Lobster
State Party Report on the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area
State Party Report on the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area - 2015
How to eradicate grey squirrels without firing a shot | George Monbiot
In Ireland, greys squirrels are being pushed into the sea and the reds are swarming back across the land – all thanks to pine martens
Is there anything more stupid than the government’s plan to kill grey squirrels?
I ask not because I believe – as Animal Aid does – that grey squirrels are harmless. Far from it: they have eliminated red squirrels from most of Britain since their introduction by Victorian landowners, and are now doing the same thing in parts of the continent. By destroying young trees, they also make the establishment of new woodland almost impossible in many places. As someone who believes there should be many more trees in this country, I see that as a problem. A big one.
Continue reading...Invitation to comment on listing assessment period extended
Clouds form inside Grand Canyon in rare phenomenon - timelapse video
Orders given to ban dumping of capital dredge material in Marine Park
Treasury consultation on proposed exemptions to the Corporations Regulations 2001 for Emissions Reduction Fund participants
Treasury consultation on proposed exemptions to the Corporations Regulations 2001 for Emissions Reduction Fund participants
Antarctic toothfish poaching ships shrug off New Zealand navy
Three suspected illegal fishing vessels are filmed hauling in prized fish with banned nets in the Southern Ocean
Staying hidden behind sea ice and large waves, sailors aboard a navy patrol boat from New Zealand sneaked up on three suspected poaching ships, then took photos and video of the fishermen hauling in prized fish in banned nets from the ocean near Antarctica. Seemingly caught red-handed, the crews of the rusting vessels just kept on fishing.
Authorities say this month’s high-seas confrontations, and the detailed evidence collected, mark a first in Antarctic waters, where regulators have long suspected poaching activities but have found them difficult to police in an area that’s roughly the size of the continental United States.
Continue reading...India’s tiger population increases by almost a third
Population of the endangered species now at 2,226, with campaigners hailing the latest statistics
The number of tigers in India has increased by almost a third in the last three years, official figures released on Tuesday reveal.
The rise, from 1,706 in 2011 to 2,226 in 2014, will encourage campaigners fighting to protect the endangered species. Activists called the new statistics “robust” and “very good news”.
Continue reading...City of Broken Hill added to the National Heritage List
City of Broken Hill, the city in the desert, included in the National Heritage List
Rate of environmental degradation puts life on Earth at risk, say scientists
Humans are ‘eating away at our own life support systems’ at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years, two new research papers say
Humans are “eating away at our own life support systems” at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years by degrading land and freshwater systems, emitting greenhouse gases and releasing vast amounts of agricultural chemicals into the environment, new research has found.
Two major new studies by an international team of researchers have pinpointed the key factors that ensure a livable planet for humans, with stark results.
Continue reading...Uttarayan: concerns over bird fatalities during kite festival in India
Many birds get injured or killed as thousands take to the terraces to fly kites to celebrate Makar Sankranti on 14 January, marking the arrival of spring
Kites will fill the skies in many parts of India on Wednesday for the festival of Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan, celebrating the onset of spring, but conservationists will be fearing the worst as they brace for another year of avian fatalities.
The Jivdaya Charitable Trust (JCT), an animal welfare NGO, attended to 2,394 injured birds in Ahmedabad, the heartland of the kite flying festival, in the Indian state of Gujarat around this time last year. Of these, 490 died.
Continue reading...Hebei's steel cities and China's pollution crisis – in pictures
China’s Hebei Province has some of the worst air pollution in the country and the area’s vast steel industry is a key focus of government efforts to improve air quality. Lu Guang’s stark images capture the industrial landscapes of some of Hebei’s most polluted cities
- Audio slideshow: Lu Guang’s The Polluted Landscape
Why you really should (but really can't) eat horsemeat
An overabundance of wild horses in the American west is driving us to the brink of an environmental disaster – and the most sensible solution may be adding them to the menu
In 2013, in the wake of the horsemeat scandal that gripped Europe, a number of envelope-pushing, high-end restaurants decided to try to introduce horsemeat to the modern American palate. The result was disastrous.
Philadelphia chef Peter McAndrews, owner of upscale Italian restaurant Monsu, was sent graphic images of horses being slaughtered and even received bomb threats after he announced he would serve horsemeat in his dining room. He publicly declared that the intimidation tactics from horse advocates that had convinced other restaurants not to serve horse would not change his menu. But a visit from the FDA to all five of his restaurants did. The agency’s inspectors advised that he “stay away from it,” he told Eater Philadelphia. “I felt like I had the FBI of the food world on me.”
Continue reading...Invitation to comment on an ecological community listing assessment
Leave fossil fuels buried to prevent climate change, study urges
New research is first to identify which reserves must not be burned to keep global temperature rise under 2C, including over 90% of US and Australian coal and almost all Canadian tar sands
• George Monbiot: Why leaving fossil fuels in the ground is good for everyone
Vast amounts of oil in the Middle East, coal in the US, Australia and China and many other fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground to prevent dangerous climate change, according to the first analysis to identify which existing reserves cannot be burned.
The new work reveals the profound geopolitical and economic implications of tackling global warming for both countries and major companies that are reliant on fossil fuel wealth. It shows trillions of dollars of known and extractable coal, oil and gas, including most Canadian tar sands, all Arctic oil and gas and much potential shale gas, cannot be exploited if the global temperature rise is to be kept under the 2C safety limit agreed by the world’s nations. Currently, the world is heading for a catastrophic 5C of warming and the deadline to seal a global climate deal comes in December at a crunch UN summit in Paris.
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