Feed aggregator
Floods and erosion are ruining Britain’s most significant sites
From Wordsworth’s gardens to the south’s white cliffs and salmon rivers in Wales, climate change is wrecking historic sites, finds report
Climate change is already wrecking some of Britain’s most significant sites, from Wordsworth’s gardens in Cumbria to the white cliffs on England’s south coast, according to a new report.
Floods and erosion are damaging historic places, while warmer temperatures are seeing salmon vanishing from famous rivers and birds no longer visiting important wetlands.
Continue reading...A dank stillness swaddles the imminent stirring of spring
Claxton, Norfolk Most of spring is here but hidden somewhere in all this quiescence
It is not dense enough to call mist, let alone fog, but February’s invisible damp gives milkiness to the air and weight to the morning’s mood. The ivy leaves in our hedge seem to droop as if they have all been licked downwards, and our garden robin hugs their shadow with its brown back to me. As I walk to the river I notice that the oak leaves by the track, which were frosted copper last month, are in mid journey from leaf mulch to soil.
Across the marsh there is no division between the grey of the sky and land, and no horizon, and the dark of the woods is burred with softness. The north-westerly is mild and lifts only the lightest vegetation – the reed tops by the sides of the path – and the moisture adds to each intake of breath the cold savour of bare earth and dead leaves.
Continue reading...How Cory Bernardi was inspired to push climate denial from US conservative groups
Climate science denial group the Heartland Institute helped inspire Cory Bernardi and Malcolm Roberts to push back against policies to cut emissions
If the dissident conservative senator Cory Bernardi’s new political party shares the views of its founder, then we can chalk up it up as another fringe party firmly in the climate science denial camp.
Ignoring mountains of evidence from multiple lines of inquiry carried out over many decades, Bernardi has for a long time chosen to listen instead to fake experts pushing talking points that walk like zombies through barbecue conversations across Australia.
Continue reading...Debunking Daily Mail’s ‘astonishing evidence’ about global temperature rise
Redflow thinks big again on batteries, targets Asia telco market
Like Trump, Turnbull’s energy policy is based on “alternative facts”
Australia market review for 2016: Renewables up, emissions down
ABB microgrid to bring clean energy and power reliability to Alaska community
Australian solar monitoring duo crack US, Canada market
Rocky start to 2017 for LGCs as Abbott strikes, ERM demurs
A gentle reminder: CST power plants with 10+ hours of built in storage are available now
The winter of blazing discontent continues in the Arctic
Australia’s leading innovation district now officially known as Tonsley
Why coal-fired power handouts would be an attack on climate and common sense
The evidence suggests the push for government help is an attempt to squeeze money out of unwise investments made at the end of the mining boom
The recent coordinated push for new coal-powered electricity generators in Australia comes as the industry is on its last legs.
The intensified push for government handouts can be seen as a last-ditch attempt for the coal industry to squeeze some money out of the unwise investments it made at the end of the mining boom.
In Australia and the US, sound climate policy is being held hostage by vested interests
We must shift away from a culture of politically motivated climate change denialism to an acceptance of the truly existential threat now facing humanity
It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the world’s climate and environment. The inauguration of billionaire property developer and reality TV star Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States has presaged a new Dark Age of climate politics.
In an opening fortnight of controversial executive orders, President Trump has decreed the expansion of major fossil fuel developments including the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, and the neutering of long-standing environmental protections. In addition, he and his leadership team have made it plain they intend to dismantle many of the Obama administration’s climate initiatives and withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. All this runs in direct counterpoint to the rapid decarbonisation required to avoid dangerous climate change.
Continue reading...DNA reveals how pitcher plants evolved to become flesh-eaters
Indonesian illegal gold mining – in pictures
Indonesian miners painstakingly sift through the waste for scraps from the largest gold mine in the world: the Grasberg mine in West Papua
Continue reading...Why climate change is good news for wasps
Their numbers vary enormously from year to year, but warmer weather will provide wasps with more favourable conditions
Several new species of wasp have arrived in Britain with our warming weather, and their larger relative the hornet, once confined to the extreme south, has spread across England.
But how is our common wasp fairing? Most queen wasps still do not survive the winter. However, it is not cold that will have killed them, but spiders or other predators.
Continue reading...Bison return to Banff national park in Canada
The environmental impact of coal and oil | Letters
Last week a Scottish Power executive called for coal to be excluded from the UK’s capacity market scheme (Report, 31 January). Five days later UK coal plants were awarded taxpayer-funded subsidies worth up to £72.8m. With the government’s consultation on phasing out coal-fired power generation by 2025 closing on Wednesday, for coal plant operators it must be like being asked to leave the party while being bought a drink.
Likewise, while CO2 emissions are subject to a carbon price floor, its current level is too low to be effective. Meanwhile, the so-called Transitional National Plan grants UK plants permission to pollute above EU limits. TNP’s “pollution bubbles” are filled with toxic fumes that cause 2,800 premature deaths in the UK every year.
Continue reading...