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Quarterly Update of Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: June 2017
New approach promises early warnings of soggy summers
Tritium Veefil-RT fast chargers chosen for EV research project in Slovakia
Climate scientists and policymakers need to trust each other (but not too much)
Interstellar object may hold 'alien' water
Ofcom to investigate BBC climate change interview
Penguin tourism
UK plan to tackle plastic waste threat
Scientists have beaten down the best climate denial argument | Dana Nuccitelli
Clouds don’t act as a climate thermostat, and they’re not going to save us from global warming
Climate deniers have come up with a lot of arguments about why we shouldn’t worry about global warming – about 200 of them – but most are quite poor, contradictory, and easily debunked by consulting the peer-reviewed scientific literature. The cleverest climate contrarians settle on the least implausible argument – that equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS – how much a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase Earth’s surface temperature) is low, meaning that the planet will warm relatively slowly in response to human carbon pollution.
But they have to explain how that can be the case, because there are a lot of factors that amplify global warming. For example, a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor, which is itself a greenhouse gas, adding further warming. Warming also melts ice, leaving Earth’s surface less reflective, absorbing more sunlight. There are a number of these amplifying ‘feedbacks,’ but few that would act to significantly slow global warming.
Continue reading...Boost for fossil fuel divestment as UK eases pension rules
Exclusive: pension schemes will be free to dump fossil fuel investments after government drops ‘best returns’ legal rules
The government is to allow Britain’s £2tn workplace pension schemes to dump their shares in oil, gas and coal companies more easily, empowering them to take investment decisions to fight climate change.
Until now, pension schemes have been hamstrung by “fiduciary duties” that effectively require schemes to seek the best returns irrespective of the threat of climate change. Many have rebuffed calls by members for fossil fuel divestment, citing legal obligations.
Country diary: tractors to the rescue on Three Peaks' icy inclines
Newby Head, Yorkshire Dales When heavy snow blocks the roads, farmer Rodney Beresford goes out to clear the way
Tiny snow devil vortices dance across the scene outside Newby Head Farm, 1,400ft high in Yorkshire’s Three Peaks region. But the snow that tinsels the windbreak of Douglas firs does not stir. Neither does the mound of pink rock salt by the roadside; it is already half-frozen. Sheep farmer Rodney Beresford has to dig hard as he fills the hopper behind his 150hp Deutz tractor.
Continue reading...Solar and wind could deliver zero carbon gas grid by 2050
Tide turned: surveys show the public has lost its appetite for shark culls
AEMC admits, reluctantly, that renewables will push prices down
Ramping and duck curves
Call for Nominations - Threatened species, ecological communities or key threatening processes
Timorese workers pick territory mangoes and at 86 Ivan the butcher calls it a day
Adani scraps $2bn deal to outsource Carmichael coalmine operation
Decision to end Downer EDI agreement follows Palaszczuk government’s blocking of federal loan for the Queensland project
Adani has scrapped a $2bn agreement to outsource the operation of its controversial Queensland coalmine after the state government killed off a taxpayer-funded loan.
The Indian miner says it will now develop and operate the Carmichael project on an owner-operator basis after reaching an agreement with contractor Downer EDI to abandon their deal, which was reportedly worth about $2bn.
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